The Reckless & The Brave Book 1: Hold Me Tight Or Don't [Kurotsuki]

Chapter 1

Tsukishima Kei learned early in life that people didn't like to feel dumb. It was a problem that people encountered pretty frequently when associating with him. He was considered somewhat of a genius in the small town that he grew up in. It's not that he tried to get on people's nerves really. He just understood things better than most people. He liked learning, craved it actually. The things that he studied just made sense. By eight years old he'd been taken out of elementary school and put into the same middle school as his brother.

Their parents had expected Akiteru to protect Kei. But it wasn't easy being the sibling of a genius. Kei's grades were always at the top of the class and it grated on Akiteru to be constantly left in his shadow. Their relationship had never really recovered. Kei was an outcast, too tall for kids his own age and too smart for the older kids in his class. His inability to communicate normally with others didn't help either. So he got used to it. He got used to the bullies and the beatings and the isolation.

At eleven he graduated from high school and was accepted into a university in the city near his hometown. He had a scholarship that would cover the cost and his parents sent him spending money each month. They rarely came to visit him. He thinks that they were probably relieved to have him out of the house. Akiteru got to spend his last few years of high school pretending he didn't have a brother.

Kei earned his first bachelor's degree at thirteen. He understood by then that it was his age that bothered people. They didn't mind him being smarter but the fact that he was young and smart got on their nerves. So he decided to stay in school. He transferred to another college and continued his studies. At eighteen he transferred schools again. This time to one in Tokyo.

He was still younger than most of the people in his department but his height and his generally quiet personality made him seem older. He fit in for the first time. His classmates invited him to their groups and he starts to find dates. He suddenly finds himself participating in sports when his roommate's track and field team doesn't have enough members and he realizes that not only does he enjoy the activities but he's good at them. He runs the relay and he has no problems with the hurdles or the pole vault. From there he tries other sports, swimming, volleyball, tennis, basketball. Since he's never really had to study he fills his free time with different physical activities.

He's twenty-one when he decides that it's time for him to finish school. He's old enough now that it won't be as hard to try and fit into a professional workplace and with his qualifications, he could do just about anything he wants. He decides to take one more year to touch up on some of his subjects that he hasn't taken in a while and so he finds himself taking a history course taught by one of the university's newest teachers, Professor Kuroo.

Professor Kuroo is different from most of the teachers Kei has had. For one he's young. Kei guesses that he can't be older than thirty. For another, he's incredibly casual in class. He generally dresses in jeans and hoodies, he's often gone for weeks at a time, leaving his TA to teach the class. When he does show up he often looks hungover or like he hasn't slept in days. His black hair is never brushed, sticking up every which way and falling in front of his eye. He asks to be called just Kuroo with no honorifics added on. He's also unfairly handsome. Kei often catches himself losing focus because he's paying too much attention to the professor. Kei's not the only one, there's a large number of girls and a few boys in the class that all seem enamored with the man.

It's not the first time that Kei has been attracted to a man but it is the first time that it's been so distracting. Kei knows that he doesn't really need to focus that much on the subject but he's never had bad grades before and he has no plans to start now. That's why when his teammate from the track team invites him out to a mixer at a club he agrees to go.