Author's Note: Geometry used to be one of my favourite subjects in high school - it is obvious?

3 - Risks

Too late, it occurred to Akashi he forgot to ask whether Kuroko had a soulmate already.

The answer was yes, Kuroko Tetsuya had a soulmate.

He had his answer, he should return back to his office.

He eliminated one more person from his list of millions.

Akashi hesitated.

He looked at the person sitting on the kindergarten's steps with an open book on his lap. His look wasn't open - it was emotionless - but his tone was when he said, "Akashi-san is welcome to join me."

Akashi sat on the doorstep, next to the man, as Kuroko closed his book and turned to look at him.

He looked patient.

Patience of a kindergarten teacher.

"What is it like, having a soulmate?" Akashi asked, "how did you recognise each other?"

Kuroko hugged his knees and looked at the narrow street in front of them.

"When I returned home from parents meeting, my sign has stabilised."

Akashi waited for him to continue. "And?"

Kuroko turned his head to glance at Akashi. "And?"

"You didn't do anything."

"No, I didn't."

"There might be a sibling or the couple planned to divorce or there was a single parent. It could be anything, how can you not do anything?"

"There were no siblings or single parents," he muttered. "And the couple does have a kid at kindergarten age."

"You didn't risk it."

"I didn't."

"I would have."

"I'd imagine so."

"Does that mean I am willing to destroy someone's happiness for my own?"

"What a rude way to put it," his soulmate chided in his head.

Kuroko hesitated. "If I were to say 'they weren't soulmates, they couldn't be happy' that would make me a hypocrite. Otherwise, I would insult Akashi-san." He looked at Akashi with a deadpan expression, "No answer."

Akashi relaxed.

Why were he getting riled up on a stranger's problem anyway?

Not all people were willing to meet their soulmates.

Most didn't want it as much as Akashi, that was for sure.

He chuckled. "Most would fall for it."

"No wonder Aomine-kun thought Akashi-san's speech has a spell. Talking with Akashi-san is dangerous."

Akashi hummed.

It was warm, sitting on concrete steps with afternoon sun shining on them.

He glanced to the first floor window of the neighbour building. He could imagine his co-workers watching him and wondering what he was doing.

He closed his eyes.

"What is it like, to meet your soulmate?"

"I don't know."

"Aa, can't explain it."

"No, I mean I didn't feel anything." Akashi looked sharply at Kuroko.

What a difficult guy to read.

"Wasn't it supposed to be love at first sight, a connection or something to recognise?"

"I didn't feel anything," Kuroko said, looking at him. "Not even shivers or fast heartbeat or narrow vision. Nothing."

What if he didn't mee -

"Before you ask, I met all the parents."

Oh.

"How did you recognise - ?" he asked, afraid of the answer.

"I didn't. When I arrived at home, my sign has stabilised."

Akashi stopped.

"How are we supposed to find each other?" his soulmate's shout echoed in his head.

"You have to see your soulmate's sign then," Akashi uttered.

"At the next meeting, I will ask the parents to show me." Akashi looked at Kuroko's deadpan expression. From what he understood from his personalit - "That's what Akashi-san would say if he were in my place."

Akashi chuckled.

"What would Kuroko say if he were in my place?"

"Solve for x."

Ok.

Huh?

What was up with this conversation? His thoughts stumbled on each step.

"I used to like geometry in high school," Kuroko said as he opened the last page of his book and took a pencil from his apron. He started drawing, "here we have a square. Inside a trapezoid and inside it is a hexagon. Next are three triangles, one is inside a parallelogram. We have two random lines here, intersecting a pentagon. A few more random triangles and one last rectangle." He marked an angle at the middle of the sign and turned to Akashi, "Can you solve for x, Akashi-san?"

Akashi blinked. It looked like his sign.

It looked like his sign, indeed.

Upside down, to boost.

He grinned. He never thought of his sign like this.

"Looks like a right angle to me."

(Like all his high school subjects, he got perfect marks from geometry as well.)

Kuroko didn't look impressed. "It can be 89 degrees." He put the book and pencil to Akashi's hands. "I want theorems and proof."

Pythagorean Theorem here, Law of Cosines there, calculating area of this trapezoid and then finding this obtuse angle…

" - taking this angle from parallelogram and see this equilateral triange," he put its sign with flourish, "thus, x is a right angle."

Kuroko looked at his book, then at Akashi.

"Now all you need is to find the other person who can solve this."

"Maybe I should put this on internet too." He glanced at Kuroko, watching for his reaction. "The one to find right angle is the right person for me."

He waited for the grimace - instead Kuroko looked at him serious and said, "don't give them the answer."

Kuroko's eyes were dancing.

Akashi laughed.

What a contradicting person.

"I want to see your soulmate sign."

"Akashi-san is getting over himself."

"You saw mine."

"Akashi-san put his sign on the internet. He shouldn't complain about people seeing it."

"Is yours a high school problem too?" Kuroko frowned. Akashi grinned. "Math? Physics? Biology? Oh, I know, literature."

"What kind of sign do you imagine I have?"

A contradicting one. An interesting one.

"PE then? Clubs, maybe? Basketball, volleyball, tennis, swimming, running, soccer, baseba -"

"Why sports?" he muttered.

"Shogi, go, chess -"

"Strategy games?"

"Anime, manga, debate, library -"

"How many clubs did your school have?"

"Many. I can count all of them."

Akashi grinned.

Kuroko sighed. He removed his wristband.

"Literature it is!"

"What?"

"They look like ink splatters."

Kuroko looked like Akashi lost his mind. "I don't see ink splatters."

"I didn't see a geometry problem in mine."

Kuroko sighed, "Akashi-san is silly." Akashi was about to be insulted when Kuroko's lips curved into an indulgent smile. "What is my x, then? What should my soulmate solve for?"

Akashi stopped his twitching lips and leaned down with a serious look.

"I would say, ink texture and consistency," he straightened, raised his chin and put a hand to his heart. "I happen to be an avid user of fountain pens, so let me tell you about inks."

Akashi's his last presentation was in a huge conference hall, in the world's largest technology expo, about a product he worked for years.

He didn't feel as alive as he felt sitting on concrete steps, talking about inks to an interesting kindergarten teacher.

—

When Akashi returned back to his office, his co-workers weren't waiting for him next to the window, as he expected.

"Got bored," Aomine shrugged.

"Not soulmate," Murasakibara drawled.

Still suspicious, Akashi walked to his desk. He did a double take at the time.

Two hours?

"You looked like you were having fun," Midorima said, seeing his reaction. "You can afford a break."

"You work too much anyway."

Before focusing on his screen, he glanced at his fountain pen. He thought about his calligraphy inks at home.

He wondered if he could recreate Kuroko's soulmate sign.

He decided to try. Maybe he would show Kuroko tomorrow.

—

Kuroko entered the teachers' room to put his book away before waking the children from their naps.

"Would you recommend it?" One of his co-workers said.

"Didn't finish it," Kuroko replied.

"What did you do?"

"Talked."

He looked at his co-worker's surprised expression and thought it was nothing compared to the shock behind his blank expression.

He reminded himself to buy a new book to lend back seeing as he damaged his friends' one.

He wondered if Akashi-san would like that book.

He wondered if he could find any geometry problem Akashi-san couldn't solve.

He decided to search. Maybe he would show Akashi-san tomorrow.