Hello everyone!

I totally love 'Kuroko no Basuke' and I'm even more in love with AkaKuro pair! So there is my story about them, I hope you will like it :)

Ah, as much as I would like to, I do NOT own 'Kuroko no Basuke' or any of the characters.

Also, that story has no beta reader, so please forgive me my mistakes!

The torches' light illuminated the long corridor barely enough to see what was just before you. And yet even that was taken from the little boy that was led by the soldiers, with his eyes covered with a rough material, legs and hands cuffed. Every time the light fell on the kid's hair, they seemed to be glowing. No surprise here, when they were bloody-red from the beginning.

The journey seemed to have no end as they were walking further and further down to the dungeons. The hideous stench of rotting could be smelled more clearly with every step. Eventually, they stopped and the red headed boy heard the jingling sound of keys being taken out and the metallic, heavy door was opened with a loud creak. With no hesitation the same soldier pushed the kid roughly inside, not minding to take the band from his eyes. Now not only the kid was blinded, but left alone in the cell. He could hear his captors' steps getting back the way up from where they walked into the dark corridors.

The child wasted no time and tried to search for the walls to check if one thing, there was safe and secondly, to hopefully find something to lay on. Not so long after he found a thick blanket that definitely wasn't very often used and, what came with that, washed too. But having nothing else to choose from and having nothing to do, the kid went to the furthest corner and laid down on the so-called warm-providing blanket. Then he fell asleep.

Counting time was impossible in the omnipresent darkness, so the little red head had no idea how long he was in the cell, but his growling stomach was telling him that he was in there long enough to conclude that he was forgotten or purposely left to die. The kid gulped. No, not from fear. He, despite the young age, was too proud to be scared of death. But the perspective of dying from starvation was one of the worst ways to end his, so far, unfortunate life. He was supposed to die in the battle, like his father and grandfather and grand-grandfather but no, they had to take him captive.

Going even more into his dark thoughts, the kid didn't hear the light footsteps till they were in front of the door of his cell, but when he finally did, all of his senses were instantly alerted. The door was opened and soon he felt the blast of air as the person kneeled by his side. Then he felt two little hands taking off the band from his eyes.

"Don't open them too fast, you might be blinded from the light." The quiet, monotone voice murmured and the newcomer tried to pry off the cuffs, but to no avail. "I'm sorry" the same voice whispered with sadness. "I don't think they can be taken off without the key."

'Why would anyone be concerned for my well being?' Eventually, the curiosity won over and the red headed boy opened his eyes. They adjusted quite quickly to the light and soon he was looking straight into two aquamarine pupils of his companion. Sadly, he could see nothing more as the owner of them had been covered with a long, brown cloak. Seeing the other's distrust, the hooded figure's eyes softened.

"Ah, right. You can't see me." He chuckled lightly and with one hand made his hood fall down and straightened up. "My name is Aomine Kuroko Tetsuya. Nice to meet you." He introduced himself and smiled brightly.

At his words the red head flinched and pulled himself closer to the wall behind him. Seeing his mistake the boy introduced as Tetsuya waved his hands frantically as if he wanted to take his words back. "No, please do not fear me. I am not here to harm you."

"So what would the prince of Touou want from a mere war prisoner?" He asked with as much venom as could master while trying to sit, but Tetsuya seemed unfazed. He only smiled lightly and hurriedly helped him to get up.

"Do you maybe want some food? I brought you sandwiches and an apple. I'm sorry, I couldn't get you more. I took water too." He answered after they both were sitting comfortably enough and lent to the basket he put beside them before.

'He ignored me.' The red head sighted.

"I also wanted to take some cookies with me, but my onee-sama ate them all." The bluette was explaining himself further, pouting cutely with something that was supposed to be anger, but failing miserably. "But next time I will definitely bring you some!" His eyes shone with determination as he lent forward closer to the red head's face. Too close for his liking. "So-" He started again and handed to him a piece of bread with some kind of cheese. "-you have to eat so you will be able to wait for me till I come back to see you again!" And he showed his white teethes for the word to see as he smiled brightly.

The captive boy stopped in his tracks as ha was about to take a bite from the sandwich handed to him by the bluette. "And why exactly should I wait for you? Are you trying to make my last moments of life less miserable?!" He unconsciously raised his, hoarse from not speaking for so long, voice and looked angrily at the sandwich in his palm. "Is it maybe poisoned too?!" And with all the remained strength he pushed the hand away from himself with his arm. Taken by surprise, the prince dropped it. 'Ha! I got it now! They won't fool me that easily!' He thought to himself when he straightened himself proudly, closed his eyes and waited for some words of confirmation from Tetsuya. But they never came.

"That's not good, Mr. Not-trusting-others-red-head-san." The monotone voice made him look at the boy in front of him shocked. "You should not waste food. Especially that someone else made it."

'He ignored me again.' The red head facepalmed inwardly, but the scowl was visible on his face. Indeed, the bluette just reached for another sandwich and smiled sweetly. Like too sweetly. They had a little staring contest.

"Say ahh!" Then the prince demanded.

"Aa-a…?!" And the piece of bread with cheese was unceremoniously pushed into his mouth.

"Very nicely. Now chew, please." The red head glared at the food that the bluette nicely brought for him. Of course he was going to eat that. What else could he do to survive?

Finally the rest of the brought food disappeared from the basket, with more glaring on the red head's side and victorious smiles from the prince. Then the latter stood up and, after grabbing the empty now basket, made his way slowly to the exit. Just before he closed the door behind him he sent the captive one last look. "I will leave now because they may be looking for me. Unfortunately, I don't know when I will be back." He added the last part smiling apologetically and wave his little hand before hurriedly heading back his way up the stairs.

The darkness and solitude hit the red head with double force now.

The same pattern would repeat for the next few days, the blue haired prince always making sure not to be gone for longer than a day so the red head war captive would have something to eat and, more importantly, to drink.

"-and you know, he is now only baking vanilla flavored sweets. Just for me." The bluette finished his story about his purple haired friend with a contagiously happy smile which was nearly instantly reflected on the red head's face.

"Auch!" He flinched again when a wet piece of material touched his wound.

The prince stooped his antics and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, but you need to bear the pain." Earlier, he bought a pail with clean water and was currently cleaning the other from whatever dirt he could without taking off the other's clothes, considering the fact that he was still cuffed. And even after half an hour they weren't done, because of the numerous injuries on the whole red head's body.

"Good thing I also brought some bandages and disinfectants."

"Do you have them with you all the time?" The red head asked, surprised.

"Well, usually – yes." Come a simple answer, but when they his eyes met with the suspicious ruby ones he decided to explain himself. "You know, I need them quite often as I am kind of clumsy."

"You wouldn't tell."

"…What?" He hesitated to ask, seeing the knowing, smug look on his companion face.

"Only today you've tripped on your own foot three times already." The red head smirked when he saw how embarrassed that statement made Tetsuya, but he tried to cover it with anger.

"Th-that's not true! The last time was because you moved the bucket and didn't tell me! That doesn't count!" But his convincing went for nothing when the red head's smirk only went winder.

"Oh? Really? And what about the first time you came here?" He pretended to turn his attention to getting rid of a imaginary dirt from his shoe using his another one.

"W-what about that?" The bluette's confidence started to flatter.

"Well… Only after you made a view steps away from my cell you nearly lost most of your teethes on …which one step was that?... ah something like…" But he was interrupted abruptly.

"H-h-how did you see this? It was so dark in there!" One look from the other made him finally resign from any more excuses as he saw that there was no way of making the red head think differently of him.

"Maybe I am a little bit-" A securitizing look from the red head. "- okay, maybe like a lot clumsy, but if you think that I am clumsy, you should see Kise-kun."

"Ah, Kise. That annoying blonde you've been telling me about?"

"In short, yes." They laughed a bit. Then suddenly the prince's face fell.

"Hn? Is there something wrong?" The red head found himself asking, of course he wasn't worried, of course not – he was above that.

"Hey… If you ever meet my onii-sama don't tell him about that, ok?" The bluette looked at him with such pleading eyes, that he found himself unable to refuse.

"About your clumsiness around me?" A nod. "If you don't want me to, I won't then." 'Not that I'm going to see anyone in the closest future.' The red head thought bitterly.

"I'm done!" The sudden exclaiming of the prince brought him back to earth. "We can't clean you more with the clothes still on and all of your wounds are covered with new bandages!" He proudly stood up and let the both them admire his work. Indeed, the red head looked now like a mummy with the bandages all over him. Although he was a little skeptical about the way they were dangling instead of steadily clinging to his wounds, he decided to keep it to himself after seeing the bluette's happy face. After all the other didn't have to help him, and yet he did. As he mustered all of his courage to thank Tetsuya, a really heavy downpour echoed through the halls. They both turned their heads at the dungeons exit's direction.

"It has to rain really badly, if we are able to hear it all the way down there." The red head decided to make a comment.

"Oh no, I need to go!" The bluette's sudden rush caught his attention.

"And why is that?" His eyes traveled to the aquamarine orbs.

"Looks like onee-sama is crying." He stated like it was the most natural thing, that when a princess is crying, the rain would also come. Seeing the confusion the prince smiled a tiny but genuine smile.

"Well…" He reached for the pail." Do you know that every royal family is blessed by the gods with special powers, right?" He answered, uncertain of the other's answer.

'Of course I am aware of that.' The red head thought but said aloud "Yes, yes I am."

"Because you see, my onee-sama's special power is controlling the weather. Well, mostly like not exactly controlling, since she is still learning. So right now the weather only responds to her feelings, which are quite unstable." He added and chuckled.

"Hmm. I see." He couldn't say anything more when the bluette continued with enthusiasm.

"But you should see my onii-sama's power! He can control water!" He said enthusiastically. "He can do such amazing things, like water dragons or slides or even can use it while fighting!" He excitedly went on.

"Ah, I see." The red head couldn't help but smile lightly now.

"And what about your power?" He was sincerely interested in that matter, but when Tetsuya's face fell, he began to reconsider asking.

"Well…" The powder blue bangs covered the same colored orbs from the world. "I don't have any." He smiled sadly and the red head felt really bad about asking now. "But there is no need of me having any powers when my onii-sama and onee-sama have such incredible ones."

The bluette tried to make a happy face but failed, and the red head felt even worse. Especially, that he couldn't help in any way.

When the sound of rain once again was heard, but this time two times worse than before, the bluette finally bid his friend a quick 'bye-bye' and, taking the bucket in one hand and the basket in the other, headed back up the stairs.

Looked like the bluette was full of surprises. Next time they met he didn't have with him basket with food or any other thing that he would normally bring while visiting the red head. Instead he had a enormously big smile plastered on his face. He leaned closer to the little captive and exclaimed triumphantly.

"Hey, Mr. Ever-so-mysterious-red-head-san, today I'm taking you on the journey around the castle!" Before the red head could get confused about the nickname or ask how in the world they were going up there without anyone noticing, Tetsuya nearly pushed him in the face a key that he usually used to get in the red head's cell.

"Well… that's a nice start. But in case you didn't notice I have cuffs on my hands and legs. Even if I get out of there I'm going to be caught right away." He intelligently pointed out, but that didn't bother the bluette. He only bent down and just opened the both cuffs. The redhead's eyes widened in surprise as he looked shocked up at his companion.

"Just last night I learnt that that key can be used to open each and every lock in the castle." He scratched his check with his index finger sheepishly.

"Ahh…" The red head facepalmed inside, but didn't say anything knowing that that wasn't on purpose. He blamed it on the prince's clumsiness.

Now, finally free from the cuffs, he followed Tetsuya out of the cell. But instead on going to the main door leading to the castle, he was taken to the dragon figure placed right to his cell. The prince pushed lightly on the both of the dragon's eyes and with a loud cracking sound the statue moved to the side revealing a long stairs. Tetsuya took one of the torches from the wall.

"Let's go. There are plenty of those in the castle and only I know them all." He explained, clearly proud of himself.

"I'm going to show you everything, just go with me!" And the red head's palm was caught with the prince's warm one and his trip around the castle started.

They visited nearly any interesting, in Tetsuya's opinion, place; the kitchen, where the redhead could finally eat something warm, the prince's room where they rested a little after the satisfying meal and, most importantly, the enormously huge library.

"Wow." The red head was absolutely in awe. Not only the place was big, not only that place was beautifully decorated, but it also had so many books. The shelves were positioned next to the walls and even more perpendicularly to them, all of them contained more books that he ever seen in his entire life. Even in his family's library, what was quite a thing. The books were literally everywhere; on the tables, chairs and even some on the floor.

"There you can find books about this country's history, in the next one the rest of the wise books. I've spent most of my time there, learning with my professors." Tetsuya huffed angrily after pointing every shelve. "In the furthest part of the library are located the books with legends and even some fairy tales!" The red head was dragged again in the direction of the bluette's interest. But before they were able to come there, he tripped on one of the books splattered on the floor and unseen with the dim light of the torch. Fortunately for him, the prince caught him before he could do anything to hurt himself. But when he gripped Tetsuya's hand tighter the prince's sleeve was pulled up, letting the red head see a big violet bruise. Tetsuya quickly pushed the sleeve down.

"Ah, I fell from the stairs last week." He tried to brush the revelation off.

"I didn't ask about anything." The red head murmured quietly so the other nearly didn't hear him. They arrived to their destination and soon were engrossed with their own books.

They spent some time reading. Suddenly, the library's wooden door were opened abruptly and rush, heavy footsteps were heard. They clearly headed to the place where two boys were currently reading.

"Stay here, please." Tetsuya whispered to the red head and, taking the torch with himself, he quickly went to meet the coming person half way.

The red head hid in the darkness, when he heard the deep and furious voice of the newcomer.

"Tetsuya, why are you here?"

"I only came to read, oto-sama." The red head's eyes widened, realizing that he was hiding not even a meter from the one that ordered to capture him, Tetsuya's father or rather the man known as the king of Touou.

"And may I know why you come here in the middle of the night?" The red headed boy regretted already not being able to see anything.

"I couldn't sleep." The prince's voice was still as steady and monotonous as always.

"Oh? You couldn't sleep." A little pause, the irony dripping from the man's voice. "So there is no wonder you can't concentrate on your lessons in the day."

The loud slapping sound echoed and the groans of pain could be heard. This time the red head had enough. He ran out of his safe place and saw a huge man gripping tightly the bluette's neck with his one palm, lifting the boy in the air.

"Listen, you poor imitation of a prince and my son." The grip went tighter."You better try harder to finally show some talent or you are going to end like your pathetic mother!" The king hissed and threw his son away on the cold, hard floor. When he made no attempts of standing up, the man shouted.

"Get up! Move your sorry ass!" But before he could attack Tetsuya again, the bloody red flames separated the fallen body from him.

"Hn?" He angrily looked at the one who dared to oppose the king of all kingdoms. What welcomed him was a sight of a bravely standing red haired boy with his right hand extended. On his palm was still burning a red-yellow flame.

"And who in hell you might be? And why would you help this?" The man emphasized the last word with contempt pointing with his chin at the still laying prince, displeased at the intrusion. That seemed to ignite more flames from the red head's palm. Now the whole library was illuminated by them.

"I am Akashi Seijuurou. And I'm going to protect the one that saved me." His voice was calm, but the flames reflected in the boy's eyes showed that he was anything but calm.

"Oh ho? And how you are going to do so with that sparks of yours?" He smirked seeing that he enraged the Akashi boy more. "And even if, only nobility can protect the royal family. How a peasant like you can overcome that?" He was sure that he won, but this time Akashi smirked.

"Let me rephrase myself." He pointed with his free hand to his chest. "I am Akashi Seijuurou, the first prince of the Rakuzan kingdom and the rightful holder of the 'Hells' fire'." His smirk went wider. "I think that that makes me worthy enough to be Tetsuya's knight." He said no more seeing the sipping madness in the king's eyes. That round was his.

Thank you for reading and, hopefully, to the next chapter! ^_^