On a hill in the countryside, a little girl sat crying. Her clothing was dirty but was obviously at one time a pure white. Her dress was slightly torn on the skirt from when she had been snagged by bushes and stray tree limbs. Her hair was quite a mess and had some dirt, twigs, and leaves in it but it was obvious how light of a blue color it was and how soft it would have been had it been brushed. Her hands were scraped slightly and had blood painting them a slight pink in places. Her tears were over flowing and never ending. As she cried, she started speaking through her sobs. "Why? What had they done to deserve it? Why were they taken away from me?" She rubbed at her eyes, anger becoming a known emotion aside from the obvious emotional hurt and pain. "I want them back! Give them back to me!" She shouted at the pond in front of her, throwing a rock next to her into the middle of the pond. After that fit of anger, she curled in on herself and continued to sob at her loss.
"Excuse me?" She looked up through blurry eyes to see a tanned little boy with dark hair looking straight at her. He grinned awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. "Are you alright?" She buried her face back in her arms.
"Go away and leave me alone!" The boy jumped at the outburst, glancing around helplessly.
"But daddy told me to never let a lady cry, that it was unmanly to do so." The boy said factually, looking down at the girl. His eyes brightened as he seemed to come up with something. "Stay right here!" He said in a rush before running off in the direction that he had come from. The girl stared after the boy, confusion showing through her tears. Why would this boy care? No one at the orphanage did, she was just another girl to everyone in the orphanage. Most of everyone had a bad past, she was one with a lighter one so she was ignored.
After a few minutes, the boy came back, panting as if he had run a marathon. He had gained a few leaves and some twigs on his person as well, a few twigs sticking out of his hair made his goofy grin even more entertaining. "Here, this was supposed to be my dessert but you can have it." He handed her a cup with a straw sticking out of it. "It's alright, it's a vanilla milkshake. It's really good, promise!" He grinned another goofy smile, causing her to stare at him. His goofy smile turned into an awkward one. "Look, I don't think it'll make much of a difference since these words are coming from someone about your age but my daddy told me that everything happens for a reason. So, whatever happened that made you so upset, it happened for a reason. While you may be upset now, something will happen because of this that will give you a purpose. At least, that's what daddy said." He grinned while rubbing the side of his neck awkwardly, shifting from side to side while the teary eyed girl stared at him blankly.
"Aoi Daima, get your butt back here and explain why you took off in such a rush!" A woman's voice yelled quite a bit away, the words echoing off the trees. The tanned boy groaned a bit, before smiling.
"See? Everything happens for a reason!" He waved as he ran towards where the voice was coming from. The little girl stared after him in surprise before looking down at the cup that she held in her hand. She had never heard of a vanilla milkshake, and the only time she had heard of a dessert was when she was talking to her classmates. She had never had on before; her parents didn't want her to eat many sweets. The only time she got a sweet was on her birthday in the form of a cake or a cookie or on Christmas in the form of a candy cane. Wasn't vanilla the type of birthday cake and ice cream that she liked the most? She hesitantly lifted the straw to her mouth, taking a small sip. She pulled away from the straw for a second, looking the way that 'Aoi Daima' had gone, before smiling softly at the taste and putting the straw back in her mouth.
After that event, she never forgot the name of Aoi Daima.
"Cut!" The director yelled out almost lazily through the megaphone that he barely had held up. "Good job, we'll continue tomorrow!" Kuroko tilted his head in awe. These little kids were great at acting, it made him feel inferior. Then he noticed the little girl and boy walking towards him, the little girl pulling off the wig to show her short brown hair. She also had contacts in which was covering her hazel eyes.
"Hey, you're the one I was acting for, right?" The little girl stood in an irritated pose, her hands on her hips which was brushing the reddish pink paint off onto her already dirty white dress.
"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Kuro Te." Kuroko smiled at the little kids. The little girl made a motion that was obviously her attempting to flip her short hair over her shoulder. She stuck her nose up.
"Whatever, old hag." She thrust the wig into Kuroko's torso, shocking the poor boy. "Why was your hair this long? Such a nuisance! You should keep your hair shorter and make it easier for those around you. Can't believe you made one such as myself wear such an itchy wig." The little girl started muttering as she stomped off in another direction, heading to the area where several staff members were waiting to help her out of the dress and take the contacts out.
Kuroko looked down at the wig helplessly, wondering what he needed to do with it, when the little boy walked over to him nervously. "I'm sorry about Hana; she was slightly upset when she realized she would have to pretend to be you. She thinks of you as her rival." The tanned boy shifted, his eyes glancing around nervously. He seemed to realize something and bowed quickly. "My name is Shin; I apologize for not introducing myself earlier!" He continued to bow, seemingly waiting for a sign to be able to stop. Kuroko couldn't help but giggle when he realized that the boy's ears were turning red.
"And I'm Kuro Te. It's nice to meet you." He smiled at the little boy when Shin lifted his head. Shin seemed to blush even more when he saw Kuroko smiling, gaining a small smile of his own.
"Oi, Tetsu! Are we done here?" Aomine walked out of a room yawning, presumably having been taking a nap. Shin stared up at the tall ganguro, seeing nothing but a rival in Te-chan's attention.
"Aomine-kun, you can go back to sleep if you don't want to be here any longer." Kuroko said blankly, barely even glancing at the taller male as he jabbed the male's side, causing Aomine to curl in on his stomach. Shin couldn't help but smile triumphantly at how the 'Aomine-kun' had been taken down so easily by his Kuro Te-chan.
"Um…" Kuroko turned his attention back to the kid that spoke up. "I… um, can I spend more time with you Kuro-chan?" Shin shifted on his feet, a hopeful expression taking over his face as he stared up at the bluenette. Kuroko blinked in surprise before smiling.
"Sure, I don't mi-"Kuroko's sentence was interrupted by the rush of males behind him.
"Kuroko-chi! Midorima-chi is being mean to me again!" Kise cried out as he hugged Kuroko from behind, tears and a pathetic expression as always with a subtle glare at the little boy.
"Let go of him*! You're suffocating him, nanodayo!" Midorima said in an annoyed way, pushing his glasses up as he conveniently ignored that Kise wasn't even holding onto Kuroko that tight.
"Ne, Kuro-chin~! Can we go get snacks together?" Murasakibara asked, completely ignoring the other two who were fighting over Kuroko.
"Ryouta, Shintarou, give Te-chan some space." Akashi walked out last, an eerie snipping sound coming from the scissors he held in his hand as he cut a loose thread from his jacket sleeve. "Atsushi, leave Te out of your snack escapades."
By this time, Shin suddenly felt overwhelmed by the amount of rivals he had. He only wanted to play with this onee-chan* and all these guys keep stopping him from it. How was he going to do that? "Oh… Well… Ok, I guess you can't, huh." Shin was sad about this but he knew his sister was going to be mad at him anyways if he did go and play with Te-chan. He only realized this now that he could see her glaring at him from over at the dressing area, dressed in more casual clothing now. He'd rather not face his sister's wrath. He turned with the large goofy smile he had used while acting, smiling up at Kuroko. "That's alright, maybe next time?"
Kuroko smiled down at the boy and ruffled his dyed blue hair, the way that he himself hated to happen to him. He couldn't resist though so he did it anyways. "Definitely." Shin grinned up at Kuroko from under his hand before rushing forward to give the model a hug. Kuroko was surprised but patted the boy's head, not realizing that the boy was sticking his tongue out at the men behind Kuroko, his head leaned up against Kuroko's side.
Aomine was ready to pummel the little brat's face in, Kise glared at the from-now-on-nameless boy, Murasakibara stopped chewing on his pocky to stare down at the boy and the hand around the pocky box twitched with the urge to crush the annoying bug attached to his Kuro-chin, and Midorima had no outward reaction aside from turning his head slightly to the side in indignation with a huff and his hand tightening slightly on his lucky item for the day. But Akashi, his reaction was the most terrifying to the kid. With his head tilted upwards, he looked down his nose at the kid with amusement, as he gripped the handles of the scissors he had been holding before. Shin froze, his tongue halfway back in his mouth, when he saw the red head's expression and the commanding aura around him. When Akashi made a hand motion, which obviously meant 'get the hell out of my sight' to Shin, he booked it over to the dressing room faster than Aomine could hide from a ghost and stuck to his sister's side, who looked slightly confused and majorly triumphant. After all, Hana had just won against Kuro Te in something. Although that something wasn't all that rewarding, her brother was much more useless than a sack of lint, she still won against the Kuro Te-chan.
"What was that all about?" Kuroko turned back towards the five behind her. Aomine was in the middle of a yawn, Kise was looking at his phone with an insane amount of interest, Murasakibara was balancing a stick of pocky on his tongue with a bored expression, Midorima was pushing his glasses up while holding a book upside down (maybe he was practicing reading upside down), and Akashi was looking off to the side and towards the script writer who was arguing with the director about something. Kuroko tilted his head to the side in confusion. He had seen the extreme look of terror on Shin's face, but he couldn't see a reason for that look of terror. What was it for?
"Kuroko-chi, let's go to Majiba!" Kise grinned after closing his flip phone and putting it in his pocket.
"But Kuro-chin is going to go with me to the bakery down the street!" Murasakibara frowned down at the blonde.
"What? Tetsu, tell them you're coming with me to watch me play basketball against that Bakagami!" Aomine looked over at Kuroko, his demanding tone causing Kuroko to look off to the side guiltily.
"Actually, I kind of want to go check out that bakery that Murasakibara-kun has been talking about for the past week." Kuroko shifted from left to right, feeling really guilty that he couldn't be in five places at once. Since he was looking away, he didn't get to see Murasakibara's triumphant expression as Kise and Aomine deflated. "It's the one with all the vanilla desserts, right?"
"Ara~! You remembered!" Murasakibara couldn't help but feel excited about being able to share his passion with someone that he liked this much.
"Of course, Murasakibara-kun was the one who told me about it." Kuroko tilted his head, confused. The purple haired male had been talking about the bakery non-stop, how could he not remember about it? As he thought about this, he missed the three glares that were directed at the happy purple haired giant.
"Then let's go!" Murasakibara grabbed Kuroko's wrist excitedly, pulling the much shorter male along with him out of the building and leaving the other four there.
…
Again, when saying 'him', 'he', or 'his', they are using the name that they call him… In this case, Midorima is indeed calling him Kuro but only because he doesn't want to anger the smaller male… He doesn't want to lose his chance in getting Kuroko's favor, even if he says he doesn't want it… Shin-chan is just one adorable Tsundere…
Onee-chan means 'big sister'… It's a common thing in Japan for the kids to call those older than them by 'big sister', 'big brother', 'auntie', or 'grandma/grandpa'… I've not heard of a child calling someone 'uncle' though… Japanese culture fascinates me so I may have some random facts I might throw in every once in a while… If ever you are confused by a Japanese word I may have used, don't hesitate to ask… Of course, google works wonders as well… ^.^' Just sayin'…
…
By the way, I'll explain the names in the next chapter, kay? Anyways…
Since AnjoRemix mentioned it, I decided to add it in! Everyone, thank AnjoRemix for this small tidbit!
Omake time!
The day before, after school (as the last chapter took place the day before this day)…
"Ogiwara-kun." Kuroko stared at the brunette that he had managed to find coincidentally at the library. The question from the day before was bothering him, a lot.
"Yeah, Kuroko?" Ogiwara looked up from the book he was reading the summary about. Ever since they last saw each other, Ogiwara had started reading mystery novels so he would feel as if Kuroko never left. After all, Kuroko had always told him what was going on in the books that he read excitedly. Now it was just a force of habit to head to the mystery section rather than the sports section. While he may not play for Teikou's team, he still played street ball and stayed up to date on the latest basketball news.
"What's a reverse harem?" Ogiwara choked on his spit, coughing loudly and gaining a disapproving stare from the librarian. When Ogiwara was finally able to speak, he turned towards Kuroko who was staring up at him in curiosity.
"I- uh, I don't really know?" Ogiwara shifted nervously, his face slightly reddening. Why was Kuroko asking him this?!
"Oh, okay. Thank you anyways, Ogiwara-kun." With that, Kuroko turned and left, presumably going home as Shige stared after the male, still in shock about having been asked such a question.
…
"Kagami-kun." Kuroko called the boy's name as the red head was walking ahead of him with the rest of the team. "Riko-chan, Hyuuga-kun, Himuro-kun." Riko spun around fast as lightening when she heard her name said with a 'chan'. There was only two people who added 'chan' to her name – one she was going to beat up if it was him and the other she would hug if it was her. The angry look on her face vanished almost immediately, a large smile taking over her face.
"Te-chan!" She rushed over to give the 'girl' a hug, squeezing the bluenette tightly. "You're back! I've missed you so much!" As Riko went on to complain about having to be around the annoying men without female companionship, Himuro stepped in.
"Riko, I think you're suffocating her." Himuro smiled awkwardly while putting a hand on one of the girl's arms. Which then started the sudden release and apology session.
"It's alright, Riko-chan." Kuroko smiled at the flustered brunette. "But I do have a question for you."
"Yes, what is it?" Riko was excited. What could it be that Kuro Te-chan would need to ask her? Completely ignoring the guys around them, they wouldn't be able to do or say anything without a constant idiocy.
"What is a reverse harem?" Kuroko tilted his head to the side as the atmosphere around him suddenly froze.
"Wh-what?" Riko's face went into a shadow as she tried very hard to keep her smile up. Perhaps she had heard wrong?
"What is a reverse harem?" Kuroko repeated, staring at the girl who suddenly started shaking. He looked around at the others.
The tall black haired male who was usually expressionless was looking off to the side with a slight blush, Hyuuga was covering his mouth and nose with an extreme blush before he turned around and pretty much ran away, Kagami looked just as confused as Kuroko, Himuro kept a peaceful expression though his eyes looked like he was staring at Kuroko with a different mindset than before. The one with the cat mouth wasn't anywhere to be seen and neither was the air head brunette. A few of the other first years were missing as well.
"Who told you this term?" Kuroko tilted his head again at the dark sound of Riko's voice.
"It was my manager. I didn't ask her what it meant though. But then the script writer kept saying it so I tried to ask but Akashi-kun, Murasakibara-kun, Midorima-kun, Kise-kun, and Aomine-kun didn't answer me." Kuroko said, blinking at Riko as she started emitting a dark aura. She seemed to be about to speak when Himuro grabbed the murderous looking teenager and started walking away with her.
"Don't worry about it, Kuro-chan." Himuro said breezily as he walked away, Kagami following after and asking what the term meant as well. Kuroko just stood there and watched the remaining Seirin members disappear around the corner. He couldn't help but feel disappointed.
…
"Haizaki-kun?" Kuroko looked down the magazine aisle of the convenience store, watching the white haired male flipping through the latest issue of Shounen Jump.
"Kuro?" Haizaki looked up at the familiarish sounding voice and met Kuroko's eyes. He noticed how Kuroko was holding a bunch of bags and snorted. "You look like you're about to collapse under all that weight. Would you like a hand?"
"No, that's not necessary." Kuroko was as prideful as could be so he would say that he really did need help. Besides, he didn't want to bother a classmate of his. Haizaki sighed and set the Shounen Jump back in its proper place, albeit slightly askew.
"Come on then, hand some over." Haizaki held out his right hand, gesturing for Kuroko to give him some bags. When Kuroko just stared at the outstretched hand, Haizaki rolled his eyes and grabbed most of the bags. Leaving Kuroko with only two while he carried fifteen.
"Haizaki-kun, there was no need for you to take those. I would have been fine on my own." Nonetheless, Haizaki could hear the relief and gratefulness in Kuroko's voice.
"Well, lead the way Princess." Haizaki said offhandedly, gesturing to the door. Kuroko blinked at the new nickname but complied anyways. It was a silent walk until Kuroko decided to ask Haizaki.
"Haizaki-kun, would you answer a question for me?" Haizaki snorted at the question being asked.
"Is it one that isn't what you just asked?" Haizaki said with amusement coloring his tone.
Kuroko looked back at the male, deciding whether to get annoyed with that question or not. He decided against it and instead asked his own question. "What is a reverse harem?" Haizaki jerked to a stop, causing one of the bags to rip and the items in that bag to fall out. He frantically stopped anything from rolling away, setting other bags down so he could pick the dropped items up and put them in another bag. Kuroko realized what had happened and helped out. When they finally put everything back into a bag, Haizaki stood up with a raised eyebrow.
"What's with the random question, Princess?" Haizaki had to ask why such an innocent little girl was asking him such a non-innocent thing.
"No one will tell me what it means." Haizaki couldn't believe his eyes. How could this girl get any more adorable than she already was just by pouting?
"Well, you shouldn't know anyways." Haizaki said, continuing his walk but this time in front of Kuroko.
"But I want to know." Haizaki couldn't help but smile at how adorable the princess sounded, almost as if she was throwing a mini temper tantrum.
"Don't tell anyone that I told you then." Haizaki sighed as he turned around and began explaining.
The day after, the Generation of Miracles couldn't figure out why Kuroko seemed to avoid being with more than just one of them at once. When Kuroko was talking to Aomine, he would suddenly disappear when Kise came running up. When he was talking about a book with Midorima, he vanished in the blink of an eye when Murasakibara appeared. When Murasakibara was talking about the 'delicious vanilla cakes' at the bakery with Kuroko, Akashi wouldn't be able to spot him as he ducked out of the classroom as he walked in.
It was a true mystery.