Language: English is not my first language.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke or any of its characters.
Chapter 15
The four men walked in an almost silence. Taiga had suddenly realised what it meant, now that he got away from the tanned bluenette. He would never see him again. He rubbed his palm over his chest, right over his heart. It hurt and he couldn't think of a time, where that happened before. Simply because this was the first time.
Ryouta and Teppei walked in front of him, whispering to each other and once in a while glancing back over their shoulders at him. Kazunari was beside him, but didn't talk with him, like he normally did.
Taiga felt awkward.
Those few days in the bluenettes presence felt long, but now, without the smug face popping up in his space, trying to catch his lips and tanned hands gropping his ass and other things … on that thought he blushed heavily and shook his head. He already missed him. What was completely embarrassing, since he tried so vehement to get away from him and now all he could think about was to find a way to meet him again.
Meanwhile Kazunari observed his best friend. He could read him like an open book, even without watching him directly. For now, the black haired male decided to push his teasing nature back and instead warn the hothead about the danger they still were in.
"Taiga." the raven-haired male by his side suddenly called his name. The redhead glanced over and didn't like the expression in the silver eyes.
"What?", he grunted and looked away. He already knew what the other would say, but he asked anyway. Maybe he had a spleen for self-torment.
"I think you know what I want to say, but I'll still tell you. Maybe it helps you, to get it really into your head. You aren't allowed to go searching for him. No matter what. If your father gets wind of this, we could stumble into a tribe war. You realise that, right?" A small hand was put on his lower arm and eyes full of pity looked up at him.
"Kazunari is right. Under no circumstances are you allowed to see him again.", the brunette suddenly was at his other side, patting him on the shoulder.
Taiga stopped walking, since Ryouta stood right in front of him, looking up with rarely shown seriousness in his honey eyes. "Taigacchi, I'm so sorry your first love had to end like that." Lean lithe arms tried to wrap around his neck, but Taiga would have nothing of it. He stepped back out of reach and glared at his three friends.
"What's up with you all? I'm not that dump and I don't need your pity. And who said anyway, anything about love? Ha! That's stupid. Don't make me laugh! Now move your asses, I want to be home as soon as possible. I'm starving." In time his stomach rumbled and he walked around the three baffled men, ignoring the looks they gave him.
"Well, he will get over it." Teppei was in good things and clapped his shorter companions on their shoulders, before he started walking after the redhead.
Kazunari shot Ryouta a look, "You think the same thing as I, right?"
"Yupp, I think Taigacchi is only putting on a mask. And he isn't really good with it, by no means as good as I."
The raven snickered, "You couldn't let go of that last remark, right?! So narcissistic!"
"Ehhh~ I'm not. Kazunaricchi that was mean!", the blonde wailed and took off after the raven and tried to catch him. They romped around for a while and also tried to lighten the redheads mood with it, but it was to no avail. The chief's son stomped forward and didn't even glance at them, his lips were grimly pressed together and in his red eyes raged a storm, which none of the three wanted to unleash.
"It was really good that we met you Atsushi-kun. Shintarou-kun almost lost his composure as Daiki-kun began to snore." The light-blue-haired male shot the tall greenette a glance with his winter-blue eyes and as always had his facial muscles under control, so that no one could see the little smile which only showed slightly in his eyes.
The bluenette was by now thrown over the purple-haired giants shoulder and sawed an entire forest down with his snoring. The greenette rolled his moss-green eyes at him and was tempted to stuff his open hanging mouth with his lucky item.
"Ah … yeah … I wanted to get some blueberries. They grow somewhere around here.", Atsushi said with a long drawn out voice. "Did you see some, Tetsu-chin?"
"No, I'm sorry Atsushi-kun, I didn't see them.", the shorter male had to make faster stepps to hold his position beside the giant. Shintarou remained a little more back, his thoughts were with the raven-haired Kagami clan's man. He hadn't seen him since two years ago and was glad that he seemed fine.
"Shin-chin, if you see some, tell me! I want to make blueberry damper." The purplenette had a satisfied expression, as he thought of the delicious dish and drool was pooling in his mouth.
"I don't know how often I have to remind you, to not call me by that stupid name. I also have no time to search for something sweet only to please you. And if you would open your eyes a bit more, you would have spotted them when you walked in our direction. They grow right beside the rock debrises, where you would have gone by, if you walked out to the left side of the village.", the greenette rattled one, while he overtook the men.
Tetsuya and Atsushi glanced at each other and both rolled their eyes. "Thank you, Shin-chin. I will look there when we get back."
"I only stated the obvious. No need to thank me!", the green-haired male snorted, but let himself fall a little back, so that he now was walking beside Tetsuya.
"What will you do about him?", he ask the smaller man and pointed his chin at the snoring bluenette.
Tetsuya sighed, "I don't know yet. He will be furious when he wakes up. Father will not be thrilled by the events. Satsuki will throw a fuss and hearts in the air, if I tell her and mother … well, that is another issue. For now, I think we need to await Daiki's reaction and then do whatever is needed to hold him back from going after the Kagami tribe's guys."
He watched his brother and felt a little guilty. If he had stopped those two from going further into their little relationship, perhaps the parting would have gone better. But when he saw his little brothers happy face the previous night, he simply couldn't take it so soon away from him.
Seeing his brother so boisterous after all this years, let his heart hurt and he resented his father even more, when he thought of the task entrusted to him. He only hoped Daiki would understand, why he had done it and that a relationship with a man from the Kagami clan was not an option. Their father had nothing against same sex relationships, but this one tribe was an absolute taboo theme for the chief of the Aomine clan and not even his favourite youngest son would change that.
Daiki didn't know anything of that and Tetsuya was in no position to tell him. Only their parents had the right to reveal it to him.
Taiga tried to behave normal. He joked with his friends, let Kazunari make fun of him for losing his weapons in such a stupid manner and let Ryouta lay on the ground rolling around laughing after he told them how he had stumbled over that huge pile of fish and what happened afterwards, on the first day he meet the Aomine's guy.
But talking about it, was not the best decision and his gaze wandered to nowhere, clouded by thoughts of the tanned bluenette.
Kazunari caught on and told him all what happened in the tribe while he was gone. How his father had thrown a fuss after three days and almost screamed the whole village together, whether anyone had seen his son. How he then sent men in every direction on the search for him, but also that he could prepare himself for a not so heartly welcoming when he got back.
"How did you even know, where I was? I don't even know that myself, let alone how far I had gone." The redhead eyed the raven-haired male and scratched his ear.
"Do you really need to ask? Who is the best tracker in our tribe? And really yours was easy to find. I even got your bow out of the water." Kazunari smirked and handed the large bow to his friend.
"Oh, wow. I thought, it was gone for good. Thanks Kaz." Taiga spanned the arc. "Hm, I need a new bowstring, but the rest seems well."
"And some new arrows as well. We couldn't catch them in time." Teppei sat down and handed some dry meat to the redhead. They chewed for a while in silence and then Ryouta couldn't hold back. He was a too curious being to not ask. "Taigacchi, how come that you got into a relationship with the Aomine guy?"
Teppei groaned and Kazunari slapped the back of the blonde's head. That really was something they shouldn't pry into, not now. "Uhm … Kazunari, it's fine." Taiga blushed heavily and also showed a slight smile, but it didn't reached his eyes. Then he shrugged, "It just happened.", was all he said and ignored the wail of the blonde, who had been waiting for a long interesting story, when nothing more followed.
"Tomorrow we will reach our fleet. We should go to sleep now. It was a long day." Teppei skillfully changed the topic. All men nodded and got ready for the night. Only with looks to each other, Taiga's friends agreed, that they would keep a guard all night, so that the redhead wouldn't trying to escape.
But Taiga was anyway too exhausted after everything that happened. No sooner had his head touched the earth and sleep overwhelmed him, He dreamed of the past few days, experienced once more every minute he had spent with the blue-haired male.
Late in the evening on the next day, when the four men were already on their fleet, sailing down the wild river, Atsushi laid Daiki down on his bed and Tetsuya pulled a fur cover over him.
Satsuki, the sister of the two blue-haired males, sat beside his bed and held his hand. "Tetsu-kun, do you know what happened to his back?", she asked while looking at her sleeping brothers tanned face.
"No, I don't. When he woke up this morning, he instantly started a fuss and it needed all three of us to hold him down." Tetsuya sighed and sat beside his sister. "He meet someone while he was gone and he wanted to go instantly after him. But we couldn't let him do that, so Shintarou-kun narcotized him again. Otherwise we wouldn't had been able to bring him back."
She leaned against the light-blue-haired male, "He seems to really like the one he meet. Normally he wouldn't go against fathers will."
"Yes, but this one is no good. Father will not allow it." Sorrowful winter-blue eyes looked at the bluenette and he felt how his sisters hand clutched his own tightly. "Why? Why wouldn't he allow it? Isn't it always good to make new friends?" Satsuki's pink eyes had tears in them as she looked at her big brother. Tetsuya drew in breath, "He is from the Kagami tribe." He didn't need to say more. Satsuki as well as him, knew the story behind the tribal feud which happened many years back. Daiki was the only one who was left in the dark about it. They now were in a unstable peace with the other clan, but if Daiki made a wrong move, it could instantly brake and only heaven knew where it would end and how many would have died by then. Their own father knew no boundaries, when it came to revenge. Something his youngest son had inherited from him. Even if there were only quirks of it, it was still there. And Tetsuya feared for a long while, that their father would break Daiki. But then he saw the smile in his brothers eyes, when he were together with the redhead and he understood that Daiki was strong, even stronger than their father thought. In that instant he noticed, almost white colored eyes on him.
"Mother.", he stood up and greeted the woman, who had the same high as him and let her sit down beside her daughter. "How is he?", she asked and wiped her youngest sons hair out of his face. "He is fine, only anesthetized at the moment. He has a wound on his back. I already sent for Shintarou-kuns father to look after it."
"Thorough as always, Tetsuya.", she smiled and patted his cheek. "Will you let me know, why you needed to immobile him, to bring him back?", she quirked one of her thin light-pink eyebrows at him.
Lying was not an option in front of his mother, he knew that very well. But talking here, in the presence of Satsuki, was not an option either. He signaled her with is blank winter-blue eyes, that he would prefer to continue the conversation elsewhere and she understood, glancing at her daughter. If Tetsuya thought it would be better, to let Satsuki not hear, it almost every time involved love. Hiruna smiled to herself, kissed her daughter on her head and moved with her eldest son to the main tent.
Daiki shifted in his sleep and groaned. "D…an, Da…chan, Dai-chan!" He groaned once more and rolled over, putting his blanket over his ears. "Satsuki, shut up! Five … more!"
"Daiki!" Suddenly his cover was gone and his sister stood beside his bed, her fists pressed to her side, sporting a grim face. "Finally wake up! How long do you intend to sleep? Father is back and he wants to see you."
"Father?" The bluenette rubbed his eyes and sat up. Then it hit him. "Wait! Where is Taiga?"
"Who?" Satsuki stopped folding the blanket and looked questioning at her younger brother.
"Taiga! The redhead from the Kagami clan! Where is he?" Daiki almost screamed as he stood up.
"Shh, be quiet." The pink-haired girl moved forward and pressed her small hand on his mouth. "If father hears you saying that tribes name, he will be really angry. You shouldn't mention it to him!"
He pried her fingers away. "Let go of me. I will tell him whatever I want." He pushed her slightly away and stormed out of his tent, only to bump right into a broad chest, which was covered in scars. "Daiki." His fathers voice boomed in his ears and the tight clutch around his arm couldn't be mistaken. "Father." He tried to show his disinterested mask, but he didn't quite succeed. "What got you so riled up son? Where were you the past days?"
The deep blue, almost black, eyes of Masahiro, chieftain of the Aomine clan stared at his youngest son. Daiki squirmed under the prying glare of his father. He was a tall man, almost 6'7 high, with broad shoulders and heavily muscled arms. The aura currently flaring around him, could beat a wild rhinoceros to flight. And Daiki tailed too. "It's nothing.", he murmured and tried to step back, but his father would have none of it. He pulled his son around and looked at the freshly made bandage over his right shoulder blade. "And what's this?" Masahiro growled and jerked the bandage off. The bluenette twitched in pain and gritted his teeth. If he would make a sound, it would mean more harsh training with his old man and he didn't want to go through that again.
"It's only a scratch.", he shrugged and turned around, taking the gauze from his father. "I see … and where did you get that 'Nothing'?" The chieftain really was furious. Not only disappeared his son for almost over one week and now he also had secrets from him. "We two meet tomorrow morning, right here before the sun rises. Don't even try to run away. I will get you talking and teach you that such 'Nothings' don't happen again." That were his last words before he stormed off to find his wife.
Daiki glared at his father's back and cursed, until he felt a small hand on his left shoulder. "I will go with you to Shintorin's father. Come, you need a new bandage." He tore his shoulder away from his sister's hand, "I don't need your pity!" and stomped, almost in the same manner as his father, over to the with greenery overgrown tent of their healer.
TBC