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KuroKen

The flat is silent when Kuroo comes home from his last class of the day, and there is no response when he calls Kenma's name. It's odd. Kuroo knows Kenma's schedule as well as his own and he's pretty sure that he finishes an hour before him on Thursdays. He doesn't remember Kenma mentioning any plans, either. It doesn't take him long to check every room in their apartment, and when he finds Kenma it suddenly makes sense.

He's fast asleep on the bed, his limbs draped over the covers in all different directions as if he passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. His thumb is resting against his slightly parted lips and he's wearing the soft blue pyjamas that wordlessly let Kuroo know that Kenma needs to be little tonight.

A small smile plays around Kuroo's lips as he leans against the doorframe and allows himself to watch Kenma napping peacefully for just a moment. Finding him like this always fills Kuroo with mixed feelings. He's more than thrilled that Kenma trusts him enough to let him see him like this, that he's the only one who's allowed to take care of him. At the same time, Kuroo knows that Kenma wouldn't ask for this if he didn't need it. It always means it's been a difficult day.

Kenma copes with university life just fine most of the time, can take care of himself and hasn't let his social anxiety hold him back too much for a while now. Everything has slowly and steadily been improving since he started to make some friends besides Kuroo two years ago. Kuroo doesn't really need to worry about him anymore, although it's a habit that's hard to break. But Kenma will always be exhausted rather than energised from too much social interaction, and sometimes when he's forced to constantly deal with people in class, at his part-time job, and at volleyball practice (admittedly, Kuroo bribed him into joining the team because he still thinks Kenma would have missed volleyball if he'd given it up after high school), it all gets a bit too much.

"Kenma?" Kuroo sits down on the edge of the bed, brushing a strand of hair out of Kenma's face and pressing his lips to his cheek. "You okay?"

Kenma moans softly and stretches, blinking at Kuroo when he opens his eyes. "Hm? Yeah."

"Good. I'm going to make dinner, want anything in particular?"

"Pizza," Kenma replies without missing a beat.

"We had pizza just the other day," Kuroo says with a chuckle, ruffling Kenma's hair. "We can't live on junk food forever. Anything healthy you'd like?" Kenma just pouts for a moment before his eyes start to close again. "Fine, I'll think of something."

To be honest, if it was up to Kuroo, they would live on junk food, but when Kenma is like this, it's up to him to be the responsible one. Besides, their university's volleyball team competes on a pretty high level so they can't afford to be out of shape. Kuroo isn't the best cook though, so he ends up throwing some tofu and a random assortment of vegetables into a pan and hopes for the best. Surprisingly, it doesn't turn out completely inedible.

"Kenma!" He calls, emptying the contents of the pan into two bowls. "Dinner!"

Kuroo is about to get up and retrieve Kenma from the bedroom before the food gets cold when he finally shows up in the living room, sleepily sitting down at the dinner table in his pyjamas. He picks up his chopsticks and starts fishing out pieces of tofu before Kuroo gets a chance to say 'thanks for the food.' Kenma repeats after him, his mouth already full.

"Had a hard day?" Kuroo tentatively asks while he eats his meal, despite knowing that Kenma wouldn't let Kuroo take care of him like this if talking about it instead would help. But he needs to ask, just in case.

Kenma nods without looking up from his bowl, sullenly poking at his vegetables now that all the tofu is gone. Kuroo sighs and takes Kenma's chopsticks from his hand. He grabs a piece of broccoli and pushes it against Kenma's bottom lip until he opens his mouth. "Wanna talk about it?"

Chewing glumly on the vegetable, Kenma shakes his head. "There's apple pie in the fridge, you know." Kuroo offers Kenma a piece of carrot. "You can have some if you finish your dinner." Predictably, Kenma visibly perks up at that promise, and within a few minutes his bowl is completely empty.

They eat dessert in front of the TV, Kuroo watching sports and Kenma unsuccessfully attempting to transport chunks of apple pie to his mouth whilst playing a game on his PSP at the same time. When a fork full of pie almost ends up on the couch, Kuroo sets down his own plate and grabs Kenma's, who hands it over and lets Kuroo feed him without question as he continues to play. He finishes the level with his head in Kuroo's lap and Kuroo's fingers absently stroking his hair.

"You want to take a bath?"

Kenma looks up at Kuroo and nods with a grateful look in his eyes, as if he's silently thanking him for understanding his needs without having to be asked.

Kuroo carries him to the bathroom, just because he can, and undresses him while the bath fills up. Kenma lifts his arms when Kuroo asks, letting himself be stripped naked before he settles into the bath in front of Kuroo, resting against his chest.

Under normal circumstances Kuroo would take advantage of having his naked boyfriend between his legs, but on days like these it's almost impossible to think of Kenma in a sexual way. Instead, he scrubs his body clean and gently shampoos and rinses his hair, the warm water and Kuroo's fingers massaging his scalp lulling Kenma to sleep once again. Kuroo lets him doze until the water starts to get cold.

When Kuroo tucks him into bed a bit later, Kenma speaks for the first time in hours. "Thank you," he whispers when Kuroo climbs into bed and settles against Kenma, wrapping his arm around him.

"You don't have to say that."

"This weekend...I'll do all the cooking and cleaning, okay? And..."

"Kenma." Normally Kuroo might have joked about Kenma being lazy and about how he needs to stop playing games so much and help out more. But he hates that Kenma won't believe that he doesn't mind taking over all responsibilities and taking care of him every once in a while. He's always taken care of Kenma in subtle ways, reminding him to eat his lunch, making sure he prepares for his tests. This is just taking that a little further, and if Kenma needed him to do this more often, he would. "You don't have to make up for it."

Kenma must have decided to stop arguing, or maybe he's fallen asleep already, because he doesn't respond. With a smile, Kuroo buries his face in Kenma's neck, holding him tightly as he drifts off to sleep. He doesn't know if he'll wake up the next day with a dependent little boy clinging to him, or with his cute, blunt nerd of a boyfriend on top of him, silently demanding to be fucked.

Either way, Kuroo's alright with it. As far as he's concerned, he's got the best of both worlds.