CHAPTER ONE

A/N: This is an idea that just wouldn't leave me alone. So despite my lack of confidence in writing fiction, I gave it a shot. This first chapter is the compiled parts 1-3 posted on my tumblr (madalie. tumblr tagged/ fic). I'll post a new chapter here for every 3 parts I post on tumblr (actually this already has six parts up, so I'll post the next chapter tomorrow or the day after). If the content here is slightly different that's because I edited them from how they were on tumblr. I self-edit though, and English isn't my native tongue, so I might still miss some things. [note: rating MIGHT change later on]

-o-o-o-o-o-

Eight years later, the moment they met would be widely regarded as the beginning of a legend, but nine years before that, or a year before today, Kagami Taiga and Aomine Daiki are experiencing the worst day of their lives.

It happens like this: Himuro Tatsuya challenges Kagami Taiga to a final one-on-one, wherein the stakes are nothing less than the most important relationship of Kagami's life, while, on the other side of the globe Aomine Daiki discovers that the light and love of his life is no longer something worth doing. Later that day when Kagami is coercing his parents to send him to Japan and Aomine is trying not to think of the face of the friend whose fist bump offer he ignored, the thought that"Everything is going to change" crosses their minds.

And, true to their suspicions, nothing was ever the same.

The less said about the one year gap between the worst day of their lives and the day they meet the better. This is what they tell themselves now, and this is what they tell all nosy interviewers and paparazzi eight years later.

Kagami doesn't want to remember, and he doesn't want people asking, but for a while (ten months exactly) he just couldn't bring himself to play basketball with anyone else (but himself). The realization hits him a month after his arrival in Japan in the form of the phrase: "I can't do this". The presence of other people on court felt so stifling he had to quit his new middle school's basketball club and started playing street basketball on his own (everyday, for ten months). Nine years later from then (or eight years later from today) Kagami still regards this as the darkest period of his life. He spent the next ten months wallowing in something that wasn't quite self-hate but more than just a little bit like it. He tells himself he feels bad because the standards in Japan are so damn bad, and he believes it.

And while he's busy unconsciously riling himself up with negativity, Aomine is trying to wind himself down with passivity. He steels himself to stop caring and starts becoming a heartless arrogant bastard, and unwittingly, drags his teammates down with him. It's not that he was not, on some level, aware of what was happening around him, but if he started to care about that oranything for that matter, it would have pretty much been a slippery slope. He didn't want that. So he tells himself nothing matters, and, like Kagami, he believes it.

Ten months later from that, one Kuroko Tetsuya disappears from the Teikou basketball team's sight, and, finally admitting to himself playing alone made him feel worse (or actually figuring he wouldn't find a challenge by not playing against anyone else), Kagami Taiga starts playing against others again.

One month later from that, otherwise known as the beginning of a legend, or today, Aomine Daiki meets Kagami Taiga for the first time.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Aomine looks at the new arrival and likens him to an abandoned dog—wary, irritable, and a little nervous. Their homeroom teacher mentions that he's a returning student from America, which gets Aomine's attention for all of five seconds before the rest of the class starts throwing questions at the guy. No way is he going to fight the crowd just because the new kid caught his attention for a bit. Too much energy wasted.

Absentmindedly, Aomine notes that you really get the return student vibe in heaps from the way he struggles to answer all the questions. He doesn't seem to know how he should talk, he has no accent but he looks like he's having a hard time choosing words. It's kind of funny in a pathetic way cause he's trying to talk politely but he keeps slipping into a really disrespectful mode of talking and it's just—nobody talks like that (1). There's disrespectful, and then there's this. You don't hear a guy talking like this anywhere but a manga. Who the hell taught this kid Japanese? Maybe it's a thing with returning students. He wouldn't know though, no point of comparison and all and—AGH

'Everyone is so damn noisy, like what the hell'—he tilts his head back, closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose, hoping somehow he can block the noise out of his mind.

"Ok that's enough" their teacher says it firmly enough that the chattering dies down "Kagami-kun, your seat will be the one next to Aomine-kun's in the back"

Aomine slowly opens his eyes, and finds… the new guy staring at him.

….Correction, glaring at him, 'The hell is this guy's problem?'

"…Nice to meet you" Kagami says after a beat.

'Well that was unexpected' Aomine thinks before saying "Hi."

Kagami nods at him as he sits, then turns his attention to whatever their teacher is saying.

Aomine's gaze lingers on him for a moment, gives him a once over one last time before turning his attention to whatever it is their teacher is saying too.

Thirty minutes later, or ten minutes into first period, Aomine falls asleep and Kagami is staring at him like he's grown another head (though he tries his best to seem like he isn't staring).

When Kagami first entered the classroom Aomine had immediately caught his eye. Sure the guy looked sleepy, bored out of his wits, and itching to get out of his seat, but he also had this weird commanding aura to him. Admittedly, Kagami isn't the best at reading people most of the time, but he had a pretty good sense of who had the potential to succeed and who didn't, because people like that smelled different. He didn't even know his name, but Kagami did know that Aomine's smell was overwhelming, and that was, well, that was interesting.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Kagami joins the Touou basketball club, but he hasn't actually heard shit about it before he does. He does overhear the other freshmen talk about how they've been recruiting really good players lately to strengthen the team and how they even got the "ace of the generation of miracles"('Whatever the hell that means', Kagami thinks), and thinks 'Good, I would have quit if they were weak'.

The freshmen are lined up, introductions are made, and all the while the guy standing next to Kagami is fidgeting and muttering 'Sorry' every time he so much as looks at him. But when Kagami realizes the guy doesn't smell like a weakling (quite the opposite in fact) he also realizes that something is up with this team. The thought latches on to his mind tighter when the team captain walks in and starts talking. He has the creepiest looking smile on his face, a voice that's trying to be sincere (but only sounds patronizing 75% of the time), and a smell akin to that kid who used to blackmail people into giving him their snacks in his elementary school. He should really be uncomfortable, but he actually finds himself excited.

What happens next is something he should have expected in hindsight, but surprises him anyway. His new seatmate (with the commanding presence) walks into the gym getting scolded for being late by the girl introduced earlier as their new team manager. He stands to the team captain's left and gets introduced as "Aomine Daiki from Teikou" as if it's supposed to mean something, and when all the other freshmen start fidgeting as Aomine looks at them and they look at him, Kagami guesses that yeah, it probably should. So he does the only logical thing to do in that situation, he challenges Aomine to a one-on-one.

His sudden declaration is met by silence.

Everyone stares at him like he's crazy, except their team captain, who seems incredibly amused, and Aomine, who's looking at him like he doesn't know what to make of him at all.

His tone irritated and lazy, Aomine says "Eh? Who are y—"

And then he stops, looking as if something just dawned on him. He stares at Kagami's face, and his expression goes from surprised to slightly amused.

"You're the returning student." He says, and he has this smirk on his face that makes Kagami want to punch him. "Alright then, let's play"

Their team captain and manager look at each other. Their captain (Imayoshi, if Kagami is remembering it right) says "Do whatever you want" at the same moment the manager says "We should ask the coach first".

She glares at him for that, and he gives her the most unapologetic apologetic look that anyone has ever seen in reply.

"Fine" she says, sighing "I guess if Aomine-kun wants to, the coach would have said yes anyway"

And then, Kagami swears, he hears a tall blonde second year to the captain's right say "Stupid fucking bastard" but Imayoshi elbows him so hard that he doubles over, so he doesn't really know for sure.

He's snapped out of his thoughts when a ball is thrown to his face. He catches it despite his surprise, and he's about to mouth off the bastard who threw it at him but stops when he realizes it was Aomine.

"Stop standing around, you challenged me remember? Let's get on with this" Kagami just really, really wants to punch the bastard, but beating him at a one-on-one would be much more satisfying. So he keeps silent and walks towards where Aomine is.

"Just so you know—" Aomine starts, when they're face to face "—this is me testing you. Nobody's expecting a real match."

Kagami grits his teeth, "What the fuck is this bastard's DEAL?", he's about to retort but the way Aomine's face shifts from a smirk to something darker quiets him.

"I'm not looking for something that doesn't exist like a player who's better than me. I just want to know how much you can do, to relieve my boredom."

Aomine's intensity is actually downright scary up close like this, but Kagami won't let it bother him. He takes a slow, deep breath before he says "You really know how to piss a guy off don't you? Shut up and play. I am going to CRUSH you."

The smirk he receives in reply gives him the feeling that this won't really work out the way he wants it to.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Kagami loses spectacularly.

He would find it funny if he didn't feel so humiliated. Despite his shame however, he can't help but get fired up, because this guy, Aomine? He's damn fucking amazing. He's so unreal that Kagami is actually extremely upset about it. At the same time though, he did say he wanted a challenge, and well, this is it, and it is one heck of a challenge.

"You lose" Aomine says, staring down at Kagami who'd fallen flat on his ass

Kagami grunts, hopes that the sound says "Yeah I KNOW" for him clearly enough, and starts getting up. Aomine says nothing further and walks out of the gym. Their team manager seems to want to try to call after him but then pauses, sighs, and mutters "Oh nevermind…"

The rest of the freshmen try to pretend the one-on-one didn't just happen (after Kagami glares a few gigglers into silence), but the tension is painfully apparent when they're being grouped for practice matches between first years.

"In case you've already forgotten I'm Momoi Satsuki, your new team manager, and from now on I will be the one to watch your progress and brief you on our opponents whenever the coach isn't around and sometimes even when he is. This I will do aside from the usual managerial obligations, of course, which by the way do NOT include being your water girl, just so you know." She's amiable enough but it almost sounds like a threat.

Which is why he jumps when she turns to look at him

"Kagami-kun" she starts, and he has a really bad feeling about this "don't worry about losing tohim there's absolutely no shame in that, your form was good" and Kagami can just hear the "I want to see if you can do better" that goes unsaid.

He is simultaneously offended and ridiculously flattered, but he's not quite sure what would be the appropriate verbal response to that so he just nods.

His performance shuts everyone up this time too, but for very difference reasons.

-o-o-o-o-o-

If Kagami went to any other school, he'd probably be seen as a big damn genius. This is Aomine's assessment of him after their one-on-one. He's got the form of someone who's been playing basketball a while, aggressive plays that would make most players panic, but makes all the mistakes of someone who doesn't know their own strength. Basically, as far as Aomine's concerned, he has no idea what he's doing. It occurs to Aomine, that it might be entertaining to cultivate the hidden talent that he's pretty sure is there and then see what happens, but at the same time, he's pretty sure Kagami couldn't beat him no matter how much he improved so it probably isn't worth the effort.

He'll admit Kagami's different though.

Losing might have shut him up, but as embarrassed as he might have felt (and it was plain to see on his face that he was pretty damn embarrassed), Kagami didn't seem devastated in the least (as is the usual reaction), and that was… something, Aomine guesses. Not that it even really matters.

"Lazing on the roof again?"

"Satsuki, go bother someone else" he groans "I'm trying to sleep"

Momoi Satsuki is rarely the type to be ordered around, by Aomine especially, so she ignores his words and sits beside him. "The rest of the first years are pretty interesting, two of them especially. They're both in your class, Sakurai Ryou's really good at three pointers, and well you've met Kagami already" she pauses "I wonder why he's two days late, according to his records he spent his last year of middle school here. You'd think he'd start the school year with the rest of us right?"

It figures that Satsuki's researching and cataloging him already. He rolls to his side so his back's facing her "Isn't it your job to know that?"

"It is" is what she says, but "I was trying to get you to tell me what you think about him" is what he hears.

"He's ok" he says, because he knows she won't leave him alone if he didn't "Needs some work, but he's ok"

He hears her huff (in a way that suspiciously sounds like "I thought so").

"You're lucky we were just assessing the rest of the freshmen today—" she says"—or Wakamatsu-sempai would have blown a fuse again"

"Please" Aomine scoffs "As if I care what HE thinks, the bastard"

"You should still come to practice"

"Should—but won't"

"Even if I told you Kagamin is more than he seems?"

He actually turns to look at her at that, an eyebrow raised.

"KagaMIN?" he says incredulously.

She has this annoyingly smug look on her face, like she knows something he doesn't.

"Michael Jordan" she says, patting his shoulder as she moves to get up "There's your clue"

"Ugh" he turns back to his side "Not wasting my time with that"

"Come to practice!" is all Satsuki says in reply and then she's closing the door shut.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The next day Aomine skips morning practice, and isn't at afternoon practice either.

He's also missed half their classes after he asked to go to the nurse's office in the middle of fourth period. Kagami hasn't known him for that long but he's pretty sure he's skipping (cause no way in hell would he be sick). Their team manager—err, Momoi-san, asks him and Sakurai if she knows where he is. Sakurai tells her "He's in the infirmary, I'm sorry!" while Kagami eyes him funnily trying to figure out why the kid finds it so necessary to apologize about EVERYTHING.

"Kagami-kun, would you please go get him? I need to meet with Coach Harasawa" (2)

Kagami's initial reaction is irritation and he makes a face to show it. He's about to wonder "Why me?" aloud but remembers that he's probably the only freshman who isn't too intimidated to at least talk to Aomine so he relents (and ok, Momoi just gave him a look, and she's kind of scary so he doesn't want to push her buttons).

He finds Aomine sleeping on one of the beds.

"Oi wake up, they're asking for you at practice"

Aomine doesn't even twitch, Kagami tries shaking him.

"Team manag—uh, Momoi-san seems really annoyed, you should really just get your ass down there to the gym"

Still nothing—this is starting to piss Kagami off.

He shouts "WAKE UP YOU BASTARD!" and he kicks the bed so hard Aomine actually falls off.

"WHAT THE FU—" and he's awake. Good.

Aomine sits up rubbing the back of his head and sees Kagami standing there glaring at him.

"Are you fucking CRAZY?" he screams "If I got injured, you would have been as good as kicked out of the team you shit!"

Kagami scoffs "Please—" he crosses his arms "—idiots don't get injured"

Aomine looks at him like he's stupid "That's not even—what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Like I said, they're asking for you at practice"

Aomine makes a disgusted face "No" he says getting up and crawling back into bed "I don't have time for that, I have plans"

"What!? All you're going to do is NAP!"

"Exactly"

Kagami groans, long and exasperated, then starts pulling at Aomine's uniform. "I'm taking you with me whether you like it or not you bastard"

Aomine grabs his right hand, glares, and Kagami stops moving altogether. Everything about Aomine screams "Go away" right now and Kagami doesn't want to admit it but the look he's being given is freaking him out.

"Whatever" he growls, shaking off Aomine's grip "Don't blame me if you get scolded"

Aomine snorts and turns away from him. Kagami lingers for a moment to glare at his back, then stalks away in a huff.

When he gets back to the gym all Momoi-san says about the lack of Aomine is "Oh good, he didn't punch you" and nothing else. He feels as if he's being manipulated into something, but he has no clue what.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Wakamatsu (a center and regular of the team, otherwise known as the tall blond second year whodid curse Aomine during Kagami's first day) is loud pretty much all the time and is as easily pissed off as he is excitable. This Kagami learns after just a week on the Touou basketball team. Aomine hasn't come to morning practice for all of that week, and has only dropped by once for afternoon practice, not that Kagami particularly cares what the bastard does; it's just that Wakamatsu-sempai has graciously been loudly reminding them of this fact on a daily basis.

Right now his sempai is loudly asking him "How is it possible to eat that much!?" as he eats all the sandwiches he bought from the convenience store on the way to school.

They've just finished morning practice and are all eating their breakfast on the stage, and it's too early for Kagami's mind to process Japanese as quickly as he ought.

Since "Uhmm" is all he can say with his mouth full anyway, that's what he does. Wakamatsu continues to look at him like he's a new wonder of the world. He can see Sakurai gawk at him with great interest from the corner of his eye and he wonders if it really is so surprising that he can eat this much.

"I eat a normal amount" Kagami says after he swallows

"For a whale maybe—"Wakamatsu's nose is scrunching up in mild disgust, but his face shows bewilderment "—where does it even go?"

Kagami just grunts, what is even the point of these questions? Attempting to veer things away from him and his food he asks "Is Aomine really ok not coming to practice?"

The incredibly loud angry growl (it's more of a roar really, geez, Kagami feels like his eardrums are going to burst) that Wakamatsu releases makes Kagami immediately regret asking that particular question.

"That bastard really gets on my nerves!"

'Yeah well, that's true for a lot of people' Kagami thinks.

"He always acts like he's better than everyone!"

And it's at that point of Wakamatsu's rant that Imayoshi decides to step in.

"Calm down Wakamatsu" he says, admonishing "It doesn't matter if he's arrogant if he gets results. And anyway, you have to admit he has the right to be high and mighty, Aomine's… different."

Kagami thinks that's a gross understatement but leaves it alone because their captain was probably trying to be vague on purpose. Just saying outright that Aomine is better than all of them when it comes to basketball wasn't going to help anyone. Frankly hearing it out loud from another person would have pissed Kagami off too.

Especially since Aomine seems to have zero fucks to give.

Aomine seems to think there's nobody out there who could ever beat him, probably why he thinks he can afford not to give a damn. Kagami however, begs to differ. What a small word Aomine must live in, if he can't find a single person capable of beating him. Even the best NBA players lose sometimes, because there'll always be someone stronger, and because they're human, so they doin fact, make mistakes. Kagami refuses to believe Aomine's basketball is really that perfect.

After Imayoshi's interruption the gym quiets down to idle chatter as they all finish their breakfast before hitting the showers to get ready for class.

Later at afternoon practice, there is still no sign of Aomine.

-o-o-o-o-o-

End Notes:

(1) I have a friend who can speak in Japanese (and lived in Japan for a while), and while watching Kuroko no Basuke together, she commented that the way Kagami talks is extremely rude, and that nobody actually talks like that in real life ever.
(2) Just having her call him "coach" felt weird SO