Visibility
By: Aviantei
Chapter 06: Desire
Airi settled into her desk Monday morning, a smile on her face. She reached into her bag to organize her work, notches at the top of her notebooks to distinguish them from each other, finding all of her assignments with ease and putting them back into their respective places in her desk. Youta had sat down the same time as her, although not taking the initiative to organize his work. They had arrived early, leaving the classroom void of many students, making it easier to pick up on the familiar presence at it approached.
"Good morning, Kuroko-san," Airi said, catching the boy off guard. She still couldn't help but giggle every time he responded that way, even though his reactions seemed to be decreasing from their already low intensity. Soon enough, Tetsuya would adjust to her awareness, and he would no longer be surprised, at least not on a perceivable level.
"Good morning, Watanabe-san, Watanabe-kun," he responded. Youta made a noncommittal grunt, although Airi could tell he was focusing in on Tetsuya like there was no tomorrow. The girl sighed, determined not to let the sour interaction to spoil her mood. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, Watanabe-san, but you seem to be happy about something this morning."
Airi could only enthusiastically nod. She had noticed Tetsuya easily reading other people, but he hadn't been doing it as much with her. Letting the details of that particular phenomenon slide, Airi clasped her hands together and held them up to her chest. "That's because Nii-san decided to sign up for the basketball club!"
There was a silence, Youta and Tetsuya seemingly exchanging glances with each other. Airi waited for them to finish whatever silent communication they were having, pouting slightly. Even though she could read Youta's serious look perfectly, it meant nothing without knowing the face Tetsuya was making. Even though it didn't last long at all, Airi's lack of knowledge made the exchange drag on.
"Welcome to the team, Watanabe-kun," Tetsuya said.
"Yeah, thanks," Youta grumbled, and probably only because of Airi's presence beside him. "I haven't played in years, so don't get your hopes up too high for me. And I'm only joining as a temporary member, too. If you think I'm going to help out with your championship streak then you got another thing coming."
"Nii-san's just being modest," Airi interjected, even though it was a bit of a stretch of the truth. She hoped that Youta was feeling alright, especially since he had seemed genuinely happy the night he had given her the news. She slipped a hand over his in the space between their seats where she believed Tetsuya's blind spot was. "He was actually the captain of our elementary school team. He even made it into the first string at the beginning of middle school."
"That's impressive," Tetsuya complimented. Airi gave the smile she knew her brother wanted to give but was too stubborn to show off. "I actually didn't start playing until middle school, so I'm sure that you'll be fine. Coach is a bit harsh at times, but she always does what's best for the team."
"Yeah, well, our school wasn't all that impressive. We always made it far in tournament brackets, but never close enough to get any real attention," Youta reported. "And then, well, you must have known what it was like to be on a team in middle school." Airi perked up at the words, not knowing what her brother was talking about. "I quit before the team got their ass handed to them, but no one stood a chance against Teiko. It wouldn't have mattered if I was still playing or not."
Youta pulled his hand back from Airi's, leaning back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. Tetsuya stood still, not saying anything. "Is Teiko really that big of a deal?" she asked. Both boys turned to her, almost like it was a stupid question. Airi sighed. "I really don't know anything about basketball, after all. I barely know the rules, remember?"
It really was unnerving how quickly boys could forget things. "Sorry, Ai-chan, but you just picked up on the rules so quickly that it kind of slipped my mind…" Airi had to resist the urge to sigh again. Tetsuya borrowed a chair from a nearby desk and sat down on it.
"Teiko Middle School had the top basketball team in the nation for three years straight," he said. Airi frowned slightly at the tone in his voice, but didn't interrupt. "While they never lost a match, they did nothing but overwhelm their opponents. In the end, they barely acknowledged the ones they played against, making it a competition between themselves…"
Youta sat up straight again, nodding. Airi turned her head to focus on him. "That's the Generation of Miracles, for you. Bunch of freakin' prodigies. No one would have stood a chance against them, so it's probably better that I quit before then. I heard that a bunch of players just dropped out for good because of how bad they lost… Though to have won the Winter Cup, that means that Seirin bested them all last year."
Airi nodded, smiling back to Tetsuya again. "The Seirin Basketball Club never ceases to impress," she said. Tetsuya shifted a little, although Airi couldn't tell exactly why. Unless he voiced his opinion, Airi had a hard time picking up on his specific movements yet. "If you happened to lose against them in middle school, winning against them must have been a great relief."
"Well, I was actually part of Teiko's first string…" Tetsuya admitted. Airi took a moment to recover in surprise, and Youta quickly stood up, sending his chair knocking against the desk behind him.
"You have got to be freaking kidding me!" he shouted, startling both his sister and Tetsuya. The number of people in the classroom had increased since the beginning of the conversation, Youta's outburst sending a flurry of whispers through the room. The yelling boy didn't tone down his voice in the slightest. "First you're on Seirin's team, then you're part of that middle school freak show?! You barely have any presence, what the hell?!"
"Um, I thought we were already over the whole 'lack of presence' thing, Nii-san," Airi scolded lightly. Youta pouted and sat down too hard in his chair, a thump resounding from the action. "From what I can tell, it's a great asset on the field, so then having him on the top middle school team isn't that far out there in terms of possibility, right?"
Tetsuya nodded. Airi smiled a little, glad that she had at least figured that out on her own. "I was able to play because our captain considered me to be an asset," he explained. "Although, that being said, even if their methods were a bit extreme, they were still my friends. Could you please not refer to them in such a way, Watanabe-kun?"
"Huh, you really made friends with people like—" Airi nudged her brother under the desk, hard "—I mean, yeah, sorry," Youta finally managed. Airi smiled at Tetsuya, who seemed satisfied enough, or at least not dissatisfied enough to voice out against it. "The point being is that, yes, I'm in the basketball club, now. Satisfied?"
"I look forward to working with you."
"Yeah, yeah, look forward to working with you, and all that."
Airi smiled again. At least if the two boys weren't getting along perfectly, then they were still interacting well enough to not cause any trouble. That, combined with Youta finally doing something for himself for once, was all Airi needed right now.
The first day of practice with the Seirin High School Basketball Club, Youta barely had the strength to walk home on his own. Airi supported him back a good amount of the way, legs weak and out of breath. They settled for delivery that night, Youta not giving into Airi's offers to go out and shop for dinner on her own. By the time the news made its way to Aida, Youta had already recovered enough to purchase proper food every day, although getting on the coach's bad side wasn't something he particularly wanted the opportunity to repeat.
The worst part, though was acknowledging the fact that Aida was going easy on him. It wasn't by much, but Youta was struggling to get through a regimen less than what the first string was working on, and even less than the incoming freshman, some of which only had a good month or so of gameplay experience under their belts. Practices were hard, seemed to drag on forever, and Youta would come away, always sweaty, always out of breath, and always with muscles burning.
It felt amazing.
Youta had honestly forgotten how much he missed this sort of thing. Even if he sucked at it, had to work his ass off to just make it to the end of the day, it had always been fun. Something about working hard to push yourself to get better had its charm, even if could seem stupid and pointless at times. As much effort that he had put in to convince himself that he didn't need it, basketball was still something that Youta had always known he wanted something to do with.
Part of him felt bad about it, though. While Youta was thoroughly enjoying himself, Airi was stuck on the basketball club sidelines. She didn't seem bothered at all, constantly cheering him on, her knowledge of the team's practice providing an accurate enough picture of what he was doing to put a word in. Whenever she did get stuck, Youta saw Airi getting information from the nearest free club member.
Even if she was smiling, did that mean she was really happy? Airi had been so active in elementary school. She could be doing other things, doing what she wanted, and instead she was stuck waiting for her brother to finish up basketball practice so she could even walk home safely at all. Youta knew the right thing to do would be to let her go off and join some other club, to give her his blessing, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
Airi needed him to be around, to be her eyes. Even if she could just manage fine on her own at times, Youta was the one that helped her see what she couldn't, added descriptions to the rest of the world. No one else knew just what to say, what sort of things she would want to know. And even if they could, Youta needed to protect her. Despite all the promises the staff had made to their parents, the incident with Sakamoto and Miura was proof enough that it wasn't safe enough to let Airi be alone.
It would be okay, though. There were only two weeks left until the charity tournament, and better or worse, things would be over then. Either Airi would have her eyes back and be able to look out for herself, or Youta would quit the basketball club and do it for her. It was as simple as that.
"Oi, focus!" Hyuga called. Youta just barely snapped back to attention on time, almost fumbling the pass but just barely recovering it. That sort of move would have normally cost him in a real game, but there was no one else to stop him right now. Aida was having the rest of the second years—the main force for the tournament lineup—run through plays against a mix of upperclassmen and new recruits. Youta had been assigned to practice with the captain in one-on-one set ups as the next step of his own training.
"Sorry, Senpai!" Youta said. While he knew each of the Seirin regulars by their name and play style, he hadn't anticipated what their personalities would be like at all. As such, the image he had of Hyuga of a calm, cool, and collected clutch shooter beforehand was now in direct conflict with the almost foul-mouthed, respect-oriented reality that was the Seirin captain. "Let me try again! I'm sure I'll get it right this time!"
Youta passed the ball back to Hyuga, who didn't move to repeat the play like Youta had expected. "I get that it's been a while, Watanabe, but you need to focus and take this seriously if you want to join us. I know Riko thinks you have potential, but that's useless if you don't give it your all." Without warning, Hyuga moved, making the pass. Youta barely registered it in time, old reflexes allowing him to secure the ball.
Take this seriously, huh? Even if he was doing this for Airi's sake, Youta didn't recall having to put too much effort into it as part of the deal. As long as he showed up and completed his regimens, that was enough. Just two more weeks. He could manage enthusiasm for that long. "I understand, Senpai. I'll try harder from now on," he said.
When it came down to it, Youta wasn't sure if he could take anything else seriously again.
The Yamashita Charity Tournament's opening ceremony had been grandiose, easily surpassing the Winter Cup in every way possible. In the end, Tetsuya couldn't help but feel a bit lightheaded, relocating himself outdoors once the ceremony had concluded. Part of him had always been nervous whenever he stepped onto the court, but this was almost too much, each team getting their own time in the spotlight, proclaiming which cause they were playing for, spotlights dazzling and blinding at the same time.
Additionally, as the tournament was set out to go over the course of a few days, each team was given the funding by the Yamashita Corporation to cover their lodgings for the weekend. They even had enough money for extra guests, permitting Youta and Airi to come along, although the younger Watanabe sibling had no idea why they were participating in the first place.
Even if he understood Youta's reasoning for keeping things secret, Tetsuya wasn't sure he completely agreed with it. If Airi would disagree with what they were doing, wasn't that all the more reason to talk to her about it? It was Airi's eyesight, so shouldn't it be her decision?
Tetsuya inhaled deeply, sighing afterwards. Just because he had become the twins' friend (a very loose term when applied to Youta), that didn't give him the right to stick his nose into it. If Youta wanted to try whatever it took to get Airi's eyes working again, that was his decision as well, no matter how much Tetsuya thought Airi would scold all of them if she found out.
"Hey, Kurokocchi, I thought I saw you over there!" a voice called out. Tetsuya turned, seeing the expected person enter his vision. Kise Ryota beamed, stopping once he caught up with his former teammate. "And I thought I heard Seirin's name earlier. I thought my ears were playing tricks on me, but it looks like you guys are playing after all."
"It's good to see you again, Kise-kun," Tetsuya responded. He wasn't about to admit that he hadn't noticed Kaijo's presence in the opening ceremony due to a case of nerves. "I wasn't really expecting to see you so soon again, especially since there's still a while until the Inter High preliminaries start up."
"Wah, I'm so lucky! I get to see Kurokocchi first again." Kise continued to grin. Tetsuya knew better than to question his friend, so just let the other boy have his moment. At the very least things had improved since the last year between all of them. "So, I'll admit it. I totally zoned out during that ceremony! So, what are you guys here playing for?"
Tetsuya nodded, not expecting anything else from Kise. When it came down to it, he was the member of the Generation of Miracles that had changed the least since middle school. "Well, there's this girl and she—"
"Eh, Kurokocchi's playing for a girl?!" Kise exclaimed before Tetsuya could even finish his sentence. Leave it to Kise to completely misinterpret the words. "Man, that's no fair! I wanna help you out, but I just so happen to be playing for a girl myself."
"You should really let others finish speaking before you start to make assumptions, Kise-kun." Kise immediately went silent after the scolding, pouting slightly. Even if the blonde could be annoying at times, Tetsuya couldn't say he minded all that much. "She's one of our new member's sisters. Her eyesight's failing and he asked us to play so they can afford her operation." It wasn't all the details, but it would be enough. Besides, just mentioning that he happened to be friends with Airi would only send Kise's theoretical romance spiraling out of control, and that wasn't what was going on here.
Was it?
Tetsuya shook his head. Airi was his friend and that was it. Suddenly throwing around romantic feelings onto someone else you had only known a short amount of time wasn't only rude, it was irresponsible. Kise seemed too wrapped up in his own tragedy to notice.
"That's no fair, Kurokocchi! If I didn't know better, I'd say you told me that so I'd feel bad and go easy on you." Tetsuya frowned a little, but didn't say anything. "Well, even if my cause isn't as noble as yours, I still need to give it my all. I dragged my team into this, so I'll take responsibility!"
"What exactly are you playing for?" Tetsuya asked. He had already told his reason, so it was only fair Kise did the same in return. Besides, Tetsuya's curiosity had been sparked by his former teammate's earlier comment. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's worth it. You don't need to go easy on us."
Kise nodded. "Well, since you asked… There's this girl I'm interested in, you see. She's on the art club at school. Since most of our funding goes into our sports programs, I figured if we won and made a donation, then I could impress her, you know?"
Surprisingly, for Kise, it seemed like a well thought out plan. Even if things didn't work out for his love life, the money would still at least be helpful to someone. "I wish you the best of luck, then," Tetsuya said. He meant every word, too. Even if he wanted to win, whoever the victor was playing for still deserved the prize.
Kise let out a short laugh, which paired up perfectly with the smile on his face. "Good luck to you, too, Kurokocchi. Maybe we'll play each other at some point!" A cell phone rang, and Tetsuya looked to Kise expectantly since his own ringtone wasn't playing. Sure enough, Kise reached for his pockets. "I should probably get going, though. We're in the first bracket of matches… I'll see you later!" Answering his phone, Kise ran off, heading back into the building.
Tetsuya decided to stay outside a bit longer before heading back to his teammates.
(coughs) I may or may not be planning a KisexOC fic. But that's not gonna happen for a while now.
Thanks to CherryPop0120, Wings of Galileo, toshiro23, myrielyzie, cha24u, LuzElvaParra17, popjack, waremono . Iv, YouHaveGotToBeFuckinKidingMe, Tennisbunnyrox, paopuXfruit358, KimiKaze no Kage, The ShadowInDarkness, and ishdirections for your respective reviews, follows, and favorites of this story! I really appreciate all your support and use it to keep me going as I draft out the later chapters.
But yeah, writing Kise is interesting. I've been learning in my creative writing workshops not to overuse exclamation points, but Kise's like the king of exclamation points. It's an interesting balance to try and maintain.
I've been putting really busy lately. And kind of tired. I may or may not have almost forgotten that I needed to post this today (but it's here so we won't talk too much about that).
Though I've had a lot to do, though, I've been putting a lot of words into this story curtosy of your support and Camp NaNoWriMo. Things in that stage of drafting are going along well. I've been coming up with all sorts of things, so no writer's block here!
That being said, how are you guys feeling about the story? Enjoying where it's going? Think the pacing's okay? I'm pretty satisfied with what I'm putting out, so you guys' feedback will help me fix anything you think doesn't work.
Chapter seven is estimated to be published in two weeks, as long as I'm not dead by all this end of the year stress.
Next time, Airi remembers what it's like to be in a crowd, Kise and Tetsuya discuss recent happenings, and Youta makes contact for the sake of progress. Please look forward to it!