(ENG) KUROKO NO BASKET ONESHOTS

MIDORIMA X READER - REMEMBER ME

"Hahahaha! Shin-chan, did you really buy a 7000 yen pink lipstick just because Oha Asa said so?!"

"Shut up, Takao. It's none of your business." – Midorima replies sharply.

Not even the time to get in class that those two are already bickering. Not that this is anything new.

"Sorry, sorry. But wasn't Cancer's lucky item for the day a bottle of apricot shampoo? Why do you have Aries' one, too?"

"I said: it's none of your freaking business!" – the green-haired boy thunders going out of the classroom, leaving you, Takao and your classmates stunned. It's normal for him to snap at the hawk-eyed guy, but he never got this far.

"Seems like someone isn't in the best of moods, huh?" – Takao comments getting closer to you.

"Definitely. He usually isn't this aggressive."

"I'll probably leave him alone today. I think that he's going to break my neck if I dare to talk to him a second time..."

"You're right, today isn't the right day to tease him. I hope that his mood brightens up soon." – you say looking at Midorima, that has gotten back in class and is now focused on the book that he's reading.

That day Midorima was intractable, even during basketball practice. Any word directed to him, his mates' compliments included, was getting on his nerves: he tried to push away any living being and he surely went to practice merely to accomplish a duty. At the end of the basketball practice, an epochal event: Midorima ran to the changing room and in ten minutes he was already out of school, without staying to practice his shooting technique as he does every single day.

You got home as well, but you couldn't stop thinking about Midorima's weird behaviour. As a friend of his you had wanted to send him a message or call him to find out what happened, but you knew perfectly well that if you had tried to, he would have never answered; he would have hung up the phone insulting you at best.

The following days the green-haired boy kept behaving the same way: he carried Aries' lucky items, he stopped practicing alone and kept pushing away any person who tried to approach him. Your preoccupation during this time span kept growing: it was obvious that something was off. Knowing his prideful nature, he would never have asked for help, not even if he were on the verge of death; due to this it was up to you to lend him a hand. Therefore, you prepared yourself for the harsh words that might fly out of his mouth and you went to talk to him.

"Hi, Shintaro." – you greet him as he's reading while sitting on the floor in the back garden of Shutoku, far away from the world.

"Get lost. I'm reading."

"I see that, but I'd like to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you." – the coldness of his answers is far beyond what's normal for tsunderes like him.

"Please, Shintaro."

He reluctantly puts his bookmark in the book, he closes it and looks at you right in the eyes.

"Hurry up, nanodayo."

You sit beside him, smiling at him.

"I noticed that something's been bothering you lately. Would you mind talking to me about it?"

"It's none of your business." – it's not the first time that you've heard such an answer, but you were expecting it. The most important detail though is the fact that he hasn't denied your affirmation.

"You're right, it probably doesn't involve me. But real friends should be a bit nosey and interest themselves in other people's problems to help them."

"I don't need your help. There's nothing you can do for me." – even though you know that he's talking like this because of his broken heart, these words still hurt.

"There's no guarantee that I can't do anything. But even if that were true, I still can help you vent and ease a bit the weight that's on your shoulders: it's easier to carry it if we're two people, don't you think so?"

Midorima stares silently at the concrete beneath him.

"I can do this on my own."

"Don't push me away, Shintaro. It's obvious that you need a hand, and that's totally fine! You're not weak, you're not less manly if you open up to someone. It's called being human. And human beings need others sometimes, despite being independent; they need affection. When was the last time you hugged someone, the last time you cried on their shoulder to let out all your emotions?"

His emerald eyes suddenly open, with a light film of water, while his fingers wrapped in the white bandages strongly hold the trousers' fabric. Without waiting for an answer, you make the first move and hug him. For a few seconds Midorima stays still like a statue. But then he returns the sweet gesture: his hold is tight and a quiet crying makes its way through the silence. While you hug the green-haired boy you listen to the story he starts telling you: a while before his grandfather had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and the symptoms were pretty mild. But when Midorima went to visit him last week, for the first time he didn't recognise him. He was asked "who are you?" by his own grandpa, with whom he had shared so many beautiful moments since his childhood years. And the pain was excruciating.

"I am so sorry, Shintaro. I can't even imagine what kind of pain you've been experiencing." – you say, hugging him even more tightly – "But even more so, you shouldn't face such a moment alone: I'm thankful to you for trusting me with your story and I'm willing to help you in any way possible. Ok?"

"... Thanks, (name)."

After this bittersweet moment you both head home. None of you manages to stop thinking about the other and about what happened that Friday afternoon. At about 9 p.m. your cell phone signals you a new notification: it's a text from Midorima, he's asking you to go with him to meet his grandfather the following morning. Without hesitation you tell him that it would be a pleasure to you: there's no doubt, the situation is really depressing, but you're glad that you get to help him during his rainy days and you want to do anything you can to make him feel better.

On Saturday morning you meet at the hospital's entrance. Your classmate preceded you and by the time you get there he's already waiting for you with a light blue pillow in his hands: Aries' lucky item, a thing that has now acquired a meaning. You use the elevator to reach the fifth floor and Midorima guides you to his grandpa's room. The moment you see him you remember that you had met him once: it was during your first year of high school and he had come to watch a Shutoku basketball match.

"Hello, Shintaro! Thanks for coming to visit me, I'm always glad to see my grandson."

Midorima's face couldn't have displayed a bigger surprise.

"What's with that face? Come on, sit here next to me and introduce me your friend." – he says, asking him with a friendly tone to sit on the chair beside his bed.

You can't even process the fact that mr. Midorima has remembered his grandson without him introducing himself, that yet another unexpected sight shows in front of your eyes: the young boy runs to him and hugs him with the widest of smiles. During the entertaining chat that you three had immediately after, Midorima doesn't tell him a thing, he doesn't remind him of the times he forgot his face. In his heart he knows that this is only a moment of consciousness among many others of obliviousness, and he knows that it will not last forever. But the only right thing to do now is think about the present, enjoying this moment of joy and storing this memory inside the heart to relive it when things get rough. And when this happens, you'll be by his side to help him overcome every single obstacle. That's what you do when you're in love, isn't it?

This week I posted a pretty sad Midorima oneshot, describing a situation that unfortuantely a lot of people are going through or went through and that must be incredibly painful. The important thing is that our beloved carrot (that's very reserved and a bit prideful) knows that he's not alone, that he shouldn't always bottle up his emotions and that receiving help from others never makes you weak. See you next time :)

Song in the title: Remember me - (from the movie Coco)