Title: (pursuit)
Rating: T
Fandom: Kuroko no Basket
Relationship: Akashi Seijurou/Mayuzumi Chihiro
Wordcount: 3230
Short summary: Chihiro had thought he could escape a certain redhead who left him with complicated feelings...
1.
Chihiro was truly enjoying his university life in Tokyo. There were no longer adults dictating curfews and no one cared about his business, like what places he went to or what books he read…well, not quite no one…
“Hello, Mayuzumi-san. I see the girl on the cover today has purple hair.”
Chihiro had escaped most aspects of his high school life, but unfortunately the one thing he didn’t escape was being pestered by unrepentant underclassmen.
“Why the f—” Chihiro found himself immediately silenced by a fist smashed against his lips. The pale blue-haired bastard used just enough force to keep Chihiro’s mouth intact, which was progress at least.
“It’s not good to swear, Mayuzumi-san,” Kuroko said with a smile.
Once Kuroko had removed his fist from Chihiro’s mouth, Chihiro used the freedom to hiss, “Don’t touch me.” Then he immediately bit his tongue to prevent any more words from spewing out. This just made Kuroko smile.
The first time Kuroko had found Chihiro here in the university library, Chihiro hadn’t been able to stop himself from swearing and ranting, and the cost of just a few sentences of rage had been a punch to the gut that knocked him out for like an hour. Thus entertaining Kuroko for 5 minutes or so, even if it meant biting back his insults, would save more of his time than arguing.
“So what does the red emperor want this time?” Chihiro wasn’t going to say his name.
“How has your week been?” Kuroko, of course, pretended that Chihiro hadn’t been asking about a certain person, even though the only reason why they interacted was because of said person who lived in Kyoto, so he sent his “best friend” and Chihiro’s worst enemy to be his eyes on Chihiro instead.
“You don’t really care, do you?” Chihiro complained.
Kuroko smiled. “You started a new novel. You’re so into it you come to the library to read it every day instead of going to lectures. Even though you joined the manga club, you don’t really like the people there, but you still go hang out with them just because.”
“Yep, pretty much.” Why did Kuroko even ask Chihiro about his week if Kuroko already knew what was going on? Then Kuroko’s smile widened, sending Chihiro into a heightened state of tenseness. He did not like the look in Kuroko’s eyes one bit.
“Akashi-kun would like me to inform you that he is coming to visit you soon. He wants you to be prepared, although he cannot tell you exactly when he will arrive.”
Chihiro frowned. “That doesn’t help at all.” He was reeling from the idea that Akashi was actually going to show up after months of sending Kuroko after him. The bastard was finally going to stop hiding behind Kuroko and do something. The idea was thrilling…no, more like terrifying…
Kuroko stood up. “Good luck Mayuzumi-san.” He was clearly amused at the state he left Chihiro in.
“I don’t need your well wishes!” Chihiro exclaimed, but Kuroko was already gone. Chihiro didn’t bother to stop him; he didn’t need another punch. He picked up his light novel only to put it back down and stomp out of the library. His mood was completely ruined and he needed to scream. He might as well go home and suffocate in a pillow, right?
2.
Chihiro had been on alert for the past 10 days so of course during the one time that he decided to relax, a certain red-head finally pays him a visit. He nearly screamed bloody murder when a hand lightly touched his arm as he was putting the last of the books that had just arrived on the storage shelves.
“Akashi!” Chihiro squeaked, embarrassingly, upon seeing Akashi standing behind him. Akashi was really lucky that Chihiro wasn’t holding anything in his hands when he turned around, though with the ease that Akashi had stopped Chihiro’s fist from accidentally socking him in the face would probably mean that said object would have been dealt with easily as well.
“Good evening to you, Mayuzumi.” Akashi said with a smile. Of course he was as “polite” as ever. “I was told that your shift was over and came to retrieve you.”
“Retrieve me?” Chihiro’s warning bells were going off from the word choice, and only then he realized that Akashi shouldn’t be back here at all. This was an employee-only area of the bookstore. What kind of threat or persuasion did Akashi use on Chihiro’s coworker to allow him access? Chihiro wanted…no, he didn’t want to know.
“Yes. We are going out for dinner.”
That was all the warning Chihiro received before he was dragged forcefully away from the backroom, past a confused coworker, out the door and shoved into a limousine. Akashi’s hand pressed firmly over his mouth before Chihiro could speak and an address was given to the driver.
“The hell, Akashi?” Chihiro hissed once Akashi’s hand had left his mouth.
“Don’t worry, you’ll like it,” Akashi replied with a smirk.
If Akashi had that much confidence, then… Chihiro sighed. There went his evening plans to read.
Once they arrived at the restaurant, Chihiro thanked his naturally low presence, because Chihiro was majorly underdressed compared to everyone else entering or dining at this restaurant. It could have been even worse; Chihiro was only dressed up in a white polo shirt and black slacks because it was his work uniform; otherwise he’d be in a T-shirt. Chihiro frowned at the sight of so many expensive looking glasses and dishes. He had no fondness for fancy places like this, so he was confused at why Akashi had been so confident that Chihiro would like this, and even before this, why the hell Akashi even wanted to have dinner with him, spend money on him, talk to him?
“Your table is this way, Mr. Akashi.” Everyone bowed as Akashi walked past. Chihiro, not used to this special treatment, just gaped until Akashi turned around and grabbed his hand. This caused Chihiro to blush; he was no kid! No matter how much Chihiro shook his hand, Akashi held it firmly. With Akashi holding his hand, Chihiro could suddenly feel all these people looking at them, albeit not saying anything because they were being polite, but still…
“This place comes with the highest recommendations. Even my father will eat here,” Akashi explained as they walked to the back, private room.
“I see…” Was that supposed to make Chihiro, someone who had eaten relatively simple and cheap food most of his life, excited? How would his tastes and Akashi’s father’s…oh. Although the restaurant wasn’t a Korean restaurant per se, the menu had quite a few Korean dishes. It was the one other type of cuisine he sought out and would splurge on when he was in one of those “treat yourself” types of moods (though usually treating himself meant buying a book he had been eyeing for a while even though he had a reading backlog).
Chihiro looked up from the menu and found Akashi smiling at him. “I was right, yes?”
“Why ask now?” Chihiro grumbled. Akashi laughed.
“Every once in a while I do lose,” he joked.
Chihiro awkwardly laughed. He still didn’t know what to do with this Akashi, this one who could joke about losing and not gouging his eyes out. This Akashi was the same and yet not the same as the one he remembered from their time in the basketball club together: an utter brat and asshole and smartass and…
“Are you ready to order?” The waiter had returned, most likely summoned by Akashi with a wag of his finger. It was a nice distraction, albeit only for a minute. Chihiro picked something off the “Korean” part of the menu and Akashi picked something that Chihiro couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be. Typical Akashi.
Once the waiter was gone, Akashi wasted no time in getting to the point of this dinner invitation. “So Kuroko has been telling me about what you’ve been reading lately. Although he doesn’t care much for the contents, he says that they are rather expensive to keep up with since they release new volumes every other week?”
Chihiro nodded. “It’s a pain, not being able to buy the new ones right away,” he admitted. “I had to pick up a job to help out with that, but now I have less time to read.”
“Well if you want, I am interested in those books too.” Chihiro did a double-take but Akashi continued, “Reo has been reading them too. I have already bought all the latest volumes, so if you want to read them early I could give them to you first.”
Chihiro almost said yes but bit his tongue before any words could come out. He really would love free books, but the price might be too steep, because it meant owing Akashi something, which meant in the future Akashi would turn this into a way to “encourage” Chihiro to do some favor for him. Actually this dinner was giving him the same vibes… He should have fled as soon as possible, though was there really a time he could have left? If he looked at it from the outside, hadn’t he been kidnapped and brought here?
“Mayuzumi, is something wrong?” Akashi was looking at him with concern?
Chihiro shook his head. “Nothing.” To be honest, Chihiro had been letting his imagination run too wild. As if Akashi cared enough to “kidnap” Chihiro… Chihiro could have easily gotten Akashi to stop, if he really wanted to. Akashi had never gripped him so hard that he couldn’t push him off, and he didn’t stop Chihiro from speaking outside of the moment when he needed to give directions to the driver. Chihiro could have asked to be let out at any time. Chihiro had to admit that he had been tempted by the food offer because it would be free and that meant he could use that money instead for another book.
“Good. After dinner I would like us to go see a movie together? Or maybe if you want some dessert, we could go to a café and…”
Chihiro banged a fist against the table, accidentally, as a reaction to all this ridiculous talk by Akashi. Wasn’t bribing Chihiro with dinner good enough? Wait, this was Chihiro’s chance to voice his unease. “What do you want to do?” Chihiro asked pointedly, hoping Akashi would cut out the bullshit.
Akashi smiled. “Well, since you asked…” He leaned over the table and whispered. “I want to kiss you.”
Chihiro recoiled immediately, completely taken aback. Was all of this some weird set up because Akashi liked him? Dinner, a movie…like a date? Why the fuck would Akashi want to date…
“Well, I guess that was surprising,” Akashi said, chuckling. He didn’t seem discouraged at all.
Chihiro shook his head. His face was probably still flushed from…no, he wasn’t going there. This is why he didn’t like dealing with Akashi; he just didn’t understand him. “K-kissing aside, what do you really want to do?” Chihiro asked.
“Well…” Akashi relaxed. “I want to play basketball with you,” he said with a real smile
Chihiro almost choked. Akashi was just as much of a basketball geek as ever. But even a complete outsider could tell that this was Akashi’s real wish.
“Okay. After dinner.” Chihiro hadn’t played basketball in a while, but it wasn’t like playing with Akashi hadn’t been fun. Key word being “with” Akashi.
They didn’t talk that much during the rest of dinner. The food was good but not worth the fancy price tag, but it was free so it wasn’t Chihiro’s problem. Akashi had ordered some strange Japanese/French fusion dish that he found interesting but not amazing, at least based on Akashi’s body language. It was interesting, seeing this “adventurous” aspect of Akashi on display. Had it been on purpose or was this also Akashi when he was not putting on a front?
Chihiro hoped that playing basketball with Akashi would help answer this question.
3.
Watching Akashi on a basketball court was frankly a beautiful sight, so long as you didn’t have to worry about whether your place on the team was moot now that this brat had arrived and overturned the entire order. Akashi didn’t mind that Chihiro was pretty rusty, having not touched a basketball since he finished at Rakuzan. For a while they just passed the basketball leisurely back and forth and only Akashi would shoot. It made it into the hoop every single time, as expected for someone who was the top high school player on the top team in all of Japan.
Chihiro remembered that he did enjoy playing with Akashi the longer they played. He didn’t love the sport of basketball like Akashi did; basketball was Akashi’s main pleasure and escape from academics, while basketball was mostly exercise and amusement for Chihiro as well as the only time he really cared to compete for anything. But playing with Akashi came with the ego boost from playing with the best and being acknowledged as worthy of the best. It was one of the few times that his rather unusually high sense of self-esteem actually matched with reality.
Of course that final match Chihiro played for Rakuzan would always be a mixed memory, but even throwing an alley-oop pass to Akashi so Akashi could dunk, just like they did in that match…out here it wasn’t so bad. Chihiro was definitely having fun, but with one look at Akashi’s face… Akashi was smiling, genuinely happy from the bottom of his heart.
Unfortunately they couldn’t keep playing like this forever. Chihiro was finally taking shots at the basket when Akashi’s phone rang.
“Oh, it’s just an alarm,” Akashi said as he went to pick up his phone.
Chihiro put the basketball down. “Just how long have we been out here?” Chihiro asked. He did feel a little physically tired, so perhaps for an hour or two?
“It’s 9 PM already.” Akashi sighed. “I don’t wish to leave.”
Chihiro laughed. Akashi was pouting and it was…cute. “Are you not going to be the model student, Akashi?”
“No.” Akashi stepped closer until he was in Chihiro’s personal space. Chihiro let him, half-curious and half-worried about the glint in Akashi’s eyes. “I still want to kiss you.”
Chihiro’s heart skipped a beat. While they had been playing basketball Chihiro had almost forgotten the whole reason why they were even out here. Somehow a brat that used Chihiro as a tool had fallen for him. Chihiro had never considered how he felt for Akashi when he was busy trying to claw his way to respect on the Rakuzan basketball team, then actually score well in his college entrance exams so he could keep receiving financial support from his parents, and then there were all his books and Kuroko’s game where Chihiro worried more about winning against Kuroko then what was actually going on with Akashi but now… Now not only had Chihiro enjoyed his time with Akashi on this date, but Akashi had shown that he did indeed care about Chihiro and Chihiro…frankly Chihiro was weak to confident and attractive younger men with mischievous red eyes. He had been, since the beginning…
“Okay, just one,” Chihiro replied, licking his lips. Might as well prepare himself, right?
Chihiro was not prepared, though, for Akashi to launch himself at Chihiro, aggressively kissing Chihiro as if he was trying to eat Chihiro’s mouth with lips and teeth and ouch that had hurt, banging teeth like that. Thankfully Akashi pulled away before he could do any more damage.
“I’m very bad at this, aren’t I,” Akashi said quietly as he stepped away, his face pink with embarrassment.
Chihiro didn’t want this memory of a terrible first kiss to ruin an otherwise pleasant night. Besides, it was a little cute how bad Akashi had been and how embarrassed he was about it. Chihiro closed the distance between them again, putting a hand on Akashi’s cheek and gently brushing the reddened skin.
“It’s okay.” He tilted Akashi’s stunned face upwards and closed his eyes, gently brushing his lips against Akashi’s. It was only a moment and this time Chihiro could actually feel how Akashi’s lips were like, soft (as expected) and pliant.
Akashi’s eyes were still closed when Chihiro broke their kiss. “It can be our secret.” Chihiro stepped back before Akashi could try to kiss him back. He chuckled. “Next time, Akashi.”
“Seijurou.” Akashi pouted. The way his lower lip jutted out was adorable and Chihiro almost changed his mind.
“Next time then, Seijurou.” Chihiro purposefully drew out Akashi’s first name, enjoying how Akashi’s cheeks became even redder. “Good night.”
Chihiro walked away with a smile on his face. This was probably the best meeting he ever had with Akashi…Seijurou. Maybe he was looking forward to the next one.
4.
“Thank you, Mayuzumi.”
Chihiro almost shot out of his chair when the familiar light-blue-haired teenager sat down across from him at the library. Then Chihiro mentally scolded himself for assuming that just because he and Seijurou had a date and kissed that he was free from Kuroko’s presence.
Kuroko was unphased, as usual, by Chihiro’s reaction. “Thank you for making Akashi happy and for showing his embarrassed face.”
“Wh-what the f—" Chihiro bit his tongue before Kuroko’s fist could slam into his mouth. Kuroko left his fist there while Chihiro recovered. “I’ll kill you.”
Kuroko pulled back only to shove his phone in Chihiro’s face instead. “But don’t worry, I only captured the second kiss.”
Chihiro had to admit it was a very nice photo of the two of them. His hands itched.
“I can send it to you,” Kuroko added, watching at amusement as Chihiro struggled to find words, “for a price.”
Kuroko could be annoying, but it was obvious that Kuroko cared a lot for Akashi and could be a good friend, and frankly, Chihiro really wanted that photo. “If you keep the texting to my phone at a minimum, then I’ll accept.”
Kuroko grinned. “Of course. Don’t worry, I only want to send you embarrassing photos of Akashi.”
“What?” Chihiro squeaked, just barely remembering that they were in the library.
“After all, it’d be funny if Akashi almost kills you over it, right?” Kuroko said cheerfully. “See you later, Mayuzumi.”
“Kuroko!” Chihiro growled, but the teenager already left. He sighed. He was interested in the photos but he also didn’t want to die, not before he could finish reading… Wait, why was he even thinking about this now? He and Akashi…Seijurou had barely…they hadn’t even had a second…
Chihiro shook his head. It was too early for any of these thoughts. Just then his phone beeped. It was the photo that Kuroko had taken. Chihiro set it as his lock screen. Well, if he was going to die soon, he might as well enjoy his last few moments, right?
5.
[Chihiro would find out later that instead of sending death threats, when Seijurou found an embarrassing photo on Chihiro’s phone he would bury his red face into Chihiro’s chest and hold on tight. If that led to Chihiro kissing Seijurou’s head and his lips and Seijurou leaning in for more, well, no one (especially not Kuroko) needed to know that…]