blue lights || bokuaka

storms

"'kaashi."

Akaashi forces himself to wake, eyebrows pinching together once as sleep tries to coax him back to bed. His face is smushed against the itchy couch cushions and there's a wet spot beneath his lips from drool.

He sits up slowly, wiping at his mouth and rubbing his eyes with his other hand.

It's storming, a deep thunder rumbling above them, and Akaashi notices that Bokuto ducks his head a little as he leans on the wall for support. It's dark, the only light being from the streetlamps poking their heads in through the window at them through the blur of the rainshower outside of the apartment.

A flash of lightning makes Bokuto wince and Akaashi sits up a little straighter.

"You're okay?" Akaashi asks, not very coherent yet as he rubs his eyes again, lagging in real-time.

"No...I, um..."

Akaashi waits, and Bokuto brings his free hand up, grabbing at the collar of his shirt.

Akaashi learned that he only does that when he doesn't want to talk about something. Bokuto looks at the floor and the thunder rumbles above them again, gently shaking the apartment in its wake.

"Um...Can I sleep with you?" Bokuto asks, his voice faint. "Please?"

He curls his fingers in his shirt collar and looks at Akaashi in a way that was more than hopeful. Akaashi blinks, and looks down at the couch, wondering how Bokuto expected to fit in here with him.

Plus, there were no blankets.

"On the couch?" Akaashi asks, and Bokuto shakes his head.

"Anywhere. I don't wanna-"

The thunder is stronger and the rain screams just as loud as it picks up, slapping against the window panes. Bokuto backs away from the window, staring outside of it as if he was waiting for something.

He looked worried.

"Bokuto?" Akaashi swings his legs over the couch and stands up, trying to figure out what was going on for him to wake Akaashi up in what felt like the middle of the morning.

Bokuto looks to the floor and plays with the fabric of his shirt collar.

"...I don't like storms."

Akaashi nods and rubs his eyes again, grabbing his glasses from the nightstand and doing his best to help Bokuto get back into his bed, moving the plushie to the foot of it until Bokuto was under the sheets.

He immediately feels like falling asleep once he settles in beside him, the sheets warm and smelling like linen.

Normally, he would have been reluctant, would have come up with any excuse to not be so close to a person who felt like the universe, infinite and whole in a way that Akaashi thinks he would never tire of. He loved to float off, get lost in all of Bokuto's stellar streams and penumbra, but he wasn't really scared of the uncertainty that came with him.

He was just like the galaxy, made up of the brightest stars he could have ever seen, and normally, Akaashi would be so afraid of being this close to him.

Instead, he finds himself floating off again, looking at Bokuto while the other stares at the ceiling, covering the rest of his face with the sheets as he talks about his sisters, holding the duck plushie against his chest.

They would hide in their parents' closet when they weren't home, and he would listen while the oldest one read them a storybook to distract him from the rain, the other putting bows in his hair.