Don't own Kuroko no Basuke.

Don't own the cover art.

Partly inspired by a conversation I had with cywscross.

Point Guard Pointers

Shun was regretting not running away at first chance when he caught a glance at Coach's face. She was far too gleeful for whatever it was to be good for them. Or rather, not tiring.

Even now, as he sat beside Hyuuga on the bus and appeared to be reading from one of his joke books, he was contemplating breaking the window and escaping that way. Run away; maybe join the army so that Riko couldn't kill him…

'Wait,' he paused, and then reached for his personal joke book, 'joining the army might harm me.' Writing the new joke down quickly, he silently returned it back to his bag next to his shogi board, which he had brought in case an opportunity rose where he could use it.

Tired of pretending to read his joke book (honestly, he knows them all by heart by now), Shun put it down and instead looked around the bus. Hyuuga seemed as unnerved by Riko's enthusiasm as he himself was, Kiyoshi looked as cheerful as always, Koganei and Tsuchida were talking with Mitobe who listened and responded accordingly with turns of his head, Kagami looked excited but apprehensive, as did Kuroko (or, you know, the closest Kuroko could look to anything), and Furihata, Fukuda and Kawahara were talking amongst themselves.

Shun smiled gently when Furihata looked up and caught his gaze. The nervous freshman smiled back before looking down again, and Shun let his face fall passive once more. Furihata was becoming more aware of his surroundings; he'd make an excellent strategist one day. And, as they had all already seen, he would also most likely be the tie binding Kagami and Kuroko to the rest of Seirin's freshman.

Shun's thoughts were scattered when a bolt of pain shot through his head, and his sight suddenly widened to include the entire street. Swaying from the pain, he tried to hide it by leaning carefully against the window. Luckily, Hyuuga wasn't looking, far too engrossed in his conversation with Riko and Kiyoshi to have noticed (and Shun carefully buried the anger and hurt he felt then even more deeply than his other emotions so that it wouldn't show), and the point guard took a deep breath before reining his eyesight in once more. It worked, but a migraine lurked about in his head, waiting for his guard to drop, and Shun drooped a little in exhaustion.

He hoped he'd last through this training.

Junpei listened intently as Riko explained what they were going to do. "We'll be using a private training facility," she squealed, her eyes bright at the thought of the state-of-the-art equipment that would be available. "We'll be with two other schools that were given special permission to be here as well."

"Do you know who the other two schools are?" Junpei asked curiously, but Riko just shook her head.

"Nope. The gym owners were really tight-lipped about it." Junpei expected Izuki to pipe in then, and make one of his ridiculous jokes. When nothing happened, the clutch shooter turned to his friend, and frowned.

Izuki looked tired. And not just the normal tired that came from a hard practice or game; more like a bone-deep weariness kind of tired that can only come from weeks of feeling that way. Junpei cursed himself for not noticing earlier, but then Izuki opened his eyes and it was like that tiredness hadn't existed in the first place.

But Junpei remembered that look. And he'd be damned if he lets his friend suffer whatever's ailing him alone.

"Alright, we're here! You guys ready to go explore?" Shouts of excitement and agreement answered Riko's question, but Shun just shouldered his bag and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Kantoku, but I just want to head to the lounge where we'll meet the other teams. I'll take the coolers too, if that's cool with you." Izuki smiled even as the others groaned at his terrible joke.

Hyuuga looked ready to argue with him, but Riko cut him short with a, "Fine with me, Izuki-kun. Does anyone want to go with him?"

The others mumbled reluctantly, wanting to explore, but Furihata spoke up. "I will, Kantoku. I don't want Izuki-senpai to get lost, so we'll travel together." The other freshman looked ready to protest, but Furihata smiled at them calmly. "I'll explore with Izuki-senpai later, guys. Have fun without me."

After the two had bid the others goodbye, Shun looked at Furihata in amusement. "So why did you really want to come with me?"

Furihata blinked. "Eh?"

Shun snorted and began carrying the coolers to the lounge. "Point Guard Pointer Number One: Most point guards have an amazing sense of direction. I could probably find the lounge blindfolded. So why did you really want to come along?"

Furihata blinked again before smiling unrepentantly at his senpai. "I just didn't want to explore with the others. And you looked lonely, senpai."

Shock and then amusement flickered over Shun's face, leaving only a small smirk behind. "Impressive. Keep training those eyes of yours, Furihata. Point Guard Pointer Number Two says that most point guards have rather sharp eyes. You'll need them to make key decisions and plays throughout the game."

Furihata blushed a little at the praise, but got over it enough to help with the coolers. With their teamwork, they got to the lounge in record time. The first year point guard looked around curiously. "So this is where we'll relax more often than not?"

Izuki nodded and began putting the contents of the coolers into one of the three refrigerators available (there was a fourth refrigerator, but it was industrial sized and clearly meant for food provided by the facility). "Hai. From the looks of things, all of the teams share this lounge, I guess to encourage inter-school relations or something. It then separates into three different halls, one for each team. But," here he paused and groaned, "I forgot to get the keys from Kantoku, so it looks like we'll just lounge in the lounge."

Now it was Furihata's turn to groan. "Izuki-senpai, that was terrible."

But Shun just looked at him seriously. "No it wasn't. You'll know when you receive true punishment."

Furihata's groan sounded more pained.

Just then, the two heard the door open. Turning around, they gaped at what they saw.

"You guys are…!"

All of Seirin bar their point guards were having the time of their lives exploring the training facility. Riko was of course the most exuberant, but the others knew good equipment when they saw it.

"Check out this pool! It's huge!"

"Whooooa! Look how high these weight machines go!"

"This place is crazy!"

As they were running around, the team turned a corner and collided with another group. "Ah, gomen." Kuroko said, bowing apologetically.

"Eh? Kurokocchi?! Kagamicchi?!"

"Oha Asa said that this would be an unusual day for most signs, but I didn't think she would mean something like this."

Kuroko blinked. "Kise-kun? Midorima-kun? Your schools were selected as well?"

Midorima adjusted his glasses. "Of course, though I am shocked that Seirin was the third school to be chosen."

Junpei scowled at the shooter, but Kagami beat him with a snarled, "What was that, Megane?"

Midorima scowled back, and was going to snipe something in return when Junpei stopped the fight with a curious, "Where's your captain, Kise-san?"

"Hm? Oh, he decided to just head to the lounge early."

"As did Takao." Midorima reluctantly added, his face twisted unhappily at that.

'So all of the point guards are in the lounge area,' Junpei noted, watching Kuroko interact with his old teammates. 'I wonder how that will turn out.'

Kasamatsu and Shun were quiet as they set up their shogi pieces, Takao watching from over Kasamatsu's shoulder as Furihata watched from beside Shun. "So why did you have this shogi board with you in the first place?" Kasamatsu asked in interest, and Shun hummed in pleasure.

"I brought the shogi board in case I should get bored." He smiled slightly as Furihata groaned a little and Kasamatsu's eyebrows went up, but Takao just laughed.

"Nice, senpai. You must have been waiting for someone to ask you that question, ne?"

"Of course." Here Shun's smile widened, his amusement leaking through at last. "That's half the reason I brought it." Takao laughed again, and Kasamatsu smiled at the admission of planning a bad joke all along.

The two played against one another quietly, Takao "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing at some of the trickier plays, while Furihata watched on in riveted silence. It finally came to an end when Kasamatsu placed a piece down with a solemn "Ote" and Shun bowed and said "Thank you for the game."

There was a beat of silence before Takao leaned forward eagerly. "That was an awesome game!"

Shun smiled at him before turning to Furihata. "I hope you learned a little from that game. I would like it if you played Takao-kun next; Point Guard Pointer Number Three: A point guard should be well-versed in strategic thinking. It helps you set the flow of the game." Furihata nodded back and moved forward to take his place, so Shun got out of the way and walked to the kitchenette nearby. "I'm making smoothies, does anyone want one?"

Alongside Takao's loud and Kasamatsu's quiet affirmations, Furihata commented, "I didn't know you could make smoothies, senpai."

"Well, one should be comfortable using at least one kitchen-related thing; mine's the blender. I can actually make a smoothie that relieves headaches, one for muscle pain, you name it."

"Can you make me one of those headache-relieving smoothies?" Shun nodded in response and Kasamatsu smiled gratefully. "Thanks. If it works as well as you imply, I might need one whenever Kise gets to be too much."

Shun hummed in amusement before taking fruits out of the facility-provided refrigerator and cutting them up. The others watched for a moment then returned to the shogi game. After a while, the sound of the blender began then ended, and soon Shun was back with four glasses in hand. Each glass had a straw, lemon wedge and, upon closer inspection, a swirl of honey in it.

Shun handed each drink out and began drinking his own, sighing in relief as the migraine that had been prowling in the back of his mind finally disappeared. He looked up as shocked sounds echoed around him and saw that the other point guards were near boneless in their relaxation. He chuckled. "I guess that means the drinks work?"

"Can I hire you as a therapist?" Kasamatsu asked in response, taking another sip of the now blessed drink. "If you can make these for me every week I come and get Kise out of your hair, I'll pay you."

"Deal." Shun agreed easily. "I could use the money."

"Add me to that order list, would ya?" Takao asked from his slumped position over the table, Furihata nodding weakly. Shun laughed quietly but confirmed the order and, slowly, they returned to their game.

A few minutes went by before Shun looked at them all with a surprised "Oh!" and when the others looked at him in question, the raven haired teen's smile was a little more devious. "Since all of the people with a sense of direction are in one room, who wants to bet that our teams are all lost right now?"

There was a pause, before all four said in unison, "No bet."

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"S-shut up!"

Junpei pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to hold back the migraine forming. He would have given anything for one of Izuki's smoothies at this point (and that included putting up with one of his terrible jokes). Not only were they lost, but Midorima, Kise and Kagami wouldn't shut up and Kuroko kept scaring the shit out of people by appearing and disappearing constantly.

Someone may very well die before they even reach the lounge at this rate.

After at least another hour of hopeless wandering, they finally reached the lounge, only to stop short in confusion once they heard Izuki's voice.

"…so I told the man, "Sir, I'm rather flattered that you think so, but I'm concerned with the fact that you think what I'm wearing is a dress."" There was a pause before someone, Takao Junpei can't help but guess, began howling with laughter. It was soon followed by Kasamatsu and Furihata's quieter laughs, all of them obviously enjoying themselves. The three teams finally entered the lounge, and Junpei didn't know what to think of the irritation he felt bubbling at the sight before him.

Izuki sat on the floor by the window, and was surrounded on all sides. Takao was leaning on Izuki for support as he cackled gleefully at the story, Furihata was resting with his back against Izuki's, and Kasamatsu was on Izuki's other side, not as touchy-feely but clearly just as engrossed in the story as the other two. All of them were sipping on what appeared to be smoothies and Junpei could admit that he was really jealous right then.

Nearby, Midorima and Kise let out a growl and whine respectively. The blonde then wailed a despondent "Kasamatsu-senpai!" and tackled the startled third year while Shuutoku's shooter glared at his point guard.

"Takao, get over here now. You need to help set up the rooms." The hawk-eyed teen groaned about how mean his "Shin-chan" was before getting up and walking over to him, Izuki watching with a relaxed smile on his face.

Junpei walked over and helped Furihata up before offering his hand to Izuki. "Next time, I'm going with you."

Izuki laughed good-naturedly. "No you're not. You'll do whatever it takes to avoid my jokes!"

Junpei grunted. "True. So, did you have fun?"

Izuki gave him a small grin. "Yup! We even traded pointers between each other!"

"Shut up, Izuki." Junpei then proceeded to ignore the glares Kise and Midorima were giving his best friend, knowing the other would either not notice or ignore them entirely.

This trip couldn't end soon enough.

*Omake*

"…so I told the man, "Sir, I'm rather flattered that you think so, but I'm concerned with the fact that you think what I'm wearing is a dress." And that, Furihata, is Point Guard Pointer Number Four: With our attention to detail, point guards make excellent cross-dressers." There was a pause before Kasamatsu agreed with a quiet "true" and Junpei heard Kise choke on air to his right.

If he doesn't die by someone else's hand, Junpei was going to kill Izuki.

Honestly; you accidentally mistake your male friend for a female one time, and they never let you live it down.

*End Omake*

Notes:

Megane - It basically means "glasses". So it's kind of the equivalent of Kagami calling Midorima "four eyes".

So...yay! Point guard bonding and jealous GoM! You're welcome to guess what was bothering Izuki at the beginning of the fic; I may write more about it one day.

Please review.

Ja ne!