Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

At first, it was just the two of them, and they were the whole of the world.

“You two are special,” the man in the white coat said. And he was the Law, the ultimate authority. But he was not them and that was the only difference that mattered. Them. Not-Them.

“You two are my very special creations. You two are Successes, and you will be gods that walk this earth.”

And that is what they were. Gods that walked this earth.

*

Akashi Seijuurou does not like people. He never has.

(It would be easy to say he does not like humans, but that oversimplifies things. In fact, he hates humans. But he is not overly fond of other Projects either. He cares about his Generation and that’s it.)

The Red Zeroes were not designed to like people. In fact, they were specifically designed with underdeveloped empathy. After all, the Red Zeroes were supposed to deliver Orders with ruthless detachment, and it would be difficulty to command someone to put a gun to their own heads if you were too caught up in empathizing with what they might be feeling when the mental barrel touched their skin.

The JSDF soldiers and the trained doctors and nurses who worked at the base had all tried very hard to get Akashi to care about things, and after awhile he got pretty good at faking it, but he largely considered this to be useless effort on their part.

*

When the Miracles were debating whether or not they should leave the base and live in separate houses, go to separate high schools, and live amongst humans, they decided they should vote on the matter amongst themselves. Let this be a democratic decision, where the majority would make the choice for all.

To no one’s surprise, the vote was split down the middle. Kuroko, Momoi and Kise (who had been told he could live with Kasamatsu Yukio) all voted to live amongst humans, because they liked humans, and wanted to live pathetic human lives.

Midorima, Murasakibara and Aomine all hated humans and were disgusted at the prospect of living with them. They liked the comfort of the base, of the other Miracles nearby, and they did not want to be placed in a life where they suddenly had to care how others perceived them.

When it was clear the vote was split, and that it was up to Akashi to decide the vote, Kuroko and Momoi despaired. Kise had begged him to cast his voice in their favor (he really wanted to live with Kasamatsu Yukio) but even he didn’t think there was a chance Akashi would actually vote for their side. Midorima, Murasakibara and Aomine felt confident in their victory.

But then Akashi surprised them all by deciding to live with the humans. He surprised them further by deciding to live with his host parent in Kyoto—far away from the majority of their Generation.

It was not that Akashi liked the prospect of living surrounded by creatures he despised.

He was just tired of the monotonous routine of the JSDF. He wanted to see what else was out there. He wanted to find the best path for him and all the other Miracles.

He somewhat also expected that, in their isolation, the other Miracles would come to realize just how awful people were. Eventually even Kuroko and Momoi would see the disgusting side to humanity, Kise would be rejected by Kasamatsu and give up on him, and all of them would return to Akashi’s side with a renewed appreciation for their own superiority.

No one was more surprised than he was when it didn’t turn out like this.

*

Of course it came as no surprised when Kuroko found a new human pet. Kuroko had a disgusting love for humans and he wasn’t outwardly threatening, so he always got along well with people (when he could get them to remember he existed.)

It wasn’t until Midorima started showing up to their meetings in a rickshaw driven by a human boy that Akashi started to think maybe he’d miscalculated. Because if Midorima could relax his stance on humans, then anyone could. Akashi gave up altogether when Murasakibara got a boyfriend (Murasakibara). Because Murasakibara was outwardly the scariest of all of them and if a human found him attractive then it wouldn’t be long until they all started dating.

(The thought made Akashi’s stomach churn. It’s not like he wanted to date another Project—it would have felt too incestuous to date another Miracle—but the thought of kissing a human was too disgusting to even contemplate. He had already accepted the fact that he would be celibate his entire life. It was somewhat surprising to realize the others didn’t feel the same way. Well. Except for Kise. But he was a Yellow Six, and what did you expect from them?)

*

And one by one, he watched his friends pair off. (Momoi and Aomine were always a pair. So they didn’t count.) First, Murasakibara with Himuro. Then to everyone’s surprise, Kasamatsu actually accepted Kise’s feelings. Then Midorima paired with Takao and Kuroko moved in with Kagami.

And he was disgusted, and he didn’t understand it, but by then, he couldn’t protest.

Because the humans proved that they cared about their Miracle boyfriends. And then the Special Diet happened, and Akashi could no longer claim that humanity as a whole would never accept them.

He didn’t mind being wrong like he thought he would; but inwardly, he does hate the fact that Kuroko was right.

*

Even before the Diet, his opinion on humans had relaxed somewhat. He didn’t like them, but he’d come to consider all of Rakuzan as his (in the way the other Miracles were still his.)

He knew this was part of his design. The Red Zeroes were meant to be leaders, alphas in the animalistic sense. And because of that, the Red Zeroes had a possessive stance to anything they considered “pack.”

If asked, he wouldn’t ever say he was fond of his Rakuzan classmates. He still considered himself incapable of such affection.

He was more like a benevolent King. It was a King’s duty to look after his subjects.

*

When Midorima first started appearing with a human at his side--when Midorima joined the Basketball Club and it was clear he only did so because it was the same club his human pet was in--Akashi asked him, “Why?”

(At that time, it did not occur to him that Midorima was attracted to the human. He believed the Green Seven was incapable of such a thing, so it didn’t occur to him that it was even a possibility.)

“Why do you remain in his company?” he had asked this over the phone, so he couldn’t see Midorima’s reaction.

But he was pretty sure Midorima was pushing up his glasses when he replied, “I find him interesting.”

“Interesting,” Akashi had repeated. Because such a thing did not seem possible. To find a human interesting was even more absurd than the idea of finding one attractive.

“He does not behave the way other humans do,” Midorima defended. “I find I do not understand his behavior. I remain in his company because I find him fascinating. I am sure as soon as I figure him out, I will no longer need to be near him.”

Akashi had not liked this answer. It was almost a relief when he began to suspect that it was just attraction on Midorima’s part after all. Lusting after a human was more pardonable than finding one fascinating.

*

But then he meets Furihata Kouki.

And he finds him fascinating.

*

The human who followed Kuroko to a meeting was just a boring human. He was obviously terrified, so at least, he knew his proper place. It wasn’t worth his time to even discipline the offense. He simply glowed red and Ordered, “There’s someone who shouldn’t be here. Right now, I only want to talk to my comrades. Sorry but, can you leave?”

But then.

Then the boy didn’t move.

No one had ever been able to disobey a direct Order. It wasn’t possible. Akashi would have destroyed the boy right then and there, except then Kagami showed up, and Kuroko’s new human pet required his immediate attention.

He filed the disobedience as “something that should be explored further at a later date.” Because then they had the Winter Cup and then it’s Generation Jabberwocky, and then it’s the Special Diet, and Akashi never really has the time to wonder why a human was able to disobey his Order.

It is interesting, though. And definitely worth thinking about after he’s dealt with more important issues.

*

At Kuroko’s birthday party he remembers the disobedient human and makes sure he sits next to him so that he can test matters again.

So when the others aren’t paying attention, he glows red and says, “Furihata-kun, could you bring me more tea?”

“Oh sure!” Furihata says, scrambling to his feet. “Did you want Green or Black? And do you want anything to eat while I’m up?”

And Akashi frowns. Because he’s obeying but he’s not obeying. People under the control of Absolute Order do not ask for details or further requests, they just obey.

Which makes it twice. Twice he seemed immune.

Is it a fluke? Is he immune? How immune is he? Is he immune to more than just Absolute Order? And if he is immune, why is he immune? Are there other immune humans?

He entertains the idea that the boy is secretly a Rainbow, but dismisses the thought almost instantly. If he was a Rainbow, Akashi wouldn’t be able to use his powers at all. But he can’t get rid of the possibility that the boy has some connection in Teiko. He could be a threat.

But Kuroko is staring at him. Kuroko doesn’t know what’s happening, but he’s suspicious. So Akashi just smiles and vows to look into it more when he has the time.

*

After the Special Diet is over and it finally seems like the greatest threat has passed, Akashi remembers his earlier promise to himself and thinks about Furihata Kouki.

The possibility he is a threat must be considered. Akashi does not like the idea that there is a human who is immune to his ability. If Furihata’s immunity is confirmed, Akashi plans to quietly dispose of the boy. It would upset Kuroko, but letting him live is too great a risk (and Kuroko doesn’t need to know).

Out of respect for Kuroko, he feels like he should at least do everything he can to verify Furihata’s threat before taking action. He should test the other boy and ascertain his intentions. He needs to find out if the boy is connected to Teiko, and if there are others like him.

To do all this, he needs to get closer to the boy.

And there, Akashi hits a wall.

Because Furihata Kouki is in Tokyo, and Akashi is in Kyoto. There is no real way Akashi can get close to the other boy when they’re separated by a country. And they don’t know each other, not really, so it’s not like Akashi can just show up at his door and strike up a conversation.

Akashi thinks about it for a week before he resignedly accepts that he’s not going to find a solution.

He needs outside help.

The other Miracles will be no help. He does not want to include them in this, not yet, not until he understands what the dangers are. (Also, if he does have to kill Furihata Kouki, he doesn’t want the others to know, because then it would definitely get back to Kuroko, and he’d really rather not deal with Black’s wrath.)

So if he can’t ask the other Miracles for advice, that pretty much only leaves him with one option.

*

“Mayuzumi-san,” Akashi says politely, tracking Mayuzumi down at his usual spot on the rooftop. “I would like to hear your advice on a situation I’m in.”

Mayuzumi looks up from his light novel. “You need my advice. You.”

“Yes, Mayuzumi-san. That is correct.”

Mayuzumi lifts a brow, and puts down his book. “Let’s hear it, then.”

“I find there is someone I would like to get to know better, but he lives in Tokyo, so I don’t know how to approach him. What is the best way to express an interest when the other person lives far away?”

Mayuzumi gapes at him. “Are you telling me you have a crush on someone?!”

“Absolutely not,” Akashi says automatically. “That is definitely not what’s happening here.”

“But you want to get to know someone better? You?!”

“Yes, me,” Akashi says irritably.

“And you came to me for advice?” Mayuzumi continues to gape.

“Naturally. I assume you know more about socializing with humans than I do.”

“Considering you met me while I was reading a light novel alone on a rooftop, I have no idea why you would make that assumption.”

Akashi stares at him blankly.

Mayuzumi sighs. “Well? What exactly in the problem? Is it just the distance?”

“Not quite,” Akashi says. “I am also unsure of how best to approach him. I believe I scared him the first time we met, and there is a good chance he is still terrified of me. So I am not sure how to approach someone who lives far away when they are already uneasy around me.”

Furihata definitely still seemed terrified at Kuroko’s party. It made conversing difficult, and testing him further almost impossible.

“What exactly did you do to him the first time you met?” Mayuzumi asks suspiciously.

“I tried to stab one of his teammates with a pair of scissors,” Akashi replies.

Mayuzumi stares at him.

“If it helps, I was 100% certain he would dodge,” Akashi says.

“You know,” Mayuzumi says slowly, “I’m not sure that does help. Just so you know.”

Akashi doesn’t see why not. Kagami was never in any real danger. Akashi was at least 99.8% sure he would dodge. Well. Maybe 97%. But Mayuzumi didn’t need to know that.

“So can you help me?”

“Give me a couple hours. I’ll come up with something by the time practice starts.”

*

“Sei-chan, I can’t believe you’re experiencing the blush of first love!” Reo gushes.

“You should have told us! We can help you get your man!” Hayama yells, jumping and pumping his fists in the air.

“Absolutely! All you have to do is assert your manliness! Show them you’re the strongest around!” Nebuya flexes his muscles, to emphasize his point.

Akashi rubs his temples and addresses Mayuzumi, “So, by ‘come up with a plan,’ you meant, ‘tell everyone in the club what I told you in confidence.’”

“Of course,” Mayuzumi says, his expression serious but his lips twitching in a suspicious manner. “This is my plan, Akashi. Five heads are better than one. These guys all have more dating experience than I do, and they’ll be able to help you out.”

“And you wanted the chance to embarrass me.”

“Well, that too. It was an added perk.”

“Sei-chan! You don’t need to be embarrassed!” Reo says, scandalized. “This is a natural part of life! It’s beautiful! We should celebrate! We will absolutely help you get your man!”

“That is not what’s happening here,” Akashi snaps. “I do not like him.”

“No need to be coy!” Nebuya laughs, slapping Akashi on the back. “We’re all friends here! So who’s the lucky guy?”

“You said he lives in Tokyo?” Hayama interjects. “What school does he go to? Does he play basketball? Did you meet him at the Winter Cup?”

“Yes. He goes to Seirin,” Akashi says reluctantly. This is not what he would have wanted, but now that it’s happening, he might as well see if they can help him.

“Seirin?” Hayama exclaims.

“Mm. Those Seirin boys. Not surprising,” Reo says.

“Guh,” Nebuya says. “It’s not Kiyoshi, is it? Who is it? Actually, never mind, I won’t remember the name. What position does he play?”

“Point Guard,” Akashi replies.

“What?!” Hayama yells. “No way! You can’t like Seirin’s Point Guard! I like Seirin’s Point Guard! And I called dibs! Remember, everyone? Remember how I called dibs after the game?”

“Yes, Kota-chan,” Reo soothes. “You’re exact words were, ‘I love his puns and his ass and it’s my life’s mission to get both into my bed.’”

“And then you passed out in your noodles,” Nebuya reminisces. “We all got pretty drunk that night.”

“But the ‘dibs’ were clearly stated, right? You all heard it? Akashi, you can’t have him, I’ll fight you for him.”

“As I have already stated, I have no romantic inclinations—”

“Kota-chan, you couldn’t beat Sei-chan,” Reo says.

“Basketball? One-on-one, right now.”

“Dude,” Nebuya says.

Hayama droops. “Rock Paper Scissors?”

“He can see the future,” Mayuzumi says.

“Akashiiiii, this is a major violation of the Bro Code. We can’t like the same person.”

“I do not like him, and anyway—”

“It is a bit unfair, Sei-chan,” Reo says reproachfully. “Kota-chan has been obsessing over the Seirin Point Guard’s ‘steely-gray eyes’ for awhile now. He wrote a haiku.”

“It even rhymed,” Hayama says sadly.

“Haikus aren’t supposed to rhyme,” Mayuzumi says, sounding vaguely appalled.

“—and anyway, I don’t think we’re talking about the same Point Guard,” Akashi says loudly, which finally silences everyone.

“Did Seirin have another Point Guard?” Nebuya asks the others.

“There was a First Year, right?” Reo says, sounding doubtful.

“So not Izuki,” Hayama says urgently. “Not Number Five?”

“No, not Number Five,” Akashi says, an undercurrent of homicidal wrath to his voice.

“Oh. Well, that’s fine then!” Hayama brightened. “In that case, how can we help?”

*

Akashi had never intended to join the Rakuzan Basketball Club.

He kept tabs on the other Miracles in a way he considered his duty (others called it slightly stalkerish). Even though he purposefully distanced himself from the others, he made sure he knew what was going on in their lives.

It didn’t concern him when Kuroko joined the Seirin Basketball Club, because Seirin was a small team and unlikely to go very far.

(Yet another instance in which he was colossally wrong.)

By the same logic, he wasn’t even all that concerned when Kise joined Kaijo’s Basketball Club, because Kise was so obviously doing it to be near Kasamatsu Yukio.

But then Midorima, Murasakibara and even Aomine joined the Basketball Clubs at their schools, and he began to realize he had a problem.

He went to the Rakuzan Basketball Club practice simply to check out the team. He wanted to verify that Rakuzan was the champion school (one of the reasons he had chosen to come here) and that they would be victorious, should they meet the other Miracles and their schools.

He watched the practice long enough to verify that everyone on the Rakuzan team was strong, and that probably would have been the end of it, if the Captain and the Coach hadn’t chosen that day to yell at Reo.

“I’m so sick of this shit,” their Captain, a Third Year by the name of Sarue Hayato yelled. “I told you to stop coming to practice like—that.”

“It doesn’t get in the way of playing,” Reo snapped back.

“Why do you have to always yell at Reo-nee?” Hayama demanded.

“And I told you to stop calling him that!” Sarue yelled.

“Why? Reo-nee doesn’t mind. It’s the right way to call her.”

“Shut up, God, both of you,” the Captain said, sounding thoroughly disgusted. “Mibuchi, if you can’t dress and act like a man, then you’re not going to be a starter.”

“Dressing the part isn’t going to make me a boy,” Reo said.

“You are a boy! If you weren’t, you couldn’t play on this team!”

“If they let me play on the Girls’ team, I would!” Reo shot back.

“Well, you can’t play on this team like that,” Sarue ordered.

“That isn’t your decision,” Nebuya snarled.

“I support Sarue-kun on this,” Coach Shirogane said sternly. “The Rakuzan team is a team of champions. We are admired and we must be worthy of respect. Mibuchi-kun, if you cannot conduct yourself in an appropriate manner, you cannot play on this team.”

“If Reo-nee can’t play, I won’t play,” Hayama said. “Because I’m just as deviant.”

“Same here!” Nebuya said. “I mean, not the deviant part, ‘cuz I’m definitely a dude and I just like the ladies, but I won’t play either! The Uncrowned Kings gotta stick together!”

“You seem to think just because the three of you are gifted, you have some sort of leverage,” Shirogane said. “But Rakuzan is filled with gifted players. You are replaceable. Now control yourselves or you will be replaced.”

“Excuse me,” Akashi said politely, appearing before them. Everyone in the gym collectively flinched at the sight of Akashi before them. He was not the most intimidating of the Miracles, but his cherry red hair, and bicolored eyes made him look very inhuman. He also had a commanding aura (a product of his Latent Overflow) that automatically made most people want to submit to him on sight.

“But do I have this correctly? You wish to replace these three as starters because they do not exhibit proper behavior?” he motioned to the Uncrowned Kings.

“That’s right,” Sarue said, recovering first.

“And, just for my own clarification, what exactly have they done that is so offensive?”

“Look at him!” Sarue snarled, pointing at Reo. Akashi did so, and still couldn’t see anything out of place.

“I’m a woman, and he objects to that,” Reo explained.

At the time, Akashi had never encountered the word “transgender” before, and he didn’t understand the principle. But he had been created in a lab, and didn’t understand much of the human world, so the idea of an 188 cm tall boy saying he was a woman did not actually strike him as particularly unusual. Reo’s pink hairclips and coordinating painted nails never registered out of place, considering gender differences were never emphasized in the militant training of Teiko (for that matter, the JSDF had never made much differentiation between the male and female soldiers either.)

Furthermore, Kise often Copied women and altered his body on a regular basis, so it never really registered with Akashi that a man couldn’t be a woman, or vice versa.

“Yes, and?” Akashi said.

“And I’m bisexual,” Hayama said.

Bisexuality was something Akashi did understand, thanks (again) to Kise, but it didn’t clarify the situation for him.

“I believe I am still missing something,” Akashi said, in a falsely apologetic manner, as he turned his attention back to the Captain and the Coach. “But these three are by far the strongest players here. You should not take them off the team.”

“This doesn’t concern you!” Sarue yelled.

“The point of this game is victory, is it not? And to be victorious, you need the strongest players. I find the matter to be quite simple, and I am unsure why you do not,” Akashi said.

“I’m the Captain, and this is my team!” Sarue yelled. “And I can have anyone I want as a starter! We don’t need homos on this team!”

And Akashi narrowed his eyes, because if there was one thing he abhorred most in this world, it was incompetent leadership.

“That won’t do,” he said. “You are not going to be the Captain anymore. In fact, you are going to leave this club and never come back.” He turned his attention to the Coach. “And you are going to let these three remain starters, so long as they keep winning.”

And Akashi was obeyed, because he was always obeyed. (And because he then proceeded to play games against the entire Rakuzan team, even the three Uncrowned Kings, and wiped the floor with them all.)

“I am going to be the new Captain,” Akashi announced, because it seemed only natural at this point to take control and run things the right way. “Any objections?”

There should have been, really, because he was just a First Year, and a mutant, and technically couldn’t even play in official games.

But the Uncrowned Kings had just grinned, like they’d been waiting all their lives for an uppity First Year mutant to give them orders.

“Nope! No problems here!” Hayama said.

“Finally! I’m going to wear my skirt tomorrow,” Reo said.

“I like you, kid!” Nebuya laughed. “Hey, can you go order Sarue to clean the toilets? That ass has it coming.”

*

“So the key to initiating long distance relationships is timing,” Hayama explains. “And getting their cell phone number or email address. The best time would have been after the game. I, personally, used the ‘Oh, I like your style, we should talk about basketball, give me your email,’ line, but it’s probably too late for you to use that one.”

“See Akashi?” Mayuzumi says smugly. “Hayama has experience with long distance stalking. You should be thankful I consulted them on your love life!”

“Don’t call it stalking! It’s strategic planning!” Hayama says at the same time Akashi once again futilely says, “This is not a romantic interest.”

“You should find him on Facebook,” Reo says. “That’s the first step.”

“Then you can exchange email and texts!” Hayama says. “That’s stage one. Now, it’s super important not to rush stage one. You have to build up a rapport! Then you can go to stage two, which is when you casually mention you’ll be in Tokyo, and should hang out. Now, this is key, do you know if he’s gay?”

“No, I have no idea, but—”

“Then you suggest something natural, like a game of basketball, nothing that’ll seem too date-like,” Hayama says triumphantly. “By the way, I have totally progressed to stage two, and it went really well!”

“No one cares about your love life,” Nebuya says.

“I’m just saying it establishes my credentials, OK? I know what I’m talking about here.”

Akashi wonders why they all care so much about his love life, and wishes he could get them to stop. Things have gone terribly off track, and he doesn’t know how to right them. “This is no good. I do not want to build things up electronically, I need to see him in person.” He can’t test Furihata’s immunity through emails, after all.

“Sei-chan! You can’t rush things!” Reo admonishes.

“The foundation is really important, Akashi,’ Hayama says earnestly. “Because after that, you can meet more often, and it lays the ground for stage three, when you give the lecture about Why Bisexuality is the Only Logical Sexuality.”

“How’s that going for you?” Nebuya asks dryly.

“I haven’t gotten there yet! But I made a powerpoint presentation, in case that’ll help explain things.”

“I have a feeling it wouldn’t,” Mayuzumi says.

“You don’t know that!”

“Nothing says ‘I love you,’ like ‘hey baby, wanna see my powerpoint presentation?’” Nebuya says.

“And when was the last time one of your lines worked?” Hayama demands.

Akashi rubs his temples. Sometimes he thinks about how easier his life was when all the humans in Rakuzan were afraid of him. He misses those days.

“I just need a natural way to see him in person and strike up a conversation,” Akashi says, giving up on convincing them his interest wasn’t romantic. “And from then on, a way to talk to him that doesn’t scare him away.”

“Hey, your friend goes to Seirin, doesn’t he? The quiet Miracle,” Hayama says. “You already have an in! Just get him to arrange things.”

“Absolutely not,” Akashi says. “Kuroko can’t know this is happening. He would disapprove and probably only hinder things.”

“A cockblocker, huh?” Hayama muses. “That does make things difficult.”

The Uncrowned Kings, fall silent as they contemplate their options.

Mayuzumi sighs. “Is there a reason why you can’t arrange a practice game with Seirin? Like you did that one time with Yosen?”

“Yes! Oh my God, do that!” Hayama yells. “Then I get to see Izuki again and I can move to stage three!”

“Hey, that’s a great idea! Man, Mayuzumi, you’re really smart!” Nebuya says, clapping the Third Year on the back.

Akashi glares at Mayuzumi. “How long did you have that plan?”

Mayuzumi’s lips twitched. “Since the rooftop.”

“And the reason you couldn’t suggest this sooner…?”

“What? And miss all this?”

Chapter Text

Furihata Kouki is a coward and hopeless with love. He considers these two things to be his defining traits.

*

He has always been quick to fall in love and it has never once gone well for him.

His first love was a girl named Tsukino Mio. They were six years old and he spent the better part of First Grade doing her bidding. He would bring her lunch and fetch her things and carry her books and all things considered, that was probably the closest he’d ever come to a relationship, before she broke his heart by announcing to the whole class she liked Kuroki Yuuji and that Furihata was just her minion.

His second love was in the Sixth Grade; a quiet girl named Taki Chihaya. He didn’t work up the courage to talk to her until graduation. When he confessed his feelings, she thanked him politely and then asked him what his name was—she had never even noticed him, and wasn’t all that interested in getting to know him better.

His middle school years were nonstop disasters in love.

Because in middle school, his older brother (who had up till then, been fairly unremarkable, like Furihata) suddenly became cool. Furihata Kyo hit a growth spurt, became the star of the soccer club, joined a band as the lead singer, and all around became the idol of the school. Girls called him “Prince,” boys wanted to be his friend, and absolutely no one believed he could possibly be related to Furihata.

So every time, every time for three years, Furihata fell in love, the girl only wanted to be close to his older brother. Every girl he loved was already in love with Furihata Kyo.

And Furihata couldn’t even blame them, because god, who wouldn’t prefer Kyo? He was perfect and brave and awesome. He was everything Furihata wasn’t.

In high school he fell in love with Suzuno Chiho.

*

If asked, Furihata would say he unequivocally loved his big brother. But when a brand new school opened in his district, he didn’t hesitate once to apply for it. Even though Kyo was two years older than him, and would be in his Third Year, Furihata still had to live with his legacy throughout all of middle school, and he was eager for a fresh start. He wanted to go to a school where he wouldn’t be “Prince Furihata’s little brother.” High School was going to be different. He wanted to join a club, have teachers who wouldn’t compare him to his brother, make friends who weren’t in awe of Kyo, and above all, he wanted to get a girlfriend.

Furihata Kouki wanted to fall in love and be loved in return.

The day of Seirin’s entrance exam he met Suzuno Chiho. She lent him her eraser and he was a goner.

*

And the worst part was that Suzuno had actually given him hope.

He confessed his love to her and she actually thought about it. Then she said, “If you became the best in something, I’ll date you.”

“Really?” he had said, excited. Almost immediately after, he joined the Basketball Club.

The Basketball Club, he was informed, had made it to the Finals last year, despite being a newly formed club. It seemed like the easiest path to becoming the best at something.

*

After the victory at the Winter Cup, Furihata found Suzuno Chiho and confessed his love once again.

She wrinkled her nose as she thought about it. Then she pouted and said, “But you didn’t really do much, did you? You aren’t one of the starters. And besides, I heard you only made one basket. That hardly makes you the best. Become a starter on the team, and then I’ll definitely go out with you! For sure!”

*

And maybe Furihata would have kept trying—kept trying to be good enough for her—except for the fact that she had spoken so dismissively of his one basket in the Rakuzan game.

Because he was proud of that one basket. All the hard work he had done; the hellish training Coach had put him through, the hours spent trying to keep up with the Second Years, the cheering and sitting on the bench and patiently waiting for his chance; the sheer determination not to give up, even when it was obvious he’d never measure up to the sheer raw talent of Kagami Taiga; all of that went into his one basket and it was the proudest moment of his life.

He’d stood on the same court as the teammates he admired and he faced off against Akashi Seijuurou, the man who terrified him more than anything else on this earth (the man who literally haunted his dreams; Furihata’s own personal nightmare villain) and he’d made one basket.

Suzuno Chiho could not have broken his heart more painfully than when she dismissed that basket.

*

Because briefly, he had felt ashamed. She made him feel ashamed for having been proud of that accomplishment.

It was like—what was the point of coming to a new school then? What was the point of trying so hard?

Furihata Kouki was never going to be exceptional. He was never going to be handsome, he was never going to be brave. He was never going to be his brother.

He was never going to be loved.

Furihata felt despair and wondered what it was about him that was just never going to measure up. No one was ever going to like him; he’d be lonely and unremarkable all his life.

*

Months after the Suzuno Chiho debacle and Furihata is tired of feeling heartbroken. (He wonders, all the time, how long a heart break is supposed to last. He wonders how many times heartbreak can be repeated before it stops being painful and just becomes ordinary. He wonders how many times he will be rejected before he stops trying. He wonders if wondering ever gets you closer to figuring out matters of the heart.)

He no longer feels hurt—so many other important things have happened these past few months that his own personal hurts don’t really seem to matter anymore—and now he’s just trying to figure out how he can do better, the next time he falls in love. (He actually rather wishes this doesn’t happen anytime soon. He’s really tired of falling in love. But he knows himself well enough that he’s sure his next heartbreak is just around the corner of his not too distant future.)

He figures, if he wants to figure out what he’s doing wrong, he should ask the people closest to him. (Not his brother, obviously. Kyo never has helpful advice, because having people fall in love with him has never been a problem.)

The first person he decides to ask is Kuroko, because he’s never been embarrassed to talk to Kuroko about love.

*

While Furihata will always remember meeting Kuroko through the basketball club, he didn’t really get to know the other First Year until they started working on the Library Committee together. Furihata enjoys reading—but this is not something he admits to many people. Because he doesn’t like to read anything too depressing or painful or books where things are too scary and he likes happy endings, he’s pretty much left with romance novels. And it is very hard to admit to his other male friends that he enjoys reading romance novels.

Kuroko reads everything, in every genre, from every time period, and on one memorable day Furihata casually asked, “Kuroko, if you were a Jane Austen heroine, who would you be?”

And this was a question he couldn’t have asked anyone else, but Kuroko thought about it for half a second and replied, “Elinor Dashwood.”

Furihata had laughed, because it was such the perfect response and absolutely true, and he was just happy to have a friend who he could ask that question and get a serious answer.

“Furihata-kun is like Marianne, I think. She is the most romantically inclined,” Kuroko had said.

“Oh, no, not at all! She’s way too cool. If anyone, I’m Fanny Price.”

“That is an odd choice,” Kuroko said. “Mansfield Park is not a very romantic book.”

“No, but it’s my favorite,” Furihata said. And from then on, they were friends who could talk about books, and that was almost as important as the basketball they played together.

*

Because they could talk about books, Furihata feels he can ask Kuroko about love without too much embarrassment.

“Kuroko, do you think I will ever find love?”

As Kuroko looks at him in surprise, Furihata realizes the question came out whinier than he intended.

“I mean, what do you think I should do? To find romance.” This doesn’t seem to make things less whiney, so he huffs and says, “Never mind. I’m giving up on love.”

“Furihata-kun seems very disillusioned. You are far too young to be giving up on love already. Your love story is still to come.”

Furihata likes the quiet way that Kuroko talks, because he always sounds so certain when he speaks. He wants to believe Kuroko but instead he just sighs. “I can’t help but think maybe some people just don’t get their own love story. I feel like—I’m sort of the Supporting Character type, you know?”

“I am not sure I do know what you mean,” Kuroko says.

“I’m never going to be the Main Character of any book. Not even my own. I feel like, I’m probably always going to be a Supporting Character, the one who doesn’t get their own love story.” The more Furihata thinks about it, the more he feels like it must be true. His own assessment of his character depresses him.

“Everyone gets a story, Furihata-kun,” Kuroko says. “There’s just no way of knowing what kind of story that will be.”

This does not make Furihata feel better. He’s still pretty sure his story is doomed to be someone else’s. His brother’s, probably. Or maybe even Kuroko’s.

Talking to Kuroko doesn’t help him. He still has no idea why love is so elusive for him.

*

“It’s because you like trash women.”

This vicious assessment of his taste in women came at lunch time, after he had explained the Suzuno Chiho disaster, his subsequent attempts to problem-solve his love life, and tentatively asked the crowd, “What do you think is the biggest problem about me that makes girls not like me?”

This brutal and immediate response came from one Nanase Aya, and a few things need to be said about her to explain why Furihata and his two friends all stared at her in hushed amazement and silent awe.

*

It seemed only natural that Furihata’s closest friends would be Fukuda and Kawahara. They were in the same class, and they were in the same club, but most importantly, they all shared the Bond of the Bench, and this was a bond they all took very seriously.

Just as naturally, the three of them all favored the Second Years who also shared the Bond of the Bench. That is to say, they all felt closest to Tsuchida, Koganei and Mitobe, because of their time together on the sidelines.

Tsuchida Satoshi was Furihata’s favorite senpai. Actually, he was all of three of theirs’ favorite senpai, because he was the nicest and they bonded a lot on the bench. But he was the senpai Furihata admired the most, which seemed like an odd choice, considering how impressive the Second Year starters were.

But Tsuchida was the one who taught Furihata the value of hard work. Tsuchida practiced just as hard as the starters and he never once complained about his position on the bench. Furihata thought it would have to be painful, to see First Years play in games without ever getting the chance, but Tsuchida didn’t complain. He cheered for his teammates until his voice was hoarse, he practiced without flinching, helped train the First Years with infinite patience and never once expressed dissatisfaction with his lot in life.

(The best way, Furihata thinks, to sum up Tsuchida’s character was his fondness for cats. Because Tsuchida loved petting cats, and the cats always ended up biting his hand. And he never got mad at them or stopped trying to pet them. That’s the kind of man Tsuchida Satoshi was, and that’s the kind of man Furihata wants to be.)

Tsuchida wasn’t remarkable, or impressive, and he didn’t stand out amongst the Seirin Second Year Basketball Club members. But he never gave up, and Furihata figures, if he could even be half as cool as Tsuchida-senpai, he’d be satisfied with his high school years.

Also, Tsuchida had a girlfriend. That somewhat automatically made him the most amazing person in Furihata’s mind, even if he’d had nothing else impressive about him.

Which brings us back to Nanase Aya.

*

Aya was the kindest, most soft-spoken, gentle, mothering young lady you could ever meet. Up until you insulted someone she cared about, and then she turned into a vicious she-demon who would rip out your threat while you slept. She had “adopted’ the three bench-warming First Years of the Seirin Basketball Club as the precious kouhai she needed to Take Care Of and in turn, the three had come to regard her as they would a leader of a delinquent gang and affectionately called her “Ane-san.”

(“If you ever do start a gang, Ane-san, we will be the first to follow you to the ends of the earth,” Kawahara had told her.

“Please stop telling her things like that,” Tsuchida had said weakly. “It’s starting to give her ideas.”)

So when she declared, “It’s because you like trash women” it was not surprising from the otherwise very soft-spoken girl, and the three First Years hung on to her declaration like a pronouncement from God.

“What do you mean, Ane-san?” Fukuda asks.

“Listen up, Furi-kun—and the rest of you, too,” (all three sat up straighter and listened very closely), “You don’t date someone because they’ve become the best at something, you date someone because you already think they are the best.”

“But, but naturally people like the people who are already the best,” Furihata protests. “It’s not unreasonable to try and be amazing for the one you love.”

Aya flicks him in the forehead, her favorite form of punishment for when she thinks they’re being stupid. “You’re still not getting it. There is no one more amazing to me than my boyfriend, no one. If he was a starter, a benchwarmer, a member of the Going Home Club, it wouldn’t make a difference to me. I would still think he’s amazing. You need to find someone who thinks you’re the most amazing person in the world, just the way you are.”

And Aya had gone to every single one of Seirin’s basketball games in support, despite the fact that Tsuchida usually didn’t play, so she clearly wasn’t exaggerating her regard.

“But that’s impossible!” Furihata exclaims. Aya flicks him in the forehead again.

“You’re a great guy, Furi-kun. Anyone would be lucky to have you. So no more moping about a girl who’s too dumb to see how amazing you are, got it?”

“Yes, Ane-san!” Furihata says, because he really would obey any order she gave him.

(It’s probably a good thing she doesn’t form a delinquent gang, because Furihata would absolutely be one of her underlings, and his mom would be sad if he turned to a life of crime.)

*

“Still, it’s pretty amazing you even asked her out,” Kawahara tells him after practice.

“What do you mean?” Furihata asks.

“I mean you’re such a coward with everything else you do,” Kawahara says. “I just can’t get over the fact that you have the guts to even talk to a girl, much less ask her out.”

“But that’s not scary,” Furihata protests.

“Are you kidding me?” Fukuda yelps. “I could never ask a girl out, never never. I’m probably going to die a virgin.”

“Me too,” Kawahara says glumly. “I don’t know how you do it. The thought of rejection is too terrifying. I can barely make eye contact with a girl when I like her.”

“If you get rejected enough times, it stops being so terrifying,” Furihata says glumly. He’s lost count on how many girls have rejected him. (There were some who rejected him even before he could ask them out. It’s actually sort of ridiculous how many times this happened.)

“Well, cheer up, buddy! You’re bound to get a girlfriend before us just by the fact that you actually try!” Fukuda says.

Furihata actually finds that somewhat comforting. “You guys…”

“Mind you, we all lose compared to Kagami and Kuroko,” Fukuda continues.

“Does that count? I’m not sure that counts,” Kawahara says.

“They live together. They get more action on a daily basis than I will ever hope to achieve in my entire high school career. It absolutely counts,” Fukuda says.

Furihata sighs. The reminder of the domestic bliss of his fellow teammates only depresses him further.

*

It took the entire Seirin team an embarrassingly long time to realize that Kagami and Kuroko were actually dating.

The thing was, they didn’t change in their behavior to one another, because they’d always sort of acted like a couple. They ate almost all their meals together, drank from the same water bottles without batting an eye, took turns carrying each other after game, did all their stretches together, and were pretty much just always together. Furihata, like the rest of Seirin, had only considered this to be a particularly close friendship, up until one day during practice when Kuroko gave Kagami a towel and Kagami kissed him on the cheek and said, “Thanks.”

Seirin collectively froze in place and gaped.

“Whoa there, Kagami,” Izuki had laughed, “You’re letting your American habits slip out.”

“What are you talking about?” Kagami said.

“You only kiss your lover in Japan, moron!” Hyuuga yelled.

“Right?” Kagami said, frowning.

At the following silence, Kuroko explained in a mild manner, “Kagami-kun and I have been dating for a few months now. Did you not realize?”

“What?!”

“Wasn’t it obvious?!” Kagami yelped.

“Like hell it was!” Hyuuga yelled back. “You guys were always clingy! When did this happen?”

“Hm. After the Special Diet, I guess?” Kuroko looked at Kagami for confirmation.

“Hrm. Yeah. Around there,” Kagami confirmed.

Everyone gaped, because that was months ago.

“Is that a problem?” Kagami bristled, in a tone that clearly said, I will fight you if this is a problem.

“Moron! Of course not!” Hyuuga yelled.

“Except for the fact that you’re teammates,” Riko said, frowning. “That could upset the dynamics of the team.”

“It hasn’t so far,” Kagami pointed out, in a rare display of logic.

“I meant if you broke up,” Riko clarified. “I’m not trying to dictate your lives, but you are an important combo for this team. If you broke up, there would be ramifications for everyone. Sorry, I had this whole speech planned about team dynamics and how dating would disrupt that, if we ever got a manager. Since I was the only female in the club, I figured it wouldn’t be a problem, since I’m not planning on dating anyone on the team—”

“Wait, what?” Hyuuga said.

“—But, hm. I should have seen this coming.” Riko was so distressed she clearly missed the total devastation their Captain was experiencing.

“If that is your only concern, Coach, it will not be a problem. Kagami-kun and I will not break up,” Kuroko says politely.

At this point, the conversation was getting a little embarrassing to watch, because now that they all knew about it, the lovey-dovey aura around the shadow and light of Seirin was so strong it felt vaguely voyeuristic to watch.

“Oh, well, of course we don’t expect that to happen,” Riko rushed on with. “But you never know—”

“Kuroko and I are getting married after high school,” Kagami interrupted with a shrug, as if it was no big deal. “We already talked about it.”

The entire Seirin team made strangled sounds as their jaws dropped and words failed to come forth.

“In America, after we turn eighteen,” Kuroko said helpfully. “It is legal there, and neither of us will have to change our last name if we do it there.”

“OK, now I have a whole new set of concerns,” Riko said weakly.

“Statistically speaking, marriages after high school don’t last,” Izuki said. “You shouldn’t rush things.”

“How is that rushing? It’s two years away,” Kagami said.

“Alright, I don’t have time to argue with you about the perils of marrying young,” Riko said, resigned. “But if anyone else is planning on dating someone on this team, you better tell me now, got it?”

Koganei and Mitobe looked mildly offended when she directed that comment at them. Izuki patted Hyuuga on the shoulder and told him to hang in there.

Then they all went back to practice.

*

Kawahara had needed a little adjustment to the idea that their teammates were dating.

“It’s not that I care, it’s just weird, OK?” he said defensively.

“Why, ‘cuz they’re both dudes?” Fukuda asked.

“Well. Yeah, I guess. I mean, they’re our teammates. And now they’re dating. It’s just—weird.”

“Weirder than the fact that Kuroko is a mutant with superpowers?” Fukuda asked.

Kawahara wrinkled his nose. “Well, no, I guess not.”

“They’re so lucky,” Furihata sighed.

His friends both looked at him.

“Furi, are you jealous?” Kawahara asked.

“Aren’t you? They’re planning on getting married! I want someone like that. I want to be dating. It’s so unfair!”

Fukuda and Kawahara thought about this and then nodded, as they all agreed it was unfair to be in a relationship when you were in high school.
Kuroko and Kagami were starters and in a relationship. Furihata felt like that was just the way of the world: some people got all the luck.

*

Furihata still believes this, especially in face of the Chiho disaster. After the Winter Cup, a lot of girls had been interested in Kagami (and in retrospect, it now made a lot of sense when Kagami seemed completely oblivious to how many girls wanted to date him), but on a whole, the status as National Champions did very little in terms of securing anyone on the team a romantic life.

“Cheer up, Furi! There’s always basketball!” Fukuda says.

Furihata sighs. “That’s true. There’s always basketball.”

Chapter Text

He still remembered the day their world expanded. They were five years old, and the scientists said, “It is time to meet the rest of your Generation.”

The scientists never spoke to them like they couldn’t understand. Their comprehension was far above “normal” children.

Up until then, they hadn’t known about the other Project colors, and the scientists took turns explaining the situation.

“There are fourteen of you. You are Generation ‘Miracle.’”

“Miracle is special—we haven’t had a complete Generation in quite some time, but all fourteen Projects produced viable subjects.”

“The rest of them are not like the rest of you,” their creator told them. “You two are special. You are gods that walk this earth. You will lead your Generation. You must always set the standard. You will lead them, and you will control them. From this day on, they are yours to command.”

*

When the Projects were put in a room, they were introduced to one another.

989 was the first to protest. “That’s a lot of numbers. I’m not going to remember all that, how bothersome.”

626 said, “I remember them all,” in a smug tone of voice.

“It is not that difficult, how stupid are you?” 7283 said loftily.

“I can’t remember all that!” 394 protested. “How can I remember all that? Say your numbers again.”

It was dissention. They were supposed to be a Generation, a cohesive group. And it was up to the two of them to lead.

“It is not that difficult to remember, and I am sure it will become easier in time for all of us,” he had said. “But it is a mouthful to say all the numbers. For convenience sake, we should address each other by our Project color.”

“I can remember that!” 394, now Orange , said brightly.

“Idiot! Of course you can, you just have to look at our hair,” Blue said.

And that is how “they” became Red and Gold.

*

Akashi tries to sleep on the train to Tokyo, but the Rakuzan team is too loud.

It had been ridiculously easy to arrange the practice game. Shirogane wanted to play against the team that beat them and Seirin’s coach was always happy to make her boys practice against strong teams. With only a few quiet suggestions, the whole thing had been arranged without Akashi having to be involved much at all.

Because he cannot sleep, he spends the time thinking about how to approach Furihata without scaring him.

“Just do what Hayama suggested,” Mayuzumi told him. “You both play the same position. Use that as an opening and talk to him about basketball.”

Mayazumi, as a Third Year and already retired from the club, was not coming. Akashi is a little sorry about this, because Mayuzumi is the least threatening person on the Rakuzan team, and he would have made a good buffer.

“Man! I am so excited! I feel like tonight’s the night!” Hayama says from the seat in front of Akashi. “Since we’re spending the night in Tokyo, I’m totally going to make my move!”

“With your powerpoint presentation?” Nebuya mocks.

“I’m just going to talk to him about bisexuality! You know, feel him out, so I can feel him up.”

“Classy,” Nebuya says.

“Hey, Akashi, have you figured out your approach yet?” Hayama twists in his seat to look back at him.

“No,” Akashi replies.

“Hey, Sei-chan, did you really try to stab Kagami with a pair of scissors?” Reo asks, sitting next to him.

“I was confident he would dodge,” Akashi defends.

“Still. That’s a hard one to bounce back from,” Nebuya muses.

“Maybe we can get you something to hold that will soften your expression! Like a kitten!” Hayama says.

“Where are we going to get a kitten?” Reo asks.

“Oh yeah, true. Maybe a stuffed animal?”

Akashi has a vision of himself carrying a large plushie, like Midorima with one of his lucky items, and says, “Absolutely not.”

“Well, I’ll be your wingman, Captain!” Nebuya booms, and Akashi winces. The whole bus probably heard him.

“That is unnecessary. I will find my own approach.” He has given up trying to convince them that this is not a romantic interest. It makes him uneasy that so many know his interest in Furihata at all. Akashi still might have to eliminate the Seirin First Year, and he doesn’t want anyone to be suspicious of him should Furihata Kouki suddenly disappear.

The bus pulls up to Seirin.

*

Rakuzan wins all their practice games, naturally, although not by as wide a margin as would be expected. Kiyoshi Teppei is still recovering in America, and the Uncrowned King is not a player who can be easily replaced.

Also, Akashi thinks Seirin is the kind of team that comes together in combat, when the stakes are high and they have something worth fighting for. They are still opponents worth battling and he suspects that neither coach is dissatisfied with how the practice games turned out.

In a stroke of good fortune, the Seirin coach played the First Years in one of the games, and Akashi ended up matched against Furihata again. It’s enough to give him the opening he’s been looking for, so after the practice game he approaches the other boy with (what he hopes is) a friendly smile. “Furihata-kun, correct?”

“Y-yes!” Furihata stammers, already terrified at his approach.

“Good game. You have real potential as a Point Guard. I hope to play against you again sometime.”

“R-really?” Furihata says, still obviously terrified out of his mind, but clearly flattered.

(Flattery, Akashi has learned from Kise, is key when it came to approaching a target. The Yellow Sixes had needed to learn behavioral patterns to get people to lower their guards. That wasn’t something Akashi had thought he would ever need to acquire, but when faced with an opponent he couldn’t command, extreme measures must be taken.)

Akashi checks to make sure no one is watching and glows red, activating his power. “We should exchange email addresses, to talk more.” He concentrates and puts as much force as he can behind the command.

“Oh! Um. Yes? Sure? Um. Right. I’ll um. Get my phone. Sorry, it’s in my bag. Over there.” And Furihata scampers away, presumably to get his phone, but looking remarkably like a man running from death.

Akashi frowns as he releases his powers. That was three times…

“Akashi-kun.”

Akashi stiffens and turns around. There is Kuroko, staring at him with as much accusation as an expressionless man can muster in one gaze.

Akashi curses to himself quietly. For him to not notice Kuroko was standing behind him meant that Kuroko had also activated his ability. Which meant that from the start, Kuroko had been watching him, suspicious of his intentions.

It was really rather aggravating.

*         

Gold was the first to count them and notice something was wrong.

“We are missing someone,” Gold said. “There are supposed to be fourteen of us.”

Red noticed because Gold noticed.

“So someone’s missing,” Blue shrugged. “Big deal.”

But it was a big deal. To Red and Gold, it was a big deal, because they were supposed to lead. The other Projects were theirs to command, and it did not sit well to have one missing.

“What are you talking about?” the Orange Project asked. “There are fourteen of us.”

“There are not,” Red corrected, already thinking very little of Orange ’s intelligence. Not all Projects were created equal.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,” Orange counted, pointing as he did so, and ending with a finger pointed at himself.

Red counted again, just to make sure he had it right.

“Wow, you’re dumb,” Gray laughed. “I can’t believe you don’t know how to count.”

“I do too!” Orange said, outraged.

“You pointed to air when you said ‘six,’” Pink informed him. Red was impressed with her observation skills and made a note.

“No I didn’t, I pointed to him!” Orange jabbed his finger at an empty corner.

All eyes turned to the corner and then back to Orange .

“So… you’re just insane, then,” Brown said.

“You can’t see him?” Orange said, still pointing. “He’s right there.”

And Red looked again. He still saw nothing.

“Hey, say something!” Orange said, bouncing over to the empty corner. “Come join us! We’re not going to hurt you.”

Red dismissed the matter. Orange was clearly a failed Project, and what he had to say wasn’t important.

*

“What is your interest in Furihata-kun?” Kuroko asks.

Akashi smiles pleasantly. “I have no particular interest.”

“This is the second time you have needlessly used your power on him, Akashi-kun. You have never been the kind of person who carelessly abuses their ability, so please do not try to convince me this is not unusual.”

Akashi has a mental “tch” as he thinks about how much easier life would be if he could give Kuroko Orders. “Have you ever used your ability on Furihata-kun?”

Kuroko does not seem outwardly surprised by Akashi’s question, but his pause indicates that he was taken aback in his own way. “I do not recall ever needing to alter Furihata-kun’s memories. Why do you ask?”

It’s too late to back out of this, so he might as well explain everything. “I suspect Furihata-kun is immune to my abilities, and I would like to know if this immunity extends to others.”

He has surprised Kuroko with this information. He has known the other boy long enough that he can tell. “Akashi-kun must be mistaken.”

“It is what I was trying to verify, before you interrupted me,” Akashi says dryly.

“Furihata-kun is susceptible to my Latent Overflow, unlike Takao-kun. I cannot imagine he possesses true immunity.”

“We have a chance to find out,” Akashi challenges, as Furihata returns with his cellphone, looking like a Chihuahua with his tail tucked behind his legs.

“Um, I brought my—oh, Kuroko!” his relief at noticing his teammate is palpable.

Kuroko glows black. Because he is not directing his power against Akashi, Akashi watches intently.

“Umm,” Furihata flicks his gaze back and forth between them. “Should I leave the two of you alone?”

An uneasy feeling spreads in Akashi’s gut.

Kuroko stops glowing. “Please do, Furihata-kun, I apologize, but there are a few things Akashi-kun and I need to talk about in private.”

“No problem! I mean, absolutely! I’ll do that! Have fun!” And Furihata flees.

Akashi turns on Kuroko. “You know what this means.”

“Absolutely not,” Kuroko says forcibly.

“Kuroko, he has full immunity,” Akashi says, his voice a dangerous whisper.

“We have encountered humans with immunity before,” Kuroko says.

“No, we have not,” Akashi says. And he knows Kuroko knows this, but he spells it out anyway, “Kasamatsu Yukio’s ability to notice Kise in all his Copies is not an immunity, and he has never exhibited any skill other than that one. And Takao-kun might be able to see through your Latent Overflow, but he is not immune to your ability when you actually use it on him, is he?”

Kuroko looks like he wants to deny ever trying but he just resignedly says, “No. He is not.” Kuroko had used his power on all the human boyfriends when they took down Generation Jabberwocky. He would have had to; otherwise Nash Gold Jr. would have read their thoughts and known their plan.

“Then we must investigate this further. There is a chance he has some connection, and if so—”

“He does not,” Kuroko interrupts.

“You don’t know that,” Akashi says.

“Akashi-kun, Furihata-kun is my friend. I will not let you meddle in his life.”

“He is a threat,” Akashi snarls.

“He is not,” Kuroko says, just as forcibly. He knows what Akashi is thinking. He knows what extremes Akashi is willing to take.

Akashi will not let Kuroko’s sentimentality threaten their safety.

He glows red and before he can even open his mouth Kuroko flares black—

—and by the time Akashi remembers Kuroko’s existence again, he has already deactivated his power.

He glares at his friend. “I really hate it when you do that.”

“And I hate it when you try to give me Orders,” Kuroko replies.

And Akashi scowls. Because he can’t Order Kuroko; he hasn’t been able to successfully Order Kuroko to do anything in years.

Like all the Miracles, Akashi glows when he uses his power. So as soon as he starts glowing, all Kuroko has to do is make sure he uses his ability to make Akashi forget his existence before he can deliver his command.

It is very frustrating.

It always has been.

*

It took Red six months before he could successfully remember Black’s existence.

By then, everyone had just accepted the fact that Orange had an imaginary friend (he wasn’t sure where they’d heard the concept; from one of the scientists, no doubt.)

Blue was the first one besides Orange to remember Black, and he was the first one to suggest that Black’s skill could prove useful.

Gold was against it, at first. “He is abysmal at combat. He is worse than Orange .”

“Guh, why do I have to learn how to fight on the ground anyway?” Orange complained.

“I was not designed for combat,” Black said.

And he very clearly was not. But then, Red and Gold were not designed for combat either.

“No, you were designed for stealth,” Red said. “Very well. On our next mission, go before us and kill the security guards, and then—”

“I will not.”

Red stopped. He wasn’t giving an Order, but he was used to his Generation obeying him. His Latent Overflow made sure people obeyed him even when he wasn’t using his powers. “What did you say?”

Black did not express himself (he couldn’t, the bracelets around his wrists made sure he couldn’t) but he had a very insolent air that neither Gold nor Red liked.

“I will not kill. I do not wish to.”

“You don’t wish to?” Red repeated. Because that was not something he had ever encountered before. What did wishes have to do with anything?

“You’d just be killing humans,” Yellow wheedled. “It’s not like they matter.”

“They do matter,” Black lowered his eyes.

“You will be sent to Room 101 for this,” Gold said.

Everyone around them collectively shuddered, because no one wanted to be sent there—it was not a threat to be made idly.

“Then send me to Room 101,” Black said.

And that outraged Gold, but Red found it fascinating. Clearly, Black was telling the truth—he didn’t care if he was sent back into that room, and Red thought this was something worth investigating.

Blue seemed impressed as well. “He doesn’t have to kill them; he can just knock them out, right? We do all the heavy lifting anyway.”

“He does not get to choose what orders he obeys,” Gold said coolly.

“We all have our separate skills,” Red said. “Orange provides aerial support, Pink provides schematics and information, and White is there for when we need healing. I believe Black’s true value will be in his support.”

And this seemed to mollify Gold to an extent, but Red knew he couldn’t always cover for Black.

“You will have to kill eventually,” Red informed him when they were alone. “If you cannot prove your worth, the scientists will scrap you.”

And Black hadn’t said anything, which at the time, Red mistook for obedience.

*

Akashi knows Kuroko is many things, but obedient has never been one of those things. Kuroko is both the weakest and the strongest of them all; and if the events with Jabberwocky proved anything, it was that Kuroko was a lot more powerful than he had led everyone to believe.

Akashi actually isn’t sure who would win in a true battle between them. Nine times out of ten, Akashi would win without breaking a sweat. But Kuroko, like Seirin, has a habit of winning when it counts.

And Akashi isn’t willing to fight Kuroko on this, not yet. “At least let me explore his immunity more. We should test the limits of his abilities.”

“No, we should not,” Kuroko replies.

“Kuroko—”

“He is my friend, Akashi-kun. And he is my very important comrade. I will not let you test him as if we were back in Teiko.”

Akashi narrows his eyes. He does not appreciate the comparison.

“At any rate, I am confident that he is just an ordinary human, unrelated to Teiko. If Furihata-kun possesses a natural immunity to our powers, there is no reason why this should even matter. I do not believe he is aware of such an ability.”

“Unless I let him know he has that power, you are saying?”

Kuroko nods his head once and Akashi grudgingly sees the logic behind this. If Furihata-kun (and that’s still a pretty big “if” in Akashi’s mind) is unaware of his immunity, then nothing good could come from letting him know he possessed such a skill. As long as he was unaware of his own immunity, then it would be the same as if he didn’t have one.

“I am not as willing to rule out his connection to Teiko as you are,” Akashi tells Kuroko, since that is his sticking point.

“Then Akashi-kun will just have to trust me on this,” Kuroko replies.

And once again, this was the frustrating thing about Kuroko. He had such blind faith while at the same time, possessed a cunning mind. When all was said and done, Kuroko schemed and manipulated more than Akashi did, but he did so while still maintaining his stance on the inherent goodness of humanity.

It was infuriating.

(And wasn’t he right, after all? Humans were kinder than Akashi knew. There were some humans who would accept the Miracles and love them. Akashi didn’t like it, but he could no longer deny it.)

“I do trust you,” Akashi says. “But I still cannot trust humans on this.”
“Akashi-kun—”

“I know. I know what you are going to say. After the Special Diet, and really, after the efforts the human lovers put into helping us, I will not deny there is goodness there. But Kuroko, you forget that the overwhelming majority of humans were about to turn on us, because of a few remarks made by Nash. Before Orange’s interference, we would have lost that battle.”

“But—”

“You believe in their goodness, fine. But do not ever forget their capacity for evil.”

This silences Kuroko. Kuroko stares out the gym doors, where their respective teams have already left them behind. Although there is no outward sign, Akashi gets the sense that Kuroko is thinking about Kagami, and the love he found there, and not the horrors of Teiko.

“But we are not talking about a random human,” Kuroko says. “We are talking about Furihata Kouki, my friend. I do not understand why Akashi-kun is so insistent that he might be a threat.”

“Because the Rainbow King is still alive,” Akashi says bluntly.

Kuroko looks back to Akashi, surprise evident by his silence.

“Not just the Rainbow King. Generation Jabberwocky, Gray, 7284, even Orange—there are clearly more survivors of Teiko than we believed. And the Rainbow King indicated there were other facilities like Teiko. We can be forgiven for thinking we were alone once. But it would be the highest of follies to assume we are all that remains of Teiko now.”

Kuroko remains very still throughout Akashi’s explanation. And Akashi feels a certain smug victory when it becomes clear that Kuroko hadn’t been thinking out the implications.

“I understand,” Kuroko says quietly. “And for what it is worth, I will help you in any way I can, should you discover there is a threat to our existence. Akashi-kun does not need to protect us on your own. And if it would help, you may talk to Furihata-kun, so long as you do no more than that.”

“Oh?” Akashi says, chafing a little at the way Kuroko dictates terms.

“I believe talking to Furihata-kun will be enough to convince Akashi-kun that he is not one of the threats you fear will come for us.”

“And if I decide that he is one of those threats?”

“Then you will tell all of us. We must face all dangers together, as a Generation.”

They made that promise, after they escaped Teiko and found themselves in the JSDF base. And they had renewed that promise before they all parted ways to go to separate high schools. Akashi wonders if Kuroko includes Orange, Hinata Shouyou, in this promise. Or if he includes the human boyfriends.

“Agreed,” Akashi says. “But I will talk to him alone. If you are there, I cannot be sure you will not erase the conversation if you believe it necessary.”

And Kuroko knows this mistrust is warranted, so he grudgingly agrees to Akashi’s terms and gives him Furihata’s phone number.

Chapter Text

Furihata checks his phone for the twentieth time to make sure it still says what he thinks it says. He must admit, he is really hoping the message will suddenly change.

Salutations. This is Akashi Seijuurou. I received your phone number from Kuroko. Would you like to meet today at 3 PM to discuss basketball?

Yes. It still says what he remembers it says.

Furihata thinks he’s never gotten a more ominous and perplexing text message in his life.

*

The thing is, Furihata has never been the kind of person who found the Miracles intriguing. In fact, from pretty much day one, he found the existence of the Miracles as genuinely terrifying.

Meeting them, all in all, never fully changed his mind away from the initial terror.

*

Furihata was never much for science fiction or fantasy. He always figured the world was interesting and complex and scary enough without adding the elements of horror to it. He can’t stand scary movies—even parodies of scary movies are too much for him to handle. He has an incredibly low threshold for such things, and has been known to get nightmares from commercials.

So unlike all the other children his age, when the Miracles escaped Teiko, Furihata had hysterics and wouldn’t leave his room for days. (His brother eventually dragged him out. Kyo promised to stay by his side, and kindly did so for the next few weeks, before Furihata finally accepted that the Miracles weren’t going to jump out and get him.)

Because if superpowers existed, what else was real? It suddenly seemed like the comforting cushion of fiction was no longer safe—there were horrors in this world, and any legendary monster might be real.

*

Kyo had been jealous when there were rumors about a Miracle attending Seirin, but Furihata had debated transferring schools. He’d spent a week living in terror of Kagami, before it came out that he wasn’t a Miracle after all.

(In comparison, finding out that Kuroko was a Miracle was much less threatening than when they’d all thought it was Kagami. Furihata figured it was hard to be frightened of someone you kept forgetting.)

In time he came to really like Kuroko, and respect him. Because Kuroko wasn’t an amazing player; he was a hard worker, and Furihata appreciated that.

He still found the rest of the Miracles terrifying. He generally found naturally gifted athletes and good looking people terrifying, but the fact that they had superpowers definitely added to the scary.

And Akashi Seijuurou was, by far, the most terrifying. He was the leader of the scary men, which meant by default, he was the scariest of all the scary people.

When he tried to stab Kagami with a pair of scissors that only solidified things, really. It was the most violent thing Furihata had ever seen in real life, and he’d had nightmares for months in which Akashi Seijuurou and a pair of scissors had the starring roles.

*

And then, the rumors started floating around that the Miracles were trained assassins. And while this didn’t change Furihata’s opinion of Kuroko, it certainly made him even more nervous around the other Miracles.

(He didn’t know if the rumors were true. No one asked Kuroko if they were. As for as Kuroko was concerned, it didn’t matter if the rumors were true. Kuroko was his friend and teammate, and that’s all that mattered.

He still wasn’t sure what that meant regarding the other Miracles, since it wasn’t like he would really have to see them all that often, except in basketball games.)

*

Akashi Seijuurou is still the most terrifying person he knows. It doesn’t help that Akashi glows red every time he talks to Furihata (making him look a little bit like the devil when he does so) and it certainly doesn’t help that Furihata has no idea why Akashi seems to single him out whenever they’re in a group.

There wasn’t any reason for Akashi to single him out. He was pretty sure he had to be imagining things, up until he got this text.

*

He tries to make a list of all the reasons why Akashi Seijuurou would want to meet him.

1. He is impressed with his basketball skills. (Laughably unlikely.)
   
2. He wants to be his friend. (Also very unlikely. Furihata is not an interesting person, and has done nothing that might prompt the Miracle to want to be his friend.)
   
3. He wants to kill him. (The likeliest of the three options, although he’s not sure what he might have done to anger the Miracle. For the same reasons listed in option two.)

And he absolutely does not want to meet Akashi Seijuurou. Especially by himself. But he also doesn’t want to say no to Akashi Seijuurou because he doesn’t want to die.

He calls Kuroko, not seeing what else could be done in the situation.

*

“Akashi-kun would like to get to know you better,” Kuroko explains.

“But why?” Furihata cries.

“I will let Akashi-kun explain himself.” Furihata despairs, because he’s not sure how to ask “Is he planning on killing me?” without it coming across as insulting to Kuroko.

Luckily, Kuroko seems to pick up on some of his tension. “I do not believe Akashi-kun will do anything to harm you during this meeting, but would you feel better if I was near by, Furihata-kun?”

“Yes! Please! Come with me! And bring Kagami!”

“I promised Akashi-kun I would let him talk to you alone,” Kuroko says, dashing all his hopes. “But I can arrange it so Kagami-kun and I are nearby, as backup, if that would be comforting for you.”

“That would be nice, thanks,” Furihata says, feeling like a coward but also taking comfort in the fact that Kuroko probably wouldn’t judge him for it.

Afterwards, he sends a reply to Akashi, and somehow arranges to meet him.

He is still about 90% sure Akashi wants to kill him.

*

Akashi thinks about how complicated killing Furihata has become.

Because he is still not convinced the boy isn’t a threat, no matter what Kuroko says. Even if Furihata has no connection to Teiko, or one of the other mysterious facilities that deals with Projects, the fact that he has full immunity is worrisome on its own. Akashi had been vigorously trained to eliminate all possible threats, so it is very irksome that he can’t handle this situation in the way that he would prefer.

Largely in part due to the fact that Rakuzan still seems to think he is going on a date.

“Sei-chan! You can’t go out looking like that!” Reo admonishes.

Akashi would not consider himself to be a conscientious dresser, but he does pride himself on never appearing before the public in a slovenly fashion, the way Aomine or Murasakibara might. So he bristles a little under the implied criticism and asks, “What is wrong with the way I look?”

“You haven’t done anything different!” Reo exclaims. “You can’t go on a date looking like you usually would; the Seirin First Year will think you don’t care.”

“Let me tell you a little thing about guys, Reo-nee,” Hayama says, “We don’t actually care about our date’s appearance all that much.”

“The fact that you’re saying that is probably why you’re still single,” Reo sniffs.

“Hey!”

“And anyway, boys do care, you just don’t realize it. You have no idea the lengths women go through to look nice for our dates, but if we didn’t put in the effort, you would definitely notice and complain.”

“Mibuchi-san,” Akashi says pleasantly, having already lost the battle regarding the fact that this wasn’t a date, “I am going to play basketball and perhaps casually converse. I believe my attire is currently sufficient.”

“And you’re wrong. For one thing, your hair has never recovered from that time you attacked it with scissors, and so help me God, I cannot allow you to continue like this.”

*

Reo fusses for half an hour—trimming his bangs to equal length, putting product in his hair, putting him in a stylish jacket and a tie that materialized out of no where—before Akashi manages to escape her grasp.

“Remember to listen to his concerns!” Reo calls after him. “Boys like it when you listen!”

“And don’t rush things!” Hayama yells. “It takes two dates minimum before you get to first base!”

“Wear a condom!” Nebuya contributes. He’s thoroughly smacked by the other two and Akashi could cheerfully murder all of them. At this point, the entire Rakuzan Basketball Club and half of Tokyo now thinks Akashi Seijuurou is on a date.

*

He is not late, but it irks him to no end that Furihata got there before him. Furihata waits at the designated basketball court, holding a ball and looking terrified.

“Hello Furihata-kun,” Akashi says, keeping his voice mild and pleasant. He even remembers to smile.

Furihata jumps at the sound of his voice anyway and ends up dropping the basketball. He scampers after it, dropping it a few more times, before he picks it up and returns to Akashi. “Sorry! Sorry about that! Hello, um, Akashi-san. It’s very nice to see you.”

Akashi is slightly amused by the “san” ending. The girls of Rakuzan would occasionally call him “Akashi-sama” and this seems like a similar impulse on Furihata’s part.

“Please, Furihata-kun, we are both First Years. You do not need to be so formal with me.”

“R-right,” Furihata stammers, unconvincingly.

Now Akashi reaches a bit of an impasse. Because he wants to keep testing the limits of Furihata’s immunity. But he also doesn’t want to make the boy suspicious, on the off-chance he doesn’t already know about his immunity. He also wants to thoroughly interrogate him, but he’s not sure how to do that without raising suspicions either.

“Would you like to play a few rounds of one-on-one?” he suggests.

Furihata looks thoroughly horrified at the suggestion. “S-sure.”

*

After a few rounds, Furihata collapses and doesn’t get back up again. Akashi looks down at him, perplexed, because he’d been trying to go easy on him and he’s not sure what went wrong.

“S-sorry,” Furihata stammers as he shakes. “Akashi-san, I mean, Akashi-kun—I must be pathetic to play against. I’m no where near your level.”

“You have a lot of potential,” Akashi says, because that’s the closest thing he can say without it being a complete lie. The boy is utterly out of stamina and he sits on the ground and looks like he’s praying for death. Akashi hands him a towel and thinks he miscalculated somewhere.

He goes to his bag to get a water bottle and to stall for time as he tries to re-group. As he hands the water bottle to Furihata he thinks that the boy’s fear is genuine, which means there is a chance he is not secretly from Teiko.

“Furihata-kun, please forgive my rudeness, but you are frightened of me, correct?”

“N-no! Of course not! Sorry! Sorry, I don’t mean—I’m just weak, is all.”

“It’s alright if you are,” Akashi says politely. “It is perfectly understandable. You do not need to worry, I am not insulted. The Miracles must seem very terrifying from the perspective of most humans.”

Furihata laughs weakly. “Well, it’s not just that. Honestly, you’d terrify me if you were just a basketball player. Really strong guys just scare the crap out of me.”      

“You played against Kaijo and Rakuzan, you shouldn’t speak so disparagingly of your skills.”

“Oh. Thanks,” Furihata smiles and meets Akashi’s gaze for the first time.

Akashi feels a flutter of triumph at this accomplishment. They are conversing and Furihata is slowly relaxing, and it’s now perfectly natural to subtly interrogate him. “Have you been playing basketball long?”

“Oh! No, just since this year.”

“Then you have improved considerably. You should be proud of that—not many rookies could come so far.”

Furihata flushes and looks embarrassed. “T-thanks.”

“Why did you start playing, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Furihata blushes and looks away; then he laughs. “There was this girl—she said she’d go out with me, if I became the best in something. Pretty dumb, huh?”

The boy is either a master liar or he is, as Kuroko said, completely human. “Not at all. It is never shameful to aim to be the best, no matter what the motivations are. Since Seirin won the Winter Cup, I suppose that means you were successful in winning her heart?”

“Uh. No,” Furihata’s shoulders slump. “She said I didn’t really contribute to the win, so she turned me down.”

Akashi frowns. “How abhorrent. I detest people who do not keep their word. Did she watch you play? You made a basket while playing against me; that is nothing to scoff at.”

Furihata still blushes and he doesn’t look at Akashi when he mutters, “It was just one basket.”

“Seirin won by one point. Absolutely every basket was essential to your victory,” Akashi points out.

Furihata looks up at him, surprised. Then he smiles in earnest, looking like the sun just came out. “Thanks, Akashi-kun! Wow, you’re such a nice guy! I’m sorry I misjudged you.”

Akashi is a little taken aback and mildly appalled. No one has ever called him a “nice guy” before. “I am only stating what should be obvious to everyone.”

“Still. Thanks!” Furihata gets up shakily. He wipes the dirt from his pants and still wobbles a little when he stands.

“Your parents, at least, must have been proud,” Akashi says, proud of his segue. Furihata certainly seems like an ordinary human, but Akashi won’t be satisfied until he knows about his family. He cannot rule out a connection to Teiko or some other facility.

“Uhh. Not really. They don’t really come to my games, since I’m not a regular.”

“I see. They must be busy with work,” Akashi angles.

“I guess? My dad’s an accountant and my mom’s a housewife. They went to a lot of my brother’s soccer games, but he’s the star, so I guess that only makes sense.”

They certainly don’t sound like people who might work for a secret organization.

“I didn’t mean for that to sound bitter!” Furihata hastens to say. “I wouldn’t want them to come, unless I was sure I was playing. There’s no point in having them watch me sit on the bench, right? They’re very supportive though. They were sorry they missed the Rakuzan game, since I played.”

“They sound like lovely people,” Akashi says politely.

Furihata shrugs. “They’re perfectly ordinary, as families go.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Akashi says. “I don’t have a family.”

*

GK-1365 was the first one to ever use the word “family.” But he didn't come into their lives until after they lost Rainbow.

Gold and Red had detested the Rainbow Miracle, because he undermined their authority.

“You are not special,” Rainbow had told them. “You are powerful, but you are nothing to me, do you understand?”

They were nothing, around Rainbow. Even when Rainbow wasn’t using his powers to negate their own, his very presence was like a grating frequency only they could hear. They made each other uncomfortable. Rainbow would often activate his powers just to prove that he could—they would fall to their knees and Rainbow would smirk in that disgusting way of his.

“You are not superior,” Red said.

“And you are hindering our missions every time you disrupt things,” Gold said.

“You can’t stop me,” Rainbow sneered. “Which proves I am superior.”

They were a battle of wills, and maybe they could have managed to work together, except Rainbow often considered it his duty to punish the other Miracles for their disobedience.

The day he punished Purple was the last straw.

Purple was lazy, and he didn’t like to do things. He was often whipped for his disobedience, and that was a part of their daily lives. The punishments the scientists meted out could not be helped. But when Rainbow stepped in to taser Purple, it did not sit well with Red or Gold. Because Rainbow negated Purple’s inherent self-healing, so the other Project felt the pain more acutely. He screamed and screamed and there was nothing Red or Gold could do.

“Stop it!” Red yelled, even though he couldn’t activate his powers, even though he was on his knees. “He is not yours to punish!”

It was for Gold and Red to lead and punish their Generation, not for Rainbow. And because they were the leaders, they could not stand back as someone else hurt their Generation.

(Someone who was not the law. The scientists were obeyed, and that was the natural order of things. But it was not for others to interfere. They could not stand Rainbow delivering punishments like he was the authority.)

And Rainbow stopped tasering Purple, only to walk over and kick Red in the face. “I can punish whoever I want. You are not in charge here.”

Gold gripped Red’s hand, even though his own powers were negated, even though he was under the sick pressure of Rainbow’s power, even though he couldn’t stand anymore than Red could, he held onto Red and lifted his head to glare at Rainbow in defiance.

“Do you have something you want to say?” Rainbow sneered.

“No,” Gold said, gripping Red so tightly it almost hurt. “Not at all.”

They found Rainbow’s body the next morning, at the mess hall where they ate their meals. His throat had been slit and he was left on a table like a sacrificed lamb.

Gold was sent to Room 101 for that, so everyone had been able to figure out what had happened. When Gold came back from Room 101 he didn’t say anything, but he shared a look with Red that let him know he didn’t regret anything.

After that, the scientists introduced them to the Rainbow King.

*

“Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean—”

“It’s alright,” Akashi interrupts, because he hadn’t meant to make the boy feel bad. Humans could be so irrational with their concern sometimes; they wept at the most ridiculous things, and their sympathy was exhausting. “I only meant to explain that I have no proper context for what a normal family is like, so I can’t quite picture your family.”

“Oh. Um. Here!” Furihata digs into his pockets and pulls out his wallet. He flips it open and shows a picture to Akashi. “See? Ordinary.”

Akashi is pleased with how successful the ploy was. The picture of Furihata’s family verifies that he doesn’t recognize either of Furihata’s parents, and they have no outward signs of being Projects. He looks at the two boys in the picture and they’re the only ones who strike him as unusual. “Is that your brother? He looks like you.”

“Does he?” Furihata says, sounding pleased. “He’s way better looking than me, though.”

“Not at all. The resemblance is uncanny.”

Furihata laughs. “Not really, I mean, we are brothers, of course we would look like each other.”

Akashi frowns. “Is that typical, then? Brothers resembling one another?”

“Yeah, usually.”

Akashi shifts in discontent. If the resemblance doesn’t mean they are Projects, then by all accounts, they do seem to be an ordinary family. The boy doesn’t strike him as a master liar (and Akashi had trained with the best of liars) so he must be just what he appeared to be: a normal human.

An ordinary human with an unusual ability, that Akashi now wants to test in full. How many Orders could he resist? Is he immune to his precognitive skills? Would he be immune to Kise’s Copies, or Midorima’s telekinesis? Not knowing the extent of Furihata’s immunity is almost as maddening as not knowing what other facilities are out there.

At the very least, Furihata does not appear to be a Rainbow. Which is good. Akashi probably would have had to kill him just on principle, if he’d been a Rainbow.

*

The Rainbow King did not interfere the way Gold and Red ran their Generation, and so they deemed him acceptable. He wrangled Gray when Gray was being obstinate, and he enforced Red and Gold’s commands, but he was content to remain on the sidelines.

Red found him slightly intriguing, only because they didn’t interact with the other Generations very much, and he almost never saw anyone from one of the older Generations.

“Why are you with us?” he asked. “Doesn’t the rest of your Generation need you?”

“The rest of Generation King is dead,” 1365 replied, in a clipped voice.

This was somewhat to be expected, so Red didn’t feel the need to pursue the matter further.

But then 1365 continued, “You’re lucky, you know. The scientists have a lot of high hopes for Generation Miracle. You won’t have to watch them die, like I did.”

“That will not happen,” Red said, although he knew he couldn’t guarantee that.

“You’ve already lost one,” 1365 pointed out.

“Rainbow—that is, 1391, was a hazardous influence to the rest of us. He had to be eliminated.”

“You shouldn’t be so quick to make those judgments,” 1365 said. “They’re irreversible.” When he saw the expression on Red’s face he shifted and looked at him, with a serious expression. “Listen, in the entire world, you’re only going to have one Generation. They’re the closest thing you have to a family. Once they’re gone, you will never ever get them back. So from now on, you have to do everything you can to look after your family.”

Red knew the word “family” but not as it applied to them. “Family” was a human concept.

He didn’t understand quite what 1365 meant, but he had understood one thing. “It was always my intent to look after my Generation. That is my role as a Red Zero.”

“See that you do,” 1365 said.

*

“Don’t get my wrong, I’m happy to be backup for Furi, but if Akashi attacks him, what’re we supposed to do from here?” Kagami questions.

They’re sitting outside a nearby restaurant, watching the basketball courts intently. Kuroko sips his vanilla milkshake and does not take his eyes off from where Akashi and Furihata stand. “I do not believe Akashi-kun will attack Furihata-kun. We are only here to make sure he doesn’t do anything he shouldn’t.”

“That covers a lot of ground,” Kagami grumbles. The restaurants portions had been too small, in his opinion, and he didn’t like being so close to a basketball court and not be able to play.

“Oh ho? Seirin? What are you doing here?”

Kagami and Kuroko look up to see Mibuchi Reo and Hayama Kotarou approach their table and then pull up chairs next to them.

“What are you doing here?” Kagami demands.

“We came to spy on Sei-chan on his date,” Reo says. “How’s he doing?”

“D-date?” Kagami sputters. He whirls on Kuroko. “You didn’t tell me this was a date!”

“It is not, as far as I am aware,” Kuroko replies mildly.

“Is that him? He’s not as cute as your other Point Guard,” Hayama announces. “Akashi has weird taste in guys.”

“Kota-chan, everyone has different things they look for in a partner,” Reo chides.

“What?” Kagami exclaims.

“I must confess I am curious as well,” Kuroko says. “Did Akashi-kun tell you he was going on a date?”

Reo laughs. “Well, no. Sei-chan denied it as often as he could. That is why we are all pretty sure this is a date.”

“Hang on, I promised Nebuya I’d take pictures,” Hayama takes out his cell phone and angles it at Furihata and Akashi, quickly snapping some photos. “He was upset we wouldn’t let him come.”

“He attracts too much attention, we’d never be able to spy with him around,” Reo sniffs.

“I am still confused,” Kuroko says apologetically.

“For as long as we’ve known Sei-chan, he has never, ever, ever, been interested in getting to know someone better,” Reo explains.

“Much less wanted to know how not to scare them away!” Hayama chimes in, still snapping photos with his phone.

“And he let me fuss over him for a full half hour, to make sure he looks nice,” Reo says. “He never does that. He must really like this boy, for him to go through such lengths.”

“It just isn’t like him to be interested in other people,” Hayama says. “So even if he denies it, there’s no way he’s not attracted to the guy.”

“Oh my God,” Kagami says, looking horrified. “Akashi is absolutely not allowed to date Furi.”

“What? How dare you? Sei-chan would be an amazing boyfriend! Your First Year should feel lucky Sei-chan would even glance his way!”

Kuroko drinks his milkshake meditatively. On the one hand, he knows Akashi’s true interest in Furihata, but feels like he can’t explain this to Rakuzan or Kagami. (He had only told Kagami about Furihata’s possible immunity. He purposefully left out that Akashi’s interest might be homicidal. There was no point in worrying his boyfriend until it was absolutely necessary.)

But on the other hand, it really wasn’t like Akashi to show any kind of interest in humans if they weren’t directly useful to him in some way. Even if he was investigating a possible threat, would he really go through such lengths?

Kuroko tries to picture Akashi having a romantic interest in anyone and he fails. The idea of Akashi and Furihata as a couple is even more impossible to wrap his mind around.

“Uh, guys?” Hayama says, looking up from his phone. “Something weird’s happening.”

*

At this point, Akashi realizes there’s not much he can do without being suspicious. If Furihata is unaware of his immunity, then Akashi wants him to remain ignorant. So there is not much else he can do without risking alerting the Seirin First Year to his unusual quirk.

He doesn’t want to leave matters alone. He’s pretty sure Furihata isn’t a threat, but he’s not entirely convinced. Perhaps the best thing to do now was what Hayama suggested—build up a relationship slowly through email—so he could keep tabs on the boy and interfere if he proves to be dangerous after all. “Thank you for meeting me, Furihata-kun. Would it be alright if we emailed every now and then?”

“Sure! I should be thanking you, it was nice of you to practice with me,” Furihata says, rubbing the back of his head and looking bashful. “I mean, I don’t know what you’d get out of talking to someone like me, but I wouldn’t mind a few pointers from one of the best.”

Akashi preens, a little, because he does like it when people realize he is the best. “You shouldn’t underestimate your worth, Furihata-kun. I—”

He breaks off when the van pulls up, practically on top of the sidewalk. Something hits Akashi in the neck, and he falls to his knees. He tries to activate his powers, but he can’t concentrate.

He’s only dimly aware when Furihata tackles him, holding him tight.

“—other kid won’t let go!”

“Take them both then! We have to leave now!”

Akashi blacks out.

Chapter Text

“What the—did that just happen?” Hayama exclaims.

Kuroko is already dialing his phone.

“Someone just took Sei-chan!” Reo shouts.

“This is a Code Demon,” Kuroko says, when Kise picks up and before he can say anything. “Someone has abducted Akashi-kun and a teammate of mine. Call the others.”

He hangs up before Kise can respond and sees Kagami on the phone.

“Who are you calling, Kagami-kun?”

“The police,” Kagami says, and he glares at Kuroko when he tries to protest. “Whatever this is, they took Furi. This isn’t just a Miracle problem; we need to get the police involved.”

“Of course we need to call the police! Why wouldn’t we call the police?” Reo demands.

Kuroko stifles a sigh. All things considered, Kagami is right. This isn’t like when Haizaki or Jabberwocky appeared. There are too many witnesses, for one thing.

But it’s going to be very difficult explaining that to the others.

He calls Momoi next.

*

Akashi wakes up with a pounding headache.

It only takes a few seconds to ascertain that his hands are bound behind his back and that he’s wearing some sort of collar.

“—can’t believe you took the other kid! Do you know how much shit we’ll get for abducting a normal kid?”

“What’s the difference? We’re being paid either way.”

“The difference is it’s a federal crime. No one would care if we took a mutant, but the other kid has parents. They won’t stop looking for us; it’ll attract too much attention.”

Akashi opens his eyes. He’s lying on his side in some sort of transport area. He can hear the engine and he realizes he’s on a plane. The men are yelling in English, with American accents. He sees them now; they’re wearing the kind of body armor you can buy in military surplus stores. Akashi bets they’re hired mercenaries.

Next to him, sits Furihata. Furihata’s eyes are open, and he’s also bound, with duct tape over his mouth. He sees Akashi and looks at him with desperate terror on his face.

“Kill the other boy and dump his body somewhere,” the person in charge says. “It’s better if they find a body. They won’t look as hard if they’re not worried about saving him.”

“You will not,” Akashi snarls. He tries to activate his power but his headache intensifies, leaving him gasping in pain.

“The mutant’s awake. Your power won’t work, freak. Not with that around your neck.”

Akashi clutches his fists behind his back. Even Teiko didn’t have this kind of technology (they hadn’t needed to use something like this; they had Rainbows), so where did these men get such a device?

Akashi accepts that he’s in a tricky situation. He won’t be able to figure out an escape plan until he knows more about what’s happening. He’s confident he can escape—whoever these men are, there’s absolutely no chance they are something Akashi can’t handle on his own.

The problem is Furihata. Akashi doesn’t particularly care what happens to him, and if it comes down to Furihata or him, he’s choosing himself in a heartbeat. But Kuroko cares about the boy, and he would hate to disappoint Kuroko.

Also, Furihata was clearly taken because he was with Akashi at the time. This does, somewhat, make him Akashi’s responsibility. And Akashi takes his responsibilities very seriously.

“You will not kill the boy,” Akashi repeats, this time not trying to use his power. His Latent Overflow should at least make the men more suggestible to what he has to say.

“And why do you care what happens to the kid? What’s he to you?” the man in charge sneers.

And then, probably because of listening too much to his Rakuzan teammates, Akashi blurts out the first reason that comes to mind, “He is my lover.”

Furihata’s eyes are very wide. Akashi is willing to bet he doesn’t speak English, but understands simple words like “kill” and “lover.”

The man curls his lip, looking disgusted.

“You think he’s telling the truth?” one man says.

“Probably. The files said they were designed homo. Better keep the kid around, he’ll make good leverage, and maybe the client will want him too.”

Akashi stiffens. He flicks his gaze around once again to take in his surroundings.

The files said they were designed homo.

The fact that Teiko made sure their Projects would not accidentally breed unfavorable offspring was not public knowledge. Even the JSDF didn’t know. Only Momoi had been able to recover Teiko’s files that kept that information. It was not something the average hacker could have discovered.

Unless they were connected to Teiko somehow.

Things just got a lot more complicated.

*

Everyone knew White was dying. The White Tens were still a work in progress, and hadn’t reached Successful status. Every time she Healed someone, her own body would grow weaker. Red and Gold tried to conserve her power for when it was only strictly necessary, but their mission in Cairo had been a disaster from start to finish and almost everyone had been shot.

Purple and Blue had self-healing abilities, but Purple had been shot too much and he’d needed the added boost. Black had a gut shot and even Green had a bullet in his leg. White didn’t complain, she just Healed them all with a smile. She even kissed them on the forehead—something she’d seen a mother do on one of their missions Out, and something she always wanted to try.

Afterwards, she approached Red and Gold. She could barely stand, and she was coughing blood.

“You’ll look after Pink, won’t you?” she begged them. “Pink isn’t like the rest of you. She needs someone to love her.”

Red and Gold shared a look. “We will look after her,” Red promised. Love was asking too much.

“Look after all of them,” White said, sounding sad. “That’s the only thing I regret, you know. That I won’t be around to help you boys out when you get hurt.”

Pink was inconsolable when White died. Red had never seen someone so destroyed. It was all very off-putting.

“It was my fault,” she said. “I got bad information in Cairo . I should have been more careful. If I had, White would still be alive.”

“Pink, she was dying anyway,” Gold said.

Pink didn’t find this comforting. She at least managed to control her emotions in front of the scientists, and Black and Orange fluttered around her with soothing words.

Privately, Red was appalled. “I cannot imagine such unseemly displays of affection.”

“I could,” Gold replied, and Red frowned, because they usually agreed on everything.

“Loving someone is a waste of time, it is not in our nature,” Red reprimanded.

Gold did not reply. Between the two of them, Red kept the cooler head, but Gold was the more ruthless. They were the head and heart of their Generation.

No one needed to tell them to look after their Generation.

*

Akashi doesn’t talk to the men after that, because he doesn’t want to give them a reason to gag him. (The mercenaries seem to feel safe that the device around Akashi’s neck will keep him powerless, and Akashi wants them to keep feeling safe. As long as they think they’re in control, Akashi will be able to manipulate the situation.)

He presses close to Furihata, because he’s trying to sell his lie that they’re lovers. Furihata presses close in return, and Akashi can’t tell how much of that is the boy playing along with Akashi’s ruse and how much of it is just his own terror making him cling to his only ally in the room.

When Furihata’s stomach growls it’s the sign Akashi needs to implement the first stage of his plan. They’ve been flying for hours—this is clearly an international journey—and Akashi wants every advantage he can get.

“Excuse me,” he says, keeping his voice polite (which is the closest he can manage to sounding submissive). “But are you going to provide us with dinner?”

“You don’t need to eat,” one mercenary replies dismissively.

The sinking feeling returns. The Projects can go far longer without food or water than normal humans can. Again, this is something these men shouldn’t know.

“But my boyfriend does,” Akashi replies. He is genuinely impressed he can say the phrase “my boyfriend” with a straight face. Absolutely no one who knew him would ever believe this coming from his mouth, but the men seem to buy it.

“Please, it is not necessary to keep him bound and gagged. He is quite ordinary, and will not bring you trouble.”

The men seem like they’re ignoring him, but Akashi can tell from their posture that they’re paying attention to everything he says.

This is very difficult, because Akashi has never needed to be persuasive. He commands, and people obey. He tries to think about what Kise would say in this situation. The Yellow Six was naturally charming and manipulative and it is not an ability Akashi has ever envied before.

“Please,” Akashi says again, “I promise he will not bother anyone.”

One man huffs and walks over to them. He rips the tape off Furihata’s mouth and uncuffs him. He then puts his gun to Furihata’s temple. “If you scream or cause any trouble, I will shoot you in the head. Got it?”

“Do not scream or cause trouble,” Akashi translates quickly in Japanese.

“Got it! Absolutely not! I won’t do anything!” Furihata says in rapid succession.

“He understands,” Akashi tells the man.

The man flings a protein bar and a water bottle onto Furihata’s lap. “Just remember it’s not a big deal to us if he’s alive or dead.”

Furihata holds the protein bar and water bottle but his hands are shaking too much for him to try and open them. “Akashi-kun, what’s happening?” he whispers.

“I am not sure. I believe these men have been hired to abduct me. I apologize that you’ve been brought into my affairs.”

“It’s—it’s OK,” Furihata says, which almost causes Akashi to smile. He never quite understood the human impulse to politely lie.

“Do you think they took Kuroko too?”

Akashi stiffens, because the thought hadn’t occurred to him, and it should have. Just because these men clearly didn’t have anyone else in their holding, didn’t mean there weren’t other mercenaries out there, hunting his Generation down.

“I do not believe so,” Akashi replies. He hopes not.

Furihata is unbound now, which should be useful. As long as Akashi can keep him from doing anything stupid, they should both be able to get out of this.

He leans in and places his head on Furihata’s shoulder, in what he hopes looks affectionate. He nuzzles Furihata’s neck and angles his head so that the men won’t see him whisper into Furihata’s ear. “They think we’re lovers. I apologize for the ruse, but I was worried they might kill you otherwise. Please play along, and if you need to speak to me, try to disguise it like I’m doing so now.”

He pulls away and kisses the boy’s ear, to look like that was his design all along. A few of the men make disgusted sounds and Akashi is pleased more than ever with this ruse. The homophobic nature of their captors will ensure they don’t watch them too closely.

Furihata blushes bright red. Akashi thinks this helps sell their ploy.

“Please eat, Furihata-kun,” Akashi says. “You need to keep up your strength.”

*

“You cannot come on missions anymore,” Red told Gray.

“What?” Gray snarled.

“You are disobedient and unnecessarily violent. You hinder the chances of success with your… outbursts. Yellow will perfect his Copies soon, and you will hardly be necessary anyway.”

“What did you say?” Gray hissed, grabbing Red’s collar.

“Release me,” Red ordered. Gray did so, but still looked like he was poised to attack.

“This is why you are no longer necessary,” Red said.

“They’re going to scrap me if I’m not on missions,” Gray said.

“Perhaps. It is not my concern. I must make decisions on what is best for all of us.”

Gray slammed his fist on the wall, inches from Red’s face. There was so much rage on his face, and it was clear he wanted to kill. Red just stared at him until Gray backed down, kicking at chairs as he walked away.

“The scientists are going to remove him from missions anyway,” Gold said, leaning against the wall. He watched the whole exchange, but did not interfere. “You did the right thing.”

Red knew this, but he didn’t quite like it. Gray was one of his. Even if his violent tendencies were a drawback during missions, Red would have tried to lobby for his usefulness, when the scientists finally made their decision to remove him.

But he didn’t just torment humans on missions. He tormented Yellow, Black and Orange . The others hadn’t said anything about the bullying, but Gold had found out.

And Red had to discard Gray, for the good of the whole.

“His mind is filthy,” Gold said disgustedly. “He has too many dark desires. We are better off without him. One day he would have acted on his disgusting urges, and it would have been too late to do anything then.”

Gold could read minds and see the future. Red did not doubt his assessment.

“You are right. I know we must protect what remains of our Generation, at all costs.”

Silver had died in Room 101 a week ago. It was an accident that occasionally happened. His heart just gave out, literally frightened to death.

The Silver Miracle had possessed a combination of Green, Blue and Pink’s abilities. He had been useful and obedient and his loss would be felt on upcoming missions. But he’d had a timid nature, and Red couldn’t say he was surprised by the death.

But once the scientists removed Gray from their team, they’d be down to ten. Ten out of fourteen.

Red knew, that all things considered, this was still an impressive majority. Just like he knew, all things considered, there number would go down to eight soon enough—Black and Orange were never going to be Successful, and would most likely be scrapped soon. He had his doubts on Brown as well—Brown had tremendous power but very little control. He felt optimistically Brown could still be a Success, but he’d already given up on Black and Orange.

If he could just save the remaining seven (not counting himself) then he will count it as his personal victory as the Generation leader.

He can’t save everyone. They can’t save everyone—since he and Gold are in this together, always together.

But they can save most of them. If they’re careful.

*

Within hours, the entire nation knew that Akashi Seijuurou, Miracle, and Furihata Kouki, ordinary human boy, had been abducted. Hayama’s photos that he’d been taking at the time were offered to the police of evidence but subsequently also shown on every News station in Japan.

In those hours, the Miracles gathered in Tokyo. Murasakibara and Himuro had flown in, and now everyone is unhappily gathered in Kagami’s apartment.

Kagami compulsively makes dinner for everyone. Himuro helps him in the kitchen, while everyone else sits in the living room and thinks about how it really wasn’t all that long ago since their last war council. Kuroko, personally, feels very bitter. It’s almost like they’ll never be safe.

“I wish you hadn’t gotten the police involved,” Midorima says.

“There was no choice,” Kuroko cuts in before Kagami can defend himself. “There were too many witnesses.”

“What exactly are you guys planning to do?” Kasamatsu asks suspiciously. “There’s not exactly a lot to go on here. You should just let the authorities handle this.”

Every Miracle in the room gives Kasamatsu a baleful look, indicating that “letting the authorities handle this” is not an option.

“We can’t do nothing, Senpai,” Kise says. “They took one of us.”

“That’s actually my point,” Kasamatsu says.

“I don’t follow,” Midorima says stiffly.

“Guys, someone out there is abducting Miracles,” Takao says, demonstrating that he’s on the same page as Kasamatsu, or at least reading from the same book. “This means you’re all in danger. You can’t just actively chase down the people trying to kidnap you.”

“Don’t be absurd,” Midorima says. “The only reason they were successful in abducting Akashi is because they caught him off guard. If we know we are in danger, there is no threat we cannot handle.”

Kuroko sighs, because he’s actually with the humans on this one. The Miracles have made a lot of progress since integrating with society, but they still have a lot of their natural sense of superiority. Kuroko suspects this is because they are Successes.

Kuroko has never believed in his own invulnerability; he knows better than anyone just how fragile life is.

“Why would someone take Akashi anyway?” Takao asks.

“Are you joking?” Himuro says, returning from the kitchen with Kagami and a tray of snacks. “Who wouldn’t want a pet Miracle? No offense, guys. But just imagine how useful corporations or politicians would find someone who must be obeyed.”

“But he’s not exactly easy to control, is he?” Takao asks.

And that’s what makes Kuroko feel so uneasy about this situation. Akashi is not weak—he is a trained soldier and assassin who must be obeyed. It is hard to picture a situation where he couldn’t find a way out on his own.

“Let us hope it is that,” Kuroko says quietly. “Let us hope it is someone trying to buy a Miracle.”

“What else could it be?” Kise asks, startled. He’s not alone in his surprise—Aomine and Murasakibara both look at Kuroko in confused astonishment.

Kuroko doesn’t want to tell them. If they haven’t figured it out yet, he doesn’t want them to know.

Midorima pushes up his glasses. He clicks his tongue in disgust, because it clearly hadn’t occurred to him before but it certainly occurs to him now. “That is impossible.”

“Is it?” Kuroko asks softly, rubbing his wrists.

“What is?” Kise asks.

Midorima and Kuroko stare at each other, both reluctant to be the first to say it out loud.

*

It takes three tries for Furihata to successfully open the protein bar; his hands are shaking too badly. He doesn’t even try opening the water bottle, although his throat is so dry it’s painful. He’s sure if he tried to uncap the bottle he would just spill the water everywhere.

He nibbles at the protein bar, but he’s not actually hungry. Or rather, he is hungry, he knows he’s hungry, because he can feel his stomach growling, but the circumstances have absolutely killed his appetite. He eats more as something to do then as nourishment.

It is only when he is halfway done with the bar that he remembers Akashi. Akashi is still bound, and no one gave him any food.

“Umm, would you like some?” Furihata asks in a low voice. “Sorry, I nibbled on it, but—”

“It is alright,” Akashi cuts in. “Miracles can go longer without food. You should eat. You will need to keep up your strength.”

Furihata frowns. Kuroko certainly never eats a lot, but Murasakibara was constantly snacking. Just because they didn’t need food, didn’t mean Akashi wasn’t hungry.

“If you could give me some water, I would appreciate it,” Akashi says softly.

Furihata nods and eagerly goes for the water bottle. Concentrating on the task at hand is enough to distract him from his fears, and he is able to uncap the bottle without disaster. He places the bottle to Akashi’s lips and tilts slightly. The other boy swallows twice before pulling back. “Thank you.”

Furihata just nods and takes the opportunity to slake his own thirst.

“When we stop, do not try to resist,” Akashi commands, still in a whisper that Furihata has to lean in to hear. “And do not do anything heroic. They will shoot you.”

“Don’t worry!” Furihata shakes his head vigorously. “I’m absolutely not the heroic type! I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“You already interfered with their abduction,” Akashi points out.

Furihata blinks. He feels slightly embarrassed, because he hadn’t thought Akashi had been conscious at the time.

“That was, well, that was different,” Furihata mutters. “I didn’t want them hurting you.”

Akashi doesn’t respond.

Furihata honestly can’t believe his own actions. But when the men came bursting from the vans, carrying weapons and Akashi was already down from some sort of tranquilizer, Furihata just reacted on instinct. He’d thrown himself to cover Akashi, and then clung to the other boy when it was clear the men were trying to take him away. He’s still not sure what he was thinking—it’s not like he was helping at all, it’s not like he could have done anything at all.

In fact, Furihata’s fairly certain he just made matters worse. Because now they’re both abducted, and there’s nothing Furihata can do. Akashi probably would have been better off by himself—if he has to worry about Furihata’s presence as well as his own he might not be able to make his escape.

You never think things through, Furihata chides himself. Stupid. You just never think.

Akashi leans his head on Furihata’s shoulder again. Furihata jolts at this—he knows it’s just Akashi’s way of communicating with him so the men can’t overhear him, but it is a bizarre combination of terrifying and comforting and Furihata’s still not sure how to process the fact that apparently they have to pretend they’re lovers.

“We are going to get out of this, Furihata-kun,” Akashi says into his ear. He has the same forceful authority in his voice that he does when leading the Rakuzan team and Furihata finds this reassuring. If Akashi says it’s true, then it’s probably true. “But you must obey me. If we’re going to get out of this, then you must do exactly as I tell you.”

“Absolutely, for sure,” Furihata agrees eagerly. He’s glad one of them knows what to do in this situation, and he’s really glad to leave it to Akashi to make all the plans. He feels almost guilty with just how relieved he is to not have to make any decisions for himself.

“You do not have to speak so loudly,” Akashi says into his ear. “My hearing is far superior to a human’s. Just speak as quietly as you can, and I will hear you.”

Furihata doesn’t trust his volume, so he just nods.

Akashi doesn’t say anything else, but he keeps his head on Furihata’s shoulder.

Before this happened, Furihata would have thought it impossible to ever find Akashi’s presence comforting. But he’s obscenely glad to have Akashi here, to feel Akashi’s warmth next to him, because it means he’s not alone.

He wonders, briefly, if Akashi is comforted that he’s here with him. But he dismisses the idea immediately.

Akashi, no doubt, only views him as a burden.

Rightly so, Furihata thinks. There’s nothing you can do to help in his situation.

He feels monumentally depressed at the thought, but he tells himself to snap out of it. Being depressed is not going to fix the situation at all.

He vows right then and there that even if he can’t help Akashi, he’s definitely not going to be a burden. He’ll do whatever it takes, and he’ll do everything he can to make sure Akashi doesn’t regret that he’s here too.

*

The plane lands and the men cuff Furihata’s hands again. They also put a black cloth bag over his and Akashi’s heads, and then forcibly march them.

Furihata moves passively along; the sudden blinding terrifies him. He hates that he can’t see where he’s walking, he hates that he can’t see Akashi. He feels awash in desperate terror all over again.

He’s put in a car and he cries out, “Akashi-kun?”

“I am here, Furihata-kun. Remain calm,” comes Akashi’s reply, and he relaxes a little (a very little—he is still very much tense with terror.)

“Shut up back there!” yells an American voice. Furihata cringes and shuts up.

*

He is being marched again. He wants to call out for Akashi again, like a lost child, but his own pathetic nature silences his tongue. Akashi can’t see any better than he can—Akashi is in the exact same position as he is. Already he is failing at his vow—Akashi doesn’t need to make him feel better in this situation. So he just swallows hard and walks where he is lead.

“I have been watching the News,” a new voice says, when they finally stop walking. “How colossally stupid are you? Why would you abduct a normal child? And why would you bring him here?”

Furihata cringes and it doesn’t even register that the man is speaking Japanese.

“The Project said the boy was his lover,” comes the reply in badly accented Japanese. “I thought you could use him.”

“Really?” the first speaker says. “He actually said lover? Those were his exact words?”

“Yeah. If you want him, throw in an extra 5,000. For our trouble.”

“I’ll give you an extra 2,000, and you should be thankful I find your fuck up interesting. Now leave.”

There is some grumbling in English Furihata doesn’t understand, and then the sound of boots walking away in an echoing hallway.

The bag abruptly lifts from his head, and Furihata blinks rapidly in the sudden assault of light.

“You don’t look like much. How fascinating,” the man says. Now that Furihata can see, he makes note of his surroundings. The man is Japanese, in his late fifties—silver just starting to color his dark hair. Akashi kneels next to him, his head still covered. The Miracle seems unnaturally still.

The man in the lab coat takes in Furihata and dismisses him in one glance. Then he turns his attention solely on Akashi, and removes the bag from his head.

“Hello GM-R0102,” the man says. “It’s been awhile.”

Akashi does not respond, and neither does he look surprised to see the scientist.

“Akashi-kun?” Furihata says, unsure. “Do you know this man?”

“Yes,” Akashi says, his eyes never leaving the man’s face. “He is my creator.”

*

It is Momoi who speaks first. Momoi who looks up from her laptop and glances around the room.

“Teiko,” she says softly. “Teiko’s the only other place that might want to abduct a Miracle.”

Aomine curses loudly and with great emphasis. Kise blanches, and looks like he might puke. Murasakibara stops eating.

“And if it’s Teiko,” Kuroko says, lowering his eyes, “Then there is nothing Akashi-kun can do to escape. And there is nothing we can do to help him.”

Chapter Text

They were two, always together, and that was the whole of the world.

And even though Red understood the fragility of life in Teiko better than anyone, it never occurred to him that he would ever live without Gold.

Then the fire happened.

*

It was not just a fire, it was a devastation.

The Successes were being marked—Red, Gold, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, and Pink—and it created extra pressure on those whose fates were still undetermined—Brown, Black and Orange.

Brown was trying to prove his worth. He summoned a fire—bigger than he ever had before.

“See?” he said. “See, I can control it! You can’t do anything like this!”

“Stop it, Brown,” Red Ordered, glowing. But Brown didn’t stop. At his confused and horrified expression, it was clear he wasn’t obeying because he couldn’t obey. He’d lost control of the fire.

And then things started exploding.

Blue picked up Pink and ran away. Orange grabbed Black by the hand and jumped. Red could see Purple and Green help Yellow escape, but it took all his power to reach into Brown’s mind and hold.

This was an aspect of Absolute Order he rarely used: the complete control of someone’s mind. In that moment he was both Red and Brown, but Brown was gone. This level of control completely destroyed the mind of Red’s victims, turned them into zombies, which is why he rarely used his power to this degree.

But holding Brown, he could use Brown like a puppet; use Brown’s power as his own. The world burned around him, and explosions occurred throughout the building. If Red could hold the fire, his Generation could reach safe harbor.

“Leave!” he yelled, out of both his mouth and Brown’s.

Because of course there was still someone at his side.

“Not without you!” Gold yelled back.

“I am the only one who can control Brown, and thus the fire!” Red yelled over the roar. “Leave now!”

But he could not hold Brown this way and Order Gold.

Gold wrapped his arms around Red. “You are not the only one.”

A golden aura surrounded him. “Go,” he said into Red’s ear.

“Live.”

He shoved Red away. It was the last thing Gold ever said.

*

Akashi looks at his creator and he does not feel surprised. This is what he has been expecting ever since the mercenaries began quoting Teiko’s files, perhaps ever since they put a collar around him that inhibited his powers, possessing a technology that shouldn’t exist.

No. If Akashi was being completely honest with himself, he would say he had been expecting this reunion for some time.

He had watched the Teiko trials, unlike some of the other Miracles. And he had noted that while some of the Project leaders had been prosecuted, many were not. A lot of the Teiko scientists never made it to the News and in the back of his mind, Akashi always sort of knew that meant they were still out there.

“Furihata-kun, is it?” his creator asks, addressing the shivering boy next to Akashi.

“Y-yes?” Furihata says.

“I must apologize for this treatment. Believe me, it was never my intent to involve ordinary children.”

“Umm…”

“But, unfortunately, you are involved. I would like to discuss your situation with you further, but for now, I must speak with 0102 alone. Guard, please bring Furihata-kun to the room we set up for 0102, and make sure he is comfortable.”

A soldier comes to take Furihata. Furihata sends a scared and desperate look at Akashi, but he obeys Akashi earlier request and does not struggle.

There are still guards in this room. There were always guards in Teiko—the reinforcements should Projects misbehave. Akashi had grown accustomed to their existence in Teiko, and largely ignored them.

He ignores them now, because they do not matter. The only things that matters are Akashi and the man before him, his creator. They might as well be alone.

“Is that boy really your lover?” his maker queries.

“Yes,” Akashi replies, processing a dozen different things in a split second before he replies. Furihata’s existence as Akashi’s “lover” is the only reason he is still alive. He is interesting to the scientist if he is Akashi’s lover, and if Furihata is interesting, he will be kept alive. As soon as he is no longer interesting, he will be scrapped. Akashi is 100% certain that this is the case.

“I am not sure I believe you, 0102,” the scientist says. “Red Zeroes are not capable of forming such attachments.”

“Why would I lie?” Akashi returns, and he has the man there. Red Zeroes have underdeveloped empathy—if Akashi is capable of protecting Furihata with a lie, he is capable of loving him. (At least, this is the logic Akashi knows his creator is thinking.)

“True enough,” the man replies. “How interesting. It was theorized that Projects would imprint on their chosen mates, once puberty set in. It’s part of the animalistic instinct we designed in you. But I would have never thought the mating imprint would attach to ordinary humans, and I wouldn’t have thought the Red Zeroes or Green Sevens would possess the urge. I somewhat regret we never let the previous Generations achieve maturity; it would have been valuable insight to see how the sexual dynamics played out.”

The man writes notes down on a clipboard as he says this, and Akashi concentrates on keeping his face blank.

Akashi stares at the man who created him and he doesn’t know what he feels. He still has a splitting headache—he has ever since he woke up, and he suspects it has something to do with the collar around his neck. It makes it difficult to concentrate, and even though he should be strategizing, Akashi keeps circling back to the other Miracles. What would the other Miracles do if they sat where Akashi sits now?

He knows what they would have done. Yellow, Pink and Green had been the meekest around Teiko’s authority, because they were the most terrified of returning to Room 101. Purple would be stubbornly insolent, even as they beat him. Blue would rage but ultimately submit. And Black? Who could say what Black would have done? He would quietly fade in the background and plot.

Akashi knows this about who they were. But he admits quietly to himself that while he knows what Yellow, Pink, Green, Purple, Blue and Black would have done then, he’s not sure what Kise, Momoi, Midorima, Murasakibara, Aomine and Kuroko would do now. His friends have changed, in part because of the humans who love them. Because of the “mating imprint” this man so casually quantifies and analyzes in his notes.

Akashi finds he does not understand the bonds they formed any better than his creator does.

But he wants to protect those bonds.

“I have been rude,” his creator says, putting down his pen. He smiles. “Welcome home, 0102.”

*

He didn’t understand when he woke up alone.

The scientists and doctors stood over him.

“What a waste,” his creator said. “They were the best Projects we had. 1101 was by far the best Gold ever created.”

“Now we’ll have to start all over.”

“But we saved 0102, at least, that’s something.”

Red heard them speak, heard their words, but he didn’t process what they meant. He fell back asleep.

When he woke up again, he was alone in a medic bed.

Gold was not with him. GM-1101 was no where to be found.

And then he knew.

*

“You rebuilt Teiko,” Akashi says.

“Teiko was never gone,” his creator replies.

The two stare at one another again. Akashi knows he should try to take control of the situation, but if there’s one thing he’s learned from Kuroko, it’s that sometimes it’s better to let others think they have the upper hand.

So he doesn’t say anything.

“I must say, it has been amusing to watch the seven of you play at being human. Ah, I guess it’s eight of you, isn’t it? I’m still not sure how GM-O394 survived, but we’ll be more careful in the future.”

A wave of apprehension flows through him unbidden. Hinata Shouyou had risked a lot, when he came to save them at the Special Diet. Akashi is keenly aware that he owes the failed Project a debt. He doesn’t like the idea that Orange is in danger because of that kindness.

“Why come for us now?” Akashi asks, keeping his voice mild. “I understand why you would not while we remained on the JSDF base, but you have had plenty of better opportunities this past year. Your timing now seems poorly planned.”

“Do you think so?” his creator asks.

And it’s a game they used to play, to test how well Red could strategize. Akashi takes the invitation and he continues, “After the Special Diet, the Miracles have had an increase in popularity. People dye their hair to match their favorite Project. I have seen people wear T-shirts in support. I have no doubt my abduction is already high publicized, especially considering your hired men took me and an ordinary human boy in broad daylight. I can’t imagine why you would invite this level of scrutiny.”

“Excellent points, 0102, I see that your instincts have not dulled,” the man says. “As it happens, the reasons why now are not important for you to know. All you need to know is that we have decided to bring our runaway Projects home.”

Akashi fingers twitch, his only outward sign of his distress. “You have captured the others as well?”

“Not yet,” his creator says, and Akashi lets momentary relief wash over him.

“That’s why I took you first. You are going to bring your Generation home, 0102. That’s your responsibility, as leader.”

This isn’t surprising, exactly. In the animal world, if you capture the alpha, it is easier to capture the rest of the pack. Akashi is and always has been the alpha of the Miracle pack.

But they are not animals.

“You overestimate my influence,” Akashi says mildly. “They will not come running because I call for them.”

“They ran because of you,” the man says, his voice taking on a harsh undercurrent for the first time in this conversation.

Akashi stares at the man and does nothing to betray his confusion.

“Generation Miracle was by far the strongest Generation we created. But you were under our control. You should not have been able to run like you did. The problem was you, 0102. We were never able to control you properly after your psychotic break. We have come up with a solution for that now, and we will control the situation. In time, you will relearn to respect our authority.”

Akashi continues to stare. In any other situation, he would be outwardly gaping. Maybe he would even laugh. And after the laughter, maybe he would cry; from the absurdity and the irony of it all.

Even now. Even after all this time. Even after everything that happened, still Teiko underestimates Kuroko.

Is it because of Kuroko’s ability? Is Kuroko really so powerful he erased his existence from the minds of the very people who created him?

Or is this man really that arrogant? Would he rather believe his most Successful Project orchestrated his downfall than the failed Project he intended to scrap?

Either way, Akashi still wants to laugh until he cries.

But he does nothing. Instead, he shifts the focus of the conversation. “What do you intend to do with Furihata-kun?”

“Well, now, I suppose that depends on you,” his creator says thoughtfully. “Would you like him kept with you?”

“I would,” Akashi says carefully, because he is sure the alternative would not be letting Furihata return to his family.

“Then you may keep him, like a pet. It would be fascinating to study how Red Zeroes interact with humans. But make sure you don’t fail me, 0102, or I might decide you don’t deserve to keep a pet anymore.”

He is going to put you back in Room 101, a voice says in the back of Akashi’s mind. Akashi stiffens, but he doesn’t think his creator notices.

I can see it, if you do not, the voice continues. He will have to recondition you.

I know, Akashi says back, irritated. Because even he could figure out that much. It would have been obvious, even if the man hadn’t said he expected Akashi to fall in line and bring in the other Miracles.

But you don’t know, don’t you see? You haven’t been in Room 101 for years. I have. It will break you.

It won’t, Akashi says back.

We have to switch places. You won’t be able to get out of this.

No, Akashi says forcibly. I can do this.

Why? Why won’t you switch?

Because you won’t protect Furihata-kun.

And there’s nothing his other self can say to that.

But Akashi knows it’s only a matter of time—the truth is, he won’t be able to resist Teiko’s reconditioning, he never could. It was always his other self; his other self was stronger and could survive what Red could not.

It was his other self who escaped Teiko. Red probably wouldn’t have taken the risk.

Akashi is running out of time in more ways than one, so he speaks politely as he can. “May I see him? I would like to verify that he is alright.”

The man’s brows rise—like he hadn’t actually believed that Akashi was fond of Furihata until this moment.

“Very well. I’ll give you an hour.”

*

The guards walk him down the halls of the new Teiko. The floor and walls are pristinely white, and the rooms modeled more like high tech prison cells.

There are other Projects. Other children. For the most part, they look human, but some do not. They do not, for the most part, have the rainbow array of hair colors that Akashi is used to seeing in the halls of Teiko. Some get up to stare at Akashi as he walks by, but others do not.

The cells are like little rooms, behind thick clear glass. There are beds with white sheets and each room has a section of paneled glass where a bathroom is separated to give the illusion of privacy.

The glass partition is different than it used to be in Teiko, but Akashi figures it must make monitoring the Projects easier. Teiko has learned from their escape.

The guards walk him to a cell where Furihata waits. One guard presses a button that causes the glass to slide open. Akashi notes the cables around the door frame and concludes that it is not just glass; there must be a secondary electric barrier, to keep the Projects from trying to break through.

Furihata is wearing the same dark green cargo pants and black T-shirt as the rest of the Projects. He looks like he’s been fed and cleaned but he still has palpable terror on his face.

The guards finally uncuff Akashi as he walks through the door of his new cell, and he rubs his wrists as they seal the glass behind him.

“Akashi-kun! What—”

Akashi puts a finger to Furihata’s mouth, silencing him. And then he grabs the boy’s wrists and pulls him forward. Furihata lets out a startled exclamation that Akashi silences by pressing his lips against Furihata’s mouth.

Akashi, it probably goes without saying, has never kissed anyone before. Nor has he been particularly interested in watching films in which much kissing takes place. (Momoi and Kise, on the other hand, always seemed to watch shows where the primary activity of the actors was either kissing or weeping profusely. And when they all lived together on the JSDF base, Aomine had introduced them all to the concept of pornography. Aomine had possessed a magical talent for producing a neverending stream of porn films, which Akashi understood he somehow wheedled them out of the JSDF soldiers. But Aomine’s porn preferences had been heterosexual in nature, which pretty much alienated the rest of his Generation from watching with him. Kise would occasionally watch, for “research purposes,” he claimed, but the rest of them usually found other things to do when it was Aomine’s turn to select their viewing on movie nights. Kuroko read books. Murasakibara fell asleep. Akashi and Midorima usually played Shogi.)

So Akashi doesn’t exactly know what he’s doing, but he has never once committed to an activity that he didn’t naturally excel at doing. In all things, Akashi is determined to be victorious, so he kisses Furihata with the expert enthusiasm of someone determined to win at kissing.

Furihata gives a muffled yelp and tries to pull back at first, but Akashi’s arm around his waist keeps him in place, and soon enough Furihata is tentatively kissing back.

Akashi sucks on Furihata’s lower lip and pulls away, but instead of pulling back he leans in, pressing further against Furihata. He kisses the side of Furihata’s neck and then whispers into his ear, “They will be watching us. There are no doubt listening devices in this room. I believe they will kill you if they don’t think I care about you.” He kisses the side of Furihata’s neck again and then bites down and sucks. Furihata shivers against him and makes an unexpected mewing sound that Akashi is surprised to discover he enjoys hearing.

He whispers again, “They are going to reprogram me soon. I might not be myself when I come back. When I return, it is very important you do not let me forget you, or the other Miracles. You must remind me of my life outside of here. Do you understand?”

Furihata nods, imperceptible to everyone but him. Akashi pulls back and cups Furihata’s face in his hands, staring into his eyes. He’s not sure the boy can understand. What is about to happen to him is something only the other Miracles would understand. But he can’t explain things further. He just has to trust that Furihata will do his best.

“Furi,” Furihata says quietly, in a whisper only Akashi could hear. (It is so low Akashi thinks even the cameras and listening devices in the room should not be able to pick it up). “My friends call me Furi.”

And Akashi smiles wryly, despite their situation. He supposes, all things considered, that they must be friends now, and how strange is that?

“Are you OK, Akashi?” Furihata asks louder, perhaps he figures there’s nothing unusual about his question.

Akashi mulls it over and figures it wouldn’t be suspicious to carry on some conversation. “Yes, I am fine. I just have a headache.”

“A headache?” Furihata repeats.

“Yes. I believe it is this device,” he touches the collar around his neck. “I believe it is emitting a frequency that disrupts my ability.” He has had some time to analyze it. It is meant to cause pain so he can’t concentrate. He might be able to use his power, if he conserves his strength and times it right.

“Umm. Would you like a massage?”

Akashi’s focus returns to Furihata.

Furihata blushes. “My mom gets migraines sometimes! I, um, massage her temples and she says it helps. I could, um, try? If that’s something that’ll help.”

Akashi thinks it over and decides it couldn’t hurt, so he nods and says, “Yes, thank you. I would appreciate that.”

*

When he woke up again his creator stood over him.

“GM-G1101 and GM-B1273 died in that fire,” his creator told him, his voice matter-of-fact. “You almost did too. Between you and 1101 there was only enough to save one of you. Do not waste this second chance, 0102.”

He didn’t know what that meant, until he looked in the mirror and saw one of his eyes was now gold.

He noticed the scars on his chest, then. “What—?” he started, but he didn’t know how to form the question.

“You needed a new heart, kidney, eye, and part of a lung. You are lucky 1101’s organs were compatible.”

Gold was inside of him. Gold’s heart was beating inside of him.

Red didn’t scream. He didn’t make any noise at all, he didn’t move.

But, inside of him, something quietly and irrevocably broke.

*

Akashi lies on the bed, his head on Furihata’s lap. Furihata’s fingers are cold, but they move expertly against his temples in confident circles and it does help.

Alright, the voice inside of Akashi’s mind says, Alright. I’ll protect him too. But we’re out of time.

Akashi gets up and turns to face Furihata. He kisses the boy lightly on the mouth and says, “Thank you.” Then he whispers in his ear, “Remember what I said. No matter what, Furi, you mustn’t let me lose myself.”

He closes his eyes and lets go.

The glass door slides open.

“0102, it’s time.”

He opens his eyes and looks only at the boy in the bed. “Take care, Kouki. I will be back soon.”

Furihata’s eyes widen.

Red 0102 walks out the door and offers up his wrists obediently, so the guards can restrain him.

And then he follows them quietly to Room 101.

Chapter Text

There is a pallor over Seirin that is vaguely funereal. It is a large school and not many people even knew who Furihata Kouki was before he got abducted, but just the knowledge that something terrible has happened to a fellow student is enough to make everyone feel grim.

Kuroko shamelessly abuses his power so that no one will stare at him.

*

Everyone comes to basketball practice, even though no one really feels up for training. Even Riko doesn’t seem all that invested in forcing them to practice. They all seem content to group together for support.

“She’s telling everyone that she was his girlfriend,” Kuroko overhears Kawahara saying, his anger radiating around him so much so it’s practically visible. “She’s been sobbing nonstop and she’s just doing it for attention. I swear to God, I’m going to hit her.”

“Kawahara,” Fukuda chides.   

“Doesn’t it piss you off?!”

“Of course it does!”

“I can’t stand all our classmates acting like they care. Most of them never even talked to Furi!”

“They’re allowed to worry,” Fukuda says.

Kuroko stares at the floor. He hates feeling so useless. He’s sure everyone here feels the same way, but it particularly grates on him because he’s sure there’s something he could be doing…

But he needs more information. He needs Momoi’s information. Once Momoi tracks down Akashi and Furihata (and he’s sure she will; there’s nothing she can’t find) then they can formulate a plan.

It took Kuroko three years to plan and implement his escape from Teiko. If there’s one thing he can do, it’s be patient in a high pressure situation.

But it’s a little different, knowing it’s not his life on the line this time.

“Boys, we’re all worried about Furi-kun. But we have to remain calm and think good thoughts for him. We can’t let ourselves feel hopeless.” This comes from Tsuchida’s girlfriend, Nanase Aya. She comes to practice occasionally to walk home with Tsuchida, and no one questions her presence here now. She has a calming influence over the other First Years.

Kuroko listens to her advice and agrees. He will not give up hope.

The gym door bursts open, and a boy wearing a different school’s uniform comes striding in.

“Which one of you is the Miracle?” he demands.

The newcomer looks like an older, slightly more handsome, definitely more confident, version of Furihata, so it’s not hard to figure out that he’s probably Furihata’s older brother.

And because he must be Furihata’s older brother, Kuroko feels like he can’t hide. He steps forward and politely says, “That would be me.”

It is not a surprise when the older boy lunges forward and grabs Kuroko’s collar. Furihata Kyo shakes Kuroko vigorously and demands, “Where the hell is my brother?! What did you involve him in?”

“I am very sorry. I do not know what has happened to Furihata-kun. I wish—”

“That’s bullshit!” Kyo yells, shaking Kuroko again. He raises his fist and Kuroko braces himself to be hit, but then Kagami is there, grabbing the Third Year and pulling him off Kuroko.

“What the hell is your problem?” Kagami snarls. “Kuroko’s more worried about Furi than anyone! Leave him alone!”

Kagami is taller and more muscular than the Third Year. In a fight between the two, he would undoubtedly win, but Kuroko very much does not want them to fight.

“It is fine, Kagami-kun, he is right to be angry,” Kuroko says, placing a calming hand on Kagami’s arm.

“Your damned right I do!” Kyo yells, not backing down in the face of Kagami’s wrath. “This is all your fault! Kouki would have never been taken if it wasn’t for you! If something happens to Kouki because of you, I swear to God—”

“That’s enough,” a quiet voice fiercely interrupts. Tsuchida’s girlfriend stands in front of Kyo, hands to her hips. “Furihata-san, I understand your anger, but taking it out on Furi-kun’s friends is not going to solve the problem. Kuroko-kun is a very important friend to Furi-kun, and your brother would not want you blaming him.”

Kyo slumps and Kagami lets him go. “He’s terrified of Miracles, you know,” Kyo says, sounding angry and frustrated and sad. “He always has been. I told him nothing would ever happen to him—I told him he was safe.”

Riko steps in. “I know how you must be feeling, Furihata-san. But I promise you, everyone in the Seirin Basketball club feels the exact same way. Come on, let’s talk about it.” She leads Furihata’s brother away, and Aya follows. The two girls take the distraught boy out of the gym.

Hyuuga sighs. “Well, practice isn’t happening. How ‘bout we all go to Maji Burger?”

*

“Stop it.”

Kuroko looks up from his vanilla milkshake to see his boyfriend staring at him. “Stop what, Kagami-kun?”

“Feeling guilty. Blaming yourself. What happened to Furi is not your fault.”

Kuroko looks back down.

Of course it was his fault.

It would have been bad enough, if just Akashi had been taken. Kuroko would feel tremendous amounts of worry if it had been just his fellow Miracle.

But Furihata was just an ordinary human. One of Kuroko’s important comrades and friends. He wasn’t connected to the Miracles in the way Kagami, Takao, Kasamatsu, and Himuro were. If something had happened to one of the human boyfriends (and all hell would break loose if that ever occurred) it would be awful, but those humans at least knew the risks when they started dating a Miracle.

Furihata wasn’t connected, and he shouldn’t have been brought into this mess. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He’s terrified of Miracles.

And Furihata had been afraid of Kuroko when they first met. But he’d since come to be really good friends with the Seirin Miracle. They served together in the Library Committee together and they talked a lot about books. He was one of Kuroko’s only friends who he could talk about books with, and Kuroko valued that.

He’s terrified of Miracles.

But he was still scared of Akashi, and Kuroko couldn’t even blame him for that. Especially considering Akashi viewed him as a possible threat. And the fact that Akashi had been trained to eliminate all possible threats.

Furihata shouldn’t have been involved. Or at the very least, Kuroko should have been there, by his side, not just watching from the sidelines.

Kuroko had enabled the meeting to take place. Kuroko had encouraged Furihata to go…

“Dude, I can feel the guilt coming from you. I was there, too. If you’re to blame, so am I,” Kagami says.

Kuroko shakes his head. “It was my fault, Kagami-kun. Furihata-san is correct; if anything happens to Furihata-kun, it will be all my fault.”

“No, it won’t. God, you always take responsibility for everything. Stop it! Furi’s going to be fine.”

Kuroko wishes he could believe that.

If Furihata was with any other Miracle, Kuroko might be able to believe that. But Furihata is with Akashi.

And Akashi does not protect humans.

*

At night, he talks to Hinata Shouyou on the phone.

“My parents and my teammates are going nuts,” Hinata wails. “They’re not letting me go anywhere without a chaperone! My parents don’t even want me leaving the house.”

“I am sorry, Shouyou-kun,” Kuroko says, wincing. Because this is one more thing he feels responsible for, even though it had been Hinata’s decision to “out” himself and save the other Miracles at the Special Diet. He would feel a lot better if Hinata was here, in Tokyo, with the rest of the Miracles. The Miracles always worked better as a group, and he can’t help but think Hinata would be safer with them instead of in the Miyagi Prefecture.

But the other Miracles have guardians, with a lot looser authority over where they go and what they do in a time of crisis. Hinata Shouyou has parents, and Kuroko is given to understand that means he is not as free to drop everything and join the rest of the Miracles.

“Do you think we’re in danger?” Hinata asks.

Kuroko hesitates. “I do not know. It is quite possible.” If Hinata hasn’t realized that Teiko might still be around, Kuroko’s not sure he wants to give him that added worry.

“Kenma… my friend in Nekoma, you know? Kenma said Teiko could still be out there. That they might be the ones who took Akashi.”

Kuroko stifles a sigh. “Yes. That is possible.”

Hinata falls silent. Orange has more reason than anyone to be afraid of Teiko. “Whatever it is, you’re going to go rescue him, right? You and the others?”

“That is our intent, yes,” Kuroko says.

“And you’ll tell me too, right? I want to help.”

“Shouyou-kun…”

“He was my leader once, too,” Hinata says defensively.

Kuroko does sigh then. “No, Shouyou-kun. Regardless of what happens, you should stay with your parents.”

*

He’d visited Hinata once, at his home in Miyagi. Hinata had enthusiastically introduced him to his family—his parents and the improbable orange haired girl who is his little sister. Hinata’s parents had been unflaggingly polite and kind to Kuroko when he visited, but there was a coldness in their eyes, a wariness. They blamed him for Hinata putting himself in danger, they were afraid he would take Hinata away from them. He understood that instantly and he respected their feelings.

Kuroko couldn’t help but wonder, ever since he found out Orange was alive, how he could have passed as human for six years. Especially considering when the world found out about the other Miracles—he can’t imagine how Hinata could have convinced those around him that he was just a normal boy.

But when Kuroko visited him in his home, met his Karasuno teammates, watched a few practice volleyball games, he realized it then.

Hinata wasn’t passing as human. He was human.

Later, he casually remarked, “It is amazing that no one ever saw you use your power over the years. You must have been very lucky.” Because Orange’s jumping abilities were hardly subtle.

Hinata just looked at him, confused. Then realization dawned. “Oh! That’s because I didn’t use them. Ever. Better safe than sorry, yeah?”

Kuroko couldn’t help but stare, shocked and almost appalled. “But you love jumping.”

“Yeah, but,” Hinata shrugged, “I loved my family more, you know? And volleyball. I wasn’t going to do anything to risk losing that.”

And Kuroko couldn’t even imagine it. Orange had loved using his ability more than anyone else in Teiko. Kuroko doesn’t always like his power—it is inconvenient, and manipulative, and sometimes makes him feel very lonely—but he can’t imagine ever not using his ability. It would be like someone putting a blindfold over his eyes and telling him he couldn’t see for the next six years, knowing full well that he still had eyes and he still could see.

Kuroko struggled with his next question. “How did you put it behind you? Teiko? How were you able to move on?”

Because Hinata just fit in his world so effortlessly. He had friends, teammates, a family, and he interacted with all of them as if it were as easy as breathing.

Hinata grew very serious at Kuroko’s question, a dangerous aura surrounding him, and for a second, Kuroko could see the soldier Orange used to be when Hinata quietly replied, “They killed me, Black. GM-O394 died in Teiko. So none of that matters anymore. I’m Hinata Shouyou now.”

Kuroko realized that was probably true. Orange was dead. Hinata was not.

*

“Shouyou-kun, we have three more years of training and experience than you, carrying out a mission. And we have had six years of working together as a team. You would be an unknown element, and it would only be problematic for everyone.”

What he is saying is absolutely true, and it is also a little bit what he genuinely feels. The seven Miracles who escaped Teiko together have been working as a cohesive group for a long time. It has been six years since Orange was last on a mission with them, and they don’t know how he would fit with them anymore.

But Kuroko knows he is being deliberately cruel with his words. He is saying, “We don’t need you,” which isn’t true, not really.

But selfishly, he does not want Hinata in danger anymore. Hinata already risked everything coming to their aid once. He has a family and friends and a life outside of being a Miracle. He has escaped the shadow of Teiko more thoroughly than anyone. Kuroko does not want to drag Hinata back to where they are.

Instead, he hopes someday everyone can find their way to where Hinata is. He hopes one day the Miracles will be able to fit in society as easily as Hinata does.

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Hinata says, with more grace than Kuroko’s assessment deserves. “Just… be careful, OK? And if there’s anything, anything I can do, don’t hesitate.”

“Thank you, Shouyou-kun,” Kuroko says. At this point, he just wishes there was something he could do.

*

The next day, Rakuzan shows up to practice.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Hyuuga mutters when the Rakuzan starters walk into the gym. Then, louder, he says, “Look, if you guys wanna yell at Kuroko, you’re going to have to go through us first.”

“We’re not here to yell at him, Junpei-chan!” Reo says, offended. “We just want to talk to him!”

“Well, no talking either! And stop calling me Junpei-chan!”

“We need to PLAN!” Nebuya booms. “We’re here to get Akashi back, and we need to work out the details on how to do that!”

“Plan?” Izuki exclaims. “What exactly do you expect to do? Shoot your way through Europe like a fourth Taken movie?”

“Yes! Exactly! Let’s Liam Neesan the shit out of this!” Hayama shouts.

“No, no, oh my God, no,” Izuki says, horror dawning as he realizes just how serious the Uncrowned Kings are about this.

“Sei-chan is out there somewhere! He could be hurt! He’s our friend,” Reo says.

Kuroko startles. “Akashi-kun…” but then he stops.

The Rakuzan team looks at him.

“We know,” Hayama says quietly. “We know Akashi doesn’t consider us his friends. But he’s our friend, OK? And we have to do something.”

“Can we do this Liam Neesan style?” Kawahara asks, brightening at the thought.

“No. God. Where would we even get the guns?”

Someone taps Kuroko on the shoulder and Kuroko looks up to see Mayuzumi standing next to him. “They’re going to argue stupidly for hours,” Mayuzumi says quietly. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”

Kuroko glances back to the two teams who are debating loudly and very seriously the merits of going on a rampage across Japan and nods, “Yes, alright.”

The two shadows slip out of the gym unnoticed.

*

They end up on a rooftop because they don’t want to be overheard, and Kuroko wants to be able to see if anyone approaches them.

“Mayuzumi-san, I really do not know where Akashi-kun is,” Kuroko starts. “I will do everything in my power to find him, I promise you that.”

“I know,” Mayuzumi says. “Honestly, I’m not even all that worried, exactly. Akashi is probably the most capable guy I know. I think he could probably get out of any situation.”

“Then what is it you would like to talk about?” Kuroko asks, confused.

Mayuzumi looks like he’s struggling to figure that out himself. He clearly has something he does want to say; he just doesn’t know how to say it. Kuroko waits, because he’s intrigued.

“I have this theory,” Mayuzumi finally begins, “That you’re the only person Akashi has ever felt inferior to.”

And Kuroko is surprised, because this is not what he expected Mayuzumi to say, but he doesn’t let his surprise show. “Because we beat him in the Winter Cup?”

“No. From before that. He approached me because I remind him of you, you know that, right?”

“I had guessed,” Kuroko says hesitantly.

“He wanted me to learn your style of basketball. I didn’t want to do that. I mean, it’s a pretty lame way to play. I had too much pride in myself to devote my basketball to other people.”

Since Kuroko thinks it was pretty mean of Akashi to try and turn Mayuzumi into a Kuroko-replacement, he lets the insult slide.

“The thing I’m trying to say is, you were the one person Akashi tried to replace. The person he thought was necessary for victory. I don’t even think he realizes that he was subconsciously doing that. It’s like he was saying he didn’t think we could win unless we had you.”

“I had not thought of it that way,” Kuroko says, frowning. “I believe you are giving me too much credit in Akashi-kun’s thoughts.”

“I’m not,” Mayuzumi replies. “Look, Akashi doesn’t talk about himself, ever, but if I had to guess, I’d bet a lot of money that you were responsible for the escape from Teiko. Am I right?”

Kuroko doesn’t respond but he’s very impressed. The others had been told of Kuroko’s involvement. At least, Kagami told him that the Miracles had told their boyfriends about Kuroko’s plan. He is impressed but not actually all that surprised that Mayuzumi would realize it on his own.

“I thought so,” Mayuzumi says after Kuroko continues to not say anything.

“I am not sure what that has to do with anything,” Kuroko says, almost apologetically.

“I’m trying to explain why we came to you, instead of one of the other Miracles. We really want to help Akashi, and I think you’re the one who can tell us how.”

Kuroko wishes people would stop overestimating his abilities. “If there was something I could have done for Akashi-kun, I would have done it by now.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Mayuzumi’s shoulders slump slightly.

Kuroko hesitates, and then ventures, “I am a little surprised Mayuzumi-san and the others care so much.”

“You think we’re assholes, then?” Mayuzumi says angrily.

Kuroko realizes his mistake and tries to backtrack. “Not at all. I only know that Akashi-kun can be… difficult to get along with. Especially for humans. He has never been… discreet… when it comes to how he feels about normal humans.”

“Ah,” Mayazumi says at the explanation, anger fading. Instead he looks at Kuroko thoughtfully. “He was the leader of the Miracles, right?”

“Yes,” Kuroko says cautiously. “That was his role.” It is what he was designed for, but Kuroko can’t say that.

“What did you think of him, as a leader?”

Kuroko pauses, trying to parse out the question. Truthfully, he has actually thought a lot about that very question over the years. Akashi was designed to command, he did it naturally as breathing. And if asked, Kuroko would unequivocally say Akashi was a good leader—a great one. There is no way he could ever be anything but a great leader.

But Kuroko has come to realize there is more than one kind of leader, and all things considered, he likes Hyuuga’s type better. The kind who pulls his team together with them, instead of from above them.

That doesn’t change the fact that Akashi is great in his way. “I believe Akashi-kun is the kind of leader very few people could ever hope to be,” Kuroko explains quietly. “He makes very difficult decisions for the good of everyone. He bears the responsibility as a leader should. He makes sacrifices and sometimes his orders are difficult to bear, but he always, always, bases his commands on what he believes will be for the best to achieve victory.”

“When you say that, it sounds like you disapprove,” Mayuzumi says thoughtfully.

“That is not my intent. I admire Akashi-kun greatly. I could never lead—I could not bear the burden.”

“‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown,’” Mayuzumi quotes. Kuroko nods his head.

It does not surprise Kuroko that Akashi alone did not find a human boyfriend. Even if he didn’t hate humans, the others—Midorima, Kise, Murasakibara—found partners, and Akashi could never partner with anyone, because that would mean he relied on someone. And it was not in Akashi’s nature to rely on anyone.

Mayuzumi doesn’t say anything right away. When he does start talking, he looks out at the school below them, and not at Kuroko. “There used to be a flasher who’d target girls when they walked to school. He’d change his route and he was unpredictable about when he came, so the police couldn’t—or wouldn’t—do anything to stop him. A lot of girls felt unsafe when they walked to school.

“So Akashi tracked him down and Ordered him to walk into the nearest police station and flash the officers there. The guy never came back.”

“I see,” Kuroko says.

“I know a girl—a friend of mine, I guess, from childhood. She was being stalked by an ex-boyfriend and everyone told her it was no big deal. They told her things like, she should be flattered, or just ignore it, or she should take him back since it was clear he loved her so much. But she was terrified and wanted to stop coming to school. Akashi had one conversation with the guy and he never bothered her again.

“And there was this Second Year—he was bullied by his classmates and the Third Years every day until Akashi put a stop to it. That guy probably never felt safe a day in his life until Akashi came to school. Rakuzan has never been as safe as it is now.”

“Akashi-kun is not supposed to his use his powers on fellow students,” Kuroko says dryly.

Mayuzumi snorts. “That has never bothered him. Look, I’m trying to tell you about the Akashi we know. He is a king, I think. But he’s the kind of king all kings were meant to be. The kind who protects his subjects with his role, instead of subjugates them. And we could debate the ins and outs of democracy vs. monarchy all day long, but when it comes down to it, there’s a bunch of people who felt a hell of a lot safer going to school because Akashi was there. Rakuzan is probably the only school who was neither surprised by the thought of Akashi being a trained assassin, nor bothered by this information. In fact, a fair amount of people were actually comforted by the thought that Akashi is a scary motherfucker who would kill to protect what’s his.”

Kuroko is absolutely dumbfounded at what Mayuzumi is trying to say. It’s true, too—of all the schools that came to support their Miracles at the Special Diet, Rakuzan had been overwhelming in number.

Kuroko often debated with the others about whether or not it was better for humans to love or fear them. He still believes—and he believes the Special Diet proved—that it was better to be loved.

But perhaps it wasn’t as simple as that. Perhaps you could be loved and feared—or loved because you were feared.

“I see,” Kuroko says again. “Thank you for telling me this, Mayuzumi-san. It has given me a lot to think about.”

“We need him, OK? Rakuzan needs him. If there’s anything we can do, just tell us,” Mayuzumi says, finally looking at Kuroko again.

“I will,” Kuroko promises, although he’s pretty sure there’s nothing they can do. “But I really can’t help anyone just yet. I will not be able to act until I have more information about the situation.”

Mayuzumi searches Kuroko’s face and nods at what he sees there. “Good. You’ll be smart about it. That’s much better than reenacting Taken across Japan.”

*

Momoi stares at her computer screen and she feels, a little bit, like crying.

She’s always been the kind of person who cries easily. She cries when she’s happy, when she’s sad, when she’s arguing with Aomine, when she watches movies, when she reads books. She knows people dismiss her when she’s crying—because weeping people shouldn’t be taken seriously. That is, in part, why she cries so much. She enjoys being underestimated.

(In truth, she also knows she cries because a long time ago, she was not allowed. Pink Twos were supposed to be logical, not emotional. No one was supposed to cry in Teiko. Momoi Satsuki cries because GM-P256 could not.)

She doesn’t cry now, despite the fact that she really wants to. She doesn’t cry, because she has a hard discussion to make, and it’s a decision 256 has to make, not Momoi Satsuki. The girl who used to be called Pink has to decide whether or not she should save her friend.

She has found him. Of course she has, that was never in doubt. And if she tells the others, they will try to save him.

But this is not an opponent they can win against—they have never once beat Teiko. Fleeing was their only victory (and even that victory seems rather ephemeral, now.) If they try to save Red (and it is easier, to think of him as Red in this situation, and not Akashi Seijuurou) they would probably play right into Teiko’s hands. They could be killed, or imprisoned again, and it would be all her fault.

Pink had no choice but to send others into battle after giving them her research. But she has a choice now. She could sacrifice Red to save the others. And she hates that she has this thought, she hates that she’s seriously considering it, but someone has to make the tough choice in this situation.

Red would be the first one to say—cut your losses. Red wouldn’t risk everyone to save one.

Black would. The thought makes her grimace. Kuroko would.

(And who do you want to be? She asks herself. Do you want to be Pink or do you want to be Momoi Satsuki?)

“Satsuki.”

Aomine’s voice reaches into her thoughts and yanks her back to reality. She sees him slouching in her doorway.

She clenches her fists. She does not cry. “You could die. You could all die.”

Aomine doesn’t deny it. He scratches the back of his head and doesn’t look at her when he says, “You know, Satsuki. We always felt safe. Every time we had to go Out and fulfill our mission—I never once thought we wouldn’t come back safe. Because we had you. You always had a plan to bring us back.”

She buries her face in her hands, and finally lets herself cry. He stands over her, but he doesn’t move to touch her. Aomine has never quite known the best way to approach a crying woman, besides just standing there; in his quiet, awkward manner, letting her know that he was there for her, and that he would always be there for her.

After a long time has passed she sniffs, blows her nose in her handkerchief loudly, and then composes herself.

“I know where he is.”

Aomine pats her on the head and lets his hand rest there. “OK. Then let’s go bring him home.”

*

Kise looks at his cellphone.

Worst fears confirmed. Mission optional.

The message lists a meeting place and time. After a few seconds, a private message from Momoi pops up:

No one would blame you, Kichan.

Worst fears confirmed: Teiko has Akashi. Mission optional: this is going to be dangerous and you don’t have to come.

No one would blame you.

Momoi expects him to refuse and God, he wishes she wasn’t right about him. He wishes it was easy, that he could proudly declare, “Of course I’m going to save Akashicchi!”

And he wants to—he does. This past year has taught him a lot of things about teamwork and where he belongs. He can proudly declare, “I am Kise from Kaijo,” and he knows this is where he will be happiest. But at the same time, he thinks about his old team, his first team, and he will always value them too, even if he’s glad they’re no longer together. Even though he’s glad he’s not GM-Y626 anymore, glad to put Yellow behind him—he won’t deny that his past self existed.

He feels like he owes it—not just to Akashi, but to himself, to Yellow—to do this.

Because he could never defy Teiko. Because he ran when he had the chance, and that was the bravest thing he had ever done. But he feels like he should prove, once and for all, that he’s not 626 anymore, he’s Kise Ryouta. And Kise Ryouta never backs down from a fight.

But Kasamatsu.

Kise grips his phone. Kasamatsu Yukio is hands down the best thing that ever happened to him. Even now, months later, he still can’t believe Kasamatsu loves him. Every day with Kasamatsu is like a reward for all his previous suffering.

But saving Akashi—going up against Teiko—there’s just no way he can do that without—without being 626 again. And he could survive, but what if he lost Kasamatsu? What if he was a monster again and Kasamatsu couldn’t love him anymore?

He’s rather be imprisoned in Teiko again. He’s rather die. He’d rather—

“Kise? What’s wrong?”

Kasamatsu comes into their bedroom frowning. “Is there news about Akashi yet?”

Kise lets out a breath. When he looks up he smiles. “Momoicchi found him, Senpai.”

“That’s great! We—”

“He’s at Teiko. A new Teiko.”

Kasamatsu falls silent. He processes the information quickly. “You’re thinking about mounting a rescue mission.”

Kise nods.

Kasamatsu huffs. “Kise, we’ve been through this. You don’t always have to do everything alone. This time, it’s different than with Jabberwocky and Haizaki—the police can help. The JSDF can help—Teiko took an ordinary kid, the law is on our side here.”

“It’s not in Japan,” Kise says, which stops Kasamatsu’s tirade. “I did think about it, Senpai. But apparently it’s on a remote island near Hawaii somewhere. Japan has no authority—I’m not sure who does. Even if we tried to get international authorities on this, it might be too late. The best chance we have at saving Akashiichi and the Seirin First Year is if we go, the Miracles, in a discreet rescue mission.”

Kasamatsu mulls this over. “You could be walking into a trap.”

“Yeah,” Kise says. “We know. But we have Momoicchi on our side, and she’s way smarter than the Teiko guys. She’ll get us in and out safely.”

Kasamatsu nods. “Alright. Come back safely, or I’ll kick your ass, got it?”

Kise blinks, not sure if he heard correctly. “Senpai?”

“Although if it’s on a private island, how are you even going to get there?” Kasamatsu muses.

“Momoicchi will think of something,” Kise dismisses. “But—Senpai, you understood what I’m saying, right?”

“Yeah?” Kasamatsu says, frowning. “Small rescue mission makes sense. You guys are trained for it. If it’s international, you’re right, the JSDF won’t have jurisdiction. I think there probably is grounds for legal maneuvering, especially considering the abduction of minors is involved, but it would take too long. And no one knows Teiko better than you guys anyway, so you’ll be able to handle it better.”

“But—” Kise struggles with his response, because he’s sure Kasamatsu still isn’t getting it. “But I’m probably going to have to fight. And I don’t want you to think—that is, last time—”

Kasamatsu continues to frown and then he gets it. He slaps Kise lightly behind the head. “Idiot! OK, let’s get one thing clear right now. What I objected to last time was your readiness to hunt someone down and murder them in cold blood—”

“Some people deserved to be hunted down and murdered,” Kise mutters.

“—Not the fact that you wanted to keep us safe. Look, I’m the son of a soldier, OK? I know sometimes you have to take lives to protect others.” He cups Kise’s face and looks directly into his eyes. “Do you understand now?”

“Murder bad, rescue mission OK?” Kise guesses. He’s still not sure he can tell the difference, but it matters to Kasamatsu.

“Exactly.” Kasamatsu kisses Kise lightly on the lips. “Just come back safe, OK? And don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll try hard not to,” Kise says, wrapping his arms around Kasamatsu’s waist.

Now that he knows Kasamatsu won’t hate him, there’s nothing on this earth that will stop him from coming back to him.

*

Midorima makes his decision easily with zero hesitation.

He has an early dinner with Dr. Kishitani and Naoko. He doesn’t say much, but that is not unusual. Naoko spends the time talking about the minutiae of her day, and even though he would never admit it, Midorima likes to listen to her talk in pinpoint detail. Naoko is so wonderfully normal and it gives him the proper insight into what normal childhood would have been like.

“I am going over to Takao’s,” he announces after dinner. “We plan on studying together. Is it alright if I spend the night?”

Dr. Kishitani raises his eyebrows. “Yes, that’s fine with me,” he remarks casually.

Midorima pushes his glasses up and tries not to blush. He’s not entirely sure how Dr. Kishitani figured out he was dating Takao, but his foster father recently delivered a highly detailed and clinical discussion about the practices of safe homosexual sex that Midorima to this day has never fully recovered from.

“We will just be studying,” Midorima insists.

There’s so much Midorima wishes he could say to this man. He knows what the dangers are, knows he might never see him again. And he wants to say “thank you,” (thank you for giving me a name, thank you for giving me a family, thank you for loving me); but if he says anything, then the doctor might suspect something is wrong.

So he doesn’t say anything. He pats Naoko on the head and bids a casual “good night” to them both and he heads to Takao’s house.

Tomorrow, Takao will tell them where he went. Because there’s probably no chance this will be finished in the span of a day and he feels like a coward, shoving this task onto Takao, but it’s the only way he can leave.

He tells Takao everything. He even politely requests that Takao explain it all to the Kishitanis, later.

Takao just quietly listens to everything. When Midorima’s finished talking, Takao’s hands are shaking. “Shin-chan, can’t I help?” he cries out. “Didn’t I prove last time that I could help?”

“Not with this,” Midorima cuts in. “This is—you’re not trained, for what we’re going to have to do. And—I’ll be better, knowing that you’re safe. Please, Takao. I promise we won’t take unnecessary risks. I just—need you to be here. When I come back.”

“Promise me you will come back,” Takao says sharply.

“I promise.”

“Jesus,” Takao looks away. “I feel like a war bride, or something.”

It is still a miracle that Takao is here, that he wants to be by Midorima’s side. GM-7283 was not likeable, he was not meant to be liked, and he was not designed to connect with others. He was raised isolated and with the knowledge that if he wasn’t Successful he was infinitely replaceable.

Takao liked him. Him, not any other Green Seven.

“I just—I can’t believe you’re going back there,” Takao says.

And Takao knows, perhaps better than anyone else but his Generation, just how terrified Midorima is of Teiko. Takao met him when he was crying under a desk. He knows how frightened Midorima must be.

That’s why I have to go,” Midorima says. “I don’t want to be scared anymore.”

“Do you have your lucky item?” Takao asks, trying to grin.

Takao is the bravest person Midorima knows. Braver than Kuroko, even. Midorima leans down and kisses Takao gently on the lips—something that surprises Takao because even now Midorima is hesitant to initiate physical contact.

“There,” Midorima says, after he pulls away. “For luck.”

*

Murasakibara resents the phrase Mission Optional because if missions were optional he wouldn’t ever go on one.

He has seen the papers that outline his own design. He knows the thought processes the scientists had when they designed him and he knows his own limitations. The Purple Nines were meant for brute strength, grunt work. They were meant to be soldiers who obeyed. GM-P989 wasn’t designed for complex thinking, but simply to follow instructions.

Purple got in trouble because he was more disobedient than other P-Nines. But that was because he didn’t like doing things, most days, not because of any natural defiance. In many ways, it was easy to just do what Red told him to do. Red was more powerful than him, and he made complex decisions, and obeying him was only natural.

Even now, obeying Akashi was just easier. But Akashi wasn’t here to give him orders and all things considered, rescuing him was going to be an awful lot of work he’d rather not do.

He wanted to be here, with Himuro and his snacks, warm and fed and happy. And if he had to save Akashi, he wanted someone to tell him to save Akashi, because then he would know if it was the right thing to do.

“Murochin,” he says, as a last resort since Akashi can’t tell him what to do, “Should I save Akachin?”

Himuro looks up from his book. Himuro doesn’t require a lot of explanation, and that’s one of the reasons Murasakibara likes him so much. Himuro just quietly thinks about Murasakibara’s question. “Do you want to?”

“I don’t know,” Murasakibara says sulkily. If he knew that, he wouldn’t be asking.

“If Teiko took you, I’d want the others to save you,” Himuro says, smiling. “Of course, I would also be doing everything I could to bring you home.”

Murasakibara sighs. “You think I should go.”

“No, Atsushi,” Himuro says quietly. “I think you should decide for yourself.”

Murasakibara glowers and he wonders why he thought Himuro would be a good person to ask in the first place.

“But,” Himuro adds, “I also don’t think you’ve ever been honest with what you want and don’t want. So yes. Go save Akashi. Not because I want you to—but because I believe you want to.”

Murasakibara grumbles a bit, because that’s all a lot more complicated then he would like, but it feels right. He gets up and drapes himself over Himuro.

“Atsushi?”

“I want to have sex now, Murochin. And then I want to eat a lot of maibu,” Murasakibara dictates. “And then I’ll go save Akachin.”

“Well, alright. If you insist,” Himuro says affably.

*

Kuroko rests on top of Kagami, with Kagami’s arms around him. They sleep like this, most nights. Kagami’s body temperature is always warm, like a furnace, and since Kuroko has always felt cold, this works out nicely for him.

Kuroko thinks about his future. The future he and Kagami have discussed. They will move to America and get married. Kagami will be a professional basketball player. Kuroko’s not sure what he wants to do in his future, but he would like to work with kids. They’ll adopt eventually. Kuroko thinks even if he was biologically compatible with giving birth to Kagami’s child, he would still want to adopt. Having been a lost child himself it seems only natural to want to adopt as many kids as he can and give them a home. Kagami would cook and Kuroko would clean and they’d have a dozen pets and it would be beautiful. Every painful thing that ever happened to GM-B452 would all be worth it, if it all lead to Kuroko meeting Kagami.

He wants that future. So, so badly.

“I wish I could go with you,” Kagami says into Kuroko’s hair.

“I know.”

“I could be useful. I’m tough.”

“I know,” Kuroko says again. And he shifts so he can look at Kagami. “This time, and never again. If I do this right, we’ll never have to worry about Teiko ever again.”

Kagami struggles—it took hours of patient explanation to make him understand why he couldn’t come along, and he still doesn’t like it.

“Just—survive, OK? Whatever you do, don’t get killed. If they take you again, I will find you, understand? No matter what, I’ll find you. Just don’t die.”

Kuroko moves his head so it is once again resting on Kagami’s chest, listening to Kagami’s heart. He’s pretty sure if Teiko takes him it’s the same as a death sentence.

But that doesn’t matter.

“I will live, Kagami-kun. I will come back to you. No matter what.”

*

They gather at a private airport, like Momoi dictated. No one is surprised everyone came.

“Are we stealing a jet?” Kise asks.

“Borrowing. I hacked into the database to make it look legal. No one will think it strange when we take it,” Momoi hands Kise a thick manual. “Flip through this. You have three minutes to learn how to fly a jet.”

“Cool. I always wanted to be a pilot!” Kise says cheerfully.

Momoi looks at Kuroko questioningly and he shakes his head. They had discussed, last night, whether or not they should involved Hinata Shouyou in this rescue mission, and Kuroko had argued against it. Hinata has sacrificed too much already.

Kuroko looks at his friends—his brothers and sister from Teiko—and he thinks about how they will always be part of him. Truthfully, he’s not even sure if they can function as a team anymore. It has been a long time since they had to work as a cohesive unit, and they all found a place somewhere else. Seirin is Kuroko’s team now, Seirin is where Kuroko fits. He can’t help but feel that if he was going to carry out a life or death mission with anyone, he would feel a lot better working with his Seirin teammates than anyone else in the world.

But then there are days when he thinks he will never know anyone better than he knows these people in front of him now, these people who share his past and his pain, and that’s all he needs now.

“Let us save Akashi-kun and Furihata-kun,” Kuroko says, gently reminding the others that someone else besides their former leader needs rescuing.

“I’ll explain everything on the plane,” Momoi says, shifting once again into her “analyst” mode. “And you all better pay attention because we can’t afford any mistakes on this one."

So don’t do anything stupid, was implied.

Chapter Text

Furihata never would have thought the day would come where he felt safer in Akashi’s presence, but once they take Akashi away Furihata’s desperate terror returns full force and he wishes the other boy would come back.

Part of him still can’t believe this is real, this is actually happening, and not some sick nightmare his subconscious came up with to torment him. He knows people are kidnapped in real life, but he would never think something like this could happen to him.

He spends the first night tossing and turning. He’s too wracked with anxiety to get anything resembling rest. He must fall asleep at some point, because he wakes up to the sound of the glass door sliding open and he flails out of bed, hoping Akashi has come back.

Instead, the man they’d met when they were first brought in stands at his doorway, flanked by two armed guards.

Furihata has never been so terrified to see an ordinary human.

“Furihata-kun, did you sleep well?”

“No,” Furihata says sullenly. He is a bit surprised and appalled at his own insolence, but he is really unhappy with this man.

“That’s too bad. I am sorry for all this trouble, Furihata-kun. You must be hungry, please, follow me, and we can get you some breakfast.”

Furihata is hungry; he hasn’t eaten anything since the protein bars the guards had offered him last night when they also gave him new clothes. (Why, Furihata thought at the time, did both guards and mercenaries carry protein bars? Was that just standard issue for men with guns?) He doesn’t want to obey this man but he really has no choice but to meekly follow.

He’s still shaking. The glass cells are empty now and Furihata wonders where the prisoners (and, given his situation, he can’t really think of the experiments as anything but prisoners) go in the daytime. As he obediently follows he can’t help but think that if his brother was in this situation, he’d be a lot braver. Kyo would be planning something—he’d be taking note of his surroundings and strategizing. Kyo would walk with confidence, and he’d probably mouth off at the scientist, because he’d be brave enough to defy.

Kagami probably would too; that guy wasn’t afraid of anything. Izuki would keep a cool head and plot his escape. Hyuuga might attack the guards. Kuroko would be smart about things, so would Riko. Furihata thinks about all his teammates and how they would all be infinitely more capable in this situation than he is.

The man leads him to a private office and motions for Furihata to have a seat. He dismisses the guards because, “We’re just going to talk, and Furihata-kun won’t cause me any trouble, will he?” and Furihata can’t do anything but nod in agreement because he knows himself well. He’s not going to cause trouble.

Furihata sits where the man tells him to—in a worn out armchair that’s low to the ground. The cushion is positioned in such a way that Furihata has no choice but to look up at the older man when he takes a seat in his (normal) chair. The man gives Furihata a bagel and a water bottle.

“I’m sorry, that’s the only food I have in my office. Starting with lunch you can take meals in the mess hall with the Projects, but you might be at a disadvantage.”

The thought terrifies him, naturally. But that’s nothing new. “Umm…” Furihata says, holding the bagel awkwardly. “Where is Akashi?”

The man tilts his head. “You mean 0102?”

Furihata jerks his head in a nod.

“You don’t need to worry about him at the moment. But I’m glad you brought him up. I must say, I am quite perplexed by the nature of your relationship.”

Furihata flushes and doesn’t look at the man. He hopes the man just assumes he’s shy.

(The embarrassment is real. Akashi kissed him. Repeatedly. He kissed Akashi. They totally made out. And now is not the time to think about that, God, is it so not the time to think about that, but Furihata just got his first kiss and he’s freaking out a little by that fact.)

“For one thing, how did the two of you even meet? You live in Tokyo and 0102 lives in Kyoto.”

“The Winter Cup,” Furihata blurts out.

“Ah yes. Basketball.” Furihata can feel the man’s eyes boring into him. He feels dissected by that gaze.

“I don’t like to pry, Furihata-kun. But from a scientific standpoint, you must understand, your relationship is fascinating. You don’t mind me asking questions, do you?”

“N-no,” Furihata says, because it’s not like he could disagree in this situation. At any rate, he’s pretty sure he read somewhere that it was good to cooperate with kidnappers. Or maybe that was bank robbers. (Furihata regrets now that he was never interested in watching crime thrillers.)

“Thank you,” the man beams. “I knew you’d be the cooperative sort. You seem like such a nice boy. Now, how would you say you caught 0102’s attention?”

“I—don’t know,” Furihata says, thinking it was best to stick as close to the truth as possible.

“I looked you up, Furihata-kun. You seem like such an ordinary young man. I mean that as a compliment,” he says, when Furihata winces, “I’m just trying to understand why 0102 would single you out, even over people at his own school.”

“I—I really don’t know,” Furihata says again, feeling desperate. Akashi hadn’t left any instructions regarding their ruse. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to say.

“Very well. Let’s focus on you, for the moment. Doesn’t it bother you that he’s not human?”

“No!” Furihata says indignantly. He is mostly thinking of Kuroko when he replies automatically, but also of the boy who kissed (kissed!) him last night. “He’s human! They all are!”

The man raises a brow. “I assure you, they are not. And I would know; I helped design them. I suppose it would be an easy mistake for the uneducated to make. Are you attracted to him?”

Furihata blushes bright red. “Well—well—” He can’t even finish that sentence.

Before Akashi started kissing him, he would have had a hard time lying about any supposed attraction. And he feels a little stupid (would you like anyone who kisses you? he yells at himself. It doesn’t matter about the gender so long as they make out with you? Really?) but being kissed (even under the circumstances) was really exciting. And, well, sexy. He wasn’t attracted to guys (at least, he hadn’t thought he was) and if he were attracted to guys, it probably wouldn’t be Akashi Seijuurou (because he was scary). And honestly, if someone had made him say what kind of guy he would date, if he had to (and a classmate had once made him answer that question, because she was a fujoshi and they were playing Truth or Dare and Furihata was too much of a coward to ever choose Dare), he would have said someone like Tsuchida-senpai.

But kissing was sexy, apparently, no matter what the circumstances were, or who was doing the kissing, so when faced with the question “Are you attracted to him?” now the answer was an unequivocal “Hell yes.”

Furihata is appalled by his own libido. He thinks, when all this is over, he should sit down with a shrink and figure things out. He wants to know if getting turned on when someone of the same sex kisses you as a pretense to save you life while you’ve both been abducted by mad scientists is a normal reaction to the circumstances.

The man chuckles when a long silence has passed, “I apologize for the indelicate question. Are you in love with 0102?”

Furihata, who is a proper Japanese man, is no less embarrassed by the question of being in love with Akashi than the question of being attracted to him. But through his embarrassment is another emotion; he clenches his fists and says, “Akashi.”

“Pardon?”

“His name is Akashi. Not 0102.”

The man regards him and Furihata quakes under the gaze.

“Alright,” the man says. “We don’t need to keep talking about him right now. Let’s talk about you.”

Furihata cringes. He’d really rather not.

“Furihata-kun, have you ever wanted to be extraordinary?”

Furihata squeezes his bagel. “Umm. What?”

There is something cold in the man’s eyes, but to say that would be misleading. It’s not so much a coldness as it is the absence of warmth, the absence of everything. There’s something missing in this man’s eyes—something that prevents Furihata from connecting to this man as a fellow human being.

“I did look in to you,” the man reminds. “But there isn’t much available about you. Furihata Kouki. Average grades, average athlete. Your school won some sort of championship, but you weren’t a starter. Haven’t you ever wanted to be better?”

“Of course,” Furihata says. “That’s why I practice.”

The man smiles condescendingly, but Furihata could never mistake what this man does with his lips as a smile. “Practice will only take you so far. No matter how hard you train, if you don’t have natural ability, you’re never going to amount to much in life. Some people are just destined for mediocrity, no matter what.”

Furihata can’t believe he’s having this conversation here, with his abductor. He looks down, away. He does not want to gaze up at this man anymore. He wants to go back to his cell.

“I could change that.”

Furihata flinches like the words hit him. He swallows and peeks up again. The man is still doing that thing with his lips that is most definitely not a smile. Furihata looks back down and doesn’t say anything.

“Do you understand? I could make you extraordinary. Easily. You could be stronger, faster—you could be better than everyone you’ve ever met. When I’m done with you, there is no one who could defeat you. Everyone who has ever made you feel inferior would bow down to your feet.”

Furihata shuts his eyes. He wishes he could disappear.

“Furihata-kun? Do you hear me? I could turn you into a god.”

“But I don’t want to be a god,” Furihata whispers. “I want to be like Tsuchida-senpai.”

“What?”

He spent the majority of his middle school years wishing he could be awesome like his brother. But in high school he stopped comparing himself to Kyo and found new heroes.

“So what if I’m mediocre? I can still be needed, just the way I am.”

A very long silence follows. So much time has passed that Furihata eventually lifts his head up to look at the man again.

He freezes under the gaze.

Empathy, he thinks. That’s what’s missing. The ability to empathize.

“How disappointing,” the man says. “Very well. We’ll talk more later.”

And he summons the guards to take Furihata back to his cell.

*

“Who are you?” Black asked.

“I am GM-R0102, of course,” he replied.

And it was not complicated, not to him. He was always himself. But now there are two of him, and sometimes he had Gold’s powers.

“Extraordinary,” he heard the scientists remark. “Who knew the abilities could transfer with the organs? This must be studied further. This could be groundbreaking.”

He was not Red and Gold anymore. He would never be Red and Gold again, Gold was gone. (Gold was inside him, Gold’s heart was his heart.)

His second self was not the Gold he had lost. He was Red and he was the Red who no longer had Gold.

*

After a few more hours, they bring Akashi back. They drag him and fling him into Furihata’s cell.

“Akashi!” Furihata exclaims, running over to the other boy. He lifts the Rakuzan captain up and is horrified at how ill he looks. Akashi is very pale, and covered in sweat, and he looks near death. “Akashi! Are you OK? What did they do to you?”

Akashi’s eyes fly open and in a quick motion, he has Furihata by the neck. “Who are you?”

One of his eyes is gold, meaning Furihata wasn’t hallucinating last night when he saw the change. “F-furihata! Fur-rihata K-kouki!” he says, choking under Akashi’s grip.

Akashi releases his hold and Furihata gasps for breath, “Kouki,” he repeats. “And who am I?”

Furihata panics; they’re both supremely fucked if Akashi has amnesia.

You mustn’t let me lose myself.

And how is he supposed to do that? “You’re Akashi! Akashi Seijuurou! Rakuzan Captain, player number four, Point Guard.”

Akashi frowns. “Akashi Seijuurou.” He says the name like he’s tasting it. “Rakuzan number four. And the others. Tell me about the others.”

“The others?” Furihata repeats.

“Tell me about them!” Akashi commands, and Furihata cringes.

“Y-you mean the other Miracles? Kuroko and Kise Ryouta and all them?”

“Kuroko. Kise Ryouta,” Akashi repeats. Then he lies back down and puts his head in Furihata’s lap. “I have a headache. Massage me. And tell me more about the others.”

Furihata swallows and places his hands to Akashi’s temples, and begins to massage. Akashi’s eyes are closed, but Furihata wants to obey him, so he just starts babbling about everything he knows that’s related to the Miracles (which is honestly not a lot).

He talks until his throat runs dry. After he runs out of trivia he knows about each Miracle he starts recapping the basketball games that Seirin played against the Miracles’ teams. He’s on the second Touou game when Akashi sighs.

“I remember now,” he opens his eyes and looks up at Furihata’s face. “And you, Kouki. I remember you. We are dating, yes?”

“Y-yes?” Furihata stammers, because holy crap, he has no idea if Akashi means he remembers their ruse or if he actually thinks they’re dating. He wishes there was some way he could ask, but Akashi had seemed pretty sure that there were bugs in the room.

Akashi nods to himself. “You’re mine. I have to protect you. I said I would.”

And that’s actually very reassuring to hear. Or at least it would be, if Akashi didn’t currently looking like he was at death’s door.

“Ummm,” Furihata starts, not sure how to ask this, “You’re uh, the ‘other’ Akashi, right?”

“That is correct,” Akashi says.

Furihata relaxes somewhat, because at least Akashi knows that. “What should I call you?”

“I am still Akashi Seijuurou,” Akashi says irritably.

“Yes—but—but there are two of you, right? I don’t—it seems a little weird to keep calling you ‘Akashi.’ It would be like pretending one of you didn’t exist, does—does that make sense?”

Akashi falls silent. Furihata wonders if he’s offended the other boy.

“Seijuurou,” Akashi ventures. “You can call me Seijuurou.”

Furihata blushes, because he’s pretty sure he can’t. He’s never called anyone but his family members by their first name! It just seems so wrong!

But he was the one who asked. “Right. Seijuurou. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Akashi says, sounding pleased.

Akashi’s head is still in his lap. The other boy closes his eyes again and Furihata tentatively continues massaging his temples. “Seijuurou?”

“Yes, Kouki?” Akashi asks.

There’s no easy way to ask Akashi what happened to him, so he delicately tries, “Are you… OK?”

“Only tired,” Akashi replies.

Furihata isn’t sure what to do with that. He wants to ask, what did they do to you? (Reprogram, Akashi had said. And Furihata is beginning to think he’d meant torture. But the word and the reality is so horrific in his mind he can’t even process it with his thoughts. Which means he doesn’t know how to ask the question.) Even if he could bring himself to ask that question, they might be overheard, and he doesn’t think Akashi could give a full answer anyway. He feels lost. His only lifeline is the boy who rests in his lap and he’s not sure how secure that safety line is.

A cold hand slips into his left hand and Furihata stills when he sees Akashi staring up at him. Akashi grips his hand tightly. “Do you trust me, Kouki?”

Furihata shivers. He’s never had his first name said that way—never heard it from the lips of anyone who wasn’t related to him. There is something soft about Akashi’s voice—like the flutter of wings in darkness—and ordinarily it would be terrifying but right now Furihata finds he would agree to anything that voice asked him. “Yes. I do.”

“Good. Do what I say and keep trusting me.”

Furihata nods.

He didn’t really have any other option.

*

Akashi falls asleep like that—head in Furihata’s lap, holding Furihata’s hand—and Furihata must doze off at some point too, because the next thing he knows the glass doors are sliding open again.

“Lunchtime,” a guard announces, “Are you going to cause us trouble, 0102?”

Akashi gets up and releases Furihata’s hand and Furihata is struck by the sudden feeling of loss against his skin. “Of course not,” Akashi says pleasantly.

“Then it’s time for you to mingle with the other Projects. Follow me.”

*

Both Akashi and Furihata follow the guard unbound. Furihata trails after Akashi like a lost puppy and wishes he knew what the Miracle was thinking.

“Are you scared, Kouki?” Akashi asks quietly.

“Y-yes,” Furihata says, because he doesn’t see the point of lying.

“I am scary, Kouki. I am the scariest creature in this facility, and I am on your side. You have nothing to worry about.”

This shouldn’t make him feel better but it does. Furihata is fairly certain it’s true, too—Akashi is far scarier than any other Project could be.

They’re led to a cafeteria-like section, where the other prisoners are lining up for their meals. Akashi strides to the front of the line like it’s his right and grabs enough food for both him and Furihata.

The meal seems to be some kind of porridge; Furihata’s starving and he devours it eagerly enough, although he gags on the first bite. He’s had enough of Coach’s cooking to recognize the taste—the meal is laced with protein and vitamin supplements.

Akashi eats his meal in dignified bites, even though he must be even hungrier than Furihata. Furihata devours his portions in the matter of minutes. When he’s done he glances around but tries not to stare.

The other “Projects” don’t look like the Miracles. The Miracles, with their strange hair and eye colors, look alien—human but not. Like some celestial creatures from legend. The people eating around them either look like ordinary teenagers or not human at all. Some have animalistic features—like some science fiction combination of human and beast.

Something caresses the back of his neck, causing Furihata to shout and jump out of his seat.

Someone laughs. “What is this? The newbie gets a pet? That’s not fair, unless you’re sharing.” He leers at Furihata in a way that is very unsettling.

Akashi wipes his mouth on a napkin in a dainty fashion and stands up. He puts a hand on Furihata’s shoulder. He gently positions Furihata back to his seat and stares at the guy who had touched him. The guy seems twice the size of Akashi—built like Rakuzan’s Nebuya. Akashi stares at him for three seconds and then without warning, kicks him in the stomach, with enough force that it sends the taller, larger boy falling.

The other boy—who is by no means a weakling, stays on the ground, clutching his stomach and coughing. Akashi strides forward and grabs him by the back of the head and pulls so that his neck is exposed. With his arm he grabs the boy’s right hand and twists it into an unnatural angle. There is an obscene popping sound that makes Furihata flinch. The sound is like nothing he’s ever heard before—he feels sick and disconnected from what’s happening. The boy screams and Akashi pulls at the guy’s head again.

“You do not get to touch him,” Akashi says softly. The cafeteria is suddenly quiet, and his voice carries across the room, as everyone watches him. “This boy is mine, and no one is allowed to touch what is mine. Touch him again and I will do more than break your wrist. If anyone so much as looks at this boy wrong I will gouge out their eyes.”

He violently releases his hold and stares at everyone. “Who is the strongest amongst you?”

Someone strides forward—a tall, muscular Japanese boy with a stern face. Everyone around him seems to bow before his superiority, so he’s clearly the one in charge. Akashi smiles at the newcomer in that dangerous way of his.

“You are in charge,” Akashi says, and it isn’t a question.

“I am squadron leader,” the boy says. He looks older than Akashi, more like Kyo’s age, maybe even older.

“You were squadron leader,” Akashi corrects. “I am in charge now.”

Furihata doesn’t quite understand what’s happening. Or rather, he’s not sure why the guards are letting it happen. There are men and women all around the room with guns, but they’re just watching the events unfold.

As the leader stares at Akashi, Furihata thinks it is a testament to his strength that he doesn’t back down right away. Furihata thinks that with Akashi like this, you have to be someone unnaturally strong and confident of their own skills not to automatically submit to Akashi’s will.

“Your muscles are well defined and trained,” the leader says, “You clearly possess great strength. But I will not concede my authority to anyone who cannot prove their skills.”

Akashi looks pleased with this response. “Very well. A challenge then, for the right to rule.”

The squadron leader nods. “Outside then.”

*

Furihata can only assume that this is what Teiko wants—Akashi challenging for the right to lead. The training grounds on the facility are vast and remind Furihata of a military base. The other Projects make a circle around the two challengers and Furihata somehow manages to get a front row spot.

The squadron leader takes off his shirt (causing Furihata to gulp—those are some very impressive muscles) and makes a fighting stance.

Furihata has never seen the Miracles do anything but play basketball. But Akashi goes into this fight like it’s the most natural thing in the world, which makes Furihata realize there was some truth to those rumors after all.

When the battle begins, Furihata can barely follow the movements with his eyes. It’s like watching two masters of martial arts square off. The squadron leader has superior strength, but Akashi is quicker, his movements are more fluid. Furihata thinks it’s a bit like watching a jaguar square off against a viper.

The opponent lands a solid hit to Akashi’s stomach, knocking him down. Furihata exclaims, “Seijuurou!” almost unconsciously. Akashi spins and knocks the feet from underneath his opponent, spilling him to the ground.

And Akashi is there, hand to the boy’s neck like a knife. “Lower your head, scum,” Akashi says contemptuously.

His opponent has no choice but to bow, ceding to Akashi’s authority.

Akashi’s mouth is cut and there’s a bruise on his left check, but he is obviously the overwhelming victor. When he stares out at the crowd he declares, “I am in charge now. Is there anyone else who wishes to challenge my authority?”

No one does.

*

After the battle the Projects transition easily into running drills, with Akashi now the leader of the pack, and a guard approaches Furihata.

“Follow me,” he orders.

“Right!” Furihata says, not daring to ask where he’s going. He sends one last look at Akashi, but the other boy is preoccupied with leading his new troops.

Furihata follows the guard back inside the building (he wishes he’d had a better view of their surroundings, but all he saw was the base and tall wire fences. He has no idea where they are, but he’s pretty sure they’re not in Japan anymore.)

“Furihata-kun,” the scientist in charge greets him. “It’s nice to see you again.”

Like they hadn’t just talked a few hours ago.

“0102 is falling in line nicely. He was meant to lead, you know. It’s what comes most naturally to him.”

Furihata fidgets. He doesn’t know how to talk to this man, so he decides it’s better to just not say anything at all.

“This is a very dangerous place for an ordinary human, Furihata-kun, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you while 0102 trains in the day time. I thought I would place you with the S-Ones and the S-Sevens. They are mostly harmless, and I think the grouping would be beneficial for all of you.”

Furihata follows the man and can’t help but feel bleak. It’s clear they plan to keep him here, even if he wasn’t their original target. From the way the man questioned him earlier, he has the sinking feeling that he might be the next human experiment. He’s been kidnapped by mad scientists and he has no idea where to expect a rescue. Who could even come for him?

His parents must be frantic, he thinks. Kyo, too. But what could they do in this situation? Could the police even find him here?
His best chance of getting out of this place is Akashi, and that’s somewhat of a grim concept, since Akashi is under more scrutiny than he is.

The man leads him to a room that smells like a hospital. Furihata takes an involuntary step back, as he puts a hand to his mouth and tries not to gag. The man puts a hand on his shoulder and steers him forward.

Most of the teens in the room are confined to beds, plugged into machines, suspended in seemingly lifeless formation. Most of them are missing limbs, or eyes. Those not in beds are huddled against the walls, holding their hands to their ears and rocking back and forth. It is a scene straight out of the horror films that Furihata has always been too afraid to watch. They all flinch at the sudden appearance of Furihata and the scientist.

“They’re failures, for the most part,” the scientist tells Furihata. “But they’re harmless. You’ll be safer here than you would be with the soldiers.”

He turns and leaves Furihata behind in this dim cell of frightened children.

*

“H-hello?” Furihata ventures tentatively. Those who are awake don’t seem scary. Most of them look weaker than Furihata, who thanks to Riko’s vigorous training, actually has some muscles. Furihata has never been in the situation where he felt like the toughest guy in the room.

“Umm. I won’t hurt you,” Furihata says, feeling a bit absurd with the statement.

Only one kid tentatively steps forward. He’s shorter than Furihata but looks the same age. He has light brown hair and golden eyes and Furihata’s not sure if he’s Japanese or not. “Hi,” he says anyway. “I’m Furihata. Furihata Kouki. Who are you?”

The kid cringes at Furihata’s words, like someone who expects to be hit.

Something tugs at Furihata’s memory, and he can’t help but feel like he’s seen this kid somewhere before, but for the life of him, he can’t even begin to guess from where.

The room is empty, except for the beds and the plugged in children. There are no windows, so all the light is artificial, and the children all look the palest and sickest of all the experiments. They all either have gold or green eyes, some have both, and except for the one looking at Furihata, they all return to their position against the wall, rocking back and forth.

For the first time since this whole ordeal began, Furihata is gripped by immeasurable sadness. He feels hopeless and scared. He wants to be home. He thinks about how he might never see his family again, or his friends. He’s been trying so, so hard to be brave and strong like his Seirin teammates would be, but it starts to sink in that he might die here, and he no longer has the energy to be strong or brave.

He starts crying. He sits down and buries his face in his knees and all the emotions he’s been trying to suppress since strange men grabbed him from a basketball park wash over him and he starts sobbing and doesn’t stop.

*

It feels like he’s been crying for hours. He feels stiff from sitting so long, and completely hollow inside. He’s cried so much there is nothing left of him. He doesn’t even feel scared anymore—fear and anger and helplessness are all gone and now there’s just a gaping emptiness where Furihata’s sense of self used to be.

Gradually, he starts to realize there’s someone sitting next to him. As he cried, the kid with golden eyes crept closer, until he’s crouched inches away from Furihata. He traces idle scrawls on the ground with his finger, not looking at Furihata.

Furihata stares at the boy, still trying to remember why he recognizes him.

“…Quiet…”

The word is so small and soft; it takes awhile for Furihata to realize something has been said at all. What’s more, the word is spoken in Japanese.

“What did you say?” Furihata asks, rubbing at his eyes and nose and stiffing loudly.

The boy shifts on his feet like an agitated bird and doesn’t look at Furihata when he says in halting words, “…You’re… quiet. It’s… nice…”

Furihata doesn’t know what that means, since he hadn’t been particularly quiet with his sobbing. He’d actually thought he’d been pretty loud, all things considered.

But it’s kind of nice to have someone talking to him. Someone who isn’t terrifying, that is.

“What’s your name?” Furihata asks.

The boy looks at Furihata but his eyes quickly dart away. “…S1-761…”

Furihata knows a little about Teiko’s designations. Kuroko had explained it once, when they were in the library together. Kuroko said his designation had been GM-B452, which meant he was the fifty-second Black Four Project in Generation ‘Miracle.’ Furihata’s not sure what this new system means.

Since the boy is bending down, Furihata can see his collarbone, which has the same set of numbers tattooed at the base of his neck. He dimly remembers seeing a similar tattoo on the squadron leader, when he fought Akashi, but he doesn’t remember what the numbers were. He knows Kuroko doesn’t have a tattoo there, so it strikes him as odd.

“Are you Japanese?” Furihata asks.

The boy nods, not looking at Furihata.

“I’m from Tokyo,” Furihata says, trying to sound cheerful. Really, he’s not sure why he even feels the need to clarify this, as if they had met while studying abroad, or something. But he needs something normal right now, so he continues, “I’ve lived in Tokyo all my life. I’ve never even left Japan before! The furthest I’ve ever been was to Kyoto, on my middle school class trip.”

He’d confessed to his crush at the time, and been promptly rejected. It had been pretty devastating then, but it seems kind of ridiculous, now.

“…Saitama…”

Furihata blinks, not sure he heard correctly. “What?”

“I’m… from Saitama…”

And then it clicks.

“You’re Mihashi!” Furihata exclaims. “Mihashi Ren, right?”

The boy jumps. “N-no! S1-761!” And he flees to the other side of the room.

“Wait!” Furihata exclaims, but it’s no use. For the rest of the time, the boy won’t talk to him.

*

He remembers the abduction of Mihashi Ren very clearly, because his mother had been obsessed with the case. He was only a year younger than Furihata, so she’d been naturally concerned for her youngest son. There had been reports of bullying, and theories that the boy had run away, but his parents had appeared on the News and declared their son would never do that. Everyday, Furihata’s mother had checked the news for updates and everyday she would sit down with her son and tell him to be alert, and careful, and to always go with Kyo when they were in public, and never talk to strangers. Furihata thinks half the reason why he’s always such a coward is because his mother instilled a healthy dose of paranoia about the dangers in the world when he was at an impressionable age.

It’s almost a relief when a guard comes to take him from the room again, although now he has a new set of things to worry about.

Mihashi Ren had been abducted over two years ago. Eventually the news had stopped reporting about the case, because there weren’t any leads.

A rescue seems increasingly unlikely.

*

The soldier brings him back to the cafeteria, for dinner. Dinner is the same vitamin gruel as lunch, and Furihata begins to suspect this is the only meal. He finds Akashi right away—his bright red-hair an easy beacon to spot—and heads towards him.

In the hours of their separation, Akashi has clearly established himself as the one in charge. There is an authoritative air around him now; the other Projects all seem to be unconsciously submissive around him.

“Kouki,” Akashi says when he sees Furihata. “Good. Are you well?”

“Y-yes,” Furihata says, sitting next to Akashi.

Akashi places an arm behind Furihata, stroking the back of his head and neck, as if he was a cat. Furihata shivers under the touch and is a little embarrassed by his own reaction.

They eat their meal like that, silent with Akashi idly stroking Furihata’s back. Towards the end of the meal the lead scientist approaches their table, and Furihata cringes.

He’s not alone with his reaction. The Projects closest to their table all duck their heads—the man’s control is even stronger than Akashi’s.

Only Akashi remains calm at this intrusion. Only Akashi meets the man’s gaze in a haughty defiance.

“0102, I’ve been pleased with your performance this afternoon. Are you ready to bring your Generation home?”

“No,” Akashi replies calmly. “I will not.”

The scientist stares at Akashi in an unreadable way. “Pity. It seems you will need a few more hours in Room 101.”

Akashi doesn’t say anything. He just calmly places his spoon down next to his now empty bowl and gets up. He doesn’t look around; he just quietly exits the room, following the scientist in firm dignity.

Furihata panics as he always does in the absence of Akashi.

“I will look after you,” the Project who had been sitting on the other side of Akashi says. The former squad leader looks at Furihata, his expression just as stern and fierce as Furihata remembers. “R0102 commanded me to look after you in his absence, and I will do so.”

The former leader doesn’t look bothered by his loss of authority. He has clearly become Akashi’s second-in-command, and seems content with his new role.

“And. Um, what’s your name?” Furihata asks his new protector.

“S9-540,” he replies.

“R-right,” Furihata says.

*

It’s the middle of the night when Akashi returns to their cell.

He’s still standing this time, and can walk on his own. He immediately heads for the bed and climbs in next to Furihata. Furihata finds that he’s being thoroughly kissed without greeting or explanation.

And it’s real. Something real and tender; a kindness when it feels like it’s been forever since Furihata last felt kindness. He’s kissing back just as eagerly and desperately, groping at his skin in the dark. Furihata’s not even sure if it’s a ruse anymore—he’s lonely and scared and starved for human contact, and in a place where everything is terrible it just feels really really good to be kissing Akashi. And Akashi kisses like he’s devouring him; Furihata’s skin is flushed against Akashi’s and the touch feels real in a place where everything is a nightmare. Furihata kisses back with a hunger that’s almost frightening: Furihata feels like he’s never wanted so much in his life.

When Akashi breaks the kiss Furihata makes an embarrassing noise of protest that’s half whimper-half sigh. Akashi lies more or less on top of him, panting slightly into Furihata’s ear. Furihata can’t help notice they’re both aroused and in a narrow bed and he’s not even sure what to do with that. Akashi holds onto him, and Furihata thinks he’s never been so close to another human being before.

“Talk to me,” Akashi whispers into Furihata’s ear.

“About what?” Furihata whispers back, desperate.

“Anything. What do you talk about with 452?”

“You mean Kuroko?” Furihata can’t help but think it’s a bad sign that Akashi keeps forgetting Kuroko’s name every time he goes into whatever Room 101 is. “Basketball, mostly. And books.”

“Books?”

“We’re in the library committee together. We both like literature. I don’t like most contemporary novels—they’re too depressing for me. Kuroko and I both like to read translations of English classics. We don’t tell the others, though. They’d probably make fun of us. I like Jane Austen’s novels.”

Furihata hasn’t told that to anyone but Kuroko and Nanase Aya. He’s a little embarrassed by his taste; his brother says it’s why he’s such a hopeless romantic.

“Which one is your favorite?” Akashi asks. His voice is tight and constrained, like he’s trying hard to concentrate and he needs something from Furihata.

“Mansfield Park,” Furihata replies automatically. This conversation feels so surreal: it is dark and they are in bed together and they were just kissing. But he senses Akashi needs to hear him talk and right now, Furihata would do anything Akashi needed. “It’s an unpopular one, almost everyone says it’s the worst one, they say it’s boring, but it’s my absolute favorite.”

“I am unfamiliar with the novels, so I do not have any opinions one way or the other about any of them. What is that one about?”

“Unrequited love. The heroine is very timid and has a lot of anxiety and she’s socially inferior to everyone else. I, uh, could relate.”

“Tell me more,” Akashi demands.

To talk about Austen with Akashi would be absurd in any other circumstance, but there's an undercurrent in Akashi's voice; the careful way he speaks suggests he’s in tremendous pain but hiding it. Furihata desperately wants to give Akashi something, anything. So, even though he’s exhausted, he drowsily recounts the plot of Mansfield Park in intricate detail since he more or less has that book memorized plot point by chapter. He can even directly quote some of the lines.

By the time he finishes he’s not even sure if Akashi is still awake.

But then he hears a quiet, “Thank you,” whispered against his ear.

This might be the only time he can talk to Akashi privately, so Furihata takes the opportunity to quietly ask, “Seijuurou? What’s going to happen to us?”

“I don’t know,” Akashi replies to Furihata’s despair. Akashi’s hold on him tightens. “I don’t know why they want the others. If I could understand what they want from Generation Miracle, I could figure where to go from here.”

“Isn’t it just because they want their Projects back?” Furihata asks.

“But they have not been hindered in the creation of new Projects,” Akashi says. “Why would they want the older model?”

“Oh,” Furihata says, understanding Akashi’s question finally. It seems impossible to correct Akashi on anything—Furihata can’t imagine knowing anything Akashi does not, but desperation gives him the bravery to venture, “Umm. I think I—I think I know why.”

Somehow Akashi’s silence manages to convey considering disbelief, despite the fact that Furihata can’t see his face in the darkness.

He has nothing to lose with his guess, so he just says, “Seijuurou, you and Kuroko and the others—you were made by Teiko, right?”

“Of course,” Akashi scoffs.

“I don’t think—I don’t think these Projects were. I think they were human, originally.” He only has a few comments made by the scientist and the presence of Mihashi Ren to support this theory, but it makes a lot of sense.

Akashi’s breath hitches in the dark. And then his body starts to tremble against Furihata’s.

“Seijuurou?” Furihata asks, alarmed.

Akashi buries his face against Furihata’s neck and Furihata can feel him smiling. He realizes that Akashi is laughing, or at least, trying not to, since he isn’t making a sound.

“Kouki, you are a marvel,” Akashi says.

Furihata blushes. No one has ever said that to him. “Seijuurou?”

Akashi just shakes his head. “I am always underestimating those that seem weakest.”

“What—what do you mean?”

Akashi just sighs, and relaxes his body against Furihata. He says a single name and then his breath evens out, and after awhile Furihata figures out he’s sleeping. Akashi seems to have come to some epiphany, but Furihata wishes he would share his realization because he’s just as lost as ever.

He thinks about the name Akashi spoke before falling asleep, and wonders if he should be comforted. Even though he can guess who Akashi was referring to, he’s not sure why she’s important.

Satsuki.

Eventually, Furihata falls asleep.

Chapter Text

He still remembered the day Black approached him and told him of his plan to escape.

Black was glowing, and he thought that strange, because he so rarely saw Black activate his power in the walls of Teiko. Because if Black was activating his power, usually you couldn’t remember him, which meant it was rare to actually see the boy lit by a black aura.

“I am going to escape,” Black said, wasting no time.

And it was because Black was glowing that Red didn’t dismiss the notion right away, like he usually did when Black brought up such nonsense. The black aura created a level of seriousness that wasn’t there before, and Red couldn’t shake the feeling that Black might actually be telling the truth.

At the very least, when Black said, “I am going to escape,” he clearly believed it. He didn’t mean he was going to try to escape—he very obviously meant he was going to escape, and this made Red pause.

“Are you?” Red said.

“Yes,” Black said defiantly. “Pink is coming with me. Yellow, Green and Purple have all stated that they wish to escape as well.”

“Have they?” Red repeated, his voice dangerous. This was very much like mutiny and he did not like that.

“I am asking you to come as well,” Black said, unconcerned. “I have a plan. I am confident in our chance of success. But it is going to be very public, and there is no way Teiko will be able to continue the same way.”

And because he had some of Gold’s powers now, he could see it—flashes of the future coming in quick bursts, like scenes from a memory that was not his. He could see his Generation escaping, could see the flames in Teiko, the destruction of the remaining Projects.

Black’s plan would succeed—and all left standing in Teiko would die.

Watching Black’s expressionless but determined face, Red could tell that Black knew this future as surely as if he had Gold’s power himself.

But Black would not be deterred.

“You are infinitely more selfish than I would have expected,” Red said quietly. “Just because you do not wish to die, you are willing to let countless others die in your place.”

Because Black was going to be scrapped, any day now. He was running out of time. Red understood his motives for escaping now, although he did not understand why the others would take the same risk. He can’t help but feel a little betrayed by their decision.

“I do not wish to die,” Black said quietly. “And I will be selfish in this instance. I do not want you to die either, Red. Nor anyone in what is left of our family.”

Something must have prompted him to include the others in his escape plan. Otherwise Red is sure Black would just leave on his own, and then no one would have to die.

He was betting it was Pink. Black had a soft spot for Pink. (Did Pink realize what her escape would mean for those left behind? Could she guess?)

“You deliberately asked the others before asking me,” Red said.

Black did not respond but that was confirmation enough.

Black knew Red would go where their Generation went. Because Red was the leader. It was his responsibility to keep the others safe. If the others wanted to escape, Red would go with them; protect them.

He could still put a stop to this. The future was not set in stone. Ordering Black had become difficult lately, because Black made himself forgettable, but he could Order the others. Do not leave. Stay in Teiko. Never try to escape.

“What did you say to the others, to make them agree to come with you?” Red asked idly. He hadn’t made up his mind, yet. He was confident that despite appearances, he was still in control of the situation. He was still in charge. Both he and Black knew that the others would only escape Teiko if Red let it happen.

“I told them they could have a better life,” Black said.

Red raised a brow. “And they believed you?”

“They are more desperate than you think, Red. Or have you not noticed that we have never seen an adult Project?”

Red swallowed. He had noticed that. And as much as he wanted to believe that was because there had never been Successes before, he can’t help but think they might all have an expiration date.

“How is it your plan has gone unnoticed?” Red asked. “Surely one of the Golds has read the thoughts behind this deception. Even if they can’t read your mind, surely one of the others has thought about it near a Gold’s spying mind.”

“They do not remember the plan,” Black said. “Neither will you.”

It was only then that Red realized he wasn’t in control of this situation at all.

It terrified him more than he was willing to admit. He wasn’t in command, Black was. And he could kill Black now, but that would put the others at risk. If Black’s influence disappeared with his death, the others would remember their intent to escape, and their minds would be read, and they would be punished.

There was nothing Red could do to stop this from happening and still protect his Generation. And he hated that, hated Black in that moment, hated his own uselessness.

But he agreed to the plan, because there was nothing else he could do.

He was created to lead. It was not in his nature to follow someone else’s plans.

But if the others left, he wouldn’t be anything anymore. So he would go with them, and he would keep them safe, and he would never look back.

*

Seijuurou wakes wrapped around Furihata. It has been a long, long time since he last shared a bed with anyone.

Not since Gold, he realizes. He and Gold used to sleep in the same bed. When they were children.

Waking up next to Furihata feels very different from waking up next to Gold.

For one thing, he had never been sexually attracted to Gold. And Seijuurou now has to grudgingly admit that he is sexually attracted to Furihata Kouki.

He stares at the sleeping boy and tightens his hold on him, like that will somehow keep the boy safe.

Before, he never had to go to Room 101 because he was sure of himself and his role. He would lead his Generation. They were Successes, and he would make sure they remained Successful in all things. Victory was essential, so that they could all survive. His unwavering belief that he could keep his Generation victorious and therefore alive enabled him to maintain his (rather tenuous) sense of self.

Now, he doesn’t have his Generation. He only has Furihata. And Furihata keeps him grounded with his words.

I will keep you safe, Seijuurou vows. I will get you out of here.

*

They come for him again. He is careful not to look at Furihata when they take him away; he does not want them to know how much he needs the other boy.

*

After a short session in Room 101 his creator talks to him.

“Will the others come for you, do you think?”

He has to remind himself who he is. Akashi Seijuurou, Rakuzan Captain.

“0102. Will the others come for you?”

The others. His Generation. He tries to focus on their faces, but he can only remember the brown haired boy. Furihata Kouki. That boy had patiently told him about the others.

“No,” he says. “They have other concerns. Families. Lovers. They will not come for me.”

“Lovers? They all have lovers?”

He despairs. He should not have said that.

“Pets. Not important.”

And for the first time, it’s the human faces he remembers. Kagami, the irritating human who bested Rakuzan. Himuro, who was calculating and saved them from Jabberwocky with his plans. Kasamatsu who had patiently returned over and over again, the first human who proved he would not abandon the Miracles. Takao, who risked his own life to save Green’s. These were the people his Generation would do anything to protect, and now he finally understood what that meant.

“What are their names?”

“I have never bothered to remember their names. They were beneath my notice.”

“And you? You seem fond of your own pet. How would you feel if he was gone?”

Mustn’t lash out. Must not let him know. Above all, he must maintain the right balance between indifference and value.

“He is my pet, and I keep what is mine.”

He understands now, why Black hated it whenever he had used the word “pet.”

Kuroko. He remembers Kuroko now.

Kuroko was right about everything.

*

For the longest time, he could not forgive Kuroko for their freedom. He could not forgive Kuroko for this happiness.

Because the others clearly were happier now. And even he had to admit living at the JSDF base was better than living at Teiko.

But he didn’t know who he was anymore. Was he still the leader? Was he still their protector?

He loathed the humans more than ever for their intrusion. Humans, he was realizing, had killed Gold. They had the choice to save Red or Gold and they chose Red. Humans, inferior, disgusting, humans had controlled them like they were all powerful. The more Akashi Seijuurou realized that the scientists were not all powerful, they were not the law, they were just ordinary humans, the more he resented the fact that they had controlled him for so long.

And now, now they were interfering once again, forming bonds with his Generation. Humans were going to take the others away from him, and he couldn’t stand it.

He drove Ogiwara Shigehiro away for that reason. He tormented Ogiwara’s mind with Orders, deliberately led the others into tormenting him as well, and when the human never came back to the JSDF base it was proof of his inferiority.

“See?” Akashi wanted to tell Kuroko. “See, in the end, you cannot count on humans to stay with you. They will always, always abandon you.”

He did not gloat like he could have. Kuroko despaired anyway, like he knew what Akashi was thinking.

“That was badly done,” Midorima told him later. The telekinetic was the only one who had not participated in Ogiwara’s removal, although he hadn’t stopped it either.

“You are admonishing me? You?” Akashi said.

“Do you know why you drove away Ogiwara but you have done nothing to separate Kasamatsu Yukio from Kise?” Midorima asked, ignoring Akashi ’s derision.

“Because I do not wish to alienate his father,” Akashi returned. “Kasamatsu Youji is an important ally for the moment, so his son has the benefit of that protection.”

“That’s not why,” Midorima said. “It’s because you know Kuroko will forgive you. Kise would not.”

Akashi refused to even contemplate the theory.

And Kuroko, devastated Kuroko who had been abandoned by his human pet, only said, “Someday even you might find someone you wish to stay by your side, Akashi-kun.”

And that had been an even more absurd hypothesis than Midorima’s. He had only ever wanted Gold at his side, and that would never happen again.

*

“I notice you have not been copulating with him,” his creator says. “He is there for your satisfaction, 0102, have you been unable to mate?”

He hates everything about the clinical question. He hates the implications, the reminder that he’s being watched, hates the fact that Furihata is offered up as a tool for his pleasure.

“I am not an exhibitionist,” he replies.

His creator laughs at him. He hates that too.

“I only ask out of scientific interest, of course,” his creator says.

“Of course,” Seijuurou replies.

*

Every day, they take Akashi Seijuurou apart.

Every night, Furihata Kouki puts him back together.

*

By the sixth day, Furihata is a little appalled at how easily it has all become routine to him.

He and Akashi eats his meals with the Projects and then Akashi trains with them. After four days, Akashi has every Project under his absolute control. None of the Projects dare to even look at Furihata the wrong way.

Furihata spends his days in the ward with the S-Ones and S-Sevens. The sight of them no longer disturbs him, and occasionally he can get Mihashi to talk to him. (So long as he does not call him by his name, or make any reference to his past, or ask him questions. Mihashi seems to like to listen to Furihata talk about basketball, and occasionally he chirps happily about baseball, which Furihata only knows a little about.)

He spends his nights with Akashi. He talks to him endlessly about books when he returns from Room 101, and more often than not they make out in a way that has become increasingly confusing for Furihata. He’s not sure what the kissing means, or what he even wants it to mean. He enjoys it, he needs it, he’s terrified of losing it. Kissing Akashi is the only thing that seems beautiful in this terrible place, and he’s sure he would have lost his mind a long time ago if he couldn’t have those moments.

By the sixth day, things seem normal. A braver man might be plotting an escape, but Furihata just wants to live.

*

When the scientist brings Furihata back to his office, Furihata is genuinely afraid again. (The fear almost never goes away, but for the past couple days it’s just a low hum, like a new part of his identity that is upsetting but manageable to live with. Now it returns full force, and he once again thinks he might die at any moment.)

“How are you, Furihata-kun?” the man asks like a kindly grandfather.

“F-fine,” Furihata replies, just as he would to any relative who asked but didn’t really want to know how he was doing.

“And are you still happy with your situation?”

Furihata stares at the man blankly, unable to answer.

“You don’t have to remain a pet for 0102, you know. You could be his equal. Would you like to be stronger? Faster? Psychic?”

“No, thank you,” Furihata says politely. “I still like being ordinary.”
“That is a shame. You see, Furihata-kun, you’re presenting me with a bit of a conundrum.”

Furihata bites down his automatic need to apologize.

“You see. I am very interested in the mating instincts of the Generations. It presents a lot of new avenues to explore. Their mating drive is primarily animalistic in nature, of course: they would seek out a chosen mate as part of their instincts. But I find I am curious about humans who would mate with Projects—it’s a little unnatural to contemplate, to be honest.

“And you, Furihata-kun. I wonder if you even had a choice in the matter.”

Furihata is still a little lost in his anger, so it takes him awhile to process the last part. He just blinks at the man. “What do you mean?”

The scientist smiles condescendingly. “And you wouldn’t realize it, would you? But the Red Zeroes were designed to dominate all those around them. We discovered that a byproduct of their ability made people naturally obedient to them, no matter what. If a Red Zero wanted you, you would probably submit without thinking. It does make it seem unlikely that you could even consent.”

“Shut up!” Furihata yells, getting up from his seat. “Shut up! You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” He is so, so outraged at the man’s insinuations that he forgets his own fear. He has never wanted to punch someone as much as he does right now. “You took everything from me! You took my choices away! You tell me when to eat and to sleep and what to do! The only thing I choose in the place is him!”

The man is not frightened by Furihata’s outburst in the least. No more than anyone would be frightened by a barking Chihuahua. He only stares at Furihata in mild amusement.

“Sit down, Furihata-kun. Such displays are unseemly.”

Furihata chokes back his frustration and wipes away angry tears that threaten to fall and sits back down.

The office door opens, and a guard walks in with a frightened Mihashi Ren.

“Perfect timing,” the man says. “Sit down, 761.”

Mihashi sits at Furihata’s feet and holds his knees. His eyes are wide in terror, and he’s cringing away from the man like the scientist is yelling at him.

“Furihata-kun, what can you tell me about the human lovers of the, what is the quaint word you use? The Miracles?”

Furihata scowls, not feeling cooperative anymore. He doesn’t want to tell this man anything, especially not about Kuroko and Kagami.

“Do you know their names?”

“I don’t know anything,” Furihata mutters. And it’s actually more or less true. The man says lovers like each Miracle has one, and Furihata only knows about Kuroko and Kagami.

“Come now, Furihata-kun. We’re friends. The Miracles have a human partner, correct? Do you think they are strongly attached to them? Animals can be, you know. Sometimes, if you take their mates, they walk right into a trap.”

 And now, Furihata is frightened for his friend, because he can follow that train of thought well enough. This man wants the other Miracles. But for whatever reason, he doesn’t think he can capture them like he captured Akashi. Maybe he thinks it won’t be easy, if they’re on guard.

“You can’t just keep kidnapping kids,” Furihata points out. Because he doesn’t know if they’re dating, but he’s pretty sure who would be targeted as “partners” for the Miracles. And wouldn’t it be awful if Takao Kazunari, Kasamatsu Yukio and Himuro Tatsuya were taken just because they were friends with a Miracle? And Kagami and Kuroko deserve their happiness, damn it. They’re going to get married. It would depress Furihata to no end to see his friends in this place.

“Leave me to worry about that,” the man replies.

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Furihata says, with more bravery than he feels.

The man smiles. “You don’t have to.” He looks at Mihashi. “Well, 761? What are their names?”

Terror floods through Furihata’s body like he’s just been dunked into ice water. He turns to Mihashi in horror, remembering finally that Kuroko had once told him about Gold Projects who could read minds. He finally understands why he’s been kept with the S-Ones and S-Sevens all this time. And even though it’s irrational, he feels a little betrayed. He wasn’t exactly friends with the other boy, but they’d been terrified together, and that had to count for something.

But Mihashi only ducks his head. “…Don’t know…”

Furihata feels a triumphant (bond of mutual terror wins after all!), but it’s fleeting. The man’s confusion at being defied by Mihashi is mixed with rage. “What do you mean you don’t know? Answer me, 761!”

“…He’s… quiet,” Mihashi says, shutting his eyes. “Can’t…hear…” and the energy and bravery it took for him to make that reply leaves him, and he buries his head in his knees and tries to make himself very small.

Furihata feels like cheering and hugging the other boy. But all sense of victory flees when he sees the man’s face.

The man is looking at Furihata like he just did something extraordinarily fascinating. It’s the most terrifying expression Furihata has ever seen on him.

“And why,” the man asks thoughtfully, “Would 761 be unable to read your mind?”

*

Seijuurou feels a pang of apprehension when he doesn’t see Furihata in the mess hall.

“540, have you seen the human boy?” he asks his new right hand man.

The older boy shakes his head. “I can find out if the others have seen him, if you would like.”

“Do that,” Seijuurou orders.

The new Projects are his to command. They naturally obey his authority as if they were his troops, and Seijuurou is beginning to feel a certain responsibility for them.

Years ago, they left Teiko knowing it would mean the death of everyone they left behind. Seijuurou has never once regretted making that decision, but he can’t help but think he would not make the same choice now. Now, he is older and stronger and more powerful. He does not want to let others die in his place now.

The collar still produces a constant headache that interferes with his abilities. He’s had six days to grow accustomed to the pain; he is confident that he can use his power, at least once, with the collar on. Which means he needs to time this right.

It needs to happen soon, too. He’s not sure how long he can resist Room 101. He’s already been there more times than he over was back in the original Teiko. (He quietly marvels once again at the child Kuroko had been— the child Black had been—who could return to the Room over and over again and still maintain his sanity. Seijuurou is sure if he did not have Furihata here to remind him, he would have forgotten who he is a long time ago.) And Furihata needs to get out of this place. The boy has been looking increasingly pale and sickly, and Seijuurou isn’t sure how long he can hold out.

Two guards approach his table. “The boss wants to see you,” one says.

Seijuurou feels uneasy again; his creator does not talk to him outside of Room 101. Since he can’t find Furihata, and he can’t help but feel like these two things are connected.

He follows obediently, head held high. He will not let any apprehension show in his manner.

*

The two guards lead him to his worst nightmare: Furihata strapped to a chair with a Teiko scientist standing over him.

“What is the meaning of this?” Seijuurou demands, unable to keep the wrath out of his voice.

Furihata’s eyes widen when he sees Seijuurou, but he’s currently gagged. He’s so very pale. Sweat drips down his face; he’s shaking uncontrollably, and tears well in his eyes. It infuriates Seijuurou to see Furihata terrified like this; he wants to kill the man scaring Furihata; he wants to kiss the fear away.

“0102,” Seijuurou’s creator says pleasantly, “How good of you to join us? Were you aware that this boy seems to possess an immunity to psychic interference?”

Seijuurou’s heart skips erratically.

With everything else going on, he’d actually forgotten why he was initially interested in Furihata. Furihata had been so quietly obedient, and Seijuurou hadn’t been able to Order properly anyway, so the quirk never seemed important.

But of course Teiko would be interested. It had interested him, after all.

“I see by your reaction that you did. How fascinating. What a bargain you were, Furihata-kun. Had they know what you were, the mercenaries could have bartered for a lot more money.” The man seems very excited, horrifically excited, like he cannot contain his glee. “Preliminary X-rays show something is different about his brain chemistry—isn’t that fascinating? I think it’s a genetic abnormality, something that wouldn’t make a difference in ordinary circumstances, but if we could deliberately replicate it…”

“I do not see why it matters,” Seijuurou challenges. “Since you haven’t been able to properly recreate the psychic powers, have you?”

His creator returns his attention back to him, looking mildly disgruntled.

“That’s why you want us back so badly, isn’t it? You destroyed all the other Projects because you thought recreating your results would be easy. But then you discovered you couldn’t. Pink corrupted all your data before we left, didn’t she?”

“A setback,” his creator hisses, looking more furious than Seijuurou has ever seen him before. “A setback that cost us years of our life’s work. But it won’t matter, not once we have you back. And this,” he points to Furihata, smiling triumphantly. “This is the key to controlling the Projects in the future, fallen right into our laps. This is proof that the gods are on our side!”

“Don’t touch him!” Seijuurou snarls, poised to attack.

“Guards,” his creator says mildly. “Take 0102 away now.”

One guard steps forward to restrain Seijuurou, but then the second guard raises the butt of his gun and hits his comrade in the back of the head with it.

Seijuurou and the scientist both stare at this new insubordination, unsure of what is happening.

“And this is proof the gods want you to go to hell,” the guard says. “Isn’t that right, Akashicchi?”

In the distance, something explodes.

*

Two days ago

“Look, I can just go in, grab ‘em both, and get out, bam, done,” Aomine says. “We’re all home in time for breakfast.”

“Kise-kun and I are better for extraction, Aomine-kun,” Kuroko explains.

Kise had already infiltrated the new Teiko and planted bugs Momoi needed to fully see what every electronic device inside saw. She chews her lip and texts rapidly on her phone as she stares at her laptops with Teiko’s security feeds on them.

“Well, let’s just get this done, already. Kise’s still in there, and the longer he stays the more chance they have of figuring out he’s an imposter,” Aomine says crossly.

“Who are you texting?” Midorima asks her.

“Kasa-senpai,” Momoi replies.

“Kasamatsu?” Aomine says, surprised. Somewhere inside the walls of Teiko Kise was feeling a surge of possessive sulking without knowing why.

“He’s been looking into international jurisdiction. He got You-chan involved, after all. He thinks we can end this.”

“End this?” Midorima asks sharply.

Momoi raises her gaze from the computers. She sits up straight, calmly resolved. “Look at this,” she motions. “They did it again. We ran once and they just rebuilt it again. Even if we stop them, they’ll just keep rebuilding over and over. Unless we stop them for good this time.”

She lets this sink in. Kuroko, of course, is the first one who follows her train of thought to the end. “You are thinking of a frontal assault,” he says slowly.

She sticks out her chin. “Yes.”

“I promised—” Midorima starts, but he stops. He doesn’t look at anyone when he continues, “I promised not to take unnecessary risks. I promised I would come back.”

“You will come back,” Momoi says. “We all will. But this is our only chance.”

“I do see, Momoi-san,” Kuroko says delicately. “And if it were only our lives at risk, I would agree with you. But Furihata-kun is inside there, and I do not think this is the best way to ensure his safety.”

“I do have a plan,” Momoi says, for once not shrinking at Kuroko’s disapproval. “I’ve been working it out with Kasa-senpai.” She gives them a quick rundown of what she has in mind, and then lets them know about the backup on its way.

“Wow,” Aomine says. “Kasamatsu organized all that? He’s smarter than I would have thought.”

“Indeed,” Midorima says, pushing up his glasses. “I sometimes think Kasamatsu Yukio is really dating beneath him.”

Somewhere, inside Teiko, Kise sneezes and feels outraged, again not knowing why.

“Alright,” Kuroko says, speaking for all of them. “Let us end this. For good, this time.”

*

Now

Alarms are going off—the kind that was always debilitating to people with superior hearing. The guard glows yellow and Kise is there, clutching his ears. Seijuurou’s creator takes this opportunity to escape.

Seijuurou lets out a frustrated sound but his attention immediately goes to freeing Furihata from his bindings. “Kouki! Are you alright?”

“Y-yes,” Furihata stammers, rubbing his wrists. He tries to stand, but his legs wobble too badly. Seijuurou catches him as he falls and provides support.

“Ryouta! What is going on?” he demands.

“Your rescue mission!” Kise says, wincing at the alarms but sounding cheerful.

Seijuurou hands Furihata to Kise and stares out the glass window. Form his creator’s office, he can see what’s happening below. Murasakibara has punched huge holes in the walls of Teiko. Midorima stands in the front, glowing green. He stops all the bullets the guards fire, and then he yanks the guns away, crumpling them all into one giant metal ball. The blue blur that is Aomine speeds from guard to guard, incapacitating them immediately.

Seijuurou doesn’t hesitate. From the office controls, he finds the commands that open all the prison cell doors, releasing the other Projects. He finds the control for the speakers, and using his reserved burst of power, he glows red, activating his ability, and gives an Order for all the newly freed Projects to hear: “Go! Run! Escape!” And then, recalling Gold’s last words, he gives them one final command:

“Live.”

*

Still with his power activated, he whirls on Kise. “Get him out of here! Get him to safety!”

Kise grips onto Furihata and starts to obey.

“Wait!” Furihata says, resisting. “What about you? Come with us!”

“I have other matters to take care of,” Seijuurou says darkly. He’s not letting his creator get away, not this time, not when he knows about Furihata and might come back for him. “Go with Rouyta, Kouki,” he Orders. “I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

And he leaves, hot on the trial of his maker.

*

The world is absolute chaos around them and Momoi is more terrified than she’s ever been before—it’s like the night they first escaped Teiko, only worse, because now they’re not fleeing from the chaos, they’re walking inside the nightmare.

Kuroko holds her hand, glowing black. He averts the gaze from them, and she remains calm. Pink Twos were never meant to be in the line of fire, but she has a mission, and she can only do it from Teiko’s mainframe.

“Thanks, Tetsu-kun,” she says quietly, “I know you want to be helping your friend.”

“I will trust Kise-kun. This is important.”

They make their way to the new Teiko’s computer labs, where there are already scientists scrambling to save their data.

“You!” a woman shouts. She is Momoi’s creator, not someone Momoi ever wanted to see again. “You did this!” she lifts a handgun. “You’re not going to ruin us again!”

“Last time I destroyed your data,” Momoi says, staring at the woman resolutely. “This time I’m going to destroy you. You’re not going to run away, this time. This time, the whole world is going to know what you did.”

The woman cocks the trigger but then lurches forward as Kuroko hits her over the head from behind. He picks up the gun she dropped. “You have three minutes, Momoi-san.”

“I only need one,” Momoi says, plugging into Teiko’s computers.

*

Furihata struggles against Kise Ryouta’s hold, “Let me go! We can’t just leave him there!”

But Kise isn’t listening. Or rather, it seems like he can’t hear him at all. Kise moves like he’s been hypnotized: Akashi Ordered him to take Furihata to safety, and that’s what he’s doing.

Kise takes him out of the base where Furihata is relieved to see men wearing JSDF uniforms.

“Furihata-kun, correct?” a man says, approaching the two of them. Furihata recognizes him as Kasamatsu Youji.

Kise snaps out of his passive lull. “What the—Akashicchi Ordered me out!”

“It’s just as well, Ryouta,” Youji claps Kise on the shoulder, “You did your part. Furihata-kun, I’m glad you’re safe. We need to start retreating.”

“No!” Furihata says. “The others—we have to save the other kids!”

“They’re already fleeing,” Youji explains. “We’re taking in some of them, but most of them are getting off this island once the doors opened.”

“But there were more of them!” Furihata protests. “The S-Ones and the S-Sevens weren’t in the main hall like the rest. They were kept in a separate room, and we have to go get them! Mihashi Ren is there, the abducted kid from two years ago! And others!”

Youji’s face hardens as he flicks his gaze back to the havoc which is the remains of the new Teiko. “We’ll go get them. Stay here, Furihata-kun.”

“I’ll go with you,” Kise tells his foster father.

“No, Ryouta, you’re a good fighter, but your power isn’t offensive. It’s probably best for you to stay here.”

Neither of them notice when Furihata slips away.

*

Midorima thinks about how easy it all was to fall back in line with the training of his youth, and he’s a little saddened by this.

Despite the fact that it’s been over four years since he was last in a firefight, it was remarkably simple to keep calm and act accordingly. Stop the bullets, send them back if he could, take away their guns.

In a way, it’s a little bit like playing basketball, and maybe that’s why they all started playing the sport. You had to keep a cool head, watch the opponent, never drop your guard and make your attack at just the right moment.

He is thankful he didn’t have to fight the new Projects. He was sure they would defend Teiko—Teiko conditioned for loyalty, after all. But Akashi had Ordered them to flee, and that’s what they chose to obey. Between Muraskibara, Aomine and himself, most of the hired guards had been dispatched, and the fight was coming to a close as the volunteer JSDF soldiers piled in as backup and tried to rescue the fleeing Projects.

“Midorimacchi!” Kise wails.

“Kise? What are you doing here? Your power isn’t offensive,” Midorima snips; Kise was disregarding the plan, and that was dangerous.

“I lost the human! He disappeared!” Kise says. “Akashicchi told me I had to get him to safety! Akashicchi is going to murder me!”

“Really?” Midorima says, intrigued, “The Seirin First Year? You’re saying Akashi cared?”

“Yeah. Weird, right?”

Very.

“You boys come help me out for a second,” Kasamatsu Youji orders. “According to Satsuki’s Intel, the other Projects should be back this way.”

Midorima and Kise follow, on the alert. “Have we retrieved Akashi yet?” Midorima asks in a low voice.

“Not yet—he ran off after someone. The Red Zero Project leader, I think.”

“Kise, you had one job—”

“Akashicchi was very determined! What was I supposed to do?”

Midorima doesn’t have anything to say to that. “What are these Projects called? Why were they kept separate from the other Projects?”

“Furihata-kun called them S-Ones and S-Sevens,” Youji replies.

“Teiko changed their designation system,” Kise says.

Youji and a few other soldiers kick down the door, entering first. Midorima is only a step behind, glowing green and ready for any assault.

“Freeze!” Youji yells.

Midorima only barely processes the presence of the scientists in this new room. He doesn’t even see the guards aiming their guns.

The only thing he sees is the row of green-eyed children.

S-Seven.

When shots begin to fire something in Midorima breaks.

For a few minutes he enters some sort of fugue state; the next moments will always remain something of a blur to him.

He does remember when one of the scientists tries to flee. He grabs him with his power and slams him against the wall. Then he lifts him up again and slams him down again, and again.

“Midorimacchi! Midorimacchi, stop!”

And Kise is there, holding on his shoulders, staring straight into his eyes.

“They butchered us!” Midorima snarls, his fists clenching, his whole body thrumming with rage. “That’s us! They took the Green Sevens and—”

He’s shaking so bad now, he doesn’t feel control of himself. He always knew they had left the others behind to die when they ran away. But this? The eyes of his Group now in frightened children?

“Spliced them,” Kise says softly, his voice gentle. He’d had a couple days impersonating a guard in Teiko to figure out the new system. “They Spliced them into normal humans.”

“They deserve to die,” Midorima says.

“Yeah,” Kise says. Then he wraps his arms around Midorima, startling the Green Miracle so badly he stops glowing. He tries to pull away—he still doesn’t like being touched, and Kise knows that—but Kise hangs on anyway. “But you don’t deserve to have their blood on your hands. You’re better than this, Midorimacchi. We all are. I get it now.”

He’s not sure how much time passes with them like that, but Youji puts his hands on both their shoulders and says, “It’s OK boys, you’ve done enough. Let’s get you to safety.”

Midorima blinks, returning back to himself. “Where’s Akashi?”

*

Seijuurou’s head pounds; he feels like it’s going to split apart. He wishes he could have made his way to Murasakibara, who could have broken the collar from him. But he can’t waste anymore time—his creator is running, and if he escapes this time the whole thing could just begin again.

The bullet hits his shoulder before he can register what’s happening.

He falls to his knees, gripping the open wound. His maker comes into view, holding his gun still raised. “You’re coming with me, 0102. You’re going to help me out of this mess.”

Seijuurou glares. “I will not. You’re going to have to kill me.” He tries to activate his ability again, but the pain in his head flares, and he can’t. He used all his available power to command the other Projects to escape. He lifts his head defiantly. “And my name is Akashi Seijuurou.”

The man’s lip curls. “Fine.” He raises his gun.

“No!” someone shouts, jumping on Seijuurou just as the gun fires.

And then Seijuurou is holding the bleeding body of Furihata Kouki; immune Furihata, who had disobeyed his earlier Order to run.

“Kouki!” Akashi Seijuurou screams, glowing red. He turns on the man, already poised to shoot again, and takes complete control of his mind. He enters his creator’s mind and erases everything there. This man who made him, tormented him, is nothing but a puppet now. He lifts the gun to the man’s temple and pulls the trigger.

Akashi blacks out to the sound of someone calling his name, never once loosening his grasp on Furihata.

Chapter Text

Akashi wakes up in the twilight hours, when the world is cast in evening shadows but still lit enough to see the figures in his room.

He takes note of his surroundings first, to verify his safety. He is clearly in some sort of hospital bed. The room is small and crowded. Aomine snores loudly, with Momoi asleep in his lap. Murasakibara sits on the floor in a corner, snoring even louder, and Kise lies on the floor using Murasakibara as a pillow. Midorima sits in the other chair, sleeping softly and looking profoundly uncomfortable with his head against a cabinet.

“Akashi-kun?”

Akashi looks to the source of the quiet voice and sees Kuroko sitting in the seat closest to Akashi’s bed.

“Furi?” Akashi asks, stirring to an upright position. “Is Furi OK?”

“Furihata-kun is in the room down the hall from you,” Kuroko replies in a calm manner.

“But is he OK?’

Kuroko hesitates, causing Akashi to panic. “He is recovering from surgery. He was near malnourished and dehydrated, and the doctors are worried about infection. He is in intensive care at the moment, but the doctors are optimistic.”

Akashi starts to get out of his bed but Kuroko pushes him back down. “You must rest, Akashi-kun. You killed that man while you were in his mind, did you not? You know how dangerous that was.”

Akashi scowls. “I was angry.” He reluctantly settles back down in the bed, realizing that there’s not much he could do for Furihata anyway. “What happened?”

Kuroko looks at him like he’s trying to figure out if stressing Akashi further is a good idea. Akashi gives him an imperious look to let him know what he will do if Kuroko doesn’t tell him everything.

“I believe a lot of the new Projects escaped, although some were recovered by our backup. Kasamatsu Youji arranged a volunteer mission of JSDF soldiers, once he understood the circumstances behind the new Teiko. A few of the new Projects were missing children from over the years. We provided the initial frontal attack, and the volunteer soldiers did the rest. The Teiko scientists have been apprehended. Those who did manage to escape have their identities all over the News. Momoi-san ensured they will not have anonymity now.”

Akashi lets this all sink in for a moment. “So—it’s over, then?”

“Yes. I believe so.”

Akashi isn’t quite sure he can process everything. “And where are we now?”

“A hospital in Honolulu. It was the closest facility we could bring you and Furihata-kun at the time. We will transfer everyone to Japan, after Furihata’s condition is more stable.”

Akashi tries to suppress the urge to run to the boy’s side. “Have you seen him?”

“The doctors will not let me. They say only family can see him now.”

Akashi flicks his gaze over the sleeping Miracles. “And? Why are you all in my room, then?”

“Because we are your family, Akashi-kun.”

Akashi closes his eyes and struggles to breathe. Something breaks inside him, as a revelation he’s been suppressing for years finally takes hold. “Kuroko—Gold—he—”

“Gold? You mean Nash?”

“No. Our Gold. 1101.” Akashi opens his eyes, blinking away the wetness there. “He was my brother, wasn’t he?”

Kuroko falls silent. Then, hesitantly, he says, “Yes, Akashi-kun. I believe he was.”

It never seemed to mean anything, when Projects looked alike. That’s why it took them all so long to realize family relations resembled one another. Akashi has always tried not to think too hard about the fact that Gold 1101 had looked exactly like him, only with gold hair and gold eyes.

“I have his heart,” Akashi says. “Bits and pieces of him. Because they chose to save me over him.”

Kuroko’s silence means something, and Akashi sits up straight. “What is it? Tell me.”

Kuroko lowers his gaze. “Momoi-san and I always thought it best if you did not know.”

“Kuroko—” He leaves the threat unfinished. He has been long aware that Momoi and by extension, Kuroko, knew things about Teiko that they did not share with anyone else.

“They wished to save Gold. Your heart was destroyed, and Gold was more viable for rescue. But he Mesmerized them. His final act of power was to make them save you instead. The scientists did not choose you, Akashi-kun. Gold did. Your brother loved you very much.”

Akashi closes his eyes again and wonders if this changes anything. He wonders if he would have done anything differently, had he known the truth sooner.

“Akashi-kun, can I get you anything?”

It is nice of Kuroko to let him have this time by himself. But Kuroko has always been considerate. He opens his eyes again and lets out a breath. “Have you ever read Mansfield Park?”

Kuroko looks surprised, in as much as Kuroko can look surprised at anything. “Yes.”

“Could you find me a copy? You don’t need to get one right away, but I would like to read it.”

 “Yes, Akashi-kun, I can do that.” Kuroko looks at him in an unreadable way. “That is Furihata-kun’s favorite book.”

“Yes, I know,” Akashi says. Kuroko continues to stare at him and Akashi stares right back.

Kuroko apparently decides not to ask, and Akashi doesn’t volunteer any information.

He’ll be damned if he asks for Kuroko’s permission to date his friend.

*

In the days that follow, Akashi has plenty of time to read the book.

He reads it in the original English because that was the copy Kuroko could find the easiest, and Akashi doesn’t mind. He has nothing else to do but read as the doctors are determined he should rest and he does not want to leave until Furihata can.

He hears about the boy’s recovery, but holds off from seeing him right away. Furihata’s family was flown in by the JSDF and Akashi had run into them in the hallway. No one has said anything, but he could tell they blamed him for what happened to their son, and Akashi knew they were right to do so. His apologies could never be sufficient, and by the way Furihata Kyo glared at him, he realized there were going to be many obstacles on his path to courting Furihata.

He would have read any book that was Furihata’s favorite, and enjoyed it just for the sake of wondering what Furihata might have been thinking while reading the same book. But as he recalls the way Furihata said, “I could relate” he finds the main character particularly interesting.

Akashi thinks Furihata did resemble the main character, in more ways than the boy himself probably realized. Fanny Price was timid and shy and always virtuous and incredibly resolute in the face of adversity. When Akashi reaches the end of the book he comes across the line describing Henry Crawford, the man who loved Fanny for her goodness but in the end proved too unworthy to win her heart, and Akashi reads the lines over and over again: “Would he have deserved more, there can be no doubt more would have been obtained… Would he have persevered, and uprightly, Fanny must have been his reward.”

As he shuts the book he thinks about his own situation. He is not in any way like Henry Crawford. But he has resisted his own humanity; he has been cruel to those who never did him any harm and scorned the kindness of others. And maybe he’s been changing, somewhat, maybe he’s found a place in Rakuzan and people there he cares about. But he knows himself well enough to know that kindness will never come easy to him, empathy will never be his first instinct. He knows that he is a creature of Teiko and in many ways, might always be what they made him to be.

But that person would not be someone who deserves Furihata’s love. And he also knows that Furihata is not a “reward.” Even if he could strive to be a better person, even if he did deserve more, Furihata’s love is not something owed to him.

But if he never changes, then he really wouldn’t be worthy of Furihata.

He spends a lot of time thinking about Gold, too. His brother, his twin. Gold had not been afraid to love in that place where attachment to anything was a dangerous idea. Gold had ordered him to live and Akashi isn’t sure he’s done that, not really.

He has Gold’s heart now; he has Gold’s capacity to love.

He hopes he can prove himself capable of perseverance.

*

Akashi approaches Furihata’s room with mild trepidation.

He is all too keenly aware that all affection between them had been part of a ruse. He has no reason to believe that Furihata returns his affections, and he doesn’t want to do anything that might scare the boy away. He won’t press his luck. For now, there are things that need to be said.

“Seijuurou!” Furihata says joyfully, when he spots Akashi in his doorway. “Oh—it’s Akashi, right?”

“That’s right,” Akashi says. He actually rather likes that Furihata distinguishes between the two of him. Furihata is the only thing that he and his other self have adamantly agreed upon having and sharing. He holds out the large bouquet of roses he brought. “These are for you.”

“Thanks,” Furihata says, blushing as he takes the roses. “How are you, Akashi?”

“I am fine, thank you,” Akashi says, as he takes a seat next to Furihata’s hospital bed. “You are looking well.”

“Thanks! The doctors say I’ll be out of here in a few days. We’re flying straight home though. Man, I can’t believe I’m in Hawaii and can’t even enjoy it!”

Akashi smiles at the boy’s chipper report, but then he grows somber, as the task he came here for looms. “Furihata-kun—”

“Furi, remember?” Furihata interrupts, smiling. “Because we’re friends.”

That’s somewhat promising, so Akashi pushes forward. “Furi, I must sincerely apologize for involving you in this situation. I cannot properly convey how awful I feel that you were hurt because of me.”

Furihata’s face falls, catching some of Akashi’s gravity. He looks down at the roses in his hands. He clears his throat. “Did… it help? At all? Me, being there?”

Akashi can’t help but gape a little at the extraordinary understatement behind that question. “Furi—if it hadn’t been for you, I would have lost myself. You saved me, over and over again. Not just at the end—I couldn’t have survived without you. I can never repay you for what you have done, although I would like to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

Furihata’s blushes bright red and Akashi realizes he just proposed, although the other boy probably didn’t pick up on that. “N-not at all! I mean, I should be thanking you! You—you helped me, too! I’m just—I’m just glad I could be of some use, that’s all.” He smiles at Akashi.

“Furi,” Akashi begins. He clears his throat. “Furihata Kouki, you are the most extraordinary person I have ever met.”

Furihata’s blush deepens, and he hides his face behind the bouquet. “That’s, um. That’s nice of you to say.”

“I mean it,” Akashi says. And this isn’t what he came here to say; he hadn’t meant to rush things at all, but with the opening he can’t just let things go.  “Furi—I know we were only pretending, that we needed to keep up a ruse, but—I want you to know just how much I’ve come to admire you. I would very much like a real relationship between us.”

Furihata squeaks and looks up from the roses. “Are you asking me out?”

“Yes,” Akashi says, mildly. “Yes, that is what I am doing.”

“Oh! I—!” But then Furihata’s face falls again and Akashi’s heart plummets. “My brother—”

“Yes?” Akashi prompts, when it’s clear that Furihata isn’t continuing.

Furihata looks down, his face still flushed. “My brother said that we were in a tense situation. He said, emotions run high, when you’re trapped like that. So he said—it’s only natural that feelings would be—confused, now.”

Akashi could cheerfully murder Furihata Kyo, but that would probably set a bad precedent with what he hopes will be his future in-laws. By the sounds of it, Furihata had been talking about him, and that was promising. “Furi, just to be clear, do you like me?”

“Yes!” Furihata exclaims, finally meeting his gaze. “Yes, I do! But—but what if Kyo’s right? And what if you’re only confused too?”

“I,” Akashi says with great dignity, “Have never been confused about anything in my life.” Furihata smiles wryly at him, which gives Akashi the reason to hope. He feels calmer, now. More sure of his position.

“But I understand your need for caution, and I respect that. I will wait for things to settle, and for your head to clear. I will still like you, no matter what. When enough time has passed, I will come for your reply then.”

“Oh,” Furihata says. “Not too much time, though? I don’t think I’ll need too much time to clear my head.”

“No,” Akashi says, feeling pleased with himself, “At the time when it is quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier.”

Furihata jolts and then stares at Akashi in disbelief. “Did—did you just quote Mansfield Park?”

Akashi only smiles. He relaxes, feeling content for the first time in a long time. He would persevere. He will prove that he is someone worthy of Furihata Kouki’s love. From now on, he’s going to live.

He can’t help but feel Gold would approve.