There's a warm hand on Kuroko's shoulder, shaking him back and forth gently to wake him up.
"Tetsuya, wake up," Akashi murmurs. "It's late."
"Late...?" Kuroko echoes, shifting his position slightly.
"Wake up," Akashi repeats, without giving so much of an explanation. Letting out a quiet groan, Kuroko sits up and rubs the sleep from his eyes. Peering at the numbers of his alarm clock, his eyes widen when he sees the red numbers on his alarm clock. Six in the damn morning. Betrayal, his mind seethed. Betrayal, that's what this was.
"Go away, Akashi-kun," Kuroko deadpans. He's about to lie back down in bed when a hand catches his shoulder and stops him. Akashi's grip on Kuroko's shoulder tightens by a fraction and he huffs, blowing his bangs out of his eyes. The blinds are only half open, early morning light filtering in through the slanted Venetian curtains and illuminating the room. Perhaps it was his crankiness at being woken up too early and dearly missing his sleep, or the lack of proper lighting in the room, but he can see the crinkled lines of Akashi's face, a troubled look adorning the redhead's face.
"Oi. You said you'd listen to me if I ever needed you to," Akashi says. "And I have something to say."
"Does it have to be at six in the morning?"
"Yes."
"You are rather demanding."
Akashi cracks a smile. "Yes, I've been told that."
With a tiny bit of reluctance, Kuroko kicks his blankets to the edge of the bed and pats the space next to him for Akashi. Akashi's weight dips the bed slightly and somehow, it felt just right. Akashi draws one knee up to his chest and placing his hands on the drawn up knee, he rests his head and flashes Kuroko a half smile. There's a pregnant pause filled by the silence of the ticking clock on the wall. Kuroko waits.
"I wanted to say," Akashi says seriously, eyes half lidded and lips thin, "that I am craving pearl milk tea."
Kuroko's jaw drops. Pearl milk tea. Pearl milk tea. It's six in the morning. Kuroko had forgone his sleep in lieu of a city brat's craving for a four hundred yen drinks with pervasive boba and tapioca pearls dotting bottom. Akashi's half smile had slipped off his face and instead, a faint smirk visible in the half-light tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"You-" The scream dies in Kuroko's throat and he lets out a strangled noise before grabbing a pillow and smacking Akashi in the face with it. "You absolute -" he smacks Akashi with the pillow again and hopes that the other boy felt pain from being smothered by a pillow because he deserved it, "-pretentious brat, how dare you wake me up to tell me you want milk tea!"
Akashi holds his arms up to defend himself, and somewhere between his smirk and smile, a barely contained laugh is let loose. His laugh gets louder and less repressed until Akashi is shaking, doubled over in laughter. Kuroko ceases his assail when he hears Akashi's laugh. It's a horrendously, disgustingly melodious sound that sounded so innocent, it pulled at Kuroko's heart and all Kuroko could do was stare pathetically at Akashi. He lacks subtly, staring dumbfoundedly at Akashi like it was his first time seeing the sun, but when Akashi laughs, he practically glows.
"Why are you staring?" Akashi asks, his voice breaking Kuroko out of his stupor. "Am I just so undeniably attractive that even the unbreakable Kuroko Tetsuya has fallen in lo - ow!"
Ashamed that he had blushed at Akashi's word, Kuroko effectively cut the other off with a hard punch to the gut and he remembers with pride that he could Ignite-Pass-Kai-Punch a person just as if they were a basketball he was sending flying over to the other side of the court. It works. Akashi remains doubled over, this time groaning in pain.
"You need to lower your ego," Kuroko grumbles. "You owe me something now, for being a total ass."
Chuckling, Akashi reaches an arm out to tangle his hand in Kuroko's locks. Does this count as payment?" he asks, using his fingers to untangle the many knots in Kuroko's hair. He's gentler with his fingers than he is with a hair brush and Kuroko finds the feeling foreign, but definitely not unenjoyable.
"Absolutely not," Kuroko retorts, but he leans into Akashi's touch anyways, eliciting a huff of amusement from the red head.
"I'll buy you milk tea," Akashi offers, changing his position slightly so that Kuroko could rest his head on Akashi's shoulder. Kuroko does so with reluctance, tensing to wait for the moment where Akashi would pull back and snicker but it doesn't come. His shoulders relax and he breathes in Akashi's scent, musky with sleep.
"Yeah...but that's too easy."
"I'm not going to grovel at your feet, if that was what you had in mind."
"Close. I was thinking specifically of kowtowing and proclaiming your inferiority."
Akashi flicks the back of Kuroko's neck for his remark. "Maybe in another lifetime, then," Kuroko muses.
"I'd be really unfortunate to meet you in two lifetimes," Akashi laments. And everything, a precarious card tower, barely holding itself in the wind had tumbled down, breaking into another game of fifty-two pick up. Akashi's words cut like paper on skin: thin but sharp, and echoes of his jibe ripple through the air. The silence seems to grow heavier with each passing moment as neither of them say a word, mouths half open with unformed words. Kuroko's smile drops a tiny bit and he clenches his fist slightly, nails digging crescents into his palms, but he plasters on a tiny wavering smile that's barely there. Akashi's hands stop working through Kuroko's hair and he opens his mouth before closing it again.
"Shit," Akashi mutters.
And halfway between Akashi's plea of 'I'm sorry' and Kuroko's reassurance of 'it's ok', their words tangle and intermingle into another incoherent jumble.
"I'm - crap - I'm sorry. I didn't mean it-" Akashi repeats, his voice distressed.
"It's ok." Kuroko drops his shoulders.
"I'm sorry," Akashi repeats, his lips curving into a lopsided apologetic and sheepish smile. "I always mess things up somehow with my words."
"It's fine," Kuroko reassures. The words stab but somehow, Akashi's expression pulls more heart strings than the words. When Akashi still looks unconvinced, Kuroko adds, "If you want to make it up to me, keep brushing my hair."
Akashi's fingers resume threading through Kuroko's hair and Kuroko's not sure what bothers him more: Akashi's gentleness as if he was afraid he was going to break Kuroko, or his tentativeness in the way Akashi felt as if he had to repay Kuroko's benevolence towards him.
"I'm sorry," Akashi's words and expression make him almost comparable to a wilting flower, with the way they become smaller and quieter, as if Kuroko was about to take back his forgiveness at any moment.
"I know. And that's why it's ok."
Just the day before yesterday, Kuroko's parents had announced that they would be leaving briefly to visit relatives in Osaka. They'd be gone for a few days, they said, there was food in the fridge, money on the counter, phone number on the table, don't open the door for strangers, be good, stay safe, have fun! They had left the night before and with a lack of responsible adults, breakfast becomes warfare. What had started with what they should have for breakfast had snowballed. Kuroko held a battered recipe sheet that they had found on the internet, pinching the corner with two fingers to avoid the stains and spills it had accumulated, reading it aloud.
"One-fourth cup tofu...one half cup chopped green onion, one-fourth cup of nori seaweed-"
In his other hand, he shakes the seaweed packet ominously enough to have Akashi worried.
"Kuroko Tetsuya, put that seaweed down - get that shit away from the miso soup, I don't care what the hell the recipe says!" Akashi snaps. Ignoring him, Kuroko opens the pack of seaweed slowly and deliberately, procuring a piece and dangles it over the pot of boiling water.
"Should've let me sleep more if you wanted favors," Kuroko sings and he drops the first piece of seaweed in. Akashi looked as if he wanted to fling miso paste and bonito over Kuroko.
"Perfectly good miso soup with tofu," Akashi says woefully, "ruined."
"I was only kidding," Kuroko shrugs, zipping the bag of seaweed back up. "I won't add all of it. If you were really desperate, begging would have worked."
"Are you really that desperate to get me on my knees, Tetsuya?"
"What, how dare - Innuendos aren't appreciated!" Kuroko sputters, reopening the seaweed and dumping all of its contents into the pot. Akashi's expression grows increasingly horrified as the pieces of seaweed drift into the pot. Snickering at his victory, Kuroko puts the lid of the pot back on the soup and smiles angelically.
"I wasn't thinking those kinds of thoughts," Akashi says, staring at the soup. "I shouldn't have pushed it, huh?"
He sighs. "Are you going to let me starve?"
"No," Kuroko agrees amicably. His grin is merciless. "I think there's bread in the fridge for your breakfast."
It's after lunch that Akashi sidles up to Kuroko on the couch in the living room, taking one of Kuroko's hands in his own. Kuroko takes two seconds to assess everything: Akashi's winsome smile, Kuroko's hand in his, half-lidded eyes - and that's all he needs to know that Akashi wants something from him.
"Tetsuya," Akashi says. "You promised we could get pearl milk tea."
"No, I didn't."
"Well, I want tea."
"Buy it yourself."
"I don't want to go alone."
"Find some girl on your way there, or something. Or a guy. I don't know."
"Tetsuya, I want you to come with me."
"Is this some kind of date?"
"No."
"Then...?"
"I just want to be able to do something for you."
"I think dragging me to go buy tea is more of a favor for yourself than it is for me."
"What can I say? I'm an opportunist."
Kuroko weighs his options but with the way Akashi stares at him intently, Kuroko's opinions have long flown out of the window in this matter. Democracy? In a friendship like this? Ridiculous, Kuroko thinks sarcastically.
They're out of the door and walking towards a cafe in less than five minutes after Kuroko's agreement, Akashi's eagerness the source behind their rush. Akashi hooks his pinky with Kuroko's while they're walking, again, and offers Kuroko a sheepish smile. He lets go when they reach the cafe. The small cafe with a chalk sign placed outside advertising the daily special, sold the best - and only - milk tea in the town. It was a cramped place, with two small two seat tables outside and a booth or two more inside.
"It's nice that to be able to go to a cafe that's not crowded with people and has lines sprawling around the block," Akashi comments, pleased. Even so, as they scan the drink selection, Kuroko knows it's not nearly as extensive as anything in the city can be. Akashi, however, didn't seem to mind. They order their drinks and as promised, Akashi pays for Kuroko's drink and Kuroko rolls his eyes at Akashi's supposed gentlemanly act.
"It was only three hundred sixty five yen, no need to act like you just gifted me the world," Kuroko jokes. They take their drinks outside and sit down. Behind them, a pair of girls followed them out of the shop, both of which Kuroko recognize from his class, despite never having talked to them. They're giggling and pushing each other towards Kuroko and Akashi.
"Kuroko-kun!" one of them calls, waving brightly and Kuroko gives her an awkward half-wave in return. The other one runs up and clutches his arm and pulling him away slightly, whispering something in his ear.
"Who's that with you, Kuroko-kun?" the girl asks, her eyes traveling to Akashi. "He's cute."
"Forget cute, Hana-chan, he's hot. Will he be a new student? Did he just move in?" the other demands, her hands pressed together like a prayer.
"Uhm..." Kuroko supplies awkwardly. The girls eagerly wait for his response, Hana-chan tightening her grip slightly so that her fingers squeeze Kuroko's arm gently.
"Kuroko-kun, he doesn't have a girlfriend, right? Please say he doesn't!"
"He's not a new student," Kuroko clarifies, clearing his throat in annoyance. "He's only here for the summer...and as for a girlfriend..."
"Don't tell me. He does, doesn't he?" Hana-chan says, her gaze darkening. Oh, Kuroko thinks. He remembers her name, Hanasaki. He vaguely recalls an incident where she had tried to break a couple up out of jealousy.
"He doesn't, but..." Kuroko says, eye twitching in annoyance. Something about the girls' behavior irked him, the way the girls had talked about Akashi as if he was a doll on a shelf of a carnival game, a prize to be won if they schemed hard enough. It might not be in his best interest to speak for Akashi, but Kuroko knows that despite the redhead's bold and flirtatious nature and his attempts to pretend he was over his heartbreak, the last thing Akashi would be looking for was another shallow relationship. He could introduce them to Akashi with the pretense of attempting to distract the red head but Akashi's far from stupid and far too proud to admit he wasn't as okay as he appeared to be.
Kuroko can guess the events now: Akashi'll flirt around a bit with Hanasaki, claim that she's exactly his type in the courteous way that he tells everyone the same thing, but clearly not his type enough because he won't give her his number. He and Akashi will go back home and Akashi'll sit outside on the porch swing, missing his ex-girlfriend, wondering why one of his best friends didn't think he was good enough. Wondering why he had lost a person who was supposed to care about who he was and how he hated all those shallow girls like Hanasaki who were only interested in his looks, his status and remembering his ex-girlfriend was the same way...
Afterwards will come the self-loathing again - he's never told Kuroko but Kuroko can see it in the way Akashi worries endlessly over being perfect and the way his knuckles turn white when he does something wrong. How Akashi genuinely apologizes, with a quiet but sincere sorry and a dip of his head which everyone else would assume was for respect - but Kuroko knows its so they don't see the fear in his eyes, so terribly afraid that the other person will never forgive him because why would they, he's so awful, he messes things up - is what Akashi probably thinks, if Kuroko was to take a guess. He saw it this morning.
Akashi fakes being okay, a lot of the time and lies about being tired before heading to bed early. All it takes is for Kuroko to walk to their shared bedroom and stand, hand over the doorknob, wondering whether or not to enter when Akashi's faking sleep. Faking, again, faking sleep because even outside, Kuroko can hear the restless shuffle of blankets and Akashi never moved in his sleep.
Kuroko's so caught up in his train of thought that Hanasaki has to shake his arm to snap him out of it. For a moment, he's scared at how well he knows Akashi already. A little over a month had passed since Akashi had come and the two of them had only started getting along recently, but yet...He had already picked up on Akashi's little quirks and knew that the redhead's actions spoke much louder than his words did. Even if Akashi didn't tell Kuroko much, it wasn't hard to learn by just observing either.
"What was that about a girlfriend, Kuroko-kun?" Hanasaki implores. Her voice is honeysuckle sweet, luring Kuroko to give her the answer she wants. He's supposed to answer no, and so even if Akashi did have a girlfriend, Hanasaki could play infidelity off as simply being misinformed.
"But he's not interested," Kuroko answers coldly.
"Oh," the other girl's shoulders droop in disappointment. She picked up on Kuroko's callous tone. "Come on, Hana-chan. Let's go, then."
"Bu-" Hanasaki protests. She glares at Kuroko as if he was the one who had ruined everything. You would have ruined things even more, Kuroko thinks bitterly.
"Let's go," the other girl says firmly, pulling Hanasaki away from Kuroko. "Thank you, Kuroko-kun."
When they leave, Kuroko walks back to Akashi, who was sipping his drink, having watched the scene afar in mild amusement.
"It's rather rude of you to send your admirers off so curtly like that," Akashi comments. Kuroko picks up his straw and stabs it through the cellophane wrapper of the drink a bit more forcefully than necessary and his upper lip curls in contempt.
"Not my admirers," Kuroko sneers. "Yours."
"Mine?" Akashi looks genuinely surprised and he sets his drink down. "I...they didn't say anything bad did they?" he asks, laying down his words carefully.
"No. They did beg me to introduce them to you and they wondered if you were a new resident. I told them you weren't interested." Kuroko flicks the cellophane cover of his drink, the plastic crinkling.
"Oh. Thanks." Relief is evident in Akashi's voice and Kuroko knows he made the right choice.
Since when did you, Tetsuya, Kuroko thinks privately as the two of them sip their drinks in silence, start to consider that Akashi was someone who should be valued much more than his appearances? When did you start to value Akashi so much?
When they finish their drinks, they head back to the convenience store, partly to visit Michiko and partly to buy what would become dinner in a few hours.
"Oh, hey you two. It's been awhile since you've come," Michiko greets, ringing them up for two bentos.
"It's only been a week, Michiko-san," Kuroko huffs in amusement.
"You used to come here every day with Kagami when he was still around," Michiko points out. "Pretty sure the convenience store doubled its earnings those months."
"Yes, that does tend to happen," Kuroko says gravely. "Would you like to eat lunch with us, Michiko-san?" He holds up the two bentos.
"Ah, no, sorry, I have to work my shift," she sighs, drumming her fingers on the table. "Akashi, can you go check something for me? Yeah, just check if those are still on the shelf...right over there.." She watches Akashi walk off before leaning in closer to Kuroko. "Hey, you know, Ogiwara told me something interesting the other day," she whispers. "Two things, actually mind you. One about Akashi and the other -"
"Yes?"
"Did you know that tomorrow, -"
"They don't have any more on the shelves, Michiko," Akashi interrupts, returning with the slip of paper in his hand.
"Ah..ah..is that so," she says hastily, crumpling the paper and throwing it away. "Thanks, Akashi."
"Sorry, Kuroko," she whispers apologetically, patting his hand. "I'll tell you some other time."
"Wake up."
Somewhere, deep in his consciousness, there's a voice in the back of Kuroko's head insistently telling him to get up from bed, yet again. But the voice's nagging is shrouded by the clouds of sleep and drowned out in favor of the warmth of Kuroko's bed. The voice persists, repeating itself, this time louder: "Wake up, I said."
In one swift jerk, the blankets are abrutly ripped off of Kuroko after his failure to successfully comply to the voice's demands. Kuroko instinctively curls tighter in a ball to make up for the lost warmth, mumbling incoherent protests.
"Stop it, Akashi-kun," Kuroko moans, half his words strung together in an indistinguishable slur. In his still half-asleep state, he buries his face in his pillow. There's a short pause followed by a snicker and some shuffling.
"I'm not Akashi," the voice sing songs.
Confused, Kuroko cracks one eye open and he can just barely make out a hazy figure standing over him at the edge of his bed with hair too orange to be Akashi's crimson locks.
"Ogiwara-kun, why are you here?" Kuroko's eyes feel heavy, lidded with sleep. The numbers on his alarm clock blend together in a red blur and Kuroko's left trying to distinguish between a 'four' and a 'nine', and a 'five' and an 'eight'. In a last ditch attempt, he grapples for the clock on the bedstand, fumbling to get a good look. Five fourty five. The little PM dot in the corner was unlit...Five forty five. In the damn morning. Not this again, Kuroko thinks feebly, turning away from Ogiwara. "Go away."
"Rise and shine," Ogiwara grins and even with the lights off and the blinds closed, it's as if the room had just lit up. Kuroko winces. Ogiwara's voice sounds like sirens, so early in the morning. Any noise that wasn't complete silence before seven in the morning should be illegal, Kuroko thinks grumpily.
"Give me my blanket back," Kuroko mumbles, clawing at the air and reaching for the bundle in Ogiwara's arms, who drops the blanket to the ground, much to Kuroko's dismay. "How did you even get in here? There's no way my parents are awake - come to think of, you never reach my house before six thirty on your usual paper route..."
Kuroko's half expecting Ogiwara to give some twisted, concerning answer that involved "breaking in through a window" or "picking the lock of the door to your back porch". Ogiwara smiles knowingly and procures a lanyard out of the back pocket of his jeans. On the end of it, a silver key glints in the darkness, swinging back and forth. Unfortunately, Kuroko recognizes as the spare key his mom had tucked under the flower pot all those years ago, even if no one in the family had touched it since.
"Screw you. You don't go around stealing people's spare keys to wake them up at ungodly hours of the morning."
"It's not like you ever told me where it was. I found it," Ogiwara retorts, sticking his tongue out. "Underneath the left flowerpot. Really, couldn't you think of something less obvious?"
"The welcome mat is the most cliche."
"Yeah, but you don't even have a welcome mat."
"Go away," Kuroko groans, uncurling from his balled up state and spreading his limbs out on the mattress to try to stretch. The sleepy fog clouding his mind had cleared now and after rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he's finally able to regain his bearings. Sleep clung in the air and across the room, sheets rustle. Kuroko turns his head towards Akashi's bed only to see that the other boy was still asleep and comfortably swaddled in blankets.
"Why don't you go bother him instead?" Kuroko hisses, leaning over the side of his bed and blindly reaching for the blankets that had been tossed to the floor. His hands brush soft fabric and he stretches his fingers a little farther to curl around the material before Ogiwara forcibly tugs the blankets away from Kuroko's grasp, moving them further out of reach. "Nooo," Kuroko complains, "let me sleep."
"Come on, we have things to do today," Ogiwara says, ignoring Kuroko's pleas.
"Uh huh...I don't recall having made plans." Kuroko squints at the calendar across his room. He knows that there's no need to look at the pitfully blank calendar that had nothing but slashes through the days that had passed and the date of a new book release circled in blue pen. Adventurous, he thought sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, you do now." Ogiwaras voice carries an air of finality and Kuroko knows that the moment Ogiwara had found the dirty spare key and jostled it around in the door lock, his fate for the rest of the day had been sealed. Ogiwara strides over to Akashi's bed and turns back to wink at Kuroko. "Now, this'll be fun. Best way to wake him up?"
"Don't," Kuroko offers. "Let the both of us sleep."
"Kuroko, oh Kuroko," Ogiwara tsks, squatting down in front of Akashi's bed. "I'm disappointed that you forgot what today is." He places his fingers near his lips and Kuroko's eyes widen in horror.
"Ogiwara-kun, not in the house, not this early -"
"Kuroko," Ogiwara says, interrupting him, and throwing him an amused glance. And just before he whistles, he adds, "Kagami's coming back today."