tbh i just really like cats and kuroken.
this is my first ever fanfic, so if any mistakes/occness/etc, please don't hesitate to point it out.
disclaimer: i don't and won't ever own the awesomeness that is haikyuu!
It's only Thursday afternoon in the middle of a long, boring week, it was pouring buckets like there's no tomorrow, and Kenma is definitely not okay with that. It gets even worse when he finally pulls out his phone after the teacher dismisses them only to see that the battery bar is less than ten percent.
"Ugh," he groans, slamming his head down on his desk.
"Dude, what's up with Kenma?" he hears Yamamoto ask. There isn't an answer, but there's a vague feeling of a shrug somewhere to Kenma's left so he guesses the louder boy is talking to Fukunaga, who talks even less than Kenma on a bad day.
"Dude, what's up with you?" Yamamoto decides to ignore the growing black cloud surrounding Kenma and pokes his shoulder. "School's over, let's go."
"Ugh," Kenma groans again, getting up. He frowns at his teammates, but they're used to his gloominess so they don't react.
Fukunaga makes some movements with his arms, and Yamamoto makes a noise that sounded like a cross between a dying squirrel and an angry hippo. "That's right, there's no practice today. What should we do?"
"I'm going home," mutters Kenma, walking away with his head down.
"What, Kenma's no fun!" whines Yamamoto, but Kenma's already down the hall.
He's thinking about which character he should level up today when he reaches into his bag and realizes with a sinking feeling that he forgot his umbrella. He grabs at his dyed-blond hair, moaning in despair and causing a group of passing first year girls to look at him weirdly before skittering past him. He sighs, pulling up his hood. This is the worst day ever.
A couple minutes later, Kenma is soaked through the bones and empty on motivation. He's trudging through puddles mindlessly, the only thing keeping him going is the thought that his level thirty-eight sorceress can gain a new staff if he beats the boss tonight. He's imagining all the new things he could unlock when he hears a strange sound over the rain. Pausing, he turns to his right, and hears it again. It sounds suspiciously like a meow.
Kenma frowns slightly, shaking his head so the rain doesn't fall into his eyes. He's really cold and really wet and really just wants to go home and grab himself the last slice of apple pie while he settles down to defeat the iguana-looking boss in the upper dungeon, but when the sound comes again, he sighs resignedly. Curse his weakness for cats.
He backtracks and ducks into the little alley a couple streets before his house. There's a slight shelter from the rain, and he wrinkles his nose when he spots the pile of trash cans and garbage bags. The meowing is louder here. Kenma edges closer, shoving his hair out of his face to try and spot the cat. For a moment, he doesn't see anything, and then- underneath a bag of who-knows-what and some cardboard-sharp, dark eyes made contact with his own.
For a moment, he just stares back, unblinkingly. The cat is black, all ruffled fur and maybe it's the ridiculous rain or his imagination, but Kenma could've sworn that it was smirking at him. Cautiously, Kenma crouches down, holding a hand out.
"C'mon, kitty," he says, holding the cat's gaze, "you're miserable in this rain, too, right? Come with me, let's go somewhere warm."
The cat stares at him some more, head cocked to the side and tail shifting slightly. It meows again, and Kenma wonders if it's laughing at him. Then the cat bounds over to his outstretched arm, and-Kenma frowns, confused, as the cat headbutts his hand. The cat does it again, and Kenma doesn't know how to react to that.
"Um. Are you... Do," Kenma clears his throat, wondering why he's having such a difficult time talking to a freaking cat. "Come on," he says, making a decision. The rain's still coming down and his clothes are all wet and the trash fricking smells and he just wants to get home where it's warm. He scoops the cat up and zips up his jacket around it, despite the cat being a bit bigger than he anticipated. The cat squirms a little, bumping against his chest, but Kenma's too busy speed-walking through the rain to readjust.
"Alright, stop it," he mutters when he finally unlocks the door and they both make a puddle in the doorway. He lets the cat out while he takes off his soaking jacket. The cat doesn't even move; it just stares up at Kenma in a way that he's sure isn't natural for a cat-as in, cats don't know how to smirk, do they?
"Let's warm up first," he says to the cat, walking up the stairs to the bathroom. He strips and hops into the shower, his skin freezing as shivers running through his body nearly makes him slip on the bathroom tiles. He's washing the shampoo out of his hair when he notices the cat crawling under the hot water, too. "Aren't you supposed to hate water?" he asks it, but it just smirks up at him, sharp eyes lazily trailing up. Kenma frowns, and hurries in his shower, wondering why the cat's gaze made him feel so... exposed. Well, he is naked in the shower, but it's more like... shy. Like when he's trying to get on the subway and there's a huge crowd and he feels like everyone's staring at him but-
Meow.
Kenma looks down. The cat's nudging his leg. "Do you want a bath?" he asks, crouching down. The cat looks at him with its dark eyes, and blinks. Kenma obliges.
A few minutes later, both Kenma and the cat are out of the shower. Kenma digs for some clothes while the cat shakes itself dry (Kenma's never met a cat that actually wanted to shower before). As he's pulling on a sweater, he says out loud, "Do cats like apple pie?"
Obviously he isn't expecting an answer back, and Kenma isn't really planning on sharing his precious apple pie either, so when an unfamiliar, deep voice replies to his rhetorical question, he jumps and knocks his head into the closet door.
"Rather go for some grilled mackerel but hey, you're the boss." The voice drawls in a lazy way, almost as if there's a confident smirk to go along with it.
Slowly, Kenma turns around, eyes wide. And he freezes.
There's a man. Well, maybe not a man, but more like a very tall, pretty fit, and definitely not scrawny-like-Kenma-is boy. With completely wild, unruly bedhead. And sharp, calculating eyes like that cat.
Oh, and he's naked.
Without further ado, Kenma chucks the closest thing that can inflict pain (which turns out to be his PSP) and chucks it in the direction of the stranger.
(=ↀωↀ=)✧
"So. You-You're a cat."
"That's right. You have very good aim, by the way." The stranger, who introduced himself as Kuroo, rubs his forehead calmly, though not without a bit of wincing. His face is still wearing that same frustrating smirk, and Kenma can't tell what he's thinking.
"Thanks, I'm a setter." Kenma takes another bite of his apple pie as he considers the- person? cat? possible figment of his imagination?- before him. Now that he's calmed down and accepted that the stranger isn't going to harm him, Kenma notices details that make him wonder if he ate something wrong this morning. The boy, who at first glance just looks like a good-for-nothing teenager, has cat ears sticking out between his messy black hair and a twitchy black tail that keeps distracting Kenma. His brain, for all the videogames and anime he watched, still can't seem to process all this yet. He managed to find some sweaters of his that his parents had bought hoping he'll grow into them and a pair of pants his father wouldn't miss for Kuroo, who somehow managed to make the poor mix-and-match look like it's natural.
"Really? Volleyball seems fun."
"You never played?" Kenma then wonders why he asked that pointless question because a) Kuroo's first words after being konked in the head by his PSP is to explain that he's a cat-human-hybrid so of course he probably never touched a volleyball and b) Kenma's smart, if his grades are anything to go by, and he's sure there are better questions he should be asking.
"Mm, had other things taking priority." Kuroo hums, slurping his instant ramen loudly. "Like surviving."
Kenma looks down at his pie. He decides to go for the most obvious question. "Why... uh, how do you... um. Exist."
Kuroo shrugs, looking up at him with his mouth tilted up infuriatingly. "Some sick fuck's experiment or something. I don't really remember, and I don't really care to."
"Oh." Kenma doesn't know what to make of that; this whole situation seems very surreal, and he's glad his parents worked late because he has no idea how he would even begin to explain. He glances up at Kuroo again. "Are you... okay?"
The other boy just stares at him, until Kenma has to look away again. His smirk disappears for a second, before a genuine smile takes its place. "Yeah. It's actually quite a long time ago, really. I've been living out on the streets for years now." His lips tilt, allowing that cocky expression to slip back on his face. "Been doing quite well, I must say."
"Mm." Kenma finishes his pie, and stands to wash his plate. The rain hasn't stopped, and he hasn't fully given up on levelling up his sorceress, despite being sidetracked by a cat. He turns to ask-something, he's not sure what, when he's pushed against the sink, strong arms on either side of him, effectively trapping him there. He glances up into Kuroo's face, confused.
Kuroo's eyes narrow, staring at him in silence. Kenma looks away, at his shoulder, at his arms, at the ugly sweater, as his chin, anywhere but those eyes that look like they know what he's thinking. Which isn't a whole lot except wow, are cats usually this attractive?
"Um." Kenma risks glancing back up. "What."
Kuroo continues staring down at him for another second, before his tail flicks behind him and he steps back, chuckling. "You're so defenseless."
Kenma's mouth turns down. He walks past the other, heading upstairs again. He doesn't understand what Kuroo's problem is, but it's been raining all day and he just wants to get to his game before he falls asleep. He can deal with the cat tomorrow.
"Hey, where are you going?" He hears Kuroo following him, the bigger boy's footsteps light as a-haha-cat. "Don't ignore me."
Kenma ignores him, entering his room and making a beeline for his computer. He boots up the system as Kuroo settles next to him on the bed.
"Whatcha doing?" The lazy drawl interrupts his logging in, and Kenma twitches. "Hey, don't ignore me. I'm too awesome for you to ignore." When this statement is met with silence, the cat-boy shuffles over. "Come on. I'm like, the next biggest wonder of the world. Cat. Human. Best of both worlds, you know?"
Kenma enters the game world, moving his character across the screen easily. He's doing a great job of pretending there isn't a very annoying (and very... distracting) person beside him, making comments about how 'hot' the sorceress is (like what, it's a bunch of pixels) when suddenly he feels something soft and furry touch his neck. He flinches, jabbing the wrong key and causing his sorceress to do something that looks like a chicken dance.
"What-"
"Wow, are you ticklish?"
"Stop-" Kenma struggles to get away while refusing to take his eyes off the game, but it proves to be disastrous when a random troll easily runs his avatar over and proceeds to drain it of life. He growls in a frustrated manner, swinging his head to glare at the laughing lump that is Kuroo. "What is your problem?"
Kuroo keeps laughing, his long black tail dancing in the air. "You're strange."
Kenma frowns. "What?"
"You're strange," repeats Kuroo, wiping a tear from his eye. He straightens, leaning forward to stare at Kenma's face. "Wouldn't normal people be freaking out about me right now? And here you're ignoring me playing your little game."
The smaller boy scowls. "So what if I'm not normal?" He spent his whole middle school era struggling to fit in, before deciding that killing monsters and training Pokemon was a much more productive and fulfilling thing to do. He doesn't need some random cat telling him he's not normal; he knows it well enough.
"Hey, I didn't mean it in a bad way." Kuroo's smirk is gone now. His sharp eyes rest on Kenma, thoughtful but unreadable. "Just... you're different from everyone else I've come across, is all. Thanks."
"Huh?"
"For bringing me here and giving me clothes and feeding me and, well, treating me like I'm not a monster."
Kenma stares at Kuroo, who's giving him that same genuine smile he saw back downstairs in the kitchen, when he asked him if he was okay. Kenma finds himself thinking it's a very nice smile before shaking the thought away. "You're... welcome." He glances back at the screen. "Can I play my game now."
Kuroo laughs, the warm sound filling Kenma's ears. "Go ahead."
(=ↀωↀ=)✧
A couple hours later, when he finally beats the boss, Kenma stretches his arms over his head. The rain is still coming down, but less angrily than before. His parents had come home around an hour ago, but decided to leave him be after calling out a greeting. Kenma sighs, turning off the screen. He thinks he's forgetting something when he stands and shuffles over to his bed, but can't remember what.
"Ow!"
There's some struggling and elbows in the face and something soft tickling his nose before Kenma is shoved onto the floor again, his hair covering his eyes. He peers up in the dark and sees a pair of eyes glinting down at him.
"... Kuroo."
"... Did you forget I was here?"
"... No."
Kuroo sighs, rubbing his eyes. "You totally did. Did you beat the game?" He reaches down to pull the smaller boy up, and Kenma nearly let out an embarrassing squeak at how easily he's lifted up. Kuroo's arms didn't just look muscular and drool-worthy; they were the real deal.
Kenma can't believe he just thought that.
"Yeah." Kenma, now sitting on the bed next to a sleepy Kuroo, stares at his feet. "Um. Are you. Uh." He doesn't know how to phrase it, but Kuroo seems to get the gist of it.
"Staying? Yeah, I intend to." Despite the dark, Kenma thinks he can see the cocky grin on the other boy's face. "You're not going to kick your guest out, are you? I mean, you're the one that took me here. And your parents are out there, aren't they?"
Kenma bites his lips. He's kind of tired and doesn't really want to play with Kuroo's bait. "Just... this is my bed."
"I know. It's comfy."
"... I'm going to sleep now?"
"'Kay. 'Night."
Kenma frowns when Kuroo just flops back under the covers and tucks his tail around himself. He pokes him in the back. "Kuroo."
"Kenma." One eyes opens tiredly to look at the setter. "Come on, you're not embarrassed about sleeping with me, are you? I saw you naked and stuff. You did too."
Kenma's thankful for the dark because his face flames. He'd forgotten about that. When a yawn escapes him, he makes a decision. He grabs the covers and slips in beside Kuroo, glad he's too tired to think about anything other than it's warm in here as he settles down. He turns so his back is facing Kuroo, closing his eyes.
He's drifting off to a dream about the newest 3DS when he feels something press against his back and something wrap around his waist. He wriggles, turning. "Kuroo, what-"
"Shh, you're warm."
Kenma frowns, thinking that Kuroo's the one who's warm, do cats have a higher temperature or what, but the day's fatigue is catching up to him and he decides that he'll do something about Kuroo's boldness tomorrow because yeah, it is warm.
It's strange because he always thought his bed was too big for himself, and too cold despite all the blankets and pillows he keeps. Maybe it was the rain or whatever, but right then Kenma thinks it's perfect.