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Riko curses at herself for having brainlessly shoved a bunch of unnecessary things into her bag before running face first into the hospital door, causing training menus and supplements–among other items–sprawling across the ground.
“Hol –are you alri—?!”
“Fine! Fine,” she sings, throwing a smile towards a startled nurse as she hurriedly refills her bag with dropped, messy belongings and jumps back to her feet, ruffling her skirt and raking fingers through her hair. “I’m a visitor. Er, Kiyoshi, Kiyoshi Teppei’s room?”
Her voice is all kinds of strained with anxiety, but the nurse can’t help smiling just a bit.
“Sure thing, sweetheart. Room four ten. Sign in for me,” The nurse gestures to the clipboard, going to grab her a visitor’s badge.
Riko snags it with haste and a hurried “thank you!” before she speeds towards the elevator, flipping out her phone to check for any new messages.
Kiyoshi would only send a text like this if he were in some serious situation, right?
She reads and rereads the sos signal along with a few other words messily pressed across her screen, before she clasps the phone to her chest and practices calming breaths.
Doesn’t work too well though.
She nearly runs into three other nurses when the doors open, wishing for once she were taller than a measly five foot one to get down the hall faster.
She finds it fast enough, door on the left, no one in sight to stop her from barging in.
“I’m here!” she gasps, “I’m here, Teppei I’m—!”
Her legs freeze on the spot and her bag falls to the floor.
“Oh, You really are here!”
First is confusion.
Because while she thought she might be walking in to find Kiyoshi in some terrible condition, with some injury or illness, he’s not stained with bruises or blood, no bags under his eyes or pale, washed out skin tone.
He’s smiling up at a nurse, wearing nothing but a hospital gown, sitting upright and perfectly healthy.
Second is relief.
The only thing on her mind when she got that text was the fear or Kiyoshi not being the same giant dork she knows and loves. She upped and left an extremely important practice and sprinted here without telling a single member what happened. The last thing they heard from her was a frantic “Hyuuga’s in charge!” as she scrambled from the gym.
Third is anger.
“Alright, Kiyoshi-kun, I’ll give you a minute, and I’ll be back with the setup, alright?”
“Ah, thank you!”
The nurse flashes a polite smile–then nervous--as she passes a boiling Riko.
The second the door clicks shut, the air grows tense, and Kiyoshi quickly puts his hands up in defense. “Wait, before you get mad I—”
“Oh, I’m not mad, why would I be mad?” Riko’s smile might as well have taken every attempt of Kiyoshi calming her down and shredded them to pieces. With her legs still heavy with lead she stomps towards him, motioning to roll her sleeves up and turn hands into fists.
“I told you before, remember?” Kiyoshi leans back as she reaches for the neck of his gown and pulls tight. “Having you with me, makes me feel better.”
Of course Riko wants to be angry, but with an answer like that, she can’t help the burning at the tips of her ears that spreads across her face, her prepped comeback for his crap excuse dying on her tongue. She does recall the time he told her that before, something about looking at her makes him feel better.
She reacted the same then, too. Flustered, and then in disbelief, but because it’s Kiyoshi she’ll roll with it.
“Why are you in here? Are you hurt?”
“Er, well… not exactly,” Kiyoshi mutters, “just a check up on everything, blood panel, y’know,” he drops his hands into his lap. “You think with as much time as I’ve spent in one of these, I’d be used to it.”
Riko releases Kiyoshi’s gown and sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “It’s… not a place you can call home, Teppei. No one wants to get used to it. You…! You had me so worried,” she growls, “I ran into the door.”
Kiyoshi bursts into hearty laughter when Riko reaches up for her forehead, lifting her bangs to reveal the red mark smack in the middle.
“Sorry,” Kiyoshi hums, reaching up to gently press his thumb against the spot, eyes warm and smile gentle, “but I’m gonna be selfish for a bit longer. Could you stay?”
Riko catches his large hand in hers and nods. “You didn’t have to make it sound like you were dying, y’know, I would have come anyway!”
“You say that, but you probably would have just said something like ‘You can handle it,’. Besides, seeing you flustered is kind of nice, too,” Kiyoshi grins, laughing to himself as Riko nearly falls into the guest chair beside the bed.
“S-so, how’s uni?” she quickly changes the subject, tucking, then untucking her hair, tucking it one more time before he turns his head from the muffled TV across the room.
“Busy,” Kiyoshi sighs towards the ceiling, “but fun! Although, I figured I’d see more people my height when I arrived,” he lets his legs dangle off the edge of the bed, lips pushing into a pout, “I stick out like a sore thumb.”
“You would do that even if you were my height,” Riko snorts, and when Kiyoshi gestures to himself in disbelief, Riko just quirks a brow at him, like there’s no way he can try to deny the kind of guy he is.
“Well? What about you? How’s the team? I figure I should pay a visit soon,” Kiyoshi picks at a loose string on the edge of his gown, momentary flashbacks running through his mind of life at Seirin.
“Busy, as usual! I have them all on new routines, they’re starting the drills today,” Riko pauses to check the clock–they should all be lying on the gym floor in both tears and sweat and curses of how tough their coach is barely escaping their throats. She smiles at the thought of it.
“But they’re doing well. Our team is a lot bigger now. The first years are all so starstruck, it’s kind of cute,” Riko smiles to herself, recalling the look on Kuroko’s face when one of the new members got to practice with him, unable to shut up about how excited he was to work with Seirin’s shadow.
Kiyoshi rests back on his hands and tilts his head. “What about the veterans?”
“Better. The teamwork is amazing, Teppei, they’ve really come a long way. Don’t tell them I said that, though,” Riko points, “Hyuuga is still as aggressive as ever, and I think we’ve replaced the net three times since Kagami joined, but… yeah, they’re all really good. And they miss you,” she twists her foot and digs her heel into the floor, hoping to snub the anxious feeling in her chest.
“You really should pay a visit, when you aren’t busy.”
“What about you?”
Riko blinks, picking her head up and turning towards Kiyoshi. “Hm? Me?”
“Do you miss me?”
Her jaw falls open, because this conversation wasn’t supposed to be about her, or them, but just small talk. Just simple, friendly small talk.
She hadn’t planned to see Kiyoshi at all this month, or next, or maybe even the one after that. With him at University and her a third year at Seirin, they should hardly have time to even hold a lengthy phone call, let alone see one another.
And here she is, with a heartbeat racing like a hummingbird and head swimming with all sorts of jumbled thoughts, and an ever so patient Kiyoshi with that sly look on his face, like he might have just arranged this whole thing, like he had an ulterior motive–which he always does.
The opening of the door and a nurse walking in saves her from responding to that question right away. She peels her eyes from Kiyoshi and looks at the floor, hearing him greet the nurse and shift to lie back and let her set him up.
Riko passes off her overreaction as overthinking. Of course Kiyoshi is just messing with her, he does that from time to time, more often than not.
They don’t ever bring up the past, because that was then, and nothing good comes from looking back.
She pulls herself out of her deep thought and shifts her focus to Kiyoshi, standing up out of the chair to put herself in better view for him.
“You said it’s easier when you look my way, right? What else am I here for?” Riko snips, cheeks reddening when Kiyoshi sends her one of his goofy grins, the ones he gives when he knows he got away with something.
“You never answered my question, you know,” Kiyoshi says after a long moment of silence, fist tightening when the nurse replaces the vial.
“Is that really something to think about right now?”
“Thing is,” Kiyoshi breathes, “I’ve thought about it all this time. So I’m a little desperate for an answer.”
He doesn’t look at her as he says it, instead watching the nurse wrap up everything into it’s place, placing a bandage across his arm. He doesn’t miss that shy smile on the nurse’s face either as she quietly excuses herself back into the hallway.
When they’re alone again, with the only thing between them being heavy silence, Riko swallows thickly and wrings her fingers together. “What are you asking?”
“If you miss—”
“I know that,” she rolls her eyes, “are you asking if I miss having you at Seirin? Or if I miss having you… with me?”
Kiyoshi folds his hands together, pressing thumbs tight against his mouth to keep from smiling out of anxiety. He’d be lying if he said he doesn’t regret pulling this stunt, just in the slightest. He and Riko had decided a long while back that whatever happened, wherever, they’d always be close. And yet something along his heartstrings pulled and twisted with discomfort since then.
“Of course,” Riko answers, “I miss having you around at school. But that’s to be expected, you’re a big part of all our lives, both on and off the court,” she shrugs her shoulders, twisting her lips into a bashful pout.
“It’s not like I haven’t thought about it, but we both decided—”
“I know. It was for the best. At the time,” Kiyoshi tilts his head and gives a soft shrug, gesturing focus to the last part, “what if that just wasn’t the right time?”
“Stop dancing around it, Teppei. What are you asking?”
“I want to try again,” Kiyoshi blurts, eyes set and jaw clenched, both with fear and bravery, vulnerable from every angle yet unmoving from his spot bedside. “I’m not asking for an answer right now, but… soon.”
Riko stands quietly for a few moments, which makes Kiyoshi fidget until the silence is broken by her subtle laughter.
“Only you would pull a stunt like this, sending me running across the city, thinking you might have been dead, just to ask me out again. Teppei, you really are something else.”
“Wh–I really did need you! Did you see how smoothly the blood drawing went?” Kiyoshi whines in protest, gesturing to the bandage over his arm like that could serve as substantial proof.
Kiyoshi’s grumbles stop when Riko grabs his hand into hers and squeezes tight, her face pink, eyes averted to the edges of her skirt and bottom lip snagged between teeth.
“Okay,” she mutters.
“Wha?”
“You said soon, so...I’ll think about it. And, to answer your question earlier? I do… sometimes. I do miss it,” she peeks at him through lashes, growling when he gets that drunken smile across his face.
“Don’t get happy, I said I’ll think about it.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Kiyoshi shrugs with content, because somewhere inside of them they both know that just means it’s a matter of time until they slap a tiny label over whatever this is that they have, and that this time to think is just courtesy, so Kiyoshi can try this all over again when he’s not in a hospital gown, and they’re both trying to hold something that could be called romantic in the middle of an annual physical.
“The next time you try something like this, I’ll put rats in your backpack,” Riko deadpans, bursting the moment like a needle to a balloon and sending a shiver down Kiyoshi’s spine.
“Y-Yes m’am.”
“You really got him to come visit? I’m amazed,” Kagami says beneath the fabric of his shirt, wiping sweat from his face and taking a peek down at Riko, watching her scribble something onto her clipboard.
“Is it that surprising?” She asks absentmindedly.
“Mh, Kise always mentions how busy Kasamatsu-san is, so I figured he’d be the same.”
“Or maybe Kasamatsu-san doesn’t want to give Kise-kun an entire day to talk his ear off,” Kuroko muses, side eyeing Kagami’s snickering before they take off for round two.
Riko just shakes her head, laughing because Kuroko probably isn’t wrong, though she does recall how good of friends that blond heartthrob and his upperclassman seem to be.
Kiyoshi comes jogging over to her, a hand on his head and massaging at a spot Hyuuga probably left a good mark--either from his own hand or a well placed basketball. “I told you he missed you,” Riko sighs.
“No kidding, I didn’t realize how much he loves me,” Kiyoshi whimpers.
“Shut up! Don’t say that!” Hyuuga roars from across the gym, tearing his attention away from Kiyoshi when Kagami snags the ball and takes off with another new first year.
“That Kagami sure has gotten faster. What’s he like against the miracles now?”
“Better,” Riko nods, “He still has a long way to go until a one on one with Aomine is feasible, though,” she smiles, “according to Kuroko-kun, it’s only entertaining to watch because of how frustrated he gets.”
“Ouch,” Kiyoshi winces sympathetically, hearing Kagami’s victory cheer. “Looks like you’ve really got the hang of this coaching thing,” Kiyoshi says, “I hope you won’t get too busy.”
Riko looks up at him and raises a brow in question. “Too busy to what? Go out with you? Oh, there’s no backing out now, we’re already in this.” Of course she’s teasing, with the smirk that pulls at her lips.
“Not a chance.”
Riko gasps as Kiyoshi boldly snags a kiss from her–not that he hasn’t before, just not in front of her entire team–before he speeds off to rejoin the current third years, all who are standing with either dropped jaws or big grins.
“Well it’s about damn time,” Izuki sighs.
Kiyoshi dodges the basketball pitched at his head, laughing at Riko’s cherry red face and shaking fists, because he knows once she’s calmed down from her embarrassment, she’ll duck behind the clipboard and smile to herself.
What he isn’t ready for, is the currently angry Riko that’s going to send him to his knees by forcing him into the rest of the team’s workout.
And while each member is once again, lying on the gym floor and willing their water bottles to levitate towards them, she holds her clipboard to her face to hide her ear to ear grin, peeking out enough to find Kiyoshi sprawled out beside Kuroko and laughing at their mutual misery.
It doesn’t have a label yet, and they’re all kinds of rusty and out of practice, but they fit, together, and that’s enough for the both of them. There's something about Kiyoshi, she decides right then, something that's comfortable and warm, irreplaceable by all means. If it weren't for his rejoining the team last year, she might have never considered this moment right now.
“I think you killed him, coach,” Kagami wheezes and drops onto the bench, having finally made it, and reaches for his water. “I'm not into all of that sappy stuff but... congrats on... something,” he mutters, refusing to look her way because embarrassing things like this can't have eyes meeting.
“It's something alright. Something good, I think.”