Hi everyone! I have finally completed my schooling, although I have some learning to do on my own time. I hope to get back into writing again. I like writing this story because I almost never write from the POV of girls and fem!Aomine is so interesting. This chapter will wrap up the drama from the last chapter with some girl talk.

mcgonagiggles: I, too, love Aomine. I hated him at first because how dare he humiliate my darling boys! But then he started to grow on me like a lazy, leeching parasite. Now he's my favourite GoM, and second to bakagami. I agree than he shows elements of depression. Fem!Aomine has slightly different struggles but she too has symptoms of depression.

Xxdreamergirl95xX: I too am excited, if nervous, about the Winter Cup. Better refresh my memory by watching season 2 again

LazyCrazyDaizy: Thanks for your kind words! I have searched out the genderbending stories myself and was disappointed in the quantity of fem!Aomine so I ended up writing my own. And although Aomine is a girl, she's still a little perverted. I am also waiting for the AoKaga romance here because I think it will be hilarious.

Chapter 8

Delay

The following morning found Daiki in a foul mood once again. Her mother started the day with a lecture before she was even out of bed. The woman raged in her very disappointed tone about Daiki's lazy and entitled attitude, her disrespect for authority, and the rudeness she directed at her father the night before. Daiki lay in bed and took the lecture as she normally did. There was no point in speaking up or trying to defend herself as proven by the woman's reaction to speaking her mind the night before.

After her mother left in a huff, Daiki locked herself in the bathroom. The girl staring back at her in the mirror wasn't what she expected. Dark circles under her eyes and a sickly paleness to her normally tanned skin. She looked like she hadn't slept in weeks as if her daily napping habit had no effect. Yesterday had taken more out of her than she thought.

A warm shower felt good on her tense muscles and she wished she could stay there all day. Washing the extra tension down the drain lifted a massive weight off her shoulders. Feeling much better following a good shower, Daiki wrapped a towel around her body and opened the bathroom door.

Satsuki stared at her from the doorway.

"SATSUKI!" Daiki slammed the door shut in the pink-haired girl's face and grabbed her towel before it unravelled. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm so sorry, Daiki-san!" Satsuki wailed and a loud thump from the other side told Daiki she probably threw herself against the door. "I shouldn't have gone to Coach without talking to you first. My decision was right, but it was unfair of me to blindside you like that."

"The whole team knows about my legs." Daiki snapped following the lackluster apology. "They're going to think I'm weak because I got injured from one game. When I don't show up to face Akashi, the whole basketball world will think I'm too fucking scared to face him. My reputation will be trashed!"

"No one thinks you're weak." Satsuki's voice sounded like she had slid down the door to sit on the floor. "The team is terrified of you after you tore two hoops off the backboards. But if you're worried about everyone else, don't worry. I spoke to Akashi-kun. He's not playing in the finals."

Daiki almost opened the door in case she hadn't heard properly. "What?"

"Akashi-kun won't play in the Interhigh finals." Satsuki repeated. "I think he was disappointed, but he's not interested in playing Touou without you in the lineup. He said he'll see you at the Winter Cup."

"You're not lying?"

"I wouldn't lie about that."

Daiki mulled over her words. To think that Akashi would just back off the finals because she got injured, he really was serious about the promise made at the end of their time at Teiko. He probably didn't see the rest of Touou as dangerous and felt Rakuzan had the win in the bag regardless. It gave her something to think about in the time leading up to the Winter Cup.

"That doesn't mean I forgive you." Daiki huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Water was dripping down her neck and she desperately wanted to get back to her room and change into something that wasn't threatening to drop to the floor with the slightest movement.

"Tetsu-kun showed me his new technique. Let me in and I'll tell you all about it?"

"Tetsu could have twelve new techniques and still never be able to beat me." Still, Daiki reached for the doorknob.

"And Kagamin was concerned when he heard about your injury."

"WHAT?" Daiki swung the door open with a vengeance. "You told that stupid-eyebrow idiot about my injury?"

Satsuki looked up from her position on the floor then scrambled to her feet. A purse swung loosely in her hand. "I was upset and went to see Tetsu at Seirin. Kagamin just happened to be there too. He wanted to know if you'd be able to play in the winter."

"I could play with one arm behind my back and still beat that moron." Daiki snorted. "He should worry about himself."

Daiki paused and considered how she had fallen into their regular routine. She was still mad at Satsuki and shouldn't be forgiving. Without another word, the taller girl walked past Satsuki and into her room. The pink-haired girl followed and quietly watched as Daiki shuffled around in her dresser for her clothes.

"Also, there's something else I need to apologize for." Satsuki swayed back and forth on her feet with her hands behind her back. "I realize that I've been very immature in how I speak to and about other girls. From now on, I won't make any mentions of chest size, weight, or any other physical attribute in a negative way. I didn't realize that it bothered you and I won't do it again because I care about our friendship."

Daiki turned and raised an eyebrow at the other girl. Bad habits are hard to break. "I think you're missing the point. You're bullying girls because their breasts are smaller than yours. How could you not realize it would bother me?" Daiki pointed at her own rather flat chest.

"But you're an athlete! Of course, your body will look different. You have a six pack!"

"Just because I'm an athlete doesn't change the fact that if I put on a hoodie, majority of the population will think I'm a boy. You know what my mom said last year."

Satsuki glanced down and scuffed her toe along the floor. "I never thought about that. I guess you've always been Daiki-san to me."

"And you call me oblivious?" Daiki rolled her eyes and pulled on a t-shirt over her bra. "I look more like a boy than half of the players in Tokyo. I go through this crap every single year. But this is all besides the point. Each year those vultures are just salivating for even a hint of weakness. Missing the finals because of an injury is enough justification for them to claim that I'm weak because I'm a girl."

Satsuki shook her head and sat down at Daiki's desk. "That's stupid. Kise-kun is injured too, even worse than you. My source tells me he's getting an x-ray to make sure the bone is fine."

Having finished getting changed, Daiki stood in front of her mirror and ran a comb gently through her damp hair. If she didn't, the summer humidity caused her hair to resemble a fluffy pomeranian's coat. "It's different. A sprained ankle is a basketball injury. Everyone can see where and when it happened. Shin splints are different. No one can see them."

"Daiki-san, I understand why you are upset. But please remember that we are not telling anyone why you were pulled from the starting lineup. It's no one else's business why you and Akashi-kun are not playing. Just rest so you'll be ready for the Winter Cup."

The blue-haired girl huffed and tossed her comb on the dresser. Figures Satsuki wouldn't get it. She seemed to think that Daiki lived wrapped in protective bubble coating so gossip and snide comments from others just bounced off with no effect. No one was that obtuse.

"Here!" Satsuki clapped her hands and jumped to her feet with a wide smile. "In an apology for my poor decision, let me make it up to you. Come over to my house. We'll play games on the PS4, eat junk food, and then watch another movie while eating more junk food."

Daiki bit her lip as she thought over the options of following the other girl or crawling back into bed, then she frowned. "But you don't have a PS4."

"Well, there's a reason you haven't found where your mom hid your PS4." Satsuki smiled at Daiki's exaggerated groan. "I went along with it before but since you need to rest, it couldn't hurt to play a game or two."

Daiki dragged a hand down her face. What else of hers would she find in her childhood friend's closet? It explained so much. "I can't believe you'd be cruel enough to be an accomplice in the confiscation of my PS4. Fine, let's go. Just promise me you won't try to cook."

Taiga groaned and fell back against the floor. "I'm tired. Can we stop yet?"

Kuroko did not raise his head from where he was bent over his notebook to grunt in reply. Fukuda sighed in exasperation and rolled his eyes. "Kagami, you'll never pass your classes without putting in the work. You know you can't play if you don't pass."

"But exams are ages away. Why are we studying now?"

"Think about it this way: if we study now then there's less for Coach to beat into your head later." Furihata smiled kindly when delivering that terrifying alternative.

Taiga sat up and scowled at the other first years around the table. Kuroko's home was of average size for the Tokyo area but seemed even smaller with five basketball players squished into the living room. It was very homey, with little knick-knacks hiding in corners and plenty of family pictures on the walls and surfaces.

At the thought of Kuroko, Taiga looked back at his basketball partner. This time he could see that although the light-blue haired teen was bent over his notebook, his writing had turned into squiggles. A giant ink spot was growing under his unmoving pen.

"Kuroko's asleep."

"KUROKO!"

The teen jerked up at the sound of his name being yelled. His pen skidded across the table, leaving a trail of black ink.

"Crap," Kawahara muttered and got up to head into the kitchen. "That could leave a stain."

As the other four fussed over the stain or the half-asleep Kuroko, Taiga lay back down. Sitting on the floor was painful and he didn't think he'd ever get used to it. Japan had some traditions that he was oddly quick to discard when he moved to LA but found difficult to relearn.

A pile of magazines on the bottom of the bookshelf caught his eye. Taiga sat up and picked up the top magazine, a special publication on the National Basketball League in Japan. The next few issues were old Basketball Monthly publications that he already skimmed through. He paused near the bottom of the pile when Teikou's kanji caught his eye. The magazine was old with deep creases on the spine and frayed edges.

Teikou Middle School Requests Permission for a Girl to Play on the Boy's Team.

Flipping the magazine open to the article, Taiga was blindsided by the picture of Aomine. He wasn't surprised to see she was the subject of the article, but he wasn't prepared for the youthful face radiating pure happiness. She was younger, with a rounder face and dark blue hair cut at her jaw line. Her smile, wide and infectious, reached her eyes. A simple black t-shirt and basketball shorts with an indoor gym as the background hinted that her picture was snapped during practice. The excitement in her face was not directed at the viewer but at the opponent, who had been cut from the picture.

The longer he lingered on her picture, the more his checks heated. It wasn't hard to see why people were drawn to Aomine. Somewhere between the Aomine in this magazine and the one he met on the court; something had obviously triggered a major personality change. Perhaps he would have liked this Aomine too.

"Hey Kagami! What are you looking at?"

Taiga snapped the magazine shut and started to fix the pile he had made a mess of. "Just some old basketball magazines. Are you guys done? Because I could really go for some food …"

Apologies for the short chapter but it's so much easier to get back into writing with small bits and pieces. I seem to have misplaced my notebook with scenes for this story after moving 5 times in a year. Hopefully I can find it soon.

Next, a trip to the hot springs? Oh la la!