Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.

Just to mention again, this is a fantasy AU. Enjoy!

The first snowflakes of that year's winter drifted from the sky.

He lowered his hood, raising his face to let the snow melt on his tongue. As he closed his eyes he imagined the mountains and the pines and the castle behind him being painted a silvery-white. He loved it here; in this undisturbed serenity, he could almost hear each snowflake landing on the ground. He could even fall asleep here for as long as he liked, and there would be nobody to disturb his peaceful slumber.

The stillness was broken when he heard a small sound; the tiniest gasp that sounded like it was made in surprise. He only caught a flicker of gold before a slight figure disappeared into the woods.

He knew who it was, he thought, but when he opened his mouth, he realised that he could not remember that person's name.

Then he heard a voice call out his name.

"Aomine." It was that person's voice, but then again, he could not remember it either, so how could he have known?

"Aomine," the voice said again. No, it was not right; there was something wrong about it this time. Somehow he was certain that person did not call him this way, and besides, the voice was different now – it was much more familiar and –

"Aomine Daiki."

Aomine's eyes jerked open at the stress on his first name. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around groggily and realised that the snow was all gone; instead he was sitting in a roomful of people who were all glaring at him in varying degrees of annoyance. He turned to his immediate right and saw the Lord Chiliarch, Imayoshi Shoichi, smiling darkly at him.

"My king," Imayoshi was still smiling, but his tone was dripping ice. "May I oblige you to remain conscious at least during your own coronation?"

Choosing to ignore Imayoshi (since he was awake now, it shouldn't matter, right?) Aomine reached up to habitually push back his hair, only to have his fingers hit the hard metal of the crown – his crown, damned thing.

Several people seated below – lords and knights and whatever – were shaking their head in disapproval. It wasn't as though Aomine asked to be their king; it was more like they put him up there, stuck the bit of metal on his head, and shrouded him in the king's cloak, so he didn't see why they – especially Imayoshi – were so displeased.

Rather than this boring-as-hell formality, the new king found his thoughts straying to the dream he just had. He'd only seen real snow once, and that was from his visit to the north more than ten years ago. As much as he tried, he could not remember meeting anyone special during his sojourn in the north. He could dismiss it as a mere dream, but somehow he was just sure that he ought to know something, only that he'd forgotten it.

In the background, the Archbishop was droning on and on, and Aomine would have fallen asleep again if not for Imayoshi's sharp gaze through the thin lines of his eyes.

The ordeal stretched on for about one more hour, before the ceremony was finally deemed complete. There was going to be a feast – a ball, in fact, and that put off Aomine all the more – later in the evening, and Aomine contemplated skipping it until the Lord Chiliarch put a threatening hand on his shoulder.

"My king," Imayoshi said again. "I would expect to see you at the ball later. You won't even have to dance, but as the new king, I'm afraid you are obliged to show up, at the very least."

Aomine hated that word in any form, be it oblige, obligate, or obligation. Whichever.

"I get it, now shove off." Shaking off Imayoshi's hand with a jerk of his shoulder, Aomine stalked away, but the lord gave a soft but derisive snort before the new king was completely off earshot.

"Dai-chan, wake up! Wake up!"

For the second time that day, Aomine was rudely jolted awake from his sleep, but this time by his childhood friend, Momoi Satsuki. He had fallen asleep asleep leaning against a pillar in some secluded corridor of the castle; it's amazing how Momoi was always able to locate him.

"I heard you fell asleep during the coronation! Is it really true?" Momoi frowned, but she looked amused all the same. Her father was a lord at court and it was obvious that he had conveyed the embarrassing bit of information to her. The servants were always whispering, anyway, and Momoi has her ways of knowing things.

"Yeah, yeah, it's true." Aomine waved his hand lazily, and Momoi pursed her lips. It looked as though she was torn between bursting out in laughter and sighing in exasperation. After a moment she settled for the latter.

"Dai-chan! No matter what, you're the king now! Please behave more like one!"

"Then you're the only one who dares to scold the king, Satsuki," Aomine grinned.

Momoi rolled her eyes and changed the subject. "Never mind that for now, has there been any news of your healer?"

"Nah, not really."

"Pity," Momoi commented sullenly. "I heard he was cute."

Ah, the healer issue. The previous healer had been so old that it was said that he had served four generations of kings; the old man had finally passed away about two months ago. Since then, there had been a hassle to secure a new mage who could use healing magic, because apparently it was upmost important that the king must have a healer –

– Aomine thought that was pure garbage-talk; he was perfectly healthy, and literally no one could damage him if it came to a fight –

– After much trouble, the lords were finally able to find a new healer last month, but the mage had disappeared like smoke before Aomine even saw him. Rumour had it that the healer had ran off with a band of mercenaries.

"Dai-chan? Are you falling asleep again?" All of a sudden Momoi's face was hovering inches away from Aomine's, causing him to almost fall backwards in a very unkingly manner. "Don't sleep anymore! Father said I have to get you ready for the ball, so come on!"

Being dragged away by a girl is unkingly too, Aomine supposes, but the issue of his impeding doom at the ball is much more worrying at the moment.

Looking down at a hall full of people dressed in extravagant clothes and equally extravagant masks, Aomine only wanted to be off sleeping somewhere – against a pillar, back in his bed – anywhere.

"A masque?" Aomine had exclaimed incredulously while Momoi and the maids were throwing yards of cloth over him. "Who said anything about a masque?"

"It'll be fun!" Momoi had beamed, and Aomine thought it must have been her idea in the first place. "You won't even know who you're dancing with, isn't it exciting?"

"Not really." Actually, Aomine thought it was stupid. What's the point of a ball thrown in the honour of the new king, when you didn't know who was the new king? But, stupid as it was, he had been obliged to show up by the Lord Chiliarch, so here he was now at the stupid masque, with a stupid mask over his eyes.

"Dai-chan?" Momoi was prodding his shoulder, her mask covering most of her face. "I'm going down to dance now, okay? You too, don't just stand here like a rock!"

"You go," Aomine shrugged disinterestedly, but Momoi had grabbed his sleeve and was pulling him down the stairs towards the crowd of people. "Oi, Satsuki – "

"Go have some fun!" Momoi says cheerfully. Two guffawing girls passed in front of her, and then she was gone, leaving Aomine in the crowd of unknown people.

"What the hell," Aomine muttered. He started to make his way back up the stairs, before a blonde girl caught his eye.

… Fine, truth be told, it was the girl's chest that caught his eye. Either way, he started to make his way to the girl instead. Her silver mask hid her features, but that was hardly important, for she was tall and lithe and … … a little too tall, Aomine thought when he finally reached her. High heels were in fashion, but the girl in front of him had to be wearing stilts for her to reach this height; Aomine was much taller than average, but this girl was hardly shorter than him.

Then the girl gave a nervous smile and Aomine forgot all about her height. All of a sudden he felt nervous too, which was strange, for he never felt nervous around Satsuki.

"Uh – " the new king straightened his collar awkwardly. "May I, uh, may I have this dance?"

The girl did not answer but instead, she smiled again and placed a gloved hand demurely in Aomine's outstretched hand.

Strangely enough, the girl was even worse at dancing than Aomine was. She stepped on his feet more often than not; she stepped forward when it was supposed to be back, and right when it was left; once or twice she even tripped over her own dress and would have fallen over if Aomine had steadied her with his arms. Even with the mask on, Aomine couldn't help but smile back at her apologetic half-smile (he noted that her eyes were amber).

It was disastrous, but Aomine had to admit that he was actually enjoying it despite himself. It was fun, for he never saw any girl around the castle behave so clumsily like this, and even though the girl never did speak, her smile never left her eyes.

"I'll get some drinks," Aomine said when the dance ended. "Wait here."

The girl nodded. Aomine wondered why she didn't speak at all. Maybe she couldn't, he thought. Besides, who was she? Some lord's daughter? But somehow that just didn't feel right. Stupid masque.

When he came back clutching two glasses of wine, the girl was gone.

It was the sixth time Aomine had rolled over in his bed, but still he couldn't sleep.

After the girl had vanished, he had pushed through dancing couple after dancing couple in the hall, to no avail. He even found Momoi and asked her if she had seen a tall blonde ("Ooh, Dai-chan, you found a girl you're interested in?"), but she had not seen her either.

"Ugh," he grunted as he rolled over for the seventh time. Why was he getting so worked up over someone he just met? He'll just forget about it, and go about his kingly duties as he was obliged to the next day, and the next day …

After what seemed like a long time he finally fell asleep, his dreams plagued with falling snow and masked girls twirling around in ball gowns.

"…cchi – "

All of a sudden he heard a small, hitched breath in the silence.

When Aomine snapped awake, the sharp glint of a dagger was in his eyes.

A/N: Yep, here goes my attempt at fantasy. I hope it's not as fail as I think it looks OTL

Please review if you like it, it really keeps me going in writing! If this is alright with you guys, then I'll continue with more chapters :D (and continue putting off my homework)