Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke!

CHAPTER 15:

Akashi's room...

Kise and Aomine let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. This was good, it meant Takao was accepted.

Takao beamed, his heart swelling with joy at the sound of his given name coming from Akashi's lips. He nodded eagerly and leant forward, as if trying to collect every drop of wisdom pouring out from Akashi's mouth.

Aomine could see that Akashi was clearly enjoying the additional adoration he gained from just using Takao's name. He felt a little sorry for Takao.

"I heard about your continuous failures in trying to woo Shintaro. And this time, you even managed to get him angry at you. And of course, we must not forget the wonderful help you received from my players."

Takao visibly slumped at this comment; Aomine thought he could see imaginary puppy ears drooping. He remained silent.

"I know my attempts were a constant failure but this time, I'm asking the great you for advice! Surely, you must have some sagely plan for Shin-chan to forgive and love me!"

Akashi's ego was severely inflated by Takao, and he nodded in approval at Takao's words.

"Go on, tell me more about myself."

Takao was delighted at this opportunity to interact with Akashi, and he started a long appraisal of the red-head.

"I've read about you in magazines, about how you've always won, your excellent point guard skills, your striking eyes which glint in a mysterious way, your flaming red hair showing how passionate you are..."

The praising went on for quite a while. Aomine and Kise thought their ears were going to fall off. Who exactly was Takao in love with?

Takao seemed to have a thesaurus in his head; the words escaping his mouth were all beautiful and flowery and honestly, it was kind of nauseating.

Satisfied with the fuel Takao fed to his already enormous and still growing ego, Akashi cut him off:

"Thank you, Kazunari, for the wonderful description of me. It was gratifying to hear such compliments. Now, back to the problem. My plan is fool proof. It will allow you to taste victory if you follow it obediently."

Takao moved nearer to Akashi, whipping out a pen and notebook and got ready to write.

Where the heck did that notebook come from?!

Aomine and Kise wondered incredulously, but continued to pay attention to Akashi.

"Your methods were all foolishly simple. That is why you have failed." Akashi intoned, ignoring Takao's furious scribbling.

"If I were you, I would do it my way..."

Akashi paused, as if for dramatic effect. The trio were on tenterhooks now, and they strained their ears to hear his words.

"I'll threaten him."

Kise would have fallen off his chair if he wasn't seated on the floor.

The next day...

The quartet (Akashi had joined them, wanting to see the fruits of his labour), waited until school was over before putting their plan (codenamed Akashi-sama's Brilliant Plan: Threaten Shintaro/Shin-chan) into action. Aomine and Kise had raised their eyebrows at the suggestion but one look from Akashi had them agreeing and praising the ingenuity of the plan.

So Takao was standing in front of Shin-chan's house, with the trio hiding behind the bushes. He ran over the lines Akashi had coached him to say the day before and clutched the secret weapon Akashi had presented to him. Akashi was so confident and sure of himself and Takao was swayed into believing the plan would work too.

He glanced back at his friends (Were they friends now? Comrades? Fellow planners?). Kise gave him a thumbs up and Aomine nodded encouraging. Akashi just stared at him intently but Takao hoped he was rooting for him in his heart.

He took a few deep breaths, stepped to the door and knocked a few times.

There was no answer. Takao was about to knock again when the door opened. Shin-chan looked out, and faltered at the sight of him.

Shin-chan... He had missed him so much...

Shin-chan's gaze travelled all over him, before resting at the necklace at Takao's throat. He suddenly seemed to remember his anger and rearranged his face into a glare at Takao.

"What?"

Takao was about go into a long apology for everything he had done but he remembered his purpose in coming here.

"Go out with me. Or else..."

Seeing Shin-chan had made him disoriented and Takao struggled to remember his lines.

He jumped straight to the most memorable part of the lines. He took the secret weapon, Akashi's red scissors, out and waved it threateningly at Shin-chan.

"I-I'll stab you!"

Aomine let out a large groan and Akashi twitched, a little angry at Takao for screwing up his plan.

Shin-chan's face twisted into one of confusion and slight irritation. How dare Takao threaten him? And why did that scissors look so familiar?

"You're crazy. I thought you were here to apologise and I may even forgive you but you threaten me and sprout gibberish instead. So my answer to you is no."

With that, Midorima slammed the door shut.

Takao sighed. He was getting used to this by now.

The door opened, and Shin-chan's head poked out. Takao felt a tiny ray of hope.

"By the way, I don't know how Akashi was involved but that's my scissors you're holding." He plucked the scissors out of Takao's hand and slammed the door shut again.

Akashi-sama's Brilliant Plan: Threaten Shintaro/ Shin-chan had failed.

Maji Burger...

The quartet entered Maji Burger and it was Takao who spotted two familiar figures in a booth at the corner.

"You guys!" This was followed by Kise's "Kurokocchi, Kagamicchi!"

He and Kise headed to the booth the pair was seated in and squeezed in, earning an enraged "What are you doing!?" from Kagami. The other two slid in as well.

It felt as awkward as hell. Kagami, Takao and Aomine were seated on one side facing Kuroko, Akashi (Kise had stood up to allow Akashi to go in first) and Kise. Both Kuroko and Kise tried to make Akashi as comfortable as possible, leaving a giant space around him for him to move freely.

The entire booth was silent and the members of the Generation of Miracles looked at Akashi expectantly. Now Takao felt out of place. He looked at the other non-member Kagami. Seirin's ace was silently fuming. Probably because they had rudely interrupted his date with Kuroko. Takao snickered.

After a while, (Akashi seemed to like having long pauses of silence) Akashi started speaking:

"We have gathered here to discuss the unexpected failure of the plan. Kazunari, I am disappointed in you. You have failed to execute the plan correctly and you also allowed Shintaro to take my scissors away. It's no wonder why your plans always fail. But since you are such a hardcore fan of mine, I shall forgive you this time. Now, I would like to hear comments on this turn of events."

Kuroko spoke up:

"It's probably Aomine-kun's fault."

Aomine spluttered: "What?! Tetsu! You don't even know what's going on!"

Kise nodded in agreement at Kuroko's words and Kagami snickered.

"And what are you laughing about? BAKAgami!"

This quickly escalated into a name-calling session of "Bakagami"s and "Ahomine"s between the two aces with Kise cheering them on.

"Silence."

That one word from Akashi was enough to stop the commotion. Aomine stopped his name-calling, Kise stopped cheering and Kagami, having learnt from his previous encounter with Akashi, stopped as well.

"Since everyone agrees, Daiki will fix the mess he has created. I want it done tomorrow after school. Everyone is to be present to witness this. The meeting is adjourned."

Aomine wanted to protest, but thought the better of it. It was impossible to go against Akashi after all.

He knew he had to plan something good tomorrow or it would be the end for him, Akashi would make sure of that.

A/N: Hi I don't know how many of you all can tell, but CAAHI (my nickname for this fic :P) is coming to an end. I'm trying to finish this before I start revision so expect the chapters to be coming pretty quickly. Do look forward to reading the end!