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On the second and final day of Fukurodani Academy's cultural festival, the school's volleyball club was busy with their two booths. One, a fortune-telling booth run by Konoha, who had turned out to be a surprisingly efficient cold reader. The other, a kissing booth. The volleyball club had apparently run kissing booths in the past and the tradition was kept going mostly because of how successful it was. It was a stable method for earning much-needed funds for the club's many training camps.
Much to his dismay, it was determined that Keiji be the one and only club member to work their kissing booth that year. It was a unanimous decision—well, unanimous except for Keiji himself.
"Obviously it has to be Akaashi! Look at this pretty face," Sarukui joked, slinging an arm around Keiji's shoulders and gesturing at Keiji's growing look of consternation. The team was gathered in a classroom near the school's main entrance on the first floor, the room they drew via lottery to hold their attraction. The room was a prime location for festival attendees to notice. While Sarukui spoke to no one in particular, Bokuto wandered over. The rest of the team was shuffling about, rearranging the classroom in preparation of setting up their booths.
"Come on! It'll be fun!" Bokuto encouraged, eyeing Keiji's frown. "Plus you're, like, the best setter ever, so that means you can be the best kisser ever too!" he practically shouted.
"Bokuto-san, that doesn't make any sense," Keiji replied, outwardly maintaining his grimace though inwardly laughing at his ace's absurd logic.
Nevertheless, since Keiji didn't have any particular reason to decline, he ended up accepting the role without much of a fight. He saw nothing wrong about kissing students throughout the two-day festival; they were just kisses— no special meaning attached. And Keiji wasn't against kissing people. He'd only been in one relationship in the past, with a nice quiet girl named Yuuki in his third year of middle school. Although that relationship was short-lived, Keiji knew well enough from it that he enjoyed the gentle and warm act of kissing. Besides, only one person actually made Keiji nervous at the thought of kissing these days, and Keiji wasn't all that concerned that Bokuto would want to kiss him.
Since only Konoha and Keiji were needed to run their attraction, most of the rest of the team hadn't been spending much time in their classroom during the festival. They instead opted to check out other clubs' and classes' various activities and food stalls. Though at any given time, one or two team members would stay behind in the classroom to help manage the ever-growing line at Keiji's booth (as well as Konoha's consistent trickle of curious customers). Bokuto had somehow managed to weasel himself out of doing much at all to help with their booths, declaring that he needed to spend all his free time at the festival searching for the "world's best barbecued beef, Akaashi! It's gotta be here somewhere, and I'm gonna find it!"
So as day two arrived, Keiji was understandably exhausted. An alarmingly large number of both male and female students alike had been coming to their room to see him. Each kiss was more or less the same: some student would sit down across from Keiji at his table, body facing him but face turned away, embarrassed. Keiji would greet them and they'd reply anxiously. They'd put money into the donation jar and specify either a peck on the cheek or the lips, and he would indulge them. Then they'd leave in a flustered manner, and Keiji would move on to the next customer. And as the festival continued, his stream of patrons only grew exponentially larger. Keiji would even swear he started recognizing some people from having already kissed them the day prior. Although he was vaguely aware that he was considered the beauty of the Fukurodani volleyball team, Keiji never expected so many students to show up at his booth just because they heard his name was attached to it. However, the rest of the volleyball club seemed completely unsurprised at this outcome. Keiji made a mental note to thank Komi for the chapstick he had lent him.
Keiji eventually regretted ever going along with this idea in the first place. Romance had been ruined for him. At this point, late in the afternoon of his second day of non-stop smooching, the thought of kissing no longer stirred any sort of feelings within himself other than boredom and fatigue.
As the sun began crawling behind one of the academy's buildings, the team's members started coming back to their classroom, ready to wrap up.
One last girl approached the room with a couple friends as the team started tearing down their set-up. Keiji recognized her from his class; she was clearly here for the kissing booth, judging from the way she appeared to be fighting a blush.
"We're almost done for the day," Keiji said, "so if you want a kiss please come in quickly." He tried to speak as politely as possible, but after dealing with student after nervous student, he was done trying to ease everyone into the kisses. His throat felt dry and his neck worn-out from adjusting to all his customers' slightly varying heights.
"Ah! Sorry. I'll just. Um," the girl came up to the booth and quickly sat down at the table, facing Keiji. She dropped a ¥500 coin into the nearly full donation jar. "That's enough for a kiss on the lips, right?" she questioned hesitantly.
The girl had long, flowing black hair pulled into a braid on one side of her head, and her blue eyes sparkled in spite of her obvious nerves. Her name was Matsuda, Keiji suddenly remembered. Matsuda Aiko. She fiddled with her thumbs in her lap. Keiji really ought to have found her charming, but at this point he'd kissed so many other nervous teenagers that the thought of another person shyly reacting to his touch and kissing with anxious tension in their jaw just made him impatient.
"Yes, it is. One kiss then."
Keiji leaned across the table, trying to forget his teammates around him. Matsuda closed her eyes as she reciprocated in leaning, and Keiji closed the distance between them, meeting her halfway. Her lips were very soft and tasted of...cinnamon? Peppermint? Keiji's senses of taste and smell had been overstimulated to the point of debilitation.
Most of his kisses had taken place while the other members of the volleyball club were sparsely around, but now with everyone back and cleaning up, Keiji was a little more self-conscious of his kissing. As he pulled away from Matsuda, opening his eyes, he noticed Bokuto staring from across the room.
Though he'd kissed hundreds of students by now and none had made his heart beat any faster, all it took was one look from Bokuto for it to immediately speed up. Keiji tried to stop any blood from rushing to his face, but he couldn't help a slight blush rising high on his cheeks.
Matsuda finally opened her eyes as well, face totally flushed a bright red. She reached up and touched her lips.
"Ah, well, that was..." she trailed off absently. She looked like she was about to pass out.
Keiji sighed. "Your patronage is appreciated," he said, trying to smile. He's not sure if he was even able to smile normally, but she gave a slight reassuring smile of her own in return as she stood to leave. She still looked flustered, but as she walked away and rejoined her friends where they waited outside the classroom she seemed to be able to gather herself.
Bokuto was still staring.
Keiji blatantly returned Bokuto's stare, and Bokuto seemed surprised at himself for having stared and immediately turned away to resume his clean-up duties. Keiji stood up and started putting away his own booth, making it clear that he was done. No more kisses.
No. More.
Or so he thought.
It was Konoha who chirped up amid the silence while everyone was rearranging the classroom's desks back into order. Konoha had been tasked with counting up how much money they'd made between the two booths. Apparently, they were just short of their goal.
"If only one more client came to my miraculous fortune-telling service!" Konoha said with a smirk. "We'd have broken our record from last year's earnings."
"Konoha, please, we all know you're a giant scam," Komi responded. "The only customers you were getting were guys desperate to know when they'd meet their future girlfriends."
"Hey, I'm just trying to give our classmates some hope for their love lives," Konoha shot back, feigning hurt. "Cut me some slack. Anyway," he continued in a sing-songy voice, "if only someone would pitch in another thousand yen, we'd break the record! And the managers wouldn't ride our asses about not working hard enough." He gave Bokuto a pointed look after this last statement.
"What!?" Bokuto said while a hurt puppy-dog look started forming on his face. "Why are you looking at me?"
"Because you spent the entire festival running around like a madman, stopping at every stall that so much as smelled like meat."
"It's true," Washio piped in. "Bokuto, as captain, you should have worked harder to support our team. Everyone took shifts helping here in the classroom except you."
Before the hurt look could fully form (Keiji didn't care to deal with Bokuto's dejected mode at this moment) Keiji spoke up.
"Just put a thousand yen in the jar, Bokuto-san. Then surely we can all forgive you for slacking off for the past two days."
"Akaaashhiiii, I can't just do that! That's not fair." In spite of Bokuto's words, he pulled out his wallet and flipped through it, looking for spare coins and bills. "Besides, that's all the money I have left right now! I was going to buy more food with it. If I give it to our club then I want something in return for my heroic generosity." He puffed his chest out dramatically.
Konoha snickered. "That would hardly be heroic."
"Well since Konoha's a fraud, if you really want something in return, it looks like Akaashi's going to have to kiss you," Komi volunteered.
A few seconds passed in silence as Keiji's brain caught up to what his ears had heard. Because there's no way he heard that correctly, right? Kiss Bokuto? He thought he had no reason to be worried about that possibility, but apparently he was wrong. Keiji's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach and his face paled slightly.
"Don't be ridiculous, Komi-san. Bokuto-san doesn't—"
"I couldn't possibly kiss Akaashi!" Bokuto yelled, perhaps a little too loudly. Bokuto didn't exactly look embarrassed, but his tone clearly indicated an absence of desire to follow through with Komi's suggestion. The realization saddened Keiji more than he'd care to admit. He figured his feelings were unrequited, but to be faced with that reality still hurt.
At this point, the room was almost entirely cleaned up back to its original state, and most of the volleyball club had called it quits for the day and left the classroom to head home or enjoy the rest of the festival for the next hour or so until it officially ended.
Komi—unfazed—grabbed Bokuto's wallet from him and plucked the thousand yen bill from its interior.
Komi couldn't possibly know about his feelings, Keiji thought nervously. No one knew, right? Keiji had worked so hard at hiding them. So why was this happening to him? And why now? His weariness from spending two days straight kissing (and, might he brag, improving at the art quite a bit) was immediately forgotten and replaced with a sort of anxious fear.
Komi dropped the bill, crumpled, into the donation jar, topping it off.
"Well, we'll leave you two to it then," he said in salutatory farewell, hitching his school bag up his shoulder. Together, Komi and Konoha finally left the room, closing the door behind them and leaving Bokuto and Keiji as the only two left.
Another brief silence ensued.
Keiji swallowed, fighting to keep his face neutral. He knew Bokuto was looking at him, but he couldn't bring himself to look back. Before he had a chance to laugh off the outrageous idea, tell Bokuto not to worry about it, or just say anything—Bokuto beat him to it.
"Ah, Akaashi, I'm really okay with just paying the money without getting anything for it. I couldn't possibly kiss you! I wouldn't want to make you do that..." he mumbled, his tone unusually quiet.
Now that got Keiji's attention. Bokuto was worried about making Keiji kiss him—as if that wasn't the thing Keiji wanted to do more than anything else. The way he said what he did made it sound like Bokuto himself wouldn't actually mind kissing Keiji. Or was Keiji's mind simply playing tricks on him? Surely Bokuto opposed such an idea.
Keiji was sure he'd regret it later, but in this moment, he saw a sliver of hope. Before he could stop himself, he looked at Bokuto and spoke.
"You wouldn't be making me do anything I haven't already been doing all day, Bokuto-san."
"But, but! My mouth..." Bokuto started. "I'm sure it smells gross. I've been eating barbecued meats all day. And I bet you're really good at kissing by now!" he gestured wildly at the last bit. "Aiko-chan...when you just kissed her...you, she...she looked really happy. Like she really liked it. So, you probably don't want to kiss someone like me, then," he muttered. Though he had been looking right at Keiji before, his focus turned aside as he spoke the last few words.
Akaashi was grinning internally now. Bokuto was so cute. Worrying about something as silly as meat-breath. That, and...
"Bokuto-san, have you never kissed anyone before?"
Bokuto flushed a deep crimson from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears.
"Bokuto-san..." Keiji attempted to coax a response out of him.
"So what if I haven't!" Bokuto shouted. "Aaaagh, Akaashi, I'm just not good with this kind of thing! And not everyone is as pretty as you are so—"
"You think I'm pretty." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
Bokuto turned sharply to look directly at Keiji again. "Of course I do! Everyone does!" Bokuto didn't even have the decency to look embarrassed at this admittance. It was like he was simply conceding that the sky was blue, or that he was the coolest ace ever. He had no idea what all this was doing to Keiji's heart. "You're like the prettiest guy in our whole school, Akaashi!"
Okay, that threw Keiji's whole plan to keep it cool right out the window.
"T-the whole school?"
"Yeah!" Bokuto—the oblivious idiot that he was—continued. "So anyway as nice as kissing you would probably be, I bet you're really tired and we should probably finish locking up the classroom and—"
Keiji had had enough. He'd been given enough encouragement that he felt his following actions were sufficiently justified. He took a few steps closer to Bokuto, continuing to look him directly in the eyes.
"Do you want to kiss me?"
"W-what?" Bokuto spluttered. Keiji's approach was throwing him off. He backed up, but Keiji followed him, not letting him escape. Keiji continued moving closer to him, until Bokuto was backed against the window, hands gripping at the windowsill behind him. "Akaashi what are you..." he paused, affected. He gulped. "What are you doing...?"
Keiji found it hard to care anymore about how this might affect their friendship. Not when Bokuto was reacting just like how Keiji had always wanted him to for the past two years. Not when Bokuto had called Keiji pretty and admitted that kissing him would be nice. But Keiji wouldn't force anything on him.
"Do you want to kiss me?" Keiji repeated.
He waited patiently, face neutral, consumed with the fear of rejection. He watched as Bokuto took in a breath and slowly exhaled, regaining himself.
Bokuto finally seemed more himself. His grip on the windowsill loosened, and he retracted his hands, allowing them to rest at his sides. Looking right at Keiji with confident eyes, Bokuto smiled the goddamn purest smile Keiji had ever seen.
"Who wouldn't?"
Relief flooded Keiji and he couldn't hold back for a single moment longer. He reached a hand forward, resting his palm on Bokuto's cheek and threading his long fingers through dark roots. He let his other hand rest on Bokuto's shoulder. The kiss started slowly, Keiji pressing their lips together softly. This wasn't going to be like the kisses he'd been giving all day, oh no. Keiji was well prepared to make this kiss much more memorable. It was painfully obvious from the stock-still way he stood that Bokuto had no idea what he should be doing—but if anything, that only made Keiji more attracted. He found it absolutely adorable.
Keiji pulled back just barely, resting his forehead against Bokuto’s and mumbling against him. "Do something with your hands, Bokuto-san." Keiji held the smile threatening to break out across his entire face back. He'd waited so long for this moment; he wasn't going to ruin it by letting his feelings show too obviously.
"Uh, okay. Is—is this okay?" Bokuto had moved his hands from his own sides to grip Keiji's. Keiji nodded and took Bokuto's face back in both hands, resting his thumbs on his temples before placing his mouth over Bokuto's once again. For a while, they stayed just like this, Keiji moving slowly against Bokuto's mouth and both of them feeling each other's warmth. Bokuto's hands rose up Keiji's sides and reached around to rest against his lower back while Keiji ran his fingers through Bokuto's hair. Unexpectedly, Bokuto's gelled hair didn't feel crunchy so much as just smooth. Keiji knew he was making a mess of the styled spikes, but he didn't care in the least. Nor did Bokuto seem to care. When Keiji pushed more intently against Bokuto's lips he was finally met with a response, Bokuto grasping Keiji tighter and starting to kiss back. He moved his lips against Keiji’s hot and sure, and Keiji let out a small groan—his lips burning, electrified. It was becoming too much all at once, but at the same time made Keiji hungry for more.
Keiji opened his eyes and slid his hands around and down to the nape of Bokuto's neck, fingers lacing together. As he pulled Bokuto toward himself to deepen their connection, Keiji watched Bokuto's expression carefully. Although Bokuto seemed hesitant to take things any further, he seemed to be enjoying himself enough. Keiji couldn't tell if all this meant that Bokuto felt the same way he did, but at the very least it emboldened Keiji to keep going. Bokuto’s eyes fluttered open then as well, the gold flecks Keiji loved so much lighting up his irises. As Keiji maintained eye contact, looking at him piercingly, Bokuto gasped and started to pull back. He looked a little...intimidated?
Keiji didn't let him finish pulling back.
Before Bokuto had a chance to remove his hands from Keiji's back, Keiji shocked him into stillness by taking a leap of faith and tugging gently on his lower lip with his teeth. This earned Keiji a low whimper from Bokuto, which shot straight to Keiji's lower regions. He implored his body to calm down. Bokuto actually drew Keiji closer until their hips were flush against each other, despite how a second earlier he’d been pulling away. Keiji rubbed circles into the back of Bokuto's neck while making sure to keep him close, feeling Bokuto's breath mingle with his own. He does taste like barbecue, Keiji thought bemusedly. The smells of barbecued beef and pork, as well as of Bokuto's hair gel and a smell that Keiji could only compare to clean soap that must have been part of Bokuto's natural scent surrounded and threatened to overpower him. It was intoxicating.
With their mouths already slightly open against one another, Keiji took the chance to slip his tongue inside Bokuto. He made sure to do so slowly, not wanting to overwhelm or surprise Bokuto any more than he already had. So when Bokuto not only reciprocated the motion but did so forcefully, pushing into Keiji's mouth roughly, Keiji couldn't help himself from moaning—loudly—and jerking his hips upward.
"Shit—sorry, I didn't—I'm sorry—" Keiji said in a rush.
However, Bokuto didn't look upset in the least. In order to apologize, Keiji had broken their kiss and they had separated slightly. It was the first time since they started kissing that Keiji was able to properly look at all of Bokuto.
He looked absolutely wrecked.
True, they were both breathing heavily, and maybe Keiji looked just as bad as Bokuto did—he'd never be able to know for certain. But in that moment, Bokuto's face was flushed, his lips wet and breath coming in and out in short pants. Bokuto's expression looked more confused than anything from trying to understand his body's reaction to Keiji's ministrations. Like he couldn't process what had happened—what was still happening—and was in the middle of an existential crisis, rethinking his entire teenage life up until this point. Still, his eyes were glazed over with lust, and the sight of it did things to Keiji's mind and body.
The space between them was reduced to nothing before Bokuto could really say or do anything, relieving him from his overthinking. Driven by his hormones, Keiji thrust himself back in place in front of Bokuto. No longer was he attempting to conceal his own desire, having just witnessed Bokuto's. At this point, there wasn't really anything more to lose anyway, was there? Keiji wrapped his arms around Bokuto's lower back this time and slipped his hands under Bokuto's shirt, feeling the muscles there. He pulled them both away from the window and backed himself up into one of the desks in the room. He leaned against it and pulled Bokuto against himself so that one of his own legs was wedged between Bokuto's. Notwithstanding that just earlier that afternoon, the thought of Keiji grinding a hard-on against Bokuto's leg would have sent him into a fit of embarrassment so severe he probably would have fainted, as it was now Keiji had no qualms about doing so. Especially when he could feel Bokuto sporting a semi through his uniform too. Part of him couldn't believe what was happening, but unlike Bokuto he wasn't about to let shock get in the way of the opportunity given to him.
When Keiji yanked harshly on Bokuto's tie to get them to resume their open-mouthed kiss from earlier, Bokuto complied without question. In a surprising twist for Keiji, the moment he tugged Bokuto down by his tie, he felt Bokuto's erection twitch unconsciously down below in response. Keiji filed that information away for later. Even more aroused now, he set his hips into motion against Bokuto's, working them into a rhythm. Once again, Bokuto swiftly reciprocated the motion. They continued this pattern for a few minutes, engulfing each other in warmth, senses overloaded. Keiji generally led their movements as they kissed, trying to convey every ounce of his love for Bokuto with each movement of his lips and each push and pull of his tongue. Every once in a while, Bokuto would take control with unexpected determination and that only drove Keiji to kiss him more aggressively, more passionately.
They broke for breath again after what could have been minutes or hours. Keiji remained just as insistent on continuing their make-out session as ever, but it looked like at some point Bokuto had come to some sort of realization. Whatever it was, Keiji didn't want to face it yet. He was too happy in this moment. He grabbed Bokuto's face in his hands yet again and began peppering kisses along his jawline down his neck. He could feel Bokuto clear his throat.
"K-Keiji. Wait." Bokuto tried to speak normally but his voice was hoarse, unable to conceal his body's physical state.
Keiji stopped but didn't move, his lips still resting against Bokuto's collarbone. "Do you want to stop?" Something like need colored his voice.
"W-well, no, n-not exactly. Uh, we're just still in the classroom a-and. I don't think..." Bokuto didn't really seem to know what he wanted to say. He was adorably flustered; Keiji loved him so much.
Keiji straightened himself up as much as he could—he was still leaning against the desk. He straightened Bokuto's tie back out and tried to fix his hair before placing his hands on Bokuto's shoulders.
"You don't think?"
"I don't think it's appropriate?" Bokuto finished uncertainly.
Keiji laughed, and if you asked Bokuto, he'd swear it was the laugh of an angel.
"You don't think it's appropriate? So, that's the only reason you think we should stop?" Keiji asked nonchalantly, but Bokuto could sense something else creeping to his voice. Something negative. There was a pause while Bokuto waited. "You...you're not disgusted?" Bokuto identified the negative emotions: worry and fear. Genuine, acute fear.
He hated seeing Akaashi looking so vulnerable and afraid.
"No! No, Akaashi." He placed a palm against Keiji's cheek. "That was just...a lot. To take in. Have you...do you...toward m—"
"I like you, Bokuto-san."
Bokuto's heart skipped a beat.
"Oh. I mean, yeah, that...that makes sense."
Keiji laughed again so angelically that Bokuto felt the clouds part above him and reveal the heavens. His reply was slow and measured. "Bokuto-san, I just confessed to you, and all you have to say is in response is 'that makes se—'"
"I think I might like you too."
"Oh."
The two stood there for a minute just staring at each other. Even though their bodies had mostly settled from their earlier actions, their hearts were still beating quickly. Bokuto still held his hand against Keiji's face. He stroked his cheek gently with his thumb for a brief moment, and carded his fingers through Keiji's short curly locks. He then removed his hand and took a step back.
Bokuto placed his hands on his hips with newfound confidence.
"Yep! I'm pretty sure I like you too." Bokuto said as a smile spread wide across his face. His eyes crinkled while he beamed happily. "Akaaashhiii, why didn't you tell me sooner! We could have kissed each other so much more already. Wait—" he paused in thought "—how long have you liked me? Has it been months? Years? Was it love at first sight!? Akaashi—"
"Please calm down, Bokuto-san," Keiji reprimanded. But he felt no real annoyance toward Bokuto's excited blabbering: just fondness. Keiji had spent the last two years pining, thinking about what he would do if he ever confronted Bokuto about how he felt. Yet Bokuto just cleared up all his self-doubt and anxiety in mere seconds, deciding that he liked Keiji back unquestioningly, like it was only natural. Keiji wondered why he was ever worried in the first place. "How about we continue this conversation at my house? My mom's making curry tonight."
If it were possible, Bokuto's smile grew even wider. "Yeah! That sounds great!"
They both fully got their bearings and made sure the classroom really was all cleaned up before heading out the door and locking it up behind them. The two volleyball players were both grinning stupidly, giddy in the aftermath of all that had happened.
They quickly took their club's donation jar to their actual clubroom, and as they finally walked away from the school toward the subway station that would take them away to Keiji's house, Bokuto spoke.
"Did you know that owls kiss?"
"W-what?"
"Owls! They kiss each other. Like this." Bokuto leaned down a bit to sort of nuzzle his face into the side of Keiji's head.
"Pfft, Bokuto-san, stop that, it tickles..." Keiji said between soft giggles.
Bokuto only laughed, grabbing Keiji's hand and holding it in his the whole way to the station. He didn't let go at all until they reached the doorstep of Keiji's house. And even then, Bokuto still wrapped his hands around Keiji's waist and rested his head on his shoulder while he waited for Keiji to dig out his keys.
Though the festival had been exhausting, Keiji supposed that it ended up being worth it. He could get used to this, he thought. He could definitely get used to this.