Chapter Text
You tell your roommate that you’re moving out.
To live with your boyfriend, you say, omitting everything else. Though, you’re sure she’s realised you’re pregnant by now, even as oblivious as she is.
At first she panics about what’s going to happen with the rent, but when you tell her that your father has already paid it off in its entirety, she relaxes. Is happy, even, since it means she’ll be living there for free now.
Akaashi and Bokuto help you and Kuroo move out your stuff once you’ve got it all packed. They don’t let you carry anything, so you just direct them. You leave everything you’re not going to need, like your bed and dresser.
When everything is packed into the van you’ve rented, you do one final check of the apartment to be sure. Then you leave your keys on the table and go to leave.
Your ex-roommate lingers by the couch, watching you awkwardly.
You open the door and look back at her.
“Uh, it was good to know you,” you say.
She nods, “You too.”
You look away and then take a breath and look back.
“I’m pregnant,” you tell her.
She smiles sadly and says, “I know.”
You nod and then walk out the door.
Moving in with your boyfriend was supposed to be happy and fun and exciting, but given the circumstances, it’s mostly just sad.
Bokuto does his best to lighten it up though, and it does help.
“We’re officially gonna be roommates!” He beams at you. “This is so exciting!”
“You might not say that when there’s a screaming newborn in the room down the hall,” you tease.
“Girl, I grew up surrounded by screaming babies and toddlers,” he says easily, waving a hand, “It’ll barely phase me. I’ll even help with it in the middle of the night when you guys are too exhausted!”
“I won’t,” Akaashi says.
You smile, “You don’t have to do that, Bokkun.”
“But I love babies! And she’s my niece!”
“You have like three nieces,” Kuroo supplies with an amused snort, starting to unpack a box, “That are actually related to you.”
“Yeah, but this one’s special!” Bokuto insists, kneeling down to start on a different box, “She’s the first kid of our friend group! And I also won’t have to share her with all my other siblings.” He rubs his hands together. “She’ll be all mine to spoil.”
“Not only yours,” Akaashi reminds him.
“And don’t forget about Kenma,” Kuroo adds.
“Three extremely competitive uncles,” you muse with a smile, “This little one’s gonna have it made.”
“I will be her favourite,” Bokuto says very seriously.
“You can try,” Akaashi returns just as seriously.
“Relax you two,” you laugh, “Save it for when she’s actually here.”
They drop it for the moment as you all continue unpacking. You’d told Akaashi and Bokuto earlier that they’d done enough by helping you move your things, but they insisted. It does make it faster, and the music Bokuto puts on (which happens to be his own compositions) helps to make it less boring.
Soon your mood lifts and you can just enjoy the fact that this will officially be your home now. And from now on you will be surrounded by the people who care about you most.
Later, when Kuroo’s home from his shift at the restaurant and you’re both relaxing in his—both of your—bed, he asks the question;
“So, are we ready to make an announcement?”
You’re at seventeen weeks now, and your baby bump’s only going to continue to grow, so...
“Yeah, I think we are.”
He grins, “Alright then.” And then he gets off the bed and runs out of the room. When he comes back he’s holding the latest ultrasound picture. He takes a snapshot of it with his phone and then lays it on the desk before flopping back down on the bed.
You watch him open up facebook excitedly. He uploads the photo and then hesitates over the caption.
He asks, “Would, ‘My seed has borne fruit,’ be too gross?”
“Absolutely.”
He makes a frustrated whine, “I don’t know what to write!”
“How about just something like, ‘Baby Kuroo is in the making,’ or whatever.”
For a moment Kuroo doesn’t say anything. You look at his face and find him staring at you with his mouth slightly open.
“What?”
“Is she going to have my family name?” he asks. He says it so sweetly and so earnestly it makes your heart melt.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” you say, putting a hand on his leg, “Is that okay?”
He blinks and then starts nodding his head, “Of course! Yeah! I just didn’t want to assume or anything, but yes! Yeah!”
You laugh and pull him in for a soft kiss. “Baby Kuroo it is.”
He smiles brighter than the sun and goes back to writing the caption, giggling to himself happily. “Alright, how about this then?”
He shows you the screen. It reads:
Baby Kuroo-chan: loading – 43%. Download complete in approx. 23 weeks. Patiently waiting for our baby girl to load! —— with [l/n][f/n]
“You dork,” you can’t help but snicker, “Kenma will appreciate it, that’s for sure.”
He laughs as well, “I guess he’s rubbed off on me after all these years.”
“I’d say so.”
“Okay,” he says, taking a breath, “Here goes nothing.”
And then he hits post.
It blows up, of course. More than your much simpler post had. But Kuroo is also very popular. Hundreds of likes, many in the form of a surprised face. Which is not, well, surprising.
It gets lots of comments of Congratulations! or No way! or For real? There’s also a few that say you guys will make great parents and stuff like that.
One of Kuroo’s uncles comments, You’re going to be a wonderful father, Tetsu. Proud of the man you’ve become. It makes you smile the most.
You notice, because of course you looked specifically, that the girl’s volleyball club captain has not commented or liked the post. It brings you a small amount of satisfaction knowing how much this news is probably bothering her, knowing that any chance she thought she had with Kuroo has now disappeared.
The outpouring of support from the people in yours and Kuroo’s social circle warms your heart more than you expected it to.
Of course, having people know online is different than when you’ll actually have to face them in person. You won’t have to worry about judgment from classmates since you dropped out of school, but with Kuroo and Bokuto’s volleyball season soon to start up again, there’s not a chance of you not seeing someone who knows you there. And Akaashi can’t always be there with you.
It’s not so much that you’re worried about what people will think, but more so that you don’t think you can handle the staring that’s bound to happen.
But there’s no avoiding it, other than never leaving the apartment, which you can’t do. So you suppose you’ll just have to grin and bear it. Kuroo’s proud of you and the baby you’re carrying, and really, that’s all that should matter.
Two weeks fly by. Moving in together doesn’t change much, considering you practically lived here already anyway, but there is something nice about not having to worry about if you’ve stayed too long or that you have laundry to do at your old place. That and the fact that you never have to worry about when you’re going to be able to see Kuroo again, is really nice. Especially now that you’ve both become much busier with break over.
Now that you’re both working, and between Kuroo’s classes and his volleyball practices, it’s hard to get much time together. The job his mom got you as an office assistant gives you 25-30 hours a week, which is good. You need the money. But it’s exhausting. One, because you’ve never actually had a job before, and two, because you’re pregnant and that in itself is tiring. The work is fairly easy, just filing paperwork, photocopying, all the boring repetitive stuff no one else wants to do. But it’s just that. Boring. And hard on your back and hips, which have already been sore due to the pregnancy.
It’s one night before bed, when Kuroo’s giving you a shoulder and back massage, that you find out you both have vastly different tastes in baby names. As his fingers work the knots that have formed in your back, you argue back and forth. Kuroo seems partial to very typical names, and you’re very insistent on something more unique. At one point things get heated over whether the name should end in ‘ko’ or not. You are adamant that it should not, but Kuroo seems attached to it.
Eventually you get it narrowed down to five that you both mostly agree on. You’ll both probably add more to the list as time goes on, but when it comes down to it, you won’t be able to decide until you actually get to meet your baby.
And man, are you impatient for that day to come. But you still haven’t even felt the baby move inside of you yet. Until a couple of days later...
“Oh,” you place your hand over your stomach where you just felt something like a flutter inside.
Beside you, cooking something up on the stove, Kuroo glances over, “What is it?”
You feel it again. Just a little flutter. But still, your heart swells as you’re filled with awe.
“Tetsu, I felt them,” you look up at him with wide eyes, “I felt them move.”
His jaw drops—along with the wooden spoon in his hand, “No way.”
You grin, nodding your head. Kuroo immediately ditches the food he’s cooking and drops to his knees in front of you, raising a hand up to your swollen belly.
“Are you getting excited in there, little one?” he says.
“I don’t think you’ll be able to feel anything yet, Tetsu,” you say apologetically, “She’s too small yet. It’s just a little flutter.”
He whines, pressing his forehead to your belly, hands gripping your hips, “That’s not fair!”
You run your fingers through his hair with a giggle, “Sorry, you’ll just have to wait a little longer.”
Kuroo pulls his head back and looks at your stomach, “You need to grow faster,” he tells the baby, “Daddy wants to feel you moving too.”
Warmth spreads through you. God, he’s so cute. And he’s going to make such a good dad.
“I love you,” you tell him suddenly.
He peers up at you, a small smile on his lips, “I love you too.” He looks back at your belly, “And I also love you.”
You’re about to tease him for being a sap, but then you smell something burning and you remember the food still on the stove.
Kuroo seems to notice at the same time, jumping up from the floor and fretting over the frying pan.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit!”
“Watch your language! They baby might hear you,” you joke.
Kuroo, frantically trying to save the food, gives you an exasperated look, “I think the baby will forgive me, given the situation.”
You laugh, loudly. Yeah, he’s gonna make a great dad all right.
That same week you’re finally able to make it to one of Kuroo and Bokuto’s home games.
When Kuroo and Bokuto enter the locker room together, Kuroo is greeted by a chorus of, “Papa Kuroo!”
He groans, “When are you guys gonna stop calling me that?”
“Never,” says one of the fourth years.
“Yeah, it’s who you are now,” Daichi chimes in.
Kuroo sighs, dropping his bag on one of the benches, “But I’m not your guy's dad.”
“You’ve always kind of been a dad though,” says one of the second years.
“More like a weird uncle,” Tsukishima supplies.
“I resent that, Tsukki.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Don’t call me a weird uncle then.”
Tsukishima clicks his tongue and goes back to ignoring everyone in the room. That’s when Oikawa decides to throw in his own two-cents.
“Okay, everyone, let’s leave Papa Tetsu-chan alone shall we?”
“Gee, thanks Oikawa.”
Oikawa gives him an award-winning grin, “Can’t help that it suits you so well.”
Kuroo flips him off.
Oikawa snickers and then schools his expression into his captain face, “But you should seriously drop it, since the coaches don’t know about it yet, and they could get here any second.”
Everyone nods and stops their teasing, leaving Kuroo to get ready for the game in relative peace.
Beside him, Bokuto gives him a nudge with his elbow, “When you plannin’ on telling the coaches?”
“Well, [f/n] is gonna be at the game today, so they might notice,” he says, making a face.
Bokuto pats him on the back and says no more on the subject.
To say that Kuroo’s nervous about his coaches finding out is an understatement. Just more people to disappoint with his irresponsibility. And honestly, he can’t even be sure they don’t know already.
On top of that, no one but Bokuto knows that he plans on quitting the team. So not only will the coaches be pissed at him, but all of his fellow players as well. Oikawa will probably ream him out over it. Try to convince him to keep playing.
It’s painful having to leave the team, but you and the baby are more important than the kicks he gets out of playing volleyball competitively.
He just has to suck it up and enjoy the time that he has left to play.
Because you are absolutely worth the sacrifice.
Akaashi practically has to drag you to the car.
You’re so nervous about everyone seeing you for the first time since the announcement that you feel like you might puke.
You’d planned on wearing a big sweater to hide the baby-bump, but Akaashi convinced you to wear something that shows it off more. To rub it in that captain bitch’s face , he’d said. And in the moment, it seemed like a great idea. But now that you’re in the car on the way there, you wish you hadn’t let your pettiness make the decision for you.
“It’s going to be fine,” Akaashi says, noticing you fiddling with the strap of your purse, “No one’s going to judge you.”
“That’s simply not true, Keiji.”
“Okay, but only the assholes are going to judge you.”
“It’s the assholes I’m worried about.”
“Fuck them,” he says, stopping at a red light. He looks over at you seriously, “And if anyone’s a bitch, I’ll eat them alive.”
The corner of your lip twitches, “I know that.”
Akaashi smirks and goes back to watching the road. The light turns green and you’re on your way again.
“Besides,” he says, “You know that Kuroo’s going to get all proud and doting when everyone sees him with you and the evidence of his incubating spawn.”
“I told you to stop calling her that!” you laugh.
He shrugs, but his eyes are sparkling and you know he was just trying to get you to relax.
The rest of the way you do your best to keep yourself calm. It’s difficult, but you manage somewhat.
Until you’re outside the gym doors.
“Breathe,” Akaashi says before placing a hand on your back and leading you into the gym.
And surprisingly, the world doesn’t end.
The people you know smile and wave at you, no one gives you judgmental looks. You and Akaashi find a good place to sit in the stands with no incident at all.
“See, it’s fine,” he murmurs in your ear, “The world doesn’t revolve around you and your spawn.”
“Oh, shut up,” you mutter back, elbowing him in the side.
He pinches your thigh in retaliation.
Then a familiar voice calls your names. You both turn and see Suga at the end of the aisle. He politely skirts by a couple of people and makes his way over.
“Hey you guys,” he says, shooting you his ever-dazzling grin, “How’s it going?”
“It’s going,” you and Akaashi say simultaneously, and then both look at each other and make a face. When you look back at Suga he just laughs and takes a seat beside you. Suddenly you feel even more relaxed—with Akaashi on one side and Suga on the other, it’s like you’re encased in a protective bubble of quick-witted men. Akaashi’s meaner than Suga, but Suga is a lot more… you don’t want to say crazy, but...
“So, I hear a congratulations is in order,” Suga says, interrupting that thought.
You roll your eyes at him, “As if you hadn’t already guessed.”
“Guessing and knowing are two different things!”
“For you, Sugawara, they tend to be the same,” Akaashi comments.
Suga throws his head back and laughs. “Enough about my intuition!” he says, then looks at you, eyes crinkled in a smile, “Still, congratulations.”
You smile back, “Thank you.”
The three of you start chatting about school, work, and life. In that time, both teams enter the gym for warm ups. At one point you catch Kuroo’s eye and he sends you a wink, knowing it would embarrass you if he waved, which normally would not deter him, but you think he knows better than to draw any attention to you at the moment.
Bokuto also sees you guys in the stands, but is much less subtle. He waves and sends a kiss Akaashi’s way. Akaashi should be used to it by now, but his ears still turn bright red as Suga nearly dies laughing at him.
It’s nice and comfortable, giving you a feeling of normalcy for the first time in a while.
That is until the women’s volleyball team graces the gym with their presence.
Your entire body tenses as a few of them, including the captain Nakajima Kasumi, enter the row right in front of you. Nakajima just so happens to glance up, and you try to avoid eye contact but don’t manage to look away in time.
“Ah, look who it is!” she says. You look back down and see her standing there with her hands on her hips, looking up at you. “The mother to be. Look at you, you’re glowing!”
She smiles, but there’s an edge to it.
“And you’re as loud as ever, Nakajima,” Akaashi says casually.
She ignores him and sits down, twisting in her seat to continue talking, “When I saw Kuroo-kun’s facebook post I was pretty surprised.”
You open your mouth to respond, but Akaashi beats you to it.
“I hope you didn’t take the news too hard,” he says smoothly.
Your eyes widen. And so do Nakajima’s before they narrow at Akaashi.
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean.”
Akaashi meets her glare evenly, cool as ice, “Oh, I just mean that it must have been difficult to realise that whatever chance you thought you had with Kuroo is now gone.”
Beside you Suga makes little attempt to stifle a snicker. You watch Akaashi and Nakajima as they stare each other down.
Finally, jaw set stubbornly, Nakajima turns away in her seat and crosses her arms. You think that she’s dropped it, pride wounded, but after a moment she looks over her shoulder and says, “I just think it’s sad that Kuroo-kun’s been trapped like this.”
It’s as if she’s taken a blunt knife and shoved it into your chest with the way your breath catches. And then all at once anger washes over you and you have to bite the inside of your cheek to keep the angry tears at bay. You’re about to tell her exactly where you think she can go, but then a hand is placed on yours and you stop. It’s Suga, and when you glance over at him, he’s smiling, a mean twinkle in his eye.
He gives you a wink and then addresses Akaashi, “From what Dai’s told me, Kuroo seems pretty excited to be having a daughter.”
“It’s all he talks about,” Akaashi responds, throwing his arm behind you to rest on the back of your seat. Neither of them are even sparing the women’s captain a glance now, “It’s nice to see him so happy, but I’ve seriously considered duct-taping his mouth closed a few times.”
Suga laughs, “Dai said that Oikawa threatened not to toss to him anymore if he didn’t give it a rest.”
“I think the only person who isn’t tired of hearing about it is Koutarou,” Akaashi says dryly and then looks at you, “And [f/n] of course.”
“I’m sure you know better than anyone how Kuroo’s feeling about all of this,” Suga says, squeezing your hand.
You look down at your lap, smiling wetly. “He talks to my belly every night before bed,” you say, laying your free hand on your stomach, “And I think he knows better than I do what stages of growth she’s in. He keeps track on his phone.”
Suga laughs, “That’s adorable.”
Suddenly, he glances down at Nakajima and makes a face as if he forgot she was even there.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you out like that, Nakajima,” he says earnestly. Then he leans forward in his seat and rests his head in his palm, “It’s just that it’s none of your fucking business.”
And then he smiles brilliantly.
It’s the final blow. Nakajima turns around, shoulders stiff. Her friends mutter something to hear, but she brushes them off.
You still feel some adrenaline pulsing through you, but your head no longer feels like it’s going to explode.
Of course, you could have said all of those things to her yourself, but no one can ever out-bitch Akaashi Keiji and Sugawara Koushi.
With that dealt with, Suga squeezing your hand once before letting it go.
You lean back, feeling the comfortable weight of Akaashi’s arm behind you, and watch as the teams finish up their warm-ups, hand resting easily on the swell of your belly.
As the teams make their way to their benches, you catch Kuroo’s gaze once again. He grins, and because he really can’t help but be a cheeky bastard, blows you a kiss.
You roll your eyes, cheeks heating up, but can’t keep the stupid smile off of your face. It’s like the jerk knew exactly what you needed.
The whistle blows, calling the starting line-ups to the court.
Kuroo puts on his game face.
Coincidentally, it’s the same face he wears when he talks about your future together.