Disclaimer : I do not own Kuroko no Basuke nor the characters. Tadatoshi Fujimaki is the rightful owner of this manga and characters.
Notes : This is a gift for fujoshisama. This is my first time writing for this pairing, heck, these characters even. So, I apologize in advance if I butcher them, I never intend to do so. This is also my first time writing in 2nd person POV so yeah.. Anyway, have a happy holiday, guys 8D
"I like you."
He said one day, out of the blue, while both of you was waiting for your teammates to come back with their own hot drinks. You almost didn't catch what he said because of the buzzing sounds from the people around you, from the excitement of the upcoming Christmas. One might thought it was just a casual remark from the way he spoke that, but you could sense the seriousness behind his words. You almost choked on your coffee but managed to gulp it down.
You looked at him and he wasn't looking at you, or maybe he did but he turned his face away before you could see it. He gazed straight ahead, sipping his hot chocolate, eyes seemed to be fixed on the back of your teammates, or maybe nothing at all.
More importantly, that was a confession, wasn't it? You asked yourself, still couldn't believe what you heard and tempted to voice out a question for confirmation, to pretend not to hear it. You had to bit your lips to silence yourself. A confession like this, it just wasn't like you pictured him confessed to someone. You imagined any love confession involving him would be like a scene from a cliché shoujo manga. Hell, no one wouldn't even imagine he could confess his love so casually in a place like this, a crowded public place. Most people would confess their love privately, without any other ears but their crush's to hear them.
When you opened your mouth, finally decided to say something, your teammates had returned. He smiled widely, you didn't realize he wasn't smiling before, and laughed along with a lame joke, or was it actually a remark? You didn't really give any attention to that.
"Come on, let's get going, senpai." he said, finally looking at you with a smile. Something was off with his smile, you noticed, but you said nothing. In fact, both of you didn't even speak a single word to each other until both of you have to part your ways, going back home.
You gave your answer the next time you saw him at school, in private, and you finally realized that it was fear of rejection you saw behind the smiles he gave you for the entire day since his confession. The first emotion you noticed on his eyes was surprise, then relief, and finally happiness, joy, celebration. Many commented that his smile was glowing that day and they kept asking him whether a good thing happened to him. His only answer was a yes along with a wide happy smile that was practically glowing, the smile that you secretly wanted to be only shown to you and you alone.
'I love you.'
It was your graduation day. There were flashes of cameras everywhere, people tried to save the memory of this day to the form of photos. People tend to get sentimental on graduation day, so it wasn't surprising to see that he tried not to cry in front of you. Then again, shouldn't you be the one who was crying instead of him? It wasn't like you would cry, though. You didn't have to go out of town to attend your university anyway.
"Here, brat. Now, don't you dare cry in front of me." you half-scolded him as you took his right hand and put something on his palm.
"I'm not-" he started to protest (and you could literally sense his pout from his voice) before he looked at his palm, finally realized what just you gave him. A single button. He looked at you then back to his palm and then to your uniform (he looked like he just noticed something) and then to his palm again before finally looking back at you. A wide smile curled up on his face, his right hand clenching the button tightly "I love you too, senpai! I'll treasure this forever!" he said gleefully. "I'll give you my 2nd button too!"
You could feel your cheeks warmed up a bit as you stopped him from reaching his gray jacket "You still need to wear that."
"But, I still have ano- Oh, I see." he chuckled, obviously amused. "Well, you better come to my graduation too."
"Do you even need to ask for that?"
He laughed softly. "But you know, our 2nd button is actually far away from our heart. It's actually closer to our stomach or…" he looked at you meaningfully.
"… Shut up, Kise." You were sure your face went redder.
You did come to his graduation day two years later and he gave you what apparently to be all 2nd buttons from the Kaijo school uniform, both the shirt and the jacket. That wasn't surprised you, somehow. What surprised you was how his fangirls didn't even manage to get one from him. You heard some stories where fangirls could be a little bit… forceful when it came to graduation day and the 'battle' for the 2nd button, or at least that was what you heard.
"The shirt's ones is more related to the original tradition than the jacket's ones." he gladly explained. "However, I know that our school's uniform makes it hard for us to do the tradition so I do some improvisation!"
"You just give me all of the buttons, Kise. It isn't exactly improvisation." you said. "…. I might even make a new shirt with all these buttons."
"Woah, wearing a shirt full of my love! Stop saying cute things like that, it will make my heart explode!" he said, obviously overly dramatizing things.
"Shut up, Kise."
'I love you too.'
"Thank you so much, Yukiocchi!"
He giggled when you gave him a blue box with a simple golden ribbon. It amused you of how he would always look so happy when you just did the most logical thing to do on Christmas, giving present to the one you love.
"You can open it now, if you want." you said, silently hoping that he would be happy with that gift. You had spent hours, days even, to find a gift that you thought would make him happy. Happy not because you gave it but also because he truly liked that gift. You even, as cliché as it sounded, worked a part-time job to get some money because asking your parents for money was out of question. Unfortunately, you couldn't buy anything fancy but you managed to find one thing that seemed to just fit him perfectly.
He smiled slightly while shaking his head. "No, I think I will just open it later." he said. "But again, thank you for the gift. I don't expect it at all."
You raised one of your eyebrows. "It is Christmas, Ryouta. Giving presents is one of the most common things to do. It isn't like I never give you a Christmas present before."
"But this one is different! It feels so special. You can even see it from how you wrap the gift!"
"… You do understand that my gift wrapping skill can actually get better than when I was in high school."
"I'm just kidding." he laughed. He then took out something from his bag. It was a box wrapped with sparkling ruby red gift wrap paper with a green ribbon. "And this one is for you. Merry Christmas, Yukiocchi." he grinned.
It was the start of your Christmas tradition as a couple. Started the morning with the same Christmas movies that were aired on the television, had a little date (and maybe skiing or playing basketball together), had a nice dinner, exchanged gifts, sitting in front of the (fake) firewood with a blanket while talking and drinking hot chocolate, and wrapped the day with a nice lovemaking session. It didn't mean you did the same thing again and again every year, once he bought a Christmas cake, the other time both of you bought a Christmas tree and decorated it together. Of course, most of them could only be done when the two of you started to live together.
You were the one who asked him to move in with you after one of your date. Both of you had been busy with college and your weekly date started to become a monthly date. You figured if the two of you wanted to see each other as long as you wanted, why didn't live together? He happily accepted your offer.
"Yukiocchi, look at this awesome little singing Christmas lamps! We can decorate the whole house with it!"
"Isn't it the one they usually use for Christmas tree? Besides, I don't think our neighbors will appreciate its noise."
"And that's exactly the problem with this apartment block! There are not enough Christmas spirit! Help me so we can watch the movie on time."
"We have seen the movie so many times, nothing would change if we don't watch it on time."
"What if they change it? What if they don't air the same movie this year?"
You shook your head but a smile was still intact. "Fine, fine. I'll help you. You deal with the neighbor if they bang on our door for being too noisy in a Christmas morning."
'Thank you for everything, Ryouta.'
"I'm sorry."
You knew this was coming, that this would happen anytime soon. It hurt but it didn't hurt as much as you would imagine it to be. You knew and it still hurt, but it wasn't that hurtful. Even you were confused by yourself.
But yes, it really was just a matter of time. What you wanted to know was why could this happen? Everything seemed so… perfect before. Then again, nothing was perfect in this world, you should have known that. Your biggest question was actually when, when exactly did both of you… fell out love with each other? When did you stop saying 'I love you' to him and vice versa? When did he stop looking at you longingly? Maybe you had seen his love for you slowly disappeared from his eyes. Maybe it was obvious, but you chose to dismiss it, to ignore it. When did both of you start to become distant? Was it because of your work? It didn't seem so because you two could deal with the busy schedule before. Maybe you should just accept the fact that it happened just because it was, no reasons you could probably think of. He might have the answer but you sealed your mouth, didn't dare to question it.
This year's Christmas Eve was colder than usual and you buried your gloved hands deeper into your pockets. People might, would, say that breaking up on Christmas, or the night before, was cruel and mean. You thought it would make any difference. To be honest, you had the feeling this would happen on this particular day because you didn't buy him a Christmas present to be exchanged when the clock stroke midnight and it seemed that neither did he. It was, used to be, a relatively new tradition that both of you did 2 years ago but it didn't matter now. You saw that this year, it would be no need of both of you to continue your annual romantic tradition. Funny how the two of you still shared the same thought, even at a time like this.
No words were spoken between the two of you for what it seemed like eternity. You finally looked up to him, looking at his eyes to answer them, and there was a mutual understanding. His eyes told you everything and you hoped that yours too. No promises of being friends again were made. No promises of contacting each other again were made. Both of you knew how awkward it could be and personally, it would just hurt you, even a little. Because after all you spent 7 years loving him, making him your number one, and hopefully you as his number one. This was for the best.
"Good bye."