Notes: I'm in study mode, but I just want to break for a while. But it seems that even my stories became academically inclined. Anyway, please enjoy!
ASYMPTOTIC
"Kagami-kun, we have an exam tomorrow in Math." Kuroko said as they walked to Maji after practice. He just blurted it out of blue, and he knew the man he was talking to never really cared, or if he heard that there was a test at all.
So, he was ignored.
Despite being a shadow man, he hated it a lot when he was ignored when he wanted someone's attention.
"Kagami-kun, we have an exa-"
"I heard you! Geez, you know I can just breeze through that shit!" The redhaired said, looking momentarily at Kuroko and staring at him while trying to figure out why the hell the tealhaired was telling him that, even though he used not to remind him about exams at all.
"No, you can't." Kuroko said, also turning sideway to face the irritated Kagami. "That exam was at least 15% of our grade. You never recite in class, and you failed your first two exams. If you do not at least get a decent grade here, you might not be able to play in the preliminaries."
"What are you, my manager?!" the redhaired said, and looked at the road that they were walking once again, collecting his thoughts.
Right, he might be their team's ace, but that title's useless if he would not be able to play at all.
Why was it that this situation seems a déjà vu?
Damn! Does that mean I'm gonna pull all-nighters again!
"Wait, are your scores okay, Kuroko?"
"At least I never failed an exam, Kagami-kun, unlike you." He said, as usual, in a deadpan voice.
"What are we going to exam tomorrow anyway?" the ace asked. "If it's about…what do you call it…poly-poly-something, I can at least pass it, I think?"
"Polynomials. But no, we're in logarithmic functions. That's the majority of our exam for tomorrow."
"What the hell that?"
"You're hopeless."
"I know! That's why you're gonna teach me!" Kagami yelled. "I'm not gonna ask for Izuki-senpai's help. He's nice and all, but…" I cannot stand his puns, he thought.
They eventually reached Maji burger, and sat first in their usual location, before ordering.
"Then, in exchange, you can pay for my milkshake today." He saw the shadow said without expression, but he knew he was grinning inside. Kagami was annoyed, but he was going to do it anyway.
He stood up to order. Kuroko followed his tracks as he smiled faintly.
"Here, your order." Kagami gave Kuroko one of the trays he held, which contained his request, with some extras. "I'm counting on you, Kuroko-sensei."
The tealhaired visibly shuddered.
Not because he was disgusted by it.
Kagami made sure he emphasize that term.
"Don't call me like that, it's bothering me." Kuroko remarked, although he really liked it. "This is more than what I asked for though."
He usually ordered the regular sized ones. But this time, not only the shake was the largest size, there was an additional burger too.
"'Tis alright. I cannot stand you eating so little anyway."
Kagami looked outside, averting his gaze from Kuroko. The latter though, being a skilled observer, saw the faint blush of embarrassment from their ace.
"Damn it, stop smiling and just start your goddamn lesson!"
"Yes, of course. Be sure to take notes while you eat, Kagami-kun. We don't have much time."
They went inside Maji about 6 pm. It was already around 9 pm, and sure, every crew had noticed how they had been inside for about three hours.
Kagami had yet to eat his third burger. That was because he kept shouting whenever he could not comprehend the technical terms Kuroko was saying.
"I don't fucking understand! I think I got the calculation for this log shit, but now we're graphing it?!"
"Yes, it's necessary to also learn this."
"No way. I'm already tired."
"I'm expecting at least half of exam will be about graphs."
"You're joking."
"I'm afraid I don't know how to joke, Kagami-kun." Kuroko said. "Or else you're already giving up the Winter cup?"
"Damn it! Whatever! Just continue!"
Kuroko opened his bag and pulled out his Math notebook, whose pages contain grid lines of green, unlike regular ones which only have horizontal lines in them.
"So, first, we'll graph this function – log of x. For starters, we assign values of x, and compute for its logarithmic value. Then, you'll graph it to see how a regular logarithmic graph looks like. Are you following so far?"
"Can we, just use calculator or something? It's hard to compute log of 2 base 10 without it, you know?" Kagami said, recalling that they used calculator just a while ago to check if he answered correctly to Kuroko's quizzes.
"No, we already have the usual values. You can use it."
Kagami spent at least half an hour to calculate five values for the function, while Kuroko patiently explained to him what was wrong, or why he was having a hard time in simplifying it.
"Now, we are to plot these points in this Cartesian coordinate. At least you know this, right…?" Even Kuroko felt hesitant. He really hoped he did, or it would be a hell of a night to get back to the simplest basics.
"Of course! I know how to plot too! I'm not that dumb."
"I know." The teal haired smile, and Kagami caught that, before he looked anywhere again before blushing.
Kuroko also caught the other blushing, but before he could get to like that scene, he had more serious matters at hand.
However, before he could remind the other to start graphing, Kagami was already halfway through it. At least, this time he was quicker.
Then, after he saw the red head plotting the five points, he found it weird that he did not shouted something like "Nice! It's finished!" Instead, he saw him calculating more and more values, and graphing further down the y-axis.
"What the hell, Kuroko?"
"What is it?"
"It never reaches this vertical line."
Kuroko was dumbfounded. He never knew Kagami would be this academically curious about it.
"It asymptotic along y-axis. That's how you call it. No matter how far, how large the x will be, it will never be zero."
The shadow then looked at Kagami's plot. It was unnecessarily (yes, really) clean, a good graph. He saw a good curvature of the graph. He thought it would be more angular, but he thought wrong.
He stared at the plot. He thought of asymptotes. Somehow, it reminded him of his experience. Of Teikou.
No matter how much effort he put into basketball, he was never able to fully gain the trust of his teammates at that time.
He was asymptotic with them.
Then, he started asking himself – Will he be someday asymptotic with his current teammates as well?
Would he also go downward, like the graph, while trying to reach zero for infinity?
Or would he be able to go upwards and have no limits? No asymptotes?
He did not notice that there was a pair of concerned red eyes looking at him. It took him a little bit of "Kuroko, hey!" and some nudge in the shoulder before he realized how he was drowned in thoughts.
He noticed that Kagami was intently staring at him. Had he been doing that?
"I'm sorry, I'm a bit sleepy." Kuroko said. Why was he even thinking of those things when it was already a thing of the past?
He did not wish to fall more and more, go straight downward without reaching his goal, like that graph of logarithm.
"Let's go home, I think you'll manage just fine." He added, as he packed all his notebooks and papers in the bag. Kagami did the same, though he was not looking away from the other.
He felt like there was some puzzle still to be solved. Kuroko clearly looked…lonely while he was lost in his thoughts a while ago.
The due went out of Maji burger, with Kagami just now starting to eat the rest of the burgers on their way home.
As usual, they reached Kuroko's house first, and here they part.
"Good luck on the exam, tomorrow, Kagami-kun." He told him before opening the gate.
Kagami stayed in place.
"What's wrong? Do you still need something?"
"I-I might be thinking much, but just maybe okay!" Kagami started to flush, and Kuroko nodded and waited patiently in what his light wanted to say. "You were looking so much at the graph before. I thought…uh…I was wrong. But you didn't say anything, so I think I graphed it correctly."
"Yes, you did. I'm sorry for not confirming it."
"And…I was thinking maybe you were comparing yourself to that line that never reaches zero. I forgot what it was, but being with you everyday, I know you think of the weirdest things!
"That's why…uh…how to say this, we're never like that okay? I-I think you're not going downward, but upward. You know, that part without that asym-thing. So, don't think too much.
"God, sorry, if that was not me. Or that was not what you were thinking."
Kuroko was speechless. How did he…
Suddenly, he felt hot liquid in his cheeks.
"Damn, Kuroko! Why are you crying?!"
He saw Kagami, the concerned Kagami, whose previous expression was an unusually thinking Kagami, his light – the Kagami Taiga. He kept his eyes intact to that person who actually told him something like that... no matter how indirect, but not forced.
Because, when he was in Teikou, he had felt it. He was just a tool. He denied himself of it, enjoying basketball too much. He was acknowledged in his skills, but they were nothing like that outside the court. He was never special, not that he wished he could be, but he never felt bliss like this.
We're never like that, okay? He recalled from his mind. They were never asymptotic – Kagami wanted to tell him. He hoped they would never be.
He wiped his tears when he realized he was actually crying.
"What's wrong with you today? Or maybe I guessed wrong?"
"No, thank you, Kagami-kun. Good night." Kuroko unknowingly flashed his rare smiles, not the small, almost unnoticeable ones, but a real genuine smile. And Kagami got full view of it.
He never thought that his shadow could actually smile like that.
Somehow, his embarrassing statement did pay well.
And he meant it. He would not deny how disconnected they were before, except in the court, but now, even outside it, they just linked. Or so, he wanted to think.
As Kagami walked towards his apartment, he just smiled.
And blushed. He thought how cute that smile was.
He almost bumped himself in the elevator door while recalling that smile.