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Lost

"Murasakibara, make sure to hold on to Tetsuya," Midorima said, "It's a weekend today and the mall will eventually start to be crowded and we might lose him if we don't pay attention enough,"

"Haaai," Murasakibara answered as he put Tetsuya over his shoulder.

"Ne, Ne, Murasakibara-cchi!" Kise said then pointed at the bouncy houses with a bunch of children playing on it, "Let's put Tetsuya in those bouncy houses!"

"I don't think that's safe for Tetsu," Aomine said, "Have you seen how many kids are in there?"

"We can put him in when the crowd of children has subsided," Akashi said, "But first... we should go and look some clothes for Tetsuya, he's starting to outgrow the ones he owns,"

The six of them went to the department store to pick out clothes for Tetsuya who seem to be distracted the whole time, mesmerized by everything he sees.

"Make sure you hold on tight to him, Atsushi," Akashi said as he and Midorima looked for more clothes for Tetsuya. Murasakibara had just put Tetsuya down and allowed him to roam around nearby with Murasakibara close by.

"Don't go running off, Tetsu-chin," Murasakibara said as he opened a Maiubo for Tetsuya to eat. "You might get lost,"

"Excuse me, sir," A saleslady approached him. "But... food and drinks aren't allowed inside the department store,"

"Ooh? Gomen," Murasakibara said as he scooped Tetsuya up. "Aka-chin, is it alright if I bring Tetsuya outside? He wants to eat snacks but they aren't allowed inside the department store,"

"As long as you keep a close eye on him," Akashi said.

"Haaai," Murasakibara said then started to head outside the department store.

"Ne, Murasakibara-cchi! I want to come with you!" Kise said.

"I need to check out some basketball shoes, want to join me?" Aomine asked as he followed Murasakibara.

"Sure," Murasakibara said as he put Tetsuya down and held his hand while the three of them started walking towards the sportswear shop for Aomine's basketball shoes.

"Ooh, I really like this color," Murasakibara said as he held a white with purple striped sneakers in his hand. "But it costs too much,"

"How much is it?" Kise asked and Murasakibara let him take a peek at the price.

"T-that much?!" Kise said.

"Do you still have this color in size ten?" Aomine asked the store clerk as he held a plan black sneakers in his hand.

"Ne, Tetsuya-cchi, you can roam around but don't go out of the shop, alright?" Kise asked when he noticed Tetsuya eyeing the rack that held basketballs in the display.

Tetsuya nodded and continued to look at the basketballs in the display when he noticed a stall outside the sportswear shop that was selling tiny basketballs Tetsuya was sure would fit his hands, unlike the one Aomine owned that was too big for him to carry.

Tetsuya looked up at the three older men he was with and saw that they were in a serious conversation of whether to buy a new pair of sneakers or not and decided that the stall was just a few steps from the sportswear shop so he ran to the stall and started to admire the mini basketballs.

***

"Looks like we're all set," Aomine said, then noticed Tetsuya was nowhere to be seen. "Oy, Murasakibara, where's Tetsu?"

"Oh, he's by the basketball rack," Kise said but when they came to pick Tetsuya up, the toddler was already gone.

"Daiki, Ryota, Atsushi," Akashi called as he and Midorima walked towards them holding shopping bags. "We've bought Tetsuya his clothes, let's go and try to find-- where is Tetsuya?"

The three men looked at Akashi fearfully and their silence gave him an answer.

"You..." Akashi started in a deadly calm voice. "Lost... him?"

***

"Do you like it little one?" the old vendor by the stall asked as he smiled at Tetsuya who nodded. "Well, then, why don't you go get your mom or dad to buy you one ball,"

Tetsuya shook his head.

"Oh? Perhaps your big brother or sister then?" the old vendor said and Tetsuya took off running back to the sportswear shop but didn't see neither of the three men he was with.

"Oh? Hi, little guy," a store clerk approached him with a smile. "What are you doing here all by yourself? Where are your parents?"

Unwilling to be touched by strangers, Tetsuya backed away and ran off as he tried to find his big brother in the sea of crowds that started to fill the mall.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Akashi and the others had been retracing their steps in the hope of finding Tetsuya roaming around the department store.

"I told you to watch him, didn't I?" Akashi said angrily at the three other men.

"We were, we were!" Kise said, "But--"

"If you were watching him closely like you said you did you wouldn't have lost him!" Akashi spat, shutting Kise up.

"Let's split up," Aomine said, "It'll be hard for us to find him in this huge place with people starting to fill in,"

"Alright," Akashi said, "Call if you find him,"

And the five of them took five different ways around the mall in the hopes of finding the cyan-haired boy, but with a lot of people bustling inside the mall, finding a mute little toddler was going to be hard.

***

Akashi cursed in his head as he tried to squeeze through the thickening crowd, his eyes wildly searching for Tetsuya's familiar cyan hair. If it had just been him who held the boy instead of letting his friends care for him...

"Some brother you are," Aomine had told him, making Akashi's blood boil-- not at Aomine but at himself. Aomine was right, he was Tetsuya's brother, yet the other four men he lived with had more opportunity to take care of the boy and fulfill his duties as a brother.

His phone rang, making him stop at his tracks and he hadn't noticed that he had started running around and caused him to pant lightly. He composed himself before answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Akashi-cchi! I found him! We're at the information--"

Akashi didn't even finish what Kise was saying and started bolting towards the mall's information stall. He was seriously going to hit the kid for running off and making worry, he was going to scold Tetsuya and make sure he won't run off again, he will make the toddler remember a valuable lesson of not running off on his own, he'll--

All of Akashi's train of thought left the moment he saw the cyan-haired toddler with Kise and Aomine. He was holding a tiny orange basketball and didn't seem to know that they have been looking for him. Akashi's heart made a leap of joy at the sight of his little brother but he stopped himself from tackling the toddler in a hug-- he was an Akashi and Akashi's do not lose their cool over a lost little brother.

Tetsuya looked up at Akashi and showed him the tiny basketball he was holding. "Where did you get that?" Akashi asked.

"Turns out he was just by that children's stall where they sell tiny basketballs," Kise said, "Some couple bought him this ball and convinced him to come with them at the information stall to announce that a kid had been lost,"

"Didn't you hear the announcement?" Aomine asked.

Akashi tried to remember if he heard such an announcement but recalled none, he was thinking too much about where to look for Tetsuya that he must've zoned everything out.

Akashi sighed silently. "Let's... let's just go home, I think I'll be having a migraine,"