His hands.

Can u come over? I got my hand stuck in the fishbowl and if I text 'Kaashi he'll get mad.

The text comes at three in the morning, accompanied by the personally set ringtone of a car crash and cat screams Kuroo programmed for Bokuto.

Kuroo laughs- he laughs for a good ten minutes, tears build up, and if you ask he'll swear on his life that he blocked every ball at practice the next day because that's how redeeming the moment was for him.

And because Kuroo would do anything for Bokuto, and because Kuroo needs to see this with a burning passion, he texts back.

Wtf? I'll be there in ten?

So at three in the morning Kuroo walks down the sketchy streets of Tokyo because Bokuto got his hand stuck in a fishbowl.

Thirty minutes later (Kuroo had to stop and laugh against the brick wall of a convenience store) Bokuto answers the door with one hand -phone clenched between his teeth- and one hand in a fucking fish bowl.

"Dude what the hell?" Kuroo greets, face halfway between bewilderment and grinning at his friend's predicament.

"Don't question it please," Bokuto mouths around his phone as he ushers Kuroo in, smiling brightly back before spitting the phone into his empty hand and maneuvering it into his back pocket.

"Well what else am I supposed to do?" Kuroo says as he sprawls across the couch and sinks into the cushions laughing. Unzipping his hoodie, Kuroo takes in the picture of a pouty Bokuto- with his hand in a fishbowl.

Kuroo's cheeks actually hurt from smiling this much.

"HeLp me!" the ace yelps and thrusts the bowl covered hand at Kuroo. "The opening is weirdly small for a fish bowl and I can't. Get. my hand out, so just be a bro and- pull," he says waving his fist around inside the bowl.

Kuroo begins to laugh again, his stomach muscles clench from the effort and he grabs onto the side of the couch to avoid falling "Weirdly… small.. For a fish bowl?" he wheezes. Face reddening to the color of Kuroo's Nekoma jacket Bokuto wordlessly thrusts his hand forward again.

Sloppily, Kuroo reaches out for the fish bowl and weakly pulls still giggling breathlessly.

Kuroo pulls again.

He bursts into breathlessly laughter.

Kuroo pulls again.

"Holy shit dude, that's really stuck huh?"

"Yes!"

Kuroo's somewhere between gritting his teeth in frustration and maniacally laughing because there's only one solution. "I think," he begins carefully controlled, lips miniscule twitching, "that we might have to." deep breathing, "Call Akaashi. I think he need to call Akaashi,"

"Dude no way! You've barely even tried for like, two seconds," Bokuto protests wildly, ripping his hand-bowl out of Kuroo's and holding it to his chest. Voice dropping into a whisper he leans in "We're not calling mom."

"Okay one, your breath is minty fresh," Kuroo begins, "Like damn dude." Bokuto smiles proudly, showing off his dimples and turns his face side to side "Right? Right? I just brushed," he nods along. Kuroo knows he did right as soon as Bokuto revealed his pearly whites and can't help but feel a spark of satisfaction at making Bo smile (even if he does it all the time). "Two," he breaks into the moment, "We need Mom, no one else will up with our -your shit at a time like this. Face it we need Mom," he spread his hands in a I-rest-my-case fashion.

Bokuto's pout is getting really pathetic looking so Kuroo scoots over and pats the space next to him. "Bro," Bokuto looks down and eases himself onto the couch, "How are we supposed to hold hands now?" he holds the fishbowl up and compares it to Kuroo's callused hands.

The two grin at each other for a moment.

"We've never held hands before shut up."

"But bro, now… we'll never even have the chance."

Kuroo points at Bokuto "Stop being cute, it's almost four and you need sleep. I'm calling Akaashi."

(Akaashi does, eventually get there. It's a disaster. "Bokuto-san, maybe you should." Sighing. "Maybe you should stop… flexing your hand when I pull. You need to close your hand so it fits into the hole."

"Ooooh, yeah that makes sense,"

"That makes so much sense,"

"JINX."

"Bokuto-san It is five in the morning!")

The next weekend as soon as Kuroo shows up to Bokuto's house to hang out Bokuto latches onto Kuroo's hand. His hands are big and warm and soft except for the very tips where the skin is rough, compared to Kuroo's slimmer colder and callused hands. The two walk down the street window shopping and Kuroo stares down at the hands a little bit too much.

It's the first time they hold hands. Kuroo immediately, well loves it.

And the story. Of course.


II. And his arms.

The feeling is in the back of his throat.

It's not his heart that hurts (although that too), or his eyes dripping with tears (and that), or his arms that feel cold when he leaves the hug (Kuroo feels that too though).

No, the feeling that hurts the most is the stuck feeling in the back of his throat.

(Heart in my throat comes to mind, a thought Kuroo doesn't even fully think, it just exists somewhere in the back of his mind saying 'that's what you're feeling'.)

Hurts in an aching way, a longing. Kuroo has felt the burn of a hand on the stove, the slam of a spiked ball that jams his finger, the terrifying feeling of getting the air knocked out of his lungs at eight, sharp, quick pains that fade with nothing more than a scar.

The kind of pain in Kuroo's throat is the aching kind he gets when he thinks that he'll never get to play an official high school volleyball game again or when he sees pictures from when it was just him and Kenma- a nostalgic, grossly emotional, longing.

He's not sure if he'll sob or confess or both when he opens his mouth so he does neither. Kuroo just stares.

He stares at gold eyes, at thick unruly eyebrows- he feels the imprint of strong arms that wrapped all the way around him, warmth through a thin cotton shirt.

Kuroo stares because the feeling- the aching, gross, overly emotional feeling- in the back of his throat isn't the nostalgia of looking back on his highschool days.

It's laughing, and crying, and swearing, and making fun of third years as first years and bitching about first years as third years and bothering Akaashi and bothering Kenma with Bokuto.

It's being in love with Bokuto.

It's saying goodbye to Bokuto.

It's never saying "I love you," to Bokuto.

And never expecting to hear it back.

How aching, gross and over emotional Kuroo can't help but chuckle to himself, after all he doesn't think he's ever acted any differently in regards to Bokuto. The two have always been… "Overdramatic, loud, obnoxious…" in the words of Kenma and Akaashi.

But.

Kuroo's allowed, because Bokuto is going away- to a totally different college.

And basically everything sucks anyway. High School's over, volleyball's over, and Bokuto is going away to a totally different college.

Sure, so is… everyone else but. But. This is different.

(Everything's different with Bokuto.)

Because. Well because.

Kuroo's in love with Bokuto. Sure, he loves Kenma, and Akaashi, and Yaku. Still, he's well, in love with Bokuto.

And God doesn't that just hurt to say.

So it's cold, here, pulling out of his -probably final- goodbye hug with his best bro.

He's seen Bokuto arms glisten with sweat, seen them spike truly inspiring plays, and yet only now can Kuroo truly appreciate.

"I'm gonna miss you bro." Kuroo says. He doesn't say 'I'll miss your stupidly long knee pads, and your stupid mood swings and your stupid face and your stupid bad ass ace-ness. I'm gonna miss you because I'm stupidly in love with you and this is all so stupid'. He does say: "This was a most magnificently special bro-ship and I'ma miss you."

You and your stupid hugs.


III. Of course, his lips too.

It's Christmas. Well not Christmas-Christmas, but it's break.

(Bokuto's visiting. Bokuto's coming back home.)

The seasons have changed again. It's cold, obviously.

(It's cold. Bokuto's warm. 2+2=4. Okay, yeah. Kuroo knows)

Kenma's legs are somehow thrown over his and he's curled into Kenma's ribcage as they watch the same shit movie for the fifth time in a row. Kuroo almost forgot how much he hated winter during his desperate wish for cold in the middle of Summer.

But yeah, it's cold and the air conditioning is blowing full blast for some reason. Kuroo's freakishly long toes curl under Kenma's thigh as he scrolls down his phone rereading a news piece on some new planet.

"Kenmaaa," he whines lowly and distracted -this too is deja vu- Kuroo's been begging Kenma for a while, "Your closer and it's freezing, there are like five blankets on the ground- just reach."

Kenma, of course, is not doing it. The kid is wrapped in a snuggie with three pairs of socks so he doesn't need a blanket, he looks unfairly comfortable playing Mario on his 3DS for someone with a double chin. All snuggled up and warm.

"Kuro I'll fall if I reach, plus you're. ya'know. on me. and I'll ruin the game just get up, if you needed a blanket you probably shouldn't have kicked off the last five." Kenma says softly but in his I'm-done-with-your-shit Kenma way that Kuroo can respect.

Kuroo makes a whining sound in the back of his throat vaguely resembling that of a dead cat,"I don't wanna get up it's too cold," he slurs half into Kenma's chest.

His plan of Never Getting Up Again is pretty much foiled by rapid knocking on the door.

Kuroo has to do some pretty complex untangling with Kenma but they get their eventually- after a few thump "Kuro!" sounds, but they do get there. The knocking is getting pretty intense now and Kuroo's on the verge of Pretty Fucking Annoyed so he grumbles something like "I'm coming," except a lot more garbled and grumbly as he turns the door knob.

He hears a loud sound that takes a moment to comprehend as "Merry Christmas Kuroo!" and then-

Oh. Warm.

And then about another half a second for-

Oh. I'm kissing someone.

The last revelation doesn't ever really fully comprehend to Kuroo, but he gets the smallest inkling of understanding about five seconds when-

Oh. That's Bo.

His lips feel warm, just like about everything else Kuroo knows about Bokuto. Someone's lips feel chapped and Kuroo's inclined to believe their Bo's but honestly so much is happening and-

Another second he can't breathe.

One more and Bokuto's pulling off, his baby face redder than a tomato.

"Bo," Kuroo sounds breathless, he knows, "What- I-" he tries to string together. Bokuto's arms are still slung over Kuroo's shoulders and Kuroo's not sure from this angle but he thinks he sees him dangling a piece of mistletoe (and if he is holy- wow. Um romantic? Kuroo feels sufficiently woo-ed. And is Bokuto wooing him? Is that a thing?) from his chubby fingers.

"Kuroooo," Bokuto drawls leaning up to touch their foreheads. Kuroo's hair is squashed between them and Kuroo can feel Bokuto's thick eyebrows and, and, and-

Bokuto's eyes are really golden.

"Merry Christmas," Bokuto grins.

"Oho ho? And is this my present," Kuroo can't help but grin back even though his mind (and heart) are going about thirty miles an hour.

Bokuto winks despite his red face- honest to God winks, like when did he get smooth?- and says "No, it's mine."

Kuroo's mind has basically short circuited on one level, and on the other he whispers "That was so cheesy."

Bokuto breaks like a little boy caught telling a lie, his face turning red enough to be a christmas decoration and buries his face in Kuroo's sweater "Too much?" the white haired boy mumbles.

While Kuroo is still in absolute shock he can't help but think- Ah, that's my Bokuto.

"Just enough," he returns, a little shell shocked sounding. He leans down and kisses Bokuto's forehead and then his lips (wow?) when Bokuto glances up.

Kuroo might just have found his favorite past time.

"Kuroooo, it's colddd," Kenma groans from the couch, just loud enough to hear through his layers of blankets and scarves.

(Kuroo feels really, really, really warm)

A/N: For Abdabx because you left a comment on Incipient about an update? And sorry but that story is finished… so here is some Bokuroo I was gonna write this by Christmas but I thought of the idea on Christmas eve and was up until 4 AM just writing the beginning and it's not that long…. So sorry? (I am physically incapable of writing chapters past 2k words it seems) and then just didn't until tonight. is this in character? I cannot tell. I kinda wanted to expand on this more like what Akaashi did and Bokuto going to college but I'm actually awful at dialogue (like how I just swerved that in the second part? Talent.) Also I only proof read like the half of the first part and I still don't have a beta reader and also I should probably proof read instead of recklessly updating my fanfics But thank you for the comment! I'm like starving for comments it straight up motivated me to write this after like 5 months of inactivity. I didn't even know people still follow my writings or anything? Can you tell how I started out inspired and slowly my writing capabilities become crap haha. Yikes