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When Kise got enthusiastic about something, everyone knew it, and he wouldn’t stop with the pestering until everyone else at least gave it a chance. When Yu-Gi-Oh cards were in, practically everyone he knew had to have at least one full deck (that phase had continued until Akashi had started wanting to have real shadow games; Shadow Realm and all. Everyone had decided that maybe it was in everyone’s best interests to cease the duels), then there was the marbles phase –Murasakibara had only joined in because he’d thought that they looked tasty. Turns out, glass didn’t taste very good, but the doctors were very understanding. He’d been very into Call of Duty for a bit, but playing online and losing left him with an ego broken by trash-talking pre-teens, and it turned out that when it came to board games, no one was a particularly good winner or loser. Kagami had been known to flip boards, and Aomine claimed boredom whenever he started losing.
Everyone had been a little relieved when he’d ventured into the world of anime as his next obsession. It had been okay for the cool, action-packed ones like Naruto and Bleach (well, at least until shit started hitting the fan; there were episodes that had left him wrecked for days). Aomine and Kagami were the ones who had been the ones most easily convinced into joining in with this phase –Kagami because he kind of liked cartoons, and Aomine because he was a lazy ass who didn’t mind sitting on his backside and watching TV all day if it was raining.
“I found a great new anime!” Kise had said to them one day, “Youhave to see it!”
Aomine and Kagami had been apprehensive. They enjoyed some of what Kise had talked them into watching (weren’t quite as religious with keeping up, mind), but sometimes the ones Kise made them watch were a little too…gooey…for their tastes.
The romance that Kise lapped up wasn’t quite for them.
“…What the fuck did we just watch?” Kagami deadpanned, gaping at the TV in disbelief. Even Aomine looked slightly puzzled as to why the hell Kise had recommended this show.
“…Way too many shirtless dudes,” he muttered flatly, and Kagami wordlessly nodded. “…What the fuck’s this ‘sight’ that guy’s talking about?”
“Dunno,” Kagami replied with a frown. “…Maybe we’ll…find out next episode?” There was a long moment of silence as they both just stared at the television.
“Next episode?” Aomine finally suggested.
“Yeah, just one, right?” Kagami agreed, leaping up from the couch and heading over to load the next episode of the show. “You know, I feel like shit’s about to go down…we can’t leave it like that…”
“If you say so…”
“Shut up, Ahomine! You want to see it too!”
Twelve episodes later…
“Bakagami…are you crying?”
“No!” Kagami snarled violently, his breath catching in his throat, “I’m not!”
“Hah! You totally are. Loser.”
“ –No way!” Kagami complained, “Hey, it was just…really cool, what Rei did, you know? Rin was just…I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to feel so isolated –” He trailed off for a moment as he glanced over at Aomine and saw the expression on his face.
Oh. Foot, meet mouth.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and texted Kise a string of curses for getting them to watch such a dumb show. He really wasn’tcrying…there was just something…just a little emotional about the whole aspect of a team…and…friends, and…fuck Kise and his fucking shows.
“…Uhh, man, what was with those cherry blossoms, right?” Kagami finally commented with a roll of his eyes, to start conversation again. Aomine snorted contemptuously.
“ –Well obviously they’re falling in love,” the bluenette scoffed flatly, stretching out like some kind of cat and cracking his joints, stiff from sitting for so long.
“What??”
“Are you stupid?” Aomine scoffed, “In those crappy shoujo things Kise made us watch, there was always cherry blossom petals blowing in the wind and shit whenever the people are falling in love. Dumbass.”
“I’m not a dumbass!” Kagami snapped hotly, “And this isn’t shoujo, anyways! Rin and Haru aren’t falling in love –”
“Cherry blossoms.”
“ –But –”
“Every time. Dead giveaway.”
“This is a sports anime! They wouldn’t have –”
“Oh, Bakagami, did you miss like, half the show. Read between the fucking lines.”
“I don’t believe it,” Kagami snorted flatly, folding his arms, “If there was romance in this…it’d definitely be between Haru and Makoto, not Rin…” Aomine glared at him, raising an eyebrow.
“Tch, best friends getting together? That’s so fucking cliché –”
“Cherry blossoms are fucking cliché!”
“ –That whole last episode –”
“Uh, Makoto was the one who supported him all through the show, Ahomine.”
“Why’d Haru go through all that, Bakagami? Because of fucking Rin! Rin’s the one he’s focused on.”
“ –God, you’re such a pain,” Kagami moaned, clutching his head in annoyance, “No one likes anyone! This is a show about fucking swimming, and friends, shit!” Another silent pause. “…Although, you reckon Nagisa and Rei –”
“Oh, fucking definitely.”
Kagami’s phone buzzed, and he opened it to discover that Kise had replied to his hate-message with a vast collection of emoticons that displayed how saddened he was that Kagami thought so terribly of his choice in shows. Sighing heavily, the redhead quickly sent another text to assure Kise that okay, the show wasn’t that bad…had some cool characters and ideas in it.
“ –Tetsu and Kise want us to meet up with them at the courts for a game,” Aomine droned with a yawn. Though he seemed disinterested, he was already rolling to his feet to grab his shoes and his jacket. “…And Tetsu said I was right about the cherry blossoms.”
“Oh here we go,” Kagami complained, grabbing his coat and following Aomine to the door, “Okay fine, yeah, cherry blossoms are associated with love –”
“Not just the blossoms,” Aomine snorted with a roll of his eyes, tucking his hands into his pockets to keep them warm as Kagami locked the door. There was a cold wind out today. “There’s the look, and the creepy eye contact, and all the sparkles…”
“…Aomine…just how much shoujo did you watch?” Kagami raised an eyebrow quizzically and the other ace just glared at him mutinously –refusing to answer.
“Tch…I’m just saying…” he muttered, “They get the sparkles in their eyes, and like a look…and…everything’s all soft and…” He trailed off as Kagami burst out into explosive laughter. “Oi! Don’t laugh at me! Ryou talks about it all the time!”
“…You obviously listen…” Kagami sniggered, clutching his coat around him tighter as the breeze started to pick up.
“Oh, I see them,” Kagami exclaimed, as they approached the park. He pointed, and Aomine spied the familiar golden head of Kise already practicing shooting with Kuroko. “Come on –” He started to jog off, but then a large gust of wind suddenly buffeted him and he stumbled with a curse.
The cool, spring breeze tugged at the leaves and the petals of the blooming trees and flowers in the park, picking them up and sending them swirling through the air like some kind of magical after-winter snow.
Kagami froze as a strong hand caught him by the elbow and steadied him, seeing pink flowers flitting past, carried on the wind.
“Tch…klutz,” he heard Aomine chuckle gruffly, and he looked up, over his shoulder to see the other ace standing there with a small smile still teasing the edges of his lips. Cherry blossoms gently floated behind him, dancing and chasing each other and causing the sun to fall down upon Aomine in a mottled, soft light. Kagami’s eyes widened in astonishment as he slowly straightened up –embarrassed at his fall.
He suddenly realised what Aomine had meant about everything…seeming…soft.
Aomine’s eyes widened slightly, seeming even more startlingly blue than usual, and with a strange glitter to them, and Kagami was stunned to note that he hadn’t removed the hand from his elbow; touch still lingering as the flowers in the breeze seemed to move in slow motion. His heart thudded suddenly, and if he’d been able to see himself through Aomine’s eyes, he would’ve seen his own red gaze shimmer, just slightly.
“Bakagami! Don’t fall in love with me!” Aomine suddenly yelped, as though only just realising that he and Kagami were trapped, alone, in a mystical cherry-blossom storm. Without warning, he leapt back a pace and swatting as many cherry blossoms from the air as he could in that single bound.
Like that would change anything.
“What??” Kagami exclaimed hotly, wrenching his arm back.
“You were giving me the shoujo look!” Aomine cursed accusingly.
“Shoujo –I was not!”
“You fucking were! Your eyes were fucking sparkling and everything!” Aomine snapped, his cheeks lighting up in embarrassment and horror.
“They were not –you think my eyes sparkle?” Kagami queried flatly, and then felt his cheeks burning hot at the very notion.
“ –No, dumbass, I don’t think they do, they actually fucking did…don’t blush, you’re making it worse!”
“YOU’RE BLUSHING TOO!”
“Yeah, coz you were looking at me weird!” Aomine retorted hotly.
“You were looking at me the exact same way!” Kagami snapped.
Aomine apparently didn’t have a comeback for that.
“Does this mean we’re going to fall in love?” Kagami inquired in a wounded tone.
“Idiot,” Aomine growled in a dark mutter, beginning to walk off.
“ –But you said that cherry blossoms mean that –”
“…..Tch…”
“Hah! Then maybe Rin and Haru aren’t going to fall in –”
“ –Shut up,” Aomine muttered, averting his eyes and trudging onwards, seeing that Kise and Kuroko had spotted them, and had paused in their game. Kagami quickly dropped into step with him, refusing to look him in the face, and teeth gritted in annoyance that they hadn’t managed to come to an agreement about this.
Both of them decided to believe that their cheeks were pink because of the cold.
“Kise,” Kagami greeted solemnly, “Me and Aomine need you to settle something for us.”
“I’m flattered,” Kise beamed brightly, with Kuroko standing at his side with an amused look on his face. “What’s the problem?”
“ –What do the floaty cherry blossoms mean in anime?” he inquired bluntly. Kise actually laughed at the question, until he saw the deadly serious look on the faces of both of Kuroko’s lights. “…Ahomine says that they mean that the people are in love. I think he’s wrong. They might just…have a connection…”
Chuckles fading, Kise coughed to clear his throat, figuring that they must have actually managed to finish all of Free! in one sitting.
“Hmm…what do I think?” he mused thoughtfully, index finger pressed to his chin. He smiled and let out a giggle. “I like to think that they mean that the two characters are gonna fall in love, or already are, whether they know it or not.”
Kise and Kuroko had never seen a comment about love make two people look so unbearably gloomy.
“No…” Kagami muttered flatly, practically on hands and knees in despair, “I’m not…never…I would never…”
“ –Ugh…such a moron…” Aomine grumbled, hearing Kagami hiss, “The cherry blossoms are wrong…it doesn’t apply in real life, right??” The pair of them looked at each other, and their eyebrows twitched simultaneously.
“It’s never gonna happen, you hear??”
“Don’t you fucking dare fall in love with me!” Aomine growled darkly, “Though I can understand why you would…”
“Me? Fall for a bastard like you?” Kagami snapped, “As if! It’s never gonna happen! You better not fall for me!”
“You’re too stupid for me to ever fall for –”
“Shut up! You’re stupid too, Ahomine!”
“Hah, you called yourself stupid.”
Kise chuckled to himself, watching the pair of them bicker; he and Kuroko practically forgotten. Kuroko tutted under his breath and looked up at the blonde reproachfully.
“Kise-kun, you shouldn’t tease them,” he berated quietly, though it appeared that he too was rather amused by the antics of their friends. “The cherry blossoms were just a coincidence…” Kise laughed again, mischief sparkling in his eye for a moment as he looked down at the small shadow.
“You really think so, Kurokocchi?” He nodded over to where Aomine and Kagami had decided against yelling and had traded in the verbal abuse for a basketball. Already, they were playing against each other, their eyes lighting up with competition and excitement and love of the game. Their gazes were settled solely on each other, and it was like nothing else existed outside of their one on one.
Kuroko smiled.
“Ahh, maybe you’re right, Kise-kun.”