Bro? Bro!

(16:13) From: History Girl-

Thanks for the coffee

Kuroo stared at the text he'd just received. After yesterday's awkward trip to the café, he thought it would be best to give Ema some space. Clearly she hadn't fully gotten over whatever it was that had made her upset in the first place. Though, truthfully, he suspected it was more than just the culmination of grad school stress. He didn't think even all the coffee in the world would get Sonoda to open up to him about that, just yet.

So when she reached out the next afternoon, Kuroo could only feel satisfied that he was not the cause of said awkwardness.

He had taken up the full surface of the desk in the study carrel he had reserved in the library, laptop open, and print-outs of various articles strewn about. His research over the past year had begun to drift into pharmaceutical territory, which complimented his undergraduate work in biology. His advisor had questioned his decision not to attend a program within the school of pharmacy, but Kuroo had seen the dead look in the eyes of the pharmacist at his local drug store and decided that explaining to elderly ladies the difference between ibuprofen and oxycontin was not his ideal career path. He didn't want to fill prescriptions, he wanted to design them.

He stuck the capped end of his highlighter between his teeth as he typed out several responses, deleting one after another until he rolled his eyes at his own idiocy. Kuroo pressed 'send' and managed to smirk even with the highlighter between his teeth.

(16:20) From: Chemistry Idiot-

Isn't that what friends are for? ;)

Friends? Ema scoffed audibly at her phone. She had them, of course. Friends. She had her cohort friends in Tokyo, and she had her childhood friends back home in Osaka. The issue wasn't that she had no friends, but that it wasn't easy for her to make new ones. Everyone in her small circle seemed to either have been there from the beginning or had shouldered most of the reaching-out process for her. Even Suga and Yachi had done most of the groundwork in the beginning of their friendship.

The last time Ema truly leaned into friend-making on her own had been during her undergraduate years and it had ended in disaster. She fell in love, instead of friendship, resulting in a series of consequences with which, years later, she was still struggling to grapple. Determined to not repeat her past mistakes, Ema allowed others to take the lead; this resulted in making connections only with those who wore their hearts on their sleeves. True to the saying, Ema firmly believed in trusting the devil you knew rather than the one you didn't.

What had scared Ema about sitting there, in her favorite coffee shop, surrounded by familiar sounds and smells, was how easy and familiar Kuroo's presence had felt. It left her feeling discomfited in a way she couldn't quite explain; a moral friction, rubbing raw the careful pretenses she had laid before herself in order to protect against the realities of being open, and, to the possibility of being hurt. But maybe, this time, things would be different. Maybe. She silently cursed herself.

Conversely, Kuroo Tetsuro moved through life gathering friends and acquaintances as easily as breathing. The somewhat abrasive quality of his personality was not hard to suppress when necessary, making his quick observations and even quicker wit appear less cutting and more jovial. For those rare few allowed inside the closest of Kuroo's inner circle, however, the façade was easier to spot when it slipped, offering the occasional glimpse at his true vulnerability. For those who didn't really know him, a well-practiced smile and a joke were more than enough to distract from any underlying insecurities.

So, as the pair sent awkwardly vague text messages from across campus, a tentative stalemate fell upon their undefined and newly formed relationship. It was clear to Ema that Kuroo wasn't going to magically disappear, and Kuroo was more convinced than ever that Ema would make an interesting and valuable addition to his group of friends.

Besides, she did feel the tiniest bit guilty about abruptly abandoning him at the café.

(16:39) From: History Girl-

If those are the terms of your friendship, I am not opposed.

Kuroo couldn't fight the grin that spread languidly across his face, the article he was reading about the pharmacodynamics of vasoconstrictors long forgotten. Before he could get too ahead of himself, though, he fired off a quick text to his childhood best friend, not for advice or anything of that sort, but as a momentary reprieve from the rush of befriending someone new.

Kuroo could rely on the honest and blunt responses of his friend, Kozume Kenma, to ground him. Kenma knew Kuroo better than anyone else, having spent the entirety of their elementary, high school, and undergraduate days together. They complemented each other in ways that most people misunderstood. Kenma's observant aloofness kept Kuroo from losing his head and Kuroo's exuberant curiosity kept Kenma from withdrawing too far into himself.

(16:50) From: Kenma ฅ(^Φ ω Φ^)ฅ-

just b chill

"I am chill." Kuroo muttered to himself as he gathered up the scattered papers into a neat pile in front of him.

It was a Thursday, and Kuroo was lucky enough to not have a Friday lab rotation. This also meant that Fridays were a rare day free from the weight of classes, labs, and teaching. If he was lucky, he could spend a few hours catching up on grading the quiz he gave earlier in the week. Or, he could bother Kenma. So, after firing off a text warning his best friend of their impending plans, Kuroo packed away the rest of his things and made his way back to his apartment, wondering if Lev had actually done the dishes properly this time.

"Did you bring noodles?" The small figure peering from inside the door called out.

"Yes Kenma, I know better than to come over without food." Kuroo rolled his eyes and pushed his way inside, take-out container first. It was quickly snatched out of his hand and Kenma furtively peered inside to inspect its contents. Kuroo flopped onto the couch and picked up a controller as he waited for his friend to make himself a plate of food. A good Friday, indeed.

The pair existed in a comfortable and practiced silence, as Kuroo played one of Kenma's old games and Kenma munched away happily on noodles and apple turnovers. Having grown up beside one another, they innately understood how to simply be: no pressure to make filler conversation, no expectation to check off the boxes that surmised typical friendships. They were, of course, always there for the other, ready to lend an ear or kick the other out of a slump; but more often than not, Kuroo and Kenma simply enjoyed the alternating quiet and the loudness of each other.

"So she has a pet owl?" Kenma asked, eyes not leaving the screen.

"No, no. It's not alive. But it's real. It's creepy, but in a cool way." Kuroo couldn't remember the last time he had seen a dead animal like that. Maybe at the science museum on a field trip in grade school. "I wasn't, like, huge or anything, maybe the size of a bowling ball. Argh! I should have taken a picture of it." He cursed himself.

"Hmmm." Kenma responded noncommittally, which Kuroo knew meant his friend was actually quite interested.

"I'll ask her to send me a picture." While he was busy typing up a text to send to History Girl, Kenma's gold cat-like eyes momentarily left the TV screen and studied his best friend. His eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips in a practiced exercise of anticipating the emotional state of Kuroo Tetsurou.

"Hmmm." Kenma hummed once more, eyes already trained back on their game, the gears inside his head churning away.

Kuroo's phone buzzed and he was suspiciously quick, in Kenma's opinion, to check the notification.

"She told me to leave her alone." Kuroo frowned.

"I told you to be chill." Kenma deadpanned, though his lips momentarily flicked upwards as he took advantage of Kuroo's lapse in concentration to absolutely annihilate his friend's character.

"What the hell! Bro, how could you?!." Kuroo pouted once his eyes finally returned to the screen, only to see his character's corpse on the dungeon floor. "I am unloved, abandoned, cast out, friendless, alone! I'll die in an empty apartment, my bones will become dust and no one will miss me." He wailed dramatically, controller in hand as he flung his arm over his face.

"Kenma," Kuroo spoke quietly after a brief moment from his splayed position on the couch, legs in his friend's lap, "am I annoying?"

"Finally gained self-awareness?"

"Fuck you. I'm never bringing you noodles again."

"Hmmm."

##

"So a month from now? Don't tell me you're going to crash at my place again. All you're going to do is be loud, snore, and eat all my food. You know the team pays for you to stay in a fancy hotel, right? Not to mention if you stay here then the other two idiots will show up and be even louder and eat even more of my food." Ema sighed into her phone, using her free hand to rub her forehead to relieve some of the tension headache that was slowly building.

"Emaaaa yer so mean! Is this really how yer gonna treat yer best friend, after I practically raised ya?" A voice whined from the receiver. Remind me to never let him meet Oikawa, Ema thought ruefully.

"First of all, 'Samu did way more parenting than you ever did. Second, I miss you too, you massive idiot. How long will you be in Tokyo?" Ema's tone was teasing yet fond, as she paced through her apartment on the phone with her oldest and dearest friend.

"We're playin' three games over the course of a week, then it's back to Osaka fer a month of home games. And speakin' of 'Samu he'll probably come up to see us play at least once. He'll wanna see ya too."

"Of course, 'Tsumu. But he's not staying with me either." She responded firmly.

"Yeah yeah, I know. You two still actin' weird around each other, or am I gonna have to sit down and make ya spill?"

"Atsumu, please stop."

"Fine, fine. I gotta go, we're doin' team bonding tonight. Gonna make Omi-kun scream while playing a new horror VR game!"

"Gross, but have fun I guess."

"Emaaa I didn't mean it like that!"

"Bye, 'Tusmu."

Ema sighed as she plugged her phone into its charger. Growing up, the Miya twins were the brothers her parents couldn't give her. An only child, Ema relished in their excitement, their games, and their noise. There was always so much noise. But that's what she loved so much about Atsumu and Osamu; they exuded a loud warmth that seeped into her bones and drowned out the quiet empty of a much too big house with parents who were much too busy. Their personalities, however similar or different, balanced each other. Ema was petty and quick to wound, like Atsumu, but she also shared his determination and unwavering focus. Osamu often felt completely helpless to the whims of his brother and friend, easily caught up in their curiosity and tenacity. Thankfully, for everyone around them, Ema also shared Osamu's (relatively) calmer temperament, less quick to anger and more willing to admit flaws and defeats. And, while the twins were alike in more ways than not, Ema was fundamentally different in her conservative approach to the world outside their little bubble.

The three of them had spent nearly every day together since the Miyas moved to the neighborhood when they were six years old. If they weren't walking to school together, they were exploring the woods behind Ema's house. It was easy, being friends with Atsumu and Osamu; they kept the bullies away when Ema got braces in junior high, she was the only one who knew how to get the twins to stop bickering at the lunch table, and even though she didn't have an athletic bone in her body, Ema played volleyball with them whenever they asked.

When Ema left for university, it was like breaking three hearts at once, and when she came back, one of those hearts remained broken.

Pairs well with: Brothers by SIAMES