Work Text:
“You clean up nice.” Kuroo steps up next to Iwaizumi, a small smirk dancing over his lips as Iwaizumi’s eyes rake over him. He’s wearing the suit that he knows Iwaizumi loves. Asshole. “Can I get you a drink, Iwaizumi?”
Iwaizumi raises his eyebrows. “Is that what you ask all the men you see at office parties?”
“Nah,” Kuroo says. “Just the handsome ones. Also I already got you a drink, so you don’t really get a say.”
“That’s kinda forward of you. People might get the wrong idea, you know.”
“Fuck off, I’m doing my best here,” Kuroo says, rolling his eyes. His cheeks are a little flushed; whether it’s the wine or the office’s lighting or the result of Iwaizumi’s light teasing, Iwaizumi doesn’t know. “You gotta work with me, Hajime.”
Iwaizumi snorts. “‘Doing your best.’ Trying to pick me up at a work party is not doing your best to hide—”
It’s then that Bokuto makes himself known, throwing an arm around Kuroo’s shoulder and hanging off of him to grin at Iwaizumi. “Iwaizumi! I didn’t think you’d come. Have you had something to eat and drink? Can I get you anything?”
“I’ve got him covered,” Kuroo says, not thinking about his words.
He’s pressing a plastic cup into Iwaizumi’s left hand, and Iwaizumi nearly fumbles it as he takes it. He holds it up to his nose, sniffing it to try to figure out what it is. It smells like something fruity or tropical, and he gives Kuroo a suspicious look. Kuroo has the worst taste. “What is it?”
“Relax, it’s just a cup of fruit punch,” Kuroo tells him. That smirk has softened to something more gentle, something all too fond for someone who isn’t in love with him. “I think Atsumu is offering to spike people’s drinks, but I didn’t put anything in that.”
Bokuto laughs, loud enough that it rings through the small office. “You know how much Atsumu hates these things.”
“I really don’t know why he comes,” Iwaizumi says, huffing a laugh. “He doesn’t have to. This is really more for potential backers and investors than it is for us lowly office workers.”
Kuroo’s smile curls up into a more mischievous smirk. “He just wants to flirt with Sakusa, and he can’t get Sakusa’s attention outside of work.”
Atsumu and Sakusa’s rocky, flirtatious, antagonistic relationship has been the subject of office gossip for the past year and a half, and Iwaizumi knows that Kuroo is in the thick of all those conversations. He only knows this because Kuroo feels the need to, when they’re alone in one of their apartments after a date, then relay everything he learns through the grapevine to Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi knows more about each of his coworkers than he ever really cared to.
The thing is that this was just supposed to be a job. It was supposed to be temporary; working in an office cubicle writing emails and reading emails and having meetings that could be more emails was never Iwaizumi’s dream job. But then he got to know the people he started working with—then he met Kuroo—and things got out of hand from there.
Everything about Kuroo, really, had gotten out of hand the moment Kuroo started giving him his full attention. Iwaizumi had fallen hard and fast. While they have yet to actually announce their relationship to anyone, Iwaizumi knows after only a few months that Kuroo is…Kuroo is kind of it for him. They’re barely four months into the relationship, so Iwaizumi hasn’t exactly told him that, but he’s recently been able to at least admit it in the privacy of his own thoughts.
“Oh I dunno,” Bokuto says casually, as Iwaizumi finally dares to take a sip of his drink. “I think they’re secretly seeing each other on the side. And I heard that’s not the only office romance going on right now.”
Iwaizumi chokes on the fruit punch. He manages to swallow, coughing up a lung as Kuroo slaps him on the back as if it’s helpful, and looks at Bokuto. “What’d you say?”
Bokuto is frowning at him. “You okay, dude?”
“Fine,” Iwaizumi says weakly. “Just, um. Surprised there’s anyone else in the office dating or whatever.”
“I don’t think it’s that surprising,” Bokuto says, something sickeningly sweet in his voice. Next to him, Kuroo stiffens; Iwaizumi very, very carefully does not look over. “Do you think it’s surprising, Kuroo?”
Kuroo glances between Iwaizumi and Bokuto, clearly floundering for words. He can be so smooth when talking to the media or potential investors or convincing people to buy their products and whatever else he does on the phone all day at work, but he’s also a terrible liar. Asking him to cover up their relationship was maybe not the most thought through plan Iwaizumi has ever had.
“Um,” Kuroo says. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about office romances before.”
Iwaizumi covers up a snort with another cough, then takes a long sip of the fruit punch to cover his face. It has a very distinct berry flavor to it, and Iwaizumi is again reminded that Kuroo has the worst taste in drinks.
“Kuroo, you were the one to start the betting pool on me and Akaashi,” Bokuto points out. He smirks a little. “And I know for a fact that you think about office romance all the time.”
Iwaizumi chokes again, and Kuroo sends him a concerned look as he claps him on the back a few more times. When Iwaizumi stops coughing, Bokuto is looking at him strangely and Iwaizumi has to resist the urge to wilt a little. He’s almost as bad at acting as Kuroo is. Coming to this office party while knowing that Kuroo would be there—in that pressed black suit and wearing a deep red tie and with his awful lying—was a terrible idea.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kuroo says, trying to sound haughty and only coming off as flustered. “And that betting pool was supposed to be a secret, I don’t know how you found out.”
“You probably shouldn’t have let Hinata in on it then,” Iwaizumi mutters.
“You’re just bitter that Hinata beat you by one day.” Kuroo huffs a laugh. “You were so excited, it was cute. Until Hinata reminded you of his wager.”
He looks over at Iwaizumi and his eyes are bright. Iwaizumi meets his gaze and finds that same fondness there, that same honest love that Kuroo has only afforded him. It makes something special bloom deep in his chest, something like the words I love you bubbling past his lips.
Then Bokuto clears his throat and Iwaizumi is brutally reminded of where they are and who they’re supposed to be for the night. “Are you two done flirting? Because I did come over here for a reason.”
“We’re not flirting,” both Iwaizumi and Kuroo say immediately. Being in sync when they say it is probably not helping their case.
Bokuto squints at them for a moment, before shaking his head and dismissing whatever else he was going to say on the matter. “Well, I came over here to say that they brought out the chocolate fountain Kuroo was so excited for, so if you want some, you should head over to the other room.”
“Oh finally,” Kuroo says, grinning. “Hold my drink, Iwaizumi, yeah?”
Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, but takes Kuroo’s drink when it’s handed to him. Then Kuroo and Bokuto walk away, disappearing around the corner, leaving Iwaizumi feeling a little like he’s been left in the wake of a hurricane.
He likes Bokuto, really, and not solely because he’s one of Kuroo’s best friends. It’s just that Bokuto is surprisingly perceptive, especially when it comes to Kuroo, and it makes lying about their relationship feel so much harder.
Usually, Iwaizumi and Kuroo are good at keeping together an air of professionalism in the office. Kuroo is in marketing and Iwaizumi is in purchasing, so they don’t actually see each other all that much anyways. Sometimes Kuroo will come bother him on breaks, or Iwaizumi will join him and his friends at lunch, and their desks are angled so that Iwaizumi can mouth things silently at him or Kuroo can throw paper airplanes when they’re bored—but more often than not, they don’t actually interact more than anyone else in the office.
It’s outside of work that their relationship really comes alive. They may have met in the office, but once they started seeing each other outside of work, something shifted. It became more, until the tension was unbearable and Kuroo asked to kiss him and Iwaizumi said finally.
Still: within the boundaries of the office walls, they keep up the act of nothing more than close coworkers. Even if Iwaizumi isn’t particularly attached to this job, Kuroo has ambitions within the company and Iwaizumi didn’t want to be a distraction in the workplace. Besides, their relationship still feels somewhat tentative, and Iwaizumi is half waiting for the other shoe to drop and Kuroo to realize he can do better.
But the longer that it does last, the weaker that feeling—and the excuse—gets. At this point, Iwaizumi is kind of thinking the only reason they have left to keep up appearances is not having to deal with HR.
“Was that Kuroo and Bokuto just now?” Iwaizumi blinks, flinching at the sudden appearance of Atsumu at his side. “What were they after?”
Iwaizumi shrugs. “To offer me a drink and inform me of the chocolate fountain.”
Atsumu looks at the space where Kuroo and Bokuto had been, something contemplative over the expression. “The two of them are like…Kuroo is like a pickpocket and Bokuto is the distraction from his robbery. And then they split the profit. It’s funny, watching them.”
“What?”
Atsumu shrugs. He has a small paper plate in hand and he’s picking pretzels off of it to chew on absentmindedly. He swallows, then adds, “Sorry, forgot you and Kuroo are…tight.”
He doesn’t sound particularly sorry and Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “We’re just friendly. He’s friendly with everyone.”
“Right,” Atsumu says. He eats another pretzel.
“We are,” Iwaizumi insists. If they’re going to reveal their relationship to anyone, it is not going to be Atsumu Miya, one of the top office gossips, second only to Hinata.
“You were standing real close together.” Atsumu says it neutrally, like it’s nothing more than a casual observation and doesn’t send Iwaizumi’s heart rate spiking.
Iwaizumi shrugs stiffly. The two drinks in his hands are feeling much too heavy all of the sudden. Is he sweating? He might be sweating. “I don’t think we were standing any differently than how I stand with anyone else.”
Atsumu scoffs, then tries to cover it up with a raspy laugh. “Alright, Iwaizumi. Anyways, did you hear about our stock prices?”
“Fuck, don’t tell me you two are talking about work right now.” At the sound of Kuroo’s voice, Iwaizumi finds himself relaxing, softening. It’s so easy to feel at comfort when Kuroo is next to him; even if they can’t touch or kiss, Kuroo’s elbow is brushing against his and that’s something. “We’re at a party. Try this, Hajime.”
Kuroo is offering up a small plate of chocolate covered berries and other treats in his hand. Iwaizumi raises the two drinks in his hand, as if to say that he can’t try it because he can’t pick up a strawberry, and Kuroo rolls his eyes. He then carefully chooses a chocolate covered strawberry and holds it up to Iwaizumi’s mouth.
Instinctively, Iwaizumi opens his mouth and Kuroo feeds him the strawberry. It reminds him of softly lit nights on Kuroo’s couch: Kuroo swearing Iwaizumi just has to try this restaurant’s gyoza because it’s the best in the prefecture; he was all smiles and open your mouth for me and laughing when Iwaizumi nearly choked on it. Embarrassing at the time, but something Iwaizumi thinks of fondly now.
“It’s alright,” Iwaizumi says, after taking a bite and swallowing.
Kuroo grins like he’s won something. “One day I’ll get you to like berries, I swear.”
“They’re better covered in chocolate,” Iwaizumi admits. He smiles at Kuroo and parts his lips a little as if to ask for more.
Then there’s a cough from beside Iwaizumi and Iwaizumi shuts his mouth like he’s been shocked, whipping his head over to the side. Atsumu is staring at the two of them with his eyebrows raised. He looks Iwaizumi in the eye. “Friendly, huh?”
“Um.” Iwaizumi can’t muster up more than that.
“Yeah, of course,” Kuroo says, trying for casual and coming out high pitched and flustered, and then he picks up another strawberry and offers it to Atsumu. “Open.”
“Absolutely not.” Atsumu rolls his eyes. “You two are weird.”
Kuroo shrugs, popping the strawberry into his own mouth. He’s trying to act unaffected, but his cheeks are flushed pink and hot, and Iwaizumi is sure he himself is no better. “Your loss.”
“I can just get some of my own,” Atsumu tells him. “And feed myself.”
“Boring,” is all that Kuroo says, and then Atsumu is rolling his eyes again and walking away. Kuroo looks down at his plate of chocolate covered treats, his cheeks still pink as he says, “Sorry.”
Iwaizumi looks away from where Atsumu is walking away and back to Kuroo. “Sorry? What for?”
Kuroo shrugs stiffly. “It’s like—I know we didn’t want to tell anyone yet, and I’m—I’m fine with that, really. I know keeping work and this, us, separate is…important. I just, uh. Am not good at…not, like, being head over heels for you. Hiding things is…not one of my strong suits.”
“It’s really not,” Iwaizumi agrees. He knocks his elbow against Kuroo’s side, pressing closer to him just for a brief moment. “It’s okay, Tetsurou. Really. It’s not like anyone’s gonna believe anything Atsumu says anyway.”
The corner of Kuroo’s mouth ticks upward as he looks back at Iwaizumi. “Good point.” Then he looks away again, out at the rest of the party where their other coworkers are mingling. His voice lowered, he says, “But really, uh. How often do I get to see you all dressed up and handsome like this? It’s nice. And I really, really want to be allowed to tell you that.”
Iwaizumi can feel his cheeks growing warm and pink, flushed under Kuroo’s compliments. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
Despite the kind of lackluster statement, Kuroo blushes. He steps away to set the plate down on a nearby table, then grabs their drinks from Iwaizumi to set them next to the plate. Abandoning them there, he grabs Iwaizumi’s wrist and drags him away.
“Kuroo—”
“Just five minutes,” Kuroo says, a little breathless as he pulls Iwaizumi into the hallway by the back staircase. “No one will notice.”
The moment that the exit door is closed behind them and they’re alone in the hallway, Kuroo is pressing Iwaizumi against the wall and kissing him hard. The kiss is warm and passionate and Iwaizumi is so weak under Kuroo’s touch. The stairs’ handrail digs into his back, but he barely even registers it as his hands go to Kuroo.
He kisses back with a ferocity and a love that he’s always so careful to hide at work. Right now, in this moment, Kuroo is there and he looks like a walking daydream stepped straight out of Iwaizumi’s fantasies, and Iwaizumi doesn’t want to give that up no matter where they are.
No one is around them to see anyway. No one is there to notice. It’s just the two of them in this small, private moment. It’s just Iwaizumi and Kuroo and the fact that they do love each other, even if they can’t show it at the party.
He doesn’t know how long they stand like that in the hallway, lips moving against each other, breaths hot and needy. Iwaizumi has his hands gripping the jacket of Kuroo’s suit and Kuroo has a hand in Iwaizumi’s hair and a hand on his waist, forever tugging him closer. Iwaizumi lets himself be tugged, lets himself be pulled in; he wants nothing more than to be close to Kuroo right now.
Kuroo kisses like Iwaizumi is something precious, something he wants to treasure and worship under his touch. He kisses like he never wants to stop, like he never wants to let go of this. Iwaizumi is putty in his hands; just a rock letting the water of a river wash over him, sending him tumbling off of a cliffside. He can’t bring himself to regret a moment of it.
Then: “Oh, everyone is going to be so mad I won the betting pool again.”
Kuroo is lurching back and away from Iwaizumi in an instant, his hand going to his mouth as if to hide the evidence of Iwaizumi’s kiss still lingering.
“Hinata,” Kuroo starts, all grace and charisma flown out of the window. Iwaizumi, staring wide-eyed and still pinned helplessly to the wall by his own mortification, can’t blame him. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Hinata says, a wicked smile growing over his face. “Having a good time at the party?”
Kuroo makes an aborted, strained kind of noise of agreement. “It’s alright.”
“Just alright,” Hinata echoes, still grinning widely. “And you, Iwaizumi?”
Iwaizumi just puts his face in his hands. He can feel the warmth radiating from his cheeks. Voice muffled, he chokes out, “Yes.”
When he drops his hands and looks up at Hinata, and then to Kuroo, he finds Kuroo already staring at him. He’s flushed too, but his smile is adoring. “Careful, people might get the wrong idea, Hajime.”
Hearing his own words from earlier thrown back at him makes Iwaizumi wince a little as he glances at Hinata. “It’s a bit late to stop that.”
“Bit late,” Hinata agrees cheerfully. “I won, so I have to tell everyone. Moral and financial requirement.”
Iwaizumi blinks. “Wait, actually—”
“We need to circle back to that,” Kuroo finishes, “what betting pool?”
Hinata shrugs. “We got bored after Bokuto and Akaashi got together, and you and Iwaizumi have been making heart eyes at each other for months and months—”
“I do not make heart eyes,” Kuroo stutters out, to which Iwaizumi gives him a doubtful look and Kuroo gives up. “Whatever. I’m reporting this to Daichi in HR.”
Hinata snorts. With him standing there on the lower steps of the staircase, Iwaizumi is looking down at him but still feels somehow like he’s looking up at a giant who holds the fate of his future in his hands. Not to be dramatic, or anything. “You wouldn’t. Atsumu would report your betting pool right back and take you both down with us.”
“Whatever,” Kuroo says again, a bit admonished this time.
Iwaizumi looks over at him, at the red blush of his cheeks, at the way he’s chewing at his lip, at the way the shock of his black hair hides part of his expression, at the way Iwaizumi can read him so easily anyways. He’s nervous, unsure of himself and where this is going, but he’s also relieved, in some ways—he doesn’t have to keep up the act anymore.
It’s then that Iwaizumi just bursts into laughter. It’s an unrestrained, silly laughter. He doesn’t know how else to feel. His relationship with Kuroo had been the biggest secret he’s kept in a long time, and now he finds out that everyone had really known the whole time.
He’s still staring at Kuroo as he laughs, and he’s so, so in love with this man who can’t act to save his life, who couldn’t keep from kissing him for even two hours of a work party, who looks simultaneously embarrassed to be caught and unabashed in his love for Iwaizumi. He’s so, so in love, and he isn’t sure if Kuroo knows that—but he knows that he wants to tell him. Then maybe tell the rest of the world, if he can.
Kuroo and Hinata exchange glances, like they’re afraid that Iwaizumi has lost it, and then Kuroo cracks a smile at him. It’s an honest, if a little sheepish, smile. He loves Iwaizumi, too, doesn’t he? There’s no other shoe that’s going to drop and they’re not going to break up any time soon.
It’s written all over that smile, all over the way Kuroo starts to laugh too. It’s in how Kuroo reaches out, putting a hand around Iwaizumi’s shoulder and tugging him close, tucking Iwaizumi’s head under his chin as both of them tremble a little with laughter. It’s in how Iwaizumi squeezes his eyes shut and tries to catch his breath only for Kuroo to press a light, tender kiss to his temple and steal his breath away again.
“I’ll just…leave you guys to it,” Hinata says, as Iwaizumi opens his eyes and turns to look at him. He has a laugh of his own light and breathy on his lips as he watches Iwaizumi and Kuroo. “Happy for you two.”
“Thanks,” Kuroo says, and Iwaizumi can practically hear him smiling.
He and Iwaizumi watch as Hinata opens the door and steps back into the party, presumably to spread the word and cash in on the betting pool he apparently won. After a moment of silence, Kuroo steps away. He keeps his hands on Iwaizumi’s shoulders, but he’s stepped back enough to look Iwaizumi in the eye.
“Are you okay with this?” he asks, after a moment of studying Iwaizumi. “I know you didn’t want…”
“I’m okay with it,” Iwaizumi promises him. “It was going to get out eventually. And now we don’t have to be the ones to announce it. Besides, I—” he cuts himself off, unsure if he should continue; then decides that maybe now is not the time for such things as fear— “I don’t mind. I’m proud to be with you.”
It’s a rare show of spoken vulnerability. Iwaizumi is much more prone to showing his love in actions than he is in words. He rarely says the sappy things or the pick up lines or the verbal flirting that Kuroo so often regales him with. But right now, it feels like things have to be said. It feels like a moment to be honest.
Kuroo is clearly biting back a smile. He leans in and kisses Iwaizumi again. When he pulls away, the smile has faded but there’s still something soft and loving on his face. “I don’t mind either. It might be nice to show off how in love I am with you.”
Iwaizumi blinks. In love. Kuroo is studying him a little nervously, unsure of himself again, and Iwaizumi can’t let that stand.
“It’ll be nice for me too—” one hand’s grip on Kuroo’s waist tightens; he threads the fingers of his other hand through Kuroo’s belt loop; pulls him closer— “to not have to hide how in love I am.”
Kuroo breaks into a wider grin, finally unadulterated by anxiety. “This is okay, then? I can say I love you now? And you won’t freak out?”
Iwaizumi huffs a laugh and kisses him. When they finally break apart, he drops his hands from Kuroo’s waist and presses his palms to Kuroo’s chest. He promises, “I won’t freak out.”
“I’m gonna say it all the time,” Kuroo warns. There’s something teasing in his voice, but Iwaizumi can also tell that he isn’t really joking.
“I know,” Iwaizumi tells him. “You’re cheesy like that. It’s why I love you.”
Laughing, Kuroo puts his hands on top of Iwaizumi’s hands, his palms warm and a little sweaty. “And you’re a brick wall of emotions, so I don’t expect you to say it back all the time. But I know now.”
Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “Okay.”
“I know,” Kuroo says, bright and joyful. He looks a little like he could start walking on air at any moment. Then from beyond the door, back at the party, there’s a loud ring of Bokuto’s laughter. Iwaizumi and Kuroo both turn to look at the door and take a simultaneous deep breath. Kuroo, turning back to him, asks, “You ready to face the music?”
Iwaizumi sighs. He drops his hands from Kuroo’s chest and then offers his palm out for Kuroo to take. Kuroo takes it without hesitation. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Here we go then.” Kuroo squeezes his hand tightly. “You might want to straighten out your tie first, though.”
Iwaizumi glances at his disheveled appearance: tie coming loose and undone, his white button down half untucked, his jacket collar probably bent in all the wrong places. He can already hear the teasing. “This is your fault, you know.”
Kuroo hums, half a laugh in the sound. “And I have no regrets.”