Strictly Observational (Kuroko no Basket, Akashi/Midorima)

[shingetsu]

A/N: It’s been a while since my last sneezefic. And since I’m more of an anime fan now, I’ll try my hand at that.

--

Akashi Seijuurou was not an information specialist like Momoi Satsuki was. He had a penchant for observation, though some may consider it an obsession. But in actual reality, he had little choice in the matter, given that the smallest of details struck out from halfway across the court, and the recent development of his eyes took his harmless habit of observation to a whole nother level.

His Emperor Eye were a gift, yes, one that he could not seem to return, or at least filter what he can and cannot see.

Or at least that’s what Akashi passed as a reasonable excuse for the amount of times his brain honed in on his teammates sneezing, or almost sneezing, as per the situation taking place before him at this very moment. It was all strictly observational, of course.

“Hhh..hh..The second string’s..hahh…match against…Hhh-huh…” Midorima Shintarou, his second in command, classmate, what he’d consider in common terminology to be his ‘best friend’, and current source of an equal amount of frustration and excitement.

Akashi closed his eyes momentarily to try and phrase what he could say to his ailing friend.

‘Shintarou, you will sneeze for me’ No, it was too self-serving. This was not about Akashi, after all. Not at all.

‘Shintarou, you will sneeze’ Too demanding. Shintarou was like a rabbit, flinchingly easy to scuttle away.

‘Shintarou, sneeze’ Now that sounded slightly better. But only slightly.

“Akashi--ah..hh.. are you listening?” Shintarou pressed against his nose with taped fingers, under the guise of fiddling with his glasses. And Akashi couldn’t exactly despise his powers of observation for being what they were.

“Always, Shintarou” Akashi spared him a benign smile. “Please continue”

As Shintarou struggled to do just that with a straight face, Akashi did the internal equivalent of sighing. Shintarou rarely sneezed, if ever. Akashi vaguely remembered him sneezing once in the showers, a quiet ‘Hehsh!’ muffled by the spray of water, Akashi wonders now if he had imagined it.

“And the score…Hehh--!” Shintarou gasped, all pretenses for naught as his face squirmed into a helpless grimace, and finally, the release…

…that was not forthcoming anytime soon. Shintarou had somehow, against all odds, managed to prevent himself from sneezing, and Akashi’s Emperor eye could only see more of the repeated pattern in the near future.

Akashi sighed, less internally this time.

“Shintarou…” He ventured, because surely not even Shintarou could hope to pretend that nothing was out of order now. He gave his head one last chance of properly phrasing his thoughts. ‘Please sneeze, repeatedly, very many times, preferably uncovered, uncontrollably, desperately, in my general direction--’

Akashi cut that line of thought before it could veer into something any more unacceptable than it already was. As a final resort, he reached into his pocket, and yielded his own embroidered silk handkerchief to Shintarou, whose cheeks dusted red, on top of the pink that had been caused by his efforts to avoid sneezing. Which, considering how Shintarou had a skin tone lighter than even Ryouta’s, was a startling, if not endearing, effect.

“…Thank you. Excuse me”

And with that he turned as much as his crossed leg sitting position would allow him (Akashi had no doubt he would have done a complete 180 several feet away if he had been standing), and stifled a single sneeze, right into the silk folds.

“Hhehtsh!” The tickle must’ve constantly been on the surface for him to surrender to it that easily. Not that Akashi would’ve noticed details like that if it weren’t for his sixth sense, as it were.

Shintarou seemed to have less reservations about blowing his nose than he did with sneezing, though he still did it with the sort of polite quietness that only he could pull off. Three and a half blows later, Shintarou finally resurfaced.

“I trust you feel better?” Akashi supposed. Shintarou once again exceeded Akashi’s expectations of how further red his face could get.

“Yes, thank you, again. I shall return the…” He cleared his throat in obvious discomfort “…after I’ve washed it”

“As you wish” Telling Shintarou that he wouldn’t mind the unwashed version was probably not the best of decisions. Maybe he should put off any important decisions until after he had calmed down somewhat.

“By the way, Akashi, you haven’t moved a shogi piece for a while now” Shintarou smirked, now that his minor crisis was over and done with “I take it it’s finally my win today?”

Akashi smirked back. Shintarou didn’t need to know he’d already won.

This round, that is.

--

A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please let me know what you think of it, I’d sure appreciate it.

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

Awwww. The cute dear trying not to sneeze.

Just perfect

[LeapYearKisses]

Mmm, Kuroko no Basuke. I'm behind, so I don't know too much about Akashi, but this was really great anyway! Especially this part:

“Shintarou…” He ventured, because surely not even Shintarou could hope to pretend that nothing was out of order now. He gave his head one last chance of properly phrasing his thoughts. ‘Please sneeze, repeatedly, very many times, preferably uncovered, uncontrollably, desperately, in my general direction--’

HNNGH. I'm totally with you there, Akashi! Midorima is a wonderful target since he's so contained all the time, muahaha. Thanks for sharing!