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We look up at the same stars,
And see such different things.
-Anonymous
It’s the final evening of Teiko Basketball Club’s week-long training camp in Akagiyama and Kise is up for some adventure.
At the dead of the night, he tiptoes, quiet as a mouse towards Aomine’s bunk, flashlight in hand.
“Aominecchi! Wake up,” Kise murmurs into the sleeping boy’s ear with a light nudge on the shoulder. When Aomine doesn’t stir, Kise sucks in a breath and blows into Aomine’s ear with all his might.
Effectively, it jolts out the Teiko Ace from his deep slumber, his eyes flying open in a snap, the shock causing all the tiny hairs at the back of his neck to rise. Aomine’s eyes hurriedly squints and scans through the darkness and as soon as his gaze zeroes in on Kise’s face, he groans.
“The hell Kise, what is your problem?”
Kise turns the flashlight directly into Aomine’s face, allowing the bright streak to sting the tanned boy’s eyes which are just barely adjusting to the darkness of the room.
“You shit, what is wrong with you?” Aomine barks as he turns away and brings both his hands to cover his peepers.
“Lower your voice or you’ll wake the others,” Kise admonishes him.
The triumphant grin on Kise’s face is just too impossible to miss out despite the meager lighting and it irks Aomine that this stupid blond is looking thoroughly pleased with what he just accomplished. With his temper rising, Aomine lets out a sharp exhale. Narrowing his eyes at Kise, he fights hard to keep himself from speaking too loud, the scorn in his voice barely contained. “And what about me, huh? Don’t I have the right to a good sleep?”
“You promised you’ll watch the stars with me,” The blond reminds him calmly like it’s the most natural thing to do after waking up.
“What are you talking about?” the half-awake Teiko power forward hisses through clenched teeth as he snatches the flashlight from Kise and uses it to check the clock hanging on the wall. Well, fuck. It’s just 3:00 AM.
And Aomine, in his half-asleep state of mind, can’t seem to wrap his thoughts around the fact that Kise has woken him up for some completely preposterous activity such as looking at the damn sky. Honestly, he likes to strangle the blond for his crazy, on-a-whim ideas sometimes.
“Are you kidding me? It’s 3 AM, for fuck’s sake!” Aomine growls, deliberately not caring about their other teammates who are still sleeping soundly by the minute. No, he won’t be swayed to leave his bed. And no, he doesn’t remember agreeing to any of this. Okay, maybe he did, he tells himself, but not at this freaking hour.
“Please?” Kise insists, grabbing the flashlight back and angling it just a little below his chin, making sure Aomine doesn’t miss the complete combo of pouty lips and hopeful eyes.
“No way, go bother somebody else!” Aomine rolls away to the other side of the bed, further from Kise, hoping that the blond will get the cue and stop pestering him already.
Both of them nearly jumped as they hear the voice of authority speaking from somewhere within the darkness.
“Daiki, Ryouta… one more word and I’ll triple your training routines. Please let the others sleep in peace.”
Without looking back at Kise, Aomine buries himself under the blankets, feeling somewhat relieved that the captain intervened. The next thing he hears is the sound of light footsteps coming against the tiled floor followed by the gentle squeak of the door as Kise slips out from the room.
After taking a spot in the middle of the soft grassy field just in front of the inn where the rest of team is cooped up, Kise lies on his back, gaze directed heavenward to the vast expanse of velvet blue skies dotted with countless shimmering stars. No moon, no clouds, no other obstruction--just the panoramic view being a complete feast for his eyes.
He takes a deep breath, savoring the sweet scent of pine trees mingling about with the cool, after-midnight air. The wind blows and he hears the gentle sway of pine branches, the faint rustling of leaves beckoning him to take in the serenity afforded by his surroundings. And indeed, he contemplates with fascination, the stars are most beautiful before dawn, at the darkest of the night. Yet somehow, the lack of Aomine’s presence slices through his consciousness like a paper cut; negligible but impossible to ignore. And Kise can’t shake off the wistful thought that this moment would’ve been even more perfect if and only if Aomine is here. Baka Aominecchi. Always making promises he can’t keep.
“Oi, baka. Why exactly are we doing this?”
Kise gets up, turns to the familiar voice and is met with the blinding beam coming from Aomine’s flashlight. After Kise’s eyes are able to refocus, he’s seen that Aomine has already sauntered his way beside him and has already settled on a comfortable spot on the grass.
“Aominecchi, you came!” The surprised expression on Kise’s face is immediately displaced by a genuinely happy smile, the sound of bliss in his voice as undeniable as the sunrise in a few hours.
Crouched on the grass, Aomine keeps the scowl on his face as he mumbles something incoherent under his breath which Kise thinks is just another string of expletives directed at him. Yet surprise begins anew within the blond, both eyebrows shooting upwards as Aomine wordlessly pushes a thermos bottle into his hands. With quick fingers, Kise uncaps the lid and all his senses perked up at the smell of freshly brewed coffee prepared for him by Aomine. Cautious as not to burn his lips and his tongue, Kise blows several times onto the mouth of the bottle before taking a sip.
“Mmm, this is too sweet!” Kise gushes, as he wipes the sides of his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You’re welcome, baka.” Aomine tells him, his tone laced with mild annoyance.
“I meant you, Aho!” Kise clarifies with chuckle, the sound of his laughter ringing softly in the dead of the night.
To this, Aomine just lets out an indifferent ‘hn’. He swiftly turns his head away from Kise as soon as he feels a slight blush crawling to his cheeks. And he’s quite thankful that at this level of darkness, Kise won’t be able to notice too much, or his ears will have to suffer through a barrage of embarrassing comments coming from the blond.
Later, the pair of them lie side by side on the grass, palms cradling the back of their heads while gazing at the stars, twinkling down at them from some far-away galaxies.
“Beautiful, huh?” Kise marvels at the view but Aomine just lets out a snort.
“Oh and there’s your sign, Virgo,” Kise suddenly blurts out, pointing upwards to the sky and connecting several shimmering dots on invisible lines with his index finger.
“Ha?” is all Aomine can manage; thanks to Midorima, he vaguely remembers that Virgo pertains to The Virgin but he can’t make out anything that remotely resembles a virgin, or any intelligible image for that matter, in the series of stars that Kise keeps pointing to.
Stealing a glance at Aomine from the corner of his eye, Kise clearly reads the befuddled look on the tanned boy’s face, yet this doesn’t defer him from his speech. “Virgo was named after the Virgin Goddess, Dike. She used to live on earth but eventually left and ascended to the skies after she grew jaded with her human friends.”
“Wait, she left her friends behind?” Aomine interrupts. Somehow, there is something about this story that doesn’t sit well on him.
“Apparently, yes.” Kise replies, turning his head to face the tanned teen. “Had some issues with humanity being evil and all, and so she moved on and claimed a place in the skies. That’s how Virgo came about.”
“Okay…”
“See that star over there that appears larger and brighter than the others?” Kise moves closer to Aomine, levelling his index finger along the latter’s line of sight. “That’s Spica, Virgo’s brightest, most important star.”
Aomine scrunches his forehead in confusion then relaxes a bit after finally being able to pinpoint where the said star is located.
“The brightest star is a symbol of sorts. For the goddess, Spica is the ear of grain. For Aominecchi, it’s basketball… what will earn you your place in the skies, your shot to fame. My analogy is so cool, isn’t it?” Kise faces Aomine and gives him a wink.
“Why do you say it’s basketball?”
“Because it’s the most important for you, the brightest thing in your life.”
“Hmph. Why do people always think that I only care about basketball? I care about other stuff, too.” Aomine retorts, then adds with a grumble, “Did you drag me out here just to give out Astronomy lessons? I’m bored out of my skull.” He then makes loud snoring sounds through his throat.
“I didn’t drag you here, you came out of your own freewill!” Kise elbows the tanned teen on the ribs.
In a playful response, Aomine reaches out to pinch the blond’s left cheek. “What else do I do? I can’t go back to sleep thanks to you, Spica.”
“Spica?” Kise blinks, as he tries to make out of what he just heard from Aomine.
“You said Virgo’s brightest star, right? Well, you are bright and shiny like that. And very annoying,” Aomine replies, his curious blue eyes boring into Kise’s golden ones.
“Huh? What are you saying, Aominecchi?”
Aomine doesn’t dignify the question with a response. Proud as he is, he thinks he doesn’t need to. It’s just not in his turf to elaborate things, most especially, the state of his feelings; like how Kise makes him feel strong and weak at the same time just by one tender look; or how it amazes him that despite his infinite faults, Kise still chooses to see the good in him. These and so many other things that are just too stupid to say out loud. Kise, dense as he is, should be able to figure things out on his own.
“You called me Spica?” Kise repeats, and it takes a while for him to put two and two together, only after Aomine has pulled him closer in some sort of a cuddle. But he needs to hear it. He needs to be certain of it so without further ado, he takes a leap of faith and throws in the question.
“Aominecchi, are you in love with me?”
“Tsk. Am I in love with you? What do you think am I doing here at 3 am?”
The effect of what he heard makes Kise so acutely aware of his heart’s wild thumping in his chest. He likes to say something but his tongue falters, suddenly too overwhelmed by the revelation, by the relief that Aomine feels the same way for him and all the emotions that he has for this idiot, who is so stubborn just as he is so amazing, who easily gets grumpy about the simplest things and yet, chooses to tolerate his silly whims like watching the stars in the early hours of the morning.
In silence, something that feels strangely wonderful passed between them just by looking into each other’s eyes.
Just then, Aomine lets one of his hands latch slowly on to Kise’s, warm palms and calloused fingers sliding together like matching lock and key.
“And just so you know, I’ll always be here for you,” Aomine says, voice gruff but steady, eyes piercing and unblinking, the story of the goddess briefly crossing his thoughts.
And Kise lets himself be captivated by the pools of dark blue in Aomine’s eyes, as if all the secrets of the universe are unfolding within them. Yet Kise remembers that they’re just two teenagers dancing to the tune of so many infinite possibilities of an uncertain future. The blond boy just shakes his head and his next words is like a punch to Aomine’s gut.
“Aominecchi, you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep,”
“What, you think my words are no good?”
Gently, Kise lets his other hand graze the side of Aomine’s face before he speaks, his expression fluidly going from cheerful to melancholic within a blink of an eye, his voice fragile and full of honesty. “It just scares me… I know the day will come when you will claim your rightful place in the skies because that’s just how amazing you are and I’ll be left behind with nothing but this moment to look back to. You’re Virgo, after all.”
Aomine’s reaction is knee-jerk as he is usually inclined to blurt out whatever comes to his mind.
“Oi, why are you being moody all of a sudden? And how stupid can you get?” Aomine sneers, quite disbelieving that this conversation of stars has taken a bizarre turn and at the same time completely disregarding the fact that he’s played a huge part in it.
“What?” Kise asks, flustered by this sudden line of questioning.
“What’s Virgo without its brightest star?”
“I’m not sure I’m following…”
Aomine heaves out a sigh. Weighing his words carefully, Aomine tries to explain in the best possible way he thought he could.
“What I’m saying is that Spica will always remain with Virgo wherever the hell it goes. I suppose Virgo can’t just break away from its most important part.”
Kise halts, juts his chin thoughtfully and thinks this through for a while. Reading in between the lines is surely not his strongest suit but the way Aomine phrased his thoughts just sent an exhilarating rush of warmth all over his body, right down to the tips of his toes.
Under the starlight, Kise breaks into a dazzling grin as realization finally catches up with him. “I suppose your confession will be easier to understand if you stop speaking in metaphors.”
“Or we could stop speaking all together and do something else with our lips. By the way, you owe me a kiss for waking me this early and for making me say a lot of crazy things.” Aomine tells him haughtily.
Without waiting for a response, Aomine rolls to his belly and uses both elbows to slightly raise his upper body, finding the best possible position for what he likes to do next. Leaning close to Kise who is getting wide-eyed with astonishment, Aomine proceeds to aim for the blond’s half-parted lips and closes his eyes. And he will never forget how wonderful it feels to kiss his bright star—bittersweet like coffee, warm like sunshine, supremely satisfying like a basketball victory. With all the words he can’t audibly say, Aomine allows his mouth to explore the blond’s, hoping it will somehow drown and wash away all of Kise’s fears and doubts. And Kise responds with equal fervor just as easily, lips moving in tandem with Aomine’s, a beautiful motion of give and take that’s meant only for the latter.
Their heads were spinning when they pulled apart.
With hands still clasped together, both teens find themselves looking at the same direction, two pairs of eyes riveted to the countless glistening stars scattered across the skies of endless blue. The silence that settles between them is easy and comfortable like a cup of hot chocolate during a rainy morning, like children’s carols floating merrily in the air during Christmas.
At the moment, Kise chooses to be content, all fear of what-ifs, all uncertainties of the future melting away into oblivion.
A bright streak of white light, albeit fleeting, sparkles across the starry skies.
“Aominecchi, a shooting star!” Kise exclaims in delight. But when he turns to Aomine, his excitement is only met with a soft snore; the Teiko Ace was already fast asleep. Aomine’s face is serene, though, nothing like the hot-headed teenager who leaves everyone to bite the dust in the basketball court.
With his heart still racing in his chest, Kise smiles, squeezes Aomine’s hand tighter and makes a simple wish.
- End of Part I -