no refunds! || kuroken

something like that

"Kuro...Hey, Kuro!"

Kenma lightly pokes Kuroo's cheek with his free hand, his toothbrush in the other, the minty taste waking him up. He'd stayed awake since they were supposed to go to sleep, playing Undertale on his loveseat while Kuroo slept in his bed. He had been antsy for the morning since last night, needing to find something to keep him awake so he didn't miss the sunrise.

Kuroo stirs with a sluggish hum, taking a deep breath that fills his stomach and stretching his arms above his chest, his eyes still shut.

The nightfall melts through his window, and Kuroo is covered in blackberry indigo as the eventide wears thin, Kenma making sure to use the nightlight in his bathroom so as to not wake Kuroo up, yet still being able to see. And it was hard to see, but if it was better for Kuroo, then he didn't mind. He felt the faintest hints of furor pump through his veins at the thought of seeing the first sunrise of the year with Kuroo, of practically sneaking out of the house when everyone was asleep.

Kenma and Kuroo were whole adults, but still. The idea of leaving while his parents were still sleeping was one of those things that made him feel free, the memory a golden medal of honor.

He smiles at nothing, poking Kuroo's cheek again.

"Wake up, Kuro," Kenma says softly, his voice muffled behind the white suds in his mouth, puckering his lips to keep it in while he wasn't near the sink.

"Hm?" Kuroo squints at him, the creases underneath his eyes more prevalent when he first wakes up, brown eyes dark in what little light is filtering through Kenma's room.

"Wake up. Come with me." Kenma tilts his head back to keep the toothpaste in his mouth, before he rushes over to the sink to rinse it out. "The sunrise is soon!"

Kuroo sits up slowly, rubbing his eyes, the sheets falling off of him and pooling in his lap. "What...time is it?"

Kenma expected more resistance from him, more annoyance to be laced through his words rather than the smooth ring of his voice so early in the morning. His heart flutters at that, thinking of him still taking his time with him, no matter what it was.

"Um...three-thirty," Kenma says, splashing cold water over his face, making his skin erupt in goosebumps. "In the morning."

Kuroo sighs, stretching his arms above his head once more and yawning loudly into the air, making a sharp sound. "Okay. Where to?"

"There is an abandoned building not too far from here. Um...Shouyou and Lev and I used to go every new year and watch the first sunrise." Kenma says, and it was here when he began to feel self-conscious for the first time in a while, a fuse in his belly that seeps a soft and steady current of reticence into his cheeks at the mention. "You don't have to...! You don't have to come if you're too tired."

And he knew it was in vain, considering Kuroo was already up. But it made him feel a bit better to at least try and have him back out if he wanted to.

Still, Lev's name left an inquisitive ring in the back of Kuroo's head when he heard Kenma say it. He knew something was up with him, something more that Kenma wasn't telling him, and he wanted to know more about him.

He knew Kenma would probably never open up about that guy, either, and Kuroo wasn't one to pry, but god, he was so curious on how he affected Kenma back then, from middle school to now, exactly what he did to him that he made Kenma hate opening up.

There had to have been something more.

Even then, Kuroo wasn't sure he wanted to hear it, even if Kenma did allow for him to.