Violent shivering was what woke Kuroko up in the middle of the night. His arms and torso were freezing to death and would not stop its incessant shaking. Every single body part was so uncomfortably cold, yet he was already bundled up with layers and layers of blankets due to the recent winter nights.

In his drowsy haze, he merely thought nothing of it and snuggled deeper into his makeshift cocoon to retain some of its heat. Soon, Kuroko dozed back into a deep sleep.

When the light bluenette's eyes fluttered open in the afternoon, his view of the bright window was blocked by two familiar faces, one filled with worry and the other filled with adoration.

"Mom," he croaked out, sliding an arm out from under the blankets and reaching for his parents, "Dad."

Immediately, his mother clasped his smaller hand into her warm ones and presented him with her motherly smile.

"It's alright, Tetsuya. We'll take care of you," she soothed, patting his hand.

With a damp towel cooling his sweating forehead and the soft, reassuring murmurs of his parents, the light bluenette's eyes slowly closed and he drifted off to dreamland.

Kuroko woke up to a stomachache this time, the chills having subsided for now. He unconsciously rubbed his abdomen in a circular, soothing motion and his face slightly contorted into a look of pain. Something was unpleasantly churning in there and he had a feeling he was going to see it soon.

Maybe it was just something he had ingested the night before. The vanilla shake he had ordered late that night did taste a bit off. Perhaps the milk was spoiled.

Cracking his eyes open, he chanced a look at the clock on his nightstand. The luminescent numbers flashed three hours after midnight. It was way too early for this.

But his stomach thought otherwise because in the next two seconds, Kuroko was already out of his bed and sprinting towards his bathroom.

Chunks and lumps along with warm white liquid climbed out of his throat and projected into his pristine, white toilet. What the heck did I eat? For the next twenty minutes, white matter was constantly being spewed into the bowl. Occasionally, there would be a few hacking, coughing, and choking from the poor little phantom. Tears were flowing freely down his face from lack of air.

After dry heaving for a few more minutes with nothing coming out, the light bluenette deemed it safe to slowly drag himself back into bed.

Again, he thought nothing of the whole situation and blamed it on the drink.

Once his body was securely wrapped in his many layers of blankets, Kuroko instantly blacked out.

Everything felt so hot for the phantom. He was sweating profusely and his breathing was ragged. The light clothing he wore was no help in cooling his body and the futon was digging unbearably hard into his aching back. Blearily opening his eyes, Kuroko caught the sight of his grandmother squeezing out a wet towel into a filled basin and placing it on his warm forehead.

"Grandma," he whispered in a hoarse voice.

Her face was slightly surprised at the awake boy, for it was early in the morning.

"It's alright, Tetsuya," she smiled fondly at her grandson. "I'll take care of you."

And with that comforting note, the phantom soon fell back to sleep.

The morning rays of the newly risen sun peeking out from the closed curtain woke up the light bluenette. He squinted into the bright light and turned over on his side to block it out with his back. Groaning in nausea and pain, he had no other choice but to deem himself sick. Kuroko slowly sat up, grabbing the blankets with him as he went, and reached over to his phone on the nightstand, disregarding the clock flashing an angry seven.

Unlocking the device and languidly scrolling through his contacts, he stopped at the number for the kindergarten he worked at. After a quick sick call to his boss, he carefully placed the phone back down and unceremoniously fell on his back. Burrowing himself deeper into his warm haven, he forced himself to rest for a few more hours.

Kuroko was coughing his lungs out in his bed that night. There was no other life form in his apartment other than himself. Sitting up in bed, he realized just how big his place was without another person living there with him. Everything was so painfully quiet, save for the frequent violent outbursts of his coughing fits.

He had to fill his own basin with water. He had to get his own towel from the cabinet. He had to carry them to his own room. He had wring out his towel and place it on his head every half hour. He had to go out and buy medicine and make his own porridge. And he had no one to depend on, except himself.

"It's alright, Tetsuya," he muttered bitterly to himself, "You can take care of yourself."

It was twelve in the afternoon when Kuroko woke up again. After five hours of sleep, he was still tired and sluggish. Plus, he had somehow accumulated a moderate fever during his nap. It seems this sickness was more stubborn than Kuroko himself.

This wasn't like all the other times he got sick. This was more intense than he thought.

"This is Japanese lunch time rush," Kuroko jokingly told himself, reminiscing on his high school days with the stupid redhead.

Speaking of Kagami, what was he up to nowadays? He distantly remembered him raving about becoming a firefighter during graduation. Firefighters... They put out fires, don't they?

"Help, Kagami-kun," he drunkenly waved his arms around towards the ceiling, "There's a fire in my head. I've fallen and I can't get up."

He chuckled at his own lame joke.

Speaking of old friends, where were his other high school classmates and team members? Are they even still in Japan? Are they dead? Has the HyuuRiko ship sailed yet? And what about his middle school friends? Do they still play basketball? What happened to the Generation of Miracles? Like Kise, Aomine, Momoi, and...

"Akashi-kun..." He quietly called out, looking at his window blissfully.

As if that was the magic word, Kuroko heard the door to his house unlock and open. After a few rustling and footsteps later, said heterochromatic walked into the light bluenette's bedroom and spotted the sickly phantom.

"Long time no see, Tetsuya." Akashi smirked.

"I won't even ask how you got the key to my house, considering I have the only copy," he softly deadpanned in reply, sitting up in his bed.

At this comment, the redhead chuckled and walked up to Kuroko's bed, sitting on the edge next to him to examine how bad the illness was. As he was figuring out how much medical attention Kuroko needed, the phantom was looking at the color of the redhead's sweater.

It wasn't just a normal red. It was like a dark red. Orange red? No, too bright. Blood red? No... Not dark enough. It seemed closely related to the color one would see on a table. What was it called? Ma... Mah...

"Mahogany," Kuroko dreamily smiled to himself at solving the puzzle.

Akashi paused at feeling the light bluenette's forehead, confused as to why he said that. But he just disregarded it, thinking the phantom was a bit delirious from the fever.

"You just have a fever. Just some medicine, lukewarm bath, and soup will cure it in no time." He informed.

"Fever..." Kuroko solemnly repeated, the only thing he heard out of all that mumbo jumbo Akashi spouted out.

"It's alright, Tetsuya. I will take care of you," the redhead smiled softly.

Hearing his sudden proclamation, the light bluenette teared up.

"Thank you," he quietly sobbed, grabbing on to the former captain's sweater.

At this, Akashi merely wrapped his arms around him and patted his head comfortingly.

"No need to thank me, Tetsuya. I will always be there for you." He lightly kissed the top of his forehead as a silent promise.

After giving Kuroko some medicine and a warm bath, Akashi handed him a bowl of steaming hot soup.

"But I hate tofu soup, Akashi-kun." The light bluenette pouted, crossing his arms childishly.

"And I love it." The redhead retorted teasingly.

"You're not the one eating it, though."

"So? I can taste it vicariously through you eating it."

"That's stupid." Kuroko blandly stated.

"Of course it is. Now, eat up." The heterochromatic scooped a spoonful of soup and gently blew on it, holding it towards the phantom's lips.

Still pouting at the redhead, Kuroko begrudgingly took the bite and chewed on the small piece of tofu. As he was chewing on the spongy cube, the light bluenette began to think.

"Say, Akashi-kun," he prompted after swallowing.

"Hmm?" The redhead scooped another spoonful and fed it to him.

"Back in middle school, why were you acting like such a creep sometimes?" He asked after swallowing the second bite.

"... I don't know what you're talking about," Akashi quickly replied, forcing another spoonful into the phantom's mouth.

Seeing the unexpected reaction from his former captain, he pieced two and two together and finally reached a conclusion.

"Did you... perhaps... like me and that was your way of getting my attention, Akashi-kun?" He looked up at the speechless redhead.

"What? No, I was just... testing out a social experiment...?" He tried to persuade futilely, attempting to feed the phantom with another spoonful of soup.

Kuroko lowered Akashi's arm holding the spoon and chuckled, amusement in his eyes.

Alright," the redhead put the spoon back in the bowl and placed it down on the nightstand, "I confess: I like you. Happy now?"

"Quite." The phantom smiled brightly, holding one of Akashi's hands. "So, why that method?"

"My father... may have... forgotten to tell one of my tutors to teach me how to socialize with people I like..." The heterochromatic confessed, squeezing Kuroko's hand slightly in embarrassment.

"I see." The shorter of the two nodded.

"So..." Akashi looked at him expectantly.

"So what?" The other tilted his head in question.

"Do you like me?"

At the uncertainty in the fearsome captain of the Generation of Miracles' voice, Kuroko laughed softy.

"Of course, Bakashi-kun."

A/N: Thank you for reading.