It was another tough game against Haizaki.

It was a difficult and frustrating game against the man.

The entire team struggled with the way he would steal their moves effortlessly and use them against them. And between keeping Kagami from losing it, and trying to rein in his own temper.

It was safe to say that Kuroko was on edge.

He wasn't in a good mood, or in a bad mood, but it would take something small to change it for the better or for the worse.

Due to the way his mood was tetter tottering on the edge, Kuroko was isolating himself. He was celebrating the win, but he was doing so off to the side and silently. He needed at least a few minutes to himself to calm down and center himself. He had been annoyed for almost the entire game, but he didn't want to be the spoilsport who was in a pissy mood, so he both wanted and needed that alone time.

The way he was standing off to the side caught the attention of their teammates and most of them went to go and pull him into the group, but after both Kagami and Hyuuga insisted that they leave him alone for the time being, they left Kuroko off to the side.

To the outside view, it looked like the team was isolating the phantom player, especially since Kuroko was patiently putting away his stuff by himself while his teammates were still acting like a bunch of excited fools. But no, it was the opposite.

Most of the time, he would have loved to take part in their post-game celebration, but he just wasn't in the mood that time.

But his isolation from his team was the reason his teammates didn't notice Haizaki walking up to Kuroko.

Kagami was laughing heartily and breathlessly with his teammates, all of them still on that winners high. He still had no idea how he managed to hear those words over his teammates cheering.

"Oi, I'm not letting another brat from the 'Generation of Miracles' beat me." The words were impossibly calm, but there was a mocking tone mixed in there. The way Haizaki said that sent chills up and down his spine.

That man was anything but calm.

Hyuuga must have heard Haizaki as well, as they made eye contact before whipping their heads around to the basketball players, just in time to hear Kuroko let out a pained gasp.

Haizaki had gotten a handful of Kurokos bright, blue hair and was lifting the smaller basketball player off of the floor. He was using nothing but the grip on his hair to lift the boy off of the floor and into the air. Kuroko was trying to use his hands to make the player let go, but Haizaki had a firm grip on his hair.

Alerted by the way their teammates reacted, it didn't take long before the rest of Kurokos team noticed what was happening.

It was like all hell broke loose when Haizaki's team noticed what was happening as well.

Multiple players let out strings of curses when they saw what was happening, and all of the players on the court started to run towards the pair to break them up.

There was a particularly loud string of curses, one that everyone seemed to hear before Kuroko shocked them all.

With no regard to his hair, Kuroko grabbed Haizaki's hand and twisted it away, he ignored the way the strands of his hair were snapping with the movement, and instead continued with his technique. He pulled Haizakis hand down with him, and as soon as his feet touched the floor, he kicked out Haizaki's feet from under him, twisting the arm up and behind him as they fell together. Kuroko landed on top of Haizakis back, his hands wrapped around Haizakis arm that was already being pinned behind his back.

But as soon as Kuroko landed on him with all of his weight, there was a loud and disturbing popping sound. The popping sound was followed by the pained scream of his former classmate.

As soon as Kuroko heard that pop, he rolled off of Haizaki and quickly got to his feet. By that time, his teammates were already trying to further separate the two players and Kagami did not hesitate in simply picking up Kuroko and taking him away from the opposing team and his attacker.

Honestly, Kagami did not like the way Kuroko did not struggle. The only thing he did was tiredly tell Kagami that he could put him down and that he wasn't going to do anything. Kuroko was carried to the locker room, and the longer he was being carried, the angrier he was getting.

By the time they were inside the locker room, the blue-haired phantom had enough, "Can you just let me fucking walk?!" The rest of the team was shocked by the language their quiet teammates used, but Kagami immediately put Kuroko down.

Kuroko jerked away from Kagami and let out a quiet growl of frustration as he straightened himself out. He honestly wasn't that mad by Haizakis 'attack', he found it more annoying than anything.

What really pissed him off was Kagami picking him up like he was a child and carrying him out of the gym as if he needed to be restrained.

"Kuroko!" Everyone but Kuroko jumped as Aida slammed the locker room door open. She looked upset," What did you do?!"

Kuroko glanced at her before calmly answering," I dislocated his shoulder," ignoring everyone's sputtering answers, he ran his hand through his hair, his hand pulling away blue clumps of broken hair. Kuroko stared at the clump of his hair and calmly said," I would say that he deserved it."

Ignoring everyone's stares, he continued to pull out broken strands of hair before he took it over to the trash can and threw it away. Everyone was too stunned by the sudden change in character, they just watched him as he grabbed his bag and started to walk out of the locker room.

It wasn't until Kagami tried to stop him from leaving when they snapped out of their stupor," Hey, you better not do something stupid."

Kuroko stopped and gave Kagami and close-lipped smile.

It would have been comforting to see Kuroko smile like that if there weren't veins visibly throbbing on his forehead.

"Kagami," His tone was impassive again, but his words did not match," Please leave me alone before my temper gets the better of me, I will be outside until its time to leave."

Kagami took a step back in silent surrender. That was the sign for Kuroko to take his leave. And once he walked out, everyone just stared at each other.

"What the hell?"

Kagami and Hyuuga sighed in defeat.

"Oi," Hyuuga poked the exhausted, and sweaty body that had collapsed on the floor next to him," How is it you can fight for hours but you don't have the stamina to play for an hour?" Kuroko groaned as he rolled onto his back, his sweat leaving a print on the gym floor," We are running back and forth for an hour," his voice was breathless and quiet. His teammates were practicing a few meters away so he wanted to be quiet.

"I don't run back and forth when I fight, and I don't take longer than 20 minutes to win." Hyuuga chuckled at his response and gave Kuroko one more poke before he stood back up, "Well, rest for a few more minutes before joining us again." Kuroko tiredly gave his captain a thumbs up and let his hand fall away once Hyuuga rejoined the drill.

He continued panting on the floor as he tried to regain his breath.

Sometimes he questioned himself too why he couldn't last an entire game but could fight for hours. Fighting was arguably more tiring than a match of basketball, but still, it made no sense that he could last longer in a fight than in a simple one-hour game.

There was another poke in his side. But this time, it made him squeak in response and sit up while protecting his stomach from the offender. His face turned red when he realized that it was Kagami who had poked him.

There was a wide smile on Kagami's face, and it only got even wider when Kagami realized just what he had poked.

"I didn't know you were ticklish." Kuroko almost paled at the smile that he had and scrambled into a crouch," No Kagami, don't you dare."

Kagami's smile was impossibly wide now. Kuroko and Kagami stared at each other for a few seconds. They remained like that, the both of them crouching next to the court, staring at each other.

Just like that, Kuroko took off, running as fast as he could from Kagami so he wouldn't be pinned down.

Kagami let out a bark of laughter before taking off after Kuroko.

As expected, their antics caught the attention of the rest of the team and they just stopped and stared at the second years as they ran around the gym. But, since Kagami had nine inches on him, as well as a much longer stride.

They weren't really surprised when Kagami caught up to Kuroko and picked him, his fingers digging into the right spot to make Kuroko break out into laughter.

Kuroko had one of those laughs that could make other people smile, or start laughing themselves. It was cheery and bell-like. And unlike him, it was loud and echoed all around the gym," No stop! Hahaha-damn it Kagami!" The boy broke into laughter again, making his teammates chuckle in response.

Hyuuga looked on with a smile. He was just happy to see that Kuroko could laugh like that.

He knew that Kuroko was quite a lonely child and that his loneliness and sadness turned into anger and frustration. Which was why he actively helped Kuroko get around the rules his parents enforced on him (Not that Kuroko knew) because he didn't even want to think of the way it would impact the teenager's mental status if he followed them. He knew that his parents had created those rules in a way that would isolate him from his friends and if Kuroko struggled with those feelings when he attended practices, he knew that his mental health would take a turn for the worse if he wasn't able to attend said practices.

He chuckled when Aida started to scold the second years. But even she had a smile on her face as she did so.

He wanted it to stay that way.

"Tetsuya!" He froze when he heard the females voice echoing throughout his house, his pencil falling onto his homework, leaving stray pencil marks in the process," We're home!" He scrambled to get up from his desk, tripping over his feet in the process before he managed to get to the door and swing it open.

He heard the sound of a males annoyed voice, but he didn't let it deter him from running to the front door. His heart was in his throat the entire time, but as soon as he ran into the hallway, tears sprung to his eyes. He saw his mother first, and she looked as beautiful as always. Although her hair was dyed black, hiding her beautiful blue hair, there was no denying that it was his mother's bright blue eyes that were staring right back at him.

All of the anger and frustration that he felt towards his parents evaporated as he flung himself into his mother's arms. He took in the smell of her perfume, the feeling of her arms wrapping around him and pulling him into a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her and brought her into an even tighter hug. She was smaller than he remembered, but that was to be expected since it had been over five years since he had seen her. Everything else felt the exact same, she still hugged him just as tight as she always did, and she was still wearing her favorite perfume after all of those years.

He held onto her for a few minutes, taking that time to compose himself and to enjoy the hug.

He didn't look up from the hug until he heard an annoyed grumble coming from behind his mother.

He lit up when he saw that it was his father, and was just about to throw himself at him as well, but nearly stopped when he saw his father's face.

He…His father was much older than he remembered. It was almost unnatural how much his father had aged.

He looked between his parents and was so confused. His parents were the same age, they were only a few months apart.

So why did his father look so old and ragged?

Even without make-up, his mother looked like she was almost 20 years younger than her husband.

And then he noticed the permanent scowl that his father had, throwing him off even more since even throughout childhood, his father was known for always having a smile on his face.

He brought himself out of his stupor and went to go and hug his father, only for his old man to pick up his suitcase and nearly slam it against his chest. He had to grab it to keep it from falling onto the floor.

"None of that mushy mushy shit," His father growled out his words and even glared at him before his father shoved his way past both him and his mother. Kuroko even had to grab onto his mother's shoulder to make sure that she didn't fall," This house better be clean boy, or I'm going to teach you the importance of keeping a clean house." The only thing Kuroko could do was stare as his father stalked down the hallway, slamming the door to their bedroom with enough force where he could feel it through his slippers.

"Don't mind him sweetheart," His mother took the suitcase from his hands and placed it onto the floor. For the first time, he realized just how tired his mother looked.

She didn't like she was tired after a long day. No, she looked tired, as if she was emotionally and mentally exhausted and has been like that for months, if not years.

Why does she look so tired?

"Come on," She quickly organized the mess her husband left at the doorway before motioning for Kuroko to follow her," I'll help you clean up before he comes back, we better do it quickly." Although she said it nonchalantly and sweetly, he could hear the undertone of urgency that was in his voice.

What?

"Quickly Tetsuya," She was grabbing him and dragging him along now," We have to do it before he notices." Now it was clear that his mother was in a rush, but he was still reeling from what was happening.

What the hell?

What was going on?

Huh?

His mother's movements started to get more frantic as time went on and she was cleaning with a speed that she could only have from practice. Although he was helping, he was just so confused.

Why were they cleaning like there was no tomorrow?

Why was his mother so high-strung about cleaning before his father came out of their bedroom?

Just as they finished cleaning up the kitchen, the only dirty part of the house, his father slammed open the door before coming stomping down the hallway. After being practically shoved into the seat, he just watched with shock as his mother started to prepare tea and try her best to look normal.

Others might have missed it, but he didn't miss the way her hands were trembling.

"You," A hand smacked the back of his head forward, the hand using enough force to almost make him hit the table with his forehead and leave his impact site stinging with pain. He looked up at his father, annoyed that he had gotten hit for no reason, but before he could say anything, his father cut him off," Dye your hair, I don't want to see that disgusting color."

…What the fuck?