So, back from vacation :D Here is the next chapter and we are nearing the end … I think xD I hope you still enjoy the stupidness. Have fun!
Language: English is not my first language.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke or any of its characters.
Chapter 31
Gleeful laughter echoed through the jungle. A certain black-red-haired male was holding his belly with both of his hands and couldn't stop the laughing fit he currently had. On the receiving end of it sat a puzzled looking, tanned guy in the middle of a nettle field. "Oh my god … bwhahahaha … you're so stupid! I can't believe it! Baha." Wiping tears from his eyes, the redhead tried to catch his breath, but started giggling all over again when his blurry vision gave sight to the bluenette.
"Shut the fuck up!" Daiki snarled, an annoyed expression now painted on his face. He rose to his feet and brushed some remaining leaves from his stinging ass. "Do you always take your piss like that? Ass first in the nettles?" Chuckling, Taiga rose his eyebrows and smirked at the grouchy bluenette. "Yeah, got a problem with it?" Daiki barked back and stomped past the cackling redhead.
"As if!", Taiga snorted and followed suite after the seething man. He would never forget the stupefied expression on Daiki's face, with eyes as big as a stone-cartwheel. Now he had something to tease the other with and a smug grin plastered to his lips. He grabbed the overhang of the bluenette's loincloths and held it up to get a better look at his butt. And what a beautiful butt he had. As red as a baboon's ass. "Pffffffrt~" Taiga really tried to suppress it - yeah, not really - and fast took a few steps back, as the tanned male swirled around to slap his hand away. "Stay the fuck away, you traitor. Is that how you show your love for me?" Daiki's voice was snarling like always, but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He couldn't stay mad at the redhead. Not when he showed him the most captivating expression, he had ever seen - in addition to his face when he came while screaming his name, to be understood. Taiga's sunny smile and the mirth radiating from his glittering eyes, did beautiful cruel things to Daiki's stomach and he finally gave it up. With a slightly cruel smirk to his lips, he took a step towards the redhead, "You wanna try it?" His voice dropped to a dangerously deep growl, as he leaned down and plugged a huge nettel from the ground.
"Huh?" Instantly the laughter stopped and Taiga eyed warily the huge plant in Daiki's hand. "You wouldn't!" Feeling challenged by this sudden threat, he got into a defensive stance. "Oh hell, I would. Payback, for laughing at me." Snapping his wrist, the bluenette shot forward in attempt to swat the nettle over the redhead's torso. But Taiga would have nothing of it. Even before the Aomine's guy could react, he leaped backwards away, sailing through the air like a bird, and came to his feet a few meters away. A feral smile on his lips and a childishly shown tongue later, he spun on his heels and dashed into the underwood, screaming, "Try me!" with a joyful voice. Daiki's smirk deepened as he took off after his wild cat, nettle still clutched tight in his burning hand. But his stinging body parts didn't matter any longer. He was out to catch a tiger and wouldn't give up until the guy would answer his earlier question.
It was now over a week that Daiki and Taiga were gone. The threat of the Aomine tribe was off the table, which still was hard to believe, seeing how Raion and Masahiro clashed every time they laid eyes on each other. After three days of this, they got ignored by everyone from their tribes. Even Hiruna had given it up to go in between them or lecture her husband. The worry over her son and nephew was more vivid in her system than the stolidness of both chieftains.
The youngsters tried to live with the idea, that both idiots were sound and save or distracted themselves otherwise from dark thoughts. Riko and Junpei had themselves chosen, to get behind Teppei's more often occurring mysterious disappearances. With no result so far. Satsuki played the bill and coo with Seijuurou all day, which got her the rolled eyes of a annoyed greenette, who still tried to claim his first victory in a shogi match against the magenta-haired male. Kazunari found a new friend in Tetsuya, much to Ryouta's dismay, who still got ignored by the light-blue-haired guy. Tatsuya found it amusing to feed Atsushi and dragged him all over the place, which surprised the ones who knew the purplenette, because the guy was normally a lazy bum.
The rain still fell heavily from time to time. But it wasn't as severe as a few days back. Some of the Aomine clan's men had gone back home to inform the rest of their tribe, that now everything was over. The rest stayed with their chieftain, even if he drove them nuts. He currently was entangled in a heated discussion with Raion, if a bow or a spear was better for hunting. Hiruna only shook her head and sent an apologetic look to her clan's men. They got caught up in the middle and were ordered to demonstrate both weapons in a - friendly? - competition against the Kagami tribe's men.
"Isn't it fine like this?" Oha-Asa's voice rang out behind her and the smaller woman stepped to Hiruna's side, watching the men with a toothy grin. "Yes, it's much better than before. But still … how can two grown up men be this … childish?" Shrugging Oha-Asa laid a hand on Hiruna's arm, "They both are good men and so are their children. I guess we will see them soon." She watched the old woman close. "Can you really predict the future?" Her curiosity was sparked and she lead her to a near bonfire to sit down. "Haha. Yes, sometimes. If it lets me, that is. You know, having this kind of foreseeing ability is not always a good thing. Sometimes I don't want to see things, but still I see it, if I want or not. And then there are things I can't change or warn about. In the beginning it was hard to learn that I can't always help and that I shouldn't under normal circumstances. But with time I learned to live with it and that's it." She took one stripe of salted meat from a tray and chewed ruminating. "It's fascinating. Where you born with it?" Hiruna sat down, took a bit from the soup which was held warm over the fire and hummed in approval over the taste. "Yes. It's somehow funny that out of all my siblings, I was the one who inherited it from our father. But maybe that was also fates plan." She winked at Hiruna and then raised one of her eyebrows.
A small child, with black hair and orange eyes had just fallen face first into a mud puddle and simply laid there. Small muddy bubbles appeared beside its face as it squirmed around. "Ako-chan!" Huge hands grabbed the kid around its waist and lifted it high up. "There you go again. Your mom will scold me, you know." Ako giggled and slapped her dirty hands on both of Teppei's cheeks. "Yeah yeah. Come we will clean you up before she notices." Teppei smiled and sat Ako-chan on his shoulders, before he walked away.
"Hm, that was interesting." Oha-Asa took out her smoke pipe, stuffed and lit it before she inhaled deeply. "What was?" Hiruna hadn't noticed what just took place and shot her a quizzical look. "Oh, nothing. Just something new to predict." The old woman grinned and puffed out some white smoke, leaving the Aomine chieftainess in the dark.
"Tetsu-chin, give me the berries. No, not this one. The green ones." Atsushi pointed with his long finger to a small basket with weird looking green berries and glanced annoyed at the light-blue-haired male. "You really are worthless with that. Where is Tatsu-chin when I need him?" The purplenette sighed and took the basket Tetsuya handed him. "You are rude Atsushi. Be a bit more grateful that he helps you out." The black-haired male with the olive-green eyes popped out behind him and patted the giants head. He brushed his bangs from his left eye, "I'm sorry Tetsuya, it took me longer than I thought to get the remaining ingredients. Here you go, Atsushi." He handed a bladder filled with milk and some eggs to the tall man. "That's Tatsu-chin for you. Learn some from him." Tetsuya's winter-eyes stared unwavering at the purple-haired male and then applied to Tatsuya. "I'm used to it, but wonder that you get along so well with him. It's a first." He watched as the raven-haired male pouring little spurts of flour into Atsushi's mixture while the giant kneaded it thoroughly. "Ahaha, I don't know, but I find his behaviour somehow adorable. It reminds me of Ako-chan." Tetsuya raised one of his fine eyebrows, but swallowed his comment on that. Atsushi-kun and adorable, wasn't something that got well together in his mind.
"Tetsucchi~ where are you?" Scrunching his small nose, Tetsuya looked over his shoulder in search from where Ryouta's voice was coming. "I'm sorry, Atsushi-kun, Tatsuya-kun, but I need to go. See you.", and with that he vanished. The raven had a puzzled look on his face, certainly not used to such a magical trick, but Atsushi just grunted and nudged him at his elbow to get his attention back to the dough. "That's normal for him. You'll get used to it." Shortly after, a completely out of breath Ryouta appeared. "Nee~ nee~, have you two seen Tetsucchi? I searched all morning for him, but he kinda vanishes every time I get a glimpse of him." The giant gifted the blonde with a bored look. "Doesn't it mean, that he doesn't like to be found by you?"
"Atsushi!", Tatsuya scolded and gave the crestfallen golden-haired boy an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Ryouta. He was just here, but I don't know where he has gone to." Hanging his head, Ryouta sighed, "I'm really not well liked by him, huh?" He wiped his forearm over his eyes and began to walk away. "I wouldn't say that." The purplenette mused suddenly, letting the blonde spin on his heels. "Really!?" A glint of hope creeped up over his face and emphasized the beauty the man held. "Hm hm … he has gone that way." Pointing his long finger in the direction to where the light-blue-haired male had vanished, he looked up at the noisy male. "Even you should be able to track his foot prints in this muddy ground, baka~." Ignoring the new insult, Ryouta thanked the purplenette and was gone with the wind. "You really are rude Atsushi, but kind at the same time." Tatsuya showed an amused smile to the huffing male. "But how do you know that Tetsuya likes him?" Pulling his huge hand out of the dough, Atsushi rolled his eyes. "Moa~ Tatsu-chin, it's easy to tell. His deadpan face only shows a reaction when Ryou-chin is near. What are you, blind?" He scraped the dough into a flat clay bowl and began to put the green berries on top. "Now open the oven." Tatsuya wasn't completely convinced, but removed the wooden shield from the clay ovens opening without brooding further over the issue.
"Seijuurou, look what Junpei did to my hair!" Satsuki spun on the spot and showed her beautiful braided hair, which was decorated with small yellow flowers to the magenta-haired male. "That looks good on you. I like it." Seijuurou smiled and held out his hand for her to take it. He pulled her close and coaxed her to sit beside him, while he made another brilliant move on the shogi board. "It's your loss again, Shintarou." The triumphant glint in his dual-colored eyes, let a vein pop at the greenette's temple. "How?" He was lost for words and stared angrily, reminiscing his last moves, at the play board. "Ahahaha, Shin-chan that was a nice round, but you took the wrong turn too early in the game." Kazunari giggled and showed a gleeful grin to the fuming greenette. "You could have said so." Shintarou quacked out and shot daggers at the raven with his green eyes. "No, that would be cheating and you don't cheat, Shin-chan. You aren't that kind of man." The taller male cracked an eyebrow in annoyance, "And you know that so well, nanodayo?"
"Yepp, I would say I know that very well." Kazunari got up from his spot and limped over to the greenette. His calloused fingertips ghosted over the cream colored skin on the green-haired males shoulders, before he walked over to Riko who waved at him.
Shintarou looked, with concern riding high in his eyes, after the raven-haired male. His limping was very prominent these days. The rainy season always a threat to people with injuries as severe as the silver-eyed male had. "You're worried about him." It was a statement, not a question what the magenta-haired man opposite him mused out. "Shintorin, you don't need to worry so much. Kazurin is careful. His injury will never heal completely, but he knows how to deal with it." Satsuki gifted him with a loving smile and leaned blissfully further into Seijuurou's warm embrace. "I'm not concerned about him. Don't make assumptions." He got up and despite his words, took a step into Kazunari's direction. "We will rematch later, Seijuurou. Next time victory will be mine." He snatched his waist-bag from the ground and walked over to where the raven-haired male was busy talking with Riko.
"He loves him very dearly. Only needs to admit it to himself." Satsuki sighed and crossed her fingers with Seijuurou's. The slim man agreed with a nod and a smile tugged at his lips. "But not as dearly as I love you." Her feverous blush deepened his smile and he placed a kiss on her vertex.
"Tetsucchi, moa~ stop hiding from me. I have something I want to show you." Ryouta was out of breath and supported himself with one hand on a tree, while taking in long drags of air. He felt like he was playing tag with the shorter male. It was exhausting, but somehow fun at the same time - in the beginning. Now it tugged on his heartstrings and let him think, that the smaller male really didn't liked him. He plummeted against the tree and slipped down, head hanging between his knees. Crossing his fingers behind his head, he looked down to the ground and sighed heavily.
He was known to get overboard without reason almost all the time, but now it had a cogent reason. Ryouta, for the first time in his life, had fallen completely and utterly in love. And the object of his longing, always slipped through his fingers by an inche, like water through a holey jar. He was at his wits end, but giving up was not an option.
Looking up, he flinched heavily and shrieked at the sight of Tetsuya standing right in front of him. Winter-eyes peered down on him with slight interest dancing in the normally unwavered depths. "What do you want to show me, Ryouta-kun?" Hearing the gravely sigh of the blonde, had lured him out from his hiding spot behind the tree trunk and his interest was piqued for the reason the blonde had chased him all morning.
"Since when?" Ryouta couldn't believe that the Aomine's guy appeared out of thin air and looked at him with wide eyes, shaken to the core. "I was here since a while." Tetsuya deadpanned and was about to walk away, when the taller man didn't answer his question. "Wait wait!" Warm fingers clutched tight around his slender wrist and watery golden puppy eyes peered pleading up at him. "What now?" His voice was cold and Ryouta flinched, but didn't let go. "I found an entrance. It's only a small march from here. Will you come with me?"
"Uhm … you mean to the cave where Daiki-kun and Taiga-kun are?" This let the light-blue-haired male prick up his ears. "Yeah, I think so." Fiercely nodding, Ryouta came to his feet. His hand wandered from Tetsuya's wrist to his hand and he clutched tight, pulling the small man with him. "This way."
When Tetsuya didn't fluked out of their hand holding, Ryouta's calming heartbeat picked up again and was thundering with delight. Maybe, just maybe the smaller man had a liking to him and this was something he could work with. 'Better than nothing.', he thought and held the smaller hand lightly, to not coax an unwanted rejection.
Tetsuya was surprised himself that he followed the blonde male. First he had wanted to withdraw his hand, but seeing the malicious joy in the other man's eyes let him decide otherwise. The bouncing feathers in his golden hair and the relieved smile stretched over Ryouta's too beautiful face, let him smile. Before the blonde male could notice though, he reverted back to his expressionless, normal state. It wasn't in his aim to encourage the noisy male even further. Letting him hold his hand was enough for the moment.
After walking in a kinda zick-zack line through the jungle for a while, he couldn't suppress his growing annoyance. "Ryouta-kun, do you even know where you need to go? This doesn't seem like a normal route to me." He tugged at the blonde's hand, to try and make him stop. The clutch to his fingers grew tighter, "Yeah, I know where to go. Trust me … uhm, I only follow how I walked before." Golden eyes peered back at him and a reassuring smile ghosted over the taller man's face. "I'm bewildered that you lived up until today, considering that your way of walking is so messed up."
"Ahw~ Tetsucchi that was mean. I walk normally." Ryouta pouted and took another unreasonable turn on the path. "See! Here we are." Stopping in his tracks, he spun around in one sleek move and nearly caused Tetsuya to bump into him. "Caution!" Both of his hands shot up to intercept the smaller man's stumbling, clutching tight around his lean shoulders. A loving smile bloomed from his lips, as he glanced down into upset winter-eyes. "You could have warned me in advance. It's unpleasant if you suddenly stop like this." Tetsuya declared and took a step back. His reasoning wasn't even comprehensible to himself, but the blonde didn't seem to mind. "Small details. But look here!" Ryouta crouched down and removed some of the long lianas, who hide a small hole in the stone wall. "I crawled a bit into it earlier. It get's wider the further you go and opens up to a small cave. There are two more exits, so I thought I would rather show you first, before I get lost in there." He grinned over his shoulder with dancing eyes, almost as if he was waiting to be praised.
Tetsuya quirked an eyebrow and the image of a proud puppy popped up in his head. Before he could shove the picture aside, his hand stroked already through soft, blonde hair, patting the perplexed guy's head. "Good work, Ryouta-kun. It was a wise decision to not go further into it without telling someone first." He unnoticed smiled at the gaping man and unexpectedly he was the one with a nonplussed expression on his face.
Clutched tight to a strong, golden tanned chest, he felt a hot breath ghost against his shoulder. "Tetsucchi." Ryouta's voice had involuntarily dropped lower at the contact of their bodies. He wanted to hold him always close like this, what would make moving troublesome but still, he had the need to feel the soft skin of the other against his own. Guided by his overwhelming need, he pressed his hot lips against the bend of Tetsuya's neck. The younger male stiffened in his arms and soon he found himself on the ground, groaning in pain after a small fist connected hard with his abs and send him flying. "I would advise you to refrain from doing that in the future. I don't appreciate to get manhandled." In his winter-blue eyes danced an ice storm and Ryouta felt a shiver of fear running down his spine. "I'm sorry, Tetsucchi. I didn't think straight for a moment." His mumbled apology was quiet, as he rubbed his hand over the abused spot. "That would be correct. There was nothing straight in this." The light-blue-haired male deadpanned and was already on the way back to the camp.
Looking like a drowned puppy, with a hanging head and sad eyes, Ryouta got to his feet to follow the ice prince. That had he prettily messed up. All hope to get closer to the small man was gone and his heart hurt like it was spiked by thorns. "Ask me next time, before you do something." The advice was spoken in an almost cheerful manner and the blonde snapped his eyes up. But Tetsuya was already gone, leaving behind a flabbergasted Ryouta, whose heart tried to spring out of his chest by beating an hour per mile.
"Tetsucchi~~~!" The blonde's complaining wail echoed loud and clear through the underwood and conjured a small smile to Tetsuya's lips.
TBC