Greeting, everyone!

I think you all know the reason of my late update. Yes, it's the ever cliched reason of schoolwork but it's the truth. Homework after homework, test after test, I'm exhausted.

Thank you so much for your continuous support and voting. The poll is still open so please feel free to vote.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket for it belongs to Fujimaka Tadatoshi.

Enjoy the story. R&R, plz!

Chapter 8: At your service

Light from outside filled in, quickly lighting up the staircase when Akashi opened the door. Kuroko blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the sudden light, feeling the hot and humid breeze of autumn passing by his pale skin. Happiness pervaded his mind as he recounted the incident that just happened a minute ago when the redhead forcefully dragged the bluenette out of the class. It was, of course, painful at first because Akashi had exerted a little too much force on the bluenette's wrist but as he learned the reason behind the redhead's action, the feeling of bliss perhaps had overpowered that of pain that he didn't feel sore anymore.

"I started to sound like a girl in love now", Kuroko mentally facepalmed, smiling at how sappy he had become.

Akashi and Kuroko stepped into the rooftop, letting their bodies bask in the sunlight of the afternoon. Still holding Kuroko's hand, the redhead led the bluenette to the railing that prevented people from falling off the rooftop. It seemed Akashi didn't lie about wanting to show the bluenette the view from up high.

"Look, Tetsuya. Isn't it beautiful?"

True to Akashi's words, the sight up there was indeed magnificent. Kuroko took in the view of Teiko School through his azure eyes, registering to his best the details of his school: vast school ground with vast greeneries, modern blocks of classes, large gyms, a tennis court, baseball yard and a 6-lane sparkling pool. Sunlight was pouring incessantly from the sun in the sky, putting on the scenery a thin warm coat, making the view more enchanting. Birds were chirping somewhere in nearby trees, mixing with the sound of students' chatter and footsteps. In brief, the view was as fantastic as Akashi commented and Kuroko couldn't help but feel being absorbed into the beauty and tranquility of the sight before him. So amazed by the scene that only when Akashi chuckled did the bluenette snap back to reality.

"Do you like it, Tetsuya?", Akashi asked, his red eyes looking straight into Kuroko's blue ones.

"Yes, I do. Like you said, the view is amazing up here", Kuroko replied honestly, a faint smile visible on his lips.

"I'm glad you like it", Akashi smiled, happy to see his fiancé smile, "Then, let's move to over there and have our lunch."

The redhead then took Kuroko's hand and took the bluenette to the usual spot where he and his friends usually had lunch. When Akashi and Kuroko was about to sit down, the door was slammed open, signaling the entrance of Akashi's group of colorful classmates lash servants. Aomine, as annoying as always, was the first one that broke the peaceful atmosphere with his loud mouth that could rival the speaker at full blast.

"Damn you, Akashi, leaving us like that! At least tell us where you go so we don't have to find you!", the tanned boy spoke angrily, a fierce scowl visible on his face.

Behind Aomine's back, Midorima was complaining about the volume of Aomine's voice, his left hand holing his bento while the other holding his lucky cactus pot; Murasakibara, with his usual disinterested look, walked in with lazy step while his mouth was chewing snack diligently; Momoi slightly hit Aomine's back to remind him to lower his voice down. The three teens then headed towards Akashi's direction.

"Daiki, if you don't want to get into trouble, lower the volume of that annoying mouth of yours. People still come up here, you know", Akashi warned despite knowing for sure nobody besides Akashi's group would come here. At the beginning of the year, the redhead had pulled a few strings to reserve this place exclusively for him and his friends. Of course, some very brave students, mostly upperclassmen, had the nerve to protest against the privilege at first but one look from Akashi had them change their mind permanently.

"Oh please… you sound as if there is someone else here with us", Aomine let out a yawn and lazily picked his ears.

Akashi internally smirked at Aomine's statement. It seemed not only Aomine but also the other three failed to see there was another person, namely Kuroko, at presence on the rooftop with them.

That meant time for some entertainment.

"Ah Daiki, there's a rumor among our students that the ghost can sometimes be seen at the rooftop. Apparently, long ago, one student committed suicide here because he was badly bullied by others. Regret and remorse turned him into a restless soul that haunted this place", Akashi narrated the story, which was made from white lies, in a creepy convincing tone.

Aomine, being an idiot who was secretly scared of ghost, pretended to be unfazed and snorted at Akashi's story despite the slight chill down his spine. "What do you take me for, a fool? That story can only scare kids."

"But you ARE a fool, Aomine", Midorima said sarcastically.

"Why you stupid frog?"

"Shintarou is right, Daiki. Don't try to deny the truth", Akashi intervened and Aomine huffed, "However, the story I just told was not fake. There was indeed one student who had committed suicide here. A few years ago, a group of students played the courage game in our school at night and some of them swore that they had seen an eerie white blur on the rooftop. People even say his remorse was so strong that sometimes he could even manifest his form in broad day light. Proof is that sometimes they can feel suddenly cold at their neck as if someone is behind them, but when they turn around, nothing can be seen".

Akashi retold the story in a clear, authoritative yet mysterious voice that almost convinced the others of the ghost's existence on the rooftop. It was very amazing that although it was midday and the sun was shining brightly, it didn't help alleviate the creepiness. As if to support Akashi's tale, a gust of wind blew past them, adding in the creepy effect to the already eerie atmosphere. A bead of sweat rolled down Aomine's face. On the outside, he might appear to be laughing off but inside his head, he was trembling like a five-year-old child. It didn't help that Akashi was the one that told the story; the guy had this weird aura of persuasion around him that made everything sound so real.

Standing next to Aomine, Midorima, Murasakibara and Momoi also shared Aomine's sentiment though they had their own way of expressing the fear: Midorima was gripping his lucky item tightly, Murasakibara ate the snack faster than usual, Momoi was standing a bit too close to Aomine. And such small changes didn't go unnoticed by Akashi. Feeling interested, Akashi allowed his mouth to tilt up in form of a smirk, which was intimidating enough to make others shiver in fear.

"Eh…uhm… Akashi, where is the new transfer student? I saw you dragging him out earlier", Midorima asked, hoping it would help brighten up the mood.

Akashi didn't reply. He crossed his arms to his chest, flashing his trademark smirk of a devil. Again, came the shiver.

Back to Kuroko, he was moving (read: sneaking) behind Aomine's back without them (except Akashi) noticing. The small bluenette stood on his toes and blew at the tanned teen's nape. The effect was instantaneous.

"WAAAAAH! A GHOST IS BEHIND ME!", Aomine jumped out of fright and screamed the first, his face paled drastically.

"WAAA~! A ghost! Call an exorcist now!" (Midorima)

"Rin Okumura?" (Murasakibara)

"No, Abraham Van Helsing!" (Momoi)

"Abraham Lincoln?" (Aomine)

"Uzumaki Naruto!" (Momoi)

"Akashi Seijuro!" (Aomine)

Midorima, Murasakibara and Momoi turned their head to give Aomine a disbelieving look.

"What? I think Akashi is scary enough to scare away ghosts!", Aomine explained his choice and tried to calm his panicked heart.

"Everyone", Akashi spoke up strictly, quickly earning full attention of the group, "I think all of you are being very rude to refer Tetsuya as a ghost."

Immediately, the group slowly turned around (they suspected Akashi was tricking them) and found the little blue-haired teen standing behind Aomine and waving his hands.

"Hi", Kuroko greeted, his face as blank as ever.

"You bastard, what do you think you're doing? You scare the heck out of me", Aomine said, massaging his chest, his eyes fixing on the bluenette, "Seriously, you could have informed us when you arrived."

"But I've been here with you guys since the beginning", Kuroko calmly replied in the monotonous voice.

"Wait, you mean you had been here with Akashi even before we arrived?", Midorime quickly asked.

"Yes, I've arrived here with Akashi-kun before you came"

"…."

"Then why didn't we see you?"

Before Kuroko had a chance to answer, Akashi had replied in his stead, "Tetsuya has a very weak presence; therefore, people normally miss him if they don't look carefully."

"Oh~!", the group understood, nodding their head.

"Then, let's move over there to have lunch. I'll introduce you guys to Tetsuya while we're eating", Akashi gestured to the spot in the shade, where they usually had their lunch break, and everyone silently followed him.

Once everyone had comfortably seated themselves on the ground with Kuroko sitting next to Akashi, the redhead began to introduce everyone's name to Kuroko, which Kuroko politely nodded at the person whose name was mentioned.

After the introduction was done, everyone started taking out their respective colorful bento box.

"Akashi-kun, here's your bento", Kuroko unwrapped the cloth, revealing two boxes under the wrapper and handed the red bento box to Akashi.

"Thanks, Tetsuya."

Then, Kuroko and Akashi proceeded to open the lid of their bento and started digging into their meal until Akashi noticed Kuroko's food portion..

"Tetsuya, don't tell me that's all you're gonna have for lunch."

Akashi eyed disapprovingly at how little food Kuroko had packed inside his bento box. Since the bluenette moved to live in the redhead's house, Akashi had realized that Kuroko had an astonishingly close-to-none small appetite for a still growing teenager. Maybe that was why Kuroko was so petite in the first place.

"This is my usual portion for lunch, Akashi-kun."

"How many times have I told you? You should eat more if you want to stay fit and healthy", Akashi chastised. He picked up a piece of chicken karaage with his chopsticks and transferred the food to Kuroko's box.

"But…."

"No buts, Tetsuya. Don't make me force-feed you", Akashi said sternly, his chopsticks ready to put the chicken piece in Kuroko's mouth.

And the small bluenette had no choice but to comply with his fiancé's order. He took a small bite of the karaage, which Akashi nodded approvingly.

The lunch carried on in the same pattern in which Akashi tried to make Kuroko eat more and the bluenette tried to prevent the redhead from doing so. There were a few times that Kuroko attempted to transfer his food to Akashi's box in the disguise of "Akashi should try this one. It's delicious", but in the end, the amount of food transferred by Akashi was still bigger than that of Kuroko's, so it didn't help alleviate the problem.

Two fiancés were too caught up in their own little world of food shipping to remember that they were in the presence of other people. They would continue to remain oblivious until the awkward silence caught Akashi's attention. The redhead looked up from his food to check what had happened to his usually noisy classmates, particularly Aomine, and was immediately greeted by the sight of 4 teenagers' jaws dropping down, eyes widening to the size of a saucer.

"Not this again". "Stop staring at me and start eating lunch now or we're gonna be late for class", Akashi chastised, not pleased with his friends' reaction.

"Akashi, may I ask why your and Kuroko's bento was put together in a same wrapper? Also, do you and Kuroko know each other? You two seemed… close", Midorima asked, still not believing his eyes.

Akashi and Kuroko looked at each other, seemingly asking for the other's approval, before the redhead decided to answer the greenette's answer.

"Yes, Kuroko and I have met before", Akashi calmly replied while putting a piece of tamagoyaki into his mouth.

"But that doesn't explain how come your bento and Kuroko's are in the same wrapper."

"Tetsuya is currently living in my house. Does that explain your question, Daiki?"

Everyone turned around to stare at Kuroko disbelievingly, half expecting the boy to say something, half wanting to get a better look of the bluenette as if he was a rare species. Kuroko glanced at the Akashi, waiting for his fiancé's approval to speak. The redhead nodded, allowing his fiancé to speak in his stead.

"My parents are currently working abroad, so Akashi-kun's parents suggest that I live with Akashi-kun for the time being. My parents have given their approval to the suggestion and encouraged me to do so; therefore, I'm living in Akashi-kun's house now. I don't want to look like a freeloader, so I have been helping around in the house and preparing Akashi-kun's lunch. That's why you can see my bento is placed in the same wrapper with Akashi's."

After explaining the reasons, Kuroko calmly put in his mouth a slice of cucumber and chewed. And came even more stares directed at the small bluenette.

"Kuroko-kun…ehm… how long have you been staying at Aka-chan's house?", Momoi asked, interested in the story.

"Since last week."

"Then, you've been preparing Aka-chan's bento since last week, right?", the pinkette asked nervously.

"That's right."

Midorima, Murasakibara, Aomine and Momoi immediately shuddered in fear as the knowledge of the chef behind the last week catastrophic bento struck them hard. Embarrassing memories of them being completely out of character, one by one revealing their most inner thought, after having a taste of Akashi's bento rushed back, draining every bit of color from their face. They took a wary glance of Kuroko's bento. Through their vision filter, Kuroko's and Akashi's bento seemed to be glowing with a dark ominous aura that made them shiver at the thought of tasting it again.

Being observant as ever, Akashi caught on the changes of his clubmates at knowing it was Kuroko who made the bento. If it weren't for the fact he still had an image to uphold, he would be laughing his butt off at how funny his friends' faces were. Of course, there was no way that the redhead would miss this opportunity to tease his friends.

"So, does anyone here want to taste my bento?", Akashi asked smugly, enjoying the scared expression of the others.

After that, screams could be heard from the rooftop. Other students and teachers heard it but just dismissed it because screaming had become a normal occurrence ever since one Akashi Seijurou joined Teiko.

-o0o-

At the moment, Kuroko was finding the way to the basketball gym, where he would have a member test to join the club. After lunchtime, Akashi had asked Kuroko which club he would join, and Kuroko, without hesitation, answered basketball. The bluenette had always liked playing the sport because basketball was the very sport that brought him his first friend and also his best friends. Fond memories suddenly came back. When he was still in Japan, Kuroko met a cheerful black-haired boy, who later introduced him to basketball and also became his very first friend. Sadly, not long after, Kuroko had to move with his family to America due to his parents' work, thus cutting off their time together, but the day before departure, they had made a promise to play together again on court. In America, Kuroko fortunately made friends with an energetic, airheaded but sincere Japanese boy who went by the name of Kagami Taiga. Through Kagami, he met Himuro Tatsuya and Alexandria, and gradually, the four became a close-knit family through basketball practice sessions and matches. And it was also in America that Kuroko's basketball style was formed and developed.

The original plan was that Akashi would take Kuroko to the gym, but then, at the end of the class, the bluenette was hold back by the Japanese Literature teacher to discuss about his Japanese skill. Akashi was planning to wait for his bluenette but then was informed that something cropped up at the gym, requiring him to be there to solve the problem. The redhead, to his dismay, then told Kuroko the direction to the gym and quickly headed out of the class.

Back to the present, Kuroko was at a dilemma whether he should turn right or left. Akashi had given him the direction to the gym, which Kuroko had tried to memorize but right now, it seemed his memory had failed him. Teiko was a big school, so it was no surprise that Kuroko lost his bearings after 5 minutes of walking.

"Should I turn left or right?", Kuroko pondered with a poker face.

After 1 minute of deep meditation, Kuroko decided that it was high time to use his family's secret technique, which had been passed down from generation to generation (okay, his mother was the one who created it but it still counted that his mother had passed it down to him), in this case of emergency. It was usually used when a person had difficulty choosing the direction and its accuracy had never failed to amaze Kuroko. That secret technique was called "Shoe flips and shoe points".

Kuroko unknotted the string of his left sneaker and let his feet a little bit out of the shoe. He stood, took a calm breath and, with all his might, kicked his left feet forward hard. And the shoe flew off Kuroko's leg.

And it landed on the ground…with the toe box leaning slightly to the right.

.

.

.

"OK, turn left".

With that, the bluenette put on his sneaker and went in the left direction.

After 5 minutes of walking straight down the path, the bluenette grew restless with each minute passing by. The basketball gym was still nowhere to be seen. And Kuroko began to question the accuracy of the family technique.

Just when he was about to give up and called his fiancé, Kuroko noticed a tall black-haired student walking in front of him with a sport duffel bag. Deciding not to bother Akashi, Kuroko approached the student to ask for direction.

"Excuse me."

No response. Kuroko sighed.

"Excuse me."

The teenager still didn't turn back to look at Kuroko.

"Excuse me!". This time, Kuroko said louder and tapped at the students' shoulder.

"AAAAH!", the student jumped up in fright.

"My lack of presence sometimes annoys me so much", Kuroko thought bitterly.

"Hey, don't scare me like that. If you want to talk to me, just speak normally", the teen spoke, his hand massaging his heart.

"Sorry for scaring you but I have called you twice but you didn't turn around, so I have no choice but to speak louder than usual", Kuroko said monotonously and bowed slightly.

"Really? Sorry for noticing you earlier. I was thinking about something before you called me. Well then, what can I do for you?", the taller student said while sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Can you tell the way to the basketball gym? I just transferred this morning so I'm not familiar with the way around here", the bluenette asked politely.

"Basketball gym? Hey, I'm currently heading there, so why not join me? It's not really far from here", the taller teen said with a smile.

That meant his family technique was right all along. Men, his mother was amazing.

"Thanks…eh…"

"Nijimura Shuuzou, second year."

"Thank you for your offer, Nijimura-senpai. My name is Kuroko Tetsuya, first year. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Kuroko-kun. Well then, let's hurry. I bet my vice captain is complaining about how late I am", Nijimura grinned, casually talking Kuroko's hand and leading him down the path.

Kuroko looked at their joined hands nervously but before he could voice his feeling, Nijimura had already spoken.

"Don't get nervous like that. It's not like I'm gonna eat you or anything", the raven smiled sincerely, which made Kuroko blushed a bit. "Can I ask why you're heading to the basketball gym?"

"I want to apply to the club. My friend says that I should go there to see captain for approval."

"Well then, you just met the captain."

"Huh?"

"Nijimura Shuuzou, captain of Teiko basketball team, at your service."

"Nijimura-senpai is the captain? Then you must be really good", Kuroko complimented, surprised that he actually met the captain on his way to the gym.

"Not really… Ah, here's the gym."

Kuroko looked up and was greeted by the majestic sight of the gym. Kuroko gulped. He suddenly felt nervous at the test he was gonna take.

"Ready, Kuroko-kun?"

Kuroko nodded nervously and went inside the gym with Nijimura. There, he could hear the sound of shoes on the court and the sound of ball bouncing on the floor and through the net. And of course, at the other side of court, standing in all of his glory was his beloved fiancé, Akashi Seijurou.

"It's show time."

TBC

Nijimura has made his debut. I can believe I actually forget to put NijimuraXKuroko in the option. But if you want, you can send me a note to notify you preference if the options don't have your shipping.

BTW, if you have any interest in vampire GOMxKuroko, feel free to drop by my other story, Whereabouts of Miracles. It's not really about vampires but they still suck blood XD.

Last but not least, any constructive comment is welcome!