Kise Ryouta

Mother: Kise Daisuri

Father: Kise Kukai

It was a silly name that matched an equally silly face. The baby stared up at him from his wooden crib with light brown eyes that guaranteed some serious darkening or lightening when he grew up, and against the white bedding of his crib was a shock of pale blonde hair. Aomine smirked at the comically wide eyes and gaping mouth and reached a hand inside to gently poke those chubby, chubby cheeks.

Kise struggled to get away from the offending finger, barely able to move his month old head. He pressed his cheek into the comfort of his soft bedding and let out a disgruntled cry that made Aomine smirk wider. "Get used to it squirt, I'm stuck with you till the end."

And it was one of the few truths that Aomine revealed to his newest charge. The baby let out a few more bothered noises, going as far as to whimper in distress before Aomine moved his finger from those cheeks to the teeny-tiny palm that immediately closed around it, a reflex common to all babies.

"You've got a strong grip." The indigo haired man murmured attempting to gently pull his finger out of Kise's tightly closed fist. He smiled when the baby focused on him a bit, the two keeping eye contact before Kise's eyelids fluttered closed. It was clearly nap time.

Aomine felt the air in the nursery change, his entire body stiffening in response to the sudden draft that entered the room. He kept his finger in Kise's grip, barely moving his head in order to confirm his suspicions.

"Tetsu, what are you doing here?" He kept his voice low, his senses trained on the sleeping infant in the crib.

"Aomie-kun," Kuroko paused briefly. "You know why I'm here."

"He's barely a month old." Aomine stared hard at Kise, watching the quick rise and fall of his chest. It bothered him little since babies usually had quick breathing. He carefully extracted his finger, glad when Kise let go and turned to face Kuroko. "You should leave Tetsu, you aren't getting him today or any time soon."

"I see." Kuroko responded, completely at ease and that's when Aomine noticed that Kuroko didn't have his scythe with him. Instead, the bluenette was holding a whistle to his lips, looking all too ready to blow but the kind person that he was, was giving Aomine the chance to reconsider his choice.

Aomine nodded and Kuroko blew on the whistle. Seconds later, the air in the nursery turned stifling and Aomine would have worried if Kise was all right if he didn't fear for his own well being.

"Daiki." Akashi appeared beside him, face emotionless apart from the slight surprise in his eyes. He took a moment to glance at the crib and his gaze trained on the sleeping baby for a longer moment before he turned back to Aomine, scissors in hand and gaze expectant. "This will hurt."

"When doesn't it?" Aomine grumbled but held still.

Snip snip.

Kuroko and Akashi disappeared, leaving Aomine to nurse his throbbing left wing. He leaned against Kise's crib for a moment as the pain from Akashi's 'trim' had sent him to his knees. He breathed deeply and turned to peek at Kise through the bars of his crib. "You and me till the end squirt. Satsuki wouldn't have sent me to you if you weren't meant to do great things. Till the end."

"Relax darling, you interviewed this baby sitter personally right?"

"But Ryouta's barely six months old!"

"His sisters will look after him, you know how much Haruka and Yumiko adore him. They'll be fine."

Haruka busily ran a brush through her little's sisters golden blonde hair, hastily adding sparkly clips of various shades of pink as that was Yumiko's favorite color. She herself had donned a multitude of violet bands in her hair, around her arms, and some attached to her violet dress. Mommy and Daddy had gone out for a "date", and as far as her five year old mind understood, that just meant she was going to spend time with Shimura-san, the nice girl from across the street.

Shimura-san had arrived before Mommy and Daddy left. She fed her and Yumiko some apple slices because they were delicious and she grabbed one of Ryou-tan's baby food jars from the fridge because Ryou-tan couldn't eat apple slices yet. He didn't have teeth. Sucker. Ryou-tan wasn't worthy of apple slices, at least not yet.

Haruka smiled pleased to herself as she finished with Yumiko's hair. She was the eldest Kise, and her Daddy had told her she had to love her siblings. Even though Ryou-tan was different, didn't say much, and often ignored her (how dare he) she still loved him. She had to love him.

Yumiko didn't say much either but she liked to play with Haruka and that made them both very happy.

Shimura-san was in the room with them, but instead of coming over to the mini-vanity of their bedroom to play with them, she was busy with Ryou-tan. She was making funny faces and sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes and it made her little brother burst into laughter from where he sat several inches away from her on a plush blanket.

It annoyed Haruka a bit, she wanted to play with Shimura-san too.

Aomine watched as the new babysitter played with Kise. Well, just one Kise, the other two were in a little world of their own. Man, his Kise was the youngest of three siblings and was the only boy to boot. This kid was growing up showered with love and maybe just a little bit spoiled. Six months along and he was sitting by himself having mastered enough motor control to do so, his eyes had darkened into a shade between gold and brown and his hair had also darkened, matching his older sisters' yellow gold blond.

The babysitter left Kise inside his play pen for a moment to tend to the older Kise's and Aomine leaned against the sides of the play pen, smirking at Kise who was gumming on a soother.

"You're gonna grow up to be a looker you know that." Aomine teased.

The blonde was looking at him, clearly capable of seeing him but not able to respond. Aomine smirked when Kise's response to him was to let go of his soother in favor of gumming on his sock clad foot. The angel chuckled and reached into the crib to detach Kise from his foot. "Don't eat yourself. You've got plenty of toys here."

Kise seemed disgruntled at Aomine's interference and baby drool fell down his chin as he let out some pretty impressive garbled sounds composed of cooes and grunts. Aomine was clearly receiving a lecture.

"Nice try." Aomine said once Kise stopped gurgling, looking particularly peeved. "I'm immortal and you're six months old."

Kise proceeded to flop down from his sitting position to the floor of his play pen, throwing a hand to cover his face, though he was still peaking at Aomine from the gap of his arm.

Aomine smirked. "I rest my case."

Kise was staring at him, his toothless little mouth tilting upward in a half-smile, clearly entertained. Aomine liked it when Kise smiled, his charge was a happy baby as he should be. That's when Kise noticed how puffed Kise's cheeks were, and... they were slightly red. The baby had also fallen quiet but he wasn't sleeping which was odd.

"You okay squirt?" Aomine leaned into the play pen and reached a hand out to touch Kise's forehead. The blonde attempted to shove the hand away but weakly let his arms fall. The indigo haired man's eyes widened at such a pitiful attempt. Kise was usually stronger than that.

Suddenly the air turned cold and Aomine's head snapped towards Kuroko. The first time Kuroko visited him was the annual and obligatory visit for all beings in the world. It was a test, sometimes, for Angels to show their dedication. Losing feathers was no small feat. However now, "What the fuck happened?"

The Reaper let out a small breath. "There was cinnamon in the apple sauce he'd been fed Aomine-kun. He's allergic to it and he ate quite a lot. A little would have been fine but..."

"Call Akashi." Aomine said, he glared when Kuroko opened his mouth as if to double check. "I don't need to think twice, call him now."

Snip snip.

At two years old, Kise had mastered walking- or maybe toddling was the better word for what he was doing- and loved to run circles around his parents and siblings. He'd also started talking, some odd words every now and then though the first thing he'd ever said was "Wert." Neither Mommy nor Daddy Kise knew what that could have possibly meant but Aomine did.

"Cute kid." Kagami was sitting on the swings and softly kicked against the crowd. The hospital park was pretty much empty. Anyone who saw a moving swing could blame it on the breezes blowing through the summer air.

"It actually gets cuter." Aomine called from where he lay on top of the monkey bars. He called down to Kise, "Squirt!"

The little blond stopped his terrorizing and pillaging of the park's sandbox and beamed at Aomine, yelling back with a show of his pearly white teeth. "Wert!"

"That's right!" Aomine cheered.

Kagami snorted for a moment before he composed himself. "Hey now, should you be teaching him that?"

"It's not hurting anyone is it?" Aomine pressed. He looked at Kagami for a moment and dared to breach the subject. "How's your kid doing though Bakagami?"

"Watch it Ahomine!" Kagami snapped, his fists clenching tightly. "Tatsuya's... okay. He's staying strong and fighting as hard as he can. Kuroko keeps coming though and I just wish he'd give us some space."

"Us." Aomine echoed. "Can he still see you?"

Kagami snorted. "He hasn't seen me since he was twelve. He knows I'm here though. He... he talks to me sometimes."

"Sure he isn't talking to himself?" Aomine asked dubiously.

"I don't really know." Kagami whispered. "What about you then? Why'd you get stuck with him?"

Aomine looked down at Kise who was back to wreaking havoc in the sand box. "He's strong too."

Kagami nodded. "That's good. Really... really good."

Aomine blinked and sat up. "Hey... you okay?"

The redhead shook his head. "Kuroko's with him. Shit."

Aomine watched Kagami head back to the hospital. It wasn't until the other angel was inside the building that he realized something very bad.

Kagami wasn't flying.

"Thank you so much! Yumiko's feeling so much better."

"That's great to hear."

"Are you all right doctor? You seem rather down."

"Oh I'm fine, I just... I lost someone very dear to me earlier today."

"Oh dear."

"It was a seven year fight against cancer."

"I see..."

Kise was four when he first saw Kuroko and to be honest that scared the shit out of Aomine. Watching his charge and one of Death's mistresses interact had been enough to rattle the feathers of wings, what few were left of them.

"Kurokochii's so cool!" The blonde cried and jumped in the bluenette's lap.

Kuroko seemed to be smiling, or as close as he could get to smiling, and ruffled Kise's blonde hair. "Did you mean that literally?"

"I don't know." Kise shrugged his small shoulders. He was leaning into Kuroko's touch, awfully comfortable in his embrace.

Death's embrace.

Aomine had all but ripped Kise from Kuroko, but instead he calmly asked what the Reaper thought he was doing there, with Kise in his arms looking all but ready to take him away. Akashi was sitting by the windowsill, scissors at the ready. Was he that predictable?

Snip snip.

"He has a play date today Aomine-kun." Kuroko had told him, his eyes deep with knowledge only reapers knew and angels, who loved their charges, paid for with a heavy price. "Lots of cars travel the streets at three-fifteen."

"Isn't this exciting Haruka? Yumiko's been scouted!"

"What makes it different from the last fifteen times?"

"They scouted Ryou-tan with me!"

"Work it! My siblings are models!"

"Ryouta Kise, child model at seven years old, has taken to rising as one of Tokyo's wonder babies. Several companies have offered the young beauty and his sister, Ryouta Yumiko, the latter being in the business world longer, several contracts to sponsor several famous brands..."

"Ahh, Mine-chin. What are you doing over here? Your charge's over there."

Aomine crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the oak tree several feet away from where Kise was being interviewed. "I'm fine right where I am Murasakibara."

"Really?" The violet haired Reaper was nibbling on something that looked like sticks but were supposedly edible.

"Yeah." Aomine grunted. "The more important question would be what you're doing here."

"It's someone's time." Murasakibara shrugged. "Not your charge though, so no need to get worked up."

Aomine simply nodded.

Kise Daisuri

March 23, 19XX - September 18, XXXX

Loving daughter, mother, friend

"Haru-san loves you. Miko-chan adores you. Ryou-tan remembers you."

Kise clung to his sister's as they lowered the coffin down to the ground, taking their mother with it. He sobbed his little heart out, tears flowing unabashedly as time seemed to stop.

Aomine watched from afar as the ceremony ended with the ground covering the hole that had been dug in order to send Mommy Kise to the other world. He watched as Haruka at twelve years old and Yumiko at ten guided their little brother all but three steps towards the car before Daddy Kise had to pick Ryouta into his arms, his son bawling for the world to know of his anguish.

The angel watched the family grief, feeling slightly guilty.

"You could have saved her you know." Midorima was overseeing the funeral near by, his own charge had just lost his grandmother and he seemed to be taking it hard.

Aomine raised his eyebrows in question. "Why did you save whoever it was that your brat lost?"

"I wasn't asked to save her." Midorima pushed his glasses up his nose. "Takao wants his grandmother to be at peace. He doesn't want her to hurt anymore."

"So he still talks to you huh." Aomine mumbled, eyes glued to Kise.

"Yes." Midorima paused. "Your's doesn't?"

Aomine said nothing, but the answer was so very clear it actually hurt.

'Mine can't. Not anymore.'

"The heck's your problem? You're like, what? Eight?"

"I'm ten."

"You don't look it."

"Well you don't look eleven."

"Hn. You've got guts, I like it. Name's Haizaki."

"... I'm Kise."

Aomine watch year after painful year after Kise met that asshole as his charge gambled, challenged, and maybe even taunted death. At first it had been simple enough; a fist fight here, a chase there. When he hit thirteen and Haizaki had gotten into bigger crowds Aomine had tried to keep Kise away from him.

The fact that Kise couldn't see him however, made it difficult enough, he couldn't help but detest the fact that Haizaki's own angel had abandoned him already. At fourteen, Kise seemed to be a lost cause as he tried nearly every conceivable drug he could get his stupidly grabby hands on. His sisters didn't question him, his father had lost his own battle to alcoholism leaving his children alone. The entire Kise family had gone into hiding after their loss, no magazine could get any of their faces on its glossy front cover and if it were off the record, no one tried hard enough.

If they did, they would see this.

Aomine glared distastefully as Kise threw up messily into the toilet, nearly choking on what little food he'd gotten into his stomach as it fought its way out again. After a minute of this, the blonde sagged against the ceramic bowl and pressed his cheek against the cool surface, a groan breaking the silence.

"I hate you so much right now." The blonde grumbled before he began to throw up again.

Haizaki's voice came from the kitchen where he was miserably slumped in his chair. "You and me both kid."

"- not a kid!" Kise protested weakly.

"Oh I know that." Haizaki murmured, a smirk on his face. Another thing Aomine couldn't take. "A kid wouldn't be able to do what you do with that tongue Ryouta."

Bastard took Kise's innocence.

"Haizaki... who are these people?"

"You've got a friend huh? Who's he? He's pretty."

"He's nobody. Look, just get outta here okay? I'll get you the money when I get you the money."

"That won't cut anymore Haizaki, boss wants the money now."

"Well I don't have it."

"Too bad."

"Aomine-kun." Kuroko's voice seemed far off but he was right beside Aomine. They both stared at the scene, one completely impassive- these humans meant nothing to him, and the other conflicted.

Aomine felt a twinge of guilt as Kise lay on the pavement, eyes staring straight into the sky, a small smile on his face. Haizaki lay beside him. The fucker was already gone... but Kise wasn't. His heart beat slowly, weakly, ready to give up any second now.

"Aomine-kun, he won't last long." Kuroko nudged his companion with his elbow.

Aomine shook his head. He was an idiot.

Snip snip.

"He lost a lot of blood but he'll be all right. We found questionable substances in his system, and we would like to keep him for some time to make sure we've flushed all the drugs out. Then afterwards, you might consider therapy."

"Whatever he needs. God, I can't believe we let this go this far."

"It's not your fault Haruka-nee."

"I'm supposed to take care of you."

"You are! It's not you're fault and we'll take care of him now! Anything he needs he'll get!"

Aomine stared at the sleeping face. He wasn't smiling now.

"Idiot." He carefully rotated a shoulder, cringing when pangs of pain crawled up and down his body. He wouldn't be able to fly now. "I'm not giving up on you that easily."

He felt a cold breeze in the room but for once he couldn't see Kuroko or Kagami or whoever it was in the room with him. He felt someone place hands on his shoulders and he shivered.

Momoi's heart squeezed when Aomine neither looked her way nor reacted aside from the flinch. It felt so odd that her hands were on his shoulders with nothing in between. No feathers keeping her from holding him like this.

No wings.

Momoi looked hard at the blond boy in the hospital bed, unconscious, unknowing. She hadn't realized that this would happen when she'd assigned Aomine to Kise.

"I'm..." Aomine's voice broke the silence, his voice cracking ever so slightly.

Momoi took pity on him and said it for him and even if he couldn't see her, Aomine heard it loud and clear. "flightless."

AN: So uhm. First Kuroko no Basuke fic? Just got into the fandom so I'm trying my hand on this. Definitely an AoKise fan XD Also due to sudden appearance of baby pictures (though edited) I've been wanting to write baby!Kise XD

To be continued?