A gentle touch on his shoulder made him jerk awake again. And just like before, he tried to get to his feet before something happened. Only for him to fall back onto the bed in a groaning heap. His ribs protesting like he was a company owner who threatened to take away the worker's health benefits.

"Woah, take it easy man," a pair of hands gently, but firmly forced him to lay down onto the bed, taking the weight off of his ribs and easing the pain. He groaned as the hands forced him down. His stomach was rolling inside of him, no doubt because he had been forcing himself to eat even though those diet pills were doing their job in suppressing his appetite.

Once nausea settled, he cracked open his eyes and realized that Wrath was standing over him, with a very concerned look on his face. He had never seen his friend look so grim.

"Black," Wrath was living up to his name again, as he growled out his words," I'm only going to ask you this once and don't you dare lie to me," after getting a tired blink from him, Wrath continued, holding up a wipe that had been stained with a cream-colored substance.

"Who tried to choke you?"

His hand flew up to feel his neck, his fingertips coming in contact with bare skin instead of foundation and concealer covered skin," I can recognize a cover up from anywhere," Wrath threw the wipe to the side as if he was disgusted," imagine my surprise when I saw make up on your neck." Black sighed in defeat and self consciously pulled his collar up to hide his neck, to hide the finger-shaped bruises that were on his skin, but he didn't give his friend an answer.

Wraths lips curled down in anger. He didn't like the way he wasn't getting an answer. But suppressing his anger, he softly asked,"…you don't want to tell me, or you cant tell me?"

Black closed his eyes tiredly as his voice came out as a croak," I cant tell you." He heard a quiet curse.

"Ok, are they threatening you?"

Even though they were blatantly skirting around the truth and naming the perpetrator, they ignored it.

He gave the smallest head nod, "Yes, they think I don't know, but if I leave, they'll hurt Aida."

"Shit…they, whose 'they'?" he didn't answer Wrath again and he knew that his friend didn't like his silence.

A hand gently grabbed onto his shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze, " Kuroko…" the voice was gentle, completely different from the usual loud and boisterous voice that he was used to," you can tell me who they are, I can help you."

Biting onto his lip, he stubbornly shook his head.

The handheld on a little bit tighter," Kuroko, please…you're acting like Dani before her father killed her…" he pressed his lips together even tighter at that.

Dani was a girl who was in their lives for a very short amount of time. She was one of the few female fighters that took pity on them and taught them a few techniques.

She was in their lives just long enough for them to start growing attached to her, but towards the end of her life, she started to lose weight, and she looked tired and stressed all the time.

Just like he was.

As short as their time together was, it was still enough for her to never be forgotten by the two of them. She was a bright and sarcastic girl, that had become a shell of her former self before she was killed.

He scrunched his eyes closed even tighter and turned his head away from Wrath, trying his best to keep himself together.

"I don't want to wake up one morning to the news that you died, please Kuroko, you can trust me."

Bitter tears started to fall out of the corner of his eyes, and in an attempt to hide them, he threw his arm over his face.

He didn't want to drag Wrath into his problems. He didn't want to drag anyone into his problems.

But.

At the same time.

He was tired.

He was so tired, tired of playing some sick game with his father almost every other day. Tired of pretending that he still trusted his mother, even though he could see the deceit and pride in her eyes as he ate her food. Tired of sleeping less than two hours every day, of pretending that everything was fine day after day. Avoiding his friends so they wouldn't notice anything.

Even though the only thing he wanted to do was to let everything spill in the company of his friends.

The ends of his mouth started to curl downward as he tried to hold back his tears, and he knew that Wrath had noticed since the hand tightened around his shoulder again.

After a long minute, he finally choked out,"…after five years, they finally came back…"

"They?"

He nodded his head, a few tears finally dripping down his cheek as he did so,"…I thought they loved me, I-I thought they came back for me…" his voice cracked with grief as he spoke, but despite the way his voice shook, he continued.

"…they're going to murder me and cash out on my life insurance, they've been planning this for years…" he heard a sharp inhale of breath.

"Are they…?"

Swallowing back a sob, he answered," Yes, t-they-my-"

"Its ok," a hand gently ruffled his hair. And for the first time, he didn't mind that it was Wrath doing it,"…you don't have to say it."

He shakily nodded his head and continued to withhold his sobs. After hearing yet another whine from the back of his throat, he felt something else touch his shoulder.

"how long have you been hiding this?"

He had to take a few seconds before he could answer," t-two weeks."

Another hand patted his shoulder in a comforting way," Jesus, you've been holding everything in for two weeks?"

Wrath got a shaky nod.

He heard a huff of air before the hand started to tap a slow, and constant tempo into his shoulder," Let it out man, you'll go insane if you don't."

He frantically shook his head. He didn't want to do that.

He felt a nudge on his shoulder before hearing a strained voice," Come on you emotionally constipated bastard, we can cry like bitches together. We can dab at our eyes dramatically with hankies if you want."

That made a weak bark of laughter come out of him, he chuckled as he trailed off, but those chuckles quickly turned into sniffles. And the sniffles turned into what would have been body-racking sobs if he didn't have to be careful with his ribs.

Wrath didn't say anything about the way Kurokos hand went up to grab onto his sleeve with a death grip. And Kuroko didn't say anything about the way Wrath kept a grounding hand on his shoulder, he didn't say anything about the quiet sniffles he heard next to him, or the way he laid his hand over Kurokos hand that was on his sleeve.

They both knew that they would never talk about that instance of emotional vulnerability the both of them were showing.

But at that moment, that was the only thing that could make them feel better.

He almost wanted to cry again when he realized that he finally had someone to help him.

Wrath silently climbed into his window, he was wearing his fighting gear and his usual disguise, but he could still tell that Wrath was serious at that moment.

Double checking that his door was locked, he silently started to give Wrath the bags he had prepared.

It was Wraths idea for him to start moving his stuff out of the house, slowly, but surely. He couldn't do it too fast since his parents would notice, but it was a sign that he was able to get out. He was quick to agree and prepared the bags.

Since it was the first rounds of getting the hell out of there, he put his precious valuables in there, along with all of the money he had earned over the years. Those were the things that he didn't want to risk his parents destroying or taking them away.

With a silent nod, the two of them climbed out of the window and took them down the road where Wrath had parked his parent's car. Kuroko took in a deep breath of the cool night air. With everything that had been going on, he hadn't been able to go on his nightly excursions for weeks and he sorely missed that.

"Wrath…I really appreciate you helping me with this." Wrath waved off his thanks, he could barely see the man in the dark alleyway.

"Don't thank me, any decent human being would help you leave your parents. Why did you take so long to leave anyways?"

Kuroko shrugged his shoulders, he felt much better about the entire situation now that he had someone to rant to. And now someone that knew the truth, his emotions were a little bit more stable, since he wasn't alone anymore," I've been getting evidence, getting recordings, pictures and such. I'm not sure if they can really threaten Aida, but I'm not willing to chance it."

Wrath hummed in approval," Good, email me a copy of what you have?"

Kuroko hummed in agreement as he carefully put his bags into the car, he was half-expecting to see Mitobe or someone older driving, but to his surprise, Wrath was the one driving.

Wait, he's too young to be driving?

…then again, the two of them fought illegally so he wasn't going to make a big deal out of that.

"How are your parents going to try and frame your murder?"

Kuroko put his hands on his hips and blew out a breath that puffed out his cheeks," My father keeps me up all night, and my mother gives me food that she's laced with diet pills, I have to eat her food or they'll notice, but I throw it up first chance I get. Their plan is to make it look like I'm struggling with depression and got mixed up in the wrong crowd. Something about weight loss and lack of energy being the most noticeable symptoms of depression. "

"oh," Wrath scrunched up his face in disgust as they walked back to Kuorkos house, "that's fucked up."

"I noticed."

"oh shut up, how are you doing? With, you know, with all of…this." Kuroko sighed heavily again.

"You know when you just detach yourself from your emotions so you don't lose your mind but you know as soon as you stop pushing them away, you're gonna have a mental breakdown?"

"Ah, yeah I read ya." Kuroko hummed in approval, he lowered his voice more and more as they got closer to his house. It was no longer his home, his parents had destroyed that term for him.

They both quietly climbed back into the bedroom again. As much as he hated to admit it, he was thankful that Nigou was with Aomine since he definitely would have exposed the two of them, "Are you gonna be okay?"

Kuroko paused as he listened to the house, taking note of the absolute silence before quietly saying while shrugging his shoulders, "No. But I have no choice but to be okay if I want to get away from them."

"Still stubborn as shit."

"And spiteful, don't forget that I live off of spite."

"Yes that too, how could I ever forget." The two of them stayed quiet for a few seconds, before breaking into chuckles.

Kuroko shook his head fondly as he led Wrath out of his bedroom window. But at the last second, he called out for his friend," Wrath?" the fighter landed heavily on his feet before turning around, "Yeah?"

He chewed his lip nervously, trying to put his thoughts together before slowly saying,"…If-If I don't show up at school before all-all of this is over," he waved his hand flippantly as he continued," if I didn't tell you or Kagami that I was going to miss, do me a favor and come and check on me?"

He could tell that Wrath hated what he was inferring, that he understood the 'Come and check if my parents haven't succeeded with their plans' that was hidden in his words. But much to his relief, Wrath nodded in agreement.

"Definitely, don't worry man, you'll come out of this alive, you're too much of a stubborn bitch to die." That made Kuroko smile again, and this time, he playfully punched Wraths," Yeah yeah, get out of here, see you tomorrow?"

Wrath nodded grimly," See you tomorrow man, when are you planning to leave?"

Kuroko bashfully looked up at him," After Winter Cup?"

Wrath rose an eyebrow," that's almost an entire week away."

"I know, but…I love basketball, I don't want to leave my team hanging. Besides, if I time it right, we will still be away when they find out and wont be able to get close to anyone."

Wrath stared at him"…if I didn't know better, I would call you an idiot, but ok, tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow."