𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟸

Kuroko wasn't sure where he was going or why he had turned and walked away from the actual direction home. His parents trusted him to be out late after the habits he developed in middle school for late practice, but he had nowhere to go and nothing to do when the activity didn't include an orange ball. He hadn't stayed out late for several weeks now and none of his elders had made a secret of hoping he would go back to playing basketball.

He wandered for what felt like hours but had only been thirty or so minutes when he checked his watch. It'd take him close to an hour to make his way home once he got his bearings, but the sun would just start to set by the time he passed school and he didn't want to deal with possibly running into Kise and Momoi again if he walked by when the basketball team finished.

When Kuroko stopped to take in the stores around him, he saw a decent-sized bookstore with a music selection towards the front. He didn't actually need to buy any more books. He received a lot as gifts for graduation and New Year's and the library at Seirin had a decent number of books that the Teiko collection didn't have. But, he supposed, it couldn't hurt to go in and browse. Maybe some of the music would be interesting and it would broaden his horizons – music had always been more Midorima and Akashi's thing, but there were more genres than classical. Kuroko tried to ignore how exciting he found the prospect of finding something to fill in the silence surrounding him was.

He had spent nearly an hour in the store, browsing books and music – pointedly avoiding the magic and sports sections. He was inspecting a CD case for some rock music, trying to understand the lyrics and what kind of motivation went into making songs as wild as these – Aomine would've really liked these songs – when someone bumped into him.

"Oh, sorry about that."

Kuroko turned blankly towards the other student standing next to him, taking in the short black hair, striking gray eyes, and matching Kaijo uniform.

A Kaijo uniform? Great. He couldn't even get away from Kise's influence like this.

*

Kasamatsu wanted to tilt his head but settled for just squinting his eyes at the other student he had nearly walked over. He was wearing a Seirin uniform, but he was pretty far out of the way of the school. The kid wasn't part of the basketball team because he hadn't been to the practice match, but something about him seemed familiar.

"Have we met before?"

"My apologies, but no. I would remember if we had been acquainted."

That irked Kasamatsu a little bit. Who was this brat to speak with such conviction? Student-athletes ran into tons of people from different schools.

"Well, what middle school did you go to? Maybe I played against them."

The light blue teen was silent for two awkward minutes before muttering a quiet "Teiko."

Now, wasn't that interesting? Kasamatsu stuck the magazine he had been carrying onto the shelf behind him. He could check out this lead after he finished talking to this kid for a little bit.

"Did you play basketball with them?"

The Seirin student stared at him with those unnervingly blank eyes. Several minutes ticked by, but neither high schooler budged, if this was going to be a test of wits then Kasamatsu wasn't going to back down easily. The Kaijo captain raised a single brow at the still-silent student across from him. It seemed like whatever the shorter boy was waiting for happened because he gave a slight, very slight, nod.

Kasamatsu nodded his own head up and down as if that was all he really wanted to know. He stepped forward, taking up space next to the shorter student and studying the CD case the kid had been looking at. "Nice. They're competitive. Do you like Seirin? They're a pretty new school, yeah?"