The sound of a phone vibrating off of his nightstand made him jerk awake.

Groaning, he groggily turned over in his bed, his arm leaving the warm cocoon of his blankets as he tried to retrieve his fallen phone.

His eyes almost slipped close again in the process, but he woke up just a little bit more when he finally grabbed onto it and held it up to his face. Jabbing at the green button, he answered the phone," Hel'o?" his voice was gruff, but he was too tired to care.

He jerked away from his phone when he heard the amplified sound of rustling, grunts, and hisses, he scrunched up his face in confusion as he looked at the caller ID.

And then his heart lept into his throat.

"Black?!" stumbling out of bed, he turned on the light to his bedroom, ignoring the way his older brother groaned and covered his face with his blankets.

" Motherfu-!"

"Grab him!"

"NO!" The way Black's voice made his heartbeat even faster.

He sounded scared.

" Black?!" there were more hissed out curses and grunts of pain," Black whats wrong?! Talk to me!" Mitobe started to wake up at the sound of his brother's panicked and scared voice.

" No! Fuck you!" He heard a painful slap of skin and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. He heard a scream of rage, one that Black let out, and then there was a shriek of pain.

" My eye!"

"You fucking bastard!"

He barely had the sense to start recording the phone call. He didn't.

He didn't start recording the call until Mitobe nearly wrestled the phone away from him to listen, it was then he put the phone on speakerphone and started recording it.

"Black! whats happening!" His hands were shaking, he could feel sweat collecting on his brow.

There was the sound of something hitting the floor, " WRATH!"

Oh god.

"GET THE ROPE!" There were more curses and hisses of pain, he could hear Black struggling on the floor.

Oh god no.

"STOP MOVING!" There was another painful smack of skin against skin.

Oh god please no.

"Akira! be quiet!"

No, please no.

"WRATH!" God Black sounded so scared. He sounds terrified.

"Shut up!"

"SHUT UP!" There was a heavy thud that made his heart stop. And then silence.

There was a sharp inhale of breath, " Akira! are you insane?! We can't have him bleeding all over the floor!"

"Well if you just hurry up and got the tarp! He wouldn't be bleeding on the floor!" It was silent until there was a low, and quiet pained groan.

"Well at least you didn't kill him, come on, lets get him out of here before he wakes up." He heard the rustling of fabric and the creaking of rope.

"N-no, p-please. M-mom, D-dad, please..." His words were slurred, and Wrath already knew that his friend had at least a moderate concussion.

It broke his heart to hear his friend pleading like that to his parents. Pleading for them to spare his life.

"Oh gross," He hated the way disgust saturated the woman's words," Hurry up and gag him or something."

"Agreed." He heard another hiss of pain, one that he knew was Black, his hiss of pain were so distinctive, always starting with air going through his front teeth before being let out with an exhale through his clenched teeth.

"Where did his phone go? We gotta make sure it looks like he ran away."

"I think it went under his bed."

"N-no, W-Wrath...hel-mph." If Mitobe hadn't shocked him by suddenly hanging up the phone, he would have thrown up from the overwhelming despair that he was feeling.

Mitobe was tapping away at his phone, his voice oddly calm even as his hands trembled," Go and get the car ready," His brothers deep and soothing voice helped him collect his thoughts just a little bit," I'll wake up Papa and call the police, what's Kurokos address?"

Mitobe had to repeat the question a few times before Wrath was finally able to stutter out Black's address. It wasn't until his older brother physically pushed the keys into his hands, when he realized that he needed to hurry up and get himself together.

He didn't have the time to have a panic attack.

Black needed his help.

He felt hands grabbing at the back of his shirt, hands he would later realize belonged to his father and brother as they tried to hold him back, trying to keep him in the car until the police could arrive.

Wrestling his shirt away from them, he quickly, but quietly ran up to Blacks window, the only thing that he knew was unlocked. Black had confessed to him mere days prior that he left his window unlocked at all times so he could make a quick escape if he needed to.

Wrath had joked that he should keep it unlocked so he could come to the 'princesses' rescue. A comment that had made Black roll his eyes in annoyance.

He heard frustrated mutters and the sound of a car door slamming shut as he ran to the window.

Peaking into the window just long enough to make sure no one was in there, he pushed it open and climbed in.

The pit got deeper.

Black had really put up a fight.

He really tried his best to fight back.

His room was upside down, his desk was overturned, he could see remnants of broken glass on the floor, there was a hole in the drywall, clothes were all over the place.

Black must have been desperate if he had used some of his precious picture frames and basketball awards to fight back. All of them were broken on the floor, specks of blood covering their surfaces. The pictures inside the frames were ruined, blood-spattered across the figures in the frame. The awards that were used as impromptu weapons were in pieces, blood staining the gilded metal.

What made him nervous was the sight of bloody paper napkins covering a spot on the floor, the napkins doing a poor job of cleaning up the puddle that was there.

"...oh god."

"Shh..." Mitobe put a grounding hand on his brother's shoulder. When Wrath looked at him, Mitobe quickly dissolved into the usual sign language that they used with each other. Silently telling his brother to move out of the room quietly and to try and find their teammate.

"Ah shit," There was a deep voice that made them pause at the doorway," There's someone outside."

"Fuck," The feminine voice sounded exasperated," Well we can't leave with them there." They quietly peeked around the doorpost, their eyes focusing on the two figures that were standing at the doorway, nothing but the lights from outside illuminating them in the dark house.

"Obviously, do you want me to go and talk to him?" Wrath quickly realized why Black struggled against his father.

The guy was huge, much taller than Black, and a few inches taller than him, and was heavier than him. He would struggle against the man by himself, but with his spouse being his partner, he had no doubt Black's mother was ruthless.

"Oh yeah, it won't be suspicious for a man with a bloody eye to go and tell some old man to leave at three in the morning."

Well, that's where Black got his sarcasm from.

"Its not my fault that bastard nearly took my eye out."

Black really did try his best...

"I'll go and tell him to go away, I just got to flash my boobs and he'll listen."

Without a second thought, Mitobe went back into the room and texted his father to stall as long as possible.

"Ok, I'll go and clean up the blood, hurry it up."

Shit.

Wrath scrambled back into Kuroko's room, the both of them hiking Wrath's baseball bats over their shoulders as they stood on each side of the doorway.

There was a groan of pain. It was Black.

"Shut up," The voice paused, and the front door open and closed right after.

Wrath was seriously going to live up to his name.

The footsteps continued to the room.

Oh, how the past ten years of baseball had prepared him for that moment.

Had it been any other time, he would have felt bad for the way their bats absolutely destroyed the older man's face. With the way his nose caved in and the way he collapsed, he had no doubt the adult was going to be burdened with costly medical bills for the next few decades.

Resisting the urge to hit the man again (he was there to save his friend, not commit murder), he ran to the front door and locked it, he didn't need Blacks mother to come in and give them more problems.

"Black?" He refused to turn on the light, he didn't want to give them away, "Black, where are you?" He slowly walked forward, shuffling his feet to try and avoid tripping over something," It's me and my brother, come on, let get out of here."

He heard the smallest of groans coming from a few feet in front of him.

Mitobe turned on his phone, only using his phone screen for some light. They immediately found the downed form of their friend.

Wrath was next to Black within seconds, his hands clumsily untying the rope that tied his arms behind his back and the rope that restricted his leg movement. Rage filled his veins when he saw the cloth his parents had put between his skin and the rope.

They had put a lot of thought into tying up their son. He could only guess they did that to try and hide the rope marks. Flinging the rope away, he gently pulled Black onto his back.

They inhaled sharply.

He carefully pulled the gag out of his mouth, it was almost a miracle he could still breathe with it, "Black," His voice trembled as he pushed back his friend's blue hair, revealing the nasty gash that was on his forehead. He could see remnants of the previous cuts he got during fights and childhood, but the new one was bigger than all of them. It looked like someone had smashed his head into something, before elongating the gash with something sharp, "Black," He gently patted his bloodied cheek," Come on, wake up, lets get out of here." The cut went across his brow and stopped a few centimeters before the corner of his eye. It was a nasty cut and it was no surprise that Black wasn't waking up, but it still scared him.

He almost started tearing up, "Hiroto," His brother gently shoved him to the side and tenderly picked up their friend. Gathering the small bluenette into his arms, Mitobe leaned Black's head against his chest before picking him up, his friend let out a pained groan on the way up. It was eerie seeing his friend, who was always so lively in his own way, being so lifeless against his older brother's chest, blood dripping down his face," Come on, lets get him out of here."

Boldly walking up to the door, Mitobe unlocked the door and pulled it open. It took a little bit for Wrath to realize what his brother just did, but he was quick to follow his brother out of the door, anxiously following his friend down the walkway.

Their father was doing a terrific job at aggravating Blacks mother, and by then, she was practically snarling out her words as she tried to make him go away. It was the perfect distraction for them to walk off of the property.

They stopped right around the corner and Mitobe sat down with Black in his lap. After texting their father where they were, and that they had Black with them, they just waited for the authorities.

They sat there quietly, their thoughts racing. Wrath wanted to puke. Nothing had gone to plan.

The plan was for Black to report his parents the night before they left. It was a flimsy plan in the first place, but Black wanted to be sure that his parents couldn't do anything to his team like they initially said. To think his parents would make their move a mere day before their son would report them. It was a disgustingly beautiful example of how rotten Blacks' luck could be at times.

A quiet groan made the two of them return to reality.

"Black?"

"Kuroko, how do you feel?" Wrath was kneeling next to his brother, leaning over Black.

A single blue eye was open, the other eye being covered with blood and he wisely kept it closed. Despite his eye being open, it was glassy and vacant, they could both tell that he wasn't all there.

"N-no," His voice was slurred, his movements sloppy and sluggish as he tried to push Mitobe away and get out of his grasp. Mitobe let Black struggle, but he didn't let his younger teammate escape his grasp. All he did was hold onto him as he struggled.

"Woah woah, Black, its me, its Wrath and Mitobe." Wrath gently grabbed Black's wrists and forced them to his chest," It's okay, we're just waiting for the ambulance." Despite the glassy look in his eyes, he saw the faintest spark of recognition in the fighters eyes.

He slumped in their hands, leaning back onto Mitobe's chest, tiredly muttering," Wrath?"

"Yeah," Pulling his sleeve over his hand, Wrath tenderly wiped away his friend's blood from his eye, making sure that his hand didn't come close to the gash that was on his forehead, an infection was the last thing Black needed, " It's me."

That's when he knew that Black was really out of it when he leaned into Wrath's touch and let him wipe away the blood without a question. Mitobe rose an eyebrow and glanced at his brother. Even Mitobe knew that Black was usually touchy with his head and face, he hated people touching them and rarely tolerated it.

Fresh blood quickly replaced the blood he just wiped away, the gash bleeding almost profusely, as head wounds usually do. After wiping away the blood for the third time, his sleeve was too soaked for him to keep on doing it," Man, it won't stop bleeding..." Although he said the comment to himself, Black answered him.

"So'ry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"...dun'o." Wrath let it drop, peeking around the corner instead as he heard the sound of multiple car doors slamming shut. His heart was a little bit lighter when he saw that the police had finally arrived, their lights silently flashing onto the nearby houses. They must have turned off their sirens a few streets away for a silent arrival.

Wrath wished Black was able to think straight because if he got satisfaction from watching a pair of female officers arrest his mother, it would have been another level of satisfaction for Black to watch the scene himself. For him to see the person who had been scheming against him and setting up his death, brought to justice.

Blacks mother was spitting out vile curses the entire way, boldly switching between an innocent woman and a scornful abuser as she tried to make them let go with pleas of her innocence and insults. It was so odd, to see a feminine version of his friend, snarling out her words with such hate. Even when he had truly pissed off Black, he had never seen an expression like that.

He stepped out from behind the corner when he saw his father point an officer and a paramedic their way, waving at them to get their attention.

Within minutes, a barely conscious Black was being whisked away on a gurney, and the officer was taking his brother's statement.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He looked up at his father, who looked like a combination of his face and Mitobes face, just a little bit taller than the both of them.

For some reason, just seeing his father right next to him made something in his body relax, and he felt most of the tension leaving his body and being replaced with anxiety and repressed fear.

"I know you had to be strong for your friend, but he's okay, he's going to the hospital, you can let it out." He shakily nodded his head.

With a shaky sigh, he loosened the hold he had on his emotions.

He puked his guts out.