Even though Tetsuya had promised himself, he couldn't do anything as Aomine got lost in thought in the middle of a sentence, or stare off into the distance, sometimes giving a couple steps before he caught himself.

Aomine would blink, then grin at Tetsuya and pretend there was nothing wrong. In the end, all Tetsuya could do was letting him go.

So even though the fear of abandonment gripped his heart tight, he woke up one morning, and with complete resolution he grabbed Aomine's wrists to get his attention and murmur, "Aomine-kun, please go."

The other teen blinked in silence, confused. "What?"

Tetsuya cleared his throat and straightened his back. "You seem to be wanting to go somewhere."

Even though his words had been incredibly vague, Aomine still inhaled sharply, his face looking so damn vulnerable Tetsuya almost felt doubly as bad.

"Fuck, Tetsu I'm-" Aomine rasped out, looking so relieved for a second that it made Tetsuya sag in relief as well.

Decided, he persisted. "I would like you to go."

"What?"

"You sometimes left. I… It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but perhaps you need to go to that place. I would not want to be the cause for worrying you."

Aomine stared at him, mouth hanging open. He closed and opened it several times as he tried working out the words. In the end, he looked closed to tears as he whispered. "Are you serious… god, Tetsu, thank you. I'll be back before evening-"

"Aomine-kun?" Tetsuya interrupted him with a little feeble voice.

"Yeah?"

"Just…Please come back."

Aomine's heart softened. He raised his fist. Tetsuya smiled a little embarrassed as he imitated the gesture. "I swear on my grave."

He had said that, but still. As Tetsuya wandered the streets, he couldn't help but feel a little down at being alone again. It wasn't the crippling isolation from before–in comparison now it was barely perceived–, but still Tetsuya definitively didn't like being alone.

Probably this was why his eyes were extra sharp and he caught sight of a certain blond just as he disappeared around the corner–accompanied by someone.

Curious and very much not wanting to be alone, Tetsuya followed them, brightening up at realizing that it indeed was Kise with someone else.

Ever quiet, the boy approached them, as he heard Kise babbling a mile per second, happily waving his arms around in grand gestures. Tetsuya smiled to himself– the man could be overbearing but his enthusiasm was certainly honest and contagious. He smiled to himself as he turned to look at Kise's companion and stopped abruptly on the spot.

This other person…

Was a Living.

Tetsuya's eyes widened, so Takao wasn't the only one who could see them? Why had nobody mentioned him before? Tetsuya now understood why Kise was talking so happily. He felt happy for the other ghost.

He skipped two steps, deciding to surprise the duo and in a lame vanishing, he appeared in front of them.

"Boo," he mumbled, playfully. But the smile on his lips wilted at seeing for a brief moment an expression of heartbreak on Kise's face.

It immediately disappeared, jumping from surprised right into frightened in the same second. In the sudden silence, Kise stopped walking, and his companion continued onwards, passing through Kuroko without even looking at either of them. As if…

Kise stepped back, like a spooked animal. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it immediately. Tetsuya tried saying something but before the first word could even exit his mouth, the blond had vanished.

Dumbfounded, the pale ghost stood in place as the Living continued walking without missing a beat and Kise did not seem to be about to return.

Feeling dread pooling in his stomach, the boy hurried over to the Living's side. As he walked up to him he was already talking, "My apologies for scaring Kise-san. I don't know what happened, what about…?"

The realization came like a punch to the gut.

Tetsuya slowed to a stop like a broken toy. The Living continued walking without missing a beat.

Unable to see Tetsuya. Unable to hear Kise.

His breath hitched. The loneliness in his chest doubled in size–now carrying his own and Kise's.

He needed to find him. He needed to apologize.

Kuroko gasped for breath, trying not to feel dizzy at having half-ran and half-vanished his way into the mall. Much to his dismay, there was no sign on the model there. He panted, loud desperate breaths that were nonexistent for the Livings happily shopping there. The sea of Living people that were nothing but a nuisance, a bother for Kuroko since they could easily hide Kise away if he just ducked.

Never in his short life would he had thought that being surrounded by so many people would make him not only unhappy, but bordering on angry.

He spotted a head of blond and he dashed after it.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, his one and only ghost friend had spent close to an hour sitting at a table in the public library, right beside Satsuki.

It wasn't even funny how much like a drug this whole thing was. He had been getting withdrawal effects bad enough for his little charge to notice and he had come to get his dose.

Aomine sighed into his palm. "Who would have thought that for being so darn pretty, you'd be so bad to me?" He mumbled to no one but himself. His "companion" was alone. It relieved and worried him at equal parts. She had always been a bubbly girl, but with the problems at home she had begun retreating into herself. When Aomine disappeared from her life she…

Aomine blinked the tears out of his eyes. "Damn it." He muttered. He sniffled pathetically, before he went through the table to press his forehead against hers, "I'm so fucking sorry. I'm so sorry for leaving you. Satsuki, I…"

He pressed his lips together. He no longer had the right to say that.

"Don't they say that drugs are supposed to make you feel better?" Aomine laughed hoarsely. "It's like I'm addicted to you, but you only break my heart further."

Momoi continued reading.

Aomine didn't hold it against her. It wasn't like she knew what she was doing. She was a witch. Able to haunt even the dead.

When she stopped reading to begin looking around her suspiciously, Aomine settled once more by her side and laid down his head on the table, resting on his propped arms. He looked at her.

"Hey," he said. "Would you read that out loud for me?"

Momoi finished scanning her vacant surroundings and satisfied, began reciting out loud to herself.

By her side, the pathetic man smiled.

He was not in the mall. He was not in the park. The city was so big that the probability of finding him were close to zero. And still, the boy persevered.

He ended up bumping into Midorima, who sneered at him and reared himself for a fight, but Tetsuya couldn't do much more than repeatedly bow and apologize and promise, "I'll apologize properly later, please, Midorima-kun, right now I need to find Kise-kun!" Even as he dashed away.

He continued to run and search and he was still surprised when he finally found Kise arguing with Aomine.

Face contorted in scorn, Kise jabbed a finger at Aomine's chest. "…like you have any right to tell me anything, you fucking hypocrite! Tell me, Aominecchi, how has she been?!"

He abruptly stopped and whirled around, electricity crackling around him as he noticed Tetsuya, weirdly enough.

Tetsuya hadn't quite noticed the hostility yet, too busy with trying to get some air into his body, bent over his knees, but he could sense his imminent departure.

"Wait!" He rasped out, making Kise freeze. "My-my apologies, I did not mean to… intrude on you, please, this was an accident. I would never think of mocking you or something similar!"

The electricity gathered in his arms as the blond ghost lashed out at him, face a mask of fury. Before he could reach the startled boy, Aomine bellowed angrily and threw himself atop the model, punching him cleanly on the face before managing to pin him down, wincing every time Kise's attacks managed to get under his defenses.

Unsure of what to do, Kuroko stared at them from the floor– having fallen down in his surprise. This was completely his fault and only his fault but what could he do? If only he'd never been there, if only Kise had never seen him if only-

The same cold feeling as before entered him and this time he was just vaguely aware of how the other two stopped fighting– Kise giving up and going limp under Aomine

"What a coward," the blond said spitefully, which earned him another slap courtesy of Aomine. The model snarled at him, "he's not even here anymore, get off me!"

"What are you-?" Aomine snapped back before the words registered in his mind. He loosened his grasp on Kise, which allowed the other teen to scurry to his feet. "Damn it! Where did he go?!"

"How should I know?" Kisuke spat out some blood onto the floor, as he rearranged his clothes. He has the suddenly worried Aomine a scornful glance before he attempted to walk away.

With the most undignified yelp, Kise tripped over thin air and fell flat on his face.

"What the hell?!" The teen exclaimed, raising himself on his hands and knees and staring at the empty spot over which he had tripped. A chill ran down his spine as he (ironically) felt creeped out by whatever invisible thing he had fallen over.

Opposite of him, a glimmer of understanding had colored Aomine's dark complexion. "Tetsu?" He mumbled, staring at the same blank spot. Kise arched an eyebrow at him, but then his jaw opened without his consent as that very same man began shimmering into existence.

The boy was sprawled on the ground, as if he had fallen down on his ass and was staring wide-eyed at Aomine.

"You're., okay. You didn't vanish. You just… went invisible." Aomine mumbled, surprised and dumbfounded.

"You guys are weird." Kise managed to say before disappearing on the spot.

Aomine and Tetsuya both stared at the spot he had been in for a moment. Then Aomine was crowding into his personal bubble and making him forget about his current concern if momentarily.

Kuroko was trembling, tired and emotionally drained, but still a smile pulled at his lips when Aomine fussed over him like a mother hen.

TBC

AN. Still not abandoned! Plot points have all been tossed out, let's see if we can wrap it up in less than ten more chapters! If you like this story say ayyyy! Let's see how many people are still reading this!