Chapter Text
It took a while for Tetsuya to calm down.
They were still sitting at the front entrance. The floor was cold under Seijuurou, the door hard against his back. But Tetsuya was soft and warm in his lap, so it wasn’t so bad after all.
Tetsuya’s sobs were slowly dying down. Seijuurou didn’t take that as a sign to relent, though. He kept whispering words of reassurance into Tetsuya’s ears. Running his hand over Tetsuya’s hair was becoming more than just a soothing motion—it was turning into a pleasure.
Tetsuya’s hair was baby-soft. Seijuurou really liked the way it felt. But when Seijuurou’s hand drifted towards the back of Tetsuya’s head, he felt something there that made him frown.
There were uneven ridges. It felt like an old scar. A big one.
It was then that Seijuurou took notice of the interior of the apartment. It was neater than he’d expected, judging from the weathered exterior. The hardwood floor was scrubbed clean and the furniture were old but dust-free. It was obvious that someone had put a lot of effort into keeping it clean and comfortable. However, there were beer bottles strewn across the table and piled in the trash can.
Tetsuya chose that moment to jerk back, flinging himself away from Seijuurou bodily as if his touch suddenly burned him. His face was a bright crimson.
“I’m…” Tetsuya swallowed, trying to find his voice. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Akashi-kun.”
Tetsuya bit his lip and looked down. He wouldn’t meet Seijuurou’s eyes. It seemed like he had regained control over his emotions, but to Seijuurou, he still looked like he wanted to cry.
Tetsuya had said that Seijuurou would be “disappointed” in him. That wasn’t something someone without a prior experience of emotional hurt would use. Someone had once witnessed Tetsuya’s emotional breakdown and called him a disappointment. Someone had hurt Tetsuya deeply.
By not leaving, Seijuurou should’ve conveyed on some level that he wasn’t disappointed by any means. However, it was obvious that this wasn’t the kind of wound that would be easy to heal.
Seijuurou stood up. Tetsuya first flinched back in surprise. Then he stared in bewilderment at Seijuurou’s extended hand.
“Let’s go out, Tetsuya.”
Tetsuya’s eyes were fixed around Seijuurou’s neck—not quite meeting his eyes but close enough. “Go where?”
“I have a place in mind. It’s not far.”
Tetsuya panicked. He looked like he didn’t know how to respond to the invitation.
Had no one ever bothered to invite Tetsuya to friendly outings before?
“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea. Don’t you have work to do, Akashi-kun?”
“I’ve cleared my schedule for the day. I want to spend time with you. As a friend.” Seijuurou leaned forward to match Tetsuya’s eye level, smiling when he saw that Tetsuya was showing a very interesting expression—torn between hesitance and want. “Don’t you think of me as your friend, Tetsuya?”
Tetsuya raised his hand, then pulled back halfway. Then raised his hand, and pulled back halfway. To Seijuurou, who was used to facing poker-faced businessmen and boot-licking employees, it was a refreshing sight of pure honesty.
But after Tetsuya repeated the motion for the fifth time, Seijuurou decided to simply grab Tetsuya’s hand and pull him up, then out of the door.
Seijuurou led Tetsuya away from the apartment, then down the street. They didn’t engage in a conversation along the way. They didn’t need to. The silence that stretched between them was a comfortable one. Seijuurou very much preferred this quiet atmosphere of mutual understanding to any fake attempts at building a connection.
Tetsuya seemed content to walk beside him with his head down, not even looking at where they were headed. Shadows lengthened as time ticked on. Tetsuya blended with the darkness so well that it seemed like he would disappear if Seijuurou so much as blinked. The thought disagreed with Seijuurou so much that he immediately tightened his grip on Tetsuya’s hand.
Tetsuya let out a soft sound of surprise, but otherwise didn’t protest and didn’t try to pull his hand out of Seijuurou’s grip.
“We’re here.”
It was an office building, and an abandoned one at that.
It wasn’t much to look at—certainly wouldn’t be what anyone expected to be invited by a friend to. Seijuurou knew for a fact that if it were Ryouta, he’d complain to no end about how gloomy the place was and whine non-stop about switching to a classy café where they could hang out. If it were Daiki, he’d make a jab at Seijuurou for misleading him and then walk off to take a nap.
Tetsuya did none of those. His face was hard to read, but Seijuurou saw a spark of curiosity in his eyes.
They walked right past the front door. The old security guard on shift was snoring so loudly inside his post that he wouldn’t have noticed if the place had been bombed. Seijuurou let him be. The security was just there for formalities anyway; there wasn’t anything really worth guarding inside.
Tetsuya spoke up as they were climbing the stairs. “An office building in the downtown area? It’s just a few blocks away from my apartment, and I never even noticed it.”
“My grandfather built it. He bought this plot of land very cheaply. There wasn’t much in the way of civilization around here back then. But this was where the Akashi Group had its start.”
Their footsteps echoed ominously in the empty building. With the electricity cut off and no one else around, it felt like they had stepped into another world. Tetsuya had every right to be apprehensive. In fact, he should be afraid. He’d only met Seijuurou several days ago, after all.
Tetsuya showed no sign of that, though. It made Seijuurou worry because he was too easily led around for his own good, but it also secretly made him happy.
Tetsuya trusted him.
On the topmost floor, past a long corridor, there was a door that led to what used to be the director’s office. Seijuurou unlocked it with his keys and pushed the door open.
Immediately, light flooded into the dark corridor.
Tetsuya gasped in awe at the view beyond the floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, the sun was setting. The sky was a sea of fire. It bathed them in warm orange rays. Tetsuya’s pale hair looked almost white in the intense light.
Tetsuya wasted no time in getting a better look. He crossed the room in several quick steps, then tentatively placed his palms against the windowpane and looked down.
“Akashi-kun, I can see the whole neighborhood!” Tetsuya gushed with an almost childish glee.
“Indeed. This is the tallest building in the area after all. The view is quite something, no?”
“The houses look like stacking cubes,” Tetsuya commented, looking like he was itching to pick them up with his bare hands and start playing with them.
“My father moved our main office to the commercial center. This place is no longer convenient; it’s so far removed from where our business partners are. He was planning to tear the building down because it was “useless.” Said it was a mistake—an unwise investment. I was inclined to agree with him until recently.” Seijuurou turned his eyes away from the view and set them on Tetsuya, quietly taking in the subtle lines of laughter on his face and his easy honesty. “But now I see that there is value even in the most seemingly-unworthy imperfections.”
“Akashi-kun, are you using this old building as an analogy for me?”
Seijuurou could honestly admit that he was taken aback by Tetsuya’s sudden perceptiveness. He was about to apologize for being rude, but instead of being offended, Tetsuya put a hand on his chin and started thinking deeply. He nodded, then said, “Yes, I think I can see the resemblance.”
“You…can?”
Tetsuya turned to Seijuurou with a pout. “Akashi-kun, please don’t make fun of me. I’m fully aware that my behavior is often seen as off-putting by others.” Tetsuya looked up with a pensive look in his eyes, slowly tracing the dark spots in the ceiling. The building was old, and although Akashi’s father did spare some cash every now and then to maintain its condition, heavy downpours still caused leakages. “I can’t fully control my emotions. I try to suppress them as much as possible, but there are times when they just…bubble over. It’s unstoppable. Almost like a force of nature. It was worse when I was younger. I’d have a major breakdown like the one you saw just now over the smallest things.”
Seijuurou couldn’t imagine how it must’ve felt. He was always perfect, always in control of everything, including himself. To have his rationality shoved aside as he watched from the bylines as emotions took control of his body, as if there was someone else inside…
Seijuurou shuddered to think of it.
“The cause wasn’t even that big of a deal. I’m sorry for showing you such a pathetic sight, Akashi-kun.”
“Tetsuya, stop looking down on yourself.”
Tetsuya’s gaze jumped to meet Seijuurou’s, startled.
“Did someone tell you that you were pathetic? Did someone say you were off-putting?” Seijuurou advanced. He planted one elbow against the window to keep Tetsuya from slipping away while the other snaked into the mass of soft blue hair, feeling the old scar stamped to the back of Tetsuya’s head like a brand, a constant reminder of how undesirable he was. “Did someone hurt you for being you?”
Tetsuya’s eyes were wide as saucers.
“Tetsuya, if you need to get out of that home, I can help you.”
Then, Tetsuya blinked.
“Akashi-kun, did you think that my father was hurting me?”
“Isn’t he?”
“No!” Tetsuya shoved his way out of Seijuurou’s arms, his face a picture of affront. “My father would never hurt me. What made you think that?”
“The beer bottles on the table…”
“He’s just having a hard time. The economy’s been rough. He only drinks two cans per day. They only piled up because I haven’t been in the right state of mind to clean them up since yesterday.”
“But why did he leave you alone?”
Tetsuya flushed at that. “He doesn’t know. I pretended to go to school this morning. I held the breakdown at bay until he was safely away. I can do at least that much. My father loves me, Akashi-kun, and I him. I simply did not want him to worry.”
Seijuurou did not know what to say. He was completely off the mark. That didn’t happen often.
One thing was clear, though: “But someone did hurt you.”
Tetsuya ripped his gaze away from Seijuurou. He stared at the view outside the window in silence. The sun had completely set by now. Only the light of the moon kept the room from being pitch-black.
“Let’s go to Maji Burger.”
Akashi blinked.
“What?”
“It’s time for dinner. And I haven’t had the chance to thank you for helping me with the basketball club and visiting me out of concern today, so it’s my treat.”
And just like that, the tense atmosphere dispersed. There were so many things wrong with Tetsuya’s very unsubtle attempt at changing the topic that Seijuurou once again couldn’t help but laugh. For one, Seijuurou had never had a schoolmate offer to pay for his meals before. If anything, they usually asked him to pay for them.
“Akashi-kun?” Tetsuya tilted his head. “Do you not like burgers?”
“I’ve never had them before, but I look forward to finding out.”
Tetsuya nodded with a very serious expression on his face. “They also serve this amazing vanilla milkshake. I’m sure you’ll like it, Akashi-kun.”
Seijuurou wanted to know so much more about Tetsuya. After all, how could he protect him if he didn’t know what exactly he needed to be protected from? But Seijuurou understood that now wasn’t the right time to pry any further.
Maybe over a glass of this “amazing vanilla milkshake” then.
#
Seijuurou’s hope for a lovely dinner with Tetsuya was dashed not even five minutes after they’d placed their orders and taken a seat at a corner booth.
“Akashi-sama! What a coincidence!”
Shinawa bounded over towards them. Like the loyal follower that she was, Tanaka was not far behind, although at least she intruded much more shamefully.
“What are you doing here alone? You don’t seem like the type to eat at a cheap fast food restaurant like this one.” Shinawa sat down on the empty seat next to Tetsuya and shoved his tray out of the way to make space for her own.
“Excuse me, but you’re being very rude to Tetsuya.”
Shinawa glanced to her right and practically jumped out of her skin. “Kuroko-kun! How long have you been there?”
“The whole time,” Tetsuya mumbled around his straw. It was difficult to detect, but Seijuurou could see that there was a frown line between his eyebrows that definitely hadn’t been there before Shinawa arrived.
Shinawa narrowed her eyes. As if Tetsuya’s very presence was a personal insult to her, her cheery attitude was replaced by an unpleasant bitterness in a flash. “Fancy meeting you here. Might as well tell you, then. Congratulations, your plan worked.”
Tetsuya scrunched up his nose in confusion. “What plan?”
“Oh, don’t play dumb. Since you went as far as to use your connection to Akashi-sama to get a role in our play, our class agreed to give you the most important one.”
Tetsuya stared at the center of Shinawa’s forehead blankly.
“At least look me in the eye, will you? Do you even understand what I’m saying? You’re now officially our class’ Juliet! I hope you’re happy. Thank you very much for ruining this play before it even starts, Kuroko-kun!”
Tetsuya’s face had now gone white as a paper. Seijuurou resisted the urge to slam his hand on the table.
“Shinawa, you’re doing this on purpose. You know he’s not ready for that role.”
“Sorry, Akashi-sama. It’s the class’ decision. You promised you wouldn’t interfere.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and roughly picked her tray back up. “Let’s go find another table, Tanaka. My appetite would be ruined if I stay here. You’re welcome to join us, Akashi-sama.”
Seijuurou didn’t even see the need to grace Shinawa with an answer. He just stared at Tetsuya’s pale face, silently debating what to do or what to say.
He came up with nothing.
Shinawa wanted to embarrass Tetsuya on stage, in front of the whole school.
He’d just promised himself that he would protect Tetsuya, but this was the one thing he couldn’t completely prevent.
He’d be damned if he just sat still and watched it happen, though.