A/N: HEY HEY HEY!!! First chapter, sorry for any errors! I'm not the best writer so this is all just practice for me. But please leave requests if you have any!
It had felt like a punch to the stomach. His world that he had just put back together, had come crashing down yet again. Bokuto stood in the door way, mortified. He refused to believe what his eyes were showing him.
Akaashi Keiji stood in front of him with a pained smile. "Bokuto-san." He said with a breathy sigh.
Bokuto couldn't move or speak. He could hardly even breath. He hasn't seen Akaashi since he graduated high school. They're last interaction had been a fight.
///
"Isn't this great, Akaashi?! I did it! I graduated!" Bokuto beamed to his best friend.
Akaashi gives him a proud smile. "It is great, Bokuto-san."
Bokuto's eyes sparkle as he stares intensely at the diploma in his hands. Akaashi can't help but feel a little sad watching him grow up. He knew that they couldn't be together forever but he sure wanted to.
"Man, I cant wait to be on a real team! Like an actual team! You'll still be my setter though, right Akaashi?!"
Akaashi's smile dropped. No, he wasn't going to be his setter anymore.
"Bokuto-san, I'm quitting volleyball after high school." It was Bokuto's turn to frown.
"Huh? Why?"
"I-" Akaashi cut himself off. Part of him was screaming at him to tell Bokuto the truth but the other half was telling him to do the complete opposite.
Bokuto waited impatiently for an answer as Akaashi debated with himself.
"Keiji."
Akaashi's breath hitched and he blurted out words that would ruin his entire life.
"I never liked this sport in the first place."
Bokuto looked at Akaashi like he had five heads. He didn't like volleyball at all? He tried to process the words to the best of his ability but couldn't seem to get a grip. Akaashi cursed at himself for lying to the person that trusted him the most but he kept going. It was like he couldn't stop himself even if he tried.
"Yeah, I uh never was really into it. It's kinda lame now that I think about it."
Akaashi mentally slapped himself as Bokuto's frown deepened. "So, you were lying to me this whole time?"
No!
"Yeah... I'm sorry." Bokuto's expression changed from hurt to furious.
"Why did you lie to me?! You're the one person that I trusted 100%! All those perfect sets you threw me, all the times we stayed up through the night practicing, that meant nothing to you?!"
Now Akaashi was started to get defensive. "Don't yell at me, Bokuto! I wanted to try out the sport and it was good for a while but then I lost interest. Is that so bad?"
"Yes! Yes it is that bad, Akaashi! My best friend has been dragging me along and lying to me!"
"I was dragging you along?! You're the one who was dragging the whole team down with your pathetic mood swings!"
I didn't mean it.
Bokuto's mouth snapped shut; his heart shattered. This is what he stayed up all night crying over. This was his worst fear. And now his nightmare was finally a reality.
"Bokuto-san I-" Akaashi tried to explain himself but Bokuto just turned around and began to walk away.
In a moment of panic, he reached out to grab Bokuto's hand. He tensed up at the contact and Akaashi immediately withdrew his hand. "Please wait-"
"For what? Another lie?"
This time, Akaashi had no sarcastic remarks or witty come back. He was silent.
"Goodbye, Akaashi."
From that day on, neither of the boys spoke to each other. Akaashi quit the team, giving them a bullshit excuse.
"I need to focus on my studies." He had said.
They could see right through him.
///
Now here he is, three years later, standing at Bokuto Kotarou's door step. "Why are you here?"
"I met up with Kuroo-san. He gave me your address." Akaashi explained.
Damn him, Bokuto thought.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, trying to take everything in.
Bokuto's hair was down, not in his usual style. He had bags under his eyes, and he looked overwhelmed. The only thing that was familiar to Akaashi was his build. Bokuto was playing volleyball professionally now, so of course he would still look the same.
"I don't want to see you right now, Akaashi." Bokuto went to shut the door. Akaashi's hand flew up and stopped him.
"Please hear me out, I have so much that I left unsaid that day." It took all of the strength that he had not to cry.
Bokuto didn't need to ask what day he meant, he knew all too well. "Five minutes, then you leave."
Akaashi gave a small bow. "The things I said that day, they weren't true. I panicked and gave you the first excuse I could come up with. But it was a lie, I never hated volleyball. I loved it. And still do."
Bokuto remains silent so Akaashi keeps speaking. "The real reason I quit was because I don't wanna set for a team that you're not apart of." He had finally said its.
A weight had been lifted off Akaashi's shoulders as he sighed. Bokuto's eyes go wide for a second. "What?"
"The thought of setting for someone else makes me sick, and seeing you on television spiking Miya-san's sets makes me sad as well." Akaashi drops his head and Bokuto gives him a sympathetic look.
"The thought of losing you to another setter terrified me, so I felt like I had to get you out of my head before you moved on." Akaashi finally let himself go as tears began streaming down his face and onto Bokuto's porch.
That was when Bokuto had heard enough. He pulled Akaashi into a tight embrace. And for the first time in three years, the two boys finally felt content. They hold on to each other tightly as Akaashi cries out apologies into Bokuto's chest. He pulls away and cups his setter's face.
"There will never be a setter that could replace you, Keiji."
Then Akaashi did something that both of them had wanted to do forever. All the tension that had been building up melted away as soon as he pressed his lips against Bokuto's.
When they pulled away, there were tears in both of their eyes. Bokuto smiles his first genuine smile in three years.
"Shou and Atsumu are in town for a few days. You wanna do a double with us?" Bokuto suggests, a sheepish tone in his voice.
Akaashi just grins. Ah, he missed this. "Let's kick their asses."
