Title: Kodomo.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Warning: AU. NOT yaoi. Brotherhood. Family. More fights.

Summary (chapter): Thousands of heavy thoughts cross Daiki's mind.

"Aomine-kun, stop running!" Riko-sensei's exasperated scream echoed through the kindergarten lawn, hands reaching out to stop a running Daiki.

"Haha~ Sensei can't catch me~ Sensei can't catch me~" Daiki sang out, sticking out his tongue at his teacher. Turning his head back, he saw a woman cuddle a crying boy outside of the kindergarten, a smile spreading across her face. His ears caught soft whisper 'Don't worry, mommy isn't going to leave you. I love you so much.'

Daiki dropped his pace to a halt, staring at the mother with a rapt expression. His heart suddenly clenched, to his own surprise. "Eh? My chest hurts," he was confused, and he felt a pool of tears form at the corner of his eyes. "Eh?"

However, a sudden flying tackle from Riko-sensei roused him from his stupor. Riko-sensei gripped him tightly on his waist, gritting her teeth. "You little brat…"

The tanned kid flailed wildly, trying to free himself from Riko-sensei's deathly clutch. Unfortunate for Daiki, she rewarded him a huge golf ball on his head. Daiki groaned in pain as he held his sore head.

"Why can't you behave like other kids? Look at Mitobe-kun," she pointed at the quiet kid, who was seen arranging books on the table. "Be like him!"

"Bleh, he's showing off," Daiki bit out.

"Hey, don't say such things to Mitobe," a mewboy suddenly appeared and fired back. "He's kind! Ne, Mitobe?"

Mitobe nodded.

"See?!" the meowboy said. "He told me, his mother loves good kid! Every mother does!"

Riko-sensei almost face palmed. "How did you understand—" then, she felt gloomy aura encase the atmosphere. She cast her gaze down, and the sight startled her. Daiki's face was darkened. "Aomine-kun, you okay?"

The boy didn't say anything.

Anxiety devoured her. Riko-sensei turned Daiki to face him. She brought up Daiki's face. "Aomine-kun, you okay? Did I hurt you? Tell me."

"Ne, Sensei," Daiki's voice dropped to another octave. "Does my mom hate me?"

"Eh?" the brunette was taken aback by Daiki's unexpected question.

"I'm a bad kid, that's why my mom and dad hate me," Daiki lowered his gaze. "So they left me alone."

"What?! No, of course your mom and dad love you!" her eyes widened in surprise.

"Then, why mom and dad left me?" Daiki asked again. "Mitobe's mom loves him, so she stays with him. But, why my mom left me?"

Her heart dropped almost immediately. Riko-sensei bit her bottom lip. No answer crossed her mind. She hit the huge wall. "Ano… Aomine-kun, you got it wrong. Well, you see…" her eyes wandered all over places but Daiki, looking for a reasonable answer. She remembered Taiga had told her Daiki's parents died in a terrible accident and Daiki was the only survivor, losing some parts of memories—apparently, he'd forgotten about his parents' death. But, no way could she say such a grim truth, could she?

"They hate me, after all," Daiki weakly pushed her off. He walked past his teacher, shoulders sinking. Riko-sensei's eyes followed him as guilty jabbed her heart.

~oo0oo~

The colored children were playing mini basketball happily in their lawn, ignoring the fact the sun had begun to pass its throne. Seijurou ran past Shintarou as Atsushi helped him screen the megane boy. Ryouta came forward to stop the little redhead. However, Seijurou skillfully faked to the left, startling the blond, before passing the ball to Tetsuya, who was standing not far from the mini goal post. "Tetsuya, shoot!"

With serious expression painting on Tetsuya's face, he aimed and pushed the ball off his palm. It looked perfect, however it missed the ring and landed on the backboard. Tetsuya seemed a little shocked. Even worse, the ball bounced and hit in Daiki's face. He stumbled backward to the ground. No movement at all.

Panic rushed into their minds. "DAIKI/DAI-CCHI/DAI-CHIN/DAIKI-KUN!" they sprinted to the fallen kid.

Taiga had heard the scream and went to check the lawn. "What's going on?" he appeared into the scene.

"Daiki is unconscious," Seijurou said.

"What the…?!" he crouched down to examine Daiki. "Hey, little guy, wake up," Taiga lightly slapped Daiki's cheek. "C'mon, don't sleep here."

"Is Daiki-kun okay?" Tetsuya shook Daiki's body. "Daiki-kun, don't sleep here. Ghost will come and kidnap you," his voice wavered. Fear began to fill his little heart. "Daiki-kun, please wake up. I'll get angry if you keep sleeping."

The magic word awoke him, to their relief. The little tanned boy pulled himself into sitting position, covering his nose. Blood dripped from his nose. Taiga saw it, so he fished a handkerchief out of his pocket—having crazy sibling force him to bring a handkerchief, in case of emergency—and gently wiped the blood off.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Daiki groaned.

"Hold on, little guy," Taiga said in a soothing voice. Then, he scooped Daiki up, carrying him into the house for a proper treatment. The colored children tailed behind the guardian like a train. He brought Daiki to the kitchen and sat him up on the chair, turning around to get the first-aid kit. The children circled around the tanned kid.

"Ne, Daiki-kun, I'm very, very sorry. I didn't mean it," Tetsuya fiddled his thumbs.

Daiki stared at the light blue haired boy. Tetsuya flinched a little. He was expecting some silly words exploding out of Daiki's mouth like 'naah, you should improve your shooting skill' or 'stupid Tetsu, do it properly next time!', but a reply came out; "Whatever," Daiki dropped his gaze to the floor.

Tetsuya gasped. He wasn't expecting a monotone reply from Daiki. Something is wrong! He held Daiki's small hand. "Daiki-kun, please say something."

"…"

"Daiki-kun, I—"

"—SHUT UP!" Daiki snapped, making Tetsuya step back. His siblings were shocked. "You are too noisy! Why can't you just shut up?!" he shouted. Daiki couldn't get rid the heavy thoughts lingering in his mind. It irked him so much. And Tetsuya's words made it even worse.

"You shouldn't shout like that, Daiki," Seijurou stood between Daiki and Tetsuya. "He's worried about you."

"His voice is annoying!" Daiki barked out. Tetsuya hid behind Atsushi.

"Dai-cchi, don't say like that! You're making Tetsu-cchi sad!" Ryouta chided.

"And you are annoying!" the tanned boy turned to see Ryouta. What's wrong with them? Can't they just leave him alone?!

"Daiki," Shintarou pushed up his spectacles. "Are you okay, Daiki? You're acting weird today."

"Acting weird? Me? And how about you?! Carrying that stupid figurine around like a girl! Who's weird, huh?!"

"DAIKI!" Seijurou yelled.

"SHUT UP!"

Heavy pants were heard. The atmosphere was getting darker and darker.

"Dai-chin is making everyone upset," Atsushi broke the silence. "Dai-chin is a bad boy."

That startled Daiki. His heart stopped momentarily. His brain was trying to register Atsushi's word. Taiga's worried voice snapped him back into reality. He looked at the floor, shadow hiding his face. Dark laugh escaped Daiki's lips. "Yeah, I'm a bad boy. I'm a bad boy."

"Daiki?" Taiga called out.

"Yes, I am a bad boy!" he snapped his head up. "That's why mom and dad left me! They hate me because I'm a bad boy!" despite the laughter, tears visibly streamed down his face. "And now, everyone hates me!" he jumped from the chair and sprinted to his bedroom.

"What the hell was that…" Taiga muttered.

…

No one touched their dinner, staring at the table morosely. An air of gloom settled over the kitchen. Taiga breathed a sigh seeing the children drop their head. "Okay, what's wrong now?"

"It feels lonelier without Dai-cchi," Ryouta clenched his pants.

"It's too quiet without Dai-chin's loud voice," the little giant pushed his bowl away.

"Daiki may be stupid and naughty, but I miss his voice," Shintarou looked down.

"Daiki-kun must be very hungry," Tetsuya rested his chin on the table, rolling the chopsticks.

"We don't want to eat without Daiki," at last, Seijurou spoke on behalf of his brothers.

The older teen smiled. "Then, do you hate Daiki for his doing?" Taiga thought he should dig deeper to know their feelings toward the tanned kid.

"Hate? NO!" they answered simultaneously. Then, faint blush crept up their faces, realizing they had just synchronized with each other.

"I mean," Seijurou said, his blush fading away. "We are kind of angry at him, but we don't hate him. Why would we? He's our brother, right?" the little redhead to look around, only to receive nods from his brothers.

"Fine, then," Taiga got up from the chair. "I'll talk to him, okay?"

"Yes, do that," mischievous gleamed in Seijurou's heterochromatic eyes. "We are going to think about Daiki's punishment."

Taiga just shook his head in amusement.

…

"Hey there, little guy," Taiga slipped his head into Daiki's room, only to find the kid lying in the bed, facing the wall. He approached the bed and sat on it. Taiga ruffled Daiki's hair. "You okay?"

A sniffle was heard.

"Hey, you can talk with me," Taiga said.

In a shaking voice, Daiki asked; "Do you hate me?"

"No, I don't hate you. Never," Taiga's lips curled into a smile.

"You won't leave me?" finally, Daiki turned around, resting his head on Taiga's lap. He clenched his guardian's shirt tightly.

"Of course no. We've discussed about this before. I'm not going to leave you guys."

"That's great," dry chuckles came out. Daiki sniffled again. "Ne, Taiga, do my mom and dad hate me?"

Taiga paused. Daiki said 'do' instead of 'did'. He knew the kid had lost some parts of memories—Alex told him, but he'd never expected it's his parents' death. "No, they love you," he played along. Taiga couldn't bring himself to tell Daiki the truth.

"Then, why they left me? The guy in white coat said they won't see me again," Daiki asked again.

The older teen knew 'the guy in white coat' was the doctor who treated Daiki before. It seemed Daiki had misunderstood the doctor's meaning—not that he blamed Daiki or the doctor. Taiga must clear Daiki's cloudy mind.

"They… didn't leave you. They just went for a very long vacation."

"Then, why didn't they bring me along?"

"Because they want to Daiki experience a lot of things before meeting them," Taiga cheered up. "So one day, when you meet them again, you have a lot of stories to share with them. Then, they will know you're happy staying here with us!"

Behind the cheerful expression, Taiga face palmed at his lame lies. No way Daiki—

"Really?!" sparkles returned into Daiki's blue eyes.

"Uh, ye… yeah." The kid really bought it.

"Then, I'll be a good kid and do a lot of fun things together!" Daiki shot his body up in excitement. "I'll play with Tetsu, Ryouta, Atsushi, Shintarou and Seijurou!"

"Great, go tell your parents about your brothers," Taiga grinned.

"And I'll play basket with Taiga every day, and tell my mom and dad how awesome you are!" Daiki suddenly hugged Taiga, to Taiga's surprise. "Taiga is the best brother ever!"

Happiness clenched Taiga's heart. He slowly returned Daiki's embrace. "You're a great brother too."

…

At the dining table, Daiki went rigid, watching his brothers nervously. Taiga had suggested him to come down and apologize to his brothers. It seemed easier when Taiga told him. However, their judgment looks put him under pressure. "I'm… sorry for yelling at you guys."

"Really?" skeptical tweaked in Seijurou's tone.

"Ye—yes! I'm truly sorry! I was thinking too much! I didn't mean to yell at you guys…" Daiki's voice trailed off. "I'm very, very sorry. Especially to Tetsu," he glanced at the light blue haired kid.

Finally, Tetsuya smiled. "Apology is accepted. After all, Daiki-kun is having PMS."

Taiga almost choked on his drink. "What the—Tetsuya, what are you talking about?!"

"I read that girls have mood swings when they are having their PMS," Tetsuya hummed. "Ne, Taiga-kun, what's PMS?"

"Yes, what's that?" the word had sparked Shintarou's curiosity.

"Can we eat it?" Atsushi asked.

"Can we play with it?!" Ryouta chimed in.

Meanwhile, Taiga went red in the face, matching with his red hair. Seijurou let out a sigh, knowing the meaning behind PMS. "Let's forget about that. Now, Daiki," he shoot Daiki a stern look. "I know Tetsuya has forgiven you, however, it doesn't mean you could get away from the punishment. After all, what you've said was very harsh."

"Oh, okay. What's the punishment, then?" Daiki braced himself. It couldn't be that bad, right?

"You can't sleep with your crayfish doll tonight," Seijurou said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"WHAT?! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Daiki screeched. "Taiga, do something!"

"You reap what you sow," Taiga nonchalantly stuffed the chicken breast into his mouth, ignoring Daiki's cries.

"I'M TAKING BACK MY WORD! TAIGA'S MEANIE!"

Author's note: I'm so freaking happy receiving such great responses from you guys! Thanks! Honestly, I felt a great pressure while writing this. I even had to recall all my bro fights just to know those feelings. But, I shall thank my sister for giving me such a great idea in a very subtle way (she suddenly told me that my little bro and I share a very strong bond despite of those fights that we've had).

Enough with my rants. Till then~ (wait, do you realize this story is updated monthly?)