A/N: "Your Greater Sky" is a fanfic by sapphylicious on AO3. Basically the MiraGen are gods, except for Kuroko who is mortal. They're in something resembling feudal era Japan. Aomine messes up and accidentally demands a human tribute, and Kuroko volunteers because he's Kuroko and he's self-sacrificing like that. Go check out that story (my quick summary doesn't do it justice AT ALL) and all of sapphylicious's works because all of them are amazing!
Link: archiveofourown dot org / works / 740964
There were many secret places in that impossible palace. I was often left alone as Daiki-sama and Satsuki-sama attended to their responsibilities – long stretches of time that crawled by for a mortal like me, but I suspect a mere blink of an eye for the immortals I resided with. I filled those dull hours by exploring, and although Seijuro-sama made sure I would not be able to wander in places I could not comprehend (places only a god could thread without severe consequences), I was given allowance to everything else. I was not a prisoner, but a guest, no matter how unexpected and unusual the arrival.
On one such exploration, I was lazing about in one of the gardens. There were all sorts of flowers in bloom and the air was heavy with their scent. I was gazing upwards, at what would be the sky had I been back on Earth, wondering what it was exactly. I don't know how long I looked. I just remember feeling hazy, like my whole being was becoming smudged, a fading ink droplet on a vast parchment larger than I could ever imagine.
Then he touched my shoulder, folding me back into myself, until I was Kuroko Tetsuya again and not someone (something) else.
"Did nobody warn you it's dangerous to look too hard?" he asked me, and for a moment I thought he was Seijuro-sama. But the man (god) in front of me wore only the simplest of tunics, brown on beige on cream, rough and homespun and familiar.
"No," I answered.
He looked at me. His expression was smooth and strange and I felt uncomfortable all of a sudden, unused to being the recipient of such intense attention. "If you're truly curious you may use a mirror," he said, "although be sure to do it indoors, when they are less likely to notice you."
"Thank you. I will do as you say," I said, barely remembering to bow.
He ruffled my hair, a strangely friendly gesture that I would puzzle over for many days, and left without another word.
That was how I first met the god of defeat, harbinger of loss and senseless toil, and certainly not the last or most interesting. That was our beginning, if I wish to be sentimental. And I am.
I'm glad we met, Sei. No matter what happened afterwards, that was one thing I never can regret.