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The evening sun streamed pink and luminous through the trees as Kise kissed Kuroko good night. One kiss turned into two, then three, and after that Kise lost count. By the time they pulled apart, both flushed and breathless, the sun had set. Gazing at Kuroko, Kise began to giggle because even with the sunlight gone, Kuroko's ears had a rosy glow to them. Embarrassed, Kuroko clapped his hands over his ears and buried his face against Kise's chest.
"Don't laugh!" he grumbled.
"I'm sorry, Kurokocchi. You looked so cute just now, I couldn't help it." Kise dove in to kiss Kuroko's blushing ears. He managed to land one successfully, but Kuroko neatly dodged his next attempt by turning his head just so and kissing Kise's cheek instead. Little things like this still made Kise totally flustered, and he was more than happy to let his eyes flutter shut as Kuroko caught his face in his hands and pulled him down to kiss him some more. Eyelids, tip of his nose, once more on the lips.
"Good night, Kise-kun," Kuroko whispered between their smiles.
"I love you, Kurokocchi. Good night."
Kise gave his boyfriend one final squeeze before parting ways, Kuroko heading up the path to the entrance to his dormitory while Kise backtracked towards the bus station.
Kise didn't get very far; in fact, he had barely turned around before he ran into someone who made him stop in his tracks.
"Hey."
"Hey..." Kise was, despite what most people believed, not prone to freaking out in unexpected situations. He stepped back and studied the other person carefully from head to toe. Gray uniform slacks, white shirt, black tie, and gray uniform blazer. Long blond bangs swept effortlessly across his brow. A single piercing in his left ear that gleamed a dull silver in the dying light. Kise's gaze lingered carefully on the all too familiar face, a face that sometimes stared back at him from magazine pages and tv screens but which Kise saw most often reflected in a mirror.
Long-lashed amber eyes crinkled as the other Kise spoke. "Guess this means I'm in the right place after all. Or, the right time, I should say."
Upon second glance, Kise picked up on the slight differences. The Kise Ryouta facing him, besides being dressed in Kaijou's school uniform, was also a touch slender, most noticeably around the shoulders, and just a few centimeters shy of being an actual reflection of the current Kise Ryouta.
"Wow..." Kise scratched the back of his head. "Um. Gosh. I mean... Aren't there rules against this sort of thing?"
"What, you mean time travel?"
"No? I don't know? I just... I thought it was against the rules to meet your past or future self or something like that. I think I read it in a book somewhere, I can't remember the book though so I could be wrong. It might not actually be true."
"I think it's only against the rules to change the past. But I'm also not sure, and we're probably remembering the same book we forgot about."
They both laughed at that.
"But wow...this is so cool. I never thought time travel was a real thing. Or even if it is real, I always figured I'd be visited by my future self, you know? Not the other way around."
"I can't believe it worked," the younger Kise said. "Kagamicchi's going to be so jealous. I can't wait to tell him when I get back."
"You're not staying?"
"No, of course not. I can't stay. This isn't where I belong. I'm only here for a little bit. I'm lucky I found you — or, well, me — right away."
"How long have you got before..."
"Before I snap back in place? Um, time?" Younger Kise shrugged. "I'm not sure. I just know I will sooner than later. I can sort of feel, you know." He made an insistent tugging motion behind his head.
"Oh, okay. Well, in any case, walk with me so we can talk! Are you here on a mission? Can other people see you? You're here to warn me about something. No, wait. That wouldn't make sense 'cause you're my past not my future."
"Right. I don't know what's going to happen to you. But I was hoping you could tell me what happens to me."
"Sure!"
"Specifically... I have a question about..." Younger Kise stammered, blushing furiously.
"I'm not a virgin anymore!" Kise declared.
Younger Kise waved both hands frantically. "No not that—! Well, yes, congratulations I guess but argh..."
"What is it?"
"Kurokocchi... he and I... do we... are we...." Younger Kise took a deep breath. "Are we dating?" he practically shouted and then promptly covered his red face.
"Yes!" Kise answered jubilantly.
"Yes?" Younger Kise echoed in tones of disbelief.
"We are!" Kise said emphatically. "Hey, weren't you right down the sidewalk, didn't you see me and Kurokocchi kissing good night?"
"I...I did. I thought I was dreaming."
The two of them continued walking in silence until finally, younger Kise spoke up. "How long?"
"We've been dating for two years now. Kurokocchi and I made it official after high school graduation... H-hey, what's wrong, are you crying?"
Younger Kise looked up, sniffling. He was smiling, though his eyes shone with unshed tears. "I-I'm just so happy. I never thought he'd—I never thought I had a chance with Kurokocchi, you know?"
"I remember thinking that way." Kise rested a hand on his younger self's shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. "But it's not going to get you anywhere. Remember how much Kurokocchi believes in you? Well, you've got to believe in yourself, too. You've got to tell him how you feel."
"But I..." the younger Kise started. His eyes got ever so slightly wider. "I tried that," he went on, softly. "And every single time, Kurokocchi turned me down."
Kise scratched his head. "Well, what did you say?"
"I love you? Please go out with me? I don't know, what am I supposed to say? How do I get it right?" The younger Kise stopped walking and turned to him, tear-filled eyes pleading. "What did you say, then? What did you have to do to get Kurokocchi to fall for you?"
"I didn't have to..."
"What?"
"I...I didn't do anything! I told Kurokocchi how I felt. I didn't have to make him fall for me, he was already in love with me. I only had to gather up the courage to ask..."
"No," the younger Kise said slowly.
"No?" Kise repeated, his turn to be confused.
"I thought this was the future, but I was wrong."
"What do you mean? Of course this is the future. You're...you're me. I'm you."
"But this is not my future." Tears finally rolled down the younger Kise's cheeks and flashed in the lamplight as he shook his head rapidly. "This is a future, but it doesn't belong to me, just like I don't belong here. You are me, but not the same me. We're two separate Kise Ryoutas; I will never become you."
"Wait. Wait, wait. Are you saying one of us isn't real?"
"No, we're real! Both of us. We exist in... in alternate realities or something. We're not meeting across time but, like, across universes."
"This is all starting to make my head hurt," Kise said mournfully.
"I know. It's confusing for me, too. I guess time travel really isn't possible."
"How are you so sure? That we're not...that this isn't..."
"Because of what you said. You said Kurokocchi loves you."
"He does."
"Well, in the universe I'm from, Kurokocchi doesn't love me. We're good friends, but he can't return my feelings, so he ends up turning me down every time I confess to him. He cares for me, and he doesn't want to hurt me, but I'm in love with him, and he doesn't feel the same way."
"So... your Kurokocchi really doesn't love you?"
"He really doesn't." The younger Kise breathes in tremulously and wipes away the tears on his face. "I know he would if he could, but you can't force yourself to love somebody. Just like you can't force yourself not to love somebody."
By now, Kise was crying, too. "It's funny but...somehow I just can't imagine a reality where I don't love Kurokocchi."
"Neither can I."
"I can't imagine one where he doesn't love me either."
"That's...that's where we differ," the younger Kise laughed through his tears.
"I'm sorry," said Kise.
"I'm glad."
"Huh?"
"I don't know why but it's actually really comforting to know that in another universe, Kurokocchi returns my feelings. Kurokocchi says that there are infinite universes and infinite possibilities. I'm so glad that I found this one on my first try."
On impulse, Kise reached out and hugged his younger self from another universe. The younger Kise hugged back, tightly. They stayed like that for a minute before both taking a step back.
"Guess I better go and tell Kagamicchi that we don't have a time machine after all, though I'm pretty sure the whole thing with the alternate universes will blow his mind," the younger Kise said, grinning ruefully.
"Yeah..." Kise found himself grinning as well. "And I bet Kurokocchi will be the one to say, 'I told you so'."
"Oh, he will."
Kise's bus was pulling up to the stop. "I'll be going, too, then." He turned to leave, but not before throwing one last glance over his shoulder. "Best of luck, Kisecchi!" he called back.
He saw the younger Kise for a split second — like a rapidly fading after-image — before he blinked, and the bus stop was empty. If not for the tear stains dampening the front of his jacket, Kise could almost convince himself that he had imagined the entire encounter.
Kise sat down and rummaged around in his pocket. He found his phone and immediately sent a text to Kuroko.
Kurokocchi, I just met myself from another universe. I love you there too!
His phone buzzed with Kuroko's message back.
And I love you, silly. Don't sleep too late!
Kise smiled at the message until it started to blur. He blinked away the tears and read Kuroko's I love you again, bright and clear.
I'm the luckiest Kise Ryouta in all the universes, he wrote. And then he hit send.