Work Text:
He was just an ordinary boy, wishing nothing more than to live his life in the happiest of ways possible. With his high school years now behind him, Kei Tsukishima had left his home and made the big move to Tokyo with hopes and dreams to just be happy no matter what came his way.
It had taken him a couple of days and the help from Aki to settle in his new apartment, and he was forever grateful for having his brother with him whenever he needed him (though he was even more grateful for his mother who finally got Aki to calm down about wanting to move in with his younger brother). They were closer than ever now and even though Kei had felt his heartstrings being plucked harder than ever before when his mother had given him a hug goodbye they all knew that the distance was just a measurement and they were always together no matter what.
Besides, Kei had promised to visit at least one weekend each month.
“You sure you’ll be okay by yourself?” Aki asked for the hundredth time.
Kei sighed. “Yes, and before you ask again: Yes, I will be okay.”
Aki’s soft chuckle was a comfort to Kei’s ears. “Alright then. Just let me know if you need anything – or if you want to move back home or –”
“Don’t you have a wife and a child to go back home to?” Kei cut in. Even though his newlywedded older brother was living his happily ever after there was no one who knew Aki the way Kei did, and he was ever so proud of himself that he still knew how to work his big bro around.
“Right. Yes. Okay. Well I guess I should get going, then.”
Kei pushed his dark-framed glasses on his nose. “You do that. Tell them I say hi.”
It took them another fifteen minutes, but once Aki finally left Kei made sure to wave at his older brother from the balcony in front of his apartment door until the truck finally made its way out of the parking lot. The tall blonde softly chuckled to himself, trying his best to ignore the butterflies in his stomach finally waking up and realizing that this was officially the first time he had been on his own. Kei looked around him, taking in the view from his floor, listening to the sounds of the city and trying to make note, learning what they all were in hopes of getting used to them as soon as he could. Turning his head to the apartment left of his, he made note of a black animal paw decal sticker underneath the doorknob. For some reason, it brought Kei back to reminiscing and reminded him of the good old times and notable friends he had made throughout his high school days.
There was just no way… no way that this cat-like paw sticker had any relations to that one high school volleyball team…
« Just no way…» Kei whispered to himself as he finally got inside of his apartment, locking the door behind him.
xXx
A few weeks went by and the sense of routine began to take shape for Kei who had figured out his class schedule in no time and had even managed to get a small part-time job in a convenience store near his apartment block. Nothing too demanding and just enough hours to get him an extra cash spending money in case he needed it. College life was just as he had expected it to be and while he had truly wanted to join a club, he promised himself to do so only once he would be comfortable with his studying schedule.
There was a moment in his everyday routine though that had Kei wondering if he was losing at times. He had first blamed it on settling in and getting used to his scheduled, but somehow it just did not fit who he was…
That black paw decal on his neighbor’s door. Whether it was in the mornings when he left for school or errands or when he came back from the study hall or work: Kei always gave the sticker a look at. He had to, or else the obsessive compulsiveness cells inside his brain gave him a run for his money (and one hell of a migraine).
Why? What was it about this strange symbol that made him curious about who lived next door? Why had it been put on the door in such a random place? Did his neighbors have children, and if so, where had they been and how was it that he had never heard any sounds coming from inside the apartment?
So many questions, and it was out of character of Kei to overthink this little detail that, in the end, did not have any effect on his life…
… Unlike his broken AC inside of his place that clearly was testing his will to like the city life.
“We’ll get it fixed as soon as we can get it fix, boy.” The landlord had made it clear over the phone about four days ago. Kei was happy to have brought his old desk fan from back home, but sometimes extra warm air being pushed on your face on high speed just didn’t do the trick. He could hear Aki and his mom worrying about the possibilities he could get dehydrated from not being under cool air (and they were both people with major degrees, mind you) and so he had to make sure to have extra water in his fridge in case he felt like he would evaporate into the air.
It was a rather short walk from the store, and he was grateful for it. With his hands full, he tried to go up the stairs towards his apartment without dropping anything, thinking that he wasn’t in the mood to clean up any mess. But as he approached his door, his hands let go of everything he was holding and for some reason felt like his heart was going to leave his chest.
“What the…” Kei didn’t understand what was happening. He kneeled in front of his neighbor’s door and looked like he had seen a ghost.
The sticker. The one thing he subconsciously looked forward to seeing everyday and had been there before he left for the store. Gone.
No more.
Unknowingly, he got up on both feet again and looked around, the possibility that he had gone up in the wrong apartment block swimming in his mind. More panic as he realized that he was in fact next door to his own place and he got worried.
Just what had happened to the sticker? Had the person living in the apartment finally got out of their home and ripped the sticker off the door? What would Kei be looking for now that the random sticker was not there to be seen?
Why am I freaking out over a damn sticker?!
The soft meowing sound of a cat came from behind Kei and brought him back from his over-thinking thoughts. The tall blonde gasped as he noticed that a black cat was sitting near him, licking his front paw slowly but with a poise-like movement that was almost hypnotic. It took Kei a moment to calm himself down and come back to reality, shaking his head over the fact that he was a moron for panicking over such as simple thing as a sticker.
As he picked up his groceries Kei noticed that the cat did not move a muscle, other than the paw that was getting a spa treatment. Its fur looked like it had the healthiest and shiniest of coat and it took all of Kei’s will to not pet the stranger’s cat.
I’m going crazy, Kei thought to himself as he reached his own door and unlocked his way in, his eyes on the cat until the finally closed the door behind him.
Just as he thought he had things figured out, crazy ideas such as the possibilities of a sticker turning into a cat came to Kei’s mind. Maybe the city and college life were beginning to overwhelm him?
“I’m okay, everything is okay,” he repeated himself.
xXx
Kei was not the type to remember much about the dreams he would have throughout the night. Sure, he remembered the silly dreams of dinosaurs eating bananas from when he was just four, but no other dreams had been that important enough for him to remember. So how was it that of all nights, especially after dealing with breaking most of his eggs after dropping his groceries – for a stupid sticker of all things – he finally had a vivid dream so life-like that he could still remember as he woke up and got out of bed the following morning?
He stepped inside his small size bathroom blindly and dealt with his business as usual as his mind continued over-analyzing the dream he had just a while ago about the black cat from the night before. The dream, a simple memory of what the apartment looked like with lights turned off in the middle of the night, showed Kei heading towards the front door and welcoming the cat inside. The cat had let himself be taken in Kei’s arms and the tall blonde had gently gotten the cat to stay on the old sofa. The dream had continued with the cat coming inside Kei’s room and on his bed, snuggling with the blonde but whenever that would happen, Kei would get up and bring the cat back on the sofa. Again, and again and…
As Kei finished with gargling the water in his mouth, he heard a sudden sound coming from his living room and spat out the remaining water in his mouth. He tried his best to look around himself to see if he could grab onto something to use as self-defence.
Another cough, and Kei thought he was about to have a heart attack. He cursed himself for not having his phone with him and wondered how he would even attempt to defend himself as he was as blind as a bat without his glasses on.
There was no way he was telling his family about someone breaking in his apartment. That is, if he was going to live through this and be able to tell the tale someday.
A loud thud followed cough number three and a loud “FUCK!” that came from a somewhat familiar voice. Somewhat, because for some reason it sounded rougher than what Kei remembered.
There was no way, but at the same time he knew only one person in the world with this voice.
“…Kuroo?”
There was a “What?” and a grunt before Kei’s body began to let go of the tension it felt. The blonde waited an extra minute before finally getting out of the bathroom and went straight towards the living room, his glasses still on his nightstand.
Kei did not need his glasses to know that Tetsurou Kuroo, who stood proudly in the middle of the living room – his dark hair still a mess – naked as the day he was born.
“Well this is awkward…” Kuroo said, making these four words the most underrated sentence of the year.
“Kuroo? Just… What… How… Why… What the hell?”
There was no way Kei owned coffee strong enough to deal with this so early in the morning.
xXx
It had taken a few minutes for Kei to finally get his glasses, a hoodie and shorts for Kuroo who clearly could not remain in his birthday suit and for a pot of coffee to be brewed and sipped. The two men had not spoken since Kei had run back to his bedroom and he knew that the more they waited to talk the more awkward the situation was getting. Kuroo had found himself a comfortable spot at the counter, sitting on one of two stools, while Kei remained on the kitchen side of the counter, aware that he was leaning near the knife drawer.
Once his coffee cup was empty, Kuroo was the first to speak. “So, err… I’m assuming that you have many questions. Which one do you want to start off with?”
Where did he want to start off this interrogation? “How did you get inside my apartment?”
There was a dumbfounded look on Kuroo’s face. “You let me in.”
“When?”
“Last night, duh!” Kuroo spoke as if he was stating the obvious.
“But I didn’t.”
Kuroo nodded as he pushed his coffee cup towards Kei. “But you did. More, please?”
“How would I have let you inside my home: I didn’t even know you were in this area… How did you know I live here?”
“Easy: I live next door.”
“What?!”
Another soft push of his cup. “I’ve been your neighbor since you moved here, Tsukki.”
The blonde scuffed at the sound of his old nickname. “How come you never said hello?”
“I could ask you the same question, y’a know.” Kuroo gave up on waiting for a refill, got up helped himself. “Want more?”
Kuroo was closing in on Kei; the blonde could feel the warmth of his old friend on his skin. The rooster head still looked as he did all those years ago, and his asswipe, smart-ass look was still the same and although it had been an annoyance back in the day, Kei had to admit that he had missed seeing this face around.
He waited until his guest sat on the stool again to continue is question period. “How did you really get it, Kuroo. No lies.”
“You opened the door for me, Tsu—I mean, Kei.”
But the blonde shook his head. “I did not.”
“Think about it for a second. Last night…”
“No. I don’t recall… except…”
Kuroo placed his cup on the countertop, his eyes never letting go of Kei. “Yes?”
“I did have a dream… where I opened the door for a cat…”. Sudden realization. “No.”
Rooster head nodded, the smirk becoming more visible on the corner of his lips.
“No.”
“Deny it all you want, my dearest Tsukki, but what can I say?”
“I don’t believe you,” Kei tried to reach for the drawer behind him but in a swift movement Kuroo was on him, his hand over Kei’s.
“You were not supposed to know this, Kei. I’m sorry. But there’s nothing else I can do for now to show you that this is real.”
Kei frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I usually don’t transform when there are others around. I don’t understand what happened. Everything’s been a mess since last night.”
“Why?” Kei asked, going with the flow.
Kuroo sighed and grabbed Kei’s hand. “Come with me.”
Kei tried his best to ignore his hand in Kuroo’s as the older one brought them outside of the apartment. He pointed at the door.
“Do you see it?”
“See what?”
“The pawprint.”
Kei shook his head.
“It’s usually my doorway when I’m in… you know… my cat form. But for some reason it’s not there anymore.”
Kei pondered for a moment. “So, you needed a place to stay for the night until you… turned back?”
“Yep.”
There were so many questions inside Kei’s head, but no matter what Kuroo would say at the moment only more questions would pop up and so the blonde decided to just go with the flow, thinking that perhaps this was still a part of the dream he had remembered for the first time.
They both went back in and decided to get comfortable on the old sofa, giving them both a chance to catch up on life, and for Kuroo to finally fess up about his origins.
“Basically, I’m a cat.”
Well that was very informative. “Does that have any significance to your school… you know… being named Nekoma?”
Kuroo chuckled. “I have no clue, to be honest. All I know is that it happens once in a while and there’s not much that I can do about it.”
Huh.
Kei stared at his old friend and couldn’t help but to remember the old days of training weeks and volleyball competitions. After all, Kuroo had been the reason Kei had started to love the game…
Wait…
“Look, it’s not like I arranged everything that happened myself, although I am relieved that it was you who moved here. I just decided to go with the flow and just ride the tide, y’a know?”
It was such a Kuroo way to talk about the situation, and Kei admired him for it. “So what now? How are you going to enter your place?”
“Oh, I have a key hidden somewhere… I just can’t unlock the door while in cat form, which is why I had the paw spell on the door. But now I don’t know what I’m going to do if the print is not on my door anymore.”
Go with the flow, Kei thought. “You know you can always come over if you are ever in a pickle.”
Kuroo’s face lit up. “Really! Thank you, Tsukki!”
The older one went in for a hug, but the younger one instinctively pushed him back. “Again, enough with the nickname. Listen, I have to get ready for work now so…”
“Right!” Kuroo got up and Kei followed the lead. “Thank you so much Kei, I mean it. And please…”
It was Kei who chuckled this time. “Of course, your secret is safe.”
Kei opened the door and was about to offer Kuroo a “See you later, then” when he noticed something on the corner of his eyes. His head turned from Kuroo to his door and it took everything he had in him not to scream.
“What is it?” Kuroo asked, confused.
He didn’t wait until Kei replied to know what was going on.
The sticker – the pawprint spell – was back.
Just on the wrong door.
This time, Kuroo went for the hug and reached his goal.
Kei’s face blushed bright red.
“Huh wait… what does this mean?”
Kuroo’s response was filled with so much happiness and excitement it made Kei’s heart churn.
“I guess you’re my master from now on!”