words | akaashi keiji

bonus 3.

"I always thought 'love at first sight' was silly and incredibly irresponsible. Then, you came along and you flipped it on me. I understand it now. I do!"
Laney Smith

Akaashi had been under parental pressure to get married for years. Even when he was still in a relationship with Eiko, his mother practically begged for him to pop the question and get his life together with her.

The pressure was so intense he was nearly prepared to do it, too. But she eventually left. It felt bad at the time, but it opened the door for a relationship with Mei.

A relationship with Mei. Akaashi would be lying if he said he didn't still consider it strange.

While Akaashi's parents were more traditional, Mei's parents were just happy to see their daughter every once in a while. Sure, Mei's mother still pestered them for grandchildren, but Mei simply laughed it off.

Akaashi wished he could be the same with his mother, who had been begging him to settle down with a wife since he was twenty-five.

After nearly three years with Mei, Akaashi couldn't even see himself marrying anyone else, but whenever he put serious thought into asking her, he panicked.

What if she laughed at him and left him? Or told him that they weren't anything serious?

Okay, Akaashi knew that she wouldn't react in that way, but he couldn't help but overthink sometimes. That's why he simply left the topic alone and convinced himself that when the right moment came, he'd know.

So, on just another Saturday, he didn't think much of the fact that Mei invited him to the cat café for one of their meetings. Despite the fact that they had three cats waiting for them at home, Mei did still love to visit the café. She had even made friends with the employees, and Akaashi was half-convinced that she worked there in secret while he was at the office on weekdays.

He stood outside of the café awkwardly, looking from his phone to his sides in search of any sign of Mei. It was new that she had asked him to meet her there, rather than them both making the trip together, but Akaashi didn't think much of it.

"Keiji!" Mei's voice broke the silence of the empty street, and Akaashi turned his attention to the woman a few meters away from him. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Not too long. Where did you come from? I didn't see you walking down the street."

"Oh, well that's because you had your eyes on your phone." She waved his question away with a hand, extending it for him to take her hand in his.

Akaashi looked to her in confusion, taking in the sight of cat fur covering her legs before shrugging and following her inside.

"Hey, guys!" Mei greeted the two girls working the front with a wave, and Akaashi nodded at them as they opened the gate leading to the cats.

The two girls shuffled around in excitement, nearly squealing as Mei and Akaashi followed one after the other, and Akaashi felt his eyebrows furrow at the café's atmosphere.

He narrowed his eyes at the back of Mei's head, but she didn't turn back to look at him, only keeping her head forward until she took a seat on one of the pillows.

As soon as they settled down, Mei placed her bag on the floor, messing around with the contents inside as one of the cats stalked up to her and rubbed its side against her.

"What's up with you? Why are you so stiff?" She asked suddenly, and Akaashi blinked before looking back to her.

"Where were you this morning? You were gone when I woke up."