Test Me (Tsuki x Kuroo)

Chapter 1

The car stops in front of a small cafe. Ivy climbs the walls on both sides, all the way up to the apartments above the shop. The window on the top floor is open and a fat cat sits on its edge as if yet another one of the potted plants there.

"Right, this is it," the driver says. He's been talking the whole time, but I've forgotten to listen. Or maybe I didn't. Maybe I just didn't want to.

I open the door and step out into the street. It's like stepping inside the cafe, like having a big plate of fried eggs and maple bacon with chorizo sausages, butter-filled roasted mushrooms, and grilled tomatoes all served on sourdough bread placed in front of me. My stomach grumbles.

The driver steps out of the car to get my things from the back. Wishes me a good day and smiles his way back into the car.

"Thank you."

I take my earphones off and Hozier's voice fades away. My brother says Hozier's a lesbian and I never react. I'm sure that's what he wants from it; a reaction. Well, he can go fuck himself.

It takes Tetsurō Kuroo five minutes to open the door once I ring the bell. The old lady sitting on the table outside the cafe takes a big bite off her dumpling and whatever little expectations I had about the captain of the Nekoma High volleyball team go down her throat with it.

Tetsurō Kuroo is almost as tall as me and too thin for someone who lives above a cafe as good as this one, if the smells triggering my stomach's grumbling are anything to go by.

The cat on the window sill of the top floor is still there and Kuroo looks like it. His eyes narrow and his hands go for his waist.

"So I guess you're the kid from Karasuno High?"

I'm looking at his hair because it reminds me of a rooster's head and then I'm not. Kid? Did he just call me a kid?

"Kei Tsukkishima," I say, and then, "Not a kid."

"Whatever you say." He smirks, nodding his head and stepping aside to let me in. His sweatshirt is all black, but when I walk past him, I can spot the grey hairs all over it. I'm guessing the cat is his then, guessing three flights of stairs await me.

"Right," he starts again. "I have to go to work like right now, so just... hm, show yourself around, I guess."

He keeps on going as we go up the stairs. Tells me his parents are away on a trip, so the house is all ours. Says something about him sleeping on the couch and me having the bedroom. Something about him being back at around 11 p.m. and me not having to wait up. Something about practice tomorrow.

I'm not paying too much attention. I probably should.

The front door is open and he walks in in front of me. I can see most of the apartment as I step inside. It's one of those teeny-tiny places, under 200 square feet, that people get when they don't want kids.

Kuroo disappears into the bathroom right next to the front door. I take off my shoes and throw them in the little basket to my left. My reflection looks back at me in the tall mirror leaning against the wall. Mom says I look too thin. The coach says I look too thin.

"You look okay," I tell the four-eyed idiot in the mirror.

Kuroo's still talking inside the bathroom but even if I cared to listen I couldn't. I'm guessing he's brushing his teeth. I keep walking. The kitchen is right after the bathroom door, on the right side of the hall. The small-squared dining table on the opposite side has what I'm assuming are the leftovers of Kuroo's lunch on it.

"Sorry about the mess, I'll clean it up when I get back." He's out of the bathroom now and walking to the living room.

The mess doesn't really bother me, so I look up instead. Above the kitchen, there's a loft one can get to through a very steep staircase, and I guess that's the bedroom he mentioned before. Not his bedroom. He didn't say I got to stay in his bedroom. I wonder where his bedroom is.