a/n: you guys can completely blame iciiing for this trainwreck. a high school basketball au that has nothing to do with high school musical and has references to kuroko no basuke. enjoy!
Kai paces across the lineup of hopefuls, judging each nervous face and hearing each name as he passes. The only one that sticks out at him is a blonde who grins at him and throws out a V-sign before announcing himself as "Miwa Taishi, sir!" and he is… good. Droplets of sweat roll down his face. Wasn't he tired? The rest are panting, sweaty messes. Miwa seems to be the most energetic of them all after a rigorous try-out.
"Nice to meet you," Kai mutters in response as he had for every other potential player, trying to ignore the way his next step hesitates. His grin is a little disarming. He vaguely recognizes him from his English class and wonders why he hadn't bothered to try out until now.
When he finishes with the introductions - with no useless "and say something about yourself" because what was the point in those if they were all here for basketball anyway? - he rejoins the vice-captain, the red-headed Ren, at the centre of the court.
"So, any of them impress the great Kai?" Ren asks, rolling back his shoulders as he givea Kai a smirk. "Or do you want to move on without cuts?"
"That's funny," Kai says dryly. "We're cutting half at least from the potential starting lineup." He watches as the line scatters and talks amongst themselves. There is a murmur of stilted conversation, mostly worried, some a little overconfident. Won't it be a surprise when they're cut…
"Make that more than half. The blondie was good though. And Tetsu's getting a spot," Ren says..
"Obviously."
"Everyone's so obsessed with being forward that they forget defense. Tetsu's a fucking wall."
"Mhm."
"Who's caught your eye, Mr. Unresponsive?"
Kai could see Ren smirk at him again from the corner of his eye. He rolls his eyes.
"No one. Dismiss them, tell them we'll see them tomorrow. The final list of regulars will be up Friday morning."
"Whatever you say."
Kai walks off the court, thinking about his homework for the night, the disarming blonde already slipping from his thoughts.
-:~:-
Practice the next day is more intense than ever. Ren's already whispering to Tetsu that he's back on the team, but that's been relatively obvious to everyone who tried getting past him yesterday. (Maybe the players are bad. Conversely, aybe Tetsu is just that good.)
"Don't get cocky, Tetsu," Kai says, hand on the bigger guy's shoulder. "You'll never block me."
"Who's the one being cocky now, Kai?" Tetsu throws back. Kai smirks.
Ren's directing them in a line to start trying shots against the ones who are interested in being shooting guards, which is really just Tetsu and a rowdy ninth grader named Kamui (who Kai thinks is short enough to maybe be a point guard, but not much else) who has signed up for every other position as well.
"Alright, try to get past Tetsu and score," Kai instructs as the line settles down. "Impress me."
It is a well-known fact for the basketball fans within the student body that Kai is literally the only one who can get past Tetsu. Maybe Ren on a particularly good day. This holds true for the first six boys who attempt to break down Tetsu's wall. However, the blonde kid has a different outcome.
He's a tricky dribbler. Flashy. And he's smiling again, that same disarming grin like he knows something Kai doesn't. Like he can actually get past the brick wall that is Tetsu's iron defense.
He dribbles the ball for a bit, lowering his stance before throwing it to the left. Kai is halfway through the thought "that's not going to work" when Miwa fakes, catches it far out, and spins over to Tetsu's right side. He shoots and it swishes through the net, only to widen his grin.
The gym falls silent.
"Impressive enough?" Miwa asks slyly as he passes Kai and Ren on the way back to the bench.
"Took too long," Kai responds impassively. "I'd have done it in three seconds, not ten."
-:~:-
It doesn't take long for Ren to figure out Kai's the one who's not paying attention this time around. Off the court, Ren's an airhead. Normally he's the one dozing off in class and asking to borrow notes later, but Kai is slumping and Ren is curious and about five taps of the eraser end of his colourful polka-dotted mechanical pencil later, Kai straightens up, turns around, and glares at him with half-dazed eyes.
"What the hell do you want?" he whispers, and maybe it's the volume he's at because their teacher is still lecturing, or the fact that he just woke up, but it distinctly lacks the angry note that's usually there.
Ren shrugs in response, a lazy smile playing on his lips. "Distracted much?" he asks, and Kai snorts and turns to face the front to see the blackboard covered in chalk.
He pauses, looks down at his notebook, and mentally curses. He turns back around.
"Borrow your notes?"
"I got your back."
When the bell rings, Ren whistles innocently as he hands over his notebook to a tired and grumpy Kai. Yep, there really were first times for everything!
-:~:-
Tryouts are one week long.
It's the end of the third day, and Kai is already drained. He hadn't done too much other than some dribble exercises and _ before hitting the showers. The short kid, Kamui, did a lot better with those than he did with defense (though he did manage to tap the ball out of a few hands before they could even attempt a shot, and hell if that wasn't the tiniest bit impressive for such a runt of a kid). He wasn't nearly as flashy as Miwa though, who didn't just bust through the pylons like the exercise dictated, but moved so gracefully with twists and turns through them that Kai wasn't sure he was even watching a zig-zagged dribble. Watching him was… exhausting. Where'd he learn to play like that and why hasn't he ever tried out before?
The basketball club is one that anyone could join, but Kai likes their school's tradition of switching the regulars up based on talent and skill rather than seniority. That's why the tryouts are so imperative - they decide who gets spots on the regulars line-up and who is delegated to front row seats on the bench, after all. Even if Kamui ends up being a dud (he tries so hard, it would be a damn shame, thinks Kai while shoving away the grudging flicker of respect) he'd still be in the club and participate in practice and follow the menus set up by their coach. So it isn't like Miwa would be booted off, either; anyone can have a spot in the club.
It still perplexes the hell out of Kai. He throws a towel over his head after drying himself off and tossing his clothes on, stepping out of the shower stall and back into the changing rooms where Miwa's talking animatedly to a stoic Tetsu about something.
Yeah, he's an anomaly all right.
Ren slaps him on the back as he passes. "You alright there Kai? You seem a bit… struck."
"I assure you I'm not."
"Sure?" Ren asks, elongating the single syllable into an obnoxious whine.
"Get out of here, Ren."
Ren diligently does so with a salute before ducking out the door. Kai sighs heavily, already exhausted at the thought of dealing with both this week and whatever their coach and manager are cooking up for their training menu.
Come to think of it, where the hell is Shin?
Kai glances over to the corner where Miwa's still packing up his stuff, tying his shoelaces while humming. It's too late to ask Ren, as he's already out the door; Tetsu is leaving too, no doubt trailing him. They've always been closer friends.
Kai sighs again before grabbing his duffel bag from the benches and leaving too.
-:~:-
Maybe it's because his legs still hurt (and they shouldn't, but he didn't bother stretching and warming-up before practice so this is his own damn fault), and he's definitely more than okay with blaming his own stupidity than blaming it on anything to do with that baffling blonde prodigy soon to be joining their ranks, but he ends up laying down on one of the park benches on his walk home. The walk is normally refreshing and nice, especially on sunny days, but nope. Not today. Definitely not today. His legs ache, his muscles ache, and he kind of hates himself the minutest bit.
And he's exhausted, sue him.
So… he kinda… well, he falls asleep. On the bench. No big.
He doesn't know how long it's been, but there's a tap on his shoulder and his eyes flutter open just like they had during English class earlier with Ren, except this time it's-
"Miwa?"
"Hey!"
Kai sits up and Miwa moves away just in time for their heads to not totally clash in pain. "The hell are you doing here?"
"I walk this way home every day!"
Better question. Why have I never noticed this?
"Oh," he replies eloquently, and Miwa laughs as he takes the spot on the bench next to Kai's feet.
"So, you sleep here often?"
If Kai was that kind of high schooler, he'd blush and deny it. However, he is most definitely not that kind of high schooler, so he responds with a flat "No" and an even more deadpan face and Miwa bursts into laughter again.
The bench is an old one, weathered with use. And maybe Kai had messily engraved his name on it once during middle school with his house key because he kind of liked this bench a lot. It was his. It had a good view of the fountain. Stuff.
But hell no, he did not come here often. God, Miwa.
"What's this then?" Miwa asks, tracing the outline of the kanji Kai had so long ago scratched into the wood.
This time Kai has the dignity to look away in case he does actually blush. He's tired, he just got up, he's not entirely at the height of his wits at the moment.
"Nothing," says Kai, in much the same tone as one would say "Bite me" because both of them know exactly what it is, and wow, that sure is embarrassing.
"Hey, tell you what, you come to the card shop with me and we'll call it even."
"You won't speak a word of this in front of the team."
"Deal. Shake on it?"
Miwa holds his hand out enthusiastically. Kai grabs it for a moment.
"Deal."