Home

Bad Boy

A whimper next to him woke Aomine up-- he was a light sleeper so any sound would immediately wake him up. However, he wasn't angry at the source of the whimper that disrupted his slumber, seeing that Tetsuya's almost expressionless facial features were crumpled with fear as the toddler lightly thrashed around.

Nightmares were normal for people especially for toddlers and Takao, Midorima's friend and Tetsuya's assigned pediatrician, told him that Tetsuya would be suffering more of them than usual given the trauma in his past. Aomine frowned at the thrashing toddler, knowing that Tetsuya was seeing his horrible past in times where he should be peacefully sleeping and he-- Aomine-- couldn't do anything about it but wrap the toddler in his arms and try to make the nightmares go away through his hug.

In his dream, Tetsuya was back at their old house where he used to live with his mother. As usual, he was all alone like how she always leaves him to-- not caring whether the toddler would be safe alone or would he be able to feed himself properly seeing that he was still not in the right height to reach the kitchen counters.

It was raining that night and he was just playing by the living room when his mother came home, soaked from the heavy rain and drunk from drinking at a nearby pub every night. Tetsuya, still not in the right age to understand this, ran to his mother to hug her-- like he always does every night she arrives from work.

To Tetsuya she always smelled funny whenever she comes home-- a combination of something burning that Tetsuya recognized came from a cigarette after sniffing the same scent at a nearby park when his mother took him out one day and saw a man nearby smoking, and something that reminded Tetsuya of the alcohol he always uses to clean his bruises up whenever his mother would hurt him hard enough to wound him.

The setting had been that way ever since the toddler could remember, but tonight, it felt different as his mother didn't even let him near her and had shoved him away when he came running to give her a hug.

"Why are you still here?" His mother groggily said. "Why haven't you left yet?!"

Tetsuya was confused.

"I already left the door open and unlocked for you to get out and wander somewhere! Why are you still here?!" His mother bellowed down the confused toddler. "Don't you see that I don't want you here?!"

Tetsuya figured that his mother was upset and tired from work and scrambled to the living room to give her the blanket he had been carrying around lately. It had always offered Tetsuya comfort and the toddler thought it would do the same to his mother.

But before he could even get close, his mother swung his hand and hit Tetsuya, causing him to stumble on the ground-- the impact made him dizzy. He looked up at his mother with a confused and scared expression-- he did not understand what was happening.

"I said I want you gone didn't I?!" His mother yelled along with the clap of thunder, making Tetsuya cry. "I don't want you here anymore! Why is he making me keep you?!"

Tetsuya stood up, tried to steady himself from his dazed stature and ran to his mother, grasping her clothes and cried. He was confused. He was hurt. He wanted his mother to scoop him up and comfort him, tell him she was sorry for hitting him, sorry for yelling at him.

But his mother pushed him back and Tetsuya landed on the floor with a thud. "I don't want you here! I want you gone!" She yelled, tears streaming down her aged face. "I don't like taking care of bad boys like you! Do you hear me?! You're a bad, bad boy! You don't deserve to be loved!"

Tetsuya shook his head and cried loudly as his mother reminded him again and again how he shouldn't be loved by anyone else. She reminded him how he was a bad boy that was always making her cry every night and how she wished he was gone for good so that she will be happy again-- because that was what would make her smile, him leaving her and Tetsuya remembered how she stood by the front porch of their old house and watched as the old lawyer took the struggling Tetsuya away. He remembered seeing her smile, for the first time since he remembered and Tetsuya thought if it would make his mother happy to see him leave, then he would not protest at all.

After all, bad boys don't deserve to be loved.

***

"What is that?" Midorima asked as he took a sip of his tea when he caught Akashi doing some paperwork on the dining table while having his coffee.

Akashi glanced at Midorima as he took a sip of his own mug before answering. "Just... stuff," he said though Midorima clearly saw they were adoption papers that would legalize him as Tetsuya's guardian.

Aomine jogged down the stairs in his complete uniform and went to the fridge to pour himself a glass of milk before going off to work, his radio creating loud inaudible noise that was making Tetsuya tensed.

"Can you turn that thing off?" Akashi said, noticing how every static would freak the toddler out.

"Sorry," Aomine said as soon as he finished his glass of milk.

"I thought it's your off day today?" Midorima asked.

"Yeah, but I had a call at work and said they needed me to this crime scene," Aomine said, "I'm actually headed there now,"

"Crime scene?" Akashi asked.

"Some lady committed suicide last night," Aomine said. "Drug overdose,"

"Is it on the news?" Kise asked as he turned the television on and flipped to the news channel.

"-- Akano Kuroko was said to live with her only son, but after sending him away to be adopted, she had been living alone in the house," the reporter said as she reported by the crime scene. "Locals says that she was incapable of holding a stable job and taking care of his son. However, days before her--"

"Hey, Akashi-cchi, we were watching!" Kise complained about the television being turned off but immediately shut up when Akashi threw him daggers.

Tetsuya had been watching the news with them the whole time and walked towards the television just as the picture of Akano Kuroko flashed at the screen. He looked back at Akashi, silently asking him to turn the television back on.

"What is it, Tetsuya-cchi?" Kise asked.

Akashi walked towards the toddler and knelt in front of him. "Tetsuya..." he began, "Was that... is that... your mom?"

Tetsuya glanced at the television and gave Akashi a nod. 

No one was able to move from the answer the toddler gave, he must've thought his mother was a celebrity of some sort to see him on television. Akashi wondered, will Tetsuya look for her during his stay at the mansion with them? And if he did, what will they explain to him?