Akaashi was not surprised to hear that Matsukawa, unfortunately, did not get bailed, but he did think it was nice of Oikawa to visit him every day until they let him go.
Akaashi didn't know anything about attorneys willing to protect street racers. People willing to risk their license just to let people risk their lives on the street instead. Bokuto had one, too, and was very fond of her but Akaashi didn't think Bokuto would ever need her.
Well, it was more like he hoped he'd never need her.
Here he was on a Wednesday, sitting on his stool in the flower shop and watching his fingers skip across the maplewood, letting his mind take him halfway across the world.
The sunlight was brittle and inviting as it warmed his skin through the window, the afternoon settling gently over the town while summer still blazed by. It was very quiet in here, mainly because the shop was empty and Akaashi didn't need to make any new displays for today.
In this quiet - while the silence allowed his heart to whisper to him, too - he was kind of missing Bokuto, if he was being honest.
He didn't want to, considering he was still kind of weary of him, but he couldn't stop thinking about last Friday night.
There was this strange, invisible force, practically tugging at his wrists as it led him down streets and into random buildings with Bokuto for the entire night.
It made him stop worrying and live a little more, made Bokuto's voice sound that much more enticing and the black smoke around his eyes that much darker in the shade of the moon, to where Akaashi truly felt like he could get lost in him. It made him forget about upcoming exams, let him surf on a wave of sparkling freedom while winds of adventure skated past his skin.
His heart picks up as he imagines him smiling across the table at the soba restaurant, in all of his auroras and bright neon blues, and he longs for the next chance he gets to listen to Bokuto's soul without the intrusion of a race soon.
The adrenaline runs through his bloodstream and straight into his face, and he groans in embarrassment once the heat gets to be too much, poppies blooming beneath his cheeks.
He hides in his folded arms, trying to think of ice so it could go away.
"Akaashi!" Akaashi blinks and lifts his head, pressing his hands to his cheeks as he watches Konoha come to him from his office, reading off a slip of paper in his hands, not looking at him. "Hinata's shop pre-ordered today. They need a bouquet for the front desk, and..." Konoha makes a face and brings the paper closer to his eyes, almost comically. "...one blue tulip. Drop it off before your break, would you?"
Akaashi's eyebrows shift to the center of his forehead as he thinks, wondering why they would order a single tulip for the shop, before becoming even more embarrassed that he would have to talk to Bokuto in front of someone else working there today.
He probably ordered it so he could be reminded of Akaashi every day or...something... stupid.
Akaashi feels the heat again.
"I-I don't go on break until three," Akaashi says. "Would you like me to drop it off at that time?"
Konoha shakes his head, eyes cutting as they slice into Akaashi and he gestures with the slip of paper still in his hand. "Take an early one and do it now."
Akaashi really hoped that the tattoo shop is completely empty by the time he gets there as he throws a mix of big, white lilies and poinsettias in an emerald vase, his fingers lightly drumming on the ceramic to keep his thoughts occupied on literally anything else except the confrontation he knew he was about to have.
What if he stuttered in front of him? What if he dropped the vase and it broke with customers inside and they laughed at him? What if he made Bokuto slip on the water after not cleaning up the spill correctly?
His brain racks over the three million scenarios that had a sliver of a chance of happening, he knew, but there was something about the possibility of things going wrong when he didn't want them that made him physically ill.
Maybe he should have asked Suzumeda to do this, instead.
He pushes the door open with his shoulder, the cold metal nearly numb to his skin. He is tinted with the amber from the sunset against the skyline beside him as he makes his way next door, relishing in the warmth of the sky before he's hit with the cold air conditioning from the tattoo shop.
He lets out a breath as he looks around.
It's quiet.
The leather chairs were barren, the entire shop filled with an emptiness that most people would shy away from. The only sound is the faint hum of a tune he's heard on Bokuto's radio recently coming from the mounted speaker somewhere in the shop.
Maybe hope truly did work.
Akaashi is thinking of setting the bigger vase on the front desk and just running away before anyone catches him, before the same lady from last time rounds the corner of the doorway and gives him a hollow smile.
"Good afternoon. Did you order these?" Akaashi asks, and she nods once, before looking curiously at the tulip in its own tiny vase.
"Not that, though."
The realization settles in his head, and Akaashi wants to crumble it up in his hands, stomp on it until it's blue mush and kick it into the street to get run over.
But he doesn't, instead, sets the big vase in front of her on the counter.
"It's okay. I'll take it back, then."
She nods with an even softer grin and shifts the vase over to the side of the front desk. It looked nice against the white marble, but Akaashi just credits it to the fact that white lilies and poinsettias went together, rather than how it was made.
He didn't do much, really.
He walks quickly out of the shop before anyone else shows up, the sun catching on the petals of the tulip, azure satin on green stems. He held the vase gently, as if it would crumble into powder had he handled it wrong.
He hated how his hands looked against the porcelain and decided to keep his gaze trained ahead of him instead.
Akaashi makes a face, but eventually, sets the vase beside him by the time he settles at the table by the window at the bookstore.
Kuroo immediately slides into the chair in front of him, as if he could sense him when he walked in, his eyes focused on the tulip. He raises his eyebrows with a smile, finding amusement in the flower, and Akaashi wants to punch him.
"'kaashi! You're here early. Nice flower. Did your boyfriend buy it for you?" Kuroo asks, and Akaashi sighs through his nose, shifting in his seat.
"Not my boyfriend," Akaashi says. "I thought you would know he did, considering all you guys do is text each other."
"Can't help it!" Kuroo shrugs and shuts his eyes, stretching up to the ceiling and tilting to the side with a grin. "Mister CoolestMcCool is just an interesting guy."
Akaashi feels that same annoyance flooding into his chest, and before he has a chance to think, he tastes the jealousy on his tongue. He rests his chin on his hand and looks out the window. "You sure he's not your friggin' boyfriend?"
Kuroo tsks. "You know, Akaashi, you sound pretty jealous, for someone who wants nothing to do with him."
"...I think we should change the subject." Akaashi watches a chipped leaf skip across the parking lot of the bookstore, trying to organize his thoughts before Kuroo could mess them up again.
"Well, I'm glad you asked!" Kuroo says, lightly hitting his hand on the table, and Akaashi could almost see the lightbulb above his head. " I learned how to make a new drink. I will get you a cup!"
And before Akaashi could decline, Kuroo is already bounding behind the counter of the cafe, and he is alone.
He blinks into the table, before bringing his hand up, fingertips pressed against the smooth wood.
When Akaashi takes another trip, he imagines himself in a place he's never been before. The sun is hot, like always, and the air is balmy and his skin feels sticky from the heat as he sits on the sand, the waves crawling towards him with the tide.
He likes to think this is how Rio might be.
He imagines two seagulls taking their leave from the shore as the sun sinks behind the offing of the sea, a delicate pink smoke from the horizon as the sun goes down. The doldrums carry the whistle of the current as the tide dances around Akaashi's ankles, the trees shaking with liberation behind them.
There is someone else here.
His face is blurry, but his hair was styled in that weird way, as usual, the silver almost white in the light of the sun...
Kuroo slips back into the chair in front of him, knocking him out of his dreams.
Except it wasn't Kuroo, and Bokuto Koutarou is staring right back at him from across the table.
Akaashi immediately blushes like an idiot and lets his hand fall into his lap.
"Hi, Daisy! What were you doing just now?" He asks, his eyes flicking over to the tulip sitting beside him, his lips pink and quivering into a tiny smile once he sees that Akaashi held onto it.
"N-nothing." Akaashi shakes his head, and looks out the window, searching for the chipped leaf. "What are you doing here?"
"I usually go to the butterfly gardens for breaks, but decided to stay in town today." He says, leaning forward on one arm on the table and Akaashi feels like he was too close, despite being across from him. "I never see you around here, though."
"It's because I got off early today." Akaashi glances at him and watches the way the sun floods into his skin from the window, lighting one eye up in a honeyed topaz, and he truly felt like he was looking into jewels that should have been set behind sealed glass.
Feeling awkward, he quickly tries to save himself from floundering in front of Bokuto.
"You...had an order at the shop."
"We did." Bokuto nods, and the way he still had that small grin on his face made Akaashi uneasy. "Shouyou thought it would help with customer satisfaction."
"Shouyou?" Akaashi asks, and Bokuto tilts his head at Akaashi's confusion, like a puppy hearing a sound for the first time.
"...Hinata?"
"Should you be calling your boss by his first name?" Akaashi asks, and Bokuto's smile spreads into his cheeks, dimples poking them.
"We're friends outside of work. Did you forget from when I told you, on our date?"
Akaashi flushes and looks away, eyebrows furrowed as his heart rockets towards the moon. He was slightly annoyed that Bokuto was making him this nervous, despite them acting like normal friends. He talks to Kuroo like this, and Kenma, sometimes.
Why didn't they make him this nervous?
"That was not a date, Bokuto."
And, as if expecting Akaashi to say that, Bokuto retorts almost immediately.
"Then how about we go on a real one next Friday?"
Akaashi resists the urge to sigh and instead stares at the tulip, hoping it would ask Bokuto to leave so that he didn't have to.
"Don't you have another race?"
"I was actually going to support Inarizaki that night. It would be better if you were there with me, too. You'd give me something else to look forward to!"
Akaashi does sigh this time, and as he is working on coming up with a reason to not go see another race and endanger his scholarship again, Kuroo comes back with two cups in his hands.
The drink is made from clear soda and syrups that created a pink gradient around the black straw in the middle. It looked like a sunset, one of those generic and fake ones that you see online.
"Bokuto! I saw you from the counter, try this, too!" Kuroo sets one of the cups in front of Bokuto, the other beside Akaashi's tulip.
There are little static sounds coming from inside the plastic as the bubbles pop on the surface of the water.
"What is this?" Bokuto asks, making a curious face as he holds it up to the sunlight, gently swirling it so the syrup flows with the circular motion.
Akaashi notices the gold pearl dust glimmering in the sunlight, like a school of auric fish beneath the surface of a current. It was actually kind of pretty, now that he was studying it.
He hums, before sipping the drink.
Immediately, a flood of sugar soaks onto his tongue, invading his throat and making him want to cough, like drinking melted popsicles. He looks at Bokuto, whose eyes widen and he pulls off the straw as soon as he drinks it, too. He doesn't say anything, only stares at the drink with another face, as if it would apologize for being so sweet.
"It's good, right?" Kuroo asks, and Akaashi catches Bokuto's eyes once again, a silent exchange, and Akaashi tries to stifle a smile before shaking his head, looking at Kuroo sympathetically.
"No."
Akaashi coughs as the saccharine sticks to his throat, clinging to his words on their way out.
"Very... sweet ." Bokuto grimaces, and Kuroo nods.
"I see. I will fix that for next time." Kuroo beams, his determination shining tenfold at the rejection, and Bokuto nods in encouragement. "Good thing you're my guinea pigs!"
And Akaashi did not think that was a good thing, but he was glad he wasn't the only one trying not to pass out at the sickeningly sweet drink Kuroo had made for them.
It was kind of nice, spending the rest of his break with Bokuto and Kuroo in the bookstore. Kuroo did most of the talking, considering Akaashi could not say more than six words to Bokuto without falling back on his thought.
It was not nice hearing the teasing from Kuroo when Akaashi got home for the day, but he knew he should start getting used to it, starting now.