They were in the locker room after the game and no one spoke. Saiki sat staring at the floor.

"We still have two more games against Meisei and Seishinkan!" Riko told them "We don't have time to be sad!" Still no one spoke. Saiki heard her phone going off in her bag and grabbed it. It was her brother. She really didn't want to talk about the game but she didn't want to ignore her brother.

"Can I take this?" She looked over to Riko and pointed to the door. Riko nodded and Saiki walked out with her phone still buzzing. She waited a few moments before answering it.

"Hi." She answered solemnly.

"Hey Tsuba, ah, you don't sound good." Daisuke adjusted his voice when he realized what had most likely happened. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want."

"No, I probably should talk about it." Saiki kept walking. She couldn't stop replaying the game in her head anyway. "We, we lost." she said finally. "112 to 55." She felt her heart go up her throat. It was the first time she was really facing the score.

"Is he really that powerful?" Daisuke was in complete shock of the score.

"We lost our ace in the fourth quarter." Her voice was hardly above a whisper, she was afraid if she spoke any louder she would lose it. "I don't know if we could have won with him in, but it was a slaughter in the end, I felt useless." She confessed.

"Don't say that!" Her brother yelled at her through the phone. "Not every game can be perfect, you can never grow if you don't make mistakes! This is a chance for you to bounce back and come back stronger! You know where your weak points are and you just have to sharpen them." Saiki smiled as she pushed open the door to the outside and the fresh air hit her. She was thankful for her brother at that point.

"Thanks, Dai. I'm gonna go think now."

"Don't get too hung up on it, just have fun, bye." Saiki pressed the end button and held on to her phone. She took a breath and stood in the fresh air trying to sort through her thoughts. She heard someone else sigh a few feet away from her. She had to repress a yell when she realized it was Aomine sitting on the steps.

Her feelings were split. She wanted to so bad to be angry with him still. He just crushed their team while acting like an ass. But there he was, and he looked more upset than her own team. She knew she would regret this later. Saiki moved and sat next to Aomine, who didn't acknowledge her presence. "If you want to talk, I'll just sit here." She said quietly. He didn't take any notice of the ginger. He just stared ahead just as she thought he would.

A few minutes passed and he took a breath. "Some shit was bad mouthing Tetsu." Saiki was caught off guard. "I wanted to punch him." He let out a little laugh. He had completely destroyed Kuroko on the court, yet he was still willing to defend him. Then it hit Saiki. He actually had high hopes in this game because of Kuroko. He thought Kuroko and his partner might stand a chance and put up a fight. He still respected Kuroko's style somewhere in him.

"What's your deal?" He asked leaning back. Saiki couldn't hold back her laugh. Seriously?

"Some asshole just killed my team." She copied him leaning back. She didn't know why she was responding, she was supposed to be aggravated with him. Only a little while ago did his presence make her blood boil. But right now, he looked open. He didn't seem as closed off as he normally was.

"Oh really? I heard that asshole is quite the looker."

"Eh, I've seen better." Saiki didn't know what she was doing. The words were just coming out of her mouth.

"You sure? Apparently he's got abs of steel."

"Yea but he's also a jerk ganguro." She couldn't keep back the smile on her face. This was the Aomine she could talk to. The easygoing one who was a little less jerkish.

"Well I just played a team with a freak tall ginger girl." He said back.

"And how did that go?"

"It was a bit boring and the ginger had no boobs." Saiki rolled her eyes. Why was it so hard for people to understand that female athletes usually don't have boobs.

"I heard the ginger's going to be at Touou on Sunday at one with field hockey stuff." She started pushing herself up.

"Is that so?" Aomine looked up at her as she started to walk away.

"That's what I heard." Saiki said before pushing the door open. Yea she was probably going to regret that whole thing, but for now she was fine with it.

She walked through the halls looking for her team. No matter how much she wanted to dislike Aomine at times, she couldn't. Part of her understands his plight and she could relate to him. He just wanted an opponent he could play at full capacity. Though during field hockey she never got as desperate as he, she knew she was probably close.

"Hey, what happened to you?" Hyuga asked while he tossed her her bag in the hall. Saiki realized she was still smiling. Shit.

"One of my brothers just had good advice, that's all." She said almost too fast. The rest eyed her suspiciously for a second more but then they went back to walking. Everyone was still shaken from their defeat.


Saiki wiped the sweat from her forehead after one of Riko's intense practices and headed to the girls locker room. It had only been one day since their massive defeat but they were already back to practicing. They had two more games in the Championship League and they intended on winning them.

After she switched into her simple street clothes, jeans and a gray v-neck, she felt her phone vibrating. She pulled her phone out as she walked back out of the locker room and through the gym. Her lock screen was filled with one message repeated over and over again.

From: Aomine Daiki
Buy me food.

When she unlocked her phone she could see exactly how many times he sent the message. 82. 82 flipping times. Her phone buzzed again, make that 83.

"Freaking idiot." She muttered under her breath.

"Are you okay, Saiki-san?" Kuroko appeared next to her. Saiki dropped her phone and grabbed her chest. She hadn't realized the shorter boy was walking next to her

"Jesus! Kuroko-kun, you scared me!" Saiki tried to catch her breath.

"Ah, sorry." He bent down and dropped down the phone she had dropped. It was times like she that she was grateful for her case. She could hear it vibrate again in his hand.

"Thanks." She said as Kuroko handed her the phone, which continued to vibrate. "And yea I'm fine, just someone being stupid." Then someone started calling her phone. Saiki was just about ready to find Aomine and chuck her phone at his head. But when she looked down on the screen it was some random number.

"Hello?" Confused, she answered the phone.

"What do you think you're doing dating Kise-san! How dare you date my model! You're not worthy of his love!" The voice sounded like it had to be a 12 year old girl or something and Saiki groaned. The Kise fan girls had been basically stalking her and sending her hate ever since Kise and her grabbed lunch to talk about basketball. This was the first call she had gotten on her cell phone though.

"Remind me to change my number." She told Kuroko who was still next to her.


And so, here she was again, on her way to Touou with her field hockey stuff in tow. Saiki couldn't believe she actually agreed again to teach Aomine Daiki the basics of field hockey, even after he ruthlessly won over their team in the first game of the Championship League. She should be focusing on getting better at basketball and helping her team get stronger. Not teaching a lazy asshole field hockey.

She thought she would get to the field hockey field unnoticed since she was wearing her brother's sweatshirt, but no. That would be too simple. Instead she bumped into a girl only an inch or two shorter than herself.

"Sorry." Saiki muttered hoping the bump would go unnoticed, but she wasn't Kuroko.

"Hey, aren't you that Seirin girl?" The other girl called out. Saiki turned to face the girl who had just spoken. She was wearing practice clothing and holding a basketball bag. Shit.

"You're the one who thinks she's too good for girl's basketball." People usually took her playing basketball at Seirin in two ways. They either look at her and think of feminism or girl power, or the think she is just a pretentious whore to put it nicely. Because god forbid she just wanted to play basketball for fun.

"Oh no, my school just doesn't have a girls team." Saiki smiled and turned to walk away.

"Why didn't you make one?" Saiki really didn't want to explain herself. It was a sport she enjoyed to play. Saiki kept walking but the girl bounced a basketball off her back.

"1 on 1." She called out. "First to 10."

"Fine." Saiki brought the ball back to the girl, clearly pissed off that she had actually thrown it at her.

They had been right by the outdoor court. Saiki put her field hockey stuff down and took of her sweatshirt, expecting at least a challenge. The girl was apparently Touou's girl's basketball club's Captain. She had to be good.

But the game left Saiki alone standing on the court dazed. That girl should have been good. Saiki should have sweat at least a little bit. But she was so slow. The game had ended in under 3 minutes. The Captain hadn't been able to get one basket. Every attempt she made Saiki could jump and block it. Saiki even resorted to slowing down her fast break to give her opponent a chance at coming back on defense, but it was useless. The Touou captain couldn't hold her back.

"I guess I was wrong about you." The captain told her after being humiliated in front of her team. "Good luck for the rest of your games."

"Yea, you too." Saiki was distant. She was realizing the gap between her and normal girl basketball players. She was on a whole different level compared to them. In Seirin's games, her jumps seemed average, and her speed and agility were just above average. There were plenty of guy players who were better. There was still a challenge for her. That one on one though. That one on one left her with a numbness she hadn't felt since field hockey.

"Good thing you play with guys." A voice pulled her out of her thoughts. The court had cleared and the Touou girls were all gone. Now Aomine was the only one there.

"You saw?" Saiki winced. The match was so one sided, she wanted to cringe.

"Yea." There was a tinge of sympathy in his voice. It was only slight, but it was there. "Come on, I came here for field hockey don't make me regret coming." Saiki shook her head and grabbed her stuff.

"Are you ever going to say why you even want to learn field hockey?" She passed him her spare stick

"This thing is so small." He said holding the stick up.

"It's it's a 38!" Saiki realized he wouldn't understand so she broke it down. "38 inches. That's the biggest stick size they make. You just have to deal with it." She dumped her stuff on the ground and grabbed two balls from the bag. "Did you at least read the rules I sent you."

"Eh?" She had texted him a link that said the basic rules of field hockey, but she should have expected him not to read it. She sighed.

"Fine then listen." She held up one of the balls. "This ball, can't touch you. Anything below the knees is a foul on you. Depending on the height it can be declared dangerous and that can be a foul." She grabbed her stick and hit it on the one Aomine was holding. "No senselessly smashing your stick into your opponents. It's hacking and it's bad." Saiki flipped her stick and showed him the flat side of the stick. "You can only hit the ball with this side of the stick. Hitting it with the rounded part is stupid and illegal. That should be it for the extreme basics." She stopped and thought for a few seconds. "Oh yea, and no boxing out if you're not moving with the ball, this isn't like basketball where you can stand still and shield the ball with your body."

"Well that's stupid."

"Well that's the rule." Saiki tossed the ball over to Aomine. "Copy me." She dropped her own ball and ran down the field with a close dribble. It was the easiest dribble on the turf since the ball was constantly connected to the stick. She had had to learn the dribble on bumping unpredictable grass, Aomine was lucky he was on turf. She welcomed the familiar ache in her thighs as she ran down to the fifty.

"My back hurts." Aomine complained when they reached the fifty.

"Bend your knees you idiot not your back!" Without warning she took off toward the end line. She looked back over her shoulder and wanted to laugh. Aomine was awkwardly hunched over with the stick keeping the ball out in front of him. "Your knees!" She called out to him.

When he got to the end line with her she decided to do the other dribble. "That was a controlled dribble. You use that when you have someone on you. If you have a fast break down the field or no one is on you, you can use a loose dribble. For that you just lightly tap it," She took off toward the fifty again lightly tapping the ball in front of her. This dribble was quicker than the previous one since the ball could come off the stick. She noticed Aomine's ball fly passed her when he hit it too hard. "A light tap!" she laughed. Aomine let out a frustrated groan as he chased after the ball.

Saiki watched Aomine as he dribbled back to the end line using the loose dribble. It looked better than the previous run but he still looked awkward. It was to be expected, he was going to a sport where being tall and big was a goal. In field hockey, being down low was the game.

"My thighs hurt." He complained. Saiki didn't pay attention, she was playing around with her ball doing random pulls and spins. "This is boring." He added when she didn't reply.

"You're the one who wanted to do it." Saiki replied without looking up from the ball.

"That was before I knew how boring it was." She looked up at Aomine who was lazily leaning on the stick with his signature bored expression. She couldn't believe he was actually a high school student and not a child.

"So go home then." Saiki knew there was no use arguing with him, he was going to do whatever he wanted regardless.

"Try and get passed me."

"Are you kidding me, all you know how to do is dribble the ball." She hadn't even properly taught him dodges not to mention block tackles or any defensive moves.

"Just try and get around me." He tossed the stick to the side and took a basketball defensive position. Saiki rolled her eyes and figured she might as well do it. She ran at him and spun to the left dragging the ball with her. She passed the ball through his feet and went to cut around him and catch the ball. Aomine hesitated for a second not following where the ball went, though he was able to get back in front of her with his inhuman speed.

Saiki continued to pull the ball, throwing in some fakes too. There was no thinking needed for her in field hockey. She effortlessly reacted to the space Aomine gave her and took away. Her movements in field hockey were so much quicker than basketball, this sport came so much easier to her since she had spent so much more time focused on it. Saiki felt so relaxed with the stick in her hand, there was no need to worry whether she would win or lose. She was going to win this.

When she realize her pulls weren't tripping him up as much as she would like she started to put the ball toward his feet. "Remember, the ball isn't supposed to touch your feet." She reminded him.

"This is cheap." She couldn't see his face but he sounded like he was really concentrating.

"This is professional fouling." She replied without missing a beat. Aomine finally couldn't stay upright and his legs got tangled in the speed of her movements. Saiki made it passed him and turned around to see Aomine sitting on the field.

"You should play like that in basketball." He said still sitting with his back to her. Saiki was taken off guard, she hadn't expected him to bring up her basketball. "You were too stiff when you played. You were relaxed just now."

"I uh, thanks?" Saiki didn't know how to respond to him, she didn't think he would actually give out advice.

"Did you ever lose?" Aomine fell back and was lying on the turf now. "In field hockey, I mean." He added. He knew for sure she had lost at least once in her life.

Saiki paused and thought back through the years. She quickly recapped her middle school field hockey career and her short high school one. Then it hit her. "No, I don't think I ever did." It was the first time she was really realizing it. No one had ever beaten her in field hockey.

She sat down next to Aomine and looked up at the clear blue sky not knowing what else to say.

"And you still quit." He said after awhile.

"And I still quit." Saiki debated on actually elaborating, he was possibly the one person who might understand. But would he actually care? She decided against the thought and kept up the wall that was between them. "Breaking a rib sucks."

"I think Satsuki actually knew the girl who hit you." Saiki couldn't help but laugh. "Anyway, I'm hungry, do you want to get food?" Saiki looked down at her watch and realized what time it was. She never did buy him food after all his text messages, which eventually breached 100. Instead she told him to shut up and do something productive.

"Crap, sorry I actually have plans." She was supposed to Skype with her brothers soon and she didn't want to miss that.

"Another date with Kise?"

"What!? No!" Saiki was shocked that he brought that up. "That wasn't even a date! It was two people talking about basketball." She repeated what Kise had said before.

"No need to get so defensive." Aomine started pushing himself up off the ground. "Another time then." He grabbed the stick he had thrown aside before and passed it to Saiki.

"If you want to practice on your own you might as well keep it, I don't really need it."

"I don't think field hockey is really my thing." She was about to yell at him then what was the point of this all, but she didn't. She knew the underlying point to it all, she just didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to point out that her and Aomine Daiki, the lazy jerk, could possibly be similar. So instead she rolled her eyes and watched as he left the field.


A/N: Yea Aomine's field hockey career is very short lived and Saiki's is still feeling the repercussions of going out to eat with a famous model.
Updates may slow down a bit after this week because I have lacrosse starting up but it shouldn't be too drastic or anything.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!