Pretty (Akaashi x Reader)

chapter eleven

emo

'You get the violin, A-dog?' Bokuto inquired, as you began shoving your feet into your skates.

'What else would be in here?' Akaashi responded, motioning to the violin-shaped case that he'd placed on the bench.

You giggled quietly at the black-haired boy's remark while you began to pull hard on your laces to make sure they were tight enough, not noticing that Akaashi glanced over at you with, a small smile of his own slipping onto his face. Bokuto, however, did notice. His eyes darted from his doting friend, to oblivious you who was now sticking your foot as far away as you could get it while tugging on your laces. His gaze went back and forth between the two of you a few times before Akaashi looked back over to him. Bokuto locked eyes with his friend, wiggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively while nodding his head towards where you were sat on the bench, blissfully unaware of the interaction that was happening beside you. Akaashi only rolled his eyes in response, shaking his head at Bokuto, who frowned dramatically before turning away from Akaashi.

You had finally managed to get your skates on and lace them up securely, you stood up pridefully and placed your hands on either side of your waist with a triumphant smile before turning to the boys. You were about to speak when you noticed the shift in Bokuto's mood, he was very obviously upset about something but you had no idea what had happened and you were honestly a bit scared to ask. You had never seen Bokuto anything but extremely happy and energetic before. You connected your gaze with Akaashi's, raising an eyebrow and inclining your head to where Bokuto was moping with his head down. In response, Akaashi shook his head and mouthed something. It seemed like he said, 'I'll explain later.' so you just nodded with a smile.

'Bokuto, onto the ice now!' You heard the coach call into the room from behind you.

Swivelling around, you saw Coach Ukai leaned up against the door frame in an orange hoodie and a pair of black joggers. His blonde hair was scraped back out of his face with a black zig-zag headband. He didn't seem to care that Bokuto had spiralled into a despondent slump, although he likely just figured that skating would help get him out of it. You liked Ukai, he was your favourite coach thus far; never pushing you too far past your limit but every session with him made you realise you could do a lot more than you thought you were able to. It would be interesting though, to see how your training would go now that there was two other people with you.

Bokuto stood up silently and stomped out of the room. Well, he tried to stomp but the punch was taken out of his steps by him teetering on his skates thanks to the small amount of surface area that came into contact with the ground. You slapped a hand to your mouth, stifling a laugh. Your eyes instinctively darted over to Akaashi to see that he was doing the same. The smile on his face was so wide it made his eyes narrow and you couldn't help but stare. Ukai called your name, pulling your attention away from your infatuation.

'You need to go and stretch, make sure you focus on your left hamstring,' You nodded, getting up straight away to go do your stretches in the empty space by the side of the rink.

Your mind drifted as you stretched but your thoughts mainly lingered on your hamstring. You had injured it not too long ago, right before a big competition meaning you couldn't perform. You were forced to sit out of practise for weeks to rest. After the resting period, you had to do some physiotherapy while taking it a lot easier than you wanted to on the ice. It had set you back a lot in terms of progress. Everyone else was getting better so quickly and you were stuck stagnant in a place you felt was miles behind to begin with. It almost made you quit skating. But with a lot of words of encouragement from your friends and some very tough love from Ukai, you decided to stick with it and you were so glad that you did because you would've missed some amazing experiences and never met some amazing people if you had given up that easily.

By the time you'd finished stretching, Ukai had left the changing room and was now leaning up against the rink, shouting instructions and advice to the still-brooding Bokuto. You noticed immediately that Akaashi hadn't emerged from the training room yet though you weren't quite sure why that was the first thought that surfaced in your mind. You sighed lightly, placing your elbows on the side of the rink and dropping your face into your hands, watching Bokuto glide around the ice. He still managed to skate well even when he was in such a mood, surprisingly, but it wasn't as good as his usual technique.

'Hey.'

You jumped slightly at the sudden voice beside you, your elbows almost sleeping off the narrow barrier. Turning your head to the left to see who had startled you, familiar green eyes met your own; the corners of your mouth upturned slightly.

'Hey, Akaashi,' You greeted the raven-haired boy, forcing your attention back to the rink so your gaze didn't linger on him for too long, 'So what's up with Bokuto?'

'Nothing really,' His voice was quiet and steady but not monotone, 'Little things set him off and he switches to emo mode. He'll snap out of it soon, it's best to ignore it.'

Your melodic laugh drew a sideways glance from Akaashi but it was over in a second, you didn't have a chance to catch it.

'He certainly is a character,' You concluded through your laugh, 'What set him off this time?'

Curiosity got the better of you, you weren't planning to pry but you were intrigued. One second he was all happy-go-lucky, then the next you looked up from your shoes and he was sulking.

Akaashi panicked internally again, you seemed to often have that effect on him.  Mentally, he flicked through a catalogue of excuses, none of which were at all believable. But what other choice did he have? He didn't possess the boldness to tell you that it was because he had silently scolded Bokuto for hinting towards his feelings for you.

Due to the long pause, you worried you had crossed a line. You glanced up at him expectantly through his lashes, hoping to prompt a response or at least get a read of his emotions from his face. The latter was impossible, his expression was completely blank except from a slight widening of his eyes.  And he hadn't opened his mouth to speak yet.

When you peered up at him like that, his heart took to performing a routine of its own: it beat faster before completing a few somersaults. There was a struggle to keep his face neutral but he felt his eyes widen of their own accord and he wondered if you could tell. Probably not, he thought, you probably weren't studying his face as closely as he was studying yours. But he just couldn't help himself, you were beautiful. He tried taking a breath, belatedly realising that you were looking up at him like that because you were patiently awaiting an answer to your question. He blurted out the only excuse he could think of.

'Uh- I don't know,' Okay so that wasn't really an excuse at all, more of an avoidance.

But it seemed to work, you severed the eye contact with him to turn your attention back to Bokuto with a small shrug.

'Oh, hmmm,' You thought it was odd that Akaashi didn't know what was wrong but you elected not to question it,  'I hope he's okay, I'll ask him what was up later.'

Your words were accompanied by a frown and furrowed eyebrows as you followed the skating boy with your eyes, mind already spiralling into worst case scenarios about what was wrong with Bokuto. You hoped you were overthinking.

When Akaashi saw your reaction, he felt an unknown and unfamiliar pang of jealousy lance through his heart. He never had been one to be envious of others but your concern over his best friend had brought the strange emotion bubbling up. His brow furrowed, he didn't really know why he was feeling this way. If anything, he should be thankful that you worried for Bokuto because perhaps it would lighten his load and stop his hair from greying early as he was sure fretting after that chaotic boy would surely do.

a/n hey guys, just wondering, do you guys want more of this length of chapter or longer or shorter? i'm tempted to make them longer but i'm not sure