Chapter Text
“Kenma!” a third year with unruly bed hair called reaching the ears of his target, the pudding haired second year.
“Mmmm, give me a second” Kenma mumbled back, as he mashed the buttons on his PSP with greater urgency.
His classmates had become accustomed to their daily routine. Every break time Kuroo, the loud popular guy from the year above, would swoop in and pick up Kenma. From there they would disappear to who knows where. Sometimes he would make small talk with them while he waited for Kenma to reach a checkpoint, and other times he would just drag him away with his nose still buried in his PSP.
Like clockwork Kuroo strolled in, took one look at the Kenma’s screen and instantly started whining as he looked through Kenma’s bag for his lunch. “Kenmaaaaaa, let’s go already. This battle takes at least 10 minutes to finish, and you’ve only just started. I’m starvingggg.”
A small tch followed by an even smaller “fine” was the only response he got before the shorter began shuffling his way out with Kuro in tow. He had turned off his PSP but as they walked out the door, he wordlessly pushed it into Kuro’s pockets. It was because Kuro’s pockets were bigger than his, no other reason.
Years of routine meant that they could walk to lunch without needing to say a word before they sat down at the designated bench. It was in the corner, next to the gym that doubled as hell for Kenma on hot summer afternoons, but the bench itself was away from most of the school's population. It was under the veranda, meaning they were shielded from both rain and shine and in Kenma’s words, “It’s not bad” which was basically godlike praise to Kuroo’s ears for getting him to sit so close to practice and with the rest of Nekoma (specifically Lev).
“Looks like we’re early,” Kuroo mumbled to himself as he brought out both of their lunches and began to chow down. He wasn’t lying about being hungry.
“Astute observation mister obvious” Kenma deadpanned as he also began picking at his food.
Kuroo’s fake reaction of offense and indignation mid bite was rewarded with smallest quirk of a smile on Kenma’s lips. Of which was only noticed by those paying close attention to the him.
“Whatcha doing?” Fukunaga inquired seemingly appearing from nowhere, eliciting a jump from the former two who were startled by the new addition to their conversation. Fukunaga raised an eyebrow, wondering if he had somehow interrupted something.
A loud snicker was heard, and in-between laughs Lev teased, “Sure, Fukunaga normally comes out of nowhere, but you didn’t need to get that shocked. You're like a pair of cats.”
Yaku slapped a heavy hand to Lev’s back as he gave his own greetings to the four of them. The rest of Nekoma shortly followed suit and loud chatter filled the air. Talk of volleyball practice, official matches, school assignments and overall banter was easy on the ears as they all ate. As they talked an ever-familiar topic reared itself as Yamamoto brought up Nekoma’s lack of a cute female manager. By Kenma’s count this was the 15th time, and he shot Kuroo a knowing look which was easily returned. They both rolled their eyes over his plightless journey of romance.
“Next year I vow that I’ll find a girlfriend, no matter what it takes!” declared Yamamoto, standing up and towering over the others to prove his point, tears in his eyes.
The first years looked to him in admiration starry eyed, whilst the rest either ignored him or let out a synchronised groan at his antics.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Yamamoto. Sit down.” Kuroo scolded, knowing that if he didn’t shut this down now, Yamamoto was only going to get more emotionally invested in his own self-pity.
However, contrary to Kuroo’s hopes Yamamoto only became more distraught as he pointed and glared, “You only say that because you’re graduating this year! Next year, you’ll be in university with all the hot girls swooning over you. You’ll probably even have an older female manager for the volleyball team!”
“Hey, hey,” Kuroo chided, “I’m still around for this year and it’s not that bad. Youth doesn’t have to just focus on romance, nationals are coming up and you’ll get to see all the other teams’ managers. Like the girls at Karasuno from the last training camp!”
The revelation brought Yamamoto’s spirits back up to its unrelentless high, being able to compete and see the cute managers? A double win. The rest of the team brimmed with excitement at the chance of winning nationals as well. After all they had practiced hard and wanted to make the most of what time they had left with the third years. Despite the lively energy Kuroo had brought to the table it reminded a certain setter of the change that was soon to come.
Carrying on, Fukunaga asked the third years about their future plans, and an impromptu Q and A session formed with Yaku and Kai being the main panel. Questions were shot left and right about different universities, courses they were taking, and potential clubs the wanted to join. Other than volleyball of course.
Despite the loudness coming from the other end of the table Kenma looked towards Kuro, his best friend since they were kids, and his very first friend of all. They had been together for all of childhood and although they had been split between schools before, this time was different. This time Kuro might not be next door. He had mentioned what universities he wanted to apply for and from Kenma’s recollection they seemed rather far from their childhood homes. The realisation sent a sinking feeling right down to his gut, but before he could even think about it Kuro met his gaze.
“Kenma you okay?” he asked softly under the chatter of everyone else. He made sure not to draw their attention.
“Yeah.” Kenma smiled back politely, going back to picking at the remainder of his food.
Kuroo noted that the small smile didn’t seem to reach his eyes. It was weird but Kuroo wasn’t one to pry. Whenever he was… off so to say, he knew that Kenma would either talk to him or knew that he was strong enough to deal with it on his own. After all they had known each other since they were kids and Kenma had always been logical. Always finding the easiest solution no matter how complex the problem. It was going to be… different without him to say the least.
His top three universities were all a while away from home and he had already talked to his parents about potentially moving away. He didn’t have the heart to tell Kenma yet, but there was a fifty-fifty chance that he already knew. He had ranted to Kenma about different universities, with pros and cons for each one. But Kenma had been deeply engrossed in whatever level he was playing, and Kuroo hadn’t asked for his undivided attention at the time. He wouldn’t be surprised if Kenma wasn’t listening, he just liked having someone there.
Huh.
The better way to express that is that he appreciated Kenma's comforting presence… that’s all.
“Kuroo,” Lev called drowning out his thoughts, “you heading back?”
“Huh? Oh,” Kuroo stuttered seeing that everyone was already going back to class, “Wait, Yaku we have the same class, don’t go without me!”
Class and volleyball practice drove by in the same way that the landscape starts blending together on road trips. Afternoon classes were the usual bore of writing down brain dead notes as the teacher’s voice droned on. Practice was the usual routine of drills combined with an adequate amount of bickering between the regular offenders.
As Kuroo was called over by coach Nekomata for his team captain duties, the rest of the team proceeded with changing out of their sweaty gym clothes. By the time Kenma was bidding the rest of his teammates goodbye Kuroo had only just finished whatever impromptu meeting coach had called him for, so he leaned against the front gate as Kuro finished up.
Well it couldn’t be helped, Kenma thought to himself as he pulled out his PSP to try and finish the level that Kuro had distracted him from at lunch. Kuro always seemed to be going out of his way for others as the “good person” he claimed to be, and despite the nagging exterior he actually did a lot for the team. Without him Nekoma would not be as cohesive as it is now. Hell, Kenma probably wouldn’t have started or continued to play volleyball without him, not that he would ever admit that to him. Kuroo’s ego was already bigger than his head could hold. The excess ego spilled out into his hair, leading to the monstrosity of a hairball he referred to as his “unique natural mohawk”. Yeah, Kuroo was already delusional enough.
“Kenma!” the familiar voice called out.
“Took you long enough, I wanna go home” Kenma complained, although the two of them knew they were empty words.
If he really wanted to go home early he would’ve left without Kuroo. They fell into step with each other, unconsciously putting the same foot in front of the other. A short walk followed by the train and then another slightly longer walk had become familiar for the pair. To the point where Kenma could play through games on his PSP or scroll through his phone without even looking up, but then again he had Kuroo there making sure he wasn’t a walking hazard to himself and everyone around them.
His PSP died in the first two minutes of leaving school grounds so Kenma whipped out his phone, holding it singlehandedly. Walking side by side, Kuroo became aware of the amount of potential obstacles that Kenma was only *just* obliviously avoiding. It would only be a matter of time before an accident was bound to happen. All he had to do was wait so he could laugh at Kenma’s downfall. Yeah, he could keep a look out for him like he always did, but every so often Kenma could fend for himself.
Well, that was what he thought. Just as Kenma was about to walk into a pole he instinctually reached out his hand in front of Kenma. His urge to be a good person was just too strong… although the rest of Nekoma would argue that Kuroo had a soft spot for the setter.
Bonk.
A small bump was all the damage that Kenma suffered as his forehead was cushioned by Kuro’s warm hand between him and the cold hard metal. He scrunched his nose in response to the sudden halt in movement. His confusion at seeing a pole so close to his face brought a smile to Kuroo’s face.
Kuroo took this opportunity to pull Kenma’s head towards his chest steering him clear from the the offending pole. Kenma’s hair tickled Kuroo’s chin and the shorter could feel the warmth of his team captain as he shifted his weight as to not completely fall onto him.
“C'mon Kenma, we can’t have you getting brain damage at such a young age.” Kuroo joked with all the nonchalance he could muster.
“Kuro,” Kenma disgruntledly responded, “you smell like sweat.”
A loud chuckle was heaved out of Kuro’s chest as he let go.The look of Kenma’s scrunched up face was one of his rare reactions, an SSR pull in gacha terms.
Kenma was reminded of why he avoided having Kuro slinging his shoulder around his shoulders after practice, so he opted for plan c for the rest of the trip.
Despite Kuro busting a gut he felt a small tug from the corner of his jacket. With his extra free hand Kenma had grabbed the corner of fabric and was using Kuro to navigate through the street.
That was all Kuroo needed to know that it was time to be the Dora the explorer to his Boots. There was the occasional “Kenma, step” to make sure he didn’t trip as he weaved them through groups of people towards the train station. It felt like he was leading a baby chick and a sense of sworn duty came over him. He took his title of Kenma’s best friend very seriously.
He looked back making sure Kenma was doing ok and saw that he was still fully engrossed with whatever was on his phone. With him looking down Kuroo could clearly see the top of the setter's head, and he almost wanted to poke the black roots on his crown. His hair fell easily from where it was tucked behind his ears and it irked Kuroo that that it was getting in his eyes. But even he knew that the bro-code wasn’t strong enough to explain why he would be tucking hair behind his best friend’s ear.
Kenma had always been fun to tease, with his loud expressions doing most of the talking in place of his quieter mouth. Said mouth was being pulled in an ever so slight frown of concentration and looked like they probably needed some lip balm. Again, buying chapstick for Kenma felt like a boundary that he shouldn’t cross but his eyes continued to linger for a moment too long anyway.
Kuroo shook his head, pulling his head from the clouds. They were friends, and the best kind too. Childhood best friends. Screw whatever social rules and norms, this level of care is completely platonic. Anybody saying otherwise is just… insecure about their masculinity and their inability to form close relationships. Yeah. Of course, why hadn't he thought of that before.
Despite Kuro looking mildly constipated (he wasn’t though that was just his facial expression), he managed to get both him and Kenma home in one piece. As the street to their childhood homes came into view a head nod from Kenma signaled that they would stop at the closest house. As they entered and toed off their shoes Kenma began to lead the way to his bedroom.
“Dad, we're home” Kenma announced, the sound echoing throughout the house.
“Welcome back. Is that Kuroo too? Are you staying for dinner?” he called back from… somewhere in the house. It was hard to tell when it was just a disembodied voice calling out.
“No, I’ll head back to my house for dinner,” Kuroo beamed back, “thanks for the offer though!”
With that they climbed the stairs before Kenma collapsed onto his bed face first, backpack and all. Kuroo followed soon after, discarding his sports bag on the floor as he spread out on the floor. Sure, everyday was the same mundane routine but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t tiring. Minutes of peace and quiet engulfed the room as the two of them took a moment of their day to relax. Kenma was admiring the comforting darkness that came with a face full of blankets when he heard movement from behind him.
If he pretended that he had fallen asleep maybe Kuro wouldn't make him do his homework yet he thought to himself. He didn't wanna do work yet. He just wanted to melt into a puddle. The shuffling sounds began drawing nearer. Kenma wished that Kuro would go back to being a slime on the floor. Kenma’s body subconsciously tensed itself as Kuroo got closer and closer. He shut his eyes as much as humanly possible, even as the inevitable approached.
“Kenma,” Kuroo questioned as he poked his shoulder, “I know you’re awake~ Time to study~”
How did he know? Kuro’s perception skills were getting better and better he thought to himself as he sat up in defeat. He could basically read Kenma like a book at this point. Or maybe Kenma was becoming too predictable, his patterns of behaviour giving him away too easily. Should he start learning how to act? Theatre sounded like a pain though, all because stupid Kuro knew him too well.
“Kenma, what are you thinking about now? You’ll get wrinkles at this rate.” Kuroo commented from eye level, poking in-between Kenma’s eyebrows.
As Kuroo stood up to his full height his knee cracked, leading him to stretch his legs before he sat back down at the short table Kenma had in the middle of his room.
Kenma sighed, “Yeah, yeah. Let’s study then.”
He had lost this time but he would get back at Kuro. He just needed to wait for the right time and then launch a counter attack. Kuro was always letting his guard down. Tut tut tut.
“Kenma stop with that scary look on your face”
Ok, maybe those acting lessons were more necessary than he thought they were.
Kenma sat opposite from Kuroo at the low table and they sorted through their respective bags pulling out needed materials. Starting to work on their homework Kenma secretly kept an eye out for Kuro. He felt like he needed to one up him somehow. Winning was always the goal and somehow whenever he was with Kuro he felt like he lost? It was a weird feeling. Like Kuro knew him better than he did. How infuriating, how did he -
“Hey, stop looking at me and write”
Whoops. Kenma’s head snapped down to continue writing the correct answers down for his worksheet. Caught again? This was getting out of hand. How was he constantly caught lacking?
“You were looking at me too” Kenma teased, sticking out his tongue. Sure it wasn’t the best comeback but it was the best one he could think of ok? Cut him some slack, he couldn’t keep taking Ls.
Despite Kenma looking down at his homework and his hair obscuring most of his face Kuroo’s eyes had caught the flash of tongue coming out to mock him. It seemed that his read blocking skills had trained his eyes to notice things even outside of volleyball games.
Without a hint of hesitation Kuroo used his longer arms to reach across the table and brush Kenma’s hair out of his face. He felt the soft thin strands between his fingers, as he threaded them through wisps of hair. Stray pieces stuck up in weird angles where his hand was and Kuroo noticed the baby hairs by the blonde’s hairline. He had gently pulled Kenma’s fringe, back away from his forehead leading to Kenma’s head following, golden eyes staring right back at Kuroo in surprise.
Sirens started going off in Kuroo’s head. Ok this was not the situation that he had had planned for. What had he planned for?! He screamed to himself. Not this obviously! This is way too….too close! Sure they were best friends but that still had the word friends in it! Play it cool. Shake it off like it’s a joke. Well it was supposed to be before Kuro realised he was in over his head.
“Did you poke your tongue out at me?”
A genius play by Kuroo. Stating the obvious, what a move.
It was a good thing Kenma’s headspace was in a totally different place. Not wanting to lose, he reached his hand out to grab Kuro by the fringe as well. He threaded his hand through the strands near the scalp making sure he had a good handful of hair in his hand. His hair was thicker than Kenma’s, feeling smooth between his fingers, but that was unrelated information to file away for later. Right now he didn’t have a plan, he had moved his hand on pure instinct. He refused to back down and lose to Kuro in this weird hypothetical one-sided match that he had created.
“So what if I did?” Kenma taunted back, squinting his eyes in an act of war.
All that came to Kuroo’s mind was…cute. This was getting out of control. The two of them were in a ridiculous situation where they were holding each other’s hair from across the table and his brain had the nerve to think that Kenma was cute? What was wrong with him? His love for cute things was getting out of hand, to the point where his best friend who was clearly not doing anything outwardly cute, was registered as adorable in his mind. Yep. That’s totally it. He’s lost the plot.
In shock of his own strange thoughts and conclusions that he had jumped to he let go of Kenma, setting him free. Kuroo’s eyes were wide in shock with his mouth was hanging slightly open. In return Kenma let go of his hair too, deeming that as a win in his books. Even though it looked like he had broken Kuro, that wasn’t his problem. All that mattered was that he was victorious, proudly shown off by the smug smile he wore.
Satisfied with the ending Kenma continued happily filling out the rest of his worksheet while Kuroo in his stupor finished up his homework on autopilot.
It seemed like daily life wasn’t so mundane and routine after all.