How to Get Your Cat's Attention: A Memoir by Daishou Suguru
Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou/Daishou Suguru
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Written for kuroshouweek on tumblr, and beta'd by the lovely Eorendel. Thank you!
Kuroo had first noticed it during those few moments the captains met with the referees to call the coin toss on which team would to serve or receive for the first set. By the time Kuroo got there, Daishou was already there, chatting up the refs and making nice with them. From the toothy grin he sported, Kuroo knew right then and there that Daishou was up to no good-he made a mental note to remind his team to be extra vigilant and precise, and simply do everything they could on their end to prevent the refs from falling prey to Nohebi's foul play.
When he laid eyes on him, Daishou's eyes seemed to brighten for a fraction of a second, letting the side of himself – that was Kuroo's boyfriend – acknowledge the fact that he was happy to see him before donning his usual air of arrogance, narrowing his eyes in a jeering fashion, making it clear that right now, first and foremost, Daishou was a rival captain, and he was going to do everything in his power to lead his team to victory, which meant crushing Nekoma along the way. As if Kuroo had any doubts, a smug grin tugged at the corners of his lips-he had the same exact idea.
As they listened to the referees give their usual spiel, Kuroo's eyes wandered over to Daishou, he tried to be subtle about it, never allowing his eyes to settle on any part of Daishou's lithe form for more than a second, and making sure his gaze darted over to the referees from time to time, making it look like he was paying attention. By now, he'd heard this talk more times than he cared to count, and aside from personal anecdotes or unique spin a ref with a sense of humor might put on it, the message was the exact same, and for the time being, Kuroo allowed his mind to wander off for a bit.
Kuroo could hardly believe it, he blinked once, thinking the sight would disappear once he reopened his eyes, and then he blinked once more when it remained the same. Kuroo's mind had to be playing tricks on him, there was simply no other explanation for this. As discrete as he attempted to be, Kuroo couldn't help himself. His eyes settled on one particular aspect of Daishou's anatomy that he simply could not overlook. Something was different today, something that Kuroo simply couldn't ignore. Even when he tried to avoid it and look elsewhere, or better yet, pay attention to the situation at hand, his eyes were always drawn back to a certain glimmer that captured his curiosity.
Daishou's lips – Kuroo had to take a moment to process this – they were glittering. When they continued to sparkle, no matter how many times Kuroo blinked, Kuroo's mind scrambled to find some sort of explanation. At first, he entertained the notion that maybe the lighting was hitting Daishou in such a way that made it look as if his lips were glittering, but that thought was quickly dismissed. If the lighting had anything to do with it, then why were only Daishou's lips sparkling, and not the rest of him, and for that matter, why was it only Daishou? After a quick glance back to the referees, Kuroo could confirm that the glitter phenomenon was limited to Daishou's lips, making the situation all the more aggravating.
"Hey." The sound of a pair of fingers being snapped in front of him jolted him out of his inner musings and back to the matter at hand. He instantly realized that not only had he been caught spacing out, but from the looks of it, the coin had already been flipped, and everyone was waiting on him.
The ref who had gotten his attention just stared at him. "Are you going to call the toss?"
"Uh, heads?" Kuroo responded, his voice sounding like he was still a bit out of it.
The ref nodded before removing the hand that covered the coin on his other one, revealing the 'tails' side of the coin.
"Serve or receive?" He turned to Daishou.
"We'll serve first," Daishou replied, giving Kuroo a confident grin and sticking his tongue out at him in a way that only Kuroo would really notice. Daishou's subtle gloating failed to irk Kuroo as much as it usually did however, Kuroo was still a little too transfixed on Daishou's glittering lips to care.
After a few more words from the refs, both Kuroo and Daishou were free to report back to their teams and finish warming up. Before Kuroo could head back, Daishou spoke up, keeping him in place for the moment.
"What's with you?" The tone of Daishou's voice made it sound as if he had no clue what was on Kuroo's mind at the moment, and if he wasn't mistaken, it even seemed to hold a trace of concern, which of course, Kuroo didn't buy for a second. He just knew Daishou was up to something.
"It's nothing," Kuroo ran a hand through his hair and gave Daishou an easy-going smile, trying to play the entire thing off. Not surprisingly, Daishou didn't seem too convinced, and if the circumstances were different, Kuroo just knew Daishou would be chomping at the bit to get it out of him, but luck was on Kuroo's side, and Daishou didn't have the opportunity to question him. Shrugging it off, Daishou was the first to turn back to his team, and Kuroo quickly followed suit.
To Kuroo's utter dismay, Daishou's lips continued to sparkle on the court, making Kuroo absolutely certain once and for all that he wasn't just imagining this. But now, in addition to the shimmering gleam, Daishou's lips had a certain sheen to them that held an iron grip on Kuroo's attention. He just couldn't look away, no matter how hard he tried. He'd already admitted to his overall attraction to Daishou months ago when they'd taken the opportunity to act civil with each other and figure their respective feelings out, so he had no qualms or reservations about his current fascination, other than the inopportune timing, of course.
Despite Kuroo's current inability to focus, his team still played as well as ever, and while Nohebi had come out strong and was putting up one hell of a fight, Nekoma still managed to claim the first set. After that, however, Kuroo wasn't so fortunate. Kuroo could tell from the look in his eyes that Daishou, as cunning and observant as he was, had caught onto the fact that Kuroo's attention was elsewhere, and wasn't hesitating in having his team take full advantage of the opportunity Kuroo had unintentionally handed them.
Kuroo quickly became the prime target of Nohebi's attacks, which with Kuroo's state of mind, he wasn't prepared to handle. He still managed a few good blocks, and didn't shank the ball every time, but he still made more mistakes than saves, it was a wonder Nekomata still hadn't subbed him out. Nohebi remained merciless in their onslaught against him, and as much as the rest of his team tried to cover for him, they couldn't make up for the missed receives, and when Kuroo couldn't manage to keep the ball in play and deliver it to Kenma, Nohebi inevitably claimed victory in the second round.
"Pay attention to the game, please, Kuro." Kenma confronted him about it in the interim between the second and third games. His voice was just barely audible over the constant cheering that echoed throughout the gymnasium, but Kuroo heard it clearly.
"Yeah." Kuroo rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed for having been caught gawking so blatantly. Kenma was right of course, he really needed to get his head in the game, but naturally, things couldn't be so simple.
When the third game started, Kuroo soon forgot about the question of how Daishou managed to get glitter on his lips, and started fantasizing about how he wanted to be near that beautiful mouth. He wanted to get up close and personal, analyzing the exact glitter to shine ratio, before testing the waters and sealing his lips to Daishou's, because Kuroo couldn't think of a better method of figuring out where all that pretty glitter he was so attracted to came from.
"COVER YOURSELF, KUROO!"
But it was too late. By the time Kuroo fully comprehended what had been said through the shouting, the back of his head met with an incoming volleyball. Before that point, he'd been standing at the net, still throwing fleeting glances at Daishou's sparkly slips and awaiting his teammate's serve (with the rotation, he vaguely recalled that it was Lev's turn) which with the speed and force it crashed into Kuroo's head, had been a complete misfire. He didn't make a sound as his eyes widened in shock, he was far more shaken up from the surprise than the resulting pain, which of course left a rather nice stinging sensation from where the ball had made contact.
Ignoring everything else, Kuroo slowly turned around, only to see the perpetrator, who was in fact, Lev, looking at him with eyes just as big as his were.
"I'm so sor-"
"Save it," Yaku cut in, waving Lev's attempt at an apology off. "Maybe now our captain will get his head in the game."
"Tch," Kuroo threw a glare Yaku's way, but otherwise remained silent. As much as he hated to admit it, Yaku had a point, and he kind of deserved it. His negligence had already cost his team a set, and if things remained as was, he'd cost them the match as well, which obviously was unacceptable.
His gaze wandered back to Lev, who still looked like he was about to die from shock. If the back of his head hadn't stung as badly as it did, he would have sworn that it was Lev who'd taken the hit.
"Yeah, no worries," he forced a smile in Lev's direction. "Keep your head up, and get it next time, yeah?"
And just like that, the shock written all over Lev's face disappeared as he beamed at Kuroo, as if nothing had ever happened. "You got it, Kuroo-san!"
To Lev's credit, that literal hit to the head seemed to be just the thing Kuroo needed to regain his focus. The dull sting that was slowly starting to wear off served as a constant reminder to keep his goddamn head in the game, and to not let his eyes wander back over to his scheming boyfriend's glittering lips. The claim that Daishou would use glitter with the sole intention of distracting him seemed not only way too far-fetched, but underhanded, even for Daishou's standards. He knew that Kuroo liked shiny things, it was one of the countless reasons in which he likened Kuroo to a cat after all, so there's no way he couldn't have known sporting glitter of any kind during their match was sure to nab Kuroo's attention, right?
Nope, Kuroo wasn't going to waste another second on this. He had a comeback to make and a match to win, and with his mind clear and focused on the game, he was back to his normal self, easily blocking Nohebi's attacks, executing perfect receives, nailing his jump serves, and leading his team to victory in the third set, making the entire match Nekoma's win, 2:1.
As per usual, Kuroo was the last to leave the locker room. After a profuse amount of apologizing, the rest of the team forgave him, especially since they had won in the end. For the most part, everyone shrugged it off with a simple 'Don't let it happen again', for which Kuroo was thankful. He knew he would've been in hot water if he hadn't managed to pull himself together in the third set, but fortunately, he didn't have to dwell on that outcome.
Putting everything else behind him, Kuroo changed back into his warm-up clothing, and had every intention of tracking his conniving boyfriend down afterwards. If nothing else, he had to figure out what he'd almost cost his team the match over. As his luck would have it, however, he was spared the search. Just as he'd pulled his black t-shirt over his head and smoothed it out over his torso, the door to the locker room opened, and Kuroo came face-to-face with Daishou, looking rather miffed.
"Aw, don't sulk too much," Kuroo snickered. "You did your best~."
Daishou's lips formed a thin line across his face. "That makes one of us, at least."
"How do you figure?" The grin fell from Kuroo's face and he remained calm, trying to pretend like he didn't know where this was going.
"You gonna offer me any explanations, or do I have to drag it out of you?"
"You've got nothing on me." Kuroo huffed. He knew he wasn't fooling anyone, but Daishou wasn't going to get him to admit that.
The corners of Daishou's mouth turned downwards and morphed into a frown that made his irritation all too apparent. "Don't be stupid, Kuroo. You were distracted for the first two sets. That isn't like you."
He didn't reply to that, bringing the exchange to an abrupt end, and causing a stifling silence to fall between them. For a split second, Kuroo let himself believe that perhaps Daishou was letting the situation go, and giving him a pass this time around. Giving him a small smile, Kuroo was about to resume packing his things when Daishou returned his grin with a far more wicked one of his own.
Unfortunately, he was too late to realize that not pressing the matter hadn't meant Daishou was conceding this. Daishou's eyes remained trained on him as he removed the hand that been fumbling around in his pocket, revealing a small tube of what Kuroo immediately recognized as lip gloss. Even from this distance, Kuroo could see the sparkling accents on the outside of the tube, and suddenly it all made sense.
Kuroo kept watching Daishou as he proceeded to unscrew the cap of the lip gloss, darting his tongue out and licking his own pink lips before running the gloss across them, coating them in the same glimmering sheen Kuroo had been so enamored with before. As he tightened the cap back on, he looked back to Kuroo, puckering his lips and blowing him a teasing kiss, subsequently causing a hitch in Kuroo's breathing.
"I knew it." Daishou's mischievous grin widened, clearly taking pleasure in his triumph.
Kuroo absolutely refused to validate Daishou's claim with a response. He couldn't stop himself from turning his head to the side and casting his gaze to the tiled floor, inadvertently giving Daishou the affirmation he wanted. Even without looking, Kuroo could feel Daishou staring at him, urging him to come clean and just say how he felt. Kuroo didn't know how much longer he'd be able to hold out, but damn it, he was going to try. He couldn't bear to give Daishou satisfaction, at least not so easily.
"Admit it, Kuroo~" Daishou's honeyed voice nearly made Kuroo snap. His suspicions had been confirmed, and now, not only was Daishou sporting a fresh layer of glitter gloss, but he just had to speak in a certain cadence that drove Kuroo wild.
"I'll let you taste if you do." Again, Daishou used that same sweet voice, as if he knew he had Kuroo right where he wanted him.
Only then did Kuroo turn back to look Daishou in the eyes. To his chagrin, he had to admit Daishou had a knack for getting his attention. "Really?" In spite of his best efforts, a trace of skepticism laced his voice.
"Really," Daishou snickered, pocketing his gloss and leaning back against the locker room door. "You won the game after all. Come get your prize~."
Kuroo didn't need to be told twice. While he never verbally denied being distracted, taking Daishou up on his offer without the slightest hint of hesitancy was enough of a concession for them both. Daishou hardly had enough time to blink before Kuroo was on him, capturing his lips in a tender kiss, marveling at just how soft and luscious Daishou's lips were. They'd always been that way, but somehow, the gloss seemed to enhance the sensations, and the glitter was a nice touch too. The entire experience was still relatively new to Kuroo, which showed in the slow, hesitant way his lips brushed against Daishou's, savoring the moment and reveling in the tenderness they shared. He came a bit more daring when Daishou started kissing him back, and stuck his tongue out to really feel, and perhaps more importantly, taste, the gloss on Daishou's lips.
"Cherry.." Kuroo purred, again licking at Daishou's lips before resuming his gentle kisses. "Tastes nice," he mumbled in between kisses.
"I know, right?" Daishou snickered, kissing Kuroo back with just as much enthusiasm. "I know it's your favorite."
"Mmm, yeah." Kuroo purred, relishing in the delicious flavor he'd fantasized about for longer than he cared to admit. Gradually, their kisses became slower until Kuroo pulled back for a second, looking into Daishou's eyes when the most intrusive thought in the universe came crashing into the forefront of his mind.
"Wait," Kuroo blinked, "why the hell do you have glitter gloss?" He wrinkled his nose. "You're not kissing me with Mika-chan's old lip gloss, are you?"
He felt low for even asking, but he just couldn't stop himself. It wasn't that Kuroo disliked Mika, far from it. She was a nice girl, but nevertheless, she was still Daishou's ex. It felt weird having any part of her be included in their relationship, and it fueled notion that Daishou might not be completely over Mika, which was something Kuroo tried not to think about.
"Are you serious right now?" Daishou wrinkled his nose in turn, looking supremely offended for being asked such a thing. "No, dummy. My lips get dry and I like this better than normal chapstick."
"Oh." Kuroo felt even more stupid for voicing the thought. He really should have known better, or that he shouldn't have assumed the worst in Daishou. Sometimes it was entirely warranted (on the court) but other times (like now) it clearly wasn't.
"For what it's worth, I think it looks killer on you." He gave Daishou an apologetic smile before leaning in and placing a quick peck on his lips, completely unashamed in the way he darted his tongue out to lick away the rest of the sweet taste.
The smirk reappeared on Daishou's lips after Kuroo pulled away. "I already know what you think," he placed a quick kiss on Kuroo's lips in turn. "But thanks." Daishou reached behind his head to rub the back of his neck. "You did good out there today, even with your lack of focus. If I hadn't been on the losing end I'd actually be proud of you." He chuckled.
"Haha, thanks. You didn't look half bad yourself." He smiled. "No shots to the face and minimal interference from the refs." He couldn't help but laugh. "If I didn't know any better, I'd ask who you were and what you did with my boyfriend, heh."
He could almost hear Daishou's eyes roll to the back of his head. "Cut the sass or I'm backing out on the second half of our post-game agreement."
"Not fair!" Kuroo's eyes went wide, pretending for a split second that Daishou would really follow through on such a cruel threat. "You can't deny me ice cream!"
"Can and will, if you don't hurry up." Folding his arms across his chest, Daishou tapped his foot on the ground, making his impatience all too apparent. Even how, he was still wearing the trademark grin that made Kuroo's heart soar.
"All right, all right, sheesh," Kuroo muttered as he kicked it into high gear, scurrying back to his belongings and throwing everything in his duffle bag in a haphazard manner that would undoubtedly wrinkle his clothing before donning his jacket and making his way over to Daishou again. "Ready for my ice cream!" He beamed.
Kuroo was caught off guard for nearly a second when Daishou's hand came up to run through his messy hair, gently rubbing the back of his head. "Does this still hurt? It sounded really painful from where I was." He asked in a soft voice, which only made Kuroo's smile soften. Even now, it was difficult for either of them to display real affection towards each other, but his heart always seemed to beat a little faster whenever Daishou did things like this.
"No," he spoke just as quietly, enjoying the attention Daishou gave to his hair. "It only sounded bad, and the sting wore off a while ago." He didn't try to stop himself from leaning into Daishou's touch. "I don't feel a thing anymore."
"Well in that case, you don't need the soft stuff." Daishou immediately retracted his hand, sticking his tongue out at Kuroo and instead slid his hand into Kuroo's. "Let's get going. With your slow-moving ass, we'll be lucky to make it before the shop closes."
"You're so mean to me," Kuroo whined, but even now his voice held a teasing lilt to it. Giving Daishou's hand a small squeeze, he allowed himself to be pulled along out of the locker room and eventually out of the building altogether.
"You didn't wear gloss just to distract me, did you?" Kuroo wondered out loud, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled between them.
"Yes Kuroo," Daishou's eyes rolled so hard that Kuroo almost feared they'd get stuck for a second, "because everything I do revolves around getting your attention."
"So, you admit it then?" The grin he sported widened as they continued to walk in the direction of the ice cream shop.
A sigh escaped Daishou's lips. "Why do I even put up with you?"
Just as Kuroo was about to make the perfect comeback, Daishou came to a sudden halt, turning towards Kuroo and grabbing the collar of his jacket. That same quip died on the tip of his tongue when Daishou pulled him in for another kiss. Even without the cherry flavor, Kuroo kissed Daishou back just as eagerly as before, letting their lips move together in sync. It would be a cold day in hell before Kuroo admitted this to anyone, but he actually preferred Daishou's natural taste, which might've been evident in the slow, languid way his tongue slid across Daishou's lips, as if enjoying his essence, rather than devouring it.
Once again, Daishou had successfully diverted his attention away from whatever he was supposed to be focusing on, and this time, Kuroo found he didn't mind all that much. Good thing too, because with Daishou's penchant for distracting him so easily, Kuroo never got his ice cream that night.