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Au info: This is the third fic in this AU but the other parts aren’t necessary to this one. Kurona and Kiyora do make multiple cameos in part 2. This is the Blue lock was in debt so to pay off their debt the Blue lock boys had to stay in Japan and play on college teams for 4 years AU…basically a college Au that takes place after Blue lock.
Tokyo school 1
Isagi, Rin, Reo, Nagi, Nanase
Tokyo school 2
Shidou, Bachira, Karasu, Otoya, Gagamaru, Aiku
Outside of Tokyo school 1:
Hiori, Kurona, Barou, Kiyora, Aryu
Kyoto school:
Chigiri, Kunigami, Tokimitsu, Raichi
Also Hiori and Kurona are roomates (part 2 of the AU explains why) and Kiyora and Aryu are roommates.
—- Love warning —-
BEEP
BEEP
BEEP
A voice on the intercom announces
“MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!”
“MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!”
“THERE IS AN EMERGENCY IN THE BUILDING! PLEASE EVACUATE AT ONCE!”
BEEP
BEEP
BEEP
A voice on the intercom announces
“MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!”
“MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!”
“THERE IS AN EMERGENCY IN THE BUILDING! PLEASE EVACUATE AT ONCE!”
Kurona had decided he was actually going to go to bed early for once. Clearly the university had different plans for him. It wasn’t just the monthly fire drill but it was the dreaded midnight fire drill that he heard rumors of from the upper class man. Hiori complained “Fuck! I’m in da middle of a match. What the fuck.” Kurona responded “Don’t understand you. You say League of legends is torture but you still play right, right?”
Kurona slowly rolls out of bed as he frantically looks for his keys and ID while braiding his hair. He eventually exits the room and joins the group of people walking down the stairs bonding over their shared hate of the late night fire drill. Hiori says “If I would’ve known there was gonna be a fire drill dis late I would’ve gone out to a bar and got absolutely shit faced instead.” Kurona responded “No, no drunk Yo.”
When Kurona noticed Aryu wasn’t with Kiyora he asked Kiyora “Where’s Aryu, Where’s Aryu?” Kiyora gave him a thousand yard stare for a couple of seconds before responding “Out of town.” Kurona quickly replied in a worried tone “Ok Kiyora, Ok Kiyora? Did you just wake up?” Kiyora gives a slight smile and responds “I’m tired.” Kiyora tried his hardest to have a coherent conversation with Kurona while Hiori tried not to laugh his ass off until the fire alarm finally ended.
Kurona tells Kiyora “stay, stay. Elevator crowded, elevator crowded.” Kiyora lied “It’s ok I can go up 4 flights of stairs. I’m still a soccer player.” Kiyora didn’t know if he was in the state to get up the stairs but really didn’t want to concern his teammate. His sweet and adorable teammate that he didn’t want to cross his borderline and see the more unsavory parts of himself.
Kurona tapped in the spot right next to him and said “sit, sit.” What Kiyora wanted didn’t matter because he could never say no to his sweet and adorable teammate. Kiyora sat next to him using every last bit of his strength to maintain a coherent form of consciousness. Kurona tapped his shoulder and said “lay, lay.” Kiyora’s cognitive functions had gotten to the point where he was crossing borderline.
He grabbed Kurona’s chin and then said “don’t you worry your cute little face about me.” Kurona straight up short circuited and turned red. Before Kiyora could apologize Kurona stood and said “Go, go. You crazy, you crazy. I worry, I worry.” Kiyora thought ‘is he purposely ignoring the cute part or did he really not notice that I accidentally confessed to him.’ It was the latter as Kurona seemed to think that ‘Kiyora lost it. That’s the only reason he would think I’m not mascot cute but romantic cute.’
When they made it to the room, Kurona nonverbally insisted that he was not gonna leave the room until he knew Kiyora was ok. Realizing there was no way Kiyora finally confessed “I’m not sober right now. You don’t need to worry me anymore.” Kurona looked very confused. Kiyora was one of the few Blue Lock players to not drink at occasions where alcohol was available so Kurona assumed Kiyora didn’t drink.
He wasn’t wrong but wasn’t right either. Kiyora continued “I don’t like getting inebriated around others so I only get inebriated alone or when Aryu is in the room.” Kiyora looked slightly guilty and apologized “sorry you had to see me in this state.” Kurona said “bad, bad. Alcohol alone is dangerous, dangerous.” Kiyora could argue in semantics on the substances he was using but Kurona was right.
He never actually had been truly alone when he used. He either had his parents downstairs (of course they didn’t know) or Aryu next to him. Kiyora relented “If you’re worried you can stay. I’m watching a movie right now. I don’t know why I like to watch romance anime when I'm not sober.” Kurona smiled and nodded as Kiyora pulled up his covers for Kurona to lay next to him. Kurona did the impossible, comfortably share a twin XL with another person.
Kurona was a little too comfortable. He accidentally fell asleep.
—- Let me make it up to you —
Aryu arrived quite early in the morning, at least for night owl standards. Kurona woke up at 10 am to the sound of keys rattling in the door and a plop on the floor from a heavy bag. Kiyora had gotten a privacy screen for his ‘alone time’ which meant Aryu had no idea Kurona was in the room. Kurona thought ‘operation leave the room before Aryu finds me has just commenced.’
The operation didn’t last long. Aryu was always a bit worried about Kiyora’s ‘alone time’ so he got in the habit of checking his pulse when he woke up in the morning. He was even more worried since it was the first night he left Kiyora alone. Kurona did not know this fact so he almost jumped when Aryu opened the screen. “Eek, Eek” a startled Kurona blurted out. Aryu was pretty much unphased after a second.
He responded “Glam morning to you Kurona. I didn’t expect seeing you here. ” Kurona immediately apologized “sorry, sorry.” Aryu replied “It’s ok. I should be thanking you. I was kinda worried about leaving him alone.” Kurona admitted “I accidentally slept here, here.” Aryu responds “That makes sense. He does watch TV most times. Anyways want some tea? I just bought some new tea.”
Kurona wasn’t one to turn down simple nice gestures especially when it was something simple like tea. He could just sip tea while others would talk and he could use the tea as an excuse not to talk a lot and listen. Aryu pulled out floor seat cushions and stated “I finally get to use more than 2 of these glam cushions. I haven’t found a good opportunity to invite guests over, yet.”
Kurona listened to Aryu tell him about his trip and life in general for about an hour. Until the topic of Kiyora came up. Aryu explained “He doesn’t say it a lot but Kiyora really likes spending time with you. Any time I ask him about his day, he mentions almost any interaction he had with you that day.” Kurona looked a bit shocked and replied “Wait really, wait really. He’s so unreadable. I don’t understand him.”
Kiyora groggily barked “shut up Aryu.” Kurona was shocked not expecting Kiyora to be awake and apologized “sorry, sorry.” Aryu responded “Good morning sleeping beauty.” (It was almost noon) Kiyora responded “It’s ok I know I’m unreadable. Also don’t worry you didn’t wake me. I’m a deep sleeper especially when I’m not sober” as he sat next to Kurona.
Aryu mentioned “Kiyora doesn’t leave the dorm enough. If you don’t have plans you two should do something glam.” Kiyora defeated himself “I leave the dorm plenty…it’s mostly just for soccer and dance stuff (he’s a dance major).” He sighed and continued “Aryu does have a point, I should make it up to you for accidentally making you take care of me. Want to go get lunch on me, Kurona.” Kurona nodded as he got up and responded “Gotta go, gotta get ready.”
Kurona was beyond excited. He thought ‘I got invited somewhere fun… Well, Hiori invites me to things but that’s because he’s my roommate so he normally asks if I want to come with him when he leaves the dorm…I got invited by Kiyora of all people. He’s always super busy and cool.’ Kurona left Kiyora’s dorm to go get ready.
—-
When Kurona got ready, he headed back to the dorm and knocked on the door. Kiyora opened the door with a towel around his waist and a towel around his wet hair. The sight made Kurona’s eyes wander in ways they never had around Kiyora. Before Kurona could get a good look at his wet hair and chest, Kurona immediately covered his eyes while his face proceeded to turn red. Kurona apologized “sorry, sorry for rushing you.” Kiyora insisted “You’re fine. Give me 10 more minutes then I’ll be ready.
Kurona waited outside processing what he had just witnessed. He thought ‘What’s wrong with you Kurona? First you share a bed with Kiyora and now you can’t get the image of Kiyora in the shower out of your mind. Don’t get your hopes up. He probably sees you as a mascot like everyone else does.’
After 15 minutes Kiyora, walked out in a simple casual outfit and thanked Kurona “I’m ready. Thanks for waiting.” When they left the building, Kiyora asked “Where do you want to go?” Kurona responded with the name of a bakery near campus. They both walked in a comfortable silence till they got to the bakery and ordered their food and drink.
Kiyora broke the silence the way any soccer nerd would, by talking about soccer. Kiyora complimented “You are really adapting to Barou really well. As someone who’s a member of his offense, I know how hard it is to work with him.” Kurona got flustered by the compliment and responded “No, no I’m so behind. He’s too unpredictable for me to fully follow.”
Kiyora insisted “You don’t give yourself enough credit. He actually trusts you enough to pass to you. The same can’t be said for me.” Kurona responded “No, no don’t think like that. You don’t need a pass. You challenge him to make better and more creative plays.” Kiyora took the compliment and they continued talking about soccer until the bakery bell rang.
Kurona announces “Braided bread time, braided bread time.” Kurona wore an expression that Kiyora could only describe as ‘pure joy.’ His pink eyes had grown wider and his focus was consumed by his bread. He looked like a cat about to pounce on an unsuspecting piece of string. Kiyora tried to eat his food but his eyes kept wandering on the adorable man eating bread next to him. It was only when Kurona started to finish his bread, that Kiyora finally was able to make progress in his pastry.
They start talking about their personal lives. “Wait, wait you have 2 siblings. How did I not know this?” Kurona said, wearing an absolutely shocked expression. Kiyora smiled at Kurona’s cute shocked reaction and responded “yep. I’m a middle child.” Kurona looked down and admitted “I’ve been playing with you for so long but I know almost nothing about you.”
Kiyora comforted him “Don’t worry about it. We are both very introverted and have never really hung out outside of soccer.” Kurona made the decision “Let’s hang out again, again.” Kiyora responded “Kay, I will say my dance performances are very sporadic and they love to give me little warning.” Kurona offered “Aryu says that you have ‘alone time’ every week. If it’s not too much I would like to join you. I really enjoyed, enjoyed yesterday.”
Kiyora looked embarrassed as he responded “If you really want to you can. I can’t promise coherent conversations and I do want some actual alone ‘alone time’ from time to time but I’m down for every other week. I’ll try to also hang out with you outside of ‘alone time’.” Kurona nodded and responded “Ok, ok.” As embarrassing as it was for Kiyora to be high around Kurona, he couldn’t say he regretted last night. Kurona cuddling him was more than worth all the embarrassment.
—- Cherry Magical confession —-
About 4 months into their outside of soccer friendship, they were watching a short romance anime like they did every other Friday. Kiyora was sober that day since he claimed he wasn’t gonna use around Kurona because ‘I wanna be present with you and I have next Friday.’ The real reason was a lot more simple. He didn’t need anything when he was perfectly satisfied with cuddling Kurona.
The premise of the show was that whenever you are 30+ years old virgin you are able to read people’s minds when you touch them. Kurona was someone who had always been nervous about how people thought of him, so the idea of this show absolutely captivated him. It captivated him so much that he wanted to try to use the powers on Kiyora. He asked a simple question that was worth a thousand words
“If I touched you what would I hear in your brain?”
Kiyora turned red not knowing whether to be honest. Was he ready to cross the borderline of romance? Kurona tried to backtrack “It’s ok if you don’t want to share.” Kiyora gave a nervous giggle “it’s not that it’s just embarrassing.” He took a pause and continued.
“I’m so happy to be cuddling with my crush. I wish I could kiss him.”
He looked away then continued again “I’m nervous to answer his question because I enjoy spending time with him and I don’t want to ruin it.” Kurona was shocked at Kiyora’s response. He honestly had been expecting him to say something about the show or randomly bring up soccer/dance. Kiyora asked the same question and Kurona hesitated to respond.
He eventually responded “Um…well…before your response I was thinking how I really like the premise of the show. I get really self conscious about how others think about me. I always think that people judge my appearance, especially my teeth or worse, see me as just a cute mascot instead of a person.” He looked Kiyora in the eyes and asked
“Be honest how do you see me?”
Kiyora responded without hesitation
“Someone who I admire that just so happens to be cute.”
He continued “I admire how you always look out for other people and can adapt well to other people. I’m a really stubborn person that tends to get into fights over things that after the fact seem stupid. I know I’m really hard to work with and I try to work on flexibility but I find it very hard. I want to be the one to make the decision to cross a borderline and it’s hard for me to let others make that decision for me. You have a level of trust in the way you play soccer that I admire.”
Before Kiyora could hide his face in embarrassment he noticed Kurona was trying not to cry. Kiyora realized something he saw clear as day was a revelation to Kurona. The idea that a person could genuinely love Kurona as a person was a foreign concept to him. Kiyora wiped the single tear running down Kurona’s eye and told Kurona “You need to be kinder to yourself. You are amazing and the fact it seems like no one has told you is an absolute shame.” He pulled a fully bawling Kurona into his chest and told him
“I love you Kurona.”
Kurona cried in his chest for a good 5 minutes, only taking a break when Kiyora got him water and tissues. Kurona apologized “sorry, sorry for crying so much.” Kiyora smiled and responded “it’s okay.” Kurona hesitantly asked “um…can I kiss you?” Kiyora responded “You can but I would rather wait for a better occasion to share our first kiss together. I want you to have a first kiss with me that is closer to being as special as you are.”
Kurona asked “when, when?” Kiyora responded “give me a second to think.” Kurona apologized “sorry, sorry. I’m happy, I’m happy.” Kiyora smiled and responded “What about after our next game? We can stay an extra day in Tokyo and do anything we want.” Kurona smiled and asked “Can we go to the aquarium?” Kiyora responded “anything for you.”
—- The Kurona effect —
After the Tokyo game…
“Hey Hiori ‘n Kurona, where is everyone else?” Karasu asked as he walked into the area of the stadium both teams could access. Hiori answered “Aryu always takes a while ta get changed. As for Kiyora ‘n Barou…dey are” Kurona responded “fighting, fighting” Hiori air quoted and said “debriefing.” Karasu gave a slight smile and responded “shoulda expected dat. Kiyora does have a habit of gettin inta fights over da smallest things. As for Barou…he’s just Barou”
Hiori continued “It’s their debriefing ritual. Dey are so stubborn it takes someone picking a fight wit them ta admit their shortcomings.” Kurona made a sad face and added “I really wish they didn’t. They get mean and scary, scary.” A moment after Kurona finished his sentence Barou and Kiyora walked in.
“You need to stop thinking you can do everything yourself.” Kiyora insisted. Barou responded “Then get yourself in a better position.” Kiyora bit back “I was in a good position you didn’t even look.” Barou made a low jab “Then eat more greens because you’re too short to see.”
Hiori told Karasu “Yes, dis happens after every game. Just give dem a minute ta get it out of their systems.” Kurona normally let them fight but he was a breaking point and decided that he wasn’t going to listen to bickering anymore . Kurona walked up to them and said “stop, stop.” They were too loud to hear him, which made Kurona annoyed.
Kurona channeled all his emotion and got himself to raise his voice “Stop! Stop!” Kiyora immediately turned his head up and away from Barou then responded “kay.” Karasu stated “dat was easy.” Hiori responded “it’s normal not. I guess that’s the Kurona effect for ya. Honestly, I’m kinda mad I didn’t think of dis sooner.”
Karasu asked “What’s da Kurona effect?” Hiori answered “It’s da idea dat no one can say no ta Kurona. Dat’s da reason why Barou isn’t as rude when talkin ta just Kurona ‘n why Kurona is da only person dat I’ve neva seen Kiyora pick a fight wit.” Karasu nodded to replied “That checks out.”
—- When things don’t go as planned —-
Lucky for Kiyora and Kurona, Hiori was out so they could start their date early (btw this is taking place at the same time as crow level 1 in League of Blue Haired Legends). After a tough noon game, they both agreed to take a nap in Kurona and Hiori’s hotel room. Kurona didn’t actually nap that long so he got to cherish the sight of a sleeping Kiyora. The way his curly hair fell perfectly on his resting face caused a constant slight smile to form.
After a couple of hours sleeping beauty arose from his slumber. Kiyora rubbed his eyes and asked in the groggy voice Kurona had grown to adore “How long was I asleep?” Kurona responded “3 hours, 3 hours.” Kiyora immediately jolted awake and profusely apologized “I’m so sorry for sleeping so long.” Kurona responded “it’s ok, it’s ok we had a late lunch with the team so I’m not hungry.”
Kiyora asked “Is there anything you want to do? We don’t have enough time for my original plan.” Kurona responded “I’m a simple, simple person, put me in front of some water and I’m happy.” Kiyora smiled and suggested “Walking around Tokyo bay we go.” They both got up and got ready to take a walk, when Kiyora got the text.
There’s a family emergency we need you home ASAP
His face said it all. His plan had failed and due to circumstances out of his control. It was too late to go to the aquarium now. It was too late give Kurona the kiss he deserved. Kurona wasn’t oblivious and commented on it almost immediately “Jin, Jin you ok, you ok” Kiyora tried to smile when he responded “The plans changed that’s all. I think I have to leave for a family emergency tomorrow morning.”
He continued assuring Kurona and tried to assure himself “I’ll think of something special to do tonight.” Kurona hugged Kiyora and assured him “don’t worry, don’t worry. I’m ok, ok. Remember I’m a simple person and focus on your family.” It was Kiyora’s turn to cry about something the other had said. A singular tear fell as he realized it didn’t matter what they did, they would be happy as long as they are with each other. As Kurona wiped his tear, Kiyora assured “I’ll make this the best bay walk I can.”
—- Background —-
Being the middle child was a borderline on it’s own. He was not able to set an example for the family like the oldest or get to learn from the mistakes of 2 older siblings. He didn’t get to be the star of the family like the oldest or get to be the one that’s able to use their cute charm like the youngest. Kiyora was the middle child who faded into the background. The middle child who was expected to be as great as the oldest without getting the grace of the youngest.
When he was around Kurona everything changed.
To Kurona, he was valued like the oldest and cared for the youngest.
To Kurona it didn’t matter that plans changed, it only mattered that he was feeling ok.
To Kurona he was not in the background but the foreground.
—- Foreground —-
The moment was not in picture form but his kiss with Kurona was in the foreground of his mind.
The crowded pier faded
The freezing wind that he didn’t pack for disappeared.
The fact the kiss wasn’t in the aquarium did not matter.
All that mattered was that it was with someone who cherished him as much as he cherished him.
All that mattered is that it was with Kurona.
Ps: It all worked out just fine because Kurona went with Kiyora to see his family. In a situation Kiyora would normally feel overlooked he felt loved and supported while Kurona felt honored with the opportunity to meet Kiyora’s family so early into their relationship.