#it's funny to not include Kotaro in a good morning meme

[saga-jihen]

[soranihimawari]

No Risk, No Reward

taglist: @kaidasen

Side notes: part 4 is here! woot woot!  bokuto and muda are my quaratine moods, lol. i’m almost done completing the story and don’t worry about akaashi. he’ll be back before you know it!

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ℙ𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝟜

Bokuto stuck his tongue out like an impatient child, yet he did answer the question correctly in a matter of fact tone. When I told him he mixed up the graphs on his latest quiz, his hair flopped downward just like it did when we saw him lose his first volleyball game in junior high.

Finally, after explaining and drawing a few examples of each equation, I felt the fatigue from today’s events catch up to my body.

“Alright, let’s head back to my apartment so I can finish going over some sample graph equations for parabolas and hyperboles, yeah?” I placed my bag on my shoulder signaling him to do the same.

Bokuto nodded when he let go of my hand to stifle a yawn; he took my thermos for me when I stood up and began to walk outside the cafe. He followed my lead in exiting the cafe. Once we were a few steps away from the mini-cafe, the soft glow of the city lamps outside the neighborhood created a silhouette outlining the chairs on the outdoor partition (patio deck).

“Hey, hey hey,” Bokuto said in his raucous tone. “Don’t think you’re gonna walk way ahead of me so I don’t get to hold your hand, Muda-chan!”

I shushed him by turning around and placing a closed fist against his chest. It landed with a soft thud and swish against his club jacket. He raised up both of his arms like the actors do in police dramas.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “I can’t focus when you’re being both fiercely adorable and incredibly gorgeous right now.”

I dropped my arm and placed it on my side before Bokuto’s blush tinted his ears. Date someone who makes you feel like you’re missing all the arrows in a round of Dance Dance Revolution (home edition), was something I heard Bokuto say to Akaashi in our first year at Fukurodani. I chose to forgive his comments because he was trying to make up for the fact that he didn’t know my ranking was just as high in the local prefectural archery tournaments as his is in our city for volleyball.

Currently, Bokuto placed both hands in his track suit pockets and we headed toward my apartment building. As fate would have it, we arrived back at a decent hour. My mom was still awake organizing the mail and making a short grocery list to take with her to work.

“You’re home early. It’s nearly nine o’clock in the evening. Thank you for walking with her Bo-kun. If you want to stay over tonight, you can like you normally do when you get lost jogging around this part of the city. You’re both free from club practice since it’s the weekend.”

“Mom, please,” I groaned. I rolled my eyes while Bokuto was ushered into the kitchen to taste test a few macarons from our neighbor across the hall. When she excused herself for the night, she was more teasing in saying “studying first means you flirt later,” glances at Bokuto who seemed to have gained a rapport with her. He sat down at the kitchen counter while I told him to wait a moment while I rummaged around the bedding closet to procure a blanket and pillow set.

“Here,” I said, handing him the pillow. He hung on to it the same way I would a teddy bear, but he put it on the edge of the couch in the living room. The entertainment center was on my mother’s extra chores list after helping in baking tomorrow’s dessert for the week. I placed the blanket on the couch behind us. I noticed he was standing up with a small smile. It was one of his fans’ favorites.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. My mom knew it was going to be too late for you to go home anyways, so she made some space for you.”

Now it was my turn to yawn first. I was so exhausted from dealing with the workload of my classes, plus with the student council’s news, I was just over school as a whole tonight. The next thing I knew, I had begun leaning too far forward and Bokuto caught me in a loose embrace in time to change his center of gravity in case we would fall in the living room. I liked the way he repositioned himself and pressed me into his chest. My arms were squished to my sides and I had to wiggle myself out of my friend’s embrace. I saw him purse his lips together like a child when he crossed his arms over his chest.

“You don’t like being hugged by me?” he whined. I held my hand up for him when I took a step back toward my kitchen table where I took out my notebook and calculus textbook.

“I’m not used to you being this affectionate around me,” my tone in my voice became light with laugher bubbling up in my throat.

“Usually Akaashi or Kaori-san are the ones who cheer me up since you’re always either asleep or playing video games Kotaro, that’s all.”

“Ah, OK. I thought you didn’t like my hugs. Yours usually cheer me up when I mess up at practice!” he replied. He let out a sigh of relief shortly thereafter and joined me in placing his trigonometry textbook and notebook on the table. At the very least, I was relieved we were free from both of our club activities and classes tomorrow; he and I both became hyper aware of our closeness for the first time. I didn’t always hang out with Bokuto alone since Akaashi and other members of the team would include me in shopping trips after away matches. There was a whole bookshelf in my room dedicated to little knick knacks the managers bought me or cool birds of prey stationary scattered about my manga collection.

“I’m gonna go to bed. We’ve both had a long day, so don’t stay up too late either,” my tone was assertive, yet I knew he would still wake up around six in the morning to go for a run around the neighborhood.

“By the way,” I said when I was in the hallway leading to my room to the left of the kitchen. I flicked the lightswitch to turn on the light. “If you happen to go for a run tomorrow morning and get lost, call me and I’ll meet you at the cafe from earlier.”

“I won’t get lost! I might get distracted by the sweets,” Bokuto explained. His voice naturally cracked when he whined the more he annoyed he became. Of course there were times in our first year when Akaashi was asked to find him because Bokuto took a wrong turn on more than one occasion.

“You would wind up at the ice cream shop near my dad’s place,” I reminded him. Although I live with my mother, my parents were separated for months at a time since my father was a city architect for our prefecture. Typically on the nights before the away games Bokoto and Akaashi would play, my dad would come pick me up in the company car and we’d make a whole father-daughter weekend out of it. My mom and I spoke to him often, but to be fair, my text conversations with my dad were sometimes the funniest things. He’d send me memes about his job one of his coworkers shared, the really funny ones I shared with Akaashi since I think Bokuto wouldn’t get the joke (it happened more than twice, so I just keep those memories with me).

“It was raining so hard, I couldn’t see!”

“I had to come find you because Akaashi was worried you’d miss your last train home. I think it was the second time you stayed over because the storm got worse. My mom had to baby you because you were so embarrassed. Good night Ko.”