Summary: "I would like to purchase this spectacle ~nanodayo." Midorima decided against Takao's choices. The spectacle was simple and sturdy. Little did he know the surprises waiting behind his choice of spectacle, one of which being a chance encounter with a ghost? Who would have known!
Rated T for mild language, just to be safe.

Author note: The setting of my story starts at the training camp after Serin's loss to Touou. I hope OOCness is kept to minimal.

This is also thanks to 'waremono Iv' for her support and encouragement.
(Sorry for the space in your name.)

Disclaimer: I don't own KnB. It rightfully belongs to Fujimaki Tadatoshi, nor do I own the image. I just own my OCs and plot.


Chapter 1

Glasses

It was summer break for all the High schools but club activities were still taking place on campus grounds however Shutoku High's basketball club had an amazing plan for this vacation- a hellish training menu at a beach camp. The first years were told that it was a tradition followed by Shutoku from the beginning of time. Everyone knew that their captain has exaggerated but nobody wanted to stand against him except Midorima, obviously, but he didn't push his luck this time.

Everyone was fired up since their unfortunate defeat in the 'Inter-High' preliminary. Nobody complained about their training schedule nor did anyone slack during practice. Midorima as usual had taken up training alone even after their dismissal. Although Miyaji threatened to kill him, the coach quietly discarded the senior's concern and let Midorima use his three selfish requests. Day after day of training Midorima continued his shooting practice all alone. Surprisingly he didn't complain about the cleaning he had to do after his 'routine' practice.

Just a day before their planned leave for Beach-camp Takao intended to leave early for packing but his luck ran out as he lost to Midorima in rock-paper-scissor and had to stay back to give that pompous ass a ride back home. Oh! How he hated losing! But more importantly he hated the fact that Midorima always won. No matter what studies, basketball, piano or anything; he always excelled. Takao, who unlike Midorima, had faced numerous defeats. He has moved up in the sport he loves through sheer tenacity, patented only to him. In midst of this thinking he has not forgotten the fact that this was Midorima's first defeat in basketball.

He knew it all along and never discussed outright with him but today Takao was in no mood of playing along with him. He really wanted to go home early and start packing for tomorrow's camp. 'I will be damned if I sleep late after packing!'

Since he lost at rock-paper-scissors he had to wait for Midorima near the school entrance. He never really gave enough thought about the 'rickshaw'. He can't remember how the ritual of playing rock-paper-scissor for riding the rickshaw even started. He let out a huff of steaming air from his lungs and chuckled at himself. He did enjoy teasing Midorima and make things uncomfortable for him. He sure had a good grasp of his teammate's thinking, who is a stubborn guy with high concentration of pride. He would do anything to once see Midorima loose his stoic face. With that thought in mind, he busied himself in formulating a plan for afore mentioned goal.

It served him two purpose, firstly to pass the time till 'Shin-chan' shows up and secondly, his plan might just work out. As soon as he saw his green haired teammate he positioned himself on peddle and without a word did his daily biding, to take Midorima to his prescribed destination. Takao wanted to tell Midorima how pissed off he was on him but decided to ignore things and let it slide.

Takao knew it was complete bliss for Midorima to ride in silence. Midorima had wanted some fresh air and time to collect his thoughts. He had tried to occupy himself with studies and other activities at home and school but there was something amiss. He wanted to break something but that would be an improper display of him. He cannot afford to have a dent in his diligent student life. He was not that careless. He considered himself smart and a man of his duties and schedule. His father has said nothing to him about his defeat and his mom had prepared his favourite dish on THAT day. He should have felt at ease but couldn't bring himself to.

'I lost!' A simple declaration was the only thing on his mind.

"Next time we will win, Shin-chan!" Takao provided nothing more and Midorima pushed up his glasses up the bridge of his nose and grunted with satisfaction and said "Shut up, Takao! I know that."

Takao was not necessarily happy with the response but both of them shared the same intention at that point. Nothing else was needed for the first year duo motivation.

~~O~~

This time the rickshaw was parked, rather abandoned, at Takao's house. Somehow he had managed to get his packing done for the camp on time. And he thanked the heavens that he was not late to reach the meet-up point. He removed his earphones as he spotted his teammates. As usual his cheerful nature took over his tired body and he made his way into his teammate's conversation. Some were excited and the rest couldn't shake their morning self. He couldn't blame anyone since it was only 4 in the morning; they are supposed to board a bus to the camp at 5 but their captain ordered them to assemble an hour early.

"We will be seeing sunrise soon."Takao lazily told Midorima, who was standing the farthest from all with a pen in his hand. 'Today's lucky item is surprisingly small.' Takao breathed in relief.

Midorima ignored the obvious statement from his eager teammate and continued studying the horizon.

"I will call out your names. Answer them. I don't wanna repeat myself." The bark of their ferocious captain shook off all the morning blues out of all the members, seniors&juniors alike.

The coach cleared his throat and handed Otsubo the clipboard. As soon as the call was over the bus arrived and everyone busied themselves in loading their bags and hurried to catch the most desirable seat. It wasn't a surprise for Takao that Midorima was left alone. He smoothly walked past his coach and plopped down next to Midorima. The point guard did receive some piercing stare from the shooter but he ignored him nonchalantly.

The ride to the beach was quite as most of them tried to compensate for the lack of sleep and others didn't feel the need to socialize. Takao fidgeted in his seat. He thought it would be like the times of their middle school field trip.

"Oye, Haruko! Why don't we play like the times on field trip?" Takao asked his neighbour who was a classmate in his middle school.

"Kazunari! No one has the energy-"He was cut off by Miyaji's shouts. "All of you. Is this the kind of enthusiasm you should put up?"

There was a collective gasp and nodding of heads. Almost everyone was woken up by a sudden jolt (more likely a thunder bolt struck them) and cleared away any sign of tardiness. Miyaji-senpai was always known to be very strict and scary. He absolutely hated slackers.

"What game should we all play?" Saionji Haruko asked.

"Do I have to spoon feed you everything. Figure out something. Hopefully your head is not for a show." A very irritated Miyaji rebuked.

Midorima was about to retaliate when Takao effectively covered Midorima's mouth with his hand and cut him off.

"We really don't wanna start off a day with a fuming Miyaji-senpai, right Shin-chan? Our training camp will become excruciatingly painful." Midorima just glared at him.

As Takao removed his hand Midorima retorted "I will let it slide since I was impressed that you could use the word 'excruciatingly' in a sentence ~nanodayo."

"That's mean Shin-chan!" Takao patted Midorima's back with force much more than the necessary since he really didn't want to face the wrath of his senior just because Midorima can't follow senior's commands.

"Hey! You are being unnecessarily-" as Midorima turned to face Takao to give him a piece of his mind at that instant Takao's hand hit his spectacle which went flying towards a now raging Miyaji, who obviously couldn't spot the spectacle fallen near his foot. And the obvious did happen. Miyaji stomped on Midorima's precious spectacle. The end result was as expected. Shattered pieces of glass had spread across the floor and the frame had been maliciously deformed.

"NOOO" Midorima's scream was far from furious. Miyaji realised the grave accident but looking at Midorima's furious face without his spectacle was, how to put this, like watching a kid who has lost the sense of direction. Instead of helping the shooter Miyaji burst down into fits of laughter and Takao was extremely baffled to move a muscle.

"Tsk-" Midorima glared at the general direction of the laughter and when he was about to say something but was effectively cut out by the coach. He is being cut-off quite frequently today.

"All of you would be running 10 laps as soon as we arrive at our destination. Midorima, hopefully you have a spare." With that official wording everyone slumbered in their seat. Takao felt overtly guilty especially looking at his green haired teammate fumble around his duffle bag searching for his spare, hopefully.

"Lemme help you, Shin-chan! I'm sorry, it was an accident." Midorima supplied nothing more and let Takao help his search. He knew it would be far more effective that him blindly searching. Once he had his spare on, he felt as if his life returned back to him. He took a deep breath and said nothing more to Takao and simply settled for a nap. Miyaji felt a tad bit guilty so he made a first year clean the mess and let everyone to nap for the rest of the journey.

~~O~~

'Ah! The beach' Takao inhaled heavily. The fresh ocean's smell was refreshing and rejuvenating. The only thing that dampened his mood was Midorima's constant pushing of his glass and deliberate sighs, Takao confirmed it. His spare spectacle was rather loose and uncomfortable. He had planned to check up on his spare after the final match but he was not himself lately. It was subtle change and nobody can see it. Takao, lately, was not in his greatest mood to pick on his green headed teammate about his fastidiousness. Midorima sighed for the hundredth time. They entered the beach house they had booked, tradition to be followed, and freshened up for practice. Everyone thought they could relax for sometime before practice, but firstly they had to run their 10 laps as punishment given by coach along the beach.

"We will be running back and forth from here till the convenience store 500m up ahead. So 1 km per lap. Now START!" bellowed Kimura to all. Even the captain had to run with them. Coach had taken up onto himself to do the arrangements.

The time they were running along the beach Midorima had to constantly fidget with his spectacle as it bounced lightly on his face due to the uneven surface he was running on.

His discomfort was noticed by their hawk-eyed point guard. Midorima was running as far from Takao as possible. He couldn't risk getting his spare broken too. Unfortunately he had momentarily forgotten about Takao's wide-field vision. After a minute has passed, Midorima has somehow managed to get his spectacle under rhythm although his discomfort was not lessened.

"My uncle owns an optical shop here. He can get you a new spectacle by tomorrow." This whipped Midorima's attention towards Takao, who seemed genuinely concerned.

"Take me there as soon as possible." He gave Takao a curt nod and kept up his running.

"Shin-chan! It won't hurt to say thank you."

"If only I could ignore the fact that my discomfort is caused by none other than you."

"It was an accident."

No response from Midorima.

"Aww~~ Shin-chan! Why are you still mad?"

"Run your laps seriously, Takao!"

Takao retreated knowing that any further persistence will end up in a disaster. He decided to text his uncle about the upcoming visit and the situation.

~~O~~

As the evening approached everyone gathered at the meeting hall. Midorima has used an elastic band to keep his spectacle from creating anymore hassle than necessary. He patiently waited for Takao to complete his chit-chat with a teammate and meet him near the gate.

"Let's go, Shin-chan!" but before Takao could say anything Midorima had walked at least a 100m ahead of him, an estimated safe distance from the mischievous point guard.

"Do you even know where the shop is Shin-chan?" Takao was lazily following Midorima with his hands in his shorts' pocket. After receiving no answer from him, Takao picked up his pace and walked ahead of Midorima. The taller male just fixed his ever irritating spare spectacles and just followed suit. He had to admit that the beach was a good idea. With the flexural improvement in his muscles, the cool breeze also helped him to clear his mind. He didn't mind the broken spectacle in their silent walk towards an optical shop.

Takao entered a rather lavishly decorated optical shop.

"Hitomi-ojisan! Takao Kazunari is making an entry." Midorima thought it to be rather strange greeting but discarded his thought as he saw a brown headed guy mildly in his late 30s running out from his lavish counter towards Takao.

"Kazu! You have grown." Hitomi said as he ruffled Takao's hair. Hitomi was almost 5cm taller than Takao with grey eyes. He looked at Midorima and exclaimed, "So you are the one who needs the urgent fix of frame. Come this way, please."

Midorima took a seat next to Takao and looked intensely at various frames decorating the desk. "Do you want a change of frame or do you want me to fix your current one?" Hitomi asked.

He wanted to change his spare frame since it has gotten rather old but his glasses was updated to his power, he doesn't want to change his glasses just the frame."Could I see a frame that would match my current glass shape?"

Hitomi nodded and bought out more than a dozen frames.

"Wow! Hitomi-ojisan, you have quite a collection. Shin-chan! Take this one. It would suit your tsundere self." Without a glance Midorima discarded Takao's choice. After looking for almost 5 minutes his eyes caught a simple frame. It was a rimless but with a sturdy metallic black side-frame.

"I would like to purchase this spectacle ~nanodayo." Midorima decided against Takao's choices. When he tried it on it felt uncomfortable on his face. Puzzled he pulled it out and inspected it.

"Don't worry kiddo! I will adjust the bridge brushes to your face shape." The smile which Midorima received was quite sweet. He handed his spare spectacle and the new one to Hitomi, who with his professional hand started fixing.

"Shin-chan! You didn't even look at the frames I choose for you."

Midorima effectively ignored Takao as he was bothered with his blurry sight. An assistant has put up snacks and drinks for them and he enjoyed the AC and cool drinks. The shop had some jazz music playing in the background. He was unable to see what Hitomi was doing but was not worried. Takao had started to flirt with the assistant who works in the shop as a part-timer. It was none of his business but with the loss of sight his ears strangely started picking up all the sounds. He crossed his arm over his chest and just inhaled and exhaled slowly. The music was sort of soothing his senses and AC worked wonder on his sun tanned skin.

"Here you go Midorima-san."
With a sigh of relief, Midorima opened his eyes and put on the spectacle. The frame sat comfortably on his face and the frames had a good grip on the side of his head.

"I added a small spring-system set so that the frame doesn't lose its grip in your face. You will have no discomfort while playing." Midorima was awed by such professionalism by Hitomi. He wished Takao could have learnt something or two from his uncle.

"Thank you very much for your help in such short notice." Midorima politely bowed and paid the money for the service.

"Problem solved!" Takao gave a cheeky grin to both Hitomi and Midorima.

"Come over more often, Kazu."

"I will. Since it is a tradition of Shutoku to train here." With that Takao waved and winked at the assistant and Hitomi let out a small chuckle.

The duo walked back towards the beach house before the start of dinner. If they are late they might possibly have to sleep without food. After a day of practice food is a luxury for all the growing High school boys.

~~O~~

Takao passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow. Midorima wanted to do mild stretching and a walk on the beach sounded good. He bought a 'cold red-bean soup' out of the vending machine and walked on the beach shore and the cool breeze softly nuzzled his hair. It was not full moon but the gentle white light shone the sandy path. A small smile crept his way up and his lip curved ever so slightly.

"You surely are interesting." A voice sounded behind Midorima.

He jerked his head back to locate the source but only saw empty vastness.

"Look up!"

Involuntarily Midorima looked up and what he saw knocked all the breath out of him. There was a girl floating just above his head. She just smiled and kept hovering over his head.

Midorima had a good grasp of reality but the scene before his eyes seemed unlikely. The girl did not cast a shadow so he never realized her presence and worst of all, how was she floating?

Midorima tried to run, speak or walk but his body was rejecting all the brain impulses. He gawked at the strange girl who just tilted her head and smiled.
"I deduced that your name is Midorima. Nice to meet you. I am..." she paused and turned to look towards the sea. Midorima tried to look away but he was still in his frozen state.

The girl looked at Midorima with a playful smile and said "My name is Ayame and I'm gonna haunt you, ya know!"


A/N: Hopefully I made a decent start. It would be a great help for me if I get to know what the readers thought about my story. Feel free to write a review on whatever you thought about the story.

~~Ja ne!