The Other Shadow

1

The crimson haired boy stared apathetically down at the small orange haired boy on the ground.

"You are not one of us. You never have been. If you ever thought you were a part of us then you were deluding yourself."

The orange haired boy looked up from where he kneeled on the slick gym floor. "Sei..." His usually quiet voice was even quieter, broken from the words the one he loved most was flinging at him.

He had experienced pain before. Hell, he had experienced it every day. But the crimson boy's words were sharper than any knife was, more harmful than any whip. Betrayal was the worst kind of weapon, after all.

SLAP.

The orange haired boy raised a hand to his red face, his dark brown eyes staring in pain and shock at the multi-hued eyes of the boy above him.

"Weak," he scoffed. "You were born to obey, Junichi. It's in your name." He kneeled down to the orange haired boy. "What use are you, if you can't even follow orders?

I have no use for a shadow who can't obey orders."

Then he turned and left the gym, leaving the boy in tears behind him.

A minute passed before his legs gave out and sent him fully to the ground. He let out a pain-filled howl. Memories of the past year flashed through his mind, causing him to hug himself as he sobbed heavily.

All of them. All of his teammates had abandoned him.

He thought that the pain from when Tetsu-kun left him was the worst it could get.

He thought that the agony he felt when his father murdered his mother was rock bottom.

But this...

This broke him.

He cried hard, curled up in a tiny ball, shaking from the force of his tears. He hadn't cried in so long. His father had long since beaten it out of him. But the barrier that he had used to hide his emotions from the world had shattered under his now-ex boyfriend's verbal blows, and they wouldn't stop.

Sei was right.

He was useless.

He couldn't even follow an simple order.

Someone entered the gym. "Junichin," a familiar voice said quietly. "Junichin?"

He looked up at the familiar purple haired giant, the one he had considered a brother until he turned his back. The giant's violet eyes shined with worry as he watched the normally emotionless boy breaking down on the gym floor.

The orange haired boy felt himself picked up. "Akashi-san was too harsh," he murmured as he carried the shattered boy out of the gym and back home.

__________life is misery__________

The petite blue-haired boy stared at the orange haired boy who was laying on his bed, staring unseeing at the ceiling.

His heart ached, seeing the one he considered to be his closest friend like this, empty and hopeless. A flicker of anger began to burn inside him as he realized who had done this. While the orange haired boy never had the happiest life, only one person could have effected him so much.

He approached the bed and took the boy's hand. "Tachibana-kun." His eyes burned when the boy looked at him with empty brown eyes.

"Tetsu-kun."

His voice was so empty, lacking any emotion whatsoever, and it made the blue haired boy want to cry.

"I'm sorry, Tetsu-kun. I was useless. I couldn't change them."

Tears spilled down the blue boy's face as he cupped the orange-haired boy's face in his own trembling hands. "What Akashi-san said to you, Tachibana-san, was wrong. Every bit of it." He swallowed hard. "It's my fault, for leaving you behind. I should've stayed and supported you." Tears fell harder down his face as the other boy pulled away and pulled his blanket over him.

"I'm tired."

The blue boy left the room reluctantly, heading down the hallway and into the kitchen where the orange boy's grandmother sat.

"He's not going to get better soon," the blue boy informed her. "Whatever Akashi-san said to him has destroyed him."

"He won't be here much longer," she told him sadly, staring at her tea with teary eyes. "This place, this city, is filled with nothing but pain for him now.  There's nothing for him here, nothing but memories I would rather be forgot." She raised her head and stared at the ceiling, her brown eyes boring into the white plaster much like how her grandson was doing earlier. "So I'm sending him to Miyagi, to live with his mother's side of the family."

The blue boy nodded, the pain in his chest lightened only by the thought that at last the boy would have a fresh start. God knows he needed it.

Only... what would the crimson-haired boy think? Despite his actions, the blue haired boy could still sense that he cared deeply for the orange haired boy, and that what he had done was hurting him greatly. Once he learned that his ex boyfriend had left Tokyo, well...

The blue haired boy blinked, making up his mind.

He wasn't going to tell them where the orange-haired boy had gone. He wasn't going to let them destroy his friend's last chance at happiness. He would hide it until his deathbed, if needed.

Kuroko Tetsuya had decided.

He would protect Tachibana Junichi with his life, if only so the boy who he thought of as his best friend could find happiness.

He swore upon his life.