Hey, my wonderful readers, if you have a Wattpad account, please don't skip the AN at the end! And if you don't, go make one and then come back and read the AN! (XD)

Chapter One – Light at the End of the Tunnel

"Basketball club! Join the basketball club!" Shun shouted. Koganei smiled at him, all cat-mouthed, and said, "Louder, Itzuki!"

Shun cupped his hands around his mouth and drew a deep in-breath, readying himself to scream when he was interrupted by a low, gruff voice saying, "Where can I join the basketball team?"

He looked up to see a tall boy with coffee-coloured skin scowling down at him. The boy had dark hair blue as twilight and eyes of a similar colour. Shun blinked – it was already unusual for a Japanese to have naturally dark skin, but this boy's hair and eye colour was even rarer. Shun wondered for a moment if he had dyed it, but his sharp eyes quickly picked out the natural dark blue roots and lack of tell-tale shadow around the irises, which indicated the use of contact lenses.

"Just take a right and it's the fourth stall on your left."

"Thanks," said the boy gruffly and went off, presumably to go annoy the hell out of Hyūga (not on purpose, of course, but Shun knew his type of attitude was what set Hyūga off like nothing else). Shun couldn't help staring after him for a second.

'That build! And his colouring – this guy sticks out like a flashing red beacon. With his size and seeming power, I'm guessing he'll be a huge asset on-court. We could really use that,' he thought.

Junpei smiled as Riko clapped her hands in delight and exclaimed, "That guy seems really something! I hope he's as good as he looks!"

"You do realise how that sounded," he put in smugly.

Riko coloured. "Hyūga!" she screeched madly.

Junpei laughed once, then became serious. "Hey, Coach, you know this is the year we have to do it, right? For his sake, and for ours, I really hope that that Taiga Kagami turns out to be what you think he is."

Riko nodded, composed too. "Of course, Hyūga." she said.

Just then, a tall, dark boy walked up to them. He had dark blue hair and eyes, and Hyūga raised his eyebrows – he seemed just like Kagami but for the fact that his colouring was the polar opposite of the other's.

"I'd like to sign up for the basketball club. Are you the captain and manager? Where's your coach?" he said bluntly.

Riko laughed a high, false laugh; Junpei could feel her irritation, having known her so long. (Also, the tic mark on her temple may have been a dead giveaway. Sue Junpei, but he was no mind-reader.) "Yes and no," she said. "Here's a form. He's Junpei Hyūga, the boys' basketball team's captain. And I'm Riko Aida, the coach. We don't have a manager."

"You're the coach? Oh, I can just imagine what Satsuki would say. Probably something about your cup size." said the boy with an amused smirk on his face. "Anyway, here."

Junpei gaped. How openly disrespectful! He himself was struggling to keep sitting down. He could only imagine what Riko was feeling.

The boy – Damn Annoying, Junpei nicknamed him – filled the form in quickly, then gave it to Junpei and left without another word.

"That brat has an attitude on him," said Riko in a rage. "Who's this Satsuki guy anyway?!"

"Satsuki is a girl name, Coach," sighed Junpei, and began to read the form.

Daiki Aomine

Teiko Junior High

Junpei felt his eyebrows go up.

"Coach, look at this," he said, showing her the form.

Riko's eyebrows shot up too.

"Whoa, Teiko?!" she said excitedly. "Do you think-"

"With his build? Maybe," Junpei answered grimly. "He's probably a member of that Generation of Miracles. And that arrogance is characteristic of them all, isn't it? But I never heard of him before."

"Daiki Aomine," Riko said thoughtfully. "Hey, his hair colour matches with his name. Blue hair, name with 'blue' in it!"

Junpei shot up in his seat suddenly, a thought entering his head.

Daiki Aomine… Damn Annoying… They both start with the same letters! For once, I really wish Izuki were here to make a pun about this. That Aomine kid deserves it for disrespecting a woman!

"What is it, Hyūga?" asked Riko.

"Nothing," he said, waving her off. "Nothing at all."

Taiga was just minding his own damn business when this stupid stranger boy with weird blueberry hair decided to bump rudely into him and had the nerve to pick a fight.

"You look like you were dropped on your head way too many times when you were a baby! That or the nurse didn't clean your head up right after you were born!" the stranger laughed rudely, a smirk on his face.

Taiga went red in embarrassment and fury. "Yeah, well, sh – shut up, you – you stupid blueberry idiot!" he shouted back, blustering.

He heard a snicker off to the side. A boy who had been yelling for new students to join the basketball club stood there, a smirk on his cat-shaped mouth.

"Blueberry…" he giggled.

Taiga felt his cheeks go even warmer.

"Hmm," spoke up a playboy-looking pretty boy from next to the cat kid, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "What does a rock-star blueberry make for? Blueberry jam!"

"Shut up, Izuki!" shouted the glasses boy – the captain, if Taiga remembered right – at the pretty kid, who pouted but closed his mouth.

Taiga huffed, turned on his heel and stormed off. There was no use in fighting idiots, even if he really did want to punch that jerk. He'd just earn himself a bad reputation on his first day.

Daiki flushed in shame as Satsuki yelled loudly at him. He was standing outside the lunch hall, talking to her.

"How could you say that to someone, Dai?!" she shouted. "You've got to say sorry!"

"I will, Satsuki," he said apologetically. Now that he thought about it, she was right. That hadn't been very nice of him. And if he was going to sign up for the team, and if she was the coach, he would probably be royally screwed.

He decided to write an apology letter to the coach girl – Rikki Adair? Riko Aida, he thought – in the English period instead of sleeping like he usually did, and felt quite proud of himself. He was doing something nice, for once.

Daiki felt a pang in his heart as he thought of what Tetsu would say.

"You should use a dictionary, otherwise you might make way too many spelling mistakes." Tetsu would say flatly.

And then, "I can help you, if you'd like."

And Daiki would gladly accept the help, happily taking the popsicle he would inevitably be offered and munch away as they sat together, Daiki writing the letter in his reasonably decent calligraphy since Tetsu's handwriting was surprisingly chicken-scratch-y, and being given advice on what words to use.

Ah, how he wished – but no. Daiki pushed the thought away even as it blossomed in his head. He had come to Seirin to show them what teamwork, what hard work like he had had to put in really meant, and that was what he would do.

Daiki squared his shoulders and walked back into the building, grabbing his campus map and walking towards his English class, where he promptly found a seat by the back window and began to scratch out a hasty apology letter (with a boatload of strikeouts and spelling errors, I might add), then fell asleep.

Taiga walked quickly into the gym, excited for basketball try-outs. That coach must be something else – a high-schooler and a girl no less! Not that he was sexist or anything (as if he would be allowed to be) but girls in Japan as far as he knew were all tittering idiots, not like the ones back in America, where at least a few had a lick of sense. He hoped Coach Aida was one of those no-nonsense coaches who gave out excellent training regimens.

His daydream was rudely interrupted when he saw a familiar face, though.

The dark blueberry-headed boy who had picked a fight with him earlier stood there, wearing a very bored expression on his face.

At least until he saw Taiga, that is. An amused expression flitted across his face, quickly replaced by one of annoyance when Taiga glared hard at him.

"You!" both boys yelled, pointing at each other.

The kid was holding a white paper in his hand and looking very pleased with himself.

(As usual, Taiga's mind added – the boy had seemed smug from the minute he had bumped into him.)

"Ah? Me what? Oh, it's the red kid," the blueberry said with a wide smirk. "The name's Aomine. Daiki Aomine. Don't forget it."

"Red kid?!" Taiga repeated in fury. "Taiga Kagami, better remember that!"

"Tiger Ka Gum Me?" said Aomine in a mocking accent, chuckling rudely. Taiga wanted to hit him.

"Oh, he would love that." Aomine laughed. Strangely, his dark cheeks immediately coloured, as if remembering a bad memory, and his eyes flashed wide as if he were having a panic attack before coming back to normal.

"I mean, that is a strange name." he amended hastily.

Taiga coloured. "Aomine isn't all that common, either," he retorted. "And Daiki – basically big radiance, your skin colour doesn't show that very well,"

He winced inwardly. That had been uncalled for.

Aomine looked a little taken aback.

"Wow, you've got some mouth on you," he snapped back angrily. "Well, at least I'm not actually called Tiger and look like a zoo one too,"

Taiga sensed real heat in Aomine's words this time; he supposed he deserved it for making a racist comment, but Taiga still felt angry at his name being constantly insulted. It was something he really cherished, his deceased mother having chosen it lovingly.

Taiga felt himself surge forward and grab Aomine by the collar of his shirt. "Why, you little-"

"That's enough!" shouted a loud voice. The captain of the team stood glaring at both boys, light glinting ominously off his glasses. The pretty boy walked up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Junpei, you're scaring them," he muttered, but Taiga's sharp ears caught it.

"And they deserve to be," replied the captain, loud enough for both Aomine and Taiga to hear. "Let it be, Shun."

Pretty Boy stepped back, eyebrows raised with an amused smirk on his lips.

The coach walked forward, placing a hand on both Taiga's and Aomine's chests and pushing them apart. "This is no place to fight," she told them matter-of-factly. "If you want to brawl like some kind of uncivilised ruffians, door's all yours."

Aomine glared at Taiga, but backed down.

Taiga turned away, tch-ing quietly.

This was not going to be fun, he could tell. Especially if that Aomine was as talented as he looked.

Hey, everyone! This is a project I've been working on for about a week now! I actually have two chapters pre-written and working on the third, and I even know where this is going (unlike Devil's Children - I have lots of ideas but no idea what the plot even is XD), and it's surprising because I'm usually a pantser. I searched for this idea of shadow!Aomine and light!Kuroko, but never found one. So I thought 'why not do it myself'?

And yes, I began with Izuki because he is one of my favourites in KNB. He gets too little love *sigh*. Maybe my next KNB fic will be about him. (but I already have a Midorima-centric angstfic lined up, so...) Review with your favourite character!

Anyway, if you guys are interested, I am entering NaNoWriMo this year and am writing a novel called 'infinity plus one'. I'll start posting to Wattpad from November 1 with daily updates till November 30. I even have a sequel planned! (yay!) So if you have Wattpad (and if you don't, go create one XD), head on over and give me a quick follow ( user/IntangibleFreedom) if you're interested in reading, and even if you aren't do follow XD, I'm kidding, though the support would be much appreciated!

Also this is turning into a self-promotion session, and I say XD too much, so I'm gonna stop here... updates will be every Sunday, and bimonthly at the worst!

Do review, favourite and follow if you liked the beginning!

Love,

Asuna