Castor's hands were wrapped around Pollux as Hiro shot the ball towards him. Raising his hands to catch the ball, he felt the slight pain of it making contact with his nose. Sure, he caught it, but hadn't held his hands far enough away from his face to catch it properly. Taking the basketball into one of his hands, he positioned it in his lap. He reached his free hand up to his nose as he rubbed it gently, letting out a sigh at his failure. It wasn't very painful, just a sharp, swift pain and nothing more. The pain had went away just as it arrived, though he was apprehensive about applying any pressure onto it, just in case. No, there probably wasn't even a bruise present, how absolutely embarrassing. He could feel his cheeks burn as the embarrassment sunk in, how could he be so useless?

"How am I supposed to catch it, anyway?" He asked with a frown, trying to calm his nerves down to no avail.

Hiro looked at Castor. It seemed he was blushing a little. "You hold out your hands in front of you and just catch it I guess. Here, pass me back the ball." Hiro said. He wiped his hands on his pants and held out his hands to show Castor how to do it. Hiro looked out the window to see a few birds flying around in the sky. "So you want to go to the basket ball courts now?" Hiro asked. He turned his attention back to Castor and looked at Pollux who was dropped. Guess he didn't notice too much. Hiro held out his hands with his arms slightly bent waiting for the ball to be passed.

Castor was a bit hesitant to throw the ball back as he heard Pollux call to him. Glancing down at his lap, he immediately noticed Pollux was missing. Not giving it a second though, he hastily shot the basketball into Hiro's general direction as he leaned over the edge of Hiro's bed to reach for Pollux. "Gosh, I'm so sorry," He whispered to the plush animal as he grabbed onto his paw, hoisting him up onto the bed. "I haven't forgotten about you," He reassured Pollux, muttering it as not to attract Hiro's attention. Even so, he probably could still hear him, the room was too small to make much of a difference.

Hiro caught the ball easily although it slightly went to the left. So, Castor could at least throw properly. He sighed as Castor talked to Pollux. He knew it was normal for Castor and all, but it felt a little weird. "Anyway, you want to go to the basketball courts now or just practice passing the ball back and forth here?" Hiro asked for the hundredth time. No, that was exaggerating, but he did ask quite a few times. Pollux must be really important to Castor. Now that he thought about it, he knew nothing about Castor's family or background. Castor knew a lot about his family now, or at least some of it although he still doesn't quite know his real parents and all that. For now that should be kept concealed, he will reveal it one day.

Castor's head shot back up as he turned his attention back onto Hiro. He had such a difficult time socializing, he hoped he hadn't annoyed him at all. Then again, friends annoyed each other once in a while, so it must have been alright... right? He nodded to Hiro's question, smiling sheepishly in the process. Hiro must have such excellent patience to deal with someone like him, someone who valued a stuffed animal more than a real person. Most would have already called him a freak, a nutcase.

"You should be in a mental hospital, bear boy!"

He tried to keep those dark thoughts from making their way to the front of his mind as he hastily stood up, moving towards the door as he opened it, beginning to exit Hiro's room. A hint of pain crossed his listless expression as those fatal words continued to pound at his mind's walls. It hurt every time he thought about it, but he didn't want to face it. Taking a swift deep breath, he plastered a fake smile on his face as he turned to look back at Hiro.

"Are you coming?" He asked cheerfully, though his facade of happiness faltered slightly. Castor was never really good at lying. He often avoided lying at all costs, even to the point of disappearing from a conversation in an attempt to avoid addressing it. He had enough stress in his life to deal with, he didn't need any more. You can't run away from it forever, Pollux's voice of reason echoed in his head.

Yes... Yes I can.

Hiro nodded and looked at Castor's face carefully. It didn't seem he was too happy. He wondered if he did something wrong. "I'm coming!" Hiro said with the ball in his arm. He walked over to Castor and went out the room and closed the door softly. "So, let's go?" Hiro began to walk downstairs and out of the house. Once in a while, he would check back to make sure Castor was following. When waiting, he would dribble the ball slowly up and down. Hopefully Castor would know some basic rules of basketball, but if he didn't it was fine. There was a park near his house and there was a basketball court there. It was only a few blocks away and they can easily walk there in 5 minutes.

Before going out the door, ran to the kitchen. "Wait there!" Hiro called as he ran. After getting to the kitchen, he rummaged through the refrigerator until he found 2 ice cold water bottles. Carrying them, he went back to the door and opened it as a breeze swept into the house. It was actually a nice breeze although it was a bit chilly. It was fine though. Hiro walked out of the house and motioned for Castor to follow.

Castor followed after Hiro like a lost dog, moving in step with him as he tried his best to smile. It was a wry smile, very soft and almost unnoticeable, but a smile nonetheless. He didn't want to bring Hiro down or give him any bad experiences. After all, Castor was his first friend, so he had to do his best to make him happy. He had to do everything in his power to make his friend happy. Because if he didn't, then he would have failed as a friend.

"Uhhh," Castor began in a slightly awkward fashion, unable to think of anything to say. He had no real understanding of basketball, it was as if he were starting at ground zero and would have to work his way up from there. "Is basketball really hard?"

Hiro looked at Castor. "Hmmmm. I wonder. It is actually quite simple, no need to worry." When they arrived at the basketball courts, Hiro stopped and turned to face Castor and started dribbling with his left hand. "Do you know how to dribble the ball?" Hiro asked. Hiro then dribbled with his right hand and slightly crouched forward. "If you don't its fine, but it's very simple." Hiro added on. He didn't want to hurt his feelings. Hiro looked at the nearest basketball hoop and ran up to it doing a lay up. He shot the ball into the basket as it bounced on the floor. Hiro quickly scooped up the ball and went back to Castor with a small smile on his face.

"No, not really," Was Castor's simple reply. He had watched the other boys at school do it, but couldn't understand how it was done. He was much too apprehensive about making an attempt to do something that he would probably fail in. It would make him look weak, wimpy even. But he didn't want to ruin the fun, so he would try his best to not look like a failure. Determination burned in his eyes, though it didn't spread to the rest of his body. He hesitated slightly before joining Hiro on the court, finding it quite childish to stand in the sidelines if he wanted to learn. Castor kept his inner emotions of apprehension to himself as he gestured for Hiro the pass him the ball. "I'll try, though," he added as an afterthought.

"Oh. Ok." Hiro mumbled. Hiro raised an eyebrow and passed the ball to Castor with a bounce. "Don't worry if you can't do it." Hiro said. He didn't want Castor to overdo himself. Hiro stood in front of Castor and watched him. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have him play basketball? Hiro didn't want Castor to make him feel like that he was trying to show off or tease him or something. He just wanted to try having some fun with his first long lasting friend. Hiro looked at the sky, if he judged it right, school was either over or almost over. He wondered how things were going at school. Well, the teachers probably taken care of it by now. Hopefully. Hiro sighed. They had about 2 hours to play until they should eat dinner. Hiro wondered what Castor liked to eat and pondered. Hiro shook his head and focused his attention to Castor and how he would dribble the ball.

Castor did his best to catch the ball properly, flinching slightly in response as it bounded right into his shaky, outstretched hands. He smiled crookedly in slight confidence, but it faltered as he made an attempt to dribble. Instead of dribbling the ball with the tips of his fingers, he practically slapped the ball into the ground, hard. It resembled more of a spike than dribbling as the force of his spike made the basketball bounce up from the ground and made contact with his face. Unlike before, much more pain was evident as he recoiled backwards, clutching his nose as it pounded in agony. His eyes were tightly shut as he tried to keep himself from crying. I'm a big boy, I can handle it, he reassured himself, having dropped Pollux to the ground in the process.

"Ugh, I keep hitting my nose," He sighed, though he found it a little amusing at the same time. Castor didn't want to seem like he didn't want to play, which he now was determined to do. Putting on a sheepish smile, he continued. "I think the basketball has something against it."

Hiro chuckled slightly and looked at the dropped Pollux. "Maybe it does have something against you. My first time seeing something like this actually." It seemed that Castor had the talent of not being able to play basketball. Hiro bent down and picked up the basketball and Pollux. He patted Pollux lightly trying to get the dust off of it and handed it to Castor. "Here, I'll demonstrate how to dribble." Hiro dropped the ball from him right hand and crouched down slightly. He lightly patted the basketball using the tips of his fingers. Hiro dribbled and then passed the ball to his left hand then to his right again. He then stopped dribbling by catching the ball with his hands and looked at Castor. "It's actually quite simple. Try not to slap the ball. Lightly dribbled it using your tips of the fingers instead of your palm. Crouch slightly and don't use too much force otherwise it will bounce too high." Hiro explained. He raised an eyebrow if Castor got what he said.