#be impressed

And that’s what landed you here: sitting cross-legged on his bed, a chemistry book laid in your lap, a black tail swishing stupidly in your face.  “Shake your ass in my face one more time and I swear to God-” you warned.

He paused for a moment to catch your eyes in the mirror.  Everything from the steady glare on your face from your stiff posture told him that you were over this afternoon, as if the frustrated groans leaving your lips every few minutes wasn’t telling enough.  But, he couldn’t help it.  When he was graced with a tail, he was going to use it to be as obnoxious as possible. 

Kuroo gave his tail one last flick in your face before flopping down on the bed beside you. 

“What the hell did I tell you?” And without warning, you lean over him, pounding your fist against his chest in playful anger.  “Get your ass out of my face, you absolute rooster head!”

His low laughter filtered through the air as he laid his own hand over the spot that you had so viciously assaulted only seconds earlier.  “You know, you’re so not intimidating when you’re wearing a pink cat onesie covered in glitter.”

“Yeah? Well, at least, I don’t have whiskers drawn on with eyeliner.”

You saw it in the way his narrow eyes darted over to his nightstand where your eyeliner pen laid amongst a pile of other stuff that you just kept leaving at his house.  No matter how fast you were or how early you anticipated your movements, you were no match for the volleyball captain.  Kuroo had flung himself across your lap, shoving your book away, leaving you helpless as his long arms stole the eyeliner.  You were trapped with no escape and no form of safety.  With the eyeliner uncapped, Kuroo’s legs straddled your waist, leaning forward so one of his forearms could trap both of your wrists above your head to keep you from trying to ruin his masterpiece.  

You wanted to fight and scream and threaten to beat the absolute shit out of him, but you couldn’t.  

The way his bangs dangled down in your face, tickling your forehead, the smell of his cologne, that all too familiar playful gleam in his smile, it all had you completely frozen.  It was a level of closeness that you weren’t expecting from him.  It surprised you, but what surprised you even more was how much you didn’t want him to move.  You would’ve been fine like that all day, watching his features scrunch up in deep concentration as he tried to thoughtfully plan where your own whiskers would go.  

“Hold still,” he whispered, letting your arms go so he could hold your face gently in his hand.  When the felt tip of the liner met your cheek, you couldn’t help but jerk away at the sudden feeling of the cool ink against your skin.  The disappointment crossed Kuroo’s face, but only for a brief moment as he then tried to hold back his snorts of laughter as he looked down at the heavy black line on the left side of your face.  “I told you to hold still, dumbass.”  His grip on your face tightens slightly so he can hold you steady.  

You wished you could look away from him, move your head, anything to not look at his handsome features and the cute way that his tongue poked from his lips as he tried to make the whiskers as straight as possible.  You had tried for so long to push your feelings away, to just bottle them up and hope that one day, all of those buzzing emotions would just fizzle off and you could look at him the way that you were always meant to; as friends.  But, it was so hard to ignore the flutter in your stomach everytime he smiled at you, the way that your heart beat so loud that you were afraid he might hear it whenever he would drape his arm around your shoulder.  Kuroo Tetsurou had become everything that you could have ever wanted as the years passed.  He was still the awkward kid that you met in middle school who had asked if you wanted to trade Pokemon cards at recess.  But, he was also captain of the volleyball team, a dork who got obsessed with anything that he could put under a microscope, who would pull you over to show you all of the inner workings of the cell if you gave him the chance.  He was your best friend before he was anything else, but the way your head swam every time you felt his skin against yours was almost too intoxicating to ignore.  

But, if Kuroo looked into your eyes and told you that he didn’t feel the same way, he’d be lying straight through his teeth.  He would never admit it to you, unless it was for the Vine, of course, but he gave you his favorite card on that fateful day all of those years ago.  Kuroo had handed over his one and only Kyogre without a second thought, all because the way your face lit up in the prettiest smile he had ever seen when he had shown it to you.  You had been right there next to him, asking him endless questions about the card, telling him how cool it all was.  He didn’t like to admit it to himself.  It seemed so lame, really, to admit that he had all of these feelings all the way back then and never acted on them.  Rather just letting them grow to an irresistible strength.  

He had held back so long.  He had been right by your side for so many years.  He had seen every heart break and he had mended them all back together with a pint of ice cream and two spoons.  He had been there for every inside joke and every ridiculous thing that he would never let you live down.  The time you split your jeans trying to recreate some stupid dance you saw on Tiktok?  He wasn’t about to let you forget that, but every time he would think about it, he would remember just how hot his cheeks got when you came out of the bathroom in the sweatpants that he had let you borrow and just how much he liked seeing you in his clothes, admiring how the fabric hugged your thighs in all the right places. 

Kuroo Tetsurou really couldn’t have asked for anyone better to walk into his life.  You never failed to amaze him, constantly keeping him on his toes.  The dictionary definition of beautiful and, even now, in a stupid cat onesie with black eyeliner smeared all over your face, you were still the most gorgeous person that he had ever laid eyes on.  

It was just so natural, like it was something that he had done a hundred times before.  But, before his head could clear and snap him out of it, he had leaned down closer to you, close enough that you could feel his nervous breath fanning across your face.  The strangest part?  You made no move to stop him.  You didn’t push him away or turn your head.  Rather, you just laid there, staring into his eyes, mimicking the same look of longing that had buried under layers of amber for so long.  

“Do it for the Vine.”

“Kuroo, shut the fuck up and kiss me already.”