Runaway blue

Chapter 19

《You're oh, so close,
Nearing the end,
The strongest shall survive,
The weakest will bend.

But which one are you,
Little Runaway Blue?
Are you a leader in the fire,
Or the one deemed to loose? 》

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took another week or so for something to happen.
After that messed up conversation, Tetsuya was wary of everyone around him. Clearly, it was just him the one who didn't know anything. So, he kept his ears and eyes open for something, anything relating to his family's secrets.

When it finally happened.

It was on pure accident. A little slip up at the wrong time.

He was returning to his room after a long, awkward dinner, happened to make a slight detour to go and see Yin and Yang, maybe even go for a little run with his trusted mare. A few more turns and he would be outside, but voices down the hall made him halt.

"-ng lord aware of this?" Spoke one of the guards.

"I'm afraid not," The other replied. "Poor lad has been kept from this, for some reason. Our king refuses to break it to him, even though it's killing him."
The voice drew louder as they came closer, and the tealnette hid himself in the shadows of a wall, shrinking as much as possible.

"But why? Why take on the blame for something he didn't do? Why suffer like that?" His eyes narrowed, they meant his father didn't they?

"You know how the young Prince is. We all do," the second voice answered once more, with an almost exparated tone that the addressed couldn't help but to feel offended. He wasn't that bad, was he? Yet the man continued, the two of them brushing past his hiding spot. "He wouldn't be able to handle it. Something like that... it's huge. It would probably kill him to know the truth about the man he most trusted."

"So all the hard work falls into us. Man, who works extra shifts!" The guard man complained, making the other punch his armored shoulder.

"You will. That's for sure! Baka." He reprimanded. "With that man around, of course security would be doubled and tight. We can't afford any mistakes."

"Yeah, yeah. Mom~" Their bickering faded away and the hiding teen came into the light. Troubled and confused, he decided to leave that run for another time. He turned back, in the direction of his room- unaware that golden eyes bore into his retreating back.

"Damn it, 'Tsu." The other cursed, knowing full well of what had transpired, he too, had caught part of the patrolling guards conversation. Needless to say, those two imbeciles would be punished severely.
If 'Tsu looks into this...

Lord help us all...

~

The youngest Kuroko opened and closed his bedroom's door with much more force than needed. He was frustrated, sick and tired of having to guess all these things.
Already a gruesome theory was forming in his head, dark images that would surely haunt his dreams later in the night followed him as he plopped onto bed. There, he screamed all his worries away, the noise muffled by the pillow still managing to be loud.

As painful as it was, his muffled wails seemed to amuse someone, if the chuckle he received was anything to by. A presence in the room that he hadn't noticed before had him bolting upright and facing against his bed. With hands drawn into fists, a snarl ready to escape his lips, and every other muscle in his being tightened in anticipation, he met his uncle's kind eyes. Weird, he thought, how come I didn't notice him before?
"Uncle.." He breathed out, relieved that it wasn't some unknown intruder. Although, technically, his uncle was also intruding. "How long have you been standing there?" His pose relaxed and he walked towards his couch, where he sat down beside the older man.

The man smiled. "Some minutes before you came in. I was waiting for you." That piqued the younger one's attention.

"Hm. Why so?" He asked.

"I wanted to invite you on an outing, if by any chance you were free. I'm meeting with my colleagues tomorrow in a very interesting art gallery opening. You still like art don't you, Tetsuya?" The teen's eyes glinted at those words, and a grin unconsciously spread onto his face.

"Is that a question uncle? Of course I'll be there." His uncle chuckled as excitement bubbled up inside the tealnette, the earlier happenings memontarily forgotten.

Until the older man spoke up, demeanour serious. "Well then, now that that's settled, why don't you tell me what's gotten you all upset?" He leaned against the couch's backrest as the younger male contemplated his answer.
Finally he decided;

"Nope, you don't need to know."

"Eh?" His father's brother seemed quite surprised at the subtle response. "Why not, little one?"

"First off, uncle," The Kuroko he or scoffed. "I'm not little anymore. I'm 18 years of age as of now and will soon be called an adult, thank you very much.
Secondly, you keep your secrets, I keep mine." He finished with a little glare and crossed his arms on his chest. "Sounds pretty fair to me."

Yet, the other slightly pouted. "Since when we're you as grown up as to keep secrets from me, Tetsuya?"

It was a rhetorical question, but he answered it with a bite. "Ever since I was old enough to realize you all are keeping secrets from me." The both of them gazed each other down, the older tealnette's eyes narrowing in silent anger, in a silent warning that Tetsuya would not heed to. "I know I'm being left out of something. I've heard enough to figure that out. You've all played me for a fool, but I'm done being the oblivious one, uncle. I'm getting to the bottom of this, whether you like it or not."

The night's lovely music seemed to stop at the tense atmosphere inside the young prince's room. The older Kuroko seething in hidden fury coldly stared at the other. "Very well, Tetsuya. I wish you luck in this journey you've decided to take on." With those departing words, he retreated for his own chambers, not whispering any sweet words to the teen anymore, no goodnight, no sweet dreams. He just left, the young male stared a bit dejectedly at his back until it disappeared behind the door, before sighing and continuing with his nightly routine.

He wouldn't back down from this.

~

A tall man stood in a dark room, typing away on his laptop, while another computer brightly lit, showed the picture of a young man.
He hurriedly dialled a number.
"Hello, it's me. Tomorrow, we strike. No more delays."

He shut down the laptop and got up from his chair, moving out of the room. The computer where Kuroko Tetsuya's picture lit the dark shutting off.

1111 words! Excluding the poem and my note, the chapter was exactly 1111 words!
Am I lucky, or am I lucky? 😂😂

Anyways, you guys see where I'm going with this right?