Labels || Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Random Encounter

"So... you're leaving volleyball for good?" A familiar voice asked from behind her as she was leaving the school grounds. "You're not even going to try to get back in?"

(F/n) turned to see her one and only ex, looking slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed, his hands in his pockets and casting his eyes to the side. She blinked at him, slightly surprised with herself that she wasn't as scared as she had been before.

(F/n) rose an eyebrow at him. "I think it's better that I stay put for now. Why is it you ask?"

He shifted his feet for a moment, a cold late November breeze catching his hair. "You've always been a fighter. I'm just surprised you haven't... done anything." He burst out, his cheeks growing redder–not from the cold. She could see him ball his fists through the fabric of his pockets.

She blinked at him in slight confusion. "Who said I haven't done anything? Look where I am now. Having managed the Nekoma volleyball team, looking after my brothers, scoring myself a non-abusive relationship, and getting accepted at a university in Kyoto, I think I'm at the top of the world."

He quickly rose his hands up, shaking his head rapidly. "No no no! That's–uh–that's not what I meant..."

"Then what did you mean?"

"Well..."

"What?" She pressed.

He breathed in. "Look, I'm just here to... apologize... for all the shit I gave you." He coughed into his fist. "I'm not asking for forgiveness or anything–"

"Good." She deadpanned. "I wasn't planning on giving it anytime soon. Are we done here?"

"I'm really sorry."

"I got that."

He flinched, and opened his mouth to say something, but Kuroo scrambled up to her, gabbing her arms, completely breathless.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, Teddy, it won't happen again. Can I stay at your place tonight? It's still the weekend and I want to spent every breathing moment I have left with you–" His rant was cut off when he saw her ex, and he glared. "You got a problem?"

"No," (F/n) answered before her ex could. "We were done, anyways. Lets go, I'm sure my mum won't mind."

Kuroo narrowed his eyes, and her ex nervously backed away with his hands up. Kuroo wrapped his arm around (F/n)'s waist (for protection, he'd later say) and walked off with her.

"Don't tell me you packed extra clothes for tomorrow, did you?" (F/n) narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the bedhead, and he smiled guiltily down at her. She rolled her eyes as she crossed the street, elbowing him off.

"What! I knew at some point I'd spend the night with you, so why not be prepared?" He said defensively. "Anyways, tomorrow I was wondering if we could go out? Just the two of us. Alone. Walking around."

(F/n) blinked at him. "A date." She said. "A date is what you're suggesting."

A blush erupted on his face, and he turned his head away from her in slight embarrassment. "Y-yesh, if that's what you'd like to call it."

She purses her lips against the cold. "Why not? That's literally what you described. A date. Oh, come now, don't tell me you're shy."

"I'm not!" Kuroo huffed, his breath solidifying in the dim street lights. "I'm just making sure you're not, that's all."

"That's all?"

"Shut up."

She connected his nervousness quickly to that random encounter with her ex, and she quietly linked their hands together. He squeezed it, almost seeming to confirm her hypothesis, and bumped their shoulders together.

She wondered how long they'd last in a long distance relationship. She hoped that if they didn't, the break up would be smooth for the both of them.

But she could tell that Tetsurou would never want to let her go. And maybe she was okay with that.