Honestly I'm not really sure how well I did when transitioning from one scene to another.

I'm hope this chapter is to your liking.

((I'm screaming inside))


"Is this going to be a regular thing?"

"In a way. To answer your question; yes." Kuroko answered as he arranged together a small but reasonably thick stack of paper together by tapping one end of it onto the table before setting it to the side. He snapped his gaze back over to the black haired teen beside him.

"Until sensei can distribute the next shipping of textbooks she ordered for us, most of us will be sharing textbooks with our first assignment partner," He added.

Ryuu scowled at the teal haired male as he furiously rubbed his eraser of a large pencil streak that ran from one corner of a page to the other which was made in one fluid movement despite the action being accidental.

He grumbled under his breath, expressing his distaste. "Warn a guy will you? My heart dropped for a moment."

He missed a glint of amusement appearing in Kuroko's gaze, preoccupied with cleaning up the mess he had unintentionally made and trying to slow down his rapidly beating heart.

Kuroko's sudden appearance had taken him by surprise. The latter somehow decided to join their tables together like the first time they had language class without giving Ryuu any heads up of his plan beforehand until the very last minute. Ryuu decided not to mention that he had almost stabbed Kuroko in the hand with a mechanical pencil he had been holding.

The black haired teen glowered whilst glaring holes into his notebook, the heat from his glare could be well enough combust into flames if he could, all the while muttering empty death threats under his breath.

Once he was done Ryuu closed his eyes, resisting the temptation to pinch the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath before exhaling. He was going to see more white in his black hair and likely have some years of his life shaved off because of the scare.

"I should invest on getting a bell," He mumbled to himself, not knowing that Kuroko had heard his words.

"A bell?" Kuroko inquired curiously, dragging Ryuu back into reality.

The black haired teen grinned, amused at the fleeting thought that came into mind. "You know those type of bell people put on their cats? That type of bell. Makes it easier for me to tell if you're around or not especially with that nasty habit of yours to suddenly disappear."

Kuroko stared at him, "I'm not a cat."

Ryuu opened his mouth to retort but an image of Kuroko as a cat came into mind. He imagined a blue cat with Kuroko's eyes staring blankly at him, one paw outstretched towards a glass of water set beside him. He can see cat Kuroko pushing the glass of water over the edge regardless of the mess he made. Kuroko could be that type of cat.

A little shit but yet in the same breath, endearing.

He coughed into his hands, hiding a snort threatening to leave his lips much to Kuroko's confusion. Upon noticing the look he is receiving, the black haired teen dismissed the matter with a simple wave of his hand and returned to his book just as their teacher came up to the front.

Unfortunately the idea of cat Kuroko (being a little shit) lingered in his mind and every time Kuroko went to reach his eraser at the top corner of the table, Ryuu fully expected the teal haired teen to flick the eraser away instead.

He had to stop himself from snorting in amusement.


Hoshino cast the black haired teen a concern look when the boy went into one of those strange coughing fits which concerns her when the black haired teen look flustered. She half tempt to send him off to the infirmary and get some rest.

"Are you sick, Igarashi-kun?"

"No-"Igarashi cleared his throat, still red on the face but waved his hand in dismissal, "Just...just chocked on something."

A teal haired teen frowned at the boy, "You're not supposed to eat in class."

Hoshino flinched when she spotted the other boy, barely stopping herself from flinging her rabbit pencil box at the boy and quickly racked her memory if she ever had a student that fitted his description. She ignored several looks of concern and bewilderment from her students seated closer to her.

"I'm not eating anything, you ass!"

"I don't believe you."

"...I will throw your boney ass out the window, Kuroko-kun."

She decided that Igarashi needed a short break and let him rest for a moment – his face is turning slightly red – before she called him and that teal haired boy out to pay attention.

"Try me."

"I swear to god I will–"

Hoshino nodded to herself, standing by to her decision before turning back to the board.


When chemistry period rolled around just before break, Ryuu is distracted by the thought of food. Luckily, this time he brought from home made by his mother. Regardless how people would view the fact as childish, Ryuu liked it when his mother cooked for him despite the times he wanted to make it himself but she was adamant to make his food regardless how she can be clumsy in the kitchen or the times it almost sent Ryuu into cardiac arrest just watching her move about in the kitchen.

It was a simple lunch that can be thrown together in forty five minutes or less, depending if the ingredients had been prepared beforehand. Seasoned rice with some appetizers to go with it and if he was feeling that much hungry, he could eat the sandwich packed away in his bag as a snack.

His stomach ached at the thought but he forced himself to focus on something other than the food back in class where his bag is left behind.

"Igarashi-kun, can you take a five pound bag of potatoes from the cafeteria?" His chemistry teacher requested with a smile on her face, pulling him away from his thoughts, "I've already notified the staff to reserve a bag of potatoes for our project. I would gladly go there and collect it myself but I need to set up the apparatus so I need you to collect it. Just mention my name and they will provide you the bag."

Ryuu paused from twirling his pen about and nodded, saying nothing as he slid off his stool and left the laboratory while his classmates began setting up for chemistry class. He didn't complain being picked by the teacher to collect a bag of potatoes since he was one of the few that had nothing to do while their teacher went about collecting her stuff for her presentation. It also provided him a few moments to walk around, stretch his legs a bit after sitting down for hours.

Unknown to most, a silent follower had left the minute Ryuu walked out of the laboratory.

The chemistry teacher took note of another notebook and pencil box laid besides Ryuu's stuff that the boy had left behind. She blinked owlishly at the sight, puzzled that she had probably missed another of her student.

She mentally went through the list of names of her current class but stopped when a student had called her attention away.

"Sensei!" A student called out from behind her.

She shook her head, discarding such thoughts and reassured herself that maybe the student she had missed might have left for the bathroom. Some students had the habit of going to the toilet before arriving at her laboratory. It's likely that the student had asked Ryuu to take care of their things which explained a lot.

With a soft laugh leaving her lips, she turned on her heel and aided the student that had called her attention.


Ryuu walked down the quiet hallways, taking his time to enjoy the short period of solitude provided to him before adding some strength behind his steps, picking up the pace as his legs took him straight to the direction of the cafeteria. While the male had yet to buy anything from the cafeteria, he took the time to memorize Seirin's layout for future reference.

The hallways were empty for the occasional teacher leaving a classroom. No students aside from him and his 'stalker' are lingering about in the hallways.

Had Ryuu not listen to the footsteps following him, he wouldn't have come to realize that the second person was Kuroko. It did help that Ryuu expected the teal haired male to pull something like that.

The black haired teen stopped at the foot of the staircase and let out a sigh, He had given Kuroko time to reveal himself (he had to brace himself for a scare) and give a legitimate reason why the teen thought it would be a good idea to follow him on his task when the teacher had only requested him, instead of being a good boy and sit in the laboratory like a good student he is.

It's not that his presence is irritating. It was at first but Ryuu grown accustomed to Kuroko and if he were to be honest about it; Kuroko's silence is enjoyable at times.

There is no pressure for the both of them to fill the silence between save for several occasions (read; being annoyed the fuck out of him and his temper flaring like a dynamite).

Rather he feels so much better if Kuroko decided to make himself known and walk besides him instead of behind him unless risk their first encounter from occurring once more.

"Kuroko-kun." He began loudly, not turning to find Kuroko. "Just walk beside me will you? I feel like I have a stalker following me instead."

He waited for a reply but after a moment there was no answer.

Slightly irritated that Kuroko might had left him talking to air like an idiot, the black haired male shoved his hands into his pockets and began stomping down the stairs angrily. If one student were present to see Ryuu's foul mood, they would have jumped several steps and risk having to strain their ankles just to avoid from having to be the focus of his ire.

"You might fall if you walk like that," Kuroko appeared by his side, startling Ryuu with his sudden appearance.

"MOTHERFUC–"Ryuu stopped short and took a deep breath because screaming obscenities will do nothing but attract unwanted attention. He debated between throwing himself down the stairs or throw Kuroko down the stair and make it seem like an accident because he is one hundred percent done with Kuroko's disappearing act.

"That's called homicide," Kuroko inquired.

The black haired teen blinked before realizing he had spoken his thoughts out loud.

"It's not homicide when it's an 'accident', right?" He wolfishly grinned at the shorter teen.

Kuroko remained unfazed by the grin and simply stared back. "Still homicide."

"Not if I can stage it to be an accident." Ryuu replied before diverting the topic away from dead bodies and murder. He was certain that if the topic continued on the same track, Kuroko would question how he knew such information on how to frame murder as suicide. The internet has many aspiring writers finding information for their original stories and most swear that searching how to clean up blood is part of their research. "Let's hurry up and grab the bag before sensei decided that we skipped her class."

Kuroko nodded in reply and waited.

Ryuu stared.

He stared back.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you." Replied Kuroko.

The black haired teen arched an eyebrow at the other but decided not to retort. With a short sigh leaving his lips, Ryuu reached his hand forward making a grab for Kuroko but hesitated at the last moment. For a split second he stood on the fence weather to do it or not, pull Kuroko with him or dismiss the boy once more. His fingers curled around Kuroko's wrist before his mind caught up with the act and by the time he realized what he had done, he tugged Kuroko closer.

"Well then," He began softly, surprise that his body acted on its own. He dared not to look at Kuroko in the eye and turned his back to the teal haired teen, "Let's get going."

Surprising enough Kuroko did not pull his arm away or made a comment about it.

They walked down empty hallways with Ryuu pulling Kuroko along, the former feeling Kuroko's pulse under his fingertips and the latter feeling the warmth from Ryuu's fingers warped around his wrist.

A reminder that while the hallways are empty, they weren't alone.


Ryuu received a toothy smile once the hand off was made to which he returned albeit reluctantly as he tucked the five pound bag of potatoes under his arm while keeping an eye on Kuroko whom peered into the kitchen curiously.

"I'm sorry for the trouble!" The old lady that made the handoff said with her hands clasped together in front of her, "We were busy and it took time finding it."

"Its fine, "Ryuu replied with a wave of his hand, "Thank you for your time. Sensei will be happy to know that she got her bag of potatoes for chemistry."

The corner of her eyes crinkled as the smile on her lips stretched, "Such a nice boy you are. Head on now before you get in trouble."

He nodded in reply, fighting down a blush threatening to appear on his cheeks and gave her a slight bow before walking over to Kuroko. He hooked a finger on the collar of Kuroko's jacket and pulled hard, dragged the teen away, ignoring protest coming from the teal haired teen until they were back into the building.

"C'mon. I just want to get this over with." Ryuu mumbled as they made their way back with the package on hand. He unhooked his finger from Kuroko's collar with a warning not to wander off and watched the shorter teen at the corner of his eyes as they retraced their steps back to the laboratory.

As Ryuu placed a hand over the stair railing, just as he was about to start climbing, the teen pulled his hand away with a disgust look on his face. Someone had the audacity to put a used chewing gum on the stair railing. A shiver went down his spine when felt the chewed chewing up made a sound and to make matters worse, it was still wet with someone's saliva.

He made a noise at the back of his throat, too disgust to describe the feeling. The sound he made caused Kuroko to turn towards the male with a small tilt of his head. The teal haired male barely opened his mouth to question Ryuu but was cut short when a bag of potatoes were shoved into his chest.

"Hold it." Ryuu ordered between gritted teeth, his tone deterred Kuroko from disobeying. He accepted the bag and trailed after the black haired teen who began stomping his way in a different direction.

"Where are you going?" the teal haired teen questioned.

He got a sharp reply, noting anger in Ryuu's tone. "The toilet."

Ryuu kicked open the toilet door, ignoring Kuroko's scolding behind him and made a beeline towards the sink where three students were lounging around. It didn't take much for him to recognize that the students were delaying their time in the toilet, hoping to skip at least several minutes before their class ends.

They jumped up, startled by the noise when Ryuu barged in. They were panicked at first, assuming it had been their teachers checking up on them but when their gaze landed on the black haired teen, slight annoyance appeared on their features. One glared at him with accusing eyes as if he was the bane of their existence to which Ryuu returned with equal vigor. The black haired teen is already angry at the idiot who was lazy to dispose their food properly and the teen was provoking him to attack. He reacted accordingly.

The teen recoiled back as if he was struck in the face before scrambling out of the way, letting Ryuu gain access to the sink he had been leaning on. Grumbling under his breath, he turned on the water faucet and began scrubbing his hands until they were raw or until the feeling of disgust went away.

He ignored the soft whispers being shared by the trio behind him, giving not a single fuck about what the boys were discussing about.

"Why are you not in class?"

Hearing Kuroko's voice reminded Ryuu that the teal haired teen was around, having to yet leave his side. He had forgotten about him for a moment. He looked up from the sink and caught a flash of blue in the mirror, his heart jumped for a moment before his gaze landed on Kuroko's form, the teal haired teen standing just before the trio. By comparison they tower over him with their height.

That did not help that Kuroko decided to hold the bag of potatoes like one does with a toy or doll.

The trio let out a yell of surprise, backing away from Kuroko once they noticed that the teen was standing before them while failing their arms about wildly. The three went into different directions while still yelling at the top of their lungs. One headed straight for the doors, the second went to the other side of the toilet in hopes that he could put some distance between them while the last one headed straight for Ryuu, not knowing the black haired male stood in his way.

The teen crashed into Ryuu who stumbled forward due to the force when the former had back peddled away from Kuroko. Ryuu had to throw his arms up to stabilize both himself and the teen that had collided into him by placing his hands on the mirror in front of him. His wet hands made the job trickier but he managed to hold up.

A loud crack resonated in the bathroom followed by the sounds of glass shattering, the sound ceased the trio from screaming but it also drew all attention from the occupants to stare at the source of the noise.

Ryuu stared at his left hand, watching as the cuts made by the shattered pieces from the mirror began to bleed. Rivulets of blood trailing down his skin before landing into the sink where the running faucet washed it away.

He stood frozen just like everyone else, his mind blank that no coherent thought came into mind.

"Oh shit." The teen that had made a dash to the door cursed out loud before scrambling out of the bathroom with his friends, leaving Ryuu and Kuroko to deal with the mess. The noise that they had made earlier might have called attention from nearby teachers and there was no way that they wanted to be caught in the aftermath.

"Igarashi-kun."

Red blood rolled down his skin.

"Igarashi-kun."

His cuts began to sting.

"Igarashi-kun."

Ryuu reached for a small mirror shard stuck in his skin, ready to pull it out but his hand was slapped away by another hand, deterring the teen from touching the shard.

"Ryuu."

At the sound of his name, it jolted the black haired teen from his frozen stupor to looked up at the caller and found himself staring into blue eyes.

Kuroko gingerly grabbed Ryuu's injured hand while maintaining eye contact with the teen, blandly ignoring the blood staining his fingers and used a white handkerchief he had pulled out from his pocket to stop the bleeding. He made sure that Ryuu had a grip on the cloth, applying a small amount of pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding before they reached help.

Kuroko tighten the knot he made, satisfied with his work before pulling Ryuu by the shirt and ushered the black haired teen to the infirmary. The bag of potatoes they were supposed to bring was left forgotten on the bathroom floor.


Ryuu bowed down repeatedly, words of apology spewing past his lips while the teacher continued to frown at him. He grimaced at the severe scolding he got for getting himself injured. In all honesty the wound he got was nothing like the wound he got from middle school but he made no mention of it to Hoshino-sensei.

"I'm sorry, sensei." Ryuu mumbled softly, hoping to appease his upset teacher. The petite women before him was someone to not trifle with if one were careless enough to force her hand despite her adoration to rabbits. She has the determination and will fight back with everything she got.

All her anger melted away at his words, leaving behind a tired and concern women in its wake. Ryuu pursed his lips together when the sight reminded him of his mother and felt a stab of guilt to his chest.

"Understand that you nearly gave us all a fright when Kuroko-kun told us that you got injured," She said, "Had your injury been worse than it should have, we would have to call the ambulance."

Her eyes flickered to his bandaged hand where the glass shards had dug into his skin, creating long shallow cuts but repairable enough to be dealt in the infirmary. He followed her line of sight and tugged his sleeve lower to hide the bandages; a futile effort as his fingers were also wrapped in bandages and his sleeves could not hide them from sight.

Ryuu bowed to his teacher, "I'm sorry sensei."

The women sighed, "We had no choice but to call your mother–"

His heart dropped.

"Don't!" Ryuu hastily interrupted, standing up straight and stared pleadingly at his homeroom teacher.

He can't have his mother drop out from work for a son that did nothing but cause her troubles. His flaws shadowing his good characteristic.

It was bad enough that his mother had to work overtime to fund for his school, putting his wellbeing and happiness before her own. He had seen her come home with dark bags underneath her eyes, so tired to the bone that most of the time coming home from work she would sleep on the coach than in her bed. He did not want to put more stain on both her physically and emotionally with the problems he can deal with.

It was his mess.

His homeroom teacher shot him a weird look and he gulped, trying to form a legitimate reason to why his mother cannot know about his injury.

"I–"he began shakily, "I can't have her know about this. She cannot know about this."

Her eyes soften, either from understanding or concern, Ryuu could not tell. "I'm sorry Igarashi-kun but you had gotten injured on school premises with injuries that could have landed you in the hospital. Your mother has the right to know the wellbeing of her only child."

Ryuu diverted his gaze away from his teacher, stubbornly staring at anything but the women before him once realizing the effect of her words. He let out a resigned sigh, she was right, his mother has every right to worry about him.

"Your mother will come to school to pick you up. Until then grab your bag and wait in the infirmary." His homeroom teacher ordered to which he complied without any complaint. He gave one last bow to his teacher before turning on his heel and left the faculty office.

"How's your hand?"

Golden eyes flickered to the side, seeing nothing for a moment before seeing blue. Ryuu moved his gaze away from Kuroko to stare at his bandaged hand. He flexed it, feeling the cuts sting under the bandages wrapped tightly around it before dropping his hand.

"I thought you left." Ryuu noted, seeing Kuroko standing beside the faculty door likely waiting for him to come out since the teal haired teen had been shooed away by the nurse after telling the startled young lady the story to Ryuu's injuries.

"I didn't." A pause. "You didn't answer my question."

"Fine." He replied, "Hurts but its fine."

Kuroko kept his gaze trained on the bandaged hand before meeting Ryuu's gaze. "Are you going to the hospital?"

The black haired teen shrugged his shoulders, choosing to not answer and began navigating through the crowd of students that left their class for break. He showed no weakness, letting his hand lay limp on his side instead of cradling it to his chest. Several onlookers stared at his bandaged hands, talking in hush tones to their friends by theorizing how the male had gotten his wound.

Rumors flew over Ryuu's head to which he ignored, being preoccupied with the thought of his enraged mother storming the school gates to throttle her reckless son.

Reaching class in less than a few minutes, the black haired teen made a beeline for his table and began shoving all his stuff into his bag. In his haste, his pen rolled off the table and landed on the ground near his foot which the teen had not took notice of.

It was until he had slung his bag over his shoulder, someone jab him between his ribcage. A curse left Ryuu's lips, taken aback by the sudden but very familiar assault to his ribs.

"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed, earning several disapproving stares from his female classmates but he ignored them for one particular student. "Kuroko-kun!"

Kuroko held out a pen right before Ryuu's face, "You forgot this." He said.

"You could had given it to me properly instead of that...unorthodox method."

"I did. You just ignored me."

Ryuu let out a grunt and snatched the pen from the other teen, shoving it into his pocket where his fingers brush against something foreign. He paused, allowing his fingers to run over the strange fabric that is not part of his pants and furrowed his eyebrows together. Grabbing the strange object between his index finger and thumb, he pulled it out and blinked.

Hanging between his fingers was a white handkerchief stained with blood that began to dry. Blotches of brown patches were seen and it was then Ryuu realized the handkerchief had belong to Kuroko who used it to stop his bleeding.

"O-oh." Ryuu stammered, "I didn't mean to take this or stain it."

Kuroko dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "Its fine."

"I'll clean it before returning it to you." Ryuu folded the bloodstained handkerchief and pocketed it, "Sorry about that."

"I can give you my number so if I forgot, you can remind me." Kuroko offered, "You have a phone right?"

"Well yeah–"A slip of paper was thrust into his face, with one quick glance he could read a phone number written on the paper. Both surprised and speechless, Ryu took the paper and shoved it into his pocket. "That was quick."

"I thought beforehand."

"Igarashi Ryuu?" a student called from the doorway, peering inside nervously to see the person they had been ask to search for. Ryuu raised his bandaged hand up indicating he had heard the person that called his name. The female student that had been sent to fetch him let out a terrified squeak and had hid herself behind the door before peering out to stare fearfully at him. Several students shot her a look of sympathy.

"See you another day, you weirdo." Ryuu clapped Kuroko on the shoulder and made his way forward.

He received a soft reply. "Take care, Igarashi-kun."


Kuroko let out a breath he was holding and threw an arm over his eyes, allowing sleep to pull on his conscious. Having done his homework and complete his nightly routine, the teal haired teen could finally sink into his bed and sleep.

In the silence of his dark room, his phone began to vibrate on his bedside table.

He made a gurgling sound at the back of his throat, slightly annoyed that the tranquil atmosphere of his room is interrupted by his phone and made a blind grab for it.

It took several tries before his phone is in his grasp.

He looked at the notification, squinting when an unfamiliar number greeted his sight before unlocking his phone to check the message that had been sent by the unfamiliar number.

'Thank you.'

A small smile appeared on his lips once his head had made the connection and a feeling of warmth blossomed in his chest. He tapped on the number and made it one of his contacts before sending a short message to the person.

'You're welcome, Igarashi-kun.'


Hoshino is their homeroom teacher. The one that likes rabbits. A lot.

Hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a vote and a comment!

My opinion/thoughts about this chapter (in case you're wondering what the heck just happened):

It's development between Ryuu and Kuroko. Ryuu slowly grows attached to Kuroko like how Kuroko grows more attached to Ryuu. A friendship - a solid friendship where both parties properly acknowledge each other compared to their interactions in previous chapters- is made. (I dropped enough scenes of those two like Ryuu willingly reach out to Kuroko and thanking him or Kuroko looking out for Ryuu when he got hurt.)

((On another note; I dropped a hint that will foreshadow Ryuu's character development in future chapters C: I feel so sneaky.))