Better or Worse

Summary: After living a uneventful childhood, basketball manager Toneriko is determined to make his adolescence exciting by winning over Terkirai, captain of the school's popular basketball team, in the battle of friendship. But what happens when his feelings of something more complicate matters? TekiraixToneriko. AU. multi-chapter. Maybe rated M in later chapters. Lemons? Read to find out.

Second ongoing fanfic. =] Please review! Thanksssssss

"Riko, hurry!" My blonde friend Mizuto shouted at me as I heaved a bag full of water bottles over my shoulder and sprinted out onto the court. Mizuto's arms were full of icy cold bottle as well, and he ran out in front of me to pass one to the loudest and rudest person in the whole entire school, Sakura, who is always picking on me.

The basketball team stood there waiting for me before the game started. I threw the bag down, and Mizuto and I quickly began to distribute the bottles we had filled up not too long ago. Seeing the bottles quickly emptied by thirsty basketball players almost made my stomach drop. We had spent a good hour filling up two bottles per player from the leaky water foundation in the locker rooms. We would practically spend the entire game refilling them, running back and forth like we usually do. We don't really complain either; as the co-managers, we signed up for this. well, I didn't REALLY sign up for this; Mizuto had forced me to.

"Oh, Riko, please! I can't do this alone! They're all so scary and big, and that Sakura guy is going to pick on me," He whined as we both walked into our Freshman honors english classroom.

"Than why do you want to be manager of the varitsy basketball so badly? What about JV?" I asked, throwing my book bag onto the ground next to my seat and leaning against the windowsill next to me. Mizuto sat down next to me in his usually chair and placed his bag gently on the desk.

"Because we'll make friends with the most popular people in this school!"

"I don't want to be friends with those guys," I retorted, and Mizuto snorted.

"Yeah, right," He muttered sarcastically.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, nudging him in the rib with my foot. He swatted away my foot with a grin.

"Don't tell me you're not crushing on Tekirai; I see you staring at him in the cafetria, and you're always on cloud nine whenever you come back from multivariable calculus."

I silently glared at him for a minute, regretting that my feelings had been so obvious.

"What does he have to do with this conversation?"

"You know he is on the same basketball team!" Mizuto almost shouted and I hushed him, grabbing his wrist and shaking him so he would shut up. Damn, he is always so loud when he is excited. I swear one day he is going to say something in front of the one person I begged him to keep quiet around. He pouted after I was done shaking him; I let go of him and started unpacking my english supplies out of my bag silently. Mizuto continued to stare at me.

"No."

"Please?!"

"No!"

"You owe me!" He reminded me. I sighed. He has been tutoring me in math. You see, Mizuot is sort of a math and science prodigy. Well, not sort of. More like REALLY a prodigy. The only reason I'm in such a high math course is because my foster dad is a nutcase when it comes to education. He forces me to take all competitive courses in order to get into the best university. He made me take math courses at the local community college every summer since I was in the 5th grade to get me into BC calculus, which is usually a 12-grade-level couse, by the 8th grade when he found out that my standardized test scores in math were dismal. Now I'm stuck in this super difficult math course with seniors who don't give a rat's ass that I'm practically failing out.

To make my embarrassment worse, Tekirai, one of the smartest and most talented students in the entire school, is in that class, seated approximately 2 rows directly in front of me where I can stare at the back of his head for 45 minutes and pretend that I know what is going on around me. I sit in the far back of the room so the teacher never calls on me and my classmates ignore my existence. Mizuto, on the other hand, dreams in mathematics. He can just decipher any formula or expression without blinking. He truly as a gift.. a gift I've been mooching off since we met in middle school. He placed out of math, taking classes at the local university under the tutelage of some fancy mathematician; The same is the case in science with him. The newspaper even ran a story on how he may be the next Newtown, Einstein, or whoever.

"Fine!" I finally relented, and Mizuto almost shot out of his seat if I had not grabbed onto his wrist again and pulled him back down to earth.

"We are going to have so much fun, Riko!"

I rolled my eyes and smiled at his enthusiasm, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.

That was 2 weeks ago, and I've been dying to kill him ever since then. We contacted the captains... well Mizuto did because I couldn't bring myself to approach Tekirai and Mizuto's older brother, and since no one except some horny schoolgirls wanted the position, we got the titles without any problems. Sometimes I think we only got it because Mizuto's brother, Aralag, is the other co-captain, but I would never say that to Mizuto himself since he hates the implication that he is riding Aralag's coattails. The draw backs? Well there are plenty:

1. practice before school everyday at 6:45am

2. most practice after school everyday at 3:45pm

3. games on wednesdays from 3pm-whenever that shit wants to end, and saturdays from 9am-whenever that shits wants to end too.

4. dying every day from exhaustion/embarrassment from 7am-7pm

4. making a fool of myself in front of Tekirai whenever he is around me

Need I say more?

"Can't carry a few bottles, Puppy?" Sakura, one of the main players, teased, snatching four water bottles out of my frail arms. I flinched as he did it, worried he'd try to wrestle with me again. Sakura is around my height, which caused me to question how he made it on the varsity team last week. He proceeded to shove my head into one of the urinals, yelling something about stupid questions. I haven't talked to him since.

"Sakura," Tekirai called, and Sakura jogged over to the rest of the team as they huddles around Aralag, who gave them the game plan. Today they'd been playing a really good team, and the tension to remain undefeated hung in the air. I stood still, watching as Tekirai gestured around as Aralag talked. They were a power team, kinda like how Mizuto and I are a loser team.

"Hey, I'm not a loser!" Mizuto pouted, smacking my arm. Was I thinking aloud? Damnit, I need to curve that habit.

"At managing you are," I shot back, collecting the now empty water bottles off the court floors. These damn basketball stars never clean up after themselves. After 2 weeks of this, I'm beginning to reach end's wit.

"Well you're not so perfect yourself, Mr. The square root of 144 is 11!" He retorted, and I rolled my eyes.

"You're going to need to work on your insults."

"And you're going to need to work on your rebounds, Puppy!"

I glared at him violently and he shut up, bending over to retrieve the empty bottles with me. Mizuto loves to make fun of my aspirations to one day play basketball with everyone else. My height and weight did not permit it, seeing as I'd be thrown around the court like a rag doll if I tried, but those limitations will never deter me. Call me stubborn, but when the team runs off to the locker room after each practice, I stay behind and shot a couple of hoops before I go to clean up after them. Yeah, I'm always late to my first period class, but my teacher could give two craps. I love the feeling of the ball rolling off my finger tips as I make a shot, the sound of the ball dribbling agains the court, and the sound of feet shuffling up and down the court. Basketball is my first love.

"Don't call me that!"

Mizuto hmph'd and walked over to the benches with about 6 empty bottles in his hands, leaving me to collect the 30+ left on the ground. I quickly shoved them all into the bottle-bag and jogged over to the manager's bench with him. He stood to walk with me to the locker rooms to refill the, but I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. He looked down, confusingly, and I peered up at him pleadingly.

"Let's watch for a couple of minutes, okay?" I asked, and the score keeper buzzed, signaling the start of the first game of the season. Mizuto sighed and collapsed back down next to me. We watched silently for a few minutes, enjoying the lead our team was gaining on the opposing team. A sense of accomplishment swelled up in my chest as I watched, knowing I played a head in their success even if it was as insignificant as fetching water, scheduling, and cleaning after the team. Tekirai made a pass to Aralag, who shot a basket; Mizuto stood up and cheered.

"Yeah, that's my brother!" Aralag, having heard him, shot him a wink and jogged down the court with Tekirai patting him on the back. His crimson eyes twinkled at the other boy, and for some reason, I wanted to kick Aralag in the shin for being such a good basketball player.

I was so caught up in the moment that my hold on the bag of bottles loosened, and I didn't notice that one of the bottles had rolled out onto the court until Sakura had stepped on it and fell face forward on the newly swept court. Oh, no.

At the end of the game, we won 82-76 with Sakura sitting on the bench next to Mizuto. I was practically crapping in my pants the whole time. Whenever the opposing team would make a point, Sakura jumped to his feet and screamed some profanities as he held an ice pack to his forehead and would sit down and dare at me as if I killed his cat... or caused him to miss out on the first game of the year and made him look like an idiot in front of the whole school. After the buzzer signaled the end, the two teams formed lines and high-fived each other before the home team headed off to the locker room to clean up. I lingered behind, cleaning up all the towels I could because I did not want to face Sakura in the locker room and possibly have to lick a urinal again.

When I finally entered the room about 15 minutes after everyone else did, I was immediately thrown against the wall and lifted off my feet.

"You wanna go at it, Pup? You tryna ruin me, you little mutt?!" Sakura yelled, and I flinched.

"Sakura, it was an accident; we won anyway!" Aralag said, laughing at the shorter's boy's proud antics. I could see Mizuto from the side of my eyes with a bag full of dirty towels, eyeing the situation wearily. Sakura held up his fist to hit me but paused as a shadow loomed over us both. I looked up and was greeted by piercing crimson eyes. My breathe caught up in my throat and Sakura froze.

"Sakura," He said firmly, and I could feel the grip on my shirt already loosen. "Let's go."

Sakura turned to me, lowering his fist furiously as if someone just snatched away his first meal in months.

"You're lucky this time, Pup," He whispered, and stepped back as I collapsed to the floor. "But next time, I doubt it-"

"Sakura," The same stern tone repeated, and Sakura followed the voice out of the locker room with the rest of the team, leaving Mizuto and me, stunned.

"Did he just-"

"Shut up, Mizuto. Don't get my hopes up." I said, picking myself off of the floor and dusting my pants off as if anything were on it. I had to occupy myself from the embrassment I felt. I couldn't shake the feeling that this incident wouldn't be my last.

We strolled down the hall, again; this time after first period english. I pulled my schedule out of my pocket and reread it:

1st period: Freshman honors English

2nd period: Multivariable Calculus

3rd period: Freshman honors Physics (double period)

4th period: (double period)

5th period: Lunch

6th period: Accelerated Spanish 2/3

7th period: Honors World History

8th period: Introduction to Pottery/Sculpture

I also read Mizuto's schedule and noted the similarities: we had 1st period and 7th period together, but that was it. I sighed; we intentionally signed up for all the same classes, minus math and science. He read over mine and snorted:

"Don't expect us to have every class together, Riko; this is a huge school! There are probably 6 sections of the one class... why are you taking an arts elective anyway? You could have a free period!"

"And do what? Fiddle with my fingers in the library?" I sarcastically asked, stopping in front of my math classroom. Mizuto shot me a dirty look before replying.

"No, you could be getting tutored in math during the day instead of over the phone at night."

"Oh.. you're right!"

"You idiot," Mizuto laughed and continued walking to his next class. "See ya!"

"See you lat-"

I choked as a familiar scent coconut filled the air around me. Shit, shit, shit. I dashed into the classroom with my head down and made my way to the back. A steady beat of foot steps followed me back and stopped as I passed the third to last row where he sat. I turned on my heel and sat down in my chair and looked up at him. He was settling into his seat, and unpacking his supplies for class. His black hair sat on his collar on the same leather jacket he wore almost everyday. But today he wore a pair of red checkered sneakers and black pants; Tekirai always dressed to the T, like a-

"Toneriko!" My teacher appeared in front of my desk, ruler and pencil in hand.

"Huh?" I looked up to see everyone staring at me like I had two heads.

"You're being called to the principal's office." She repeated, and I nodded, swinging my book bag over my shoulder as I stood up and walked out of the classroom, passing by the only person who was still doing his work silently. For some reason or another, I was always being called to the principal's office. I'm surprised everyone in the school doesn't already know my name.

Oh and did I mention that my foster dad is the damn principal?

"Toneriko-kun," He said, as I closed the door behind me, "How are you doing?"

"What the fuck, Ageha? Why am I hear?"

"We're having pasta tonight."

"Is that why I'm here?! I was in math class."

"It's not like you ever pay attention in math class," He chuckled, and I pouted.

"Well can I go back to pretending to pay attention?"

"I want to know why you're taking silly arts electives when you could be taking another math or science course." His expression turned semi-serious for a moment before smiling again.

"I already told you why: I'm not a genius like Mizuto. I hate school!"

"Oh, Toneriko, high school is so different from middle school. I'm sure if you just-"

"Can I PLEASE go back to class? I don't want to hear another one of your lectures, Ageha-sama."

"Fine, just remember that I have a local conference to attend tonight so I can't pick you up from practice," His volume started normally than increased as I walked out of his office. Hmph. Thanks, dad.

Mkay, hope ya'll liked the first chapter; this was so fun to write, and I hope just as fun to read. =D