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i. nationals
The thrill of excitement buzzing through the team’s veins is palpable on the ride to Tokyo. Daichi sits next to Suga, like he always does, and drums a song on his thigh with restless fingers. He wants to be there already, wants to walk into the place that’d only ever been in dreams, and he wants to really feel it. It had seemed so impossible for so long, just a faraway wish shared between Asahi, Suga, and him. But now that it was here, now that they were really going to Nationals, Daichi almost didn’t know how to feel at all.
As he switches from tapping a song to bouncing his leg up and down, Daichi feels his cell phone vibrating in his jacket. It’s weird, getting a text when the person usually texting him is sitting to his left, but he grabs for his phone anyway.
[Ready to get your ass handed to you, Sawamura?]
The upward pull of his lips as he tries not to smile too wide, staring at his phone next to an always curious Suga, feels much too natural when it came to Kuroo. Shaking his head, he thinks about what to say for a minute and sends a text back.
[Says the guy who’s won Nationals...how many times? Is it 0? So hard to keep track]
Leaning back in his seat to stare out the window, he fails on fighting his smile when his phone vibrates again mere seconds later.
[You really know how to wound a guy, y’know that? And here I was going to wish my favorite captain good luck.]
“Daichi?” Suga is saying his name next to him, he knows he is, and Daichi means to reply but his eyes are stuck on ‘my favorite captain’ and can’t seem to reply to either of them.
Shaking himself out of it a minute later, he helps Suga untangle his headphone cord after brushing off his spacing out, saying he’s trying to focus on the match. He knows Suga doesn’t buy it, especially with how red his cheeks look, but his best friend doesn’t pry too much, at least not right now.
Daichi ends up writing and deleting several texts before settling with something that sounds more like him and less like the guy trying not to freak out over another guy flirting with him. At least he’s pretty sure it was flirting; it was something Kuroo seemed to be an expert at, so Daichi waged his bets and finally hits send.
[Flirting is a terrible intimidation tactic, Kuroo.]
Daichi barely has time to worry before Kuroo knocks the wind out of him again, and leaves him laughing loud on the otherwise quiet bus.
[Not to intimidate Sawamura...just date. I’ll take you to dinner when you lose ;)]
[You’ll take me to dinner when I win, you mean.]
[I’m taking you to dinner either way, but if you somehow beat me and my amazing skills, you’re paying for dessert to soothe my broken heart.]
Chuckling, Daichi wonders how he got himself into this mess of falling in love with Kuroo to begin with, and texts back one last time.
[Deal.]
Karasuno loses in the second round, Nekoma in the third. Daichi still pays for dessert.
ii kiss
It’s been a month since Daichi has seen Kuroo, and just as long since they had their first date, but it couldn’t be helped living so far apart. What helps, though, is the fact that Daichi had found a school to play volleyball at in college, and it just happens to be in Tokyo. Only a train ride away from Kuroo’s.
Which is how he roped Kuroo into helping him move into his apartment.
“I’m so happy this place has an elevator,” Kuroo was saying as he came in with the last box, dropping it on top of another labelled kitchen. “I’m pretty sure my arms still haven’t forgiven me for hauling my shit up three flights of stairs last week.”
Chuckling, Daichi watches Kuroo stretch out his arms as if to emphasize how sore they were. His eyes drop to the small sliver of skin that shows when Kuroo reaches both arms up over his head, and swallows. He knows they’re still dating, that Kuroo probably wouldn’t even mind Daichi calling him his boyfriend, but they haven’t done anything physical aside from the hug Kuroo gave him after their date. Though, as far as hugs go, Daichi felt it for up to a week after, and wondered if hugs weren’t highly underrated.
Unconsciously licking his lips, Daichi watches Kuroo’s abs tighten when he moves a certain way, and he undeniably knows he wants to touch them. But not right now, not when his face is burning so badly he has to turn away and busy himself with a box of DVDs to not look like the most desperate guy in Tokyo.
“Wanna get take-out and watch this tonight?” He asks, grabbing one out of the box that he bought the week before.
“Hell yeah,” Kuroo smirks, rifling through a box of books and trinkets Daichi had kept in his bedroom back home, “Curry or pizza?”
Though, he needn’t even ask, because a second later they both answer pizza and laugh as Kuroo wanders off to call in an order.
Getting more stuff out of their boxes and putting them in their designated places, Daichi suddenly realizes he’s not nervous about any of this. Not moving away from home, or coming to a city he’d barely seen any of, and not even being alone with Kuroo. It’s strange, knowing the nerves he’d constantly had during last summer’s training camp. And when he’d hung out with Bokuto and Kuroo once before Nationals. He was always checking himself, thinking out everything carefully before he said it, and wondering if he wasn’t making up all of Kuroo’s lingering looks in his head.
But right now, here in his new apartment miles away from any of his high school teammates or family, Daichi feels relatively calm aside from the constant desire to just push Kuroo against a wall and have his way with him.
Daichi is still trying not to think about that.
“It’ll be half an hour,” Kuroo comments, coming back and sitting down next to him before opening a box marked bathroom. “Y’know, you have nothing blackmail worthy in any of these boxes so far...I’m disappointed, Sawamura.”
Daichi shakes his head. “What were you expecting?”
“A pile of porn a mile high and hidden kinky things that I might be able to take advantage of,” Kuroo winks at him when he raises an eyebrow, “Or at least one gravure magazine or something. How vanilla are you?”
“God created the internet for a reason, Kuroo -- I don’t need all that evidence laying around.”
Kuroo laughs, looking around for a minute. “Now I’m even more curious; where’s your laptop?”
“You’ll never hack my password and I’m not stupid enough to tell you.”
“So little trust, man...aren’t we dating?”
Daichi bites down on his bottom lip to not smile at something obvious stated so casually and shrugs instead. “Dating or not, I’m not falling for it, so stop pouting.”
Kuroo makes a whining noise in the back of his throat, pushing out his bottom lip like a toddler who didn’t get their way, and Daichi feels ridiculous for finding it so cute. Ignoring the desperate desire to just kiss him again, Daichi grabs a few things and walks away to decorate the few shelves that line the walls. He puts a few of his favorite books on the bottom shelf next to a picture of his team, and then stood on his tip toes to try to put a volleyball up that Suga had the whole team sign. Of course, he just had to be a couple inches too short, and soon felt Kuroo pressing tightly behind him.
After he pushes the ball up and onto the shelf, Kuroo’s big hands brush down along Daichi’s ribs on either side and slowly make their way down to his hips. A shiver already threatens to run down his spine before his boyfriend leans in, lips much too close to the shell of his ear. “Y’know, I swear you’ve been looking at me like you’ve wanted to kiss me since I showed up,” Kuroo whispers, making Daichi’s cheeks burn and his hands turn clammy, “and I was trying to be a good boy and wait, but you’re killing me here, Daichi.”
His first name has only been said a rare few times by Kuroo, only twice in fact, but like this it almost sounds like a sin and Daichi lets out a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He can’t deny it, can’t help the way his body is already turning in Kuroo’s arms to face him, but he also can’t help how scared he suddenly is.
“I’ve never kissed a guy before,” Daichi blurts out, unable to be as smooth and cool as Kuroo always is, “Just...so you know -- I might be shit.”
“Impossible,” Kuroo is still using a hushed voice, bringing Daichi’s eyes up to his face where he spots a warm red blush across the tops of his boyfriend’s cheeks and the tips of his ears. “It’s you...there’s no way it’ll be shit.”
Daichi snorts a little, unable to figure out how Kuroo can say something like that with a straight face, and sighs. He doesn’t have anything else to say, can’t figure a way to prolong this until his heart stops beating hard enough to hear, and feels his eyes fall shut as Kuroo begins to lean in.
“I’ve missed you, y’know,” Kuroo breathes the words against his cheek, warm lips laying chaste kisses along his jaw, to the corner of his mouth, Kuroo’s nose nuzzling against his. “In a ridiculous romantic comedy sort of way where I just stared out windows and wondered what you were doing. You’ve turned me into a ridiculously stupid guy, Daichi.”
“Pretty sure you were already an idiot before I met you.”
Kuroo’s laugh brushes against his lips before, finally, those always smirking lips are pressing against his. They are soft, gently placed kisses at first, like Kuroo could feel how nervous Daichi is beneath his hands. And it isn’t like Daichi had never kissed anyone before; he’d kissed a couple girls, once fantasized about kissing Suga a few times in their second year, but he didn’t think his nerves were really about kissing anymore.
They are more over the fact that he isn’t sure he’d ever be able to let Kuroo go once they did.
“More,” Daichi breathes, unsure of what he is saying completely, other than the fact that chaste and gentle is overrated and this isn’t what he’d been imagining earlier.
The smirk he feels grow right against his mouth is something Daichi knows he’d feel later; every time Kuroo smirked about anything, and the soft whisper of a groan in the back of his throat only spurred on the idea of more. Kuroo’s tongue slides against the seam of his lips, dipping between them once Daichi parts his, and he lets his arms raise up to entangle his fingers in the hair at the nape of Kuroo’s neck.
Teeth bite at his bottom lip, dragging it between Kuroo’s lips. As he sucks at it until Daichi makes another noise, he wishes it didn’t sound as broken as it does. To get this worked up over a kiss, something that shouldn’t feel this amazingly mind-blowing, is embarrassing. But Kuroo doesn’t seem to mind, humming his satisfaction at the noises against his mouth as his tongue dips in again and slides against Daichi’s.
The sudden unfamiliar ringing of his new doorbell makes them both jump a few minutes later, Daichi hitting the wall behind him hard enough for the volleyball to roll and fall off the shelf. “Son of a bitch, it’s only been twenty minutes...stupid pizza,” Kuroo groans, looking down at Daichi as they both pant a little, trying to catch their breath. “That dude is getting no tip.”
Watching Kuroo walk away to find his wallet, Daichi feels his lips with the tips of his fingers before breaking out in laughter.
He is sure, now, that there's no way he's ever letting Kuroo get away.
iii. drunken confessions
Two weeks into his first year of university, Daichi spots a familiar face at his first volleyball practice. He only has about thirty seconds to wonder why Kuroo didn’t tell him when Bokuto comes running at him like they’ve been friends for much longer than they had.
“Sawamura!” Bokuto calls loud enough to get the attention of their other teammates that’ve started to fill up the gymnasium. “I was wondering when I was going to see that beautiful face again.”
Daichi is swiftly reminded why Bokuto is one of Kuroo’s best friends. “Kuroo knew?”
“Yep,” Bokuto nods, grin as wide as ever, “but I wanted it to be a surprise. You and I are gonna kick your boyfriend’s ass this year.”
“That’s a given,” Daichi smiles back, a bit nervous that him dating a guy isn’t going to be kept a secret amongst his teammates for very long, but figures that was a problem they could figure out later. “Seems like we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other from now on.”
And the mischievous smile that grows on Bokuto’s lips only proved to be the beginning of many things.
Which is why, a few months later during summer break, Daichi can’t even feign surprise when Bokuto shows up to his apartment with a bag magically filled with illegal alcohol and barely says hello before he walks in to find Kuroo sitting on the sofa. They high-five before saying anything else, and Daichi wonders if this is going to become some sort of ‘thing’.
“Beer and Pacific Rim, what’s better?” Bokuto asks as he flops down in a chair and sets his things on the coffee table. “Well, I guess not being a third wheel, but I can deal with that.”
Kuroo barks out a laugh as Daichi sits down next to him again, wondering again how someone like Bokuto could get so much beer. “Is your love still unrequited, Bo?”
“Painfully, yes, but you know he’s gonna wake up one day and realize that I’m the most amazing guy in the world and that he’s never known love like this,” Bokuto goes on to say, face warm with a fond look that reminds Daichi of Asahi when he used to talk about Noya, “Akaashi can’t say no forever.”
“Akaashi? You mean your old setter?” Daichi asks, remembering the guy faintly as someone who always knew how to deal with Bokuto.
Bokuto nods, pulling out his cell phone and quickly showing Daichi a picture of Akaashi to jog his memory better, and he realizes Bokuto has it set as his wallpaper. “Cute, right? And, y’know, I haven’t actually told him, so...guess he can’t really say yes either.”
“Such a loser,” Kuroo teases his best friend, grabbing one of the beers to toss to Bokuto and another to hand to Daichi. “You don’t have to drink that, by the way,” he adds on, fingers lingering against the back of Daichi’s hand, “But me and Bo always talked about getting drunk back in high school, and also figured waiting a couple more years seems too long. So why not now?”
Daichi eyes the can for a minute before looking back at Kuroo with a faint smirk. “Glad to know my boyfriend is a criminal.”
“Stole your heart, didn’t I?”
Daichi groans at the same time Bokuto makes a gagging noise and they all laugh before popping open their cans.
---
“Yknow, I don’t feel all that drunk,” Kuroo slurs a few hours later as Pacific Rim’s credits roll and Bokuto snores from the place he passed out on the floor. “Like, I just feel...chill.”
“When are you not chill, Kuroo?” Daichi asks with a laugh, looking down at where Kuroo has his head pillowed on Daichi’s lap.
“All the time, seriously. Like when you get outta the shower, and your skin’s all pink...and there’s kind of like, water dripping down to the dimples above your ass...totally not chill then. Just thinking about fucking mostly.”
Daichi feels practically all of him blush, wanting to remind Kuroo that going slow had been his idea, but also a little happy to know Kuroo thinks about going that far when they’ve only just gotten to jerking each other off a couple weeks ago. “You’re ridiculous.”
“No, you’re just hot, like really really hot. Say it Daichi, say you’re hot.”
“No.”
“C’monnnnnnnnnnnnnnn,” Kuroo whines, moving to nuzzle his face into Daichi’s stomach and making him happy he stopped at only two beers so one sober person would be in the aparment, “Say it, say, ‘I’m hot’, Daichi.”
“You’re hot.”
Kuroo bites Daichi’s t-shirt in frustration as he laughs down at him. “Such an ass, Daichi...such an ass.”
“Says the drunk on my lap who I’ll probably have to help make it to the toilet to throw up later,” Daich smiles as he pinches Kuroo’s nose, shaking his face back and forth a little. “You should just go ahead and thank me now.”
“Yeah, whatever, thanks. Anyway...you think Bo’s dead? He stopped snoring.”
Leaning forward a little to see over the coffee table, Daichi can still clearly make out Bokuto breathing as he drools all over the floor. “Nope, he’s still breathing.”
“Ah...good. We should go to bed.”
“When did I say your drunk ass could sleep in my bed?”
Kuroo does his best impression of a kicked puppy and Daichi wishes he knew how to stop from crumbling every time he did it. Letting out a sigh, he stands up slowly with an arm wrapped around Kuroo’s middle to help him down the hall. After depositing him safely in the bed and grabbing the waste basket from his bathroom to place next to him on the floor, Daichi goes back to throw a blanket over Bokuto and hopes he doesn’t throw up all over apartment.
“I’m the big spoon tonight,” Kuroo announces once Daichi gets back to the room, shucking off his pants with a laugh, “So get your cute butt over here and let me cuddle.”
“So bossy.”
Kuroo pulls him close the second Daichi lays down, snuggling into him and nuzzling his face into Daichi’s hair. “You smell good,” Kuroo’s slurring is back and more drawn out as sleep accompanies his drunken words. “Real good...imma make that smell into a candle.”
“You’re so weird,” Daich feels hot kisses on the back of his neck suddenly, surprised that they aren’t any less perfect than when Kuroo’s sober, “Kuroo...don’t start anything you can’t finish.”
“Love you, Daichi.”
He can feel himself freeze, eyes wide as he stares into the darkness of his bedroom and wonders if he just heard what he thought he did. Kuroo says it again though, after a sharp nip on his ear, and then another time when Daichi moans quietly as his hands find themselves under his t-shirt. “Kuroo…”
And not a second later, Kuroo is completely passed out, and Daichi can’t bring himself to be mad. He doesn’t fall asleep for a while, too caught up in thinking if Kuroo meant it, if it’s true that it’s harder to lie when you’re drunk, and just how he felt.
But when Kuroo came stumbling into the kitchen the next morning, following the scent of the pancakes Daichi was making, he smiles and only cringes a little at how bad Kuroo’s breath tastes when he kisses him good morning.
“I love you, too,” Daichi whispers when he knew Kuroo was fully awake and standing next to him at the stove, Kuroo looking at him as if he didn’t. After clearing his throat and making sure he could still hear Bokuto’s snoring, he repeats himself. “I love you, Tetsu.”
Even if Kuroo couldn’t remember saying it the night before, it doesn’t stop him from saying it right back, and swooping in for one of his warmest hugs. Daichi feels a little stupid, standing in the kitchen fully dressed with his mostly naked boyfriend spinning him around like nothing better had ever happened in his life. But, somewhat thankfully, the spinning reminds Kuroo that he’d drank way too much the night before, and Daichi couldn’t do much else but laugh as Kuroo sprints down the hallway to throw up.
He’d had so many firsts already with Kuroo, many that would fight for the right to be his favorite, but Daichi is happy to know that they still had so many to go.