The hardest thing about updating a story after having not written for several months is realizing you entirely forgot what direction you were going in after the previous chapters.

Anyways, I'm back, and I have another chapter for you all!

Happy reading!

Disclaimer: {I do not own anything Kuroko no Basuke related, unfortunately. I do own my OCs, Ayako, Akako, and Yuki. Quote belongs to Albert Einstein.}

Chapter IV: There are Legends

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. – Albert Einstein

"I wonder . . ."

He'd broken off, seemingly lost in his own bizarre train of thought. For an athlete, Midorima Shintaro was anything but active off the basketball court. It seemed to Yuki that as soon as he sat down, he seemed to become rather melancholy and stagnant – save for his excellent, yet stiff posture.

She'd been staring at him for three minutes at this point, only waiting for him to finish his sentence as she nibbled at her thumb nail. His lack of conversation made her nervous. She already felt slightly off-kilter from being placed on the spot in the gym to sitting alone with a giant, spectacled student who knew next-to-nothing about her. Finally realizing he wasn't going to speak up at any point in the near future, Yuki huffed and looked down at the extra packet her teacher had given her. Supposedly, this packet was the only cure-all to garnering a better score on the next test – not that Yuki believed a word of it.

Twirling a strand of hair, she looked at the first problem and immediately recoiled in disgust. The entire packet was filled with word problems and fractions, a combination of two extremely frustrating concepts annoying enough when left alone. When combined, they made for an unforgiving hour or two filled with suffering. Her color perception was not kind in this area of mathematics either.

"Quit being so dramatic," Midorima's voice called out to her after she'd pushed her chair back. "The packet has only a few problems. It just looks like there's more due to the fact they're word problems."

Yuki crossed her arms and glared at him. "I'm not being dramatic. These word problems are the reason anything math related automatically lowers my rank in the class. I'm just not confident in doing them."

At that, Midorima pinched his nose and raised his head to look at the ceiling of the room they were in. "Just read the problem."

Biting her lip, she looked down at the piece of paper and began the slow, agonizing process of reading each problem aloud, having Midorima ask what seemed the most important and going from there. She'd thought about mentioning her Synthesia, but realized that he probably would not have believed her anyways. Shockingly enough, however, was that what originally would have taken her more than an hour and a half was reduced to forty-five minutes – an obvious improvement.

"You'll have to work on it on your own. I'm not going to be there telling you what to circle when you take the test."

Yuki looked up from her bag, having finally put everything away. He'd already left his seat and was standing by the door, bag over his left shoulder, glasses being held in place with his index and middle finger.

"What now? Was I seriously moving too slow for him?"

"I know, I know," she grumbled out. "I've taken plenty of tests without your help, thank you very much!"

"And I'm sure you know as well as I do that the grades were never quite good."

Yuki clenched her jaw in annoyance while they left the building.

They'd traveled a portion of the way together without talking before he branched off in one direction, her in the other.

The entire time they walked, the only thing Yuki had on her mind was the lack of reasoning as to why Midorima Shintaro did not like her. She'd gathered that she was opinionated when it came to certain aspects of school and was also extremely quiet and only spoke when necessary. However, she truly could not wrap her head around any other reasons as to why she'd been a thorn in his side for what felt like an eternity, yet was truly only a few hours.

"He's so weird," she said aloud while entering her neighborhood. "He barely tolerates me, as though I'm so unappealing, yet there's nothing appealing about him. He's rude, far too tall for someone my age, moody and has some bizarre obsession with horoscopes and lucky items."

Brooding the rest of the way home, she walked up the steps and entered her house. She could see only the living room light on, a clear sign dinner had already been served. Walking quietly past the kitchen, she slowly ventured up the stairs, only to have a strong hand take hold of her wrist and spin her around full-circle.

"And where have you been, Yuki? We've been worried sick!" Much too close to her stood her father, looking pensive and relieved to see her. He clung to her wrist as though at any point, she'd be wrenched from his grasp and taken away.

She'd realized earlier that her parents would probably start to worry when she didn't come home at her normal time, but she also failed to include the amount of time spent doing her school work. Rather than answer him directly, Yuki decided to take a slightly more sarcastic approach to his question.

"I was out."

"You were out."

"Clearly, he isn't buying any of that," she thought nervously.

"Yes."

He sighed, exasperated. "Yuki, we thought you disappeared, and here you are making it into a joke."

Meeting his eyes, she realized she'd made a mistake. Her parents had really been concerned. "I thought that'd make you laugh." He glared at her. "Fine, fine! I was forcibly inducted, kidnapped, whichever you prefer, to be an assistant manager in a club, which means I'll – unfortunately – be coming home later like this more often." A partial portion of the truth.

Ayako popped her head out of the living room. "A club? You were pushed into a club? Who'd want someone as lame as you in their club?"

Yuki rolled her eyes. "Nobody would want you either, you multi-culturally fetish-happy lunatic."

Ayako stuck her tongue out and went back to watching the television.

Completely ignoring his daughters' banter, her father replied, "Well, that's great!" At that, he began to laugh. "It's good to see you're finally getting involved beyond simple academics." Letting go of her wrist, he fluffed her hair and then began to walk away. "I just wish you'd known sooner so I didn't have to hear every single possibility of where you could have gone for the past few hours by a certain extremely worried mother."

Smiling, Yuki began her travel to her room. She'd mention everything she experienced at some point – just not yet.

"So, what happened?"

Yuki flipped to the next page in her book. "Nothing."

Akako scoffed unbearably loudly, "Oh, really, Yuki? Nothing happened. You were sent to be an assistant manager for our unreasonably good basketball team while being under the tutelage of the one, the only, Midorima Shintaro, and all you have to say is 'Nothing,' in a totally monotone voice."

Yuki shrugged.

"Oh, no! No, you do not get to weasel your way out of this one." At that, Yuki looked up, mildly nervous. Akako's flaming hair seemed to puff up around her, a look reminiscent of a lion's mane. It was these moments that left Yuki concerned for her well-being. "For the first time in your entire life, you've gotten involved with not one, but an entire group of people without any books involved. And you're finally going to get that opportunity to have the highest grades in the class! Why are you holding out on me?" The whine in the last question was so tangible, Yuki could feel it reverberate into her inner ear.

"Because – like I said – nothing happened. I sat and watched a bunch of sweaty guys practice and then worked my brain until it basically turned to mush reading and re-reading word problems while going mildly insane with the most annoying person in the entire world," she sighed to catch her breath. "It wasn't bad; it wasn't great. It happened and it'll continue to happen because I'm stuck in this position now. Happy?"

"Extremely so! That was the most passionate I've ever seen the Ice Queen get." She began to giggle at her own comment. "But come on! Are you trying to tell me none of the guys on the team caught your eye?" Akako winked, as though Yuki were genuinely holding out on her.

Yuki shook her head. "I was there to watch their techniques, not their physiques, remember? I've never actually played the game."

Akako raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you are such a bore, my dear! You must learn to live a little."

After looking around the room, probably to see if anyone she recognized had come into class, she turned back at Yuki and asked, "Well, what about Midorima?"

Yuki groaned. Her book was just starting to get good, when that menace's name was spoken. "What about him?"

"Uh, hello, that's what I'm asking you!" She laughed again. "Sometimes, I swear, you are too weird. What was he like? Was he nice? Did he talk to you outside of just lame-o math problems? I gotta know, Yuki!"

Flashbacks from the evening before began to flash through her memories. "He was weird. Rude. Talked about math. Left me alone. Midorima Shintaro."

She looked at Yuki in disbelief. The short sentences were apparently too brief. "Oh, and he likes horoscopes and carrying useless items wherever he goes. Lives by them."

"You're lying!"

"I most certainly am not. There is nothing appealing about that boy. I'd rather fail math than sit in a room with him for an extended period of time." At that, Yuki looked back down at her book, excited to read what happens next.

"Oh? Did Shintaro really bother you that much?"

Yuki flinched in shock. Out of all of the voices she could have imagined breaking her out of her novel-induced trance, Akashi Seijuurou's never even entered her mind. He'd gone from simply glancing at her, to even walking over and speaking to her. Such an event was unheard of. She couldn't think; she couldn't speak. So, instead, she sat with her mouth slightly agape, positively looking like an idiot.

Akako realized quickly that Yuki'd officially gone on shut-down. "She's overexaggerating. She always does that when she starts something new. Change bothers her."

Yuki failed to even register the fact her dislike of change had been mentioned. The only thing she could think about was the fact that someone with the grandeur of a king paired with the subtleness of a deer had entered her two-person bubble and ceased all regular brain function in her mind.

She was lost in that sea – that brilliant sea – of fiery red.

While Yuki slowly remembered that it's important to breathe, Akashi continued to stare at her, clearly waiting to hear her response and entirely ignoring Akako's. "Uh, well," she bit the inside of her cheek, knowing she sounded even dumber than she could have imagined. "I mean, it wasn't bad, really. I just – I obviously annoyed him in some way, as he was acting rude . . . that's all."

He studied her for a moment before shaking his head. "Shintaro has a blunt manner of speaking. You'll get used to it." Akashi turned back towards the direction of his desk. "Before I forget: I was asked to tell you that the third string players need to be looked at. There may be promising individuals we dismissed earlier." With a nod, he proceeded to sit down, back in his usual spot, his autumn red hair burning a hole in Yuki's gaze.

She and Akako gave each other a long, knowing look. Somehow, for some reason, a miracle had just occurred right before their very eyes. The enigmatic student had graced them with his presence; these lowly, argumentative girls had just been visited by a legend in the making.

And yet, Yuki would soon come to understand that garnering the attention of a legend would be as much a curse as a blessing in the long run.