Chapter Four
"Nijmura-senpai, you're close," Kuroko intoned quietly, trying not to get unnerved at how closely the captain was staring at him.
"How are you going to play with your eye like that?" Nijimura replied instead, bent at the waist in order to keep his face close to Kuroko's, narrow eyed as he stared at the boy in front of him. One of his hands was firmly on Kuroko's shoulder and, while he hadn't elaborated why he was keeping close and maintaining contact, Kuroko guessed it was because Nijimura would lose Kuroko the moment he let go.
He wasn't wrong. As soon as he was free, Kuroko would go back to mingling (hiding) and not drawing attention to himself.
"I can see out of it perfectly fine, Nijimura-senpai," Kuroko bluntly replied. "It may look bad but that is because it is new. It hasn't swollen any more since its conception and so it will not swell any further."
"You didn't have it yesterday." Nijimura leaned back but kept his hand firmly in place.
"I was only hit this morning, Nijimura-senpai."
Kuroko watched, amused, as Nijimura's face twisted weakly through a myriad of emotions before the captain asked, deadly serious, "Do I have to kill someone for you, kouhai-chan."
"Nijimura-senpai," Kuroko replied, doing his absolute best not to sigh in exasperation. "You don't need to do anything."
"Damnit Kuroko, let me be cool. Let me be the cool senpai."
"Nijimura-senpai, can we please just play basketball."
"But your eye - !"
"Is perfectly functional."
"So cold," Nijimura said bluntly at that, though there were faint creases around his eyes to indicate amusement. "So long as you aren't getting picked on and I don't have to knock some heads together."
"The person who cause this accident was very repentant, Nijimura-senpai. While your concern is appreciated, you need not take any actions as a response."
"Is it someone we know?"
"Yes. And I much prefer Aomine-kun alive, Nijimura-senpai, so please. Don't fight for my virtue."
Nijimura spluttered at that, head turned away so he could give a bark of laughter, hand briefly tightening on Kuroko's shoulder.
"You're a sharp one, Kuroko! Where have you been hiding this comedic side of you?"
Kuroko decided not to mention they'd only known each for a day, not even that. It was closer to three hours than a full twenty four. There was no comedic side for him to hide.
"I'm glad to be amusing to you, Nijimura-senpai. Can we play basketball now?"
"I like you," Nijimura said firmly, patting Kuroko's shoulder enthusiastically and leaving his hand there. He then made the mistake of turning his head to the right in order to yell, hand loose enough for Kuroko to slip free. The younger team member didn't even hesitate as he slipped free and absconded with a thankful exhale.
Nijimura's angry hiss of, "Damnit Kuroko," ended up frightening a nearby third stringer freshman and Kuroko had to lift his wrist to his mouth in order not to laugh.
His amusement was short lived because not two minutes after he'd escaped and Nijimura had started setting up teams, a heavy arm wrapped around his shoulders, yanking him into someone's warm side.
"Yo Tetsu. Where'd you disappear to at lunch?" Aomine's voice was warm, his breath ruffling Kuroko's hair.
"It was too loud for me. I left."
"You should have said; I'd've shut that blond idiot up."
"Aomine-kun, you were being loud yourself."
Aomine's blustering came to an abrupt stop and he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck, looking to the side with apparent chagrin.
"H-He just really riled me up. I couldn't help it. Sorry, Tetsu."
Kuroko found his mouth curving in a small smile at Aomine's actions, and gently patted his arm with a murmured, "Apology accepted, Aomine-kun."
A wide grin split Aomine's face, and he gathered Kuroko up in a loose headlock, scrubbing a hand roughly over Kuroko's head in order to ruffle up his hair. After, he simply draped his arm over Kuroko's shoulders and Kuroko took a very brief moment to lean into Aomine's side, leeching up the warmth and trying to ignore the trickle and flutter of memories (a dream, it was all a dream, he reminded himself firmly) in the back of his head.
"Hopefully we're in the same team today, Kuroko," Aomine said absently, eyes casting about the gymnasium. "I don't want to be on the wrong side of those passes of yours."
"If we're on the same team, you'll be receiving those passes regardless, Aomine-kun."
"Ah. Right. Damn." Aomine didn't sound too put out, excitement threading through his voice. "Never mind. It'll still be fun trying to catch one."
Absentmindedly, Kuroko prodded around his eye at the puffy skin. The aspirin had started to do their job, the dull ache in the socket fading but had instead been replaced by a sense of lethargy, his limbs feeling low and heavy.
"Does it hurt?" Aomine asked, uncharacteristically low, and Kuroko watched as he shuffled like a scolded dog.
"Another member of the club, Midorima-kun, offered me some painkillers. They're working. Don't worry Aomine-kun."
"Midorima? You shouldn't be taking tablets from strangers Tetsu, that's dangerous."
"They were clearly packaged and labelled as aspirin, Aomine-kun. I sincerely doubt someone of our age could get their hands on some life altering drugs. Midorima-kun scored the three-pointer yesterday afternoon, he was on the opposing team to me."
Aomine stayed quiet for a very long moment and then asked, "Who?"
Kuroko scanned the gym, before he lifted an arm and pointed.
"Him? Tetsu, he looks super shady, who carries around a plastic sword and offers out random drugs to people? Plus, his hair is green, that makes him look even weirder!"
"Aomine-kun, you're one of the last people who can complain about hair colours." Kuroko pressed a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn, and blinked slowly. "If you'll excuse me, until it's time to practice, I'm going to take a seat."
"Tetsu?" Aomine asked, voice filled with concern though his attention was across the court, where a small group of students had started something involving a basketball.
"There are still people we need to wait for to begin club. I'm more likely to get bumped into if I just mill around with you, so I'm going to sit."
Aomine looked over at him for a long minute, stern and serious enough that Kuroko almost felt deja-vu, of a moment they were on opposite ends of the court in a fierce battle. In response, Kuroko just tilted his head and raised a questioning eyebrow.
Grinning widely, Aomine patted Kuroko firmly on the shoulder and jogged across the room.
Kuroko padded over to the benches lining one end of the gym, accidentally startling no less than four people, and finally sank down onto his backside, his eyelids feeling strangely heavy.
He didn't realise he'd even fallen asleep until he woke up with his head on something soft and a hand gently nudging his shoulder.
Licking his suddenly dry lips, Kuroko struggled groggily upwards, gritty eyes squinting open, and he was surprised to see the gym suddenly bathed in shades of orange, the sun already beginning to set. A startled glance to the clock showed that he had missed the official end of practice by at least quarter of an hour.
"Are you okay Tetsuya?" a voice asked to the left of him, and Kuroko compulsively wiped his mouth with his wrist as he turned, blearily peering at Akashi, who he noticed still had a hand set on his shoulder.
"Ah…" Kuroko began slowly, and his voice broke on a yawn.
Something unreadable and almost fond flittered across Akashi's face.
"You fell asleep at the beginning of practice," Akashi explained. "Nobody could find you. It was only until we realised, between swapping groups around, that Daiki-san had disappeared too."
Akashi's eyes flittered past Kuroko, and Kuroko turned to the other side, unable to stop another yawn.
Sat upright, with a jacket folded on his thighs and his back leaning against the wall, was a snoozing Aomine. Kuroko felt a little mortification well up inside of him at realising where his head had been resting, but Aomine was still lost in a deep sleep and Kuroko couldn't help but envy him just a little.
"If you were tired, perhaps you shouldn't have come to practice."
"No…" Kuroko said, clearing his throat quietly at the scratchiness a mistimed sleep had caused him. "No, I wasn't tired until shortly after Midorima-kun allowed me some of the painkillers from his first aid kit."
"An adverse reaction, while rare, should never be unexpected." Akashi ran his gaze over Aomine, and somehow Kuroko couldn't stop himself from shuddering. "However, Daiki-san did a grand job of taking advantage of the situation."
Kuroko rubbed the heel of his palm into his better eye absently, pushing out the grit and feeling a little more human for it.
"If Aomine-kun is tired too, surely he can't be begrudged for it."
Akashi's eyes flickered back down to Kuroko, his expression unreadable. Eventually, a small smile crossed his lips very briefly before he murmured, "I don't think we're quite on the same page Tetsuya, but I will concede."
Suddenly, Akashi lifted a hand to Kuroko's face, quick enough for the other to flinch back a little, startled. Akashi did not pause, and instead cupped his hand around Kuroko's cheek, the pad of his thumb skimming over the bruise under Kuroko's injured eye.
"You should be more aware of your surroundings next time," Akashi chastised quietly and Kuroko felt his stomach roil uncomfortably, unused to seeing an affectionate Akashi. But, thinking of it that way gave him a headache. This Akashi, that Akashi. It was too much.
Instead of thinking on it for too long, he blithely replied, "I think people should learn to be more aware of me instead."
Akashi's fingers drifted so they were curled under Kuroko's jaw, strangely intimate.
"Well, where would be the fun in that?"
Before Kuroko could think of a way to get out of the rapidly declining situation, there was a loud yawn from behind him, warm breath rustling the hair at the back of his neck and Aomine muttered, with a sleep logged voice, "Tetsu? You up?"
Akashi abruptly withdrew his hand and stood up, dusting his jacket down.
"There is a practice match with another district school next week. As part of the first string, the both of you are expected to attend."
"Whaaa?" Aomine asked, voice stretching on a yawn. "Really? Yes!" He leaned forward, sprawling an arm around Kuroko's shoulder. Inadvertently catching Kuroko in a loose headlock as he rubbed at his face, Aomine asked, "But how do you know?"
"If you had been awake, you would have heard from the captain," Akashi replied, voice oddly cold now that Aomine was awake. "I'd suggest the two of you leave, before the gym is locked."
Aomine lurched further upright, nearly falling off the bench as he twisted to catch sight of the clock. At seeing what the time was, not as late as expected, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, Tetsu. Let's get ice cream."
Kuroko wasn't sure he imagined the twitch in Akashi's back as the other walked away, Aomine's words echoing around the gym.
Rather than drawing attention to it, he tuned to Aomine and said, voice deadpan and quiet, "As you suggested, Aomine-kun, 'it's a date'."
It was worth the phrasing just to see Aomine turn red to the tips of his ears and try to talk his way out of it.
The next morning, his eye looking less puffy and more normal, Kuroko felt strangely loathe to enter the classroom, lingering in the hallway. The way Akashi had been acting the day before had unnerved him more than he wanted to admit.
However, it hadn't been the only thing on his mind. After being walked home by Aomine, an unexpectedly chivalrous act, he had absconded to his bedroom, booted up his laptop and searched 'Seirin High'.
The building was so familiar it was like a punch to the gut and there was nothing Kuroko could do to disperse the nausea other than hug the toilet bowl for a half-hour.
His mother had trotted by within the first ten minutes, one of the only people to truly and properly see him all the time, and had clucked and fussed as she brushed back his hair and coddled him the whole time.
She had told him he didn't need to go to school the next day if there was no reason to, but Kuroko still found himself at the end of the corridor and staring at the sign that labelled his classroom.
Chewing his lip thoughtfully, Kuroko instead scurried by the classroom, head ducked low and took the corner that led to the staircases, taking the stairs two at a time upwards until he was on the roof and could breathe in great big lungfuls of fresh air.
Sinking down and hugging his knees, Kuroko stared at the tiles of the roof and didn't realise how long he had just sat there for before the bell was suddenly ringing and first period had ended.
Kuroko could hardly remember what he had been thinking of, only knowing it was along the lines of 'how would he find the others?'
Kagami wasn't even in the continent, let alone the country and Kuroko didn't even begin to know where to look for the other members of the team, like Hyuuga or Kiyoshi. There was no way to know which middle schools they went to, or even if they were local, and Kuroko didn't know how to find them.
If they exist, a small part of him whispered and he couldn't help but agree.
But moping wouldn't help him, and easing himself to his feet with a soft sigh, Kuroko decided to do something better with his time rather than sulk.
The second gym was blissfully empty at this time of day, generally reserved for clubs anyway, and Kuroko set about jogging a few laps in order to clear his mind and warm up. In the future-dream-whatever it was his stamina seemed to have panned out as 'dismal' at best. He was going to change it, whether or not it was true.
At the fourth lap his thighs were burning and his face was slick with sweat, his gym uniform sticking uncomfortably to his skin. As he came to the end of the lap, he slowly crouched and pressed his face into his hands, uncaring how his fringe stuck out between his fingers haphazardly.
Several minutes of heaving breaths, that may or may not have had sobs interspersed between them, Kuroko straightened out, his legs crying out in protest as he padded over to the supplies closet. Flipping the latch over, he soon emerged with a basketball, and dribbled it absentmindedly, losing himself to the sound of the ball hitting the wooden floor over and over again.
He practiced his passing as well as he could without a partner and then, curiosity nipping at him, he practiced every move he could remember from what he had seen, aside from the ignite pass. When he'd exhausted everything he could do while not in a match, he tried to shoot and felt more and more nostalgic as each attempt failed.
By the time he looked at the clock again he had started to feel sick, everything about him trembling, and he quietly sank into a cross legged position, raking his fingers through his hair.
Thinking about it was unexpectedly painful, but he couldn't just forget it. Whether or not it had actually happened was debateable, because dreams didn't just come true. There was no way to explain the muscle memory or recognising certain people by their faces and movements but…
Kuroko groaned, uncharacteristically loud and dropped back, sprawled out on the gym floor and taking in deep breaths as he hid his face in his hands again.
When Kuroko actually attended class it was just before lunch ended. He trudged into the classroom, feeling exhausted and sore, and when he sank into his seat, everything about him protested.
Laying his bag on the table, Kuroko pressed his face to the scratchy material and let his arms hang limply either side of him. The hard corner of his lunchbox dug into his cheek but he didn't bother to move.
There was the bustle of movement around him as students entered the classroom but still he didn't look up, and didn't even move until a hand settled on his upper back, gentle and wary, as if someone were tending to a frightened animal.
"I did not expect to see you today, Tetsuya."
"Akashi-kun," Kuroko told his bag, and still did not move. There was a lump in his throat that wouldn't shift, and he didn't know what else he could say.
"Are you well?"
Kuroko wondered how he should answer and instead went with the vague answer of, "I will be, Akashi-kun."
Slowly daring to lift his head, Kuroko turned to look at Akashi who was appraising him closely. Eventually the redhead withdrew his hand and turned to his bag, rifling through it with a certain preciseness that put Kuroko on edge for no apparent reason.
"Here." Akashi held out a sheaf of notes, each page neatly labelled and the writing near impeccable. "The notes for the four periods you missed. Take as long as you need. If you grades fall at the beginning of the year you might struggle to bring them back up and that means no basketball."
"Akashi-kun," Kuroko suddenly said, even as he curled his fingers around the small stack of papers. "What's your favourite part about playing basketball?"
For once, Akashi looked stuck. Something near his eyebrow twitched a handful of times and he actually glanced away for a handful of seconds, his throat working as he swallowed.
"Perhaps I have yet to find that out. And how about you, Tetsuya."
Akashi was lying and Kuroko wasn't so sure he wanted to know why. Rather, he mulled over his answer, eyes skimming over the first page of work he'd missed and slowly replied, "I think it's the teamwork. Working together for a shared goal and having fun together, no matter the outcome."
Unable to help himself, he bitterly thought of a future that might have been or wasn't to be, where they all drifted apart in the name of victory, friendships gutted and thrown under the bus.
Abruptly, he thought of the time when they faced Meiko Junior High, when he had phoned Ogiwara in the aftermath and heard the devastation in his voice, at the realisation he had been part of the incident that would push his childhood friend away from something he loved.
Kuroko shot to his feet, startling Kise who had just spotted him from the doorway and was exuberantly crossing the room towards him. The sudden screech of chair legs against a hard floor silenced the room for a split second, but voices filled the empty space soon enough.
"Tetsuya?" Akashi asked, almost warily.
The nausea from the night before was back and Kuroko shook his head shortly at Akashi before quickly darting for the door, brushing past Kise and ignoring as he was followed both by the blond and by Akashi.
He'd barely managed to get the bathroom stall open before he was losing his breakfast and what he'd managed of his lunch all in one, fingers white knuckled as he clenched them on his knees from his knelt position.
What had started off as confusion, scattered thoughts here and there, had turned into something he couldn't wrap his head around. Seirin High existed despite the fact Kuroko had never seen it before, the others, like Akashi and Kise were real, his friend, Ogiwara (he was so, so sorry and had no idea how to say it) attended Meiko Junior High a place Ogiwara had only mentioned in passing.
His body roiled again and he folded an arm against his stomach, only now aware of fingers brushing back his hair, of something cool on the back of his neck.
"Ryouta, tell the teacher that Kuroko and myself are going to be absent."
Kise, hovering in the cramped doorway of the stall, nodded quickly and shot out of the bathroom, the door swinging shut with a bang behind him.
"If you were unwell you should have stayed at home," Akashi berated quietly, rustling through his pockets before brandishing a handkerchief. "You're no use to anyone, let alone yourself, like this."
Kuroko had absolutely no idea what to do with the handkerchief, but then Akashi was, for lack of better phrasing, 'mother-henning' him, dabbing his face with the handkerchief, and then disappearing briefly, only to come back with the piece of cloth slightly damp.
"Akashi-kun," Kuroko began, ready to say he could take care of himself, but something crossed Akashi's face that stopped the words in his throat and left him bewildered as to what it could be.
"I will escort you to the office and have them call your parents," Akashi said firmly. "And while you wait, I will get your bag."
Kuroko swallowed several times despite the rancid taste in his mouth, licked his dry lips, and simply whispered, "Thank you."
As soon as his mother had ushered him into the house and up the stairs, Kuroko had found himself curling up into his bed, hearing his mother hustle back and forth as she tucked him up, turned on a humidifier and took his temperature, just north of thirty eight degrees centigrade.
He slept fitfully, catching snatches of dreams that drifted away from between his fingers, dreams of Aomine turning his back to Kuroko, of no more fist-bumps, of a time where winning became more important than playing the game and backs were turned against him.
The first crushing defeat as a team in Seirin, fists clenched on wooden flooring, the echoes of the opposing team cheering in his ears.
When he next woke up, it was to his mother gently shaking his shoulder, holding the phone to her shoulder to muffle her voice as she murmured softly to him.
"Kuroko, there's a friend on the phone for you. A 'Kagami-kun'?"
And we end this chapter with the dreaded cliffhanger.
Because I'm mean. Sorry. There's less comedy in this one, more seriousness as Kuroko starts to actually question what happened, and why are people acting differently to how they should (when actually he doesn't know how they should be acting and all it causes is one big headache for Kuroko.)
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!