KONDOU SHOURI HAS THE SAME UGLY LAUGH AS KUROO TETSUROU PASS IT ON
Been re-watching ATLA recently and got the sudden urge to finish a fic I’ve been working on. It’s a Haikyuu AU fic set in the world of ATLA and follows the *general* plot of the show, but I take a lot of liberties to make it how I want. It’s pretty light on shipping in the beginning but I have plans. Really I just wanted to practice writing plot without getting caught up in world building and character development like I usually do. So I decided to post about it here since I want to get feedback. Even though I’ll be posting on AO3 I wanted something a little more behind the scenes to get some extra interaction.
Here are some brief concepts that found their way into this little project of mine.
Hinata is the avatar. There are definitely a good number of candidates for this role, but I thought I’d have the most fun writing Hinata as the main character for this one. His journey in Haikyuu is full of struggle and growth and I think there are a lot of parallels there to work with when it comes to him being the avatar.
There are a lot of side characters in this. They aren’t super prominent but I think it’s fun when some more overlooked characters pop in here and there. Like Dateko are all guards on the walls of Ba Sing Se or Nekoma fills the general role of the white lotus, but as more of a secret rebel group within the fire nation.
As a consequence of the plot I have laid out, these are the main pairings:
Hinata/Kageyama
Bokuto/Akaashi
Tsukishima/Yamaguchi
Oikawa/Iwaizumi
These four get the most development and drama but plenty of others get their moments and are certainly not ignored (mostly because I love them too much). Those being:
Daichi/Suga
Asahi/Nishinoya
Kuroo/Kenma
Sakusa/Atsumu
Osamu/Suna
Ushijima/Tendo
and some others who don’t really get too much attention but are mentioned
I’ve seen a lot of people put Tsukishima in the role of Yue, which makes sense with his name and whatnot, but I went with something a little different. I have Akaashi filling that roll and I took inspiration from Yue and Sokka’s relationship to write Bokuto and Akaashi’s. I think, like Yue, Akaashi would have this sense of duty to his people and that is very interesting to write IMO. (Don’t worry, major character death is not one of the tags for this).
I’ll probably have art for this! I’ve done a couple of sketches already but I think I’d like to do at least some doodles for most of the chapters.
There will be a lot of angst, but nothing super hardcore. I’m a sucker for angst with a happy ending, so if you don’t like sad endings you’ve come to the right place!
There is a lot of character exploration. I’ll do my best to keep everyone in character but I also think they would be different when put into these situations. I try my best to write them as believably as possible while still also having them serve the roles they need to in the story.
I’ll probably post more about this even if not many people are interested. I think it’ll be fun to document this little journey of mine and perhaps keep some ideas written down somewhere. I also love to bounce ideas off of people so if anyone would like to reach out I’d be super happy!
Kuroo doesn’t consider himself old, he’s not even thirty yet, but he’s OLD old when it comes to technology. He likes to blame his ineptitude on a combination of him being raised by his grandparents and relying on Kenma to help him out when necessary.
His best friend had only just introduced him to TikTok, and for once this is a social media Kuroo can get behind. He quickly makes the JVL an account and makes content out of volleyball clips to fitting music. He’s having a blast, even if Kenma says he’s about a year late in all his music choices.
Eventually he makes his own personal account, and immediately starts posting videos of Kenma with the most ridiculous filters on him, Being that Kenma is so popular, and obviously would never post such content himself, his personal account becomes a hit.
People in the comments keep asking him to prank his best friend, but honestly Kuroo isn’t a fan of a majority of the “pranks” he sees online. They all seem too mean spirited, and he cares about his friend too much to pull a stunt that would hurt his feelings just for the views.
He’s lamenting about the non-stop requests to Bokuto who comes up with a solution.
“Why not just pull a nice prank? Like, leave little messages or something around the house and see if you can catch his reaction?”
It really is a great idea, and Kuroo is quick to set it up.
The first note does not go over well. Kenma found the note and actually called him. Not texted, CALLED him.
“What is this?”
“What is what?”
“This note you left me, what is this?”
“I figured my best friend just needed a reminder of how great he is!”
“Hmm. Suspicious.”
“It’s not suspicious!”
“It is.”
“Not!”
“Hmm. I’m hanging up now.”
The second note was met again with some resistance, but less suspicion. Kuroo gets a text at work.
‘Why are you leaving notes? You could just text me this.’
‘More fun for us both!’
The third note Kenma doesn’t acknowledge receiving, but when Kuroo asks him about it, Kenma blushes a bit and says that he read it. Huh.
The fourth note has Kenma blushing when he sees him next. BLUSHING! He’d only ever seen Kenma that red when he got sunburnt at the beach when they went to Okinawa a few years ago.
He decides it may be time to pull the nanny cam for footage on the reactions, if they’re good, he’ll have Fukunaga help him edit it down to a quick video for TikTok.
He watches the video, and predictably Kenma’s face gets all scrunched up in disgust and disbelief at the first note. It’s cute, definitely one of his favorite reactions. He can hear Kenma grumble ‘the fuck’ to himself before he’s pulling out his phone to call Kuroo.
The second note is met with less visible disgust, but more unintelligible mumbling. Again he takes out his phone to message Kuroo. He can see Kenma roll his eyes at the response and pocket the little note as he walks out of frame.
The third note has Kenma yelling out ‘Oh, come on!’ before he pulls out his phone to call someone. Strange, because he doesn’t remember Kenma trying to call him after this note. He doesn’t have to wonder who he’s calling because Kenma greets the person with a loud, ‘He’s driving me crazy Shohei’ before once again walking out of frame.
Huh. Were the notes that bad? He thought Kenma was enjoying them. Kuroo skips forward to the last note.
The fourth and final note was his sweetest one by a long shot, and this one is met with a blush and a groan from Kenma.
‘Ugh, when is he just going to ask me out already? Why did I have to fall in love with a sweet idiot.’
Ah. Well, this idea is now useless for his TikTok channel. One more note, he decides, one more note and no more hidden cameras.
The last note he doesn’t leave in his usual spot on the counter, instead when he lets himself in around noon, he leaves it on Kenma’s phone. He waits for his friend to wake up in his kitchen with a freshly made apple pie in the oven.
When Kenma eventually wakes up, he comes to the kitchen holding up the note.
“Do you mean it?”
“Yes.”
“Ok then.”
Kenma grabs a fork and shoves a big bite of pie into his mouth.
“I didn’t brush my teeth,” he says around his mouthfull.
“Ok?”
With a final swallow, Kenma slams down his fork and pulls Kuroo down into a kiss.
It’s sweet.
When they pull away Kenma goes back for another bite, and Kuroo can’t help but smile.
“Is that a yes then?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not going to say it out loud?”
“Not like you did either.”
Kuroo chuckles, “Fine. You wanna be my boyfriend?”
“Yup, sounds good to me.” Kenma scoops up his plate and heads back to his room. He looks back over at Kuroo, “Well come on, I’m still sleepy and as my new boyfriend it’s your job to cuddle me.”
“Ah, what a rough job I’ve landed, but no pie in the bed.”
“No, this pie is coming to bed.”
“You can’t eat pie in the bed! Think of the crumbs!’
“I’m going to eat it all, there won’t be any!”
“This is how you get ants, Kenma. Do you want ants in your bed?”
“We’re not going to get ants in the bed.”
“We will!”
“Will not.”
“I can’t believe our first argument as a couple is over ants in the bed.”
“Mmm. It’s nice.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Kuroo and Kenma have been in this weird sort of in-between of Dating/Not-Dating. They act like a couple, but never really talked about it or made it “official.” After watching Kruoo struggle to answer his co-worker’s simple question of “Oh, is this your boyfriend?” Kenma thinks that this has gone on long enough.
“Thank you both for coming here, I hope the journey wasn’t too much of a hassle.”
“Kenma, I practically live here and you literally bought Hinata a first-class ticket to Tokyo for this. What is going on?”
“Ah yes, the agenda for today’s meeting is to discuss your promotions.”
“Cool! Not really sure how I can get a promotion when I don’t even work for you, but sounds fun!”
“Yes, that enthusiasm is exactly how you earned this promotion.” Kenma pulls out what looks like name plaques from his hoodie. “Congratulations, Hinata, you’ve been promoted to the position of my Best Friend.” Kenma hands him the first plaque, neatly inscribed with “Hinata Shoyo - Best Friend” on it.
“YES!”
“Hey! I thought I was your best friend!”
“You had a good run, Kuro. Truly you have been the best best friend I could have ever asked for. You’ve been so good, infact, that you earned you own promotion, should you choose to accept.” Kenma slides the remaining plaque over to Kuroo, the inscription of “Kuroo Tetsuro - Fiancé” making Kuroo’s mouth drop.
“Now, I realise we’re skipping a few steps, but I figured this would make up for the delay of a promotion. Do you accept?”
Kuroo is a sobbing mess, nodding his head ‘yes’ and not noticing that Hinata had taken out a camera to snap photos.
“Great, well with that promotion comes this,” Kenma says with a smile and a few tears in his eyes as he places an open ring box on the kotatsu. “And of course there is a stipulation that you will move in full time.”
Kuroo laughs through his tears, “I think I can manage that.”
“Great. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”