Title: Red String of Fate

Writer: Amariys

Words count: 2211 words

Fandom/Characters: Kuroko no Basket/Aomine Daiki, Kise Ryouta

Pairing(s): Pre-slash AoKise.

Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basket is not mine. No trademark infringement or profit meant from the writing of this story.

Rating: K+

Summary: In a world where everyone has their own special power, Aomine Daiki comes to believe in the concept of soul mates.

A/N: This is just my personal whim of playing with a plot idea. Still, I hope anyone who reads this will enjoy it. :)

"Hey, what's your power?"

Aomine hates that question. Unfortunately for him, it's something he can't just avoid. In the world where everybody is born with unique ability—that some people usually call power—that question has become mandatory right after what's your name. It's almost like someone's power defines his identity which is absurd.

Thankfully for him, he always has Momoi who is more than happy to deflect the question from himself by bragging about her ability. It takes some effort to not snorting every time the girl does that, but after years, Aomine can finally learn to simply don't care.

Sometimes he wonders if having cool powers—like pyrokinetic or telekinetic or even empathy—would make him hate the question less, but then he berates himself for being stupid. Nobody can choose the power they are born with. Once your power manifests—usually at the mere age when you were still a baby—you're stuck with it for your whole life whether you like it or not. Aomine, decidedly, doesn't like his power. He doesn't really hate it either, but for him, his power is so useless he doesn't know whether he should call it a gift or not.

Hell, even Momoi's power to see statistical data of a person sounds a lot cooler than his own. Being capable to see the red string of fate connecting people to their soul mates is not something he can brag about. Sure, his friends—especially the girls—usually coos and swoons about how romantic his power is, but that only gives him the creeps. Besides, it's not like he has ever seen the 'fated one' on the other end of his red string or most of anyone else's, actually. The only fated couple he had ever seen is Momoi's parents.

Aomine's power is useless for him and after seeing his own parents—who can get along just fine even though they aren't soul mates—he has taken to ignore it completely. Sometimes the flash of red on the corner of his eyes is distracting, but through time he learns to ignore it. He doesn't need soul mate anyway. For him, basketball is the only thing he truly loves and as long as he still can play without problem, then he's content.

Entering Teikou Middle School is one of the best things ever happens to him. The school's basketball club is known for their strength so that's great, but even better, the people here don't really care about his power. The regular players of Teikou's basketball club especially seem to be on the same page as him in regards about powers which means it doesn't even matter as long you can play basketball decent enough.

In Teikou, Aomine manages to mostly forget about his power and he will gladly continue to do that if not for one event that changes his whole world completely.

It happens when he's practicing against the second string in their gym. It's a decent enough game, despite the obvious victory he will gain, and Aomine is having fun until he feels light tug from his left hand. At first, he ignores it, thinking that his so called power is just acting up again, but the tug becomes more persistent it almost makes him miss his shoot. Finally unable to act ignorant, Aomine looks down at his hand only to catch his breath when he sees the red string on his finger is pulled taut.

He blinks in disbelieve. After all of this time, Aomine is so sure the concept of soul mate is just a myth; that his power is utterly useless, but now … now his world is being turned upside down and he just doesn't know what to do.

Against his will, Aomine's gaze follows the direction his string is being pulled. The red string trails on to the outside of the gym and as Aomine continues looking, he sees that the string keeps on trailing until finally it ends up on the ring finger of some student who is walking lightly to the opposite direction from the gym.

For a minute, Aomine can only stare at the student who's supposed to be his soul mate. It's just too unbelievable—even more so when he finally realizes his soul mate is wearing pants instead of skirt—that Aomine at first thinks he's dreaming. Then, his hand moves without thinking, throwing the basketball he's still holding hard onto the poor student's unsuspecting head. Aomine's heart is beating fast as he watches the ball hits its target. He has expected the disgruntled face his oh-so-called soul mate wears as he turns around. What he hasn't expected is the way his own lips curl into a grin.

Before he knows it, he has raised his hand in a wave as he approaches the stranger. "Sorry about that," he drawls sincerely. His attention is focused on the stranger's face and as he gets closer, he finally notices the stranger isn't really a stranger at all. "You're that famous Kise Ryouta, aren't you?" Aomine blinks because even he can understand hitting a model's head with basketball isn't a wise move. Still, he can't help the excitement increasing within him. Kise Ryouta is gorgeous; Aomine can get used to having him as his soul mate.

Both his question and apology don't get any response. Aomine's grin falters and morphs into faint frown. Kise Ryouta isn't even looking at him. He's still holding the basketball absentmindedly in his hand, but his gaze is directed somewhere around Aomine's legs with intense focus. It's … unusual to say the least. Tilting his head, Aomine follows the line of Kise's sight only to find he can see nothing of interest at all. Inwardly shrugging, he finally decides to speak up again.

"Can I get the ball back now?"

The question finally snaps Kise from whatever he was doing. Aomine watches as faint pink hues color the blond's cheeks and can't help noticing it's quite adorable. Kise stutters something that sounds like an apology before giving the ball back to Aomine. The embarrassment is obvious in the way he won't look at Aomine's eyes. It makes Aomine's grin widen. In a whim, he intentionally lets his fingers caress the inner of Kise's wrist when he takes the ball before turning around as if it's not a big deal at all.

"Thanks. Hope I can see you around, Model-kun~" he calls out in sing-song voice, knowing he has planted the seed and waiting in anticipation for what will bloom from that.

Kise Ryouta loves his power. It's not exactly the best or most flashy power ever, but for someone like Kise, his power is just perfect. It's always interesting to see people's animal spirit walking or trotting or skipping between them with the human part being none the wiser.

His own animal spirit, a golden retriever he has fondly dubbed as Dusk, has been his most loyal friend ever since he was just a kid. Just like him, Dusk is an energetic and kind spirit. The golden retriever often acts friendly with all of Kise's acquaintance's animal spirits—even the ones it has just met—as if to show his tendency of making friends. He loves seeing that. Of course, as a result, Kise always needs to keep his amusement down unless he wants to be branded as crazy.

Personally, Kise prefers it if people don't know about his power. Thus, whenever he's asked about it, he will just smile and grin disarmingly while side-stepping the question altogether. It's not that he's ashamed with his power … it's the complete opposite actually. Kise loves his power so much he doesn't want to share it with other people. After all, people are prone to lying, but no matter how good of a liar they are, their animal spirits are always honest and Kise hates liars more than anything else.

It also is interesting to see what kind of animal spirit someone will have. Usually Kise can guess from taking a glimpse of that person, but sometimes the animal is completely unpredictable it will take time for him to understand the similarities between the human and the animal. He can never help but to be attracted by people with unpredictable animal spirit, unconsciously wanting to know those people better if only to find out the animal traits in them.

"I wonder if there's any interesting person here." He hums thoughtfully as he walks towards the school's gate. All around him, people are milling about and he lazily registers the animal spirits he can see. Cats, birds and dogs are the only things he can see though, making him sighs because they are all so boring and common.

Beside him, his animal spirit tilts its head as if reading Kise's thought. The sight of his own eyes staring back at him is still slightly unnerving at first, but years of practice makes the sensation promptly fade away. Kise allows a lopsided smile for his animal spirit, before murmuring under his breath, "I just hope to find something more exciting. Everything seems so dull right now."

Dusk huffs as if reprimanding. Kise knows if dogs could roll their eyes, it'll have done it by now. He only grins sheepishly, realizing fully this isn't the first time he has been hoping for the same thing.

"Well, I just can't help it. Boredom sucks. I need some entertainment here." Whining to your animal spirit isn't the best way to convince people you're sane, but Kise just can't help it. Besides, he has pinched his voice as low as possible, so he figures he can be forgiven.

His whining only receives a bristling fur from the golden retriever though. Kise pouts because sometimes Dusk can be so cruel, but then the dog suddenly stops and flicks its ears. Automatically, Kise stops too and he watches in curiosity as it turns around and starts to wag its tail happily. He's about to mimic the movement when suddenly something hard and heavy is colliding heart with the back of his head. A yelp slips out of him in reflex. He catches the object hitting him—a goddamn basketball, no wonder it hurts like a bitch—and readies a glare to whoever has thrown it.

However, his glare is short lived as his eyes first fall onto the figure of a sweaty boy with tan skin and disarming grin—a basketball club member, Kise guesses—and then to the animal proudly trotting beside the boy. That's when Kise's glare changes completely into one of amazement. After all, this is the first time he has ever seen a panther animal spirit. It's beautiful too with its silky black fur and sharp obsidian eyes that return Kise's gaze calmly.

The animal and human staring contest is broken when an excited bark resounds between them seconds before Dusk suddenly leaps towards the panther and circles it in obvious delight. To Kise's amusement, the panther doesn't seem bothered at all. The animal just lets Dusk circling and sniffing it curiously before finally it sits down as Dusk finishes its inspection and snuggles up with the panther instead.

The sight makes Kise blink. This is the first time Dusk snuggles up with another animal spirit. No matter how friendly the golden retriever is, it always keeps its distance with the other animals. It's subtle, just like the way Kise has lots of friends but never any real friends, but it's something fundamental and so to see Dusk acting like this is intriguing as well as disconcerting.

"Can I get the ball back now?"

Kise finally registers the question. He snaps his head up only to find the boy watching him with thinning patience. Red flush appears high on his cheeks for being inattentive. "A-ah, of course. Here you go. Sorry," he stutters at the apology, inwardly berating himself for slipping into old bad habit.

He intentionally avoids the other's eyes, not wanting to see the annoyance surely there. Thus, Kise is reasonably surprised when he feels light caress on his skin before the ball is taken from his hand. He blinks, but when he looks up again the boy has already walked away. The panther stays just for a moment behind its owner before finally following in the same proud trots.

It was only after the boy's back disappears behind the gym's door does Kise turn his attention back to Dusk which is whining softly near his leg. The dog's ears are flattened and it looks really devastated to be separated from the panther. Unconsciously Kise puts his hand atop of Dusk's head and rubs it affectionately. Dusk whines and looks up at him, as if begging him to follow the mysterious boy and panther and strangely, Kise is inclined to follow.

"Basketball team, huh. Now that I think about it, we never try basket, right." He slowly drawls, making his animal spirit's ears perk up in attention. The corners of his lips slowly lift upward into a grin as he continues, "Let's see if they are still accepting new members."

Dusk barks happily in response before running towards the gym without waiting for its owner. Kise laughs openly before following the dog. Looks like his days of boredom are over now.

—End.