Chapter 2: Can't remember anything
"Tetsuya..."
The teal-haired male widened his eyes a little in shock as he was brought into an embrace by the red-head. Akashi's right hand was at the back of Kuroko's head while his other hand around the smaller male's waist, pulling them closer. Shocked by the sudden intimate action the red-head initiated, Kuroko could do nothing but only stutter, "A-Akashi-kun? A-are you a-all right?"
Breathing in the nostalgic scent he missed, Akashi's hold on Kuroko got tighter. After so long, you're finally awake.
Akashi was happy. After all, after six long months of waiting, suffering and feeling helpless, the teal-head was finally out of coma. It was his dream come true; to be able to spent time with his beloved once again. But, his eyes narrowed in sadness as he realized something. The teal-head wasn't hugging him back, but instead, both his hands were on the red-head's chest, in attempt to push him away.
"Tetsuya...?" Akashi asked, his voice came out weakly as Kuroko managed to break free from his grasp.
"Sorry, Akashi-kun. It was so sudden that I didn't know how to react." Kuroko said, staring back at the heterochromatic eyes once again.
"... No, I'm sorry Tetsuya. It was wrong of me to do that." The red-head forced out a weak smile.
Even though it's because he doesn't remember, it still hurts...
"Um..." Midorima coughed to gain the attention of the two before he continued. "Let's get inside first instead of standing at the door here. We will disturb the other paitients otherwise."
"Y-yeah! Tetsu! You're still weak, so get back to the bed and we will continue then!" Aomine quickly gestured Kuroko towards his bed, with Kise following after.
"Kuroko-cchi~"
Behind them, Midorima closed the door and whispered towards Akashi. "Sorry for interrupting, but I thought we shouldn't let the situation just now to continue like this."
Akashi nodded in agreement. "No. I have to thank you, Shintarō. I won't be able to know what to do, if it continued."
Kuroko was helped up onto the bed by Aomine while Kise placed his crutches by the bed, before the two take their seats on the chairs nearer to the window by the bed.
"Akashi-kun, Midorima-kun. What's wrong?" Kuroko asked once he was finally seated back on his bed when he realised that the two mentioned were still by the door.
"Nothing. It seems Akashi is still a little tired from his ride back to Japan. He did have a twenty-hour long plane ride." Midorima intervened before Akashi could reply something out of character. After all, the Akashi Kuroko is supposed to know now was the Akashi from five, no, five and a half years ago.
"Yeah. I'm just feeling a little jet lag. Nothing to worry about. More importantly, how are you feeling, Tetsuya?" Akashi asked as he and Midorima started to walk towards the two chairs by the bed, opposite of where Kise and Aomine was seated.
"I am feeling fine. Though sometimes I do get very tired and ended up sleeping for a very long time. And, I'm missing my vanilla milkshakes." Kuroko smiled, appreciative of the concerns they had for him.
"Haha! That sounds like you, Tetsu!" Aomine chuckled while ruffling the said male's teal locks.
"Kuroko-cchi! I could go and buy a vanilla milkshake for you now!" Kise exclaimed in delight, but before he could get out of his seat, he was stopped by Midorima.
"Stop Kise. As a doctor, I cannot allow a still recovering paitient have such unhealthy food." Midorima explained, as he recieved a pout from the said paitient.
"Shintarō is right. Tetsuya, you cannot consume such unhealthy treats until you fully recover." Akashi tried to join in the conversation as normally as possible.
"Hahaha! Too bad for you, Tetsu! You've got two mama bears here caring for you. No way in hell will you be able to get your vanilla milkshakes." Aomine joked.
"Oi! Aomine!" Midorima cursed as Kise laughed while clutching his stomach.
"Daiki... Ryōta..." Akashi hissed, causing Kise and Aomine to imediately stop laughing, and start to send apologetic looks towards the angry red-head.
Seeing his friend's reactions, Kuroko started chuckling. The others, being Kise, Aomine and Midorima, started blinking in confusion, before joining in to laugh with the blunette, though Midorima was just smiling. Akashi too, seeing the happy face Kuroko was making, started to smile and his eyes couldn't help but soften at the sight of the teal-head laughing. It's been a while since I saw him laugh like this.
"But really, Murasakibara would be happy to make you some vanilla cookies though. That should be okay for Tetsu to eat right?" Aomine asked while turning towards Midorima, to which the green-head nodded reluctanly after pondering on the idea for a while. Getting Midorima's approval, Aomine immediately grinned at Kuroko. "Good for you, Tetsu!" Kuroko nodded excitedly.
"Kuroko-cchi can finally taste Murasakibara-cchi's cooking! Or more like baking~" Kise exclaimed while clasping his hands together.
"Ah... That's right. I did hear Murasakibara-kun saying about having new recipes for me to try when I was waking up. Though I was shocked to see Himuro-kun's face instead when I opened my eyes." Kuroko said calmly.
"What happened?" Akashi asked aloud as he figured he didn't quite understand what Kuroko was talking about.
"Ah! That's right. Akashi-cchi was still in New York then, so he doesn't know." Kise said as he turned to look at the confused red-head.
One week ago.
"Kuro-chin~ Wake up."
A certain purple-haired male pleaded to the unconscious teal-haired male lying on the bed, all the while poking the said male at his cheek using a pocky stick.
"Kuro-chin~ This is vanilla-flavoured pocky, your favourite right? So wake up and eat it okay? Or else I will finish it."
"Murasakibara, stop poking Kuroko with that thing! It's food right? Don't play with food!" The green-haired doctor grumbled at his friend's childish antics.
Ignoring the comments, Murasakibara continued to poke Kuroko's cheek. "Kuro-chin~ Wake up~"
"Like I said, Murasakibara, stop pok-" Before he could continue, the green-haired was interrupted by the sound of the door clicking and opening. As the door opened, a nurse peeked through the crack of the opened door.
"Um, sorry for interrupting Midorima-sensei... Yamamoto-san is here for his regular check-up... If you would please follow me..." The shy nurse tried to convey the message with confidence but it came out as a stutter as she was afraid since it seems that she interrupted something important.
Turning his head to look at the nurse, Midorima signalled to the nurse. "I got it, I will go now." He then turned towards the purple-haired male once again, who was still poking the teal-haired with the pocky stick and growled. "Murasakibara! Stop poking Kuroko!"
He tried to stop the purple-haired male once more but to no avail, as the purple-haired turned to face him and started pouting.
"Mido-chin, you're stingy."
Midorima's eyebrow twitched in annoyance at the sentence as he can't seem to understand why was he the one at fault and what's more, how does that make him stingy, resulting in the rise of his anger meter. But knowing that doing this will get them nowhere as he knew the purple-haired was stubborn, he calmed down slightly enough to give up trying to stop him. "Argh! Do whatever you want!" as he exited the room in frustration, with the nurse following after him timidly.
As the door closed, Murasakibara turned back towards the teal-haired male and continued with his poking.
"Kuro-chin~ It's time to wake up~ You've been sleeping for so long... Aka-chin is worried you know..." And the male started to pout. "I've got so many new recipes waiting for you to try them, Kuro-chin~ So please wake up~"
"Sorry to interrupt~" A voice chirped happily as the door once again flew open.
"Atsushi, you're already here. Sorry for being late." Another voice said and Murasakibara immediately turned around to face the owners of the familar voices.
"Ah~ It's Taka-chin and Muro-chin~"
"Yo! Murasaki-chan!" Takao waved as he entered the room. As the name 'Murasakibara' was too long, Takao decided to call him, and everyone from the Generation of Miracles by the colours in their name, with the exception of Midorima, whom he developed a habit of calling him 'Shin-chan', much to the latter's dismay.
It was quite surprising as to how the rivals during their middle to high school basketball times were able to become friends like this. But no one complained, and instead they became close friends, all due to the efforts of the teal-haired male who brought them together. They understood his reasons; for he cherishes friendship more than anything else, never once wanting the tragedy like with Ogiwara Shigehiro to ever happen again. Well, with the personalities Takao, Kise and Himuro have, they quickly got along with each other.
"How's Kuro-chan doing?" Takao asked, his worried glances placed on the still unconscious teal-haired male, as he sat down on one of the wooden chairs beside the lying male.
"He still wouldn't wake up..." Murasakibara pouted once more.
"Kazunari-kun and Atsushi, don't worry. Kuroko-kun is the type who never gives up, no matter what the situation. I believe if you give him more time, he will wake up soon." Himuro smiled, comforting the both of them.
"You're right. He never gives up." Takao grinned. "By the way, where's Shin-chan?"
"He left earlier~" Murasakibara lazily replied, going back to poking Kuroko at the cheek again.
"Mmm..."
"What was that?" Himuro widened his eyes as he immediately turned to look at Kuroko.
"Don't tell me-" Takao too, jumped up from his seat to look over at the teal-head.
"Kuro-chin!" Murasakibara's eyes lit up as his hands stopped poking him.
"Kazunari-kun! Atsushi!" Himuro gestured the two and they immediately understood the raven-haired male's intentions as they quickly spun around to exit the room. "Kuroko-kun!" Himuro began to gently shake the teal-head. "Can you hear me? Kuroko-kun?"
He heard a groan from the teal-head and tired teal eyes slowly blinked open. Himuro widened his eyes for a moment and eventually smiled.
"Mido-chin! Mido-chin!" Murasakibara shouted along the corridor, startling the patients and nurses.
"Um... Mister, can you please refrain from shouting..." One of the nurses tried to calm the frantic purple-head.
"Sorry about that miss, but could you please get a doctor? The patient in this ward might have woken up. Please." Takao came out from behind Murasakibara and pleaded to the nurse. Nodding frantically as she understood, the nurse spared no time and quickly sped off to get a doctor.
"Murasaki-chan! Calm down. I will go get Shin-chan" Takao grab hold of the purple-head, who was still shouting to calm him down and after he receive a nod of agreement from him, he began to run down the corridor, heading towards Midorima's office.
Murasakibara just stood in front of the room Kuroko was in, waiting for the doctor to arrive.
"There should be no more problems. But remember to remove the bandage when you are showering." Midorima finished his reminders for Yamamoto before putting away the medical files.
"Thank you, Midorima-sensei. Ah before I leave, I just want to clarify something." Yamamoto said.
"What?" The green-head asked politely.
"It's just tha-" Before Yamamoto could finish his sentence, Midorima's office's door burst opened and in came running a flustered raven-haired male.
"Shin-chan! You've got to come quickly!" Takao said quickly in one breath, causing Midorima to scowl in irritation.
"What is it Takao? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Shin-chan! This is important! Kuro-chan is awake!"
Green orbs widened in shock and after a few moments of silence, Midorima managed to process the information he recieved and exclaimed. "What?"
"It's exactly what I said! That's why, hurry!" Takao urged Midorima to follow him.
"B-but I-" Midorima glance back and forth at Takao and Yamamoto. He was still having his session with Yamamoto, and it was definitely not right to leave like this. After all, there are other doctors who can help Kuroko at the moment. Seeing the doctor being so indecisive, Yamamoto chuckled.
"Midorima-sensei, please go. I will wait for you here and ask you later. This 'Kuro-chan' of yours, he or she is an important friend right?"
Staring at Yamamoto with his mouth opened, Midorima quickly regain his senses and bowed towards Yamamoto. "T-Thank you! I'm so sorry. I will be back very quickly!" Midorima said and quickly started to follow Takao to leave for Kuroko's room.
"Please take your time." Yamamoto shouted out for Midorima to hear and smiled afterwards.
"Hmm... There is nothing wrong with him as of now. But his body is still in a very frail stage. I will arrange physical therapy sessions for him once he is able to handle it. For now, he should just rest." The doctor said, smiling.
"Thank you doctor!" Himuro bowed towards the doctor whom had finally arrived.
"Ah? Kuro-chin is closing his eyes again!" Murasakibara panicked as he saw the teal-head drifting to unconcsiousness again. The doctor immediately went forward to check on Kuroko's condition.
"It's all right. He's just asleep. This is good as rest is what he needs now.' The doctor assured the two before leaving. "Please inform any of the doctors once he wakes up later."
"Yes, we will. Thank you." Himuro bowed once more and then turned to look at the sleeping teal-head.
At this moment, the doors flew open as a raven haired and green-haired male came rushing in.
"How's Kuroko?" Midorima asked frantically, as Takao kept looking at Kuroko with worry.
Calming The two of them down, Himuro explained Kuroko's current condition to the two of them. Sighing in relief once they knew of the teal-head's condition, Midorima quickly headed back to his office, promising the three of them he will come after he was done with Yamamoto's questions.
"And then, Takao-cchi called us to inform us about Kuroko-cchi's condition and we all arrived to see him!" Kise ended his explanation, delighted that he did a good job explaining as the red-head didn't ask any questions during the course of his explanation.
"I see. Now I get it." Akashi nodded his head as he folded his arms.
"No I don't get it." Kuroko bluntly said, and the other four turned to look at him in confusion. "When did Kise-kun and Takao-kun get so close? You even called him Takao-cchi..."
"Ah... That... Well, a lot of things happened I guess?" Kise chuckled, unsure of what to say. Realization dawned upon the red-head as he realized that his friends have yet to tell Kuroko about him losing about five years of his memory, and only that he has been in coma for six months.
"Well, details don't matter. And you should rest too, Tetsuya. Ryōta, Daiki, Shintarō, you guys have work tomorrow too, I assume?" Akashi said, earning nods from the said three. "Well then, you guys better head home to rest. I will accompany Tetsuya."
Kise, Aomine and Midorima all looked at each other before looking at Akashi. Seeing the certainty of how much the red-head wants to spent time alone with Kuroko, they all reluctantly stood up from their seats and said they goodbyes to the both of them. After promising the teal-head that they will visit him tomorrow again, they then left the room.
Once they were alone, Kuroko fidgeted under the covers and spoke up. "Um... Akashi-kun, you don't have to accompany me you know? I'm fine on my own. Besides, you just arrived back to Japan and you must be tired. You should also head home to rest."
"No... I will accompany you, Tetsuya." Akashi said, determined to not leave at all. Kuroko sighed as he remembered how stubborn the red-head was, and he complied to the red-heads 'request'.
"Akashi-kun, you are really stubborn..." Kuroko pouted. Akashi smirked.
"Oh? Are you not too?"
Kuroko sighed once again. "Yes... I am stubborn too."
Akashi smiled. It's kind of nostalgic... having a conversation like this... Akashi thought.
"Um... Akashi-kun, actually I have something to tell you..." Kuroko said seriously.
Surprised at the sudden changed in tone of the teal-head, the red-head narrowed his eyes cautiously. "What is it?"
"Actually, I know all of it. Even if all of you didn't tell me, I know. I know that I am missing five years worth of my memories."
Akashi widened his eyes in shock. That means they really didn't tell Tetsuya anything.
"It's kind of obvious... I saw the calender hanging on the walls of the physical therapy room... What shocked me was that, the memories I have which I seem to remember being the most recent, are all from five years ago. That's when I knew, no doubt I am missing five years of my memory... Akashi-kun, is this true?" Blue orbs stared at Akashi's heterochromatic ones. There was the look of fear and uncertainty in Kuroko's eyes. Akashi didn't know what to say. He could only stare back in shocked at the teal-head.
As all he got was silence from the red-head, Kuroko lowered his head and smiled sadly. "I guess it's true then..."
Hearing how hurt Kuroko sounded, Akashi felt a tinge of sadness.
"Tetsuya... I-I'm sorry... I-"
"It's all right, Akashi-kun. I know you guys are concerned for me, and that's why you couldn't tell me the truth... Even Kise-kun didn't say anything earlier... when I asked about Takao-kun..." Kuroko's voice betrayed his words. Even though he knew his friends did this because of him, he still can't help but feel sad and betrayed as they hid the truth from him.
"No matter how hard I try to, I really can't remember anything... Anything at all..." Tears started to form and flow down his cheeks as Kuroko clutched tightly onto the blanket covering his legs.
Seeing his beloved crying suddenly, Akashi can't help but feel worried and hurt. He held the teal-heads hands in attempt to calm him down as he hushed the smaller male.
"Tetsuya..."
"That's why I decided..." Kuroko, who was now holding onto Akashi's hands while trembling, stared at him once again and continued. "I will not remember anything from the last five years, and just... move on..."
Note: Finally updated! Sorry for any mistakes! Please review! I love reviews! Hope you enjoy the story so far! I was having quite a hard time writing this story due to Kuroko's personality and I was afraid it wouldn't flow. So please review so I can have your opinions on this story!
Thank you.