A university student who writes for fun over her obsessions with anime boys, bokutosenpai —better known as nicole/nikki/cole—using prounouns she/her, continues to feed into her delusions that the anime boys holding her current affection are real people.
when kuroo was determined to get a “free” phone but got something else instead.
“we can’t keep doing this,”
you sighed, refusing with all your might not to look at him.
“what?” kuroo breathed. it’s as if time stopped and the blinking lights seem to blur altogether. the air seems to get thinner, making it hard for kuroo to breathe.
he wishes that you didn’t mean what he thought you meant. he didn’t want to assume, especially something bad, but really what else is there to think?
he pulled on your arm softly but his grip was firm, desperate for a clearer answer. “y/n look at me. talk to me.”
“i can’t anymore, kuroo,” shifting farther away from kuroo, only for him to step closer. his advances getting desperate. the lump in your throat getting harder to swallow.
“what do you mean?”
“i have nothing else to give… i have nothing.”
desperate pleas rest on the tip of his tongue.
“oh my godd..” bokuto groaned, as he slurped up the blue slushy. “just exchange more coins.”
the machine dinged! the usual theme song playing, blinking red indicating that kuroo had lost, again.
you laughed breaking off contact with kuroo’s intense stare.
“dude, you ruined it.” kuroo teased, digging into his shorts for more tokens that he might’ve missed.
“then stop flirting.” the buff man retaliated.
you grimaced, “we were not flirting.” as you slurped your own drink.
“tch, sure you weren’t.” koutarou grumbled before sighing into his cup. “i miss akaashi.”
kuroo snickered, grabbing you red slushy (“hey that’s mine!”) and taking a sip, “where is akaashi?”
rolling your eyes as you snatch your drink back, “he’s visiting family in miyagi.” you take out your phone switching to instagram and showing kuroo the picture.
“woah, who’s that?” he asked as he zoomed into the picture.
bokuto perked up in light of the switch in the conversation, “that’s his cousin from his mother-side! he’s a voleyball player like us.”
“iwaizumi, right?” you turned to bokuto and he nodded in affirmation.
“when did he post this?” kuroo began swiping down to all the comments of how uncanny akaashi and this iwaizumi fellow is.
you sighed, “that’s a throwback he posted a month ago.”
bokuto snickered, “you really need a new phone bro.” placing his arm around kuroo to peek at the comments.
kuroo, as if just remembering the original dilemma, “oh shit, I have to exchange some coins!”
“you’re still going?” you asked in disbelief.
“i won’t stop until i get that phone off the key machine!” kuroo declared, turning around the corner for the main desk.
the game kuroo has been obsessing over for the past month has a prize of the newest model phone. but the reason he’s so desperate is because kuroo, for the life of him, cannot take care of his phone; always cracking the screen, losing it in the train, accidentally sitting on it and basically being the worst phone user there is.
now he has somehow convinced himself that he could just win the phone in the arcade (“imagine how awesome that would be?”) instead of buying a new one like a normal person.
you let out a breathy chuckle, as you stirred the straw around the container.
“ohh you’re down bad.”
you looked at your cousin in front of you and scoffed, “now you better not be talking about me.”
bokuto ignoring your remark completely, “when i got the invite i thought it was gonna be a fun day out but instead i’m out here third-wheeling.” slurping the last contents of his slushy.
you scoffed, “what are you talking about? me and kuroo?”
now your denial would be considered effective if you weren’t redder than your slushy. such anatomic reaction could be because of a lot of things. the warm weather, a fever, your gigantic crush on kuroo, heat stroke, rash—the usual.
bokuto rose a perfectly plucked eyebrow, his hands on his hips giving a silent oh really.
“no—shut up,” you muttered and if your face was warm (it was), you hope he wouldn’t notice. he can be quite perceptive when he wants to be.
you want to believe that you have been subtle in hiding your fondness over the middle blocker—at the very least hiding it from kuroo. but such actions are proven to be difficult as kuroo is a very teasing, touchy person—one that does not do your heart any good.
“you know it’s not like that.” the palpable disappointment in your voice was covered up by your cough.
koutarou threw his cup to the nearest trashcan and stuck out his tongue to you and wordlessly pointed.
“yes, it’s blue,” you confirmed.
bokuto pumped his fists, “nice,”
“an-and it’s never going to be like that.” you stated louder.
he rolled his eyes, “yeah sure y/n.”
“we’ve been friends since forever, way before you two even knew each other—i think if something was meant to happen, it would’ve happened by now.”
“uh-huh,” he retorted, his face contorted in distrust, “you know what i hear?”
he looked at you expectantly— to play along as his audience with his impending speech. even going as far as faking a mic to elicit a response from you.
you sighed knowing it’s best to just go with the flow to get it over with,
“what do you hear?” you asked in a monotone voice, as you lean into the ‘mic.’
bokuto beamed, “all i hear reasons why it won’t happen but no rebuttal to such feelings existing…” rubbing his chin, “interesting.”
your face flamed and spurted out, “i don’t— i don’t like him!”
bokuto tilted his head to the side, amused, “uh-huh.”
“i swear, you’re becoming more and more like akaashi.”
“why, thank you.”
kuroo came back jogging to the two of you, “got ‘em!” he grinned, shaking the small bucket of coins in his hands. “what are we talking about?”
“nothing,” “y/n’s crush.”
your head never turned faster to gape at your cousin. the betrayal thick in your mouth as you sputtered denials.
“oh,” kuroo said, “i didn’t know you liked someone.”
“i—“
“do i know them?” titling his head, his smile looking strained against his face.
you shook your head, “kou was just kidding,” you chuckled awkwardly.
he stared at you then, even with the blaring tunes of the machines, it felt quiet.
“right,” he cleared his throat and turned to the machine in an easy smile. “i’ll show this machine what the human evolution can do!”
“so apparently, the result of human evolution is failing—who would’ve thought?” bokuto standing next to kuroo, looking at the red blinking machine.
kuroo looked at the noisy machine with quivering lips.
“it’s okay bro, you still got rockin’ hair.”
“i don’t get it, at this point i should’ve won at least something by now…” he scrunched up his eyebrows, “unless it’s statistically impossible.” pressing his face to the glass and toying with the joystick.
“well, you can always buy a new one.” you quipped.
kuroo stood straight and grabbed your shoulders, shaking you as he exclaimed, “but the satisfaction of winning it though, it’s gonna feel so good when i win!”
“if you win,” bokuto interjected, inflating a pumped kuroo.
“at this rate,” you laughed, grabbing his hands from your shoulders and holding them tight,
“the money you spent in the game is the same amount as buying a phone from the store.”
you let his hands go with a sympathetic pat. kuroo still looking at the game, his face illuminated by the various games and machines.
bokuto made a sound effect of waa-waa-waaaa, teasing him further.
“ah, what supportive friends.” kuroo halfway through his moping.
you sighed, grabbing his arm, “let’s just go, you can try another day.”
“if he even has the money to try again.” your cousin chirped, teasing as he punched kuroo’s shoulder.
you glared at him warning to quit it, but he didn’t seem to get the, message as he just smiled at you like a personified question mark. “what?”
shaking your head in exasperation, “let’s just get lunch.”
“i can’t.” kuroo slumped, even further.
“sure you can!” you shook his arm in comfort, “there’s a conveyer sushi near here i think.” ushering a heavy moping kuroo out of the arcade.
“no i literally can’t,” kuroo looked at you then, sheepish and red (dare i say it, looking very cute), “i burned through my weekly allowance just now.”
bokuto, cackled, “bro,”
“what? i thought today was my day!” he defended, adjusting your hold so your arm would loop with his. “my lucky charm‘s ’ere, afterall.” he noted, pulling you closer.
you felt yourself short circuit. “what?”
bokuto rose an eyebrow, “i see~”
you try to focus on pulling kuroo away from the arcade rather than the tingling in your side, the raging butterflies in your stomach, the teasing hoots of your cousin and the warm hand on top of yours.
“y/n i didn’t know you were kuroo’s lucky charm~”
you decided not to dignify that with a response. because as much as you love your cousin, there are times where you just want to strangle the hell out of him.
masking your embarrassment with faux anger at their teasing words.
“‘course she is!” untangling your arms and placing his arm over your shoulder, “y/n’s my girl,” kuroo smirked. wiggling his eyebrows as he looked at you smug and teasing.
“oho~”
the restaurant couldn’t come fast enough. the string of your sanity unravelling, with their teasing. your already warm face getting even warmer. your hands jittery in giddiness. you know kuroo like to get under people’s skin, this wasn’t new. but you can’t help but feel he’s doing this on purpose to get a rise out of you or something.
not that he had to do anything special to get a reaction out of you. you were after all, as your cousin had kindly labelled, down bad.
“ha-ha, very funny.” you rolled your eyes in hopes to mask the raging mess in your chest.
kuroo was still looking at you but you find it hard to look back like you usually do.
the conversation with bokuto in the arcade still playing in your head.
a tiny fear that you might stare too long, admiration too obvious in your eyes that he might start to notice too.
and even if the adamant denial became the accepted norm for you it was never the truth.
the truth is, you liked kuroo. you’ve always felt a type of attraction towards him from the moment you met. what with his wit and boyish charms, your heart can’t seem to catch a break whenever you were near him.
“is this it?” bokuto, stopped and pointed at a restaurant with his thumb.
snapping you out of your thoughts, nodding, “yeah, that’s the one.”
entering the establishment as bokuto spoke with the host.
kuroo leaned down to whisper softly in your ear, “are you sure it’s okay?”
you looked up at him frantically, holding your warm and red ear.
“what?” you turned to look at him, but seeing his face way too close for comfort and hurriedly backed away.
kuroo frowned at your actions, stood straighter. face farther from you now. “the lunch,” he clarified. “are you sure it’s okay if you treat me to lunch?”
“o-oh,” you breathed, “yeah, of course.” smiling at him reassuringly.
kuroo was still looking at you, weird and calculating like before. before you could ask him what’s wrong, bokuto called you both over to go to the table.
bokuto waving big at the two of you as you approach. “i already got a plate, it’s ebi!”
you reached out to grab a chair, at the same time kuroo was grabbing his. hands touching like being electrocuted as you flinch.
kuroo’s frown only seemed to deepen and in your peripheral saw bokuto quirk an eyebrow at the interaction.
“im gonna go to the bathroom first, go eat without me.” kuroo said, hands now deep in his pockets.
“okay, hurry back~” bokuto said, grabbing another plate and another. “so what was that about? hm?”
“huh?” looking up from your hands.
bokuto pursed his lips, “why’re you two so awkward now?” plopping a nigiri in his mouth. “a while ago, you two were reenacting a romance drama now you can’t even look at him.”
you huffed looking away to grab a plate of sushi for yourself and kuroo. “this is your fault, you know.” pointing an accusatory finger at him.
“my fault? what’d i do?”
you looked around before whispering harshly, “if you hadn’t made that comment about kuroo and i then—“
“oh please, i just pointed out the obvious sexual tension.“
you gawked at him, “there is no tension.”
“y/n’s my girl~” he hummed, teasing. plopping another sushi, like he in a rush. “and don’t think i didn’t see you two whispering a while ago.”
his mouth was still full but he grabbed another sushi and chewed.
“he was just asking if it was okay for me to treat him to lunch.”
bokuto frantically pointed his chopsticks at you, “hm!! that too! if that doesn’t scream a date i don’t know what does.”
you rolled your eyes, “this isn’t a date. we’re just friends eating lunch together.”
seeing a plate of kuroo’s favourite sushi, you grabbed it and set it down the table.
“and you’re here, so it’s not a date.” glancing up at your cousin to see his cheeks full. the look in his eyes sending a bad shiver go down your spine.
“you’re right y/n,” setting down his chopsticks and dabbing his mouth clean. “it wouldn’t be a date if i’m here.”
bokuto stood up, grabbing a couple of bills to place on the table.
“what are you doing?”
“i left enough to cover my share—“
grabbing his arm, “bo, no no no no no where are you going?”
“home,” he grinned. “i need to call akaashi anyway.”
you stood, following him, “no no, bo, no you can’t. you can’t leave. bo please.”
“go get ‘im tiger!” he huffed.
you tried pulling him back to sit down but his haughty laughter proves it to be difficult.
“have a nice date!”
“where’s bokuto?” kuroo looking around before sitting down across from you.
if he notices the abundant plate on the table ready for him to eat and the multitude of straw wrapping balled up over the table, it was nobody’s business.
after all you had to occupy yourself.
otherwise with the idea of you and kuroo and the word date floating in your brain, you might just race out of there.
“he, um, left.”
“oh,”
“yeah.”
there was a minute of silence and with each passing second made you want to shrivel up inside.
even with the long years of friendship, there had only been a handful of times where it was just the two of you.
most of the times, kenma would be here playing his game and both of you would be too preoccupied taking care of kenma than to notice any sort of tension (at least in your end). if not with kenma then with bokuto and akaashi.
regardless that fact only made it even more stressful and unnerving.
how could you be close friends with a guy you barely have one on one time with?
oh right, someone you have an embarrassingly huge crush on. not to mention obvious enough that your cousin had to notice.
“this is good.” he mumbled through the mouthful of sushi in his cheeks, resembling that of a chipmunk.
he perked up looking at the approaching plate behind you, leaning forward to grab and place it for you.
“you like this, right?”
“oh, thanks.”
both of you settled into a familiar rhythm. playing games in the monitor when you collected enough plates and grabbing food, you knew the other would like.
soon enough you slowly forgot about why you were worried in the first place.
kuroo looking at you in an easy smile and leaning more into you when he teases you for doing an odd eating habit.
“you have a piece of rice,” he said, gesturing to his own mouth.
“huh?” rubbing your mouth erratically, your face faintly flushed. “did i get it?”
he chuckled softly before dropping his chopsticks and leaning to from across the table and swiping at your mouth. his thumb lightly touching your lips.
“there.”
leaning back as you covered your mouth with a napkin as you mumbled out a thanks. suddenly finding the design of the plates and table interesting.
with a swift eye contact, you can see him hesitate a little, looking as if he wanted to say something.
but was interrupted by a server.
“hello, we have an event today for the weekend. all couples get a free dessert!”
you were quick to look at kuroo and then to the server, shaking your head. “oh no—“
“sure, sounds great.”
kuroo smiled, looking right at you. “what do you guys have?”
the person listed of all the things they offer, but kuroo’s eyes never left yours.
the erratic beating of your heart, loud and deafening in your ear. as you try and fail to look back at him.
he chose a dessert, and the person left.
leaning back in his chair, still looking at you. before smirking into a smile. “you look so red.”
looking away in a scoff, “shut up.”
“that was great.” kuroo hummed, rubbing his belly. “thanks for lunch.” leaning forward into you and smiling wide.
you looked away, a smile etched on your face, “no problem.”
you would think the lunch would end in awkwardness. but kuroo seamlessly led the conversation with a soft smirk.
you two began your walk to the station in a languid pace. calm and fulfilled.
“hey,” tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear, “i wanna say sorry for acting weird the whole day.”
he bumps you, raising his eyebrow, “really? i didn’t notice. i thought you were just naturally red faced.” he teased.
“shut up,” you laughed. “it’s just bo said some weird stuff and it kinda got into my head ‘lil.”
“oh? like?”
“just stuff about having tension and being on a date—he’s just being weird.” you laughed.
you kind of want to berate yourself for being so weird and in your head today. not like the way you interact with him changed any different. you two were just naturally touchy and he is just naturally flirty.
bokuto likes to overthink things, and maybe that sort of messed with your head a little. not like kuroo was the dating type either. it was just the dynamic you two naturally had.
he hummed, “well he isn’t wrong.”
“yeah, we’re just normally like that.”
“and the tension between us has been crazy lately.”
you stop, “huh.”
“and well normally i would want a date where it’s just us two the whole day. rather than having my date’s cousin around.” he stops too, looking down at you. as if shy.
you stare at him, disbelief all over your face. “so bokuto really was third-wheeling.”
“i didn’t mind.” he laughed, “but next time when i invite you out can it just be the two of us?”
“this was a date? but you just played— i didn’t think—“
he nodded shrugging his shoulders, “well i can’t exactly pull any moves on you with bokuto around.”
you sputter out a laugh, “moves on me?”
“i got a couple.”
scratching the back of his neck, a bashful boyish smile etched on his face, “and there’s also another restaurant here that serves free desserts for couples—and i’m hoping that when i invite you out again it’s just gonna be us two.”
you inhaled sharply, your body forgetting to breathe for a second and if you thought you were glowing red before wait til you see your face now. “yeah,” you exhaled. “i would love that.”
“yeah?”
“yeah.” you giggled.
“okay then.” turning away from you the tips of his ears flushed red. “now i guess i really have to win that phone now huh?”
“oh yeah?”
he nodded looking back at you, “well i missed texting you and i need to call to make a reservation right?”
you laughed walking faster to catch up to him, “better let me play it then since you suck.”
in which bokuto has a problem and only the neighbour with the pretty smile can help him.
a/n: my first post after a year of inactivity!!! i’m so sorry if i didn’t post anything—uni just started to kick my ass harder than usual and certain personal problems also happened—everything is all good now though! and i’m planning on being active again here! yay!!
bokuto likes to think that he’s fearless.
in theory he should be—almost 200 pounds of muscle, capable of breaking your back with a slap, can hit a ball to the speed of 90 km/h, towering at 190 centimetres.
so when a large, (stadium large—he swears!) creature of hell, appeared on his table. he did what any fearless person would do.
knocked on the neighbour’s door down the hall and ask them to it kill it for him.
“howdy new neighbour,” bokuto grinned as you opened the door in a hurry to his frantic knocking.
his smile, you observed, was wobbling—borderline creepy. “my name’s bokuto,”
you can’t believe you trusted kageyama with your apartment search. it’s the second day and there’s already a weirdo in front of your door.
“uh, hey.” you didn’t unhook the lock and peered at the tall thick man through the crack of your door.
“so um, you don’t know me but remember when you smiled at me the other day and i just thought like ‘wow, that’s a pretty smile’ and—“
living alone in the more dangerous part of town (it was cheap, and you were a debt ridden college student so!) and with the various seminars yamaguchi forced you to attend to about stranger danger you shouted the first thing that you think it’ll keep him off your back.
“i have boyfriend!” you interjected and almost closed the door before he tilted his head in confusion.
“um good for you..?” he responded as he smiled in shock until as if a light bulb dinged in his head.
he laughed, “oh! i’m not hitting on you! i don’t mean any harm! it’s just— i live down the hall and saw you help suzu-san with her groceries yesterday when you were bringing up your things—i wasn’t staring or anything, the walls are just just thin and i heard you and saw you did that, so i know you’re nice.” he rambled and before chuckling softly, “hopefully.”
he peeked at you crouching a little bit as if making himself smaller and less intimidating—which strangely worked. you relaxed a little, remembering how intimidating and scary asahi had once looked to you, but realized he was even more scared of you than you were of him.
gaining the confidence, you closed the door softly to unhook the lock and opened the door fully.
“right, sorry—go on,” you nodded, encouraging him to explain more.
he grinned and phew’ed, “anyway i’m just wondering if you could do me a solid and come help with something.”
“i’m willing to pay you with food!” he huffed.
you crossed your arms and quirked an eyebrow, “help with what?”
cautiously entering with pepper spray and a whistle in your pocket you ventured into his unit. not expecting the various things thrown and scattered about in the unit. the lamp bent on the floor, throw pillows in his potted plants, a shattered plate, the tap water running, a cushion, broken glass on the floor and an overwhelming smell of bug spray.
“um, what happened here..?”
his face flushed as he tried to pick up the pillows from the plants, “oh right sorry—um, well i was eating dinner, like usual,”
he looked at you to reaffirm his statement, so you nod regardless of the fact that this was your first interaction with this man.
“and out of no where this thing showed up—“
“thing?”
“yeah, this thing crawling out of no where and—oh my god it’s back!” he screamed, and jumped unto the sofa. pillows once again thrown haphazardly.
“what? what?! what’s back?” following his actions and clutching his arms. the two of you struggled to fight as to who would be in the front, you had no idea what he was freaking out about, but for a man his size it must be something terrifying.
“the spider!” he pointed frantically, trying to push you in front to use you as a shield.
you shrieked, “oh my god the spid- huh?” you stopped and looked to where he was pointing. “a spider.”
your eyes scanned the floors, struggling to locate the alleged terrifying thing. you saw a black dot near the coffee table, the little thing crawling slowly, barely the size of your thumb.
you took a deep breath, “i swear to god—“
the stranger then grabbed pillows and started to throw it at the spider on the floor—missing it by a lot as he continued to freak out.
“geez calm do—calm down man!” grabbing his shoulders shaking him.
“no! it’s moving! get it get it get it!” struggling out your hold and hiding behind your back again. “quick before it hides!”
“okay okay!” raising your hands in surrender and getting off of the sofa, and heading into the kitchen area. but bokuto grabbed your arm before you went too far from him.
“wait wait wait, where are you going?”
“i’m getting some tissues so i can get it out of your apartment.”
“you’re just gonna leave me here?”
he looked at you, even going as far as pouting his lips and holding you with both hands now.
rolling your eyes and grabbing his wrist to loosen his grip on your arm, “yes, and you need to watch where it goes next, so we won’t lose him.”
“but what if it comes near me!” he lets go of your arm instead opts to lean closer into you.
you sighed, “you’re gonna be fine, he’s too small to eat you.”
“does that mean if he was big enough he’s gonna eat me?!”
you decided to not even justify his worries with an answer and continue your short walk to the kitchen. the layout of his apartment is a mirror image of yours so you were familiar with the place enough.
grabbing the roll, seeing your neighbour still frozen and freaked, “i’m back, where’s the bugger?”
“thank you again!” bokuto breathed, walking you back to your unit.
“it’s not a problem.”
he placed a hand on your shoulder making you look at him, “no seriously, you did me a solid. and um, i’m gonna have some pizza tomorrow, so if you’re free you should come by, you know, tomorrow, for pizza.”
you raised your brow, smiling. “pizza?”
“yeah,” he beamed. “as a thank you for saving me from the spider.”
patting his chest as you tease him. “oh please, you barely needed saving. you’re like the bravest guy i met.”
bokuto chuckled, scratching the back of his neck, “m’sorry, i swear i’m a lot tougher!” his cheeks puffing and flaming up.
“right, well, i’ll think about it.” you laughing as you stopped at your door. “well, this is me.”
“oh,” he breathed, stopping beside you. both of you looking at your door.
“yeah, i have to finish unpacking my stuff, still have a lot of boxes.”
bokuto looked around, he looked like he wanted to say something.
“well, i’ll see you around bokuto.”
“y-yeah!” he nodded smiling, “i’ll see you around.”
he turned to leave and you turned to unlock your door. before you can get inside, however, he walked bristly back to you.
“is it okay, if i get your number?” his hands fidgeting and his eyes looked anywhere else but you. a huge contrast to the guy who asked for help.
you chuckled, pulling out your phone, “in case of spider emergencies again?”
“yeah, you can say that,” he blushed, before looking at you with a shy boyish grin, “or maybe just to talk.”
irl stuff matters more and there's no need to apologize! take care of you and your school stuff first; the fics and those who want to read it aren't going anyway. I hope you have a great day and drink lots of water.
thank you so much 🥺 that was really nice !!! i hope YOU have a great day!! <333333
