Chapter Text
The boy looks down at his feet and the shoe he’s holding in his hands. His dad told him to put his shoes on so they could go to his first day of kindergarten, but… which foot was this supposed to go one again? It feels like both, but that means it’ll end up on the ground, right? He holds the shoes out in front of him. He still can’t tell which one is supposed to go on his left foot and which one is supposed to go on his right foot.
He then hears his dad rushing down the step above him down to where he’s sitting before the front door.
“Tetsu, did you get your shoes on yet?” Kagami asks as he sits down beside the young boy to put his own shoes on.
“Not yet,” the young, blue-haired boy answers his father. He continues to stare down at his shoes and a crease slowly starts to form on his forehead along with a pout on his lips.
“Do you need help?” Kagami asks as he finishes tying his own shoes.
“No,” the young boy says stubbornly.
The young boy then realizes that just boring holes into his shoes by staring at them will in no way help them get onto his feet. So he grabs the first shoe and slides it onto his right foot. It feels a little weird, somewhat different, but it’s not uncomfortable. He then takes his other shoe and slides it onto his other foot. Now he just has to figure out how to tie them.
As he holds a shoelace each in one hand he feels his father nudge him and whisper over his shoulder.
“Tetsu, do those feel right on your feet?” His dad asks him.
“Yes,” the boy answers simply. Then he looks down at his feet. Now that he thinks about it, they feel… off somehow.
Kagami chuckles as he can see his son is confused by what could be wrong. “Here, let me help you,” he says as he takes off the boy’s shoes and puts them on the correct feet.
This action causes the boy's eyes to widen in understanding. “Oh,” he says, realizing the mistake he had made.
“You put them on the wrong feet,” Kagami says as he finishes tying the laces of the boy’s shoes. Once finished, he pays the boy on his small shoulder and stands up. “You have everything right? Backpack? Lunch?”
“Yep, right here,” Tetsuya says as he lifts his backpack off the floor and threads his arms through the straps so that it rests on his back. His dad and him had packed it last night, going through a checklist of everything the boy would need for his first day of kindergarten. Kagami had even let Tetsuya help make his lunch for the next day.
“Alright then, let’s get you to school,” Kagami says, turning around and walking through the front door of their house. The little boy follows along behind his father.
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“Ryouta! Get back here!” Aomine yells from the bedroom as his son runs down the hallway. “You need to put a shirt on!”
Aomine hears his son running and making a ruckus down the hall. He sighs as he stands up and leaves his son’s bedroom, intending to catch him so he can finish getting dressed. “If you want to go to Kindergarten, you need to put a shirt on!” He yells at the boy as his son again runs through his arms and around his legs, evading his father.
“No!” The boy shouts back. “You have to catch me first!”
“I am going to catch you,” growls Aomine calmly, stalking forwards down the hallway and reaching for his son. The boy giggles and leaps into his arms, causing his father to stumble forward slightly. “See? I told you I would catch you.” He laughs. Aomine proceeds to carry his son down the hallway back to Ryouta’s bedroom, plopping the boy on his bed. Aomine sighs as he holds his son down, preventing him from escaping a second time.
“Now don’t you run off like that,” he says in an almost threatening voice. The little boy giggles as he stares up at his father with wide eyes and smiles. Aomine can't help but smile back fondly. “Why are you laughing? Do you have a tickle spot or something?” He asks as he begins to pat at his son.
The boy starts to laugh harder, trying desperately to hide behind his hands but Aomine won't let him. He continues to pat and rub his son's sides until Ryouta has no choice but to reveal himself, face still hiding behind his hands.
Finally Aomine stops and pulls away from the young child. “Alright,” he begins. “Let’s get dressed and get some breakfast in you, then we can take you to kindergarten.”
Ryouta lets out a long sigh as he gives up and gets dressed for the day. Once dressed he climbs past his father and runs out of the bedroom to the small kitchen of the apartment. “Daddy! I want pancakes!” The boy screams as he rounds the corner.
“Pancakes?” Aomine asks as he goes back to his own room to finish getting dressed himself. He had to finish getting his police officer uniform on before either of them could go anywhere. Aomine also had to make sure everything was correct, as he has a meeting with one of the precinct leaders today. “Why do you want pancakes?! You barely have any food when you eat, let alone enough to eat so much.”
“Well…” the small boy starts before trailing off at the sound of his father coming through the living room.
“How much time do you think we have?” Aomine asks, sighing as he comes out of his room and walks into the kitchen behind the little blond.
“But you promised,” Ryouta pouts as he gazes up at his father. He applies his tried a true tactic of getting him to do whatever he wants: puppy eyes. Only this time, the boy isn’t as lucky as he usually is.
Turning his sight away from the young boy’s eyes, Aomine looks up at the kitchen clock. They have twenty minutes before Ryouta needs to be dropped off at kindergarten. They’re alright late. Shit. “Sorry buddy, but we really don’t have time,” Aomine tells the child. “In fact, we’re already late, go get your shoes on,” he directs his son out of the kitchen and to the front door of thier apartment.
“But breakfast?” Ryouta asks, concerned about his food.
Aomine does a quick glance of the kitchen and spots an apple laying on the counter. He grabs it and tosses it to the blonde boy now standing by the door. “You can eat that on the way! Now get your shoes on! We need to go!”
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Kagami looks down at his son, Tetsuya, who at this point was hiding behind his legs. They were standing across the street from the entrance to the kindergarten, and Kagami should have known that something like this would have happened once they got here.
“What are you doing, Tetsuya?” he asked softly, looking over his shoulder. The young boy stood there with a hand covering his face, eyes wide, as if scared of what he was seeing. The sight made Kagami laugh nervously. “C’mon buddy, it’s okay. Nothing bad will happen, I promise! You were looking forward to this last night, maybe you can play with some blocks. I'm sure they have blocks. You like playing blocks, right? Right?” He crouched down in front of his son’s small form and placed one of his hands on each side of his head, rubbing them slowly.
Then Kagami felt a pair of arms wrapping around his stomach, hugging him tightly, and he knew then that things had gone downhill already. While he may have seemed excited about his first day of kindergarten last night, deep down Tetsuya was a shy kid. And he hated meeting new people.
Kagami sighs as he lifts his son up from the ground and sits him on his hip. He then turned to face the kindergarten entrance across the street, telling Tetsuya, “it will be fine, now let’s go and meet your teacher, okay?”
The boy hums out a sound as he buries his head into the gap between his father’s shoulder and neck. Kagami takes that as good as a “yes” that he would get and proceeds to cross the street.
Then the two approach the entrance to the kindergarten, surrounded by both younger children with their parents and the teachers, Kagami sees a figure approach the group, running from down the street.
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“Come on Ryouta! We’re going to be late!” Aomine tells his son as the two of them race down the street. At this point, Aomine had planned on having already dropped his son off at the kindergarten and be half way on his way to the police station. If there was one day he had to be on time, it was today.
But as usual, Ryouta made his plans fall into complete disarray. First it was taking forever to get dressed, causing Aomine to only be able to hand him some fruit for breakfast. Then Ryouta made it a point to walk slowly as he ate his breakfast. Why is it that the kid only takes his time to do things slowly when he is eating? The kid makes no sense sometimes.
"Dad, slow down," the blonde haired boy whines as his father pulls him along down the sidewalk. Aomine was navigating through the busy streets of Tokyo, pulling Ryouta along behind him. Two more blocks and a turn to go before they made it to the entrance of the kindergarten. "Dad, Wait!" Ryouta yells out to catch Aomine's attention.
"What now?" The man asks, sighing as he begrudgingly stops his fast pace. They really didn’t have any more time to waste.
“We forgot my backpack at home. It has my lunch,” the boy mumbles out quietly.
Well shit.
Aomine racks his brain on what to do. They definitely don’t have time to go back to their apartment. But he certainly can’t send his son into school without a lunch, on the first day no less. Aomine does a quick look around them and spots a convenience store a block down the road. It looks like he’ll have to buy something quick from there. Aomine is slowly coming to the realization that no matter how hard he tries now, he is not going to be arriving at work on time.
Aomine sighs as he lifts the boy up and places him on his hip. He doesn’t have time right now for the boy’s small steps to slow him down. Once situated, he sprints down the street and into the convenience store. Taking a quick glance around the store, he grabs the first bento he sees and runs to the counter to pay for it. As the cashier is completing the transaction, Aomine looks down at his son’s face. “This is gonna be your lunch today,” he says, grabbing the bento and rushing out the door.
“But I don’t like this one,” Ryouta whines as he looks at the box. “It has carrots.”
“Well then don’t waste our time tomorrow morning,” Aomine gruffs back in response. Turning the corner, Aomine finally sees the entrance of the kindergarten, surrounded by gaggles of parents and young children. He hopes he can get Ryouta checked in quickly.
Standing in line, Aomine sees a tall red haired figure standing on the other side of the group. He looks over and recognizes the man. He’s one of those firefighters from across town. Getting a closer look at the man, not only is one of those firefighters, the man himself is just unbearable. Did he have a kid going here too? He hopes not.
Getting Ryouta’s attention, Aomine points at the man. “You see that guy over there? Stay away from him and his kids.”
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Hours later, Aomine is stewing in his squad car. Like he suspected, he didn’t arrive at work on time this morning. Causing what should have been a good meeting with his boss to him being yelled at for an hour. He really had to get a handle on teaching Ryouta what it meant to be ‘on time’ to things. This wasn’t the first time that he had been late because of Ryouta, but Aomine hoped it would be the last. Sighing, Aomine receives a call over the radio, telling him to head over to a car crash to take witness statements. He grumbles as he moves the car towards the direction of the crash.
Once he arrives Aomine spots that the fire truck had already arrived and was helping the car passengers. Regulations called for firefighters and EMTs to go to each report of a car accident. ‘Just in case’ the policy makers said.
Walking out of his car, Aomine sees three civilians sitting on the back of an ambulance. They must be the car passengers. He also doesn’t see any noticeable injuries besides a bandage on one of their foreheads, so they must not be too injured. Aomine hopes this means he can get their statements now and quickly finish the report for this. He wanted something to go right today after all.
Aomine walks past the fire truck to reach the back of the ambulance. While doing so, he hears one of the firefighters on board say “Oh, it appears Mister Police Man is late again.”
Aomine stops his walk and turns to the voice that spoke. He immediately spots the redhead on top of the truck. “This guy again,” Aomine sighs. Aomine debates himself on whether he should just keep walking to talk to the witnesses or turn and address the firefighters. He really wants to approach those guys, but he also knows that will just lead him into more trouble, and any more trouble is the last thing he needs today.
Deciding to ignore them, Aomine heads back to where he left his squad car. A few minutes later, he returns with two notepads in hand. As he makes his way back from the car, Aomine hears a different firefighter say, “Oh, He's definitely late again! Trying to act like he’s not!”
“So not only are you late, you also forget things,” another man says, this time much closer to Aomine. It’s the first time Aomine has heard anyone with a voice that deep and
calming. He’s instantly attracted to it. But then his brain processes what exactly the voice said.
Aomine jerks his head forward and meets the dark red eyes of the annoying firefighter who had called out to him earlier.
“Don't you idiots have anything better to do?” Aomine asks, eyes narrowed as he glares at the red haired firefighter in front of him. “Like save some cats from trees or something?”
The firefighter just smirks back at Aomine, “Wow, how original, I've never heard that one before,” he says sarcastically.
At that, Aomine pushes the firefighter aside to walk past him to the waiting ambulance. “Just let me do my job,” Aomine huffs as he walks away from the firefighters and thier truck. He hopes this is the last time for a while he has to deal with them. But knowing his luck, it probably won’t be.
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Kagami arrives at the kindergarten later in the afternoon to pick Kuroko up. And surprisingly, he finds that the quiet boy had made a friend. He had been worried that the boy's shyness would lead him to being picked on or ignored by the other kids, but it appears his worries are unfounded. He sees the small blue haired boy sitting on a slide chatting with another blonde haired kid.
Nodding to one of the kindergarten teachers, Kagami enters the playground area and approaches his son. When the boy sees his father walking over, he stands up from his sitting position on the end of the slide and runs over to his father holding out his arms.
When he reaches Kagami, the man lifts him up and places the small boy on his hip. He looks at his face and asks, “How was your day, Tetsuya? I see you made a friend?”
The blue haired boy nods in response “His name is Ryouta.”
Said blonde boy stands up and walks over to the two.
Kagami turns his head and gives him an acknowledging nod before returning his attention back to his son. “So what did you two do today?”
Tetsuya points in the direction of the slides and says “He let me push his car!”
A smile appears on the redhead’s lips as he turns back to look at Ryouta who has sat down on his side of the slide waiting for his turn to talk. The blonde child had his arm crossed resting on the edge of the slide next to him as he watched Kagami.
“What else did you do?” Kagami asks.
A wide smile spreads across Tetsuya’s face. Tetsuya proceeds to tell his father everything he had done that day, while Ryouta bursts in with his own comments from time to time. Eventually, Kagami is able to tell Tetsuya that it is time to go home, they still have to cook dinner, after all.
“But Ryouta’s parents aren't here yet,” the blue haired boy says.
“Don't worry!” Ryouta screams from beside the boy. “My dad will be here soon, I’ll just go play with some others until he gets here!”
After that statement, the red and blue haired boys watch as Ruouta runs across the playground, proceeding to interrupt whatever game the other kids are playing.
Kagami reaches down to grab the younger boy's hand. “Let's go home, then,” he says to his son, who nods and proceeds to drag his father out of the playground. Kagami had been worried earlier that Tetsuya would have difficulties making friends due to his quiet nature, but it appears his worries were unnecessary, and his son was more outgoing than he originally thought.
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Not only was Aomine late in getting to work, it seems he is late in leaving work as well today. He only hopes that Ryouta won't be too worried when he picks him up. That boy will worry about anything, and if he's late Ryouta will come up with a thousand different horrible reasons as to why.
Approaching the kindergarten entrance, Aomine sees another mother and child just leaving, so it can't be too late. He just hopes he is not the last person to pick up their child. But seeing as how Ryouta is sitting alone on one of the swings, it seems that Aomine is the last parent to pick up their child.
“Hey, Ryouta! I'm here!” Aomine yells out from across the gate.
Upon hearing his father’s greeting, the child’s blonde head jerks up. Seeing his father, Ryouta jumps up from the swing and he runs over. “Dad! You're late!” he yells.
“Sorry, sorry,” Aomine says, ightly chuckling as he walks through the gate.
Upon his arrival, one of the kindergarten workers comes out and greets him. After exchanging a few words with them, Aomine gathers Ryouta and turns to leave. “Just don't let this become a habit, Mr. Aomine,” the teacher says as the father and son make their exit.
“Yeah,” Aomine says, more to himself, as he turns to leave. “Hopefully it doesn't become that.”