AUTHOR'S NOTE

Let me just state first that, when reading this fic, take it as an alternate universe type of thing. The characters are friends, currently in the same high school and basketball team, so whatever rivalries exist in the manga do not apply here.

Also, characterizations will follow the early Teikou era (to an extent), since that was the time where they were all together and happy and whatnot.

One last thing - this is mostly friendship between the whole team, but there is a stronger, implied bond between Aomine and Kise. This fic was originally intended to be an AoKise fic but then as I wrote it, it just became a more Kise and friends type of thing. So, if you were hoping for some really hardcore AoKise stuff and don't want to read anything else, I suggest you stop here. If you despise AoKise with a passion and cannot stand any form of interaction between them, also stop here.

That will be it for now.

CHAPTER ONE

The weather was cool and fairly sunny – the perfect day to be outdoors. A gentle breeze blew across as two figures lay on the grassy slope to the side of a basketball court. One of them had dark blue eyes and was unusually tan; the other was a blond with fair skin. Both looked worn out and sweat drenched after a game of intense one on one basketball. Their minds however, were anything but.

"Oi, Kise!"

The deep voice, louder than before, brought Kise back to the surface of reality from the depths of his thoughts.

"Were you even listening?" Aomine asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"Ah, sorry. I was just thinking about something. What were you saying?" Kise responded with an apologetic smile.

"Forget it," Aomine said as he waved his hand in dismissal. "It's not that important anyway."

Kise looked at the dark haired boy next to him and shrugged before closing his eyes for rest. A short moment of peaceful silence passed before Aomine spoke again.

"I'm pretty hungry now. Wanna go to the convenience store and get some snacks?" he said eagerly. He'd felt like trying that new brand of ice popsicles since they came out onto the market a week ago.

"Hmm? Oh, sure. You're paying though," Kise said, smiling at the other boy sweetly as though his request didn't make Aomine frown and attempt to calculate how much more it would cost him.

"And you're supposed to be the model with the big pay check," Aomine muttered, picking himself up.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to treat me once in a while, isn't that right?"

Aomine mumbled again, this time to himself, before grabbing their bags and dropping Kise's on top on the blond, who was still lazing on the grass. He then turned and started walking in the direction of the convenience store.

Kise grinned at the other boy's obvious reluctance to pay, and pushed himself up.

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll use my big pay check to pay this time, but the next time, it's definitely on you, Aominecchi!" Kise said as he caught up to the other boy.

Aomine turned around and grinned. Looks like he managed to change the blond's mind with just a simple grudging act. Sometimes, he felt that Kise was far too kind for his own good, and honestly, it was worrying. But nonetheless, that very kindness was pretty beneficial to him right now, and Aomine decided that maybe he'd leave Kise to his own ways for the time being.

"Hey, why're you grinning? What's so funny?" Kise titled his head and looked curiously at the other boy.

"Nothing. Just hurry up already model! I'm hungry!"

. . .

"Huh, damn model." Aomine muttered as he exited the store with a popsicle in hand – alone. Kise had left in a hurry after receiving a text message, but left Aomine with enough cash to purchase his beloved popsicle. When he had asked the blond where he was going, Kise smiled and told him that the modeling agency had just got a deal for him to shoot for the centrefold in one of those huge fashion magazines, and that he was needed for briefing and discussion immediately.

Aomine yawned as he trudged back to his apartment. It wasn't unusual that Kise frequently left him - or all of them, for that matter - for his job, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Oh well, he thought. Might as well go home and flip through the latest magazine he'd bought that featured some new shots of Mai-chan.

. . .

"You're late."

Kise approached the figure seated on a wooden crate; surrounding him were another four boys about his age.

"Yeah, sorry. I was busy," Kise replied, his voice less than apologetic.

"Bastard…" the one that had spoken earlier seemed like he was about to lose his temper at a single sentence, but regained his composure at the last moment. "I hope you haven't forgotten our deal, because you're in no position to do anything I don't agree with," he sneered.

Kise's eyes narrowed. "That's only half true. I could do anything I want if I felt like it."

"Hah! And risk having your precious teammate get hurt? You know, the one you always play one on one with?" His tone mocking, "Try me, model!"

The blond stilled. They really had him in a bind.

"You lay a hand on him - on either of them…" Kise began, his voice threateningly low, "and I will make you pay dearly for it."

"You no longer have any authority around here, blondie! The moment you left us, you were dead."

"It was my choice."

"No, not at all. But now, you do have the choice to help us, or have your friends pay the price."

Kise clenched his fists. There was no way he'd ever help them and risk his whole future, but then again, if he didn't, it was his team – his friends – that would suffer the consequences. Akashicchi, Murasakibaracchi, Midorimacchi, Kurokocchi and Aominecchi… They were important to him, and Kise knew that even though it was extremely risky, he'd have to agree, for their sake.

Kise sighed and mentally berated himself for what he was about to agree to.

"All right, Fukuda," he said, addressing the other boy. "I'll do it, but under one condition," his voice serious. "We do it according to my plan."

"Hah! And why the hell should we do that? You're the only one who has anything to lose, and for all we know, your plan could get us caught!"

"I didn't think you'd be that smart but good job catching on," Kise smirked, "but no, I wouldn't risk getting us caught, seeing as I'm the one with something to lose. My proposal is simply to ensure that we get away with this without hassle. I'm pretty sure I didn't lead you all with anything short of a hundred per cent success rate in all our… shenanigans."

Fukuda stopped and considered this. The model did, despite his appearances, have a shrewd and conniving mind that was considerably useful to them, and he acknowledged this, albeit grudgingly.

"Fine," he said finally. "Come up with a plan within the next five days and we'll see. Let me remind you again, that of you try anything funny, things will get ugly."

Kise waved dismissively over his shoulder, already walking away. No need for five days; he'd have a plan by tonight.

. . .

"Ryouta, where are you going? Practice doesn't finish for another hour and a half."

Akashi stared at the blond who was hurriedly packing his belongings.

"Sorry Akashicchi. Something pressing just came up. It won't be too big a problem if I leave now, right?"

Akashi sighed as Kise picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, smiling apologetically.

"Fine, but I expect you to make up for this by staying back on another day."

"Ehhh?! Seriously? Akashicchi, so mean!" Kise's shoulders slumped in defeat as he sighed exaggeratedly. Then his head perked up and he smiled cheerfully. "Alright, I'll do it. See you, Akashicchi!"

The captain watched the blond walk out of the gym and smiled at his innocence. Akashi truly worried about what would happen if the boy landed himself in trouble one day, but dismissed that thought. He - his team, all of them would be there for Ryouta. He was sure of that.

. . .

Kise's smile vanished the moment he stepped out of the gym. Today was the day he'd have to go back to his old ways, if only just for a while, and he didn't relish the thought of it. Two years ago, the boy walked out of his old life without a second thought, disbelieving of the saying that your past would always come back to chase you, and he was dead wrong.

Four days ago, Kise had given out the instructions for their heist. Despite being blackmailed into it, he made sure that everything was carefully planned - too much was at risk if anything went wrong. And besides, this was his area of expertise.

. . .

"Kise."

The blond stood up from the steps he was sitting on and looked at the group of six he had instructed for.

"You're all here. Good. Did you get everything I asked for?"

"Right here." One of them walked up to Kise and dumped a bag at his feet.

"And the cars?"

"'Round the corner."

"Alright," he smiled. "Let's go."

. . .

"Twelve more minutes till they hit the end of the highway. Keep up."

Kise put down the handheld radio and resumed his other hand to the wheel. Four cars, two of them in each except his, were moving along the fairly empty highway, headed for the long truck a few kilometers ahead.

"Right guys, time to do this," he spoke into the radio. "Hazuki, you're up first."

"Got it," came the reply.

To his right, one of the cars sped up and passed him, going all the way till it reached the back of the long truck. Kise watched as the boy named Hazuki climbed out of the open hatch in the roof, equipment strapped to his back. His eyes fixed forward intently as Hazuki made his way to the front of the moving vehicle, positioning himself to jump at the right time to latch on safely to the back of the truck.

At least they're not total idiots, he thought to himself.

Finally, Hazuki made his move, pushing off with as much strength as he could to ensure that he didn't miss his mark, what with the truck moving in the same direction as his jump. Simple physics, deadly consequences. He caught onto the cat ladder and his body slammed into the metal, dangling for a few seconds before he found his footing on the lower ladder steps.

Good job, Kise thought. Now let's just hope he manages to open the doors without damaging the content.

. . .

Hazuki gritted his teeth as he held onto the moving truck and fumbled for the nozzle strapped to his shoulder. It was attached to a black tube connected to a small tank on his back.

"Trust that blond bastard to task me with this shit," he muttered.

Grabbing hold of the nozzle, he released the contents of the tank onto the iron lock that held the two doors of the container closed. Liquid hydrogen sprayed out onto the bolting agent, making it brittle enough to break. He whipped out a small hammer and positioned it at a suitable angle, before drawing his arm back and bringing the hammer down on the brittle iron, shattering it with the force. He wrenched open the door to his side and swung his leg in, manoeuvring himself from the cat ladder into container.

Seconds later, he stood at the open door and grinned at Kise, whose car had now taken the position of being directly behind the truck, giving him a thumbs up. It was a signal - the loot was there.

"Alright guys, we have the signal. Get in there," Kise spoke into his radio. Smiling slightly, he moved his car slightly to the side to glance toward the front of the truck. The driver hadn't shown any signs of noticing what was going on. That was good, as they'd have to change their plans if an angry trucker was on to them.

In the next few minutes that followed, another two of them had jumped their way into the container. Kise and the remaining drivers slowed down, keeping their distance from the truck.

"There's a turn off to exit the highway coming up in about twelve kilometers. Make it out of there before it - that's where we turn off," Kise instructed.

Right where they turned off was where he was free to go. That was part of the deal, but frankly, he knew that there would be more to that. At the very least, they'd use the same threats to rope him into more of their matters.

END NOTE

I hope this first chapter was okay. It was intended to be shorter, half as short actually, but then I realized that would be too little, so I combined two chapters, and even still it's shorter than most would prefer. Apologies! Hopefully the future chapters will be longer, but that also means the updates will come slower than I had planned. Most likely, there'll be an update every one to two weeks if things go smoothly, but that's just the minimum and it could take longer, so please wait till then!

Also, please note that the character Fukuda in this story is not Fukuda Hiroshi from Seirin; they just share the same name because I thought the name sounded appropriate for the character's personality.

Review if you wish, though I strongly encourage it!