Yeah, so, I know I shouldn't be starting a new project right now, but my muse has been going berserk with the ideas for this story so in order to shut it up and make it concentrate on the other stories I have going on, I need to get this out of my system.

Prepare yourself for lousy word vomit that I conjure up at 4am on a Monday night.

Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke or any of its characters. Only the following story is my own.

Image Source: e94addict . tumblr post / 29266796502

Food poisoning, it was needless to say, was an extremely unpleasant experience. Even in his drugged state he had enough of his wits about him to be able to ponder over the suspicious circumstance he was caught in. The doctor's words had ringed true; he had been neglecting his body recently by consuming unspeakable amounts of instant ramen and ignoring his exercise regime. Work had been more taxing than usual on him, with a number of high profile mergers lined up and too many meetings in which he had had to entertain mindless chatter; he could hardly be blamed for how his usually strict diet and exercise schedules had been thrown out of balance. In spite of all that, it was still strange to him, the fact that he had gotten food poisoning so easily. Akashi was not a weak man by nature, and he made sure to keep it that way all the time, regardless of his eating habits.

Uncharacteristically lost in his thoughts, it took a while for the redhead to notice the soft knocking on the closed door to his hospital room. Darting his eyes away from the brightly lit fluorescent tube overhead, he blinked at the wooden structure, his normally sharp mind so addled with medication that it took him a while to process that it was well past visiting hours and that no one should be knocking on his door at such an ungodly hour. He also realized that if it was someone sent to kill him, it was highly doubtful that they would bother to knock.

"Come in," he called and paused to clear his throat. He wasn't sure which, but one of the multitudes of clear liquids that they had injected into his body earlier that night had left his throat feeling itchy and dry. The door creaked open slightly as whoever it was outside peeped in hesitantly before opening it fully. Akashi stared, eyes hooded, at the boy who let himself in. He was of average height, with skin so pale that it was almost translucent and eyes and hair a shade of blue that reminded him of the sky on a slightly overcast morning. Shutting the door behind himself, the boy shuffled forward slightly, awkwardly, and returned the look with an appraisal of his own.

"Can I help you?" The redhead finally broke the silence after several minutes.

"You are the patient who was diagnosed with food poisoning, aren't you?" the boy asked, his voice oddly flat. Akashi narrowed his eyes at him. Internally, he cursed the medication that was dulling his senses, but he knew that he had to at least seem alert.

"Why do you ask?" he returned, voice ringing sharply. "You are clearly not a member of the staff here."

"I apologize if I seem rather rude," the blue head bobbed as he bowed slightly. "But I saw them wheeling you in earlier this evening."

Akashi pursed his lips. Neither was answering the other's questions. He hadn't the slightest inkling of what the boy's intentions were. He was not stupid enough to believe that the petite body would not be a threat to him. There were many ways you could kill a sick man bound to a bed.

"You are avoiding my questions," he pointed out bluntly. At times like these it was best to just be frank. He didn't have the strength to play mind games.

"I apologize," the stranger bowed again. "Believe me when I say that I mean you no harm."

"It is a policy of mine to not trust a man who evades questions."

"A sound policy." The bluenette nodded agreeably. He took a single step closer and Akashi began to slide his hand off his lap towards the remote hung beside his bed with the button to call for the nurse.

"Well?"

"Your condition is rather surprising," he began. The redhead raised an eyebrow at the words but nodded for him to continue. "You seem like you keep yourself in shape, and yet you managed to get food poisoning."

"It happens to the best of us," Akashi dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I have been somewhat lax in upholding my regime lately."

"Nonetheless, you should not have been so weakened to the point where simple food would have such a profound effect on your body."

The bedded man shot the other a long, hard look. "How do you know what it was that gave me food poisoning?"

"I read it in your report," he replied with a casual shrug. "It also says that you have had trouble sleeping recently."

"It would do you good to know that things like that are private," Akashi said disapprovingly. There was something distinctively off about the boy – no, his features were much more matured than he had originally thought. He would have to be a man closer to Akashi's age.

"Indeed it is, I am sorry for the intrusion, but your condition was troubling me."

"And why would you trouble yourself with a stranger?" Red and gold eyes watched the unmoving expression closely. He was booked into a private room in a wing of the hospital that had a high level of security meant to cater to those who didn't want to be known. The fact that there was someone who was able to not only slip past security but to gain access to his personal records meant that he was probably not as safe as he had assumed.

"I think you've been poisoned."

This time, the redhead raised both eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"

"You may not believe me, but I am quite familiar with poisons in my line of work. While your symptoms are synonymous with food poisoning, there are certain things that can only occur if you were slipped actual poison."

"Essentially you're saying that someone tried to kill me," he said blandly. The other man nodded slightly. "You do realize how serious allegations like that are?"

"I do," the expression remained the same, but there was a slight furrowing between the young man's brows. "I am convinced that it's poisoning. You were fed mushrooms, am I correct?"

"Yes," Akashi confirmed, feeling a headache coming on. He had been suspicious, but to have someone confirm his thoughts somehow irked him. He would have been happy pretending that it was only due to stale food and nothing else. There was enough on his plate as it was. Sighing, the red-haired man dropped his head back onto the pillow and retracted his hand from the emergency button.

"May I ask what it is the doctors have prescribed you?"

"Didn't you read it in my file?" the redhead asked sardonically. Silence greeted his words and he heaved another sigh. "I cannot tell you what they are, but I can tell you that they are working."

"It might seem like they are," he heard the muttered words closer than before. Turning his head, he watched the blue-eyed man freeze as he returned the probing gaze from the redhead with a questioning look. "I wish to look at the labels on your chart and check your temperature."

"I sincerely hope that you are not going to try to kill me, too," Akashi turned away and shut his heavy eyelids. "I have had enough excitement for the day."

"I will do my best not to bother you," the other man said quietly.

With his eyes shut Akashi had to rely on his hearing and the occasional brush of skin against his to determine where the bluenette was. His fingers were gentle as the pale-skinned man took his pulse. It was clear that he knew what he was doing. Yet, Akashi mused, he had not denied that he wasn't a part of the hospital staff. The fingers brushed against his forehead, pressure light as he checked for a fever. The hand was soft, comforting, and it made him feel unguarded enough to allow the sleep he had been fighting against to slip closer. He was exhausted. The man's comment that he had not been sleeping well was true. Nightmares plagued him every night, and it had escalated to such a state that anything more than two hours of sleep was considered miraculous. The many forms of medication that he had tested had also failed to show any results.

He would berate himself in the morning for letting his guard down so easily around a stranger, but for now he gave in to the craving of his body. He was unconscious before the hand left his forehead.

xx

"Good morning, sir," Akashi blinked sleepily at the unfamiliar voice that greeted him from the foot of his bed. He had been out like a light bulb the entire night. His sleep had been blissfully void of any dreaming. The voice was obviously female, nothing like that of the man the night before. Pulling himself into a sitting position, he smiled slightly at the nurse bearing a tray of food and his medicine.

"I hope you're feeling up for some food," she said cheerfully, arranging everything on the table before rolling it over. "It's only some soup and a bit of porridge so that your stomach won't get upset again."

"Thank you," he said. He did not feel up to eating, but he knew that if he didn't his recovery would take much longer. Picking up the spoon, he began to sip lightly on the soup as he looked through the tablets in a small plastic container next to his bowl. "By the way, what did the doctor give me for my insomnia last night?"

"You have insomnia?" The nurse asked in surprise. She removed the clipboard from the end of his bed and shuffled through the pages. "It doesn't say here that there was any medication prescribed for it."

The spoon stilled for an imperceptible moment before he continued eating as normal. His eyes, however, were downcast as he muttered vaguely, "Is that so?"

xx

It was around mid-morning when his first visitors burst through the doors. Akashi had been idly watching a mindless TV show, something he had not had the luxury of doing in a very long time. He could hear the ditzy blonde before he even reached the room.

"Akashicchi~!" the sing-song voice was accompanied by a bouncing body that should have been too large to look cute. It worked though, somehow. "Good morning~!"

"Ryouta," he greeted cordially enough. "Where are the others?"

"Ah – they were behind me earlier," the golden head whipped around to look down the hallway. "Maaaan, they walk really slow."

"What the hell were you doing, running off like that?" the gruff voice floated into the room as the man approached them. "You left us with all the bags, idiot."

"You guys didn't look like you needed help," Kise retorted, sounding slightly whiny. "Why do you need so much stuff anyway?"

"Dunno, ask the damn frog." Aomine grunted as he dropped three large bags unceremoniously in the middle of the hospital room. "Yo, boss. How you doin' today?"

"Daiki," Akashi replied amusedly. While they weren't exactly friends, and the dark-skinned man was a rather crude character, Akashi had a certain type of fondness for him. "I am doing quite well, thank you for asking. Where is Shintarou?"

"Would it have killed you to hold the elevator doors open for me?" the said man asked Aomine icily as he entered the room bearing two huge luggage bags.

Aomine shrugged carelessly. "It's your own fault for bringing so many things. Akashi doesn't even need this much crap!"

"That is not for you to decide," the green-haired man returned, nudging up his glasses. He turned to the bedded man with a slight bow. "Good morning, Akashi."

"Good morning, Shintarou."

"How are you feeling?"

"Much better than yesterday."

"That is good news," the bespectacled man said, the permanent look of mild irritation on his face a contrast to his words. "It seems that you will be able to return to work sooner than expected."

"So it would seem," Akashi agreed. Midorima was his right hand man and his secretary. The man was efficient, eerily so, and was extremely reliable. He had been with Akashi since the very beginning of the building of his empire and was now acting as president in his stead.

"I brought you your lucky item for the day," Midorima was saying as he rummaged around in one of the bags. "It seems that Sagittarius's luck today is rather good."

Akashi accepted the oddly shaped mug that was the same shade of blue as his mystery visitor last night. He noticed the dubious look that Aomine shot the object. The dark-haired man had always had trouble relating to the superstition that Midorima followed with unwavering faith. He was a man of action, emotion, and possibly on his best days, a little bit of thought.

"I presume that you are not all here just for a casual visit," Akashi mentioned. His words started a flurry of activity as Aomine checked up and down the hallway before shutting the door and standing guard over it as Kise grabbed a couple of the bags and tugged them up to Akashi's bedside and pulled out a stack of documents from another bag and arranged them on the table in front of the redhead.

"The mergers have been progressing smoothly on the most part, however we're having some trouble with the group that controls a significant part of north Tokyo." Midorima said.

"Which group is it?" Akashi opened the folder that was proffered. "Kaijou?"

"Yes. It is the group that Kise infiltrated two months ago. It seems that after he left, some of them convinced the leader that the merger was a bad idea."

"And I did such a good job, too," the blonde added in dejectedly. "Some of the elders don't want to let go of their share of Tokyo."

It was quiet for a bit as Akashi considered the data in the file. "It will be no issue. This man is easily swayed, I will have no trouble dealing with him when I am released from here."

"Very well," Midorima replaced the folder in Akashi's hand with another identical one. "These documents require your signature."

"I need you to investigate something for me, Shintarou." Akashi said as he signed the documents.

"What is it?"

"I want the name of whoever it is that prepared my dinner the night before last, and I want a list of the people who have been in and out of the kitchens over the past week."

His subordinates stared at him in silence.

Midorima spoke first. "You think the poisoning is intentional?"

"It is a possibility I wish to eliminate." Akashi answered with finality.

"Understood."

xx

This time, Akashi was expecting the soft tapping on his door. Like the night before, it was well past the time for reasonable visits. He turned off the TV and called for the other man to enter.

"Good evening," the man bowed slightly. He bore a large glass bottle that contained a muddy looking liquid with various types of plants floating about in it.

"It is well past evening," Akashi returned. "What is that?"

"Oh, this," the man held out the bottle for Akashi to take. "Is the cure for the poison."

"I am sure that there is no need for this," Akashi said. "As you can see, I am perfectly fine."

"That is because I gave you something to stop the poison from spreading. I determined the type of plant used. It is a rare mushroom that is found only in South America. The effects of the plant matches what you have. The poison spreads slowly, as it first comes off as normal food poisoning, but given time it will infect your liver and your kidneys and cause death."

"This sounds ludicrous."

"Like I said, I am well-versed in poisonous plants. It may seem improbable, but it is true."

"How do I know that you're not trying to poison me now?" Akashi asked, suspiciously.

"I suppose you don't," the blue-eyed man returned in a monotone. "You'll have to trust me."

Monochromatic eyes studied the petite man for several minutes then, "What is the dosage?"

"Half a cup every four hours until you are done with the bottle," came the prompt reply. "I will come and collect it again in a few days."

"Wait," the young man stopped on his way out and turned a questioning glance towards the redhead. "What was it that you gave me last night to put me to sleep?"

"It is a mixture of several herbs that I brewed. I injected it into your IV line," he paused for a bit. "I apologize if it offends you."

"I cannot be offended when you had good intentions," Akashi said, almost to himself. "Do you… have more of it?"

He caught sight of the slightest lift in the corner of the man's mouth. "I have incorporated it into that drink. You will feel drowsy for most of the day, but please do not fight the sleep. It is what your body needs most right now."

"Thank you," Akashi said, as sincerely as he could manage.

The man bowed again. "You are welcome."

xx

He was stuck in a strange sort of limbo for the next two days thanks to the concoction provided by the ghost-like man. Even so, his mind retained its sharpness when he was conscious, which was better than the effects of the drugs provided by the hospital. He had not been instructed to stop the medication prescribed to him so he continued to take those as well, albeit in smaller doses. He wasn't sure what would happen if his system was swamped with medication of all sorts.

Midorima's gift came in very handy.

When Akashi was done with the drink, he put the bottle aside, wondering if the strange man would know when to come and collect it. He had seemed like he knew what he was doing, and it was logical to assume that he would be able to estimate how long it would take for Akashi to finish the bottle.

He waited, but there was no sign of the blue-haired man that night. The next evening, Akashi was discharged, and at a loss with what to do with the glass object, he decided to take it home with him, if for no reason other than to find out what the green bits of plants left in it were meant to do.

There was no way to tell for sure if it had been the herbal drink that had cured him, or the tablets provided by the hospital, but Akashi knew for a fact that whatever was in it had helped him sleep properly, thus aiding his recovery.

If for nothing more than to thank the man, he was determined to find him. It would also be of much benefit to find out what it was that had put him into a dreamless sleep every night.