not anon bc i am unashamed— kuroo college au IM ON MY KNEES
like late study nights together, LAB PARTNERS-
tardy.
kuroo tetsurou x reader oneshot, fluff, college!au, coworkers warnings for mentions of organs (kidneys) in a college anatomy lab setting; no explicit descriptions but they are mentioned multiple times a/n HELLO MY LOVELY hope u enjoy ily
he’s late.
you sigh loudly, locking the door as the clock marks ten minutes from the beginning of the lab period. of all the days kuroo could’ve picked to ruin the next two and a half hours, he had to pick a dissection lab day.
you love your TA job. you love teaching anatomy, you had loved taking the class itself, and the second-year students who make up the majority of your lab periods aren’t all that stupid. you do not love the smell of formaldehyde, however. you do not love handling the slippery sheep organs. you do not love the cleaning that it requires after the lab is complete. you especially do not love when your co-TA is running unexpectedly late and you will be expected to run the slimiest bits of the lab yourself.
you glance at your phone screen. the three different texts you’ve sent him asking where the hell he is and if he even plans on showing up today are still unanswered and if he has indeed skipped the lab without telling you, your boss will be getting a strongly worded email.
it’s not even like kuroo’s a bad guy. a little annoying, sure, a little too talkative, most definitely. a little too good-looking to not be at least a little evil either. he is also annoyingly consistently tardy. but he is excellent at his job and his students adore him. he also just tends to get carried away in whatever the hell he’s doing and forget that you two are supposed to be partners.
you sigh and pocket your phone, heading back up to the front of the room. the students have five more minutes to finish their pre-lab quiz, meaning you have five more minutes to drag out the buckets of organs from the storage room and begin counting out the dissection equipment. the slides for the brief lecture that the TAs are supposed to give prior to the practical lab portion are already up on the monitors; you can’t pretend there’s anything else to do.
sighing deeply once again and picturing which medieval torture methods you’d like to use first on your coworker, you enter the storeroom. the buckets are unpleasantly full and the lids are not secure at all; formaldehyde splashes all over the floor as soon as you lift them and you curse loudly. you don’t even care that your entire classroom definitely heard, you don’t care that you can hear their muted titters from behind the door. all you can think of is upending one or maybe even both buckets over kuroo tetsurou’s head.
thankfully the door opens before you need to put a bucket down to do so yourself. one of the girls who sit towards the front half of the lab sticks her head in.
“hey, d’you need any help with that?” she eyes the buckets warily, wrinkling her nose. “it smells terrible here, wow.”
“yeah,” you huff, struggling to pass her one. “my clothes are going to stink all week.”
she nods sympathetically, taking the bucket from you and stepping back so you can exit and close the door behind you with your foot. you smile gratefully and make a mental note to do your best to inflate the hell out of her lab grade.
“also, the other TA guy’s here.”
“oh, is he?” you mutter, narrowly avoiding getting another dribble of kidney juice on your shoes. “lovely.”
and she is right; kuroo is here. he’s leaned on the glass while a few students from the stations closest to the door attempt to unlock it. he’s gesturing wildly at the back of the room, mouthing something at them that none of you can hear through the glass and you feel a twinge of satisfaction at the way he looks somewhat frantic. not nearly as stressed as you feel, but it’s a start. when he sees you, his face lights up in relief. he waves animatedly, pointing at the lock and you can tell he knows you’re the only one with the key on you. with the fakest smile you can muster in place, you make your way over to the lab doors and unlock it agonizingly slowly.
“thank you,” kuroo says breathlessly, sliding his backpack off his shoulders. he’s wearing a suit, you see, and a tie- a frustratingly flattering suit. it hugs his shoulders just right, showing off their width without being too tight a fit, but is not flattering enough to overpower the anger in your mind. you wonder where on earth the man has been that requires a full suit and tie. normally, he’s wearing a ratty sweatshirt that barely passes lab safety standards and what looks like the same pair of jeans he’s owned since he was seventeen years old. his hair is different too; he’s sporting his typical tousled glory, but it looks less like bedhead and more like there were attempts to gel it back that did not quite work.
the look is really working for him.
whatever. you don’t care.
you don’t acknowledge kuroo any further. you shoo students away from the door, telling them it’s time for the lecture, and head back up to the monitors.
“okay, everybody go ahead and close your laptops now. we’re starting the urinary system this week, so your first lab is going to be a kidney dissection one. nothing crazy, you’ll just have to take pictures and label the basic anatomical structures listed on the rubric.” you can see kuroo opening his mouth in the periphery of your vision; the kidney labs are some of his favorite, you know from last semester, and you just know he’s gearing up to interrupt your flow. he means no harm, but you’d still rather die than let him talk over you right now. “when i finish going over the slides, you can see kuroo here to collect your organs. one per pair, please. we have some extras if anything crazy happens, but not that many so please be careful.”
kuroo deflates out of the corner of your eye. you know he hates handling the organs as much as you do and you know it’s petty to make him do so while he’s wearing what is probably his only suit, but you could not care less. you’re mad at him and when you’re mad you’re petty. and you’re planning on ignoring him for as much of the lab period as you can.
the lecture is one you’ve given a few times before, both in your other lab sections and in the previous semesters that you’ve been a TA for this course. you go through your notes without a hitch, and the majority of the lab seems to actually be paying attention. maybe they can sense what a shit mood you’re in and know not to test their luck right now. either way, you’re not complaining.
kuroo is watching you talk too, you know. you’re still not looking at him but you can feel him looking at you, large warm brown eyes darting between you and your professor’s slides that you had doctored into cohesion. it’s about halfway through the presentation that he seems to remember there is more prep work required, and ducks into the storeroom to retrieve the dissection trays, scissors and blades. he also snaps on two pairs of gloves to grope blindly through the buckets for the kidneys without saying anything to you.
when everyone has received an organ, kuroo strips his gloves and ambles up to your monitor. “big puddle of formaldehyde in the storeroom, by the way. we should get that cleaned up.”
your jaw tightens involuntarily. “that’s what happens when i have to do two peoples’ jobs by myself.”
he sighs. “look, i’m sorry. i really am. i had a really important interview that took way longer than expected and i just couldn’t get a message to you in time.”
you finally turn to look at him, sympathy prickling in your throat. “oh. i’m sorry.” and you really are. everybody’s been there, and if it really is just a one-time thing then-
“what? oh, it didn’t go badly. they offered me the job right away, i just got caught up in talking to the recruiter about-”
you jerk your face away. cocky bastard. you’re never bothering to feel sorry for him again.
“hey, hey, i still really am sorry, okay?” the sincerity in his voice is what makes you finally turn your head back to him. “let me make it up, please? let’s go get coffee after lab. on me.”
you cannot believe your ears. “i don’t need your pity coffee, kuroo.”
he looks aghast. “this isn’t pity coffee, i swear. i really feel bad about making you do all the slimy lab prep yourself.”
“that is the exact definition of pity coffee. you walk in twenty minutes after the period starts, forty minutes after you’re supposed to be here and think one shitty campus coffee can make up for having me do the bulk of the work for the most prep-heavy lab of the semester?” you drag a hand down your face. “and you were late because your job interview went so well you just couldn’t leave the recruiter alone. of all the excuses you’ve given me for being late, this is the worst. and if this isn’t a pity coffee i don’t know what is.”
“i know i’m being a dick today and i swear it isn’t pity coffee.” he sighs, mouth opening and closing a couple times as if he’s mulling over what he’s about to say. “if it helps… i’ve wanted to take you out for a while now. ever since we got paired up that first semester last year. and i promise it won’t be shitty cheap campus coffee either. i’ll take you to a good cafe. cross my heart and all that.”
you tilt your head. his eyes are sincere; alight with some other emotion you can’t quite place. his words are sending little thrills through you as well; you can’t help being intrigued at what coffee with kuroo tetsurou might be like.
“fine.”
kuroo lights up, about to launch into speech, and you hold up a finger.
“but only if you’re never late again. ten minutes early, actually. and you carry all the organ buckets for the rest of the year.”
he nods quickly, breathlessly, a grin splitting his face in half. “i can do that.”
