(CW: vague timeskip spoilers)
"Number 12!" rang a booming voice out of the speakers of the gymnasium. "Wing spiker! Bokuto Koutarou!"
You cheered along with the rest of the crowd as you watched your boyfriend of years run onto the court in his usual manner. He ran past all of his teammates, high-fiving each of them as he took in the glory of the audience's cheers.
"He's something else," Kuroo muttered from next to you.
You turned to him with a smile. "Well, that's what we fell in love with."
He smiled back with that same crooked smile from high school. He really was never going to stop smiling like that, was he?
Watching Bokuto's professional level games was yours and Kuroo's favorite activity when you were able to get to them. He was absolutely glorious on the court and you enjoyed being able to support him as much as you could. Though work got in the way sometimes and ruined your fun, tonight was a special Friday where you were able to attend the full time and watch him dominate in his sport.
Kuroo and you both worked in sports promotion, which is what made it so hard to get away from work in order to watch Bokuto's games carefree-- his games quite literally were your work a high portion of the time. It was nice for that same reason, though. The three of you worked so closely on the same things that it felt like all that you did complimented the careers of both of your boyfriends perfectly.
It wasn't easy getting to this point, but you wouldn't call the journey grueling or anything horrible. After you had returned home after your initial exchange trip to Japan years ago, you worked hard in order to build up your grades and other resume features to apply to a bunch of Tokyo schools.
Luckily you had landed a spot in the same school that Kuroo was accepted to. Telling your mother that you had a school opportunity there made telling her the news that you were leaving again much easier. It was a well-ranked school and after you expressed how much of a dream it was to you, she quickly accepted that you would be moving away for a longer term.
Throughout your schooling, you would bounce between the houses of your friends and boyfriends' on breaks. Then, you would usually go home for a couple months out of your longer summer breaks.
During the breaks between you sophomore year and junior year and the next year between junior and senior, Bokuto and Kuroo had actually come back with you to America and the three of you found a crappy townhouse in your hometown that was cheap on rent to stay at.
Kuroo worked a local internship position while you worked as a waitress. Bokuto continued his volleyball pursuit and basically played on as many teams as he could manage. Him and Kuroo even joined a local club team together and, from what you could gather, they had quickly made names for themselves in local volleyball as if Bokuto needed more of a name for himself in that sport.
Even though your relationship with them was built off of only two months, it proved to last much easier than you had even anticipated. You didn't want it to fail, but you also anticipated it getting harder than the blissful two months you first shared. In reality, the only thing that really changed was the situation that the three of you were in. The relationship itself never seemed to change. It was happy, peaceful, and you always had a strong shoulder to cry on when work or school became too overwhelming.
The long distance was indeed tough, but when you all had promised to FaceTime every waking second, you all for sure meant it. Back in high school, every morning as you would be getting ready for school, both boys would excitedly help you pick out every aspect of your outfit down to the color of your eyeshadow. It was often that you guys would continue the call up until you were literally stepping out of the car to go into school.
With their help and support, finishing high school was easy. Getting through college was much easier, too.
Now, you all lived in an apartment in downtown Tokyo where you could all pursue your careers comfortably. It was a nice one, a merit of all of the hard work the three of you had been putting in. Just as you had wanted, it had big windows where you could see all of the stars, and, just as Kuroo had wanted, it had a big bed that all of you could fit comfortably in.
It was actually a three bedroom apartment, but it wasn't often that you guys weren't sharing the bed. After all, your favorite sleeping position was easily when you were fully sandwiched between both of them.
As the current game that you were watching ended, you watched Bokuto whip his head around to wave excitedly at you and Kuroo in the stands. Hinata came running over to his side and spotted you guys among the crowd to start waving, too. You smiled at the two of them and their antics before you and Kuroo stood up to make your way down to that same area of the hallway that you did every time they were finished with a game.
Best part of the job you both had? You got special access to the hallway that the jackals had their locker rooms in. It was much easier to leave with Bokuto whenever he wasn't being swarmed by all of his fans, but that's what you got for dating an extremely hot and talented volleyball player. Luckily it was easier for the two of you to avoid the crowds entirely with just a showing of you work IDs.
As you and Kuroo sat waiting for the team to appear, you walked forward and placed yourself in his arms. He rubbed your back, letting out a little laugh. You looked up to him in confusion at the noise. "What?"
He shrugged. "I'm really just being brought back to high school right now."
You smiled. It really did feel like that time when you had been waiting for Fukurodani that one morning before you had left your exchange trip. It was six years later now, but every feeling was almost exactly the same. "It really does feel like that, huh?"
"Yeah, all we're missing are a bunch of screaming, sweaty guys," he said as if he knew in the next second that the Black Jackals would come running through the door.
They were yelling and for sure sweaty, that was for sure. You knew that quickly as you were tackled by Bokuto into his usual excited hug. "Did you guys see me?" he asked as he looked between you and Kuroo. "I was amazing, right?"
"Yes," you nodded excitedly, "you were amazing, Kou!"
He threw his arms up into the air in victory as he made his way back over to his team to have their finishing meetings. "He still wants that same exact praise from you, too," Kuroo laughed.
You all left through the back door to better avoid the crowds as Bokuto was actually done with everything that he had to handle post-game. Thankfully he wasn't required to do any press tonight so all of you got out much earlier than usual.
"So the usual tonight?" Bokuto asked.
"Of course," you said, grabbing his hand and resting your head on his shoulder.
Kuroo brought out his phone and after only a few taps, put it down again with a smile. "Food's ordered."
Your favorite weekend/post-game nights: food ordered from your favorite restaurant that was a short walk from your apartment building, a horribly rated movie on the TV, and a pile of blankets and pillows on your floor that you all laid in. You all liked to call the pillow and blanket pile an "adult" version of a pillow-fort.
Even though you all were so much older than that first time that you had declared your love to each other or all of the other antics from your initial trip in high school, they all, honestly, felt exactly the same. You were grown up in the sense that you now did taxes and owned your own space and had jobs, but not much in the actual maturity sense.
You still enjoyed your car rides with obnoxious songs and Kuroo and you still watched horrible reality TV every night. Domestic life was something fun when it came to sharing it with the two of them, everything was different every day.
There were often guests in your apartment. With two guest rooms, it really made it possible for you to share your space with multiple people. Your mom would come about once a year for a couple of weeks, which was always nice. She still didn't fully understand your relationship and often told you that it was strange, but she loved your boyfriends nonetheless.
Your dad never came to visit, which was fine by you. The day that you told him that you had chosen to exchange your American citizenship for one in Japan, it seemed like he was done talking to you altogether.
Your sister was more involved in your life than ever once she had finally given a call to hear about what was happening with you. She was almost instantly intrigued whenever you finally revealed your relationship situation with two talented volleyball players and your involvement in another team that was being talked about internationally for its strange playing techniques. With her help, you were able to find almost all videos and live streams from nationals the year that both your boyfriends and your favorite team played in.
She was the one that held you as you were forced to watch Bokuto and Kuroo play against each other and Nekoma face off against Karasuno. You still remembered the moment you realized that Bokuto and Kuroo were hugging after their game, and the moment that you realized that Kuroo had pulled Daichi in for a hug after their game.
Friends also staked their claim in your home often. Akaashi and Kenma were both frequent fliers of your residence when they needed to get away from their own apartments for whatever reason. Thankfully neither of them lived very far either so it was common to have them over for just dinner or a movie.
Your friends in Karasuno were also decently commonly around. If they weren't looking to come visit your apartment fully, they would ask to grab coffee or something while they were in the city. Some of your favorites to hang out with were Kiyoko and Tanaka. Seeing their relationship bloom was your favorite thing yet and you had secretly been cheering Tanaka on that entire time.
You couldn't have imagined life without having taken that risk to go on that trip so long ago. Your entire world had basically been altered by the connections that you had made in Japan, and all of it gave you a new perspective on everything. You were happier here and your life was basically picture-perfect in your own strange way.
As the three of you laid down on your pillows with your food after showering the day off, Bokuto laughed when he saw what you were wearing. His old high school hoodie and some shorts were on your body. "What?" you asked as you opened up your to-go container of food.
"I love that you still wear those," Kuroo said, shaking his head at you.
You smiled as you looked down at it. You knew they were teasing you, but you were still simply loving every second of wearing it. "Yeah, well," you reached out to go a little under Bokuto's collar and grabbed the gold pendant that was hanging around his neck. "You still wear this. Even on the court, too. You know that's a foul, right?"
He adjusted it around his neck. "Yeah, well, I've been wearing it every game since we got them in high school. I can't just not."
You turned to Kuroo. "You're not off the hook either," you said as you pointed down at his wrist where he had the necklace tied around a couple times to wear it as a bracelet.
He just shrugged as he took a bite of food and proceeded to reach out an arm to drag you to his side. "We're all cheesy, what's new?"
Bokuto laid down and scooted closer to trap in your other side. He grabbed your face with his big, calloused hands and pulled you in for a kiss before placing one last one on your nose. Kuroo then instantly reached out and pulled your head the other way to do the same exact thing that your other boyfriend just had.
You smiled before sighing. This was it, this was all you needed.
On one side you had your sly yet chaotic boyfriend with his wild hair that he never figured out how to tame and on the other was your simply chaotic one that loved hair gel a little too much despite all of your efforts to get him to wear his hair down. You all had been on a long journey together, but every second was worth it in order to be in the very position that you were right now: Between them.
finished on (4/23/21)
check out the sequel "In the Middle." for more memories from this story