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He doesn't reach forward, not even a little bit, because he doesn't want to seem desperate.
"Aominecchi!"
Kise's shout is heard across the entirety of the park. If he looks closely enough he might catch the way Aomine's shoulders flinch at the sound, the way his body slowly turns and he grimaces like Kise is the last person on earth he wants to see. Or maybe Kise does see all that and he chooses to ignore it.
"Aominecchi, you were supposed to wait for me! Why did you and Kagamicchi start a game without–"
"Can't wait forever, Ryouta." Aomine tosses the ball to Kagami, turning his back on the blond.
"But you said–"
"We got bored." Aomine sinks another basket and moves to center court. Kagami shoots Kise a sympathetic out of sight from the ace and Kise smiles halfheartedly as if to say, "It's okay" when both of them know it's not. "You can have next game if I'm not too tired to play another."
Kise frowns. "If you aren't too tired?"
"Yeah. We've played a few." Aomine dips around Kagami's defense and shoots. The swish of the basket is commonplace when the ace is around "Might be too tired to continue."
A silence follows Aomine's response. Kise doesn't offer one in return–at least, not a verbal one. He lifts his bag from the ground where he dropped it and hefts it onto his shoulder. Kagami opens his mouth to speak, but Kise shakes his head. "I'll see you guys later then."
If Aomine turns to acknowledge his departure, Kise isn't aware. He won't look back because he's sick of being the one to cave every time they have a fight. He doesn't even know what this one is about, if he can even call it one. He might have been a little late to their planned basketball game, but Kurokocchi also wasn't around.
He can't find a justification for Aomine's misplaced anger and comes to the conclusion that perhaps there was an outside influence that he wasn't aware of. Aomine parents–his father, in particular–have a knack for getting on the ace's nerves.
Maybe ...
He decides to go home and take a nap instead of hanging around to take Aomine's bait. He knows the ace is waiting for him to bite, but he's not willing to be the one to nibble at the line. Not this time.
Kise wakes to find himself not on the couch in the apartment he shared with Aomine, but bright blue of his bedroom at home. He blinks at the ceiling and pushes himself out of bed. Even his clothing is different, but he can't remember having changed when he returned home from the park.
Making his way downstairs, he can smell the familiar scent of the breakfasts his mother always used to make in the mornings before school. It brings a smile to his lips and he steps into the kitchen with a yawn and a cheerful, "Good morning."
His mother whips around and frowns, shaking her head and softly tutting as she slides the breakfast onto a plate for him. "Eat quickly, Ryouta. You slept in too late again." Kise eyes her. His lips purse together in his confusion. "Don't you make that face at me,' she reprimands. "I washed and ironed your uniform so you can't lie and claim you have no blazer to wear today. It's crisp and nearly new right now. Hurry and eat so you can change and leave!"
Kise picks at the food, staring at his mother as though she'd sprouted a second head. "Are you serious?" He shoves a forkful of eggs into his mouth.
"Dead serious, mister. Get your butt to school on time or your father and I will have a talk with you. I don't care how quickly you pick things up. You need to stop slacking off."
Kise jaw drops and his mother reprimands him again––this time for chewing with his mouth open. "I can't go to school, mom. I have a shoot later today and–"
"Later." She always puts emphasis on that word. "Go get changed." She takes his plate away before he can finish and starts gently, but firmly, pushing him up the stairs to his room.
"Okay, okay! Jeeze!" He finally stumbles forward and agrees to cooperate. If it'll make his mother happy he'll don his Teikou uniform and head to school.
Maybe they just wanted some friendly advice from a successful alum.
~
Walking into Teikou makes his chest ache from the stifling nostalgia. It's here that he found his love of basketball and the man who changed his life in more ways than he could count.
To fulfill an evocative desire, he heads straight for the basketball court. As he nears the doors, open to let in the light, pleasant breeze that dances through the air, he can hear the squeaks of basketball shoes, the drumming as the players dribble ball after ball. It's a culmination of sounds that makes his heart race, his palms sweat and his body tense, readying itself for a game he wouldn't be able to play.
Can't take on a bunch of little kids.
But as he turns to corner, expecting to see unfamiliar faces, he is greeted with a sight that originally had him begging to be a part of such a prestigious team. Aomine flies past him, ball clutched in a powerful grasp. His arm extends ahead of him and it's almost like the limb stretches to meet the basket before the ball swishes through the hoop. Aomine grins and slaps one of his teammates on the shoulders.
His face is so carefree, so happy. It wears a young, jubilant expression of someone who hasn't been shunted aside by their opponents simply because their skill greatly surpasses the skills of everyone else. Kise finds he can't pull his eyes away from that face and he's reminded of all the reasons why he first fell for Aomine. And they start with that smile.
"Aominecchi, that was amazing."
He expects a similar smile in return, or perhaps a teasing smirk. He didn't expect confusion, or a look showed now signs of recognition. Kise takes a step forward and a gentle hand presses against his shoulder to stop him.
"Kise-kun."
Kise's eyes dart downward and he catches sight of that blue hair first, then the frown on Kuroko's lips. "Kurokocchi?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to..." He pauses. His mother sent him here, but she never said why. He had bought into the act and now he's at Teikou middle school, dressed in their uniform, surrounded by people he once called teammates. "I didn't expect to see you all here."
"Why? We're always here to practice. Shouldn't you be with your team?"
"My team?"
"The soccer team, Kise-kun."
Kise's incredulous stare must speak volumes because Kuroko sighs and he pulls him off the side. "Did you quit that team too?"
Without the proper knowledge to respond, Kise merely nods his head.
"Kise-kun, you won't find someone better than you if you don't stick around to find out who they might be."
"But... I already found someone who's better than me and he–"
"I told you. There's no spot on the team for you." Kuroko offers a sympathetic frown. "I tried and it's just not gonna happen right now."
Kise looks past Kuroko to where Aomine stands, shirt lifted to expose a portion of his lower stomach as he uses the fabric to wipe the sweat from his brow. Even now, the sight stirs something within him. He's only snapped out of his daze when Kuroko places another, gentler hand on his shoulder. "Get going before you get in trouble for being here."
"But Aominecchi–"
"He doesn't know who you are. Don't freak him out, Kise-kun. He knows you saw him play and that you think he's cool, but he's never going to play against someone who's never picked up a ball before."
"I don't understand... I just–"
"Go. Kise-kun. Find your own niche."
But I already have.
~
Over the course of the day, Kise attends all classes he used to attend when he went to Teikou middle school. He runs into Aomine more than once in the halls and tries to engage in conversation, but the ace brushes him off before he can get out so much as a, "Aominecchi!"
He starts foregoing his classes to find Aomine in hopes that maybe he'll drop the charade and they can talk about what happened at the park earlier. He does this so many times that eventually Aomine is the one to catch him in the hall and pull him aside.
Kise grins, ready to speak when Aomine drowns him out. "Who the fuck do you think you are? Some kind of weird ass stalker? I get it. You think I'm cool. Get over it. You're no basketball player and you'll never be. Stuck on the sidelines of someone else's life, aren't you? You're that type of guy." Kise's eyes widen and he starts to curl against himself more and more, but Aomine continues. "I've got news for you. I don't know who the hell you are and I must be lucky not to. You get on Tetsu's nerves all the time and I don't know why the hell he puts up with an annoying little shit like you. Get lost before I fucking report you for following me around campus."
Kise stands there in silence watching Aomine walk away. He doesn't reach forward, though he wants to, but he doesn't want to seem desperate. Even if he did, what would he be reaching for? That Aomine isn't his Aomine. That strong back striding as far away from his as possible doesn't belong to him. Yet he feels his arm rise and a whimper rises at the back of his throat. He wants to whisper, "Don't go. Don't leave me behind." Nothing comes out even when he mouths the words.
The more he stares, the harder it is to see Aomine. It's like he's fading into the distance and becoming nothing more than a dream etched in the remains of a memory. Tears run down his cheeks, but he can't feel their warmth. If he didn't see them fall, he wouldn't know they were there. His entire body feels numb and he tries to take a step, but each one sinks lower and lower. It's like he's falling, but there's no on there to grasp his hand. No one is there to pull him up.
And suddenly he's on another court, wearing another jersey; blue and white. There's another faded image of Aomine, another shot his back turned to Kise. Even though he knows its desperation that makes him reach toward futility, he still extends a hand. For a few seconds, there's nothing.
Then...
"Ryouta, wake up!"
Kise jerks awake, fingers clenched tightly around the warmth of another hand. It's Aomine's. When he catches sight of the stark contrast between their fingers, threaded as comfortably as they always were, he burst into tears. The reaction is uncontrollable. No matter what he tells himself, he can't stop.
He is on his couch, wearing the same clothing he remembers falling asleep in. Aomine sits beside him, pulls him into his arms and runs his free hand up and down Kise's spine. The soothing hum of that deep voice against his ear makes him cry harder and he can't figure out the exact reason why.
Seeing the apartment around him, feeling the couch against his back, he knows that everything he saw, everything he experienced, those awful words had all been a dream. Yet his chest still aches with a pain he thought he had forgotten and his body trembles like he's still that weak, runner-up collapsed on the court after his monumental loss to the one man he thought he had finally found a way to beat. It's a feeling he can't quite shake.
It might be due to the fact that he still has the ace's back imprinted in his memory. It's a sight he worries about seeing again. "Aominecchi..."
"Ryouta, shit... what the hell happened? Did you have a nightmare or something? I came in and you were all pale and you were even crying in your sleep. What the fuck was going on in that stupid, blond head of yours?" Aomine ruffles his hair and the feeling should have been comforting, but Kise can still hear those words in his head and he can still feel the way Aomine shoved him away.
"Don't leave me." Kise whispers and Aomine shakes his head like Kise has just said that clouds are made of marshmallow fluff. So Kise repeats himself to make sure Aomine heard him correctly. "Please, don't leave me. I'm sorry I made you angry. I'm–"
"Christ, Ryouta." Aomine grabs Kise's cheecks and swipes at the tears with his thumbs. "I came back home to apologize. I know I was being a shit. I got into an argument with my dad and then Satsuki started grilling me on some other shit and I was just angry overall. I kinda knew you'd be late cause the shoot was important, right? But I still got mad over nothing like an asshole." Aomine sighs and pulls Kise closer. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I don't know what you dreamt about, or what I said in that dream, but I didn't mean it there and I'm not mad now." He presses a kiss to Kise's forehead. "I'm not going anywhere, baka. I won't leave you."
Kise's shallow breathing gradually evens out as he listens to soft thrumming of Aomine's heart. He doesn't tell Aomine what happened in his dream. He knew it was the past getting the better of him. With Aomine's arms around him, he starts to forget what the ace said in his dream.
"I'm not going anywhere, baka."
Aomine doesn't need to sugarcoat his words. In fact, if he had said it any other way, Kise would have doubted his sincerity. "Okay," Kise whispers, content with knowing he's found his way back to the Aomine he knew and loved, to the Aomine who reciprocated those feelings and returned them tenfold. "Okay."