Parlay || Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader

Chapter 5: Table

 Grandmother had nearly given herself a stroke from agreeing so fast to (Y/N)'s request for a half shift that day.

"Is it for school? Is it for friends? Oh, (Y/N)-chan, is it for a man or a woman?" the old woman bombarded the girl she treated like a grandchild with questions. It was rare for (Y/N) to take a day off, much less request one. She shook her head.

"Nothing like that, Gran. My friends invited me to watch their volleyball game. Our school is very highly ranked."

"Ah, your Tooru-kun plays on that team, doesn't he?" (Y/N) watched as Grandmother cut a mango into slices and presented them on a bed of sticky rice. The young girl served the dish to a table by the window: a young father and his young daughter.

"The usual, for my favorite father-daughter duo!" she smiled sweetly at the pair. The father looked up from his computer.

"Thank you, (Y/N)-san. Look, Miki! What's this?" he asked his 2-year-old. The little brown-haired girl looked away from the window to meet her father's gaze. She had plump little rosy cheeks streaked with dried milk.

"Mangey!" she chirped. Before her father could react, the child had taken a fistful of mango and shoved it mostly into her mouth, though, the majority ended up on those round cheeks of hers. The man sighed, but not without a nonetheless adoring look at his daughter.

"I'm glad she likes it, " (Y/N) giggled, "I'll be back to check on you two in a few minutes, Suzuki-san."

Making her way back to the kitchen, leaning against a side table covered in clean glass cups, (Y/N) took a moment to bask in the warm embrace of the place that felt like her true home. The kitchen was smaller than most tea houses of that size and of that popularity than the average place would normally have. Grandmother, however, made sure the place was immaculate. (Y/N) looked over the small plastic bins of ingredients, each one placed based first on health code requirements, then by frequency. Filling for songpyeon took up the largest bin. Continuing her conversation with Grandmother, she said, "Yes, Tooru is on that team," she chuckled, "They practically begged him to play for them." Grandmother dried her hands on a dish towel.

"Well, if you ever manage to pull him off the court, feel free to bring him around. That boy's always neglected to eat," the old woman griped.

Opening her mouth to reply, the ringing of the front door bell interrupted (Y/N)'s reply. With a quick swipe her hands over her apron, she swung out of the kitchen and greeted their new guests.

"Welcome in-- Oh! Hi, you two! Welcome in." Before her stood her best friend and roommate and his tall, stressfully attractive childhood friend. Kenma's dyed-blonde hair was mostly grown out - he'd been too busy (and too lazy) to get it redone. Kuroo's catlike eyes crinkled as he smiled at her.

"Good morning, (Y/N)-san."

"Hi, (Y/N)."

The female led the two boys over to a booth across from the kitchen entrance. Away from the volleyball players' line of sight, the other three servers working today poked their heads out from the kitchen doorway. Chisato, Grandmother's actual granddaughter, was fanning herself dramatically, while Shusei and Tamaki were busy ogling Tokyo U's handsome spiker. (Y/N) rolled her eyes at them. The boys took the menus she handed them.

"Can I start you two off with anything to drink?"

"Water, please."

"Just a water," because they were in college, and broke ass college students can't afford not-water.

Kenma didn't even open his menu before handing it back to her.

"Something with pork," he said, after which he pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his emails.