It had irritated Kuroo to no end how it was easier to get Kenma and Kageyama down to the bus stop than to get back into his own apartment. It wasn't the sharp pain in his ribs or the pounding in his ears that made it harder, it was the fact that he knew that he'd be alone. No Kenma playing his video games or Kageyama to watch over and he definitely didn't have the energy for a client.

By the time he made it inside, he only had the energy to collapse onto his futon. He hoped that just hitting the soft bedding would put him to sleep, however his memories of the previous night kept it at bay.

Kuroo cursed at himself as his eyes glanced at his phone. He was late for his date with his client. He didn't exactly want to go and degrade himself to the slimy man, but he paid extremely well and he knew there was a game Kenma was eyeing at the game shop. Not to mention he wanted to pick Kageyama up some of his own clothes.

As he booked it to the bus stop, his phone call from earlier was far from his mind until the scent of cigarette smoke wafted through his nose.

"Tetsurou."

He stopped right in his tracks and turned towards the alley beside the bus station to see a shorter, curly black haired man saunter out from the shadows with a dying cigarette in hand wearing a pair of high- waisted black shorts and a black halter top that exposed his pale, lightly muscled midriff. The only real cover he wore from the chilly November air was a long grey cardigan that just barely covered his ass and his black knee- length boots that clicked against the sidewalk with each limping step he took toward Kuroo, unaffected by the cold.

"Akaashi."

"I took care of your client for you. Now you're mine for the day," Akaashi stated, smooth as silk and blunt as ever. The same old Akaashi Kuroo knew all too well.

"You're limping. Did my client hurt you? I can-," Akaashi cut him off when he leaned into him, cigarette falling from his hand as he began to stare up at him with his grey-green eyes. He placed a thin, bandaged finger upon his lips with a shake of his head.

"No, Tetsurou… Could you take me home? I'll explain everything there…," his voice had lost its bite the more he fell into Kuroo to the point where his legs gave out. Unable to keep standing, the two of them fell onto the concrete.

"A-Akaashi?!" Kuroo tried not to sound panicked as he stared down at the passed out man on top of him whose cardigan had begun to turn a dark red.

Kuroo ended up taking Akaashi to his own home. The wound, from what he could tell, had been bandaged up previously, not professionally as Akaashi had told him on more than one occasion that he didn't trust hospitals. Kuroo even considered bringing him back to his apartment which was closer, but he didn't want to alert Kageyama or Kenma to his activities.

Akaashi didn't live in much of a home, but a cathouse dubbed 'Fukurodani' that was usually vacant during the day except for the manager. It was actually where Kuroo and Kenma stayed before he had bought his apartment. The building itself was in desperate need of repair, but it still remained popular in the night hours.

"Well, if it isn't Kuroo Tetsurou!" the manager beamed as she let him in until she noticed the panting Akaashi at his side. Halfway through the trip, he had awakened and demanded to be put on his feet.

"Keiji, what on earth happened to you?! When you said you wanted the night off, I didn't think you wanted to get in a fight!" she groaned before helping Kuroo get him onto a couch, "first Akinori's found dead, then Bokuto goes missing, and now here you are bleeding out on my good cushions!"

"Yukie… I don't think now's the time to scold him. Could you get some bandages for him? The wound on his back is pretty nasty," Kuroo didn't actually know what the wound looked like, only that it had bled like a stuffed pig.

The manager didn't put up an argument as she disappeared deeper into the cat house with only a tired scratch to her reddish-brown hair and a mumble about food.

"Okay now Akaashi, remove your shirt," Kuroo demanded when the other still hadn't budged even an inch except to stare at his feet.

"Come on. Don't make me have to strip you," he sighed, bending down to his level to see small tracks of tears running down his cheeks, evaporating away before they reached the bottom of his chin. "…'Kaashi…"

Gentle as he could, Kuroo rubbed the un-evaporated tears away from his scalding skin until he ended up taking some of his foundation with them to reveal a large, nasty, bluing bruise that had formed on his cheek.

"Who did this?"

"…It's not what it seems…"

"Akaashi, that's not the answer I asked for," but Kuroo believed he knew the answer already.

"Bokuto… but he wasn't in his right mind, I swear. He was being manipulated."

"Was it by Alisa or the Aoba Johsai?"

Kuroo could remember the gorgeous white- haired woman with eyes of vivid forest-green from his days in high school plain as day. She had an allure that attracted men and women alike. Her beauty wasn't just physical as she had an angelic personality to boot; however it wasn't often showed as she kept to herself until the day she had approached him. She confessed that she was a mutant and that she knew he was too. She wanted him to help her infiltrate Aoba Johsai's headquarters, claiming that they were holding her brother captive as if he were a monster. He had refused, and it still haunted him. Alisa had disappeared shortly after that which only furthered his guilt.

"I don't know… It happened last night. I was trying to find him and when I did, he lashed out."

"God Akaashi why didn't you just tell me this in the first place? Is that how you got that wound on your back?"

Akaashi shook his head as he pulled off his cardigan with a wince to reveal four deep gouges in his back that tore through his top to the point where the only thing that kept it in place was the dried blood of his wound and the useless bandage he had tried to stop the bleeding with originally.

"It was someone else. A giant white-haired man… I honestly did think it was Alisa at first… He could have killed me. I saw it in his eyes," Akaashi's eyes had become distant.

Neither of them noticed when Yukie returned with a crate full of medical supplies and a tray of onigiri and tea.

"Caring for you mutant guys is tough, you know. Do you guys realize how much heat- resistant thread and bandages cost?" Yukie yawned.

By the time she had finished Akaashi's back, the sun had begun to set and the workers were beginning to pile in to get ready for the night. Akaashi himself had fallen asleep as Yukie sewed up his back while Kuroo stared out the window of the cathouse.

"Ah fine, ignore me… Kaori, you're watching the club tonight! I need sleep."

There was a muffled groan from somewhere within the cathouse as Yukie disappeared up to the second floor where the rooms were.

It wasn't that Kuroo wasn't paying attention to her, he just didn't want to look away from the window. He knew something unfriendly was out there. He could feel a stalking gaze focused on the cathouse, but he couldn't pinpoint where it was exactly. If he could, then they would certainly have an 'accident'.

"I can feel those eyes," Akaashi began to mumble, startling Kuroo who turned to find him trying to sit up.

"Akaashi, lay back down. I don't want you t-"

"Te-Tetsurou lo-look," Akaashi's eyes had widened impossibly as he stared beyond the other dark-haired man.

Kuroo didn't want to look, but he did anyway and found himself staring at an impossibly tall white-haired man with cat-like, hunter green eyes. He was looking down at them through the window with a playful smile.

"Tetsurou-"

"Akaashi, I want you to get everyone in Fukurodani upstairs."

"But-"

"Just do it! I can handle this myself!" The sharp gold glint in his eyes didn't leave room for Akaashi to argue as he began to shakily walk away. He only glanced back when Kuroo stepped outside to meet the giant man.

Kuroo didn't meet many people who were taller than him, so standing before the man who looked like he could be pushing seven foot was rather nerve- racking. But he stood his ground, ready to bite the guy's head off until the guy beat him to it.

"Aw, I thought Akaashi-san wanted to play, too. I almost won yesterday, y'know! Hanamaki-san said if I won, he'd buy me oinarisan for making his job easier!"

While the white-haired man had height, he certainly wasn't that far along in puberty judging by his still cracking voice and attitude as he rocked dangerously on his heels, Aoba Johsai pin shining in the street light.

Young or not, however, he was a threat. Bouncing away, Kuroo brought the street lamp down on the man, "well Akaashi isn't feeling well, but I can fill his place. I'm much more experienced."

"Oh, I bet!" the teen sang into his ear. He didn't even have the chance to turn around before he was swatted painfully across the street by what he swore was a lion's paw and into the side of a dumpster.

"Hmph! It burned when I hit Akaashi-san! You're just squishy!" He whined as Kuroo tried to rise.

"Well, brat, not all mutants are the same! Try looking where you're standing!"

The grey haired man looked down, cheeks puffed, "it's just a sewage grate!"

"Exactly," with a smile, Kuroo watched as the man plummeted through with a shocked squeak, "well I must admit, I could have handled that a lot b- whoa, God!"

The last thing he expected was to be lifted off the ground and into the air. Looking up took quite the effort, but when he was able to, he caught sight of an owl-like face and a crown of white and black hair with a matching set of wings.

"Holy shit, Bokuto! You winged bastard, put me down!"

"Okaaaay!" with a snicker, he dropped Kuroo, who plummeted like a rock.

"Not in the air!"

It was then that he remembered what Akaashi had said about him. For the second time that day, Kuroo cursed at himself, each raising in severity until he stopped falling a mere foot from the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not that cruel! I wouldn't kill you, we have so much history!" Bokuto laughed as he dropped Kuroo, not caring that he hit his head upon landing, "I'll just give you a nice old warning from the nice old coots- hey that sounds like hoot! Dammit, distracted again… Anyways, the Aoba Johsai knows where you live and they're not above taking out your little friend, mutant or not. So stop being a thorn in their side or else!"

Kuroo scowled, spitting a glob of blood and spit at Bokuto's wings, "go fuck yourself on a pole! The real Bokuto would never threaten Kenma!"

The winged man scrunched up his nose before he stalked over to the opened man hole, "come on, Lev. Get out of that hole, already!"

"And the real Bokuto would never hit Akaashi!"

Bokuto was back over to Kuroo in a flash, his fist raised and gold eyes slits, ready to shut him up permanently, but he never brought it down, he just twitched until Lev called out to him as he had finally managed to get himself out.

"Thanks for the help, Bokuto-san!" he growled sarcastically once the owl-like man turned his attention back on him.

"You got out, didn't you?" Bokuto puffed, sending Kuroo one more glare before he took flight, picking Lev up as he left, "remember what I said, or else!"

Once the two had disappeared into the moonlight, Kuroo collapsed onto his back, ready to pass out until he remembered he was right in the middle of the road. With a groan, he rose to his feet and looked toward Fukurodani, where he could see Akaashi standing in the doorway, his body steaming in the surely below freezing air.

"Tetsurou, I heard everything," he took a step forward, then changed his mind as he ducked back inside for a moment before returning with a bodacious woman with chin-length honey blonde hair, "please let Saeko-san take you home, okay?"

"Don't worry. I promise to drive nicer for once, sweetie!"

Kuroo let out a pained moan as he lifted himself off of his futon; his stomach had begun to growl at him. Saeko's driving was definitely a memory he wanted to forget from the previous night. Wandering over to the kitchen, he found his cellphone on the floor of the hallway. He was almost surprised to find that it didn't crack.

"I guess that expensive case really was worth it," he chuckled until he turned on his phone to see a picture of a younger Kenma, Bokuto, and him.

Both him and Kenma were covered in cake and candles while Bokuto stood in the middle with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Oh. November 17th… Happy birthday to me… Woo hoo," Kuroo ended up chucking his phone across the room, forgetting about it as he raided his pantry for a bag of chips, not stopping even when someone joined him in the kitchen.

"Tetsurou, you really need to lock your door," Akaashi sighed plainly as he stole a chip for himself.

"And haven't you heard of knocking, you walking ashtray?"

"What a touchy birthday boy," he snorted, dodging out of the kitchen before he could get swatted.

"Ugh, what do want, Akaashi?"

"Well, you're still here, and with Kenma leaving town, I figured you were going to see this Aoba Johsai mess all the way through. Am I wrong?"

Kuroo carded a hand through his still grimy hair, "no, you're not. I just worry we won't be able to end this on our own."

His thought didn't seem to bother Akaashi, as he just shrugged, "then we don't. It's as simple as that."

"You really need to work on your pep talk, man."

"You're not Bokuto. You don't need false words," Kuroo rolled his eyes before he shoved the bag of chips at Akaashi.