Pairing : Kiyoshi x Kuroko
Genre : Romance/Friendship/Drama/Angst
Warnings : AU (maybe slightly?), OOCness, BL
Rating : T
Here I go with the second idea from last year that had just finished. It's kinda depressed me of how rare fanart —and fanfic— of this pairing in romantic way is since I love them equally as I love AkaKuro.
I won't follow canon story fully (in the middle of thinking how), so this will be AU.
The image was taken from pixiv id=29741029.
Okay, hope you enjoy this story! :D
Prologue – It's Only Beginning
Kiyoshi's POV
It was spring.
What adolescents would think when it was the beginning of spring is school. Precisely, opening school ceremony.
Unluckily, I wasn't able to come there, though I really wanted to see how my friends had grown up —Riko, Hyuuga, Mitobe, Izuki, Koganei, and Tsuchida. Spending times at the hospital wasn't bad, since I could chat with some people who had a room near mine, but I really missed see, chatting, and playing basketball with them (and maybe to hear Izuki's lame puns).
Ah, it actually reminded me of that. Hyuuga and I had made a promise to make our school's basketball team the best in Japan this time after I discharged from hospital, so I had to be patient until the time came.
Because it was still morning, I didn't feel like want to do anything. Well, it wasn't like I could do anything much. Staring into blue, calm sky and a few petals from sakura trees in front of this room was enough.
Slowly, I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep.
I was sitting at the edge of the hospital bed, staring to my left leg when the agonizing pain was being registered to my head.
Hurts.
It hurts.
"It really hurts, doesn't it?" an unfamiliar voice suddenly whispered near my ear, knowing what I was thinking now.
I checked to the side, only to be greeted by a spacious blue sky outside behind this room's window as the voice stopped.
It was only my hallucination, I thought, turned back to my leg. The pain wasn't stop, then I was wondering when I could play with Seirin again. It would be nice to see their smile and laugh as we won the match like what I had seen few months ago.
And as I was recalling the past with the team, the same voice came. "Soon, you won't feel the pain again—."
I turned my head at the moment the voice came out, forgetting the pain for a second. No one was there.
Really, it must be me thinking too much that I started to hear strange things. I should go back to sleep, was what I told myself. So I put my legs over the bed and pulled the blanket over my body, ready to go back to slumber when the voice continued, "—since you won't be able to use your leg any longer."
No, it was only hallucination, I told myself. I tried to keep rational by remembered the doctor saying I could be healed through rehabilitation for one year —and operation for another two years— but something made me doubt. Raising my body halfway, my hand was unconsciously searching for my leg and holding it tightly —yet, I couldn't feel the pain that some minutes ago had been there. No, it was much worse. I couldn't feel anything. Even though I was pressing it hard on some spots, my left leg didn't even flinch.
It was numb.
"It's the truth," the voice told me, chuckling at all the fear —all the worst possibility— I had been thinking about becoming real. To be precise, it was laughing loudly at the terror showed clearly on my face. "You can't feel anything there, can you?"
Then, another voice came with the sudden laughing sound on the background, "You won't be able to defend anything." Deep, harsh, and the first to have created the feeling of despair inside my mind at the past; it was his voice.
Yeah, it successfully brought back that feeling of despair.
But, it broke me and my world —basketball, friends, hopes for the future— deeply more when his voice emphasized it, "Never."
And—
BANG!
Loud sound from the door being forcefully opened succeed on throwing me back to reality. My eyes opened widely, blinked few times before relieved that it had been just a dream.
It had been a long time since I last had had that horrible dream.
Outside, the peach colored sakura trees and petals were being brushed by some tinges of yellow and orange of the sunset. It had already afternoon.
"Hey, Teppei! How do you do?" a high-pitched yell was suddenly bursting into the room. "I bring some good news from our basketball club!"
Looking to the other side, I found a short haired brunette walking to me, showing a weird cheerful face of a girl wearing Seirin, which was also my school, uniforms.
"Riko," I said her name, half waking up from the bed and quickly hid the discomfort feeling from the dream before with my normal expression and cheery tone. "I'm fine. What good news do you bring?"
"I see," Riko commented nonchalantly as she transferred the flowers she bought to the vase over the small table. Then she sat on the chair and pulling down her bag. "It's about the result of the recruiting."
Oh, right. Today was also the day of recruitment of every club for Seirin High School. "Seriously?"
"Stop that lame reaction of yours, can't you?" she responded, annoyed look was piling on her brown eyes —well, I did know how I looked right now, but it had become my habit. Besides, it was fun. "And, yes, today is the day of recruiting members."
"How was it?" I asked, rather interested on the topic.
"I got it!" she screamed all of a sudden, abnormally happy. "I. GOT. IT!"
The room immediately fell in silence.
"You got Izuki published his joke books?"
"No! It's Kagami Taiga!" Seeing me cocked an eyebrow at the unfamiliar name, she immediately calmed herself and added, "I mean, I got a raw talent on our basketball team! His name is Kagami Taiga and he was from the country of basketball itself, America! You couldn't believe what I was seeing when I was inspecting every member's body—"
I chuckled. There she went with her unique ability again. Her dad was a sport trainer, so it was usual for her to look at muscles and data, unknowingly trained her eyes so she could see all the abilities and stats of one's body completely right. She was one scary girl for that and some other aspects, as I have seen this far.
She continued telling about how the Seirin's basketball club had gone on, though it mainly focused on the mentioned strong guy before. He was a redhead, tall and scary, kinda hot headed. Oh, and I couldn't help but laugh loudly when Riko told me that she had been drooling when she saw him —his body's stats, I meant.
But, strangely, what caught my attention more was the weakest boy that had startled her on their first meeting. It was because he had been on Teikou Middle School's regular basketball team. Automatically, that meant he was one of the Generation of Miracles.
It meant he was —had been— a part of that guy's team.
Being crushed.
Everything was useless, hopeless.
A dark, tall shadow hovering above the kneeling me, destroyed every pieces of my team, my basketball —myself.
"You've defended nothing."
"Teppei?"
Riko's voice snapped me out from another bad memory of my junior high basketball time. Concerned look clearly shown on her face. She might know —no, she absolutely knew— about the suffering every basketball team had gone through when they had clashed with the Generation of Miracles. After all, it had been her childhood friend who once had given up from basketball.
"Are you not feeling fine?"
I smiled. "No, I'm fine."
To be honest, I wasn't really fine. Because those memories would always keep repeating over and over, haunted me, reminded me to work harder but prohibited to, since I was still in the middle of the treatment of my leg.
"By the way, what's his name again? The one you mentioned from Teikou," I tried to divert the topic back.
"Kuroko Tetsuya. But, it wasn't that important," she sighed as she stood and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I will visit you again tomorrow. Rest well and…" She stopped.
"Hm?" I raised my eyebrows.
"And… if you have something troubling you, I and others will always there for you."
She absolutely knew I had kept everything on myself all this time. We have been close friends for a year, anyway. Not that I didn't think of them as precious friends; it was quite the opposite that made me didn't want to trouble them.
It was enough to save the trouble for myself.
"What are you saying?" I threw a small laugh. "If there's one thing troubling me, it's only the fact that I'm itching to play basketball with you guys and the newbies."
She was staring at me before she left.
"Fine then. See you tomorrow."
And she disappeared behind the closing door.
The next day, Riko was hardly slamming the door again. She would be blacklisted by the hospital soon if she always entered this way, seeing how the pitiful door was slowly being broken.
However, different from yesterday, she was seemed complicated. With an absolutely weird smile on top of that —which actually was quite amusing.
"What happened?"
Mostly for preventing herself from going crazy, Riko inhaled deeply few times as walking towards my bed, and sat. "He is the phantom sixth man."
My brain was processing her words and failed, let out a reflexive "Eh?"
"Kuroko Tetsuya." Again, my brain was working slowly, and Riko realized this as she saw my face and sighed. "The freshmen from Teikou."
At the mentioned name of the school that had been a winner of every middle school's basketball match in three straight years, a popping sound could be heard inside my head. "Oh. That explains why I felt like I had heard the name somewhere before…"
I wondered if I had met him at the match against Teikou before, since I had no recollection of meeting such player at all. All I could remember was some unclear memories when the ball had been stolen repeatedly, had been passed to other players—
"I just told you yesterday."
"Haha," I laughed. "Sorry, but I forgot."
Riko rolled her eyes. "Whatever." As soon as she said that, her face brightened up, hazel eyes sparkled, as she shoved off with a cheerful tone, "But, really, I didn't expect our basketball team to get one of the Generation of Miracles —and the rumored phantom player at that!"
"Then?"
"It will be interesting, don't you think?" she asked to me with a wide grin, her chin rested above her hands.
It was like she was expecting some reactions from me, so I raised a brow.
"We will unavoidably face the members of Generation of Miracles this year!" she yelled. "Isn't this news thrilling you up?"
"Ah." My hands unconsciously tightened the grips on the blanket as some images flashing inside my mind. Crushing, defeat —him. "I see."
Oblivious to what I was thinking, Riko crossed her arms and threw a pair of sharp glares. "What's with the lack of response?"
"Is that so?" I asked then moved my hand to take the bottle above the small table beside the bed. "But seeing your expression, I can guess that you already have something on your mind—"Opening the lid and placing it before my mouth, I continued, "—concerning the Generation of Miracles." Then, I took a gulp of water inside the bottle.
Smirking, she admitted with a playful tone, "Of course it is~ It will be a waste if I don't train them from now, right~?"
"Yeah," I answered, playing the bottle on my hands. "There's another one you said before… who was it?" I tried to remember. "Kagami Taiga?"
She nodded.
"Kagami and Kuroko… such amazing guys joined us."
"What are you saying?" Riko stood up, hands on her hips, looking down to me. "You're one of us too!"
Our eyes met as I looked up. "Of course. I'll participate in offense too when the time comes. But…"
Shifting my vision to the bottle, I continued and explained what I expected would be happen in the future. "And if I back—"
"I understand what you're worried for," Riko cut in. "But, don't distress yourself with thinking too much. Believe me, those guys are tougher than they might seem. However, if something does happen, I'll always be there to knock some sense to them," she continued confidently, hands were still propping her face. "Well, how about you tell me some stories when you're in this hospital for exchange?"
She was obviously trying to divert the topic here. I didn't mind, though. "No problem."
So, l told her about the patients, what I had done and chatted with them. Half of times, Riko knocked my head and screamed to stop because I only shared ghost stories. By the time we finished and staring at the window, the rain had stopped, the sky had a shade of orange and the sun was setting at the distant.
After checked to her watch, Riko said, "It's already afternoon. Time for me to go home."
Indeed, when I glanced at the clock on the wall, it was already half past five.
"Okay," I replied. "Thanks for the visit and the flowers."
"You're welcome." She picked up her bag lying beside the chair then checked her things inside. "Also, I won't be coming over for a few months, since I'll be busy training the team and stuffs," Riko informed and stood up. "Maybe till the time you get out from the hospital. Be sure to take care of yourself properly."
"I will. Just wait for me until the time comes."
After then, she said goodbye and walked out of the room. Silence made its way to my room as I left dazing off to the closed door then to my legs. Slowly, I bent my left leg.
"Until the time comes, huh?" My mouth suddenly repeated the words as I moved closer to press some spots on my leg. I flinched at the feeling of slight pain. "I wonder how much time is left for me after that…"
It had already months —I didn't count how many— from the last time I saw Riko.
I was playing Hanafuda* with Yoshizawa-san, an old man who was my roommate since two weeks ago, when I heard something vibrating at the small table we used.
It was my phone. I flipped it and saw a new message.
Speak of the devil, I thought, as I saw her name as the sender. Then, I clicked a button and the screen showed a short message.
Time: 15:21
From: Aida Riko
Title: Sorry
We lost.
They didn't make it into Inter-High, again. I didn't know why, but I would be sure to ask about it later.
Here was still summer, right? After fall, it would be winter. Winter meant the time for the big, last basketball tournament of the year.
That being said, it was the new start.
I immediately typed and sent the reply before placed it back over the table, back at the game.
Taking a matsu* card from the stock, Yoshizawa-san commented, "You look sad." When I looked to him, the wrinkles around his eyes faded a little, showing a concern.
"Ah, is that so?" I rubbed my head and took the hagi* card, one with a picture of a red ribbon. "Well, my friends lost at a match."
"Must be bad for them," Yoshizawa-san replied, his voice was hoarse. "And for you."
"Yeah."
Silence filled the room again when both of us continued playing, took a card from the table or the stock at each turn.
Few seconds after staring blankly at the faced-up cards on the table, I unconsciously mumbled, "I think it almost time."
Yoshizawa-san, who was currently thinking at his turn, raised his eyebrows confusedly. "What did you say?"
I grinned. "Nothing, Yoshizawa-san. I just talked to myself."
Third person's POV
Riko looked at the vibrating black-colored phone on her right hand, five minutes after she had sent the news about her team's loss to a certain hospitalized brunette. There was '1 New Message ' written at the screen of her phone. The short-haired girl pressed a button, immediately showing a list of many messages.
Only one message was written with the bold fonts, showed at the very top.
From: Kiyoshi Teppei
Title: But…
She clicked the message. After read it, Riko smiled and put her phone back on her pocket, lift up her face and continued walking.
This isn't the end.
Right?
Yeah, she told herself inwardly as she was walking behind the Seirin team, stared at their back. There's still a chance.
One last chance with him.
Note:
* Hanafuda : It's mentioned in the manga (vol. 7) that Kiyoshi was playing this game, with an old guy sharing the same room with him at the hospital. It's something like playing cards; has 12 suits (representing months) and each suit has 4 cards, with each of cards is designated a flower. Like every card's game, this has many ways of playing. For more information, please visit Wikipedia.
* Matsu: one of the twelve suits. It means pine, so the card has the picture of pine flower in it.
* Hagi: another of twelve suits. It means bush clover.
Well.
I'll stop here before I lost the control of my fingers.
Moreover, although I kinda like the boy's POV, I have a really hard time to write one. Especially with Kiyoshi's POV, with all his unique and odd (I think) personalities. Hell, it took MONTHS just for ONE chapter.
So, yeah, sorry —for making another ongoing story again.
Sorry that Kuroko isn't here yet. He will appear at the next chapter (though, at first, I wanted this prologue to be ended until their first meeting).
Any reviews are always appreciated~ XD