Chapter Text
The first red flag didn’t look like one at all.
“We’re moving in together!” Bokuto announced. His arm stretched across the back of the booth, behind his girlfriend’s shoulders. Yuna was a foot shorter than Bokuto, with dyed blonde hair, but they wore matching grins.
“Wow.” Akaashi set his beer down on the table. He had nearly spilt it all over himself when Bokuto spoke. “That’s… a big deal.”
“It is!” Yuna agreed. “But when it’s the right person, you just know.” She smiled up at Bokuto, and he leaned down to kiss her. Akaashi averted his eyes.
He shared his side of the booth with Kuroo and Kenma, who was squished against the wall, playing a game on his Switch. “When are you planning on moving?” Kuroo asked.
“Next week! I’m just moving into Yuna’s place, so we don’t even have to hunt for an apartment!”
Kuroo’s mouth fell open. “Bokuto, we have three months left in our lease!”
Bokuto waved his arms. “Oh no, don’t worry, dude! I’m not going to leave you hanging. I’m gonna sublet my room. It should be easy to find someone—”
“That’s not really my point—”
“Maybe Kenma could live with you!” Yuna suggested.
Kuroo snorted and rolled his eyes. “Hey.” He elbowed Kenma, who wasn’t paying attention, even though they were talking about him. “You wanna live with me?”
“I’d rather die.” Kenma had his own apartment, near the private art and technology school he went to. Most of it was taken up by a giant kotatsu, under which he could usually be found, curled up like a cat. It was much nicer than Kuroo and Bokuto’s place.
“I actually know someone who’s looking for a new apartment,” Akaashi said. One of his friends from class had mentioned wanting to move.
“That’s awesome!” Bokuto said. “You’re the best, Akaashi!”
“Yeah, so helpful,” Yuna echoed. Akaashi heard her sarcasm, even if Bokuto didn’t.
Akaashi would never, ever say so to Bokuto’s face, but he didn’t like Yuna. Kuroo also didn’t like her, and he did say so, but Akaashi tried to be more polite. He treated her respectfully when they were forced to spend time together, and avoided her the rest of the time. But even with Kuroo being openly rude to her, and Kenma ignoring her completely, it was Akaashi, of all of Bokuto’s friends, that she seemed to dislike the most.
Akaashi had spent many nights wondering why that was. He had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with his sexuality. Kuroo was ostensibly straight, though he’d hit on anything that moved if it had a nice enough ass. Kenma, on the other hand, seemed uninterested in sex or romance (with, Akaashi had noticed, one small, red-headed exception). But Akaashi was gay, and with Bokuto being bisexual, he sometimes wondered if Yuna saw him as a threat.
There was also the fact that he’d been in love with Bokuto since his first year of high school, and everyone but Bokuto seemed to know it. That could also have been the issue.
Kuroo and Bokuto had started arguing. “Bro, you could have given me more notice.”
“I’m sorry. We only just decided today—”
Yuna interrupted him, leaning across the table. “He told you he’ll find a subletter. What’s the problem?”
Kuroo smirked like he’d be happy to tell her what the problem was. The bench underneath them shook; Kenma had kicked Kuroo under the table. “No problem,” he gritted out.
“Where is your new place?” Akaashi asked Bokuto.
“Near Shibuya Station.”
“That’s pretty far away.” Kuroo and Bokuto’s apartment was only five minutes away from their school. Shibuya Station was at least thirty. “You’ll have to get up early for morning practice.”
“I know, but by the time I get there, I’ll already be warmed up! It’ll be great!”
“Right,” Akaashi said. Knowing how much of a morning person he was — not at all — Bokuto would be lucky if he got to practice at all.
“Koutarou, I’m going to the bathroom,” Yuna said. “Be right back.” She kissed him on the cheek before getting up to leave.
Kuroo leered at her as she went. “Dude, this is fucking nuts.”
“I know, right?!” Bokuto missed Kuroo’s meaning. “It’s crazy, but I'm really excited!”
“Crazy is the right word for—”
“We’re happy for you,” Akaashi cut in. Kuroo was going to make a mess if he kept talking. “But are you sure it’s not too soon? You’ve only been dating for five months.”
“No way,” Bokuto said. He frowned at Akaashi, puzzled. “Yuna’s amazing. Living with her is going to be so much fun!”
“Living with me isn’t fun?” Kuroo said.
“Of course it is, dude. I’m gonna miss you!”
“Maybe I’ll make Akaashi move in with me instead,” Kuroo spouted. “His friend can take his place, and he can have your old room, and we’ll have tons of fun without you.”
Kuroo’s pettiness aside, it wasn’t a terrible idea. Akaashi’s rent would go way down.
“Aw, no fair,” Bokuto whined.
“You’re the one who wants to leave and move in with your little—”
“Kuro,” Kenma warned him. “You’re being a jerk.”
“Fine.” Kuroo sat back and crossed his arms. “I hope you’re happy with her.” He dropped the attitude, smiling across the table. “Seriously. I really hope so.”
Bokuto smiled back. “Thanks, man.”
“I’m back!” Yuna slid into the booth, carrying a beer the size of her head. “I brought you this, babe.”
“You’re the best!” Bokuto held up his glass. “Let’s do a toast! To my beautiful, smart, awesome girlfriend, who I get to live with! Kanpai!”
Kenma ignored them, and Kuroo looked dubious, so Akaashi raised his own glass and clinked it against Bokuto’s and Yuna’s. Kuroo followed reluctantly.
“Kan-fuckin’-pai,” he muttered.
*
Kuroo’s suggestion that Akaashi move in with him became reality. Akaashi’s friend wasn’t interested in having a roommate, so Akaashi signed his own apartment over and moved into Bokuto’s old room. The three of them, plus Yuna, spent a long day moving Bokuto’s stuff to his new place. Yuna lived in a small, minimalist one-bedroom that was about to lose its simplicity. Bokuto wasn’t a big shopper, but he never threw anything away; his room was packed with volleyball memorabilia, dog-eared manga magazines, the occasional textbook, and stuff from his childhood. He got derailed several times while trying to pack, having found a middle-school yearbook, a shirt he hadn’t worn since high school, or, to Akaashi’s disgust, a grungy, half-eaten box of Pocky under the bed that he proceeded to finish off.
The next day, they moved Akaashi’s things. Yuna, mysteriously, was unavailable to help. Luckily, Akaashi’s old place was close by, and he, unlike Bokuto, was not a burgeoning hoarder. Once finished, they stood around in the room full of boxes, pretending like nothing momentous had changed.
“I guess I should go,” Bokuto said. “Yuna wants to get my stuff unpacked today.”
“Have fun at your new apartment, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi said.
“Thanks. You guys have fun, too.” He went to the door and put on his shoes, looking a little wistful as he did.
“Oh, we will,” Kuroo said. He saw Bokuto out. “So. Welcome.”
Akaashi looked around, taking the place in. The beat-up couch, the blank spaces on the walls where Bokuto’s posters had hung. The lingering smell of ramen and body spray. It already felt a little like home. “Thanks.”
Akaashi moved to the kitchen area, which was separated from the living room only by the countertop. Dirty dishes covered the entire surface. “Not to sound ungrateful, but are you always this bad at cleaning? I can deal with it; I just want to know what I’m getting myself into.” Akaashi was a not-so-secret neat freak, but he tried not to impose his obsessiveness on others.
Kuroo barked a laugh. “That’s mostly Bokuto’s mess. I’m surprisingly neat when there’s not a seven-foot-tall owl roosting in my apartment.” He joined Akaashi at the counter. “Wanna put some music on and clean up?”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
The only thing that could make it better would be if Bokuto was there, too.
*
“Ugh,” Kenma said. “This is further than my place.” His hair was glued to his forehead with sweat. They’d been walking for almost half an hour under the August sun.
“I know,” Kuroo said. “Has Bokuto been on time to practice?”
“Actually, he has,” Akaashi confirmed. He and Bokuto were both on the university volleyball team. Their earliest practices started at six a.m. Either Bokuto was getting up before the sun, or he was running the whole way to the gym.
“Huh.” Kuroo shuffled the cake box he was holding into his left hand and checked his phone. “I think it’s this one.” They were on their way to Bokuto’s new apartment, where he and Yuna were throwing a housewarming party. “These buildings all look the same.”
“They’re very… streamlined,” Akaashi said. He held the door for Kuroo and Kenma.
“The word you’re looking for is sterile.”
Kenma rested against the wall inside the lobby. “At least there’s air-conditioning.”
Kuroo pushed the elevator call button. “I wonder how much of a mess Bokuto’s made of Yuna’s place by now.”
“I guess we’ll see.”
They rode the elevator to the tenth floor. The apartment was easy to find from there; a pile of party guests’ shoes sat outside the door. They slipped their own off, Kenma already pulling out his Switch.
Bokuto answered quickly when they knocked. “You guys made it!”
“Barely,” Kenma muttered, quiet enough that only Akaashi heard.
“Welcome to my new place!”
They followed Bokuto inside. Kuroo struck up a conversation with the prettiest of Yuna’s friends and Kenma found somewhere to hide, leaving Akaashi alone with Bokuto.
He looked around while Bokuto talked about something that happened at practice the day before. The apartment looked… very much like the last time he saw it. Same pictures of flowers framed on the wall, same neatly-organized bookshelves. There wasn’t a single dirty dish in the sink, although, Akaashi allowed, they were hosting a party right now.
Bokuto finished his story and called for Yuna. “Babe, my friends are here!”
“Shh. Not so loud, Koutarou.” She appeared behind him, wearing a long, flowy dress. “Hello, Akaashi. Glad you could make it.” She didn’t even pretend to smile.
“Uh, hey. The place looks great.”
“Wanna see the rest?” Bokuto asked.
“Sure.” Akaashi was glad for any excuse to get away from Yuna.
Bokuto showed him the bathroom, which was as sparkling clean as the kitchen, then the bedroom. It too looked exactly as it had last time. It was like no one but Yuna lived here at all.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s… nice,” Akaashi said, “but, Bokuto-san, where’s all your stuff?”
“What stuff?”
“Your clothes, your posters, your mangas, all the knickknacks you had…”
“Oh,” Bokuto said. “Well, my clothes are in the closet. The posters and stuff… I got rid of some things. It’s a small place, you know? There’s not a lot of room, and I had a lot of stuff.”
“It seems like you have hardly any stuff now,” Akaashi pointed out
“Yeah. It’s for the better, though, right? It was all junk anyway.” Junk he’d spent hours reminiscing about the week before. “Let’s go back out, okay? I don’t wanna hide from my own party!”
Akaashi followed him into the living room. Aside from Kuroo and Kenma, he didn’t recognize anyone.
“When are the guys from the team getting here?” They were as close with their university teammates as they had been with the Fukurodani guys. They usually went to parties as a pack, showing up and wreaking havoc on everyone’s eardrums.
“Yeah, where’s the boys?” Kuroo called out. Judging by the distance Yuna’s friend was putting between them, Kuroo had struck out with her.
“It’s just us tonight,” Bokuto said. “We wanted to have a nice, quiet party.”
“That’s kind of hard when you keep yelling,” Yuna said.
“Sorry, babe.” Bokuto sat down next to her on the couch. Akaashi joined Kuroo on the floor across the table.
“Most of Koutarou’s friends are pretty rowdy,” Yuna explained to her friends.
The girl Kuroo had been hitting on pointed at Kenma. “He doesn’t seem rowdy.” Kenma sat in the corner playing video games, as active as a houseplant.
“There’s an exception to every rule,” Kuroo said with a wink. It didn’t win him favour with her.
As the party went on, Akaashi couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. An objective observer would have seen a dozen college kids hanging out, laughing and having a good time. But if that was true, why did he feel so uncomfortable? And why was Bokuto’s smile so forced?
It got worse when they brought out the cake.
It was a huge cheesecake from Bokuto’s favourite bakery, fluffy and jiggly and delicious-smelling. Kuroo had brought it as a peace offering for acting bitchy about Bokuto moving out. Even Kenma perked up when he saw it, eyeing it like he was trying to figure how to get a slice without having to talk to anyone. Yuna cut it, doling out equally-thick, bouncing portions for each guest. But when she got to Bokuto, her egalitarianism waned. She handed him a slice less than half the size of Akaashi’s.
“Hey! Why’s mine so tiny?”
Yuna simpered at him. “How many beers have you had tonight, sweetie?”
“Only two.” Bokuto always looked at the floor when he lied. Akaashi hoped Yuna didn’t know that.
“That’s probably enough carbs for today. Your nutritionist would agree with me!”
The team nutritionist was a free-wheeling, middle-aged woman who encouraged them to eat with their hearts and respect their cravings. She referred to Bokuto as “a growing boy,” even though he was twenty-one. “I’m on the team, too,” Akaashi argued. “Why is my slice so big?”
Yuna locked eyes with him, her mouth curling. “Because when you’re a benchwarmer, it doesn’t matter what you eat.”
Bokuto laughed, then realized what she had said and went quiet. Akaashi waited. Was he not going to say anything to her? Kuroo, too, watched Bokuto with interest. Bokuto shoved a huge bite of cake into his mouth, ending the conversation before it began.
The party went on around them, one of Yuna’s friends babbling about something, but Akaashi’s bad feeling came back stronger than before. He stood up. “Bokuto-san, can you show me where to get a drink?”
“Of course!” Bokuto leapt up, leaving his sad piece of cake behind, and brought Akaashi into the kitchen. Akaashi felt Yuna’s glare on his back as they left.
“The fridge is over here,” Bokuto said, “We have beer, juice—”
“I’m not thirsty.”
“Oh.” Bokuto turned around, a worried look on his face. “Is this about what Yuna said? Because she was kidding, I promise.”
“I don’t care about that. I—” Akaashi realized he was about to say I care about you, and stopped. Instead, he said, “Did you want more cake?”
He had other questions, too. Why aren’t your friends here? Why does it look like you’ve never set foot in this apartment? But he waited to see what Bokuto would say.
He stretched his hands over his head. “No, Yuna was right. I’ve had a lot of beer, and I’ll feel like crap tomorrow if I have cake, too.”
“But, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi protested. “You love cheesecake.”
“Nah. It’s only okay.” Bokuto picked at a loose tile on the wall, the only flaw Akaashi had seen in the entire apartment. “I’m kinda sick of it.”
It was so convincing. Bokuto was a terrible liar, but if Akaashi didn’t know him, he would have believed him completely.
Then it hit him. Bokuto wasn’t lying. He believed what he was saying.
And things were much, much worse than Akaashi thought.
“Trying to steal my boyfriend, Keiji-kun?” Akaashi jumped. Yuna stood behind him, a fake smile plastered on her face.
“Just making sure he’s enjoying his new place,” Akaashi said coolly.
“I am!” Bokuto glanced at his girlfriend.
“Well, of course, babe. You have the best roommate ever!” She pushed past Akaashi and pressed Bokuto up against the counter. “And so do I.” She kissed him, obnoxiously enough that it was obvious she was trying to scare Akaashi away.
She only gave up after a full minute passed and Akaashi didn’t leave. “Kou-kun, can we talk alone for a sec?”
Bokuto was still a little stunned from the kiss. “Do you mind?” he asked Akaashi. “I’ll be right out.”
Akaashi could argue with Yuna, but he wouldn’t fight Bokuto. “Not at all,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. He went back to the living room and sat next to Kuroo, who had given up on socializing and was playing a game on his phone. He looked like Kenma.
Bokuto and Yuna returned a few minutes later, both giggling. The perfect picture of a happy couple. But Bokuto was quiet for the rest of the night, and his small piece of cake went untouched.
The guests all left at ten, ridiculously early for a Bokuto party. Akaashi pretended to take a long time tying his shoes so they wouldn’t have to ride down with Yuna’s friends.
As soon as the elevator doors closed on the three of them, Akaashi rounded on Kuroo and Kenma. “Okay, what the hell was that? Did you hear the way she spoke to him?”
Kuroo raised an eyebrow. “Are you just noticing now that Yuna sucks? ‘Cause I’ve been saying that since their second date.”
“It’s not just that. Bokuto doesn’t question her at all. He does whatever she tells him to.”
“He’s trying to be a good boyfriend.” Kuroo leaned back against the wall. “Must be hard, when he’s dating a demon like her.”
That wasn’t right, either. Bokuto wasn’t feeding her grapes or rubbing her feet or anything. He just… wasn’t acting like himself. At all. But Kuroo didn’t seem to have anything to add, and Kenma just shrugged. Was Akaashi the only one who saw it?
He spent the long walk home fuming and was still pissed when he and Kuroo entered their apartment. Kuroo put the cheesecake in the fridge — Bokuto had insisted they take the leftovers as a thank you — and collapsed on the couch, turning on the TV. Akaashi left him there and went to lie in his new bed.
It had been Bokuto’s bed first. He didn’t need it when he moved, and Akaashi’s old furniture belonged to his landlord, so he inherited it with the room. The sheets had been washed, but a few of the pillows still held on to Bokuto’s scent, hair gel and hardwood floors. Akaashi breathed it in, thinking of better days, when that smell incited lust and yearning in him rather than worry.
He stared up at the ceiling, wishing he had never left Bokuto in that apartment.