saviour ✰ bokuaka

[ TEN ]

Bokuto and Akaashi drove to the university together in the morning. Although Akaashi only had a class later in the day, the noisy droning of Bokuto's alarm had woken him up so violently that he knew he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep even if he tried, so he decided to ride to work with him. Surprisingly, waking up together after the events of the night before wasn't awkward. It felt... natural. As if there was never a night in which they were apart.

Bokuto, as usual, had sprinted out of the house without eating breakfast, so while Bokuto was teaching his morning class, Akaashi decided to drop into the pastry shop that Kenma owned to grab him something to eat. It was only a few minutes from the university by foot.

The familiar smell of Kenma's renowned blueberry muffins filled the air as he stepped in. Although Kenma baked a variety of different pastries, from cupcakes to eclairs, he was known to have the best blueberry muffins in all of Tokyo, or at least that's what Kuroo had said; Akaashi was hesitant to trust his claim since Kuroo had a habit of over-exaggerating all of Kenma's successes, but Kenma's baking skills gave him ample reason to believe him.

He walked up to the front of the shop and waited, pretending to look at the pastries inside the glass compartment even though he already knew what he planned to order.

"Welcome to—oh, hi, Akaashi," Kenma said, stopping his rehearsed introductory speech to greet him. He had ducked out of the pantry and took his place at the register. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, my, um... coworker... forgot to eat breakfast and I wanted to get him something. He mentioned he liked apple crumble once. You have that, right?"

"Yeah, right here," he said, pointing to a dessert behind the glass. Akaashi was unsure exactly what it was supposed to look like, but apple crumble looked like an appropriate name for the pastry that Kenma was pointing out.

"Which coworker is this?" Kenma asked as he lifted the dessert out and wrapped it with parchment paper.

"Bokuto Koutarou. He's a chemistry professor and he had to move to my classroom recently."

"Bokuto. Oh, I think I know him."

"Really?"

"Kuroo mentioned him a few times."

"What exactly did he say about him?" Akaashi prayed that Kuroo hadn't told him anything beyond what the two of them had talked about over the phone.

"Nothing much. I don't remember anymore."

"Oh. All right."

"500 yen."

"Sorry?" In the process of imagining every horrible outcome that could've come from telling Kuroo about his potential feelings for Bokuto, he had gotten distracted and spaced out.

"The pastry. It's 500 yen."

"Right." Akaashi reached into his wallet and deposited the appropriate amount of money, then left, waving goodbye to Kenma.

He couldn't insist anymore that he and Bokuto had an entirely platonic relationship. He told Kuroo as much. Still, he didn't want to assume Bokuto shared any of the sentiments that Akaashi had developed. He had been through this once before and he wasn't about to repeat it. Naïvety always ends in pain, he told himself. He had learned that the hard way.

...

"Keiji, this is great!" Bokuto mumbled, half the dessert stuffed in his mouth. Although he had just finished a two hour lecture, he seemed strangely energetic and was constantly throwing playful glances at Hinata, who was covering his mouth and trying not to be too obvious with his laughter. Akaashi was a little irritated at this, but he decided not to mention it. He wanted to let Bokuto enjoy the pastry without accidentally starting an argument.

"Glad you like it. My friend, Kenma, owns the shop."

"I didn't know you had such cool friends! What other friends do you have?"

"Mainly just Kenma and Kuroo, Oh, and Tsukishima counts, too."

"Kuroo? Kuroo Tetsurou?" Bokuto's eyes widened eagerly.

"Yes. Don't get crumbs on my desk."

"I know Kuroo! We were bros in college!" He had seemingly ignored Akaashi's warning.

"Bros?"

"Yeah! How is he doing now? Is he good? Where does he work? Does he still have that weird haircut?"

"Too many questions. He's fine, he's a CEO, and I don't know what you mean by 'weird haircut' but I assume he still does."

"Wow! I want to talk to him again. Do you have his number?"

"Um, yes. I can write it down for you."

Bokuto had finished the apple crumble and threw the wrapping into the little rubbish bin by the door. "This is like fate."

"I think it's just a coincidence."

"No way. I'm sure I was meant to flood my classroom. Then I can say it wasn't my fault, since it was fate!"

"Whatever makes you feel better."

Akaashi took out a biro and tore a piece of paper from a random notebook on his desk, then wrote Kuroo's phone number on it and handed it to Bokuto.

"Here," he said. He hoped that they would be too caught up in reminiscing to talk about Akaashi in their 'bro' conversation.

"Thanks! I'll call him right now!"

"That's not a good idea. I have a class soon and Tsukishima's going to be here in a few minutes."

"Are you kicking me out?" Bokuto whined, almost pouting.

"Yes."

"Aw, fine. I'll see you later then. Thanks again for the pastry!"

"My pleasure," Akaashi said, and he dropped down in his desk chair. He was praying that giving Bokuto those digits wouldn't be the worst mistake of his life.