Ｌｉｇｈｔ

six - one on one

"Unbelievable," Riko deadpanned.

"This could be bad," Kuroko spoke up next to her.

"Yeah, I agree," Sasaki said, which got dirty looks from the entire team other than the two getting ready to play. "What?"

"No, never mind, it's not your fault," Riko shook her head before having everyone watch the one on one match. Kise had the ball first and Kagami was on defense.

Faking left and going right, Kise managed to get around Kagami but didn't manage to lose him entirely. But then, the thing that caught all of their attention, was that he pulled the same move Kagami had just done to Izuki onto Kagami.

However, Kagami recovered quickly and jumped to block. Kise powered through and dunked, knocking the red haired male back onto his ass. Sasaki winced.

"Looks like I get to play Sasakicchi!" Kise grinned, totally ignoring Kagami's form on the floor. The white haired male chuckled, jogging over and offering the red haired male a hand up.

"Want first possession?"

"Nah, you can have it," Kise bounced the ball to Sasaki, who caught it and started dribbling it by his side as Kise got into a defense position.

The two sized each other up, both wearing excited smiles. The whole gym was tense as they waited for Sasaki to make a move.

Sasaki started weaving the ball around his body, through his legs, behind his back, until suddenly he was past Kise and doing a layup. "No you don't!" The blonde jumped to block, but Sasaki was already expecting it not to be that easy.

Double clutching, he did a layup from the other side and landed gracefully. Kise landed also, turning to him with eyes full of newfound respect and awe. The whole gym had that look as well, especially Kuroko, Kagami and Riko. "That should be enough, right? Plus we're in the middle of practice right now, Kisecchi, so you should probably head back."

"Err, sure," The blonde male was in a bit of a daze, it had been forever since he'd lost in a one on one. A second later, he came to his senses. "Sasakicchi, why don't you and Kurokocchi come play for my team?"

"Huh?" The senpais reeled.

"Come join us," Kise looked between the two he had mentioned, "let's play basketball together."

Just as Kuroko was opening his mouth, Sasaki beat him to it by slinging his arm around Kise's shoulders. "Listen Kisecchi, isn't it better to go to different schools so we can play against each other? We can always meet up and play together in street ball, but it's not often anyone can have a rival of this standing, ya know? You really wanna throw that away?"

"Well.. That's true.. It's never the same when the one person you wanna defeat is on the same team as you, verses when they're at a different school," Kise pursed his lips, leaning into Sasaki. "Fine, I'll rescind my offer."

"Good then," Sasaki grinned, removing his arm from the blonde's shoulder.

"But that only applies to you," Kise's eyes were suddenly sharp as he turned to Kuroko. "You know I seriously respect you, Kurokocchi. So what do you say? Let's play basketball together again. It's a waste of your talents to be here."

"Ouch, that slapped," Sasaki complained quietly as he went to hide behind Riko.

"I am honored to hear you say that," Kuroko said before bowing, "but I must respectfully decline your offer."

"That doesn't make any sense!" The blonde reeled back, "Besides, this isn't like you. Winning was everything! Why didn't you go somewhere better?!"

"My thinking has changed since then," The blue haired male replied, "More importantly, I made a promise to Sasaki-kun and Kagami-kun," He told him, his eyes also getting sharper. "I told them that we would beat you, the generation of miracles."

"It really isn't like you go joke around like that," Kise's eyes narrowed, no longer being playful. From behind him, Kagami laughed, which caught his attention.

"What are you doing?" Kagami asked, a smirk on his face. "I was gonna say that, Kuroko."

"I still have no sense of humor," Kuroko deadpanned. Ah, such a waste, humor is the best, Sasaki grimaced. "I'm serious."

Kise scoffed, glancing between the two in a hostile stare off until Sasaki chokeholded Kagami. "Ne, sorry about this. Kisecchi, you mind backing off for now? We can finish this little spurt at the practice game. Plus, the girls are waiting for you, didn't you say you'd only be five minutes?" Sasaki reminded him.

"Oh, yeah!" Kise grimaced but decided it would be okay to retreat. "Then I'll be leaving first, thanks for the fun time Sasakicchi! I'll be seeing you soon, Seirin," He smirked, waving before sauntering out to go finish his greeting of the ladies.

"Let me go!" Kagami struggled, and once Kise was out of the building, Sasaki did so. "The hell was that for?!" The redheas demanded, grabbing his collar.

"Kagami-kun, enough," Riko butted in, "He defused the situation, don't take your anger out on him just because you lost and he won."

"That's not what-"

"It's fine, of course it's not like that," Sasaki smirked, side-eyeing him. "There's no way he'd be that petty, right?" Growling at the obvious provocation, Kagami backed down because of he did any more, it would be like Sasaki was right, which pissed him off to even think about.

After that was settled, the team went on with practice, doing drills and working their bodies until they felt like they were almost dying.

When practice was over, Sasaki went straight home and collapsed on his bed. "Freaking nuts, man."

"Sasaki-kun."

"Ne?!" He shot up, whipping his head towards the voice. "Kuroko?! How'd you get here?!"

"You opened the door for me," He explained, "It seems you were really out of it."

"Ha, yeah apparently so," The white haired male sighed, allowing himself to relax and fall onto the bed again. "There must be a reason you followed me inside, so what's up?"

"I didn't like how you provoked Kagami-kun earlier. But I was very impressed with your ability to defuse the situation," Kuroko explained, "but, is it really true you started at the end of middle school?"

"Oh that?" Sasaki raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I started playing street ball with some guys that needed an extra player because one of theirs got in an accident. It was kinda fun, and they liked me, so I kept going. They're the ones that told me to try out for basketball club, since I'm apparently really good," He shrugged.

"I see," The blue haired male nodded. "It's weird that you're so good with only having been playing a few months, but it's fine since you're playing with us."

"Right?" Sasaki laughed. He knew he could probably reveal his ability to Kuroko and it wouldn't be that weird to him, but he decided to error on the side of caution just in case.

"Then I'll be going. See you tomorrow, Sasaki-kun," Kuroko nodded to him, and the boy on the bed just raised a hand.

"See yourself out please! I'mma pass out any second now and I'm sure you don't wanna deal with that.."

"Please don't pass out, that's dangerous."

"Freaking nuts, you really don't have a sense of humor, do you?"