A/N: This fic is the product of watching episodes of Junjou Romantica 2, Kuroko no Basuke, Durarara!, Hayate no Gotoku, Ga Rei: Zero, Inu X Boku Secret Service, No. 6 and Naruto (not necessarily in that order) in one day. I'm currently working on a Naruto fanfic and this fic is just something for me to do whenever I'm feeling particularly lazy to work on R, R, R but still want to write. So be prepared o wait for extra long weeks (probably months) for updates.

I heard of KnB earlier November. I finished watching the anime later that month and had only begun reading the manga last week. Believe it or not, this is the first sports-related anime I had watched. I'm only just learning how addictive it is. Everything else, about this anime, I learned from reading the KnB wiki and other people's fanfics, so forgive me if I get any facts mistaken.

Btw, I know that the Winter Cup isn't over yet, but for the sake of my fic, let's just pretend that it is and that Seirin won. GO Seirin!

Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basuke does not belong t me. There is absolutely no way I could have come up with something this awesome!

Summary: Has anyone ever wondered what had happened to Kuroko for him to have earned such an expressionless mask? Did someone teach it to him? Was that someone one of his family members? Speaking of family, does anyone even know if Kuroko has one? This fic is about what I imagine Kuroko's family is like.

Anyway, this is only my second fic. I hope you guys like it!

Nami

XxX

Kazoku Means Family

Chapter 1: Something You Don't See Everyday

Everything began earlier that December, just two days after the Winter Cup Finals.

It had been an epic win for Seirin High's Basketball Team. They had won against Rakuzan by a single point, 111-110. The game was so intense – it even had the spectators near the door sweating with anticipation.

During the first quarter, it was anyone's game. Rakuzan got the first two points. Seirin got ahead not ten seconds later with a three-pointer made by Hyuga. Then Rakuzan scored again. Seirin followed close behind. Everything happened so quickly. No one knew what was going on until another shot was made – it left the players themselves dizzy with adrenaline and slight confusion.

Seirin's players gave it their all. Izuki – with his Eagle's Eye – and Riko – with her flawless strategies – worked together by barking orders at the other players and warning them of any incoming surprises from their opponents. Hyuga and Kagami scored every time the ball landed in their hands. Mitobe didn't allow anyone to get pass his defense.

But the one who had been truly amazing was the Phantom Player himself, Kuroko Tetsuya. He had been nowhere and everywhere at once. No one knew where he would appear next until it was too late. The usually stoic teen's eyes had been filled with fierce determination and unbreakable resolve.

"I don't care what you say, Akashi-kun," Kuroko had said to Akashi before the game started. Every player of each team, their coaches and the rest of the Generation of Miracles had gathered in the hall outside of the locker rooms and watched in awe and with great shock at how fiercely – coldly – Kuroko was glaring at – challenging, defying – his former captain with his hands held in tight fists at his side. "Seirin will win. You can count on it."

Akashi only smirked in reply as he watched Kuroko enter the locker room with the rest of Seirin's team following closely behind.

The first quarter had ended with a tie, 21-21.

The second quarter had been brutal. Rakuzan had been merciless and unforgiving. Their players refused to believe that a team like Seirin – a group of nobodies who came from an unimportant school (Hell, one of their members had been nothing more than a rumor for three years!) – had even a small chance to defeat them – who came from a veteran school with players who were legendary by themselves – let alone actually tie with them.

The brutal pace continued until half of the third quarter. Most of the Seirin players had been more than ready to give up. Making it as far as they had was an amazing feat. It wouldn't matter if they lost that day. They could always try again next year. When their team called time out, Kagami had only barely been able to stop them from throwing in the towel with his words. He had hoped that his words would have had a bigger effect on them, but it was nearly impossible with him being in the state he was in – limbs shaking, breath stolen from his very lungs and legs just on the verge of shattering with the uncountable amount of jumps he made.

Surprisingly, it was Kuroko who strengthened their resolve and dragged them back to their feat.

At one point of the third quarter, Akashi had gotten hold of the ball and had sent it hurtling towards Kuroko at the speed of a shot canon. Kuroko had been able to stop the ball with his right hand just before it made contact with his head, but the pressure had been enough to send him tumbling to the floor and sprain his wrist.

"Kuroko!" Kagami had yelled, his voice laced with worry for his 'shadow'.

After that, the entire court's attention had been brought on to the usually unnoticeable boy. Everyone – the spectators, the players of Seirin and Rakuzan on and off the court, the rest of the Generation of Miracles and the few teammates they had brought with them and every team that had ever went against Seirin including Kirisaki Daichi, Seihou, Senshinka and Shinkyou – was silent.

Everyone froze and could only watch as Kagami made his way to Kuroko's side with the intention of making sure that the smaller boy was unharmed and to help him stand back up. But he never made it.

Kuroko had moved first. He dragged himself from the floor and stood up slowly without letting his eyes stray from Akashi's mismatched ones. Then – with the ball clutched in his injured hand – Kuroko spun. He whispered – but within the silent gym, it sounded like he had used a megaphone to amplify his voice – "Cyclone Pass," and released the ball.

Akashi's eyes had widened before he dodged the projectile. If Akashi's pass had moved at the speed of a shot cannon, Kuroko's had moved faster than a speeding bullet. This was made obvious by the crack on the wall where the ball – that had exploded on impact – had hit. At the time, all of the Seirin players and former Teiko regulars were suddenly very thankful to the teal haired boy for going easy on them if he had always been able to pass at such an impossible speed.

Kuroko – who hadn't uttered a single word since his confrontation with Akashi outside of the locker rooms – turned to Kagami and said, "No matter what it takes, I will do everything in my power to fulfill my promise to you."

Kagami smirked.

Everyone in the building had heard Kuroko's words. Aomine Daiki suddenly found himself wondering how he could have even thought of letting go of such a valuable partner. Oh well. What's done is done. It was his loss and he – grudgingly – accepted it.

With their confidence restored, the Seirin players had continued with the match (they had to get another ball, of course) and went against their opponents with full-force. The rest of the third quarter and the entirety of the fourth quarter went pretty much like the first. Kagami and Kuroko's teamwork was flawless. It seemed like no one could stop them. Even when Rakuzan did everything they could to separate the two, the rest of the Seirin players did everything they could to keep that from happening.

Then, when there were only eleven seconds left, the score was down to 109-110, Kagami was holding the ball. Three of Rakuzan's players – including Akashi – had surrounded him and Kuroko was on the other side of the court. But Kagami only smirked and threw the ball to Mitobe who threw it to Izuki who ran to the other side of the court and passed it to Kuroko.

A Rakuzan player had blocked Hyuga because he had thought that Kuroko would pass to the captain because he was closer to the goal.

But Kuroko did something unexpected. Instead of passing the ball to Hyuga, he made the shot himself. But the shot was too short and only barely touched the rim. Suddenly, Kagami – who had escaped from the three Rakuzan players while their attention was diverted – appeared out of nowhere and dunk the ball into the hoop much like he had done in his first match with Kuroko against the upper-classmen.

The buzzer went off barely a second after.

Akashi – who had been right on Kagami's tail since he ran to Kuroko – could only stand wide-eyed as the turn of events slowly sunk in.

Seirin had won.

After the traditional end-of-match greeting, all of the Generation of Miracles – including Akashi – approached Kuroko and Kagami and bowed to them in the middle of the court in front of everyone. When he stood back up Akashi had a small sincere smile on his face – although it disappeared as soon as it appeared, everyone had seen it.

"We won't lose next time," Akashi had said with a smirk before he followed his team to the locker room.

Only Kuroko understood what the smile had meant and of the significance of the word 'we' in Akashi's sentence.

For the first time in years, Akashi Seijuro had had fun playing basketball in a team.

And for the first time since forever, Kuroko Tetsuya's existence was not that of a 'shadow's but of a 'light' that's brightness could only be rivaled by the Sun's.

And for the first time in five years, Kuroko Tetsuya gave a full-blown smile – this greatly surprised its receivers (Seirin's basketball team) and nearly gave them heart-attacks.

It was only two hours later – after changing clothes, getting tackled and smothered by Momoi, receiving numerous pats on the back courtesy of his teammates and countless congratulation e-mails from almost everyone he had met since he joined Seirin and ending their celebratory dinner at Maji Burger – outside of the restaurant, did Kuroko inform the other's of his sprained – possibly broken – wrist when Kagami asked him why he had been holding his right hand weirdly for most of the evening.

The next morning Kuroko would grimace as he examined the large bruise on his back courtesy of simultaneous punches from the coach, Hyuga, Kagami and Kiyoshi (he hadn't played with them on orders from the coach because of his still healing knee) for not telling them of his wrist earlier.

Anyway, we're getting sidetracked here.

So, as I was saying, our story begins exactly two days after the Winter Cup Finals…

"Alright boys, keep it up!" Aida Riko yelled to the sweating and panting boys who were just starting on their third-final lap around the gym. Usually they would run outdoors in the streets of Tokyo, but luck was not on their side and a storm was raging. So, they had no choice but to do their running in the gym.

Nigou barked in encouragement from her side.

Riko spotted Kuroko running at the back of the group – unsurprisingly – and immediately called him out for it. "Kuroko-kun! You might have helped us win the Finals, but that doesn't mean you can go thinking that I'll go easy on you from now on!" Then, to the boy's horror, Riko smirked and announced, "In fact I think I'll double everyone's practice menu! Yeah! From now on, I'm gonna work you guys twice as hard, do you hear me?! Everyone! Ten more laps! Go, go, go!"

The members of Seirin's basketball team groaned in unison. The coach only blew her whistle in reply.

Kiyoshi – with his crutches at his side – only gave his friends and kouhai sympathetic smiles and promised them that he would remember to pour sake over their graves every year* for them.

"GO DIE!" was the only response he got courtesy of Hyuga Junpei.

When she saw everyone slow down at the eighth of the extra ten laps, Riko blew her whistle at them. "Oi! Don't slack off! I can see that postponing our training for two days was a mistake! Just look at how pathetic your stamina's gotten!"

"Oh give us a break, coach!" one of the freshmen, Furihata yelled.

"The Winter Cup Finals only ended yesterday!" Koganei yelled out his agreement. "We all played in that last match at one point! We're exhausted!"

"Actually," Kuroko corrected with his usual deadpan expression. "The Finals ended only two days ago."

"Seriously?!" Koganei yelled back at his Kouhai with comic tears streaming down his face. "Because my muscles are telling me something else!"

It was true. Their muscles were still sore from the game despite it having been two days since their match – and victory – against Rakuzan. They only barely managed to drag themselves from their beds and to the school that morning. You could only imagine the horror written on their faces when the coach told them that practices were back on during their lunch break on the roof – not that they were allowed to be on the roof in the first place, but what the teachers didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

Their Spartan training continued for another two hours before finally – finally – Riko allowed them to stop.

"Go hit the showers!" the coach yelled.

…

"It looks like the rain might stop soon," Riko had noted.

Nigou barked while Kiyoshi nodded to show his agreement.

The others had already taken their showers and had changed into their school's red, black and tracksuits. Now they were all gathered near the door of the gym waiting for the rain to finally stop – which, according to the coach, will be soon.

Kuroko was standing next to Kagami, fiddling with his light blue phone.

In the many months he had known the smaller boy, Kagami had learned how to read Kuroko's emotions even when his expression remain the same as it always had. You could almost say that he was better at interpreting Kuroko's emotions than the Generation of Miracles who had known Kuroko for a much longer time than he had.

And right now, Kagami could see that something was troubling and confusing the passing expert greatly.

"Hey, Kuroko," Kagami said to the boy. "What's wrong?"

Kuroko didn't show any type of reaction to his 'light's sudden question. He had learned long ago that Kagami was able to read him almost as well as Kuroko could read Kagami. "Nothing much," Kuroko answered. He lifted his phone to his ear and waited for the person he was calling to pick up before he added a quiet, "I hope."

Kagami and Mitobe – who had been standing close enough to hear their short conversation – wondered in their own minds at who Kuroko could possibly be calling at a time like this.

Unknown to them, it would be a long time before they would get their answer.

"TETSUYA-TEME**!" was heard echoing through the entire gym from Kuroko's phone. The sudden noise got the attention of everyone in the gym and the teens' now had their eyes locked onto the form of their smallest member – who, currently, had his phone at arm's-length way from his ear.

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO CALL YOU FOR THE PAST HOUR! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY VOICE MESSAGES AND E-MAILS I'VE LEFT YOU?! YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A GHOST! WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WERE DOING BEFORE HAD BETTER BE SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT FOR YOU NOT TO HAVE PICKED UP YOUR PHONE WHN I'M THE ONE CALLING YOU! AND YOU KNOW THAT I ONLY CALL WHEN SOMETHING BIG'S UP!"

There was a moment of silence.

Kuroko warily placed the phone back to his ear before he said in his usual monotone voice, "Are you done?"

"NO, I AM NOT 'DONE'!"

Kuroko gingerly covered his phone with his hand before he faced his stunned teammates and bowed to them apologetically. Then, as politely as always, "Please forgive me for making the sudden call. And I would like to excuse myself for I believe that this will take me a while. Excuse me."

Then, Kuroko walked to the other side other the court where his teammates could still hear the person's shouting but not so much that they could actually make out what was said.

"What was that about?" Riko asked with her and the boys still gaping after Kuroko's form.

"It sounded like a girl," one of the first-years, Kawahara stated.

"A really pissed off girl," Fukuda said.

"She called Kuroko 'teme'," Hyuga noted.

"The only one who's ever done that is Kagami," Tsuchida said.

Kagami meanwhile was observing his partner's reactions to the apparently serious conversation he was having with whoever-the-hell-it-was on the phone.

The person Kuroko was talking to – who was most probably a girl – had ceased her yelling and was now talking to Kuroko with a normal volume. Kagami observed how his partner's face changed from its usual expressionless state to one of unadulterated shock. He saw Kuroko's unoccupied hand clench itself into a fist as the teal haired boy talked through the phone with clenched teeth. Kagami began to seriously debate whether experiencing Kuroko's annoyance – and possible anger – was worth it if he could go over to his friend and end the conversation that was obviously painful for him to go through.

"What's up with Kuroko?" Koganei mumbled to no one in particular.

"That must seriously be one serious conversation," Izuki said without taking his eyes off of his kouhai.

Apparently Kagami wasn't the only one who noticed Kuroko's odd behavior.

A few seconds later, Kuroko snapped his phone shut having ended his conversation with the mystery girl. He just stood there, silent and unmoving.

Then, Kagami gasped when he saw tears fall from his partner's eyes.

Kuroko was crying.

The Kuroko Tetsuya who was known for his legendary deadpan and pretty-much-expressionless face was crying!

What the HELL?!

"Kuroko-kun…?" Riko calls out to her kouhai with worry.

Kuroko's back straightens suddenly, as if Riko's voice had snapped him out of some kind of trance.

He quickly wiped his tears away before he dug into his pockets looking for something. He ran to the rest of the Seirin team and handed the coach a silver blank card. "Something's come up with my family. I'm going away for a while. Please take care of Nigou for me while I'm gone."

"Wha…?" Kagami breaths out in confusion.

Then, before their very eyes, Kuroko disappears into the diminishing rain.

An entire week would pass before anyone saw the teal haired boy once more.

XxX

*It's a tradition Japanese people do when they visit people's graves… I think…?

**'Teme' is a rude way of saying 'you'. Some even believe that 'teme' means bastard.

A/N: Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to continue with R, R, R. I'll see you next time!