A/N: I'd like to thank Rosawyn from making a wonderful collage for me as part of the RLt Big Bang Event. Check out her illustration of this chapter. (Remove all the * from the link below to see the fanart!)

ht*tp:/*/gastfyr.*deviantart.*com/art/Feeding-the-Fish-466056051


Finding the perfect paper was going to be the biggest challenge in recreating Akashi's document. Furihata didn't buy, not for one second, that Akashi wanted the letter for his 'scrapbook.' People like Akashi didn't need to keep their accomplishments in a book, everyone knew about them, and he certainly didn't appear to have a single sentimental bone in his body.

The letter was dated in March of last year, but it was already January and the season was in full swing. It wasn't even timely anymore, but for some reason having an intact copy of the letter was important to Akashi, and after seeing what he did when angered – even now, post-Kuroko's intervention – he was scared to the core about what the stoic redhead would do if he failed.

"I'm not just scared," Furihata admitted to his two new goldfish, the only other inhabitants of the otherwise empty room. "Tsk, he's so damn confusing!" Furihata groaned, pulling at his hair. He dropped his head to the desk and wished, not for the first time, that Akashi had found interest in someone else all those weeks back.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, turning his head to the side and watching the two small fish circle each other in the half globe bowl. The bigger, more aggressive of the two was a flashy gold color, whom he'd named "Fusion." The golden fish loved to nip at the smaller, fiery red fish, whom he'd named "High Risk." Only someone familiar with the Pantone color swatches would have gotten the strange English names, but they were his fish, and he liked the obscure monikers.

"I'm hungry. Let's have dinner and think about paper stock after our bellies are full."

Furihata fed the fish the little granules the old lady at the fish shop had promised would keep them satisfied and make their colors more brilliant. He watched them eat as he waited for the water to boil for his cup soup.

"I knew this would be a hard job, Risk, but come on, there are forty different kinds of paper from this one company," he said, as he sat in front of the bowl, chin propped up in his hands.

"You're right, Fusion, I said we'd think about this later. Maybe I should get you a little plant or a cave. Would you stop picking on Risk if you had more to occupy your time?"

When the last noddle was slurped, Furihata's attention once again fell to the damaged letter that Akashi had entrusted him to keep safe. When he wasn't working on it, he kept it hidden among the pages of the sketch book he took with his everywhere he went. It was too important to his new friend, to do otherwise, as Akashi's paranoia rubbed off on him.

The masthead was easy to recreate and he started in Photoshop from the many wonderful free files he found for the Clippers and then been subtly altered it to make it match the original letter precisely. He switched to Illustrator, clicked on the scaling tool and rulers and lined it up exactly as it had been on the 8x10 sheet of paper. The font was a standard one, and after playing with sizing and scaling, he'd been able to copy the text word for word and have it flow across the sheet of paper without any problem.

But again, it came down to the paper stock. Furihata had managed to track down the paper maker by the water mark: Southworth. It was a good quality paper that seemed to be fairly popular, and was available on the US version of Amazon for about ¥3,000. For an additional ¥1,000 he could have a ream of the paper in six weeks.

"Will that be soon enough, Akashi-kun?" he thought aloud. It truly sucked that he couldn't casually contact him tonight to ask.


"It's too cold to run," Furihata whined into his cellphone when it rang at 7:47 am. He was still toasty in his bed, with the heater turned all the way up. "We agree not to run if the temperature was dangerously low."

"You'll warm up quick enough, but I am standing in -8° weather waiting on you. I would appreciate it if you were to hurry, before I get frost bite."

"How many centimeters of snow did we get last night?"

"At least another 150, thus my numb feet."

"Come inside the lobby. I'll be down in five minutes."


"I don't like the smell of your dorm's lobby," Akashi said, as Furihata came down the stairs, one minutes earlier than he'd promised.

"Neither do I, but what do you expect when it's an all-male dorm?"

"I expect better hygiene."

"Not everyone is as perfect as you, Akashi-kun," Furihata said. As he opened the door, the wind pulled it from his hand, causing it to slam and punctuating Furihata's words so he seemed angry, instead of tired and frustrated. He was frustrated at the project he'd taken on in addition to his school work. He was frustrated that he allowed Akashi to order him around. He was even more frustrated to admit it didn't really bother him that much, being bossed around.

"Let's just get this over with so I can come back and have some nice warm porridge."

"I'll treat you, there's this interesting little American dinner that just opened up on the other side of the park. I've been wanting to try it."

"American food?" Furihata asked, his interest piqued.


"How's the progress coming?" Akashi-kun asked, as they blazed a new trail through the freshly fallen snow.

"Are we…,"

"Yes, as safe as we can be," Akashi answered, understanding the question right away.

"Good," Furihata exhaled. "I hate all this cloak and dagger business. The actual document wasn't hard to reproduce, but I've run into a challenge with the paper."

"Oh? Tell me."

"I've found a supplier for the original paper stock, but it's going to have to come from America and I'm not one hundred percent sure of which of their lines it comes from. If you want it perfect, I'll need to order three different reams, and have them shipped here."

"How much money do you need?"

Furihata nodded, his instincts were right, this wasn't just a vanity job.

"Somewhere between ¥12,000 and ¥15,000," he estimated.

"I'll give you cash, if you don't mind, after breakfast. I can leave the ordering of it up to you?"

"Sure, what do you want me to do with the excess paper?"

"Can you use it for something else? A project of some kind?"

"That's a lot of money for doodle paper," Furihata laughed.

Akashi actually allowed a ghost of a smile to reach his mouth and eyes. Furihata felt warm, but ignored it.

"It would be wasted with me, consider it a bonus. How long will it take to arrive?"

"The estimate said six to eight weeks."

Akashi sighed. Eight weeks puts us at the end of March, but the longer we drag this out, the more likely we will be discovered.

"Were there other mailing options?"

"I think so, but they were very expensive."

"I have the cash, I prefer not to wait," Akashi said, and picked up the pace to ward off the double cold feeling that threatened to engulf him - the cold from outside and the cold that was always slowly creeping into his heart.