I Can't Say "I Love You" | Kuroo Tetsurō

Chapter 10: Cooking

She wanted to run so badly. Run somewhere far far away from this place. There was one problem though: she happened to live here.

It was the following morning after their exciting yet horrifying night of video game survival. Kenma was still fast asleep in the living room, his arms and legs curled around a pillow as the morning light seeped through the windows. If only his best friend Kuroo were still asleep as well...

"G...Good morning, Kuroo-senpai..." Mirai stiffly raised a hand in greeting.

The bedheaded male was lying on his stomach and facing the living room entrance where she happened to walk by; his eyes looked up at the mention of his name and he blinked away his drowsiness when he realized that their host was awake and staring awkwardly at his strange sleeping position. Forcing out a smile as to not scare her off, Kuroo muttered a greeting before getting up and yawning loudly.

"What time is it now?" He asked as he glanced around the room for a clock.

"Ah, it's still early. About six in the morning actually..." Mirai replied in a hushed voice, not wanting to disturb the sleeping pudding head laying on the futons.

"Well what are you doing awake at this hour? It's Sunday." He yawned again and lightly scratched his stomach, the fabric of his shirt lifting slightly in the process.

"O-Oh, I was just going to the kitchen to reheat some abs-" Her eyes widened. "-SOLUTELY DELICIOUS BREAKFAST FOr...you...guys..." She awkwardly trailed off as Kuroo stared at her quizzically.

When he realized her slip-up, his lips twitched and, before he could stop himself, started laughing so hard that it woke Kenma. "Kuro, it's too early." He scolded and pressed a pillow against his ear to drown out the boisterous laughter.

"S-Sorry..! I just-!" Kuroo covered his mouth with both hands to keep himself from waking up the gamer again.

Mirai wanted to kill herself.

"Sh-Shut up already! Jeez!"

He didn't shut up. Not for another three whole minutes anyway.

By the time he finally calmed down, Mirai was already in the kitchen looking for food in the fridge. Kuroo snuck up behind her, quiet as a prowling cat, and grinned at the cute squeak she gave out when he surprised her with a hug from behind.

"Wait." He paused, pursing his lips in thought. "I thought you told me you couldn't cook."

"I said that I was going to reheat some breakfast. I didn't say that I was going to be cooking any." She huffed, cheeks burning with embarrassment. "I think my parents would get mad at me if they find out I burned down the kitchen."

He snickered, earning a slap on the arm from her.

"So who makes the food around here? I'm guessing your parents then?" He asked and searched the cabinets for a bowl. "What time are they coming back anyway?"

"Oh, no. I live alone."

His hand stopped at the third cabinet and he slowly turned to face her. She shrugged, "My parents are abroad. I wanted to stay here in Japan."

"...I see." He frowned and opened the cabinet to find what he was looking for. "Then how about I teach you how to make a simple breakfast? You did agree to let me teach you how to cook." He smirked and took some eggs from the fridge. "I guess you could say this is a win-win situation."

Although Mirai was skeptical about the idea as she most definitely did not want to burn the house down on them from making simple scrambled eggs, she allowed Kuroo to take charge in the kitchen and tell her what to do.

"Okay, so first we need to crack some eggs," He demonstrated by tapping the side of the egg gently against the rim of a glass bowl. "And just put it in the bowl like so~" He grinned as Mirai pushed up her glasses and stared in awe while he cracked the egg open.

"Th-That's amazing, Kuroo-senpai! You're like an expert!" She gasped, clapping like an excited child.

"It's easy!" He chuckled and pushed the bowl near her. "Try it. Just do what I did."

"O-Okay..." She took a breath and grabbed an egg from the counter. "First, crack the egg-"

Kuroo's eyes widened as her hand slammed the round white object against the rim of the bowl in a failed attempt to copy his earlier actions.

A long silence filled the kitchen, neither of them daring to speak.

.

.

.

"...I think I'll go make some toast."

Before Mirai could run away to grab the sliced bread from atop the fridge, Kuroo quickly set his hand on her shoulder to keep her from leaving. His eyes refused to look away from the broken eggshells of failed potential and Mirai felt herself sweating nervously.

"Let's try that again, shall we~?" He smiled exaggeratedly and pulled her back to the counter where she murdered the egg.

"K-Kuroo-senpai, I don't think this is going to--"

She tried to reason her way out of it, but Kuroo was having none of her excuses. He took another egg from the counter and placed it in the palm of her hand, "We are not leaving this kitchen until you learn how to properly break an egg."

"Eeh?! B-But what about breakfast?"

"Breakfast can wait,"

"But what about Kenma?!"

"Kenma can wait too! This is more important!"

And so, as Kuroo had promised, the two of them did not leave the kitchen for nearly three hours.

Kenma woke up to his stomach grumbling when he smelled food coming from the kitchen. He trudged over while rubbing the sleep off his eyes.

"Kuroo? Mirai?" He blinked, staring at his best friend and underclassman as they sat on the floor with their backs against each other.

"Oh. Hey Kenma!" Kuroo waved, grinning widely.

"...Hello." The pudding head narrowed his eyes at him, before glancing at the plates of fluffy scrambled eggs on the table, then looking around the kitchen at the mess. "What happened?"

There were egg yolks all over the counter which were dripping down to the floor. Surprisingly, there were egg yolks on the ceiling too!

"I was teaching Mirai how to make scrambled eggs," Kuroo said proudly.

"...Right." Kenma frowned as he glanced at Mirai who was mumbling something about never wanting to see another scrambled egg for the rest of her life.