A/N: So, I found this drabble in an old folder and it's just a bunch of feels.

...

It was in that moment that he first felt something that he never thought he could. Even facing a copy of himself had not made him feel it. It took a flash of red with a look so fierce all he could do was stare in awe.

Kagami Taiga. His rival. His equal. The only person in the world who could make him see the light. Kagami's light.

He had only ever thought no light could outshine his own, but that redheaded bastard had done it. Injured, even! He would never forget and would make sure the idiot knew it. Much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he owed Kagami a debt. The biggest debt there ever was.

Kagami had given him the happiness he had thought lost all those years ago.

Kagami had given him hope.

He asks him, rather challenges him, to play one-on-one with him every chance he gets. At first he gets a denial, but by pushing the right buttons, Kagami is on the court with that fiery passion and he can feel that happiness all over again.

It's afterwards that sucks.

Every time they have to part ways because of school the next day, and he has to walk all the way home by himself, it leaves him feeling just as empty as before he played Kagami. That was when he decided.

He'd just have to stick with the bastard.

The next weeks pass by in a blur of crimson. Kagami had begun taking over nearly all of his waking thoughts, and it would have freaked him out, if he weren't so busy trying to figure out how to beat him. Sure, the one-on-one's were pretty evenly matched, but he's almost afraid of something.

He's afraid it will get boring. Not for him, of course. Playing Kagami was always like that first moment he could truly see the idiot's light that he had once called 'dim.'

He was afraid that Kagami would get bored.

So, he came up with a way to keep Kagami interested. By beating him, he would get to see that all consuming determination in those ruby eyes. The determination to keep going. The determination to keep playing him.

That thought, more than anything, drove him to crack a genuine smile for the first time in a long time.

All because of a red-haired idiot.