Hidden Beauty

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Basket Thirty-Two: Official

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It was now the beginning of fifth period, Biology. Students had come back from their much-needed lunch break, and were all seated back inside their respective classrooms.

Kuroi let a quiet sigh out as she plopped into her desk. 'Seriously, man. Being a crossdressing high schooler is tough.' She thought to herself, idly brushing short strands of her hair back. Maybe she should cut it again; it was slowly beginning to grow back.

Fretting about her decisions, she didn't hear the teacher call her name.

"Yasuhiro-kun." Kuroi paused, feeling a soft tap on her shoulder. She turned and realized that it was Mikurei, who was giving her a blank stare. "The teacher." She tilted her head to the front. Kuroi flushed from the sudden attention as everyone in the class was giggling at her and turned to the teacher, who was glaring at her.

"Sorry." She muttered, lowering her voice.

"As I was saying; Yasuhiro-kun, you'll be paired with Vinocair-san for this assignment."

"Ah, alright." Kuroi nodded quickly. She turned her gaze to Mikurei, who didn't even seem to be paying attention to her. 'Is she doing that on purpose?' She asked herself, eyeing the girls blue hair with interest. Just earlier that day, the new student had been basically ignoring everyone. It was either that, or she only nodded. 'Maybe she's socially awkward.' The word Kuudere popped up in her mind, before she shook the thought away.

"So, should we get started?" Kuroi asked, turning in her seat so she was actually facing Mikurei. The amber eyed girl nodded, really just a tilt of her head and also faced Kuroi. "... I missed what the project was supposed to be about." Kuroi muttered slowly.

"..." Mikurei opened her mouth, just about to explain it, until the teacher came up and handed them both two separate sheets of paper.

"This is the basic information you'll need; also, you need to collect all this information and show it in a project to the class."

"Great..." Kuroi offered a tight-lipped smile, before looking over her sheet. "Species at Risk... Part A, select one of the species from the list provided below." She read it quietly, more to herself than Mikurei. Her eyes scanned the list. "Huh, Barn Owl, Horned Lark, Basking Shard, Orca... Dense Spike Primrose? I thought these were animals... Oh! Sea Otters!" Kuroi's eyes widened, sparkling. She had always thought that sea otters were really cute. She would admit that she wanted one as a pet when she was younger, but, that obviously didn't happen.

"What do you want to do?"

"Sea otters." Mikurei agreed, making Kuroi beam at her. "Okay!" Kuroi froze; she coughed and cleared her throat, hoping that her partner wouldn't detect the feminine tone in it.

"Ah, a- anyways. Sea otters don't really excite me that much." She muttered, acting like it wasn't such a big deal suddenly. As she turned away, she missed the small amused smile that Mikurei showed.

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The bell rang, and Kuroi sighed. "Okay, well, what should we do? We have a week to turn our project in..."

Mikurei looked at her papers in thought. "I guess we could go to the library or something."

"Oh, sure!" Kuroi smiled. "Er, the school library?" Mikurei nodded. "Okay." Kuroi nodded back, before standing with a stretch.

"Oh, I have practice right after school..." Mikurei just gave her a blank stare. "Basketball practice." Kuroi elaborated. She received a nod of understanding.

"Do you have any club activities yet?"

Mikurei shook her head. "I see, do you want help finding one?" Again, she got a negative from the new student.

"A- Alright... Well, what do you want to do? I mean, practice lasts for two hours. I could tell Kasamatsu-sempai that I need to leave ear-"

"It's fine. I'll wait in the library for you."

"Are you su-"

"Yes." Without another word, Mikurei turned away from Kuroi, getting her things ready for their last class of the day.

Kuroi's stare lingered on Mikurei, before slowly turning back in her seat. She, too, got her things ready for a long boring lecture of the English language.

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Finally after forty minutes, school was now over. Kuroi happily stood, putting her things away or collecting them as she would need them for the project. She turned to Mikurei, who she found was already walking out of the classroom. Shoulders slumped, Kuroi walked from out of the classroom and all the way to the gym.

She changed and walked out from the girls changing room once she checked that no one was watching her. Kuroi slunk into the crowd, and couldn't help but lose herself in her thoughts every now and then as Kasamatsu began explaining things.

Her thoughts had drifted from Mikurei to Kasamatsu in a matter of seconds, and soon she found herself intently staring at the older boy. 'What is our relationship... ?' She asked herself. Biting her lip, she figured that she would just ask. After all, they did confess to each other.

The memory made her blush. She would have kept thinking about it, going over different scenarios, but then she felt a poke on her side. Kuroi twitched, fighting back a choked giggle by coughing loudly.

'Speak of the devil...' "Kasamatsu..." She murmured, the name sounding almost foreign on her tongue. "I wanted to-"

"Could we-"

Both of them fell silent, flushing unnecessarily at the interruption. Kuroi shrugged her shoulders for a lack of anything better to do, and finally spoke up when it was clear Kasamatsu was waiting for her to talk.

"Uhm, I was wondering... what our, uh, 'relationship'... is?"

Kasamatsu's eyes widened, 'That's what I was going to ask her... It's not like we didn't really get a chance to 'talk' since the game...' "Wh- What do you want it to be?" He queried.

'Is he really going to ask me that? I'm sure we both know the answer...' "Well, I was thinking... That... Maybe, uh, you know-" 'Oh gawd, is a girl really doing the asking out here?' She went silent, closing her eyes for a moment in order to recollect her thoughts. "The maybe we should go on a date..." She finally said. Unable to look to see his reaction, she lowered her gaze to her feet, staring at the light dirt marks on her otherwise white sneakers.

Kasamatsu smiled, not caring at the moment if his cheeks burned a bright red, especially in front of everyone on the team. "Yeah... I'd like that."

"Like what?" Moriyama suddenly popped up, looking at the two suspiciously. Kuroi blinked in surprise, and decided to look anywhere but her sempai's eyes. "Ohhh, I see what's going on here. Kasamatsu! You better take care of our precious kohai!"

"S- Shut up!" Kasamatsu glowered at his friend, lightly smacking him on the arm. Moriyama just smiled.

"Well, it's about time, anyway."

"What do you mean by that?" Kuroi huffed, crossing her arms. Moriyama stared, before shrugging.

"Everyone already knew." He laughed, patting both the shorter teens' heads. He turned, just able to dodge Kasamatsu's kick, and walked away, approaching a seemingly confused Kobori. "I bet he's going to make it worse by announcing it to the whole school."

"... Rumors do spread fast." Kasamatsu mused quietly.

Kuroi arched her eyebrow, "Only, it's not a rumor." She corrected, an edge in her voice.

"True." The both shared a smile.

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Oh, gawd! I forgot to put this in the last chapter; you know that pop quiz thing I had? Yeah, one of the participants posted their short-story thingy. It's a Kagami/Kuroi one :3 It's called A Meeting of Fate

You guys should check it out! :3 It's really cute c;

To OMGIt'sKawaii3: Long time no see/talk/read! Of course you may give ideas/suggestions! :3 *takes brownies* *Q* Thanks!

Oh, lastly, I made an "Ask Yasuhiro Kuroi" story. xD Kekeke. Go see it if you're curious about anything, then go ahead and.. ask... Kuroi. :P (Kasamatsu seems to be a popular subject. Lol.)

~Love me or Hate me~