The Galaxy is Endless (I thought we were, too)

Chapter 3

Kuroo: good luck today! sorry i might not be able to to make it, but i'll try to swing by your house this weekend to say congrats properly!! so proud of you kitten <3 (08:51)

Kenma stared down at that text from his boyfriend for the nth time that afternoon. He understood that Kuroo was busy; that his first year of university had been so hectic that he barely had time to sleep, let alone time to make the hour and a half commute to come visit every week.

But that didn't mean that Kenma didn't miss him terribly. Weekly video calls barely felt like a substitute for having Kuroo constantly by his side, something Kenma had recently discovered he'd been taking for granted all these years.

It had been a long year without him, Kenma was glad to see the back of it. He was finally graduating, and that meant he could move to the prefecture Kuroo currently lived in, and he could see him more often.

"Kenma, stop staring at your phone!" Yamamoto hissed next to him. Kenma was certain that they were supposed to be seated in alphabetical order, but they had never been sticklers for the rules. Yamamoto had always said 'us bleached haired volleyball players must travel as a pack', and Kenma had always humoured him.

Kenma huffed and slipped his phone back into his pocket. "It's not my fault the ceremony is boring," he whispered back. He didn't think he could have stopped his mind wandering even if he tried to, the principal had been talking for at least 30 minutes.

Maybe it was a good thing Kuroo was missing it. Maybe.

"You don't want people to stare at you when you don't hear your name get called," Yamamoto teased, ever the stirrer. He was right, that would be an embarrassment Kenma would like to avoid, especially with his parents there.

He felt someone flick the back of his head, causing both him and Yamamoto to inch their heads around. "You two need to be quiet, you're already in the wrong spots. Don't get into more trouble."

Kenma didn't want to point out that a) Fukunaga was also not in alphabetical order, and b) he was also speaking. He was just as guilty as the rest of them.

Yamamoto, however, pointed this out. "You're talking too!"

"Irrelevant," Fukunaga finished, turning up his chin at them.

Kenma thought that maybe, just maybe, he'd miss them.

Yamamoto and Kenma turned back around, accepting defeat at the hands of Fukunaga and attempted to pretend to be interested in the rest of the ceremony. It dragged on, and on, and on. One speech after another about how 'proud they were', and then the individual calling of what felt like a thousand names as they one by one clambered up the stage to accept their diploma, all to the dramatic music of a piano that made Kenma think he was at a funeral, not a graduation.

"Kozume Kenma," the monotonous voice of the principal called out, causing Yamamoto to nudge him and Kenma to spring to his feet.

He awkwardly shuffled past Yamamoto and the rest of his row, before into the aisle, aware that almost the whole room was staring at him, as they were expected to. He kept his eyes glued to the floor, entirely conscious of the eyes staring into his back and the inevitable of his father taking a hundred photos.

As he climbed the stairs of the auditorium's stage, one voice stood out to him. "Yeah! Go Kenma! Woo!"

Kenma did not need to look up to know that it belonged to Kuroo Tetsurou, but he did anyway. Because in the middle of the rows and rows of seats, there he was, standing between his parents with a grin even prouder than the one he'd worn when he had been the one graduating.