Price To Pay (Akashi X Riko)

Chapter 2

Author's notes:

Hi and thanks for reading my story. But I have to tell you that I'm not good at describing basketball scenes, so I skipped the whole game...sorry.

Chapter is set immediately after Vorpal Swords have won.

Anyways, happy reading,

kellyh000

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The crowd went absolutely wild when Kagami and Aomine ended the match with a dunk.

Beside Riko, Momoi jumped up and down in excitement before turning to her to give her a big hug. She smiled, and hugged back tightly.

One of the many things Riko liked about the young manager was she would always let you know her affection towards you. It's nice to be liked. Although they were on opponents the fist time they met, but after last year's winter cup, they have became good friends and hung out a lot. Usually to drink coffee and to complain about how stupid boys were.

Riko glanced at the court, and saw the boys highfiving each other while Jabberwock starred at the score board in horror and disbelief.

Take that and suck it up, losers. Riko thought.

It was always nice to be on the winning side.

###

They went back to the gym where they practiced, and Momoi ordered food for everyone, insisting on throwing a celebration party.

Riko's dad was drinking beer with his former teammates-namely the coaches from Too and Shutoku. They sat at the table in the corner, having an adults-only discussion.

Vorpal Swords and the second and third year of Seirin were also invited by their coach to join the celebration and enjoy the food.

Riko had took Murasakibara to a nearby hospital to treat his injury, and joined them afterwards.

The teens gathered around and ate the food in total silence. They were supposed to be celebrating their hard-earned victory, but everyone seemed to be more interested in the food. Somehow, Riko ended up sitting between Akashi and Momoi, and she could tell the awkward silence was bothering Kagami, and he tried to say something but he didn't know what to say, so he remained shut.

She couldn't blame him. The truth was, she wasn't that comfortable sitting next to Akashi either.

During the training, Akashi was always polite-friendly, even and have been a perfect gentleman towards her, but it still felt weird, knowing what he had done before and how dangerous he could be.

Riko turned her head at her players. Seirin had played against the GOM, and knew just how powerful and scary they could be. Especially Furihata. She had some responsibility for that.

During Winter Cup, she had thrown Furihata into the court to face Akashi. In a lot of people's eyes, she was either out of her mind or a cold-blooded coach to leave Furihata (a chihuahua) at the mercy of Akashi (a lion). Everyone was totally baffled at her decision.

But Kiyoshi had trusted her and understood what she was doing.

Furihata was too timid, but he was also prudent and very good at cooperating with teammates. Which was exactly what Seirin needed at the time.

But she had another agenda. Furihata has to believe that he wasn't worthless and all he needed was a push to make him see what he was capable of. As she anticipated, playing against Akashi had done the trick. It took great courage and good judgment, both of which Furihata had already possessed.