Day 8: Akaashi Keiji
December Soulmate Prompt Calendar
“Seeing in only black-and-white until you meet”
Warning: HQ Adults, slight cursing, slight overthinking, nervousness, annoyance, americanized sibling dynamics.
Author’s Note:
--Using BEHR’s 50 Shades of Grey for color names--
I’ve already admitted I am a day behind for a bit. I still have not come to terms with this. I got one for the best boy that is consistently forgotten because he isn't himself a powerhouse, nor a giant, but is loved all the same, Akaashi Keiji!!! This one is kinda weird imo you let me know if its good or not.
Hope you enjoy!
Akaashi was never bothered by the shaded tones he saw, it was his life and he was determined to make the best of it despite all the craze about color. He was perfectly fine distinguishing between double-click and silver-shadow as long as he could continue doing the things he enjoyed. There were very few things that bothered him, and not being able to see in the so called ‘sights’ that a world of color offered after meeting with one’s soulmate was not one or them.
What did bother him was people who didn’t take their jobs as seriously as their hobbies. He hadn’t even wanted the editor position but he was going to make it count since that was what he was currently doing in life. And sure, this specific artist may have had a bad break awhile back, and their storyboard writer may have left the country to go visit family for the holidays, but what reason is there to text him, the editor waiting for them to meet their deadline, with a simple, ‘Don’t come. Not ready.’
Like, was it that hard to give an explanation, because Keiji himself could not understand the thought process to that being the message he got. Instead of responding right away though, he took a moment to think through what may have happened. Perhaps the storyboard writer was delayed due to the time difference and the artist couldn’t work ahead without that. Perhaps they just got notice from one of the other editors about an Ad placement that would force a page’s shape to change and they needed time to reorganize things. His mind wheeled with possibilities about what it could have been so that he would be ready for anything they said.
He pressed call on the dial button and lifted the cellphone to his ear. “Hello, (L/N)-san.” He said calmly, ready to hear the artist out before getting on their case about anything, “I need a little bit more of an explanation from you. What is wrong with this week’s master copy? Do you need someone to do background or does a typesetter need to fill in anything? Tell me, what can we do to help?”
The voice on the other end of the line seemed to hum before answering, “The thing is, my sibling flew into town for a surprise visit yesterday and I haven’t necessarily been back to my place yet.”
Akaashi felt his eye twitch momentarily. He closed them completely to calm down and took a breath deeply before speaking once more. “Your sibling came to town so you haven’t been home?”
“Not like that,” The speaker commented to him. “They are just…a sort of way around the holiday’s and I don’t like dealing with it. But our parent offered up my place for them to stay over and so I went and stayed in a hotel and I didn’t bring any of my work to finish.”
“So I need to ask your sibling to leave your place so you can go home to complete your assignment?” Keiji asked himself more so than the person he was speaking to.
The sudden brightness of the voice through the speaker registered that the artist really liked this idea. “That would be fantastic! If you take them out, then I can go home and collect all my games!”
“You mean finish your work?” The editor near seethed through his teeth.
“Oh yea, that first of course, hahah.”
After confirming once more that his artist wanted him to kick their sibling out of their place, Akaashi once again started making his way to the building that housed the apartment.
Reaching the door in question, he knocked once. After thirty seconds without an answer, he knocked again, three times.
He could hear a voice through the walls of the apartment shouting, “Coming! Coming!” A bang was followed by a loud groan, and he presumed the person had run into something.
When the door swung open, a hunched over form was cradling their right calf, what Akaashi guessed was the appendage that got hurt from being forced against a stationary object.
“Sorry, I didn’t think you guys were actually that fast, it was only 2,000 yen, right? Give me a second.” They rummaged through their wallet before finally looking up at him. “You aren’t my food order.”
The blunt manner in which they tactlessly acknowledged their mistake had him internally rolling his eyes.
He smoked a bit, having grown accustomed to his old rival’s way of interacting with others he’d been trying his own hand at the same mannerisms as of late. “Obviously,” he stated, scanning the individual up and down.
They crossed their arms over their chest, the universal body language sign for putting a wall between themselves and another, and he found it interesting as it was so different from how his friends’ interactions always were.
“I am here for (L/N)-san’s assignment. He said it was here and he was unable to finish it but I could take it anyway.” Keiji knew better than to lie, but he didn’t really care. Whatever got this person out of this building for a few hours. “If you don’t believe me, can you get a hold of him and tell him I need this tonight?”
“I’m not my brother’s secretary.” The individual shot back, before sighing deeply and reaching behind them to presumably grab their phone.
As you’d discussed, the artist did not answer any calls or respond to their sibling.
“That’s weird. I know he hates staying with me but he has never been out of reach like this before.” They seemed to sigh twice more before grabbing a jacket and walking out of the apartment. “He should just stay in his damn apartment. Sorry, I shouldn’t say that in front of a stranger.” They locked the door in front of them and turned to head onto the main street. “Well, you coming?”
Akaashi wide eyed, looked at them and pointed to himself, “Me?”
“Who else? You’re the one who needs him, I don’t even know what he does for quote-un-quote work. All he seems to ever do is play his stupid games when I see him.”
“That’s true. He does enjoy his games.” Keiji once again found himself voicing his thoughts out loud, but it didn’t feel as odd as normal. “Anyway, you can say whatever you want about (L/N)-san. I only speak respectfully about him when I am expecting his work on time. As soon as that fails he is just another pain in the ass.”
The person walking beside him lost control of their laughter and he thought he’d be willing to go deaf if he could just hear that same melody once more. Akaashi had to shake his head to remove the burdensome thoughts beginning to pile in his head.
“Well then I guess you do know my brother.” They smiled at him and the sweetness about made him feel like melting despite the cold surrounding them. “I’m (F/N), by the way. You can call me that so we don’t get confused when you bad mouth my brother in the future.” They held their hand out to him.
“Akaashi Keiji, pleasure to meet the seemingly better of the (L/N)-sans.” He smiled at the person across from him and took their hand. Upon contact his eyes felt fuzzy, he removed his hand quickly and itched at them from atop the eyelids. “Sorry, something must have flown into my eyes, they really itched all of a sud--.”
As his eyes opened, his view had changed. Instead of the Graphic charcoal and intergalactic buildings he was used to seeing, and the graceful gray of the sky, he saw what he had only ever read about: colors.
“Yea,” The breath of a word caught his attention and his eyes were on his walking companion once more. “Mine too.”
They smiled at him and he felt that he could finally understand the deal behind the joy of seeing these colors. The supposed red creeping up his opposite’s cheeks made him more than glad his artist failed to have their assignment ready.
“Maybe we don’t go looking for that extra, we have our own story to continue now that the main characters have met.” He didn’t know if they’d appreciate his straightforwardness, but he had to put it out there. Bokuto gave him a rep for making those in his life feel like the stars of their world, so he should allow the person that will be riding shotgun to recognize how he thinks about things early on.
They grabbed his hand and started leading him somewhere unknown, “Well it’s not like we need to set ourselves up for any regrets.”
His normally composed manner had abandoned him, in its place was a mess of a smiling version of himself that he could not contain. Maybe the hype wasn’t just about the colors, but about experiencing a new world with someone who could fully understand you. He’d take this over his monochromatic world and hope things would only get even better.
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 |
Day 8 [X] | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 |
Day 15 | Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18 | Day 19 | Day 20 |
Day 21 | Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24 | Day 25 | Day 26 |
Day 27 | Day 28 | Day 29 | Day 30 | Day 31