Spark | Kuroko no Basuke x OC

Even When All Else Fails

"Okuma-chan, what do you—?"

BAM!

They saw Aomine grin at Kuroko, ball in hand, and Riko realized the meaning of the girl's comment.

"Who do you think has caught more of your passes?"

The crowd exclaimed their cries of shock and amazement when they witnessed the phantom's ignite pass being easily caught by the tanned miracle. Then, as if he was in a trace, Aomine blew past those who were in his way to the basket.

Izuki, Hyuuga, Mitobe, Kagami, Kuroko—

All five players.

"You haven't changed at all, Tetsu," Tomoko heard the miracle say. "Your basketball will never win."

-----

"Seirin, member change!"

"Kagami-kun."

Tomoko shot the coach a confused look, much like the rest of Seirin as she motioned for Kagami to come back to the bench as Tsuchida stretched his arms for a quick warm-up. Before she could ask, Riko interrupted her.

"Do you see the way he's walking?" she pointed out.

Tomoko stared at the redhead's leg that was taped up and tensed. She was watching Aomine so intently that she missed it! Kagami had been avoiding use of his injured leg while placing all the weight on the other one.

Idiot... That'll only strain both of them!

"The bandages are fine! Plus the game is still going on!" Kagami protested, unwilling to leave the court. They still had one quarter left!

"Just get over here!" Riko yelled, the seriousness and order in her voice caused the redhead to comply.

Watching them glare at each other like that, Tomoko understood the underlying meaning. Riko won't let Kagami play another minute of this game... Or the remaining two days of the championship league because of his leg.

Kagami sat down, his hands in fists. He was frustrated, angry. He didn't want it to be over.

He hasn't given up at all, Tomoko couldn't help but smile at that, even though somewhere in her heart, she knew Seirin wasn't going to be winning this one.

-----

Midorima pushed up his glasses and turned his back to the game. It was down to the last few minutes, but Seirin had been losing even before fourth quarter started.

Some of the fans in the crowd had already left, seeing that the game had become one-sided. With Aomine playing, that always happened. It wasn't that big of a surprise to them that Seirin wasn't able to subdued the ace of the Generation of Miracles.

"Midorima-cchi! Don't leave before the game ends!" Kise yelled, pulling on the Shutoku shooting guard's sleeve to prevent him from leaving.

Midorima let out an annoyed sigh. The score gap was just too wide; Touou had almost doubled Seirin. "Can't you see? No matter what they do now, they won't be able to win. Kagami is out of the game, and Kuroko's basketball is useless against Aomine."

And I can imagine it being psychologically damaging for Kuroko.

"But we're here to support Kuroko-cchi no matter what!"

"No, I told you I just happened to be in the area!"

Kise pouted, his hand still gripping on to his former teammate's arm so he can force the miracle to stay until the end. "I think they would be happy to see that we came," he retorted, "especially Kuma-cchi."

A pair of determined salmon eyes and a happy lopsided grin popped into Midorima's mind.

...I wonder how she is feeling about this, knowing Seirin can't win.

He turned back around stiffly and the yellow smiley face from his jack-in-the-box, his lucky item of the day, popped back out. "I'll only stay until the end game buzzer sounds."

-----

112 to 55.

We lost.

But despite the defeat, Tomoko was proud of her team. She had cheered and encouraged her team as loudly and as much as she possibly could, and Seirin never slowed down or gave up.

No matter how many times Aomine Daiki rammed past them, not once did they miss a beat. They never stopped chasing.

As her team trudged back, she walked up to them and opened up her arms.

"Okuma-chan..."

"Sorry, we..."

Tomoko shook her head, shushing her exhausted team up. "It's our tradition, right?" she told them with watery eyes, but she didn't want to cry. So she gave them a grin. "We always have a team hug after a game."

This was the first time she experienced a loss, but it was with a group of people she loved dearly, so she wanted to tell herself that it shouldn't hurt as much. But it did.

"We'll beat Touou next time... Okay?" a single tear escaped her eye, but she quickly wiped it away and waited for her teammates' responses.

The seniors and Kuroko looked at her, stunned, but soon they gladly complied and gathered together in a tight, heartfelt hug. Koganei pulled Riko, Kagami, and the rest of the first years in as well.

We'll do better next time.

At the end, no more tears were shed.

-----

"It's not that easy. The Generation of Miracles' ace is off the charts."

-Otsubo Taisuke

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Sorry guys! I always tend to forget about updating this on Wattpad because I'm a lot more active on fanfiction.net. But here it is - leave a review, okay? ^^