01: Dear Brother, Please don't Cry

AU, in which Kuroko and Akashi are siblings. Akashi is a year older than Kuroko. Ogiwara and Kuroko is at the same age.

Tetsuya is usually quiet. He never cried and asked for their Daddy, who was never home. He preferred to sit in the balcony and read books until their butlers came and inform him about dinner. And at dinner, Tetsuya will be quiet when Daddy talks to him.

All in all, Seijuurou saw him as the perfect younger brother.

All they had in the ridiculously big mansion was each other, so they kept each other happy and out of harm. Seijuurou even more so than his younger brother, who was mostly clueless about the world outside his books.

But it all changed when Tetsuya got to know the neighbor's loud and rambunctious son, Shigehiro.

He told Tetsuya things Seijuurou never told him. He taught Tetsuya worlds outside of his book. He taught Tetsuya how to embrace this world with a wide smile. Although Tetsuya himself had a distinct lack of presence and facial expressions, Shigehiro was always there for him, as if smiling for Tetsuya's sake as well.

And Seijuurou disliked it. Not because of a childish reason like 'I want Tetsuya all to myself'. It was just that… being so attached to somebody else outside of their blood is a weakness. They can betray you and leave you. Take all your secrets and leave you behind. Seijuurou wished that Tetsuya would be careful.

He had once tried to confront Tetsuya about it, but his younger brother only stared at him with his usual deadpanned look before returning to his book with a whisper of "Ogiwara-kun is nice,", completely disregarding Seijuurou's concern.

He found himself hating the fact that the reason that Tetsuya began to smile or even show any expression was because of that obnoxious loud brat named Shigehiro.

Father had told him that someday, Tetsuya would be his shadow. That while Seijuurou became the heir of the Akashi company's upfront, Tetsuya would be the leader behind the curtains, doing all the dirty works for him. Father also told him that Seijuurou must have the strongest influence to Tetsuya even more so than anybody else.

But he was powerless against that blindingly beautiful smile that seemed to made Tetsuya's moon-like nature gravitate towards Shigehiro's sun-like disposition. It made Seijuurou uneasy to have his brother, his unusually quiet brother, laugh like a normal person whenever he was in the presence of that brat. Like it or not, Seijuurou was worried of Tetsuya's dependency towards that brat.

And Seijuurou was always right.

It was one of the nights their father wasn't home, and both Tetsuya and Seijuurou were in the living room, reading a book and watching the news respectively. That was before Tetsuya received a phone call that was the biggest conflict between the Akashi brothers.

The brat, Shigehiro was moving away to another country. And he had moved that night without telling Tetsuya because he 'couldn't tell him'. It made Seijuurou furious, but what made him even more furious was the fact that Tetsuya cried.

Tears were trickling down his face when he murmured a nearly inaudible 'Don't go, don't go Ogiwara-kun,' to the phone. But Seijuurou was not having any of that. He forcefully grabbed the phone away from Tetsuya and slammed it down to its place.

"This is why I have told you not to get attached, Tetsuya." His voice was calm and dangerous, a trait that everyone of Akashi family seemed to have. Tetsuya looked up to him, his eyes teary and sobs were falling off his lips.

"But, Ogiwara-kun is…"

"Silence!" Seijuurou stared down his own brother before eventually cupping Tetsuya's cheeks forcefully. "Your tears are unfitting for an Akashi." The redhead seethed dangerously, but Tetsuya, his eyes unrelenting although tears were already falling from there was muttering defenses for the outsider, still littered with sobs.

"O-Ogiwara-kun is nice! And he's moving away! Why- why shouldn't I be sad about my friend's leaving me?" Seriously, is he really asking this question? Tetsuya will always be the younger brother, after all.

"Why shouldn't you…?" Seijuurou echoed his brother's question. "The realy question should be why did you. Tetsuya, Nii-sama thinks that you are absolutely adorable. But aren't you hurting now? Aren't you sad now? That's precisely what I am trying to protect you from. That's why, Tetsuya. Please discard it. Discard your emotions and just trust me. Onii-sama will do the rest for you so you will never get hurt, okay? Dear brother, please don't cry. It pains me to see you crying like this." Seijuurou then lets go of his brother's face and hold out his arms, expecting Tetsuya to come to his embrace.

"Onii-sama…" Tetsuya asked cautiously (good, Seijuurou was extremely proud of his brother's quality as a fast-learner) as he kneeled in front of Seijuurou. "Onii-sama will never move away like Ogiwara-kun, right…?" He asked, his eyes flickering with a newly found wariness.

Seijuurou smiled. "Of course I will never move away, Tetsuya. My place is right here. Next to you. Guiding you. Shining on your shadow so it might become darker." Now, Tetsuya still didn't understand about his future position as the one who will erase all of Akashi company's dirty works. But that is alright, that is fine. Because Seijuurou will shape him into the perfect shadow. Starting today.

Maybe he actually thanked Shigehiro for this opportunity. Just maybe.

This… is so fun to write!