Generation of Miracles Unite
By May Waters
Summary: The Generation of Miracles reunites for a game against Seirin. They steal back Kuroko and they see something completely different out on the court when the six play together. Kuroko however has found love with Seirin and wants to know if it's reciprocated. With the GoM he devises a plan to create jealous friction.
"Seirin has decided they'd like to take on the Generation of Miracles," Aida Riko told the phone.
"Are you sure you're all prepared to take us on?" Akashi asked from the other end, four of the miracles sitting behind him playing various video games.
"The team seems confident; they're determined to take you all on." Aida replied with an exasperated sigh.
"You realize we get Kuroko."
"What?"
"If you're planning to take on all the Generation of Miracles then Kuroko is one of ours."
"Alright, I'll let them know. Would you mind coming now? They're a little eager-" Akashi laughed, it was a slightly harsh sound.
"I'll see if I can drag them away from the video games, things were just getting good." Then the phone clicked and went dead. Aida turned to her team.
"They have called Kuroko to their team seeing as he is part of the Generation of Miracles." She announced, wincing at their shouts of refusal.
"It's alright; I'll play with them if they say I'm one of them." Kuroko said stopping all arguments; he glanced back at Kagami who was staring at him with wide eyes.
When the five High School students arrived at Seirin gym they let off a very opposable air. Akashi smiled and held out a hand to the blue haired teen who was watching them with calm eyes and no emotion as usual.
"Kuroko, come." The boy leapt with surprising speed at his old somewhat friends. Aomine ruffled his hair in a friendly way, Kise coming up to him, bouncing with excitement.
"It's so good to be playing with you again Kurokocchi, maybe now I won't cry myself to sleep as often." Akashi moved, his hand clamping down on Kise's arm quite hard.
"Keep your excitement for the game Kise." The taller teen cringed, a gasp escaping his lips. "Well Aomine, let's see how well your light can blend with shadow."
Seirin watched as the middle school prodigies began their old warm up routines, Midorima not even looking at the basket as he took careless shots which undoubtedly went in. Marusakibara made a comment, most likely about snacks, and the generation of miracles laughed, it was the first time Seirin had seen such an open expression on Kuroko's face.
"You've been getting careless Kuroko; emotion will make your misdirection useless."
"Sorry Akashi-kun."
"Just keep it away during the game," His multi colored eyes flashed over to where Seirin stood jaws open. "Has our competition given up already? They were the ones who said they wanted to face the generation of miracles as a whole, weren't they?"
Hyuga glared at Akashi and turned his team away, shooting a couple of three pointers for warm up. Kagami's eyes lingered on Kuroko for a few moments too long as Aomine ruffled the boys hair in a teasing manner. Kise was going off about his happiness with a little too much exuberance, causing Murasakibara to bring a hand down and force him onto the gym floor.
"I have no qualms with squashing those weaker than me, even if we play for the same team." He stated and Kise made a disgruntled sound.
Kuroko's eyes laughed with mirth at his middle school friends.
"We'll have you play the first half Kuroko," Akashi announced, turning towards their blond team mate. "Kise, you'll sit out for the first bit."
"Aye," Kise sat down on the bench and Aida's father stood in the middle with the basketball in hand. Aida followed the play with her eyes, this game would take some extreme calculation in order to her her team win-if they could win.
The whistle blew and timer went off, it was heated play for the first several minutes until Momoi, who had arrived late having heard about it from Aomine in a text moments before the game was to start, called a time out to rest the players. The score was close, but the miracle six were in the lead. Murasakibara swept his hair out of his eyes and picked up one of the many water bottles Momoi and Kise had prepared while they watched the game. Momoi let out a tinkling laugh as Aomine slung an arm around her shoulders, squirting the water into his mouth, attempting not to choke at something she had just said.
At half time Kuroko's effectiveness was nearly gone, it was terrible trying to use it against his team as it was, but he had managed it for longer than Akashi expected. Aomine plopped down next to the lighter blue haired teen and leaned backwards, one hand propping himself from falling off the bench. Kuroko's eyes came up to meet Kagami's across the court. He had managed well enough without Kuroko's shadow, but Seirin was losing 91 to 75. With Kise coming out on the court now, a whole arsenal of observing the first two quarters.
Kuroko grabbed Aomine's elbow to get his attention, a plan forming quickly in his mind.
Kuroko wasn't sure when the feelings had first appeared, yet they were there and he could no longer deny them. Every day during practice he suppressed his emotions and eminent blush. It was worse the last couple of days, especially since the Winter Cup had ended. Kuroko never would've said at any point in his life he would ever be gay. The first incident had happened just after they won the Winter Cup, Kagami had cheered and threw his arm around Kuroko. He smelled distinctly of sweat and manly musk. Akashi had stared, eyes wide at the both of them, smirking only when he noticed the blush on Kuroko's cheeks.
"How does it feel to win against the Generation of Miracles Kuroko?" Kagami asked leaning in, his smile a little too wide.
"I don't know, technically you could say we have an unfair advantage." Kuroko placated, attempting to keep his thoughts away from anything scandalous. "I'm a miracle myself, so in reality it was only one miracle triumphing over another. There was no great defeat."
"Eh? You're always looking down on things aren't you? Can't you be a little happy that we won the Winter Cup?" Kagami pulled away a frown on his face, his eyes never once leaving Kuroko's.
"It's not as if I'm not happy, I have a huge smile on my face right now Kagami-kun."
It's just as blank as ever! Hyuga thought, over hearing his teammates conversation.
Kuroko was glad when Kagami finally left to go cheer with Hyuga and Kyoshi.
"Have a bit of a crush?" Akashi asked appearing almost silently behind his old team mate.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Kuroko made to move away.
"Oh really, then you wouldn't mind if the tiger were to find a tigress to settle down with? That Alex girl from America he's friends with seemed a little suspicious to me." The blue haired teen froze.
"She was his coach," He whispered, eyes wide with an actual emotion-fear.
"Personally, if you ever want to know whether you even have a shot, I'd try and make him jealous." Akashi smirked, his head bowing in recognition of Kuroko's blatant anger. He moved so he was leaning over the shadow's shoulder, grinning as he said his next piece.
"Just something to think on. Next time at Inter-High, you can be sure your precious school will not win."
"Aomine-kun," Kuroko whispered, scared to even say what he wanted to ask.
"What is it Kuroko?"
"I have something I need to tell you, in private." His words came out raspy, his limbs quivering from anticipation as to how his old friend and mentor would react.
"Yes?" Aomine pushed once he had dragged Kuroko off to a far side of the court.
"I'm gay."
"What are you saying?"Aomine's mind flashed to images of Kuroko confessing to him, how would he ever turn the other blue haired male down? He wasn't in love with Kuroko.
"I'm in love with Kagami." He whispered.
"What?" Aomine grasped the boy by the shoulders, it was not what he'd been expecting.
"I didn't know it was going to happen, but I'm too scared to tell him, especially if he doesn't feel the same way."
"Then why are you telling me all of this?"
"I was wondering if you would be willing to help me get a reaction out of him."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I know Akashi is going to bench me now and play Kise instead, I was wondering if you would kiss me on your way out to play and then I could observe his reaction." Kuroko was staring at the floor, ashamed to look up.
"You want me to help you make that idiot jealous because he sees you kissing someone else?"
"And as my old light and him my new, I thought it might mean more-"
"I think you have that part down just by talking to me, but I'm not sure I'm the right choice Kuroko." Aomine rubbed the back of his head. "If I were to give you my honest opinion, I think Akashi would be the better choice. He's closer to your height and powerful, if you want to set up some blockades in Kagami's mind about being interested in you, that's how you'd have to play it. He would start to question if the reason you aren't interested in him is because he towers so much over you, like me, and then he'd start to question how powerful he really is because he's experienced Akashi's emperor eye first hand."
"You're smarter than most people give you credit for." Kuroko told him, Aomine gasped and stared down at him. A smile played at the light bluenette's lips, before he turned and stared down Akashi who had been watching the pair the whole time. Kuroko took slow steady steps towards him, almost scared to repeat his plan. Akashi grinned once it had been repeated, readily accepting his preposition and Aomine's change.
"Second half is about to start," Aida called out, Momoi by her side, wide smiles on their faces.
"Kuroko, you're sitting out now." Akashi informed him needlessly, he closed his eyes, nodding in preparation for about what was about to happen. "Be a good boy on the bench, yeah?"
Then Akashi was kissing him and it felt warm despite the cold hearted person standing there. Kuroko didn't know what had happened until his hands were in the red hair of his temporary captain and the teen was pulling away, a smirk settling in on his face. The ball Aida had been holding was rolling quickly towards a corner of the gymnasium and Seirin was staring in shock at the scene which had just taken place. Kise and Aomine let out teasing whoops, Midorima just laughed, and Murasakibara was paying more attention to his hair than the two boys who had moments before been involved in a heated kiss. Momoi began to giggle and called over:
"I knew it was going to happen one day Kuroko, you just had to come out of the closet didn't you?" The boy in question turned bright red, his face betraying him with plenty of ripe emotion.
Kagami made a small "tch" noise and turned away, sweat flipping from the ends of his hair. Hyuga fetched the ball for his coach, eager to start the game and get past the awkward event. He was quite aware of Kagami's feelings for the little blue haired basketball player. Kagami had confessed his feelings to Hyuga, knowing they might start to affect the way he played. If Kuroko was not interested in Kagami however, it might complicate their game plan further and Hyuga was worrying about what might happen to the Seirin team. Game play started and Kagami was suddenly ruthless, taking his frustration over Kuroko out on the Generation of Miracles. A few of them were having a little bit of a hard time keeping up with his renewed energy. This however only kicked them into high gear and a gap began to grow between the miracles and Seirin. Halfway into the third quarter Hyuga asked Aida for a time out.
"I'm pulling you from the game for a bit." He told Kagami.
"What? I'm the only one who has a chance against them!"
Hyuga glared.
"We can handle our own. We'll bring you back in for the fourth quarter once you have had a chance to cool down."
Kagami threw himself roughly onto the bench, his red eyes lifting of their own accord to land on a pair of light blue eyes staring at him. He quickly dropped his eyes and leaned back, focusing on the backboard the miracles would be scoring in.
Fourth Quarter rolled around and both teams switched out a player to bring Kagami and Kuroko back into play. Kagami kept his eyes off Kuroko as Murasakibara took his spot on the bench. Kuroko shifted the sweat band around his wrist, eyes flitting between Akashi and Kagami. The stare down was radiating anger and Hyuga was wondering if it was okay they brought their ace back onto the court.
Despite Seirin's knowledge of spotting Kuroko while in play, they were still having a hard time seeing him coming against them. It was down to the last couple minutes of the game, the Miracles leading 121 to 118. Kagami managed to get the ball to the captain and he made a three point clutch shot. The score was tied and thirty seconds were left on the clock. Seirin's ace pulled off a magnificent dunk, but Kuroko was on the ball before Seirin really had a chance to register what was happening. The ball flew across the court to Midorima who caught the speed ball Kagami had caught so many times before. With five seconds left he shot an easy three pointer pulling the score up by a one point lead. The buzzer went off just as the ball was returning to Seirin's hands. The Miracles had won by one point.
Aomine swept Kuroko up into a tight hug, cheering at his victory against the Tiger. Kise ruffled the little bluenette's hair, even Midorima and Murasakibara looked pleased with the play having all felt defeat at their hands. Akashi pulled Kuroko from Aomine's grasp and gave him a knowing smirk. A wide smile spread across Kuroko's face at their win, teamwork had returned and while they had nearly lost, they held it all together. Seirin was pleased to to see their phantom player so happy, yet it still stung-his happiness was with his middle school team. Momoi slung herself around Kuroko's shoulders screaming happily. Aida's father called for the teams to line up for the closing.
The five miracles waved as they left; starting up an argument about which video game they would play, considering it had been interrupted by a basketball challenge. Akashi turned for a final moment, giving Kuroko a look. Seirin filtered into the locker rooms to change, Kuroko filing slowly after them. The other three first years and all the second years changed as quickly as possible, leaving an oblivious Kagami alone with Kuroko.
"Kagami-kun," He spoke quietly, scared of how his current light would react. The ace jumped and turned, shoulder hitting his locker door corner, a small red mark appearing on his uncovered arm.
"What are you-" He drifted off in light of the empty locker bank.
"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."
"What are you on about?" Kagami turned back around, his shoulders stiff, trying to ignore the boy behind him.
"Akashi kissed me," He seemed hesitant to say it out loud.
"Yeah, I saw that." Kagami buried himself in his locker.
"It was because I asked him to."
"That's great, I'm sure you'll both make a great couple." His red eyes closed, a grimace set on his lips.=
"I asked him because I wanted to try and make someone else jealous." The red head turned, staring at Kuroko with wide eyes.
"Why would you do that? It'd be easier to just confess, right?"
"I was scared. I wasn't sure if the guy I liked felt the same way and I didn't want playing with him to become awkward." Kuroko flushed a light pink.
"Who is it you like then?" Kagami settled on the bench staring at his shadow who refused to look up. "Not Kiyoshi right? You know Hyuga and him are pretty much-"
"Ah, no!" The teen put up his hands to stop the taller male. His eyes slid up on accident meeting the ace's.
"Who is it then, I don't think any of the other guys are-" He was cut off this time by Kuroko's mouth on his. The scared boy was just about to pull away when Kagami grabbed his wrist, yanking him closer. Kuroko raised a hesitant hand and placed it on Kagami's neck, fingers sliding teasingly against his hair. The ace pulled away, a hand cupping the boys face with the other still on his wrist.
"I didn't think-"
"That's normal then." Kuroko smiled and pulled him back into a much more demanding kiss.
"Can we assume you two have finally resolved your sexual tension then?" Aida asked from the doorway, the rest of Seirin behind them. Kagami glared at them, keeping Kuroko from turning around.
"Just try to refrain from sex in the locker room, yeah?" Kiyoshi teased. "It already smells enough like sweat."
The shadow buried his face in Kagami's neck, his lips grazing his collar bone as he laughed.