A/N: You all can hate me and throw pitchforks at me and things because I'm an awful person. I'd do it too, tbh. I won't bore you with the details, but school has been kicking my ass, so yeah. This chapter took forever to write, plus I've been neglecting the story a little (aka reading manga and watching anime), but now I'm back full force! So expect (sort of) quicker updates. Anyway, THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who's faved and followed and reviewed. You're all the best! Hopefully this chapter was up to your expectations and it's not too disappointing. But thank you again for being such lovely people!

2/23 edit: Thank you so much to ResyaAfhirsa00018 for telling me about the mistake I made in the chapter! I've fixed it and hopefully all is good now.

Shitty eyes, shitty personality.

ii. Imayoshi's glasses

Lately, Imayoshi had been having eye problems. They were irritated and red all the time, and no matter how much allergy medicine he took or how many eye drops he used, he felt like scratching his eyes out all the time. It was most likely just the weather and it would probably stop in a week or two, but that didn't mean it didn't bother him any less.

How was he supposed to play properly when his eyes kept watering every few seconds?

It was during practice when his eyes started to cause him trouble once again. He turned around and headed towards the bench where Momoi and the coach sat in order to get some eye drops to relieve him of the stupid irritation. He didn't want to risk taking his glasses off in front of his team and have someone make another oh-so-funny comment about whether he was high or not because of his red eyes.

With a long sigh, Imayoshi sat down and took his glasses off, rubbing his temples as he did so. "Can you grab my eye drops for me, Momoi?" he asked, looking at the manager with a strained eye smile, the one that was always on his face whether he was smiling or not.

Momoi nodded and quickly dug the bottle out of his bag. Handing it off to him, she asked him if it was allergies that was causing his eyes to bother him.

Imayoshi just nodded and set his glasses down beside him. Unscrewing the cap off the bottle, he tilted his head back and squeezed the almost empty bottle. Somehow he managed to pinch out four drops, two for each eye. He blinked and felt his eyes burn slightly before he leaned forward. His eyes widened a bit at what he saw.

Wakamatsu was storming over to the bench, and before Imayoshi could even react, he sat his big fat ass down right next to the Touou Captain. Wakamatsu hadn't seemed to notice that Imayoshi was glaring at him, or rather, at the spot where he had just sat down. Instead, he just angrily pointed towards the court and shouted, "Can't you do something about Aomine?! He keeps stealing the ball from me!" Wakamatsu's nostrils flared up and his eyes were lit up with annoyance. "I'm on his team, for god's sake!"

Imayoshi ignored everything the other said. "Get up," he ordered. He said this slowly, slowly but dangerously. His eyes still hadn't moved from the spot Wakamatsu had planted his butt down on.

"What?" Wakamatsu asked. But he knew that look. He was the recipient of it many times before, after all. It was the same look he gave the third stringers every time they messed something up. So, he listened to his captain and stood up, only to realize what he had done about a second too late. "Oh, shit..."

The broken remnants of Imayoshi's glasses lay on the bench. Wakamatsu looked down at what he had done in horror, and then looked back at his captain with the same horrified expression. Imayoshi was giving him such a startlingly calm look that Wakamatsu almost wasn't sure whether Imayoshi was angry or not.

Almost, that is. Because it was Imayoshi, after all, and he was always angry.

That serene and composed glance was a trademark of one Imayoshi Shoichi. It was the look he gave people who disobeyed him or did something he was displeased with. It was the look he often gave Wakamatsu, actually. When normal people would start shouting, Imayoshi would just look, and that in itself was enough to make the receiver of it scared for their life.

And then he'd open his mouth and by that time, most people would have all the color drained from their face as they trembled in their boots. Imayoshi wasn't a screamer or a yeller, no, he was worse than that. He would tell you how badly you fucked up in such an overly polite and quiet way that you'd be pissing yourself before he could even finish his sentence.

Wakamatsu briefly wondered if he had enough time to call his mom and tell her he loved her before Imayoshi got to him.

"Senpai, you should be careful of where you sit," Momoi scolded, not noticing the dark aura that surrounded Imayoshi and that was quickly enveloping Wakamatsu too. "Do you want me to clean this up for you?" she asked, and it was when she looked up after that that she noticed what she had foolishly put herself in between. Hurriedly, she gave Wakamatsu an apologetic look and quickly excused herself. She then walked away from the two, probably to tell the others to hurry up and bid their senpai goodbye forever.

Wakamatsu stayed uncharacteristically silent. He knew that any noise he made would only add onto his punishment. He quickly glanced around, trying to spot someone nice enough to help him out of the pinch he had gotten himself stuck in. But everyone he made eye contact with pretended they hadn't seen him and looked away. Except for Aomine, who only laughed and pointed at him.

He looked back at his captain, who was still staring at him with those squinty eyes of his. With those cold, calculating eyes that never seemed to see the light of day. Even so, Imayoshi's glare was the worst.

"First," Imayoshi said slowly, breaking the silence, "clean this up. You'll be paying for the replacement." Wakamatsu nodded. He had fully expected that and it wasn't a big deal at all. What came after that was what he was worried about.

Imayoshi gave him that familiar mocking smile of his and Wakamatsu's blood ran cold. "It's been a few weeks since we've cleaned our practice jerseys. Please make sure they're all clean by Monday," he ordered.

Wakamatsu couldn't help but think that that was a rather lame and tame punishment. While the practice jerseys were disgusting, cleaning them wasn't going to be much of a problem. Surely that wasn't all?

Imayoshi smiled once again. "You underestimated me, of course that's not all," he said, and Wakamatsu froze. Had his captain really just read his mind? "For the next two weeks, you will be doing everything Aomine says without complaint. Every time you come to me with another issue about Aomine, I'll be adding a week onto the punishment." Imayoshi grinned, baring his teeth and Wakamatsu felt like he was going to faint.

Imayoshi was a sadistic bastard, but Wakamatsu never knew he could go that far. That was, by far, the worst punishment Wakamatsu had ever received. He'd rather die than follow Aomine around like a little puppy and heeding to his every command.

"Well, would you really rather die, though?" Imayoshi asked, seemingly reading his mind once again. Wakamatsu quickly shook his head no and Imayoshi smirked. "Good." And he walked away, leaving Touou's center to stand there shaking in his basketball shoes.

That next day, Imayoshi came to school with a big bruise on his forehead and an even bigger scowl on his face.

For the first time in a long time, Imayoshi couldn't see a single thing. He had no extra pair of glasses and the contacts he had in case of emergencies would only make his allergy symptoms worse.

He was as blind as a bat and he hated it.

That morning as he was leaving his dorm room, he had ran into the door frame because he couldn't see clearly. That was how he had gotten that huge bump on his forehead in the first place. Susa, who had walked out of his neighboring room the same time Imayoshi did, had seen him and laughed his ass off, asking if Imayoshi was sure he wanted to go to attend class that day. Imayoshi was starting to think that maybe he should've listened to Susa after all.

"What happened to you?" Aomine asked during practice that afternoon. Aomine's and Imayoshi's classes were on opposite ends of the school, and they don't see each other much, if at all, during the school day. So Aomine was the last one to see the captain in all of his blind glory. "Your face looks scarier than usual."

Imayoshi just ignored him like always. But Aomine was right. Without his glasses, he couldn't see, so he was straining his eyes just to see something five feet in front of him. This made his eyes seem even smaller than they usually more. Which translated into Imayoshi looking scarier than he normally did.

Wakamatsu chose that time to walk by and Imayoshi had only barely even glanced at him before he ran away, nearly pissing himself as he did so.

That was the day that Touou decided that an Imayoshi in glasses was a much easier sight on their eyes than an Imayoshi without, something they had never thought could've been possible.

Wakamatsu was harassed to please hurry and replace the captain's glasses.

Imayoshi couldn't understand why everyone kept avoiding him. All he needed was for someone to point him in the direction of the locker room and maybe help him open up his locker and he'd be set, really. But he couldn't even ask for that because as soon as he tried to, his teammates would run away.

With an annoyed sigh, he just attempted to make his way to the room himself. However, he didn't get very far because he ended up tripping over a basketball and landing flat on his face.

His teammates tried to hold in their laughter, but seeing their usually composed captain so uncoordinated was hilarious and they all bust out laughing. He glared at them and they quickly shut up, but the damage was already done. Imayoshi's eyesight may be shitty, but his personality was even shittier and so he said, "Everyone go run until I finish changing!"

He took especially long to change that day. He told himself that it was because he wanted his team to suffer a little longer, but he and everyone else knew that it was because he could barely even reach his locker, nonetheless open it.

Wakamatsu gave Imayoshi his replacement glasses a week later. All of Touou had to breathe a sigh of relief when they saw him wearing his glasses once again. But they could only celebrate for a second, because the first thing Imayoshi did after he regained his eyesight was order a doubling of their training menu.

"My eyesight was bad, so I have no idea if you all actually trained properly or not," he explained, and then he grinned and everyone shuddered.

Better eyesight, still shitty personality.