disclaimer: I don't own KNB, except for my Oc (s?)

chapter 4:

mommy and blondie

Zatsuki came home abnormally late on the day before the practice match. Their coach, Riko Aida, decided that there was not going to be the slightest possibility for them to lose and give away one of their special aces. Strong or not, there was no way she was going to let go of such an adorabl- *ahem* good player (in his own sense) go. Anyway, the brunette was determined to win even more than usually (and you probably get that means it's a huge thing, right?).

This is why the whole team stayed up until the latest possible, practising and trying to come up with strategies.

"For lovely sake, G.o.d!" The ginger girl let out, before crashing herself onto the sofa, which was the closest soft spot for sleeping in her house. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depends on how you look at it), her sports bag out-weighted her and the girl's whole body rolled down onto the carpet. The carpet happened to be unexpectedly cozy and soft, so Zatsuki, after a very long minute of thought on the subject, decided that it was fine for her to stay in that position until the very morning.

Nevertheless, the idea had been broken into pieces when the girl heard a sudden noise coming from upstairs. That made her jump on her feet in alert.

'It couldn't be tou-san...he's suppose to come in an hour or two from work...nii-chan is abroad..burglars can't get through because of our annoying security...' She tried listening all the possibilities, but only in the end of the list did she realize who it really was.

All the colours that have been on her face had suddenly gone.

"Sweetheart, is that you?" A voice called out from up the stairs. It was a woman's voice with a strong German accent, but every single word which she pronounced was clearly heard.

The ginger girl wasn't quite sure how to reply, so she just answered with a, "H-hai."

"Oh, that's great! I missed you so badly, my own little darling daughter!" The voice sounded more excited and more rapid steps were heard coming down the stairs.

Zatsuki was wondering if she could go and hide somewhere...sadly, half way through her brilliant plan, she remembered that it's quite impossible to hide with her size. 'Damn height...' she cursed.

"Come here-!" The woman finally came into the living room, showing herself to our heroine.

The woman was a perfect, tall ginger with a short bob haircut that looked sophisticated for her age. Her soft layer of make-up was professionally put, so that all the unnecessary things on her face would disappear, but not completely conceal her early wrinkles, all in all, a natural look. She didn't have many accessories, except for the very primitive golden ring on her left-hand, showing that she's married and small golden earrings. The simple dress on her gave a very calming, yet a natural beauty aura.

The only thing out of place was her shocked expression, as she looked upon her daughter.

"W-welcome back, kaa-san." Zatsuki managed to mumble, bowing down in a japanese manner, which she was surprised to have.

Understanding the horrifying expression on her mother's face, the girl regretted to be so lazy and not change back into her school's uniform back at school.

The shock went away and got replaced by a calm, but very strict motion.

After a minute of silence, the mother walked out of the living room and called out, "TAKASHI!" The more like a command statement was answered with a rushing noise from the upstairs, which was coming down, "Y-yes, dear. Did something happen?"

The short, round, japanese man looked confused and spaced-out.

"Yes, something did happen." The man tried hard to list everything that he could've possibly been forgotten, but nothing came to him, "What?"

"Your daughter is wearing a guy's sports uniform carelessly and she looks like a guy even with her absolutely terrifyingly bad taken care of long hair. Why?" The father looked from his pretty wife to his teenage daughter and back.

"Umm..." "Oh, don't try to come up with some ironic jokes now. This is very serious! I've put my heart and soul into this creature and, is this what I get?! Who's going to be taking over my name and continuing my modelling career?! I've only got one daughter! Look at her height! It's perfect! Girls waste thousands on stupid surgeries for this kind of height just to get into modelling! But why in the world are you dressed up as a guy, huh?! Don't tell me you want to become a boy now! I was fine with you playing basketball in middle school since it was a girl's team. But a guy's in high school?! High school is all about that girly romance! This is a waste!"

Zatsuki looked at her mother. And after a moment of staring just sighed. There was no way getting around this woman...and she knew it. On the other hand, she didn't want to fight her. Every muscle in her body hurt and the match which was taking place just the next day wasn't going to be an easy one. Rest was calling for her.

"Kaa-san, I'm sorry to be a disappointment to you. But I've got a match tomorrow against a strong school, so, I'll go and not disturb you any longer with my presence." The girl yawned, picked up her sports bag and walked with a careless attitude up the stairs and to her own room.

When the latter had gone, the mother couldn't help but face-palm, "She's acting as an even worse teenager than her brother...whatever happened to that cuteness they both had when they were children?" She sighed and looked at her husband with an expression of utter depression.

"You should let them be. Plus, Kana just started to look happy again. I don't want to ruin it by pushing her by force on something that she doesn't have an interest in yet. It was frightening in what kind of mood she was in the third year of middle school. If not for my constant load at work, I would've probably tried looking after her with more care...but it seems I'm a bit too late for that. As a father, of course I want her to act more girly...but I think it really is just a matter of time and endurance." The man spoke, embracing his tall wife with reassurance that everything will work out.

"You, japanese and your eternal patience..." The lady smiled and returned the embrace. After beginning to feel better, she stepped away from her soft, cozy and very comforting husband. Still smiling, she sighed in defeat and went upstairs.

"Kana." The mother knocked on her daughter's door, "Open the door. I want to talk to you, alright? No matter who you are, you're still my sweet child and there is no way you'll ever be a disappointment to me...(just to yourself and the society - she mumbled).Of course it's not very pleasant that my own daughter doesn't like things that I do...Oh, do come out and lets have some tea. I just arrived all the way from Europe, give me a break, alright. On top of this, I brought your favourite belgian waffles and chocolate." Her voice sounded as if she didn't just scold the girl two-five minutes ago.

The door creaked open slowly. "Is that true..?" The ginger girl mumbled, sniffing in slight sadness from the words before.

"I always speak the truth, you know that. Now come...actually, go first wash yourself...and your hair too, your smell like a pig all over!" Yeah...she really did not hide her feelings.

Though otherwise, the rest of the evening kicked off quite nicely. Zatsuki and her love for european sweets was as strong as her love for basketball...and as you already know by now, that's pretty darn strong.

Her mother also ended up telling all these magnificent stories about what was happening to her and how, where and for what reasons her shoots kept on travelling from one end of Germany to the other and around Europe.

The atmosphere around their diner table was so delightful that it almost seemed like a prefect family again. The only problem was...that...when the girl, for the first time, looked at the clock...it was already three o'clock by their time and her mother was only now starting to feel a bit tired.

Gulping, Zatsuki rose, apologised for her leave and ran to bed. Sadly, she also couldn't fall asleep, making her life twice as hard.

At least that was her excuse she used to convince herself that it was alright to wake up so late.

Putting on her uniform, the girl couldn't help herself but hug her mother, who was half asleep from jet-lag with a cup of coffee doing a poor job at waking the lady up. "I've got a match today in a different district, I have to get there fast, so I can't stay for breakfast..." She took a toast from the plate that was made for her and ran out, shouting to her father that she's leaving.

"Shitshitshitshitshit" The girl muttered under her breath as she kept running with full speed to the train station. She could already feel the coach's wrath on her. Oh, boy could she visualise it clearly. Luckily, Kaijou wasn't as far from Seirin as she thought it would be, that's why even if she was late, it would be like five-ten minutes.

The school was huge. And no, not just big-with-lots-of-buildings-attached-it sort of huge. No, it was as confusing as a super complicated maze...or so Zatsuki thought, running through the school's yard - twice.

Then, after finally giving up, the girl finally noticed a crowd of girls looking at her. And she decided to ask if they possibly knew where the match was held.

"Hei, he's coming this way!" One of the squealed to her friends, with a slight blush.

"Oh, please, like a guy hasn't talked to you before. Plus he looks gay." Another replied disapprovingly.

"Hina-chan! Don't be rude! I bet he's been bullied in his childhood by people like you." The girl commented strictly.

"I agree. But I bet they were just jealous of his cute and girl's smooth-like features. Though I think the bullies might've won. He seems to be trying to look more manly with his careless look (though the long hair is kind of...). He seems also a little awkward~. It's adorable!"

"That's true! That makes it so cute! And look at his height! And he's wearing a sports uniform! That's so cool!"

"Is that a basketball uniform...wait, I think I saw a group of people with the same uniform coming to our school...Wait! Is he-?"

"Uh-umm...sumimasen, but c-could you please tell me where the basketball practice game is held?" The girls startled in surprise, shocked at the 'boy's' rather more than usual gentle voice. The whole group was almost 1/3 shorter than Zatsuki, making them feel odd, since the girl was feeling awkward in asking them, not being used to talking to girls.

"Of-Of course!" The all said in a chorus and thought 'CUTE!' as if they were triplets.

"A-arigatou." The ginger girl stroke the back of her head with her hand in nervousness. She wasn't quite aware what was going through the group's heads, but her casual boyish attitude with her right hand in the pocket of her pants and care-free look, was giving off another type message than she wanted to give.

"Which school do you go to?" The first girl looked at our heroine, starting to walk by her side, "If you're having a practice match with our school's team, then you must be pretty good to be approved of." "It's Seirin. And yes, we're awesome!" Zatsuki finally broke out of her awkwardness, understanding that talking to normal girls isn't that hard after all.

"Oh~! Really? I would like to see that. Though you'll probably have problems playing against our Kise. He's a Generation of Miracles..or whatever you called it...I don't care really. He's so cute, but because of his popularity, it's sort of starts to become annoying. What's your name anyway? I'm Kurowa Sakura." "Zatsuki."

...The rest of the walk was about the same. The girl enjoyed her female company so much, that she almost forgot the threat of her coach.

That's why, when the girls brought her to the sportshall, she didn't think of the consequences of coming so much later.

"Well, you're here, Zatsu-" "Z.a.t.s.u.k.i.-k.u.n." a low, terrifying tone started coming towards her, and before she knew it, her stomach was already spilling all her vital organs from the rough kick that it just received. "S-senpai..." She was trying to hold on for life. This scared the group of Kaijou girls, who were running around our heroine like little chicks.

"I don't care for your excuse, but if you don't get to court in five seconds, I'll make sure your life ends up being hell!" The ginger girl tried to protest, but looking at her senpai's eyes, she knew that was her final statement. With that in mind she ran to the court.

"It's alright. thanks to Kagami's welcoming break through, we had to resume the match...now on a full court." The captain summarised the beginning of the game with a huge (and sort of nervous) grin. Looking the same way, the girl noticed that one of the basketball's boards was without a basket. "Oi...don't tell me..." The girl looked back at her team-mates, who were either smiling or nodding, to Kagami and grinned. Giving the red-head a shoulder punch, she began laughing, "AHAHA~! Awesome, Kaga-kun! You've risen on my list of interesting players!"

"You're the one to laugh. What's with the chilling late-coming?! Kise wouldn't stop talking about you chickening out on your bet." The boy puffed, crossing his hands. "Chicken out?" Zatsuki felt her temple flowing with blood, "Chicken out, eh?! Lets see who's chickening out, blondie! I'll break him!" She commented with her competitive pride peaking out as intense fire.

She saw the boy in question across her in a blue uniform that said "Kaijou, 7". Not only that, there was a huge crowd of squeals behind her, to whom the said blond was waving to casually. She gave a glare. Sighing, the girl just went to change as quickly as possible. When she came back, the game started.

Everything was so quick that...Ha! Zatsuki almost cried herself to death from too much laughter in her head. Speed was something the Teikou girl's team was famous for. And this..compared to that, could even be called normal. Though one difference was, which surprised the girl, was their strength. Playing a whole team of people your own height was also not something she was accustomed to. That's why, it took a while for her to get out of her shock.

"Oi, Zatsuki, concentrate." The captain yelled at the girl, which made her move instinctively again. The high pace of the game made her think slower than usual but move faster. Dribbling the ball, which was passed to her just a minute ago, Zatsuki just ran to the enemy's side, trying to avoid conflicts with Kaijou's players. And even if they were close, she used her swiftness to her own advantage. And right when she was a metre away, the girl jumped, throwing the ball to go in.

Though just when she came down, the opposite team already had the ball and began running to the other side. "Matteyo." The girl muttered, running after them. Only then did she see the tension between Kagami and Kise. The two were just blowing the basketball in its baskets like it was natural to play with such power. Kise's were obviously stronger, but Kagami wasn't falling behind too much. 'Oi! Are you forgetting that I was the one who did the bet?!' She wanted to yell at them, but sadly just 'emo-cornered' herself emotionally.

For the first time Zatsuki felt powerless. 'So, this is what a boy's game is like?' She looked at her own palm which was already starting to shake a little from tiredness. 'Awesome!' Her eyes sparkled in delight.

Grinning unconsciously, the girl went with her full strength...though by then, their coach asked for a time-out. Looking around, the girl saw everyone in her team sweating and breathing like their life dependent on it. 'Was it really that intense?' she wondered, not feeling her own tiredness due to too much excitement.

Aida-senpai gave out the water battles and towels, sighing in disturbance. "To think that even Kagami can't handle Kise..." "I think it's going pretty well, though" The girl's mouth twitched a bit, "It's kind of annoying to see how you're going against the copycat...Though it's not going to last long. I saw this happening with several opponents the blond was playing against. Plus, he also seems to be not fully serious about this. It's kind of pissing me off. But is this seriously how most games go? This is so cool!" Zatsuki's eyes sparkled again, freaking everyone around her.

The boys and the coach then turned towards her and just then realised that it was her first actual game (even if it was a practice). 'You gotta be kidding me!' They all thought, looking at the extremely happy tall girl, who was disguising herself as a guy at the moment.

On the other side, with the Kaijou, two similar girls looked at Zatsuki with an emotionless hatred.

"Ne, nee-chan, that's definitely..."

"-Hai."

Their faces turned around with bubbly happiness, as they heard their love speaking, "Thank you, Ryo-chan, Ran-chan." The blond said, answering with the same smiling face. "Ryota-kun, you're too sweet. You should show them what you're made of~, nya~!" The first twin replied, making a cute cat noise in the end of her sentence.

"Well, they seem bothersome..even all the senpais are huffing~. Ran, you shouldn't press...they're just warm-ups for Ryota-kun anyway. Though I've got to mention that it seem your popularity is dropping, Ryota-kun~, that idiot Zatsu-..number 12 is taking some of your light from the girls above. You shouldn't play around too much, ne~?" The other said, pointing at the crowd of girls, who were standing on the second floor balcony.

"Wouldn't girls be mostly happy if their boyfriend is becoming less popular with other girls?" Their captain asked, raising an eye-brow. He was drinking the water from the bottle, already relaxing a bit from the intense match. He still couldn't really understand how anybody could date both of the twins...well, they were doing a pretty good job as managers and he had nothing to complain about...but still, it was weird.

"Now, now, captain, you should know better than that." Ryo looked at the captain, giving a little bit of a flirty look towards him, "Girls want their boyfriends to be the best. That's as far as it goes. The rest lays in our own hands~. Right, Ryota-kun~?" The girl looked at the blond, who just laughed it off. For him, sometimes the twins were a bit too intense, but they were definitely cute, so - whatever, "Sure."

"Alright! Now concentrate, you little brats! I won't accept a hit like this on my-.. Kaijou's pride!" Everybody in the team rolled their eyes. Kise still didn't tell them about the bet, but he knew that even without it, there is enough tension. And so, the first quarter continued. He was determined to win and get Kuroko on their team. He was Kise Ryota after all. He never lost and he won't this time either!

Though just like that, the team already strengthened the centre, not letting the blond to pass through to the basket. Kaijou's captain was ready to pick a fight for looking down at the rest of the team. But instead he took the ball and went for a three-pointer. Unfortunately for him, he didn't measure that somebody would be able to get him.

"Sorry, but Kagami isn't the only member in our team either." The ginger slapped the ball from his hand and ran to the other side of the court. That was actually the first time they actually saw Zatsuki as a threat. It only then hit them then that the 'guy' was the same height as Kise, even if he looked weaker than a usual guy. The dunk was also a huge surprise. How could he get there so fast?

Looking at the shocked players, the girl smirked, causing a few unnoticed squeals from the second-floor balcony.

A dark aura was coming out of the Kaijo's players. They wouldn't let a mere first-year to look down on them. And a second later, the defence against her doubled, making her click her tongue in annoyance.

The game continued still with a back and forth battle between Seirin and Kaijou without a minute of rest.

In the end of the second quarter, when Zatsuki's strength wasn't enough and Kagami's lack of experience finally began showing something clicked in their heads. And Kuroko finally stepped in, feeling like his idiotic team-mates had an enlightenment for finally thinking of including him in. The difference between the teams also finally began to shrink again. They were ten points off now.

"Zatsuki-san, if that's as far as your resolution goes, then you'll never win against him." The blue-haired boy said, passing by the girl, making herself doubt her own skills. Though that doubt didn't last for long. "Look who's talking, shadow." The girl grinned, looking at the, running towards their ace, boy.

The shadow-light combination that Kuroko was with Aomine before, always made her jealous. She also wanted to find someone who would be able to read her movements and play along with them as if they were one. It kind of had a romantic tone to it, didn't it? The girl sighed looking at the blue-haired starting to make another bond like that with the his new light. Why was it so easy for him to do something like that?He was supposedly an actual boy, so why? As you probably have guessed, It's not like the girl didn't want the girly romance that her mother kept bugging her about. But not understanding or ever talking normally to girls as friends makes it kind of hard on her.

The game proceeded. And at the end of the third quarter, they tied up. This shocked Kaijou and surprised in excitement Seirin. The twin managers, chewed on the very tip of their taken care of nails. Their glare was hateful and unpleasant, but nobody noticed, since they were standing behind everyone and looked cheerful as somebody turned around.

"Nee-chan, do you think that Ryota-kun knows?" "I doubt it...otherwise he wouldn't act like a complete stranger to her. And it's better that way. He won't ever find out and we can whatever we want." The devilish smile was replied with a similar chuckle.

The final quarters was an ultimate battlefield. Zatsuki wasn't sure why she felt uncomfortable, having a somewhat shivering feeling down her spine, almost as if something bad was talked about her behind her back.

Kagami dunked the ball in as a gift he got from Kuroko, who passed the ball with unknown speed. This got Kise completely crack. The aura around him changed into something that could rival the one of his girlfriends.

Getting the passed ball from one of his team-mates, his eyes looked as if they were looking at a prey and his figure became more freed up, with his hands loosely hanging and legs standing stable on the ground. His dribbling increased in speed or was that running? The ginger girl couldn't quite tell. But she knew the move, it was way too familiar to her. And it annoyed the hell out of her to see the blond's version of it.

He obviously got a basket. The girl would've probably killed him if he didn't.

"I won't lose to anyone, not even Kurokoch-" "Say that after you actually win, blondie." The girl felt the edge of her mouth twitching in irritation, "And when you try to remember somebody's move, you should do a better job." She took the ball and did exactly the same thing just much lower, almost on ground level as she was running and dribbling the ball. This made it extra hard to steal the ball from her. The movement through the court was done in half Kise's time and by the time she got to the basket, there was enough for a momentum to jump higher, giving her enough time make a quick basket.

It clicked then in his mind, "Zatsukichi?!" He yelled out with full surprise. 'Finally.' the ginger girl rolled her eyes. "Right. There was only one person who could do something as weird as that! But wait, why?" "Because, stupid blond." The girl glared at him, not really knowing what he was asking about. "Eh, why am I stupid? Unlike you, I always passed my exams, baka Zatsukichi!" The boy made a duck face, feeling slightly hurt for being called stupid. The girl really wanted to strangle him there and then.

"Well, anyway, this makes things interesting. I should've known, only someone like you would make a bet like that too." But the mood around them didn't lighten up. In fact, it worsened. Lightining bolts of electric currents went between them. Your old rivals will stay your rivals until the very day you die. In a way, it's nice. In the other, it's killing. "And I'm sticking to it, because we'll win this match."

Kise was a famous model guy who was always good at everything he did. Everything, including basketball. How he managed to get to the first string in two weeks notice...was mind-blowing for Zatsuki. The worst part of it, was that Aomine noticed it and played one-on-ones with him for the fun of it. That annoyed the hell out of our heroine. Not to mention the flocks of girls always surrounded her, making her feel somehow beaten in femininity.

On the other hand, Zatsuki was an out-going, careless tomboy who was always in the middle of the fun. She was friends with pretty much all of the boys in Teikou, going from the very violent ones to the super shy and nerdy types. Being popular with the girls somehow always lead Kise to being sort of out-casted from the guys group. He never really had big amounts of good friends, he didn't even know anyway to even get them. If he had any, it was probably only by some miraculous reason. And the fact that a hopeless case like Zatsuki could walk up to any guy and become buddies in less than a minute was kind of annoying him.
Kise knew about Zatsuki's crush on the Teikou's ace, but he never, although he had no ill intentions, really gave a damn about it. To him, the girl always seemed to be somehow too violent ( and somehow that violence always vibrated on him). In his opinion, Aomine did a good job rejecting her. Of course, now he understood that the idea might have been a bit wrong.

Kuroko and Kagami's partnership's improvement together with Zatsuki's sudden enlightenment on her part achieved Seirin to win by two scores.

There was a little wave of realization after the last second finished. Only when Kise finally pronounced, "We..lost? But I never lose..."

It got to everyone then, "We won!" Zatsuki high-fived Kagami, who was in just as high spirit as her, "Kuro-kun! We-" Before she was able to finish her sentence, sobs were starting to come from the blond's direction. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" She looked at him in a disgusted way, "Are you a ma-" "Now, now, Zatsuki-kun...you shouldn't be too harsh on your opponents, ne~?"

That voice...oh, boy.

"Ryo, Ran...what a pleasure..." The ginger girl turned to look at the twins, who were already petting and trying to cheer up their boyfriend. She completely forgot that the two devils were actually dating Kise Ryota. Zatsuki didn't know how they got him to date both of them...but knowing how inseparable they are, it was really hard to imagine them dating two different people actually. That would be just odd.

"Oi, girls, get off him! The boy's right! Act like a man! And the fact that you have never lost before is pissing me off badly! Get the word 'revenge' into your dictionary! It's useful in cases like these." Kaijou's captain kicked their ace, lecturing him like a parent.

"jee~, captain~! Don't spoil Kise's body with your kicking all the time, nya~! Well, whatever..." One of the twins rolled her eyes away, as the said guy looked at her threateningly.

"Anyway, Zatsuki-kun, why don't we have a chat with you? It's been so long since we saw you last~, you've changed a lot since then!" The other took our heroine by her hand and lead her out of the door...by force.

Chapter 4 is out _ . I don't know what to say...so, review pls? I really love to read what you guys think. If you think there could be improvement in something, also, don't hesitate and say, I'll try my best at it. Oh, and the twins are there on purpose. And yes, Kise is dating both of them..though we'll get into that later.

Thank you very much for the reviews, favs and follows that I've gotten, I hope you'll continue liking this story as it goes on ^^.

Ciao,

your lazy author.