November brought the very kind of cliche Hallmark movie setting that he could ever want within their small town.
Red and orange leaves littered front lawns and strolled down the street as soft breezes danced alongside them, igniting embers in Kenma that only really burned when he was home by himself or with Hinata. This kind of cozy happiness made him really look forward to walking home by himself, while autumn nipped at his heels and the rest of his youth felt like it was exploding underneath his skin.
His campus put up dainty fairy lights around the branches of the oak trees that stood tall and stayed lit during the nighttime, bucolic in the way they reminded him of hot chocolate and peppermint, twinkling as if galaxies replaced the filament and Kenma would get lost in their starry radiance had he gone to look at them up close.
He moved away from Nerima City after high school, and now lived in an area where the nightlife was more than half an hour away, and he never really bothered to do anything unless it was the weekend and Hinata really wanted to go out with him. Like Moon Neso, isolated, with the company of something new and worth exploring at his fingertips.
Kenma didn't mind it, how being here felt like he'd gone to a different world, where there were no flickering neon signs and disco balls that reminded him of smudged eye makeup and fishnets.
He was more of a homebody, anyway.
The sun set a little earlier now, and Kenma always made sure to watch it kiss the moon goodbye through his window when he got home before it. Rich fuschias streaked the dusty topaz lining the horizon like thick acrylic paint today, while frothy violet clouds swept over his neighborhood, reminding him of how the soapy tide separates on shorelines. Simple things like this cause Kenma to really feel at home in his apartment, as if the sun had been setting in his chest rather, pooling warmth in his bones and security into his blood.
He sits by his window, resting his chin on his hand on the windowsill, watching the sun filter a dark orange, the stars transparent and speckling the sky like a field of poppies. He sometimes thought the world was nearly too pretty for its own good, and how sunsets like this were beautiful, but a telltale sign of pollution and its impudent death in the future.
Very superficial.
But they were nice, at least.
The notification sound from his phone goes off and makes his heart beat a bit quicker at the sudden noise, but he puts it off and takes the time to think about everything. So far, he's got a solution to his problem, but he was mostly fretting over the fact that he'd have to stay with his family for three weeks with a stranger by his side, lying through his teeth and trying to keep up the facade that they were dating.
He was always bad at acting, never being able to lie well.
Maybe this wasn't the right answer.
On top of that, the impending anxiety that would come from trying to get to know Kuroo over the next couple of weeks didn't sit right with him, always being too shy in front of strangers to begin with. It was hard for Hinata when they first met in middle school, but he had been persistent.
He still didn't know how good of an idea this was.
He pulls himself away from the glass when twilight hummed back at him, the horizon fuzzy with grey smokey clouds and smearing navy over the pretty colors the sunset had left for him, making his way towards his phone.
There were messages from a number he didn't recognize.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, he taps the notification and unlocks his phone with his fingerprint as his heart picks up at the intrusion.
YOU ARE READING
no refunds! || kuroken
Fanfiction"why don't you look at ads on craigslist?" kenma gets up from the couch while the slight adrenaline rush is still surfing on his blood, deciding that maybe hinata was right. if he couldn't take him or kageyama, maybe it was best for him to get a com...
