Unrequited Love?

[yellowcopycat]

Kaijou and Seirin had just had their first practice match, which was shaping up to be a tradition of sorts. This time, Kaijou had gone to Seirin. The gym was nice, newer then Kaijou's but maybe not as big. 

 

He was breathing heavily, but smiling broadly. It always felt good to play, even if it was just a practice match and they weren't going all out. After all, he wanted to keep some of his new tricks up his sleeves, just like he was sure Kagami and Kuroko were hiding some of their new tricks too. This year's match had ended in a draw. Better than last year's practice match, which had ended in Kaijou's loss by two points.  

 

Just thinking about Kuroko made Kise look over to the Seirin team, focusing in on the smaller boy. 

 

For awhile now Kise had realized that he had feelings for Kuroko. Kise had looked up to Kuroko for awhile, but it wasn't really until after the Winter Cup that Kise realized he was probably in love with Kuroko. 

 

He took a towel that one of the first years offered him. "Thanks," he said absently. He scrubbed at his face, his thoughts racing. He had been thinking about Kuroko a lot lately, and seeing him only brought those thoughts back to the surface, only pushed aside when the game had begun. Now with the game over he couldn't focus. The warm glow in his chest that came whenever he thought about Kuroko was back with a vengeance.

 

The Kaijou team was gathering their things and getting ready to board the bus. He told the first year that he'd be along in a bit and began to head over to the Seirin team. 

 

"Kurokocchi~" he called out. No time like the present, he thought. He didn't know if Kuroko would return his feelings, but he was hopeful. The time Kuroko had cheered him on while he went up against Haizaki stood out in his mind. 

 

"Kurokocchi! You got a minute?"

Comments

[misdirects]

"Furihata-kun is still a little intimidated by Akashi-kun, but he does seem very excited every time he gets a response." Kuroko is usually the one dealing with the enthusiastic barrage of strategy discussion after. "He's settled rather nicely into his role as captain."

He pouts a little seeing Kise get it so easily and carefully drops another hook in as he thinks about Kise's words. "That's not necessarily true - you make the moves into your own."

[yellowcopycat]

"Sei is intimidating when he wants to be," Kise said happily. "He's gotten better about not scaring people right off since first year. But when he wants to be scary..." He grinned. "So long as it's someone else anyway. But he likes Furihata, respects him a lot ever he got a point on him."

He lets out a breath. "Maybe," he said. "But it's neither here nor there; I can do them, I'm good at it, and I have fun copying people when it annoys them."

[misdirects]

"There really is something about the way Akashi-kun holds himself that makes him scary to other people, doesn't it... I suppose it doesn't work as well on us, since we've known him for a while now." He smiles at the mention of respect. "I've tried to impress on Furihata-kun that Akashi-kun is mostly normal like us and shouldn't be too scared of trying to get to know him better."

Kuroko manages to lift a balloon up a bit before the paper melts and it plops back in with a small splash. He concentrates a little harder, aiming for a yellow balloon now. "Kise-kun's basketball is uniquely his, even with the copied moves. It's why I like it."

[yellowcopycat]

"It's mostly because he's rich," Kise said. "Rich people just walk like that when they become teenagers. Though Sei's not as bad as some of the jerks I've met. Of course, he's also richer than most of them. For him, he's following his father's example. Boys tend to do that, according to mom." He rolled his eyes. "Not completely true. I just look like Dad. I take more after Mom."

Kise looked at Kuroko for a moment, then put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll miss playing against Kuroko's basketball. It's the reason why mine's as good as it is." He gave Kuroko's shoulder a squeeze, then dipped a hook into the water again.

[misdirects]

"I suppose I follow the formula and take after my father too." Opposite to Kise, he mostly resembled his mother physically.

His smile grows a little wider. "Your basketball is good because you're a hard worker and you love the sport." But he appreciated it, using the good energy to propel him into bringing the yo-yo up high enough to pinch the string between his fingers just as his hook disintegrates.

[yellowcopycat]

"I learned it from you," Kise said. "Before basketball, everything was just too easy."

He pulls out his second prize and offers it to Kuroko with a smile. "Here you go."

[misdirects]

"Too easy?" He thinks back to before Kise started playing with them. "I do remember a lot of the other sports clubs were clamoring to recruit you..."

He will happily take it, finding it amusing that Kise managed to hook a light blue one. "Thank you." He slips it onto his wrist with his own yellow prize and offers the leftover hooks to the little girl who had been watching Kise.

[yellowcopycat]

"Phys Ed was always one of my best classes," Kise said. "And I gain muscle pretty easily. If I had joined at high school level, I probably wouldn't have felt that way. High school got hard-core for all sports. Teikou was... a little crazy, I think about basketball."

He waves at the little girl and looks around. "Anything else you wanna do?"

[misdirects]

"The skill differential is rather stark, isn't it." Kuroko hums, wondering if the other sports clubs at their middle school had been as intense as theirs were. "Teikou was definitely... special in its circumstances." That was a, er, delicate way of putting it.

His eyes glance at the other stalls, skipping over the savory food items and lingering on desserts. "We could have something sweet. Or we could abuse Midorima's aiming more." He gestures over to the toy rifle shooting setups.

[yellowcopycat]

"Let's abuse his skills some more, and then we can text him all about it," Kise said with a grin. "He deserves some teasing for always being a stick in the mud."

He walked over to the stand, towering over some ten-year-old boys waiting for their turns as a middle school boy tried to win a stuffed bear for his girlfriend. He gave the setup a quick once over, then turned to Kuroko, smirking. "This one will be easy."

[misdirects]

"Takao-kun has mellowed him out a little since they've started dating, at the very least." Kuroko pulls out his phone to record nonetheless, stifling a laugh at the juxtaposition between the young boys and a third-year high school student. "But video proof will be best."

[yellowcopycat]

Kise shoots the camera one of his most charming smiles, the one that graces so many photos.

"Hey, Midorimacchi!" he chirped. "Guess what I'm doing~"

He twirls his gun, golden eyes flashing as he aims, fires, and hits bullseye to the cries of excitement from the boys.

[misdirects]

"A straight and perfect shot, just like the original." Kuroko would clap, but the boys cheering will have to make up for it. They encourage "the cool onii-san" to go again.

[yellowcopycat]

Kise beams at the boys, pays for another shot, and makes another bullseye.

He then pays for the two boys before stepping away from the booth and back to Kuroko.

"While Takao has calmed him down, he'll always be stuffy," he said, grinning. "But I suppose it's okay. It takes all kinds."

[misdirects]

He laughs a little as he ends the video recording. "I'll trim that part out."

The stall owner gestures over at Kise to select his prize. "You should pick something out for Akashi-kun."

[yellowcopycat]

"Hmmm," Kise looks over the prizes. "I got two; what do you want? Oh! Wait! I see something perfect!"

He picked out a pair of bears, one pale blue, the other cherry red, and because he got more people interested in the stall, the owner gave him a yellow one. The light blue one gets placed into Kuroko's hands.

"This way we all match!"

[misdirects]

"Very cute, I'll make sure to take good care of it." Kuroko looks down at the fluffy bear, trying to hide his fond smile as he accessorizes it with the yellow balloon he won earlier as a necklace.

He looks back up with a tilt of his head. "I feel a little bad I haven't been able to win anything for you."

[yellowcopycat]

"It's fine! I'm sure there's something-" He gets distracted when he spots three more bears, orange, a darker blue, and purple, at another stall. "Should we win those for Kagamicchi, Aominecchi, and Murasakibaracchi?" he asked as he gestured at them. "Something to remember our last school year before we all really go our separate ways."

Kuroko had already stepped away from Basketball. Midorima and Akashi may or may not play for fun at their universities here in Japan, leaning towards not unless it was low stakes.

And the rest of them were going to the US and eventually go pro. "One last summer of childhood," he murmured to himself.

[misdirects]

His eyes light up at the idea and he nods. "For Midorima-kun, too, even if he won't like it at all. It could be a lucky item for him in the future." The best way to make him accept it, truthfully.

His gaze falls on a pink one, a bit tucked away behind the other prizes. "I'd like to win one for Momoi-san as well." She certainly deserves one as the unofficial Miracle.

This stall does it a bit differently, needing the prize to be knocked off the shelf to win. Kuroko steps up to the counter and pays for a set of five shots. He steadies the toy gun in hand, firing off two shots at the ones intended for Kagami and Aomine. They fall over promptly, as if accepting his pass, and he throws up a thumbs-up.

[yellowcopycat]

"Of course!" Kise said. "I just didn't see a green one yet."

He goes, wins the purple, orange, and dark blue at the the stall they were at, and was looking for a green one.

"We almost got the whole set!" he said cheerfully.

[misdirects]

In turn, Kuroko will, after a few misses and close shots, wins the pink and green ones from another stall for their collection. He trots back with his winnings and beams a bit. "I think the stall owners may be annoyed with us now."

[yellowcopycat]

"Please," Kise sniffed. "It's not like we didn't pay for them."

He looked at the bears. Jeez, there were a lot. "Well, we should put them in a bag or something so we don't lose them."

[misdirects]

"A good point." He sidles over to the booth again and spooks the owner with his request for a bag. He promptly returns with one bag stuffed as full as it can be and holds out the empty one for Kise. "Perhaps we have overdone it..."

[yellowcopycat]

"Nah," he said. "These games are rigged, so we just gave them a taste of their own medicine by being awesome."

He put the bears in the empty bag and looked around. "What else is there to do?"

[misdirects]

"I don't think they'd be very pleased if we continued to play any more games... so I suppose we can go find a spot to watch the fireworks."

A classic festival experience.