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The train station is bustling, as is per usual for a Friday afternoon. The team is seeing Kuroo off before he leaves to uni. Kenma kind of wishes they weren't there, only because they always lose their minds when Kenma shows any kind of affection and Kenma really wants to kiss his boyfriend at least a hundred more times before he’s gone for weeks on end.
Kenma has to give them some credit though, as they’re all standing a good distance from Kenma and Kuroo now to offer privacy, but Kenma doesn’t miss the expectant glances they keep sending their way.
“I’ll message you when I make it there,” Kuroo says, tucking some strands of hair behind Kenma’s ear.
Kenma sighs, leans into the touch. He looks up at Kuroo, who stares back down at him. “Don’t look like that.”
“Like what?”
“So sad.”
“You’re leaving, of course I’m sad, Kuro.” Kenma huffs. “But I’m also happy for you. You earned this. I’m … really … proud of you.” Kenma’s voice tapers off at the end, and when he looks up Kuroo is beaming down at him, then two strong arms are looping around his waist and hoisting him up into a firm hug.
Kenma considers protesting for all of a second, thinks about his friends all teasing him about being soft for Kuroo, but then he thinks about how Kuroo is going to be gone for months and he doesn’t care. His arms loop behind Kuroo’s neck and he jumps, squeezes his legs against Kuroo’s hips to keep himself up with the help of Kuroo’s arms wrapped tightly around him. He tucks his face into the crook of Kuroo’s neck , feels Kuroo’s nose and lips against his cheek
“A few weeks and I’ll be back. First break I get.”
I’m going to miss you so much, Kenma thinks, but doesn’t say out loud, doesn’t want Kuroo to have any reservations about pursuing his goals. Kuroo isn’t stupid though, and Kenma could guess that he already knows anyway.
“I’m gonna call you every night,” Kuroo says into Kenma’s shoulder.
Kenma’s legs straighten out beneath him. Finding he uncharacteristically doesn’t care about their teammates watching them or the dozens of other people around them, Kenma looks up at Kuroo, who looks down at him and pushes a strand of hair out of his face. He leans up, initiation a kiss of his own that Kuroo happily leans down into.
The station speaker crackles above them. “Train departing in five minutes,” it mocks them. They break away.
“Okay, I really gotta go,” Kuroo says and shoulders his bag. “I’ll text you,” he says and then decides he needs to kiss Kenma just one more time. Kenma isn’t complaining.
Kuroo waves at them as he boards the train. Yamamoto is screaming encouragements behind him and his voice is wobbling just enough to reveal that he wants to cry. It makes Kenma laugh quietly to himself, even as his own eyes sting a little. He’s good at not crying though. Not that he thinks any of them would judge him for it if he did cry, he thinks, as he watches Kuroo disappear onto the train.
“You gonna be okay, Kenma?” Tora asks as they all walk from the station.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kenma knows the answer, but he hates when people fret over him. Tora seems okay to drop the topic, but Lev, the dunce, doesn’t seem to catch the hint.
“Well, you and Kuroo san have been together since you were kids. Maybe you weren’t dating until this year, but that’s a long time to be around someone. You sure you won’t get lonely -- ouch! Yaku san!”
Kenma sees Lev rubbing at his side where Yaku’s elbow previously made impact.
“It’s not like me and Kuro are attached at the hip,” he says and it sounds like denial denial denial. “I spent plenty of time by myself. I’ll be fine.” His teammates don’t challenge him, but something in their eyes says they know something Kenma doesn’t, and Kenma figures they probably do because he’s never been in a relationship before now, unlike most of his teammates.
It’ll be fine though.
Sure, they grew up together and yeah they spent a lot of time together; Kuroo would come over often just to sit on Kenma’s bed and do homework, and yeah maybe Kenma did wait up just a little between classes so he and Kuroo could walk to their next class together and on the days where Kuroo missed school he felt a little lost and found himself waiting up for someone who wasn’t going to show, and sure, maybe sometimes Kenma got antsy on days where Kuroo hadn’t stopped by his house to bug him about something usually volleyball related. They spent a lot of time together, but Kenma also spent plenty of time alone. He's fine by himself.
They’ve spent time apart. Days even. Just because Kuroo isn’t going to suddenly be a house away where Kenma can easily walk over and see him when he gets lonely doesn’t mean he’s going to be miserable.
---
Kenma has a snapchat streak.
Kenma never has snapchat streaks. He doesn’t keep up with them because he doesn’t really care to. Even Kuro’s snaps, he’d look at and then close out of the app.
But now Kuroo is away at Uni and Kenma is checking his phone like a maniac waiting for Kuroo’s replies and sending him snaps back. Kuroo’s probably losing his mind over it; them having a measly five day streak because it is truly the longest one he’s ever had.
Why? Because Kenma is miserable.
He’s lonely and sad and his heart feels like an elephant is sitting on it. He spent the first few days in denial that he hopelessly missed Kuroo and only the tiniest crumbs like a snapchat from Kuroo can lessen that ache while simultaneously doubling it.
So, maybe long distance is going to be a little harder than he thought.
He’s trying really hard not to get caught up in his feelings. He misses Kuroo something fierce. It’s awful. It’s terrible and Kenma feels like the embodiment of a hormonal teenager.
It’s the weekend so Kenma can’t even distract himself with classes or volleyball and he tries his hardest to become engrossed with his video games but every time he starts playing he thinks of Kuroo sitting with him, doing homework while Kenma games and he looks over at the spot Kuroo would usually sit. He thinks of how, especially after they started dating, Kuroo would occasionally run his fingers through Kenma’s hair and kiss the crown of his head and Kenma would try his hardest to hide a shiver.
Kenma reaches for one of his pillows, shoves his face into it and yells through his teeth in frustration. After he’s successfully forced all the air from his lungs, he catches his breath, sits up, and caves.
He grabs his phone and opens his messages with Kuroo.
how are classes going?
Aww Kitten , do you miss me?
Die.
Kenma’s phone begins chiming for a video callrequest, Kuroo’s name on the caller ID. Kenma is almost embarrassed by how quickly he accepts the call.
“Hey,” Kuroo smirks. Kenma could melt.
“Hey.” Kenma breathes.
“Who you talking to?” an unfamiliar voice asks.
“Boyfriend.”
“Damn, he is cute.” The new face on the screen says, a guy around their age. Kenma raises a brow as Kuroo pushes him out of the frame.
“Aaalright. No ogling my boyfriend.”
Kenma hears a distant laugh as Kuro turns back toward the camera.
“A friend?”
Kuroo shrugs.
“Dorm mate. He’s cool.”
Kenma hums.
“How are classes going?”
“Good! I’ve already got a load of homework, so that blows. I really should start working on it.”
“We could do that on here.” Kenma offers faster than he can register how eager he sounds. Kuroo raises a brow at his vagueness. “Like ... how we usually do. You do homework and I play my games, except just on here. Video chat.”
Kenma tries not to blush as he says it. He looks up to see Kuroo smirking at him.
“Kenma?”
Kenma looks away, expression pinched and bitter, braces himself to be teased.
“What?” Kenma mutters.
“I love you.”
Kenma closes his eyes, breathes in.
“I love you, too,” he says, hiding his smile as his expression softens.
It almost feels right. Kuroo is on his phone screen while Kenma games on his laptop. Almost normal, except that Kenma can’t reach out and touch Kuroo. But he can look at him as he reads his textbook with his reading glasses on and he feels a little better.
---
It comes to no surprise that Kenma has been sloppy at best during practice. Today has been a particular shitshow. His serves are too low, too slow. He manages to trip over his own feet at some point and doesn’t even bother getting up for a moment, just stares up at the roof of the gym waiting for this obnoxious lovesickness to seep out of him. It doesn’t.
Yamamoto is the one who trots over, offering his hand to help Kenma up. Kenma accepts, lets Yamamoto tug him to his feet. He pats Kenma’s back knowingly.
“Sorry,” Kenma mutters. Yamamoto shakes his head.
“It’s fine. You’re a lovesick idiot. But get it together, I don’t plan on being as nice a captain as your boyfriend was.”
Kenma sighs, gets into position, or at least his body does. His mind doesn’t seem to be on the same page as him because when Lev hits the ball and it goes straight toward Kenma’s face, Kenma understands he could easily block it. Instead, it hits his face and Kenma is back on the gym floor with Lev apologizing profusely in the background.
“He gave you a bloody nose?” Kuroo asks him over the phone later that evening, sounding concerned. Kenma sighs. “But you’re okay, right?” he asks. Kenma hums in affirmation.
“It was an accident and it wasn’t that bad, Kuro. It lasted all of five minutes.”
Kuroo makes a disgruntled noise. Kenma rolls his eyes. Kenma doesn’t hate how Kuroo frets over him, but he doesn’t like it. Kenma shows even the slightest hint of discomfort and Kuroo is all concern and worry.
“Want me to beat him up for you?” Kuroo asks, joking. Kenma rolls his eyes again, grinning this time.
“He’s bigger than you, Kuro.”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
Kenma laughs. Really, laughs, a noise that bubbles up out of him and has Kuroo going silent on the other end of the phone. The silence stretches out for so long, that Kenma begins to think Kuroo hung up.
“Kuro?” Kenma calls.
“Sorry,” Kuroo says. “I just wish I could have been there to see you laugh like that.”
Kenma fidgets on his bed. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to the way Kuroo pours affection over him.
“This weekend, right?”
“Right,” Kuro agrees. “This weekend.”
The weekend can’t come quick enough. Thursday night, Kenma rolls restlessly in his bed. Eventually, he caves, reaches for his phone and texts Kuroo.
You awake?
Not a moment later is Kenma receiving a video call request. He picks it up, winces at the brightness of the screen. Kuroo is in his own bed, reading his text book.
“Hey, were you about to sleep?” Kuroo asks, guilt in his voice.
“Can’t fall asleep,” Kenma reassures, leaves out the ‘ I miss you.’
They stay on the call for a while. Talking about everything and nothing.
“It’s getting kind of late. We both have class tomorrow, we should probably sleep.”
“...Can we stay on the call?”
“Stay on the video call while we sleep?”
“...Yes.”
Kuroo grins on the other end.
“Sure,” he says, and Kenma is glad he doesn’t ask questions because he isn't sure he could bear being teased right now. He doesn’t need to. He might as well be able to read Kenma’s mind -- a feeling that Kenma both loves and hates.
Kenma props his phone up on his nightstand, faces it toward him. Kuroo does the same and pulls the sheets over himself.
“Goodnight Kitten.” Kenma presses his face into the pillow beneath his head to hide his smile.
“Goodnight, Kuro.”
By morning, Kenma’s phone has overheated and shut down, but Kenma doesn’t really care. For once he’s eager to begin the day, knowing that once school ends, him and the team are meeting Kuroo at the train station. It’s almost unbearable to sit through his classes. He bounces his leg, can’t focus on his assignments and keeps looking up the clock.
Kenma is up out of his seat a solid ten seconds before the dismissal bell rings. The third and second years on the team are gathered by the school gates, but not everyone is there yet so they have to wait and it takes everything in Kenma not to groan and roll his eyes toward the sky in annoyance. He does tap his foot impatiently.
When all of them are there, Kenma has to force himself not to walk ahead of everyone to avoid being teased. It’s not like getting there sooner will make Kuroo’s train arrive quicker. They still have to wait the ten extra minutes it takes the train to arrive once they get there. When Kenma sees it approach in the distance, he can’t help the way his feet inch forward, or the way he bounces eagerly on the balls of his feet when the train hisses to a halt.
People file out of the train, and the moment he catches a glimpse of that wild black hair, Kenma allows his backpack to slip from his shoulders and fall to the ground. He doesn’t care about the people around them or their teammates watching.
When Kuroo spots him and grins Kenma decides he really can’t stand to walk the rest of the way and all but runs the last few steps. Kuroo is ready when Kenma hops up into his arms, anticipates it even and decides to add a spin to it. Kenma’s arms lock behind Kuroo’s neck as the spin ends and his feet settle on the floor.
Kuroo’s arms are wrapped tightly around his waist, holding him close. They pull away, just enough to lean in for a kiss.
“Hey,” Kuroo says when they part, a smirk on his lips, eyes half lidded.
“Hey.” Kenma smiles.
“Fuck, that was so cute,” Yamamoto says from a few feet away, one hand covering his face as the other points his phone camera at the two of them. Kenma narrows his eyes suspiciously at his friends.
“Did you get a video of that?” Kuroo asks, sounding absolutely stoked. Yamamoto nods. “Let me see it! Send it to me right now!” Kuroo excitedly demands. Kenma rolls his eyes, but he won’t deny that the video is really cute. They look like they’re in love, pressed close, holding each other like they’re the only ones in the world. Later that night, after they’ve gone out and had dinner with the team, Kenma even takes a screenshot from the video and sets it as his phone background. That way, when Kuroo inevitably has to leave again in a few days, Kenma will have something to remind him that they’ll always come home to each other.