Matter

Furihata Kouki was born with a band shaped birthmark around his left ring finger.

His parents had puzzled over this, but in the end shrugged and teased him of being married to a pretty blonde lady in his last life. Kouki, once he was old enough to understand his parents teasing, would blush a deep red and stammer at them to stop teasing him. He didn't believe in reincarnation and all that came with it and adamantly denied every theory behind his birthmark.

But it wasn't because of embarrassment.

Kouki had been having dreams, each a different setting than the other. In every single one of his dreams, he would play some sort of role. It differed with each dream. He would be a servant in a huge Greek pantheon in one. In another he was the son of a Roman king. There was one where he was a musician in France. There was one where he was a soldier in a war. As he slept, he watched each and every one of these dreams, curious yet fearful of the implications.

When he woke up, he would convince himself it was just his over active imagination. He would convince himself that he was just reacting to his parents and sometimes, his friends teasing of past lives. He would resolve to just ignore the dreams and go on with his life.

Even though he would say that every morning, his mind would still drift back to his dreams. Or more specifically, it would drift back to the red head that would constantly play the role of the man he loved.

Kouki had always admitted to himself that he preferred men over women, though he refused to rationalize it was because of his dream red head (God, that just sounded like he was fan boying). His mother had been so proud of him for coming out to her and his father and had immediately offered to introduce to him some nice boys she thought would suit him. His father had just switched from relaxed dad to over protective dad that would threaten his male friends whenever they came over.

But Kouki digresses. He was gay, yes. He was not gay because of the red head in his dreams (Yes, that sounded much better). He would really prefer it if his mother would stop smothering him to get a boyfriend. But he would also prefer his father to stop threatening all his friends because it was influencing them to treat him like a glass doll.

He would also prefer if the handsome red head in his dreams were not one Rakuzan Basketball Team's Captain.

m( -_- )m

Akashi Seijuurou never really thought much of the ring shaped birthmark around his left ring finger.

His mother used to tease him about having a soul mate with the same birthmark. Usually he would just stare at her blankly before she chuckled and invited him to play basketball with her.

He also never really paid attention to the strange dreams he had. Each dream was in a different setting and each would center on himself and a brunet that would play his lover.

Which was ridiculous because love was idiotic and he was not an idiot. He had watched each dream with calculating eyes, assessing each action made and the results it brought. Some dreams ended in what most would call a happy ending. Others ended in tragedy.

If Seijuurou was honest with himself, he would say he preferred the tragedies if only because in most, if not all of them he was the one who killed the brunet in the face of duty.

But of course, Seijuurou had other things to attend to rather than ponder on his ridiculous dreams. He had his tutoring classes, etiquette lessons, horse back riding, business classes, the student council work, his studies and of course, basketball. He had no time to wonder about a uninteresting looking brunet.

That is, until the first day of the Winter Cup in his first year of high school, where he met the very same adorable brunet in his dreams clad in Seirin's jersey.