So here it is! I am so gomen this fic takes toooooooooooo long to update but hey at least it's here now/shot. Another gomen from me if this is such a depressing chapie. I assure you that I'll make it up to the upcoming chaps! It's gets happier as the chapter continues I promise ahaha. But for now, just stick with the angst ;)

Kuroko was on his way to meet Momoi, it was until he heard his name.

"Tetsu-kunnnn!" She hugged him from the back, squeezing him tight.

'M-momoi-san…" He jolts slightly, but didn't push her away.

"I missed you so much!" She pulled closer, snuggling him tighter.

Kuroko almost chocked from the hold, "I…I can't breathe…" Momoi immediately noticed so she lets go fast. "S-sorry… I didn't mean to… It's just. I'm happy to see Tetsu-kun." The girl blushed and looked at him shyly. Kuroko smiled at that.

"It's fine, Momoi-san…" he assures. Momoi giggled and pulled Kuroko's hand

"Let's go somewhere Tetsu-kun!"

Kuroko nodded and followed her as she leads the way.

….

"Ah!? Kagamicchi's such an idiot!"

"Fuck you bastard! Shut your mouth."

Murasakibara sighed, it's been like this since they started playing and right now he regrets volunteering as their referee. He's starting to get bored after realizing that this game was undeniably ridiculous.

"Don't score back! It's annoying!"

"Then stop copying my moves you stupid blonde!"

The two glared at each other as they both walked to their tall referee.

"Who won Murasakibara/cchi!?" Both asked at the same time.

The purple haired boy covered his mouth as he yawned before he answered them with a sheepish shrug, "This game isn't worth watching. I'm not having fun at all."

"AH!?"

"HUH!?"

This time, both of them redirected their glares to the tall boy. Kise pouts and pointed Kagami

"This is your fault Kagamicchi!"

"Shut up Kise!"

Murasakibara hisses quietly and simply decided to grab his other snacks.

…

"Ahh~ I'm lost. I wonder where the hell is Satsuki." Aomine yawned, rubbing his teary eyes as he walked.

"That woman said this won't take long but I can't find her… Whatever, I'm going home-" He turns and was about to walk away but he paused after glancing to the street court.

"Isn't that?" He grins and walked through them.

…

"Seriously Kagamicchi. You wouldn't call this a game if we're always tie!"

Kagami groans, "Blame yourself, you stupid shit."

"Ah!?"

Murasakibara gave up. He promised himself that he will leave in an instant right after finishing his snacks. After all, there's nothing worthy about watching this argument that isn't going anywhere.

"Yo…"

The three synchronizes, as they looked at the guy who greeted them.

"If it isn't Aomine."

"Heya Aominecchi!"

"Hello there Mine-chin."

He smiles and gazes down on ball beneath their feet. "You guys playing?"

"Yes! But Kagamicchi always copies me." Kise pouts playfully.

"You bastard!"

Aomine walks to them and grabs the ball, dribbling it and spun it to his finger. He cracks his neck and beams a cocky smile. "Oi Murasakibara, you're going to play too." He can hear the tall boy grunting and his bored refusal to participate but Aomine ignored him.

"That giant and me versus the two of you."

Kise and Kagami dropped their jaws as they screamed in chorus, "No way! With this guy!?" They glared at each other. Aomine quirks his eyebrow at that.

"What it'll be fun?" He teased. "Besides I'm itching to play."

"That's not the point! And how will we know who's going to win? We need a referee to decide for this game."

"Yeah, hate to say this but Kagamicchi's right for the first time." Kise grins as he managed to dodge Kagami's kick.

Aomine smirks, his chin lifted and eyes flashing. "That's not a problem. I will make sure you guys wouldn't be able to score against me. With that, it wouldn't be too hard to determine who will win right?"

Aomine's challenge seems to change the aura of the two. They are now definitely fired up.

"I'll just play because I'm bored so you guys do your best to entertain me." Aomine shrugs, smirk never leaving his face as he watched their reaction to his provocation.

Kagami growled at him. "You are far more annoying than Kise."

Kise wipes his sweat and chuckles darkly, "We will beat you Aominecchi."

Aomine nods to Murasakibara and he threw the ball to the tall boy. "Now get your ass over here and stop eating."

"But Mine-chin, you can take them by yourself so why include me?" the purple haired boy complains even though he's already standing up from his seat and is grabbing the ball with his one hand.

"Nah, I need you for defense. Hurry up."

…

Momoi took Kuroko in a coffee shop and right now she can't help but to stare so deeply at her beloved Tetsu while giggling from time to time.

"M-momoi-san?" Kuroko can't deny that her gaze is starting to make him slightly uncomfortable.

"Hehe~ Don't mind me Tetsu-kun." She chuckles, stirring sugar to her coffee.

Kuroko smiles back, he stares outside, watching the people through the window. He sighs softly and turned to look at Momoi again. "Why did you call me out Momoi-san? Is there a problem?"

"Eh~? Do I really need to name a reason so that we could see each other Tetsu-kun?" She pouts and Kuroko immediately feels guilty at that.

"N-no…It's not like that Momoi-san… It's just-"

The girl hums and takes Kuroko's hand, squeezing it softly, "I'm just joking Tetsu-kun. You really know me well huh?" she rubs her thumb on the back of Kuroko's hand, assuring him.

"You're right, I have my reasons." She sighs softly. "You know I even called Dai-chan but as usual he's late."

Kuroko was surprised, but not in a bad way. After hearing his past light's name from Momoi his mind can't help but to wander. All the memories flashed down his mind again.

…

The ace of teiko scored more points compared to their last game. This isn't surprising for the rest of the team, especially to Kuroko. He's so proud of Aomine and he can't put his feelings into words every time he sees him play.

But there's something that he can sense from all of this and he didn't like it.

He didn't want to know what it was because it scares him so much and he can't bring it to himself even though he already realized what it was.

It was the fear of losing him someday. And as time passes by them, he knows that day is near too.

"Tetsu, I won't be coming to practice tomorrow, you tell Satsuki."

Kuroko clenched his fists. "Why don't you tell it to Momoi-san yourself?" Kuroko sounds annoyed for the first time. Aomine glanced at him, looking slightly shocked.

"Well," he clears his throat. "It's a pain in the ass coz she'll surely drag me. So you tell it for me Tetsu."

"No. I will not."

"Eh? Hey-"

"Aomine-kun." Kuroko inhales sharply, "Please attend practice." He stopped walking and Aomine paused too. The taller boy walked closer to him and patted his head.

Aomine's hand felt so warm and Kuroko wishes that he could be with him forever.

"Sorry Tetsu, maybe next time." Aomine taps his shoulder one last time before walking away.

Kuroko watched him walk and his chest feels heavy again. The boy's words echoes painfully in his head

"Tetsu… if I'll continue to practice I'll only get stronger and I know you know that. And if that happens, I wouldn't need a shadow anymore."

He dips his head low as he tried to hold back his tears. He clutched his chest.

He sniffs, tears forming on his eyes, blurring his vision. "Am I just…A shadow for you? Aomine-kun?"

…

"Achoo!" The ball slipped from Aomine's hand.

Kise's eyes sparkled, "Aw yeah! Kagamicchi get the ball! This is our chance!"

Kagami grabbed the ball immediately, his eyebrow twitches, "Do we seriously need to wait for this guy to sneeze so we can score?" He huffs, running towards the net and positions himself to dunk the ball but stepped back fast when Murasakibara appeared in front of him to snatch the ball. "Crap. I forgot about him."

Kise stomped his feet on the ground. "Be careful Kagamicchi! This is our only chance! Don't be an idiot and slam the ball right there!"

"Shut the hell up! Do you think it's that easy?! This guy's freakin huge I can't just do that!"

Kise clicks his tongue in disappointment. "Looks like I need to put a little effort on this huh?" he takes a deep breath and runs too quickly towards the other side of the court, Kagami felt the fast breeze and realized that his partner was already in front of him.

"Hey there Murasakibaracchi~" Kise cocks a smirk before taking the ball from Kagami and proceeds to jump and slam the ball on the net.

"You freaking blonde! That's mine!"

Kise turns his head as he grinned "Ehehe! My win Kagamicchi!" Kise jolts when the ball was smacked away from his hand, gawking when he saw Aomine joining him in the air.

"You guys made a terrible mistake for leaving me there behind." He landed on the ground and dribbles the ball as he ran fast to get back to his goal, he slammed the ball on the net with such force it could break anytime.

"W-wha!?" Kise screams. "That was so clooooose! Why did Aominecchi have to-"

"You stupid bastard! Now look what happened!"

"Don't you blame me now Kagamicchi!"

Aomine shook his head as he watched the two. He walked between them.

"Are we playing here or you guys are going to fight all day?"

Both of them surprisingly shuts their mouth as they looked away.

"Stop fighting over random crap, dumbasses." Aomine scratched his head. "I'm starting to think that I'm dealing with kids here." He sighs and grunts, walking past by them. "I'm done here." He stood beside Murasakibara, who was looking just as bored as him. The tall boy looked relieved when the game finally came to its end.
Kise and Kagami on the other hand haven't stop glaring at each other as they complained and requests for another 'proper' match. But Aomine isn't buying that anymore.

"Nah, you guys should have your 'own' match. Someone can't probably catch up." He waved his hand then fishes his phone on his pocket, "Ugh, look at the time-" His eyes widens as he saw 55 text messages and 40 missed calls from Momoi. "Shit."

"What's wrong Mine-chin?" Murasakibara sneaks behind him and tilts his head, "If it isn't Sat-chin."

"Yeah she'll kill me for real." Aomine rolls his eyes and turns, ready to leave.

"Oi, you're leaving already?" Kagami asked while pushing Kise's face away from him as they argue.

"Yeah, and Satsuki's been calling me since earlier. I really need to."

The blond turns his head to Aomine and giggles, "Aww don't tell me you were lost Aominecchi?"

He glanced back, "You can say that." He paused and faced Kise for a moment as he stares at him, though he was silent.

"Is there…something wrong Aominecchi?" The blond asks and touches his own cheek. "Is there dirt on my face?"

The tanned boy flinches and shook his head. "Ahh… nothing. I'll be going now. See you guys." He finally left the court leaving the three of them.

"Then again Kagamicchi, your moves seriously sucks."

"Then why the fuck are you copying them?!"

"Ahh, I should leave too. Actually, I should have left earlier." Murasakibara grabbed his snacks as he exits the court.

…

After asking a couple of strangers on the road on where this café shop was because he absolutely has no idea where the hell is it, he finally reached his destination.

"DAI-CHAN!" Momoi glowers at him the moment the door opened. Apparently the girl doesn't seem to care about the other customers who were staring at them.

"You're too loud Satsuki. Don't make a big deal out of this. I got lost so don't blame now."

Momoi pouts at him and fiercely holds her anger back. "I'm letting this slide for now, dai-chan." She sits, crossing her arms in disapproval.

Aomine sighs and immediately found Kuroko, who nods at him. "Aomine-kun." He greets him softly.

"Tetsu." He smiles at him, joining them on the table.

"So hey…" Aomine tenses up, clearing his throat awkwardly. "I'm…I'm sorry… I was late."

He saw Momoi rolling her eyes on him but he decided to ignore that for the mean time.

"It's alright. You said you were lost so it must be tough for you." Kuroko replied, though he wasn't looking at him.

Aomine purses his lips, he didn't know how will he even start it.

"Uhh.." He stammers, Momoi was still glaring at him and mouthing words like 'Come on Dai-chan."

"I played with Kagami earlier. Those guys were having fun so I joined them."

Kuroko's face lightens up at the said name, smiling slightly. "I see…"

Aomine released a sigh he didn't know he was holding for a long time. 'There's a good start' he thought.

"So aside from getting lost, the reason why Dai-chan was soooo late was because he played basketball." Momoi raised her eyebrow at him and shrugs. "I should have known."

"Tch… there's no need to press the issue any further damn it." Aomine clears his throat. He glances at Kuroko from time to time.

"Well Murasakibara and Kise were there too so-"

He definitely saw Kuroko flinch the moment he mentioned 'Kise'.

'Oh shit.' He sighed inwardly. Aomine paused immediately and waited for any response. But Kuroko only nods as he looked down.

For some reason, it's starting to get on his nerves.

"So- I decided to play with them. But they were fighting the whole time, it feels like it wasn't a game to begin with." Aomine was still staring at Kuroko as he spoke.

"I'm not sure what those two were fighting over though." Aomine tilts his head, his eyes still keen on the boy in front of him. "Was it basketball? Heh, I'm not sure."

"D-dai-chan…" Momoi was about to speak but Aomine held out his hand, gesturing to stop her.

"It's not my job to stick my nose to someone's business but somehow this is starting to piss me off."

Kuroko clenched his hands into a tight fist.

"Sometimes you gotta ask yourself if your choice was even worth it you know. Or if it can affect other people around you."

"H-hey, Dai-chan. I think that's enough-"

"What do you think Tetsu? Am I making any sense here?"

Kuroko was only looking down and didn't bother to look at him. His face was stoic, a completely different expression Aomine was expecting to see from him.

It only made his blood boil.

"I'm sorry Aomine-kun, but I have no idea what you're talking about." Kuroko stood up and was about to leave.

"T-tetsu-kun!" Momoi stood up as well. "we were just-"

"It's alright Momoi-san. Thanks for today." He smiles and walked away.

"Tetsu-kun! Wait-" Aomine patted Momoi on the shoulder.

"Stay here Satsuki. I need to talk to him… Just the two of us."

…

"Stop following me Aomine-kun."

"Then don't walk away from me Tetsu."

To Aomine's surprise, Kuroko finally stopped walking.

"Look, I really need to talk to you."

The shorter boy looked at him over his shoulder. He watched as Aomine stepped to the side, closer to the nearest park. Kuroko followed him without saying anything.

"I'm sorry… I just… I didn't know what to say…" Aomine shoves his hands into his pockets. "I easily get mad. You know that right?" He chuckles awkwardly.

Kuroko glances at him. "That's right Aomine-kun."

Aomine looked at him curiously as he faced the shorter boy.

"I know you better than anyone else." Kuroko started. "Because I used to be your shadow… While you were my light." Kuroko was looking right at him. "literally." He muttered softly.

Aomine's expression hardens a bit. "Tetsu…"

"Anyway that's all in the past now isn't? I'm not even sure why I even brought it up in the first place."

Aomine couldn't speak after suddenly hearing that from him. He perfectly knows the exact words to tell but he just couldn't bring himself to say it.

"A lot of people helped me and I'm thankful for that." Kuroko smiled weakly. "Thank you for today Aomine-kun." He waved his hand and was about to leave but Aomine grabbed his wrist.

"Are you really okay with what's happening to you right now?" Aomine finally asked him. "Is this your way of showing your gratitude to Kise? Or to Kagami?"

He felt Kuroko shiver in his hand.

"Is it okay to go on like this Tetsu? You're hurting both of them and you're obviously hurting yourself too. Don't pretend that this isn't affecting you at all because I know-"

"You don't know." Kuroko cuts him. "You know nothing, Aomine-kun." Kuroko shakes his head while he glares at him and pulls his arm away from Aomine's hold. "Don't start this please. Don't make me say it. Don't make me say anything that I will regret, please."

"Tetsu, listen to me." Aomine stepped forward and placed both of his hands on his shoulders. " I know I'm not in the right place to say these things to you but, this isn't right and you have to stop this."

"Aomine-kun…please stop."

"You know it too right Tetsu? You're blaming yourself for everything that's why you think you're responsible for this. And right now you're suffering because of it. You have to put an end to this-"

"I'm sorry but I can't. I'm not selfish to hurt those people that are important to me."

"And by making that decision, do you honestly think that will solve your problem?" Aomine tightens his hold on Kuroko's shoulder.

"I'm not the type of person who runs away. I know that I have to do something about it, so I made the decision. I think the reason why you suggest these to me is because that's what you do Aomine-kun. You run away from everything."

Aomine's eyes widened as Kuroko's words left him in shock. He slowly released Kuroko from his grip and looked away.

Kuroko turns to walk and he glanced to Aomine one last time as he said. "So this time, I will try not to repeat the mistake you did back then."

[AN]

Told you aaaaaaaaangst :D huehuehe

HAI! REALLY REALLY ARIGATOU to the pips who reads, faves, follow and reviews this story. AISHITERUZEEEEEEEE *HEART*
It all means a loooooooooot to me. /sniff .

Aaaaaaand~

To make it up for you guys since I always update late and all *cough* I may upload the next chapter in a week asap. c:

I mean I just can't leave Aomine-kun hanging like that so- :D

P.S

To those who reads and follows KnB extra game~

ISN'T GREAT THAT TAKAO SHIPS MIDOAKA I MEAN HE EVEN SAID-

"The ones who are most compatible together are these two"

- Takao referring to Midorin And Sei while doing their sky direct 3p shot (Chap 6) (And by that he means that they're perf as a couple AW YAS~!)

(not to mention EG's MidoAka as KISEKI NO COMBI official ad. ugh *doki doki*)

THEY. ARE. INDEED. CANON. MMMFFFG.

ASDFGHJKL There are no words to describe the happiness and joy I feel tbh.

aye aye aye that's all~!