Author's Note: I am so so so sorry for this late update! I hope you're all doing well :) it's a long chapter! Yayyy~ Kuroko may be a bit OOC in this chapter, or with Ogiwara in general in this story because they've been childhood friends who have known each other for a long time... so this is a warning. Please let me know what you think of this dynamic between Ogiwara and Kuroko! It might come as a surprise. Also I uploaded this chapter without proofreading so pls forgive any grammatical or spelling mistakes :(
Anyway, enjoy the read~
The tense situation that Ogiwara kept feeling in the presence of the Rakuzan team members seemed to slowly fade after they all witnessed the reunion between the brunette and his childhood friend. However, Ogiwara, being the extra person he usually was, felt the need to do something extra to break the ice. From the way they all looked at him and Tetsuya during and after his shameless waterwork, he could safely assume that they have been told about this whole situation and that this meeting was actually pre-planned.
He had a slight idea on who might be the mastermind behind it but he refused to think about that person for now. That particular person was sure trying his best to befriend him, and this confused the heck out of Ogiwara. What did he do that would make the almighty Akashi want to befriend him? Thinking of all the times he figuratively and sometimes even literally spit in his food, this new decision of the redhead sure confused him. And Ogiwara was a fairly simple person, he'd rather like to avoid all sorts of confused ideas or situations that could potentially be more harmful than good to him. Even though the intentions of the redhead felt even more sincere with his actions, he still cannot digest why he was so adamant on befriending him. But with actions so sincere, he was struggling to find reasons to stop his attempts at becoming friends. The Akashi was surprisingly earnest in his approach and Ogiwara could feel it now. He was also so freaking thankful for getting Kuroko here. Words could not describe how he felt when he saw Tetsuya.
Shigehiro shoved these thoughts off his mind and slowly turned towards the rest of the regular team to see them watching over from the other side of the court. There were some other members of the club in the building but he tried not to be distracted. The moment his eyes met those of Mibuchi, he got this very corny idea that could probably cause him death by embarrassment if no one caught up with it and played along. He forced himself to stop the feeling of embarrassment taking over his senses as he thought about what he was about to do and just did it.
"Hello from the other siiiiiiiiiiide~," he shouted at the top of his lungs, startling the shit out of everyone in the room and started taking a few hesitant steps towards the rest of the group.
Serenade time was back, bitches. If Ogiwara couldn't handle the awkwardness that set up between him at the rest of the team following the winter cup, he might as well dive and drown in more awkwardness to deal with it. He just had to make it more awkward till it's normal. As if the amazing waterwork he displayed was not embarrassing enough already. He could still feel the wetness on his cheeks and eyelashes though he stopped crying. He might as well do this now or never.
"I must've called a thousand tiiiiiiiimes~!" Mibuchi and Hayama shouted back almost instinctively.
Ogiwara thanked the gods for letting at least one of the boys know the lyrics, though he would've silently judged all of them if no one recognised this classic hit. No one should ever have this amount of disrespect to Adele and her epic songs. She slays and Ogiwara aspired to slay like her. Mayuzumi, on the other hand, rolled his eyes at the choice of the song; the situation could not get any cheesier. Tearful reunion, embarassing songs; his farewell party sure was eventful.
"I'm sorry," the singing trio blurted out at the same time and looked at each other following the coincidence. Before giving the rest a chance to speak, Ogiwara started again.
"I'm sorry for cheering against the team, and at your loss," he quickly explained and felt an invisible weigh drop off his shoulders. He had been thinking about this way too much for his own good, and he was convinced that his cheer must have had hurt the rest of the team before they knew the reason.
"Please don't apologize, Shige-chan!" Mibuchi refuted.
"We should be the ones apologizing for being so insensitive and playing along in ignorance. If we had known better. . ." Hayama quickly looked over at Akashi before continuing, "We could've tried to stop the situation from getting this bad."
"Don't apologize for something that you couldn't control because you didn't know about, sempai," Ogiwara countered as well. Mibuchi was about to say something when he got interrupted.
"Are you okay?"
Mayuzumi got everyone silent in the hall with his sudden question, but the concern on all their faces was clear. They all needed to know if the little brunette was doing okay after being forced in this mess. Even though they were pissed off at their captain, it was obvious that the Akashi heir had changed for the better and was already repenting hard for his other self's poor actions. They couldn't stay mad at him, especially when the redhead was so ready to leave the basketball club if they did not want to forgive him. They ended up silently accepting their captain's previous mistakes and welcomed the changes in him. It was still weird to see the heir smiling easily at times, but they were not complaining here. They were all sincerely worried about the brunette, but they didn't have the courage to face him after knowing about the whole ordeal with Seirin's shadow. They all felt guilty for questioning Ogiwara's intention and feeling betrayed following his actions at the stadium. The way Mayuzumi snapped at them made complete sense now.
"Look… you may not believe me from what you can see as in now," Ogiwara started cautiously, "but believe me, I'm fine," he continued sincerely after feeling their concern towards him. Seeing Nebuya, of all people, raising an eyebrow at him, he quickly added, "a little bit shook, but I'm fine. Ecstatic to be able to meet him(Tetsyua) again, and talk to y'all as well, but yeah. . ."
He stopped talking when he saw Mibuchi running towards him and engulfing him in a big hug. The black haired shooter began spluttering a mass of nearly incomprehensible words but it was easy to guess that he had been worried about him. Soon enough, Hayama joined the two of them yelling "group hug" and Nebuya, fucking macho-man Nebuya reluctantly followed. Mayuzumi chose this time to conveniently disappear.
Akashi sighed happily, albeit discreetly as he watched his team members being happy and hugging each other. He noticed the ghost player sneaking his way out of the picture and was tempted to call him out but decided otherwise. However, before he had his own chance at remaining out of the display of affection, Mibuchi called him out and demanded that he joined the group hug for " a good bonding time". He was sharp enough to see Shigehiro's body slightly tensing at the suggestion and opted to stay out till, lo-and-behold, he felt someone pushing him towards the group. Mayuzumi was behind him and dragging him to the group. Akashi had to admit, he did not see that coming but he did not fight it again. Akashi and Mayumumi hesitantly joined them as well, eliciting a cheer of joy from Mibuchi. This went on for a few seconds before Ogiwara realised something. He had so much tea to spill to Tetsuya, who he could hear talking to his brother-in-law. And now that he realised the opportunity had finally come, he could not wait.
"Okay, okay, enough hugging now I gotta break some news to Tetsuya," Ogiwara whispered urgently, and they all felt the little switch in his character as he got excited for some unknown reasons.
"Let's all get back to the party," Akashi declared, though he knew this was almost futile as everyone's attention would still remain on the brunette but at least they won't do it openly.
"All these feelings made me hungry," Nebuya mumbled as he made his way to the food.
Ogiwara silently prayed that Sato-san didn't break any news to Tetsuya yet as he approached the two of them. As soon as he heard the assistant coach talking about basketball skills and what-so-ever with the phantom player, he knew he still had a chance. He waited for the best timing to join their conversation smoothly as his brother-in-law started sipping on his juice.
"Oh, by the way… Tetsuya, did you know that the devil finally got knocked up?"
It was an inside joke among them that Sato-san married the devil, who was her sister because she had this streak of evilness in her whenever she got angry. Ogiwara's sister had a temper that could scare people out of the country. She was like the devil when angered and they all acknowledged the assistant coach as a brave soul to be able to put up with her. Now that Ogiwara had been living with them, he could safely say that the "I'm sorry" and "I love you" game of his brother-in-law was strong and almost automatic at this point. Sato-san abide to the rules his wife set, though they were in no way restricting or suffocating. He was totally whipped for his wife. Ogiwara loved that aspect of his brother-in-law, and was thankful that his sister tied down the knot with him. However, he would've been very well off without the mental image of them doing the sexy on the couch while going to the kitchen at night when they thought he was already asleep.
"It was about time," Kuroko replied, dropping the poker face and looking pleasantly surprised with raised eyebrows and a half smirk.
Kuroko was smirking. Akashi could not recognise this face of the phantom player.
"They have sex all the time," Ogiwara added.
How could Kuroko dare to forget about Shigehiro's habit of adding too much information? He was used to all of this though. Both teenagers turned towards the assistant coach who was choking on his drink following the statements of Ogiwara. They gave him a pointed look from up to down. Before the teacher could say anything in his defense because, well, he's married and actually wanted to get a kid for once, they both beat it up to him.
"Ewww," they said in unison with a look of slight disgust on their face while silently judging the teacher.
These two would never stop teasing him for marrying Shiori! The teacher just gave up on trying saying anything about it and sighed in defeat. He still remembered the short congratulatory message that Kuroko told him on his wedding day, about 'taking one for the team and marrying Ogiwara's sister'. Those two always found pleasure in annoying or embarrassing him, and it didn't look like they would stop anytime soon. From the way they were both catching up with each other, one would've never guessed they stopped talking at some point.
"Anyway, congratulations to you Sato-san," Kuroko continued. "I need to come visit your place soon and meet up with Shiori-san to give her my congratulations as well."
The assistant coach was not the only one who choked on his drink while listening to Ogiwara's ramblings. Akashi just happened to be in the hearing range of the group and accidentally heard the little brunette. He was not eavesdropping, per se. He was only a little concerned and curious about how it was going between Shigehiro and his former team mate. He was the one who got this idea to make them meet up again, it was natural for him to make sure that it was all going smoothly. Okay… Akashi admitted he should stop lying to himself. Like the rest of the team, he was curious about the supposedly breaking news. However, everyone in the team already knew about that news. But he could've done well without knowing about the additional details on his assistant coach's very personal life. What surprised him the most was Kuroko.
Tetsuya was someone who, although having a slight mischievous streak, remained fairly passive and straight-faced from memory of the previous experiences of the basketball captain. Akashi sometimes wondered how the phantom player became friends with Shigehiro with such clashing personalities, but it seemed that he was wrong on another matter here. Akashi was dumbfounded as he saw Tetsuya drop his poker face and became more expressive at the news of the Sato couple, and his comeback was witty as well. It was a pity that the bluenette had never being this expressive with them in general, except when he was seriously concentrating on the club activities or matches. He also had to admit that the atmosphere in his previous basketball club was really tense and stiff. Akashi realised that he might see a new side of Kuroko with Ogiwara being at his side.
And this realisation got confirmed rather quickly. Kuroko sure dropped his guards around his childhood friend and Akashi was pleasantly surprised by it. The basketball captain knew that his former team member could be savage at times, but to see the sass that came out of him while both of them made a sound of disgust and judged the teacher in silence was new. Akashi quickly deemed Ogiwara as the sass master, to the extent that even Kuroko could not resist getting sassy in his presence. Newly found quirks of Kuroko were resurfacing, starting with his blinding smile when he hugged the little brunette and now the sass in his deliveries alongside with Ogiwara, who, even Akashi had to admit, had this innate tendency to be dramatic, put it nicely. Akashi was thankful to Ogiwara, for being able to make Kuroko at ease like that. He wished they would continue being like this after this restoration. Akashi did not pay attention as the two childhood friends made their way out of the building.
Now that Tetsuya was back by his side, Ogiwara felt compelled to pull a prank of some sort. Tetsuya was his partner-in-crime for a reason. He needed some bonding time, and as soon as he realised what majestic feat he could pull off on this special occasion, he gave Tetsuya The Look™. With a mischievous glint in his pale blue eyes and a slight quirk on the sides of his lips, Tetsuya also gave him The Look™. He did not have to say anything more to get the signal across. Today was a special day and a special prank was going to be pulled. In the end he did not have to bribe the group with his food, and his buns were still in the school kitchen. While being all smooth and natural, the little brunette asked the assistant teacher for his car keys to get his buns in them because "obviously there's no lack of food in here. Akashi sure knows how to organize stuffs." As soon as he got the keys, both teens left the building. Sure they went to transfer the buns to the car, but Ogiwara got the keys for a completely different reason.
Under the backseat, in the same shitty location where Sato-san tried to hide the expensive wine he had previously bought for his sister and failing miserably while at it, was found a bottle of gin. It was more of a flask than a bottle, but it was new and fairly enough for what the little brunette had planned. This special occasion deserved a cheer from everyone. He knew this plan was as idiotic as it could be, but this amount of alcohol wouldn't be enough to render a group of muscle-massed boys completely drunk. Even he had a basic knowledge from his own experiences on how that thing worked. If anything, a little alcohol in their system would completely dissolve the slight traces of tension in the air. Ogiwara lost no time in filling his empty water bottle with the clear liquid while Tetsuya played guard. This whole transaction felt like the good old times, and both of them relinquished to the excitement. They made their way back as smoothly as they left and Tetsuya, being his usual phantom self, sneaked his way to the drinks corner and poured the contents of the bottle in the big containers containing different flavors of juice. Every time someone would go for the tapped juice now, they would be served with a nice chilled cocktail.
Ogiwara and Tetsuya, with a perfect display of team work and mischief, successfully managed to spike the drinks.
Shortly after, Ogiwara went to have a taste of his special drink and was pleased that the taste of alcohol was not prominent. It was a bit bitter compared to how it usually tasted, but they could easily blame it on the chemicals or something; not his doing, not at all. To be fair, this was not the first time the duo pulled this particular prank. They both worked together to spike the coke and lemonade supply with vodka in his sister's wedding reception and this pleasantly, more like hilariously lead to the discovery of many dancing kings and queens in the family, both members of the prank team included. He did get slightly scolded after his parents caught up to them but that night became too memorable for his parents to be genuinely angry at the two of them. Talks of that particular wedding reception kept going on for months in the family.
Soon enough, all the members in the farewell party started to slowly warm up as they served themselves with the tap juice. Ogiwara felt especially glad when he saw the Akashi heir sipping on the juice without any second thoughts. The atmosphere in the room got cozier and funnier. Mibuchi started giggling at every little thing he found interesting and Nebuya's appetite got even bigger. Hayama was randomly saying bad puns or dad jokes that came across his mind that Mibuchi cheered excessively for them every single time, while for the others it was more of a case of hit-or-miss.
Akashi started feeling slightly warm and drew his neck tie a bit loose. He felt very relaxed for some unknown reasons to him and welcomed the feeling. He found himself mysteriously glacing at Shigehiro and Tetsuya time and again, but refused to start a conversation with them on his own. The two of them kept walking around, looking eerily happy. He did not want to leave a bitter taste in their mind in case he said something inappropriate. Even though Akashi was trained to behave with perfect mannerisms in formal events, these kinds of socially informal events were still a bit of a novelty to him. He thus chose to be safe and talk to people who showed interest in having a conversation with him. He had to admit that amidst Hayama's bad puns and Mibuchi's constant giggling, he was genuinely enjoying himself with the group.
As soon as Ogiwara and Tetsuya noticed the last cup of the spiked drink being served, they excused themselves to go to the rest room. As soon as they were on their own, they headed to the locker room and both burst out laughing at how the situation was unraveling. Everyone was warming up, for sure and those drinks went down so ridiculously quick. They both found it comical how people kept coming back for more drinks. The prank was slowly becoming a success, as they all dropped their guards, Tetsuya and Ogiwara included. They were both practically attached to the hips by this point. They were not done laughing when someone barged in the room. Mayuzumi gave them a slightly narrowed glare before going straight to the point.
"Was that gin or vodka?" the laughter instantly died out.
"E-ehh?" Tetsuya felt his mental capacity dying along with his speech.
"I saw you pouring something in the drinks, Kuroko-kun. You may be invisible to everyone, but it takes one invisible man to notice another invisible man's actions." Mayuzumi hoped that he did not sound drunk, for he did have a fair share of the drinks as well.
"It was gin." Ogiwara replied cautiously.
"That was a good one, I have to admit. Do you guys anything more planned? Can I join in the prankster crew? I'm sorry for the last time by the way, Ogiwara-san." Mayuzumi sure talked a lot more when tipsy, Ogiwara remarked.
"Ohh. . . the scare prank during summer camp! Don't worry -," Ogiwara waved his hand dismissively while replying. He almost successfully forgot about that one time he was near to pissing his pants because of that prank. Before he got to say anything else, the elder teen cut him off.
"No, I'm talking about you warning me about this role I had in the team. I should've taken you seriously. I'm sorry for telling you off like I did at that time. You were right there. They did kind of pull off some dirty tricks in the end," Mayuzumi continued.
"Ohh…" Ogiwara was speechless and also probably a bit too tipsy for this serious conversation but either way he was glad that they were having this talk.
"It's okay, sempai. Don't worry about it now. I was just trying to make sure you would be safe or prepared," Ogiwara replied calmly.
"I enjoyed the finals, Mayuzumi-san," Kuroko quickly interjected, surprising the other teens in the room.
"That final match was the bomb. On a side note, I nearly got all gay for you from all that cheering, but then I saw the chemistry between you and split eyebrows in you team and lemme tell you I thought he was already going all gay for you," Ogiwara added smugly.
How could he consider himself as Kuroko's best friend if did not occasionally tease the bluenette?
Kuroko scoffed, but did not say anything back. Did that mean that split eyebrows was actually on the move or something? Holy. Shit. Ogiwara could not believe he got a hint of something going on here. He had to remember this part of the conversation and dig out more later.
"Umm… maybe we should head back," the eldest suggested.
Mayuzumi had no fucking clue how the conversation turned to this, but knowing Ogiwara, it was no surprise. The little brunette could fish for information, but he'd rather not be around when the exchange of knowledge was going on. Mayuzumi, on the other hand, had little to no interest in those details, unless it was about someone who was a stick in the mud like, let's say, their beloved basketball captain. Also, the chemistry between the light and shadow pair of Seirin was quite obvious to begin with, duh.
When they all headed back to the gym area, some of the members were already gone. It was sunset time and it was getting slightly darker and cooler. All the Rakuzan regulars and a few other members of the club sat cosily in a circle in the middle of the wide room. Some of them were leaning onto each other or, in the case of Mibuchi, straight up sitting in the lap of the muscle-maniac. They sure did warm up a lot to each other, the brunette thought while exchanging a knowing glace with Kuroko and Mayuzumi. Once they reached the group, they made themselves comfortable and listened to the others talking about the most random things, and occasionally the few farewell talks directed to the eldest member of the regulars.
Akashi seized the moment to express his deep regret on the way he treated his senior on the finals. By the end of his little talk, he sincerely wished his sempai for the best in his studies. A subtle feel of melancholy settled in the air following their captain's words and Ogiwara decided that this sad feeling was not the reason he spiked all their drinks. They had to be giddy and happy, though it was a farewell party.
"My goodness!" the brunette exclaimed in exasperation. He instantly got everyone's attention.
"Mayuzumi sempai is just going to university, not to the army, for god's sake. You're all making this so emotional. I have a faint heart, don't pull my heartstrings like that!" He relented. Turning his attention to the senior player, he continued.
"Mayuzumi sempai . . ." he said fondly with a warm smile.
"Do you know why I call you sempai?" the brunette questioned, earning a little chuckle from Tetsuya and some others at the possible implication.
"Do you want to be noticed, Ogiwara-san?" Mayuzumi teased the little brunette.
"No." Ogiwara deadpanned.
"It's 'cause you're old," Ogiwara replied in a flat tone.
Absolute hilarity, along with the gobsmacked look on the elder teen's face followed. And with this,Ogiwara was able to roast the elder teen as a special farewell gift from him. But to be completely fair, the sight of the redheaded captain openly laughing at his delivery made him feel a bit prouder than usual.
A/N: And that's the end of the party! I put a fair share of humor in this one, and I hope that I did not focus too much on Sato, but I wanted to highlight the close relationship of Tetsuya with Ogiwara and the Sato couple through this chapter. Also a bit of the Rakuzan regulars and OOgiwara development in this. I hope it doesn't look too forced. I just finished my first year in university and straight up wrote down this chapter after taking my last exam lol
I hope you had a nice time reading this! Rates and Reviews will be much appreciated~