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Oikawa’s serve was as strong and terrifying as ever, if not a bit more. The sound of the ball could scare almost anyone senseless. Yaku was really thankful that he wasn’t the one on the receiving side of that hit. He rearranged himself in order to get the best view possible. Before the ball hit the floor, Noya managed to receive the ball skilfully. Yaku would have screamed ‘Yes!’ if it wasn’t because it would have been contra productive. It usually took way too many tries until Noya managed to perfectly receive Oikawa’s serve.
The rest of the point went without problem, and Yaku only had to make small arrangements to his position. When Asahi managed to get a spike into the opposite team’s court, Yaku could swear that the one of the girls operating the lights left a small sight leave her lips. They all knew that scenes that involved matches took ages to be filmed, as it was hard to get the players to make the ball to exactly what the script required.
When they finished all the match scenes, they finally moved to easier ones. Filming Noya congratulating Asahi was always easy, as both were amazing actors that could transmit enough sexual tension to make the fangirls happy but not enough that the TV channel stopped their show. The more annoying ones were when they had to film the other team. Oikawa had been a famous volleyball player back when he was still in high school. Also, his good lucks made him the best choice for a model, making him the perfect person to be one of the leads of Villager B. Sadly, even though he was really good at acting, he still struggled with learning all of his lines.
“And cut!” Akaashi shouted to his crew, after missing part of his motivation speech to his team. “Someone please dry Matsuwaka’s hair a little bit, I don’t want it to be so stuck to his face at this moment of the match.” One of the assistants nodded as she took the hairdryer and started to make Matsuwaka look like he hadn’t had to repeat the same scene at least fifteen times. “Oikawa, forget the script for a second. You know what the speech needs to say, so just use your own words. Most of it is going to be cut in post-production anyways.”
Yaku made a note to the editing department that they had to make sure not to use the footage of very sweaty Matsuwaka until the end the next set. He then rearranged his camera following the technical script he had made before they started to film. His camera operators were doing a good job, so except with telling one of the guys to relax for a second while the actors were still being given instructions, they didn’t need any further instructions.
When everyone was back on stage, he started filming again. Oikawa managed to make a speech even better than the one on the script, which meant that it would probably survive the evil cuts of post-production. There was nothing worse than everyone trying their best to get a scene to be perfect, and then it being cut on post-production.
The filming went on to focus on Bokuto, Oikawa and Kuroo. The show was about the two volleyball teams at a university. It started when Suga was rejected from the main team because they already had two setters, so he decided to make a second team. The series followed the hilarious problems of the second team from finding team members to teaching them to play. The main team, led by Oikawa as their captain, was antagonised due to rejecting Suga on the first place. However, the fans ended up loving the team members on the first team, which led to them gaining more importance on the show. Yaku was pretty sure that by now the show was at least half about the main team and their idiotic plans.
The scene they were filming was set on Oikawa and Kuroo’s shared flat. The show had never explained why Bokuto spent so much time there, as almost everything they did was fight. Fans had come up with a variety of theories, and Yaku’s all-time favourite was that Bokuto was an owl hybrid that had made his nest on top of the building.
Yaku hated filming scenes about the three friends, mainly because Kuroo’s character was a Twilight Jacob wannabe and kept on removing his shirt. There was a maximum of abs that someone could be exposed to before they had to stare, and Yaku had passed that maximum a long time ago. His obsession was so bad that one of the editors had texted him that they could now make an episode consisting of only Kuroo’s bare chest. The fans had noticed too, and when there was a particulary abs filled episode, they kept on using #thankscameraman to tag the pictures.
Thankfully, the hell/heaven of Kuroo’s topless scenes ended and Yaku was able to leave the studio. Once he was outside he realised how late it actually was. Due to the lights constantly changing the time of the day on the studio, his perception of time was completely ruined. His bike was still where he had left it, and after making sure that he had everything he needed on him, he left.
When Yaku arrived to his flat, with shopping bags on both of his hands, he wasn’t expecting his three cats to almost jump on him. That could only mean one thing, as his cats would usually ignore the door. Once he was inside he could also hear the noise. The landlady had warned everyone about a new tenant moving in, but he had completely forgotten about it.
Yaku flopped on the sofa, and Ball, Fur and Pinky followed him. The TV was showing an episode of Villager B, and Yaku decided to give it a watch. He would usually watch the episodes so many times to make sure that they were alright, that he would get sick of them. However, this one was from the first season, so he hadn’t seen it in ages.
Kuroo looked a bit younger, but he already had the amazing smile that had cultivated so many people. His hair was a weird mess, as the hairstylist still were unsure about how to make a ‘messy yet natural’ hair style. Interviewers were really surprised when he went to a show and his hair looked as if it belonged to a normal human being.
However, Yaku knew better. He had seen Kuroo before the hairstylists got their hands on his hair, and it was even worse that the one used by his character. Yaku was not a physicist, but if he ever had to explain entropy it would certainly be using a picture of Kuroo’s hair on mornings.
“You know what Fur?” Yaku asked his cat. Fur looked at him, disinterest clear on her face. “That scene took so long to shoot that Akaashi was almost going to give up and change it to something different. However, they ended up managing to do it at the end. We all cheered, but I think that more than one of the technicians was almost going to cry.”
Fur meowed at Yaku, who meowed back at her. His cats were as his children, and he loved them with his life. He had made a blog dedicated to them, and everyone loved the cute cats and the silly things they did. Yaku extended to pet Ball, when something downstairs fell, making the three cats jump. Yaku tried to calm them down, but they ended up running to hide under Yaku’s bed. He left a sight escape and decided to go help his new neighbour.
It didn’t took him long to arrive to the open door, as it was only a floor under his. The flat had some unopened boxes close to the entrance, and one that had fallen down. It was probably the one that made the noise that startled his cats so much.
Sound of voices came from the stairs, so Yaku approached them in order ask if they wanted help. When he saw the two boys he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was weird seeing Kuroo and Bokuto on their civilian clothes, as their characters were most of the time on their volleyball uniform. Kuroo had also been shown on a tracksuit and shirtless, but the only alteration to the uniform that Bokuto had had was when he was wearing a jacket on top of his uniform shirt.
“Hey, I heard that you were moving your things, do you need help?” Yaku ended up asking. He was not expecting anything special, but when the two boys automatically covered their face and made a weird high pitch voice, he remembered that they were meant to be famous actors.
Yaku shrugged, and asked again.
Kuroo removed the arms in front of his face, and looked at Yaku with some surprise and panic showing on his face. “Do you live here?”
“Yes, I am your new neighbour, I guess.”
Kuroo nodded and told Bokuto that he could relax. Bokuto also removed the arms from where they were hiding his face. Yaku knew that Bokuto had had a bad history of journalists finding him on the weirdest situations. From the time they had found him buying all the chocolate on a supermarket at 3am when he was on an owl onesie, to when they found him on the top of a tree calling the firefighters to get him down.
“Please! Don’t tell the media that he lives here, they keep trying to break into his flat.” asked Bokuto. Yaku knew that some of the actors had been having problems with privacy, but he was not aware that it was Kuroo. He tried not to follow the fanbase of the series too much, as it was quite uncomfortable seeing porn of people you knew. And you knew that they didn’t really get along or that they were friends rather than couple-y material.
“Don’t worry.”
“Wait, do you know who we are?” asked Bokuto, confused at Yaku’s lack of excitement. He had been acting for a long time, and almost everyone could recognise his face.
Yaku nodded, as he had spent way too long seeing them. He would be surprised by them not knowing him, but he didn’t go to parties too much. His cats missed him too much. Also, Bokuto was well known for having trouble recognising people. He was still convinced that one of the makeup girls was his cousin, and she ended up giving up and taking up her place as his cousin. There was also the story that they always told the new technicians, about how he was unable to differentiate Suga from Oikawa, and he would mix up his lines because he wasn’t sure of who was who.
“So, if you know who we are, why aren’t you excited? Am I not cool anymore? Kuroo, I think that we are not hip anymore. The kids don’t care about us! We are going to be forgotten soon. Before you know it, we will be living on the streets, working as party clowns.”
Kuroo laughed at his friend and co-star idiocy, until he decided to intervene before he said something worse. “Stop being such a Yachi, it’s not the end of the world. You are still relevant and stuff. He is not fawning over you for a very good reason.”
“I stopped being hot?”
“He is Villager B’s cinematographer, bro.”
Bokuto stopped and stared at Yaku. He left the box he was carrying on the floor and started to walk round the smaller man, trying to get a complete image of him. After a very uncomfortable minute for Yaku, Bokuto seemed to finally recognise him. “Hey! You are Yaku! You went to film school with Akaashi, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“We went to school together, Villager B is kind of based on what happened with the girls’ baseball team at our high school.” Bokuto explained, remembering the countless hours Akaashi spent with the co-author of Villager B trying to make it big on TV. Thankfully, their show had been a hit and now multiple seasons after everyone was well known and the show was on everyone’s must-see list.
“That’s cool, and you are right, I met Akaashi back in film school. It is quite impressive that he is now a director, he always had a good eye and interesting ideas.”
“Yeah, bro! Isn’t he so cool?”
Yaku was about to answer how it was amazing the improvement in Akaashi’s works, until Kuroo stopped them from becoming a fanclub there and then. “Hey Yaku, if you don’t mind I would like to take you on your offer. There are still quite a bunch of boxes to move and it would be nice finishing before tomorrow.”
“Sure. Would you like me to ask my brother to help? He may be a bit annoying, but he is certainly useful in manual jobs.” Yaku regretted offering just after he finished talking, remembering all the Villager B’s posters his brother had stuck on his walls.
“That would be brilliant! How far does he live?”
Yaku looked at his clock. Practice probably had finished half an hour ago, so he was pretty much sure of where he was. “He is probably on my room asleep. Let me give him a call.”
Kuroo thanked him and told him that the two cars downstairs had his stuff, and that they were open. Yaku nodded and left while dialling his brother. The last thing he managed to hear before he was out of hearing range was ‘such an angel’.
Yaku was climbing up the stairs when he heard it. It was the unmistakably sound of a fanboy seeing his idols in real life. He regretted not warning the actors about Lev, but it was too late to do something now. Yaku gulped and walked as fast as possible, trying to stop his younger brother from making the stars uncomfortable.
“-so apart from that other poster, I also have the mug and the underwear and the –”
“Lev! Stop harassing them please.” Kuroo and Bokuto turned to him with thankful faces. “I need you to help a new neighbour to move some boxes.”
“But Yaku! This is a dream come true.”
Yaku knew that it was certainly a dream come true for his brother, but his still didn’t wanted him to do a scene in the middle of the building. “Look, if you help with the boxes, I will buy you the Villager B’s socks you wanted.”
A big smile filled Lev face, who quickly agreed and ran to get the boxes from downstairs. Once he was far enough, Yaku started to apologise to his co-workers. “Sorry about that, my younger brother loves Villager B a little too much.”
Both men stared at Yaku as if he had grown a second head. “That was your brother?” asked Bokuto, disbelief pouring out of every word.
“Yeah.”
“Your younger brother?”
“Yes, he is still in high school.”
“That guy who is probably around 2 metres, is your younger brother?”
The mention of Lev’s height was what finally made Yaku realise why they couldn’t believe that they were related. He knew that he was on the short side of life, and that Lev looked like a giant uncooked spaghetti, but he was still slightly angry to be indirectly being called short. Remove the slightly, he was furious.
If it wasn’t because he had to work with Bokuto the next day, he would have shown him why he had a black belt in taekwondo. “My step father is Russian, which is where Lev’s got his height.” Yaku explained, without going into too many details.
“Sorry about that, then.” Apologised Kuroo for his friend’s rudeness. “He was just so excited that we couldn’t believe that he was your brother. I mean, all of my friends are now completely immune to any kind of excitement coming from Villager B.”
Yaku nodded. Most people got used to him working in one of the most popular shows of the moment quite quickly. Lev no, he was still as excited as he was on the first day, if not more. The kid just had the ability to always be excited about stuff. “Yeah, he is just a really big fan.”
“Anyway, thank you so much for helping out.”
“It’s okay, that’s what neighbours are for.”
“Yeah, but it’s still really nice of your part. Is there anything I could do for you? I probably will take ages to get the kitchen in some sort of functional state, but could I take you for a coffee or something after work.”
Just before Yaku managed to give an answer, Lev came back with his arm full of boxes and managed to shout ‘I want to go!’ loud enough that if anyone had been sleeping, they weren’t anymore.
“Lev, you have practice till late tomorrow. And believe me, if the captain comes another time to ask me to make you go to practice, I will take away your pony collection.”
Lev’s face contracted in horror. He knew that Yaku didn’t played around, and that he was very capable of taking away all of his ponies. He ended up agreeing to stay to practice and ‘not bothering Kuroo and Bokuto unless they want to be bothered’ in exchange for keeping his pony collection and the promise of Bokuto’s autograph.
“Now I am offended.” Kuroo whispered to Yaku, while the other two boys talked about the importance of icing in cupcakes. “Why does he prefer an autograph of owl boy over mine?”
“Well, he plays volleyball too, so he admires Bokuto quite a lot. Akaashi told me that he was quite a famous player back in high school. I guess that because you only started playing for Villager B, he doesn’t regard you as a player as much.”
“What do you mean with ‘you only started playing for Villager B’?”
“I thought that Oikawa and Bokuto were the ones that had played before, and that everyone else just learnt on the job.”
“You are wrong, but that is a story that you will have to hear over coffee, I guess.”
…
Not soon after his alarm clock had woken him up, Yaku was already trying to get his cats out of his bed. Waking up was always more difficult when three balls of fur tried to get you to stay in bed. However, the cats also knew that they wouldn’t get food unless Yaku went to the kitchen, so they ended up allowing him to leave.
After completing his morning routine, which involved more ‘finding clothes which are not full of fur’ than anything, Yaku was ready to leave. The air outside was cold, but thankfully it wasn’t raining. The worst combination was riding a bike under the rain when it was cold.
Despite him being early, the studio was already full of life. Yaku started to get his cameras ready, and made sure that everyone on his team knew what they were going to do. Once everything was up and ready, he looked around to see who was already in.
Akaashi was finishing to read some papers, which Yaku assumed were his note covered version of the script. When he saw that Yaku was there, he went to greet him. They had both been to film school together. They weren’t particularly close then, but when they started to work, they found each other in many projects. At the end, when Akaashi managed to get his own show, he didn’t hesitate to call Yaku and ask him to be the cinematographer.
Villager B was Akaashi’s baby, but Yaku thought that he could consider himself at least as one of the very close uncles that the child loves. Every episode carried way too many hours of his life, yet every single episode was worth the effort.
Akaashi smiled at him, coffee cup on one hand and a copy of the technical script on the other. “Good morning. How are you today?”
“Very good, the weather was nice this morning.” Akaashi nodded, as a fellow bike rider he knew that a rainless day was definitely good news. “How are you? Any news?”
“I am good, thank you. There is nothing particularly new in my life right now, but Bokuto told me that Kuroo is now your neighbour.”
“Yeah, he moved in yesterday. Lev was really excited about it. Do you remember him?”
Of course, there was no way that Akaashi could have forgotten about Yaku’s over excited younger brother. When he heard the story from Bokuto, he couldn’t believe that the two more energetic people he knew met. It was as if the unspoken law about how much enthusiasm could be on the same room had been broken. At least Hinata was not there too. That would had been too much for the physical plane of existence.
“It is nice that you have new neighbours. Kuroo is nice, I am not sure if you know him well, but he is a nice person. Just remember that he is still a star.”
“What do you mean?”
“Some people are able to do whatever they can in order to get gossip. Even if it is to create lies out of thin air.”
Yaku was going to tell Akaashi not to worry, that he was used to the way tabloid journalists worked, but Bokuto called for the director’s attention. Everyone turned to Akaashi when his name was being called as loud as Bokuto could. The director rolled his eyes, but he was used to Bokuto’s obnoxious behaviour.
“Show time” he muttered to Yaku before leaving to deal with his own over excited child.
Yaku nodded and left to go back to his cameras, now that all his crew had arrived. When he was making sure that the lenses were perfectly clean, Kuroo managed to approach without him noticing. His hair and makeup were already done, as recordings were going to start in less than half an hour.
“Hey”
Yaku jumped when he heard Kuroo’s voice behind him. When he turned he could see the smile on Kuroo’s face. He might had tried to go for a charming look, but it looked slyer than anything.
“Hey, you now know who I am?”
“It’s not my fault you don’t come to the show parties. And of course I knew who you were, it was Bokuto who struggled to recognise you. It is hard not to know who you are.”
“Why? Is it because of my height?”
Kuroo’s laugh was one of the strongest and weirdest that Yaku had ever heard. It was completely different to the one he had on the show. It was a mix of a whale falling from a building and a dog’s caught. “Nah, I was going to say that it was because of your name in the cinematography field and how cute you look. If I wanted to make a joke about your height I would had to say that it was hard to see you.”
“Hey, not all of us are born with a natural ability to reach the top shelves. Also I am pretty sure most of your height comes from your hair.”
Kuroo put a hand to his chest, and with a fake serious voice he said “I am now deeply offended. My hair does not add to my height, it adds to my personality.”
Snorting was not usually considered work appropriate, but Yaku couldn’t stop himself from doing it. “Yeah, it is definitely a great add on. You should add it to your CV: great acting, better abs and a personality fuelled by an amazing hairstyle.”
“You forgot my volleyball skills! Oh, that was a story I promised to tell you over coffee. Are you free this afternoon?”
“Yeah, sure. I don’t usually have plans during the week.”
“Perfect! Could you wait for me? We can leave from here.”
Yaku was about to mention his bike and how he needed to take it with him, until he remembered a very crucial detail. “Actually, I finish after you. We have to film two scenes with Asahi and Noya at the end of the day, after the rest of the cast has been dismissed.”
“Then I will wait for you. You ride here, right? I can take your bike back to your place, and then we can walk back together or something. That’s what neighbours are for, aren’t they?”
“Sure.” Then, the words of Akaashi came to mind. The reason why Kuroo had to move on the first place. Tabloid journalists not taking a no for an answer. “Hey, isn’t dangerous for you to be in public with someone?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to get you into trouble with rumours.”
“Oh don’t worry, I have everything planned.”
Kuroo’s plan, consisted on dressing up, Yaku realised when he saw him doing the worst Oikawa cosplay he had ever seen. Sadly, he was right. No one would be able to recognise him like that. He had probably had gotten changed when he went home, as the actors didn’t bother to bring anything too fancy to change to. Most people preferred to leave quickly and then spend the rest of their day on their pyjamas, than dressing nicely. They already spent too many hours with makeup and complicated costumes, to also do it during their free time.
The show started with the story of the second team. However, as the story progressed it started to involve more and more the other teams and the lives of the team members. Yaku was pretty sure that a lot of people watched Villager B for the character development, rather than for the amazing volleyball montages.
Watching the show was sometimes a bit weird, as he knew the actors and knew how different they were to their characters. For example, in the show Bokuto was the calm member of his team, and didn’t get along with Kuroo at all. However, in real life they were best friends and Bokuto needed to be supervised almost all the time.
All the world is a stage, however people were more than merely players. They were different. They had their own personalities and lives.
“What are you thinking about?” asked Kuroo, curiosity clear in his voice.
Yaku got angry at himself for being startled again. He was an owner of three cats, he had to be used to things popping out of nowhere. “Nothing really, just about the colour correction in this last scene. There will be quite a bunch of work for post-production, but it is alright. They are used to it.”
Kuroo laughed, accepting his excuse as an answer. The image of the girls of post-production comparing the recorded images with crayolas and correcting the colour using them as a guide got stuck in his mind.
“So where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise! Just one question, do you have any allergies?”
“No, why?”
“Nothing, just a silly question.”
Yaku raised his eyebrow, but didn’t try to get more information. Their conversation while walking to the ‘mysterious’ place was nice. It jumped from subject to subject. Yaku learnt that Kuroo loved cooking, that he got into acting after he became famous on a local baking competition show, that he spent hours working out to get the abs that Yaku spent so many hours filming and that his favourite animals were cats. Kuroo, on the other hand, learnt that Yaku had a photography blog about cats; that he was originally planning in becoming a photographer, that he was very worried about his brother and that he had played volleyball before.
“Yeah, I was the libero of my team. I was really good, believe it or not.”
“I don’t doubt it, it’s just funny that you ended up on a working on a volleyball show, when you had played volleyball before.”
“It’s how I met Akaashi, actually. I am a year older, so I didn’t knew him that much despite being on the same film school. We got to know each other better when we started working, but I originally met him on the volleyball club.”
“Oh yeah, Brokuto mentioned that they were on their volleyball team together. It’s such a shame I never got to play against him.”
“You did mention a story about how you had played before. Can I know it now, or you’re going to keep the mystery?”
“Oh, it is not that great of a story. I used to play a lot of volleyball, even before Villager B. However, one day I had to choose between acting, school and volleyball. It was sad to drop volleyball, but eventually I picked it up again thanks to Villager B.”
“Really? Wait, we are probably around the same age, maybe we met before in a competition or something.” Yaku was pretty sure that a coincidence like that was almost impossible, but that wouldn’t stop him from looking through all his old files about championships.
“Yeah, that would be pretty cool, don’t you think? Volleyball rivals that met years later working on the same show. We should write the story and sell it to Akaashi. Oh, wait. It wouldn’t work, the rivals would need to remember each other. And then end up on the same team or something.”
“Isn’t that Hinata’s and Kageyama’s story?” Yaku asked. “They were rival voice actors who ended up working on the same BL CD drama, and now they are friends. Or at least they don’t hate each other anymore.”
“Right. Then we need to change the plot a bit more. Come on, help me on this, we need to sell the story and become rich.”
The rest of the walk went on with the two men exchanging ideas for their next great show. They decided to drop the volleyball idea, as it was too close to Villager B and they didn’t want to get sued. Then, out of the blue, Kuroo stopped and told Yaku to enter a small establishment. It was a nice place, and it wasn’t long until he realised that it was quite clearly a cat café. For a second Yaku wondered if Kuroo knew about his cats and that was why he took him there, until he remembered that the guy had spent five minutes fangirling about the little fat on the paws of the cats.
In the counter there was a boy, short but not as much as Yaku. His roots were growing, and his face was hidden on a 3DS. Kuroo explained that it was the son of the owner, who also happened to be his old neighbour. “Introducing you old neighbours to your new neighbours is a must. I should write a neighbour’s politeness book, and this should definitely be rule number eight.”
The boy took his eyes away from his console. He nodded in Yaku’s direction as a greeting, and then turned back to his games. “Kuro, you do know that one of the best new cinematographers is next to you, right?”
“Yep!”
“Then why are you here?”
“Cats. Oh, and a disguise.”
“Fair enough. Take a seat. What do you want to drink?” Yaku was a given a menu, and before he knew it he was seating on a table with two cats on his lap and a hot chocolate in front of him.
“Kenma really admires your work, even if he doesn’t look like it.” Kuroo explained, while playing with one of the cats.
“It is nice seeing people who appreciate our work. Almost everyone only focuses on the narrative or on the actors, without noticing that the technical stuff is what makes a show look so great.”
“Definitely, you and everyone on the technical team are the forgotten heroes. The lights people are some of the best people I’ve met. I would always fail to take good selfies, until someone from illumination told me about how I was getting everything wrong. Now I know how to get the best pictures.”
“Yeah, also the makeup is really important. It’s hilarious seeing the cast when they get to the set early in the morning and how they end up looking on the show. It’s like two different people.”
“Is that an insult to my beautiful hair?”
Yaku laughed, as it was true that Kuroo’s hair was a recurrent nightmare on the stylists’ dreams. “No, your hair is perfect regardless of which time of the day it is.”
“Good, my mum always told me that as long as birds were not trying to build nests on it, it couldn’t be that bad.”
“That is true. I am not sure the stylists would be happy with having to remove birds on the mornings.”
“Yeah, they would get really angry. And believe me, you never want to get someone who has to put eyeliner on you angry.”
“You know that due to experience?”
“Nah, I am not that bad. Bokuto, on the other hand, managed to get glitter on all of his hair before a shot. Naturally, all the stylists were a bit angry, and he learnt his lesson. If I ever did had such a bad hair day, I could try wearng a hat or something.”
When the hat was mentioned, Yaku’s attention went back to the hat that was on the middle of the table. He had gotten quite confused when Kuroo asked for a disguise to his friend. Now, with a hat and a pair of fake glasses on the table, he understood what he meant.
“What is the hat for, anyways?”
Kuroo smirked, as if he had had the best idea of the year, and he was now giving Yaku the honour of listening his plan. “Well, it is a disguise for you.”
“Me? But the number of people who recognise me can be counted with my hands, not including family and friends. Also, the café is almost empty.”
Empty chairs, but not empty tables, as the cats had decided that sleeping on the tables where people were going to eat was the best idea ever. “Well, we are not here on a normal coffee outing, you know?”
Yaku raised his eyebrow, confused at what the man was trying to get at. “No?”
“No, we are here on a top secrete spy mission. You need to put the hat and glasses on. Don’t forget this is cover work, agent.”
Yaku was confused, but decided to indulge Kuroo and put the disguise on. He was pretty sure that he was still recognisable, but if he wanted to roleplay being spies, spies they would be. He was unsure about who they were hiding from, but not soon after he received his answer.
Akaashi looked as he always did. A nice jumper, a good hair day and eye bags that screamed insomnia. On the other hand Bokuto looked like he came out of a bad spy film. He even managed to get a fake moustache. Sadly, I didn’t match the colour of his hair and made it seem like Bokuto had gotten a fat yellow caterpillar on his upper lip.
“Look, Akaa-”
“Shh! We are here on a secret mission, don’t forget. I’ve noticed that Bokuto has been waiting for someone after filming, but he refused to tell me. Then Kenma told me that he had seen Akaashi and Bokuto here, so I had to come investigate.”
“And you made me come with you because…?”
“Because I thought it would be fun! Spies always need their sidekick, don’t they?”
“Nah, I am pretty sure it’s heroes who need a sidekick. Spies usually work alone.”
“Well, then our show can be about a spy who is looking for a sidekick. It will start with the sidekick interviews, and then be like a survival show. The catch? The losers actually dies.”
“Why?”
“Well, they are spies at the end of the day. They can’t have the losers telling their secrets to everyone.”
“Why would people watch that?”
“The drama!”
Yaku rolled his eyes, but then he had an amazing idea for a shot they could do when one of the sidekicks lost. They could mix the conventions of survival shows with adventure, mystery, tension and action.
“Okay, let’s say that we make it. How would we do a second season? Another spy looking for a sidekick, or the winner of the last season died in a mission and the spy had to find another sidekick?”
Their conversation continued, they dropped their show idea after they couldn’t agree on who would play the spy. Yaku noticed that it was really easy to laugh with Kuroo. He was funny and carefree, but also responsible enough that Yaku’s motherly instincts didn’t woke up. It was a good change to be able to relax with someone, without worrying about Kuroo’s health, grades, team or wellbeing.
Kuroo stopped suddenly on the middle of his speech of why Cat High School could definitely he a hit, and pointed the table where his friends where to Yaku. They had just paid and were about to leave, and as good spies they had to follow them. After paying their own bill, they left the café, to the cats’ sadness. Yaku promised them that he would be back, as nothing could get on his way when cats were involved. And Lev’s birthday was soon and he couldn’t be bothered to get an actual present.
“Where do you think they are going?” asked Kuroo, while sneaking in a very suspicious manner.
Yaku shrugged, still not completely convinced about their spying mission. “Not sure, I just hope they don’t go too far. I need to go back to feed my babies.”
“Your babies?”
Yaku realised that despite them having talked so much about cats, he hadn’t mentioned Fur, Ball or Pinky. “My three cats, I love them a lot. They are my babies.”
“Really? Forget about the mission, we can spy them another day. Let’s go back, I want to meet your cats.”
“Was the mission not important, after all?”
“No, but I do have my priorities. The main reason why I moved to your building was because they allowed animals. I am going to get as many cats as possible. I will become the ultimate cat lady.” Yaku smiled widely, and realised that he just found the perfect cat sitter.
The walk back to their flat started with a nice conversation, but ended with both of them running under the rain trying to get home as fast as they could. Once in their building, Yaku pointed at the different doors and explained who lived where. Kuroo kept on making up stories about them, and how they were going to include them on their show.
Once they got to Yaku’s place, Kuroo realised that he could have gotten changed to something dry on the way up. Yaku was about to mum him into changing, but Kuroo went on his own, without needing any prompting. “I don’t want to get your cats sick, you know?” he said before running down for a dry change of clothes.
They spent the rest of the day playing with Pinky, Ball and Fur. Lev came for some time, but he had already gotten used a bit to Kuroo. However, he asked to watch Villager B. After Lev left, Yaku and Kuroo kept on watching the show, remembering funny moments on the set. Kuroo would mention parts in which people kept failing with their lines or when they made inside jokes which stopped them from being able to film without laughing. Yaku, on the other hand, told him about the mishaps they had with post-production, or about how they almost lost a camera, or the time when the lights disappeared and everyone was trying to come up with solutions. “We almost had to film with the lights of seven iPhones. It seemed like the only solution at the time, but we found the lights at the end.”
“Such a shame, the iPhone filmed episode would have been amazing.”
“Well, you know what to do in our show now.”
Kuroo smiled. They had been talking so much about the show they were going to do, that he was capable of just taking his phone out and making an hour long documentary about Ball, Fur and Pinky. Yaku saw how the taller man took Pinky and put her under his hoodie, as if he was wishing that Yaku wouldn’t notice.
“Anyway, it is getting late and we both have to work tomorrow.”
“Kuroo.” Yaku said with his stern teacher voice. He had tutored enough people to have a proper teacher voice, one that made you finch because you just remembered that you forgot to do your homework.
“Yeah?”
“Leave my cat.”
There was a brief pause, until Kuroo shouted “Nope, it’s mine now!” and tried to run away with Pinky in his arms. He didn’t expect Yaku to be so fast, and to Pinky to jump to Yaku’s arms.
“But I want to be with them” he argued when Yaku forbid him from stealing his cats.
“Well, then you should come back another day, but don’t try to steal my cats.”
…
“You are such an asshole! If I knew you were going to be so evil I wouldn’t have been your friend.” Kuroo’s voice travelled through the studio. His serious face could have scared anyone, but Oikawa was unfazed.
“So what? You are going to side with them? We both knew that their idea wouldn’t end well, but at that time you didn’t care. But now that you are friends with them, suddenly we are being mean by not helping.”
“It’s not that we are not helping, but you are seriously trying to make them lose.” Oikawa rolled his eyes, as if the comments were not entering through his head. “Who cares that Kageyama was technically not old enough. He is still a member of the university and as such he should have been allowed to play.”
“The rules say that you need to be at least eighteen to play!”
“Who cares about the rules? This is a small match, no one cares about whether a player can play or not. You were just nit-picking to make them lose.”
“And? They’ve tried everything to make us lose. You disrespect your opponents if you don’t try your best to win.”
“So you do what? Stop their best setter from playing? What are they going to do now? ”
Yaku adjusted the camera on Oikawa’s face. It was the third time that they were filming that scene, but now they wanted to get the best possible shots of Oikawa. It was a shame, because Kuroo’s expression was mesmerising.
“You seem to forget that Suga is still there. Suga, remember the guy who came and challenged us all that time ago? He is now sitting on a bench, seeing Kageyama take the spot that should be mine, I mean, his.”
“See! This is what I was talking about, you don’t care about them. You only care about yourself. There is nothing worse than having the boy who stole your spot all those years ago steal it again. You are willing to do everything, just to get Kageyama out of your way.”
“It’s not Kageyama the problem, it’s that –”
Kuroo stopped him before he could finish. “You are willing to remove anyone from your way. Is success so important to you that you are willing to go that far?”
“I am doing it for the team!”
“Don’t get the team involved in this, you are being a selfish prick and you know it.”
“Me? Selfish? Let me remind you about –”
In that moment, Bokuto entered, stopping the discussion. Kuroo was about to explode, but instead he left the same way that Bokuto had entered, shutting the door as loud as possible. Oikawa shouted in frustration and head-butted the wall. Then Akaashi shouted cut and the actors calmed down again.
“That was good. I think we have enough footage now. Kuroo, we now have the film the exterior shots. Everyone else in the cast can leave.” Akaashi informed them. Yaku started to inform his team on the preparations to move the cameras and lights. When they had packed everything on the van, Yaku thanked Pinky for waking him up earlier and making him walk to work. He was probably going to have to take a bus back, but at least he wouldn't have to go back to the studio to pick up his bike.
The filming went alright. It was mostly Kuroo being moody and practicing alone. They also had to film him have a phone call, which was not particularly difficult to film. They managed to finish filming before the sunlight left, and not soon after everyone had packed almost everything.
“Hey.” Kuroo’s hands were deep on his pockets, trying to protect himself from the cold. His makeup was still on, which made him look less like the guy who spent so many afternoons at Yaku’s flat playing with his cats, and looked more like the character on the TV.
“Hey, are you going home now?” asked Yaku, putting the last camera on the van.
Kuroo nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking that you might want to walk back with me. I know it's around three quarters of an hour, but there is something I need to tell you.”
Something I need to tell you, those words unsettled Yaku, waiting for the worst. Nevertheless, he agreed to go with him. The walk home was going to be awkward if the news were really bad.
“What’s the problem?”
“You remember Kenma? We've been to the café he woke at some times.”
“Yeah, is he alright?”
“He is fine. More than that, he is really happy. One of his cats just had kittens, but he doesn't know what to do with them. He is going to keep one, but there are three others.”
“Are you telling me to adopt three cats? You know I already have three, right?”
“No, what I am saying is that my kitten dream is coming true in two months, but I've never had a cat before. I feel like an unprepared first time parent.”
Yaku was going to reproach Kuroo for worrying him, until he realised one crucial issue. “You are going to adopt three kittens? Maybe you should start with one, and learn how to take good care of a cat.”
“Yeah, I know. I am only going to take one. He is selling the other to one of the clients of the café.” The café was mostly filled with cat lovers, as it was a cat café.
“What about the other cat? You said that they were three. You keep one, the client buys the other. I know maths was not my strongest subject, but three minus two is one. What is going to happen to that cat?”
“Oh, I am not sure. Kenma is still looking for someone to keep the kitten. He still has two months, so it is fine.”
“Yeah, two months is a long time, don’t worry about it for now.”
Kuroo was going to complain about how he needed to completely cat proof his flat, until he remembered that he had already cat proofed it to take care of Ball, Fur and Pinky. However, even though his place was completely safe for cats, Fur had managed to bring Kuroo to the edge of the heart attack more than once.
“You will help me, right?”
“Sure, I’ll be your cat master.”
…
“Definitely not!”
Kuroo laughed as he tried to put a pink dog collar on Yaku. The smaller boy tried to resist him, but Kuroo was fast and had long arms. Yaku, on the other hand, was good really good at dodging. They ended their small fight when one of the girls that worked at the pet shop started to look bad at them.
“Give up, you are going to be recognise. Do you want all the newspapers saying that Kuroo Tetsurou, the dream boy, had a weird collar fetish?”
Kuroo’s laugh resonated throughout the store. “The media would definitely try to kinkshame me!”
“And all of your friends. Imagine your mum reading the news, knowing that the collars you collected were not only for your imaginary cat friends.”
“Hey! Leave my imaginary cat friends out of this.”
“But not your mum?”
Kuroo acted as if he thought about it. “Being kinkshamed by my mum wouldn’t be the worst thing she could do.”
“Ah no? What could be worse?”
There was a brief silence in which Kuroo debated with himself whether telling Yaku was a good idea or not. This House believes that telling Yaku is a good idea. The proposition had compelling arguments, but so did the opposition. At the end, as with every school debate, there was not a clear conclusion and the argument ended up being useless. “My mum keeps everything I do, including the angsty poetry I wrote when I was twelve. I mean, it was really bad. Properly bad. I am not sure if I was trying to be ironic, or I really was that shitty.”
“So? She already has it, what could be worse?”
“Well, I always told her that I wrote about the sadness of life, like global warming and stuff.”
“But it wasn’t about that.”
“It definitely wasn’t about that!”
“Do I want to know?”
“I wrote for a year and a half angsty poetry about my goldfish and its death. I started writing it even before the goldfish was dead. She has boxes full of my poems dedicated to my dead fish, happy now?”
Yaku tried not to laugh, but it was difficult. He could imagine a younger Kuroo using all of his artistic abilities to create rhymes to his goldfish.
“You know what, I said something embarrassing about me. It’s now your turn!”
Kuroo’s face screamed that Yaku was not allowed to refuse. He wanted an embarrassing story, and he wouldn’t give up until he got one. “When I was younger I tried to use Skinner’s theory to train Lev. I walked around with a bag of treats, to reward him.”
“That’s not embarrassing! At least not for you, it might be for your brother.”
“Fair enough. You want embarrassment? I used to upload loads of my videos before going into camera work for real. They are still on YouTube. I will give you a link to my old channel if you give me one of your angsty poetry box.”
“But that is not embarrassing! Your videos are probably really cool.”
“I have an eight part series about my opinion on peanut butter.” Kuroo’s face regained interest again. Maybe it was the fact that it had eight parts, maybe it was that it was young Yaku’s opinion and a lot because it was all about peanut butter. But mainly it was because it was probably a vlog, and that meant that he would be able to see young Yaku. “There is also all sorts of stupid challenges I did back in the day. If I am not wrong, I also uploaded a song which was written, composed, played on the ukulele and sang by me. Also about peanut butter.”
“How many boxes of shitty poetry you want? I need to find that channel, no matter the price. Just give me a number.”
It was Yaku’s turn to laugh now. He shook Kuroo’s hand, both with an evil grin on their faces. “It is nice doing business with you, sir.”
The two men tried to keep a serious face, but soon after they broke into smiles again. They went back to browsing through the shelves of the pet shop. Kuroo was going to get his kitten in two weeks, and he had started nesting like crazy. He really seemed like a first time parent, much to the amusement of Yaku.
“Look at this toy, wouldn’t Pinky love it?” Kuroo told him, pointing to a small mouse like cat toy. Pinky’s favourite toy was like that, but Fur had managed to throw it out of the window by mistake. Yaku nodded, intrigued as to how much Kuroo knew about his cats. They had spent so much time with him, that it would be weird saying that Kuroo had never owned a cat before.
Suddenly, Yaku had a revelation. It was as if fate’s wishes had finally been made clear to him, even if it only for a second. “Kuroo, I need to know something, it is important.”
“What?”
“If I die, would you take care of my children?”
“What?”
“If something bad happens to me, would you please take care of Ball, Fur and Pinky for me? You are the person the most capable to do it. They love you, you are like that weird uncle that spends so much time with them that they call you dad by mistake.”
“I could always co-parent your babies, you know. Only say the word and I am yours.” Kuroo said as a joke, with a half-smile on his face and trying to give Yaku what he assumed was a seductive look. Yaku wished that it wasn’t a joke, but he knew Kuroo and he was constantly joking about it.
The day finished on a good note. They had street food for dinner and fell asleep in front of Yaku’s TV surrounded by his cats. Pinky was sleeping next to Kuroo’s head, trying to make his hair defy gravity in more funky ways. He woke up the next day disoriented, but he managed to leave to get a shower at his flat. He took Pinky with him after feeding her, as she loved spending time destroying Kuroo’s plant.
When Yaku woke up, he saw a note next to him that said ‘see you later nerd :p I took your cat, she is mine now’. Yaku went to his room and fell back asleep, as it was a Sunday and he didn’t had work. He regretted a little telling Kuroo about his old YouTube channel, but he knew that it was inevitable that he would find about it.
Ball followed Yaku to his room. She had already eaten, as Kuroo made sure to leave food and clean water before leaving on his catscapade, so she didn’t bother him about it. Instead, she just laid down next to him, occasionally liking his face.
“Ball, let me sleep.” Lick. “Please.” Lick. “Please?” Lick. “Why do you hate me?” Lick. “I give up.” Lick. Yaku stood up and started his morning, after the love affair between him and his bed was cockblocked by his cat. He didn’t had plans, so before he realised he had sent a message Kuroo asking about what he was doing. Three seconds after sending it, he regretted it, as they had spent the day before together. He they remembered about his missing cat, and sent a correction about how he needed to know when Pinky would be back.
He received an answer quite fast. Kuroo just sent a picture of his copy of Mario Kart and a ‘the winner gets the princess’. Yaku assumed that Pinky was the princess, as he would sometimes refer to Ball as the queen. Yaku knew for a fact that Kuroo was really good at gaming, as he had grown up as Kenma’s player 2, and Kenma was the master of all games. However, Lev loved the Mario games, and he would usually ask Yaku to either play with him or against him.
Yaku changed into something clean, picked up his two remaining cats and went to the flat where he spent so much time. He would get back Pinky even if he lost, but a gaming day was never something bad. They were joined by Kenma an hour later, and he managed to completely destroy them in five seconds. Bokuto came later, after Kuroo called for backups to dethrone Kenma. At the end they decided that Fur was the winner, because she managed to distract Kenma enough to make him lose against one of the computers.
The last one to join was Akaashi, who came with homemade food and a rolled his eyes at the pizza box where their lunch had been. Yaku had called him, as he had frowned on the pizza and the unhealthy amount of energy drinks that Kenma drank. However, he was outnumbered. Once Akaashi had joined him, Bokuto was being controlled and Kenma was easier to brainwash.
The night ended up with Kuroo helping Yaku take his cats back to his own flat. Akaashi had reminded them that they had to work the next day, so they ended the gaming jam at a reasonable time. Kuroo left with a wave and a ‘see you tomorrow’, which was answered by a simple ‘good night’ from Yaku. Once he was alone, only his cats observing him, he faceplanted on his sofa.
“What’s going on? Where were you?” Asked a voice from Yaku’s room. Without having to look up he knew that it was probably Lev, who was hiding away from their mum. Again.
“You should go back home.” He answered at last.
Lev shook his head, but Yaku was unable to see him, as his face was becoming close friends with the sofa. “Nah, I am going to stay here now.”
Yaku stood up from the sofa, and checked his phone. He hadn’t looked at it all day, as he had been too preoccupied with everyone back at Kuroo’s. They were many texts from his mum, all with a variation of ‘have you seen Lev?’. He called her, ignoring Lev’s protests. They had a nice chat, which finished with her mum saying that if he managed to get Lev to do his homework, he could keep him as much as he wanted.
“So?” asked Lev, fearing his mother’s wrath.
“She said you could stay, as long as you do your homework. But!”
“But?”
“This is my place. My place, my rules.”
Lev nodded, he knew that his brother sometimes wasn’t too pleased on him crashing so often. “Can I at least stay some days? I’ll help you out.”
“With what? You know that I don’t need to walk my cats.”
Lev smiled. For once, he was better than his brother. “You were faceplanted on the sofa when I saw you, which means that you definitely need help.”
Yaku was going to argue, but Lev was right for once. “But, but you are too young. You probably won’t get it.”
“Now you are just making excuse. Come on, tell me. You know I am good at keeping secrets.”
Yaku was going to laugh at him, but he knew that he needed someone to tell everything to. “So, where do I start? There is a person I may like. Wait; that is a lie. I definitely like them. He is really nice and funny, and we spend so much time together. He is the kind of people with whom you can spend hours talking, or in silence, and it feels like it’s where you belong. I, I am happy when I am with him.”
“So you have a boyfriend and are flustrated because you like him too much? Yaku, that’s the opposite of a problem!”
“No, you don’t get it. One, we are not dating. Two, I don’t think he likes me that way, if you know what I mean. And three, I think that it is forbidden to date people who also work at the production.” Yaku was not entirely sure about the rule, but he had heard some girls use it as an excuse to get people to stop untastefully hitting on them.
“So this is about Kuroo! It’s nice that you finally accept that you like him. He definitely likes you too, don’t worry. And I am pretty sure there is not such rule, have you been on the internet today?”
Yaku shook his head, as he had spent all his day playing games with Kuroo and company. Kenma was sometimes on his phone, but he assumed that it was mostly to check on his cats from Neko Atsume. If there was something important on social media, they were basically screwed.
“No? Is everything alright? Buzzfeed released another weird list or something?”
Lev shook his head, while he searched for something on the internet. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for, as it was all over his Facebook feed. He shoved his phone on Yaku’s hands, where he started to read some article from a news site he frequented to learn about the latest gossip out there.
‘Bokuto Koutarou, actor on Villager B is dating the show’s director, Akaashi Keiji’ read the title of the article. The so called evidence about why they had their suspicions was interesting, as they were things that Yaku had already thought about. Then, at the end of the article it said why they were so sure about it. That very morning, Akaashi had confirm that they were dating on Twitter. It was an instant trend, even more when Bokuto retweeted it and added a heart emoji.
“Wait, I was with them this afternoon and they didn’t mention anything.” Lev shrug, the news had exploded on the internet. Not only it was a secret relationship between the director and an actor, but also it was a way to come out for both. “I guess that they wanted time without being questioned about the news.”
Yaku read other articles, mainly those that outline the reaction of Twitter and other social media platforms. It had been mostly positive, but some people commented on how obvious it was, and on how useless everyone’s interest was. ‘Breaking news: water is wet’ kind of reactions, mostly. Someone edited a picture of them on a wedding, and soon after people started to edit people in as guests. There was a bit of everything, from some of the characters of Villager B paused at odd moments, to Cameron and his pig. They had also edited Bokuto as the priest, as one of his first roles was about a teen who stole the identity of a priest in order to sell drugs to the elderly.
After an hour of going through recycled memes and weird collages, Yaku realised that he had missed one very important thing. He sent a text to Kuroo asking if he knew the news. The response was quick, and it read ‘you are letting me marry into your family and keep your cats?’. Yaku was going to answer back about how he needed to ask for the approval of Ball first, when he realised that there was something he actually needed to say. He sent him a link to one of the best articles he had read, as it explain everything with great detail, without bothering to include speculation or commentary about the publication’s opinion on the issue.
Yaku didn’t receive an answer, but some seconds later he could hear Kuroo shouting ‘BRO!!’ as loud as he could. Yaku left his phone, as he probably wouldn’t get an answer for a long time, or as long as Kuroo and Bokuto could talk by phone, which Yaku knew by experience was way too long.
He wondered whether he should call Akaashi or not. Maybe, when they called him on the afternoon he expected everyone to know, but was surprised by their silence. At the end he sent a simple ‘Just read it, congratulations’. Akaashi took a bit to read the message, but instead of starting to type an answer, he called.
“Hey, my brother just showed me the news, I am very happy for you.”
“Thank you, that is very kind.”
“How are you taking the reaction? They seem quite positive and nice.”
“They have been, thankfully. I was following the development of the situation closely this morning, but decided to disconnect for a bit. I am thankful that you called Bokuto, he was glued to his screen all morning. I am surprised that you did not read about it sooner.”
“Sorry about that, I was with Kuroo all day and I forgot my phone at home.”
“That is nice, sometimes is nice to take a break from social media. I usually spend too much time reading comments about Villager B after a new episode had been broadcasted.”
“That’s true. The sad thing is that people do not usually comment too much on my work, unless it has been done incorrectly or they are doing meta-analyses about the true meaning of Villager B.”
“They also comment when there are many scenes with Kuroo bare-chested. Did you know that there is a tag for you? It is #thankscameraman and they use it each time there are good shots of Kuroo’s abs.”
Yaku obviously knew about it. He hated it, mostly because he knew that it was right. He had seen gifs from some of the shots he had taken from Kuroo, and it was certainly easy to see that he liked what he filmed.
“I know, I am sorry. If it bothers you I will try to-”
“When are you going to tell him?”
“Tell who what?”
“You know what I mean, when are you going to tell Kuroo that you like him?”
There was a long silence. Yaku was unsure about whether it was way too obvious or that Akaashi was good at reading people. “I am not sure, I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”
“I understand that. As your co-worker I need to tell you that you also need to think about work, and how that would affect both of you. As your friend I think that you should go and tell him. Bokuto suggested to sing a cover of The Little Mermaid’s Kiss the Girl.”
“I am not sure, I will think about it.”
They kept on talking, but they had to finish their call when Akaashi received another call. He excused himself, and managed to get Yaku to promise to sleep on the idea of telling Kuroo. That night he didn’t manage to get enough sleep. His mind was convinced of finding the worst case scenarios of what would happen if he told Kuroo. By the time his alarm clock rang, his dream version was on a custody fight over his cats.
The next day went alright. He managed to do his job despite the fact that he was running solely on coffee and will power. At the end of the day, he was seated on his sofa petting Fur, while Kuroo slept on the armchair. They didn’t had any concrete plans, but the more time passed, the more they were at each other flats.
Seeing Kuroo’s sleeping face, he remembered the conversation he had with Akaashi the last day. He still wasn’t sure about what to do, so he decided to leave it to destiny. Or Kai, in this case. Kai was one of Yaku’s friends from school, but they had managed to keep in contact over the years. He had become a published self-help author, which had always been his calling. He also had a blog where he acted like an agony aunt.
‘Dear agony aunt, I really like one of my co-workers and I don’t know what to do. We spend almost all of our time together, and we are really close. The problem is that we are both men, and although I think he is at least bi, I am not completely sure. Also, I wouldn’t want to ruin our friendship. What should I do?’
Two minutes after he had hit the send button, he received a call from Kai. When he answered he only heard a ‘Just tell him, he likes you too’ before Kai hung up.
Yaku was intrigued as how he had known it was him, as the messages were completely anonymous. He decided that that many people couldn’t be wrong, and that he would tell Kuroo. When the situation was good. And he had managed to pluck up enough courage.
“Who was it?” asked Kuroo, who had been woken up by Kai’s call.
“The priest for our wedding, he confirmed that he is available.”
Kuroo left a small chuckle leave his lips. “Such a shame, I wanted to ask Bokuto to be the officer” he said before going back to sleep.
Yaku smiled at him. He took a picture of his sleeping form, as Pinky had decided that Kuroo’s face was suddenly the best place to take a nap. He sent it to Kuroo, and after a while he also sent it to his own email, to make sure not to lose it.
…
The day had finally come. Kuroo couldn’t stand still, despite having tried everything to calm down. He was being powered with nervous energy, as he hadn’t been able to sleep properly for some days. He was way too excited; sleep was for the weak.
“Is it time now?” he asked Yaku, who was still finishing his work. He had to plan the next episode, as he had just gotten Akaashi’s note-filled script.
“No, there is still some time left. We said that we were leaving in half an hour, so Kenma might not be ready yet.” Kuroo knew that, but he hoped that asking would make time pass faster. “Sit here with me, you are going to make a whole on the floor if you keep walking on circles.”
Kuroo obeyed, despite the fact that he needed to do something to take out all of the energy out of his body. He sat on the floor, with his head siting on Yaku’s knees. Yaku passed his fingers through his hair, which was much softer than it looked. He had promised himself that he was going to do something about it, but at the end it was harder than expected.
“Am I now your cat?” asked Kuroo. Yaku removed his hand, but Kuroo took it and put it back where it was. “Don’t stop, it’s nice.” Yaku knew that that could be a perfect moment. If only He could lower his head and kiss the top of Kuroo’s head. He could tell him that he liked him; that he had done for a long time. There were many options, but at the end he just kept on petting Kuroo’s hair.
When it was time, they left Yaku’s flat. He had forced Kuroo to leave his, as he kept on looking for what to change or clean. He genuinely was like a first time parent, and his nesting kept on getting worse.
“Come on, the kitten is waiting.”
The walk to Kenma’s flat was relatively short, as he lived on top of the café. He was the one in charge of taking care of the cats at night, so his small flat was mostly filled with cats. Kenma’s own cat, the one with the kittens, lived with him as she was too shy around strangers.
She looked extremely proud of her kittens, and they were playing with each other. Kuroo’s kitten was a cute black cat, which Kenma said that looked like him. She was a playful ball of fur, which was named Bouncy, as she resembled Ball a lot.
They stayed with Kenma for a long time, playing with the kittens. Kai had decided to keep the other one, after he called Yaku back. He knew that his friend needed that one push, but then called to apologise for being so harsh. They talked for a long time, in which Yaku ended up telling him about the kittens. He decided to keep the one that Kenma still hadn’t managed to get a home for, as he also loved cats and thought that his current one might like a small friend.
Hours later, they decided to get back home, so that the kitten got used to Kuroo’s flat. And they also decided to slowly introduce her to Yaku’s cats. Both Yaku and Kenma had insisted on taking Bouncy on a carrier box, but Kuroo said that it was too cold outside. Furthermore, Bouncy had fallen asleep on Kuroo’s arms and nothing was going to make him leave her now. Yaku gave up after a while, and helped Kuroo to put his coat on.
They started their way home, with Kuroo with a small cat on his arms and Yaku worried that he was going to drop her. He then remembered all those times that Kuroo had stolen Pinky from him, and decided that he had enough cat transportation experience.
“Thanks for coming with me.”
“It’s fine, I wanted to come. I can’t believe that Bouncy is so cute.”
“I know! I should start an Instagram dedicated to her. I’ve been told by my agent various times that I need to be more active on social media.”
“That is a good idea. Knowing you, you were going to fill all of your phone with her pictures. Now you have an excuse.”
Kuroo smiled. He had had the idea of posting her pictures online after Twitter loved Pinky’s pictures. People kept on asking for more pictures, and now he would be able to meet the demand. Cat pictures were finally going to stop being a scarce resource.
Someone had commented on how similar Pinky was to Yaku’s cat, as he had a blog dedicated to them. Thankfully, Yaku had never mentioned who he was and so no one suspected that they were in fact the same cat.
“Yeah, but you need to promise to follow the account. It would be sad if I end up not having followers, Bouncy would feel sad.”
“Sure, I will always follow you. As long as food is provided, I will follow you.”
“Oh yeah, do you want to get dinner together?”
This was his chance. He had been losing hundreds of opportunities a day, but he was finally going to take it. “Is it a date?”
Kuroo stopped dead on his tracks. It took a few steps for Yaku to realise, but when he turned he saw that Kuroo’s face was completely blank, as if he had no idea of what to do.
“What?” he asked Kuroo. After a few seconds he realised that he worst nightmares had turn true. “Look, I am sorry. I thought that maybe, just maybe it c–”
Kuroo had reshuffled Bouncy so that she was only on one of his arms, and with the other he managed to get Yaku into an embrace. “I was only planning on some pizza while we played with Bouncy and watched TV, but if this is a date then let’s do something better. I am so, so happy.”
“So you are okay that it is a date?”
“No, I am not okay. I am incredible happy about it. I had a crush on you forever, but it was really hard to talk to you. You never go to events where cast and technical crew mix up. Do you know how many hours I’ve spent following you from afar, too scared to give the first step? I even created a blog where I post gifs about your work!”
“Wait, so the #thankscameraman is your work?”
“Yeah, I started using it for good shots, but other people made it about my abs. To be honest, you are certainly good at filming them.”
Both stared at each other. Kuroo gave Yaku back his space, mostly to take Bouncy on both of his arms. They both had stupid smiles on their faces, and their hearts were beating too fast. They started to laugh loudly, without caring of who could see or hear them.
“So? Pizza, TV and kitten?”
“Yeah, pizza, TV and kitten.”