A/N: college/future au. enjoy!
Dust motes and pieces of fluff gleamed in the sunlight as they drifted in patches of sun, floating around excited children and tired mothers in the Build-a-Bear Workshop. One man stood out in the commotion, tall and intimidating and looking as though he belonged in a nightclub rather than in a children's store. Kuroo sneezed, glaring violently at the loose pieces of cotton. Catching glances from angry mothers – what is this hooligan doing here, spreading his germs to our children – Kuroo stomped over to the racks of animals. After a particularly intense staring contest with a limp, unstuffed black cat with a suspiciously familiar flop of bangs, Kuroo gave in and snatched it roughly from the shelf.
"Excuse me, sir," came a trembling voice to his right, "we have a policy of kindness to our animals… could you please be a little gentler?"
With a wince, Kuroo smoothed the frown on his face into one of his 'charming' smiles. He cradled the limp fur and apologized to the worker, who still seemed intimidated by his spiked hair (bedhead), eyebrow piercing (a dare from Tsukishima), and tattooed forearms that peeked out from the sleeves of his leather jacket (both were gifts from his boyfriend). Muttering hushed abuses at the cat in his arms, Kuroo plodded over to the stuffing station. He handed it to the worker with his head bowed, embarrassed at his conspicuousness.
"Please choose a heart!" The cheerful worker laughed with an all-too-familiar lilt, and Kuroo realized with dawning horror that his stuffing station worker was none other than Hinata Shouyou. Hinata smirked at Kuroo's shocked expression. "Is this for Kenma?" He evidently took Kuroo's surly glare as answer enough, for the orange-haired boy nearly upended his stool in a fit of giggles. "Oh my god that is so cute OH MY GOD KUROO!"
"Hinata, please shut up," hissed Kuroo in what he hoped was a threatening manner, but the illusion was shattered by the white fluff littering his shoulders and the fabric heart in his hand.
The look of gleeful delight on Hinata's face was enough to make Kuroo blanch, and he paled even further at the ginger's words. "Kuroo… you have to kiss the heart now!" In an undertone, he whispered, "there are children watching – you have to be a good example!"
Kuroo reluctantly brought the heart to his face and roughly bashed it to his lips, maintaining his baleful stare and trying desperately not to think of the redness of Kenma's lips in the redness of the felt heart.
"Now this cat's owner will always feel your love," exclaimed Hinata with a glint in his eye, slipping the heart into the now-stuffed animal and sealing it with practiced ease.
Kuroo watched the red fabric disappear into the folds of black with a sense of dread. After all, an excited Hinata was never a good sign. He attempted to quell the small boy's enthusiasm with a spot of teasing. "So did Kageyama feel your love, when you gave him a fat stuffed animal?"
The attempt backfired, as Kuroo's usually did. I don't know why I even try, he thought morosely, as Hinata beamed and began to blather on about buying Kageyama some obscene little black crow with a volleyball – what Build-a-Bears even came with volleyballs anyway? – and a goddamn volleyball jersey.
"Wait," Kuroo started at the last part, "you have volleyball jerseys?"
He immediately regretted his interjection as Hinata shot him that irritating grin of his, bouncing to his feet. "You want one? Really? Really really? I'm so glad I saved the last red one… just in case…" Hinata turned to a familiar blonde worker walking by. "Hey Yachi! Can you get Kuroo that red volleyball jersey?"
Kuroo wanted to bury his face – scratch that, his entire 187.7 cm of lean muscle – into the ground forever out of shame as the entire store's customers all swiveled their heads in his direction. Why can't Hinata just lower his voice for once? Yachi sent him a disturbingly canny smile, but (thank god!) said nothing.
Four more sneezes, three crying children, two angry mothers, and one torturous cashier line later, Kuroo stumbled out of the Build-a-Bear Workshop with a suspiciously house-shaped package cradled protectively in his arms. The stares were almost unbearable, and Kuroo groaned at the realization that he'd have to walk twenty more minutes before reaching college campus.
Sure enough, at the end of the longest twenty minutes of Kuroo's life, his volleyball-callused hand rapped on Kenma's dorm room door, fingers trembling with nervous energy. He fidgeted in the hallway for what seemed like an eternity before a bleary pudding-head poked out of the door. His eyes widened at the sight before him.
"Yeah, I know," sighed the taller boy before Kenma could speak. "I look ridiculous. But it's completely your fault, cause this –" he thrust the gift at his befuddled boyfriend – "is for you." Kuroo cursed his deficit in the linguistic department – what were you supposed to say when giving your nineteen-year-old boyfriend a dumb stuffed animal that looked eerily like you? Kuroo hadn't the faintest idea, and was rapidly beginning to think that this whole endeavor was a terrible venture, doomed from the start to fail.
His ominous vibe seemed to be correct as, once safely inside Kenma's room, the pudding-hair's first reaction at his gift was a loud sneeze. While Kuroo couldn't deny his appreciation for Kenma's heightened cuteness at the sneeze, he felt like throwing himself out of the 8th-story window for forgetting that his boyfriend was allergic to cotton fluff.
"Achoo!" Kenma's next sneeze brought Kuroo back to a (regrettably) death-less reality, and he unsuccessfully attempted to snatch the cat from a rapidly reddening Kenma.
"I am so sorry oh my god I don't know how I could have forgotten your allergies I'm a terrible boyfriend I'll just go and return this oh my god I'm so sorry –"
Kenma laughed. Kuroo froze; Kenma's laughs were rare and far between. He supposed he could abandon some of his pride if it meant that adorable bubble of laughter that burst, clear and delightful, for a fleeting moment before disappearing like a wisp of smoke.
"Kuroo, it's fine. Honestly. I…" Kenma's blush deepened, "I like it." The last part was a barely-audible mutter, and Kuroo was no longer sure whether Kenma's blush stemmed from allergies or from cute-and-cuddly feelings. The thought of such feelings in relation to Kenma was enough to prompt Kuroo to lean forward, eyes drifting shut, lips aching for the softness of Kenma's own –
Clunk. The clock in Kenma's room struck four, and Kenma whirled around in a panic. "I've got class," he murmured, beginning to back away.
"Nuh-uh," Kuroo vaguely heard himself protest before bending down and (finally!) closing the gap between their lips.
When they broke apart, flushed and breathless, Kenma clutched the cat even tighter in his arms, absentmindedly petting its tuft of bangs. He laughed at the wounded expression on his boyfriend's face.
I really could get used to that laugh, thought Kuroo fondly. Out loud, he growled mock-threateningly. "You chose that fat little cat over me? I'm wounded." He clutched his heart melodramatically, but Kenma sighed, all too used to Kuroo's antics.
"Well, I know which one's coming to bed with me tonight," the pudding-head teased.
Kuroo pouted and attempted to steal another kiss, but was hastily rebuffed by a frantic Kenma who yelped something about an angry professor and scurried out the door.
Kenma's red nose and constant sneezes the next morning were tangible proof of the sincerity behind his joke the last afternoon. "The stupid animal replaced me," huffed Kuroo. "I knew it was a bad idea to buy the damn thing."
But the next morning saw blonde, black, and tufted fur all clustered in a jumble of blankets, red noses, and sneezes, and Kuroo decided that maybe this stuffed animal wasn't such a bad idea after all.
A/N: originally published on ao3 on my account PuellaScribit there. build-a-bear inspiration from imaginethehaikyuukids on tumblr. KUROKEN TOO CUTE