Behind the Mask

Chapter 10

Hello all readers, nice to see you all again! I have had some people ask about Kuroko's appearance! I've given it in the story, but that was pretty early on and not as in depth as I would have liked, so I'll just give a description blurb of Kuroko now.

Kuroko has black, curly hair. Not super curly, but he has curls. His eyes are cyan in colour and dilate and constrict just like a cat's pupil. He's very short, just shorter than Hinata, his growth stunted from malnutrition. He has a cool light-medium skin tone. He has faint scars on his body from beatings, but his most notable ones are on his face and neck. A horizontal scar runs across the left side of his neck, and a vertical scar goes from his chin to just below the corner of his lip on the left side of his face. His ears are the same colour as his hair with dark grew ear fluff, and his tail is the same with a dark grey tip.

I hope this has been good enough of a description to clear this up.

Happy reading!

• • • • •

Inoichi yawned into an open palm as he waited on his coffee machine for a much-needed dose of caffeine. He had been called into a meeting the previous night and it went on much longer than it should have, going well into the small hours of the morning. He still needed to get up early to open the store and his wife wasn't in the household at the moment to wake him up with a nice cup of joe—something he noticed that he had been taking for granted. I should do something nice for her when she gets back. The missus needs to be reminded that she's appreciated.

He smiled at the thought and caught a whiff of the coffee, "Ino-chan should be getting up soon—hopefully." She already tried to sleep in since her mother wasn't home. Too bad for her that Inoichi made a promise to not indulge her.

Now, Inoichi didn't usually cook. The missus usually did that while he got up. Somebody would have to cook, and he was going to give it a shot. Something simple would suffice, and while he wasn't as good in the kitchen as his wife, he thought that he could probably make the omelets she usually whipped up.

Taking out the necessary supplies, he cracked eggs into a bowl. Pouring the liquid in—he waited.

Inoichi was alarmed when the pan started smoking. I think I may have done something wrong...

"Otou-san, Otou-san!" Ino barrelled down the stairs, her hair up in a haphazard, lopsided ponytail, "I smell smoke!" She blinked when she saw him at the stove. "..."

Inoichi smiled nervously, "Good morning Ino-chan. I... tried to make breakfast."

"I can see that," she walked up to the stove, "You have the temperature too high. The butter burnt and the egg's stuck. Turn down the temp and try again, I'll finish getting ready." She left back up the stairs in a bit of a hurry—she had the hair straightener on. No wonder Okaa-san doesn't let him cook.

Inoichi sighed as he put the destroyed egg on a plate, "It couldn't be that bad... right?"

Ino smiled and hid her laughter when she heard her father pout.

• • • • • •

Kuroko stood outside of the Yamanaka's flower shop and pondered. He was wondering if they were awake yet when he smelt something burning. Oh, its ham and... eggs? Somebody was cooking inside. Well, now he knew that someone was up. He knocked on the glass doors of the flower shop. After waiting a minute or two, he thought it wasn't heard, so he tried again.

He tilted his head in confusion and leaned forward, trying to look in through the glass. Then he noticed that there was a path heading over to the side. "Oh, the shop and house are attached, but there are two different entrances." It was good to know it now since he would most likely have future deliveries here.