Work Text:
Three days before Kise’s birthday…
08:45 PM
~
From Kise Ryouta: Guys, my 18th birthday is coming up! Please come over to my house on the 18th. Bring your s/o! The more, the merrier! Fun starts at 6PM! RSVP! ヾ(＠＾▽＾＠)ﾉ
Sent To: GoM
[Message replies]
Kuroko Tetsuya: Sorry, Kise-kun, but Nigou is due for a visit to the vet on the 18th.
Momoi Satsuki: Ki-chan! I totally forgot it’s your birthday already, stupid me. So sorry, but I’ll be over to my grandma’s house on that night. I’ll make it up to you, I promise!
Midorima Shintaro: Sorry, can’t. The Astronomy club will be camping out. Saturn approaches peak visibility and I can’t miss it. FYI, Saturn will be flanking Gemini’s brightest star which doesn’t sound good, make sure you have your lucky item the whole day.
Murasakibara Atsushi: Your place is too far, Kise-chin.
Akashi Seijuurou: Advance happy birthday, Ryouta. I hope you have a great year. I’m sorry I can’t make it to your party, I’m joining dad on a trip. But I really hope to see all of you guys, soon.
Kise’s model face twists into a scowl as he lies in bed reading the message replies from his friends. He shakes his head in utter disbelief, wondering how all of them had already made plans that didn’t involve celebrating with him when he always invites them over every year for his birthday. Murasakibara and Akashi he expects to decline and understands their reason, being based outside of Tokyo, but his other friends? How can they forget?
He slams his phone face-down on the nightstand, terribly disappointed over the fact that all his grand plans of gathering his favorite people for a night of merriment and good food will simply remain at that: a grand plan.
After heaving out a heavy sigh, Kise rolls to his side and is about to flick off his night lamp when a sudden realization hits him.
Wait, wait, wait… someone hasn’t replied to his invitation yet. Just to be sure, Kise retrieves his phone and scrolls swiftly through the message threads again.
Oh yeah, Aomine hasn’t replied yet. Which means, he may be able to come. Which means, there is still hope that Kise’s birthday celebration may be salvaged. He smiles.
And Kise won’t exactly mind if Aomine will be the only person willing to come on the 18th; his birthday will be more than complete already even if everybody else bails on that day.
Kise sets his phone on top of his chest and stares up at the ceiling, an even bigger smile blooming on his lips at the thought of Aomine, his forever and ever crush since middle school, the flesh and bone of his unrequited love. He catches himself and tries to scratch off that last thought. It doesn’t matter if his affections for the Touou Ace remain in the void, utterly unreciprocated. Kise’s been so used to it by now and he’s perfectly contented with being “just friends” with Aomine. Or so he tells himself every time.
Good thoughts! Good thoughts only, Ryouta! Kise urges himself as he pulls the blanket up to his chin and closes his eyes. What’s left to do now is to simply wait for Aomine’s reply.
And that night, Kise dreamed of dark midnight skies and thunderstorms. He also dreamed of Aomine, tenderly kissing him under the pelting rain.
The day of Kise’s birthday…
05:56 PM
~
Kise stares at the huge pile of gifts he’s collected throughout the day, now sitting undisturbed on his living room floor. All have been gifts from fans he hardly knew, but not a single one, not even a birthday card from any of his friends came in the mail for him.
Kise's shoulder slumped. He knows he must feel thankful, he’s got wonderful fans who went out of their way to send him something, anything that will cheer him up on his special day…
He knows he must try to understand, the fact that his friends are just busy; they’re all in their senior year now, which means they have far more commitments and responsibilities than they used to…
They’re his friends, no matter what, gifts or without, here or without.
Kise checks his messages for the gazillionth time today and a pang of pain explodes in his chest. None of his friends, not even Momoi or Kuroko, have even bothered to send him a birthday greeting.
And then there’s Aomine. The fact that he never texted back has agitated Kise the most; a huge part of him already wants to surrender to the misery and accept the truth that Aomine cares so little about him, if not at all–yet somehow, there’s still this tiny and persistent flicker of hope that wants to give the Touou ace a fair chance, at least up until midnight, because silence can mean anything and a lot of things can happen within a few hours, right?
At exactly 6 PM, Kise’s phone buzzed, interrupting his dark, anxious thoughts. His heart leaps to his throat the moment his gaze lands on the caller ID. Immediately, he brings the phone to his ear.
“Aominecchi!” He can’t contain the excitement in his voice, he’s so sure Aomine can ‘hear’ his smile.
“Hey, are you free this Saturday?”
Kise’s breath hitches as he feels a jolt of excitement pump through his veins. He asks, “um, yeah, why?”
“Well, team practice got cancelled so I was wondering… you up for a one-on-one? I can’t be slacking, you know?”
“Oh.” An awkward silence punctuates Kise’s frustration.
“Kise?”
“Y-yeah, okay. One-on-one. On Saturday. Got it.”
“Cool. I’ll see you this Saturday, then. Street court nearest Maji. Bye.”
“Aominecchi!” Kise almost shrieks. He clenched, unclenched his other fist in an attempt to relax his frenzied nerves. What he’s about to say next feels like a terrible idea, but he believes himself strong, he’s not turning tails from here. If he’s going to find out about the bitter truth tonight on his birthday, so be it.
“Why do you have to shout?” Aomine asks, sounding annoyed.
“Er… did you forget something?”
“Ha? Forget about what?”
“It’s actually my birthday today!”
“Oh… Right. So?”
So? The word burned his eardrums. For a moment, he takes the phone from his ear and stares at it with his mouth hanging open. Aomine’s callousness deserves a golden trophy, he thinks furiously.
“Won’t you at least greet me, you baka?” Kise seethes; all his angry emotions have already pooled as hot tears on the edges of his eyes, the control he’s been trying to hold up for so long now crashing to the ground like a ton of bricks.
“Okay, happy birthday.”
Kise is sure it’s not just a figment of his imagination, that Aomine sounded so bored right now.
“YOU’RE THE MOST INSENSITIVE PERSON EVER AND I HATE YOU!!!” Kise screams on his phone before cutting the call.
The day after Kise’s birthday…
05:30 PM
~
As soon as Kise opens the door, there's Momoi, who lunges at him like a bull, just like she usually does when she sees Kuroko. She wraps her arms around Kise in a tight coil while profusely apologizing.
“Ki-chan! I'm so sorry! Please say you forgive me!”
“It’s alright, Momocchi! Please don’t strangle me!” He replies, trying to wiggle away.
As soon as Momoi releases him, Kise leads her further inside the house, to the living room, so they can properly talk. Once they’re seated on the couch, Momoi pulls out a gift from her shoulder bag.
“Happy birthday, Ki-chan!” She beams, handing Kise her gift.
Smiling, Kise carefully tears the red wrapper while Momoi watches in anticipation. Her present for him is a pair of fuzzy black and white bedroom socks, with cute cat faces all over. Kise lifts his head back up at his sakura-haired friend.
“Thank you so much, Momoicchi, I love it!”
“I’m glad!” she smiles back, then hesitates, as she notices Kise’s bloodshot eyes. “Ki-chan, are you alright? You look—oh, did you just cry?”
“Ah, no, no, of course not! Why would I cry on my birthday?” Kise tries to pull up a smile but he can never fool Momoi; he knows she can read him like an open book.
“What's wrong? Tell me! You know I’ll find out, sooner or later!”
There are three things that Kise expects after he’s told Momoi about the phone call with Aomine last night. One, that she will be enraged with Aomine (but of course, who wouldn’t?); two, that she will take Kise’s side like she always does whenever he and Aomine had a fight. Three, that she will try to patch things up between him and Aomine by berating and knocking some sense into the latter’s head until he apologizes to Kise on his own volition. Of course, Kise is right about her reaction after he tells her his side of the story.
“That stupid ganguro! Come with me and let’s whack his head together! I can’t believe he did that to you, of all people!” Momoi’s face is already red with rage.
“I know, right? But I don’t want to see him!”
“Well, you should see me beat him to a pulp, c’mon now!” She pulls Kise out of the house and practically drags him to where Aomine lives.
“I certainly don’t have anything to say to that stupid best friend of yours, Momoicchi!” Kise tells her while he and Momoi are standing right at the front door of Aomine’s abode. Momoi is truly persistent when she wants to be that she’s managed to keep Kise in tow despite the blond’s vehement protests.
With a shrug, Momoi tells him, “Ki-chan, he needs to learn a lesson. Just tell him what a baka ganguro he is. Dai-chan is a jerk, but he’ll feel guilty soon enough. And you may never realize it, but he has a soft spot for you.”
“What soft spot? He doesn’t care about my feelings at all!” Kise snarls, anger and disappointment, a ticking time-bomb somewhere deep in his gut.
“So you need to tell him that.” One hand tight around Kise's wrist, Momoi didn’t waste any more time. She turns the knob, swings the door open and pushes Kise inside.
“SURPRISE!”
Several voices cry in unison, followed by the sound of bursting party poppers.
The first thing that registers into Kise’s thoughts are colors—lots of them— yellow balloons sticking to the ceiling and scattered on the floor; also, confetti raining around him everywhere. Then he is hugged, one by one, by several colored heads.
“Happy birthday, Kise-kun” Kuroko says, as he and Kagami take turns to embrace him; Midorima and Takao follow suit. Kise gasps when he sees Murasakibara and Himuro coming to him, arms wide open; he lets out another upon seeing his former captains, Akashi and Nijimura-senpai walk up to him, hand in hand.
“Surreal,” Kise finally says at the wake of his bewilderment, everything coming together as he looks around and sees the faces of all his favorite people gathered in one place for him—just for him.
And then Kise sees him coming, dressed in a blue plaid button-up and jeans, looking as rugged and as handsome as ever, his forever crush, the flesh and bone of his unrequited love.
“Happy birthday, Kise. Sorry about last night, it’s part of the surprise.” Aomine grins sheepishly, as he pushes both his hands inside his jeans pockets. And just like that, all of Kise’s angry words for Aomine have been thrown out of the window, left to be carried away by the wind.
“What?” Kise squeaks, as he searches Aomine’s face for further explanation.
“Ki-chan, this was all Dai-chan’s idea. He planned this whole birthday party surprise,” Momoi reports happily.
“I think we’re going overboard, when Aomine-san says we’ll do it the day after your birthday,” Takao explains. “And you fell for it, right?”
“…so we have to come up with a sort of excuse to turn down your invitation,” Kagami tells him. "Aho promised he'll gut anyone who'll text you on your birthday."
“Oh… oh my gosh… guys, you’re the best!” Kise laughs heartily while tears stream down his pretty model face, as he pieced together everyone’s story of how they pulled off his birthday surprise. “I thought, I wasn’t that important to any of you at all…”
“Aw, Ki-chan,” Momoi wraps Kise into another tight hug. “Of course, you’re important. We’ll always be here for you.”
“Momoicchi!” Kise hugs her back while big, fat tears of happiness continue to roll down his cheeks.
“Geez, why do you have to cry so easily? This is supposed to be a celebration,” Aomine scolds him.
“Yeah, I know, I can’t help it!” Kise hastily wipes the tears away from his eyes with both hands. “Thank you, Aominecchi! Thank you, everyone!”
“We should get to the cake already,” Murasakibara complains, while he holds out the cake with candles for Kise to blow. “Make a wish, Kise-chin.”
As his friends start singing the happy birthday song, Kise closes his eyes, says a quick prayer of thanks for his friends and wishes for just one thing. Then he blows out the flames from the candles. Everyone claps.
“Alright, everybody, food!” someone announces and his friends begin moving to help themselves with the dishes which Kagami, Himuro and Takao have prepared.
Sometime later, Aomine, who surprisingly has never left his side the whole evening, nudges his shoulder and whispers something to his ear. “Kise, do you have a moment? I want to show you something.”
Confused and still too shocked to protest, Kise lets Aomine pull him inside his bedroom, away from everyone’s eyes. After Aomine closes the door, Kise realizes that his heart has been drumming so loudly in his chest, he gets worried that Aomine might hear.
“Come and sit here,” Aomine beckons him over to the bed; and Aomine, seeing Kise with the weird look, adds, “What’s with that face? I’m not going to do anything gross to you.”
“Um, what is this, Aominecchi?” Kise inquires cautiously, taking care to school his expression.
Under one of the pillows, Aomine slowlu pulls out a gold-colored gift bag, adorned with thick navy-blue ribbon. Kise’s stomach is suddenly filled with butterflies. “Is it for me?” he asks, staring into the gift then back into Aomine’s dark-blue eyes.
“Of course, baka, whose birthday do you think it is? Quick, open it up.”
In tensed silence, Kise obeys, his nervous fingers unraveling Aomine’s present for him.
Kise pulls out a black t-shirt which looks so ordinary at first glance. Yet, Kise’s eyes widen, when he reads the printed words in bold letters across the front: “If found, return to Aomine”
“Aominecchi, this is…” Kise stops in mid-sentence, his jaw dropping to the floor, the meaning of the shirt’s print pounding against his thoughts.
And just then, Kise watches as Aomine's fingers climb up to undo the buttons of his own plaid shirt, slowly revealing an inner shirt with the printed words, 'I’m Aomine'.
“I—I don’t know what to make of this…” Kise tries after he realizes that he has a tongue. “Does this mean… you… like me?” It’s pretty obvious right now, and then again, it’s not–- not until he hears Aomine say it out loud.
And it doesn’t help clear his thoughts at all, how Aomine’s eyes just feel so intense on him, Kise swears he almost melted.
“Yeah, I like you, Kise. It’s a shame I waited this long to tell you,” Aomine admits quietly.
Oh. My. Golly. Someone please tell me I’m not dreaming.
“Oi, Kise!”
“Are you gonna kiss me now?” The gears inside Kise’s brain slow to a stop, making him blurt out embarrassing stuff, but at the moment, he just can't bring himself to care.
Not breaking eye contact, Aomine shifts closer to him.
“Are you gonna let me?”
Kise closes his eyes and nods, his heart thumping like crazy in his chest. And then he feels it, Aomine’s hands gently cupping his chin; Aomine’s breath, feather-light and warm and intoxicating; Aomine’s lips colliding against his; and Kise feels all his senses short-circuiting at once, shutting down major bodily functions, except maybe for his heart-- still pulsating loud and clear and in tandem with Aomine’s.
Dazed and breathless after the kiss, Aomine continues to cup his chin, their foreheads touching, as they meet each other’s eyes.
Finally, Kise hears the question he’s been dying to hear all his life, the moment he thought that will only exist in his wildest fantasies.
“Will you go out with me, Kise?”
“Yes!” he replies in a heartbeat.
…And the best birthday gift, his forever and ever crush, the flesh and bone of his romantic-profound-idiotic love, fulfills his one wish with another tender kiss.
-END-