Rain on the Windows | Kuroken

Chapter 1

For as long as he could remember, Kuroo Tetsurou had always found comfort in the beating of rain against windows. The silver droplets performing their dance across the window gave him something to distract himself with.

He would watch as they rolled past, or try to guess which one would reach the bottom of the windowsill first; the sound of their soft beating just loud enough to muffle the sounds of his parents in the room next to him. The sound that he hated much more than anything he could fathom. The sound of the disagreement from the people he looked up to every day. He couldn't stand it.

But as he grew up, he found that he continued to find comfort in their song, whether he needed help falling asleep, or he needed something to take his mind off of the previous events of the day. Sometimes it even helped him focus better.

Even now the rain provided a background for the studying he had put off for weeks. A decision he regretted thoroughly, but as he continually told himself: there is no time like the future.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired, Kuro," the voice of his best friend, Kenma Kozume, yawned from the side of the bed. "Can we do this tomorrow?"

Kuroo did think it was ironic that the one night he had asked for help, Kenma had decided to be the tired one instead of him. But Kenma owed him one, and Kuroo was determined to make it count.

"Did I complain about being tired when I sat with you for five hours to help you study for your finals?" Kuroo smirked down at the boy with bleached tips. Kenma had begun pulling parts of his hair back into buns lately, claiming his hair had grown longer. Which it most definitely had. The dark brown hair at the top of his head glistened ever so slightly in the light reflected by the drops of rain still falling outside the dorm room.

The sight made Kuroo's face heat up. But luckily enough for him, it was too dark for Kenma to have been able to see the blush creeping up on his face.

Kenma was quiet for a few moments, but Kuroo knew he was just trying to think of something to combat his previous remark. "Didn't think so," Kuroo broke the silence after a moment and returned to studying the flashcards he had made.

"What does half of this stuff even mean?" Kenma sounded more puzzled than ever as he furiously flipped through one of his friend's textbooks. "Who the hell would want to study something like biochemistry?" Kenma made a dramatic attempt at sounding out every part of the last word. Kuroo just rolled his eyes.

The pair sat in silence for a while. Kuroo was well aware that Kenma wasn't actually doing anything to help him study, but he enjoyed the company so he didn't complain.

"I'm sorry." Kenma's apology was barely above a whisper. Even though he knew Kenma couldn't see it, Kuroo raised an eyebrow.

"What for?"

Kenma took a second to reply. "I've been stressed. That's why I'm tired and was short-tempered like that." Kuroo furrowed his brow. He was about to respond when Kenma started talking again. "Wow, I'm so tired that I'm even apologizing to you." Kuroo could hear Kenma give a light chuckle under his breath, but it wasn't like the ones Kenma would give if Kuroo made a joke that Kenma thought was funny. Or if one of his old volleyball teammates, usually Lev, fell during practice.

Kuroo slid off the couch and onto the floor, sitting next to Kenma. He watched silently as Kenma pulled his knees to his chest, resting his forehead on his knees.

Kuroo's face softened. "Anything you want to talk about?" This was always the first thing Kuroo would ask if he thought Kenma was keeping something from him, or if he thought that Kenma needed a free space to vent. And while it was rarely the first one, Kuroo still knew that Kenma wasn't the type to openly talk about his problems.

Kenma lifted his head, but instead of facing Kuroo, he began to stare at the grey wall in front of them.

"I got an investment offer." Kuroo's jaw dropped.

"Kenma, that's great!" Kenma had been searching for months for an investor in his new company, Bouncing Ball LTD, if Kuroo could remember the name correctly. He expected to look over at Kenma and find an elated expression, but all he saw was the same frown. Kuroo cleared his throat. "That's good right?" He asked, rethinking his previous words.

Finally, Kenma looked over at Kuroo. Kuroo had always thought Kenma's eyes looked amazing in the light from the moon streaming through their living area, and this night confirmed his belief once again. "Yeah, it's okay, I guess," Kenma's voice was soft, but Kuroo watched as his face got more serious. "But it means I'd have to travel to a city in Shikoku." Kenma wrapped his arms around his shins as he looked back towards the wall in front of them.

Kuroo sat there unmoving. Driving to Shikoku from where they were in Tokyo took over ten hours. That would be the farthest they had ever been from each other.

He should tell Kenma to go, right? Normally he could read Kenma pretty well, but tonight was different. He knew how hard Kenma had worked to get to this point, but from the way Kenma was acting, he seemed as though he didn't want to go.

"I think you should go," Kuroo blurt out after a moment. Kenma whipped his head back around fast.

"What? No, Kuro, I-"

"You what? Kenma, you've gotta go," Kenma looked concerned as he looked over at Kuroo. But Kuroo knew this was the right thing to do, even if Kenma found a way to disagree with him. "Kenma you've worked so hard to get to this point. And now that you have the opportunity to do this, you need to take the chance." Kuroo hadn't realized that he had grabbed Kenma's shoulders so that he was fully facing him. But the second he did, he pulled away.

Kenma looked up at Kuroo with wide eyes. Kuroo considered saying another sentence to encourage Kenma, but before he could, Kenma spoke again, saying the few words that were always prone to make his heart sink.

"But what about you?"