Chapter Text
The alarm goes off at exactly 9:36 A.M. on a Saturday morning, a sleepy Kenma lazily lifts his arm up to grab his phone and silence it. Hesitating, the boy slowly opened up his eyelids to let his phone's brightness reach his golden, barely-opened eyes, and he grunted while he slid his finger through the screen to unlock the device. He had no notifications so he put it aside to lay in his night table and closed his eyes again."Kenma are you awake yet?" the mentioned boy heard someone shout from another room across his. "Yes!" he shouted in response as hard as his throat allowed him to do right after waking up.
The voice belonged to a tall dark-haired boy named Akaashi Keiji, who was currently his flat mate. They had shared an apartment for 3 years now, and Kenma somehow came to feel really comfortable around him. Akaashi was really nice after all, and he inspired some kind of trust in Kenma. He didn't judge him for not speaking or not going out a lot; in fact, he coped with him and sometimes sticked around the house to keep him company instead of going to the events he was usually invited to. Kenma could say he was almost as close to him as Shouyou was, and sometimes, he wondered how they bonded together so well. The blonde wasn’t one to make friends easily or even talk to people and feel interested in what they were saying. He guessed they both were different; he liked that, he liked to hang out with them, nice and interesting people indeed.
"Remember, Bokuto is coming to pick us up for dinner," he heard said voice speak up again. "I'll be ready in a few" he answered now more fully aware of his surroundings.
Ah yes, and then there was Bokuto.
No, don't get him wrong, he did like him, he was also one of his closest friends.
Bokuto reminded him of Shouyo, just taller and... bigger maybe. They both got excited for almost everything unlike him, and it seemed that their energy had no ending, when they met no one could stop them and all Akaashi and Kenma could do was to see them run and hop around, coming up with a challenge for everything, one of them being who could arrive first to their apartment, and you could tell it didn't end well, they both fell various times in the staircase due to being pushed around by each other simultaneously. No one won since they were both too tired to even move a little bit. Kenma remembered that day with a lot of joy.
Kenma got up from bed and walked over to the bathroom to take a quick 5-minute bath, he muttered a "Good morning" and waved slightly to Akaashi in the way, he did the same motion in return. After that, he went back to his room and locked it to open his small wardrobe searching for something that wasn't too uncomfortable nor too hot for him to wear, it was summer after all and if he chose something like a sweater for example, he would melt in the way to the restaurant, he was sure about it. He finally found a white shirt with blue stripes around it, he matched it with some grey ripped up jeans he had owned since forever which he secretly adored. The teen combed combed his hair for a few minutes and headed to the bathroom again. Like always, Kenma washed his teeth and looked at himself in the mirror to check if he looked alright for going out. The pudding haired boy went out and closed the bathroom's door behind him as he walked over to the living room where Akaashi was sitting in the couch. He was probably watching some T.V show about animals.
"I'm ready," Kenma stated, sitting beside Akaashi and pretended to watch the show. It didn’t really interest him that much. "Let's just wait for Bokuto to come then" Akaashi replied simply. His eyes still seemed sleepy so that meant he hadn't been awake for a long time either.
"Where are we going again?" Kenma asked, facing the other boy's direction with one brow furrowed up. "I think we're going to—" "Akaashi, Kenma!!" The black haired boy's words were interrupted abruptly by someone shouting loudly from across the apartment's entrance door, suddenly a tall, broad man entered stumbling harshly through it "I have arrived!" He said when he was fully inside, making a hero like pose.
"Hello," Kenma greeted him nicely, while sitting still on the couch, attention not drifting away from the T.V. Keiji, on the other side, had stood up and placed himself behind the man who recently entered the flat just so he could close the door, probably just for not alerting the neighbors but by now they should be used to it.
"Akaashi!" The taller man screamed and pulled the earlier mentioned into a tight embrace before kissing the side of his face repeatedly. "Hi Bokuto," Akaashi greeted him now with a smile plastered on his face.
Then he turned to Kenma. He could barely manage to say “Hello” before he was also pulled into a tight hug which squeezed the air out of him. "Nice to see you again!!" The white and black haired boy said with a smile spread across his face. Kenma wondered how was he always so cheerful, he also wondered if the hug had got him a broken rib because, damn, the boy was strong.
"Are we ready to go?" said boy asked while looking frantically from Akaashi to Kenma. "Yeah, let me just grab my phone real quick," Kenma said and rushed off to his room, grabbed his phone, put it in the right front pocket of his jeans and walked back to the living room. "Ready" he said.
The walk to the restaurant honestly wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.The heat wasn't pleasant but it was bearable so he was okay with it. Also, Bokuto kept telling Akaashi how pretty he looked that day, nothing out of the usual, just like Kenma liked it to be. He spent most of the way engrossed on his phone so he didn't even hear half of the conversation they were having, he liked to give them privacy, they were a couple after all, they had to do... whatever couples did when they were alone. But this time it was different, Bokuto had invited them both to a place that had recently opened saying how the food there was "hella good" and how they needed to taste it. The store was just a few blocks away so they didn't have to travel that much, they easily went there on feet.
The three boys entered the establishment and took a table on the corner, right next to a window.
Not much time later, a waiter went to their table to take their orders, Akaashi and Kenma both ordered simple strawberry smoothies, Bokuto ordered a dark coffee with sugar, together with a piece of cake for the center of the table so they could all eat up.
It was a rather normal morning, Bokuto was rambling about how it was too hot outside for him to handle, Akaashi was listening to him while eating with an unamused face and Kenma was on his phone as usual.
"I'm telling you, I need air conditioner!" Bokuto said, obnoxiously raising his arms in the process.
"Don't be so dramatic" Akaashi demanded looking at the man in front of him with a subtle smile on his lips. Suddenly the doorbell rang to indicate some customer entering, Bokuto's first instinct was to turn around to see who it was, when he saw a tall dark haired man enter the building, his eyes lighted up with excitement.
"Oh no" Akaashi said, the smile he had instantly disappeared, Kenma looked up from the device he had been looking at to the taller man "What is it?" He asked locking his phone and placing it on his pant's pocket; before Akaashi could even answer, the man who entered the place looked towards their table and waved with a grin, he was wearing an unbuttoned pledged red and black shirt with a grey tank top underneath to match it, his pants were black jeans and his shoes were some red snickers Kenma guessed, he couldn't see really well from that far.
"Kuro!" Bokuto screamed obnoxiously while waving with both hands up, the man came running to greet him "Hello!"
Now that Kenma could take a closer look, the boy was not that bad at all he thought.
His obsidian hair stuck up in every way possible, Kenma wondered how one could get that style. Not that he wanted it but it defied all he knew about physics, not that it deprived the guy in front of him from looking good with it either he had to admit.
"Hey Akaashi" The good looking stranger, as Kenma had named him currently (in his mind, of course) since he didn't catch his name pretty well said while looking at Akaashi. He simply responded with a "Hello"
"Hello-" Kuro turned to look at Kenma while saying this, he was astonished.
The first thing he noticed was how his badly dyed hair seemed so smooth, it made him want to touch it.
The second thing he noticed was how his eyes were a peculiar color he had never seen in anyone else before, they also had a kind of special shine in them and really, really long eyelashes to match those impressive looking eyes.
The third and last thing Kuro noticed was that his face seemed delicate, his nose was pointy and thin, his eyes big and shiny as he had earlier mentioned, well at least in his mind, if he had said it out loud the other boy would probably had thought that he was some kind of pervert, which he definitely wasn't by the way; according to him he was just a normal boy being way too delighted by the teen in front of him. Kuro decided the boy was gorgeous.
Kuro couldn't help but smile shyly.
That's when it hit him.
He must have been staring for too long since the pretty boy was now looking a little freaked out.
"He-hey!" Kuro finally said after probably minutes of watching Kenma with a dumbfounded face "Play it cool Tetsurou, don't mess this up" the tall boy told himself in his mind, he then laid back on the couch where Bokuto was sitting, not failing to messily trip on the try, but he still pulled it off with a sly grin on his face.
"What should I say? Who are you? What's your name?"
"Who's your name?"
"Well fuck"
Kenma looked at him with a puzzled expression and titled his head, not sure if he knew what to say, it was already bad that the good looking stranger had just been staring at him for straight two minutes, who wouldn't get a at least a little bit intimidated? Specially considering how tall he was compared to him.
"Sorry, what's your name?" Kuro laughed to try and soften the mood.
"I'm Kenma" The shorter boy muttered while looking down at the plastic cup he was holding in his right hand under the table which was now half filled with what was left of the smoothie he previously drank.
"I'm Kuro Tetsurou! Nice to meet you, Kenma" Kuro introduced himself and smiled smoothly.
“What a coincidence!” Bokuto said, putting an arm on Kuro’s arm “Remember I told you about Akaashi’s roommate?” He hit his friend’s side with his elbow while winking “It's him! You finally get to meet him!” The black and white haired man smiled lightly looking back and forth from Kuro to Kenma.
“Bokuto this was planned, wasn't it?” Akaashi told said man, an annoyed expression on his face.
“Of course it wasn't!” Bokuto protested back, slamming both of his fists into the table “Right Kuro?” He gave a pleading look towards the messy haired man, who just rolled his eyes at him in unison with Akaashi. “Come on, I need you to back me up,” He continued to speak up, now looking defeated.
“It definitely was planned,” Akaashi stated looking at Kenma while shrugging, Kenma just nodded in response not knowing what else to do.
“It wasn’t!”
“It's going to be one of those recalled fights again,” Kuro spoke in a sigh, placing his chin in his right hand and looking at Kenma. “So say Kenma, do you come here often?” “Good conversation starter, check.” Kuro thought, grinning to himself.
“Actually this place just opened about 3 days ago so I don't really,” Kenma spoke up while playing with his phone, his gaze looking downwards evading any eye contact that could possibly had happen to avoid getting flustered because he knew Kuro, his newly acquired acquaintance, was trying his best to flirt, but if he was honest, the boy was totally failing.
“You have no remedy, Tetsurou.” Kuro’s inner voice that has been oddly and constantly annoying lately decided to speak up. “Ah!- You’re right,” Kuro laughed his mess up out, he knew it couldn't be that bad… still. “Sorry, I’m somehow distracted by your beauty,” The boy aclared dreamily. “Wh-what?” Kenma blushed, stuttered, looked up from his phone almost dropping it surprised by Kuro’s comment, in resume, he became a mess. “I mean!” Kuro jumped from the table a bit, moving his hand from resting under his chin to rubbing the back of his neck “I was distracted by the beauty of…” The teen’s eyes dozed off from one side to another, when almost as a miracle, they met with the perfect excuse. “That lamp over there!” Kuro excitedly pointed at said object he mentioned before, everyone was pretty startled, and Kenma seemed the last bit scared.
“Well, it can't get worse than this,” Kuro said in his mind, maybe loosing a little bit of faith in himself at this point was comprehensive, he was still pointing at the lamp hanging from the ceiling, in which everyone had their gazes over now. “It has uhm…” Kuro was speechless, he couldn't even believe himself. He could swear on anything that he had never been this bad at flirting with someone, it wasn’t as if he was a god at this either but it had never gone like this. “A nice structure?” The tall teen doubted himself, that had sounded more as a question than an actual sentence and it made him worry, he shouldn’t be having this type of problems, should he? He almost sounded as Bokuto when he first was trying to pull some moves on Akaashi. And that made him think, was he down to Bokuto’s level right now? “Damn, I never thought you could get this low” Kuro’s inner voice proclaimed, he was starting to think it could be his conscience; but giving pity to your conscience couldn’t be good in any way so he disregarded the thought.
At this point he started to blush, the whole situation was too embarrassing, he guessed by the impression on Kenma’s face that he wasn’t the only embarrassed one here. Kuro had to find a way to run away and then come back in a better state.
He could hear Bokuto’s laughter starting to grow louder and louder by each minute until he was practically howling and half of the cafe could hear him. “Dude,” Bokuto laid a hand on Kuro’s shoulder, wiping some tears that were forming in the corner of his eyes from laughing so loud with his other previously unoccupied hand. “Where did your chill go?” He asked curiously, now a bit calmed down from his previous laugh attack. Akaashi grinned, trying to contain his laughter from the other side of the table.
Kuro laughed in unison for a bit, his face showed an annoyed expression. That’s when his mind made up the perfect pretext “Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom,” The boy smiled gently towards Kenma and stood up from the table “Bokuto, would you mind coming?” Kuro grabbed Bokuto’s shirt and practically dragged him towards the restrooms, leaving behind a startled Akaashi and a very confused Kenma “Don’t worry they’re always like this” Akaashi muttered towards Kenma without much interest and took a sip from his drink, closing his eyes. Kenma nodded and wondered if he should just had stayed home, he wouldn’t be in this problematic
—at least to his eyes— situation.