Disclaimer: Don't own. If I did, Aomine and Kuroko would appear on every page, I'm not even kidding.
Kagami Taiga scratched his head, pulling a sour face, and repeated his announcement.
"Well, yeah, it's the eyelid and all that, and Coach said I can't play because, if I do, she's is going to chain me to the bench. Believe me, I tried to argue. She'll do it", he repeated, pointing to his bandaged head.
"Damn right I will!", Riko completed, crossing her arms over her chest and looking like some representation of a war goddess. "He almost split his eyelid in half. If Kagami even stretch the wrong way, he'll be out of commission for months, and I will not have that. So, we will play with what we got here and that's the end of it. It's a practice game, nobody is going to die if we play without him."
Koganei spluttered. "Bu-but there's a Kise and a Midorima in the other team, Coach! We need Kagami against Kise! Better yet: we need to mix these practice teams better, because this distribution is just unfair! Have you seen that Akashi Seijuurou has himself, Aomine, Murasakibara and his three pet Uncrowned Kings in the same team?"
"Are you saying my practice program is flawed?", Riko smiled frostily.
Kagami tuned out the shouted discussion to sigh and sit on the bench, resigned. He had argued he could play with only one functioning eye, but it took only thirty seconds for the Coach and the captain to explain how useless Kagami was without the notion of profundity given by the missing left vision - he would not be able to jump. Not to mention the wound itself; Taiga did not want to stich his goddamn eyelid again, it felt like he was the victim of a horror tale the whole time. He shuddered.
"Let Daiki play in his place."
Snapping his head up, Kagami followed the commanding voice and found Akashi Seijuurou standing on the edge of the circle formed by the Seirin team, moving his water bottle lazily between his hands. Everybody went silent immediately.
It was not like he disliked the ex-captain of the Generation of Miracles. At least not that much. It's just - he was the type of crazy bastard that scared the shit of people all the time, and Kagami always felt like a caged tiger when he was around the guy. Akashi had that way of acting and speaking like goddamn royalty, and Taiga was not patient enough to tolerate insurmountable amounts of arrogance for long periods of time. It was really a miracle that Teikou's previous generation had maintained their team together and functional for the entire duration of middle school, considering all the other members of first string were not exactly normal and amicable, either.
Actually, this whole "practice program" thing Coach, Momoi and Akashi organized was also a miracle of some kind. Kagami could not, for the life of him, understand why Akashi agreed to engage in these mixed practice matches. For one, his team didn't need it. And he came out as someone who thought human interaction was beneath him. The only explanation was that Akashi had some hidden agenda going on, and that? Never a good sign.
"But the teams have already been decided...", Coach started, frowning.
Akashi dismissed her speech with an imperial wave of his hand. Riko's face morphed from intrigued to homicidal in less than a second, making the rest of her team take a step back.
"These are not official games, and Daiki entered my team because he arrived late." The last word was said with a hint of... Something. Murderous something. Like Aomine was going to pay for oversleeping and forgetting completely about the practice matches until Momoi brought him into the gymnasium by his ears, as usual. Apparently, only Akashi could be fashionable late to anything. "He is of the same species Kagami is, which means he won't break your team dynamics. It's quite simple."
Coach opened her mouth to complain, then stopped and gave a thoughtful glance towards Aomine, who was playing absentmindedly with a basketball on the other end of the gymnasium, looking the poster boy for Bored Out Of My Mind. Riko's gaze crossed with Momoi, who was sitting beside Aomine. They nodded to each other and coach's stance relaxed suddenly.
Huh. He didn't know those two were in nodding terms.
"Okay, that's a good solution.", she relented, slowly. "Alright, everyone, warm up! Kuroko, go call Aomine so we can get started."
Blinking owlishly, Kagami turned to watch Kuroko's unwavering gaze. The boy was wearing his usual expressionless mask and only acquiesced with his head, turning tail to cross the courts and explain the new arrangements to his old teammate. However, there was a gleam in those clear eyes that wasn't there a minute ago. Taiga was getting better at reading his partner, these days, but he couldn't pinpoint what, exactly, that strange look meant, because he hadn't seen it before.
His musings on the subject were postponed, though, when he got distracted because Akashi had chosen to sit on Seirin's bench instead of going back to where his own team was lurking. Kagami tried to express his surprise through the only pair of eye and eyebrow available in his face. He had to turn completely to witness Akashi's answering smirk.
"I'll watch this game", the captain informed, matter off factly.
Kagami shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Then, it began, and Taiga forgot completely about Akashi's presence, because. Because this was. What the hell?
The other team had Kise, Midorima, Takao and a mix of Shuutoku and Toou regulars. It was far from being an easy team to beat, because they never missed anything, Midorima was shooting from everywhere and Kise was something from a Shounen Jump manga with his unbelievable doppelganger skills. On the other hand, Seirin had not mixed for some odd reason – more like Coach had planned it that way, whatever - and the only different player on their side was Aomine. It was supposed to be an even match.
It was not.
Seirin was massacring the other team. No, that was wrong: Aomine and Kuroko were massacring the other team. They were moving lightning fast through the court, exchanging the ball in a blur that was very hard to track. And the journey it made was pretty much a constant loop between the pair.
They didn't need to look to pass the ball. Not even once. Kuroko passed and Aomine was there. Aomine stole the ball and carelessly threw it behind, where it landed firmly on Kuroko's hands. The other Seirin players caught rebounds and defended passionately, but when it came to scoring, Aomine and Kuroko were playing by themselves with the single-minded synchrony of people who practiced together every day, many hours a day. (Like Kagami and Kuroko did.)
But they hadn't played together, on the same side, since the last game of Teikou's Generation of Miracles.
"Aren't you happy I separated them?"
Kagami was startled by the sudden commentary and forced himself to stop trying to understand the trajectory of the passes - how the ball Kuroko had tossed through his own legs had bounced so quickly to Aomine's waiting hands - to process what Akashi had said.
"What?"
Akashi was watching the game calmly, intently, but kept talking in spite of his concentration on the ball.
"Daiki and Tetsuya. Aren't you relieved they ended up in different schools?" There was a knowing smirk in his lips, and his eyes were shining like someone who was sure of victory.
Kagami frowned with the part of his face available for facial expressions. "Well, Kuroko quit your team because you were all arrogant bastards who made him feel like crap, as far as I know."
This time, Akashi directed the full power of his twisted smile in Kagami's direction, turning away from the match for a couple of seconds.
"Exactly", he confirmed, smug like a successful warlord standing over his latest spoils.
Usually, Kagami was not the brightest star in the sky when it came to plotting and scheming, but he had guts and instincts screaming at him, making him understand the implied truth with sudden clarity.
"You did it on PURPOSE. You made it so Kuroko became majorly pissed at you guys", he stated, incredulous. "You're such a bastard."
Akashi chuckled, turning back to the game.
"I didn't force anyone. I just made Teikou win like it should."
"And let Aomine lose his shit in the process."
The smile of the Emperor became even more twisted. Kagami understood completely why people wanted to bolt when the guy was making that serial killer face.
"I just demanded they made their quota of points in the score."
"You killed teamwork."
"Teamwork wasn't necessary."
"You made Kuroko feel unnecessary."
"I was not his partner."
"I bet you cackled up like an anime villain when Kuroko gave you his resignation letter."
Akashi maintained his rapt attention on the game, but his eyes were shining with satisfaction. "No, I just made sure he would not follow Daiki."
Kagami shook his head. This guy was unbelievable. It was so absurd he couldn't even have in him to become angry. Actually, Taiga was more surprised to hear what seemed like an honest explanation being voluntarily given by the controlling jerk. The situation was foreboding and started to feel like some kind of trap.
"He would follow him, of course. That's the kind of relationship they have. Nothing sort of what happened would keep Kuroko from his place as Daiki's shadow."
In the court, the game reached half-time. Kise approached Kuroko and started whining about the unfairness of it all. Aomine barked a laugh and turned an amused expression to Kuroko, whose serious face broke into a tiny, happy grin. Kagami suddenly remembered the few times he had seen that satisfied expression on his face, always after reaching one step closer to their promise of defeating the Generation of Miracles.
And now, there it was, so easily brought by a practice match with his old partner. Not that it was a surprise, considering. Everything Kuroko did immediately after leaving Teikou was motivated by one wish only. Kagami remembered clearly when he said, that day during the Winter Cup, with a bittersweet, quiet voice, that he wanted to see it again, one more time – Aomine smiling because he was playing basketball.
Of course Kuroko wanted Seirin to win; to show his former teammates what made a team a team. Even so, the initial spark had always been Aomine. Watching this game - this simple, practice game - was enough to make him understand fully why. Because Kagami could rely on Kuroko and be his partner and even his good friend, but that thing he saw between those two was soulmate material.
"All that is unimportant, since my orders and the oath we made applied to high school only. We're going to be a team again in a few years."
Kagami's brain stopped. Rewinded.
"Wait, what?"
"University will be our reunion stage. Toudai, probably. Most of them are living closer to Tokyo, anyway." Akashi lifted one eyebrow, his mismatched eyes bright. "You better study hard if you want to follow us."
And with that, Akashi got up and left. Never looked back. Taiga felt his blood boil with the distinct notion that he got premeditatedly mindfucked. And the worse thing was that he knew he would willingly play in Akashi's board if it meant to be part of whatever that ruthless schemer was planning. It would be fun, without a doubt.
Besides, it had worked for Kuroko and Aomine, in the end.
In the middle of the gymnasium, Daiki and Tetsuya bumped fists, smiling at each other like the children they weren't anymore.