Author's notes:

Like mentioned in the summary, this is a one-shot Akariko fanfiction, taken place right after Seirin won Kirisaki. Note that Akashi is still in the emperor-heterochromia mode.

Riko didn't really believe in positive reinforcement, because in her experience, establishing her authority and keeping close tabs on the players was usually enough to lead a (her?) basketball team.

However, after the match against Kirisaki, with one look, she knew how badly Kiyoshi was injured, again, and she didn't have the heart to maintain her cool demeanor just to distance herself from her boys.

She sighed, and told the boys that they have done a great job, and go home soon after patching up Kiyoshi.

However, Riko didn't follow her own order. She stayed and cleaned the locker room (usually the first-years do it but she's feeling benevolent today so what the hell).

Afterwards she was emotionally and physically exhausted, so she was more than ready to head home, only stopping to buy a drink from the vending machine in the hallway.

Riko sat down on the bench next to the vending machine, blinked at the drink in her hands.

The bottle was cool against her fingers, unlike how Kiyoshi's skin felt when she wrapped bondages around Kiyoshi's knee with her own hand. She still remembered how his muscles were straining in severe pain, but he brushed it off as if were nothing.

And in the end, they won, again, but it didn't feel like a victory. Kiyoshi's injuries were no doubt, her responsibility to prevent. As a coach, she should've come up with a better strategy than let one player carry shoulder the pain. It shouldn't have even happened in the first place.

Suddenly her eyes stung, and she suspected that it was from the exhaustion, and she knew that she should stop her train of thoughts unless she wanted to start crying in a public stadium.

Riko breathed in deeply, ignored her the swelling of her heart and tried to twist the bottle tap of the drink in her hand, but to no avail. Her hands were trembling, and while she tightened her hand on the bottle cap and could feel the cap dig into her flesh, it did not budge.

"May I?"

Riko nearly jumped and looked up from her bottle, only to see a red-haired young man standing right in front of her, and she didn't need her eyes to analyse who he was. Everyone knew him.

"Akashi-kun," she acknowledged him flatly, and slowly stood up, not exactly pleased to caught off-guard, or see the person who grazed Kagami with scissors and then pushed to the ground days ago. (She was furious when she found out afterwards; unfortunately she was not present at both times to prevent the incidents. It took four or five Seirin players to stop her from charging to Rakuzan's locker room and skin their captain alive.)

Akashi Seijuro maintained his expressionless face and nodded at her, once, as a brief but not disrespectful greet and flickered his eyes to his outstretched hand.

It was more an universal 'give me' gesture than a request for hand shake, so with bemusement and hesitation, she placed her drink in his open palm.

Akashi took it, and twisted the bottle cap with seemingly little effort.

Riko couldn't help but felt relieved that she had interpreted his gesture correctly, because otherwise it would have been damn awkward and rude.

"Thanks," she said as he handed her the drink back.

"It's no trouble, " Akashi said with no undertone, which was good, because Riko wasn't going to apologize for being temporarily weak. "I was hoping we could talk."

Riko noticed that Akashi was asking, but judging the way he pronounced his words and the intonation, he wasn't really asking. It wasn't a direct order, either, but it definitely felt a mild statement of what was going to happen in the near future.

She immediately understood why Akashi was the leader of the generation of miracles. Aside from the hard-core basketball skills he had, the way he spoke and handled himself indicated that he was a natural leader and commander who took no orders from anyone while expecting everyone to bend the knee to him.

Riko would be lying if she said that she wasn't impressed, he was even a year younger than her but he had a much stronger presence than a lot of adults she knew. "About...what, exactly? I don't think we've met before."

"We haven't, but I had a rather interesting run-in with your players earlier. And I watched your game with Kirisaki. I believe congratulations are in order."

"Why, thank you." Riko's smile was forced and tight. "and yes, I'm well-aware of the previous 'run-in' you had with Kagami-kun."

Akashi did not waver when he heard her accusation. He merely said, "He was in my way." as if that would explain his actions.

"So I've heard." Riko said dryly. She briefly wondered if the young man would be so foolish that he came to her to provoke her.

Akashi studied her expressions, and sighed a little as if she were an eight-year-old child who just deeply upset him. "You should be proud of yourself, Aida-san. I am most certainly glad that your team won, not Kirisaki."

Riko turned to look at the young man, barely concealing her surprise. "Well, judging by your tendency to shove people to the ground when they are in your way, Akashi-kun, one would presume you agreed with their 'methods'."

"Kirisaki's basketball style is cleverly barbaric and full of unnecessary violence. While I do agree morals are simply chains that people put on themselves, but following the rules is the bottom line. Otherwise we are no different than our 'cousins' who failed to evolve. "

Riko snorted at the mental picture of monkeys playing basketball in Kirisaki uniforms. "I thought you made your own rules."

"A game without rules, Aida-san, is uncivilized. Pushing oneself to the limit over and over again to achieve the best, however, is much more challenging, don't you agree?"

Riko thought of Seirin. How much they trained all summer just to make their comeback at the Winter Cup. How overwhelmingly happy they were when they defeated Touou when they lost to them for the first time. One step at a time, they were heading towards the promise they made a long time ago: To be Japan's No.1. "Yes, I completely agree."

Eventually Riko's dad was worried about her and drove to the stadium to pick her up. After having a conversation while exchanging cold, calculative looks and goodbyes, they parted ways.

Watching Aida's retreating back, Akashi narrowed his eyes and smiled like an eagle zooming on his prey in the vast wilderness. Things would be much more interesting when they meet up again across the court, facing each other.

He briefly wondered what her expression would be when she and her team lost.

Without glancing back, he called out to his hidden teammate while leaving as well. "I hope I've satisfied your voyeurism, Kotaro, because I assure you, your life is going to be rather bleak from now."

Behind a pillar, Kotaro shrieked and hurried after his captain. "Wait, wait. I'm sorry. I'M SORRYYYYYYYY!"

Author's notes:

Annnnd that's it XD

Seirin wins, Akashi turned back into his polite and gentle self, blah blah blah...you know the rest.

Hope you enjoyed it.

End