I don't own anything. I'm just writing for my own joy. Thank you for Fujimaki-sensei for creating this awesome series and making me fall in love with basketball even though I hated it when I was younger.
So I wrote this fic solely because I was craving for Midorima/Kuroko-fanfics and there's not too much from them. This was really challenging to write, since English isn't my native language, but I wanna learn. If you notice something that I should pay attention when I write fics later, please tell me. I want to improve.
This fic was also published in my tumblr-blog (you can find the link from my profile).
I hope you enjoy reading as much I enjoyed when I wrote it ~
This didn't feel right. Not in the slightest. Actually it was far from it, it argued against every possible law and thing in the whole world. It argued against stars, for heaven's sake.
But still, Midorima couldn't just shrug this off. There was no way to do that. It was way too late. He had let his mind, his heart go too far. To start actually dreaming.
When he woke up in the morning and checked that day's horoscope, as he always did, it just proved his doubts. Cancer was in third place, lucky item for the day was a small Hello Kitty accessory of your own choosing. But even that wasn't the worst part. It was the sentence that read under the header of his horoscope.
You'll have a serious talk with an Aquarius.
"Should've guessed that," Midorima muttered under his breath and pushed up his glasses. He made sure he had the time to walk up to school, and then he took his time to tape each of his left hand's fingers again, with accustomed pace and precise.
After he was ready, Midorima took his school bag, closed the buttons of his gakuran, and made his way downstairs. He was home alone, his mom and dad had already gone to work. He put on his shoes, checked the weather outside and noticed that someone was waiting for him at the street with a familiar rickshaw.
"Morning, Shin-chan!" Takao greeted him with a yawn, as Midorima walked across the yard of his house. "I can drive, it'll wake me up."
Midorima didn't say a word; he just climbed in to the back.
"Oh, and that reminds me," Takao continued and rummaged his bag, "I watched the horoscope today and saw your lucky item. I pinched this from my little sister. You don't have to disgrace yourself by buying one." He reached over to Midorima and gave him a small Hello Kitty ring. It was way too small to fit any of Midorima's fingers, so he just clenched it inside his fist.
"Thanks," he said.
"More importantly," Takao said as he pushed the rickshaw on the move, "what are you gonna do about that 'serious talk' you're gonna have? I assume it's with Kuroko, right?"
Sometimes the way Takao knew him and was able to squeeze stuff from him was really annoying. Now he stayed stubbornly silent, refusing to discuss about this specific thing right now. Or ever. He tried his best to forget the damn thing. Too bad it wasn't so easy to deny your own feelings. Just the name of this Seirin regular made Midorima feel uneasy, fill his belly with anxiety and increase his heartbeat. He knew what he needed to do, but he just couldn't do it. It was impossible.
"I think Kuroko is thinking the same things as you are," Takao said after a pause. "At least his behaviour is really different when you're around, and it wasn't like that before."
"Just shut up," Midorima snapped. "I know without you reminding me." Takao chuckled, and Midorima resisted the temptation to punch his teammate in the face.
This whole situation was getting really ridiculous. It had continued for weeks now, ever since that stupid bet and his unfortunate, not-planned date with Kuroko. He certainly hadn't been happy about it then, neither had Kuroko, and when everything had ended the way it had… His whole life had taken a new turn. For one, he was experiencing something that girls called a crush. To make matters worse, this feelings were deepening to a point where he could actually say that he had fell in love. With a guy. How in the hell was that possible? For him?
And with Kuroko! Their horoscopes didn't match, their blood types didn't match… nothing matched in their relationship. It was doomed before it could even start. That should have made him feel a bit easier. But it didn't. In fact, quite the opposite. For the first time ever he was ready to discard that part of his obsession.
But even if he would admit to himself that he was in love with Kuroko Tetsuya, there was other things to consider. Firstly, what did Kuroko think about him? Surely he didn't feel the same? That would be too much of luck. Despite the fact that they had accidentally kissed already, but it didn't count. It was just Kuroko's fault for tripping and falling in his arms.
The school day seemed to last forever. Midorima didn't even pay much attention to anything that was taught that day. He wasn't his usual self, he just kept dozing off and watched out from the window, resting his jaw against his palm. His mobile phone kept reminding him about the thing he should do. Again and again, he chose to ignore it.
During the last class of the day Midorima was glancing out from the window again, and he almost got a heart-attack when he saw a familiar, short figure standing on the other side of the road. The figure appeared to be a boy with light-blue, messy hair and a black gakuran with blue vertical stripes in the middle. Seiran High School's uniform. Kuroko.
Too bad Takao sat in front of him and looked out as well, noticing Kuroko standing there. Soon Midorima could see Takao doing something with his phone, and it didn't take too many seconds when Midorima's phone started buzzing in his pocket.
He came this far to see you. Talk to him, Shin-chan. I know you're freaking out about it, but it's better to settle things before they last too long.
Takao said rarely something so deep, and Midorima felt better because of his trouble. He wrote back a simple answer: Yeah, I know. Thanks.
Midorima made an excuse to leave the class, so he gathered his stuff and left. The closer the front door came, the more nervous he was. God, it was just Kuroko! Control yourself! he said angrily to himself as he changed his indoor shoes to his proper ones and stepped outside.
Kuroko raised his head just in time to see him, and walked to him. "Hello, Midorima-kun."
"What are you doing here, Kuroko?" Midorima asked, pretending to be irritated.
"I read your horoscope today, and thought it would a good day to talk," Kuroko said, his blue eyes looking at the taller boy like they belonged to a puppy. Midorima felt instantly his face starting to go red, which angered him even more.
"What is there to talk about?" Midorima said and swallowed hard. Of course he knew. He just wanted to run away from this situation and hope it had never happened.
Kuroko eyed at him. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, and it was scary somehow. Did Kuroko feel the same way or not? Or was he just acting strange because they hadn't talked about the incident?
"Can we talk about it somewhere else? I don't want others to hear," Kuroko said.
"Fine."
They walked together in silence, found a silent spot from a park near Shuutoku High School. There weren't much people, it was autumn anyway and the grass was still damp from the rain. Midorima sat down, since his legs were already wobbly and he feared they would stop co-operating after this 'serious discussion' was finally over.
Kuroko sat down too, way too close for Midorima, but he couldn't open his mouth. He couldn't, because it felt good. He wanted Kuroko to sit there, silently next to him.
"Things changed after that night," Kuroko began. "I know it did for you, and it certainly did for me. I just couldn't… well, I couldn't approve it. Not for myself anyway."
Why do I have to be in this situation? Midorima thought in frustration. A tight knot had formed just under his chest and made it difficult to breath.
"And I know perfectly well that we're not a good match, if you look at the horoscopes and other stuff like that," Kuroko went on, with his straight-forward way. Midorima actually envied him because of it. At the same time he was also grateful that Kuroko was so brave to actually start speaking about it.
"What makes you think… about us… in that way?" Midorima managed to say, after he struggling with his words.
"I know something changed in me after we were visiting that funfair." Kuroko scratched his arm and looked up at the cloud-filled sky. "I had to talk someone about it. And because Kise-kun is so good with stuff like this, he helped me. And he told me that he had seen something different in you too."
So that was the reason why Kise wanted to spend time with me, Midorima realized and made mental note to himself to kick Kise's ass the next time they would see each other.
"What do you suggest we do then?" Midorima asked. Now his heart was like a damn hammer, it beat so fast it almost hurt, and blood rushed in his ears. "This can't work."
"Maybe not," Kuroko agreed. "But I don't know, I… I think I would take the risk." Finally Kuroko turned to watch him. Midorima adjusted his glasses, brushed his dark green hair away from his face and then, with a lot of effort, returned the gaze. They looked at each other straight in the eye, the way they never had done before, and the tension – sexual tension, you could say – felt so clearly it almost shocked Midorima to retreat.
Then he couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't cope with his feelings, that insecurity and that annoying longing. He gripped Kuroko's shoulder, pulled him closer and kissed him, not giving enough time for either of them to think clearly.
Midorima felt Kuroko going stiff from his motion, but then the boy answered the kiss, awkwardly.
Midorima had never kissed even a girl before, but kissing Kuroko felt as good as he had dreamt of. It tasted vanilla shake, so Midorima believed that Kuroko had drank one to encourage himself to come here.
Their bodies were now so close, two fast beating hearts and racing minds, and Midorima didn't feel anymore that this relationship was doomed. No way. He would fight for this. Screw some superstition.
Midorima didn't want to stop, but then Kuroko whispered hoarsely that he needed to breathe, so he retreated from the kiss, anxiously watching his… what? Lover? Boyfriend? Were they officially a couple now?
After Kuroko had catched his breath, the boy suddenly lurched against Midorima, and after hesitating, Midorima put his arms around him.
"Does this… make as a couple, now?" he asked and instantly felt like he was an idiot.
"I don't mind if it does," Kuroko mumbled.
Midorima pressed his face against Kuroko's hair, smelled the good, flowery scent, and was happy that things had gone this well.