Chapter Text
These wretched beach parties are such a bore. Oh, that sounds nice to you, does it? Well, what about when you're stuck sitting next to your chatty aunt who complains about money/celebrities/the weather/other people's driving/fashion trends/anything that comes to mind all the time? What about when you're lying there on the beach, toes in the sand, eyes closed, and she's still talking? Or you're standing in painfully awkward silence with the introverted uncle? You can't escape that. Dad always makes you talk to him, as well. And the cousins. Why is Daiki on babysitting duty every time they meet? Why can't he just go off, do his own thing, and the kids can stay with their stinking parents?
Masahito is the only cute one. He's three now, so he's kind of like… half baby, half really rambunctious war machine. And, fine, you know what? Tomoko is a lot of fun. She's five, or something, which makes her also small enough that she's funny and does crazy kid stuff, but big enough to play games with. Sort of. She always wants to play hide and seek when he goes over to babysit. Daiki is prone to hiding really well and using his phone for some decompression time. Ayana, though? Or, heaven forbid, Daizō? No thanks. Just do not let them anywhere near him. They're aggravating, they're bossy, and they hate him for some unknown fucking reason?! The one good thing about them being around is that his favourite aunt is usually there too. She and his uncle split a few years ago, but they're still close. Which is awesome, because Auntie Aikiko is the fun one. She'd let him do his own thing when he was younger, will take over the babysitting responsibilities when she can see Daiki starting to get actually sick of them, and she's super cool. Tattoos, normal clothes rather than your typical mom outfit (he's such a hater of comfortable clothes for no reason), and a fiery sense of humour. She's nothing like his other relatives, and nothing like Satsuki's parents either. He can't help but feel having her as a mother would be a different experience. She's better as the fun aunt. She's a little too much of a wildcard to spend too much time around.
The Momois usually come too. Now, he can hear what you're thinking. Why the fuck are you complaining so much if your babysitting duty is equally divided between you and Satsuki, the eldest cousins? Well! Firstly, fuck you. Secondly, have you seen Satsuki trying to wrangle kids? She doesn't have the force of personality needed to command respect. She lets them do whatever, and they usually end up walking all over her.
This year, though, the family have ascended on the beach with all manner of people and gear. Fishing rods, ice boxes, sun tents, sandcastle construction equipment, surfboards, the list goes on. Taiga's coming too! His presence this year is soooo welcome. He'll be a fun, novel distraction for his cousins to tear to pieces, leaving Daiki able to sunbathe in peace. Mom said she's passed on the information that, yes, this guy is Daiki's boyfriend, and he's more afraid of you than you could ever be of him. But at least this time meeting his family, Daiki was able to go to the effort of completely draining Taiga's energy the day before, so that he'd sleep solidly. It wouldn't help Daiki's cause if Taiga rocked up looking like he's ready to fight God, as he usually does on no sleep. Turns out, Taiga is getting really good at knowing when Daiki is going all out in a one on one, and that always makes him push that little bit harder. He has energy reserves for miles.
It's suffice to say that they both slept solidly that evening.
Taiga rides with Daiki's lot in the car, and keeps to himself for the most part. Several times, Daiki had worried that the quiet staring out the window was because he was miserable to be dragged to a stupid family thing. But Daiki would poke him to get his attention, and Taiga would seem totally normal. Okay, cool. Good. Back to mindlessly scrolling social media.
There isn't any time to enjoy the beach before the cousins arrive. It's so annoying, because with anyone else, Daiki could have crept off and left setting up to the others. But Mom? Mom has eyes on the back of her head. Also, Taiga is so fucking bad at sneaking. Daiki literally tapped Taiga's arm while Mom was focusing on the tent, and gestured with his head that he wanted to slip away. That's so obvious, yeah? You'd get it, right? Well, not Taiga! This idiot said what's wrong with your neck? Did you sleep funny? And then went to go help Mom with the tent. What the fuck?
There are a couple of other families setting up camp for the day on this sunny July weekend. Kids scream, parents sweat, it would be great to get away. He wants to go fishing, or rock pool hunting. It's so bothersome that his day must be organised by everyone else. At least Taiga doesn't mind. He'd feel pretty guilty if Taiga was as miserable as he was. The relative peace and quiet of set up is interrupted by the arrival of the dreaded cousins. Daiki had seen the younger cousins recently, so they look no different than a few months ago, really. Masahito runs across the sand, falls, then gets up again without drama. Tomoko looks taller, no? Both the young kids have their mom's light, bouncy hair, and only Masahito has the Aomine blue eyes. Ayana and Daizō are much bigger than they were last winter, and carry themselves with the dignity that a couple of kids their age would have. They don't run ahead like the kiddies, they walk with their parents, carrying things. They look exactly like Akiko, but with less tattoos and more forced decorum. Like they got all Uncle Jun's boring genes. He's so fucking boring, do you understand that? He just stands there.
Daiki really loves Masahito and Tomoko, but particularly the baby. He usually gets along with older kids too, but these ones are so butthurt for some reason that he can't connect with them. It's been like that since the winter holidays. They came over for a dinner party (which Daiki never enjoys either, save for the food), and spent the whole time sulking. Daiki leaves his task he'd only ever been half-interested in, and goes to squat in the sand with his arms spread, waiting for Masahito to conquer the sand.
"Kiki!" Masahito cries, fresh determination charging his sprint. He falls again, and Daiki laughs at him, then he gets up and into open arms. "Big sand!"
"Kiki," Tomoko rushes into his left side, and Daiki picks them both up. She speaks solemnly, "it's beach day so we gotta put suncream on. Do you got it?"
"Quit bossing me around. I got someone I wanna introduce you to."
"Who that?" Masahito points at Taiga, standing with his fists clenched by his side. He's nervous. Taiga… this is a baby. There's no need to be nervous.
"This is Taiga. Okay, guys, introduce yourselves."
"I'm Tomoko, and this is Masahito. He's three and I'm five."
"Oh, okay," Taiga nods, "I'm kinda older than that."
"Seven?"
"Nah. I'm sixteen, so..."
"Grown up already?"
"He's a baby," Daiki smirks, shaking the kids on his hips, "even cuter than Masahito."
"He no baby," Masahito laughs comically loudly, like he's a little cartoon, "down now."
Tomoko and Masahito are let down, and buzz off to greet Satsuki under the shade of the little canopy. Daiki hears Tomoko offer the same advice about suncream to her, but she does something about it and starts helping them with theirs. That's a shit job. Little kids do not want to sit still to put that on. Hell, he hates putting it on. Taiga did his suncream basically as soon as his feet hit the sand, but Daiki's putting it off until he can sit still and let it soak in.
The aunts, uncle, and other cousins all dump their things with everyone else's stuff. What's ours is theirs and vice versa for these events. It's all really uninteresting when it's suncream or chairs, but when they crack out the food? Sign him up. Family man Aomine Daiki reporting for duty!
"Hi Satsuki," Akiko waves, "hi Daiki," she waves to him too, though they're now face-to-face. "And you must be Kagami, it's great to meet you."
"Yeah, you too," he nods.
"Ah, I'm Nakao Akiko. Say hi, kids,"
Ayana and Daizō look extra miserable today. Daiki gets it. They gaze up at Taiga with that distinctly mean middle-schooler stare.
"Are you the boyfriend, Kagami?" Daizō asks blankly. Daiki folds his arms.
"Daizō," Akiko scolds him, but Taiga doesn't look like he cares.
"Yup,"
"Okay, that's cool," middle-schoolers are weird as fuck. What's his problem, raising Daiki's heckles like that for no reason? Daiki's arms drop and he looks away with a big eye roll.
"Idiot," Ayana shoves him, "I'm Aomine Ayana. This is Aomine Daizō."
"Cool, nice to meet you guys."
Uncle Jun is the meekest dude you will ever meet. He's got no opinion on anything, is dressed in beige, and the most exciting part of his personality is that he always gives cash for gifts. That, to be fair, makes him pretty solid. He's almost as tall as Dad, and they look kind of similar with the same pale skin, greying dark hair, and blue eyes, but he's scrawny. He approaches with Auntie Yukari beside him. She's the extrovert to his introvert. My god, can she talk. It's mostly bullshit too, all this stream of consciousness infodump that Daiki never even asked to hear. She doesn't believe there's such a thing as a comfortable silence. The goal today is to keep Taiga away from her. Not because she's weird, as far as he's aware, but because she will make him uncomfortable with all her chattiness. (It's worth noting that Daiki does not actually hate his relatives. If he hated them, he'd have less to say. But because he likes them despite how much they annoy him, he's all complaints all the time. If he was truly in pain to be around them, firstly, his parents wouldn't make him come, but secondly, he really would ditch the family to do his own thing.)
The kids go put suncream on. Sooner or later, Daiki knows for a fact that Mom will force him to put it on too. But it's greasy and causes break outs! This is some bullshit (funny, because Masahito is in the background throwing a similar tantrum).
"Ah, Kagami," Dad comes up out of nowhere, slapping Taiga on the back. He gestures to the others. "This is my brother, Aomine Jun, and his wife Aomine Yukari. And you've met his ex-wife, already, Nakao Aikiko."
"Yeah. Hi, nice to meet you," Taiga nods.
"Kagami and Daiki are basketball rivals,"
Okay???
"Oh, that must make matches interesting," Akiko grins, "you're less competitive than I am, I think."
"Nah, it is what it is," Taiga wraps his arms over his middle, "ma'am. I mean, I wouldn't wanna be on the same team."
Daiki looks at him, astounded, while Dad laughs in the background. "Oh. Nice,"
"No! Shi— I meant, like, 'cause we play the same position, and I like being your rival so much. Jeez," he's blushing! Alright. Punishment enough.
"You must be pretty good at basketball, Kagami," Yukari puts her basket of food down, "have you been playing competitively too?"
Taiga doesn't want to answer that. "I am, yeah."
"Kagami's team won the Winter Cup last year," Dad explains, "beat poor Daiki, too."
"Well done, Kagami! Left him in the dirt, yeah?" No, Akiko, not—
"Totally,"
"Do you wanna grab a drink, Taiga?" Daiki elbows him, already starting to walk backward. "Bye, everyone."
Taiga makes a more polite exit, but is able to leave all the same, and catches Daiki up as they head toward the cousins.
"Way to throw me under the bus," Taiga grumbles, poking Daiki in the side.
"Oh, we're going there? What was that about not being on the same team?"
"Hey! You know what I meant, right? Obviously I prefer being your rival."
Daiki weighs his options. He isn't actually pissed, he agrees that going toe-to-toe is really fun, and he can't imagine how they'd work on the same team, anyway. However. "Two KP."
"Already? We only been here like twenty minutes."
"Yeah?"
"We seriously doing KP today? I don't—" he lowers his voice, "I don't know anyone here. Who the hell am I gonna chill with if you ditch me 'cause I racked up one million KP?"
"That's a you problem. Just don't rack up the points."
KP = Kiss Problem, in case you forgot. It's the highly intelligent point scoring system they've come up with to express how upset they are about a minor inconvenience or argument. The higher the Kiss Problem, the more serious it is. A two Kiss Problem is a problem which can be solved with two kisses, from the offender to the victim. They have evolved their scoring program to renew each day, kisses generally made payable before going to sleep or when they're otherwise alone. Often they forget, and usually they lose track of the points. It's not a concrete system.
And Daiki will have all day to have Taiga rack up points, made payable at his apartment this evening. It sounds like a solid plan to him.