Work Text:
Kuroo was running late, which isn’t something he ever really did. He planned his time well and strongly disliked letting people down, but his time slot was shifted by his professor at the last minute and he had to get his work finished. By the time he exited the campus and was walking home, it was already pitch black outside, and thanks to the storm rolling in, the streets were deserted.
The knife hit the wall in front of him at such speed that Kuroo didn’t even react until after the knife split the wood. He stepped back, his eyes staring at the place it had lodged in pure shock. He finally snapped out of it a few moments later and started to run. A second knife lodged into the wall where his head had been a moment before. The third knife hit him in the back, and then something else hit him in the neck. The last thing he saw was the streetlights going blurry, and then nothing but darkness.
When Kuroo woke up, the sound of soft steps on a concrete floor could be heard. He blinked a few times, seeing nothing but blackness, and shifted his head, trying to see in the darkness. The rustle of fabric by his ear told him that he had something over his head.
“Awake are we?” a soft voice purred out. “Perfect, I can begin.”
Kuroo tensed up, his heart racing as he struggled, realising his arms and legs were bound. He felt leather on his hand, and realised a moment later it was gloved fingers, separating out his digits.
“What… what are you doing?” Kuroo asked.
“My boss requires information from you, and you will provide it. Where is the suitcase?”
Kuroo had no idea what the person was talking about. What suitcase? He let out a strangled cry as he felt a knife pierce into the webbing between his fingers.
“Fuck… christ, stop, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Kuroo cried out.
“I’m sure you don’t. Now tell me, where is it?”
Kuroo let out another cry as the knife cut into him again, this time between his finger and thumb.
“God please… you have the wrong person.” Kuroo begged.
In all the years he’s been torturing for the mafia, this is the line Kenma had heard the most. It’s always the wrong guy. Sure. They say it now, but at the end, they always spill their secrets. Kenma spun the knife around in his hand and added a few more cuts to his victim's right hand, watching the way the bound and hooded man squirmed.
Kenma liked to work with his victims hooded. Mostly due to the fact he disliked wearing anything to cover his own face. Not that it overly mattered, no one ever left this room alive save him. People were acquired, tied here and Kenma was simply told what to ask for, and to keep going until he got the answers. Once said answers were verified, then he would slit their throats. Kenma was not a large man, he was not powerful. The first few people he let see his face had laughed at him. Kenma didn’t like being laughed at.
Well, they laughed at the start.
That didn’t last long.
Kenma had grown up in a normal loving home, his best friend Kuroo next door, and everything he could have ever wanted. Sure Kuroo had dragged his ass out to do actual exercise, and take him away from gaming, but it had actually turned out to be fun. Then Kuroo left. He went off to university, and Kenma was left alone at Nekoma, forgotten.
That’s when he got into his new hobby, hacking. It started off as simply something to pass the time, then he broke into the wrong servers, and found himself forcefully relocated into the hands of the largest mafia in the city. He was interrogated, tortured for months, but never caved. He had no reason to, he had no reason to want to live, and even the pain? Honestly, he found he liked it. The torturer became careless after so long. One afternoon, Kenma managed to hide a tiny blade under his arm, and freed himself when the man left the room. The guards found Kenma several hours later, having stabbed the person torturing him, over seventy times with a blade barely bigger than a toothpick. He was dragged to the man who became his boss, dripping in blood, with a horrifying glint in his eyes, and from then on, found his new calling in life.
Kenma worked his way over the man’s chest after he grew bored of the fingers. He pressed the tip of his smallest, sharpest knife until a single pin drop of blood appeared, and left it there. He repeated until the man’s chest looked like a red and tan chessboard. The man winced occasionally but mostly took it without so much as a gasp of pain. Kenma was simply amusing himself at this point rather than interrogating, right until he drove the point of the blade hard to Kuroo’s rib and the man let out a yell, panting through the pain.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re on about. I don’t know anything. I’m just a university student. I’ve been there for three years, studying law.”
Kenma scoffed. It was a nice cover for sure, a law student covering for a drug runner. University connections would be useful too. Maybe he really was at university as well. Nice supply of students to sell to. Shame the kid got too cocky and stole the drugs.
“Honestly the less you talk the more fun I get to have but my boss is going to tire eventually and want answers. Thankfully he went to sleep so I have at least six hours with you before then. Let’s make them count, eh?”
Kuroo paled. Six hours? He already felt the blood dripping down his chest and hand. What were his options? Lie? Make up a location an hour or two away to buy himself time? Would they kill him or wait to see if it was true? If they found out he lied would it make things worse? He took a few steadying breaths trying to calm himself down. He was pulled from his contemplation by the touch of something cold to his lips and shrunk away as far as the bonds would allow.
“It’s just water, drink.”
Kuroo kept his mouth shut tight, trusting nothing.
“Suit yourself, it will just make things worse the more dehydrated you are.”
Kuroo didn’t need such a deep love of science to know the truth in that. He opened his mouth and felt the water hit his throat fast enough to choke him. Half the water spluttered down his chest but he swallowed some, and took another mouthful with less haste.
“Why are you giving me water?”
“I told you why.”
“Surely it’s better for you if I’m dehydrated, I’ll talk quicker.”
“Do you want me to stop giving you water?”
“No.”
“Well then, shut up.”
Kuroo opened his mouth to argue and felt a slash of a blade over his pec. He screamed.
“I told you to do something. You do it, or you get hurt. Got it?”
Kuroo nodded then felt a second cut forming an X on his pec.
“Yes…” he cried out.
“Now tell me where the suitcase is.”
“I can’t, I don’t know. I swear it, on... on my mothers life, I don’t know anything.”
The door opened and his captor shuffled away, Kuroo strained to hear but the voices were too muffled. He heard the door close a moment later and soft steps returned.
“So it seems you’ve been telling the truth.”
Kuroo blinked twice in the darkness, unsure if he’d heard it correctly.
“You believe me?”
“No, they found the actual drug runner and the case. He didn’t steal it, he got hit by a car.”
“So I can go?”
“Go? That would be a waste, you scream so prettily.”
Kuroo stiffened at that, then took one soft breath and asked the question he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“And after you tire of me? Will you kill me or free me?”
He heard the sounds of an amused laugh, soft and innocent.
“Oh how adorable, did you really hold hope of leaving this room in anything but a body bag?”
“What if I had something else to offer you?”
The blade making casual strokes across Kuroo’s skin paused and he realised the other man was contemplating the statement.
“What could you possibly offer me?”
Kuroo twisted his wrist, reaching blindly and brushed his fingertips over the man’s thigh.
“Well you like this don’t you? Cutting people? Hurting them? Is it a sexual thing for you? Wouldn’t you want a play thing? Longer term?”
Kuroo felt the blade shift ever so slightly, a twitch. He was on the right lines.
“That’s what you want isn’t it? No… more than that, you want someone to accept this side of you? To embrace it?” Kuroo ventured.
This statement caused the other man to pause and Kuroo realised that this was it, this was his ticket out of here. He could make a bunch of promises to this man, to get him to think he wanted to be this fucking psychos little play thing, then simply wait for complacency before disappearing. He was hoping the other man didn’t even have a clue who he was, he’d seemingly never seen his face before, maybe, just maybe Kuroo could make it out alive.
“Oh sure, I’ll just believe you want this from me, and then let you go running off to the cops the second I let you out. You must think I’m stupid.”
“Not at all,” Kuroo said immediately, “you seem to know the areas of the body to avoid fatal injury for a start… and surely you have like, I don't know, a wire or something for me to wear so you know I’m not doing anything?”
The man let out a laugh.
“A wire? What is this? A fucking trashy cop movie? Technology has changed. I can simply embed a tracker into your neck, it will let me keep tabs on you, and let me hear everything you hear, including what you say… oh and if you don’t do what I want, it can also kill you. Are you really willing to be my little plaything in exchange for your life?”
This plan was getting worse by the minute, but frankly, what options did Kuroo have? It was this or die.
“I want some ground rules…” Kuroo said, trying to sound confident.
The man sighed softly. “Name them and I’ll see what I agree to.”
“I’m not signing up for you to just do whatever the fuck you want to me, that shit with my fingers, never again. I’ll let you cut me, but only in places that won’t be seen by anyone else, and I also want the option to say no to shit you want to do to me.”
The man contemplated for a while, Kuroo couldn’t hear him moving, or even breathing, and the silence was starting to spike his anxiety.
“Yeah… no, I think I’ll just torture you for a while and kill you.” Kuroo felt the blade dance over his other pec without cutting him.
“Then let me see you.”
Kuroo felt the blade pause, and a slight pressure apply to the skin, not quite enough to get him to bleed.
“Why?”
“I want to see the face of the person who will kill me. Won’t it be more fun for you too? To see my reactions? Or is it too personal? Does it make it too real?”
He heard the man let out a short scoff, then felt the knife to his throat.
“I will end you right now if you don’t shut up.”
“Then do it, you fucking coward.”
Kuroo felt the blade push in, with a little more pressure, it would slide his neck open and leave him to die. It was at that point he realised he was about to die. Adrenaline started coursing through him and his mind went to the one person he hadn’t been able to go a day without thinking of. Kenma. His best friend, his… everything. Kuroo hadn’t had a chance to tell Kenma how he truly felt. It never felt like the right time.
During high school? During volleyball? He didn’t want to distract Kenma, or make things awkward between them if the other didn’t feel the same. Then after high school, he would have the distance and time of university as a buffer if things went wrong, but what if they went right? What if he then had to wait an entire year without Kenma? He went off to university in silence, not able to bring himself to utter the words that would change his whole world. Then he heard the words that destroyed his world. Kenma had been killed in a tragic accident.
The details were strange. Hit and run driver, but no real witnesses, despite it being a fairly busy street. Those who did witness it gave so many varied reports of different cars that the police never found anyone guilty. The CCTV cameras in the area were all out of action for different reasons, and Kenma’s body had been so badly broken they cremated him after a closed casket funeral. All those years of friendship, of love, were gone in a heartbeat. Kenma never knew the truth. Kuroo closed his eyes now, the memories forcing emotion out of him.
“Kenma…” Kuroo whispered, almost like a greeting, he would finally be reunited with his dear friend.
Kuroo heard the knife clatter as it hit the arm of the chair he was tied to. His attacker had dropped the knife.
“What… What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“No, say it again. Or I’ll hurt you.”
Kuroo sighed. “I said Kenma, he was my best friend and he died. I assume I am about to go and join him.”
“What… What is your name?”
“I’m not telling you, just fucking kill me.”
Kuroo heard the knife scrape on the floor as it was collected, and waited to die, only to hear the sound of his top ripping as the man cut through the rest of the material to expose his stomach. He felt the top shift away from his body, and was left feeling exposed as fingers shifted across his waist, pulling his body away from the chair.
“What… what are you doing?” Kuroo asked, panic rising in his voice.
Kuroo felt fingers touch his birthmark, then the sound of the man reeling away from him. He listened to the silence for a moment, then heard the unmistakable sound of someone throwing up. Judging by where the noise was coming from, it seemed his attacker was on his knees a few steps away to the right. He listened to the sounds, confused out of his mind.
Kuroo waited until the room was once again silent, then he heard a soft voice, sounding so much younger than before, and really strangely familiar.
“Kuroo…?”
Kuroo froze, confused. Why did he know that voice?
“Who… who are you? How do you know who I am?”
“I’m sorry… I didn’t, fuck, Kuroo, I…”
Was the man crying? What the fuck was happening? This all started when he’d said Kenma’s name. Did they know Kenma? They knew his birthmark. The sound of gentle crying stirred a memory in Kuroo. It was their last year of middle school. He, Kenma and Daishou had been on a team together, they had been defeated badly, and both Kenma and Daishou had cried. Surely not though? Surely… Daishou couldn’t be involved in this. This was insane, there was no way. Only one way to be sure though.
“Daishou?”
“What?” The other replied, sounding confused.
“You’re not Daishou?”
“No Kuroo, I’m not. Please forgive me?”
“I cannot forgive someone when I don’t know who they are.” Kuroo said, “let me go, get me out of here. If you’re truly sorry, free me.”
“I can get you out of here, but I need you to trust me.”
“Why should I trust a man who tortured me?”
“Because you have no choice.”
“Remove the hood first.”
“No, you will never find out who I am.”
“Remove the fucking hood, right now, or I will never forgive you.”
Kuroo felt the room shift as the bag was removed from his head, the sudden orange glow behind his closed eyelids as the room shifted from dark to light. He opened them and his jaw dropped. Kenma, a clearly older Kenma, stood a distance away. Eyes that once shone with glee at the sight of a video game console now bore at him with a dead look in them. His hair was longer, and tied back in a ponytail, clearly the blond not maintained as just the ends were blond now, the roots grown out long ago. Kuroo could not believe his eyes. He wanted to scream and yell and curse, but he couldn’t help but just stare at his best friend. The man he thought he was utterly in love with once. The one he mourned for years, that he still mourned if he was honest with himself. He was alive and well… and torturing people for information.
Kuroo wasn’t sure which if his emotions were going to win out, as rage coursed through his body, mixed with grief, fear, sorrow, and even joy at the fact Kenma wasn’t dead, despite what he had become.
“Kuroo…” Kenma whispered, clearly unsure of what to say, breaking the lingering silence.
“Release me.” The statement wasn’t malicious, but it left no room for anything other than for it to be a demand.
Kenma released one of Kuroo’s arms, then the other, as he bent to untie Kuroo’s feet, Kuroo grabbed him and dragged Kenma onto his lap, holding him.
“I thought you were dead… and you’ve been what… here? Doing… this for all this time? How the fuck could you do this to me?”
“I didn’t… I didn’t know it was you, they don’t give me names…” Kenma cried out, tears running down his face.
“I don’t mean this Kenma,” Kuroo said, gesturing to his bleeding body, “I mean leaving me. You faked your own death? You made me think you were dead for three years? I loved you and your death broke my fucking heart, broke me.”
Kenma froze up at the word love and sobbed so hard he choked. Kuroo waited, a hand gently shifting to stroke the younger man's lower back as he waited for Kenma to calm down enough to speak or indeed even listen to him again.
“You loved me…?” Kenma eventually got out, his voice cracked with emotion.
“I did Kenma, you were the one.”
Kenma cringed, twisting away at the past tense of the sentence, his hopes and dreams of a future of happiness dying in the single sentence.
“I loved you too Kuroo… I didn’t want to leave. I had no choice. I was stuck here like you, taken too, they tortured me, and something in me just snapped. I broke free, killed the guy and I don’t know what to tell you, maybe I really am just fucked up in the head, but killing that guy who hurt me just felt… good. I liked it, I wanted more. They didn’t exactly give me a choice at the start anyway, it was do it or die. They faked my death so no one would notice I was gone. I would be a liar if I said it didn’t change me, that it didn't give me a thrill.”
Kenma looked down at Kuroo’s chest, his fingers brushing down the edge of the X he had made of Kuroo’s pec.
“I know you must hate me now, but even this…” Kenma looked up at Kuroo, there was a glint in his eyes that made Kuroo shiver slightly.
“Get your knife.”
Kenma froze at that for a moment, his head tilting to the side like a curious animal, but he reached back and picked up his favourite.
“Cut me again.”
Kenma watched him, he watched Kuroo’s arms, unbound, now resting on the arms of the chair and frankly he wasn’t sure if this was a trap or not, but he moved anyway, the tip of the blade barely sliced through the skin of Kuroo’s other pec, leaving a single drop of blood.
“Is that all you want to do Kenma? Do what you want to me.”
Kenma’s desires overrode his fear of repercussions at that point, and he made a line straight down Kuroo’s chest, watching the blood run. Kuroo bit his bottom lip to stop himself crying out in pain, his arms remained on the chair throughout, not even attempting to reach to stop him.
“Does that feel good, is that what you want?” Kuroo asked him.
Kenma nodded, curling himself into Kuroo’s body, his head under the taller man’s chin.
“Do you love me Kenma?”
“Always Kuro.” Kenma replied, barely more than a whisper.
“I love you too. No one will come in here while you’re working right?”
“No, there’s no reason to come in now, they have the information they wanted.”
“Perfect.” Kuroo shifted his hands and dragged Kenma slightly to the side.
Kenma’s eyes widened as he felt Kuroo’s length against his inner thigh, hard and ready. He looked up at the older man, and watched him for a moment before shifting his hips to rock himself forward, watching the way Kuroo’s eyes fluttered shut at the sensation.
“You… Do you like this?” Kenma said quietly, his eyes never leaving Kuroo.
“Now I know it’s you. I trust you Kenma, I know you know when to stop, when too far is too far. If you want me, I’m right here.”
“Kuroo, I want you… so fucking bad.”
“Then you know what to do, Kitten.”
“Not yet, not here. Let’s get out of here…”
“You can just leave?” Kuroo asked.
“Not exactly no… but I had been planning to run for a while, first I’ll get you out then I’ll come take care of things.”
Kuroo reached out and touched his cheek. “Why do I have a feeling that you’re going to put yourself in danger?”
Kenma half shrugged and moved off, packing up his things.
“Kenma…” Kuroo called, a warning in his tone, “what are you going to do?”
“If you really want to know, I’ll tell you afterwards okay, but we are going to need to run, are you willing to leave this life and disappear for a while?”
“You mean fake our deaths? What about my mother? What about your parents? Our friends? Bokuto was heartbroken when you died, as was Akaashi. Your old team. There were so many Kenma…”
Kenma shifted, sidestepping for a moment, his hand coming up to twitch at his sleeve, an old habit from when he was nervous or conflicted. Kuroo smiled at the simple gesture.
“Have you ever asked to just leave?” Kuroo asked him.
Kenma shook his head slowly. “He’s always just given me everything I wanted here…”
“Apart from freedom?”
Kenma looked at the floor as Kuroo stood up and walked over to him, pressing a kiss to Kenma’s head. “Let's go.”
“Leave?” Kenma asked, looking up.
“Take me to your boss.”
“Kuroo he will kill you…”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Kenma looked up at him, looked at those same eyes full of quiet fire and determination that he’s seen before every game of volleyball. Every single time Kenma wanted to lie down and quit, or nap, or do literally anything but carry on, that's what kept him going. At that single moment, Kenma felt something he’d not felt since the day he was taken. Hope. He didn’t speak, he just nodded and took Kuroo’s hand.
They walked in silence through the building, no one even looked twice at them, regardless of how strange it was, Kenma had instilled fear into so many in the time he had been there. It wasn’t unheard of for one of their own men to be sent to Kenma when there was a threat of betrayal. They finally stopped outside of a deep oak door, with what appeared to be a solid gold handle, with tiny diamonds laid into an intricate pattern of swirls.
Kenma knocked twice sharply, and entered after he was bid.
“Oh kitten, what can I…” his boss started, then looked at Kuroo, “what’s the meaning of this? Who is this?”
“He was the guy mistakenly taken in…” Kenma started.
“I am a university student who was misidentified,” Kuroo cut across him, “and Kenma here happens to be my best friend from childhood, he’s also the love of my life, and I’ve spent far too long thinking he was dead. I want him back from you.”
The man in question raised his eyebrow at Kuroo.
“You have stones kid, I’ll give you that. The kitten here is however too good at his job to let go.”
Kuroo watched Kenma’s hand twitch at the words, but looked up when the man continued.
“However, an off site apartment could be arranged…”
Kuroo glanced at Kenma, waiting for him to process, he gently reached out and touched Kenma’s arm, wanting to reassure Kenma.
“Deal,” Kenma said after a while, “though I do not want the buffoons of security around. You and you alone are the only person who knows the address, and I am only contactable via the web chat.”
The man nodded, “I’ll have something arranged. What do you intend to do about the ‘death’?”
“He had an accident,” Kuroo said, “lost all his memories. I happened to come across him and recognised him, I’ve been helping him get his memory back. We will only introduce him to a few people, his family and close friends.”
“Very well, and you?”
“Me?” Kuroo asked, sounding confused, ”what about me?”
“You’ve seen my face, you do not work for me, you should be executed now.”
Kenma let out a borderline feral growl, which made both the older man and Kuroo jump.
“Easy there kitten, I am not going to execute your… whatever he is, but you should know you cannot half way be involved in this, you’re either in or out, and considering you cannot be out now… what use are you to me?”
“I’m a law student and I am good at sports, that’s…”
“Law? Training to be a lawyer I assume?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, you shall join my lawyers firm after you graduate. You will be trained to take his place when he retires. This is not up for debate.”
Kuroo sucked in a breath at that. Getting into a law firm was hard work, but he knew of the rumours of the mafia connections to one of the best law firms in the city, this was huge. Sure he was probably going to end up defending a criminal, but frankly, after what Kenma was already deep in, he couldn’t exactly pretend he wasn’t also sinking down a dark path as well.
“Fine, but when Kenma gets tired with what he’s doing and wants to retire, we both leave. No questions asked. We will train our replacements.”
The man eyed Kenma for a moment, and nodded, he knew full well that Kenma loved his job and wouldn’t give it up anytime soon.
“Deal. See Nami about which apartment is available, and take what you want. You can have a week off to get settled and move into your new home, come up with a nice backstory about the accident, you can use my private hospital and have Nami arrange any documentation you need. Kuroo I will be keeping an eye on your grades, do not fail.“
“Thank you sir,” Kenma said, bowing.
With a moment's hesitation, Kuroo copied him, then took Kenma’s hand and left. The week blew by fast, by the second day, they had the apartment sorted, and all the documentation in place, by the fourth day, Kenma had been reunited with his family and friends, and by day six, everything was set up in the apartment and they were finally spending their first night of the new chapter of their lives.
“Kenma…” Kuroo whispered as he pulled the other man down on top of him, pressing a kiss to his lips. He wasn’t sure how blood thirsty the other man truly was, but he knew Kenma hadn’t been near a blade since the night they met again, and Kuroo had noticed Kenma started to get a look in his eyes, a look that should have horrified a normal man, but when it came to Kenma, Kuroo had never been normal.
Kenma hummed out a happy note and stretched out like a cat across Kuroo’s chest, his hand curled, nails digging into the skin of Kuroo’s bare chest, leaving white lines, and peeling the edges of the scabs that were covering the cuts Kenma left on him.
“Want to play?”
Kenma looked up, cocking his head to the side like a curious animal, and waited, clearly seeing if Kuroo meant what he thought he meant. Kuroo pulled out a black box from his pocket, narrow and long. Kenma took it from him and opened it, seeing a switch blade inside, the silver handle had rubies embedded in it. Kenma took it out and opened it, turning it over in his hands, watching the way the jewels shined.
“Go ahead and christen it.” Kuroo said, stretching back, his hands slotting together behind his head.
Kenma settled back on his lap, and ran the tip of the blade over Kuroo’s body, without enough pressure to cut, simply testing the weight of the knife, then set to work, watching the way droplets of blood pooled up and out of the skin. Kuroo shifted as he watched Kenma work, then reached out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind his ear. This wasn’t the life he had planned, not even close, but he would be lying if he wasn’t looking forward to spending it with Kenma. Not many got a second chance like this, and after spending so long thinking the love of his life was dead, nothing else compared.