Chapter 1

What he does to me

Midorima stormed into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. He dug his cellphone out of his pocket and pressed number 5 on his speed-dial. The line rang twice before the phone was answered on the other end.

"Good evening, Shintarou."

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" he bellowed on the phone, letting all his contained anger burst.

Akashi was unfazed by the explosion. "I am afraid I don't understand. Would you care to elaborate? It must be very serious to make you speak such profanities."

The green-haired man was on the verge of throwing the phone out the window. "It was you who got the idea of this 'business double date' in Kanako's head!"

The emperor sighed. This is exactly why he'd ordered his cousin not to tell Midorima about whose idea it was. "Did it not go well?" he feigned ignorance.

"You're not fooling me, bastard! Do you really think I'd believe that you didn't know about it? Don't insult my intelligence."

Well, he hadn't expected to fix everything in one night, but he was mildly taken aback by how furious his former teammate was. "I believe you need to calm down. If you keep playing the pronoun game, I will never understand what is upsetting you so."

He heard Midorima snarl in frustration. "You knew! That this Tozai guy was…" he didn't want to say the words out loud. "that he would bring Takao to the meeting." His eyes were starting to sting a little. "What is your goddamn problem? Did you think it would be amusing?" It had been 7 years already, he'd hoped those feelings would be buried deep down somewhere they wouldn't bother him anymore, but he'd been clearly mistaken.

"Takao…"

"Sh-Shin-chan?"

They stared at each other, frozen on their spot. Kanako quirked her eyebrows in curiosity. The vein in Toujiro's forehead popped and throbbed.

"Do you know each other?" Kanako asked, breaking the tension and pulling them both back to reality. Takao was the first to wake from his shock-induced stupor.

"Oh! Y-yeah, we were c-c-classmates in High School." The former Point Guard stuttered, turning to face the beautiful woman and avoiding looking at his former teammate. "Pardon my rudeness, I'm Takao Kazunari. It's a pleasure to meet you." He bowed deeply, a rehearsed polite smile appearing on his face.

She smiled back, delighted. "My, this is indeed a very small world." she giggled as everyone went back to their sitting positions. "Actually, I believe I remember your face… Oh, you were in the same basketball team, isn't that right, Shin-chan?"

Takao bit his lip. Midorima nodded quietly, his eyes glued to the table.

The young woman didn't seem to notice the heavy atmosphere that had taken over their small private booth and started browsing through the menu. "Surely you've already been invited to the wedding, then. I know Shin-chan is very close with his old teammates."

The clear-eyed man looked up to meet her eyes, hoping his state of distress was not too evident. "W-w-wedding? I'm afraid me and Shi… M-midorima haven't been in touch for a couple of years."

"Oh, really? Well, then I'm inviting you now! We really need more guests for the groom's side, Shin-chan here doesn't really have many friends."

Takao's head was spinning trying to keep up with everything that was happening and doing his best effort not to look like a retarded idiot.

"I'm sorry, I feel a little bit out of the loop. W-whose wedding are we talking about, right now?"

Midorima was stunned to hear Takao keeping up with the conversation so naturally. He was doing his best effort not to flee from this accursed meeting, but Takao didn't seem to be having any trouble whatsoever. He hoped against all hopes that no one asked him anything, because he wasn't sure he would be able to stay calm if he was forced to interact with the other occupants of the table. This was never supposed to happen. Seven years ago Takao Kazunari had vanished from his life, and he had never hoped to meet him again; especially not in these circumstances.

"Me and Shin-chan, of course!" Kanako chirped gleefully and Midorima really wished the ground would crack open and swallow him alive.

Akashi heard his friend sobbing on the other side of the line.

"How could you do this to me?"

Tears were now running freely down his face. As if marrying this random girl so his father could further his business agenda wouldn't make him miserable enough, he'd have to do it with Takao and his new boyfriend standing in the same room, breathing the same air, and that thought made him feel like he was suffocating.

"Forgive me, Shintarou. I did not expect it would affect you this much, so I didn't warn you beforehand."

Midorima snarled again, fury welling up inside him once again. "I said cut the bullshit! You know better than anyone what he does to me!" he sank to his knees, shut the phone and threw it across the room, not caring anymore. "Fuck damnit!"

The emperor heard a click that signed their conversation had been cut and he put his cellphone away, sighing.

That had definitely not gone according to plan.

To be continued

Well, because this chapter is very short I decided to upload it earlier. I won't say much more because well, it's just really short, and it's painful to write my dear Shin-chan being so heartbroken. I'll have a new chapter up next Friday too, because this one is so blastedly short.

Hope you enjoy and please comment.