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“No, you may not,” Kuroo insisted, narrowing his eyes at Kenma through the phone.
“Okay, but hear me out, what if I do anyway?” Kenma asked.
“You’re hereby banned,” Kuroo said, mimicking a judge banging their gavel.
At first, when Kuroo started video calling him, he was nervous about the prospect. He didn’t really like video calls, even if he did really want to see Kuroo, but they ended up being the best part of his day. Days like today, were extra exciting, though. Kuroo had taken to using a thick headband to keep his hair out of his face and Kenma loved it. He couldn’t deny the thrill that went through his stomach every time he saw it.
“I’m not convinced you have the power to ban me from a public place,” Kenma pointed out.
Kuroo had not one, but two championship games the upcoming weekend for his intramural college league. Both his men’s team and co-rec team made the championships, and as much as Kenma didn’t want to admit it, he missed watching Kuroo play volleyball. It was something he’d been doing for years after all. Yeah, the league was a casual league, so winning only meant free shirts, but still, he wanted to go.
“You can’t ditch practice. You’re the captain,” Kuroo insisted.
“Yeah, and I distinctly recall begging not to be the captain. You fly too close to the sun by actually enjoying a volleyball game for once in your life and now you get forced to be in charge,” he whined.
“Regardless of your feelings about being a captain, you are in fact still the captain,” Kuroo pointed out, “So no ditching practice to come see me.”
Kuroo grew apprehensive as he saw a grin spread on his boyfriend’s face. He could practically see a lightbulb turn on over his head. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but do not do it.”
“It doesn’t count as ditching if I get Coach to sign off on it, and he owes me one for forcing me to be captain,” Kenma explained, “Therefore, I’m all good.”
“He’s not going to sign off on it. Not only is it hard to practice without a captain, it’s even worse without a setter,” Kuroo insisted.
“Teshiro is good at what he does,” Kenma said with a shrug, “Plus, I do not do captainy things like you did, so that’s not really relevant.”
“First of all, I’m sure he’s great, but he hardly leaves the bench. Second of all, I’m dying to know what your pregame speech is,” he said with a laugh as he walked over to his bed.
“That’s something you’ll never find out,” Kenma replied firmly.
“Oh come on, that’s no fun,” Kuroo protested.
“I’m not sure when I’ve ever claimed to be fun,” Kenma pointed out in response.
“Hang on, next time we see each other, which will not be this weekend because you will not be ditching practice and you will never get permission from Coach to miss, we will play Kings in the Corner and you will tell me your speech if I win,” Kuroo proposed.
“Best two out of three?” Kenma amended.
“I suppose I could go for that,” Kuroo acquiesced.
Kenma was a fair amount better at Kings in the Corner than he was, but he’d been practicing a lot against his roommate. It was a lot easier to win one by luck than to win two by luck, but maybe Kenma would have an off day.
“Good. When I win, you have to give me your summer camp sweatshirt,” Kenma said with a grin.
“That’s my favorite one, though!” Kuroo protested.
“See, it’s my favorite one too, hence why I asked for it. Also, assuming you lose the game, I’ve decided that there will not be a speech given if you come to any of our games, so just keep that in mind,” Kenma bargained.
Kenma was half lying about the sweatshirt. It wasn’t his favorite sweatshirt in terms of how it looked, but it was easily the one he wanted the most. It was a dark blue hoodie with a logo of a palm tree with volleyballs instead of coconuts. He actually thought the logo was super lame, but the important part of the sweatshirt, the whole reason he wanted it, was that the back featured Kuroo’s name.
“You’ve backed me into a corner here,” Kuroo half pouted.
“You don’t have to take the bet,” Kenma pointed out.
“Oh, I’m taking the bet.”
Kenma helped herd his entire volleyball team and coach to the gymnasium at Kuroo’s university. It was a bit over an hour train ride, so everyone was getting a pinch antsy. Kenma skillfully argued that it would be a good team bonding trip to watch two college championship games in large part because they don’t practice together so they require a lot of good communication and teamwork to pull off plays during the games. While he technically wasn’t lying, he didn’t really imagine it would be helpful. He also didn’t imagine that Coach Nekomata would support the idea wholeheartedly. Apparently Kenma wasn’t the only one with a soft spot for Kuroo.
He had sent Kuroo a text to let him know that he was on his way to the game and that he’d been given explicit permission to go. He didn’t mention that he’d be bringing guests or why Coach Nekomata agreed.
Kuroo sent a text back saying that he was going to call Coach Nekomata after the games to make sure Kenma wasn’t lying. Kenma laughed as he read the text. There’d be no phone call needed.
“Alright, so a few things. The first is that they will absolutely kick us out of we’re obnoxious or heckling,” Kenma glanced at Coach Nekomata, “And as we are representatives of Nekoma High School, that would not be acceptable. The second is that they’re expecting to lose both games, so don’t get your hopes up. The third is that this is a learning opportunity so it is important for you to pay attention.”
Kenma opened the doors to the gym and herded everyone towards where the matches take place. Normally they don’t have that many spectators, so there wasn’t enough room for them all on the bleachers. A few of them, Kenma included, sat against the wall next to the bleachers. Kenma had an overnight bag packed that he sat next to him.
The men’s game was first. They were a bit early, but there weren’t too many players there yet. There was no Kuroo in sight and the student referees were just beginning the check in process. Slowly but surely more and more players joined the group, grabbing practice jerseys and checking in with the referees. Kenma considered that maybe he could play volleyball like this in college. There weren’t any practices and there were different difficulty levels. He could play down a few levels every once in a while.
“Is that Kuroo-san’s girlfriend?” Lev asked Kenma, snapping him out of his thought process.
Kenma followed his gaze to the gym entrance where Kuroo and a tall woman were walking in while in hysterics. She kept trying to say something only to be interrupted by her own laughter. Kenma recognized her as his setter for the co-rec team. Kuroo had showed him a picture only once, but she was very recognizable. She had long, straight, dark red hair and was almost his height, so it was pretty hard to miss her.
“Ah, no. She’s his setter for the co-rec league actually,” Kenma said with a small laugh.
“I don’t know, Kenma-san, looks like they’re pretty comfortable together. Plus she’s really hot,” Lev pointed out.
“Yeah, they’re good friends. The two of them actually get together and practice for this league,” Kenma said, “Pair of volleyball obsessed lunatics.”
“Looks like they practice more than volleyball to me,” Lev commented.
“Yeah, Lev, they sometimes study together. They have the same major,” Kenma said, rolling his eyes.
“So if she’s not his girlfriend, when is he going to ask her out?” Lev pressed.
“They’re friends,” Kenma reiterated.
At that moment it was clear that Kuroo had finally noticed his audience based on his facial expression. Red tinged his cheeks and the tips of his ears and he gestured over to them, saying something to his friend. The two of them walked together towards Kuroo’s unexpected personal spectators.
When they were closer, Kuroo shot Kenma a look that said ‘Are you fucking serious right now?’ It was clear that he was trying to keep an exasperated face but it wasn’t working. Kenma could see his nostrils flaring in an attempt to hide his amusement.
Kuroo intentionally ignored Kenma to talk to Coach Nekomata, but his friend didn’t.
“Yo, Kenma, right?” she asked as she came over to him.
He nodded, “Nice to meet you.”
“You as well. Can I sit?” she asked, gesturing at the spot his bag was sitting, “I knew it was you based on the like 30 pictures of you I’ve seen in the last week.”
He nodded again and moved his bag, “Did you already play your women’s game?”
“We lost in the quarterfinals,” she said with a shrug, “I suppose I have you to thank for teaching him all of those fun plays?”
He laughed, “Uh no, you have him to thank. I definitely learned most of them against my will. We started practicing his time lag spike when we were like ten.”
“That’s not what I heard,” she said, “He can do all this fun stuff. He’s like a setter’s wet dream, but I bet you have some thoughts about that.”
Kenma shot her a glance, “Yeah my friend is pretty good at all sorts of stuff. I tried to convince him to let you do the high sets. Did end up letting you?”
She sent him a quick apologetic glance. Kuroo must not have told her they hadn’t told their friends that they were together. In Kuroo’s defense, he didn’t know some of his friends were coming to see him today.
“He did actually and it’s working really well. Thank you for getting into his stubborn head,” she said with a laugh.
“Honestly, I’d been thinking it for years, I was pretty impressed you noticed it that quickly,” Kenma admitted.
“Kenma-“ Kuroo started to walk towards him before he was stopped by Yamamoto.
Yamamoto whispered something to him and Kuroo shot him a tired look. He glanced over at his setter.
“He wants to know if we’re dating, and if not, if you’re single,” Kuroo said walking over.
“I’m a bit too old for him, I think,” she said, the corner of her mouth turning into a smile.
“But he’s only one year younger than Kuroo-san,” wingman Lev said.
“I’m also probably a bit too old for Kuroo,” she said with a snort.
“So, Kenma,” Kuroo started, “When I said you weren’t allowed to ditch practice to come to my games, this isn’t what I-“
He was cut off by the buzzer, “Let’s talk about this later.”
“He really had no idea y’all were coming?” Kuroo’s friend asked.
Kenma snorted, “It’s possible I didn’t bring it up.”
She went for a high five, “That’s totally awesome dude. I’ve never seen him that flustered.”
“Oh, that’s actually a special talent of mine,” Kenma pointed out, “Are they really going to lose that badly?”
“They should get absolutely smoked. I just hope he keeps some of his energy for the co-rec game. At least that one we may have a chance of winning,” she said.
“Oh, yeah. Kuro is definitely the kind of person who would give up on a game and conserve his energy,” Kenma said dryly.
They both laughed.
She wasn’t wrong. They were getting absolutely smoked. Apparently that entire team was made up of really good players who actually practiced five times a week. Nobody who played on a casual level had any chance of beating them. Throughout the game the two talked about the different plays, and the other team, but mostly they talked about Kuroo. Thankfully, at their level, championship games were only best of three, so they didn’t have to watch them get thrashed for another set.
“You see it, too, right?” she asked Kenma after the game had ended.
He nodded. The men’s setter was a terrible matchup for Kuroo. It wasn’t necessarily that he was a bad setter, he just wasn’t even vaguely playing to any of Kuroo’s strengths at all, which made some sense. To be fair, he hadn’t mentioned anything about practicing with the men’s team, but Kenma felt like it was such a waste.
Kuroo briefly came by to talk in between games, but the co-rec team started warming up pretty quickly after the men’s game. Kenma watched them warm up. He determined that the setter was in fact really good. Clearly Kuroo wasn’t the only one she had her eyes on. He could see that she was adjusting sets for each hitter. The team looked decent. Kenma couldn’t quite figure out what about the other team made them pretty sure they’d lose. The other team looked like they had some power hitters, but they didn’t look polished at all. As long as they had good defense and watched their judgement, it should be decent. It then occurred to Kenma that not every team was Nekoma and spent more time digging than a gardener.
The game ended up being really interesting to watch. For a casual league, there were some really long rallies and good plays. It ended up helping them a lot that they had a really good libero. Kenma wondered if she used to be a setter. She had really precise passes bother over and underhand.
They ended up winning by a point, much to the surprise of the spectators. They didn’t realize that the final set doesn’t go to a deuce. Kenma smiled as he watched them celebrate. Hugs and high fives and laughter. He watched him and his setter do this absolutely dorky secret handshake thing. Apparently the prize for winning the league was free shirts and a discount to register for a different sport. They all seemed really thrilled about it.
After the game, Kuroo walked the team back to the station.
“Alright, I hope you guys are ready to discuss what we saw today on the train,” Coach Nekomata said, “Captain?”
Both Kuroo and Kenma looked up at him. It made Kuroo feel a bit left behind even though the opposite was true. People take their frame of reference with them and sometimes it’s weird to see how things they left behind changed. Sure, he obviously knew that Kenma was the captain, and he knew that there’d be new first years, but for some reason actually seeing it in action made him feel nostalgic. It wasn’t his team anymore.
“I expect you to hold your side of the deal,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Kenma said.
“Thank you all for coming,” Kuroo said as they started getting on the train.
“Thank you for having us,” Coach Nekomata said, shaking his hand, “I’m glad you still play.”
“Alright, Kenma, it was good to see you,” Kuroo said awkwardly.
“I’m staying the night if that’s okay with you,” Kenma said.
“Of course that’s alright with me,” he said as they started walking back to his dorm, “Wait, how did you pull that off?”
Kenma laughed, “I have a five page essay due on Monday morning about the skills we witnessed in the game. He had to call my mom to make sure he had her permission to leave me here. It was a bit of a mess.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Kuroo said wrapping his arm around Kenma, “You could have just come to visit when you didn’t have practice.”
“I didn’t feel like waiting anymore.”
They paid more attention to what they were talking about than the game they were playing. They chatted about the games, Kuroo’s friend, Kenma’s team, how school was going, where his roommate was, if Kenma had thought more about applying to schools, and really, they somehow managed to talk about everything and nothing at the same time.
They were sat on the floor of the dorm facing each other, the cards between them on the floor. They’d each won a game and were down to a tiebreaker. Kenma had been doing so well, but then Kuroo managed to mess everything up. With a stretch, he got up and walked over to his desk where he grabbed one of his headbands. He put it on, pushing his hair, that was still wet from the shower, up and away from his face. Kenma essentially lost his mind.
He was able to control himself for all of two plays, before he gave in. At first he thought he’d be really nervous about his first kiss, not knowing what to do, or Kuroo taking him by surprise but this wasn’t the case, or being confused about the right time, however, now he wasn’t nervous or shy. His boyfriend put on a headband and it short circuited his brain until the only thing he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss him.
He set his cards face down on the rug next to him and leaned across the cards that had been already been played. He brought his nose centimeters from Kuroo’s and quietly asked, “Can I kiss you?”
“You better!” Kuroo said with a laugh as he leaned in to start the kiss.
It, like most first kisses between couples, was pretty awkward, but in an endearing way. Kuroo was just about to wind his hands in Kenma’s hair, something he’d thought about one too many times, when they were startled by the lock being turned. Kuroo let out a sign and pulled back. Kenma, blushing, picked his cards back up and tried to remember what his strategy was. He’d gotten a bit carried away.
“You’re Kenma, right?” Kuroo’s roommate asked.
“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you,” Kenma responded, playing a card.
“I accidentally left my wallet in here. I’ll catch you guys later,” he said as he grabbed his wallet off his desk and then left as quickly as he’d appeared.
Kenma stared at his cards. He’d messed up badly. He wasn’t sure he was going to be able to recover his hand. He gave it his best shot, fighting to the bitter end. He wanted that damn sweatshirt.
“I’m out,” Kuroo exclaimed with a grin, “Speech time!”
Kenma rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, “We have a quick strategy meeting and then I let Tora give the speech.”
“No way, I imagine Tora gives terrible speeches,” he said with a laugh as he collected the cards.
“Oh yeah, it’s a terrible speech for sure,” Kenma said handing him some of the errant cards.
“Speech? It’s the same one every game?” Kuroo asked.
Kenma nodded without elaborating. He grabbed the collected deck from Kuroo and started to shuffle it.
“Kenma, if you don’t tell me, I’m going to call him,” Kuroo insisted.
“It’s a terrible speech,” Kenma said slowly, “Something about being blood and needing oxygen. I’ve stopped paying attention.”
“No fucking way. You can’t be serious? Are you serious? You guys are doing the speech? That’s so fucking awesome. I’m so proud. No way. Oh my god. This might be the best day of my life.”
As soon as Kenma got back home, he slumped into his own bed before remembering he needed to grab his retainer from his overnight bag. He laid there, debating whether or not it was worth it, but he knew if he didn’t wear it one night, he wouldn’t wear it for like a month, so he begrudgingly got out of bed to go get it. When he unzipped his bag, he was confused. There was something else in there. He turned the brightness up on his phone and faced it towards the open bag, where a sweatshirt featuring a dorky palm tree logo was waiting for him.