Work Text:
“Say, Akaashi, what would you wish for if you saw a falling star?”
Keiji blinked at his computer screen before slowly lifting up his gaze. Kuroo had an arm over the back of the sofa and was looking up at the ceiling. Keiji stared at him for a moment, trying to piece together what his roommate had asked, but he was too focused on the paper he was reading and hadn’t truly heard.
“Can you repeat that?”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Kuroo said, still looking at the ceiling. “But I’ll tell you what I’d ask.”
“I-- Okay? But I just didn’t hear the question,” Keiji replied, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“Oh,” Kuroo exhaled. He straightened up on the sofa, folded his arms over its back and rested his chin on his forearms. “I asked: What’d you wish for if you saw a falling star?”
Keiji inhaled deeply as he ran the question through his mind. He pushed himself back on the chair, his back cracking loudly as he moved away from the laptop sitting atop the kitchen table. It was his turn to stare up at the ceiling.
There were a couple of things that came to his mind, some more feasible than others. Financial stability without having to work a shitty ass student job was one of them. Turning back time so he could speak with his father one last time was another. But then there was another thought…
“Like I mentioned, no need to disclose it if you don’t want to. I just suddenly started wondering.” Kuroo was trying to regain his attention, so Keiji must have been quiet for some time.
“It’s fine.” Keiji stretched his arms above his head, closing his eyes tightly and letting out a breath as his shoulders popped. Then he looked over at Kuroo, who was staring at him still. “I’d wish to know whether I’m doing the right thing or not.”
Kuroo’s eyebrows raised in surprise. He nodded thoughtfully, looking down at the kitchen floor as he pondered Keiji’s reply.
“For a specific decision?” Kuroo asked after a moment.
Keiji pursed his lips and shook his head. “Just in general. Maybe not in the sense of ‘Should I wear this or that shirt to work?’, but more like…” Keiji took a moment to really think about it. “More like ‘Am I taking the right direction in life, is this where I want to be?’”
If Keiji hadn’t been on his third coffee of the day and still exhausted, he’d have felt vulnerable upon sharing these thoughts. Maybe he wouldn’t even have spoken them aloud. Somewhere in the back of his mind there was still a remnant of hesitation, but there was also something about the way Kuroo had asked that had moved Keiji to answer, and to do it honestly.
“I get what you mean,” Kuroo spoke softly after a hum.
Keiji nodded, looking back at the now-dark screen of his computer. “Anyway, what would you wish for?”
Kuroo’s lips turned up in a small, tired smile. “I’d wish for the power to stop time,” he replied in a deep sigh.
With his head tilted slightly in contemplation, Keiji gazed at his roommate. The lighting was dim on the side of the relaxation area (it was too small to be called a living room), but Keiji could still see the dark shadows under Kuroo’s eyes. He could see how stopping time for 8 hours for a solid sleep would highly benefit his roommate.
This answer, though, had made him curious. “When and how long would you stop it?” Keiji asked.
Suddenly, Kuroo’s loud and strange cackle filled the room. Startled, Keiji jumped slightly in his chair. He must be truly exhausted if that had surprised him.
“I know I started this conversation,” Kuroo said, a small wheeze permeating his voice, “but I honestly hadn’t thought that far.” He was quiet for a moment, then he continued: “For sure, I’d stop it during good times. To make them last longer, you know? I’d want to have the time to really take in those moments, to like print them and all their details in my memory so I’d always remember how nice it was.”
Keiji nodded at that. It was such a deeply personal statement… He wondered if Kuroo felt the same as him at sharing something so intimate.
Both of them fell quiet after that. Keiji’s eyes landed somewhere on the wall behind Kuroo, but they weren’t seeing anything in particular. He wondered about what sort of moment’s he’d stop time for, if he could. There wasn’t anything recent that came to mind, and it saddened him. He thought back to his own wish: was he making the right decisions? Was it worth it to do what he was doing? Would he be happy afterwards?
“Hey.”
Keiji jumped again. He shook his head and looked up to seek the origin of the voice. When his eyes focused, he found Kuroo standing next to him. In his hands he had two coats, one of which was Keiji’s.
“Wanna go chase some falling stars with me?”
· · ·
About 40 minutes after leaving the student residence in Kuroo’s tiny Yaris, they reached a hill that seemed to be far enough from nearby sources of light. Kuroo turned off the engine and went out to sit atop the hood with his back resting on the windshield. Keiji did the same, resting his hands on his chest as he looked up at the sky.
Despite the overwhelming tiredness and the impending deadlines, Keiji had agreed to go with Kuroo. He knew they might not see anything in the sky because they were still in Tokyo, but the crisp winter air and muted sounds already made this outing worth it for him. Living in an apartment tower in the middle of Tokyo made it hard to experience these things.
As it turned out, Keiji’s eyes needed a moment to adjust to the dark. Because after some time, he realized he could see some stars. Not a lot of them, but more than none at all.
“It’s so pretty,” Kuroo whispered next to him, surely realizing the same.
Keiji hummed softly in response. “It reminds me of the highschool training camps. When we would all go outside at night to lay on the cement because the rooms were too hot. Remember that?” When he turned his head to the side to look at Kuroo, he was surprised to find the other one already staring at him.
“Yeah, I do,” Kuroo said with a smile on his lips and nostalgia in his eyes. “Everything felt a lot easier back then.”
Keiji exhaled a laugh, but his throat was tight. “All we had to worry about was hitting the ball. Specifically, hitting the ball in Bokuto’s direction.” Kuroo had started cackling as soon as he’d heard their friend’s name.
“You’re right,” he told Keiji. Then he turned to look up at the sky again and said: “Boy, I miss that guy.”
“Me too,” whispered Keiji. He turned his gaze up to the stars as well.
Before the current arrangement, Kuroo and Bokuto used to be roommates. But Bokuto had been offered the chance to go study in Russia for a year, where he would be able to play with some of the world’s top volleyball players. Given that Keiji was scheduled to start attending university at the same time as Bokuto would leave, they’d offered the room to him.
In the beginning, Keiji wasn’t sure about living with Kuroo. Keiji felt like every time they met they would bicker over X, Y or Z thing. But since the room was close to his university and it wasn’t expensive, Keiji had decided to take it. After almost a year of living together, the only thing he and Kuroo had ever argued about was when each of them would clean the bathroom, since neither of them wanted to do it. Keiji couldn’t say he regretted his decision, after all.
“I must say, though,” Kuroo said. Keiji turned to look at the other’s profile as he spoke. “It hasn’t been bad at all living with you.”
“So it hasn’t been good , is what you’re saying?” Keiji teased, an eyebrow raised.
Kuroo turned to look at him. “You always leave the TV on HDMI 1 instead of HDMI 2, so that takes some points off,” he said, his expression deadpan.
Keiji closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and slowly opened them again during the exhale. “Is that seriously--”
An explosion of laughter. Keiji blinked rapidly, trying to understand what had just happened. Kuroo was shaking next to him, and Keiji could almost feel the car vibrate with each burst of laughter.
“That was a joke, wasn’t it.” It was a rhetorical question, of course. Keiji felt his face twitch under his unamused smile.
Kuroo could barely breathe now. The hand on his chest was gripping his coat tightly, as if to force himself to calm down. “Akaashi, your face was priceless,” he managed to wheeze. “Wow, I’m so tired I feel like I could cry.” He brought his other hand up to wipe his eyes.
Keiji’s exhaustion was threatening to overtake him too. He tried to fight it for a moment, but in the end he couldn’t help but burst into a fit of laughter in his turn.
Finally, after they’d both calmed down, Kuroo said: “For real now. You’re a good roommate, despite the TV thing. Rooming with you is nice.”
Hearing that made Keiji smile inwardly. He didn’t know what would happen now that Bokuto was coming back in a couple of months, but he hoped he could at least continue seeing Kuroo every once in a while. He decided to put those thoughts aside for the time being and look up at the sky once again.
Keiji couldn’t tell for how long they stayed like that, just staring at the night sky without speaking a word. At some point, he started to notice his consciousness turning off despite his eyes being still open. And then something flashed, small and quick.
Next to him, Kuroo gasped under his breath. He hadn’t imagined it, then.
From the corner of his eye, Keiji felt Kuroo’s gaze on him. And when he turned to face him, he found the other one smiling, big and genuine. Kuroo didn’t need to say anything for Keiji to understand.
Despite the circumstances, that is, being in the middle of Tokyo and surrounded by light pollution, they had been given the chance to make their wishes.
Overwhelmed by an indescribable feeling, Keiji looked away and inhaled deeply, blinking back the tears that had suddenly come up.
“We’ll be fine,” he heard Kuroo whisper, as if he’d read Keiji’s mind.
Keiji nodded without saying anything, mostly to try to assimilate the words. He hoped a day would come when he could actually believe them. He was brought back from his thoughts by Kuroo’s body shifting next to him.
“Well, the windshield’s getting cold, so don’t mind me if I…” Kuroo trailed off, as he straightened up and brought his upper body to rest atop Keiji’s chest.
Keiji let out a small “ oof ” when he felt the new weight pressing down on his lungs. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, especially when his tired body was already struggling with its other basic functions, but he got used to it after a moment. And since he didn’t have the heart or energy to tell Kuroo to move, he resigned himself to simply rest a hand over Kuroo’s back.
Finally, Keiji felt the first yawn creeping up on him. Keiji didn’t know how long they’d been out. Had they left the building before or after midnight? He couldn’t recall. His phone was in the car, too, so he couldn’t check the time. Neither of them worked in the morning, but they should probably head back…
“Kuroo,” Keiji said. And, after a moment: “Kuroo, are you asleep?”
Silence. Keiji felt his hand on Kuroo’s back rise and fall rhythmically.
“Kuroo, are you sleeping?” Keiji said, a little louder this time.
The muscles under Keiji’s palm spasmed ever so slightly. “I’m wide awake,” came the muffled groan.
Keiji exhaled a small laugh. “Great, ‘caus someone has to drive us home.”
There was another silence. Keiji counted the seconds, trying to decide whether or not to poke Kuroo.
“Seats fold flat,” Kuroo muttered after a moment.
Keiji’s face scrunched up in confusion. “What?”
There was a brief pause, and again Keiji thought Kuroo had fallen back asleep. But then: “My car. The back seats, they fold flat. I also have blankets in case of an emergency.”
Blinking slowly, Keiji tried to put together what he’d just heard. When it made sense, Keiji exhaled softly through a smile. Maybe, if they allowed themselves, they could stop this moment and believe that this was exactly where they were supposed to be.
“Alright, you’ll have to tell me how to fold the seats, though.”