Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke. It was written by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. ...Although, if I were the one who wrote Kuroko no Basuke, I would add more female characters. You know, at least five more girls or something.
Author's note: I have something to confess… I haven't read the manga and I only kept up with the Anime. And so. I have to work on Akashi a little more, as SeraphineHeartfilia had pointed out to me. FORGIVE ME! I shall do my best to keep Akashi in character!
Red and not so White
Year 1
Chapter 2
Located in Tokyo Haneda Airport, Midorima was carrying nothing but a stuffed snowman in his left palm. It had a mini green scarf, black dotted eyes, and a carrot nose. Following behind Midorima was Takao. The poor guy was carrying one huge green bag over his right shoulder and another huge black bag on the other. Dragging in the rear of Takao was two large black suitcases with wheels in both of his hands.
…And Takao did not look so good carrying all of those at the same time.
"Good evening," a soft voice closely said.
Takao smiled and directed his eyes to Kuroko on the left. The boy with the empty pale blue eyes was walking up next to the Hawk Eye user. "Hey there, Kuroko," Takao greeted with a happy grin.
It would appear Kagami was lagging behind, carrying his own troubles of baggages. A vein was popping on top of his head too. And as for Kuroko, he was not carrying a single thing, aside from holding onto a friendly, plastic, blue cage where Tetsuya Two was in.
Kagami exclaimed angrily, "I can't believe you actually brought him along!"
With his head tilted back, Kuroko defended, "But Akashi-kun said it was okay."
"Do I look like I care?!" Kagami retorted.
"Aw!" Takao grinned. "So you brought Tetsuya Two along? This is going to be one great week!" Tetsuya Two barked merrily as he pocked his nose through the plastic fence.
Midorima sighed and gently pushed his glasses higher to his eyes. He was ahead of the three young men and hoped not to look back at his friends' idiocy. Much to his demise, he caught sight of Momoi, Aomine, Sakurai and Imayoshi just ahead of him. It appeared the four of them were waiting around and chatting. This is going to be a long ride, Midorima judged with a hint of annoyance at the back of his mind.
In that instant. "Ah," Momoi smiled, her eyes catching the incoming group. "Tetsu-kun!" Her hand waved high, calling out to him as well as the other guys. The moment Midorima approached them, keeping his distances; Momoi beamed up to regard him. "Good evening, Midorin!"
The greenhead merely nodded. Takao rushed forward, leaving Kuroko and Tetsuya 2 by themselves. "Isn't this great!" Takao grinned widely, using his right shoulder to nudge Midorima's arm. "I can't believe we're actually going! I can't wait to play snowball fight!"
Sakurai suddenly looked terrified, fearing snowball fights would only turn dreadful because of some uncontrolled men. "Ha… haha…" Sakurai forced a smile, only wishing hard to show his enthusiasm.
With lips curling up into a smirk, Imayoshi uttered, "I'm looking forward to that as well, since I never lived anywhere near a place with a lot of snow."
Setting the suitcases to stand by themselves, Takao threw his hands in the air. "Thank you, Akashi!" Takao cheered before snorting at himself. Not that he would actually say it in front of the intimidating redhead, but he wanted to express the excitement and hope the others would get in the mood too.
However. "You're that eager?" Aomine frowned to him. "I could be home right now and sleep all week." Takao just laughed and his hands reached for the handles of the suitcases again.
Momoi quickly met the bluehead's face and her hands on her hips. Her lips were pouting, "You know you shouldn't do that, Aomine-kun! It's good to keep your body moving!" And thank goodness Akashi got this big guy to come.
After which Kuroko and Kagami showed up at their sides with all of that talking, Kise's voice was heard, "Hey, everyone!"
Every person, aside from Aomine, angled their heads over to the left side of the spacious room. A crowd was forming, but they could tell Kise's hair apart from the wave of shorter people. And Kise was waving with both arms in the air. Was he that excited? All the while Kise's body walked out of the crowd; there was Kasamatsu and Moriyama right behind him. Each of them carried two suitcases.
"Looks like the gang is here," Kasamatsu remarked as soon as they all gathered into one group. "We should hurry up and put our belongings—"
"There's a cute girl right over there!" Moriyama interrupted quickly, his head facing to the right. "Do you think we're going to be on the same plane?"
Aomine bothered to look around, "Does she have big tits?"
Kise chuckled and walked next to Kuroko, almost hitting Kagami in the process. "Let's hurry already! To Otaru!" Kise eagerly encouraged.
"Yeah!" Takao grinned where as Midorima had already walked off first.
Imayoshi smiled and put his arm around Sakurai's neck, "Then off we go."
"Y-Yes!" Sakurai cracked a smile, being pulled by Imayoshi and they went off after the silent Midorima.
Everybody begun moving their feet and Tetsuya 2 emitted a bark, as if declaring the start of a new story.
\~o~/
"Seems like Kuro-chin and the others in Tokyo are getting on the plane now," Murasakibara lazily blinked to the phone in his hand.
He was scanning through his phone and received a text from Kuroko, who had asked if he and Himuro were doing okay. In the center of the airplane seats, where Murasakibara and Himuro were in, which they were not by any windows, Himuro had taken a bag of chips from the bag on the ground. He handed it to Murasakibara and simply nodded. Their plane in Akita had just departed and was about to take flight.
"Be… safe," Murasakibara mumbled as he typed the words into his phone.
Himuro had also grabbed a small jar of pickles, but then he paused. He did not wish to let the smell bother others and decided against it right after. "Atsushi, have Akashi texted about his departure?" Himuro inquired, leaning back against the seat.
"Ah… yeah," Murasakibara closed his cell phone. His eyes squinted for a second and he put his phone away into his pocket. "I think his plane already left first?" He could not recall it and was too lazy to check his phone again.
Whereas Murasakibara was opening his bag of chips, Himuro checked his phone. "It's really too bad our teammates did not want to come," he quietly said to himself.
"Hmmm, forget about them," Murasakibara mumbled, nipping on the first chip. "They're lucky to be staying in their cozy homes. It was for their own good." Himuro chuckled to him in spite the fact that his eyes were still on his phone. "It's only true."
Himuro smiled, closing his phone. "I'm sure you'll have fun before you know it," he glanced to his friend.
The tall young man had his doubts again. "…I'll believe you, Muro-chin," he mumbled grumpily. "…Maybe I'll make a snow angel. Lots of them too." Only because doing that did not require a lot of movement.
His eyes closed. "Sure," Himuro raised his hand to lean his chin on it.
\~o~/
There was a text that read from Momoi: Akashi-kun, we are all safely on the plane! We'll see you in Otaru! She was the second person to state that. And the first was Kise.
Akashi flipped his phone closed and his eyes looked over to the window next to him. There were a lot of clouds today and it covered up the earth below.
The seat next to him was emptied. Mayuzumi was supposed to be here, but he called in sick. Akashi had already foreseen this earlier before he left his home, only the half of the reason was Mayuzumi really did not want to go to Otaru. Not that it mattered though. The whole plane was quite pleasant with the quietness and whispers would go back and forth. Other than that, it was peaceful. Something Akashi personally enjoyed.
Mentally finding it as an appropriate time, Akashi took his phone again. He dialed numbers and put his phone to his right ear.
\~o~/
The phone rung in the Little House of Otaru. In a work uniform, a simple black blouse and black pants, Shirose just walked by the ringing phone and blinked when it went on at least three times. Seeing that Kurosawa or neither the girls were around, she smiled with a tired sigh and marched up to the counter. And picked up the phone. "Hello, Little—but not so little, House of Otaru," Shirose approached as delightful as possible.
"This is Akashi Seijuro."
"Hello, sir," she addressed, rearranging the folders on the tables quickly. Just in case he had another request.
"I apologize for the confusion, however one finally decided not to show up," he explained.
Shirose chuckled, "That is fine. We're very flexible." She threw the folders back on the desk, finding no need now.
"Is everything prepared?"
Sounded like he knew something was up. Shirose smirked amusingly, "Ahaha… almost. We'll be done within a few hours. Everything will be neat, clean, the heat will come on regularly, and—"
"Akahime, did you clean those showers yet?!" Kurosawa's voice yelled in the hall.
"Yes, ma'am!" a girl's voice cried helplessly. "Everything is complete, ma'am!" And a loud crashing sound was followed. "Kyyyaaaa!"
Shirose chuckled, "And our food supply is already stocked up. Are you satisfied, sir?"
"You may call me Akashi," he preferred. "Inform Kurosawa that as well."
"Akahime, what was that noise?!" Kurosawa exclaimed, footsteps pounding on the floor.
"My cry of fear, ma'am!" Footsteps ran up the stairs.
The albino girl nodded, "Okay, Akashi." Did the background noises not bother him? That was good. Nothing to be embarrassed about, though she was rather carefree either way. "Oh, just to note, Kurosawa and one man will escort you and your friends at the airport. They'll hold up my sign that says, Incomplete Rainbow. You'll know it's them."
"Shirose!" Kurosawa appeared by the doorway on the left, which was the living room. She angrily stared at Shirose, who set the phone on the counter and ran off to the right side of the room with a soft giggle. Sighing heavily, Kurosawa flicked her hair back and walked to the phone to seized it. "Hello, Akashi, right? Sorry about that. I'll be holding up a sign that actually will read Little House of Otaru. Are we clear with that?"
"Yes," Akashi said. Kurosawa released a long, deep, audible breath in frustration and almost hung up without a goodbye. "Who was that just now?"
Kurosawa squinted her eyes. She was not certain because he must have heard Akahime's voice too. "If you're asking about who answered the phone first, that was Shirose Shinju," she rubbed her face, trying to suppress a sigh. "Please do not think too much of her. She's still young."
"I understand," Akashi assured. "I shall see you at the airport as scheduled."
"Yes," Kurosawa firmly gave her notice.
"Goodbye."
"Bye," she quickly uttered. Placing the phone back, Kurosawa walked to the right where Shirose escaped. But that girl was nowhere in sight down the hall or up the stairs next to her. There was only one path at the end of the right wall led to the dining room. Kurosawa heard more loud objects dropping from the upper floor and she groaned. "AKAHIME?!"
"Nothing happened, ma'am!"
\~o~/
Akashi stared at his phone and waited. Just a minute after, it rung and he picked it up after five seconds. "Shirose?" he stared outside to the clouds again.
"Hey, hey, are you with anyone right now?" her quiet voice inquired playfully.
Strange. He did not know this girl or seen her in person. Thus, he would not know what kind of human being she was. Not yet anyway. The least he knew, she planned to call back. He could tell that much. Her voice sounded interestingly enough. Almost as if she looked down on a lot of things, which was why he knew she would attempt to talk to him.
"No one," he replied. "I am alone."
She snickered, "…Sad." Akashi narrowed his eyes during the time that she continued, "But I figured. Since I heard nothing besides your voice. You must be lonely, right?"
His eyes kept on gazing over the clouds. They changed shape slowly. "Are you asking for an quarrel?" he demanded calmly.
"I just wanted to talk," she honestly reflected. "Just for a bit… given that your voice was different from what I imagined. But I think I had enough of speaking to you."
"I feel the same." He hung up first and put his phone into his pocket.
Yes. Akashi felt exactly the same. Her voice. He desired to talk for a bit because of the silence around him. And he had enough of her. That was all. Nothing personal. Nothing even worth thinking about. He was even certain she had the same thoughts as him.
\~o~/
And the time had come. It was an early Monday at the Sapporo Okadama Airport. Kurosawa was in amidst of the crowd with her arms folded to her chest. Standing beside her was a tall young man, holding up the cardboard sign over his head, which read Little House of Otaru written with a dark blue marker.
The person with that sign was a tall, muscular-looking man with black hair and silver eyes. His hair is kept short, tangled, and spiked toward the back, and a little of his bangs slanted over his right eyebrow. He and Kurosawa were wearing similar black clothing, which was the dress code of their job.
"What if their plane crashed along the way?" the tall man smiled with wonder.
Immediately, Kurosawa slapped his stomach. And he did not budge. "Such ill words," she commented emotionlessly. "Please learn how to keep your mouth shut, Yukiyama."
He smirked without facing her, "I'm just being cautious."
"In what way was that consider as cautious?" she glanced to him with a scowl. Her hair was combed, unlike the time she kept them ruffled, and she looked quite formal and decent.
"Wwwoooo, there they are!" Yukiyama and Kurosawa heard someone said, but they were too busy starting up an argument. That voice just now belonged to Kise, who was ahead of the group, which they all rode on the same plane from Tokyo. And it appeared he and his friends had already retrieved their belongings.
"Pretty lady!" Moriyama was even faster than Kise now. In fact, he ran and almost bumped into people along the way. Just before Moriyama wanted to introduce himself, Yukiyama brought the sign down on Moriyama's head without mercy. The cardboard must have been hard, because Moriyama's head limped upon contact and he even groaned in pain, dropping his bags and rubbing his head.
With a sweat drop, Kurosawa's eyes gazed over the other young people who were heading to where she was. Eleven of them, she counted them. And Shirose mentioned minus one.
Moriyama sighed when he brought his eyes to meet the eyes of the muscular man. "Why… what…" Moriyama tried to get himself together while his friends were still walking to them. And Kise was already standing by his senpai.
"No attacking in public," Yukiyama smirked. Moriyama opened his mouth to maybe defend himself. But then Yukiyama added, "Just being cautious. Sorry for the rudeness." He held up the sign again with both hands.
"Geez, seriously?" Kise gave the silver-eyed young man an unsure smile.
Kurosawa elbowed Yukiyama's stomach, who was still unfazed by her aggressiveness, and she bowed to the guests. "I apologize for his behavior," she stated, standing back up straight.
"No, it's fine!" Moriyama smiled right away.
Now that the rest of the group was together, Kagami glanced around. "Looks like Akashi, Murasakibara, and Himura aren't here yet," he blinked. Earlier, Momoi had told them about Mayuzumi since they were on the plane together.
Kuroko was still carrying the cage. Tetsuya Two was whimpering and Momoi bent down a bit to touch his nose with her first finger. "There, there," her lips smiled. "We'll let you out as soon as we get to Otaru, kay?" Tetsuya Two panted with bright eyes.
With a few steps forward, Imayoshi confronted Kurosawa, "May if I ask a question?" She just nodded away. "How do we get to Otaru from here?"
Kurosawa easily clarified, "We'll be taking a railroad train to Otaru. It would only be half an hour."
"Oh, good," Aomine heaved a sigh to the ceiling. "Here I was thinking maybe we'll be stuck in something for hours!" The airplane ride was just a drag, but he did get some sleep.
Midorima's still eyes showed some relieve as well. "Kagami was snoring too loud," he uttered.
"Shut up!" Kagami glared to him. Though, it was shameful because Kuroko noted people were staring at his sleeping, opened mouth.
"Um," Sakurai smiled timidly. "I-I wasn't bothered by it at all, Kagami-san."
As random as that was… "I see Murasakibara and Himuro coming this way," Kasamatsu declared, hoping to change the subject.
"Ah!" Momoi moved her body to scan around. And there was Murasakibara and Himuro, waving to them. "Mukkun and Himuro arrived safely!" she cheerfully announced, waving back.
"And there's Akashi-kun," Kuroko smiled, his head over to the opposite direction.
"Oh, I see him," Takao chuckled, closing in to Kuroko's side.
"Aka-chin?"
"Akashicchi!"
Kurosawa placed her hand on her chest, sighing with relief. "Good, everyone's here," she threw her hair back with other hand. Before the others greeted each other, Kurosawa clapped her hands loudly that it echoed. "Alright! Let's get out of this suffocating airport first! Chat later!"
Yukiyama brought the cardboard paper down and smiled, "At last. My arms were about to wear out too."
\~o~/
Everyone boarded on a blue train with their belongings. Kurosawa had gotten everyone their own first-class private sitting rooms, which a couple were enjoying it without a moment wasted.
Kurosawa shared a sitting room with Yukiyama, Imayoshi, and Akashi. Kuroko, Aomine, Momoi, and Kagami shared one in the second room. In the next one, there were Sakurai, Kise, Kasamatsu, and Moriyama. The fourth room was where Murasakibara, Himuro, Midorima, and Takao were. All four people in each room. Oh, and Tetsuya Two was spending with Sakurai on the behalf of Kagami freaking out if the dog was in the same room as him.
The worst that happened before the train though… the rented bus that Yukiyama drove did not work for the entire three hours in the parking lot. It was not pretty and no one would ever want to bring it up. Everything was fine, now that the workers on the train were serving food.
"Can I get a lot of desserts?" Murasakibara looked to the middle-aged female worker. She nodded as she left to close the door to the room.
"It's like we're wealthy!" Takao chuckled, seated by Midorima who sat by the window.
Across the two were Murasakibara and Himuro, and it was Murasakibara who had the window side. In the center where the table securely stood, there were about six different dishes prepared. They almost shined with the word 'rich' on them.
Himuro blinked as Murasakibara dug in first. "Atsushi, where are your manners?" Himuro faintly smiled.
"Ittadakimasuuuuu," Murasakibara said with his mouth full.
Midorima sighed to him, "Really, Murasakibara…" The purplehead continued eating without them.
As for the room where Tetsuya Two was in, Sakurai help fed him on his lap. Next to him was Kasamatsu, who was by the window. Sitting across the two were Kise, by the window, and then Moriyama.
"Wah, you're so cute," Sakurai beamed, patting on the dog's head. Tetsuya Two looked up to him with rice on its nose, wagging his tail all at the same time. Sakurai chuckled and helped cleaned the grain of rice off of him.
"Do dogs like eating rice?" Moriyama blinked to him.
Sakurai suddenly panicked, "I—Uh, I don't know!"
Kise laughed lightly, "It's fine. Tetsuya Two looks all right anyway." Kise leaned his chin on the back of his hand and swirled the noodle and pasta together.
"I sure hope so," Kasamatsu flattened his eyes to the blonde. "You better take full responsibility if Kuroko finds out Tetsuya Two gets sick."
"Don't worry, I will take full responsibility!" Kise beamed and Kasamatsu rolled his eyes right after.
And to the other room, something else was taking place.
"There's not enough for you to eat, stop taking all of them!" Aomine yelled, moving all of the plates away from Kagami's reach. As if that would work.
Kagami frowned, a bit taken back. "I don't see you eating it," he pointed.
"I'm taking my time," Aomine snarled.
Momoi shook her head at them and Kuroko was smiling. "I'm sure we can order more," Momoi said, setting her elbows on the table. "Why don't we just order more?"
"But I don't think it works like that," Kuroko stated, staring blankly at her. They should not impose on Kurosawa either if they were to order more dishes. "And I don't mind if Kagami takes most of it."
Aomine pointed to Momoi as he gave Kagami a serious look. "She still have to eat too," Aomine notified the obvious. "Start acting like a gentleman."
"Oh, looks who's talking," Kagami was now gloomed, talking rather childishly.
The next and last room was quieter. Akashi and Kurosawa were keeping their thinking process to themselves as Imayoshi and Yukiyama were bonding without them. Imayoshi was next to the window and he sitting by Akashi. The other person by the window was Yukiyama while Kurosawa was next to him.
"So you've worked at the Little House of Otaru for three years?" Imayoshi inquired curiously.
Yukiyama nodded firmly, drinking water in a large cup. "And Kurosawa's been there since she was a kid," he told him, whether she would approve of it or not. She was too quiet anyway. Maybe that would get her talking.
But that did not do the trick as Imayoshi smirked, "And Kurosawa owns it?"
"She's twenty years old now," Yukiyama chuckled, pointing his chopsticks into the air. "Her parents actually owns it, but they 'eloped' at the beginning of the month. So they should be returning a few days after the New Year's."
"And how old are you?"
"Eighteen. What about you?"
"I'm the same."
"Ah, great! Let's be friends!" Yukiyama took out his left hand. Imayoshi took it and they both smiled at each other.
Akashi and Kurosawa still paid not attention. Imayoshi sneered, "We've tried, friend."
Yukiyama smirked, tilting his head to the glasses guy. "Yep, we've tried." And finally, Yukiyama received a smack on the head by Kurosawa's hand. The only reaction they would ever get.
A couple of minutes later, Akashi stopped eating and looked through the window. There were endless snows, just like back in Sapporo. His eyes became still and soon the train seemed to have slowed down.
"Mm?" Kurosawa raised her chin. All of the guys were now silent. "…Are we stopping?"
\~o~/
The sun was already setting in the horizon. Shirose was on the second floor in a room, located on the right corner of the house, which faced to the front yard. Bringing a lit white, large candle, she left the lights of the floor off. She walked to the window in the corner, where a large, L-shape, dark green couch was.
Moving to put her knees on the couch, she slowly put the candle down next to the window. Then she unlocked the window and opened it halfway. The cold wind pleased her skin and she smiled, moving to sit on her ankles. Her arms crossed and she placed her chin on them as she stared outside. I wonder what's taking them so long, she gradually closed her eyes.
The candle remained where it was, still burning strongly and away from her hair as the breeze came by. Out the window, the house was on hill that stood twenty meters from earth. Down the crooked path of snows were streetlights that guided the way in a careful manner down the hill. Down the same road was the small city of Otaru, all filled with streetlights and people heading back home for the day.
"Shirose?"
She pretended not to hear as soon as the footsteps were within the room. It was the voice of Akahime. Knowing her, Shirose was not worried about the window being forced to close. And soon afterward, Akahime's footsteps left the room, whispering concernedly.
\~o~/
"Whew, we're almost there!" Yukiyama was driving with one hand to wave back to the others in the bus. And this bus worked perfectly as Yukiyama drove it in the streets of Otaru. "Welcome to our small harbor city! Otaru!"
Tired for the day, almost everyone barely glimpsed outside. The only thing they could make out was the snow and streetlights. In the other front seat, Kurosawa saw their exhausted face sand had to sigh. "Sorry if the entire day have been waste," she felt the need to express, looking forward to the road ahead.
The reason why they were so late was because of the train driver unexpectedly had a heart attack. The whole story was not issued, so no one had a clue why it had to occur of all times. They all really just want to sleep now. Even Takao was up for that and Tetsuya Two was sleeping on Kuroko's lap. This was good though. Akashi did not have to hear them talk all at the same time.
Some minutes passed. Akashi was sitting close to the front and the bus drove around a house on a hill. His head stayed on the right, where the house stood. There were still a few ways, which might take a few more minutes. The house's lights were on the first floor, however on the second floor, there were no lights.
Faintly, Akashi saw a fatal temptation flickering in the distance. A candle? The dim light revealed white hair swaying in the wind. The darkness covered mostly everything, but he stared curiously. Not the hair, but the candle's light that accompanied it. It was such an impenetrable sensation. He was not confident how to feel toward it.
A snowflake fell into his sight out the bus window, disturbing the image of the candlelight that nearly lit something in his mind.
Despite the fact, there was one thing that was clear to him. That same temptation seemed to be testing him. And he disliked being tested by such a thing. It was not worth being pulled into its arrogance.
Author's note: You are free to point out my flaws. It will help me improve. And thanks for reading and leaving a review! I worked my ass off for updating as fast as possible because of the reviews! Thank you for making me happy and making me feel good about this fanfic. I shall continue writing!
And as before, a review would be nice! Hopefully I can work hard and update the next chapter when I feel it is ready to be seen.