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It was the first week of university and Bokuto was extremely excited to do his first chemistry experiment. Unfortunately he had been partnered with an asshole that kept muttering about how much he hated chemistry. Bokuto sighed, even his mindless optimism was hard to muster in the face of such extreme negativity.
“Dude, if you hate chemistry so much why are you taking it,” he finally turned to the strange man. The guy turned to him, his eyes widened slightly in surprise, as though he hadn’t realised he’d been talking aloud. Bokuto had to admit he was pretty hot, taller than himself with some good solid muscles. Despite his apparent attractiveness, it was the man’s hair that made him stand out: it was messy and all over the place, standing at an almost vertical degree and made him appear even taller. Bokuto vowed to eventually ask him how he got it to stand so erect, (as he was constantly struggling with getting his the way he wanted it) and to never mention how much he’d love to pull on it.
“My dad wants to me to take it,” the guy said with a shrug and wow did this guy have a nice voice, all low and rumbly, “I would prefer to be doing some kind of creative arts unit, like writing.”
“So do that, you’re kinda killing my buzz here bro,” Bokuto said as he turned back to their joined experiment. It was some sort of chemical reaction, mix specific amounts of substances together and wait for it to change colour but theirs didn't seem to be changing, just bubbling slightly. He looked around and saw that everybody else’s was turning the appropriate colour and felt a little disheartened, his hair visibly deflated a bit. The other boy seemed to notice the change in demeanour and also looked around at the different experiments.
“Maybe we measured incorrectly?” he pondered as he brought the bottle of one of the elements up closer, intending to add more. Bokuto snapped his hand out to stop him.
“What are you doing? Of course I measured it correctly,” he said, “we just need to wait a bit longer.” The other guy looked a little incredulous.
“Its no big deal, I’ll just add a little bit more,” he attempted to wrestle his hand from the other boy’s but his grip was too strong, “oy, let go of me you brute.”
Bokuto clenched tighter and the other boy groaned.
“Seriously?” he whined as he once again attempted to move his arm, “how strong are you? Is every day arm day? Let me see your biceps.”
They both wrestled over the mixture for a bit until the inevitable happened and they spilled the entire mixture into their experiment. Both stared in disbelief as the mixture bubbled and eventually overflowed with an angry hissing noise.
They were both silent for the 10 seconds it took for them to register exactly what had just happened before they both turned on each other.
“What the hell?!” Bokuto practically shouted into the other guy’s face, “you ruined our experiment! Don’t sabotage me because you can’t talk to your parents!”
“Um, how dare you?” the guy replied, “that was obviously you! I was going to measure it correctly until you decided to pour it all in with your brutish strength!”
Bokuto growled in response and started to lunge at the guy, who just stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before regaining his composure.
“Oh and of course you would want to fight mister I-live-in-the-gym,” he taunted, because apparently he had no sense of self preservation “Better throw the first punch then, make it a good one. You know I’m just itching for a reason to get kicked out of this class!”
Bokuto paused for a moment, for all that people thought he was dumb he definitely was not, he knew that if he punched first he could potentially get kicked out of university while this guy could claim self defense. He had to get the other guy to hit first.
“Nah man, you. I wouldn’t wanna mess up your stupid face, although you’ve done a good job partially covering it with that stupid hair” okay so he wasn’t stupid but he wasn't entirely clever enough to come up with a taunt that would get the other guy to hit first. This was about as creative as he got but judging from the other guy’s reaction of reeling back in shock it was apparently enough. The other guy rammed forward, pressing their chests together.
“Come on,” he taunted, “strike me first bird breath!”
Bokuto growled again and pressed back with equal force.
“Strike first!” he snarled.
“No, you!” the other guy replied.
“Get a room already, you both know neither of you is going to actually hit the other,” came a random voice from somewhere else in the room. Both boys immediately redirected their anger towards the random person.
“You wanna go?!” they shouted nearly simultaneously.
“Both of you need to sit down now and restart this experiment!” shouted the tutor from where they had been ignoring everything up the front. Both boys sombred immediately and sat down quietly for a moment before Bokuto broke the silence.
“Do you really think I smell like a bird?” he asked quietly. The other guy sighed and shook his head.
“Nah man, but your hair looks kinda like an owl, which is pretty cool to be honest,” he replied then paused for a moment, “Do you really think my hair is stupid?” Bokuto shook his head.
“Nah, I was going to ask you how you got it to stand so tall before you ruined our experiment,” he answered honestly, purposefully omitting the other part of his previous musings.
“It’s all natural,” the other guy said with a laugh, “and I’m sorry about the experiment. Its not fair of me to drag your grade down because I don't care about this class.”
“It was partially my fault,” Bokuto admitted with a shake of his head, “although I do think you should talk to your parents.”
The other guy sighed.
“I know,” he said and extended a hand, “Kuroo Tetsuro” he said by way of greeting. Bokuto grabbed the offered hand.
“Bokuto Koutaro,” he replied, then paused for a moment before adding, “did you mean what you said about my arms? Because I really have been working on them lately…”
Kuroo started laughing softly and Bokuto joined in. Pretty soon both of them had their heads thrown back in a loud laughter and were once again asked to be quiet by their tutor and Bokuto decided that maybe this guy wasn’t as much of an asshole as he had previously thought.
--
Kuroo’s phone rang just as he stopped his car, he sighed, picked it up and answered it while making sure it was a good 30 centimetres from his ear as he mentally prepared for the screaming.
“Are you there yet?!” came Bokuto’s panicked voice through the line. He sighed.
“Yes I just arrived,” he responded as he started climbing out of his car, making sure he had his wallet and keys.
“Do they have any left??” his new friend practically screamed through the receiver.
“I don’t know Bokuto, I haven’t gotten in the door yet,” he responded as slowly walked towards the entrance, deciding taking his time would be the best way to annoy his newest study partner.
They had “paper scissors rock”’d to decide who had to make the trip down to 7/11 to acquire snacks for their last minute cram session. Kuroo had won but had still managed to get roped into going out at 1am on a Friday morning, this was also the third 7/11 he’d been too as the other two had run out of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and the Slurpee flavours had been unacceptable.
“Well hurry up! We need to study!” shouted Bokuto and Kuroo decided that hanging up on him would be the best course of action as walked in the entrance. Un surprisingly, he was the only person in the shop apart from the guy working and man did that guy look angry.
“Good Evening,” the man said, his pleasant greeting at complete odds with the angry look on his face. Seriously, what had he done?
“Evening,” said Kuroo as he made his way directly to the doughnuts, noticing with glee that there were three left, meaning he could go straight back to Bokuto’s after this and not have to worry about any more unexpected stops. He was sending a quick text to Bokuto as the door chimed, signalling another person had walked in. He heard the employees stunted greeting behind him and shook his head as he started grabbing doughnuts and putting them into the bag. When he was done he turned around and started heading towards the Slurpee machine, praying that the flavours would be “acceptable” for Bokuto’s refined taste but also not really caring at this point as he had already vowed that this was his last stop, it didn't matter if the flavours were “boring”, Bokuto could deal with the simplicity of raspberry and cola.
That was when he noticed the other person in the store. He was tall, taller than Kuroo, but looming a little, as though he was making an effort to not be visible despite his height being a dead giveaway of his presence. He was also wearing a hat and sunglasses (at midnight??) and looked as though he was about to rob the place. Their eyes caught for a moment and Kuroo realised that he was actually wearing regular glasses beneath the sunglasses. He started laughing at the ridiculousness of this guy and the guy sent him a glare. Kuroo was about to alert the store worker to this strange guy in his shop when a phone out the back rang, both the customers looked to the register as the guy walked out to the back of the store.
“What are you doing?” asked Kuroo, “because you look like you’re about to rob this place.” The tall guy sighed.
“I’m not about to rob a 7/11,” the guy said with a sneer.
“Oh really? Then what else are you doing at one at 1am on a Friday morning, wearing a hat and sunglasses,” asked Kuroo, “over the top of your regular glasses might I add. Which just looks ridiculous honestly.”
“I’m not here to rob the place,” the guy said with a scowl, “I’m just here to break the Slurpee machine.”
Kuroo looked between the guy and the Slurpee machine, trying to make sense of this surreal situation.
“What?” he asked intelligibly, “why?”
“Because I hate the guy who works here,” the guy responded with complete seriousness. Kuroo gaped.
“So you’re going to…. Inconvenience him slightly?” he asked incredulously, “and possibly get him fired? What did he ever do to you?”
“I work with him,” responded the other guy, making no effort to elaborate.
“Here? At a 7/11?” Kuroo looked the guy up and down, he didn't seem the type to work at a 7/11, the guy didn't look like the kind to work at all honestly.
“No, at a restaurant,” the guy responded.
“And he’s, what? Not allowed to have two jobs? Why do you want to get him fired from here?” Kuroo felt like he was missing something. The other guy seemed to be getting exasperated.
“I wouldn't be getting him fired, it’s honestly just a matter of time anyway. He’s completely useless. I don't even know how he manages to breathe at the level of stupid he operates on,” the guy sneered. Kuroo looked over to the guy, who had returned from his phone call now, and back to this strange man.
“He doesn’t look too bad,” he commented.
“Oh no, he’s actually adorable sometimes. Which makes it a million times more infuriating!” the guy complained. Kuroo thought he might be understanding it slightly now.
“…So you have a crush on this guy,” he stated and the guy reeled back in horror and gagged slightly.
“Oh hell no, have you not been listening to me at all? He’s actually the worst. Besides he has a boyfriend and a girlfriend and they’re all sickeningly cute.” He stated.
“So you’re friends?” Kuroo was confused again.
“Yes!” the other guy nearly yelled, “no… sort of. We went to high school together. This is honestly just a friendly taunt.”
“Where he loses his job?” Kuroo asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes,” the guy confirmed.
“Wow,” Kuroo was nearly speechless, “You don't have many friends do you?”
“Shut up,” the guy scowled, “I’m a fucking delight. Now are you going to help me or not?”
Kuroo considered for a moment. Looking the guy up and down he was pretty hot, maybe hanging out with him for a bit wouldn’t be torture. Bokuto could wait. He nodded.
“Sure thing, but let me get a drink first. Also can I get your name?” he asked with a wink, “and possibly your phone number. For future prank purposes of course.”
The guy looked at him incredulously and shook his head.
“Absolutely not.” He laughed. Kuroo shrugged.
“Worth a shot,” he said and the guy raised an eyebrow.
“Was it really though?”
--
He saw the light turn yellow just a little way ahead of him and decided to play it safe by slamming on the breaks, or it should’ve been the safe option, had the person driving the pizza delivery car behind him not been going 20km over the speed limit and paying more attention, so as to not crash into the back of him. Kuroo screamed and got out of his car, ready to absolutely throttle whoever was in the other car.
He walked over to see the most beautiful man he’d ever seen in his entire life.
Black curls and pale skin, and the longest eyelashes he’d ever seen, was this guy wearing mascara? Kuroo momentarily forgot what had happened, as he wasn't sure if he wanted to punch this man or kiss him, but a brief glance at his wrecked bumper broke him free from the spell as he remembered just how much of an asshole this guy was.
“What the hell was that?” he demanded, “the light was red, that generally means stop!”
“Actually the light was yellow,” responded the guy coolly, “generally that means you go faster so you can make it through.”
“Not when there’s a car in front of you it doesn’t!” Kuroo screamed, the guy hadn’t even bothered to get out of his car; he just looked around him boredly as though Kuroo was merely a slight inconvenience rather than the guy he just hit with his work car.
“You aren’t supposed to stop so suddenly,” said the man, “its dangerous, what if there’d been a truck behind you?”
“There wasn’t a truck behind me! Just you, going 80 in a residential area,” seethes Kuroo. The guy sighed.
“I got lost on the way to the house,” he muttered quietly, “I was trying to make up for lost time. The Pizza was getting cold.” Kuroo nearly laughed at the lame excuse.
“Oh I’m sorry, I forgot that warm pizza is more important than road rules, or my car being in one piece, or my life!”
“Don’t be dramatic, its barely a graze, I can see your car has worse from here,” the guy said with a sigh, “definitely not worth me losing my job over. Can I go now?”
“Give me your details first,” said Kuroo, getting his phone out of his pocket. The guy blanched at him.
“What,” he says eloquently, all previous coolness seemed to dissipate. Kuroo gestured to his car.
“You rear ended me,” he said, “I need your details so your insurance can cover the damage.” The guy scoffed.
“You’re seriously doing this? Its barely a scrape, you’re not going to get it fixed,” he said with unwavering certainty.
“Well maybe I just want the compensation,” he said with a shrug, “for my time and the years you just took off my life with that, so give me your name Pretty boy.”
The guy raised an eyebrow.
“Is that meant to be an insult?” he asked, “because it didn't really sound like one.”
“Look just because you are physically flawless doesn’t mean I like you,” he replied, still fiddling with his phone. The guy looked jut stared.
“Was that a Pitch Perfect reference?” he asked incredulously, “are you… trying to hit on me right now? Is that what's happening?”
Kuroo scoffed.
“In your dreams, beautiful. Now give me your phone number so I can get a load off of you,” the guy raised an eyebrow again at the choice of wording and Kuroo hurried to correct himself, “Of your money! Stop doing this.” The guy sighed.
“Fine. My name is Tanaka, Ryunosuke Tanaka,” the guy said as he wrote what was most likely a fake number down on a pad of paper and handed it over, “can I go now?”
Kuroo squinted at the guy incredulously as he anxiously tried to get away. Was he for real?
“Okay, well now I know you’re just an asshole you impeccable little shit,” damn he really needed to stop accidentally complimenting this guy, “because I know that guy and he’s actually really nice.”
“It's a small world, there could be more than one of us,” he said with a small shrug.
“So if I call this number right now it’ll be your phone ringing,” he said as he gestured towards the iphone sitting in the cup holder beside the still unnamed man, it was plugged into an Aux cord playing some sort of heavy metal softly over the speakers.
“Yes,” said the guy, his face completely unchanging.
“That phone right there?”
“Yes.”
Damn this guy had a good poker face.
“Okay,” shrugged Kuroo as he reached for his phone and pretended to start calling someone.
“Wait!” said the guy with a groan, he snatched Kuroo’s phone from him and entered a number. Kuroo pressed ‘call’ and the low death metal stopped briefly while the call was made.
“Thank you! Now I best be getting back. That's a long row of angry cars behind us,” said Kuroo as he walked towards his car, “You’re free to go win a runway pageant or whatever it is you do in your free time.”
Kuroo got back into his car and sat down, he turned the engine back on and turned on some Halsey: he needed the motivation to do something gutsy right now. The light turned green and he stayed still, not moving his car at all despite the beeping coming from the beautiful man’s car. He just smirked and wound down his window, the light turned yellow and he sped off at the last second, leaving the man with a newly turned red and no way of going through without definitely running one. He held his arm out the window and gave the man the middle finger. When he got to his location he got out of the car and opened up a new chat with the previously called number.
“Turns out yellow lights are for going!” he sent to his new contact.
“I fucking hate you,” was the only response.
“Love you too Ryu” he sent back with a few kissy face emojis.
--
The distance reached a kilometre and Akaashi groaned, let go of the bar and leaned back. He had just joined this gym and was trying out all of the different equipment, he had determined that he wasn't a fan of the rowing machine, but had wanted to make it at least a kilometre before calling it quits. He leant back and took a drink from his water, and pulled out his ipod from where it was tucked into his shorts. It was sweaty and gross so he wiped the screen before taking his time to choose the right song. He liked to listen to Breaking Benjamin while working out: the dramatic lyrics made him feel somewhat powerful. He was distracted for a while picking out the perfect song, so he didn't notice when somebody set their things down on the treadmill in front of him until he looked up and was eye level with somebody’s well toned butt.
Akaashi just kind of stared for a while as the guy attached to the butt started a slow jog. Akaashi ran his eyes over the guy’s body, taking in his solid back muscles and toned arms: he also had really cute white and black hair that stuck up at the back. Another guy with great muscles appeared on the treadmill besides hot-gym-guy and also started a jog. He had to check himself to make sure he wasn't drooling as the first guy picked up his pace on the treadmill.
“About time you got here,” the first guy addressed the newcomer. Akaashi noted that he also had a really nice voice and that the cockiness behind the statement was a bit of a turn on too. The new comer was taller than the first guy, also toned and hot, but with dark hair that stood straight upwards.
“Its okay,” said the new guy and damn his voice was hot too, “I figured I’d better let you get a head start.”
Both of them glared at each other and immediately set their machines to a higher difficulty. Akaashi noticed that the first guy had already started sweating slightly, his arms were glistening and Akaashi struggled to maintain his thirst. He figured the best course of action was to continue with the rowing so as to look less suspicious as he continued staring at the two guys. He decided that the rowing machine was probably pretty good: he could work on his back muscles.
By now the two men in front of him were sweating considerably, they kept glaring at each other and upping their speeds while Akaashi just looked on in amazement, thanking every God he could think of for this wonderful gift.
Both men were visibly tiring at this point but both were completely unwilling to concede defeat.
“That’s it,” said the first guy, “I am going to have to bring out my final form!”
“Oh ho ho?” said the second guy, “well two can play at that game!”
Before Akaashi could blink both guys had turned the dials of their machines until they both were on the maximum level. Akaashi gaped and dropped the bars of his machine as both of them ran full speed on the treadmills, sweat was flying and Akaashi could not look away.
Inevitably, one of the two of them tripped. Akaashi couldn’t say for sure which one it was because everything was happening so fast, but one of them fell and went sideways, somehow managing to crash into the one as they both went tumbling to the ground. He wasn't entirely sure how they managed to stumble so catastrophically, but both of them were sprawled on the ground beside him and Akaashi absolutely could not maintain his laugher. It rang throughout the entire gym and both of the guys looked up at him in shock. He tried to hold it in, as tears streamed down his face from how hard he was laughing, ever since he ad been a kid he had absolutely hated his laugh. It was too high pitched; his cousins had made fun of him, saying he sounded like a dolphin. Through his tears he took him their surprised faces, and noted that both of them were extremely handsome as well, especially the one with the black and white hair. He stared at Akaashi with an expression that can only be described as wonder, his eyes were sparkling and his mouth was open wide.
“Dude I think I’m in love,” Akaashi thought he heard him say to his friend, but couldn’t be certain over the sound of his own laughter.
He finally settled down and just stared at the two of them with a slight hiccough. He noticed with embarrassment that most people in the gym were staring at him by this point and blushed slightly. The two guys just gaped at him more.
“I’m really really sorry,” he managed to breathe out, “that was just too good.”
“Don’t be sorry!” spluttered out the white haired guy, “that was beautiful. You’re beautiful. Did you know I love your laugh?”
The other guy just laughed at his friend slightly, and muttered out a quiet “smooth man” which earned him a punch from the guy on top of him. He scowled and looked away.
Akaashi blinked and blushed twice as hard.
“Ahh um,” he said intelligibly. The white haired guy in front of him’s face somehow managed to double in cheerfulness at Akaashi’s blush, the other guy just looked at Akaashi scrutinisingly.
“Wait do I know you?” asked the dark haired man at the same time that the other guy asked him “Will you marry me?” in all seriousness. Akaashi just gaped at both of them. The dark haired guy just looked exasperated.
“That’s not how you’re supposed to… ugh” he groaned, “will you get off me now?”
Both of them scrambled to get up and Akaashi was grateful that their gazes were off of him now.
“What’s your name? My name is Bokuto!” said the first guy after they’d stood up, “this is Kuroo, I wasn't serious about the marriage thing by the way. Unless you actually want to, in which case I was one thousand percent serious.
Bokuto laughed nervously as Kuroo rolled his eyes and stared at Akaashi. Akaashi felt nervous under the weight of his stare, on closer inspection the guy did look really familiar but he couldn't even focus on that while Bokuto was staring at his so earnestly.
“Um, maybe a date first?” Akaashi tried and the guy’s smile somehow doubled in brightness. His fist shot in the air and he looked as though he had just been given a prestigious award. Akaashi had to look away for a moment, a small smile on his face. Suddenly Kuroo’s face lit up in recognition and he pointed an accusatory finger at Akaashi.
“It’s you!” he spluttered, “You’re that asshole!”
Akaashi looked up in shock, a little taken aback and Bokuto just looked at Kuroo like he had just kicked a puppy In front of him.
“What?” asked Akaashi but Kuroo had already turned away from him and towards Bokuto.
“This is that asshole I told you about! The one that hit my car!” all of a sudden the memories from that night came rushing back to Akaashi in full force.
“You made me lose my job!” he said to Kuroo in an angry tone, Kuroo just gaped at him.
“You crashed into my car???” he said with exasperation.
Bokuto just stared between the two of them in shock, looking from one to the other.
“You kept me at that light for about ten years,” accused Akaashi, “those cars behind me were relentless with their beeping!”
“There is literally a huge dent in the back of my car now,” replied Kuroo.
“Only because you don’t know how to drive,” muttered Akaashi.
Bokuto just stared between them and started laughing, both turned towards him.
“Who even cares?” he said between laughs, “can we just go back to working out?”
“NO!” both angrily said at the same time. Bokuto looked stunned.
“…are we still on for that date?” he asked in a small voice. Akaashi smiled.
“No!” shouted Kuroo at the same time Akaashi said “yes”.
--
Akaashi self-consciously tugged his shirt up, Bokuto had been a little over eager on the hickeys and his neck was covered in marks. He hadn’t wanted to leave the house, preferring instead to lounge around with half a tube of toothpaste slathered over his skin -he wasn’t quite sure if it was effective but Kuroo had sighed dramatically and practically thrown it at him upon first seeing them, all the while muttering about how he was rubbing his singleness in his face, which only made him more self conscious honestly- but Bokuto had wanted Chinese food and Akaashi had lost the rock paper scissors fight (which had gone on for at least ten rounds as they insisted on best 4 out of 7), so here he was, standing out the front of their favourite restaurant in the early autumn chill that wasn't quite cold enough to warrant a scarf to cover these outrageous hickeys, when he first saw him.
He was tall, with blonde hair and glasses. He obviously worked at the Chinese restaurant Akaashi was about to go in, as he was wearing a traditional style shirt that looked like It did nothing to protect him from the chill.
“How does this look?” he asked without turning around.
Akaashi was struck by the sudden question and had a look at the board; it was very poorly done he had to admit. There were different colours all across the board, the black looked okay but for some reason rather than going over the green text in a green marker the man was using a blue one, making a weird mesh of them both. Akaashi opted not to say anything and allowed the man to keep talking to him.
“Like, we didn't have any more green markers, so I figured I’d just go over it in blue,” ah that explained that then, “and now it's a little multitonal, which is not too awful I guess? Like, is it readable?” the man asked as he scrutinised his own work. Akaashi stared for a moment before answering.
“Its definitely readable,” he answered, “I doubt you’d have a struggle unless you were like, green blue colour blind or something.” The man squinted again.
“Is that common?” he asked and Akaashi shrugged.
“I don't know, I’m not colour blind.” The man scrutinised his work some more.
“Does it look okay?” Akaashi paused for a moment before answering, trying to be as tactful as possible.
“It looks… okay. Definitely okay,” he settled on. The guy sighed.
“Damn,” he said, “better try again.”
Akaashi was very confused at this point., this man didn't strike him as a perfectionist. Why would he care if it was less than okay?
“Its readable, I think it’s fine. No need to do it again,” he reassured, although it really wasn’t that great. The man groaned.
“No, I need it to be awful enough that my boss either fires me or just never asks me to do this again. Preferably the former.” He said.
“You… want to be fired?” asked Akaashi. The guy nodded.
“Yeah, I hate this job. I’ve been doing this for about an hour now, what kind of restaurant needs eight specials boards? That’s just excessive. And why do all of them need to be darker? Just get someone else to rewrite them.”
“Why not just quit then?” the guy shook his head.
“Can’t do that. Yamaguchi would get mad at me. Gotta get fired.”
“Then why not do something completely outrageous? I have it on good authority that taking a nap in the back room and crashing the company car is very likely to get you fired. Why do something as silly as write a sign badly? Go big or go home you know,” questioned Akaashi but the guy shook his head again.
“It’s gotta be over something silly, it has to look like its not my fault at all, that its just my boss being ridiculous, or Yama will know,” he sounded bitter when he said this, Akaashi wasn’t sure he ever wanted to meet this “Yama” fellow, he sounded intense.
“Ah well good luck with that then,” said Akaashi as he motioned to get through, suddenly remembering that he was here for a reason other than to talk to this weird stranger.
The guy seemed startled by Akaashi’s sudden jostling to get past him. He finally turned around to regard him with wide eyes. The guy stared at his face intently for a few moments before his gaze travelled across his body. Akaashi felt uncomfortable as the guy very obviously checked him out before his eyes landed on the hickeys along Akaashi’s neck and just stayed there.
“Were you mauled by a bear?” he blurted out. Akaashi narrowed his eyes. This guy had absolutely no tact: he and Kuroo would probably get on famously. He wondered if he was single.
“Yeah well, you should see the other guy,” he muttered as he forced his way past. Leaving the guy to gape at his back in wonder.
--
Tsukishima is so drunk.
He had vague memories of skulling a bottle of Passionpop with Yamaguchi (were they 16??) before coming to this event and taking full advantage of the free punch behind the bar.
The party was a dress up one with cartoon and comic book characters as the theme. Yamaguchi had somehow convinced him to be the Captain America to his Bucky, so he currently wore a (very cheap) mask and a pizza tin painted like a shield, while Yamaguchi rocked the eyeliner and fake arm he’d made. He amazingly had not lost his shield just yet, even if the paint was smudging a bit. He was just sober enough to snigger at the idea of the probably-not-as-dry-as-it-should-be paint rubbing onto someone. He hoped it was Kageyama, as he sent a glare to where he was, dressed as Ash Ketchum with Yachi as Misty and Hinata as Pikachu (that tail looked so soft, he wanted to pet it a little bit). He shook his head and glanced over at some other party guests.
Most people had opted to dress up as various comic book characters, most DC but he could count at least three Spidermen: there was one other Captain America but he was secure in the knowledge that he looked cuter, so it was all fine.
He had just decided to get himself another drink when a large pair of horns distracted him. They towered above his head a little bit, being as tall as he was, this was an extremely rare occurrence, he giggled a little bit at the strangeness of it all. Upon hearing his giggle, the man attached to the horns turned around to him, throwing Tsukishima off guard. This guy was…. Hot… like… really hot, and his Loki costume was incredible but there was something about him that looked familiar. Tsukishima mentally brushed it off when he realised that the guy was talking to him and he had no idea what he’d just said.
“I’m sorry what was that?” he asked in the soberest voice he could muster. The guy smirked in response.
“I was just commenting that it was nice to see you here Captain,” the guy had leaned in slightly and practically purred out the “captain”, “are you feeling horny?”
Tsukishima just gaped, grateful for the fact that his cheap mask covered his cheeks because they would undoubtedly be red right now because his body’s natural reaction to alcohol was to flush his cheeks. Definitely not because of this awful guy with terrible hair and even worse pick up lines.
“I’ll fight you,” responded Tsukishima and cursed himself for pausing so long, blaming the alcohol for his inability to come up with a good response.
The guy’s eyebrows furrowed upon hearing his voice and he looked like he was about to ask something when the guy he had obviously previously been talking to turned around and wrapped an arm around his neck.
“Hey hey hey!” said the guy loudly, he was wearing an Akatsuki cloak and a Naruto headband on his head, Tsukishima couldn’t work out exactly which character he was supposed to be, as he didn't really resemble any of them and he couldn’t work out exactly which village symbol was on the headband.
The guy dressed as Loki turned and smiled at his other companion and Tsukishima swallowed slightly. These two looked really good together. He hadn’t noticed immediately but the random Naruto character had a really sweet smile and wild eyes, he also looked like he might’ve lived in a gym.
Tsukishima suddenly felt like he might’ve had too much to drink but was reluctant to sit down and end the conversation with these two (incredibly attractive) guys. He looked at how close they were standing and blamed the alcohol for how he proceeded to squeeze himself into the gap between them and put his arms around them both.
“I am incredibly sorry about this,” he said in response to their sudden surprised expressions, “you guys are incredibly cute together and I hate to come between you, but I don’t want to sit down and just need to be supported right now.”
Loki just smirked down at him with a slight shrug while the other guy’s eyes suddenly widened, as though he had just had an amazing idea.
“Dude, you need to jump!” he said, a little too loudly for Tsukishima’s taste.
“What,” he asked intelligibly but the other guy was nodding.
“Yes, definitely jump,” he said.
“That… doesn’t seem like a good idea,” answered Tsukishima truthfully, thinking about his stomach but the Naruto guy just shook his head.
“We’ll catch you,” he said, “so jump!”
Tsukishima looked between his two new companions, he was worried that he would weigh a lot but after noting that both of their backs felt very solid underneath his arms he determined that they must be athletes and nodded his head.
What was the worst that could happen? He thought as he jumped up. Immediately he felt Loki let him go completely and wondered entirely how intelligent this idea had been for a second before he felt Naruto-guy’s arm grab under his leg, fully supporting him in the air. He was shocked as this guy lifted him up like he was nothing and started spinning him around. He was absolutely terrified of falling and concerned about his stomach but it was so much fun. He started laughing and couldn’t stop himself, he leaned back onto the guy and felt his mask slip from his face and fall to the ground. He had to hit Naruto guy’s shoulder a couple of times to make him stop and put him down because he was laughing so much. He noticed the guy was kind of just staring at him at this point and tried to contain his laughter. He managed to keep his laugher down but couldn’t do anything about the smile.
“Okay, that was a lot of fun,” he conceded and the guy’s face broke into a massive grin, “and I could probably go another drink.”
He turned to the bar and saw that Loki had been joined by another guy dressed up as Velma from Scooby Doo. He was beautiful as well (was there some sort of conspiracy here?), with long eye lashes and curly dark hair, his legs looked amazing in the short orange skirt he was wearing.
“Do I know you?” he questioned as Velma handed him back his mask and Loki gasped.
“It’s you!” he screeched and Tsukishima winced.
“What?” he asked intelligibly, wondering why all these people were so loud.
“You’re the 7/11 guy!” Loki said with certainty. Tsukishima stared at him in puzzlement for a few moments before it finally clicked in his alcohol addled brain exactly who he was talking to.
“You’re the one who helped me mess with Kageyama,” he said, “thanks for that.”
“Wait Kuroo, you know this guy?” asked Naruto guy in wonder.
“Yeah I know him too,” said Velma, “you work at the Chinese place right?”
Tsukishima immediately scowled when he remembered his part time job. Velma looked at him sympathetically.
“I take it you haven’t been fired yet then?” he asked and Tsukishima shook his head in wonder as he finally worked out how he knew this guy.
“You’re the hickey guy,” he said in wonder and groaned, “I need so much more alcohol than I already have.”
Naruto guy was just staring between them all in shock.
“Wait so you all know each other but I don't?” he asked, sounding offended, “that’s hardly fair!”
‘It’s okay,” said Kuroo with certainty as he put his arm around Tsukishima, “I won’t let him get away without giving me his name and number this time.”
Tsukishima just sighed and wondered where on earth Yamaguchi had gone but figured it probably couldn’t hurt to have a couple of drinks with these strange new people.