Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke
Rated T for language and heavy issues (eating disorders)
Set during the PSP game, at the mountain training camp, where Riko's training regiment requires Kuroko to eat more than twice as much as he's really capable of. And the basketball teams containing Kise, Midorima, and Aomine are all conveniently gathered as well.
Sometimes Takao wondered why people just couldn't see what was right in front of them. It seemed some days to him like everyone in the whole world was blind. And stupid. And coming from him, that was saying something. Because he was well aware that he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. He had a gift for noticing more things than most people did, but some things were so painfully obvious that anyone who failed to see them deserved to be smacked.
Example: Seirin's coach's eating regiment for her players. For some it was all fine and dandy, like that monster Kagami, who Takao had once observed ordering twenty hamburgers from Maji Burger when he happened to be walking by and glanced in the window. Guys with a build that big did need to pack on the calories. But to require someone like skinny little Kuroko to gorge himself on two heaping bowls of rice every meal, in addition to the main dishes and the side dishes she was requiring him to eat was just dumb.
Maybe it was that Coach Riko wasn't smart enough to remember exactly how small Kuroko was, and didn't notice him enough to have his actual size reaffirmed in her mind. Takao didn't think that was a good justification, but it was the only excuse he could come up with for her, but he couldn't make any excuses for the results of her carelessness and didn't even want to.
He was the only one who noticed Kuroko start disappearing for about five minutes midway through each meal. No one else at his table, whether he sat with his team, or the other Generation of Miracles players, noticed there was an empty chair where he was supposed to be for several minutes every meal. Then when Kuroko came back, no one noticed he'd even been gone. Takao made it a point to track the shadow's comings and goings. It was good practice for the next time they faced off. He also noticed that whenever Kuroko came back, the smallest player managed to finish whatever food was left on his plate.
The first few days he didn't think much of it. Then he noticed something new about Kuroko: how white and shiny his teeth were all of a sudden. Not that there'd been anything wrong with his teeth before. They weren't coffee stained or full of food bits or anything before. But now they'd started looking like they'd been polished with vinegar on a daily basis. Vinegar . . . or some stronger acid.
The thought was disturbing enough to make Takao follow Kuroko out of the dining hall that day at lunch. Shadowing a shadow was an interesting experience. It would have even been fun if his hunch turned out to be wrong. But in his heart, he knew all along that he wasn't wrong. His heart still sank when Kuroko went into the bathroom. Takao waited twenty seconds before he entered. When the door opened he heard the sound of someone being sick. Then the door creaked and the noise abruptly stopped.
To keep from sounding suspicious, Takao washed his hands. Then he left. After the door shut behind him, he cracked it back open again and heard the same sickening sounds.
"Shit," he muttered. On his way back, he tried to think about what to do about this. He knew this was a serious thing. Deadly serious. He couldn't afford to do a half-assed job of fixing it or things would only get worse.
As he analyzed the situation, he realized he had a few things on his side. One: this was a new development most likely. Kuroko's teeth definitely hadn't had that acid washed look to them when Takao had seen him before, since he'd noticed the change. Hopefully it was too soon to have become a habit, or a full fledged eating disorder. If he could nip this in the bud then Kuroko might come through with no negative effects, physical or psychological.
Two: this couldn't have happened in a better place. Takao doubted there was a place in the world that had as big a gathering of people who cared about Kuroko as this training camp. Kuroko's team was in fact a team. If one went down, they all dragged him back up. Kagami even clearly cared about the kid on a personal level. Then there were the three Generation of Miracles prodigies. Yeah, most of them came across as cold, unfeeling dicks the majority of the time, but Takao saw what others didn't. Flashes of concern in their gazes, a tensing of their jaw muscles or a clenching of their hands when they had reason to suspect something was wrong with one of the others, or someone else they'd grown attached to. With the exception of Kise who openly adored Kuroko.
Takao was uncharacteristically quiet that afternoon as he mulled over how to fix this. He wasn't stupid enough to think he could do it on his own, since he barely knew Kuroko. And he knew that telling anyone who would make a spectacle of it was a very bad idea. Shining a light on someone who spent his life in shadows just to call him out and humiliate him in front of his team and friends would hurt him worse than any physical injury and probably make the problem worse. So that ruled out telling most people, including his coach, Kagami, heck, his whole team. Takao didn't trust the intelligence of a team that let this happen.
Which left the Generation of Miracles.
Takao's thoughts turned first to Kise, and he considered this carefully. Kise was the only one other than that weird pink haired girl who openly expressed affection for Kuroko. Takao knew Kise's affection was even genuine. The golden haired player treated Kuroko like a cross between the little brother he always wanted, and a favorite pet. But was he the best one to fix the situation?
Somehow Takao didn't think so. Kuroko didn't seem to take Kise all that seriously. Probably because of how frivolous and dramatic Kise had a tendency to act. Takao thought that Kise would probably get serious and pull his stuff together if he realized how serious of a problem Kuroko was developing, but Takao didn't want to leave it to chance. He needed someone he knew he could count on.
Which seemed to make Midorima the obvious choice. His friend was very dependable, leaving as little as possible to chance, taking every precaution to get fate on his side, up to and including capturing live frogs and keeping them on the team bench when he didn't have a plushie frog handy to be his lucky item. But for all that, Midorima was lacking when it came to connecting with people. Like that day awhile back when he had missed hearing what his lucky item was on a day that Asa Oha predicted terrible luck for him. He had gotten flustered when Takao decided to stick with him because he was worried about how horribly his luck had turned, so Takao had fallen back on teasing him and saying he was tagging along for his own amusement. And he hadn't known how to feel when he realized that the other players on his team had gone to such lengths to try and find what could be his lucky item for him.
Yeah, giving him a situation like this, was probably a bad idea. Takao didn't know how he'd react to finding out that one of his former teammates, who he denied was his friend though he couldn't fool Takao's hawk eye, was on the verge of developing a habit that would kill him.
Which left Aomine. Takao knew the least about him, to be honest, so normally that wouldn't be a good choice. But he had seen the tapes of the old games when the Generation of Miracles were at team. Most people wouldn't have noticed, because they wouldn't have noticed Kuroko, but there had been a definite bond between those two. Takao had taken note of every fist bump and every smile flashed between the two.
Takao's gut was telling him that Aomine was the best one to deal with this. Hell, maybe this was even what the moron needed to make him pull his head out of his butt and start acting like a decent human being again.
That decided, Takao just had to figure out the best way to get Aomine the necessary information. It didn't occur to him to approach the blue haired basketball freak and flat out ask for help. Takao didn't work that way. And there was no telling how Aomine would react to that. No, he needed to get him the information in a way that made it seem more conversational than like an appeal.
"So what do you think of that Kuroko kid puking his guts out after every meal because his coach makes him eat too much?"
That was probably not the best way to do it. Takao realized that in hindsight. Actually, he'd planned to go about it in a whole different way, but that just kind of slipped out in a nervous verbal twitch when he found himself face to face with the blue haired monster.
Those eyes which had previously seemed kind of dead snapped to alertness. "What?"
"Huh?" asked Takao. "You didn't know? But you sit with him half the time."
Aomine grabbed a handful of Takao's shirt and had him slammed against the wall. "What the fuck are you talking about you freaky eyed little . . ."
"Freaky eyed? That's kind of mean, isn't it?" Takao sighed.
"What are you saying about Kuroko? You're saying – What are you saying?" demanded Aomine.
"You really didn't know? I thought it was obvious. The kid leaves in the middle of every meal and goes to the bathroom to throw up everything he's eaten, because his coach is making him eat too much. I guess that's the problem with not having a real coach. But it is pretty funny. Hey, does no one else really know? Maybe I should let more people in on the joke- AOH!" Takao doubled over as Aomine sunk a fist into his stomach.
"You'll keep your mouth shut."
Takao couldn't answer and just coffed.
"I said you'll keep your mouth shut," Aomine growled in his face. "Or I will come back and knock out all your teeth."
Takao made a sound like he was alarmed but nodded. He breathed a sigh of relief when Aomine released him and walked away. More like stomped away. Not that it mattered as long as he left. Takao trembling, picked himself up off the floor and braced himself against the wall. Aomine packed a mean punch!
"You could have handled that better."
"Ahh! Shin-chan!" said Takao as Midorima stepped out from around the corner. "What are you doing here?"
"I assumed, from your uncharacteristic silence this afternoon, that you were planning something troublesome," Midorima said.
"Oh! You mean you were following me because you were worried about me? Shin-chan!"
"No, that's not it!" said Midorima angrily. "I just knew you were going to get in trouble and was making sure it wouldn't fall on my head."
"So you heard what I said?" Takao asked, sweat dropping.
"Yes."
"And . . ?"
"Next time figure out a way to fix things that won't get you senselessly hurt," said Midorima.
His voice was cool, almost surgically so, and he seemed just as detached as ever. But as he took his glasses off to clean them, Takao noticed a slight shake of his hands, and his hawk eyes clearly saw the gleam of sweat on Midorima's face, sure signs that what he'd just learned about Kuroko had distressed him.
"Shin-chan! You do care about me!" Takao cried out, to wipe those signs of distress away. Then he flung himself at Midorima in a hug.
"Hey! Get off me, Takao! Let go!"
Midorima doesn't say anything about Kuroko and his problem until Takao asks him later that night.
"Hey Shin-chan? Are you planning on doing anything?"
He didn't have to specify. Midorima knew what he was talking about. There's nothing else he could be talking about.
"Not immediately," answered Midorima. "I'll wait and see if Aomine can fix this first."
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