#also kenhina and tsukiyachi is mentioned!

[alienaiver]

Half the Battle, pt. 1

Kuroo Tetsurou x gn!reader

find part two here!

warnings: slight angst about childhood/parents fighting/divorce, one (1) bottle of wine is opened, someone is betrayed in Mario Party, NOT beta-read! apologize for any mistakes! (lmk if there’s any warnings i missed!)

wordcount: 5.5k

content: soulmate AU, mild angst, fluff, post-timeskip but slight canon divergence (i haven’t read the manga yet so this is loosely based off of their canon timeskip lives), gender neutral reader, reader is a video editor, reader is bad at eye contact but the details as to why are vague/up for interpretation!

notes: this was made for @gg9183 ​ ‘s wonderful birthday event, a soulmate collab! (go read the other wonderful works!) happy birthday once again, gray!! this was meant to be a 2k one shot but.... plans and inspiration changes sometimes, right? 🥺 so this ended up as a 5k part ONE lmfao i hope thats alright w u!!! part2 will be up asap, i promise!! i hope you enjoy this!!!! 

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Not meeting his soulmate was fine, Kuroo often found himself thinking. The odds of finding your soulmate’s way too low to be realistic anyways, he supported the thought. It’s illogical to spend so much time fretting about it, he finally added for good measure.

Soulmates were a natural part of life, always had been. But with the big wide world filled with over seven billion people, meeting yours wasn’t completely unheard of. But given the powers of soulmates even existing, it wasn’t unrealistic to also believe that some kind of fate would pull you towards each other throughout your lives so that you would meet each other. Kuroo however, prided himself in not caring about soulmates. His life was rich enough. People explaining their feelings about “something being missing until they finally meet them” was incomprehensible to him.

Kuroo had lived for 29 years without being able to see color. And you know what? His life was damn well fulfilling enough. He had a beautiful apartment, an economy that flourished, an adorable cat named Cucumber and good people around him. What would he really need a soulmate for? He could ignore his friends comments on how wonderful the world was in color, if only he would just start looking for his soulmate, how much meaning it gave life. Just because the people in his closest circle had all magically met theirs – not to mention how many of them had already met in Goddamn high school, Kuroo scoffed and was always able to move on.

Even though a lot of people actively made eye contact with everyone they met, even people on the street, to make sure they would meet their soulmate, Kuroo kept his eyes down. He wasn’t insecure, come on, he was perfectly happy! He just didn’t need to be late for a meeting because he got eye contact with some stranger, you know?

His life was in perfect balance as is.. Until yesterday, of course. It had turned out there was mold in his apartment complex so they had to evict it for a month while a crew would go through everything to remove it. He didn’t want to go to his mother’s place, that was too far from his work, but he wasn’t in the mood for a hotel, that was way too expensive, so he turned to his best friend of many years with the biggest set of puppy eyes he could muster and the prospect of making every dinner while he lived there.

“Fine… but don’t get in the way,” was all Kenma had to say.

And so Kuroo spent his last weekend in his own apartment packing things down to make it accessible to the cleaning crew. Cucumber hated other cats with a passion so he couldn’t bring him to Kenma’s, where three cats already happily lived, so his mother would pick him up tomorrow afternoon.

__

He sat on his couch, scrolling his phone mindlessly with Cucumber on his lap who had been stressed with all the packing down, sensing something was up. He was being extra cuddly towards Kuroo who, honestly? Didn’t mind at all. He loved when Cucumber was in mood for cuddles, though it wasn’t very often. He had been told his cat was orange and while he didn’t have a measure for what that color actually looked like, he was happy with his gray cat.

His mother was supposed to arrive any minute now, so he should have gotten up and put the cat in his carrier but it was easier to get him in it if you had two pair of hands. He scrolled through Instagram, reaching a photo put up by Tsukishima of his soulmate, the light-haired manager of their high school volleyball club, with a tooth-eating grin on her face and proudly showing off a ring on her finger, the caption said, This smile makes me wanna brag. Kuroo could physically hear the provocative tone of his voice, knowing he was one of the first in his circle of friends to actually plan a wedding. Kuroo clicked his tongue with a smile on his face and double-tapped to like the picture.

He didn’t know if it was the combination of that post and the fact that his mother was on her way but memories of his parent’s wedding flooded his mind. For a lot of people, weddings felt obsolete in the face of the whole “you already got your soulmate and you know this” thing, so a lot of couples were happy not getting married but just being together. But there was also the benefits of marriage in the practical sense, so some people did anyways, some hosting parties, some not. His parents weren’t married when he came to, but after he turned five they decided to do it so he would be protected by both of them, in case of any emergency.

It had been a small wedding, only the closest family and friends but Kuroo was vivid, so excited about being part of that whole romantic ordeal, even helping his mom find a dress and everything. He had been a huge and important part of the wedding – if he did say so himself. Everyone had been glowing at the day, the food was delicious, there was laughter, song and cheers and everyone had brought so many presents – even some for little Tetsurou, who had been very excited about his new train tracks.

But when Kuroo was seven years old, it wasn’t as romantic anymore. His parents were fighting a lot, he wasn’t entirely sure why or about what because they would never tell him about it, no matter how much he asked. When he tried to listen in, the words he heard didn’t explain anything to him because even though they were yelling at each other, the important words were always whispered, as if they knew Kuroo was listening in.

When he was eight his mom had come into his room, hugged him and with tears in her eyes and said that they were going to move away.

“Where are we going?” he asked simply, no emotion to be read on his little face. He was exhausted from his parents being this way – they were soulmates, right? Why did they fight like that?

“To Tokyo, just you and me, my love.”

That’s when he met Kenma. He had been very closed-off and shy back when they met, he reminisced. He had been a regular kid when he was younger but the way his parents split up – his soulmate parents – had closed him off pretty bad, so it was a miracle he met Kenma and started opening up again.

Kuroo smiled to himself bitterly before scratching Cucumber’s ear. He supposed this was also why he wasn’t interested in his soulmate. So many people had romanticized the whole soulmate ideal so a lot of people forgot that relationships still took work, took effort and just because they were made for each other, didn’t necessarily guarantee that they would stay together. His mom and dad didn’t officially talk anymore, but when he asked his mom as a child whether or not she still saw color, she said that she did. He also found long letters in her bedroom when he was nine, letters from his dad, so he supposed they still talked together, though Kuroo wasn’t let in on it – nor was he particularly interested. And he definitely we wasn’t interested in ending up in a relationship with someone who would end up not wanting to put in the effort for the relationship to flourish.

After Cucumber had been picked up by his mom it was time to leave for Kenma’s place. He carried the last boxes of valuables down to his basement and locked them in before trekking down to the subway with his suitcase and sports bag.

_____

You were late for work, so you scrambled to pack your things. It was Wednesday afternoon and you were supposed to meet in at 3PM, because that was around the time that Kodzuken had planned to finish his recording, he told you yesterday. You were a video editor and had met Kenma through your old part-time job in his favorite convenience store quite a few years back, back when he had first bought his house when he was 24. You remembered talking to him about video games in the store since you also played some, and after a good while of polite customer service and talk about new games, you had started hanging out outside of work as well. When you had then told him you were actually a freelance video editor but just didn’t get many jobs, he had almost instantly hired you to do his YouTube videos for him and general editing and set-ups of his streams. I know video games, not recording equipment, he had told you so many years ago.

Your original thought had been wary, because working for a friend might get messy but Kenma cared a lot about keeping it professional when you were on the clock, which you appreciated very much. In his house, down by his game room, there was a room next door with screens and all the best editing software just for you to play with. Your pay was higher than average for such a “simple” but regular gig but when prompted about it, he simply shrugged and told you it wasn’t up for negotiation and no one was being treated unfair – and who were you to go against such a good pay for a job that you loved doing and wanted to do full-time? With Kenma being a famous streamer and gamer, he often made lots of different videos for various sites so your job hours resembled a nine to five job, easy, even if the hours were off from the more conventional jobs and you usually came in later in the day and sometimes finished off late in the evening – some of his videos had a time limit for a release date of a game, so there was also days where you were extremely busy and scrambling to get the video done right for a release of a game.

As you closed your bag and ran out the door towards the subway, you checked your phone for any updates. If he’d finished early, he would’ve texted you about it, so you put your phone in your pocket and hurried towards his house.

When you arrived you immediately rang the doorbell before catching your breath, you were used to Kenma spending a few minutes before reaching the door and opening it, so when the door opened almost instantly you took a step back before looking up. The one opening the door was taller than Kenma and in a loose dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the top - that’s all you saw before your eyes darted down to your feet.

“...Hi! I’m uh… Where’s Kenma?” was all you got out while fidgeting with your purse strap, it certainly wasn’t his boyfriend Hinata opening the door today.

“Oh, hey! You must be his video editor, right? He told me about you!” The man said, pointing to himself with his thumb,

“I’m Kuroo Tetsurou! Kenma’s childhood friend! Sorry to intrude, I’ll be living here for the next month, I promise not to get in your way!” As he finished his introduction, he moved aside so that you could enter. As you took off your shoes you heard Kenma’s feet shuffling towards you, “oh hey, welcome, you’re early,” Kenma said with his usual deadpan expression but you could clearly hear the teasing in his voice.

“At least I’m here now, right?” You smiled back, instantly relaxing at the sight of your boss and friend. You turned to Kuroo again, bowed and introduced yourself before taking off your coat and putting it on a hanger, while Kenma and the guy named Kuroo seemed to bicker a bit about whether or not Kuroo should answer the door while he lived there.

“I’ll go set it up, have you transferred the video files to the hard disk?” you asked Kenma as you moved towards ‘your’ office, sending Kuroo a polite smile while keeping your eyes on his neck.

Eye contact was hard for you, it always made you extremely uncomfortable and you didn’t really have any before you felt comfortable with the person. Your mother had often scolded you, saying you’d never find your soulmate at this rate, which you always acknowledged with a hum or a simple yes without starting a discussion.

You honestly weren’t sure whether or not you cared for a soulmate. Your biggest argument to wanting to find one was so that you could see colors, because it’d help your career. Kenma already had his soulmate, so he was the one deciding the color scheme for his videos and helped with the color-related editing, which worked fine as of now, but you would probably appreciate to be able to do it yourself. You had also spent some years coming to terms with your struggles with eye contact and accept that this was just how you functioned. If you missed your soulmate in a random supermarket thanks to it one day, well, you’d be none the wiser, so you felt sure you’d survive without one, but you also couldn’t deny that the sound of a soulmate sounded really nice and comforting. That someone out there existed to fit you, that you were born to love someone who was also meant to love you. You were sure that finding your soulmate wasn’t a dance on roses, it was sure to still be hard, frustrating and maybe even painful sometimes, but you also couldn’t just have all the good, there was a balance that was sure to exist within soulmates as well.

After hours of going through the raw footage from his video game play and slowly editing while watching it, you popped your shoulders and stretched your arms for a moment, yawning as you did so. Your hours were always a bit intense, but that couldn’t be helped when you had six hours of raw footage to work with. Looking at the clock you saw that it was 5.30PM which meant that soon Kenma would wake up from his pseudo-sleep (which was more like a nap in your opinion) to look at your process and ask what you wanted for dinner.

Soon after a soft knock was heard followed by the door opening slowly, Kenma standing in sweats and a hoodie with bags under his eyes, “do you like hotpot?” he asked, and you smiled at him, “sure, are you cooking tonight?” he yawned while he shook his head, “Kuroo is. He insists on a ‘fulfilling meal’, whatever that means.”

You giggled before beckoning Kenma in to see some of what you’ve done so far and making minor adjustments along the way. “Now, something smells delicious and I’m thirsty,” you stated after the two of you had talked a bit about the rest of the video’s plans. As you went towards the kitchen you could hear the sound of of a nameless tune being hummed, pans sizzling from something being cooked and kitchen utensils being used.

Inside, the table was already set with plates and prepared ingredients lying ready for the pot that Kuroo was just about to put on the table. It seemed he had made an endless supply of different side dishes and really put in a lot of work for it, so you looked really forward to eating it and it smelled delicious. You grabbed a glass from the set table and went to the sink to get some water and just as your hand reached it, Kuroo had extended his hand as well to the sink and you accidentally touched.

You both recoiled as if you had been burned and you couldn’t stop the gasp that accidentally left your lips. A feeling was rushing through your body you hadn’t experienced before and you immediately apologized to Kuroo and went back to the table, foregoing the water. You didn’t notice how Kuroo was frozen in place from when he touched you before Kenma called out to him and he immediately started moving again.

You ended up eating shortly after, Kuroo serving the food and talking animatedly about him and Kenma’s childhood, making you laugh quite a bit at their (or more, Kuroo’s) antics and their volleyball days. Kuroo was the type of person to make you relax in his presence and have fun which you didn’t even notice until you got home later that evening and really thought about what a great time you had had. You found yourself surprised by how easily you clicked with Kuroo, a total stranger. It must be his charm, you thought to yourself before going through your night routine. You had to come back tomorrow and finish work, after all. You estimated the video would take you a few more days to finish but that would end up fitting well with the weekend coming, so as you went to bed you felt yourself more relaxed than you had in a while.

_____

“What are they like?”

It was Friday and it seemed you had finished Kenma’s video and therefor you weren’t here for dinner – for the first time in a few days, which did let down Kuroo just a tiny bit. He had talked a lot with you during dinner preparations when you came out from the office and during dinner as well and while you did answer all his questions (which, he admitted, there were quite a few of them) and follow up with your own for him, it still felt… off… talking to you – and Kuroo didn’t like not knowing why. “What do you mean?” Kenma asked, taking another bite into his mouth.

Kenma swallowed a piece of meat before looking up at Kuroo who was stabbing his plate with his fork in what seemed like a useless purpose. He knew he was being a little weird but meeting you was weird, even though he had no reason to explain why.

“I mean, is this how they usually act?” He didn’t even know what that question meant or why he was even asking it, nothing made sense! But he had a desperate feeling that he needed to get to know you – he was afraid of what that implied and what suspicions he needed to hold onto, but he was sure it was his gut telling him you were dangerous for Kenma to be around – that had to be it! Kenma was his best friend, his childhood friend, it had to be a gut feeling meant to protect him!

“Who knows, they’re being more polite than usual, I think. But that makes sense,” Kenma replied calmly before adding, “I mean you are a stranger who’s really intent on being social with them over our dinners, they were a bit shy as well when I met them,”

Kuroo nodded and finally took a bite of his own food. He didn’t notice Kenma’s raised eyebrows or the questioning look that was sent his way, so Kenma decided to let the subject rest.

Not seeing you today felt weird to him too and he couldn’t help the irritation building up inside him – you had just met a few days ago and only in the evenings when he was done with work and ready to make dinner – and yet, the thought of you kept invading his mind. He had gotten through work today thinking you were going to be there for dinner so when he came home and found out you wouldn’t be there, the first seed of irritation had been planted – why was he suddenly looking so much forward to seeing you? Had it been like this yesterday too? Why was it suddenly important that you weren’t there? He ended up sitting in front of the laptop in the guest room for the rest of the evening, the document left open and completely untouched.

Kuroo, however, didn’t let the subject rest in his head for the rest of that evening. Hinata was in town, having time off after a big game yesterday so Kuroo was left to his own devices – which really wasn’t a problem considering he had to make the paperwork for a promotional deal for a meeting Monday morning that he had procrastinated making – which wasn’t like him at all, he usually never pushed assignments to last minute and he then realized the reason he wasn’t done yet was because he had spent so much time over the dinner table with Kenma and you, talking even after dinner had been done for a while. You always offered to help him with the clean-up so you also spent some time talking there, drifting off to various subjects far passing the cleaning duties and sitting down again with a glass of water.

He enjoyed your company, it felt... easy, somehow, the sensation that something was off was there but it didn’t really settle in his stomach until every time after you left, as if it was left to grow a bit from a small sensation to a problem, which worried him – Kuroo prided himself as an impeccable people-reader, he was captain for both the volleyball team in high school and college, he knew how to act around business relations so well because he could read them so flawlessly – so the feelings he got from you was unsettling and unreadable and it took some control away from him – and Kuroo always felt uneasy when he wasn’t in control.

____

Kuroo heard your name and almost got whiplash from how fast his head moved towards Kenma, “what?”

“I asked if we should invite them? To game night? Being three is a little annoying in Mario Party.”

“Oooh, that’s a good idea! I’d love to see them again!” Hinata happily exclaimed before taking another bite of the lasagna Kuroo had prepared tonight. It was Saturday and Kuroo had been in a daze the entire day, first at the office for a quick meeting with his boss about a potential partner he might be able to reel in soon and then doing his laundry at Kenma’s and continuing to try and make the stupid paperwork but ultimately failing before he had to make dinner.

“Isn’t it a bit late to invite someone? I mean, they could have plans already...” Kuroo tried, knowing what a pain it could be to be asked to something an hour before it happened and he didn’t want to let you go through that – that’s what he tried to tell himself, at least. In truth? He was a bit afraid of seeing you again, afraid of his potential reactions, since he had spent his entire Friday in a stupor just thinking about you. His thoughts didn’t mean much for Kenma and Hinata though, who was already texting you to ask.  “Oi, no phones at the table, have you parents taught you no manners?” Kuroo chided and Hinata immediately shrank back and apologized – Kuroo smirked, yea the Chibi-chan still had respect for his seniors. But he was quickly pulled back to thoughts about you by Kenma’s phone lighting up again, “they’ll be here in an hour. They’re asking if they should bring anything?” Kenma looked up to gauge Kuroo’s reaction, having noticed something about his friend had been off the past few days. He immediately made a funny grimace before turning it into a smile. “Yea, they can bring a bottle of white wine, if I have to beat you all at Mario Party, I would very much like to be a tiny bit buzzed,” Kuroo said, and Hinata looked at him with wide eyes, “you drink wine!? So grown up!” Hinata exclaimed, to which Kenma just muttered, “or just an old man…” Kuroo didn’t hear that though, too busy to fidget with his hands under the table, suddenly feeling nervous that you were showing up.

Hinata plopped down between Kuroo and you with a controller in hand, “I’m gonna beat you all in this Mario Kart!” to which you laughed loudly, “good luck since we’re playing Mario Party.”

“Huh? Is there a difference?” Hinata asked, making Kuroo belt out a loud laugh as well, holding his stomach, “you just told us you’d beat us but you don’t even know what we’re playing!” Kuroo couldn’t contain his laughter for a bit until he noticed how you were looking at him and instantly retracted his laugh, sitting up straight with a cough, and apologizing for being loud, which confused him to no end. He had never been self-conscious of his own laugh! He knew it could be obnoxious and loud, but he also liked it himself, and-

“That’s a really cute laugh.”

The comment earned you the stares of the century from the three other people in the room, with Kenma in genuine shock – he wouldn’t say he disliked Kuroo’s laugh, just that it was… special.

“Uhm… Uh. Thank you?” Kuroo could feel that his blush went all the way to his ears but he hoped that the light in the living room wasn’t bright enough to catch it. “Yeah uh! Sure! Mhm,” you awkwardly coughed a bit as well before reaching for your glass of wine.

You had brought a bottle of white wine for Kuroo on the promise that you’d get a glass too, saying he was your first friend who also liked wine. The word ‘friend’ had dumb-founded him and he’d just answered “you can have it all,” to which you had laughed and said it’s fine with half, you weirdo.

The game was about to begin but Kuroo was still sitting stuck on the fact that his laugh was cute – cute? Had anyone else found it cute before besides Bokuto and his mom? He wasn’t sure – he sure couldn’t pinpoint them right now anyways. He tried to shake it off and focus on the game, though quite a bit of time was spent explaining the rules to Hinata who apparently had thought they were just playing Mario Kart.

When you were 12 laps into it, it seemed that you were set to win with your four stars and 121 coins. Kenma was right behind you with three stars and Hinata and Kuroo had been left in the dust with zero stars. You had stolen Kuroo’s first (and only) star early in the game, so he was plotting his vengeance in quiet but was getting afraid that the game would end before he could do anything to you – but just as his hopes were at the smallest during the last round of the game, you were put in the same team as him in the last mini game.

Kuroo had a wide smirk when you cheered and said, “this’ll be easy then!” because no, it would not be easy for you. If he had to go down in order to take you down a notch, then so be it. He’d rather Kenma win than you did with stolen goods!

The last mini game was “Tow the Line” where two players were put in a sewing box shaped with nine dots as a grid and two players tied together with a string and the objective was to make the shape with the string as shown in the middle of screen. As soon as the whistle sounded, Kuroo lowered his hands and stopped using his controllers, all with a big grin on his lips.

“Kuroo, what the fuck! Get moving, we’ve started!” you yelled at him as Kenma and Hinata won the first round, signaling the next round began, Kuroo started whistling and looking away from the screen, to which you got up from your seat, “fine, I’ll just take your controller and do it myself!”

Kuroo put his arm with the controller behind him, “nah-ah-ah! You’re not winning this, fiend! That’s what you get for stealing my star!” He grinned up at you with his eyes closed as you stood with your hands on your hips, “come on man! I stole that star in the fourth round! Kenma stole a star from me as well!” you tried, “maybe he stole the one that was yours, who knows! Get over it so we can win!”

But as soon as you’d said that, the third round had just been won and you sighed and flopped down on your seat again, “not cool Kuroo, not cool. I’ll remember this!”

You both laughed as the game made ready to announce the winner, Kenma and Hinata entertained by your antics.

“You can’t avenge something that I avenged in the first place! I only did it because you did me wrong, you know!”

“You can’t use logic on me, it doesn’t apply!”

To no surprise, you won the entire game, even winning one of the two bonus stars given at the end of the game.

After the last sequence and a bow from you there was a quick break before you decided to play some Mario Kart for Hinata’s sake, since his argument was that he lost due it being Party instead. You played quite a few hours and after another toilet break you had switched places with Hinata so Kenma could cuddle up against him. You yawned, drinking the last of the wine in your glass and said, “I should head home, I have a friend coming over for lunch tomorrow.”

Hinata and Kenma both started to get up to say goodnight but you waved at them with a smile, “I can walk out myself, it’s fine!” But Kuroo had already gotten up from the couch as well, so you walked with him towards the hallway where you put on your shoes. There was a comfortable silence between the two of you, which Kuroo noted and scowled a bit - he might have only known you for less than a week but for some reason he felt like it had been a lot longer, like you were old friends – it felt strange, to be so close with a stranger. He didn’t know anything about you, really. He knew your name, your job and how you liked some of your vegetables and which meat was your favorite, he knew you also loved cats but didn’t have one (he couldn’t remember if he knew why) and he felt pretty sure he would recognize you in a crowded area – why it was so intense, he was unsure of, he hadn’t tried meeting someone this way before. It had also seemed like having this game night had made you considerably more relaxed in his presence, even joking around with him instead of being polite, which made Kuroo somewhat giddy, though it didn’t really make sense to him as to why.

“I hope you had fun,” Kuroo said awkwardly, as if he had been the host and scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, I did! I’m sorry I stole your star, though,” you laughed, buttoning your jacket.

“Nah, no worries, as they say, all’s fair in love and war, right?”

You giggled and picked up your bag from the dresser while Kuroo opened up the door for you. As you exited, you turned around with a bright smile, “well, thanks for toni-”

Everything ended up a blur, too bright, too much, too noisy, too… colorful? Kuroo was still looking into your eyes as all that went through him, completely blindsided. As he took a proper look, he could see that you looked just as surprised as him, your eyes wide but still never leaving his either.

“Is… Is this? Are you? Is…” You asked after what felt like both days and milliseconds, I could stare at them so much longer, he thought to himself, the colors only making your face more clear to him. Had you really not had eye contact at all? Had you seen each other for several hours – more than a few times, without looking each other in the eyes at all? Kuroo was more baffled by this happening so late than the fact that it was happening.

He was about to say something, anything, when you promptly turned around, nervously yelling, “I-I uh, I gotta go! Goodbye!” as you hurried out of the driveway and down towards the subway.

“W-wait!” Kuroo belatedly and unhelpfully yelled out as you turned a corner, too late. You were gone. A hand was dragged down his face as a sigh left him, what the fuck had just happened? He obviously needed to talk to you about this, but he also needed to gather his thoughts about all of this, so he slowly closed the door and went back towards the living room, greeted by Hinata and Kenma who looked up at him curiously, “why did you yell?” Hinata asked with his head tilted.

“I think I just found my soulmate.”

[alienaiver]

Half the Battle, pt. 2

Kuroo Tetsurou x gn!reader

find part one here!

warnings: a bit more angst than previous part regarding parents/choices made about the child without the child(”did this for the child, but didnt ask the child what would be best for them”, excusing it/no forced forgiveness though), kenhina and tsukiyachi mentioned, parkinsons disease is mentioned, kuroo cries quite a bit, NOT beta-read! always do lmk if i missed a warning!

wordcount: 5.4k

content: soulmate AU, mild angst, happy ending, soft hurt/comfort, post timeskip but slight canon divergence (haven’t finished the manga yet so loosely based off of canon timeskip), gender neutral reader, mario party references

notes: phew, here is the second part of my work @gg9183 ‘s soulmate collab! i apologize for my late second part, i hope itll be worth the wait! i realized after writing this that kuroo actually has an older sibling but uh. here hes an only child lolol, sorry abt that!

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As he was walking down the once so familiar street towards his childhood home he felt an uncomfortable bile settle in his stomach. The pavement, the road and the bicycle stands were all the same, the buildings lining the street were the same and the trees were the same – albeit a bit taller – so why? Why did he feel like he was walking in a new part of town – one that he’d never been to before, but still somehow had a sense of direction in? As he looked to the right he saw that the apartment complex above the convenience store was orange – at least, it was the same color as Hinata’s hair, which had been one of his ‘physical flashcards’ last night before going to bed in a haze. The sun had barely just risen, painting the whole area in warm colors. The autumn wind bit at him but with his jacket – his green jacket, honestly who would buy such a hideous jacket? Surely no one who could see colors, he thought – pulled tight around his shoulders, he could keep the cold out. He’d fallen asleep easily enough but hadn’t been able to fall back asleep as he awoke from a dream around 5AM. Had it been a nightmare? He couldn’t really tell, the second he woke up the dream had already become a blur, the only thing he knew for certain was that the dream was about you. What you didn’t do to him, honestly, he should ask for compensation with all these messy thoughts and feelings you had already left in his head, not even 24 hours after learning you're his soulmate

Kuroo sucked in a breath after realizing he’d been holding it. He was sitting on the couch between Kenma and Hinata with a glass of water in his hands – he had honestly never cared much for what this moment would be like so now that he was going through it, what the fuck was he supposed to do? He was shaking, he realized uselessly as he lifted the glass to his lips. This felt… unfamiliar and out of his element and he once again felt reminded that something was out of his control and that something was you. Maybe Kuroo’s life would be seen as predictable to outsiders but he had his routines, his plans, he was calm and collected through most work-related crises and he always had a back-up plan for his back-up plan! He was meticulous, careful and always in some form of control of any given situation, that was how his life had thrived for so many years and why – in his opinion – his life was as successful as it was.

In hindsight, it would’ve made sense if he had planned for a situation like this, had made a mental plan for the meeting of a potential soulmate, maybe written up some documents on what pros and cons and grievances he would have with the whole ordeal but whenever he actually thought of doing that, he stopped himself and shook his head over his own desensitized and square mentality – he sometimes had to remind himself that love wasn’t something he could negotiate his way in – or out – of. But if he was being honest, he had cared a lot about not caring about his soulmate so of course he wouldn’t put time and energy into such an endeavor! He was pulled out of his thoughts as Hinata brought yet another item in front of his face, “and this is yellow, Kuroo! Can you remember them?”

“I have a soulmate,” he just replied flatly for the second time during the last 20 minutes, staring blankly into the distance. Kenma let a hand rest on Kuroo’s back as a way to remind him that he was there to support him whenever he would wish for it. “Yea Kuroo, congratulations again! But do you remember which one of these were red?” Hinata now held up two switch controllers in different colors and Kuroo furrowed his brows before pointing to the one on the right.

“Kuroo, that’s blue…”

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Ringing the doorbell to the apartment he’d spent at least 10 years in felt awkward and he winced at the act of doing so but he wasn’t actually sure his mom would be awake – or even home, for that matter.

The clock hadn’t even passed 6.30AM on a Goddamn Sunday, the most holy of his – few – days off. His hands had become clammy despite the cool air and he insistently wiped them on his jacket – again, who had allowed him to buy such a bright and green jacket? - before ringing the doorbell again, and again, and again… he clicked his tongue in frustration and looked around, feeling panic rise, he really hadn’t planned for her to not be home. As he was about to turn around and figure out a new move he heard a noise from inside the apartment and seconds after, the lock clicked open,

“All right, who the hell shows u-”, his mother’s scolding stopped dead in the tracks as she got eye contact with her son. Her son whose eyes were wet, wet with fat tears threatening to spill and a bottom lip thoroughly bitten from worrying teeth, his whole expression reminding her of when he came home with scraped knees that wouldn’t stop bleeding when he was but a little child. Her expression immediately softened before opening the door completely for her son, beckoning him to come inside, “my dear, come inside, it’s cold out here. I’ll make us some tea.”

As Kuroo entered his old home his first move was to look around for Cucumber as he slipped off his jacket and shoes but he was nowhere to find in the narrow hallway. Though, as soon as Kuroo passed his mother’s room where the door was left open, he immediately spotted the round ball of fluff, triumphing on the top of a pillow up close by the headboard, barely sparing Kuroo a glance before he settled back into a comfortable sleeping position. Kuroo chuckled slightly, Cucumber never was a morning kind of cat, always cranky when Kuroo got up in the wee hours of morning to sneak in a work-out before he had to be at the office. Cucumber had this belief that if he didn’t see the act of his bowl getting filled up with food, he had most definitely not gotten fed, so Kuroo always had to force him up those days to fill the bowl in front of the sleepy cat so he didn’t go about howling the entire day until he got off from work on late afternoons, completely ignoring the fact that the bowl was, in fact, full. An idiot cat to be sure, but those kind of quirks made him even more lovable to Kuroo.

He then followed his mom into the kitchen area where she had already started to boil water, finding cups and tea in the cupboards while the water was on.

Kuroo went over to the counter to help his mother, who was also – as she always did when guests arrived – preparing some snacks of a kind, this time it was grapes and apple slices she was cutting.

“Ma, you don’t have to do that, I’m not a guest,” he tried though he knew it was pointless, “nonsense! You probably haven’t eaten, fruit is good for you in the morning!”

Kuroo chuckled dryly, choosing to go for making the tea now that the kettle had finished boiling in the corner.

Kuroo sat down first, eagerly avoiding eye contact with his mother who came over to his seat and cupped his cheeks, a soft and empathetic smile on her lips, “you look tired,” she stated before sitting down in the chair in front of him.

A deep sigh left Kuroo and he fiddled with the handle of his teacup for a few seconds before bracing himself and looking up towards his mother.

“You can see colors.”

The statement was short, his mother’s eyes wide, wider than Kuroo thinks he’s ever seen them and Kuroo immediately mirrored her surprised expression because how the hell did she know that?

“A mother knows,” she chuckled as if reading her son’s mind, “you can, can’t you?” she then asked, looking at him with a calmer expression. Kuroo bit his lip again and took in a deep breath.

“Mom I’m terrified,” he admitted, doing everything in his power to avoid eye contact with her, not sure what would happen if he did so.

“Of what, my dear?” she asked, but she had to admit she already knew the answer, she wasn’t completely oblivious to her son’s rather extreme disdain to the whole soulmate part of the universe and she felt a pang of guilt from the pits of her stomach – she wasn’t in the dark about how this was her fault as well.

“Soulmates… I don’t want to be forced with a person. I don’t.. I don’t know them! What if they’re like dad? What if-”

“Your dad wasn’t and isn’t a bad human being, there’s no reason to fear a person like him,” his mother sighed, taking a sip of her scalding hot tea – as if she hadn’t just dropped a bomb in Kuroo’s mind.

His eyes widened impossibly more than they’ve had been during the past 24 hours, because how could his dad not be a bad human being? He left them, he hurt his mother so much that Kuroo wasn’t even ever told why he left, he never contacted Kuroo, never reached out or tried to get to know his own son, he let his mother work two shitty jobs to support the two of them for at least the five first years they spent together in Tokyo and even though Kuroo knew there were letters between the two of them, he still couldn’t wrap his head around the claim that he wasn’t a scumbag – that’s what Kuroo had believed, told himself all those years.

He was torn out of his spiraling thoughts by a weight landing on his lap, looking down to find Cucumber, purring and kneading into him, giving every part of him he could reach headbutts – so now the cat realized who it was who’d come in through the door, huh? Kuroo momentarily felt calm, his hands reaching down to pet his cat, as if the cat knew he needed some emotional support.

“Ma I don’t exactly understand, what the fuck do you mean?”

Another sigh escaped his mother and Kuroo grew frustrated, why was she so calm?

“You must know, Tetsurou my dear, there was never a lack of love between your dad and I, and never any lack of love towards you, but your dad, he’s…” she looked around the kitchen, her mouth moving soundlessly as if tasting her own words before letting them leave her mouth, “your dad was ill. Is ill, and when he decided he needed to leave us, there wasn’t anything I could do to stop him, as his soulmate I understood his reasons, I couldn’t – even if I had wanted to – stand in his way, you see,”

Kuroo’s emotions flared up again, his blood boiling. After over 20 years of suffering, of hurt, of loneliness, of fear, that was the weakest explanation he’d ever heard of and the fact that his mother had agreed to do this to him only fueled him further on, “I never knew anything, you never told me anything! I’ve been terrified of meeting my soulmate! Terrified, ma!” a gross sob escaped from Kuroo’s mouth, a hand immediately flying up to cover it, to cover the many more he was afraid would spill if he didn’t physically hold himself back. His mother started crying as well, albeit her tears fell calmer than her son’s, “I know it wasn’t right but… he didn’t want you to know, Tetsurou I don’t expect you to ever forgive us but, he’s my soulmate, I’d do anything for him, I’m bound to him that way,” she tried, to which Kuroo retorted, “but I am your son,” feeling betrayed. Was he going to do something like this to his future children if he ever had any? Completely throwing them under the bus if his soulmate asked him to? He couldn’t ever imagine putting an adult before a child, he just.. couldn’t.

“My love, we may not have ended up doing right by you, but he did it in good faith, in faith that it would be better for you this way – it might not have been the best decision but he did with what he had at the time, your father… your father has early onset Parkinson’s and it hit him like a freight train when he was 31, he couldn’t… he couldn’t bear to let you see him like that, he had to be put in a nursing home a year after he got the diagnosis, you must understand… he didn’t want to become a burden to us, didn’t want us to suffer.”

“I fought a lot with him about it, about his decision because he would never be a burden, not to me. But he had set his sights on this, and after many months of fighting – as I’m terribly sure you remember -  of fighting with tooth and nail for all of us to stay together, I had to accept that this was ultimately his decision alone.”

The explanation somewhat helped Kuroo understand more, he wasn’t sure if it would ever change or dissipate his anger, but the rational part of his brain took over and made him calm down – even if it was just a little. Even if he still felt hurt and betrayed and left behind by his own dad, even if he still cursed his dad for choosing to not be a part of his life, he could rationalize over why the decision was made. He also realized fighting with his mother about it right now wouldn’t help a thing, wouldn’t change a thing, so he willed his nerves to calm down with a sip of his tea. “I’m not sure how I feel… about all of this, my head is a mess, I’m...” he took in a big gulp of breath and for the first time since he came into his childhood home this morning looked properly at his mother, “whatever all of this did to me, it actually did help  with my fear of my soulmate… I think, I’m still not sure,”

“What are they like?” his mother smiled cautiously at him, knowing she wasn’t exactly forgiven just because he wouldn’t deal with it all right now, but still curious and wanting to support her son.

Kuroo couldn’t help the small smile that fell on his lips as he saw you in his mind’s eye. “Amazing, ma, simply amazing. They’re… they feel warm and bubbly, somehow? And their smile is the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen and they… they’re really good at making me laugh. I feel at ease with them, I think,” Kuroo rambled on, already feeling in a weird giddy mood thinking about all the good things about you. “But it’s… it’s funny, I thought they were bad… evil, or something, the first few days before we found out we were soulmates”

His mother chuckled and looked at him with a puzzled look, “first few days? How long did it take you?”

Kuroo sheepishly looked down at Cucumber who had fallen back asleep on his lap, curled down to a round ball of fluff, “well we met Wednesday… and I just found out last night.”

His mother’s hands hit the table so hard in shock that she woke up Cucumber but all he really did was lift his head and look at her quizzically. “You met them and then not until four days after, you find out your soulmates?” she laughed, a warm laugh from deep in her belly that rang through the small kitchen and Kuroo couldn’t help but chuckle as well before scratching the back of his head, “yeaaah, apparently we both had been avoiding eye contact like crazy. I felt weird every time we had met, like I was desperate to see them again but I mistook it for something negative and convinced myself they were bad for Kenma, they work as his video editor.”

------------

“Kenma, can you give me their phone number?” Kuroo stood awkwardly against the door frame, feeling giddy and terrified at the same time. It was now past lunch time and he had just arrived back at Kenma’s. The talks he had with his mother cleared up a lot of things and she had been happy to answer all of his questions, and even though there were still a lot of healing to do, he felt more confident to approach you and.. get to know you. Kenma didn’t look up from his phone, “oh? You don’t know their number?”

“What do you mean? Of course I don’t, I met them the other day.”

“Hmm. There must be a mistake then, you know when you meet your soulmate, their phone number will also be engraved into your memory forever, right?”

Kuroo stared blankly down at Kenma who was still sitting unaffected in his chair, neutral facial expression, scrolling through the phone in his right hand.

“What?”

“Yeah, it’s how it is. Trust me, I’ve had my soulmate for years,”

“Tell me Kenma, what is Chibi-chan’s number, then?”

“Aw but Kuroo, I’m not on trial here, am I? After all, I’m simply helping you, you are pretty new to the soulmate thing, seeing as you refused to learn about it all these years,”

Kuroo was honest to God close to panicking, he didn’t know your phone number! Had there been a mistake? Did that change your status as soulmates? Did this change everything? Did he go through all of this just to live with a real-life glitch? A hand ran through his hair in panic before he heard the quiet chuckle from Kenma who had a smile on his lips that Kuroo didn’t see very often but looked just as mischievous as Kuroo’s could - they were best friends, after all.

“Alright Kenma you bag of poop, send me their number,”

“I already sent their contact info to you, like, four minutes ago, keep up old man.”

Kuroo chuckled darkly, “you’ll pay for this,” before whipping out his phone and going back to the living room, ignoring whatever reply Kenma had jabbed at him.

Opening up the message from Kenma he saw that he had shared your contact and somehow he felt dizzy when he clicked on your name and saw all kinds of information in there like your birthday and your address besides your e-mail and number. He was about to ask Kenma why he had all that but remembered that while you were friends, Kenma was technically also your employer, and probably needed it for those kind of reasons. Kuroo swiped around and deleted all the information about you except for your name and number, deciding he wanted to learn all this information naturally, while getting to know you.

As he sat down on the living room couch he went in and out of the call list, even trying to opt for a text to you but after writing half a sentence, always deleting it again.

After scrolling his phone for what felt like hours (and a Kenma who yelled “just call them!” from his office) his finger hovered over the ‘call’ button, almost pressing it at least a dozen times before removing his finger again, a sigh left his lips, was it really so hard to call you? You were his soulmate goddamn it, it should be easy, right?

------------

You were lazing on your couch, answering the flashcards your phone provided about colors from the app Color Found. It was a free, first on the list version of the thousands of apps made for people who had just found their soulmates and now needed to learn and navigate in all the world’s colors. When your phone started ringing in your hand with an unknown caller ID you yelped and almost threw it across the room. Could it be…? But how did he get your number? Did Kenma give it to him? Did Kuroo tell him you were soulmates? You groaned, remembering once again, that you had just left him at the door last night, hurrying home in the biggest panic you’d ever felt, your cheeks burning the entire time. It wouldn’t be weird for him to try and contact you after that, right? You inhaled deeply before nervously clicking the green button and taking it up to your ear, “h-hello?”

“Hello! This is Alexander from LiteWare speaking, I’m just calling you with an offer on...” you sighed deeply, letting him finish his sentence before politely telling him you weren’t interested and hanging up. All that panic for nothing, for a phone seller. It reminded you that you had to get your number private some way, they were getting really inclined to call you all the time, even on a Sunday afternoon.

------------

You were pacing back and forth in your living room, trying to gain control of your breathing and of your heartbeat. The ride home from Kenma had felt several hours longer than usual and if you really stopped to feel, you’d notice how exhausted you truly were, but that feeling was pushed away and your energy was redirected to your current thoughts of “what the fuck, what the fuck”. Kuroo was objectively very handsome, charming and he was really good at making you smile and relax – you had immensely enjoyed his company over the last few days but you thought it had just been that, a puppy crush on a handsome man giving you his undivided attention – screw the fact that you’d dreamed about him last night and felt an indescribable pull towards him whenever your thoughts wandered to him at home – he was your soulmate!? All signs pointed towards it, the undeniable fact that you could see colors made your eyes screw shut – a headache was sneaking its way into you, arriving from your eyes being overworked with all the impressions you didn’t have the mental capacity to filter properly right now.

As you threw yourself down on your couch with a groan and your hands covering your face, you took in a long breath and stilled your body completely until you exhaled again, already feeling a bit calmer. So… Kuroo was your soulmate, alright, that was a manageable fact, you could work with this, right? This wasn’t the end of the world, right? He was a good person, he was funny, charming and his cooking was good, right? What else did you really know about him? He’d told you about his job, about his life, his childhood – mostly the parts related to Kenma since he was your common link – and of his cat who sounded like the most adorable idiot you’d ever heard of. The headache was starting to become too much so you went to your kitchen to get a glass of water and an aspirin. It was going to be fine, right now all you needed was to take a shower and go to bed, you had a brunch tomorrow with a friend, it wouldn’t help staying up all night fretting about him when you probably were bound to be together a lot more in the future anyways. This, you could fix tomorrow after your meet up with your friend who you hadn’t seen in a long while! That was definitely the most logical thing to do, right?

------------

Your brunch had gone well, your friend laughing their ass off about how you had both just left your soulmate at the door and hurried home and spent four days figuring it out, teasing you about how badly you had managed to woo him then. A good chunk of the time had been spent talking about him, about colors, about possible future life together, “would you like kids with him? Are you going to move in with him?” to which you mostly had shrugged and said you would like to get to know him more before making any drastic decisions like that, though your friend hadn’t been too understanding because when they’d met their soulmate several years earlier, they’d moved in practically a week later, since they were “bound to anyway” and while you did see their point of view you also felt like just because you were soulmates didn’t mean you’d get along perfectly always and all the different sides of you would most definitely piss him off or catch him off guard if he had to learn them about you after you moved in, imagine if he hated electric toothbrushes? And you just waltzed in there in a week with one, or if he enjoyed quiet mornings and you just woke him up with talking or made his coffee wrong! There were so many parts of relationships that you felt came naturally through getting to know each other along the way and speed running through it all just because you were meant to be felt both bad and like it took some of the magic of a relationship away, but maybe he didn’t feel the same way? After all, you hadn’t really given him a chance yesterday to establish any sort of thoughts or expectations and you had started to feel bad for him that you’d just run away all by yourself. He must be panicking too, right? You know you definitely would if you got left like that. Feeling the a new kind of panic settling in your stomach you got up and threw on a jacket and shoes before almost running to the subway. Bile rose in your throat from thinking about if he was hurting or suffering, if he was somehow in pain because of this and of what you did, you didn’t really know him, maybe this had been his one insecurity about a soulmate. You laughed a bit at your own fear and panic that you were feeling for him, but nonetheless still hurried off to Kenma’s place.

Your phone rang in your pocket as you walked down the stairs from the subway, you picked it up without looking, “hello?” you cursed yourself for sounding out of breath.

“Hello? This is.. uh… this is... uh Kuroo. Kuroo Tetsurou.”

You stopped in your tracks, your brain short circuiting, looking around you as if he was supposed to be physically close to you right now, “oh! Hi. Uh, hello..” you tried again, a hand running down your face at the most lame response you could ever come up with.

“Hey, yea, uh, Kenma gave me your number. I hope that was alright… I didn’t want to do something to overstep your boundaries, I uh-” you laughed a bit at his awkwardness, he had been such a smooth talker the past few days but right now it seemed like words failed him as much as they did you.

“I’m almost at your house,” you interrupted and a silence followed, “at my house? Do you know where I live?” he asked dumbly and you let out a curse before correcting yourself,

“Kenma’s! I mean Kenma’s, I don’t know your address of course! I haven’t googled you or anything!”

A laugh rang through your phone, the cute laugh you’d heard yesterday and you felt yourself relax, “I’m happy to know I didn’t permanently scare you off, should I meet you on the way? Not sure how much Kenma feels like listening to… us. Uh, not that anything’s going to happen, of course! Just thinking we have a lot to talk about. We could take a walk in the park nearby?”

You nodded and stood silently until he coughed a bit and cautiously said, “I really hope you’re nodding right now and haven’t left me on… will that be called left on heard? Is that grammatically correct?” an airy laugh left you as you started walking again, “Sorry, I was nodding, yeah, let’s meet at the south entrance of the park.”

When you got close enough that you could see the entrance to the park you also spotted Kuroo immediately who stood bundled up in what looked like a comfortable warm autumn-appropriate jacket and a scarf wrapped around his neck. His hands were hiding in his pockets and you assumed they might’ve been cold, since it had been quite a chilly day even though it was only early autumn. In your mind you practiced saying hello casually to him, wondering how casual you were supposed to be, right before you reached him you also decided it would be wise to start off with an apology for leaving him like that last night.

“Kuroo! Sorry about hello!”

A hand shot up to cover your mouth in complete embarrassment and shock. This was the worst entrance you could make! Another loud laughter came from him as he clutched his stomach and bent over slightly and you smiled a bit, his laugh really did something to your nerves and you laughed a bit with him, “I forgive you about your hello then,” he grinned before leaning towards you to give you a hug, maybe? You panicked and as you were seconds from puckering your lips you decided to reach out with a hand to give him a handshake and he smiled, “you must be very good at business meetings, this handshake is firm,” he laughed but couldn’t deny the extreme shade of red that ran all the way up his ears from touching you again. You hastily brought back your hand and beckoned for him to walk next to you through the park.

As the two of you walked Kuroo kept glancing between you and the near-empty park. There were a few parents and their children over by the playground and you had passed a few people as you followed the trail around.

“I’m just going to start, I think. I don’t think we should move in together in the near future, I think I’d like to get to know you first,” you said confidently before looking nervously up at him, “whoa, I also like to think I should take you to a dinner first,” he grinned to hide his nervousness.

“Listen Kuroo, I uh. I obviously like you, even before I knew you were my soulmate I felt really attracted to you, I think we’re going to bring a lot of good out of each other, and I… I’d like to believe we could be happy together, but… while half the battle is finding your soulmate in this big, bright world, I also think you’re supposed to fight for next part. Like, I don’t believe we’ll be happy just because we found each other. Relationships takes work, I think, and they’re not always… Easy. I know I’m not always easy to be around, I can be frustrating and maybe also endlessly annoying – and I’m sure you’re going to have some quirks and traits that I will find frustrating and annoying and… I’m rambling, aren’t I? Oh god, why are you crying?”

Sparkles. Fireworks. That’s what Kuroo felt going on behind his eyelids as he had stared at you and listened intently to what you had to say. He had spent so long being against soulmates, thinking they would just be some person shoved at him by the universe, someone he would be forced to be with, someone he might even end up loathing one day but you… you spoke directly to his heart and it was in this moment he realized that soulmates weren’t just a random person he was forced to be with, it was… a person meant for you, a person that would fit like the other half of a set, a person who you would click with, a person you were meant to fall in love with and love for the rest of your life. Your words had been so simple and polite and so clear you were talking to a person you hadn’t even known for a week but they had shot right through him and he hadn’t even noticed that tears had fallen from his eyes before you had stopped and looked up at him with such worry that he felt a pang of guilt for crying in front of you out of the blue.

“Nothing, I’m just… really glad I’m going to be sharing my life with you, I think. I couldn’t agree more with all you just said.”

You smiled shyly at him before locking your hands together. “Well then, Kuroo Tetsurou, shall we continue to try and steal stars from each other from now on then?”

He laughed and wiped a tear before leaning down and giving you a gentle peck on the lips, “oh most definitely! And remember, all’s fair in love and war, right?”