Chapter Text
It had only been a couple weeks since he first brought Kuroko to their table in the cafeteria, and yet, as the time went by, Kuroko had managed to worm his way in their mismatched group easily without any problem. Kuroko managed to make Izuki, one of the few people whom always appear to take anything seriously, crack a few jokes – even though it's always one of those dark jokes that made him feel like a piece of shit for laughing. He managed to make Hiroshi, the hot-headed, temperamental, hormone-filled teenager to actually do his homework. It had been a shock to all of them when they found Kuroko and Hiroshi in the library, of all places, with books strewn around them and Hiroshi furiously writing notes on his notebook with unwavering focus. It was almost scary; Hiroshi was never focused on anything other than basketball. When Kuroko saw them standing few meters away, with mouths hung open at the display, he casually greeted them and told them that he's helping – most likely keeping an eye on him – Hiroshi with some of his homework.
It was sobering how Kuroko easily influenced them with his quirks, and Hanamiya was eternally grateful now he'd find someone who's normal, sane, and more importantly, has the never-ending patience of a saint.
Hanamiya was sure he almost lost his mind for a few times dealing with his friends, and their clashing antics. But now Kuroko was here, he could spare his blood pressure from spiking in unhealthy level.
It was like he was a natural, getting along with people, that is. Maybe it was the way he talk, soft and sincere – though most of the time he entertained them with the same deadpan and flat tones that always manage to amuse Kazuya – always so friendly, always smiling that small yet kind smile Kuroko would direct at him each time he asked Kuroko if he wanted to hang around him and his friends.
Despite these little facts that Kuroko genuinely enjoyed their company, he was still closed off. Maintaining his distance from them from time to time, never has been the one to initiate contact unless they needed his help.
It was as if Kuroko was holding them on arm's length. Close to reach, yet far enough to protect himself should anything hurt him.
Hanamiya wasn't blind; he could see how several subject would trigger that protective defense mechanism should any of it were mentioned on their casual conversation at lunch. The way Kuroko would absentmindedly slurp his vanilla milkshake he loved so much without uttering a word, how he would gaze at something only he could see with longing, how he would accidentally let something slip only to clam up and try to change the subject into something else, or the fact that he always avoided the topic of basketball whenever it was mentioned– only to pull out a book from his bag and began reading and ignoring them 'till the lunch ended.
Naturally, Hanamiya wasn't the only one who noticed this, and soon his friends had caught up on Kuroko's particular defense mechanism; which led them into a unspoken agreement to never speak of basketball in his presence.
That was not to say that Kuroko avoided the subject completely. Sometimes he would mention it, with a distant gaze that indicate he was lost in a memory; recalling events on his mind with a fond smile – although sometimes it was strained, pained, as if he was restraining himself from shedding drop of tears. It was then that they knew Kuroko loved basketball, whether he acknowledge it or not. And yet, it was clear that something had happened to make Kuroko to have a love-hate relationship with the aforementioned sport.
It was also worth mentioning that most of the time there's always an underlying dark emotion so foreign on the kind Kuroko; a well concealed bitterness he had hidden so well with his fake cheerfulness whenever anyone from Generation of Miracles were mentioned.
Hanamiya found himself intrigued, there has to be something that could cause Kuroko to behave this way, and he wanted to unravel its secret from Kuroko layer by layer until he found the root of it.
But, Hanamiya promised himself he won't pry, at least not until Kuroko was comfortable enough to see them practice. To spend more time with them out of his own conviction. To gain his trust. To help him lift the invisible burden he seemed to carry whenever silence isolated him.
He wouldn't let Kuroko suffer in silence if he could help it. Hanamiya was sure that his friends felt the same way he did towards Kuroko if the look they gave him was any indicator.
"I'm telling you, man, there's some evil plot brewing in this school to drive students insane! Who the hell assign bloody middle school students to build websites? It's not even in the curriculum!"
Hiroshi hadn't stopped complaining about his end of year assignment since the bell to lunch had rang, and it was unlikely that he would stop anytime soon.
"It's your fault for choosing IT as your additional course." Kazuya remarked blandly.
"I thought they'd teach us to build games!"
"Should've specified what you wanted then." Kentaro added with a smirk.
Hanamiya rubbed his forehead. He knew where this conversation going. He knew that when the bell for their fifth period rang, Hiroshi would plead them to help him with his assignment.
And he knew, on the back of his mind, no matter how hard he would try to decline, he would eventually cave in and help him anyway.
"Just so you know, games are harder to code than websites." Kuroko said, amused. "At least with simple websites you'll only have to write a couple thousand lines of codes."
A beat of silence.
"Well, that's considering if you got lucky and actually make your codes work on other computer." He added with a smirk. Hanamiya was almost convinced that Kuroko was secretly enjoying their friend's despair.
Hiroshi however didn't seem to have heard that particular bit of information, what with his gaping mouth and erratic breath, eyes wide and unblinking. One might think he got a heart attack.
"A couple thousand?!" Hiroshi exclaimed with a shrill screech, hand clutching the fabric of his uniform on his chest dramatically. "This is it, guys. I'm not gonna survive this year. Please tell my family I loved them." His head fell to the table with a loud 'thunk' and after five minutes of teasing and probing later, it was clear that Hiroshi had no intention on getting back up.
"Geez, don't be such a drama queen. At least you don't have to write fifty pages essay on English due next week."
The flat stare they aimed at Itsuki made it clear that he didn't have it hard.
"Are we seriously playing this game right now? 'Cuz I still have that Biology report I have to make, as well as Chemistry... and Japanese essays on classic literature." Kazuya announced proudly, as if those stacking homework wouldn't affect his life.
Hanamiya swore he felt his blood pressure rising.
Oh, no. There's no way he's gonna let them off that easily now that the can of worm had been opened. "Is there anyone else who still hasn't finished their homework?" He asked.
Kojiro raised his hand, with Kuroko following soon after.
He raised an unimpressed eyebrow towards Kuroko with a look that clearly said 'really? You too?'.
"In my defense, mine was that group project Ms. Ayanami assigned us yesterday." Kuroko informed him blankly, and Hanamiya heaved a breath of relief. At least he had one less person to worry about.
"Right. Well, let's discuss that matter with others after school." He nodded to Kuroko. "As for you," Hanamiya leveled a glare at his friends. "I swear, if you don't do anything with your studies I'm going to suspend you from practices until Winter Cup ended."
Kojiro, Kazuya, Itsuki, and Hiroshi visibly flinched at the threat. Hanamiya had always takes academic studies seriously. Especially if it involves his friends. He'd act as harsh as drill sergeant just so they could survive another semester. And for him to resort to threats means that he was taking this personally.
...If it wasn't for him, some of them might've kiss their jersey goodbye.
"But if you suspend us, who's gonna fill our position? I doubt those second years are gonna be enough." Kojiro pointed out with confusion.
"Exactly my point, our bench strength is shit. We're gonna lose in no time at all, and it's going to be your fault if it went that way. Do you want the other school to mock us because the players didn't put enough effort on their studies to warrant suspension?" He normally didn't resort to such threat, but he needed to make sure that they understand the gravity of the situation by now. They're third years for God's sake, and if they didn't pull their shit together, they could be held back for a year. It was simply unacceptable if they failed any of their classes just because they're too lazy to do their damn homework.
He needed to calm the hell down.
"Honestly, what do I do with you guys? This is your last year of middle school, if you want to make it through the end of the term, you'd have to take this matter seriously."
The heavy silence settled on the table, neither one of them spoke. Hanamiya was on one of his 'stern coach' mood, and they knew that talking back to him was bad.
"Hey, it's okay. If you want to, Kentaro and I could help them." Kuroko offered sincerely with a small smile.
Kentaro on the other hand looked like he wanted to protest, but the glare Hanamiya sent him silenced any kind of refusal from him.
Hanamiya almost grinned in satisfaction. This was a wonderful opportunity and he didn't want to waste it when it was offered in silver platter.
If Kuroko had willingly offered to help them, it means he was getting more comfortable around them!
Hanamiya silently thanked his – lazy – friends for postponing their homework.
"Right. Might as well make this into group study. When do you guys have free time?"
After they had made an agreement on time and meeting place – Hanamiya's house, Thursday; 5 pm –, they parted ways to their respective classroom. Since they had agreed to forgone their usual practice, they will spend the rest of the week – sans Sunday as Hanamiya and Kuroko need to work on their own group project – trying to catch up onto anything they could finish before they would get swamped with more school work.
Honestly, if this was how Middle school going to be, he dreaded all the time he would spent just doing homework in high school. Especially since Kirisaki Daiichi had to uphold certain standard so that they could be in an even footing with Teikou.
It's not like he cared with their childish rivalry, he just loathed the effect it gave to the other students.
Already he could see several of his classmates with bags under their eyes, walking sluggishly on the halls, or napping on lunch time. It was kind of frightening how close they resembled zombies. Most, if not all, had resigned from their respective clubs. And he didn't blame them at all. He would've followed their footsteps if it wasn't because he was the coach.
Deciding he didn't want to waste his sanity trying to figure out his school stupid management, Hanamiya tried to seek distraction that eventually led his eyes towards his classmate currently walking beside him. Hanamiya wondered if he should ask Kuroko what he thought of the school so far, but he didn't want to interrupt the peaceful tranquility between them. However, that didn't kept Hanamiya from stealing a glance at the back of Kuroko's head from time to time.
There's also something else he needed to know, what made Kuroko want to hung out with them as a group? It was rare, since he always rejected their invitation to go out with them. Of course it would make him curious, the boy always kept his distance from them, after all.
Maybe it was the homework. Maybe he recognize the despair in Hanamiya's eyes as his friends admitted the amount of work they had to do. Hanamiya had seen how Kuroko helped Itsuki and Hiroshi, but he didn't think Kuroko would easily cave in when four of them needed help – not like they would admit it, but Hanamiya knew they were hopeless without him. Kuroko usually only help them one at a time, and even then, it was always in school.
"Staring at me won't make me answer your questions, you know."
Hanamiya blinked. Kuroko was staring at him from the corner of his eyes, face blank from any emotion.
"Right." Hanamiya said. He actually didn't know what to say to Kuroko, and the silence only served to make their journey awkward. "It's just that, I thought you were a hermit." As soon as the words left his lips, Hanamiya soon realized how awful that sounded and cringed inwardly. He always prided himself to be a pretty smart guy, but he couldn't make small talk to save his life.
God, he wanted to bang his head on the nearest wall and hope to get some sort of brain damage now he'd unintentionally hurt Kuroko's feelings.
"Hah." Kuroko chuckled. "Whatever makes you think that? I thought the books I've been bringing to lunch was a pretty good clue."
Hanamiya noted the mirth behind those words, and calmed down considerably. At least Kuroko wasn't that sensitive.
"Well, I don't know what you do in your free time aside from reading books."
This time, it was Kuroko's turn to hum thoughtfully. "You're right. While I love to read, I don't spend all my free time reading books. Sometimes I went to the game center to unwind, you know the one in Harajuku. They have so much games I could spend my entire life polishing my skills."
"Oh, which one is your favorite then?" Hanamiya asked eagerly, this was a good opportunity to gain new insight on the elusive Kuroko and he won't let the chance slip easily.
It seems like today will be a good day.
"Honestly, someone out there ought to make that word illegal. 'What's your favorite food?', 'what's your favorite movie?', 'what's your favorite song?'. One simply can't expect there to be only one thing they like, right?"
Ouch. Sometimes he forgot how direct Kuroko was.
"But if I have to choose favorites, it would always be rhythm games. Followed with first person shooter. Then online MMORPGs..."
"You don't look like the type to me. I thought you were those horror-mystery games fan."
Kuroko only smiled knowingly. "I am, actually. I just prefer to play them when I'm really bored. What about you, then? What do you do to spend your time?"
"Reading and studying."
Kuroko snorted. "Wow. And you told me that I don't look like the gamer type. You certainly don't look like a stereotypical nerd yourself."
Hanamiya was unsure how to respond to the snarky retort, but he need to keep the conversation going somehow. "Beach or mountain?"
"What does that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, you know. This and that."
"Neither. Beach are usually too crowded, and there's not much I can do on mountains."
"Fantasy or documentary?"
This time, it took Kuroko a few minutes to ponder his answer. "Honestly, depends on my mood. Few documentary here and there is good, but then it would get boring."
They continued walking in silence, with Hanamiya occasionally asking Kuroko random questions to dissuade the awkwardness.
It was going well before he accidentally asked Kuroko on his club activities back when he was still a student in Teiko.
And just like that, the wall that he was trying to break around Kuroko were drawn back. Tall and resilient. Thick and unforgiving. Dark and menacing. There was simply no way to describe the hopelessness he felt when Kuroko abruptly shut him out.
The attempt he made to talk were promptly ignored. And he cursed himself for his ignorance.