𝔹𝕠𝕜𝕦𝕒𝕜𝕒 𝕎𝕖𝕖𝕜 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟙

𝙳𝚊𝚢 𝟷 - 𝙰𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚝/𝚆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙰𝚄

Akaashi leaned back in his chair and let out a worn sigh.
"Just forty minutes till your break 'Kaashi." Konoha, Akaashi's handler, reassured him.
"Ah, okay." Came Akaashi's response as he adjusted his glasses.
Akaashi Keiji was a famous Japanese author, who got his stardom from writing a popular collection of murder-mystery books. Today, he was hosting a book signing in the bookstore of a fairly large mall to commemorate the final novel in his series. And though he loved meeting his fans, he was quite an introverted person and big social events tended to tire him out easily.

Akaashi's attention was quickly brought back to the event at hand as a broad man with silvery black-streaked hair and big golden eyes stepped towards him from the line. And Akaashi amused himself with the fleeting thought that his features were not unlike that of an owl's.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you." The author greeted him with the same sentence he must have repeated at least a hundred times by now, yet it never lost its meaning.
"You too, your stories are so cool!!" Grinned the man, his smile cheerful as he took a seat on the chair purposefully placed across from Akaashi.
Akaashi allowed a small chuckle of flattery to escape his mouth.
"Thank you," he smiled.
"So, did you bring your book?" Akaashi coaxed the man, who seemed to be a little lost and flustered.
"Oh, right!" The owlish guy pulled a blue backpack imprinted with volleyballs off his back and fumbled around in it for a hot minute.
"Got it!" He put the book on the table, using slightly more force than necessary.

Akaashi reached for his fountain pen and opened up the book to the first page.
"So, do you have a favourite character?" Akaashi had learnt small-talk was a good way to engage with his fans. It also kept him from going insane by repeating the same routine every 10 minutes for 5 hours straight.
"Well, I used to think Arata was my favourite but then I really started to like Noriko in book three, but then Yoshiko was introduced and I thought he was cool but then he got killed off which makes me sad so now I think it might be Noriko again." Explained the man eagerly, as though he had been waiting his whole life to be asked this question.
Akaashi was taken aback by his answer, but also found it peculiarly endearing that the man could put so much thought into a simple attempt at small talk, Akaashi laughed softly.
"You seem to have put a lot of thought into that." He observed, a small smirk curved on his lips.
"Yeah..!" The man flushed.

"Actually- I drew some fan-art of Noriko, I was hoping to show you..? But it's totally okay if you're busy I understand!" His cheeks bloomed rosy-red.
"I would love t-"
"Akaashi, your time is up." Konoha interrupted before he could finish.
'Ah, right. He still had at least another fifty people waiting on him to sign their books.'
Akaashi's mouth shut, and Bokuto's face fell for the first time since the short period they had known each other. Which simply wouldn't do, Akaashi decided.
"May I please know your name?" Akaashi asked the owl-like man.
"Oh, It's Bokuto Koutarou!" He replied.
"Well, Bokuto-san, my break is in half an hour. If you're still around by then maybe you'd like to meet up and show me your art then?" This was certainly something Akaashi had never done before, but what's wrong with trying out new things?
Bokuto seemed to immediately perk up at this as a grin spread across his face.
"Sure!"

Akaashi bit his lip and looked up from his phone, and back down again, and up, and down. He leant against the glass window of the toy store he had agreed to meet Bokuto at. Bokuto, who should be here any minute now...
"Hey, Akaashi!" A voice loudly called his name. And a few people turned their heads to glance at the famous author, and the odd-looking man running up to him.
"Hello, Bokuto-san." Akaashi smiled gently. Mostly ignoring the stares of the people around them, he was used to it by now anyway.
"Shall we go then?" He gestured with his hand towards the small coffee shop embedded into the corner of the mall.
"Yeah!" Bokuto grinned.

The door of the cafe jingled as Bokuto pushed against it, holding it open for Akaashi.
"Author's first." He smiled playfully.
"Thank you." Chuckled Akaashi.
Akaashi took a seat in one of the empty booths within the farthest corner of the cafe and Bokuto took a seat across from him.
"Can I get you two anything?" A kind-faced woman in an orange and white uniform came up to them.
"Yeah! Can I have a hot chocolate, with extra cream and marshmallows please?" Bokuto seemed to ask more than order. Akaashi felt it strangely seemed to fit his character.
"I'll just have a tea, please." Akaashi said to the waitress, who nodded with a smile and walked off.

"Would you like to show me those drawings now, Bokuto-san?" Prompted Akaashi.
"Ah, right!" Bokuto fumbled around in his bag for a moment before producing a sketchbook from it.
The front of the hard-covered sketchbook was white with a little cartoon owl in the middle of the cover. There were a bunch of pieces of paper sticking out in weird ways from the sides and corners of the book. And as Bokuto opened the sketchbook a piece of paper with what seemed to be a half-done drawing in light pencil scribbled over in a much darker pencil.
"I keep forgetting to get rid of this," Bokuto muttered, crumpling up the paper and stuffing it in his hoodie pocket.
He flicked through a couple of pages full of drawings, and Akaashi was slightly startled by how good his artistic skills seemed to be.
"Here they are!" Bokuto grinned when his finger seemed to land on the page he'd been looking for.

"I know there's no actual official drawings of Noriko. So I tried to draw her as accurately as I could from the description of her in the books!" Bokuto explained, turning round the book and sliding it over to Akaashi so he was facing someone else's drawing of his own creation. Getting fan art always made him feel warm inside.
Akaashi examined the drawing, and it looked about as close to how he had pictured Noriko in his head as anyone could possibly ever get. Her hair pulled tightly back into a high bun, her eyes chestnut brown and upturned, and her olive skin.
"Oh, wow." Akaashi' voice came out breathy.
"Do you like it?" Bokuto eagerly, but also nervously, asked.
"Bokuto-san, it's- it's amazing." Complimented Akaashi, his voice a little quieter than usual in awe. He would never get used to how talented some of the people who read his books could be, and it made him feel a little bit proud of himself for creating something someone as skilled as Bokuto could enjoy.
Which made him wonder, what possibly spurred Bokuto's interest in murder-mystery books? Akaashi wasn't one to judge, but Bokuto just didn't particularly seem like the type to be interested in that genre, at all.
"Thank you!" Bokuto's beam was infectious, bringing Akaashi away from his moment of thought.

Akaashi took a sip from the sweet tea the waitress had brought to him a couple of minutes prior.
"Bokuto-san?" Akaashi spoke to the man across from him, who lifted his head from his hot chocolate and wiped away the whipped cream which had smeared on his nose.
"Yeah?"
"I don't mean to be nosy, but what got you into murder mysteries?" Questioned Akaashi, genuinely curious.
"Oh, well believe it or not I actually wasn't all that big of a fan of murder mystery, or books for that matter! I'm still not really into any others other than your series." Laughed Bokuto.
"Ah." Akaashi nodded, somehow, he could in fact believe it.
"But then one time my best friend Kuroo was going to the library to read up on some kinda work thingy, and like the good friend I am I came with him to give him some company! But then he started getting mad 'cause I kept complaining about how bored I was or something. So he picked up the closest book to him and gave it to me so I would shut up. And it was your book! So then I read a little bit of it and I actually really liked it!" Bokuto explained, his smile never leaving his face.
"Oh, that's understandable." Laughed Akaashi quietly.

They continued to talk, well, Bokuto did most of the talking and Akaashi did the majority of the listening. As his break came to an end he felt as though he had known Bokuto his entire life, knowing everything spanning from his best friend Kuroo to his job as an artist who made most of his income through commissions to his vacation in Paris last year. Though occasionally Bokuto would ask Akaashi a question, mostly things like how he got into writing or when he wrote his first book. But once or twice he asked something like what Akaashi's favourite food was, and did he prefer sweet, salty, sour, or spicy foods?
Akaashi felt comfortable within the presence of Bokuto, who he had also learnt was just a year older than him. He really enjoyed talking (and listening) to him. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and his break was over a little sooner than he would've liked.

"Ah, I'm sorry Bokuto-san, but I need to get back to the book signing now." Akaashi stood up and bowed, a little disappointed he probably wouldn't see Bokuto again in his lifetime, and this would just become a fond memory he had involving himself and a fan.
"Uh, Akaashi wait-." Bokuto quickly spoke, his cheeks reddening.
"Hm?" Akaashi hummed, cursing himself silently for the hope that bubbled in his chest.
"Can I get your number? I just really like you and I wanna see you again sometime so-." Bokuto began to ramble.
Akaashi smiled the biggest smile he had all day, or in a while, for that matter.
"Of course, Bokuto-san." Okay so maybe giving a guy he'd known for a day his number wasn't the best idea, considering the fact he's quite famous 'n all. But he thoroughly believed he could trust Bokuto, so he wasn't all that worried.
They exchanged numbers and then Akaashi insisted he really had to go now, otherwise his handler would have him for breakfast.
"I'll text you!" Bokuto called as Akaashi opened the cafe door.
Akaashi turned round and sent Bokuto a soft smile.
"I count on it."