blue lights || bokuaka

for you

It's the next day.

Bokuto had come in during his break to buy a flower from Akaashi, as promised. The other was feeling slightly guilty from having Bokuto spend money on him like this, and despite trying to tell him to forget it, Bokuto insisted on buying a flower today.

Of course, he asked Akaashi the meaning of each one he set his eye on around the shop, further solidifying the fact that Akaashi literally had no idea about these flowers, only that they were pretty and forgiving and he clung onto them all the same as he did when he was little.

But other than that, he was stumped. He only knew that daisies meant things like love and new beginnings.

Not that he looked it up recently.

"I dunno, Bokuto." Akaashi shakes his head as Bokuto points to an orange tulip, petals like melted candle wax beneath the July swelter. "I don't think tulips mean anything."

Bokuto juts out his top lip in thought, thinking into the stems of the flowers while Akaashi studies the tattoos on his arm.

He especially liked the Gudetama one near his wrist, along with the detailed peonies inside of his forearm, black ink contrasting so perfectly against his pale skin.

He would never tell him that, though.

"What about this one?" He asks, and Akaashi sighs through his nose.

"You have flower tattoos." His eyebrows come together before he turns away from Bokuto to get back to the stool. "Shouldn't you know what they mean?"

Bokuto simpers and looks at Akaashi, a devilish look in his golden eyes.

"You're a flower person. Shouldn't you know what they mean?"

Akaashi gives him a flat look, both at the simple title and the fact that he was right, and Bokuto's smile grows from the annoyance he knew he was pulling from Akaashi.

They were strangers, but Akaashi's front was very easy to see through, despite the other trying his best to keep it up. He didn't want anything to do with Bokuto or street racing, but he truly was like a parasite.

It didn't help that they worked right beside each other, or that Kuroo got him to exchange numbers. Kuroo and Bokuto texted like it was nothing, instantly clicking as if they truly had been separated friends.

And despite the slight jealousy of Kuroo talking nonstop about his new friend whenever they were together, Akaashi tried to ignore it.

Bokuto, on the other hand, found his favorite pastime to be pushing Akaashi.

It was fun to mess with him, not to mention Akaashi was one of the prettiest people he's ever seen, so any time spent with him was good.

"I wanna buy this tulip instead." He points to a blue one that flushed out into a violet near the ends of the petals.

"Come, then. It's one-ten."

"One hundred and ten yen? For a single flower?" Bokuto asks, incredulous. "That's highway robbery."

"I just work here, Bokuto." Akaashi sighs again, typing numbers into the register and holding out his other hand.

Bokuto hums in disdain, before giving Akaashi the flower so he could wrap it up.

"Do you want a ribbon?" Akaashi asks, turning around to get a folded piece of plastic for single flowers from the rack.

"Ah-no. I don't want it wrapped." Bokuto says, and Akaashi turns to look at him, tilting his head.

"What?"

"Keep it."

Akaashi's heart reaches out for Bokuto, just a small gesture like this enough to send him into the stratosphere. He looks at the tulip, then back at Bokuto, shaking his head once while his hands tremble at the confrontation and the words Bokuto was not saying.

"N-no. It's yours. You bought it."

"For you!" Bokuto smiles and Akaashi feels like he's going to pass out as dimples poke their fingers in his cheeks. "I picked the blue specifically because it matches your eyes. You should put it in your hair or something!"

Akaashi shakes his head, this tulip tainted with the stain of a borderline criminal. Akaashi did not want any part of this.

"No."

"Please, Daisy?" Bokuto tilts his head and rocks on his heels, his hands in his pockets. "Hold onto it. I'll be back tomorrow to buy another."

Akaashi sighs, and before his brain flips through its many file folders of what to say to Bokuto in retaliation, he's already out of the door.

Akaashi cannot explain many things about what he does, and why. He just did them, actions without explanation.

Some things just didn't warrant a reason.

He feels like he owed himself an explanation for letting the tulip sit at the top of his right ear, tucked beneath the frame of his glasses, forgetting about it until it fell out onto the floor when he got home that night.

He feels like he owed himself an explanation for developing a soft spot for Bokuto in such little time, letting him dig his way through the brambles and stones Akaashi had put up to keep him out.

He feels like he owed himself an explanation for actually looking forward to the race on Friday, to see Bokuto spark in electric currents, lit with that same neon blue beneath his car.

Some things just did not warrant a reason.