Word Count: 2130

Fluff, Romance, Coffee Shop AU, Humor

Summary:Takanobu has been visiting the same coffee shop after work every day. Recently, they’ve gotten a new barista. And that handsome barista is writing cheesy pick-up lines on Takanobu’s coffee cups.

Good evening, everyone! Here is my contribution to the @hqrandomizerbb​! I found both the pairing and the prompt really cute, so I hope you all enjoy!

Takanobu hovered nervously outside the door to the coffee shop, just pouting at his slightly sweaty reflection in the glass of the fancy revolving door. He’d take a few steps toward it, pause, and then turn around to go right back to sulking by the daisies growing in the flowerpots perched on the windowsill. Every time someone exited, they’d give him funny looks; once people saw his hulking frame looming in the window, they’d skirt away to hastily find another table, leaving the right side of the café suspiciously empty. But Takanobu paid no mind, too busy focusing on the counter—more specifically, the handsome blond barista behind it. 

This was Takanobu’s favorite café. He always stopped by in the early evenings after work to get an iced coffee. It helped finally cool his body down from laboring in the sun all day, and the calm, quiet atmosphere did good to banish the pounding of hammers and the thundering of jackhammers that was still echoing in his head though he’d long since left the construction site. He’d been going there ever since he got his job. The barista had been working there for only a few short weeks, and at first, Takanobu didn’t take much notice. It was even a few days before he spied the nametag that read “Yūji Terushima” in nice, neat print. Honestly, Takanobu didn’t really think much of the new hire aside from he made a damn good iced coffee. 

That is until Yūji wrote a cheesy pick-up line on Takanobu’s coffee cup.

Takanobu had thought he’d fallen asleep and strayed into some kind of confusing dream when it had happened. He had just stood there slack-jawed and gaping at the sentence written in nice, swirly script. “Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got FINE written all over you.” There were even little hearts drawn around his name. Takanobu had blinked at the cup, then looked up at Yūji, who’d thrown him a suave smirk and a wink. And then, of course, Takanobu did the sensible thing—he hauled ass. He even left the coffee behind. He couldn’t drink it, not with that pick-up line taunting him. 

After stewing on it for a while, he figured that it was just some sort of joke that he didn’t. There was no sense in switching coffee houses over some harmless pick-up line, right? It certainly wouldn’t happen again. 

Except it did. 

“We got a new special on the menu today—me ‘n u!” 

“I’m sorry, I gotta call the cops. You stole my heart!” 

“I think there’s something wrong with my phone. Your number’s not in it!” 

“Are you a broom? Because you’ve swept me off my feet!” 

And every time, Takanobu would turn beet red and look at Yūji like a deer caught in headlights. And every time, Yūji would flash him a grin that made his heart play his ribs like bongo drums. And every time, Takanobu found himself lingering a little longer before running off. Long enough to begin to appreciate how actually drop-dead gorgeous the young man was—silky blond hair styled in an undercut that showed off dark brown roots, perfect white teeth that gleamed in the soft light of the fluorescents, warm brown eyes that lingered on Takanobu as he walked around the café. 

As much as the cheesy pick-up lines caught Takanobu off-guard… He was kind of beginning to likebeing caught off-guard. 

Enough to linger outside the café trying to work up the courage to actually stay after the pick-up line. The problem was that now he was a little too chicken to even go get the pick-up line. What if he didn’t even get a pick-up line this time? He couldn’t blame Yūji for giving up after Takanobu had bolted the last several times. Takanobu groaned and scratched anxiously at the base of his neck while he lumbered back to the front door. He peered through the glass—

and he almost passed out when Yūji smiled at him from behind the bar. 

Then he hustled through the door so fast that he knocked over the plant that was standing next to the coat rack. He cursed as soil spilled everywhere, and he frantically glanced back at the counter to see Yūji hiding a smirk behind his hand. Takanobu squatted down to feverishly scoop the soil back into the pot, then clumsily righted it. He hastily wiped as much of the soil as he could off on his jeans—they were already stained with sand and other dusts from the construction site—and turned around. Yūji was working with a customer, giving Takanobu the moment he needed to exhale a shaky breath and collect himself. 

Be cool. He must like you, right? Just go up there and… don’t… chicken out… 

Yeah, he liked Yūji, but he was so damn bad at the romance thing. 

Takanobu ran a hand over his hair and exhaled again before he got in line. He started practicing greetings in his head, but before he could decide if he wanted to say “Good afternoon,” or “Good evening,” the pretty redhead in front of him realized that she would not be getting the barista’s number and grumpily shuffled off to go wait for her latte. And then Takanobu was standing there in front of him, and he balked.

“Well, howdy, stranger,” Yūji grinned when he turned around and was greeted with the sight of Takanobu trying to disappear right through the floor. “I haven’t seen you in a few days.” 

“Y-yeah,” Takanobu stammered when his tongue finally decided to work. “I, um… I was out of town.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Yūji grinned. Takanobu’s heart rate spiked as he leaned forward on the counter; the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up around his elbows, and it was sinful how good his forearms looked. “I thought I mighta scared ya off, stud.” 

Studstudstudstudstud, the word echoed in Takanobu’s head. 

“Sc-scared me off?” 

“Well, considering you took off like an Olympic sprinter every time I handed ya yer coffee…” he smirked, eyebrow creeping up his forehead. Takanobu felt the blush crawling up his neck, and he tugged nervously at his tee-shirt. Yūji looked him up and down, and when his smirk widened, it took everything in Takanobu’s body to fight that nearly unquashable urge to spring away like a deer leaping across the highway. 

“R-right… Err…” Takanobu stammered and tugged awkwardly at his ear. Ugh, he couldn’t even look at him right now! His smoldering smirk was just setting Takanobu on fire, making him burn from the tips of his toes to the crown of his head. “I, um…” 

“First time someone’s ever written pick-up lines one yer coffee cups?” Yūji teased. 

Takanobu looked down at his feet while a bashful, lopsided smile bloomed on his lips. Well, at least he had progressed past freaking out and running out. He was beginning to lament how much money he had spent on wasted coffee. And, of course, not staying long enough to actually talk to the handsome man that was flirting with him. He forced himself to lift his head and meet his eyes, though it was only for a few seconds and then he was back to blushing at the counter. 

“Y-yeah, um… I-I’m not used to being flirted with in general, actually.” 

“What? But you’re a catch!” Yūji cried. When Takanobu looked up at him in surprise, Yūji was staring at him with wide, owlish eyes. Yūji picked up a pen and began using the end of it to draw abstract patterns in the smooth surface of the counter. “I mean, look at you! Tall, dark, and handsome! Who wouldn’t want you?!” 

Takanobu’s skin turned even darker, and he reached up to nervously play with the hair at the back of his neck. Sure, he tanned well working on the construction site, but he’d never thought much about it. It was an… attractive factor? He wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. He also wasn’t quite sure what to think about the fact that Yūjifound it an attractive factor. 

Talking. He needed to keep talking. He wanted to keep talking, yes. Words. What were words?

He managed to fill the silence with a nervous laugh before he just mumbled a shy, “Yeah.” 

“Awww, look at you,” Yūji crooned. “Don’t even know how handsome ya are.” When Takanobu hid his bright red face behind his hand, the barista barked out a laugh. “I gotta say, I’m impressed! You haven’t bolted yet!” 

Still hiding his face, Takanobu muttered, “Well, I wanted to stick around this time to um… um…” 

“Ummmmm?” Takanobu could tell that Yūji knew exactly what he wanted, but he was quite enjoying flustering Takanobu, apparently, and wanted to do it some more. 

“I, umm… I wanted to stick around to, um… actually talk to you. Because I, um, I like your pick-up lines,” Takanobu finally managed to say. 

“Oh, thank goodness for that,” Yūji smirked. He slid the pen behind his ear and leaned his cheek in his hand, Takanobu’s heart stopped. “I was beginning to feel like I had lost my touch!” He then seemed to process what Takanobu had actually said, and a cheeky grin pulled onto his lips. “…So, you like the pick-up lines, eh?” 

Talking. We’re talking. This isn’t so bad. Takanobu thought with an eensy smile. He played with the little fringe of ribbon tied around the tip jar as he uttered a quiet, “Yeah. A-a-actually… I’ve got one for you.” 

Yūji straightened up, the smirk on his lips turning into an absolutely elated grin. Takanobu wasn’t sure if it was because he was really excited that he was being given a pick-up line or if he was extremely amused; either way, Takanobu took it as a good sign. He cleared his throat, rubbed his hands on his jeans, and then looked up at Yūji with a nervous cinch in his eyebrows. 

“A-a-are you an earthquake? B-because, uh, y-you rock my world,” Takanobu slowly bit out. The words came out awkward and disjointed, but at least he got them out. He immediately felt like an idiot, though, and he hid his face in both his hands this time. He couldn’t help but crack his fingers apart to peer at Yūji when he began to chuckle. 

“Gotta say, that is a cheesy one,” Yūji snickered. Takanobu momentarily panicked, thinking that maybe his hours of looking up pick-up lines had led him to the wrong one. However, Yūji was looking at him like he’d just stolen the moon from the sky and held it out to him. Eyes shining, smile dreamy, smirk roguish. Hell, it made Takanobu feel like stealing the moon and holding it out to him if he would just keep looking at him like that. 

“Hey, ya know what?” Yūji said suddenly, straightening up. Takanobu was so shocked by the sudden shift in the conversation that he dropped his hands. “My phone is still having that problem. I was wondering if you could help me with that?” 

Takanobu was about to agree, but he stopped in the middle of saying it. When Yūji looked quizzically at him, Takanobu flushed and admitted, “I’m… kind of going to miss the pick-up lines.” 

“Tell ya what, stud,” Yūji said with a wink. “Gimme that number and I’ll text ya new one every day.” 

“O-oh, there’s gonna be an every day?” 

“If you want there to a be,” Yūji grinned. His tongue flicked out to lick his front two teeth, and Takanobu almost fainted on the spot. He managed to avoid losing consciousness so he could grab a napkin. Instead of handing him the pen, Yūji leaned forward and raised his eyebrows meaningfully. Takanobu swallowed thickly, feeling like his tongue immediately swelled up to fill his whole mouth, and then reached out to shakily pluck the pen from behind Yūji’s ear. He scrawled his number down, and when he looked back up, Yūji was smugly waiting for him to slip the pen back behind his ear. Takanobu did so with a shy smile. 

Damn, Yūji even made taking the napkin from him breathtakingly sexy. 

“All right, then,” Yūji smiled charmingly as he straightened up. “You will get a pick-up line tomorrow morning.” 

“Tomorrow morning?” 

“Yeah, because I’ll see you when I get off, right?” Yūji chuckled, throwing him another wink. 

“D-definitely!” Takanobu nodded so hard that it was a wonder his head didn’t fall right off. Yūji laughed, and Takanobu felt himself go weak in the knees, it was such a lovelylaugh. “I get off in thirty minutes, actually. You want your usual while you wait?” 

Takanobu smiled sweetly back at him. Huh. Maybe he could do this romance thing after all. 

“Yeah. Yeah, that would be great.”

Word Count: 2130

Fluff, Romance, Coffee Shop AU, Humor

Summary:Takanobu has been visiting the same coffee shop after work every day. Recently, they’ve gotten a new barista. And that handsome barista is writing cheesy pick-up lines on Takanobu’s coffee cups.

Good evening, everyone! Here is my contribution to the @hqrandomizerbb​! I found both the pairing and the prompt really cute, so I hope you all enjoy!

Takanobu hovered nervously outside the door to the coffee shop, just pouting at his slightly sweaty reflection in the glass of the fancy revolving door. He’d take a few steps toward it, pause, and then turn around to go right back to sulking by the daisies growing in the flowerpots perched on the windowsill. Every time someone exited, they’d give him funny looks; once people saw his hulking frame looming in the window, they’d skirt away to hastily find another table, leaving the right side of the café suspiciously empty. But Takanobu paid no mind, too busy focusing on the counter—more specifically, the handsome blond barista behind it. 

This was Takanobu’s favorite café. He always stopped by in the early evenings after work to get an iced coffee. It helped finally cool his body down from laboring in the sun all day, and the calm, quiet atmosphere did good to banish the pounding of hammers and the thundering of jackhammers that was still echoing in his head though he’d long since left the construction site. He’d been going there ever since he got his job. The barista had been working there for only a few short weeks, and at first, Takanobu didn’t take much notice. It was even a few days before he spied the nametag that read “Yūji Terushima” in nice, neat print. Honestly, Takanobu didn’t really think much of the new hire aside from he made a damn good iced coffee. 

That is until Yūji wrote a cheesy pick-up line on Takanobu’s coffee cup.

Takanobu had thought he’d fallen asleep and strayed into some kind of confusing dream when it had happened. He had just stood there slack-jawed and gaping at the sentence written in nice, swirly script. “Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got FINE written all over you.” There were even little hearts drawn around his name. Takanobu had blinked at the cup, then looked up at Yūji, who’d thrown him a suave smirk and a wink. And then, of course, Takanobu did the sensible thing—he hauled ass. He even left the coffee behind. He couldn’t drink it, not with that pick-up line taunting him. 

After stewing on it for a while, he figured that it was just some sort of joke that he didn’t. There was no sense in switching coffee houses over some harmless pick-up line, right? It certainly wouldn’t happen again. 

Except it did. 

“We got a new special on the menu today—me ‘n u!” 

“I’m sorry, I gotta call the cops. You stole my heart!” 

“I think there’s something wrong with my phone. Your number’s not in it!” 

“Are you a broom? Because you’ve swept me off my feet!” 

And every time, Takanobu would turn beet red and look at Yūji like a deer caught in headlights. And every time, Yūji would flash him a grin that made his heart play his ribs like bongo drums. And every time, Takanobu found himself lingering a little longer before running off. Long enough to begin to appreciate how actually drop-dead gorgeous the young man was—silky blond hair styled in an undercut that showed off dark brown roots, perfect white teeth that gleamed in the soft light of the fluorescents, warm brown eyes that lingered on Takanobu as he walked around the café. 

As much as the cheesy pick-up lines caught Takanobu off-guard… He was kind of beginning to likebeing caught off-guard. 

Enough to linger outside the café trying to work up the courage to actually stay after the pick-up line. The problem was that now he was a little too chicken to even go get the pick-up line. What if he didn’t even get a pick-up line this time? He couldn’t blame Yūji for giving up after Takanobu had bolted the last several times. Takanobu groaned and scratched anxiously at the base of his neck while he lumbered back to the front door. He peered through the glass—

and he almost passed out when Yūji smiled at him from behind the bar. 

Then he hustled through the door so fast that he knocked over the plant that was standing next to the coat rack. He cursed as soil spilled everywhere, and he frantically glanced back at the counter to see Yūji hiding a smirk behind his hand. Takanobu squatted down to feverishly scoop the soil back into the pot, then clumsily righted it. He hastily wiped as much of the soil as he could off on his jeans—they were already stained with sand and other dusts from the construction site—and turned around. Yūji was working with a customer, giving Takanobu the moment he needed to exhale a shaky breath and collect himself. 

Be cool. He must like you, right? Just go up there and… don’t… chicken out… 

Yeah, he liked Yūji, but he was so damn bad at the romance thing. 

Takanobu ran a hand over his hair and exhaled again before he got in line. He started practicing greetings in his head, but before he could decide if he wanted to say “Good afternoon,” or “Good evening,” the pretty redhead in front of him realized that she would not be getting the barista’s number and grumpily shuffled off to go wait for her latte. And then Takanobu was standing there in front of him, and he balked.

“Well, howdy, stranger,” Yūji grinned when he turned around and was greeted with the sight of Takanobu trying to disappear right through the floor. “I haven’t seen you in a few days.” 

“Y-yeah,” Takanobu stammered when his tongue finally decided to work. “I, um… I was out of town.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Yūji grinned. Takanobu’s heart rate spiked as he leaned forward on the counter; the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up around his elbows, and it was sinful how good his forearms looked. “I thought I mighta scared ya off, stud.” 

Studstudstudstudstud, the word echoed in Takanobu’s head. 

“Sc-scared me off?” 

“Well, considering you took off like an Olympic sprinter every time I handed ya yer coffee…” he smirked, eyebrow creeping up his forehead. Takanobu felt the blush crawling up his neck, and he tugged nervously at his tee-shirt. Yūji looked him up and down, and when his smirk widened, it took everything in Takanobu’s body to fight that nearly unquashable urge to spring away like a deer leaping across the highway. 

“R-right… Err…” Takanobu stammered and tugged awkwardly at his ear. Ugh, he couldn’t even look at him right now! His smoldering smirk was just setting Takanobu on fire, making him burn from the tips of his toes to the crown of his head. “I, um…” 

“First time someone’s ever written pick-up lines one yer coffee cups?” Yūji teased. 

Takanobu looked down at his feet while a bashful, lopsided smile bloomed on his lips. Well, at least he had progressed past freaking out and running out. He was beginning to lament how much money he had spent on wasted coffee. And, of course, not staying long enough to actually talk to the handsome man that was flirting with him. He forced himself to lift his head and meet his eyes, though it was only for a few seconds and then he was back to blushing at the counter. 

“Y-yeah, um… I-I’m not used to being flirted with in general, actually.” 

“What? But you’re a catch!” Yūji cried. When Takanobu looked up at him in surprise, Yūji was staring at him with wide, owlish eyes. Yūji picked up a pen and began using the end of it to draw abstract patterns in the smooth surface of the counter. “I mean, look at you! Tall, dark, and handsome! Who wouldn’t want you?!” 

Takanobu’s skin turned even darker, and he reached up to nervously play with the hair at the back of his neck. Sure, he tanned well working on the construction site, but he’d never thought much about it. It was an… attractive factor? He wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. He also wasn’t quite sure what to think about the fact that Yūjifound it an attractive factor. 

Talking. He needed to keep talking. He wanted to keep talking, yes. Words. What were words?

He managed to fill the silence with a nervous laugh before he just mumbled a shy, “Yeah.” 

“Awww, look at you,” Yūji crooned. “Don’t even know how handsome ya are.” When Takanobu hid his bright red face behind his hand, the barista barked out a laugh. “I gotta say, I’m impressed! You haven’t bolted yet!” 

Still hiding his face, Takanobu muttered, “Well, I wanted to stick around this time to um… um…” 

“Ummmmm?” Takanobu could tell that Yūji knew exactly what he wanted, but he was quite enjoying flustering Takanobu, apparently, and wanted to do it some more. 

“I, umm… I wanted to stick around to, um… actually talk to you. Because I, um, I like your pick-up lines,” Takanobu finally managed to say. 

“Oh, thank goodness for that,” Yūji smirked. He slid the pen behind his ear and leaned his cheek in his hand, Takanobu’s heart stopped. “I was beginning to feel like I had lost my touch!” He then seemed to process what Takanobu had actually said, and a cheeky grin pulled onto his lips. “…So, you like the pick-up lines, eh?” 

Talking. We’re talking. This isn’t so bad. Takanobu thought with an eensy smile. He played with the little fringe of ribbon tied around the tip jar as he uttered a quiet, “Yeah. A-a-actually… I’ve got one for you.” 

Yūji straightened up, the smirk on his lips turning into an absolutely elated grin. Takanobu wasn’t sure if it was because he was really excited that he was being given a pick-up line or if he was extremely amused; either way, Takanobu took it as a good sign. He cleared his throat, rubbed his hands on his jeans, and then looked up at Yūji with a nervous cinch in his eyebrows. 

“A-a-are you an earthquake? B-because, uh, y-you rock my world,” Takanobu slowly bit out. The words came out awkward and disjointed, but at least he got them out. He immediately felt like an idiot, though, and he hid his face in both his hands this time. He couldn’t help but crack his fingers apart to peer at Yūji when he began to chuckle. 

“Gotta say, that is a cheesy one,” Yūji snickered. Takanobu momentarily panicked, thinking that maybe his hours of looking up pick-up lines had led him to the wrong one. However, Yūji was looking at him like he’d just stolen the moon from the sky and held it out to him. Eyes shining, smile dreamy, smirk roguish. Hell, it made Takanobu feel like stealing the moon and holding it out to him if he would just keep looking at him like that. 

“Hey, ya know what?” Yūji said suddenly, straightening up. Takanobu was so shocked by the sudden shift in the conversation that he dropped his hands. “My phone is still having that problem. I was wondering if you could help me with that?” 

Takanobu was about to agree, but he stopped in the middle of saying it. When Yūji looked quizzically at him, Takanobu flushed and admitted, “I’m… kind of going to miss the pick-up lines.” 

“Tell ya what, stud,” Yūji said with a wink. “Gimme that number and I’ll text ya new one every day.” 

“O-oh, there’s gonna be an every day?” 

“If you want there to a be,” Yūji grinned. His tongue flicked out to lick his front two teeth, and Takanobu almost fainted on the spot. He managed to avoid losing consciousness so he could grab a napkin. Instead of handing him the pen, Yūji leaned forward and raised his eyebrows meaningfully. Takanobu swallowed thickly, feeling like his tongue immediately swelled up to fill his whole mouth, and then reached out to shakily pluck the pen from behind Yūji’s ear. He scrawled his number down, and when he looked back up, Yūji was smugly waiting for him to slip the pen back behind his ear. Takanobu did so with a shy smile. 

Damn, Yūji even made taking the napkin from him breathtakingly sexy. 

“All right, then,” Yūji smiled charmingly as he straightened up. “You will get a pick-up line tomorrow morning.” 

“Tomorrow morning?” 

“Yeah, because I’ll see you when I get off, right?” Yūji chuckled, throwing him another wink. 

“D-definitely!” Takanobu nodded so hard that it was a wonder his head didn’t fall right off. Yūji laughed, and Takanobu felt himself go weak in the knees, it was such a lovelylaugh. “I get off in thirty minutes, actually. You want your usual while you wait?” 

Takanobu smiled sweetly back at him. Huh. Maybe he could do this romance thing after all. 

“Yeah. Yeah, that would be great.”

Word Count:2200

Fluff, Romance, Domestic, Established Relationship, Cuddling

Summary: Rintarō thinks Motoya looks the most beautiful in the golden morning sunlight.

Rintarō inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled. The sheets rustled over his bare chest as he did, sliding down a little with the swell of his lungs. His eyes fluttered open; his fuzzy vision adjusted, the slowly-rotating ceiling fan and the popcorn ceiling gradually coming into focus. The pale golden light of the dawn spilled in through the window, and with each slow rotation of the ceiling fan blades, their slim shadows splayed across the whitish-gray ceiling. The sunlight also caught on the dust filtering in the air, making it look like little golden fairies were flitting above him. 

The bed creaked beside him, and Rintarō turned his head. Through the strands of oak-brown hair that fell into his eyes, he could see Motoya rolling over in the bed, his arm splaying out on the pillow above his head while the other laid over his chest. His mouth was hanging open just slightly, little breaths puffing past his shiny pink lips with each rise and fall of his chest. Occasionally, his round brown eyebrows would twitch, and he would breathily murmur something incomprehensible. 

Adoration swelled in Rintarō’s chest. He boosted himself up on his elbow—carefully, so as not to awaken his sleeping partner—and leaned his cheek in his hand. So many mornings that Rintarō had been graced with this view, in the five years that he and Motoya had been together, yet each time felt as magical as the first. The golden sunbeams danced over Motoya’s skin, making it seem like pure aurum itself. They threaded into his tawny tufts of hair to illuminate the threads of gold within, threads that only Rintarō could weave through his fingers. Just watching the sunlight-laden hairs shift with the subtle movements of Motoya’s body made Rintarō’s fingers twitch, and soon his hand was sliding across the mattress. 

Rintarō let out a gentle sigh as soon as his fingertips brushed against the softness of Motoya’s locks. Gently, he twisted the little curly tuft by his sleeping lover’s ear around his index finger. It felt like pure silk, far finer than the Egyptian cotton they were currently laying on. With the hair wound around his finger, he gently ran up and down the length of it with his thumb. So soft, yet it excited his nerves in the most exhilarating way, making little tingles bloom across his entire hand and up the length of his arm. Rintarō couldn’t resist diving right in, splaying his hand across the curve of Motoya’s head to bury his fingers into that downy cushion. 

A light chuckle pulled him out of his muddled thoughts. He looked back down at Motoya’s face to find one of his eyes cracked open and a sleepy smile on his lips. 

“Oh, do go on,” Motoya said when a haze of pink appeared on Rintarō’s cheeks. His voice was much deeper than usual, laden with the thick syrup of sleep. “I’m quite enjoying it.” Like a cat, he closed his eyes and butted up into Rintarō’s hand. His smile almost looked like a cat’s little grin, even. Smiling softly, Rintarō resumed his ministrations, gently petting across Motoya’s scalp as he played with the fibers of his hair. 

“Mmm… Has your alarm gone off yet?” Motoya mumbled sleepily. Rintarō always woke up before Motoya. For everything they shared, they also had their set of dichotomies; while Rintarō preferred crisp morning runs where the warming breeze cooled his perspiring skin, his lover favored jogging in the twilight, the water vapor bursting against his skin as the night humidity coated him from head to toe. But dawn had only just arrived, and so it would be another fifteen minutes or so before the tones of Rintarō’s alarm replaced the calm silence of the bedroom. 

“Not yet,” Rintarō answered, his voice as soft as the locks he was caressing. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” 

“Oh, but didn’t you?” Motoya responded with a teasing purr. He cracked both his eyes open this time, two slits that did little to hide the mischievous glinting in his dark brown irises. 

Rintarō flushed and looked down at the mattress in embarrassment, though he didn’t relinquish his gentle hold on Motoya’s head. So long they had been together, yet Rintarō still found himself coy. Even still, he struggled to express his feelings, the true depth of the affection that pooled within his heart. It was like an endless ocean, a blissful abyss with no bottom. How could he ever find the words to convey such love? How could he ever find the actions that would translate such endearment? 

Somehow, when the veil of sleep still partially covered them like sheer, delicate fabric clinging to soft skin, Rintarō found it slightly easier. Perhaps the fog shrouding his mind made it harder for him to get too engrossed in his thoughts, or the sight of Motoya in the golden sunlight was just so ethereal that all the things he wanted to do and say were summoned forth. Either way, Rintarō didn’t feel too reserved to draw himself closer to Motoya, flushing his front to Motoya’s side so he could bury his face into that goldenrod hair. 

“Jus’… Wan’ be close to you…” he mumbled. His body shook with the rumble of Motoya’s laugh, then tingled with the feeling of his lover’s slim arm slithering through the small gap between his hip and the sheets so he could loop it around his waist. Motoya was still lying on his back, and his left arm languidly rose to begin tracing abstract patterns into the skin of Rintarō’s arm where it crossed over the bottoms of his pectorals. 

“What is it? Did you have a bad dream?” Motoya questioned gently. 

His lover’s consideration made Rintarō feel fuzzy and warm. He hid his bashful smile into the side of Motoya’s head. 

“No. I just… I like you like this,” he attempted to explain. It was honestly difficult, even with the barrier of sheepishness removed. He just couldn’t even begin to explain how gorgeous Motoya looked in the pale light of the dawn, how much Rintarō enjoyed waking up to him by his side every day. He did it far more often than Motoya realized; often, his lover snoozed on, oblivious to Rintarō looking upon him with complete and utter tenderness. Rather than attempting to clutch onto sleep, if Rintarō happened to awaken early, he would spend each minuscule moment drinking in the sheer divinity of his lover’s existence. 

“Like this?” Motoya echoed. Rintarō’s blush deepened, mostly out of frustration at the fact he couldn’t voice his feelings into words. As he wriggled beside Motoya, Rintarō buried his face further into his partner’s hair, like he was attempting to just burrow right in it so he could escape the question. 

“I… I just think… You look beautiful in the morning…” he forced out in clipped, awkward splutters. A silence fell back over the room, interrupted only by the rhythmic whap-whap-whaps of the ceiling fan and the twitters of the thrush that lived in the tree just outside their apartment window. Motoya didn’t tense at his words; his body remained lax, but Rintarō could feel his surprise in the way he held his breath. When Motoya finally let out a deep exhale, Rintarō cuddled further into him, apprehensive about how his lover was going to react to his admission. 

“You think I’m beautiful in the morning?” There was a lilt of amusement to Motoya’s voice. It made Rintarō’s body flush hot. Was he embarrassed? Relieved? Excited? The fog of the morning was beginning to dissipate from his mind, allowing the anxious doubt to flood back in like the tide rushing into the bay. Oh, Motoya wasn’t going to tease him, was he? He usually didn’t mind his lover’s playful attitude, but Rintarō didn’t think he could bear being derided for this—for laying his feelings raw and whole before him. 

“Motoya…” he groaned. A pitiful attempt to try and object, though he didn’t know about what. His lover chuckled, then grabbed Rintarō around the middle to forcibly pry him away from his body so he could look him in the eyes. Rintarō’s bottom lip jutted out in a pout, and he defiantly kept one hand shoved in the messy locks of Motoya’s hair while he was pushed back onto his own pillow. He tried to seem obstinate, but he knew that Motoya wouldn’t miss the hints of disquiet hidden into the lines of his sulky expression. 

“What’s with that look?” Motoya laughed. “You say something that cute, and I’m not allowed to look you in the face?” 

“You… You think it’s cute?” He sounded like a toddler carefully probing the conversation, but he didn’t care. Hope fluttered within him, making his pout slowly ease into a wee bashful smile. Motoya purred, his hand coming up to gently sweep a swathe of Rintarō’s hair out of his face and tuck it behind his ear. 

“Of course I do,” he reassured him. “Tell me more.” 

Rintarō fidgeted nervously and began to worry, his bottom lip between his teeth. It had been so hard to word emotions in the first place, and now he had to try and do it while the cold fingers of hesitation were slowly wrapping around him in their icy, tight grip. It squeezed his body, making it feel like his lungs were swelling to bursting and his heart was pounding erratically against his ribcage. But he wanted to try—he didn’t want to let the words die on his tongue this time, didn’t want them to fade away with the golden dust fairies like they did every other morning before. 

“You just… You look golden.” His face twisted into a frustrated frown as soon as he comprehended what had exactly left his mouth. How does that make any sense? However, Motoya didn’t laugh at him, didn’t even crack a smile; he just continued to study Rintarō intensely with that half-smirk, half-smile dancing on his lips. Rintarō swallowed thickly, taking his silence as a request to continue. 

“It makes your skin glow…” Hesitantly, he reached up to trace the pads of his fingers over Motoya’s face. His eyelashes fluttered in response to his fingers brushing the area underneath his eye, his nose crinkled at his featherlight touch over the bridge of his nose, his lips twitched higher into a smile with the ghosting of his fingertips over the corner of his mouth. “And it lights up your hair in little places, like it’s got golden thread…” His other hand, still buried stubbornly in Motoya’s hair, emphatically twisted the strands around his fingers. “I just… I love waking up to you… Thinking about how someone so amazing that the sun feels like it needs to shine down on them… illuminate them from head to toe… is mine. You’re just… golden.” 

Rintarō swallowed. He felt like his explanation was bungled, still short of the true profundity of his feelings. He’d never been the eloquent sort, and he had never wished that he was before right then. He wanted to speak poetry about Motoya, weave him a tapestry of beautiful words to perfectly encapsulate the way he felt. But he wasn’t capable of that, and so he hoped the attempt in itself would be all that was necessary. 

And of course, it was. 

“Wow,” Motoya laughed, but it was bashful, not chaffing. “That’s… wow. I don’t even know what to say to that.” 

Now you know how I feel, Rintarō thought with a rogue smile. 

Motoya had resumed tracing those nondescript patterns over the skin of Rintarō’s arm again, though he hadn’t noticed it while he was speaking. Motoya’s fingers skimmed up the length of his arm, traced circles over his shoulder, then slowly drifted back down to the top of his hand to trace circles there instead. 

“Well, I’m happy to be yours, Rintarō,” Motoya hummed. “There’s no place I’d rather be, golden or otherwise.” 

Rintarō couldn’t help but snicker. Leave it to Motoya to be totally nonchalant about all this. Though, Rintarō knew that it was only an attempt to hide his own feelings; the smile on Motoya’s face was so wide it was close to bursting his face at the seams, and the glimmer in his eyes put even the golden sun to shame. 

Rintarō scooted closer, but he didn’t try to hide his face in Motoya’s hair this time. Instead, he brought it close to Motoya’s, so close that the tips of their noses bumped a little with his movement. Motoya just watched him, his eyes slowly growing lidded with contentment and the dancing of his fingers over Rintarō’s arm growing languid and sluggish. 

“I think I’ll turn the alarm off today,” Rintarō decided aloud. “I’m really not feeling up for a morning run… Maybe I’ll go running with you today instead.” He loved the way the sunrise played over Motoya’s body, and now he was wondering how he looked in the sunset, too. 

Motoya just hummed in response. 

“Fine by me,” his lover agreed. 

And the golden sunlight shifted once more over his face as he leaned in to wrap Rintarō’s lips up in a slow, sweet, sleepy kiss—a kiss that tasted nothing short of liquid gold, ichorous and divine.

Word Count:2200

Fluff, Romance, Domestic, Established Relationship, Cuddling

Summary: Rintarō thinks Motoya looks the most beautiful in the golden morning sunlight.

Rintarō inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled. The sheets rustled over his bare chest as he did, sliding down a little with the swell of his lungs. His eyes fluttered open; his fuzzy vision adjusted, the slowly-rotating ceiling fan and the popcorn ceiling gradually coming into focus. The pale golden light of the dawn spilled in through the window, and with each slow rotation of the ceiling fan blades, their slim shadows splayed across the whitish-gray ceiling. The sunlight also caught on the dust filtering in the air, making it look like little golden fairies were flitting above him. 

The bed creaked beside him, and Rintarō turned his head. Through the strands of oak-brown hair that fell into his eyes, he could see Motoya rolling over in the bed, his arm splaying out on the pillow above his head while the other laid over his chest. His mouth was hanging open just slightly, little breaths puffing past his shiny pink lips with each rise and fall of his chest. Occasionally, his round brown eyebrows would twitch, and he would breathily murmur something incomprehensible. 

Adoration swelled in Rintarō’s chest. He boosted himself up on his elbow—carefully, so as not to awaken his sleeping partner—and leaned his cheek in his hand. So many mornings that Rintarō had been graced with this view, in the five years that he and Motoya had been together, yet each time felt as magical as the first. The golden sunbeams danced over Motoya’s skin, making it seem like pure aurum itself. They threaded into his tawny tufts of hair to illuminate the threads of gold within, threads that only Rintarō could weave through his fingers. Just watching the sunlight-laden hairs shift with the subtle movements of Motoya’s body made Rintarō’s fingers twitch, and soon his hand was sliding across the mattress. 

Rintarō let out a gentle sigh as soon as his fingertips brushed against the softness of Motoya’s locks. Gently, he twisted the little curly tuft by his sleeping lover’s ear around his index finger. It felt like pure silk, far finer than the Egyptian cotton they were currently laying on. With the hair wound around his finger, he gently ran up and down the length of it with his thumb. So soft, yet it excited his nerves in the most exhilarating way, making little tingles bloom across his entire hand and up the length of his arm. Rintarō couldn’t resist diving right in, splaying his hand across the curve of Motoya’s head to bury his fingers into that downy cushion. 

A light chuckle pulled him out of his muddled thoughts. He looked back down at Motoya’s face to find one of his eyes cracked open and a sleepy smile on his lips. 

“Oh, do go on,” Motoya said when a haze of pink appeared on Rintarō’s cheeks. His voice was much deeper than usual, laden with the thick syrup of sleep. “I’m quite enjoying it.” Like a cat, he closed his eyes and butted up into Rintarō’s hand. His smile almost looked like a cat’s little grin, even. Smiling softly, Rintarō resumed his ministrations, gently petting across Motoya’s scalp as he played with the fibers of his hair. 

“Mmm… Has your alarm gone off yet?” Motoya mumbled sleepily. Rintarō always woke up before Motoya. For everything they shared, they also had their set of dichotomies; while Rintarō preferred crisp morning runs where the warming breeze cooled his perspiring skin, his lover favored jogging in the twilight, the water vapor bursting against his skin as the night humidity coated him from head to toe. But dawn had only just arrived, and so it would be another fifteen minutes or so before the tones of Rintarō’s alarm replaced the calm silence of the bedroom. 

“Not yet,” Rintarō answered, his voice as soft as the locks he was caressing. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” 

“Oh, but didn’t you?” Motoya responded with a teasing purr. He cracked both his eyes open this time, two slits that did little to hide the mischievous glinting in his dark brown irises. 

Rintarō flushed and looked down at the mattress in embarrassment, though he didn’t relinquish his gentle hold on Motoya’s head. So long they had been together, yet Rintarō still found himself coy. Even still, he struggled to express his feelings, the true depth of the affection that pooled within his heart. It was like an endless ocean, a blissful abyss with no bottom. How could he ever find the words to convey such love? How could he ever find the actions that would translate such endearment? 

Somehow, when the veil of sleep still partially covered them like sheer, delicate fabric clinging to soft skin, Rintarō found it slightly easier. Perhaps the fog shrouding his mind made it harder for him to get too engrossed in his thoughts, or the sight of Motoya in the golden sunlight was just so ethereal that all the things he wanted to do and say were summoned forth. Either way, Rintarō didn’t feel too reserved to draw himself closer to Motoya, flushing his front to Motoya’s side so he could bury his face into that goldenrod hair. 

“Jus’… Wan’ be close to you…” he mumbled. His body shook with the rumble of Motoya’s laugh, then tingled with the feeling of his lover’s slim arm slithering through the small gap between his hip and the sheets so he could loop it around his waist. Motoya was still lying on his back, and his left arm languidly rose to begin tracing abstract patterns into the skin of Rintarō’s arm where it crossed over the bottoms of his pectorals. 

“What is it? Did you have a bad dream?” Motoya questioned gently. 

His lover’s consideration made Rintarō feel fuzzy and warm. He hid his bashful smile into the side of Motoya’s head. 

“No. I just… I like you like this,” he attempted to explain. It was honestly difficult, even with the barrier of sheepishness removed. He just couldn’t even begin to explain how gorgeous Motoya looked in the pale light of the dawn, how much Rintarō enjoyed waking up to him by his side every day. He did it far more often than Motoya realized; often, his lover snoozed on, oblivious to Rintarō looking upon him with complete and utter tenderness. Rather than attempting to clutch onto sleep, if Rintarō happened to awaken early, he would spend each minuscule moment drinking in the sheer divinity of his lover’s existence. 

“Like this?” Motoya echoed. Rintarō’s blush deepened, mostly out of frustration at the fact he couldn’t voice his feelings into words. As he wriggled beside Motoya, Rintarō buried his face further into his partner’s hair, like he was attempting to just burrow right in it so he could escape the question. 

“I… I just think… You look beautiful in the morning…” he forced out in clipped, awkward splutters. A silence fell back over the room, interrupted only by the rhythmic whap-whap-whaps of the ceiling fan and the twitters of the thrush that lived in the tree just outside their apartment window. Motoya didn’t tense at his words; his body remained lax, but Rintarō could feel his surprise in the way he held his breath. When Motoya finally let out a deep exhale, Rintarō cuddled further into him, apprehensive about how his lover was going to react to his admission. 

“You think I’m beautiful in the morning?” There was a lilt of amusement to Motoya’s voice. It made Rintarō’s body flush hot. Was he embarrassed? Relieved? Excited? The fog of the morning was beginning to dissipate from his mind, allowing the anxious doubt to flood back in like the tide rushing into the bay. Oh, Motoya wasn’t going to tease him, was he? He usually didn’t mind his lover’s playful attitude, but Rintarō didn’t think he could bear being derided for this—for laying his feelings raw and whole before him. 

“Motoya…” he groaned. A pitiful attempt to try and object, though he didn’t know about what. His lover chuckled, then grabbed Rintarō around the middle to forcibly pry him away from his body so he could look him in the eyes. Rintarō’s bottom lip jutted out in a pout, and he defiantly kept one hand shoved in the messy locks of Motoya’s hair while he was pushed back onto his own pillow. He tried to seem obstinate, but he knew that Motoya wouldn’t miss the hints of disquiet hidden into the lines of his sulky expression. 

“What’s with that look?” Motoya laughed. “You say something that cute, and I’m not allowed to look you in the face?” 

“You… You think it’s cute?” He sounded like a toddler carefully probing the conversation, but he didn’t care. Hope fluttered within him, making his pout slowly ease into a wee bashful smile. Motoya purred, his hand coming up to gently sweep a swathe of Rintarō’s hair out of his face and tuck it behind his ear. 

“Of course I do,” he reassured him. “Tell me more.” 

Rintarō fidgeted nervously and began to worry, his bottom lip between his teeth. It had been so hard to word emotions in the first place, and now he had to try and do it while the cold fingers of hesitation were slowly wrapping around him in their icy, tight grip. It squeezed his body, making it feel like his lungs were swelling to bursting and his heart was pounding erratically against his ribcage. But he wanted to try—he didn’t want to let the words die on his tongue this time, didn’t want them to fade away with the golden dust fairies like they did every other morning before. 

“You just… You look golden.” His face twisted into a frustrated frown as soon as he comprehended what had exactly left his mouth. How does that make any sense? However, Motoya didn’t laugh at him, didn’t even crack a smile; he just continued to study Rintarō intensely with that half-smirk, half-smile dancing on his lips. Rintarō swallowed thickly, taking his silence as a request to continue. 

“It makes your skin glow…” Hesitantly, he reached up to trace the pads of his fingers over Motoya’s face. His eyelashes fluttered in response to his fingers brushing the area underneath his eye, his nose crinkled at his featherlight touch over the bridge of his nose, his lips twitched higher into a smile with the ghosting of his fingertips over the corner of his mouth. “And it lights up your hair in little places, like it’s got golden thread…” His other hand, still buried stubbornly in Motoya’s hair, emphatically twisted the strands around his fingers. “I just… I love waking up to you… Thinking about how someone so amazing that the sun feels like it needs to shine down on them… illuminate them from head to toe… is mine. You’re just… golden.” 

Rintarō swallowed. He felt like his explanation was bungled, still short of the true profundity of his feelings. He’d never been the eloquent sort, and he had never wished that he was before right then. He wanted to speak poetry about Motoya, weave him a tapestry of beautiful words to perfectly encapsulate the way he felt. But he wasn’t capable of that, and so he hoped the attempt in itself would be all that was necessary. 

And of course, it was. 

“Wow,” Motoya laughed, but it was bashful, not chaffing. “That’s… wow. I don’t even know what to say to that.” 

Now you know how I feel, Rintarō thought with a rogue smile. 

Motoya had resumed tracing those nondescript patterns over the skin of Rintarō’s arm again, though he hadn’t noticed it while he was speaking. Motoya’s fingers skimmed up the length of his arm, traced circles over his shoulder, then slowly drifted back down to the top of his hand to trace circles there instead. 

“Well, I’m happy to be yours, Rintarō,” Motoya hummed. “There’s no place I’d rather be, golden or otherwise.” 

Rintarō couldn’t help but snicker. Leave it to Motoya to be totally nonchalant about all this. Though, Rintarō knew that it was only an attempt to hide his own feelings; the smile on Motoya’s face was so wide it was close to bursting his face at the seams, and the glimmer in his eyes put even the golden sun to shame. 

Rintarō scooted closer, but he didn’t try to hide his face in Motoya’s hair this time. Instead, he brought it close to Motoya’s, so close that the tips of their noses bumped a little with his movement. Motoya just watched him, his eyes slowly growing lidded with contentment and the dancing of his fingers over Rintarō’s arm growing languid and sluggish. 

“I think I’ll turn the alarm off today,” Rintarō decided aloud. “I’m really not feeling up for a morning run… Maybe I’ll go running with you today instead.” He loved the way the sunrise played over Motoya’s body, and now he was wondering how he looked in the sunset, too. 

Motoya just hummed in response. 

“Fine by me,” his lover agreed. 

And the golden sunlight shifted once more over his face as he leaned in to wrap Rintarō’s lips up in a slow, sweet, sleepy kiss—a kiss that tasted nothing short of liquid gold, ichorous and divine.

Word Count:5060

Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Romance, Misunderstandings, College AU, Canon Divergent, Soulmate AU, Soulmate Marks

Summary: Kei Tsukishima is going off to college. What he thinks will be a no-nonsense arrangement with a roommate turns out to be his worst nightmare. Tobio Kageyama is the most insufferable jerk he’s ever met! And worse? He’s his soulmate!

Kei looked down at the campus map, then back up at the building in front of him. Yup. This is it. He folded up the map and tucked it in his back pocket, then used his ID card to swipe in. A suitcase and a duffel bag were all he carried with him, much contrary to the students unloading their entire house and home on the curb—most of them impressive videogame and computer set-ups since it was an all-male dormitory. Honestly, Kei wondered how they would fit it all in the tiny college dormitory rooms. 

Fellow freshmen idled in the lobby, most of them in the arms of their sobbing parents. Kei had bid his parents farewell at the parking garage nearby; he wasn’t the first child to head off to college, so the emotional brunt was dampened. Thank goodness. Kei didn’t know if he could suffer the humiliation of his mother hugging him while sobbing, “My baby, my baby!” 

Scrunching his face at all the tears and whines, Kei walked right up to the resident assistant’s desk to check himself in. 

“Welcome! You’re in room 214. Your roommate has already arrived!” the resident assistant greeted him pleasantly. Kei just nodded politely in response, but when he turned around, he let his frown show. Kei hadn’t bothered with the dumb online group chat to find a roommate; he really wasn’t going to college to make friends, but to get his education and move on with his life. However, perhaps he should have attempted to find someone halfway decent. Though this was the Honors dormitory, he still could be stuck with some bum. 

Well, if that’s the case, he’ll probably drop out before the end of the semester, Kei smirked, adjusting the strap of his duffel bag on his shoulder before proceeding down the hallway. He paused at the elevator, saw two older guys attempting to finagle a massive flat-screen television into the small space, and then turned around to open the door to the stairs. There was no way he was about to get in the middle of that.

He walked up the stairs to the second floor. When he stepped into the hall, he was greeted with a mess of open doors and furniture crowding the small space. Grimacing, he maneuvered his way through the labyrinth of suitcases and boxes and random items down to his room. The door was slightly ajar; on its surface, someone—presumably the resident assistant for the floor—had taped a pair of construction paper cutouts in the shape of dogs reading “TSUKISHIMA KEI” and “KAGEYAMA TOBIO.” 

Kei used his toe to nudge open the door, not quite sure what to expect. 

A black-haired young man, presumably Kei’s new roommate Tobio, looked up from where he was sitting at his desk. Kei wasn’t sure how long he had been there; it could have been all of half an hour, as the boy had nearly nothing in the dorm. His bedsheets and comforter, his laptop and printer, a desk lamp, an alarm clock—there were hardly any personal effects, not even a band poster taped to the wall. Kei was a minimalist himself, but not to that extreme. He was at least going to put up the nice tapestry of a mountain landscape that his mother had insisted on getting him to “brighten up the room.” 

“Hello,” Kei greeted while he opened up the door all the way. “My name is Kei Tsukishima. I’m your roommate.” 

“Indeed. I’m Tobio Kageyama.” He looked back to his computer screen, the light from it reflecting in his dark eyes. “I hope that you don’t mind that I’ve taken this side of the room,” he added after a second. The placidness in his expression told Kei that Tobio could care less if Kei had any preference for the side of the room he was on, and if he voiced such an opinion, he wasn’t going to budge for Kei, either. 

Ugh. What an asshole, Kei thought with a sniff. As he walked to the other side of the room and set his duffel bag down on the cheap mattress, he banished the thought from his mind. Don’t be negative, as Akiteru always says, he told himself, closing his eyes to try and summon up some positive energy. He had never been particularly overflowing with it, so he often had to take these measures to keep himself sane. He snuck a glance over his shoulder at Tobio, who was silent as he typed away on his laptop. 

It will be fine. Even if he’s kind of a dick, surely he can’t be so bad that I won’t be able to live with it. 

It took less than twenty-four hours for Kei to eat those words. 

Classes didn’t begin for another few days so the students were left to their own devices for the weekend. It had been several months since Kei last toured that campus, so he had woken up early with the goal of locating all the buildings in which he would be having classes. Kei did not want to be like many of the other freshmen, scrambling around with too little knowledge and too much caffeine to be able to find their classrooms. By habit, he showered in the mornings—he had terrible bedhead otherwise—and was now doing so in the bathroom he and Tobio shared. 

Kei never thought too much about things, but as the warm water cascaded over his body, he did appreciate how his muscles seemed to unwind. Starting a new chapter in life was stressful, even for someone as practical as Kei; perhaps he had been internalizing it, leading to the tension he was feeling. He took a little longer that morning, just standing under the water to let the heat slowly loosen up his body. Just as he was beginning to feel like he had relaxed and was getting ready to step out, he heard the very obvious sound of the bathroom door opening. 

What… the… hell…?

Kei could only stand there in a shocked stupor under water that was now beginning to grow cold, as he heard someone shuffling across the bathroom floor toward the toilet. He cringed when he heard a poorly-muffled yawn. There was no denying it—someone was in the bathroom with him. Tobio—it had to be Tobio, who else could it be? Kei’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he heard the clink of the toilet seat going up. 

“What the fuck, dude?!” Kei barked, rage immediately taking over him. He jerked the shower curtain aside to glare daggers at Tobio, his poor vision making his image fuzzy. He could still see Tobio roll his head to give him a disinterested look, his fingers hooked into the waistband of his blue-and-black plaid pajama pants. “I’m taking a shower!” 

“And I’m taking a piss,” Tobio answered matter-of-factly. If Kei was a cat, then his hackles would most definitely be raised and bristling. 

“Why are you taking a piss when I’m taking a shower?!” 

“Because I had to take a piss, duh,” Tobio shrugged. “What’s the big deal? Just go back to your shower.” When Tobio turned to go about his business, Kei’s mouth fell open in utter shock. Did he seriously not see the problem with this?! Tobio’s shoulders slowly tensed, sensing that Kei was looking at him in incredulity. He turned to look back at him, expression sour. “Do you mind?” 

“Doyou mind?!” Kei shot back, words dripping with pure venom. “You can’t just waltz in here while I’m taking a shower! Were you raised by goddamn apes?” 

“What? Is your masculinity so fragile that you can’t stand another man having his dick out in the room in front of you?” Tobio shot back, and steam practically exploded from Kei’s ears. He almost stomped of that shower to beat the shit out of Tobio, stark naked and dripping wet body irrelevant. But he stopped himself, squeezing his eyes shut to try and ground himself. 

Positive energy, positive energy… Can’t start a fight and get kicked out before college has even started… he convinced himself. With his eyes still shut, he yanked the shower curtain back. 

“Fine! But next time, you’ll have to piss in a cup, because I’m locking the door!” he snapped. Tobio let out a grumpy sigh of relief. Kei dunked his head under the stream of water, hoping that the pounding against his head would drown out the unpleasant tinkling now coming from the toilet. As he stared down at himself, he found himself fixating on the small, bird-shaped discolored mark at the base of his abdomen, right above the flexure of his hip. Was it the stinging cold of the water, or had it begun to burn a little? 

Disquieted, he rubbed at it, trying to soothe the small ache building up in his soulmate mark. It had never reacted before. According to what people said, it meant that the day of him realizing who his soulmate drew near… 

Just the cherry on top of the shit sundae, he thought with a groan and pressed his forehead against the white tile of the shower wall. First a shitty roommate, and now, trying to deal with a soulmate? 

College was kind of turning out to be a big fat fucking drag. 

Kei made it a point to not look at Tobio as he stalked out of the room. But he couldn’t help but glance at him out of the corners of his eyes. Was it his imagination, or was Tobio hiding a smirk and a blush behind his hand as he scrolled mindlessly through his phone? 

~~~

The next week or so passed uneventfully. Tobio kept largely to himself; if he wasn’t hunched over his desk typing on his laptop or highlighting the pages of his textbooks, he was out of the dorm—the gym, he’d figured out after several days of Tobio coming home in workout gear and drenched in sweat. Apparently he played volleyball with a bunch of guys from the college. Any time they happened to coexist in the same space, Tobio would say hardly a word to him; he would just occasionally flick his gaze to Kei, narrow his eyes, and then hurriedly go back to what he was doing. At first, Kei didn’t know what to make of it, but after a while, he just figured that Tobio had the social skills of a child’s kitchen playset. 

Honestly, Kei was grateful for it. It wasn’t like their initial interactions were exactly friendly, and honestly, Kei wasn’t here to make friends. 

And making friends with Tobio Kageyama was the last thing on Kei’s mind when he came home from his anthropology class to find him standing in the middle of the room with Kei’s stuffed dinosaur plushie in his hands. 

“Hey! What are you doing touching my stuff?” Kei demanded. He didn’t care about the rest of the people in the dorm; he slammed the door shut behind him, very intent on making his displeasure with the situation very clear to Tobio. Tobio’s expression had been pensive as he was studying the plush, turning it over in his hands, but when his head snapped up to look at Kei, it was owlish. It was just for a flicker of a second, though, before it was replaced by a sardonic sneer. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were super protective over it like some ten-year-old girl.” 

Kei’s cheeks flooded red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. He wasn’t protective over it! It was just—it was a gift his mother had bought him when he was just a kid, something to foster his love of dinosaurs. Kei had kept it his entire life, a reminder to keep pushing forward and pursue his dream to become a paleontologist. So he really didn’t like the fact that Tobio had his crummy hands all over it, and he especiallydidn’t like that Tobio was berating him for having it. 

“Give it back,” Kei growled and stuck out his hand. Honestly, he expected Tobio to resist. However, Tobio just gave him a blank stare and slowly held out the plush. Kei snatched it out of his hand and held it protectively to his chest, staring intently at his roommate. His cheeks were still burning, but now it was overshadowed by the cool swirl of confusion whirling inside of him. Was Tobio lightening up? Did he realize how upset Kei was and didn’t want to prod him further? Did he actually feel guilty for hurting Kei’s feelings? 

“… I was just curious,” Tobio muttered while slowly rolling his eyes to gaze at the lower-right corner of the floor. Was Kei imagining it, or was a faint haze of pink also rising to Tobio’s cheeks? “I’d seen it on your bed… I figured it must be special to you, so I wanted to get a closer look.” 

“If you thought it was special to me, then you should have known better than to touch it!” Kei’s voice didn’t come out with any bite at all. It was the appropriate thing to say, but somehow, Kei lacked the anger he had felt earlier. His mind was too busy processing the fact that Tobio had been curious about him. He’d noticed the stuffed dinosaur toy all this time? What else had he noticed about Kei, observed with a quiet gaze from the background? It made a warm hum start up in Kei’s body, starting in his toes to travel up in a fuzzy sensation up to the crown of his head. 

“Sorry,” Tobio muttered. Damn, Kei hadn’t expected an apology. Tobio awkwardly twisted the hem of his shirt in his hands, coiling it one way before loosening it and twisting it the other way, and continued not to meet Kei’s gaze. “Won’t happen again.” 

All the white-hot rage had melted from Kei’s body. Now he just felt oddly… hollow. Unsure of what to feel, his body was just empty, a strange wind swirling around the empty cavity. He blinked, and then softly said, “Okay. Just… next time, ask if you want to look at it.” 

And then, the strange moment of near-compromise was over. 

“Tch. What makes you think I’d want to look at it again?” Tobio huffed. The sudden change in attitude nearly gave Kei whiplash. And then Tobio was stomping out of the room. Kei could only watch him leave with wide eyes. 

What the hell was that?

~~~

When Tobio came back, it was late. Kei awoke to the creak of the door. It was slow and quiet; Tobio was actually trying to be courteous enough not to wake him. Kei was cocooned in his bed, bathed in the hazy half-twilight of sleep as he listened to the muggy sounds of Tobio shuffling around their shared dorm room. The slight knocks and bumps, though probably unintended, were enough to pull Kei into full consciousness.

Kei had been perturbed with the manner in which Tobio had left, and so that’s why he cracked an eye open to peer at him. 

The moonlight streamed through the window, spearing through the slats of the blinds and the navy blue curtains to splay in straight lines over the wood linoleum floor. As Tobio walked across the floor, it bent the lines of light, tiger-striping him in black and white. The moonlight illuminated the pale skin of his bare back as he squatted down by his dresser, roving around for a pair of pajama pants. But Kei wasn’t appreciating the toned muscles adorning his bodies, chiseled from years of volleyball. 

No, Kei was captivated by the small, bird-shaped mark decorating the backside of Tobio’s hip. Even in the gloom, even with his shitty vision, he could see it clearly. There was no mistake—it was the exact same mark that Kei bore on his front.

Kei couldn’t help the breath he sucked in. Tobio immediately froze. Kei only just managed to shut his eye before Tobio’s head whipped around to look at him. Kei steadied his breathing, suppressing the shocked pants of adrenaline rush that his lungs were desperately trying to take. The seconds stretched into years, counted by the slow whipping of the ceiling fan above their heads. 

“… Kei?” Tobio breathed. Kei bit back a groan; maybe it was just the way his name sounded on his husky, exhaustion-heavy tongue or the way his soulmate mark was beginning to pulse, but he felt ignited. His nerves sang under his skin. It made the blankets feel uncomfortably hot against his flesh, but he didn’t dare throw them off to feel the kiss of the cool air to soothe it. His mind was swimming, and he didn’t know what he would do or say if Tobio realized he was awake and asked him if something was the matter. 

There was very much something the matter! Tobio Kageyama, Kei’s insufferable roommate, was also his soulmate! What the fuck had Kei done to deserve such a sore lot in life? 

Yet… There was the look on Tobio’s face, the one he’d worn as he’d studied Kei’s stuffed dinosaur plush. It wasn’t mocking or deriding… The only word that came to Kei’s mind as he replayed it in his mind now was tender. 

When Kei finally heard Tobio move again, he chanced opening his eye once more. Tobio released a quiet sigh as he stood up and pulled his pajama pants up his leg. The movements of his hip muscles seemed to make the bird mark flap its wings, like a fledgling preparing to take flight. And that’s what Kei’s heart felt like—a bird frantically flapping its little downy wings, desperate to take its first flight into love. 

~~~

Kei didn’t say anything the next morning, or the several mornings after for several weeks. What couldhe say? It wasn’t like he could stroll right on up to Tobio and announce, “Hey, I’m your soulmate! You wanna kiss now or something?” Kei himself still hadn’t exactly processed the fact. Unfortunately, there was no mistaking it—he was positive that their marks were identical. He just had to… think about this. 

Kei had always been a patient person. And so he watched and waited and studied Tobio Kageyama scrupulously.

Tobio Kageyama, he discovered, was a man of rituals. He always awoke at 7 a.m. on the dot—much earlier than Kei, the one kerfluffle aside. He’d slip out of bed with nary a groan or a yawn and head right to the mini-fridge to drink milk straight from the carton (he’d been rather protective of it when Kei had tried to make cereal with it the other day, and now he knew why). After that, he’d shamble off into the bathroom to brush his hair and teeth. Unlike Kei, Tobio’s hair remained in immaculate condition no matter how roughly he slept; it always remained pin-straight and shiny, gleaming like threads of obsidian as the dawn sunlight streaming in from the blinds caught on the strands. 

Tobio woke up so early so he could go for a run, and he’d always wear the same beat-up black-and-white tennis shoes, no matter if his outfit matched or not. He’d be gone for an hour, and then he’d come back sweaty and ruddy-faced, usually just as Kei was dragging himself out of bed after an hour of turning off alarms and catching five-minute naps. Every time Kei shut off his final alarm and sat up, he would be greeted by the bleary image of Tobio standing next to the open refrigerator downing a bottle of water. 

Tobio didn’t go to classes unless they required attendance. He’d heard him on the phone one day with one of his volleyball buddies, who’d joked that he was a bad student. “I learn much better just reading the slides they give us,” Tobio had snorted disdainfully. “I’m not gonna drag my ass to class just to have them read it for me!” So he’d be at his laptop when Kei left in the morning, and he’d still be there when Kei came back in the afternoon, the only sign that he’d moved being some empty energy drink cans and some protein bar wrappers in the trash bin. 

Tobio never worked past 5 p.m., when Kei would lay out all his materials to begin studying. Supposedly he “did a high quantity of work in a short amount of time,” or at least, that’s what he’d told his chiding friend. It must be true, based on the A+ Kei had spotted in red ink on an examination Tobio had left on his desk. Oftentimes, when Kei shuffled in a little late after class had gone long, he’d walk right in on Tobio changing out of his leisure wear into some fresh exercise clothes. 

And he would pretend not to notice the bird-shaped soulmate mark on his back, even though it was literally taunting him with its presence. 

Tobio spent the evenings playing volleyball at the gym, while Kei would wile away the hours absorbing the day’s information. It was the one solace he had from his predicament; he could get lost in history and anthropology and sociology, sprawled out on his bed with his dinosaur plush tucked into the crook of his elbow. It was an old study habit of his, telling the plush interesting bits of information; somehow, it made him remember it more, even if it was downright silly. He was grateful Tobio wasn’t around for that. He couldn’t imagine the guy’s look on his face if he caught him talking to a stuffed animal…

After a few hours, Tobio would return and go straight to the shower. Kei figured Tobio would be a quick shower kind of guy, not one to waste time away under the hot water. But in fact, it was the opposite. He took his time, and on rare occasions, Kei would even catch the low timbre of Tobio singing to himself harmonizing with the rhythmic pounding of the water. It was never loud enough to tell what he was singing, but just loud enough for his smooth voice to make the soulmate mark on Kei’s back burn like a brand. 

And then he’d walk out, hair dripping into the towel slung around his shoulders and nothing but a pair of boxers on his frame. Perhaps it was the history of sports, but he didn’t seem embarrassed to strut around half-naked in front of Kei. Sometimes it almost felt like he was doing it on purpose, for he’d mill around the dorm doing random things before bothering to get into his pajamas. And no matter how hard Kei tried, his eyes would be drawn to that bird-shaped mark anytime it presented itself in his field of vision. 

And through it all, Tobio would barely talk to Kei, only when it was necessary or when he felt like being particularly polite. But what Kei had interpreted at first to be indifference was being revealed as shyness; though his lips never moved, Tobio’s gaze followed Kei around like it was pulled by a magnet. Any time they were in the same space, Kei could feel that prickle at the back of his neck that indicated that Tobio was staring at him. 

Had he figured out they were soulmates too? Ever since he’d discovered it, Kei had been extra careful to keep his soulmate mark concealed, but there were no guarantees. Even if that wasn’t it, was it Tobio’s supposed curiosity? How had Kei evolved under his watchful gaze, just as Tobio had evolved under Kei’s? 

Yeah, Kei no longer thought his roommate was a dick. Somehow, Kei had been roomed with the one person on Earth who had social skills that were worse than his, and dismallyso. In fact, Kei could almost call himself… charmed by Tobio’s idiosyncrasies. 

And so that’s why, weeks after first viewing the mark, he finally decided that it was time to confront Tobio. 

“Hey, Tobio.” 

Tobio glanced up from where he was lacing up his tennis shoes. It was the early evening, and as usual, he was preparing to head to the university’s gym to play volleyball with his friends. As Kei stood over him, arms crossed and a nervous blushing crawling up from his neck, Tobio fell back onto his rump and propped his elbows on his knees. To the casual observer, Tobio’s expression would be blank. But Kei could see the tiny glimmer in the eyes, the faint haze of pink starting up in his cheeks, the tiny upward turns at the corners of his lips. 

The positive affirmation was all Kei needed to move forward, rather than quail when Tobio casually asked, “What’s up?” 

“I’ve been… thinking.” The idiocy of the statement made Kei’s ears burn with embarrassment. What a way to start off. He averted his gaze, uncrossing his arms only to clasp them behind his back. “You, uh… wanted to know about my dinosaur.” 

Tobio’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, and Kei couldn’t blame him for his surprise. After all, what kind of guy brought up an event weeks after it happened? Still, he remained adamant in his cause. He cleared his throat, and then shyly grumbled, “My, uh… My mother got it for me when I was a kid. ‘Cuz I want to study paleontology.” 

“Oh.” Tobio’s tone wasn’t berating or sneering. It was soft, contemplative, like he’d just been entrusted with a great secret and was letting it settle in his mind. Kei took it as a sign that Tobio was at least interested in hearing him out, and so he walked to the bed to pick up the plush. He turned it over in his hands as he walked back to stand in front of Tobio, who waited patiently at his spot on the floor. 

“I, um… You wanted a closer look?” Without waiting for an answer, he held out the plush to him. Tobio gawked at it for a moment. It looked like he couldn’t believe the thing was in front of him, like if he reached out to touch it, his hand would phase right through. And his reach was hesitant to that end, slowly reaching up to gently grasp the stuffed animal by its elongated neck. He brought it to himself to cradle it like it was a delicate little thing, careful and deliberate in his movements while he turned it every which way to study it. 

Tobio was still gazing at it when he murmured, “So… I guess you forgive me for touching it without asking?” 

“And then making fun of me,” Kei quipped. He was being nice, but he wasn’t going to be thatnice.

Tobio flushed at his comment, and his grip tightened on the plush. 

“I… Sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun of you,” he mumbled. Kei was about to ask how one could possibly say stuff like that and not mean to make fun of someone, but Tobio kept talking. As he pushed a hand into his hair and scowled, he said, “I just… say things sometimes, the complete opposite of what I mean. I don’t know why I do it. It just happens, and I always end up in shit for it. My friends are used to it by now, but you… you…” he trailed off, looking miserably down at the plush. “You make it where I can’t think straight.” 

It was Kei’s turn to raise his eyebrows. He tried to ignore the rising heat in his cheeks, but it just made the feeling of his tongue going dry all the more noticeable. He rolled it around in his mouth and then flicked it out to wet his lips a few times, but when he’d accomplished that, he still didn’t know what to say. So he decided to say the thing that made him start this conversation in the first place. 

“You’re my soulmate.” 

Tobio’s head snapped up, his eyes as big as dinner plates. He opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again to stammer, “You knew?” 

“Youknew?!” Kei shot back. 

“Of course I knew! My soulmate mark started to burn as soon as you walked in!” Tobio cried. He hopped to his feet, apparently not noticing that he was reflexively hugging the plush to his chest. “I had to be sure, so that’s why… the whole thing with the bathroom…” He looked down at his shoes, his entire face slowly growing red. “I, uh, wanted to see if I could see your mark…” 

“Seriously?!” Kei wanted to smack himself from second-hand embarrassment. Of all the stupid stunts! But also, it was kind of mortifying that he hadn’t realized it sooner, considering his own mark had started burning amidst that debacle. “Tobio, you—there were a hundred better ways to do that!” 

“I told ya already!” he growled. “I can’t think straight when I’m around you! It’s like my mind’s in a storm! I wanna say a million things, but anytime I look at you, it’s like a can’t talk!”

A silence fell between them, the weight of the unspoken realization crushing in the air. Tobio curled into himself, cheeks burning red and a little pout on his lips. It seemed that he finally realized he was clutching onto the plush for dear life; still refusing to meet Kei’s gaze, he slowly held it out to him. Kei looked at it, then heaved a sigh. 

Instead of taking it, he put his hands over Tobio’s. When Tobio peered through his bangs at him, eyes watery and uncertain, Kei gave him a wan smile. 

“Why don’t we… start this over. My name’s Kei Tsukishima. I’m your roommate, and your soulmate, apparently.” 

Tobio snorted in laughter. It was kind of ridiculous, all things considered. But a smile was rising to his face, spreading as he tossed his bangs back and lifted his head to smile softly at him. 

“Tobio Kageyama. Your roommate… and your soulmate, apparently.” 

They gazed into one another’s eyes, their smiles broadening to stretch their pink cheeks. Maybe college would turn out to be less of a drag than he’d initially thought. After all, it would be rather nice to finally have someone to share the daily humdrum with…

Word Count:5060

Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Romance, Misunderstandings, College AU, Canon Divergent, Soulmate AU, Soulmate Marks

Summary: Kei Tsukishima is going off to college. What he thinks will be a no-nonsense arrangement with a roommate turns out to be his worst nightmare. Tobio Kageyama is the most insufferable jerk he’s ever met! And worse? He’s his soulmate!

Kei looked down at the campus map, then back up at the building in front of him. Yup. This is it. He folded up the map and tucked it in his back pocket, then used his ID card to swipe in. A suitcase and a duffel bag were all he carried with him, much contrary to the students unloading their entire house and home on the curb—most of them impressive videogame and computer set-ups since it was an all-male dormitory. Honestly, Kei wondered how they would fit it all in the tiny college dormitory rooms. 

Fellow freshmen idled in the lobby, most of them in the arms of their sobbing parents. Kei had bid his parents farewell at the parking garage nearby; he wasn’t the first child to head off to college, so the emotional brunt was dampened. Thank goodness. Kei didn’t know if he could suffer the humiliation of his mother hugging him while sobbing, “My baby, my baby!” 

Scrunching his face at all the tears and whines, Kei walked right up to the resident assistant’s desk to check himself in. 

“Welcome! You’re in room 214. Your roommate has already arrived!” the resident assistant greeted him pleasantly. Kei just nodded politely in response, but when he turned around, he let his frown show. Kei hadn’t bothered with the dumb online group chat to find a roommate; he really wasn’t going to college to make friends, but to get his education and move on with his life. However, perhaps he should have attempted to find someone halfway decent. Though this was the Honors dormitory, he still could be stuck with some bum. 

Well, if that’s the case, he’ll probably drop out before the end of the semester, Kei smirked, adjusting the strap of his duffel bag on his shoulder before proceeding down the hallway. He paused at the elevator, saw two older guys attempting to finagle a massive flat-screen television into the small space, and then turned around to open the door to the stairs. There was no way he was about to get in the middle of that.

He walked up the stairs to the second floor. When he stepped into the hall, he was greeted with a mess of open doors and furniture crowding the small space. Grimacing, he maneuvered his way through the labyrinth of suitcases and boxes and random items down to his room. The door was slightly ajar; on its surface, someone—presumably the resident assistant for the floor—had taped a pair of construction paper cutouts in the shape of dogs reading “TSUKISHIMA KEI” and “KAGEYAMA TOBIO.” 

Kei used his toe to nudge open the door, not quite sure what to expect. 

A black-haired young man, presumably Kei’s new roommate Tobio, looked up from where he was sitting at his desk. Kei wasn’t sure how long he had been there; it could have been all of half an hour, as the boy had nearly nothing in the dorm. His bedsheets and comforter, his laptop and printer, a desk lamp, an alarm clock—there were hardly any personal effects, not even a band poster taped to the wall. Kei was a minimalist himself, but not to that extreme. He was at least going to put up the nice tapestry of a mountain landscape that his mother had insisted on getting him to “brighten up the room.” 

“Hello,” Kei greeted while he opened up the door all the way. “My name is Kei Tsukishima. I’m your roommate.” 

“Indeed. I’m Tobio Kageyama.” He looked back to his computer screen, the light from it reflecting in his dark eyes. “I hope that you don’t mind that I’ve taken this side of the room,” he added after a second. The placidness in his expression told Kei that Tobio could care less if Kei had any preference for the side of the room he was on, and if he voiced such an opinion, he wasn’t going to budge for Kei, either. 

Ugh. What an asshole, Kei thought with a sniff. As he walked to the other side of the room and set his duffel bag down on the cheap mattress, he banished the thought from his mind. Don’t be negative, as Akiteru always says, he told himself, closing his eyes to try and summon up some positive energy. He had never been particularly overflowing with it, so he often had to take these measures to keep himself sane. He snuck a glance over his shoulder at Tobio, who was silent as he typed away on his laptop. 

It will be fine. Even if he’s kind of a dick, surely he can’t be so bad that I won’t be able to live with it. 

It took less than twenty-four hours for Kei to eat those words. 

Classes didn’t begin for another few days so the students were left to their own devices for the weekend. It had been several months since Kei last toured that campus, so he had woken up early with the goal of locating all the buildings in which he would be having classes. Kei did not want to be like many of the other freshmen, scrambling around with too little knowledge and too much caffeine to be able to find their classrooms. By habit, he showered in the mornings—he had terrible bedhead otherwise—and was now doing so in the bathroom he and Tobio shared. 

Kei never thought too much about things, but as the warm water cascaded over his body, he did appreciate how his muscles seemed to unwind. Starting a new chapter in life was stressful, even for someone as practical as Kei; perhaps he had been internalizing it, leading to the tension he was feeling. He took a little longer that morning, just standing under the water to let the heat slowly loosen up his body. Just as he was beginning to feel like he had relaxed and was getting ready to step out, he heard the very obvious sound of the bathroom door opening. 

What… the… hell…?

Kei could only stand there in a shocked stupor under water that was now beginning to grow cold, as he heard someone shuffling across the bathroom floor toward the toilet. He cringed when he heard a poorly-muffled yawn. There was no denying it—someone was in the bathroom with him. Tobio—it had to be Tobio, who else could it be? Kei’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he heard the clink of the toilet seat going up. 

“What the fuck, dude?!” Kei barked, rage immediately taking over him. He jerked the shower curtain aside to glare daggers at Tobio, his poor vision making his image fuzzy. He could still see Tobio roll his head to give him a disinterested look, his fingers hooked into the waistband of his blue-and-black plaid pajama pants. “I’m taking a shower!” 

“And I’m taking a piss,” Tobio answered matter-of-factly. If Kei was a cat, then his hackles would most definitely be raised and bristling. 

“Why are you taking a piss when I’m taking a shower?!” 

“Because I had to take a piss, duh,” Tobio shrugged. “What’s the big deal? Just go back to your shower.” When Tobio turned to go about his business, Kei’s mouth fell open in utter shock. Did he seriously not see the problem with this?! Tobio’s shoulders slowly tensed, sensing that Kei was looking at him in incredulity. He turned to look back at him, expression sour. “Do you mind?” 

“Doyou mind?!” Kei shot back, words dripping with pure venom. “You can’t just waltz in here while I’m taking a shower! Were you raised by goddamn apes?” 

“What? Is your masculinity so fragile that you can’t stand another man having his dick out in the room in front of you?” Tobio shot back, and steam practically exploded from Kei’s ears. He almost stomped of that shower to beat the shit out of Tobio, stark naked and dripping wet body irrelevant. But he stopped himself, squeezing his eyes shut to try and ground himself. 

Positive energy, positive energy… Can’t start a fight and get kicked out before college has even started… he convinced himself. With his eyes still shut, he yanked the shower curtain back. 

“Fine! But next time, you’ll have to piss in a cup, because I’m locking the door!” he snapped. Tobio let out a grumpy sigh of relief. Kei dunked his head under the stream of water, hoping that the pounding against his head would drown out the unpleasant tinkling now coming from the toilet. As he stared down at himself, he found himself fixating on the small, bird-shaped discolored mark at the base of his abdomen, right above the flexure of his hip. Was it the stinging cold of the water, or had it begun to burn a little? 

Disquieted, he rubbed at it, trying to soothe the small ache building up in his soulmate mark. It had never reacted before. According to what people said, it meant that the day of him realizing who his soulmate drew near… 

Just the cherry on top of the shit sundae, he thought with a groan and pressed his forehead against the white tile of the shower wall. First a shitty roommate, and now, trying to deal with a soulmate? 

College was kind of turning out to be a big fat fucking drag. 

Kei made it a point to not look at Tobio as he stalked out of the room. But he couldn’t help but glance at him out of the corners of his eyes. Was it his imagination, or was Tobio hiding a smirk and a blush behind his hand as he scrolled mindlessly through his phone? 

~~~

The next week or so passed uneventfully. Tobio kept largely to himself; if he wasn’t hunched over his desk typing on his laptop or highlighting the pages of his textbooks, he was out of the dorm—the gym, he’d figured out after several days of Tobio coming home in workout gear and drenched in sweat. Apparently he played volleyball with a bunch of guys from the college. Any time they happened to coexist in the same space, Tobio would say hardly a word to him; he would just occasionally flick his gaze to Kei, narrow his eyes, and then hurriedly go back to what he was doing. At first, Kei didn’t know what to make of it, but after a while, he just figured that Tobio had the social skills of a child’s kitchen playset. 

Honestly, Kei was grateful for it. It wasn’t like their initial interactions were exactly friendly, and honestly, Kei wasn’t here to make friends. 

And making friends with Tobio Kageyama was the last thing on Kei’s mind when he came home from his anthropology class to find him standing in the middle of the room with Kei’s stuffed dinosaur plushie in his hands. 

“Hey! What are you doing touching my stuff?” Kei demanded. He didn’t care about the rest of the people in the dorm; he slammed the door shut behind him, very intent on making his displeasure with the situation very clear to Tobio. Tobio’s expression had been pensive as he was studying the plush, turning it over in his hands, but when his head snapped up to look at Kei, it was owlish. It was just for a flicker of a second, though, before it was replaced by a sardonic sneer. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were super protective over it like some ten-year-old girl.” 

Kei’s cheeks flooded red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. He wasn’t protective over it! It was just—it was a gift his mother had bought him when he was just a kid, something to foster his love of dinosaurs. Kei had kept it his entire life, a reminder to keep pushing forward and pursue his dream to become a paleontologist. So he really didn’t like the fact that Tobio had his crummy hands all over it, and he especiallydidn’t like that Tobio was berating him for having it. 

“Give it back,” Kei growled and stuck out his hand. Honestly, he expected Tobio to resist. However, Tobio just gave him a blank stare and slowly held out the plush. Kei snatched it out of his hand and held it protectively to his chest, staring intently at his roommate. His cheeks were still burning, but now it was overshadowed by the cool swirl of confusion whirling inside of him. Was Tobio lightening up? Did he realize how upset Kei was and didn’t want to prod him further? Did he actually feel guilty for hurting Kei’s feelings? 

“… I was just curious,” Tobio muttered while slowly rolling his eyes to gaze at the lower-right corner of the floor. Was Kei imagining it, or was a faint haze of pink also rising to Tobio’s cheeks? “I’d seen it on your bed… I figured it must be special to you, so I wanted to get a closer look.” 

“If you thought it was special to me, then you should have known better than to touch it!” Kei’s voice didn’t come out with any bite at all. It was the appropriate thing to say, but somehow, Kei lacked the anger he had felt earlier. His mind was too busy processing the fact that Tobio had been curious about him. He’d noticed the stuffed dinosaur toy all this time? What else had he noticed about Kei, observed with a quiet gaze from the background? It made a warm hum start up in Kei’s body, starting in his toes to travel up in a fuzzy sensation up to the crown of his head. 

“Sorry,” Tobio muttered. Damn, Kei hadn’t expected an apology. Tobio awkwardly twisted the hem of his shirt in his hands, coiling it one way before loosening it and twisting it the other way, and continued not to meet Kei’s gaze. “Won’t happen again.” 

All the white-hot rage had melted from Kei’s body. Now he just felt oddly… hollow. Unsure of what to feel, his body was just empty, a strange wind swirling around the empty cavity. He blinked, and then softly said, “Okay. Just… next time, ask if you want to look at it.” 

And then, the strange moment of near-compromise was over. 

“Tch. What makes you think I’d want to look at it again?” Tobio huffed. The sudden change in attitude nearly gave Kei whiplash. And then Tobio was stomping out of the room. Kei could only watch him leave with wide eyes. 

What the hell was that?

~~~

When Tobio came back, it was late. Kei awoke to the creak of the door. It was slow and quiet; Tobio was actually trying to be courteous enough not to wake him. Kei was cocooned in his bed, bathed in the hazy half-twilight of sleep as he listened to the muggy sounds of Tobio shuffling around their shared dorm room. The slight knocks and bumps, though probably unintended, were enough to pull Kei into full consciousness.

Kei had been perturbed with the manner in which Tobio had left, and so that’s why he cracked an eye open to peer at him. 

The moonlight streamed through the window, spearing through the slats of the blinds and the navy blue curtains to splay in straight lines over the wood linoleum floor. As Tobio walked across the floor, it bent the lines of light, tiger-striping him in black and white. The moonlight illuminated the pale skin of his bare back as he squatted down by his dresser, roving around for a pair of pajama pants. But Kei wasn’t appreciating the toned muscles adorning his bodies, chiseled from years of volleyball. 

No, Kei was captivated by the small, bird-shaped mark decorating the backside of Tobio’s hip. Even in the gloom, even with his shitty vision, he could see it clearly. There was no mistake—it was the exact same mark that Kei bore on his front.

Kei couldn’t help the breath he sucked in. Tobio immediately froze. Kei only just managed to shut his eye before Tobio’s head whipped around to look at him. Kei steadied his breathing, suppressing the shocked pants of adrenaline rush that his lungs were desperately trying to take. The seconds stretched into years, counted by the slow whipping of the ceiling fan above their heads. 

“… Kei?” Tobio breathed. Kei bit back a groan; maybe it was just the way his name sounded on his husky, exhaustion-heavy tongue or the way his soulmate mark was beginning to pulse, but he felt ignited. His nerves sang under his skin. It made the blankets feel uncomfortably hot against his flesh, but he didn’t dare throw them off to feel the kiss of the cool air to soothe it. His mind was swimming, and he didn’t know what he would do or say if Tobio realized he was awake and asked him if something was the matter. 

There was very much something the matter! Tobio Kageyama, Kei’s insufferable roommate, was also his soulmate! What the fuck had Kei done to deserve such a sore lot in life? 

Yet… There was the look on Tobio’s face, the one he’d worn as he’d studied Kei’s stuffed dinosaur plush. It wasn’t mocking or deriding… The only word that came to Kei’s mind as he replayed it in his mind now was tender. 

When Kei finally heard Tobio move again, he chanced opening his eye once more. Tobio released a quiet sigh as he stood up and pulled his pajama pants up his leg. The movements of his hip muscles seemed to make the bird mark flap its wings, like a fledgling preparing to take flight. And that’s what Kei’s heart felt like—a bird frantically flapping its little downy wings, desperate to take its first flight into love. 

~~~

Kei didn’t say anything the next morning, or the several mornings after for several weeks. What couldhe say? It wasn’t like he could stroll right on up to Tobio and announce, “Hey, I’m your soulmate! You wanna kiss now or something?” Kei himself still hadn’t exactly processed the fact. Unfortunately, there was no mistaking it—he was positive that their marks were identical. He just had to… think about this. 

Kei had always been a patient person. And so he watched and waited and studied Tobio Kageyama scrupulously.

Tobio Kageyama, he discovered, was a man of rituals. He always awoke at 7 a.m. on the dot—much earlier than Kei, the one kerfluffle aside. He’d slip out of bed with nary a groan or a yawn and head right to the mini-fridge to drink milk straight from the carton (he’d been rather protective of it when Kei had tried to make cereal with it the other day, and now he knew why). After that, he’d shamble off into the bathroom to brush his hair and teeth. Unlike Kei, Tobio’s hair remained in immaculate condition no matter how roughly he slept; it always remained pin-straight and shiny, gleaming like threads of obsidian as the dawn sunlight streaming in from the blinds caught on the strands. 

Tobio woke up so early so he could go for a run, and he’d always wear the same beat-up black-and-white tennis shoes, no matter if his outfit matched or not. He’d be gone for an hour, and then he’d come back sweaty and ruddy-faced, usually just as Kei was dragging himself out of bed after an hour of turning off alarms and catching five-minute naps. Every time Kei shut off his final alarm and sat up, he would be greeted by the bleary image of Tobio standing next to the open refrigerator downing a bottle of water. 

Tobio didn’t go to classes unless they required attendance. He’d heard him on the phone one day with one of his volleyball buddies, who’d joked that he was a bad student. “I learn much better just reading the slides they give us,” Tobio had snorted disdainfully. “I’m not gonna drag my ass to class just to have them read it for me!” So he’d be at his laptop when Kei left in the morning, and he’d still be there when Kei came back in the afternoon, the only sign that he’d moved being some empty energy drink cans and some protein bar wrappers in the trash bin. 

Tobio never worked past 5 p.m., when Kei would lay out all his materials to begin studying. Supposedly he “did a high quantity of work in a short amount of time,” or at least, that’s what he’d told his chiding friend. It must be true, based on the A+ Kei had spotted in red ink on an examination Tobio had left on his desk. Oftentimes, when Kei shuffled in a little late after class had gone long, he’d walk right in on Tobio changing out of his leisure wear into some fresh exercise clothes. 

And he would pretend not to notice the bird-shaped soulmate mark on his back, even though it was literally taunting him with its presence. 

Tobio spent the evenings playing volleyball at the gym, while Kei would wile away the hours absorbing the day’s information. It was the one solace he had from his predicament; he could get lost in history and anthropology and sociology, sprawled out on his bed with his dinosaur plush tucked into the crook of his elbow. It was an old study habit of his, telling the plush interesting bits of information; somehow, it made him remember it more, even if it was downright silly. He was grateful Tobio wasn’t around for that. He couldn’t imagine the guy’s look on his face if he caught him talking to a stuffed animal…

After a few hours, Tobio would return and go straight to the shower. Kei figured Tobio would be a quick shower kind of guy, not one to waste time away under the hot water. But in fact, it was the opposite. He took his time, and on rare occasions, Kei would even catch the low timbre of Tobio singing to himself harmonizing with the rhythmic pounding of the water. It was never loud enough to tell what he was singing, but just loud enough for his smooth voice to make the soulmate mark on Kei’s back burn like a brand. 

And then he’d walk out, hair dripping into the towel slung around his shoulders and nothing but a pair of boxers on his frame. Perhaps it was the history of sports, but he didn’t seem embarrassed to strut around half-naked in front of Kei. Sometimes it almost felt like he was doing it on purpose, for he’d mill around the dorm doing random things before bothering to get into his pajamas. And no matter how hard Kei tried, his eyes would be drawn to that bird-shaped mark anytime it presented itself in his field of vision. 

And through it all, Tobio would barely talk to Kei, only when it was necessary or when he felt like being particularly polite. But what Kei had interpreted at first to be indifference was being revealed as shyness; though his lips never moved, Tobio’s gaze followed Kei around like it was pulled by a magnet. Any time they were in the same space, Kei could feel that prickle at the back of his neck that indicated that Tobio was staring at him. 

Had he figured out they were soulmates too? Ever since he’d discovered it, Kei had been extra careful to keep his soulmate mark concealed, but there were no guarantees. Even if that wasn’t it, was it Tobio’s supposed curiosity? How had Kei evolved under his watchful gaze, just as Tobio had evolved under Kei’s? 

Yeah, Kei no longer thought his roommate was a dick. Somehow, Kei had been roomed with the one person on Earth who had social skills that were worse than his, and dismallyso. In fact, Kei could almost call himself… charmed by Tobio’s idiosyncrasies. 

And so that’s why, weeks after first viewing the mark, he finally decided that it was time to confront Tobio. 

“Hey, Tobio.” 

Tobio glanced up from where he was lacing up his tennis shoes. It was the early evening, and as usual, he was preparing to head to the university’s gym to play volleyball with his friends. As Kei stood over him, arms crossed and a nervous blushing crawling up from his neck, Tobio fell back onto his rump and propped his elbows on his knees. To the casual observer, Tobio’s expression would be blank. But Kei could see the tiny glimmer in the eyes, the faint haze of pink starting up in his cheeks, the tiny upward turns at the corners of his lips. 

The positive affirmation was all Kei needed to move forward, rather than quail when Tobio casually asked, “What’s up?” 

“I’ve been… thinking.” The idiocy of the statement made Kei’s ears burn with embarrassment. What a way to start off. He averted his gaze, uncrossing his arms only to clasp them behind his back. “You, uh… wanted to know about my dinosaur.” 

Tobio’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, and Kei couldn’t blame him for his surprise. After all, what kind of guy brought up an event weeks after it happened? Still, he remained adamant in his cause. He cleared his throat, and then shyly grumbled, “My, uh… My mother got it for me when I was a kid. ‘Cuz I want to study paleontology.” 

“Oh.” Tobio’s tone wasn’t berating or sneering. It was soft, contemplative, like he’d just been entrusted with a great secret and was letting it settle in his mind. Kei took it as a sign that Tobio was at least interested in hearing him out, and so he walked to the bed to pick up the plush. He turned it over in his hands as he walked back to stand in front of Tobio, who waited patiently at his spot on the floor. 

“I, um… You wanted a closer look?” Without waiting for an answer, he held out the plush to him. Tobio gawked at it for a moment. It looked like he couldn’t believe the thing was in front of him, like if he reached out to touch it, his hand would phase right through. And his reach was hesitant to that end, slowly reaching up to gently grasp the stuffed animal by its elongated neck. He brought it to himself to cradle it like it was a delicate little thing, careful and deliberate in his movements while he turned it every which way to study it. 

Tobio was still gazing at it when he murmured, “So… I guess you forgive me for touching it without asking?” 

“And then making fun of me,” Kei quipped. He was being nice, but he wasn’t going to be thatnice.

Tobio flushed at his comment, and his grip tightened on the plush. 

“I… Sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun of you,” he mumbled. Kei was about to ask how one could possibly say stuff like that and not mean to make fun of someone, but Tobio kept talking. As he pushed a hand into his hair and scowled, he said, “I just… say things sometimes, the complete opposite of what I mean. I don’t know why I do it. It just happens, and I always end up in shit for it. My friends are used to it by now, but you… you…” he trailed off, looking miserably down at the plush. “You make it where I can’t think straight.” 

It was Kei’s turn to raise his eyebrows. He tried to ignore the rising heat in his cheeks, but it just made the feeling of his tongue going dry all the more noticeable. He rolled it around in his mouth and then flicked it out to wet his lips a few times, but when he’d accomplished that, he still didn’t know what to say. So he decided to say the thing that made him start this conversation in the first place. 

“You’re my soulmate.” 

Tobio’s head snapped up, his eyes as big as dinner plates. He opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again to stammer, “You knew?” 

“Youknew?!” Kei shot back. 

“Of course I knew! My soulmate mark started to burn as soon as you walked in!” Tobio cried. He hopped to his feet, apparently not noticing that he was reflexively hugging the plush to his chest. “I had to be sure, so that’s why… the whole thing with the bathroom…” He looked down at his shoes, his entire face slowly growing red. “I, uh, wanted to see if I could see your mark…” 

“Seriously?!” Kei wanted to smack himself from second-hand embarrassment. Of all the stupid stunts! But also, it was kind of mortifying that he hadn’t realized it sooner, considering his own mark had started burning amidst that debacle. “Tobio, you—there were a hundred better ways to do that!” 

“I told ya already!” he growled. “I can’t think straight when I’m around you! It’s like my mind’s in a storm! I wanna say a million things, but anytime I look at you, it’s like a can’t talk!”

A silence fell between them, the weight of the unspoken realization crushing in the air. Tobio curled into himself, cheeks burning red and a little pout on his lips. It seemed that he finally realized he was clutching onto the plush for dear life; still refusing to meet Kei’s gaze, he slowly held it out to him. Kei looked at it, then heaved a sigh. 

Instead of taking it, he put his hands over Tobio’s. When Tobio peered through his bangs at him, eyes watery and uncertain, Kei gave him a wan smile. 

“Why don’t we… start this over. My name’s Kei Tsukishima. I’m your roommate, and your soulmate, apparently.” 

Tobio snorted in laughter. It was kind of ridiculous, all things considered. But a smile was rising to his face, spreading as he tossed his bangs back and lifted his head to smile softly at him. 

“Tobio Kageyama. Your roommate… and your soulmate, apparently.” 

They gazed into one another’s eyes, their smiles broadening to stretch their pink cheeks. Maybe college would turn out to be less of a drag than he’d initially thought. After all, it would be rather nice to finally have someone to share the daily humdrum with…

your lips, my lips; apocalypse

now playing: [apocalypse]« 0:20 ─〇── 4:51 ⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻

“I want this to be our wedding song”, you say out of the blue as you both were reading together on the couch, the song playing on the record player catching your attention.

“it is a pretty song,” wakatoshisays.

“just a pretty song? It’s beautiful toshi and…and it reminds me of you” you say, almost whispering the last part, but of course, it doesn’t go unnoticed by wakatoshi.

“of me?”

“yup. I actually listened to it when I got home after our first date” you sigh out reminiscing of the first time you associated the song with him, thinking back to your first date where he had taken you to the fair and he’d won you a pink stuffed bear, the same bear that’s sitting in the corner of your bed after all these years.

“cmon give me your hand,” you say, reaching out to him. “will you give me the honor of having this dance with you, sir?” you say jokingly, curtsying slightly to which he softly laughs

“of course, m'lady” he amuses you.

it amazed you how much he has changed, sure he was still the blunt volleyball idiot you loved and adored but he had matured so much, not only in his looks but emotionally, he was more understanding of social cues now, much more understanding of you and your antics, how you spoke, joked around, how you acted, he was enthralled with you in more than one way.

“I’m not good at this” he confesses while stiffly standing up.

“well that’s why we practice toshi” you beam at him, softly taking his calloused hands and placing one on your hip and taking the other in your palm, “just relax babe and follow me”

you gently move side to side, wakatoshi still awkward with his movement try to follow along and your face hurts from the smile you’re wearing on your face right now looking at how serious he looked about getting it right.

you place your palm on his face softly reminding him to ease up and he holds your hand in his face, with a soft smile and it turns you into putty and it doesn’t help how your smile got even bigger thinking of how lucky you are.

all those years you’ve felt lonely, felt like no one could ever love you, wished you had someone that loved you endlessly and now all that wishing had turned into a reality, personified into the man that you loved with all your heart and being and you wouldn’t give it up for the whole world.

“am I doing it right?” he asks snapping you back into reality

“huh- yeah baby just like that. side to side…” you softly laugh, holding your lover close.

“we have all the time we need toshi, so take your time” you softly say, leaning into him to share a loving kiss

you don’t ever want to leave this moment, gently swaying with him in the middle of your living room, to the faint sound of the record player, taking in everything about him from the way his lips are softly parted, to his knitted eyebrows, to his soft eyes and his hand that’s gripping your waist tighter every time he feels like he’s messing up. I can’t wait to do this forever, with you, you think to yourself leaning in for another kiss.

your lips, my lips; apocalypse

now playing: [apocalypse]« 0:20 ─〇── 4:51 ⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻

“I want this to be our wedding song”, you say out of the blue as you both were reading together on the couch, the song playing on the record player catching your attention.

“it is a pretty song,” wakatoshisays.

“just a pretty song? It’s beautiful toshi and…and it reminds me of you” you say, almost whispering the last part, but of course, it doesn’t go unnoticed by wakatoshi.

“of me?”

“yup. I actually listened to it when I got home after our first date” you sigh out reminiscing of the first time you associated the song with him, thinking back to your first date where he had taken you to the fair and he’d won you a pink stuffed bear, the same bear that’s sitting in the corner of your bed after all these years.

“cmon give me your hand,” you say, reaching out to him. “will you give me the honor of having this dance with you, sir?” you say jokingly, curtsying slightly to which he softly laughs

“of course, m'lady” he amuses you.

it amazed you how much he has changed, sure he was still the blunt volleyball idiot you loved and adored but he had matured so much, not only in his looks but emotionally, he was more understanding of social cues now, much more understanding of you and your antics, how you spoke, joked around, how you acted, he was enthralled with you in more than one way.

“I’m not good at this” he confesses while stiffly standing up.

“well that’s why we practice toshi” you beam at him, softly taking his calloused hands and placing one on your hip and taking the other in your palm, “just relax babe and follow me”

you gently move side to side, wakatoshi still awkward with his movement try to follow along and your face hurts from the smile you’re wearing on your face right now looking at how serious he looked about getting it right.

you place your palm on his face softly reminding him to ease up and he holds your hand in his face, with a soft smile and it turns you into putty and it doesn’t help how your smile got even bigger thinking of how lucky you are.

all those years you’ve felt lonely, felt like no one could ever love you, wished you had someone that loved you endlessly and now all that wishing had turned into a reality, personified into the man that you loved with all your heart and being and you wouldn’t give it up for the whole world.

“am I doing it right?” he asks snapping you back into reality

“huh- yeah baby just like that. side to side…” you softly laugh, holding your lover close.

“we have all the time we need toshi, so take your time” you softly say, leaning into him to share a loving kiss

you don’t ever want to leave this moment, gently swaying with him in the middle of your living room, to the faint sound of the record player, taking in everything about him from the way his lips are softly parted, to his knitted eyebrows, to his soft eyes and his hand that’s gripping your waist tighter every time he feels like he’s messing up. I can’t wait to do this forever, with you, you think to yourself leaning in for another kiss.

i have a feeling that wakatoshi sends you pictures of dogs and cats he meets to you when he comes across them when he runs and it’ll just be the animals face and a caption of “for you :)” and he thinks it’ll make you smile or even the sunrises bc he runs at like 4 or 5 am he’s insane and since you get up to get ready for work you’ll open it and it’ll probably have the picture attached with a small message saying “the sunrise reminded me of you because it’s pretty :)” and he’s never done that before for anyone but started when you mentioned to him how u saw a tiktok of a guy doing that to his s/o and you thought it was so cute, so he started too and he never fails to remind you how amazing you are to him, with lots and lots of forehead and knuckle kisses.

i have a feeling that wakatoshi sends you pictures of dogs and cats he meets to you when he comes across them when he runs and it’ll just be the animals face and a caption of “for you :)” and he thinks it’ll make you smile or even the sunrises bc he runs at like 4 or 5 am he’s insane and since you get up to get ready for work you’ll open it and it’ll probably have the picture attached with a small message saying “the sunrise reminded me of you because it’s pretty :)” and he’s never done that before for anyone but started when you mentioned to him how u saw a tiktok of a guy doing that to his s/o and you thought it was so cute, so he started too and he never fails to remind you how amazing you are to him, with lots and lots of forehead and knuckle kisses.

flycloudddd:

im in love with him :(

he is the prettiest

“I’D GET BACK WITH MY EX” PRANK ON HIM 

⇢ iwaizumi hajime, kuroo tetsuro, sugawara koshi

ʚɞ iwaizumi hajime

• it was oikawa toru’s idea to prank his best friend and who better to prank iwaizumi hajime than you? 
  
• after his incessant begging, you finally give into Oikawa’s request
  
• you get ready for the prank as oikawa is hiding somewhere nearby with his camera
  

“hey Hajime…” you whispered, trailing off, earning a weird glance from your boyfriend. 

“why are we whispering?” he responded, moving a little closer to you, “we’re at the gym right now, a public space, you don’t have to whisper.” 

you smiled nervously and he put a hand on your forehead. you feel the callous on his palm as he compared your temperature to his. “good, you’re not running a fever. why are you acting so weird today?” 

You had hope to find a smooth transition into your question without giving it away that its a prank but it failed when you blurted out, “babe, ask me what I’d do if we broke up.” 

“if you say you’d get with oikawa toru, I’d punch him so hard.” 

you punched him lightly on the arm, “ew! why would you ever say that! hurry, ask me the question.” (ngl, oikawa was lowkey hurt when he heard your response).

he looked at you in silence before finally asking you the question. 

“what would you do if we broke up.” 

“I’d get back together with my ex.” 

Iwaizumi Hajime said nothing except look at you as his ears got redder, a telltale sign of extreme annoyance.

 “I’m gonna go cool off,” he took off without waiting for your reply. 

“YOU WOULD BE MY EX, HAJIME!” 

He finally turned around just in time to see Oikawa stumbled out from behind one of the chairs, laughing hysterically, yelling a string off, “YOU SHOULD’VE SEEN YOUR FACE IWA-CHAN!” 

Iwaizumi ignored the pretty captain and walked over to you, “you mean it? if we ever break up you’d just date me again?” 

“yes, but I don’t plan on breaking up with you. ever.” 

“me too.” 

He gave you a hug before turning to Oikawa’s direction. 

“where are you going, babe?” 

“I’m gonna punch that him so hard today, he’ll be seeing those aliens he love so much.”

ʚɞ kuroo tetsuro

• You were both studying for an upcoming science test
• being the smarty pants that he is, Kuroo easily grasped all the concept, leaving you to struggle in the dust
• You could not for the life of you memorize the periodic table, causing your boyfriend to tease you
• You decided to prank him as revenge

“Just remember the song I taught you, I don’t know why you won’t use that as a study aid,” Kuroo smirked.

“you literally changed the lyrics of WAP to include the elements, I don’t want to sing that”.

“Now from the top, make it drop, add an H and thats some hydrogen. Take a bucket and a mop…” He sang out loud, hyena laughter echoing in the study hall.

You shake your head annoyed, wanting to take a little break and get revenge for him teasing you all afternoon, you asked,

“Hey Tetsu, ask me what I’d do if we broke up”.

His laughter died and he faced you with fear in his eyes, you almost laughed at his reaction.

“Is it because I’m singing this song? I’ll stop, don’t break up with me”.

“I’m not breaking up with you, it’s just a hypothetical question.”

Kuroo looked confused, “okay…what would you do if we broke up?”

“I’d get back with my ex,” you said with no hesitation.

You guys looked at each other, your eyes twinkling with laughter, his shocked with hurt.

“wow…you said that with no hesitation. have you thought about this question a lot? How can you say something like that?!”

You continued laughing, “for someone who’s so smart, you sure are dumb”.

“what does that even mean! why are you hurting me like this?” He whined, before realization hit him.

“Oh, wait, I would be your ex”.

You smiled at him and he smiled back, before breaking out into his rendition of WAP again, earning him a smack on the head from you.

ʚɞ  sugawara koshi

• baby would be so hurt, especially if you pull this prank out of the blue
• you’re both seated on the sofa, your legs on top of his
• He’s playing a new game not paying any attention to you at all
• You remembered this tiktok video you saw a while ago and an idea formed in your head

“Koshi! talk to me,” you poked the pretty setter on the cheek. He playfully swatted your hand away, “hold on, I’m almost done with this level.” 

You huffed in annoyance, Suga immediately looked at you, eyes softening.

“I’m sorry, does my princess need some attention?”

You nodded.

“Okay baby, let’s chat” He sat up taller, keeping his hands on your thigh, turning his entire attention to you.

“Ask me what I’d do if we broke up.”

Suga furrowed his brows, “why would I ask you that?”

“Just do it.”

“No, I don’t want to. I don’t ever want to break up with you.”

“Babe, it’s a hypothetical question. Just do it.”

“Fine, what would you do if we broke up, which would never happen.”

You paused for a second and pretended to be thinking, “I’d get back together with my ex.” 

Suga.exe stopped working. He sat there, red in the face, whining, “why would you say that! how you could say that to me!”

You started laughing at his reaction, which got him more worked up.

“calm down! use your brain.”

Apparently his brain stopped working because now he’s just nuzzling you in the crook of your neck, whining.

“Ko, if we broke up, who would be my ex?”

A moment of silence, as he looked up at you, understanding registering in his eyes.

“Oh. You cheeky little….” He never finished his sentence as he started tickling you before pulling you into a tight embrace, “I’ll never give you the chance to get back with your ex.”

The two of you spent the entire afternoon cuddling, his arms locked around your waist, never letting go.

reblogs are wildly appreciated <3

main masterlist|haikyū masterlist

“KISS ME MORE!” pt. 2 

⇢ sakusa kiyoomi, bokuto kotaro, miya osamu, kozume kenma, kuroo tetsuro x f!reader

⇢part 1 

synopsis: the one in which you ask him to please kiss you more

ʚɞ SAKUSA Kiyoomi | collapses next to you on the sofa after a long day at practice. Your fingers weave through his curls, hands gently massaging his scalp as he melts into your touch. He peeks up at you tiredly, “thank you, my love. what can I ever do to repay your kindness?” He smiles gently, a rhetorical question that expected no answer. So imagine the surprise on his face when you responded with a “well, you could kiss me more…” He looks at you and sees the seriousness in your eyes. Your husband laughs, suddenly reenergized. He pats his laps invitingly, which you gladly accepted. “are you comfortable?” he murmurs, lips brushing against yours. “mmhm.” His fingers playfully tugs at the hem of your shirt, “you’re a little brat you know that?” “your little brat.” “mmhm.”

ʚɞBOKUTO Kotaro | is the happiest man when you ask him for a favor like this. “Baby Ko!” You open your arms wide as he happily jumps into them. “Baby y/n!” He mimics you, “how’s my pretty wife doing?” You press a light kiss on his nose, “better now that you’re here.” He hums happily, strong arms engulfing you as he wraps himself around your waist and pulls you in close to him. “what are you thinking about?” “about how you should kiss me more.” Bokuto snaps his head up to look at you, a shock look in his eyes before breaking out into a goofy smile. “oh?” He raises a brow before kissing you on your forehead, your nose, your cheeks, then finally your lips. He giggles as you giggle. “more!” “alright, another round of kisses for my princess!”

ʚɞMIYA Osamu | You watch as your husband wipe down the kitchen counter and prepped the ingredients needed for the restaurant tomorrow. He smiles as he feels your stares, “’m almost done, princess and then we can do whatever ya want, sound good?” You walk over gleefully and wrap your arms around him, peeking up to look at him. “anything I want?” Samu nods, smiling down at you. “what if I want you to kiss me more?” Osamu doesn’t answer, but you suddenly find yourself spun around, your back gently hitting the counter as his face inches closer to yours before pressing a light kiss on your lips. “well I did say anything ya want. Yer wish is my command.”

ʚɞKOZUME Kenma | “kenma!” “yes?” He sets down his cup of coffee and looks up at you as you stand before him, arms crossed. “What flavor is your coffee?” Kenma looks down at the cup before looking up at you, confused. “what do you mean? its coffee? um…vanilla I guess. It’s just the one you got yesterday.” “can I have a taste?” He lifts up his cup to you invitingly but you shake your head. “why don’t you show me the flavor another way?” you winked suggestively. Kenma blushes a deep shade of red but nonetheless opens his arms invitingly as you sink down onto the sofa. “you’re very creative…” he whispers just before leaning in. “did you get a good taste?” You giggle and shake your head no. He sighs playfully, “looks like I have no choice but to kiss you again.” yes please!

ʚɞKUROO Tetsuro | stands up to stretch, holding out his hand to you. You look at his invitation before looking away. Your husband looks down at you, amusement dancing in his eyes. “what’s wrong, pretty face?” “it’s just…” another sigh as you begin to quote Doja Cat, “we hug. And yes, we make love. Then we always just say good night.” Kuroo sits back down, ready to entertain your antics. He’s absolutely aware you’re quoting Doja cat, after all, this song has been on replay for you this entire week. “oh yeah? and you don’t like that?” He inquires. “no I do but…” He grabs your chin, tilting you up to look at him. “but you want me to kiss you more?” Before you could respond, Kuroo presses his lips into yours before pulling away, leaving you slightly dazed. You pout as he laughs, “what? you want more? okay, I’ll kiss you more any time, y/n.” 

reblogs are greatly appreciated <3 

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