I do not own Haikyū!
It had started off with little things. A Hey Chitōse-San here and a Have a good day, Kuroo-San there. Then it continued one day into lunch and – I think you used too much dye, Chitōse-San. . . to end with Don't tell me my teeth are as blue as yours, Kuroo-San!
And this is how that predicament came along:
It is a rainy Monday morning, with loud thunder and bright lightening. The skies are dark and Tetsurō is already feeling the Monday Blues hitting him hard with the dreary weather. He is sitting slumped over in his seat staring mindlessly outside the window, barely cognitive of the droplets that run down the glass pane when he feels the sudden urge to look at the classroom door. Akiko walks in alongside another girl who is taller than she is by a few inches with short, black hair styled into a bob -Okada Sachie, Kuroo recognizes, as she sits at the very front of the class and also happens to be class representative. They seem to be having a nice conversation if the smiles and hand gestures they are making are anything to go by.
Kuroo must have been staring too long because Akiko's eyes are on him now, dark brown and hazel meeting over the heads of other students. She immediately smiles at him and it's like the sun is coming out from behind the dark gray clouds—and his stomach totally does not tighten with excited nerves—as he smiles back just as sincerely. How could he not? No one has ever given him that type of smile and he is eating it right up, because there is a complete difference between the way she looks at him and the way that the other first year girls look at him.
The bed-headed boy has gotten used to the way the female population looks at him. The girls in his class typically roll their eyes at him once they realize he lacks the 'mysterious' section of the tall-dark-and-handsome persona, his laughter and sheer derp-ness having them turning their heads in the other direction. While some of the girls that aren't in his class and have never witnessed his dashing personality shyly appreciate him from a safe distance. Then there are those girls that seem to undress him with their eyes, hungrily eating away at whatever flesh is exposed (often times leaving him reeling but also has him keeping numerous things on his lap as to not draw more -cough- attention). Not to mention the girls that never even look his way to begin with.
So, no. No girl other than Chitōse Akiko has ever looked at him the way she does. He can't quite put a name to the look, but whatever it is makes his palms—and feet—sweat, his heart race, and stomach fill with nerves he thought he could only get when playing volleyball. It is exhilarating, to say the least. It makes him excited and anxious all at the same time.
That's why when lunch time rolls around, one glance outside has Tetsurō doubting that he and the volleyball team will be eating outside as the grounds are thoroughly soaked. So, while he could go find his teammates and sit with them in their classrooms, he finds his eyes drifting over to the one and only girl he has ever taken the time to eat lunch with.
At the moment of dismissal, Tetsurō springs from his seat with his lunch bag in hand.
"Good afternoon, Chitōse-San. Mind if I join you for lunch?"
Akiko peers up at him from her desk, running her fingers through her loose waves and tucking some of the strands behind her ear. He has never noticed that she has her ears pierced until then. "Of course, Kuroo-San."
Again, she smiles at him with that smile. The one he feels –he hopes—that is solely reserved for him.
As is their usual, he turns the chair to the desk in front of her own around. It is always empty during lunch time, a small blessing he supposes.
"It doesn't seem like the weather is going to let up anytime soon," Akiko converses while they take out their lunches.
"I heard it is supposed to rain for a few days straight," Tetsurō shrugs. Which would be a downer for him considering he wants to get Kenma out of the house and pass the ball around a little. But it seems like they are both going to stay inside and play some videogames.
"A lot of clubs and extracurriculars will probably be put on hold for a little while, then." She opens her container and, as always, her bento is cutely decorated. This time it is set up like a landscape. Blue rice, presumably for the ocean if the little sardines place in one corner is anything to hint at. With nori, green vegetables, and mushrooms acting as 'the ground.'
"Cute as always, Chitōse-San," Tetsurō chuckles. And then he realizes what he said a second too late and Akiko has already broken out into a blush and the back of his neck is burning and – "N-not you, though! Your lunch is cute! I wasn't talking about you- but not, not that you're ugly Chitōse-San. Far from it! But no-wait-" he panicks and shoves a clump of his eggs into his mouth, stuffing it as much as possible considering his foot is already in there and 'fuck, I'm a fool!'
"T-Thank you, Kuroo-San," she murmurs. She is still blushing; the entirety of her face is a deep crimson color. Which startles him because he doesn't think that a person could turn so red, and shit he is the reason she looks like a tomato.
They sit there in silence for a minute, Tetsurō pretending to chew on the food that he swallowed long ago. But he can't bring himself to do much more. So, he does what he thinks he should do and reaches over into her bento with his chopsticks and eats her blue rice.
"Tastes like the ocean. . ."
Tetsurō's hazel eyes lock onto her brown ones, and it seems that it is enough to break the embarrassed tension between them because she laughs and then takes a scoop full of her own rice.
"You would be a master rice taster, wouldn't you, Kuroo-San."
He chuckles, "Seems like you've found out about my secret night job then."
"I've sort of figured since the time that you said my pink rice tasted just like 'rice.'"
"Well, this blue one," he says before taking another mouth full of it, "with just a little imagination, tastes like the ocean. With just a hint of rice. Not enough to overwhelm the dish."
She laughs at him and he can't help the lopsided smile that grows on his face.
As they continue to eat their lunch, with Tetsurō taking some of her food while at the same time placing his own items onto her plate, his smile slowly begins to morph into that of the chesire.
"I think you used too much dye, Chitōse-San. . ."
Akiko looks up at him with her eyebrows drawn close before they rise high, her eyes growing wide.
"Don't tell me my teeth are as blue are yours, Kuroo-San!"
But it's okay, he thinks. Because she would look good in any color.
Rewrite for Chap 6, still not off of hiatus quite yet though! Again, if you notice, this chapter is not all that different from before; just fixing some things up. But I'm almost there. I'm pretty excited, not gonna lie. Once all 7 chapters are finished, longer chapters can be expected. PLEASE review! Thank you! (02/25/2020)