Kuroko no Basuke: KurokoxGoM (maybe)

Title: Taking Flight

Genre: Slice of Life, Adventure, Romance

Author's Note: This chapter is a thousand words shorter than the previous, can you believe it!? Oh well, maybe the next will be longer, hehe.

CHAPTER TWO BEGIN

Akashi Seijuuro was an interesting individual, to say the least. With his brilliant red hair and heterochromatic eyes, he made an impression even with his short stature and surprisingly open expression.

Though if one asked Kuroko Tetsuya, he would say that Akashi almost looked more like a kid than he himself did. it was probably the small upturn of the lips that made Kuroko think that. It looked like this Akashi Seijuuro character was more 'happy' than actually 'scary'.

"Akashi! I forgot to tell you that I'll be missing practice the day after tomorrow." Aomine was the one who broke the silence, making Kuroko realize that he'd been examining Akashi just as much as Akashi had been observing him.

It felt strange to be noticed just like any other person.

"Ah? And why is that?" If Kuroko knew one thing about Akashi from Aomine, is that he was very strict about practice and basketball. It seemed Akashi took their school motto very seriously. As far as Kuroko was concerned, Teiko hadn't lost in a long time.

"I have photography club activities with Satsuki and Tetsu." Kuroko felt a bit miffed that he hadn't been properly introduced yet, but he would live with it. If Akashi didn't ask for his name at some point then he probably didn't really notice Kuroko. As it were, Kuroko watched the going-ons with his usual deadpan expression.

"Oh? Tetsu?"

"Mmn. Kuroko Tetsuya, this guy right here." Aomine patted Kuroko on the back, almost knocking him over in the process.

"Ano, hello, Akashi-kun." Kuroko tried to keep his greeting as normal as possible as he gave a slight bow to Akashi. They were still in the equipment room; so when he straightened out he had a lot to look at. He'd never gone into this room before, and it was quite interesting to see all sporty stuff that could fit in one room...

He didn't admit it, but he also wanted to avoid Akashi's gaze. The intense heterochromic eyes made him nervous for some reason, and he felt he finally understood why Aomine got so nervous around the redhead. Would Aomine be excused?

"...I suppose it's fine. You're training is doubled for the day after that though."

"I don't think that's necessary. We'll be hiking through a forest. It would be enough work out for Aomine-kun." Kuroko had spoken up before Aomine could protest. He didn't want his closest friend to suffer because they decided to take a club trip into the woods.

They would be going to a park on the outskirts of town; one that was filled with trees and rocks and the like. He'd already advised Momoi to dress appropriately, and Aomine knew that they'd planned to use him for some of the photos, which required him to go deeper into the bush or up trees. In Kuroko's opinion, that would be enough.

"Oh?" What was with Akashi and one syllable answers? It was effective, but still... people usually had more to say.

One of his eyebrows was also raised, and Kuroko shifted, looking off to the side for a moment before returning his gaze to Akashi. "Aomine-kun will be climbing trees to get better photos of the scenery. We're also making him carry the heavy equipment."

"What?! Tetsu!" This, of course, was the first time Aomine had heard of this news. It only made sense though, since Aomine was the most muscular and athletic, and probably had the most stamina as well.

Kuroko, however, couldn't stop his lips from turning upwards just slightly. Surprising Aomine had been one of his hobbies since entering middle school, so to see him so surprised without him having to appear out of no where was a small treat. Hopefully their trip would have many of these moments so he could catch and preserve it in the memory of his camera, and later his laptop.

Akashi, meanwhile, seemed to be thinking of something. He hadn't said anything yet to Kuroko's plans. However, when he did cross his arms and open his mouth to speak Kuroko listened closely.

"It's decided!" Akashi had another strangely open smile on his face. Kuroko would have suspected he was happy if it hadn't been for Aomine's stories about that very same smile. "Us regulars will accompany you on this photography trip and train!"

Aomine made a noise of discontent at that. He knew his training would be intense that day, and he would most likely have do do more than usual to keep up with both the photography club and the basketball team.

"Ah..." Kuroko blinked. He was kind of surprised at the declaration. "It means I will have to make more food..." sighing, Kuroko decided that he would definitely have another milkshake after he was able to go home. It had been a tiring day so far, and he still had to sort through the photos of Kise and pick which ones he wanted to use for the Phantom Shadow Magazine; and even after that he had to contact the magazine itself, and confirm the catalog, and even pick up his mail...

There was just a lot to do that day. Kuroko probably should've excused himself a long time ago.

Very suddenly, Kise appeared once more, and would've knocked over Kuroko if it hadn't been for Aomine pulling him out of the way. "Kurokocchi is going to cook for us?!"

Kuroko sighed, very tempted to pull off a move generally known as a 'face palm'. "Hai, Kise-kun."

He could see the flowers blooming around Kise's head already. "I wonder if Kurokocchi's cooking is good~" and then, Kise was gone; not physically, but mentally.

"Ano, may I be excused? I still have many things to do today." He directed the question towards Akashi since he was the team captain. It would've been rude not to.

"Yeah, take care for now. We will see you for this excursion at the front gate before the first bell the day after tomorrow." Kuroko nodded and waved at Aomine; he avoided Kise as he went, and he didn't bother looking for Murasakibara. As far as Kuroko was concerned, they were not friends, and therefore did not require greetings and goodbyes.

On his way home he stopped at Maji Burger, as planned. From there he'd gotten on a bus and went to his mother's private studio she had. It wasn't far from his house, but he wouldn't've had time to do what he wanted to if he'd walked.

Arriving at the private studio, he immediately began his work by opening the laptop he had on the desk. He liked to keep his private life and work life separate, so the result was him using the studio and having an extra laptop. He enjoyed his work, but not enough to integrate it into his home too much. He did have a few issues of his mother's magazine lying around his living room though...

The first thing he did was check his work email. Sometimes the managers of models would contact him and wonder if he were free, and often times that was how he ended up with so much extra money. In the modelling world, you could say he was quite popular as a photographer.

He had none, which was surprising; so he moved on. Sorting the bad photos from the good photos of Kise didn't take more than twenty minutes.

He would have to compose a formal email to send to the magazine editor next... he always disliked that part, no matter how good he was at writing formal emails and letters. It was just really boring, in his opinion.

He decided he would do it tomorrow. The deadline wasn't for another week anyway, and he should probably have taken the time to edit the photos he chose. Maybe make them brighter, or give them a bit more contrast in some areas...

His cellphone beeped, signalling that half an hour had passed. He still had plenty of time to do things, so he decided to go home and do any left over homework. Kuroko remembered leaving his math half finished the evening before.

As he locked up his studio and stood in the street for a moment, he felt a cool breeze pass by him. It would be a chilly night, it felt like.

That night, Kuroko dreamt of nothingness. In the dream, it was him and the blackness, and he felt as if he were fading. It was something of a nightmare, one might say.

He was awoken by the sensation of falling.

His time at school wasn't much better. Kuroko was having a bad day, that was for sure. Everywhere he turned something bad happened to him. He tripped in the hall, bumped into some intense rebellious-looking second year, and couldn't get his hair to calm down until noon!

He hoped his day would become better later. Not only was his bad luck annoying, but it was also embarrassing.

It wasn't until he bumped into a green-haired individual that his day finally started looking up, if only just a little. It was during lunch when quite suddenly Kuroko almost tripped down the school stairs. He had thankfully been caught by the formerly mentioned teen, and he'd even been scoffed at! He was kind of surprised at first.

"You must be an Aquarius. Oha Asa predicted the worst luck for you..." And then, much to Kuroko's surprise, a stopwatch had been shoved into his hands before the green haired boy stiffly walked away.

Kuroko couldn't hep but blink after him. It was weird to be so suddenly noticed like that. It almost made him suspicious, and as he carefully inspected the stopwatch, he found a name engraved onto the silver plate which hid the battery.

'Midorima Shintarou, class 1 - A'

Still, from that moment on his bad luck had decreased and he found himself searching for this 'Midorima' boy. At the end of the day, he found himself standing outside of class 1 - A.

As predicted, no one noticed him. Kuroko ended up standing outside the door until everyone was filing out. He managed to find the green haired boy again and silently walked beside him until he felt it was appropriate to speak.

"Ano? Are you Midorima-kun?"

He felt some inner satisfaction when he saw the taller teen jump and turn to face him.

"Oh, it's just you. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to give this back." Kuroko held out the watch that he had been given, and unexpectedly received a scowl.

"No, you can keep it. Return it to me tomorrow." And with that, Midorima sped off as if he had somewhere important to be, leaving Kuroko in the hall to ponder what had been going through the other's head.

He suppose he would just have to return it in the morning before he left with the others.