The past gets revealed. I hope you enjoy it :)

Language: English is not my first language.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke or any of its characters.

Chapter 21

Daiki was cowering behind his tent, body ready to dash into the jungle, when he got the sign of his brother, who currently walked over to their father. He peered around the corner, watching his mother and Satsuki moving around a group of people to go and wash the dishes they used for dinner. This danger to be discovered was currently averted. Again he looked over at Tetsuya and hoped that the plan of his brother would work out.

The light-blue haired male was holding an earthen jug with a braided basket around it. Inside the jug was the most delicious fruit wine, made by their mother. Anyone would mean that Tetsuya wanted to entertain his father or that Hiruna had sent him to smooth the waves. But underneath the jug in the basket, laid the most venomous snake in the whole jungle, or so everyone would think.

Earlier, when his brother had opened the twitching pouch and Daiki became aware of what was in there, he almost screeched. Only the fast reaction of Tetsuya had saved them both from being discovered, when he pressed his small hand against Daiki's mouth. "Be quiet! Those aren't coral snakes, look." And without further delay, he put his hand into the bag and pulled a few of the red-black-white patterned serpents out. "They bite, what is still a bit painful, but they aren't venomous. Here hold one!"

Daiki still felt the feeling of the snake's skin against his palm and shuddered. Sometimes his older brother was a little devil and this time his mind had thought out a brilliant plan. It was dark and the men were already exhausted from building up the camp earlier in the day. No one would reject the offer of a good drop of wine and the blazing fire in the middle, threw shadows over the ground, which would do the rest. All he now had to do, was to wait for the right moment.

Again he peered around the corner of his tent, but this time his midnight-blue eyes meet whitish ones. He blinked, one-, two times and landed on his arse. "Mom … shit!" Everything was over. He got caught in the very last moment. Shock and anger were cutting through his guts giving him a nauseous feeling. Why was she even here? Shouldn't she been washing dishes with Satsuki? Some deity had a grudge against him, he was almost sure of it.

"You really should develop a better speech pattern." Hiruna smiled at her youngest and patted his head. Leaning down, she came close to his ear, "Take the left road down the hill. Walk through the river until you see a big mossy stone to your right. Then go straight east. I hope you find him soon." She kissed his forehead, put a small package in his hand and stood up to walk back to the fire in the middle of the camp. And then hell broke loose.

Daiki heard Satsuki screaming and startled shouts from the others. That was his cue. He still was baffled that also his mother helped him out, but bolted from his position right into the thick underwood of the jungle. The screaming quickly became quieter and when he reached his weapons, which Tetsuya had concealed between a crack in a stone earlier that day, his fathers angry voice was the last thing he heard. He didn't look back, but felt somehow quite upset, that he had to vanish like that and leave his brother to the wrath of their father. Now it was done anyway and only his dead could come between him and the red-haired Kagami's guy.

Around five hours later, Daiki finally sat down before a small fire and rested. He had reached the river after an hour and filled his waterskin. Afterwards he had waded into the cold water and let himself be dragged away by the current. This way he was able to save his strength. His muscles had grown stiff from the coldness, but they soon warmed up again, when he crawled to the shore after 45 minutes and could walk again. He rounded the mossy stone, his mother mentioned to him and looked up to the stars to identify, in which cardinal direction he needed to go from here.

As soon as he had found east, the bluenette continued his way without rest. His pace was steady, he didn't wanted to overexert himself. His mind was occupied by the redhead, but also by the stories his parents told him.

"Daiki, the story I'm about to tell you, has changed so many times, that the most of us don't know anymore, what is the truth and what not. But in this case you can trust me, since I once was pretty close to the woman, which this is about." His mother had sat down and patted the seat beside her. Leaning against the tree in their backs, Daiki had fiddled with his hands and Hiruna had looked up into the little blue patches of the sky, which could be seen through the leafs. Her voice rose quietly and was heavily tainted with affection, "Around twenty-five years ago, there was a worse landslide what costed many lives. Some of the elders couldn't flee and some families lost their fathers, mothers and even children. Most of the younger children were adopted into the remaining families and that is how your father got himself a 15 year old sister." She paused and smiled at him, when he had shoot a bewildered look at her, but held her hand up to prevent him from asking questions.

"She was a little rascal, with her fiery red hair and quick-tempered mind, she drove half of the village nuts almost every day. But no one could hate her for that, indeed we all loved the loud mouthed way she dealt with things and her wide smiles, which even your father couldn't resist. Don't get me wrong here, he didn't love her in a way a man would love a woman, but he accepted her as his dear sister and would have done almost everything for her. It was Tora who brought your father and me together. I'm still very grateful to her for that."

Hiruna shifted slightly and her whitish eyes had a distant look in them. "The times weren't good and your grandfather decided to lay the old dispute with the Kagami tribe down and instead seek help from them. Luckily for all of us, they agreed and new bonds were forged. But not soon after that, it happened that Tora was on one of her exploration tours, which lead her into Kagami territory. And just like she was, she began to quarrel with the first Kagami man who crossed her path." Hiruna chuckled, as she remembered how upset Tora came back that day.

"She got heavily scolded that day, when they found out that she had not so accidentally wounded the chieftains son. As of that day, it was Raion who would come to our tribe and deliver messages or food. He never really hid his interest in Tora and not long after their first encounter, they fell in love. Your father was against it. He still couldn't let go of the past and his father's reasoning, that a bond between the Kagami and our tribe could flourish in a good way, fell on deave ears."

She gave her son a sad look and continued. "I was already married to Masahiro and heavily pregnant with Tetsuya, when your grandfather unexpected died from a cold. Masahiro became chieftain and somehow the relationship with the Kagami tribe spiralled down to the bad side. But even that couldn't hold Tora and Raion back. They continued to meet secretly. I knew, since Tora was as close as a sister to me and told me almost everything, when she helped me out with Tetsuya."

"Then there came the day your father found out, that Tora still meet with Raion, although the vaguely held peace between our tribes was almost gone. They had a huge fight. Sadly, I couldn't do much, as I had a six month old son to tent to and was already pregnant again with Satsuki and needed to lay almost the whole day." Hiruna sighed heavily and pulled at some grass beside her legs.

"In the end, Tora moved in with Raion, saying that with 21 she could handle her decisions and live on her own. That finally broke the bond your grandfather had obtained with the Kagami tribe, because Masahiro was certain that Raion somehow had used underhanded methods to get Tora to live with him. They never were very friendly with each other to begin with, since they often got compared to each other and had a lot of fights over the few years we held onto the peace."

Her face grew wistful. Daiki hadn't uttered a word since she began talking, but he knew that now would come the part, which his brother had mentioned to him. "After one year of ups and downs and lots of horrible fights between the clans, we got the news that Tora was pregnant. I was happy for her and finally my complains and reasonings reached your father. He somehow calmed down and once he saw how happy his sister looked caressing her growing belly, he laid low with accusing Raion further. When the due time for the child approached, I often visited her and I can assure you, she was as happy as one could get with thick feet and a hurting back. But on the day of the childbirth, a massive storm was coming up and Masahiro forbid that I go to her. In the end she delivered a healthy son, but her bleeding couldn't be stopped and so we lost her on the childbed. You father couldn't believe it, since Tora was always healthy and no explanation could bring him away from the insane idea that the Kagami's had killed her."

She looked at him and wiped his dark-blue bangs out of his face. "It is stupid, I know. But nothing can make him change his mind. But maybe, if he would meet Tora's son, he would understand how happy she was and finally bury his prejudices. You met him, right? Taiga. He is Tora's son." He had nodded, with a slight blush creeping up his cheeks upon hearing the redheads name, but his mother didn't pry deeper into him. She patted and ruffled his hair, "Think about it and when you have heard your fathers version, you can decide what you want to do. You only have one life, Daiki. Decide wisely how you want to live it." Then she got back to Satsuki and gave him time to digest what he just had heard.

Daiki looked up as the sun rose and squinted his eyes at the bright light. He already had come a long way and hoped, that soon would reach the spot where he was meant to meet with the redhead. But first he needed something to eat and a little rest.

He had tugged the small waterproof package from his mother behind his leather belt and now, after opening it, he suddenly knew that not only Tetsu and her were involved in his escape. Inside the wrapper, he found some chewy sweet crackers, most likely made by the purple giant. Satsuki had drawn him a map, with which he couldn't do anything at the moment, since he didn't recognized the pictured surroundings. But knowing her great intell, it would come in handy later. His mother had put in some healing salve, since she knew how careless he could be. His eyebrows drew together when he reached for the last thing. This could only be from Shintarou. Who else would think that a leather band with red and blue stones, would help him on his journey.

Shrugging he put the band around his wrist and ate one of the crackers. His mind wandered to his father. He really respected him, but after he had heard his side of the story, Daiki once more knew how stubborn his old man could be.

"Did your mother tell you the bittersweet story of my sisters death?", was the first thing he got asked, when he had approached his father. "I can tell you, that it's crap. She only sees it in a rose colored light, because she thinks it involves love." His father spat to the ground and glared at him. "Now I will tell you what really happened.", he growled and stabbed his knife into the ground. "When Tora meet this Kagami bastard and she accidentally wounded his arm, because he is simply too dumb to not run into an already drawn knife, I knew that this whole we-being-friends-with-them-thing, my father had in mind, wouldn't work out. Every single time he came to us, he insulted her, called her names and drove her into a corner. No matter how many times I warned him, he never heard the call. He began to harass her and not only with his words, if you get what I mean. It got so far, that he somehow managed to coax her into breaking things off with me, her only remaining family. I knew something was up, when she told me, that he wanted her to live with him. His smugly grinning face when he was parading around our village, told me everything I needed to know about that bastard. And no matter what I tried to hold her back, he still got his hands on her and swept her away. He even made me believe, that there was love, after I saw her happy face one time after she became pregnant with his bastard. But I tell you, that mask of fake love or whatever you may call it, soon wore off and the result was, that they let her bleed to death after she gave birth to his brood. They tore my family apart! You need to understand, that this tribe is rotten to the core and that I will not overlook you being friends with anyone of them." Irrepressible anger colored his fathers words and Daiki knew, that his mother was right. Nothing would change his fathers mind. Not even meeting Taiga in person.

Daiki snapped out of his reminiscing and stretched his body to let his joins snap back into place. After a short nap, in which red smoldering eyes followed him once again, he got up and back on his way, to finally see the those crimson eyes for real.

In the meantime, Taiga had also heard about the fall out with the Aomine clan. A mix of both stories, were told to him, added with the view of the Kagami's citizens. According to that, his father had fallen in love when he first laid his eyes on his mother. But continued quarrels with her brother, which was apparently the father of the tanned bluenette he couldn't get out of his mind, had let his own father made drastic measurements and eventually also his mother had enough and broke everything off with her adoptive family.

After hearing all that, he was glad that he hadn't told his father from which tribe Daiki was. It would have made everything even more complicated as it already were.

The time for his departure drew closer and he felt torn apart inside. Tatsuya was currently on the way to them, with his soon-to-be-bride, then the revelation of his mothers origins and the overwhelming need to see the smug blue-haired male again. It was too much for one day and he more than once clutched at his swirling head, thinking that he perhaps should try to clear things up before he left. Or should he even leave after all what he knew now? Maybe talking to his selfmade-brother would clear his suddenly present doubts and he could see clear again. Was it better for him to simply marry Masako and help the tribe to flourish? He liked his clan and even more his friends, but would that make him happy? Could he forget about the bluenette and move on? He didn't know. The only thing he currently was certain of, was that his friends still moved on with the plan they had made for him to meet Daiki again.

"Tai, are you ready? We got permission from your dad to go hunting. Kagetora will come with us. Couldn't get your old man to leave us youngsters alone." Taiga could formally see how Kazunari rolled his silver-blue eyes at that. He hesitated. Should I really do it? He wanted to see him, hear him and feel those tanned strong hands again. 'Urg ...', there really was no denying it, when his body instantly reacted to the thought of those callused fingers wandering over his skin. He was intoxicated by the bluenette and every moment longer without him hurt Taiga in the cruelest way possible.

"Coming.", he called out before he knew it and thus the decision was made. He would see the bluenette again and only thinking about it, let his blood flow faster through his veins.

TBC