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“Kenmaa, I don’t need to be here, it’s nothing.” Kuroo groaned for the nth time since his best friend made him leave the court after he hurt his hand.
“Stop whining like a kid, Kuro. I saw you wincing.” Kenma deadpanned, his eyes not even leaving his phone screen.
Kuroo scoffed at that but didn’t reply anything, Kenma smiled softly. He knew Kuroo’s injury wasn’t anything major, but still, it was an injury.
Now that Kuroo had an office job, he wasn’t used to playing volleyball anymore — at least not as much as he used to. And especially not when the person on the other side of the court was Bokuto.
So, yeah, Kuroo hadn’t taken this into consideration when he went and tried to block one of Bokuto’s thunderous spikes. Even Kenma winced when he watched the action happen from where he was sitting on the sidelines.
So here they were, Kenma forcing Kuroo to enter the hospital emergency room to have his hand checked.
It was Kuroo’s right hand, and Kuroo is right-handed. That would surely be a pain for an office work such as his where he needs to write things quite often.
Kenma didn’t want the state of Kuroo’s hand to worsen. And, as much as Kuroo liked to complain about being bossed around, Kenma knew his best friend agreed with him.
They sat on chairs at the entrance of the emergency room while waiting for someone to come for them. Kuroo was positively surprised to see that there weren’t too many people in the waiting room.
So thankfully they wouldn’t have to wait too long. That was good. He couldn’t wait to go back to the court and show his friends that he was fine. Bokuto surely felt bad about this whole situation and Kuroo didn’t want his friend to worry.
Someone arrived as Kuroo was lost in thoughts. The person cleared their throat to catch both Kuroo and Kenma’s attention and introduced themselves. “Hi, I’m nurse Akaashi Keiji, I’ll be the one taking care of you today.”
Kenma greeted them back quietly while Kuroo raised his head to look at the person owning this gentle voice. His eyes widened when he took in the sight in front of him.
Kuroo gulped. It was like all his thoughts flew out of his mind, he couldn’t even utter a single word as he simply stared at the man in front of him. The nurse had dark hair and the most beautiful blue eyes Kuroo had ever seen. He was also quite tall, although shorter than Kuroo. That was the most gorgeous man Kuroo had ever seen.
The man –Akaashi– then turned in Kenma’s direction. “Did he hurt his head?”
Kuroo knew that this was a valid question considering the fact that they’re in a hospital, but he felt his cheeks heat up nonetheless.
He vaguely registered Kenma snorting next to him. “No,” Kenma replied. “His hand.”
Akaashi redirected his gaze back on Kuroo at that, he had a small frown on his face that Kuroo found unbelievably cute. “Can you show me your hand, please?”
Kuroo gulped again and mindlessly lifted his hand for Akaashi to examine. Akaashi took it carefully in his hands and the contact sent chills through Kuroo’s entire body — nevermind the fact that Akaashi was wearing gloves.
Akaashi hummed and let go of Kuroo’s hand. “Follow me,” he said. Kuroo nodded and wordlessly followed him, Kenma in tow.
Akaashi led them to a bed where he told Kuroo to sit on, which he did. Kenma took the chair next to it.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Kenma asked him when Akaashi left the room.
But Kuroo didn’t have time to reply before the nurse came back in with several utensils and care products.
Akaashi didn’t seem affected by the fact that Kuroo still hadn’t talked, though. He simply focused on Kuroo’s hand and started cleaning the wound.
His movements were precise and efficient, but also careful and gentle. Kuroo felt his heart flutter.
“You’re pretty,” Kuroo blurted out mindlessly.
Akaashi’s movements stopped and his whole body went still. Only then did Kuroo realize how he had voiced his thoughts aloud, he immediately felt his face burning.
Akaashi raised his head slowly, Kuroo felt his heart thrumming in his chest.
“Oh God,” Kenma groaned and facepalmed himself next to them. Without waiting to see what would happen next, he got up and made his way back to the waiting room.
A sort of whine escaped Kuroo’s throat at the blatant abandonment of his best friend, but then his eyes fell back on Akaashi and… Oh.
There was a faint blush on the man’s cheeks that Kuroo was sure wasn’t there before. He could feel his own blush travel all the way to the tip of his ears but he suddenly didn’t care about that anymore.
Akaashi smiled softly at him and Kuroo wondered for a second if Bokuto’s spike hadn’t been so hard that he died and went to heaven instead.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Akaashi mumbled before going back to Kuroo’s hand — as if that wasn’t the craziest thing he could have said, as if he didn’t almost send Kuroo into cardiac arrest.
Kuroo felt his hand shake a bit, and Akaashi smirked. Kuroo gulped; the nurse definitely knew what he was doing. This somehow made Kuroo find the other man even more interesting.
He would happily make a fool of himself every day if it meant he could see Akaashi like this again.
“How did this happen?” Akaashi broke the silence after some time.
“Mh?”
Akaashi chuckled, “Your hand.”
“Oh,” Kuroo chuckled in turn, he had forgotten what he was even there for. “Volleyball.”
Akaashi‘s eyebrows rose at that. “You play volleyball?”
“Yeah,” Kuroo smiled. “I used to be captain in high school but I didn’t go pro afterwards, and now I lost my touch.” He laughed a bit at the end of his explanation.
Akaashi hummed. At first, Kuroo thought it was simply out of politeness, but then he realized that the other man seemed genuinely interested in his answer.
“I played too in high school.”
This time it was Kuroo’s eyebrows’ turn to rise. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Akaashi smiled. “I was a setter. I enjoyed it but I always knew that I wanted to be a nurse.”
Kuroo smiled softly in turn. “That’s cool.”
Akaashi was done with cleaning his wound and was now making his bandage. He was still as efficient and gentle in his movements as before they started talking.
“My friend Kenma, the one who came here with me, he was also a setter.” Kuroo said then, with a little pride in his tone.
Akaashi smiled. “That’s cool,” he replied genuinely. “From your injury, I take it you’re a middle blocker?”
Kuroo chuckled, “Yeah.” Akaashi hummed, Kuroo continued. “I played against a friend who’s a pro player, so I guess that’s on me.”
Akaashi laughed at that, and Kuroo found himself laughing in turn.
“Well, there can’t be only negative things.” Akaashi then said.
Kuroo’s laughter died down as he looked at the other man’s face. There was a certain glint in Akaashi’s eyes that wasn’t there before. “No?” He breathed out.
“No,” Akaashi smiled but it almost looked like a smirk, “I got to meet you.”
Kuroo choked on his saliva at the shameless statement, his blush coming back with full force. Akaashi laughed at him and wow . That was a sound Kuroo wanted to hear again and again.
“Yeah,” Kuroo replied, pushing through his embarrassment. “I got to meet you.” He parroted.
Akaashi stopped laughing and smiled instead. A soft blush present on his cheeks as well.
“All done,” he announced then, letting go of Kuroo’s hand. Kuroo instantly missed the warmth.
Then, Akaashi gave Kuroo medicine and explained to him the things he had to do in order to take care of his hand. Kuroo listened carefully to everything and nodded.
“Do you have any other questions?” Akaashi then asked when he was done with his explanation and handed a sheet to Kuroo that contained all the information he just voiced.
Kuroo hummed and smirked a bit, “Yeah. Can I have your number?”
Akaashi’s eyes widened a bit in surprise but it quickly went away as he smirked in turn. “Mmh, I’d have to think about it a little more.” He replied playfully.
Kuroo’s smirk faltered a little bit but he tried to not show it too much. After all, this wasn’t a complete rejection. And they only met today, it was rather intelligent of Akaashi to not disclose his number, Kuroo tried to reason with himself.
The two men reached Kenma who was sitting on a chair in the waiting room. He and Kenma bid their goodbyes to the nurse, Kuroo thanking him profusely.
Akaashi smiled and bid them goodbye in turn. Kenma left the room first and when Kuroo turned back to look at Akaashi one last time, the man’s smirk was back on his face. Kuroo frowned in confusion.
Then, Akaashi winked at Kuroo. And he was gone.
Kuroo stood there for a few seconds, completely dumbfounded. He cleared his throat so as to get out of his trance and mindlessly glanced down. Something on the sheet of paper he was holding caught his attention.
He opened the paper and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline when he noticed a nice handwriting. He frowned, not remembering seeing the nurse write anything on it but, well, Akaashi definitely wrote something.
There, at the bottom of the list of care instructions for his hand stood a phone number and a 'call me' note written carefully under it. Kuroo chuckled and shook his head amusedly.
When he stepped out of the emergency room and caught up with his best friend, Kuroo’s smile could rival the sun itself. No, this day definitely didn’t have only negative things indeed.