Title: Biggest Fan

Summary: Aomine finds a picture of Kuroko in the Seirin boys' locker room. He hands it to Kuroko who takes it upon himself to return the photo to its true owner.

xxxx

The summer sun was perched high in the sky as the famous Seirin High Basketball team jogged through the streets of the quiet neighbourhood. The team captain, Hyuga, shouted encouragement as the group of boys embarked up a steep hill.

"Ah, coach really has no mercy. This weather is brutal." Furihata complained, slumping over as he jogged.

"Being favourable wouldn't have gotten us so far now would it?" Hyuga replied coolly. "You first years are lucky to have her."

Kiyoshi smiled at Hyuga who glared at him.

"You're lucky to have such a supportive captain too." Kiyoshi added.

"Shut up and keep running." Hyuga replied, looking away slightly embarrassed.

Fresh after warm up, the boys arrived to a smiling Riko who then pointed to a cart full of basketballs.

"Make all ten shots each from any three locations and you can come inside!" She stood by the court, surveying the group.

Riko looked up in surprise when the sound of footsteps approached.

"Hello!" A sweet voice pitched. Riko turned and smiled at the pink haired manager. "Wow, looks like you're working them to the bone."

"What are you guys doing here?" Riko asked.

"Dai-chan wanted to play Kagami, I had no choice but to follow." Momoi looked around and found her favourite face. "Ah, Tetsu!" She ran over to where he was practicing.

"Where can I leave my stuff?" Aomine muttered.

Tetsu heard his name being called and turned towards the voice. A voluptuous beauty came bouncing at him and landed with a big hug.

"I missed you!" She exclaimed.

"Ah, Momoi. Does that mean Aomine is here too?" Tetsu asked.

"Yeah, he's here to see Kagami." She pulled herself off of him and turned to the taller red head with a smile.

"Great. I can't wait to go against him." Kagami smirked.

A whistle sounded. "You two! Get back to practicing!"

Momoi retreated from the pair and joined Riko in the sidelines. Tetsu and Kagami watched her leave, and made eye contact with Aomine who simply smirked at them as he walked into the gym.

The blue haired teen wandered through the Seirin gym and into the locker room. The area was small, and he remembered that Seirin wasn't a well established sports school. He eyed the lockers and casually opened one, causing a piece of paper to fall to the floor.

"No locks? This school's full of trusting fools." He remarked. Aomine eventually found an empty locker and stuffed his bag and jacket inside.

He sat on the bench to tie his basketball shoes when he noticed the folded sheet of paper on the floor. He picked it up and saw a date scribbled on the back. Aomine unfolded it and found a colour picture of Kuroko poised to make one of his unique shots.

"Who would own a picture of this guy?" He muttered, but then admitted to himself that his old team mate looked pretty cool. Aomine realized that the kid's arms had become more toned, and his game face had matured. He thought about the first time he ever saw Kuroko's game face and concluded that it only surfaced on court when he was with Seirin.

Riko and Momoi were interrupted as the group of boys crowded around them.

"We're finished, coach!" They exclaimed.

"Alright, let's go inside." She smiled and led the team into the gym.

Kagami and Kuroko watched as Aomine walked towards them, smirking.

"If you don't mind, Kuroko, I'm just going to play Kagami for today."

"I don't mind. Try to leave some time for a bit of practice with me, if you can." Kuroko replied as he began to walk away.

"Hold on." Aomine pulled him back. "Kagami go get us a ball."

"Don't boss me around!" Kagami grumbled, and he left with a passing glance at his shadow.

"What is it, Aomine?" Kuroko asked, looking up at his old partner.

"I found this in the locker room." He handed the printout to Kuroko who received it in confusion.

"Are you sure you found it?" Kuroko asked blatantly, studying the picture.

"Of course I did, moron. I don't keep pictures of people like a creep." Aomine replied.

Kuroko folded the picture up. "Thanks. I'll figure out who owns it after practice."

"Woah hold on, whoever had this picture probably wanted to keep it a secret."

Kuroko looked at the folded sheet in his hand, then back to Aomine, eyes still innocent. "So doesn't it make sense to return it?"

The phantom jogged away to his team and Aomine could only sigh in frustration.

"What was that about?" Kagami asked, spinning a basketball on his finger.

"Nothing. Let's play." Aomine smirked and grabbed the spinning ball, then made a swift shot.

Kuroko wiped the sweat off his brow with his shirt and let out steady deep breaths. Practice was tough as per usual, and he always made sure to make the most out of it. He followed the team into the locker room, but paused when he still heard the quick squeaks of basketball shoes. Kuroko watched in awe at Aomine and Kagami sparring. His new light kept up pretty well, but also seemed to be watching more than usual.

"What are you doing? You're an idiot, you're not going to learn much like that." Aomine commented, dribbling the ball easily by his side.

Kagami glared and drove towards Aomine, stealing the ball from his hands. "Maybe you should spend more time playing and less time-"

"Oh, Kuroko. Looks like we won't have time to practice today." Aomine dribbled the ball he stole from Kagami mid sentence between his legs.

"It's fine. We should go, the gym needs to be closed in a bit."

"Can you tell coach to hold off for a bit?" Kagami asked, panting.

Kuroko felt himself hesitate and then replied, "Sure."

Inside the locker room, the boys collected their things and changed into their casual t-shirts. The air was musty and smelled of sweat, typical, something that one had to get used to.

"Towel, does anyone see an extra towel?" Hyuga asked.

"Here!" Koganei tossed his team mate a towel.

"I meant a clean one!" Hyuga yelled and whipped it at Koganei.

Kuroko cleared his throat. The team jumped at his presence.

"Jeez Kuroko." Kiyoshi placed a hand on his heart.

"Could I talk to each of you one by one?" He pointed at the door and the team glanced at each other in question.

Kuroko led each member into the hall outside the gym and held the picture up.

"That's not mine, if I ever kept printouts, it's normally of a pop idol or something." Fukuda answered, laughing awkwardly.

"No, I don't own that." Kawahara replied. "Maybe the coach would?"

"Idiot, if I were to keep pictures, it'd be of athletes with better builds!" Riko whipped her paper fan onto Kuroko's head and then stormed away.

"That's not mine. But do you have any pictures of Momoi?" Furihata grinned and then frowned as Kuroko shook his head.

"I have a girlfriend." Tsuchida scratched the back of his head with his usual polite smile.

"Nope. But do you have any pictures of Momoi in her bikini?" Koganei asked, then walking away defeated as Kuroko replied negatively.

Mitobe simply shook his head.

"Well isn't this ironic?" Izuki asked. "But no, that's not mine."

"What's this? There's a fan of Kuroko's on the team? Ah, but we're all fans aren't we?" Kiyoshi patted Kuroko on the head. "But no, sorry, that's not mine."

"Are you kidding? No." Hyuga replied.

Kuroko looked at his team, who then stared back.

"Does that mean...?" Koganei started.

"No, no, there's still Aomine." Hyuga interjected.

"Aomine said this wasn't his." Kuroko responded. "And it can't be Momoi's, she wouldn't have reason to go into the locker room."

"Yo, you forgot your water bottle in the room." Kagami chimed in, still wiping sweat off of his face.

The team looked up at Kagami and smiled collectively.

"What-What the hell are you idiots thinking?" He yelled defensively.

"Well, see you guys tomorrow!" Riko said, still smiling.

The team seemed to skitter away, snickering.

"Has Aomine left?" Kuroko asked, taking the water bottle from Kagami and placing it in his bag.

"Yeah, just now. He says he'll be back tomorrow to help you with your shooting." Kagami followed a step behind Kuroko as they left the gym.

The evening was nice and cool, a welcome change from the blistering heat a few hours ago. A soft breeze persisted and the two shared a comfortable silence. They passed the fast food restaurant they frequented after practices and climbed up the stairs onto the pedestrian bridge.

"What was that back there?" Kagami asked, looking down at his shadow.

"Ah, that reminds me." Kuroko replied, he paused to fish the folded up printout out of his bag and presented it to Kagami.

The tall teen flinched and turned red.

"Is this yours, Kagami?" Kuroko asked innocently.

"Uh-" Kagami started. "N-No it's not."

"Oh." Kuroko sighed.

"What was that sigh for?!"

"I thought I would have solved the mystery." Kuroko replied, he turned to continue walking.

Kagami cursed and swiped the piece of paper from Kuroko's hand. "I'll take it, then. I'll get rid of it for you."

"What if the person who owns it really needs it?" Kuroko asked. "They wouldn't keep a picture of someone that didn't mean anything to them."

Kagami tried to read Kuroko's expression to see what he thought of the mystery fan.

"They'll probably come back for it if they need it that badly. I'll just hold on to it." Kagami replied.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to just tape it up on the locker room door, so they can come get it?" Kuroko inquired.

"Bah, I'm too tired to argue about this. Let's go home." Kagami passed Kuroko and began to walk away.

"Why not just throw it away, now?" Kuroko ran down the stairs to catch up to the tall teen and pointed at a nearby garbage can.

"You said yourself that it might be important to someone." Kagami answered, surprised at how coolly he was keeping face.

Kuroko finally silenced in thought for a few seconds.

"Why do you have a picture of me, Kagami?"

Kagami jumped at Kuroko's blatancy and turned red. "What the hell are you talking about, I just told you-"

"Your handwriting." Kuroko interrupted.

"What?"

"Your handwriting. The date on the back. It's your writing." Kuroko pointed at the scrawled numbers.

Kagami froze to the spot and felt himself heat up.

"Why?" Kuroko inquired again.

Kagami blushed and then looked away, embarrassed. "It's inspiring." He muttered. "The way you make the game your own... it's inspiring."

Kuroko blinked in surprise and then smiled.

"I'm kind of upset that it's a photo of something Aomine helped you figure out, but then again-" Kagami paused mid-sentence and watched as Kuroko pulled out his wallet.

"I have one too." The smaller teen revealed a magazine cut-out of Kagami fiercely focused mid-dribble. "It's inspiring." Kuroko smiled a little wider.

Kagami felt his entire face heat up.

"Wait a second- everyone was snickering because-"

"They know, now." Kuroko finished. "I had to make sure I wasn't accusing you falsely."

Kagami covered his face and let out an exasperated grunt.

"You should have been more careful." Kuroko replied, pulling down Kagami's arm to look at his face. "If it's really embarrassing, I can tell them it's not yours."

Kagami paused and gazed at Kuroko's apologetic face, an expression only discernable by those who spent enough time with him. He placed his big hand on Kuroko's head and pulled him into his chest.

"It's fine. Whatever." Kagami replied, a smile slipping out of his usually serious face. "It's already pretty obvious anyway."

"Yeah, you're pretty easy to read." Kuroko said, his voice muffled by Kagami's shirt.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" The tall teen exclaimed, as Kuroko pulled away, still smiling.

xxxx

A/N: Oops. My hand slipped and accidentally typed out 2k words about these passionate idiots.