Ratings: Teen
Warnings: None.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this story, living (or passed) human beings or fictional characters. These events never happened, according to history or as the original author intended them. This is a work of fiction and is not intended to offend. For entertainment purposes only. Thanks.

Kise felt as if there was no air in his first period classroom. He couldn't avoid Aomine's empty seat, just three seats down. No matter how he tried to pay attention to the front of the room for the lesson, he just kept seeing the empty desk assigned to his friend. Since he couldn't focus on the front of the room, he turned his face and tried to focus out the window. It was a long way across the room and after several minutes he began to freak out the kids beside him, so he turned away from the window. He tried to turn to his right, but the classroom door was there and he began to become paranoid of if Aomine would entered, late for class as he sometimes did. Disturbed by his own thoughts, he turned his attention back to the front of the room, trying to angle himself so that the empty desk was out of his view. He fidgeted, stepping and restepping his feet under his desk. He wiggled his hips, shifted his posture, and lowered his head only to raise it again. No matter what he did, he couldn't get comfortable. And everywhere he turned, Aomine's absence seemed to jump out at him. Eventually he put his book up and pulled out his phone, checking for messages. Since he had none, he sent a text to Momoi, asking her if she had at least managed to see Akashi.

He regretted asking her the moment he sent the text. He sat waiting, drowning his teacher out with the blood pounding in his ears, for a reply. His phone vibrated in his hand, a soft small hum a moment later, and he quickly unlocked it to read her reply.

'Saw him,' she had written, 'he seemed distressed.'

There was no emoticons. No way to feel her mood. Was she worried by this?

Kise frowned. 'Distressed?' he replied. He went to punch in another message, getting halfway through 'What do you-' but stopped when a shadow fell over his desk.

"Texting in class, Kise?" his teacher questioned, leaning over his book to make sure Kise knew he had been caught red-handed holding his phone.

Put on the spot, Kise squirmed in his seat as he thought fast. "Um, my modeling agent just-"

His teacher, who was aware of his modeling career, turned on heel and headed back to the front of the room, quick to make sure Kise wouldn't start running his mouth regarding his job. Already several girls, and even a few boys, were beginning to gush over his last photo shoot.

"Put it away. Tell him you're in class."

"Yes, sir!" Kise agreed, slipping the phone into his bag. He didn't want to get caught and have his phone confiscated. Again. Like he had the last time he was caught texting Murasakibara about what place they were going to try lunch at on the weekend. He would just have to text Momoi during the break between classes and hope she would understand the delay in his message.

Aomine hadn't left for school yet. He wasn't sure if he could ever return to Teiko Middle School ever again. He considered ditching for the last few weeks. He could show up for the exams and that might be enough to get him into Touou, if he was lucky.

He sighed and rolled over, still in bed, and groaned loudly. No one was home so he didn't have to worry about bothering anyone else. He hadn't intended for things to end up the way they had; he regretted his reaction to Satsuki the night before. No doubt she would read into it, as the superior analysis she was. And then she would inform Kise, Akashi, and Midorima that he was acting strangely and he'd be put under a microscope. He couldn't bring himself out of bed in the morning, knowing he would have his first period with Kise and he would no doubt watch him for Momoi. But he simply couldn't bring himself to tell her why he had reacted so defensively, why he seemed so hostile towards the subject of Midorima.

He groaned again, then rose. Checking the time on his cell, he saw it was halfway through second period. He would head to school now. He had no afternoon classes with other Miracles. And he knew he couldn't let Momoi and her concerns keep him from his classes and the team. As much as he didn't want to feel their eyes watching his every move, he supposed it wouldn't be that bad. It wouldn't be like they would find out his little secret, which he realized as he swallowed a lump of guilt, had turned into a small handful of secrets he used to cover other secrets that gradually grew beyond his control. He shook himself out of that route of thinking, forcing himself to focus on what mattered most. Teiko was here and now, but it was not forever. There was still Touou to look forward to, even if it was with an air of hesitation. More importantly, there was still the Winter Cup to win. He would do it for the team. He would do it for him.

Aomine rose and stretched, then stumbled to the bathroom. He didn't bother making breakfast, he'd eat lunch at school. He shrugged into his uniform and then grabbed his school bag. After tying his shoes, he doubled back to his room for his phone, cussing under his breath for nearly forgetting it. Checking his messages on his way to school, he wasn't surprised to find several from Momoi regarding his absence. Yes, just as he predicted, she had Kise monitor him in first period.

'I overslept.' he replied with a grin, then added, 'Don't worry about me.'

"Aka-chin? You coming to eat?"

Akashi looked up to find Murasakibara, once again waiting for him in the doorway of their math classroom. He had barely heard the bell ring, immersed as he was in his thought. Was he being foolish? Was wearing the kanzashi helping him at all? He couldn't make up his mind. When he wore it, he felt out of place and vulnerable. It wasn't anything the Emperor felt satisfied with. It was unsettling and overall wrong. Akashi Seijuro was never wrong.

But the thought of taking it out seemed hopeless. It felt like he was giving up on the zebra and the whole mystery that was presented to him during the Teiko Middle School dance. He felt torn in two and he couldn't decide if he liked helping the zebra by exposing himself so openly or if there was another way to solve the mystery that didn't make him feel so...useless?

Murasakibara broke through his thoughts. Akashi looked up and smiled. "Of course, Atsushi." he stated, rising and placing his bag on his desktop to gather his things. He stacked his papers neatly and slid them into his bag without a second glance. Then he put his pencil case in the small slot of room he had left besides his water bottle. Lastly he pulled out the box he kept his kanzashi safe in. He slid the pin out of his hair and placed it into its box, before placing that inside his bag also. It was foolish to think a hairpin would help him solve the mystery of that dance. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up and letting it fall as it pleased, back into it's perfectly well-groomed pattern, as he walked towards the door. "Let's go." he commanded his forward, enjoying as the taller man fell into line at his side, accompanying him to lunch.

The lunch bell had also woken Momoi from her thoughts. She jumped, then fumbled with her things, managing to look moderately graceful as she slung her bag over her shoulder and rushed through the crowded hallways to the yearbook room. It was a small room with a single computer and three desks, made for the student council committee so they could help put the book together for the student body at the end of the year. She had forgotten to ask permission to use it today at lunch and managed to just catch the teacher in charge of the room. After a moment of pleading and reasoning that she needed the photo alteration program to see if she could correct two of the photos from the dance, she got permission. It did help that Kise showed up when he did; his background in modeling and photography helped sway the teacher's opinion on Momoi less-than-average computer skills. While she was good with the calculations in her head, computer softwares seems to exceed her realm of knowledge.

Kise laughed as they shut themselves into the small room, keeping the blinds open so that people could see into the room. It didn't matter if people saw them together pouring over the photos, all that matters was that nobody saw what the photos were of.

"Well, I'm glad we can stay out of the rain for this." Ryota grinned, taking a seat.

Momoi nodded. "Yes. It would be a shame if we were to get the photographs wet."

Kise stretched his feet out and placed his hands behind his head. "So, where were we before class started?" he began.

"I wanted to see the photos of the zebra." Momoi began, sitting across from Kise and setting her bag down. "There's something I want to confirm about his outfit. If I can."

Kise nodded and pulled out the photo album from his bag. "I still haven't gotten Akashicchi a print yet." he mumbled, the book drawing memories of strawberry cake and tea with his captain in his living room.

Momoi waved a hand. "Forget about that right now." She set the book down on the desk between them, pushing the computer keyboard out of their way. "We have bigger things to worry about."

She began to flip through the thick pages, careful not to bend the photographs as she went. It was several pages later, past the photos of their get together and their arrivals, before she got to the page where the zebra began to be noticed. She scanned the page and turned it, her finger jumping to the photo of Turtle-Kuroko dancing, the zebra in the background.

"There!" she exclaimed, "I knew it!"

"What?" Kise asked, leaning in to examine the photo. He wrinkled his nose up as he examined it, confused by her exclamation. "What about it?"

"His tail! The zebra's tail!" She pointed out, "It's just black athletic socks sewn together!" She squealed.

Kise squinted, staring at the photo. "I...can't see that." he murmured.

Momoi stood, sliding the photograph out of the plastic covering and taking it to the scanner. She scanned the photo onto the computer, before bringing it back and waking the computer up from sleep mode.

Kise placed the photo back in the plastic covering while she opened the computer on the program.

"Um," she began, biting her lower lip as she searched the program toolbar. "There."

She activated the zoom feature of the program and zoomed past Kuroko to the zebra, enlarging him on the screen. "There!" she pointed out in a triumphant voice. Digitally enhanced, the photo clearly depicted two black and white athletic socks sewn together to form the tail.

"Ahh!" Kise grinned, "I got it!" His smile fell and he turned his attention from the computer screen to Momoi. "And what does that have to do with anything?"

"Because," Momoi grinned proudly, "I found this in Dai-chin's bag yesterday before I hung up on you."

Momoi reached into her school bag and pulled out the black and white athletic socks, sewn together to form a long, shapeless black tube. A safety pin on one end was still attached, being the way he had attached the tail to his pants.

Kise's mouth dropped open in shock.

"That's the-" he pointed at the computer screen in surprise. "That's the zebra's tail!" he managed.

"That's right!" Momoi grinned proudly.

"That means-"

"Dai-chin is the zebra!"

"So he really came to the dance all along!" Kise exclaimed, "That sneaky bastard!"

Momoi grinned. "He fooled us all! But-" she stopped her grinned falling from her face. "But, I don't understand why he didn't tell us he was coming. Or why he came after saying he wouldn't."

"He came to surprise someone, no?" Kise asked. "Maybe he came to surprise one of us?"

"You know," Momoi began in a soft voice, "I think he came to surprise Akashi-kun."

Kise hummed, then nodded. "You did say he was upset by Midorimicchi dogging Akashicchi around so much."

"He was. And then he ran away." Momoi shook the sock once in her hand. "I think we should tell Akashi-kun."

"No way!" Kise protested, "That's a horrible idea!"

"What else do we do? Without our help, Akashi-kun might not solve this. Dai-chin might be too stubborn to tell him how he really feels! And Midorin probably knows what we do and will do anything to sabotage it."

Kise hummed again. He placed a hand on his chin, his lips pursing as he thought. "True." he agreed initially, then hummed again. "But, I think we shouldn't tell Akashicchi directly."

Momoi's eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?" She asked in a low voice.

Kise grinned, lowering his hand and giving her a wicked smile. "Oh, just a little...magic."

A/N for Guest Review by the name of Kairo Gypsy : (09/06/2016)

Normally I wouldn't write out a comment response in the story. However, I couldn't find a way to reach you back, since you used a guest account. I got your comment by email via 's notifications, however, when I went to reply to you, I found no way to contact you directly - again because it was a guest account. So I will give you my response here, in the hope that you see it. :)

Yes, you - Kairo Gypsy - may translate this story - Wild Animals - to Indonesian and publish it to AO3 once it is completed; with some conditions. Please provide me a credit, author name imaginary_witness, in the Author's Notes of your story and if you could, link back to the original, here on fan fiction . net. And please, do take credit for translating it. I am blown away that you would want to share this story in another language! Thank you so much for that! It made my day! If you wouldn't mind, feel free to somehow reach me and send me a link to it on AO3 when you are done - you could always comment me the link - I would so very much love to see it shared!

Thanks for the wicked review! It's much appreciated!