~ KENMA ~
"Kenmaaa!!!"
Irritated, I turned towards the tall, grey haired boy. "Did you see that, Kenma? That was awesome, right?"
"Not really." I shrugged indifferently. This guy still had a lot to learn. 'A lot', as in a shit ton.
"Damn it!" Lev groaned, clearly disappointed. So am I, you're not special. But within seconds, his cheerful smile returned. "Kenma, you wanna go again?"
Really? We've been at it for ages. He couldn't seriously expect to improve with one training session.
"No, that's it for me today." I replied, heading to the sidelines. Sighing, I sat down and fished out my Switch, the only thing keeping me sane at school these days.
"Hey, you good, buddy?" Kuroo bent down in front of me, with one hand annoyingly resting on my head.
"Yeah, just tired." I answered, continuing with my gaming. This stupid dinosaur dragon thing just wouldn't die, and it was really starting to tick me off.
"Alright, good work boys," Kuroo called out. "That's it for today."
He turned to me again. "At least go help pack up. Then we'll head home."
"Fine." I stopped my game. He was lucky I was already close to dying, and didn't want to suffer another defeat.
~~~~
After getting off the bus, Kuroo walked beside me, while I gamed away, still attempting to kill that same dragon.
I felt a sudden tug on the back of my collar, dragging me backwards, just in time for a car to speed past, right where I would've been. "Oi, watch out bro," Kuroo chided. "You nearly got run over."
"Oh. Okay." My eyes remained glued to my game.
"What do you mean "okay"? Do you realise how dangerous that was? You need to put that game down once in a while." He scolded, clearly unsatisfied with my reply. "If you keep that up, you're gonna die very soon."
"That would be lovely, actually."
"HUH?! KENMA, YOU IDIOT!" His response was over dramatic, as per usual. "Do you know what you're saying? You need to stop with the suicidal jokes. They're not funny."
"Don't worry. I'll end it soon." I'd admit, I said that on purpose. It was funny seeing him mad.
Kuroo went silent for a bit, no doubt processing what I'd just said. This will take a while, considering he has a grand total of five brain cells in there. Then came his incredibly delayed reaction. "Oh my god..." He rubbed his temples, as if I'd just given him a headache. "Kenma, for real?"
"What?"
"What did I just say?"
"You said, 'Kenma, for real'." I repeated in a fake deep voice.
"No, what I said before that." He became visibly agitated.
"You mean, 'oh my god'?"
"NO!!!" Kuroo yelled, fuming with frustration. "Listen here, you little shit, you know full well what I meant."
"I don't."
"You do."
"Don't."
"Do."
"Don't."
"That's it, say goodbye to your best friend." With that he snatched the Switch from my hands, and held it out of my reach. No! I almost won that round. This bitch...
"Kuroo, you idiot! Give it back!" I jumped for it, but failed miserably. Damn it, I didn't think he'd actually go this far.
"Not until you apologise." Kuroo said, with a newfound air of importance. What a bastard.
"No, you rooster-headed fuck-wit!" I hissed. "Never!"
"What's that? I can't hear you from up hear." He was taking it a little too far with the height advantage. "Was that an apology?"
"Yeah, it was."
He seemed taken back. "What the hell? No, it wasn't."
"So you could hear me." I glanced at him slyly.
"That's not the point! Apologise! Now!"
"Fine. But you gotta give me the Switch first." I negotiated. "Right now, you have the upper hand, because you've got something of mine. Therefore, I can't trust you, unless I also have something of yours, or you give me back my Switch."
To any intelligent human, my logic would've sounded absurdly unreasonable. But lucky for me, Kuroo didn't classify as an intelligent human. He thought about it for a moment, and, as expected, agreed. "Okay, fine." He handed the Switch over. "Now, my apology, if you please."
"What apology?" I said, in a nonchalant manner.
He gaped at me. It took seconds for him to realise that he'd just got played. I could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears. But his voice was dangerously calm. "Kenma... have I ever told you how much of a sly, sneaky little shit you are?"
I wasn't fazed. "Yeah. Many times, actually."
~~~~
After putting up with Kuroo's antics for a bit longer, I finally arrived home. "Mum, I'm home!"
"Oh, Kenma! How was training?" My mother asked, rather cheerfully.
"Alright, I guess."
I had already dropped by the convenience store, and eaten dinner, so I headed straight to my room. Thank god, it was only 7:50. I had agreed to play with WhiteFire13 at eight, and I'd feel bad if I was late again. I quickly logged on.
applep1e: Hey, White Fire, you there yet?
WhiteFire13: Of course :) Where else would I be?
applep1e: Great, you wanna play ranked, or have a couple warmup rounds first?
WhiteFire13: Actually, can we play a death match first? I wanna test out new sensitivities.
applep1e: Oh, sure. Mind sharing?
WhiteFire13: I changed my scoped-in aim sensitivity to 125%. Hopefully I can flick faster that way.
applep1e: Damn, you've been upgrading. Now I need to step it up.
WhiteFire13: Haha, nah. The keyword was 'hopefully'.
applep1e: We'll see. You ready?
WhiteFire13: Always.
We began the match, and within seconds, WhiteFire13 was killing it. Literally. I didn't know how, but it has only been thirty seconds, and he had already gotten twelve kills, five of them headshots. Even more impressive, we were playing against higher ranked players. I tried my best to keep up. I knew I wasn't as skilled, but I had to at least pull my own weight. Otherwise, I'd just become a liability. Hm, reminds me of a certain someone by the name Lev. Most of the time, I used the AK, and although my playing style wasn't exactly impressive, I racked up a decent number of kills.
It took two whole minutes before someone finally managed to take WhiteFire13 down. However, it wasn't a front on fight. The enemy had shot him from behind, after slipping through to our side of the map. It was partially my fault. I was meant to be watching the side entrance, but got a bit carried away down mid-lane.
applep1e: Hey sorry, my bad. Accidentally let the bot in.
WhiteFire13: Nah bro, all goods. I should've been watching my back.
applep1e: I thought you already rotated, so I left the back alley open.
WhiteFire13: Haha, it's fine. It's just a communication problem. Can't do much about that.
Now that I thought of it, texting through the game was indeed tiresome. And not to mention, highly ineffective at times. I remember there were even times when both of us left the bomb to explode, thinking the other was going to defuse it. Perhaps we could change that. But how?
An idea occurred to me. I could ask for his number, then we'd be able to call each other while gaming. But will he agree? Will a guy like WhiteFire13 really give me his number? He's a legend. He's funny, reliable and not to mention encouraging. He's probably got heaps of friends. Will he actually give his number to a loser like me? And not to mention, if he rejects me, it'd be extremely awkward afterwards.
But what if he does agree? From the start, I'd always thought of WhiteFire13 as a cool guy I'd like to know. Will we become friends? Could we possibly become friends? Right now, I only dared to think of him as an acquaintance, or a comrade. Yet, he was the only person who I could confide in. There were some things others just couldn't understand, even Kuroo. But WhiteFire13 was able to empathise immediately. Deep down, I really wanted to be friends with him. I hope he feels the same.
The more I thought about it, the more restless and conflicted I felt. On one hand, I was really eager to know WhiteFire13, just a bit more. But on the other, my fear of rejection held me back. Argh, my stupid anxiety!
You know what? Fuck it. I'm going for it. If he replied 'yes', then that'd be great. If he said 'no', that'd just be not as great. It couldn't hurt to try. Can it?
I clapped myself in the head, a desperate attempt to banish the negativity. I guess Kuroo was right. This was bad for me.
I took a deep breath, mentally hyping myself up. Man up. You got this.
applep1e: Hey, White Fire?
WhiteFire13: What's up man?
Here goes nothing.
applep1e: Ok, this might sound weird, but can I have your number? For gaming purposes of course. I was just thinking we can call instead of text, and maybe that'd be easier. Feel free to say no, though, I don't mind. I mean, I do hope you agree, because it'll make our teamwork so much better. But I don't want you to feel obliged to give me your number, if you don't want to. I know privacy is a big thing for you, and in all honesty, me too. Still, it'd be great if we can talk, you know. So, uh, what do you say?
~~~~
Hi! Thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Honestly it was so fun writing about Kenma and Kuroo. They're actual living memes.
Please give this a vote if you like, and feel free to give feedback. Thanks again!
~ krypto