Work Text:
Kenma situates his newest bouquet in the background of his face cam. He raises a brow at his camera. “Can you guys see this?” He waits a few seconds for his chat to answer. He nods when he gets a whole lot of yes’s and thumbs up in his chat. “Good. Kuroo spent a lot of money on these.”
Kenma groans as his chat fills with question marks, exclamation points, and different variations of ‘KuRoO????’. He really should’ve seen that coming. All his chat does is terrorize him. It doesn’t matter if he’s been open about who he’s engaged to for six months now, they still take any chance they can to try and embarrass Kenma. And, unfortunately, it works every time. Kenma purses his lips to try and negate the fact that his face is so damn hot all of a sudden. “You guys are all idiots. You all know who Kuroo is.”
Kenken4L: ‘Look up the flowers this time!’
TestuKenTruther: ‘Ooh yes!!! @kenken4L He totally should!’
KenKen4L: ‘I bet it’s adorable! Tetsu is really thoughtful when it comes to Kenma @TetsKenTruther’
Kenma feels his eye twitch as he reads the interaction in his chat. Who do these people think they are calling his Tetsurou by that nickname?! He takes a deep breath and subtly shakes his head. He’s being ridiculous. Kuroo has been TetsuChan his entire streaming career. Of course, that’s what his followers call him. It’s just strange. Kenma hasn’t ever even thought to call him that. Not in a serious way, at least. He’s just Kuro. His adorable, way too selfless, fiancé.
“What are you guys talking about?” Kenma asks his chat. Chat blows up asking Kenma what he’s talking about in return, and he rolls his eyes. “About the flowers. Aren’t they just pretty?”
Kenma’s eyes widen as his chat nearly explodes with messages. They’re scrolling by way too fast for him to actually read, but from what he’s able to skim, he can gather that there is a lot more to flowers than just being pretty. “Okay, okay, relax. I was half-joking. I know that the colors mean things.” He’s not a complete idiot. No matter how much his chat would love to argue otherwise.
Kenma sighs and pulls his knee up to his chest, resting his chin on it. “But I don’t even know what kinds of flowers these are. Kuro just gives ‘em to me and that’s it. And he’s on a plane right now for his surprise he has planned. I can’t just ask him.” Kenma starts to feel a little down at the mention of Kuroo being gone for the next week. Stupid Kuro and his stupid promises to do big surprises for his followers. What happened to just doing collabs over the internet?! Huh?!
“Anyways, let’s get into this playthrough.” Kenma says as he opens up the game. He shakes out his hands a little bit. “I’m excited for the end.”
////
“Kyaaaaaanmaaaaaaa!”
Kenma freezes and ends up getting headshotted. He hears footsteps in the hall and quickly backs out of the COD lobby he was in. He turns around in his chair and dumps his headphones. His video can wait.
“Kyanma?” Kuroo says, this time much quieter. Kenma stands up and crosses the room quickly. Kuroo greets him with a smile and open arms. Kenma buries his face in Kuroo’s chest, holding him tightly. Kuroo chuckles, wrapping his arms around Kenma’s shoulders. “Hey, honey.”
Kenma doesn’t even care about the cheesy pet name. All he cares about is Kuroo being home. He looks up at him with a smile. Kuroo brushes his hair back and leans down for a soft kiss. “I missed you,” Kenma whispers in the small space between them when Kuroo pulls back slightly. Kuroo hums and kisses Kenma again. Kenma sighs into it, standing up on his toes to be a little closer.
“I missed you too.” Kuroo whispers back when they pull apart again. Kenma goes flat footed again and Kuroo’s smile turns a little mischievous. “I saw your stream.”
“Which one?” Kenma asks. He streams almost every night. Kuroo is going to have to be way more specific than that. Kuroo wraps an arm around Kenma’s waist and holds him close. Kenma rolls his eyes when Kuroo forces him to walk backwards into his office. “I stream a lot you know.”
“I do know.” Kuroo answers sarcastically. Kenma rolls his eyes again and takes a seat in his chair. Kuroo nods to himself and goes over to where Kenma has his bouquet sitting. It’s wilting a little bit already. He’s going to need new flowers soon if he’s going to keep them as a part of his background. “The one where your chat was telling you to look up the meanings of the flowers.”
“Oh, that one?” Kenma says. He shrugs. He hadn’t really thought much about it this past week. “What about it?”
“I think that we should do it. Look up the meanings of them, I mean.” Kuroo says. He pulls another bouquet from behind his back and Kenma feels a little smitten at the kind gesture. Kuroo busies himself with switching out the old flowers with the new flowers. When he’s done, Kuroo makes a show of presenting the newly placed flowers to Kenma where he sits. Kenma accepts the vase with a roll of his eyes. “For you, my love.”
“Oh, my God, you’re such a dork,” Kenma says, biting back a smile. He fingers a couple of petals. “These are beautiful. I don’t think you’ve gotten me these before.”
Kuroo nods. “There’re a couple of new ones. You really like them?” Kuroo asks. He pulls up the extra chair Kenma keeps in his office so he can sit next to him. Kenma nods, feeling a little shy about this all of a sudden. “Then I’ll keep getting them for you.”
“I liked those black ones you got me before.” Kenma tells him. He continues to look through the bouquet, leaning forward a bit to breathe in their fresh smell.
Kenma can feel Kuroo’s eye roll. “You would like black flowers.”
“They’re pretty.”
“They’re ominous is what they are.” Kuroo sasses. He stands up and drops a kiss onto the top of Kenma’s head. “I’m gonna go take a shower, ‘kay?”
“Mhmm,” Kenma hums. He sets his flowers safely to the side of his setup, so they don’t get knocked over. “I’m starting stream after I finish recording this video, though. Don’t take too long.”
“Movie night afterwards?” Kuroo asks. He’s already standing in the doorway when Kenma turns to look at him. Kenma nods once and Kuroo smiles tiredly. “Good. I missed you.” With that said, Kuroo steps out of Kenma’s office. He pulls the door closed behind him and Kenma turns back to his desk. He glances at the clock he keep snext to his monitor. 30 minutes to finish up and get stream up and running.
////
“Hey, chat,” Kenma greets his stream when he sees the comments start to roll in. Kuroo takes his seat next to him and Kenma sighs as he his chat explodes with loads of ‘omg!!!! Tetsu!!!!!’ and overexaggerated hellos to Kuroo instead of himself. “Glad to know that you guys are here because you love me.” Kuroo starts to cackle beside Kenma. He scoots closer until he can comfortably hook their ankles together below Kenma’s desk.
“Aw, they just missed me is all. They see you everyday.” Kuroo says sweetly. Kenma huffs as Kuroo kisses his cheek. Kenma blushes and swats Kuroo away from him. Kuroo laughs harder at Kenma’s embarrassed look. “It’s just a kiss on the cheek!”
“It’s still embarrassing!” Kenma hisses. He glances at chat and groans at all the kissy face emotes rolling in. “And you know they’re going to clip it.”
“Good.” Kuroo says. He leans closer to Kenma, making Kenma lean away from him to escape a second kiss. “They need new content. Our edits are getting a little stale.” Kuroo pauses and looks over to the camera. “No offense. They’re still great, but there’s only so much you guys can do with the same clips over and over.” Kenma plants both his hands on Kuroo’s face and shoves him away. He blankly stares at Kuroo as he dramatically falls back and then almost falls to the floor.
“You are the epitome of grace,” Kenma says drily. Kuroo smiles cockily as he adjusts himself in his seat. Kenma takes a deep breath. “Anyways,” Kenma says, turning to his setup. He opens up a new tab on Google Chrome and makes sure that his stream can see it. “We are going to be looking into what these flowers mean today.” Kenma pulls his vase into his lap and shows them off to his camera. “Since you guys keep asking and Kuroo bought me new ones today on his way home.”
“And I’m here to be eye candy.” Kuroo chirps. Kenma side eyes him. Kuroo makes an offended face and clutches at his chest. “Am I not?!”
“No, you’re not.” Kenma says bluntly. Kuroo makes a sound like he’s been stabbed, but Kenma ignores him. “Kuroo is here to tell us why he got them in case the meanings we find don’t match up to his reasoning. And because he knows which flowers are which.” Kenma tells his stream. He turns to look at Kuroo with a raised brow. “Ready?”
Kuroo is pouting slightly as he nods. “You’re always so serious,” he mumbles. Kenma shrugs. He likes to keep his private life private. There’s nothing wrong with that. “And you never laugh at my jokes when you’re on stream.” And there’s the issue of over inflating Kuroo’s ego.
“If I did that, we’d have to buy a new house so your fat head could fit in it.” Kenma tells Kuroo plainly. Kuroo opens his mouth to protest, but then closes it with an expression that says he thinks Kenma is right. “It’s my job to keep you humble, babe.”
“Actually, I think your job is to suck my-,” Kuroo stops talking when he sees the icy glare coming from Kenma. “Let’s get started on these flowers!” Kuroo says with a nervous laugh. He picks out one of the flowers from the bouquet. “Can we start with this one?”
“Is that one super special or something?” Kenma asks curiously. Kuroo shrugs, twisting the stem between his fingers.
“Not anymore than the rest of them.” Kuroo says. “I just saw it first when I looked at the bouquet.” Kenma shrugs and Kuroo places the flower back so he can use Kenma’s keyboard to type in the search.
“Wait, tell me why you got it first.” Kenma says quietly. Kuroo leaves the search without pressing enter. He sits back and looks right into Kenma’s eyes. Kenma blushes a bit at the adoration shining in Kuroo’s eyes suddenly. He starts to fidget a bit, glancing at his camera.
“Face me first,” Kuroo murmurs. Kenma turns his chair, so they’re knee to knee. Kuroo smiles and takes the vase from Kenma’s lap so he can set it to the side. He takes the flower he had before back out and gives it to Kenma. “That’s a tulip.”
Kenma nods. “You’ve gotten me these before. On our anniversary.” Kenma recalls the pink and red bouquet from a few months prior. It had been the biggest one Kuroo had ever gotten him. Still probably is. He runs his finger along the petal. “I like these ones. Especially the darker colored ones.”
Kuroo nods with a small smile. Kenma can still feel Kuroo’s gaze on him and has a hard time looking up. It feels intimate. They’re definitely having a moment that he would normally want to have off camera, but he knows Kuroo likes to show his affection for the world to see. And Kenma likes it when Kuroo does, too. Seeing clips of how in love they are all over the internet is nice, especially since they normally focus on how Kuroo treats Kenma.
“That’s one of the reasons I got this for you.” Kuroo says. He sighs and takes Kenma’s free hand in his, lacing their fingers together. “The other reason is because of what they stand for.” Kenma looks at the light red, almost pink flower curiously. “Tulips are commonly thought to symbolize a perfect, deep love.”
Kenma’s eyes shoot up to Kuroo at that information. His jaw drops slightly when Kuroo looks dead serious. Kenma feels his cheeks turn a darker red. “R-Really?” Kenma stutters slightly. He feels painfully aware of the fact that a camera is pointed right at them. Is this going to be what all the flowers mean? Kenma isn’t sure he’s going to be able to do all of this on stream.
Kuroo nods and turns to Kenma’s computer. “Yes, really. Look.” Kuroo hits enter on the search and then clicks the first link. “See? Red tulips, perfect love, all right here for you to read, babe.” Kenma nods and pointedly ignores all the hearts in his chat. “Next one?” Kenma nods and picks the next flower. Kuroo’s smile turns soft as Kenma brings it up to his nose to smell. “That’s a chrysanthemum.”
“A chr-what now?” Kenma asks. That is way too many syllables. Kuroo laughs and takes the flower from Kenma.
“A chrysanthemum. It’s pretty, right?” Kuroo asks. Kenma nods silently. He looks over to chat and sees a few too many comments swooning over Kuroo.
“Oi! Back off, he’s mine!” Kenma says jokingly. He rolls his eyes when his chat starts to move a mile a minute.
Peterthepiper: ‘Clip it! Clip it!’
Heyhello: ‘OMG the edits!!!!’
Curtisgoner: ‘Damn, wish I had a Tetsu ☹ ’
Kenma feels a frown tug on his mouth at the last comment. Tetsu is his thank you very much. He’s one of a kind. And Kenma has a monopoly on him.
“Kenma, stop being so jealous over pixels and listen to me.” Kuroo jokes. Kenma turns back with a weak glare and Kuroo rolls his eyes light heartedly. “Anyways, I picked this flower because it means devotion. And I’m devoted to you. Always. Any time, any place.”
Kenma is surprised when he feels himself start to feel choked up. They’re just flowers! And he already knows how Kuroo feels about him! Why the hell is he about to cry?! “Oh, sweetheart,” Kuroo leans forward and kisses Kenma’s forehead gently. “Don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying!” Kenma protests. He’s not! He’s not crying. Kozume Kenma does not cry. He especially does not cry on stream. “Just go to the next one already!” He orders. Kuroo squeezes Kenma’s hand first.
“You don’t want me to look it up?” Kuroo asks him. Kenma is pouting now, not that he is going to admit it to anyone. He can imagine all the clips and screenshots he’ll be tagged in by tomorrow morning. Kuroo is going to love them for sure. “Alright, fine, I’ll stop teasing.” Kuroo says seriously. He takes a deep breath and picks out the last two types of flowers. He holds each up. “Which one next?”
“The right one,” Kenma mutters. Kuroo hands it over to Kenma with a smile. “Let me guess, it means you love me?”
“Wow!” Kuroo says, sounding way too enthusiastic. “What an astute observation!” Kenma rolls his eyes at Kuroo’s sarcasm. “Wait, what’s chat saying?” Kuroo asks. He leans forward to be better able to read it.
“They better be behaving,” Kenma grumbles. He turns to look at it and finds that they actually are for once in their lives.
Caramelkitty: ‘Wow, Tetsu is actually a romantic’
Loosemoose: ‘Right??? @caramelkitty who knew he could be thoughtful???’
Kenma laughs at the interaction and highlights the comments for Kuroo to read. Kuroo takes a second to read it over before glaring into the camera. “Excuse me, that is rude! I am extremely thoughtful!” He turns to Kenma. “Tell them, Kenma!”
Kenma laughs and nods. “Yes,” he says with a smile, “he is. He’s only an idiot on stream because that’s as funny as he gets.”
“Yeah, what- wait! Kyanmaaa!” Kuroo whines at Kenma’s subtle insult. He pouts, jutting his lip out fully. “You’re supposed to be nice to me! I’m professing my love for you!”
“I don’t think that’s what professing your love gets for you, but I can still be nice.” Kenma says. He’s glad that whatever emotion had welled up in him has passed. And it better not come back. If he finds clips of himself crying anywhere on the internet, he will deactivate all his social media and become a hermit.
Kuroo nods like that’s what he expected Kenma to say. He sits up straight and clears his throat. “This is a carnation.” Kenma nods as he looks the flower over. “And there’s lots of different colors for these flowers, but this deep red one means love. The darker the red, the more love it’s supposed to represent I think.” Kuroo’s brows furrow as he explains it. He tilts his head slightly. “I could be wrong, but that’s why I got such a dark red. And it looks good with the rest, no?” Kenma nods. He takes a deep breath when he feels his throat start to burn a little bit.
“And,” Kuroo says. His lips pull up into a cheesy smile. Kenma looks at him suspiciously. “These flowers can also be used to show others that they have a very distinct role in someone’s life.” Kuroo leans forward quickly, and before Kenma can pull away, he kisses him on the lips. Kenma shrieks in surprise, and Kuroo smiles into the kiss before pulling away when Kenma smacks his shoulder. “Ow!”
“We. Are. On. Stream!” Kenma hisses. He puts his flowers down and buries his face in his hands. “You are awful! Terrible!”
“Aw, c’mon, don’t be shy, I didn’t even get to the good part yet.” Kuroo says. Kenma shakes his head. Kuroo has that voice he gets when he’s up to no good and Kenma is going to either be beyond exasperated, reluctantly endeared, or downright annoyed with him.
“What is it then?” Kenma asks carefully. Kuroo’s smile grows bigger and Kenma has a feeling exasperation is what’s coming his way.
“Well, the main reason I got this flower specifically was because you’re the only person I have eyes for.” Kuroo hums as he pulls Kenma’s chair closer, forcing their legs to tangle so they can be that close. Kuroo leans in slightly and Kenma frowns at him to deter anymore PDA. “You’re the only one I ever want to look at.”
“Is that what the distinction is about?” Kenma asks him. Kuroo nods and they share a quiet moment. It’s interrupted when a donation comes through, Kenma’s alert blaring through the speakers.
“Fu- crap!” Kuroo says, jumping out of his skin. Kenma laughs a bit as the automated voice reads out the message attached to the donation.
‘You guys are so cuuutttteeee!!!! What is the last flower about Tetsu-san??’
“Thank you, marichan378,” Kuroo says smugly. He wiggles his brows at Kenma. Kenma takes the final flower from Kuroo and waits for him to explain. “I’m glad somebody enjoys my romantic endeavors.”
Kenma snorts. “You know I love them,” he says confidently. Kuroo sighs and nods.
“I do, don’t I?” Kuroo smiles wistfully for a few moments before clapping his hands together. It makes Kenma blink in surprise. “Okay! Let’s get this thing done.” Kuroo flashes the camera a thumbs up before turning back to Kenma with a serious look. Kenma feels his stomach drop with nerves. What’s with the look?
“Kenma,” Kuroo starts. Kenma feels his heart thump in his chest. What the hell is Kuroo doing? “This last flower is called an alstroemeria.” Kenma nods a few times when Kuroo pauses. “And it’s white. White normally symbolizes purity or whatever,” Kuroo waves off that explanation. “But, white alstroemerias mean that the love someone has for the receiver is pure. Platonically and romantically.” Kuroo’s lips quirk up at the corners. “Like soulmates. And that’s how I feel about you.”
Kenma purses his lips. Fuck, he’s going to cry. He’s going to cry on stream and he really is going to have to become a hermit that lives in the woods and only has Hinata as a form of connection with the world. “Sh-Shut up,” Kenma says, but his words have no bite. Kuroo turns a little blurry. “You’re so stupid it h-hurts,” Kenma tries again.
“I love you, too, sweetheart.” Kuroo says softly. Kenma turns his chair around so that his chat can’t see him. If he turns his back, that ruins all the possible clips, right? He’s going to pretend that that’s true. Kuroo ends up back in Kenma’s line of sight. Kenma sighs when Kuroo brushes his lips over his nose and cheeks. “You okay?” Kuroo asks lowly.
Kenma nods. “You’re just such a simp.” Kenma tries to joke his way out of this. Laugh to keep from crying and all that. Kuroo chuckles and squeezes Kenma’s knee. “I hate you. You’re making me cry on stream.”
“Maybe it’s all those love confessions you keep to yourself finally coming out,” Kuroo muses. He smiles in the face of Kenma’s dirty look. “Anyways, I muted your mic so you can wax poetic about me if you really want to.” Kuroo looks way too happy with himself.
“Do you always put this much thought into the flowers you buy me?” Kenma asks. He feels like he’s getting a handle on his emotions again. It honestly feels a little odd. He doesn’t lose control of himself like this. It’s literally his brand that he’s like a stone wall during stream.
“Of course. Only the best for the love of my life.” Kuroo says. His tone leaves no room for Kenma to doubt him. Kuroo cups Kenma’s cheek with a soft smile. “And I know that you’re not a huge fan of words of affirmations. And neither am I. But your eyes always light up when I get you flowers and you get this little smile on your face and-,” Kuroo cuts himself off with a huge sigh. His shoulders fall as he lets it out and Kenma nods. “And, yeah. Even if you don’t know what they mean, I know you know that I get them because I love you. And that’s all the really matters, isn’t it?”
Kenma nods, reaching up to grab Kuroo’s hand on his cheek. He turns his head so he can kiss his palm and then sets it in his lap. “Yeah, that is all that matters.” Kenma sniffles and Kuroo uses his other hand to wipe at a few stray tears. “I love you, Tetsurou,” Kenma mumbles.
Kuroo’s smile could rival the sun with how bright it is. He leans in and this time, Kenma doesn’t freak out when Kuroo kisses him. “I love you, too, darling,” Kuroo says against his lips. He pulls back from the kiss with a wide smile. “Now, what’s next on the stream agenda.”
Kenma perks up a bit as he remembers what he wanted to play with Kuroo before their movie night. “I think tonight is the perfect night to teach you how to play Valorant.”
Kuroo groans as he slides back into his chair. “Really? Does it have to be tonight?”
Kenma nods and turns his mic back on. He looks over chat for a few seconds before answering Kuroo. “Yes, it does have to be tonight. You’re learning.”
Kuroo heaves a sigh. Kenma rolls his eyes at the dramatics coming from beside him. “Alright, fine.” Kuroo says. Kenma moves out of the way so Kuroo can sit in the middle of the desk. “I will play Valorant. But only for two hours. Then I’m done.”
“Three games.” Kenma bargains.
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Two.” Kuroo says again. Kenma smirks at his camera before leaning closer to Kuroo to whisper in his ear.
“Three and we can Netflix and Chill during our movie,” Kenma whispers. Kuroo looks at him with wide eyes and raised brows. Kenma nods, smirk still firmly in place.
“Three games it is.” Kuroo agrees. Kenma laughs at how excited Kuroo suddenly seems. “Open the game up.”
“We have to make you a new account, Kuro,” Kenma says. “Alright chat, hold on while we do this. I’ll get to you guys in a minute.”
Kenma begins setting up Kuroo’s account, letting him pick his own username and password. Kuroo rants about how he doesn’t even like shooting games and this should be a testament to how much he truly loves Kenma since he’s doing this without a fight. Kenma just shakes his head, feeling a mixture of exasperated and endeared by how ridiculous Kuroo is being.
Kuroo shoots him a smile when they’re finally finished, and the game is opened up. “Okay,” Kuroo says. He looks over to Kenma. “Now what?”
“Now, placement games.” Kenma says. He purses his lips slightly. “But maybe we should start in unranked first so you can get some real practice. Or the range.” Kenma stops to think about it again. “Actually, we should just make a custom game. Give me two seconds to ask somebody if they’d be willing to get on and help us out.”