Akaashi was sitting on the front porch, enjoying the sound of the waves while reading a new book he had bought at the store. Footsteps coming his way made him look up, only to see Bokuto walking towards the beach house while glancing around at the house's exterior. His hands were clasped behind him as he noticed a small bird's nest above the front door.

"Hi, Bokuto."

"Akaashi!" he said, focusing his eyes on the dark-haired boy. "Are you busy?"

"No," he answered bluntly.

"Good!" Bokuto grabbed Akaashi's hand and pulled him off of the porch. "Let's hang out!"

Akaashi felt a burst of happiness at the notion but simply nodded. He set his book down and followed Bokuto away from the house and across the beach.

"Bokuto," Akaashi said quietly after a few minutes of walking.

"Yeah?"

"You're still holding my hand."

"Oh, sorry!" he yelped, letting go quickly.

"It's fine."

Akaashi put his (now free) hands behind his back and sighed almost inaudibly. The feel of Bokuto's hand in his own—the warmth, the touch, the gentle tug when he got excited and accidentally walked too far in front of Akaashi—had been nice, and Akaashi was beginning to miss it.

He brushed it off, deciding it wasn't something he needed to worry about. They kept walking.

~~~

"Welcome back," Bokuto said, sweeping his arms open as he reached the flat top of the cliff he had shown Akaashi on his tour.

Akaashi looked around at the flat top. Now that he was seeing it in plain daylight, he saw just how beautiful it really was. Tall, wavy grass sprung up from the ground, spouting small flowers in between. A scrawny tree was standing near one side of the cliff, tilting dangerously over the edge.

Bokuto took a seat in the grass, patting to a spot in front of him for Akaashi to sit as well. He did, then started fiddling with his fingers instinctively. The wind blew across the sky, ruffling their hair and making the grass sway.

Akaashi turned to look at the ocean as he spoke. "Bokuto, why is this your favourite place, as you called it?"

He grinned as if he had been anticipating the question. "Okay, this is going to sound really cheesy, so don't laugh. Promise."

"I promise I won't laugh."

"Well, I used to watch a lot of movies, and the main character almost always had some special place or somewhere they went to when they needed to feel safe, plus, a lot of times, it was linked to another character they were close with. When I was younger, I thought that was the coolest thing. Then one day I was walking around the beach—I think this was, like, four years ago—and I saw this place! I climbed to the top and was just like, 'Oh, yeah. This is it' and boom!"

Akaashi just nodded along, unsure of how to respond to his friend's wild ideas.

"Oh, fun fact, you know how I said the characters' places usually had memories of or some sort of link to someone they were close to?"

"Yeah."

"Ever since I've been coming to this place, I haven't told anyone else about it because I want there to just be one special person I think of when I'm up here."

Akaashi turned the words over in his head, a question bubbling to his tongue in a whir. "So why am I here, rather than someone else?"

"I just . . . had a feeling that you were the person I want to remember."

Akaashi felt his heart melt at the statement. It was so sweet, so cute, so carefree. "Ah, well, thank you for that," he said, continuing to mess with his fingers.

Suddenly, he noticed a small patch of colorful flowers with long, bright green stems. He grabbed a few and began threading them together, earning a curious look from Bokuto.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm making a flower crown. My sister taught me how and I think she'd really like it if she had one of her own."

"That's so cool! Can you teach me? Please?"

"Sure. Grab a few flowers, preferably ones with longer stems." Akaashi waited while Bokuto did as told. "Okay, now wrap the first one around the second one once, like this." He held up his own crown in-the-making. "Yeah, you got it."

"I'm doing it!"

"Yes, you are."

"This is so cool!"

"It is," Akaashi said. "Now you keep doing that over and over until you have a whole crown. I can help you at the end, though."

"I can do it!"

"Hm, alright."

"So," Bokuto said, twisting another flower into the crown, "how old is your sister?"

"She's nine. Her name's Akina."

"That's cool. I don't have any siblings, but sometimes I think it would be cool to have some."

"They're fine until they get on your nerves. Then they suck." Akaashi tied the end of his crown and held it up in his hands, turning it around and observing it.

"That makes sense," Bokuto said. "Wait, you're already finished?"

"Yeah. Akina made me practice a lot back home."

"Wow. What can't you do, Akaashi? You're so cool."

"Um—"

"Oh! I finished."

"Do you need help tying it off?"

"No! Actually, uh, maybe. Yeah. Akaashi, can you please help me?"

He gently took the crown from Bokuto's hands and tied the two stems at the end together. He handed it back to the Bokuto, who put it on his own head eagerly. One of the yellow flowers was close to falling off and a stem was poking into his hair, but he looked adorable. The crown was slightly lopsided against his tall hair and he was smiling so brightly it seemed he had never felt prouder of himself. Akaashi could have stared at that smile for days if it weren't for the words that came from Bokuto.

"Akaashi! You should put your crown on," he said, "to, um, make sure it's good enough for your sister!"

"Oh, that's a good idea." Akaashi carefully placed the delicate crown in his hair, making sure it didn't get damaged in the process.

Bokuto practically stopped breathing. Akaashi . . . wow. Akaashi was absolutely stunning. His pretty face, his slender frame, the way the crown sat on his head so carefully—almost as if it were meant for him—all made him look perfect.

"Hey, Akaashi," Bokuto whispered, his smile almost as evident in his tone as it was on his face.

"Yes, Bokuto?"

"You're really pretty."

"Thank you," he said quietly, hiding the pink blush creeping across his ears and face. He moved to take the flower crown off, but Bokuto put his hand out and stopped him.

"Keep it on."

Akaashi didn't argue.

~~~

The two ended up back at Akaashi's rental house, sitting on the floor together in his room. They had both run out of things to talk about, but they didn't want to leave each other, so Akaashi was reading while Bokuto was on his phone, playing a game. Out of nowhere, Bokuto stood up and dashed to one of the drawers in the room, tearing it open aggressively. He continued to open each drawer until he had no more to open, and then he turned to Akaashi, exasperated.

"I was staring at your bag and thought about how excessively full it is, that's how I realized that you haven't unpacked anything. But it really is full! So, come on. I'm going to help you unpack."

"Why?"

"Because you aren't going to do it yourself, Akaashi."

"And?"

"It'll be fun! You won't even have to do most of the work."

Akaashi grumbled about the decision, but he obliged nonetheless. Bokuto pulled him up and the two started moving around the room, tossing things into a drawer in unspoken coordination. (Akaashi wanted to try to keep everything in just one drawer to save space.)

As they worked, Bokuto spoke. "I have two questions. One: Why didn't you unpack?"

"It's a waste of time."

"What do you mean? No, it isn't!"

"I have to pack everything up at home, unpack it when I get there, pack my bags again when the trip is done, and then unpack once we get back. That's four times. Why would I do that when I really only have to do it twice?" Akaashi said, placing a folded shirt into the open drawer.

"Because it adds to the trip! That would be like never setting the perfect volleyball because you're worried you'll do it wrong. You won't be comfortable here—"

"That's the point. If I don't get comfortable, it's easier to leave."

"Well, that's stupid. I think the idea of leaving makes the trip all the more memorable. 'Cause it's, like, constantly looming over you, so you try to do as much as you can in the short amount of time you have, and end up having a ton of fun, you know what I'm saying?"

"Kind of."

"You'll be able to enjoy the trip more this way. It won't be something you just experience and then forget about."

Akaashi thought for a few seconds before responding. "I guess you're right."

Bokuto put the empty duffel bag by the bed and closed the drawer, placing the finishing touch—the stuffed toy owl he had won for Akaashi at the arcade—atop the dresser as he did.

Bokuto stepped back to admire his handiwork and grinned. "All done!"

"Thank you."

"Of course! I don't want this to be a trip you just, uh, get over and forget about."

"I don't think I will," Akaashi said truthfully. "Oh, what was your other question? You said there were two, right?"

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that. Are you ticklish?"

"No, why?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. . . ."

Bokuto lunged for Akaashi, wrapping his arms around the other boy tightly as he struggled.

"Bokuto—Bokuto, what are you doing?" he said, now laying against his bed with Bokuto above him, both grinning happily (though Akaashi was a bit scared). "Bokuto, no, I'm not ticklish—"

Akaashi burst out laughing as soon as Bokuto started tickling his stomach, having ignored his denial. He was smart enough to know that anyone in their right mind wouldn't admit that they were ticklish.

The wholesome sound of Akaashi's joyous laughter filled the room. It wasn't a loud laugh, but it wasn't quiet—not quite a booming sound, but definitely not a whisper, either.

If you asked Bokuto what his favourite sound was, he would have said Akaashi's laugh in a heartbeat. Then, he would have said, "Wait, no. It's Akaashi's voice," with the smile of a lovesick puppy, because that was basically what he was. This lovesick boy couldn't get over the sound of Akaashi's laugh (or his voice). He was so awestruck and amazed with his beauty that he was practically frozen.

He paused the tickling to look down at Akaashi and smile. "You have a great laugh."

"You say that about everything."

"Because it's true. You . . . you're amazing, Akaashi."

"I'm not sure about that," he said.

"Well, I am, and I'm older than you, which means you have to listen to me," Bokuto said smugly.

"Says who?"

"Says me."

Akaashi rolled his eyes at the comment, but smiled anyway, laughing softly.

~~~

After that, Bokuto and Akaashi hung out almost every day. Akaashi would be able to tell you Bokuto's favourite color (green), least favourite word (leaving), and the story of how he became interested in volleyball (he got hit in the face with a volleyball once when he was a kid and decided he would get revenge on the ball), but he still didn't know whether or not his hair was dyed (and it was bugging him to no end). Akaashi found it amazing how much he wished to explore every inch of Bokuto's soul, and more.

Bokuto and Akaashi spent a lot of time together on the cliff. They had a picnic (once), watched the sunset (multiple times), made more flower crowns (twice), and sat back to watch the clouds (again, once). On the days where they weren't at the cliff, they were either at Akaashi's rental house, the beach, or the store Bokuto worked at. Akaashi had even been helping out there after Bokuto begged the manager to let him. Since Akaashi couldn't run the cash register, he usually shelved things, and Bokuto stayed by his side whenever he wasn't helping a customer. One time, Akaashi was trying to put a large box on the top shelf, but he wasn't able to lift it up all the way and Bokuto rushed to him to help push it onto the shelf. Bokuto ended up right behind Akaashi, so close that his chest was touching the other's back. Akaashi was grumbling about how he was only one inch shorter than Bokuto, but the other boy was too busy freaking out about how close he was to Akaashi to say anything. Akaashi, who had been facing the shelf, turned around and ended up almost running into Bokuto. They were both blushing and awkwardly trying to get around each other until a costumer walked into the aisle and coughed to get their attention. (After that, Bokuto let Akaashi put the boxes up on his own.)

The two had gotten used to being around each other since they were together so often. And, undeniably, feelings were growing; changing. Akaashi felt strange around Bokuto in the way one feels before going on a rollercoaster: Nervous, maybe even sick, like butterflies are dancing in their stomach, but also excited and happy. Akaashi couldn't help but feel eager whenever he and Bokuto were going to hang out—he wanted to spend as much time with him as he could, not only because his time there was limited, but also because he felt joy whenever he was around Bokuto. A single person hadn't made him that happy in a long, long time, and he didn't want to let that go.