The Crumbling Surface

Pairings: Aomine/Kuroko, Kise/Momoi

Rating: M

Summary: Kuroko Tetsuya disappears right before graduation, only to return fifteen years later without having aged a single day.

Chapter 2 : Hotel

I KNOW HOW TO FIND TETSUYA.

The word used is 'how' not 'where', an indication that he was going to have to perform some sort of procedure in order to get to where this 'Tetsuya' was. There was no proof that the Tetsuya mentioned in the message was indeed his missing classmate but Aomine was willing to take chances. He spent most of his adult life living each day as if it were his last, he had nothing to lose.

He tried calling the person who sent him the message. The phone rang but no one answered. He did this around eight to ten times within varying intervals, nothing changed. This person wasn't willing to speak to him.

Aomine lit a cigarette and wispy smoke wafted across the his living room, seeing the smoke dissipate only reminded him of the comfortable life he was living in the spacious apartment he rented. As he smoked his cigarette, Aomine remembered one of his old colleagues named Koyama. He was the only person he knew who had experience tracing people through their phone numbers. He also happened to be a chronic masturbator, a secret Koyama spilled when he and Aomine and other two co-workers were drunk.

Aomine had his trump card and all he had to do was make the call. But first, he had to do some grocery shopping. He wore a hooded jacket over his favorite shirt, put on a pair of jeans and went out.

On the way to the nearest supermarket, Aomine slowly began to regret not calling Koyama. As he walked down an empty path, a red Toyota Corolla parked right next to him. The driver rolled down the tinted windows, revealing a fat, bald man with a moustache wearing a black suit. He lifted his hand and gestured Aomine to come over.

"Get in the car." The driver said. "We'll take you to Tetsuya."

The door to the back seat swung open and a skinny man. Again, he was donning a black suit.

Who are these guys? Yakuza members? Aomine pondered on the possibility that these guys were out for blood. He was an ex-cop, it was natural to assume that some people wanted him dead.

"How'd you know about Tetsuya?"

"Sorry, I can't say. We were hired to pick you up, nothing else. I'd love to have you talk directly to my client, but he's a rather private person. I know it's hard to trust a fat guy with a moustache wearing a black suit. That can't be helped. If it makes you feel better you can sit beside me in the passenger's seat."

"Don't make me laugh. Come out here and let me frisk you."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No."

The driver shut off his engine and stepped out of the car.

Despite their appearance, the two men who picked up Aomine turned out to be rather pleasant people. The three of them ended up talking during the trip.

"You a cop?" The skinny man who sat in the backseat looked at Aomine through the rear view mirror.

"I used to be. I'm just a private investigator now." Aomine turned around to look at him. "What about you? How long have you guys been working for this boss of yours?"

"Not that long. You're our first job. I work full time at a bookstore, this is just something I do for extra cash. It pays pretty well." The thin man pointed over to the driver. "He's the one who got me into this. He's a taxi driver. Hey, how'd you get to work for him anyway?"

The bald man scratched his chin. "He had newspaper ads saying that he was looking for a part time driver. I've never met him of course. Most of the time, it's someone else working under him who relays the messages."

Aomine noted how cautious these two were when it came to sharing personal information. They didn't give out their names and they didn't ask him his either. Whoever it was that they working for, his desire for privacy was bordering on eccentricity.

"Seems like a nutcase to me."

"Nutcase or not, he pays well." The driver replied jokingly. The sky darkened and night crept in.

They stopped at an inconspicuous looking hotel. Aomine looked at the sign, 'The Evergreen' it said. He stifled a laugh. Whoever named this hotel had a terrible sense of humor.

"You're on your own from here." The driver said. "Someone will be there to take you to the person you've been looking for. We'll be out here waiting. Not many people pass by The Evergreen so it should be fine."

Aomine hesitantly waved a hand before entering The Evergreen. He stepped inside and found himself inside a rather hollow lobby. The bellboy was chatting up the female receptionist and there were a two people watching the news on a plasma tv installed on the wall. The Evergreen's lobby wasn't too shabby, it had marble floors and an audaciously large chandelier as its centerpiece. It was decent at best.

He slowly approached to the receptionist. As Aomine neared, the bellboy quickly pulled away.

The receptionist looked somewhere between twenty to twenty five. She had short black hair that framed her face , the bright red lipstick she wore was the perfect contrast to her pale skin.

"Hi." He said.

"Aomine-san?" She smiled.

"That's me."

"We've been expecting you."

We? Aomine didn't like the sound of that.

"Room 605. You won't be needing any keys." The receptionist's words triggered a realization. Whoever sent him there wasn't going to let it all end here. He forced a smile and went off to take the lift.

He walked the narrow hallways, and searched for room 605. His footsteps echoed through the hotel. As he passed by room 603, Aomine felt like he was sixteen again, foolishly throwing himself into the maelstrom. He saw the door to room 605 and contemplated whether he should just walk in or at least knock.

Aomine took a deep breath and knocked three times. A few seconds later and someone opened the door, before him stood a man around the same age as he was. Like the two men who drove Aomine to the hotel, he too was wearing a black suit. However, he had this grimy quality about him that immediately annoyed Aomine.

"Aomine-san?"

"Yeah."

The man let him in. Aomine looked around the room and saw erotic magazines and bottles of beer on the floor. He glanced over to television to see that this man had been watching porn.

"There he is." The man directed Aomine's attention to the small bed near the window.

The image of Kuroko Tetsuya sleeping on that bed didn't quite register in his mind. Aomine started to believe that he may have gone insane, and this whole thing was nothing but a complex concoction of the poisoned mind. He took a closer look. Kuroko was so still that even as his chest rose with every breath, Aomine had a hard time accepting that this was a real person made of flesh, skin and bone.

Kuroko was perfectly preserved, untouched by the harsh fifteen years that passed by. Whoever brought him here was a sadistic bastard, nothing said that more than the freshly pressed Teiko middle school uniform.

Aomine covered his mouth, muffling a gasp. There wasn't quite anything like the sensation he was feeling in his chest at that time.

He slowly went to check the boy's pulse. He was alive.

"Kinky bastard." The man said. "Although, I have to admit that a school uniform sure is nice. It got me off a few times without touching. Touching was a big no-no, the boss said."

Aomine turned around to face him, he then reached out, grabbed the man's nose and in one swift movement, broke it with a forceful twist.

A shrill cry of pain flooded the confines of the hotel room.

"We could do this all night, but I doubt you know anything about the man who hired you. I'll be taking this kid with me now. Your boss owes me that much." Without another word, he proceeded to carry Kuroko on his back. He left the hotel room and took the lift once more.

The receptionist's eyes followed Aomine as he crossed the lobby.

Linda Linda by The Blue Hearts started playing on the car's radio. In the backseat, Aomine positioned Kuroko to sleep on his lap.

"So that's Tetsuya." The driver commented as he made a right turn.

"Ah. Yeah. About this...I broke your co-worker's nose."

The two men laughed at Aomine.

The driver slowed down as they neared a red light. "If its the sex addict then don't apologize. He's had it coming for a while. I hate that guy."

Kuroko slept on the bed while Aomine slept on the floor. It was three in the morning, but he couldn't fall asleep. Instead, he watched Kuroko sleep for the longest time. He was yet to let the reality sink in, tears rolled down his cheeks without him fully comprehending what that meant.

Aomine Daiki covered his face, his sobs turned into laughter.

Notes: Hello! Thank you for the reviews, faves and follows! (I'll leave replies once this is posted!) I wasn't quite expecting this kind of response, but I'm very happy to see people are reading this! As usual, this was the second part which also focuses a lot on the set up. I can't say this is for everyone, but the fic is going to include a certain degree to perversion and violence. One of the reasons I surrounded Aomine with perverts was to reflect his own sexual frustrations. Unfortunately, this fic is un-betaed so excuse any mistakes. I'm always looking forward to how people see the story so please leave your thoughts!