He had thought his tears were invisible.

In his first year of Teiko, Kuroko had been put in the third string and relentlessly trained every day to make it up to the first string. He even stayed back every day to keep training overtime.

And then the coach told him to think about quitting due to his weak build, that he would be a hindrance to the team at the rate he was going. Kuroko's work was commended, but it was eventually brushed aside as nothing.

He thought his tears were invisible.

Thanks to the support of his friends, Kuroko eventually made it to the first string as the phantom sixth player for the Generation of Miracles. He played in games as a respected teammate, had friends who cared for him (Even if the one with glasses was a total tsundere), and was working to fulfill the promise he had made with Ogiwara.

Then the third year of Teiko rolled around and the Miracles all changed, victory having become the norm for them and games becoming boring due to their prodigious strength. Kuroko could hardly keep up, watching as his light rejected him as weak and his captain rejected teamwork as unnecessary to achieve victory. After a while, it rubbed off on him and he no longer saw the joy in playing basketball.

At the third basketball championship, Kuroko was sidelined due to injury and watched as the team he so highly admired completely destroyed his friend, making the score all ones. He stared at the receding backs of his friends. He could hardly see the blaring score that ridiculed the other team, his vision was so blurry.

Then he quit the team.

He thought his tears were invisible.

Kuroko entered Seirin and found a new light, someone who was nearly on par with the Miracles. He believed with his new team, he could bring down his former and show them exactly how wrong their playing style was.

Then his former light outshone the light and shadow of Seirin. He gazed down on their style of basketball; he called Kuroko's struggles futile.

And all he could do was cry.

"The winner of the Winter Cup is Seirin High!"

As golden streamers shot up into the air, Seirin's regulars could hardly hear the cheering of the crowd over their own cries of joy. For the first time in so long, Kuroko let all his emotion out in one single carrying scream. He'd shown them, he had shown the Miracles how much stronger he was than them with the rest of his team. Finally, they had become number one in Japan.

"OOOOHHH!"

Kuroko launched himself at Kagami, not caring that hugs were not only a sigh of intimacy, but emotion as well. Moments later the rest of Seirin tiny team pig-piled themselves on top of their freshman duo. Kuroko opened his eyes and found his vision obscured by tears. He was confused; he wasn't sad, no he was immensely euphoric. So what were the tears doing in his eyes?

"You fool, stop crying!"

Kagami was grinning down at him. Kuroko pulled away and saw that Kagami too had tears running down from his normally crimson colored eyes. The shadow merely stared as his light scrubbed the top of his head playfully. Kuroko suddenly felt himself break into a smile. Of course. All he had shed until this point were tears of pain and grief.

And he had thought his tears were invisible.

Kuroko put an arm around his friend's massive shoulders and looked up at the crowd where he knew his old friends were sitting. They had seen, hadn't they? Only he couldn't see his tears, the tears that were so visible to everyone else who cared about him.