there has been mentioned a concern about the triggering material in the skype chat group (angst, character death, self-harm, torture and such) so to avoid it, we have come to an understanding that from this day on we should all do our best to “tag” the triggers in any messages we may send, for example like this:
// TRIGGER WARNING: [whatever the trigger is]
text
//end trigger warning//
it would let the others know when they should skip some block of text, if they feel like it, and at the same time keep the chat a safe zone for everyone! the mods realize there might be some slip-ups, it’s a natural thing to forget about things in all the heat of the moment, but please, do your best to respect this rule, we want all of the members to feel comfortable with us, after all!
words: 694
pairing: YamaHina
summary:
They were friends, but less than friends.
They were friends, but more than friends.
inspired by this post
day 4 of rare pair week
prompt: childhood + cheek
my rare pair week tag
I don't remember who it was that wanted yamahina smooches (penguin?? maggie?? xin??) but welp, here it is - for you kurohinanet!
read on AO3
They were friends for as long as Tadashi could remember. Infancy? Sure, there they were, gurgling through their pacifiers in their cutesy onesies with animal print, laying in the same crib, as their mothers gushed about how adorable they looked. Early childhood? Why not, the first bike rides, tree climbing and beetle catching - the many, many bruises and scratches to account for it. Elementary school? First bullies, first lessons, first time they were in separate classes, their first everything. Middle school wasn't much different, but it was even more of their firsts, with confessions, and kisses, and most of all - volleyball. And then there was high school.
They were friends, but less than friends.
They were friends, but more than friends.
To be honest, Tadashi didn't even know anymore if what they were could be called friends. They were on the same team and they obviously talked, even thought it wasn't as much as in the past, but... there was another aspect to their relationship that he just couldn't understand.
It started in middle school, right when the confessions and first kisses were the most popular topic during breaks. One day - it was early spring with occasionally colder winds, Tadashi remembered - Hinata came up to him and asked if he wanted to practice kissing.
"It'd be lame if you got asked out and didn't know how to do it, right?" Hinata reasoned and Tadashi at the time felt like no truer words were spoken before.
The first attempt ended up with them knocking their heads together and yelping in pain, which they quickly laughed off. Second, they leaned in with opened eyes to navigate better, but locking gazes made them beet red in embarrassment and before their lips could touch they had to turn away. Third was by far the most awkward when they agreed Tadashi would be the one closing his eyes and Hinata would just kiss him, but after seconds of nervous waiting for it to happen, Tadashi opened his eyes to find that yes, Hinata was still there, but no, he wasn't about to kiss him any time soon, seeing how he was covering his face with his hands and even the tips of his ears were fierce red.
"H-how about we just take it small?" Tadashi asked, fidgeting at what he was about to do. "Like..." He grabbed Hinata's hands, prying them away from his face and leaned in to kiss his flushed cheek. "...this?"
He let go of Hinata's hands and blushed profusely until his friend grinned up at him.
And somehow throughout the next few years it continued on, greeting kiss, goodbye kiss, thank-god-you're-okay kiss, I-missed-you kiss, that-was-amazing-how-did-you-do-it kiss... Never on the lips, just a soft brush against his cheek, or when he was the one to do it - the feeling of smooth, warm skin of Hinata's cheek under his lips.
Tadashi stopped even considering this as something unnatural, it just happened between them. Until they came to high school and everyone started asking if they were dating. They weren't, they were just friends - was always the answer.
But it wasn't until then that Tadashi noticed that the kisses themselves changed. They slowly got lower and lower, he didn't pay enough attention to note how in the rush of things Hinata's lips brushed the corner of his mouth or how hard it was to actually lean down to Hinata's height and when the other jumped up to meet him, how close their lips landed to each other.
And then one day he started to see through the bubble of friendship - the flush that was absent for a long while came back on Hinata's face, amber eyes gleamed with some inner light that Tadashi has never seen before, the nervous fidgeting was back at full force and somehow, even he was getting embarrassed by something that should be second nature to him by now.
But would he want to change it?
Tadashi leaned in to place a quick good morning kiss to Hinata's cheek, lower than any friend should, before he straightened up, flushing pink just a little.
Don't you know, anytime, anyplace, I'm yours [1/?]
words: 4091
pairing: KuroHina
summary: He was head over heels with a guy who looked like a high school kid, had a weirdly high pain tolerance level, smiled like a thousand suns, and whose name literally meant 'to soar', as if the huge black wings tattooed on his back could actually make him fly...
status: possibly tbc after rare pair week
day 1 of rare pair week
prompt: beginnings
with special dedication to kurohinanet who are as crazy about tattooed hina as I am, hope you have fun with this one guys~
my rare pair week tag
read on AO3
To be honest, Tetsurou still had absolutely no idea how it happened, but one day he found himself half-laying on the counterof Bokuto's tattoo shop, whining and moaning about his most recent crush to his best friend, who was busy cleaning the tubes and paid him absolutely the barest minimum of attention. Tetsurou didn't mind that as long as he got to say his piece, yet somehow he couldn't do even that, because all that left his mouth were incoherent strings of moan-words, which made absolutely no sense in ears other than his own, adding even more to his general frustration.
How did he even describe what he was feeling? Of course he was in love, like a schoolgirl, flushing and fidgeting with nervousness and excitement every time he saw his crush who was simply... magnificent. He was the cutest kind of short, but built heavily with muscle and that strange grace of an athlete who knew what he was doing with his body, making the way he moved completely alluring and inciting to anyone that bothered to watch. The hair of the most fiery orange was always messy on his head, but it was the cute messy, not the please-kill-me messy that Tetsurou sprouted every morning on his own head, which somehow made Tetsurou bitter but nonetheless attracted to the boy wonder. The fluffy locks were falling into his crush's eyes, and oh, his eyes!
Tetsurou has never seen anyone with eyes like that (and that was saying something, since he knew Bokuto, and Bokuto's eyes were the hooded creepy yellow of an owl). Sometimes they were soft brown and sparkling happily, other times they shone even in the dark, brilliant ambers in a small, adorable face, gleaming with specks of gold as if the sun itself flashed through them from within. And they were warm, always so warm that every time Tetsurou gazed into them, he could feel something pull on his heartstrings, as if pulling him deeper and deeper into that cosy warmth.
He was doomed from the start, Tetsurou sighed, leaning against the counter more heavily. How was he supposed the resist someone like that? Especially when he smiled... and that closed-eyed grin lighted up the whole world, as if million suns were concentrated in it, almost blinding with the sheer power of happiness. Or when it was that smirk, just a quirk of his lips really, but with that glint in the suddenly darkened eyes, it sent shivers of irresistible thrill down Tetsurou's spine. Or when it was that absentminded, soft curve and tender glow around the cheeks that made Tetsurou's hands itch to touch him, hold him, kiss him.
The guy's name was Hinata Shouyou, that much Bokuto could tell him without violating his client's privacy. Because yes, Hinata was his customer. And a regular, at that. It was exactly how they met, Kuroo sighed again as he remembered that day he came over to ask Bokuto out for lunch and found him bent over this small kid who looked like high-schooler, but an inked high-schooler.
Almost his whole back was covered with a huge tattoo of wings, already filled and shaded with black ink, going down and down his sides until they dipped and disappeared under the waistband of his pants. Each feather seemed to brim with life, and when the guy moved or breathed, the wings looked as if they moved along, as if they were already an integral part of his body. In the middle, right around the spine, was a lone path of unblemished sun-kissed skin, which was occupied by a quote - "Because people have no wings, we look for ways to fly."
Bokuto was finishing up the last character, slowly filling the reddened skin with ink, when they met. Tetsurou often spent his lunch breaks at Bokuto's which was only a few blocks down from the flower shop he worked at, and since most of the time Keiji wasn't there, Bokuto always moaned about feeling lonely, so Tetsurou being a great friend kept him company. It was the same that day, almost four months ago, when Tetsurou walked in on Bokuto and bare-chested Hinata, who was laying face down on the small uncomfortable couch which reminded Tetsurou of the operating table in hospitals. He would have probably paid no attention to the guy, god knew he'd seen lots of people in Bokuto's shop before, but the tattoo on his back snared his attention.
A tattoo like the one on the stranger's back took a lot of dedication to get. Time, money, pain, effort to keep it up. Tetsurou was impressed. And judging by the messy lines around the shoulders, it wasn't even finished at the stage he glimpsed it. His unwanted admiration for the - at the time - mystery man spiked even higher. Tetsurou always thought of tattoos as the coolest thing on the planet, but as if to spite him, his tolerance for pain was so low he could barely survive the mandatory vaccine shots as a child and sadly, he didn't grow out of it. Instead of getting himself inked, he stopped at simply appreciating the art of it. And when your best friend owned a tattoo shop, it was double the regret, but also double the fun.
When Bokuto finally placed the lint over the last character, Tetsurou was too absorbed in the nicks and hooks of the wings so perfectly melded into the skin, that only the curious amber gaze of the owner of the tattoo brought him back to present, along with an appraising smirk that shook the foundations of Tetsurou's world.
And then he couldn't escape anymore when he met the person behind those monstrous wings.
For a while he believed he'd never see Hinata again. He lived in the happy memory of that feeling of admiration, putting Hinata away like some distant memory, like a telltale of the old. But then he stumbled on him again some other afternoon, stretching his sore muscles on a chair this time, his arm almost up to the elbow covered in delicate lines of new black feathers. And then Tetsurou saw him again, amber eyes and smile and black inked feathers. And again after that, and...
They have never talked much apart from some small talk while Tetsurou waited for Bokuto to put away the gun, the occasional bits of information never giving him the full picture of the mystery man, and always leaving something for the next conversation, which Tetsurou with time started anticipating more and more. When he finally noticed his own longing, it was already too late. He was head over heels with a guy who looked like a high school kid, had a weirdly high pain tolerance level, smiled like a thousand suns, and whose name literally meant 'to soar' as if the huge black wings tattooed on his back could actually make him fly...
...which brought him to the present where he was draping himself over Bokuto's counter, groaning.
"He's so cute, man," he was saying, cheek snug against the cool counter, but even then he could feel the warmth of a slight blush spreading over his face. "How do you even get so cute? And that smile? Not the sparkly one, that tiny smirk he does sometimes - it's like totally illegal." Bokuto snorted a little, but didn't say anything. "And that tongue piercing?" Tetsurou's eyes gleamed at the very memory of silver flashing against the pink tongue and lips. "When did he even get it? Did Keiji do that?"
Bokuto's tiny smirk was enough of an answer and Tetsurou groaned again, hiding his face in his arms. Just the image of Keiji's fingers going inside that mouth that Tetsurou wanted to ravish so badly was sending shivers down his back. And the thought of circling his tongue around the silver bead... Tetsurou banged his head on the counter. Repeatedly. He did not need a boner at this time and place.
"You're gonna lose those few brain cells you have left," Bokuto said, putting away the tube he finished cleaning and reaching for another one.
The door behind them opened with a chime, and Keiji stepped in, their little daughter in a flowery dress sitting on his arm like the princess she was. She was only with them for two years, but Tetsurou has grown to care for her as if she was his own niece, and in a way she was. He smiled up at her and waved as the little angel jumped from her father's arms, and after giving Tetsurou a hug, bolted up the stairs to the house area of the shop.
"I just want him so bad," Tetsurou returned to whining, when Keiji got behind the counter to kiss his husband hello. Tetsurou sulked. "You've got such a wonderful man and what do I have? Fucking flowers."
Life was not fair. He loved his job as a florist (even though it was kind of lame to admit to someone he wanted to date and better yet, have hot steamy sex with) and he loved flowers, but really, he wanted some action from time to time. And people who came to buy flowers in Kenma's shop were just not his kind of crowd. If they were available, which most often they weren't, and it just made Tetsurou doubly depressed.
"Who're you talking about?" Keiji raised an inquiring eyebrow at him. "Hinata again?"
Tetsurou only sighed in response, resigned to his fate.
"Just get yourself together and ask him out, what's so hard about it? Or better, get laid and forget about him," Keiji rolled his eyes and disappeared after his daughter, leaving Tetsurou whining again.
"But what if he says no?" he asked, eyes looking to Bokuto for help. Forgetting Hinata was just not an option, he already tried that with no success whatsoever. "He's got this cool vibe and he's cute and waaaay out of my league. How do I just 'ask him out' like that?"
Bokuto put away the cleaned tubes and snapped the gloves off his hands.
"Dude, have you looked in the mirror this morning?" he asked, throwing the used gloves into the trash while Tetsurou blinked at him, confused. "This," Bokuto's finger circled on the level of Tetsurou's face. "and all of that on the other side of the counter is gorgeous. He'd be an idiot to turn you down."
Warmth spread over Tetsurou's heart and he smiled - more like a toothy full out grin - at his best friend, who was such not without a reason. "Thanks, bro. You're the best!"
"Anything for you, bro," Bokuto grinned back. "Shouldn't you be heading back though? Your break ended 10 minutes ago."
A quick glance at the clock made Tetsurou curse under his breath as he was running out of the shop, in the door passing the object of his recent frustrations - a grinning Hinata who stepped to the side letting him pass, and Tetsurou felt himself getting a little out of breath, which had nothing to do with the fact that he was running.
"Thanks," he mumbled and ran off, feeling his cheeks burn slightly and cursing twice as much.
What was he, a high school girl in love?
Apparently, yes.
It was two weeks later when Tetsurou saw Hinata again, and the weird thing was, it wasn't at Bokuto's. Oh no, one day his crush just strolled into his shop while Tetsurou was mending the counter, and with the most incredible smile - all sweetly crinkled eyes and shining white teeth - asked if his order was ready.
Tetsurou stared, Tetsurou stuttered, Tetsurou generally looked the lamest he'd ever been with his floral patterned apron, bright green gloves and compost smudges all over his face. In that single moment, all thoughts of asking Hinata out, all the courage Bokuto managed to somehow instil in him, flushed out of his system with the nervous sweat, and he never wanted anything as much as to jump off a cliff.
Instead, he escaped to the back of the shop where stored the already finished orders and searched for the name he has come to know so well. Yes, there it was, even though he hadn't seen Hinata's name on it yet, Tetsurou already knew the bouquet was his. Orange spray roses, white daisy spray chrysanthemums and tiny yellow button spray chrysanthemums all adorned by delicate greenery inside a sparkly vase the colour of which reminded Tetsurou so much of Hinata's hair. Kenma's delicate craft was as always breathtakingly beautiful and Tetsurou's lips quirked a little in appreciation of the way he combined different species together.
If he remembered correctly - and he did, Kenma's lessons in flower language were something he absolutely had to pass when he started working there - orange roses could mean desire, but they could also be something as innocent as "I'm proud of you." It was a perfect flower to describe Hinata, suddenly Tetsurou marvelled. The juxtaposition of the passion and pride was exactly the same as what he felt around his crush, that sort of mysterious air of cool unreachability and the cuteness that left a sweet aftertaste in his mouth after every meeting.
The white chrysanthemums were known for being the flower of loyalty and devoted love, and Tetsurou then knew the bouquet was meant for someone special. Someone that wasn't an object of pride for Hinata, but desire. And he was loyal to them in his intensions. Only this explanation made any sense when joined by the yellow chrysanthemums - the symbol of neglected love or sorrow.
Tetsurou's heart clenched painfully as he picked up the vase. Was this it? Was he right? His fingers brushed the tips of the flowers. Was Hinata in love with someone who didn't share his affections? The sun from one of the windows shot through the glass, brightening it up to the lively tangerine hue, which brought Hinata's smiling face to the forefront of Tetsurou's mind. He didn't look heartbroken, but... was it that easy to fake a smile?
Tetsurou sighed, fingers clenching on the fragile glass as he brought the bouquet out front, setting it on the counter. He was about to pack it up when quiet laughter made him look up at Hinata, who was snickering into his hand, amber eyes twinkling.
"What is it?" Tetsurou asked, getting slightly flustered because...
Hinata look gorgeous. Slightly reddened cheeks, laughter in his eyes, the pleasant timbre of his voice sending waves of warmth through Tetsurou's body and just... He wanted to kiss him so badly. His fingers twitched, and to get back the control of himself, he returned to work, keeping his eyes down.
"I can't believe you work here," Hinata said and Tetsurou could feel with his whole being how the other man leaned on the counter, where he was, how he breathed, the sound his nails made when he drummed on the counter-top. "You spend so much time at Kou-san's place, I was sure you were his assistant or something."
"Nope, just your usual flower guy," Tetsurou would sulk if he could. Hinata was teasing him. And how was he supposed to even think about asking him out like this? Where were all those cool pick up lines he learned with Bokuto? (Most of them were terribly lame, but he was desperate, okay?) "Here's your order."
Hinata took it from his hands and Tetsurou was thanking all the gods that their hands didn't brush in the heart-quickening shoujo manga way, but frowned a second later when he noticed Hinata ripping away the packaging he had just finished making.
"Something wrong?" he asked, slightly irritated. If he didn't want it packed, he could have said so...
Hinata smiled at him brightly and set the vase back on the counter.
"Can I borrow that for a second?" He nodded towards the scissors Tetsurou was using before to cut the stalks of some roses for another arrangement.
"Sure," he slid them to Hinata over the counter and watched as the other carefully plucked one orange rose from the bouquet and then cut it short, a few inches from the flower crown.
Tetsurou frowned. What was Hinata doing? And then he stared, because Hinata reached over the counter and put the cut rose inside the small pocket on Tetsurou's chest, flashing him a smile.
"Sorry for laughing," Hinata apologized, picking up the vase again and flashing Tetsurou one last smile. "This setting suits you well."
He left just like that, like a sweet dream, a wild hallucination on a feverish mind, and Tetsurou definitely felt hot enough to double-check his temperature.
Kenma came in at his usual time to find him still behind the counter, playing with a single messily cut orange spray rose and a goofy smile on his slightly flushed face. When asked, Tetsurou just grinned and in the happiest of voices announced,
"I just love my job, that's all."
The next day his grin widened even more when he found the fiery orange vase with the lovely bouquet of roses and chrysanthemums standing proudly on the top of the counter in Bokuto's shop. Life was pretty good, it seemed.
"So where's Bokuto?" Tetsurou asked, sprawled on the chair that should be occupied by a customer, but was as empty as the guns tucked away off to the side.
"Emergency ink refill," Keiji answered without looking up from the appointment calendar he's been trying to sort through. The wrinkle between his eyebrows had not left even for a second ever since Tetsurou stepped into the shop. "So how's it going with Hinata?" Keiji's eyes suddenly locked with his over the counter. "You asked him out yet?"
"No."
Tetsurou felt like pouting. He hadn't seen Hinata since that day in his flower shop. It was already three weeks and, although it was hard to admit to himself, he missed that smile. And even more - he was angry at himself for wasting the opportunity. Hinata was done with his tattoo, the bouquet he got was a thank you gift to Bokuto - not the broken-hearted version Tetsurou envisioned (god did he feel stupid for that... stupid but happy) - and from then on, nothing. It seemed as if Hinata Shouyou had never existed in the first place, the only trace left of him was the image of his smile and those magnificent wings on his back imprinted into Tetsurou's mind.
He sighed. He blew his chance, he knew that. There was so much time, he could have made his move on many occasions and yet he flunked it. If he had a second chance, maybe then he'd do things differently. Swallow down the nerves, get himself together, and actually ask Hinata out. And maybe, just maybe, he would say yes, Tetsurou thought, with a nostalgic smile remembering the already dry, but still holding up orange spray rose that was safely sitting on a shelf in his living room.
"Hey," Keiji's voice brought him back to the shop. "Would you mind picking up Akane from kindergarten? I can't leave the shop until Koutarou comes back."
Tetsurou perked up. Pick up his favourite (and only) niece?
"I'm on it!"
He bolted out of the shop before Keiji could say anything more. The kindergarten wasn't far away and only after ten minutes of walking, Tetsurou was nearing the closed off by a high fence area of the building.
There was a small patch of green inside, a neatly kept garden full of flowers and Tetsurou's work side told him it was taken good care of. A small playground was off to the side, swings and slides, climbing ladders, jungle gyms and nets, see saw and a round, there was everything a kid could have wished for. Even a small sandpit was there, bringing back Tetsurou's memories of the time he himself was making sandcastles and mud pies, dragging Kenma out of the house early in the morning and coming back when it was already dark.
He grinned a little, mood lightening as he neared the entry gate and heard the children screaming as they always do - happy, excited, without a care in the world except what to play at next. He was already pushing the metal gate open when he noticed two teachers standing right beside the small merry-go-round, and the time around him seemed to have frozen.
Because bent over one of the kids, in a white apron with cutesy bear faces, was Hinata. The fiery orange hair, the soft amber eyes, the smile blasting warmth like a thousand suns at all the kids around him, and the barely visible under the sleeves of his shirt black lines of the wings spread on his arms. It was Hinata. The same Hinata he had a crush on.
He was standing in the middle of a group of kids, smiling at them brilliantly as the children tugged on his pants, hands, and apron. Hinata wasn't a very tall person and Tetsurou couldn't help but think how adorable he looked then, surrounded and tugged around, but still laughing with that gentle timbre in his voice. Tetsurou's heart beat a little faster.
He felt a little cheated now, Hinata laughed at him working in a flower shop, but was a kindergarten teacher instead. On one hand, it was hilarious how wrong in his assumptions about Hinata he was, and on the other, Tetsurou felt lied to - with all that cool person vibe Hinata radiated. But it all paled in comparison to the warmth that quickened his heartbeat into a heavy staccato against his chest.
Suddenly intimidated by his own feelings, he wanted to ran back the way he came. It was too late though, because Akane had already seen him and was running up to him demanding to be picked up. And when he straightened up with her in his arms, Hinata had seen him too.
Smiling a tad awkwardly, Tetsurou waved to the approaching man.
"Wasn't expecting to see you here," he said, and noticing the fleeting look of caution in the amber eyes, for the first time since they met, Tetsurou felt like he had the upper hand and that maybe, just maybe Hinata wasn't as cool as he tried to pretend to be.
"And I surely wasn't expecting to see you here," Hinata answered with a slightly teasing smile. "You don't look like the children's kind of guy."
Tetsurou placed his free hand over his heart. "I'm a very children's kind of guy," he scoffed. "Isn't that right, Akane-chan?"
The little girl on his arm nodded with a big smile. "Uncle Kuroo is the best pony ever! Even better than papa," she admitted.
Tetsurou would have been embarrassed by that sudden proclamation of his horsing skills, but Hinata laughed, a sound of pure joy, so light and warm that it made Tetsurou's heart flutter. Suddenly, he felt the surge of courage and before he could change his mind, he set Akane down and asked her to get her stuff from the main building. She happily ran off, leaving him and Hinata alone, and Tetsurou breathed in deeply, which didn't help the nerves knotting in his stomach.
"I'm actually pretty much useless at flirting, even though I look like I could hook up with half the town," he started, looking down at somewhere between Hinata's left eye and temple, that tiny spot right below the socket of his eye, too anxious to actually gaze straight into curious amber eyes lighted with amusement. "Which is why I'm just going to get this out before I lose yet another chance." He breathed deeply again. "Would you want to go out with me some time?"
There was silence between them for so long that Tetsurou started fidgeting nervously and was about to finally look Hinata right in the eyes, even though he knew the rejection was coming, but a quiet chuckle made him blink in confusion. He chanced a glance up and noticed Hinata laughing, just as he was that day in his shop, hand covering his mouth. Tetsurou was too shocked, and the laughter was too warm to let him feel offended.
And then he was looking straight into those beautiful amber eyes, which shone brightly in the sunlight and he couldn't take a breath even if he tried.
"I thought you'd never ask," Hinata said smiling.
Tetsurou didn't know before it was possible to fall for someone so hard.
after some heated dispute we’ve come up with a schedule for our chats and headcanon sharing:
makeshift monday
everything is game, literally whatever your mind can come up with - ships, scenarios, headcanons, aus, ghost sex?? welcome monday!
tsundere tuesday
exactly what it says, characters as tsundere, possible ooc-ness, double personalities etc.
weeping wednesday
the day especially dedicated to iris the evil witch of the angst; which is a day where you can break and torture all the characters and your friends (but make sure to respect people’s triggers! we’re a safe zone after all)
tattoo thursday
which means characters with tattoos, neck, back, ankle, shoulders, sleeves, whatever you wish (piercings are also included here)
fluff friday
angst-free zone bc weeping wednesday destroyed us, so pls respect it and keep the pain away and bring in all the cuddles instead!
smut saturday
just what it says, shameless smut
slow sunday
which is just a slow fluff-smut day to relax, maybe some slow build romance? who knows ;3
all ships are game (with ofc special attention being paid to kurohina) and pls try to respect the safe days with no-angst policy! we don’t have to strictly follow this schedule from day to day, but it’d be nice to keep it up for a while, right? ^u^
come join us and enjoy yourself in the wild land of kurohina love!
