words | akaashi keiji

coats.

"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Mei wasn't really one for conflicts and confrontations, and she usually found herself trying her hardest to just laugh off whatever she was faced with.

That's why– as she stood shivering outside of her own apartment, her phone clutched between shaking fingers as she watched the warmth of her breath fog up in the cold weather– she was laughing.

Mostly laughing at herself, for having forgotten her apartment key somewhere she never would have thought she'd forget it: Akaashi's office.

But mainly laughing to convince herself that it was no big deal. No big deal that the Kodansha Publishing building had closed for the night and so her key would be trapped there until morning. No big deal that the one she had assumed would be home ages ago was apparently not home. No big deal that he wouldn't answer. No big deal that she had worn a light jacket at the end of December because she believed she'd go from one heated building to the next.

When her phone brought her back to Hyodo's voicemail inbox, she finally let out a shakey breath, lifting her head to the sky to watch as more snowflakes chose to rain down on her as if to say, "ha, you're trapped outside!"

She wasn't expecting Hyodo to return any of her calls, and why would she when he hadn't for most game nights. It was a volleyball night, and Mei had grown accustomed to sleeping beside Fyodor on occasions like this one.

She was at least hoping that by the eighteenth missed call, Hyodo might have worried enough to answer. At least to tell her what bar he had gone to so she could stop by to pick up his key.

Eventually she gave up, clicking her tongue against her teeth loudly as she began walking toward a nearby shop to stop in and warm up. She scrolled through her contacts with a cold, shakey finger as her feet took small steps forward.

Most of her contacts were no longer anywhere nearby, being either fellow graduates from Hokkaido or people she could not depend on to help her out on a snowy night.

Add Hyodo to that list, apparently.

She settled on calling Sho, hoping that he would agree to helping her sneak into the heavily secure Kodansha building just for the thrill of it. His phone failed to ring even once, immediately going to voicemail and making her frown as she realized he must have enabled do not disturb.

She narrowed her eyes at the last contact she could try, staring at it until the shop owner yelled at her for standing around instead of buying anything.

"Sorry, sorry!" She yelped, giving the grumpy man a bow before bracing herself to be hit with the chilling feeling of snow against her skin.

After taking a moment longer to swallow her pride, she pressed her thumb down on the green call button beside Akaashi's name, feeling herself shiver from a mix of nervousness and the cold.

"Mei?" He answered almost immediately, and Mei felt herself sigh in relief.

"Hi, Akaashi. What's up?"

"Why are you calling?"

Mei rolled her eyes at his absolute avoidance of small talk, sucking a deep breath into her mouth before huffing it out quickly.

"Um, I'm locked out of my place and have nowhere to go for the time being. I don't really wanna go to a bar..."

Don't really want to run into Hyodo.

"I was just getting ready to call Bokuto to join his team at the bar," Akaashi spoke away from the phone. His voice returned in full swing as he said, "but I can go get you."