Hi! This would be my first Kuroko no Basket story plus my first romance story ever (yes, I've never written romance before). So there'll be a lot of things I need to work on... but I'll try my best! I'd love it if you guys could help point out what I could improve on, I'm sure it'll help me a lot! Oh, but can you please put it in a nice way? I'm pretty weak-hearted... so words can really hurt me a lot... Thanks!

Right... I'm really sorry if you think this chapter's short... I haven't been writing fanfiction for a long time so I have a very distorted definition of what's 'short' for a usual fanfiction chapter...

I might be able to upload the next chapter soon since there's no school for the next few days (because of Chinese New Year). But please don't be disappointed if I can't make the deadline... I'm a master of "to be or not to be, that is the question".

Anyways, don't think I forgot ;) Happy birthday Kuroko Tetsuya! I really wanted this fic to be uploaded on your birthday! Oh, and my dear readers (if I have any) happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐，万事如意！(Xīn nián kuài lè, wàn shì rú yì)

"A-A-Akashi-san," the girl stammered, her face beet-red as she looked at down at the ground, at her white shoes, at anywhere but the red-haired boy's face. "Umm..."

The redhead had an inkling of where this was going. His sharp, piercing gaze never left the figure of the girl in front of him, making her feel more nervous than necessary. "Yes? Is there a problem?"

The girl blushed even more, her fingers restlessly playing with her long brown hair. "I-I... I really like you, Akashi-san!" Her face was even more red, if that was possible.

Akashi Seijuurou barely blocked a sigh from escaping through his lips. Not another one. "I really don't have time for this. I'm busy enough as it is," he replied, not sparing the poor girl a single glance as he weaved his way around her.

"Wa-wait!" the girl's hand reached out to catch the boy's sleeve. "I-I..." her voice faltered as she stared straight into the red-head's icy gaze as his heterochromatic eyes surveyed her critically. "Ne-never mind," she mumbled, letting go off his uniform. Her face red with humiliation, she shrank back, turning on her heel and quickly darting out of the almost empty hallway.

Suppressing a small sigh of annoyance, Akashi continued his way to his classroom, slicing through all the whispered rumours that seemed to constantly float around him.

"Did you see that? How heartless; to reject a girl so cruelly like that," one girl muttered to her group of friends by the side of the hallway and they could only nod in agreement.

"You see? This is why I'm telling you not to confess... Unless you want to become like that girl," another cautioned her friend, giving Akashi a glare as he strode past her and her companion.

"Wonder what's that guy's problem," a male student grumbled, standing at the side of a classroom door. Evidently, he had been about to enter his class when the incident happened. "She wasn't that bad-looking." His friend chortled before patting him on the back and opening the door to the classroom.

Akashi Seijuurou ignored all of this.

During class, he would ignore the teacher and read his own book and no one would disturb him. His teachers didn't bother to make him pay attention in class just as long as he kept up his perfect scores. He knew that once he let his grades drop even by just a bit, they would be on him like hungry wolves. He wouldn't let them have that chance, though. His classmates would also not dare to question him in fear of his sharp tongue and steel scissors.

He was mostly fine with this arrangement but as soon as lunchtime rolled around, he'd quickly escape somewhere else. What's this feeling? Akashi wondered as he wandered around the hallways, his bento box in one hand and a book clutched tightly in the other. Wherever he turned, he saw either groups of friends eating with one another or couples sitting close together.

Heart clenched in envy, Akashi lightly scoffed and abruptly turned round the corner and walked up a flight stairs. This is getting ridiculous, Akashi thought scornfully. There's absolutely nothing to be envious of. I get the highest grades, am the captain of the basketball club, and never lose.

Ahhh... a snide voice in mind mind snickered. But no one likes you. Everyone fears you, remember? And with good reason too.

Quiet. Akashi did find it quite absurd to talk to himself in his head but he had soon got used to it. Ever since he was eleven, there was always a voice at the back of his mind, disapproving what he did and often putting him down. He had quickly learnt to ignore it but sometimes, like now, it was hard to brush the voice's comments aside.

A hand on his shoulder startled him out of his argument. Remaining perfectly neutral, Akashi turned round to see a group of rainbow-haired teens staring at him. "Is anything wrong, Akashi?" The green-head with clear green eyes asked before quickly retracting his hand from the devil captain's shoulder. "Not that I particularly care, nanodayo."

"No, it's nothing," Akashi was quick to dismiss his teammates' concern. It's not like you deserve it anyway, the voice in his head sneered and Akashi tried to squash that thought before it affected him.

"Are you sure, Akashicchi?" Kise's worried, high-pitched voice hurt his eyes.

The red-haired devil reincarnate flashed Kise a dark smile. "Are you questioning me, Ryouta?"

"Not at all, not at all." Laughing nervously, Kise backed away from hiding behind Aomine, cowering from Akashi's glare.

"Just as I thought," Akashi gave a satisfied smirk. "Besides, what are you all doing here? Your classes are on the other side of this floor."

"Ah? Isn't it obvious? We want to eat lunch with you, Akachin," the purple-haired 'baby' of the team spoke up as he munched on his maiubo. Due to the chomping noise, Muraskibara's words were slightly muffled but after so long of this, the rest of the team didn't have much trouble understanding the gist of what he was trying to say.

"Yeah! Come on Akashicchi! Let's go eat!" Kise was back to his usual over-enthusiastic self. His high-frequency voice echoed off the walls of the hallway, causing most of the students to turn their way and the girls to swoon at the sight of the famous model.

"Hmph, it's not like I really care, nanodayo," Midorima scoffed. You are so obvious, Shintarou, Akashi thought, You don't have to be a genius like me to realise how 'tsundere' you can be. Although Akashi detested using such a common slang term like 'tsundere', even he had to admit that that word was absolutely perfect in describing the tall shooting guard.

A yawn could be heard as the team's ace opened his mouth widely in boredom. "Yeah, yeah, so come on, let's go Akashi."

The redhead's facial features immediately contorted into a scowl. "Are you ordering me around, Daiki?"

The blue-head basketball-loving idiot gave a squeak of terror before he hid himself behind Kise who stood, frozen, hoping to not anger Akashi any further.

Seeing this scene in front of him, the words the voice in Akashi's mind came flooding back to him. No one likes you. They all fear you. You don't deserve their concerns. Turning to Midorima and Murasakibara, he spoke, "Thank you for the invitation, but I must decline."

Then, without giving his teammates enough time to protest, Akashi turned and started walking briskly up the flight of stairs at the end of the corridor, trying to ignore the tight feeling of pain in his chest.

For quite some time now, Akashi had been finding himself rather bothered by the fact that everyone seemed to fear him, despite telling himself time and time again that he didn't need companions. Am I truly that frightening? He briefly wondered as he pushed open the door to to the rooftop.

Leaning against the railing of the empty school rooftop, Akashi opened up his bento box ad started eating the food that the five-star chefs at his house had made for him. After eating half of his food, he looked up and almost suffered a heart attack.

In front of him sat a short, lean boy with powder blue hair. The boy took a sip out of his drink and said, "Hello. It's nice to meet you."

Yeahhh... that's it. Once again, sorry for the short chapter but I'll try to make the rest longer! But I guess quality is better than quantity right? Or did I do badly for both aspects? Please leave a review and tell me how I did. Constructive criticism are welcomed!

Latios963

PS. This will be simultaneously posted on AO3.