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It all started from Bokuto’s question.
Tetsurou was sitting with Kenma, eating during their break, minding his own business when Bokuto approached their table, dragging along a new black-haired player. Don’t get him wrong, Bokuto’s a great guy, fun to talk with and Tetsurou got along with him really well when they met at camp last year. The problem was, they were ghouls. One of the very few ones that are attending this summer camp.
To see Bokuto heading towards their table, holding onto another player that smells like them significantly narrows down his reasons. Tetsurou had just sighed and stood up when Bokuto grinned at him expectantly, going to grab more food from Coach Nekomata. At least the new first-year had manners, thanking him for the food. The next few minutes were filled with introductions and minor chatter. That was when Bokuto had suddenly asked.
“Hey, do you think our regenerative abilities work for hair?”
That’s the question that ruined Tetsurou’s life.
“Huh? Dunno,” Tetsurou answered, shrugging and going back to his meal. Sitting beside him, Kenma lifted his head from his console, staring with minor interest. Akaashi looked like he wanted to interject, before he ultimately decided against it.
“Wanna test that out?” Bokuto grinned, “Shave your eyebrows”
Tetsurou choked on his meat, coughing a few times to dislodge it, “What the hell man? No, how about you shave your eyebrows?”
“Hey, after lunch, our next match is against each other,” Bokuto smirked, “how about the loser shaves?”
“Hah? No way,” Tetsurou scowled, turning to look at Akaashi, “aren’t you going to stop this?”
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to how this would end,” Akaashi replied, calmly finishing his meal. Tetsurou narrowed his eyes, about to speak when Bokuto cut him off.
“What, scared that you’ll lose to us?” Bokuto taunted. Tetsurou scoffed.
“As if,”
“Then?” Bokuto pressed.
“Fine, deal,” Tetsurou huffed, “hope you look good without eyebrows,”
Bokuto cheered, turning his excited chatter to Akaashi who listened without any complains. Kenma raised an eyebrow, but soon returned to his game. Tetsurou doesn’t miss the small smile on Kenma’s face. He rolled his eyes, of course Kenma would find this amusing.
Nekoma lost that match, much to Tetsurou’s dismay.
“Penalty!” Bokuto shouted, “Have a safe trip!” he directed his grin at Tetsurou, earning him a scowl back. Grumbling, Tetsurou set off for their penalty run, grimacing at what he has to do later.
Tetsurou groaned as he stared at the cheap razor bought from the nearby convenience store that Bokuto had cheerily dropped into his hands. Kenma didn’t even flinch, continuing his game.
“Ughhh,” Tetsurou whined, loudly. That got Kenma to look up.
“Go on,” Kenma said, eyes dropping back to the console.
“Really? That’s all you got to say?” Tetsurou pouted.
“I mean you agreed to that bet, and you lost, so just do it,” Kenma stated apathetically. Tetsurou let out another groan.
“Just do it, you’ll be fine,” Kenma assured. That got Tetsurou to perked up.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” That settled Tetsurou. After all, Kenma’s smart, if he said that it’ll be fine then it’s likely that’s true. Huh, so a ghoul’s regenerative abilities do work on hair.
“Okay, I trust you,” Tetsurou said, heading off to the bathroom to shave, missing the smirk that filled Kenma’s face. Taking a deep breath, Tetsurou lifted the razor, looking at the mirror. With one quick motion, he shaved off his eyebrows. He winced at his reflection. Man, he really does look ridiculous without eyebrows, but trusting Kenma, he soon headed back to their dorm, getting ready for bed.
“Kenma, you fucking liar” Tetsurou exclaimed, staring at his reflection the next day. Kenma had the audacity to laugh.
“I can’t believe you actually did it,” Kenma wheezed, turning away and clamping his hand over his mouth to stifle his uncontrollable laughter. Tetsurou glared back, which wasn’t that effective considering the antisocial setter isn’t even looking at him. Yaku had entered at that moment, yawning and stretching. Confusion painted his face as his eyes landed on Kenma, though it soon turned into amusement as he saw Tetsurou, snorting loudly.
“Kuroo, you look ridiculous,” Yaku grinned. That moment was when Tetsurou thought, today is not going to be a good day.
“Your eyebrows are pretty thin anyway, maybe people won’t notice,” his captain smirked, leaning against the door to the restroom. With one last amused glance on Tetsurou, the third-year left. Tetsurou sighed and left for the gym.
Bokuto, upon catching sight of Tetsurou, burst out cackling. The dropping to the floor clutching his stomach level of cackling. Tetsurou could only scowl.
That day, Nekoma won the most matches. That was because nobody could look at Tetsurou for more than 5 seconds without losing it. Despite their miniscule penalties, Tetsurou couldn’t really enjoy the wins, especially not with the looks and jibes he kept getting, the most prominent from Yaku.
Later at dinner, when Yaku had left his bottle of Cola out, turned away to chat with Kai, Tetsurou remorselessly dropped in 5 Mentos. The yell he heard afterward brought a smile to his face.
At night, Tetsurou dragged Kenma to join the extra training with Bokuto and Akaashi. Normally, Tetsurou would leave his childhood friend alone at night, but after betraying his trust like that, Tetsurou isn’t feeling merciful. Kenma has refused to join at first, but Tetsurou wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Kenma, how could you,” he began, “I trusted you, and this is how you repay me?” he could see Kenma’s lip twitch.
“How could do this to me? How could you betray me like this?” Tetsurou continued. Kenma had started biting his lip to hold in the laugh.
“Huh? What have I ever done to you?” Kenma broke and he starting laughing. “Kenma, why?”
“Stop, stop!” Kenma wheeze, “I can’t-,“ in any other circumstance, Tetsurou would be happy that his friend seem to be enjoying himself that much, but unfortunately his humour is coming from Tetsurou’s expense, so he isn’t going to hold back.
“Why must you hurt me like this?” Tetsurou doesn’t stop.
“Okay! Okay, I’ll join the practice, just please stop, Kuro,” Kenma huffed out, trying to catch his breath, face red from laughing too much. Good.
It’s wasn’t good opening the door to Bokuto’s laughter. Tetsurou’s eye twitched, seeing Akaashi struggling to hold in his laughter too.
“Is there room for us?” Tetsurou asked.
“Of course, it would be beneficial to practice against such …distracting opponents,” Akaashi stated, earning a snort from Kenma and Bokuto. Tetsurou grimaced, one hand dragging Kenma into the other side of the court, Akaashi’s amused stare never leaving him.
“I’m going to cannibalise all of you guys one day,” Tetsurou scowled. It grew when all he got in return were smirks.
“On the bright side, shaved brows grow back in about 1 to 4 weeks,” Kenma stated, trying to cheer him up.
Tetsurou is really going to cannibalise them one day.