Chapter 2: Coffee – the Second Dose

Kagami sucked in a huge volume of air as soon as he found a safe spot from the puppy of doom. Leaning at the cement wall behind him, the redhead tried to sort out the previous event that led him to run away for his life. The image of an overly weird Kuroko flashed in his mind, prompting him to shiver at the mere thought of it.

Perhaps it was the coffee, Kagami thought, concluding the cause of his partner's behavior. He did say that he don't want to drink it, he mentally said. Other than that, Kagami remembered that he hadn't washed off the barbeque sauce out of his face. He extended his head and peered at the surrounding, finally noticing that the chase had led him to Seirin's gym.

I can use the wash area, Kagami decided, as he slid the gym doors open and padded inside.

However, just as soon as he entered, a ball suddenly flew towards him. Kagami's reflexes saved him from a sure hit, which ended up with him catching the ball with his hand. The redhead noticed that it was his captain, the Clutch Shooter, Hyuuga Junpei. "Captain?"

"You're early, Kagami," Hyuuga said. He sounded amused. "Well, that just means you have Kuroko with you, no?"

"Captain!" Kagami's eyes widened at the mention of the name. "You don't have any idea! I left Kuroko out after he revealed that hellish hound from hell!" He recounted the story, Kagami shaking at the very memory of the dog, and of how he touched the dog, and of how he ended up smearing barbeque sauce in his hands… which was so uncool by the way.

"That sounds to me like Nigou," Hyuuga said, putting his hand under his chin. "Did you do something to Kuroko?"

"Why do you always make it sound that I'm the troublemaker?" Kagami whined.

"Because YOU are," Hyuuga said, prodding his index repeatedly at Kagami's chest. "By the way, I'm still the only one here. It seems that our class was dismissed earliest." He shared. "I was hoping to have a warm-up with you and Kuroko."

"I'm telling you, captain, there's something wrong with Kuro––"

However, Kagami's sentence was cut off when a presence suddenly appeared beside Hyuuga.

"I'm here, Captain."

Two loud screams were heard from the gym where Seirin basketball team always practiced. Unfortunately, Kagami was still holding the ball, and the sudden surprise led him to accidentally throw it upwards – which briefly stopped ascending at the optimum height. As potential energy is mass multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity multiplied by the height, the ball then possessed an X amount of energy as it fell back to the earth.

Unluckily, the ball's trajectory appeared to have arced back towards the still-petrified Hyuuga, from the scare he received from Kuroko. The ball descended in a force equal to the half of the mass multiplied by its velocity squared – which probably meant 'it's gonna hurt!' – and quickly hit Hyuuga squarely in his head.

Kuroko felt the impending threat approaching; he quickly dashed in front of his Hyuuga-senpai and muttered; "Watch out, Captain!" Kuroko tried to yell, but his voice did not cut out for such loud antics. Nonetheless, the strained tone from his voice told Kagami that Kuroko was serious about protecting his captain. Nonetheless, Kuroko's act of heroism was too late…

…by ten seconds.

Hyuuga Junpei had long fallen to the floor.

"Teme!" Kagami roared. "If you're going to save someone, help before danger comes, not after it!" The redhead was unable to press on chiding Kuroko when he saw that the latter appeared mortified with what happened.

"Ka-Kagami-kun," Kuroko's tone was blank, as he shared a gaze back at the redhead. "I-I tried my b-best… but I was not able to save our senpai…" He bowed down, then suddenly sounding guilty. "I am a failure, Kagami-kun… even at my best I was not able to protect a friend…"

"This is so twisted!" Kagami just yelled again, pulling his hair off in annoyance. Seriously, if his coffee theory was correct, Kagami would burn any traces of the drink just for Kuroko's sake. Seeing the shadow act like that could make him crazy.

The redhead only approached their captain and checked him up. Knowing that his senpai was just knocked out cold by the ball, Kagami looked up at Kuroko and told him, "We just need to bring him to the cli––"

"This is bad, Kagami-kun." Kuroko was then pulled out from his dramatic world and knelt beside his partner. He would not say it out loud, but Kagami was amazed by the amount of care and respect his shadow had for their senpai. Just as he was about to wear a genuine smile on his face, Kagami's expression literally twisted when he saw…

…Kuroko unfolding a huge, black plastic bag and began to put in their captain inside it…

"W-What are you doing?!"

"But, Kagami-kun, if they saw Captain like this, they will blame us." Kuroko said innocently, as he reached out to nowhere, pulled something and pushed to Kagami a shovel that magically came from wherever. "We need to get rid of the evidence."

"THIS IS SO WRONG!" Kagami yelled.

"What's wrong, Kagami-kun?"

"HE IS NOT DEAD, for heaven's sake!"

"Oh…" Kuroko only muttered.

"HE'S JUST UNCONSCIOUS!"

"I-I thought he was dead." Kuroko said, as he stood up. "I thought he was. I trusted him, Kagami-kun," now – Kagami whined – Kuroko sounded depressed. "I trusted him to be dead, Kagami-kun. But… but Captain betrayed me. He isn't dead… He betrayed me…" Kuroko twisted his face away from Kagami. "I trusted the senpai-tachi, but it seems I can't trust them anymore…"

"Ah! Just shut up!" Kagami said out loud, protesting at Kuroko's weirdness. However, in the middle of his act of complaining, some cute barks echoed across the gym, which made Kagami cringed on the spot. The redhead gradually turned his head and saw that the hellish dog had found its way to the gym. Without any other choices left, Kagami took the opportunity and ran beside the still unconscious Hyuuga.

"I'm sorry, senpai." He apologized before he smudged his still barbeque sauce-glazed hands all over Hyuuga's face. Once satisfied, Kagami ran away from the gym to find another suitable hiding spot. The dog cutely ran inside the gym and was instantly attracted at the scent of the barbeque sauce on Hyuuga's face.

Nigou menacingly stood over Hyuuga's face, before his tongue tentacle-d over Hyuuga's face, molesting the oh-so-innocent countenance of Seirin's dear captain.

Kuroko finally noticed the can of coffee Kagami gave him earlier was now empty, and he felt some terrible sense of dread and lethargy all over his body – the coffee's effect was wearing out, he knew. Fortunately, just before his whole system trembled in weakness, two of his senpai, in the name of Koganei Shinji and Mitobe Rinnosuke, appeared inside the gym. Koganei quickly came over beside Hyuuga, watching with delight on how Nigou slurped all over his captain's face, his cat features being accentuated more with his delight.

Mitobe silently trudged over and then handed out a piece of food that Kuroko looked with curiosity. He looked up to his taller senpai, and, upon receiving a small smile, Kuroko took the item from Mitobe.

It was chocolate… but Kuroko did not notice the backside label.

…coffee-flavored.