A few questions!
1. Do you like the plot?
2. Does anything need some changes and tweaks?
3. Is the story doing well? No one's too OOC?
4. Do you like the song?
5. What do you think of the cover photo? (I don't own it, and I thank Zerochan's site for letting me use) It's Tetsuya, half of his face, and he's crying. It's almost like how Gumi was in the original PV, except she was crying by the end and her body is also shown.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke. I don't own Coward Montblanc either. All credits go to their respectful owners! I only own my ideas, my style of writing, and my imagination.

Please point out any mistakes!
Also, thank you so much for reviewing and PMing me! Without you guys, I'd probably laze around the house doing nothing but make montblancs lol

"Hyuga Junpei?"

"Here."

"Izuki Shun?"

"Present."

"Mitobe Rinnosuke?"

The young man raised his hand.

"Koganei Shinji?"

"Present!"

Riko was checking the attendance. So far, most of the players were present. Since they had no one to fill in the position, Riko took her spot as coach once more. Luckily, they got their own advisor for the club and their basketball club was made official. Truly lucky, indeed.

"Kagami Taiga?" Riko said out loud. She was met with a gruff voice from behind her. "I'm here. Let's just get this over with so we ca-"

"Show more respect for your seniors, you half-brained junior!" Hyuga stepped in, giving Kagami a hit on the head. Kagami was about to retaliate when he was met with a clipboard to the face.

"Right, both of you, shut up. I'm not done yet." Riko grumbled. When she re-checked her list, she looked up at Koganei. "Hey, Koganei-kun, didn't you say you invited someone last time?" She asked. Koganei nodded. "Yeah. He said he'd think about it." He then frowned. "I guess he couldn't make it after all…"

Hyuga, who was dribbling a ball beside Mitobe, made a three point shoot and faced the two. "Do you know who he is, then?"

Koganei shook his head. "Nah, not really. I didn't have time to ask who he was." He laughed. "Little dude had low presence."

Riko blinked. "…A guy with low presence? First time I heard of that."

Kagami huffed. "Whoever he is, he's not worth talking about." He said, earning hard glares from some of the fierce members of the group.

"Kagami, you never met the guy."

Kagami huffed. "Whatever."

Koganei felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek. "Eh, maybe we should give him a chance? I mean, the guy looked like the type who wouldn't keep people hanging."

Riko tried to ignore the irritation overcoming her mind. Hyuga was muttering something about 'damn juniors don't know how to respect time limits' and all that.

Riko sighed. "Fine. We'll see if he eventually comes up after two days."

That was the only decision they would never regret.

Kagami Taiga walked his way to his favorite burger joint. It was a few hours since practice was over. Not wanting to be bothered, he eventually reached the decision to go to Maji Burger to eat his fill. He sighed.

'It doesn't matter, basketball is basketball wherever I go, be it Japan or America.'

After earning odd looks from the staff (he ordered a heap of regular burgers for God's sake) he made his way to a lone table by the window. He was in deep thought. "Whoever this extra guy is, he'll need a good reason for skipping a week of chance if he ever turns himself up.."

He was quite curious, he could admit that. The coach's wrath was something not to be taken lightly, especially the captain's famous 'clutch-time mode'. Boy, how could the guy avoid that?

Kagami shrugged. As long as it wasn't his problem, he didn't really care. He thought about the words of his teammates earlier.

"This year, we're going up against strong schools and opponents." Riko informed. "That means we'll need to improve greatly before the tournament itself starts."

The others cheered. "Alright! Let's do our best!"

Hyuga grinned. "That's right, during the tournament, we might face the feared Generation of Miracles in a match!" he then put his fingers on his glasses. "So until then, work hard!"

Kagami blinked. 'Generation of Miracles…?'

Kagami shrugged the memory away, grinning. "Generation of Miracles? Whoever they are, I'm going to grind them to dust and climb to the top!"

He was going to eat his fifteenth burger when another voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You really shouldn't underestimate them."

Kagami turned to the source of the sound;

there was a boy sitting on the other chair of the same table he was in.

Said boy looked him straight in the eye, his blue eyes blank…. Almost reminds Kagami of a doll's, unmoving, unfeeling, but not quite there.

Then it clicked to him: The boy was staring into his soul.

Kagami screamed, choking on his burger.

"W-W-What the h-?! When did you get here?!"

Said boy sipped on his straw. "I've been here quite longer than you have." He tilted his head. "Are you sure you're going to be able to finish all that?" He asked, not minding the situation at all.

Kagami looked ridiculed. "Stop trying to change the subject! And what are you, some kind of ghost?!" He exclaimed, earning weird looks from the other customers.

"I am not trying to change the subject." The boy said, closing his eyes. "And no, I am a normal living boy just like you. I'm sorry, I was born with such low presence."

Kagami started calming down, but he couldn't hide those small shivers coming up his spine every now and then.

"The little dude had such low presence!" Koganei's words repeated in his head.

Kagami twitched. 'Hey. Don't tell me this isn't just a coincidence.'

They fell into awkward silence before the light-haired boy bowed a bit. "Ah, where are my manners? I am Kuroko Tetsuya. I apologize for surprising you earlier."

'Overly polite!' Kagami thought. He scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Ehh… I wasn't really affected that much,"

"You screamed like a little girl."

"…I was just a bit startled." Kagami tried to ignore Kuroko's remark. Kuroko stared at him expectantly. Kagami realized why and grinned.

"I'm Kagami Taiga. I want to be the best player in Japan!" He said determinedly. Kuroko stared at him for a few moments, which unnerved the 'tiger'.

'He's like a doll!' Kagami thought in a slightly freaked out tone inside his head. 'The same expression over and over!'

"Hey, hey. You're not planning on saying anything?" Kagami muttered in disbelief. Kuroko didn't move. "Ah, I see." Kuroko said as if he just snapped out of a trance.

'Late reaction!' Kagami thought.

"I'll be rooting for you then, Kagami-kun." Kuroko said politely, continuing to sip on his drink.

Kagami smirked at his words. "Thanks, I guess. It's a big dream, but I know I can achieve it." He said. "After all, basketball is a game where you need to have passion to keep you motivated." Kagami muttered out absent-mindedly. He saw a slight twinkle in Kuroko's eyes.

"Must be my imagination…" Kagami thought. Silence filled the space between them.

Kagami, not wanting the air to turn awkward for both of them, broke the silence by coughing and striking a rather lame conversation.

"So… Uh… What'cha drinking?" Kagami asked. Kuroko stopped sucking the straw to face the tall boy.

"Vanilla milkshake. They make the best ones as far as I know." Kuroko said almost bitterly, Kagami didn't know why.

Murasakibara always offered me with vanilla products when we were in Teiko. How things have changed.

"They make it sweet…" Kuroko muttered quietly. "…The kind of sweet that fills the bitterness of the void deep inside me."

Kagami felt a bead of sweat cross from his forehead. 'What is this guy talking about?'

"Ah, I must have made you uncomfortable." Kuroko said after his daze finished. He hated those memories so much right now. What was this, that show where each episode was a constant flashback without proper explanation?

"N-No, it's good."

After both of them finished their food, both went out of the restaurant. Kagami, feeling that he had lost the boy already, sighed in what he thought was relief.

"That guy's… Weird." Kagami said to no one. He then looked back on the moment he saw Kuroko Tetsuya.

Silent, straightforward, weird, and has a low presence. Not to mention overly polite.

Kagami shrugged it off. Then, a thought crossed his mind.

"Come to think of it, Kuroko looked like he was wearing…Seirin's uniform."

Kuroko was alone again, and he never realized that he was at the public basketball court until he got there. His eyes narrowed slightly, eyeing the basketball hoop.

"…What am I doing here?" Kuroko asked himself, before breathing out in defeat.

Kuroko looked at the starry sky. For some reason, he still didn't feel the need to express much emotion. Yet after meeting that Kagami Taiga…

Kuroko felt another tingling in his chest. This time, it wasn't torment. It was something he couldn't fully explain by himself. For some reason, he felt slightly at ease for the first time in 12 months.

He used to hate basketball because of how his old teammates treated him. How they treated the others. Most importantly, how they have changed negatively.

Not to mention the fact that Akashi replaced him.

He was so hurt that time. It might have been a year ago, but the memory still burned at the back of his mind like a nightmare. He didn't know what to say. When he experienced the 'betrayal' first-hand, all he could feel was pain, torment, sorrow, at loss for words, and understanding. All negative emotions hit him like a rusted knife to the heart.

All it took was one more push to get him on edge, to make him lose everything he ever loved with just four simple words.

Kuroko subconsciously gripped his chest to where his heart would be. It still hurt.

"Tetsuya, calm down. The doctor said you shouldn't get yourself stressed." He tried to repeat in his mind. He breathed slowly to calm him down.

"Try thinking positive thoughts…"

Kuroko tried to bring back every good memory he had in Teiko. But it only repeated to the cycle where the one he loved betrayed him and the moment his old team had abandoned and ruined his trust.

"Okay, let's stop that."

Kuroko then went back to his latest memories: His first few moments in Seirin. They weren't all too good, but they weren't bad either.

'If you ever want to join, go to that girl with the flat chest with the glasses guy beside her!'

'I'm Kagami Taiga, and I'm going to be the best player in Japan!'

'Basketball is a game where you need to have passion...'

Kuroko started to feel a little calmer, and sighed in relief.

"Not only did they make me feel empty, they even had me holding on for dear life with my weak body." Kuroko thought bitterly. "But I can't really blame them. It was me who became depressed over something so silly."

Kuroko sat down on the bench. When he checked the time on his phone, it said it was 6 PM.

"Oh my, I'm going to be late for dinner." Kuroko said a bit worriedly, picking his bag up and running to the nearest bus stop.

Kuroko just realized something. When he met Kagami and learned that the said boy held some passion for basketball, he somehow felt changed.

Kuroko realized: maybe he didn't completely hate basketball like he thought. After seeing the determination Kagami held, Kuroko felt a bit at ease.

…Like there was still hope for him, after all.

Kuroko took the flyer of the basketball club and took a look at it once more. He sighed, and for the first time in ages, Kuroko smiled a slight, genuine smile.

"Maybe I should give it another chance…"

His only thought now was if he could really trust the new team.

Oh hey look, an update

lol

I was supposed to post this chapter on Wednesday eastern time Taipei, but I just wanted to know how I got almost 20 reviews in one chapter. I hope this was at least high enough for your expectations! Thank you so much!

and I'm still sitting here wondering where nijikuro came from

Anyway, I hope this doesn't suck too badly. Please tell me if you think it needs more creativity.

No, I haven't decided yet which the set pairing will be. If you guys don't know either, then I will keep the pairing a secret *Evil laugh*

QUESTION TIME: Does anyone have any idea why 'Coward Montblanc' was set as the main track, title, and inspiration? If you get the closest answer, you win. :3

Oh, and shout out for everyone who reviewed, favorite-d, and followed this story! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING ME! I will make sure I will update as fast as I can in order to keep you guys excited for more. ^_^