Work Text:
There are so many ways that Kuroo tells you he loves you.
First, and probably your favourite, is when he says it. Simple as that. When he said it for the first time, he thought you were fast asleep, on your first date – that picnic after months of dancing around each other. You’d thought it was a dream until he’d drunkenly confirmed that he had said it.
He likes to have it be the last thing he tells you before he falls asleep. Curled up in his bed or yours, your head resting over his heart, his hand stroking lazily up and down your back, pausing as his eyelids droop shut and then continuing as he forces himself awake again, a sleepy murmur of “love you” into your hair as he drops off to sleep.
Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way his arms tighten around you in the morning, ducking down to bury his face in your neck as he hides from the sun and the day ahead while you blearily fumble with the alarm and toss your phone back on the beside table, pressing soft kisses to his messy hair.
“Don’ wanna go t’work.” He grumbles into your neck, voice rough with sleep, arms locked around your waist and legs tangled with yours. You hum in agreement, blinking slowly as you try to fight sleep. “Stay ‘n bed. Me an’ you.”
You huff a sleepy laugh, and though you know that he won’t follow through, you hum in agreement, eyes slipping shut.
Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way that he makes you breakfast – whenever you stay over his place, or he at yours, you don’t have to run to make your train, so you both have time to spare. He makes you a full plate, your coffee just how you like it, and always waits until you’ve taken the first bite before he starts.
He never sits opposite you. Always next to you.
He even makes you lunch.
Only Lisa’s noticed the matching lunchboxes, and that’s only because she knows enough to be observant about those sorts of things. She rolls her eyes and sends you an email with a picture of a can of corn (corny. She’s calling you corny). You reply with a sunny smile.
Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way he slides a coffee onto your desk whenever he can see you’re ready to tear your hair out as you repeat yourself on the phone for the hundredth time, only to be put on goddamn hold again. As the hold music threatens to drive you to insanity, he places the mug on your desk, and ever so discreetly, pulls a tiny bar of chocolate from his pocket and leaves it for you. You don’t make any outward reaction, but you know that he knows you’re grateful by the way his smile grows and he ducks his head as he retreats to his office.
Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way he holds your hand on the drive home. Whenever he can spare it, the hand closest to you seeks out yours, fingers twining, thumb stroking gently over the back of your palm, warm and reassuring as you both talk about anything at all and nothing in particular.
He tells you he loves you in the way you both dance around each other in the kitchen as you make dinner. It’s in the way he rests his hand on your hip as he reaches above you for the jar of dried herbs you’d been struggling to reach, teasing you about your height as he places it in your hand and kisses the top of your head. It’s in the way he steals a bite and laughs as you chase him fruitlessly around the small island counter of your kitchen. He tells you he loves you in the way he catches your yawn after dinner and tells you he’ll clean up, you shower.
Kuroo loves you with gentle touches. Both of you freshly showered, he sits on the overstuffed daisy-print couch he loves so much, his back wedged in the corner, legs sprawled along the cushions, a book in hand, glasses slipping down his nose. You sit between his legs, your back against his chest, working on your laptop mindlessly. The television drones softly in the background, and Kuroo has his free hand stroking through your hair, fingers soft and gentle as you type.
He tells you he loves you in the way he puts his all into being friends with your friends – with Mina. Mina becomes as important to him as she is to you, and vice versa with you and Kenma.
Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way he’s so exceedingly proud of your every accomplishment. He tells you he loves you in how he proudly introduces you to Bokuto, Akaashi and Hinata as his girlfriend, grin wide and goofy and over the moon that he gets to call you his girlfriend. He lists all your accomplishments and the way you keep him in check at work daily, how incredible of a cook you are, how you give the best hugs (and all three test that one, and agree), how funny and warm and friendly you are. When you finally get the promotion at work, Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way that his pride shines in every word and look that he gives you.
He tells you he loves you in the way that he can finally put a photograph of you two on his desk, because even though he misses you as his assistant, your office is right next door to his.
Kuroo tells you he loves you in the way he talks so casually about the future – wanting you to move in permanently, instead of nights here and there (you can bring whatever you want, he says as he tries to convince you, as long as the couch comes too). He says things like when we get married or when we have kids, as though saying we breathe oxygen. He talks about you meeting his older sister and his mother (though he never brings up his father).
But your favourite, of course, is when he says it.
Whether it’s murmured before he falls asleep, laughed out as you finally catch him in the kitchen, exasperatedly with a shake of his head, hummed adoringly, or stated as fact.
Your favourite way that Kuroo Tetsurou tells you he loves you is when he calls your name, and when you look up, he says, “I love you.”