Chapter Text
Kuroo knew better to pry at Kenma. One wrong question and he'd snap closed as a shell. So, he didn’t; he piled on the fried rice and topped it with some chicken. He watched out of the corner of his eye Kenma moving around the table a bit, not really knowing what he wanted to get. He passed a rice container to him
“Here have this.” Kenma nodded and put a small portion of rice and chicken on his plate. Kuroo went up the steps to Kenma room. He heard Kenma start to put the leftovers away before he followed.
Kuroo immediately went to the bed. He kept his plate of food balanced on his lap as he wiggled a little trying to get a comfortable spot. Kenma set the laptop down in front of them. He settled in, plate on his lap and clicking to open Netflix.
“What do you want to watch?” He asked just as Kuroo shoved a fork full of rice in his mouth. He tried talking through the food in his mouth but Kenma cut him off, mischief on his face. “Romcom is a great choice.”
Kuroo swollen looking over at him, “Meany.”
Kenma ignored him scrolling, “27 dresses you say, another great choice Kuroo.”
Kuroo throw his head back in a grown, “We’ve seen this movie like ten times.”
“And it gets better every time.” He popped a bit of chicken into his mouth, eyes on the screen.
Neither of them could focus on the movie, too caught up in their own thoughts. Kenma was worried about Kuroo knowing too much. He’d been sloppy and was still a bit wound up, the need to binge still itching at his as he paced his eating. Kuroo was a ball of stress, so much going through his mind. Kenma noticed the fast pace of his eating and the tense way he sat and put his own baggage away to help his friend. Just his friend, he thought sadly.
“Ya know, that dress isn't super ugly or anything, the other is though definitely.” Kuroo said eye focused on the screen, putting his fork for another bite, “So glad you got this, I really needed something grease.”
Kenma looked between the screen and Kuroos face, the stress in his expression made more clear in the shadows the laptop's light threw in the dark room. Kenma tentatively pressed pause on the movie.
“Kuroo.” Kenma said softly, “Do you want to talk about it?”
Kuroo tore his eyes away from the screen focusing on Kenma's. He put his fork down deflating a bit.
“The usual” He sighed and wiggled a bit on the bed, “They are mad about the test scores for my honors literary class.” He started to prickly a bit, running his hands through his already messy hair. “I got one of the top scores in the class but I wasn’t the best so obviously I'm slacking off and I'm going to fail out of school and work in a convenience store or something I don’t know, they yell the same shit at me.” He shoved a fork full of rice into his mouth crumpling a little into himself. Around the food, he mumbled, “I don’t see what’s so wrong with working at a corner store anyway.”
Kenma waited quietly, his full attention on Kuroo as he swallowed his food.
He shook his head a bit, trying to stay calm, “Nothing is ever enough for them ya know? I put in all these hours studying and I do well on the court and I've already have schools trying to win me over and just.” He slumped down, defeated “I’m never good enough.”
Kenma hesitated for a moment before he laid his hand softly on Kuroo's arm, trying to put all his feelings into his touch. “You did great.” His soft voice hanging in the air.
Kuroo looked over at him, shocked. Kenma usually didn’t say much when he vented.
Kenma seemed to have shocked himself a bit too, but he kept going. “On your test, good job on your hard work. It's amazing how much you do, how hard you try. You're an amazing person and I lo-” Kenma clammed up immediately, looked down at his mostly empty plate, light from the laptop illuminating his face in the darkness. “admire. I mean, that's something I've always admired about you.” Kenma was glad the room was dark because his cheeks were getting a bit warm.
Kuroo was stunned, a strange pulling in his chest. He smiled at Kenma, “Thank you, I think this is the first time you're ever complimented me.” He said in a teasing tone.
Kenma ducked his head “Well don’t get used to it. I wanna watch the movie now.” He restarted the movie, the sounds of a drunken Jenny and the Jets karaoke filled the air.
Kuroo took there mostly empty plates and reached over a bit to set it on the desk next to Kenma's bed. Kuroo sat back, settling against his friend. He felt all the negative emotions that had been eating away at him subside. He tried to focus back on the movie but he found himself focusing more on where his arm and knee touched Kenma. He wrote it off as it being about how nice it was to be around him and his warmth.
Kuroo woke up early, the sunlight slipping through the blinds of the window, hitting him right in the face. He tried to turn away from the light and get up but a tug on his shirt stopped him, Kenma was curled into his chest, his own arm having been resting on him. Kuroo felt a pang in his chest as he looked over Kenma. His face was soft, breathing through his slightly opened mouth, his hair, messy, sprayed over the bed. Kuroo watched him the gentle rise and fall of his chest, his eyes softening. For a few moments, he felt so peaceful before he caught himself. It hit him that he was creepily watching his friend sleep. He face went red instantly and he panicked, pulling out of Kenma’s hands and seating himself upright.
The sudden movement woke Kenma up and he cutely rubbed his eyes.
Kuroo panicked a bit at his thought process, kicking himself for thinking his friend was ‘cute’. “Good morning! Time to get up for the day.” He lopped over Kenma and out of the bed popping up hands on his hips heart racing.
Kenma growned and rolled over to grab his phone. “Uh Kuroo, it’s six in the morning and we’re not do till way later. ‘S too early.” He curled into his sheets, digging his head into the pillow.
“Whatever sleepyhead. I’m going to get my day started at least. I’ll come get you when I'm done ok” He said, still high strung. He grabbed his bag at the foot of Kenma's bed and left the room.
Out in the hallway, he rested his back against the door, hand over his racing heart. He couldn’t understand his own feelings. He’d been over at Kenma’s house and had even shared a bed with him before but for some reason, this felt different. It felt so-he struggled to find the right word, intimate maybe?
Bag in hand, he went to get towels out of the hall closet and went into the bathroom, hoping a quick rinse would calm him down. As he sat under the spray, thinking, it hit him, like a ton of bricks. He was in love with Kenma. He was really in love with his best friend. His eyes went wide, and he was stuck rooted to the spot not even noticing the water running cold.
After a bit, he snapped out of it and turned off the water. He got into the clothes he’d packed and went down to the kitchen glad that Kenma was still asleep. His brain felt stuck like he’d malfunctioned. He was a quick thinker, and a sly guy. He prided himself on being good at reading situations and knowing the feelings of others but couldn’t even figure out his own.
He rubbed his face, trying to put it out of his mind. He went to gather ingredients for some pancakes but what he found in the fridge stopped him in his tracks. It was packed to the brim with food. Tons of take-out leftovers just like last night, but more from other places too. There was a ton of ready to eat meals from the convenience store. Just tons of food stored away. There was just no way that two people could eat this much, it just wasn’t possible. He closed the fridge, still wide-eyed and confused. He tried to shake it off, thinking that there must be some explanation for the stockpile. Kenma’s mom usually wasn’t home, they may just buy in bulk.
He scratched his head and started looking through the surprisingly bare carboards. They didn’t have any real food. He was running out of ideas as to what to make.
Finally, Kuroo turned to the pantry that usually only held soup. He opened it to revile a ton of garbage bags. Confused he open the door completely and one tipped over spilling a bit on the floor. What he saw horrified him. It was a mass of snack wrappers. Candy’s and chip bags stuffed full. The sheer amount of food was startling, and he couldn’t understand why it was stored. There was just so much stacked in there that Kuroo couldn’t ignore it.
He was brought out of his thoughts by a load bump upstairs and a racing of feet coming closer. He quickly shoved the fallen bag back into the pantry and closed the door. He stepped away from it, trying to hide his shock.
“Kuroo!” Kenma said loudly, looking disheveled. “It’s ok, I’ll make us food. You didn’t go the cabinets, yet did you?” He sounded so panicked Kuroo shock his head.
Kuroo knew that if he said anything now he’d be pushing too hard and Kenma would make excuses. He wanted to get the truth he’d have to figure it out himself. He just waved it off. “Ah, not really, I got lazy. Anyway, hurry up slow poke.”
Kenma passed him walking into the kitchen. “We have cereal, I’ll make us bowls, you can go upstairs." He was still tense, unsure and kicking himself for not thinking this through and hiding his stash. Kuroo got the message and walked toward the stairs.
“Alright.”
Kenma didn’t take long to follow him up to his room. They got comfortable on his floor and turned the tv on. They ignored it as they ate.
“So, what do you want to do before afternoon practices?” Kuroo asked around a mouth full of food.
“Play video games and probably go back to sleep.”
Kuroo shook his head. “Wrong answer. Ok, how about a movie? There's that cool sci-fi one, I’ll look up times.” Kenma resigned himself to a day of being tugged around by Kurro and found that he wasn’t
too upset about the idea.
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That afternoon they headed from the movie to practice, stopping at the house to pick up their bags. They walked across the nearly empty schoolyard, the only other people there being the baseball team.
Kuroo unlocked the gym door and they entered. They, well, Kuroo readied the gym, joined shortly by their manager. Like all practice, the other trickled in around the start time. It went as normal, moving through drills.
Kuroo took a break from serving to walk over to the middle of the court and lean against the wall, watching his teammates and seeing any holes in their play. He found himself watching Kenma, mind jumbled up.
“If your mind was going any faster steam would be coming out of your ears.” Kuroo jumped a little and turned his head to look at Yaku. He leaned back against the wall next to him, staring at the others playing. “So whats on your mind?”
Kuroo turned back and didn’t take his eyes off the court simply trying to mask his feelings. “I’m just doing what a captain should, see where we can improve.”
“You finally realized hu,” Yaku said, completely ignoring Kuroo.
Kuroo felt his stomach drop a bit, knowing exactly what Yaku was talking about. “I’m not sure what you're-“
“That you love Kenma.” Yaku said cutting off Kuroo. “What are you gonna do it?”
Kuroo paused for a moment before he let his shoulders drop a bit. “I don’t know yet.”
Yaku made a noise. “Well, you're going to tell him of course and,” He stopped suddenly, eyes trained on Kuroo’s face, who was still turned to the court. “That’s not all that’s on your mind.”
Kuroo finally looked away from the court at Yaku. He let his mask slip a bit as he said: “I can always trust you?”
Yaku nodded “Of course, with anything.”
Kuroo sighed, shoulders sagging a bit. He said in a low voice, “There’s something, wrong with Kenma. It’s just, well.” He ran his hand through his hair, struggling to find the words. “It’s like, he’s hoarding food. I was at his house and he had a ton of take-out, like enough for the whole team, and he looked so shaken up about it.”
Yaku’s eyes widened but he kept his physical composure “You sure he wasn’t having anyone over or anything?” Kuroo nodded. Yaku clenched his jaw, crossing his arms he said simply “I think I might know whats going on but I can’t be sure. I’ll text you about it after practice ok?” Kuroo wished he could calm down but with the serious look on Yaku’s face, it only made him more on edge. “Anyway, I have to get back,” Kuroo watched as Yaku pushed off the wall. “Lev, time for receives!” Lev straightened after having spiked the ball, whining.
Kuroo straightened too and walked over to Kenma. “So, I think it’s time for you to practice blocking.” Kuroo’s chest tightened at Kenma’s cute pout. “No excuses."