Hihi, my first official fic in the KuroBas fandom. How do you all do?

I know I ought to be working on To be a GENTLEMAN, but I ran out of juice, so here I am writing MidoTaka fluff.

I have no life D;

Disclaimer: If Midorima and Takao were a canon couple then maybe.

Warning(s): Tons of fluff, boys love, Mido being tsuntsun, Takao being Takao, and everything else in between...add more if you deem fit.

Ridiculous as it may sound, Midorima Shintarou believes, that he fell in love with Takao Kazunari since the first day they met.

And his reason is just as ridiculous, because he simply does not have one.

Of course, telling someone you're in love with them without giving any reason just makes you look stupid and desperate. That is not the impression of himself that Midorima wishes for Takao to make, and thus he does the most logical thing of all. He tries to look back at their past, and find out where things started to creep along the lines of attraction.

Takao Kazunari is a very easy-going boy. He's a social butterfly, and he could practically make friends with anyone. He is tall at 176cm, but not abnormally so. He aces non-regulars in basketball and the occasional class test, but not abnormally so. The raven loves basketball with a passion, and plays because its fun. Shutoku boasts of one of the top basketball teams in the country, and hence it is weird to find a regular among them who plays because he loves it.

The pressure of victory overrides any fun the players might have, but that's a sacrifice when you're aiming to stay on top.

Takao takes it all in stride. He smiles, he laughs. He assures everyone that it's alright, that winning is not everything. The truth is far from that, but when you meet his smile and he smiles back even happier, everything does seems alright, even if for a moment.

It is no secret that Takao is popular. All sports regulars in Shutoku have their own fanclubs. Only, Midorima feels that Ootsubo-san's gonna snap the next time his and his partner's locker doors break AGAIN, due to overload of presents and confessions.

People are attracted to the point guard's smile. Takao's contagious smile. The boy is the class clown, and not a day passes without a good laugh from their class travelling down the hallways of the first year classes. Many think the ones who smile the most are the saddest and keep the most secrets, but not him. Takao's smile is as genuine as the moon, and that's perhaps why his locker door breaks sooner than Midorima's and he has to endure twice the foot training for once more depleting their already low club funds.

At this point in his reminiscing, the shooting guard opens his eyes and stares at the clock. Just five minutes have passed. The blank eyes of Kerosuke stare back at his own from where the animal is sitting on his study desk.

Takao seems to have his charm turned on 24/7, and countless girls have gotten themselves infected with it. A confession a day is nothing to him. Five is the norm anyway. Oh and did he mention it was only girls? Nah, it would have been easy if it were only girls. The boy had the uncanny ability of attracting even those with Y-chromosomes. Midorima, try as he might, just could not count how many times he had to pick Takao out of the crowd by his collar and escort him to the safety of the locker room before setting him down.

By the way, he does not do that because he is concerned for the other boy's safety. It would simply be troublesome if he missed practice because of something so trivial.

The raven has sleek, short black hair that frames his face. Some stray strands always fall in his eyes and he always uses clips to hold them back during class so his Hawk Eye is not compromised. On occasion he wears the pink ones with Hello Kitty and My Melody on them, but even the teacher laughs too hard to remember to punish him. Takao has a slim face with no traces of masculinity anywhere. He does not look like a girl, but the lack of manly traits make many call him the cutest boy of the cohort. It is still a daily complaint of his, and Midorima wonders if voicing his agreement would shut him up.

Takao is the sunshine of the Shutoku basketball team. Everyone smiles when they meet him, and when he greets them. He seems harmless and the type who would not hurt a fly (but instead try to scare it off with a funny face or something), but Midorima knows better. The one with the scariest glare is not their imposing captain. It is Takao Kazunari.

The fear does not stem from the glare itself. It is how he seems to strip your mind naked with the intensity of those steely-gray orbs, how he is observing you and only you. It is so much scarier because you know he really sees everything, and only after he looks away can you feel your limbs and move again.

Funny. Why were they trembling?

It is that incident that makes Midorima think, that perhaps there was more to Takao's character than they all really knew. His smile was without doubt a true smile, but maybe they did not know him well enough to tell a fake from the original. Or if the original was a fake all along. Kerosuke just continued staring with its big blank eyes and for some reason its owner wanted to toss it into the bin.

The greenhead decided to settle for putting it back where it originally was at the side of his desk.

Takao had a wonderful social life and amazing sports potential. So why the heck would he be hanging around the cold and isolated Midorima Shintarou, who was boring like a rock and believed Oha Asa was Kami-sama? Not to mention, that incessantly annoying "Shin-chan" nickname and abnormal willingness to ferry him around on a rickshaw. A friggin rickshaw. Of course Midorima was not one to turn down a free ride, but when once turned into twice and days into months, it really did seem like he had gotten himself a personal chauffeur.

The day when Takao mentioned how he had always aimed to defeat Midorima, it made the said boy feel…happier somehow. They used to be rivals but were now teammates with one common goal.

Many a times, the taller boy actually felt glad whenever Takao rejected whoever confessed to him. Be it boy or girl, he had one more uncanny ability of rejecting them without tears or violence getting involved. Midorima would always feel that sense of relief whenever the other met his gaze and smiled before running to keep up with him. It was as if he was a homing pigeon returning to it's owner.

No, not a homing pigeon…he was more than that. He was a hawk.

Thus, when Midorima Shintarou finally gathered enough guts to ask Takao out on an outing (it is NOT a date!) under the guise of getting his lucky item, he knew he could not screw up or miss this chance. They stayed out all the way till late in the evening when the sky was orange and Takao made a lame joke about the colour of their uniforms. It was time for them to part ways, time for them to play that pointless game of rock-paper-scissors, and time for them to go home.

It was also time for Midorima to tilt a surprised Takao's head up and claim those abnormally soft lips with his own, as the sun's rays washed over them, igniting a halo around their heads. He let go, and almost immediately a blush bloomed over his face (screw being a tsundere) as he looked to the side, unable to keep eye contact. Smaller hands cupped the sides of his face as his head was now the one turned to face the shorter boy.

The raven still had his eyes concealed by his hair.

"That…that wasn't a joke, was it?"

"…no."

It was scary not being able to catch the other's eyes. The shooting guard now realized just how much he depended on looking into those beautiful eyes to find out what Takao was feeling.

"I'm glad."

He looked up, with eyes filled not with intense hate but utter relief. His cheeks were also a flaming red and a single tear trailed down the right side of his face. Midorima lifted a finger to wipe it off, but Takao beat him to it and instead pulled him down for another kiss. They were an awkward sight, two boys kissing each other in plain sight…but neither cared.

"Do you…like me too?"

Just to confirm. Really.

"Well no. I want to kick you under the belt right now. OF COURSE I like you, Shin-chan! You're such a tsundere!"

"I am not a tsundere…"

"Yeah, and Ootsubo-san is a girl."

"I did NOT need that image in my mind."

A hawk was free to do as it pleased. A hawk soared higher than the eagle to places only it could reach. A hawk had the sharpest sight. A hawk would always catch its prey by the virtue of its supreme hunting instincts alone. The prey would stand no chance at all. Midorima Shintarou could proudly say a hawk had swooped down on his heart and taken it away. He had never felt happier in his life.

It was after all not every day you could catch or be the one caught by a hawk.

I think I deserve to be shot for making Mido such a romantic sap.

Posted: 04/01/2013 (dd/mm/yyyy)