HELLO DEAR READERS! I'm proud to say it's been a little over two years since I joined and I'd like to thank all of my readers for reading any of my stories. I'd also like to thank ahkashi for being my new beta. ^.^
Disclaimer~Still don't know a lot about basketball so how the hell would I be able to wright an awesome story about it?
Warning~Rated T for swearing (both in story and my own), abuse/kind of gore?, and the possibility of either suggested themes and or adult content in the future.
Now please enjoy the story!
Chapter 4-Promises, Basketball, and Haircuts
~ Shade ~
It had been about a week since I had told the Akashi's about my past and started finding out what an actual family was like. Seijuro had started teaching me how to play basketball, and I must say he was pretty damn good. The two of us were currently walking to the nearby basketball court where we had been practicing together. I had the ball at the moment and was trying, but failing, to dribble while walking.
"Still no luck?" he asked while laughing at my attempts.
"I'm not some basketball genius like you, Baka." I said with a small frown.
"I know." he said with a giant smile as he threw his arm over my shoulder. "It just comes naturally to me." he said trying not to laugh.
"And now you're being arrogant." I said laughing as well.
"Weeell, I've never lost at anything before." he said chuckling.
"Just wait, I'll beat you at something someday." I said glowering.
"Sure you will, maybe basketball if you can actually figure out how to play." he said
"You're on!" I said turning and bouncing the ball over to him. He easily caught it.
"Run the rest of the way?" He asked, I gave a nod. "On a count of three, one, two, THREE!" we took off, running the rest of the way to the court. And being the show off he is, Seijuro started dribbling the ball while he was running. He reached the court a second before I did.
"Come on, Shade. I was dribbling the ball and I still beat you." he said teasingly
"It's because you are so freakishly tall!" I said frustrated. "You have longer legs and you've been doing more stuff than I have over the years." I said, glaring a little at him.
He just stared at me, shocked.
"What?" I asked.
"That's the first time you've brought up your past without flinching or freaking out." he said quietly. My eyes widened, he was right.
"You're right!" I said suddenly smiling. He threw his arm over my shoulder.
"I'm glad, I thought it was going to take longer for you to heal this much." he said happily.
"Yeah, I may not be fully healed, but if I made it this far, who's to say that I can't fully heal." I said looking up at him.
He took his arm off my shoulder and grabbed my arm, dragging me over to the shady part of the court. He laid down on the ground and then pulled me down onto his chest.
"Sei?" I asked quietly, trying to ignore the fact that I was on his chest and how I could feel the muscles under his shirt.
"Shade, it's possible that you will completely heal and that you won't, either way, I'll be here for you. Whenever you need to hide, whether it be from yourself, your past, or anything else, find me and I'll keep you safe in my arms." He said quietly. My eyes widened. After a minute, I spoke.
"Promise?" I asked, just loud enough for him to hear. I look at his face to see him looking at me with a smile.
"Promise, after all, I don't think I could live without you..." he said looking away and slightly blushing. I smiled.
"Aw, Sei-chan! Is that a confession?" I asked teasingly.
"Tck, of course not, Baka! And don't call me that!" he said frustrated. "And besides...if I was going to confess, I'd wait until we were in middle school. Elementary relationships never last." he said quietly. We stayed silent after that for a while before I stood up. I walked over towards the orange ball and picked it up. I walked to the free-throw line and looked closely at my surroundings. I closed my eyes and calculated what I needed to do. I opened my eyes and took my stance. I lightly jumped up and carefully threw the ball. I watched as the ball flew through the air and swished through the net.
"What did you just do?" Seijuro asked and I gave a small smile.
"I guess my ability to observe can be used to things like this as well..." I said quietly. I saw him suddenly smirk.
"Let's have a one-on-one match then. If you get some practice with this you'll be able to analyze plays quickly, and then you can be a great manager when we enter junior high." He said "You will be a huge help!" he said excited.
"I don't know Sei...what will people think?"
"I think they'll just see you're a little bit different but really smart. I'm sure you'll be accepted. You were a loner in elementary school which made you an easy target for bullies. That's what I think. So what if you're different? So am I. So we will stick together when we start school this spring, okay?" I gave a nod. He walked over to the ball and passed it to me. "So let's play!"
O ~ O ~ O
The two of us played multiple games over the course in the next few hours. I lost all of them. The speed in which I could observe Seijuro's movements increased drastically, but my overall ability was still lacking a bit. My shots were fine but my speed was slow. When we decided to head home, we were both sweating and had huge grins plastered on our faces.
"You've definitely gotten better. And I'm sure your speed will improve soon." he said as he passed the ball over to me. "Try dribbling the ball while we walk." I gave a nod. I fumbled a few times as we started off towards the house but after a while my dribbling was solid.
"And we have a miracle!" he said raising his arms as we turned onto his street.
I laughed, "You created it. You're a great teacher, Sei." he put his arms down and wrapped one around my shoulder.
"Ah, but do not count yourself out. I have a good student as well." he said laughing.
"True, true." I said as we walked through the doors. Sasha walked up to the two of us with a smile.
"Well it looks like you two had fun." she said with a laugh "Shade, why don't you go grab a quick shower. I want to go take you for a haircut." I gave a nod.
"See you in a bit, Sei!" I said, running up the stairs. I walked into my recently furnished room and grabbed some clothes, then headed into the shower. The hot water relaxed my stiff muscles as I did a few little stretches. When I got out I combed my long hair and changed into a plain long sleeve black shirt and a short dark blue, purple, and black checkered skirt. I skipped down the stairs to the front doors and slipped on my shoes.
"You're ready, Shade?" Sasha asked as she came up to the doors. I gave a nod and we headed out to the car. The drive was somewhat quick, it only took a few minutes. Over that time, Sasha asked me how practice had gone. I told her how I had used my ability to increase my playing potential and that now all I needed to do was increase my speed and then I'd be on par with Seijuro.
"That's amazing, Shade. I look forward to watching you two work together in middle school! I bet it will be so adorable!" she said.
"Mom!" I groaned. Over the past week, I had gotten used to calling Sasha and Connie Mom and Dad.
"What?" she said shrugging "It would! My two little adorable children working together to kick ass? What proud mother wouldn't want to see that!" she said, making me laugh.
"That's not what it sounded like to me." I said, then a thought came to me. "You know, you don't always really act like a prim and proper lady, but Dad's always extremely proper, why is that?" I asked.
Sasha gave a sigh, "Connie was born into one of the higher class families while I was a bit lower. When we got married I decided to try and learn some 'proper manners' for when we worked but I never let go of my roots. Connie tries to drill all of it into Seijuro but I convinced him to let him be for the most part. Seijuro still has to take extra lessons and such but I was able to convince Connie to lay off a bit. I just hope that he won't try to do that again..." she said.
"Me neither." I said.
"Hm?"
"I like Sei how he is right now, and I have a feeling that would change him." I explained quietly.
She chuckled "I agree." The rest of the ride was comfortably silent. When we arrived at the salon, Sasha practically dragged me into the building. She told the person at the desk who we were and then led me to a one of the chairs. A stylist soon came up.
"It's good to see you again, Sasha!" she said. "Now you told me that a girl's hair was in some desperate need of attention so let's get to work!" she said turning towards me. She walked around the chair, looking at my hair. "So, sweetie, what do you want to do with it?" she asked.
"Um...I'm not sure..." I said quietly. She gave a nod then pulled Sasha to the side and they talked quietly. After a minute she came back.
"What's your favorite color?" she asked. I gave a shrug, then I turned to Sasha.
"What's yours?" I asked
She gave a small smile. "Beside what some people think, it's actually blue." I gave a nod.
"So blue?" the stylist asked. I gave a nod. She smiled.
"Then let's get started!" she said. She put a towel over my shoulders and leaned my chair back. Then she thoroughly washed my hair. She combed through it and parted it to the side. She pulled all of it back and then cut a large amount of it off. I didn't see how much because she had told me to keep my eyes shut until she was done. I felt her cutting even more off and then felt through it. Then I felt she started to do something to the tips of my hair but I kept quiet. After a while she blow dried my hair and then brushed it, then double checked her work.
"You can open your eyes now." she said. I slowly opened my eyes as she turned me to face the mirror. When I saw my reflection I gasped. I touched my hair to make sure it was actually me. My hair was kind of spiked came about halfway down my neck. At least an inch of the tips of my hair were a bright electric blue. My dark purple eyes widened.
"Well, do you like it?" the stylist asked. I gave a silent nod, then stood up and gave her a hug.
"Thank you." I said quietly.
"Well aren't you sweet. And it was my pleasure." she said. After Sasha paid for the cut we headed out to the car. As we started heading home I broke the silence.
"Thank you for doing that." I said quietly.
"It was no problem dear, just promise me two things."
"Shoot."
"Look after Seijuro in middle school, he might need it, and...keep the blue? In your hair I mean. So you'll always have a little piece of me wherever you end up going."
I smiled and gave a nod. "Of course." She took one hand off the wheel and held up her pinky.
"Pinky promise?" she asked I interlocked our fingers.
"Pinky promise."
"Now let's turn on some music!" she said turning on the radio. We sang along with the songs together.
I looked out the window as we drove through and intersection close to home when suddenly a large jolt sent the car rolling to the side. My head slammed against the window and everything went dark. Only one thought went through my head as I lost consciousness.
What the hell just happened?
I'm sure you guys hate me now for the cliffhanger. And if you know a bit of Akashi's past then I'm sure you're hating me for what you think is going to happen. And I'd just like to say~THERE WILL BE LONG HAPPY MOMENTS IN THE FUTURE!
Also, this is one of those times when I need to ask the readers a question about the story. It came to my attention that a lot of KnB fans aren't huge fans of OC's but I've had a few people say that they like it so I hope I'm doing an alright job. OC's aside from Shade that are importantish are probably needed as support characters or something if I bring them into the story so I hope you guys are alright with that. And finally, WESTERN NAMES! I am well aware that people in Japan don't normally have names like 'Shade', 'Sasha', or 'Connie'. If some one has a western name it's either for a reference like with Connie and Sasha or it serves as some import thing in the future, so I hope you guys are alright with it.
Now that that's done with, time to thank the new followers and likers as well as answer reviews.
Favorites~
mrsfirefist 06-26-2014
NarniaUnknown 06-25-2014
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Suzukawa Akira 06-20-2014
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MagiaMyst 06-17-2014
Follows~
Miss Lib93 07-01-2014
mrsfirefist 06-26-2014
kat-duchannes 06-25-2014
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MagiaMyst 06-17-2014
followtheblackstar 06-17-2014
Reviews
Miss Lib93 chapter 3 . Jul 1
Great story. Are you going to continue it with the father finding her? Or was this the last chapter? I haven't seen Akashi yet on the show but this makes him sound really sweet. Hopefully my computer works enough so I can actually get through the second season. Please continue if you were thinking of doing so. Thanks
Me~Again, thank you for the review. And I hope I'll bring you to ask more questions that I can tease you with ;p
thatgirlingrey chapter 3 . Jun 24
Hi. *silence... squealing, crying and sobbing at the same time* that was.. only three chapters and I want to read on... TnT i love iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Me~I'm glad you like it so much! And I'm sorry this took so long, hopefully other chapters will come quicker.
Shinome Akira chapter 3 . Jun 17
I'm really starting to like this fanfiction. You have no idea how emotional it gets when you read it and listen to emotional music at the same time. More please!
Me~Thanks. And as much as I'm tempted to try, I'd rather not start randomly sobbing in front of my family.
MagiaMyst chapter 3 . Jun 17
I'm fangirling over this right now! I can't wait for the next!
Me~Here you go!
And for the record, I will be starting Highschool soon so chapters will probably go a lot slower since I'll also be doing volleyball. But I will try to update as much as I can!