The Cat and the Crow

It had already been a few hours since they’d left Saitama, and night had already fallen. Coach Ukai was taking his turn driving, and was talking quietly with Takeda-sensei. Kei had waited patiently until everyone else had fallen asleep, and then raised his eye mask. He left his earphones on, though, just in case. It hadn’t taken much for him to make everyone believe he was exhausted, acting like he was asleep pretty much right after they’d left Shinzen. But, in all honesty, he was never more awake in his life. There would be little sleep, if any, happening on the way home.

Kei took his phone out of his jacket pocket and found his lock screen lit up. The notifications kept coming in, and he was glad he’d put his phone on silent mode. Swiping to unlock, he scrolled through the notifications. As expected, the squad’s group chat had blown up, and was still active. But it was the private text he’d seen that he was more interested in. Tapping the notification, he opened the message from Kuroo.

[Sleep well, Tsuki]
[I love you]
[I miss you]
[Call/text me when you’re finally awake]

Kei grinned like an idiot. A ridiculously happy idiot, but still…

[I love you more]
[I miss you, too]
[Sorry, I had to wait for everyone to fall asleep]

He had to wait a few minutes before Kuroo replied.

[No worries. But why wait?]
[Dodging questions, mostly]
[Got it. You think they know?]
[I mean, we weren’t exactly being circumspect about it]
[True]
[Even so, if they didn’t know before, they do now. But that’s not why I was dodging]
[Why then?]
[I wanted to look at our pictures without curious onlookers]
[Good thinking. I get dibs on copies before Bokuto and Akaashi]
[Well, yeah. Duh]
[Rude]
[Is it really, though?]
[LOL!]

Kei minimized the text window and tapped the gallery icon. It opened to show his albums, and the one aptly labeled ‘camera’ was loaded with new pictures. He scrolled through the first several rows, and then went back to the text window.

[Bokuto actually took a few good ones]
[Surprising. Are you sure they aren’t Akaashi’s?]

He sent the two photos they both knew Bokuto had taken, and then a few more from later on. Then, he waited.

[omg, Tsuki, you’re right.]
[Told you so]
[Smartass]
[You love it, though]
[Yes, yes I do. Completely. But seriously, send more]
[Okay. Hold on…]

Scrolling through the pictures, he sent all the ones he really liked, plus the last group photo Kenma had taken. There were quite a few, especially the sillier selfie-type shots, but also several more where they actually posed. And then he found several that were obviously taken by Kuroo. Most of them were ones he hadn’t known about, until now. He sent a few of those, too.

[You found them]
[I did. You take good pictures]
[I had a beautiful model]
[I'm not a model]
[Still beautiful, though]
[Kuroo?]
[Yeah?]
[shut up]
[LOL! I bet you’re blushing]
[Am not]
[Are too. And I really wish I was there to see it.]
[I wish you were here, too]
[#myheartjustmelted]
[#mopandbucket]
[By the way, I thought you might like to see this…]

Kuroo sent several links to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. He clicked one, and was taken to Kuroo’s profile page. The background pic was their group picture, and the profile pic was Kuroo smiling, his hands forming a heart. The most notable thing was his hair wasn’t standing on end as it usually did. He took a screenshot and sent it to Kuroo.

[Already?]
[Yeah. I couldn’t wait.]
[Obviously. Oh look! Bokuto found it, too.]
[Yeah (2). Send me a friend request, okay?]
[Will do.]
[Ttyl. Love you more.]
[Okay. Love you most.]

Smiling, Kei was about to put his phone away, when he noticed he was no longer the only one awake. Tadashi, who had been asleep beside him, was now watching him, and looking rather bemused. And from above the seat in front of him, he saw Suga looking down at him, looking both bemused and pleased. Knowing he wasn’t going to get out of not explaining, he closed the text window with Kuroo, opened his gallery, and handed the phone to Tadashi.

Not too long later, the bus pulled off the road and into a gas station. The three of them left the bus, with permission from Takeda, and went to go get a snack.

“I can’t remember a time I’ve seen you this happy,” Tadashi remarked as he picked out a snack cake.

“What? I’ve been happy before…” Tsuki protested, picking out a bag of trail mix.

“Not like this,” he explained, holding up a picture. It was a picture of Kei, and one of the ones Kuroo had taken. Suga crowded in to see. In it, he was standing near the wall, one hand on his neck, the other hitched on his hip. He was looking right at Kuroo.

“But, I’m barely even smiling,” Kei said quietly. It was true. There was just a ghost of a smile on his face. Kuroo had just said ‘I love you,’ and the look in his eyes was spellbinding.

“No, but it’s in your eyes,” Tadashi said. “You rarely showed emotions before, but since you’ve met Kuroo, they are almost always out for anyone to see. It’s like you’ve become someone new.”

“Have I changed that much?”

“Not so much changed,” Suga finally said, taking the phone from Tadashi and finding another picture. “More like… evolved… I guess you could say.” He handed the phone to Kei. It was the group photo, but he zoomed in on Kuroo and him. “You look truly happy. Love has a way of bringing out the best in us.”

“So philosophical,” Kei said sarcastically.

“Ah, and there’s the Tsuki we all know and love,” Suga laughed. He moved away and started walking toward the door. “See you guys later.”

“Yeah. Thanks, mom,” both he and Tadashi called out after him. After a few moments, Kei yawned.

“Finally tired?” Tadashi asked as they went up to pay for their stuff.

“I think so.” He handed over his money, and waited for Tadashi to do the same, then they made their way to the bus. He checked his phone again, and saw he had new messages. When he looked up, he saw his best friend smiling at him.

“I can honestly say that right now, the most important person in your life is Kuroo.”

“But that’s not…”

“Tsuki, think about it, okay? I’m not saying anything about anyone being less important now than any other time. But if you had the choice, right now, would you be here, or back with Kuroo?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Come on, Tsuki. You’ve got the window seat, so you have to board first.”

“You’ve been hanging around Suga too much,” Kei grumped, but still, he moved.

“Actually, it’s vice versa, and only because we care.”

“Right. The fact that Suga knows so much after only meeting us back in April...”

“Have you met Kuroo?”

“Touche.”

They laughed quietly, went to their seats, and settled in for the rest of the trip. Eventually, Tadashi fell asleep, and Kei spent the rest of the trip swapping back and forth between the group chat and Kuroo’s texts.