In the Middle. | Bokuto x reader x Kuroo |

Chapter 2: College is Hard

The moment that Kuroo said to you, "It's going to be alright." It wasn't the first, and it for sure wasn't the last. Still, this one stuck with you.

You looked up from the position that you had just been in with your head slammed against a table in the library. This essay was easily going to be the absolute death of you and you didn't have much time left.

"Maybe I should drop out," you mumbled as you looked him in the eye.

He let out a chuckle as he reached across the table and ruffled your hair. "You know you can't do that," he said. "Plus, you have most of the essay done anyways."

You sighed. "It's just so hard."

"I know, chibi-chan, but I know you can finish this tonight."

You smiled as you watched him push his hair out of his eyes for just a moment with his hand as he wrote something down in his notebook. He noticed you staring and looked up at you with a smile back. "What?"

"You're pretty," you said, looking back down at your laptop with a blush.

He chuckled again. "You've gotten so bold."

"That's bold?" you asked. "Damn, the standards for me are low."

"You could hardly even speak around us whenever we first met," he said, looking back down at his notes with that smirk.

"Yeah, well, someone was going so high speed that he kissed me the first night we met."

He looked back at you with taunting eyes and you raised your eyebrow right back. He put his arms on the desk and leaned forward just a bit to show that he was more involved in your conversation than his books now. "Well, where would we be if I hadn't taken some initiative, hm? You would have ever done anything."

"Well yeah, I never would have thought two hot ass volleyball players would want me."

His eyes narrowed. "You had guys dropping at your feet left and right in that gym, you know."

"They were all horny and I simply existed."

"I," he leaned back again, "am going to make you pay for saying all of this later. You need to shut your gorgeous mouth."

You smirked. He reacted just in the way that you wanted him to. At this point you knew what would make him and Bokuto react like that. It really didn't take much for either of them.

It was coming up on a year that the three had been officially together, and you were shocked with how well everything in your life was working out. Well, everything worked out well except for the essay that was in front of you. Your motivation was plummeting by the second as you looked at the screen.

Kuroo spoke up again. "If you finish that essay tonight then I won't tell Kou what you said."

You looked up to him with wide eyes. "Is that you saying that you will if I don't finish it?"

He didn't answer you, just leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised. You instantly looked down at your screen again and started typing viciously. It made Kuroo laugh as he watched you.

Bokuto never did anything that you didn't like, and he would always stop whenever you told him that he was going too far, but he was hard to control in heated moments. A lot of the time you would get so caught up in his energy that you wouldn't notice that your body was being pushed passed its limits. You just wanted to be able to walk to your classes tomorrow.

You continued on your last paragraph as you felt Kuroo's gaze go back to his own work. The two of you sat in that comfortable silence for a while. It was only interrupted by the sounds of you typing and him flipping a book every once in a while.

You were still struggling with the paper even though you were once again typing. It felt like the content was getting worse and worse, and as you looked at the words across the screen, you couldn't help but feel awful about it. How were you even worthy of studying at this university when you couldn't even write a decent essay?

Kuroo looked up again to check on you, but was met with a much different sight. Your eyes were turning red as you intensely stared at the screen, and it wasn't just any redness. It was tears.

He sighed as he stood up to walk over of your table. It was easy for him to recognize one of your episodes where you wouldn't even realize you were crumpling under pressure. He crouched down next to you and grabbed your hands by the wrists to pull them away from the keyboard.

"You said I had to finish it or els-" you said in a whisper as he rotated you to face him and placed your arms over his shoulders so he could pull you in for a hug.

He shushed you. "I won't say anything, angel. I was just trying to motivate you to stay ahead."

You didn't respond, just sighed into his ear. He moved his hand up to rest on the back of your head as he continued. "You're almost done with it and you still have another week before it's due. It's going to be alright."

"Do I still need to finish it tonight?" you asked, still in that quiet voice.

"No, I would rather us get home and get some sleep before you get more stressed out," he said as he pulled away from you and looked at your teary eyes. "It's going to be alright, you're going to get this essay done and it's going to be damn good."

Your smile was tight, but you still gave one in return, which was enough for him. "So, can we head back now?"

He nodded and backed away to go grab his own things off of his side of the desk. "We got some good work done, but we should probably be home before it gets too late.

"Are we going back to your dorm tonight?" you asked.

"I think my roommate is away, so that works just fine," he answered as he slung his bag over his shoulder and he watched you do the same. He held out his arm for you to go under so he could wrap you in his usual amount of protection.

You went under happily as you always did, and the two of you walked out of the private study room into the library and then out onto the school campus.

"So, you promise not to be mean tonight?" you asked.

"Well, I can't make any promises-"

"Oh, come on," you said. "Just because I'm not crying anymore doesn't mean you can do that, you horny-fucker."

His hand tightened its grip on your shoulder a bit. "You better watch yourself before I change my mind."

You laughed a little bit before stating. "Just don't be too mean."

have a three day weekend this week so that means more time to write :D

i decided that this book isn't going to be in direct order, it's more about a collection of memories and times from the middle bit so it'll be lots of different things