YES I'M BACK! I'm sorry I took so long to get back on the horse but here is the next chapter. I'm sorry if there are a lot of mistakes but I wanted to get this to you guys as soon as I could. Thank you all for staying with me!

Chapter 6

Meetings and Bad Dreams

Sasha's death had been devastating, but we managed to work through it. It had been a little over two months since that had happened and Akashi and I had started at Teiko Junior High today. We were now at the basketball tryouts and they were deciding what to do with me. There was another girl, Momoi, who wanted to help with the team as well. I asked her about what we could do and she said we could work as managers as part of the team. She told me she would go were ever her friend Daiki went. It was the same for me and Akashi. By the end of the day, Akashi had made the first string along with three other new comers: Shintaro Midorima, Atsushi Murasakibara, and Daiki Aomine. I noticed another boy who had great potential, he had light blue hair and eyes. The days went by and the team began to form around the new comers. They overwhelmed everyone else and became the main players in the first string. They won game after game and continued to do so. Sei and I were still close and we were able to use that to our advantage. Momoi and I were made the managers of the first string and soon our talent for helping with strategy was taken to help with games. My and Sei's bond made that really easy. I would sit outside the court and we'd share a look, allowing him to know what I was thinking. He would then use his position as point guard to execute my plan. I analyzed our teams weaknesses and strengths and combined with Momoi's observation of our opponents, we could allow even the third string to crush their opponents. We even tried it, and succeeded. So combined with the first string team? We were destroying our weaker opponents. The stronger opponents were a little trickier because they leveled our first string skill and physical ability. Even with this though, we crushed our opponents at the National Championship and won.

I heard about the 'ghost' rumors, but I didn't believe them. I knew who it was. Tetsuya Kuroko. A third string member at the bottom of the group. He had an extremely low presence, but that wasn't able to hide him from me. I also knew that Aomine had started practicing with the pale boy. I was tempted to mention the blue haired male to Akashi when he said he wanted someone who could control the flow of the game, but I knew that wouldn't do any good. Akashi had to find him himself if Kuroko was to be approached by Sei. That moment came sooner than expected when we had to search for Aomine. When Sei, Murosakibara, Midorima, and I reached the third string gym, I was pleasantly surprised to see Kuroko holding a basketball and talking to the navy haired guy we were looking for.

"Why hello Aomine, Kuroko." I said with a smile. After an exchanging of words I finally heard what I had been dying to hear Sei say ever since he had his idea.

"Would the rest of you mind going back?" he said never taking his eyes off of the sky blue haired boy. "I want to talk to him for a bit." I hid my smile and grabbed Aomine's shirt and started pushing the three boys to the exit. "Shade?" I pushed the three out the doors and turned to look at my friend.

"Yes?"

"You should probably head home, I don't know how long this will take. Why don't you get Aomine to walk with you?" I sweat dropped.

"Fine, but you owe me now that your making me walk with the dork." He gave a smile.

"I'll see you in a bit." I gave a nod

"Be careful on the way home, Sei."

"Don't worry so much, I'll call my driver." I nodded and walked out the door smiling. I grabbed Aomine's ear and started walking away.

"See you two tomorrow." I said back to the two shocked players. Apparently they weren't aware of Seijuro and my living arrangement.

"Ow, ow, ow! What the hell Winter!" He yelled

"You heard, Seijuro asked you to walk me home."

"Where the hell do you even live?"

"The Akashi residence. You know where that is, right? You've all been there before."

"So that's why you never left..." he muttered. I smacked him upside the head.

"Why do you think I stayed! Did you think we were screwing of something?" I yelled

"No! At least not exactly..." he muttered

"You're an idiot..." I muttered walking away. When he realized I was leaving he quickly ran to catch up.

"So long have you and Akashi known each other?"

"Are we talking total time or time since the first day?"

"Both?"

"We've known each other since we were in second grade. I was only there for one and very little of a second day before I had to leave. I came back shortly before the summer break and his mother took me into the family. I've been living there since."

"Why not with your family?" I froze.

"They died." I said after a second

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Don't be..." I muttered

"If you don't mind me asking. how did they die?"

"My dad accidentally shot my mom and when he ran I was told he was shot by the cops. Don't be sorry about their deaths. They were horrible people."

"Were you there when your mom was shot?"

"...Yes."

"Then I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Thank you Aomine, you can show that you're not an idiot sometimes. We're here by the way." I said turning to face him. He nodded.

"One more thing, if you don't mind."

"What is it?"

"You said your parents weren't good people, why?" I looked away.

"That's a story for another time." He gave a nod.

"See you tomorrow, Winter."

"You can call me Shade if you want. I don't care. I lived in America for a while so I'm used to both."

"Then see you tomorrow, Shade."

"See you tomorrow, Daiki." He smiled, waved, then left. I turned and walked up to the house and through the door.

"Dad?" I yelled "I home!" I slipped off my shoes. He came down the stairs looking at some paper work.

"Good, just in time for dinner. Where's Seijuro?"

"He was finishing up some stuff at school, he said he would call the driver as soon as he was done." He gave a nod and walked towards the dinning room. I walked over to the staircase in front of the doors and sat down to wait for Sei. I leaned my head against the railing and closed my eyes, eventually falling asleep.

I woke up to someone lightly shaking my arm. I blinked my eyes a few times and realized it was Sei.

"Why hello there, what's up friend?" I mumbled

Sei rolled his eyes and helped me stand up. "Come on silly, let's go get something to eat." I nodded and followed him as he took my hand and led me to the kitchen. We talked for a while as we ate and then we took our showers and went to sleep. I didn't stay asleep for long. Memories from my past kept flashing behind my closed eye lids and all the words they had spoken were resurfacing in my head.

'You're such a bitch, you should just die already.'

'Slut, you enjoy having them stare at you everyday don't you. I bet they'd help us with your treatments if they knew what a freak you were.'

'Freak! It's unnatural to be able to do that!'

'You're so annoying, why don't you just leave forever and die. No one would miss you!'

I woke up and sat up quickly, crying. I rubbed my arms where I had carved those words and many more along with the lines. I had carved them so many times that they had become a part of me, even if I never showed it. I was afraid that I was what the words said. I quickly got out of bed and ran towards the bathroom and searched for something sharp. When I finally found what I was looking for, I sat next to the bathtub and carved three words into my arm

YOU ARE USELESS

I walked over to the sink and watched as the water turned red with my blood. Sasha had seen some of my previous scars, but she hadn't see all of them and she didn't fully understand the reason behind them. I carved the words into my body because it helped nullify the blow when ever I was called one of those names or were told something. It was like my own little shield that had holes. They helped me hid behind a blank face when ever I ran into someone who was like that. At least that's what I told myself.

When what I just did finally hit me I slid down the wall with a white towel over the marks and started sobbing. After a while I stood up and slowly made my way to Sei's room. For the first time in a long time I knocked on his door. I heard shuffling and after a few seconds the door opened. Sei was rubbing his eye and froze when he saw me.

"Shade, what's wrong?"

"Can I come in?" He nodded silently and closed the door after I sat down at the top of his bed, keeping the towel tightly wrapped around my arm so blood didn't get anywhere. He came over at sat in front of me, noticing the towel and how some red was starting to seep through.

"Shade? What's wrong with your arm?" I started crying again as I held out my arm to him. He carefully unwrapped the towel and gasped when he saw the blood. The blood had spread so you couldn't see the words, but I knew he would see them soon. He quickly ran and got the first aid kit and started treating my wounds. When all the blood was cleaned up he saw the words and his eyes widened. He quickly turned my arms around and saw the other words.

"Why would you do this to yourself?" he asked. I looked down and shook my head, still crying. He took my hands and held them. He took one of my arms "You are not useless, I need you everyday. If you weren't here I have no idea what I would do to stop myself from going insane." he leaned down and kissed my new marks. "You are not annoying in a bad way. I love it when you are because you always do it to piss some one off." He laughed and kissed that mark. "You are not a bitch. You can be bitchy when you're angry or to someone you don't like but you are not a bitch." he kissed that mark. "You aren't a freak, weird yes, but not a freak. I love your weirdness. You wouldn't be you if you weren't weird." Again, he kissed that mark. "You are no slut. What those people made you do does not make you a slut. You're kind and loyal. I know you would never do anything like that." He kissed the mark. "And you never need to die. If you died, I would have to follow" He gave a forced smile. "You have become such a huge part of my life, I don't know what I would do without you." He kiss the mark and then put his forehead on my shoulder.

"You are the most amazing person I have met and I will always be there for you. So don't hurt yourself anymore. Dad's going on a business trip tomorrow so let's stay home, okay?" I gave a small nod. He wrapped up my arm and pulled me down in his arms so we were laying down. I closed my eyes and started falling asleep. Right before the blackness took me, I heard Sei whisper in my ear.

"You are beautiful."

I know it was a little on the short side but what the hell. Thank you all for staying with me even through my disappearance. And thank you all for doing stuff on the last chapter. If you did anything I'll try and PM you.

Also, for all you K-Pop fans. I have a few story idea's for some of the artists if you are interested. If you are, PM me an artist, song, and/or specific person.

Again, thank you all. I love you guys!