Disclaimer: 'Kuroko no Basuke' does not belong to me. Yasuko Tanaka does.

Of Ignorance And Apathy

"Tanakacchi."

She believed if she ignored him, he might go away.

"Oi, Tanakacchi."

She was wrong.

But even if he wouldn't leave her alone, she decided to continue pretending he didn't exist anyway. It was a childish trick that seemed to work with everyone else.

"Tanakacchi, you can't ignore me forever." He sang playfully.

"Ryota Kise," she replied coolly, "I can do whatever I want." And Yasuko Tanaka had spoken. Her word, according to almost no one, was final.

As if he had already walked away, leaving her to her own thoughts, Yasuko was returning to the novel she was reading. Kise waited just a moment, taking the time to study her. He never tired of seeing her face.

Black hair was swept into a ponytail, gathered in a tangled mess of loose curls. Grey eyes, as cold as the words she spoke and framed by glasses, saw only the words below her. If there were but two things in the world Yasuko was undeniably good at it, it would be running - she was on the track team, after all. The other was her exceptional ability to disregard the people around her.

"You're so cruel, Tanakacchi." Kise whined.

"And you're so annoying. I will pay you to stop saying my name." she reasoned.

He leaned forward on her desk, hand on chin and smile on his lips. "I just like the way it sounds." He admitted easily. "Ta-na-ka-cchi."

"You may as well just call me Yasuko, at this point." She sighed, wearily.

"Really? Does this mean we're friends? Oh, I've dreamed of this day ever since I first met you-"

"No."

The smallest of pouts appeared. Yasuko hated how cute it looked.

"Like I said," Kise replied, lifting his hand and placing a finger against her forehead, "Cruel."

Yasuko, stirred from the deep pits of her book, lifted her head so that she met his gaze directly. She would have been stupid to call Kise ugly, when he was anything but and modelled frequently, yet there seemed to be something that led her to grow perpetually annoyed by him. Blonde, tall and friendly; perhaps he was just too perfect. It was intimidating.

"You're blushing." Kise remarked smugly.

"No I'm not-" Yasuko fumbled for an excuse, "-I'm just…sick."

"Then how come you came to school today?"

"I didn't want to get behind."

"But you only blush around me."

"Shut up."

Yasuko crossed her arms, turning away. She would rather look out the window, than stare any longer at the annoyingly beautiful face of Kise's.

It was only lunchtime, and the thought of suffering the rest of the day under his watch was a daunting prospect. He was the one person to make her inexplicably nervous.

Kise sat on a chair opposite her desk, leaning back against it nonchalantly. Already, his presence had attracted a small crowd of female onlookers. Yasuko, hating the attention, merely shot them all a scathing glare, before they turned to their own conversations once again.

"Tanakacchi, can I ask you something?" Kise wondered.

"Probably not." She replied.

"Eh? Why?"

Yasuko sighed. "Because everything you say never has any point. You just want to waste my time."

"It's not a waste if you're spending it with me." He countered, tossing his head around as if he were the epitome of beauty.

"Kise, please leave."

"You know, you can call me Ryota." He informed her cheerfully.

"I don't want to."

Kise leaned forward again. "You don't have to be so difficult all the time, I'm just being friendly."

"So you say." She retorted.

"Well, what would you call it?" he inquired, unfazed by her bluntness.

"Annoying."

"Man, Tanakacchi is so mean." He sang teasingly.

Yasuko let out the heaviest of breaths, before turning towards the blonde man before her. She looked him over with critical gaze. He stared back, having grown used to the intense seriousness that she seemed to embody.

"Fine. What did you want to ask?" she relented at last.

"It's simple," he explained, "I want you, after school, to meet me on the rooftop."

"What?"

Kise merely smiled at her, and stood tall. Had Yasuko been next to him, and even though she was of an average height, he would have dwarfed her.

"Why?" pressed Yasuko.

Kise didn't answer her. Instead, smiling as if he were pleased that he had confused her so thoroughly, he began to walk away.

"Seeya later." He called out casually.

Yasuko propped her chin up with her hand. "Idiot." she sighed.

But the question remained. Why?

It didn't take long for Yasuko to shrug away her worry. Rather than needlessly worry about something she couldn't change, she instead stood from her seat. It was pointless to try and continue reading when she was in need of something more active to distract her. On her way out of the classroom, she passed Kise again.

He was avidly listening to a group of boys, one of whom was animatedly telling a story. As she walked by, watching him, Kise proved he had the nerve to cast her a subtle wink. She scoffed, turning her head forward again.

As far as she was concerned, whatever would happen later that day could be dealt with and thought about at that time. For now, she was content to ignore it.

Outside, the halls were unusually full. Yasuko knew that it mostly students trying to beat the heat, although it still managed to irritate her. Walking the short distance to the toilets seemed to be much harder, and longer, as she had to dodge the circles of friends and outstretched legs.

Once inside, however, she was presented with welcome peace. It was a universally accepted truth among students that if ever anyone was searching for an escape, they would come to the toilets.

Only, this time, it didn't work.

"Hey!"

At first, Yasuko didn't glance around. She merely continued to stand in front of the mirror.

"Tanaka!"

She still didn't yet look for the speaker. Instead, she waited for them to walk in front of her. When they did, Yasuko discovered that it wasn't just one, but three girls, who stood around her. They wore their hair straightened flat, and while Yasuko had no objection to makeup, she disagreed with the thick, lumped-on look they seemed to all have adopted.

One of the girls, with black hair and tanned skin, placed her hands on her hips as her glare bore down upon Yasuko.

"Yes?" the bespectacled girl asked.

"What did Kise want with you?" she replied scathingly.

"Why does it matter?" Yasuko retorted, already bored.

Honestly, some rare few of Kise's fans could be quite irrational in situations regarding him.

She laughed, whilst another girl, with a more freckled face, cut in, "He shouldn't be wasting time talking to wannabes."

Yasuko sighed. "Perhaps that's why he doesn't talk to you."

"You little bitch." hissed the third.

"Look," the tallest of them, who was the first to speak, placed a hand on wall above Yasuko's head, "We're just trying to be nice and warn you. So back off, before someone gets hurt."

"What are you talking about?" Yasuko wondered.

"Puh-lease. It's obvious you like Kise, but he only talks to you because he doesn't like to see people left out."

"Okay."

"What?" blurted the freckled girl.

"Okay." Yasuko repeated slowly.

"You're not ever going to talk to Kise again." warned the third girl.

Yasuko shrugged, before pushing past them nonchalantly. "You seem to think I care." She marvelled.

"Well…"

One of the girls laughed, so forcedly that she sounding like she was choking. Their shoes clacked as they began to leave, just as quickly as they had come. But not without a departing comment.

"Whatever, let's just leave. She'll learn she's wrong soon enough."

Yasuko couldn't resist a smile.

She knew the truth, and she knew that she was right. She couldn't have possibly cared less about those three girls, or their empty threats. Apathy was the one thing Yasuko knew best.

But that wasn't to say that, on occasion, she couldn't care. It just took the right person.

.

.

.

Yasuko's decision to meet with Kise after school was neither the only, nor the biggest, surprise of that day.

Though it had indeed taken her ten minutes of internal debate to finally decide to go and meet with him, and despite it being one of the few times that her curiosity bettered her logic, Yasuko found something even more unexpected awaiting her.

"Hey, Tanaka- I mean, Yasuko!"

She glanced around, and found him standing on the far side of the rooftop. Kise looked at the same as ever, still dressed in his school uniform, while a basketball was cradled in one arm. Without altering her expression, or change her pace, Yasuko began to approach him. The door slammed shut behind her.

Before she could even begin to speak, Kise lifted the ball up, and threw it at her.

Yasuko, caught off-guard, only barely managed to raise her arms in time. She thanked her instincts, and her natural aptitude for sport – something that was entirely at odds with her demeanour.

Her body braced for the impact, the ball now in her hands, Yasuko stared at Kise.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

He smiled calmly, and let his eyes flicker down to the basketball suggestively. Growing even more confused, she looked down.

"What the hell?" she again repeated, for there, written in permanent marker, was a question.

Will you go out with me?

Yasuko dropped the ball. "No."

Kise, unperturbed by the rejection, countered with a simple, "Why not?"

"Because you're annoying."

"And yet you just can't seem to stay away."

"I-I only came here because I was curious! Not because you asked."

Kise smiled, and as he began to walk forward, Yasuko took a step back and crossed her arms defensively.

"Liar," he teased, "Why don't you just admit the truth?"

"What truth?" she replied quietly, "That I like you? It wouldn't change anything."

"…you like me?"

Kise stopped, still, his eyes wide; not with surprise, but hope. Even Yasuko didn't possess the heart to take that away from him.

She nodded slowly. "Oddly enough, yes."

"Oh," he breathed, "That's good. I thought I'd lost my touch for a bit."

"Idiot." Yasuko scoffed, adjusting her glasses.

Once again, Kise's smile fell away and he took another step towards her. The space between them had never been so little, and seemed so great.

"But you still won't go out with me," he murmured, and when she nodded, added, "That's a first."

"Maybe I'm just not an idiot, like everyone else around you." Yasuko proclaimed, turning on her heel.

She went to walk away, but only made it mid-step. Kise grabbed her wrist, and with a strength that could surely be attributed to his obsession with playing basketball, pulled her back. Yasuko spun, tangled waves of her black hair swinging and grey eyes wide, only to end up pressed against Kise.

Her head barely reached his shoulders.

"Why?" he insisted.

"Let go of me." she ordered.

Kise did so, quickly realizing that his grip had been hurting her. Now free, Yasuko let her hand rise to his face – and she didn't slap him, just merely placed it against his cheek.

"You want to know why, Kise, and I'll tell you; it's because it would upset the balance of the world."

"Oh, okay," He said as if he understood, "What does that mean?"

Yasuko sighed tiredly, her patience wearing thin. "It means," she began, "That those groupie girls who follow you everywhere would be madly disappointed if we were to date exclusively. And I mean madly. Jealousy is a hard thing to control."

"They're not that bad," Kise assured, "Plus most of my fans listen to me, and I wouldn't let them hurt you."

"That's sweet," Yasuko deadpanned, "But it's not true, and you can't guarantee that. Most are fine, I get that-"

"I'd protect you-"

"No, you just don't get it, do you?"

Kise froze at her outburst. Yasuko took a step backwards, once again, only the anger followed.

"You can't even see the trouble you already cause me! I was happy being ignored – it was better than having people whispering behind my back just because you decided to talk to me. Because you can't stand the idea of someone not falling at your feet! Even if you never meant to be a problem, it doesn't matter; I'm telling you no. I'm not going to ruin my life just so you can finish your game with me-!"

Without a word, or even a second to spare – at the first sign of a tear – Kise was hugging Yasuko.

She wished she could wipe her eyes, only her glasses were in the way and so had to let the tears remain and fall. Surprisingly, despite what she said, Yasuko found herself hugging him back.

"Okay. You said no, and I respect that. I won't bring this up again, and if you really want," Kise murmured, "I'll leave you alone from now on."

She hated that he kissed her forehead. It made her want to stay the way they were.

But the scales were tipping, and the odds stacking up higher and higher. She always knew she would have to make a decision. Was it worth the target of shallow bullies, for the chance to be with Ryota Kise?

If only it had been someone else.

His arms fell away after a short time, and Kise allowed Yasuko some space.

"For the record, since I never told you," he said, "It's never been a game. I just really like you too."

The right person had always been Kise.

"This's bullshit." Yasuko muttered.

"Wha-"

Since he was so much taller than her, Yasuko had no choice but to grab his tie, pulling him down to her height. That way, it was so much easier to kiss him.

He remained half-bent long after, stunned.

"Does this mean you're changing your mind?" he wondered.

Yasuko crossed her arms and blinked away her tears. "Maybe." She replied.

"I always knew that we were soulmates, meant for each other since the dawn of time-"

"I said maybe!"

Because on occasion, Yasuko decided, the odds didn't always matter.

Thanks for reading and sticking through the the end (admittedly, this isn't my favourite piece of writing).

If you didn't like it, feel free to tell me why so I can continue to improve, and if you do like it, then a huge thank you to you!