AN: In order for this "AU" to work, I tweaked a few things: Kasamatsu, Kobori and Moriyama are second years, Hayakawa and Kise are first years, and Kasamatsu was the captain until after the interhigh, in which his family moves to North America in time for school to start in September. (School starts in April in Japan.) A fair bit of swearing (come on, they're teen boys). Pairing is kikasa because I'm such a sucker for them. Romance will be slow build.

The people I could potentially pass to were guarded as closely as the one guarding me. Nobody could break free. As expected from a school priding itself on defense.

A quick glance and I saw the bent knees, wide arms, and the weight slightly on his toes, subtly revealing my defender's admirable agility and sturdiness - but most of all, defense.

I faked a left pass and attempted a drive to my right. Before I could dribble, I could see that the defense wasn't fooled. Yet…

Transferring the weight up from my attempted right drive, I faked a shot, causing the player to go back into position. He was prepared to jump but also prepared for another drive just in case I tried again. My eyes followed his movements and observed his center of mass, going right to center, the momentum creating difficulty to return right. At this, I quickly drove to my right. The guy on defense was quick and agile, but I was faster and his momentary hesitation aided me.

One bounce, two bounces, three.

I sensed my defender had recovered and he was closing in on me. Instinctively, I crossed over smoothly to go in for a left handed layup, the clock's time and close score flashing in my mind.

I could feel the ball leaving my hands; unrushed and natural as it gently floated out. The crowd's cheers rang along with the roaring blood in my ears, blurring in with the squeaking of shoes on the court. My heart pounded.

The ball went up and—

Kasamatsu jolted forwards, chin slipping from the heel of his palm as the bus bumped along something on the road, waking him from his doze. The teen could still feel his heart pounding as the sudden urge to play basketball spiked through his body, the chances of it subsiding slim.

Not that he minded or that he wasn't used to it. What he did mind was the sudden stream of air that flowed into the bus, chilling his body. He clenched his teeth, shivering and hugged himself tightly, unused to the coldness of the north country, Canada - even if it was currently barely autumn.

Speaking of which, the concept of starting school in September without school uniforms was quite foreign to him.

Glancing around the bouncing bus dazedly, he briefly wondered at the t-shirt and shorts cladded students. Either it was him, or they didn't notice the cold.

Should've worn something more than a cardigan, t-shirt and shorts. He cursed his foolish choice at attempting to fit in. The seventeen year old reached down and pulled both of his trademark black knee socks higher before putting on headphones, selecting a random playlist on his phone. He rested his head back against his seat, determined to at least doze off again.

Back in Japan, Kasamatsu had no intention of socializing beyond what was necessary. Not that his friends had a hard time hanging around with him. He just didn't see the point in pretending to like someone. He was fine with it and with staying like that. It was also quite peculiar and amusing that he was more popular than Moriyama (not like that's an achievement worth boasting about) without having an interest in trying.

So he really wasn't to blame when he ignored a tapping on his shoulder, pretending to have fallen asleep. He wasn't that far behind, but the tapping persisted. The momentary grogginess before snapping back awake was what he blamed his next words he snarled without thinking in Japanese at the source of growing irritation.

"Oi! Cut the shit out, Moriyama, not now!" He leveled piercing steel-blue eyes to Moriyama.

Except it wasn't Moriyama, this wasn't the locker room after practice where he was quickly losing his control over kicking his friend's ass into next week if he mentions anything remotely related to girls, and there was no Hayakawa screaming incoherently in the distance at a random locker over who knows what, and his only source of comfort, Kobori, wasn't there to try and calm him down, and Kise wasn't whining about how Kasamatsu was too harsh on him at practice, and oh Kami he needs to stop this, stop thinking about his team and Kise, stop this sudden onslaught of emotions, force back the tears, swallow against the lump in his throat, lick his dry lips, and try to say something - force something out of his dry mouth.

He wasn't prepared for this, wasn't prepared at all for what he thought was a pathetically vulnerable moment. What happened has happened and there was nothing he could do about something that wasn't in his control. So he shoved it all to the back of his mind to deal with later and instead turned to the present problem.

"Ah sumimasen, I thought you were-ano, I didn't mean to—" Kasamatsu inwardly kicked himself at his overlapping of Japanese and his English, more heavily accented than usual.

"Oh, that's alright, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else. Sorry." the person said easily, and turned back to talking with the girl next to him. Kasamatsu tensed, hearing the stifled giggle and whispers from the girl. He willed the heat to not break out on his cheeks and went back to staring at the back of the seat in front of him.

The onslaught of feelings suddenly threatened to stir up again and he settled for tightly gripping his unfamiliar western-styled backpack and his gym bag, straightened his back, squared his shoulders and tightened his jaws. His stomach curled in anticipation when the bus turned and a new emotion pushed away everything else on his mind but the thought of the present matter.

He could see his new high school coming into view.

AN: I moved around a lot, staying in schools for two years maximum. It was both sad and fun to me at the same time: friends I made wouldn't be friends for long, but I had a lot of time and chances to develop and experience with how I want to express myself. And c'mon, you gotta admit, there's this strange appeal to being the new student. So I came up with this idea, what if Kasa not only moved and switched schools but he also moved countries? And so this was born. If thinking about my favourite characters put into situations isn't enough, I'll write it.

Sorry for the long AN, the next couple of chapters will have more fic and less me blabbing. Also, yes it's Canada not US because why not? Everyone always uses US. Also, you readers would feel more like Kasa as well because you wouldn't know much about Canada either? Unless you live in Canada lol.

Until next time~ =(^. .^)=