Third Time Lucky?

Chapter 2: Lost

Kei was lost. And he wasn't afraid to admit it; he knew that that would be counterproductive and if he were to wander around pretending that he knew where he was he would only succeed in getting more lost, more tired and harder to find. He'd planned on visiting Koushi, who'd been extending the invitation since before he even graduated and Kei had finally decided to take him up on his offer, but he wasn't sure of the likelihood of him reaching his ex-upperclassman's flat. After being lost for as long as he had, he would be happy with finding Aki and going back to the train station to go home; he had tried, after all, and this trip seemed doomed after such an unfortunate beginning. Kei didn't want to push the little luck that he had.

He'd never been to Tokyo, except with the team (and that had only been to Shinzen and Fukurodani, not into Tokyo proper), and had become separated from his brother in a crowd when getting off the train. Worse still, he didn't have any data left on his phone so he couldn't use Google maps to find his way back to Akiteru. He knew that he'd left the train station in the right direction. Where he'd gone after that was much more of a mystery. Only to be made worse when he thought he'd seen Aki and followed him, hoping to catch up with him, until he realised that it wasn't his brother after all.

His best bet was to find somewhere to sit and wait for Aki to find him. Then they would be able to go and find Koushi's flat together. So, he walked a little bit further and looked around the street that he was currently walking down until he saw a little café off to his left, down a small side street. Perfect.

He headed towards it and stopped just outside to look up at the sign hanging above the door, 'Has Beans' it read in soft letters. He smirked and rolled his eyes at the pun (ignoring the ache of how much he could relate to the name) but made a mental note of it before pushing the door open. The bell above the door tinkled as he stepped forwards and the door swung closed.

After letting his eyes adjust to the soft, well-lit inside of the café, Kei looked around. The tables were mostly round with a few square ones pushed against the walls. The round ones were accompanied by comfortable, worn looking armchairs and sofas that Kei assumed had been donated (they were too mismatched not to have been) but were in good condition and seemed well looked after. The square tables had wooden chairs that were identical to each other but had been painted with various different colours of paint. Some even had more than one colour painted onto them. The café was fairly empty but had a few customers, mainly university age students and young mothers with small children, dotted around on various tables. (Kei took the students to be a good sign and hoped that they meant that he wasn't as far from where he needed to be as he had thought.) And there in the far corner from the door, by the counter, was Kuroo Tetsurou, former captain of Nekoma's volleyball team.

Unfortunately for Kei, before he could find himself a table and sit down, Kuroo looked up and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Kei but he quickly recovered and his signature shit-eating grin spread itself across his face. He waved, giving Kei a look that said 'If you don't come and sit by me I will shout your name across this café, wave my arms around and everyone will look over. And I know that you hate drawing attention to yourself' or something along those lines. Kei sighed and reluctantly went to put his bag and coat down by Kuroo. He didn't give Kuroo any time to say anything before he went to the counter with his wallet and ordered himself the only fruit tea on the menu and a cupcake with a strawberry embedded in its icing.

Carrying his tray, with a small pot of tea, a cup and saucer, a cupcake and Kei's wallet balanced on it, Kei walked the short distance to Kuroo's table, poured himself a cup of tea and waited for Kuroo to say something. Kuroo looked amused and Kei noticed the textbooks that covered the table for the first time. It looked like chemistry but it wasn't like it mattered to him.