kuroo knows that better than anyone—knows that this is entirely unreasonable and entirely spur of the moment and entirely something he should not do—but you're standing in the kitchen, covered in flour, and the words seem to fall from his lips as if they were always meant to be there.
"marry me," he says, and he means it just as he did when he asked you yesterday as he kissed you goodbye, and just as he did the day before when you tripped down the stairs, and just as he would tomorrow if you said no.
but this time, as laughter spills from your lips, messy dough coating your cheeks, something stirs in him. something that he wouldn't find yesterday and won't find tomorrow and something that feels like hope, and delirium and you—and he thinks, if only for a second, that stupid isn't even the word for it.
"you're asking right now?" you raise a brow, motioning your fingers around your mess of a kitchen, and a silly little smile draws across his cheeks.
"i'm covered in flour," you say.
and he grins, "yeah, and you should marry me."
you shake your head, pulling your lips together, and you give him that look you always do; the 'maybe when we're older and smarter and a little less prone to divorce' look that he's grown to dread.
because, yes, this is stupid—incredibly so—but he's twenty-one and he's pretty sure he's never going to get much smarter than this and you share a bed every night without killing each other, so, really, why not?
he holds his hand in the air, waiting to insist on asking you again tomorrow, but you laugh—soft and bright and something that aches like home—and a little okay rolls off your lips.
"what?" his fingers stutter in front of him, voice tugging at the back of his throat, and you laugh.
"you're kidding," he says, a little too dumbfounded for his own good.
"now why would i do that?" you reply, a little tease catching your breath.
(oh, you must be trying to kill him now.)
"because i asked you to marry me."
"and you said yes." a breath spills from your throat—happy little laughter swirling between you.
and he doesn't know whether to scream, or cry, or maybe throw up, but he does know that you just agreed to marry him, so all three sound like a solid approach.
"i'm in love with you," he says, hands reaching for floured cheeks.
and he rolls his eyes, pulling you in—lips meeting yours with a clash of flour and warmth and a breath of anything but regret—and he's sure that he'd be stupid every day of his life if it meant being with you.
hi this is for @neoheros and @coophi's summer writing challenge and i am nervous and scared and about to sob into my hands but i wanted to throw a lil smth in there for fun <3 this is such a lovely idea i'm so glad i got to participate :)