Courage

Akafuri

Unpredictable and Dangerous

When the bell rings for lunch, I immediately launch myself out of my chair to head out the door. The entire day, I have been looking for Akashi, leaving as soon as I can during break, and arriving just before class starts. Still, my efforts proved fruitless, so I decide to spend my lunch break to look for him. Before I can open the door, though, Fukuda blocks the door, holding a bento in one hand.

He scratches his head before he asks, "Um, want to eat lunch together?" Typically, we hang out during breaks and meet up with Kawahara, and even eat lunch together.

I laugh nervously. I definitely do not want anyone to know that Akashi may or may not be on school grounds. "No, not today, Fukuda. I'm sorry. Maybe tomorrow?" I edge my way around him and exit the classroom, sighing in relief when he doesn't give chase. Sure, he's a great guy, but there are some things that I wish to keep away from him, mostly for his protection, really. This Akashi guy is really dangerous, and there's no way I'm going to let him hurt my friends because of my connection to him.

Although I've been keeping an eye out the window during class, I hadn't seen him at all in the courtyard. "Hmm," I tap my foot impatiently. The roof is probably the best place to go, so I can get a good view of the entirety of the school. Another couple minutes later, and I'm on the rooftop, scanning the fields for any sign of that redhead.

Nothing.

Sighing, I let go of the railing and head back down the stairs. Maybe I should eat or something. I'm feeling a bit light-headed, but I have no appetite, especially after the nausea from yesterday. The cold air isn't helping much either. It's a miracle I'm still on two feet and not nursing a fever. As I walk by the classrooms for my year, I notice a pair of red scissors lying on a desk in one of the neighboring rooms.

There's no way, right? I scoff and continue on my way, intending to head downstairs to the gym. As I open the doors, I sigh in disappointment as I take in the sight of the empty room. There's no one here. Suddenly, I hear a crash coming from the locker rooms.

Ohmygod.

I gulp and slowly walk over to the door. Should I open it? Of course I should. But it could be anything. What if it's a robber or something, or even worse, a couple doing, well, it? What if it's just Riko organizing our equipment or something? But there was a crash…maybe someone's hurt?

I walk over and place my hand on the handle, biting my lip, thinking furiously. There was no cry for help. I'm not obligated to go inside; rather, I can just claim that I didn't hear anything at all! The brave me tells me I should open the door and figure out what's going on, but the cowardly me whispers insistently to run away. Run away, run away, run away…the words echo in my ears.

But to be honest, I'm sick of running away.

I wrench open the door and yell, "Is everything okay?" before I survey the scene before me.

Ohmygod.

"W-w-w-w-what are you doing?" I manage to stutter. All the blood rushes to my head and I grip the door for support, feeling like I'm about to pass out. My vision is assaulted with little white dots as I try to process the situation.

Two very guilty boys look at me, both with deadpan expressions, holding a pair of underwear between them. I turn to look at the open locker – my open locker – and then turn back to look at Kuroko and Akashi.

I need to sit down.

I fix the overturned bench, which was probably the cause of the crash, and plant my butt on it. Breathe, I tell myself. There must be an explanation for this, this being two boys holding my underwear that they took from my gym locker. Oi, isn't this a scene straight out of a shoujo manga or something?

Through my peripheral vision, I can see that they are watching me struggle to catch my breath. Kuroko eventually drops his hold on the article of clothing and approaches me, putting a hand reassuringly on my back. "One, two, inhale, three, four, exhale," he mutters to me.

In, out, in, out, and I can finally breathe again, although to be truthful, I am quite traumatized.

"Akashi-san just needed something to wear," Kuroko says soothingly. "He doesn't have a place to stay, so he's rooming with me. He's been borrowing most of my clothes, but he's closest to you in size, so I figured you wouldn't mind." That's such a lie. Seriously, he couldn't just have gone out and bought some goddamn underwear?

I stare down at my lap, my fingers trembling vigorously. "It's fine," I shake my head. "Do…do whatever you guys want." In all honesty, I kind of want to cry. Not because they did all of this, but mostly because no one had the heart to tell me, not even Kuroko. Well, Kuroko is a pretty considerate guy, but this crosses the line, right? But given his loyalty to his ex-captain…I can't blame him for anything. It's really not his fault.

I applaud myself on my impeccable timing.

"We didn't tell you," Akashi begins to say, "because we knew it would put us in a compromising situation. It seems that we were in the wrong for not telling you."

Obviously. I don't think he's going to lower himself to apologize, so that's as close as it's gonna get.

I shake my head again. "It's fine. I'm usually an understanding person. However, I would have appreciated it if one of you two told me."

Kuroko shrugs a bit. "It must've been surprising for you. I'm sorry." He drops the underwear into a bag that's lying on the floor. "We were going to tell you, once we already took everything." Um, Kuroko, that's called stealing.

I bite my lip. My heart rate is off the charts and my all of my extremities are tingling out of fright or shock, I don't know. Honestly, I'm still quite horrified. It's a sort of image a fujoshi would appreciate thoroughly, but for someone like me, it's something that is burned into my memory for forever, and not in a good way. It was like that one time when Kawahara told me that there was a rumor floating around that Izuki-senpai liked bondage.

What's the word for this situation? Oh, awkward.

Kuroko gets up and after a brief silence, he leaves the room.

"Have you found the scissors yet?" Akashi asks me.

"No," I answer. "I have been looking for it this entire day, though." I don't mention that I've been looking for him as well, or that I had found a pair on a desk earlier, but wasn't brave enough to grab it.

"Tch," he clicks his tongue and shifts a bit, bumping his elbow into a locker. "I'll have to leave before your practice starts, as much as I'd like to continue poking around."

"Yes," I say, hesitantly. "It would be bad if my team figured out you were here." Although it's kind of too late for something like that, right?

"Well, continue to look for it, alright?"

I continue to examine the row of lockers in front of me. "Y-yes." I can't possibly refuse him, right? But this is such an irrational goal to try to achieve!

Standing up, I turn to face him. He's smiling, amused.

"I honestly thought you were going to tell me off, right then," he chuckles. "Well, it's not something you from the Winter Cup would do, but you've changed quite a bit lately, haven't you?" He takes a couple steps to confront me, face to face. Well, sort of. I'm still shorter than he is, but not by much.

"It's fine," he says. "Thank you for the clothes. In exchange, you do not need to continue to look for my scissors. I will just buy a replacement."

W-what? Was he just playing with me? Testing my willpower? Ah, he's definitely a really difficult person to read.

"I'll continue to look for it," I say. "Please don't underestimate me. I can be quite determined when I need to be." Uwah, I definitely shouldn't have said that with such resolve. If I can't find them, I'm going to look like the biggest idiot ever. Never mind, I already am an idiot!

The impromptu staring contest breaks off when I avert my gaze from his gleaming eyes. Urk. My heart rate is starting to pick up, so I make way for the door. Before I can leave though, he rushes by me and slams the door closed. I take a startled step back, and he uses his forearm to knock me down to the ground.

My head slams into the ground and I see more stars. Ooh, this is not good for my already light-headedness. I close my eyes and put a hand against my forehead. Jeez, why did he do that? "O-oww…" I try to get up but a hand on my chest pushes me down.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" I can hear the smirk in voice. Of course it hurts, goddammit! "You should probably lie down for a while."

He planned this all along, didn't he? My head is aching too much for me to be angry about it, much less whine.

He leans down, two inches from my face. My cheeks start to grow warm, and the now-familiar tingling barrages my senses. His hand brushes my cheek softly and I feel my stomach lurch. P-please don't get this close to me. You're killing me, you are! And what if someone comes in right around now? There'd probably be one massive misunderstanding.

"You're funny," he says.

"P-please get off me, Akashi-san," I choke out. "I can't breathe." Ah, did I forget to mention he's also sitting on my chest? Some people don't really look their weight. Also, what are we going to do if someone finds us like this?

"Mm," he taps his fingers to his lips. "I think not." Blushing, I try to look away, but he leans down even further. "You can't escape me."

"…"

"…"

"Okay, now will you get off me?" I wail. As much as I appreciate his presence, skin to skin contact really isn't exactly the healthiest thing for me right now. Besides…this situation suddenly turned really awkward, again. With both of us with nothing to say, and him sitting on top of me, well…I'm so embarrassed I could die! At least have the nerve to say something, Akashi!

Finally, he lets go of his grip on my wrists, leaving white marks where he grabbed me too tightly.

Once we're both up, I brush off my clothes. I wonder if Kuroko is still sticking around. Probably not. I take one last, lingering look at the guy I would do anything for, before making my escape. He doesn't say anything as I rush out the door, trying to simultaneously calm my pounding heart and my raging boner.

I kneel in the hallway. He was so close to me! He sat on me! He touched me! He told me "You can't escape me"! What are the implications of that? Where am I supposed to put all these feelingsssss? And…and…and before I left, did he blush? He did blush!

Rubbing the back of my sore head, I try to figure things out, but there's really only thing I can say at this point in time.

Akashi Seijuurou is the most unpredictable guy I've ever met. It's hard to piece together his feelings and motives, much less figure out what he's about to do next. Well. Maybe things like this should be left alone.

…I want to go home.

"Hey, hey, Furihata," Fukuda pokes my side. "Why are you acting so strangely today?"

"Huh? I'm acting weird?" I smile nervously as I take my jacket off.

The rest of the locker room is full of chattering boys as they change for practice. The senpais are heatedly debating something as my fellow freshman screw around with their clothes, flinging them around, and laughing over someone's underwear. I'm relieved because at least it's not mine. This leaves Fukuda and me a little privacy to talk to each other, which is bad, because I've been avoiding Fukuda all day.

Fukuda looks at me, and then nods. "Yeah. Did something happen?"

"Mm, no," I turn to my locker and manage to wrestle it open.

Oh.

OH.

My locker is empty, completely, totally, utterly empty. There is absolutely nothing in it.

"KUROKO?" I scream. "Where did all my clothes gooooooo?"

A/N: Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke.

Okay! So I just recovered from of con-exhaustion (known as fatigue, headaches and muscle pain) from working a four day convention. When I got home on Sunday, I checked my email and was completely floored by the outpouring of support. So thanks! I really don't know what you guys see in this but whatever. I'm actually pretty hesitant about sending this chapter out, because I feel like the quality decreases every time I post a chapter. There's really nothing I can do about it except pray that you guys still like it. Ah, well. It is what it is.

In regards to the story, is it just me or is Furihata slowly becoming really sassy? Also…ooh, the locker room scene didn't exactly work out, huh? Hm, maybe Akashi is waiting for Furihata to make some moves? Who knows?