Ribs - bokuaka

Chapter 6

    I wake up from my third nap of the day to Bokuto yelling about the city. I'm guessing that means we've arrived.

    "Akaashi! Akaashi wake up! Look how big the buildings are!" I begrudgingly blink my eyes open, raising a hand up to block out the sun while I adjust to being awake again.

    "Do you think we can go to the top of one? Wouldn't that be so cool Akaashi?" He says, turning to check that I am waking up and not blatantly ignoring him. Satisfied by my being awake, he goes back to watching the road. He's really gotta work on keeping his eyes off of me and on the road before we crash.

    Once I am conscious enough to, I turn over to Bokuto, "Most of them are probably office buildings. I can look on the map to see if there are any we can go in, though."

    Bokuto nods excitedly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. "We should charge our phones and take a picture together up there! It'd look so cool."

    "If you want," I respond with a shrug. I don't like pictures much, but I figure if we are gonna go through the trouble of getting to the top of one of these skyscrapers I should let him take at least one picture.

    "Really?! You'd take one with me?! Willingly?!" He asks, glancing in my direction. He doesn't look like he believes me.

    I just nod and turn away from him to look out my window. I want to scope out the city so that I at least have some notion of where we are when it's my turn to drive. Bokuto isn't the best at maps. "We're getting a hotel, right?" I ask, going to get our map and look for one that doesn't sound too prestigious.

    "Yeah, we should spend a night here. I wanna see the nightlife!" I am not looking at him, but I know the exact look he's got on his face right now. His signature grin, he probably looks pleased with himself.

    "Bokuto, we're underage. It's going to be hard to even get a hotel." I send a glance in his direction, he doesn't seem phased by me saying that in the slightest.

    I just sigh and go back to finding a hotel, rather than continuing to convince him that the 'nightlife' is not for us. Before I can start directing him towards our hotel, he spontaneously pulls into a mostly empty parking lot.

    "What are we doing?" I ask, setting the map down to disapprovingly glare at Bokuto.

    "I wanted to call, Kuroo! 'Member?" He says, parking and quickly getting out to go into the phone booth. He has to come back to get the coins he forgot he needed. I just watch, until he waves me over that is.

    I get up and go over to him, a questioning look on my face. He just holds the phone out to me and bounces a little. I assume that means Kuroo wants to talk to me, so I take the phone from his hand and put it up to my ear.

       "Hello?"

"Hi, Akaashi. It's Kuroo."

      "I know it is. Did you need something?"

"Wow, hello to you too."

      "Sorry. Hi, how are you?"

"I was kidding. I did need something. Don't make it obvious that I'm asking, but is Bokuto okay?"

      "I believe so."

"He isn't acting weird at all?"

      "Actually, yeah. Kind of."

"That's what I thought. Keep an eye on him for me okay? I worry about him."

      "I will."

"Thanks."

    "No worries." With that, I hand the phone back to Bokuto. He talks animatedly with Kuroo for a few more minutes before coming back to the car. While he was gone, I picked our hotel.

    "Alright, where are we headed?" He asks, looking over at me. His eyes look a lot less stressed now that he's got to talk to Kuroo. Kuroo usually has that effect on him.

    "I found us a hotel, the information on the map makes me think we'll be able to get a room there." I have my ID, but neither of us are 18 so I am hoping that we won't have to sleep in the car somewhere. That would be incredibly inconvenient.

    "You're the best, Akaashi!" He says, starting the car and carefully pulling back out onto the road.

    I shake my head, and just start giving him directions to the hotel from where we are.

    While we drive, I can't help but wonder why Kuroo was so worried about Bokuto on the phone. Does he know something that I don't? I don't know why Bokuto would feel like he needed to hide something from me. I wish I could have asked him, but I didn't want to have to explain to Bokuto why we were talking about him.

    "Akaashi? Hello? Where do I turn?" He leans over and waves a hand in between the map and my face, trying to get my attention.

    "What? Uh, left. Sorry." I didn't even realize that I was spacing out that time. I really need to stop doing that.

    Bokuto turns, only sparing a glance in my direction as he drives. He looks like he wants to ask something, but for some reason he isn't.

    "What is it?" I ask, wondering why he wouldn't just say it.

    "What is what?" He says this really quickly, like he's nervous. I don't want him to be nervous.

    "You look like you want to say something, what is it?" I try my best to sound calm, hoping that he'll just say whatever it is he wants to say if I don't sound annoyed.

    "Oh... uh. It's nothing." I don't say anything, I just give him a look that says 'don't lie to me'. "It's really nothing! I just... Well I was wondering something."

    "What were you wondering?" At this point we've made it to the hotel, and are just talking in the parked car.

    "Well it's just... You keep spacing off like that. What are you thinking about?" I breathe out a sigh of relief. He had me worried that he was going to say something really bad.

    "You, usually." I say that without hesitation, it's the truth. But his reaction to it confuses me. He looks shocked, almost. He just turns and stares at me for a moment before opening his door and getting out of the car.

    "I'm gonna go get us a room, I'll be back." I nod, watching him walk off.

    That was weird. But I brush it off, deciding to ask him about it later rather than worry about it now.