Chapter Text
“Sir, sir! You must see this!” The gay assistant exclaimed. John NBA shot him a glance while twiddling his toes and sipping coffee. “What is it gay assistant? You know I’m busy working right now.” gay assistant hurriedly placed a Manila file down on the super duper rich CEO’s desk. John NBA opened the file to see a QR code on a printed out piece of paper. He glared at gay assistant, “What the hell is this?” gay assistant started “Well you see it’s-“ John clicked his tongue “Yes yes I know what it is,” he took out his phone and scanned the QR code and a video popped up.
It was a basketball game, a highschool basketball game, a highschool basketball game with a bunch of gay looking Japanese boys. “Oh” John NBA exclaimed “this was the game that inspired LeBron to scout that Calgary guy”. “Kagami sir” gay assistant piped in, “Yes yes I know that stop being such a smartass” he replied hottily. “Anyway, I already know that Kangaroo was good in high school. What about it?”
“Well you see I’ve been examining this footage a bit more closely and I couldn’t help but notice that there’s someone who is also excellent on this very field that I feel has been overlooked!” John NBA moved his head closer to the screen and squinted his eyes “Aha! I see it! It’s the guy who looks like a cat!”
“No sir, that boy was absolute shit at basketball. His only strength was being a coward.”
“Aha yes yes of course. I knew that already, you’re obviously talking about the one with the massive hands.”
“No, no boss, that boy was definitely great but he’s already working as a mediocre coach of a little league basketball team in Tokyo.”
“Cough oh well obviously I knew that as well it’s um-“
John’s eyes darted around the screen then exclaimed “Oh just tell me who it is!”
gay Assistant exhaled and paused the video and pointed to a small cluster of pixels. “This—“ he zoomed in “Number 11 of the Seirin team. The infamous backbone of the Seirin team that got them to the top of Japanese high school basketball.”
John NBA nodded but then asked “Hold on, if this boy was the infamous backbone why hasn’t anyone heard of him.” gay Assistant responded “Well, while he’s pretty well known in Japan, he practically doesn’t exist in the western world because of his freaky basketball style.” John NBA stroked his chin “Yes, yes, what does he do again though?” gay Assistant sighed and played the video again “Look” he said, they both looked closer, “He doesn’t catch the ball at any point, just touching it briefly to redirect it, making passing the ball around a lot easier.” John NBA gasped “Yes of course! We must recruit this boy for our team of the best basketball players in the world! What’s his name again?” gay Assistant smiled at him and opened his mouth.
***
“Tetsu” Kuroko turned around, “Yes?” He paused and looked him up and down “Kenny you don’t have your hood on.” Kenny sighed “Our little bitch of a manger said I can’t wear it today since the health inspector is coming today.” Kuroko tied his apron “Well it can’t be helped, I’d think the hood would actually make it more sanitary since you’re not spitting all over food and customers.” “Yeah that’s what I said too! Ugh whatever.” He went over to the drive thru window and sat down. Tetsuya Kuroko and Kenny McCormick had both been working at the same McDonalds in suburban Colorado for the past few months. Kenny looked out the drive thru window for a good couple minutes dozing off, not many people ever came to this McDonalds.
“Hey Tetsu,” started Kenny.
“We shouldn’t talk on the job”
“There’s no one even here.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Why did you move here all the way from Japan just to work a shit job at McDonalds.”
Kuroko looked down at the Big Mac he was assembling for practice. “I— wanted to join the NBA.”
Kenny looked back confused, “The NBA?” Before Kuroko could elaborate someone pulled up to the drive thru. A loud annoying voice sounded through the speakers “Hey hey can I get uh Beeg Mac an-and uh hehe and could you POOR me a glass of lemonade” Kenny rolled his eyes “I’ll piss in your lemonade fatso, pull up. Will that be cash or card.” There was a fat little white boy in the front seat. He thought for a second “Uhhh Cash but I only have Tayn dollars so I’d appreciate it if you BROKE it.” Kenny sighed “Yeah yeah whatever” The boy in shotgun wearing a green hat piped up “Hey Kenny! What happened to your jacket? Had to pawn it? Hahahahahaha!” Another boy with a dark blue hat chimed in, “You can keep a bit of the change though, it might help you put a down payment on a cardboard box.” They handed over a ten dollar bill and went to the next window laughing.
Kuroko handed them a little baggy with their order. He frowned and said “You should be nicer to people.” The fat little white boy looked him up and down “Yeah whatever. Shuck my dihk chynaboy.” he said and drove off.
Kuroko was put into a bad mood “Are all American children this rude?” Kenny put the money in the register. “Those are just my friends from school.” Kuroko looked at him blankly for a few seconds before going back to his assembly area. A good two hours passed without much more dialogue from the two of them. Kenny sat at the window bored out his mind until the health inspector showed up. Kuroko prepared him a burger and he checked the cleanliness of the building. They had two more customers, a crackhead and an old woman in the span of four hours.
Kenny slipped his jacket on while Kuroko locked up. “Manager ditched early again huh?” He said. “m nm mm m mfmm mrmrm” replied Kenny. Kuroko shook his head “You really shouldn’t talk about others like that.” They usually took the bus home together. Walking to the bus stop on the edge of the highway, Kenny was kicking a rock down the road “mm mrmrm mrmm mrmrm mm” Kuroko looked a bit surprised “You really want to know more about the NBA thing?”
“Mm” Kuroko was a hard one to figure out. He was a good guy but he wasn’t very expressive and had such a weird reason to have moved all the way from Japan. Kuroko was hesitant but explained it anyway “It’s not that interesting of a story honestly. I just played a ton of basketball in high school and a guy on my team got to the NBA so I thought I might try too. I took an extra few years though to learn English in college before coming here as well as making money.”
“Mmmmmmmm”
“Why here? Because the rent is cheap, oh sorry Kenny I guess for you it isn’t.”
“Mm mm.”
“Yeah you have pretty tough skin huh”
Kenny stopped kicking his rock. “Mmmm mmmrmrm mrm”
“You want to play a basketball game with me? Haha Yeah sure”
They got on the bus and took it to the nearest park with a basketball court. The bus was nearly empty, with only one elderly woman and another guy with black hair and a mustache smoking weed. The court only had one dimly lit street light and was clearly not taken care of. There was a broken fence that was rusting to the side along with various spots of grass and moss growing in the cracks of the sidewalk that likely hadn’t been replaced in centuries.
They luckily found a ball lying around in a bush since Kuroko didn’t bring his and Kenny was too poor to own one. “Mmmmm mm” “First to one sounds good to me”
Kuroko gave the ball a few dribbles and shot with regular form. The match was a bit uneven, Kenny was malnourished because he was poor and also just a teenager. Unexpectedly however, Kenny was able to jump up and block it. Kuroko was a bit surprised but got his ass back in gear.
“Mmmmrmmrm”
“Don’t worry, you haven’t seen anything yet.” He smiled
“Mm?”
As Kenny charged forward with the ball Kuroko stole it within a second and began rushing towards Kenny’s side. Kenny with superhuman speed was able to turn and run back to guard. “Mmmmmm mm mm” He got in front of Kuroko and deepened his stance, spreading his arms out open. Kuroko stared at him with a hint of intensity and happiness. Kenny blinked and suddenly— Kuroko was behind him?! With the ball! Kenny was shocked “mm mm mm?!” but determined not to let his weird quiet coworker win, he turned backwards and got right back in front of Kuroko again in no time.
Kuroko clutched the ball in his hands and smiled slightly. He adjusted his form, he was holding the ball like he was proposing with a wedding ring. “Mm??” Kenny reached his hands up and jumped as Kuroko shot but when Kenny hit the floor again, he realized his hands hadn’t even grazed the ball.
Kuroko patted Kenny on the head. “That was my vanishing shot. Not even the best of the best can block it.” At that moment, Kenny understood why Kuroko bothered with those years in college to learn English just to come to the states. He definitely had a chance at the NBA.
They sat down on the bench next to the court to catch their breaths.
“Mm mm mmm m mmm m m mm?”
“No, I lost contact with him a while ago. We were real close in high school y'know.”
“Mm mm”
“I used to go around calling myself a shadow, I had this unique style of basketball using misdirection to play that always enhanced my teammates by tenfold.”
“Mm mm mmm mmmm”
“The stronger the light, the stronger the shadow so the stronger my teammate was the stronger I was. That friend of mine, who made it to the NBA, was my light.”
“Mmm mm m”
“Yeah you guessed it, my light always ends up leaving.”
He sighed and stood up
“It’s fine though, I’ve evolved and become my own light.”
“Mmm mmmmm?”
“Yeah well, let’s go.”
They got back on the bus, this time there was even less people. Kenny got off at South Park “mmmmrmrmmm” “Yeah see you tomorrow.” Kuroko replied. He dozed off, staring at his reflection in the mirror. The NBA? Who was he kidding, and Colorado? Kenny was right, maybe he’d just pack up his bags soon and head back to Tokyo. Kagami, he missed Kagami the most. Problem was Kagami wasn’t back in Japan, he was here in the US but still so far. He soon got off at his stop, Montrose, and took a long walk to his tiny little house.
He opened the door and kicked his shoes off. The house he lived in was pretty shabby but it was fine. In the 5 months he’d been living here he’d managed to make it feel pretty homey. He turned his phone on and took a look at the time, 1AM August 5th, it was August already and still so cold out. He opened up his image gallery, a few photos from work with Kenny, a bunch from college, but that wasn’t what he was looking for. He scrolled up and up until he hit his photos from first year of highschool. That was the year Seirin won nationals, and also the year he met him.
Looking back, it was always kind of silly, both his lights, Kagami and Aomine were obviously stronger with him but they didn’t need him which led to them leaving him both times. He spent a long time after that developing his own skills a ton more.
His one-on-one with Kenny reminded him of his first real interaction with Kagami, this time the only difference being that Kuroko could actually shoot, dribble, and more. Not to mention, he’d also grown, not by much though, he was only around 5’9 now but it was still something. He had to get up early tomorrow for his job tomorrow and so he washed up quickly and went to sleep.
That night, he had a dream about Aomine. Aomine was his light back in junior high. They were still friends but weren’t on a competitive team together. In that dream though the scene replayed over and over again in Kuroko’s head of him and Aomine under the bridge.
Aomine had said “I don’t even know how to catch your passes anymore.” For that time in his life, Kuroko hated basketball, Aomine hated basketball, but they were still stuck with it until they had their passions sparked again in high school.
The next morning Kuroko woke up drowsy, he looked at the time, 5:39. Kuroko’s eyes widened, his shift started at six! He hurriedly got out of bed, brushed his teeth and got to the bus stop. Unfortunately for him, a bus only ran every forty five minutes and he had just missed the one at 5:45. He checked his watch, it was an hour walk from here to the McDonalds.
Kuroko looked down the highway, it was practically a straight line there, like a marathon. He had been doing strength and speed training for years, if anyone could make it, he could. He got in the running position and started for it. He only had a small little backpack with a few necessities that wasn’t too heavy. He ran like his life depended on it, past South Park, past the basketball court. The cold breeze around his face felt so liberating, he started sweating but it was a nice feeling. It reminded him of the feeling of running on a court to pass the ball to his teammates. He eventually arrived at the McDonalds and checked the time, 5:56, just in time.
He opened the door to the back locker room. He saw Kenny there putting on his uniform. Kenny looked up and nodded, Kuroko nodded back. They never talked much in the morning. They spent an hour loafing around until some weirdo came up. He said “Hello? Is there an asian boy here named uhh— Taiga? no wait— Tetsuya? here?.
“Mmmmmm”
“Um, excuse me?”
Another homosexual sounding voice came up “Sir, I believe he just said “6.79, Pull up”
“Oh yes of course.”
They pulled up and to Kenny’s surprise it was a Porsche with a disgustingly rich looking man as well as a gay looking assistant to his side.
“Mmmmmm mmmmm mm” he said
“I believe that was ‘What do you want with Tetsu’, sir.”
“Well you see I would like to recruit him to join my elite team of basketball players.”
“Mmmmrmmr?!”
To be continued…