"Ugh!" You slammed your hand on the wooden floor out of frustration, and then placed your head in them whilst crouching down on the floor, "I almost did it." You continued to whine to yourself, but your complaining was cut short when you were disrupted by a foot nudging yours. After looking up you saw the slightly concerned gaze of Kuroko, his hand outstretched. After staring at his hand for seconds, you exhaled and took it, your shoulders hunched forward in disappointment as you stood.
"(Y/N)," your head snapped upwards toward Kuroko, who was looking at you with a sad look in his cerulean blue eyes, "Neither you nor Midorima are better than one another," you opened your mouth quickly to retaliate without a second thought, but the 'invisible' boy was quicker, "If you want to continue playing basketball, you will surpass him."
"Sur…pass?" As you echoed Kuroko's words, you began to question what he had said. If you were to continue playing basketball, didn't you join Teiko to put this- sports and everything that came with it- behind you? After taking a deep breath you addressed the name of the boy who was looking at you blankly, the boy who you had an unusual amount of trust for, "Kuroko?"
"What is it, (Y/N)?"
"Can I tell you something?" You asked him, prepared to tell him whether he accepted or not, you had to free what you were concealing to someone; you felt right that it was him you were telling, not Momoi, not Kise and definitely not Akashi. You wouldn't dream of telling the other three, why would they care? With a slight nod, Kuroko began walking towards the exit of the gym just as you began to speak, "Uh… Kuroko, where are you going?" He bowed his head towards you and said simply-
"To get privacy, Kise and Momoi are eavesdropping," you whipped your head around to catch Kise and Momoi- just like Kuroko had said- crouched behind an almost empty basketball trolley, so their figures were almost fully visible. When Momoi met your gaze her eyes widened and out of nowhere, shoved Kise into the trolley, making them both slam onto the floor, which made the basketballs erupt into every direction. You winced as Kise's head smacked into the metal bars.
"Kise! I told you to arrange them properly!" She barked tensely with her hands on her hips, not catching your eye. When Kise began to yowl in pain you exhaled and began to trail behind Kuroko, who had the faintest smile of amusement on his generally empty face.
x x x
You and Kuroko were sitting on a bench facing a vending machine in silence. You were toying with a can of soda in your hands to attempt to get free of the nervousness inside you.
"(Y/N), what did you want to tell me?" Kuroko broke the silence with a silence you were debating on whether to reply to or not. He probably thought you had come to cry to him about losing- or even worse, a love confession. After taking a deep breath, you settled the can beside you and turned to face him.
"You said if I continued basketball I would surpass Midorima," you quoted from him, "but that's my biggest fear." Kuroko's face had not changed and he looked as if he wasn't going to ask you anything so you continued, "Two months ago, before I even thought about transferring, I was taking part in the biggest race of my life; the race that would determine mine and others future for athletics. If you wanted to go to a prestigious sports school, you would have to rank in the top 3. I already knew that I wasn't going to a sports academy; I didn't want my future career to be based on athletics and sports, it was just a hobby, you know? My talent," you took a deep breath and turned to face the floor, "to get into this one academy, Kaisai Academy of Sports, you had to rank first or second place in the race, depending on how fast your time was. Two of my closest friends, who I had known since kindergarten were in this event, determined to rank in those two spots, they would do anything to get into that one academy, so they had to have a… friendly word with me beforehand…"
"Listen (Y/N) we all know that you don't want to go to Kaisai, that's why you have to let us get the top spots."
"You want me to lose on purpose?" You had said with your eyes wide in shock. You had flinched as one of your friends had grabbed your hands and made you look in their eyes.
"Not lose, just… slow down, okay? We need that top spot because we want to pursue sports. You don't… and if you do win, guess who will be told they have you crushing on them?" Your eyes widened even further, you had to blink back tears as the threat left your 'friends' mouth, "Do you get it?" Your other friend stared at you, a gleam in her eyes whilst pulling her hair back in a ponytail with a sugar-coated smile on her lips. With your heart beating in anguish that they had to blackmail you to lose to them on purpose, you nodded slowly making the two girls squeal in delight, wrapping their arms around you.
"You're the bestest friend, (Y/N)," friend #1 cried, a satisfied smile on her face.
"The best, seriously. After this race, you can ask for anything you want from us," the other said, and then you were left alone in the locker room, with nothing to think about except the upcoming race.
"The race began and I tried so hard to prevent myself from overtaking my two best friends, my head was telling me stop but my heart was pushing me forward. In no time I had sprinted past them and claimed first place," you pushed your hair back out of your face, your fists clenched in frustration from remembering that day.
"And the second place?" Kuroko asked, his eyes hooded with sorrow.
"Neither of them got it, I guess you could say they were too shocked from seeing me run past them," you let out a bitter laugh, "after the race I went to them and asked the most stupid thing I could of…"
"Wait!" You cried, running up behind the two girls who turned around with faces of disgust, "Can I ask you for one thing?"
"Why would we listen to you," one of them spat, "you're a liar."
"You said after the race I could ask you anything I wanted," you muttered, not meeting their eyes which were filled with revulsion.
"After the race which we WOULD have won."
"I just wanted to ask for your forgiveness, I know-"
"Forgiveness?!" A laugh which resembled a hyena escaped one of their mouths, but came to an erupt ending when her face became blank, "You know nothing, don't speak to us ever again."
"With saying that, they walked away and they made it like I never met them before," you finished, your voice wavering with misery.
"That's spiteful of them, they only said those things because they were jealous of your talent, (Y/N)," Kuroko said in a soft tone, his hand reaching out to cover yours, but you shook him away.
"I thought they would forgive me if I didn't go to Kaisai, but they ended up hating me even more, now I'm just known to them as the girl who threw away their future. They made it seem like I ran that race just to make sure they didn't go to Kaisai," you shook your head as if trying to erase the thoughts that ran through your regret filled mind, "We should head back."
"Yeah, you're right."
x x x
"Kuroko! (Y/N)! You're back, should we start the track competition?!" Momoi called out over the court, she was standing in a circle with five other players, you frowned as you realised one was missing. You opened your mouth to question where they were but were prevented as a shadow loomed over you.
"Wha-" your words were cut short as a pair of lips pressed forcefully against yours, pushing you back against the wall. Your eyes widened in astonishment as a strand of purple hair fell over your face, "Mmph!" You shoved the large figure backwards with every bit of your strength, startled from the sudden incident. As your eyes met the ones staring down at you, you were taken aback by who had attacked you, "A-Atsushi?!" You cried, your hand covering your mouth. He blinked and stared at you for a moment before raising a hand to point behind him, you looked round him and saw the five other basketball players and Momoi staring at the two of you with their mouths open in disbelief.
"They were talking about how they will-" he was prevented from finishing his sentence as two people began to haul him away, Kise had his hand over Murasakibara's mouth whilst Momoi was standing in front of him, pushing him away with a guilty look on her face.
"Emergency meeting, we'll be one second!" With that, the door leading to the 'meeting' room slammed shut, leaving you standing in the hall alone, accompanied by a few stray basketballs. You slid down the wall and put your head in your hands, one sentence going over and over in your mind.
What the hell just happened?
x x x
Gone quarter of an hour, you were still left secluded in the entire gym. Time was up; you were going to butt in to the top secret 'meeting' of theirs. You marched across the court; the only thing in your line of sight was the door, which you were going to slam open.
Well that was what you thought before you accidently overheard.
"A free-for-all? What do you mean, Akashi?" You heard Midorima ask, his voice filled with uncertainty.
"He knows all of us have our eyes on her," Aomine said in an irritated tone. You froze. Her? Did he mean you? It couldn't be Momoi because she was in there and you hadn't seen any other girls hanging around with them since you joined, so the only exception which was left was… you.
"All of us? Even you, Kurokocchi?!" Kise exclaimed, you heard him laugh sinisterly and his voice drop down a few octaves, "I have competition."
"Kise?! What are you going on about, this isn't a game!" Momoi cried.
"Satsuki, you're incorrect. This is a game, and all of you should be fixed on trying to triumph her heart. You each have seven days until our next important match, to claim her as your partner. When one of you does, you will get a generous reward," Akashi announced, you could almost hear the authority in his voice.
"Doesn't that mean we are going up against you Aka-chin?" Atsushi drawled out with an uninterested pitch in his voice.
"Yes and I am absolute, which means I will claim my prize at the end of this week. Good luck to all of-" he stopped midway in his sentence as the door opened in front of you and you came face to face with a suspecting red head. You each gave each other an intent look, him with a composed look on his face and you, who were infuriated by his suggestion to his team mates, were glaring at him with all his might, not noticing the blonde who enthusiastically jumped up behind his shoulder.
"(Y/N)! Would you like to go out on a date?!" He exclaimed with an intense, thrilled grin on his face. Midorima spat out his drink at hearing him cry this out. You stared at him stonily.
"Fuck you," was the answer you replied with. With saying this you turned to Akashi, raising a finger, "fuck you," and then to everyone inside the room, "and fuck you." Once you had finished, you turned around, storming out of the gym.
"You're welcome to, (Y/N)," Aomine remarked, you heard a bunch of sniggers from behind you.
"I hate you all!" You screeched and slammed the door behind you, shutting out the laughs and cat-calls, which were mostly from Aomine and Kise. When you had ran your hand through your hair a few times you began to leave the area, walking even quicker when you heard the entrance of the gym sway open.
"(Y/N) please don't run! I'm sorry," a voice cried from behind you. When you had taken a deep breath you turned and faced an amber eyed boy whose face was filled with regret, "I'm sorry for that and them."
"You seemed eager enough back there," you muttered, crossing your arms over your chest.
"I know, but I've kind of been thinking of asking you to come and have a drink with me sometime," he said sheepishly, a hand rubbing the back of his head. You softened a bit at his suggestion, believing what he said; he seemed so guiltless and true, "I don't want to be part of this game, I just want to get to know you."
"All right," you gave in to his charm with a slight blush on your face, "fine, I'll come with you sometime." He returned your reply with a wide smile on his face, running up to you and encasing you in a tight hug. Leaning down, he aligned his mouth to your ear, the words which he spoke making you tense up.
"I won't fool you around, like Akashi will."
x x x
Thanks for reading! Please follow and comment on this story if you want more chapters sooner. Also it would be a big help if you could comment your most beloved character from this story below so I can start a plot which is dedicated to you guys.
