-- i see you with the same person all the time and i assume you two are in a relationship so i’ll just pine for you from a distance au --

Lev stares hard at Kenma, touching his toes easy as Inuoka struggles beside him, and leans back on his hands when Yaku comes by.

"Say, Yaku-san, what kinda relationship do Kenma-san and Kuroo-san have?"

"One where they can talk without speaking. They're childhood friends, Lev, they're close." He presses onto Inuoka's back and ignores the cries of pain until toes have been touched, releasing the first year. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I was just wondering because they're always together and stuff." It'd become apparent to Lev that you rarely saw one without the other - they came to practice together, they left together, they'd hang out away from the rest of the group sometimes and talk - and he'd had this funny feeling in his gut whenever he saw them together, kind of a burning that reminded him of food poisoning but without the puking. So far. He stretches again, watching Kuroo push Kenma into action and get ready for practice.

They're so close. Childhood friends are really something else. It makes him wish <i>he</I> had a childhood friend, too, but growing up tall hadn't really lent itself to making friends.

"Kenma-san~" Lev practically sings, gravitating over to the second year setter, "will you toss to me today too?"

"Mm... I have to anyway," is what he says, but he seems as determined as before when tossing the ball up in the air in preparation for Lev's spike. Lev gets in position and they go through their usual routine, the score at ball 16 to his steadily improving 4 by the time Kuroo calls them over for teams, and the first year feels disappointment in his aching muscles as he stands up front to block.

It takes a few weeks, and he's not even the one who realizes it, but Lev might have a crush on Kenma. Shibiyama's actually the one who voices it, half a question and half unsure, and the other two first years sit there with their knees touching in thought.

"... I like Kenma-san?" Of course he does. But saying it outloud like that gives Lev as bad of a case of the butterflies as sharing Kenma's water bottle yesterday did (though he'd put that down as just leftover adrenaline from laps). So maybe it's like, a like-like. Lev frowns, plays with his shoelaces, and looks at his two friends from under his bangs. "That's weird."

It is. That much they agree to. But, as weird as it is, Lev becomes absolutely aware and all too certain as to what he feels when he sees Kuroo and Kenma with their shoulders pressed together, the taller chatting while the apparent object of his affections plays with his phone: Jealously. Burning, boiling jealous. Not for a childhood friend (though he does seriously still want that and thinks that maybe taking applications for it might work out) but, like, to be close to Kenma too. Maybe hang out a lot. Chase cats together. Have a cat family. Little kittens and stuff. There'd be a lot to hug then. That'd be nice.

No matter how much Yaku's words try to assure Lev ("They're childhood friends, Lev, they're close.") there's always the nagging doubt of <i>what if they're not </i>just<i> childhood friends</i> and that leaves him laying on his back at bedtime, staring at his ceiling and listening to his grandma's television down the hall.

Why would Roldolph even come back for Marianne if he had a kid with her cousin Georgia in France, anyway. It just <i>sounds</i> like a bad idea.

Lucky for his own conscious, he actually gets the chance to ask Kenma about it when they're jogging in the morning and he lags behind just in case there's another cat incident. And because he likes Kenma.

"So, hey, Kenma-san, can I ask you something kind of weird?"

"When's that ever stopped you before?" So yeah, sure. Okay. He gathers up his courage, feels only a little bad for the obviously tired already setter, and all but shouts his question.

"Are you and Kuroo dating?!"

Every pair of feet falls silent and Lev finds he and Kenma in the starring roles of one of his grandma's dramas. The one about love confessions and a secret marriage. That one had a pretty good finale, or so it sounded like it. Kenma shuffles on his feet and is clearly, <i>clearly</i> uncomfortable, but there's really no running away.

So Kenma opts to do only other thing Kenma can do.

"Not in a million years."

"Oh, Kenma, you wound me!" Kuroo shouts from the front, hand to his heart and all.