Hello I am back again! I forgot to say this when I updated on Monday, but to all my American viewers, I hope you had a lovely independence day! So, here's the next chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Of all the things to happen today, this was perhaps the worst. Seijuro was so close, he was so careful not to get caught out, but finally, he was. And who was worse to be caught out by than the former Phantom Sixth Man of Rakuzan, Mayuzumi Chihiro?

"Mayuzumi-san... what are you doing here?" The shock of seeing Mayuzumi standing in front of him still didn't let him forget that Mayuzumi had already graduated and, by all accounts, shouldn't be here.

Mayuzumi raised a brow. "An underclassman I still keep in touch with invited me to hang out with him today in his room."

"I see," said Seijuro. "You surprised me a little."

A lot was more like it. Because Mayuzumi was basically Kuroko 2.0, he could appear and disappear whenever he felt like it, so Seijuro had no idea he was so close by until he piped up and said something. This was bad.

"By the way..." Seijuro's attention was back on Mayuzumi as he stared down at the younger red-headed boy. "Why do you have a kid on campus?"

Oh great, there it was.

As much as Seijuro respected Mayuzumi as a person, he was literally the last person on this planet he wanted to explain this to. But he couldn't just tell him to mind his own business and leave him to walk on since that would be way too risky. So after looking to the left and then to the right, Seijuro walked over, grabbed Mayuzumi by his collar, and dragged him to his room upstairs with Bokushi trailing after with whatever bags Seijuro dropped.

Once inside Seijuro practically threw his Mayuzumi onto his chair, set Bokushi on the bed, and closed the door behind him. Mayuzumi was not pleased.

"What the hell have you brought me here for?" he complained. "Let me leave."

"I'll let you leave," said Seijuro in an ominous tone of voice. "But we have to go over a few things before you do, Mayuzumi-san."

He pointed to Bokushi. "That boy?" Seijuro questioned. "You are to pretend you have never seen him a day in your life."

"Okay?" Seijuro could tell Mayuzumi had no idea where he was going with this but was probably complying in the hopes that he could leave quickly.

"Secondly," Seijuro continued. "If anyone ever sees him and asks if you know anything about him, you deny it."

"Whatever."

"And finally, you will tell no one about this encounter today? Does that sound fair?"

"I guess so," said Mayuzumi. "But in all honesty, I couldn't care less about this whole thing anyway."

"It's not about that," said Seijuro. "If anyone catches me with him here, I'll be in deep trouble that not even my father could fix. Just promise that you won't tell anyone about him."

"Who is he, anyway?" Mayuzumi asked.

Seijuro knew if he tried to cover up it would just make Mayuzumi more suspicious. At the very least, he could tell him the bare minimum.

"He's my younger brother," Seijuro said. If he were to explain how his 'brother' got here, they'd be there all day, and that was something that neither Seijuro nor Mayuzumi wanted. Mayuzumi looked satisfied with the answer because he shrugged his shoulders and made a sound of approval.

"Whatever," he said. "I guess if you're really that bothered, I won't say anything. But I wasn't going to, anyway."

Seijuro raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You won't?"

"No. I won't," Mayuzumi confirmed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you really absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"So if you were to swear on it in a court of law—"

"OH MY GOD, I SAID YES. JUST LET ME LEAVE."

Seijuro sighed. "Fine. You are free to go, Mayuzumi-san. Enjoy your visit with your friend."

Mayuzumi made to stand up but then looked over at Bokushi one more time. The boy was preoccupied with taking things out of the shopping bags and setting them on the bed. Mayuzumi didn't know why, but there was something vaguely familiar about him. Not because of the fact that he looked exactly like Seijuro, but because he felt like he knew him somehow...

"What is it, Mayuzumi-san? I said you were allowed to go."

He looked back at Seijuro, who was staring at him with questioning eyes. He shook his head.

"It's nothing. I'll be going now."

He opened the door and shut it behind him, leaving Seijuro and Bokushi in the room. Seijuro heaved out a breath and flopped onto his chair, folding his arms on the desk and resting his head on top.

"It was nice to see Chihiro again," said Bokushi as he fiddled around with a price tag.

"It's nice that you remember," said Seijuro. "I'm surprised you didn't say hello."

"I don't think he would've wanted to talk to me if he found out who I actually was," Bokushi replied.

Seijuro lifted his head and looked at Bokushi. He never thought Bokushi would say something like that. Bokushi was probably still aware of how he treated the third-year during the Winter Cup. Those were memories he'd rather not discuss again.

"Anyway, is there anything you'd like to do today?" Seijuro asked him. "We have the whole day to do whatever you'd like."

He heard Bokushi inhale like he was about to speak, but it was replaced by a gurgling noise instead, making him blink in surprise as he stared at the source, which was Bokushi's stomach. Bokushi looked awfully surprised too, following Seijuro's gaze down to his stomach before averting eye contact.

Seijuro chuckled. "I suppose lunch is first then," he said, standing up and pushing his chair back into his desk. "You stay here, I'll go and make something."

With that, he went out the door and closed it.

...

Lunch was relatively normal. They both sat down to eat their own respective plates of food. They didn't talk much, Bokushi only speaking with his older brother when he wanted a drink (and then again thirty seconds later to ask for a paper towel after he spilled said drink on the floor). Luckily, Seijuro's cooking skills didn't leave him room to complain, and Seijuro was just thankful that Bokushi was not in the hands of someone else from the Teiko gang. He'd probably suffer from malnutrition in the hands of Kuroko, who couldn't make anything in the kitchen except boiled eggs, or die in the hands of Momoi or Midorima, who couldn't even boil water without severely injuring themselves or other people; in most cases, it was usually both.

When the two finished, Seijuro took the plates back to the kitchen and washed them in the sink, coming back to the room and sitting down on the bed next to Bokushi, who was swinging his feet over the edge.

"Feel like doing anything now?"

Bokushi shrugged at the question, seemingly disinterested in the topic. Seijuro assumed he hadn't made up his mind yet. Seijuro didn't want to be too pushy, so Bokushi didn't think that he was forcing him into an activity, but it would feel awkward just sitting there in silence, so it'd be much more enjoyable for him and Bokushi (he hoped) to do something. It didn't matter what they did in Seijuro's opinion. As long as it wasn't just sitting around on his bed until sunset.

Before he could think to say anything else, he heard a knock on the door to his room. His brows furrowed in confusion, he was one hundred percent sure he wasn't expecting anyone to visit, nor did he invite anyone over.

"Come in," he said after a pause.

Swiveling their heads to the sound of the opening door, Seijuro and Bokushi stared as the door revealed Mibuchi, Hayama, and Nebuya.

Seijuro blinked. "You three, what a pleasant surprise," he said. "Is there something you need?"

"We came to hang out of course!" said Mibuchi. "We said we'd check up on you two, didn't we?"

'This soon?' is what Seijuro wanted to say, but he dismissed it since he already knew his teammates would do something like this. He wasn't entirely shocked that they came by anyway since anyone who's known Seijuro in the past two years would be generally concerned at the prospect of leaving a child in his care, but that was a discussion for another day.

Seijuro watched as Hayama took out a 3DS console from behind his back.

"Hey, Bokushi! Look what I have! Wanna see?"

Bokushi slid off the bed and went over to Hayama to inspect it.

"It looks new," Bokushi said, eyeing the red console.

Mibuchi scoffed. "He's had it for ages," he said. "He just pays more attention to his 3DS maintenance than his grades."

"I'll have you know I did perfectly fine this term!" Hayama retorted. "And I got a Pokémon game yesterday. Wanna play with me, Bokushi?"

"Play?" said Bokushi. "I've never played a Pokémon game before."

Hayama's face was the epitome of horror. "Okay, now I reeeeeeeaally want you to play," he said. "Come and sit down with me!"

While Hayama and Bokushi sat on the floor and Nebuya followed suit to spectate, Mibuchi sat next to Seijuro on the bed.

"So, how's it going with you and Boku-chan?" Mibuchi inquired. "Learn anything new?"

Seijuro shrugged. "Well, nothing that I didn't know about him already," he said. "I suppose it's just a matter of trying to get along. Our personalities are quite different, you see."

"Oh, but your personalities are both very unique in the same way," said Mibuchi. "So I'm sure you'll be able to find some common ground."

"I hope so, I am his permanent caretaker after all. It'd be a shame if we couldn't get along."

"You'd probably figure something out," Mibuchi said cheerfully. "You are Sei-chan, after all."

"I appreciate your faith in me, but please do remember that I've never had a younger brother before, so this is something new to me."

"But it's with someone you already know, isn't it?" said Mibuchi.

"While that may be true, it still feels like I don't know a thing about him," said Seijuro. "He's his own person now, so I don't know how much of him has changed."

"Is that so?" Mibuchi drawled. "Then maybe you should start taking note of what he does now. Then it can help you figure things out such as likes, dislikes, and interests that you never knew about."

"Well..." Seijuro looked over at Bokushi, who was sitting in between the legs of Hayama, playing Pokémon while Hayama and Nebuya were listening to him complain about some boy in the game who wouldn't stop talking about his 'top percentage Ratatta'.

"I suppose he's interested in video games a little," he observed. He highly doubted he would have been interested in such things when Bokushi took over in the third year of Teiko.

Mibuchi hummed in thought. "You're right," he said. "That's definitely something curious, considering his no-nonsense personality."

"Perhaps it's the effects of becoming a child that dimmed that side of him," said Seijuro, stroking his chin in thought.

"Seijuro-nii. My Cyndaquil leveled up," Bokushi announced suddenly.

Seijuro gave a small laugh. "Did it? Let me see."

As he stood up from the bed to go look at Bokushi's accomplishment, Mibuchi smiled to himself at their interactions. This will be a very interesting relationship indeed, he thought.

~O~

The three Uncrowned Kings were in Seijuro's room for about three hours just hanging out. They all ended up just watching Bokushi play through Hayama's game while making conversation of their own, not surprised that despite not playing a single Pokémon game in his entire existence, Bokushi never lost a battle and even came up with battle strategies that Hayama had never even thought of. It got to a point where if they had let him keep playing, Bokushi would've played this game longer than Hayama had. So Seijuro said that he should at least let Hayama have a turn considering the fact that it was Hayama's game after all and he had only bought it yesterday.

By that time it was already getting dark, so the three of them bid the brothers farewell, saying that they'll come around when they can, and they left, Seijuro thanking them for their time.

Soon after that, Seijuro started tidying up his room a bit until it got to dinner time, so he went back into the communal kitchen on his floor to make something. After the two had dinner and the plates were washed and cleared away, it was about that time to begin the nighttime routines.

"Bokushi, it's time for you to take a bath."

Bokushi was playing another shogi game on top of the bed.

"Not right now, I'm busy," the boy said, moving one of the pieces forward.

Seijuro sighed. "You can continue the game after," he said. "Leave the shogi board alone and come into the bathroom."

"Just wait for a second."

"Bokushi—"

"Wait."

Seijuro felt his eyebrow twitch in irritation. He walked over and snaked his hands under Bokushi's arms before attempting to lift him off the bed. Bokushi immediately sensed what he was trying to do and clutched at the sheets.

"Stop, I'm not finished yet!"

"You can finish after you take a bath. Now let go of the duvet."

"Then let go of me."

"No. Bath time."

"Leave me!"

He tried swiping at Seijuro but he easily dodged and just slung the boy over his shoulder, increasing Bokushi's voices of protest.

"How dare you fling me onto your shoulder like I'm some kind of bag? Put me down."

"Hmm? Did you say something?"

Seijuro ignored Bokushi's complaints and finally got into the bathroom, closing the door behind him and setting him on the floor. Bokushi was still trying to attack him, and as he continued to dodge, Seijuro was beginning to feel more like a pet owner than an older brother.

"Okay, let's start removing your clothes." He reached for Bokushi's shirt but he immediately swatted his hand away, looking vaguely disgusted at Seijuro's actions.

"What are you trying to do to me, you pervert?"

"Bokushi, half the time we never wore clothes in my subconscious, why is this a new concept to you?" Seijuro said. "And I'm just trying to give you a bath. If you could just-"

"No. Don't touch me!"

"Why you..."

They ended up having a catfight in the middle of the bathroom, Seijuro just trying to get a hold of Bokushi, who kept running around and trying to escape his clutches. It took around five whole minutes of chasing and bickering until Seijuro finally pinned him down and tried his best to ignore his shouting younger brother as he stripped him of his clothes, feeling himself transition from a distressed pet owner to a tired single father. Then, while Bokushi was still sulking, he grabbed the shower head and turned on the water. Once the water was at a reasonable temperature, he directed the water to Bokushi. But said five-year-old moved out of the way before the water touched him.

"I refuse to be sprayed with water," he stated resolutely.

"Nonsense," said Seijuro. "It's water, it won't harm you. Just hold still."

Getting Bokushi to sit under the spray of water was a challenge, and that was an understatement. He wouldn't stop moving around trying to avoid the water, and Seijuro kept having to hold him down. It was even worse when he brought out the soap and shampoo, and Bokushi went back to swiping at him to make him stop, leaving the bathroom in more of a mess than Seijuro originally intended there to be. And he wasn't even finished yet.

"I told you to stop! And get your hand out of my face!"

"Enough writhing around Bokushi, you're going to get soap in your eyes if you keep opening them like that. Just stay put!"

Bokushi pushed his older brother's hand back when he tried to rinse him off with the shower head and Seijuro pushed right back, successfully washing off the suds from his body, but Bokushi had had enough with water and snatched the shower head from him altogether.

Seijuro's eyes narrowed as an evil grin slipped onto the five-year-old's face.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Is that so?" said Bokushi. "Watch me."

"Bokushi!"

He flipped the shower head around and aimed it at Seijuro, Seijuro getting a face full of water before he could do as much as finish his sentence. It was unclear what Akashi was actually yelling since his yelling was drowned out, no pun intended. At that point, all Seijuro knew was one thing...

He hated bath time.

~O~

Mibuchi was across the hall from him, so it wasn't hard for him to hear all the noise coming from Akashi's room. It was weird since anyone who knew Akashi knew that he made absolutely no noise ever, so he figured he should probably check it out. Standing up, he left his room and knocked on Akashi's door.

"Sei-chan?" he said. "I heard a bunch of shouting. Is everything alright?"

When he received no answer, he opened the door and found no one next to the bed, but he did hear sound coming from the open bathroom door, so he padded over and pushed the door open. What he found was an amazing sight to behold.

There was Bokushi sitting down on the floor wrapped up in a towel, and Akashi on the floor next to him dripping wet with water. The entire bathroom was soaking wet as well, the shower head discarded somewhere in the corner.

Mibuchi involuntarily snorted.

"Not one word," Akashi growled.

Mibuchi was just trying so desperately not to laugh. "Oh, Sei-chan..." he chuckled.

What a night this was turning out to be.

~O~

After cleaning up the bathroom and finally stepping into the shower himself, Seijuro got out and changed into a loose t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants before finally flopping down into bed. He had managed to get Bokushi into his own pajamas before he did all that since he'd rather not have another brawl that night over something trivial.

Bokushi was wearing flannel pajamas that night. It was a completely normal option for him, minus the duck patterns on them, of course. It was an unusually adorable option that Seijuro didn't understand. He had witnessed the boy choose them and put them in the cart that afternoon in the store, and when asked why he chose them, Bokushi merely stated "Ducks are a nice animal" before going back to his own business.

Seijuro didn't question his logic.

While Bokushi was a pain in the neck most of the night, Seijuro had to admit that it was pretty amusing seeing a five-year-old in duck-patterned flannels staring intensely down at a shogi board as if he was diffusing a bomb. That was one sight he'd never seen before.

By the time Seijuro had made preparations for school the next day, it was around nine-thirty, which wasn't the ideal time a child should be awake, so he decided to finish things up for the night.

"Bokushi, it's about time you went to bed."

Bokushi was still staring down at the shogi board. "I've almost finished," he said, completely immersed in the game.

"Well, finish the game you're playing then so we can both sleep."

"Okay."

Seijuro went to go and set his uniform out while he waited, but when he finished, he turned around and found all the pieces on the board in a completely different position.

"I thought you said you'd put it away after you finished the game," Seijuro said, his voice laced with disapproval.

"I know," said Bokushi. "I didn't finish yet."

Seijuro was definitely not stupid. He could clearly see that Bokushi rearranged the board while he wasn't looking. And if this were still the same game he was playing two minutes ago, Seijuro knew there were only about five moves he needed to make to win. Considering the fact that every piece was in a different place, that was most definitely not five moves.

"Bokushi, bed. Now."

"Wait until I finish."

"You already finished, now put it away."

"Just one second."

The stubbornness was cute this morning, but it was night, Seijuro was tired, and he was having precisely none of Bokushi's nonsense, so he lifted him off the floor for the second time that night, making Bokushi thrash around.

"Wh-What do you think you're doing?!" he exclaimed.

"Taking you to bed," Seijuro answered.

"Unhand me you ape!"

"How are you to call me an ape when you're thrashing about and screeching like a monkey?"

"Put me down!"

"No. We're going to bed."

"Never. Viva la résistance!"

Seijuro sighed as he slung him over his shoulder and walked over to the bed, taking no mind of Bokushi attempting to injure him by hitting his fists against his back, which, by the way, was causing zero damage. Had Seijuro been less tired, he would have laughed at his valiant but futile struggle.

Turning off the lamp next to the bed and slipping under the duvet, Seijuro was surprised that Bokushi was still trying to break free of his hold, so he just wrapped his arms around Bokushi's waist to prevent him from moving, and waited. Soon, the thrashing became less and less, and then it stopped altogether, the sound of rustling sheets being replaced by Bokushi's heavy breathing.

Seijuro smirked. "What's this? Have you finally finished your tantrum?"

Bokushi huffed. "I just decided that I would spare you my wrath tonight."

"Right, of course. My mistake."

"You'll never get away with this next time," Bokushi said angrily. "I am-"

"Absolute, I know," Seijuro finished, rolling his eyes at the statement. Bokushi growled at him for cutting him off. "Just try and sleep, please."

"...I shall consider it."

As if you had a choice, Seijuro thought. He exhaled deeply before closing his eyes. "Goodnight, Bokushi." He heard a reluctant grumble before Bokushi actually said goodnight back, but he accepted it nonetheless. At least everything was now taken care of so he could finally close his eyes and fall asleep.

Or so he thought.

If anyone could win the award for the most obnoxious person to sleep with, it would be Bokushi. Seijuro had barely closed his eyes for ten minutes before the younger of the two started moving around.

"Seijuro-nii."

"Hmm?"

"I have to use the bathroom."

Seijuro sighed he shifted around in bed so Bokushi could get down. The younger boy got off the bed and opened the door to the bathroom. He didn't even get one step inside before Seijuro heard his name being called again.

"Seijuro-nii."

"Yes?"

"I can't find the light switch."

"It's to the left of the door, remember?" Seijuro muffled from under the covers. A click was heard, so he must have found it. Seijuro assumed he was needed for nothing else, so he tried to go back to sleep when...

"Seijuro-nii."

"What is it?"

"...I can't reach the sink."

Seijuro officially felt like ramming his head against a wall.

He buried his face into the pillow and groaned, wallowing in his self-pity for a few seconds before sitting up in bed.

"Alright, I'm coming," he mumbled, before trudging over to the bathroom and having to raise Bokushi up to the sink so he could wash his hands. When that was done, Seijuro switched off the lights and allowed Bokushi to crawl in first and then he entered the bed second.

Even though Bokushi had the most energy out of the two of them, through some miracle, he actually fell asleep first much to Seijuro's surprise. He thought that was a good thing since it meant he wouldn't have to get up anymore, but that was before he was aware of Bokushi's sleep habits.

Habit number one: Bokushi was an extreme fidgeter. It was like no position was comfortable for him, so every few minutes he had to move around. Seijuro did not appreciate the extra noise pollution since he preferred to sleep in silence, but it wasn't like he could tell him to stop. These were involuntary movements after all. However, that still didn't mean he liked it when a hand or a leg was jabbing him uncomfortably from the side. It made the experience all the less pleasant.

Habit number two: Bokushi also tended to mumble a lot. Now, Seijuro wasn't sure if he should classify this as annoying or entertaining since only God would know what this boy was talking about in his sleep as he turned every which way. Maybe Akashi would enjoy this habit one day when he didn't have to wake up at seven.

Habit number three: Bokushi didn't like sharing the duvet. He'd wrap himself around the duvet and cling onto it so tightly that Seijuro barely had any for himself.

Now that he was witnessing all of this firsthand, Seijuro prayed to whatever god out there that was still invested in looking out for him that he didn't display this type of behavior during training camps in either Teiko or Rakuzan. He'd probably die of embarrassment if someone had video or photo evidence of any of this, whether it was fidgeting or mumbling.

Seijuro shivered. He didn't realize how freezing his room was. Well, of course, Bokushi wouldn't have noticed, completely content with all the warmth that he had. He didn't sit well with the idea of his younger brother sleeping so peacefully under the covers while he slowly developed hypothermia. So, he tried to make him surrender the covers without waking him up.

At first, Bokushi was not giving up the covers at all. When Seijuro did as much as touch the duvet, he'd mumble something incoherent in his sleep before pulling them closer and turning the other way. It took him several tries to make him loosen his grip. Finally, when he did, he was able to get some warmth back. He felt the bed shift again and he looked over at Bokushi. He may have been sleeping, but he didn't look all that happy getting some of the cover taken away as a shudder racked his body and he shuffled closer to the decidedly warm body of Seijuro.

Seijuro was taken aback as Bokushi tucked his head under his chin and had one hand gripping the fabric of his t-shirt as if to prevent him from going anywhere. Only then did he seem satisfied, and he stopped moving around. Seijuro stared, perplexed at Bokushi's rather affectionate behavior. He almost wanted to wake him up and ask him if he was aware of what he was doing, but he couldn't bring himself to do it after seeing how peaceful his face was. He sighed and closed his eyes as he draped his arm over the child protectively and allowed a smile to slip onto his face.

Habit number four: he clung to people in his sleep.

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