#It’s stuff like wow put the garbage bin on the other side of the store ;)

[chika-nyan]

Just two more months (plus 3 days in April that I left after vacation for saying goodbye forever to coworkers plus maybe hustling for some “hey we’ve been friendly, can I use you as a reference for a future job”s) to go!!! And honestly not a moment too soon as things continue to get worse :)

[rareficsnstuff]

Not-so-hot Chocolate [Bokuto, Akaashi]

This was a ride. My high school laptop is finally kaput so I had to resort to mobile to post this (*whispers* I'veneverpostedonmobilehowthehelldoesthisshitworksomeoneplzhelp). Anyways! Merry super belated Christmas and happy new year, @danibby, I hope this is what you wanted!! And thanks @ticklygiggles for hosting and allowing my disaster self to be a part of this for the first time ever! Despite all the road blocks, it was really fun!

Summary: Bokuto and Akaashi are out trying to buy some gifts for their teammates, but in true Bokuto fashion, he forgot something of minor importance and now he has to deal with the consequences… or Akaashi does???

Words: 2039

“Akaashiiiii ~!” Bokuto whined for the umpteenth time since they had met up that night.

“Not my fault, Bokuto. You knew we’d be outside; you should have thought ahead,” said Akaashi flatly, who was trying hard to contain his building irritation with his Captain.

“But I didn’t think it would be this cold ~”

Akaashi stopped dead in his tracks, turning slowly to face Bokuto. “Bokuto,… it’s snowing…” His tone was threaded with bored incredulity and his eyes had widened a bit in borderline disgust.

“W-well yeah, but-… I-I just… Akaaaaashiiii ~! My hands are so coooold!”

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem…” Bokuto groaned miserably at this less-than-friendly reply, head rolling back and shoulders sagging to allow his arms to dangle; like a child. “C’mon, we’ve still got half the team to buy gifts for. We can get some hot chocolate or something after the next couple of stores in this section,” Akaashi bargained.

“Lemme borrow your gloves!”

“No.”

“We can trade off!”

“No.”

“Akaaaashiiii ~!” Dammit.

“Fine! We can get hot chocolate now, just calm down!” Bokuto’s face had twisted into a juvenile pout but at the promise of a hot beverage to warm his hands, his eyebrows lifted hopefully and his golden eyes were practically sparkling. There was a definite bounce to his step now as the two headed towards the welcoming glow of cozy little café on the shopping strip.

Some time later, they were back on their way, looking through shop windows and discussing options of what to get their teammates as they nursed their steaming cocoa.

“Akaashi, let’s take a break and go over there to finish our hot chocolate!” Bokuto exclaimed, pointing excitedly to an empty park across the street with his cocoa-free hand. Akaashi nodded agreement and the two head over, perching themselves in a half-sitting-half-standing position against the back of one of the benches. “Watch this, Akaashi!” said Bokuto suddenly. Akaashi looked up at him, lazily expectant, as Bokuto drew an arm back and launched his now empty cup at a garbage bin four feet away. The cup bounced off the outer rim, sending it directly into the basket with a soft clatter. “WOOOH!” Bokuto cheered.

“Nice shot.”

“I know, right!” Although, Bokuto had ordered the largest size of hot chocolate, he had finished long before Akaashi who had gone with two sizes smaller. The younger still had the last half to drink but Bokuto didn’t seem to mind waiting for his setter. Until…

“Akaashiii ~” Oh god…

Knowing what was coming, Akaashi only hummed in response.

“My hands are cold again ~”

“Move around. It’ll help keep your body temp up.” And Bokuto began humorously trotting around his setter, rolling his shoulders and desperately rubbing his hands to keep warm. “With you size and build, I would have expected you to be the type to always be hot…” Akaashi drawled, ignoring Bokuto’s prancing and staring straight ahead. Secretly, he was trying not to smile. Why was Bokuto always such a goof?

“Common misconception… “ Bokuto had paused and mumbled to himself, “Was that the right term?” One corner of Akaashi’s mouth twitched. “I get real hot in the summer n’ stuff, but it’s the reverse in winter. It’s like my body just absorbs whatever temperature it is outside at the time… It sucks.” Bokuto pouted, still keeping up with his prancing as he moved to circle Akaashi for some diversity in his pattern.

Wow. Akaashi sure was taking his sweet time with that hot chocolate. Hadn’t he finished yet? Bokuto eyed him somewhat impatiently from the corner of his eye as he jogged circle after circle around him. When he was directly behind him after his twelfth circle, he stopped, jogging in place as his eyes practically burned holes into Akaashi’s back.

“GMMHmm!” Akaashi choked. He had been in the middle of another sip of his rapidly cooling chocolate when he felt Bokuto cram his wide hands in the slots between his arms and ribs. With a struggle, he had managed not to spew it onto the snow at his feet and swallowed it a bit painfully down his throat, stone-faced composure quickly back in place. Slowly, he turned his head to meet his captain’s wide, golden eyes. Bokuto’s expression was innocently expectant; he looked at Akaashi with raised eyebrows, glittering eyes and a pleasant – albeit dopey – smile. “What are you doing…” Akaashi said, barely even as a question; almost daring him to answer.

“I thought it might help, but your coat’s so thick your body heat doesn’t seep through like I’d hoped.” Bokuto’s brows furrowed in thought and Akaashi rolled his eyes before he took another sip of cocoa. He decided it had been too long a day to care and simply allowed his Senpai to stand there with his hands on his ribcage as he nonchalantly polished off his not-so-hot-chocolate. “OOooo- wait a minute, I’ve got a better idea!” Bokuto exclaimed making Akaashi jump, half turning his head to the elder.

“W-whoa, whoa- hey! No!” he spluttered, quickly stepping out of Bokuto’s reach and spinning around to face him, slightly crouched in a defensive stance and brandishing his nearly empty cup like some kind of hilariously pathetic makeshift shield.

“But, Akaaaashiii ~ my hands are so coooold ~!” Aaaand the whining was back.

“Stick your hands up your own shirt, then?”

“Akaashi. My hands are cold,” said Bokuto concisely, looking at Akaashi with a maddeningly incredulous expression. “If I put them under my shirt, I might as well take off my coat and lay in the snow…”

“Bokuto- “

“Oh c’mon, Akaashi, just for a second! You can warm back up really quick!”

“No, Bokuto.” Despite Akaashi’s insistence, Bokuto was advancing on him. “Bokuto, No! This is your own fault for not bringing gloves! Leave me alone!” And they were off. Using the bench as a protective barrier between them, they moved in sync from one end to the other, Akaashi tying to escape and Bokuto tying to head him off. In a flash, all in one movement, Bokuto had snatched the cup from Akaashi’s hand, set it on the bench and grabbed his Kohai’s now empty hand to pull him into his chest. There was a short-lived squabble in which Akaashi was trying to keep Bokuto’s hands out of his coat and nearly caught the larger man’s wrists but he slipped out at the last second.

“AAAAaaa!!” Oh wow, Bokuto was right… His hands were cold.

“See? Cold, right?” Bokuto’s grip on Akaashi’s sides tightened when the setter gripped his arms for dear life and began tugging and squirming to get away. “This is a lot warmer, though.” And when – god knows why – Bokuto trailed his hands up to his ribs and began rubbing them lightly up and down (for the warmth of the friction, he supposed), he panicked.

“Bokuto! Bokuto- no- please! L-let me go! Pleahese!” Shit.

Bokuto’s hands stopped and Akaashi froze.

“Are you laughing?”

“No.” Damn! That reply was way too quick.

“No, no you were- … Oh wait, I get it! Akaashi, you’re ticklish!” There was no room for refute in that statement; Bokuto had made that conclusion and the only way to change his mind was to physically prove him wrong. No chance of that happening, though. If he didn’t escape now, right now, Bokuto was going to tickle him and he was going to react like any ticklish person would. There was no helping that; he was ticklish after all. Very ticklish.

“Let me go!” he said rather than denying it. He struggled harder than ever when Bokuto rapped his arms around his waist and he was really starting to feel the threat now.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then,” Oh god, Akaashi could hear the excited grin in his voice and there was no way he was getting out of his gorilla arms. Still with his hands under his coat, Bokuto began softly kneading into his ribs. A choked giggle slipped through before he could stop it and his only defense now was to press his elbows into his sides, hoping to squish Bokuto’s wiggling fingers.

“No, please dohon’t!” Dammit, don’t laugh; this was so embarrassing.

“Oh c’mon, Akaashi, just laugh, will ya? How come I didn’t know about this, huh?” Akaashi was about to loose it. If this kept up much longer- oh…

“Haaaaha! W-wait- aaAAAhahahaaaa!” Bokuto had only been scribbling at the sides of his ribs as he held him like a human straight jacket, but now he had started rubbing deep circles into his ribs, adding the last straw to break the camel’s back and there was absolutely no chance at stopping the laughter now.

“Yeah, there ya go! And- and my hands are finally warming up! Wow you’re really ticklish, Akaashi! What about here?” Akaashi couldn’t tell if Bokuto was teasing him or just making conversation, but it was pretty hard to read the guy right now anyways; he was a bit preoccupied with something else.

“AH- NAHo! B-bokutohohohahahaa! Bohokuto- pleahese- NAHA!” No amount of squishing his elbows into his sides was going to stop the upward journey of Bokuto’s fingers. And now they were under his arms, wriggling tirelessly and driving Akaashi mad. He lunged forward like his life depended on it, twisting any way he could. Oh good, now he was crying, too… Holy hell it tickled so bad, thank god there was no one around!

“You’re so wiggly, Akaashi!” Bokuto was laughing too now. He had never seen Akaashi like this; lively and desperate. Sure he could get into it during a volleyball game, and if it wasn’t going well, he would get pretty high strung and snap occasionally, but this was different. Red-cheeked and teary-eyed while he laughed his heart out; laughing harder than Bokuto had ever heard him laugh before. He couldn’t help but laugh with him.

When he moved one hand down goose at his hip, Akaashi wheezed and lurched forward, slipping out of Bokuto’s grip a little and making the ace loose his balance.

“AhahaHAHAA! NAho NAHAT Thahahat! Bokuto, PLEAHEEEEhese!” Bokuto barked a laugh at Akaashi’s whiney plea. He added his other hand to his other hip and Akaashi squealed – a sound Bokuto never thought he would hear from his Kohai – before he wheezed himself into silent laughter, finally toppling out of Bokuto’s grip and falling onto the powdery snow on his hands and knees with Bokuto following. He was rolling in the snow, pawing weakly at Bokuto’s hands and completely unable to speak now when the torture suddenly stopped.

Akaashi opened bleary eyes to see Bokuto sitting crisscross in the snow, hands in his lap and grinning goofily down at him. Akaashi chuckled again, rolling onto his back and looking up into the sky with a goofy smile of his own.

“You suck.” Akaashi said, tipping Bokuto into a roaring laugh. “Are your hands still cold?” he asked, a teasing edge to his voice as he looked at Bokuto from the corner of his eye. There was a pause…

“Maybe…” he finally said with a grin Akaashi did not like.

“Wait- No!” Faster than he believed he could, Akaashi had jumped to his feet and took several steps back from his Captain who was now also climbing to his feet, still with that expression that Akaashi decided he definitely hated. “We- we still have shopping to do! This can- this can wait until later, Bokuto!” he shouted desperately when Bokuto started advancing on him. Bokuto laughed again.

“Later, huh? You’re right, we should finish getting the team gifts… but I’m gonna hold you to that ‘later’ thing.” He reached back to grab Akaashi’s not-so-hot chocolate and handed it to him with a clap on the back and a rather threatening wink before he lead the way back across the street to the shopping strip.

Feeling stunned, Akaashi stood there slack-jawed holding the nearly empty cup in his hand as he watched Bokuto’s retreating figure. He tipped the last of his cocoa down his throat, tossed it into the garbage bin and forced a steadying breath which he released in a terrified huff.

Shit. Maybe if he dragged the shopping out long enough, Bokuto would forget about this…

Shit.

[khaosgaming22]

Vertigo Ch/4

The two of them walked to the Legion locker rooms and Sora found a uniform that fit her which surprised Cody due to her size. Then they made their way to an open area outside the warehouse with ten tables set up about fifteen feet from the first target with the cardboard cutouts going all the way to almost a mile away. Sora grabbed a pistol that was almost completely destroyed but a mix of steel parts along with some zip ties and duct tape held it together.

“Jeez you weren’t kidding about not having any weapons lying around.” She said picking up the gun keeping the barrel down-range and Cody sighed.

“We make the best of what we have with what we can. Sometimes that doesn’t yield very pretty results but if it works, it works.” She nodded and put on a set of earmuffs before loading the magazine into the gun.

"Somewhat heavy for a 9mm pistol" she took aim at the target without hesitation shot at the neck area. "Accuracy could use some work though. You probably put a piece too much in it"

Cody looked at her a bit surprised on her knowledge of this. "The Japanese air force taught you that?"

She nodded as she tinkered a small object of of the pistol. Cody looked at what she was doing, not quite understand exactly what she was doing with the pistol.

"I can't concentrate if you keep staring you know" she mumbled.

"Sorry…" he looked away quickly.

After a few more seconds she replaced a few pieces together and she shot a few rounds on the target with ease, the bullet flying faster than earlier. "There… fixed the accuracy and the range of it" she gave him the gun.

"Heh, you're good with these kinds of stuff"

"Making one no, fixing I can do" she justified. "It's not bad tho" Cody nodded and took the gun, It felt more balanced in his hands then before.

“You’re a really good shot, that target is pretty far away and you hit it right on target.” He looked at the dents in the metal cutout about thirty feet away.

��Well I did join the army for three years, being good with a weapon is a requirement.” She smiled, took another gun and shot a couple rounds at a further target as Cody looked at her impressed. She gave the rifle to him.

“Your turn big guy.” He smirked and aimed the gun at the target firing ten bullets dead on and turned around triumphant, she smiled with her arms crossed and rolled her eyes.

“So you can fire a gun, time to learn how to build one.” He said setting down the firearm.

“Alright, where do we start?” She took her earmuffs off and set them on the table.

“First step. Junkyard.” She looked at him confused.

“Huh?”

“We need parts if we’re gonna make a gun from scratch, best place to look is in the Legion junkyard.” She shrugged and nodded.

“Guess that makes sense, so where is it?” She asked moving her hair trying to erase the imprint from the earmuffs.

“Junkyard.” He said with a grin. Sora looked at him with great confusion.

“I’m sorry what?” Cody started walking and she followed as he explained.

“If you wanna build or need parts to fix something you go here.” She followed his finger pointing a walking distance away at a fenced in area. She shrugged and figured that made sense, though still questioned how she would find the right parts. Cody stopped in front of the gate and entered a passcode to open the gate.

“Why protect a bunch of junk like this?” She asked trying to memorize the code that he didn’t bother to conceal.

“This junkyard is the heart of the Legion. Without it we wouldn’t be able to craft or fix HALF the stuff we have, so it stands to reason it should be protected.” She nodded and they walked in as the fence slid to the side. The junkyard wasn’t at all how she envisioned it to be. Instead of piles of random garbage and items strewn about all over, it was organized in rows and piles. Old storage bins were used to hold smaller items and the biggest stuff was stacked up about a story.

“Wow.... it’s.... not what I expected that’s for sure....” Cody put both arms out and spun around once showing off.

“Welcome to my kingdom.” He said laughing.

“If you can’t find what you need here, we don’t have it. So... what kind of weapon would ya like to make?” He picked up a few parts in a section labeled *Weapons and Weapon Accessories*. Sora thought for a minute then decided on one.

“How about a mid to long range rifle? Something for shooting at distances accurately.” He nodded and started opening drawers and bins to find pieces as she watched. He eventually found a good amount and placed them in a box to give to her.

“Alright then. That should be everything we need, I’ll show you to the garage.” She took the box of assorted parts, it was pretty light considering the item she was about to craft. She followed him out of the junkyard and toward a garage that looked more like a hangar based on its size.

“Is everything you have huge?” She asked setting down the box. Cody laughed.

“Not everything exactly, but the junkyard and garage? Yeah. It stores all the Legion’s vehicles.” He pointed over at the other half of the area with an assortment of trucks and cars and Sora's eyes lit up.

“Sora likey....” Cody smiled and shook his head.

“You’re gonna need a license for those.” She pouted and her eyes went to Dodger.

“What is that?” Cody shook his head rapidly.

“Nu uh. No way. No how. never. Dodger is MY personal car.” She ran over to it and he chased after her. Her eyes immediately went to the interior.

“Why.... doesn’t it have a seat?” She asked as Cody caught up.

“Couldn’t find one that’s comfortable enough and please don’t touch.” He said as she was reaching out to grip the steering wheel. She quickly retracted her hand and put it behind her back keeping her eyes on the vehicle.

“You made this from stuff in your junkyard?” She asked raising an eyebrow, he nodded. “That’s amazing... it looks brand new.”

“See what you can do with the stuff ya find? Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a seat would you?” Her eyes widened and she quickly responded.

“No.” Cody was immediately suspicious.

“What about that seat in your plane? I bet we could salvage that.” She grabbed his collar and pulled his face to hers.

“Listen bud. I don’t know if you know this or not, but a pilot’s seat. Is THEIR seat. Not one they can just give to someone they just met. So no, OFF LIMITS.” She released and he looked at her much more frightened than he ever had before. She crossed her arms and changed the subject.

“So how about that rifle?” Cody snapped out of his fear and nodded.

Oh god I haven’t posted literally ANYTHING this week yeesh. Alright here’s some more Vertigo, hopefully this will suffice, I am definitely still working on this though!