Chapter Text
6.30 AM in the morning, a light thug of the bedsheet woke Kuroko up: Nigou was calling for him, asking for his well-deserved breakfast.
Kuroko yawned, laying one hand out to scratch Nigou’s head. The dog understood immediately as he walked towards the kitchen where his bowl was just waiting to be filled with dog food.
As he approached the lower cabinet, Kuroko strapped the yellow sticky note Kagami left on the microwave: he was off to his morning shift for which he baked a whole tray of bagels and left the extras in the microwave for his friends to have later, he could still feel the fragrance around, even though the windows were open.
Kuroko’s never had the best appetite but living with Kagami really did change that. Since they moved in together, he could feel his energy levels rising and, to be honest, his flat mate’s cooking skills were so fine sometimes he could just not refuse to go for it even if he did not feel the hunger biting.
He was going to have a long day in front of him: working as a daycare teacher was an unexpectedly demanding job: kids seem to have endless energy and it’s hard to keep up with them. He could surely use one of those bagels for some extra energy.
He poured the dog food into the dog bowl as Nigou was scratching his slipper. As the bowl was on the floor, Nigou started biting into the so longed food and Kuroko decided to reheat the bagels and make some coffee.
Just as Kuroko turned the microwave on, there was a gentle tap on his apartment door: “Come on in.” he said as he was dosing coffee powder. Momoi opened the door, she was in her pajamas with a fluffy, bear-shaped vest over, her hair tied up in a messy hair bun. She was holding her once red, now turned pinkish, mug, an open bag of smoked salmon on the other hand.
“Good morning Tetsu-kun” she said as she approached the kitchen counter. Earlier that morning, Kagami and Kise ate breakfast together before leaving for work in her apartment. She woke up with the smell of bagels filling the dining room and a stick-it note on the table advising her there were more in Kagami’s apartment. She just came to reclaim her fair share of Kagami’s baked goods.
“You working from home today?” asked Kuroko as he proceeded to pour Momoi her coffee. She blew over the mug to take a sip out of the hot liquid. She grimaced as she realized it still was too hot to drink.
“Yes.” she put the mug down to let it cool down a bit more: “Orders are a bit still.” she shrugged: “Little of a lazy period, I might as well just work on the couch.”
She then glanced at the red and white wall clock over the fridge: 6.40.
“Does Daichan work today?”
Kuroko took the bagels out and was now preparing the fillings.
“I don’t know. But he is usually up by now. Do you mind go wake him up?”
Momoi didn’t answer, she just walked straight to Aomine’s bedroom door. She could not hear him snore and thought it was a little weird. The door was not completely closed. She knocked a couple of times: no answer.
She tried a second time, louder. Still no answer.
At this point she opened the door wide.
Aomine’s bed was totally empty, and it was still intact, at least for his standards.
“Uhm, Tetsu-kun, when does Daichan usually starts working?”
Kuroko shrugged:”8.30 am when he’s on his on his morning shift”
She glanced back at Kuroko: “Well, he’s not here.”
Kuroko stopped staring at her: “How weird. Now that I think about it, I didn’t hear him coming back last night.”
The previous evening Aomine had a dinner event with his former national teammates. He retired from the team the year prior, and they went to celebrate this anniversary with them. A dinner out wasn’t suspicious but the fact that he wasn’t home sure was concerning. After hitting the 26th year mark, Aomine’s juvenile spirit started to still out: it was just a matter of time and he went from pulling crazy all-nighters during the night, going around drinking and dancing to sit on the couch watching some cartoon while stuffing his face with any kind of cocoa flavored cookies he could find laying around.
Even his (already scarce) romantic life did undergo some changes as it had to adapt to the weight of years passing by: he shifted from trying to hook up with girls at a bar or a club to seldom online dating which ended with a light lunch and an empty promise to see each other again.
Aomine accepted his fate of eventually staying single, and since that, the whole dating and women thing withered out, leaving more room for other thoughts like being worried for the sudden troubles sleeping and the fact that none of the music young people listen to makes sense.
He had stopped coming back past midnight (exception done for New Years Eve) for several years now, let alone sleeping elsewhere. He didn’t want to risk it with public transportation. He wanted to have a couple of beers at the restaurant and risking it by taking the car wasn’t in his plans.
Kuroko took his phone out and tried to give Aomine a call. The phone didn’t even ring as they were redirected to the voicemail, a clear sign his phone was off.
At that moment, the door opened but the pair acted surprised when instead of Aomine, there was Kagami in his uniform: ”Kagamin?”
“Aren’t you on shift?”
Kagami scratched the back of his head: “Well…I will be.”
Kuroko and Momoi exchanged an even more confused glance. Kagami shrugged, his cheeks painted pink by embarrassment: “I accidentally read next week’s shift calendars. I’m not on duty today.”
This made his friends snicker: ”What were we even expecting?” commented Kuroko as he nibbled into one of Kagami’s bagels
“Make fun of me all you want, but you’re still eating my stuff-” he paused noticing the evident absence as well: “Is the idiot still sleeping?”
Momoi shook her head: “Nope, he’s not in his room. He’s not answering the phone, we are slightly worried to be honest.”
“Kagami-kun, he was at dinner with your former team members, maybe he crashed at someone’s?”
Kagami grimaced as the question was absurd:” Unlikely but not impossible.”
“He went by train, maybe there was a malfunctioning or something.” tipped Momoi
“Maybe. As far as eventual incidents are concerned you don’t have to be worried. Nothing was signaled as per last night or this morning.” Kagami took the cup of coffee Kuroko offered him. He sipped a bit of the liquid before deciding to add more sugar in it: “I’m sure he’s fine. It’s Aomine we’re talking about; he could adapt in any situation.”
Just as Kagami’s sentence was over, the apartment door opened again.
“Daichan! Where were you, you got us worried sick!”
Aomine stared at the inquisition trio in front of him, frowning at the question: “I was hanging out at the bar.”
Kuroko pointed at the wall clock over the fridge: “Up to now?” to which Aomine just shrugged: “Yeah, I also had a walk.”
Kagami scanned him up and down, he was not eating the leaf: “You were walking. In town. Alone. All night long.”
Momoi was silent but observing: Aomine came back wearing the same clothes he wore when he got out, the shirt wasn’t buttoned up correctly as he skipped one of the buttons, suggesting he had removed it and pulled it back on again. His pants were crumpled as if they’d been incorrectly folded and then put on again. His hair a bit messy and, more than anything: a hickey poking out of his shirt collar.
She knew what was going on, but Aomine had her worried and she wasn’t letting him go that easy: ”Hey Daichan...” she called, scratching the side of her neck:”…you have a little somethin’ here.” to which Aomine immediately covered the area with his hand: “I got stung by a mosquito.”
Momoi leaned over the counter, holding her chin up in Aomine’s direction: “Interesting. Tell me Daichan, how tall was this mosquito? That seems to be a darn huge of a bite!”
To that, Aomine snapped: he was 33, leaning towards 34 and his friends were treating him like he was still a kid: “Well, yes, I hooked up with someone. You jealous perhaps?”
Momoi smirked over the rim of her mug: “No, just curious.”
Kagami was having a hard time processing the whole thing: he knew the people Aomine went to dinner with and not only all of them were men in which Aomine took no interest in, but most of them were married with kids. This left him with different optional scenarios, one worse than the other.
“Erm… who did you hookup with?” asked Kagami, unable to mask the concern in his question.
“None of your business.”
Kuroko snickered: “Oh-oh. No, no, no…you don’t keep us hanging on a rope and give nothing back! We want some details!”
Aomine glared at Kuroko: “Damn you Tetsu, the only difference between you and an old, crazy cat lady is that you’ve got a dog!”
“Nice try, Daichan. But you’re good at dodging shots, not questions.”
Aomine crossed his arms over his chest, his face grimacing in a grumpy expression: “I shut the fuck up and risked my life to protect Kagami and Kise’s relationship. Now I demand the same respect applies to me.”
Kuroko nodded before giving Kagami a quick glance: “Kagami-kun: go to your bedroom. Adults need to talk here.”
Kagami forced a smile as he got up and took the tray of bagels: ”Kagamin, what are you doing?”
“Sorry, the kid here is hungry.”
Aomine was about to take advantage of the ruckus to dash into his bedroom and lock the door behind him, but unfortunately for him, the odds weren’t in his favor, at all. The thought could barely form in his mind that the door opened.
“Daicchi, you forgot your wallet in my car!”
The woman had some familiar features: she was blond, her straight hair styled in a high ponytail, she was wearing a jeans overall with a striped black and white shirt underneath. All covered by a long, olive green trench coat. There was no makeup on her face but her lashes sure were long. She wore a gold septum piercing and other two small golden rings on her left nostril. She wasn’t exactly an unknown person.
“Aiko-san?”
She blushed, looking into Kagami’s direction: “Oh, hi Taiga-chan.” she said moving in, closing the door on her back. She then greeted Kuroko and Momoi: “I don’t know if you recall me. I had violet hair and no piercings the last time we met.”
Kise Aiko was the middle child in the family. Unlike her siblings, she had zero to no interest in fashion and cosmetics, on the opposite she was pretty against it due to the enormous amount of pollution these industries put into the ocean. Which, being a marine biologist employed in the coastal system restoration program just made sense.
She looked the least like the others, having taken most of her appearance from her mother’s side, height included.
Due to her peculiar employment, she was always somewhere around the world diving to remove waste and check on the endangered marine species. It wasn’t easy to catch her in the city, the last time they met was around ten years prior when she crashed at Kise’s apartment to catch a flight the next day.
Kagami on the other hand, had seen her more often, more recently even though just from a computer screen when she was on call with Kise.
She walked over to Kagami and, without many warnings of hesitation of the sort, she hugged him: “Finally get to meet my brother in law in person!”
She looked up at him: “Jeez, you’re tall!”
Despite physically Aiko and Ryouta did not look so much alike, her mannerism did really resemble her younger brother’s.
She was still half-hugging Kagami before her eyes went down to her silver, vintage watch: “Darn it, I’m gonna be late!”
She rushed towards Aomine who was still processing all that has happened surely was caught off guard when Aiko reached him. She grabbed the hem of his shirt, hanging on for balance as she went on her tiptoes to peck him on the lips. He almost lost his balance and once he finally traced the dots together, Aiko was storming out. She came back, peeking from the door, winking: “I’ll call ya later!”
And just like that, she dashed away leaving a confused and embarrassed Aomine behind, surrounded by a trio of greedy, nosy vultures.
Three pairs of eyes were staring at him, their stares pinning Aomine to his place: Momoi was failing at covering her grin with her hand, Kuroko was biting his lower lip, eager to say something while Kagami was frowning at him. He was the first one to speak: “We are not going to be relatives.” he stated, firmly which made Aomine snicker: “Damn right!” he retorted back, slamming one hand down the table: “Break up with Kise then!” he commanded, pointing at the door.
“Now, now! Let’s not be ridiculous.”
Momoi interrupted their bickering before it went awry. She then stared at Aomine in the eye: “How.”
Aomine took offence in that. True, his dating life wasn’t exactly lucky, but he was well aware of himself: he was attractive. He could not understand all the shock. Just now, he started to get why Kise and Kagami wanted to keep their relationship a secret.
Aomine gave Momoi a smirk: “You want the crude details?” he then shifted his glance towards Kuroko: “But then you might expect too much. I can’t do it to Tetsu.” he leaned over the counter; sure he was going to win the battle.
But Kuroko wasn’t easily impressed. He just blankly stared back, took a sip of coffee and then retorted back, without the hint of an emotion in his voice: “Oh no. Poor me.” he then proceeded to bite on his breakfast: “Momoi-san would you be envious of Aomine-kun’s performances in bed?”
Momoi’s mouth twisted down in a disgusting expression:” Please, Tetsu-kun! Don’t bring out gross topics while we’re eating.” she bit down on her breakfast, not breaking eye contact with Aomine: “So, Daichan. How did you two meet?”
Aomine looked around, he was clearly embarrassed: “Don’t you all have jobs to be at?” he spit before running for cover inside his bedroom.
Kuroko glanced at the clock: “He’s right. It’s getting late I’d better get going.” he then looked back at Momoi and Kagami: ”I require updates on the matter. This evening!”
Momoi brought ha hand on her forehead as in a military salute:” You can count on me sir.”
An indignant shout came from Aomine’s bedroom door: “Keep counting because I’m telling you nothing!”