"Eh? I was expecting Kuroko-kun today," Haruka said when she opened the door and saw Aomine in front of her. "I thought Kise-kun would leave you and Mura-kun to the end."
"Then I'm going home," Aomine said, turning around but Haruka caught his arm.
"No, don't!" she smiled. "Ao is the only one I wouldn't mind going on a date with. So...where are we going?"
"Anywhere but shopping," Aomine said then made a face. "Satsuki made me go with her once...it was a horrible experience."
"There's one thing I want to do with Ao," Haruka smiled, holding onto Aomine's arm as she walked with him. "Can you teach me how to play basketball?"
Aomine raised an eyebrow at her, trying to pull his arm away but Haruka was like a leech on it. In all the years he had known her, Haruka had never really taken an interest in basketball. When he first met her, he thought she came to watch the practices because she was genuinely interested. Turned out, she came because of Akashi.
"Get Akashi to teach you."
"I don't want him to," Haruka pouted and looked at him. "You don't want to teach me, Ao? Do you think I'll be really bad?"
"I don't think you'll be really bad..." Aomine sighed. "I just think why now? Why do you suddenly want to learn how to play basketball? Does it have anything to do with Akashi?"
"Of course not! Not everything I do has something to do with Aka-chan," she frowned. "I just...It's kind of embarrassing how I know nothing about basketball yet my closest friends are basketball players. Plus, I'm the manager for Seirin but half the time, I don't even know the things they do."
Aomine smirked and ruffled Haruka's hair, pushing her in front of him and placed his hands on her shoulders, walking behind her as he pushed her gently to the street basketball court.
"Just saying, I'll be a very strict coach to you."
"Hai, sensei!" Haruka saluted him and smiled. "Ao, can I ask you something?"
"Okay."
"Why do you have a basketball with you randomly? Did you know I was going to ask you to teach me?" she asked, pointing to the basketball Aomine had in his hand.
"Oh...Well...I thought if nothing works, I would just ditch you and go play basketball," he admitted.
"You're mean, Ao."
Aomine threw the basketball to her and decided to teach her the basics first. He asked her to dribble across the court and back but Aomine couldn't believe his eyes.
There were people with talents for basketball and those who worked hard to polish their skills. Those in the 'Generation of Miracles' had talents and Kuroko, although with a talent of his own, worked hard to polish his other skills in basketball. Haruka was neither talented nor could she achieve anything practicing. Half an hour later, she was still dribbling across the court but after every few bounce, the ball would bounce away from her and Haruka would have to run after it.
"Ruka-hime...you're even worse than Tetsu."
"Shut up! I never played basketball before."
"But you should at least know how to dribble! Everyone knows how to dribble!"
"Well, I don't!" Haruka shouted. "Teach me something else. We can dribble later."
Aomine tsked and picked up the ball, shooting at the hoop and scored. "Let's teach you how to shoot," he said, going to get the ball and threw it to her, standing under the hoop. "Show me how you shoot."
Haruka raised the ball over her head and threw with all her might at the hoop. The ball hit the backboard and bounced back at Haruka. She managed to duck in time but had the scare of her life.
"Ara, ara, what's this?" someone asked. Haruka turned around to see a group of guys picking up the basketball she had dodged. "Is this a date on the basketball court?"
"That's none of your business," Aomine said, walking up to Haruka to keep her safe just in case. "Please give our ball back."
"Give it back? I was planning on using it. I was going to thank you for giving it to me."
"Hey!" Haruka frowned. "That's our basketball! We didn't give it to you!"
"That girl's got a big mouth, hasn't she?"
Aomine glared at the guys and looked to Haruka. "Ruka-hime, stand by the side," he ordered then looked back to the guys. "Since you're not going to give the ball back, I'll make you give it up," he said. "I'll take you all on. If I win, you leave the ball and get lost."
"And if we win, the ball is ours. So is the girl," the leader of the guys smirked.
"If you win," Aomine smirked, looking to Haruka. He pulled his jacket off and threw it to her. "I'll let you see what you're missing out on for choosing Akashi."
"Hai, hai," Haruka rolled her eyes and smiled, holding onto his jacket for her. She made herself comfortable on the ground and cheered Aomine on.
The group of guys smirked, thinking it was going to be an easy win. The leader dribbled the ball, going past Aomine and was going to shoot but Aomine easily blocked him, stealing the ball and dribbled all the way to the other side, scoring easily.
"Ao, you're amazing! Ao is so cool!" Haruka cheered.
"Are you going to give up soon?" Aomine asked, barely sweating and looked to the panting group of guys who looked like they were going to collapse any minute now.
The leader glared at Aomine and straightened himself up, holding the basketball in his hand. He turned around and suddenly threw the basketball at Haruka with all his strength.
It happened too quickly for Haruka to react but Aomine was quick. He ran up to Haruka and blocked the basketball with his body, looking down at her. "You okay, Ruka-hime?" he asked.
"Ao! Are you okay? That must have really hurt!"
"It's only a basketball," Aomine laughed softly and smirked, ruffling Haruka's hair. "But if that hit you, Akashi wouldn't let me go that easy," he said and faced the group of guys. "Now you've really pissed me off," he said, picking up the basketball and restarted the game again.
When the group of boys were finally on the ground, too tired to move, Aomine took his jacket from Haruka and took her hand, pulling her up.
"Ao, you're amazing! You played one against like six of them! How is that even possible?"
"And you think Akashi is the only amazing one in the world?" Aomine smirked. "Shit...I forgot I was on a date with you. Maybe I can teach you basketball again next time."
"Mm! And it's ok, Ao, we can just go and get something to eat," Haruka smiled, holding onto his arm. "Ew...Ao! You're all wet from your sweat!"
"Then let me give you a hug!" Aomine laughed, chasing after Haruka.
"Haruka-chan, you have a lot of boyfriends, don't you?" her mother asked, sitting down at the table with dinner laid down.
After the date, Haruka asked Aomine to stay for dinner. Her mother was thrilled that he was staying for dinner because she always welcomed guests and since Haruka's dad was staying at work late, the more the merrier in the household.
"Oka-san, Ao is not my boyfriend. Ao is Momoi-san's boyfriend."
"I am not Satsuki's boyfriend," Aomine frowned.
"Aomine-kun, I hope our Haruka-chan is not giving you any trouble," her mother said and smiled at Aomine. "Thank you for always taking care of our Haruka-chan."
"It's okay...Akashi would make me go through the trouble anyway even if I don't do it myself."
"Oh my, Akashi-kun really cares about Haruka-chan, does he not?"
"Oka-san, that's enough. Aka-chan is no longer my boyfriend so please stop saying things like that."
"So, Aomine-kun," her mother said, ignoring Haruka altogether, "Am I right to say that Akashi-kun now has competition?"
Aomine looked at Haruka's mother, wondering what she was talking about then he realised that she was asking about whether or not there were other guys fighting Akashi for Haruka.
"Haha...I wouldn't say it's competition..."
"Why not? Is there someone else who's better than Akashi-kun?"
"It's the opposite, actually...I don't think anyone would dare to challenge Akashi for Ruka-hime."
"I'm full," Haruka said, putting her chopsticks down and got up. "Thank you for the food, oka-san. Ao, please leave after you've finished your dinner," she said and left the table.
Every time they mentioned Akashi, Haruka couldn't help but feel like she was going to cry. Well, that was what she would be feeling when she first broke up with Akashi. Now, she was pissed to the limit about it. What was so great about Akashi that she must be his girlfriend no matter what?
Was it his amazingly cool heterochromatic eyes? Or his amazing red hair that never seemed to be out of place? Or perhaps it was the way he spoke that could melt anyone. Maybe it was the aura he emitted; strong, cool and absolutely perfect.
"Snap out of it, Matsuoka Haruka!" she shouted to herself and looked at the tiger on her bed. "You are not perfect! You are not amazing! Your heterochromatic eyes are stupid! Who wants eyes with different colours? Your hair stinks! I hate the colour red anyway. I hate the way you speaks, thinking that you're all that all the time. And you have no aura whatsoever!"
Haruka knew it was stupid yelling at a soft toy but she felt a lot better after yelling it out. That was it. Next time someone said something about Akashi being perfect, she would just count all the things that she hated about him. Stupid eyes, stupid hair, stupid way of speech and stupid aura, she repeated in her head.
"This should be interesting," Haruka said, folding her arms when Kuroko had came to pick her up for their date.
Haruka's hatred for Kise for organising these little dates slowly slipped away. She actually enjoyed the dates, minus Midorima's of course, and she was looking forward to going out with Kuroko. The thought of a date with Kuroko made her giddy.
She had known from the way Kuroko treated Momoi that Kuroko was actually quite smooth with the ladies but she had always wondered how it would be like to go on a date with him. Now she was going to find out.
"Good morning," Kuroko greeted. He was wearing a plain polo shirt and shorts that came up to his knees and a simple bag slung over his shoulders. "Are you ready, Haruka-san?"
"Hai," Haruka said, following after Kuroko. For some reason, she felt more like she was going to run an errand with her little brother rather than going on a date with a guy her age. "Ano...Kuroko-kun?" she asked. Kuroko stopped and turned his head around. "You don't look like you want to be here."
"Kise-kun set this up. I was against it because what if Akashi-kun found out? Only Kise-kun would dare to do such a thing. But then I thought that it could be quite interesting, going on a date with Haruka-san."
Haruka nodded and continued walking with Kuroko with an unknown awkward atmosphere around them. Kuroko first stopped at a café and they were given a table almost immediately. Now that she thought about it, Haruka had skipped breakfast that morning and she was actually starving.
Holding the menu in his hand, Kuroko started what seemed like a chant to the waitress. "Kuroko-kun, we can't eat that much by ourselves," Haruka stopped him. "Can you...cut down some?"
"Don't worry, Kagami-kun can finish it."
"Kagami-kun?"
"Oi, what did you call me here for?"
Haruka turned around and speak of the devil, there Kagami was. What was he doing here on Kuroko and her date?
"Haruka-san? Kuroko, what are you planning?"
"Nothing. Haruka-san and I are on a date so I thought of calling you here."
"Huh?! What does your date have to do with me?" Kagami asked. "And why are you on a date?!"
"Because Kise-kun said so," Kuroko said. "I thought maybe it would be less awkward with Kagami-kun here."
"Actually...it's more awkward," Haruka mumbled.
Nonetheless, Kagami sat down with them, mumbling about how he was being a third wheel and that he really didn't want to be there. However, when he saw the food, his attitude changed, saying that Kuroko should have called him here earlier.
"Well, thanks for the date," Haruka said, sighing softly and looked at Kuroko. Kagami was standing at the driveway, waiting for Kuroko. "It was...nice."
"Did you not like Kagami-kun coming?"
"Huh? Oh no...I didn't mind. It was just...a little unexpected."
After saying goodbye, Haruka went up to her room and let out a soft sigh, collapsing onto her bed. Only Murasakibara left now. It made her wonder what they were going to do on the date.
Hopefully...not another kiss.