This takes place in the Kuroko-chan no Yabo universe. It basically covers some of what goes on in Kuroko's mind, and we even have an appearance from Ogiwara! Some of you may not like the way I portray Aomine, but I promise you that there is a reason that he's acting like such a doucebag. Please review and tell me what you think of it!

Scary, But in a Good Way

If you were to ask Kuroko when exactly she started to like Kagami, she wouldn't be able to tell you. She wouldn't even be able to tell you why, because she honestly didn't know.

Maybe, she would think as she tossed and turned in her bed on some sleepless night, it was the way his eyes would light up with an intense fire when he played, or the way he would pick her up when he felt she was being threatened. Maybe it was the way he tousled her hair playfully or the way he would always buy her milkshake and an extra burger (making his new total thirty-one) whenever they stopped at Maji Burger after practice. Maybe it was the way he refused to underestimate her on the court and treated her like an equal. Maybe she'd never know, but at least she knew one thing.

She, Kuroko Tetsuya, the Phantom Sixth Man of the Generation of Miracles, was in love with Kagami Taiga, the ace first-year of the Seirin Academy basketball club.

These feelings scared her. She'd only felt like this once, back in middle school, and it had ended horridly for her. She could still recall Aomine's words on that day.

"Don't you see? I don't need you, Tetsu! I never have! You're a nuisance!"

That had been the final straw. Kuroko had been debating leaving the club for months beforehand, but it was in that moment that she knew that she couldn't do it anymore. She hated basketball.

She'd run out of the gym afterwards, despite the protests of her other teammates. She whipped her phone out and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?" the voice had asked, and she let out a sob at the sound of Ogiwara's kind tone. "Tetsuya? What's wrong?"

"Can you meet me at our park?" she'd asked, having to pause every couple of seconds to take a breath.

"Of course. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Thank you."

And he was there, that familiar body that she always related to "big brother." He was the one who taught her basketball and her very first friend. She'd collapsed into his arms, sobbing into his woolen sweater. Instead of asking questions, he merely lowered the two of them to the ground and cradled her in the safe cage of his arms, rocking her back and forth like a child as he rubbed her back soothingly.

Later, after she'd calmed down, he took her back to her house so she could change out of her practice attire. She mechanically changed into a pair of sweatpants and a sweater before she went back downstairs and curled up on the loveseat next to Ogiwara. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No," she'd said, "but I probably should."

And so she told him everything. She had never told him about the relationship she'd held with Aomine, because the coach had threatened to kick her off the team if anyone outside of the Generation of Miracles knew. She tearfully told him the tale of how they'd met and she fell in love, and of all the kisses they'd shared off the courts. She told him about the promises he'd made to her. By the end she was sobbing again, and Ogiwara was holding her again.

"I'll kill him…" Ogiwara threatened, but they both knew it wasn't in his nature to do something like that.

At that moment, Kuroko decided to never fall in love again. Love was scary, because you could never be sure about the other person's stand. She would stick with less scary topics, like schoolwork and clubs.

That spring, as she walked around the neighborhood in which her high school was in to familiarize herself with it before the start of term, she heard the sound of a basketball bouncing. She instinctively winced and covered her ears, barely daring to look over to the courts in a park five blocks from the school.

A tall young man with tanned skin and dark red hair was laughing happily as he took a shot at the basket, and even from her vantage point she could see the wild look of adrenaline in his eyes. He was by himself, though, which made Kuroko sad, for some strange reason.

And it made her want to play with him.

Later, as she walked around her school grounds for club registration, she caught a glimpse of the boy signing up for the basketball club. Without thinking about it, she briskly filled out a form for the same club, sneaking a glance at the boy's paperwork.

Kagami Taiga.

Maybe she could find it in herself to fall in love again, if it was for this person. Even if love was scary, maybe it was scary in a good way, like the feeling you get on a rollercoaster or on a haunted maze. If it was like that, she decided, she could definitely fall in love again.