Together

One

Together

 

“Kenma! What are you doing wandering off like that? We’re all waiting for you.”

The sound of Kuroo Tetsurou’s voice echoed through the empty street, drowning out the familiar tunes of the game Kozume Kenma had been playing since drifting away from the rest of the volleyball team twenty minutes ago. They’d been taking too long to pack up again, spending more time joking around than actually working. He didn’t particularly enjoy exerting too much energy around people—even around his teammates—so he usually wandered off after doing his part of the cleanup. Usually he ended up in a different place every time, but he didn’t care where he went, really, as long as it was quiet. The only one who seemed to understand his haphazard drift patterns had found him now, though, and was staring listlessly at him with cat-like eyes and a frown on his face.

 Really, Kuroo’s accuracy was sometimes unsettling, but Kenma had gotten used to it. After all, if he hadn’t had Kuroo, he would probably never have been able to survive very well on his own. Kuroo had been finding him since they were kids. Forcing him out of his perfectly crafted bubble and thrusting him into the real world. Tapping his shoulder whenever he was about to miss his train stop. In short, Kuroo had always been—and continued to be—his ‘savior,’ and though that scared him a little, he was grateful.

“Sorry, Kuro,” Kenma apologized. Kuroo’s frown disappeared slowly as Kenma jogged over to him, and that made Kenma a bit happy. He didn’t like it when Kuroo worried about him.

“Well, you’ve disappeared on me so often it's almost as if I can track you down by instinct now, you know? I don’t think you should even be saying sorry anymore.”

“Mm?”

“It’s cause if you really were sorry you’d have stopped wandering off by yourself by now. At least around me.”

“Mm … you’re right.”

Kuroo let out a small laugh. Kenma’s anti verbosity was nothing new, but it still amused him.

“But instinct, huh? That’s scary…” Kenma remarked.

Kuroo laughed again.

“It should be. Took me a while to perfect it.”

“You don't think it was a waste of energy?”

“Of course not. You get lost so often, it’s become pretty much invaluable to me.”

“Mm…”

The two of them joined up with the rest of their teammates a while later—since Kenma had wandered so far—and had steamed pork buns on the way home. The snack was definitely welcome after grueling practice, especially since it was one of Kenma’s favorites. After they’d separated from the others, Kuroo pulled another one out of his paper bag and handed it to Kenma, smiling slyly.

“An extra again? You’re trying to make me fat, aren’t you, Kuro?”

“Say ah~”

“…ah…”

Kuroo had always been concerned about Kenma’s fragility, but Kenma had never seemed to gain any weight, even when handed extras like this. At this point, Kuroo’s handing extras to Kenma had become a reflex now, and Kenma gladly accepted Kuroo’s offers. Even if he had to be fed like a little kid. He didn’t mind. It was innocent, and Kuroo seemed to get a kick out of it every time.

Kuroo was still snickering when they arrived at Kenma’s house.

“Well, that was faster than expected tonight, wasn’t it?”