Chapter 1

"I…like you…"

A 13-year old Aomine stared down at the trembling white-haired girl that was looking down at the floor.

"E-Excuse me?" he stammered, clearly surprised at the sudden confession. "Sorry, but what was your name again?"

The girl looked up at him, hurt by the obvious rejection. "W-Well… if you don't remember me then… never mind. I'm going now."

Aomine watched as the young girl ran across the platform, her long hair flowing out behind her like a curtain. Then suddenly, a train sped by. The girl turned sharply and saw the oncoming train. Aomine tried to say a word of warning, but it was too late. The accident happened.

And that was the day Tsubasa Akemi lost her voice

Gold eyes blinked open, staring up at the clear white ceiling. How many times had she been here again? She recounted the number of days she had spent in the plain hospital room, surrounded by the smell of disinfectant.

And she hated it.

Today was the day that she was supposed to transfer to Too Academy, a school well-known for its basketball team. Akemi sat up from the bed that she'd been lying on, and opened the door to exit the hospital room.

Ever since the accident, Akemi had lived in the hospital that her mother ran. Because of her unsteady condition, there was no telling how long she would live, or whether she would ever have a future. She often encountered asthma attacks that would suffocate her to the point where she felt as if she couldn't breathe at all. The worst part was that she was mute. It was a temporary condition that should have left, yet it had stayed the same for 4 years straight. But by the end of the third year, her parents had given up on trying to cure her and had decided to put all their hopes and dreams onto the shoulders of her younger brother. And they'd isolated her, hoping that she wouldn't ruin their reputation in any way.

Akemi got dressed, tied her silky hair into a ponytail and placed her new textbooks into her bag. She breathed in deeply, hoping that this year she would be able to keep her condition a secret. It was difficult to make it seem like she was just a quiet and calm girl. Every time a person found out that she couldn't speak, they would either regard her with pity or scorn in their eyes. She hated those eyes that judged her, thinking that she was just a helpless little girl.

As Akemi walked to school, she took in the scenery that surrounded her; the cherry blossoms had just begun to bloom, showering the sidewalks with white and pink petals. She saw many students up ahead, talking and laughing. She then headed onto the school campus, following the flow of the students.

As she peered up at the school map on a board outside, she traced the path to the principal's office. She then turned around to head over to the office when she bumped into something huge. Looking up, her eyes widened at the familiar piercing dark blue eyes that were looking down at her.

It was Aomine Daiki.

Akemi quickly looked away and tried to escape the situation. Turning around abruptly, she tried to walk away, only to feel a hand on her shoulder.

"Oy."

She tensed. 'Did he recognize me?'

"You're awfully rude you know, bumping into me and walking away without saying anything." She felt her heartbeat quicken. The first day and she'd already encountered a huge problem.

"What's your name, girl? You've got quite some nerve to mess with me." She instinctively slapped his hand off her shoulder and ran into the school building. Five minutes on the campus and she already knew what this school was going to be like. She sighed.

This was going to be an awful year.

Akemi sat in the principal's office, waiting for him to speak.

"Tsubasa Akemi, correct?" She nodded and he took this as the signal to continue. "I am aware of your condition. You cannot speak, but your parents wish to keep this fact a secret. I have already informed your teachers of this. I assume you will be cooperating as well?" She nodded once again and the principal slightly smiled at her. "Very well then. Here is a map of the school. I have highlighted your classes for you. Have a good first day, Tsubasa-san."

And there it was again. Those eyes filled with pity that Akemi detested so very much. She stood up and bowed, excusing herself, and headed out of the office. She approached her homeroom and entered quietly when she heard the teacher ask her to com in.

"This is Tsubasa Akemi. She will be a new friend among everyone. Please be nice to her," the teacher said. "Sit behind Momoi please, Tsubasa-san."

Akemi saw a pink-haired girl look up at her and smile. She bowed towards her slightly before beginning to walk to her new desk. Just in that moment, the door to the classroom slammed open.

"Sorry I'm late, teach."

The white-haired girl turned around and saw Aomine Daiki, standing at the classroom door. Many girls in her class started to whisper excitedly.

"Aomine!" The teacher glared at the dark skinned youth. "I told you so many times to come to school on time already!" But Aomine only tuned out the teacher's words, his eyes settling on Akemi's tiny figure, who in return shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh. That rude girl from this morning," were the first words that he said. Akemi felt a twinge of anger, before she turned around promptly and sat down at her assigned seat. She saw Aomine heading towards her and shifted her attention towards the teacher, ignoring the boy. She heard a clatter of a chair as Aomine sat down in the seat right behind her.

'Oh crap,' was all she could think as she heard the scraping of a chair on the tile floor. 'Why does he have to sit behind me, of all people?'

"Hey you," Aomine hissed as the teacher began to speak. She disregarded his words and pulled out a notebook and pencil.

Tug. She felt the back of her head jerk back slightly as Aomine grabbed her ponytail, pulling on it. "I was talking to you," he growled. Akemi scowled and whacked his hand away before slipping the rubber band that was holding her hair in place off so that he couldn't tug on it anymore. "Tch. Unsociable person, are you?" he muttered before looking out the window. Akemi stared up at the teacher, attempting to focus on the lesson, but found herself unable to due to his presence.

Aomine Daiki was the cause of her muteness for four years. At first, she simply appreciated his attractiveness and basketball skills. However, he soon wormed his way into her heart when she noticed the little acts of kindness he did, such as secretly helping a kitten down the tree when no one was looking, or lending her an umbrella when it was raining extremely hard. He had also once taught her basketball and helped her perfect a turn-around technique which she used to develop her own style. Yet he had forgotten her. She had been rejected, had carelessly run off crying without paying attention and had ended up in a train accident. The accident then caused temporary brain damage, causing her to lose her voice.

Akemi smiled bitterly at the thought. She wondered if fate had led her to encounter the blue-haired male once again. Taking a deep breath, she let herself slip into concentration mode and began writing down notes on the teacher's lesson.

A while later, the bell rang and she began to pack her things away. She saw the pink-haired girl in front of her turn around and smile at her.

"Hi there, Tsubasa-san! I'm Satsuki Momoi, I hope we get along well in this year!" She smiled brightly at Akemi and Akemi gave her a small, polite smile in return.

"Oy, Satsuki. Who the hell is this brat?" Akemi felt a large hand smash down on her skull and ruffle her hair slightly. Scowling, she held her head and looked up at the giant.

"She's a transfer student, Dai-chan."

'Dai-chan? Is Momoi supposed to be his girlfriend?'

"Her name is Tsubasa Akemi. You shouldn't be so rude."

Aomine's face contorted for a second, as if he recognized her name. Akemi held her breath, hoping he didn't. But only seconds later a frown appeared on Aomine's face. "The rude one is this girl sitting here. She bumped into me this morning and didn't even apologize."

Akemi got up immediately and walked straight out the door. Socializing with people, as fun as it was, only caused her problems since she couldn't say anything. But she was once again stopped by a hand grabbing onto hers.

"What the hell is your problem?" she heard a low voice growl. "Say something you little brat."

"D-Dai-chan, come on! Don't be so violent," Akemi could hear Satsuki pleading with Aomine, trying to get him to leave her alone.

"Shut up Satsuki."

The white-haired girl could feel blue eyes piercing the back of her head and felt extremely helpless at the predicament that she was stuck in. The way Aomine looked at her was different from his old self. She felt her eyes begin to water.

'Stop it Tsubasa Akemi! Get a grip on yourself!'

If there was anything that she hated, it were situations like these where she couldn't do anything. She couldn't apologize since she couldn't speak and she couldn't break Aomine's iron grip either. Aomine and Momoi seemed to notice her shaking.

"H-Hey, Dai-chan, you're making her cry!"

Aomine looked stunned for a minute.

"S-Sorry," he muttered before letting go of her hand. The second her hand was released, she sprinted down the hall and down the stairs, trying to get as far away as possible. School just started and she had already appeared as a weak little girl in front of someone.

She hated appearing this way in front of people. She slammed open a bathroom door and turned on the faucet, splashing her face with cool water to calm down. As much as she wanted to live out a normal school life, her disability made it impossible. She let the water stream onto her face, washing away the emotions that were overfilling.

Gym class was Akemi's favorite period. She loved to play sports as a way to vent the stress that build up over time. As she was stretching, she noticed Momoi approach her hesitantly.

"T-Tsubasa-san?" she addressed the girl hesitantly. "Sorry about Dai-chan earlier. We're childhood friends and… he just has that kind of personality, you get what I mean?"

'So they're not dating?' Akemi gave her a small smile to which Momoi seemed to be relieved.

"Do you do sports, Tsubasa-san? You have a really nice figure." Akemi nodded as she stood up. A whistle sounded as the teacher instructed the students to line up for jogging. At the sound of the gun, Akemi kicked off and ran. She felt as if she were flying and easily breezed past the other students. Looking to her side, her eyes widened as she saw a familiar tan figure running alongside her. Scowling, she increased her pace.

Aomine noticed this and smirked, matching her pace easily. Akemi's frown only deepened and she ran even faster, yet he managed to match that pace too. Soon, the two of them were racing down the track at a frightening speed, neither of them wanting to give in to the other. By the end of the exercise, they were both worn out from the race, with Akemi taking in deep breaths while Aomine, who was standing beside her, was only panting slightly.

'Show off,' Akemi thought as she saw him turn to her and smirk.

"You suck," he said, amusement dancing in his midnight blue eyes. The girl opened her mouth to retort but bit her lips, remembering that she couldn't speak. She cursed inwardly. Associationg with people only made her want to be able to talk even more. She glared at him before stalking off to the basketball courts.

"Oy, you," she heard Aomine call out suddenly. Turning around, she glanced at him. "Do you know how to play basketball?" She stared at him for a moment before inclining her head ever so slightly. "Do you want to play? One on one."

She frowned. if she recalled correctly, Aomine was one of those people that were so good that no one could ever match up to him. At the same time, she didn't want to back down from the challenge either. So she dipped her head in his direction.

The game started with Akemi taking the ball out. She watched as Aomine's eyes shifted back and forth, noting her familiar stance. Taking a deep breath, she allowed herself to slip into a realm of concentration before dribbling the ball slowly. As soon as she took two steps into the court, Aomine had already found a way to steal the ball from her. he smirked at her stunned expression and jumped to dunk the ball.

Akemi felt a smug smile crawl onto her face. If there was anything she was good at, it was jumping. She was, after all, the ace of her volleyball team when she'd been in the first year of high school. She felt a familiar tension in her legs being released as she leapt into the air. Aomine's eyes widened slightly in surprise. She tapped the ball lightly with the tips of her fingers, causing it to slip out of his grasp. Yet within seconds, Aomine had grabbed the ball in midair and performed a flawless formless shot. She frowned in annoyance as the ball slipped through the hoop cleanly.

Once again, she took the ball out. She dribbled it slowly, drinking in every detail of the familiar figure before her. She took a step forward and instinctively performed a move that she's practiced so many times that it was imprinted in her memory; a turn-around. She noticed Aomine's eyes widen in surprise as he watched the familiar move, giving her an opportunity ti shoot an unexpected three pointer, which scored. She couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction at his expression, until she noticed the look in his eyes.

'Oh crap! He recognized that-'

"Have I…met you before by any chance?" he questioned, clearly disturbed by how familiar her figure seemed. Akemi gulped and shook her head vigorously. "Hmm…" She noticed Aomine's eyes narrow in suspicion as he picked up the fallen basketball. "I don't feel like playing anymore. Go do something else." She scowled at his sudden backing out of the game.

So she grabbed a volleyball from one of the nearby courts and served it straight into the back of hi head. Then she stuck her tongue out at him, smirking.

"Why you little…!" Aomine growled, heading towards the petite girl but was stopped by the teacher blowing his whistle and summoning the rest of the class. Akemi laughed inwardly as they both walked off to the gathering. The teacher was talking about volleyball and demonstrating an underhand serve.

'His form is off.' Akemi frowned and her arm twitched as she resisted the urge to go up and smack the ball out of his hand. Aomine noticed this and smirked.

"Teach, Tsubasa here seems to think that you're doing it wrong," he said loudly. Akemi cursed and elbowed him in the stomach, which didn't have much effect. "Why don't you ask her to demonstrate for us?"

The teacher looked warily at Aomine, then at the girl beside him. "Very well. Tsubasa-san, please show us any serve format you would like. It doesn't have to be underhand."

Akemi gulped and nodded a bit before stepping forward and taking the volleyball onto the court. Bouncing it up and down a couple of times, she noticed Aomine smirking at her from the crowd, clearly believing that she couldn't do it. Akemi frowned in displeasure. 'I'll show you'. She took a dew steps behind the court and threw the ball into the air and jumped up, swinging her hand backwards and hitting the ball to the back row of the defensive side of the court with a ridiculous amount of strength. She landed on the court, satisfied at the jump serve she'd performed. Turning to her classmates, who were all obviously impressed, she looked at Aomine and returned the smirk that he had directed at her before.

Momoi observed Aomine's stunned expression, a small smile forming. It was the first time a girl had been able to show up to Aomine and could keep up with his fast running and basketball pace. Despite Aomine's attitude, Momoi was aware that he was just being stubborn and refusing to acknowledge Tsubasa.

"Oy, Satsuki."

The manager of the Too basketball club looked up at the dark-skinned giant. "What is it, Dai-chan?"

"That girl, the once who did the volleyball serves. Can you find out some information on her for me?"

Momoi looked surprised. "Are you asking for the three sizes, Dai-chan?"

"Did I ask about that?" Aomine growled, clearly flustered by the question. "Include that if you want. I just want to know her background, previous school she attended and so on."

"My, Dai-chan is actually asking for information on a girl." Momoi emphasized the last word,smiling slightly at Aomine's embarrassed expression. "Fine. I should have it by tomorrow." Aomine merely nodded before heading out the gym. Momoi frowned. "You're not coming to practice, Aomine?"

Aomine narrowed his eyes. "I'm doing private training for now. No one in here can keep up withme anyways."

Momoi looked back down at her clipboard, a smile still etched on her face. "I guess that match with Seirin got to him after all," she murmured before scribbling something down.

Akemi was practicing her three pointers in basketball outside after school. Too's main devotion was the basketball club; there were no female volleyball clubs here. She frowned as her shot bounced off the rim. The female basketball group was simply a 'fanclub'; they didn't actually play at all. In other words, there were no sports features that she had any interest in at this school. Jumping up, she shot the ball and watched as it spun towards the hoop. One glance told her the shot was going to fall clear through the hoop.

An arm suddenly shot up and grabbed the basketball out of the air before it reached the net. Akemi paused, surprised by the stop of the ball. Looking down, she spotted a random guy surrounded by a group of friends with her basketball in hand.

"You're that transfer student everyone's talking about, right? The 'pretty and quiet' girl." The guy grinned at her confused expression. "I heard that you were pretty good at volleyball. Someone even said that you were decent enough in basketball to keep up with Aomine Daichi."

Akemi frowned. What was up with this guy? Why was he even talking to her?

"What do you say you come and hang out with us some time, little girl? We could make use out of someone like you." Akemi's frown turned into a scowl at this point. She turned around and began to walk away, only to have her arm grabbed roughly by the stranger.

"Hey, we're talking to you. Don't think you should tell us a word or two at least?" The guy frowned as she shot him a glare. "I told you to say something!" He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. 'Teenagers sure are rough these days, even to girls,' Akemi thought as he slammed her up against a wall.

"Still staying quiet?" he hissed, clearly ticked off at her silence. Not that she could say anything anyways. She had encountered this kind of situation various times and each time, it always ended up the same. She would be beaten up and no one passing by would say a thing. No one would come to look for her. So what did it matter? Honestly.

"Well then, girly, why don't we go have some fun?"

She suddenly felt nervous. This was not right. It was not going the way she wanted it to at all. He did not punch her, he did not kick her and try to break her bones. Instead, he yanked the collar of her shirt. Hard.

She began freaking out and struggled against the arms holding her down. No. No. This kind of things was not supposed to happen. She kneeled him in the crotch, only seeming to rouse his anger even more. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She was stuck in this predicament again - she couldn't do a single thing to save herself. And if she didn't escape, who would help her?

"Oy. What the hell do you bastards think you're doing?"

Heads turned to find the source of the voice that had spoken. Akemi saw Aomine standing there, gazing coolly at the scene laid out before him.

"A-Aomine," one of the guys stuttered and looked from him to the girl. "W-We were just…uh…Sorry!" The guys glanced at each other before running away as fast as they could. Akemi slid down the wall, her hand clenched tightly around the neck of her blouse, silent tears streaming down her face. 'Scary. Scary. Scary…So scary…'

"Hey." She saw Aomine bend down next to her. "You…are you alright?" He scratched the bak of his head awkwardly, clearly not used to worrying about someone. His words only made her cry even harder. It had been so long since someone had been concerned about her well-being. Aomine hugged her awkwardly.

"C-Calm down, okay?"

A small smile appeared on Akemi's face at the clumsy giant's act of gentleness. She buried her tear-stained face into his chest and breathed in his comforting cent. Not only did it calm her down, she also fell asleep in about five minutes flat.

Aomine chuckled lightly, looking down at the girl's sleeping face. Tsubasa Akemi, huh. The name sounded so very nostalgic, as if he'd heard it before. he ran a hand through her silky white hair, his face depicting a rare gently smile.

"Sweet dreams, Tsubasa."

A/N: I don't own anything

This was originally an AominexReader story, but I decided to invent my own OC and put her in it. Just so you know, I had to write the whole damn thing again because it was written with 'you' and had to adapt everything and I will have to do it for the following 13 chapters, so it's going to take some time until this one's fully published. I sometimes made some minor adjustments, but nothing big. I hope you enjoy it

The original version is by OtakuNekoSan on Quotev. All credits go to her.