FANDOM: Kuroko no Basuke

TITLE: Countdown, Glitter Days!

AUTHOR: RazenshiaSapphire1306

PAIRING(S): None; this is purely GEN. This will focus on friendship and family. If there is – it will be platonic nothing more.

GENRE(S): Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Mystery, Friendship and Family.

RATING: T

SET TIME: Going in between before Kuroko discover basketball (Childhood), Teiko arc and several months after the Winter Cup (This timeline will be the main focus of the story).

SUMMARY: Kuroko Tetsuya loathed numbers not for a petty reasons. Why? Simple. It's the symbol of end, death. Every time he came contact with it – he sees and experience the anguish, despair and death of the other. Knowing, none will believe him, he shuts everything away including his emotions. Platonic Everyone/Kuroko. Gen.

WARNING(S): PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), Hints of General Depression, OCC-ness, Slight-Violence, A little bit gory due to some deaths don't worry none of the characters of KnB will be the victim of death or is it? Never mind, let's go back to the warnings – Language courtesy of Aomine and Kagami (For future references), Implied Dark themes and Unbeta'ed!

NOTES:

1) There will be OC's not much – they are needed for the plot department.

2) Describing places, appearances and things are not my forte so I won't go giving much details about it. Just the basics and simple ones if truly needed.

3) Plot holes, Confusion and Slow Build but everything will become understandable due in time.

4) Drabble style or snippets. 100-2k words at every chapters it won't exceed 3k unless there will be an extra excluding the Author's note and Side notes.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from KNB; I didn't earn money from writing this – its purpose was only to satisfy my vast imagination and entertainment. That is why it's called fan-fiction!

Countdown 1: The Prelude of his Nightmare

Kuroko Tetsuya was your any average child albeit a little bit quiet, far too quiet for his own good and never want to interact with anyone exception of his family even so he still remain a quite distant from them. He was that skittish as if he was scared of them which made his parents quite sad and dismay for his fear of contact.

At first his parents thought his fear of contact with an individual, being skittish and almost emotionless was due to being social awkward and just being a shy boy due to the fact he was a shut-in child for his fragile health at the early stage of his growing up so they learned to cope at his odd behavior but what they did not know the fear and mental trauma already runs deep and once they find out about it – it was already too late.

Dear, little beloved boy was scarred and mentally broken and with the addition of his guilt at Teiko – he was far beyond saving.

Yet, they never give up of trying to help him.

They quit with their job and stayed with him through his tough times; And Tetsuya having no idea they were completely aware of his pain and burden.

Yes, they know he can see and experience people's death by making contact with an individual or by just seeing their numbers.

How?

They overheard him talking by himself and at first, they are doubtful, incredulous about the discovery yet what truly bothers them was the thought their only child going mental.

But, Tetsuya was never one to lie. He maybe contradict his words, bents half-truth but never did he outright lie to anyone dear to him – his friends and family which is them.

Despite being doubtful and a little bit scared and incredulous about their son. They silently watched every his movements, each words spewing and the shift of his emotions to his eyes to light twitch of his lips and his mood.

After the few months of their secretive observation not even Tetsuya, the perceptive one noticed their scrutiny as they learned in being subtle and vague with their blatant examination and the result was not something they are happy to unveil in fact it broke them to not notice their child's misery earlier. It was too late to fix the damage.

Still… The hope he will be fine albeit a little bit rough in some edges was there. Someday. It never goes away the hope is…

Slowly but surely, Tetsuya finally opens up and they are never been so happy to see him smiling genuinely.

But that is a story from the not so distant future.

For now, they will remain by his side, awaiting for him to share his pain to the world and learning to cope with them.

He have no idea when did it start or where.

All he knows it was scary and painful as hell every time he made a contact with an individual or by just seeing the numbers written above their heads:

Date/Month/Year – Hour/Minutes/Seconds. The Countdown.

The Symbol or mark of how long they would live.

Just like everyone he had brushed it off as a child's imagination. After all he was just a mere child and his imagination was vast as anyone else but as time goes by – he can't simply ignore it anymore because every time he experienced 'death' it feels real. It wasn't created by a figment of a mere child's dream nor imagination.

It is real and there is no escaping from the excruciating pain, fear, paranoia, and trauma.

He needs to get away from people! Came the desperate thought from him. Because if he remain at the same footing as them. He will continue to suffer and he don't want it anymore.

Pain – absolute, slowly pain. It hurts. The scent of blood so much of them, the lingering air of decay and death. I'm scared. Don't leave me. I'm alone. I don't want this! Make stop! Somebody please… Help me… Save me! I'm so tired. Let me have peace already. Just take me if you will. End me… Free me. I want to die. If I die will I be free from everything?

He was losing his grip of the real him. So he stay away but it was never enough. He is still experience and see the blasted number – the symbol death. No matter how he remain away from any interaction it kept finding him because he was visible from the plain sight.

That's it! He needed to invisible!

But how? He wasn't a dead nor was he a ghost…

Ghost? Invisible?

The answer to his ephemeral peace was low presence.

He learned to surpassed, to control, to blend and maintain his presence at very low average with the price of his dismal stamina but he was fine with those as long as he can be free from his oddity.

He live with the life as if he was a ghost, a fragment of existence easily to be forgotten and ignored in his early days up until now.

But…

He won't say he was never been lonely but it was bearable than dying not in the literal sense but yes, it was much better in that way so he learned to coped with the emptiness and shutting everything away because letting somebody in at his inner circle means suicide and death for him and the others.

Sometimes he still have an encounter with death but it wasn't a daily occurrence anymore. It was tolerable but he was certain he can't avoid it forever.

And he was right as fate seems have a different plan for him.

He was introduced to basketball. A new inspiration of form of living not existing because that is what he was doing these past years. Existing but not living.

With the inspiration and probably new possibility, Tetsuya asked his parents – a basketball set as a present for his upcoming birthday.

He is acting weird. He knew that.

Even so, he never wanted something so badly before and nearly begging his parents to buy him something when he will simply respond anything is just fine when asked what he wanted as a gift on his special occasion.

As expected, his mother and father looked a bit startled and shocked at his sudden eagerness for something when he was always self-control, polite and a good boy will do anything to please his parents. No, he wasn't a hypocrite. He just want them to be happy with a slight impassive, invisible and cursed son under their care (not that they knew or so he thought).

They simultaneously arched their eyebrow at him, eyes staring at him with mild curiosity and something he can't decipher then they chuckled lightly with an 'Okay'.

He blinked for a few moment. He didn't expect for them to agree readily at his sudden demand but he simply shrugged it off then for the first time – his lips twitch upwards in what you may call a smile, albeit small yet it was genuine.

Unbeknownst to him by seeing his expression gave a slight hope and his parents sagged in relief. His case wasn't hopeless as they think it is. He wasn't completely broken. There is still hope for him.

In the very next day, they brought him what he wanted – basketball.

Since, the teal head boy was inexperienced with the game and reading the manual isn't enough. He searched for place to train and see his limit due to his lacking of knowledge and skill.

After several minutes of trying to find a perfect place, a secluded area – an unknown basketball court came to view.

That is the place where he found – his very first friend, Ogiwara Shigehiro and the very first friend whose life and future he would destroy due to his own selfishness.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note: This is my second KnB. My first was 'Welcome Home' – the reason I haven't update that fan-fiction was – I'm still under debate whether I'm going to rewrite the whole thing or just edited a few of it (As never seen before how poorly written it was). Please take note, I'm not abandoning that. I truly loved that fandom with the rest of my stories.

Why did I write this even knowing it wasn't quite an original concept – the answer is simple, while I'm looking at some formulas and at the same time listening 'Glitter Days' by Fo'xTails'. I can't helped but type the plot bunny keep bugging me until I put it on action.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading this! Reviews/Comments are highly appreciated and welcome! It is the utmost motivation for me on writing more~ Thank you! Love and Cheers to you all (^_^)

And also Suggestions and recommendations are welcome as well!

P.S. – I also decided to have Q&A Corner! So if you have any questions regarding of the story, current chapter or even future ones but refrain from asking spoilers still I will answer it with a hint, vague answer (but maybe I'll downright about it, lol) – so feel free to ask! The corner will be at the end of the chapter so everyone could check it out. I'll try to answer them the best as I can… and also questions about my other works are welcome as well!

Word Count: 1,316

Written: 10/20/2016 (month/date/year)