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Kenma liked being a streamer.
It was the dream job, in his eyes. He got to play video games for hours and get paid for it, and on top of that, he had an audience of over a million people watching him and wanting to be just as good at video games as he was.
Kenma never really liked eyes on him, or anyone admiring him, but when it was through a screen, and it was about something like games…
He didn’t mind it. He thrived on it, even.
And maybe it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, he had plenty of people out there who hated him for various reasons, maybe they found him boring, or rude, or were jealous of him, who knows. But Kenma had an easy time blocking them out thanks to his social media manager.
Taki was great. He handled all of Kenma’s various social media platforms, scheduled streams, advertised, replied to fans, basically took over so that all Kenma had to do was show up on camera on time and play games.
Honestly, it was a fantastic deal. Kenma should be, and was, extremely grateful that he was in the place he was now, able to live comfortably with his three partners, having his own office dedicated to his streams, and able to play video games for a living.
He should’ve known it couldn’t be smooth sailing forever.
“A twelve-hour stream?” Kenma muttered in disbelief as he looked over the schedule Taki designed for him for this upcoming month.
He heard Taki let out a grunt of affirmation through their phone call. “It’s trending right now for streamers to do streams that long. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll adjust pretty quickly. Just make sure to keep a water bottle with you.”
Kenma wanted to argue that it would probably take a lot more than one water bottle to keep his voice in top shape over the span of twelve hours, but Taki had already moved on and was talking about various advertising strategies that he was essentially pretending to get Kenma’s approval on before doing.
(He never actually waited for Kenma’s okay. The posts would already be live by the time Kenma heard about it.)
Kenma knew his boyfriends weren’t going to be happy.
They already thought Kenma was streaming too much. Five times a week was pretty intense.
But what was he supposed to do? He’d just past a million followers, and Taki advised him that it was important to keep up momentum right now if he wanted to keep growing, otherwise he’d always be stuck at the one million mark.
It didn’t sound like a big deal until Taki pointed it out. Kenma’s not even sure when he started caring so much about the numbers.
But dammit, he did care. So if doing twelve-hour streams is what it took to keep on top, then Kenma would tough it out.
Now he just needed to break the news to his boyfriends without them going into ‘over-protective mode’ on him.
“I’m going to be doing some longer streams this month.” He announced over dinner as casually as he could.
He heard the soft clicks of forks being set down, and awkwardly lifted his head to see his three boyfriends staring at him.
Kuroo frowned, looking the most concerned. Ever the protector over his childhood friend/best friend/lover. “Really? You got pretty drained from that eight hour one you did a few weeks ago. Is it more of that?”
Kenma tried not to wince, but he clearly didn’t disguise it well because Akaashi’s eyes narrowed.
“Longer?” Akaashi assumed.
“Longer!?” Bokuto sputtered. “How…How long of streams exactly?”
Kenma bit his lip and looked down at his plate, giving a soft shrug of his shoulders. “…Twelve hours.”
He heard soft gasps escape their throat and prepared himself for the lecture.
“Are you insane, kitten!?”
“TWELVE HOURS!?”
“That’s…an awfully long streaming session.”
Kenma felt a headache coming on as they all talked over each other. He finally managed to cut in. “It’s fine. It’s just for a little while. Since I just passed the one million mark. Taki said-“
“Oh of course, Taki.” Kuroo bit out. He’d hated Kenma’s social media manager from day one, feeling that Taki was too opinionated and blunt.
But he was also ranked as one of the best in the country. He’s helped so many others raise their numbers. And while his fee was high, Kenma had seen others charge far more. It felt like the perfect fit, at least in the beginning.
“He’s not wrong, Kuro.” Kenma frowned. “Twelve-hour streams are a big thing right now. I’d be foolish not to jump on it.”
“But still…twelve-hour streams aren’t healthy, Kenma.” Akaashi told him softly, eyes flickering with concern.
Bokuto’s whole body had drooped. “We don’t want you to make yourself sick or something, you know?”
He did know. And he appreciated their concern. But they didn’t understand. They didn’t get the pressure, the need to keep being better.
It was so easy to become irrelevant online. To be forgotten.
Kenma had finally made something of himself. Become something despite being so painfully ordinary and untalented.
He couldn’t let it go.
“I know what I’m doing. I’ll be careful.” Kenma replied firmly.
And the subject was dropped. The other three knew that was Kenma set his mind on something, he was stubborn to a fault.
They really wished they’d fought harder to prevent it though.
Kenma knew a twelve-hour stream would be hard, but he didn’t know just how hard until he did one.
“Alright, that’s,” Kenma yawned between words. “gonna do it for this stream, guys. Thanks for tuning in. See you all in a few days.” He shut off the stream, double checked his camera was off, and leaned back in his chair with a groan, running his hands over his face.
He’d given Akaashi, Kuroo and Bokuto very strict orders to not disturb him during his stream, and even locked the door. They told him multiple times to text if he needed anything. Kenma didn’t text once.
He was exhausted, and when he checked the time he saw it was almost four in the morning. The others were probably knocked out by now up in the bedroom.
Kenma checked his phone and saw at least eighteen different texts from the trio, asking if he needed anything, if he was okay, reminding him to drink water, etc, etc.
Kenma appreciated their concerns, but he always turns his phone off for streams. Obviously they forgot that.
Tiredly, Kenma slumped out of his office and headed to the kitchen to get something in his stomach, which was rumbling so loudly he was surprised it wasn’t considered an earthquake.
He found a covered plate in the fridge for him, with a little note from Akaashi telling him how long to heat it up in the microwave.
Kenma’s heart ached a little as he heated up the dish and then ate alone at the table. It wasn’t the same as eating a few snacks by himself, this was a full meal, all alone.
He hated it.
Out of fear of waking the others up, Kenma opted to sleep on the couch instead. Bokuto had a hard time getting back to sleep because he was easily excitable, Kenma didn’t have the heart to risk it.
So, he slept on the couch with a blanket, and hoped he’d see his boyfriends in the morning before they were off to work.
Kenma did not see his boyfriends that morning. But he was moved to their bedroom.
A sticky note stuck to his forehead. When he snatched it off, he saw it was from Akaashi.
We had to head out to work. Get plenty of rest and drink lots of water. I left your breakfast in the fridge.
Love, Akaashi
Kenma smiled a little to himself. Akaashi was such a househusband sometimes. Always cooking and doing chores, even though he worked a regular job at a writing agency as well.
Sometimes Kenma felt that Akaashi worked too hard, but whenever he pointed that out, Akaashi always replied the same.
“You’re one to talk, my dear.”
Kenma couldn’t really argue with that, so he stopped trying. He’d let Bokuto and Kuroo bully Akaashi into taking some breaks for himself. They were good at that.
Taking out his phone, Kenma checked for messages and saw a few from Taki about how the stream had been a huge success, and that he’d updated his calendar.
Kenma frowned and checked it, and his eyes widened in disbelief. Taki scheduled him for another twelve-hour stream, starting at midnight tonight!
He was still exhausted, how was he supposed to prepare for another long stream on such short notice?
He sighed softly and went to the kitchen to get his breakfast, and debated how he was going to explain this to his partners on such short notice.
The pattern continued for the next month. Taki added more and more streams to Kenma’s plate, and it felt never-ending. Yes, his following count was growing rapidly, but he was so damn tired that it felt like he was just going through the motions instead of actually enjoying growing his channel.
Not to mention he barely got to see his boyfriends, and when he did…
Well…it always ended up like this,
“No, no way, absolutely not.” Kuroo spoke firmly the moment Kenma announced over dinner that he would be doing another stream that night. This was the first meal they’ve all gotten to eat together in like three weeks.
Kenma’s nose crinkled in irritation. “I’m not asking your permission, I’m just letting you know.”
“Ah…but kitten…” Bokuto started worriedly. “You did a stream until five in the morning! You’re running on like three hours of sleep!”
“Have you been keeping up with your water?” Akaashi frowned.
Kenma avoided eye contact at that question.
“This is crazy. Your manager is expecting way too much of you.” Kuroo snapped.
“He’s trying to help me grow.” Kenma protested.
Kuroo sputtered. “Grow to what? You have over a million followers! You want more? Since when do you even care about the views? Or about your follower count? Is it a money thing? Are you worried you’re not bringing in enough?”
Kenma scowled. “No, it’s not that.” He brought in more than enough, more than both Akaashi and Kuroo. “I just…don’t want to disappoint my fans.” Or myself, was left unsaid.
Akaashi sighed softly. “Kenma, we know you love what you do, but this last month hasn’t been healthy. I really think you should tell Taki that you want to pull back. Maybe…take a few days off? Spend…time with us?” He whispered a bit shyly.
And Kenma knew it was bad when Akaashi started needing more affection. Bokuto and Kuroo were constantly wanting love and attention, but Akaashi tended to be more reserved and rarely requested any sort of physical contact or affection.
Had it been that long? Now that Kenma thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d even hugged one of his partners, much less go on dates or spend any real time together.
But his phone weighed in his pocket like an anchor. Taki probably already notified his fans that he’d be streaming.
He couldn’t let them down.
“…I can’t do that. I have an obligation towards my viewers.” Kenma spoke softly.
“And what about your obligation to us?” Kuroo snapped, but his voice cracked a little. That was the worst. Ever since they were little, Kenma’s never been able to cope with Kuroo being sad.
Excited? Fine. Angry? Sure. But genuinely sad?
It made him feel sick. Especially because he was the one causing it.
“…I’ll see if I can talk to Taki about slowing thing down next month.” Kenma compromised. “But he already posted the schedule for my fans for this month. I can’t disappoint them.”
The trio clearly wasn’t happy about it, but they knew how stubborn Kenma could be.
There was no talking to him when his mind was made up.
Kenma let out some soft breaths, swaying a little where he sat as he tried to focus on the game he was playing. For some reason his heart felt like it was going a mile a minute, and it had been that way for a good twenty minutes or so. “Okay chat…I think we’ll do one more level…that should get us to the…” He couldn’t help his yawn. “Twelve hour mark. Then we’ll call it.”
His chat was going wild, even with the setting to slow it down Kenma still had trouble keeping up.
But it wasn’t like his chat was oblivious. They’d seen the declined in Kenma over the last month. The way his skin got paler, the bags under his eyes darker, the way his body seemed to tremble.
Kodzukensjacket: dude you look like one of the zombies in the game
Fangirlfluff: Maybe you should call it here, we dm
Razorzeref: At least get some water if you’re gonna keep going!
UWUboy: omg go get some water NOW. We haven’t seen you drink water in over 4 hours
707gforce: bro was counting the minutes since Kodzuken’s last drink lol
Kenma didn’t even have the energy to laugh, or play it off. He appreciated his chat’s concern, but it just made him feel like he was letting them down.
This stream couldn’t be very fun to watch if they were all fretting over him.
“Guys, I’m okay.” Kenma muttered out after a few moments. “Like I said, we’re just doing one more level and then I’m logging off, so don’t worry about me.”
But then Kenma’s phone buzzed on his desk. He eyed it briefly and saw a text from Kuroo.
Kuro: Get out here and get some water or I’m bringing it to you. Your call.
Kenma tried not to let a scowl slip onto his face. Kuroo knew that Kenma was determined to keep his personal life out of the cameras as much as possible, especially his boyfriends.
Resisting the urge to sigh, he cleared his throat. “Alright chat, I don’t want you all freaking out. I’ll go grab some water.” He conceded and paused the game before slipping off his headphones.
He got up from his chair and felt a flood of dizziness in his brain. He stumbled a little towards the door as his heart suddenly felt heavy. It was pounding even harder now.
Kenma opened the door and saw a stern Kuroo stood there with a glass of water. He sucked in a breath when he saw Kenma.
“Jesus christ.” He whispered. “Kenma-“
“I’m okay.” Kenma insisted, however weak sounding it may be. “I’m okay. I just need-“ He tried to take the glass of water from Kuroo, and that was the moment his body decided it had enough.
In an instant, his eyes rolled back, and Kenma’s legs gave out. The last thing he heard was Kuroo’s startled shout of ‘Kenma!’ and then the glass shattering when it hit the ground.
And then he was out cold.
“Oh my god! Kenma! GUYS, HELP!” Kuroo shouted frantically for Bokuto and Akaashi as he knelt down on the ground and pulled Kenma into his arms. Kenma was breathing shallowly, a pinch between his brows.
It wasn’t long before Kuroo heard the loud thumping of Bokuto’s feet. “What happened!?” He exclaimed as he knelt down as well, grabbing Kenma’s arm to check his pulse.
“He- He just collapsed! He was breathing hard and stumbling and then he just-“ Kuroo rambled anxiously as he held a firm grip on Kenma’s body. He felt so fragile in Kuroo’s arms.
“Akaashi’s calling the hospital.” Bokuto told him quickly before checking Kenma’s pulse. He sucked in a breath. “His pulse is rapid, shit.”
Akaashi came down the hall quickly, his posture terribly tense despite his best efforts to appear calm. “They’ll be here in five minutes. Bokuto, carry him over to the door, Kuroo, you go kill his stream.”
Though reluctant to let him go, Kuroo handed Kenma over carefully to Bokuto, who scooped him up easily. Then, Kuroo ran into Kenma’s gaming office and saw the stream still going. Thankfully Kenma had muted it so they didn’t hear anything.
Kuroo shut off the stream, not caring if he was seen on camera or not in the process. They could make a post to Kenma’s fans later, he didn’t want to waste time.
“They’re here!” Bokuto called from the other room.
Kuroo ran out to join the others as the paramedics quickly to Kenma from Bokuto and started looking him over while preparing to get him in the ambulance.
When Kenma finally stirred, he heard the soft beeps of the machines he was currently hooked up to. An IV was sticking into his arm for fluids, and he also felt a hand gently clasping his.
His eyes opened, and Kenma looked over tiredly to see Akaashi sat in the chair beside his bed. He was holding his hand, while his other hand held his phone. He appeared to be mindlessly scrolling.
“…’Kaashi?” He slurred out.
Akaashi let out a faint noise of surprise, head whipping over quickly. He shut off his phone and gave Kenma his full attention, smiling softly as he squeezed his hand. “Hey…how are you feeling?”
Kenma blinked slowly. “…Heavy.” He murmured.
“I’m not surprised. Your body went through a lot.” Akaashi murmured, and used his free hand to stroke Kenma’s hair.
Kenma leaned into his touch. “What happened?”
“You got severely dehydrated and your body just…shut down on you.” Akaashi whispered. “It gave us quite the startle, kitten.”
Kenma didn’t know what to say to that. He wanted to apologize, but words didn’t feel like enough. “…Where’s Kuro and Bo?”
“We’ve been staying with you in shifts.” Akaashi explained. “They went to the cafeteria. I’ll text them.”
“No, let them eat…” Kenma murmured. “They won’t leave once they know I’m awake.”
Akaashi chuckled. “You’re right about that.” He squeezed his hand. “…I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’m not though.” Kenma whispered. “I was stupid.”
Akaashi’s eyes softened. “You were pressured.” He corrected kindly, and lifted Kenma’s hand up to kiss his knuckles.
It was another ten minutes or so before Kuroo and Bokuto got back, and the moment they did they were rushing to Kenma’s bedside, looking at him like they weren’t sure he was real. It took a bit of scolding from Akaashi to get them to lower their voices before they got in trouble.
Bokuto rested his hip on Kenma’s bed so he could put an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. “I’m so happy you’re okay, kitten.” He kissed Kenma’s temple. Kenma leaned into him.
“The doctor should be here to check on you in a few minutes.” Kuroo told him softly. “You’re lucky you need to rest or I’d be tearing into you right now.”
Kenma innocently snuggled up to Bokuto’s chest more, as if being cute would get him out of trouble.
He knew they were all mad at him, they had every right to be.
The doctor pressed the stethoscope to Kenma’s back and had him take some deep breaths. After a few moments, he smiled. “You’re sounding much better, Kozume. I’d like you to stay overnight for observation and for more fluids, but then I think you should be fine to go home.” He looked over at the others. “You’re all his roommates, right? Will you be available to take care of him?”
Saying they were roommates was usually just the easiest. Kuroo nodded. “Yeah, we’ll all take turns caring for him.”
“This little episode wasn’t caused just from dehydration, but also from stress. Frankly, any more and he might’ve had a heart attack.” The doctor explained simply. “It’s not numbers we like to see in somebody this young.” He looked at Kenma directly. “I recommend three weeks of rest and leisure.”
Kenma’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. “Wait, what?”
His boyfriends gazes fell on him with varying levels of annoyance. “Well duh, you didn’t think you were getting back to work after this, did you?” Kuroo sassed.
The doctor coughed. “I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours, Kozume. Remember, rest, relax, and you three,” He looked at the trio. “Try not to stress him out, alright? His body is weak, he doesn’t need that.”
Is reminder made their postures soften, and they took a few deep breaths to remember that snapping at Kenma wouldn’t help anything.
But the moment the doctor left, Kenma spoke up quickly. “What happened to the stream? It’s not still going, is it? I need to update everyone. Where’s my phone?” He sat up and looked around for his things.
Akaashi was quick to push him back down. “We already sent out a tweet explaining that there was a medical emergency. We kept it vague.”
“What about Taki?” Kenma asked, a hint of anxiousness in his tone. “Has he called?”
“Not yet.” Bokuto frowned. “He texted a lot, but we ignored him.”
Kenma groaned. His heartrate was already increasing on the monitor. “Where is my phone? I need to call him-“
“You don’t need to do anything except rest.” Kuroo told him firmly. “We’ll call him and explain the situation.”
“But-“ Kenma started.
“No buts.” Akaashi spoke gently, keeping his hand on Kenma’s chest so he didn’t try to sit up again. He rubbed soothing circles. “Kitten, you need to rest. Let us take care of things for a little bit, okay? The world isn’t going to end. Everything’s okay.”
His voice and motions did soothe Kenma a bit. The monitor showed the proof that he was calming down a little. He bit his lip and tilted his head back against the pillow. “…Alright, just…keep me updated…”
“You should get some sleep.” Bokuto whispered. “You’ve had a long day.”
Though he wanted to protest, Kenma’s eyes felt heavy, and fighting it felt like more trouble than it was worth. He started to doze off.
That’s when Kenma’s phone started to buzz in Kuroo’s pocket. Kuroo was quick to silence it before Kenma could stir again. He exchanged brief looks with Bokuto and Akaashi, who merely gave silent nods.
With a soft sigh, Kuroo stepped out of Kenma’s hospital room and answered his phone.
Before he could even speak, Taki was snapping on the other end. “Kenma! Finally! What the hell happened? It’s been six hours, you seriously couldn’t find time to reply to me? What sort of medical emergency was there? Do you understand what this has done? Social media is going crazy trying to figure out if you’re DEAD or not. I hope you know how much extra work you just added to my plate!”
Kuroo’s jaw clenched. He spoke calmly and firmly into the phone. “Kenma can’t talk right now, because he’s asleep in a hospital bed.”
There was silence for a moment, and then, “Uh, who is this?”
“This is Kuroo Tetsurou, Kenma’s boyfriend. Kenma got severely dehydrated and his body shut down on him thanks to all of those twelve-hour streams he’s been doing. So no, he couldn’t find time to reply to you because he was unconscious. And now he’s been put on bed rest for three weeks. So let me make myself clear, you aren’t going to contact him again for the next three weeks, I don’t give a damn what you’ve scheduled or promised his fans. He’s taking a break, so go and make that announcement. Goodbye.”
Kuroo didn’t give the man a chance to reply. He faintly heard a squawk of protest before he hung up, letting out some heavy breaths as he tried to calm his anger. He’d really needed that.
“Okay, easy, easy.” Kenma rolled his eyes at Kuroo’s useless words as he walked him through the door to their apartment. Kuroo had a firm arm round his waist and insisted on walking him to make sure he didn’t collapse or something.
Which was silly, because the hospital wouldn’t have let him go if he was in danger of collapsing at any moment.
But, it was either this or one of them carrying him through the door which would’ve been a thousand times more embarrassing.
“Let’s get you to bed, kitty cat.” Bokuto insisted warmly as he set down their bags by the door.
“Kinky.” Kenma joked dryly.
Akaashi sighed a little. “I know you don’t like us fawning over you-“
“I don’t.”
“-but you did collapse on us, Kenma. You can’t expect us not to worry about you after that.”
Kenma’s eyes softened a little, looking down. He knew he’d scared them bad, honestly he was lucky that they hadn’t started screaming at him for that little incident.
If it weren’t for the doctor’s orders to not cause him stress, he suspects that they would’ve.
With that in mind, Kenma let Kuroo walk him down the hall to their bedroom. He tried not to bristle as Bokuto fluffed the pillows and adjusted the blanket.
When he finally got in bed, he sat up against the pillows and looked at his boyfriends with a small pout.
Kuroo smiled. “Don’t you look cozy.” He teased. They’d put Kenma in his pajamas back at the hospital so he’d be snuggly when they got home.
“Can I please have my phone back now?” Kenma whined.
“Nooope. No work for you.” Bokuto scolded. “You’re on break and if we give you your phone you’re going to be on your social medias.”
Kenma frowned. “Well can’t I have some sort of entertainment?”
Kuroo grabbed him his Switch off the side table. “You can have this.”
“Thank you.” Kenma muttered. He looked down at his Switch, only to realize Bokuto and Kuroo were still just standing there looking at him. “…Yes?”
Bokuto chuckled. “Okay, okay, we’ll leave you be. Akaashi’s making dinner, I’ll go help him.” He chirped and headed out of the room.
Kuroo cringed. “I better go distract Bo away.” The last time Bokuto tried to help cook the apartment nearly burned down. He hurried after Bokuto.
The moment the two were gone, Kenma quickly went onto the internet on his Switch. He needed to at least check his channel and see if there was any immediate-
Wrong password.
Kenma’s nostrils flared and he let out a noise of pure frustration. Damn them!
It had been 48 hours and Kenma was going crazy.
He missed his channel, his followers, and streaming. While it was nice to play games just for the sake of it again, he couldn’t help constantly thinking about his work in the back of his mind. What if his numbers were dropping? How pissed was Taki? Kuroo had told him that Taki had been understanding and was trying to give him space, but Kenma knew Kuroo enough to know that was total bullshit.
Taki was likely foaming at the mouth with rage, trying to keep his career afloat. He’d tear into Kenma the moment he was on the phone with him.
Just the thought of it gave Kenma chest pains.
“You’re worrying too much.” Akaashi told him softly while rubbing his back. He’d stayed home from work to look after Kenma. “Your fans have been updated, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Taki’s going to kill me.” Kenma choked out between pained breaths.
Akaashi got a little pinch between his brows. “Kenma…you know I try hard to support you and trust you to know your own limits.”
“And I’ve always appreciated that about you.” Kenma muttered.
“But Taki is a bad social media manager.”
Kenma looked at him in disbelief. “How can you say that? He’s helped dozens of celebrities manager their online presence, and my followers have jumped rapidly!”
“But it’s not natural. It’s like taking steroids for sports.” Akaashi explained firmly. “Yes, he’s growing your success, but it’s all become a marketing scheme, and you’re paying the price. When was the last time you even interacted with your fans personally?”
Kenma had to wince at that. Taki had taken over completely, and most of the time Kenma never even saw the tweets or messages he sent. He’d been so exhausted from the streams that there was no time for anything else.
Akaashi took Kenma’s hands gently and squeezed them, before rubbing circles into them with his thumbs. “Kenma, I’m worried about you. We all are. You started streaming because it’s what you loved, but now it’s turned into…all of this. Marketing, and pushing yourself beyond your limits…we never even see you anymore, and when we do, you’re being hospitalized.”
“It only happened once.” Kenma muttered.
“And that’s too many times.” Akaashi whispered.
Kenma felt a pit of guilt in his stomach. He knew Akaashi was right. He’d been killing himself lately trying to keep up with the schedule Taki made for him. But it wasn’t reasonable. He was turning into those streamers that he hated. The ones that were artificial, who never interacted with their fans, who only cared about numbers.
What happened to having fun?
When did he stop having fun?
Tears filled Kenma’s eyes before he even realized. His shoulders shuttered, and he squeezed Akaashi’s hands back tightly.
“Oh kitten…” Akaashi moved to get in the bed with him, and pulled Kenma into his arms. Kenma cried softly into his chest.
He was tired. So tired.
Akaashi ran his hand through Kenma’s hair and rocked him in his arms. Kenma’s not sure how long he cried for, but at some point he heard the front door open, so either he cried until Bokuto and Kuroo got home from work, or Akaashi texted them without him noticing.
Either way, soon he felt more arms wrapping around him and more soothing words. He sniffled and rubbed his face on Bokuto’s shirt. Bokuto didn’t mind, merely snuggling closer.
When he’d finally calmed down enough to speak, he whispered in a hoarse voice, “…I think I’m going to fire Taki.”
“Can I bake a cake to celebrate?” Kuroo teased gently.
“No, but you can make a pie.” Kenma quipped back.
Kuroo chuckled and kissed his hair. “You’ve got it, kitten.”
“Are you feeling better?” Bokuto asked kindly.
Kenma nodded faintly. His eyes were rimmed red and his face puffy, but his boyfriends still looked at him like he was the most beautiful creature to walk the planet.
He did not deserve them.
“…I’m really sorry.” Kenma whispered. “For scaring you three and just…being a pain.”
“You’re never a pain.” Akaashi soothed.
Bokuto kissed his temple. “We’re just glad you’re okay.”
“So I guess you want your phone to text Taki?” Kuroo asked with a small sigh, expecting Kenma to fight him on resting.
But to his delight, Kenma softly shook his head. “I’m on vacation. He can wait.” The others cheered quietly and took turns pressing kisses all over his face.
And for once, Kenma didn’t feel the pressure of returning to the streaming world.
No, instead, he’d spend a few weeks in bliss with the people he loved most.