i'll tell the stars about you ᶠᵗ kenhina

part 7 || is that lev? haiba lev?

It has been hours since Hinata went back home, and Kozume was left alone to drown in the amount of work he had to do. After taking a couple of short breaks here and there for food and his cats, it was finally around 6, and it was time for Kozume to call the work day off. Closing his laptop, Kozume thought about how it would feel to be in Kuroo's shoes right now. He has an awesome relationship, his partner understands him more than anyone, he's always there for Kuroo, and also has personality for days.

Kozume has been unfortunate once or twice to hear about their love life, and from what he knew, Tsukishima sure doesn't play around with making his parter feel good. Kozume wondered if he'd ever find love like that. In the back of his head play re-runs of the reunion from yesterday night, but maybe he just didn't want to be too sure about that ever being a possibility. They were best friends, best friends and nothing more. Besides he could never achieve that bond with Hinata, considering the fact that Hinata thought that Kozume was more into girls than he is into guys.

Shaking his head off these thoughts, Kozume took a quick shower, changed into his pajamas and was off to the kitchen. Over the past couple of years living alone, Kozume learned how to cook. Hinata was always good at it, and always cooked for him whenever they had a sleepover or whatever. Kozume wanted to be able to do the same, and plus, he doesn't live with his parents anymore, he needed to be able to take care of himself. He took the rice that was sitting in the water since yesterday, saving the rice water for his hair later on, because no matter what anyone thought, Kozume kept great care of his bleached hair, and it was probably healthier than half of those people with virgin hair.

Kozume put the rice in new water, got some vegetables out of the fridge, and pulled a blender out of his bottom cabinet. He wasn't going to use that for the vegetables, he's going to use it for the oranges he peeled last night and couldn't finish. Throwing oranges in the blender, Kozume added some water, and a spoon of sugar, and waited for the blender to do its job. While the blender was whirring, Kozume chopped up the vegetables that were waiting on the cutting board for him. He fried the vegetables with some olive oil, and the aroma from the vegetables and the spices melting into the heat made Kozume's stomach growl and made his face light up.

Kozume took the vegetables off the stove after they were done cooking, and cracked two eggs for an omelette. He combined the fried vegetables back into the mix with the eggs, and pulled out a plate from the top cupboard. In that time, the blender was done whirring his juice, so Kozume poured the juice into a tall glass, and put the rest into his fridge. Just as his omelette was done, the rice cooker beeped, signaling the end of rice cook time. Kozume assorted his plate, said his praise, and dug in slowly.

If only Sho could have tried my cooking before he left.

Hinata has been getting ready for his new volleyball team tomorrow. He didn't know if they were going to be happy about having him on the team, but he was really excited. Maybe more nervous than excited, but you get the point. Just as Hinata was about to get up off the couch to go walk around Tokyo a little bit, his door sounded a knock, and the person behind the door surprised him just a little bit.

"Lev?" Hinata could't be more surprised, he hasn't talked to Haiba since he went to Russia with his dad to learn Russian, and he stayed there since his third year of high school, which meant he played volleyball in Russia, and he made it to international tournaments with his team, and so did Karasuno at the time, but he heard his team got knocked out before he got the chance to play against him. Haiba has improved beyond imagination, and he wanted to see that, naturally.

"Hinata! It's been a while, but I heard you came back, so I wanted to say hi." Haiba explained, making Hinata grin, and hug Haiba. There wasn't an enourmous difference in their height now. Haiba stopped growing after his first year of high school. He was around 196 centimeters tall, only four or five centimeters taller than Hinata. Crazy sight.

"Yeah it has. When did you come back? I thought you were still in Russia?" Hinata continued the conversation, eagerly waiting to hear Haiba's answer.
"Wait, are you headed out? We can go walk around Tokyo or something?" Haiba diverted the conversation slightly, making Hinata's eyes widen before he nodded his head and smiled. Hinata pulled his shoes on, and headed out with Haiba. Anyone walking down the street would be kind of terrified to see two men so tall that they need to duck under the doors, laughing at stupid kid jokes.

"I hear you're on the Japan's team? Is that true?" Haiba asked peering over to the red head, who just smiled and nodded.
"You're not nervous, are you? They're going to love you! Ushijima plays for them as well, I think he'll be excited to see you." Hinata turned his head to Haiba quickly, and came to a stop. Was he on the team? Does that mean Haiba will play with Hinata?

"Lev, are you on the Japan's national team?" Asked Hinata.
"Yeah, I had my orientation three days ago. That's why I'm back earlier than expected. I got in." Haiba was smiling, excited to be finally so good at the sport he loved so much. He was so good, that not one, or two, or three, but four national teams had reached out to him. He's refused every team, nicely of course, except for Japan's.

"So we're playing together? Lev? You're not kidding?" Hinata was obviously freaking out, and Haiba just laughed at Hinata's enthusiastic way of conversation.
"Yes, I'm serious. No, I'm not kidding. Ushijima is showing you around tomorrow. I'll be there, and so will the rest of the team. Don't worry." Haiba smiled after seeing Hinata so excited, even attracting some attention to them.

As Kozume cleaned up his dishes, his phone rang with an incoming FaceTime call from Tsukishima. Kozume quickly pulled out his bluetooth headphones, and leaned his phone on the wall on the kitchen counter before answering. As soon as he answered, he went back to washing his dishes.
"Kenma, you bitch, it's twenty past seven." Tsukishima laughed through the phone.

Kozume chuckled at that too, not even realizing he lost track of time.
"Sorry Tsukki, I was eating food, unlike you." Kozume fired back, suppressing a laugh.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You know damn well what you choke on. Anyways, what's up? You said yesterday you needed my help." Kozume cut straight to the point, not giving Tsukishima time to respond to his joke.

Tsukishima just laughed at Kozume's statement, before actually getting to the topic.
"Yeah so, Tetsurō is at work right now, so I just wanna talk to you before he comes back. I'm thinking about proposing to him soon, and I just don't know what kind of ring he'd like, or a scenario he'd feel the best in. Shōyō told me to talk to you though, so I did what he said." Kozume knew this was coming. Tsukishima was kind of predictable, if you knew him well enough.

"I fucking knew it. I was thinking about you guys this morning, probably because I knew your insecure ass would call me for this." Kozume was laughing now,  and finishing up his dishes.
"Oh my god, shut up you simp." Tsukishima was making petty comebacks, and not taking anything to heart.
"Simp? For who?" Kozume was genuinely curious.
"I'll add him to the call, hold on." Tsukishima just smirked.

Kozume just shrugged before reaching for a glass to fill it up with some water. He heard a voice come through the screen, and he recognized it immediately.
"Hey Kei, hey Kenma!" Hinata's voice rang through the phone, making Kozume and Tsukishima say their greetings back.
"Wait is that Lev? Haiba Lev?" Tsukishima asked, and Kozume immediately looked at his screen, and saw Hinata sharing his headphones with Haiba while he propped his phone up on something. Haiba was sitting next to him, just smiling like usual.

Kozume got this feeling in his chest he didn't like, and he didn't know what to do about it, or why it was there.