Akaashi dived under the net as she watched Bokuto fall and hit the floor. She landed on her knees next to him. Kuroo came running over, Kenma threw a hoodie at him as he ran. Kuroo crouched down and lifted Bokuto's head, sliding the balled up jumper under him.
"He'll be fine." Kuroo said. "He gets knocked out a lot because he's such an idiot, look after him for a minute, I just want to go grab something."
Akaashi held onto the unconscious boys forearm. Kenma had pulled out his phone and was playing a game, the other two were talking and laughing about something on the other side of the hall. No one seemed that concerned. Akaashi let go of a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding.
She looked up at his face, bits of his hair had come down where he had been hit, and some had stuck to his forehead. Sweat clung to the side of his face from all the physical exertion he had been doing. His t-shirt clung to his body, showing off his muscled form. His long tanned arm lay at his side. Akaashi lent forward, pushing the strands of hair back up, sticking them to the clumps of cement like hair gel that made his hair rock solid.
"'Kaashi?" he murmured, stirring.
Akaashi redrew her hand from his face, blushing.
"You okay?" She asked.
Bokuto made some noises and tried to sit up, groaned and lay back down.
"Maybe you should take it easy for a while." She cautioned.
Kuroo came back with a bottle of water and a couple of white pills.
"Here, idiot." He says, putting the pills in Bokuto's hand.
Bokuto pulls himself up, swallows the pills and takes the bottle of water from Kuroo, washing them down. Akaashi gets up and walks away, leaving Bokuto in Kuroo's care. She sits down next to Kenma and pulls out her phone. The two sit in silence, lost in their own worlds for a while. It's broken by a shout from Bokuto, Akaashi looks up to see Bokuto punching Kuroo's arm. It seems whatever 'care' Kuroo had been providing had ended, but Akaashi was relieved that Bokuto seemed back to normal.
"You know, I've never been around someone who's able to just sit in silence and let me be." Kenma said suddenly, breaking Akaashi's train of thought.
"Oh." Akaashi shrugged. "I prefer to watch and listen, I like to learn about people."
"Give me your phone a sec." Kenma replied.
Akaashi handed her phone over, watch Kenma open the contacts section and add himself in, then sends himself a 'hi' message.
"What's this, Kenma is being sociable?" Kuroo laughs, walking over to them with Bokuto at his heels.
"Shut up Rooster." Kenma responds.
"Who's an angry kitten then." Kuroo ruffles Kenma's hair and get's a kick to the shin in response.
"Ow! Kenma that hurt" Kuroo complains, hopping backwards onto his other foot.
"Good." said Kenma, pushing himself up off the ground. "Lets clean up and go home, I've had enough today, and there's only so many times Bokuto should take a ball to the face in one week."
Akaashi gets up and starts collecting volleyballs, watching Lev holding Kenma's phone above his head, telling him to jump for it. Kenma hits Lev in the stomach, so he bends forward, and Kenma jumps up and grabs his phone. Akaashi let out a little laugh, her hand covered her mouth as she did. Kenma looked up at her, laughing too, then suddenly stopped.
"Akaashi, watch out!" He shouted.
Akaashi turns her head to see the back of a hand in front of her face, and hear the sound of a volleyball hit skin. She looks up to see Bokuto rubbing his hand with the other, turning away to yell at Kuroo.
Kenma and Lev came running up to Akaashi.
"Are you okay?" Kenma asked.
"Um, yeah... what happened?" Akaashi replied.
"I think Kuroo was trying to spike a ball at Bokuto but he moved, it was going to hit you in the head, but Bokuto got his hand in front of it. Looked like it hurt by how far his arm bent backwards.
"Oh, I should thank him."
Akaashi looked around, but neither Bokuto nor Kuroo were in the gym. Lev was pushing the ball cart back to the equipment room.
"Do it later." Said Kenma. "Lets go change."
Akaashi walked with Kenma to the changing rooms, leaving him at the men's door and heading further along, walking past the ladies, and into the disabled toilet and shower. She locked the door, let her hair down out of the braid and showered. She dressed quickly in a roll neck blue jumper and black baggy jeans. She towel dried her hair, threw it up in a messy bun and slipped on her converse, then headed to the gym entrance to wait for the others.
Kenma was sat outside on the concrete, his hood up to block out the setting sun, gaming on his phone.
"Hey." He said without looking up. "Konoha and Lev have already gone, I'm waiting for Kuroo because he's giving me a lift, so you don't have to wait around if you don't want to."
"Okay. Where's Bokuto?" Akaashi replies.
"Down there somewhere being an idiot probably." Kenma says, pointing down the path to the right.
"Okay, thanks Kenma. I'll see you soon."
Akaashi walks towards the direction that Kenma had pointed out, and as she rounded the corner of the next building, she saw him, walking along the top of the brick wall, eyes on his phone, typing. He finished his message as he walked to the end of the wall, slid his phone in his pocket and jumped off the wall.
"Bokuto!" Akaashi calls as he lands on the pavement. He turns.
"Hey hey hey!"
"I err.. wanted to say thanks... for stopping that ball earlier." Akaashi mumbles.
A look of confusion sweeps over Bokuto's face for a second, then realisation strikes.
"Oh, right. Yeah no problem. You heading home?"
"Yeah."
"Which way you walking?"
"Oh I need to go left here." Akaashi says.
"Okay, cya tomorrow!" Bokuto calls brightly, giving a wave as he continues walking straight.
Akaashi moves to the entrance of the road on the left, out of sight and waits. She felt guilty for lying to him then, but she didn't want risk him finding out where she lived, or worse, her mother seeing her with him. She would wait a few minutes here, then walk home.
While she waited, she pulled out her phone and saw a new message from a few minutes ago.
17:56 Kenma: Hey.
18:03 Akaashi: Hey
18:03 Kenma: Oh good you replied. Kuroo is driving me insane, he's singing at the top of his lungs on the drive home and I am trying to distract myself. Did you find Bokuto?
18:04 Akaashi: Yeah I did thanks. He's gone home.
18:04 Kenma: You walking with him?
18:04 Akaashi: No
18:04 Kenma: Ok. I have a great idea. As I am stuck in a group chat with both of them and their antics, I'll add you, so you can suffer as well.
18:05 Akaashi: No! Don't you dare. And how is that a good idea??
New message.
'Oh great.' Akaashi thought to herself as she opened the message.
Kenma added 'Akaashi'.
18:06 Kenma: I added Akaashi to the group chat.
18:06 Unknown number: HEY HEY HEY AKAASHI
18:06 Akaashi: Hi Bokuto-san.
18:06 Bokuto-san: You don't need to use such formalities Akaashi.
18:06 Akaashi: Ok.
Akaashi slid her phone into her pocket, deciding it had been enough time for Bokuto to have long gone. She went back to the main road and began walking, putting her headphones in as she went. Scrolling through her playlists until she found a 90s throwbacks one. She carried on walking, thinking of nothing in particular, just getting lost in her own world. She found herself singing quietly to a song:
"I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve. I have a history of taking off my shirt."
She smiled to herself, realising that the song reminder her of Bokuto. Her phone binged then. She pulled it out, seeing a new private message:
18:17 Bokuto: I thought you'd gone home.
Akaashi frowned at her phone, confused, and started to type.
18:17 Akaashi: I did.
18:17 Bokuto: Look up.
She looked up from her phone, saw Bokuto on the other side of the street. He jogged over to her. She hoped her cheeks hadn't flushed red as she thought about the fact he might have heard her singing.
"This doesn't look like you're at home." He said with a grin.
"What are you doing here?" She replied, trying to deflect.
"I live here." He says, pointing a thumb over his shoulder to a house behind him.
"Oh." She mumbled. "I am... on my way to my.. Nan's."
"Okay!" Bokuto said. "Well cya tomorrow Akaashi!"
He bounced back across the road. Akaashi watched him pick up a volleyball from the ground in his front garden and throw it into the air, spiking it into the garage wall. She waited until he was thoroughly distracted in volleyball to turn into the house she was standing next to, and unlocking the door, praying that Bokuto never found out they were practically neighbours.
"Hello my darling daughter!" Akaashi's mother called as Akaashi closed the door.
"Hi mum." Akaashi mumbled.
"Ugh, why do you always have your hair up like that, go take it down and get ready for dinner. And wear something nice, you always look like a boy. I won't tolerate that sort of behavior."
"Yes mum." Akaashi mumbled again.
"AND STOP MUMBLING!" A shout followed Akaashi up the stairs.
She sighed and shut herself in her room, throwing herself down on the bed and closed her eyes, trying to fight back tears. She took a deep breath and sat up, looking up at the calendar in her desk. September. Three months to go. She could do this.
She got up, let her hair down, drew on a different persons face and pulled a dress from the wardrobe. Every dress in the wardrobe had been purchased by her mum, so it didn't matter which one it was, she would like it. One final deep breath, she opened the door, and descended the stairs into the pits of hell.
Thirty minutes later, she was back in her room, she pulled the dress off and threw it in the laundry basket, and walked into the bathroom. She scrubbed all the falseness off her face, watching the dirty water wash down the plughole. After a quick shower, she threw on sweat pants and a hoodie and started homework.
The clock on her desk read 22:32. She yawed, and realised she'd not drawn her curtains yet. She stood at the window, and looked over at Bokuto's house. She saw a light on in the attic window, and then saw him, in the light of the street lamps, lying on the roof of his house. She smiled and reached for her phone.
22:34 Akaashi: What are you doing?
She watched Bokuto sit up, and reach over to his hoodie, then lie back down.
22:35 Bokuto: Nothing, why?
22:35 Akaashi: Looks like you're lying on your roof to me.
22:35 Bokuto: How do you know?!
Shit. Akaashi mentally scolded herself. She didn't think that one through.
22:36 Akaashi: I am staying at my nans tonight. I can see you.
She watched Bokuto sit up, so she waved. He spotted her and waved back.
22:37 Bokuto: Want to walk to school together tomorrow?
22:37 Akaashi: Aren't you in super early for volleyball practice?
22:38 Bokuto: No, we don't have practice every other Monday morning because the coach is busy.
22:38 Akaashi: Oh, okay then I guess.
Akaashi watched Bokuto get up off the roof, pick up his hoodie and climb into the attic window, closing it. She smiled to herself, closed the curtains and got into bed.
22:40 Akaashi: So why the roof?
22:40 Bokuto: I like watching the stars, seeing how huge the galaxy is. It helps me think.
22:41 Akaashi: Oh. Well I'm going to go to sleep, cya tomorrow.
22:41 Bokuto: Night.
Akaashi put her phone down and switched on the device next to her bed. Her room lit up with thousands of stars. She smiled and whispered 'me too Bokuto, me too' as she closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.