Chapter 15
After a few days of getting to know Hyuga and Momoi better, Kuroko was happy to realize that he had started to consider them friends.
There was a calm collected aura around his senpai, but at the same time, there was also a tint of sadness in his eyes. The same tint of sadness that Kuroko held, and Kuroko had slowly come to realize that they might be more similar to each other than they know.
Kuroko was puttering in the library helping Hyuga-senpai when there was a loud crash. Kuroko raced towards the loud noise and saw a pile of books strewn messily in a mound on top of a...person.
Inching forwards, he tried to poke the lump of flesh and on the tenth poke a grumble reached his ears. A head with crimson hair poked out of the mound. The student snarled grumpily before pushing the books off himself. Kuroko waited patiently for the person to notice him and grinned when the red-head's eyes focused on him and he automatically let out a dismayed shout.
A expletive list of swear words left his lips in a rush and Kuroko eyes widened in slight mortification. "Fuck! Damn...that scared the shit out of me."
He narrowed his eyes at Kuroko and hissed, "Sheesh, you're going to give someone a heart attack one day."
Kuroko gave him a serene look and said, "Do you need to go to the infirmary?"
The red-head shook his head and stood up, causing the books to cascade down in loud heaps. Kuroko gave the red-head an efficient reply, "Ok" before he started to stand up and gather the books to stack them back onto the shelves.
"Oi...wait a second, you don't have to do that." Kuroko gave the red head an unimpressed look and continued on his task. A second later, he was joined by the tall red-head and they worked together in companionable silence.
Kuroko stood up and dusted of his hands before bending down to pick up the heavy tomes, to find that they have already been moved by the red-head. The red-head gave him a fierce but thankful grin and said in a gruff voice, "Thank you for helping me." He stuck out his hand and introduced himself, "My name is Kagami Taiga. What's yours, midget?"
Kuroko gave Kagami an deadpan, unimpressed glare but it was tempered by the gentle handshake he gave. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Kuroko Tetsuya."
And that was the start of a great long-lasting friendship between Kuroko and Kagami.
The pale haired boy in front of Kagami intrigued him with his mild presence and unassuming nature. On the surface it seemed like that was all the boy was, but on closer inspection Kagami could see old eyes that have seen and gone through too much pain, a fleeting speck of darkness that showed that innocence is not all that he possesses and a dark lurking promise of lethal danger.
Before Kagami's mind could fully comprehend his actions, he had blurted out,
"Do you need my help with sorting out books in the library?" Kuroko gave him an assessing look and a warm nod. Kagami followed him towards the front desk and came face to face with his friend, Hyuga Junpei. Surprised he exclaimed, "Hyuga-senpai, what are you doing here?"
His friend gave him a long-suffering sigh and replied, "I work here because that's what normal people do. They work. Everyday."
Kagami ducked his head and sheepishly scratched his cheek when he realized how stupid that sounded out loud. Hyuga's fond tone drifted over the sounds of flipping pages, "Not that it's bad to see you Kagami but why are you here?"
Kagami shiftily glanced sideways and answered with a vague reply, "Ah...um. I just enrolled here a few days ago."
Hyuga gave him a dubious look and drawled, "I see..." but his eyes had a knowing look that held the demand for a long explanation.
Kagami rolled his eyes and turned around to help Kuroko when a group of students walked into the library. He wanted to brain himself against the wall and curse his bad luck because in front of him were the damn Generation of Miracles and they were eyeing him with a dark dissecting look.
God damn...he hated this freaking assignment.
