#keiji being fond and yearning for his partner even though they're married

[owlyflufff]

Keiji always knew Koutaoru has a gentle touch.

He isn't foreign to the callouses and marks that etched along his partner's fingers. His high school years informed him much that his star could send spike after spike relentlessly, the sound resonating throughout a gym, arena even if Bokuto was eager enough. There on the sidelines he'd look over to see Bokuto sending in the most obnoxious high five, wishing the unfortunate soul that would be on the receiving end of Bokuto's "pat" to the back a get well soon and seen how enthusiastic Bokuto's every movements have been over the years he's known him.

However, Keiji knows just how gentle Koutarou's touch had always been.

For those very same hands were the ones that welcomed him warmly when he first joined Fukurodani's volleyball team. Those same eager movements so easily passed and shared food to him from his bento box. Such hands offered him kindness Keiji didn't think he should hold when his thoughts started to overrun him.

They wrapped bandages around his fingers from careless mistakes and hasty injuries, they hugged his own fingers tight and offered warmth when Akaashi's own fingers were surrounded in cold. Such movements held him close when he sobbed, fingers interlaced as the curtains closed on their last match and they offered their goodbye to the court.

If Keiji can trace along his skin, he could trace the fondest memory of Bokuto quietly reaching for his hands, looking him in the eyes and telling him the most earnest words with the stars being their only witness, an earnest I love you.

By then Koutarou's touch had only grown more gentle, stolen touches underneath the table during group dinners, merely sitting side by side a bench or finding comfort in sharing a bed and finding rest in each other's presence.

Keiji always knew Koutaoru has a gentle touch.

And as he watched from the distance, there is something to be said about how small and fragile a young child's hand could be as it reached out for Koutarou's own. The little kid jumped and hollered, bouncing as it requested for Koutarou to teach him how to spike once more. If anything Koutarou was surrounded by numerous children, all running and prodding to learn volleyball that their eagerness almost had Koutarou being swept up in their tidal wave of unbridled energy.

A reflection of who Koutarou once was, a reflection of who Koutarou still is regardless of all the years that have passed.

It makes Keiji laugh.

It makes Keiji smile.

It makes Keiji cry, almost.

He watches on as Koutarou eagerly but carefully guides those children, positioning their arms and rubbing their heads over a successful spike, hands so full of care and love that Keiji could never feel so deserving of it even now.

Keiji always knew Koutarou has a gentle touch, and in turn he wants to offer all those in kind. Offer his support, his care, his love really to the man that had left him speechless since day one. To the man who still leaves him speechless with all the children he's surrounded by.

And as Keiji stands up from the bleachers and makes his way over to Koutarou and the kids, there's he would offer Koutarou his own gentle touch, with one hand holding Koutarou's own and the other holding a ring from behind with the promise of forever.