The Beat of His Heart (KuroKen)

two.

Down, right, left, square, up.

Kenma hit the buttons on his controller with a little too much force as he sat in front of his television in his room. It was evening time now, and he'd been finished two hours ago. Still no sign of Kuroo. At least he still had his games to occupy him. This is what he would have been doing all night anyways had Kuroo not asked him to hang out. This is what he always did. Other kids at school often talked about how Kenma had no life, but to him this was life. The only thing he enjoyed more than gaming was Kuroo's presence. Kuroo was the only reason he played volleyball in the first place.

The door to his bedroom opened up behind him, and Kenma glanced over without hitting the pause button on his game. His heart jumped a little in his chest upon seeing Kuroo, but he forced his eyes back to the screen. "It's almost over. I can't pause." He was playing an online first person shooter, so he couldn't exactly just up and leave without trashing his score. He wasn't one to care much for stats, but he'd been doing awfully well today.

Kuroo waved his hand to dismiss the subject as he walked over toward Kenma's bed. "Yeah, yeah, I know the drill." He smirked, taking a seat and feeling himself sink into the soft mattress. He picked up the case of a game Kenma had laying on his bed, and flipped it over, casually acknowledging the pictures on it. "Do you want to play split screen after this?" Kenma asked, and Kuroo looked back over at his cat-like friend who still hadn't changed out of his Nekoma jacket. "The other controller is on the charger..." He was still attacking his controller with fast fingers.

"Nope," Kuroo responded with a chuckle. "We're going out tonight instead." Kenma raised an eyebrow, finally finishing up his game. It went to the stats screen, and he glanced over them before backing out of the lobby he was in.

"Out?" Kenma stood up and turned around, giving Kuroo a very questioning look.

"Yep. Out. But... you might want to change first." Kuroo looked him over. Admittedly, he looked awfully cute in red, but he didn't think a team jacket was proper attire for where they were going. Kenma looked down and acknowledged his own clothing before looking back over at Kuroo.

"This is fine." He didn't feel like changing. It didn't really matter to him where they were going, so why would he bother changing? "Honestly, I'd kind of rather just hang out here..." His eyes glanced down, afraid to see Kuroo's disappointed face.

"How about...." Kuroo got up, long legs headed in Kenma's direction. When he reached him, his hand reached for the setter's hand, and he laced his fingers in between his. "No." Kenma could feel his heart skip a beat as he looked down at their intertwined fingers. His hand looked especially tiny in Kuroo's. Before he could protest against what had happened, Kenma was already being dragged in the direction of the door.

The entire walk felt rushed, and Kenma had trouble keeping up as Kuroo dragged him along by the hand. Kenma spent the entire time wondering if his heart was ever going to slow down. There was a lot of protest leaving his lips on the way, but Kuroo continued to shut him down. There was a slight irritation in Kenma's mood, but in his defense he being pulled along to some mysterious unknown destination. He'd also not had the chance to grab any of his hand held gaming systems. He didn't even have his phone.

The worst offense, even worse than being without any games, was the torture of holding Kuroo's hand. Yes, torture. It was cruel to be held in any way by the object of his affection, because it made his mind run away with thoughts of how it could be if the world was actually a good enough place to let him have what he actually wanted. It made him think about how this hand was never going to actually be his hand. Then his mind went as far as to wonder who else's hand Kuroo had been holding lately. Kenma never asked him about girls, and Kuroo never really bothered to tell him, but Kenma knew they existed in his life. Their other teammates would often make jokes and comments about them during practice. There were also times when girls would approach Kuroo while Kenma was around, but Kenma usually took that as his cue to leave.

Despite the warmth of Kuroo's hand, Kenma's face was wrinkling up into a less than pleasant expression as he stared at the ground in front of him. Finally, Kuroo stopped walking, causing Kenma to stop just behind him. "We're here," Kuroo informed him. Before Kenma even looked up, he became aware of the music roaring into his ears. His face became even more unpleasant as he looked upward slowly. Just as he thought. There was a house in front of them with teenagers scattered all over the lawn with red cups in their hands. Inside lights were flashing and people could be seen dancing through the window.

Slowly, Kenma turned his head to look over at Kuroo who was smiling nervously at him. Kenma's frown seemed to thicken, and Kuroo's smile only wavered further with his anxious expression. "A.... party?" Kenma was in disbelief that Kuroo would think for even a second that he'd want to be anywhere near a party. He avoided other people. The introvert life was the life for him. He was on the opposite end of the scale from party animal. He'd already joined the volleyball team in an attempt to make Kuroo happy. Wasn't that enough?

"Surprise?" Kuroo's answer wasn't amusing to the setter, and it caused him to turn around to begin walking away. He would've continued had Kuroo's grip on his hand not gotten tighter. Again, his heart was doing that annoying thing were it thumped against his chest harder than normal. Kenma turned his head to look back at Kuroo, and his expression started to falter from the frown. It was being replaced by one of fear brought on by social anxiety. "Please, Kenma? I promised I'd go to this thing, but I was really regretting the choice after practice because I'm kind of not in a party mood today. I felt more like hanging out with you, so having you there will knock out two birds with one stone."

"I'm sorry, Kuroo... But I'd really rather not." Kenma tried to start walking again, and this time Kuroo let his hand slip away. Cold air hit Kenma's fingers, and he actually started regretting the decision that caused their hand holding to end so quickly. He turned around one last time to say goodbye to Kuroo, but found his heart being stepped on instead at his friend's disappointed look. It wasn't like he didn't want to spend time with him... Kenma sighed. "Fine. An hour or two couldn't hurt..."

Kuroo's face shifted slowly, almost like he didn't believe what he'd heard at first, but eventually it landed on a small, satisfied smile. "Don't worry. It's not like I'm going to leave your side."