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“Kenma-san, can you set for me after practice? I can’t become the ace if I can’t sync with you,” Lev insisted in the clubhouse.
His excitement was palpable as he tied his shoes even though he knew he was going to have a long day at practice. Today was ‘Receive Day’ as the third years called it. They were having Lev play libero on the B team, meaning that not only could he not spike, but he also had to receive Kuroo’s spikes, something neither fun nor easy. Either way, he was excited at the prospect of getting to practice with Kenma. He loved the feeling of absolutely nailing a spike, but unfortunately they’d been painfully out of sync.
“No,” Kenma said without a second thought.
It wasn’t the first time he’d said it this week. It probably wouldn’t be the last. He didn’t even like setting to Lev during practice when it was what he was specially supposed to be doing. He surely didn’t want to do it on his time off.
“Kenma-san, please. I’ll do anything,” he begged, insistent as usual.
Kenma glanced around to make sure the two were alone. The gleam in his eye scared Lev. He came to learn that for someone so quiet, Kenma could be downright terrifying.
“Anything?” Kenma clarified, a plan clicked into place.
“Anything,” he insisted, not having any idea what was about to come his way.
“Pants Kuro during practice,” Kenma said calmly.
“What? No! He’s going to kill me!” Lev exclaimed, concerned, “Not to mention Coach Nekomata!”
“Then I won’t set for you after practice,” Kenma said with a shrug, “That’s not something that’s going to bother me.”
“It’s not worth it,” Lev insisted.
“What if it was for an entire hour and just with you?” Kenma asked.
“A whole hour?” he asked, his eyes wide, “But wait, they’re going to make me run laps. Coach Nekomata will be angry.”
“I don’t care when or how you do it as long as I’m nearby. Do it when Nekomata isn’t paying attention. Plus, you’re a quick runner. What’s a few laps?” Kenma bargained.
“Kuroo-san is going kill me,” Lev insisted.
“You’re tall enough, you could take him,” Kenma lied. He’d only seen his oversized best friend fight once, but it didn’t look good for the other guy. Kenma didn’t give Lev much credit in being able to stop him.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Kenma-san.”
“You don’t have to do it. You also don’t have to decide to do today. Deal is on until after practice Saturday,” Kenma said with a nod as he left the clubhouse.
Kenma wasn’t sure if Lev was going to follow through, but he seemed desperate to want to hit. He’d start sending extra focused tosses to Tora in the hope of getting Lev to take the deal. Ideally, seeing Tora hit extra well would irritate Lev and make him want to improve.
Even if he needed to bribe Lev with an hour of time, Kenma was desperate. It would be worth it. He had until Saturday after practice to get Kuroo to swear. If he could do it, Kuroo would buy him the newest DLC for his favorite game. If he couldn’t, he had to go to a Fukurodani party with Kuroo.
While they’d been making bets like this for years, Coach Nekomata was at fault for this one. The Saturday before at practice, Kenma whispered to Kuroo that his last spike looked like one of Lev’s and Kuroo promptly told him to fuck off. The only issue was that Coach Nekomata had wandered behind them. Kenma was given two laps. Kuroo was given four. After their outdoor laps, which took them the same amount of time to complete, Kuroo insisted he would never swear at practice again. Kenma didn’t buy it as Kuroo swore like a sailor. Though Kuroo insisted he could, Kenma argued he couldn’t go a week without swearing at practice. They formulated the terms of the bet before they went back inside.
Unfortunately for Kenma, it was now the third day of practice that week, and his best friend showed no sign of cracking. He needed outside help. He was willing to pay the price of one hour of his time.
It was Saturday morning and Kuroo had a four hour long practice. More importantly, he had four hours to avoid swearing and he’d win the most recent bet. He really wanted to go to a Fukurodani party, but didn’t want to be the only one he knew besides Bokuto there.
He’d been doing well. He could tell Kenma was trying to do things to piss him off, but he always managed to catch himself, changing the cuss to a different word, or even just not saying anything entirely. He was fine at the beginning of the day when Kenma was intentionally setting a few centimeters too high to make him stretch. He was fine during their run when he slipped on the wet grass and jarred his knee. He would be fine. In just a few hours, he’d be at a Fukurodani party, Kenma in tow.
“Captain!” Coach Nekomata declared, gesturing at himself and Coach Naoi, “We have some business to attend to, please start some scrimmaging.”
“Take five, I’ll split teams in a minute,” Kuroo announced.
He thought carefully about how to split the teams. They had their typical setups, but Kuroo thought changing it around could be beneficial. All of these setups had Kenma and him on the same side. He told himself it was because the third years would never need to play without Kenma, but eventually, the second or first years might, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pair them with Teshiro, but he knew that wasn’t honest. At the end of the day, he just really preferred when Kenma set for him. Could you blame him? Kenma had been setting for him for years now, so it wasn’t as good when it was someone else.
“Kenma,” he said wandering over, “Should I put Lev with us or against us? Does he need more blocking or receiving.’
Kenma seemed to think it over before carefully suggesting that Lev should play with them so Kuroo could pay more attention to his blocks. As always, Kuroo listened to what he said, even though he didn’t expect Kenma to actually think about it. When it wasn’t during a game, he didn’t usually give input, so when Kuroo asked the question, he was mostly talking to himself out loud.
He split the teams and started the scrimmage. He thought it was going pretty well, giving advice here and there. The team seemed to be locked in. He was really proud of their efforts. With the Tokyo training camp coming up soon, he was sure they could become a team that could compete on a high level, that is if he could get Lev on track.
“Lev, your arms can’t be in a big ol’ V-shape,” he chided as Lev botched another block.
Getting Lev on track didn’t seem to be as easy of a task as any of them had expected it to be. He was absolutely large and athletic, but turning that starting point into a skilled player wasn’t easy. It didn’t help that sometimes the advice they gave went in and out of his ears.
“Kuro,” Kenma asked from across the court, “Do you have any advice on the type of set to send Lev? I’m not convinced this is going to work.”
“It’s just going to take time and practice,” he responded. It was true. Kenma didn’t want to hear it, but it was true.
Speaking of things Kenma didn’t want to hear, he wanted to try a new spike and was bothering Kenma into practicing it. He insisted they needed to be working on it at this scrimmage, and Kenma shockingly obliged with little objection. It was taking Kuroo a minute to get used to, but it was also taking him extra effort to be able to block Tora. His spiking had been incredible the last week. Specifically, it had started out with Kenma setting for him, but it appeared to have carried over with Teshiro’s setting as well.
He was ready for this one. Lev has a bad serve. It would go to the other side and Teshiro would send it to Tora in a slightly high set. Knees bent. Count to two. Jump. Strong hands. He felt a tug on his shorts and then a chill around his waist as his feet touched back to the ground. There was a lot of laughing and it had nothing to do with his kill block. His pants were around his ankles.
“Dude, hey, What the fuck?” he asked as he scrambled to pull his pants up, doing his best to act cool about it instead of angry.
He felt Kenma’s hand touch his left shoulder blade.
“You shouldn’t swear like that at practice,” he said sweetly.
Kuroo’s eyes widened in a moment of realization and then narrowed at his friend.
“You did this,” he accused, “Go take two outdoor laps.”
“But, Kuroo, it was Lev, why should I have to take laps for something Lev did?” Kenma asked, innocently.
“It wasn’t Lev and you know it,” he insisted.
“Actually,” Yaku interjected, “It was Lev. We watched him do it.”
Kuroo shot daggers at Kenma with a pointed glare, “Take three laps, Lev.”
“That’s not fair! You were only going to make Kenma-san run two,” he whined.
“That’s because his legs are two thirds as long as yours. It works out,” he said.
“No, if it was two thirds it’d be two and one third of a lap for him,” Lev insisted.
A chorus of people telling him that he didn’t know basic math sounded across the room.
Kuroo watched as his friend walked up to Lev, put his hand on his shoulder, smiled and asked, “Are you free on Monday?”
Lev responded with a grin and a thumbs up as he started to make his way outside, to take his laps.
Kenma glanced at the notification that popped up on the bottom right side of his monitor.
Kuro_oh_yes has sent you content as a gift. Click open to view content and transaction details.
Kenma couldn’t help but smile as he paused his game and opened the notification. It was the DLC he was owed. Attached was a short comment.
You’re an absolute bastard, you know that?