Ill-Fated Calf-Love

Akaashi

Avoiding Bokuto was harder than Akaashi expected it to be. Gym would have been fine. Akaashi had already been prepared to deal with him there, but the guy seemed to be everywhere. It didn't help that the halls projected his boisterous laughing throughout the school. The first time he insulted Bokuto, he felt guilty, but it was easy enough to get over it the next time Bokuto got excited. He still didn't like it, only insulting him when it bothered him directly and learning to tune him out the rest of the time. It took two weeks to figure out how to get Bokuto to dial it down without the use of any insults.

Akaashi took advantage of his offered use of the cheerleaders squad room as often as possible, hiding there before school and eating his lunches there with the girls. They gave him space when he asked and included him in their conversations when he felt up to it. It made him miss being on the squad.

Before practices even began, Akaashi told Kuroo that he wouldn't be able to make it to his games. For starters, Nekoma was too far when Akaashi couldn't drive yet. The main reason was he couldn't handle the chaos of a football game after dealing with the loudness of Fukurodani all day. He also still wasn't comfortable around Nobuyuki's crew, but he didn't tell Kuroo that. To ease Kuroo's dissapointment, he agreed that they could go out after the games ended so Kuroo could tell him about them.

He wasn't sure how, but he survived his first month of school with only two things stressing him out: Kuroo and Bokuto.

Kuroo had inherited Nobuyuki's attitude and developed a possessive streak that Akaashi didn't understand how to handle.

Bokuto was just... Bokuto.

The last week of their first month, Yukie wrangled Akaashi into helping her clean out the gym storage. They organized and stacked sports equipment, washed and repacked extra uniforms and jerseys, and set up traps and cleaned droppings from mice.

"Hey, Yukie?"

"Yeah?" She was somewhere out of sight among the boxes and racks.

"What's this?" He drug the tote toward the front so she could find him easier.

She came around the corner, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw the tote. "I didn't realize they still had that. That's our mascot suit. We had a mascot at the beginning of last year, but he got heat stroke halfway through the second game. No one wanted to take over so they just stuck it in storage, I guess."

Akaashi's head spun. He lifted out the head, turned it over in his hands, set it to the side and did the same with the body. "I miss cheering, but I told Kuroo that I couldn't stand the noise of the games. What I really can't stand are his upperclassmen. Do you think there's any way I could..."

"You'd have to talk to the football coach, but I don't see why not."

"Didn't you promise to keep me away from Bokuto?"

She held her hands up as though to fend off the words. "I only agreed to end that conversation quickly, but that is strictly between you and Kuroo. It's not my place to get in the middle and Kuroo is... different... from middle school. If you want to cheer and you feel that mascot suit is the only way to do so comfortably, talk to the football coach. The school never knows who is in the suit, just the cheerleaders and we won't say anything. Just drink lots of water."

She started to walk away, but stopped and turned back. "Kuroo already got me more involved than I want to be, so I'll only say this before I butt completely out. I won't talk to you about it and I won't pressure you one way or the other because it's your relationship and you can make your own decisions. I don't like how Kuroo has changed. He hangs with a completely different crowd and has a jealous streak that scares me. I don't think you belong with him."

She left then, leaving Akaashi with a choice he already knew the answer to.