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“The paper we submitted last month with Ikeda as the lead came back four days ago, so we’ll take a look at the comments and criticisms after we discuss any urgent lab business,” Kuroo said to his computer’s webcam as he sifted through the papers on his desk.
“Sensei, I received a request from the Kaname group yesterday about collaborating with them on a project they got funded recently. Is that alright with you?” asked a young man with rounded glasses.
“Oh, congratulations, Morita,” Kuroo cheered as he gave a small clap. The other participants in the call followed suit, and a round of applause sounded from Morita’s speakers as he bowed sheepishly. “Kaname asked me about it yesterday already, so my answer is 100% a yes,” Kuroo responded, giving the man a virtual thumbs up.
“Thank you, sensei!” Morita said, bowing once more to his camera and earning a chuckle from Kuroo.
“Well, anything else anyone would like to discuss right now?” Kuroo asked, looking at the participant feed and searching for any indication of someone wanting to speak up. When he was met with silence, he clapped his hands and continued, “Well, guess that mean’s you’re up, Ikeda.”
“Yes, Sensei,” the said man responded and promptly shared his screen with the group. “As Kuroo-sensei mentioned, we received the reviewer feedback for the paper we submitted to the journal last month,” he began, switching the powerpoint screen to the draft article in question. “Reviewer 1 had some critiques about our statistical strength, but he also had some praises about how methodically thought out our protocol was,” he continued, gesturing at the graphs on the slide with his cursor.
“You can’t get good data if you don’t have good methods,” Kuroo said as he twirled his pen around his hand. He then pointed at his camera and continued, “I’m expecting you all to be able to follow Ikeda’s lead in superior study design, got it?”
The participants all nodded as Ikeda coughed into his hand. Perhaps he was the one who drafted the protocol, but if it wasn’t for the late nights he had spent with his supervisor painstakingly reviewing and altering the methodology, it definitely would not have been praised by the journal reviewer and would have definitely been picked apart instead.
“Sensei, you really did most of the work,” Ikeda said, scratching the back of his head.
“Nonsense, don’t blow off your hard work,” Kuroo scoffed as he feigned offence at the remark. “Continue on,” he said as he gestured at the screen for the man to continue.
Ikeda nodded and recollected himself to continue on with his presentation. He always found himself amazed by his supervisor’s humility and modesty. Kuroo was not only likely to be the youngest associate professor in the entire university, but the amount of project grants he’s received in the short few years he’s been appointed was also shockingly impressive. He was the person that everyone only wished they could become.
And he’s super good looking too, Ikeda thought to himself as he stared at his mentor’s video feed in the call. Kuroo had once loudly proclaimed that he spent absolutely no time nor effort on his hair while chatting with Kaname, the principal investigator of the lab downstairs, though the way that his hair framed his face accentuated all of the man’s devilishly handsome, sharp, feline features. The black shirt that he had on was also fitted well, framing his athletic physique perfectly. He did mention that he played volleyball competitively before, Ikeda mused to himself as he cleared his throat and continued going through the reviewer comments.
“DAAAAAAAADDDYYYYY”
The entire call went silent, as everyone except for their leader stared at their screens wide-eyed. Kuroo swiftly turned around his chair to face the door and upon seeing what had interrupted his meeting, closed his eyes and covered his face with his fingers.
“I’ll be back,” he whispered tiredly to the group as he headed over to the door, taking off the earphones that he had on.
“Oh my gosh,” Morita laughed as he watched the scene unfold. “Sensei’s wearing sweatpants!”
“So Kuroo-sensei’s just like the rest of us at home,” Sakamoto, the lab technician, mused as she rested her head in her hands and smiled.
“Looks like Yuuma’s woken up,” Ikeda chuckled as he exited screen sharing momentarily to return to the main conference screen.
Kuroo ran his hands through his hair and plopped back down on to his chair, grabbing for his earphones to return to his call. “Sorry about that,” he said into the microphone. “(f/n)’s working the morning shift at the hospital today so I’m doubling up with baby duty.”
“No worries, Sensei,” the group responded in unison, amused by the now-disheveled appearance of their usually perfect leader. As standout and amazing as Kuroo was in the academic field, you really couldn’t help but be reminded of how human he was at the end of the day when seeing him with his family.
“Let’s continue then,” Kuroo said, sitting up straight and fixing his hair using his video as a mirror. “Ikeda, it’s all yours.”
Just as Ikeda was about to move on to the next reviewer’s comments, the door to Kuroo’s office flew open once more and this time, two black-haired children walked into the room. Kuroo groaned into his hands and gestured at his lab group to give him a minute as he yanked off his earphones and slaved over to the door.
“Looks like twin 2 woke up this time,” Sakamoto chuckled as she leaned back into her chair.
“Yuuki looks like he got woken up,” Morita pointed out. “I guess Yuuma was responsible for that,” he continued as he leaned closer to the monitor to get a better look.
“Yuuki really does look a lot more like Kuroo-sensei,” Ikeda said as he took a closer look. “The hair’s absolutely the same!”
“I’m impressed that they both inherited his eyes. I wasn’t aware that Sensei’s light brown eyes were a dominant trait,” Morita said as his pen started drafting up a tree diagram on a nearby pad of sticky notes.
“Ugh, please stop with the genetics talk,” Ikeda said as he covered his ears. “I haven’t touched genetics since second year of undegrad, man.”
As Morita laughed, 3 pairs of light brown eyes appeared in Kuroo’s video.
“Kuroo-sensei, you’re back!” Sakamoto said with a wave, and smiled at the additional participants who just joined. “Yuuki-kun and Yuuma-kun are here too, I see,” she said as she greeted the twins.
Kuroo sighed and dropped his twin sons onto his lap and nodded his head. “Couldn’t really get them to leave, so I guess they’ll have to join in. I hope you don’t mind,” he said as he bashfully looked over at the rest of his lab group.
“It’s not every day that we get to see Dr. Kuroo look so dumbfounded, so we’ll consider this a treat,” Sakamoto teased, eliciting a laugh from everyone.