A/N – This is my first major AU in the KnB fandom. So, I hope I haven't made the characters too OOC, but if I have, I apologise in advance! I have read many stories whereby Akashi is the supernatural one, the most common trope with him being an immortal vampire. I tried to do things differently by making Kuroko the immortal one instead, and I hope it works. And like all my other stories, I've tried to incorporate my other OTP in this fandom, Aokise; only, I made them… different. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the story!

"I'm sorry, Kuroko. But I've met someone else – Takahiro-sama. He comes from a distinguished family and is a scholar, and I like him better. Nonetheless, the time I spent with you has been… fun, I guess?"

Kuroko's eyes snapped open. A flashback, huh? He grunted and rolled over onto his stomach. Sometimes, Kuroko would get memories of his past relationships. The thing about Kuroko was that when he fell in love, he loved deeply. So, when the other party broke up with him, it hit Kuroko hard. After experiencing a broken heart one too many times, Kuroko decided to move into the forest and cut off contact with the human world. He swore to himself that he would never fall in love again – he couldn't bear to have his heart broken again.

Well, cutting off contact with humans was easier anyway. Kuroko had been granted immortality with the duty to heal the weak, injured and dying by the gods when he was a young man, as he was very compassionate towards living beings. All in all, Kuroko had been alive for a number of centuries, and explaining to the human acquaintances he had made on why he did not age would be a very difficult thing to do. Human beings were after all not very accepting of things that they were not accustomed to. Therefore, Kuroko mostly focused his efforts on the wildlife in the woods. The animals were more prone to more serious injuries and Kuroko had a small animal hospital at the back of his cottage where he would nurse them back to health after applying his healing magic on them. Occasionally, he would get a tracker or two who had a sprain or twisted a joint from strenuous activity – Kuroko would heal them and they would be off on their merry way, thanking Kuroko but never staying more than a few hours.

Kuroko felt a rough tongue on the back of his neck. He turned his head to the right to see a leopard looking at him with a concerned appearance. Kuroko smiled, and reached out to rub the leopard's head. "Don't worry – I'm alright, Kise-kun."

Kise's expression relaxed and he licked Kuroko's face affectionately.

"Where's Aomine-kun? Out hunting again?" Kuroko asked, rolling onto his back to face Kise properly.

Kise jumped up and down excitedly before running off to prepare to greet his mate when he got home with the spoils of the day.

Aomine and Kise were a black panther and leopard pair that had escaped a zoo. They had wound up at Kuroko's door when Kise had gotten his paw caught in a leg-hold trap set by human hunters. Kuroko took Aomine and Kise in, and removed the trap from Kise's front paw. But the trap had done a lot of damage because the two large cats had been running around trying to remove it only to further aggravate the injury, and Kuroko's healing magic could only do so much. Kuroko had bandaged Kise's paw up and gave him a herbal remedy to put him to sleep so that he would not be in so much pain. Aomine had been on vigil all night, staying by Kise's side, never sleeping a wink until Kise's paw was fully healed. At that time, Kuroko didn't know their names and merely referred to them as "panther-san" and "leopard-san". But after reading their thoughts (an ability Kuroko could use with animals, but he tried not to do it too often, as he treated animals like people and thought even they deserved their privacy; he usually only used this ability when the situation was dire), Kuroko learnt their names and that they were mates. Even after Kise recovered, Aomine and Kise refused to leave Kuroko's home and stayed with Kuroko as his indirect bodyguards to repay Kuroko for his kindness towards them. Because they stayed in such close proximity to Kuroko, Kuroko's immortality must have rubbed off on them, as neither Aomine nor Kise showed any signs of aging or dying even though it had been nearly three hundred years.

Kuroko wasn't aware that he had fallen asleep again until a soft whimper sounded from above him. He slowly opened his eyes. The piercing gaze of a black panther met Kuroko's blank stare. Aomine was leaning over Kuroko with his two front legs and studying Kuroko closely. It seemed apparent that Kise might have somehow informed him of Kuroko's earlier grunting.

"Welcome back, Aomine-kun," said Kuroko. "What did you hunt down today?" In all honesty, Kuroko wasn't too fond of hunting down and killing prey in cold blood for sustenance (once a month, he usually travelled a fair distance out of the forest to the local market to buy his food and necessities), but Aomine and Kise were members of the Carnivora order, which meant that they were meat-eating creatures, depending entirely on meat for their nutrition. Aomine and Kise were natural predators, and Kuroko was not about to prevent them from behaving naturally.

Aomine placed his front legs on the ground. He looked at Kuroko, tilting his head towards the back of the cottage, where the carcass of whatever poor animal that had met its demise by Aomine's teeth and claws probably lay.

Kuroko chuckled and got up from the couch he had been napping on. "Yes, yes… I'll go take a look," he told Aomine, patting the black panther on the head as he made his way out through the back.

When Kuroko stepped out of his house, he could see Kise already feasting on a dead wild boar. The first thought that crossed Kuroko's mind was: Holy crap, that animal is huge! I wonder how Aomine-kun brought it back here. But then again, it didn't come as a huge surprise to Kuroko – Aomine was very strong. Judging from the size of that wild boar, it could probably last Aomine and Kise at least three days.

From behind Kuroko, Aomine quietly approached Kise and licked him tenderly behind the ear. But Aomine's mouth didn't even go near the carcass – he wouldn't eat until Kise was done. In a sense, Kuroko thought, it was rather sweet of Aomine, because regardless of which of them caught their meal, Aomine always let Kise eat first. Aomine would only indulge himself after he was certain that Kise's hunger had been sated.

The good thing about Aomine and Kise was that they always cleaned up after themselves. One of them usually would bring back whatever he had killed to share with the other. And when they were done cleaning the meat off the bones of the animal, the other one would drag the skeleton far away from Kuroko's cottage to rot and return to nature so as not to attract insects and other scavenging creatures.

"Good on you guys, Aomine-kun and Kise-kun," Kuroko praised the cats. "You seem to be set for three days now, huh?"

Kise looked up at Kuroko, his mouth was full of boar meat and there was blood dribbling down his chin. He attempted to smile happily while chewing on his meal. It was, in a morbid way, kind of cute.

Kuroko turned around and walked back into the cottage. He raised his hand and waved at Aomine and Kise. "You two enjoy your meal," he said.

Aomine made a purr of contentment as he settled down on his stomach beside Kise, glad to watch his mate eat.