Chapter Text
Kenma had no idea why he let Kuroo talk him into this.
“Come on we’re almost back to my place, you can keep it up!” Kuro called out with way too much energy for the early morning. Kenma slowed his pace mostly out of spite in response, and Kuro sent him a disapproving look. “You’re never going to outpace Lev at this rate Kenma.”
“What’s even the point?” Kenma replied with a huff. “Lev would just match any pace I’d manage to get up to with his stupidly long legs.”
“Ah, but if you can keep up with the rest of the team, Lev will definitely be distracted and bother you less.”
And wasn’t that the dream. But Kenma wasn’t sure that all this effort was worth it.
All this effort being joining Kuroo once a week on his morning runs.
And while once a week didn’t sound that bad, it was really the morning part that was draining Kenma the most. The route that was usually only a 20-minute run for Kuroo had turned into a 30-minute run for Kenma. And while his time has gotten a little better, it wasn’t enough that he was getting his truly desired amount of sleep.
But any complaints he could make about that would only be met with scolding by Kuroo about how late he stayed up playing games.
So, there he was, running in the morning with Kuroo around their neighborhood before taking the train to school for morning volleyball practice, attempting to stay awake in all his classes, and finishing his day with even more volleyball. When had his life turned into this?
And apparently his facial expressions were much harder to get control over when he was exhausted from both lack of sleep and lack of physical energy.
“That is quite the pout you’ve got going there,” Kuroo said with a smirk. Kenma gave him a truly scathing glare, and Kuroo returned it with a whistle. “If you’ve got enough energy to glare at me like that, you’ve got enough to quicken your pace!”
With that, Kuroo started pulling ahead and Kenma bit back an exasperated groan.
He only started running faster because he wanted to get home sooner rather than later.
-
Kenma rested his forehead against his desk and cursed Kuroo’s affinity for sports. Kenma did realize that while volleyball was what caught Kuroo’s eye, any sport would have yielded the same results: sweaty skin, sore muscles, and overly energetic idiot teammates.
“Kenma-san, do you think coordinating what we eat for lunch will help us understand each other even better?”
Speaking of idiot teammates.
“Were you even invited into this classroom?” Kenma heard Taketora ask from his place behind him, and he himself refrained from pointing out that this wasn’t Taketora’s classroom either. He would bet money that he wasn’t even sitting in the seat properly and was instead propped up on the desk.
“I doubt either of you were invited to bother Kenma.”
At the sound of Kuroo’s voice, Kenma finally lifted his head up. The other boy was settling backwards into the desk directly in front of him and pulling out a truly ridiculously sized lunch.
And it didn't even come close to the size of Lev’s.
“But I need to become closer to Kenma in order to fulfil my role as ace,” Lev complained, dodging the hit Taketora – who was sitting on the desk behind him, 10 points for Kenma – aimed for his head. Kenma blinked at the improvement of Lev’s reflexes. Maybe he’d seem less annoying if his skills kept getting better. “But don’t worry captain, not as close as you two are!”
And nope, Lev actually managed to annoy Kenma even more.
“Right,” Kuroo muttered as he scratched the back of his neck. Kenma’s gaze followed the motion, but he resisted the urge to narrow his eyes. It was a nervous tick of his, but one of his least obvious ones. Kenma could deal with that.
“Oh Kuroo-san, I just remembered!” Lev said, digging through his bag and pulling out a sealed envelope. Kenma spared it half a glance before pulling his handheld out from from his pocket and placing it on his desk while he waited for his game to load up. “Someone in my class heard me talking about being the ace for the volleyball team and asked me to give this to you!”
“Ahhh looks like a confession,” Taketora said, leaning over to simultaneously grab the letter from Lev and hit the Russian over the head for his ace comment. Kenma was almost impressed by his coordination. “Captain, you’ve even got first years pining after you? How is that even fair?”
Kenma grimaced as Kuroo responded with a too loud laugh. His eyes were wide and smile strained as he nearly jumped to reach over Kenma to take the letter from Taketora. Kenma saw in what felt like slow motion as jostled his desk and everything on it – including the open drink Lev had placed had on his desk. His eyes widened as he took in his handheld placed next to it, and he snatched it up before it could be damaged – but not before hissing out an enraged, “Kuroo!”
Which was maybe a little unjustified since it was Lev who left the drink there, but Kuroo shouldn’t be leaning over him like that anyway!
Kuroo looked down at Kenma at the sound of his name, and Kenma tilted his head back to shoot him an annoyed glare.
Kuroo’s own eyes widened at Kenma’s gaze, and he watched as a flush started to spread across his cheeks. Kenma blinked in surprise, his annoyance shifting to confusion, and Kuroo opened his mouth, but no words seemed to be coming out.
“Kuroo-san! My drink!”
Kuroo jolted in shock at Lev’s shout and his knee collided with Kenma’s desk. He let out a string of curses, but Kenma was too distracted by his desk nearly toppling over to comment on the colorful choice of words. To his own surprise, Kenma shot his arms out and righted the desk before it could fall fully and cause an even greater commotion. That didn’t stop half of Kuroo’s lunch from falling to the floor, and Lev’s drink completely emptying around them.
Kenma eyebrows climbed high on his head as he and everyone around him turned to gape in disbelief at their captain.
“Uh, I’ll go get some paper towels,” Kuroo said numbly as he took in the mess. Kenma fought the urge to throw something at him. Kuroo waited another beat, and then snatched the note from Taketora’s limp grip. “And this is probably not even a confession. I don’t even know any first-years beyond the ones who are on the team anyway, and who uses someone else to deliver confessions nowadays?”
It did not escape Kenma’s notice that the entire time he was speaking, Kuroo kept glancing over at him. He resisted sighing at Kuroo’s behavior, and simply watched as Kuroo tried to avoid the Lev’s and Taketora’s poking and prodding as he made his way to leave the class to go get paper towels.
Kenma wasn’t an idiot. And he especially wasn’t an idiot when it came to Kuroo.
He was pretty sure Kuroo had developed a crush on him.
So far it had been mostly inconvenient.
He wasn’t sure when it started, only that recently Kuroo had become more fidgety in Kenma’s presence. He was always watching him from the corner of his eyes, flinching minutely if Kenma caught him, and laughing just a touch too loudly and too nervously at any mention of romance when Kenma was around. It honestly was barely even noticeable most days, but on others there were situation like these.
Kenma grimaced as the puddle of Lev’s spilled drink inched closer to his foot.
Not that Kenma was being purposely callous about the situation. It was just that Kuroo’s infatuation would pass soon enough – like they always did – and Kenma didn’t need to spend time dwelling on a crush that was likely to only last a couple more weeks.
It was better for him to ignore Kuroo's lingering stares until his attention turned to someone else. And Kenma had been doing a good of doing just that.
But situations like these just made it harder for everyone.
“But Kenma-san that was a good catch!” Lev said, pulling Kenma back into the conversation. “I thought for sure the desk was going to fall over.”
“Yeah, when did your reflexes get so sharp?” Taketora teased, eyeing the game in his hand. “If you name some video game, I might actually give them a try.”
“Oh, it must be your morning runs with Kuroo-san!” Lev exclaimed, and Kenma turned to shoot Kuroo a disbelieving look, but he wasn’t there. He’d probably managed to slip away to grab those paper towels. Coward.
“You’ve been going on morning runs with the captain?” Taketora asked, leaning around to try and catch Kenma’s eyes. “Voluntarily?”
“It’s for a good reason.”
“What reason?”
“To avoid Lev.”
Taketora was still laughing by the time Kuroo returned and began cleaning up the mess he’d made. Kenma begrudgingly grabbed a couple of paper towels to help clean his desk while Kuroo kneeled on the floor, and he refused to acknowledge the appreciative look Kuroo sent his way.
“Kenma-san you shouldn’t be avoiding me, you should be helping me,” Lev whined, swinging his feet and nearly kicking Kuroo in the head. “Oh, you should let me join the morning runs with you and Kuroo.”
“No.”
Kenma blinked.
He had meant to say just as much, but he was surprised that Kuroo beat him to the punch with a much sterner refusal than he himself had been planning.
Kuroo looked just as surprised himself.
“The only reason this works is because we live right next to each other,” Kenma said quickly before Lev or Taketora could further question Kuroo’s behavior. “It wouldn’t really work for us to go run to you, and then have to run home right after.”
Kenma kept his eyes on Lev as he took in his answer and made a point not to glance at Kuroo as he rose from his spot on the floor and went to toss the dirty paper towels away.
“That makes sense,” Lev conceded, and Kenma exhaled in relief. He went back to tuning out what Lev was saying as he finally pulled out his own lunch.
Kuroo returned to this seat in front of him with a half-smile, and Kenma remembered that he’d lost most of his lunch due to his own clumsiness. With a half-hearted sigh, he pushed his bento box towards the middle of his desk and gestured at Kuroo.
Kuroo squinted at him, and Kenma rolled his eyes as he took a bite of rice. Pleased, Kuroo shot Kenma an overwhelmingly fond look before he took careful bites from the bento and interjected into whatever conversation Lev was having with Taketora.
Kenma was very grateful Kuroo couldn’t see the way his ears were burning behind his hair.
-
They were nearing the halfway mark in their run when the sun began peeking out, and Kenma nearly hissed at the sight. It was an already unseasonably warm day, and the last thing he needed was the sun to further ruin his already miserable run.
“You cannot be brooding this early on when there is a beautiful sunrise on the horizon.”
“Can you even see the sunrise with half your hair on your face?”
“I’ve never been able to see a single sunrise because my hair covers the right side of my face; Kenma, you know that’s a sore spot for me.”
Kenma let out a startled laugh and tried ducking his head down and out of Kuroo’s line of sight.
The action didn’t stop him from catching Kuroo’s pleased expression at the sound, or the stab of bitterness that came with it.
Kenma would be more pulsed about this newfound crush if it wasn’t for the fact that Kuroo seemed to have a new crush every other day.
Kenma internally winced.
Okay that wasn’t fair.
But Kuroo was an undeniably flirty person, whether he intended to be or not. He attracted the attention of others and was not above returning that attention in full. Not that Kenma faulted Kuroo for that – he was allowed to flirt and mingle and have crushes and he was allowed to let those feelings fade as quickly as he wanted.
But Kenma wasn’t about to delude himself into thinking his friend was serious about whatever infatuation he had for him. He also wasn’t going to risk losing his best friend for said infatuation.
Besides, Kenma wasn’t even sure if he liked Kuroo like that. Sure, they were best friends, and Kenma trusted Kuroo more than anyone else in his life, and he was self-aware enough to realize that sometimes his eyes lingered on Kuroo’s arms a touch too long. But Kenma also knew that being friends with someone who was objectively attractive didn’t automatically mean that there were genuine romantic feelings involved.
So Kenma simply pushed any thoughts about Kuroo that lingered on just the off side of platonic into his Feelings Not to Be Examined Box™ and continued his relationship with Kuroo as he always had. And he would continue to do so until Kuroo moved on from his crush on Kenma, and then everything would go back to normal.
Kenma felt a twinge at his chest at the thought, and immediately looked to see if Kuroo caught the way his chest hiccupped at the feeling. But when he glanced up at his friend, Kuroo was looking down at Kenma with a smile so soft that Kenma had the sudden all-encompassing urge to kiss it off of his face.
Kenma then promptly tripped over his own feet.
“Kenma!”
He caught himself easily on his hands and knees, though he did wince at the sting of his palms. Kenma let himself stay like that just a little longer, using his hair to cover his bewildered expression because thoughts like that were not common for him. At all.
Stupid Kuroo and his stupid crush getting Kenma’s stupid feelings all mixed up.
“Kenma?”
At the second call of his name, Kenma finally lifted his head and moved to sit back on his heels. However, as soon as he started leaning back, a sharp stinging shot across his knees. He nearly tilted over at the shock of the pain but was luckily caught by Kuroo.
He instinctively looked up, but Kuroo’s own eyes were trained on Kenma’s knees.
Kenma’s currently scraped and bleeding knees.
“Shit.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Kenma sighed, adjusting with a small wince so that he was sitting back with his knees pointed up. “You wouldn’t happen to have a band-aid or two hidden in that hair of yours?”
“Cute,” Kuroo snarked, but it lacked its usual heat. He gently pulled at Kenma’s ankle to try and straighten his leg, and Kenma couldn’t bite back a gasp as pain shot up his leg. Kuroo immediately released his leg, and frowned with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Well, there’s no way you’re running the rest of the way back,” Kuroo said with a sigh. Kenma tried not to let it show how very okay he was with that. Kuroo gaze lingered on Kenma’s legs for a couple more beats before shifting close enough so that his face was only a couple breaths away from Kenma’s own.
“Let me carry you back.”
“I would rather bleed out.”
“Okay you can’t be that bad if you have this much attitude.”
“My ability to insult you is actually fueled by how much of a dork you are, not my own physical energy.”
“…y’know I kinda like it when you’re mean to me.”
“You’re so embarrassing,” Kenma groaned, pushing Kuro away by his face. Kuroo laughed and reached down to pull Kenma up to his feet.
Kenma hissed at the stinging of his knee, and then grimaced as he felt blood trail down his leg.
Gross.
“Okay, seriously, you should let me carry you back,” Kuroo said, and Kenma’s eyes widened at how much more serious he sounded.
“Some scraped knees are hardly a reason for you to carry anyone anywhere.”
“I’m not talking about anyone, I’m talking about you,” Kuro insisted, and Kenma thanked the heat for covering the flush he knew he wouldn’t be able to explain away. “Besides, would you rather slowly limp all the way back to your house in this heat, or would you rather get there quickly without having to move a muscle.”
Kenma squinted his eyes at him.
“Are you implying that you carrying me would be faster than me simply walking back.”
“Absolutely,” Kuroo replied without hesitation. Kenma would be impressed with his confidence if he wasn’t a little insulted. Kuroo extended his arms out in front of him and lowered himself into a crouch with an expectant grin. “Now come on!”
“I refuse to allow you to bridal carry me.”
“Piggyback then?”
Kenma released a long-suffering sigh.
“Fine.”
He refused to admit he was endeared by the way Kuroo’s face lit up.
Making his way behind Kuroo, Kenma begrudgingly stretched his arms over Kuroo’s shoulders and pressed his chest against his back. Before he could adjust further, Kuroo grabbed the back of his thighs and hoisted him up. Surprised, Kenma tightened his hold on around Kuro’s neck with a hiss and squeezed his legs around his waist.
“Please don’t suffocate the person trying to transport you home.”
“Then don’t pick me up without warning,” Kenma snapped, though he did loosen his hold a bit.
“I was just trying pick you up before you changed your mind!”
Kenma gave a frustrated huff in response, and Kuroo seemed to take that as his cue to start walking. Hitching his chin over Kuroo’s shoulders, he peered down to get a better look at his knees. He tried making out if they were really as bad as they looked, or if it was just the blood exaggerating it. Or maybe it was the amount of blood that was worrying itself.
Kenma grimaced at the thought.
“As soon as we get home, we’re going to clean and bandage your knees, and probably get some ice,” Kuroo said, practically reading Kenma’s mind. “You might even need to sit out practice today…”
And normally Kenma would perk up at the thought of no volleyball practice. But they had the Tokyo qualifiers coming up, and Kenma actually really wanted to go to nationals, both to have a real game against Shouyo and because it was Kuroo’s last year to make that happen.
And yep, Kuroo’s impending graduation definitely goes into the Feelings Not to Be Examined Box™.
“I can still practice,” Kenma replied, ignoring his last thought. “Me and Lev still need to sync up better, and you need to perfect your personal time difference attack.”
“Our personal time difference attack,” Kuroo corrected with a grin. Kenma turned his head away from Kuroo, but he’s pretty sure he still caught the way his face heated. “But we can work on that when your knees are better.”
“Look, we’ll put band-aids on my knees, wrap them in bandages, and put my knee guards on over that,” Kenma said as he tilted his face even further away from Kuroo’s gaze. He was not about to say this to his face. “I want to practice alright. Just…don’t make me do any flying dives or seal walks.”
Kenma knew the risks that came with admitting he actually wanted to practice volleyball, even if it was less for the sport and more for his friends. But however Kuroo chose to lord that over him would be better than him feeling guilty over a stupid accident.
“Seems really convenient that those are the only things won’t be able to do,” Kuroo replied, and Kenma detected the tease in his voice, but refused to turn and see his expression.
“And no running either.”
Kuroo just chuckled and hiked Kenma up higher on his back.
“And to think it was situations like these we were trying to avoid by getting you out running more,” Kuroo said with a wry smile. Kenma snorted into Kuroo’s shirt.
While the incident with the cat stuck in a tree had been an enlightening experience for Kenma about Lev, he was not trying to encourage anymore accidents that would lead to a bloody nose. And knowing Lev, there was bound to be one right around the corner.
Although, given recent events, maybe the reason for bloodshed fell more on Kenma’s shoulders.
“At this rate, you’re going to be stuck running with Lev til you graduate,” Kuroo joked, and usually Kenma would simply roll his eyes, but he brought up something that had been bothering Kenma for a while.
“Kuroo…do you honestly think me joining you once a week is going to improve my speed that much?” Kenma asked doubtfully. This was something he’d been dubious about since Kuro first mentioned starting this ordeal.
While Kenma wasn’t the slowest runner in the world, his stamina was definitely nowhere near the rest of the Nekoma team. It certainly wasn’t to the level that one extra 30 minute run a week was going to fix. And now, with the scraped knee and the whole being carried home, Kenma was losing any belief that these runs were really worth it.
Kuroo’s own silence proved he agreed.
Kenma groaned and let his weight collect more heavily on Kuroo. The other boy barely even faltered. How completely unfair.
“Why’d you even come up with the idea if you didn’t really think it was gonna work,” Kenma grumbled. And maybe he was being a little petulant, but he figured he’d earned that by now.
When he’d complained to Kuroo about Lev’s incessant rambling during team runs, he’d expected Kuroo to listen, tease Kenma about Lev’s fixation on him, and then offer him to buy him something sweet. What he’d been unprepared for was for Kuroo to hesitantly offer that Kenma should occasionally join him on his morning runs. Even more unexpected was how Kuroo had refused to meet his eyes the whole time he’d asked him.
That had been the first clue he had about Kuroo recent…affections.
“I mean, are the runs really that bad?”
Kenma hadn’t expected Kuroo to respond to him. He’d really hadn’t expected him to respond in a way that so obviously evaded his question.
He was getting really tired of all these unexpected behaviors from Kuroo.
Kenma shot him a light glare. He wasn’t sure if it was because of what he said or his overall frustration with Kuroo. Probably both. Kuroo blanched at the sight anyway.
“Okay so, obviously ignoring today,” Kuro said as he shifted his face up and away from Kenma’s. “The runs haven’t been awful…right?”
And loathe as he may be to admit it, Kenma could agree that the runs haven’t been all that bad. By the end of them, he was generally hating the entire concept of running, but for the majority of the run it was almost peaceful. It was usually much cooler, so when he does catch the sunset, he could appreciate its beauty instead of detesting its heat. And even if it has been slow going, his stamina has been increasing. And it was nice to just be in Kuroo’s company in general.
Not that he’d admit any of that fully to Kuroo.
“They haven’t been the worst,” Kenma conceded, and he hated how easily Kuroo seemed to be able to read him. His back immediately straightened at Kenma’s words, and he turned his head to try and look at Kenma.
“Really?”
“I’m not repeating myself.”
Kuroo laughed, and the sound was almost enough to distract Kenma from Kuroo’s lack of explanation.
Almost.
“So, are you going to answer my question about why you came up with the idea?” Kenma asked, fully turning his head towards Kuroo and keeping his eyes trained on Kuroo to gauge his reaction.
Kuroo did not disappoint. As soon as his question registered, his face flushed and his shoulders rose towards his ears, jostling Kenma’s head in the process. Kenma narrowed his eyes, but simply readjusted his chin as he kept his gaze trained on Kuroo. Kuroo’s eyes darted down to look at Kenma, and he immediately deflated at Kenma’s unwavering gaze.
“Is it so bad that I wanted to spend a little extra time with you?” Kuroo grumbled, looking clearly embarrassed about the confession.
Kenma blinked slowly.
The thing was, he and Kuroo actually spent a lot of time together. Like, most of their time was spent together. They went to school together, had lunch together, practiced together, came home together, and more often than not ended up at each other’s house at the end of the day to do homework. They were always at each other’s sides, always a constant pair.
And yes, when Kuroo had to go home after doing homework, Kenma sometimes wanted to ask him to stay the night, or when Kuroo wanted to meet up with some friends on a weekend, Kenma sometimes wanted to ask him to stay in with him instead…but those were all things that Kenma pushed into his Feelings Not to Be Examined Box™.
Whatever was going with Kuroo seemed different than that.
“I mean, at the end of the school year I’ll be gone, and things won’t be like this anymore so…”
Kenma clenched his fists a little on Kuroo’s shirt, and then immediately released them hoping Kuroo didn’t notice his slip up.
By the way his head tilted slightly to the side to glance at him, he definitely had.
But Kuroo leaving for college was something that Kenma had been avoiding thinking about since the end of the summer. Because it wasn’t going to be like when Kuroo went to high school a year ahead of him. He wasn’t going to be able to just wait a little longer after school to walk home with him. Or walk a couple houses down to Kuroo’s home to drag him to his favorite bakery. Or meet him at the park where they used to play volleyball as kids just to wind down.
Kuroo was going to be an hour train ride away at best, and who knows where in the country at worst.
“I’m sorry,” Kuroo said with a sigh. His shoulders slumped so minutely that if Kuroo hadn’t been carrying him, Kenma worried he wouldn’t have caught it. “I didn’t mean to just spring this on you.”
“You ‘didn’t spring it on me’, I asked,” Kenma muttered. “And you have nothing to be sorry about. Avoiding what’s going to happen isn’t going to make it go away.”
“Yeah,” Kuroo agreed with a sigh. “I’ve started figuring that out myself too.”
Kuroo voice sounded heavy, like he was talking about something other than graduating. Kenma didn’t know what else could be as looming at that, but figured Kuroo deserved something to lift his mood.
“Thank you, for inviting me to run with you,” Kenma murmured, tucking his chin behind Kuroo’s shoulder and training his eyes on his shirt. “I know I’m a little slower, and you’ve been getting up earlier because of it so…I really appreciate what you do for me. And the team.”
Kenma closed his eyes as he finished up, trying his best not to cringe outwardly at how awkward he’d sounded. This is why he hated trying to cheer Kuroo up and tried leaving that to other people. But there were no other people around, and Kenma wasn’t going to leave Kuroo to sulk while the boy carried him home on his back.
“I know what I said earlier, but I think I like it even better when you’re nice to me.”
“Oh my god, Kuroo,” Kenma groaned as he slapped Kuroo’s arm. Why did he have to ruin the moment? Especially when it was Kenma saying the nice things. “I honestly should kick you for that, you are so embarrassing.”
“Ah but if you kick me, I’ll probably fall and bring you down with me.”
“A risk I’m all to ready to take.”
And as Kenma continued to threaten bodily harm, and Kuroo continued laughing him off, Kenma felt his chest continue to lighten the rest of the way home. By the time they got Kenma’s knees cleaned up, they realized the scrapes weren’t too bad and would likely be fully healed in only a couple of days.
But as they began walking towards the school – Kuroo talking at his side and Kenma focused in on the handheld in his hand – the conversation from earlier about Kuroo’s worries about leaving drifted back into Kenma’s mind and he began feeling a new kind of dread.
Because what if Kuroo’s crush wasn’t just some passing phase but was him projecting his own worries about leaving as some coping mechanism.
Kenma tried focusing back on the game in his hand, but now that the thought had crossed his mind, he couldn’t quite shake it.
Kuroo was going through a lot of stress right now and was getting ready for a lot of change. Of course, it made sense for him cling to Kenma when everything around him seemed so unstable. And of course, Kuroo would misconstrue those feelings as some sort of misguided crush. Kuroo really was a romantic at heart, and this whole situation had to be conflating that.
And even worse, that meant that his crush might not even pass on its own time.
Fuck, and Kenma wasn’t even sure what the best thing to do here was. Should he let Kuroo keep doing whatever it is he was doing? Should he subtly call him out? Confront him? Which option would make the situation better, and which would cause everything to blow up in his face?
“Kenma.”
Kenma startled and looked up at Kuroo’s worried gaze.
“The game over screen has been playing for the past 2 minutes,” Kuroo said as his eyes scanned Kenma’s face. The worry on Kuroo's own face nearly made Kenma choke. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay after the fall?"
And even if he had been prepared for Kuroo’s feelings to pass, Kenma couldn’t help the way his heart dropped at his realization. Because try as he might, Kenma couldn’t deny the small part of him that had been almost happy about Kuroo’s crush on him. And he knew Kuroo didn’t mean to do it on purpose, but it felt almost cruel for him to look at Kenma so adoringly when it was all just some way for Kuroo to manage everything.
“I’m fine,” Kenma replied, voice rougher than he intended. He avoided Kuroo’s widening gaze and continued walking towards the station. He counted to four, and then Kuroo was catching up to him without another word. “I just have a lot on my mind.”
Kenma closed his eyes. That was the worst thing to say to Kuroo.
“Kenma…”
“Really, everything’s fine. If it wasn’t, I’d let you know.”
“Good. Because you know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
And Kenma kept his eyes focused on the ground as he nodded so he wouldn’t have to see whatever misplaced lovestruck look Kuroo had on his face.
He was going to have to start getting used to avoiding Kuroo's gaze anyway.