Title: There's Always Next Year

Word Count: 2,255

Rating: K+

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Friendship

Summary: After their loss to Seirin in the Winter Cup, Kasamatsu finds solace in a place he didn't quite expect.

Kasamatsu almost hadn't believed it when he watched Seirin make that last basket. He'd thought that they'd had it. They'd been so close.

He supposed it just hadn't been meant to be. Everyone had tried their hardest, after all, so it hadn't been that they didn't put in the effort. Perhaps they just hadn't been good enough.

Taking a glance at Kise, who was leaning on his shoulder in a sobbing heap, Kasamatsu decided that that wasn't the case. The blond had powered through the entire game and given it one hundred percent of his strength. His ankle, from what Kasamatsu could see, was tinted purple and swollen. He prayed it wasn't broken.

If it was, then Kasamatsu decided he'd kill him. Or perhaps himself, for putting his junior in a position where he'd had to carry the team when he had an injury.

He was an absolute idiot.

Kasamatsu looked up at his coach and ran a comforting hand through Kise's sweaty hair - he hadn't even realized he was doing it until the younger boy burrowed his face into Kasamatsu's shoulder. "Sorry." The apology sounded hollow and quiet, but Kasamatsu meant it. This wasn't the first time he'd failed his coach, his team.

It had just been his last chance to make up for his former mistakes.

"It's not your fault, Yukio," the coach responded softly, a smile on his stubbly face. "You've got nothing to be sorry for. None of you do," he said louder, addressing the entirety of Kaijo's beaten team. All of them looked unbearably sad, and it made Kasamatsu's eyes burn... even though he'd never admit it.

After that, things went pretty smoothly. They'd all changed clothes in the locker room, and Kasamatsu was currently kneeling on the floor beside one of the benches, in the middle of wrapping up Kise's foot. He didn't know why on earth he felt obligated to - he just wanted to be the one to do it. In fact, he may or may not have taken the tape from Hayakawa by force. He supposed it was because he felt some sort of ownership in the first-year's pain, and he wanted to make sure the ankle was wrapped tightly and properly so that it could heal right.

"Senpai..." Kise's voice was raw and scratchy from how hard he'd been crying. There were still tears pooling in his golden eyes, but he'd stopped sobbing. Occasionally, he'd hiccup or sniffle, but that was the first word that Kasamatsu had heard him say since they'd gotten off the court.

Kasamatsu shook his head in response, and offered the younger boy a slight smile. "You need to stop crying, idiot." His tone had no bite to it this time - in fact, he sounded soft and kind to his own ears. It was a strange feeling, but he found that it was surprisingly easy to be nice to the blond. "There's always next year. By then, your foot will be completely healed and you'll be able to take the team to the championships again. And... hey, what the heck?!"

Kise had started sobbing again, snot and tears pouring down his puffy face. He was staring down at his captain with pitiful golden eyes. It made Kasamatsu want to hug him... or punch him.

"What? Why!? Why are you crying again?" Kasamatsu demanded, a bit flustered. He'd thought Kise was through with his sobbing, emotional messiness. "Kise. Kise! Stop crying and tell me what's wrong. Did I hurt your ankle?" He hoped he hadn't caused any more harm. While it had turned out that it was just sprained, he'd still intended on helping the poor first-year feel better.

The blond responded by shaking his head, letting out a few harsh sobs as he reached up to rub his scrunched-up face. "Y-you said... there's a-always next y-year..." he whimpered, peeking one watery yellow eye out to look at his senpai. "B-but you're graduating..."

"Oh," Kasamatsu said aloud, realizing what the crying fit had been about. He shook his head slowly and patted the blond's hair gently. "Yeah, I am. But I don't see why that's anything for you to be crying over," he said truthfully. If anyone should be crying, it should be Yukio.

Kise scrubbed his forearms across his eyes like a small child. "Be-because I know it meant so much to you. You wanted to be able to l-let us all win..." he choked out, his whole body tense and shaky. "I wanted to win so that you could, too..."

The confession startled Kaijo's captain. His jaw slackened involuntarily and he stared up at the golden-eyed boy with unabashed surprise. His eyes started up that incessant burning again, and he felt on the verge of tears himself. He hadn't let himself think of it too much before, but he really wouldn't get a chance to bring Kaijo to the championship again. Actually, he'd never get the chance to take the team anywhere, ever again. This had been his very last chance to set things straight.

"Crap, Kise..." Kasamatsu found that his voice came out strained and shaky, and he felt two fat, wet tear tracks roll down both of his cheeks at once. He brought one hand up to his face as his shoulders tensed in sob of his own. "Idiot," he whispered, leaning forward to rest one hand on the bench to support himself. He had been hoping to save his breakdown for later, but it looked like he wasn't going to be able to. Instead of keeping up that calm, cool captain façade, this first-year kid was going to see him cry his eyes out over something so stupid.

"Senpai..." Kise whined quietly, a sob catching in his throat after he spoke.

And suddenly, there was a tall, gangly sixteen-year-old wrapping Kasamatsu in the first hug he'd had in ages. He couldn't help the strangled cry of surprise that forced its way out of his mouth, nor the fact that his steel blue eyes snapped open to the size of saucers. His first reaction was to try and struggle, but Kise wouldn't let go. Eventually, Kasamatsu relaxed and felt more tears slide down his face. Soon, he was sobbing himself, and seemingly of their own accord, his arms reached up to hug the kid back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Kasamatsu whispered hoarsely, over and over and over again. He couldn't believe how badly he'd failed them - all of them. He'd been the worst captain, the worst teammate, the worst friend. "I didn't try hard enough... I'm sorry." He would've cursed himself for the whimper in his words, if he'd been thinking clearly. But at the moment, all that was running through his head was how much of a failure he was, trumping every bit of self-respect or shame the black-haired boy had ever had in his entire life.

"Why are you apologizing, Kasamatsu?"

The unexpected voice caught Kasamatsu off-guard, and he shoved away from Kise as quickly as possible, his eyes wide as his gaze found the source.

Kobori was standing at the door to the locker room, Moriyama, Hayakawa, and Nakamura behind him. All of them had tears in their eyes - Hayakawa was sobbing openly... and noisily.

For a few moments, all of them just stared at one another. It took about a full minute for Kasamatsu to realize that he'd been asked a question, and he hurriedly wiped away the wetness on his cheeks before he replied. "I... I failed all of you." He cursed inwardly for how scratchy his voice sounded. First he hadn't been able to bring his team to the Summer championship, then the Winter Cup, and now he was crying like a little baby in front of them.

Well, actually, all of them were crying, so Kasamatsu guessed it wasn't really that big a deal.

But still. He was their captain, and he was supposed to keep his cool, and to just break down like this, in front of everyone, was too much for him to handle.

For the third time that night, Kasamatsu was absolutely shocked to the core, for all of his teammates suddenly descended upon himself and Kise, tackling them both into a dog-pile-esque hug. Kasamatsu ended up sandwiched between Kise and Hayakawa, and though he normally would've freaked out at such contact, he found that their touch actually helped him feel a bit better. He didn't know why it made him cry harder, but it did lessen the weight he carried on his shoulders.

Perhaps they... weren't upset with him?

"You're an idiot, Kasamatsu!" exclaimed Moriyama as he plowed his fist onto the top of Kasamatsu's head, stretching over Hayakawa so that he could reach. "We're a team! You're not the only one who failed!"

Kobori let out a throaty laugh in response. "Exactly. Kasamatsu, we've always been a team. It's selfish of you to think that it was all your fault, isn't it?"

Well... when he put it like that...

"You've always worked hard for us," Nakamura pitched in, his gray eyes glistening behind his glasses. "We wouldn't have gotten this far without you."

Hayakawa shouted something then - it sounded kind of like, "We love you, Kasamatsu!" but it could've been, "Be off to the petting zoo!" Either way, Kasamatsu was pretty sure it was something that was supposed to be beneficial to his emotional and mental state, so he was grateful.

"We all messed up at some point or another," Kise snuffled, his head still resting on Kasamatsu's shoulder - actually, mostly under his chin. It wasn't precisely uncomfortable, though. "I'm sorry I didn't go for the shot at the end... ow!" he cried in response to Kasamatsu punching his arm. "You're so mean!"

"Let's just stop apologizing," Kasamatsu offered sheepishly, closing his eyes and slowly accepting the fact that it hadn't been entirely his fault. All that responsibility he'd piled upon his own shoulders for so many years had been for absolutely nothing, but it felt incredibly good to know that his team hadn't blamed him.

After several moments of silence, of hugging and drying up their tears, Moriyama spoke again, "Hey... why don't we all go to the park? I have a basketball in the van, and we can play on the court together."

Kise was the first to his feet - which was impressive, considering he was in between Kasamatsu and Kobori, plus he had a sprained ankle. He did bump his head on his captain's chin, though. "That's a great idea!" he cheered. The skin around his eyes was red and puffy, but he had a smile on his face.

"Not you, idiot!" Kasamatsu scolded, standing as well. He swiped his hands across his own eyes in aggravation, annoyed at both the salty tears on his cheeks, and the stupid first-year. "You've got to rest your ankle!"

Kise immediately began pouting, crossing his arms over his chest. "Senpai's so mean to me," he complained, and the others chuckled lightly - if not a bit thickly. They'd all cried pretty hard.

Kobori smiled a bit as he walked over to put a hand on Kasamatsu's shoulder, effectively preventing the shorter young man from bickering with the first-year any further. "How about we just go play some basketball, huh? We'll make sure Kise just watches," he assured the captain with a small smile.

"Let's go, then," Kasamatsu relented, pulling away from Kobori's touch and heading toward the entrance of the locker room. He was beaten there by Hayakawa, who was shouting something completely unintelligible - Kasamatsu decided not to try and decipher it this time, but the younger boy sounded excited.

As they all piled into Moriyama's mom's van, Kasamatsu couldn't help but feel a little sad. It wasn't because of the stress he almost always had on his shoulders, or the fact that they'd lost the Winter Cup. No, this time he was sad because this would probably be one of the last times they got to go play basketball together. He was sure that they'd be able to meet up every now and then, perhaps play a little street ball or go to lunch, but this would be the last time they'd ever be Kaijo. They'd never play a real game together again. The days of Moriyama scouring the jam-packed stadium for a cute girl to play for were over. He'd never hear Hayakawa screaming about how pumped he was to catch all of the other team's rebounds. Kasamatsu wouldn't get to make pre-game speeches or go to training camps or practice in Kaijo's gym with them again. He was going to have to watch Kise develop his talents fully and see Nakamura play as a regular from the sidelines.

He already missed being their captain.

I kinda like this one T.T It's sad, and the first time I've ever written about Kaijo, but I think it turned out okay-ish. I think this is how things should've gone down at the end of that episode. But, if things were up to me, the whole show would be centered around Kaijo and Shutoku.

I also have ideas for more stories involving Kasamatsu and Kise's friendship. I'm astonished at the lack of them on here. I shall make my own. I can't be the only one to broship them. If you'd want to read more of them, let me know.

Anyhow.

Read, review, fave, pm me. If you liked this, check out my other KnB fic. It's angsty. You were warned.

I'll reply to all the un-replied PMs in my inbox tomorrow. Sorry, guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke nor any of its characters. They're owned by Tadatoshi Fujimaki.

God bless you. Have a wonderful day!

anim8or