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Quite frankly, Kuroo was terrified of needles. He would be that kid to cry and kick his legs out whenever a nurse dared to come near him with that dreaded weapon, his mother hissing at him to keep still or he wouldn’t be getting any unhealthily sweet treats later on. His roommate had suggested donating blood one day, the idea initially causing Kuroo to cringe. The more he thought about how his blood could have been helping people while he was nice and healthy, the more tempting it became. One day, he sucked it up and booked an appointment.
While he shook like a leaf on the way and while being fed before being fated to be drained, the fear washed away when he saw him. It wasn’t so much love at first sight as it was lust at first sight, but after months of attempting to woo the stern nurse lightheartedly, Kuroo had to admit he fell a little bit. His name was Sawamura Daichi, and while he wouldn’t take Kuroo’s nonsense initially, eventually he fell into the cycle of roasting him and messing around and vise versa. Kuroo was sure Sawamura was having fun too, and the fact alone he never failed to recognize Kuroo each month and pick up right where they left off was heartwarming. It was likely the hair that stuck the most in the mind, but it was a win anyway for the bedhead.
The nurse was broad shouldered, sporting some pretty dangerous and solid guns beneath his uniform. With his golden skin and charming smile, Kuroo didn’t know how to bring himself back to reality. He was a little older than Kuroo, or so Kuroo assumed so. Kuroo was still in his second year at University while Sawamura was a fully fledged nurse that had been working for 5 years already, as confirmed in their last conversation. In other conversations, Kuroo discovered Sawamura had a dog and was single. As if Kuroo wasn’t already motivated enough to clasp his nurse’s heart strings— not like he would be entirely willing to attempt to steal Sawamura from whoever he was dedicated to, but the thought might have crossed his mind on more than one occasion.
Several months later, Kuroo was back as promised. That day he was running a little late and ignored all advice to eat and drink before turning up, throwing up his best smile with the silly lie that he ate plenty. Passing out didn’t cross his mind, because his mind was far too occupied with Sawamura’s face.
“Your iron is a little borderline this month, have you been eating your red meats— maybe even fish?” He remembered Kuroo’s fish preference.
Kuroo almost forgot to answer him, a little too lovestruck like a teenage girl. He gave a crooked smile. “Yeah, as much as usual.” A lie. He had been living off biscuits and chocolate during his exam study cramming with a completely fucked up sleeping pattern. Proper meals wasn’t a priority.
Sawamura stared hard at him before writing something down. “If it gets any lower you won’t be able to give blood next month.”
“Would you miss me?” Kuroo asked, smirking.
Sawamura snorted. “I’ll just miss insulting your dumb hair.”
“Oh come on, don’t prey on a guy’s weakness,” Kuroo pouted. “Only way to fix this tragedy is to shave it off… and god, I don’t think you wanna see that.”
The nurse chuckled, his laugh deep and breezy. Kuroo felt his ears heat up a little. “Maybe you’d just have to rely on your face then. Wouldn’t be so bad.”
Was that a compliment? Kuroo almost choked and cleared his throat. “You saying my face isn’t bad?”
“Want me to say it is?”
“No— that’s good enough,” Kuroo hurried out. “Wait, you think I’m not bad looking?”
Sawamura paused in his writing, eyes venturing up a little bit not quite far enough to reach Kuroo. “You’re good looking, admittedly.”
If the losing blood didn’t make Kuroo pass out, that certainly almost did. Sawamura didn’t wait to see Kuroo’s fuses burn out and had already moved to setup the actual blood taking.
“Drink the rest of that,” he instructed, nodding to the little bit of juice left in Kuroo’s cup. “You feeling ok?”
“Uh-huh,” Kuroo managed, still short-circuited. He hadn’t noticed Sawamura cleaning the crook of his arm and already had the needle pressed up. Kuroo tried not to wince and instinctively back away as it broke his skin, however he always failed each month. He should have been used to it by then, but it turned out he’d need a few more years before he could be forgiving to needles.
Sawamura had finished hooking Kuroo up and Kuroo stared absentmindedly at the deep sanguine flowing down the tube. Gross.
“Alright, just relax like usual, you know the drill,” Sawamura said, patting Kuroo on the shoulder. Kuroo only nodded and watched as the nurse walked off to complete some paperwork. Normally, Kuroo would play on his phone and steal far too frequent glances towards his crush, but those glances then were straight up stares and gawking. Eventually, he forced himself onto his phone to send a message.
[Kuro 11:23AM]: hot nurse called me good looking
[Kenma 11:28AM]: u sure u haven’t just lost a lot of blood and now ur hallucinating?
[Kuro 11:30AM]: kenmaaaaaa !!! :’(
Speaking of losing a lot of blood, Kuroo felt like he couldn’t see the screen anymore, the sound of crashing waves gradually filling his ears. As he felt his body chill to ice and his face and neck dampen with a sheen of sweat, Kuroo stole a glance towards Sawamura before deciding to keep his mouth shut, convinced it’d go away soon. He reached to pick up his phone from his lap again, only for his numb hand ridden with pins and needles to drop the damn thing. When it hit the floor, it sounded like a cracked screen and a broken heart.
Sawamura turned around, trading his gaze between Kuroo and his phone. He moved over to pick it up, but when he stood up again, his brows furrowed heavily. “Didn’t I tell you to say something if you’re not feeling well?”
“You did? Well, I’m fine—“
“You’re as white as the walls, Kuroo,” he groaned, already turning to fill a cup with water. He glanced towards the bag and nodded to himself. “Alright, you’re basically done now so let’s flip those legs up.”
Kuroo snorted, being pretty sure the fact he could barely hear made him mishear that. After removing the needle and wrapping a bandage around his arm, the back of the chair was already pushed down and Sawamura had promptly lifted his legs up.
“Regulating blood pressure,” Sawamura elaborated, a smirk tugging in his lips. “Wouldn’t want you passing out.”
“Wasn’t gonna,” Kuroo said proudly, feeling the relief of not being on the verge of total darkness anymore.
“You didn’t eat much this morning, did you?”
“Had a biscuit?”
“The ones offered here?”
Kuroo gave a strained smile as Sawamura rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, you’re normally pretty solid with the loss of a pint.”
“This isn’t so bad, y’know. Having you hold my legs and stuff.”
“This is about as intimate as we’re ever gonna get.” Funnily enough, he said that while letting his chocolate eyes trail along Kuroo’s long and slender legs.
“You sure?” Kuroo pushed, those sly features coming back into play with his well-being.
“Alright, you’re feeling better now,” Sawamura deemed, dropping Kuroo’s legs.
Kuroo sat up slowly, a laugh following Sawamura as he grabbed the cup of water to give to Kuroo. As he passed the cup, Kuroo’s still feeble grip lingered onto Sawamura’s.
Sawamura looked up, sighing. “Alright, let's go out for steak tonight to get that iron back up quickly.”
He stammered on his own breath, staring towards Sawamura with bewilderment. “Huh?”
“I want you to show up here next month too.”
Kuroo felt like almost fainting, again.