It's after another three completely one-sided games when Kuroko concedes crushing defeat to Akashi, who looks nothing but smug.
The sun had begun to set, the sky beginning to fade to orange and yellow, and Kuroko stood bent over the old, stained school water fountain by the edge of the court drinking the disgustingly warm and metallic tasting water while Akashi stood in the back, teasing him, telling him not to puke.
Kuroko straightens from the water fountain, wiping the water off his lips and his stomach growls unexpectedly. There's a moment of silence and then the two boys' eye's meet each other, a small grin stretching across their features and they chuckle.
"Are you hungry?" Kuroko asks Akashi.
"I guess I could do with some food."
Down the road a little distance away from the school basketball courts, there was a small convenience store. Faded graffiti smudged the side walls of the store where it had not-so-mysteriously appeared overnight one winter, the handiwork of a couple of bored delinquent students. The paint on the rest of the building peeled a bit and old posters plastered the windows, advertising old movies and 'Bentos! Two for the price of one! Only this week!', except it had been 'only this week' for the past two years. A few well kept potted plants stood next to the entrance adding a small splash of color in contrasting to the starch walls.
They walk into the brightly lit store and a blast of air conditioner hits them hard. There's a single girl cashier wiping down the counter that looks up briefly to give them a monotonous greeting, "Welcome to the store.. . .". Kuroko leads Akashi through the store, navigating the aisles to reach the small frozen foods section in the back. He eagerly picks out a small tub of vanilla ice cream
"I don't like vanilla ice cream," Akashi frowns.
"What kind of ice cream do you like, then?" Kuroko challenges. Akashi scans the collection of frozen treats with wariness.
"I don't know. Matcha maybe?"
"Uhhhhhh."
"You don't like matcha."
"It's not the best."
"Neither is vanilla."
"There are few matters in this world in which I will fight over and vanilla ice cream is one of them."
"Is that so."
The two of them stand there, facing off in the back of the store, neither of them willing to give up ground on their preferred taste of ice cream - 'it's far too sugary and sweet' Akashi had said and Kuroko had retorted with 'there's no need to be old and boring and healthy, Akashi-san'. The hum of the freezer seems to grow louder.
"Please?" Kuroko pouts, putting on his best display of puppy dog eyes. For the smallest moment, Akashi's eyes at Kuroko's pleading expression before he looked away and mumbled something incoherent.
"Fine, we'll get your shitty vanilla ice cream," Akashi sneers, stuffing his hands in his pockets and turning away. Kuroko silently cheers at his small victory and as compromise, Kuroko tries to ask Akashi what he wanted but quickly discovered that no matter how hard Akashi tried to hide it, he was completely clueless on how to navigate the convenience store and on what food tasted good and what didn't. The redhead's air of confidence was completely gone, replaced with tentative curiosity at the myriad of junk food and sweets that overflowed the shelves.
"Do you want arare? Or senbei?"
"Arare has seaweed so no. I'm not a big fan of senbei, either."
"Um, arare has, like, no seaweed..."
"What are you talking about, are you blind?" Akashi says, looking rather scandalized as he points at the thin pieces of seaweed wrapped around the small crackers. Kuroko rolls his eyes at the former's childishness.
"Alright, melon pan or manju?"
"I'd rather have anpan."
"Jeez...spoiled. Anpan costs a whole 30 yen more, you know," Kuroko jokes as he places it in the basket.
"Do you like umaibo?" Kuroko asks.
"Uhhh, eh, I have a friend who does?"
"You've never had it," Kuroko realizes flatly and Akashi shrugs. After a moment's decision, Kuroko puts the sweet back onto the shelf and walks to the other side of the store, Akashi trailing after him with his hands behind his head.
"Bentos or onigiri?" Kuroko asks and when Akashi hesitates, Kuroko answers for the both of them, picking out two bentos.
"Anything you're allergic to?" Kuroko says, scanning the contents of the bento over.
"No, but I absolutely detest seaweed."
"Judging by the fact you won't even eat arare, I already guessed so."
Kuroko, seemingly satisfied with his pick of food, walks towards the front counter. He reaches into his back pocket to pull out a few crumpled bills but a swift hand stops him.
"I'm paying," Akashi declares and Kuroko narrows his eyes.
"You're the guest," Kuroko argues, trying to wriggle out of Akashi's grasp to no avail.
"I want to pay," Akashi repeats stubbornly. He takes the basket from Kuroko's hand and walking up to the counter. Kuroko opens his mouth stubbornly, but it was too late as Akashi was already handing the money to the cashier.
"You look familiar," the cashier girl says, scanning their purchases and tilting her head to the side as she assesses Akashi. "I've never seen you with Kuroko before today, though."
"He's from the city, Michiko-san," Kuroko explains. She was a little older than them, and despite the fact she hated working behind the counter, she needed the summer job to save money for college.
"You seem familiar too," Akashi remarks lightly and Michiko raises an eyebrow.
"Is that so," she says dubiously and Akashi flashes her a brilliant smile.
"You look like the girl of my dreams," he drawls with a teasing smirk and Michiko blinks in surprise before laughing.
"Funny, real funny. Charmer, aren't you? Still can't quite place a finger on who you are..."
"Ignore him, Michiko-san," Kuroko advises, stepping on Akashi's foot who scowls. "His ego's sky high."
"I could tell. Oh! I got it. Akashi. Akashi Seijuro, right?" Michiko exclaims. "Fancy seeing someone like you around here. Hey, as the girl of your dreams, can I keep the change?" she jokes, waving around the extra bills and Akashi chuckles.
"Of course."
Michiko and Kuroko blink in surprise, their jaws dropping. "Huh?"
The two boys leave the store with their food after Michiko jubilantly thanked Akashi. It was insane, Kuroko thought. Who the hell carried around a ten thousand yen bill? And who the hell just paid for something no more than one thousand yen with a bill that large? Michiko had been just as shocked, but something about the whole interaction left a pang in Kuroko's heart.
Outside, Kuroko catches Akashi flirting a glance at the short link chain fence surrounding the children's playground in the schoolyard across the road. He tugs on Akashi's arm, pulling him across the road towards the playground.
"Let's go!" he urges. Akashi follows him to the playground where Kuroko hands the bag of food to Akashi, climbing over the fence himself. The fence only went up a little past their waists and it must have appeared comical, for two seventeen year olds to be hopping the fence to a rundown playground. Akashi hands the bag over to Kuroko and effortlessly climbs over the fence, following Kuroko towards the playground structure where they sit down on the platforms.
"What is the point of this?" Akashi questions and Kuroko shrugs, telling Akashi to 'just go along with it'. He pulls out the small tub of ice cream from the bag first and hands one spoon to Akashi, keeping one for himself.
"Dessert first?" Akashi snorts in amusement and Kuroko glares at him to be quiet as he pries off the lid and takes a scoop of ice cream, savoring the sweet vanilla that melted on his tongue. Akashi takes a spoonful as well, though much less enthusiastically, and one taste of the sweet vanilla has him trying not to gag.
"It's much too sweet," Akashi setting his spoon down and Kuroko sticks his tongue out at him.
"More for me then. To eat all by myself."
"I'd like to see you try."
"If it's vanilla, I can eat it all."
"Uh huh." Akashi takes a bento out of the box, picks up the chopsticks, and takes one bite of the cheap store rice.
"It's awful," he whines and Kuroko rolls his eyes.
"Has Mr. Rich Boy never had a convenience store-bought bento?"
"...Yes."
"Oh. I forgot to ask," Kuroko says, pointing his spoon at Akashi's knees. "You wear knee pads?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. It's actually a knee support," Akashi shrugs. "I trained a bit too hard awhile back and messed up my knees a bit."
"Seriously?"
"Satsuki nearly gave me a beating for it when she found out and she was ready to strap me down when I said I wanted to try an alley-oop anyways."
Akashi's dedication surprises Kuroko once more and he thinks about how much more there was to the red head than his arrogance.
"Was Satsuki..."
Akashi laughs at this, shaking his head. "Definitely not. She's a close friend who likes to keep me in check."
They lapse back into silence and by the time Akashi's half done with his proclaimed awful bento, Kuroko's barely a quarter way through the ice cream that only felt like it was getting heavier in Kuroko's hand. Too much ice cream, he thought gingerly. I never thought I'd say that.
"Oi," Akashi says. He picks up a piece of meat and holds it up to Kuroko's mouth. "Eat actual— if you can call this actual— food."
Kuroko stares apprehensively at the meat and puts down the ice cream, mouth closing around the chopsticks and he feels his cheeks flush slightly. While he's eating, Akashi reaches a hand out towards Kuroko's face and wipes the corner of his mouth with his thumb, Kuroko sputtering.
"You had ice cream by the side of your mouth." Akashi snickers at Kuroko's flustered reaction.
"Oh..." Kuroko mutters, embarrassed that he had been caught so off guard by Akashi. He reaches for the ice cream again and takes another small spoonful. Akashi furrows his brows at the sight of Kuroko eating even more ice cream.
"You should - mmfff!" Akashi's interrupted by Kuroko shoving the spoonful of vanilla ice cream into his mouth and his eyes widen in protest. He swallows the ice cream, coughing slightly after, aiming a glare at Kuroko. Kuroko only sticks his tongue out at him again. Akashi looks away, back down at the bento in his lap. He mutters something incoherent, and Kuroko only picks up an indistinct 'stop..' but doesn't catch the rest.
"What was that?" he presses and Akashi pauses for a minute.
"I said stop being so annoying," Akashi mumbles, shifting away and Kuroko feels something in his heart drop.
"Okay," he replies numbly. He looks at the ice cream in his lap and decides that there was no chance for him to finish all of it, setting it aside and uttering a silent apology for the wasted treat. He isn't quite in the mood to eat anymore; he had really wanted to get on good Akashi's side — he really had wanted to be able to be Akashi's friend, but he always seemed to mess up somewhere, somehow.
They eat their bentos in silence and finally, Akashi sighs heavily.
"Sorry," the redhead mutters awkwardly. When there's no reply from Kuroko, Akashi furrows his brows.
"Oi. I said I was sorry for being an ass."
"Kuroko, don't ignore me."
"Tetsuya!"
Akashi's voice seems to grow increasingly distressed with Kuroko's growing silence and finally, a hand flashes out, cradling the latter's cheek and turning his face to face his.
Kuroko's eyes widen, surprised at the redhead's sudden action, who moves his hand to Kuroko's shoulder and looks downwards slightly.
"Look," Akashi begins, voice sounding unusually tentative. Soft, even. "I'm sorry. For everything. For being an ass to you all the time. You've been nothing but good to me and I've been unfair to you. So can we...can we start over?"
Two teenagers sitting on a preschool playground with the setting sun behind them and a bento between them must have seemed comical to any passerby, but Kuroko's taken aback by the sincerity in Akashi's eyes when he lifts his head to meet heterochromatic eyes, and for a moment, he's at a loss of words.
He waits for a 'just kidding', 'hah, Tetsuya, I can't believe you actually fell for it' or any sort of withdrawal from Akashi but the red head remains steadfast.
"That...that would be nice."
Akashi drops his hand from Kuroko's shoulder and fumbles to gain hold of his chopsticks again, the two of them returning to their silence. This time, the silence is different. It wasn't awkward and stifling, but rather, tentative, and while a long shot from comforting, it felt familiar.
The evening was closing in on them, the last light leaving the sky. Kuroko stuffs the empty food wrappers and plastic trays in the plastic bag, tossing the entire thing in a nearby trash can while Akashi watches him. He walks back over to Akashi and wordlessly tugs on the latter's arm to pull him up. Akashi stands up and Kuroko starts walking away, Akashi trailing behind. They hop back over the fence and the creaking of the chain link fence is the only sound the rings in the silence. Every movement, every sound seemed louder — the shuffling of their feet, the rustling of the leaves, the sound of Akashi absentmindedly dribbling the basketball behind Kuroko as he walked along.
The sound of the dripping stops abruptly and there's a few rushed steps as Akashi catches up to Kuroko. The redhead takes a shaky breath, glancing awkwardly at Kuroko before reaching his arm out. Kuroko feels a hand brush against his hand and a pinky hooks around his own. Kuroko looks up in surprise to see Akashi looking away slightly, a faint pink dusting his cheek and Kuroko almost thinks that it was just the evening lighting playing trick on his eyes.
He looks back down to their hooked pinkies and Akashi looked as if he wanted to say something. Kuroko offers him a small smile as a response to let Akashi know that it was okay.
They walk the rest of the way in silence and linked hands — Kuroko even dares to swing their hands back and forth for a bit and suppresses a giggle at Akashi's bemusement. He's not sure why Akashi chose to link their hands, but he's sure there's some reason behind it, a thing he did with other friends, Kuroko guesses and something warm in his chest blossoms at the thought. They reach the house and Kuroko's about to pull away when he suddenly remembers the morning ordeal for Akashi and how broken he had looked when he talked about losing people.
"Hey," Kuroko says softly. "I'm going to let go, okay?"
Akashi's eyes widen a fraction, not from alarm or hurt, but rather in surprise, before it fades into a look of brief appreciation as he nods, unhooking his pinky.
"Why...why'd you ask?" Akashi questions quietly and Kuroko shrugs.
"Because I wanted you to know. And I wanted you to be okay with it. I'm guessing the hand holding thing is something you do with your other friends?"
"Yeah." Akashi blinks in surprise and he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "Satsuki and Reo do it sometimes, and uh, well you know."
Well you know, equated to Akashi's ex-girlfriend, Kuroko knew and he veers away from the topic before he can tread on any more thin ice.
"Thanks for trusting me, then."
"Idiot," Akashi says, exhaling a laugh. "It should be me thanking you."