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There was something about being friends with the same person your entire life that sort of messed with your perception of friendships.
Kenma had not realised that his friendship with Kuroo was so specific to them because of the amount of time they’ve been friends. He thought that’s just how friends are , that it was normal to be as in sync, as close as they were.
It wasn’t until his second year of highschool that he realised that they were different from other friends, other people who’d only known each other for a few months or years. Not the lifelong bond Kenma and Kuroo had found themselves tied with.
The difference really comes up with Kenma started to get closer to Hinata. The bright personal ball of sunshine was very similar to Kuroo, but different in so many ways as well. Kenma found he liked Hinata a lot and cherished the friendship he had with him.
But it was different. One thing Kenma found himself really struggling with was communication, talking so much to Hinata. With Kuroo, Kenma could sit next to him for hours, not saying a word, yet Kuroo would understand everything Kenma was thinking. They could have an entire conversation that only consisted of Kuroo talking. With Hinata, that didn’t work. Hinata didn’t know all the small and intricate thoughts that swirled in the grooves of Kenma’s mind, Hinata didn’t know what the microexpressions Kenma gave in response meant.
Then Kenma befriended Lev, another talkative ball of excitement. Lev was even worse because he couldn’t understand Kenma even when he directly expressed himself sometimes. Kenma could tell Lev he was fine and Lev would frown and say that he looked mad and obviously wasn’t fine. But Kenma was, that’s just how his face looked and Kuroo would understand that, he didn’t get why Lev couldn’t.
Kenma had begun to observe other people’s relationships, during tournaments, during group practices, even when watching tv shows. He began to almost hyperfixate on the way other people treated their friends, their best friend, the way they acted.
He wanted to ask Kuroo if they way they behaved was weird, if he thought maybe that there was something wrong with how they behaved, but he also knew that no matter what Kuroo’s answer was, the older man would panic and draw himself back. He’d worry he was overwhelming Kenma somehow, that someone said something weird and he’d pull away and Kenma didn’t want that.
So he confided in Yaku, of all people.
Yaku had stared at him weird when he confronted him during one of their breaks.
“Do you think Kuroo and I are weird?” Kenma asked and Yaku raised an eyebrow.
“As individuals or together?” Yaku asked and Kenma shrugged.
“I’ve been watching people,” Kenma said. “The way they treat their friends.”
“Oh, this is that conversation,” Yaku mumbled and Kenma had raised an eyebrow at that. “I think the way you two treat each other is perfectly well and fine for you both.”
“.... but?” Kenma asked and Yaku sighed deeply.
“To outsiders it is strange.” Yaku explained. “You both can practically read each other’s minds. Even Suga and Daichi aren’t like that. And they’re them .”
“Oikawa and Iwaizumi are like that,” Kenma defended. He remembered watching them during a tournament on the sidelines. Oikawa had just hit a serve and scored a point all in five seconds and turned to Iwaizumi with a taunting grin. Iwaizumi had rolled his eyes at him and shaken his head. Said, That wasn’t the best serve all season, I’ve seen better, Oikawa had pouted, still not saying a word and Iwaizumi had crossed his arms. Spoken again with an annoyed tone. Your’s was flawed, it curved a little. Oikawa had scoffed with an eyeroll. Don’t try and claim it was on purpose, it was not .
They’d had a one sided conversation, not a single word spoken from Oikawa and Kenma had remembered relaxing a little, watching the childhood friends interact just as fluidly as he and Kuroo do.
Yaku stared at him now with a slightly apprehensive expression and Kenma frowned at him.
“What?” He asked, tone demanding.
“Oikawa and Iwaizumi are dating.” Yaku informed. “So it’s a little different.”
Kenma frowned at Yaku then, brows furrowed as he turned away to stare ahead.
Yaku was anxiously silent at his side while Kenma sat in silence for a long, long moment.
During his silent contemplation, Kenma raised his head a little to look over where Kuroo was spending his short break trying to help one of the first years perfect his serve. He caught Kenma’s eyes and turned, seeing his frown he tilted his head to the side, a brow raised.
You okay?
Kenma forced his expression to relax, easing his frown and brows and he watched Kuroo relax.
I’m fine.
Kuroo gave him a soft open expression and Kenma felt himself relax.
I’m here in case you’re not.
Kenma turned back to Yaku, who had watched the entire exchange with a curious expression.
“How do you tell the difference between wanting to be someone’s friend and wanting to date them?” Kenma asked bluntly and Yaku’s brows rose to his hairline in slight shock.
“Oh? Uh, well,” Yaku shrugged a little, waving a hand. “I mean, everyone’s different. There’s no universal way to really tell.”
“Okay, then how would you tell?” Kenma asked, huffing a little. “You have a crush on Lev’s sister right? How do you feel about her compared to your friends?”
“I do not have a crush on her!” Yaku squeaked, but his cheeks turned bright red as he spoke. “You- You can’t just make assumptions about others.”
“It’s not an assumption, it’s an observation.” Kenma informed. “You also have a thing for Lev, but I’m not getting into that right now, I just need an answer.”
Yaku squinted at Kenma for a long moment and it annoyed Kenma that he had no idea what was going on in his head.
“Well, I mean, I guess for me ,” Yaku began after a long moment of just looking at Kenma. “Uh, I get very flustered around the person I like. My heart races and stuff like that, I think a lot about, uhm, kissing them and other stuff like that.”
Kenma frowned, not liking that answer at all.
“I’ve never felt that way about anyone,” He informed bluntly and Yaku sighed.
“Not everyone feels the same about the people they like, you know?” Yaku explained. “That’s how it is for me. For some people it’s really hard to tell the difference between platonic and romantic feelings.”
“That’s stupid,” Kenma informed and Yaku rolled his eyes.
“Well? Then how do you think you’d feel about someone you’d like romantically?” Yaku asked. “Maybe that’ll help you.”
Kenma is silent for a moment as he thinks and he shrugged.
“I dunno, I dunno if I’d feel any different.” Kenma said.
“Then how about this: What would you want in a romantic partner?” Yaku asked.
Kenma thinks that’s extremely not the point but he decided to humor Yaku instead.
“Someone who can talk without expecting me to answer. I hate having to talk when what I think about something is obvious.” Kenma said this with a pointed glare at Yaku who just rolled his eyes. “Someone who likes gaming probably too, playing games with someone I care about is better than doing it alone. Also they have to like volleyball. I don’t think I used to care that much about it, but I enjoy it more, so they’d have to as well. But I mean, outside that I don’t have any requirements for what someone I’d be into would like. If I liked someone like that I’d like them for them.”
Yaku laughed a little and shrugged.
“Well, then maybe you should tell Kuroo that.” Kenma frowned at him. “You pretty much just vaguely described him. And look , I’m not telling you how you feel or anything like that. I’m just saying, your ideal partner sounds like Kuroo.”
Kenma turned away from Yaku to stare again at Kuroo across the room.
Their break was almost over, so Kuroo was finally actually taking a moment to rest. Laying on the floor like he had collapsed, hand clutching his mostly empty water bottle. Despite looking exhausted, he smiled brightly as he spoke to Kai, expression soft and excited.
Kenma felt his pulse quicken as he watched his best friend of almost two decades. He swallowed thickly as he tried to calm himself.
“Fuck,” He mumbled.
After that, Kenma really put his and Kuroo’s friendship under a microscope. He reevaluated everything they did, everything they said, how Kuroo responded and reacted to him, how he responded and reacted to Kuroo. It felt like he was dissecting their entire dynamic and overthinking everything.
After a week of doing this, he came to only one solid realisation.
He definitely, one hundred percent, was in love with his best friend.
He felt mildly idiotic for not realising it sooner, for not putting together that the way his heart sometimes did funny things in his chest wasn’t just his anxiety, that the warm feeling he got when Kuroo touched him wasn’t just because the man was a living space heater, that the fact he thought so much about the other wasn’t just because he was his friend.
Kenma fully, truly and wholly, was in love with his childhood best friend.
He didn’t know what to do about it.
He had never felt this way about another person before. Or at least, he thinks he’s never felt this way about another person before, but given his track record of sorting that stuff out, maybe he had a secret crush at some point he’d never been aware of.
The point is, Kenma has no idea how he’s supposed to act. Is he supposed to do something about it? And if so, what ? He very well can’t just tell Kuroo he likes him cause what if Kuroo doesn’t like him back?
Oh god, what if Kuroo doesn’t like him back.
The moment Kenma has that thought, he erases all thoughts of telling Kuroo. Because what if he doesn’t? What happens then? Will he leave Kenma? Will he stay but become distant? Will he pretend everything is okay but there’s that awkward tension in everything they do for the rest of their lives Kenma will be able to feel everyday?
He can’t do it. He just can’t . The thought of Kuro leaving, or worse, staying but becoming different is worse than having to hide his feelings for the rest of his life.
Kenma had been able to do it before, hid his feelings so well he didn’t even know he had them , he can do it. Keep his heart locked in his chest, deep in a safe that Kuroo would never be able to touch.
Except for the fact that suddenly becoming aware of how he felt about Kuroo made him feel insane.
Whenever Kuroo laughed now, smiling widely, tilting his head back and letting out a laugh akin to a hyena, Kenma found his heart hammering in his chest at the sound. Everytime Kuroo reached out to touch him, a hand on the back of his shirt when they walked, Kenma gaming, to make sure Kenma didn’t get lost, it felt like his skin was burning. Everytime Kuroo gently teased him about something, anything, the tone of his voice sounded like music to Kenma’s ears.
He needed to get a fucking grip . Stand up Kenma, you have known this man your entire life.
He’s not even doing anything different from what he’s done his entire life. Kuroo literally is the exact same person he’s always been, it’s just that suddenly Kenma knows he’s in love with him and apparently that means he can’t react normally to Kuroo even just breathing.
After a month of this bullshit, Kenma decided he needed to tell someone. Someone who wasn’t Yaku because he was like 70% sure the older teen would laugh in his face about it.
The timing of him being fed up with his own feelings perfectly lined up with Nekoma facing off against Karasuno. Which was great for Kenma as he decided to confide in Hinata, his only other close friend.
Hinata had let Kenma grab him and pull him to the side before their match and listen intently as Kenma explained everything. Talked about his feelings for Kuroo and how the other was driving him crazy. Hinata nodded along, lips pursed as he listened.
Once Kenma was finished, Hinata smiled and snapped his fingers.
“You should ask him out!” Hinata informed with an overly cheery tone and Kenam gave him a deadpan stare.
“I can’t do that ,” Kenma insisted and Hinata stared at him with all the perplexity of a child learning Santa Claus wasn’t real.
“Why not? I mean, what are the actual chances of Kuroo reacting negatively to that? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him even a little upset.” Hinata said and Kenma bit back the That’s because you don’t know him like I do that sat on his tongue. “He’s your best friend, and he cares a lot about you. Even if he didn’t feel the same way, I don’t think he’d do anything bad. He probably would apologise or something and everything would be normal.”
“But it wouldn’t be,” Kenma insisted. “I mean, everything would change.”
“Would it?” Hinata frowned now, looking so genuinely confused.
“It would.” Kenma insisted and then waved a hand. “I mean, what if you asked Kageyama out? Wouldn’t it change everything for you? Your entire being better than the other thing?”
Hinata is quiet for a moment, thinking for a long moment.
Suddenly, he inhaled deeply, straightening his back with a confident gleam in his eyes. Kenma frowned back as Hinata stood up, abandoning Kenma and marching over to where the aforementioned setter was talking to his captain.
Kenma suddenly realised what Hinata was doing and watched with rapt attention as the short teen demandfully poked Kageyama’s side.
“What?!” Kageyama shouted as Hinata all but jabbed his finger into his side for attention. Hinata pointed at him with a determined stare.
“Will you go out with me?!” Hinata all but shouted at him and suddenly all of Karasuno and Nekoma were very invested in what was going down before them.
“What?!” Kageyama repeated, suddenly turning away from Daichi to fully face Hinata. “Hey, I was going to ask you !”
“Well I beat you to it!” Hinata informed. “So will you?”
“Fine! But I get to pick where our first date is!” Kageyama replied and Kenma wanted to face palm, but he was kind of frozen just watching the scene play out.
“ I asked you! That means I get to choose!” Hinata informed, cheeks flushed a little in anger and Kenma really didn’t understand him sometimes.
“Ugh! If you score more points than me during this match, then you get to choose!” Kageyama informed and Hinata looked at him shocked.
“I always score more!” Hinata said and it’s like Kageyama suddenly remembered what roles they played.
“Well just wait and see! I’m gonna score more this time!” Kageyama shouted and Kenma rolled his eyes, turning to the rest of his team to see if they caught that as well.
Kageyama pretty much just admits to the fact he’d be doing set dumps during the game, which are supposed to be a fake out for the other team, but when he announces it’s what he’s going to do, it doesn’t work that well.
Suga and Daichi pinch the bridges of their noses as Hinata and Kageyama continue shouting each other and Kuroo watched them with amusement and Kenma watched Kuroo.
Karasuno lost the match, and neither Hinata nor Kageyama had themselves scored a single point, both being traded out halfway through the match because Nekoma kept scoring from them.
Hinata didn’t seem to perturbed by the loss however, running over to Kenma after.
“See?” He said and Kenma had frowned.
“What?”
“Asking Baka-yama out didn’t change anything between us,” Hinata reminded. “So you should ask out Kuroo.”
Right, Kenma had almost forgotten that was the entire reason Hinata had done that. He bit the inside of his cheek and turned his head.
“I don’t know,” He muttered and Hinata groaned.
“Come on !” Hinata whined. “It’s Kuroo, he cares about you so much . I think he definitely feels the same and if he doesn’t, things will still be fine! Just ask him out, if you don’t I think you might explode or something.”
“Explode?” Kenma asked sceptically.
“You can’t handle your emotions! You said you get all flustered around him all the time and stuff, if this goes on any longer, your heart might race so hard that it explodes.” Hinata said. Kenma stared at him in slight disbelief. “It can happen, you should google it.”
Kenma squinted at him for a long moment before he took his phone out and quickly googled can your heart explode ? Hinata watched him with a grin.
“Google says no,” Kenma informed and Hinata grabbed his phone and looked at it before pointing.
“It can rupture! That’s the same thing!” Hinata said. “I don’t want my best friend’s heart to explode because he doesn’t want to ask out his crush.”
“That won’t happen,” Kenma said, but to be honest, he kind of did feel like his heart was going to explode, implode, rupture, whatever sometimes when he was with Kuroo. Hinata gave him a look and Kenma rolled his eyes. “If he felt the same, he’d ask me out. He’s never been one to hide his feelings, so he obviously doesn’t feel the same.”
“You can’t pin this on him,” Hinata shot back. “This is having feelings for your long term best friend. You’re scared to ask him, so why wouldn’t he be?”
“Kuroo isn’t scared of stuff like that,” Kenma insisted, but the more they spoke, the more he became unsure. “If someone liked me, I’d know, especially if it was him.”
“Nuh uh, that’s not true,” Hinata said and pointed at Kenma before he crossed his arms. “Cause I had a crush on you when we first met and you had no idea!”
“You had a crush on me?!” Kenma asked, genuinely shocked and Hinata nodded.
“I thought you were cute! And you were different than most people I knew.” Hinata added. “But see? You had no idea I liked you!”
“Okay but-!” Kenma shook his head, reeling a little from finding out his new best friend had at some point felt things for him. “But Kuroo is different! I’ve known him since I was four!”
“You didn’t even know you liked him until recently!” Hinata reminded. “So how can you really be sure you’d notice Kuroo having a crush on you?”
Kenma had no response to that, ducking his head as he frowned a little. Hinata sighed heavily, arms uncrossing and falling to his side.
“Look, don’t ask him out if you’re really this unsure,” Hinata said. “But you’re my friend, I’d like to see you happy. I don’t want you to just ignore the possibility Kuroo feels the same, especially when you don’t let yourself hope for good things.”
Kenma stared at Hinata for a long moment.
“That was oddly deep,” Kenma said and Hinata smiled brightly. “.... I’ll think about it.”
“Yay!” Hinata cheered and hugged Kenma quickly before he stepped back. “I’m gonna be late to boarding the bus, but we need to hang out again soon, okay?”
“Yeah,” Kenma said with a soft smile. “And tell me how your date with Kageyama goes.”
Hinata’s entire face turned red as if he just in that moment realised that he had in fact asked Kageyama out and that the other had in fact agreed to it.
“Uh, y-yeah!” Hinata said and Kenma thinks the other might faint from how red his face has become. “Oh I have to- Has anyone seen Kageyama?”
Kenma watched the red head rush off before he turned back to go join his own team.
Kenma thinks about what Hinata said for three days, letting the thoughts swim in his stomach until they twist and turn into a storm and he feels sick.
Scratch that, he is sick. The temperature dropped and his body freaked out and now he’s laying in bed with a head cold and he hates it. He hates being sick so much and he’s missing school and practice and it’s going to be such a headache catching up later.
His mom has made him some warm soup and keeps making sure he has enough water to stay hydrated. He appreciates it but he wishes she could snap her fingers and make him un-sick somehow. He hated this.
Kenma had slept most of the day, only really fully waking up when there’s a knock on his bedroom door.
He groans and sits up, tiredly turning to the door, expecting his mom as it slowly opens.
He feels his heart stutter in his chest when Kuroo comes in with a shy smile and a convenience store bag.
“Hey,” Kuroo says. “Heard you were sick so I stopped and got you some stuff to try and help.”
Kenma’s chest feels so tight with how much his heart swells. He swallows thickly and gestures for Kuroo to come sit. The older teen sits at the end of his bed, not keeping any distance despite the fact he could get sick being this close.
“I got you some more soup, your mom mentioned you were out. Also some sweet bread because you might get sick of soup.” Kuroo informs as he begins sifting through the bag. “Also some herbal tea, tylenol and ibuprofen because I couldn’t remember which one was for headaches, and then I also saw this new game that came out recently, I thought you’d like it.”
Kenma takes the game case that Kuroo handed to him and he looks at the cover but he's not really looking . He’s just kind of wordlessly staring as his heart hammers in his chest.
Damn, Hinata might be right, his heart feels like it’s absolutely going to explode right now.
Kuroo of his own accord came to help Kenma, came bearing gifts he didn’t need to, was so kind and thoughtful about Kenma and even got him a game, stopped by despite the risk of him also getting sick, all to try and help Kenma.
He felt so cared and loved for that Kenma couldn’t help the words tumbling from his lips.
“I love you,” He says and Kuroo pauses in sifting through the bag, holding a box of tea, frozen between pulling it out and he looks at Kenma with wide eyes.
“Uh...” Kuroo says and Kenma suddenly feels embarrassment wash over him as he realizes what he said. “What.... uh, what was that?”
Kenma can take it back, blame it on fever induced insanity or something equally ridiculous. But Kuroo is looking at him with this sort of hopefulness that has Kenma choking on his words a little. He looks so happy at the mere thought that Kenma loved him and so Kenma doubled down, praying he wasn’t, somehow, misreading his friend of almost two decade’s expression.
“I love you,” Kenma repeats, more firm this time, more confident and more meaningful. “I’m in love with you.” He adds so Kuroo couldn’t misunderstand.
Kuroo was quiet for a long moment, swallowing thickly before he set the box of tea down.
“For real?” Kuroo asks, turning so he could more properly face Kenma. “Like this isn’t some sort of sickness induced rambling?”
Kenma huffs and rolls his eyes. “No, dumbass,” Kenma says with all the fondness in the world dripping from his words. “I love you.”
Kenma carefully, hesitantly, meets Kuroo’s eyes, scared, for only a second, that he would find disgust or something worse in his expression. Instead, he feels all the air leave his lungs when he is met with a soft, love stricken expression instead.
It wasn't even a new expression on Kuroo’s face, Kenma realizes. Kuroo had looked at him like this dozens of times and Kenma suddenly feels stupid for not seeing it sooner, for not saying something sooner.
Kuroo looks like he wanted to tackle Kenma, pull him into a hug, kiss him maybe, but he can’t, because Kenma was sick.
So instead, he just sits on Kenma’s bed, wide eyed staring at him while his hands clench and unclench at his side.
Any fears Kenma had about Kuroo not feeling the same are squashed in seconds as Kuroo continues to just stare at him with flushed cheeks and that soft, open expression.
Kenma nudges his thigh with his foot and a pointed gaze.
“You’re supposed to say something back,” Kenma says teasingly, a grin stretching across his lips.
“I love you too,” The words fall from Kuroo’s lips like they were racing to be free. Kenma grins even wider at that and reaches a hand out for Kuroo, who takes it instantly and intertwines their fingers. “Why- Why now?”
“Hinata told me I should ask you out,” Kenma informs. “I was scared you wouldn’t feel the same but- I mean, Kuro, you just- You care about me so much. I can feel it.”
Kuroo smiles wide, boyishly charming as he leaned in a little.
“You can feel it?” Kuroo asks with a gleam in his eyes. “I must really love you then, huh?”
“I don’t know how I never realised,” Kenma admits as he suddenly thinks over their entire friendship again .
He thinks of how Kuroo would always reach out to him, always seek out his touch in one form or another. How whenever something exciting happened, Kuroo would always tell Kenma immediately, as if to share the excitement. How Kuroo would always compliment him with a bright smile but get flustered whenever Kenma complimented him.
The love Kuroo had for Kenma bled out into everything he did, everything he said, that Kenma feels a little blind about it now.
“I didn’t want you to know,” Kuroo mumbles, a little embarrassed. “I was okay with us staying friends, I didn’t want to lose you.”
“I didn’t want to lose you ,” Kenma echoes back and he squeezes Kuroo’s hand. “But it’s okay.”
“It’s more than okay,” Kuroo said with a grin. “I have a boyfriend now.”
Kenma flushes at that, turning his face away and Kuroo’s grin grows sharp.
“Awww, do you like being called my boyfriend?” Kuroo teases and Kenma put a hand on his face, shoving him back a little.
“I will break up with you,” Kenma threatens, and Kuroo laughs loudly at that, shaking his head with a fond look.
“Is this my life now?” Kuroo asks with a huge smile. “You’ll threaten to break up with my everytime I annoy you?”
“Yes,” Kenma informs him, dead serious and Kuroo laughs again and it’s music to Kenma’s ears.
Kuroo goes to lean in for a kiss then and Kenma shoves his face away again.
“I’m sick .” Kenma reminds him and Kuroo pouts at him.
“I don’t care ,” Kuroo tells him, leaning in a little again. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to kiss you.”
Kenma swallows at the intensity in Kuroo’s words and they’ll definitely have to talk about that later because now Kenma is curious about how long Kuroo has loved him. Been in love with him.
But right now, Kenma bites the inside of his cheek as Kuroo slowly moves a little closer.
“Fine,” Kenma says. “But if you get sick it’s not my fault.”
“I won’t get sick,” Kuroo insists. “My immune system is a beast.”
“Shut up,” Kenma laughs with an eye roll. “Come here.”
Kema reaches up and rests his hand on the back of Kuroo’s neck, pulling him down and Kuroo falls into him, their lips flush against each other.
Kenma sighs into the kiss as Kuroo takes the lead, their lips moving gently against each other. Kuroo rests a hand on Kenma’s chin, gently tilting his head as he deepens the kiss and they languidly kiss each other on Kenma’s bed for what feels like hours.
Kenma is regretting not confessing earlier, they could have been kissing this entire damn time if he hadn’t been so nervous .
And for what? Kuroo never would have left him, never would have ignored him.
Kenma knew that now, he knew it then too, but his own fears had stopped him.
It doesn’t matter though, it doesn’t matter how long it took him to get here, he was here now. In his bedroom, in his bed, kissing his childhood best friend of 13 years.
They kiss and they kiss and they kiss until Kuroo suddenly pulled away with wide eyes.
“Wait, was this why Hinata asked Kageyama out?!” Kuroo asks and Kenma stares at him wide eyed for a second before he bursts into laughter.
“I can’t believe you’re thinking about them right now,” Kenma says through his giggles.
“Is it though?!” Kurro asks, genuinely curious and so Kenma nods and Kuroo shakes his head. “Ugh, they’re so stupid.”
“Tell me about it,” Kenma jokes and he smiles warmly at Kuroo with a soft smile. “We kind of are too.”
“Were,” Kuroo corrects. “We got here eventually.”
“I’m glad,” Kenma admits shyly. He wasn’t great at the whole touchy-feely thing, but with Kuroo, he was always willing to try something new. “I was scared.”
“Me too,” Kuroo adds quietly. “It’s okay now.”
“More than okay.”
They reconnect their lips and continue kissing and any fears, worries or concerns either of them ever had wash away.
They love each other, they care about each other and they’re dating now. It doesn’t matter if Kuroo pined for years, it doesn’t matter if Kenma didn’t realise his feelings for ages, they were together now and that was all that mattered.
And if you asked Kuroo in a week if getting sick was worth it, he’ll grin and boast that it was, it was more than worth it.
