Seijuurou Akashi once wondered why his mother had always asked him to play the violin whenever he visits her at the hospital. He once wondered why his father was so strict in the violin when he was never interested in musical instruments before. He wondered why his parents always seemed like they wanted to cry whenever he plays the violin.
But now, he knows.
His mother was diagnosed with some kind of disease he didn't really know about. He didn't understand when he was a child; after all, what seven year old understood the cruelty of the world? When he played the violin the last time he met his mother at the hospital, he didn't understand why she was crying. And after he was done, she had a coughing fit and he clearly heard her last words;
"I'm glad the last thing I hear before I go is the way you play, Sei-chan. I hope I'll get to hear it again."
After that, the machine that always let out this kind of monotone beeping Seijuurou was once amused started going crazy, and his father was calling out to his mother.
The rest were all vague to him.
They were all nothing but mere blurry memories he no longer cried over. He no longer felt the intense pain in his chest after a few weeks.
He just felt.. empty.
Opening the door to the school's music room, he put his bag aside and stood in front of the piano, his fingers caressing the black and white keys before pressing one of them, creating a sound that resounded the silent room. Sitting down, he began playing a familiar tune; Liebestrud, Love's Joy.
Something isn't right, he thought. He stood up and took a step back and at that time, a basketball came smashing the window. He remained there, unmoving before a heavy sigh escaped his lips.
"I'll get it!" The redhead heard, and so he stood there, arms crossed as he awaited the person to reveal itself. When the door opened, the person shrieked. "Akashi-kun?!"
"Good afternoon to you too, Momoi." He answered, a smile on his lips. "Would you please explain why a basketball suddenly came here and apparently almost killed me?"
"Oh! Funny thing you asked," she began babbling to the point Akashi couldn't even understand. Raising his hand, indicating she should stop, Akashi rubbed his temples before enunciating, "When I told you to keep an eye on the basketball club, I meant to make sure they don't slack off; not try goofing around like buffoons."
"I'm sorry," Satsuki immediately apologised. The captain shook his head, "Clean this up, I'm busy." Momoi nodded, turning to a metal storage box that was placed at the back of the room, taking out a broom and a dustpan before quickly dusting the shattered glass and throwing them away.
"Akashi-kun, by busy, did you mean this?" Momoi asked after throwing the glass away. "That's right. Hanajima-sensei asked me to play the piano for an event this weekend." Momoi sat beside him, then took the music sheets. "Love's Joy? Isn't this for the violin?"
"It was originally for the violin, but there are notes for the piano." He replied. There was a quiet pause between the two before Momoi voiced her thoughts out, "Akashi-kun, are you really quitting the violin? Your mom wouldn't be happy."
"I haven't touched the violin since her death. It would take me some time before I can actually play the violin like I used to." It was a lie; he did play the violin from time to time, although it was just to check if it was still working; it was a present from his mother so even if he didn't play it anymore, he still wanted to keep it.
Momoi was his childhood friend, although they didn't really reveal it to anyone else. "You do realise you're running away, don't you, Seijuurou?" She knew about his mother's death eight years ago. She knew he was running away when he said he was going to stop playing the violin and start the piano. But she kept quiet. Although his face remained neutral, she knew that deep down, he was still hurt.
She sighed, if Akashi isn't going to say anything, then so be it. Then, she remembered something, "Oh yeah, are you free this Saturday?" Seijuurou turned to look at her, brows furrowed. "I am, why?" Momoi smiled. "A classmate of mine wants to meet up with Ki-chan. Apparently, he likes him. I guess he could attract guys, too." Ki-chan, or Kise Ryouta, was a friend the two met during grade school. Momoi actually fell for him when she saw him, a love at first sight thing but quickly got over him when she found out he was a playboy.
"Why invite me?" Honestly, Akashi never cared who Kise dated, but since Momoi suddenly invited him to their little date, maybe it meant something interesting was going to happen; though it wasn't like she was going to spill any time soon.
"Come on, Seijuurou! You never go out with us anymore, giving excuses like you're busy and whatever! Besides, I don't want to be the lonely third wheeler! This kid is a friend of mine and he plays the piano too! Maybe you guys could talk about it and you can actually get a new friend for once." Akashi scoffed. Nevertheless, this guy did sound interesting. "Fine, message me the information later so I can adjust my schedule. Now get out, I need to practice."
Punctuality was something that always mattered to Akashi. He couldn't be late even for a second unless he had unavoidable problems such as student council president meetings and the like. The fact that the two teenagers that told him to meet them at the nearby park at 1:30 pm sharp and yet they themselves weren't there yet certainly made him tick. He sighed, turning around and fished out his phone from his pocket to call the two before something- no, someone caught his eye.
A male around his age who possessed teal coloured hair on a tree, calling out to a black kitten. The kitten didn't look frighten, but it did crawl towards the boy; only to scratch his hand and run higher up the tree. The said boy flinched and the branch shook violently, making him lose his balance and fall.
Out of reflex, Seijuurou ran towards him with the intention of catching the latter; though he was a second too late and instead, the boy fell on top of him. Well, at least he cushioned his fall. That's something, right?
"Are you alright?" He questioned, and received a groan and a nod. "Thank you," the latter answered. Just before the heir to the Akashi conglomerate began his query, he heard the two teens he had been expecting since ten minutes ago.
"How many times do I have to tell you about punctuality?"He reiterated, sitting up as soon as the tealnette got off of him. "You are late, again. Explain." Kise clasped his hands together, immediately apologising to the former. "I'm really sorry, Akashicchi! My manager suddenly called and I had to drag Momocchi since she was with me."
Clearing his throat to announce his presence, he turned to Momoi and Kise, nodding in acknowledgement. "It's nice to meet you again, Momoi-san, Kise-kun." He turned to the redhead and nodded at him as well, "I assume you're Seijuurou Akashi? It's nice to meet you, I'm Tetsuya Kuroko. Momoi-san told me about you coming along. I apologise for dragging you into this, and thank you for cushioning my fall earlier."
Akashi was about to reply when, "Eh? Kurokocchi fell? Oh my god!" Kise immediately pulled the latter towards him, checking if he had any injuries or not. "I presume you already met Ryota before?" The latter nodded. "Well, the pleasure's all mine. Also Ryota, please stop harassing Kuroko in public; it's indecent."
Kise gasped at the other's statement. "It is not! Right, Kurokocchi?" But the response he received was, "Honestly Kise-kun, I'd rather have you keeo your hands to yourself. Thank you for worrying about me, though." At that time, all of them could see Kise , the oh so famous model slowly having a mental break down.
"So, where are we going?" Momoi decided to leave the blond to suffer alone, then saw the violin case that Tetsuya was carrying. "Tetsu-kun, did you have violin class before you came here?"
"Ah," he turned to look at his violin case and shifted, not noticing the redhead beside him staring at the case since earlier. "No, actually. I have a piano competition today."
"Piano recital? Then why did you bring that violin?" Kise, rising from the mental break down, looked puzzled. "Well," he turned to Akashi, "when I heard that Seijuurou Akashi was coming, I thought of giving him my old violin. I'm not using it anymore, so you can have it. And I'm not taking no for an answer." He shoved the said casing to the other, and the redhead took a step back. "Pardon?"
"You heard me," Kuroko replied. "So, a piano competition? When is it?" Kuroko turned to look at his watch, his eyes widening ever so slightly. "It's about to start."
Silence.
Punctuality was something that always mattered to Akashi
"Then what are we standing here for? Let's go!" Momoi shrieked. Akashi on the other hand, was stunned. Okay, hold the fuck up; he almost got killed, he got dragged to be a third wheeler, he literally got sat on, he got a violin from someone he never even knew about, and now he's being dragged to this piano competition? Okay, he honestly loved the piano -not as much as the violin, though-, but this was too much for him. He was already having a headache.
"You guys can go on ahead, I think I'll pass." He turned around but before he could walk away, his wrist was grabbed by the male who started the whole shenanigans.
"You come too!"