Favorite Word

A Kuroko no Basuke oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The Kuroko no Basuke characters belong to Fujimaki Tadatoshi-sensei, not to me. These two just kill me. Is it canon? It is canon, I SWEAR TO MERLIN. D8 Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

Kasamatsu Yukio looked around at the gathering. It was funny—he'd been…somewhat hopeful to spot a certain face. But he didn't see it.

Instead, he spied his fellow seniors and friends. "Oi, Kobori, Moriyama!"

The other two boys had already been on their way out when Kasamatsu caught up to them. Moriyama smiled teasingly. "Already miss us, Kasamatsu?"

"No, it's not that. Have you seen—" Kasamatsu paused. He'd been about to mention him, so why wasn't he there already? Usually that happened—say his name, and he'd manage to pop up out of god-knows-where. Well, only if Kasamatsu mentioned him, but…

"Hayakawa came and gave us his tear-filled goodbyes," Moriyama supplied.

"Wouldn't it be nicer to say 'heartfelt'?" Kobori asked.

"Same difference—and he really did have tears in his eyes, the poor kid."

"Moriyama…"

Kasamatsu scowled at Moriyama. He could feel his face growing warm. "You know I don't mean Hayakawa," he grumbled.

Moriyama's smile grew into a smirk while Kobori sighed at them. "Then you'll have to say who you mean, Kasamatsu."

"K-Kise, of course." Goddammit, he'd really been made to say it.

But while Moriyama seemed pleased to have gotten a straight answer out of his friend, Kasamatsu detected a hint of sympathy in his eyes. Behind Moriyama, Kobori suddenly shifted on his feet, too.

"What is it?" Kasamatsu asked.

The other two exchanged a glance. At last, Moriyama delivered the blow: "Um, Kasamatsu… We haven't seen hide nor hair of Kise."

The former Kaijou captain blinked. "Huh?"

"Honestly, I thought you meant you were looking for him just 'cause you'd lost him in the crowd or something…"

"Have you really not seen him?" Kobori inquired.

Suddenly the diploma in his hand felt like a lead rod weighing Kasamatsu down. "…no, I haven't."

At least his friends had the kindness to spare musing aloud that maybe Kise had skipped the event altogether.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," Kasamatsu said, and he turned away without looking at them. That way, he didn't have to see the sympathy—or was it pity? Weren't those the same thing?—on their faces.

- ^-^3

On his way home, he tried not to think about his disappointment. Still, that was a Herculean task.

He really felt disappointed in Kise. He hadn't known Kise to be allergic to graduation ceremonies or anything, so there was no reason for Kise to miss it. Besides, Kasamatsu knew Kise had respect for him and the other two seniors—so why had Kise not shown them that respect today by being there for them?

Kasamatsu came upon the small playground that was on his and Kise's route home. It was empty right now and so Kasamatsu turned into it, but he felt restless. What was he hoping for? Someone to come by with a basketball? Or no one, so that he could sit on the swings alone?

"There's a pathetic idea," the blue-eyed teen muttered to himself as he chose to lean against the fencing. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared up at the sky.

…damn it all, he was bothered. He'd even had Kise over last night, and Kise hadn't said a word about today. He'd left his senpai with the impression that he'd attend.

"Or was I just being hopeful?" Kasamatsu mused aloud. He dropped his eyes to the ground and scratched the back of his head.

"Kasamatsu-senpai?"

Kasamatsu looked up. No way… "Kise?" He couldn't help it; he glared at the blond.

Kise broke into a grin, but it wasn't as playful as usual. "I'm real and here—not a ghost or a hallucination, if that's what you were wondering," he said as he jumped over the short fence on the other side of the playground and walked over to Kasamatsu.

Kasamatsu's bag felt heavy, so he dropped it. Ah, right. That damned diploma was in his bag. He didn't really like having it, the diploma. It made him feel—it made him feel guilty, as though Kise's earlier absence was his fault, for getting the damned thing in the first place. It was the ticket for the train leaving Kaijou Station.

"Senpai?" Kise asked. He bent down so their foreheads almost touched. "Is something wrong?"

Kasamatsu looked his kouhai in the eyes. "Don't make me…"

"Make you what?" Kasamatsu really had to watch what he said; Kise was an idiot and already looked thoroughly confused.

The older male looked away and stood. "Don't make me feel guiltier than I already do."

Kasamatsu didn't know what to expect. He could picture Puppy Kise fretting and telling Kasamatsu that he was wrong, that Kise wasn't trying to make him feel guilty. He could picture Model Kise apologizing and saying that, whoops, he'd had a last-minute job to shoot—so sorry he missed graduation, Kasamatsu-senpai. He could even picture Kiseki Kise, saying that'd he'd accidentally made plans with his old teammates or something (but heaven help Kise if it was Kuroko—Kise never shut up about "Kurokocchi").

Instead, he got…Kise Ryouta, plain and simple.

"It wasn't guilt I was trying to make you feel."

Kasamatsu stared at him, his anger forgotten. "You were…what?"

Kise placed his bag next to Kasamatsu's and drew him into a hug—that was so like him, not to care if they had an audience (they didn't, but that wasn't the point)—resting his chin atop his senpai's head. "I wanted you to feel a little hope."

"How the hell—" Shit, he couldn't keep his voice from cracking. "How the hell was I supposed to feel that when you just—just stood me up? I should kick you for that!"

"I wasn't standing you up."

Kasamatsu's heart sank. "So you were breaking up? Is this what you've done before? This is how you leave girls who chased after you?"

Kise's smile was tired-looking. "Senpai, you're hardly a girl. And we both know you did no chasing."

"So?"

The blond nuzzled Kasamatsu's cheek. "Agh, senpai… I forgot that you can be slow sometimes."

His glare returned. "Hah?"

Kise tilted his head, looking more like a mischievous cat and less like a loyal dog. "I only wanted you to think, 'Oh, I'll just see Ryouta tonight or tomorrow.'"

"You idiot! Graduation was important to me and I—" He cursed at himself. "I wanted you to be there."

"Mm, but I don't like goodbyes, Yukio-senpai," Kise said lowly in his ear.

"So you were viewing my graduation as the end of—" Kasamatsu swallowed the lump in his throat.

"No, I wasn't. Senpai, do you know what my favorite word is?"

Kasamatsu had a headache now. He pushed Kise back a little and sat down again on the fencing. "Oh, for crying out loud, Kise, can't you be serious for a full five minutes when we're talking about something important?"

Yet…Kise did look deadly serious when he tilted Kasamatsu's chin up so that they locked eyes. "I am being serious, Yukio."

"Don't take that overly-familiar tone—" He shut up when Kise actually glared at him. Kasamatsu looked away again. "So…what's your favorite word, Ryouta?"

"'For-ev-er.'" He drew out the three syllables like a song, and he was grinning again.

Kasamatsu frowned. "'Forever'? Why? That's ridiculous."

"I knew you'd say that. That's why I didn't want to tell you at Kaijou, because that would've been clichéd and would've felt like a finale for us."

Kasamatsu pushed Kise away fully. "It's still a cliché, Ryouta. Nothing lasts forever."

"Ah!" Kise winked. "And that's why I love it so much. 'Forever' is something lofty. It might be hard, maybe impossible, to attain. But you know what?"

"What?"

The model drew close to the former captain, close enough that their noses were touching. "I'll go down fighting for it with you, Yukio-senpai. We can try for forever."

Kasamatsu didn't know what to think. In fact, he didn't think. The remaining thoughts in his head flew out as he thought about Kise's words. "Romantic" didn't even begin to describe them. "Oh" was all the graduate could manage.

Kise winked again, and the glint of the sun off his earring caught Kasamatsu's attention, bringing the older boy back to reality. "See? So I couldn't come to your graduation, senpai—although it was tempting—because I had nothing to say to you. I mean, congratulations are in order, because you worked your butt off. But I wasn't going to say goodbye. You can't get rid of me that easily." He even had the nerve to laugh.

But…Kasamatsu chuckled, too. It was these moments that kept him on his toes and reminded him that Kise…Kise was special, all right. No wonder Moriyama had enjoyed teasing Kasamatsu all this time.

He stood and grabbed their bags, passing Kise's to the blond. They exited the playground and headed home.

"You got one thing wrong, though," the former captain said.

For a second, Kise looked unsure. It made that grin of his priceless. "Huh?"

Kasamatsu snickered. "I'm not your senpai anymore."

To his further surprise, Kise laughed and threw an arm around Kasamatsu's shoulders. "I knew that, already! You're just 'Yukio' now."

"What?! 'Just'? Show some respect for your seniors, Ryouta!"

"Waah, don't hit me when I just want to snuggle you~!"

- ^-^3

WHY IS KIKASA SO KYOOT. *headdesk* Srsly. I love Kise, I love Kasamatsu, and I love these two together. I hate thinking about Yukio's graduation, though…so I can easily imagine Ryouta having this kind of reaction. And Yukio might be embarrassed, but he totally ate that up. What a good boyfriend he has! XD And cameo from Moriyama and Kobori…they're cute, too… *in love with Kaijou* *fails* Yup. I need to write more KnB fics.

Thanks so much for reading, and PLEASE review! :'D It encourages me to keep writing KnB fics.

-mew-tsubaki :}