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Aomine
"Your jacket."
Along with the dull thud of the plastic water bottle hitting the asphalt, Aomine let out a mouthful of curses.
"Tetsu! Just... give me a heads-up before you show up!"
Grumbling, the alpha bent down to pick up the bottle, turning irritably toward the omega with zero presence.
Without a single muscle twitching on his face, Kuroko stated in his usual deadpan expression, "Ah, right. I am here."
Aomine let out a deep sigh and rubbed his face with a large hand. "You need to do that before you magically appear next to me, Tetsu."
Tossing the bottle up and catching it, the alpha watched as the omega completely ignored his complaint, shrugging nonchalantly. Sweeping his gaze over the man, he repeated the exact same word:
"Your jacket."
Aomine furrowed his brows, staring at Kuroko. Sometimes he thought Tetsu was the only person in this world who truly understood him; because that pure, feral hunger they had for basketball was exactly the same. But other times... Sometimes Tetsu acted like he literally came from another galaxy. Just like right now.
"What about my jacket?"
The omega reached out his small, pale hand, palm open, extending it right to the alpha's eye level in a highly demanding manner. "Will you give it to me, please?"
While Aomine stared blankly at the sweaty Teiko jacket he was wearing, Kuroko waved his open hand in front of the man's face one more time. He wasn't impatient, but he was incredibly determined.
"Your jacket. Will you give it to me?"
Aomine set the bottle aside and ran a hand through his navy blue hair. "For someone who barely talks, you're confusing as hell, you know that right?"
The omega tilted his head slightly. Without breaking eye contact for even a second, and showing absolutely zero signs of blushing or embarrassment, he dropped the bomb with that infamous, soulless expression of his:
"Your jacket. For my nest."
Aomine slowly lowered his gaze to his own body; to his jacket, covered in the familiar dust of street basketball, the grass stains on the hem, and most importantly, drenched in sweat that reeked of pure alpha.
His inner alpha was literally screaming in victory inside his ribcage at the fact that the omega was demanding his scent for his own nest. The adrenaline in his blood rushed to his cells, exactly like the moment he slammed the game-winning dunk while panting in the final seconds of a grueling match.
But from the outside... Aomine was a literal disaster when it came to this kind of emotional, romantic, or instinctual bullshit. (Yeah Satsuki, you were absolutely right; he really was a complete blockhead.) He stood frozen in place.
Kuroko reached his extended hand a little further, hooking his pale fingers onto the hem of the jacket and giving it a light, persistent tug.
"Your jacket."
The alpha jolted back to his senses, as if suddenly ripped from a deep trance, or even the Zone. That flawless, reflexive body that flowed with millimeter precision on the court was now clumsier and more unbalanced than ever as he unzipped it. He hastily stripped the jacket off and slowly handed it to the omega, like it was some priceless, sacred relic.
The second Kuroko took the jacket from the tips of the man's fingers, he pressed the heavy, sweaty fabric directly against his chest without a moment's hesitation. As he lightly buried his nose into the intense alpha scent at the collar, a soft, joyful hum spilled from his lips—a stark contrast to his blank, expressionless face.
Midorima
"The teddy bear?"
Midorima frowned slightly, looking at the phantom sixth man standing right across from him in Teiko's empty practice gym. How did they end up being the only two left in this huge hall? Their blood types absolutely did not match according to Oha Asa's rankings; let alone hanging out together, they were the worst possible duo in the universe when it came to stringing two words together.
Without a single change in his expression, Kuroko repeated in the same flat tone:
"The teddy bear?"
Faced with these words that sounded like a question, Midorima habitually pushed the bridge of his glasses with his taped finger and clicked his tongue against his palate, letting out that infamous 'Tch' sound. "It's today's lucky item."
The omega was locked onto the massive plush bear under Midorima's arm as if it were the most vital object in the universe. So much so that when Midorima, unsure of exactly what to say, slightly shifted the hand holding the bear, Kuroko's head turned in the exact same synchronization. Just like a patient following the doctor's finger during a neurology exam, the omega's shining blue eyes were fiercely fixated on the bear's path of motion.
To dispel this weird, suffocating atmosphere rapidly spreading through his alpha autonomic nervous system, Midorima cleared his throat and let out a fake cough. He felt literally backed into a corner.
"Do you want it?" he asked, his voice coming out far more rushed than he intended.
Without any hesitation, the omega nodded eagerly. And with that famously flat voice, he dropped a massive bombshell:
"It would look great in my nest."
Right after those words, Midorima would never, ever admit the slight tremor at the tips of his long fingers as he handed the teddy bear over to the omega.
And if he spent that day completely astrologically defenseless, without the vital lucky item that determined the fate of Cancers... It was just a one-time, unavoidable exception.
After all, an omega's nest was more important than daily horoscopes. (Right?)
Murasakibara
For Murasakibara, it was yet another literally exhausting, pointless, and agonizing day. When he could just curl up in a corner and eat junk food, why were they constantly running around practicing? Just thinking about it sent a throbbing headache to the massive alpha's temples.
The moment the whistle blew for a water break, he dragged his huge, lethargic body toward his gym bag on the sidelines with surprising speed. Instead of chugging water, he reached straight for the giant bag of potato chips, only to notice that familiar, blue-haired head hovering right next to his bag.
"The chips are mine, Kuro-chin." His voice came out lazy and drawn-out as usual, but the look in his eyes was dead serious.
Kuroko, however, didn't care about the bag of chips in the slightest, keeping his blank gaze focused straight into the gym bag.
Ruffling the bag open and tossing a huge handful of chips into his mouth, Murasakibara cast a looming, shadowed glare down at the omega. "All the snacks are mine too. I'm not sharing." Around the giant alpha, heavy, crushing alpha pheromones flooded the space like smoking purple flames, giving off a clear warning.
But the omega wasn't affected by this suffocating aura one bit.
"Your shirt," he said in a deadpan voice.
Murasakibara stopped chewing his chips and looked at the omega. "Can I have your shirt? For my nest."
Murasakibara knew about omegas and their infamous "nesting" instincts from biology class or whatever, but wasn't it literally way too much effort, exhausting, and a total pain in the ass? Just thinking about it made the giant's shoulders droop. Ugh, what a headache.
But the omega had already grabbed the clean, massive spare t-shirt from inside the bag. As he pressed that huge fabric to his chest, carefully folding it to take it away, something violent trembled deep inside Murasakibara's ribcage.
His inner alpha, usually like a lazy bear in hibernation, had suddenly awakened at the sight of his own omega taking his item to his nest, growling with a massive sense of satisfaction.
As that predatory beast roared with pride inside him, Murasakibara shrugged sluggishly to hide the involuntary relaxation on his face.
"You can take anything that's not a snack."
The corner of his lips might have curled upwards slightly, very, very slightly. But the reason for that was definitely and solely because the chips in his hand were so delicious. There was absolutely no other reason.
Kise
"Kurokocchi!"
Spinning excitedly around the omega like a hyperactive satellite, Kise waved the t-shirt, jacket, and even the thick cotton tracksuit top he had piled onto one arm in the air. From the outside, the noise he was making and the endless, perfect circles he kept drawing around the omega literally looked like some ancient shamanic ritual.
The alpha eagerly shoved the pile of clothes toward the omega's face. The sweet, fresh alpha pheromones radiating from his excitement completely filled the hallway.
"Kurokocchi! I heard you were collecting nest materials from everyone! So I brought everything I had from home. What do you want, which one do you want?"
The omega narrowed his eyes slightly to keep himself from getting dizzy as he looked at this massive yellow blur spinning around him.
"Please stop spinning around me."
"But Kurokocchi..." Pouting his bottom lip, the alpha gave him those famous, magazine-cover puppy-dog eyes that no one could resist. "Don't you want my things in your nest too? I even brought the bunny plushie I cuddle with at night!"
Letting out an exhausted sigh, Kuroko looked at the alpha standing stiffly in place.
"You are making me dizzy. Please stop."
The alpha opened his mouth to whine dramatically, as if his heart had just been broken, when the omega added with his usual flat, soulless expression:
"Also... before you give me that cotton tracksuit top, please rub it against your scent glands on your neck one last time so your scent is stronger."
Kise's golden eyes flew wide open like saucers at this explicit and demanding invitation. Letting out a joyful 'I did it!' shriek that echoed down the entire corridor, he immediately started rubbing the thick cotton fabric against his scent glands as if it were the most important mission of his life. If he had a physical tail, it would definitely be wagging like a propeller right now.
Akashi
Akashi was going over the strategy for their final game, pointing at the dots on the paper spread across the table. His voice, as always, was calm, smooth, and laced with absolute control. Right in the middle of his sentence, he suddenly paused. Without taking his eyes off the strategy paper for even a second, he slowly slid the thick, black terrycloth wristband off his right wrist.
Sliding it over the paper on the table, he handed that sweaty cotton band—soaked in intense alpha pheromones—directly to the omega.
Without a single trace of surprise on his face, Kuroko took the warm band between his fingers. However, instead of pulling back, he continued to wait with a deadpan expression and added:
"The other one too, please, Akashi-kun."
The air in the room grew heavy for a split second. Akashi's dangerous, heterochromatic eyes slowly shifted to the omega. With an incredibly faint, almost invisible yet equally satisfied smile on his face, the alpha slid the other wristband off his left wrist and handed it over to the omega without a single objection.
As Kuroko carefully tucked these two precious items into his jacket pocket to take back to his nest, Akashi slowly reached his hand forward. With long, elegant fingers, he stroked the omega's light blue hair with a brief but absolute sense of claiming.
"Whatever you desire, we will give it to you,"
Akashi whispered.
His voice held not just the crushing, unwavering power of a team captain, but of an alpha leader ready to offer the world to his pack's omega. Then he pulled his hand back and, as if that instinctual submission hadn't just happened, pointed his pen back at the dots on the tactical drawings.
+1
In one of the lockers of Teiko's old, gloomy locker room, there was a hidden photograph with slightly curled edges—the only thing left behind from the Generation of Miracles' infamous visit to Kuroko's house.
In the background of the photo, right next to Kuroko's bed, that flawless nest leaning directly against the wall caught the eye. Its outer borders were carefully built with thick, plush throw pillows, almost like a fortress. Right in the heart of the nest, at its deepest point, Aomine's Teiko jacket was laid out. Midorima's massive plush bear was placed gently in the corner like a sentry; Murasakibara's giant t-shirt was wedged between the pillows like a patchwork. Kise's cotton top was draped over the nest like a warm blanket, while Akashi's two wristbands were carefully pinned to the very head and foot of the nest, acting like seals holding all this chaos together.
The scene inside the room, however, was a literal chaos. Instead of working on the group presentation, Kise had dived straight into that flawless nest, thrashing around excitedly in that warm space where his own items mixed with the omega's scent. Murasakibara was inhaling a massive slice of cake by the window, while Aomine was bent over under the bed, desperately searching for the dirty magazines he was convinced Kuroko was hiding. In the midst of all this alpha noise, there were only three people sitting completely still at the room's single study desk: Kuroko, Midorima, and Akashi. Completely ignoring the circus behind them, the trio was working on that damn presentation.
According to a quiet rumor drifting through the halls of Teiko; on graduation day, when Akashi Seijuro cleared out that locker, he left absolutely nothing behind and took that photograph with him, tucking it into the inner pocket right above his heart.
Maybe it's true.