Till the end

Chapter 17

Kuroko's Pov

I didn't want to get up. It was mid-morning and Akashi was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, we had eaten alone inside rather than go out. I still sat curled up in the blankets as I blinked up at the bright sun light streaming in. The bed was warm, comfortable, safe. Once I got up I would have to deal with what happened with Aomine a few days ago. I would have to face Aomine. I groaned and pulled the blanket over my head. I didn't want to see him but this settlement was too small.

I felt the bed sag as Akashi climbed in and pulled my, blankets and all onto his lap.

"You don't have to go out today, we can just stay inside again."

I wiggled my head out and looked up at him, he was smiling as he looked down at me and I am sure I looked like a child with my normal atrocious bed hair.

"I cant go out there."

"Its been four days Tetsuya, why don't you talk to me?"

"I can't!"

I pulled my head back inside the blanket and felt him sigh as he held me closer. He hadn't pushed for information, all he knew was that something had happened between us. It wasn't that I was afraid of Aomine himself, I knew why he did what he did. I had trusted him fully and thought of him like a brother so when he had jumped me it had broken my trust in him. It had hurt. Once before I thought I had made a friend, it was the hunter who had tried to rape me and I had then infected. Aomine, doing what he did had brought up all my doubts and all my fears. I just wanted to hide with Akashi inside our own little world.

"I wish you would tell me what is on your mind. I want to help."

"You can't."

Silence followed my words and I wanted to apologise, it had come out harsher then I had realised. A knock on the door stopped me and he put me down before going to answer it. I curled back up in my ball and sniffed back tears. How I wanted to jump in his arms, for him to kiss away my fears but I couldn't. He wouldn't understand. It was hard for me to open up, to let people in. After I had lost him Momoi was the only one I had let into my heart. The only way for me to survive was to cut out all emotion, to seal my heart behind walls. When he came back into my life he had broken down those walls and left me vulnerable.

"Kuroko. The hunters want to go out again, the first snow fall will be here soon so they want to gather as much as they can. They asked me to go with them, to keep them safe. Will you be okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Tetsuya."

"Just go."

He sighed and kissed the blanket where it covered my head.

"I will be back in a few hours. Love you."

I heard his footsteps and when the door closed I allowed the tears to come.

I stood in the small grove where Aomine and I had gone but it was bigger now, big enough for our whole group to circle around me. Thunder crashed overhead as lighting lit up the scene. Eyes glared down at me where I stood and I shivered.

"Freak."

"Monster."

I flinched as they launched the words at me. I was used to it from the village but to hear it out of the mouths of those I had come to love cut deeply. Momoi stepped forward but it wasn't the Momoi I knew. Her eyes blazed as she looked down at me, her mouth set in a grim line.

"I never cared for you. You were just a dog to me, a pet."

"No, you don't mean that, your like my sister."