Chapter 1

Katsumi Fujioka stared out one of the windows of her classroom. Class 1-D's English teacher were nagging on about the different verb forms and Katsumi couldn't be bothered to listen. She stayed up late last night despite the following day being a school day. The entire night she had studied for the upcoming final math exam. Math isn't her worst subject, history is, but she still needed to spend a bit more time on that subject than others. She twirled her long blonde hair between her fingers and sighed. She couldn't wait to get home and take a nap.

"Fujioka!"

She blinked dazedly when she heard the teacher call her name. With bored eyes she turned her head so she could see the balding Mr. Kobayashi instead of the blue spring sky.

"Yes?" She answered in flawless English and she saw her teacher seethe at her perfect pronunciation.

"What is wrong with this sentence?" Mr. Kobayashi asked with a heavy Japanese accent, pointing on one of the sentences written on the black board. If you looked closely you could see his face start to turn red in annoyance. Katsumi glanced at the sentence and rolled her brown eyes when she saw that it was one of the more complicated sentences. He always called her name when they got to the more difficult parts, just because of her American origin. He had yet to give her a problem she couldn't solve, though.

"It's supposed to be: If Charles eats another cake, I'm sure he'll burst, not: If Charles eat another cake, I'm sure he'll burst." She gave him the correct answer and his eye twitched when he realized it. Her friend Shou turned around in his seat and sent her the thumbs up, enjoying their teacher's annoyance. She smirked at him before zoning out once again. It took a couple of more minutes before class finally ended. Katsumi gathered her books and put them in her blue bag. Slinging her bag over her right shoulder she walked over to Shou who was surrounded by classmates like usual.

"Shou-kun are you walking home today?" She asked her black-haired friend, ignoring the glares some girls sent her for interrupting the ongoing conversation. Shou adjusted his glasses then gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, Katsumi-chan. I have to stay to discuss the upcoming shogi tournament with the club." Shou explained. Katsumi frowned for a second then shrugged.

"That's fine, I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye Shou-kun." She bid farewell and walked out of the classroom. Without haste she made her way through the school. Her school, Rakuzan High, is the biggest school in Kyoto if not the biggest school in Japan. She quite liked the huge and extravagant school, it was quite a step up from the middle school she had gone to. Her middle school had been one of the smaller private schools in Kyoto. The school hadn't been very impressive in itself but the program of the school wasn't anything to sneeze about. It had after all given her a good enough education to get into Rakuzan together with her parents money of course.

Katsumi noticed a group of girls her age further up the corridor, she recognized one of them as a girl from her class, and halted a bit in her step when she heard them talking in excited voices.

"Mayu-chan is the second one this year." A girl with brown curly hair exclaimed. The other three girls nodded wisely.

"I'd apply for manager myself if it wasn't for the stories." Whispered the girl from Katsumi's class, as if afraid someone outside their group would hear her. Well, too late for that, Katsumi thought as she began to close in on the small group. It was at this point she realized what the girls were gossiping about. Of course it's the basketball club. The Rakuzan basketball team is one of the best in Japan and each player's basketball skill is of the highest level. But it's not because of the team's skills that they're so popular, at least not among the girls. Akashi Seijuro is one of the starting players and has unconsciously made his way onto Rakuzan's hot-list. There's a physical list not metaphorical, it's orange and pink and hangs in the girl's bathroom on the second floor and written at the top in red letters is Akashi Seijuro. Katsumi found the whole thing amusing and would love to be the one to inform the boy of it. The guy is well-known as the emperor of Rakuzan, not only because of his position as student president, but also because of his outstanding grades and skills in everything he does. She hasn't met him personally, only seen glimpses of his famous red hair here and there, but she has heard enough stories from her classmates and Shou specifically. Her friend has yet to win a match of shogi against the red-head, to her glasses-clad friend's annoyance.

The short blonde shook her head as she walked past the group. She knew of the event they were discussing. About four months ago the manager for the basketball team quit because she couldn't deal with the amount of work she had to do. Katsumi thought it sounded a bit fishy to quit for that reason and had an inkling that it was more to the story than that. The spot had quickly been filled though, girls jumped at the opportunity to see Akashi and some of the other attractive basketball members. But a week ago that girl dumped the team as well, making their coach livid because it's so close to the Inter High. Katsumi adjusted her bag and wondered whether the basketball team would get a new manager before the competition or not. She had no desire whatsoever to apply as manager despite her own interest in basket, too troublesome.

"Fujioka-san!"

Katsumi stopped her walking and looked in the direction the voice had come from. A head stuck out of one of the classrooms, the face covered in paint. She recognized the girl's face and grumbled under her breath. What does she want this time?

"Hamasaki-san." Katsumi said warily. Her classmate has asked her to run several chores for her before and because of her inability to say no to puppy-eyes Katsumi has run more tasks than she liked. She realized that her nap would have to wait a bit longer.

"Hehe, don't sound so suspicious Fujioka-san!" Hamasaki said innocently. "I just wondered if you could run down to the first floor storage room and get the paint cans standing there, thank you very much, you're the best!"

Before Katsumi got the chance to answer Hamasaki had disappeared back into the classroom, closing the door behind her.

"Why me?" Katsumi sighed, staring up at the ceiling as if it would give her an answer. Of course she didn't get any so she spun on her heel and made her way to the first floor, heading straight for the storage room that she has gone to many times before. In there she found a pile of cans in different colours. She stared at them considerately.

"Two trips or one?" She came to the conclusion that, yes she can carry that much and decided that one trip was enough. With some difficulty she propped every single can in her arms, piling them high enough that her view was blocked by a pink and yellow can. She carefully walked up the two sets of stairs without tripping, but she should have known that this wouldn't end well the first time the cans wobbled threateningly. Halfway to the classroom she tripped on her feet and cans and colour flew everywhere. Most horrifyingly one of the cans hit a person. Katsumi's eyes widened and she could feel herself blush.

"Damn." She cursed and stared at the pink colour running down a boy's school uniform. Looking up at the poor person she'd just made into a jigglypuff she froze. She stared into cold, heterochromatic eyes and only one thought repeated itself in her mind. Oh fuck. The boy she had just recognized as Akashi Seijuro wiped one finger on his previously white uniform and then stared passively at the colour on his finger. The motion was enough to thaw her frozen state.

"I'm so sorry!" She half screamed. Hastily, she reached towards him to try and rub away the paint but his hand stopped her by gripping her elbow.

"Don't." He ordered and Katsumi withdrew her hand. Yeah, that would have been a stupid move. She looked around the corridor and sighed in relief when she saw that no one else had seen the fiasco she's made. She should have made two trips.

"I'm sorry Akashi-san, I'll clean this up immediately. I'll also pay for whatever the washing costs will be for your clothes." Katsumi told the quiet boy as she crouched down and gathered the cans she had dropped on the floor. In some magical way the only can that had opened was the pink one. There was nearly no paint on the floor, so it would be easy enough to clean.

"I can afford the payment myself." He said smoothly.

"Well, yeah, I'm not questioning your wealth or anything. I just meant it as repayment for my clumsy actions." Katsumi explained while waving with one hand as she did so.

"Fujioka-san."

Katsumi blinked in surprise and her stomach did a flip. Did he just?

"You know who I am?" She asked in bewilderment, looking up at the boy with wide eyes. Never had she thought that the Akashi Seijuro would know her name. It's not like she was invisible in school, she'd say that she's quite well-known actually, but it just feels like she and Akashi are on two entirely different levels.

"You received the highest score on the English finals." He explained to her. His somewhat bitter tone wasn't obvious but she could hear it beneath the smoothness and passiveness of his voice. A small smirk tugged on the corner of her mouth. Akashi's eyes narrowed and she forced her face into a neutral state, don't piss off the student president, not smart.

"I see." The monotone reply seemed to annoy the emperor more than her almost smirk had done as his face darkened. With the cans gathered in her arms again she stood up. She should give Hamasaki-san the paint before she cleans up the floor.

"You won't repay me with money." Akashi surprised her by suddenly speaking.

"What?" This isn't good, she thought when she saw amusement flicker in the red-head's eyes at her suspicious tone.

"Congratulations, Fujioka-san.," he said sarcastically "you're the new manager of the basketball club."

Katsumi paled.

"But-"

"Are you in a school club?"

"No…"

"Then I'll see you tomorrow. Training begins at 18:00." Akashi informed before walking past the dumbfounded blonde, striding away with too much confidence for someone drenched in pink paint.

"…Fate you bitch."

Hi! This is my first Kuroko no Basuke fanfic :D I'm relatively new to the fandom but I love it so much I had to write something. I hope you liked the chapter and please comment if you want me to continue!

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