comfort character: secret struggles - Kuroko no Basket
Kagami and Kuroko come across Dory – their senpai and club manager – being harassed on her way home. After chasing the bullies off, the boys remind her that she’s not alone.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
If that booming voice wasn’t enough to scare anyone off, a large guy with an intense face running in their direction would definitely do the trick.
Dalca watched as the group of students surrounding her ran away, desperate to stay ahead of the angry redhead, who was very quickly gaining on them. She recognized the hot-headed ace of the Seirin basketball team – Kagami Taiga – and she vaguely wondered if he was alone this time.
“Are you alright, Dalca-senpai?”
Ah, there he was. She didn’t even flinch at the soft voice coming from behind her, not needing to turn and look to know that it belonged to Kuroko Tetsuya, another basketball club member.
She hummed noncommittally in response and knelt on the ground, starting to pick up the scattered contents of her schoolbag. The first year stepped closer and followed her lead, wordlessly helping her gather her things.
The silence didn’t last long, though, as they both heard a pair of rapidly approaching footsteps. Dalca only glanced upwards briefly to confirm her guess that Kagami was returning, then redirected her gaze to the ground. He came to a stop close enough to them that she could see his shoes without looking up from the ground and she hoped – nearly prayed, even though she’d never been religious or even spiritual – that neither of the guys would ask her any questions. But she’d never been much of an optimist.
Dalca couldn’t help but flinch at the volume and tone of Kagami’s voice. It sounded almost as if he were accusing her for letting herself be harassed, but she knew he didn’t mean it like that. Still, she only pressed her lips into a thin line, determined to not talk about it, firmly keeping her gaze lowered.
She reached out to pick up a trampled textbook, then made a small sound of surprise when she felt another hand on top of hers. When that hand didn’t let go after a few seconds, she curiously looked up into the calm, blue eyes of her other underclassman.
“Senpai,” Kuroko was choosing his words carefully, holding eye contact and keeping her hand in a gentle, but firm hold, “How long has this kind of stuff been happening?”
A few beats passed as Kuroko and Dalca looked at each other silently. His gaze was steady and she glanced towards the other basketball player, trying to find any excuse to get out of her current situation. Seeing Kagami’s own eyes staring right back at her, visibly feeling a bit awkward, but not any less concerned than his classmate, Dalca sighed slowly, gaze dropping to avoid both pairs of eyes.
“...at Seirin or in general?”
She heard Kagami sputter in shock and Kuroko letting out a gasp beside her, his grip on her hand going slack and she used the opportunity to quickly pull free, holding the dirty textbook to her chest as if it were a shield. Neither of her underclassmen spoke and she only shrunk further on herself.
In truth, she’d been a bully victim since shortly after her family had moved from Romania to Japan five years ago. Going from some small village to a city like Tokyo, basically on the other side of the world, while still mourning her father who’d died merely two years prior, did not make it easy for Dalca – or any of her brothers, really – to adjust to the massive changes in their lives. A few months of homeschooling to teach them the basics of the language and culture was frankly not enough, in her opinion.
On top of that, Dalca had always been a bit different from other kids, especially from other girls, and she unfortunately had yet to develop the ability to mask and think before saying or doing things, before she’d been enrolled to public school.
Long story short, she knew to keep to herself now and usually did everything in her power to draw as little attention to herself as possible. Oftentimes, Dalca had felt jealous of Kuroko’s naturally minuscule presence and she’d thought jokingly to herself about asking him for tips on how to disappear.
“Why didn’t you tell us about this?”
Dalca was snapped out of her thoughts when Kagami spoke up again and she frowned at his shoes as if they were the ones that upset her.
“What good would that do,” she mumbled under her breath, though she was almost sure that her words were heard well enough and she quickly bit her lip, mentally cursing at herself for speaking before thinking again.
“A lot of good, senpai!” Kagami responded and Dalca looked up at him in shock; he didn’t seem at all upset at her comment – if anything, he seemed even more determined to speak his mind.
“Even if you can’t or won’t go to your family or the teachers, you still have us! You still have the basketball club! You’re our manager and part of our team, we’d have your back!”
Before Dalca could even think of a response, the other basketball player spoke up: “Honestly, I’m a little upset we even need to tell you this. Kagami-kun is right: you’re important to all of us and if there’s anything we can do to help, we’d be more than happy to do so.”
Dalca looked back and forth between Kuroko and Kagami in bewilderment as they both made it clear they were unwilling to let her brush this off. She tried to say something, but only a choked sound made its way past her lips as her vision started to blur. Unable to stop the tears, she hid her face in her hands as her emotions overwhelmed her.
All this time, she’d been trying to keep the bullying a secret, hoping that, if she kept quiet for long enough, the mean students would lose interest and leave her alone eventually. Even though she was usually ignored, the few times she was actively being harassed still caused her immense pain, but she still refused to ask for help. ‘What good would that do’, she’d said; the physical bullying might stop, but the social isolation would continue and that was hardly any better than her current situation, in her eyes.
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back, gently going up and down in silent comfort, and she felt a knee pressing against hers on the ground. How long had he been right next to her?
She then felt a much more immediately obvious supportive touch: a large, rough hand was awkwardly, but softly patting the top of her head. These gestures made another wave of emotions hit her and she began crying harder. The hand on her head twitched, but remained in place, while the one on her back never stopped moving in soothing motions.
It wasn’t that her family didn’t care about her, but Dalca never wanted to do anything that might make her seem like a burden – why would anyone want to be around someone who only brought problems? And she definitely didn’t want to bring any more attention to herself by approaching a teacher. Besides, as was the case today, the bullies could very easily bother her outside of school.
She didn’t believe in fate or luck, but she felt immensely grateful for whatever circumstances made it so that Kuroko and Kagami happened to come across her then and there and that neither of them would let her gloss over her situation.
Her sobs had reduced to sniffles by now and she finally removed her hands from her face. Almost immediately, Kuroko offered her his handkerchief, which she accepted with a small nod, and Kagami bent down to pick up the rest of her stuff off the ground.
After making sure that he hadn’t missed anything, the redhead stood straight again, his senpai’s bag in his hand, and held his free one out to her. She looked at him in confusion and he could feel his cheeks slowly reddening.
“I’m- I wanna help you up.”
Dalca wiped at her eyes again before accepting Kagami’s outstretched hand – he could feel his face getting even hotter, but firmly ignored that, easily pulling his team’s manager to her feet. He saw her other hand moving towards him, but when he noticed where she was aiming, he quickly stepped back.
Her mouth fell open in surprise briefly before she spoke: “Kagami-kun, I can carry my own schoolbag.”
“I know you can – you’re strong – but I want to help you this time. Please.”
They stared at each other for a beat, before she sighed and shrugged, muttering ‘suit yourself’ with a small smile.
The two turned to look at the owner of the voice, who was still kneeling on the ground. Kuroko stared right back at them with his normally blank face, though… did his cheeks seem a bit more pink?
“I’m sorry, but it seems my legs have fallen asleep.”
Kagami wanted to groan, but was cut off by loud laughter – Dalca was covering her mouth, trying to regain her composure, but was fighting a losing battle as more laughter spilled out of her.
Maybe having friends to lean on wasn’t so bad.
the bullies were lucky they weren't caught by riko or hyūga. those two would not have stopped chasing them after only a few blocks :)
