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Sneakers squeaked again and again on polished floorboards. A loud, lively voice called out over and over late into the afternoon. The bright lights inside Fukurodani Academy's volleyball gym leaked out of its barred windows even as the winter sky outside continued to darken.
Most of the volleyball club's members had left forever ago, leaving two boys to their routinely late extra practice and cleanup.
Bokuto Kotaro had been especially energetic all day—laughing and shouting even more than usual, if that was possible. What baffled everyone even more was the fact that he had kept greeting everyone a happy Valentines day.
Could it be?
Was he looking forward to seeing someone?
Did Bokuto score himself a DATE?
Nah, that was impossible—they had decided in the end. The volleyball captain was too much of a volleyball idiot to have an interest in such an un-volleyball thing like romance.
By afternoon practice, he had calmed down to just normal-Bokuto-energetic, but it had left the team wondering what had happened to make their moody ace so happy.
In the end, the one to figure it out was the second year Akaashi Keiji as usual.
"AAH!" Bokuto exclaimed in the middle of a spike. The ball landed on the floor beside him, and he proceeded to panic. "I FORGOT! I'M LATE!"
Late? Akaashi had wondered, brows furrowing a little at the thought that Bokuto-san did indeed have a date and he didn't realize all this time.
"Late for what, Bokuto-san?" If Bokuto-san had any prior engagements... "If you have somewhere to be then I can take over from here."
But the older owl had begun haphazardly throwing volleyballs into their cart, apparently with no plan to leave all the cleaning to Akaashi, "I've got a date!"
Somehow that same night, Akaashi Keiji found himself in a busy part of Tokyo at his senior's behest, staring at rows of chocolate wrapped and packed in colorful boxes and shiny ribbons.
"Well?" Bokuto asked. "Which one do you think is tastier?"
He was holding a whole bunch of Valentine-themed boxes in his arms with no regard for how expensive some of them seemed to be. Akaashi's eyes were squinting at the price tags attached to some of the tiny boxes of chocolates, and he turned an exasperated expression up at his captain.
"Bokuto-san..." He began, sighing as he did. "First of all, how much money do you have in your budget for this? You're holding quite some pricey ones."
Bokuto froze and looked at the boxes in his arms, nearly dropping them. "AH."
"Besides, instead of asking me, shouldn't you consider the preferences of who you're going to give the chocolates to?"
"That's true..." Bokuto contemplated. "Then, probably something really sweet..."
Akaashi watched as Bokuto picked three of the more reasonably-priced boxes, rushed to put the rest back wherever he got them from, and paid for them at the counter.
The number of chocolates made the second year think once again. Did Bokuto-san's date really like chocolate or something? Maybe he was giving one to his mother? Why was it Bokuto-san giving chocolate in the first place, wasn't it usually the girls who gave chocolate on Valentines? Weren't boys supposed to wait till White Day?
Well, either way, it was none of his business. He had just been dragged out here for some incomprehensible reason after leaving practice earlier than they usually would on Fridays.
"Well then, Bokuto-san," Akaashi said when they stepped out of the store. How his airheaded senior knew such a quaint shop was an unexpected surprise on his part, but it was interesting getting to know a little bit more of the enigmatic Fukurodani Ace. "I'll be leaving you to your date—"
"Wait!" Bokuto exclaimed with a pout. "Can't you come with me for a little bit longer, Akaashi?"
Akaashi frowned. "Bokuto-san, I don't want to be a third wheel on your date, and I think your date wouldn't like that either."
"Third wheel?" Bokuto tilted his head. "Whatever, just come with me so I can introduce you!"
"...What?"
A short bus ride later, Akaashi was left to wonder why he kept getting coaxed into following his volleyball captain for arguably questionable purposes when he was usually able to stand his ground against the older boy.
They were in a relatively quiet neighborhood in one of Tokyo's suburbs, a considerable distance from where Fukurodani Academy was located. Bokuto had been leading the reluctant second year through the cold streets and straight to an apartment complex at the heart of the residential area, chattering about all manner of things on the way.
Akaashi was puzzled. If Bokuto-san was going on a date, why would they be at an apartment?
They stopped in front of a door on the third floor, and Bokuto knocked excitedly.
In the next moment, the setter's questions were answered.
"Ko-kun!" A woman yelled as the apartment door swung open. Akaashi noted familiar golden eyes and short white-grey hair and sunk into a realization as the likely-older woman hugged the smiling third year beside him. "You're here!"
Bokuto returned the hug tightly. The woman was an inch or two shorter than Akaashi, and once again, the second year was struck by how familiar her round eyes and wide smile were. The two broke the hug and the woman looked up at the laughing third year's face.
"It's been a while, you've gotten taller again!" Then, she finally took notice of Akaashi standing to the side, fiddling with his fingers inside his jacket pockets. "Is this your friend?"
"Oh, right!" Bokuto exclaimed. He stood beside the black-haired boy and hit his back as he introduced the two to each other. "Akaashi, this is my Kohana-nee. Nee-san, this is my vice captain Akaashi from our volleyball club!"
"So you're Akaashi-kun! We finally meet," Kohana said as she held out her hand for a shake. "Thank you very much for taking care of our Kotaro. You must've had a tough time."
Akaashi returned the handshake politely—pretending he did not feel that stomach-displacing slap on his back—but answered in his usual blunt manner. "Yes, I did."
"Akaashi!" Bokuto exclaimed, hair deflating as he pouted once again. Meanwhile, his older sister only laughed, ushering them inside the apartment.
"Make yourselves at home, I just have to check on dinner." Kohana said. She called out into the apartment before disappearing into the kitchen, "Kotona! Ko-kun's here!"
A room on the far end of the corridor creaked open, revealing another woman who shared the Bokuto siblings' features albeit with a slightly lighter complexion and much longer hair than the other two. She waved demurely as Bokuto and Akaashi changed into indoor slippers. "Heya Ko-kun! I see you brought company."
Bokuto dropped his bag in the living room and bounced over to hug the meeker-looking woman who seemed to be about the same height as the Fukurodani third year. "Hey hey hey! I missed ya, Kotona-nee!"
A thought that sometimes crossed Akaashi's mind was confirmed that night.
Bokuto Kotaro is 100% the baby of the family.
Granted, he did not know much about his senior's background outside of volleyball. After all, Bokuto-san always only strived to have as much fun with the sport as possible and though they hung out in school, they would still usually end up talking about volleyball or school work.
There may have been a offhanded mentions of Bokuto-san having older siblings, but it was such a rare occurrence, and it was so mundane in comparison to the energy put into other topics that it had been shoved in the back of Akaashi's mind.
Behind all the how-to-deal-with-Bokuto-san information that he had to refer to constantly, that is.
Now, Akaashi was being introduced to Bokuto's second older sister inside their apartment on Valentines Day.
"So," Akaashi said when Kotona also disappeared into the kitchen, "The date you were talking about was with your sisters?"
"Yup!" Bokuto said brightly. "We didn't get to meet last year 'cause they were both busy, so we decided to have dinner together this time."
Remembering something, the third year quickly turned to Akaashi with a big grin on his face. "Can you stay for dinner? It's my 'thank you' for helping me lots today and every day at school. There's gonna be meat!"
The second year setter contemplated for a moment. It seemed like it was going to be difficult to refuse, especially if his captain's sisters were anywhere as stubborn as said captain. Moreover, he was already here and being treated as a guest... Well, so long as he could catch the bus going back then it should be fine.
"Alright," Akaashi replied. "Let me send a message home."
Bokuto cheered.
In the middle of the table sat a steaming pot surrounded by several other dishes. There was a fair amount of vegetables, some meat, and of course, rice. Despite the unexpected addition of Akaashi, there was more than enough food for everyone even if you took into account Bokuto's voracious appetite.
"So this apartment is yours and your husband's?" Akaashi asked the oldest of the Bokuto siblings while pouring himself a glass of water.
"Yup!" She replied. "Kotona's staying with us because it's closer to her college."
The long-haired sister nodded solemnly, passing a plateful of beef to their baby brother. There was a lull in conversation for a few minutes, everyone else pausing to watch the spiky-haired boy scoop up a mountain of rice into his bowl.
Akaashi coughed.
"Thank you for letting me join you this evening... uh, Bokuto-san?" The second-year said to the two women at the table.
The older one, Kohana, smiled teasingly as she placed some vegetables on her younger brother's plate. "Just use Kohana, Akaashi-kun. I'm a Fujiwara now, but I'm still getting used to the name, so I'd like it if you could call me in a familiar way."
"Call me Kotona too," the younger of the sisters said. "It will get confusing between me and Ko-kun if you use Bokuto for both of us."
"Is that okay?"
"Of course," Kotona replied. "Any friend of Ko-kun's is a friend of ours."
Akaashi chewed his food slowly, looking down as dozens of possible replied flitted through his mind.
"Then," he decided, looking across the table towards the sisters once again. "Please feel free to call me Keiji in that case."
The sisters were delighted and each put a slice of meat on their youngest companion's plate. Meanwhile, Bokuto hurriedly swallowed down the mouthful of rice he had been shoveling into his face to complain. "That's not fair! I don't get to call Akaashi by first name, y'know?"
Kohana snickered. "You're just a slowpoke, Ko-kun!"
"Nee-san!" Bokuto whined.
While the two were bickering, Kotona eyed Akaashi, bringing her voice down with a mischievous smile on her face. She had seemed to be the most mature among the siblings, but apparently she was simply more adept at appearing calm.
"Keiji-kun," she whispered. "What silly things does Ko-kun get up to at school?"
The other two, of course, heard the whisper and whipped around to look at the Fukurodani setter at the same time, although the eyes of one seemed to be begging for mercy.
To be trapped amongst three Bokuto siblings, Akaashi could not have imagined a more... eventful... Valentines dinner.
Bokuto was sulking.
The normally energetic teen was crouching behind the couch, hugging his knees and looking forlorn with all the dramatic air he could muster.
Which was a lot.
"Come on," Kohana coaxed. "We're sorry Ko-kun! It was just too much fun!"
"Hmph," Bokuto grunted. "Even Kotona-nee was laughing too much!"
Kotona knelt beside the couch. "Sorry Ko-kun, come out please?"
Akaashi sighed. Who knew Bokuto could get into emo-mode outside of volleyball? He took note to avoid it in the future because dealing with it in the volleyball club was already plenty of work.
"Bokuto-san," Akaashi called. "Didn't you have something you were going to give your sisters?"
Once again, three pairs of owlish eyes were directed toward the teen before Bokuto jumped up from behind the couch and rushed toward his bag, yelling "I forgot!"
Akaashi nodded at the smiles of gratitude that were sent his way.
While their little brother rummaged through his school bag, the sisters sat down together on the living room couch. Akaashi settled down on the rug, resting his arms on the low coffee table.
Soon enough, Bokuto plopped down between his sisters, holding out identical boxes of chocolate in each hand and a large grin replacing the frown on his face. "Happy Valentines Day!"
"AWW!" They cooed, taking the boxes and hugging their brother from both sides.
"That's so sweet! I thought you would stop doing this when you got older!" Kohana cried.
"Thank you, Ko-kun..." was all Kotona could say in return.
The two had also prepared handmade Valentines chocolate for their little brother and gave it to him for dessert after that. The siblings had offered some of the extra pieces to their guest, but he politely declined.
Akaashi watched them fondly. After all, not many siblings probably had such a relationship. They remained close despite not being able to see each other so often anymore.
He may have been an extra intruder for the moment, but maybe being around to see this rare side of his captain wasn't so bad after all.
"See you again soon, Ko-kun!"
"It was nice meeting you, Keiji!"
Akaashi was being led through the wintery lamp-lit streets once again, burrowing into the scarf wrapped around his neck. They both had to return home tonight even though Bokuto surely would have been welcome to sleep over for the weekend.
The younger boy briefly wondered whether it was for his sake that his captain had chosen to do so—which was definitely convenient for him since he wasn't as familiar with the neighborhood—but ultimately decided that even he couldn't guess what Bokuto-san was thinking with 100% accuracy 100% of the time.
Speaking of Bokuto, he had been whistling happily beside Akaashi for the past few minutes.
"You and your sisters are really alike, Bokuto-san."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"C'mon, say more than that, why don't ya? How are we similar?"
"You're all ridiculously stubborn and optimistic."
"I can't tell if that's a statement or an insult!"
Akaashi laughed softly. "Well, it's not bad I suppose."
It took a little while for Akaashi to notice that Bokuto had gotten silent, but when he turned his head to look, a box was shoved into his view by his widely-grinning captain.
He quickly noticed that it was the third box that Bokuto-san had bought at the store earlier that night. It was the only one that had been different in the set, the labels showing it was much less sweeter than the other two, much like Akaashi was an outlier in the family dinner. He had assumed it may have been for the siblings' mother after finding out that his senior only had two sisters.
"Happy Valentines, Akaashi!" Bokuto said cheerfully, uncaring of the light snow that began to fall on his frosty-colored hair. "It's probably a bit weird to get a chocolate from a dude today, but I always give them out to the people that mean a lot to me. So just accept it, 'kay?"
The entire scene looked both genuine and so unbelievably endearing that it made Keiji stop in his tracks and blink for a moment. He carefully accepted the small white box with one hand, hiding a slight blush behind his scarf.
Even Akaashi was not immune to getting flustered.
Bokuto Kotaro was just that much of a brightly shining star.
"Okay," he said breathily, "... thank you, Bokuto-san."
His spiky-haired captain smiled even bigger, and they continued walking to the bus stop in comfortable silence.
"Don't expect any return chocolates from me on White Day though."
Bokuto laughed. "That's fine, Akaashi!"