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The sun is too bright. Kenma stays under the relative safety of the umbrella, bent over his PSP. His fingers are sweaty and they slip over the buttons, and the sand is still hot even in the shade, but it's not that bad all in all, he thinks. From here he can watch his friends play beach volleyball while he plays his games.
Shouyou moves clumsily in the sand. He's the most fun to watch, feet slipping and sliding, jumping at awkward angles for the ball. A couple of times he falls flat on his face, but apparently he's used to that, because he's still smiling when he picks himself back up. Kenma catches himself smiling a little as he watches.
A few minutes later, he hears someone coming his way and looks up just before Shouyou stops in front of him.
"Come play volleyball, Kenma!" he says, with eyes as bright as the sun.
Kenma looks down at his game for a moment, then shrugs. "Sure."
-
At the end of the day, they walk back to Shouyou's with matching ice cream cones. Shouyou eats his quickly but still gets ice cream all over his face; Kenma eats his more slowly, and trails of chocolate and vanilla drip down his hand to his wrist. He licks them away carefully, noticing that Shouyou is watching him.
"What is it?"
"Ah - nothing. There's a horror movie marathon on tonight. Want to watch?"
Kenma nods, still licking himself clean. He likes horror movies; they're fun to watch with Kuroo, who gets scared. When Kuroo is scared, he pulls on Kenma's sleeve so hard that his shirt usually falls off one shoulder.
He wonders if Shouyou gets scared like that, too.
-
When Shouyou is scared, he likes to hold hands.
Kenma discovers this in the middle of Dark Water. He goes to the kitchen to get some more popcorn, and when he sits back down, Shouyou reaches for his hand and grips it like a lifeline. His eyes are wide and glued to the screen. His hand is warm, maybe a little sweaty. It's not bad, Kenma thinks, or at least it wouldn't be if he would loosen his grip a little.
"Aren't you scared?" he asks Kenma after a moment, noticing his non-reaction.
Kenma shakes his head slowly. "Kuro and I watch these all the time."
"Man, this is creepy," Shouyou says emphatically. "Still not as scary as Ringu, though...Hey, you don't mind this, do you?"
Kenma takes it he means the hand-holding. "No, I don't mind."
He likes it when Kuroo touches him, but he thinks he might like it even more when Shouyou does.
-
Shouyou sleeps sprawled onto his back, arms and legs flung out in every direction. Kenma sleeps curled up like a cat, body tucked into itself. He fits perfectly into the negative space created by Shouyou's outstretched arm and his warm side.
When Shouyou wakes up the next morning, Kenma is already up, blinking at him slowly in the hazy dawn light.
Shouyou smiles, and it actually makes the room seem impossibly brighter.
Kenma sits up. "Come on. Let's go play beach volleyball again."
This time, his hand slides naturally into Shouyou's.
-
"Texting that chibi-chan again?" Kuroo asks, three weeks later. It's almost time for school to start again, but it's still damnably hot. Kuroo's walking around the house without a shirt.
Kenma nods, still looking at his phone. His belly feels warm, even though Shouyou's not talking about anything special (volleyball again). But he feels this way a lot when he's communicating with Shouyou. And he's not stupid; it's easy enough to guess what these feelings mean.
He's never had a crush before.
"I have to ask you something," he says to Kuroo, certain he's about to regret it.
"Hmm?" His best friend cocks his head to one side.
“You have to promise not to laugh first.”
Kuroo raises his eyebrows. “Now I’m interested.”
Kenma lets out a breath, and takes a moment to gather the words together. “What do you do when you like someone?”
The look of surprise on the taller boy’s face is priceless. Still, he doesn’t question him – something Kenma has always appreciated him for. “Well…I would tell them.”
A simple answer to a simple question. It’s exactly what Kenma expected. “I don’t think a confession letter is really my thing.”
Kuroo laughs lightly. “You don’t have to write a confession letter. Personally, that’s really not my style either. Just…be yourself, let it play out. Try not to be afraid of getting rejected.”
Kenma is comforted by the thought that, at least if Shouyou does reject him, he will probably do it nicely.
-
ahhhh!!! cant sleep!!! o(-`д´- ｡ )
Kenma receives Shouyou’s text at 1 AM. The only reason he’s still up is because he is trying to reach a good save point in his online RPG. He thinks for a moment before tapping out a response.
try reading? works sometimes 4 me
i cant ever focus on books long enough to get sleepy im nervous abt the game tomar ヽ (*´Д ｀ *) ﾉ
who are you playing?
practice match w/ seijou ヽ（゜ロ゜；）ノ ヾ ( ゜ д ゜ ) ノ
u played them before tho right??
yeah but this is the 1st one where the grand king is gonna play the whole time!!!
Kenma pushes his laptop aside and lies back on his bed with the phone, bringing the glowing screen closer to his face.
u have gotten a lot better. dont worry ٩(ˊ ᗜ ˋ*)و
really??? you think so??? ( ⁎⚈ ᷀᷁ ▿ ⚈ ᷀᷁ ⁎ ) thanks kenma!!!
He smiles, amused by the amount of abuse the punctuation keys on Shouyou’s phone must endure. He’s about to put his phone away when it vibrates again.
oh hey sorry if i woke u up!! that was really dumb of me
dont worry abt it. i was still awake
playing that rpg thing again? did u get those items u needed?
Kenma settles back in to tell Shouyou what he’s missed.
-
In the future, Kenma thinks, humans might be able to communicate through telepathy and he wouldn’t have to say these words out loud.
The future isn’t where he wants to be, though. In the present he has Shouyou, a warm weight against his belly as they cool off after their latest training camp match, and the last one they’ll play together before Karasuno has to travel back to Miyagi.
It’s now or never, Kenma thinks.
But the words are still stuck in his throat. He looks down at Shouyou, at his rumpled mass of orange hair, and thinks about how often they communicate through touch. Humans don’t have telepathy yet, but maybe Kenma doesn’t have to speak a word to say what he really wants to say.
He lifts his hand, and - carefully, lightly, casually - slips it into Shouyou’s hair, pushing it back from his forehead. The younger boy tilts his head back, leaning into the touch, and so Kenma keeps doing it, stroking his hair back the way Kuroo sometimes did when he got upset.
He waits until Shouyou opens his eyes to stop moving his hand, though he doesn’t look away, as he would normally. Shouyou starts to sit up.
“You can - stay there, if you want,” Kenma says, and he can feel his cheeks flushing. “I mean...it’s nice. This.”
Suddenly, Shouyou beams at him. “Yeah, it is.”
And he laces his fingers with Kenma’s, readjusting his head on his belly.
Kenma hides his smile in the sleeve of his hoodie.