Himuro's Secret
Murasakibara Atsushi didn't exactly care about what other people did, if they didn't bother him then they could do whatever they liked. If they let him eat all the sweets he wanted and skip practice when he was bored, he could at least return the favour.
Himuro Tatsuya was an exception.
Murasakibara, in his sixteen year old life, never met someone as annoying as Himuro. He was small and short (well, for Atsushi), pale, soft black hair (that he actually liked to ruffle), perfect skin and his only visible black eye that looked always sad when he played with the plastic ring around his neck. But what pissed Murasakibara more than anything was his love for basketball. Himuro always dragged Atsushi to practice and forbid him to eat junkie foods before matches, and he always had that bright smile on his face. So annoying.
And so, because Himuro became his babysitter and was always with him, Murasakibara became to note something strange about his friend (was Tatsuya his friend...? He truthfully didn't know): Himuro came to practice with the jersey already on and he never used the changing room, not even for a shower and sometimes Atsushi saw some bandages around his chest when the black haired boy played against him. But Murasakibara thought that maybe Tatsuya was just shy and the bandages where for protection or something like that. After all he didn't want to think too much about an annoying team-mate like him, he already pestered Murasakibara enough for his liking.
So when one day, Masako asked him to bring some data to Himuro because the latter skipped practice (a rare event!) for illness, he just grumbled a bit under his breath but in the end he took the papers.
Atsushi knocked at Tatsuya's door, however nobody answered. Murasakibara was starting to be a little annoyed for waiting so he tried to open the door turning the handle. The strange thing was that it was actually open.
"Oh? Maybe Muro-chin forgot to lock it?" he thought aloud entering in the room and paused for a moment. It was all so perfect. All Himuro's things were perfect disposed on the mobiles, and the floor was so clean that he nearly could see his reflection. It wasn't so surprising, Tatsuya always did everything with precision, even if he was bad in writing Japanese (and Murasakibara didn't ever failed to let him notice, much to Tatsuya's annoyance).
But Atsushi was distracted by the sound of the shower behind a small door on the right side of the room. It seemed like Himuro was doing a shower, so he closed the door behind him and began to walk in the direction of the bathroom.
However he didn't even manage to touch the handle that in the same time the door opened. What he saw left him speechless and he left fall all the papers that Masako gave him.
It was Tatsuya, but in the same time he wasn't. Because... Himuro didn't have breasts under that now he could see under the little white towel that the black haired boy (?) was wearing..
"M-Muro-chin...?" Atsushi managed to ask looking at his friend up and down. He couldn't even think about something else to say. And Himuro wasn't any better: he, or better she, was gaping like a fish and was unable to move.
Finally some sense kicked in her head and she blinked. One, two times, before she recollected her poker face (even if there was a bit red on her cheeks).
"Atsushi... could you please turn around?" she asked pushing him a bit with a hand against his chest while the other was trying to hold the little towel that was covering the minimum of her body.
Murasakibara didn't know what else to do so he just did what he was told, and he turned around mechanically like he was a robot.
He heard Himuro searching in the mobile at his right but he didn't dare to look at that way. His mind was blank and he didn't even know what to think.
He stayed in the same spot until he heard the click of the door behind him and his thoughts began to gather again. Murasakibara knew that what he saw could only be two things: he had the biggest fever of all the time or Himuro was a girl. He hoped for the fever.
Atsushi dragged his body until he reached Tatsuya's bed and sat down looking lost. He didn't even bother gathering the papers that fell earlier.
Murasakibara didn't know how much time passed since then, but he looked up only when he heard someone sat beside him.
Even if her poker face was trying to cover it, Himuro was blushing and her hands were shaking. Atsushi hoped for the fever one last time but the bulge on Tatsuya's t-shirt proved him wrong. Himuro Tatsuya was a girl.
Both stayed silent because neither of them knew what to say and how to say it.
"A-Atsushi... say something" the tone of the black haired girl was firm and Murasakibara would have thought that she had calmed down if she her voice didn't tremble at the beginning.
"Muro-chin... you are a girl?" the purple giant wanted to make a statement but his voice was uncertain and he turned to look at Himuro. She seemed so fragile and small in her big shirt and her shorts that covered only half thigh. And it really didn't helped how Tastuya blushed and seemed to contempt to throw herself out of the window.
Unable to find the words Himuro nodded looking anywhere but Murasakibara. She was so embarrassed! She came in Japan to find Taiga an settle the things with him, but she didn't mean to anyone to find out her secret! And it was Atsushi, of all people, that found it out! Oh, all the troubles that Alex went to falsify her documents! It was all for nothing!
She was deep in her thoughts that she nearly didn't catch what Murasakibara was saying.
"Why are you dressed as a boy then?" he sounded curious and didn't seem like he was pissed. That was a good start.
Himuro looked at him and took a deep breath. Maybe, if she told all to Atsushi he could keep the secret. At least that was what she hoped.
"I always looked like a boy, since I was little, I always cut my hair short and dressed like a boy, so the people around me always thought that I was male..." she started looking distant, like she was remembering something. "I didn't do anything to correct them, and I was happy, then I met a Japanese boy like me" Tatsuya grabbed the ring around her neck and Murasakibara looked at it as well. He always wanted to know what that ring meant to Himuro (not that he would say that aloud). "Him and I went to an ex WNBA player to teach us basketball... those are good memories... that boy is like a brother to me and this is the symbol that unit our relationship" Himuro pointed at the ring in her hand, but then her eye took a sad tone. "Then I began to understand that that boy, my brother, had a natural talent unlike me and I was angry... so I decided to challenge him to see if I was able to surpass his natural talent but he lost willingly... I was so angry and I wanted to challenge him one more time but he flew to Japan... so I decided to follow him and I hope that I'll find him in the Winter Cup... I want to settle things with him no, I want to beat him" Tastuya grasped the ring so tightly that Murasakibara thought that she would break it.
"Uhm... I didn't ask all of that, and you didn't even respond to my question..." he said with a bored voice shifting on the bed until he was laying with all his body on the soft mattress.
Himuro blushed hard at that statement and looked at her lap. It was true, she began to tell her story to Atsushi but he just wanted to know why she was dressing up like a boy. She felt very stupid in that moment.
"Well... Taiga will surely enter in the basketball club and since I have to be a male for going against him... I falsified my documents for entering in Yosen High..." Himuro whispered trying to not sound stupid.
"That was stupid" it seemed that she didn't manage to do it.
After another moment of silence, Tatsuya looked at Atsushi with a serious expression and he replied with a bored glance.
"Atsushi... will you tell someone that I'm a girl?" she asked cautiously trying to maintain a normal voice, even if she was mentally freak out.
Murasakibara looked puzzled. Will he? Muro-chin was annoying, always dragging him to practice and forbid him to eat all the sweets he wanted, if he told to Masako that one of her aces was a girl she would kick her out of the team. Yet... he didn't want to lose Himuro. She was annoying but gentle too, and when they went out in their off days, she always bought him sweets and gave him that beautiful smile that only he could see.
Atsushi huffed. He was getting tired to think at all of that.
"Uhm... if Muro-chin buys me more sweets I won't tell anyone." The face that she made was worth that sentence: her eye lighted up and she smiled so brightly that he thought that he would become blind. Then she crawled at the top of his body, her arms encircled his neck and she hugged him so tightly that his breath was cut off.
"Thank you Atsushi! I'll buy you as many sweets as you want!" Himuro said happily hiding her face in the crock of his neck.
For some reasons he felt a blush crept on his face and he was glad that Tatsuya couldn't see him. However that hug was becoming uncomfortable because the balck haired girl was squeezing with all her strenght,
"Muro-chin, you're killing me!" he putted, so she let him go and decided to laid at his side leaning her head on his shoulder with that happy smile still on her face.
"By the way, why did you skip practice today, Muro-chin?" after that question Atsushi felt her body going rigid and she looked away. She seemed more embarrassed than ever and wouldn't dare to look at him.
"That was because... I have my period..." Himuro muttered red as a tomato.
After that Murasakibara didn't ask her anything else and the two stayed on the small bed in an awkward silence.
Atsushi didn't remember how he came back to his room or why his heart beat so fast in his chest and his face was so red. He even felt a hole in the stomach... but maybe it was because he was hungry. Yeah, it was definitely for that reason.
However that night, Murasakibara didn't know why he continued to think at how well Muro-chin's body felt good against his. Maybe he'd ask Aka-chin later.
And so weeks passed, the purple haired teen tried his best to act normal with Himuro, but he began to treat her more gently and listened to her more than he did before, Tatsuya on the other hand started to buy to Murasakibara more sweets and began to stick with him every time she could. It seemed that that truth drew the two of them closer than ever.
One day, Masako asked them to go and watch a game of Rakuzan, but she asked to Himuro to disguise herself because the coach didn't want to attract attention on Tatsuya because, like she said, "I want to surprise the other teams with two aces, but the most expert player will know that you're good so try to not begin notice!", and with "expert player" she intended Akashi Seijuro, the former captain of the Generation of Miracles. Murasakibara didn't seemed thrilled to go, but since it was coach who asked them he grumbled something under his breath and nodded.
"Muro-chin, what are going to wear?" Atsushi yawned and continued to eat his snacks, while Himuro was messing her wardrobe in search of something that could disguise her.
"I don't know... but I'm sure Alex gave me something useful..." she replied looking for a bit at a shirt then she tossed it in the growing pile on her floor.
Then a black bag caught her attention and she flopped it open.
"AH!" Tatsuya exclaimed looking at what was in there. She couldn't denied that Alex was genius!
"Hm? What is it, Muro-chin?" Murasakibara asked, stretching his neck trying to look inside the bag, but Himuro quickly closed it and gave a knowingly smile at the purple haired teen.
"You'll see, just wait a bit here Atsushi, I'll try to be fast!" she said to him and flew in the bathroom closing it like a flash.
"Hm? Muro-chin is acting strange" Murasakibara mumbled munching his snacks.
After half an hour (and for her that was fast?!) and ten bags of sweets that the purple haired giant ate, finally Himuro went out of the bathroom.
Murasakibara nearly let his sweets fell on the floor for the shock.
Tatsuya was wearing a blue dress that covered half thigh with long sleeves for covering her muscles, with black leggings and blue shoes. She had a black wig on her head that was long until at half of her back and she even put on a light make up.
"So, do you like it?" Himuro asked holding a black bag and smiling a bit to Murasakibara.
Atsushi was gaping like a fish and he didn't even try to cover it. Himuro looked so good in that dress! He started to eat again but more slowly and still looking to Tatsuya.
"Muro-chin looks so sweet!" the purple giant said in the end after finishing another bag of snack.
"Thank you Atsushi" Tatsuya's smile winded and Murasakibara swore that he saw her cheeks coloured a bit.
"Shall we go?" she asked after a minute in which she looked everywhere except her friend.
Murasakibara nodded and stood up with a new bag of snack in his hand. Himuro came closer to him and put a hand on his muscle arm. Atsushi looked questioningly at her titling his head.
"I think we should pretend to be a couple, you already stand out for just begin two meters tall, I think we'll be less suspicious if we say that we're together" she explained to him and he could just nod. Murasakibara felt a strange feeling in his chest but he brushed it off, maybe he was sick, he should go to a doctor when he actually had the will to move from his bed.
Obviously the plan failed because she didn't take in account that she was very tall for a girl and so they stood out more than ever. "The giant couple" that was how some people began to call them when they sat down in the stadium.
But Himuro soon forgot about the whispers because she was captivated by the game. If she remembered well, in the Rakuzan were three of the so called "Uncrowned Kings" and she had to admit that they were good. However...
"Akashi-kun isn't playing" Tatsuya noted patting Murasakibara's arm trying to have his attention.
"Mh? Oh, yeah..." Atushi seemed that that detail wasn't important for him. He looked bored and wanted to go out of the stadium as soon as he could. Sadly the game was still at the first quarter and Murasakibara had to suffer for another three.
It ended as a slaughter for the other team: 127-11. It was pitiful to watch since that at the beginning of the third quarter the other team lost all the fighting will, and Akashi didn't even play. Rakuzan was indeed strong.
Himuro began to stood up and Murasakibara did the same but he was looking annoyed at his phone.
"What's wrong, Atsushi?" Tatsuya asked picking her bag.
"Aka-chin wants to meet..." the purple giant seemed that he had a hundred of better things to do than to meet his former captain, but he knew better than to disobey Akashi.
Himuro nodded and followed him outside where all the players where gathering from other games in the near stadiums.
Tatsuya went near Murasakibara instinctively and he looked a moment to her, then he circled her shoulders with an arm. Himuro was surprised for the action but she sighed happily and began to walk with more confidence. She felt really protected.
They arrived at a spot with less people and Himuro didn't even had the time to look at her surroundings that she felt a shiver ran down her spine.
She turned her head around and saw crimson hair and two eyes of different colour: one gold and the other red. He was at least ten centimetres shorter than her, but he had a strong aura of authority that she couldn't ignore.
So this was Akashi Seijuro, the former captain of the Generation of Miracles.
"Aka-chin!" Murasakibara had a bored expression on his face but he seemed to respect greatly that boy with crimson hair so Himuro pursued her lips and didn't sat anything.
"Atsushi" Akashi was pleased to see his former team mate however he furred his eyebrows when he noted Himuro at his side with Murasakibara's arm around her shoulders.
"And who is this lady?" he asked, even if he looked rather annoyed for the intrusion, but since he grew up like a gentleman he couldn't be rude to a girl.
"This is Muro-chin, she's very sweet!" Murasakibara told Seijuro happily with a big smile on his face, pressing Himuro on the back to nudging her to take a step ahead to let Akashi see her well.
Tatsuya felt another shiver ran down her spine: it seemed like that eyes were looking in her soul. She was scarred but in the same time she admired how someone could have such a menacing aura.
"It's a pleasure to meet one of Atsushi's friends, I hope he's not bother you, I'm Akashi Seijuro, one of his former team mates" Seijuro smiled coldly to Himuro and lift a hand to her to shake.
"Oh no, don't worry, Atsushi is not bother, I'm Muroki Tatsumi, it's a pleasure to meet you too" Tatsuya replied shaking the hand in front of her while receiving a questioningly glance from Murasakibara, who was asking himself why Muro-chin wasn't saying her real name. But then he remembered how the coach asked to Himuro to hide her identity: Aka-chin could find out that she was indeed a player, so he gave him a false name. Muro-chin was so intelligent!
The air seemed to grow cold and Akashi narrowed his eyes a bit before letting go of her hand. However, Atsushi noted the strange aura and quickly acted. "So, Aka-chin, what did you contact me?" he asked shielding Himuro from Seijuro's eyes with his whole body. For some reasons he felt like he needed to protect her.
"I just want to meet you after a long time. It there something wrong with this, Atsushi?" Akashi chuckled, but his eyes were still cold as ice and Himuto was glad that Murasakibara was covering her from his sight. She didn't like this situation.
At the end, the former captain of the Generation of Miracles said some cryptic words to Atsushi and left without give her a goodbye. Well, she didn't complain, she didn't want to remain froze by that cold gaze ever again.
"Your former captain is... something, uh?" Himuro asked once they returned at the dormitory and she could finally wash that damn make up from her face.
"Aka-chin is always like that" Murasakibara responded munching some candy that were in Tatsuya's room. However it appear that he didn't want to talk about Seijuro, so Himuro dropped it.
"It's late... you should go to your room, if you don't want to get scolded again" the black haired girl smirked, remembering the time when the teacher's voice was heard in the whole dormitory because he caught Murasakibara walking in the corridors after the curfew.
Atsushi didn't seem to recall that accident, but he nodded and stood up from the bed and walked at the door.
Before he could close it completely he heard Himuro's voice.
"I want to thank you for today... you protected me" she whispered, slamming the door at once for the embarrassment.
Both teens heard their hearts slamming in their chest like they were going to explode. However only one of them understood what was happened. And she felt a blush covering her cheeks.
In the next weeks neither of them mentioned anything to the other because of embarrassment and confusion, but also because the practice got harder than before and they had a game nearly every day.
Murasakibara grumbled more than ever, and Himuro didn't feel like saying something to him. She was too absorbed in basketball to babysit her giant friend.
Then one day they had to go at Tokyo for a game. Tatsuya didn't expect much from that trip. Yes, they won and Masako gave them a day off before returning to Akita, so Himuro and Murasakibara decided to go around the city (oh most likely, Tatsuya dragged Atsushi with her).
However, for some reason, the black haired girl managed to lose her giant friend. It seemed impossible since he was two meters tall, but when she looked around she couldn't find even a trace of the purple haired teen. He seemed like he disappeared in thin air.
For some luck, or maybe misfortune, she spotted a street basket tournament in a court nearby so she decided to give it a try. It could be fun and she didn't have anything better to do anyway (except find a certain purple haired giant).
After she found a team without a player, she began to play with them and actually enjoyed herself, forgetting about all the troubles and had a little bit of peace.
It was then that she saw him.
Fierce red hair, wild red eyes and split eyebrows. He was surrounded by other guys (probably his team) and he smiled like he was going to chase a prey. In that moment he spotted her. His eyes grew so wide that they could fall on the ground and he was gaping like a fish. She felt the urge to laugh but in the end she gave him a small smile and she greeted him in English.
"It's been a while, Taiga" ah, it was so long since she didn't talk to him. It seemed a hundred of years ago when she punched him and he got off to Japan. And now there they were, face to face in a basketball court. It seemed like fate wanted them to let them start again from where they left.
However, once the ball was in air, a candy was placed on the tip of it stopping the game. Even before she turned around she already knew who was there.
Murasakibara was munching some snacks and was right besides a short guy with light blue hair, and it seemed like the two of them knew each other. Maybe an old friend from school...? She didn't know, but Taiga seemed fired up and challenged Atsushi. It was a pity that the purple haired giant was so lazy and the only thing that seemed to interest him were Kagami's split eyebrows (much to the other boy's annoyance).
"Muro-chin, you can't participate at any contest outside of the ones of school" Himuro's pursued her lips at Murasakibara's scowl. He was right but she wanted to challenge Taiga!
Her brother seemed to think exactly like her and, with a bit of provocation, managed to make Atsushi participated in the match (it still surprised her how simple it was to change her friend's mind).
But fate was cruel and an heavy rain stopped the game before it could even begin. However Himuro managed to challenge Taiga but she was left disappointed. He still thought at her as a "brother" (since he didn't know that she was a girl) so he didn't give his all.
She wanted to cry and punch something but her poker face covered it up while she walker away...
Murasakibara nudged her side and she send him a small smile then the two of them began to walk to the station.
The rain hit the ground hard so they had to hurry their steps (even if Atsushi wasn't in the mood for a run) and they managed to arrive at the station without be too much soaked.
"Ah, it seems that the train won't be here before twenty minutes" Himuro noted and sat down in one of the chairs there and the purple hair giant followed her.
Tatsuya looked at her friend: he seemed odd, like something was troubling him, but she didn't understand what.
"Atsushi... are you alright?" she asked, after some minutes of awkward silence.
"I don't like him" he responded sulking and she found that action adorable (not that she would ever say that aloud).
"... You mean Taiga?" Murasakibara nodded and ate a vanilla candy without responding further.
When she thought that the conversation ended there, the purple giant managed to surprise her once again. "I don't like how close he is to you and how he treats you... I want to crush him... but I don't know why... hey, Muro-chin, can you help me? I don't understand why I want to crush all the people that come closer to you..." he mumbled looking at her with his expecting purple eyes.
Ah, damn... how could he say such things with that face?
Himuro flushed and Murasakibara blinked. "Why Muro-chin is getting redder?" he asked like a curious child titling his head and coming closer.
The hell everything, she thought and kissed Atsushi on the lips. It was a chaste kiss, but both of them felt the fireworks in their chest and new emotion began to spread in their hearts.
Tatsuya moved away after some seconds and looked at Murasakibara who had his head down.
I messed up, she groaned in her mind and tried to see the look on Atsushi's face.
Her heart stopped for a second: he was so red that even the tips of his ears were flushed.
"Muro-chin tastes sweet" he mumbled and grasped her hand. "This means that Muro-chin is mine, right?" he asked looking at her with determinate yet gentle eyes.
Himuro couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped from her lips.
"Yeah, and you're mine too".
Maybe fate wasn't so cruel after all.
Author's notes: my first One-Shot on Kuroko's Basket! It's also the first time that I write so much, I'm sorry for the mistakes! If you want to make me happy, send me a review :3
