Akaashi

The light that filled the room shone even through his eyelids. The simultaneously searing and throbbing pain behind his eyes made Akaashi groan loudly, raising his hand to rub his eyes as he sat up slowly. "Keiji? Are you awake?" Yamaguchi peeked around the corner, concern eminently protruding from his features.

"God fucking dammit, my head." He squinted his eyes, the light burning his eyes.

"Do you remember how this happened? Are you feeling dizzy? Is anything fuzzy?" Yamaguchi asked hurriedly.

"No, I don't remember exactly what happened, and very."

"Nauseous?"

"Very..." Akaashi gagged a little bit.

"Well," Yamaguchi leaned forward, dissecting Akaashi's appearance before pulling out a little flashlight. He held it steadily and shined it in Akaashi's eye unexpectedly. Akaashi jolted back, crying out. "Can you tell me the alphabet backwards?"

"Yams, I don't think I'd be able to accomplish that on Adderall."

"Just as I thought. You gave yourself a concussion, shithead."

"I am concussed." Akaashi giggled a bit.

"Yes, yes you are." Yams smiled. "Honestly, you're alright though. If you get to sick I want you to go to the hospital, okay?"

Akaashi nodded. "Yeah, alright. Only day two of Kuroo being gone and I've already nearly died."

Yamaguchi shook his head. "I used to think you were very well put together. Boy, I was wrong. Have you always been a secret ditzy klutz?"

"Well, I'm out of the closet now."

Yamaguchi snorted. He shook his head, glancing up to the window. "Were you smoking?"

"Huh?"

"Your windows open. You never open it, and when you do, it's cause you're smoking."

"Oh..." Akaashi stared at the window in wonder. "I thought this morning maybe you had opened it."

"No? Why would I ever open it?"

"I don't know, sometimes I find it open like that. I assumed it was you or Kuroo with your lack of awareness of the fact we have an air conditioner and a very high bill for that as well." Akaashi laughed, and Yams rolled his eyes.

"Okay, whatever. But I have to go, I have a night class." Yamaguchi stood up from his corner on the bed. "Duty calls, sort of?" He walked to the bedroom door and picked up his bag. "Make sure you call a Kuroo-chan, he probably wants to talk to his baby. He's probably suffering as mediator with Oikawa and Kei bickering."

"Oh shit, you're right." Akaashi attempted to push back his hair, but realized he had a bandage on. Yamaguchi must've wrapped him up.

His phone buzzed: a text from Yamaguchi. It reminded him of the "shit ton" of Advil and other various pain meds and such in their home and how it would be unnecessary to go and just buy more. Akaashi smiled and shook his head. He stood to shut his window, taking a small wobbly step, before his rubbery legs woke up. He somehow managed to get it to slide shut with some difficulty, but he noticed under his bowl there was a note. He lifted the elephant, careful to avoid dumping the ashes, and picked up the neatly folded lined paper.

His smile split his face, giggling as he rushed to open the paper. Kuroo must have finished his concert in the Saitama Super Arena, and left him the note. In his typical handwriting, he had scribbled "meet me at the park under the Sakura tree."

Akaashi gushed, pressing the note up to his chest, sighing happily. "Kuroo, you're so stupid and romantic."

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The air was crisp, dropping in temperature with the sun. Akaashi walked briskly, a large grin on his face as he shuffled through small gaps in the endless crowd of bodies. He pulled his scarf up a bit, as if it could conceal how giddy he had become. He loved when Kuroo did little things like this. He assumed it was either some sort of date, or surprise gift of some sort since Kuroo didn't outright call or see him in person. The handwriting on the note seemed to be Kuroo's as well, but chicken scratch just looks like chicken scratch. The only way Akaashi could really ever distinguish his hand writing from a first grader's was due to the fact that Kuroo's jumbled cursive mess contained cursive G's, Y's, and sometimes X's.

He pulled the crumpled note from his pocket, smoothing the wrinkles with his fingers. The letters seemed normal, except he wrote the word "the" out in a terrible print instead of his usual loops and curves with a line through it.

He place it back in his pocket, shrugging off the oddity. His stomach growled, crying for attention. He hoped Kuroo decided on a picnic under the stars with wine and cheese. Akaashi could get on board with that idea.

The people on the sidewalk thinned out, and washed away completely, and he hopped and skipped along until he reached the black, entrance fences. After a moment, he leaned into the park, checking side to side for any sign of life. "Testuro?" He called softly. He took a few steps into the park, spotting their Sakura tree almost immediately and he headed toward it. "Testu?"

There was no reply, but as Akaashi got closer, he noticed the dim candle light coming from behind the tree. He moved around, and picked up the small note being held down by ribbons on a box.

"Keiji, don't open your gift until I'm there. But I hope you enjoy the wine and the snacks while I'm grabbing something from my car." Akaashi smiled lightly, happy to see that he'd get to see Kuroo soon. He popped the cork on the wine easily, and opened the small basket of food and traded for the bottle opener. He took a big swig and smiled.

"Pinot noir..." Akaashi shook his head. "God, I love this shit." He leaned the bottom against his leg, searching for the cheese and the grapes, or maybe even strawberries if Kuroo thought of them. He found a wedge of cheese, a plate, a knife, and some crackers. He took another drink from the bottle of wine, before cutting a piece of cheese and placing it on the cracker in his other hand. His head felt a bit hazy, and he wobbled a bit side to side.

Was he seriously drunk already?

He smelt his wine carefully, and ate another cracker. He swallowed hard, and used the wine to chase the dry cracker, but just after swallowing, Akaashi collapsed.

His head, once again, hit with a thump on the earth, and his bottle shattered on the tree trunks. Other soft crunching noises made him turn his head.

His vision blurred in and out of focus as they shut.

The last thing he saw was a pair of brown, leather boots thumping toward him.