Jo woke to Shira shrieking. She had been awake for a while in all honesty, but just drifting between consciousness and sleep. When Shira's voice echoed through her mind she found herself very much awake and rather irritated. Sure enough when Jo looked to the door Shira was bolting past, Aomine hot on her heels. Jo didn't question what had happened, in fact she didn't remember a lot of the night.
"You think we should do something about that?" Jo questioned as she dragged herself off the bed. She ended up rolling off and landed heavily. She would have groaned if she wasn't still a little out of it. What she wanted was some fresh air and her own bed.
"Shira got herself into the mess so she can get herself out," Takami answered from where she had sprawled out on the floor. Jo yawned as she nodded, gingerly climing to her feet which resulted in her stumbling. She swore under her breath as she headed to the door, hearing Jo let out another shriek.
"I'm going to kill her one day," Jo muttered under her breath as she stumbled down the stairs. She heard a door slam open and guessed that Shira was attempting to flee to the tree in Katsumi's backyard. She decided against going outside and stumbled out the front, sitting on the doorstep and looking around.
Her recollection of the night before was slightly blurry, but she could remember Shira was halfway between being in Aomine's face and his pants. Ishimura disappeared with Takao in tow and Meyer had been running around the better half of the night, sometimes accompanied by Kagami. She smiled lightly to herself as she thought to the last she had seen of Kazuki and Saka, a fleeting glance at the pair. Saka had all but pulled Kazuki into the corner of the room so they could talk to one another and then, just as they were leaving, she stretched up and shyly kissed his cheek.
"Ah, my little girls growing up," Jo beamed to herself as she rubbed the back of her head. She looked over her shoulder to the front door which had closed behind her, frowning. She wondered where Takami had ended up for the night and then found herself wondering how she managed to get in the bed. Jo shrugged her shoulders, looking back to the street before her. It was far too early for anyone to be up at the moment, Jo wondered why she was awake herself. She blamed the fact that she'd had alcohol and the fact it wasn't her own bed for waking up so early in the morning.
Jo let out a groan as a wave of nausea exploded in her stomach, causing her to lean forward and take deep breaths. She wouldn't vomit, she knew when she was going to vomit, but part of her really wanted to to make herself feel slightly better. Instead she butted the fleshy part of her palms into her eyes so hard she was seeing another galazy and tried to think back to the night before.
...
"Three points to Iwozuka!" Shira cheered as Takao was forced to down another drink of Jacks. He grimaced and Jo stepped back, her hand on Midorima's chest as she made a splash gap for the pair. Ishimura was hanging off Takao's arm, cussing to Shira whilst simultaneously egging Takao on. Takao missed his next shot, grimacing when Shira held the ping pong ball in her hands. Jo was surprised that she was still standing, let alone shooting, because of how she was swaying in place.
"Come on Shira, show him how Iwozuka does it!" Saka cheered, her bashfulness and speech impediment gone with her bout of liquid courage. Kazuki was behind her, one hand on her shoulder to stop her from running to the table and looking around him every so often, as though warning off some of the leers directed towards the underclassman.
Shira closed one eye, linging up Takao's last cup, before sending the ball forward. It ran around the rim for a few minutes and everyone held there breath before it plopped into the mixture. Takao let out a groan whilst Shira let out a whoop, jumping and punching the air, her knee almost spilling the table altogether.
"Rules are you drink mine too!" Shira laughed with a wink and Jo could see exactly how much of a bad idea that would be. Not only did Takao look like he would have more than enough after his last drink, Shira still had five of hers on the table, half filled with vodka. There was no way the poor boy would survive the night if he drank it.
"Come on Shira, he's about to fall just from his Jacks!" Ishimura seemed to have the same idea as Jo but Shira shook her head. She was a stubborn one at that but Jo wasn't keen on letting Takao have a single drop of her deadly mixture.
"Give them here, I'll drink them instead," Jo grumbled, stepping forward. She wasn't a big fan of vodka, preferring the bitterness of beer, but if Ishimura tried to drink them instead then she'd be trouble. The girl wasn't allowed to drink vodka under any circumstance and honestly, Midorima would probably drop after one of Shira's.
"That's not the rules though!" Shira shouted to no one in particular but she didn't stop Jo from grabbing one in each hand. The taller teen threw the mixture down in one go and continued with the second. The sickly burn travelled down her throat, warming her stomach but she ignored it. She dropped the plastic cups on the ground and downed the other three without paused, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea.
She glanced to Takao, who was now leaning heavily on Ishimura for support and mumbling something under his breath. He looked quite upset, but whether it was losing to Shira or not Jo didn't know. She shook her head, deciding to take her leave before she get's suckered into anyone elses drinks and headed out the back. She managed to hear someone new challenging Shira to beer pong though and the deep, baratone voice sounded familiar. She didn't dare glance back.
There weren't as many people outside as she suspected. There was a group of Shutoku upperclassmen standing a few metres away from the back door, all looking in the same direction every few moments. Jo followed there gaze and saw Kagami and Kuroko sitting on the bricks holding the flower bed, talking happily. Jo raised one eyebrow and walked over to the pair.
"You two have a reason for not drinking tonight?" Jo questioned, kneeling down in front of them because there wasn't much space left in front of them. Kuroko remained passive but Kagami crossed his arms, looking slightly annoyed.
"Coach says we're not allowed to, because we will have trouble playing Shutoku."
"I just saw Shutoku's point guard seeing stars, I think you'll be pretty even in the regard," Jo laughed, rubbing her temples. Shira's vodka drinks were starting to get to her head and she felt a little heavy in her limbs.
"Coach says Seirin cannot," Kuroko replied, repeating the main point of what Kagami said before. Jo put her hands up, feeling like there was a bit of tension in Kuroko's words. She may have been imagining it though, because of the burning in her stomach.
"Whoa, just saying Takao's drunk as a skunk and I think it was Miyaji stumbling into the kitchen muttering about a pick up," Jo shrugged. Kuroko was about to say something when the back door was thrown open, Koganei leaping the steps and running around on the lawn, attempting to quite drunkenly take his shirt off. He looked quite pleased with himself but Kiyoshi, who was chasing after him with a very worried look on his face, didn't. "And there goes your forward."
"Hey, can I get some help?" Kiyoshi panted as he ran past. Jo couldn't help but notice he was holding his knee slightly and that he didn't look like he was running as fast as he could. Jo stood, slightly shaky on her legs, dragging Kagami up with her.
"Come on," she mumbled as she walked to the far left of the grass. Koganei was happily skipping around, waving his shirt around like a flag and Jo had to admit it was a shame that Kiyoshi was trying to dampen his good mood. Then she remembered Kuroko saying Seirin couldn't drink. She watched Koganei carefully, who in turn was watching Kiyoshi as he tried to advance. "Try and shepherd him to Kagami or I!"
Kiyoshi nodded, his hands held out towards his friend. Koganei didn't look like he was about to go easily, running away from Kiyoshi with a high giggle. Jo ran forward, grabbing his wrist quickly and wrapped her arms around him. Before he had a chance to do anything she lifted him off the ground, walking over to Kiyoshi. The latter was smiling happily, taking Koganei's shirt from him.
"Thank you for your help," Kiyoshi beamed when he gripped Koganei's hand. For such a mischevious drunk, he was placid when caught. He sulked as Kiyoshi started telling him off for drinking before demanding her should drink. Jo shook her head, looking over to Kagami for a moment. The ace looked quite confused and was spinning around on the spot, looking for something.
"I'd get him out, it's hard to know who's where," Jo warned Kiyoshi before walking inside. She ran into Riko as the latter came out of a bathroom, who asked her if she had seen any of her members drinking. Jo lied, not sure if it was well or not, and stalled her for a few minutes talking about different training regimes so Kiyoshi would have enough time to Koganei in from outside before Riko went anywhere. She didn't buy much time though, because Ishimura dragging Takao up the stairs behind her with a rather distressed looking Midorima following, caught her attention. She contemplated following but decided she didn't want to see whatever they were going to get up to, and when she looked back down Riko was gone.
"Hey, you're Jo Kida right?" Jo looked around, trying to figure out who had said her name. She spotted a Touou player, their centre. Jo tried to rack her brain for what his name was but she couldn't for the life of her remember. She blamed the vodka, even though she wouldn't have remembered either way. He was looking at her, his cheeks kind of pink from the alcohol (or at least Jo presumed so) and sitting on one of the arm chairs. He was smiling happily so Jo walked over to him.
"Yeah that's me, we caught your game against Seirin, it was rough," Jo grinned. He nodded, grinning happily to himself and he took a swig out of the bottle of beer he was holding.
"Not as good as you're game against the Touou girls, man, you have an impenetrable defence!" Jo was glad that Ishimura wasn't standing near her because she could just imagine the onslaught of jokes and inappropriate comments the latter would make if she heard his words. Jo just shrugged her shoulders, taking the arm chair to his right.
"It was nothing really. Not like your game against Meisei High!"
"No I'm being serious, Imayoshi was even having trouble trying to calculate how to get through that, what was, the double team with you and your captain! They had no where to go and the second they tried to pass bandana-girl stole the ball! Every time!" Jo felt her cheeks burn as he spoke. Was this how it felt when people really admired the game you played, or was he just pulling a joke on her for shits and giggles? She tried to gauge his expression but he was sincere as she guessed he could be, after all drunk people are often the most honest.
"Imayoshi's your captain right?"
"Yeah, he can figure a lot of plays out but he couldn't get your barrier. It must be unpassable, huh?" Jo wanted to say no but when she thought about it, very rarely did anyone actually get passed their Double Barrier Block. Meyer would stand right in front of Jo's feet, bent forward slightly, completely prepared to take any dribble the opponent would take. Jo would cover the air in front of the hoop for any shots attempted and Ishimura would hang back waiting for the opponent to pass it off.
"Now that I think about it, it must be. We don't use it often though, I'm sure if we did someone would figure it out," Jo laughed, running a hand through her hair.
"Oh man, I completely forgot. I'm Wakamatsu Kousuke!"
...
Jo pulled her hands away from her face when she heard the door behind her open. Behind her stood Aomine Daiki, who looked rather irritated and his clothes were soaking wet. Jo raised one eyebrow and he hesitated when he saw her before stomping down the steps.
"Shouldn't you wait for your team at least?" Jo questioned and Aomine just stuck his hands in his pockets, grumbling about a bitch or something like that. Jo let out a sigh, wondering what number Shira did on him before standing up herself. Speaking of team she figured she might as well try and find another one of hers. Her legs felt a lot stronger than they had earlier and the fresh air definitely did a lot to clear her mind. She opened hte door and stepped in, seeing Takami hesitating in front of the stairs and looking up them with a frown. "Is something wrong?"
Takami jumped, looking to her and smiling happily. She scratched the back of her head rather sheepishly before shaking it, nodding towards the kitchen, and Jo followed her in. She frowned when she spotted Miyaji curled under the oven sucking his thumb, but at least he wasn't leaning over the sink with his head in his hands like Otsubo.
"Rough night," Katsumi said over her shoulder as she rubbed his back, trying to help him get some of the stuff out of his stomach. Jo's nose curled up slightly but she didn't say anything and Takami would never again be in a position where she could. They both sat down in the chairs furtherst from the sink, Takami giving Otsubo pittiful glances.
"Apparently you threw someone out the front door last night," Takami commented and Jo let out a laugh. Though the memory was incredibly fuzzy, she knew it had something to do with Ishimura being threatened for hanging around Takao.
"My team mates aren't please," Katsumi shot over her shoulder before she recoiled from Ostubo, who shook ferociously before quietly dispelling the contents of his stomach in the sink. Jo wouldn't have even known he had vomited if it hadn't been for the sound of it hitting the metal. Katsumi pulled his head out of the basin by his hair and turned the water on, letting it wash down the drain. "Feel any better?"
Otsubo shook his head as Katsumi turned the water off, returning to rubbing his back. His back arched upwards to her touch and Jo smirked a little. They could be a cute couple, if it weren't that he wouldn't have been Katsumi's type. At all.
"Hey at least this time I opened the door first," Jo cracked a grin and Takami laughed. The latter stood and grabbed to glasses, pulling open the fridge to find some cold water. Katsumi was shaking her head, trying not to laugh as well because she was meant to be angry, but the sight of Jo throwing a creep through a closed door, leaving it splintered and broken in her wake, was a pretty funny memory to picture.
"Well, as I told Takami, you Iwozuka's have caused be a bit of trouble."
"Why, what did we do?"
"Well, you threw my reserve point guard out the door, Meyer pissed off my centre and two more of my reserves and Ishimura turned Takao into a woman," Katsumi replied as she turned to look at Jo. Jo let her words bounce around in her before she broke out into laughter, trying to imagine what Ishimura had done to Takao exactly. She wasn't the kind of person to do anything like that at all.
"Is she your type now?" Jo teased as Takami put a glass of water down in front of her. Otsubo broke into their conversation with a hiccup, a lurch that was louder than the last and that ended with a sob. Takami grimaced and Jo shook her head. He must have felt like absolute shit. Katsumi kissed the back of his head, continuing to rub his back.
"No, but she is very pretty," Katsumi laughed when Otsubo was breathing deeply again. Jo laughed, seeing what Ishimura had done to Takao was definitely going to be on her list of things when everyone started to wake up properly. "Out of curiosity, has anyone seen Hotaru up yet?"
"She was upstairs with Imayoshi, I think she might have been having a shower."
"Oh really, what for?" Jo frowned as she looked from Miyaji to Takami. She started to drink the water, glancing over to Otsubo with pity. At least the poor bugger was over the sink and hadn't decided to vomit all over the place.
"She wasn't in there when I talked to Imayoshi, but, well..."
"Well what?"
"Imayoshi was naked when I went in."
"How naked?" Jo wasn't surprised that Katsumi asked, Takami's version of naked included underwear. She closed her eyes, the sun starting to hurt her head and slowly drank the water, letting the liquid fill her mouth. She found pleasure in feeling the coldness slip down her throat and chest, the memory of the burn of Shira's vodka still a bit fresh in her mind.
"I saw his dick." Jo started joking. She lurched forward, slamming the glass on the table and put her hand over her chest, spluttering and laughing. It wasn't what she said, it was the dead panned voice verging on horror that made Jo react so violently. She was still choking when she looked to Takami, grinning a little.
"And - cough- how'd that - cough - go for you?"
"Well it wasn't pretty, I don't really want to see another one." Jo started to howl with laughter and even Katsumi cracked a smile. Takami's face remained dead panned, even though Jo could see the corners of lips twitching as she fought back laughter. Otsubo grunted, turning around and running a hand through his hair.
"Well, to be fair I don't want to see one either," he laughed before groaning and clutching his head. Katsumi's smile turned into a laugh and his comment only fuelled Jo's laughter even more. Their laughter woke up Miyaji, who promptly pulled his thumb from his mouth and sat up, looking around confused.
"What are we laughing at?"
"Takami saw her first dick and it's scarred her for life," Katsumi answered as she calmed herself down. Jo had stopped laughing as well, groaning and letting her forehead rest on the cool wood of the table as she clutched the back of her head with both hands. Miyaji looked confused for a second before shrugging, staggering to his feet. "And before you disappear, why is there a pineapple in my backyard?"
"It was returning to nature," Miyaji mumbled before he walked out of the kitchen. Attempt would have been a better word, he headbutted the door and fumbled for the handle, all but falling through.
"He had a pineapple when he came to truth or dare."
"Let's not discuss Miyaji's pineapple."
"Yeah I thought we were talking about Imayoshi's," Otsubo cut in, fluttering his eyelashes and trying to make his voice higher than usual. It didn't work very well but the effect he was going for succeeded. Jo cracked up into laughter again and Takami and Katsumi even started to giggle. He grinned happily but then groaned, clutching his head again.