Work Text:
Kenma was home alone, his boyfriends all in classes, setting up his game and recording equipment. He had first started streaming about a year ago, but he hadn’t taken it very seriously until a few months ago when he started getting a decent amount of followers. He had now started doing streams a few days per week and even had a youtube channel where he uploaded clips from his streams. Now that he had some more freedom living away from home and a bit more confidence in himself (even if it was only when it came to games), he had started really enjoying streaming.
Thursdays had become one of Kenma’s normal streaming days since he only had one lecture and his three boyfriends didn’t finish until late, usually leaving him plenty of time home alone to stream. Usually, but today he had been busy with assignments and was starting late. He checked the time, 4:10, if he streamed for 3 hours like he planned, his boyfriends would be home before he was finished. Kenma didn’t think it would cause any problems, but he decided to send a message to their group chat just in case.
Kenma : hey guys I’ll probably still be streaming when you all get home
just a heads up
Bokuto: ok! 🥰
Akaashi : thanks for letting us know
Kuroo : ok have fun, love you!
Bokuto : love you!!
Kenma : love you too
but shouldn’t you guys be paying attention to class?
Bokuto: 😅
Kuroo: you’re much more interesting 😍
Kenma: 🙄
Kuroo: 😔
Kenma : back me up Akaashi
Akaashi : well I do think it’s good to check the chat in case it’s important
Bokuto : yes!
Akaashi : but we should get back to class
Bokuto : aw
Kenma : ok see you tonight, love you
Akaashi : love you
Kenma smiled as he put down his phone and started the stream. About two hours later, the front door opened and closed, Kenma too focused on his stream to pay it any attention. Kuroo opened the door to their bedroom, dropping his bag on the floor.
“I’m home,” he greeted.
“Welcome back.”
Only when the chat started filling with messages of ‘what?’ and ‘who’s that?’ did Kenma realise his mistake. He turned around quickly to see Kuroo beside him and put his hands out to push his boyfriend away.
“I’m still streaming.”
“Oh shit sorry. I was on autopilot.” Kuroo stepped back and turned towards the door.
“Sorry guys that was just my roommate.”
A scoff came from where Kuroo was standing in the doorway.
“Roommate?”
Kenma shot a glare in his direction. “Just go away.”
“Ok, ok, I’m going.”
Kenma went back to his game, still on edge and doing his best to ignore all the questions in the chat until they died down. Unfortunately, he only managed to get another 10 minutes of normal streaming before he was interrupted again, Bokuto throwing open the door with a loud:
“Hey Kenma!”
The younger boy jumped, but this time he was more prepared and stood up to meet Bokuto before he walked into the shot.
“You can’t come in, I’m streaming.”
“Eh, I can’t? But I just wanted to say hi.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Not even for a little bit?”
“No, this is live. I can’t cut anything out.”
Bokuto lowered his voice to a whisper, or as close as he could get to one.
“But what about my kiss?”
Kenma stopped for a moment and glanced back at his computer, making sure they couldn’t be seen on the screen. Deciding it was ok, Kenma turned back to give Bokuto a quick kiss before pushing him out the door.
Sitting back down at his desk, Kenma got a piece of paper and a pen.
“Apparently my roommates can’t remember to not come in my room while I’m streaming so…”
He held up the piece of paper with ‘STREAMING, DO NOT ENTER’ written on it. Grabbing some masking tape from a drawer, he got up and stuck the sign on the outside of his door.
“There. Hopefully there won’t be any more interruptions. Now, where were we?”
Kenma continued his stream for another half hour without any problems. His social battery was starting to drain as he neared the end of the 3 hours. A gentle knock on the door caught Kenma’s attention as he turned to glare at the person opening the door.
“Didn’t you see the sign?” His expression softened when he saw Akaashi come in quietly with a mug in his hand.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Akaashi said. “I made some hot chocolate, would you like some?”
“Oh, yes please.”
Akaashi smiled and came over to put the mug down on Kenma’s desk.
“Thanks,” Kenma said.
“You’re welcome.” Akaashi placed a hand on Kenma’s arm who relaxed at the touch. “Dinner’s nearly ready.”
“Ok, I’ll be finished soon.”
“I’ll let you get back to your stream. Sorry again.”
“It’s ok.”
Kenma picked up his hot chocolate to take a sip as Akaashi turned to leave. Before he closed the door he stopped to blow a kiss to Kenma, making him blush and smile behind his mug.
As he went back to his stream, he desperately tried to ignore the people freaking out in the chat. At this point he was getting tired from the stream anyway and was in need of food and cuddles to recharge, so he was happy to have a reason to end the stream early.
“Ok guys, I have to go in like 10 minutes, so I’ll start finishing up.”
Once the stream had ended, Kenma turned everything off and came out into the kitchen where his boyfriends were setting everything out on the table.
“Hey Kenma, you finished your stream?” Kuroo asked.
Kenma made a vague noise of agreement and flopped into Kuroo for a hug.
“Nice to see you too baby.” Kuroo laughed and patted Kenma’s back.
“Is it hug time now?!” Bokuto said and ran over excitedly and joined in the hug. It was mostly just him hugging Kuroo with Kenma squashed in the middle, but it felt nice and cozy, so he wasn’t complaining.
“Alright you three, time for dinner,” Akaashi called from the kitchen.
They reluctantly broke away from the hug and went to sit at the table, Akaashi stopping Kenma on the way for a kiss.
***
A couple of days later, Kuroo was sitting on the couch with Bokuto and scrolling on his phone. He always watched the videos Kenma uploaded to his youtube channel, so he wasn’t surprised when a video of him came up in his recommended, only it wasn’t from Kenma’s channel.
“Hey Bo, look at this,” Kuroo said, showing his phone.
Bokuto turned to look and read the title of the video, “‘Kozduken being interrupted by his roommates for 4 minutes straight(?)’. What’s with the question mark?”
“Maybe cause he’s gay as fuck,” Kuroo laughed.
“True!”
“Do you wanna watch it?”
“Yeah!”
They shifted closer so they could both see the screen and Kuroo clicked on the video. It started with a black screen and ‘for context…’ written in white letters, before showing a clip from one of Kenma’s streams a few weeks ago.
He read out a question from the chat: “Do you have a girlfriend?”
The tone at the end sounded like he regretted reading out the question before looking at the whole thing, and he scrunched his face up before answering.
“No, I do not have a girlfriend.”
The video zoomed in on the chat to show messages of ‘why do you sound so pressed about it lol’, ‘how about a boyfriend?’ and ‘wait, is he gay? did I miss something?’.
Kenma ignored the chat but the look of embarrassment and awkwardness on his face was obvious. The video then showed a collection of short clips of Kenma mentioning his ‘roommates’, from smiling at messages from them to ending the stream as soon as they got home.
“See, I knew he loves it when we text him lovey-dovey things,” Kuroo said.
Then the video showed the clips from Kenma’s stream the other day, starting with Kuroo coming into the room.
“Hey, there’s you!” Bokuto pointed.
The video added little annotations of Kenma’s thoughts; ‘oh hi’ when Kuroo first walked in and ‘oh shit’ when he panicked and pushed him away. After Kuroo scoffed at Kenma calling him his roommate, the vine ‘oh my god, they were roommates’ played. Bokuto and Kuroo both laughed.
Next was when Bokuto came in and Kenma stopped him before he came on screen. Their conversation played and the part where Bokuto whispered was repeated with the volumed turned way up and the caption ‘what about my kiss?’ with question marks all over the screen.
Kenma leaned back into frame with *checks they can’t be seen* written on the screen before he turned back, presumably to kiss Bokuto.
“What, did you get a kiss?” Kuroo asked.
“Yeah,” Bokuto shrugged.
“I just got pushed out the door.”
“Well, I did too.”
The next clip was of Akaashi coming in, with emojis representing Kenma’s expression going from this 😠 to this 🥰. Blushes and hearts were also added to Kenma’s face as they talked and when Kenma smiled as Akaashi left.
“Why was he only nice to Akaashi?” Kuroo said.
“You can’t not be nice to Akaashi,” Bokuto pointed out.
“Yeah, but don’t we deserve to be treated nicely too?”
“Well, I did get a kiss.”
“Wow ok, I see how it is.”
The video went back to a black screen with text. ‘Am I the only one who kinda ships him with the hot chocolate guy? Or the black t-shirt guy, like why did he automatically come into his room? Do they share a room or something? And not sure who the second guy is but did they kiss??? Anyway this video is not meant to be taken seriously so don’t @ me.’
“I mean yeah, I ship it too,” Kuroo said.
“Why don’t I get a nickname, I’m just the second guy,” Bokuto complained.
“Well, you weren’t on screen. If you were you’d probably be called spiky hair guy or something.”
“Yeah, I wanna be spiky hair guy!”
Kuroo laughed and patted Bokuto’s hair.
“The video was kinda cute though.”
“Yeah, it was! Can you send it to me? And Akaashi? And Kenma?”
“I’ll just send it to the group chat then.”
Kuroo sent it to the group chat, and a few minutes later Kenma came out of his room, stopping to get Akaashi before coming into the living room.
“Hey look, it’s Kenma and his favourite boyfriend,” Kuroo teased.
“What? I don’t have a favourite boyfriend,” Kenma defended.
“Are you sure? Did you watch the video?”
“Yes but… I don’t have a favourite, Akaashi’s just harder to get mad at.”
“I know, I was just joking.”
“Anyway,” Akaashi said, “What’s this video about? I haven’t watched it yet.”
“It’s clips from my streams when I’ve mentioned you guys and when you all came into my room last time,” Kenma explained.
“Oh ok, is that a problem?”
“Well, they kind of made it seem like we might be dating…”
“Do you not want people to know?” Bokuto asked.
“I don’t know,” Kenma said, “I guess I never really thought it would come up as an issue until now. We haven’t even told many of our friends or family.”
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” Kuroo assured.
“Yeah, I never really talk about my private life online… I kind of like having a barrier between my real life and my internet life.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Akaashi said.
“It’s not like I’m ashamed of our relationship or anything. I’d just rather not share it with the entire internet if I don’t have to.”
“Of course, we totally support whatever you want to do,” Kuroo said.
“Yeah!” Bokuto agreed, “As long as we love each other, everything will be fine!”
“Thanks,” Kenma said.
He flopped down onto his boyfriends on the couch. Akaashi joined them as they all peppered Kenma with kisses.
***
Over the next few days, Kenma gradually got more and more comments and tweets about his roommates and speculation about his private life. As the video Kuroo found started to gain more traction, more people started joining the debate, including people who had never known about him before this. He even saw a post where someone had gone through practically every photo of him that existed on the internet trying to work out who he could be dating.
It was starting to make Kenma freaked out and paranoid about showing anything online that could be used against him. Streaming was supposed to be fun, but he found himself dreading it as the time of his next scheduled stream drew closer.
Kuroo was home early today, Bokuto and Akaashi would be home a bit later, so Kenma went to talk to Kuroo before he started his stream.
“Kuroo, I’m starting soon so make sure you or anyone else doesn’t come in until I’m done.”
“Ok, are you sure you’re all good to stream today?” Kuroo asked with a concerned look.
“Yeah, I have to be consistent.”
“Sure, but if you’re not feeling well…”
“I’m fine.”
“Ok, just… don’t force yourself.”
“Since when do I force myself to do anything?”
“You might be surprised.”
Kenma didn’t respond to that and just went back to his room to set up the stream. Somehow, he managed to get through the first two hours ok despite the chat constantly asking about his roommates and debating who they ship him with.
His phone buzzed on the desk beside him and he glanced down to see a message from Kuroo.
Kuroo : I really need my charger my laptop’s about to die! can I come get it?
Kenma frowned and sent a quick reply, trying not to draw attention to it.
Kenma : can’t you use Bokuto or Akaashi’s?
Kuroo: they don’t fit 😭
Kenma : then deal with no laptop for an hour
Kuroo : I can’t I need it for my assignment
Kenma : ugh fine I’ll get it for you
Kuroo: thanks! ❤️
Kenma sighed and turned back to the stream.
“Sorry guys, I need to do something quickly.”
He got up and found Kuroo’s charger, taking it to the door where his boyfriend was waiting.
“Thanks, you’re the best!” Kuroo smiled.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Closing the door on him, Kenma went back to his desk where he was met with an influx of messages from the chat. ‘Was that a roommate?’, ‘which one was it?’, ‘bring him back we want to see him!’, ‘I bet it’s black t-shirt guy I swear they share a room’, ‘no I want to see hot chocolate guy they’re my OTP!’
Kenma mentally cursed himself. He shouldn’t have gotten Kuroo’s charger for him, any slight mention and the chat won’t stop. He tried to ignore it and continue but he couldn’t concentrate very well on the game. Instead, he was listening for any slight noise indicating movement outside his room.
The front door opened and closed and he heard soft voices from the living room. Akaashi must be home. A few more minutes of quiet until he heard the front door again, a loud “I’m home”, and footsteps coming towards his room.
Bokuto cracked open the door and peaked around it.
“Kenma?”
“Get out!” he snapped at Bokuto, who shrunk back behind the door.
“Sorry.” Bokuto closed the door behind him.
Kenma held his head in his hands before glancing at the chat. ‘Woah someone needs to chill’, ‘who was that?’, ‘sounds like they’re having a domestic’.
“Sorry guys, stream is ending early today,” Kenma said and ended the stream, not caring that it was abrupt.
He moved to his bed and curled up in a ball, squeezing his eyes shut. Lying there for a while, his mind swirled with thoughts of what people were saying about him right now. His viewers, people who didn’t even know him, and his boyfriends. Maybe they would just break up with him and he could tell everyone that there was nothing going on between them, and they would all forget any of this happened.
His phone buzzed a few times, still on his desk. He ignored it.
There were hushed voices in the living room, footsteps, a pause, then a knock.
“Kenma?” Akaashi’s voice came through the door. “Can I come in?”
He didn’t answer, and after a moment of hesitation, Akaashi opened the door and kneeled beside the bed.
“Kenma? Are you ok?” he asked gently. Akaashi placed a hand on Kenma’s shoulder, but he shrugged him off.
“Dinner’s ready.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You need to eat a proper meal.”
No reply. Akaashi paused, trying to find the right words.
“Bokuto’s a bit upset that you yelled at him.”
“I didn’t yell at him.”
“Tell me what happened then.”
“Ok, I did yell at him, but he shouldn’t have come in.”
“That's not something you would usually get mad at.”
Kenma let out a frustrated sigh. “I’ve been getting so many comments and everyone in the chat keeps talking about it whenever you guys are mentioned or if any of you walk in and I just can’t deal with it.”
“Maybe you should say something,” Akaashi suggested. “This isn’t good for you.”
“If I talk about it, it’s just going to make it worse.”
“Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better.”
“People will forget about it in a week or two anyway.”
“Are you sure you’ll be ok until then?”
Kenma didn’t have an answer.
“Come on, let’s get you some dinner,” Akaashi encouraged. “I don’t think we’re going to get any further right now.”
Akaashi stood up and pulled Kenma around to face him. He didn’t make a move to get up, but he let Akaashi pull him up and lead him to the living room. Kuroo looked at him with concern and Bokuto still seemed upset and nervous to make a wrong move.
“How are you feeling?” Kuroo asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kenma paused and glanced at Bokuto. “I’m sorry for yelling at you.”
“It’s ok, it was probably my fault anyway.”
“Come on, let’s eat,” Akaashi said.
***
Kenma had continued to be distant for the next few days as the comments kept on coming. He was spending most of his time alone in his room, only seeing his boyfriends at meals and refusing to open up to them. He was stressed and tired and anxious, but he was trying to pretend it wasn’t getting to him, trying to pretend he was fine.
He knew this was the kind of thing you had to deal with when you show yourself online, but he didn’t think he would get like this, and he wanted to keep his boyfriends out of it as much as possible.
When the next day for his stream came around, he made sure he started on time so no one would be home at any point. As he started the stream, he decided to hide the chat so he wouldn’t have to deal with all the questions. It seemed to be a good strategy as he was able to get into the game a lot more than last time, although it wasn’t as good without the interaction from the viewers.
About halfway through the stream, he got a message.
Bokuto : are you still streaming?
Kenma : yes
Bokuto : ok, can you please call me when you’re done
Kenma read it but didn’t reply. He didn’t have time for a conversation, but at least Bokuto hadn’t interrupted him by calling right then. Whatever it was, it could wait.
He went back to the game, which was surprisingly calming after such a stressful week. The rest of the stream went by rather quickly, and he opened the chat right at the end to see everyone saying goodbye. He turned off the stream and rested his head on the desk with his eyes closed for a minute before remembering Bokuto wanted him to call. He got out his phone and called him.
“Kenma?” Bokuto answered.
“Hey.”
“You’ve finished your stream?”
“Yeah, what did you want?”
“Uh, I forgot my key. Can you let me in?”
“What?” Kenma stood up quickly.
“I’m sorry I just wasn’t thinking I guess.”
Kenma hurried to the door and opened it to see Bokuto sitting against the wall.
“Bo, how long have you been sitting there?”
“Um a bit over an hour I think.”
“Come on, come inside.” Shoving his phone in his pocket, Kenma reached out a hand to pull Bokuto inside and closed the door behind them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kenma asked.
“Well, you got mad at me last time I interrupted your stream so…”
“I would have let you in if you’d told me. I didn’t know it was important,” Kenma said, Bokuto looking down. “What are you doing home so early anyway?”
“I had a bad day,” Bokuto huffed and went to flop face down onto the couch.
Kenma furrowed his brow in concern and sat on the edge of the couch next to him.
“I’m sorry I’m so useless,” Bokuto said in a muffled voice.
“What? That’s not true, I’m the one who…” Kenma took a breath, “I’m sorry Bo, I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. You didn’t do anything wrong. I never meant to push you away, I was just trying to protect you, or mostly myself, I guess. But I ended up making everything worse.”
He lied on top of Bokuto, his warmth bringing a comfort he hadn’t felt in a while.
“I guess we’re both not very good at this whole managing our feelings thing,” Bokuto said.
“Yeah, this is why we need Kuroo and Akaashi.”
Bokuto laughed quietly and turned around to hug Kenma properly. Shifting around awkwardly to get his phone, Kenma sent a message to the group chat.
Kenma : can you guys try to get home early
Akaashi : did something happen?
Kenma : kind of, we need to talk
Kuroo : we’ll be there as soon as we can
Kenma put away his phone and leaned back into Bokuto.
“They’ll be here soon.”
“Ok,” Bokuto said, “Can I tell you about my bad day?”
“Sure.”
“Well, first of all…”
Around 20 minutes later, Kuroo and Akaashi came rushing through the door and into the living room.
“Is anyone hurt?” Kuroo asked.
“Not physically,” Kenma said.
Kuroo and Akaashi gave each other a look.
“Looks like we’ve got two moody boyfriends today,” Kuroo said sarcastically.
“We’re not moody!” Bokuto defended.
Kenma sat up groggily, rubbing his eyes. “Bokuto just had a bad day, but I think he’s a bit better now.”
“Yeah, I’m ok now that I’ve talked about it and I’m not locked out.”
“How did you get locked out?” Akaashi asked.
Kenma looked down guiltily at Bokuto. “It was my fault, I…”
Frustrated tears filled his eyes. He tried to hold them back but it was too late. Kuroo and Akaashi knelt down in front of the couch and each placed a hand on top of Kenma’s.
“Is this about your streams?” Akaashi asked gently.
“Yeah. I thought I could deal with it but it turns out I can’t. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to drag you into this.”
“You’re not dragging us into anything,” Kuroo said, “We were already involved as soon as it started affecting you.”
“We’ve all noticed you’ve been distant,” Akaashi added, “We want to help but you need to let us.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t have tried to bottle it all up.” Kenma looked at his boyfriends, “Can you help me?”
“Of course,” Kuroo and Akaashi both said.
“I will also try but I might not be very good at it,” Bokuto said.
“Thanks Bo,” Kenma smiled.
“So, what do you want to do?” Kuroo asked. “Do you want to tell the internet about our relationship?”
“I don’t know,” Kenma considered, “It’s definitely not an easy solution but it’s probably the only way to fix the current situation.”
“It’s much better to have a long-term solution so this doesn’t happen again,” Akaashi agreed.
“Are you guys all ok with showing yourselves though?” Kenma asked. “You never know who might find out. It could hurt your careers, and you’ll probably get hate.”
They all considered it.
“I’m ok with it,” Bokuto said. “If someone doesn’t like my relationship then I don’t like them.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll be ok too,” Kuroo agreed, “I don’t mind people knowing, that just means I get to show you all off.”
“Akaashi?” Kenma prompted.
“This is the best option for all of us, so I’m ok with it,” he said.
“Ok, I guess I should make a video about it then.”
“Ooh you should call it ‘addressing the rumours’,” Kuroo said.
“I’m not calling it that.”
***
Camera set up and recording in his room, Kenma said his usual greeting before starting to explain the situation.
“For those of you who are unaware, there has been a lot of speculation about my private life over the last week or two. I will be getting to that later, but first I have a few things I want to say.
“It seems like a lot of you have forgotten that the people you see on screen are real people with real lives and emotions and relationships. You are not entitled to know everything about me and the people around me. And it’s not ok to pry into my life and try to expose me or out me. And shipping real people is kind of weird.
“That being said, I have decided that I don’t really care anymore and I’m comfortable with myself and my relationship, and hateful people in the comments aren’t going to change that. So, I’m gay, and I have some people I would like to introduce to you.”
He paused, taking a deep breath, and called out to his boyfriends who were no doubt listening on the other side of the door.
“You guys can come in now.”
They immediately opened the door and came over to hug Kenma.
“That was so good babe,” Kuroo said.
“Yeah!” Bokuto agreed.
“Very well said,” Akaashi added.
“Thanks, now can you stop squishing me?” Kenma said.
“Oh yeah sorry,” Kuroo said, letting go.
They all pulled up chairs to sit beside Kenma.
“Everyone ready?” Kenma asked.
They all nodded, and Kenma turned back to address the camera.
“These are the people I live with. You may have heard them being mentioned.”
Bokuto waved happily at the camera.
“And they are also my boyfriends. We’re in a polyamorous relationship and we’re all dating each other. So, no matter who you might have thought I was dating, you’re correct. Do you wanna introduce yourselves?”
They looked around at each other and Bokuto was the first to pipe up.
“I’m Bokuto and I like volleyball and cuddles!”
“Uh I’m Kuroo. Kenma and I are childhood best friends and yes we do share a room.”
“You didn’t have to say that,” Kenma glared. Kuroo just smiled, feigning innocence.
“And I’m Akaashi. What was my nickname? Hot chocolate guy?”
“Yeah,” Kenma said.
“That’s me I guess.”
“Yup so these are my boyfriends,” Kenma continued. “They’re probably gonna pop up in streams occasionally so you’ll get to see more of them. If you don’t like it you can leave, you will not be missed. Let me know if you have some questions for them and we might do a Q&A or something. Well, I think that’s all I have to say, do you guys want to add anything?”
“I just wanna say that I will fight anyone who tries to hurt one of my boys, so you better watch yourselves,” Kuroo said.
“Kuroo don’t go picking fights,” Kenma sighed.
“What? Bo and I can take them!”
“Yeah!!”
“Ok, I’m ending this, bye everyone.”
Kenma put his hand over the camera and stopped the recording.
***
The video got quite a lot of views, causing a very mixed reaction. Kenma lost a lot of subscribers, but also gained some new ones. Some had originally been there only for the games and didn’t want to hear about his ‘strange’ personal life. Some wanted to be supportive of him coming out, but didn’t understand the polyamory part, saying it was weird or basically cheating or being non-committal. Some straight up said it was disgusting or perverted and they didn’t want their children to watch him anymore.
But amongst all the rude and hateful comments, there were some who were supportive, even if they didn’t fully understand it, and some who related and were really happy to hear him talking about it. Kenma was expecting a lot of hate and didn’t care that he was losing subscribers. The ones who stayed or joined were the ones he wanted to be a part of his online community, even if it wasn’t appealing to a very big audience.
His boyfriends, however, were a bit surprised at the sudden rush of people finding them on social media and telling them their opinions, good or bad. Bokuto in particular hated seeing negative comments about his boyfriends and wanted to defend them, but Kenma told him there was no point trying to engage with them and it would eventually die down.
In the end, they were glad they decided to talk about their relationship as Kenma was a lot happier not having to hide them. Now he could involve the people he loved in his hobby, strengthening their relationship instead of straining it.