(A/N: Hello, readers! I'm back! I'm on summer break so I'm hoping to update more frequently, but I also have other stories that I'm writing so that will probably stop me from working on this one. I'll at least try to update The Author once a month. Anyway, here's the next chapter! Enjoy! :D)


Chapter Eight

After breakfast, training started. The players split up into their respective teams. The plan for today was that every team would be doing a different workout. After a certain amount of time, they would rotate so by the end of the day, everyone would have done everything. The teams would train then get a practice break halfway through the morning training, continue training, they'd gather together for lunch when it was time, go back to practice, get another practice break, train some more, eat dinner together, and finally continue on with their table tennis tournament.

They started with Seirin doing sprints and footwork training, Kaijo running, Shutoku doing individual court drills (like shooting), Touo doing circuits, Yosen doing partner drills (like passing and one-on-one games), and Rakuzan doing leg training. Kaijo was running on the beach, Shutoku and Yosen were doing their exercises in the gym (and yes, there was a gym in Akashi's hotel facility), and Seirin, Touo, and Rakuzan were at the outdoor basketball hoops that was a little ways farther than the gym. The whole resort was basically the perfect place for athletes to train and relax, as expected from Akashi.

Now, this could've gone smoothly, but not all things go according to plan.

The Generation of Miracles all had different things that distracted them and that eventually disturbed practice. Let's start with Seirin, shall we?

With Seirin, all of them were pretty shaken up by the incident they'd witnessed at breakfast between Midorima and Takao. Hyuuga was a little more distracted since he pretty much thought that Akashi was out to kill him after he'd accidentally walked in on him and Kuroko last night.

The two Seirin players that were majorly distracted were the light and shadow duo. Kuroko had his brain filled with Akashi, and Kagami was the same with Aomine. It didn't help that both of the distractions were nearby doing their training, which was when the duo thought they looked the coolest. The partners couldn't focus at all. Their eyes kept wandering to their respective distractions, both of them kept spacing out. Kagami wasn't paying attention, and Kuroko kept stumbling and tripping on his own feet.

Riko obviously noticed that something was wrong with them since they kept making mistakes throughout the first exercise. She checked her watch. It was almost time for their break. She blew her whistle, deciding to give them their break early.

"Okay, break! Get some water and rest up before we rotate positions with Rakuzan! You have ten minutes!" After Kuroko and Kagami grabbed their water bottles, Riko pulled them aside. "Kagami, Kuroko, I need to talk to you two for a bit."

The duo looked at each other with dreading expressions, knowing they were in trouble, but followed anyway. The other Seirin players noticed but decided it was best to stay away.

"Okay, you two. Spit it out. What's bothering you?" she said. "Both of you have been spacey since breakfast, and you've been stumbling in your footwork all of this morning." She put her hands on her hips. "Is something worrying you? Before I'm your coach, I'm your friend. You can trust me with important matters."

Both players were looking at the floor, but Kagami answered first. "I think I might be sick." He sighed. "I wanted to keep practicing so I didn't say anything."

"Bakagami!" Riko yelled. "If you're sick, say something! So what's happening to you?"

"I don't know. Heart palpitation? It only happens sometimes around certain people. Like, it's not happening now. Alex said I'd be okay," the redhead said, scratching his head.

Kuroko looked up at him. "Kagami-kun, has this ever happened around just one person?"

"Yeah."

"Who was it?"

Riko watched the shadow interrogate his light, realizing where he was going.

"Aomine."

"Have you ever felt high irritation towards someone for just being close to him?"

"Actually, yeah."

"I see. That makes sense." Kuroko looked to the female coach to make sure she got that.

"Why?"

Kuroko ignored him. "Coach." He summoned her closer. "Should we tell him he has love sickness?" he whispered, soft enough that the idiot wouldn't hear.

"Oi, don't ignore me! Kuroko!" Kagami said, but it was futile since he was ignored again.

"I don't know. Part of me wants to let him learn on his own, part of me wants to tell him already so he'll stop being distracted," she whispered back.

"Oooooiiiiiii!" Kagami said, trying to get their attention.

"Coach, Shia LeBoeuf. Just do it. I don't think he'd ever realize it if we left him alone," Kuroko answered.

She nodded then they both turned to Kagami who was slightly irritated because they ignored him.

"Kagami, we have something to tell you that might be a bit of a shock," she began.

"What?" Kagami said, rather dumbly.

"It has to do with your 'sickness,'" she said, using air quotes.

"Why the 'air quotes?'"

"Hate to break it to you, but you're not actually sick," Riko said.

"Oh, thank god," the basketball junkie said. "So I can still practice?"

"Of course you can! But your 'sickness' isn't an actual physical sickness."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, "you're lovesick."

"Eh?"

"You like someone. Namely, Aomine-kun."

"Of course I like Aomine! He's my friend and rival!"

Riko face-palmed. Kuroko internally did the same. You're literally a lovesick fool, they thought.

"You like him more than a friend," Kuroko said.

Kagami gave them a blank stare while he was processing this. "Eh?"

They nodded at him slowly in attempt to make him understand.

"EEEHHHHH?!" he turned red and tried to cover it up with his hands but failed horribly. "I-I l-l-like A-Aomine? Like, like like?"

"Yes, you do, Kagami," Riko said.

"So that's why I turn all weird around him?"

"Yes, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said. Haha, he's in the awkward stage. I'm not really in a position to make fun of him for that, though. "Hopefully, that realization will help you focus more on practice. Because you want to be better than Aomine-kun at basketball."

"Doesn't that give you motivation to do well and concentrate?" the Seirin coach said.

The ace thought for a moment. "Hell, yeah!"

"So let's get back to practice, shall we?" the shadow said. He turned and started walking away.

Riko grabbed his shoulder. "Kuroko…" she said, ominously. "Where do you think you're going?" The shadow was scared to look back. "Don't think we're done talking. Kagami wasn't the only distracted one." She made him and Kagami sit. "Kuroko, what's up with you?"

He waited a moment before vaguely answering, "Stuff."

The coach gave a deadpanned expression. "I can see that. More in detail please. Like what you said to Kagami, I'm hoping that talking it out will ease your mind and better your ability to concentrate. Are you having love problems too?"

The blue-haired boy looked away. "No comment."

"Ah, so you are," she said.

The shadow sighed. "Stuff happened with Akashi-kun," he said, knowing it'd be futile to try to withhold information from his Coach.

Riko smiled. OTP! "I see. Care to share more? I won't force you."

He shook his head.

"Alright, then." She let him go since he was usually soft-spoken in the first place.

"Hey! Why does Kuroko get the right to remain silent?" Kagami said.

"Because you're an idiot," she justified. She checked her watch. "Okay, well, there are a couple more minutes until the break is over. Take this time to rest up a bit and sort out your thoughts. Once we rotate, I expect you to give it your all. We are going to win InterHigh and the Winter Cup this year, right? Let's not forget about the set punishment either."

Kagami and Kuroko got chills. They absolutely did not want to confess naked to Aomine or Akashi. "Yes, Coach," they said.

"Oh, yeah. One more thing." She smiled. "It's not bad to have these feelings. Just don't let it affect your practice. Especially during this time we have to practice with everyone."

They nodded.

"Well, I'm gonna check on the others. Rest up." The female coach walked over to the rest of the players and left the light and shadow to think.

After the break, Seirin rotated and moved on to leg training. Practice was smooth sailing after the talk Kagami and Kuroko had with their coach.

~The Author~

During Touo's practice, Aomine couldn't stop glancing over at Seirin the whole time. This didn't go unnoticed by Momoi.

"Oi, Dai-chan," she said.

"Hn?"

"You should really stop staring at Kagamin and start finishing your circuits."

"I was not!" the tanned player denied.

"You were too!" she remarked. The manager quickly thought of a way to motivate him. "Coach said once you finish your designated circuits, you can have your break until switching time. If you finish early, then you can stare at Kagamin all you want," she said with a smile.

After hearing that, Aomine ran ahead of his teammates to quickly finish. As he intended, he did finish early and spent the rest of the time until break watching the double-eyebrowed redhead. His unconscious smile was caught by his childhood friend.

Momoi giggled. Haha, I should use Kagamin to get Dai-chan to do stuff more often. She smiled after realizing how sincere his expression was. He really does love him.

~The Author~

With Shutoku, Midorima was aggravated to say the least. He couldn't concentrate at all, the rumors about what happened earlier had already spread to all of the teams, including the ones that usually wouldn't care, and his team was doing shooting practice, but he wasn't making any of his shots. He was hoping the 'close contact' he had with Takao wouldn't affect his luck since Takao was supposed to be his lucky item, but apparently, it had the opposite affect.

During the break, the green-haired shooter was scolded by his coach and told to pull it together, but he didn't know how. His fate was turned against him today. Next thing you know, nearby black cats would be walking under ladders, cracking mirrors, and spilling salt. The worst thing that could happen to him was his glasses breaking.

When they rotated with Yosen, who was doing partner drills, it was worse for Midorima because his partner was Takao who had caused his bad luck. And the fact that they were basically avoiding each other as best they could. Things were really, really awkward for them at the moment. Their coach had assigned a two-on-two exercise so the carrot and his hawk-eyed partner were up against the Miyaji brothers. It was going really badly since they weren't in sync at all, and, like I said, Midorima wasn't making any of his shots. Their match ended 37-4 in favor of the Miyajis. The few points that were scored were made by the raven-haired boy. Afterwards, Midorima and Takao were told to sit out and watch the other two-on-two games until they finished with them.

Rakuzan had seen the outcome of the game, as well. They were doing their individual shooting practice, but the outcome was so unusual that they just had to look. The Miracle shooter had just gotten slaughtered. They honestly felt really bad for him. Akashi decided he had to take some sort of action to help them. He walked towards them. Coach Shirogane saw him go towards the Shutoku side but said nothing. He trusted Akashi enough to know what he was doing.

"Shintaro, a word, please," the redhead said. The shooter stood up and followed the point guard out to the gym entrance, knowing it wouldn't be good if he refused. They stood by the double doors in the shade of the building. "In all our years at Teiko, I've never seen you get wiped out that badly even on an unlucky day. What makes today different?"

Akashi knew, of course, but he wanted to see how much Midorima actually knew about his misfortune. It actually didn't have anything to do with his luck. It was all distraction relating to Takao.

Midorima thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe because I'm having a person as a lucky item today? But that doesn't make sense because that's worked before." He fiddled with his tape. "Or maybe because I couldn't avoid something that was supposed to mess with my luck. But that doesn't make sense either. Even though I was supposed to avoid close contact, it shouldn't have given me misfortune because it was with the person who was supposed to be my lucky item." He said nothing for a while and just thought of reasons why his luck wasn't working for him.

Akashi gave him some time then decided to speak. "Shintaro, make up with Kazunari. That might work and make up your luck for the rest of today."

The shooter nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Head back to practice. You don't want to miss the practice games. You could learn from them. And send Kazunari out here for me, as well. I'd like to speak with him."

When Midorima went in, he called Takao out. "Takao, go outside. Akashi wants to talk to you."

"Ah, okay," the hawk-eyed boy said. Shit, what does Akashi want? He's not gonna try to kill me or anything, is he? He stood up, walked outside, and found Akashi leaning against the building.

"Hello, Kazunari."

"Hey, Akashi," he said with nervous laughter. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I called Shintaro out here earlier to discuss your massacre in that practice match. I've seen you play better."

The heterochromatic eyes of the emperor made Takao feel like he had to say something or die. "Ah, yeah. That was not my best game."

"I can see that. That unexpected kiss from earlier is distracting you, no?"

The Shutoku player's eyes widened. That was true, but he decided to play dumb. "Whaaat? Nah," he said, grinning.

"I can see right through you, you know? Pretending to be ignorant isn't going to do anything but increase your problems."

Takao wiped the grin off his face. "How'd you know?"

"How you and Shintaro played in that game gave it away. Both of you are distracted enough for it to be affecting your playing that badly. Shintaro's just pinning the blame on his luck. At least, you have enough sense to know that it's because of the incident at breakfast. The way you reacted earlier was also a huge clue, though," Akashi said with a smile. "You like him, am I right?"

His cheeks turned pink, but he nodded. This is starting to sound familiar, Takao thought.

Akashi smiled. It wasn't his yandere one, though, which surprised Takao since he's only seen the emperor show that soft expression around Kuroko, but he guessed the Rakuzan point guard actually was very sincere when it came to the happiness of his friends. "Kazunari, get along with Shintaro. I trust you with him."

Akashi's really not as bad a guy as I thought, Takao thought.

"I suppose you have no idea how to solve this sudden conflict with him?"

"Nope," he answered.

"Talk it out with him. We'll have lunch before we rotate again so do it sometime between now and then."

Takao nodded.

"I'll also give you a hint on how to restore his luck for today."

"That's possible?"

"Yes. You understand how he depends on his lucky items, correct?"

"Yeah."

"His shoots aren't really based on his luck but in reality are because of the many hours he's spent practicing his shots, but he has the mentality that he can only make shots because of his luck. What I'm about to tell you is just something to calm his mind. He'll be able to concentrate once you do this."

Akashi motioned for Takao to come closer and whispered the plan to him. Takao turned pink again.

"Okay, I'll do it," he said.

"Good. Now, let's get back to practice. Shutoku's two-on-two games are probably done by now."

The point guards walked back inside, but before they separated ways, Takao grinned. "Thanks, Akashi!"

"You're welcome," the redhead replied with a small smile.

Just like Akashi said, the two-on-two games were over. Coach Nakatani blew his whistle to gather the players, explained the next passing exercise, then left the players to do it. Midorima and Takao were paired up again. They were supposed to run across the width of the court, passing the ball to each other. But, due to Midorima's luck (more of his unfocused mental state), Takao nailed him straight in the face with the ball. His glasses got knocked off his face.

"Sorry, Shin-chan!" Takao yelled. He felt bad enough already since he caused his bad luck. He ran over to his green-haired partner. "Are you okay?'

It was taking most of Midorima's strength to resist the urge to yell at the boy. He was keeping Akashi's suggestion in mind, after all. "Somewhat," he answered. He got on the floor to look for his missing glasses. "Takao."

"Yes, Shin-chan?"

"Where are my glasses? I can't see."

Takao searched the floor and located the shattered spectacles not too far away from them. Shit, I'm dead. Shin-chan's gonna kill me. He picked them up. "Haha… Well, they're kind of… um… broken… Sorry."

Midorima was done. "TAKAOOOOOO!"

Everyone in the gym looked over to see what the fuss was. Akashi sighed. After assessing the situation, he was starting to doubt whether Midorima's superstition was just his head or some actual supernatural force that made everything around him go wrong.

Coach Nakatani walked over to them. After seeing what had happened, he sighed. "Midorima, do you have an extra pair of glasses?"

"In my suitcase."

"Takao, take him to get his extra."

"Yes, Coach," the hawk-eyed boy answered.

"Midorima, I'll have you sit out for the rest of this exercise just to make sure you're okay. A ball to the head is no light matter. If you feel okay after lunch when we start the next rotation, you can join in again."

The carrot nodded. "Takao, let's go."

"Yes, Shin-chan." Takao took his hand and led the taller boy out.

Rakuzan, who was 'doing their individual practice,' watched the two walk out. I say that in air quotes because they were really just watching the show with Shutoku and shooting every so often for it to be called actual practice. Operation AkaKuro smiled, thinking of how cute Midorima and Takao's interactions were. Their OTP was AkaKuro, but their main side ship had just become MidoTaka.

Those two better take the opportunity that was handed to them, Akashi thought.

Mayuzumi couldn't stop himself from smiling. There's Akashi, Kuroko, Midorima, and Takao. Who's next? This trip is just full of lovesick fools.