Chapter Text
“Ugh,” Kuroo rubbed his eyes as he squinted into the darkness of the room. Red digital numbers blinked on his bedside table. 6.04 A.M.
Why did he agree to this again?
Groaning, he rolled on his bed for a couple more minutes before getting up to ready himself for his daily morning jog. Just a few days back, Bo had told him to get some exercise every day as he’ll somehow “die early” if he continues to not exercise. But he exercises, Kuroo remembered arguing with Bokuto about this. But Bokuto being Bokuto, believes that exercise means going out of your house to run, not staying at home to do crunches and planks and all those boring workout. Being the good bro he is, he promised Bokuto that he will go for a short morning jog every morning, and that he would call him right after the jog to tell him about his “amazing morning”. Somehow, the new routine started off well; Kuroo woke up bright and early for the past few days, jogged in the park for 30 minutes, and got ready for work. But, his body soon tire itself out, and he dreaded waking up so early to exercise; he still had papers to grade for god’s sake. “For my promise to Bo, I’ll do it. Look at how much I love you, bro. Gosh, please appreciate me more.” He whispered to his reflection in the mirror as he washed his tired face.
He laced up his shoes, locked his door, and began his run.
//
That guy… is he new around here? Kuroo gazed at the man, jogging in his direction. The man had short brown hair cropped close to his face, and adorable doe-like eyes; his shirt was bunched up to his biceps and his thighs… oh my gosh; his thigh muscles rippled, as sweat rolled down the tan skin of his legs—and they are coming closer to him.
Oh. He had stopped jogging altogether and was openly staring at the guy-with-sexy-af-thighs. Shit, what do I do now? What if he thinks I’m some creepy person who stares at people? Kuroo trailed his eyes back onto the man’s face, the guy was coming closer, one more step…
“HEY! YOU HAVE NICE THIGHS!”
Oh hell no. Oh my god. His hand flew over his mouth; his eyes widened. Oh great, what a good first impression. Hot blood rushed up his neck, his cheeks were burning. He is pretty sure he looks like a ripened tomato, cheeks a ruby red not due to overexertion, but from pure embarrassment.
The man froze. He was directly beside Kuroo.
Tilting his head down slightly, Kuroo noticed that the man was a little shorter than him. His temple glistened with a thin sheen of sweat; a light blush dusted the tops of his cheeks.
“Um, what did you say? Were you talking to me?” A warm baritone voice spoke from beside him, soft and questioningly.
Even his voice is sexy; okay there’s definitely something wrong with me today morning.
“Oh, I was practicing for my play since it’s later today and that’s my only line to say. So uh…” Kuroo scratched his head sheepishly, a rare awkward smile making its way to his face, “don’t mind me practicing that line on you, uh…”
“Sawamura Daichi.” He answered Kuroo, angling his head slightly to give Kuroo a small smile.
“Oho, Kuroo Tetsurou at your service.” Kuroo allowed his trademark smirk to appear on his face as he glanced to his left at Sawamura. Please believe me, his mind chanted, fingers drumming nervously on his right thigh as he watched Sawamura’s expression.
Daichi merely stared at him and said, “Uh I hope your play goes well today. That line was weird though… what kind of play are you taking part in, Kuroo-san?”
“Ah, a… a play about modelling… yeah modelling.” Kuroo continued praying that Sawamura would believe him because holy mother of god, he really doesn’t know how to continue his stupid story. “And I’m suppose to be some fan boy so yup that’s how the line was assigned to me.”
Sawamura cocked up an eyebrow, eyes dancing with amusement. “Hmm okay, I thought the line was very well delivered, you sound genuinely excited.”
Way to go Kuroo. “I think I gotta go man. Nice meeting you, Sawamura-kun.” Kuroo flashed Sawamura a tight-lipped grin before dashing off in the direction of his apartment.
Rounding a corner, he made a beeline towards a pillar and leaned heavily against it. He brushed back the sticky strands of hair tickling his forehead and exhaled heavily. Kuroo Tetsurou, master of provocations, is rarely embarrassed, however today morning, he had thrown away his dignity in the worst way ever, and in front of an attractive person. He squeezed his eyes shut. Ugh, he wished the ground to swallow him whole, so he would never see the man again.
The sounds of birds chirping snapped him out of his flustered state. He glanced at his watch.
7.12 A.M.
Is he going to be late for morning classes? Hell yes.
• • •
“And… that’s the end of class. Remember, the group project is due in 3 weeks!” Kuroo shouted over the din of the auditorium. Students streamed out of the room, chatting about their plans for the weekend, about whoever’s party, about… whatever. He strolled to his chair and plopped down heavily. Weekends were pretty much non-existent, considering the amount of papers he had to grade and the test questions he had to set for the upcoming exams.
He sighed. How he wished he was still in college; Bokuto roping him in to execute stupid pranks, Yaku scolding them for behaving erratically while cleaning up their wounds, Kenma playing a new game on his DS, Akaashi giving Bokuto and him the “I’m so done with both your bullshit right now” face and chiding them…
He twirled a red ball point pen mindlessly as he allowed himself to fall into a sea of nostalgia. There was a period of time when Bokuto would get himself so wasted at every party, just to see what kind of stunt he would do. Kuroo recalled a time where Bokuto literally climbed over a 3-metre fence, shattering a few of the home owner’s collection of garden gnomes upon falling. During that same time period, he remembered Yaku bringing them out of the police station. Apparently, they were so wasted, they started stripping on the streets, while grinding against lamp posts. Eventually they were reported for public indecency and Kenma had helpfully recorded the whole embarrassing fiasco. Reminiscing all the times that he had spent with his friends got him smiling so hard, laughter threatening to spill out of him. His mood was significantly better… Until his phone had decided to buzz furiously on his desk. The red ball point clattered onto the table. “Ugh what’s with me today? I already had like 3 coffees?” Kuroo mumbled, picking his phone off the desk and pressing it to his ear. “Hel –“
“BRO WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL ME TODAY HUH? KEEPING SOMETHING FROM ME?” A voice screeched from the other side of the line, and Kuroo immediately regretted not checking the caller ID before answering. His eardrums cried in pain at Bokuto’s loud and shrill voice.
Wincing, he answered, “Bo, sorry man. I had to rush for work today; I was running late so I didn’t have –“
“Oho, did something happen? You are never running late and you always call me… You’re not telling me something right?” Bokuto dragged the last word in a questioning manner, his teasing tone clear in his words.
“I was getting there; patience, young owlet. Anyways, is there a new guy living around our area? He’s kind of buff, and is about average height, brown hair, and goes running in the morning? Did you see him before? He has like really nice thighs, holy avocados – yes bro I’m getting to the interesting part – I don’t know what came over me but I JUST HAD TO FUCKING VOICE MY INNER THOUGHTS TO THE WHOLE PARK.” A wave of embarrassment washed over Kuroo again, as he replayed the whole scene in his head.
“Kuroo, did you forget that I am overseas so how would I fucking know if there was a new guy? What did you say, man? I don’t think you would ever outdo me –”
“BRO, I shouted to the whole world that he has nice thighs, and then played it cool by saying that that it was a line for some play that I was participating in.” He whispered to the now empty auditorium.
A silence was heard over the phone, followed by a spluttering sound that sounded suspiciously like a dying whale. Bokuto managed to choke out how Kuroo had beaten him in his own game of public embarrassments.
“Okay, I’m hanging up on you, shithead. Love you.”
He stared at the owl pen holder on his desk. One more class to go, he thinks before wrapping his fingers around the jug of black coffee and downing the remnants.
//
His wish did not come true.
The next morning, he bumped into Sawamura, literally. It was so awkward, and Sawamura just had to ask about the non-existent play. Kuroo forced a smile onto his face, while telling Sawamura some cat facts to make himself feel less awkward. He continued to talk about some cat video he had seen yesterday night. Warm laughter escaped out of the other man next to him, smooth and rich. They jogged side by side, laughter and conversations mingling. Before he knew it, the sun was already crawling out of its bed, its bright golden rays streaking through the trees and onto the pavement in front of Kuroo’s feet, then he realised that he was once again running late for work. Bidding a hasty good bye, he sprinted home and threw all his necessities into a duffel bag before dashing off to the university.
//
“Sweet Jesus, so you ran into him again today? And you guys talked?!” Bokuto’s awed voice sounded over the phone.
Kuroo merely hummed, biting into the tuna sandwich he had bought while calling Bokuto. His second lecture had just ended, and thank god, he did not need to walk around the lecture theatre to check his students’ work. Because he stank. A lot. In his mad rush today morning, he forgot his cologne. Why is he so out of sync today, and yesterday? Sawamura? Maybe; Kuroo loves meeting new people and spends as much time as he could to get to know the person. Sawamura was interesting; he, surprisingly, adored cats too, especially black, fluffy kittens with round eyes. He was also easily annoyed; the way his eyebrow would twitch slightly, before he turned to gaze at Kuroo, with that cryptic smile that told Kuroo to stop the lame puns. Kuroo found riling up Sawamura fun; his annoyed expression was to die for.
“Hey, bro you still there? HeLLO?! Are you dead?” The line on the other end crackled, and Kuroo answered with another non-committal hum.
“…Bro you’re not fine. Go get some sleep and skype me tonight alright! I’ll be back soon! Like in a week!”
“Okay man, see ya soon.”
The line went dead. Kuroo was once again left to his thoughts; he wondered about a certain handsome man, jogging beside him. He wondered how was he going to complete marking all the assignments he had just collected today. He wondered about his dinner tonight. Is it going to be pizza again? He rubbed his stomach absent-mindedly, nah, he was feeling exotic today; some Thai food would be great.
//
“Good morning Kuroo!”
Kuroo glanced up from his phone, and his lips automatically pulled into a smirk. “Yo Sawamura, you seem excited today.”
It had been about week (not that Kuroo has been counting) since that embarrassing encounter, and both of them had shared many interesting mornings together, learning new things about each other and of course, jogging together had become their daily routine. Sometimes, Kuroo would purposely widen his steps a little, just to mock Sawamura for having slightly shorter legs. Sawamura got so annoyed, that he refused to talk to Kuroo for the rest of the run. But Kuroo had to admit, Sawamura had killer stamina; he could run nearly two kilometres without panting, while Kuroo trailed behind him, heaving heavily. Sawamura would usually smirk at Kuroo, as if daring him to mock him for being short again.
Today was a Saturday and Kuroo was absolutely grateful that there were no morning lectures to interrupt him from spending more time with Sawamura. From his peripheral vision, the tentative rays of sunlight caressed Sawamura’s face, highlighting the gentle slope of his nose, the tip of his nose, the area above the arch of his brow bone, and the most note-worthy part of his face – his eyes. Kuroo used to think brown eyes were the most boring eye colour ever; it was the colour of soil and dirt, or tree bark, or watered-down coffee. But his were a startling shade of mocha brown; earthy layers of brown and grey undertones collided with golden specks of light dancing in his eyes. His eyes are bright; like the flames of a crackling bonfire by the beach in summer; yet toasty, like a cup of hot chocolate on a snowy winter’s day. Subconsciously, Kuroo fell into his habit of staring at people. Sawamura (the unfortunate subject of the day) was now being stared at unabashedly. Without warning, the pair of eyes zeroed in on him, “Is there something on my face?”
“Oho, self-conscious, are we? Nah, there’s nothing on your face aside from your untamed eyebrows.”
“Do you really have to insult me whenever we talk, Kuroo? Stupid man-child.”
“Hmm? What was that, Sawamura? I don’t think I quite caught that.” Kuroo forced down a blooming Cheshire Cat grin as he watched Sawamura huff in annoyance, before hearing his reply of “nothing”.
“That was what I thought.” The two resumed jogging in comfortable silence, with the exception of Sawamura constantly rubbing at his face to remove non-existent dirt. As they jogged past a small group of high schoolers, the smell of tempura wafted into Kuroo’s nose. He never knew fried prawns could smell so tantalising. At that thought, his stomach groaned in agreement.
He stopped in his tracks. Sawamura looked over his shoulder at Kuroo worriedly. “Are you okay?”
He focused his gaze on the space between Sawamura’s eyebrows and cleared his throat. “Say, do you want to grab some breakfast together? Since both of us are – oh! Are you free today? If you’re not, then its okay –” Was he too forward? Eager? Maybe a bit rushed, but he is hungry.
“I’m free, where do you want to go?” Sawamura walked closer to Kuroo, giving way to the bike behind them. He then continued in a lower tone, “Your stomach is embarrassingly loud, but it’s okay, I’m probably the only other person who heard it.” He proceeded to lean back and rock on his heels, waiting for Kuroo’s response.
The ear that Sawamura had murmured in felt hot, scalding. Kuroo willed himself not to turn into a shade of fire truck red, and choked out a poor excuse of an answer (“Anything.”) Sawamura gave Kuroo a long look before saying, “I know somewhere with good coffee…”
‘Good coffee’ was all he needed to hear. “Okay, let’s go man!” Kuroo hooked his sweaty arm with Sawamura’s before sprinting forward. “Do you even know how to get there?” Sawamura’s voice piped from beside him. Kuroo slowed to a stop and replied innocently, “No.”
“You really are a man-child, Kuroo.”
“Says the shorter person.”
“Do you even know what a man child is, Kuroo?”
“Yes! It’s used to describe a grown man…”
“Ha! You don’t know, gosh, how can you even be a professor?”
“Shut up, I’m still thinking, it’s in one of my brain drawers… where is it…”
Sawamura barked out a laugh, and said, “Let’s get going, all the fresh bagels will be gone by the time we get there. And I know both of us are hungry.”
“The thing is I really know the definition but I just can’t remember it… Fine, okay! Let’s go, for real this time.”