you arrived at the school a little bit before the game began.

you entered the gym, watching the nekoma team warm up. your eyes searched for kuroo. he wasn't hard to find because of his height and unique hairstyle. he looked good, as always. his jersey hugged his muscles perfectly, showing off the built body you knew he'd worked hard for. you let yourself stare for a while.

kuroo eventually saw you. his lips parted at the sight of you. after looking over at you out of the corner of his eye for a little bit, you saw him say something to the coach. the coach nodded, and kuroo began walking towards you.

you gave him a confused look, standing in the doorframe by yourself. 

kuroo reached your side.

"come with me," he said as he walked right by you out of the gym. you looked around. no one seemed to be looking at you, so you quickly turned around and followed him through some hallway.

"what are you doing?" you asked him.

kuroo turned towards you, walking backwards for a few steps. "going to the bathroom," he said, making quotation signs with his hands. you assumed that's what he'd told the coach, but that wasn't actually what he was planning on doing.

"kuroo, now is not the time to hang out with me. you have a game, dumbass."

kuroo smirked at you. "i'm just getting some pre-game encouragement." with that, he opened a door and went inside, pulling you in after him. it seemed to be some kind of janitor's closet. kuroo turned on the light.

"a janitor's closet?" you crossed your arms, raising an eyebrow at him. "this is cliche as fuck."

"am i not allowed to want to spend time with you?"

you bit your lip to keep from smiling. it didn't work, so you rolled your eyes to try and communicate to him that he was annoying.

kuroo walked towards you, forcing you to walk backwards until your back hit the door. "do you remember what i taught you yesterday, y/n?" he asked, his voice low in your ear. one of his arms propped him up against the door.

you pursed your lips, your heart rate speeding up in your chest. "yes," you said softly.

"want to practice?" his fingers traced lines on your jaw, causing goosebumps to rise on your skin.

you looked up at him and licked your lips. "damn. was i that good at it?" you meant for your words to be in a joking tone, but you were nervous and it didn't exactly come off the way you wanted it to.

kuroo looked down at you with a smirk. you knew that he could tell he made you nervous. it was obvious in his blatant confidence. he didn't say anything and lowered his face to yours, pressing a soft kiss on your lips. it was short; you didn't even have time to close your eyes. but the now familiar feeling of his lips on yours still caused your stomach to do flips.

kuroo pressed light kisses on your cheeks, your nose, your jaw. you giggled, not only because it tickled a little bit, but also because he was being sweet. he laughed a little bit against your skin, and your heart swelled. it was a side of him you were sure not many people had seen. it made you wonder if you were special.

you finally got tired of that and brought your hands up to hold his face. your thumbs rested on his cheeks and the rest of your fingers were behind his ears. you pulled kuroo's face closer to yours, kissing his lips innocently. you felt pure bliss in this moment.

after a few moments, you pulled away from him. "kuroo, you should go."

he nodded, fixing up his jersey and running his hand down his face. "you're right."

you smiled up at him.

"watch me, okay?" he pointed at you, eyes wide and eyebrows raised.

"of course. whoop their asses."

"always do."

you fist bumped him, and he left the closet first to get back to his warm up. you stayed there for a few minutes, just in case somebody was out there and would put the pieces together that you and kuroo had been with each other.

when you judged that it was safe, you slid out of the closet and walked down the hallway towards the gym. the squeaking of volleyball shoes and the hitting of volleyballs grew louder as you approached.

you made your way to the audience section, and looked around for ayako. you'd asked her to come keep you company. you found her a little bit off to the right.

"ayako!" you called her name and waved to her.

she waved back excitedly. "hi, y/n!" she stood up and gave you a hug. you squeezed her affectionately.

"thank you for coming," you told her as the two of you sat down.

"of course. i need to get out of the house, anyways." she smiled at you.

"felt," you said. student council, dance, and your tutoring sessions with kuroo were the main activities in your life at the moment. you were a bit of a homebody.

"GO KUROO!"

the scream from the middle of the audience section. you knew who it was immediately when you heard it, but you looked over at her anyways. kasumi was with a large group of girls, but she'd made sure to outshine every one of them. her outfit was a little too much for the occasion; she wore a tiny skirt with a tight crop top. you weren't the type to judge people for their clothing choices, but you knew the exact reason why kasumi wore that outfit, and it definitely wasn't to be fashionable. she wore her brown hair in a high ponytail.

you were about to be severely disgusted, but then realized that you had no right.

me and her are the same.

the thought echoed through your mind, and you couldn't get rid of it.

the volleyball game started, and you held a little conversation with ayako during it, but you couldn't help the guilt that was rising inside of you.

you hated kasumi, that was for sure. but the two of you were in the same boat. you both liked kuroo, and you both let him play you. your mind was racing.

you looked down at the game. kuroo was serving. he looked up at the audience section, his eyes scanning the many faces there. you saw him look at kasumi and offer her a smile, and then lock eyes with you. it was short and subtle enough so that you'd only notice if you were truly looking, but you saw him smirk and nod at you. he threw the ball up, ran a few steps, jumped and served the ball. it hit the other side of the court without the other team even touching it.

it wasn't right. whatever you had going on with kuroo-- whatever relationship the two of your had built, it was wrong.

but...

you didn't want to give it up. your feelings for kuroo had grown so strong in such a short amount of time; you didn't understand how it had even happened. your relationship with kuroo gave you something to be happy about, to look forward to, to be excited for.

it felt right. and as much as your morals told you otherwise, you were not going to let him go.

and if being like kasumi was what it took to have kuroo in at least some way, then that's what you would do.

•••

"kuroo." 

you sat on the steps that led up to the gym. everyone else had left, so it was just you and him, sitting together in the sunset.

"yeah?" he wiped the sweat off his face with the inside of his jersey. you stared.

"um," you suddenly felt nervous, and your hands felt sweaty. "what we did... we have to keep it a secret."

kuroo looked at you, pulling the neckline of his jersey forward to get some air in there. "hm. do you want to stop?"

you hesitated. "no," you said cautiously. "but i just... don't want people to know about it. so can we just... do very limited talking in school and stuff?"

kuroo tilted his head to the side. "i can't even talk to you?"

"do you have any idea who you are?" you hit him on the knee. "people will start to notice if you talk to me a lot. people notice the stuff you do. i might get my ass beat."

kuroo sighed, and you wondered your place in his life. you suddenly felt embarrassed talking to him like this. talking to him like you were special or something.

you wondered why you'd put yourself in this position. maybe you liked the attention. maybe you just really liked kuroo. maybe it was that he was showing you things you hadn't done before. perhaps it was a combination of those things.

"i need you to teach me something tomorrow," you said softly.

kuroo raised an eyebrow. "is that like a code word now?" he asked, a smirk on his face. "teach me?"

you shrugged. "you are teaching me," you began. "just, not academic things."

"is it just teaching to you?" kuroo asked, catching you by surprise. "i think you like me." a smug grin played on his lips.

"let's talk about something else," you said quickly, because you didn't want to tell him that he was right. "you won your game!" you plastered a smile on your face.

at this, kuroo grinned proudly. "i told you i'd whoop their asses."

you mimicked his line from earlier. "you always do."

kuroo put his hand on your knee. looking out at the darkening sky streaked with orange and pink. 

"how's dance?" he asked you.

you turned to him. "you know i do dance?"

kuroo nodded slowly, then tilted his head to the side. "of course i do. i'm interested in you, pretty girl."

you bit the inside of you cheek, trying to keep yourself from squealing or something embarrassing of that nature.

"oh," you finally said, trying to sound unbothered. "well, it's good. we're preparing for the competition after the school dance."

kuroo nodded. "can you show me the dance?"

"no!" you quickly said, punching his arm lightly. "that's embarrassing."

kuroo laughed a little bit. "why? you look like you're a good dancer."

you shrugged. "i'm okay."

"so show me." his grin was expectant, waiting for you to do as he asked. you really didn't want to, though. your dance was meant to be with two people: you and ayako. it looked awkward without her.

you shook your head, putting on a smirk. "you don't get to see it."

kuroo licked his lips, rubbing your knee and then moving up to your thigh. "okay, i won't force you."

with that, you got up. it was getting darker fast. "we should go."

"yeah." kuroo stood up behind you. "get home safe," he said, fingers brushing your jaw.

"you too," you said, unable to meet his eyes. "see you tomorrow."