Chapter Text
For the hundredth time that day, his brow twitched. Having spent the entire night before studying for the unit exam in literature, Akaashi was already exhausted when he arrived at morning practice. In contrast Bokuto had apparently chosen that day to be especially loud, complaining about the littlest things and then sulking like a child. To make matters worse, when lunch came around, he found that he had not brought food... or money.
By the time afternoon practice had begun Akaashi's patience was stretched paper thin. It was also made loud and clear that Bokuto had no plans on letting up on his day long tantrum. Desperate, Akaashi looked to the third years for guidance, but they all averted their eyes. Even Sarukui, ever helpful, only shook his head and offered a simple thumbs-up before returning to practice. Groaning, he turned away from the team and stalked away to the nearest bench.
As if on cue, Bokuto bounded over and ruffled his hair, ignoring the displeased groan Akaashi replied with, and began a lecture about being too lazy and not having enough spirit. Or something like that; Akaashi had long since learnt to tune him out, but Bokuto's tone was exceptionally loud and obnoxious today.
Again Akaashi's brow twitched as he took a deep breath. He knew he should be polite because Bokuto was his senpai as well as captain and it would be improper if he blew up in the middle of practice and-
"Aren't you listening? Get up lazybones!"
Akaashi felt something in him snap and shot up, causing Bokuto to jump back in surprise. "You're so goddamned annoying! Don't you ever shut up?!" Akaashi shouted, too taken by anger to be shocked at his volume.
At his words Bokuto's face fell, obviously not expecting his kouhai to actually shout at him. "Akaashi…"
"NO!” Akaashi interrupted, “Don't you have any tact? Can't you see that I can't deal with your shit today!?"
Bokuto's lips twitched into a frown and his eyebrows furrowed as he took a step towards the distressed boy. He knew he should have held more sympathy for Akaashi and he would have tried to be more diplomatic on a better day, but he couldn't bring himself to summon the patience to. Instead anger flared in his veins and simmered in his throat as bitter venom, "Oh yeah? Well maybe you're not the only one who can't deal with shit today!"
"What shit!" Akaashi took a step towards Bokuto too, jabbing him in the chest with an outstretched finger. "I'm the one who has to deal with your shit day in and day out! At least I don't act like a loudmouthed brat!" He knew somewhere in the back of his mind that he would regret shouting at Bokuto in the morning, but was too caught up in the moment, every repressed instance of anger and frustration of the day coming to light.
With a growl, Bokuto grabbed Akaashi's collar, "Well no one's forcing you to deal with me!" he spat before releasing the other boy roughly.
Akaashi stumbled back and glared at Bokuto. For a long moment the two stared at each other, not mindful of the fact that the gym was completely silent, entranced by their argument.
Then he grunted and turned away, stomping out of the gym.
In the wake of Akaashi’s exit, the gym was left in stunned silence. Not even Konoha dared to make one of his snide remarks.
Bokuto shook himself out of his stupor quickly and clapped his hands, the smile usually plastered on his face was nowhere to be found. Instead it replaced by an authoritative look rarely seen on the captain’s face, "Come on guys get to practice!" he boomed.
Immediately the first and second years jumped into action, the third years following after a moment of hesitation. Bokuto made no move to join the rest of the team in their exercise, preferring to watch from the sidelines. Another half hour in it was clear Akaashi wasn't coming back, at least for the rest of practice. Huffing, Bokuto brought his hands up to slap his cheeks to shake him out of the funk he found himself in. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
He was angry and frustrated at Akaashi for blowing up at him, but he was also angry and frustrated at himself for driving Akaashi away. His vice-captain had never walked out on him before. No matter how much Akaashi rolled his eyes at Bokuto and insulted him, both of them knew that he didn’t really mean it. But his voice earlier was filled with so much resentment… Bokuto rubbed roughly at his eyes and the frustrated tears threatening to leak out, groaning in frustration.
"Koutarou…"
Bokuto blinked and saw his long-time friend standing right beside him. "What's up Tatsuki?"
"Are you okay?"
Shrugging, he sighed, "No difference from yesterday I guess."
Washio nodded, resting a hand on Bokuto's shoulder. "Talk to us, okay?"
Bokuto smiled, giving him a thumbs up, "You don't have to tell me twice to talk!"
With that, Washio walked back to practice. Behind him, Bokuto let his smile fall as he sat down onto a bench and bent forward, cradling his head and rocking back and forth slightly. His hands moved to cover his ears as he hummed, trying to take a moment to block everything out.
It was all just a little too much and really really wasn't what he needed right now.