blue lights || bokuaka

ink and petals

Akaashi liked flowers a lot.

Thinking back on his memories, he often dreamed of flowers, their images grainy and fuzzy, but the feeling was there all the same.

Their colors would seep onto his hands and his hair, and for the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to feel beautiful, their petals smiling back at him in the mirror.

He was tempted to study botany in university, to figure out what made them so sympathetic to someone like him, but ended up majoring in literature.

Which he didn't mind. Writing about flowers was also a cool thing.

He was able to get a job at the local florist shop, so he didn't think he was missing out on anything.

Akaashi found that he was good at arranging, had an eye for attractive things, so his boss was really nice to him and let him do whatever he wanted for the bouquets. The senior managers often did the more important ones, for events like weddings and birthdays, but Akaashi was always in the back making displays and bouquets for customers on demand.

Which he also didn't mind.

He never really liked his hands, finding his fingers too long, his palms too slender. He didn't really like the way the veins looked beneath his skin, either, a branding that he couldn't get rid of and had to accept.

But here, when his hands made beautiful creations to be set behind glass windows or perched up on shelves, when these flowers were a reminder that his hands were the very things that made them sing with all their pigments, he couldn't help but feel good.

He liked his hands here, and everything else about himself when he was surrounded by these flowers.

The shop was pleasant and tucked in between a tattoo shop and a bookstore, and he would often find himself spending breaks in the cafe on the first floor, studying or reading a book about color theory or dragons that he'd bought, until Kuroo interrupted him to talk instead of shelving books like he should've been doing.

Akaashi really loved his job. The small benefits were just a bonus.

So to be here now, arranging a soft palette for the person waiting by the desk, was definitely how he wanted to spend his Thursday afternoon.

The dark maplewood furniture complemented a sheen coating of even darker paint on the walls, dim lights featuring different sections of flowers and plants from where they sat above them, makeshift sunlight for them to bask beneath. Green leaves hung over soft white chrysanthemums near the window, pansies stretching violet arms towards the ceiling, and the roses hummed to the carnations in the middle of the shop.

The air in here was cozy and felt like home, Akaashi's heart seeking refuge in the sunflowers and pearl lilies.

"Akaashi."

Akaashi blinks into the flower between his forefinger, an ivory petunia with a delicate green bleeding into the center, before facing the voice in front of him.

His co-worker was standing there, red apron over a yellow sweater that made her look that much more approachable, looking over Akaashi's bouquet. Her tawny hair lies against her forehead in bangs, navy eyes warm and curious.

She was one of the senior managers, but she always treated Akaashi like they were friends.

In which they weren't not friends, but Akaashi unconsciously shied away from authority and she wasn't an exception. She made it easy to follow the rules here, despite them being very lax for a business.

"Yes, Suzumeda?"

"Don't mean to disturb, but..." Suzumeda's eyes meet his and Akaashi feels himself immediately soften, gently twirling the stem of the petunia he was holding in between his fingers as he waits for her to speak up, the other half of his mind figuring out where to place it. "You were supposed to go on break ten minutes ago. Konoha says to not overwork yourself. Too much paperwork to fill out."