Archive of Our Own ^beta

~before~

Kuroo stood in front of Kenma's house and patiently waited for someone to open the door to let him in. It wasn’t cold in the way that gave you goosebumps, but more of a calm, cool, refreshing temperature; so he didn’t mind waiting.

Kenma's mom opened the door moments later to let him in and greeted him, “Welcome back! How have you been?” He smiled at her, she had always been so friendly to him. It had taken a while for him to get adjusted to being at Kenma’s house; he was really awkward at first.

“I’m good! I had a quiz yesterday in school and I don't know how I did yet but I think I aced it!” He paused, remembering his reasoning for being at Kenma’s house. “I just wanted to say hello to Kenma and see if he wanted to play with me! Is he here?” She smiled at him.

“Why, of course! He’s in his room upstairs, you can head on up, unless you’re hungry. I can feed you something.”

He shook his head and bowed to show his respect for her while saying “No, I ate before coming here. Thank you Kozume-san!”

The walk upstairs to his friends room was still such a new feeling to him. There were photos of his family lining the wall, and photos of Kenma when he was a baby. “He was a pretty cute baby.” Kuroo thought.

He’d had friends before, of course, but he had never had many friends where he would be invited to their houses. When he was invited over to their houses, he never had really felt comfortable, not how he felt at Kenma’s, which had become a bit of a second home to him. He knocked on the door leading to the brunette with longer hair.

It had started one day when they were both in kindergarten. Kuroo had just moved to Tokyo and his mom told him that there was a boy about his age living next door and that they should get along. He nodded but was curious about the mysterious boy next door. They first time they met, Kenma had hid behind his mom, and Kuroo was nervous that they wouldn’t get along, but with time they grew closer.

“Hey Kenma! It's me, Kuroo. Can I come in?” He heard the rustling of sheets from behind the door and moments later the door opened slightly, the small boy wearing a hoodie and basketball shorts peeking out of the room gave Kuroo a nod, opened the door wider, and Kuroo stepped in the room.

“Hey Kuroo, what are you doing today?”

“I didn’t have anything planned so I came here, are you free to hang out?”

Kenma nodded and looked away shyly, “Do you maybe want to go hangout in my treehouse?” Kuroo was surprised. Kenma had told him about his treehouse prior to that day, but he knew that no one had been allowed in the treehouse other than Kenma (and well, his mom who helped keep it clean). This was a big moment.

He cleared his throat and not trying to seem over-excited he said, “Oh, um yes, I’ll go with you. Is that okay?” He saw Kenma’s little nod.

“Let me just put on shoes and then we can go outside and I'll show you.” Kenma murmured, never looking up to meet Kuroo’s face as he grabbed and tied up his sneakers. He stood up when he finished lacing up his shoes, looked in the mirror in the corner of his room and then gestured for Kuroo to follow him.

Kuroo’s dad had always told him that when it was raining it was the gods crying and although they had been sad and upset, afterwards there would be a rainbow which was a good sign that the upset god or goddess would be alright and they began to see the light after the storm or the pain which had caused a storm would become resolved. Outside, the sky was a dark gray, and the air smelled as if the gods were about to break down, sobbing.

Kuroo followed Kenma up the wooden ladder, ecstatic that Kenma was finally letting him into his happy place in which he shared with no one. He had already known Kenma an entire year and wanted his friendship to become even closer than it had been prior but he also was aware that Kenma had boundaries which he didn’t want to push too far. Kenma made it to the top of the ladder and climbed into his treehouse, Kuroo following right behind him, nervous but excited to see where Kenma found his comfort. Above the doorway, a sign was hung DO NOT ENTER, it read.

He climbed inside the floating house with a little difficulty, as he was still young and his legs barely reached over the top of the ladder, but he was able to make it in. The house was at least twenty feet in the air, and he could tell that it had been gently used but it looked comfortable, he let out a soft “Woahhhh.” Although the treehouse wasn’t anything too extraordinary it still felt special, nonetheless. It smelled like wooden bridges after the rain, one of Kuroo’s favorite smells. Kuroo took a deep breath and smiled. There were an assortment of pillows and blankets scattered across the floor and posters for different games and movies and people that Kenma admired scattered around the walls. He recognized one of the games on the wall, Legend The Zelda, which was one of the most popular games of that year, and he had seen in class when one of his classmates was playing games instead of working. Kenma walked to one side of the treehouse and turned on the string of lights, which made the treehouse abundantly cooler. The place lit up instantly, Kuroo felt at home. In one neat corner he spotted a stack of Kenma’s games.

Kenma sat down against the pillows on the wall to the left of the entrance and waved Kuroo over to him, “What do you think?” he asked. Kuroo walked over to him and sat down, pulling a blue fuzzy blanket over him and Kenma.

He smiled at Kenma “I love it! It’s super comfy, I can tell why you spend so much time here!” Kenma smiled a little and pulled out his gaming console from his pocket and started playing a game.

Kuroo looked at the entrance of the treehouse where he could see the silhouettes of the leaves contrasting against the dark gray sky, the string lights illuminating the room. Although it was dark, it was the perfect day. Next to him, sat the stack of games that Kenma kept in the treehouse. He looked through the games, and placed it back down as it had been before.

“Which one of these games is your favorite?”

Kenma looked up from the game he was mindlessly playing, to Kuroo, somewhat surprised that he would ask about his games, he quickly looked back down, continuing the game he was playing, and said “In that stack? Probably Mario Kart, it’s really fun, we can play it together if you want. Just let me finish this round.” Kuroo was excited, but nervous. He hadn’t played too many video games before and when he had, it was with Kenma. Although he hadn’t been the best at games, Kenma didn’t really seem to mind, he seemed a bit more happy that he had someone to play with even if he was a total rookie.

“Hey, um, thanks, for coming with me today.” Kuroo looked at him shocked, It was unusual for Kenma to express how he felt so openly.

Kuroo then smiled, put his hand on Kenma’s shoulder and said, “That’s what best friends are for!” Kenma finished the game he was playing and looked at him. Kuroo could tell there was something else he wanted to say, but looked too nervous to say it. Kuroo smiled anxiously, and Kenma took a slow breath.

“I've never really brought anyone here, I'm usually by myself, so I’m really glad that you came with me.” The ball of anxiety he didn’t even realize was in Kuroo’s stomach slowly fell apart.

Kuroo knew that Kenma was shy; he was too, and he felt his chest swell with joy for his found friend. He thought back to all the other friends he’s had in the past, none of them felt as sincere or real as his friendship with Kenma.

“Well, I'm here now, you’re not ever going to be alone again.”

Kenma blushed slightly and smiled a small smile, “So, about that game, do you really want to play with me?” Kuroo nodded and Kenma handed over a separate controller and they began playing. The game was more difficult than Kuroo thought it would be, but he did his best to keep up.

After a few minutes of playing, Kenma said, “Wow Kuroo, you’re not very good at this.”

“Hey! That's not fair, this is maybe my second time playing and you’re practically already a pro!” Kenma snickered.

There they were, two boys, playing video games in a treehouse, carefree of all the hate and disaster in the world. The round ended and Kenma looked at Kuroo, and found a look of determination on the other boy's face, he had lost by a large margin.

“Hey, can we be friends forever?” Kenma asked.

Kuroo looked back at him and smiled, “Of course, who else is there? It’s going to be you and me against the world, always.”

~now~

Kuroo, now 18, stood nervously in front of Kenma’s house, the sun barely peeking through the trees. He didn’t know exactly why he was nervous but there was something inside him that gave him the butterflies to see the man who he called his best friend for years. As he grew up with Kenma, his views on the younger boy began to change from being friends to something more that Kuroo couldn’t name. “Best friends? Brothers? No, not brothers.” Kuroo thought. They had done everything together from going on school trips, to playing volleyball, to playing games and reading books and everything in between.

The door swung open and he saw Kenma's mom standing there, with a blue party hat on her head.
“Congratulations on your acceptance to your top university! Kuroo, you don’t have to knock, just come in, you’re family!” She leaned in and gave him a hug and a kiss on the forehead and rustled his hair. “I am so proud of you! You’ve grown so much.” He saw her eyes tearing up. He moved closer to give her a bigger hug and he thanked her for her support, he definitely couldn’t have done it without her and he knew that.

Kuroo had a wonderful father, he was supportive and caring, but a little bit distant. Kuroo didn’t blame him, he had lost the love of his life in childbirth, and Kuroo, although very loved by his father, knew he missed her terribly. His father was there for him, but whenever he felt unnecessarily lost or confused he would go and talk to Kozume-san and she would always give him the most wonderful advice.

“Kenma’s upstairs, he’s waiting for you.” He bowed respectfully and started to walk past her. “Wait! Hold up a second, take these cookies upstairs, you and Kenma can share!” He graciously accepted the cookies and went upstairs, it had been a routine for him, he’d greet Kenma’s mother, she’d offer him food, or something to drink, for the first few years he would try to decline her offer but after awhile he came to realize there was no point as she would always give him something to take up and share with her son.

“Kenmaaa,” he opened the door and walked into Kenma’s room.

“Oh, hey Kuroo, what’s up?”

“Not much, just wanted to hang out.”

It was the same as it has always been, with stacks of video games all over. Over time, the games had changed from more childish games to more difficult or serious games. Although he had many games, he always kept his room clean and pristine.

He once had asked Kenma how he organized his room and Kenma had told him that each game was in a specific pile for each genre and he had a system for every single game in his room. He then proceeded to show him around and explain to him which each stack was. Kuroo was very entertained and enjoyed listening to Kenma talk about his interests.

~2 years prior~

The worst shape that he saw in Kenma's room was four days after Kenma’s fifteenth birthday, after one of their games where Kenma would come down with a fever. Although if he got a fever, usually he would be alright a few days after the game, but after one of the most intense games that Nekoma had played and in Kenma’s second year he got a horrible fever. This particular fever lasted a little over an entire week and wouldn’t break. Kuroo visited him daily during this period of time and brought him snacks, soup, tea, cool rags, anything that he thought might make Kenma feel better. When he entered on the fourth day, with some juice, there were old cups and bowls around the room from things he and his mom had brought him. There were clothes scattered around the floor and the room felt musty.

The boy was sleeping when he entered the room so he made sure to be quiet. Kuroo decided to take a peek at Kenma, and when he glanced over, he felt a ball of energy in his stomach, something he was unable to name, it wasn’t exactly painful but he identified it as nerves. He had felt similarly before tests or before he played in a volleyball match but nothing was out of the ordinary, and this was different. There was nothing he could think of that could be wrong, other than that Kenma was sick. But he felt something different when he looked at Kenma

There wasn’t anything specifically different about Kenma on that day other than that his cheeks were red with fever and his mouth was hung slightly open. Kuroo could see the blanket rise and fall with every breath he took. Kenma’s hand was positioned over his head with his palm facing the sky.

“Why do I want to lay with him? Why do I want to be close to him?” Kuroo thought. Kuroo did everything in his control to not go over and hold his hand, but he ended up sat next to Kenma. His knees dug into the floor and instinctively, he moved his hand near Kenma’s. He froze. “What am I doing?” he wondered. Right when their hands were about to touch he shook his head and retracted his hand. “Stupid. Stupid.”

In that moment, he realized two major facts. One, he wanted to stay there until Kenma felt better, no matter how long that would take, and two, Kenma looked absolutely beautiful. It wasn’t like he was all dressed up or anything, and he definitely had looked better before, but there was something about him. His hair was tangled and messy but at that moment, to Kuroo, he was beautiful. After looking at Kenma for a few minutes, he left the boy alone and moved about his room.

He felt bad that Kenma was trying to get better in such a messy room and began to tidy the space. He picked up the clothes off the floor, putting them in his laundry basket.

He felt slightly hurried to leave, as if he had done something wrong, like a criminal leaving a crime scene with one thing to show from it, a glass of orange juice waiting on Kenma’s bedside table for when he awoke. As he left, he picked up as many of the glasses and bowls as he could carry to bring downstairs to the kitchen, leaving only a few in the room.

He walked downstairs and into the kitchen, put the dishes in the sink and turned on the faucet and started to wash the dishes from Kenma’s room when Kozume-san walked in.

“Hey Kuroo! How are you? Hey, are those from Kenma’s room? You don’t have to wash those dishes! That’s my job!” He smiled and continued to wash the dishes. He couldn’t stop thinking about how good Kenma looked, and he felt restless, needing to do something with his hands.

“Don’t worry Kozume-san, I got it!” She sighed and opened the fridge and got some leftover fried rice out and began to heat it up on the stove.

“Here’s some food for your hard work, and well, just because you're you!”

He finished washing dishes and sat down at the table with her gratefully accepting the food. He bowed his head with respect, “Thank you for the food.” He picked up his chopsticks and began to eat. “This is delicious!” Kenma’s mom smiled with delight that he was enjoying her meal.

“How is he feeling today?” she inquired. He told her that Kenma had been sleeping, so he just left a glass of orange juice by his bed. She thanked him and told him how good of a kid he was, and he paid his respects and headed home.

Kenma got over the fever two days later and Kuroo was glad that his best friend was healthy again. He decided to push the thought and idea that Kenma was beautiful out of his mind, as he had never really thought that any men were attractive in the same way he thought Kenma was on that day.

“Just look at him, he’s obviously not even a little gay. I’m not gay either, why does that even matter. Right?” Kuroo thought.

~now~

Kenma was sitting on his bed playing a video game, as usual. He looked like he hadn't had a good night’s sleep in at least a week. His hair was tangled, he had bags under his eyes, and Kuroo was pretty sure he was wearing the same white t-shirt he was wearing the day before; the gray sweatpants were definitely from two days before that.

“Kenmaaaa, we talked about this. If you’re not taking care of your hygiene, then you’re not supposed to be playing games until it has been taken care of. C’mon, get showered and changed. Oh and don’t forget to brush your teeth.” Kenma sighed and looked at Kuroo with a look of something resembling anger or annoyance. He didn’t know if Kenma would put up a fight but if he did, he was more than ready to take him. Instead the smaller boy’s face relaxed and he sighed, finished the game and turned the console off and stood up.

“Wow! For once you’re just going to go get clean without me having to convince or fight you?”

Kenma laughed, “Nah, you’re right, I haven’t showered in like, three days. I definitely should go do that. Now don’t let this get into your head, I’m not just going to start doing everything you want, I just happen to agree with you this time. Here.” Kenma walked up to him, handed him his switch, the console he was using before Kuroo had walked into his room, and walked past him to go shower.

Kuroo was surprised that Kenma didn’t argue or say anything else but he was happy that his best friend was taking care of himself. He thought about how he felt when Kenma handed him his switch and their fingers touched, and a scene flashed through Kuroo’s head. Something that he had been thinking about for a while and ignored.

“Kenma looking like he’s in distress, reaches out to me as he’s about to fall. I rush in, and pull him in close towards me, where he’s safe, so close that his face is mere inches away from mine. Kenma is so beautiful, his eyes gleaming in the light, his hair so soft one could even say that it was softer than silk.”Kenma’s cheeks blushing as he tries to turn his head away from me, to hide his beautiful blush. “My love, you don’t need to turn away from me, your cheeks flushing red is nothing to hide from me. I do know how sexy I am. I got you, don’t worry, I promise I won’t let you go. We are going to be together forever. I love you so much!” (and then we kiss and yada yada yada, details aren’t important here and anyway I shouldn’t be thinking about this, AND it’s absolutely never going to happen. And I like girls so this isn’t even a valid daydream.)” Kuroo shook away the thought.

Kuroo sat down on Kenma’s bed while waiting for Kenma to get out of the shower and looked around the room at the stacks of games and posters. He started to do what any normal high schooler would do, scroll through instagram, though after a few minutes he got bored and decided to look around. He saw the wooden desk in the corner of the room where Kenma did his homework and noticed a notebook sitting on it which he had never seen before. It was open to a random page and the many lines and colors drew Kuroo in. Kuroo was never one to snoop, but there was something in him that just made him want to go and look and see what was in the notebook.

He thought to himself, “It’s not peeking if it's already open to see? Right?” Once he had convinced himself that it was alright, he got up off of the bed and walked across the room to the desk. The page was filled with messy sketches, it had drawings of characters in games that Kuroo had seen Kenma playing. Although they were just sketches, he could tell that Kenma had some talent.

He picked up the notebook, intrigued by the book. Without meaning to, the book flipped to a separate page that had a pencil in the spine. This page was filled with drawings, but not of any fictional character. They were of him. He stared at them in shock for a second before he realized that he probably wasn’t supposed to be looking at them and quickly flipped back to the page it was on prior and walked back to the bed, promising himself that he would not mention the fact he saw those drawings, no matter what. He laid down with his eyes pointed towards the door and tried to position himself in a way that he thought didn’t look suspicious.

When Kenma entered the room again with a light blue t-shirt and a pair of black athletic shorts, Kuroo was laying on the bed looking obviously guilty.

“Hi Kuro. Anything interesting happen when I was showering? Look, I even brushed my teeth.” He widened and moved his mouth into a lazy smile to show Kuroo his newly cleaned teeth.

Kuroo took a deep breath and blushed at Kenma. “Okay, stay calm. He can’t know I was snooping.” he thought to himself.

“Well, um, I saw your notebook open over there and I thought that it was really pretty and I picked it up and it accidentally flipped to another page and there was some drawings of, um, well, they were of me and then after a second I realized I probably shouldn’t be looking at those and well, I’m so sorry Ken, I hope you forgive me.” he blurted out. “Oh, shit.” It was only after he confessed to it that he knew that he had already broken the promise that he had just told himself. When Kuroo looked up to see Kenma’s face he didn’t see any anger, just embarrassment.

Kenma’s face was bright red and Kuroo watched Kenma turn around to face away from him. He ruffled through his sock drawer and grabbed a pair of white socks.

“Kenma?” Kuroo called. “Are you alright? I really am sorry.”

Kenma turned back around to face him, his face slightly less red. “Oh, yeah, THAT page. It was nothing, just some drawing practice, it’s actually really fun to draw.” As Kenma spoke, he looked past Kuroo which Kuroo had come to realize after all the time they had been best friends, that was a surefire sign that Kenma was lying, or hiding something.

“Wait… you aren’t mad at me?” Kuroo asked him, confused. “I thought you’d be upset with me for looking at your book. I think they’re really good drawings! Is there a reason why you were drawing so much?”

Kenma sighed. “Alright, I’ll tell you. The other day I was playing a game and an ad popped up. You know how much I hate ads, but this ad drew me in. It was an ad for a drawing game and instead of just clicking it away, I got the game. It was a pretty stupid game but I enjoyed making something of my own. From there I decided that I wanted to try to make my own drawings and well I drew what I was, uh, familiar with. That is all, now can you get over it? Also, give me my switch back, I did what you wanted me to do.”

“Why me though? I’m touched, of course, I know, I’m hot, but it's just weird to see drawings of myself.” Kenma looked down while rolling his eyes and hit Kuroo, in a friendly way, but to show that he was annoyed with Kuroo’s competence. He handed over the device. Kuroo decided that it was probably time to give up trying to understand why Kenma had drawn those sketches.

“Well, anyway, is there anything you wanna do today? I don’t have anything planned, so we have the whole day together. Unless you have big plans that don’t involve me, and I’ll be mad if you do.”

Kenma looked at him. “Actually, yes. My mom told me that I need to clean out my old treehouse, I haven’t been there in at least a year and since I don’t really use it she said it was time for it to be taken down and for that to happen I need to clean it out. You’re helping me, let’s go.” Kuroo shrugged and nodded, agreeing that he would help.

He stood up and walked downstairs with Kenma and put his shoes on. Kenma’s mother was nowhere to be seen, he just figured that she had already left and went to work.

“Hey, I don’t think I’ve been in your treehouse in like two years, what happened? We used to go hang out there and play games all the time.”

Kenma shrugged. “We grew up. It might have been fun to go to when we were younger but well, we outgrew it and other things became more important. School, volleyball, and well it became something that was just there, forgotten.” Kuroo nodded, he understood what Kenma was saying, as they older, they stopped having as much time to just play around as much and other things take over their play time.

“Ready?” Kuroo asked, standing up after putting on his shoes. Kenma nodded and walked to the back door in his house, Kuroo following closely behind. They walked out to the ladder and Kenma began to climb. He was a little shaky as he climbed, but didn’t seem to have much trouble getting up to the top of the ladder “Hey, do you think you’ll miss your treehouse? We spent a lot of time there, are you not nostalgic?” Kuroo asked.

Kenma climbed over the ladder and took a large breath, glad to be stable again. He looked down at Kuroo who had just begun to climb he said, “I don’t know, I might. I did spend a lot of time but I’m not really one to reminisce. It just is what it is.” Kuroo was not far behind, making it easily into the treehouse, less of a maneuver than it used to because they were bigger now and had more limber bodies. Kuroo stepped in and the nostalgia hit him like a bus. The two young men stood there, side by side looking at the treehouse. It paled in comparison to how it was when they were kids, everything used to be brighter, the world was much more vibrant. They had grown up, everything around them was covered in dust due to lack of use. Kuroo was brought back to a specific day that stood out to him.

~a year before~

He was about to turn seventeen years old and he and Kenma had just gotten off of school and were heading home since volleyball was canceled for the day. They walked side by side throughout their neighborhood and Kenma looked at Kuroo and asked if Kuroo was able to come over. Kuroo, not having anything to do, agreed and they headed to the front door. Kozume-san was in the kitchen when they arrived home and opened the door.

“Kenma? Is that you? You’re not supposed to be back till later!” She said from around the corner.

Kenma didn’t raise his voice much but he knew that his mom could hear him from the other room. “Volleyball was canceled! Kuroo and I are going to hang out in my room. We will be back later.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a snack?” Kuroo was hungry, he felt his stomach grumble almost knowingly that he was offered food. He nodded to Kenma to say that he wanted a snack. Kenma sighed. “Kuro said he’s hungry and wants a snack.”

Kuroo looked at Kenma hurt and whispered, “Hey! You were supposed to say that we were both hungry, now it’s going to be awkward and I feel bad!” Kenma simply shrugged and started to take off his shoes, Kuroo following. He sat slightly awkwardly and ate some onigiri, Kenma sitting next to him playing some game where he was trying to fight a zombie. After he was finished eating he got up and put the plate in the sink, thanking Kenma’s mom for the meal. He walked back over to the table, he saw the game over screen. Kenma had lost the round, he looked frustrated but determined.

“Kenmaaaa, let’s go outside! It’s a beautiful day outside! We could pass around a volleyball, how’s that sound?”

Kenma looked up with a frown on his face.“Hey, it’s our one day off and you still want to play? Could we just hang out in my treehouse or something?”

Kuroo shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. I don’t have anything else to do today.”

He grabbed his shoes and he walked with Kenma back to the kitchen and once he had gotten to the back door he stopped, sat down and started to tie his shoes back on. They exited the house and made their way to the treehouse. Kenma started climbing the ladder gaming console in hand, Kuroo waited at the bottom adjusting his shorts, which were giving him a wedgie.

Once Kenma had lifted his right foot off the fifth step and placed it on the sixth step the sound of wood snapping filled the air around them, unable to carry himself without either of his feet being stable and only part of his right hand, Kenma began to fall.

Life seemed to slow to Kuroo, as Kenma fell. No, he wasn’t far from the ground and he probably would have been fine if he hit the ground but Kuroo saw the look of panic in Kenma’s eyes and reacted the only way he knew. Kuroo instantly reached for him, making contact with his skin and making sure he steadied himself and caught him, bridal style. Kenma looked right into his eyes startled and Kuroo looked back, their faces were so close that he could see every detail in Kenma’s face and he felt his face become warm, for no reason he could name. His eyes widened with the butterflies in his stomach and his arms began to tingle where his skin touched Kenma’s.

Kuroo’s only thought at that moment was, “Wow, Kenma is absolutely gorgeous.”

“I’m fine. Thanks for catching me. Can we just go back inside?” Kuroo was staring at Kenma, noticing every detail of his face, the way his eyes became like honey in the sunlight. The faint blush on his cheeks which definitely could have been from too long in the sun. The way that a few stray dyed hairs fell over his right eye. The way his mouth made a small O shape and his lips looked perfectly round, kissable almost. “I could just lean down and press my lips on his. He’s still looking at me, just wow. Wait, is he saying something? His mouth is moving.” Kuroo thought.

“Hello? Earth to Kuro, anyone home?” Kuroo blinked, shook his head and finally realized he was staring at Kenma’s mouth and he looked away, blushing.

“What? Oh yeah, don’t worry everything is fine. Let’s go.” Kuroo nodded, turning and started walking back to the house.

“No you dummy, you can put me down now. I’m not hurt or anything. What’s wrong with you?”

Kuroo blushed even harder in embarrassment. “Oh yeah, sorry about that.” He put Kenma back down, making sure that he was steady on his feet before letting go. Kenma took a deep breath and brushed off his clothes. “How about we tell your mom that the ladder broke, she can get someone to fix it later.” Kenma nodded but he didn’t seem too inclined to go back up into the wooden house.

As Kuroo thought about what had just happened he realized just how red Kenma’s face had gotten. “Is he embarrassed or was he blushing? Oh my gosh! What if he was blushing? Does he like me or something? No, that can’t be, we’re best friends. He was definitely just embarrassed from falling or it could have been sunburn. No he doesn’t go outside enough to be sunburnt. He was definitely just embarrassed about falling. Nothing is wrong with that and he probably doesn’t want it brought up again. Wait, if he did like me, is that a bad thing?” He pondered. He hadn’t really thought about boys liking him before, it wasn’t something normal for him. He came to two decisions.

One: He didn’t have a problem with men being attracted to him but he wasn’t one that would be attracted to men.
Two: Kenma is an exception, BUT it’s just because they’re “bros.”

~a few days after Kenma’s tumble into Kuroo’s buff arms~

It was the weekend and Kenma and Kuroo were upstairs in Kenma’s room lazily hanging out on that sunny Saturday. Kenma was obviously playing a game (when wasn’t he?) and Kuroo was sitting on the floor leaning against the bed, reading volume 27 of One Piece. Although he this was his first read of the comic, he wasn’t that interested in reading it, he wanted to go do something, he wanted to get out of the room. The boys sat silently, almost pretending the other wasn’t there, which was normal for them.

From downstairs Kuroo heard Kenmas mom yell up to them, “Kenma! I fixed your treehouse and tested it myself, it shouldn’t break on you again.” Kuroo got excited, he really enjoyed spending time in the treehouse and when they were in the treehouse he felt like he was home and he could sit and do whatever he wanted, no one could stop him. He also knew Kenma really had enjoyed being in the treehouse and was excited that it was fixed.

“Do you want to go out to the treehouse now? I really like it there and since we didn’t get to go the other day we should today.”

“No, um I actually would prefer to stay here and just play in my room. It’s too hot outside anyway, I’ll melt.” Kuroo cocked his eyebrow in confusion, it definitely was not that hot outside and the way Kenma spoke made it seem like something was being hidden. “Was Kenma scared of something? He fell the other day so maybe he’s scared? But he’s fallen from farther up then there and been fine.” he shook the thought away.

“Are you sure? We could-”

“Yes, I’m sure. Can you not? I’m not in the best mood today and I just want to stay here.” Kuroo just nodded and sat back down, he didn’t want to be pushy.

The scene of Kenma falling replayed in Kuroo’s head, if he was being honest it was the only thing he could think of since it happened. At practice on Thursday and Friday and found himself making small silly mistakes. He was so out of it that after practice, coach Nekomata asked him to stay after to make sure everything was alright. Kuroo explained that he was probably just stressed and under quite a bit of pressure in school and would be okay the following week. He was ashamed that he was playing so badly but he just couldn’t get the thought of Kenma out of his head. “This is normal right? He’s just so important to me. I don’t think I could possibly be closer with anyone but him. I just want to be best friends with him forever.”

That was the last time Kuroo mentioned the treehouse to Kenma.

~now~

Kuroo took a glance at Kenma to see if he could find any emotion in Kenma’s face, which was replied with a glare from Kenma. He thought that Kenma might be upset that he was having to clean out his treehouse but didn’t get the idea that he was upset, maybe just annoyed with the fact that he had to clean. He was used to Kenma’s glares and was aware that there was no malicious or mean intent, it was just how he was. Kuroo thought back to when they were in elementary school on a day about a month and a half before he would graduate to junior high school. At the time he was upset that he would have to leave Kenma in the next year and go to a different building and honestly he was worried that Kenma wouldn’t be alright without him.

Kenma ended up being fine without him, at least Kuroo thought so, and he was only alone for a year. Kenma didn’t seem to grow up or act like other kids, but that’s what Kuroo liked about him, he was different, special.

~a random day in Kuroo’s last year of elementary school~

One day, Kuroo was looking directly at Kenma during a passing period and excitedly telling him something (about god knows what; he can’t remember). He thought about how Kenma had turned away while Kuroo was still talking to him. After a second, Kenma began to run away. Kuroo ran after him, not knowing what he was doing wrong but Kuroo was stopped by a teacher, telling him that he wasn’t allowed to run in the hallways. Kuroo was riddled with anxiety for the rest of the day not knowing if he did something wrong to upset the smaller boy or if Kenma had begun to randomly hate him.

He sat in his classes and kept looking at the clock and back down to his work. “Twenty more minutes and then I can go. Now eighteen. Twelve. Seven.” He couldn’t sit still. “Three minutes to go. C’mon let me out of here!” The clock finally hit 12:30 and he quickly packed all of his stuff. The teacher told them that they were free to go and that they needed to pick out a book for a project and that the students needed to have it by the following class. He didn’t care about school, he just needed to know that Kenma was okay.

He basically ran out of the classroom, knowing exactly where Kenma would be. He passed the large sakura tree outside the back of the school where children were told to not play due to danger (of course many didn’t listen and played on it anyway as there were currently multiple children sitting on the tree, eating lunch and playing some sort of game). He passed the swingset that many students played on during their breaks and ended up where he needed to be. The bleachers. Kuroo looked around for the boy with longer hair and found him in the shade sitting under the bleachers eating a sandwich his mom had made him, exactly where Kuroo thought he was.

“Kenma! Are you okay? Did I do something wrong? You ran away earlier and I don’t know why.”

Kenma’s face reddened again (something Kuroo was beginning to get used to) and he turned away from the other boys’ gaze and began to speak. “Can you please stop looking at me? It makes me feel weird. I’m fine with glances but when you maintain eye contact or look at me for a while I kinda feel uncomfy. Of course we can hang out, I just, I need you to look away from me.”

Kuroo was confused. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with me looking at you? There isn’t anything wrong with how you look, in fact, I think you look cool! Most boys don’t have their hair as long as yours but I think that it really makes your eyes stand out.”

“You think I look cool?’ Kenma asked shyly. “Earlier this week I was, um, walking through the hall and someone upperclassmen told me that my hair looked stupid, and that boys should have short hair and ever since then I just, I don’t feel comfortable with people looking at me. Sometimes I just want to be left alone.”

“Well, I’d definitely give you space and leave you alone but I don’t think that it would be good for either of us. You’re one of my only friends that I actually feel like I can be myself around and I totally think you’re awesome. I will look away if you get uncomfortable, I wouldn’t want to make you upset, but I don’t want to leave you alone because you’re awesome.”

Kenma looked at him with a small grin on his face, and Kuroo felt like he could finally see Kenma. He wasn’t trying to hide anything, “You’re like my best friend. I’m sorry I’m not loud or strong or a very reassuring friend but you’re, um, super important to me. So what I mean is thank you.”

Kuroo felt the overwhelming urge to take Kenma in his arms and hug him and never let him go but he didn’t want to make Kenma uncomfortable so instead he patted Kenma on the shoulder and said, “No problem! That’s what best friends are for! Also, if anyone tells you anything bad or is mean to you, tell me, I’ll beat them up for you.” Kenma chuckled a little.

“You wouldn’t hurt a fly. You act all big and strong but I know that you’re actually just a softie.” Kuroo gasped and tried to look offended but he knew it was true, he wasn’t actually able to hurt anyone.

Kuroo found himself looking directly at Kenma. He noted that Kenma gazed back into his eyes and he could see the sparkle of gold in the other boy's eyes and thought to himself, “Beautiful.” Kuroo noticed that his eyes kept drifting down his face and back up to Kuroo’s eyes. He wanted to ask if he had something on his face but he couldn’t get out the words.

Without much warning (other than the others wavering eyes and the slight flush on his cheeks), Kenma leaned his head forward and pressed his lips into Kuroo’s. It wasn’t a historic kiss. Kenma’s lips were firm against Kuroo’s unsuspecting ones. One could more accurately describe it as a “good first attempt” but it didn’t stray far from that. It left Kuroo with a ball of energy in his stomach, perhaps excitement, nervousness, adrenaline when Kenma abruptly pulled away from what he had started.

“I am so sorry.” Kenma said, eyes wide. Instantly grabbing his bag, he got up, and ran away once more.

“Kenma, wait!” Kuroo got up but Kenma was already a good ten feet ahead of him and before he got far, he was stopped.

“Kuroo! There you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you! You still need to come in and finish our group project for social studies.” A girl from his class whose name he couldn’t remember had run up to him. “Also what did you do to that poor kid? He seemed pretty panicked.” Shit. Kuroo had forgotten about a project that was due. He really wanted to talk to and make sure Kenma was okay. “Okay, let’s go Kuroo.”

“Do you think we can do this project after lunch? I should probably go make sure he’s okay. He’s my best friend.”

The girl shook her head. “It’s due in like two hours and we have to present, so no. Please Kuroo, we have quite a lot left to do.”

“Fine, alright. I’ll come. Let me just go grab my backpack.” He didn’t have time now to think about what the kiss meant but he surely would think about it later.

~later that day in elementary school after practice~

Kenma was one of the first people to leave practice. He packed up and rushed out of the gym like he had someone waiting for him. Fortunately, Kuroo had expected him to do something similar and was the second person to leave, following closely behind the smaller boy.

“Kenma, can we talk about earlier.” The younger boy didn’t slow down.

“It was an accident, I’m sorry, it didn’t mean anything and won’t happen again. Can you please just forget it ever happened. Now I have to go, my mom's waiting. I’m sorry Kuroo.”

“Oh, um, okay. Have a good night then Kenma, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kuroo slowly walked back inside the gym to grab his stuff and sighed. It didn’t mean anything. Which meant that Kuroo didn’t have to think about it. He didn’t have to think about how his heart sorta felt like it was going to beat out of his chest when he was around Kenma. Or about how he wouldn’t have been upset, he may have even been a little overjoyed, if Kenma had gone and kissed him again. He wouldn’t have to think about how he wished to be close to Kenma at all times and when he was alone he felt like a part of him was missing. Instead, he pushed all the thoughts and ideas out of his head. Kenma had said it was an accident, so it was, and he just needed to let go and just make sure they were still best friends. Nothing more. Nothing less.

~now~

The remaining games were sorted into three different boxes, a “give away” box for games that Kenma wasn’t going to play anymore, a “storage” box, and a box that was going to be sorted into the games that occupied Kenmas’ room. The pillows and lights were then put into a separate box to go into the house. As the boys finished cleaning up the treehouse, Kuroo stood at the top of the treehouse lowering each box down to Kenma with a rope system that his mom had created to deliver food when he was younger. It may have been specifically for the food, but it worked to deliver boxes as well.

They wrapped up their cleaning and did a final sweep of the little wooden house, the once bright lights and pillows and posters that had once scattered the place were now gone and the place looked dreary. Kuroo felt like he could still see themselves as kids playing, but nothing was there now. It was truly upsetting to him, but Kenma didn’t seem the slightest bit sad. Kenma either very clearly showed his emotions or he showed nothing at all, Kuroo sighed, “We had some good times in this place. Thanks, ya know, for showing it to me and um, being my best friend. I definitely wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t met you. I’m sad I’m not going to see you much next year, luckily Tokyo Metropolitan University isn’t too far so I can come visit you often.”

Kenma smiled and raised his eyebrows and looked up at Kuroo and the slightest bit of pink covered his cheeks. “You’re so sappy, you’re not going to come over and hug me, are you?”

Kuroo laughed a little nervously (he had no idea why he was nervous but just went with it) and said, “You know what? That’s exactly what I intend on doing.” Kuroo took a few steps until he was right in front of Kenma and took a few seconds just looking at him. He noticed the features of Kenma’s face, his small and sharp nose, his golden eyes, now looking more brown as they were not in the sun, the faint blush spreading across his cheeks. Kenma was looking up at Kuroo so intently with a noticeable idea behind his eyes, something that Kuroo didn’t know for himself, something Kenma desired. Kuroo took his arms and wrapped them around Kenma’s shoulders. He felt so close to Kenma which felt so perfect yet he felt so far from him at the same time. It didn’t make sense, he was as close as he had ever been to someone, and he was grateful that it was Kenma but he still longed for more. More what? He didn’t know. Kuroo closed his eyes and rested his head on Kenmas head, it felt so right. Kuroo felt Kenma’s head hit his chest and arms come up his back. They stood like that, just hugging, taking in the others embrace for a few long moments and when Kenma began to let go, Kuroo longed for the comfort he just felt. Kuroo didn’t want to make anything uncomfortable so he let the hug break apart and just looked at Kenma, who was definitely flustered.

“C’mon, let’s go back inside. I’m getting sorta hungry.” Kuroo nodded at Kenma’s words and followed him down the ladder and back inside, each carrying boxes from outside, the only two boxes that remained. “Ya know, we make a pretty good team. Thanks for helping me carry stuff inside.”

“Oh good! The treehouse is all packed up, I assume? If you don’t have plans today, you boys should go to the fair. I have a coupon that came in the mail and it expires tomorrow. It’ll be good for you to get out of the house, Kenma!” Kozume-san announced. Kenma rolled his eyes, obviously disinterested.

“Fairs are for kids. It’ll probably be boring and-”

Kuroo interrupted before Kenma could even finish,“I think it sounds fun! There will be a bunch of games and things there, it’s right up your alley Kenma.”

Kenma scowled and looked at Kuroo, his eyes furious. “Fine. We can go, but if it’s boring we’re leaving. Deal?” Kuroo nodded and took the coupon from Kenma’s mom. She grabbed her purse and rooted around until she found some money and handed it to Kenma.

“Enjoy your afternoon!” She smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

The fair wasn’t more than a fifteen minute walk from their houses so they grabbed their needed belongings and met in the middle of their two houses.

“Ready?” Kuroo asked. Kenma nodded and they began to walk. They didn’t say much, Kuroo pointing out different things he saw, trying to make conversation.

About five minutes into the walk Kuroo looked down and noticed Kenma’s hand by his side. “What if I just held his hand? It’s so small. I should just do it. Wait, why do I want to hold his hand? We’ve walked together so much and I’m now just getting the urge? Now that I think about it I definitely have always wanted to hold his hand. But now I really feel like I need to, I really want to hold his hand though. Maybe it’s because we're best friends. What if I want to be more than just best friends? Would he want the same? Maybe. Probably not.” Kuroo took a deep breath and moved his hand closer to Kenma’s, his anxiety spiking and quickly moving his hand back.

“Aaaagggghhhh. Come on! You can do it, Kuroo.” He wasn’t quite sure why he wanted to hold Kenma’s hand so much but he reached his hand out once more and his pinky bumped against Kenma’s, his stomach did a flip. He moved his hand closer to where their hands were about to touch and to Kuroo’s surprise, Kenma was the one to intertwine their hands together. Fireworks went off in Kuroo’s stomach (Hey Alexa, play Fireworks by Katy Perry).

They walked side by side, hand in hand for the remainder of the walk. They didn’t talk about anything in particular but it wasn’t uncommon for one of them to point out something that they felt looked interesting until they reached the gate. Kenma let go of Kuroo’s hand to get the money out of his pocket and Kuroo did the same to get the coupon. They paid and entered the fair. There were a bunch of games everywhere and somewhere near the back of the park there was a ferris wheel.

“Well, Mr. Let’s Go To the Fair, where would you like to start?” Kenma questioned him, obviously not too interested in any of the games. Kuroo looked around and noticed a little ring toss game.

“How about that one?”

Kenma shrugged and pulled out a gaming console he had in his pocket and started following Kuroo. The tent was brightly colored and had smiley faces all around. Kuroo noticed the stuffed animals on the back wall and instantly wanted to win one for Kenma. He gave the attendant (who looked like she would have rather been anywhere but there) a ticket and he flashed her a lazy smile and her cheeks seemed to flush. Kuroo ignored it, looked at Kenma who was still busy tapping away on his console and looked back at the attendant. She began explaining the rules, which were quite simple. If you were able to get six of the eight rings onto the pegs you won a medium sized stuffed animal and if you got all eight you got a large stuffed animal prize. He noted the different stuffed animals on the wall and instantly knew which one he would want to get for Kenma. It was a larger prize so he instantly knew that he would have to get all eight of them, no biggie, he played volleyball and he had a decent aim.

He began tossing the rings, the first four, no problem. Then all of the sudden the pegs started moving without warning and he missed one. “Hey! That’s not fair, you never said they were going to start moving!”

The attendant shrugged, “Not my problem.”

Once he had adjusted to the fact that he had to hit them while they were moving he had gotten six out of the eighth. The attendant gave him two choices for the prize and he chose a blue stuffed elephant.

“Okay. My turn.” Kuroo spun around and Kenma who had come up behind him. “What? It’s only fair that I get to try too.” The attendant sighed, took his ticket and explained the rules once more while Kenma sighed in return. Their energies seemed to match pretty well, neither of them seemed enthused to be at the fair. Kuroo wondered why they were really there, and if coming to the fair was actually a good idea.

Kenma got the first four no problem, and waited for the pegs to start moving. They began moving and he effortlessly got the last four rings on. He smirked and the attendant cocked her left eyebrow at him, he didn’t say anything, just pointed at the big dog stuffed animal which she hauled down to the counter and gave to Kenma. Kuroo was confused as to why he didn’t get the cat stuffed animal.

“Why’d he choose that one? He’s told me multiple times how cats are far superior to dogs and that I was wrong for liking dogs more. Well I was going to get the cat one for him so if he wanted the dog more that's okay too. He looks so cute holding that stuffed animal.” Kuroo thought to himself.

Kenma began walking back toward Kuroo. “Okay, let’s go somewhere else,” Kenma said and walked past him, the stuffed animal about as big as half of his body.

Kuroo looked at him dumbfounded.

“How were you able to do so good without even paying attention?”

“You only thought, I wasn’t paying attention.” Kenma stopped and turned to face him. “I was paying attention after you missed the first one. The pegs were moving in patterns. Which made it easy to get the rings on perfectly, perks of being a setter, I see everything. Now c’mon, I don’t want to be here for long but I need to show my mom that I thoroughly enjoyed my day.”

Kuroo followed wordlessly. He was impressed that Kenma was able to just effortlessly be good at things and honestly thought that he looked spectacular doing it. (Not that he had any incentive to tell him that.)

Kuroo simply followed Kenma who began playing a matching game. Kenma handed Kuroo the big dog and simply said “Hold this.” Kuroo was covered in fluff from the stuffed animal but he never complained.

Again, Kenma effortlessly won a large panda stuffed animal which he gave to a little boy who looked like he was about to start crying who in return, instantly lit up and hugged Kenma. He didn‘t look fond of the child touching him, but he let it happen anyway. Kuroo smiled at him, slowly watching the interaction fall apart. Kenma walked back towards him.

“Hey, didn’t you say you were hungry? We can go get a snack over there if you want.” He pointed to a booth that had yakisoba. Kuroo became obviously aware of the hole in his stomach and he eagerly nodded, ready for food.

The two boys stood in the line that had formed outside of the booth.

“Hey, I’m not that hungry, could we just share one?” Kenma asked Kuroo. Kuroo nodded and asked if they could order the chicken as he wasn’t the biggest fan of pork. Kenma shrugged, “I don’t really care, I just want a couple bites.” Kuroo ordered the noodles and sat down to wait for the order.

Kuroo’s name was called and he got up to retrieve the hot food, thanking the worker. The two boys ate in silence, Kuroo eating most of it with a few occasional bites from Kenma who was preoccupied with his gaming console, which he brought everywhere with him. Within five minutes, the meal was gone and the boys were getting up to throw away their trash.

Kenma pointed at the ferris wheel. “Let’s go?” Kuroo nodded. It was a pretty plain looking ferris wheel and not too tall but tall enough that you could see the entire fair from the top. The seats looked like old ski lifts but looked like it had been renovated and made safer.

They inserted two tickets into the machine at the entrance, walked over to the ride and sat on the seat while the attendant put the bar across their laps. “Alright, you boys have 4 rotations until your tickets run out. Enjoy the ride.” He walked over to a podium and switched a small switch and they began to go up.

Kuroo noticed Kenma looking at him and when he turned towards Kenma to return the gaze, Kenma looked away a little too abruptly so as to pretend he wasn’t just looking at Kuroo, not only that but his eyes were wide with something that resembled fear.

“Are you okay there, Ken?”

“Um yeah, just kinda forgot my fear of heights, no worries. I’ll be fine.” Kuroo raised his eyebrows at him but instead of saying something he just reached over and grabbed Kenma’s hand.

Kenma stared straight forward, his eyes wide in panic. “Hey, it’ll be okay. I didn’t know you were afraid of heights. Can I distract you in some way?”

“Well, I didn’t used to be afraid of heights but there was that one day when I was climbing up to the treehouse and it broke and I fell.” Kuroo simply nodded, remembering the exhilaration he felt when Kenma fell. “And I got really nervous about being in high places and um for awhile there I had nightmares for a week about the feeling of falling. It went away for awhile but now that I am all the way up here,” (he made a gesture to show how high they were without looking down (due to fear), which couldn’t have been more than 20 feet in the air), “I am regretting some decisions. I didn’t think it was going to be this high from the ground but I guess I was wrong.”

Kuroo sorta chuckled and squeezed Kenma’s hand. Kenma was slightly shaking and Kuroo said “Hey, just look at me. It’ll be okay, the ride isn't too long and maybe I can distract you with my absolutely stunning looks.” Kenma slowly turned his head towards Kuroo, slightly rolling his eyes.

“You’re so full of yourself.” Kenma looked at Kuroo, eyes still wide but after a couple seconds of looking at Kuroo his shaking decreased. Kuroo smiled at Kenma, their faces about a foot apart. Kuroo felt his face flush hot and he couldn’t help his eyes from wandering down to Kenma’s lips.

All at once, he felt the butterflies that had been ignored for so long come back to life in full force, almost knocking the breath out of Kuroo. “Shit. I was doing so well! God, why am I like this? He’s my best friend. I shouldn’t be feeling this way. This is all my fault. Well now that I’m looking at him and it seems to be helping his nerves I can’t stop. I just have to maintain eye contact. That can’t be too hard! Don’t look at his lips. Don’t look at his lips. Don’t look at-” Kuroo glanced down at Kenma’s lips and back up to his eyes. “SHIT. Great, and now I REALLY want to kiss him. That’s so gay. I literally don’t understand why I feel this way but if I don’t kiss this man soon I definitely think I’ll explode.”

Kuroo glanced back up at Kenma’s eyes in fear that his best friend had noticed that he was having a hard time not looking down at his lips and leaning in but to his surprise, Kenma’s eyes weren’t looking into Kuroo’s eyes, but were looking down at Kuroo’s own set of lips.

Kuroo’s mind went blank. He knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and leaned in, and to his shock, Kenma did the same thing. His eyes closed and he felt Kenma’s hand on neck pulling him in. Their lips connected and Kuroo felt like he was on fire. It felt like a breath of fresh air, something he had been longing for. If Kuroo could describe it, he would say it felt like a large wave hitting a dam, like a bird flying out of its nest for the first time, like a water droplet falling off a leaf after a heavy rainfall, all at the same time. The kiss felt almost hurried, like if they didn’t make out at that moment, the world would implode.

When they pulled away from each other and slowly opened their eyes again, Kuroo could see the obvious blush on Kenma’s cheeks.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Kenma replied.

“So um, I think I might be bisexual.” Kuroo said, a little embarrassed. Kenma began to laugh, and smile as he reached up and grabbed the neck of Kuroo’s shirt to pull him in. Kenma leaned forward once again and kissed Kuroo. He could feel Kenma smiling into the kiss, their lips finding each other once more, this time Kuroo moved his hand to Kenma’s hair and gripped it lightly, pulling him in closer if that was even possible, and to Kuroo’s surprise (not that he was complaining), Kenma seemed to moan a little and open his mouth slightly more. Kuroo took initiative and deepened the kiss. Suddenly the ride stopped moving and the two split apart. They looked around, worried that people would see or they would get in trouble but when they looked around they were still sorta high up in the air although they were on the way back down to the beginning of the ride and it seemed that someone else was getting off.

“I am definitely gay,” Kenma admitted, unashamed.

Kuroo glanced at him,”You never told me!”

“Yeah, well you didn’t tell me you were bi so like, it’s even, and it’s not like I was ever hiding it.”

“Bro, I literally just figured that out, like obviously I’ve always been a little bit gay for you-” Kuroo paused and looked at Kenma who looked slightly shocked and blushed when he realized what he had said. “Damn not being able to filter what I say sometimes isn’t great. Well, the cat’s out of the bag, I really hope he likes me back.” Kuroo thought then continued “But I thought that I just wanted to be your best friend, the only issue was that friendship never seemed enough for me.”

Kenma blushed. “You can’t be saying shit like that.”

“Why not?” Kuroo was nervous. “Maybe he doesn’t like me back. Wait, we just made out. I sure HOPE he likes me back. ”

“Because I’ve been in love with you for years, I just thought you were straight. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for so long now and when you say stuff like that my heart beats out of my chest.” Kenma blushed and looked away. “Don’t let this boost your ego, you’re still a loser.”

The ride came to a stop, they were finally at the bottom. The bar holding them in place rose and they got up.

“See, that wasn’t too bad.” Kuroo teased.

“Well, you’re not afraid of heights. And I did have something to distract me, so thanks.”

Kuroo looked around blushing, not sure how comfortable Kenma was in his sexuality but he noted that no one was close enough to hear anything he was saying. “How long have you known you were gay?”

Kenma sighed. “Well, I’ve always sort of known. But when I um, kissed you a while ago, you know, that one day in elementary school, it became very apparent to me that I was attracted to boys.”

“But you ran away, I thought it was a mistake and I kinda just blocked it out of my brain. I didn’t want you to be embarrassed, and then I tried to talk about it with you and you said it didn’t mean anything so I just let it be.”

“I was afraid that you’d hate me.” Kenma whispered, his body language showing discomfort. Kuroo longed to hug him, and after a minute he realized that he was allowed to hug him, it wasn’t something that would be crossing a boundary.

“Can I hug you?” Kuroo asked. Kenma glanced around nervously to see that no one was paying attention to them and nodded.

Kuroo stepped forward and put his arms around his friends shoulders and as they once had before, connected behind him. This time there was no hesitancy and Kenma slid his head into Kuroo’s chest. Kuroo’s heart felt like it was beating at a million miles per minute. He leaned his head down, slightly unnatural, and placed a kiss in Kenma’s hair. His nostrils were filled with the sweet smell of peaches. “Oh god. I want to die. No I don't want to die but damn, I feel like I am dying. God, he smells so good. I want him so badly.”

“Did you just,” Kenma started. “Kiss my head so you could smell my hair?”

Kuroo laughed. “No, that wasn’t the purpose of the kiss, but it sure was a nice surprise.” And as (hopefully) non creepily as he could he added “You smell, really nice. Would it be a bad thing if I did it again?”

Kenma giggled, “Smell away.” Their embrace had been kept for quite awhile and he wondered if some other people were looking at them strange but he didn’t really care. He leaned down once again, this time prepared for the peachy smell to waft into his nose. He gently pressed his lips into Kenma’s hair. He rested his head on top of Kenma’s and took a deep breath bringing Kenma’s wonderful smell into his nose.

“You’re so beautiful.” He whispered down to Kenma.

Slowly they unconnected, Kuroo’s arms fell and Kenma loosened his grip and stepped back. Kenma glazed up at him, his cheeks flushing. Once again, he looked around to make sure there weren’t many people around, stepped up on his tippy toes and connected his mouth with Kuroo’s. This kiss was different then the others, their mouths were more closed and it was a smaller peck. Kuroo didn’t mind, he was just glad that Kenma was kissing him. Kenma fell back down from his tippy toes.

“Maybe we should go back to my house, probably shouldn’t be like, making out in public. Here, take this.” He thrust the large stuffed dog into Kuroo’s face.

“Do you want me to carry this for you?”

“No, it’s yours.”

“What?” Kuroo asked. “You’re the one that won it.”

“Yeah, and I’m giving it to you. I decided that I was going to give it to you, even before we kissed. You’ve always said dogs were you favorite animal. Deal with it. C’mon, let's go back.” He began walking towards the exit of the fair.

“KENMAAAAAA, god my heart feels like it’s going to explode. You’re so nice to me. This is so crazy, gosh, you like me!” It then hit Kuroo, “Oh my god, he likes me back! Oh my god!!! I like HIM back.”

Kenma slightly smiled and looked back at Kuroo who hadn’t started walking yet, “I mean yeah, I thought I made that pretty apparent. Now come with me so we can do gay things at my house.”

Kuroo walked quickly with the large dog and smaller elephant in his arms until he had caught up with Kenma.

They walked in silence until they exited the fair and were on their way home.

As they walked, Kuroo saw an old wooden park, no one was playing in it. “Hey, can we stop at that park over there?”

“Why?”

“Oh, um I need to readjust my grip on these bad boys.” His voice got quieter, almost like he had gotten shy and he murmured “And I want to kiss you again.”

“What was that second thing?”

“Nothing!”

“Mhm, whatever you say.” They made their way over to the bench and Kuroo put down the stuffed animals and turned to Kenma.

“Can I kiss you again?”

“Kuroo, we are literally on the way to our houses to do that. But yes, yes, you can.” Kuroo smiled, and leaned down into Kenma. If all the people in the world but Kenma confessed their feelings to Kuroo, he wouldn’t care. Kenma was the only one that he wanted. The kiss bloomed like a sunflower reaching up to the sun, trying to bathe in all the sunlight possible. The kiss felt so warm, like a steamy chocolate cookie coming out of the oven on a cold wintery day. Kuroo never wanted this feeling to go away. They kissed for a long minute, but for Kuroo the time sped by like an instant and when they broke apart he wanted nothing more than to continue to kiss Kenma for the rest of eternity.

“What time is it?”

“Um let me check,” Kuroo pulled out his phone. The clock read 4:32. He showed it to Kenma.

“We should probably get back home. I don’t know if my mom wants me home for dinner and I would rather make out with you when we're not just here open in the public. Ya know, it kind of makes me worried.”

Kuroo nodded intently, feeling a little bad that he made them stop. But he picked the stuffed animals back up. He stuck his hand out with the stuffed elephant and Kenma took it tentatively.

“If you hold that for me I can also hold your hand as we walk.” Kuroo blushed slightly, but now wasn’t the time to be nervous. Kenma smiled and nodded, holding out his hand. With no hesitation, he took his hand and they began to walk again. Kuroo kept taking glances towards Kenma, observing the canyons and valleys that scattered the other boy's beautiful face; an array of nature.

“What are you looking at?”

“Just you. I wasn’t really able to admire how stunning you are until now. Like obviously I knew that you were hot, but now that I know that you like me I feel like I can see you in a whole new way.”

“Hmmm. you’re weird. But I still love you. Always have, and probably always will.”

“Probably?”

“Well I believe that the future is constantly changing by our actions and choices, so I can never be sure that I’ll always love you.” Kuroo’s mouth opened to say something but Kenma stopped him. “But I can’t see that happening anytime soon.”

“Well, I guess I can accept that, but you better bet I will do everything in my power to make sure that we always stay together.” He had just realized what he said and his eyes shot up in shock and Kenma smiled at him. He looked as if he was beaming into the sun. “No Kenma,” Kuroo thought. “You are the sun. If I was freezing to death I could just take one look at you and I think I would be okay.”

They walked hand in hand, like they had been doing it for years, like it was normal for them. Kuroo thought back to his elementary school days, before Kenma had kissed him. “Hey, do you remember back when we were really young we’d hold hands everywhere we walked?” Kenma nodded, slightly puzzled where he was going with this. “I think I subconsciously fell in love with you then, it just took me a really long time to realize it.” Kenma stayed silent, which wasn’t unnormal for him but Kuroo knew how Kenma felt with the three little hand squeezes Kenma gave him.

They came around the corner and arrived at their houses, hands still connected.

“Wanna come over to mine?” Kenma asked.

“I mean, yeah. I was kinda hoping that was the plan.” He looked down at where their hands were entwined. “As much as I love holding your hand, your mom is probably going to think something is up if we don’t separate. I don’t know how comfortable you are with all of,” he paused, not knowing exactly what they were. “Um, whatever this is, since it is kind of new. Yeah um, anyway.”

Kenma nodded and loosened his grip on Kuroo’s hand. They walked up to the house, opened the door and began taking off their shoes.

“Pardon the intrusion!” Kuroo said into the house. There was no reply. “Is anyone home?”

“I don’t know, I’ve been with you all day.” He pulled out his phone, “Oops, I must have forgotten to check this, my mom said that they went to get groceries and should be back in about an hour and a half. Oh, and it was sent a little over an hour ago.”

Their eyes locked and they instantly knew what the other was thinking. “So we have less than thirty minutes, gotta make the most of it.”

Kuroo and Kenma faced each other, neither one moving, a little nervous. “Okay I got this.” Kuroo thought. With one smooth move Kuroo pushed Kenma back into the wall behind them. He crashed his mouth into Kenma’s, savoring the sweet taste that is Kenma, in all of his glory. Having Kenma pressed against him, lips intertwined with his own, Kuroo felt on fire. After what could have been a single moment or could have been hours Kuroo felt Kenma move his head to the side to say something. Kuroo leaned down and kissed his neck, eliciting a groan from Kenma.

“God Kuro, we should probably not do this right here, with the door right there, I’m worried someones going to come in and see us.” Kuroo placed another tender kiss onto Kenma’s neck and stepped back.

“Okay I understand. We can go upstairs, if you want. You’re really hot. Did you know that?”

“Stop trying to flatter me, let's go.”

Kenma turned and walked up his stairs to his room without looking back, almost like he knew that Kuroo was going to follow and that he’d be right there, behind him.

When Kuroo had finally climbed the stairs, Kenma’s door was open and he entered, closing the door behind him. When he turned he saw Kenma sitting on the side of the bed waiting for him.

Kuroo smiled at him and walked across the room to the bed. He leaned down and kissed Kenma and then pushed him into the bed, toppling over him. He reconnected their lips and he felt the butterflies run through his stomach. “Are we really about to do this? I mean I feel like I have been in love for years so like we could, but also this is all new uncharted territory. I think I’d be okay with it.”

They continued to kiss and Kuroo began to run his hands up and down Kenma’s chest over his shirt. That only seemed to make Kenma’s kisses more passionate.

His hands began to run under Kenma’s shirt and his body jolted. Kuroo immediately stopped, took his hands out from Kenma’s shirt and leaned back, disconnecting their lips.

“Everything okay?”

Kenma glanced away and when he spoke his voice slightly wobbled. “Yeah, uh everything’s fine. Just sensitive. Um, I also don’t think I want to, ya know, have sex yet. I don’t feel ready, making out and cuddling is good but I think anything further might be too much for me.”

“That’s totally cool, no worries at all. So, no hands under your shirt?”

“Actually, that’s okay, but no further than that, please.”

“Got it, my love.” He stuck his hands back into Kenma’s shirt, starting up top near his shoulders, making his way back down, taking extra time and care on Kenma’s nipples, circling them and giving them a light pinch which elicited a moan from Kenma. Kuroo grinned his cocky smile and leaned back down, finding Kenma’s mouth with his own. He took his hands out of Kenma’s shirt and moved them to his hair, gently pulling it. His hair felt as soft as a baby kitten's fur. He smiled against Kenma’s lips. “God, you’re such a beautiful person.”

He got off of Kenma and laid down next to him, smiling and looking at him.

“Here.” He held out his arms and Kenma moved over, falling into Kuroo’s chest. He felt so comfortable, like they were the only ones in the whole world.

“I can hear your heartbeat, it’s pretty fast.”

“I mean yeah, the guy that I like likes me back. That’s just crazy. You’re so cool.” He leaned down and kissed Kenma’s hair. He ran his hands through Kenma’s hair, Kenma didn’t complain and seemed to snuggle closer in so he kept going. He hoped that he would never have to stop smelling his peachy scent, feeling the warmth radiating off of his skin, feeling his structured fingers on his chest.

Kenma tilted his head up from where he was laying on Kuroo’s chest so he could see him. Kuroo looked down at him and he felt Kenma reach his head up and kiss along the line of his jaw. He felt goosebumps run up and down his body, electricity shooting through his veins. God this felt so good, so right, so perfect. As Kenma lightly bit onto his ear and Kuroo began to moan they heard the door begin to open.

“Pardon the intrusion!” They both stopped and scrambled apart.

“Um, shit, um should we go to the bathroom? I mean, not together, separately, because they’ll suspect something.”

“Yeah, you can go first,” Kuroo said. “I may have tangled your hair a bit.”

Kenma snuck out of the room, luckily it wasn’t likely his mom would see him, but he cautiously walked past the stairs to the bathroom, Kuroo watched the door close and closed Kenma’s bedroom door behind him. He looked in the mirror, and saw that his lip was a darker shade of pink than normal and his hair was a bit more ruffled than his usual bedhead. Nothing else was really out of the ordinary other than the bulge in his pants. He thought about his grandmother, and anything that would make him sad, which successfully got it to go down. He then thought about happy things to keep him from crying. He re-ruffled his hair and he almost looked normal, like nothing had happened.

Kuroo turned around when he heard the door click shut, Kenma stood there, hair brushed. Other than the faint blush on his cheeks and his slightly swollen lip he looked perfectly normal, not like someone who had passionately made out with the love of their life.

From downstairs they heard Kenma’s mom yell “Kenma! Are you home?”

Kenma half shouted, half normally spoke, “Yeah, I’m upstairs with Kuroo, we will be down in a minute.”

“Okay, darling!”

Kenma sighed a little and looked at Kuroo, “Well c’mon, you heard the woman.” As Kenma was about to open the door, Kuroo stopped him, grabbing his wrist. Kenma turned his head to look back at him. “What?” Kuroo leaned down and gave him a quick peck and then let go of his wrist.

“Sorry, I can’t help it. Just needed to kiss you one more time before we go downstairs.” Kenma chuckled a little and began opening the door. They walked down the stairs, trying not to seem guilty.

“How was your day? Did you enjoy the fair? Have you done anything fun other than that today?”

“My day was alright, the fair was good, I guess.” Kuroo tried to keep his face from showing any emotion, trying not to give anything away. He paused, “And we haven’t done anything else today.”

“Oh wonderful. Kuroo, do you want to stay for dinner? I’m going to start cooking in a couple minutes once I put away the groceries. You’re also welcome to spend the night, if that’s alright with your dad.”

“Thank you Kozume-san! I think my dad wants me home for dinner though so I might have to raincheck.”

“No worries, love! Take some of these cookies on your way out! Kenma, walk him back to his house.”

Kenma scowled at his mom, “Alright fine.” He turned to Kuroo and his face returned neutral.

“You don’t have to, I do live right next door.”

“I am walking you home. Let’s go.”

Kuroo shrugged, “Okay, thanks. Let me just grab these cookies and I'll be heading home.” He bowed with respect to Kenma’s mom and followed Kenma to the door who had his slides already on his feet. Kuroo grabbed his shoes but didn’t put them on, he wasn’t going far and had his socks on. Kenma opened the door and Kuroo followed, shoes in hand. Kuroo shut the door behind him. Kenma turned to him on the porch. He leaned in towards Kuroo and felt his lips against his own. The kiss was warm but brief, a way to say goodbye. Their lips disconnected and Kenma began to walk to the sidewalk, Kuroo following.

They arrived at Kuroo’s house. “Well, will I see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, come on over whenever. You know I’ll just be in my room.” Kuroo smiled and nodded, leaning forward to plant a kiss on his forehead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, beautiful boy.” He winked, turned around opening the door and closing it behind him.

“Hey, Dad. I’m home!” There was no response but he wasn’t really expecting one. He figured his dad may be in his study, where sound did not travel.

Kuroo put his shoes down and walked to the kitchen, dropping off the cookies and headed straight to his room, slamming the door behind him. He walked to bed and jumped on it, and put his face in his pillow, screaming. “God he likes me! I am so lucky. And when he kisses me I feel like my heart is going to explode. He’s so pretty.” Kuroo sat up and took a deep breath. “Wait, are we dating now? Ahhh what if he doesn’t want to date me.”

“Kuroo? Are you home?” He heard his dad yell.

“Yeah, I’ll be out of my room in a minute.” He sighed. These were all things that he could talk about with Kenma tomorrow. He just needed to wait that long.

~The next day~

Kuroo woke up as the sun began to shine directly through his window. He looked at the alarm clock on his dresser, it read 9:49. He checked his phone. He had no new texts from Kenma. He would have gotten up and went straight to Kenma’s house, but he knew that Kenma wouldn’t be up for at least another hour. He ate some breakfast, changed into running gear and went on a run, a way he enjoyed starting his mornings. He enjoyed how peaceful it looked out, enjoyed taking in the scenery, enjoyed having some time to himself and time to hear his own thoughts. When he got back home, it was already 10:37. He went to the bathroom and took off his clothes to shower. The warm water fell over his skin, cleaning his body, and calming his nerves. He was ready to see Kenma again. He stepped out of the shower and hastily got dressed. The clock read 10:59. Kenma would most likely be awake.

He walked over to Kenma’s house in his slides and knocked on the door. There was no answer. After all these years he knew that if he wanted to go in, he was allowed. So, he opened the door.

“Pardon the intrusion! Anyone home?” Again there was no answer. He made his way up the stairs to Kenma’s room. The door was closed. He gave it a light knock and again there was no response. He cracked the door open and saw Kenma, still sleeping. He closed the door behind him quietly and slipped off his jacket. He moved the covers slightly so he could slip into the bed with Kenma. Kemna groaned slightly and opened his eyes and then smiled when he saw Kuroo. Kuroo smiled back.

“Good morning love. Did you sleep well?” He moved his arm around Kenma and Kenma nuzzled into his chest.

“I slept well, except for a rude awakening.” Kuroo gasped. “Just kidding, I’ll let this one slide though. You smell nice.”

“Thanks, I went on a run earlier to clear my thoughts, with everything that happened, ya know. Then I showered so I hope I smell at least half decent.” Kemna looked up from his chest.

“Clear your thoughts? Is something wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

“Hey, no, no. You are perfect. Just a lot of change going on in my life and I just needed to get it out.” He kissed Kenma’s head. “I did want to ask you though, um, what are we now?”

“I mean, I hope we’re dating.” Kenma nuzzled back into his chest, hiding his face.

“Okay good, I was also hoping we were dating. But I just had to make that clear.” Kuroo laughed. “Wow, I am dating my best friend. That’s pretty cool.” Kenma chucked and wrapped himself in Kuroo’s warmth.

They laid there all morning, lazily making out and cuddling. When it was time to get up, they moved slowly, there was no need to rush anything. They had their entire lives ahead of them.

~9 years later~

“Ken, darling? We need to get up, I can hear Verona whining to get out from downstairs.”

“Ugh, can you do it? I don’t want to get up. I’m so cozy.” Kenma draped his arm over Kuroo’s chest and moved closer, giving his torso a soft kiss and laying his head on Kuroo’s chest.

“Well, I would do it but it seems someone has trapped me here.” Kemna gave no signs of moving to let Kuroo get out of bed. Kuroo didn’t mind, his husband was absolutely beautiful and wanted to be with Kenma as much as possible, even if he wouldn’t say that out loud.

“Oh well, guess she can wait.” Kuroo kissed Kenma’s head. He moved his hand to Kenma’s jaw and guided his lips to his own. Kenma didn’t hesitate at all, he shifted his body up on Kuroo’s, laying next to him so their mouths were level with each other. The kisses were tender, but slow. They had been married for three years, lots of kisses had been shared since they had gotten together.

From downstairs, they heard a scratch on the door and a loud whine.

“Ughhh. She needs to go out. I’ll go, do you want to come with me?” Kenma groaned and his face showed absolute disgust over the idea that he would have to get up. But his movement betrayed his disgust as his body began to slowly move to a sitting position. He stretched his arms over his head and rolled out his back. Kuroo wrapped his arms around him and kissed the top of his head. He didn’t bask in the scent of Kenma that time, as they had been living together for years, and Kenma’s scent and his own had become mixed.

“Okay, I’m ready.” Kuroo got up and opened the door to their bedroom. Kenma followed him. They began walking down the stairs and about halfway down the stairs, Kuroo heard the loud smack and felt the pain radiate through his butt.

“Ow! Can you not? God every single time we walk down these stairs and you’re behind me you smack my ass.” He turned around to Kenma, who was giggling, he turned back around and smiled, and thought to himself, he wouldn’t mind if he got smacked a million times more if he got to spend his life with Kenma.

“Hey, this is reparations. You’re the one who wanted to get a dog, now we have to go take her out every morning. Kameko and Hiroki don’t beg to go out.”

“Yeah, well they’re cats. And we still have to clean their litter box so I feel like it's even, and now I get to have my lovely husband go on a walk with me every morning, what’s to lose?”

They tied up their shoes and grabbed a leash and a bag. Verona, a small brown pug, was wiggling around their legs, excited to go out. Kuroo connected the leash, gave Kenma a small peck, and they were out the door.

They walked around their neighborhood and stopped at a small park. They found a bench and let Verona off the leash, who happily wandered away. Kenma, wearing only a light long sleeve shirt and sweatpants shivered.

“It’s so chilly out here.” Kuroo was wearing a hoodie over his shirt and he happily took it off and handed it over, he wasn’t too cold anyway. “Thanks.” Kenma said, while putting it on. Kuroo was cold, but he was happy, he wouldn’t want it any other way. “Here.” Kenma opened his arms and Kuroo slid into them, basking in Kenma’s warmth.

“Thank you, my love. This is much better.” They cuddled for warmth like that, basking in the new day for a couple minutes until they saw a small brown creature waddling towards them, Verona.

“Come here, girl!” Kuroo said, holding out his hands, Verona running to him. “Good girl!” He gave her butt a scratch and put her leash on. “Alrighty, we can go home.”

Kuroo found Kuroo’s hand wiggling into his own and he held it with confidence. They strolled back to the house, a short, but pretty walk.

Once they had gotten back, Kuroo began making breakfast, eggs, toast, and potatoes. It was simple but filling. Kenma worked alongside him, brewing and pouring two cups of coffee, one with creamer, sugar, and half and half, the other with a small splash of milk. How they both liked theirs. Kameko, an orange tabby padded around the kitchen, rubbing herself on their legs, and purring. Kenma occasionally bent down and gave her a rub. Hiroki, a black tabby sat on the windowsill, watching birds in the morning sun.

They fit so well together, all five of them. Kuroo finished making breakfast and filled two plates, placing them on the table, where the coffee was already sitting.

“Thank you for the coffee, dear.” He took a sip. “Ahh, just how I like it. No one makes coffee like you do.”

“You’re just trying to flatter me so you don’t have to do the bills later. It’s not going to work. Anyways, I have a stream later and I have some software bugs I have to fix so I’m going to be pretty busy.”

“So it didn’t work?”

“No, your flattery didn’t work, when has it ever?”

“Hey, that’s rude! I mean I got you didn’t I? I must have flattered you somewhat.” Kuroo winked at him.

“I mean, yeah I guess, we are technically married. Now I’m going to feed the kitties and then come join you.”

“Okay, I’ll wait for you to eat. In the meantime I’m going to read this newspaper.” He grabbed the paper on the table, the headline reading “Gas Prices Rising, What To Know”. Kuroo isn’t interested in it. Kenma walked away and Kuroo sat patiently, petting Verona who had settled beside his chair. When Kenma had completely gone, he looked around and checked for him and then leaned down and fed a piece of his eggs to Verona who happily ingested it.

“I see you feeding her. You’re not sneaky.” Shit, Kenma was already back, he was always pretty quick.

“How can I resist, she’s so cute.”

“Yeah well she won't be as cute when she’s fat from all this extra food you’re feeding her.”

“I disagree, she’ll always be adorable. Just like you; when you’re old and wrinkly, I’ll still think you’re cute.” Kenma tried to hide the fact that he was smiling, it wasn’t working. Kuroo leaned forward and planted a kiss on Kenma’s cheek. “Okay, let’s eat before the food gets cold.”

They began eating, sitting in silence. In the mornings they tended to be a little more quiet, basking in each other's presence. It was somewhat of a tradition for them, they’d wake up, go on their walk, letting Verona out, stroll back to the house, make breakfast, eat in subtle silence and then clean the kitchen while listening to jazz.

After this they would go to their respective jobs, Kenma would either go to the office or he’d stay home and animate for video games, something he had gotten very good at. Kuroo would go to the office and write, when he wasn’t on the scene gathering a report.

The past week, Kenma had mainly been at his office, giving Kuroo time to plan his surprise. He had told his boss that he was under the weather, had some sort of flu, and would work from home. She agreed that it was definitely a better idea for him to stay home, and she told him that he could take a few days off, and come back at the beginning of the following week. That gave him a couple days to build, which was all he needed.

“Hey, I have something to show you.” Kuroo said to Kenma.

Kenma raised his eyebrows, “What is it, dear?”

“Close your eyes, grab my hand, and come with me.” Kenma was confused but obeyed, closing his eyes. Kuroo grabbed a blindfold. “Okay I’m blindfolding you.”

“What the fuck, Kuro? What are you planning?” He opened his eyes.

“Hey, just go with me on this one.” Kenma rolled his eyes.

“After all these years now you’ve decided to kidnap me?”

“Stop being dramatic, my love. Please just close your eyes. I have a surprise for you.” Kuroo leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Kenma’s forehead. “Please?”

Kenma closed his eyes while Kuroo secured the black and white bandana that would serve as a blindfold. He grabbed Kenma’s arm and muffled his own joyful laughter, god he was so excited. He had been building for the past couple days and had done everything he could to make sure Kenma hadn’t looked in the backyard. It wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be, he just had to close the blinds and make sure Kenma spent a lot of time playing games, when he wasn’t at work, which wasn’t anything new.

“Alright, we’re going to start walking. I’m going to put my hand around your arm to guide you.” He felt Kenma tense up against his touch for a moment, and then relax. “Ready?”

“Yeah, we can start walking.” He looped his arm around Kenma’s and they began walking. He led him through the kitchen and opened the back door.

“Okay, a little step down now, we’re almost to the backyard.” Kuroo explained.

“Why are we going to the backyard? Also, I’m not wearing shoes.”

“It’s fine baby, you don’t need them right now.” He took a deep breath and took the blindfold off. Kenma looked at the treehouse, and then back at Kuroo, eyes wide. It was slightly bigger than Kenma’s last one, and much sturdier. There were light wooden planks leading up the tree, and the house was made of a dark oak wood. Kuroo had remembered that Kenma had taken a liking to the wood when they were house designing, although that hadn’t been their first pick for their house.

“What is this? Kuro, are you pregnant or something, because last I know, we're grown adults, we don’t need a treehouse.”

“What? No, I just know that you loved having a treehouse growing up, and I felt like it could be a good relaxing space. We’re both so busy all the time, I just felt like it’d be a good idea to have a work free space. I hope you like it.” He blushed but wasn’t nervous. He knew Kenma well enough to know that he would enjoy the space. “Also, I made sure that the ladder up is sturdy, if you were worried about that at all. Do you want to go look inside?”

“I’m not wearing shoes, but yeah, let me put some on and we can go.” Kenma turned around to go back in the house, Kuroo grabbed his hand, stopping him before he could completely turn around.”What? I’m not walking all the way over there in my socks, they’ll get dirty.”

“Don’t worry about that.” In one swoop, Kenma was picked up, bridal style. His eyes flashed wide for a second and then his brows knit in confusion.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m carrying you.” He took a step forward. Kenma wasn’t all that heavy, and Kuroo had carried him on multiple occasions, so he wasn’t concerned about dropping him.

“Okay, well how are you going to climb without your arms?” Kenma asked. Kuroo stopped. Kenma had a point, it wasn’t that he couldn’t climb without his arms but he didn’t want to drop Kenma in the process. He put Kenma down, turned around and squatted, motioning for Kenma to jump on his back. “God you’re such a dork.” He felt Kenma’s arms wrap around his neck and his legs around his torso and he stood up, beginning to walk. “You’re such a dork, but you’re my dork.” Kuroo smiled as he felt a light kiss being pressed into his ear.

He got to the ladder and began to climb. They got to the top of the ladder without a problem. “Okay baby, you’re going to need to watch your head.” Luckily the opening was large enough to fit both of the men inside.

Kuroo let him down and turned towards Kenma, “What do you think?”

There were photos of them all around the walls, dark blue patterned pillows thrown around the floor, and rainbow Christmas lights that were shining. It was the middle of the day and it didn’t make too much of a difference, but Kuroo couldn’t wait for Kenma to see the tree house during the night. A small TV was in the corner of the room, encased in a layer of glass to prevent water damage. Kenma’s eyes continued to scan the space and found a large wooden chest.

“What’s in there Kuro?” He pointed to the chest, interests piqued.

“Ah, I figured you might ask, just my favorite part of the whole tree house, cmon, I’ll show you.” They approached the chest and Kuroo began to unlatch the hook, and lift the lid open. Inside, Kenma found many different things, blankets, two wine glasses, a bottle of white wine, a bottle of red wine, a little contained filled with different candies and chips, and a stack of video games Kenma had mentioned to Kuroo, but hadn’t had the time to purchase, and a couple of videos of their old volleyballs games, from when they were in high school.

“Kuro, I feel so lucky. I think this whole thing is beautiful, I love you so much. But I have to ask, how did you do all this without me noticing?” Kuroo took note of Kenma’s eyes who were wandering around the room.

“Well, you know those headphones I got you for Christmas? They are almost completely soundproof, and I know you use them while you work, so I just got to work while you’ve been busy this past week. You’ve also been at the office for the majority of this week, and I told my boss I was feeling ill so I stayed home.” Kuroo said.

“Wow, I never even noticed. I mean I think a couple times I heard some loud noises, now that I think about it. But wow, thank you Kuroo, it's beautiful.”

“Of course, my love. If you asked for a star, and I wouldn’t die getting too close to one, I would find as many as I could and smush them together to make one superstar to give you. That’s what you are to me, my super star.” Kenma smiled at that and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“You always know how to make me smile.” Kenma told him. Kuroo beamed back at him. “You’ll always make me smile, Kenma, " he thought. “I am so so lucky to have you in my life and I can’t wait to spend each individual moment with you.”