Work Text:
It’s just a coincidence that he stumbles upon Kuroko’s baby photos. Really. Taiga’s never been prone to snooping, but for once Kuroko’s usually domestic, non-adventurous parents are out of town (bringing his boyfriend’s grandmother in the process), meaning the cozy house is entirely his to explore as subtly as he can while Kuroko prepares tea in the kitchen. He’s seated by the table, casting curious glances around the living room; he’d only walked past it before when Kuroko had hastily pushed him past his family after brief greetings. It’s not like Kuroko’s ashamed of him — Taiga knows that much — but he suspects Kuroko’s a bit unnerved by the thought of his loving family sharing too many stories of him.
Taiga also suspects this is why he’s hardly ever at Kuroko’s home, but is rather the one spoiling his boyfriend with dinner and sleepovers at his own apartment more than four times a week. Of course it makes sense that Kuroko would rather want them to go there, because, as previously mentioned, Kuroko’s family likes to stay at home, none of them being of the energetic or audacious type, and Taiga and Kuroko — being hormonal teenagers with resilient sex drives — prefers not to worry whether they will be heard when they start touching each other.
Now, however, Kuroko’s too occupied in the kitchen to stop Taiga from casually moving about the living room of his home, which is where the finds an album shoved into a rather packed bookshelf so it practically fell out on his own when he accidently knocked himself into it. Kuroko is not the only one in his family who likes to read, they’re all bookworms, Taiga’s noticed, just with different types of reading interests. But the book he pulls out is definitely not Kuroko’s grandmother’s historical novel of World War II, but a thick album where some old photographs are threatening to fall out.
Taiga casts a glance over his shoulder to really confirm that Kuroko still hasn’t returned from the kitchen — god knows, he loves his boyfriend’s unique ability on the court, but in real life it can be a pain to deal with — and reads the headline.
‘Tetsuya, Year 1-10’ is scribbled with black marker and a practically evil smirk spreads over Taiga’s lips. Kuroko’s baby pictures.
Taiga knows his own old man has a couple of embarrassing photos of him as a baby (which his mother took while she was still alive; his workaholic dad hadn’t had much time for documenting his son’s early life) stored away somewhere, but those are safe in America, even out of Alex’s reach thankfully now that his dad has moved from LA. In other words, even if Kuroko gets mad at him for looking through these the blue haired boy can’t really return the favor.
Reassured, Taiga is ready to open up a book containing embarrassing photographs of his boyfriend, but finds himself staring at the content in pure and utter disbelief. His own baby pictures had been gross, if he has to say so himself, with a too plump baby with eyebrows that didn’t match, embarrassing and awkward to the point where he had hid it so well when he had been back home he doubts even his dad knows where they currently can be found, but Kuroko’s baby pictures are nothing like that.
Taiga gapes, feeling a mix of emotions he has problems deciphering as he scurries through the pictures with great interest. There’s a picture of Kuroko getting fed with a small spoon, his eyes just as big and blue there as they are now, and unlike Taiga’s feeding pictures that are littered with Taiga’s face being smeared with food, Kuroko’s face is clean. His small, baby face angelic and wide.
Taiga swallows tightly and skips over to the next. Kuroko sleeping, Kuroko sitting in a stroller, Kuroko getting changed with a bunny in his arms, Kuroko lying on the floor smiling at the camera, Kuroko sitting next to the family’s old cat, Kuroko in his kindergarten uniform— Taiga has to stop. He closes the album his face red, and realizes to his complete and utter horror that he has tears in the corner of his eyes.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
It’s not like he hasn’t been aware that Kuroko is the most beautiful thing since roses and kittens, but the pictures— those adorable, gut-wrenchingly precious pictures. Taiga doesn’t know whether he should feel ashamed that at for just one moment he wouldn’t mind taking care of his own boyfriend as a child for maybe just a day (and he doesn’t even like kids— well, some kids are nice… Kuroko had to be the most cute— oh god, he needs to stop!) or dismiss it as something anyone would think if they saw those pictures.
Taiga claps his cheeks hard with both of his big hands and mentally shakes his head. That cute baby boy is now a teenager that he actually does very R rated stuff to on a weekly basis. A couple of baby photos should not make him feel like he has committed a felony. Taiga almost groans, his face red as they move form his cheeks to hide his features completely.
He can’t get over the images. They keep repeating themselves in his head. Kuroko’s so cute. Kuroko’s so goddamn cute. He can kiss his masculinity goodbye. Shoooo. Gone. No trace of it left. It flew away the moment he observed Kuroko sharing bento with his friend from kindergarten, big blue eyes wide with curiosity and kindness and—
“Kagami-kun?”
Taiga makes a startled noise in the back of his throat and whips his head to the side, trying to quickly force the album away from him so Kuroko won’t understand that the reason he’s so read and teary eyed is because his boyfriend used to be the cutest child the world has ever seen. But it’s too late. Kuroko’s eyes lands on Kagami’s hands that had moved down to the album the moment Kuroko had made his presence known.
Kuroko’s cheeks turn pink at once and Taiga splutters. “I DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING! O-okay, I saw a lot, how dare you though! I was supposed to see embarrassing photos of you as a kid n-not this!” As if to prove his point Taiga opens the book and points at one of Kuroko sleeping with his rabbit — the rabbit Kuroko still keeps in his bed and brings over to Kagami’s place whenever they have sleepovers. “Were you some kind of science experiment? N-no one looks like that as kids okay. No one.”
Kuroko’s cheeks are still pink, but he regards Taiga in a way that the redhead recognizes as his boyfriend being thoroughly confused. “They’re just normal baby photos, Kagami-kun,” he then says, sounding embarrassed — something Taiga’s aware only happens around him, but he’s too overwhelmed to feel prideful of that right now. Clearing his throat, Kuroko reaches out and pulls the album away from his boyfriend, frowning while his cheeks remain deeply flushed. “It’s not polite going through other people’s belongings, Kagami-kun.”
“I-it was an accident!”
“I doubt opening it was an accident.”
“W-well…”
There’s an awkward silence in which neither speaks and Taiga feels slightly ashamed for his actions. He doesn’t know why he’s reacting the way he does either, considering that Kuroko has a point. They’re just baby photos. Most people with families have them somewhere. It’s just that he was caught off guard. The more time they spend together the more attractive Kuroko becomes to him. He appreciates everything he does, memorizes it, face flushing so often because of his blue haired partner’s appearance, it’s humiliating, but it’s a fact nonetheless. Taiga’s become completely and utterly smitten with Kuroko Tetsuya and seeing his baby photos somehow reminded him that Kuroko’s always been endearing, beautiful, drawing people in like a beacon.
“I cannot believe you saw them. How embarrassing.” Kuroko’s words are quiet as he puts the album back, not meeting Taiga’s face. In the beginning Taiga didn’t think anything could faze Kuroko, but as they grew as friends he realized how wrong that was. Slowly, but surely Kuroko opened up to him, allowing more and more emotions to spring free whenever they were together.
Taiga likes it better when he has readable expressions on his face. Kuroko being so clam and composed is part of who he is, so of course he accepts that about him, but seeing him like this makes his stomach turn in realization of how beautiful he finds him.
“Sorry, I freaked out,” he murmurs suddenly, hands coming to rest on Kuroko’s shoulders, which cause his shadow to hesitantly turn to look at him. Kagami blushes brightly but forces himself to continue to look into Kuroko’s blue eyes. “I-it’s just… uh, I don’t think you realize how-how great you look. How p-perfect you were even as a kid. I-I mean we all have those awkward years where we look like shit, but you don’t seem to have that. I was just amazed.”
Silence again. Then Kuroko lets go of a quiet laugh. Taiga doesn’t know what to make of it so he just stares until his boyfriend fully turns and cups his cheeks, shaking his head at his face. “Kagami-kun, you are too adorable sometimes,” Kuroko murmurs, a fond smile gracing his lips now in a dazzling smile Taiga hopes no one will ever see, but him, because then he’ll be fighting strangers off to keep them from kidnapping Kuroko on the spot.
“O-oi! I just said that about you!” Taiga’s face grows redder, but Kuroko only smiles.
“I suppose I should thank you for the compliment.”
“W-well, I’m just stating the obvious. The only reason people don’t notice how attractive you are it’s cuz of your little presence, or people would be all over you, I swear.” His voice may have come off as a bit childishly annoyed at the end, but it only makes Kuroko’s smile stretch a tad bit more.
“I doubt that.”
“It’s true.”
“But Kagami-kun, you do realize the only one I want to think like that is you.”
Well, yeah, but it still makes him glad to hear it. Taiga slumps a little against Kuroko’s shoulders, and buries his face into his neck. Kuroko moves his hand up so he can run it through his boyfriend’s red hair and hums softly: “Were my baby photos really too much for you?”
“I don’t know whether I wanna keep ‘em all or burn them so no one else will ever find them.”
“They’re just photos, Kagami-kun.”
“Yeah, of you. As a baby. You’re already too goddamn good to look at as a teenager.”
At some point Kuroko’s fingers had stopped running through his hair and were instead now simply resting there, keeping Taiga’s face to Kuroko’s neck. He feels the younger man shift slightly, before he says: “I do hope they have not ruined your ability to see me as something other than an adorable child, because then we are going to have quite a problem.”
Oh. No, no, not like that— uh.
Taiga pulls back, his face red as a tomato. It annoys him that Kuroko’s has reverted back to his blank, composed self, but he still has a small smile on his lips. Taiga tries to come with a response to that, but nothing good comes out so instead he makes a noise he can’t even decipher the meaning behind himself from the very back of his throat. Shaking his head, Kuroko stands and Taiga doesn’t know what he expects, but suddenly the blue haired male is all up in his lap.
“Kagami-kun, if I have to I will remind you that I may not look like it, but I am fairly mature,” the boy in his lap whispers into his ear.
There’s hands on his shoulders, pushing down his cardigan so Kuroko’s fingers lingers over his skin. Taiga swallows. Oh. Oh. His own hands move to Kuroko’s waist and he almost chokes on his own spit when the other pulls back just as he has dragged in his sweet scent from his neck. Kuroko pulls on his hands, forces him to his feet and links their pinkies together. “Let us forget about tea for now.”
“Uhm… where are we going?”
“To my bedroom. I am going to remind you I am a very capable soon-to-be-adult.”
“Oh…”
Kagami doesn’t say anything as he’s led up the stairs, baby photos laying forgotten on the floor by the tea that gradually becomes colder and colder. They don’t come down for several hours.