Basket and Stars

Chapter 57

She really had hoped she'd be feeling much better when she showed up here... It would not be fun if she stumbled into Akashi now... Not that she'd let that happen. She couldn't tell him, he would not believe her. It would only make it worse, he'd think she was just making up stories, if she told him. He'd get even more angry, he'd hate her even more.

And even though he had been so cold with her, she didn't want him to hate her.

So she would stay away from him until the time was right wouldn't make any contact at all. Then she just had to hope he hadn't told this to the others...

"Would you mind my asking what exactly you are doing here, Lucy?" She heard a voice inquire, kicking her right out of her trance.

With a jerk of surprise and a hand to her heart, she fell back in the wagon as she looked up at the intruders. "Shin-kun, Takao." She breathed out, recognizing the two faces. "Ah, you scared me." She said as she calmed herself down again.

"I'm sorry, Lucy! We didn't mean to scare you!" Takao quickly apologized. "We were just wondering what you were doing in our wagon." He explained.

So... They hadn't seen her moment of weakness, unable to stand? Well, that was good at least. Then it struck her mind. "Wait... 'Our' wagon?" She asked, looking down at the wagon in surprise. This was theirs? Wasn't irony just great sometimes?

Takao grinned. "Yeah, that's how Shin-chan prefers to be transported, he's a bit picky." He laughed, amused.

Meanwhile, Midorima himself was quite nonchalant about the fact that Takao had just made fun of him. Instead, he just pushed his glasses up with his bandaged fingers. "My question still stands, what are you doing in our wagon?" He repeated the question, which had already been asked twice, clearly annoyed he had gotten no answer.

"Ah, sorry Shin-kun." Lucy said and moved to get up and off the wagon. A little shakily, she accepted Takao's offered hand with a smile. Then she turned to the Miracle again. "I just woke up there, I don't know why." She explained. If she could, she would love to have a say in where she woke up, but she didn't. It was actually surprising it hadn't gotten her into more trouble than it had, considering everything.

Takao looked at her with widened eyes. "But... We left it ten minutes ago-"

"I see." The tall, green-haired guy said indifferently, cutting his friend off and seemingly not noticing the blonde's slight flinches of pain now and then. Neither had Takao - much to her luck. He turned around to the Winter Cup building. "Let's go." Was all he said as he began moving towards the building.

"Oh, you're going to be watching the match?" She asked, hoping to guide Takao's attention away from the fact she had appeared in their cart within ten minutes.

"Naturally." Midorima simply replied.

Takao sighed at his friend, then smiled brightly to Lucy, cleaning up for his friend and teammate. "Yeah, because we know we will be playing against one of them, so might as well learn as much as possible!" He reasoned.

"Oh, that's smart." She admitted.

At this point, there were only four teams left: Shutoku, Seirin, Kaijo and Rakuzan. Shutoku would of course be matched against Rakuzan, since Seirin was with Kaijo. The winners of each match would play each other for the 1st place and the title as the best high school basketball team in Japan, whereas the losers of the two matches would play for the third placing.

So, actually there were only four matches left, and the Grand Magic Games would start right after she returned to Earthland, the very same day. She'd be incredibly busy and most likely also stressed out with everything going on in her life right now.