Chapter Text
They say the third time’s a charm, but…exactly who is the lucky one in this?
(Eh…An AU where Kagami never came back for Middle School, but rather (unnecessarily) for University.)
“How do you take your coffee?”
Taiga looked up, confused, staring at deep blue eyes of a person he has never seen before.
“Personally, I can’t take it bitter. Something sweet with all that whip cream is good. How about you?”
Taiga raised an eyebrow. This six foot something, lumbering dark skinned male, balancing a well-cared for green and black basketball against a jutting hip, smiled benevolently, teeth and all. “You don’t like it bitter?”
"Nu-uh." the smile at the edges was getting a little strained, shifting closer together in the centre.
"I like it bitter. Sweet’s not bad, though."
The conversation was a little weird, but the resulting smile on the other was beatific.
Taiga remembers the smile very well.
“How do you like your ramen noodles?”
If he was not thoroughly engrossed in his slurping, Taiga would have choked enough that the Heimlich manoeuvre would have been lost on him. Thankfully, he has mastered the art of shovelling food in his mouth, breathing and talking all in the same breath.
“Personally, I like them soggy, and can’t touch the soup when they first put it down, ya know? How about—” the male, Aomine Daiki as Taiga has come to know, halted as he took in the half-finished meal. “…You’ve…already finished everything?”
Taiga slurped the rest in what seemed like one too large a mouthful. “I’m still hungry,” he confessed, gazing at the menu board across from where he sat. The mere fact that Aomine was also at the same ramen bar was a little off-putting, but not that suspicious; they were after all at the same campus, and the ramen bar was on said campus as well, it just made their second meeting a coincidence.
"So…you like ramen?"
Taiga considered the question—if he did not like it, would he have still eaten it?—and glanced over at the eager-puppy looking Aomine. “Sure, what’s not to like?”
"Me too!" Aomine sidled beside him, ignoring the age old rule of leaving a seat between them empty, elbows on the bar surface. The grin on his lips felt wider than the first time he had seen it.
"I guess as long as it has meat, I don’t care," Taiga felt like offering.
This time, however, the sweet curve of lips turned a little wilder, as though imagining a hungry beast, Taiga thought he finally caught Aomine as anything but the too-tall-to-really-be-a-little bunny in an (aptly) big wolf’s clothing, for the beast he really was. Taiga blinked a couple of times wondering if his estimation was a little off and if he was finally confused by these Japanese people.
"I know; fried chicken is the best!"
"Hmm?" Leaning on his open palm, Taiga watches as Aomine engages on a verbal quest where he traverses the best places to get said best meat. He will never agree openly, but Taiga did mentally jot down the names and found himself checking a few of the places in the coming weeks.
Thankfully, Aomine was not happening across those places.
"Aren’t these burgers to die for?!"
Taiga, at this point, should not be surprised to find Aomine inviting himself to his table, easily flumping onto the empty seat across from him. He would have sprouted words like "People will think we are friends, move" but he has just started on his mountain of burgers and he has been thinking of cheeseburgers since his second morning class. By the end of the fourth class (he had to take Calculus this semester if he was to take any of his advanced biology papers next semester), his stomach was doing the note-taking and that was not as fun as eating what he was doodling.
"Yea, was craving it from morning," he agreed through munches.
Aomine grinned cheekily. “What else are you craving now?” It seemed that he was unfazed by the amount Taiga was putting away, especially since the Ramen bar incident—Aomine’s eyes never left his gut.
Taiga shrugged in response. “I wanted cheeseburgers and now I’ve got them. I’m not so greedy to want more than I can eat.”
The suspicious look Aomine tried hiding said otherwise, and Taiga was just waiting to snap at any of his comebacks. Instead, Aomine merely chuckled and pointed at the slowly dwindling pile. On a reflex, Taiga’s free arm curved around his tray.
Aomine’s eyes twinkled. “I like their teriyaki better, has more flavour.”
Shrugging again—Taiga was not changing flavours because of some dude that kept meeting him coincidentally in every joint he had the opportunity to be eating in—he looked out of the window, watching random seeming people stream endlessly by. The reflexion of Aomine staring at him wordlessly, arm returning back to his side of the table, jaw firm, made Taiga turn back.
"They say…once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. Third time is enemy action." Aomine blinked blue eyes at him, wider than usual. "What exactly do you want from me?" Taiga was sure he was glaring enough to send anyone else with a soft spine scampering home, pants wet.
The bustle of the fast food joint blanketed the shock of Aomine’s uneasy gasp. As though mustering courage (for what, Taiga does not know), he starts to ramble. “I’ve seen you around the campus, ya know. Heard you were in America all this while, playing in their U-19 until last year. Your team won the FIBA and all that. So I was interested enough to check you out.”
Suddenly, it was all making sense. Taiga was being appraised by a (probably good) basketball player who had heard about his transfer, and was also (probably) wanting to have a one-on-one with. Grinning, pulse increasing with excitement, Taiga leaned over his now empty tray. Aomine, matching the enthusiasm, meets him the rest of the way.
"And?" Taiga goads.
Aomine grins, all teeth again. It is the second grin that Taiga remembers of the man.
"I wanted to know…how do you take your lover?"
It took a few seconds for the question to register in Taiga’s food-satiated mind, and then the “Wha-?” of the situation to hit him.
"I don’t know what-"
Aomine leaned even further, and before Taiga could get back, stole a soft, close-mouthed kiss. “Hehe,” the grinning male had the gall to enunciate, “I asked, how do you take your lover, Kagami Taiga?”
The impression of the third grin was probably the start of all his stolen moments, courtesy of one Aomine Daiki, preferred love-choice of Kagami Taiga.
Author's End Notes: I flaked on the ending. Forgive me.
(Oh right, Disclaimer: Ian Fleming — Goldfinger (1959) — Auric Goldfinger: Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” Miami, Sandwich and now Geneva. I propose to wring the truth out of you.)