Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket for it belongs to Fujimaka Tadatoshi.

Enjoy the story. R&R, plz!

Chapter 2: Glory and sunshine

The basketball flew into the air before it passed through the hoop and landed onto the gym floor. Despite his eyes following the ball's every movement, Kagami's mind wasn't in the game as his head was thinking about the result of Idol Fantasia prelim's result that was scheduled to announce tonight. Two weeks ago, the redhead had gone to participate in the prelim round and needless to say, after giving his performance, he was both physically and mentally exhausted. After all, it was Kagami's first time ever to stand in front of so many audiences and nasty-looking judges that were more willing to bring down the contestants with their brutal bashing and harsh criticism.

Idol Fantasia was known for its bizarre competition settings and extremely difficult judges in all singing competition in Japan. Instead of giving an audition round to give the competitors more chances, it jumped straight to the prelim round, which immediately required the competitors to perform on stage, and demanded a great deal of professionalism and talents since the beginning in order to advance to the next round. However, one thing setting Idol Fantasia from other contests was that besides giving singing performance, the competitors would also be judged on modeling and acting skills, which, despite its relative importance, served as great additional accomplishments if one managed to score high.

Another exclusively bizarre thing about this competition was that the result of prelim round would be announced in form of TV program broadcast 2 weeks after, showing performance of only qualified contestants and contestants that made to Consolation Board, before they informed directly to contestants through email.

Kagami knew he had to wait til tonight to know the result, but he couldn't shake the nervous feeling off his head, and of course, this lack of concentration severely affected his play and cooperation with Kuroko. And the demon, ahem, coach wasn't pleased with that, so she decided to cast her demonic spell called extra-practice on Kagami, forcing him to stay in the gum for an extra time.

Kuroko, being a troll as ever, didn't help much. The teal-haired troll decided that was a good time to summon his furry monster called Nigou- Kagami mentally dubbed it Troll-2- for a special bonding time with the redhead. Kagami swore, he could see the big troll face plastered obviously on his shadow's face as the troll shoved the furry lickie-lickie abomination to his face, which no doubt caused the redhead to shriek and annoy the demonic coach to add more to his training menu. Kagami was totally sore after practice ended. And that shadow troll dared say it was all Kagami's fault.

Therefore, after exhausting all his energy on extra-time practice, Kagami, at the moment, was sprawling on his sofa, trying his best to keep his eyes open, waiting for the TV program to come. For fear of falling asleep while the show was on, the redhead tiredly prepared a cup of hot chocolate that quickly proved to be a big mistake for it did nothing to fight his sleepiness. Soon, the redhead was lured to the slumber land by the wind from the electric fan and forgot to watch the show like he planned.

The next morning, Kagami woke up with a terrible shoulder pain for having lain in an uncomfortable position on the sofa and groaned tiredly as he saw the TV had been on for all night. However, once he realized that he had also missed the competition result, the redhead's expression was quickly twisted into a frustrated frown, an annoyed growl escaping from his throat, and he, in an attempt to vent his frustration, grabbed the sofa cushion and threw it harshly to the ground before storming off to the bathroom to perform his daily morning routine.

Resigned to checking the result later in his email, Kagami left his apartment with his animal instinct screaming him to go back and have day off. Thinking his instinct must have been gone wrong, he ignored it.

After all, what kind of misfortune could possibly befall on him when he was at school, a very safe place in Kagami's opinion?

-o0o-

Although he was not an observant type, Kagami could easily notice that as soon as he entered the school, some students were staring at him- the redhead wondered if he forgot to zip his pants but quickly discarded the thought when he looked down to check; some girls were secretly glancing at his direction, whispering something and then turning red; some guys were checking him with thorough eyes as if he were a new transfer student. Unnerved as he was under the others' intense gaze, the redhead ignored it and proceeded to the gym. Yesterday, before dismissing the practice, his coach had specifically asked the team to gather at the gym before class started for some important announcement. The redhead had no choice but to comply for fear of his training being tripled if he disobeyed.

Kagami didn't expect the staring to continue when he entered the gym. The moment he put his foot onto the facility, the redhead was immediately assaulted with pop-quiz questions and ear-deafening yelling.

"Kagami, you swine, how dare you hide such an important thing from us?"

"And not only did you pass but you also managed to make the judge drop their jaw. How the heck did you get so super at singing?"

"What is the secret behind your success?"

"We could have gone to support you, you know!"

"Tell me, did you drink lemonade before going on stage? If not, how did you get your voice so clear?"

"Can you tell us what kinda lover you expect?"

"What is the color of your underwear?"

"Are you straight or gay?"

And Kagami's very thin patience snapped.

"SHUT UP!"

And Kagami's teammates immediately shut their mouths although they were still looking at Kagami with bated breath, poorly concealed anticipation and ….were their eyes sparkling?

What had happened? And what was more, what had Kagami done to warrant such overwhelming welcome when he just barely stepped into the gym?

And the troll, eh, Kuroko came to his rescue. As if he wouldn't able to enjoy his meal without giving Kagami a scare at least once a day, the troll proceeded to perform his annual ritual of sneaking behind Kagami's back and tapping him in order to get his attention. And like usual, Kagami suffered a temporary heart attack before realizing it was just his trolling shadow Kuroko.

"Kagami-kun", something about Kuroko's tone set Kagami on edge, "Could you please explain to me about this?"

On the bluenette's hand was his I-phone, whose screen was showing the video of Kagami's performance at Idol Fantasia contest. The redhead's eyes widened in surprise and he hurriedly snatched the object from his friend.

"Kuroko, where on Earth did you get this from?", Kagami asked urgently, his head failing to comprehend why his performance was on Kuroko's phone.

"The Internet, Kagami-kun", Kuroko deadpanned as if it were the most obvious thing, "After the Idol Fantasia program was broadcast last night, your performance was posted on U-2-be and quickly spread on the Internet."

Kagami couldn't believe his eyes anymore as he slowly absorbed the fact that it was indeed him that was in the video. If this was the case, then it could mean one thing: he either passed the prelim or made it to the Consolation Board.

However, before Kagami could ask whether he had advanced to the next round or not, Kuroko's next words had already answered his question.

"Congratulation Kagami-kun on being placed as the contestant with the second highest score in the prelim. That was a great performance!"

Kuroko's congratulation almost moved Kagami to tears…almost if it hadn't been for Kuroko's next words that left Kagami speechless.

"From now on, Kagami-kun, I will be your number one fan! I'm rooting for you!", completed with a subtle wink. Was it Kagami or Kuroko's usual ghost eyes was having a glint of awe…or love?

Whatever!

Nothing in the world now mattered to him now that he had passed the prelim. It was coming, the day when Kagami could impress that person was coming.

From now on, his life would be filled with glory and sunshine and puppies…uh wait….what the heck was the wet thing that was licking his nose now?

-o0o-

After school, somewhere in the dark

"Look at his hands when he was singing, nanodayo!"

"Look at his hip. It's swaying-ssu!"

"Look at those lips. Oh god, that tongue!"

"Just look at those nipples!"

And everyone turned their eyes to the person that just spoke that.

"What! Don't give me that look. He was wearing a skin-tight T-shirt, so it is easy to spot those nipples!"

"Oh yeah, he's right!" was everyone's reply in unison and then, the hungry stares were directed at those delectable nipples on the screen.

"Aww, he sings like an angel! I must have gone to heaven-ssu!"

"Damn, I want that voice on my bed!"

And everyone mentally agreed with that statement.

"I have decided, from this day onwards, a club shall be formed, dedicated to our beloved Taiga. We, as his number one fans, we have duty to support him through Idol Fantasia and protect his innocence from the incoming rabid fans!"

"YEAHHHH!"

"Because only us have the right to take his innocence!"

"HELL YEAHHHH!"

Meanwhile, Kagami was having a shiver down his spine!

Something bad was coming, his instinct was screaming in his ears.

As usual, the angel dismissed it as the winter wind chilling his back.

What a naïve and innocent boy! Let's all pray he would manage to preserve that innocence til next week…or next day..or maybe next hour.

TBC