Chapter 2

A teenager and a small boy were walking hand in hand toward an ice cream shop. Both were soaking wet but neither of them seemed to mind. The young boy was pulling on her hand dragging her to every window display and ogling at the merchandise. The girl found it especially hard to drag her little brother away from the puppy display. Only the thought of ice cream kept the small boy from staying in front of the pet shop window forever.

"Yuki, I see the shop!" Kyo giggled, as he dragged his older sister down the street with surprising force.

Yuki sighed and let herself be dragged as she shook her head kindly at her little brother.

I guess these are the type of moments that I missed when I was practicing. I missed out on a lot of bonding time with Kyo. Yuki thought as she was pulled.

The ice cream shop's door was pushed open with a ding and Yuki stumbled after Kyo.

"Welcome, what can I get for you?" The perky worker behind the counter asked.

"Uh, I'll have a small of the Mexican Chocolate in a cone please." Yuki ordered.

"And I'll have Cotton Candy in a cone as well please." Kyo said.

"Coming right up." The worker responded.

After paying for both of the ice creams Yuki and Kyo took two seats at a bar that was facing the window so that they could people watch as they finished their ice cream. They made up crazy stories about the people passing by. After a few moments Yuki caught sight of a pack of boys running down the street. Each one of them was dribbling a basketball. Behind the pack, a girl on a bike was yelling at the boys to move faster. Kyo saw the basketball team and started patting Yuki's arm.

"Yuki do you seem 'em? Do you Yuki? Do you see the basketball club? That's the club you should join. You were so good when you played. You should play again 'cause it made you happy! Join the club." Kyo said excitedly.

"Kyo, you shouldn't be so loud. You'll disturb the other customers. And I haven't picked up a basketball in four months. I don't think I'm good anymore. Besides, it looks like there are no girls on the team that look like they play." And mom would kill me if I joined, Yuki added silently.

They fell silent and saw the bicycle girl turn her bike around and go in the opposite direction as the running boys.

"That's a lie and you know it Yuki." Kyo said quietly. "I see you in your room all the time working on your shooting form." Kyo said while scrunching his face up and giving his sister what he thought was a disapproving look.

"Kyo, if I do join a club, then we won't be able to hang out as much." Yuki tried to counter.

"But, I like seeing you play. Plus, when I am older you're gonna teach me how to play and you have to be really good before you can do that. Promise me that you're going to play basketball again." Kyo said stubbornly while licking the last bit of his ice cream.

Yuki sighed. "Okay, I'll look into it. I promise."

"Yeah!" Kyo said while jumping off of the stool and bouncing out of the shop and down the street cause he had finished his ice cream. Yuki sighed, cleaned up the small mess that was made and followed after her brother. "Kyo, you have to stop leaving places…without…me?" Yuki said while exiting after she had waved at the employee and followed after her brother. She slowed to a stop. Her comment ended in a question as she saw the predicament he was in.

Kyo was currently suspended in the air by the back of the shirt. Kyo had a basketball in his arms that he seemed to be protecting from the teen that held him. It was then that Yuki took notice of who was rough handling her little brother. A teen taller than her with glasses was the culprit holding her brother. She was about to activate her "Protective Big Sister Mode" when she realized that he was wearing a Seirin warm up jacket and that he had his whole team behind him. Yuki knew that if she was to get into a fight, she would lose due to the fact that she was outnumbered. The team was watching the younger boy and the teen trade insults with each other with varying degrees of amused faces. This was the same basketball team she saw running down the streets dribbling a few minutes ago.

"Kyo, what do you think you are doing?" Yuki called out to her younger brother who snapped his head toward his sister's calm and slightly exasperated voice.

In the back of the basketball team group, a boy with bright blue hair's eyes widened and he stared at the silver haired girl. A much taller boy with red hair noticed the smaller boy's astonishment and narrowed his eyes at the approaching girl.

"Yu-chan, catch!" With the brief warning Kyo tossed the basketball to Yuki who caught the ball with ease. Yuki looked at the teen holding her brother and said politely. "Could you please put my brother down and explain to me what happened?" The bespectacled teen sent a glare to Kyo, set him down and huffed a sigh while he crossed his arms. Kyo, the minute he was free, ran to his sister and grabbed her hand before he stuck his tongue out at the boy who had held him.

"I'm sorry for man handling your brother, my name is Jonpei Hyuga. My team and I were walking back to school because we had finished our run when that little runt appeared out of nowhere and swiped the ball out of my hands. I caught him before he could run away and that is why you came out of the shop and saw that. Again, I am sorry, but I need to have that ball back because if I don't return it, my coach will kill me." The teen with glasses said. The rest of his teammates were extremely quiet, mostly because they were tired from practice and secondly because they had never seen this girl before and were interested in her. They were guys after all.

"Yu-chan, you can't give it to him, how are you going to practice your skills if you don't have a ball?" Kyo asked while tugging at his sister's hand.

Yuki gave her brother a wry smile. "Kyo, it's not okay to steal from people. But since your intentions were good I'll let it slide and not tell mom." She let go of Kyo's hand and wrapped it around his shoulders musing his hair before her hand rested on the boy's shoulder in a protective manner.

Hyuga's mouth dropped. "Wha? That's all the scolding he gets? When I was his age my mother would…" Hyuga started.

"Well Grandpa Hyuga," Yuki started teasingly, "I'll be sure to make sure he goes to bed without desert the next time he does something like this."

Hyuga sputtered "Why did you call me grandpa, I'm not that old!"

"You're older than me." Yuki replied smugly, "In fact Shun Izuki, Rinnosuke Mitobe, Shinji Koganei, and Satoshi Tsuchida are all older than me. As she said their names she pointed to the respective individual with amusement in her eyes. "And for first years you have Koki Furihata, Koichi Kawahara, Hiroshi Fukuda, Taiga Kagami, and Tetsuya Kuroko." She said each of the players name with a secretive smile until she got to Kuroko. Her facial expression turned to stone as she acknowledged Tetsuya Kuroko's existence. All of the players looked back and forth between the silver haired girl and the blue haired boy hoping to understand why she was so cold toward the teen who had no presence. In fact some of them had forgotten that he was there and were surprised that the girl could pick him out.

With one final glare toward Kuroko, Yuki pushed her brother through the basketball players without a farewell. Yuki could feel the stares on her back as she and Kyo walked away. Before they could do anything, Yuki called out.

"Hyuga-senpai, catch!" Yuki then proceeded to toss the ball over her shoulder without looking to Hyuga who watched the ball float through the air before it landed directly into his hands.

"Wait, what's your name?" Hyuga called out. He had a feeling the entire team would be seeing this girl again.

"Call me Yu-chan. Class 1-A." Yuki called much further away. The entire team watched as she and her brother disappeared as they turned a corner.

"Damn." Koganei said. At this the Seirin team turned away from the girl and continued their trek home. However, Kuroko looked after Yuki a couple beats longer before running to catch up with his team.