Rantipole - Kuroko no Basket x Fem!Reader x Haikyuu!!

Chapter 21 - Cool

[Name] smells like a tranquil walk through gentle snowfall, Suga decides. One that takes place the same week as Christmas, but not on Christmas Day. Nor the night before. She smells like the sound of ice crunching beneath heavy boots and the whistling of the chilling breeze that stings your eyes and paints noses rosy.

She especially smells like the twinkling lights of Christmas trees; those yellow ones that wink at you through the frost on window panes as you walk by countless houses at night. She smells like the feeling of holding hands with mittens on. Like vanilla and pine wafting through chimney swifts.

[Name]'s scent reminds Suga of exchanging gifts with your friends early because you're much too impatient to hold off another day. Like that feeling that if you wait any longer, you just might let it slip what you've gotten them. That feeling of wanting so badly to spoil the surprise so that you can see how happy they are with what you've gotten them, because you already know they'll love it before even opening it.

Her breathing pattern and her hair texture against Suga's cheek inspires him to do something unimportant. Something fun. Something he'll struggle to remember, despite desperately wanting to. Something to feel nostalgic about.

Like baking cookies in the kitchen with your favorite person to spend one-on-one time with. Suga imagines what it would be like to bake cookies with [Name]. He'd probably say something in a teasing manner and end up having flour poured over his head. To which he'd laugh and smear butter on [Name]'s cheeks. They'd wear ridiculous frilly pink aprons and drink lukewarm hot cocoa. Ariana Grande's Christmas albums would be playing on repeat in the background. [Name] would force Suga to clean up the mess they'd made as she finishes portioning the dough onto baking sheets.

Does any of that even make sense? Suga breathes in once more, the tip of his nose dusting her scalp. However, this only confirms his descriptions further.

[Name] smells like a tranquil walk through gentle snowfall. One in December with whistling wind and rosy noses and twinkling lights that wink at you like stars in the night sky. One where you hold hands with your partner despite the fact you're both wearing gloves. She smells like a gift that you know the receiver will love before ever receiving. She smells like hot chocolate you forget to drink while baking cookies. She smells like shaking flour out of your hair and ridiculous frilly pink aprons.

She smells like a tranquil walk through gentle snowfall in December.

That's how Suga would describe [Name]'s scent.

She smells... soft.

Once they reach their destination around 8:30 in the morning, Suga gingerly lifts his cheek from on top of [Name]'s, feeling somewhat groggy. He rubs some grit out of his eyes; he can feel on his right cheek that some of [Name]'s hair had imprinted into his flesh. She continues to snooze lightly, leaning against his shoulder as Nishinoya stands up from her other side, still somewhat disappointed that he wasn't the one she ended up falling asleep on. With a smile, Suga gently shakes he awake.

The setter smiles as her eyes flutter open. "Good morning, sleeping beauty. Sleep well?"

Licking her chapped lips, she yawns and rubs her eyes cutely, processing her surroundings. Tanaka and Nishinoya both blush at the small squeak she makes as she stretches her arms above her head, cheek red from being pressed against Suga's sleeve for a couple hours. "Did I fall asleep? My bad."

"Nah, you probably needed it," Suga chuckles, standing and patting her head. "Anyway, we're here."

"Oh, right."

[Name] and Hinata immediately hop out of the bus to greet Kenma, the former giving him an unexpected hug, which the Nekoma setter isn't prepared to receive. Kuroo greets Daichi and the rest of the team as Lev comes running down the steps that lead to the school, waving frantically to one person in particular as Kenma questions [Name]'s new black eye.