Title: Team Spirit

Word count: 434

Rating: PG

Genre: gen

Characters: Kise, Kasamatsu

Summary: After the practice game with Seirin Kise and Kasamatsu have a talk in the locker room.

Kise was sitting on the bench and slowly rolling a basketball around. The locker room was empty, the team had already left. But he didn't feel like going, it was as if outside that door the world would reinforce the reality of the defeat. The last moments of the game were still replaying in his mind.

'How long are you gonna mope here?' Kise's contemplations were interrupted by a loud question.

Kise looked up, and of course, it was Kasamatsu-senpai. Everyone else on the team viewed him with some sort of respect that was probably caused by his history with the Generation of Miracles and his popularity with girls. Only Kasamatsu-senpai treated him like he would treat any first-year.

'I'm not moping, senpai!' Kise protested.

'Sure you are, and your eyes are all red! Well, for all I care you can mope forever, just go outside, I need to lock up!' said Kasamatsu.

Kise gave the upperclassman a dejected look: 'You are angry with me, right? Because I lost that game…'

Kise didn't even manage to continue his self-deprecating speech – Kasamatsu gave him a well-placed kick that knocked Kise down on the floor.

'Ow, senpai! What was that for?' Kise whined.

'You lost the game?' asked Kasamatsu angrily. 'So what, the rest of the team was not even there? You're the only star player here?'

'No, no, that's not how I meant it,' denied Kise hurriedly. 'It's just that…'

Kasamatsu interrupted him again: 'I don't care about your time with Generation of Miracles, but here you are a part of this team. We played together and lost together. And now we all must get stronger, that's all there is to it.'

'Wow,' Kise thought, but he had the presence of mind not to say that out loud because surely Kasamatsu-senpai would kick him again. This kind of attitude was really different from the Teiko team. It was kind of heart-warming, despite all the violence from Kasamatsu-senpai. The responsibility for winning was not placed on him alone, and he was not blamed for mistakes.

Maybe that was the kind of atmosphere Kurokocchi had in Seirin, and that was why he enjoyed himself so much in that no-name school…

'You gonna sit there all night?' gruffly asked Kasamatsu.

Kise realised he was still on the floor, got up, dusted himself off and said: 'Thank you, senpai!'

Kasamatsu gave him an odd look, probably not understanding what exactly Kise was thanking for. Kise was not sure, either – it just seemed an appropriate thing to say.

'Just get out already,' Kasamatsu ordered, and Kise left, feeling considerably better.