Don't own Kuroko no Basuke.

Don't own the Cover Art.

Bakemono

Shouichi wasn't used to missing someone. He'd live an average life, but he didn't really have any friends that tended to stick around; apparently he was too "creepy" and Shouichi didn't long for any particular person's presence where he would feel the desire to blackmail them into staying. The only real friend he'd gained was quite adamant in denying such a connection was between them.

As such, going to high school left an unusual feeling in his chest, and the boy gave a soft huff of annoyance. Shouichi was half-certain that Hanamiya was currently celebrating his newfound freedom due to Shouichi's graduation, and likely not nearly as confused by the feelings he was getting from their sudden parting as his senpai was.

Currently, Shouichi was sitting at a café, looking out at the weather in boredom with a soda inches from his hand. It was raining steadily, and had been for the last hour, when Shouichi had come in seeking refuge. Perhaps he would need to brave the weather to get home at all by this point.

The sound of items being placed on his table broke the point guard out of his reverie, and he looked up to see one of the waitresses placing a bowl in front of him, the steam rising from it hinting at its warmth. The waitress smiled at him. "On the house. This weather has been bringing in rather upset people, and we thank you for your patience with us."

Shouichi waved his hand dismissively and smiled at the girl, rather impressed at her lack of flinching at his supposedly intimidating features. "Maa, it's no problem. I ain't gonna blame ya for the rain; that'd be dumb." He raised his voice a little at the end, and was pleased to see some of the sour-looking people subtly soften their faces at the logic a high schooler had just casually spouted. The girl's smile widened again, and she mouthed a "Thank you" before moving on at his just as slight nod back.

As he tucked into his free meal, Shouichi had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Anyone who hassled restaurant staff were idiots, in his opinion. They were the ones giving them food; treating them poorly was every kind of counter-productive possible. Maybe it was due to living in an often-empty house in a rougher neighborhood, but judging the pecking order and reading people had been as easy as wiping the floor with people in chess. And wait staff may have to act subservient to their clients, but they were higher on the food chain when you were in their domain, and Shouichi respected that. But, as he was often reminded, humans were a group that typically enjoyed shooting themselves in the foot whenever they could.

The soup was good, and Shouichi made sure to leave a little extra as he placed money for his soda on the table before standing and heading to the door. He smiled back at the waitress as she waved goodbye and made a note of the address of this particular café. With such good customer service, he'd likely become a regular if he sees that it isn't just a one-time thing.

Once outside the door, the teen grimaced a little at the rain that immediately began pounding against him and sighed. He'd try running, but that wouldn't change just how soaked he'd be by the time he returned to his apartment. If he'd had any real friends, they likely would have commented on how odd it was for an only recently-made high school student to have been living in an apartment for years now, but Shouichi didn't know that. It had only made sense to him and his parents; he wanted to school in Tokyo, they didn't want to leave Osaka, so they'd compromised and gotten him an apartment in Tokyo instead.

Occupied with his thoughts and sound muffled by the rain pouring relentlessly around him, Shouichi missed the small cries of some creature as he passed by an alleyway. What he didn't miss however was the sharp pain that abruptly flared at his ankle. "Fuck!" he cried out, jumping to the side and opening his eyes to glower down at annoyed amber eyes that glared right back.

It was a kitten, clearly still young but quite temperamental as it bared its teeth at Shouichi and lunged for his ankle again. The point guard frowned back and moved his foot slightly closer so that the kitten more collided with than pounced on his ankle and earning him a high, displeased squall from the creature. "I wasn't even doin' anythin' to ya," he griped at the kitten, who glared back and released another squall. Shouichi's eyes narrowed in distaste.

It wasn't like he hated cats, but something about this kitten annoyed Shouichi, and so he turned away in dismissal, smirking at the screech that earned him, and resumed the trek back to his house.

Alas, things can never be that simple.

Another spike of pain began, but around his leg, making Shouichi uncharacteristically swear as his head snapped back down. The kitten had begun to climb his leg as if it were a tree, and the look it shot him was annoyingly smug, but it also clung harder than was necessary and that made the teen frown a little. As the kitten climbed a little higher, Shouichi's hand shot down and grabbed the kitten's scruff, hauling it up once it had instinctively relaxed at the pressure.

The noiret stared at the curled up creature in his grip, and let out a sound of annoyance. "Ya wanna go home with me, don't ya ya little furball." The kitten hissed back before it began to purr at the hold Shouichi had on it. He sighed. "Just great." His grip never wavered as he toted the cat back to his place, and wondered what it would be like to have a pet in the place.

The kitten was a right menace.

Shouichi figured this out the first full day the creature stayed in the house. It woke him up by pouncing on his head; it tried to steal his eel whenever he made eel on rice; it would randomly attack him throughout the day. It was finicky, and would refuse to eat food if Shouichi didn't stay in the same room as it when it was eating.

But it also liked to climb his leg and stay there until Shouichi patted it on the head, and would only bite his hand if he didn't read the book in his hand aloud, and drowsed on chest if he didn't push it off, tiny claws kneading into his flesh. It was a strange, indecisive kitten that didn't want to admit to its own affection for its owner. It seemed very pleased with itself when Shouichi named it – him, he corrected – Bakemono, which likely said more than it didn't about the creature.

"I'm heading to school," he said to the room, and didn't even wince as claws wrapped around his ankles. Shouichi sighed and lightly nudged the cat away as he shouldered his bag. He hasn't said that out loud in quite some time, and it was somewhat surreal even after he offered the demon cat his normal glare which was easily returned. "I'm just tellin' ya. Now get out of the house." He opened the door for emphasis, and stared until Bakemono hissed at him before stalking out with his tail held high.

Shouichi sighed. This cat was taking years off his life, he could feel it. He exited his apartment and locked the door, and didn't think anything of the fact that the cat was following him to his high school outside of mentally griping about how that likely meant he'd be attacked upon leaving every day. That only made him sigh even more.

Touou was deserving of being called an Academy. It may have been new overall and still had little more than a fledgling basketball team, but the academic side of things was refreshing to the secretive genius. He joined the basketball club with little fanfare, and enjoyed the wide-eyed looks he was being given by the occasional member who recognized him – though he did wonder how much of it was in recognition of him personally, versus the realization that Hanamiya was free to torment the middle school circuit now. Even the coach, who'd recruited him in the first place, nodded a little in greeting. Shouichi planned to be captain by the beginning of his second-year, if not sooner.

He met Susa Yoshinori as well, a fellow first-year that Shouichi recognized from the middle school circuit. He was a calm teen that played well off of Shouichi's off-brand sense of humor, and the genius knew he'd be a good acquaintance (because people were too afraid to ever be his friend) for his high school years.

When he left school at the end of the day, a blur of striped black and brown blocked his vision, and he cursed the demon cat as he pulled the cat away from its attempt to maul his face. "Stupid Bakemono," he hissed at it, the cat pausing in its struggle for freedom at the sound of its name, before he relaxed in Shouichi's hold and sent him an inquisitive chirp. "Sure," he griped at the thing, releasing one hand while keeping the other firm on the kitten's scruff. "Act all innocent. But ya ain't fooling me ya demon spawn."

Shouichi ignored the purring his insult generated.

The point guard would likely never tell anyone this, but the cat made high school more bearable. It made him lower his guard a little, just enough that people would be drawn in whether they wanted to be or not, made him open up and tell them more about himself. Susa upgraded from acquaintance to friend (a real friend, Shouichi never thought he would see the day he could say that and not have it blow up in his face) and was the main support in pushing for him to become captain next year.

The current captain agreed easily, and Shouichi spent more time after school with him and the coach, discussing strategy and training regimens and never getting around to vocally thanking them for the vice-captain position just as they never had to verbally acknowledge his appreciation. It went unsaid, in the way they warned him of how the position would be little more than herding cats, in the way that they pushed him and praised him when he pushed back. It was endless, and minute, and Shouichi never thought he would be able to be so happy because of a basketball team ever again. And part of it was due to the little monster that twined around his ankles in the mornings in an effort to make him fall down the stairs.

That year ended well, with the captain handing the position over to him without any dissent in the group, and the beginnings of the legend that was Touou being whispered in the area, the tiny Academy that was making a name for itself faster than most schools could claim.

"Well, happy birthday ya waste of space," he told Bakemono, tossing him a toy mouse filled with catnip. The beast spent the rest of the day purring in his lap, gnawing on his hand from time to time and keeping a tight grip on his new toy. It was faintly creepy.

The next year brought a bunch of new first-years, the most notable of them being a Wakamatsu Kousuke, who was brazen and incredibly outspoken, but fell into line easily before Shouichi really lost his patience with him.

The next year also brought about a new course of action from his cat, which followed him to school like normal, only to appear in the gym when practice was starting. Shouichi didn't allow his voice to waver at all in his lecture to the team's newest members, but he did turn his gaze toward the creature at the entrance and glared death at it.

His cat looked insufferably pleased with itself.

A year later, the presence of his cat at practices actually proved beneficial.

"What a cute kitty!" Their newest manager, Momoi Satuski, squealed in delight as she cooed at Bakemono, who chirped back cutely from his position on Shouichi's shoulder. The captain resisted the urge to roll his eyes, ignoring the fact that it likely wouldn't be noticed anyway.

"If it ain't too much of a bother, could you hold him for me Momoi-chan?" He asked, instead of the more obvious question regarding her sanity or possible lack thereof. Bakemono's tail smacked him in the face vindictively before he plucked the cat off his shoulder and handed him over to his still squealing manager. When he turned away to begin practice, he heard Bakemono release a startled hiss.

It said something that Shouichi wasn't even surprised when he heard Momoi yelp and felt claws dig into his back. The claws moved higher up until, once more, the demon cat was on his shoulder and licking his paw as if he hadn't just struggled out of the pink-haired girl's grasp and climbed up Shouichi's back to return to his perch/master. "Don't worry, Momoi-chan," he tried to comfort, once more ignoring the tail that smacked him in the face. "Bakemono's just like that."

Aomine, who had deigned to show up for practice but was just lounging nearby and not actually participating, snorted. "You named your cat "Monster"? He can't be that awful can he?" The Ace-in-training hadn't looked up from his magazine, and so missed Susa's facepalm, Wakamatsu's evil grin, Shouichi's slowly curling smile and Sakurai's normal litany of apologies.

He also missed the borderline-insulted look on the cat's face as it dropped to the ground and sped towards him.

Much like Shouichi years ago, Aomine did not miss the feeling of claws wrapping around his wrist, and couldn't stop the pained yelp that escaped as the cat mauled his arm with the single-minded intensity of a creature trying to reclaim its pride. The magazine fell to the ground, a casualty in the battle between man and beast, and Shouichi leaned back observe his cat taking the idiot first-year to task.

"Um, Captain?" Momoi spoke up, sounding a little nervous as she took in her childhood friend failing to fend off an enraged three year old tabby cat with a mixture of confusion and befuddlement. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Nah," he waved her concern off easily as Wakamatsu snickered nearby and Susa gave his signature long-suffering sigh which he'd perfected around his fox-eyed friend. "This ain't Bakemono's first rodeo with idiot first-years, and he's yet ta actually kill anyone, so Aomine'll be fine." She reluctantly subsided after that, and joined them in watching as Bakemono eventually tired of mauling the bluenet and withdrew, returning to Shouichi with his tail held high in pride and blood staining his claws.

The captain snickered gleefully as he registered the wary look Aomine was now sending his cat and actually decided to give the creature a scratch on the head in praise. It batted at the hand, claws unsheathed threateningly, but seemed pleased nonetheless.

"Best keep your comments to yourself," he jauntily warned the first-years that were giving his cat the wide-eyed looks of people who'd just been viciously disillusioned. "Bakemono's a bit short-tempered." The looks were soon transferred to him as they all realized with horrified clarity that he wasn't planning to stop the thing if it attacked them. Shouichi caught the looks easily and snorted. "Relax, firsties; he won't attack any of ya unless ya go out of your way to tick him off. I'm the only one blessed with the fortune of receiving undeserved punishment." As if to prove this true, Bakemono flopped down by the captain's foot and latched onto his ankle, kicking it with its back legs until Shouichi made an annoyed sound and nudged it away with the foot under attack.

"Now then," He turned his signature smile on the team, and relished in the fear plain on the first-years' faces – barring Sakurai, who actually seemed to calm under Shouichi's confidence, and Aomine who had yet to take his eyes off of the demonic feline. "Back to practice, all of ya. And Aomine, go to the infirmary. You're bleedin' quite a bit there."

Practice hadn't run that smoothly since the last time Bakemono had made an example out of someone.

It was post Winter Cup, and the Generation of Miracles were meeting, dragging their teams along with them. Shouichi ignored the fact that Aomine hadn't wanted him there at all, just like how he ignored the way Sakurai was hiding behind him, holding onto Bakemono for comfort. The cat humored the easily frightened human – he wasn't as fun to terrify since he jumped at his own shadow in the cat's opinion – and didn't attack him, but he didn't purr either.

Kirisaki Daiichi were there as well, which made a number of people unhappy but Hanamiya didn't do much outside of smile sweetly at the group and didn't stray from his team. He did offer a nod of reluctant acknowledgment to Shouichi, who smiled back in a moment of rare happiness. Strange as it was, the former captain did like Hanamiya; it was explaining why that was so difficult to do. Bakemono hissed in Sakurai's arms, but Shouichi ignored it for now.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Seirin decided to bring their dog mascot with them, and Shouichi winced a little as he heard Sakurai yelp in pain. Bakemono was trying to get at the puppy sitting at Kuroko's feet. When everyone was still startled by the sudden ruckus coming from Touou, Shouichi spun around and grabbed the cat by his scruff before he could fully break free from Sakurai's grip.

"I don't think so," he told the cat, unamused as it squalled and tried to wriggle out of his grip. Letting his smile fade a little, the former captain of Touou opened his eyes more to fully stare down his cat. "I don't give a damn what you do to the humans, but you ain't killin' that little pup just 'cause you can." When the cat gave a mutinous hiss back, Shouichi shook him a little until the cat released an understanding mew.

With the creature's agreement, Shouichi dropped it to the ground and ignored the swipe it shot at his ankle before Bakemono began skulking around the area. "Sorry about him," he apologized to Seirin, who took the apology well enough though they appeared a bit confused. "He's never been the friendliest of creatures."

Aomine snorted in agreement, though no one commented on it as the cat offered the curious puppy a hiss before pausing, and turning it suddenly brighter eyes on a fidgeting Midorima. Shouichi followed his pet's gaze with the ease of practice, and similarly froze. "Aomine," He started to say, and had to look away with a snicker when the green-haired boy fidgeted more as he recognized the gaze on him. "Your old teammate with the glasses don't like of cats, does he?"

Shouichi hadn't finished speaking before his cat was off like a shot, releasing a hair-raising screech as he pounced on Midorima, who only had time to release a startled yelp before it swiftly transformed into one of pain as the cat lunged for his face.

The boy next to his vicious hellbeast's latest victim, Takao, was clearly torn between amusement and horror as he tried to get the cat off of Midorima, only to receive a sharp hiss from cat and human alike as the cat tightened its grip and the human suffered for it.

Hanamiya and the rest of Kirisaki Daiichi were in hysterics, laughing at Shuutoku's increasingly frantic attempts to save their Ace, and the rest of the teams could only watch in fascinated horror as the cat jumped from person to person, leaving scratches behind in his wake as he tormented the entire team, only preferring Midorima if the shouts for the "damned beast" to leave him alone were evident.

"Imayoshi-senpai," Sakurai whispered, making Shouichi turn and lean a little closer to hear him better. "I'm sorry, but c-can you get Bakemono-san –" the last time he didn't add an honorific, the cat left small scars on Sakurai's legs, " – to come back? I'm sorry, but he's scaring the other teams."

"I wouldn't call it "scaring", Sakurai-kun." He snorted a little, though that may have been fairly accurate at this point, before sighing in resignation. Shouichi put one fist on his hip, and used the other to whistle sharply, causing the flailing team to pause and the other teams to swing around and stare at him. "Leave 'em be already, Bakemono. It's getting borin', if ya hadn't noticed."

The cat let out a disagreeing squall, but Shouichi narrowed his eyes and stared back at the glaring amber before the cat seemed to sigh in annoyance and release his grasp on Miyaji, who was swearing about running over the creature with a truck.

With a few bounds and a well-timed jump the cat leapt up to his arm, digging its back claws in and likely making him bleed out of some petty form of revenge. It then used its front claws to finish crawling up to his shoulders, smacking him in the face with its tail before curling around his neck like a strange scarf. It was purring deeply from what Shouichi could feel, clearly content with the carnage it has wreaked.

"Sorry about him," Shouichi apologized again, trying for a contrite smile and failing miserably as Susa facepalmed beside him. "Bakemono gets like that from time to time."

"All the time," Wakamatsu hissed quietly, trying to not grab the cat's attention but incapable of keeping his opinion to himself.

"You named your cat "Monster"?" Takao asked, clearly amused as Midorima made an understanding sound from his spot slightly behind the smaller point guard.

Shouichi shrugged, amusement curling his lips into a devious smile once more. "It seemed appropriate."

It was three years.

Three years since the last time Shouichi ever got to play alongside the person who could only be considered his counterpart; the ability to find physical weakness to his gift in finding mental weakness. Three years since he contemplated missing someone that was only a friend in the vaguest sense of the word, who likely didn't even consider him a friend back.

Three years since he walked in the rain with those melancholy thoughts, and met the single largest pain in his neck that he could ever find. Three years since he started living with the little monster, learning its quirks and getting into squabbles with it on attempted homicide via stairs and taking the warm spot in the bed. Three years since he started falling asleep to purring and being kept up all night if he closed the door to his room and the cat wasn't in there yet.

Three long, annoying, fulfilling years, and he hadn't even noticed that he didn't miss Hanamiya quite as much as he once did until he watched him play against the Shuutoku team members that were there, Bakemono busily cleaning its paws whilst lounging in his lap.

Shouichi smiled as that strange realization came over him and scratched the cat's ear, earning him a suspicious look.

"Guess you weren't "good for nothing" after all, huh furball?" He mused, and moved his hand away when the cat starting biting at it as if offended by his words.

Woo! Wrote a crack-ish humor fic that I am quite proud of, for some reason. This is also a sign that 1) finals are approaching and 2) I will be taking a temporary leave from KHR unless that muse happens to stick around as well.

Thanks for reading and please review.

Ja ne!