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Kuroo sits on the edge of a cushion and stares at the empty beer bottle in his hands. This relationship with Oikawa was starting to get...complicated. Early in the friendship, Kuroo had always found himself with a smartass comeback to whatever Oikawa said, usually because Kuroo was annoyed with the pompous setter. However, the two of them spent a lot of time together during the last four months--in the two college lectures they shared, during volleyball practice, after practice when Bokuto insisted that all the first years on the team hang out together, during their secret strategy sessions to make the team better since the senior leadership on their team sucked--and slowly things started to change.
“I mean, he can do what he wants, but I really think that Professor Ito is asking too much of us with this final project. I have four other classes I have to study for. Don’t professors think about that kind of thing?”
Oikawa is draped sideways over the overstuffed chair that barely fits in Kuroo’s single room apartment. The only thing that isn’t contained within the room is his tiny bathroom and a closet along the west wall.
“Tetsu-chan, are you even listening to me? Have you been sniffing the chemicals in your chemistry lab or something? You know that stuff rots your brain,” Tooru says in that unaffected, yet always slightly sarcastic tone he uses. He stretches his legs out, long and muscled, and kicks them over the chair's arm and onto the floor.
“Tetsurou,” Tooru tries again, more seriously, “Seriously, are you listening to me?”
It is clearly annoying Oikawa that Kuroo isn’t paying attention to him. Oikawa thinks the world has nothing better to do than pay him attention.
“I’m thinking,” Kuroo grumbles and flips a page of his anatomy textbook, even though he hadn’t read a single word on the previous page.
“About what? About me?” Tooru asks, and there is a hopeful lilt in his voice.
“No.” Yes.
“Well, I highly recommend thinking about me. I’ve been told it is a very pleasant thing to do,” Oikawa says as he continues angrily thumbing through a book he checked out from the library for his final project in Professor Ito’s class, a class they happened to share.
“Can we talk?” Kuroo asks as he sets his beer bottle atop the kotatsu.
Oikawa, always one for talking, endlessly talking, is unusually quiet as he closes his library book with a, “Yes.”
Fuck, Oikawa is never this serious. Kuroo can tell Oikawa knows something is up.
Kuroo is very aware of Oikawa as the other man takes a seat right next to Kuroo and pushes his legs under the kotatsu until they bump up against Kuroo’s.
“I don’t know how to say what I need to say,” Kuroo mumbles, trying not to lean into the space where their bodies touch. He likes the solid warmth of Tooru.
“Well, just so you know, I’m pretty sure I know what it is, Tetsu-chan,” Oikawa says quietly. “Did Kouta-chan tell you?”
Kuroo, already confused by his own feelings, is now also confused by what Tooru is saying. Luckily, one of the few things Kuroo has figured out since meeting Oikawa Tooru during their first college volleyball practice, is that if you are confused by anything Oikawa says, just wait, he will keep babbling and eventually explain it.
“God, he did, didn’t he?” Oikawa whines as he dramatically drops his head onto the top of the kotatsu and gives a low groan. “I told him not to tell.”
Kuroo hums, giving Tooru a cue to let him know he is listening, but not revealing that he has absolutely no clue what Oikawa is talking about.
“Ugh, I’m sorry if you're uncomfortable with it. I hoped that you’d be okay with it, maybe even want it too, but I should have known better than to get my hopes up. This is Iwa-chan all over again.”
Then, to Kuroo’s amazement, there is purposeful silence as Oikawa looks up at him. Oikawa usually likes to fill silence with the sound of his own voice, so it is heavy and oppressive as Kuroo watches his friend still crumpled and draped over the kotatsu.
“Well? Say something? Don’t make it worse than I know it is,” Oikawa finally huffs, absolutely far too dramatically for what the situation calls for.
“What in the hell are you talking about, Tooru?” Kuroo asks as he knocks his knee into one of Oikawa’s legs. He bumps the leg again when Tooru remains quiet.
“You know,” Oikawa says, flapping one hand feebly in the air before letting it drop back down to where his forehead is pressed against the table. “The thing.”
“The thing?” Kuroo echoes.
“The thing I have for you. The crush. For heaven’s sake, I keep falling for straight friends, so please just put me out of my misery,” Oikawa grumbles and hides his face in his arms.
Straight friends. Kuroo starts laughing, ugly and loud, and Oikawa immediately snaps up, his expression saying just how scandalized he is that Kuroo is laughing about this.
“Tetsu-chan, you don’t have to be mean,” he pouts and moves to stand, maybe to leave, but Tetsurou grabs Tooru’s arm and hauls him back to the floor.
“You ego-driven idiot,” Tetsurou tells him with a smile, one that is soft and happy and no longer tinged with worry. “I have a crush on you too.”
It isn’t often that Oikawa is struck silent if it isn’t of his own volition and only for the effect. This isn't that, Tooru seems to be genuinely speechless. He faces Kuroo and mouths words, but no sound comes out, even though he is obviously trying. He stares at Tetsurou with the most dumbfounded expression Kuroo has ever seen on that pretty asshole’s face.
“Tetsurou, I swear, if you’re teasing me...” Tooru finally says, but there is so much hope in his voice, as if he desperately wants what Kuroo told him to be true.
“Not teasing,” Kuroo says with a smirk and reaches over to take Tooru’s face in his hands. Only a few loud heartbeats pass before Kuroo leans in the rest of the way to soundly kiss Oikawa Tooru.
It is sweet and soft and everything Tetsurou had hoped it would be, but nothing he had really expected. Honestly, Tooru just doesn’t seem like the gentle type.
Of course Oikawa ruins it in the next breath, when he pulls away and moans, “Tetsu-chan, I wanted to be the first one to kiss you. You stole my glory.”
“And it was sweet, sweet victory stealing it from you, Tooru,” Tetsurou says, giving Tooru the very best cheshire cat grin before kissing him again.