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Individual reporting is the thing that Kuroko Tetsuya absolutely hates, not that he finds group reporting great in the slightest because freeloaders are a pain in the ass, and they happen to be given the most mind-boggling topic to talk about in their class presentation and he feels a little lost on where to start.
He needs to report on what is love and how his perceptions have been affected by his consumption of popular culture, along with the concepts they will be discussing for the rest of the semester.
What would a loveless idiot like him know? He, who doesn’t have any romantic experience. He, who barely interacts with anyone aside from his best friend. He, who doesn’t even watch enough romance movies to add something to how he could perceive it.
If he’s allowed to report on any form of love, it would be easier. For one, he can talk about his love for his family, his love for reading, handcrafts, and vanilla shakes. And maybe his love for his best friend will do. But their professor emphasized the reports should be examining romantic love.
“You got an idea on what to do?” Kuroko asks his best friend, Aomine Daiki, who happens to be taking the same class, and of course, would be doing the reporting as well.
“Hmm? I don’t know,” Aomine replies, browsing through his thick philosophy notes, which Kuroko isn’t lucky to get this semester. They have been best friends since middle school and weirdly, not tired of each other after all those years of being stuck in the same school. They might be on different degree programs but they agreed to take the general subjects together at least. They just thought it’d be a good warm-up to university life of having your old best friend around while you’re still figuring your way around the totally new environment.
“This is stupid, Tetsu,” he says under his breath. “Why did we even bother to take this class? Who cares about love and all that shit and why do we have to report on this alone?”
“This is the only class we managed to get together,” he deadpans. It’s not like it was his choice to push through enrollment of this class. Their university makes it hard for them to take up classes, betting on the course slots you add to your temporary schedule like lottery tickets. They select the classes they’re interested in through the university online portal and get the results of the online enlistment a few days after. Physically lining up for it is also an option, but you’d need to be there before the roosters’ cock-a-doodle-doo breaks into the morning. Sucks? Yeah. Totally. Who even thought of a system that is so not student-friendly?
But if you’re oh so desperate of getting a certain class, there is another way— another way that they’d rather swallow dirt from the ground than do it— that is indulging the class in some talent show so the professor would let you enroll in the subject. And there’s no way in hell the two of them would be singing and dancing for those additional three units.
Kuroko looks around, trying to grasp the answers from the sound of the wind through the trees lining up the main avenue of the university.
“Is it like the movies where everything feels in slow motion when you get those moments with them that you’d think you’re looking at them through your phone camera?” Aomine breaks the silence, not looking away from his phone as he scrolls. “You know, movies have those a lot.”
Maybe that’s right, Kuroko thinks. But he can’t really count that when it also happens at the times when he’s with Aomine, like when he brushes his fingers on his blue hair and he can see every hair strand move against his fingernails. Or when he empties his box of banana milk and he feels like he could see every muscle on his throat assisting the liquid on its way down to his stomach.
Maybe that one doesn’t really count as anything romantic after all.
Is it love when you take the smaller slice of the cake?
He and Aomine went to watch a romantic movie a week ago to get some references for their report because the last time Kuroko went to watch something remotely close to the genre is two years ago and his stock knowledge won’t be enough to help him start his report. The lead went on about sharing the bigger piece of the pie and calling it love .
Is it really love though? Because that’s something that he’d also do for his best friend. Whenever they go out to get some cake, Kuroko would almost always unintentionally give Aomine the bigger piece.
“Do you hate cakes, Tetsu?” Aomine asks that Kuroko might have not understood if it isn’t for their almost decade-long friendship. Trying to figure out the words from Aomine speaking with his mouth full is something he’s already used to.
“No? I love cakes, especially this one,” he points to a piece of the decadent chocolate cake they ordered a while ago.
“Huh, I see. You always gave me the bigger portion. I was thinking you don’t like it here. Here, get some more,” he goes back to pay attention to his cake.
What?
Kuroko gives his best friend nervous side glances as the other devours everything on his plate.
Is this what he thinks it is? No, maybe not. There’s no way...
Is it love when you choose to listen to their stories even when you need to go to the bathroom?
Kuroko spends the next few days bothered by the cake thing . It should mean nothing, right?
But he’s wondering why he’s here, listening to Aomine blabbering about his favorite shoes coming in the next month, and is considering to line up before the stock runs out when he should be doing his business in the restroom.
“Tetsu, do you think I should camp outside the store to make sure I can get one?” Aomine asks over the phone.
“Do you really need to be there physically?” he replies, pinching his legs to forget the uneasy feeling. “Can’t you just order online?”
“Their website easily crashes. And I don’t have a credit card.”
Maybe he should add holding his pee for an hour just to listen to his best friend on his list of personal talents, should someone asks him next time.
Is love something so subtle as getting utensils and water for them whenever you eat out?
He adds it to his mental list but deletes it in a minute. He would do it for literally anyone though, not just his best friend. Wait, does he? So that shouldn’t really be an indicator of romantic love’s presence. With frustration building up, he hits his head on the fast-food table, which surprises his companion.
“Everything okay at home?” Aomine inquires, halfway through his cheeseburger.
“Hmm? I guess? Why’d you ask?”
“Stop hitting your head on the table. It’s dirty,” he replies, gently stroking his swelling forehead like he’s a fussy baby being calmed down.
He can feel the heat rising on his cheek with every touch. He must be tinted red as a tomato.
“Do you have a fever now?” he says, caressing his cheeks.
Somehow, Kuroko’s list of love definitions is growing, which should be great if it’s just about his report, but it’s worrying him for personal reasons.
Kuroko feels his heart racing. He must be sick somewhere.
Is it love when you find it hard to look at them in the eye?
They have known each other for almost a decade and maybe Kuroko has been too familiar with his face that he can draw him from memory, even the extra creases on his forehead whenever he spots some lost bee flying around. Staring contests are also where he can defeat Aomine by a landslide. Kuroko is so used to seeing his face and his eyes so why… why does he find it hard to look at him in the eye these days? It has become so hard for him that he blinks and looks away every time their eyes meet.
"Did I do anything that has upset you?" Aomine asks in the middle of their study session at the nearby coffee shop.
"What? Why would I be upset with you? Did you do anything that could upset me?"
"Nothing comes to mind, it's just… maybe it's just me," he says, and they continue with their own stuff for the rest of the evening.
What changed?
Does love include going on random drives with them in the middle of the night?
If there’s anywhere Kuroko should be at the moment, it’s his dorm room studying for his calculus exam, and definitely not inside Aomine’s car, driving to the nearest hill just because he wants to.
“It feels great that we get to do this now that I have a license,” Aomine says as he tries to spot a parking slot around the convenience store. “Let‘s get some soup, do you want anything?”
“You can get me whatever,” he replies.
“Hey, Tetsu," his intense eyes softening into a smile, "thank you for coming with me but is it really alright? Don’t you have anything you need to do?”
“Yeah, I was bored to death in my dorm room anyway.”
He’s such an idiot.
Is it love when they captivate you more than the moonlight does?
The moonlight has always been one of Kuroko’s absolute favorites, he hopes his cheap phone camera could give justice to its beauty so he could keep the memories of its grace forever. Except, lately, Aomine’s smile has been enchanting him more. He wishes he could keep a copy for himself but his hands would shake before he could press that capture button.
“Is anything the matter, Tetsu?” Kuroko’s inner monologue gets interrupted by a poke on his hip.
“Nothing!” he attempts to dismiss it but a yelp comes out of him instead.
“You sure?” Aomine raises an eyebrow at him.
“Would you like to take a picture though?”
He must have lost his mind. But that came out smoother than how he practiced since the weekend.
“That’s so random of you, but okay,” his voice fades as he approaches the nearest glass door and brushes his hair with his fingers.
As he stares at the photo of them together, he gets to confirm how the mere moonlight wouldn’t stand a chance against the glint on his best friend’s face.
Maybe Aomine Daiki’s smile is, actually, his absolute favorite. And maybe it’s a little more dangerous for his sanity when he flashes that smirk a little too much.
Is it love when you find it hard to stop thinking about them?
Bothered by the recent turn of events, Kuroko did a sit-down talk with himself to evaluate what’s up with the accelerating heartbeat whenever he’s around his best friend. That is something that is out of the realm of what normal feels like.
Maybe he already knows the answer but he still refuses to admit it is what he thinks it is. But he can’t fuck up now and have their long-time friendship get ruined in a snap. Aomine is someone he cherishes so much and he isn’t ready to gamble on some stupid feelings and get things awkward between them for the rest of their lives.
“You’ve been acting weird these days. Are you sure everything’s okay at home?”
“Home? Yeah..? They’ve been forgetting to give me a call but it’s not like it matters.”
Aomine lightly squeezes his shoulders, “if anything happens, you know I’m a call away.”
He got the best friend in the world and he wouldn’t take a risk to lose this.
Does love include wanting to be a better person for them?
Showing his love through the usual means isn’t an option, but what he can do is to become a better person, with Aomine continuously inspiring his endeavors even without him knowing. Someone his best friend would be proud of.
“Are you happy about me being your best friend?” ah, shit. It slipped out of his mouth. That was something meant to be left in his thoughts.
“What’s up with the sudden question?” Aomine is caught off-guard, almost slipping into the library hallway. “Yeah? I guess?”
Maybe he can start with something small like acing this final project. Then ace his other subjects. And perhaps graduate with honors, get a decent job, earn some money, and force his parents to early retirement.
Does love include wanting to watch their back as they walk away from you?
He never thought he always had this unconscious fascination with his back, purposely walking slower just so he could get that view, the only view that is allowed for him. Because walking side-by-side Aomine isn’t an option for him.
“Would you be getting me as your best man when you get married?”
Aomine can’t help choking on his banana milk. “You’re getting weird these days, Tetsu,” he answers, lightly wiping the milk that got into his best friend’s sweater.
Maybe (only) getting to be his best man in the future isn’t so bad. He is Aomine Daiki’s best friend after all.
Would it count when you do a little too much for them?
Kuroko knows he’s an idiot. But maybe he’s been doing a little too much for him. He shouldn’t be taking notes on the classes Aomine chose to skip just so he could sleep some more or volunteer to do his part in the cleanup drive required for their club application.
“Are you really the Kuroko Tetsuya who is my best friend?”
“What gives?” he deadpans, his thoughts cruising somewhere else.
“You… would sneak out on our assigned cleaning days in high school and I had to do all the work but now you… are volunteering to pick up seaside trash?”
"Just think of it as a payback."
It’s hard how he has to experience that italicized ‘oh’ moment and be conscious of his actions around him. Especially when he has tendencies of overdoing things.
Maybe Kuroko is really just an idiot.
Time flies too fast with the semester finally ending and his first semester as a university student was like a ride from hell, the bags under his eyes getting worse on each passing day of their finals week. But this is his last requirement then he can lock himself in his dorm room and not come out for the rest of the week. The dreaded individual reporting is already knocking on his doorstep. Aomine comes in first, which can get a little nerve-racking, but his agony wouldn’t get prolonged, unlike Kuroko who has to present last.
His turn finally comes and he starts with explaining how different popular culture depicts love in the current era versus a hundred years ago, following it up with how it has affected his perceptions and the implications on the other consumer’s appreciation of the abstract feeling and the material. Everything is going smoothly, maybe he can ace this after all.
He starts concluding his presentation, making sure to make eye contact with his professor then his classmates. And of course, his eyes can’t not land on his blue-haired best friend that has given him a lot of insights on how he should be proceeding with his report, with a bonus of heartbeats going too fast for his own weak body. “I got to learn what is love because love is… you, Aomine Daiki.”
Ah, shit . He fucked up. Big time. If the ground is still interested to swallow him up, now would be a good time. Loud gasps start echoing the walls of the conference room. He made a quick bow and went to grab his backpack and dashed outside. He has never run this fast in his whole life. He can only hope Aomine is still left stunned and unable to follow him out.
Would his parents get upset if he asks about changing universities? Can he even transfer in the middle of the school year? Maybe? But would any university even accept him? His grades are just so-so.
His train of thought gets interrupted by someone grabbing his wrist, then enveloping him in a hug, a familiar touch that he has been craving on his skin.
“I thought it was just me. I'm so happy, Tetsu,” his hug getting tighter by the moment. Kuroko isn’t sure if he’s breathless from the hug or from processing this new information. But this is great. Or anything better than what great could mean.
He was worried for nothing. But he got the right answer he needed, slipping right out of his tongue. His very own definition of love is right here in his arms, planting kisses on the top of his head.
Maybe his first semester wasn’t so bad after all.