Have you ever had a feeling that there was something important that you forgot, and you just needed to remember, no matter what? Whether it was to take out the dog for a walk, or to prepare dinner for guests, or that today was someone's birthday, you just sat and waited for your memory to jog up and think of what you had missed, right?
Most people eventually remember. But I sure don't.
"Hikaru? Hikaru!" Darkness. That's the only thing I remember. Pure black. Surrounding me. Suffocating me.
"Hikaru!"
"Wake up!" Suddenly, the suffocating feeling is gone, and before I can react, I'm pushed off my bed and on the cold, hard floor. Well that sure was one wake up call.
"I'm awake, I'm awake!" Angrily, I rub the top part of my head and get up, only to be met with my older brother's scowl.
"Oh… uh… hi Akihiko." I know not to mess with my brother, especially when he's as angry as he is now. So instead, I opt to scurry outside and steal some of the pancakes that my dad's probably made. Not by hand of course. If he made it by hand, I definitely would make sure that Akihiko ate it all.
Akihiko trails behind me, unamused, I can tell, but to me, the fact that he even tried to wake me up before doing what he had done was amusing in itself. He knew better than anyone else that I never woke up early. For me, sleeping was like being passed out. Waking me up was like trying to get a rock to move on its own.
Dad says nothing to either of us. He was just like that. Shove food in our mouths, get us to school, then go to work. It was just how it worked around our house.
So I gladly take my place at the table and spear the pancakes on my plate before shoving them in my mouth. Akihiko looks at me with disdain, though his eyes do twinkle. He's amused. So I make a show out of eating by drowning my pancakes in syrup and tossing them up into the air so that the syrup is displaced when my pancakes land back in the middle of the huge puddle that I've created.
He's close to laughter when, accidentally, the splatter that the syrup creates is too big and it all ends up in my lap.
But by then, Dad is shooing us both from the table and ordering me to go change my pants, pinching the bridge of his nose as he does so in absolute disgust when he sees the state my pants are in.
They're sticky and wet, and the pancake is still stuck to the black slacks when I stand up to get to my room. And with a splat, the hotcake falls onto the tiled floor of the kitchen.
Dad is plenty upset, but he knows that I'll be late to school if I wait any longer. So he simply tells me again to change my pants and leave as soon as possible. I don't want to be late, so I follow his instructions and change into a too-big pair of slacks that Akihiko wore last year. I still haven't grown into them yet, but I suppose that the other pants that actually fit me are still in the laundry, so I have to deal with having a belt around my waist.
By the time I'm done changing, Akihiko is already finished eating and he's waiting for me in front of the T.V. The two of us exit the house and say our farewells at the door before leaving in a hurry.
Teiko Middle School is only a few blocks from here, and despite my little "pancake incident", we'll make it to school earlier than most of the other kids. So Akihiko and I walk to the school leisurely. Well, as leisurely as you can get when you've got a brother rummaging through his bag and walking slower than a slug.
But finally, he finds whatever he's looking for and hands it to me.
It's a little keychain of a frog. At least, I think it's a frog. It looks more like some sort of green critter hung on some sort of twine.
He shrugs. "It's the best I could find. Ken gave it to me a while ago." Ken is our six year old cousin.
"This is such a stupid lucky item," I mumble, shoving it in my hip pocket and continuing to walk. Akihiko has a frown on his face from my choice of words, but says nothing.
"Lucky items are never stupid. Trust me, today is the worst day to have bad luck. Better safe than sorry."
We continue to walk in silence, at least, until I see a sight that makes me giggle upon seeing it. Immediately, I tap Akihiko's shoulder, and he looks at me in confusion.
"Hey, look over there. Some dog is walking a human." It's true. The large dog, presumably a husky, is literally dragging a frail, sickly looking child outside from an apartment lobby. Akihiko doesn't say anything before he lightly taps the back of my head with his hand.
"It's rude to point Hikaru. Don't do it." He does, however, turn his head to watch the sight, and chuckles in amusement.
"Hey, now that I think about it, they're wearing the same uniform as us! Maybe they go to this school too?" Akihiko shrugs, cupping both my ears with his hands and moving my head to face forward, on our original road instead of at the boy struggling to restrain his dog.
"Let's go. We're going to be late." A pout finds its way onto my face, and I shoot a reluctant glance at the boy, who seems to be watching his watch and tugging at the dog's leash, before getting back onto the road and shrugging my shoulders.
It takes about a minute before I hear a startled screech, and as I whip my head around, in the direction that it came from, I'm suddenly pushed forward by an unknown mass as my face is pushed against the concrete sidewalk.
Whatever the thing is, it's obviously not human, because there is now slobber all over my blonde hair, and it doesn't make me all too happy.
The dog, as I have identified it, is none too happy to lick all over my face, my hair, and me in general. Akihiko is watching, amused, but he doesn't laugh at my despair.
"Akihiko, save me!" He lets out a chuckle.
"Why should I?" However, he tugs on the dog's collar, and the husky finally gets off me and bounds over to the boy, who in turn, run up to the two of us.
"Oh my… I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry about Nigou! He's not being very cooperative… anyways, I'm so sorry!" The first thing I notice about the boy is how blue his hair and eyes are.
"Oh… oh no, it's fine." I flash him a small smile, and the first thing he does is throw himself at my feet, shaking his head rapidly.
"My dog just attacked someone! He could have killed you! I'm so sorry!" The dog seems frustrated with his master's antics, and takes on a displeased expression, nudging the boy's hand with his nose.
"No, no, no, I don't think he would have killed me…" The boy blinks.
"Wait… uh oh… I'm going to be late! Nigou, get back in there!" The dog lets out something that could be classified as a sigh, and trots away in the direction of the apartment lobby.
"Are you sure that it's alright to leave him alone?" The boy nods.
"Yes, it's fine. Nigou knows his way around." He straightens his uniform.
Akihiko shakes his head slightly, and the action is slight enough that the boy doesn't notice it, and grabs the back of my blazer, tugging me with him.
"We're going to be late if you keep this up." I laugh, catching up with him.
"Aha, sorry!" I don't look behind me, but I can tell that the owner of the dog is right behind us. Of course he is. He does go to Teiko, by the looks of his uniform.
Though the boy is obviously too shy to get near us, I turn around and begin to speak.
"I'm Midorima Hikaru, nice to meet you. This is my brother, Midorima Akihiko." Akihiko groans.
"You do know that I can introduce myself, right?"
"But I also know that you're too shy to do that." Akihiko sighs, but says nothing.
"Um… my name is Kuroko Haru. Nice to meet you."
"Haru? Isn't that a girl's name?" Akihiko slaps the back of my head, a loud sigh coming from him.
"Don't be rude. You should know that Haru is a unisex name and-" Haru seems a bit torn between confirming Akihiko's speech or telling me that it was alright.
"Hey, hey, it's all good. Nice to meet you," I say, a small grin creeping up on my face.
By then, we've already reached the school, and there are plenty of students at the board in the middle of the campus. Akihiko seems a bit reluctant to just walk in there, but I do just that. I mean, I'd better hurry. I'm not very good with directions.
Haru follows me, shooting an apologetic glance to Akihiko, who's chatting with a couple of his friends, and looks at the board as well.
Lucky me, he's in my class. At least I'll know one person. Haru seems to think the same thing as well, but he glances from side to side, looking for something.
"What're you doing?" That snaps him out of his daze.
"Oh, nothing! Just… uh… looking for my brother." That surprises me.
"You have a brother?" He nods.
"We don't leave home at the same time… he doesn't really like associating himself with me, to the point where he wanted me to go to a different school. So we agreed to leave at different times. He might have cut class though. Because we have the same homeroom." He pointed towards the name right under his.
"Wow, that's some bull. Don't worry though! Let's go to class." Haru seems a bit relieved, nodding and following me up the stairs.
The two minute walk was filled up with chatter about pointless things, and when we walked into the classroom, it was near empty, besides a few girls. The boys were apparently outside, playing some sort of game. Something that I wasn't too interested in.
Haru didn't seem intrigued either. He just took a seat next to mine and sat there, playing with his hands. He was nervous.
Leaning back in my seat, I turned to my left to face him. "Hey, Haru, you want to play a paper game or something?" However, the boy was nowhere to be seen. Blinking again, I shook my head, only to see that he had mysteriously reappeared in front of me.
"Uh… Midorima?" He waved a hand in front of my eyes.
"How… did you disappear like that?"
"I didn't disappear. All I did was reply that yes, I'd like to play a game. Are your eyes tired, Midorima?"
I waved my hand in front of my face dismissively.
"Call me Hikaru. I mean, I call you Haru, right? It's only fair." Haru seemed a bit reluctant to, but said nothing.
"Besides, it doesn't feel right for me to use that last name. I mean, it is my last name, but it doesn't feel like I'm-" A basketball suddenly shot at me. I reached out a hand, squeezing it for a quick second before moving my hand back and tossing it back in the direction of which it came from.
"As I was saying-"
"Hey, sorry there! Guess I need to work on it a bit-" The boy, who I had identified as the owner of the ball, jogged up to us.
Haru blinked, looking up at the boy, before quickly looking away.
The boy looked just like him, exception being that the new boy had darker hair and one, single red eye.
"Oh, no, it's fine! Haha, it sure did surprise me though." Haru and the boy's eye contact broke.
"Oh yeah, sorry about that. Sharp reflexes though. You should totally join the basketball team. What's your name?" A grin rose up on the boy's face.
"Ha, thanks. My name's Midorima Hikaru. I'll definitely join the club." I had been told by Dad that the basketball club here was where he'd actually debuted, which was all good and dandy with me. Especially because I had innate talent with basketball. At least, that's what he said.
"Great! I'm joining too, so, er… yeah." Well, wasn't that surprising? I thought he was actually part of it. Then it occurred to me that he was also a first year, and it'd probably be impossible for him to be part of the club now, when enrollment hadn't even started yet.
He shot one last glance at Haru, the other boy practically shrinking under his gaze. "I'm Kuroko Shin, nice to meet you. Well, I'll be off. See you after school! Enrollment, you know?" With that, he walked off.
Huh. Well, wasn't this day getting interesting?
Heya, heya, heya. I'm back, after maybe... three days? I forget how long it's been(not all that long), but I reuploaded it like I promised. Yay! For those of you that read the last fanfiction(oh boy, that was horrible), yes, the storyline is based on that one. I definitely promise to make it a whole lot less rushed than the other one, and overall, much better. Chapters will be longer, it'll be a lot clearer, the storyline won't seem as crammed and confusing as it was. And yes, in a way, Hikaru was based off of Ichirou, except he'll lose his crybaby side. I tried to make him seem more like a mainstream shonen character than that whiny crybaby sort of character. I don't know if that'll make him lose his charm, but I think it'll work. Akihiko stays the same, and basically, so does their relationship, though Akihiko isn't as doting on him. They both act more like the stereotypical teenager, and I think that works. Anyways, yeah, stay tuned, because trust me, this thing is going to be one hell of a ride.