Spark | Kuroko no Basuke x OC

Even When All Else Fails

"Watch carefully."

Tomoko couldn't keep her eyes off of Aomine. She was completely captivated by the miracle's fast moves. Watching the show-off of skills within 31 seconds—a one-on-one between the two aces—was almost like watching magic being performed. It was surreal.

The buzzer had sounded to end the second quarter, but with such display of raw strength by both aces, neither team scored.

The audience on the bleachers looked on with awe and skepticism; Seirin was still ten points behind, and with Aomine back in the game, it was hard to tell if they could ever gain the advantage. A normal person would barely be able to keep up with the miracle's movements when he's in motion with the ball...

However...

Only those who knew him or paid close attention could see that when he came up to score, his moves were lethargic, unmotivated.

"Aomine! You were distracted, weren't you?" Wakamatsu Kousuke, the Touou team's second year center trailed behind the tanned male with an admonishing scowl. "You have to play harder! I can't believe you let that guy block you."

"Eh... I can't play that hard. I'm tired," Aomine replied lazily, causing the second year to twitch irritably.

"You bastard!"

Aomine merely disregarded the usual condemnations coming his way. He couldn't care less about what the second year thought; the arguments between them, some which even resulted in physical altercations, had been consistent since the day he joined Touou's basketball team.

They were strangers at best.

He rolled his neck back to get rid of the kink that formed when he was sleeping earlier, and he noticed Team Seirin from the corner of his eye. Kuroko and Kagami were conversing with Tomoko as the rest huddled by their coach.

They seemed to be more fired up, and Aomine thought it was almost commendable. He couldn't forget the determined look on Kuroko's face when the phantom expressed his will to defeat him. A promise to Satsuki, huh? It was laughable to think that such would happen.

Right before Team Seirin headed back to the locker room for intermission, the caramel haired manager seemed to have felt his eyes on them and turned briefly and captured his gaze.

The silent message was conveyed to him loud and clear.

Don't underestimate us. Even if you're good, Aomine-kun... Seirin's not bad!

"Heh..." I guess she's on to something, he turned back to the blonde, who was still looking pissed at his indifference. The corners of his lips quirked up in his trademark smirk, "I might actually try in the second half."

-----

"Don't you think he's a little too arrogant? How can you guys tolerate that?!" Wakamatsu complained when Aomine walked out on the team meeting after declaring he'll just make all of his shots the rest of the game.

He has had it up to about now with the tanned miracle's haughty attitude and refusal to participate in practices and even important games. It was also frustrating to see that Sakurai Ryou, who was timid and self-blaming, was always being pushed around and bullied by Aomine.

Generation of Miracles or not, there was no reason for him to be so cocky! Imayoshi and the coach always looked the other way—it honestly infuriated him.

"It doesn't really matter if he is..." Imayoshi rubbed his head in exasperation. He was always dragged between their arguments, forced to listen to the blonde's complaints and sometimes even being the mediator when things got too physical. "To put his attitude negatively, it's arrogance," he picked up a basketball with one hand, "but put positively, it's the overwhelming confidence that comes from successive victories. I don't particularly like or dislike Aomine, but as long as he scores, I don't care about his personality."