There was the quiet clicking of utensils against the plate as they were used. The sound of cups being set down onto the table after the owner sipped their drink from the rim.

And the tension was thick enough where Kuroko was sure that if he tried, he would have been able to cut it with a knife.

Kuroko was sitting off to the side, quietly eating his dinner as his parents sat from across from each other. unlike him, his mother was quietly eating her dinner, all while staring down at her dinner plate. Somehow ignoring the man of the house (Does he really deserve that title though?) as he glared daggers into the crown of her head. He was the only one who was making more noise than necessary. While the pair of bluenetts, were eating as quietly as possible, his father was eating like he had nothing to fear. (In his mind, he had no reason to fear his son). Even though Kuroko knew that his father should have been at least a little bit nervous under his gaze.

As much as Kuroko wanted to give his father a reason to watch himself around his son, he knew that he had to wait.

For now, he wanted his father to believe that he didn't need to keep an eye on his seemingly quiet and obedient son.

"Oi," his father barked out as he chewed with one side of his mouth, his glare still on the crown of his mother's head," don't think I didn't notice the withdrawal you made on my card," that didn't sound good," Explain yourself Yui."

God, he hated the way his father spat out his mother's name as if it was a foul piece of vegetable he had accidently shoveled into the deplorable hole he called a mouth.

He kept on quietly eating as his mother quietly and shakily answered his father," I-I bought groceries with your card," from his position, he could see his mother bite down nervously on her lip for a second before forcing herself to continue," j-just like you wanted me to."

That appeased the piece of human trash.

"Good," his father grounded out," I don't think you need a reminder of what happens when you try and use your own card?"

It took everything he had for him to not slam his hands onto the table and tussle it out with his father.

His mother flinched, her hands resting on the edge of the table before she quietly said," Of-of course not dear…"

They quickly fell into silence again. None of them were done with their meal, and Kuroko did not fail to miss the way his mother started to eat just a little bit faster. Decided that it was a good idea to leave his father to be alone as soon as possible, he started eating just as fast.

Despite their attempts to finish their meal, his father was the one who was done with the meal the fastest.

Slamming his hands onto the table hard enough to make his empty cup fall onto his side, his father stood up from the small table," I'm heading out," Kuroko had to clench his fists under the table and use all of his willpower to keep his face impassive after the way his father purposely knocked his elbow into the back of his head as he passed by Kurokos seat.

Kuroko didn't even bother greeting his father farewell as the man walked out of the front door and slammed it behind him.

As soon as the door was closed, Kuroko let out a string of quiet curses, quiet enough where his mother was hard pressed to understand what he said," Mom," he started quietly, his mother snapping up to look into her sons matching blue eyes, he hated the way his mother looked terrified at his call," Why are you still with him?" he got straight to the point. He didn't understand, how an educated woman, such as his scientist of a mother, tolerated such treatment. She didn't need the man's financial support, she could support herself effortlessly.

He pursed his lips when his mother gave him yet another sad smile, one that someone would give him when he tries suggesting a solution that they already thought of," Oh Tetsu…" his mother gently patted the back of his hand with her own," It's not that simple, believe me, I would have left a long time ago if it was."

"then why can't you make it simple?" Kuroko was annoyed with the way she had talked down to him, granted, his 16 years of life was nothing compared to his mother's 40 years of life, but he did not appreciate the way she was treating him like a child. It was like she forgot that both her and his father forced him to grow up when he was 12," You always told me that the more complex a problem is, the simpler the solution has to be. And the simplest solution is leaving." Kuroko was blatantly throwing her words back into her face, hoping that it would make her realize that she needed to leave her husband.

But again, she smiled as if he was some sort of animal that had done some sort of annoyingly cute action and changed the subject," Tetsuya, lets dye your hair before you go to sleep?"

Kuroko just stared at her with wide, unbelieving eyes.

"Your father will leave you alone," she added on, as if that was going to convince him," Black hair would make your eyes look even brighter, you would look lovely with black hair." Her attempts didn't work.

"No," his voice was stern, his tone portraying his intent to not change his mind. Some people may see it as an act of defiance, but it was more than that.

He refused to hide the beautiful color that he inherited from his mother.

Just as some people loved the name their parents gave them, or the color of their eyes, their height or body stature, he loved the color of his hair. He loved the color of his hair and although he covered the color up when he was taking part in his early morning past time, he was not willing to change the color permanently.

He had enough with his past teachers scolding him for dying his hair, but as soon as they found out that it was his natural color, they would urge him to dye his hair so he could blend in with the rest of the school. It took him years and hours of his parents arguing with him for him to accept his hair for what it was and to be proud of it.

It hurt to hear the woman, who spent so long patiently explaining to him that he should be proud of his hair color, for it showed his linage, try and convince him to hide his blue hair.

And it pissed him off that it was his father of all people who was punishing him for his natural hair color.

"No. I'm not dying my hair," He gave his mother a stern look, trying his best to make sure that he was not glaring at her instead. Her face was stunned, her blue eyes wide open as her infuriatingly black hair framed her face," I am willing to do almost anything else, but I will not dye my hair. I did not spend my entire childhood insecure about my hair, only for me to change it now that I love my hair. You were the one who taught me to love it. You were the one who helped me at school when the teachers thought my hair was dyed, or when they told me to dye my hair." He could feel his anger starting to well up in him.

With a huff, he stood up and looked down defiantly at his mother. She was staring up at him, with a look that looked astonished and another emotion he couldn't pinpoint ( Her poker face was just as blank as his)," I will not dye my hair, good bye mother, I will be in my room." He turned on his heel and entered his room.

He just barely managed to restrain himself from slamming his door shut. But as soon as it was closed, he closed his eyes and took deep breathes, trying his best to restrain his anger before it got out of control.

…he needed to go for a run before he broke something.

He's been doing that a lot recently.

He was exhausted.

After returning home from his run, he had walked into the house just in time for his father to see him. And deciding that it would be best to hide his fighting abilities longer, he had almost sprinted into his room where he slammed the door behind him and locked it.

His aversion to his father was a wise choice, as the moment he closed and locked his door, his father was on the other side, yelling and spitting out curse words and insults that he knew would hurt his son.

And it was like that for the rest of the night.

Even after the rest of the neighborhood went to sleep, his father was still on the other side of the door, not letting Kuroko sleep. While he had long stopped yelling, his father would pound on his door almost every half hour to keep his son from sleeping. And it worked.

For the entire night, Kuroko was sitting on his bed, his back against the wall and his knees pulled up to his chest, his eyes tiredly fixated on the door across the room. He stayed like that for the rest of the night, and was jerked awake every time his father pounded on the door.

He probably got less than two hours of sleep in total, which wouldn't have been bad if it was two continuous hours of sleep. Instead, he got about 15 minutes of sleep at a time, nowhere near long enough for his brain to enter the needed stages of sleep. The best he got was a light doze and the occasional entering the sleep stage.

He was exhausted, and he knew that his teammates could tell. More than once, he had nearly taken a basketball to the face, each time, Kagami had to be the one to either knock it away, or pull Kuroko out of the way. He had messed up some very basic drills, and was getting tired much faster. His legs felt like lead, and he was breathing so hard, he could feel his chest burning with that burn you only get through intense cardio.

In his exhaustion, he completely forgot that all of the third years on his team found out what he and Wrath did.

So he was extremely confused when almost all of third years practically sprinted to him when he did his usual face plant onto the floor. He blinked tiredly when more than one pair of hands made him sit up, Kiyoshi and Shinji were frantically asking him if he was ok, while Izuki was bringing Aida over, insisting that he was hurt and needed to be sent to the nurses.

Once he realized what was happening, he was quick to push away everyone's hands (or slap them away, in the case of Kiyoshi) and tell them that he was fine, he was just tired after a long night.

And then that started everyone asking him if what the third years had told him was true, him getting backed up by Kagami and the second years. And then that led to a long scolding by Aida that lasted for so long, he ended up snapping at her.

But he was quick to apologize profusely, since he honestly did not like talking to his teammates and friends like that, and promised her that it would not happen again, exhausted or not.

The entire time, he was lying out of his teeth when they asked him what kept him from sleeping. He ended up telling them that a fly kept him up ( which was the weakest lie he had told in years) instead of telling them that it was his insane father who kept on pounding on his door every half hour is what kept him up all night.

He should have told them the truth.