They circled each other. The crowd was loud, their cheers almost overwhelming him. His experience was the only thing that kept his head straight and his thoughts clear, even as the cheers made his eardrums vibrate.
His call for the black hair wax was a wise choice, as they had been a lot rougher with each other for that match. For the first time, Black was finally getting a good look at Wraths face, as was everyone else with his.
He was younger than he thought, he thought Wrath was going to be in his early twenties, a few years older than him, but to his surprise, Wrath looked like he was around his age. He had black eyes and black hair, but when he was holding Wrath down in a hold, he could tell that Wrath had used black hair wax since he could see brown hair sticking out from the black. But he knew that Wrath was able to tell the same thing about him. It was difficult trying to hide bright blue hair completely with black hair wax.
A wide smile spread across his face, one that Wrath mirrored with a smile of his own. In their tussle, both fighters had their upper garments pulled off, which meant that the both of them were circling each other shirtless, and without anything to cover up their face and hair. Wrath looked like someone you might find on the street, just average enough where you could remember running into them but not enough to give someone an accurate description of him.
Black could only hope that Wrath thought the same of him.
He didn't bother stomping down that sense of pride welling up in him as he saw the way Wrath was holding himself. Wrath was trying his best to look like he was fine and uninjured, but he could tell that some of his hits were enough to make him unsteady on his feet. There were bruises blooming on Wraths ribs, letting Black know that he had done his job.
"Huh," Wraths words were breathless, the cheers of the crowd almost overpowered his words but Black could still hear them," I thought you were older than me, you were always a quiet little shit." Wrath had a smirk on his face.
Blacks lips curled into a feral smile, he had known Wrath for far too long to take the insult to heart," I thought you were older than me," He took a step closer, as did Wrath," You giant motherfucker." Now that made a feral smile appear on Wraths face.
The adrenaline and shift in mindset were getting to him, now he was sinking deep into his identity as Black and was ready to finish the fight. Most people would have been scared to fight a man who had at least four inches and 30 pounds on him, but he wasn't going to back down from him. He just let the feral smile on his face get even bigger.
In the back of his mind, he could hear a quiet voice telling him that he should probably tone it down a little bit since there was a chance his friends could be there. That his friends could be there, watching him as he and Wrath beat each other almost black and blue. But he knew that the more out of character he acted, the less likely it would be that his friends would connect his identities. There was a vast difference between the black-haired and black-eyed, foul-mouthed fighter that was known as Black, and the quiet, polite, blue-haired with eyes to match basketball player that everyone knew as Kuroko. The more violent and feral he acted, the easier it would be for his friends to dismiss them as two different people.
The two of them lunged forward, the both of them using their years of experience against each other in an informal, but powerful fighting style. He grunted when he felt an elbow graze his temple, but he returned the blow for an uppercut that was barely dodged.
He snarled when Wrath managed to lock him in a chokehold from behind, just as he was about to break out of it, he heard a whisper in his ear," Hey, watch the face asshole, we still have school tomorrow."
Growling out his words, he agreed, but not without grabbing one of Wraths fingers and bending it back until he let go.
They were circling each other again, the crowd was jeering now. Urging them to finish the fight so they could collect the money they won before going back home. And honestly, Black was ready to win and go home. He still had basketball practice in the morning and he wanted to get home before it was an ungodly hour in the night.
He quirked up his eyebrow, which was always their silent message for them to get ready because they were going to try and perform the final, ending move.
His quirk of the eyebrow was returned with a wide smile, the crinkling of his eyes telling Black that Wrath was just as ready to wrap up the night.
They had something of an agreement to never be completely serious in a fight so the both of them could fight every week and still get some money. There was no point in fighting to the death when they would have to fight again next week. They had even faked the ending to a few fights (they didn't count those in the score though) because the two of them had agreed beforehand that they were way too tired to be fighting that night. Regardless, the point is that their fights were never supposed to be a fight until one was unconscious unless they agreed beforehand.
Which was why Black didn't expect Wrath to try out a new move on him right at the very end.
He let out a violent string of curses as Wrath wrapped his calves around his head and closed his eyes for the impact that was going to happen as Wrath made Blacks feet leave the floor in an overhead toss.
He knew it was going to hurt when he felt his head heading straight for the floor.
He just might kill Wrath next week.
A sharp stinging pain made him open his eyes and sit up. His body was already reacting and grabbing onto the collar of Wrath, who had the audacity to wake him up with a slap.
"Woah woah! Sorry man!" he blinked in surprise at the sound of his rival's voice. And it took him a couple of seconds of Black just blinking at Wrath to realize that he was almost strangling him. Black let out a huff of anger and shoved Wrath away from him as his other hand came up to feel the bump on his head.
His anger sparked further when he realized just how lucky he was that he didn't walk away with a concussion or a cracked skull.
"Wrath…" his voice was low as he glared daggers at Wrath, his lips curling up as he continued," If you ever do that again, I will kill you." Wrath ducked his head bashfully, he was averting his eyes, since Wrath knew that he had gone too far. Black hauled himself to his feet, stumbling a few feet until he straightened himself up. He glared at Wrath again," Until then, I'm going to call us even for when I got you last spring."
That made Wrath relax a little bit. Wrath gave a heavy sigh before picking up their bags and passing Black his bag," Come on, its already three, lets hurry up and leave." Black hummed in agreement and started to walk out of the room.
He snatched his beanie and mask out of Wraths hands and shoved them onto his head. Even more so when he saw what looked like Kagami's hair sticking out of the crowd in the main room.
He had no idea if it was Kagami, but he was just thankful that he had the sense to use the black hair wax. Especially since they had pulled off each other's covers during the fight.
"Are you going to be ok? I didn't mean to knock you out like that."
No, he was not going to be okay since he could feel his head pounding with each heartbeat, and his eyes thudded along with each one. He felt like he was going to have to sleep for the rest of the day to feel better, which he would have loved to do if he didn't have school in a few hours.
But there was no way he was going to let Wrath help him back home. Granted, Wrath didn't look familiar, but he didn't want to risk someone finding out who he was. Once one person knew, it didn't take long before the secret was being told like it was a scary story at a sleepover.
"I'll be fine, next week?"
There was a quiet sigh of relief," No, we have the next week off since this fight was kinda rough."
He grunted," Good, see you in two weeks Wrath."
"See you in two weeks."
Now to get home and figure out what the hell to do before he had practice.
"Oi Kuroko! Come and look at this!" He was barely able to keep his grimace off of his face because he did not want to be awake at the moment, let alone move. But with a sigh, he hid away the pain that he felt and ran over to Kagami, Izuki, Hyuuga, and Kiyoshi, where they were all hovering over a laptop.
"Yes?" He bent over on his knees to get a better look, internally cringing at the way his ribs ached at the movement.
Kagami turned the laptop towards him, where he could see the beginning of a video that was paused," Look at the fight I saw last night, that Black guy kinda looks like you."
He kept his face impassive as he watched himself fight against Wrath. Had he had less self-control, his eyes would be bulging out of his head while he started to sweat nervously. Instead, he just cocked his head to the side as the video started to get to the part where he was knocked out.
Well, he was curious about what happened after he was knocked unconscious.
They all watched silently as the fight continued. While his teammates were amazed by the speed the two fighters were moving at, Kuroko was studying and analyzing their movements. He picked up more than one movement that was excessive and unnecessary, and a few habits of Wraths that he didn't notice until the third person point of view.
But as soon as they saw Black's head being smashed against the cement, they all flinched and hissed in response. Even Kuroko scrunched up his face in a grimace.
Well, it was no wonder he was knocked out like that. He was lucky that he was even walking around.
"Jesus, is he okay?"
"He could have died!"
"No look, he looks like Kuroko!" Kagami paused the video right at the spot where Blacks unconscious face was facing the camera, and they all looked between Kuroko and Black. They looked between the innocent, slightly wide-eyed look of Kuroko and the unconscious, pained, and bruised face of Black (Thank god for makeup). But despite the differences, there was an obvious similarity between the two men. Even if they thought Black and Kuroko were two different people, it was going to be difficult to convince them otherwise if they had their hearts set on it.
Well SHIT.
How the fuck was he going to get out of this one?
He should have walked away when he could.
"Well," Hyuuga dragged out his words as he looked between the screen and basketball player," He does look like Kuroko, but Black has black hair, and eyes. Not to mention, he cusses like a sailor. Black is always smiling when he fights, and sometimes we struggle getting Kuroko to smile."
Alright, if he wasn't trying to convince them that Black was an entirely different person, he would have given them his trademark grin just to prove that he could smile. Just that fighting makes him feel alive in a way that basketball couldn't. That, despite his love for the sport, fighting helped him with his emotions and anger in a way that basketball couldn't.
Still, if he swung that way, he could have kissed Hyuuga.
Kagami hummed in agreement before he pointed out," Yeah that's true, besides, Kuroko doesn't have any bruises on his face like Black does."
He was currently thanking every higher power he could think of, thankful that he had decided to go the extra mile and buy expensive makeup and spending hours upon hours mastering his ability to cover bruises.
"Alright," Hyuuga clapped his hands together, startling all of them," Back to work, come on, I want to do the drills one more time before we hit the showers." Kuroko just stared at his teammates as they all walked off.
…He had almost no idea how he had managed to squirm his way out of that one.