Kiss Me (Like You Wanna Be Loved)

Chapter Twenty Five: Day One

They lie in bed for a long while after, quietly holding each other, touching and kissing.

"Hey, hey," Bokuto eventually breaks the silence, running his fingers through Keiji's hair. "Whatcha thinking?"

"That I love you," Keiji says simply. It gets easier to voice every time.

There's an intake of breath, and Bokuto's other arm around his waist tightens. "I love you, too," he says. "So much."

Keiji presses his face close against Bokuto's chest and smiles. "Since when?"

"Hmm, I don't really know exactly..." Bokuto says thoughtfully. "I probably knew for sure when you came to my game. But I've kinda had a crush on you since day one."

"Day one?"

"Uh huh. That first morning after you moved in, when you walked out into the kitchen. You looked all soft and sleepy and like so pretty it was unreal. And your shirt was kinda big so it was hanging off one shoulder." He traces Keiji's collarbones with his fingers, and Keiji shivers slightly at the touch. "I was so distracted I almost scooped my eggs onto the floor instead of a plate."

Keiji pulls back a little so he can stare at Bokuto in amazement for a moment before confessing, "Bokuto-san, that morning when I saw you without a shirt on I walked into a wall."

"What?! Wait, really?" He lets out a loud laugh, thankfully tipping his head back so it's not directly into Keiji's ear. "Oh my god, Kaashi! That's so cute!"

"It was not cute," Keiji grumbles, pressing against Bokuto's chest again to hide his burning face. "I was suffering."

"Oh man, you wanna talk about suffering?" he says with a low chuckle. "Training camp. If you ask Kuroo, he'll say he had it worse 'cause he had to listen to me whine for two weeks, but god I really missed you."

"You did? But we weren't even-we hadn't even kissed at that point."

"Yeah, but I dunno. I just missed your company. Missed your cooking. Missed seeing you everyday."

"I missed you, too," Keiji admits after a moment. "I was trying very hard not to, and I mostly convinced myself I didn't. But in the back of my head I was counting down the hours until you were home. The apartment was too quiet without you."

Bokuto makes a pleased little humming sound as he kisses Keiji's forehead. "You know, I really thought you were gonna hate me after my birthday and Kuroo's dare. But then you wanted to kiss again, and that's when I knew I was doomed."

"Doomed?"

"Yeah, 'cause we started spending more and more time together, and I was starting to like you more and more. But I knew you didn't want to date, and I was too afraid to say something and ruin this."

"So the whole time..." Memories flash through Keiji's mind, recalibrated to be seen from a slightly different angle, through another lens.

"You really couldn't tell that I liked you?" He lets out a small laugh. "I thought I was so obvious! Guess I wasn't that bad at hiding it after all."

"Actually I believe I was simply more dense than either of us anticipated."

Bokuto snickers. "You might be right about that. But I might be kinda dense too, 'cause for a long time I figured it was just a little crush, not a big deal. Probably up until the Halloween party, when that girl kissed me, and all I could think was that I'd rather be kissing you, and only you."

"I was really jealous that night," Keiji confesses in a low voice.

"Yeah, I know," Bokuto says, his tone light with amusement. "You did not hide it well." Keiji huffs and pinches his arm, and Bokuto just laughs again. "Is that when you realized you liked me? 'Cause that's when I started thinking maybe you could..."