A quick update for all of my fellow saps! Yes, I'm talking about the wonderful Tora3 who sent me a few PMs and is enjoying the story. I hope your face goes all cute Morgianna while you're reading this chapter :D

As a side note: I have a poll regarding upcoming works on my profile if anyone wants to see more of Kuroo and Haru when this thing is done (12 chapters), I suggest you vote :)

If anyone wants to do some beta reading (the last few chapters of this), feel free to ping me :)

Enjoy!

12 ways: Playing

Chiharu's eyes rose from her homework to check out the other three occupants of the room. Kenma has given up, easily forty or so minutes ago, and is now mumbling something as his fingers furiously press against the buttons of his PSP furiously. Akari was snoozing in her seat, somehow still upright, but her head kept falling to the side, straight onto Kuroo's shoulder. And Kuroo, well, he was the only reason Haru was trying to focus on her homework. He has his glasses on, a surprising discovery for Chiharu, and his mechanical pen was moving like insane across the page of his book. That's when Chiharu had an epiphany. That idiot wasn't studying. He was doodling!

"I give up." Chiharu let out a sigh, which made Akari snap up, finally awake, from Kuroo's shoulder.

"Oh, finally." The other girl commented, closing her books from her seated position at the short table as if she hadn't been snoozing.

"It took you longer than I thought." Kenma murmured, still engrossed in his game. Kuroo's pen finally stopped moving.

"Ta-da~" He exclaimed, putting his book up. There were doodles of volleyball players in telltale jersey numbers making fun of each of the historically important people who had a picture on those two pages. Chiharu even spotted a couple of jumping serves and jump floaters sketched on the side. The balls, Mikasa clearly, were hopping across the text paragraphs.

"God." Haru couldn't manage anything other than that, her body slumping forward and her forehead landing on her Japanese homework.

"Oh, come on, Chiharu. It's not like this is due tomorrow." Kuroo protested. "We have the whole weekend to finish these."

"Precisely!" Akari and Chiharu said at the same time, but in vastly different tones. The former's was cheery, like she agreed wholeheartedly with Kuroo, and the latter's told the small group that she'd rather finish and then have fun.

"God!" Haru groaned, really giving up. "Okay, okay. You want to play the lot of you? Shoo then! Go play!" It was like giving leave at the kindergarten. Kuroo and Akari jumped up, high-fiving each other as they ran downstairs, away from Kenma's bedroom and towards his massive TV in the living room. The setter took a bit more time, unsteadily getting up, making odd pauses when he needed to focus more on the game. But, he too, soon enough, vanished down the stairs.

Chiharu groaned, grabbing for her glass of juice, only to find it empty. She reached for Akari's without thinking and drank some. Then, she refocused. She needed to get the work done before joining them downstairs. But, as it usually happened with Chiharu, one problem led to another and she kept working until a soft knock at the door jolted her.

"Hey." Kuroo stood there with a small smile. "It's dark outside. I think you've worked enough." Chiharu knew that tone and expression. It was when he wouldn't let her push through hardheadedly. She dropped her pencil and got up, stumbling on numb legs. Kuroo reached forward and caught her without missing a beat.

"Thanks." Haru pushed away slowly, testing one foot, then the other. She was alright.

"My pleasure." The scheming captain led the way downstairs and towards the large, comfortable three-seater in front of the TV. Kenma and Akari were sitting on the sofa chairs positioned on the opposite sides of the couch, PSP in both of their hands. They seemed to be dueling it out.

"Karts?" Kuroo asked, tossing a controller at Haru. She caught it and nodded. He loaded up the game and they chose their characters. "Seriously, what's with you and Luigi?"

"I like him." Haru defended as she picked a vehicle randomly and peered at Kuroo's side of the screen. "Peach, typical." She scoffed.

"Oi, oi, don't diss." He defended. "I won't go easy on you if you diss Peach."

"I'm dissing you, idiot." The girl grumbled back. The game was on. The first circle was alright, but Kuroo kept tossing banana peels at her which she struggled to avoid. He guffawed as one of his bloopers hit home, making Haru crouch down to 'see better' under the ink spray. But, she wasn't done. Amidst all of their shouting and Kuroo's elbow digging into her side to distract her she picked up a weapon which would end it all. Kenma made a sound from his sofa chair that told her he'd caught the quick maneuvering for the best thing ever.

"Loser, loser!" Kuroo was still laughing, pulling ahead quite a bit. Now, Haru smirked.

"Bite me, stupid cat!" And she released the spiky blue shell. Kuroo's laughter stopped and turned into worried shouting as Luigi took over the struggling Peach and raced across the finish line easily. Chiharu didn't bother to cover her joy. She jumped up, arms in the air and cackled in her unique way, causing Kuroo's demand for a rematch to double.

Of course, the evening ended with Kenma whipping all of their butts with his Mario Kart skills all the while maintaining his usual stoic face. The homework… Well, it was partially finished and mostly left for the next day, in their own respective homes.

"Oi, Chiharu!" Kuroo called out during lunch break on Monday. She turned, seeing him jog up to her. "Can you grab the coach's notes from his desk before practice? Nekomata-sensei said he was going straight to practice."

"Sure." Haru nodded, ignoring the staring and whispering second years who were pointing at the third year talking to her. For some reason, which utterly escaped her, they thought that Kuroo was beyond hot. Maybe it was because they didn't know how much of a nerd he truly was.

"Do you have any plans for lunch?" He wasn't going away. Of course, he wasn't. Haru took out her phone to write herself a note about the request, but it vanished from her fingers in a swift move. She turned to see Kuroo dangling her device from his long fingers. "It's not nice to text while you're talking to someone, Chi-ha-ru~" He sang out her name in that annoying way that heated her cheeks.

"I wasn't texting, you idiot. Give that back." She reached over, but Kuroo raised his arm, phone obviously out of her reach.

"Tsk tsk tsk." Kuroo tutted, moving his pointer finger back and forth. "Is that how you talk to your senpai?"

"That's how I talk to an idiot who won't give me my phone back." The girl deadpanned.

"Ouch." Kuroo put his free hand over his heart. "Well, for that alone…" He smirked and Haru felt dread pool into her stomach. "You'll have to catch me!" And he was gone.

"O-oi!" The girl gave chase. Kuroo was unbelievably fast. All that volleyball practice gave him incredible stamina when it came to running, and he had much longer legs. Haru was breathing hard by the time she climbed the stairs onto the third years' floor after him, but didn't stop for longer than a few seconds. Kuroo gave her a smirk from the corner, before dashing in between students. Chiharu grit her teeth and ran after him. Someone yelled for them to stop running in the hallway. But, this was her phone. She needed it back. Some of the pictures she'd taken on her phone were of the annoying idiot currently carrying it and she knew that he would get stupid ideas if he saw them. She just liked taking pictures of the boys playing!

"Get married you two!" That was definitely someone from the volleyball team. Kuroo's cackling rang out from somewhere in front of her and she ducked into one of the classrooms. Slowly, Chiharu crouched, moving quietly along the wall and below the window edge, unseen, towards the front doors of the classroom.

"Chiharu?" Good, he was looking for her. With a smirk, she dashed out of the front door, startling the Nekoma captain by appearing right behind him. With a war cry, the girl launched herself at his back, grabbing for her phone. Unfortunately for her, Kuroo passed it to a boy in front of him.

"Idiot!" Haru squealed, letting go and dashing forward. However, Kuroo's arm wrapped around her waist pulling her back. Her body hit his as he trapped her in an awkward hug. God, he was well-built and warm. She forced herself to focus on the current problem. "Let go!" Haru was struggling.

"No way!" Kuroo sounded a bit winded, too, but nowhere near as much as she was. Finally, after a few moments of struggling, the girl stilled completely in his arms. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" He panted against her ear, making her cheeks flush even more.

"What. Are. You. Two. Doing?!" Yaku was standing in front of the duo, Chiharu's phone in hand and murderous expression across his face. The two struggling teens stilled completely.

"Hugging." Kuroo supplied shakily.

"Y-yeah, hugging." Chiharu agreed. "I was cold, I needed a hug. Kuroo, you're sooo warm!" She laughed uneasily. Yaku's wrath wasn't something to mess around with, after all.

"All friends here!" Kuroo eagerly nodded along.

"You." Yaku pointed at Kuroo. "Let her go." The arms which were like a steel cage a second ago released her. "You." The libero pointed at Chiharu. "Back to your own floor." He tossed her phone at her, which she fumbled to catch, but managed to clench in both hands in the end. "Now." His tone was positively icy.

"That was for the spiky shell." Kuroo whispered in Chiharu's ear before she had the chance to escape.

Playing – cats are naturally playful creatures and will have a game or two with their loved ones

And, of course, here comes the…

Omake:

Chiharu walked into the gym, dressed in her manager T-shirt and jacket. Nekomata was already there with the boys, practicing.

"Oh, Chiharu, did you bring my notes?" He asked when she entered, making her freeze and grumble out an apology. She'd forgotten because someone didn't let her make a note of it.

Gosh, I love these two… I wonder what would their ship name be? Hmmm…
Anyways, looking forward to your input as always! I still love Yaku… More and more in fact… If you do, too, check out Artists Eyes from Teapots and Teacups on AO3 – wonderful piece!