Kuroko hadn't necessarily been trying to eavesdrop; it just sort of happened. He'd been taking a few minutes to sit and collect himself. Losing, though not as unfamiliar to him as it was to the rest of Teiko's old team, was still something he hadn't totally accustomed himself to. He just wanted a moment to sit and rest to collect himself, that was all... if he'd managed to will himself to wait until he got home to do so, things would have been so much less complicated.
At the time, the phantom member was repeating to himself that they'd win next time, that this was just a scrimmage and that the loss, albeit painful to swallow, was only going to help them improve. That single thought filled his head.
That was, until the sound of crashing metal echoed loud into his ears; it was the sound that caught his attention, but it wasn't what held it. A yell was what did that. It wasn't Kagami's guttural, frustrated yell, nor was it Hyuuga's uptight chastising. It wasn't just frustrated, it was harsh and angry and feral. It was foreign, and it took Kuroko a good few seconds to even recognize the voice, it didn't sound the same when it came in a yell. It came from Kiyoshi; had the slammed closing of a locker door that followed the yell come from him also? Just hearing it with his vision of the other boys obstructed, Kuroko couldn't seem to imagine it.
A reprimand came in response. "Kiyoshi!"
Hyuuga, that time- the passionate response coming from him sounded much more characteristic. A brief silence came after his yell.
"I know, Hyuuga!" The words came through clenched teeth, Kuroko could tell that even from the aisle of lockers he was sitting hidden behind. They were strained and shaky, and they were fittingly punctuated with another slam.
Again, momentary silence.
"I'm- I'm alright."
"You have a crappy definition of alright," Hyuuga snapped. "It was just a scrimage, calm down." The captain had his fists clenched, though his knuckles weren't near as white as Kiyoshi's.
"Nobody else went around punching lockers."
Kiyoshi scrambled for words, having a hard time organizing them in the red fog that clouded his mind. He only managed stutters before Hyuuga spoke again
"I don't want excuses. You were late for the game, and you've been shaking since the start of the fourth quarter. I told you to tell me if you couldn't handle it, should we have taken you off the roster today?"
Kiyoshi's anger wasn't the only emotion in his voice. A pleading tone slipped in, his furrowed brows now loosening ever-so-slightly. He ran his hands back through his sweat-dampened hair before he spoke again.
"Hyuuga, I'm sorry. I managed it, alright? I was okay while we were playing, I just needed to-"
The taller male wasn't allowed to finish. "I told you we're not giving you special treatment," Hyuuga said. "You're putting other people in danger doing this! This is the second time you couldn't get it this close to a full moon, and you're not doing any better at staying under control than last time."
Get 'it'? What did Kiyoshi need, and what did the moon have to do with anything? Kuroko settled himself to listen to the rest of the conversation, his curiosity outweighing his guilt.
A sigh broke Hyuuga's stern tone, his body relaxing and a hand raising to mull through his damp hair. "Do we need to bench you when it's this close or something?"
"I'm doing-!" His voice betrayed him, the words coming out harsh and rough in response to the proposed idea. He recoiled, swallowed the rest of the sentence, and tried again.
"I'm alright, Hyuuga. I should have made sure to get the ingredients in advance, but there's still a few days. I wouldn't risk everyone's safety just to play, and if I didn't know for sure I was okay, I wouldn't be here."
"Show me that, don't just tell me."
"Hey!" A new voice, female this time. Riko, who Kuroko thought had left some time ago. Her voice cut straight through the tension in the room, drawing the attention of both Hyuuga and Kiyoshi.
"Hyuuga, go a little easier on him. You, though," Riko started, shifting her gaze from Hyuuga over to Kiyoshi. "We did talk about this. Keep yourself under control or I'm sitting you out next month, got it? Hyuuga's right- if you can't get the ingredients, even if you think you're okay, we can't know that for sure."
Kiyoshi clenched his teeth, grinding them before attempting to relax his tensed entirety and nod. "Yeah... sorry, I'll be more careful," he apologized, averting his eyes from both of the other players.
Riko's warning didn't have any visible effect on Hyuuga, he remained concentrated on Kiyoshi."I'll be over to talk to you in the next couple days."
"...I don't think that'd be a good idea. I'm gonna get worse, let me just ride out the last few days alone if you honestly think I'm not okay," Kiyoshi suggested, "I can handle it, and I'd rather not put you guys in danger again."
"Kiyoshi, this isn't something-"
Before the argument could escalate, Riko stepped in. "Look, we've been here long enough, and fighting about this any more isn't going to help! We lost today, and we're all a little tense. I don't want you two to make it any worse. Kiyoshi, go home and rest, and Hyuuga, you're coming with me."
Footsteps followed Riko's orders, her shoes clacking against the cement floor. Hyuuga's footsteps joined them soon enough, Riko wrapping a vice grip around his wrist and yanking on him. Hyuuga yelped and scrambled for his bags, grabbing hem just in time to be pulled from the locker room.
Kiyoshi took a seat when he was left on his own and mussed his own hair. He attempted to soothe himself, massaging his head and running his long fingers back through now unruly brown hair. His breaths were deep, though Kuroko was unsure if his spiked emotions were the cause or if the heaving inhales was an attempt at calming himself as well.
After the yell that resonated through the locker room that Kiyoshi released, Kuroko found himself tempted to assume the former.
The yell of frustration, though uncharacteristic of Kiyoshi anyway, was unsettling for a different reason. It didn't sound like Kiyoshi. Rather, it didn't sound like a sound he should have been able to make; it was far too carnal a noise for a human's throat, and it made Kuroko's heartbeat quicken. It didn't sound right at all, and honestly, it frightened the underclassman a bit. Any thoughts he'd been contemplating of making his presence known, the yell wiped clean away.
There were no other noteworthy noises or shifts before Kuroko heard the footsteps of the elder brunette heading towards the door. There was a long pause, and then finally the opening and shutting of the door.
As if their first loss since Touou, and Kiyoshi's first loss since Kirisaki Dai Ichi, wasn't hard enough to swallow, Kuroko now had that situation weighing on his mind atop that. Kiyoshi was frustrated and almost illogically angry, and he had been obviously struggling to contain himself. Not to mention, the unexplained reference to the moon, as well as the secretive nature of the 'meeting' in the first place. It made Kuroko's stomach uneasy, and he coudn't seem to let go of it all the way through the train ride home. Even as the night progressed, through a dinner made solemn by the news of his team's loss and in the midst of his homework, the situation troubled Kuroko. He considered texting Kagami for advice, or even asking Kiyoshi directly what was going on, but neither seemed like brilliant ideas. Spreading rumors wasn't something Kuroko enjoyed, and with Kiyoshi's current mental state... he didn't want to make things any worse. He kept the events to himself, instead just laying in bed with the sound of Kiyoshi's growl echoing in his mind hours later.
Was he worrying over nothing? Even if he was, he couldn't just put the thoughts of everything aside. The occurrence kept sleep from coming easy that night.