#THE TITLE MAY CHANGE THO LMFAO THAT WAS JUST. ON THE SPOT BCOS I HAD TO POST LOLOL

[alienaiver]

Power-up

Kuroo Tetsurou x gn!reader

warnings: none! (lmk if i missed anything though) wordcount: 3.1k content: fluff!!!!,rivals to lovers, childhood friends, valentines day, pre-timeskip, confessions, canon compliant, written in one sitting/not beta’d, gender neutral reader, reader is a second year with kenma, kuroo is a third year, reader makes chocolate, theres minimal bickering compared to this being rivals lmfao, kuroo flirts thru his bickering but reader doesnt notice, kenma pushes the idiots along bcos hes both smart and tired

notes: this is made for @ryesei ‘s confession collab! i actually.. am on the fence about whether or not i like this. it was fun writing! and thats the most important part of course, but ive been in a slump but had to finish it. im glad i did!! i hope you like it <3 also kenma has a wii bcos the canon universe pre-timeskip probably didnt have a switch ijfsejf Happy Valentine’s day!!!

___

“Wanna stop by and play the new Mario Party after school?” Kenma barely looked up from his PSP when he asked you the question, both of you sitting on the roof eating lunch together. You smiled at him as you stole a meatball from his lunchbox, “only if we buy chips on the way.”

School went by without a hitch, and you said goodbye to some classmates before walking over to Kenma’s class. As he walked out of the classroom you were about to call for him but someone else came before you, “Kenma!” Your expression probably rivaled Kenma’s when he was disgusted, recognizing the voice immediately to be Kuroo Tetsurou’s. You didn’t… hate his guts but he did rub you in all the wrong ways, had been doing that since childhood. When Kuroo showed up and carved out a seat in Kenma’s life, you’d acted like a brat about it (what could you do, you were seven and he was your friend) which had set you and Kuroo out for the worst start possible, always picking fights with him about this and that, a need to be better than him rising.

It had mellowed down after the first year but then when puberty started, and you realized how… pretty Kuroo was, how he was actually… funny. You hated that, so you’d only scaled up the rivalry again as to remind yourself how absolutely terrible he was and that your attraction to him was merely a hormonal thing.

As you reached the both of them you smiled at Kenma, “ready to leave?” he looked between you and Kuroo, both of you sporting an annoyed look with strained smiles. Kenma sighed, feeling like his plan may have backfired.

“I asked the both of you because it’s not fun only being two players,” he said before Kuroo could ask what the hell you meant by your question because it was supposed to be with him. It felt like electricity was being shot between you both, but you also knew that arguing with Kenma would be useless.

As you walked down toward the convenience store, you took a second to admire Kuroo (very much in secret, of course). He’d gotten taller now that he was a third year, his hair dumber too, you thought with a snicker. Once when one of your fights had become physical, you’d pulled at his hair and if he asked, you’d never admit to staring at your hand for 20 minutes before falling asleep that night, trying to remember the feel of the texture.

“Don’t you have volley practice today, Morning Hair?” you sulked as you jogged up next to Kenma. Kuroo looked down at you with a snicker, “and here I thought you were the smart one,” raising his arms dramatically “well you can’t have beauty and brains I guess…” you were about to yell at him before he retorted “if I had practice today wouldn’t Kenma as well?” he tutted at you and you felt heat rise to your face, feeling dumb because he was right and that annoyed the hell out of you. You pouted as you trained your eyes forward, ignoring how he was smiling triumphantly at you.

You spent a good 10 minutes in the convenience store, loudly arguing with Kuroo about which chips would be best – he wanted cheese puffs but those would make Kenma’s controllers disgusting you argued to which he’d replied that he’d use chopsticks to eat them with an “are you dumb?” kind of expression. Kenma stood outside the convenience store, embarrassed at your antics while clearing a mini dungeon in his game, if only you’d be done soon…

 As you all sat down with a controller in hand, Kenma booted up his Nintendo Wii. You’d put the snacks in bowls and poured water for everyone, sitting comfortably. The game progressed in a surprisingly orderly fashion with minimum bickering between you and Kuroo – much to Kenma’s surprise. Of course, you made it a point to only steal from Kuroo when given the opportunity and vice versa, but other than that the atmosphere was calmer than Kenma had originally feared. The game ended and Kuroo went to the bathroom. Kenma looked at you, decided that now was the time, “why don’t you give Kuroo valentine chocolates this year?” You looked at him indignantly, huffing out a breath, “Him? Why?” you tried to sound angrier than you felt – you felt embarrassed, like a kid who’d been busted in going to the pantry for cookies. “Okay, let’s cut the crap real quick. I know you like him, and I think you should give him chocolates.” Kenma gave you a deadpan expression and you felt your heart beat faster, he knew?!

Kuroo came back before you could continue the discussion and you were both relieved and frustrated. Give Kuroo chocolates? That Kuroo? He’d hold it above you for months – if not years. You opted for another game, but you were wildly distracted. Had Kuroo sat down closer to you this time around? In the middle of the game, as you were about to calm down, Kenma said out loud, “do any of you hope for chocolates this year?”

Smalltalk wasn’t really a Kenma thing, and you knew he was fishing based on your short conversation earlier. “Nah, I won’t get from someone who matters,” Kuroo said quizzically, and Kenma almost rolled his eyes – why were both of his friends such idiots? “You giving anyone?” Kuroo conversationally asked Kenma, taking a sip from his water. Kenma shrugged, “I thought of giving some to Hinata, but I won’t see him on the day.” Kuroo snickered, “aw, would you make them yourself as well?” Kenma made another shrug, “if I knew how.”

You smiled proudly, “I can help, Kenma? I’m good at homemade chocolates!”

Kuroo bellowed out a big laugh, the hyena one that made your ears ring if he asked and your stomach twist in tickling knots, grabbing his own stomach while he bended over. You puffed out your cheeks and pouted, “whatcha laughing at, Rooster?”

Kuroo wiped an invisible tear from his eye, taking a deep breath, “I cannot for the life of me imagine you making decent chocolates.”

That fueled another feeling in you that sat deep in your stomach for the rest of the afternoon, not disappearing even when you were home in bed later that night. You pouted again and mumbled, “I’ll show him fucking delicious chocolates,” before you angrily turned around to face the wall.

____

As the weekend came around you went grocery shopping for ingredients needed for homemade chocolates. You weren’t sure what kind of chocolates he’d prefer so as you swallowed your pride, you texted Kenma and asked for Kuroo’s favorites. A reply came soon after.

Dark chocolate, sometimes with nuts. Good luck (:

 You ignored his last comment, choosing to solely focus on the information you needed. You gave yourself a mental pep talk and slapped your cheeks twice before entering the store. As you walked around the different aisles you thought about why you went along with giving him chocolates. It’d been a few days since his rude comment and you weren’t as emotionally invested in the spite anymore, but rather felt nervous and fidgety at the thought. Accepting the thought that you might actually be in love with him was a big pill to swallow, you’d spent a big part of your life loathing him – was it for show? You weren’t completely out of tune with your emotions, you knew you were attracted to him, but that was just physical, right?

You put the ingredients down in your basket, checking off the list on your phone as you thought about him again. Yeah, physically he was attractive, the athletic build helping the superficial arguments of why you liked him, you shrugged. But he was also funny – though you’d never laugh at his jokes in front of him – and despite his attitude, he was kind. He never provoked you more than you could take. He’d made you cry, once. He’d said something about your looks when you were a first year that’d hit too close to your insecurities, and you hadn’t been able to hold back the tears spilling from your eyes or the puffiness of your cheeks as you’d tried to stop yourself from biting too hard on your bottom lip. He’d apologized immediately and the next day a big-sized pack of your favorite candy was placed on your desk. It didn’t take many questions to classmates who’d all seen a handsome second year student place them there, though he’d held a finger to his mouth with a smirk, acting like it had to be a secret that it was him.

As you put the freeze-dried raspberry sprinkles in the basket you think about how you’d also seen him bend down to talk to stray cats for ten or even twenty minutes, petting them and you were probably the only other person who knew he had cat treats in his jacket pocket.  He was always kind and polite to your mother if he saw her in the building and the one time he’d been invited over for tea on one of her whims, he’d politely accepted and sat with her for an hour talking. When you’d gotten home your eyes had widened at seeing him in your kitchen – in your seat – drinking tea with your mother and engaging lively in her conversations. He’d then started teasing you about your room but never once mentioned to other people the dorky posters you had hanging from childhood still.

As you put down the vanilla extract in your basket you thought that maybe, just maybe, he only had this rivalry to humor you – you wouldn’t put it past him, at least. You swallowed thickly and went to the check out. In a daze you went home with the bag of ingredients and started making them.

Your mom liked to bake so you had some molds at home you could use to make the chocolates. You even had heart-shaped molds, which made you squeeze your eyes together as your cheeks heated up. You pushed them further into the back of the cabinet until you were ready to face them.

 The chocolates turned out beautiful and they tasted amazing too. You smirked, “that’ll show him!” you proudly announced as you taste-tested the one with almonds in them. You hummed in delight to yourself as you looked around for the cellophane you bought the other day to wrap them up in, cutting an appropriate piece of it and started placing the chocolates. You chose the ones who’d turn out the best, ending up with 11 good pieces for him. You then cut a piece of ribbon to tie up the cellophane with, proudly admiring your work. Yeah, he probably wouldn’t believe his own eyes! You gently put them in the fridge before cleaning the kitchen.

 As you woke up that Monday morning you felt nervousness creep at the edges of your being, brushing your teeth more thoroughly and caring a bit more about your hair than usual. You packed your bag and carefully put the chocolates in it too, making sure not to bend it around too much. Your mom asked who they were for and wriggled her eyebrows but you just shouted they were for Kenma as you left for school.

 Getting through the first period was torture, you were so distracted by thoughts of Kuroo – really, if admitting to yourself that you liked him made you like this, what wouldn’t giving the chocolates do? You caught yourself hiding your face in your hands more times that you could count as you felt your brain short circuit for the nth time that day – and it wasn’t even lunch yet!

 What should I do how should I give them to him

 You texted Kenma in a panic during the early recess, worried about your heartrate being this high – surely you were physically unwell right now, right?

 literally just hand them to him with your own hands?

 You scoffed, that didn’t help a single thing! You sighed dramatically as you let your head hit your desk. You really weren’t going to survive this, were you? People in class were walking around giving each other chocolates, wishing each other Happy Valentine’s. You summoned the courage you needed and created a new message to Kuroo. Huh, you’d never texted, you realized as the chat between you were empty.

 Meet me at the roof during lunch

 You shoved your phone back in your bag as the bell rang, trying to control your breathing. You did your best to survive until lunch, forced to confess to one teacher you didn’t know the answer when she had called out for you (you barely knew what the question even was).

As lunch started you grabbed your entire bag and jogged towards the roof – you weren’t about to pull out homemade chocolates in front of your classmates, there’d be too many questions. You were alone at the roof for at least ten minutes, making your heart race impossibly faster and sweat to gather in your palms.

You threw yourself on the ground and unpacked your lunch when you hit 15 minutes of waiting – you weren’t going to miss your meal just because he was a jerk. You angrily ranted to Kenma on text, telling him how bad this idea had been and how you cursed him for making you do this. Kenma genuinely sounded worried that you’d almost waited for 20 minutes now, saying he would figure it out.

You scoffed and went back to your lunchbox, angrily gobbling down your food. You heard the door to the roof open and accidentally yelped out loud in surprise, dropping your lunchbox. The rest of the rice from it fell on the ground and you let out a strangled noise in defeat. You heard your name be called cautiously, sounding like he was almost afraid that you’d answer. You get up from your seat on the ground and wipe your sweaty hands on your jacket, glad that today was sunny despite being winter. When you spot Kuroo your heart stops for just a second before going into overdrive. He’s blushing – like, his ears are burning and you can see the redness extend down his neck. His hair is dripping water and you catch yourself looking up at the sky in confusion, it hadn’t rained? Had it?

He clears his throat and nears you, “you uh. You wanted me to come up… here?” he looks around frantically, doing everything in his power to not look at you. You put your hands on your hips in a disapproving manner, “yeah Kuroo, who the fuck makes someone wait 25 minutes!?” he winces at your voice and wheezes at the timestamp, “it was that long? Shit I’m sorry I was just. Uh. In the bathroom,” he tries but his excuse ends up sounding more gross than believable and he closes his eyes and take a deep breath.

You shake your head at him, opting to bend down at take out the chocolates from your bag, walking over to stand right in front of him. You had words planned for this part. Two kinds, actually. One that gloated about making beautiful and delicious chocolates to make him apologize for being rude and one that told him you’d been gentle with making them and hoped they’d convey your feelings for him – but planning two apparently didn’t matter when you ended up tongue tied, your body opting to just shove the bag of chocolates into his chest while looking at the ground.

A surprised grunt left him and he raised his arms to take them from you, a string of words coming out of his mouth in a jumbled mess, “is this? Are they for? Did you make these?” is all he gets out and you nod aggressively, forcing yourself to look at him. “I like them so apologize!” you say dramatically, only for your hands to fly to your mouth – apparently planning two confessions heightened the chance of mixing them together in the heat of the moment. Kuroo wheezes before a full-blown laugh leaves him, this time with a stray tear actually leaving his eye. He keeps laughing for God knows how long and your frustration and anger melts into a laugh as well, scratching your cheek. “I.. uh, made them for you, because it’s… It’s Valentine’s Day.” You try but suddenly remember his words.

I won’t get from someone who matters..

So you hurriedly raise your arms in front of you, “but don’t feel forced to uh! Return anything and you can just ignore my confession!”

He looks up at the sky with a smile on his face, “is this how you confess? Really?” before looking at you with the most genuine and warm smile he’d ever given you – and you almost take a step back from the feelings in your stomach upon seeing it. You go to grab your bag from the ground to leave him, not in the mood to be made fun of when he clearly didn’t like you back.

As you’re about to walk past him he grabs your arm and clears his throat, “what if I… do want to return them? The feelings I mean, not the chocolate.”

You looked back at him with wide eyes and as you get eye contact with him you realize he’s never been as dorky looking as he is right now. His smile is kinda wobbly, the blush has taken a hold of his entire face and neck and the look he sends you is so genuinely nervous but adorable that you can’t help but puff out a laugh yourself, “is that how you confess? Really?” you retort but turn around to face him again with a nervous smile matching his. Yeah, maybe it wasn’t so bad to say out loud that you liked him. Even if he could be a menace and almost stole your best friend when you were kids, even if he laughed more at his own jokes than anyone else did. “wanna eat the chocolate together?” he tries, plopping down on the pipes of the ventilation system. You sit down next to him, “I’ve already eaten my fill – plus you gotta taste them all so you know how well-made they all are!”

“You did this out of spite because I joked about it?”

“What can I say? I get power-ups when I need to prove a certain idiot wrong.”

#haikyuu!! #haikyuu x reader #hq x reader #kuroo tetsurou x reader #kuroo tetsurou x you #kuroo tetsurou #hq x you #hq genderneutral reader #kenma kozume #kozume kenma #tetsurou kuroo #valentines day #nohr.writing #THE TITLE MAY CHANGE THO LMFAO THAT WAS JUST. ON THE SPOT BCOS I HAD TO POST LOLOL #might get back to this one day and finish it but we'll see lolol #i meant edit** not finish sdkkdkd it is done KSKDDKNE