Not Just A Shadow

Practice Makes Perfect

  "See you later Kurokochi, I hope you had fun," Kise said before rushing off to the photoshoot. I smiled and stood, before heading back to the mansion. I noticed they had a basketball court in the back and grinned. No longer would be a shadow. I would learn to stand and be my own light. I would control my lack of presence so I would still be useful and not lose my misdirection. I hope Akashi would be happy that I was getting stronger. After all, they were so used to me only passing and using phantom shot.

Heading out back after dropping off my stuff, I grabbed a basketball. I only had a week to do this. And I couldn't practice my presence by myself so I would have to do that later. Right now, I could only practice. I stood from the farthest I could use my phantom shot and focused. Using phantom shot I knew I would make it in form this range, but I needed to do better than that. I was too close, I needed to extend my range just a bit. Just a little more. Taking a few steps back until I was at the three-point line, I opened my eyes and smiled. I shot the ball, and it bounced off the rim. But it was only the first try. I kept at it until I heard car doors slam. By that time, I was making three out of five shots from the three-point line. Sweating, but still full of energy I ended by messing around a bit. Dribbling the ball I rushed forward and jumped. It wasn't very hard, but I still managed to dunk the ball. I needed to jump a just a little higher, put more force. I had the arm strength for it. It only required practice. Not ready to tell the others, I continued to shoot phantom shots from my normal range, making every shot.

"Tetsuya." Akashi greeted when they all came out. I stopped shooting and smiled, turning to them.

"How was school?" I asked politely and Aomine merely grumbled.

"Don't worry about Mine-chin. He's got in trouble for falling asleep in class." Murasakibara said, offering me a vanilla pocky. I took it with thanks, biting off the end of it.

"I was not aware that you wore glasses Kuroko," Midorima stated, finally noticing what the other did not. Well, Akashi had probably just decided not to comment on them.

"I used to wear contacts, but Kise-kun convinced me that I didn't look stupid wearing these," I said with a shrug, not meeting their gazes.

"Anyway, it's getting late so we should start making dinner," Akashi said after a moment of silence. I put the basketball back with the others once inside and as everyone else made their way to the dining room I slipped into the bathroom to shower and try out some of the clothes Kise helped me pick out. I let the hot water run over me for a few minutes before I got out and changed into a simple light blue t-shirt and black jeans. I dried my hair quickly, knowing they were probably still waiting for Kise to get back anyway. My hair was still a bit damp, so it was much more flat than usual. I made my way to the dining room where Murasakibara was just finished with cooking dinner. Kise sat, still in his modeling clothes. When he saw the clothes I was wearing he smiled brightly.

"I knew those would look good on you Kurokochi!" He complimented as I sat down in between the usual people. I smiled softly back at him before I finished my presence almost completely. Midorima didn't even notice me as I sat down, his gaze traveling right over me. I suddenly made my presence return to that of a normal person, starting mIdorima, who had just passed over me a second ago. I increased my presence a bit more until it was impossible to miss me, and I wasn't the slightest bit invisible. I sat back with a smirk when my test proved to be successful. I had been practicing alone for a while, but I haven't gotten the chance to test it yet. Nobody had seemed to notice the little theory, as Akashi was preoccupied with talking to Midorima, and I fought the urge to sigh in relief. I didn't want to reveal my plans to them yet, even if they were my friends. I had only just gotten them all back and I wasn't keen on telling them I wanted to get stronger. They might think I was starting to change as they did. Or worse, they would try to stop me.

"I hope you're eating more than just a milkshake Tetsuya," Akashi told me, though his eyes told me that I better eat more. Hesitantly I grabbed a small amount of food and put it on my plate. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat, it was that I couldn't eat much. After forcing myself to eat everyone on the plate, I saw Akashi give an approving nod.

"So Tetsu, what were you doing on the basketball court without us, you should have waited until we got home!" Aomine said, earning a small smile from me.

"Just practicing. I still need to get a new laptop so I can't exactly do anything else besides walk around. I did enough of that with Kise-kun earlier anyway." I answered truthfully, making sure Akashi knew I wasn't lying.

"Well it is getting late again, so we should retire for the night. Tetsuya, you should go out and buy that laptop tomorrow if you need one." Akashi told me and I nodded. After everyone was in their rooms, I realized how tired I was from practice today. I really needed to work on my stamina, it was horrible. Not to mention my skills required a lot of, something I didn't have. I fell onto my bed and into a dreamless sleep before I could even change clothes.

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Here you go guys! Sorry I didn't post this one yesterday, but my wattpad was messing up and wouldn't load at all.

this chapter is 1014 words, and I hope you enjoy it!