Inked Skin - Bokuaka

Chapter 8 - Not Given Lightly

“Wow talk dirty to me” Bokutos mouth curls into a mocking grin.

“I swear all the time. You’ll usually hear me singing curses under my breath whenever we do diving drills. But back to the previous topic”.

“What, no” Bokuto disputes. “I wanna hear more child Akaashi stories”.

“I have a whole entire photo album of baby pictures at home. I’ll show you if you're good” he rolls his eyes.

“Hey, hey Akaashi you should come to mine, yea? My family would adore you. My dad said he always wanted a son with more than two brain cells”.

“Isn't that insulting” Akaashi raises an eyebrow.

“Nah, it usually follows up by me and all my siblings tackling him until he admits he was joking”.

“And he was joking?”.

“Well yeah of course he was?” Bokuto blinks.

“Maybe I will come” Akaashi smiles gingerly.

He wonders when family talk became such a sore topic for him. Maybe it always has been. He at least thought he could talk about his dad with some compassion.

But he never felt the need to commend him for doing a good job. His dad was always away, not leaving much time for him to actually be a parent.

But Keiji wouldn't tell Bokuto this. He had a feeling it would only make him sad, or pitying. And he had another pitiful gazes to fill up a lifetime.

“So if you've finished dragging me out here to warn me about your-”.

“Not psychotic parents. Just strict” Akaashi piped in.

“Strict parents. Then can we go inside, I'm freezing” Bokuto wailed, toeing at the ground, shuffling his knees even closer to his chest.

“Or atleast come over here” Bokuto reached out his arms with grabby motions to Akaashi who was sitting across from him.

Akaashi huffed a complaint as he shuffled over, but the small smile on his lips betrayed him as he settled into Bokutos side, throwing a leg over the formers leg.

When Bokuto pouted even more, he entwined their fingers, and Bokuto gave a sound of triumph as he snuggled closer to Keiji.

Akaashis heart beat louder and the warmth fizzled through his body in pulses of electric waves. He liked this.

“I'm only trying to voice my concerns, Bokuto. My parents maintain a routine for me, and it’ll be hard to break. Hard to get away from my house to come see you”.

“And I can’t come over to your house or they'll eat my heart”.

“How do you keep coming up with these situations” Akaashi snorts.

“Fear is an endless outlet” Bokuto points out, nudging his side.

“Mm. But are you okay with that? I’ll just have to introduce you maybe as my friend at first if you want to come over. And it’ll take a while to gain my mothers trust”.

“I’m great with mothers. They love me” Bokuto grins, proudly.

“Even so, maybe just up your personal resume a bit. Tell them you help little old ladies cross the street” Akaashi jokes.

“I do that anyway! They always tell me how much of a young handsome man I am. And they even squeeze my bicep or try to cop a feel”.

“And you're proud of that?” Akaashi laughs.