Ukeshi connoisseur

paper planes, endless summer breaks, crafted cranes.

hiroshima was never a place he thought he’d go other than for a school trip in the third grade, his own mother as a chaperone herding his classmates around like baby ducks. and like mother, like son, because that’s what nijimura had done throughout middle school until moving abroad. there are a few things he’d learned from a particular underclassman.

his pride was never more important than his duties.

a silver spoon still tastes like shit.

the guilt bestowed upon him by a hundred and fifty eight centimeter tall love-child of demon and angel for drinking a protein shake from the convenience store will stay with him forever.

what can he do?

he gets two vanilla kikkoman soymilks, squeezes them into his shaker with protein powder and makes it himself. he still does this, all these years later. it’s mostly habit, but when his running partners look at him with questioning looks and he has to explain himself, the image of akashi’s judging eyes still burns deep down.

akashi scratched a sort of itch in his daily routine during middle school. he was refreshing and different, unknowingly funny in his seriousness, adorably unaware and removed from normalcy. akashi would stay a little longer to shadow him after practice, cutely claiming it was to learn as much as he could. when he thinks about soulmates, he thinks akashi felt like that. warm, gut-wrenchingly impossible, and floating right up in his jetstream. not that they are soulmates, they haven’t even talked in years, nijimura thinks to himself, walking away from the shrine.

until now.

“nijimura-san?”

/

he sees from his huddle of classmates, standing next to the lockers. they joke about the school dance and homework and whatever, and nijimura watches midorima shuffle by with akashi, looking unusually stern and focused. he raises a hand to wave, but akashi walks by, blank faced.

“this is the one thing i can’t help you with,” midorima whispers in full seriousness. “but i have faith in you—”

“midorima-kun, please don’t.”

he asks akashi about it later, after the poor kid ended the day in the infirmary with blood crusted over his eyebrow, an exam paper sticking out from his bag with a fat red x at the top of it, and an endless supply of complaints pouring from his mouth.

“so i read the wrong book. are we kidding? are you understanding this, nijimura-san. i read the wrong book and i’m being punished for it, as though anyone else at this school reads anything at all. but i read the wrong one and have to take a retest next week… i tripped going up the stairs and nearly fell entirely, my desk happened to be the one a hornet chose for its nest, the cafeteria had to throw out all the tofu for an undisclosed reason—and believe me, i tried to find out—, and higashi-san happened to pick my face to elbow during a pass that hardly even qualified as an assist. are you understanding what kind of day i’m having?”

nijimura nods, pushing down his smile.

it is serious, getting an elbow to the face. nijimura had helped him up as blood split his face in two halves, and everyone stared in disbelief that akashi hadn’t moved in time.

“sounds like a rough day, akashi.”

he sighs, leaning back against the headboard, forehead bandaged. it pushes his hair up in a cute way.

“midorima may be superstitious but he’s usually right. and today was not a good day for me.”

“last in the ranking?”

“dead last,” akashi nods. “normally he brings my lucky item and i indulge his whims on the basis of being a good friend, but perhaps there’s something to it.”

“you didn’t get your lucky item today?”

akashi shakes his head.

nijimura prods, “well, what was it? maybe i can go find it for you.”

akashi stays silent, looking at the ceiling. nijimura takes a look to see if there’s anything interesting up there. just chalking.

“so?”

“it’s nothing you can get, so please don’t concern yourself. besides, midorima doesn’t need anymore gloating power.”

“what is it though?”

akashi blinks at him.

“a kiss.”

a moment of silence.

“does it say what kind?”

“i suppose not. unspecified.”

“alright, well,” nijimura shrugs. he steps further into the room, doing a little jump to hype himself up for the sake of akashi’s hopeful amusement. “it’s no different than shooting a basket, is it?”

akashi shuffles up with surprised eyes, but before his mouth can mutter “what are you doing?” nijimura musters all his strength into blowing a kiss into the palm of his hand and shoots it from the triple threat position to the flustered redhead.

“catch—” nijimura says, hurried.

akashi reaches out one hand and clutches the air, grasping it towards his chest.

nijimura’s body relaxes with a pleased hum.

“thanks for catching it, otherwise i might’ve been mortified.”

akashi’s surprise is broken by a laugh, cutting through the displeasure of his day and right into nijimura’s heart.

/

“hey,” nijimura says, stupidly. 

akashi stands shoulder to shoulder with him on the rocky cliffside, looking over the onoseto straight towards the mainland. he’s taller, a bit, facial features like some ethereal angel come to pick his dropped jaw up off the ground.

“this is quite the surprise,” akashi says with a bit of teased knowing. probably, akashi didn’t know they’d run into each other here, but he’d pretend like he did if it made him seem holier.

“do you know how crazy this is?”

“well,” akashi shrugs. he hugs his jacket tight across his stomach, shielding himself from the ocean winds. “i can’t say i planned this, nijimura-san. this must be an act of fate.”

“fate or whatever, i wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“i’m on a business trip. mayuzumi-san wanted to see the local attractions since he’s never been,” he gestures to mayuzumi down the road, fending off a rogue deer with a handful of cookies. “don’t mind him.”

they stares at him together.

“he’s in your company?”

akashi nods.

“he’s clingy.”

“are you guys…?”

akashi scoffs. 

“absolutely not. and what are you doing here?”

nijimura points to his siblings at the shrine up ahead.

“family trip. sorry, nothing interesting. but uhm…” nijimura fiddles with something in his pocket. he doesn’t exactly know what he’s doing but the nervous energy in his gut is propelling him forward and when fate strikes, you jump or lose out.

“here,” he holds out an amulet he’d bought at the shrine shop, a rose-gold color with golden embroidery, spelling out first love across the fabric.

akashi stares at it with no expression.

“are you giving me this?”

“i thought of you when i bought it.”

akashi’s face breaks out into a grin of disbelief.

“and you said nothing interesting,” he says coyly and nimbly takes the amulet with a slight bow of his head. their fingers do not touch, akashi is careful of that. “i suppose i can give you something too.”

nijimura watches akashi pull a slick case out of his pants and unfolds it, sliding out a singular business card. nijimura takes it, shying against akashi’s glittering eyes. his name, business, and phone number with operating hours are written across the expensive cardstock.

nijimura nods once, wordless lips pressed together.

“i have to go help him, before he’s eaten by a naturally herbivorous animal. but don’t hesitate to get in touch,” akashi nods at the card, then at the amulet in his hands. “you were my first kiss after all,” he teases, looking at the amulet.

“you remember that?”

his eyes flutter up again.