Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket, and I don't think I have enough money to buy all volumns, either -sniff-

Warning: the usual: genderbend, OOCs, blur, grammar problems.

No matter how you're good at literature, don't start with metaphor - never start with metaphor, Reo.

Similes are good enough. If you want to say it's you've got yourself burnt, it's fine. This is just as painful, just as consuming - so it would make a good similes. But she's not fire. She isn't destruction. She's nothing that you're going to run away from.

Do you listen?

And if you want to say she has you under her control, has you wrapped around her fingers - go for it. It's only a simile. It's not like it's happening.

Listen, whatever you do, Reo, never start with a metaphor.

Because there's no need to get all metaphorical and start comparing this twisting and churning in your chest, this aching, longing torment inside your head, this the-world-brightens-around-us expression when you catch glimpses of her briefest, tiniest smiles.

There's no need to label it 'love'.

Because it's just a 'like' (and everyone likes her, in one way or another. Even Mayuzumi, who tells you he loathes Akashi most of the time.)

Do you get it?

It's just an 'as if'.