Pretty (Akaashi x Reader)

chapter ten

falling

you woke up the next morning to your alarm blaring loudly on your phone that you had knocked onto the floor in your sleep, you groaned aloud but rolled over, flopping an arm out of bed to grab it so you could silence the incessant beeping. Bleary eyed, you held it up so the screen was way too close to your face in an attempt to make out the time. You shot up into a sitting position. You were late. So, so, so late. You rushed out of bed, discarding your phone so that it got jumbled up with the covers as you shimmied out of them. You almost fell over as you scrambled over to your closet, chucking on the first items of clothing you found, luckily they were both black so you didn't have to worry too much about them matching. You slung your bag onto one shoulder and the laces of your skates over the other.

Rushing to the bathroom, you grabbed your brush off your desk as well as your little makeup bag. You brushed your teeth rather aggressively hoping it would make up for you not doing the full two minutes before scraping your hair back into a high and very messy ponytail. Two coats of mascara and a quick application of vaseline later you headed downstairs, deciding it was okay for you to skip breakfast since it made you feel sick when you skated straight after eating anyway. You checked your phone, well you intended to, but yourself down after not feeling it in our hoodie pocket only to remember you'd left it upstairs on your bed. You dumped your bag and skates at the door and sprinted back up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Riffling through the covers, you heard your phone clatter to the floor and scrambled to grab it before rushing back downstairs, grabbing your stuff and heading out of the door, making sure to lock it behind you as no one else would be up yet. 

You made it to the bus stop at the same time as your bus did, panting as you boarded from practically running down the street like a madman to ensure you didn't miss it. You smiled at the bus driver as you paid for your ticket before dropping into an empty seat with an audible sigh of relief. The rest of the bus was pretty quiet, only a few half-asleep people were on board and they were all spread quite far apart. You lolled your head onto the headrest, doing your best to maintain consciousness as tiredness lapped at your brain. You glanced out of the window, trying to keep your mind occupied. Your thoughts drifted to the training session coming up, you had your instructor there today so it wouldn't be just you by yourself. He'd told you last week that there would be some new people joining your session because he was no longer free on Sundays thanks to him and his husband adopting a baby. You chuckled internally at the thought of coach Ukai wrestling with a little baby in an attempt to change their diaper. You wondered who would be joining you in your practise sessions, sort of secretly hoping it would be Bokuto and Akaashi although you were sure you wouldn't get much work done with them there .

It didn't take long for the bus to arrive at your stop just outside of the ice rink. You hopped off, making sure to grab your bag and skates. You reached into your pocket to pull your phone out, you weren't late thank goodness. But just as you were about to click the screen off, a notification popped up. Fuck, you only had ten percent battery left. You must've knocked it off charge while you were sleeping, you cursed internally before slipping it back into your pocket, hoping it would have at least enough charge to last until you got home after practise. 

You entered the locker room with your headphones in and your head down, trying to psych yourself up for practise today. You didn't usually need any amping up but the thought of how much failing you normally do in practise paired with the fact you were now going to have some random people in there who you thought would be criticising your every move, whether they actually were going to do that was another question but nonetheless, meant you needed a little more encouragement than any other normal day. Your music was blaring loudly as you went to sit down on the little bench that sat across the row of lockers in the changing room. It was playing so deafeningly loud that you jumped in fear when you felt a cool hand tap you on the shoulder. You yanked a headphone out and swivelled around to see Bokuto standing beside you with a look of disbelief on his face.

'I have been screaming your name for the past five minutes!! You'll burst an eardrum, man!' You giggled at his concern, immediately relaxing in his presence.

'It's fineee!' You assured him, waving a dismissive hand in his direction, 'If they burst that just means the sound can get through easier.'

'Wait, really?' Bokuto eyes filled with innocent, child-like curiosity but you couldn't help but laugh at his gullible nature.

'No, of course not!' His expression sank into a frown and you immediately felt bad and decided to change the subject, 'What are you doing here though Bokuto? I've never seen you here so early on a Saturday.'

'I got moved from Sunday practise to Saturday,' He said dejectedly, obviously unhappy at the loss of the best day of the weekend or at the fact he had to wake up several hours earlier.

' Well at least you have me!' You attempted to console him.

'Have you?' He seemed genuinely confused.

'I have practise now to! Did you think I just came at 6am for the fun of it?' Before he answered, he encircled you in a suffocating bear hug.

'Yes, Yes (Y/N)!' He cheered, his mood immediately lifting at the thought of you joining practise with him made you smile broadly, 'We're gonna have so much fun, dude!'

'And we're gonna practise,' You prodded him in the leg with your finger as that was the only place you could reach as he towered above you even when you weren't sitting like you were now.

'Yeah! I'm gonna chuck you up into the air and see what kind of spin I can get?' You giggled even louder this time, covering your mouth with your hand, and he laughed with you.

'Is..' You started the question you had been wanting to ask since you saw Bokuto this morning but reconsidered straight away, you didn't want to seem too desperate or interested. Because you weren't. But you were dying to know, so you asked anyway.

'Is Akaashi gonna be practising with us?' You asked, the words tumbled out of your mouth in a nervous rush.

Bokuto raised a suggestive eyebrow at you and you scowled in response but he still answered.

'Yeah,' He informed you, 'But he's running late today because he had to go back home and grab his violin.'

'His violin?' You raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him, why would he need his violin.

'Yeah, yeah, he had a violin lesson after practise but he won't have time to go home so he needed to bring it here.' Bokuto explained.

You swooned a little but tried to keep your expression neutral because you know Bokuto would question any indication of interest. Of course Akaashi played the violin, he was literally perfect so he had probably mastered all extra-curriculars. His slender but strong hand seemed engineered for playing instruments, you could just imagine his fingers dancing beautifully over the strings as he leaned into the bow. You shook your head a tiny bit to get rid of such thoughts, Akaashi was literally art, it wasn't a good idea to get yourself so invested in his intricacies, it would undoubtedly lead to your own heartbreak. 

'But why do you wanna know? Do you have a crush on himmmm?' Bokuto teased you, poking at your cheek where there was warmth rising.

As if on cue, saving you from stuttering out a totally unbelievable answer to Bokuto's question, Akaashi hurried through the door of the changing room, leaving it swinging in his wake. There was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead and a few straggling pieces of hair had stuck to it and when he turned to dump his stuff on the bench on the other side of Bokuto, you could see the same had happened on the nape of his neck. 

'Am I late?' He asked Bokuto, breathing deeply like he had just ran here but it was hard to tell because he wasn't struggling desperately to get oxygen in his lungs like you were when you huffed onto your bus this morning.

'Nope,' Bokuto responded, patting his friend on the back with a smile, 'Just on time.'

a/n yes very long chapter and wrote a bit different but let me know if you like :)