Chapter 6

Wanting to hear those words

Midorima could tell his father was upset with him on the ride back home. He wouldn't blame him. His heart was still pounding so hard he could actually hear it, and he'd gone deaf to the rest of the world. Kanako's father had addressed him repeatedly during the meeting but he hadn't been able to even understand what the Karasuma CEO wanted of him, since his brain was still buzzing with a mixture of thrill and heartache.

It felt almost stupid to be so intoxicated with delight just from being called 'Shin-chan' by Takao.

Takao had to leave the restaurant without having finished his meal. The waiter had approached him and asked if something was wrong, because he was disturbing the other customers. Well, he'd been sobbing miserably over his soup for half an hour, it was to be expected that people would be bothered. Maybe if this was a bar or if he had a private booth where he could drown his sorrows without being noticed, but out there in the broad of light, an open table in a family restaurant, it was just unacceptable.

He paid at the counter with Shin-chan's money and couldn't hold back a sniffle. It was borderline stupid to be crying so much at this late stage of the game just because Shin-chan –beautiful, loveable Shin-chan- had gotten such a lovely spark of joy in his eyes when Takao called him 'Shin-chan'. Maybe that had been his golden chance. Maybe if he'd had the balls to speak up, Shin-chan would reconsider and choose him this time. But no, he shook those thoughts out of his head for the umpteenth time today. Even if Shin-chan did love him –and he wanted to believe there was a decent chance of that being the case-, he wouldn't betray his father's expectations. He hadn't seven years ago, he wouldn't now.

Three more months. He told himself. Three more months and he would be free from this miserable commitment and have a fresh start. A new life.

When he arrived at his building, he saw a familiar black Toyota parked on the entrance. He turned on his heels to run away, but a firm hand grabbed him by the wrist.

"Oh? Where exactly do you think you're going, Kazu?" Toujiro sneered "Isn't that rude, running away after I went through the trouble of visiting you, even though I'm so tired from my trip."

His body froze with fear. Even if Shin-chan hadn't driven him home, Toujiro would still come up with an excuse to punish him. He was finally getting used to the lack of pain. No. No. No!

"Did you miss me, my little whore? I bet you've been whoring yourself out while I'm gone, your little fuckhole wouldn't be satisfied otherwise."

He wanted to resist. He wouldn't let this happen, not again. He'd already decided to save himself and fix everything that had gone wrong with his life. But Toujiro was taller and stronger, and no matter how hard he tried to run, he couldn't.

"Why are you so scared, huh, Kazu? I'm about to fill your cunt until you bleed, isn't that what you like? You should be more appreciative of my generosity". Toujiro twisted his arm and his shoulder made a nasty crack.

Please not the tendon. Please, please, PLEASE not the tendon. Don't let him take my basketball too. He pleaded as he was thrown into the car.

"By the way, I noticed you've been searching for a new apartment? Trying to run away, you ungrateful slut? Don't worry, I'll leave my mark all over your cock-loving self so I'll always be able to find you."

The doorbell rang.

"Tetsu, could you get the door? My hands are full over here."

The shadow man did as he was asked. His blue eyes widened in shock and horror when he opened the door to find a short raven-haired man barely holding himself upright, his face swollen and full of cuts and bruises, his clothes torn and tattered. What could be seen of his body was also splashed with wounds, and it was easy to figure out that the parts that were clothed wouldn't look too different.

"Takao-kun, wha-?!" his question was cut short when the former Point Guard collapsed on top of him. "Kagami-kun! Kagami-kun, come here quickly!"

Takao woke up with a raging headache and a terribly familiar soreness all over his body. He found himself lying on a bed that wasn't his own. He didn't remember where he was. His last memory was of Toujiro kicking him out of the car in a vaguely familiar neighborhood, near a vaguely familiar building. Someone he knew and probably trusted lived here, but for the life of him he couldn't recall who it was.

"Hello?" he called, trying to get up. His past experiences with Toujiro should've taught him to be wiser than that. A jolt of pain shot up his spine and he crashed on the floor, howling.

"Takao-kun! Are you alright?"

The Point Guard recognized the baby-blue hair and unusually flustered face. Damn, so he'd ended up in Kuroko's place. This could be bad, that guy was way too sharp for his own good.

The phantom man helped him to get back on the bed and kneeled next to it, concern written clearly all over his face. "Why am I here?" he asked, his voice hoarse, probably from screaming.

"That's what we'd like to know. You just collapsed on our doorstep looking like you were run over by a train." Kagami chimed in, carrying a tray with food.

Kuroko shot him a deadly glare before turning back to Takao. "Our neighbor is a doctor, we had him check you up to make sure you weren't in more peril. He said you were lucky that none of your injuries was too deep, or you could've lost a lot of blood." He explained and it was just kind of odd to see deadpan extraordinaire Kuroko showing so much emotion on his face.

"You… you didn't tell Shin-chan, did you?" he stuttered. The idea of having to explain this to Shin-chan terrified him.

The blue-haired man sighed, clearly not pleased. "Against my better judgment, no, I didn't call Midorima-kun. I imagined you wouldn't want me to."

"But we will call your parents if you don't tell us what the fuck happened." Kagami added as he handed the tray to Takao. "You need to eat, you've been out of it for two days."

Takao shivered. He didn't want to tell them the truth. He didn't want to talk about it, period. It was his own blindness that had gotten him here, and he feared he would start crying if het let it all out. "Some thugs wanted my wallet and I got caught up in a nasty fight, that's it."

Of course it was naïve to think Kuroko would buy that excuse. "Takao-kun…" he seemed to be deeply troubled with what he wanted to say. "When we found you… your clothes were almost destroyed and… the doctor said that some of your injuries… it's not something you would get from a simple robbery."

Judging by how the phantom man avoided his eyes and the way he seemed to be so carefully picking his words, Takao understood exactly what he meant.

"I won't force you to talk about it if you're not ready, but if you ever need someone to listen…"

Takao smiled. Kuroko's offer and the implied comfort and understanding made him feel just a little bit warmer.

"Thanks guys, really. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble. If I can have a bath I'll be able to go back home today."

Kagami glared at him with fiery eyes. "Sorry buddy, that's one thing we're not letting you do. You're staying here until your wounds heal, and that's final."

Kuroko cleared his throat. "The doctor said it would be best if you didn't move around a lot. We've already called Kagetora-san to tell him you won't be going to work for a while. We never use this bedroom anyway, you'll be a lot safer here."

He shouldn't be surprised that a clever and keenly observant man like Kuroko understood the situation so well. The underlying implication had been clear: Your place is not safe.

It took three more days to be able to walk on his own again, but there wasn't much he could do with his immobilized shoulder. Toujiro had dislocated it, and the swelling would take a few more days to heal. It was just lucky that it wasn't broken, and that it wasn't his dominant arm either, because otherwise he wouldn't even be able to eat. He couldn't go out in the open either, the bruises on his face had yet to fade away and he looked utterly hideous.

He felt a little bit guilty for taking advantage of Kuroko's hospitality, but life with Seirin's former light-and-shadow duo was doing wonders for him. For starters, Kagami's cooking skills were no joke, and as days passed, he started to dread having to go back to his own less-than-proficient self-made meals.

Watching the couple also made him all fuzzy and warm inside. They were extremely cute and domestic, he could barely hold back the need to 'awww' every time Kuroko stole a kiss from Kagami, making the red-head blush all the way to the tips of his ears.

"You guys've been together for so long and you still act like newlyweds. I swear I'll get cavities just from watching you." He'd said casually over dinner one day.

Kagami, as was to be expected, blushed a dark shade of red and stuffed his mouth with food to cover his embarrassment. Kuroko, on the other hand, let go of his chopsticks and answered in his typical deadpan tone "We got married two years ago, so I don't think we qualify as newlyweds anymore."

Takao almost choked on his food. "Married? When? How?!"

Kagami was now hiding his face behind his hands, and it was then that Takao noticed the golden band on his ring finger. He shifted his eyes to Kuroko's paler, smaller hands to find a matching one there.

"It was a little bit spontaneous if I may say so. We went to America because Kagami-kun's parents wanted to meet me. I realized it was a good opportunity so I asked for their permission to marry Kagami-kun. I think they weren't really expecting it, but they accepted anyway." Kuroko stated matter-of-factly.

Takao chuckled, imagining Kagami's parents welcoming their child –now a grown man- back after many years apart, and Kuroko, polite and proper to a fault, going down on his knees and asking if he could have their son's hand in marriage. "Didn't Kagami die from embarrassment, though? I can only imagine him like a blushing bride in that scenario."

A faint smile appeared on Kuroko's lips. "Oh, he did. His face was almost as red as his hair. He looked most adorable. I couldn't convince him to wear a wedding dress, though, that would've been lovely."

"Oi, Tetsu, you asshole, stop talking about that!" Kagami –who had long stopped enjoying this conversation- barked, getting up –with the excuse of feeding Nigou- so he wouldn't have to listen to them anymore.

The raven-haired man smiled. "Well, I guess congratulations are in order then, even if a little belated. I wish you guys many years of happiness."

"Thank you, Takao-kun, you are very kind."

They fell into a pleasant silence while waiting for Kagami to bring over the dessert.

Marriage, huh? His eyes stung a little.

A few days later, his phone buzzed and Midorima's name showed up on the screen. Kanako had insisted they traded contact information now that he was bound to be his best man. He hesitated to answer, took a deep breath, and hoped his voice wouldn't betray him.

"Hey, Midorima, what's up?"

He noticed Kuroko sitting nearby and wondered if the phantom man would be listening to the conversation.

"Good morning, Takao…I… I just received a call from the tailor. He said we can go to pick up the suit tomorrow so I… was wondering if you have time to come with me… J-just to make sure everything's in order, I wouldn't be able to notice if anything was amiss."

Beautiful, adorable tsundere Shin-chan. Was he doing it on purpose to break his heart, Takao wondered? Truth be told, he didn't want to meet him now. His injuries were not completely healed, and with his face so beat up, questions were bound to arise. But he couldn't say 'no' when Shin-chan had asked him so nicely, with that slight but still noticeable quiver in his deep voice.

"Sure. I'll meet you there at ten."

When he cut off the call, he noticed Kuroko was standing behind him and looking at him with deep concern in his sapphire eyes. He didn't say a word, but gently placed his small hand on Takao's arm, and that was enough to break him.

Before he knew what happened, he was crying on Kuroko's lap and telling him even the smallest and most horrible details of how everything had gone wrong in his life and how he couldn't even escape from Toujiro or Shin-chan's marriage, and how he wondered if he might not be better off dying already.

"Oi, man, that's just sick." Kagami interfered once he had finished talking. "You can't leave it like this, you should go to the cops or something."

Takao sighed mirthlessly. "That'd be the word of a rich and powerful businessman with a long family tradition versus a filthy commoner." Nigou sat next to him and started licking his fingertips, as if the dog could somehow understand what was happening and wanted to comfort him.

Kuroko looked like he wanted to say something, but he just sighed. "Kagami-kun is right, you can't just let this be; there must be something we can do about it."

"Come on, man, look at yourself! You're walking proof of what that psycho has done to you. If you don't say anything, it's just going to keep getting worse."

Takao didn't miss the implication there, probably because the thought had crossed his mind more than once. Since Shin-chan had crashed back into his life, every time Toujiro visited him, he wondered if this would be the day in which he'd lose control and kill him, if maybe today the knife would finally slash his throat open, or whether he'd die from pain because it seemed impossible to keep on living when everything hurt so damn much.

"I know you don't want to, but you should talk to Midorima-kun about this, be honest with him. It may not be too late to mend things up, and his family is very important in the city, he would definitely find a way to help you with that horrible man. It's no secret that he doesn't want to marry Karasuma-san either. You could try to give yourselves a second chance…"

A single tear ran down his cheek before he could hold it back. "I could never do that to him. The relationships with the Tozai and Karasuma companies are important for his family. He's tried so hard to please his parents, I would never forgive myself if I put him in a position that jeopardized everything he's done for them." He didn't want to say that he was certain Midorima wouldn't choose him if he put him in such a position. "And I'm already dirty and repulsive, second-hand defective merchandise. He deserves better."

Kuroko grabbed his face with both hands and forced him to meet his blue eyes that were afire with anger. He'd never seen the shadow man so infuriated and it was kind of scary. He'd come to associate anger with being beat up by Toujiro, and he had to take deep breaths to remind himself that Kuroko would never do such a thing.

"Takao-kun, you will not talk about yourself like that ever again." The shorter man stated firmly. "Everything that man ever said to you were lies, and you must not think less of yourself because of what he did to you. It was not your fault and you did not deserve it. We will definitely see that he pays for what he did. You're a good man, Takao-kun; kind and selfless, and I know you care about Midorima-kun more than anyone in the world. You deserve to be happy."

He wanted to smile and say how grateful he was for Kuroko's kindness, but all he could do was sob and sniffle and cry like a baby, burying his face in Kuroko's chest because he'd been wanting to hear those words from someone, anyone, for so long; it was almost hard to believe they were true after so much pain and fear and he felt so blessed to have friends that could pull him back to the world of light and hope. And he cried, and with every tear he felt a little bit more liberated.

To be continued

TAKAO MY BABY I'M SO SORRY. No crying emoji can express how bad I feel for what I'm putting you through.

To make it up to you, have some Mama!KagaKuro (they're both such moms) to comfort you my dear. Even if it was an act of KagaKuro-ex-Machina, my baby needed some light and hope in his life, so I don't care.

Thanks everyone for your support and comments, I hope you keep enjoying this story. Please let me know what you think, I'd be forever grateful for any feedback.