"Kenma?" The teacher calls out, looking down at his roster.

"Here." He replies, earning a snicker or two from his other classmates.

(Y/n) glares at the kids who dared to look back at her best friend, trying to mock him. "(Last name)?"

"Here." She replies, shooting daggers at anyone who looked her way. She knew they would make an unnecessary comment.

The two never knew why they became targets for the class to make fun of but (Y/n) refused to back down. She thought that the best way to fight back was to make the other kids uncomfortable with her presence. Like how she saw someone do on television one Saturday. This however never worked and only angered their classmates.

In their defense, (Y/n) and Kenma were the weird kids. That's why the made fun of them so much. In their seven year old brains it made totally sense to pick on them. The teachers never gave what they were doing much thought. To him it was just something all kids do and the they need to learn how to handle the situation on their own.

Which came as a shock to (Y/n) when she told him the effect all of this was having on Kenma.

"He doesn't want to come to school! I go get him every day to make sure he comes!" She yells at him, stomping her feet. "Make them stop!"

The teacher smiled at her, patted her on the head, and said "they're just joking." Another teacher entered the classroom, "oh (L/n) why are you still here?"

She doesn't say anything and exits the room. Kenma was waiting for her outside, listening in on their conversation. "I'm sorry Kenma." She says looking at his sad expression. "If they won't help then I'll just have to do it myself."

They walk home in silence that day, Kenma's worries about school increased by the hour. (Y/n) spent that night brainstorming ways she could get her classmates to stop making fun of them. She couldn't ever pin point why they were hated so much. In the end, the two fell asleep and awoke the next morning with heavy sighs.

----

"Will you shut up!" (Y/n) roared, slamming the palms of her hands onto her desk. The other students all got really quiet as the teacher's facial expression changed drastically. All of the students were still seven years old, they weren't aloud to use that phrase.

"(Y/n)!" The teacher shouted in reply as Kenma sank down into his seat. "You know better than to say that!"

"Well you weren't doing anything!" She yells back, "and why do you hate us!" She yells at her classmates. "What did we ever do to you!"

Another teacher, who was passing by while their class was somewhere else, opens the door to see (Y/n) yelling. Her teacher grabs her by the arm and drags her out of the room, letting the one who walked in take over. "You're all just a bunch of jerks!" The teacher slams the door closed.

Half an hour passes, (Y/n) is now sitting before the principal with her arms crossed. Her parents walk in, "hello." They both greet the principal before sitting down.

"I'm assuming her teacher told you what happened?" Says the principal.

"Yes, we are so sorry that happened. (Y/n) will have a stern talking to when we get home. This will not happen again." They both stood up and bowed.

"(Y/n)," she turns to face the principal, "what do you have to say for yourself."

"I'm not sorry." She says with a glare in her eyes. "They had it coming."

After some more back and forth with everyone in the room, (Y/n) stayed silent until she exits the school with her parents. Kenma's mother also came to pick him up after receiving a text from (Y/n)'s mother. It was decided that the kids would head back to (Y/n)'s house for the rest of the day.

(Y/n)'s mother scolded her all the way home but did give her a high five for standing up for not only herself, but also Kenma. "Those other kids may be mean to you guys, but that just means you are better than them." The mother ruffs both of the kids hair, "don't let what I just said go to your head now."

When they arrived back home, (Y/n) and Kenma went straight to playing video games. After they did all of their school work of course. They are good young students after all and (Y/n)'s mother differently wan't watching them over her shoulder.

"Hey..." Kenma said as he mashes the buttons down on the controller with all of his might. "Do you think they will stop now?" He asks.

"They better," (Y/n) replies, "I won't back down from this fight."

And she kept her word for the rest of their school days. It didn't matter how many times she was called into the principal's office. It didn't matter how many times she would get grounded form saying all of words. It didn't matter that almost everyone in her year thought she was mean.

All that matters is that Kenma was smiling and wasn't afraid to come to school.

----

At age eleven is when fighting with the other students became physical.

"Yeah that Kenma kid is so weird. All he does is play video games during our breaks."

"He doesn't have any friends either."

"That's not true! He's friends with that (Y/n) girl."

Unfortunately for those students, it was (Y/n)' turn to take the trash out. Which, funnily enough, meant sucker punching those kids too.

"Kenma isn't a loser!" She yells, "he's so much smarter than you could ever be!" She throws another punch.

"(Y/n)!" Kenma run to her side but sees the other kids down on the ground. "What did you do!"

"Taught them a lesson." She smiles proudly, touching her face where she got punched at.

Everyone was once again called into the principals office but left after nothing happened. "Please stop getting into fights for my sake." Kenma mumbles on their walk home. "It's not worth it."

"Yes it is!" (Y/n) shouts back, "look at how many people have backed off now! Are you still afraid of coming to school?"

"Of course I am!" He shouts back, not facing her as she stops in her tracks. "Everyday I get called weird and a loser. But that never mattered to me. Not since you stood up for me all those years ago..." He trail off and turns around. "But I hate seeing you fight. You're going to have a bad reputation when we go off to middle school you know."

(Y/n) takes a few steps forward and pats him on the head. "Don't worry about stupid things like that. I'm sorry that neither of us ever made real friends at school. All we really have is Kuroo..." She takes a breath, "I'm sorry that I keep making you worry about me, but I said I will bring a stop to this. And I will keep my word."

Kenma hugs her tightly, "hopefully this will all be over. And we can enter middle school without this spreading around school..."

"Yeah but first we need to build up your running speed. Since you want to play volleyball and all." (Y/n) smiles, "Kuroo can only help you with everything else so leave your running training to me."

"Oh joy..." Kenma says sarcastically, letting go off his friend.

At the end of the school year, he wishes he had held onto her longer for just a few seconds more.

----

"Oi! (Y/n)!" Kuroo calls, "is that really you or am I imagining things!" He says, running up to her.

"You're just imagining things." (Y/n) teases back, wrapping her arms around his body in a tight hug. "It's so good to see you. Jeez I can't believe how much you grew."

"It's been almost six years since you saw me." He replies as they let go of each other, "but you've grown a lot too. Here to see your grandparents?"

She nods in reply, "I would have said something to you if I knew how to contact you. We lost your families phone number back when we moved awhile ago. But hey are you still into volleyball?"

"Of course! How else would I have this build!" He says with a cheeky smile.

"Oh, I didn't notice..." She mumbles but he still heard her.

He choose to ignore that last comment, "I actually have a match in two days. If you're still around, would you like to come watch?"

"Hell yeah! I have to see all your hard work pay off!" She beams. They catch up some more, exchanging contact information before having to split up for the day. Neither of them once mentioned Kenma's name.

The day of Kuroo and Kenma's volleyball match had arrived, (Y/n) was still in town for another two days. Not like it mattered really, she still would have come even if she was on the other side of Japan.

She entered the gym right before the match started, so she made her way to the stands. There were a few others there to watch the match, but no one from Nekoma. Taking a seat, Kuroo spots her. Luckily for him, she wasn't paying attention to who was on Nekoma's team. He nudges Kenma with his elbow, "(Y/n)'s here to watch today." He says as they made their way out to the court.

Kenma looks up to the stands and spots her looking around, as if she had never been in a high school gym before. He's face softens for a second but changed back as the game starts. Both he and Kuroo played extra hard this match, leading to a smashing lead in both sets. There was not need for a third one.

(Y/n), sure what to do now, waits in the stands. She sits there awkwardly until Kuroo taps her on the shoulder, "you know you could wait in the hallway, right?"

"No..." She admits, "but I do now!" He chuckles at her reply. "By the way where is Kenma? I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet."

"Oh, uh, he just left. If you hurry you can still cat-"

"Thanks Kuroo!" (Y/n) shouts as she dashes off. Kuroo smiles slightly but knows what is about to happen. "I hope he still isn't too mad..." He mumbles, exiting the stands at a slow pace.

(Y/n) spots Kenma in the courtyard and calls out to him, "Kenma!" He turns around and his face drops, he starts running.

All of (Y/n)'s brain cells were screaming not to chase after him, and to just leave him alone. Maybe get his contact info from Kuroo later or something. But no, she chased after him.

Kenma didn't get very far before (Y/n) had almost caught up to him, "wait!" She called out again. Of course she knew calling out to him was dumb and wouldn't get him to stop. So she tried the good old anime approach, tackling him down to the ground. They were a little ways from the school now, so no one would see them.

"What do you want?!" He yells, turning to face her.

"I wanted to talk to you." She replies in a calm voice.

"And I clearly don't want to talk to you!"

"That's fine but could you at least tell me why? We were best friends for so long-"

"Yeah and you left me! All you ever did was make things worse!" He shouts, not being able to hold back anymore. "The bulling never stopped (Y/n)! It only got worse after you left! Kuroo was the only friend I had until high school!"

(Y/n) didn't say anything back.

"I tried calling you but you changed numbers, which was to be expected since you moved houses and all. But you never once called me! It hurt so much when you left. I know that it wasn't your choice, and you never wanted to leave me, but that doesn't make it stop." He had finally calm down and (Y/n) moved off from him, holding a hand out to help him up. He refused.

Kenma's eyes stayed glued to the ground, "I wish we never met." But then he looked up at (Y/n)'s face. She was hurt by that, everything else she could understand. Everything else had a good reason for it, but not that.

"Okay." She says, "then let's act like we never did."

----

"You did what!?" Kuroo shouts over the phone, "why did you say that to her!? Have you lost your mind?!"

"In that moment I did!" Kenma shouts back, "I didn't mean it. I wanted to take it back but..."

"But your pride got in the way, right?" Kuroo gritted his teeth.

"Yeah... how do I fix this?" He asks, sitting down on the floor against his bed.

"You might not be able to, but I will help you." Kuroo sighs, "you just have to make things right. You say, at least once every three months, how much you miss her after all. I hate to see my childhood best friend never come back because of something stupid like this."

"I'm sorry." Kenma says.

"Don't say that to me, say that to her. Now this plan is one I came up with in the last two minutes so it's up to you to make everything work out."

(Y/n) waited at the train station for Kuroo to come. She never said to him about what happened between her and Kenma, she was hoping Kenma didn't say anything about it. To her surprise, Kenma is the one who showed up instead.

"Before you walk away, can we just put yesterday behind us and hang out as friends?" He asks.

"Sure." (Y/n) says with a blank face, "where would you like to go? You know this area after all..."

"Well I'm so glad you asked," he teased, "I know the perfect place."

Kenma lead her through the streets of her hometown. It had changed so much since she was last there, she hardly recognized it. Until Kenma walks into a run down store. "Here we are," he says and (Y/n)'s eyes light up.

"Is this...!" She pauses and looks all around the shop.

"Yeah it's the same arcade we went to as kids." He replies looking slightly proud of himself. "Bet I can still beat you at any game here."

"Oh yeah? How about the shooting one?" She challenges, pointing over to where there as a line of hunting games and one basketball throwing game tucked away in the corner.

"You're on." He smirks. Sure he wasn't the best at hunting games, they weren't ever really his things, but he could definitely beat (Y/n) at them.

"Great." She smiled, knowing full well that he fell into her trap.

In the end, Kenma hadn't make a single basket while (Y/n) only missed one. Kenma, being overly dramatic for comedic purposes, sank to his knees and held his head down in shame. (Y/n), for only comedic purposes, squatted down and took out her phone. She smirked, made a peace sign, and took a selfie of her and Kenma.

He looks up after she's done taking it. "Hey!" He tired to take the phone out of her hands but as too slow.

"If you want it that bad I can send it to you too." She smiles, "what's your-"

"'Too'? Who are you sending it to?" He cuts her off.

"Just myself in an email. I must have this moment saved forever and that means on my laptop." She beams with pride, but mostly just to tease Kenma.

"Fine," he holds out his phone, "send it to me too."

They went around to a few more games before grabbing something to eat. Time went by with a blink, and they were once again at the train station. "Thank you for giving me a chance." (Y/n) said as they were walking. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused after I left. I should have done something before I moved. And we lost everyone's phone numbers when we moved, including yours and Kuroo's. That's why I never called..."

Kenma didn't know what to say really. He doesn't feel bad for going off on her yesterday but he did think he went a little too far.

"But I hope that's all in the past and we can be friends again." She says, looking forward.

"Who said we ever stopped?" He replied, "we just picked up right back from where we left off."

The train pulls into the station as (Y/n) pulls Kenma into a hug. "Thank you." They stayed there until the train left, and even after the train left. They both didn't want to say goodbye just yet.

"Guess you'll have to stay over at my house tonight," Kenma chuckles, "my mother will be happy to see you again."

"Yeah, I miss her cooking. I'll tell my grandparents but I'm sure they'll be happy that they don't have to cook for one more person." She says, still not letting go.

That night as filled with laughs and warm smiles from the Kenma family. Lots of teasing from both teenagers and glares between parents. Everyone enjoyed themselves. It ended with Kenma laying on his bed staring up at the celling and (Y/n) on the futon, staring up at the same celling.

They talked about how middle school and high school was. All of the weird and strange things (Y/n) and her friends did. Kenma told stores of his volleyball team and about other high school teams. They talked about new video games and the big dreams they had. Before they knew it, the sun was rising.

And yet neither of them wanted it to rise, they both wished the night would have lasted a little bit longer. Neither of them wanted to say goodbye it.

"Is that Kenma?!" Bokuto shouts and looks back and forth between the setter and Kuroo. "With a girl!?"

"Yeah, she's a childhood friend of ours. Why?" Kuroo replies.

"Because they are holding hands!" The owl responds.

"We've been over this Bokuto, the whole 'no premarital hand holding' thing is just a joke."

"Yes I know that!" He huffs, "but how long have they been going out for?!"

"Uh a year now? She came to visit her grandparents-"

"The short version of the story please."

The cat sighs, "childhood friends to lovers, lots of angst, no speed running."

And done 3k words, 2,900 of those written in one day. I'll move onto the explanation now-

1. I looked back at the request, about 2,800 words in, and it did not say childhood friends to lovers. It said "Kenma x reader angst with a happy ending, the reader leaves but comes back years later" and this is what I came up with.

2. The 'bonus scene' was my way of speeding running this fanfic troupe but without actually speed running it. It just felt too weird for me to make them date after Kenma going off like that. Therefore I added in two chaotic idiots to make another scene and to tell the reader that they are dating after a good amount of time has passed. That said amount of time is up to you.

3. Kenma is aware that he was being selfish when he went off like that, but to me, he had a right to be mad. But they have made up by now so it's all in the past.

4. Yes, the reader did send that selfie of them in the arcade to Kuroo on the train ride home.

5. Yes, Kenma did reveal that the whole arcade thing was Kuroo's idea after they started dating.

6. I spent too much time into this one shot to not know if anyone reads the ending a/n so

Comment "The Day When My Mother Was There" if you are reading this, and then maybe go listen to that song it's really good.

And with that I will now go and do my history school work before I get grounded for the third time this year.

LOVE YOU GUYS