Work Text:
Kuroo had a lot of things— his own apartment, crippling student loan debt, a nuisance of a cat named Miso that liked to swipe his food whenever he wasn’t looking— but he didn’t have a relationship, and while that usually wasn’t a problem, it definitely felt like one when he hung out with two of the most domestic assholes he knew.
“So, Kuroo,” Oikawa started, leaning into his personal space with a look of mischief in his eyes. They were at the izakaya across from the train station, and even though Oikawa had been sipping on water for most of the night, Kuroo was certain that he would topple out of his chair if he tried to come any closer. “Bokkun here tells me that you tried dating again. I want to know why I haven’t heard anything about it.”
Kuroo shot a very pointed glare in Bokuto’s direction and set his beer down. “And I want to know why Bokkun is telling you about something that was barely even a thing.”
Bokuto smiled sheepishly. “It came up in conversation?”
Kuroo let out a sigh. He had known Bokuto and Oikawa since college, and while they all went their separate ways after graduating, they still kept in touch and tried to meet up whenever their schedules made time for it. He was suddenly regretting clearing his night for this. “You remember Daishou from second year?”
Oikawa gasped in surprise. “You went out with Daishou?”
“Only a couple times,” Kuroo said. “He was in town, and we caught up, and that was it. Nothing serious.”
“Did you want it to be serious?”
Kuroo stared down at his drink and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not really into dating, you know that.”
“But that doesn’t mean you have to be lonely,” Bokuto pointed out, his words muffled by his mouthful of karaage. He chewed and swallowed before continuing. “Just find someone as unromantic as you are, and then the two of you can be unromantic together,” he said. He had always been the type to oversimplify things, and honestly, that was part of the reason Kuroo got along with him so well. He put things into a different perspective, and while Kuroo absolutely didn’t agree with him on this, it was always interesting to hear from him.
“I’m romantic,” Kuroo complained, groaning and running a distressed hand through his hair. “It’s just not that easy. Not all of us find our soulmates in college, you lucky bastards.” Oikawa and Iwaizumi had been together since before Kuroo had even met them, and Bokuto was getting married soon— and then there was Kuroo, dreadfully single with nothing but a cat and his two degrees to keep him warm at night. “I’ll just die alone,” he decided. “Miso will eat my corpse, so you won’t even have to have a funeral.”
Oikawa grimaced. “First of all, that’s sad and gross.” He crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Kuroo with an unwavering look. “Second of all, you aren’t going to die alone, so stop being so pessimistic all the time. Who knows, maybe that’s why you’re still single. No offense.”
“None taken,” Kuroo sighed, despite the fact that he wasn’t nearly drunk enough to be talking about his love life with his two very engaged, very happy best friends. He took a long moment to down the rest of his beer, and when the waiter came around to check on their table, he ordered something stronger. Bokuto cheered and did the same.
Kuroo was smiling so wide his cheeks hurt. Bokuto slung an arm over his shoulders and pulled him down the sidewalk, and he fumbled to keep his balance. He couldn’t exactly remember how the two of them made it across town, but he did recall Oikawa having to leave because he had practice tomorrow morning, and something about a Lyft being called before he left.
But rather than following suit and going their separate ways, Bokuto made the mistake of telling Kuroo about Bouncing Ball Arcade— the place that had the original Street Fighter game and sold alcohol on the weekends, and yeah, Kuroo was pretty sure he was going to die if they didn’t get there immediately.
He shrugged Bokuto off as they made it inside the neon-lit building. Bokuto pouted mournfully at the loss of contact— he had always been a very affectionate drunk— but he quickly got over it as they bought a handful of tokens at the counter and a round of beers at the bar, and set off to have some fun.
Bokuto gasped and lit up. “Oh shit! Dude, they have Pacman!” He cheered and pushed his drink into Kuroo’s free hand before bolting over to the machine. Kuroo snickered under his breath at his overly enthusiastic friend and followed after him at a much slower pace. He fully intended to check out the rest of the place for any interesting games, but he got distracted— and strangely enough, it was a someone rather than a something that caught his eye.
Just a few machines away, there was a man with long hair pulled out of his face— it was mostly black, but blonde at the ends like he hadn’t taken the effort to re-bleach it. He stood at the game and completely demolished the enemies with what looked like practiced expertise, and Kuroo felt starstruck.
He forced himself to come back to his senses. Or what was left of them. “Bro, don’t look now, but totally look over there.”
Bokuto glanced over and nodded solemnly. “Yeah, he looks like your type.”
“I have a type?”
“You know…” Bokuto gesticulated wildly as he tried to find the words. “Nice hair, shorter than you, weirdly intimidating. That’s, like, your whole sexuality.”
Kuroo didn’t want to admit it, but Bokuto had a point. The man at the game did look intimidating, in an intense, focused kind of way. Kuroo looked back over to catch him trying to flip a loose strand of hair out of his face. He quickly gave up and brushed it behind his ear quick enough to keep from losing his combo.
Bokuto nudged Kuroo back to reality, laughing at him, but smiling one of his genuine smiles. “Dude, you’re pining over someone you haven’t even met. Just go talk to him if you think he’s so hot.”
Kuroo took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. I can do that,” he said, desperately trying to convince himself that it was true. Bokuto gave him a pat on the back to give him some emotional support, and with that, Kuroo started over toward the gorgeous man with the long hair.
And then someone bumped into him as he walked past. And Kuroo spilled his drink all over himself.
“Shit! Sorry man, I didn’t see you there.”
Kuroo waved the stranger off and stared down at his newly soaked, and soon to be sticky shirt. “It’s fine. No harm done,” he said, trying to keep himself from getting too annoyed. He groaned. And then he looked up to find the man with the long hair looking in his direction— looking at him, all pathetic and drunk and drenched in beer— and yeah, no, he wasn’t doing this.
He headed back over to Bokuto, his head down and his social battery suddenly drained. “Let’s just go.”
“You’re sure?” Bokuto asked.
“Yeah… I don’t really feel up to it anymore. Let me crash at your place?”
“Hell yeah! I love sleepovers!” Bokuto cheered, and he and Kuroo pocketed the rest of their tokens and started for the exit. Kuroo checked over his shoulder to see if he could catch the gorgeous man one last time before leaving, but he had disappeared from his game, now nowhere to be found.
Kuroo opened his eyes to find himself sprawled out on a couch, faced with one Akaashi Keiji scowling down at him. He groaned at the light shining in through the windows and rubbed at his eyes. “Um… good morning?”
“No offense, Kuroo-san, but please go home. You smell like alcohol and sweat,” Akaashi said, in lieu of an actual greeting.
“I tried to tell him to be nicer about it.” Bokuto added, walking out from the kitchen with a green smoothie in hand. “It’s not your fault you smell like a bar.” Kuroo could never figure out how he managed to drink those every morning, but apparently they helped out with hangovers. He had never wanted to drink blended vegetables so much in his life.
Kuroo groaned and wiped a hand down his face. “Alright, alright, I get it. I’m going home.” He stood up from the couch, and Akaashi immediately took the opportunity to spray it down with an antibacterial that made the room smell like clean laundry.
Oh, that was right— Kuroo was still wearing his beer soaked shirt from last night. No wonder he felt so gross. He needed to get home and take a shower, like, yesterday. He felt around in his pockets to make sure he had all of his things, and frowned in confusion when he only pulled out his phone and house keys.
“Dude, have you seen my wallet?”
“Nope.” Bokuto took a long sip from his smoothie. He seemed much too nonchalant for the situation at hand. “Where’d you have it last?”
Kuroo sighed. “I don’t know. I just remember getting really drunk and messing around at the arcade, and the next thing I knew, Akaashi was plotting to smother me with a pillow or something like that.”
“It’s okay, man. He could try to kill you, but I wouldn’t let him go through with it,” Bokuto attempted to reassure, and Kuroo supposed that counted for something. “And you probably left your wallet at the arcade. Just check there first.”
“But please take a shower before you do so,” Akaashi added, and Kuroo rolled his eyes as he left their apartment. He stopped at his own place to clean up and change into something that didn’t smell like stale Sapporo, and then he headed back out to the arcade.
The same employee from last night was working the token counter. It was some orange haired kid that absolutely didn’t look old enough to be working around alcohol, and as Kuroo walked over, he saw that his nametag read Hinata S.
“Hey,” Kuroo greeted, and the kid looked up from his cellphone. “Sorry, I think I lost my wallet here last night. Is there a lost or found, or anything like that I can check in?”
“Yeah, but it’s in the staff room and it’s employees only back there. I can go look for you if you want,” Hinata offered.
“That would be great,” Kuroo said, and Hinata pocketed his phone and disappeared into the back room to check for his wallet. Hopefully someone turned it in and didn’t just steal it. That would be such a nightmare, Kuroo didn’t even want to think about how exhausting that would be.
There was the sound of a door opening, but it wasn’t Hinata coming back. Kuroo looked over to see the gorgeous long-haired man from last night walking past. His hair was tied up in a messy bun, and he was completely dressed in pajamas, like he had woken up and come straight here. Kuroo didn’t necessarily think anyone would come to an arcade at nine in the morning on a Sunday, and he wasn’t wearing a uniform or a nametag, so it wasn’t like he worked here. Maybe he was just a hikikomori that wandered too far from home.
Kuroo never thought he’d find a hikikomori insanely hot. He figured now was as good a time as ever to talk to him— now that he was sober and clean, and a lot less pathetic. “Excuse me,” he started. “You were here last night, weren’t you?”
The man had an iced coffee in hand and set it down on one of the machines before putting in a token to boot the game up. “You were the one with the loud friend. You spilled your drink all over yourself,” he said, not even bothering to look up at him.
Kuroo’s ears flushed pink with embarrassment. He wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or mortified that he remembered him. “Yeah, that was me. Sorry if we bothered you or anything. Bo’s loud when he’s sober and even worse after he drinks.”
“I’m used to it,” he said. “Weekends are open late for people wandering in from the bars. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a few drunk idiots spilling stuff everywhere. It’s not a big deal as long as they don’t get their drinks on the games.”
“Oh, do you work here?”
“Not really.” He finished his game with a new high score, and Kuroo noticed the name APPLEPI taking up all the spots on the leaderboard. The man reached into his pocket and tossed Kuroo’s wallet back to him. “You left this here.”
“Oh!” Kuroo blinked. “Thanks. My name’s-”
“Kuroo. I saw your ID. You should brush your hair before taking your license photo next time,” he said, and that was when he glanced at Kuroo with sharp golden eyes that made his knees weak. There was the slightest look of amusement on his face, and Kuroo wanted nothing more than to see more of it.
It was only after the man walked away and disappeared into a room reserved for employees that Kuroo realized he forgot to ask for his name.
Hinata walked out from the backroom, looking distressed and anxious. “Um… so I couldn’t find any wallets, but-”
“It’s fine,” Kuroo reassured. He didn’t want the kid breaking into tears or anything like that. “Someone else found it for me.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Hinata perked up, suddenly remembering something. “Kenma did say he found a wallet last night.”
“Kenma?” That must have been the man’s name. “Does he work here?”
“Nope, he’s the owner. He just likes to hang around on the weekends,” Hinata said, and in that moment, Kuroo decided that he might have to start hanging around on the weekends as well.
Friday night, Kuroo was back at Bouncing Ball Arcade, and he decided that it was only a little bit sad that this was how he chose to start off his weekend. He messed around on the machines for a while, and as he made his way from game to game, he noticed that nearly all of the leaderboards were filled with Kenma’s alias.
And speaking of Kenma, he had just walked out from the backroom to take over a shift at the counter, swapping places with Hinata while he went on break or something like that. Kuroo figured this was his chance to have another conversation with him.
Kenma leaned against the counter and picked at his nails. He looked up with interest as Kuroo walked over. “You’re not with your loud friend tonight,” he pointed out.
“No, not this time,” Kuroo laughed. And hopefully he wouldn’t end up soaked in beer by the end of the night either. “He’s home with his boyfriend tonight. They’re getting married soon, so they’re probably doing whatever engaged couples do.”
“He’s into guys?”
“Oh yeah, definitely.”
“That’s cool. What about you?” Kenma asked with such nonchalance, that it took Kuroo a moment to process the words he had just heard. Kenma noticed his distress and immediately backtracked. “Nevermind. Just, um-”
“No, wait, go back,” Kuroo managed out. “Did you just ask me if I’m into guys?”
Kenma bristled and looked off to the side. “Listen, if you’re not, then you don’t have to get weird about it.”
“I like guys. A lot,” Kuroo blurted out, desperate to get rid of the tension in the air. “I’m bisexual.”
Kenma huffed out a laugh, and Kuroo smiled, successful in his goal. “Same.”
Kuroo liked being able to hear him laugh. He wanted to talk to him more, and wanted to know everything about him. “So, you’ve played all the games in here, huh?”
“You saw the leaderboards.” Kenma smiled, a look of pride taking its place on his face. “We reset everything at the end of the month, so I’ve been filling them out.”
“Impressive,” Kuroo responded, and that was the truth. He had to have a lot of patience to do something like that every month, and a lot of restraint to just erase all the evidence afterwards. “So… arcade games on the weekends. What do you do to kill time during the week?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
Kuroo shrugged. “I like to know things about people.”
“I’m a student,” Kenma said. “I dropped out a few years ago so I’m finishing my degree. Software development.” That seemed like a good area of study for someone so invested in videogames.
“That’s cool. Personally, I double majored in STEM because I hate myself,” Kuroo said, and Kenma laughed— actually laughed, and something in Kuroo’s chest fluttered at the sight of it.
Kenma smiled and looked at Kuroo, a sudden sharpness behind his eyes. “So, are you going to ask me on a date like a normal person, or are you just going to keep pretending like you’re not interested in me?”
“Go out with me sometime?"
“I’ll think about it.” Kenma grinned sharply and continued. “Maybe you should come back into my office and try to convince me,” he proposed with a low voice, and Kuroo’s mouth went dry. He nodded enthusiastically, and Kenma pulled him around the counter and into a room off of the backroom.
Kenma’s office was simplistic and nice, lit up around the corners with red LEDs. He had a desk and a plush leather couch sitting across the room from it, and there were limited edition game posters framed on the walls. Kenma locked the door behind them, and Kuroo yelped as he was pushed down onto the couch, completely caught off guard.
Kenma climbed into his lap and straddled his hips. “You’re really cute, you know that?”
Kuroo fought back the urge to squirm under the attention. “Please just kiss me already,” he begged, and Kenma leaned in close to press their lips together, sighing contentedly into the warm contact. He hummed softly and nipped at Kuroo’s bottom lip. Kuroo quickly took the hint and opened his mouth, allowing him to lick inside.
He felt hot. He felt like his nerves were heating up— like he was moments away from being set on fire and burning up from the inside out. He clutched at Kenma’s thighs and at his waist, pulling him impossibly closer as he reciprocated, making out with him enthusiastically.
Kenma tangled a hand in his hair and pulled harshly at the roots. Kuroo shuddered and whimpered against his mouth. Kenma pulled away just the slightest, and stared him down with a distinct heat behind intense golden eyes. “You’re so loud, it’s almost like you want somebody to hear you.”
Kuroo flushed red, but didn’t dare break eye contact. “I’m not trying to be loud,” he attempted to say, but Kenma took that moment to pull at his hair again, and the words fell from his lips in a drawn out moan.
Kenma’s mouth quirked up at the corners. He smiled menacingly, and the look was enough to have Kuroo aching in his jeans. “You could have fooled me,” Kenma said, his voice low and unfairly sexy. He rolled his hips down and pressed against Kuroo, savoring the feeling of his erection resting firmly against his ass. “You seem to be enjoying this.”
“Well, yeah.” Kuroo chuckled breathlessly. “You’re kind of hot.”
“Only kind of?” Kenma reached down to palm him through the front of his jeans, groping him and somehow pressing down exactly where he was most sensitive.
Kuroo inhaled sharply, a shiver running down his spine. “Oh- hah- oh my god.”
“Hm.” Kenma traced the outline of his cock with a cruel finger. “What if I made you cum in your jeans? How pretty do you think that would be?”
Kuroo dropped his head onto Kenma’s shoulder. He panted heavily and harshly into the quiet of the office. “Please.” Desperation clouded and hung over his thoughts. The only thing on his mind was Kenma, and how sexy Kenma was, and how badly he just wanted to be fucking touched properly.
Kenma chuckled under his breath. “You want me to make you cum in your jeans?”
Kuroo whined and shook his head.
“Then use your words, pretty boy.” His fingers lingered at the clasp to Kuroo’s jeans. “Do you want me to touch you?”
“Please.” Kuroo was quickly losing what was left of his dignity. He didn’t seem to care, and he doubted that he would when this was all over. “I can’t take all this teasing,” he complained, and Kenma undid his pants, pulling his cock free of his underwear. He hissed at the feeling of the cold air on his bare skin.
Kenma wrapped a hand around his shaft and stroked him at a painstakingly slow pace. “I like the way your face looks when I do this.”
“Oh, so what I’m hearing is that you like me.” Kuroo panted and laughed weakly, attempting to regain the upper hand in the situation— as if he ever had it in the first place.
“You’re cute,” Kenma said simply. He twisted his wrist just right on the upstroke, and Kuroo let out a shuddering breath. “And now look at where we are. I wouldn’t have asked you back here if I didn’t like you.”
“Do you do this with all the cute guys that walk into your arcade?”
“Only the ones that chicken out from talking to me because they’re drenched in beer,” Kenma said, smiling softly. It was a stark contrast to the way he was working Kuroo so sinfully with nothing but his hand. “It was cute. You’re cute.”
“You’re not too bad yourself.” Kuroo grinned, and Kenma wiped the look off his face with a bruising kiss. He melted into the contact. Kenma stroked him faster, speeding up the movement of his hand and tearing a groan from Kuroo’s lips.
Kenma licked into his mouth and devoured each and every sound.
Sweat beaded against Kuroo’s forehead. He heard the sound of the leather couch creaking, and tasted the sweetness of Kenma on his tongue, and he loved all of it. He sighed against Kenma’s mouth and subjected himself to his fate— allowing himself to ride the waves of pleasure as they coursed through his veins.
Kenma gripped his hair again, and Kuroo inhaled sharply, feeling the familiar white heat building up in his core. “Are you going to cum for me, Kuroo?”
Kuroo nodded desperately.
Kenma pulled even harder and nipped at the corner of his jaw. “Do it then,” he said, and then Kuroo was tensing up and releasing into Kenma’s hand, shuddering and moaning out broken syllables of his name. Kenma worked him through his orgasm and kissed him once more before climbing off from his lap. He grabbed a tissue from his desk and wiped his hands down.
Kuroo tucked himself back into his pants and struggled to catch his breath. He looked over to Kenma. “You didn’t cum. Did you want me to-”
“It’s fine,” Kenma reassured. He tossed the tissue into the trash and sat down next to Kuroo, kicking his legs over his lap. He pulled him down by the collar for another kiss. “You can just make it up to me after our date next week.”
Kuroo could do that.