He hissed as he wrapped his ribs, wrapping it where it had just enough pressure to keep his ribs still, but tight enough where it slightly restricted his breathing. He clicked his tongue in annoyance when he saw the black and blue bruises being wrapped up, it was amateurish to let himself get hit like that.

"What? Upset that I got a good hit on you?" had he been right next to him, he would have given him a semi playful punch.

He huffed in a mixture of amusement and annoyance before blatantly saying," right hip, last spring."

He relished in the way the next stall inhaled sharply before practically yelling at him," Listen, just because you managed to nick me with the knife once, it doesn't mean you can hold it over me forever!"

Chuckling, he ignored the pain he felt as he put his shirt back on," Nick you say?"

There was a loud, annoyed groan coming from the next stall, the smirk on his face got wider as he listened to the occupant cursing under his breath. He had not 'nicked' him as he said, instead, they had gotten a little bit too serious and one of them ended up leaving with a knife in his side and came back with at least 15 stitches. Although he was somewhat proud that he had injured his opponent like that, he still felt bad. So, for each week that he was out healing, he would give his opponent over half of his nightly earnings, since he knew that the man needed it while he just wanted some spare cash (And an outlet for his anger).

Jamming the beanie onto his head, he carefully tucked all of the strands of his hair, making sure that no one could see a single strand of his very distinctive hair. He pulled the beanie over his eyebrows, he knew that he looked odd like that, but the last thing he needs is for someone to recognize him out in public. He pulled his mask over his face and once he gathered his supplies into his bag, he was ready to go.

He walked out of the stall at the same time as the next one. With impassive eyes, he looked up at his opponent," What's the score now?"

He didn't even have to look at his phone, he had checked their score before the fight and he knew what it was," 40 wins, 41 losses and two ties, its my win."

"For now."

He gave a small smile under his mask," Yes, for now."

They both walked out of the locker room, he absentmindedly glanced over at the main room as they walked past it. He could hear the loud and drunken cheering that the current fight produced. He had half a mind to go and see who was fighting and what was making them get all riled up like that.

But at the same time, he knew that it was just a bunch of rookies that wouldn't last a week. The owner would have told them if there were a few rookies they had to keep an eye on.

"Black, Wrath," Their attention was caught by a man stepping out into the hallway.

Well, speak of the devil.

"Here," He took two thick bundles of cash out of his jacket, the both of them having at least 400 dollars within the envelope. He handed each other their respective envelope," Good fight you two, same time next week, don't be late." They both nodded and took their bundles. They didn't bother counting it, the owner had known them long enough where it would be a loss if he was going to try and scam the two of them. Not only could they kick his ass, but they simply brought in too much money for him to lose them to another fight club.

"Ok."

"Got it." With that, they both left the warehouse. Black looked up at the sky, taking note of the position of the moon and realizing that it had to be at least two in the morning.

"Hey," He looked over at Wrath, who was wearing the almost exact same outfit as him, where only his eyes could be seen. He looked directly into the man's black eyes," Pretty sure my face is gonna bruise, how do you hide your bruises?"

Black turned to face him," Mostly foundation, but its easy if you use color correctors. Red to cover up green bruises, green to cover up red." By the way Wraths eyes widened, it looked like he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Really? Is that how you cover up all of your bruises?"

"Yes, I use tattoo make up for the ones on my body," Black took out the tube of makeup that he used and handed it over to Wrath. With a short and quick explanation, he told Wrath how to use it and where to buy it. Once Wrath had taken a picture of his makeup and returned it, the both of them started to go their separate ways.

"Hey Black," He turned around at the call of his name, where he could see Wrath with a smirk on his face (or what he assumed to be a smirk)," Get ready to get your ass kicked, I'm going to win next time."

Black let out a loud, uncharacteristic snort as he turned around to face his street again," Sure you are, see you next week Wrath."

"Later Black."

He took the long way home, making sure that some vengeful opponents weren't following him before he let himself enter his home. As he pulled down his mask, a happy yip caught his attention and made him look down.

"Hey Nigou," Black scratched the dog at just the right angle, making the small dog wag his tail happily," let me change and then we can go to bed." Nigou let out a happy bark and quickly ran off to his bedroom. With a sigh, he groaned as he stood back up, his bones and joints popping as he did so. Taking his dirty gear out of his bag, he threw it into the washing machine and threw the bag into the nearby closet. He threw his beanie and mask into the wash as well. He ran his hand through his hair, disturbing the shape the beanie had molded his hair into and cringed in disgust when he felt all of the sweat in it.

Maybe he should look into some temporary hair dye or wax so he could take off his beanie during fights.

Well seeing that he had to wake up in a few hours for practice, he decided that there was no point taking a shower since he could just take one at school.

He changed out of his sweaty clothes right there in the hallway and changed into the sleepwear that he kept there exactly for that purpose. Starting the wash, he returned to his room.

After smearing some Tiger Balm here and there, he crawled into bed.

Scrunching up his eyes, he looked at the time and almost sighed when he saw that he would only have three hours of sleep before going to practice. But he dismissed it since there was no way he was going to give up his favorite pastime. It did wonders for his frustration of always being forgotten, ignored and the feeling of someone never seeing him. Without the weekly fights, he just might hit someone out of anger at school, which was something he truly didn't want.

Turning onto his side, he curled into a small ball and let himself fall asleep.

"Damn! Did you see that?!" Kuroko ignored the words and continued to practice his shooting skills.

His ribs were aching and his knuckles were aching just as much, if not more. He must have grabbed onto Wrath too tight because even the joints in his fingers hurt when he held onto the basketball. His upper body was black and blue, just like it was every week after a fight with Wrath. It was going to be a pain to hide the bruises from the rest of his team, but all he had to do was to get dressed in the shower, since he always did that, and he was going to be just fine.

He just had to make sure that he didn't wince when Kagami playfully smacked his hand against his back, or nudge him. Or when he bent over to breathe because his ribs were still a thing.

Ok, he was going to have to be careful just existing.

He had half a mind to stop fighting but it was that, or lose his mind to the loneliness he felt every time he returned to an empty house. That loneliness that he felt every time he had to announce his presence and even though he was used to it, he wanted his friends to greet him with a smile most of the time, not with a face of shock because they didn't notice him and was startled by his 'sudden' appearance.

Honestly, there were a lot of reasons that were related to his emotions on why he went to the fight club.

"How can he move so fast?!"

Few more seconds of dribbling before he started to set himself up to shoot the ball, he ignored the pain in his finger joints again.

"Dudes tiny! How can he hit so hard?!"

He frowned when he missed but grabbed another ball and started to set himself up again.

"What are their names again? Actually how did you even get this?" He heard Izuki hesitate before he clearly heard him say.

"Ahh, well… There's this fight club on the other side of town," Kuroko almost froze at the mention of the fight club but quickly moved past it. There were multiple fight clubs in their city, chances were low that Izuki was talking about his fight club," Their names are Wrath and Black-" He almost froze again, he managed to move past it. But his heart lept into his throat, how did he not notice one of his teammates at his match?

Well to be fair, he was in the middle of a match, a match that was intense and almost barbaric, but he still should have noticed. Then again, he was struggling to not get hit in the face, maybe he should cut himself some slack.

He almost pursed his lips when he missed his shot.

"Apparently Wrath and Black are the top two fighters in the entire city but they have something of a rivalry, they fight every week."

"No way!"

"We have to go see them fight!"

Shit.

"I'm down if you're down!"

Fuck.

"Hell yeah! What time are the fights at?!"

Fucking shit.

"Tuesdays! At one AM!"

He missed his shot again

"Ok I am not going to sleep that late on a school day! ONE AM?! That's less than four hours of sleep!"

Oh, thank god.

"Oh its not that bad! I saw him fight last night and I'm fine."

Izuki, for the love of God, shut up.

"What are you doing!? Get back to practice!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

Ok, he was going to have to give Aida another anonymous donation, he was going to give her his entire nightly earnings this time.

He loved his teammates, he really did. They were all amazing people in their own way and they brightened up his day.

But he didn't want them to find out that he was Black. He's been hiding the secret since middle school and him going to the fight club weekly, it was a part of his life he was not willing to give up.

Not only was it a way to get some cash on the side, but he helped him destress for the week. If he needed to, he would even go more than once a week, and he did not need his friends to find out and try their best to keep him from fighting. He just might lose his mind if he didn't have that weekly (honestly it was almost daily at that point) release.

Okay note to self, he really had to buy that black hair wax.