Chapter Text
There was a week in Kuroo’s life where he honestly couldn’t believe anything that happened. Was it all a dream? Had he been too stressed out? He honestly didn’t know. Maybe he had been sick. But if he was ever asked, he’d swear it was real. If he had been studying philosophy, or maybe some other subject that dealt with something that may not exist, or some theory that no one has ever proved, his friends may have been more skeptical. But no, Kuroo Tetsurou at 19 years of age studied Chemistry at University. And that is where this all begins. Where the week that changed his view on life and the entire universe began.
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“Hey, I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” Kuroo called out to his friends, Iwaizumi Hajime and Oikawa Tooru. At first, he had been surprised to learn that they would be attending the same university as him, but they hit it off well on the first week of classes and had hung around together ever since.
“Make sure he’s able to walk tomorrow, Hajime!” Kuroo’s best friend, Bokuto Koutarou, yelled at the retreating couple. They lived close to each other since they weren’t able to find accommodation together this year. Kuroo nudged him to tell him to stop teasing, but the other just grinned even wider.
“What? It’s true. We have a game. Can’t have our setter being out of action,” he mused - Kuroo just rolled his eyes. They headed down the street to where they lived, talking about the usual, this and that. Finally, Bokuto reached his block of flats that was only a couple of minutes away from Kuroo's.
“You coming in today?” Bokuto asked, and the raven shook his head.
“Nah, I can’t, I still got that exam coming up soon remember? I can’t slack off til after that,” he shrugged, pulling a face. Bokuto let out a snort.
“You’re the smartest guy in class, and you’re still gonna study for it?” he asked incredulously, but Kuroo just laughed as he began walking away.
“Can’t be the smartest if I don’t study!” he returned, shaking his head at his best friend as he walked just up the road to his own home, sighing and calming down. Bokuto was always a burst of energy, and sometimes it took a lot out of Kuroo to keep up. Not that he didn’t enjoy it, but it made him extremely grateful for his quiet home.
Throwing his bag on the chair by his desk, he sat down on his bed, letting out a tired sigh. It had most certainly been a long day, and he was even more tired than usual. He looked wistfully over at his bag and the mere thought of how much studying he needed to do gave him a headache. Maybe he should get some food first, he thought, pushing himself off the bed to grab a quick snack. After getting something from the fridge, he made his way back to his desk, planning to look over some inorganic chemistry. But the urge to sleep really was getting to him, and he had barely eaten anything before he was drawn back to his bed to take a nap. He even set an alarm to wake him up in an hour or so to get some studying done.
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Hours later, the alarm didn't wake Kuroo up, for he was not in his own body anymore so to speak. Well technically speaking, he still was, but just in a different place. A very different place.
Kuroo was woken with a knock on the door, in a room that he didn’t recognise. It had everything that he liked, and even the papers on the desk were in his writing, but he hadn’t written them, or at least, not that he remembered.
The next thing he noticed was that he was hungry - starving. But that couldn’t be. He’d just gotten food with Bokuto, Iwaizumi and Oikawa not an hour ago, right?
“Hey, Kuroo?” a voice called from outside the room. The knocking had stopped.
“Oh...uh yeah? Come in,” he replied instinctively. He recognised the voice, but it seemed different. A familiar face appeared round the door, but with longer hair.
“Iwaizumi?” Kuroo questioned.
“W-what are you doing here?” he continued, What am I doing here is the better question, and why does he have long hair? A wig? No… Kuroo couldn’t make heads nor tails of this situation. He was utterly confused.
“It’s your first day back at work, or did you lose track of the date?” Iwaizumi mused. This did not seem like the Iwaizumi that Kuroo knew.
“Ah, I must have. Gimme a second to get ready,” he told him, pulling on some clean clothes that were both smart and casual. After all, he didn’t know where he worked, or what the hell was going on. A dream perhaps? He wasn’t sure. Kuroo made his way outside the apartment, locking up with the keys he’d found on the dresser by the door.
"Ready?" Iwaizumi asked, running his fingers through his longer hair and moving it out of his face.
"Yeah," Kuroo agreed, though to what he had no idea. "What's everyone been working on lately. You know, at work…" he trailed off. He was trying to get a feel for what he'd actually be doing. Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow at Kuroo.
"Are you joking, or have you really been that out of it?" he asked. Kuroo laughed guilty in response.
"Dude, you've only been working on the biggest project ever. Overseeing the engineering of the future power source. It's a pretty damn big deal. You must have been on some wack meds to forget that," Iwaizumi chuckled.
Power sources, engineering, overseeing… and meds? This was way beyond anything Kuroo could have dreamed up. Right? He nodded.
“Ah, yeah, of course. Just a bit out of it,” he laughed it off. The two walked in silence for a while, before Kuroo noticed two familiar figures waiting for them.
“Bokuto, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi greeted. Their heads turned at their names being called, and their faces brightened as their eyes fell on Kuroo.
“Kuroo-!”
“Kuroo-san-!” they said at the same time, evidently glad to see him. Why though, he wasn’t sure. He gathered he’d been off for a while, but surely his friends would have come and see him. They did usually see him when he wasn’t in this dream world. He shrugged it off.
“Hey,” he greeted simply, still unsure. Bokuto made his way over and his hand clapped Kuroo's shoulder in a greeting.
“Glad you’re back. Oikawa’s been drunk with power subbing in for you,” Bokuto told him, cueing the protests from the brunette. Kuroo cracked a small smile even though he was still reeling from this whole experience.
The four of them headed into the centre of the city, towards the taller buildings, where Oikawa and Kuroo separated from the others to go to the management building, where Kuroo signed in. Somehow this dream him had the same dumb passwords as him. It made him chuckle - this whole facility was secured by some passwords that were probably too dumb for crimials to even think about guessing. Kuroo shook his head lightly as he followed Oikawa into a glass lift ‘Fancy’ Kuroo’s brain couldn’t help but comment.
No, this is a dream… he rolled his eyes mentally. But even so, the fact that his mind could come up with something so amazing alarmed him a little. He hadn’t been watching any weird mecha fantasy anime lately. He had been too busy reviewing the content for his chemistry test. Shit. He should have woken up at the yank in his gut at not revising - the panic and stress. But he didn’t. At that thought, everything here felt weird and foreign, but all too real for him, and a frown overcame his features.
The rest of the day blurred by as Kuroo continued trying to figure out what was even going on. He could come up with no rational explanation for all of this, and before he knew it, he was walking home with his three friends. Or were they his friends? Everything was wrong.
“Tiring first day?” Bokuto asked. Kuroo glanced over as he felt a hand on his shoulder, the thoughts he had just been labouring over slipping from the forefront of his mind.
“Oh, yeah. I’m ready for a good night’s rest,” he told them, the corner on his mouth quirking up slightly. It wasn’t a lie. He really could do with a rest.
“Well, rest up, we don’t want you off your A game!” Oikawa told him. It was more of a scold, which Kuroo thought was weird. Since when was Oikawa responsible ? And why the hell would Kuroo make him responsible in a dream?
Even so, Kuroo didn’t notice the gaze from Iwaizumi piercing through him, reading him like a book. And when he did, it was rather disconcerting.
“Of course. A full 8 hours. Got it,” he rolled his eyes a little. When, even in his usual life did he ever get 8 hours of sleep a night? Never was the correct answer.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow then!” he called, as he and Iwaizumi went one way, back to their building, and the other two continued down the same path.