"Alright, so you know the plan."
"Yes, Kuroo."
"You're going to visit Shrimpy in Miyagi this weekend."
"Yes, Kuroo."
"And you asked me to come along."
"I know the plan, Kuroo."
"Just so we're clear."
"We're clear."
"Okay, then."
Secretly, Kuroo had been hoping Kenma wouldn't agree to his plan right away. He thought the two could discuss it during the long train ride. Kenma could point out all the holes, patch them up, and have time to iron out the details. But instead it took all of five minutes for Kenma to agree, turn on his PSP, and drown out everyone else on the train. Including Kuroo.
So instead Kuroo is once again, silent.
But again, in his mind: This will work out fine. Just fine. Tsukishima left on the 2:00 train, we're leaving on the 4:00, he'll be there just a few hours before us. That's just a few hours for Tsukishima to see Yamaguchi unattended. Once we get there all we have to do is find them and follow. No big deal. This will work out fine. Just fine. Miyagi is small, right? Hopefully not too small, I don't want to run into the two! I just want to...
"We're stalking Tsukishima." Kenma finishes Kuroo's thoughts, as if he'd been speaking them out loud the whole train ride. Had Kuroo been speaking out loud the whole train ride?
He watches Kenma's game, waiting for the younger boy to answer his internal question. When it's apparent that no, Kenma cannot read his thoughts, he gives in. "No, no we're not."
"Then what are we doing?"
"We're visiting your friend, Shrimpy-."
"Shouyou." Kenma's eyes slide from his screen to the window, catching Kuroo's reflection.
"Shouyou, right, and if we happen to see Tsukishima and Yamaguchi passing by then we see them passing by, that's all." Kuroo smiles into the window, Kenma rolls his eyes.
The train signals the next stop for Miyagi and Kuroo welcomes the silence. He closes his eyes and gives himself one last pep talk before the train stops. In his mind of course.
"Why?"
Now is not the time for Kenma to ask his questions. He had the whole train ride to go over the plan. Didn't he say he understood when they first boarded the train?
Kuroo let's the question linger as the train stops. He grabs Kenma's bag and his own, then walks off the train, Kenma following close behind.
"Why what, Kenma."
"Why are we stalking Tsukishima and Yamaguchi?" There are times Kuroo wants to take Kenma's PSP and throw it out the window.
"We're not stalking them!"
"So we're going to run into them and hang out?"
"No we're hanging out with your friend, Shrimpy." Kuroo is surprised at how empty the train station is, especially for a Friday evening. Maybe finding Tsukishima will be easier than Kuroo thinks.
"Shouyou-."
"Shouyou, whatever."
"Kuroo-"
Kuroo cuts Kenma off before he has the chance to finish his sentence. "Would you look at that!" Kuroo's voice cracks, causing Kenma to take his eyes off his PSP to see what's going on.
He sees Tsukishima and Yamaguchi standing in front of them. Each boy has a bag slung over their shoulder, as if they're students again taking the train to school. There's a flash of surprise on Yamaguchi's face, but he recovers quickly, bowing politely at the older boys.
Tsukishima looks less than thrilled.
"Look what the cat dragged in."
"Tsukishima! Yamaguchi! What a crazy, crazy, coincidence!" Kuroo is trying his best to channel Bokuto. He's trying to ignore the glare Tsukishima is sending his way. To ignore the fact that within the first five minutes of being in Miyagi his plan had already failed. Most definitely ignoring the warm, welcoming smile Yamaguchi is giving him.
"I thought your train left hours ago, you're just now arriving?" Kuroo tries nonchalance out. It doesn't suit him well.
"My train was delayed." Tsukishima's eyes sharpen into daggers.
"Kuroo-san, Kenma-san, long time no see!" Kuroo notes that Yamaguchi has lost his stutter. "We were just about to grab dinner, do you guys want to join?"
Okay, so right off the bat there's an alarming difference between Kuroo and Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi is polite, kind, his smile is like a fucking ray of sunshine. Kuroo has been politely called rude on many occasions, he's kind of less than sympathetic with people, and his smile is like that calm eerie feeling before a storm... foreshadowing something horrible is about to happen.
"We'd love to, really, but we have other plans." Kuroo just needs to gather his bearings and think. He wants to call Bokuto, Akaashi would probably be the better choice. He needs someone to help him with a plan B. If Kenma wasn't so focused on his damn PSP they could have formulated a plan B on the train.
"You have plans," Tsukishima tilts his head, calling Kuroo out on his bullshit, "in Miyagi?" The only thing helping his case is having Kenma with him. Surely he couldn't have convinced Kenma to take an hour long train ride to Miyagi for nothing, right?
Kuroo is cool as a cucumber on the outside but on the inside he's an erupting volcano. Yamaguchi sends Tsukishima a glance that Kuroo has trouble reading, but as soon as the younger boy's eyes catch his own that ray of sunshine is back to blinding him. "It's okay, maybe later we can get together, how long will you be in town?"
There are times like this one that Kuroo is thankful for his devious grin. Anything Kuroo says Tsukishima doesn't necessarily believe, so even if he had stuck to his plan Tsukishima wouldn't have believed him.
"The whole weekend!" Kuroo slings an arm around Kenma, trying to sell his excitement to all three boys.
"Doing what." Tsukishima challenges again.
"Well, Kenma here is visiting his little shrimpy friend." He pats Kenma on the back again. Probably a little too harshly. Kenma is giving him sad eyes, but sometimes his sad eyes look like his panicked eyes, which are a lot like his angry eyes, so really Kuroo has no idea what he's thinking. He sees Kenma sigh, like he knows that Kuroo has no idea what he's trying to say, and just nods.
"Hinata?" Yamaguchi's eyebrows give away his surprise. Then there's another glance between Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. Those two seem to have their mind reading abilities in sync. Kuroo thinks his is still set to Bokuto, not Kenma. Hopefully by the end of the night he'll be tuned in with Kenma.
"What are you doing here, then?"
"Me? Ah, well, I'm keeping Kenma company. I haven't been to Miyagi in a while, and since you were away for the weekend who else am I going to hang out with?"
"Bokuto. Akaashi. Their party."
"Oh, that was canceled."
Another TsukiYama glance. Kuroo tries to remember if he and Tsukishima ever had any glances. Mostly glares.
"Well, maybe Hinata can meet us for dinner? I can give him a call..." Yamaguchi is so nice. Too nice. How can someone so nice put up with Tsukishima after all these years? The nice innocent type certainly doesn't seem like Tsukishima's type, right? He needs someone to match his wit. Maybe a little older, a little more experienced (watch it now, Kuroo), someone just like...
"Kuroo?" Kuroo freezes. Had he been thinking out loud again?
He tries his cheesy smile again, "yeah?"
Tsukishima clicks his tongue, "you haven't been listening to anything we've been saying, have you?"
"Tsukki, it's fine." Yamaguchi places a hand on Tsukishima's shoulder. Kuroo fights the urge to growl. Where does this guy get off giving Tsukishima a nickname. One that Tsukishima adamantly refuses with anyone else. And that shoulder touch. Growl.
But then Yamaguchi flashes his ray-of-fucking-sunshine smile again and even Kuroo feels like melting. Yamaguchi is holding his phone, pointing, trying to catch Kuroo up, "I'm just going to give Hinata a call real quick."
"Oh—kay." Kuroo thinks this guy could be telling him he's going to cut out his liver and sell it on the black market and Kuroo would agree.
Kuroo watches Yamaguchi draw a smile out of Kenma even (even though it's a creepy weirdo smile, any kind of smile from Kenma is rare.) and starts to scroll through his contacts to find shrimpy's number.
Even Yamaguchi's hands are nice. They looks so smooth, his fingers are long, elegant. They make scrolling through a phone look pleasant.
Wait.
He's calling...shrimpy?
"AH," Kuroo screams, making everyone jump, even the other people at the train station. "You know, let Kenma give him a call. I don't know if he knows what time we were supposed to get in. It would be awfully rude of Kenma to not be the one to contact his friend, right? Kenma, where are your manners? Are you that lazy?"
"Rude." Tsukishima says under his breath, but Kenma shrugs and walks away, pulling his phone out to call. Is he really going to call shrimpy? Kuroo has no idea if Kenma told his friend when they'd be coming in, but to make his story at least somewhat true, he told Kenma to make plans with the little guy. But Kuroo has no idea how much of the plan Kenma disclosed. Man, if they only had a chance to talk about the plan before actually putting the plan into action... It's not like it matters now anyway, the plan is a bust.
Before Kuroo can dig a hole for himself, Kenma walks back to join the group.
"Yeah?"
"He said that's fine."
"Oh good." Yamaguchi shoots Tsukishima another look. "The restaurant is just a short walk, you guys can keep your bags in my car if you'd like. I'll drop you off at Hinata's later, too."
'That's very, nice, of you." Even the word 'nice' tastes bitter in Kuroo's mouth.
"This will be fun!" Yamaguchi gives Tsukishima a light push towards the station exit.
"Loads of fun."