I have no idea where this came from or what is happening this is bad and I feel bad
Taiga and Tatsuya have, essentially, two rules.
They do not talk about love, and they do not talk about Miracles.
(They have, of course, broken both of these rules. Most of these times they were drunk; the first time, Tatsuya had procured them alcohol despite both of them still being under the American age for drinking, and they drunkenly discussed the topic. Only once did they attempt the discussion sober, and it ended with both of them drinking and concluding that the breaking of these rules was only done drunk for a reason)
Kise shows up randomly one afternoon to their shared apartment when Taiga's in his second year at college, and Tatsuya is in his third. Almost surprisingly, given that he is a section of one of the Unmentionable Topics, he is not painful to encounter or speak to.
Taiga initially thinks that Kise intuitively knows what topics to avoid. Later, when they've been drinking and Taiga says he's surprised Kise hadn't brought up Kuroko (also known as Unmentionable Topics 1 and 2), Kise tells him that Tatsuya caught him outside and warned him of the rules. "But really," Kise adds after this explanation, "it wasn't necessary. After all, if anyone understands Kagamicchi's predicament, it's me."
Taiga's not entirely sure what Kise means by this. Kise's signals have always been all over the place, and he's never quite been sure exactly who it was that Kise was chasing off the court. He says as much.
"Mine is a heart that is broken by every shade of blue," Kise says. It's probably supposed to sound poetic or some shit but the way he said it just makes Taiga feel sad (though it might be the alcohol talking). He can't imagine dealing with heartbreak over two monsters; he can barely deal with one.
They're drunk enough to size each other up - Taiga could probably stand in some kind of wish-fulfilment position for Kise, on at least one level, and he has to admit that Kise is really kind of hot, although not really his type. They both seem to decide at the same time that it's a terrible idea.
"I'm kind of fond of the colour red," Kise decides. "I'd hate to have that one breaking my heart too."
Kise flies into LA whenever he has enough time off to spend quality time with Taiga and Tatsuya. It's strange because he's never considered himself to be particularly close to Kise; or really, to any members of the Generation of Miracles, except Kuroko. Maybe it's the mutual understanding of heartbreak or some shit.
Maybe it's the alcohol they all inevitably drink together.
Kise has friends at home, of course; he has always been a social butterfly, from what Taiga has gathered in the past, and now. But Kise seems to get something from the weekends with the two of them that he doesn't get wherever it is he's living lately. Taiga's never seen him as relaxed as he is at the end of those days when he has spent the weekend in their apartment and pretty much all the three of them have done is play basketball like they're back in high school. Kise still plays like a monster.
Taiga knows for a fact that Tatsuya and Kise hook up half the time that he crashes; their couch is suspiciously unoccupied some mornings when he gets up to go for a run before making breakfast. They don't talk about it, not because the Rules prohibit it - mostly just because Taiga doesn't really like thinking about either of Tatsuya's or Kise's sex lives. The two of them seem to have come to an agreement about their arrangement anyway; there's nothing Taiga feels the need to discuss with Tatsuya.
(Tatsuya brings it up once when they're drunk, and Taiga really wishes that he had been drunk enough to forget the conversation ever happened. Tatsuya had candidly informed him that he'd told Kise he thought he was gorgeous, and that in response Kise had looked him over and given him a sinful smile before telling him that, while he didn't usually go for the pretty ones, Tatsuya was far too good looking not to hook up with at least once.)
The one and only time the Unmentionable Topics come up when the three of them are together, they are at a badly-lit basketball court after dark, and they are the only ones there. Tatsuya had brought vodka.
(Taiga only wishes he was surprised at this point.)
"I want to be chased," Kise admits. "I've spent so much time chasing. I want to feel like I'm worth being the one that's caught."
"Yeah," Taiga agrees, looking up at the sky. He can't see any stars - the light pollution in LA is chokes them out. "I just don't want to be let go, I think."
Tatsuya is quiet - there is so much about Taiga's demons that are related to him. Taiga prods him hard in the ribs. They've talked about this before.
"It's my own fault," is what he says on the topic. "I couldn't let myself believe that I'm enough. I never let myself take the chance."
(Thousands of kilometers away, Aomine and Kuroko have had a similar conversation, although not at the same time that Taiga, Tatsuya and Kise do.
"Sometimes you have to know when to turn around and run," Tetsuya says. "Though, I guess it's hard for someone who's always been chased to know the signal to run."
Aomine had scoffed and looked at him. "Fuck that. I don't go looking for things. They come to me."
Tetsuya sighed. "At least tell Momoi-san that I tried."
Aomine frowned and looked at him. "I think I was supposed to tell you something from her," he said. "Ah, what was it? It was some bullshit about Kagami and expectations and compromises."
"I suppose it was too much to expect any delicacy from you, Aomine-kun."
"If Satsuki had wanted something said delicately, she would have told you herself instead of getting me to do it.")
Aomine shows up at their door one day during summer and Taiga almost slams the door in his face.
Kise's not meant to be coming over this weekend, but that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't. Somehow, after the weekends and the drunken conversations, there's an annoying part of him that almost wants to protect Kise.
"What the fuck are you doing here, Aomine?"
"What a lovely greeting," Aomine drawls. "Do you know where Kise is?"
Taiga does - Kise's in Europe - but figures that if Aomine's here, asking him, that Momoi has withheld the information from him.
"No," he says to Aomine grumpily. "How the fuck would I know where blondie is?"
"Satsuki says you know," Aomine replies simply, and pushes his way in. Taiga protests, for all the good it does.
Tatsuya comes out of the bathroom to the sight of Aomine sprawled across their couch, easily ignoring the splotches of fury in Taiga's cheeks and the scowl across his face.
"I didn't know we were expecting company, Taiga."
Taiga lets out an angry growl that sounds, amusingly, almost like a roar, and stomps into the kitchen. Tatsuya smiles and retreats to his room.
'You should come back to LA soon', he sends out into the technological void before he returns to the living room and the sounds of his little brother's pet-hobby of cooking off his feelings. They'll either eat well or terribly tonight, depending on exactly how mad their new house guest makes Taiga.
"I should probably tell you about the rules," Tatsuya says simply as he walks into their living space. Taiga's not going to hear him – he's being noisy with his cookware, which is a bad sign for their dinner – so he doesn't feel too self-conscious about this. "But I get the feeling you'd break them just to spite their existence."
Aomine spares him a glance, grunts, and closes his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to buy more alcohol," Tatsuya comments with a sigh. "We're going to need to be drunk for the conversations that are going to happen in this apartment."
Aomine lazily waves a hand in Tatsuya's direction. "I don't give a fuck about Bakagami and whatever the fuck kind of twisted dance him and Tetsu are acting out. The way I see it, they're both just fucking stupid and need to get their heads out of their asses. I'm here because Satsuki told me Kise would be here eventually."
"He's not due for a few weeks," Tatsuya tells him. "He has a busy schedule."
That seems to rouse him. He opens his eyes and looks him over critically, before closing his eyes again.
"Ah, I thought he'd be fucking Kagami, but I guess I can see what he likes about you. You're not his usual type though."
Tatsuya smiled. "You're a really nasty piece of work, aren't you?" he said, smiling. "I guess that means dinner's definitely going to be burnt tonight."
Aomine is a terrible house guest, but the few times Taiga managed to bodily haul him off their couch and out of their apartment, he managed to get himself back inside. Tatsuya would find Taiga's frustration amusing, except that he keeps burning dinner.
(Tatsuya understands why Taiga's got a hair-trigger temper though; Aomine's a caustic presence in their apartment, never pulling his punches when it comes to being blunt about painful subjects, he doesn't give them any money to compensate them for feeding him, and he doesn't even bother playing basketball with Tatsuya. He goes with Taiga sometimes, except most of the time Taiga's going to the court to get the fuck away from Aomine and work out his anger in a way which won't result in burnt food.
Tatsuya's starting to wonder if he should be worried about how much they're drinking)
Kise flies back into LA two weeks after Aomine arrives, and Tatsuya feels like he should feel guilty for throwing him under the bus, but he really wants Taiga to stop burning their food because he's pissed off and besides, he's sure Taiga will feel guilty enough for the both of them later.
Kise bounces in bright and bubbly, bag in tow, sees Aomine, and freezes.
Aomine looks up at him. "Did they give you a key?"
Kise hauls his bag at Tatsuya with a nasty look and walks right back out. Taiga sighs and walks past him into Tatsuya's bedroom.
(Tatsuya would protest – Taiga is undoubtedly raiding his alcohol stash – but he doesn't really feel like he has the right.)
"We'll try not to be too drunk when we come back," Taiga calls over his shoulder. He has a basketball between the crook of his elbow and his body as well.
"This is off to a good start," Tatsuya comments wryly.
The problem is that because Tatsuya is in Kise's bad books, there isn't exactly room for all four of them in the apartment, because Taiga refuses to let either one of them in his room. And Aomine, shockingly, seems to under the impression that he can wait Kise out.
(It's a correct assumption, because the moment Aomine offers a one-on-one Kise folds like a house of cards)
They both leave the apartment with a basketball in tow, and Taiga's torn between wanting to watch them go head to head on the court (it is almost certain to be as captivating as ever), wanting to make sure they don't murder each other and knowing that whatever the fuck it is they're sorting out there is private and he doesn't want to fucking know.
(He also wants to try not to drink – they've been burning money on alcohol ever since Aomine fucking arrived and he's starting to feel like he and Tatsuya have a drinking problem)
He ends up drinking anyway because when they come home they've sorted their shit out and now they won't stop touching each other and—
"GET THE FUCK OFF OUR COUCH YOU ASSHOLES."
Kise is grinning shamelessly and he tugs on Aomine's wrist, who seems quite displeased to have been interrupted.
"Ah, I guess we should find somewhere else to stay, Aominecchi," Kise says cheerfully. "Go get your bag."
At least Aomine is gone. Taiga really wishes that he didn't have to see them on their couch though.
"We can't afford a new couch, can we?" he asks Tatsuya, feeling resigned.
"Nope," Tatsuya tells him cheerfully. "It's not like they were fucking, we don't need a new couch."
"Oi, Tetsu."
Tetsuya looks up from where he's been perusing novels in a bookstore and immediately regrets it. Aomine is wearing a tank top and his neck and shoulders are shamelessly covered in hickeys.
"I'm glad you sorted things out with Kise-kun, Aomine-kun," he says flatly.
"Mmm. Anyway, fucking call that loser of yours. Or go visit him. I think his housemate has given him a drinking problem, they're always in the alcohol."
"I'm sure that had nothing to do with your presence at all, Aomine-kun," Tetsuya deadpans. "God only knows that if I had known about it, I would have started drinking years ago to deal with you."
"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Aomine answers loudly. Tetsuya just looks at him.
"Anyway, he's definitely hung up," Aomine tells him. "So you should go straighten him out."
Tetsuya sighs and pulls a book off the shelf to get a better look at it. "That's the trouble with my lights," he mutters. "They're all fucking stupid. Why are they all dumb? Why am I inexplicably attracted to idiots?"
(Maybe because they're hot and they love basketball as much as he does and they're good people, really, they are, they're kind and gentle and inspiring – at least, Kagami-kun is, Aomine-kun is debatable on a few of those points these days. And there's no accounting for taste. Tetsuya can be smart enough for the both of them.)
He sighs and puts his book back on the shelf.
Taiga is woken at buttfuck-early in the morning by the sound of his phone.
"This better be important," he growls into it by way of greeting. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Speak in Japanese, please, Kagami-kun."
Oh fuck this.
"Can you maybe call again when it's not the dead of the night, Kuroko?" Taiga asks, groaning. "Did you even check what time it was here before calling? And international calls are expensive, what the fuck."
"You're never on Skype when I am," Kuroko answers. "I was worried. Aomine-kun says you have a drinking problem."
"Fuck." Taiga rubs his face with his free hand. "Give me like, a minute and I'll get on Skype okay?"
Kuroko hums and ends the call.
Taiga stumbles out into the living room where his laptop is sitting on their coffee table, stubs his toe on the couch and hisses, before returning to his bedroom, turning on the lights and booting up the laptop. He's sitting cross-legged on his bed, rubbing his toe when he logs onto Skype.
"Kuroko, it's three in the fucking morning," he says when their call establishes.
Kuroko looks the same as ever, pale blue hair and impassive expression. Taiga kind of wants to just look at him.
"So, do you have a drinking problem?" Kuroko asks. Trust him to just dive into that question.
"I don't have a drinking problem," he answers, rubbing his face again to try and feel less groggy and like he was just woken up at three fucking am. "Neither Tatsuya, nor I, have a drinking problem. What I have is a problem called 'My best friend's crazy as fuck ex-teammates are crossing the fucking world to crash on my couch and drive me to the same levels of crazy they occupy'."
"Don't be mean, Kagami-kun. They're your friends too."
"They're your friends when they lie on my fucking couch for two weeks and do nothing but eat and be insensitive assholes and don't even pitch in for groceries."
"Ah. I'll tell Momoi-san to send you some money from Aomine-kun's bank account."
Taiga sighs. "That's... really not the issue here," he mutters. "But it would be appreciated. Ugh, he drove us nuts, why didn't you warn me he was coming?"
"I didn't know," Kuroko admits, with an apologetic note in his voice. "But really, how much were you and Himuro-san drinking, for Aomine-kun to notice such a thing?"
How does one say conversations about things that hurt this much need to be dulled without sounding like an alcoholic, anyway?
"Ah, it's just—well, it's just, I mean. So we have these rules, okay?"
Kuroko frowned slightly, which meant he disapproved enormously if Taiga remembered correctly. "Rules?"
I am not drunk enough to have this conversation, Taiga thinks, and then, out loud, says, "Fuck, maybe we do have a drinking problem."
Kuroko sighs.
"No, I'm joking, it's not that, it's more like... it's easier to talk about stuff that hurts when we've been drinking."
Kuroko's still frowning, but this is a different kind of frown. "Kagami-kun, that's really unhealthy."
"Probably," Taiga agrees. "But just so we're clear, we don't usually drink as much as we did while Aomine was here. He's awful, and he can never leave a sore spot alone. Fuck, he makes me so mad, I burnt so much food."
Taiga buries his face in his hands. "I'm way too tired to be holding a conversation about this, Kuroko."
"Come home," Kuroko asks. His voice is soft. "You're on vacation a little longer, right? I want to see you playing basketball again."
Taiga drags Tatsuya back to Japan with him because if he has to deal with a blue-haired monster then Tatsuya has to be there to help him deal with it. And make sure that Kuroko doesn't catch him drunk.
Tatsuya abandons this duty almost immediately when they arrive, seeming to have come to some kind of decision on the plane. Taiga wants to be mad, but really, with the steely resolve Tatsuya had managed to summon, he couldn't find the heart.
(Hopefully, though, Tatsuya wasn't expecting him to try and hide his drunken ass
This was all Tatsuya's fault anyway)
He and Kuroko meet up at the basketball court they always used to play on and it felt enormously nostalgic. His traitor heart flutters.
"Tell me about the things that hurt," Kuroko asks at Maji Burger later. This, too, feels nostalgic.
Taiga almost says, I'm not drunk enough for this, but manfully restrains the sentence from coming out of his mouth.
"You're so embarrassing, Kuroko."
Kuroko just stares at him unflinchingly.
So, Taiga takes a deep breath, and takes the plunge.
(If this goes so badly, he can just go back to America become an actual alcoholic; that's as solid a plan as any, right?)
"You know I love you, right?"
Kuroko smiles.
(On their flight home, Taiga tries not to notice that Tatsuya looks like someone tried to eat him alive)