Always Expect the Unexpected

A Kuroko no Basuke Fanfiction

By yours truly, kurokocchi1223

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A loud sigh echoed through the empty apartment that Kagami Taiga, a freshman student attending the freshly built Seirin Academy, lived in by himself. Kagami, knowing all too well this would happen, was bored and rather lonely. Kagami's dark amber gaze scanned the familiar room; he stared at the shelf of weights that he used every other night to train, the mess of sports magazines scattered across the room, the heap of dirty dishes that cluttered themselves into his kitchen sink. Today marked the only day that the Seirin basketball team didn't have practice, since Aida Riko, their female second-year student coach, was home sick for most of the day, which was a rare occurrence in itself.

Plopped on the couch like a forgotten rag-doll, Kagami stared at the ceiling, tracing images on the blank canvas above his head. He had done everything he could possibly think of to cure his boredom; he had cleaned his apartment at least twice before the new mess, he had already prepared his lunch for tomorrow afternoon, he had done his usual workout, had a nap, watched his favourite TV show, and he had read every single magazine in his home, hell he'd even done his homework for once. Kagami rolled over onto his side and stared at the creamy-white wall blankly, a few strands of his hair flopping over his left eye. Kagami frowned and raised a hand to brush away his now red hair. It had been his normal shade of dark brown beforehand, but a drunken college bet had turned his hair dark red. Too distracted by the faded memory of having his hair dyed, Kagami hadn't heard the first few knocks at his apartment door until whoever was there kicked at it angrily a few times to hopefully gain his attention. Kagami flew up from his position in fright at the loud pounding.

"Who the hell…?" Kagami grumbled, glancing over at the clock to see it was nearly ten o'clock in the evening. Who on earth prowled around his neighbourhood at this hour?

"Open up! I know you're in there, Bakagami!" A dark, muffled voice shouted through the agitated pounding.

Bakagami...? There was only one person that Kagami knew that would call him by his pet name frequently. With a shake of his head, and a groan starting to bubble up into his throat, Kagami went over to answer the impatient knocking at the door. He flung open the unlocked door to meet with a tall, dark skinned college-boy his age. Kagami recognized him from basketball matches they'd played in the past. The tall boy was dressed casually, wearing pine green cargo pants and a dark brown sweater to keep the autumn chill off of his back, a plaid red shirt tied lazily around his waist. His hair was still in the same short style it had always been and judging by the dark blue stain, he hadn't changed the colour of it either. Kagami glared at the other boy and frowned, his eyebrows furrowing.

"What do you want, Ahomine?" He asked in annoyance. Aomine Daiki, a basketball player from Touhou Academy and a rival of Kagami's, returned the glare when Kagami had insulted him. It made him think twice about why he had come to Kagami's house in the first place. After a few seconds of silence, Aomine shook his head and took hold of the orange coloured ball that was hidden under his left arm, showing it to Kagami, who in turn gave him a confused look. Aomine looked away, slightly embarrassed, and clicked his tongue quietly against the roof of his mouth.

"I got bored, so I thought maybe... we could play some one-on-one...?" he trailed off in a question, his deep voice remaining rather soft. Kagami's eyes widened. Sure, he and Aomine were on better terms after their high school basketball careers, but they weren't exactly anywhere close to being friends. However, he was still bored out of his mind, and he had to admit that a flustered Aomine was rather cute. Kagami took one more look at the clock. He had time to spare.

Lots of it... he thought blandly.

"Fine, I'll play. Just let me grab my good shoes," He agreed. Now it was Aomine's turn to be surprised, but his midnight gaze brightened when he saw that Kagami was serious. Kagami walked back into his apartment, leaving the door open for Aomine in case he decided to come inside the bland flat. Kagami returned shortly after with his outdoor basketball shoes tied onto his feet and a dark zip-up sweater over his t-shirt. Aomine had remained at the front door, and when Kagami had returned, he had found Aomine struck into some ungodly pose, balancing the basketball on his index finger. Kagami's amused amber gaze eyed Aomine's hand, watching and noting every detail. Aomine's hands were quite large and his tan fingers were exceptionally long. His nails were bitten and ragged which made Kagami chuckle. It was a habit that suited Aomine's somewhat aggressive personality quite well, he thought.

"Hey," Kagami announced, finally deciding to make his presence known to the other boy in the room. Aomine looked up from his concentration game and gazed over at Kagami, his dark eyes soft. Kagami felt heat creep onto his cheeks, and he averted his gaze to the door frame. He saw Aomine flash a smile from the corner of his eye, still immersed in his game. Had Aomine been like this before the countless basketball matches? Had he been... Cute?

"Let's go, Tiger," Aomine teased, pushing down on Kagami's head to ruffle his dark red hair gently. Kagami knew he blushed for sure that time, but he followed Aomine out the door, locking up behind him and ruffling his hair back into place.

It was quite dark outside, with only a few rays of the setting sun peeking out from the horizontal midnight blanket covering it. Cars were buzzing here and there with evening traffic and streetlights and signs flashed brilliantly around the two of them. Aomine couldn't resist looking over at Kagami. The evening hues of multicoloured lights reflected in Kagami's dark amber eyes and his mouth was slightly parted as he looked around, every now and then the corners twitching up in a smile. Aomine was astonished. Never once had he seen Kagami genuinely smile. Kagami had always either been smirking or frowning when Aomine was around. Aomine didn't even consider the possibility that Kagami could even muster a smile. However, with the few smiles he caught, it made Kagami all the more attractive in Aomine's eyes.

Yes, Aomine did have a crush on Kagami, although he would never admit it to anyone else. He had eventually come to terms with his feelings for the other basketball player. Aomine had seen enough cliché chick-flicks with Momoi Satsuki, his childhood friend, to know what he was feeling. Ever since their last high school basketball match in the chill of winter, Kagami had seemed like a different person to Aomine. Maybe it was his passion for the sport they both loved to play or the bond he had with his teammates off the court that made Aomine crave for his affection, or even his dedication to do well in the future, but Aomine could never find exactly what it was that made Kagami so attractive. Kagami seemed to pop into his head all the time; during his last exam, all Aomine could think about was the basketball match and how fiercely Kagami had played, which had resulted in a failure in that particular class.

Kagami wasn't sure if he should accept the feelings that he had for Aomine. He had grown up in an environment that didn't tolerate homosexuality, but as he was living away from his family at the moment, he had begun to question his parents' reasoning. He had only told one other person about his dilemma, and he was taken aback when his friend, classmate, and fellow basketball teammate, Kuroko had accepted that he was gay. Kagami looked over at Aomine and their eyes locked, a fiery amber gaze clashing harmoniously with one of calm midnight blue. Their stares held for no longer than ten seconds before they both looked away, blushing a faint shade of pink.

"So," Kagami began, hoping to start a conversation. "What's school like at Touhou?"

"Oh, uhm, it's pretty good, I guess," said Aomine, feeling a little awkward. "I'm flunking Japanese history and English, which isn't very good, but I never was really good with either subjects in high school." Aomine shrugged his shoulders, a small smile playing at his lips. Kagami chuckled at his confession.

"You could just come to me for help in English. I got pretty good grades in high school, so I'm pretty sure I've got some good grammatical skills in me somewhere," Kagami joked, pinching Aomine's cheek playfully. Aomine swatted Kagami's hand away from his face playfully and bopped Kagami's head with his own tanned hand. Kagami shouted in protest at the sudden action, and Aomine laughed. At hearing his laugh, Kagami realized that there was a whole other side to Aomine that he didn't know about. He only knew the side that he played against on the basketball court.

"So, care to tell me about your new hair colour?" Aomine asked teasingly, tugging on a strand of Kagami's dark red hair. Kagami frowned a little bit and blew out a heavy breath.

"I got drunk and lost a bet to our team captain after one of our basketball matches a couple months ago. The colour's kind of grown on me though, so it'll probably stick around for a while," explained Kagami. "I see you've kept yours the same."

Aomine smiled a bit and ran a hand through his royal blue hair.

"Yeah, I like it too much to change it," he said. Kagami nodded slightly to acknowledge what Aomine had said, but when Kagami looked over at Aomine, he noticed something new about his appearance.

"That's new," Kagami commented, gesturing to the diamond piercing in Aomine's left ear. Aomine looked confused for a moment before he clued in.

"Oh, this?" Aomine reached up to touch the small piercing and he laughed a bit. "Yeah, I've got a very persuasive teammate to thank for this. He wouldn't stop bugging me about how good it'd look until I finally caved and got it. I've got to admit that it does look pretty good though. I was pleasantly surprised."

"He was right about it looking good," Kagami replied, smiling.

The pair of them continued their small talk until the outdoor basketball courts came into view. The courts and surrounding parks were empty and rather quiet, the only sounds being the buzzing of the bright lights that lit up the complex and the distant honks of downtown traffic. There was a slight breeze that blew at Kagami's dark red hair, and he took in a long, deep breath, enjoying what the clear evening had to offer. Aomine started to walk over to the basketball court and began to dribble the orange ball he had been holding under his arm. Kagami, after hearing the familiar thunk of the basketball against the concrete floors, flew into sports mode. He sauntered up to Aomine and stood in a defensive position, the familiar smirk that Aomine knew all too well returning to Kagami's angled and well defined face. Aomine continued to dribble the ball, staring competitively into Kagami's fiery eyes. Aomine faked right, but Kagami stopped him before he could pass, meeting with his left step.

"You can't fool me, Ahomine," Kagami teased. Aomine backed away and hissed in annoyance. He tried to fake once more, but met with the same outcome of Kagami blocking him.

Kagami had felt like he had predicted the future. He couldn't explain why, but he could see through every single one of Aomine's moves. He wasn't sure if it was because the two of them had played against each other so often, or if it was because he was observing Aomine's every move, every hesitation, every breath, making him aware of what he would try to do next.

Aomine was at a loss. How the hell had Kagami blocked him so quickly? In any other normal game, Aomine would have scored at least one point by now, maybe even two. Was he losing his game?

"Tch…," Aomine grumbled in annoyance. What was he going to do?

He eyed Kagami up and down before looking over at the net. An image of a recent basketball game he'd watched popped into his head, and Aomine suddenly had an idea. It was risky, since he sucked at long distant shots, but it was worth a try. The only obstacle was Kagami's amazing jumping power that had been growing over every game the pair had played, but Aomine also knew they took time to power up.

Aomine stared at Kagami, dribbling the orange basketball up and down, the familiar roughness of leather caressing his palm. Ice eyes met with fire, and Aomine shot the ball into the air, using his formless shooting technique to his advantage. The ball zoomed past Kagami and his amber eyes widened. He had been watching Aomine profoundly, so how had he made it through? The orange ball bounced off the wooden backboard of the net and the chafing sound off cotton against leather made it clear that Aomine had made the first point. Kagami, although he was annoyed, felt rather relieved that Aomine had at least been able to score one point. If he hadn't either Kagami had gotten better at basketball, or something was off in Aomine's system.

"No one can beat me, but me, Bakagami," Aomine quoted his famous line, the line that pissed Kagami off more than anything. Aomine was so full of himself, and that made Kagami's insides boil. He wanted revenge. He wanted to prove that self-centered bastard wrong.

Kagami went to retrieve the basketball that had bounced its way a small distance away from the net Aomine had shot into. He bent over to pick it up and he felt a gaze burning into his back, if it was his back being stared at, at all. Kagami straightened himself and turned around to face Aomine, who was standing in the middle of the court, his hands resting soundly on his hips and a fond smile gracing his lips. Kagami felt the familiar rush of heat flow up into his cheeks again, and he willed it away. No way was he getting distracted by that devilishly handsome midnight blue-.

Kagami stopped himself from continuing the sentence. He was not getting distracted. He paced back towards the middle of the court, standing in front of Aomine once again. He dribbled the ball, and Aomine crouched into a defensive stance, his dark blue eyes staring Kagami up and down. Kagami forced himself back into a sports mode, and he prayed that Aomine's icy gaze wouldn't distract him more than it already had. He wanted to beat Aomine at one-on-one at least once.

Kagami, instead of faking like Aomine had, shot straight past the blue-haired boy. Aomine, who had been way too distracted by the way Kagami's wrist moved when he dribbled the ball, hadn't moved until Kagami was already halfway across the outdoor court.

Shit! Aomine's thoughts moved quicker than he did. He twisted his body around and raced after Kagami at full speed. Kagami was still faster, however, since he had an unfair advantage. His damned wrist movement had distracted Aomine long enough for him to not keep his head in the game.

By the time Aomine had caught up to Kagami, the redhead had already jumped to dunk the ball. The dampened clang of metal against flesh echoed through the quiet park and the orange ball hit the ground, Kagami's feet pounding on the ground one at a time only a few seconds after. He faced a panting Aomine with a proud smirk on his face.

"You're not the only one who can beat you, Ahomine," Kagami retaliated. Aomine let out a breathless laugh at the obvious challenge. Kagami tossed the ball to Aomine and he caught it effortlessly, pushing back his blue hair to wipe away beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"There's no way I'm letting you beat me, Bakagami," Aomine challenged.

The game continued for an hour until both boys collapsed next to each other in exhaustion. Kagami had lost to Aomine by one point, and thanks to a bet they had made in the middle of the game, Kagami would be buying dinner for the both of them.

"Where do you want to eat, bastard?" Kagami asked, looking over at Aomine. Aomine hummed aloud as he thought about what his taste buds craved.

"Burgers sound good right about now," Aomine replied, looking back at Kagami with a small smile. Kagami frowned a bit. Burgers were expensive in certain restaurants, but there was a place he went to frequently that had cheaper options.

"Alright, fine. Burgers it is," Kagami agreed, standing up and dusting off his clothes. He reached out a hand to Aomine and the other boy took it, pulling himself off of the ground and dusting himself off in the same fashion that Kagami had. Kagami picked up the basketball that had been lying between the two of them. "Let's be off, then."

The pair of them walked their way to Kagami's regular burger joint and enjoyed themselves, laughing and joking around as they learned more about one another. It had been just a little over half an hour before the pair walked back to Kagami's apartment together.

Kagami pulled out his key and unlocked the door, turning to Aomine when the lock clicked.

"Tonight was fun. We should do it again sometime," Kagami said pleasantly, a smile gracing his lips. Aomine felt a blush creep onto his cheeks and he looked away, a lopsided grin on his face.

"Same time next week?" Aomine suggested. Kagami chuckled a bit and playfully punched Aomine's arm.

"Sure."

Aomine sat alone in his quiet, lonely apartment. The plain, creamy white walls were illuminated only by the soft orange glow of the setting sun that pierced through the sheer blinds of his bedroom. Aomine was curled up on the floor, earbuds deep into his ears, with his back pressed against the wall. He had skipped his classes yet again, but for a different reason than usual.

At the top of the week, three days before his next date with Kagami, Aomine had received a pressing call from a middle school friend of his, Kuroko Tetsuya. Kuroko attended the same school as Kagami did, Seirin Academy, and was a starting member on their basketball team. Aomine had awkwardly picked up the phone, since the pair hadn't spoken since Seirin had beaten Touhou in the Winter Cup Preliminaries. The news that had come after picking up the phone had shocked Aomine enough that he had dropped the piece of metal in his hands. It was completely unexpected. Kagami, the boy that Aomine had a massive crush on, was in the hospital with a severe form of bone marrow cancer that was discovered after he collapsed in a practice game, rendering him unable to play his favourite sport.

Of course, Aomine had thought about visiting Kagami several times, but what was he supposed to say? There was nothing he could say, really. Even though their basketball game together last week had ended miraculously well, they weren't exactly the best of friends. So, Aomine had spent an entire week sitting on the floor of his bedroom, listening to sad songs, and only leaving when he absolutely needed to. He hadn't slept more than a couple hours daily and had barely eaten anything all week. He was praying that Kagami would make some sort of miraculous recovery, or that Kuroko would phone again and say it was just a joke, but it never happened.

Aomine's blurring gaze stared up at the near-dark ceiling in his bedroom. He didn't understand how something like this could happen. And why to Kagami of all people? Why couldn't it have been someone else? Why wasn't it Aomine?

Aomine had been so engrossed in his depressing thoughts that he didn't hear the first few rings of his cellphone through his music. When he did, he picked up the cellular device and took the call, not even bothering to check the Caller ID.

"Hello?" Aomine's voice was hoarse, as if he had been sick for three weeks straight and was just starting to recover. It broke, the last vowel pitching higher than the first.

"Aomine, I have some news…," It was Kuroko's voice on the other end of the line. Aomine's stomach turned nervously. "News" coming from Kuroko often meant it wasn't a good thing. He was just hoping it wasn't what he thought it was.

"Kagami is…," Kuroko trailed off, and Aomine knew immediately what was wrong by the way Kuroko's voice cracked. He sounded as if he were ready to cry, and when he heard a deep breath from the other end of the line, Aomine knew that Kuroko was doing just that. There was a long pause after that, the only sounds being Aomine's quickening breath and Kuroko's quiet sobbing on the other end of the receiver, until Kuroko stuttered out a few more words.

"Aomine, Kagami told me to tell you…," Kuroko took in a deep breath to try and calm himself before continuing. "Aomine, Kagami loved you."

And with those few words, Aomine did something he hadn't done in a long time.

He cried.