Author's Note: Hey, guys! Here I am with a Christmas present . . . about spring. Well.

This story was actually born in response to a fanzine I'm participating in. It's a crossover between Kuroko no Basuke and Free! with the theme of "spring." This story is kind of an extension of the story featured in the zine. You can find more information about the zine on Tumblr or Twitter at knbfreezine. Preorders open January 1st!

Although most recently I've only been posting KnB series, Free! was actually the second anime I ever watched. An anime newbie, I accidentally watched the FrFr! special first. Luckily, Haru stripping wasn't enough to deter me from the show, and I finished the rest quickly after that. Although KnB still takes the top spot for sports anime, Free! is a close second.

This is a really short story, only about 6K at the time. For right now, I'm only going to post the prologue to the story, but since it's so short, I'll update soon. Anyway, more on that later. Enjoy!

Prologue

It was the season of hanami, and all around, tourists gasped in awe at the cherry pink petals floating in the wind. Nearly all the best flower-viewing spots were taken, blankets spread on the ground, picnic baskets groaning with weight.

In years past, hanami had generally been a peaceful but fun time, where friends and family and strangers alike all gathered under the blossoms.

This year, however, would be different.

The group — which was not actually a group, but rather, a coincidental mix of people that should have no business being together — drew the eyes of everyone around.

It seemed that the "group" was split into two factions, arguing over a spot they both claimed they'd reached first. And so, for better or for worse, the two groups finally agreed to share the flower-viewing spot.

What happened next over the few hours could lightly be described as chaos.

It would first be prudent to introduce the two groups.

One look at the combined groups would likely send any girl home with a nosebleed. Both contained attractive young men, their variety of school uniforms not hiding the muscled bodies beneath.

The members of the group were clearly athletes, as could be seen in the competitive aura surrounding them. On one side, there was an array of hair colors resembling a rainbow and heights quite unusual for the average Japanese man — this was the basketball faction. On the other side were the swimmers: lithe bodies, bright, clear eyes, and no less the amount of unique personalities. The sports themselves, at first glance, seemed quite different. However, sports are sports at the end of the day, and what started out as differences, eventually transformed into a unity — for the love of sports.

A/N: Okay, so yeah, super short. But I'll try and post the next part soon!

So a bit more for my super long A/N: Like I said, this story features nearly all the main Free!/KnB characters. Unfortunately, not all of these characters have a ton of information on them. So, I've chosen to focus on the characters I could write best, with short cameos and mentions of the others.

A timing note:

This story loosely takes place when —

Kuroko and GoM are in their third year; Kagami has left for America (following the events of Last Game), but is visiting. Hyuuga, Kiyoshi, Izuki, and Riko are in college now (and we can assume Kiyoshi's either visiting or has healed up).

For the Free! characters, this takes place roughly a year after the events of Dive to the Future. (If S3 took place at the beginning of their first college year, then they're now in their second year.) We can assume that Rin and Natsuya are also visiting.

But really, logistics don't matter. Everyone's here and that's all that matters!

~ J. Dominique