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Chapter Text

(or, Aomine and Kise are annoying because they are obvious and yet still cannot get their shit together)

 

---

 

 

The first thing Taiga learns about Kuroko's shitty-ass friends after the Winter Cup when they've all (metaphorically) kissed and made up, is that there is in fact way too much romantic drama going on, considering none of them are actually romantically involved with each other. Or anyone, for that matter. The lot of them are resolutely single.

Not that Taiga can talk, of course.

With the tournament season over for the year, the local weirdos had decided that for fun, they should meet up to play street ball on the weekends. Not everyone could come every weekend, of course – Kise worked, Aomine often overslept, and Midorima would only come if he felt that he was adequately ahead on his classwork – but usually, on Saturday afternoons, Taiga could count on finding a decent game with at least one of them.

And so it was one afternoon, that Taiga wandered over to the court they'd all decided was mutually between all the Tokyo schools (Kise had complained that it wasn't fair that they didn't pick somewhere between Kanagawa and Tokyo, but the rest of them had outnumbered and overruled him), that he found Kise and Aomine racing up and down the half-court with their usual intensity.

It wasn't uncommon for Taiga to sit out and watch if there were an odd number of people there. If they had four, they'd go for two-on-two, and when Midorima came, he always brought Takao, so if they managed to wrangle all of them there, they'd go three-on-three. Those were the best afternoons, in Taiga's opinion. But if they only had three, or five, or four but the fourth was Kuroko and he needed a rest, someone would sit out.

So it wasn't the first time since their Inter High match that he'd watched Kise and Aomine go head to head with each other. There was always an odd intensity to their one-on-one games that Taiga sometimes felt as if he was intruding upon. It was a different kind of intense to the way Aomine was when he squared off against Taiga or Midorima one-on-one. There was weirdness to it that Taiga couldn't quite name.

"Aomine-kun and Kise-kun are spirited today."

Taiga jolted, and looked toward the voice that had seemed to come from nowhere. Kuroko was standing next to him, blank-faced and watching Kise and Aomine.

Taiga grunted and turned back to watch them. "There's something weird about the way they play together," he said.

"It's the sexual tension," Kuroko said, and the bastard didn't even bat an eye as he said it.

"What."

Kuroko looked up at him. "Kise-kun and Aomine-kun have been dancing around their feelings of mutual attraction for years. Playing one-on-ones have always been how they dealt with the sexual tension." He turned back to look at them. "I do wish they'd sort it out before they make a mess of their relationship, though."

"Kagamicchi!" Golden and sparkling, Kise bounded off the court, leaving Aomine to scowl after him, ball in hand. "You're here!"

"Yeah, hi," Taiga said, taking the opportunity to wander in and drop his bag with theirs on the bench.

"Hello, Kise-kun," Kuroko greeted him. Kise grinned excitedly.

"Kurokocchi! We're definitely going to team up today, right?"

Taiga looked at Aomine. He looked really annoyed, glaring at Kise and Kuroko.

"I had planned to play with Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, as he always did, and pushed past Kise to put his things down on the bench too. "Hello, Aomine-kun."

"Yo, Tetsu."

Kise bounced his way back onto the court. "I hope Midorimacchi and Takao-kun come today as well!" he cheered. "It's been ages since all of us were here!"

Taiga had to agree – Kise had been working a lot (which, actually, now that he thought about things in relation to what Kuroko had just told him, explained a lot about how pissy Aomine had been lately), and Midorima had been adamant that he could not take any time off from studying for his exams. Aomine had been here, of course, though he'd been later and surlier than usual.

"Are we going to talk, or are we going to play," Aomine whined as he spun the ball on one of his fingers. "I don't come here to talk to you idiots."

"Mean," Kise sighed, but he trotted to stand at Aomine's side anyway. "You're almost as much of a tsundere as Midorimacchi sometimes, Aominecchi."

They played two rounds before Midorima showed up in his ridiculous contraption with Takao riding the bike, and they fell into the usual bickering over three-on-three teams easily. Kise always wanted to play with Kuroko; Midorima got incredibly annoying when he got split up from Takao, and got pissy when paired with Kise; Taiga and Aomine both preferred not to be on the same team as each other; and Kuroko preferred to play with Taiga, although he was less fussy than the others for the most part. It always took them at least five minutes worth of arguing to settle on the same teams they usually used – Aomine, Midorima and Takao on one side, and Kise, Kagami and Kuroko on the other, though there had been that one time that Aomine, Kise and Kuroko had ended up on a team together.

(Taiga and Midorima had exchanged a look, which Taiga had taken as an un-worded pact never to let this happen again – Kuroko had looked incredibly annoyed with the way the two of them argued about his passes when he managed to get around Takao and in hindsight the game just hadn't been half as competitive as it probably should have been.)

When Kuroko called it quits, Taiga sat out with him. Kise and Aomine would trash Takao and Midorima soundly in a two-on-two, so they wouldn't play much longer either.

Taiga could probably play a few more, but as Midorima and Takao busied themselves getting ready to leave, Kuroko grabbed his arm, and he looked down.

"Aominecchi, one more!" he heard Kise say.

"Yeah, yeah," was the lazy response from Aomine. "Oi, Tetsu, Kagami, you going to Maji?"

"Probably," Taiga answered. "Why?"

"We'll go with you if you're okay to wait a few minutes," Aomine answered.

"A few minutes?" Kise protested. "I'm not that easy to beat, Aominecchi!"

Aomine rolled his eyes. "Come on pretty boy, or they'll go without us."

Now that Kuroko had exposed the apparently obvious secret that Kise and Aomine were both super into each other, somehow things between them all looked so... intimately casual, the way Aomine would sling an arm around Kise and toy with his hair and his earring while simultaneously saying that both such things were ridiculous, and the way he stood just that little bit closer to Kise than he stood with anyone else; and then there was the way Kise would huff and pout but never slap Aomine's hands away, and the way he never shoved him off as Aomine leaned on him, and let Aomine make plans for the both of them...

"Are they seriously not actually together?" Taiga asked Kuroko in a very quiet voice once the two of them started their game.

Kuroko just nodded, looking pained.

They didn't always go off for food after their games as a group, though Taiga knew Kuroko really enjoyed it when they did. They watched Aomine and Kise face off in yet another sexual-tension-charged one-on-one game, in which Taiga was fairly certain there was far more contact than there should have been considering basketball was a non-contact sport, and then had to be spectators for a very intense stare-off in which both of them looked away simultaneously (blushing, fuck how had Taiga never noticed this before?) and headed towards their bags, and Taiga and Kuroko.

As they walk through the park to where they know the nearest Maji is, they split into their natural pairs – Kuroko is quick to take a few steps ahead and walks resolutely without looking back at Aomine and Kise, who are shoving at each other and laughing as they go careening towards fences, poles, trees and bushes.

God, this was the most platonic foreplay Taiga had ever had the discomfort of witnessing.

When they'd ordered and gotten their food, Taiga found himself sitting next to Aomine and across from Kuroko. Having Aomine across from Kise was really annoying – Aomine would steal things to flick at Kise, who would retaliate by stealing things (slightly more successfully as it was harder to defend his food from the other side of the table) and throwing them back at Aomine, and Taiga was ninety percent sure they were kicking at each others' feet under the table.

"I'm still hungry," Taiga muttered at Kuroko as the four of them wandered out. "They kept stealing my food."

"Are you going to cook, Kagami-kun?" Kuroko asked.

"Probably. You didn't eat anything back there; did you want to come over for dinner?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble..."

Behind them, Aomine and Kise were listening in.

"Bakagami cooks?" Aomine asked.

"Kagamicchi is so talented!" Kise gushed. Taiga resisted the urge to sigh as Aomine's face darkened.

"Kagami-kun is an excellent cook," Kuroko informed them.

Taiga felt it was prudent to add something to that. "You aren't invited," he growled. "Go home!"

Kise's best puppy-dog imitation made an appearance, and... well, Aomine was probably trying for something like that, but it wasn't very convincing.

"No, I am not feeding you after you both stole my food. I refuse."

"I don't believe you can cook," Aomine challenged. For once, Taiga repressed his pride and desire to prove the idiot wrong.

"That's just fine with me," he answered.

"Come on, Aominecchi," Kise said, sighing. "But next week Kagamicchi should bring lunch for us all!"

Taiga's about to say fuck no, when Kuroko answered for him. "Kagami-kun will bring some food. Goodnight, Aomine-kun, Kise-kun."

"Kurokocchi," Kise wailed, "I'm going to miss you."

Taiga got one last look at Aomine's annoyed-jealous face before turning around and grabbing Kuroko's head as they walked.

"Why did you volunteer me to cook, you bastard?"

Kuroko looked up at him, and Taiga knew he was evil, but those eyes look so pure, and so he had nothing to say in response when Kuroko said, "I like Kagami-kun's food," a tiny smile turning at the corners of his mouth.

 

---

 

So it was that next week, after enlisting Kuroko's help to carry the food because it's all his goddamn fault that he had to cook, that Taiga turned up at their basketball court. They're the first ones to arrive this week, so Taiga played a for-fun game against Kuroko. Playing with Kuroko isn't really any kind of challenge for Taiga, but that's never the point when the two of them play. They play together just to enjoy the sport they both love together, rather than compete. Taiga wouldn't call it necessarily a bonding thing, but it was always a good feeling to share basketball with Kuroko, who loved it as deeply and wholly and intensely as anyone he'd ever known.

"Eh, Kagamicchi and Kurokocchi are playing against each other?" Kise asked as he entered. "That's unusual."

Kuroko was more out of breath than Taiga – oops. Taiga never meant to get carried away, but the two of them always, inevitably did. "It's not that unusual," Kuroko informed his friend. "Kagami-kun and I play like this all the time. It's just more fun to play with Kagami-kun against you than play with you against Kagami-kun."

Kise's hand came up to clutch at his chest – Taiga's pretty sure that isn't where the heart is, but it's probably the kind of thing Kise is going for. "Kurokocchi!" Kise wailed, sounding distressed. "You're breaking my heart!"

Taiga felt an overwhelming urge to hit Kise – that seemed to be a very popular feeling, though, because from the corner of his eye, he saw a ball, and he doesn't bother to warn him; it smacked straight into the back of Kise's head with a very satisfying thud.

Aomine caught his thrown ball. "I heard an idiot," is all the explanation he offers. "Yo."

"Aominecchi," Kise whined pitifully, clutching at the back of his head. "When will you stop throwing basketballs at me?"

Aomine shrugged, as if supremely unconcerned, but Taiga knew that look, and he kind of can't believe the fact that Aomine is pretty much a five year old tugging on his crush's pig-tails.

Except that he can because Aomine's an idiot.

"Your heart isn't there, Kise-kun," Kuroko added, perfectly unconcerned by Kise's antics. "I need to take a break for a moment; you should decide who's going one on one."

"Your stamina is still terrible, Tetsu," Aomine commented, shaking out his arms. "Come on, Kagami, you're all warmed up, I wanna go before you get tired out and boring."

"I do not get tired out and boring, you asshole!" Still, Taiga found himself responding to the challenge by throwing his ball at Kuroko to put away, since Aomine didn't seem to have any plans to put his down.

Kise is only willing to watch for so long before demanding a turn to play – Taiga tried not to let on that he was grateful for the chance for recovery as he wandered off the court towards his bag. He also tried to ignore Aomine and Kise, and settled next to Kuroko on the bench.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'll be ready to go in a moment. Midorima-kun has sent me a message saying he and Takao-kun will arrive in a little while, so I'll wait until they do to start playing."

Taiga nodded and leaned back against his hands. "Hey, is there some kind of betting pool going on about that?" He jerked his head towards Aomine and Kise.

Kuroko huffed a little; the little way he laughed was always exciting to get out of him, since he attempted to be stoic more often than not, and Taiga grinned, feeling somewhat triumphant.

"We decided it wouldn't be fair, mostly because Momoi-san and Akashi-kun have an unfair advantage," Kuroko said. "But that was before... they'd still have an unfair advantage now, though. I don't think it'll be too much longer now, anyway."

Taiga looked over at Aomine and Kise again – they're playing at much closer quarters than is probably strictly necessary.

"They're always so unnecessary," is Midorima's first comment. He looked as if he was tired out just watching them.

"Hello, Midorima-kun," Kuroko greeted him. Taiga just nodded in his direction.

Aomine saw the gathering of people on the sidelines and disengaged from the close-quarters play, haphazardly throwing the ball at the net. Kise looked at it as if it had personally offended him by going in.

"You're last again, Midorima," Aomine called.

"You're simply early." He went to place his bag down, and Aomine and Kise came over for the usual bickering about teams (Taiga will never be sure why they have to do this every week, but he still gets sucked into the argument, so...).

They break around lunchtime, and Taiga's kind of embarrassed now, as they wander towards their bags.

"This is all your fault," he growled at Kuroko, "so you can give it to them." He grabbed his own food and starts attacking it in the hopes that he can avoid catching anyone's eye and be left alone.

He heard Aomine and Kise thank Kuroko, though Kuroko probably gave them an unimpressed look when he said, "You should be thanking Kagami-kun," even as Takao and Midorima are properly saying their thanks because they're less enormous assholes than Taiga really gives them credit for.

"They don't have to," Taiga muttered. "As long as I never have to cook for them again."

Then Aomine made a really gross noise. "That is not happening," he announced loudly around the food in his mouth. "This is amazing. Hey, do you take requests?"

"No, I don't," Taiga snapped. "Just shut up and eat and don't make gross noises."

"I'm not making gross noises," Aomine argued.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," Midorima warned him. "It's disgusting."

Aomine turned to him and started pulling open-mouth faces with chewed up food, and it is gross but it still made Taiga want to laugh – thankfully, his attention was pulled in by Kise, who's sparkling at him, before he actually does.

"Kagamicchi, you're so talented," he said excitedly. "Thank you for sharing with us!"

Taiga found himself going pink, feeling embarrassed by the eager praise coming from Kise, who still, sometimes, caught him off guard with that face, which was rather too pretty to belong to a boy. "It's fine, whatever, just eat."

"Kagami, I can't believe you've been holding back on me," Aomine whined. "We've been buying food after these things all this time when you could have been making us food."

"I am not feeding you every weekend," Taiga declared loudly, "so stop that thought right there."

Aomine and Kise looked like they were about to try a joint attack on his line in the sand, but Kuroko beat them. "I will endeavour to convince Kagami-kun to cook for us again. In the meantime, finish eating. We'll have to wait until the food settles to play again."

This brought both Aomine and Kise to heel, and they returned to their food. Taiga breathed a sigh of relief.

Aomine finished eating first, and probably in hindsight, Taiga realised he should have known that Aomine's appetite would be above average much like his own (no matter how many times he tries to argue that he and that guy are not similar, it's all pretty much token these days; they're pretty damn similar, he just doesn't want to admit it). As it was, Aomine started attempting to steal food from Kise, which brought about noisy protests, and Taiga wondered when Aomine would realise that Kise needed a proper, adult-style sign of interest, rather than these juvenile offerings of affection.

It was tiring to watch. Taiga's not sure how Kuroko and Midorima have made it this long without locking them in some kind of enclosed space until they finally sort their shit out. He's sick of it and it's only been two weeks.

Kise and Aomine jostle and roughhouse with each other as they wait for the food to settle, and Midorima and Takao seem perfectly at ease to converse with each other quietly, so Taiga turned to Kuroko.

"I'm not cooking for them again," he said, but he said it quietly so they don't hear and start pestering him again.

Kuroko tilted his head a little. "We'll see," is his response.

When they're finally all ready to play again, they split easily into their teams – Kuroko played fewer games than Taiga would expect, but Takao opted to sit out instead of one of the others, so Taiga keeps playing. He tried not to get distracted, but almost habitually, he knew his gaze fell towards Kuroko on occasion; when he paired with Kise, he didn't notice when it happened, but Midorima scolded him, which was annoying, because he's pretty sure he'd seen him sneak glances at Takao when they're teammates.

Midorima called it quits after a match when he's paired with Aomine, and Kise pounced on the opportunity for another one-on-one game; Taiga got off the court shaking his head. Why couldn't they just kiss or something and get it over with?

"I'm not hanging around for them this time," Taiga told Kuroko as he pulled his water bottle and a towel from his bag. "I'm hungry again, and they annoy the shit out of me."

Kuroko nodded, smiling a little. "Alright." His things were already packed up; he'd gathered the food containers too and neatly put them away in Taiga's bag. Taiga would say it was nice of him, but it was Kuroko's fault the containers were here in the first place, so it was only right that he had taken charge of ensuring they returned to Taiga's home.

"We're going ahead," Kuroko told Aomine and Kise, who didn't seem to register that they're being spoken to; they're so wrapped up in each other.

God, they just need to get together already; Taiga doesn't want to see them start spontaneously making out on the basketball court one day and scar him for life. Taiga's almost relieved to be heading off.

"You want a shake?" Taiga asked Kuroko, who shared a small smile with him.

"I would like that."

Taiga heard a very loud shriek that sounded like it originated from Kise behind them.

"Don't look back," Kuroko advised him. "Kise-kun is either pants-less or has been kissed. Either way you probably don't want to see it."

Taiga laughed, and took that advice.

 

---

 

"It's rare for Aomine not to turn up," Taiga commented next week. Midorima had made an appearance with Takao for a few games, but overall it had just ended up being mostly just him and Kuroko. "I mean, be late, yeah, but not turn up at all?"

Kuroko turned a mildly disbelieving look at him, and Taiga frowned.

"What?"

"Kagami-kun is an idiot," is his only response. "You should buy my vanilla shake to make it up to me."

Taiga grumbled but he did it anyway.

Chapter Text

(or, Aomine and Kise are sickening because they are a new couple and cannot keep their hands [or anything else] to themselves)

 

---

 

The reason for Kuroko's disbelief is unveiled about three weeks later, which is the next time Aomine and Kise both manage to make an appearance at their court. This will probably be one of the last of these sessions – the season will pick up soon, and they'll have to be keeping new tools close to the chest – and it made Taiga feel a little sad. Tatsuya and Murasakibara dropped in for one of the afternoons two weeks back, when they'd taken the weekend to come down to Tokyo, and that was a really good weekend, with a few very intense three-on-three games.

He kind of hoped this became a thing – even though he didn't feel like he got along especially well with everyone all the time, it's still fun.

Kuroko managed to convince him to make food for everyone again this week, preying ruthlessly upon Taiga's soft-heartedness and wistful feelings about this whole event ending. So it was that he was grumbling at Kuroko as they approach the court when he saw it.

At first it seemed like a normal one-on-one between the two of them. They were playing in just as close quarters as always, verging on fouling, really; but after the point is won by Aomine, they continued standing close, pressed right into each other's personal space in a way that is definitely new, and the smiles have something a little different to them, and Taiga didn't have the time to put the pieces together himself because it's done for him when Aomine yanked Kise by the neck and kissed him.

Taiga almost dropped the food. Kuroko gave him a dirty look.

For once, Midorima and Takao have beaten them here. Taiga heard Midorima shout at them.

"How many times am I going to have to tell you to cease your vulgar public displays of affection?"

"Midorimacchi," Kise whined. "Don't be jealous."

Taiga caught a look at Midorima's face as they walk out towards the bench. He looked about as close to murderous as Taiga had ever seen him.

"You're late, Kagami," Aomine drawled.

"I guess you don't want any food," Taiga commented. "That's okay, I'll eat it."

"He will," Kuroko agreed. "Kagami-kun has a black hole where his stomach should be." He set his burden down on the bench. "Hello, Midorima-kun, Takao-kun. Have you been waiting long?"

"Long enough," Midorima rumbled, still looking pissy.

"Kurokocchi!" Kise called. He was sparkling, but he wasn't running up to him like he usually would – Taiga's not entirely sure that it's only because Aomine's arms seem to have become permanently attached to Kise's body, since he doesn't seem to be trying all that hard to get out of them.

"Hello, Kise-kun," Kuroko greeted him. "Shouldn't you be more conscious of the public nature of your work?"

Kise waved his hand. "Heaps of people already think I'm gay because I'm a male model. Besides, I've never been approached on this court, and if it was going to happen it would have happened by now."

"Usual teams?" Taiga asked.

"I wanna be on a team with Aominecchi!" Kise's pouting something shocking, and Taiga could feel a headache coming on thinking about trying to figure out how they're going to balance the teams. It seems pretty impossible without letting the Kise-Aomine-Kuroko team happen again, and Kuroko doesn't look enthusiastic about being teamed up with the new couple. Midorima looked pained.

The arguing about teams took twice as much time as normal, because Kise was way too set on playing on the same team as Aomine despite that they've talked about this, and finally, finally, they manage to get on the court in the usual teams.

Taiga found himself marking Midorima most of the time, and honestly, this whole thing would probably work better if they split to play two-on-two on the other side of the court – Kise and Aomine were making eyes at each other constantly, and they kept touching each other and it's really annoying, especially because Taiga was sure he'd seen Aomine grab at Kise's ass at least three times in the space of the last fifteen minutes, and Kise kept going to kiss Aomine and even though Kuroko kept elbowing him in the stomach to remind him that they were still playing basketball, he kept trying.

It was a mess.

"If you're not going to play properly," Midorima finally thundered, "then leave so that Kagami and I can have a proper match."

"But Kagamicchi cooked for us and everything," Kise wailed.

Kuroko was frowning. "But you and Aomine-kun aren't even playing properly. You don't deserve Kagami-kun's food, acting this way."

Taiga looked heard muffled laughter coming from Takao as both Kise and Aomine wilted a little under Kuroko's 'angry' face.

"So, are we playing three-on-three or not?" Taiga asked.

They're a little better after that, though they're both a bit more handsy than is probably strictly necessary. Taiga dealt with it better than Midorima, who twitched every time he caught them doing anything. Kuroko seemed at least satisfied with having gotten them to play properly, but Taiga had a feeling that he was actually pretty happy for his two weird friends.

When they finally stopped for the afternoon, Taiga shoved the food at Kuroko to distribute again. Though Aomine didn't say thank you, Kise did, and Taiga just kind of took it for what it was.

He tried not to pay too much attention to Kise and Aomine (sitting side by side, knees touching) as Aomine stole food from Kise (and Kise stole kisses in return), and instead nudged Kuroko.

"You going to miss these afternoons when season starts up?"

Kuroko looked up at him. "Yes, I think so." He smiled a little. "But it will be nice to spend time with our teammates again too."

Aomine and Kise inform them all of their having finished eating by way of collapsing on top of each other. Taiga scrunched up his nose and prodded them with his foot.

"If you have to do that, can you not do it so close?"

Aomine looked up from where he was sprawled on top of Kise. "I didn't take you for the jealous type, Kagami," he said, grinning. Kise leaned up to whisper something in Aomine's ear, and he laughed.

Taiga felt somehow uncomfortable being the butt of whatever joke Kise had just made.

"Shameless," Midorima muttered to the side. Takao was stifling his laughter again.

"I find myself in agreement with Midorima-kun," Kuroko said. "Kise-kun, it is uncomfortable seeing you grab at Aomine-kun. Please keep such touching to private moments."

Kise had what looked like a fairly firm grasp on Aomine's ass. He grinned cheekily.

"This is a private moment—" Kise started to say, and then Aomine smacked the side of his head. This led to a very quick tactic change, as crocodile tears made a swift appearance.

"Aominecchi," he sobbed, "why?"

"You were being stupid," Aomine answered. "Was I too rough? Should I kiss it better?"

Taiga was definitely going to throw up.

Kuroko kicked Aomine in the side. Takao started laughing again as Midorima muttered under his breath.

"Still," Kuroko said quietly to Taiga, looking up at the sky, "I think these are precious days."

Beside them, Aomine bit Kise's neck.

 

---

 

 "You and Kuroko-kun seem closer," Furihata commented.

"Hah?" Taiga turned toward him, ball in hand. "What are you talking about?"

They second years had been split up – half were doing shooting practice, and the others were doing passing drills. Coach had made sure Taiga and Kuroko were in separate halves.

"Well, you don't act different," he admitted, "I don't really know how to explain..."

Taiga shrugged. "Well, we played a lot of basketball with his annoying friends, I guess."

Furihata took on a mildly alarmed expression. "Oh. Um. That sounds... interesting..."

Taiga thought back to the final afternoon – Midorima and Takao hadn't come, but Aomine and Kise both turned up, grabbing hands and kisses just as prevalent as they had been the previous time. Taiga idly wondered if it was hard to date someone who went to a different school, and if their constant need to be in contact was some kind of reflection of that understanding.

...well, even if it was, they didn't have to subject all the rest of them to their awkward groping and making out.

Actually, now that Taiga thought about it, they probably wouldn't get to see Aomine or Kise again until tournament time, let alone have the chance to be annoyed by their touching and grossness. Taiga would never want to be like that with a partner, it would be way too embarrassing.

"It wasn't too bad," he finally said to Furihata. "Awkward sometimes, though."

It was at that point that Coach came over that hit them both. "Focus! You have time to gossip about the break after practice!"

After practice, though, Taiga found the second years fell straight into last year's patterns, and he himself ended up walking with Kuroko for their usual post-practice snack.

"Ah, it feels good to train again," Taiga commented, stretching his arms above his head. "You didn't look like you were struggling too much today either."

"Coach is lulling the first-years into a false sense of security," Kuroko answered. "It would have scared them off if one of their upperclassmen had been fainting or throwing up after already spending a year on the team."

Taiga couldn't help the smile he felt break out. "Just as weak as ever then, Kuroko?"

"What are you talking about, have you seen my guns?"

Kuroko had a blank face, but he had to know by now the default reaction that that question.

"You don't have any!" Taiga exploded anyway. Though his expression didn't change, Taiga somehow got the sense that he was amused. Taiga sighed.

"It's kind of a shame, though, that we won't get to play against your friends again for ages," he said.

"I think it's about time Kagami-kun admitted that Aomine-kun, Kise-kun and Midorima-kun are his friends as well," Kuroko put in.

"You excluded Takao," Taiga said. It was a clumsy attempt at subject change, he knew.

"That's because Takao-kun is easygoing and you would probably admit to being friends with him without being pushed."

Yeah, that played out pretty much the way Taiga had expected it to.

"We're not friends," Taiga said. "We're rivals! Opponents! Mortal enemies."

"You made them food and didn't poison it."

Taiga sighed and rubbed his face. "It would be a waste to kill worthy opponents."

"And they're you're friends."

It was just as well that Taiga could be just as hard-headed as Kuroko was sometimes. "We're not friends."

"That's so mean, Kagamicchi!"

Taiga felt his whole body tense up at the voice behind him. Kuroko turned around.

"Hello, Kise-kun. What brings you here?"

Kise smiled, and Taiga felt tired just looking at him. "I'm meeting with Aominecchi, of course!"

"Don't let us keep you, then," Kuroko said. "Aomine-kun isn't very patient. He might not wait if you're late for your date."

Kise's smile took on a knowing edge. "Aominecchi will wait for me," he said, and he sounded sure and confident. "Besides, it's not as if I was following you just because or anything. The place I'm meeting Aominecchi at is in this direction."

He took a few steps and got himself between the two of them. "Where are you going? Did you have practice today? Did you collapse again, Kurokocchi? What are your kouhai like? Mine are pretty nice, though they all kind of stare at me a bit, which is a little bit embarrassing, no one on Kaijou used to stare at me because they were all my senpai before..."

Taiga tuned Kise out, and he looked at Kuroko. Kuroko, who looked as if he was tuning Kise out, was probably actually listening to everything he said. Kuroko was like that, sometimes – Kise often needed a bit of a reminder that the world didn't actually revolve around him, but Kuroko really did care about his old teammates, so he never actually stopped listening to Kise.

It was just another one of those odd things about Kuroko that made him kind of special, Taiga guessed.

"This is our stop," Taiga interrupted as they arrived to Maji Burger. Kise stopped speaking at them to smile.

"Maybe I should ask Aominecchi to meet us here!" he suggested, and Taiga was fairly certain he was going to kill either himself or Kise, but maybe especially Kise, because Kuroko smiled a little and now Kise was definitely going to do it.

"We wouldn't want to get in the way of your date, Kise-kun," Kuroko said. "I don't think Aomine-kun will be very happy with your change of plans."

"I'll make it up to him," Kise chirped. His phone had already been retrieved from wherever he stored it and his fingers were flying across the smartphone's screen at an unbelievable speed. "Aominecchi's easy anyway; he really likes it when I do this thing with my tongue-"

"Stop right there or I will straight up kill you," Taiga snarled.

Kise looked up and took in Taiga's pink cheeks. "Oh my god, that's so adorable," he commented, and Taiga could literally hear his ego crashing into the ground, "Kagamicchi's so innocent!"

Taiga really wished that he could just disappear into the ground right now.

"Kise-kun is just too comfortable sharing private things," Kuroko said, and even though his tone was bland and even, Taiga knew it for what it was – a scold. Evidently, Kise understood it for what it was too, as he pouted.

"Kurokocchi," he whined.

Kuroko turned away to push the door open, and Taiga followed. Kuroko evidently expected Kise to follow, since he sat them down at a table for four instead of the usual table for two.

Kise sat down with them and chattered on about whatever floated through his head, and Taiga tuned him out again to look out the window. So he was the first to notice Aomine walking in.

Aomine raised a hand to his mouth to make a quiet gesture, and snuck up on Kise before putting his hands over his eyes.

"Aominecchi!" Kise greeted him. "Look, I found Kurokocchi and Kagamicchi!"

"Yes, yes, I can see that," Aomine said. "I thought you wanted to go on a date tonight?"

"But I saw Kagamicchi and Kurokocchi, and I remembered how we're not meeting up this weekend to play basketball and it made me sad."

Aomine let himself drop into the seat beside Kise, an arm slung around the back of Kise's chair. "You're hopeless," he said, and sighed.

Kise glanced around, and then leaned over to rub his face into Aomine's shoulder briefly. "I like playing basketball with Aominecchi and everyone else."

Aomine kissed Kise's head before shoving it away. Taiga felt himself losing his appetite and scowled. Then Aomine stole one of his burgers, and Taiga had to stop himself from going to punch him. Kuroko put a hand on his arm, and the violent urge subsided. It was then that Taiga realised Kuroko had no food.

"Idiot, how are you supposed to get anywhere if you don't eat anything?" he griped, picking up one of the burgers and sending it skittering in front of his friend.

Kuroko's mouth quirked. "I don't need to eat as much as Kagami-kun, who is a monster."

Taiga could see Kise whispering in Aomine's ear out the side of his vision. "Just eat it, idiot," he muttered, looking back down at his food and getting out another burger.

Now it was Aomine's turn to lean over and whisper in Kise's ear. Kise smirked to whatever he'd said, and while Aomine was still leaned in close, kissed him quickly.

"Do you guys ever stop?" Taiga asked. They both turned to look at him.

"Kagamicchi, you need to be more honest with yourself," Kise said. He leaned over to wiggle a finger in Taiga's face, making him flinch away. "Just because you—"

Kise yelped. Aomine frowned and looked at Kuroko.

"Oi, the only one allowed to hurt Kise is me!"

Kuroko stared him down – actually, that was pretty impressive, if Taiga thought about it. Sometimes Kuroko seemed like one of those beast tamers you'd find in a circus, that gets big cats to do a bunch of tricks.

"Ah, but Kasamatsu-senpai hits me all the time," Kise added.

"Kise-kun needs tough love because he can be very dense about some things," Kuroko commented. "And Aomine-kun is too gentle with you."

Taiga could almost see the way Kuroko's words brutally stabbed at their egos.

"I am not gentle," Aomine muttered. "I'm a tough guy."

Taiga heard a very gentle snort from beside him, and smothered his own smile into his food.

"Kurokocchi, you're so slow," Kise said. "If you would just..."

"I didn't interfere with you," Kuroko responded quickly and coldly. "Please extend me the same courtesy and do not stick your nose into places where it isn't wanted."

Kise huffed, pouted and crossed his arms, but Taiga knew a defeat when he saw it, and wondered what exactly it was that he'd just missed.

"I just want you to be happy, Kurokocchi," he whined. "Seriously."

Aomine pinched his side, and he yelped.

"Stop paying so much attention to Tetsu," he grumbled. "We're supposed to be on a date."

"Everyone's so mean to me," he sobbed. Taiga finished the last of his food.

"Kuroko, did you want to stop by the court on the way back?" he asked as he gathered the trash on the tray.

Kuroko nodded, and stood. "Good evening, Kise-kun, Aomine-kun." Taiga just waved a hand at them.

"Bye, Tetsu, Bakagami," was Aomine's farewell.

"Kurokocchi, Kagamicchi, we'll play again soon, right?" was Kise's.

"Your friends are such hard work," Taiga said to Kuroko as they left.

Kuroko smiled. "They're your friends too."

 

---

 

 In the end, it turned out that Taiga had no reason to feel melancholic over the end of the weekend games, because he ended up seeing Aomine and Kise all the time, and he'd forgotten, somehow, that without basketball to dull the knowledge, they were actually really fucking weird.

At least Midorima and Kuroko still didn't get along very well, and avoided each other thusly.

Kise liked to stop by at least once a week to hang all over Kuroko (Taiga never did get a good answer out of him about why he was draping himself all over Kuroko when he had a perfectly decent boyfriend to do that to, who wouldn't elbow him in the gut and/or collapse underneath his weight), and Aomine liked to stop by and sigh at Kuroko about Kise (and Taiga never got a good answer from Kuroko about why Aomine had to do that with them rather than with Momoi).

Afternoons when they individually decided to come over and disrupt Taiga's life and routine were quickly became a sore point for Taiga, since their presence meant no basketball. But worst were the afternoons when both of them came around to Seirin, because it meant no basketball and having to watch Aomine and Kise flop all over each other and smile at each other and the groping had not toned down at all (Taiga had lost count of how many times he'd seen one of them grab at the others' ass).

It was mostly just them interrupting basketball and after-basketball routines with Kuroko, so he wasn't entirely sure why it annoyed him so much that they liked to burst into his life in a flurry of colour and eccentricity, but it did.

Maybe it annoyed him because Kuroko always smiled at them so softly and indulgently; because he knew that Kuroko got genuine pleasure from watching those idiots be stupid at each other. Taiga didn't get anything out of it but a headache and a vague desire to find out if there was any way that he could unsee Aomine's tongue shoved down Kise's throat.

Taiga finally expressed his dissatisfaction with this whole set up (two interruptions to their basketball schedule a week is too many) to Kuroko about a month after the season started.

"Well, I suppose we could always organise a weekly event that won't coincide with time we play basketball," Kuroko offered.

"Then we'll have to invite Midorima or he'll be even more insufferable," Taiga said, and felt horror begin to grip at his chest when Kuroko's pleased quirk of the lips made reappearance.

Kuroko got out his phone, and sometimes, Taiga really wondered why he put up with this bastard.

He didn't want to go and spend his weekend with the weird people, but somehow Kuroko managed to get him out of his apartment and walking in the direction of Aomine's home that weekend. Taiga ran the scenario through his head a number of times as they walked, and even as they approached he still had no idea how the smaller boy had done it. He remembered opening the door, and Kuroko telling him the plan for the day, and refusing to go, and then, somehow before he knew it, he was locking the door and following Kuroko.

If he didn't know Kuroko's lack of presence was inherited from his mother, Taiga was pretty sure he would have to have considered asking if Kuroko was secretly involved in some kind of witchcraft or deal with the devil.

He was certainly evil enough.

Taiga debated his ability to break away from Kuroko and get far enough that no one would bother to chase him down. Kuroko's gaze moved from the door to him, and he pretty much figured his odds were in negative numbers.

And then the door opened.

"Ah, it's Kurokocchi and Kagamicchi! Come in, come in!"

Taiga bit back a heavy sigh – Kise's neck was splotchy and red – and followed Kuroko inside.

Aomine looked like he wanted to kill them when they wandered into the living room. Taiga almost wished that he would when Kise dropped himself into Aomine's lap and Aomine's arms automatically moved around him.

"What's the plan?" Taiga asked, more to distract himself from the way Aomine was still glaring at them than because he actually wanted to know.

"We're going to play video games!" Kise cheered, looking excited. "Aominecchi has a really good collection; and they aren't even all basketball games!"

"Yours is better," Aomine mumbled.

"My house has my sisters," Kise answered, wrinkling his nose.

Their back and forth was so domestic. Taiga didn't even know what to do with that; it felt like it should disturb him. Maybe he was finally becoming immune—no, it was just a lower level of obnoxious, because,

"Aomine-kun, Kise-kun, you have guests," Kuroko reminded them, which caused them to break their lip-lock. Taiga could probably have lived without seeing that really sappy face on Aomine.

"Just because you're not getting any," Aomine muttered. Kuroko's expression immediately darkened, and Taiga stepped away almost on instinct.

Kise scrambled from his boyfriend's lap. "You're on your own, Aominecchi," he told him as he fled from Kuroko's temper.

"What do you—ack!"

That was a very impressive punch; Taiga had to give Kuroko some props for it. He'd seen Kuroko give out some pretty good ones, but this one was at least top five.

"Please desist," Kuroko said calmly over Aomine's wheezing, "on making comments on my personal life, Aomine-kun."

Kise busied himself setting up the console and picking a game.

"Kuroko, did you say if Midorima and Takao were coming?" Taiga asked as they waited.

"I did." He sounded like he was judging Taiga quite a lot for not listening to him properly. "They aren't coming. Midorima-kun said something about it being a waste of their time."

Taiga rolled his eyes. "What's the deal with them, anyway, does anyone know?"

"Oh! I know!" Kise turned away from the console, looking gleeful and sparkly. Aomine sighed and took over fiddling with the wires as Kise shuffled over. "They are together, Takao-kun told me. Midorimacchi's just super shy about showing affection. But Takao-kun said that was okay because he's more the type for showering his lover with affection anyway. They're super cute together, Takao-kun showed me these pictures-"

"No one cares, Kise," Aomine drawled from behind him, done connecting up the game system. He'd also dug out four controllers.

Kise pouted. "But Aominecchi, I was really worried about Midorimacchi, you know! He's so weird; I didn't think he'd ever find anyone who could understand him."

"That's Midorima's business, not yours," Aomine replied, and dumped three of the controllers into Kise's lap. "I'm Player 1, everyone else can be whatever, because I'll beat all of you anyway."

"No way," Kise challenged, and fished the second player control out from the mess before offering the other two to Taiga and Kuroko. "I'm just as good as you are at this."

"Please, what do you think I was doing with all that time I wasn't playing basketball?" Aomine said, and yawned as he collapsed back onto the couch.

"I imagine most of us thought you were sleeping and doing indecent things while looking at magazines of Horikita Mai-san," Kuroko commented, blank-faced as usual.

"Well, yeah, that too I guess," he replied. At moments like this, Taiga couldn't help but feel that he and Kise were a good match; they were both completely shameless.

Taiga and Kuroko were pretty bad at the first game, some kind of first-person-shooter – neither Aomine nor Kise took the time to teach them very much about it, instead immediately launching into attempts to kill each other in increasingly desperate ways, occasionally killing Taiga and Kuroko when they were happened upon. They played a racing game after that, which was much better – racing games were pretty universal in terms of basic controls, after all – though clearly Aomine and Kise spent more time playing together, since they still seemed to out-perform both Taiga and Kuroko.

"Oi, did you bring food?" Aomine asked after they'd finished up another race. He'd won by the slightest of margins over Kise in the last race, and they probably would have launched straight into the next race if Aomine's stomach hadn't gurgled at them all.

"Of course not," Taiga answered. "You're the host, Ahomine."

"I can't afford to feed your gluttonous face."

Kise curled a hand around Aomine's neck, forcing him to lean over, ad kissed his cheek in an attempt to forestall more pointless bickering between the two. "Come on," he wheedled, "we'll just go out to eat, don't start fighting. We'll be here forever and then we'll never get to the good bit."

Aomine seemed about to keep arguing anyway when Kise's repeated kisses seemed to tell him something, and a very smug look sneaked over his face.

"Yeah, okay," he rumbled. "We'll go out to eat. Then you two can get the fuck out of here."

"I'd be happy to leave now," Taiga muttered. Kuroko elbowed him.

Being unfamiliar with the area meant that Taiga and Kuroko ended up behind Kise and Aomine as they walked towards a nearby restaurant that Aomine said wasn't too bad. The two of them held hands as they walked, and Kise occasionally swung their arms, and Taiga must be getting sick or something, because honestly, how else could he explain the vague feeling of envy that was sneaking up on him? It just seemed so nice, holding hands with someone. He'd never really done it, actually. And he hated to admit it, but Kise and Aomine's hands looked particularly striking the way their skin colours contrasted.

"I'm really glad they managed to sort things out," Kuroko said. Taiga looked at him – he was looking at Taiga, and smiling.

"They could stand to be less obnoxious," Taiga pointed out, feeling defensive and grumpy.

"I like it," Kuroko said, after pausing a moment. "It suits them, I think."

"Would it suit you?" Taiga asked, and then realised how suggestive that sounded. "Wait, shit, I didn't mean it like that-"

Kuroko's eyes laughed at Taiga as he looked him in the eye. "It could," he answered, and he smiled.

Chapter Text

(or, Aomine and Kise's fights are never private. Ever.)

 

---

 

If Taiga had somehow gotten the impression that Aomine and Kise would be easier to deal with if they broke up and he didn't have to watch them be all over each other and disgustingly public with their expressions of affection, then he was one hundred percent wrong.

The thought had errantly crossed his mind a number of times, and he wasn't really ashamed to admit it, if he was honest; there was only so many times he could stand to watch Kise grab Aomine's ass, or see Aomine's tongue down Kise's throat, or listen to Kise talk about the things Aomine liked him to do to him, or hear Aomine talk about how hot Kise was, before he wished they'd break up just so he didn't have to hear and see every little fucking thing about their relationship. Even after they'd gotten past the new relationship glow, they'd been handsy and over-shared everything. Taiga knew far more about what Aomine liked Kise to do to him in bed than he had ever, ever wanted to know.

And then they had an enormous fight and broke up.

To this day, Taiga wondered what exactly happened to cause said fight – neither Kise nor Aomine was particularly forthcoming about what it was either at the time, or after they'd patched things up, although Taiga knew they'd both told Kuroko their sides of the story.

The 'event' had happened on a normal Thursday afternoon.

Practice had finished as usual, and Taiga and Kuroko had been walking towards the gates when Kuroko received a message from Kise. In and of itself, this wasn't particularly unusual – Kuroko got what Taiga considered to be a constant barrage of messages from Kise throughout the day, and although he rarely responded to them, he always read them; and this one was no different. Taiga was just waiting for Kuroko to put his phone back in his pocket when Kuroko paused mid-step, and just stared at the screen.

"What's up?" Taiga asked.

Kuroko snapped his phone closed, frowning. "Kise-kun is at the nearby basketball court," was all he answered with. This was unusual, since usually when the blond menace came to visit on his own, he would be waiting around the school gates where his fans could come and fawn over him.

But Taiga shrugged it off, and they went to the court, and if Kuroko's walking pace was faster than normal, Taiga didn't really notice.

And then they reached the court.

Kise looked over as they walked onto it, but he seemed very out of sorts. He didn't smile, and as they got closer, Taiga noticed that his eyes were kind of red and bloodshot, and he was shaking. He had a basketball in his hands, but he wasn't playing – he was just sitting at the free-throw line.

"Kise-kun, what happened?"

Taiga felt really awkward as he stood while Kuroko knelt on the ground next to Kise. This felt kind of private, kind of like he shouldn't be there, and he almost turned to leave when Kuroko fixed him with a fierce look and indicated with eye movements only that he wanted Taiga to stay and sit on Kise's other side.

"Aominecchi and I had a really big fight," Kise mumbled. "Like, a really really big fight."

Kise and Aomine fought almost as frequently and as obnoxiously as they performed acts of public affection. It was kind of just their thing, but their fights, from what Taiga had been able to tell over the course of their relationship he'd been privy to, while usually heated and loud, were rarely serious.

Kuroko patted Kise on the head, and Taiga had to wonder at the fact that he was consoling Kise in much the same way that he had Momoi that one time. "I'm sure it'll be alright," he said, and Taiga made the mental comparison like Kuroko was talking to a frightened animal; it had the same kind of soft and gentle feeling. "Aomine-kun loves you very much, I'm sure you'll be able to make up."

Kise took a deep breath in, which caught twice before he exhaled.

"I... I think we broke up, Kurokocchi. I don't think we're going to make up."

He seemed to be trying to keep himself together, but he kept rubbing his eyes as if it would stop them from filling with tears, and Taiga had absolutely no idea what the fuck to do.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Kuroko asked him. "Kagami-kun, why don't you go and get me and Kise-kun a vanilla shake."

Glad to have a task, Taiga stood up again. "Yeah, okay."

By the time he came back, they were talking about something else.

 

---

 

Friday afternoon Aomine showed up unannounced, glared at Taiga as if daring him to say something, and dragged Kuroko away without so much as a word.

(Taiga found that he couldn't remember the last time he'd gone home alone, and felt abruptly lonely.)

 

---

 

By the time it had been two weeks, Taiga was pretty sure he was going to go crazy soon.

It seemed as if they'd decided on some kind of shared custody deal on Kuroko or something, because every day after practice, one of them was there, and no matter who it was, the mood was appallingly depressing. Aomine didn't seem to be able to sleep very well and was snippy and cruel in the few moments that they interacted before he spirited Kuroko away and left Taiga to fill time usually spent with Kuroko with being alone, and Kise was prone to crying fits when he visited.

(Kuroko told him one afternoon that he'd always thought Kise tended to bottle his more negative feelings until they overwhelmed him.)

"Why don't they just make up?" Taiga asked Kuroko in the locker room after practice at the beginning of the third week. One of the two of them was bound to be waiting for them outside, and he hadn't had the chance to spend much (or, really, any) time alone with Kuroko since Kise had told Kuroko about the break up.

Kuroko pressed his lips together as he thought about how to answer. "It's not that they can't," he said, "it's just that they're both a little bit too stubborn, and are used to having other people give way to them. And they have pride on the line. Neither one wants to beg for the other to come back."

Taiga sighed and let his forehead thud against his locker. Idiots.

"Kagami-kun, I get messages all day," Kuroko said. "Not just from Kise-kun and Aomine-kun. Momoi-san has been under constant barrage and is seeking out support. Midorima-kun keeps asking me why I have yet to mediate their reconciliation, and telling me days where Geminis and Virgos have higher than usual compatibility. Not being able to play more basketball is hardly so much of an inconvenience."

Taiga didn't really know how to tell Kuroko that it wasn't not playing basketball with him that he missed – it was the spending time just the two of them, being together with Kuroko, sharing food and ideas for plays, and theories about what to expect from the rest of his friends, cooking for Kuroko, the way Kuroko smiled when he was content. He missed all those things, not necessarily the basketball, though maybe it was to be expected that for once Kuroko had missed his meaning of his actions. After all, Kuroko was looking exhausted these days too.

As they walked towards the school gates, the flocking of girls indicated that today's visitor was Kise. A good head taller than pretty much all the girls surrounding him, Taiga could see his model-bright fake smile was plastered on his face as he spoke with the fans that had approached him. (Taiga was kind of sad that he could now tell what a real Kise smile was, and what a fake Kise smile was.)

"Ah, Kagamicchi!" Kise called out as he notice their approach. "Kurokocchi is with you, right?"

"Yeah," he called back. Some of today's fans were in Taiga and Kuroko's class. That was going to make tomorrow suck.

"Good evening, Kise-kun," Kuroko greeted him.

"I'll just be a few more moments," Kise apologised, and turned back to the girls surrounding him. Taiga leaned back against the wall and sighed.

But true to his word, Kise was done shortly enough, and the three of them began their slow wander towards Taiga's home. Especially when Kise was the one visiting, they often went to his place – Taiga couldn't get over how subdued Kise would become in his misery, a stark contrast to his usual dramatic persona, and he would never admit it to anyone, but he'd sussed out Kise's favourite foods and would make them in his own clumsy attempts to cheer him up.

(Kise's misery was more infectious than his dramatics.)

Aomine, on the other hand, usually inspired no such 'mothering tendencies' (as Kuroko called them) – despite not knowing the details, Taiga was ninety percent sure this was all Aomine's fault – as his bad temper pissed Taiga off more than anything.

It probably also didn't help that Aomine wouldn't even let Taiga tag along – he simply dragged Kuroko away, leaving Taiga without his partner.

So, on the whole, he probably preferred it when it was Kise disrupting them, though he looked like a kicked puppy most of the time. The worst was when Kuroko headed home early for whatever reason, and Kise wasn't ready to go home (apparently everything in his home reminded him of Aomine) and Taiga ended up underneath a crying Kise, who usually knocked him back in a powerful hug in his search for comfort.

Taiga didn't own much in the way of entertaining things – mainly basketball magazines, really; the money his parents funnelled into his bank account didn't really provide for much more than his food costs, and holiday money gifts were usually spent on basketball shoes and/or basketball clothes and/or other basketball related things – but Kise and Kuroko didn't seem to need much more than somewhere to go and sit and talk quietly, and Taiga fed them because he'd be cooking for himself anyway.

Tonight was another night when Kuroko headed home earlier than Kise was ready to leave. The lack of a buffer between Taiga and Kise, who were really only connected through Kuroko, always made Taiga uncomfortable, though Kise didn't seem to notice it.

"Kurokocchi's really lucky he has you," Kise commented from the couch, where he was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest. (Taiga was surprised that Kise could do so – the boy was quite lanky when you took a moment to really look at him.)

"I don't know what you mean," Taiga said as he washed the dishes from dinner. "If you're going to talk at me, come closer to the kitchen."

He wasn't sure Kise would – Kise had a fondness for his couch – but then he heard him move, coming to perch at the counter.

"I mean," Kise continued, "you always look after Kurokocchi. Like I see you checking on him, making sure he's okay and that he's not running himself down. The only reason Kurokocchi's been able to keep going between us all like he is, because he has you to lean back on. You're very dependable, Kagamicchi." Kise smiled at him. "It's why I'm rooting for you."

"I don't get you," Taiga answered, "but of course I'm looking out for Kuroko."

Kise sighed. "If I didn't love Aominecchi so much, I would totally make a move on you. You're the perfect housewife Kagamicchi."

Taiga grit his teeth. "If you're just going to be like that," he forced out, "then leave."

"Ah, so scary! I take it back!"

Taiga sighed.

"I really miss him, though," Kise said. Taiga finally looked over his shoulder at him. He was wearing a very wistful look on his face. "It's so hard sometimes. It wears me down, playing basketball when Aominecchi is stamped all over the sport, going around all my favourite places and remembering taking Aominecchi there. And that doesn't even start on the frustration—"

"I really don't want to hear about this," Taiga interrupted.

"Ah, I forgot," Kise said, and Taiga all of a sudden felt like a cornered animal. "Kagamicchi's an innocent. You know, I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd be interested in relieving you of that."

"I'm not interested in screwing around," Taiga muttered, draining the sink and moving to dry the dishes.

"You're handsome enough," Kise said, shrugging. "I mean, you'd never be a model or anything, but you're not hard to look at or anything. I'm sure you could find someone who'd want to be with you for more than one night."

Well – yeah, of course, Taiga wanted to say. Of course he could. Taiga could too. It was just that he didn't want to be with just anyone. Taiga wasn't alone because he thought he was ugly or had low-self-esteem. Actually, the prevailing opinion tended to be that he needed to be taken down a few pegs.

"I've got basketball. That's all I need."

He heard Kise's head thunk against the bench. "You're so difficult," he heard him mutter.

Taiga flicked the wet cloth at Kise, and listened to him shriek.

 

---

 

The next afternoon, Aomine whisked Kuroko away at the gates again without so much as a word, and when Taiga realised that Kuroko's absence was both notable and the factor making him feel the most lonely, he pulled himself up short as, in a flash of understanding of himself and his desires, he realised, I want to spend all day with him every day.

Well, shit.

Instead of heading out, Taiga turned back towards the gym. Hyuuga hadn't locked it up yet – Taiga begged the keys off him and went back inside.

It had been a while since they'd done extra practice, since Kise and Aomine had prevented any evenings playing against Kuroko. It felt lonelier to play alone here in the gym, than it had felt all the times Taiga had practiced alone on a dark park court, though. Of course it did. Kuroko wasn't there, and not even in the 'I'm there but you just can't sense my presence' way, in the 'I'm really actually not here at all' way.

The lone thudding of the ball on the wooden floor became the sound of loneliness in Taiga's mind, but he was determined to work this out, so he settled inside the three-point area and started to play.

Taiga was pretty sure he'd known for a while that Kuroko was special. (He doesn't have, has never had, the desire to monopolise any of his other friends, not even Tatsuya) It's just unbelievably inconvenient for so many reasons. Basketball. Kuroko's crazy friends. Being on a team together. Being in the same class. What if Kuroko doesn't feel the same? What if he does and then Taiga fucks it up? Taiga's an idiot, he's bound to fuck it up, just like Aomine fucked up, because he's an idiot.

Well, he thinks he was the one to fuck it up, anyway, since no one is telling him what's going on. He got it; he didn't have the history with them, they're not friends the way they are with Kuroko, but still...

It's always kind of lonely being on the outside looking in.

By the time Taiga's worked himself down from the agitation that's sprung up from his realisation, it's pretty late. Belatedly, he realised that the faculty offices are probably locked up, and he'll have to get here early to unlock the gym tomorrow morning, which is a pain. Still, he felt a bit more normal and ready to accept the newest reality of his life, so he couldn't bring himself to regret it.

He was trudging home when he ran into Aomine, who was Kuroko-less.

"You're out late," Aomine commented. "Didn't I see you leaving earlier?"

Taiga shrugged. "Wanted to play basketball," he grunted. "Captain hadn't locked up yet."

Aomine hummed and nodded slowly. Taiga went to move past him.

"Wanna play?" Aomine asked. Taiga looked at him incredulously.

"Coach will kill me," he answered flatly. "I'm not that dumb."

Aomine looked mildly abashed. "Well, I just..."

Taiga sighed. "Come on."

Aomine trailed slightly behind him as he walked towards his home. Taiga knew nothing about what Aomine liked to eat – and he didn't really care to cook for the idiot anyway. But he looked miserable and tired and kind of lonely, and Taiga was really fucking soft. Damn it.

Somehow, though he probably should have expected it, Aomine's subdued attitude was just as off-putting as Kise's was as they entered his home. Aomine was even polite as he entered.

As Taiga put his bag away and made himself busy in the kitchen, Aomine sat, almost exactly where Kise had the other day, and fidgeted.

It was setting Taiga's teeth on edge. Aomine was supposed to be brash, loud, rude and straightforward, blunt in the extreme and not the type to pussyfoot around things. Yet here he was, doing all those things. It was worse because he'd never really spent any time with Aomine alone, without Kuroko as a buffer. He didn't know what to think or expect, and trying to figure it out was giving him a headache.

"You two are a fucking mess," Taiga sighed, and it made Aomine's head jerk up, and his face twist into a scowl.

"Shut up. What do you know, anyway?" he snarled. "You can't even get your shit together with Tetsu."

Taiga turned around and whacked him on the head, and ignored Aomine's crack about Kuroko because Aomine didn't know shit. "I don't know what happened between the two of you," he said, and went back to preparing food, "but have you tried talking to each other?"

"Kise won't talk to me," Aomine muttered. "I tried."

"Clearly not hard enough," Taiga said under his breath. Then again... "But I guess you're an idiot so talking always goes wrong for you."

Aomine looked like he was about to take a punch at Taiga.

"I didn't come here to be insulted," he growled.

"Why did you come here?" Taiga asked. "I'm genuinely curious. It's not like we're all buddy-buddy. When Kise comes at least he lets me hang around, but you just squirrel away with Kuroko. But for some reason, I said come, and you actually came."

Aomine kind of hunched in on himself. "I dunno," he muttered. "I guess I thought I'd give Satsuki a break. Wandering around alone sucks though. I'd rather be bored around you than bored and alone."

Taiga wanted to ask why he felt the need to piss him off, but instead he lit the flame on the burner and started cooking.

"If it helps any," Taiga said, feeling awkward and uncomfortable, "Kise isn't very happy either."

There was a long silence before Aomine responded, very hesitant. "Is he taking care of himself?"

Taiga was so surprised by the question he froze, before turning to stare at him. Aomine started fidgeting again under his gaze and looked away, redness seeping into his face. "Stop staring and answer the fucking question!"

Taiga turned back to the food. "He cries a lot," he answered. "He doesn't say anything to me, but I think he misses you."

Aomine sighed and dropped his head into his crossed arms. They were silent for a while as Taiga finished cooking.

"Here."

Aomine looked up. "Thanks."

Taiga snorted. "Now I know something's wrong, you're actually saying thank you."

"Shut up, idiot," Aomine muttered.

"You're the idiot, idiot."

They fell into silence as they ate. Taiga couldn't help but think it was nice not eating alone, even if his dinner partner was a jackass.

"Ugh," Aomine grunted as he finished. "That was good. A good game of basketball would take my mind off the horniness too."

Taiga stared at him. "Okay, I'm done. Get out."

 

---

 

On the fourth week since the breakup, Momoi showed up during practice looking frazzled and desperate.

"Tetsu-kun, enough is enough," she said as she marched into the gym. The whole team stopped moving to stare at her. "I can't keep going like this, we need to do something. Anything. Dai-chan is impossible to deal with."

"Momoi-san, we're in the middle of practice," Kuroko said.

"Tetsu-kun, if this goes on any longer I will have to resort to desperate measures."

Taiga frowned.

"That's unnecessary," Kuroko said. "If Kagami-kun is willing to lend a hand and his apartment, I think we can get it sorted out this weekend."

"Why my apartment," Taiga grumbled.

Momoi tilted her head. She had clearly put together Kuroko's plan with her brilliant mind. "I suppose it could work," she said slowly. "Probability is above fifty percent."

"Because it's neutral," Kuroko informed him. "If you don't, I'll tell Kise-kun you offered to listen to him whenever he feels sad and your phone will never stop going off."

Taiga was willing to do it just so that the bastards would leave them alone and he could spend time with Kuroko again. Alone. His stomach did a funny swoop. It'd been doing that all week, whenever he thought about being alone with Kuroko. Stupid, traitorous body.

Stupid, traitorous heart.

Momoi seemed to be about to turn her charms on him to get him to agree, when Coach's whistle went off.

"Get back to practice. Momoi, get out of my gym!"

"Send me the particulars of your plan, Tetsu-kun, so I can get Dai-chan to the right place at the right time!"

Kuroko nodded, and Momoi winked at Coach before she fluttered out of their gym just as abruptly as she had entered it.

"Kuroko-kun," said Coach, and Taiga looked at her, and instantly recoiled from the menacing look on her face. "Please keep your social life outside of my gym, especially in regards to those individuals who can predict player growth."

Kuroko has a mildly mutinous look on his face – which Taiga realises belatedly is probably only detectable to him, in the way he's learned to understand the small, subtle twitches of Kuroko's face, that maybe only a few other people are privy to – but apologises to Coach anyway, and jabs Taiga in the side for staring and not getting straight back into their drills.

(Taiga's pretty sure he's screwed, because he doesn't know when he started knowing what Kuroko's little tells are, or when he started knowing what Kuroko wanted by the way he said his name, but the one thing he is sure of is that he's never going to stop.)

 

---

 

The plan went down the next weekend.

Taiga wasn't actually privy to the full details of the plan, probably because Kuroko and Momoi thought that if they told him he'd act strangely, and if he acted anything but natural, he'd tip off Aomine, who'd arrived at his apartment first.

(Momoi had looked him over and hummed before saying, "Dai-chan could probably wrestle his way out and run. Ki-chan's not quite as powerfully built as Dai-chan, so we can probably throw him into the apartment even if he digs his heels in when he sees Dai-chan.")

He tried not to be jealous of the way that Aomine casually touched and interacted with Kuroko while they played video games on Kuroko's system, which had been set up here in advance. Taiga had had to carry it from Kuroko's house last night. It seemed his particular role in this plan was 'necessary muscle', and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that.

(But it was kind of nice, feeling involved and like a part of things, for once.)

When the doorbell rang, Taiga abandoned his controller – he'd been losing anyway, and pausing would give Aomine the chance to notice what was going on – and went to get the door. His heart felt like it was going double; it could only be Kise at the door, and god this needed to work because he had barely had a moment alone with Kuroko in a whole goddamn month and he just...

He yanked the door open, and let Kise inside with a rough hello. Kuroko sidled over to the doorway, and grabbed Taiga's wrist.

"What—" he started to say, and then Kuroko pulled him outside and were those Taiga's keys? When had he taken them, the little thief?

Kuroko dropped his wrist to lock the door, and just in time, too, it seemed – the handle started rattling a bare second later, and there was an angry roar on the other side when the door refused to budge.

"Tetsu, unlock this door right fucking now."

Kuroko ignored the voice to look up at Taiga with those angelically blue eyes which were in actual fact, Taiga suspected, the root of all evil, and smiled before pocketing Taiga's keys.

"Would you like to go out for lunch, Kagami-kun?"

There was something about how Kuroko was asking that made this request different to others before it, and Taiga pulled it through his mind for a moment before he figured out what it was.

Then he grinned, and this time it was his turn to take Kuroko by the hand.

"What do you feel like?" he asked as he led them down the corridor to the stairs.

"We haven't been to Maji together in a while," Kuroko answered, "because Kise-kun and Aomine-kun have been difficult."

Taiga hummed, and squeezed Kuroko's hand. It felt nice, warm and dry and calloused. "You don't want to go somewhere more special?"

He felt like he should be freaking out or something, trying to convince himself that this was actually happening, but all he felt was calm, and the way Kuroko squeezed his hand back made his stomach flip.

"Kagami-kun doesn't have shoes or his wallet, because you were unprepared for our exit."

Taiga looked at his feet. Oops. Thank god it was almost summer and his toes weren't going to freeze off.

"I don't think I can afford to feed all of your stomach," Kuroko continued, and Taiga elbowed him in the ribs. Kuroko returned the jab twice as hard before he finished his sentence. "But we'll get something to eat and go to the park. It's nice outside today. We'll just have to be careful that you don't step on any glass."

"This is a date, right," Taiga said. "I just want to check."

Kuroko let out a small sigh, but smiled as he answered.

"Of course it is, Kagami-kun."

 

---

 

It was a good two hours after Kuroko had locked Kise and Aomine in Taiga's apartment that they returned.

"Do you really think they'll have worked everything out?" Taiga asked as Kuroko took Taiga's keys from his pocket.

"Momoi-san gave it better than sixty percent odds if locked in here for more than an hour," Kuroko replied simply.

What Taiga found Kuroko neglected to mention, was that in the event of their reunion, Momoi had given it greater than ninety percent odds that they would celebrate without much care for their location. (And that while Kise would feel guilty and make an attempt at cleanup, Aomine would not, and neither of them was particularly good at housework in the first place)

The first thing that Taiga noticed as they opened the door is that his apartment smelled like sex.

"I hate you," he said to Kuroko, whose nose wrinkled as he stepped in behind Taiga.

"Aomine-kun, Kise-kun, are you decent?" Kuroko called. "I have no wish to reacquaint myself with your naked bodies."

"I really hate you," Taiga groaned.

"Fuck you, Tetsu," Aomine drawled, but he sounded happier than he had for the past month. "That was low, locking us in here together."

Kuroko wandered towards the voice. "Would you have preferred we called Akashi-kun? That was the only other plan we could think of."

"I'm hungry," came Kise's plaintive voice. "There's no food here. Is Kagamicchi with you, Kurokocchi? Can he make food?"

"I hate all of you," Taiga muttered as he went into the kitchen. Louder, he announced, "Kuroko, I changed my mind."

"No you didn't," Kuroko responded calmly. "So won't you please make us dinner, Kagami-kun?"

"Why do you own so much black, Kagami?" Aomine complained. "By the way, we borrowed some of your clothes. Ours got dirty."

Taiga banged his head against the refrigerator.

 

---

 

EPILOGUE – or, Aomine and Kise continue to be insufferable. But are generally less so when they have one another to occupy themselves with.

 

---

 

"Kurokocchi, you promised me we could go on a double date," Kise whined.

Taiga felt his eye twitching. It was the third week after the Inter High had ended – a wonderful, blissful period had heralded it's approach, where Kuroko's annoying friends had been so busy training that they hadn't had the time to come to annoy them at all, and then after it, a week was spent at camp, doing nothing but play basketball with Kuroko, and not having any contact with annoying assholes who got your apartment dirty and stole your clothes and ungratefully ate your food and then never said thank you for helping them fix their relationship.

Now that they were all on summer break, and not on camp, Kise and Aomine had started showing up again. Really, Taiga was not at all keen to spend any more time with them than necessary. He still couldn't look at his couch without feeling mildly disturbed.

(He'd been tempted to demand that Kise take that one off his hands and get him a new one, but he wasn't really sure how he would have explained it to his father.)

Kuroko shamelessly threw him under the bus. "Kagami-kun doesn't want to go," he said between sips on his vanilla shake.

"Oi, you bastard," Taiga started growling, only to be cut off.

"Kise, I don't even like double dating," Aomine complained. "Why do you keep trying to get Midorima and Tetsu to come along?"

"We never get a normal date when it's just you and me," Kise told him. "You always start feeling me up and then we have sex."

"We're in public," Taiga muttered.

"What, you telling me you and Tetsu haven't done the nasty yet?" Aomine leered from the other side of the table.

"I seriously want to break up," Taiga said, looking at Kuroko.

"No, you don't," Kuroko answered, and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "You like our friends."

Kise cooed - Kuroko's affectionate moments always made him squeal like a girl seeing kittens or puppies – and turned to Aomine. "Why aren't you ever cute like that?"

"It's your job to be cute," he answered, and tugged on Kise's hair. "Come on, then."

As Kise leaned over to kiss him (likely far less innocently than originally intentioned), Taiga sighed and let his head fall into his hands.

It could be worse, he told himself, and looked at Kuroko, peacefully drinking his shake and people-watching the rest of the restaurant. He could be alone.