"This isn't happening," Tsukishima says, looking up from the espresso machine with an expression of horror. "Tell me this is a nightmare."
Keiji lets out a tired sigh. "Unfortunately that is not is the case."
There's a chime as the door swings open and the two volleyball players step into the café.
"Wow, this place is so cool!" Bokuto cries out. Half the customers turn sharply to look at the sudden distraction. "I can't believe I've never been in here before!"
"Indoor voice, Bo," Kuroo says, clapping his shoulder and pushing him toward the drink station where Keiji and Tsukishima are working. Luckily it's not very busy at this hour, so they're not backed-up with drinks to make.
Tsukishima levels his boyfriend with a glare. "Didn't I forbid you from coming here when I'm working?"
"Aw Tsukki, don't be that way! Bo wanted to stop by, how could I deny him?"
"Would you like a tutorial?" Keiji offers, and Kuroo cackles.
"Kaashi!" Bokuto says, still loud, but at least he's trying. "You're off soon, right? We can go home together!"
"Twenty minutes."
"Cool! Oh, hey!" He scrambles to pull out his phone. "Look what Kuroo and Kenma just got! This is what I want for Christmas!"
"Who says I'm getting you a Christmas present?"
"Aghaaasheeeeee!"
Keiji works to keep his lips in a straight line. He nods at the phone. "Show me."
Bokuto turns the screen toward Keiji, showing off a picture of Kenma lounging on a couch and playing his Switch with a small calico kitten between his arms, climbing up his chest to paw at his face.
"Isn't she so cute??"
Keiji doesn't want to admit that yes, she is very cute, so instead he asks, "You want a cat?"
"Yeah! Or a dog! Ooh, or an owl! Can we get an owl?"
"Absolutely not. Owls would make terrible pets. And we can't have a cat or a dog, either. It's not allowed in our lease."
"No fair," Bokuto says, slumping for three seconds before another idea strikes. "What about in the future?" he asks hopefully. "Can we move to a place that does allow pets?"
Keiji opens his mouth to reply but freezes because he doesn't know where to start. The way Bokuto phrased that makes it sound like they'll still be living together beyond the end of term, and they certainly haven't discussed anything like that. But it feels... right.
And Keiji doesn't know what to do with that. He needs time to process these ideas and feelings and Kuroo and Tsukishima are now looking curiously at him so he just sighs and says, "We'll see."
Bokuto hums happily because of course he takes that as a yes. And it probably is, Keiji realizes. It's become stunningly difficult to say no to him. Maybe Keiji is the one who needs the tutorial on how to deny Bokuto.
"Careful or he'll get you a cat for Christmas," Tsukishima teases.
"I doubt that," Keiji says. "Bokuto-san is an excellent gift giver."
Bokuto perks up, beaming, while Kuroo asks, "Oya? What did he end up getting you for your birthday? He was stressing about it for a week."
Keiji makes sure his sleeves are covering the lingering rope burn around his wrists from where he pulled too hard at the binds last night. "A book I've been wanting."
Kuroo scoffs. "Nerd."
"Boring," Tsukishima agrees.
Keiji catches Bokuto's eyes for a fleeting moment and they share a secret smile.
"He gave me exactly what I wanted," Keiji says mildly, feeling a bit pleased when Bokuto's ears turn pink.
"Well you should thank me," Kuroo says, and Keiji raises a questioning eyebrow. "I talked him down from getting you an owl onesie."
"I see," Keiji says to Kuroo. "In that case, I owe you my life."
"Aghahsheiee! It was a really cool onesie!"
"Bokuto-san, I don't think any onesie can be described as cool."
"Hmph." He folds his arms over his chest and pouts. Keiji fights back a smile. It's honestly not fair of Bokuto to be so cute.
"Are you two buying anything or are you only here to annoy us?" Tsukishima grumbles, but Keiji notices that he's currently making a drink that isn't in their order line-up.
"The latter," Kuroo says cheerfully. Then, "Oh, open table!" And he veers off to claim a recently vacated booth.
Tsukishima lets out a long-suffering sigh. "I'll be right back," he says, picking up the drink he just finished making and following after Kuroo. As an afterthought, he picks up another drink that had been sitting off to the side for a few minutes, one that had been mistakenly made with regular chocolate instead of white chocolate.
"You can have this one," Tsukishima says, offering the drink to Bokuto as he walks off. "It's sweet. You might like it."
"Hmm," Bokuto says interestedly, lifting the cup to his lips. He manages to take one sip of it before Keiji is swiping it out of his hands.
"Absolutely not," he says, putting it out of reach and turning to the espresso machine to steam a fresh batch of milk.
"Akaashhhieeee! Whyyy?"
"You don't even like coffee," he barely refrains from rolling his eyes. "And if you drink that, you won't get any sleep tonight, which means I won't get any sleep tonight. Oh, stop pouting," he chastises mildly when he sees Bokuto's crestfallen expression. "What would you like for dinner? I'll make you whatever you want."
Bokuto instantly brightens and Keiji quickly amends, "Within reason."
While Bokuto considers his options, Keiji pours the hot milk into a paper cup and stirs in a generous amount of chocolate syrup, topping it with an extra generous amount of whipped cream.
"Umm... ooh! Chicken dumplings?" Bokuto finally requests.
Keiji purses his lips. Making dumplings from scratch takes a lot of time, and they don't have all the ingredients on hand so it'll definitely be more of a hassle than Keiji hoped for, but he knows as soon as he looks at Bokuto's wide pleading eyes what his answer will be. God, he really does need that tutorial on how to deny him.
"Alright," he says through a sigh. "But we'll have to stop by the grocery store on the way home. Here. Hot chocolate."
"Wow! Hot chocolate and dumplings! Aghaashee! You're the best!"
Keiji can't help but smile as Bokuto takes a sip and lets out a little cheer.
"Aww," Yachi says, looking over from her spot at the register. "You guys are so sweet together."
Keiji grimaces. For a moment he'd forgotten he was at work-he was acting like he does at home and now Yachi thinks he's sweet? Akaashi Keiji is many things but sweet is not one of them.
Bokuto starts laughing, "Bahaha Kaashi, your face right now! You look like Tsukki when someone compares him to Hinata!" He turns to Yachi and explains, "We're, uh, not actually together like that."
"Oh! S-sorry! I didn't mean to offend-"
"Nah, it's okay," Bokuto assures her while Keiji continues to glower. "Honestly, I think he's more bothered about being called sweet." Keiji turns to look at him suddenly. "Am I wrong?"
And Keiji wants to grab his shoulders and shake him and demand, How did this happen? How did you become somebody who knows me? But instead he pinches Bokuto's arm and grumbles, "Shut up and drink your hot chocolate."
Bokuto lets out a boisterous laugh that draws the attention of nearly every other customer as he goes off to sit with Kuroo at his table.
Tsukishima returns, rejoining Keiji at the drink station. After a moment he asks, "Are you bringing Bokuto-san to the Christmas party?"
Every year Early Bird throws a holiday party for employees and their plus ones. Keiji didn't bring anyone last year, because he didn't have anyone to bring, but this year is different. He hasn't asked Bokuto yet, but he'll surely say yes. They've already discussed how neither of them will be going back to visit family for the holidays, so they'll both be home through the break.
"Possibly."
"You sure spend a lot of time with him," Tsukishima comments.
"We do live together."
"So? In the last month I've spent maybe an hour with my roommate, and that was mostly to argue about whose fault it was that our water bill was so high." Tsukishima adjusts his glasses. "His, for the record."
Keiji decides to redirect the conversation instead of rising to Tsukishima's bait with excuses and explanations. "Then I take it you'll be bringing Kuroo-san to the party?"
"Unfortunately."
"Are you sure you're dating?" Keiji asks with a smirk.
Tsukishima matches his smirk. "Are you sure you're not?"
Keiji frowns a little. "Quite sure. I think I would know if I were in a relationship."
Tsukishima gives him a look that Keiji can't quite decipher. It's an expression of disbelief, but there's also something... smug about it, like he knows something Keiji doesn't. It's infuriating. Keiji keeps his expression blank so Tsukishima can't tell it bothers him.
After a moment Tsukishima scoffs, and says almost as an afterthought, "Honestly, I don't even know how you deal with him."
Keiji feels his blank expression slip. He turns to Tsukishima with narrowed eyes. His voice is quiet and cold as he says, "I deal with a lot of unpleasant people. I have never considered Bokuto-san to be one of them."
Tsukishima blinks in surprise. "I didn't mean-sorry."
It's probably the first time Keiji has heard Tsukishima apologize for anything. Even when he accidentally whacked Hinata in the face with a tray he'd only snarked at the other boy for not being fast enough to dodge.
"Hm," Keiji says, a blunt acknowledgement of the apology as he lets his face slip back into something passive. "When you're done with that latte the bathrooms need to be cleaned."
He ignores Tsukishima's look of dismay and returns to making drinks for the last fifteen minutes of his shift.
Cooking dinner that night is an adventure. Yes, making dumplings from scratch is a lot of work, and yes, it takes a lot of time. But Keiji enlists Bokuto's help, and chaos aside, it ends up being way more fun than it has any right to be. Bokuto chops vegetables and preps ingredients, and of course he makes a huge mess and is entirely too distracting, but Keiji wouldn't change a thing about it.
Bokuto is all smiles as he cracks jokes, and tells stories, and kisses Keiji's neck while Keiji tries to focus on dividing the dough into even circles. Bokuto spoons out generous amounts of filling; Keiji redistributes the filling so the dumplings can properly be sealed. He folds them with careful fingers and passes them over so Bokuto can fry them in the pan.
The resulting dinner is delicious, and they both eat far too much. They're so full they decide to skip doing the dishes for the night so they can change into pajamas and relax in bed with a couple episodes of their anime. When the credits are rolling after the first episode, Keiji figures this is as good a time as any to bring up what's been on his mind all day.
"Bokuto-san."
"Hmm?"
"I want to have sex with you."
"Now?!" he turns so abruptly he almost sends the laptop flying off the bed.
Keiji fights a laugh as he saves the computer and carefully sets it aside. "Not right now. I thought it would be best if we discussed it beforehand."
"Oh," he lets out a breath. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"Do you want to?" Keiji asks. They both shift on the bed so they're on their sides, facing each other.
Bokuto hesitates, and Keiji feels a pang of worry. Maybe he doesn't want Keiji in that way...
"Do you not want to?"
"No, no I do!" Bokuto says quickly. "I'm just... nervous, I guess?"
"You've had sex before."
"Yeah, but you haven't. It's a big first."
"You know I don't really care about that sort of thing."
"I know but like even when you've had sex before, the first time with someone new is always kind of a big deal."
Keiji hums in acknowledgement. "Would you prefer to wait?"
"I mean, not really," Bokuto confesses with a sheepish smile. "I really wanna have sex with you. I think about it, like, all the time." Keiji bites back a pleased smile as Bokuto's hand settles on his waist, thumb rubbing over Keiji's hip bone. "I just wanna do it right, you know? Make sure it's really good for you. For both of us."
"I think it will be. Everything else has been good."
"Yeah," Bokuto says, smile stretching bigger and brighter. "It has been." After another moment of hesitation, he goes on, "And you're really sure you wanna do this? In the beginning you said you wouldn't want to..."
"Things have changed," Keiji says simply. "I've been thinking about it a lot, too."
"You have?" Bokuto asks, grinning when Keiji nods. "And, uh. How do you want to do it? Like, do you want me inside of you? Or do you want to be inside of me?"
Keiji feels his face getting hot. "I'd like to try both, ideally. How do you feel about that?"
"Good," Bokuto says quickly. "I feel good about that." Even in the dark Keiji can see that he's blushing too. "I, uh. I think you should top the first time."
Keiji lifts an eyebrow. "Really?" he asks, though the more he thinks about it, the less surprising the offer is.
"Yeah, I mean, it's, uh, probably easier for the one with more experience to bottom, and I've done it before, so. Unless you don't want to?"
"No, I want to," Keiji says. Then he bites his lip and adds, "But I do also want you to fuck me."
"Jesus Kaashi," Bokuto says, his grip on Keiji's waist tightening. "I want that, too. I want it all."
"Then we're on the same page," Keiji says.
"Yeah, yeah," Bokuto breathes. "Next week-we don't have practice 'cause of finals, then we have another week off for Christmas. So. That'd probably be a good time?"
"Yes."
"And if you change your mind before then-"
"I won't," Keiji says firmly, and he pulls Bokuto closer, kissing him deeply in his best attempt to convey the message I want this, I want you, I'm sure.
And he is sure. He doesn't think he's ever been more sure of anything in his life.
They don't end up doing anything more than kissing that night, both too exhausted from cooking and too full from dinner. They finish one more episode of their anime then fall asleep in each other's arms.
Keiji wakes up in the middle of the night, blissfully warm and perfectly content. Bokuto is still sleeping so Keiji lets himself indulge, openly staring in a way he wouldn't dare if Bokuto could catch him.
He reaches out to gently brush the hair out of Bokuto's face, fingers lingering against his cheek. He looks so soft and peaceful like this, so still and quiet when he's asleep. Though if he's honest with himself, Keiji does prefer him awake, when he's bright and loud and always in motion.
Still, it's nice to see him like this, too. It's nice to see him any way, every way.
He smiles and presses closer to Bokuto, seeking his warmth like a flower unfolding for the sun. God, Keiji really loves this. He could do this every day for the rest of his life and never tire of it.
He lets his eyes flutter shut and he relaxes... for about three seconds before his brain catches up and-
Oh.
Wait.
Oh no.
It hits him, all at once.
He is suddenly wide awake and urgently needs to get out of here.
He gingerly detaches himself from Bokuto, slipping out of his arms, careful not to jostle him so Keiji is able to flee without a confrontation. He escapes back to his own room where he can lie alone on his cold small bed and panic in peace. He stares at the ceiling and wrings his hands, mind whirling, heart racing as the weight of the situation squeezes his lungs.
It's 3am on a cold Tuesday in December and Akaashi Keiji is absolutely, undeniably, hopelessly in love with his roommate.
Fuck.