Akashi Seijuro is a puzzle. Akashi Seijuro is a brat. But a puzzle all the same. He confuses Kuroko. Annoys the living hell out of him, too, but yet, intrigues him.

Most people were easy enough to decipher, Kuroko muses, but most people didn't build walls twenty feet high and growing, either. Akashi did.

The few times he lowered his walls enough for Kuroko to flash a cursory glance into Akashi's life were rare, yet Kuroko felt that every time he sneaked a glance, he felt a growing urge to stare longer, to fully enjoy it.

That proved a difficult task when Akashi never let his guard down too long, or too often. The next morning, he was back to his snide, sardonic self, and perhaps, even worse. As if to retaliate for bombarding him with so many questions the other day, Akashi had spent the rest of the morning finding entertainment in mocking and picking apart everything about Kuroko, picking right down his seams. Ugly, he had said, at first glance, and then as a second thought, a slew of demeaning adjectives followed, among them: clumsy, a hindrance, incompetent, unseemly, and weak. The words had stung and left jabs among old, sore wounds but Kuroko had ignored it, mustering through Akashi's mockery. The only solace he had was that Akashi, at least, had a different side to him. A small solace, at that, but yet.

After the morning, Kuroko had spent the rest of the day evading Akashi, flipping through books with little interest in anger and annoyance, his thoughts elsewhere when he tried to read bits of the novels. He eventually stood up, deciding that it would be good for him to get some fresh air and that he'd bike to Ogiwara's house, only to pull his bike out of the dusty shed and realize, with growing irritation and decisiveness that the whole universe enjoyed seeing him suffer, that his bike tires were regrettably, flat, and the bike pump, nowhere in sight.

So he was stuck in his house become hell-hole, sulking on his couch.

Don't sink to his level, Tetsuya, Kuroko had thought silently when Akashi brushed past him and Kuroko felt a surge of anger again, wanting to hurl a dozen unpleasantries right back at the redhead himself, so he'd know how it felt, if his ego allowed him to feel anything at all. He only barely refrains himself from doing so. So he bit his lip, gnashing his teeth as Akashi poured himself a glass of water and went straight back upstairs, not sparing Kuroko a second glance.

The hours ticked by slowly and Kuroko thought at this rate, he was either doomed to die from Akashi's narcissistic behavior or from boredom itself.

"Now, now, you two, the house can't possibly be this quiet when there are two seventeen year old boys here!" Kuroko's mom had finally shouted from the study, peeking her head out to give Kuroko a warning look when the two boys still made no sign of attempting to spark conversation with each other. Kuroko weighs his two options: complain and moan 'but mooooom' or try to play along nicely with Akashi yet again - to suffer from boredom or get suffocated by Akashi's ego, more like - so that his mother would think he was treating his guest the right way. I am, Kuroko thinks bitterly, it's just that the guest is treating me rudely.

All the complications in the world and Akashi Seijuro was definitely one of the most complicated.

Kuroko stomps up the stairs, flings open the door to the room Akashi was currently in. The redhead doesn't spare him a glance and barely gives any indication that he's surprised by Kuroko's sudden appearance. It's then that Kuroko remembers that he doesn't quite have a plan about how to play nice with Akashi, or an idea about what they should be doing so he throws out the first idea that comes into his mind.

"Let's go horseback riding," he blurts out and Akash finally looks up from his screen, heterochromatic eyes widening by a fraction, something lighting up in them as he looks up, nods, slides off the bed and leaves his phone on the mattress.

"This one is Kimiko," Kuroko introduces, leading the reins of an elegant black horse out of the stalls. She whinnies and Kuroko pats her nose in return. "This one is Saru," he says, taking the reins of a powerful, large white horse who resists against Kuroko's attempts to lead it out from it's stables. "He's a feisty one, so you can ride Kimiko-"

"I'll ride Saru," Akashi interjects confidently, stepping forward despite Kuroko's indignant squawks of protests and all but wrestling the reins out of Kuroko's grasp. Akashi reaches a gentle hand - more gentle than anything else Kuroko had ever seen him handle - out to stroke the horse's muzzle, murmuring soothing words of reassurance. Saru slowly relaxes, his tail swishing in content as he neighs and follows Akashi's lead out of the stable, the redhead wearing a smug look. Kuroko huffs, looking away, clearly sour about being one upped about a guest being able to tame Saru better than anyone in their family ever had.

Kuroko walks over to a storage bin, pulling out two saddles and fixing them to the horses' back and muzzle. Akashi seemed to be getting along with Saru rather well. He pats the horse and the horse nuzzles his cheek in return, eliciting a quiet, musical laugh from Akashi, much to Kuroko's surprise. He thought that with Akashi's behavior, the redhead could very well go the entire summer without breaking a real smile; one that wasn't there to jeer at Kuroko. Saru didn't resist when Akashi had saddled up either, instead letting out a quiet bray when Akashi pats the horse again. With annoyance, Kuroko remembers how Saru had nearly thrown him off his back when he had first tried to ride the horse and Kuroko had raised Saru himself ever since he had been a foal.

"I hope he bucks and throws you off," Kuroko mutters, disgruntled as he saddles up onto Kimiko himself. He takes the reins and pats Kimiko's neck, signaling for her to trot out of the barn. Akashi follows close behind and he looks right at home on a horse with his perfect posture and easy-going expression. Kuroko guesses that he did ride his horse back home a lot, after all. When they exit the barn and enter the clearing, Kuroko taps his heel on Kimiko's side and Kimiko enters a trot, travelling around the large expanse of backyard, hooves pounding the dirt. He hears a small whoop of joy from behind him and turns his head in surprise to see Akashi tapping his heel to Saru's side and entering a fast paced gallop, surging past Kuroko. He sticks his tongue out at the blue haired boy as he passes and Kuroko felt playful indignation rise in his chest. He taps his heel at Kimiko's side once again, urging her to go faster, in retaliation, and catches up to Akashi in a matter of a seconds, laughing as the summer wind blew over his face, pushing his hair back, remembering the elation of feeling free. Akashi wore a genuine grin on his face as he guided Saru around, silently racing Kuroko to laps around the backyard. They're laughing and giggling as they shout words of challenge and shoot each other smug glances when they took the lead. Hearts pounding, hooves thundering and wind whistling in their ears, they race around in a large circle around the open backyard, through the yellow wild grass, circling around the trees and around the outside of the barn.

Akashi overtakes Kuroko every lap and as their horses slow into a trot once again, Kuroko protests that it was only because Saru had always been faster than Kimiko. His heart's pumping with adrenaline, his hair now disheveled and wind-blown.

"That was fun," Akashi says, eyes gleaming, as he runs a hand through his hair, trying to fix his wind blown locks.

"It was," Kuroko agrees and he realizes, that for the past few hours, he and Akashi had been entirely at ease with each other, laughing with the wind and playfully challenging each other and forgetting all their previous bitter feelings.

It had been nice. Much nicer than being at odds with Akashi was.

"You know," Akashi says conversationally as they lead the horses back into the stable and Akashi helps Kuroko refill the horses' water tank. "You...," he trails off and looks off to the side in slight embarrassment, "you're not so bad after all."

It's not by any means, an apology, and certainly not enough to make up for the words Akashi had said to him in the morning, but Kuroko takes it.

It was another introspective glimpse into Akashi, so short lived, but breathtaking, intriguing, and frustrating at the same time.

It's later Kuroko realizes that that was the first time Akashi had genuinely laughed at something. His musical, innocent laughter that sparked from joy was much more pleasant than the snarky, snickering one he used when he pointed out Kuroko's flaws. Akashi's nicer to him again, ceasing his arbitrary insults, though he can't quite seem to refrain from taunting and jabbing at Kuroko at times he slipped up. Kuroko finds no way to retaliate: everything the redhead seemed to do bordered near utter perfection he had never seen before, much less able to match. At least he wasn't all talk. It intimated Kuroko; if Akashi was a lion, Kuroko was a mere house cat and the difference in how they held themselves was more than enough than Akashi's jibes to remind Kuroko just how vastly different they were.

But in the next week after their horseback riding, Kuroko's pleased to find that Akashi had grown almost near bearable. At least, he's stopped calling Kuroko's names and allowed him to ask a few questions here and there, which he'd humor with answers, but if anything ventured too personal, he'd clam right up, shutting Kuroko out. I guess he's the kind of person who needs a long time to trust someone, Kuroko muses. He tells Akashi a few things about himself in exchange, like how he didn't like the city very much, liked vanilla milkshakes, and basketball.

"You play basketball?" Akashi asks, his eyes lit with fervor at the mention of the word 'basketball' just like how he had with 'horsebacking' - Kuroko called them Akashi's inner nerd words - and he peers at Kuroko curiously.

"Y-yeah," Kuroko mumbles. He's not very good and neither is his team, but they all love basketball and that's enough for all of them. They had once asked Kagami to play for their team as well, but Kagami had rejected their offer awkwardly, telling them he was already in another team in the city. He had graciously left out the word 'better' so as to cushion their crushed spirits but they knew the implications and after all, Kagami deserved to be on a better team. "Do you play too?"

"Yes," Akashi says, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Are you any good? Is there anywhere around here to play basketball?"

So basketball is something he truly loves, Kuroko surmises. He should have guessed Akashi did at least one sport with his athletic build, but he hadn't guessed it'd be a sport they shared a love for.

"Uh...well the courts are kind of far, but there are some at my school," Kuroko says. "And I'm...okay, at basketball. What about you?"

"I'm good," Akashi brags, his words confident unlike Kuroko's faltering own and Kuroko has no doubt that he is. "My team wins nationals a lot."

"Oh. That must be amazing," Kuroko says wistfully. He had always dreamt of being able to play in the brightly lit stadium full of cheering crowds and shiny courts at nationals, but of course, his aspirations were far from possible with his current level of basketball. "What position do you play?"

"Point guard," Akashi replies nonchalantly. "I'm also captain of the team." Kuroko gapes at this, even though he shouldn't have been surprised at all. It was pathetically easy to see Akashi as the playmaker who'd control the game and even more so to imagine a number four emblazoned upon the back of his jersey. Akashi belonged to one of those teams that could crush Kuroko's own underfoot by over a hundred points and not even break a sweat. It set flames of anger, admiration, and envy in Kuroko's chest all at once.

"We, uh, we could play sometime if you want," Kuroko offers, suddenly feeling very shy. To his relief, Akashi responds positively, nodding his head in agreement.

"I'd like that," he hums.

For the first time, Kuroko finds that he'd woken up later than Akashi. The latter had already showered and changed leaving Kuroko to slide out of bed groggily and run a hand through his tangled locks. He picks up his hairbrush and tries in vain to comb through his bed hair, but the brush continues to get caught in tangles, Kuroko wincing as he tried to pull his brush free. He feels a presence come up behind him, and a hand plucks the brush out of Kuroko's own impatiently.

"You're hopeless. Let me do it," Akashi murmurs, his voice deep and still slightly hoarse from the early morning. It sends a shiver up Kuroko's spine. Akashi has Kuroko sit down on the chair and places his hand on Kuroko's shoulder to stabilize him as he uses the brush to pull through a particularly nasty tangle, Kuroko letting a mewl of protest from the pain of his hair being pulled so violently. He was never used to being this rough on his hair.

"Please don't be so rough, Akashi-kun," Kuroko says in discomfort. Akashi flicks the back of his head.

"Don't complain. This is the only way to get rid of all the tangles in your unruly hair," he tsks, pulling another tangle free. The process continues with Kuroko's whining and Akashi's reprimanding about the awful care Kuroko took of his hair until the former's scalp ached but his blue locks were finally tangle free and soft.

"There," Akashi says, putting down the brush. "You're welcome."

They walk down to breakfast and Kuroko's mother's eyes widen in surprise at the sight.

"I'm not sure if I'm more surprised that the two of you came down to breakfast together for the first time or the fact that Tecchan's hair is properly combed," she says, impressed. She sets down the plate of pancakes and runs a hand through Kuroko's hair. "It's tangle free!" she exclaims.

"Akashi-kun helped me brush it," Kuroko mumbles, swatting her hand away and she lifts an eyebrow in amusement.

"Is that so?" she grins. "Well I'm glad to see you two are getting along."