It's Different Now { LGBT+ }

Chapter One

Lips wrapped around the end of a cigarette, taking in a breath and then letting it out into the cold air, the smoke raising and then disappearing into the air. Tetsurou brought a hand up and ran it through his knotted hair, closing his eyes and sighing.

Things have changed drastically since high school and, to add to it, it had all went downhill for himself. He had lost contact with his old highschool friends, had gotten into drugs and smoking, drank more than he should, and is down right a complete loser right then. No one wanted anything to do with him and, in all honesty, he didn't care. Sometimes he liked being alone. He didn't have to take care of anyone or yell at them. However, at times it became too much - the loneliness. Most of the time he cried himself to sleep, wishing he hadn't abandoned anyone, wishing he hadn't dropped out of college and got with the getting in to the habits he had now. It had happened, though, and he couldn't change it--that was how it felt, anyways.

The cat like male lowered his arm and twisted the end of his cigarette against the railing of the walkway to the apartments. Winter was just setting in and the air easily froze anyone that didn't go outside with jeans and a coat on, more specifically Kuroo. He shivered and turned, stepping back into the apartment and closing the door behind himself, throwing the bud into the trash. The apartment was quiet, the only sound being heard was the humming of the fridge and the swishing of water from the dishwasher. It was lonely there. He sighed and pressed his hand against the arm of the couch, falling on to the cushions. He reached up and rubbed his hands over his face, as if that would wipe away the bags that had set under his eyes and the red on the whites of his eyes. He must have looked pathetic for the last two, three years of his life. He was suppose to go into college with a scholarship for volleyball, which he did, and get through it with a career already presented to him, but none of that happened. The wrong people stepped in his life and fucked it all up. It was his choice though, so he was the one to fuck it up.

The male looked over his small living room, looking to the blunts he had stacked up on the corner of the table. Those fucked up his life, those along with cigarettes and booze. All of it. He clenched his jaw and pushed himself up, grabbing them in his hand and heading into the kitchen, throwing off the lid to the trashcan. Kuroo threw the blunts in the bin, digging into his pajama pockets and grabbing his cigarettes, dumping them into it as well. Next, he opened up the fridge and grabbed the six pack of beer that he had recently bought, taking one out at a time and dropping them in the trash, sighing. Tetsurou was going to get clean and he was going to do everything he can to get to that point.

The once captain went into his room and undressed, slipping on clean underwear along with a pair of jeans, grabbing a nearby shirt and slipping that on as well. He grabbed his jacket and forced his arms into the sleeves, zipping it up and heading out of the door. He locked it and headed down the stairs, leaving the apartment complex and into the shopping mart. With today's technology, there had to be something that could help him quit without having to go to counciling, right?

He stuffed his hands in to his pockets and buried his chin into the neck of his jacket, trying to keep himself as warm as possible, but that was hard to do since he was forced to walk into the wind. He shivered, going in the grocery store as soon as he got to the door. It was much too cold to stick outside for longer than he had to. As soon as he was in the warm building, he unzipped his jacket and slipped it off, folding it over his forearm and grabbing a nearby basket and pushing it off with him to one of the isles. One part of trying to get clean was spending the money on things he actually needed instead of having the chance to buy more drugs or beer. If he didn't have the money, he wouldn't have the chance to buy those things.

The cat like male browsed the shelves for anything he wanted or needed, humming quietly to himself as he did so. He continuously pulled things off the shelf and put it in the basket. His ultimate goal at that moment was to spend as much money as he could, leaving enough for rent. Although, later he would have a problem of trying to find a job that can support him, but that was a problem for the future.

Once he was done with shelf shopping he pushed his cart up beside the glass case of meats and, on the other side, bread. Squatting down, Kuroo looked at the different kinds of meat that displayed until a pair of legs and settled beside him. Curiosity set in and he turned his head to look at the rest of the body that belonged to the set of legs, blinking a few times to make sure his eyes were correct. Oikawa, Oikawa Tooru. That was who was standing beside him, and to add to it, he was staring down at Kuroo. Oikawa knew that was him--he had a large smile plastered on his face.

"Tetsu-chan." The familiar name came out the latter's mouth and, almost instantly, Tetsurou stood up and put on his own small smile. "Long time no see. What happened to you? We were suppose to meet each other in tournaments in college." The setter adjusted the basket that hung from his forearm.

Kuroo couldn't possibly tell him what had really happened. It would change how Oikawa sees him completely. "I got caught up in studies is all. I can't juggle both in college like I could in high school." A complete and total lie. It was for both his own and Tooru's sake. He brought up a hand and rubbed at the back of his own neck, chuckling lightly. "It's nice to see you again, Tooru." That, unlike his other words, were true. It was nice to see one of his old friends from high school. "How'd you know it was me? I wasn't even standing up." Although he knew the possible answer, he still asked to try to strike up a small conversations.

Tooru laughed a bit and shrugged lightly, reaching down to set his basket on the ground. "Anyone could pick out your hair from a mile away." He teased, his eyes shifting to the knotted hair on top of the slightly tallers male. "It looks worse than it did in high school. Did you change products or choose a new sleeping position?" Kuroo rolled his eyes and ran his fingers through the black locks. It had gotten worse but because of his lack of fixing it and how he tossed and turned at night. "Why haven't you contacted me at least? I've been worried for awhile. It turns out no one knows your contact information anymore."

Tetsurou blinked and glanced down at his shoes, shrugging and leaning back against his cart but having to quickly stand up once more, almost falling due to the cart moving. "I've been going through a lot of...Hard times, I guess." He looked over to the glass case once more, occupying himself with reading the labels to the meat.

"You can always turn to your friends for help, though, Tetsu-chan." Tooru's voice had grown softer and a more sympathetic look had taken the place of the stupid smile on his face. "Why don't we visit each other and catch up?" The once Grand King reached back and dug in his pocket, pulling out his phone and sliding the top screen up. Kuroo looked back over to him and and quickly scrambled for his own phone. Did he even bring it? He furrowed his eyebrows until he felt the familiar square shape in his pockets. A sigh of relief left him and he pulled it out, opening his own up. "Here, I'll put my number in and you can put yours in." As this was said, the latter's phone was offered to the cat, which was taken and replaced with Kuroo's own phone.

The two went silent as they put their numbers in each other's phone and sent a test text to make sure the numbers worked. Tetsurou gave a much bigger and sincere smile to the setter, giving his phone back and recieving his own back. "I'll make sure to send you a text when I'm free." After he spoke, a fist had met his arm in a playful punch.

"You better." Oikawa flashed a smile one last time before turning and raising a hand. "I'll see you later, Tetsu-chan, remember to text me!"

Kuroo waved back and laughed quietly. "Yeah, yeah." The male watched as the latter left before looking to his phone to see the contact, smiling as he did so. His life was already getting better, wasn't it? He wasn't going to be lonely anymore. He opened up the text messaging and ran his thumb over the keys. Should he text him now? No, they were both still in the store. He closed his phone and stuffed it back into his pocket, turning and grabbing the bar to his cart, quickly pushing it through the store up to the front, going into a line for one of the checkouts.

The male was extremely eager to text the setter and more excited to have him over to catch up. He wasn't going to be alone anymore, he had someone back  in his life. Someone that wanted to be there and get to know him again. A wide stupid smile was plastered on the male's face. He wasn't going to waste any times contacting him.