Darkness |knb|

Prologue

"I'm sorry."

Sitting on a hospital bed doing nothing was not what Kuroko Tetsuya wanted. Bandages were wrapped around his head, and he was doing nothing but reading a book. The book was placed on his blanket-covered lap, him only touching it when turning the pages. He sighed, thinking that he should stop for now and go back to sleep.

He glanced at the wall clock, then put his book on the table beside him. "It's already one in the afternoon. They'll wake me up when it's time for dinner anyway. And they will get angry if I don't sleep..." He murmured to himself beforing lying down on bed and closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry."

His eyes snapped open. He looked at the wall clock again, an hour had passed, he thought. He clutched his head as if on pain, groaning every now and then. Then, the door to his room opened, revealing his private doctor.

"Fukami-sensei," he called and groaned once more.

"Kuroko-kun, did you take your medicine?" It was only one question yet it was enough to make the bluenette freeze for a moment. "You didn't, did you?"

"I—" he choked on his spit as he realized what he was going to say. He was going to say I'm sorry. He almost said it. "I forgot."

Fukami raised an eyebrow at this but sighed when she realized that her patient was not looking at her anymore. "Kuroko-kun..."

"I'm fine." He answered almost immediately despite the unspoken question.

The doctor took the medicine on the table beside Tetsuya and gave it to him, "Take it." With no resistance or hesitance, the said boy swallowed the medicine and drank from the glass of water.

Soon, knocks were heard from the door. With permission to enter, two adults entered the hospital room and smiled at the young bluenette.

"Tetsuya,"the blue haired woman called out to him. He looked up to her and gave her a heart-warming smile, but even though unnoticed by the adults in the room, the smile did not reach his eyes.

"Mother, how is Sae?" He asked. His mother seemed to be taken a back by his query but tried to answered nontheless.

"She's......"the woman trailed off. Her blue eyes averted itself from the eyes of her son.

"..... Dead." It made the three other occupants of the room shocked. The one who asked, Tetsuya, was the one who answered the question himself.

"H-how—"he cut his mother off.

"I know. Her pulse wasn't beating anymore when.." A smile full of regret showed itself on the young bluenette's lips.

"Tetsuya. We're holding her funeral and burrial without you." The man beside his mother said. He had black hair and green eyes, and he was wearing a formal suit matching to Tetsuya's mother's clothes.

"Sure." He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders at them before grabbing his book and opening it to the page he last read.

"You look like you don't care about your sister's death at all, Tetsuya." The man had told him.

"Is that so, father?" The said boy replied.

"You disrespectful b—" his wife stopped him from finishing his sentence.

"Stop, Takumi. Let's go. We'll see you again, Tetsuya," she smiled softly at her son.

The bluenette looked up from his book and turned to his parents, "Well, I hope I don't." He said, accompanied by a glare directed to his father who merely ignored him and walked out of the room.

"I'll be taking my leave now,"  Fukami murnured and exited the room.

After Fukami had left, Tetsuya could here the shouts of his mother and father just outside his room.

"He's being disrespectful!!"

"Stop now, Takumi! He's still a child!"

"Don't defend him, Hana! It's his fault that my daughter died! OUR daughter!"

"But he's still our son!"

"He's such a brat!! I don't need a brat for a son! I would rather have Sae than him!!"

"What did you say?!"

"I SAID THAT HE SHOULD'VE BEEN THE ONE TO DIE INSTEAD OF SAE!! I WISH HE'D JUST GO AWAY!!!!"

Tears formed on the corner of Tetsuya's eyes, he sobbed quietly as they started to fall.

"I'm sorry."

His sister had told him before she died. What for? He didn't need an apology. What he needed was understanding.

After all, he was just a mere eleven-year old.

He looked down to his legs, smiling ever-so genuinely, then he muttered.

"Guess I won't be able to play basketball the way I used to?"

He said it while looking at his busted legs.