PTO

A Kuroko no Basuke oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The Kuroko no Basuke characters belong to Fujimaki Tadatoshi-sensei, not to me. These two have been on my mind for a long time, so I'm happy to have found the inspo to write them! -w- Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

"Ah, Coach… There's someone here to see you."

Masako exhaled and, with some concerted effort, dragged her eyes from the scene on the court, where Murasakibara set a poor example for the first years by milling about while he didn't have the ball in his possession. She glanced at her team's new captain—and did a double-take at that practiced smile. "Himuro…"

Almost imperceptibly, the beauty-marked teen's smile widened. The only giveaway was the twitch of said beauty mark.

Masako's grip tightened on the hilt of her shinai, which rested against her right shoulder at the moment. Himuro's smile was all the warning she'd get, even as she turned her head and—

"YAHOO~ Masako~"

Unfortunately, everyone's attention diverted from basketball practice at Yosen that evening once their blond, foreign guest came prancing indoors. But Masako didn't let her players dawdle for long, swinging her bamboo sword around to smack the tip against the floor with a resolute THWACK that brought them back to their senses. Several of the first years literally jumped at the noise, but the second and third years got right back on track. And all without their coach needing to utter a word.

Which was good, considering Masako would need to reserve her energy for the blonde sidling up to her now. "Are you surprised to see me?" she asked the jet-haired coach.

Masako sighed as the other woman gave Himuro a gigantic hug. "Alex, are you even here to see me? Or are you here to see one of your protégés?"

"Ah, but that's the brilliance of Yosen—two birds, one stone!" Alex chirped. She pouted when Himuro unhooked her arms from his neck. "Tatsuya…!"

"Not in the middle of practice, Alex," he said, tiredness leaking into that smile as he stuck to Japanese with his mentor. Masako had noted him doing that more since Alex first turned up in Japan last year, during the rare instances she traveled up north…around the same time the former professional player began flirting with the Yosen coach, actually.

Masako narrowed her eyes at the sly fellow.

Himuro, for his part, ducked her stare and shrugged away from Alex. "We can always catch up later," he promised the taller woman, and he jogged to Murasakibara's side before Alex could protest.

Alex's pout lingered for a few more seconds. But then she turned towards Masako. "So, Masako—"

"Himuro's right. Not in the middle of practice." She faced forward and tried to give her students her full attention, but it wasn't long before Masako darted her dark eyes up and to her left. "You know better than to interrupt."

Alex grinned. "…maybe. But someone keeps her shinai instead of her phone glued to her hand."

"No phones at practice—for both student and coach alike."

The American heaved a sigh. "Then what point is there in texting you that I might drop by?" She lifted her left hand, noted how red her bare fingers were, and rubbed her hands together and blew on them for warmth. She shoved her hands back into her coat pockets after and fought back a shiver. "Ahhh, Akita is so cold…!"

Masako shook her head at the sight. "Of course Akita's cold. It's November, in the snowiest region of Japan. This is the polar opposite of California and you're not dressed for the climate."

Alex glanced at her long coat over her jeans. She at least had her coat zipped up all the way today, but Masako would bet a full tank of gas for her motorcycle that the blonde had only a t-shirt on underneath. Alex chuckled and shrugged it off. "Well, I might not be dressed for the climate, but that just means you can warm me up later…"

Masako ignored her flirty words and glanced at how things transpired on the court. Himuro had them going through passing drills, so she decided it was all right to move her attention elsewhere…such as turning around to the benches along the wall by the doors connecting the gym to the general arts building. She rested her shinai against the wall for a second while she rummaged in her bag. Once she found her prize, Masako grabbed the shinai and marched wordlessly back to Alex on the sidelines. She thrust the small item at the blonde.

"A hand warmer…?" Alex blinked. Then she shook off her surprise and kneaded the pack to activate it. Alex held the gift between her chilly hands and bumped shoulders with Masako, half leaning on the shorter woman. "Aww, you do care."

At that, Masako grimaced. She didn't like being doubted same as she didn't like having to repeat herself to her team.

"But, hey, that whole you-warming-me-up thing wasn't a joke, just so you know." Alex tucked the hand warmer into her left pocket for now and linked her right arm with Masako's. She continued while they watched over practice together, "I actually came in person because I thought a surprise might better convince you."

"Liu, good connection!" Masako called out to the third year. "Murasakibara, watch the space around you…!" She gritted her teeth, half in annoyance that her Kiseki player clung to old habits and half with trepidation over her girlfriend's words, but— "All right, I'll ask: Of what do you need to convince me?"

Alex's grip on her arm tightened by a hair. "Well, you're as stubborn as they come. So…" She cocked her head Masako's way. "Take some time off," she coaxed.

Annoyance, anxiety, anger—none of that came to mind. Instead, Masako offered up a flat expression and an immediate, "No."

"What? Why?!"

"Why do you have to ask, why?!" Masako gestured with her shinai to her students. "It should be obvious!"

"Masako-chan…!" Alex tried, tacking on the honorific and drawing it out in a cutesy pitch.

But the jet-haired coach would have none of it. She pulled her arm free with a huff. Once more, she gestured to practice. "We may be winding down, but we've still another twenty minutes of practice left. You've got a hand warmer and you've said your hellos, so you can leave now, Alex."

Alex blubbered, though, in response, and Himuro hustled over to the pair. If her incoherence were words, then he understood the matter and glanced as his coach.

"You can see her out, Himuro."

But he gave her a timid smile this time, as well as a one-armed shrug. "I will, but, Coach…taking time off might not be that bad?"

"Do you want to end practice today with laps?"

He paled but pushed on. "All I mean to say is, breaks can be good things. Especially for people who go…above and beyond," Himuro finished, though that pause clearly felt like a delay while he searched for a polite way to rephrase "overboard."

Masako narrowed her eyes at him for the second time that day. "Direct that advice only towards those who actually go overboard." She let her eyes wander towards their second-year center.

But Himuro needn't look to know who she meant, and he nodded in agreement. Instead, he focused on Alex and ushered his mentor back through the outside doors through which she'd come, and finally practice was peaceful once more.

- ^-^3

Alex's interruption seemed like a fever dream when practice wrapped. Masako left the boys to clean up, entrusting Himuro to lock up behind them, and she returned to the faculty room to catch up on odds and ends.

There wasn't anything pressing waiting for her at her desk. As the P.E. teacher, she had a handful of get-out-of-class excuses to sort through, but too many of the reasons were rehearsed or reused these days, even for this time of year, so the task was a breeze to complete. There were a few reports due soon…and meetings to schedule…but those either needed input from other teachers or simply could wait, so Masako packed up.

She went past the gym on her way to the employee lot and double-checked that Himuro had locked the doors. A firm tug confirmed it, so Masako hurried to her car.

They hadn't had a good, proper snowfall yet, so nothing much had built up, but it was cold, and Masako relished the warmth once her car had the chance to heat up after a few minutes of running the engine. She pulled out of the lot and took the right to head home, but she caught the first red outside the school. Not the worst thing in the world, since she had the heat on full blast.

On the passenger seat, her phone chirped with a new text.

Masako glanced at her purse and how her phone lay partway out the opening… …well, this light was a long one, so it couldn't hurt to check, right? Still, Masako checked the surrounding, nonexistent traffic before picking up her phone and reading Alex's message:

-HEY! U should b done by now~ If u r, then I'm nearby at Ichiyan's

Oh. Alex was at the ramen shop close by? Masako wondered why it surprised her so much…although, given the way Alex popped around Japan, checking in on Himuro and on Kagami or following up on interesting games and upcoming star players or even traveling for themed cafés for her favorite anime, Masako actually knew precisely why she was so stunned. Alexandra Garcia wasn't someone who liked to sit still for very long.

Masako didn't bother replying to the text, knowing Alex would see she'd read it. Besides, Ichiyan's was a ten-ish-minute walk in good weather and quick drive in the scant traffic she had at the moment. Barely three minutes after seeing Alex's text, Masako rolled up on the little hut just as Alex exited the shop, takeout in hand. "We're not eating here?" she asked when Alex climbed into the passenger seat.

Alex leaned across the console and planted a lingering kiss on her lips—warm and salty, like the ramen she'd just finished—before settling back and buckling up. "Masako, it's cozy in there, but their walls are still thin as hell. I got double, though, and it'll still be plenty hot back at your place."

Masako briefly touched her bottom lip before blinking herself free from her stupor and getting them back on the road. She found it in her to smirk at the mention of her apartment. "I take it that means you're staying over?"

"I have an invitation with no expiration date," Alex quipped, and her grin stretched from ear to ear, which Masako glimpsed out of the corner of her eye when they paused at a crossing.

Yosen's coach shook her head but didn't deny the fact. "I'm guessing you stopped in Tokyo first?"

"Mm. To see Taiga, yes, as well as check in with Seirin…" Alex stared out the window. "They let me study their practice for a while, and it got me thinking, so I dropped in on some practice matches Shutoku had, too."

"Shutoku?"

"Yeah. That Midorima kid who's Taiga's age. He and Seirin's Hyuuga…they're both shooting guards, same as Tatsuya."

Well, that wasn't news to Masako. But she frowned when Alex huffed.

"Tatsuya—is good. But Hyuuga's disciplined in his own way. And then Midorima—"

"You don't even have to finish that thought. Training them or going up against them—the Generation of Miracles more than lives up to that moniker." They arrived at Masako's apartment complex, and the coach turned into her spot alongside the left side of the small building. She cut the engine and gave Alex a sly look. "But if you come up with some idea of special training for Himuro like what you gave Kagami last year, I wouldn't turn it away."

Alex blinked and burst out laughing. "Ahhh, Masako…!" She swiped at her eyes. "While I do think Tatsuya's between a rock and a hard place—well, I'll think about it. Tatsuya's stubborn, so he'd also have to accept me training him."

Damn. She hadn't thought of that.

Alex hummed to herself as they got out of the car and headed inside. Her voice reverberated in the stairwell, though, causing Masako to shush her, but that only sent Alex chuckling again. She kept at Masako's heels as the shorter woman unlocked her apartment door on the third floor.

"I know you like a challenge, but does the idea of trying to coach Himuro right now really amuse you that much?"

"Oh, I stopped thinking about that five minutes ago. Even if I whipped up a training menu for him, the Winter Cup's too close."

Masako shrugged out of her coat and blazer and hung her outerwear and Alex's up. They both changed into slippers and Masako undid the first few buttons on her Oxford. "Then what?"

Alex placed their takeout on the nearest counter and took a second to tie up her hair. Then she slipped her arms around Masako's waist from behind, sighing contently as she pressed against the shorter woman's back. "Thinking about Akita. And Tokyo. And California. Shinkansen—and wishing we had that in America."

It wasn't too difficult to follow her line of thought, given all the travel Alex did. Masako shuffled (hard to do little else with her girlfriend attached to her back) into her living room to tidy up a bit, and her eyes glanced at the small messenger bag that lived to the right of her TV stand. The bag was one of Alex's "go bags," something she liked to leave in the places she frequented most.

"…although I will say, shopping in Akihabara is almost like coming home," Alex said. She laughed.

Masako snapped out of her thoughts. Wait, how had they gone from travel to the shopping district? "You don't have any bags with you, though…"

"Yeah, I left my haul at Taiga's place. I'll take care of the shipping another time or have Taiga do it for me." She squeezed Masako's midsection. "I did have a train to catch, after all."

Masako half smiled and pecked her cheek, but then she disentangled herself from the blonde's embrace and went into her kitchenette to grab spare napkins at the very least. She checked the takeout and found it'd kept its temperature, and the shop had thrown in chopsticks, so they could dig in. "If you'd waited a bit, you'd be here closer to the Winter Cup, though."

"Hmm… I've never been skiing in Akita? Or snowboarding."

She stared at Alex with one eyebrow quirked. "And you think I have?"

"Potential date idea, Masako."

"More like something to add to a bucket list."

"Ohhh! A bucket list! That's a good idea. Hey, hey, what else is on your list? Me, I wanna climb Mount Everest, I think… Go fishing in Thailand…" She tapped the end of her chopsticks against her chin. "Hmm, maybe pet cheetahs, but I think you can do that at a zoo in Australia, probably not on a safari…"

The more outlandish Alex's items became, the easier it was for Masako to picture them. The younger woman hadn't been allowed to stay a professional player in WNBA, but she'd kept her physique intact and, on the rare occasion, even coaxed a rare one-on-one match from Masako. So an Alex weathering blustery conditions up a mountain's peak or fishing in clear waters or finding herself at home petting domesticated wild animals—yeah, it all sounded very much like the Alexandra Garcia she knew and loved.

"…and…well, less a bucket list item—"

Masako slurped some noodles and lifted her head. When Alex didn't continue, she lowered her chopsticks. "If not a bucket list item, then—?"

Alex reached across the kitchen counter, where they stood on opposite sides, and lightly placed her fingers on Masako's wrist, her thumb tracing a tiny circle along the bone. "Masako, come with me to New York City."

Her eyes widened as she stared at the taller woman. Even though Alex had told her earlier to take time off, this time the invitation hit differently. "…what?"

Alex's smile was small but no less bright than usual. "It would be my treat. But." She took a breath and ran her free hand through her fringe. "I've been back and forth between here and home a lot since last winter, setting up Kiyoshi with the right doctors and accompanying Taiga and some of the Seirin seniors to visit him… But I don't have only L.A. contacts. I have NYC ones, too. And going back to California wasn't only about helping Taiga's senpai get treatment." Alex paused and something flashed in her eyes, an odd mix of envy and pride, perhaps, as she continued, "Part of it was to introduce Taiga to a few scouts. And, yeah, there are some people from New York who want to meet him and didn't get to last time, so I'll be chaperoning a bit, but my ideal plan to spend my time isn't all business."

Masako jolted when Alex paused a second time for emphasis, because this pause came with a subtle squeeze, and Alex stroked the underside of her wrist, as well. Masako jerked her hand away on impulse, but Alex caught her fingers before the other woman was out of reach.

"I actually really want to see the city lights with you, Masako." Her teal eyes softened behind her pink frames. That look was akin to a nonverbal, "So say 'yeah,' for me?"

The jet-haired woman's mouth popped open in a small "o" and she licked her lips while she tried to sort her thoughts as the last few minutes replayed, back and forth, in her mind. Still, no matter how well she tried to situate herself when faced with Alex's true surprise, Masako came up dumbfounded. So, she settled for her argument from earlier. "What—What about my coaching? I can't just up and leave, Alex."

"And Taiga wouldn't leave Tetsuya and Seirin for long unless absolutely necessary. But the Winter Cup's more than a week away. So don't worry. We'll go on holiday. Just—a long weekend. What do you say?"

What was there to say? A tiny part of her, the part that enjoyed waving her shinai around at school, was doubtful about the logistics. And yet…

If their schedules could work out… And Alex—her lackadaisical Alex!—was putting her heart into arranging this right before crunch time. Then…

"…I wonder what New York's lights look like in person, too," Masako answered, entwining her fingers with Alex's.

Alex's entire face lit up. She tugged Masako to the side, away from the counter and closer, pulling Masako flush against her and indulging in another kiss. But this time, Alex pushed her glasses up into her hair and deepened the kiss.

Butterflies stirred in her stomach—both at having Alex so close in so long and at the idea of them being in New York City soon—so Masako let go of Alex's hand and hooked her arms around the other woman's neck instead.

But that was a different kind of invitation for Alex. She had one hand sinking fingers into Masako's hair while the other undid the buttons of Masako's shirt from the bottom, tugging the blouse free and fussing with the fasteners on her pants, too—

Masako broke the kiss and clonked her forehead against Alex's, stalling that hand. "Alex. Dinner will go cold."

She received a whimper in reply.

Yet Masako held firm, and she kissed the sore spot on Alex's forehead. "I simply want to eat with you. Then I'll make good on the me-warming-you-up thing you suggested earlier this evening," she added, hating how badly her cheeks burned as she echoed the blonde's sentiments.

Alex gaped at Masako.

(Needless to say, it was the fastest either of them ever had wolfed down ramen in their lives.)

- ^-^3

Done for the 5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 Fandoms Challenge as well as the If You Dare Challenge (for prompt #933: New York) in the HPFC forum on FFN, as well as for minifemslashfeb 2023 (scenario 4: "One more word on this topic and I'll kill you"—*lol* it was implied) on tumblr. So! I'm slowly writing more for KnB. While I enjoy the femslash ships for it, I haven't written any of them, so that changes now. The title, btw, is a bit of a twofer: PTO being paid time off (a vacation!) or place, time, occasion (tho usually the order there is TPO for time, place, occasion XD). Alex is especially bad at TPO, tho, wanting to be smoochy wherever and whenever, *lol*, but I think Masako would adapt to her without real trouble; Masako's good at training the unruly types, after all. XDDD Let's see… Little mentions of fav charries and implications of Muramuro/Murahimu and Kagakuro for me, *lol*. Also, just, Himuro being a sort of matchmaker and wingman btwn Alex and Masako? I can't get enough of this idea. ;D I'm also here for Alex throwing around her moolah and whisking Masako off to wherever they wanna go. They deserve it. Ahhhh, this A/N is just me dithering about Garciraki and is gonna get worse if I don't stop here, so.

Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other KnB fics if you enjoyed this~ And reblog this fic on tumblr to show your support!

-mew-tsubaki :3c