F̶o̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ Fuck the Rulebook - Kenma Kozume

Falling for who? - Chap 35

It’s been days since Akasuki’s and Kenma’s last hang out. Long days. Days filled with the ‘are we there yet?’, when really, Akasuki had just started the day. Due to her unlucky persona, she had been struck by another one of those days, yet again. Tying Reiji’s shoelaces, she let out a helpless yawn gazing out hazily over the field. Babysitting was becoming tiresome, Akasuki hunched into herself, she needs to do something.
“Reiji,” Akasuki spoke, glancing sideways at where he stood watching Tatsuo stomping in the mud, that’s, frustrating, “wanna play a game?”
He pulled a snotty face as he shook his head turning his attention back to Tatsuo, a fresh grin refreshing on his face. Wow. She, seriously got rejected by her brother. No, way. She sluggishly lifted herself from the bench, joining the pair, gazing painfully at Tatsuo’s muddy features,
“having fun?”
Tatsuo’s face shot up, red cheeks, wide eyes, yet pearly whites shining as he squealed,
“yeah!”
Right... What did she expect? Reiji leaned down, scooping some in his hands,
“maybe if you weren’t so boring, you’d find it fun.”
What? Did, she hear him correctly? The shocked expression on her face satisfied the boy’s humour, encouraging their snarky comments,
“so boring,”
Ouch,
“yeah, I bet Kuroo must find you so boring!”
Ouch. Akasuki knew the boys were joking but there was a hint of truth in their words which made her grit her teeth in annoyance. Fun? They're looking fun? Akasuki scooped the wet mud from Reiji’s hands, squelching it in her hands with a forced smile,
“you ever heard of mud balls?”
Tatsuo shook his head rapidly while Reiji’s eyes narrowed as he stepped back. What’s a little bit of mud going to do? A smirk lifted on her face as she held her hands down to Tatsu,
“grab some mud, and,” she listed instructions for Tatsuo to follow, Reiji sprinting a moderately distance from them.
He knew what was coming. Akasuki suddenly belted out pointing towards Reiji,
“charge!”
The pair started to sprint towards Reiji, Tatsuo steps ahead of Akasuki squealing like a piglet at a farm. Children are simple things really. Yet, a smile grew on her face as she ran behind Tatsuo, this was kinda fun. She watched as Tatsuo sprinted around the corner, his squeal fading as he ran. Hang on, she squinted confused at the sudden silence, sprinting around the corner. Upon the turn, falling leaves dropped by her eyes, a familiar figure standing before her with a venomous smirk. It’s him. The leaves left her view, it was him, Akasuki attempted to stop her feet, instead forcing herself to skid along the mud in disbelief. It, can’t be him, can it? Akasuki had forgotten to control her body to stop herself from falling, so she hazily travelled backwards her gaze drifting into the stormy sky, her breath forming grey clouds as they left her lips, it’s too soon. She hit the ground, knocking the wind out of her, faintly closing her eyes. I, just need to rest, Akasuki insisted, maybe I’m hallucinating.
“Sis!”
Give, a second, Akasuki took a cold breath, a second. In the darkness of her sight, the dreaded face belonging to him grew sending shock through her system, his voice swimming through her mind,
“you miss me, don’t you?”
Miss? There was no way in hell she could miss someone like him. Right? There’s no way, he’s, no, get out of my head! Akasuki winced forcing her eyes open, shooting up as she clutched the back of her head.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Huh? Before her stood Tatsuo, Reiji and another distant face. The boy smiled at her rubbing his shoulder,
“I’m so sorry, are you okay?”
“Uh, yeah,” Akasuki quietly muttered, discreetly glancing around the park, no sight of him.
She let out a sigh of relief, pressure leaving her chest, he’s not here. The boy held out his hand crouching down to her,
“you looked like you hit your head pretty hard, let me help you up.”
Hit her head? She hadn't realised the throbbing pain in her head, shit. She took his hand, pulling herself up, did anyone else see her fall? Tatsuo tugged her coat, tears bubbling in his eyes,
“sis?”
“Suo, what’s wrong?” Akasuki asked taking his small hands in hers, what happened?
“He thinks it’s his fault,” Reiji spoke frowning, averting his eyes away from Akasuki.
Right, well,
“accidents happen,” she squeezed his hands reassuringly, “you know what helps with accidents?” Tatsuo watched her gulping weakly, tears subsiding slightly waiting for her response, “pizza.”
Pizza always helps. Tatsuo dropped his sadness, grinning widely,
“pizza!” grabbing Reiji’s hands instead bouncing around with him.
She rubbed her head watching the boys bounce, pizza really does not help physical pain. But it helped them get over it.
“Um, are you sure you’re okay?”
Oh, the guy. Akasuki turned to him smiling, his cheeks pink from the cold air,
“yeah, thanks for helping me.”
His own smile grew, his eyes half closing as he did,
“it’s no problem, re,”
“Daichi!” a thundering shout travelled through the park.
Daichi? Her eyes widened as she stepped back to investigate the black jacket he was wearing, white letters plastered over the back, Karasuno.
“Sawamura?” Akasuki asked loosely watching as he turned to her, tilting his head,
“yeah, uh how, do you know me?”
Holy shit. He’s from their rivals' team. He’s, if she remembered correctly, was the captain,
“I’m Akas,”
“Daichi!” the yell came again, this time accompanied by various figures racing towards them.
“I am so sorry,” Daichi groaned shielding his eyes.
Ha, she chuckled, these must be the boys from their team as well. Two figures were sprinting, reaching Daichi’s side almost instantly, while two were still wandering towards them at a slow pace. Both boys by Daichi were short, one with bleached strands of hair at the front, while the other was more familiar to Akasuki,
“Shoyo?”
Shoyo’s attention was drawn to Akasuki, his eyes growing wide,
“Suki!”
Before she could react appropriately, Shoyo threw himself at her excitedly bouncing around her, he’s like a literal kid. Yet, he caused a stupid smile on her face. Daichi’s expression was further confused as he tried to pulled Shoyo from Akasuki, glancing at her,
“Suki?”
She nodded, has he clicked on? The two distant figures had now reached them.
“Tadashi!” Akasuki beamed, Tatsuo and Reiji splitting from their isolation to throw themselves at Tadashi's legs.
Adorable as ever. Daichi’s eyes opened,
“Suki as in, Nekoma’s manager?”
“As in Yamaguchi’s ex?” The other short boy blurted.
Both were right. Akasuki chuckled with a nod watching Yamaguchi ruffle the boy's hair, who glanced up at the her with his usual soft smile,
“that was quite the fall you had, are you okay?”
Oh, yeah. Akasuki nodded rubbing her head,
“yeah of course.”
“Deserved it,” Tsukishima coughed glaring sideward at Akasuki, who met his eyes with an equally cold glare, what was his problem?
“Cool off alright?” Akasuki muttered, his glare tightening, not worth it Akasuki, not worth it.
Akasuki immediately dropped hers to meet Tadashi’s with a soft smile,
“honestly.”
Tadashi shook his head, a distant smile on his lips as he spoke to the boys,
“it’s been a while, huh?”
Too long. The boys nodded excessively.
“I’m so confused,” Shoyo grumbled escaping Daichi’s grip, falling back into Akasuki, what?
“You’re an idiot,” Tsukishima grunted.
Whoa. Maybe it wasn't just her he disliked. Shoyo pouted suddenly clinging to Akasuki as he rashly jabbed a finger in Tsukishima's direction,
“tell him I’m not an idiot Suki!”
No way, she knew Shoyo wasn’t an idiot but she wasn’t going to voluntarily get involved with Tsukishima. Daichi cleared his throat,
“does anyone want to go for pizza?”
The majority of them nodded, Akasuki thankful to Daichi for stopping Shoyo’s short rampage. The group made their way towards the pizza place, Akasuki simply following their directions. This was awkward. She was walking beside Tsukishima and Tadashi, while Reiji and Tatsuo were shortly ahead of them behind the others. Should she say something say?
“Uh,” she leaned forward looking past Tsukishima at Tadashi who turned in her direction, “congratulations, for you know,” she gestured her hands briefly in front of Tsukishima, “yeah,”
“Looks like the shrimp has competition in idiocy,” he growled purposely stepping forward to block her path from Tadashi.
Wow. This guy is salty. What is his problem? Tadashi leaned behind Tsukishima grinning at Akasuki,
“thank you, Suki,” he briefly glanced away before taking a hold of Tsukishima's arm slipping himself beside Akasuki, lowering his voice, “any updates on, you know?”
Ah! Akasuki’s face lit up as she nodded rapidly,
“basically,”
“You’re together?” Tadashi blurted grabbing Akasuki’s hands, what was she meant to say, yet she didn’t have to speak, the blush of her cheeks had answered his suspicions, “Suki!”
“Tadashi,” she repeated with a soft smirk.
Abruptly a hand grabbed Akasuki’s shoulder pulling back, what the hell?
“Tsukki?” Tadashi grumbled, Akasuki backed that grumble with a glare.
Yet Tsukishima didn’t respond with a glare instead he spoke slowly,
“we’re now here.”
They glanced up to see Daichi gesturing them inside. Oh. Akasuki nodded at Tsukishima before stepping away,
“thanks.”
He didn’t reply, removing his hand to take Tadashi’s,
“let’s talk.”
This is awkward, she should leave them. Akasuki quietly wished Tadashi luck as she slipped away to meet. She skipped into the restaurant, thanking Daichi as she joined the boys at a table. A few moments later Tadashi and Tsukishima entered the shop, Tadashi’s face pink and flustered while Tsukishima’s was calm and confident. Right, as if that wasn’t completely obvious. Tadashi sat opposite Akasuki, while to everyone’s surprise Tsukishima sat beside Akasuki. What is happening?
“What did you order?” Tadashi beamed at them; his smile almost bright enough to blind them.
“Pizza,” Shoyo responded simply.
Really? Akasuki stifled an amused laugh catching Tsukishima's eye roll, a part of her understood now,
“the boys and I ordered cheese,” Akasuki remarked with a smile.
Tadashi nodded eagerly,
“nice!”
Oh my, Akasuki glanced at Tsukishima who was watching Tadashi with admiration in his eyes, it’s easy to get lost in Tadashi’s grasp, now she could see, she didn’t belong in Tadashi’s grasp, Tsukishima did.
“Do I have something on my face?” Tsukishima muttered, half looking at Akasuki.
Hm, yes, she smirked lowering her voice,
“It’s just, I didn’t think you were capable of smiling.”
Tsukishima’s sharp eyes glared upon her, Akasuki contained her own glare instead showing him an ounce of joy through a smile, they're both happy, that’s what matters. Akasuki’s phone started to suddenly ring in her pocket, oh. She fished it out answering,
“he,”
“Suki!” Kenma’s voice blurted, ah? “are you okay?”
Right okay, she glanced to Tadashi who was causally watching her,
“yeah, I just fell, and hit my head,”
“Your head?”
Is he, worried about her?
“Yes, my head.”
But there’s no way he would worry this much about her. Right?
“But you’re okay?”
“I, I'm okay,” Akasuki insisted softly, no, he’s not worried, she knows that.
“Where are you?” Kenma asked, his voice distant from the phone.
“Uh, getting food with,” wait, her eyes widened as she glanced at the boys around her, he’s going to be mad if he finds out she's with other guys, “I,”
Tadashi suddenly leaned forward taking the phone from Akasuki’s frozen fingers, hey wait!
“Hey!” Tadashi spoke into the phone, no, no, she wanted to reach for the phone but she couldn’t, her body wouldn’t move, “I’ll text you the address,” Tadashi held out her phone loosely in his hands with a wide smile, how can he be so calm?
“He’s on his way,” Tadashi spoke joyfully.
Shit. Shit.
“Who's on the way?” Daichi asked glancing over to their side of the table, eyes loosely flickering back to Shoyo and the other boy messing around together.
“Just a friend of ours,” Tadashi beamed sliding her phone over the table.
He’s going to be angry. There’s no way she’s getting out of this. Time seemed to slow as Akasuki feared the worst, staring at the pizza before her, small hands occasionally taking slices. Holy shit. Fingers digging into her knees, Akasuki’s hunger had been surpassed, hunger wasn’t a problem right now.
“Hi,” a small voice spoke from the end of the table by Tsukishima.
Oh no.
“Kenma,” Tadashi beamed, “come! Join us!”
Akasuki tensed up, eyes weakly lifting to meet Kenma’s, please, don’t overreact. His eyes were focused solely on Tsukishima, who was equally sharing the focus.
“Kenma!” Tatsuo exclaimed, “come sit with me!”
Oh no. Kenma lifted his eyes to Tatsuo, a smile growing on his face,
“okay,” he made his way to Tatsuo, who had slid out of the table with Reiji, to allow Kenma the space to slide in beside Akasuki.
This was Akasuki’s worst nightmare. She didn’t want to lose Kenma, not to something like this again.
“Kenma?” Daichi spoke, the surprise obvious in his voice, “I, didn’t, think you were one for social gatherings?”
Kenma please. Kenma weakly shrugged,
“I’m not,” his eyes meet Akasuki’s, please don’t be angry, “I thought she was alone, when she, hurt herself, but,” he smiled towards the table, “I’m glad she wasn’t.”
What? Kenma slid his fingers over hers squeezing softly. Is he this mad at her that he’s pretending everything's okay?
“Well,” Daichi chuckled, “it’d be rude of us to abandon her.”
“Exactly! And I hadn’t seen her in so long!” Shoyo blurted rapidly.
Everyone faded into their own conversations as Akasuki turned to Kenma, whispering under her breath,
“aren’t you angry?”
Kenma squinted at her,
“no way, why, why would you think that?”
“I,” she glanced to the others then back to him, eyes lowering to her lap, “I thought you’d be angry if I was with other people.”
Kenma lifted her face discreetly, shaking his head as he stared into her sunken eyes,
“you’re an idiot,” huh, he smiled a bright smile, unnoticed by everyone but Akasuki who was memorised like a child watching a show, “you don’t have to worry about such, small things,” small things?
“Kenma,” Akasuki could feel the tears welling in her eyes.
She wasn’t if he knew how different this was for. The constant fear of being around others, friends, random people. It never left her. But, with Kenma, this fear had no reasoning, no place of belonging within her. Kenma wasn’t like him, Kenma was different. This was different.
“Come on,” Kenma whispered, bringing a slice of pizza up to her lips, “you gotta eat something.”
She nodded slowly taking a bite while watching the satisfaction on his face as she did. It’s different, different because, because, why?