wake up soon - k. akaashi

one: fair dates

2012, February 18th

As soon as he saw her on the bed, he wanted to run as far away. Maybe that'd wake him up from this nightmare.

But it wasn't a nightmare. His girlfriend was still there like she had for two weeks since the accident. Tamiko had been there for two weeks and he hadn't had the guts to visit her until now. He felt horrible for that, even if their friends and families understood it was hard. "That's exactly why I should've been here. If that was me, she wouldn't've left my side"

Slowly, and silently so as to not wake up Mitsu he approached the chair next to the bed. He sat and looked down at his hands. He didn't know what he was supposed to do.

"Maybe Bokuto should have come with me" he sighed.

"Just tell her about what you did yesterday" the sleepy voice of the Shiota woman spoke up "Or stay there. Doctors say she can hear you and feel your presence"

Akaashi just stared at her while she stood up and pushed the bed so it was a couch again, and then gathered her things. Mitsu looked at her reflection in the window for a second, shrugging when she saw what she looked like.

"I have to go, I'll be back tonight with your siblings" she said to Tamiko, kissing her cheek softly "I'm glad you're here, Keiji"

"I wanna say that too, but this hurts too much" He wanted to say, but he knew it wouldn't be nice, so instead he managed a smile and nodded. The door closed behind the woman and silence enveloped the room.

It was weird. There was rarely a moment of silence when he was with her, unless they were reading or studying, or it was one of those "enjoying each other's presence" moments, but even then he could usually hear her soft hums to whatever tune was on her mind that day. He didn't like it, he decided.

"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner" his voice was barely above a whisper "I couldn't bring myself to. Bokuto and the others said I should visit with them, but... I couldn't accept that you were here. Like this" tears welled up in his eyes, but he didn't bother wiping them. He'd already cried more in the last two weeks than in his whole life, what did some more matter? "But then I thought I was being selfish, because you need me. So uh- I'll try to come by every day after practice. But for whenever I can't come... I brought you this"

He rummaged through his bag until he found the small plushy. His small owl. He got up, placing it neatly on the nightstand, turning it so it looked at her.

2011, March 24th

Going to the fair had been Tamiko's choice, and the others had just joined in.

So what was supposed to be a date, turned into a group outing with the volleyball team -managers included, because they were always included- and what had turned into a group outing had ended up being a "we go together but then everyone does what they want".

So now, Akaashi and Tamiko were on their fifth date and they were finally alone. They had eaten, they had looked through a thousand of little stalls, played different games, and now they were looking for either a photo booth or a game that gave prizes.

"What about that one?" the boy pointed at one with blue and white stripes "They have prizes. How good are you at darts?" he looked back, a slightly challenging smirk tugging at his lips.

She wasted no time in smirking back.

"Terrible. Let's go!" she took his hand and tugged him towards it "Hello, how does this work?"