Chapter Text
Aomine was watching the two huskies playing in the snow in their cage. The other one was holding a toy that the other tried to steal. They jumped around and chased each other constantly. How they managed to have so much energy was beyond him. He shivered in the cold despite the thick new coat he had just bought and tugged his face deeper into the fur-lined hood. It was around - 20 °C. He had just a few days ago arrived in the Finnish Lapland but was still feeling the time difference to Japan.
As for why he was there was only one reason. One of his oldest friends, Kise had won a two-person holiday pack from some random raffle, and after breaking up with his lover just a few days before the trip Aomine had been the only one available to use the other half of the prize. He didn’t know why exactly he had agreed on coming, it was such a drag. Maybe it was the miserable look at Kise’s face when he had begged he didn’t want to go alone, and the fact that the tickets were non-refundable. It was an “all free vacation for him, how could he not come!” as Kise had put it. Aomine sighed, thinking about that. Now he was just happy that the hotel had agreed to change the room into a one with two separate beds instead of a king size one.
After they had arrived Kise seemed to have decided that instead of moping around and feeling bad for his breakup he would take the most out of his holiday and dragged him around everywhere. Today he had decided that they would go to a sledge dog farm. Aomine was finally somewhat interested as he much preferred the company of dogs to that of the humans. He had managed to lose Kise for a moment and went to look at the dogs, enjoying their carefree actions. He just hoped he could have pet them.
“Do you like watching them?” A sudden question seemingly out of nowhere scared Aomine so much that he jumped a bit. He turned to see where the question had come from and laid his eyes on a shorter male standing next to him, looking at the dogs. He hadn’t heard him approach at all, despite the ground being covered in frost snow that squeaked when you walked on it. The man turned his gaze to meet his, and Aomine couldn’t help but to be drawn to his bright blue eyes.
From the corner of his eye he saw movement and turned to look, it was a small black and white puppy, wearing a bright red Christmas sweater. The dog’s eyes were the exact same shade and shape as the man had. He turned back to look at him in awe. That was so strange. The man still looked at him, starting to seem a bit confused, if he read his subtle expressions correctly. He suddenly remembered that he had forgot to answer his question.
“Oh, yeah. They are great.”
The man grouched down to grab the small dog into his arms. He took its paw to his hand, waving it a bit as a greeting. “Nigou says hello to you too.”
Aomine couldn’t take it. The two pairs of same eyes looking at him all serious, despite the goofy actions. They were too damn cute. “Hi there.” He said as he waved his hand a bit in return, before realizing something about what the man had just said. “Huh, wait. Nigou? As in the second in Japanese?”
“Yes. The other staff here named him the second me because we look alike to them, he is “the second me”. I am from Japan but came to work here for the season, so that’s why it is in Japanese.”
That surprised Aomine and he changed to Japanese from the English he had been using as he answered. “Really? I am also from Japan, the name is Aomine Daiki.”
“Pleasure to meet you. I am Kuroko Tetsuya.” He bowed slightly and also made Nigou bow his head. Aomine still couldn’t wrap his head around how similar they looked, and how in synch they seemed to be.
“Do you want to hold him?”
“Eh, really? Could I?”
“Yes. I should give the big boys here their lunch.” As they had talked the two dogs that had been playing previously had come to the fence and looked at Kuroko, clearly expecting something as they paced around. Without further questions Kuroko handed Nigou over to Aomine and went in to feed the other dogs.
*
Kuroko watched the man over his shoulder. Nigou seemed to like him as he excitedly rolled around in his lap, trying to lick his face. He was laughing and taking his gloves off to pet him properly. The sight brought a smile to Kuroko’s face too. A man well-liked by animals couldn’t be too bad of a person. Especially as he seemed to be good to them too. He had to admit he had been a bit surprised to see the tall and quite intimidating looking man staring at the dogs so seriously but was now starting to get a bit interested about him.
He threw the big dogs their dessert that was a few larger reindeer bones before going back out. Nigou had stopped rolling around and was contently being petted by Aomine, looking like he could fall asleep there. He was generally nice to most people but to this extent so fast was rare, which brought question to Kuroko’s mind. “Are you used to working with dogs?”
Aomine looked at him. His eyes were the same deep blue that the hair peaking from under his hood. His voice was nice and low, calming actually. “We had a Shiba while I was a child, and I am now working as in the police, occasionally with dogs too. I hope to get a transfer to the dog squad someday.”
Kuroko would have thought of the man as a thug instead of a policeman. Looks could really deceive. “So you are here on a vacation then?”
“Yeah, though the trip wasn’t planned, I was dragged along…”
A higher voice cut his words. The source of it was a flashy person with yellowish blonde hair who was yelling “Aominecchi!” while waving his hand and walking to their direction. “Finally I found you!”
Aomine sighed and turned back to Kuroko. “Him. I was dragged along to his plans.”
Kuroko glanced at the hyper-active looking person, and then to the calm and a bit annoyed Aomine. He could see how he might decide to go along just to get him to be calm for a moment. But he didn’t quite get how they were acquainted in the first place. The man in question suddenly saw Nigou in Aomine’s arms and his intensity only grew. “Oh my, what a cute lil’ pup. Where did you get him from?”
Before Aomine had time to answer Kise was already reaching his hands out for Nigou, who sniffed them and even gave a small lick, but decided to curl up to Aomine instead of giving him more attention. Kise played heartbroken from that, whining “Oh please, what is so fun about that always moping old man, why don’t you want to come to meeee~“.
Aomine grinned at him a bit viciously. “He just recognizes quality when he sees it.”
Kuroko had been standing next to Aomine the whole time and couldn’t help but to chuckle at the situation. That earned him the second scared jump of the day, this time from Kise. “Oh, I am so sorry, I didn’t notice you there. My name is Kise Ryouta, the handsome model straight from Tokyo!”
The introduction didn’t convince Aomine. “How can you say that about yourself.”
Kise turned to look at him. “It’s just self-confidence about the facts.” As an assurance he flashed a smile to both of them before continuing. “We must go now Aominecchi, the sledge tour will start in a moment.”
Aomine was a bit hesitant to leave, despite the tour being the one thing he had anticipated. He turned to Kuroko to hand over Nigou, who was now actually sleeping in his arms. He quickly said “Hope to see you again” before being dragged away by Kise. As Kuroko watched the two men run away he felt a bit sad he didn’t get a better chance to get to know Aomine.