AN: Holy crap, this is so bloody late. I'm sorry guys! The weeks just pass by so quickly nowadays. School is driving me absolutely mad. Thanks for faves, alerts, and reviews. Regarding the story, they should be filming soon. I just need to set up a bit. Expect one more chapter of GoM bonding and whatnot before it really takes off.

LoVeLeSs AnD bEtRaYeD, Linna, ben4kevin, helcchi (your English is perfectly fine. Thank you very much!), animefan106, FangXavier, animelver14, itachisgurl93, Kanara, hitomi65, iKitsuNeko, neruo12, Lil' P 101, grace, Narutopokefan, Happy, Kaneyi Unomie, and 1 cute guest.

Summary: AU. Five actors. One mysterious writer. All drawn together in the makings of a brand new movie that was written anonymously under the name "Vanira". Fate does have a strange way of bringing the most unlikely people together. GoMxKuroko

[DISCLAIMER] Kuroko no Basuke does not belong to me.

Generation of Acting

Chapter Six: Bright Lights

The sudden flux of talented actors in Japan, all around the same time, became known to all as the Generation of Acting. However, the name was actually created from the discovery of five young prodigies, nicknamed the "miracle actors", because of their natural talent and passionate acting.

The movie business has been on the rise since the miracle actors first debuted. There was one person, however, hidden in the shadows of this flashy business, whose name has been spoken by every top actor in all of Japan; whose movies—every single one of them—broke box-office records. And that person went by the name of "Vanira".

.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

Rubbing his eyes groggily, Aomine rubbed his eyes and smacked around blindly for his phone. Without looking at the screen, he pressed 'end call' and tossed it aside.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP…

"Oh for fuck's sake," the actor growled, finally answering the call. He suspected it would be Akashi, knowing the redhead's personality. Aomine was a little worried about the lecture he'd get for hanging up on the "psychopathic leader from hell"…

"What?" he groaned into the receiver.

"Oh… I apologize. I did not think Aomine-kun would still be sleeping at this hour."

Through his sleepy haze, it took Aomine another moment to recognize the monotone drawl.

"… Tetsu?"

"Yes. Good afternoon."

Aomine sighed in relief, finally opening his eyes and rubbing away the sleep from his face. Glancing at the clock, he was mildly surprised to see it read 1:07 PM… it felt like he'd only fallen asleep an hour ago.

Then again, it always felt like that to him.

"Yeah, how did you—" A yawn broke his sentence. "—get my number?"

"Kise-kun gave it to me, along with many others."

Aomine snorted. "That sounds like him. So, what's up?" The actor slid off his bed and padded down to the kitchen, craving a cold drink, never mind the blasting air conditioning in his large house.

"I received the filming schedule today. Did Aomine-kun check his mail yet?"

Aomine shut the fridge, uncapping a bottle of Sapporo's. Drinking in the morning always got him scolded by someone (be it Satsuki, his manager, or whoever catches him doing it), but truthfully, lectures usually went in one ear and out the other.

He took a swig. "Mn…" He glanced over at the stack of mail on his dinner table with trepidation. Did he really have to look through it all…?

"Uh, yeah, I did," he lied.

A soft sigh on the other end of the line, and Kuroko said with mild exasperation, "Have you at least read through the script?"

"Uh, yeah," he lied again. He eyed his quickly emptying bottle mournfully.

Another sigh. "The first shooting date is approaching."

"Yeah, yeah, I know—"

"I was wondering if Aomine-kun would like to go through the first few scenes with me."

"Sure, I guess. I don't think I have any…" He trailed off, hearing the sounds of childish laughter and screams in the background. "Tetsu, where are you?"

"Ah, I apologize. The noise must be very disruptive." Shuffling sounds, and a few moments where Aomine heard the faint sounds of Kuroko's breathing and the children fading into the background. "Is that better?"

Aomine's curiosity peaked. "S'fine. Where are you? Want me to meet you there or something?"

"I'm at Seishiken Daycare. I do not think this would be a good place to meet."

A… daycare? Aomine spun his empty bottle idly on the counter. What was Tetsu doing at a daycare?

He grunted in response, mildly unsure.

"… Aomine-kun?"

"Lunch."

"… Lunch?"

"Uh… Yeah." Aomine coughed into his fist, embarrassed for some unknown reason. "I haven't eaten yet."

"Alright," Kuroko conceded. "Where?"

He shrugged, before realizing that Kuroko couldn't see him. "'Dunno."

"There is a new restaurant nearby that just opened up, a few blocks away. Mita Dori," Kuroko suggested.

Aomine made a sound of agreement, tossing his bottle away and stretching out the kinks in his arms, keeping the phone cradled against his shoulder.

"I'll be there in 15."

"Alright. Goodbye."

Aomine tossed his phone onto the couch and went back upstairs to change. He hoped Satsuki hadn't hidden his car keys again as punishment for yet another thing he did wrong.

.

Another red light. Aomine punched the steering wheel in frustration. The shiny dashboard of his car looked brand new, but no doubt it suffered from many beatings. Aomine wasn't known for having a good temper… Not recently at least.

He tapped his finger in impatience, glaring out the window in boredom. A pristine, white building with a large playground stood proudly. This was Seishiken Daycare, he realized, watching as the kids ran about wildly. He couldn't imagine why anyone would choose to work at a noisy place like this.

Suddenly, Aomine jerked back in surprise as an object was whipped at his car, leaving behind a scratch on his window.

"Shit!" he snarled, flinging the door open, ready to give whoever the motherfucker was who did it, a piece of his mind. And a receipt for compensation. This was an expensive car, dammit, worth more than three of these day-cares!

A kid ran up, grabbing the object—a Frisbee, Aomine noted with annoyance—and scuffing his shoes.

"Sorry, mister," he squeaked.

The threats died before it left his throat. He couldn't yell at a kid...

"Jun-kun," someone called, jogging up. "There you are."

Aomine blinked. Kuroko panted, brushing his light blue bangs out of his eyes and wiping his eyes on a blue apron.

"Kuroko-sensei," the child greeted, looking thoroughly ashamed.

"You know you're not supposed to run off on your own. I've been looking everywhere for you."

Aomine felt thoroughly ignored.

"I'm sorry, Kuroko-sensei. I won't do it again, but Ken threw my Frisbee away and I had to go get it…"

Kuroko knelt with a small smile and wiped the kid's tears with a finger. "We'll talk about this later. Go find Naomi-sensei and tell her I'm leaving for a bit?"

"Okay!" Jun scrambled away on unsteady feet, but not without a backward glance at the tall, dark man standing before his sensei. So suspicious looking.

"Thank you for finding him, Aomine-kun," Kuroko said, finally straightening and addressing the other actor.

Aomine shifted awkward, because that was definitely not what happened. "Yeah, no problem," he muttered. "You work here?"

"Sometimes," Kuroko replied with a strange, flitting expression. "Did you come to get me? I'm sorry if I kept you waiting."

"Nah, there was so much traffic, I was running late myself," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Come on, I'll give you a ride."

"Thank you."

The two walked back to the car in silence. That is, until:

"Aomine-kun… What are you wearing?"

Aomine was suddenly grateful for his dark skin that hid his blush. "Sh-Shut up! It's a disguise, okay? People recognize me if I don't wear one!"

If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Kuroko was laughing.

"I…" A quick intake of breath, not a laugh. "I see. The mustache was a good choice."

He groaned. "Tetsu…"

.

"Table for one?" the waitress asked, friendly smile not entirely hiding her suspicious look. Aomine's disguise was attracting a lot of negative and positive (kids loved the mustache) attention, much to his dismay.

"Actually, two," he frowned, hauling Kuroko to a table in the corner of the restaurant by the back of his shirt and dumping him into a seat. Maybe people would stop looking at him once he was seated.

"That was unnecessary. Is Aomine-kun embarrassed?"

"O-Of course not! Why would I be?" He angrily hid behind the menu.

There was another hitch in Kuroko's breathing, and Aomine suddenly found it rather… endearing. Maybe a little embarrassment was worth seeing this stony-faced boy break out of that mask, even a little bit.

"Creepy," Kuroko commented, seeing only Aomine's sunglasses peering over the menu at him.

"Just order, Tetsu, you bastard."

"I don't want anything."

"… Why?" The menu fell to the table.

"I am not hungry." Pale blue eyes blinked blankly at him.

"Like hell. You're the one who suggested this place—"

"Because Aomine-kun is hungry."

With a loud noise of frustration, Aomine waved the waitress over. "Two of these."

"No, one is enough."

"They're both for me." The waitress nodded and hurried off.

"Interesting…" Kuroko said, after a few moments of a stare that made Aomine shift uncomfortably.

"Hah?"

"Aomine-kun is actually very kind."

Aomine stared at him in disbelief, before abruptly tossing a stack of paper onto the table.

"Let's just go over this damn script."

A small smile crept up Kuroko's lips. "Yes."

.

"Um… Who are you?" Aomine asked, fear creeping into his voice.

"Ah… Aomine-kun?"

"Huh. So you've been staying overtime every day to try and get promoted? Wow. There aren't many guess who'd go that far, even in the first string."

Kuroko slurped from his milkshake, watching bemusedly as Aomine ate both his own share, and Kuroko's. (Though he still insisted fervently that both meals were ordered for himself when Kuroko only accepted the milkshake.)

"Alright! I've decided!" He flipped to the next page of the script, his other hand still clenched around a fork. "I'll practice here with you every day from now on! Then one day, we'll stand on the same court, together!"

"Are you sure it's alright?" Kuroko murmured. Aomine's expression was transfixing when he truly tried, his charisma showing through. Though the mouth full of food kind of took away from it a bit.

"Don't be stupid. Didn't I already tell you? You can't be a bad guy if you like basketball!"

"This is where we do our signature move," Kuroko stated blandly, with his fist suspended across the table.

"Huh? It doesn't say that anywhere on here!" Aomine flipped through the pages.

"It doesn't?" Kuroko asked, something strange creeping into his voice. His fist fell and Aomine glanced up in confusion.

"Uh, no. Maybe you're reading from the wrong part."

"The script isn't law, Aomine-kun. Acting is an art of expressing oneself. Do you think adding that would be a nice touch to the end of that scene?"

The taller actor frowned, straightening in his seat.

"This isn't about what I think, Tetsu, that's the script that Vanira wrote. You can't just go adding stuff—"

Kuroko frowned in return, looking up at his partner vehemently. "Is that how it always is?"

"What?"

"Do you, Kise-kun, Akashi-kun, and the others all follow the script without question?"

Aomine began feeling uncomfortable under the heavy scrutiny. "What else would we do? This is our job."

"You'd follow it, even if you felt that a certain scene should be portrayed differently?"

"I—well, yeah—what's with all the questions?!"

"That is unfortunate," Kuroko murmured finally, after a short silence. He looked down at his lap, holding the milkshake cup tightly, as if he couldn't bring himself to drink.

"Tetsu…? What are you upset about?"

"I'm not upset, Aomine-kun," Kuroko said tightly, clearly expressing otherwise.

Aomine let out a heavy breath and ran a hand through his short cropped hair. "Look. I don't know what notions you have about acting, but this is how we work, and it's been fine like this for a long time. I don't see the problem."

Their gazes met briefly before Kuroko's face slowly melted back to impassiveness.

"Shall we go to the next scene?"

"A-Ah, yeah, okay. The one with the popsicle?" Aomine was relieved that the awkward, tense atmosphere had lifted. He had to admit, Kuroko had an intimidating stare, despite his less dominating features.

"Yes."

And they continued as if nothing had happened.

.

But later that night, doubt brewed in the back of Aomine's mind, festering like a fresh wound.

'The script isn't law.'

It went against everything he'd been told, the motto that had been engraved into his subconscious.

The actors were just puppets, the script writer the puppeteer.

He didn't know what to believe anymore.