All right, I lied. Here's the next chapter. I should have been working this weekend and instead I wrote this and worked on my long KuroBasu one-shot and scrounged through Rise of the Guardians fanfiction. I'm such a loser.
Koganei wonders once – only once – whether he should resent his kouhai.
It's something the opposing team spits at him, after losing rather badly to Kagami and Kuroko's combination play, which is so amazing Koganei still loves watching it from the bench even though it's also amazing to be on the receiving end of those passes –
"Don't you feel resentful that your kouhai have taken your place?"
It's the only time Koganei ever thinks about it, because, frankly, the idea had never occurred to him – and for a second, he sees things as the opposing team must – the hard-working but not especially talented second year swept aside to make room for the crazy first-year pair with their off-the-wall plays and their shining talent –
He looks over at Kagami, who's blushing slightly but still defiant, because he won't apologize for what he is, and Kuroko, who waits politely but with just that hint of doubt and brittleness- has he been like them arrogant enough to take it for granted has he stolen someone's place on the team – and Koganei smiles at them.
(He doesn't need Hyuuga's glare to tell him that he better not say anything stupid that will upset the first years, because they're so strong and so vulnerable all at once.)
He loops an arm over each of their shoulders and grins at them because he may not be particularly smart – as his teammates like to point out – but he knows that in the end the score on the board says it all and anything else is meaningless noise. They do what he can't, and he does what they can't, and there's nothing wrong with that, because they want this as much as he does, and anyway they can never replace him – no more than he could replace either of them.
I hadn't done Koganei yet - couldn't leave him out, could I?