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Aomine came by the convenience store almost every weekday, just a little after two a.m. He followed the same routine every time, of flipping through the latest gravure idol magazines, buying a sports drink (cherry seemed to be his favourite flavour) and making small talk with Kagami before leaving. Kagami used to wonder what kind of schedule kept someone up so late and strolling into the shop at a time when most people were asleep, until he finally asked him about it one day. It turned out Aomine played college basketball and was looking to go pro, so he usually trained well into the night and was dropping by the store on his way home. (“A basketball player, huh… I’d like to play him 1-on-1 sometime…” Kagami had thought at the time. He still hadn’t had the chance to make the suggestion though.)
It had been about half a year since Kagami switched to the night shift at the store. In the beginning, he hadn’t realized just how frequent Aomine’s visits were, and Kagami figured it was because he’d been too sleepy then to notice. But once he did, the red head found himself becoming more and more aware of the other boy. He’d noticed that on days when Aomine showed up later than usual, looking fatigued from what must’ve been a more intense practice, he’d buy an energy drink instead. And when he was hungry, the basketball player liked to grab an assortment of junk food, amassing all the crayfish-flavoured ones in particular. Aomine also wasn’t partial to the rain, and he preferred to wait out most downpours in the store before finally stepping out to head home. For the most part, he was the type of guy who appeared indifferent, and even a little bit smug, but was just easy-going enough to get along with.
Sometimes Kagami wondered why he knew all these petty little things about Aomine. He wondered what was so interesting about a foul-mouthed pervert anyway (and he especially wanted to know just when he started to look forward to two a.m. with all that eagerness building up in his chest.)
And tonight was no different; while Kagami leaned over the counter, staring at the clock and listening to his iPod with only one earphone in, Aomine entered the store at around 2:08 a.m. He nodded at Kagami before heading straight to the magazine stand and picking up one of the new gravure releases. He seemed to linger on the cover for a moment, which had the busty Horikita Mai on it this time. Kagami watched Aomine through the corner of his eye, only averting his gaze every now and then to change the song on his iPod.
“Yo,” was the blue-haired boy’s curt greeting, moments later as he passed Kagami on his way to fetch a drink from the fridges. Aomine surveyed the selection of beverages for a good minute before turning back around, disgruntled, “Oi, Kagami. You’re out of – ”
“Here,” Before Aomine could finish the sentence, Kagami had reached under the counter to the shelf where he kept his wallet and phone. He grabbed the cherry-flavoured drink he had stashed there earlier and hurled it towards Aomine, who caught it effortlessly. “Saved you one.”
Aomine eyed the bottle in his hand before throwing a weary look over at Kagami, “This is warm.”
“Do you want it or not?”
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks,” He clenched the neck of the bottle in his hand, taking long strides over to the counter and propping an elbow on it. It was almost ritual, the way Aomine would plant himself in the same spot opposite of Kagami every night, and tell him about his training or the new basketball shoes he planned to buy. On most nights, Kagami didn’t have much to say, opting to be an audience for Aomine instead. He figured there wasn’t anything interesting for him to share, and there was something almost therapeutic about listening to Aomine anyways.
Pulling out the single earphone from his ear, Kagami straightened up and shoved his hands in his pockets. “How was practice?”
Aomine shrugged, “Eh, it was alright. My manager Satsuki is really working me to the bone lately. Apparently there are going to be some scouts at the next game so I have to make an impression.” He’d said the last word with a grimace and slightly higher tone of voice, as if he were mocking someone else he’d heard it from.
Kagami sneered, “Well if you’re as good as you act like you are then that shouldn’t be a problem.”
The remark seemed to rile up Aomine (but only a little) and he gave Kagami a haughty smirk, “You know, you should come by the gym for a 1-on-1 sometime. You said you used to play, right?”
“In high school,” The red head lied. Truthfully, he’d reconnected with his love for the sport recently and was spending a good portion of his day at an outdoor court playing street ball. It made him nostalgic for the times he had played in the States and then on his high school basketball team, and although Kagami was reluctant to admit it, he’d only been able to reignite this flame after hearing about Aomine’s own developing basketball career. But using his time off work to play ball instead of sleeping like he should’ve been was starting to take a toll on his body. Kagami had been yawning more than usual all night and apparently, Aomine had taken notice.
“How long is the night shift here anyways?”
Kagami stretched his arms out before answering, “Ten hours.”
Aomine whistled in response, “And what time do you get off?”
“Six. That’s when Tatsuya, the guy who works the day shift, comes in.”
“Does it get boring?”
“I guess.” What’s with all these questions? “No one really drops by between three to five a.m. so there’s not much for me to do.”
The other boy paused before his next inquiry. He was tapping the counter with his fingertips, “So… you’re here alone during that time?”
“Yeah.”
“Does that bother you?”
“I don’t know,” Kagami wondered just how candid he could be. “I guess so.”
Aomine was nodding his head, his lips pursed in what Kagami presumed was some indication of deep thought. As his eyes trailed from Kagami’s face to the drink in his hand, he was quiet for only a moment before he made the suggestion, “I’ll stay up with you then.”
… Wait, what?
Kagami gaped. Did he just imagine that? Even after knowing the boy for half a year, that was the last thing he expected to hear from Aomine. “Why would you…?”
Aomine gestured his head to the bottle he was holding, “Consider it me returning a favour.”
Kagami frowned, “It’s not really a favour since you still have to pay for that.”
The blue-haired boy was looking at Kagami with hooded eyes, unimpressed. “Then give it to me for free. Geez, Bakagami…”
Kagami didn’t have time to react to the insult; he was far too concerned with the way his stomach had flipped over at Aomine’s offer to stay at the store with him. But he wasn’t ignorant to his own feelings – Kagami wanted him to stay and he wasn’t about to let a good opportunity slip by. “Okay, fine,” he said, immediately adding, “But you’re not going to last.”
“How hard could it be to stay up until six?” Aomine was already making his way around the counter. As soon as he got there, he’d taken up refuge on the single chair that was meant for Kagami. “It’s only four hours from now.”
Kagami scoffed, trying but failing to hold back his own smirk as he shifted in his spot to address Aomine again, “To be honest, I’m surprised you have it in you to do something this nice for someone.”
“Wow,” Aomine slumped down in the chair and threw his head back, “I don’t strike you as the gentlemanly type?”
“No,” Kagami replied, flatly. “The first thing you do when you get here is look at gravure idol magazines. As far as I know, you’re kind of sleazy and your only concern is looking at girls.”
“Well… not just girls.”
Kagami had caught the way Aomine’s eyes flickered towards him when he said it. This time, he was sure he wasn’t imagining things. Kagami returned the gaze only for a second, before his nerves got the better of him and he turned his head to face the door instead.
A moment later and Aomine cleared his throat, “I don’t appreciate you calling me sleazy, Kagami.”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.”
The next few hours went by almost instantly, with Aomine and Kagami talking mostly about basketball; it was a fluid and comfortable exchange and it didn’t feel weird at all for Kagami to spend this much time with someone he had previously spoken to for only ten to fifteen minutes a night. (At one point Aomine had collected a pile of snacks for them to eat, reasoning that he’d need the energy to make it to six o'clock.) Aomine told Kagami about what teams he wanted to play for, and Kagami shared his own experiences playing basketball in America. They were only briefly interrupted when a customer came in to buy a pack of cigarettes but for the rest of the night, it was just the two of them. Kagami told Aomine that working the night shift at the convenience store was probably the shittiest job he’d ever had and that he wanted to one day go back to college and maybe join the basketball team there, too. He’d never told anyone this before. Aomine smirked and said that maybe then they’d get to play in an official match against each other.
It was four a.m. when Aomine fell asleep, hunched over the counter with his mouth sloppily hanging open. Kagami wasn’t surprised to learn he was a snorer. With his own arm propped on the counter and his chin resting on an upturned palm, his eyes naturally fell on Aomine. His gaze only lasted a minute or two, before he made himself busy with re-stocking the shelves (there was no point, really, since they hadn't been touched in hours, but Kagami was determined not to be a creep who watched others sleep). The remaining two hours flew by to his surprise, and when there were but five minutes left until the end of his shift he shook the slumbering boy’s shoulder to rouse him awake.
“Wake up, Aomine.”
“Hmm?” His voice was groggy and he barely lifted his head when he spoke, “What happened?”
“You fell asleep,” Kagami muttered in reply, “Honestly, what was the point in staying here if you were just going to exhaust yourself.”
Aomine sighed as he peeled himself off the counter. His eyes were still shut as he stretched his back and long limbs. “Take a hint, Kagami. It’s not like I had to do this,” He dropped his arms to his side, finally opening his eyes only to cast them downward, “Same way I don’t have to drop by here every night to look at magazines or buy drinks I could easily get at the gym.”
Kagami didn’t respond right away. He figured Aomine didn’t expect him to, anyways, and that a guy like him might actually get embarrassed after saying something of that magnitude. But it hadn’t surprised him to hear it, to be honest. After all, it was just another thing Kagami had noticed about Aomine sometime during his many visits.
Actually, he’d probably known this whole time.
A smirk was quick to find its way back to Kagami’s face as he finally met eyes with the other boy, “You know, working the night shift actually isn’t the worst thing in the world. It gets a little better after two a.m.”
It was Aomine’s turn to scoff, “This guy…”
Aomine ended up waiting idly at the door for Kagami to pack his belongings. Tatsuya arrived shortly after and was taking up post behind the counter when the two boys finally set out to leave, heading towards the subway station together.
“So what do you do once you get off work?” Aomine asked after letting out a yawn.
The red head looked over at the boy next to him and took in the sight. Kagami realized he’d never seen Aomine outside of the store and that there was something rather calming to his appearance once he was far and away from cheap fluorescent lighting. Aomine wasn’t a bad looking guy, after all.
He shrugged in response, “I usually just head home and sleep.”
“That sounds nice,” Aomine hummed. “Alright, let’s go to your place. I could use a nap.”
Not that Kagami had been expecting anything more, but that was exactly what they did when Aomine visited his apartment for the very first time – they slept, crashing on his bed as soon as they got there.