In the Middle. | Bokuto x reader x Kuroo |

Chapter 13: Protective

College in Japan was truly an ideal scenario until you had to actually do it. Now you spent a lot of days tirelessly staring at your computer as you sat in study rooms in the library.

Bokuto was off at practice and Kuroo was ever-so-involved with his activities. He could be with the chess club or making another business proposition with Kenma — nothing would shock you at this point. So, it was just you all alone and staring at your screen.

You rubbed your eyes. What you really wanted to do was slam your head onto the table in front of you, but you would have to settle for just rubbing your eyes so hard that you saw colors. Kuroo always got mad at you when you did that and always said things about damaging your eyesight, but he wasn't here to yell at you right now.

Nights alone weren't common for you anymore, but you didn't hate to have them. It was the work that was hard to go through on your own. Even if you were just at Bokuto's apartment working on things it was better than staring at the blank walls and the other empty chairs that surrounded you here even if he could be a distraction quite often.

The room was becoming too lonely. Maybe the privacy was nice when you were studying with Kuroo, but this was different. You gathered your things and made your way out of the private room to enter the common area of the building. Here people were spread out working everywhere which meant there was no way to feel alone.

You decided to sit at a table that only had one other person at it. It was a big table so you figured that he wouldn't be bothered if you sat at the other end to work quietly. As you sat, he gave you a small smile which made you feel assured that you weren't intruding on his space.

Resuming where you were, you felt much better. Even having other people around made your work more bearable. Every once in a while as your eyes would wander you would spot the guy at the same table as you. He looked familiar, but you couldn't quite place it at first.

Everything went well without any problems for a while. The closest thing to a problem that happened was when you accidentally knocked your pencil off of the table. You watched it hit the ground and roll the opposite way from you.

It landed right next to the other boy's feet. He looked down and quickly picked it up. You stood up as he did so, not wanting him to have to get up to return what you had dropped, but he was already stood with it extended to you. "Thank you," you said quickly as you took it back from him. Now you could tell who he was: he was the guy that sat in front of you in your Japanese studies class.

He smiled again, which made you smile back. "It's no problem." he said as he put his hand in his pocket. He hadn't gone to sit down yet, instead he rocked on his heels a little. "Hard at work, huh?"

"Oh yeah, this essay is going to kill me," you said, motioning to your computer quickly before shrugging. "It happens sometimes."

"The essay for Japanese?" he asked. "I'm working on that, too. I was actually just looking for someone to help me out on one part if you have the time."