cause & effect || chapter 4
➵ your work friend, kuroo, has a tiny favour to ask. to say you’re surprised is an understatement. but, for some stupid reason, you agreed to it.
warnings: f!reader, alcohol
wc: 2.1k
m.list | ch. 3 ↞ ch. 4 ↠ ch. 5
You sip the hot sake with a grimace. It’s not bad per se, just… different.
For a restaurant whose whole gimmick was hot sake, you’re surprised it clashes so much with your meal. But at least it brought you a little warmth.
Kuroo’s having as strange a time as you are. Each sip of his sake is accommodated with a grimace. Somehow, it makes him look a couple years younger.
Your legs are tucked under the futon attached to your table, but admittedly there’s not much room. Kuroo’s legs are far too long and the kotatsu much too cramped.
“Give me some room, would you?” You grin, nudging him with your knee.
“Oh, sorry,” Kuroo chuckles, adjusting himself.
This isn’t the first fake date you’ve been on with Kuroo. Well, they weren’t dates – not technically. The purpose of them was to get to know each other better; something you’d both agreed was important if you were going to pull this whole thing off.
You’d never really thought about it before, but there’s a lot of mundane information shared in relationships. Things you might not think to mention to other people, or even things you haven’t told anyone else. Not that you were saying any of that to each other – you just need to be convincingly close.
You are going to meet his family, after all.
“So,” you sigh, setting your cup on the kotatsu, “you lived with your dad, your grandmother, and your grandfather?”
“Mhm,” he nods.
“And I need to stay on my toes around them?”
“Oh yeah,” Kuroo grins. “Chances are they’ll tease the hell out of you if they get comfortable enough.”
“Great,” you chuckle.
“You’ll be fine,” he smiles. “I’m sure they’ll love you.”
“You sure?”
“Chances are they’ll tell you you’re too good for me.”
“Maybe I am,” you smirk, taking another sip of sake.
Kuroo scoffs. “Brutal!”
You’re not sure if he can tell you’re lying. He’s handsome, clever, and witty enough to be entertaining. You’d feel lucky to have a guy like him look your way.
Oh well, you think as you place your hands in your lap. You’re quite happy to keep that thought to yourself. There’s no good reason to feed a man’s ego.
He stretches his arms above his head, groaning. You swear you can hear his bones cracking.
“You sound like an old man,” you grin.
“Look, it’s not my fault the human body is badly designed.”
“Ah, so it’s not your fault for not looking after it properly, hm?” Perhaps he has a point. But you have to make your own fun these days.
“I’ll have you know I take very good care of my body, thank you very much.”
You’re not sure if he intended it to sound so flirtatious, but you blush anyway.
“Your bones say otherwise,” you muse.
“I won’t stand for this abuse,” he grins, standing up. “You ready?”
You follow suit, scampering after him as he approaches the cashier.
As always, he pays. No matter how hard you try to protest, he just smiles and says he feels bad for taking up your evenings.
You don’t know a casual way to say that you actually enjoy these outings.
Your solution is just buy him fancier coffees in the morning.
Kuroo deals with the transaction in the same smooth and charming way he always does, and you’re sure he’s definitely made an imprint on the dear cashier’s memory.
It’s only late afternoon, but the sky is already darkening. The trees that line the street are speckled with fairy lights, already glowing like candles in the dim twilight.
You gaze at them with a tiny sense of wonder. You’ve heard the theory that people made winter a time of celebration to give them something to pull through the dark and the cold for. Maybe that’s true – but there’s always such beauty to be find during wintertime, even if it feels like the tip of your nose is about to fall out.
Fairy lights in a tree are so small, so inconsequential, and yet so human.
You shake your head. That’s the sake talking.
You turn to Kuroo to say something.
He’s peering at you intently, eyes roaming your face.
You blush, unsure what to make of that look. Is there something on your face? “Everything okay?”
“The lighting’s good here.”
You frowned. “Huh?”
Kuroo fishes his phone out of his pocket, taking a step towards you and hovering an arm above your shoulders.
“You all good to take a photo?” He asks, and it clicks.
“Oh! Right!” You nod, almost a little too fervently. “Sure.”
He smiles, slinging his arm across your shoulders. You lean into him, tilting your face to what you believe to be your best angle.
Sure, these photos are technically ‘fake’, but that doesn’t mean you can’t look your best.
He snaps a couple of photos of the two of you before opening his gallery. The two of you take a moment to observe the handful of images.
The two of you may not really in a relationship, but you’re sure these photos could fool you.
You point at one of them, nodding. “That one looks good.”
Kuroo chuckles, adding it to his favourites. “Thanks.”
He smiles and slips his phone into his pocket as he steps away from you. You miss his warmth more than you should.
“Have they liked the photos?” You ask.
“Loved them,” he grins.
You know Kuroo’s been sending them to his family – with your permission, of course. It’s partly to satiate their desire to intrude on his love life, and also to make it more believable when you finally meet them. You have half a mind to save them to your own phone with how cute they are.
“Oba-chan’s been joking about putting them on the wall.”
You snort. “That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
“She’s desperate,” he grins.
“She must be, if she’s considering omiai.”
Kuroo shrugs. “Ah, she’s just worried about me. She doesn’t want me to be ‘married to my work.’”
“Are you?” You ask, one eyebrow raised.
“Oh, God no.”
You laugh as you dig your hands in your pockets.
“I’ve just got a lot going on,” he explains. “I don’t have the time to date.”
“Really?” You tilt your head at him. “You kind of strike me as the kind of guy who’s content to just go home and play dating sims all night.”
Kuroo reels back, a hand on his chest. “You’re joking.”
“I thought you were single because you had some digital waifu or something.”
Kuroo stares at you with an expression of absolute horror. “What have I done to deserve this?”
“I’m just teasing,” you giggle, hopping down the street. “Okay, so if you’re not cuddling up against a body pillow of a scantily clad anime women during those lonely nights, then what do you do with your spare time?”
Kuroo scoffs, shaking his head as he jogs to catch up with you. “Well, I catch up with my friends a fair bit. Oh, and I’m part of a hobby volleyball club.”
“You play?” You look him up and down. Now that he’s said it, it makes perfect sense.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I take good care of my body,” he grins.
Another glance and you realise – yes, actually, he appears to be taking very good care of his body. Those shoulders look a little broader than you’d first thought.
“Is that why you applied for your job?” You ask. “Personal interest?”
“Mhm,” he nods.
Interesting. “Have you always played?”
“I’ve played for as long as I can remember,” he grins. “Believe it or not, but my high school team actually made it to Nationals. With me as their captain.”
“Wait, really?” You look up at him with wide eyes. Now that was certainly unexpected.
“Sure did.”
“How far did you get?”
Kuroo furrows his brow for a moment. “I think it was something like the top 16?”
“That’s… pretty impressive,” you admit. Your knowledge of sports is perhaps a little lower than might be expected of someone in your position, but you digress. Top 16 in the entire nation is definitely something to be proud of.
“Glad you think so,” he grins.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you pursue it professionally?” From your perspective he certainly has the build for it. And if there’s one thing you’re sure of after working next to him for a while now, it’s that he’s clever. A trait that seems to be surprisingly useful on the court.
“There were some real monsters on the teams we faced,” he says, voice languid as ever. “You know about Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio, right?”
You nod. Even if your understanding of the sport itself wasn’t particularly advanced, you were well-aware of the top players. That, at least, you’d made an effort to stay up to date with. Also, a lot of them were unfairly attractive – making that task a bit easier to stick to than some of your others.
“We faced them at Nationals,” he glances at you, a new glint in his eye. Maybe it’s nostalgia.
You shiver.
“That genuinely sounds terrifying.”
Kuroo grins. “It was. Oh, and you know Bokuto Koutarou, right?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Well, we were friends in high school,” Kuroo says, as if it’s the most mundane piece of information you could receive. “Our teams often practiced against one another.”
You stare at him, jaw slack. “No way.”
“I have several embarrassing photos of him to prove it,” Kuroo chuckles.
He’s so confident about it that you have no choice but to believe him.
“You have to introduce me to him,” you say, voice a little more desperate than you’d like.
“Why?” Kuroo flashes you a wicked grin. “Got a crush?”
“No,” you roll your eyes, praying your cheeks aren’t turning too red. “He just seems… nice.”
“Nice and… attractive?”
“Shut up!”
“I’m just saying, he’s technically single—”
“Aren’t I supposed to be your fake girlfriend?” You knock him with one of his shoulders to little avail. You stumble back a bit from the impact. He stays completely still.
Kuroo cackles a little louder than usual. “You’re going to have to try harder than that.”
“Who knew you were so annoying?” You scoff.
“That’s on you,” he smirks. “You’re the one agreed to this.”
“It’s a hell of my own creation,” you mumble.
“Should’ve read the fine print,” Kuroo teases.
You have half a mind to glare at him to keep this going, but a question pushes itself to the forefront of your mind.
“Wait, so…” You press your lips together, frowning. “You didn’t pursue professional volleyball because of people like Bokuto?”
Kuroo tilts his head to the side with a pensive expression. “Sort of,” he shrugs. “I guess I just felt like I didn’t have the same passion for the court that guys like him did.”
“Oh,” you murmur. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologise,” he chuckles, shaking his head. “I just realised my talents would be better applied elsewhere.”
“So… in marketing?”
He grins, glancing at you. “I just think that volleyball has the power to really connect people.”
You tilt your head at him.
“When I first moved to Tokyo, I wasn’t great at talking to people,” he sighs, running a hand through his hair. “But, because of volleyball, I found a way to… feel more comfortable opening up to people.”
The thought of Kuroo Tetsurou of all people being shy strikes you for a second. It’s hard to picture – but only for a moment.
“So,” he continues, “I want to make it easier for kids to get into this sort of thing. You never know who it might help.”
You smile to yourself. Once again, he’s being cute. And he doesn’t seem to have any clue.
“What about you?” Kuroo asks. “How’d you end up there?”
“Oh, it was just the first place that took me in,” you shrug.
He snorts. “Really?”
“Yeah. I just sent out my resume to a bunch of places and they got back to me first.”
“Oh, wow,” Kuroo grins.
“Sorry it’s not very romantic,” you blush, glancing at him.
“Nah.” He shakes his head. “It sounds very reasonable.”
“Thanks,” you chuckle.
In all honesty, part of you had expected this whole ‘fake dating’ thing to be a bit of a burden. The thought of pretending to like someone a lot more than you actually do sounds draining.
But it’s not hard to like Kuroo Tetsurou. In fact, you think he’s quite pleasant company. This whole charade shouldn’t be much trouble at all.
You dutifully ignore the thought that, if this were a real date, you’d absolutely ask him if he’d like to go on another.
249 notes
·
View notes