Her ringtone reverberates within the dimly lit room. She turns on her side and shoves a pillow on top of her head to muffle the noise, not wanting to speak to anyone at 2am. Her phone stops ringing and she sighs in relief, pulling the pillow off of her head. But her phone rings again, startling her, and she ruffles her hair irritably before reaching over and answering her phone.
“Hello?” she mutters groggily.
“[L/N], please go outside.”
She could tell whose voice that was in a heartbeat. She sat up, suddenly attentive, and replied.
“It’s 2 in the morning. Why would I go outside?”
“Look out your window.”
She furrowed her eyebrows, confused, and went over to her window. What she saw made her yelp and nearly gave her a heart attack, and she immediately speaks into her phone.
“Kuroko, what are you doing outside of my house at 2 in the morning?!” she asks him in bafflement. She watches as he waves his hand to her from below.
“I needed to talk to you,” he says like it’s nothing out of the ordinary to seek someone out to talk to them at 2 in the morning on a school night. She throws up a hand, telling him to wait, and he nods. She ends the call and puts her phone in her pocket.
She rushes downstairs and carefully slips out of the house, pocketing her keys in her pajama pants. He stands there like nothing is out of the ordinary and waits for her to approach him. She pads towards him, drowsiness still clouding her mind, and she yawns, covering her mouth with her hand.
“What’s up, Kuroko?” she asks. He looks at her before taking her arm in his grasp and pulling her along.
“Hey! Where are we going?!” she whispers, trying not to alarm the neighbors to the fact that she was sneaking out at this ungodly hour.
Kuroko doesn’t say a word, but, somehow, she trusts him enough to let him lead the way.
They end up on a bridge somewhere, overlooking the river. The moon reflects upon the rippling water, and it’s a breathtaking view, one she wished she could have enjoyed with someone special.
She tears her gaze away from the river and glances at Kuroko who has been staring at her all this time. She shoots him a questioning glance, yet he still doesn’t speak. She opens her mouth to say something but he beats her to it.
“Please like me.”
She blinks, wide-eyed at his bold statement. Her gaze shifts from him to the river, and she finds herself pushing her hands down into her pockets.
“Kuroko, liking someone isn’t like that…” she tries to explain, hoping he might understand. “Liking someone comes and goes. It can’t just come back again in a snap.”
She turns to face Kuroko and continues to speak, a cold expression on her face.
“I was hurt and I moved on. I don’t… I don’t want to go back down that road.”
Kuroko takes her hands in his and looks her straight in the eye, sincerity in his words.
“Then, please, be a part of my life. I don’t know anything about these things, but, for once, I don’t want to be a shadow. I want to be your light, [L/N].
“I want to be the reason your face lights up in the morning. I want to be the only one to see your smile. Is that selfish of me?”
She looks at him, still unwilling to believe what he was saying. She wasn’t his type. He said it himself. So why the sudden change of heart? Maybe Kuroko was just confused. Maybe he was mistaking the feeling of missing someone with the feeling of liking someone. There was no way he would like her, right? Not after everything that’s happened.
