Chapter Text
Furihata remembered everything.
Well, maybe not everything. A good portion of his birthday night was a complete blur, except for a couple of Kagami’s hilarious attempts at a rhythm game and some inventive new swear words from Kawahara. But he did remember the important things, like being a nervous wreck around Akashi, constantly worrying that his newfound feelings were way too obvious, and deciding that beer might be the liquid courage he needed to act normally around his best friend.
And things like the feel of Akashi’s lips against his, the low moan in his throat as he threaded fingers through crimson locks, the delectable gasp that escaped when their hips rolled together--
“Furi, look out!”
Furihata jerked his head up just in time to see an orange sphere rocketing his way. The next thing he knew, he was flat on his back staring at the gymnasium ceiling, stars clouding his vision. The squeak of sneakers sounded in his ears as his teammates ran to his aid, hovering over him with concerned faces.
“Kuroko, I think you killed him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Kagami-kun. He’s still breathing.
“He took an ignite pass to the face! If he’s not dead, he should be!”
“Out of the way, morons!” Riko shouted, pushing the boys out of the way. She knelt beside him, her mouth twisting into a frown as she examined the damage. “How are you feeling, Furi?”
Furihata closed his eyes and groaned. The truth of it was he felt awful, and it had very little to do the pounding in his head. “I’m fine… I think.”
He pushed himself off the ground and up to sitting. The world swam around him, and he clutched his head to make it stop.
“I don’t think you’re fine,” Riko said, her arms crossed over her chest. “Tsuchida, take him to the infirmary. Don’t let him do anything stupid. And the rest of you! Back to practice!”
“Here, Furi. Let me help you.” Furihata looked up to see Tsuchida offering a hand out to him, a patient smile on his face. He let go of his head slowly, and once he’d determined that the spinning had stopped, he took his hand and let the older teen help him to his feet. He swayed on his feet, but was able to stay upright on his own.
“You really don’t look so good,” Tsuchida commented as they left the gym. “Let me know if you need to stop or sit down or anything, okay?
“Y-yeah, okay,” Furihata sighed. He probably looked about as good as he felt.
Ever since he spent the night at Akashi’s apartment, imagining what it would be like to kiss him had completely consumed his thoughts, but even that had done nothing to prepare him for the real thing. It wasn’t as though he’d never kissed anyone before, but it was nothing like this. Kissing Akashi had been amazing . It was like every nerve in his body had been set on fire, and a voracious hunger had been awoken inside of him.
But then Akashi had pushed him away.
He couldn’t remember why. He couldn’t even remember if Akashi had given a reason. But what did the reason for it matter, anyway? The end result was still the same. Furihata was only thankful that Akashi was drunk too, because he didn’t seem to remember any of it. Or if he did, he hadn’t spoken a word about it, which might mean he just wanted to ignore it and stay as friends.
But can I really stay as friends at this point?
“Hey, Furi?”
Furihata jumped at the sound of his name, and another wave of dizziness overtook him. He stumbled a step, but Tsuchida caught him and kept him steady.
“Whoa, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Tsuchida said, frowning in concern. “Are you really okay, man? Your injury aside, you’ve been really distracted lately. Is something going on?”
Furihata stared down at his feet. There was no possible way he could tell Tsuchida everything, but he desperately needed to talk to someone . Too much had happened, and for the most part, he’d kept it all to himself. It was starting to eat away at him. Plus, Tsuchida was the only other guy on the team with real dating experience. Maybe he could help.
“U-um, yeah, actually,” he said, shifting from one foot to the other. “Th-there’s uh… Someone that I like.”
“Really?” Tsuchida’s face brightened immediately. “That’s great! Who is she? Do I know her?”
“Oh, uh,” Furihata stammered, wincing at the mention of ‘she.’ Definitely no way he could tell him everything. “No, sh-she… uh, goes to another school. B-but, it’s, um… Kind of a weird situation. And I don’t know what to do.”
Tsuchida raised a brow. “How is it weird?”
“It’s just, well…” Furihata scrambled for an idea how to phrase it without being obvious who he was referring to. Maybe he should’ve thought this out more. “H-Have you ever met someone that you liked as a friend, but then… You realized you might like them as a lot more than a friend?”
“Sure I have. That’s how it was with me and my girlfriend,” Tsuchida replied, smiling. “We sat next to each other in first year and hung out as friends all the time. I thought she already had a boyfriend for the longest time, so I never even thought of her in a romantic way until I found out she didn’t.” He scratched his head. “That kind of thing is pretty common though, don’t you think? I wouldn’t call it weird.”
“W-Well, I meant… Like realizing you like someone that you never thought you’d ever want to date.” Furihata could feel the heat rising to his face. It was embarrassing enough to think this sort of stuff, but it was a whole new level of awkward to actually admit it out loud.
Tsuchida’s face turned suddenly serious. “You’re not getting involved with someone shady, are you?”
“Wh-what? No!” Furihata answered indignantly. “I meant more like someone that’s not my type. At all. Like the exact opposite of what I thought my type was.” My type being girls , of course, he thought with an inward sigh.
“Oh,” Tsuchida replied, his brows creased in thought. “Well, that’s not really something you can help, is it? You like who you like.”
“Y-yeah, but… Suddenly thinking of hi--h-her as more than a friend is kind of weird. We were really good friends and then I get all these feelings… I don’t know what to do. What if I say something and then realize I don’t actually like her? I don’t want to mess up what we already have…”
“Yeah, I can understand that,” Tsuchida said, nodding sagely. “What was it that made you realize you liked her as more than a friend?”
Furihata’s face burned once again. “I… I saw them kissing someone else. And I realized that I wanted to be the one to do that.”
“Whoa,” Tsuchida replied, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “I’d say that’s a pretty good indication of your feelings. Why don’t you just say something to her? If she’s your friend, she’ll understand even if she doesn’t feel the same way.” Furihata must have made a strange face, because Tsuchida instantly backtracked. “I-I mean, hey, how about… Do you guys have any friends in common that you could talk to?”
“Huh?” Furihata perked up at that.
“You know, like… Someone that might know whether or not she likes you? You could even ask them to try and find out for you if you think they’d go for it.”
“Oh,” he replied dumbly. Kuroko instantly came to mind; particularly, the approving smile he gave him last summer when he found out about his and Akashi’s friendship. “Y-yeah, actually, there is someone.”
He’d never considered asking Kuroko for help. It would be a big risk to tell Kuroko how he felt about their friend, no matter how he looked at it. But there was also the possibility that Kuroko already knew of Akashi’s preferences, and was perfectly fine with it. He’d never said a word about it, so there was no way to tell. The phantom didn’t seem like the type to raise a big fuss even if he didn’t approve, anyway.
Tsuchida grinned. “It’s Akashi, isn’t it?”
Furihata’s heart stopped.
How could he know he liked Akashi? Was he that obvious? He didn’t even know Tsuchida that well! Were more rumors going around that he didn’t know about? Who started them? His mind was working a mile a minute, trying to come up with excuses to get him out of this horrible situation, but the grin on Tsuchida’s face left him completely defeated. “H-How did you know?”
“Come on, it’s obvious!” Tsuchida laughed. “She’s from another school and you hang out with Akashi all the time. Who else would’ve introduced you?”
“Oh. … Oh!” Furihata laughed nervously, trying to calm the sudden spike in blood pressure. “Y-Yeah, th-that’s right. Akashi introduced us… Um… I-I’ll ask him about it. Th-thanks, senpai.”
“No problem!” Tsuchida beamed. “You know, we were real surprised when you started hanging out with Akashi. I thought you were terrified of him after last year’s Winter Cup!”
“I-I was,” Furihata admitted. Even last spring, when Akashi had visited Seirin to see Kuroko, he’d fled from the redhead like his life depended on it. Now, the thought of Akashi still sent his pulse racing, but for an entirely different reason. “I was wrong about him, though. He’s really nice.”
“Is it true you trained so much to get him to play again?” Tsuchida asked. Furihata nodded. “I heard Fukuda and Kawahara talking about it, but man, I couldn’t believe it. I thought you did it for a girl or something again. We were worried you were trying to get back with your ex.”
“Worried?” Furihata asked, confused. “Wh-why would you be worried?”
“She broke your heart!” Tsuchida replied, as though it was the most obvious answer in the world. “Everyone was worried about you, the coach and captain especially. They’re in the same class that your ex’s new boyfriend was in, and apparently Riko almost got into a fist fight with him at one point. I guess the first term of the year was really tense, until they finally settled things. Turns out the guy didn’t even know Haruka had a boyfriend when they started hanging out.” He sighed and shook his head. “We all wanted to help you, but, well… We weren’t sure how. You didn’t want to talk about anything and all we had to go on were rumors.”
Furihata’s eyes widened. “Wh… Why are you telling me this now?”
Tsuchida shrugged. “You’re finally talking to people. I just want you to know we’ve got your back. We’re a team, not just on the court.” He smiled. “It seems like you hanging out with Akashi has done you a lot of good, though. Hopefully he’ll be able to help you with that girl too!”
Furihata laughed again, still awkward, but with a warmth spreading through his chest. He had more people looking out for him than he’d ever imagined. He felt silly for ever feeling like he had to shoulder his burdens all alone. Wasn’t that what he was telling Akashi not to do this whole time? It was time to start practicing what he preached.
He’d come too far to back down from a challenge now.
“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Tsuchida-senpai. I’ll… I’ll talk to him. Promise.”
Furihata flopped back onto his bed with a frustrated sigh.
He’d never considered just how difficult it was to get Kuroko alone to talk to him. When he wasn’t at Kagami’s side, he was nigh impossible to find. The couple times he had actually managed to find the blue haired phantom by himself, he couldn’t muster up the courage to say something before someone else came along.
What was he supposed to say? Should he say exactly what he wanted straight out, or would that be too much to handle? But how could he lead into it slowly? He didn’t want to drag this out any longer than he needed to.
He stared at his phone, silently deliberating over what to do. If he couldn’t catch Kuroko alone during the day, then calling or texting him was his only option. He really didn’t want to have this conversation over the phone, but he could at least set up a meeting of some sort.
Furihata stared at the blank message screen, trying to decide what write, when his phone abruptly began to ring, causing him to shriek and drop the device on his face.
“Ow! Who the--?” He picked the phone back up, and checked to see who was calling. His mouth went dry at the name printed across the screen. He accepted the call, holding the phone to his ear gingerly.
“H-Hello?”
“Good evening, Kouki.” Akashi’s smooth voice sent jolts of electricity surging through Furihata’s nerves. How on earth had he never noticed how nice his voice was? Then again, he was noticing a lot of things about the redhead lately that he hadn’t before.
“H-Hey, Sei! What, um, what’s up?”
Quiet laughter answered him. “Are you alright? You sound awfully wound up.”
You have no idea, Furihata thought, fighting the urge to groan. Acting like everything was normal wasn’t going to be easy. He was a terrible liar.
“Y-Yeah! I’m fine! I just, uh, got… Hit in the face with a basketball at practice yesterday, and, uh… I guess my head’s still kind of fuzzy?”
“What?” Akashi replied urgently. “Kouki, are you injured? Why did you not tell me as soon as it happened?”
“Wha--No! I’m fine! I promise!” Furihata assured him. He smacked his palm over his face, wondering how much further he was going to dig himself into this hole. “I-I didn’t think it was a big deal. I went to the nurse and she said everything was fine. It was my own fault for getting distracted during practice.”
“Well, I’m relieved to hear you’re not hurt…” Akashi said, “But you are usually very focused during games. I cannot imagine something breaking your concentration. Perhaps… There’s something bothering you?”
“N-No!” Furihata replied a little too quickly. “I’m fine! J-just, uh, training a lot lately! Winter Cup coming up and all that! M-maybe I just need to rest some more!” He broke off into nervous titters, the silence on the other end of the line deafening. He was terribly tempted to throw his phone across the room and scream into his pillow.
“... Yes, perhaps you should,” Akashi responded. Was it Furihata’s imagination, or did he sound the slightest bit disappointed? “Anyways, Kouki… I called because I had some things to ask you about the company party you are to attend.”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Furihata felt a weight lift from his shoulders at the change in topic. The weight instantly returned threefold when he recalled that he was going to said party to talk with Akashi’s father . “U-Um… What about it?”
“I would like to take care of the formal attire needed for the event,” Akashi continued. “If you are free this weekend, I can schedule an appointment for a fitting.”
“A f-fitting? L-like, as in a tailored suit? I-I figured I could just rent something…” Furihata felt anxiety creeping up his spine again.
“My father insists, I’m afraid,” Akashi explained, chuckling at the thought. “Since you are a guest he invited personally, your appearance will reflect on him. He said he will pay for the expenses as well. I apologize, I know it is an inconvenience.”
Furihata couldn’t help but feel like he would be picking out the clothes he’d wear to his own funeral. “It’s not that it’s an inconvenience, i-it’s just… th-this seems like a lot to go through just to talk to your dad…”
“I must agree with you,” Akashi said, sounding perplexed. “I haven’t the slightest clue what my father has in mind. His actions have been rather strange lately.” He sighed. “I truly am sorry to be putting you through this, Kouki. If you ever feel like it is too much of a burden, I would not hold it against you if you--”
“No!” Furihata shouted into the receiver, a blush immediately creeping up at how desperate the cry was. “I-I mean… No, you don’t have to worry about that, Sei. It’s just going to a party and talking to your dad. It’s really not a big deal. Especially if it helps you out.”
Akashi sighed contentedly, and Furihata could hear the smile placed upon his lips. “Kouki… I can never express my gratitude for all you’ve done. You are too good to me.”
“I-I don’t know about that…” Furihata replied nervously, recalling vividly how he’d taken full advantage of Akashi in his drunken state just a couple weeks ago. The image of his friend lying beneath him, eyes half lidded and lips swollen, floated into his mind. He tried to quash the memory of Akashi moaning into his mouth, his smooth melodic voice becoming needy and undone, but his body wasn’t going to let him forget it so easily.
“U-Um, s-so, anyway!” he continued, trying to steer his thoughts back toward more innocent topics. “I’m free on Sunday, if that works for you.”
“I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you, actually,” Akashi said, despondent. “I had wanted to come, but there is too much I must get done here to allow a trip out of town. I apologize.”
“Oh.” He couldn’t hide his disappointment. He hadn’t seen Akashi since his birthday, and at the rate they were going, he wouldn’t see him again until the Winter Cup. He was nervous to see him again after all that had happened, but when all was said and done, Akashi was still his best friend. For now, at least. “W-Well, I’ll just have to hope I don’t pick out something too dumb looking without you there.”
Akashi laughed. “The staff there is very helpful. You’ll be in good hands. And…” He paused for a long moment. “I… I’m certain you’ll look handsome in whatever you choose.”
Furihata’s eyes widened, his cheeks flushing once again. Did Akashi… Just call him handsome?
“N-No way,” he laughed nervously. “I-It doesn’t matter what I wear, I’m gonna look like a pile of garbage standing next to you. Y-you always look… Um… P-perfect.” Oh hell, what was he saying? He wanted to crawl into a hole and die from embarrassment.
“I… I cannot say I agree but… Th-thank you, Kouki.” Akashi cleared his throat. “A-anyhow… It is late, and it sounds as though you need your rest. I… hope you have a good night.”
“U-um, yeah,” Furihata agreed. “Y-You too, Sei. Sleep well.”
He hung the phone up, his mind working as quickly as his heart was beating. Was he reading too much into this? Was that comment completely innocent -- or was Akashi actually flirting with him? And did he flirt back?!
He was in way over his head. He needed help. Now.
He grabbed his phone again, this time not hesitating to send Kuroko a lengthy message.
Sunday came all too quickly for Furihata’s liking. He still had no idea what to say to Kuroko, or even how to broach the topic, but inviting him along for the suit fitting was a good enough excuse to talk to him alone, without any worry of someone else barging in mid-conversation. It hadn’t taken much to bribe the phantom man into joining him, just the promise of a vanilla milkshake and a stop at the bookstore after they were finished.
Of course, he did let Kuroko know that he wanted to talk to him about someone. He didn’t bother to say who, because he knew his teammate would figure out who he was referring to easily enough. Kuroko wasn’t stupid.
Furihata bounced from foot to foot, checking his watch every couple seconds. “Come on,” he mumbled to himself. “I just wanna get this over with…”
“Get what over with, Furihata-kun?”
He screeched, whirling around and facing Kuroko with wide eyes. “Y-You nearly gave me a heart attack! How long have you been here!?”
Kuroko shrugged. “Only a few minutes ago. I was curious to see how long it would take for you to notice.” He blinked up at Furihata placidly. “You seem awfully high-strung lately, Furihata-kun.”
“W-w-well, yeah,” he replied, blushing down at the ground. “I-I guess I’ve been kinda stressed out…”
“Ah,” Kuroko replied, “About the person you mentioned? Is it perhaps someone that you like?”
It’s now or never, Furihata thought to himself. He took in a deep breath. “Yeah, it is. It’s… It’s actually someone you know. I wanted to ask you about them.”
“Someone I know?” Kuroko parroted, tilting his head. “I assume you are not referring to someone from Seirin.”
“That’s right,” Furihata said, color surging to his cheeks. He couldn’t believe he was going through with this. “It’s… Someone you went to middle school with. S-someone I met through basketball.”
Kuroko stared at him wordlessly, his large blue eyes boring a hole into his soul. Furihata shifted under that intense gaze, awaiting his friend’s answer. There could be no mistake who he was referring to.
The phantom rose his brows a fraction, his features otherwise remaining blank. “I see,” he said, quietly. “So you have a crush on Momoi-san.”
Furihata nearly choked. “What!?”
“If you are asking because of her feelings towards me, then you don’t need to worry. I have only ever seen Momoi-san as a friend, and I’m sure that--”
“Whoa, Kuroko, hold on a minute!” Furihata said, waving his arms frantically. “I-it’s not Momoi-san!”
“Is that so?” Kuroko asked, still expressionless. “But she is the only girl from my middle school that we both know. If it’s not her, then who could it be?” He continued to stare. Furihata could feel his will weakening every moment. He was doing this on purpose, wasn’t he?
“I-It’s…” Furihata took a deep breath, and clutched his head in his hands, screwing his eyes shut. “It’s Sei!!”
“I know it is, Furihata-kun. I was only teasing you.”
“Y-you… Huh?” He looked up in confusion, slightly annoyed at the small, knowing smile now on Kuroko’s face. “Y-You knew?”
“I’ve known ever since last summer,” Kuroko admitted. “When I saw how differently you acted around each other, I was quite sure.”
“Last summer?” he asked, incredulously. “B-But I didn’t like him back then!”
The phantom shrugged. “Perhaps you were not aware of it, but it was very obvious to me.”
Furihata groaned. Somehow this was worse than if Kuroko hadn’t been accepting. Had he really liked Akashi for that long and just hadn’t realized it? How did that even work? Had Akashi realized it too? Had he--
“W-Wait a second,” he said, taking deep breaths to calm himself. “Y-you said how differently we acted around each other… Are you saying h-he likes me too?”
“... I don’t know, Furihata-kun,” Kuroko replied, now somber once more. “I think you know Akashi-kun much better than I do now. You should talk to him.”
“T-talk?” Furihata repeated, his voice cracking. “I can’t just talk to him! What am I supposed to say? What if he doesn’t like me back? I-I’ve never…” He shook his head. “This is different from any crush I’ve ever had before. W-with girls, I could always kind of tell if they liked me, or if they were flirting with me. B-but I’ve never liked a guy before! And I haven’t had any close friends like this in a long time… I don’t know if we’re acting like normal friends or like… Y’know…”
“I see,” Kuroko said. “For whatever it may be worth, Akashi-kun seems to treat you very differently than any other friend. He has never said anything to me directly, however…” He paused, deliberating. “... I really think you should just talk to him.”
Furihata chewed his lip. “But couldn’t him treating me differently just be a ‘best friends’ kind of thing?”
“It could be,” he conceded. “That is for you to decide. Are there things he has said or done that you believe he would do to anyone close to him?”
The night at Akashi’s apartment came to mind, and Furihata felt another blush creep up on him. His face was going to change color permanently if he kept this up. “I… I guess you have a point there.”
Kuroko nodded. “Even if he does not feel the same, Akashi-kun is not the type to throw away friendships because of a few bumps in the road. He will understand.”
“Th-thanks, Kuroko,” Furihata said, his shoulders slumping in relief. “I’ll talk to him, just… I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance.”
“Why don’t you tell him at this party you are going to?” The corner of Kuroko’s mouth quirked into a smile. “You will look nice when you confess, at least.”
Furihata groaned, dropping his face into his hands. “That’s if his dad doesn’t kill me first. Or if I don’t have a heart attack from trying to talk to him first.” He gulped. “I-I’m really not looking forward to that party… At least it’s after the Winter Cup, though. That’ll be one less thing to worry about.”
“Oh.” Kuroko pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. “Speaking of the Winter Cup, Momoi-san gave me this. Take a look.”
Furihata took the proffered piece of paper, unfolding it quizzically. He looked it over carefully. “The Winter Cup brackets?”
“Yes,” Kuroko replied. “It appears we will be facing Rakuzan in the semi-finals, if we win all of our matches.”
It’d been so long since Furihata had stood on the court with Akashi. Their weekly training sessions over the summer seemed like an entire lifetime ago. He’d nearly forgotten how all of this started in the midst of everything that had happened recently, but now the paper in his hands was a solid reminder of why he’d come this far, and for whom.
I’ll do it for you!
Suddenly, his anxiety melted away in favor of heated excitement. He’d get to play with Akashi in a real match. He’d get to show him exactly how far he’d come from the cowardly mess he was back in April.
He folded the paper up and grinned at his friend. “I think you mean when we win.”