When the small man with the soft blue hair first walks into Kagami's bar, the redheaded bartender doesn't see him. Fourteen soft hellos, twelve broken glasses, and two weeks later Kagami is used to it. Catching the glasses, he means.
When the small man with the polite voice first gets roped into a drinking contest, money on the table and vodka in the shot glasses, Kagami is convinced he'll have to call a cab in twenty minutes. To his surprise, the little man walks away from that table twelve thousand yen richer and not a drop intoxicated.
"It's called Misdirection." The man says when he sees the incredulous look on the resident barkeep's face as he saddles up to the bar. "It's like sleight of hand, or a magic trick." His voice is mischievous and satisfied as he orders a hard liquor and downs it like a man depraved. "My name is Kuroko Tetsuya. Please take care of me."
Kagami doesn't press it, though he really wants to and there's something about the otherwise commonplace greeting that gives Kagami the sense that there's something more going on here. "Yeah." He says instead and blinks as Kuroko continues to down drink after drink like it was commonplace.
"Are you nursing a broken heart, Kuroko?" Kagami asks somewhere around the fourth consecutive week that Kuroko comes to the bar. Kagami knows its cheesy bartender lines but he's nothing if not concerned and everything but smooth and original.
Kuroko, for his part, only blinks as a sad smile gently curves the corners of his lips and eyes into something both beautiful and heartbreakingly sad, like the strong curve of a mother's back at her young child's funeral. "No." Kuroko says after a moment and the sound is heartbreakingly soft. "But I think I would prefer a broken heart, to the pain of an unblemished one."
Kagami thinks about this for a few days and then realizes that Kuroko is much more complex than he originally thought.
He also realizes that he himself was not cut out for thinking.
By week twelve Kuroko has made something of a name for himself in Kagami's bar. He's never lost a drinking game. Never even came close and by the twelfth week Kuroko leaves that same table with over a hundred thousand yen in his pocket.
Kagami would be impressed if he didn't see that same smug sober mug go from pristine and proper to piss ass drunk within the next three hours.
By week twelve Kagami knows where Kuroko lives and what he does for a living – other than drinking heavyweights under the table and taking their money like candy from a baby, that is. Kagami knows about Kuroko's family and early life. Kagami knows what Kuroko likes and what Kuroko doesn't like. He knows Kuroko's birthday and his weight and his height, even his goddamn blood-type.
Kagami still doesn't know why Kuroko insists on destroying his liver to balance out the unblemished wholeness of his heart.
Or why Kuroko should have to.
By week twenty, when Kagami finds himself falling for the little bastard who makes no sense and perfect sense at the same time, he is once again surprised.
"Kagami-kun." Kuroko says, stuffing a shit ton of yen in his back pocket as he saddles up to the bar. "Can you make me a vanilla daiquiri?"
Kagami freezes, his hand already poised over Kuroko's favorite bottle of brandy, glass already filled with ice and waiting to be filled. He blinks and his eyes slide from the elegant script of the bottle's label and up to Kuroko's crystal clear eyes. "What?"
Kuroko smiles, soft and slow and beautiful. A small flush tickles Kagami's cheekbones and he closes his gaping mouth, bringing his hands to fold on the bar counter. "A vanilla daiquiri." Kuroko repeats as he does so, mirth flickering in his eyes.
"No hard stuff?" Kagami asks, a little breathless in the face of that face.
"No hard stuff." Kuroko repeats with a small laugh, like he was breathing sunshine.
Kagami himself felt like he was breathing sand as his hands fumbled slightly in grabbing the tumbler and the alcohol. At Kuroko's insistence he added extra vanilla essence, a swirl of white chocolate syrup, a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and a dash of sweet cream. He drew his brows together at this but found himself shaking and tossing the tumbler with a little extra flourish anyway.
When he poured the slushy cocktail into the rounded martini glass he smiled and pressed a ruby red cherry into the edge of the icy concoction before passing it to Kuroko. Kuroko smiled and took the drink eagerly.
From then on, he only drank what Kagami came to dub The Kuroko.
Around the thirtieth week, Kagami finally grows a pair of balls and when Kuroko once again moves from his normal table to the bar he makes his move. In a hurricane of red-faced embarrassment Kagami leans against the bar and shifts his shoulders just so. "Hey there doll-face." He says, and internally celebrates that he didn't stutter. "Come here often?"
Kuroko pauses, a lift to his brow that says an unspoken 'what exactly are you doing?' and 'have you gone insane?' that almost makes Kagami want to call the whole thing off. But when Kagami lifts his own brow, giving it a small wiggle as his grin slips to the side of his face in what he hopes is amusement, Kuroko catches on. A small smile melts onto the corner of his stoic mouth and he winks.
"I dunno." Kuroko says coyly. "Depends on whether or not you'll be here, good-looking." Kagami knows they're both painfully out of character right now, and he'll probably look back on this moment and flush to his toes but right now he doesn't care.
Kagami smiles brighter as he shifts his shoulders into a deeper curve, leaning closer to Kuroko's face. Kuroko saddles up to the bar as well, leaning so that their faces are inches away from each other and Kagami has to keep himself tethered to the real world. He could get lost forever in those gorgeous eyes.
"Darling," He purrs, voice dipping and slurring in what he hopes is seduction. The way Kuroko's pupils dilate at the sound and the soft twitch of his lips is enough for Kagami to keep that hope alive. "I'll only break your pretty little heart."
Kuroko smiles then. It isn't big or bright but it is beautiful. It is seduction and sweetness all at once, utterly sinful and purely angelic at the same time. Kagami doesn't know how it works but he knows he doesn't want it to stop. He knows he'd do anything the keep that beautiful smile on that beautiful face.
Knows he'd never dare break Kuroko's heart.
I know you wouldn't. Kuroko seems to say with that smile. I know you'd never hurt me.
"Good." Kuroko says with his mouth, and then that same mouth is on Kagami's mouth and all either of them can think is how much it feels like they're breathing for the first time. Like their hearts are breaking into a billion pieces and then blazing into something better, like some kind of pinkish, blood-filled phoenix and god this kiss is amazing.
Kagami isn't sure who pulls back first but he knows that this air filling his lungs feels nowhere near as good as Kuroko filling his heart. In that moment his heart yearns for Kuroko's touch and his smile and his everything and…
And, suddenly, Kuroko's words twenty-six weeks ago make so much sense.
'Sup people.
So this is my first ever KnB Fanfiction that I am actually posting so... I guess Hi! Please take care of me and all that good stuff.
I'm kinda going on KnB withdrawl right now tbh. Fanfiction is currently lessening the burn but when those reserves run out I really don't know what I'll do with myself... Probably finally watch Free! Eternal Summer like I've been meaning to.
I hope you liked it and I really hope you'll review and critique and all that good stuff because writing with alot of male pronouns is harder than I thought and I really want to get better at it for the future.
Hope you're having an awesome summer guys!