words | akaashi keiji

bonus 1.

"After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations."
Oscar Wilde

"Have you got the lint roller? Take it with you or we'll be late."

"Taking it with me."

"And the muffins?"

"I've got them with me."

"And the–"

"Mei," Akaashi interrupted her quickly, stopping Mei from pacing the apartment by placing his hands on her shoulders. "It's only a visit to your mom."

"She's allergic to cats, so if her eyes puff up we have to apologize with the muffins."

Akaashi patted her shoulders roughly before spinning her until she faced the door. "Mei, it will be alright."

"Wait! Make sure Jane and Fyodor have enough food in their bowls, or they'll fight." Mei broke out of Akaashi's grip, once again pacing until she found the two cats lying side by side on a loveseat.

They were both asleep, but that didn't stop Mei from running the back of her fingers over each of their soft heads.

It hadn't been long since Jane joined them, maybe only a few months, but she warmed up quickly, and now Fyodor couldn't get to sleep unless Jane was beside him.

That's why, even after Mei dropped her lease and was able to move to another apartment, she didn't. She had been crashing at Akaashi's place for weeks, so what was a few weeks, months more?

Sure, Jane was adopted on an impulse, but at least Mei had let Akaashi be the one to name her? Either way, Akaashi ended up with two cats and a grown woman in his apartment.

"Mei!" Akaashi's voice snapped her out of her brief walk down memory lane, and she turned to him only to come face to face with a nervous expression. "We're going to be late."

"Wait, are you nervous now?"

He shook his head quickly, the tupperware full of muffins clutched tightly in one hand as he used the lint roller on his dress pants.

Mei let out a laugh before tapping a goodbye to the sleeping cats and rising from her crouched position. When she made it to Akaashi, she reached her hands up to fix the collar of his shirt, tucking it back under his sweater before patting his chest.

"Don't be nervous. You've met her before and she loved you."

"Yeah, but she doesn't remember that." Akaashi sighed shakily, only making Mei smile before opening his apartment door for him. "I was apparently so unmemorable that she forgot of my entire existence."

"Keiji, it's been like, eight years since she met you." Mei scoffed, but despite everything she was still nervous herself. She wanted her mom to like her boyfriend, what could she say?

"Well, you didn't forget me in eight years. In fact, you wrote a whole book to let out your pent up feelings about pining for me."

Mei shoved him as she walked, eventually settling down beside him and wrapping an arm around his torso lazily.

"I should've never written that stupid book."

"Then you wouldn't have been published," Akaashi said with a smile, moving a hand to her back and letting it rest there as they made their way to the train.

Throughout the train ride, their conversations remained about the same. They went back and forth teasing each other on who was more nervous, and they obsessively used the lint roller on their varying articles of clothing despite them being free of fur.