#This is why rakuzan is the best team

[japeneselunchtimerush]

Never let this die please.

[heytetsu]

another analysis of knb with kagakuro and the fact that kagami gets into the zone when reflecting on Kuroko ( .. and i guess the other members— ) and seeing him cry and it’s like: “I’m sick of seeing my friends!” in I think the rematch of seirin versus aomine’s team? and then just him going back into the zone when Kuroko stands back up, saying: “if you haven’t gotten up l, I probably would’ve thrown in the towel.. ( other stuff .. whoops ) .. wrote this when j first woke up so sorry if things are not correct <3

alright analysis below the cut.

the match against rakuzan was taxing. once hyuga had four fouls, all hope seemed to be lost. with kuroko’s new and improved version on the court, they were having trouble with his passes AND. the fact he was better with his fundamentals.

he’s the new and shinier version— as midorima said.

kuroko would remember the words he told akashi prior to going to seirin: “this time, I won’t run away!”

and it’s so important. he’s not going to watch as his former team members grow more strong while also failing to really be .. a team. he watched it happened with aomine. the agony he felt with him.

and that was why it was so important that Kuroko was kagami’s shadow. yet he wasn’t just his shadow though. he needed to make sure that kagami continued teamwork because he believed that nothing was better than teamwork. anyways.

when Kuroko makes his stand, “No. i wanna win. damnit, let’s win! I don’t care if it’s impossible.. but guys, let’s be the best! come on coach, I’m begging you.”

then kagami later: “Kuroko.. I need you to know you’re one hell of a guy. if you hadn’t made that stand, I think I might’ve just thrown in the towel, but you’ve relit the fire in all of us. and I swear, I ain’t gonna let it go out! you hear me?! bring it!” and enters the zone.

also it’s crazy how kagami kinda mimicked his past GOM opponents .. anyways not the point.

kuroko relighting the fire that did everything and encouraged him to keep fighting told me one thing. Kuroko was kagami’s light, his motivation. his determination. his personal spark to fight for his friends. to keep them going.

he cares too deeply about that. how he says in the second match against aomine that there is no such thing as a meaningless effort .. and instead of rushing in; he takes a step back. making it seem like he backed away from a ace to ace showdown, but in reality, he’s not throwing the game away.

he shows that he has grown and no longer rushes in. it was a wonderful seen. sorry I’m going back and forth between rakuzan match and the touu match, but we will live </3.

anyways this was all to prove that Kuroko and kagami are endgame.

[shoyoackerman]

YOUR HEADCANONS FOR THE RAKUZAN TEAM YOU PUT IN THE TAGS OF THAT ONE POST YOU REBLOGGRD ARE SO INTERESTING, you simply NEEd to do more headcanons for all the Rakuzan members!

IM SO HAPPY YOU LIKED THEM 🤧 I have so many different hc for everyone in knb and especially for Rakuzan. Probably my second favourite team. For now here are some for Nebuya and Hayama. The next one will have the rest of the members!!

Nebuya Eikichi

- Like i said before, Nebuya absolutely adores animals, especially cows, specifically the highland cattle. He loves how strong and powerful they are, especially with their horns, yet also how cute looking the can be. It makes him appreciate people who can look deceptively weak yet are much stronger looking than expected.

- His love for animals, farm animals in particular, was due to him frequently visiting the farm his grandparents owned. He would constantly be coming into the country to spend time with them and help with work on the farm which ranged from feeding and grooming the animals. He would spend hours lying in the fields with the animals just dozing around him, baby calf’s would rest in his lap and let him pet them.

- He didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, ostracized because of the colour of his skin, despite the fact he was born in Japan. So when he was on the farm with his grandparents he always felt less lonely with all the animals.

- Nebuya loved animals so much he tried to go vegan, when that was too difficult he tried to be a vegetarian. He lasted longer than when he was a vegan before he gave it up because he loved meat just way too much 🤧but to make up it!

- He works/volunteers at vets. Sometimes even works part time at the groomers that is connected to the veterinary. He loves being around animals, a lot more than people, something that stayed with him since he was a child.

- The only people who have ever seen this side of him was his teammates. The only group of people he genuinely felt close to and even cared for, despite how much he and Reo like to argue with one another. He likes to put the other boy in a headlock, their interactions always remind Nebuya of when he’s with his older brothers.

- Which is one of the reasons why he loves to baby Akashi, when he’s retuned to himself, as he’s the youngest on the team and since Nebuya is the youngest of three brothers he’s always wanted to have someone to look over and be someone they could come to for help. Even though he’s bad at being logical, he will always support someone in what they want the most. (Even if he doesn’t completely understand what their talking about, he likes to act super knowledgeable, Reo calling him out on it all the time)

- His favourite time down activity is…cooking! He can’t bake for shit, somehow always burning any sort of cake, cupcake, brownie or pie. Like cannot bake for the life of him. But when it comes to cooking anything else, he’s the best. Having learnt from his dad who’s the main cook in the house since his mother is great at everything else but cooking. (The last time she cooked they all were in hospital for the week 💀)

- But cooking is something that started off when he was watching his dad in the kitchen, it became their thing to do together. And when Nebuya was old enough his dad allowed him to help with the cooking. It involved into them watching cooking shows together (his favorite show is Gordon Ramsay and he loves copying the insults and using it on people on the team. “Hayama you always surprise me” “woah really! That’s awesome, you know I always strive to being the exceptional and unpredictable” “you surprise me, how shit you are”) so he loves to cook when he’s feeling stressed or just bored.

- Hardcore kpop stan. Like, if he had to choose between never listening to kpop or playing basketball…sorry everyone he can’t betray his girls Red Velvet 😔 you know that one scene of Patrick Bateman listening to music? Yeah that’s Nebuya listening to kpop with the most intense expression ever. Girl groups are his shit. His mother was the one who got him into kpop, it’s something they bond over. Like his father with cooking, with his mother is everything and anything kpop.

Kotaro Hayama

- People think he has ADHD, no, no he’s just jacked all the way 100. There is no in between with him. He could just be chilling, scrolling on his phone and the next thing you know he’s trying to do parkour inside your house out of nowhere. (More times than Akashi can count has he had to replace a priceless vase that had been destroyed by his teammate who decided he wanted to try and jump from the bookcase. He was banned for two weeks before doing it again)

- Because of this misconception people have about him, they’ve tried to use ADHD as an insult. Which Hayama becomes immediately defensive about, because whilst he doesn’t have it. His younger brother Reki does (🤭) He’s gotten in trouble for starting fights, but because he’s teammates with Akashi he doesn’t ever get detention (something about the Akashi family being secret Yakuza members or whatever) But Hayama is a big protector to those he loves, so he tolerates no bad mouthing or people using disabilities as an insult.

- Gymnastic Hayama. When he was younger, his parents wanted something to have him run all his energy out on, and they tried EVERYTHING. Like they had him in soccer, baseball, swimming, track, tennis, every sport imaginable (not basketball, why? Because his father had an intense hatred for the sport for pure comedic reasons and didn’t want his son to be infected by basketball germs — Hayama father was in a long running competition with his brother, who was a basketball player and had this hatred for the sport. Which really didn’t last long when his son started playing and was good at it. He never lives this down when his brother brings up his son being on the basketball team. In return he says his son has more trophies from his middle school then he does in his entire adult life…they didn’t talk for a whole month)

- But for some reason Hayama took to gymnastics fantastically well…too well because before they knew it they were taking their son constantly to the hospital for broken, dislocated and fractured bones. Why? Because when he wasn’t at the gym he was at home in the backyard doing backflips from the roof, tables and any surface he could climb.

- Hayama was a constant face at the hospital, they made these little stickers specifically for him (it was a chibi cheetah with a cast on it’s leg) Would be walking down the halls and would be like superstar with the way he was greeting everyone and giving out high-fives with an arm in a cast. Everyone knew him. Even the patients.

- Bros flexibility is on another level, like disturbingly so that one time during a sleepover at Reo’s after watching a horror movie he went into a bridge and scared the shit out of everyone as he chased them around the house. Reo kicked him out on his balcony and was forced to sleep outside the rest of the night.

- He loves skateboarding, it’s his favorite thing to do. Because he will without a doubt be incorporating what he learnt in gymnastics into skateboarding. Everyone at the park just be watching this mf skating on his hands like it was nothing. Would be going down the ramps and doing fancy little tricks and jumps all on his hands. Everyone hates him. (Jk they love him and will go to him for help, especially the younger ones and he takes to it and loves giving advice and cheering them on when they succeed) (he has a secret skateboard partner who is a first year that attends Seirin High…who also used to be Akashis old teammate 🫣)

- Crossdresser Hayama? Yes? Yes? Yes! He has two older sisters, he was the the real life barbie doll. No jokes his haircut was given to him by his sisters and he’s just kept the same style since middle school. His sisters would dress him up in skirts, dresses, wigs, stockings and high heels. The whole nine yards. And he didn’t hate it? He had a lot of fun learning that he could wear whatever the fuck he wanted to whilst looking hot as fuck. One time when he was dolled up and went out with his sisters, he ran into Reo, who tried flirting with him completely unaware it was Hayama. When he found out (it was on a tuesday afternoon, 4:20 pm at Rakuzan High School in the basketball gym) Reo had an identity crisis PURELY because it was Hayama, and couldn’t look at Hayama without turning red.

- Wanna guess what his favourite genre of music is? Mozart, Frederic Chopin and Pyotor llyich. No kidding, completely deadass. Classical music is his jam. Fast paced, dramatic and overall epic as fuck? (Nobody gives him the aux cord) he of course loves rnb, rap and pop. But classical music has a grip on him. He will attend orchestras when they have shows, Akashi goes with him since he also shares the same taste in music which was a surprise to the younger boy, but it was something they bond over.

- I’m not kidding nobody will let him have the aux cord unless they pre approve what music he will play 😭

[recurring-polynya]

Sorry for kurobasposting in your inbox, but now that (I assume) you've met all the Generation of Miracles, I need to know if your favorite is still Murasakibara. Also, we talk so much about squad dynamics in Bleach, I can't help but think about team dynamics too, like Touou gave me such Squad 11 vibes, and it made me wonder which team you liked best (and if any of them reminded you of Squad 6👀). Also, in a Bleach Sports scenario, do you think kouhai Renji would be devastated when team captain/senpai Byakuya graduates and passes the mantle onto him? I'm imagining a Portions for Foxes kind of AU where Renji agonizes about leading a team, but Rukia lowkey fantasies about how hot he'd look doing it. Think about the pep talks he'd give!!!!!!!! OK I'm done.

No apologies necessary! I am very happy to talk about Kurobas!! I don't talk about it nearly as much as I have thoughts about it, because nearly all my thoughts are tied up around How Much Bleach It Is, because its insane basketball-themed powers system was so incredibly Bleach-structured, and even though the main cast was not very Bleachy at all, so many of their random opponents were just straight up Bleach characters.

Who is my favorite Miracle? I cannot answer this question. I hate them all. They are all my favorite. To me, the Generation of Miracles exists on some plane orthogonal to "liking" or "not liking." Each and every one of them is an Entity, and I am obsessed with them.

Kise is the most human of them. He works so hard and loves basketball so much. He was late to the GoM and to me, there's this degree of sadness that he deserved to have a better time. Also, he wants to be friends with everyone so badly and they are so mean to him. "I would be friends with you, Kise," I say to myself, and then I remember that he's a model and it's like, "You know what? Never mind."

Midorima is 100%, unapologetically himself all of the time, and I respect that, but also: he's terrible. My opinions on him oscillate wildly. I do think he deserves his skill level more than anyone else on the GoM. I want to push him down the stairs.

I am a really simple person: I like character who work hard. I can never love Aomine because he does not go to practice and does not show up for games on time. On the other hand, he is electric on the court, he's the funnest player to watch, by far. I also enjoy his Color Commentary the best. He has merged so completely with Grimmjow in my mind that when I was watching TYBW last week, I was like "why is Aomine here?" and then the next time I watched KNB and he yelled "If you don't beat Rakuzan, I'll kill you!" at Kuroko, I was like "thanks, Grimmjow." I think he has a really toxic relationship with basketball, and should probably quit and do something else instead.

Murasakibara is so precious to me because I love him in a way I have never loved another character. He doesn't work hard, either, but he also Doesn't Want To Be Here and is making it everyone else's problem. I cannot justify it in the least, but I get unreasonably excited whenever he shows up. I actually screamed out loud when he put his hair up in a ponytail.

Akashi might be the greatest anime villain of all time, and that counts Aizen. The scope of his villainy was small, but he brought his A+++ game to it. My favorite Akashi moment was when he was being defeated by the power of friendship and he cured his own multiple personality disorder during a time-out and came back with his own, even better version of the power of friendship. I mean, I hate him, obviously. He has ruined so many people's basketball experience for basically no reason whatsoever. Poster child for eating the rich.

It's hard to like any team better than Seirin because every player on Seirin is a banger, and their teamwork is second to none. I don't think there were any other teams that I liked the full bench as much as Seirin.

I think the match against Yousen was my favorite, maybe because I just love a good defense. I am obsessed with the way Kimuro was just like "Friendship with Kagami ended, uh, uh, Murasakibara is my new best friend!!" Why are they always hanging out???

Shuutoku is Squad Six, I am sorry to say. It just is. Legacy team with long history of consistent greatness. Midorima is Byakuya if Byakuya was raised as a human teen instead of the most important person in Soul Society, and also he got into astrology for some reason. Takao is not really anything like Renji, but his rapport with Midorima is extremely Byakuya-Renji coded. The Sky Direct Three Point shot was one of the high points of the entire series for me, and I think Renji would have cried actual tears if he watched that episode. (He would refuse to pull Byakuya around in a little cart, tho)

I also kinda like Kaijou, but maybe it's just because Kasamatsu was my favorite non-Seirin, non-GoM side character by a long shot. Maybe it's because he works so hard and feels so hard and takes being captain as such a responsibility. Maybe it's his knee socks.

I would not have called the Touou - Squad 11 connection, although I can see it. Imayoshi was Basketball Gin, to me, and Sakurai was Basketball Rikichi.

I adore the scenario you outlined where Renji goes through the entire five stages of grief because Senpai is Furthering his Education. A real Bleach-KNB fusion (Orihime no Basuke) would have to focus on the Karakura kids, but Renji and Byakuya's team would be their first rival team, the one that you get to cheer for later on as the series progresses. Rukia would have transferred from Renji and Byakuya's school to Karakura High and would coach Ichigo and Orihime's team, which would make such good emotional tension.

Bonus answer to the question you didn't ask: Kiyoshi - Hyuuga - Riko OT3.

[trans-ace-lee]

Reading Through Glass

Author's Note: Just a heads up for anyone who finds this fic based off the tags, but this is a tickle fic, so if it's not something you're interested in, then feel free to move on. I haven't written in a few months, but I'm happy to share this with people. Tagging @myreygn, @italeean, and @wertzunge because we need more knb content in this community. I hope you guys enjoy!

It doesn’t take a genius to know that something is off with Kise. He doesn’t hide his emotions or keeps silent about his feelings.

Defeat isn’t new to him anymore. The practice match against Seirin, the Inter-high quarterfinals against To-oh, the Winter Cup semi-finals against Seirin, and now the third-place game against Shutoku.

Losing to Shutoku shouldn’t have bothered him, but the emotions collecting in his chest feel like a pressure cooker on the verge of exploding. The thought causes a fresh set of tears to come to his eyes.

It’s just so frustrating.

In the past games, at least he could contribute to the team. This time he was powerless to help. And it was his fault. He let himself down, but more importantly, he let Kaijo down.

Kise wanted to win with Kasamatsu, Moriyama, Kobori, and Hayakawa. Was that so much to ask for?

Seirin had already beaten Rakuzan and was crowned the winner of the Winter Cup. Winning with the third years wasn’t feasible anymore. If only he could have had another chance. Maybe if he had let his injury heal instead of practicing through the pain against his coach and teammates’ advice, things would have been different.

He loves the game, and he loves playing with the team he has or rather, the team he had.

Kise had snuck away from the rest of Kaijo with the excuse of needing to talk to some fangirls he had promised to hang out with before they left to go home, earning him a couple of kicks to the face from Kasamatsu.

Almost everyone had left the stadium, but here he is, wallowing in his childish self-pity. He takes a deep breath and punches the wall in front of him, hard enough to feel the sting, but not enough to bruise the skin.

“Kise?”

He wonders how easy it is for Kuroko to slip away unnoticed.

“Kurokocchi,” Kise replies with the biggest smile he can muster, “What, uh, brings you here? Shouldn’t you be celebrating with the rest of Seirin?”

“Well…I saw you leave earlier,” Kuroko says, placing his bag on the ground and taking a step forward. His eyes flicker over to the open spot on the floor near Kise next as if asking him permission to sit down.

Kise only scoots over in response and continues staring at the line between the baseboard and the wall. He hears the faint squeak of Kuroko’s shoes on the floor as Kuroko sits down next to him.

“I know something’s bothering you,” Kuroko continues, “Talk to me?”

Kise doesn’t miss how Kuroko turns his statement into a question to give Kise the option of opening up. He sighs, saying, “And you said we weren’t best friends at Teiko.” He knows he can’t hide anything from Kuroko. The rest of the generation of miracles know it too. Kuroko can see through them like glass, reading how they feel and what’s on their minds. It was a blessing to them, but he supposes it’s now a curse. “You taught us so much, didn’t you?”

“I treated you like everyone else, but, yes, this was something I wanted you guys to understand.”

Kise figures that reading each other somewhat goes both ways since he already knew Kuroko’s answer to his comment, knowing Kuroko isn’t saying I told you so or trying to make fun of him. He finally feels his cheeks growing wet. “I guess that’s why you quit, huh? I get it now.” He’s full-on sobbing now, face turned towards the ground with his tears falling like raindrops on the ground. “Why does it hurt so much more now?”

“Because winning is more than a trophy or an expectation.”

Kuroko has always known what the rest of his team needs, and right now, Kise doesn’t need a shoulder to cry on or a warm hug. He only needs someone to sit with, who can help him figure out his emotions and knows the right things to say and do. And Kuroko is just the person he wants. He knows Kuroko will always be there for him. For his teammates.

For his friends.

“Can you breathe with me?” Kuroko asks.

Kise’s sure Kuroko can hear how loud his heart is beating. It’s pounding in his head, and he almost misses Kuroko’s question. He wants to listen, he really does, but his body isn’t cooperating. His breaths come out as shuddering gasps for air instead of the even breathing pattern Kuroko wants him to match.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, only the sounds of a ticking clock and their breathing echoing around the hallway. When he’s finally able to maintain the same rhythm as Kuroko, he feels better. Not good but better.

He lets the silence continue for a couple of seconds longer before saying, “Thanks.”

Kuroko doesn’t offer you’re welcome, or you owe me one because his presence means more than anything he could say.

“Can you tell me the color of the floor?” Kuroko asks when Kise’s breathing is even and less harsh.

“Blue,” Kise replies. He already knows the color of the ground after staring at it for so long; he could even see the faint dark blueish-green hue through his tears.

“What color is your uniform?”

“…Blue.” Well, dark blue to be exact.

“What’s the color of my hair?”

“Light blue,” Kise says with a chuckle.

Kuroko gives him a smile in return. “Do you feel better now?”

“Well…” Kise starts.

Kuroko points to his own cheeks with a grin that makes Kise want to turn his head, but he doesn’t dare break eye contact when Kuroko replies.

“Well?”

Kise feels his neck and ears heating up to match his face. “I-I might feel better if you did the thing.”

Oh? I’m not sure what you mean, Kuroko’s face seems to say.

“Don’t make me say this,” Kise mumbles, “The thing you used to do in middle school, remember?”

Kuroko smiles and sets his fingertips on Kise’s sides.

“Wait. Waahait,” Kise giggles, holding on to Kuroko’s wrists, half sliding down the wall.

Kneeling beside him, Kuroko raises an eyebrow and stops the slight curl of his fingers against his tracksuit.

Kise swears he’s trying not to stop Kuroko, because they both know how much he needs this, but right now, his body is refusing to listen to him. Even though he wants to give Kuroko permission to continue, he’s giggling too hard to get another word out.

“C-cold,” Kise mumbles as his back hits the floor.

Kuroko’s hands haven’t even started moving, but Kise feels laughter starting to bubble up through his throat. He can feel Kuroko’s eyes on him as if saying is this, okay? With a deep breath that ends with more giggles, he nods as fast as he can.

Kise likes to think that he has many types of laughter. Flirty yet coy laughter for his fangirls. Confident and cocky laughter for his opponents when they challenge him. Laughter and smiles to reassure people that he’s okay even if he’s not.

But this laughter is different. It’s carefree and full of genuine happiness and joy.

He can’t see Kuroko’s face, but he can imagine Kuroko’s facial expression based on the one picture Momoi took back at Teiko. The warmness in Kuroko’s eyes and the faint smile gracing his features as he looks down.

When Kuroko’s fingers graze the bottom of Kise’s ribs, he hears himself let out a loud cackle before dissolving into more bright laughter. The tickles on his sides have him curling into a ball, well, as much of a ball as he can manage without knocking himself in the chin with his knees.

Instead of focusing on his self-doubt and anxiety, he focuses on Kuroko’s short nails wiggling up and down his sides. They brush along the small of his back, making him lean into the touch and close his eyes at the pleasant sensations that zing up to his head.

Kise shrieks when Kuroko’s hands meet his stomach, spidering around and around until tears prick at the edge of his eyes. It tickles. It tickles. It tickles.

This time he pushes at Kuroko’s wrists.

Although his waist is still sensitive enough to send him into silent laughter, his stomach is so ticklish that it makes him want to shed from his skin like a snake. He wants to beg for the tickling to stop, but he can already feel the tension leaving his shoulders and neck, so he lets it continue until his vision goes blurry and his cheeks start to hurt from smiling so hard.

Ah.

Kise remembers this feeling. He loves the other members of the generation of miracles like brothers, but their tickle fights usually ended with them ganging up on one person until they cried. When he first joined first string and was still getting to know the others, he didn’t know how to talk to the other members beyond challenging them.

He would have liked to say that the others were welcoming and accepted him without question, but it just wasn’t the truth. Back then, even though their relationship had a rocky start, he had Kuroko by his side.

It would always start with a few words or a glance. A simple talk to me, is something on your mind, or a look that said more than words. Sometimes Kise would confess what was bothering him and sometimes they’d just sit, and Kuroko would offer his advice if Kise wanted it. However, Kuroko always seemed to know what Kise needed.

Sometimes it would end like this, Kise breathless from laughter with Kuroko sitting beside him with a kind smile.

As if on cue, Kuroko’s fingers stop moving, and Kise takes a few deep breaths to keep the residual giggles from escaping his lips.

“Thank you,” Kise mutters, accepting the help to sit up that Kuroko offers.

“Are you feeling better?” Kuroko asks, gesturing for Kise to turn around.

“Mhm.” Kise shivers when Kuroko’s fingers crawl from his stomach to his sides and up his back to his neck. With a sigh, he leans forward, arching his back, so it presses into Kuroko’s hands.

Giggles and short puffs of air follow Kuroko’s movements. Fluttering fingers around Kise’s left ear have him scrunching his shoulder and nose up at the sensation while circles that trace the curve of his spine make him giggle into his hands.

Or sometimes those moments from middle school would end like this, with Kuroko drawing shapes into his back until his body and brain turn to mush. It’s relaxing in a weird way.

Kuroko’s fingers move slower and slower until Kise’s breathing evens out, and his head feels like it’s touching the ground.

“Thank you Kurokocchi,” Kise says once more, still not looking at Kuroko.

“This isn’t the last time we’ll get to play together,” Kuroko replies with a voice that makes Kise want to believe him. “We aren’t going anywhere for a while.”

Kise wipes his eyes and smiles back in return. “I suppose you’re right.”

“This isn’t the end of anything, because we can always keep playing each other.”

[sebfreak]

Seirin vs Rakuzan is for me one of the best match in a sport story. Why? The ups an downs both teams witness in this match are amazing. Until the end you see both teams growing, getting stronger and find out new tactics.

[sinqueen69]

You finished it!

Well, more or less, depending on if you saw the movie by the time I'm writing this.

How did you like the ending? what's the final verdict on Akashi? What's your favorite part? 💜🖤💜🖤

Spoilers if you haven't seen the show or the movie below the cut!

So I just finished the movie, it was so good!! Fuck the Jabberwocks tho, those guys are such douchebags so I'm super glad they lost! The Vorpal Swords is the best team and their teamwork was so on point, the numerous Zone entries were so fun to watch!

UNTIL THEY BROKE MY BLUE/RED BOYFRIENDS! My Canon stopped after they won against the Jabberwocks!

I had numerous fave parts of the series & movie!

Kuroko being the gatekeeper and the whole Seirin team together in the Zone against Rakuzan was so crazy!

I loved Kise's Perfect Copy!

I really enjoyed watching the GoM becoming real people again once Kuroko beat their asses. Not to mention I really like how their respective teams were like 'Ah the GoM are just kids who need support so we shall give it to them whether they want it or not'

I loved watching Kise, Midorima and Aomine roasting Seirin/Kamagi for not being good enough for Kuroko in the beginning.

I actually LOVE the Seirin 2nd year's!

After watching the movie I now understand why people love Akashi so much, I get it guys but I will need AMVs and Fic's to fully get me on board.

I do stand by what I said about him being not being part of the Blue/Red Boyfriend Trope because the dude has pink hair, even his lightning when in the zone is pink!

[generation-of-kuroko-and-kagami]

Which Uncrowned King is the strongest?

I thought my KnB blogging days were over, but I have been summoned back by the question, “Which Uncrowned King is the strongest?” 

I’m not gonna lie to you; I don’t think this post will be quite as epic as my post on the GoM members, but I will do my best to explain my opinions on this topic. We’re looking at which Uncrowned King (UK, if you will) is the strongest in a one-on-one competition; however, just like with my GoM post, I’ll be considering who the strongest UK is when a part of a team. I may end up with more than one answer to this question by the end, but team play is just as important to consider as individual ability is. Let’s see what we can find out.

TL;DR in bold

Kiyoshi Teppei

Just so we’re clear on this, we’re looking at the Kiyoshi that we saw in KnB. Not Kiyoshi as he would’ve been if he hadn’t gotten injured, and not Kiyoshi as he is by the end of series when his knee had completely given out. We’re talking about his prime here. Or, at least, the best we ever saw him in KnB. Still injured, but also still badass. 

Oddly enough, Kiyoshi is the only protagonistic Uncrowned King in the series. Of course, plenty of people love the guys from Rakuzan, but there’s no denying they were set up as antagonists to begin with. Anyway, Kiyoshi has been described as a confusing mix between a point guard and a center. He’s got the height and the power to guard under the net, but he’s also got the game sense to make informed passes. That’s why Kiyoshi has his Right of Postponement: so he could pass like a point guard while remaining under the net. The Right of Postponement is a skill where Kiyoshi will use his hand to palm the ball and redirect it into a pass. Vice Claw is a similar skill that uses Kiyoshi’s large hands and allows Kiyoshi to rebound the ball with one hand, potentially dunking it right away. Beyond these skills, Kiyoshi has also been described as the strongest center behind Murasakibara.

Could Kiyoshi be the strongest player out of the Uncrowned Kings? It’s certainly not impossible. Nebuya is a direct comparison you could make to Kiyoshi, as they both fill the same position, but really, since the UK members don’t have as many notable skills as the GoM members, it becomes harder to decide who outranks who in terms of individual skill. If I were to choose a center, it would definitely be Kiyoshi for the benefit of his Right of Postponement, and his versatility would create a balance within any team that isn’t present in most other cases. His physical capabilities were already impressive when he was injured, so as he heals and improves, they’ll only get better. As of now, Kiyoshi’s still in the running.

Makoto Hanamiya

It’s always hard to be unbiased when talking about the strength of an antagonistic character, and especially when that character is as antagonistic as Hanamiya. Unfortunately, if I’m being objective, I wanna put Hanamiya near the top of my list, instinctively. A lot of that has to do with his intelligence, since that’s got a lot of potential behind it, but the skills he was able to develop because of that intelligence are also pretty convincing.

As far as abilities with names attached to them, Hanamiya only has two: the Spider’s Web and the teardrop shot. His teardrop is a sort of jump shot/fadeaway where he’ll flick the ball toward the net with one hand, as opposed to a layup where you’d lift the ball to the net. These shots are super hard to block, which is why such a big deal was made about it when it was revealed. Hanamiya’s Spider Web is a skill that’s always really impressed me-- despite me hating him as a person--because Hanamiya is able to control for nearly every possibility of another team’s passing courses and choices. Of course, Seirin was able to overcome this with Kuroko, but Hanamiya’s observational skills, intelligence, and physical abilities allow him to predict where the ball will be so he can steal it, and without an invisible man, it would be pretty damn difficult to stop. To be completely accurate, he does need the help of Seto, but his accuracy is still insane without him.

Hanamiya is best known for his ability to steal the ball, but impressively, he’s also known as a player that can score whenever he wants to. This accolade has only been granted to one other player in the series: Aomine Daiki. Beyond that, Hanamiya’s general physical abilities are described as elite; everything from his speed to his passing sense to his offensive capabilities are top notch.

Will Hanamiya be a top contender for the strongest UK? Probably, yeah. It’s not just the nature of his abilities, but the range, as well. I’ll talk about the cruel and petty tricks he ordains a bit later, but even without those, Hanamiya has the ability to piss his opponents off. His greatest weapon is his intelligence, but he has a talent for upsetting his opponents’ focus and motivation, as well. The fact that he chose to specialize in steals resulted in him having such an interesting playstyle. And because his playstyle is based on taking opportunities away from his opponents, he can also cause hiccups in their playstyle while showcasing his own. Overall, Hanamiya’s got the potential to be the best. Even if he is an asshole and a half.

Mibuchi Reo

As much as Nebuya annoys me, I think Mibuchi is probably my least favorite Uncrowned King. That’s got to do with his personality, though, not his abilities, because I think his abilities are pretty cool. Honestly, they read as a little bit too similar to Tatsuya’s Mirage Shot to me, but hey, how different can elite shooting guard abilities be?

Essentially, Mibuchi has just got his three shooting forms: Heaven, Earth, and Oblivion/Void (we’ll go with Void). Heaven is a fadeaway that allows Mibuchi to shoot a virtually unblockable shot, and Earth is a shooting form that draws a foul from the opponent by making them jump before Mibuchi has; when Mibuchi does jump, he’ll knock into the defender and draw a foul. Typically, Mibuchi will only use Heaven and Earth during the course of a game, but if he acknowledges his opponent, he’ll use Void. When Void is used, it prevents the opposing player from jumping for the block. This is possible because Mibuchi crouches lower than normal when preparing to jump for the shot, and the opposing player won’t match that depth. Because of that, their legs will straighten out before Mibuchi jumps, and they won’t have the momentum left to jump for the block.

Could Mibuchi be the strongest Uncrowned King? Personally, I don’t think so. While it’s probably safe to assume that his physical abilities are greater than the average player, we really don’t know much about Mibuchi beyond his shooting forms. Compared to players that have either been seen in loads of games, like Kiyoshi, and players that were the stars in the games they were in, like Hanamiya, Mibuchi doesn’t seem as impressive. If you’re going for a good shooting guard, having someone with Mibuchi’s shooting forms may be beneficial, but the rest of his specs don’t quite match up to the other UKs.

Nebuya Eikichi

I know I just got done ragging on Mibuchi, but Mibuchi does have signature skills where Nebuya doesn’t. Nebuya does, more or less, name his skills by adding “muscle” onto the beginning of normal plays, but really, his power is the main weapon in his arsenal.

I’d describe Nebuya as Murasakibara-adjacent. He can almost bring down the backboard like Murasakibara, for instance. Where Murasakibara simply has power behind his frame, though, Nebuya intentionally uses the muscle he has to overpower his opponents. A good example of this would be how he handles himself in the post. Nebuya lowers his hips and engages his arms a lot when defending or blocking out under the net, and this makes him, essentially, immoveable. Because of his strength, his defenders often end up exhausted when playing against him, as well. Any normal player isn’t going to be able to force a basket against him. Hell, even Kiyoshi had problems.

Is Nebuya the strongest Uncrowned King? Physically, I think that’s a resounding “yes.” However, as a general player, I think it depends on who he’s playing. Nebuya isn’t a completely mindless player--I’ve seen him make good choices on the court that have resulted in points for his team--but his main objective is to force his way through to the basket. If he’s playing a regular team, that’s probably going to be enough. If he’s playing another UK, though, the answer isn’t as clear. I think there are avenues Nebuya could take that would make success a bit more assured for him and his team, but I can also easily imagine him getting outplayed. The jury’s out on this one for now.

Hayama Kotarou

We’ve reached our final Uncrowned King: the adorable Hayama Kotarou. The “animal instinct” thing was kind of solidified by having Hayama as a part of the character list. Before, with Kagami and Aomine, it was this abstract concept that basically meant “super beast basketball player,” but Hayama sort of honed its definition. Now, I’d say players with the animal instinct are both intimidating to face and naturally skilled players, especially when considering agility and game sense. Anyway, Hayama doesn’t embody this as well as Kagami, Aomine, and Silver do, but he’s still got a static around him that says, “Beware.”

Hayama only has one signature skill, which is his lightning dribble, but there are various levels to it. Above average players aren’t able to stop Hayama’s three-fingered dribble, and his five-fingered dribble has only been shown to be stopped by Kagami, who is as strong as the GoM (maybe even stronger). On top of his dribbling, Hayama has impressive physical abilities that make him a good all-rounder. His agility, his speed, his defense, and his reflexes are all impressive enough to be acknowledged by, both Kagami, and Alex.

Is all that enough to make Hayama the strongest Uncrowned King? I gotta say, it’s looking pretty convincing. For Hayama to, not only be a specialist player because of his dribbling, but to also be an all-rounder is extremely impressive. I think Hayama has a lot more by way of basic skills than the other Uncrowned Kings do, maybe barring Kiyoshi. Maybe barring Hanamiya, but we’ll talk about that in a little bit. I don’t think I came to this conclusion in my Ultimate Team post, but Hayama may actually be the one to beat when only considering the other UKs.

Weaknesses

I had this section in my GoM post because I thought it was important to juxtapose the GoM members’ weaknesses with their strengths since their all so strong. With the UK members, though, I don’t know that it’s as necessary. If the GoM members are the model for perfection then, obviously, anything less than will come with weaknesses attached. I don’t know that every UK member has a significant weakness, but I’ll try to base this off of what I remember of KnB. As an umbrella weakness, I’ll say that none of the UK members, now or ever, can enter the Zone, unless they get to GoM level. Also, when it comes to the GoM members, they have a natural physical weakness because their bodies can’t sustain the talent they have, so they’re prone to injury. I don’t know if this is true for the Uncrowned Kings, but as they possess more talent than above average players, I would say it’s a definite possibility.

If I wanted to be absolutely honest, I would call Kiyoshi’s knee a weakness, because it was for the entirety of Kuroko. However, I’m not rude, so if I’m looking for something else, it might be that Kiyoshi gets discouraged fairly easily when it comes to his own failures. As the series went one, this got mitigated, but Kiyoshi is definitely better at remaining calm and optimistic when its his teammates that need the pick-me-ups. When its himself, he isn’t the best at doing it.

Hanamiya…I mean, would you call his bad attitude a weakness? I would say it is in the sense that his attitude can sometimes set him up for failure. If he has a plan that doesn’t work, he can try to go in again and rework it, but if he feels like he’s been insulted in any way, his playstyle will suffer. I guess his personality would be the weakness, more than his attitude, but you get what I’m saying. It’s when Hanamiya makes himself synonymous with his abilities that he gets in trouble. It happened at the end of the Seirin game where his Spider’s Web being shattered ended up impacting how well he played as an individual. Basically, what I’m trying to say is: don’t take it so personal, Hanamiya.

Mibuchi’s weaknesses are pretty straightforward, as they are with the remaining two Uncrowned Kings: his temper. It almost felt like Mibuchi got hysterical when he was being bested in Rakuzan’s game with Seirin. He really couldn’t fathom the idea of losing so much that he lost all of his edge. That’s a common trait he has with Nebuya and Hayama, as well.

I don’t actually remember much about what Nebuya was like when he was upset they were losing, but I feel like he was angry? Like, really angry. Sort of how Murasakibara got when he began losing. Playstyle like that leaves you open to attacks and mistakes, and if I remember correctly, that’s exactly what happened with Nebuya.

As far as Hayama’s temper goes, Hayama gets careless. In the Seirin game, he tried to do too much and ended up being fooled into losing the ball during a drive and having his weapon broken. He got remorseful because of that, and Akashi got pissed. With Hayama, as with all of Rakuzan’s UKs (and Hanamiya, too, I guess), he underestimates his opponents too much and takes the brunt of it when he’s wrong.

Team Play

Team play is essential to how proficient these guys are at basketball. In a one-on-one fight, they may be unstoppable, but if their abilities aren’t transferable to a team--any team--then they’re useless if they want to play professionally.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Kiyoshi has the best sense of team play in the Uncrowned Kings. Unlike with the GoM members, though, it isn’t as though the UKs have any members that are terrible at team play. However, where Kiyoshi wins out against them is where he takes care of his team. It’s not just that Kiyoshi plays nice with them and participates in plays--he goes out of his way to care for everyone on the court to make sure they’re all performing at their best. Even the point guard in this group doesn’t do that.

Hanamiya, as the aforementioned point guard, has “team play” built into his role. Unlike Haizaki, Hanamiya is actually a pretty decent team player. As far as I can remember, he isn’t cruel to his teammates, and he’s good at leading them. Granted, he leads them into underhanded plays that harm the people they’re playing against, but his twisted team is actually very functional. He doesn’t go out of his way for his teammates like Kiyoshi does, but I’d make the argument that Hanamiya is the second best member of the Uncrowned Kings when it comes to team play.

Mibuchi, Nebuya, and Hayama can probably all be talked about under one umbrella since they were always sort of glommed together when they were brought up in KnB. The themes they had were all pretty similar. They’re extremely accustomed to team play because of Akashi. Clearly, otherwise they wouldn’t have been so shocked when Akashi dropped them to win on his own. These three do argue sometimes, but they don’t usually have any conflict on the court. I’m inclined to say that Nebuya has the worst team play and Hayama has the best, but that may just be me assuming that based on their personalities. So, I’d say the Rakuzan UKs have basic team play standards.

Conclusion

So, at the end of this post, who is the strongest Uncrowned King? Let’s break it down into three possibilities, just like I did in my GoM post.

Based on potential: Hanamiya

With Hanamiya’s intelligence, I really do think that he has incredible potential to use the abilities he already has in new ways and develop new ones with even more capabilities. If he’s already able to read passing patterns, he could train himself to recognize the micromovements people make when they’re getting ready to drive or shoot or jump; he could anticipate entire plays to be made by the opposing team; he could think up plays for his own team that step outside the traditional patterns. Imagine what a non-sadistic Hanamiya could do after a few years of practice.

Individually: Hayama

It’s really just Hayama’s specs that do it for me. He’s just an incredibly capable basketball player. If he’s already got the physicality to do well, on top of his Uncrowned King talent and ability, he’s probably gonna outplay most other non-GoM players. Genuinely, in terms of “he’s extremely difficult to beat,” Hayama reminds me Aomine. No, he doesn’t quite have the same offensive power, but he does have the animal instinct, and I think it makes a lot of difference in an individual match-up.

As part of a team: Kiyoshi

This was, more than likely, obvious to you. I hate to put down Kiyoshi’s abilities and game sense, but Kiyoshi shines best when he’s part of a team. I know he can throw down in a one-on-one game, but I don’t think Kiyoshi’s talent really lends itself to that sort of thing. He’s a great support, and that’s what he’s always going to be best at.

As with this post’s sister post, let’s talk about why Nebuya and Mibuchi aren’t in this line-up.

Why not Mibuchi?

I kind of explained it above, but Mibuchi just doesn’t have the same all-round talent that the other UKs do. Like I said, it’s a given that he’s more physically capable than your average player, but without anything to back that up, Mibuchi just looks like a dude that can shoot in different forms. That’s useful, mind you, but it can’t beat the three guys I mentioned above.

Why not Nebuya?

Nebuya isn’t a contender for the same reasons Mibuchi isn’t. He does have more all-round capability, but it isn’t exceptional capability. Most of his notable moments are because of his strength, not because of his talent for the game. At the end of the day, barreling your way through a game isn’t refined enough to be called the best of the UKs.

So, who wins? In my GoM post, I valued potential over anything else, but that had a lot to do with the abilities that came with the potential. In this case, I think my winner for the strongest Uncrowned King is: Hayama Kotarou.

How can this guy, who didn’t even win a small forward battle against Haizaki in my Ultimate Team post, end up as the winner? How did he beat out Hanamiya and Kiyoshi? If I’m being honest, Hayama partially beat Hanamiya because Hanamiya is a sadist. Like, I can’t call you the best of the best if you like breaking kneecaps. But, beyond that, Hayama’s physicality just beats of Hanamiya’s, for me. Yes, Hanamiya has incredible offensive power if he wants to, but Hayama’s instincts outweigh that just a touch. It’s sort of like how Aomine could beat Kise’s ass in a one-on-one, but Kise’s got better abilities. It’s just, Hayama’s slick, you know? Anyway, onto Kiyoshi. I mean, Hayama beat Kiyoshi because Hayama is the better all-rounder. “But how can you say that when Kiyoshi is a center and a point guard?” Well, because game sense doesn’t outweigh physicality as an individual player. I guess the bottom line is: Hayama is better than Hanamiya in terms of conduct and instinct-to-action capabilities, and he’s better than Kiyoshi as an individual player. At least, to me.

If you want to my ranking from strongest to weakest, they are:

Hayama

Hanamiya

Kiyoshi

Nebuya

Mibuchi

Now based on team play:

Kiyoshi

Hanamiya

Hayama

Mibuchi

Nebuya

Finally, based on passion for the game, which I don’t think is accurate, but the only one we can really be sure of is Kiyoshi:

Kiyoshi

Hanamiya

Hayama

Mibuchi

Nebuya

Okay, well, I’ve finally made this post, so hopefully you guys enjoyed reading it. I feel like a lot of you will think picking Hayama was kind of dumb because I made it sound like Hanamiya was cooler or because Kiyoshi is the best character out of all of them or something. But that’s the beauty of discussion. Let me know who you think is the strongest and if any of my assessments could be supplemented by something I forgot about from KnB. Because I probably forgot a lot. I’ll be making another mini Uncrowned Kings post soon to answer some more asks in my inbox, so keep an eye out. Thanks for reading!

[pillow-anime-talk]

missed shot.

synopsis: Boys lose a point when they unexpectedly see you.

# tags: headcanons; current relationships & crush culture; comedy; fluff; a little bit of romance; boys are simps for you and you are a huge fan of them!; sfw

includes: female reader ft. taiga kagami, ryouta kise, tatsuya himuro, kotarou hayama, shouichi imayoshi & midorima shintarou {knb}

— TAIGA

↘ You are a bit late, but you arrived at the Seirin vs. Josei game safe and sound! You also took a seat upstairs to get a better view of the all players.

↘ You arrived just as Kiyoshi knocked the ball from his opponent’s hand and passed it to Izuki. You immediately crossed your fingers when the ball was passed to Kuroko and then to Kagami. You grinned when the tall basketball player jumped high to dunk.

↘ “Kagami-kun! Win it!” You screamed as loud as you could, waving your arms to cheer for him even better.

↘ Anyway, because of your voice echoing around the gym, Taiga lost his concentration for a moment and at the same time found you at the stands.

↘ His heart was beating much faster than it should, and a big smile appeared on his face, seeing that the girl with he is in love with came to support him.

↘ Unfortunately, his inattention resulted in hitting the hoop and losing the ball. Also a bit of laughter from you spread around the gym, making his cheeks as red as his hair and eyes.

↘ “S-Sorry!” He shouted to the rest of the team, then looked back at you. “The next throw will be successful! I p-promise!”

— RYOUTA

↘ You came on Kise’s matches almost always as his best and only female friend. Unfortunately, you had to go to the dentist that day, so you came a bit late for the Winter Cup match between Kaijou High and Fukuda Sougou Academy.

↘ Luckily, your friend kept you a free seat in the first stand until then, so you could watch the last quarter.

↘ “Ryouta! Don’t give up, you can win this game with the team!” Your scream reverberated between the quieter conversations that commented on the point difference between the players.

↘ Your happy and supporting voice immediately reached the blonde boy who was copying Aomine’s moves.

↘ However, as it is easy to guess, instead of dunk the ball, he withdrew his hands and once again he stopped on the floor looking for your figure.

↘ As soon as he found you, he waved his hand at you and then spun the ball on his finger, smiling widely. “This point is dedicated to you, Y/Ncchi! Just look at me and only me!”

↘ This time, Kise didn’t flinch from the perfect dunk that you cheered loudly at.

— TATSUYA

↘ Your super popular boyfriend has a basketball training with the rest of the Yosen team, and you, as a good girlfriend, came to support him and take him to sushi after training.

↘ You entered the gym very quietly, immediately walking up to trainer Araka and greeting her with soft smile. The woman nodded at you and asked if you finished class and if you came for Himuro. Of course, you confirmed her questions right away, laughing under your breath and saying that you would take him on a date after training. (Yosen coach had a relationship with you like a big sister and a little sister, so she was very eager to talk with you about random things.)

↘ “... Tatsuya!” You shouted to the jumping boy who was just taking his ‘mirage shot’ above another player. The seventeen-year-old glanced in your direction and you waved to him softly. “We’ll go on a date after your training, so you’d better kick everyone’s ass, Tatsu!” You added in an amused tone to which even Masako reacted with laughter.

↘ Of course, your presence, noticed by the black-haired student, made him throw the ball very imprecise so the consequence was didn’t score the desired three points.

↘ “Muro-chin, focus, please...” Murasakibara muttered at his friend and the other snorted under his breath.

↘ “I’ll get another one. Pass me the next ball.” He replied low, then looked at you again, waving you back.

— KOTAROU

↘ You just arrived at the sports hall to support your boyfriend during the match between Rakuzan and Shuutoku. Of course you had with you a cute banner in your boyfriend’s team colors and with his name, which you quickly took out of your black, leather bag.

↘ A few minutes passed before a foreign voice announced a ten-minute warm-up for both teams. You smiled warmly seeing your man bursting with energy.

↘ “Hey, Kotarou-kun!” You screamed, immediately meeting his insane gaze. “Give your best, baby!”

↘ “Of course, I will!” He answered you just as loudly. “Look at this, Y/N-chan!” He added with a big smile, preparing to throw...

↘ ... which he missed. Oof.

↘ Akashi looked at him with a raised eyebrow. The rest of the team and you too.

↘ “OHHHH, YES. I GET IT, BOYS. LOOK THIS TIME, Y/N-CHAN! IT’S FOR YOU. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!”

↘ This time he hit perfectly, which is why you held your banner high, laughing happily.

— SHOUICHI

↘ Imayoshi decided to stay a bit longer on training and practice the three-point shooting. The gym was empty, so he had time to himself.

↘ You, on the other hand, passed Ryou in the school corridor, whom you warmly greeted and asked where Shouichi was. The shy sixteen-year-old immediately squeaked that the shooter decided to stay in the hall longer than everyone else.

↘ That’s why you went to the mentioned place as quickly as possible and very quietly you entered the big building, watching the tall basketball player aim at the hoop.

↘ During the throw you coughed softly and smiled. “Shou-kun when you will done with practice, maybe we’ll come to our houses together?” You spoke tenderly, catching the brunet’s attention.

↘ A second later, the ball bounced off the ring after a while and fell to the ground without scoring a point. The captain hissed and looked at your figure again, sighing.

↘ “Y/N.” He grumble with a smile and you walk slowly towards him, adjusting the bag full of books. “Yes, I’d love to come back with you. Sit down and don’t bother me for another half hour, thanks.” He added gently, looking away from your cute, pouty face.

↘ “Are you blushing?” You asked, smiling. “Don’t worry Shouichi, I won’t tell anyone about this missed shot, I promise.” You added, showing thumbs up.

↘ The problem is that the boy didn’t blush because of a missed throw, but because you, his crush, saw it.

— SHINTAROU

↘ Your boyfriend was just during in the first match of the Winter Cup final, and of course you wanted to surprise him, although the green head forbade you to come.

↘ You took one of the few free seats in the nearest stand and starts looked for Midorima. The boy was just aiming for a basket from halfway the court, and you smiled at it.

↘ You rarely saw your boyfriend play the basketball, so you were counting on a good and fair game.

↘ Nevertheless, you wanted to let Shintarou know that you are here for him.

↘ “Honey! Win it! I love you so much!” You screamed out loud, in the middle of a throw who...

↘ ... barely fell into the basket, making the entire Shuutoku team inhale loudly into their lungs. Midorima felt a unpleasant chills run down his spine as he looked in your direction. You waved at him and he adjusted his glasses, sighing under his nose.

↘ The corner of his mouth twitched in a smile, and he nodded, taking the lead of 40 points for his team (and for you, cute) during the game.

↘ Then, of course, he scolded you, telling you not to come on his matches again because you distracted him, but you couldn’t promise that.

[knb-still-rocks-in-2k21]

Congrats on the 100!! May I ask an analysis on aokaga? I would love to hear your thoughts!

These two have so many moments. I'll go with ones that I think are most important.

Aomine and Kagami give the vibe of two people who would bicker all the time but if one of them hears someone else badmouth the other they'd defend their friend to death.

They first met when Aomine went to find Kagami at the basketball court because he wanted to check out Kuroko's new partner. I think Aomine disliked Kagami at first and the same applies to Kagami too. To Aomine, Kagami was too weak and did not deserve Kuroko; to Kagami, Aomine was that way-too-cocky ex partner who hurt Kuroko. (haha why did it all come back to Kuroko in the end) Despite that, Kagami genuinely recognized Aomine's insane talent.

In the first Seirin - Touou match, even though Aomine still viewed Kagami as weak (at least, weaker than him), his impression of Kagami gradually changed as he saw Kagami pull off amazing moves. He only recognized Kagami in his head though - what he said out loud for Kagami to hear were just his usual taunts like "you can't beat me".

Kagami already left an impression on Aomine in Seirin - Touou I but in Seirin - Touou II, he amazed Aomine even more each time he showed a new part of his true ability. Aomine was happy to see that Kagami had improved since their last match.

After so long, he finally met someone who's strong enough to make him play seriously, someone he considers "a worthy opponent" - and that's Kagami Taiga. (That's a menacing excited face, Aomine.)

As Kagami witness Aomine's true potential, his feeling for Aomine was said to be pure respect with no hints of frustration or defeat.

Together with Kuroko, it's Kagami who directly made Aomine return to his old self. Aomine's joy came from "having a worthy opponent", and Kagami was that person. Kagami brought back Aomine's animal instinct, enthusiasm and the smile on his face when he plays basketball.

To Kagami, Aomine is a special opponent among the Generation of Miracles too. To quote him, "I'll gladly sit on the bench if it's for the sake of the team's victory. However, he is someone I have to beat by myself."

This scene speaks for itself.

After the second Seirin - Touou match, Aomine had fully acknowledged Kagami's ability and the two became pretty friendly. They are similar to each other - they share a same position on court, are both Kuroko's lights, and to quote Midorima, "a same type of player" (I don't exactly understand what he meant by same type but I guess it's their play style?). I think that similarity is the greatest aspect that contributes to their unending rivalry.

The part when Aomine gave Kagami his shoes is great too. Although Momoi was the one who brought them to Kagami (without Aomine's permission as he pointed out), it's still Aomine who told Kagami to just take it (after Kagami rejected). He even proposed a one-on-one to help Kagami with his basketball - and I believe that's the sole purpose of it because regardless of the result he gave Kagami those shoes anyway. He also encouraged Kagami to do his best in a very Aomine way:

From the conversation with Momoi in Q189, we can say Aomine had complete faith in Kagami's strength. From "your light is dim", he now viewed Kagami as "the true light" with Kuroko as his "fated shadow", and acknowledged Kagami as "the miracle who did not become one of the miracles".

Near the end of the Seirin - Rakuzan match, Aomine was the first person to follow Ogiwara's shout and stand up and cheer for Seirin. Also, instead of shouting Seirin's name like the majority of the stadium, he specifically directed his words to Kuroko and Kagami - which could mean that at this point he had considered Kagami his friend, just like Kuroko.

In conclusion, AoKaga is a relationship with a steady development from rivals to friends. Aomine who looked down on Kagami at the beginning, after witnessing Kagami's abilities many times had come to fully acknowledge Kagami's talent, respect him as a rival and consider him a friend. Kagami over time had gotten along well with Aomine and looked up to him as a fellow basketball player.

[heytetsu]

I hardly talk about midorima so ets talk about about why I adore him. and how I relate.

you see, im a try hard. but instead im not a try hard in sports. but academically? mhmmhm. most people know me for studying a lot. getting good grades to the point where I can’t worry and people will shrug it off. sure, I like people viewing me as smart. sure, who wouldn’t ? but it’s just a odd feeling at times.

midorima tries hard. and he gets irritated when others done try their best. this trait shown when the teiko team stopped going to practice and how they began to treat the games as a contest. he didn’t want to partake in something like that. he’s doing everything he can to win, including spending hours practicing.

his choices are hardly ever risky. only time he’s shown to take a risk is with that iconic shot in the match against rakuzan, even then, he believed. he believed in takao, his shadow.

they’re similar to kagami and kuroko, but different.

he hates when people don’t put in their most effort, as I do. I despise when people slack off and don’t try as hard as they can. it’s irritating. why show up if you’re not gonna try your hardest? my biggest gripe is when people in more “advanced” classes don’t try. why are you there then? you’re good enough to get here, so why aren’t you trying?

maybe my views are black and white. maybe im sick of people complaining over poor grades when they don’t try. Or never taking things seriously until it’s too late. im.

this was another rant.

[shoichee]

Request is about Rakuzan manager, who is a foreigner (from Russia). She is really popular in school, because the Japanese thinks that Russian are very pretty. But she thinks that she has ordinary appearance. Besides she always does her best for the team, tries to be the best manager for them and takes care of them because of her kindness. So Rakuzan boys warm up to her slowly. And Ore-Akashi slowly started coming to his sense (he's Boku-Akashi now), because she reminds him his mother.

Hi hi hi! Even after researching to portray this accurately, I am more vague on the specificality on Russian culture, especially in a Japanese high school setting, in order to make this more relatable and applicable. Still, I took care to implement some core values/general traits you’d see in Russian society // I HOPE I DID THIS JUSTICE;; 

[Rakuzan Manager f!Reader Headcanons]

you’ve always been the center of attention ever since you transferred to Rakuzan, a private school with extremely high standards

not to mention, your aura and looks completely encompasses that perfect “high-caliber student” look that every student wants so badly… so effortlessly? a lot of the students instantly took a liking to you just because of your appearances and how easily you stood out against the rest (especially in a collective society like Japan’s, where everyone is highly pressured to blend in)

but coming fresh from Russia, a society that focuses on individualism, you didn’t really see why everyone would suddenly worshipped you just because you expressed yourself freely… even so, in trying to make friends as a rare foreigner, you made sure to be kind to everyone

you made it out of your own way to always help the student council out with menial tasks, even if you weren’t a part of it, or always reached out a helping hand to other teachers, staff, and peers

so that may have shot up your popularity even more

your altruism easily reaches within earshot of Higuchi, the current 3rd-year manager of the Rakuzan’s basketball team, and he immediately soughts after you to invite you to the position of manager alongside him

after all, he’s going to graduate this year, so he wants to ensure that the team would be in good hands for the subsequent years

still, he’s quite nervous about introducing you to his… superiors, mostly because the team leadership has become quite… scary and strict this year

Higuchi brings you along as he slowly approaches Coach Eiji and the Rakuzan captain, who were both discussing about the imminent future of the team’s starting line and debating whether or not to switch around some players

Eiji noticed you first, and after hearing Higuchi’s suggestion, he immediately recognized you from how much the teachers and his coworkers had been praising you; hence, he has no doubt about you or anything… but he turns to Akashi to hear his input

all the while, the captain has been staring silently at you… and assessing you

“What do you think?” Eiji spoke up, glancing down to the 1st year in the corner of his eye.

“...” Akashi continues to sit with his hands clasped in front of his mouth

“It’d be an honor to become a manager for such a capable team!” you say, putting yourself into a deep bow to try to express your sincerity

“W-Wait, (y/n)-san, there’s no need to go to that extreme,” Higuchi says hurriedly, ushering you up

“S-Sorry, but I believe bows are used to express utmost deference and appeal?”

“Ahaha… only a few cases warrant a bow as deep as that.”

“Right, right! Noted…”

Akashi’s eventual sigh interrupted the both of you as he drops his hands into a more relaxed posture

“She’ll be useful. I have heard about her from other students within the student council. Shōta, you will keep her in line, correct?”

“Of course!”

“Then there is no need for this conversation to go any longer if this is settled with no further objections?” he turns to the coach for any further comments

“Yes,” he nods in agreement. “I hope you know this team expects nothing from the best from you, even if you’re only a manager.”

. . .

so here you are, on your first day as a manager alongside Higuchi, being taught the ropes of your duties: noting players’ favorite snacks and food, making sure there’s plenty of water bottles left, changing towels if needed… these honestly felt like normal chores to you, so you didn’t feel overwhelmed at all

“W-W-Whoa!! Our new manager is a girl?—Ow, Reo-nee!”

“Sheesh, show some respect to the manager! Quit looking at her like that!”

“B-But…”

“Hello!” you waved at them, popping up right in front of them, and Hayama quickly jumps to gain some distance for himself out of shock

“The foreign transfer student?!”

“I’m a new manager here, and I hope we get along!”

“Ah…” Mibuchi turns to you with a hand on his chest and a slight bow of his head in acknowledgement. “I must compliment you on your Japanese. You speak as if you’re almost native—in fact, your way of speaking is more elegant than most people here.”

“Thank you!” you beam at him. “Yes…! I’ve worked to at least become fluent for the JLPT N2, so I’m very glad you complimented me so!”

“Reo-nee, you tell me to back off, but you’re being chummy with her right now! Ei-chan, look! Don’t you agree with me?—Wha, where did he go?”

“Who knows?” Mibuchi shrugs indifferently. “But it’s no wonder that it’s been a lot quieter around… by the way (y/n)-chan, are all Russians as striking as you? It makes me a tad bit envious that such beauty is effortless to you.”

“No, no!” you deny with a laugh. “We’re quite ordinary, you see? I think everyone has their own type of beauty to admire and appreciate.”

“Oh! Beautiful words spoken by a beautiful person! Ah… I’ve been called by Higuchi-san. I must part but I hope you’ll allow me to ask you more questions later!”

as you wave off Mibuchi with a smile, Hayama only frowns at you as he crossed his arms, irritated at the fact that you don’t seem too keen on using honorifics for the upperclassmen:

“Look, you might’ve gotten Reo-nee to approve of you, but don’t think the rest of us will be just as accommodating. We’re serious about basketball, so don’t slack off and bring us down.”

but you only turn to him with a smile before giving a slight bow before replying: “I will put 100% of my time and effort, so everyone can do their best on the courts with peace of mind!”

Hayama immediately gets flustered, not expecting such a warm response to his words and he scratches head and replies loudly, “U-Uh… yeah, just, just don’t screw it up for us.”

the first week of being manager was just like what Hayama spoke about: most of the players were wary of you because you were extremely different in how you carried yourself, or curious about you for that same reason… perhaps you were recruited out of pity?

there were a handful of teammates who were brave enough to ask you questions about your culture or personal background

Eikichi, on one hand, asked about your cuisine and whether there were “big guys” like himself that can be a challenge to his strength (you only laugh at him as you easily answer all of his questions)

“I heard the Russian men are unbelievably strong! *flexes his own biceps* Their muscle masses are rumored to be insane!”

“W-Well… it’s different for everyone, but I agree that we’re very strong-natured and have dignity for ourselves.”

“Ohh, (y/n)-chan… that must be why you stand out so much yourself!”

“Mibuchi-kun, you’re very striking yourself, you know…”

and here is Hayama petulantly huffing all the while, doubting you all the while still

“Here you go again, forgetting to add senpai after Ei-chan and Reo-nee!”

“Why should I?” You tilt your head in confusion. “Whether I add such honorifics or not doesn’t change how much I respect them, Hayama-kun.”

“It’s Hayama-senpai to you!”

“If you’re spending this much time fixated on this, then you can spend that much time practicing and showing me the skills to earn the respect you want! Come on! Chop, chop, chop!”

. . .

“Ei-chan! Don’t you get mad when (y/n) doesn’t address you properly?! Reo-nee, what about you?!”

“Huh? I’d never be mad at someone who doesn’t seem to mind me burping at all, and she never scolds me about this stuff like Reo does—”

“Who wouldn’t?! It’s gross, seriously! While I do not understand her tolerance of your vulgar manners, her eloquence and natural aura is equal to those of Sei-chan’s… so in my eyes, I see no need for her to use such honorifics.”

“HUH?! Reo-nee, but why?!”

his opinion of you only gradually changes when you never seem to snap at him back even though he’s being a little shit when you’re around… you remind him of a motherly figure… but a kind, level-headed one, which is slightly different from the naggy mother-hen (but good-intentioned) vibe Mibuchi gives off

besides, anyone with eyes can see how much you scurry around holding handfuls of towels and bottles for all the players, even for the bench players

people think it’s really odd that you’re so physically close to the teammates, especially when you link arm in arm with them or give little distance when you talk with them; as a result, a lot of speculation of “dating” and “relationships” pop up when your name is brought up

the Uncrowned Kings easily squash those rumors… Akashi’s presence alone is also enough to silence them LOL

Mibuchi is the main guy who always likes to link arms as a symbol of your shared friendship

. . .

it’s an odd relationship between you and Mayuzumi… no matter how much you call out to him, he ignores you, and no matter how much he ignores you, you still treat him the same as ever

“Stop pestering me,” Mayuzumi clicks his tongue, blatantly making the effort not to face you properly, and you finally smile, seeing that he finally acknowledged your presence

“Ah, you’re quite the blunt one, aren’t you, Mayuzumi-san?”

“If you get that, then go away.”

“Well, I can’t! You’re part of the lineup, so I am especially not going to neglect you.”

“Are you this mindless to help people like a saint and then expect everyone to adore you? As far as I’m aware, most see you as some ‘exotic’ curiosity and nothing more. And I frankly love myself too much to be associated with such people. If you’re only here out of pity, beat it. Now.”

“Well, it seems like you care enough to tell me that,” you muse, but your face hardens with a serious glint in your eye. “But heed my words when I say this Mayuzumi-san. I am not doing this to be a people-pleaser. I am doing this for myself and only myself. I want to be a good person because it is a decision I make for myself. When there is a choice of being a good person versus bad, I’ll choose to be the best version of myself at any moment. That is my own definition of self-respect. No way in hell I’m doing this because I feel sorry for you… I will complete my duty with my pride as Rakuzan’s manager on the line.”

he’s stunned at your words, and he instantly relaxes his posture before he turns to continue reading his novel on hand… “I see.”

he actually likes the fact that your culture allows people to be more outspoken about their opinions, since he’s all too aware how the majority of his own peers are constantly worried about collective reputation and doing things for the sake of others

Mayuzumi becomes a lot more… cooperative with you from that point on

he relates to your words of having high self-respect and pride, and he’s pleasantly surprised that you actually know how to hold your own ground despite being very kind // even if he finds it weird that being a manager makes you happy… but since it’s something you do for your own sake, he can learn to respect it; after all, he reads light novels for his own happiness

imagine his unadulterated surprise when you not only brought him bottles, snacks, and a towel (that’s the part he expected from you), you slipped in new issues of the latest light novels within the towel bundle (this is what caught him off guard)

you’re suddenly seen in a good light in his eyes

. . .

it’s been almost a month since you’ve been recruited, and most of the teammates have now accepted you as one of their own, more or less, but something bothered you that you couldn’t help but ask Rakuzan’s senior manager

“Higuchi-san, don’t managers need to do some analytic work for the team statistics? It seems that all we do is mundane tasks.”

“Ah, most of the analytic work is done by Akashi.”

“But why? Does he not trust the managers with this work? Does he see us as not capable?”

“Not exactly… he’s very… particular about ensuring the best possible strategies for victory. So far, whatever he’s been doing has earned him complete trust from the entire team and even our coach.”

“Wow… that’s… a really impressive feat for a 1st year…”

“No one’s really surprised though. (y/n)-san you may have just transferred here so you might not know, but he was Teiko’s previous captain and the main public face of the Generation of Miracles…”

after he finished giving a crash-course on their prodigal status in the basketball world, you’re more fired up to work harder for Rakuzan as the manager

“Besides, (y/n)-san, our main duty of being a manager is to maintain the well-being of our team. All these little things add up, and surely, the team knows to appreciate these gestures from us.”

you actually later approach the Uncrowned Kings to playfully complain about why they didn’t tell you how prestigious they truly were on the courts (after learning about their status from Higuchi)

“Huh? (y/n)-nee, now you wanna show respect to your senpais, huh?”

you don’t miss the playfulness in his complaint as he tries to ruffle your hair… and also the way Hayama has recently addressed you differently

“This is different, Hayama! You have such titles under your belts because of your skills and accomplishments on the court… that is extremely admirable!”

“D’awww, it’s nothing, really.”

of course, they all have pride in their titles, but they all immediately turn the direction of the conversation to Akashi, saying they were nothing compared to him

that only made you more curious about the captain

you actually never made conversation with him throughout the month because you were so busy with your duties and helping out everyone… but you finally decided to try to help the captain in any way

Akashi has been observing you for the entirety of your time in the team… that much is to be expected, considering that he needed to evaluate your performance and compatibility with the rest of the teammates to make sure that there is still unity even with the addition of a new person (after all… as much as he doesn’t want to admit, he is still fearful of the possibility of his team crumbling from the inside again)

the fact that you even got Mayuzumi to approve of you in his own way actually impressed him; even he himself had to be authoritative to get Mayuzumi to be cooperative on the team

it’s the little things you do that reminds him of the tickles of nostalgia, when he first played basketball with his late mother, within his mind: the way you were the only one giving positive encouragement to the players in a club filled with cutthroat competition and perfection; the way you made sure that everyone was calm and collected before they walk into the courts; the way you diligently remember and cater every care package and preference to every unique player, in addition to your minimum duties.

he unconsciously mellows out whenever you approach to him to speak, and he only realizes that fact every time you leave the conversation to continue your next to-do on your schedule

“Akashi-san!”

he turns to look at you impassively, but he stands to wait to hear what you have to say

“Can I help you with anything in any way?”

“Are your assigned duties of manager not enough?” he asks, but he continues to give little away from his blank expression

“No, no, that’s not it,” you reply. “I was wondering how I can extend my hand to also help out the captain of the team as well. After all, it’s important for the managers to care for the well-being of every team member… you’re no exception!”

“Do what you think is best to ensure victory,” was all he said before he left

you’re now confused… did he mean for you to keep up your work as normal? did he trust you enough to let you decide what to do on your own? his vague words certainly threw you in for a loop

still, the Rakuzan teammates were able to breathe easier whenever you were in the same room as Akashi, because there’s always a gentler aura around him when you’re near the vicinity

sometimes his Orekashi side slips out, whether he gives an open compliment to a good play (albeit, delivered in a calm, spartan way) or when he gives an occasional perfect-rhythmed pass that leaves his teammates in a stupor

Akashi’s mannerisms towards you as the manager is as subtle as a speck of dust, but he’s grown a quiet sense of respect for you and the atmosphere you’ve brought to the team

however, it will only be at the final game where his Orekashi side will fully reawaken again

if any student dares to approach you with insensitive questions and comments about your race and culture with stereotypes, they should be expecting all hell breaking loose from the basketball team in 3… 2… 1…

[notdonesimpin]

Wants And Needs ~d.a.~

daiki aomine x reader

warnings: kinda angsty, kinda fluffy. it does have a happy ending

synopsis: two people with a love for sports, finding themselves on opposite sides of the spectrum. One never puts in the effort and the other wishes they could touch the court once more.

a/n: its long haha :) self indulgence got the better of me. hope you enjoy :)

Being the second manager of Touou Academy’s basketball was a fairly easy task until Momoi decided to put you on babysitting duty because Aomine seemed to be too hard to reach or find nowadays.

You’d argued her down on why it had to be you since they had been close since they were kids, but you knew it was because she couldn’t do proper stats or research if she had to worry about him.

Despite your better judgement, you agreed, putting the team’s needs before your own feelings. 

The only thing you couldn’t shake is how she said that you’re the only person he’ll actually listen to. What does that even mean? 

You’ve only had a few conversations with him and most of them seemed pretty tame. You’d never asked him to do anything. It was only ever minor suggestions to better his game or to help him heal afterwards but that was the extent of your friendship.

He’d just known you since you went to the same middle school as him but you both lived in different worlds then. He was the ace of the basketball team and you were the ace of the volleyball team. Your paths almost never crossed with how busy and committed you both were to your clubs, but you both respected each other and watched the other play whenever you had the chance.

“Why are you following me like a lost puppy? Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Aomine asks, snapping you out of your thoughts as he begins to ascend the ladder to the roof.

“Well, Momoi has gotten too busy to keep an eye on you, so you can call me your babysitter. It feels more like I’m supposed to be your secretary, though.”

“You can quit early. You’re not making me go to practice. There’s no point if I’m better than everyone.”

You huff, following him up. “You’re so arrogant.You know, that there’s going to come a day where someone will knock you off of your high horse or you might just do it yourself.”

He shrugs, laying down and letting his eyelids close.

“Daiki. Get up.”

He ignored you, faking a few snores in hopes that you’d give up and leave him alone. 

You let out a huff, contemplating on how to get him to go to practice. “What will it take for you to start going to practice?”

“I already don’t go, and my performance is fine.”

“But your teamwork is shit,” you blurt, quickly clamping your hands over your mouth as soon as you could.

He opened one of his eyes, glancing at you. “I don’t need a team. I’m strong enough on my own.”

“Then prove it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s go to practice. You’ll play by yourself versus three guys on the team. If you win, I’ll stop pestering you about practicing or being on time. If you don’t, you’ll practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and do strength training with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

Aomine scoffs, “You must be expecting me to win with your outrageous request.”

You shake your head, “I know you’re going to lose, so I need enough punishment to get you off of your high horse. Plus, we’ll have a 3 on 1 game every week until you beat them or you admit that you can’t do it by yourself. Do we have a deal?”

He sits up, looking at you in amusement, “We have a deal if you agree to let me take you on a date after I win.”

“Then, we have a deal, Mr. Optimistic.”

He jumps up, heading for the ladder. “Let’s go. I don’t want to eat too late.”

Your eyes widened at his sudden determination to go to practice, even if it was under an agreement. You quickly followed him, having trouble since his legs were decently longer than yours.

He pushed the gym doors open and all eyes went to the two of you. They all fell silent when Aomine began to speak. 

“Imayoshi, Sosa, and Harasawa. Play me. 3-on-1,” he challenged.

“Daiki-kun! What are you doing?” Momoi asks, looking in between you, him, and the three players he’d just called out.

“I’m just here to win a bet that Y/N made with me. That’s all.”

He jogs onto the court, getting ready to play and disregarding everything Momoi, you, and the coach were saying to him.

“How about we go to 21? My baskets will count for 1 or 2 points and yours will count for 2 or 3,” he smirked, passing the ball to Imayoshi as he got in a defensive stance.

“You cocky little asshole.” The match began moments later.

In only about 15 minutes, Aomine had won in a landslide. 21-5.

Your jaw dropped, “Daiki…”

He grabbed his bag off of the ground with a triumphant smirk, grabbing your hand to pull you along with him as he left. “How do burgers sound? I’m starving.”

You fell silent after you caught up with Aomine, walking beside at a leisurely pace. He let go of your hand and let out a sigh.

“You’re quiet,” he notes after a few minutes of silence, “Do you really have nothing to say to me if it isn’t about practice?”

“I’m just trying to get my thoughts together. I don’t want to say anything that I don’t really mean,” you mutter.

He nods, letting the two of you fall into silence once again as he opens the door for you to walk into the fast food restaurant.

About five minutes later, Daiki sat down across from you with a large pile of food. He hands you two burgers and some fries, knowing that you usually didn’t eat much.

“Alright, I can tell you’re mad at me,” he leans against his chair, looking at you.

“I’m not mad at you.”

“Yes, you are. You have the same look on your face when I do something extremely reckless during the game or when I almost get hurt because I didn’t take your advice.”

You huff, “Why do you spend so little time practicing basketball if you love playing so much?”

“It’s no fun when no one is a challenge anymore. I’m the only person that can beat me.”

“Can you shut up with your superiority complex bullshit!” you snap.

His eyes widened. You’ve never lost your cool before. Why did you care so much about him skipping practice?

You took a deep breath and spoke in a calmer tone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just- you claim to love the sport so much, yet, you subconsciously have given up. You’ve stopped having fun, but you don’t want to admit it.”

“Shut up,” he muttered.

“You hate the sport because you have no one to play against. Yet, winning isn’t the only reason to play. You play for your team or are you just too self-centered to realize it.”

“You don’t get to talk to me about the decisions I have made. You have no right to say that I need to play for the team when you were the best volleyball player at Teiko. You were the only person talked about as much as we were, but you quit. You gave up on your team. Don’t give me shit when you walked on the thing that made you who you are,” he sneered, getting up to leave.

“I didn’t give up. I’d committed to Rakuzan, but I got injured. They didn’t want me anymore. No strong team wanted me. Since Touou’s volleyball team is rather small since it just started last year, they still wanted me. That’s why I’m here. So don’t tell me about giving up because my love for volleyball is too strong. Everything I’ve ever done is to better myself and my team. That’s why I can have fun even if I’m beating the other team by a landslide. I can imagine how upset I have made you, and I apologize. I just- I would kill to step on the court right now. My doctor says that if I have surgery, I’ll be out for another six to nine months but my volleyball career will be guaranteed. I’ve thought about throwing away the rest of my career to play another season right now. Excuse me if seeing you flake off when you have so much potential makes me upset. I’m sorry for ruining our supposed date. Have a good night, Aomine.”

He couldn’t deny the way his heart ached after hearing your story or the way he swore that his heart broke when you called him by his last name. You haven’t done that since middle school.

His chest felt heavy, but there was nothing he could do now except to walk away. His pride being too large for an apology to fall across his lips.

It had been two weeks later and neither of you have tried to talk to the other. The team could practically feel the tension between the two of you as you sat on the opposite end of the bench to avoid being beside Aomine.

You were always the one to keep Aomine’s head afloat during games, so they weren’t sure what to expect without you quietly coaching him. They needed his complete focus during the game against Seirin and they were afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep his mind from drifting to whatever caused a rift between the two of you.

You stood up giving each of the players a pat on the back as they stepped onto the court. You placed your hand on Aomine’s shoulder as you stopped, causing him to stop and glance at you. He was going to open his mouth to say something, but you just gave him a tight lipped smile and continued to the bench and sitting by Momoi.

She gave you both sympathetic looks, knowing of the situation due to you both coming to her on separate occasions. Only Momoi knew how much of his play depended on your reassuring words and guided coaching. It wasn’t that he was terrible without you, but you gave him a purpose that neither of you realized.

The game has favored Touou for the most part, but Seirin was staying somewhat in the game. Everyone could tell that Aomine wasn’t giving his all, but no one knew how to approach him about it. They knew only you could bring him back to reality.

“Y/N, you do know that he’s started to come to practice, right?” Momoi says without taking her eyes off of the game. “He told me that he’d be there on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only because he has strength training on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

“Why are you telling me this?” you asked, trying to hide the shock you felt that he actually listened to you even though he won the bet.

“He said that you put some things into perspective, and he shouldn’t take his time playing basketball for granted when there are people dying to even be able to do a percentage of what he does.”

You quietly nodded, not noticing the smile that crept on your face.

Halftime came and the team quietly went to the locker room. Everyone could tell how close to breaking Aomine was.

You refilled the water bottles and grabbed some colder towels as you walked into the locker room. You gave all the players that came off of the court a towel and a bottle, receiving a small thanks as the coach talked to them. 

You noticed Aomine staring at the ground, trying to keep his focus on the game. You unfolded the cool towel, placing it over his head and bent down to set the bottle in front of him. 

As soon as you tried to  walk away, he grabbed your wrist, pulling you towards him until his head rested on your torso and his arms were wrapped around you. You paused, unsure of how to respond. You could have sworn you heard a soft sniffle come from him.

“Uh, Daiki-kun-” Momoi started, realizing how uncomfortable you looked.

You cut her off with a reassuring smile, “It’s okay, Momoi. Let him be.”

You look down at him, moving the towel onto his neck so you could run your hands through his hair.

The buzzer sounded to signal that there were two minutes left until the game began. Everyone piled out, but Aomine didn’t budge.

You fell silent as he looked up at you with a few tears rolling down his face. “I’ve never felt so lost on the court, Y/N. Please, tell me what to do out there! Tell me how many mistakes I’ve made. Yell at me. Hit me for being such a dumbass! I just need you to- just please- please, talk to me. I can’t take it anymore.”

“Kagami goes based on instinct, like you, so any movement that could give a hint about what you’re going to do is guaranteeing your loss in a one-on-one battle. Beating him is easy if you let yourself have some fun. This may be the only time I tell you this, but don’t hold back.”

His eyes widened, “Really?”

“Yeah. Don’t hold back and win this game for the team.”

“I’m still struggling with the team thing, but I can win this game for you, if that’s okay,” he confessed as he gets up, keeping his arms loosely wrapped around your waist.

You lightly laughed, “I guess it’s okay. I just want you to have some fun.”

“Can I kiss you?” he leans down, ghosting his lips over yours.

Knowing your words would fail you, you pulled him down, crashing his lips onto yours. His arms tightened around you as he tried to pull you impossibly close to deepen the kiss.

You pull away with a small smile on your face, patting his chest. “Let’s go before they think we’ve murdered each other.”

Aomine instantly picked you up, and rushed out of the locker room despite your protests.

“Daiki! Put me down!” you yell as the tunnel begins to end.

The team looks over at the sound of your voice to see Aomine carrying you out. They all let out a deep sigh of relief to see that the two of you were getting along again.

He sits you down and you hit him in the shoulder. “If you weren’t playing right now, I swear I would murder you!”

He laughs, giving you a quick kiss as the buzzer went off for the game to start again. “I want to cheer as loud as you can for me, yeah?”

You grin, “I’ll do my best.”

~~

A few months later, you were at the hospital, waiting to be wheeled back for surgery when Aomine bursted into your room with wide eyes and his uniform on.

“Daiki? What are you doing here? You have a game like right now!” you exclaim.

“I couldn’t play. I tried, Y/N. I really tried to stay focused during warm ups, but I can’t when you’re here, getting the surgery that brings you onto the court you love. I can’t just show up after it’s done and ask if you’re okay.”

“The team needs you.”

“The team is the reason I’m here. They’re worried about you, too. You may not play on the court, but you’ve been there for every single one of us when we needed it the most. It’s only fair that I do that same for you as your teammate, but more importantly, as your boyfriend.”

“Daiki…” your eyes soften, noticing the tears threatening to leave his eyes. 

He wasn’t typically a vulnerable person. This was the first time you’d seen him so upset since that fight.

“You’re here alone when you shouldn’t have to be. Your parents are out of town. Who’s going to take care of you, baby? I know you put up this big front that you’re strong, but I don’t think you actually want to go into surgery without a comforting and familiar face.” Daiki’s voice cracks as he walks over to you. His laces your fingers together. “Let me take care of you.”

“Okay.” Your voice was small. You felt all of the emotions you’d been holding in start pouring out as tears began to fall down your face. 

He wipes a few tears off of your face, pulling the chair closer to the edge of the bed to sit down. “How long until it’s time?”

“Ten minutes.”

He nods, letting the both of you fall into a comfortable silence.

“Daiki?” you asked after a few minutes of silence.

He hums in response as he looks over at you.

“What if I’m a part of the unlucky 25 percent that can’t play again?”

“Y/N, you’re overthinking. Everything will go perfect. You’ll be playing volleyball next season, and I’ll get to cheer my girl on from the sidelines. If anything other than that happens, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it. Either way, you have me.” He bends down to rummage in his bag, pulling out a teddy bear and handing it to you. “I got you this to hold onto during the surgery.”

“Thank you, Daiki.” You grabbed it from him, wrapping your arms around it tightly as you noticed that it smelled of his cologne. Your heart swelled as he successfully calmed you. 

Five minutes later, the nurse came in to wheel you to the back. He gave you a soft kiss on the forehead and watched them wheel you out.

The next three hours were excruciating for Aomine. He sat there in silence for the most part, checking his phone for updates on the game from Momoi.

After she informed him that they won, he made a plan with them to drop by your place later to check on you and celebrate later that night after they released you.

The nurse rolled you back in and you were still asleep. 

“How did it go?” he nervously asked.

“It was a success! As long as she does everything right, she should get back to volleyball in no time. She should wake up in the next thirty minutes or so. After that, we’ll see how she feels and go through everything that you guys need to do for the next two to three weeks until her check up.You guys should be out of here in another hour.

He nods, “Thank you.”

Just like the nurse said, you woke up thirty minutes later and felt a little groggy. He softly smiled at you, rubbing circles on the back of your hand.

“Hey, baby. How do you feel?”

Your eyes flutter open and you make immediate eye contact with him. “I want to go home, Dai,” you pout.

“I know. We’ll be going home soon. You’ll be back on the court before you know it, too.”

“Really?” you beamed.

He couldn’t help but match his smile to yours. “Yeah, they said it went perfect.”

Later that night, you and Aomine were quietly watching a movie when there was a knock on your door. 

You look at him confused as he gets up and walks over to it. “Aomine, who’s here?”

He smiles without answering your question as he opens the door to reveal the team standing there. They all piled into your home, asking if you were okay. Some of them handed you flowers and sweets while others brought movies and games for you to do in your free time.

“What are you guys doing here?” you ask in shock.

“We wanted to make sure that everything went well. Aomine thought it’d be a good idea,” Imayoshi informed you.

Aomine cheeks heated up as he scratched the back of his head. “I figured since you brought us closer as a team, you wouldn’t mind.”

“Not at all. These are moments with you guys that I won’t get often after I start playing volleyball again.”

“Nonsense, the volleyball team and basketball team schedules almost never clash because we only have one gym. The only time it’d be troublesome is during tournament season. Even if you can’t be at most of our games, you can still come to a lot of the practices,” Aomine interjected.

Everyone looked at him with wide eyes. “Why do you know this information?” Momoi asked.

“I wanted to see how much time I was going to get to spend with Y/N once she was released to play.”

“Oh you are so whipped.”

[wakaoujisenhime]

Hi, I just happened to stumble across you and now I’m addicted!😅❤️ anyway, I was hoping you could write some headcanons for a crack head rakuzan manager.

A/N: Hi there you two! Since your requests were for the same trope and the more or less same scenario, I decided to mash these two together, hope that’s ok with you guys! ( ´ ▽ ` )

Luckily, I grew up around some people that fit in that description, nevertheless this was a pretty new experience for me, so I hope I managed to deal with this successfully (I’m sorry in case that I didn’t ;-;)! Anyways, please enjoy and heed the warnings! ヽ(´ー｀)❤️

Tags/Warnings: Rakuzan x reader ✅ tw.drug mention/use ✅ tw.mention of bullying ✅ fluff ✅ friendship ✅

━━━━☆ ━━━━☆ ━━━━☆

Rakuzan is known as an elite school, harboring only the crème-de-la-crème of students and yet you still couldn’t comprehend why you were a part of it

everyone was driven by either perfectionism or greed, the teachers only cared for themselves and their salary, and the expectations society put on every student that wore this school’s logo were downright inhuman

so could someone really blame or shun you for being into drugs? —No, they couldn’t...and yet some still tried

every time you skipped a class to go on either the rooftop or that one dark alley in the very back of the luxurious building to roll a joint, someone random would always come looking for you

they’d try to push their ideals onto you and pretend that they are some kind of Samaritan who only wants the best for you and your future

Yeah sure...you don’t even know my name, do you?

the first few times really annoyed the hell out of you and their hypocrisy almost made you lose yourself once, but as these scenarios started repeating themselves you grew used to it and learned how to completely ignore them

depending on your mood and the amount of dopamine you’re releasing there were even times when you’d get sassy with them or downright challenge them to a fight, knowing fully well that as the goody-two-shoes they were they’d never accept it

the teachers were also aware of your addiction, but were too scared for their own reputation and decided that it’d be easier if they just left you to your own devices and wait until you either failed their classes or graduated

and just like that, you lead a rather peaceful school life, until a certain someone decided to disturb it...

when you skipped classes for the umpteeth time you waited patiently for today’s candidate who’d drag you over the coals for your ‘unsightly behavior’

after you’d taken the third pull on your joint you finally heard light steps which were just around the corner

without moving your head too much, you simply glanced towards the figure that had appeared and chuckled to yourself

“Woow, the teachers must be quite desperate to send their star pupil in order to get me” you sneered after blowing some of the smoke right into his direction

the red-haired young man who’d arrived was none other than Akashi Seijirou, a student whose school record was full of nothing but perfect grades and perfect remarks from everyone who had entered this school

you didn’t know much about him except the typical gossips and the fact that he was the complete opposite of yourself

for a while none of you said anything so you continued to smoke shamelessly in front of him, hoping that you could provoke some kind of reaction from him...though in vain

if words weren’t provocative enough you decided to see how far he’d allow you to go until he had to open his mouth

“You want a pull?”

much to your surprise he actually extended his hand towards you, so with wide eyes you carefully handed him your joint

So even flawless students like him need to let go sometimes, huh?

he eyed it for a while and the next thing you saw was how he let it drop and stomped on it

“Was that really necessary? You could’ve just refused it, you know?”

“I want you to join the basketball team as a manager” he then said in a calm and pretty serious tone

....

....

...What?

you began laughing as if he had said some kind of hilarious joke, but much to your disappointment he simply raised his eyebrow

“W-Wait...are you being serious right now? You want me to take care of the basketball team?”

seeing him simply nod with the same stoic expression he’d arrived with made you realize that he wasn’t one to joke around

Akashi took out a handkerchief and wiped his hand, without bothering to hide his disgust and then simply turned his back to you

“I’ll be waiting for you at the gym after school and I hope you’ll be there...for your sake.”

and with that threat, he left you by yourself, confused and utterly speechless

you soon began giggling to yourself and you wanted to blame it on the drugs but deep down you knew the truth ...

.

as the school bell rang for the last time today you lazily packed your stuff and without paying any attention to neither your teacher nor your classmates you trotted out of the classroom

you hated admitting it but the red-haired young man’s words had haunted you for the entire day, but you weren’t one to simply obey whatever others told you

just as you were about to walk down the stairs someone muscular bumped into you, almost knocking you off your feet

as you looked up to see who it was you saw a dark-skinned and bulky man towering above you with a grim look on his face

“(Y/N)?”

you hesitated to answer for a moment, but his challenging expression downright forced you to respond, though it was merely with a small nod

“Excellent, follow me” he ordered after turning around and you did

while he was walking in front, you noticed that most of the students were intimidated or scared by his towering frame and now that you were behind him you realized how truly lonely he must be

“We’re here,” he began, “Akashi! I brought her!”

at the mention of that name you immediately wanted to just turn around and leave, but with that broad man next to you any type of escape was shut down

a pair of heterochromatic eyes looked in your direction and a proud smile adorned the rather emotionless expression of the red-haired young man who signalized the other club’s members to take a short break while he strolled towards the two of you

“(Y/N), I’m glad to see that you picked the right choice to come here. Now...follow me.”

you simply glanced up at the broader man next to you with a pleading expression, but he simply grinned and gave you a thumbs up

Akashi led you to a bench where an older man had already taken a seat, reading through some papers

he was so into it that he didn’t even bother to look up at you two

“Alright your task is simple, I want you to learn the basic rules of basketball and everything else that surrounds it. You have a week and then I’d like to test your knowledge during a practice match. There are also several other things I want you to fulfill, but this will be enough for now” he took a short breath and looked at his team players with a slightly annoyed gaze before he continued “I also provided you with one of those ‘how to’ books so I hope you won’t need long. Any further questions?”

Where do I even start?

“Listen up, I never said that I was going to be your team’s manager or anything like that, you literally forced me to come here by sending that giant after me! And you can’t be serious with all of this right? You guys are a pro team and you want me - a mere amateur - to manage you? Starting next week? I don’t even th-“

“I don’t remember giving you a choice in this matter and yes, you’ll learn it all until next week. You being a student at this elite school speaks for itself, so learning the basic rules of a mere sports game isn’t going to cost you much. Now sit down and start reading.”

his condescending and overall rude tone made you more than just mad, but before you could utter any kind of comment, he had already turned his back to you and was heading for the court

“If I were you, I’d just agree with whatever he says” commented the older man whose gaze was still on the papers before him

you clicked your tongue and put both of your hands on your hips as you stared at him and asked whether that was how he usually dealt with him

“That’s how I learned to deal with him. A genius like him is only getting held back by simple-minded people...or those,” he paused and finally looked up, eyeing you judgingly before he finished his sentence, “that can’t read the mood.”

you were absolutely speechless and enraged, so before you completely lost your wits you grabbed that stupid book Akashi had gotten for you and purposely stomped towards the gym’s entrance doors to roll yourself another joint

.

you spent the entire duration of their training outside and even though you didn’t intend to really read the booklet, you eventually started and got into it, until you heard a loud whistle and Akashi’s voice announcing the end of today’s practice

“I’m expecting you at tomorrow’s practice as well, (Y/N)” said the red-haired captain as soon as you re-entered the gym to take your bag and go home

you answered with a simple nod and left, figuring that you’d just go along with him for a while but secretly do whatever you wanted

or at least that was supposed to be your plan, but something quite unexpected happened

while you had set your mind to obey whatever the captain wanted from you, you caught yourself actually having fun during the guys’ practice

you did know a little about basketball even without the book’s help, but as you gradually read chapter after chapter and actually witnessed the real thing before you every single day, you came to truly enjoy it

there were always some rumors that Rakuzan’s basketball team was on an entirely different level and you finally saw why

the four players that always accompanied Akashi on the court were some kind of prodigies the others referred to as the “Uncrowned Kings” or the new and improved version of “The phantom sixth man”

during your first days of hearing those rather over the top nicknames, you couldn’t help but laugh out loud

These four having such titles? Don’t mess with me, that’s just hilarious!

and even if you were the only one laughing at it while the others simply looked away, your laughs were shut down pretty quickly as soon as you saw how they played

seeing just how powerful and overall perfect they seemed to be made you even more pissed off than you already were

luckily you were standing right next to the gym’s door so you cracked it open, leaned yourself on its frame, and began smoking one of your self-rolled joints

“Wow (Y/N), I didn’t know you smoked! You look really cool!”

the sudden compliment from the cheerful blond with the sharp canine caught you off guard, not to mention that he was the first one besides Akashi to even attempt some sort of conversation...and it made you unexpectedly happy

“Thanks, I guess?...would you like to have a pull?”

you couldn’t help but smirk at how his eyes lit up after nodding multiple times and just as he was about to take the softly smoking joint from your hand, someone snatched it and threw it out, closing the door in the process

that someone was Reo, whose eyes looked down on you with a rather hurt and sad expression

out of nowhere, he took a gentle hold of your cheeks and softly tilted your head up so that you could look him directly into his mesmerizing eyes

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this, but smoking is bad for you (Y/N)-chan. You’re such a beautiful young lady and being a crackhead just doesn’t suit you, you know?”

thanks to the soft tone with which he’d complimented and lectured you, you just couldn’t be mad at him

but before you could even say anything you felt a big and strong hand slap your back with so much force that you almost fell right into Kotaro’s arms

“Geez, Nebuya you brute, how many times do I have to tell you to be more careful!”

completely ignoring the tall man’s protest the more muscular man simply laughed and took a tight hold of your upper arm saying: “All she needs are more muscles and meat on her and she’ll make a great opponent!”

the way the three of them had surrounded you while laughing at each other’s comments and even making you part of their discussion warmed your heart, and you caught yourself thinking that being the manager of this team might not be such a bad idea after all...

.

the day of the practice match came along and you were a bundle of nerves

who would’ve thought that you’d actually prefer going to the gym to check up on the players instead of straight-up heading back home

much to your surprise, it didn’t even take you three days to get almost every club member to respect you, sure there were obstacles along the way, but you managed to deal with them rather quickly

not too long ago, you had actually helped out Mayuzumi, who usually avoided you and barely ever talked to you

you had been on your way to your usual spot to light up a joint and just before you cut the corner you heard some loud voices

“Just ‘cause you’re in the basketball club, doesn’t make you special!”

“What’s with those dead-looking fish eyes of yours anyway?”

“C’mon guys, don’t you see that we’re wasting his precious reading time here? Let’s hurry up and scram so that he can continue reading his novel!”

you had no idea just what the hell was going on, but it sounded a lot like someone was getting bullied and you weren’t in the mood to let it slide

“Ok guys, I need you to wrap whatever this is up. I’m in a rather bad mood right now and I really need a smoke, so get going” you said in a rather dark tone

the students who had encircled someone you couldn’t quite identify yet jumped a little at your sudden intervention and turned their attention to you

all remarks they had prepared for you were gone the moment they realized just who was standing in front of them

nevertheless, the group remained stubborn and tried to chase you away by asking you to wait for a little

while you were dealing with the group, the person they had ganged up on stood up from the ground and that’s when you finally recognized who they were bullying

Isn’t that...Mayuzumi?

and at that moment something inside of you clicked

with confident steps, you made your way to the tall young man and placed a hand on his shoulder

“There you are and here I was thinking you’d bailed on me” you began as you gently squeezed his shoulder, giving him a signal to make him play along before you continued, “I got your stuff, you got the money?”

thanks to his constant poker face and slight nod the group of bullies was instantly on their guard

in order to give them their last push you pulled out a small and transparent bag with white powder out of your pocket

“You guys are still here? Sorry, but if you wanted a package you should’ve told me beforehand. Just so you know, it isn’t going to be cheap.”

seconds later the group finally gave up and stormed off, murmuring something about it not being worth the trouble

as soon as they were gone you let out a loud sigh of relief and crouched down, exclaiming how relieved you were that it was finally over

your sudden reaction caught the young man off guard and at first, he was stomped at what to do but he eventually crouched down next to you

“If you were that scared you shouldn’t have helped me in such an...unorthodox way. They might snitch on you, you know?”

you couldn’t help but giggle at the rather clumsy way he tried to thank and reassure you

“It’s fine even if they do, the teachers wouldn’t be surprised anyway and besides...that bag contains nothing more but some makeup powder I got from Reo to...to hide the bags under my eyes.”

even though you whispered the last part Mayuzumi still heard it and then chuckled

since then he actually began listening to you and even talked to you whenever no one was around

the other three were fond of you since day one so you had no trouble dealing with them whatsoever, or protecting them for that matter

someone was making rude remarks about Nebuya while he ate his daily portion of meat (which equaled five of yours)?

you’d tap them on the shoulder, lean on them and say that they were lucky enough he didn’t hear them, or else he might actually devour them instead

hearing how people made fun of Reo’s way of talking and even shun him for his behavior behind his back?

you’d directly go up to them and intentionally talk in a loud voice for everyone to hear how cowardly they were and how their behavior would drag their beloved school’s reputation down if you decided on making it public

witnessing how naive and warm-hearted Kotaro got roped into some even shadier business than what you were up to with sugarcoated words?

you’d do something similar to how you saved Mayuzumi back then: threats and bluffs and luckily all of them worked out in your favor

the only one who needed more time to warm up to you was Akashi

it was obvious that he hadn’t approved of you despite your (in your eyes) good performance during the first practice match

he’d simply nodded in the end and coldly stated that he’d accept this rather poor performance, warning you that there would be consequences if you don’t improve yourself

back then the others had joined you on the bench and were trying to cheer you up by saying that the red-haired young man was usually that demanding, but only towards people he knew had the potential...in a way he was trying to bring forth your hidden talent

with these sweet words and your own ambition to prove yourself to the seemingly perfect emperor, you finally started taking the club more serious than you’d originally intended

.

..

What did he just say..?

“Sei-chan, y-you....you can’t be serious”

“Akashi...”

said man turned towards you guys with a warm but twisted smile as he stretched his hand out towards you

“I swear to you, that if we lose this match, I will leave the club and...gouge both of my eyes out, and give them to you.”

after that proclamation each of the players gave it more than just their all, even you who could do nothing but cheer them on from the bench began analyzing everything you could from your team’s opponents

during that very emotional match, you found yourself praying multiple times that your team wins and not only because of Akashi’s oath but because you knew just how much they had trained for this

additionally, Kotaro and the others told you that this match was of utmost importance to the captain and his former teammates, all the more reason for you to worry

.

sadly in the end you guys lost and you were too overwhelmed with everything that had transpired in the last quarters

Zone? What the hell is that?

Another Akashi? How is something like that even possible?

the entire Rakuzan team walked back to the locker room in complete silence and that silence remained until all of them had changed their clothes

“(Y/N)-chan, let’s go,” said Reo in a gentle and silent tone as he gently squeezed your shoulder

“Y-You guys can go on ahead, I still have to check something” you answered with an apologetic smile

you were thankful that the young man could read the mood and agreed, so you re-entered the locker room, looking around searching for something

the moment you wanted to take a step forward, your legs gave out and you fell to your knees

H-Huh..? What’s w-wrong with me, I-I need to get up...

no matter how hard you tried you just couldn’t muster the strength to stand up, and before you knew it, tears had started rolling down your cheeks without stopping

frustration, despair, anger, and sadness overcame you and at some point you caught your thoughts drifting off in a direction you had never taken before

with trembling hands, you took a small package full of some kind of powder out of your jacket and looked at it

you weren’t the type to resort to real hardcore drugs and as of late you had been so busy with the team that even your usual smoke breaks became less and less, but now...

just as you were about to open the small bag in your hands the door to the changing room slowly opened

“A-Akashi...?”

the young man looked at you with a worried expression and as soon as he saw what you held in your hands he grew even sadder

without saying anything he simply walked towards you, kneeled down, and embraced you

you were quite shocked at first, but too emotionally tired to resist at this point so you simply let him comfort you

he told you that these overwhelming emotions you were going through right now were normal and absolutely understandable in this situation, and even without you saying how guilty you felt for the boys’ loss he calmed you down by stating that one person alone could not be at fault for an entire team’s failure

.

that day engraved itself in your brain and you promised yourself that you’d give it your all and even go further beyond it, just so you wouldn’t have to see the sad faces of the people who had given you a chance and loved you for who you are, including all of your “flaws”

unbeknownst to you, they had also found the same resolution as you

the day on which they had lost their match against Seirin made them realize that there was indeed something lacking in their way of playing basketball, and in order to improve that they had to start with a rather peculiar mission, namely to make you, their manager, proud and make sure that you never cried ever again...

[aomine-ryo]

A scenario please for my sunshine kiseee ahhhh ❤️❤️ um, basically, kaijo lost in such a close game; and kise cries because he gave it his all, but it just wasn't their time. And reader is in the bleachers/stands, and when she sees kise cry, she cries with him--then she rushes to hug him and comfort him. Angst, comfort, and fluff please!!! 😭❤️ Thank youu ☺️

Ah the pain 😔 I hope you like this one!! xx

Scenario: comforting Kise who just lost a game

Kise had been working hard— it goes without question. Literally anyone could tell you that he was determined to win the semifinals against Rakuzan. Almost all his free time would be spent practicing in the gym— and most of the time he never even had anyone to practice with. He just felt like he needed to be working his absolute hardest if he was going to go up against one of the top schools in the country, much less the captain of his former team.

You were very much aware about how much this game meant to him so you tried to support him as much as you could. You took the time to make him some snacks for training as well as kept him company whenever he was practicing alone. Every now and then he’d make you practice with him and while you’d usually refuse, you were much more tolerant about it now.

At last, it was game day. You made sure that you kept that day free of any plans because you intended on being there for your boyfriend the entire time. You were seated in the stands amidst a sizeable crowd after wishing Kise good luck. You could feel the anticipation in the air— the whole arena knew that this match was going to be a nail-biter and for some reason your stomach was turning. You weren’t the one playing— why were you this nervous?

Just as the teams were walking onto the court to warm up, Momoi and Aomine spotted you and decided to keep you company during the game. It didn’t really make too much of a difference to you whether you were alone or not though. Your sole focus was Kise. However, maybe a few explanations here and there from Aomine or Momoi may be helpful.

Somehow, in the crowd of a good hundred people or so, Kise managed to spot you in the front row. With a massive smile on his face, he waved, making you feel a little more at ease as you waved back excitedly as if you were one of his fangirls. Little did you know that Kise was going to puke from nerves. As soon as he walked on court, his eyes scanned the stands in search of you, the only one who he knew could bring him comfort. And of course, there you were, front and center, supporting him with all you had.

“Tch, that idiot is really that confident about this game that he’s taking the time to wave to you huh?” Aomine scoffed.

“One wave isn’t going to be the downfall of his abilities Dai-chan— I think it’s sweet,” Momoi snapped back at him for you.

You tried to chat with the two of them as you waited for the game to start, though your mind was filled with other thoughts.

Finally, it was time for the match to begin. The two teams lined up at the center of the court, each of them looking as strong as ever. At that point you already felt like you were about to explode— you were in for a long 40 minutes.

Straight off the bat, Kaijo managed to get a shot in, seemingly as a way to intimidate their opponents. And of course, it had to be Kise doing it, sending you and the rest of the crowd into a fit of cheers. Almost instantly though, Rakuzan returned the favour with a basket of their own— this wasn’t going to be an easy match.

The game went on, with momentum constantly switching between the two teams to the point where by the last quarter, it could still be anyone’s game. Kise was exhausted though. He’d been working his ass for for three quarters straight because he was determined not to lose, but the fatigue was finally beginning to hit him. He did his best to brush it off and endure it for just ten more minutes. If he could get through just this one quarter, that would be it. Victory was right in front of him and he was going to grab it for his team. Or so he thought.

It wasn’t an easy fight. With a few seconds remaining, Rakuzan managed to grab a one point lead. The entire arena seemed to come to the conclusion that Rakuzan had won this one. But Kise wasn’t ready to accept that. No, there’s two seconds left. If he could just make it to the halfway line—

The whistle blew.

For a moment everything went quiet around Kise as he stood there in shock; lungs feeling as though they were weighing him down. Eventually the crowd erupted in cheers but they were all drowned out by Kise’s thoughts. He gave it his all. He trained and trained and trained but it still wasn’t enough. He still couldn’t give Kaijo the victory they deserved. He still couldn’t prove that he was the strongest— there was always going to be someone above him and right now, that thought was suffocating.

A pat on the back from Moriyama snapped him back into reality. “Come on, let’s line up,” he said softly. Kise could hear the disappointment in his tone. And upon further observation, his whole team had their heads down in regret, causing Kise’s eyes to fill up with tears. This was the end of the Winter Cup for Kaijo.

After thanking his opponents, Kise did his best to wipe away his tears, but it was no use. The tears just kept falling and falling as his mind filled with regret. If he had just worked harder, if he spent just a little more time practicing, if he got just one more point... maybe the outcome would be different.

Meanwhile, you remained at the edge of your seat with one hand clasped over your mouth in disbelief while the other one gripped Momoi’s hand so tight that it might just break. Each match has a winner and a loser— you were painfully aware of that. But still, you weren’t expecting either team to lose, though this was the worst possible outcome.

Looking down at the court, you could see your boyfriend seated on the bench with a hopeless look on his face as tears streamed down his cheeks. It hurt seeing him like that. It hurt seeing someone who was usually so bubbly and full of life look utterly defeated.

Tears filled your eyes as you finally let go of Momoi and rushed out of the stands to meet him in the hallways. The place was a maze of crowded and buzzing corridors but you ran all over the place in search of Kise. You didn’t know if anything you had to say would comfort him, but you couldn’t stand to see him look so despaired.

Finally, you spotted his team heading your direction. Kise didn’t even notice you. His eyes were fixated on the ground. He was still crying. You immediately ran over to him and wrapped your arms around his body as tightly as you possibly could, taking him by surprise for a moment though your hug was quickly returned.

In any other situation, the team would’ve told you and Kise to walk along with them, but this time they just left you two alone after telling Kise to meet up with them outside. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a better game to watch, Y/N-cchi,” Kise sobbed, hugging you as if his life depended on it.

“Don’t apologise, idiot. You did your best,” you said, trying to be the stronger one here though you were crying yourself.

“But my best wasn’t good enough,” he said, voice breaking and causing your heart to ache for him. You couldn’t even imagine how awful he must feel.

You pulled away from the hug so that you could look him in the eyes. Sniffling, you wiped his tears away with the end of your sleeve. “Listen, you played so, so well out there. I bet he won’t admit it, but even Aomine said that you improved a lot and that he wanted to play a one-on-one with you again— act surprised if he texts you about it by the way,” you joked, making him let out a small chuckle, which made you glad. “Even Aomine freakin’ Daiki said you played well, and that man doesn’t give out compliments for the life of him. Trust me, you were absolutely amazing— everyone thinks so. And I know you’ll absolutely crush it next time,” you said, cupping his face in your hands.

Kise felt his heart melt at the sound of your words. He was really so incredibly lucky to have you. How’d you even manage to make him smile after a loss like that? “I love you, Y/N,” he sniffled.

“I love you too, Ryouta,” you smiled at him before getting on your toes to place a kiss on his cheek. “Now come on, the team is probably waiting for you. Why don’t we go out for dinner together? My treat. We can go to that restaurant you like.”

“That sounds nice. You don’t have to treat me like a baby though,” Kise said. It was his turn to wipe the tears off of your face before the two of you began to walk hand in hand.

“Why not? You’re cute enough to pass off as one,” you smiled.

“Look who’s talking,” Kise retorted. Just like that, Kise was smiling again. He was still frustrated about the whole thing but for now, he had you by his side, and that’s all that mattered.

[oydan]

Title: Waste It On Me

Pairing: Slight!Daiki Aomine x OC; Ryota Kise x OC

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters let alone the entirety of Kuroko No Basuke. I only own the OC characters mentioned. I also do not own the work of BTS. I will only be using their songs for inspiration. A/N: Please support me by liking, commenting, and/or reblogging my work; please. I follow back everyone that follows me! Go check out the ‘Love Yourself’ series from BTS if you haven’t already. It’s an absolute master piece that heals my soul. Stream “Permission to Dance” and “Butter” while you’re at it lol Love Yourself Series Masterlist

I don't know your secrets

But I'll pick up the pieces

Pull you close to me now

After the match against Kuroko and Akashi, Maimi went on with her life like normal. There was no longer a need to worry about past mistakes or wonder if things could have ended up different had she actually done something back then. There was no longer a need for her to think about the past when the future in front of her was much better. She could have stayed at the academy but there was nothing here that caught her interest. The only reason why she had chosen the all girl’s school was because she wanted to run away from her problems as far as she could, but now that Akashi was back to normal and no longer forbade her from going to any other school beside his own. There were more opportunities for her.

So far she had gone to a handful of other surrounding high schools closer to home to see if any would stick out to her but there was nothing that made her gravitate in any direction. The one school that came close was Shutoku to be with Midorima but she had a feeling her presence would incite a new set of teasing from Takao that could potentially lead the green haired boy to finally dispose of him. For now she would have to call that plan B until further notice. Rakuzan was highly recommended by her parents considering they had the best education out of the rest of her options but the only reason she wanted to change schools was to stay closer to her family home. Plus, while things were good between her and Akashi she didn’t want the special treatment she received the day she decided to give in and take an official tour of the school. A special car was promised to come pick her up everyday along with an apartment that would be supplied by Akashi’s family business. She felt like a new specimen when she walked around the halls with all the eyes burning holes through her. They had never seen anyone beside the basketball team around Akashi so it was a shock when he showed up with the pretty blonde close by his side. Rakuzan was a huge no.

There were other schools that had potential but considering she hoped to be a manager for a basketball team it made it even more difficult for her to decide. Seiren and Kaijo high were both next on the list to check out. Which led her to her current situation of flipping through brochures of each high school weighing if either were academically good enough for her to attend.

She wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and was too engrossed in her own thoughts to notice a familiar face in the crowd of pedestrians. Until that said person ran up to her yelling, “Mai-cchi! Mai-cchi!” Hearing that old nickname made her finally look up in time to see a beaming Kise run up to her. He was still wearing his school uniform but it looked disheveled like he had been in a rush before. “Hi Kise, are you running from some fangirls or something?”

“Huh? No, why?” He looked confused by the question probably thinking it was random until she pointed to his tie that was left hanging and wrinkled shirt. She had known him long enough to realize that it was out of character to see him look sloppy. There was hardly a day that she could remember seeing even a single hair out of place unless he had another run in with some crazy fans. “Oh, no. I just came from a photo shoot. I was rushing to put my clothes on.” A light blush covered his cheeks and a bit of his ears realizing his mistake while he attempted to fix his own tie. “Why were you rushing?”

“I…I saw you through the store window.” Maimi was thrown off by the answer but she didn’t show it on her face, or at least she tried not but she avoided the comment by reaching forward and fixing his tie that he was struggling with. “You should be more careful. You still have my number, you could have messaged me or called.”

“Yeah but you had that look on your face.” Kise’s response made her slightly self conscious not understanding what he meant by that. Noticing her discomfort he waved his hands in a panic denying it as an insult. “No! I mean you just get this look on your face whenever you’re so far gone in your own world. You never hear anyone because your thoughts are too loud. It’s not weird I promise. I actually think it’s cute. But not in a weird way!” Seeing the normally confident boy scramble for the right words made her heart flutter unexpectedly, but she had decided to hide it with a small giggle. “Thank you. I’m glad it wasn’t weird.”

“Sure. What’s that?” He points to the pamphlets in her hands that had her undivided attention just moments ago.

She lifts them up for him to see the contents and when he saw his high school’s name on one of them a small bit of excitement and hope filled his heart. “I’m looking into transferring now that Akashi is back to normal. I’ve been looking for a while now but I’ve been touring new schools for the last couple of weeks.”

“And you’re thinking about coming to Kaijo?”

“Yeah, it looks like it. I’ve been wanting to get back into managing a team officially but every school either doesn’t have a good academic record, a good team, or one of you guys there to complicate things. I was thinking about you since we didn’t have issues after middle school but now that I think about it your fans might harass me again once they realize we know each other.” She proceeds to explain but Kise interrupts her before she could continue. “They won’t.”

She laughs a bit, “I think you’re undermining how popular you are. I’ll definitely be in some misunderstanding with some girls.”

“Don’t worry. I made it work before and I’ll make sure they don’t. Just come to Kaijo with me.”

“I mean I don’t know I still have to look at the academic scores-”

“We have a great science program. I’m not a good example but we have a competitive school for academics.”

“Well I still need to speak to my parents, Kise. Why do you want me to go there so bad?” They had never been the closest out of the rest of the group before but she did know that he had a small crush on her back then with the way that he liked to flirt with her. She just never paid it any mind since she was with Aomine during that time. Maimi assumed he just grew out of it over time. “I just think I’ll be able to hit my full potential with you there. Which is good for you, right? I can be your newest challenge.”

That part was actually true. She had always known that Kise had the most potential to explore out of the rest. If she were able to get him back to his full health she would be able to test out how far he could go. There was even some potential he could be better than Kagami and Aomine. “I’ll think about it.” Before he could argue more they were interrupted by his cell phone ringing.

“Hello? Momo-cchi…oh that sounds like a great idea! I’m with Mai-cchi. I'll let her know about it right now…sure…we just ran into each other after I had a photo shoot here near the arcade…both of you are? Perfect, we'll head your way so we can start planning this all out! Bye!” When he hung up Kise seemed overly excited about whatever they had spoken about. “Momo-cchi and Ao-cchi are close by at the burger shop down a couple blocks. Let’s go.”

There was no room to argue since he just pulled Maimi by her hand in a rush to meet the pair wherever they were at. In the past she may have had a difficult time but after the last match there was no need any longer to worry about her heart aching at the sight of them. The problem was the taller blonde pulling her away to an unknown location. “Why are we both going? You didn’t even tell me what this is about.”

“Oh, Momo-cchi said she was planning a birthday surprise for Kuroko. We’re going to play streetball together. Now come on.”

Which was how the pair ended up sitting across from Aomine and Momo. “Tetsu said okay. Alright!”

“Didn’t Midorima say he’d come if he felt like it?”

“He’ll be fine.”

“Why are you so confident?”

“Don’t worry Shin will come. I’ll be sure of it.” Maimi says in between sipping her milkshake. “Yup. Now that just leaves Mukkun. He said it sounded like a pain in the butt and hung up on me.”

“What should we do about him?”

“What are you even doing here for Kise?” Aomine finally asks, seeing the opportunity to get the answers he wanted when he first saw the two walk into together hand in hand. He knew that he had no say in the matter but it didn’t stop the feeling in his gut that it wasn’t good for him. “He was at a studio in the area doing a model shoot.” Unfortunately that didn’t answer his real question but it would just make things awkward if he proceeded to ask about them being together. “And I met Kise along the way.” Maimi on the other hand was able to read his expression and while she didn’t owe it to him to explain herself, she did want to clear a misunderstanding before they would have their reunion with the rest of the guys.

“Getting Murasakibarachhi to come to Tokyo is our biggest obstacle right now.”

“You just need to set out some bait.”

“How?”

“Listen closely. First put a tasty snack out where he’ll see it. He’ll definitely go for it. Then lay out some more.”

“He’ll be in Tokyo before he knows it.”

“Great idea, right?” Maimi was lost of words seeing the pair agree that it was the greatest plan to have ever been hatched in their time. She was genuinely wondering if they were serious. “Can’t you take this seriously?! Forget it. I’ll do it myself.” Momo had given up on the two dummies in front of her and proceeded to dial the purple foodie’s number.

“Mukkun, I found a really tasty snack. Aren’t you interested? It has a new crisp but doughy texture. It’s sort of like Vietnamese cuisine. And the secret ingredients are sakura shrimp and powdered foie gras. I’ll get you some, so could you come to Tokyo on the 31st? It’s really good!” The whole group had leaned in to listen for his response but it seemed like he was ready to hop on a train now. “That’s not much different from my plan.”

“It’s the realistic version of your plan.”

“But Murasakibaracchi’s resolve is wavering.”

“I guess I’ll go.” His lazy voice calls out through the phone letting them all know that Momo’s plan had worked. “Then I’ll do my best to make some.”

“You idiot!”

“Wait, Momo.” Maimi was too late to grab the phone before he hung up on them all. “What? No way! Wait!” They were pretty close but unfortunately Momo’s terrible reputation for her culinary skills did them in. At first Maimi was tempted to call him back and promise him her own treats but she didn’t want to hurt Momo’s feelings. Instead, she settled for sending a message to Akashi for help. Their last chance at getting the group back together. “Don’t worry we’ll get Akashi to do it instead. Anyways, I have to start heading home now it’s getting late.” When she gets up Kise beats everyone to the punch by jumping from his seat to follow after her. “I’ll walk you home since I dragged you with me. Bye guys!” Before Aomine could disagree they were already out the door leaving him with Momo who felt bad for her childhood friend. While he was nowhere near perfect she hoped that one day they could get back together. He was much better now than he was back then but with Kise now in the picture there was a bit of doubt that would be possible.

Kise had always found Maimi attractive but that wasn’t what had piqued his interest. As a professional model he was constantly surrounded by beautiful women, either his age or older, so he should have been immune to the dainty blonde. It could have been when they were classmates in their second year at Teiko. Unlike the rest of the other girl’s in his class she was the only one that wouldn’t even shoot him a glance. At first he didn’t think much about it but as time went on he began to feel a bit disgruntled by it. Unknowingly, he found himself watching her out of the corner of his eye. It started with looking over at her whenever he would get a crowd of girls to giggle to see if he could get her to crack a smile. Somehow he would only catch the back of her head on her way out of the classroom. Then it turned into going out of his way to impress her with his athletic ability to pick up any skill just by watching once. It never worked which confused him even more since his social standing kept rising. He was left stumped on how to get her attention until the day he was hit in the back of his head with a basketball and met Aomine. He followed after him remembering that Teiko was well known for their basketball team and thought it was worth looking into. Kise never thought he would feel inspired after just watching the way that the darker skinned boy jumped over the rest of the defending players to dunk the ball he just retrieved. It was the first time he felt himself wanting to actually try out for a sport’s team. When Maimi came up to for the first time speaking to him outside of the classroom he sealed the deal from then onward. He would later find out that she was taken by that same player that got him interested in basketball in the first place. While he respected and looked up to Aomine it didn’t stop him from taking advantage of his new found friendship with the blonde he had been trying to woo. Rather it just inclined him to try harder. He continued to chase after her but when things got rocky with Aomine he stopped his insistent badering. The pair was on thin ice and for any other person that may have been in his position would have taken advantage; it just didn’t feel right. Instead he would try to step in when Aomine would snap at her out of nowhere and even tried to cheer her up but it wasn’t enough. The light from her eyes became dimmer and she no longer was the confident and sweet girl he had first met. There was a time that he wanted to replace Aomine in her heart but after the way they broke up it seemed impossible.

So, he waited for her. It took a long time but he didn’t mind. He knew there was unfinished business with the others that needed to be resolved and let her breathe while he could. At first he wanted to be the one that swooped in and saved her but his arrogant thoughts were diminished when he first lost against Kuroko. It took him a while to realize that he couldn’t reach his full potential without acknowledging the rest of his teammates' contribution as well. When he was thrust back into the reality that he wasn’t this perfect specimen he realized that there was no need to save her. He would see her from a far and realize that she was becoming more than a damsel that needed to be saved. She no longer would walk with her head down or have a hard time holding eye contact. Maimi was her own strength and all he wanted was to watch from afar as she strived to be better.

He was okay with that being as far as their relationship would go. At least at first he was but when he saw her sitting with Aomine and Momo at the last match he realized that wouldn’t be possible. Kise wanted nothing but her happiness. He wanted to see her smile again with pure eyes no longer filled with a hint of loneliness; he wanted her to laugh so loud and hard that she had to gasp for air; he wanted her to confidently hold her head high while she faced the world. He wanted all that but he wanted to be one that contributed to that happiness as well.

She was his old friend's ex-girlfriend, so there would probably be a bit of apprehension from her. He still ran outside the modeling agency the moment his eyes caught sight of the familiar figure in the busy street of Tokyo. Now here he was walking her to her family home, falling into a deeper infatuation with her as she talked about her transfer and what she wanted to do afterwards.

He always felt like it was too soon to think about graduation or think about what he would do after high school. Hearing her speak about college and how she wanted to be a doctor specializing in sports medicine, made him think about it as well. “What do you want to do after high school, Kise? We’re going to be in our second year soon. You should start thinking about it.”

“Hm…I’m not too sure. I could just keep being a model since it pays well enough.”

“Sure that could work. Would you want to go to college or play basketball?”

This was the part that made him think more in depth. He did love basketball but he had no real idea if he would want to continue playing in college. School work and him never really mixed. “Well if you keep modeling for a while you could try to get recruited by a professional team. You’ve gotten a lot better.”

“Well if I had you by my side maybe I could be better.” It was meant to be a hint that he wanted to continue training with her but he realized that it sounded more like a pick up line. His face felt warm when he realized she stayed quiet for a while not answering. Gathering enough courage he sneaked a peek at her and saw her fair skin engrossed with a tint of red as well. “I-I mean, I want you to come to Kaijo with me and the rest of my team. You could do great at Seiren as well but…I need you there.” He had no idea what he was saying anymore. It was like his mind was stuck on auto considering the words kept spilling out of him despite how embarrassed he had become admitting his feelings. He waited for a reply but when she stopped in front of the gate of a single story home he realized their time had run out.

On the other hand Maimi could see the slight disappointment on his face realizing that they would now have to part, and she couldn’t stop the smile that made its way onto her face. She never saw him in that light but then again she hadn’t thought of anyone in that light besides Aomine. Now that she had given up on him she realized she should start to explore the idea of moving on to someone else. “I’ll think about it but…Kaijo seems to be at the top of the list right now.” While she was more confident she still couldn’t flirt back to save her life but she hoped that was enough to show Kise she was interested. Too embarrassed to see his reaction she ran inside the gate to her front door. Before she closed the door though she called out to the stunned boy. “Thank you for walking me home. I’ll message you tomorrow when to meet up for the reunion.”

Once the door closed Kise couldn’t help but smile so big his cheeks hurt. Punching the air in excitement not realizing Maimi had seen the sweet reaction from her front window.

Kise knew that she was barely getting over Aomine but he would wait as long as it took to get the girl of his dreams. He just hoped that when the time came she would look his way.

I wanna be your summer, I wanna be your wave

Treat me like a comma, I'll take you to a new phrase