Kise was practically yelling in Aomine's ear from the other side during their one-on-one.

Their one-on-one video chat, that is.

"Oi, will you calm down, Kise?! I thought that moving to another country would at least preserve the small remains of my hearing ability, yet my ears still fucking hurt after each video call! Damn! You know what?" A tanned hand guided his laptop's mouse into lowering the volume as another yanked the cord of his earphones. "I don't care if my neighbors complain about your loud-ass yelling anymore. I don't want my ears to suffer."

The young police officer in training was too busy scowling at the wailing blond to hear one of the doors in his apartment opening.

"Aominecchi! You're so mean! And here I was hoping that since we haven't seen each other physically for years now, you'd have a very slight change of heart! At least be a little nicer to me, you know?" A pout and pale, crossed arms were directed towards the camera, making Aomine howl in laughter.

The said male was wiping his tears of laughter when a small weight plopped down on his dark, gray couch. "I'm very glad that you two are still in contact with each other. I kind of missed hearing these kinds of conversations between you two."

Upon hearing his voice so suddenly, the taller male practically jumped out of his spot and crouched near the window. "Shit, Tetsu! I need to get used to this invisibility thing of yours again." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as he sat back down again, scratching cobalt locks. "Say, Kise, the reason why I've been calling you so persistently these past few days was because of, uh... Tetsu. I mean, I found him."

The blond on the screen stared at his own computer, trying to take in what he was seeing. What was that look, though? It wasn't particularly blank, but it was shocked? Sad, even? "...Kurokocchi..." He forced a smile, the white light coming from his laptop making his tears glisten. "We thought that you were gone! Where have you been? The last time that I saw you was what? Three years ago?"

"There's no need to cry, Kise-kun. I'm here now, right?" Comforting cerulean eyes directed a small, reassuring smile at the screen.

Kise nodded, hastily wiping his tears. "Right, sorry, sorry. But, you know, Akashicchi was so worried about you! He's gone mad, Kurokocchi!" The blond said, chuckling. "Always 'Tetsuya this', 'Tetsuya that'! You'll be coming home soon, right?"

"I..." His head of sky-blue hair bowed down. "I ca-"

"Tetsu, you don't have to. Want me to tell him instead?" A deep voice interjected, ruffling the shorter male's hair.

Kuroko simply nodded. As he was in the middle of standing up, he whispered, "Please don't tell Akashi-kun..."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, shooing the younger male away.


"I honestly don't know why the fuck you're crying." Aomine shifted the laptop as he repositioned himself on his bed, giving a sobbing Kise an unimpressed look.

The blond buried his head in his hands. "But Aominecchi... I just really can't believe that Kurokocchi went through something like that! No one deserves that! Especially not Kurokocchi...!"

"Tch, obviously." A tanned hand idly wrapped the loose cord of his black earphones around its fingers.

"But how come he can't come back here to Japan?"

"Well we- meaning the government or whatever- don't know if he's safe enough to go back. We don't even know if we've caught all of the people involved in that incident. I mean, come on, they're the biggest human trafficking group and they were 'just' supposed to be recovering from what happened 10 years ago. Who knows what will happen to Tetsu if they find him again."

"Then what are they going to do with Kurokocchi?"

"Well my superiors were talking about putting him into like a witness protection protection program. But I told them that I knew him. And obviously, since I'm, like, one of the best in the country-" Kise interrupted him with a snort. "Shut up, you know I am. But anyway, Tetsu was permitted to stay with me and Taiga. He just can't leave the house at all, though, because the media or any of those bastards might find him."

"Mm, okay. I get it now." The model nodded in understanding. "I guess that I'm glad, then, that you and Kagamicchi moved there. If not, then we probably wouldn't have had a chance to know where Kurokocchi is at all! And if your superiors wanted to continue with the witness program thing, doesn't that mean that Kurokocchi would get a new identity and everything?! Or actually, maybe that only happens in movies. Forget that I asked."

"You're stupid, but you're actually right this time," Aomine grinned at the offended face,"I don't know how long that Tetsu has to stay with us until he's free to go, but Captain said something about one to two years."

All of a sudden, there was silence. Aomine looked from his clock to his laptop's screen to see Kise frowning.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just that... I hope Akashicchi can hold on."


Wahh I remember saying that my chapters will become longer but it ended up shorter! But no worries, the next chapter will be longer because it will be a whole year wrapped up in one! Just you wait!
As usual, thank you so much for taking the time to read this! I appreciate every single one of you who follow my story!