Chapter Text
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kuroo screamed in the emptiness of his home, clutching the letter in his hands so tightly that he teared the paper. He stared at the words, watching in horror as none of them seemed to change. That must've been a joke, it couldn't be true, not now. He could physically feel his wallet dying inside his pocket.
The letter in his hands was printed on expensive paper, and it was signed by hand, which was not the standards of the usual notices that he got. The biggest difference was in the formality of the message, in the sickening cross between politeness and total lack of emotional understanding that made it feel like the person who wrote it was mocking the reader.
Kuroo tried to flatten the piece of paper so he could read it again, hoping that he'd gotten something wrong somehow. As he read along, he felt dread rising from his stomach and spilling everywhere in his limbs. His reading was fine, everything was painfully clear.
Notice for the resident(s) of apartment 21
On the first of February, your lease is up for renewal. Following a change in management, the rent of every apartment has been recalculated to fit the current economy. In your particular case, the rent of your apartment will go from ¥75,000/month to ¥80,000/month. If you would wish to renew your lease, please contact me via email only, so we can arrange a meeting. You will also need to specify any new residents that were not on the previous lease. If you however do not wish to renew your lease, you will need to be out of the apartment by January 29th. Any damage that is not due to normal usage also needs to be fixed by that date.
Professional email : [email protected]
Regards, Tsukishima Kei
Kuroo crushed the letter into a crumbled ball and threw it across the room in a fit of rage. He was already constantly short on money, but now, that was just insane. He would need to cut into his food money and ask for more hours at work, even though he had already done that merely two weeks ago.
As he thought about his options, he quickly realised that there was nothing he could do about it except look for a new and cheaper apartment. It would crush him to leave his favorite neighbour behind, but if he had to choose between living next to Oikawa and having enough money to feed himself, his survival instincts were unfortunately kicking in.
Thinking about his neighbour made him wonder how the man would handle that situation. Oikawa had a tendency to get the weirdest plans going, but everyone was weak to his charm so it usually worked out for him. Kuroo's charm wasn't as powerful, but he liked to try anyway.
Oikawa would probably fight this. He would try to get the most people on his side to demonstrate the unfairness of the change. Kuroo thought he remembered being told that a petition could be useful if you wanted to request something, as long as more than 50% of the residents signed it.
With a pad of paper, a pen and blind hope, Kuroo went and knocked on every door of the second and third floor, asking for people's support. Some agreed with shrugs and others said they didn't have the time before Kuroo could even say anything. When he got to the last apartment of the second floor, he had already gotten the signature of almost everybody he had met. A woman with a toddler on her hip answered the door of apartment 20, looking tired and uninterested before Kuroo even introduced himself.
"Hi, sorry to bother you miss, but I'm here to ask you about your opinion on the recent increase in the cost of rent? Have you gotten your notice?"
He was speaking as nicely as he could, trying to have her on his side no matter what. Her child was staring at him like he was seeing a monster, and it wasn't doing wonders for Kuroo's confidence.
She sighed so strongly that it blew one of her hair strands away from her face. "Yeah, mine already went up, I got the notice like 2 months ago. I mean, I'm not happy, but I can't do anything about it."
Kuroo frowned at the woman, questioning her with his gaze as she adjusted the position of her son on her hip.
"What do you mean?" He asked, confused.
"Well," she began with a lazy shrug, "I looked around and this place was still the cheapest I could find, even with the new rent. It's still ridiculously cheap for the quality I'm getting."
Kuroo stared at her, speechless as he looked for words that wouldn't come to him. Okay, so this was bad. If this was still considered cheap, it wouldn't take too long before he'd end up homeless. He had to make this work, so he shook himself back together.
"Would you still be interested in signing my petition to get it back down to how it used to be? If more than 50% of us sign, the landlord will have to take it into consideration."
The woman stared at him for a second too long, obviously failing to see the point in that, but she ended up nodding and grabbing Kuroo's pen with her free hand. She signed while Kuroo held up the pad and shared her baby's strangely intense stare. Once that was done, he wished them a good night and moved on to the first floor.
Since that was where the most expensive apartments were located, the people Kuroo spoke to were a little more fired up, or even straight up angry at the landlord. When he reached the end of the hallway, that anger had gotten to his head, and he felt like laying it on thick. He already had more than the required 50% anyway, he had nothing to lose.
The door opened and revealed a tall, pale haired man with glasses hanging low on his nose, so he pushed them up and looked down at Kuroo. There was something unsettling about his vibe, it was cold and dark and it translated in the way he glared at Kuroo like he was the biggest annoyance in his life.
"Hey," he started anyway, "good evening!" He wasn't sure which tone he should use with someone who was watching him like that, so he went for endearing friendliness.
"I'm going around the building to get signatures for my petition about the recent increase of rent. I honestly think that it's unfair and very excessive, especially considering the fact that most of us work a minimum wage job and already had trouble paying the old rent. Would you be interested in…”
Kuroo frowned at how the man sneered at him now, putting an end to his speech and cocking his head on the side to make it obvious that he thought something was wrong about the occupant of apartment 6. The man scoffed, holding his weight against the door frame with his forearm. His wrist was bent nonchalantly, giving him the least impressed vibe Kuroo had ever felt. For some reason, he felt like this man was going to get the house and the dog in their imminent divorce. And for some reason, he got curious instead of intimidated.
“I see you got my letter,” the man said with his nasty, mocking smile. Kuroo wanted to punch him in the teeth, or maybe he wanted to grin back, he didn’t know. Both, he guessed.
“Oh,” Kuroo replied, taking a step back from the door of the apartment. “You’re the landlord?”
He had to ask to be sure he was getting this right. He probably was, he wasn’t dumb, but the pressure of the situation wasn’t helping him think.
“Petitions aren’t worth anything,” the man explained, deciding not to answer the question since it was probably obvious to him. “If you want to get your voice heard, you have to come to the monthly assembly, explain your issue, compromise with the chef of the assembly and then vote with the other residents on the different issues that will be presented.”
That sounded like the worse of hassles, and the landlord saw it in his eyes, scoffing in triumph.
“And about your opinion on rent, I must mention that my uncle who previously owned this building kept the rents so low that it cost him money in the end. He always complied to people like you, who thought the world revolved around them, that’s why you paid so little. If I’m stuck with this shithole, you must believe that I’m going to make money off of it, and I'm going to make it better, as it is intended that a landlord does.”
Kuroo stared with round eyes at the man who had just destroyed every single one of his arguments before he’d even heard them. He was so casual in his rudeness that Kuroo almost felt the urge to thank him for his candor, but that might’ve also been him being weird.
The blond man took his arm away from the threshold and grabbed the edge of the door, leaving no openness for Kuroo. He’d said what he had to say and he wasn’t going to hear anything else.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more important matters to get to. I expect an email from you before the 21st.”
He was shutting the door just after he’d said that, without a goodnight or a sincere apology, without even a nasty look. On a whim, Kuroo stuck his feet between the door and the wall, forcing it open. The landlord glared at him from the thin opening, annoyed beyond words, but still far from angry.
“Wait, sir, is there really nothing I can do? This is going to put me in the street on the long term.”
Kuroo didn’t want to plead this guy for a little bit of humanity, because he knew that he did have some. If he was being mean spirited for fun, the new rent wouldn’t be 80,000, it would be 90,000.
The man shrugged, from what Kuroo could see on the other side of the door. He didn’t want to help, or he didn’t know how, but either way, Kuroo felt like he was done with.
“Maybe if you didn’t live alone, you wouldn’t have a problem,” he replied coldly before he pushed Kuroo’s foot away with his own foot and then closed the door in his face a second later.
Kuroo stayed in place for a while after this, his mouth hanging open in shock after what he’d just heard. His mother was already shaming him for being single, and now his fucking landlord? That bastard had better not have a girlfriend, because Kuroo couldn’t think of an unluckier girl in the world. Fuck the candor and the divorce vibes, this guy was a piece of shit, plain and simple.
He let the pad slide out of his hands and fall on the floor in front of the landlord’s door before he left for his own apartment. Once he was back on the second floor, Kuroo unlocked the door to his apartment and slammed it behind himself, walking in the living room as he rushed both of his hands in his face and tried not to cry or scream or have any emotion, basically. He didn’t want to feel anything, he was done for the day.
He heard his door click open 30 seconds after he’d slammed it, and he turned around to find Oikawa with a bottle of red wine and two glasses in his hands, smiling like he was sorry about something. He must’ve gotten home while Kuroo was getting the signatures on the first floor, because he hadn’t been home when Kuroo knocked on his door for the petition.
“What’s wrong, baby doll?” Oikawa asked when he finally read the emotion on Kuroo’s face and decided that the situation didn’t require him to pretend he was nice. Slamming the door had became a sort of message, a plea for him to rush over there and offer some kind of assistance, but he could already tell that there was not much he would be able to do.
“Have you met the new landlord?” Kuroo asked, looking at the wall over Oikawa’s shoulder with a fixed gaze. Oikawa turned his head to see if there was anything there, but since there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, he turned back to glare at Kuroo.
“Yeah,” he replied slowly, stretching the sounds in this dubious way of his. “I signed my lease last month, why?”
Kuroo had a frustrated sigh and moved to sit on the couch, or, rather, collapsed on the couch. Oikawa watched him as his shoulders shook, chuckling happily at what he had the great opportunity to witness.
“He’s an asshole with a superiority complex and I’m going to die of hunger because of him,” Kuroo explained in a pained voice, taking one of his throw pillows and hugging it close to his chest. “I can’t believe 5000 yen feels like the end of the world right now.”
Oikawa kept laughing, and he didn’t really care about the nasty look Kuroo sent his way. He sat on the couch next to his neighbour, taking the cork out of the wine bottle with his obnoxious electric gadget after he’d set the glasses on the coffee table.
“5000 yen is lunch for me,” Oikawa replied, laughing even harder when Kuroo glared at him with legit fury. “Hey, calm down, I got you this bottle from my pricy cabinet.”
Kuroo rolled his eyes as he waited for his glass to be filled, suddenly feeling like he couldn’t wait to take it all down and grab a second one. He wasn’t the type to drown his sorrow, but he really was about to break down if he didn’t find a way to clear this entire day out of his head.
“It’s kinda ironic, drinking expensive wine while I’m this broke,” Kuroo mumbled as he grabbed the glass that Oikawa had just filled.
Oikawa bit the inside of his lip before he brought his glass up to his face, letting the edge of it rest on his chin. He took a deep breath before his expression got gravelly serious, and Kuroo was ready to shut him up before he even started speaking.
“I could always-“
“No charity,” Kuroo interrupted as he waved a disapproving finger in Oikawa’s face. “You know how I feel about that, I’m not having that conversation again.”
Oikawa sulked a little, letting his body fall boneless in the cushions of Kuroo’s beat up couch. “So I’m gonna have to keep hearing you whine about it until you win the lottery?”
Kuroo raised his glass and grinned as he brought his face closer and looked at Oikawa’s scowl through it. “Wine about it,” he said, and it took Oikawa approximately 0.5 seconds before he made a weird guttural sound, trying to hold back from laughing. He pointed joyfully at Kuroo’s face, snickering as he bent his knees and put both of his feet on the couch. He looked like a laughing ball.
Smiling confusedly, Kuroo took his face away from the glass and glared at Oikawa.
“No, nO!” Oikawa screamed, uselessly reaching in the air with the hand he was pointing at Kuroo with. “Do that again, you’re so ugly, oh my God!”
Kuroo sighed as he put the glass in front of his face again, letting Oikawa have his dumb fun. At one point, Oikawa closed his eyes and brought his hands to his stomach, bringing his knees even closer to him and just. Laughed. Kuroo grinned, putting his glass down on his own knee and holding it weakly from its base.
“Glad you’re having fun,” he said with not one hint of harshness, but Oikawa still stopped laughing suddenly, slapping Kuroo’s hand as he had an offended gasp.
“Okay, we’re getting back to your problems then!”
Kuroo backed off a little and stared at Oikawa with big eyes, letting out a short nervous chuckle. “I didn’t mean it like that, I can put the glass back if you want…”
Oikawa nodded dramatically, grabbing the remote and turning the television on to see what horrible movie they could watch. It was nearing 9 o’clock, and that was the best time to catch a true piece of shit live on network TV.
“Let’s talk shit about the landlord while we finish this bottle way too quickly for it to be classy, alright?” Oikawa proposed, finally choosing which channel he would leave the TV on. There was already an excess of too-pink blood and female screams, which told so much about the quality of the movie that it made Kuroo smile automatically. That was exactly the type of trash that he needed right now.
“Of course,” Kuroo replied, angling his body towards the TV so he could see the movie while still being physically invested in his conversation with Oikawa.
“So,” Oikawa started in a sing-song voice, “what did the big meanie do to you?”
“Told me I should get a girlfriend and share the rent if I can’t pay it, basically.”
Oikawa cocked his head on the side, glaring at Kuroo through his wide glasses. “Basically? What did he actually say?”
Kuroo brought a hand to his hair and rubbed it uncomfortably, trying to remember the guy’s exact words. “I don’t know, something along the lines of ‘There wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t live alone’ or some shit like that.”
Oikawa snorted at the bad imitation, slapping Kuroo’s thigh like he always did when he was being bad. “Maybe he thinks you don’t even have friends,” Oikawa supplied, grinning mischievously when he saw that Kuroo seemed to be boiling with even more rage than he used to.
“That bitch,” Kuroo spat, downing the rest of his glass of wine to punctuate his statement. “His uncle left this to him when he died and he’s trying to destroy his legacy for a little bit of profit, like I can’t believe-“
Kuroo clenched his fists, choosing to do this instead of finishing his sentence. Oikawa raised his eyebrows at him, nodding once as he acted like he approved of Kuroo’s rage.
“Oh, absolutely,” he agreed, shaking his head to add to his performance. “How dare he not let this place become a burden to him?”
“Right!?” Kuroo yelled before he thought about it, taking a deep breath as he let the embarrassment come through. “Alright, you dumbass, give me a refill already.”
Oikawa laughed openly, taking the bottle and filling Kuroo’s glass a little bit over the acceptable amount that was normally found in a glass of wine. “I know I wasn’t there to see, but I’m sure he was rude to you, I’m not denying that. You have to admit that he has good reasons, though, right?”
Kuroo shrugged, reluctant to the idea of agreeing that the thing currently ruining his life was fair and just. “I don’t want him losing money over this thing, but shit, Oiks, I don’t want to either!”
“I know, baby doll,” Oikawa said, sounding genuinely sorry this time. He patted his own thigh, requesting for Kuroo to lay down and use it as a pillow. Without a word, Kuroo took the rest of the couch to stretch his legs, laying on his side with his cheek squished against Oikawa’s thigh.
“You must miss your boyfriend something awful to let me do this,” Kuroo laughed as he rubbed his face on the pleasant fabric of Oikawa’s pants.
“As if you can even act as a poor excuse for a replacement,” Oikawa joked with a soft smile, shrugging unapologetically when Kuroo glared at him down from where he lay. “Come on, you know I love you, you dumb, unfortunate man.”
“Quite literally unfortunate,” Kuroo replied coldly, but he ended up laughing at the end, because if there was one thing his life deserved, it was definitely self-awareness and humor.
Slowly, both of their attentions turned to the movie, and they watched silently as teenagers got their bodies sliced in half. When the movie ended, the bottle of wine was finished and Kuroo was just about ready to fall asleep on Oikawa’s thigh. He sat up begrudgingly, rubbing his eyelids with his thumb and index finger to wake himself up a little bit. As he looked at the couch cushion between his legs, he felt Oikawa’s insistent eyes on him. He was probably wondering if Kuroo was doing better, now.
“Do you know anyone who wouldn’t mind living with me and sleeping on the sofa bed?”
Oikawa laughed instantly, giggling at that absurd thought for way longer than it was necessary. “That’s assuming that I know someone who’s even more desperate than you are,” he said, holding back exactly no punches.
Kuroo’s shoulders fell with dejection, whining like a sad dog. Oikawa patted his shoulder gently, shushing him soothingly. “You could always look on the internet, but I’m not sure someone who doesn’t mind sleeping on a sofa bed indefinitely is someone you want in your home.”
Kuroo took one look at Oikawa’s overly serious expression before he broke into a fit of giggles, endlessly amused by his friend’s strange standards. How could he be such good friend with Kuroo, a known grade A mess, and still say things like that?
“I’ll look anyway, I need to cover all my options,” Kuroo replied in a sigh while Oikawa kept rubbing his shoulder, almost making him feel like it was going to be alright.
“Sleep on that,” Oikawa suggested, taking his hand away from Kuroo and standing up from the couch. He took the empty bottle and the glasses in his hands and stood close to the door. “We’ll figure something out, like we always do. Everything will be fine.”
“Sure, O wise wizard,” Kuroo said mockingly, laughing as Oikawa pulled out his tongue and jammed the empty bottle of wine between his upper arm and the side of his chest so he would have a free hand to open the door. The maneuver seemed to be laborious, but he succeeded just as Kuroo was standing up and to do it for him.
“Fuck you and have a good night,” Oikawa wished him as he left, leaving the door open behind him.
“Fuck you too!” Kuroo answered from the inside of his apartment, walking up to the door to close it. Oikawa’s presence had acted as a buffer on his panic, but now that he had left, he had nothing to help him take his mind elsewhere.
He got ready for bed and tried to ignore the extra weight in his body, slowing him down and making him feel like he was walking straight into strong current. Once he’d gotten into bed, he took his phone and checked for messages and emails, but not much was happening. He texted Kenma to warn him that he might call him the next day, and Bokuto to ask him if he was still good for Friday. When he didn’t get any replies, he slumped sadly into bed, listening to the sound of his overly loud heartbeat.
To make matters worse, he had the day off the next day, and his pay check was still an entire week away. He closed his eyes and sighed angrily, trying to think of anything else, literally anything else but money.
After 30 minutes of tossing and turning, he grabbed his phone again and unplugged it, rolling to the other side of his bed. Pulling up Facebook, he clicked on the search bar and watched the keyboard line flash, waiting for him to write something. He didn’t remember the guy’s name too well, but he knew his first name was Kei. How ironic was that, too. The least bright and bubbly person he’d ever met, and his name was Kei.
There was a lot more results than he’d expected, but after scrolling down a couple of pages, he found him. He was smiling politely on his profile picture, and Kuroo could see trees behind him, but there wasn’t anything else to see. Everything else on his profile was blocked, and Kuroo chuckled at the predictability.
He put his phone down next to him and inhaled deeply, attempting to calm himself down. Oikawa was right, they would fix this, because they always did. There was no need to freak out about becoming homeless or becoming a prostitute, one because Kuroo was sure that that was the landlord’s masterplan all along, and two, because Kuroo Tetsurou had never given up in his life, and he was never going to.