Part 6B of Signal~<3

[lunaryu]

~Signal: Part 6B~



At lunch break, Kagami and Kuroko headed to 1-D, Furihata's class, to ask him to have lunch with them.

"Sure, at the cafeteria?" Furihata stood from his seat as he saw Kagami lift up his jumbo sized bread from outside his class to his direction.

Fukuda, who sat two seats behind Furihata, also stood. "Count me in!" he said while grinning.

The four first years then walked together to the canteen and met Kawahara on their way as they passed 1-A. "Having lunch together?" Having just emerged from the class, Kawahara raised his eyebrows as he saw them together.

The four students nodded in unison before Kuroko offered quietly, "Do you want to join too, Kawahara-kun?"

Kawahara's expression brightened at the invitation. "Awesome. I'm going to get my wallet first," he replied positively before entering his class again to retrieve his wallet and then immediately got out to join the others.

They took seats at a table in the corner of the cafeteria and started eating their respective lunches. Kuroko looked upward at Kagami as the redhead ate his bread with much gusto. He smiled slightly while the others stared at Kagami, gaping.

"Kagami… you really can stuff your stomach to such extent, huh?" Furihata said, blanching slightly as he seemed to feel rather squishy at the way Kagami eat.

"Hm? It's delicious," Kagami said with a certain sparkle in his eyes before he glanced down at Kuroko's lunch and heaved a long sigh. "Kuroko, you eat too little," he huffed.

"I feel full watching Kagami-kun eat," Kuroko said offhandedly, drinking his boxed vanilla milk slowly while holding a half-eaten sandwich in his other hand.

"What a pair of strange guys," Fukuda commented while huffing aloud at the way Kagami and Kuroko bickered.

"But, watching them like this is always enjoyable, huh? I don't know… they seem to complement each other somehow. As expected from Seirin basketball team's light and shadow," Kawahara grinned.

Furihata and Fukuda smiled, agreeing immediately before the shorter brunet then turned to face Kagami and Kuroko again while eating his own lunch. It was true that Kagami and Kuroko looked very compatible with each other. At first, it was only on the court, but lately….

Furihata noticed that Kagami and Kuroko were always together. In the classroom, during the break, at basketball practice… even when they went home. They looked very close as well, unlike the first time they met each other. Kagami smiled a lot around Kuroko and Kuroko showed more expressions when he was with Kagami.

The way Kagami and Kuroko interact with each other was kind of nice. Is it possible that…

"Oh, man! I'm stuffed!" Fukuda groaned while patting his stomach in satisfaction. His exclamation brought Furihata out of his inner mussing.

"Oh, nature calls," Kawahara suddenly stood up. "I'll go wash my hand first," and he was immediately off.

"Ah, I want to go too!" Fukuda stood as well before following Kawahara to the restroom direction.

"Sheesh, they didn't have to be that loud about it, did they?" Kagami shook his head and Kuroko just chuckled slightly.

Furihata's interest was piqued once more as they went back to conversing about everything and nothing. It suddenly made the brunet curious of the nature of their relationship. "Ne, Kagami and Kuroko… Are you guys dating each other?"

Kagami immediately burst out the bread that he was currently chewing and Kuroko, for some reason, bent down just in time to retrieve his fallen handkerchief from the ground. But they both looked speechless when they stared at Furihata afterwards.

"W-w-what the hell are you asking so suddenly like that?!" Kagami screeched, his face reddening spectacularly that Furihata instantly realized that he had hit the bull's eye.

"Furihata-kun, how…?" Kuroko looked surprised. Furihata was silently proud that he actually could make Kuroko wear such expression.

"No, well… you guys seem a lot closer than the first time you met. I mean… it looks very natural somehow, seeing Kagami and you together. The way you act with each other… it would be weird if you weren't dating, I guess," Furihata scratched his cheek with his index finger, feeling rather sheepish.

Kagami's face went redder at the comment and Kuroko looked down, somehow looking embarrassed as well before he showed a small smile again. "Furihata-kun… you are surprisingly quite observant, huh?"

"Eh?" Furihata blinked once before he blushed. "Eeeh? W-what's with the sudden compliment?"

"Jeez," Kagami scratched his hair slightly, face still flushing in embarrassment. "I thought we were being careful…"

"Eh?" Furihata turned to face Kagami confusedly.

"We were being careful," Kuroko nodded. "Furihata-kun is just very perceptive," he continued while sighing lightly.

"So… you're alright with us being together?" Kagami asked Furihata, his face showing a rather awkward expression.

Furihata huffed out a light laugh at that. "Of course! You guys are great together. I have nothing to complain about," he grinned now, completely supporting the idea.

Kuroko smiled with a relieved expression and Kagami was bitching at Furihata for being so noisy.

A few minutes later after they were relatively calm again, Kuroko asked, "So I heard yesterday you were with Akashi-kun for some time."

"Ah… yeah," Furihata looked down thinking about Akashi and his encounter the day before. "I was forced to entertain him when he was waiting for his minions…" he cried again, suddenly feeling so relieved that he could get away in one piece.

"Minions?" the red head visibly growled, a vein of annoyance popping on his temple.

"Did he do something to you?" Kuroko looked concerned now.

"No, well… his deadly glare was enough to make me do a dogeza," Furihata replied, his tears still flowing.

"A dogeza?" Kagami blinked once, looking confused before Kuroko explained what it was to the redhead. He literally dropped his jaw once he heard it. "You literally kneeled down and bowed in front of him until your forehead touched the ground?!" he repeated with a shocked look.

"It couldn't be helped! I was really terrified for interfering with his business!" Furihata said defensively, feeling very self-conscious.

"What the hell happened?" Now Kagami seemed very curious about it.

"Eh… he seemed to be in trouble… no, that wasn't right. Some people tried to bother him and insult him, and he was in the verge of stabbing them with scissors, so… I stepped out before it went down there," Furihata said, looking helpless.

Kagami's face was alternatively paling and disbelieving before he said, "You are an idiot, aren't you?"

"Kagami-kun…" Kuroko gazed at Kagami in disapproval. "But… he really did not do anything to you?" he faced Furihata once again, still sounding a little bit worried.

"Well, he bought me coffee in a very fancy, expensive looking café," Furihata said, smiling slightly at the memory despite the way he was coerced to go with Akashi. "Surprisingly, he wasn't like what I thought he was before."

"Huh?" Kagami looked puzzled.

"Hey, Kuroko, about Akashi-kun… what kind of person was he during his middle school years?" Furihata ignored Kagami's confused expression as he decided to ask.

"Why do you ask?" Kuroko asked back slowly, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"Um… I'm not sure. When I was with Akashi-kun, somehow… I felt strange." Furihata put his hand on his chest, feeling his heart pick up its pace at the image of Akashi's mismatched eyes he had seen at close range yesterday. "There's something about him that bugs me," he continued, closing his eyes slightly.

"Yeah, the way he could terrorize people just by being there," Kagami muttered and Kuroko seemed to kick his shin for that comment as the redhead yelped in pain.

"Err… of course, at first I was very afraid of him before I actually spoke to him, but… when we finally spent time together; I felt like… there's something more about him than meets the eye. It feels like multiple layers from a personality lumped together to hide something very precious inside… or something like that," Furihata couldn't explain it well, but more or less, that's what he felt when he thought about his time with Akashi after he was alone at home yesterday.

"Furihata-kun…" Kuroko looked astounded as he heard it. Kagami blinked once after he finished nursing his shin before turning somber at Furihata's next words.

"Maybe this is just my overly active imagination, but…"

I want to know more about him…-Furihata couldn't help feeling that way.

"Ha, he has that effect on other people," Kagami said, looking at the snow outside the window. "Kuroko was right. You are surprisingly very perceptive," he continued while inconspicuously glancing at Furihata once again.

Kuroko smiled as Furihata was slightly bewildered at being praised by even Kagami. "Do you want to know more about Akashi-kun, Furihata-kun?" the bluenet asked afterwards.

Furihata stared at Kuroko for a moment before making up his mind. "Will you tell me more about him?"

"Yes," Kuroko said, looking somewhat positive and confident.

Kagami glanced at Kuroko with slight uncertainty in his eyes, as if he were questioning what Kuroko was up to by telling Furihata about Akashi Seijuurou.

~Akashi x Furihata~

"Are you sure this is alright like this, Seijuurou?"

A man in his forties spoke from behind his desk in an office room of a certain big building in Tokyo. Akashi was sitting on a plush chair at the coffee table across his office desk, looking eerily calm as he sipped his tea from the cup.

"Yes, father," Akashi answered slowly after he put down the tea.

Akashi Seiji looked at the teenager concernedly before he stood and walked towards the coach across Akashi's seat and sat down in front of him. "You know you don't have to oblige in your mother's every selfishness. Just tell me and I will back you on," he said trying to find any expression of dissatisfaction on his son's face.

Unluckily, Akashi was very much alike to Seiji's wife, so the middle aged man couldn't read the boy's expression very well. His wife, Kurenai, was very good at pretending. She had so many masks that they were like her second skin. His son picked up her habit on putting them up in any situation to give them leverage.

However, Akashi was even better at hiding his own feelings. While Kurenai was always certain on showing what she wanted with her mask, Akashi was slightly different. He could put up an emotionless mask to hide his pain. He would do something about it later, but he tended to hurt himself over it and that's what Seiji didn't approve.

Akashi Seijuurou was a gentle person deep inside, but he was forced to put tough layers on it because his mother held an expectation for the boy to succeed her. Seiji had tried to speak to her about how unhealthy it was, but in the end, she didn't want to listen to him.

Kurenai loves Seijuurou too much to let him go.

"Mother has nothing to do with this. It is my wish… to transfer back to Tokyo," his son said, lowering his gaze to the low coffee table.

Seijuurou…-Seiji gazed down as well as his eyes caught the sight of his cell phone in his breast pocket. He stared at the cell phone for a moment before deciding. Setsuna-san… it seems I have to ask for your help for real now.-He put his hand on the tip of the lid before looking upward at Akashi surely.

~Akashi x Furihata~

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

Aomine and Kagami shouted in unison, looking very shocked and aghast as Momoi told them about the news while they were playing one on one in a street ball court in Ginza.

"I didn't want to believe it either, but there was news about it at the Rakuzan school bulletin. My contact in Kyoto wrote it in their school newspaper and website. The whole Rakuzan team was in an uproar and the coach even called me, ME of all people to ask what happened to him in Tokyo when he was here!Do you understand what this means?!" Momoi sounded very hysterical at this point.

"C-calm down, Satsuki, we don't know if he really transfers to Tokyo to run his plan to punish us, or if there are other reasons for his sudden transfer… oh my GOD! Is he really transferring here to Tokyo?! To what school?!" Now it was Aomine who seemed to panic after the news registered inside his mind and trampled on his sanity.

Akashi Seijuurou is transferring back to Tokyo…!? That's insane! What about Rakuzan then?-Kagami couldn't help gaping speechlessly as the thought was running rampant in his head, spinning at the speculation of what Akashi was up to or if something really happened to him.

"I don't know. But Mibuchi-san and the other regulars from his team are heading here in order to ask Akashi-kun personally and they even asked me if I could bring them to Akashi-kun… Don't they know that information about Akashi-kun is OFF LIMITS?!" Momoi was covering her face now, looking totally distressed.

Aomine and Kagami looked at each other in total perplexity before the tan ace moved to calm Momoi once again by pulling her into a hug. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked afterwards, seemingly confused.

"I don't know… but I think we should speak to him as well," Kagami looked down, already planning to call Takao and Himuro. "I'll ask mom about the Akashi Family main house she told us before. Maybe we could see him there," he clenched his fist and looked upward without a doubt.

Akashi…!

~Akashi x Furihata~

"How are you doing back to the real home, Sei-nii?" Soujirou asked from where he was sitting, both palms on his chin, staring at Akashi who was playing Go against himself silently.

"Don't speak to me. I'm in the middle of exercising my brain," Akashi said putting another Go piece on the board, not even looking at Soujirou's face.

Souirou chuckled slightly at his statement. "Sei-nii is as cold as ever. So cool!" he exclaimed, looking very happy for some reason.

That certainly irked Akashi. "Why aren't you at school, Soujirou? It's still a day before the start of winter vacation," he spoke again after he made another move with the white piece to cover some areas on the board while thinking the next formation to counter the move.

"Well, Sei-nii is at home too. I heard that you decided to transfer back to Tokyo. I was so happy that I want to stay beside you all day, Sei-nii," Soujirou said, a teasing smirk decorating his face.

Akashi stopped focusing on his Go play for a moment to face the younger one with a slight frown on his face. "That's not good. You need to go to school properly. Can't have your attendance less than mandatory or else you won't be able to graduate," he said, displeased. Soujirou was a third year now. The final exam was over, and he was certain that his brother could do well on his exam, but his behavior was another thing.

Who knows if his middle school decided to hold him back for skipping too much?

"Don't worry about that. It's taken care off. Moreover, don't you want me to play that Go against you?" Soujirou flailed his hand in a dismissing gesture and then stared expectantly at Akashi.

"I refuse," Akashi huffed and went back to his playing.

"Eeeh, why?" Soujirou protested.

"Playing with you is worse than playing against a beginner. You are too easy to read so it's not even a challenge," Akashi replied and the younger made a pitiful noise of how mean Akashi was to him.

"Then, stop playing and talk to me more~!" Soujirou whined.

"Shut up or I will throw you out of my room," Akashi glared at him now, starting to feel the rise of irritation.

Soujirou's eyes visibly twinkled at that. "Are you mad yet?" he sounded so joyful at the prospect of getting a punishment from his older brother.

Sick bastard.-Akashi sneered at the younger and sighed deeply, calming himself down. He couldn't even play Go in peace with Soujirou around. That's why he hated staying at the main house. Maybe he should go back to the house he usually stayed at in Tokyo.

"Nah, Sei-nii, mother just told me this morning that she sold the small house near your middle school," Soujirou suddenly informed. Akashi widened his eyes slightly in surprise at that.

Ck… so she even went that far to confine me in this house, huh?-Akashi clenched his fist hard in a moment of rage, but he immediately controlled his emotion and glared icily at Soujirou.

"So what?" Akashi asked.

"Whoa, so scary…! That look is pure evil, Sei-nii! It's so awesome!" Now Soujirou was fawning over him and Akashi was ready to take his scissors and slash the guy when he heard a sudden ruckus from the front yard.

"What is that?" Akashi was alerted as he heard the tell-tale sign of struggles.

"Ah… it seems someone broke into our front yard," Soujirou smirked dangerously.

"…out here! Akashi! Come out here, damn it!"

As Akashi heard a familiar voice, he immediately stood up. "That idiot," he briskly went outside his room and quickly ran down the corridor that brought him outside, Soujirou hot on his heels while asking if Akashi knew who it was. But Akashi ignored the younger brother in favor of running faster.

As soon as he reached the front door, he stopped and stood still at the doorstep, seeing a tall red haired teenager who was struggling while being held down by three guards from the gates of his house. "What do you think you are doing, Kagami Taiga?" He stared down at the Seirin basketball team's ace in disbelief. How did Kagami know he was here anyway?

Moreover, what the hell was Kagami doing breaking into other people's house, a yakuza head quarter to boot, alone and unprepared. Was he insane? Or… stupidly idiotic? Akashi heard that the buffoon wasn't so bright in the brain. Apparently that was an understatement. Kagami Taiga didn't have a brain.

Kagami though, only smirked albeit rather painfully because he was being held down roughly by the guards. "Yah, cousin… It's been two days, and I got the impression that you wouldn't show your nose to contact us again, so I decided to come down here to have that conversation you promised us," he said sounding confident, his crimson eyes burning with intent.

"How insolent! Don't talk with that kind of language to Seijuurou-sama!" One of the guards was ready to hit Kagami in the face, but Akashi quickly stopped him.

"Wait!"

The guard halted his movement and Akashi narrowed his eyes at Kagami. "What did you just call me?" he asked, just to make sure that he had heard him right.

Kagami's smirk widened slightly. "Cousin, Akashi Seijuurou," he said with poise.

Cousin…? What is he talking about?-Akashi didn't understand this.

"You have no idea at all, don't you, Akashi?" Kagami asked huffing out a chuckle lightly as he seemed to have realized that he surprised the smaller redhead.

"Being delusional is he?" Soujirou asked suddenly, gazing mockingly at Kagami from behind Akashi.

Kagami clearly perked up as he heard the voice and narrowed his eyes when Soujirou emerged. "So it's you… Akashi Seijuurou's shadow, Akashi Soujirou," he mumbled out loud seriously and it surprised Akashi even more that Kagami actually knew Soujirou.

"Hoo? He knows me? How rare… someone actually knows me as my brother's shadow," Soujirou smirked, looking down at Kagami with predatory look.

"Why… how did you…?" Akashi, for the first time in his life, seemed to have lost words. He liked the unexpected, but a surprise to this extent wasn't healthy for his heart.

"I'll tell you everything, Akashi. Let me talk to you and I'll tell you everything that I know because I need some answers from you as well," Kagami said looking very sincere, now facing Akashi once again after glaring at Soujirou.

All… explanations…

Akashi turned serious as well in reaction. "Very well," he said surely. "Let him go. I need to speak with him," he ordered the guards, who immediately released their hold on Kagami's body without many questions.

"Sei-nii!" Soujirou obviously protested, but Akashi ignored him as he addressed Kagami now.

"Follow me, Kagami Taiga. I will make you explain everything," Akashi then led Kagami who responded to his order with a light snort, standing up and dusting himself before following Akashi.

"Yeah, right, I want to explain things not because you want me to, but because you need to know," Kagami grumbled.

Akashi remained silent as he steered Kagami to go to a secluded area. He had sent Soujirou away because he needed to speak privately with Kagami. "Now spill," he ordered.

"Firstly, you need to know the history of our parents," Kagami said. "Are you ready, Akashi? This is huge."

"Bring it on."

End of Part 6

Tbc…

Additional Notes:

1)Ikebana: flower arranging activity

A/N: Ugh… sorry for being so late in posting this. It took a LOT of time to construct this chapter. I being busy with preparation for a tournament wasn't helping as well. Yes, I won't be able to update for awhile (I hope not more than two weeks) because I have to participate in a table tennis match at the other city. Won't be able to write and access computer for the time being starting at October 17th. Wish me luck!

I'll try to make up my tardiness in updating with more words. Tell me if it's too long for you, and I will divide it into two parts!

Part 7
Part 6A