Kuroko's Play

Ch.1 - Basketball?

She was walking down the street, white backpack splattered with blue-paint, the kind of decoration she was allowed to keep because nobody saw her anyway.

Nobody saw her anyway. She wasn't bothered by it much anymore, but the thought was still melancholy when thought about too deeply.

She still remembered the day that her dad had seen it. The backpack, that is. Plain white, plain, plain plain plain, and Kuroko had hated it right away. But she never would have complained about it either, because that wasn't what a kindhearted, polite, fragile little girl was supposed to do.

She was supposed to smile happily and pack her backpack and walk away and never think about it again.

But her father could tell. "Boring, isn't it?" He had said, grabbing the light blue paint used on her walls and picking up a paintbrush. "Think it needs a little spark?"
Kuroko had been happy then. And then he had changed, somehow; the sadness got so much better for him, then worse again, then better, then worse, and then, it was all gone.

He was gone, always, and sometimes her father's friends would visit, but mostly Kuroko lived off with the dry foods in the cabinet and eventually the simple meals she could make herself (most of which were variations of egg-something or other).

Ten year old Kuroko Tetsumi was sad and antisocial... and walking alone with her paint splattered backpack, still with her after years of use.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw them playing. They were bouncing a ball up and down, like monkeys, she reveled, sometimes losing control of the ball and sometimes wildly throwing it at each other and missing. She just didn't understand it. Why? She walked over the the chain like fence, extending meters over her admittedly small form.

Why would they want to spend their time doing that? It wasn't as if they were gaining or losing anything through it; it was only a game, a game for people who needed... something. Something that Kuroko didn't quite understand yet.

She rested her hands on the fence, linking her fingers through the chipping-green diamond wires, eyes focused on the game. She didn't understand.

...yet she returned again the next day, and the day after that, and then the entire following week. For some ungodly reason, she kept walking home the same path, it wasn't even the most efficient route, either, not when there isn't any roadwork being done on her usual route, but nevertheless, she walked past the same court, watching the same people.

And she finally caught sight of him.
It wasn't as if he was some kind of basketball genius; he wasn't even that good, and Kuroko could admit that to herself. But she'd seen him at school, one of the older students, sharing a school with her for a year and then moving out as she moved up. But she had seen him, and he was always alone. Nobody to talk to. Just like her.

But he laughed and smiled while he played. Kuroko approached the fence, just like usual. This time was different, though, in so many ways, in ways that would change Kuroko's life forever.

Her pale fingers tightened around the fence, and her blue, doe-like eyes widened as she breathed in and out. She could see the beauty of the game. And so much more. The black haired boy caught the ball, the 'loser' from her school, actually getting passed to, imagine that! And Kuroko wanted to yell out to him. He had to trick the person in front of him. The boy blocking him was taller and stronger, but slower and had a terrible technique. Pretending to go one way would fool him.
The boy did not, and he lost the ball. But he still looked happy.

She walked straight home the next day, and dropped off her backpack. She didn't bother changing out of her school skirt and white button up blouse before walking back out, locking the door behind her and heading towards the courts to watch for longer than usual.