Haizaki stared at the blue haired kid that had entered their room. "Who the fuck're you?!" Kuroko didn't take offense to the other's language. In fact the others language reminded him slightly of Kagami. Though Kagami wouldn't have been quite as open with his language to someone who he had never met. He had to play the role of son of the most prized advisor of the emperor after all. Still he couldn't condone such language being spoken to him. He was after all the heir of the empire. So repressing the smile that had wanted appear at the sound of language use so similar to Kagami he coolly looked at the attractive male that had dared to use such language against him. "I'm the son of the foolish man who made a deal with you." Haizaki looked the other over.

"So he send you as our reward ? You might have a pretty face and a tight ass but what we did for your father was worth slightly more than a night with a whore." He said with a sneer. While Akashi and Kise had exchanged a worried look when they heard that Tetsuya knew that his father had made a deal with them, now they were outright alarmed, their eyes carefully taking in the expression and aura that had been swirling lazily around the blue haired boy. While Tetsuya's expression had remained blank his aura was now angrily lashing out at nearby objects…..and people. Teppei jumped out of the way with a loud "Woah!" a gust of wind cutting of the path of the aura that had started to materialize into water . Kise had already moved behind Kuroko, his own powers active to protect himself and sooth Tetsuya's anger.

Careful of the hand that was laying on a dagger sheath, he slowly engulfed the smaller male in a hug hoping that nymphs didn't have violent reactions to emotions manipulating powers being used on them. When the other male didn't shove him away he pulled him closer, being careful to leave the other the possibility to move away. When he didn't do so the blue head ended up with a soft thud against the other's chest. When he saw the water lashing out at him only stopped a centimeter or two from his eyes he felt grateful that he had taken the precaution of raising a shield before closing in on the little one. Bending his head so that he could lay it on the others shoulder he softly whispered into the other's ear well aware that all the other occupants of the room could hear him. "Shhh, little one. He didn't mean it in such way. You are too valuable to be such thing. He'll apologize." He ended with a glare at the male with braids.

Haizaki protested. "I will do no such thing!" For a moment the silence and tension was almost touchable before the soft and calm voice of Akashi cut through it. "You will." Haizaki's eyes widened. Akashi never forced him to apologize to anyone unless they were in demon high society. Not even to the most powerful of emperors he had ever needed to apologize. Because in the end they were all silly puny humans . They were there for the pleasure of slaughter, sex and now and then a soul. So why did he have to apologize to this small little boy who smelt entirely…..Not human? But how could the boy possibly smell of supernatural creature? His father was obviously human and this frail little boy couldn't possibly have enough power to activate his creature gen. But the fact was staring him in the face. Quite literally. The boy, whose aura had calmed slightly since Kise's whispers, was staring blankly at him. If the boy didn't have such attractive features the other would have already compared him to a fish. Those also looked so blank.

Alas pouty peach pink lips and clear blue eyes didn't allow him to make such comparison. Damn it, someday he would find someone with whom he could make that comparison. Now however he would apologize having heard the underlying threat in their leader's voice if he didn't.

"You have my apologies,….So what are you that makes you important? Cause I can assure you Akashi wouldn't give shit if you were human. Or are you the reward that he chose? Your soul seems pure enough. It isn't tainted with light nor with darkness. A rather rare cuisine. It isn't often you stumble upon a soul who is neither good nor evil. Who almost seems removed from his surroundings. Neutral creatures have such souls. Though rare. Elementists sometimes have such souls as well. The thing is, if they have such souls it means one thing. They don't care. They don't care what happens to their surroundings. They don't care if people die around them. They don't give a shit if whole countries are destroyed. They'll have a few things or people they'll care about and for the rest as far as they're concerned the whole world could rot away."

Kuroko swallowed thickly. He remembered his mom's words before she spelled him invisible. "Don't worry sweety. You'll get over it." Tears had been trailing down her face and her eyes had seemed slightly bitter as she had spoken those words. At the time he hadn't even known what she meant by 'it'. She had seemed to have trouble with admitting it. It probably had hurt her to know that the person she loved the most wasn't attached to her. Because he had loved her, he had, but he hadn't been attached to her. He would have done anything she asked for when she was with him and wouldn't even feel the need to complain because he knew he had been making her happy. If she was gone for a few weeks he was never able to say that he had missed her. He had been shocked that she had said that to him. But she had been right. While her death had left a hole in his life, it hadn't really hurt. He had felt slightly lonely since she had been the only person who made daily time for him but her death hadn't really hurt him. Not like it hurt normal people.

Not like it had hurt his father. His father even though he had been the one to murder her had locked himself in his room for days. One day Kuroko had sneaked in his father's room wanting to ask why he had done what he had. But the sight that had greeted him had left him unable to say anything. The room was in shambles. Everything in the room that was capable of being broken was broken. Cuts had ran across the hysterical male's back and arms. Loud sobs had been echoing around the otherwise silent room. Seeing his father in such state had left him unable to do anything. His father was always the composed one. He never showed his emotions to such extent that young Kuroko had used to wonder if his father had such things as emotions. That day his question had been answered. He had left the room just as silently as he had entered it. Or at least he had tried to. He had stumbled upon a piece of broken vase landing with his hands in some smaller pieces. A loud hiss had left his lips before he could stop himself.

His father had looked up with an almost animalistic look in his eyes. When he had recognized his son the look in his eyes had slightly calmed replaced by guilt and despair. "I'm sorry,I'm sorry, you'll understand one day. I had to do it! I'm sorry! Please forgive me Kuroko! Forgive me for taking your mother…." He had sobbed out. Kuroko had just looked at his father before hesitantly engulfing the larger male in a hug. His father had frozen. Then he had pulled the boy almost painfully close sobbing into the boy's neck. "I'm sorry…"

Kise slowly trailed an invisible pattern over the blue head's arm having noticed that he was remembering something unpleasant. Softly he spoke. "He'll be a Nymph."

The five demons that hadn't know anything about this exchanged alarmed looks. "What do you mean he will be a nymph?" Asked Teppei not sure how to feel about the blue head.

"Exactly what I said. He's a ¼ creature and a ¾ human. His magic is simply powerful enough to fully flush out his human blood upon his coming of age." A tense silence rose in the room. "But that's supposed to be impossible. It only happens like once every 200 a 300 years. Besides he's, well a he! Male Nymphs are supposed to be rare. "

Kise looked down at the soon to be nymph. The boys aura had completely stilled. As a demon who's one of his mastery's was the mind arts he knew that the boy was still furious. Years of training had allowed the other to put his aura back under iron tight controls. Kise suspected that the other had been born with an unreadable facial expression. Still getting your aura under control was more impressive than getting your face under control. The second was something you did with your body. The first was something you did with your whole being. Only Akashi,Teppei and for some surprisingly himself were able to do it with ease in their group. The others were able to do it most of the time but when they were too emotional they lacked the control to pull it off. So it was impressive that this human boy was actually able to do it when some of their thousand year old group members weren't able to do it. He repressed a smirk at the knowledge sharing a look with Akashi who was also all too soon smirking as soon as the other had allowed him to enter his mind.

It seemed that they wouldn't have to teach the beautiful boy in his arms as much as they thought they would have to. Still it was nice to have another confirmation for the fact that boy would be powerful except that he was able to completely activate his creature gene. For now he should concentrate on the situation though. Which was a furious Kuroko staring blankly at a now silent Hazaki. He knew that Kuroko had heard what Teppei had said and realized that a lot could depend on the reaction that would be given to the demons remark. If whoever answered said something that Kuroko would take as a negative reaction or an insult whatever deal they might have had for a second was broken. He didn't want that to happen. And he was pretty sure that Akashi wouldn't want it to happen either. But he knew they couldn't say anything. The boy would need to know that there was at least one other person who was okay with the fact that he would be joining their group for however temporary it might be.

"It doesn't matter, does it? A nymph's a nymph. Besides he's pretty good with daggers." Aomine said breaking through the silence.

"Oh ,he is?" Midorima asked sounding interested. Midorima specialized himself in long distance attacks. Bow, Gun, Cannon,… Really all sorts of things. Lately he had been getting interested in throwing knives. Which would explain why he showed interest in the boy.

"Yeah! Not sure how he is with throwing though." Answered Kise enthusiastically.

"We'll have to see later. For now however may I introduce you to rest Tetsuya?" Kuroko didn't react to the question knowing it was only formality anyway. Being slightly calmer he took in the the other occupants of the room their appearance. The one which his eyes immediately were drawn to was an incredibly tall man with violet hair reaching just above his shoulders. He laid spread out on a bordeaux fainting couch, his limb spilling over the couch that was too small too contain him. Large hands were holding countless sweets and on the small coffee table standing in front of the fainting couch stood more trays full of sweets. The face held half lidded eyes which were also purple but a deeper more blue purple as the hair. Distantly Kuroko remembered Mukuro yesterday evening mumbling about purple giants. Was this the person Mukuro had been talking about? He didn't have much longer to ponder about the idea when Akashi pointed to another person. He recognized the other in an instant. He had been one of the persons accompanying Akashi the first time they had seen eachother. Forest green hair was slightly covering eyes of jade. He hadn't gotten the other's name at the time though.

"This is Midorima Shintaro. You've already seen him once before together with me and the person sitting next to him. Teppei Kiyoshi. He's the other leader in this group." Just like Akashi had said he had seen him before. The brown hair was cut short with thick eyebrows above almond shaped and colored eyes.

Teppei nodded at him with a friendly smile. His eyes however were darker in nature. It's not that they weren't welcoming. There was just something in the eyes that didn't fit with the rest of his portrayal. He had seen it before. It was the same look generals and envoys sometimes had when they looked at him. He was trying to calculate how useful he would be. Yet the warm feeling of welcome was meant. He could feel it. Strange. Most of the time people like that were cold towards other people even if they hid it behind a charming mask. Then again there were probably going to be some differences between humans and demons. Still he had the feeling this had more to do with the other being's personality then with him being a demon.

"Aomine and Kise you already know. And the idiot that insulted you is Haizaki. Don't take whatever he says personal. He tends to let his mouth run before thinking of possible consequences." Akashi's eyes flashed as he said that and Kuroko's eyes flew to the silverhead in curiosity of the other's reaction to the barely veiled threat. He was quick enough to see the tense bobbing of the demon's adam's apple. He felt the corners of his mouth slightly turning up.


Mukuro rose from his spot on the sofa when he heard the door opening fully expecting to see Kuroko's blue locks. Instead of that pleasant vision he was greeted by the sight of that annoying Osami Kagami. The right hand of the emperor looked equally displeased to see him.

"Is Tetsuya absent, boy?" Mukuro rolled his eyes.

"Just as absent as your vision apparently." He said smiling pleasantly.

Osami's eyes narrowed. "Wonder what Tetsuya would say if he heard you say something like that. Showing hostility to one of the emperor's advisors. That's a big no-no."

"Kufufu. Showing hostility to the poor boy that has a traumatic past and is protected by the prince himself. Tst,tst,tst, or didn't you hear the hidden threat in his words?"

Osami gritted his teeth. In the beginning he might not have had anything against the boy. He had just been suspicious and thus a danger to the prince. Now however he could kill the boy himself. He might have the prince believing the innocent act but any brat that was this good at insulting other people and threatening them couldn't be good news. Especially not in the court. What would the nobles think? Worse,what would the envoys of other countries think? True,he was probably letting his judgement be clouded by how annoying the boy was. But the brat needed to be eliminated. He smiled at the brat. Mukuro frowned. The other wasn't in any position to be smiling. Then he started doubting how far the protection of Kuroko would really go when the other wasn't even here. Osami answered the question for him.

The man knelt before him a grin on his face. "But the prince isn't here right now, is he? And what he doesn't know won't harm him." Before Mukuro could even blink the man had him by his hair and was dragging him to the bathroom where like always the enormous tub was already filled with water. The older man forced him on his knees before the water. Mukuro felt a chill running through his spine as his reflection in the water looked back at him fearfully. He had just finished a cleansing ritual he couldn't use his magic. He was going to die. After having dealt with dimension-shifting, demons, ghost and any creatures possible he was going to die at the hands of a mere human*(look below in author's note). He hung his head bitterly just as he heard quiet chuckles in his ears.

"And if he asks where you are? I'll just tell him that you left the palace. He'll believe it. He'll visit the orphanage only to see you're not there. He might search for a few months but after a while he'll give up and you'll end up just being a faint memory. Something he knows he used to cherish but can't seem to remember the emotion of. Just like his mother."

The man forced him down until his face was hovering right above the water. He could see the beautiful tiles of the tub through his fearful reflection. Would Tetsuya really forget about him like that? Surely not? He couldn't say that he was as secure of his case as he wanted to be. He bit his lip angrily at the thought of the other forgetting him. A drop of blood disturbed the water sending small ripples over the whole surface.

"Goodbye boy." His face was roughly shoved into the water. Bubbles rose around him as he lost the only air he had by gasping. Water filled his mouth. He wildly swung his arms in hopes of hitting something but to no hope. God, air, he needed air. His struggles became weaker as his lack of air started affecting him more and more. He didn't want to die. He hadn't found his way back yet. His way home. Dark spots were dancing in his vision. It seemed that it didn't matter what he wanted. He was going to die. If he had any power left he would have used it to struggle even more wildly. As it was he didn't even have enough left to just struggle. He closed his eyes. This was it. Then he was roughly pulled out. Cold arms enclosed him pulling him tightly to the chest connected to them. A snarl sounded through the room. Kuroko.

Kuroko sighed tiredly as he walked to his room. After the introduction he had been ordered to appear around 8 in the morning the next day before being sexually assaulted by Kise, saved Aomine, once again insulted by Haizaki and surprisingly enough saved by the purple giant. Now he was just tired. He was going to take a bath and then go to sleep. He had considered going to the outside baths before deciding he was too tired for the water sprites usual antics. He entered his room noticing it's lack of Mukuro before hearing the violent splashing of water in the bathroom. What was the kid doing in there?

Slowly he dragged himself to the doorway his tiredness disappearing immediately as his eyes took in the scene. Osami. Mukuro. Drowning. Fury and fear were coursing through his veins. Mukuro's body wasn't even struggling anymore. Gods, what was he going to do if Mukuro was dead? Harshly he pushed Osami aside yanking Mukuro up by the back of his shirt. He pulled the boy close to his form, trying to calm himself by feeling the coughing uneven breaths that were leaving Mukuro's lips. He snarled. Without him even noticing the water rose around him. Osami looked at him fearfully.

"Leave." Osami didn't move still eyeing the water fearfully. Kuroko felt the protective fury overtaking him.

"Leave I said!" Now Osami did react. He scrambled to get up before running through the door. Kuroko pulled Mukuro even closer to him.

"I'm so sorry." he mumbled in the boy's dark blue hair thinking the child was unconscious. Mukuro pushed his head deeper into Kuroko's shoulder whispering a soft "Thank you..." '... for not forgetting me.' Was left unsaid but somehow still heard loudly in the room. Kuroko just pulled him closer.


* I really wanted to write muggle here