Chapter Text
There were two reoccurring thoughts stuck in Aomine’s head. The same two things constantly playing back over and over like a broken record player.
The first being basketball, no true shock to anyone that was familiar to him. Basketball in general was something the man lived and breathed. The betrayal he felt when he surpassed everyone else could hardly rival the love he felt for the game. The way the orange sphere felt in his hands. The rough skin, the familiar sound it made as it bounced along a court. Even the smell was something he had grown accustomed to through the years.
The second, was a mystery to Aomine himself. He was never sure when this thought had originally popped up. He wasn’t originally sure exactly why, either. Nevertheless, the same blonde boy he’d known since middle school would pop up, out of the blue, into his mind. Daiki would see him in everything. In the ever present rays of the sunlight streaming through the classroom window. In the golden dandelions he walked past every day to get to school. Kise would materialise into his head and it confused him to no end.
It wasn’t until his third year of high school that he asked himself.
‘What do you like more? Basketball or Kise?’
When he searched for the answer, it became unbelievably clear to him.
Aomine knew he was selfish, at the best of times. So he hardly surprised himself when the only truthful answer he could give himself was both.
Even he could admit that he did seem infatuated with the blonde.
It appeared that none other than Aomine Daiki was in love Kise Ryouta and he had a say in none of it.
---
The winter cup approached steadily. The final one Aomine will ever play in. Despite Momoi’s teasing about how his grades were so bad he might actually have to hang around for another year. Daiki had managed to barely pass his exams and the two of them were finally graduating Touou Academy in a number of weeks. No matter how many times he would deny it, he couldn’t help feeling a little bit nostalgic. This was where he felt the itching pain of losing. Where he experienced the thrill of finally having an opponent that could match his skill. It felt like forever since then. So much, yet so little had changed. After their first year of high school, the Generation of Miracles did see each other more. Whether it was the iron will of Satsuki, or just common sense. The group usually ended up gathering after their own team practices and hung out every so often. Almost like clockwork, the group returned to their same routine from middle school. Aomine could have sworn nothing had changed, except for the new, loud addition to the group. Kuroko had apparently felt the need to invite Kagami to their little meetings for some reason. (Much to Akashi’s noticeable dismay). Daiki couldn’t help but noticed that the small, blue shadow seemed to be taking a more than scientific liking to the guy.
But maybe that was just Aomine’s imagination.
Not that he particularly cared, anyway.
The one downside to seeing his old team mates was the constant reminder to not do anything weird in front of Kise. If he slipped up and did something even remotely caring for the blonde, his feelings would become known. He really couldn’t have that. Especially not after they’d only just started seeing each other regularly again.
His presumably unrequited feelings, regardless. Many of their afternoons were spent playing one-on-one’s on a street basketball court after everyone had left. Taunting each other just like they used to, it felt like magic.
Aomine had already decided he would hide his feelings. It wasn’t a hard decision at all, no matter how much it stung. When he didn’t allow himself to brush a stray hair out of the boy’s amber eyes, or throw an arm around him as casually as he used to. It was all he had sacrificed to make sure his love would go unnoticed. It was odd for someone as straight forward as Aomine to hide something like this. It was just that Daiki was absolutely certain that Ryouta wouldn’t reciprocate his feelings. The boy was far too interested in flirting with his beloved fans, and such. Besides, it would mess everything up if he confessed. After the blonde rejected him, Kise probably wouldn’t even want to talk to him again. So, though it pained him, the teen just simply settled for ‘friends.’
Erasing the possibility his feelings could be returned.
As if fate was against him, it was announced that Kaijo and Touou would be playing against each other in the semi-finals of the winter cup. A wicked move that had Aomine praying it didn’t turn out like the inter high of their first year. He regretted not taking Kise’s hand back then, he regretted leaving him there. He could only hope he didn’t make the same mistake again.
Knowing Aomine, it was highly likely he would.
---
“I’m planning on winning this time, Aominecchi.” Kise remarked, meeting Daiki’s blue eyes as the blonde made his way across the court. His shoes making that well-known squeak on the floor, the sound that had been imprinted on Aomine’s mind for a long time now. That golden hair of his always seemed to shine like nothing else imaginable. It was obvious that Kise’s words were not a lie, not to him anyway. The teen fully believed that he would win.
Aomine smirked, amused at the notion. “As if,” He stared Kise down with the very same confident look he always had just before a game. He looked like a fierce panther, hunting for his next prey. “The only one that can beat me, is me.” The words tasted bittersweet in his mouth.
---
As the final buzzer went, it was Daiki’s words that rang true. Touou had come out victorious, beating Kaijo with one last formless shot from none other than Aomine himself. He grinned, the excitement of challenging Seirin for the winter cup bubbling in his veins. The thrill of another win already energising his entire body and soul.
He couldn’t help feeling ever so slightly melancholic, however. His win had been a fair one, yet he couldn’t shake the bad premonition in his mind.
As he finally noticed, what his creeping suspicion had warned him about. The young basketballer couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming surge of déjà vu.
There sat Kise Ryouta, his old team mate, his rival, and his true love. Just as he did their first year. Under the basketball hoop, with his long arms dangling down onto the gleaming maple floor. Completely exhausted, unable or unwilling to move on his own.
Daiki remembered all the feelings he had had the first time this had happened. It was something likened to disappointment, or possibly jealousy. The sight of the blonde, on the ground. Looking completely defeated, just like everyone else Aomine had ever faced. He was angry that no one could beat him, at his own power. Upset that the game he had been strongly anticipating had fallen short of something so much greater than it could have been. He was envious that Kise got to feel loss before he did, that he had a proper opponent to face. All these emotions combined into something ugly, something he was ashamed to show anyone. He left the court, leaving Ryouta on the floor. Without looking back once.
The painful nostalgia of this whole scene had Aomine’s heart squeezing in his chest. There was none of those feelings this time. Could it have been that now he had felt the torment of losing, his feelings had changed? Could it be because this time he was certain that the very person he was in love with, was holding back tears of anguish on the ground because of him?
Daiki saw his team’s eyes on him as he walked past them. All of the third years, fully aware of what had happened two years back. The agonising seconds it took him to make his way to Kise’s side went on for what felt like hours.
As he finally approached the blonde, he held out his hand. As he should have the first time.
Ryouta’s golden eyes, met blue ones as the two met each other’s gazes.
There were no words exchanged, everything had been said through the different looks they had given each other.
Aomine lingers on the touch, his hands staying entwined with Kise’s for a few seconds too long. Whether they both noticed or not, no one mentioned anything.
The world slowed down ever so slightly as the scene played out. Ryouta still held onto Daiki’s hand, whether it was for support, or something else, the dark haired basketballer couldn’t care less.
It would have been so easy just to kiss him in that moment.
It was Kise who broke the silence, finally smashing through the quiet barrier they had put up together. Flashing a put-together smile, flicking his hair to the side. Aomine could see right through him, as if the boy was made of glass. The whole action seemed… forced, plastic. A typical Kise move, putting up a façade for the public.
He finally let go of Daiki’s hand. Those gold eyes of his, holding a dark emotion behind them.
“Good game, Aominecchi.”
---
“Dai-Chan? Everyone else has left, what are you still doing here?” the familiar voice of Momoi Satsuki brought Aomine out of his reverie. He had been sitting in the locker room, for God knows how long, staring hopelessly at a wall.
Daiki didn’t answer her.
“You look pretty awful for someone who just won.” The pink haired girl approached the basketballer cautiously.
A half-hearted, sarcastic, “Thanks,” was all that was returned.
A few beats of silence past as Momoi’s dark pink eyes analysed her childhood friend. Usually, Aomine would tell her to stop, it was awfully creepy the way she stared at him like that. These odd ‘psychic powers’ of hers always got under the teen’s skin. Right now however, he just didn’t have the energy.
Momoi opened her mouth, then closed it again. Almost like she decided against what she was about to say. Once again quiet enveloped the two of them.
Satsuki seemed to be having a mind battle with herself as she fought with the right words.
Finally, she shook her head and took a deep breath.
“Does this have something to do with Ki-Chan?”
‘Bingo.’
Aomine had almost expected it.
Almost.
“No, Satsuki, go away.” The boy said, far too quickly for it to be true.
“You’re lying. If it’s about Ki-Chan, you should really see him before Kaijo leaves.”
“So what if I am lying? Leave me alone.” Aomine snapped, ignoring the latter part of her words.
“I don’t want to argue, Dai-Chan. Take my advice or don’t, whatever. But if you really like Ki-Chan, you have to do something about it.”
‘That woman was far too observant for her own good.’
“I’m going to go out for some fresh air,” The teen muttered stiffly.
Aomine stood, his back to the pink haired manager. Saying nothing else as he exited the locker room.
‘Maybe she’s right.’
‘Of course she’s right.’
There would be no way in hell he would admit that though.
Almost on auto-pilot, Daiki found himself wandering all over the stadium in search of a familiar blonde head of hair. He had no intentions to confess his feelings to Kise, no matter how far Satsuki pried, there would be no convincing Aomine to do that. As his steps grew more disoriented he found himself think about that synthetic smile Kise had used. How his eyes were twitching, like he was holding back tears. The loss had shaken the blonde more than usual and the teen had to know why.
Naturally, after a while. Aomine had washed up at the basketball courts outside. The street lights just beginning to flick on, as the cold night breeze nipped at his tanned skin. There he had found him, sitting alone clutching a basketball on the side of a court. His shoulders hunching, an uncharacteristic move for one such as Kise. Who always somehow managed to look elegant wherever he was.
There were drops of hesitation leaking out of Daiki’s steps as he made his way over. His sneakers felt heavy, crunching in the gravel, the only noise in the whole world for him right now. Aomine felt his body moving for him, while his mind screamed at him to turn back before he did something he would regret.
Aomine wasn’t really one to think, anyways.
“Oi Kise, the hell are you still doing here?”
He saw the teen’s posture stiffen, completely freezing in place. As Daiki walked to face him. Ryouta sniffled, his hands angrily brushing away a stray tear that had fallen on his face.
‘How was he this beat up after one stupid game?’
Aomine couldn’t remember him being this bad ever before.
“The hell are you crying for?”
Daiki just wasn’t one for subtlety, you see.
The blonde’s eyebrows screw up, almost like he was wondering why Aomine had asked such an absurd question.
“Because I lost,” Kise looked at the boy miserably.
“Yeah,” Daiki rolled his eyes, “I know that,” he mumbled, plonking himself down next to the blonde. The slight brush of their shoulders sending electric shocks down Aomine’s spine. “A lot of people lose to me.”
Kise snorted, an action that made his teary state worsen. A gross blob of snot falling down his nose.
Aomine bit back a laugh as he saw the boy desperately try to cover it up. His cheeks going a different kind of pink than they had before.
“I just thought it would turn out different,” Ryouta sulked, curling in on himself.
“Oh, stop sulking, Kise!” The tanned boy scowled as he slapped a hand on the blonde’s shoulder. “You can lose to me next time too.”
He felt Ryouta shake beside him.
“Don’t you understand, Aominecchi!” Kise whispered furiously, standing from his previous position so quickly it was like a flash. Looking at the other basketballer with helpless eyes. “There isn’t going to be a next time,” The blonde’s voice caught, tears freely running down his face. Kise kept rubbing at his eyes, begging them to stop leaking.
‘He always was an ugly crier.’
Aomine followed Kise’s actions, him too standing up again. He looked at the man sadly, knowing full well that he was completely right.
After the winter cup, what more would they all see of each other?
Aomine had been scouted by the national basketball team, alongside Kagami. Midorima had gotten accepted into some prestigious university Osaka. Akashi was going to take up his father’s business, never going to be in the same country once, most likely. Kuroko had already begun studying for college entrance exams. Murasakibara had even decided that he wanted to be a pastry chef, apparently.
That left the group of newly reacquainted friends with none too many options.
In fact, only one seemed probable.
The Generation Of Miracles would be no longer.
The thought made ice water fill Aomine’s veins.
“… I guess you’re right about that, Kise,” Daiki’s voice wavered, on the verge of cracking his composure he looked down to the ground. “Man, this sucks,” The dark blue haired man sniffled, feeling his tough exterior shattering to pieces.
He had been hit in the face with reality, and reality hit pretty damn hard.
“Aominecchi…” Kise hadn’t anticipated the other boy to care at all. Let alone let a tear fall. Ryouta knew him better than anyone else and yet the teen could still surprise him. “Yeah, it really does suck,”
“I’m going to miss our one-on-ones,” Ryouta blubbered, not caring about how pitiful he looked. Because right now, his world was almost collapsing in on him.
“Hey, it’s not like we’ll never see each other again,” Daiki reasoned, trying to find the will to smile.
The other teen, returned his smile with a sad grin. Shaking his head so agonizingly slowly that it felt like a snail’s pace.
“We’re going to be on different sides of the country. You’ll be playing against people way stronger than me. We’ll say that we will keep in touch, but that’s a promise no-one can keep. You’ll see me in a magazine, I’ll see you on TV. We’ll mention something about each other to a spouse or a friend. Never going further than that. The next thing you know, it will be ten years later. We will run into each other in a supermarket or something, you’ll pretend you don’t notice me, and I’ll do the same thing. We’d get on with our own separate lives, never to speak again. And I will always be left wondering, ‘I wonder how Aominecchi is going?’” The blonde is fully aware that he is babbling, he had no filter about what was going on in his mind right now.
“And then when we’re both old and grey, we’ll both regret not playing one-on-ones together anymore and then-“
Kise was silenced by Aomine’s lips.
The blonde wasn’t the only one that hadn’t been thinking.
Not that it was Daiki’s strong suit to begin with.
Aomine had been dreaming about how Kise’s lips would feel. How his golden hair would feel against his calloused hands.
Needless to say, there would be no more imagining.
They both smelt like soap from the showers in the locker room. With the slightest lingering scent of sweat. The taste of salt still fresh on both of their skins.
Ryouta’s lips were so soft. Daiki felt like he was in heaven.
Once the two finally pulled away, Aomine smirked. “Sorry, I just had to get you to shut up,” His voice betrayed him, the words coming out in a gentle whisper Aomine had no idea he was capable of.
Ryouta’s expression was one of extreme surprise. He touched his lips with his hands, looking the most flustered Aomine had ever seen him. Words looked to be failing as he opened his mouth, and shut it again.
The full effect of what Daiki had just done seemed to hit him just then.
‘Friends don’t kiss each other to shut them up, do they?’
It certainly wasn’t only because Kise was blabbering like a distressed parrot. There was just something in the blonde. He seemed so sad, so upset. It made Aomine’s chest clench up into thousands of tiny knots and made him want to do something about it.
Kise had stopped crying at least. The action that had just happened moments ago were still replaying in his mind. It was incredibly difficult to process.
Aomine had just kissed him.
‘What did that mean, exactly?’
Did the boy like him? Was it just a one-time thing? Was he expecting something back?
Did it mean anything?
Ryouta hadn’t even considered his feelings towards the dark haired teen standing before him.
But now he really was.
For the longest time, they had always been friends, rivals. The two knew each other better than they knew themselves. After everything that had happened at Teiko, after everything that had happened their first year of high school. Kise couldn’t help but miss the stubborn boy he’d met in his second year at middle school. A chance encounter. He was the one who made him realise his love for basketball. He was the one who left him on the court, exhausted and defeated. He was the one that played one-on-ones with him, for countless hours, dwindling until the skies grew too dark to see anything but the outlines of each other’s smiling faces.
“Aominecchi…”
“I’m sorry,” Daiki blurted out. Two words he never thought he would instinctively say. “That was stupid, you looked sad so my body reacted before my head did.”
‘Ah, so there was no thought in it, at all’ Kise thought a feeling likened to disappointment settling underneath his skin.
Still, something irked him about this situation. No normal instinct would initiate something like this.
“I don’t think that’s the whole truth, Aominecchi.”
All the words exchanged between the two of them ran through Daiki’s head.
“There isn’t going to be a next time.”
If this was the last time he saw the blonde. If this really was the final time his eyes were graced with his presence.
Did he really want it to end like this?
His words came pouring out of him before he could make the decision to stop.
“You’re right about that Kise. That sure as hell was not the whole truth. You’re annoying as fuck and you try too damn hard. But I kissed you because that’s the only thing that I think about every day. You’re a dumb ass and you didn’t seem to notice this, so I thought I was safe. But I guess that was wrong because here we are.”
Ryouta stood frozen for the second time tonight. The moments of silence piling up.
“Are you saying you like me?”
“No, yes, dammit!” Aomine hit himself on the head. “Yes.”
That was confirmation enough for Kise. Their lips crashed together for the second time ever. This kiss lasting a lot longer than the first. This kiss a lot more heated than the first. This kiss was ultimately better in every single way. They had their hands all over each other, feeling every inch of their clothed bodies.
Under a basketball hoop, how romantic.
As their kisses turned more passionate. Lasting longer. The two moved from that location. Moving without hesitation back towards Aomine’s house. Conscious, yet unconscious about what they were about to do.
Daiki hears the clanging of his bedroom door as they hastily enter the room, hardly caring. His parents weren’t home anyway.
The two fall into an embrace on his bed. The only sound he cared about was how Kise kept saying his name. Something he’d only heard him say that way in dirty dreams and rotten fantasies. He hears himself say the blonde’s name as well. The words coming out in a husky whisper. Their hands tug roughly at each other’s hair. Feeling every inch of the other’s toned body as they brushed away their clothing. Leaving fiery kisses on every inch of each other. Dozens of marks of what they had done, laden on both of their bodies.
Aomine hadn’t dreamed of anything less than perfect.
Reality certainly delivered.
The two fell asleep soon after. Their bodies far too exhausted for anything else other that. The smell of sex in the room was still evident. But the pair couldn’t seem to find the will to care. The hot steamy space reminding the tanned man of the kisses they had shared. Daiki remembers putting his arms around Ryouta almost unconsciously. The two sharing one final kiss as they drifted off to sleep.
Aomine’s final thought was one of pure contentment. About how he could spent the rest of his life like this.
---
The sun rose far too soon and far too bright.
It’s brilliant rays hitting Daiki’s face with an annoying force. He scolds himself for forgetting to close the curtains.
‘Why didn’t I close the curtains again?’
The events of last night hit him like a bullet train.
The game.
Crying?
‘Oh.’
Aomine smirked.
He was too preoccupied with other matters to remember something as trivial as closing the curtains.
‘I hope the neighbours didn’t see.’
With his grin still on his face, the boy turned. Reaching his arm out to feel the warmth of certain blonde that he had expected would be there.
Instead he felt a crinkle of paper, as well as an icy dread telling him that something was wrong.
He scanned the note, his eyes moving too fast his brain couldn’t keep up.
Last night was a mistake. I don’t know what you were thinking. I don’t know what I was thinking either.
Don’t try and look for me.
His expression was wiped off of his face as he double checked the note. It was most certainly Kise’s spindly handwriting.
This had to be some cruel joke right?
There was no way Kise would betray his feelings… right?
…right?
He searched his house in search of the blonde. Hoping he was playing a trick on him.
He remembered telling the blonde he liked him.
Kise never did say the same.
Was this revenge for winning once again?
Was everything, the crying, the speech all an act to do this to him?
It was starting to seem that way.
It was strange how Aomine had woken up happier than ever. Only to reach out across the bed, and find what he never thought was inevitable. He woke up alone. Looking for the partner he anticipated would be by his side.
But only found the other side of the bed cold and empty.
Just like Daiki’s heart had felt then. It was like he felt it shattering. Like it was a fragile piece of glass that someone had taken a hammer to.
The young basketballer felt nothing but numb as he curled in on himself. The uncharacteristic weakness he could never show around anyone else. He didn’t cry. He didn’t even let out a sniffle.
In one single night, Kise Ryouta had broken him beyond repair.
In one single night, Aomine’s quiet dreams of a life with Kise had been dashed.
His mind played over the contents of the note over and over. Trying to find a clue or a loophole on how the other teen could do such a thing. Daiki even tried calling the blonde, only to receive nothing but an automated voicemail. He tried his house next, only to be greeted with Kise’s distraught mother. Telling him that her son took off early in the morning, not telling her anything.
Kise had vanished completely and no one really knew where he went.
Not even his mother could tell Aomine.
‘Don’t try and look for me,’ the hastily scrawled characters flew around in the basketballers head. So undeniably Kise he didn’t even have that to cling onto.
He could feel in his heart, a painful sorrow that stretched deeper than some kind of paradox.
‘Last night was a mistake.’
Aomine pulled his jacket closer. Breathing in icy air as he hugged himself for warmth. The thought of Kise not even willing to say those words to his face hurt even more.
‘I don’t know what you were thinking.’
Daiki wanted to punch something. He hated the world for screwing him over. He hated Kise for making him feel this way to begin with.
‘I don’t know what I was thinking either.’
The teen screamed. A heartbroken cry full of frustration. He finally felt the tears, hot streaks falling down his face. They stung like lava in the freezing winter cold.
Kise didn’t want to be found?
Good. Aomine didn’t want to see him again anyway.