Aomine's Fall
(Story takes place post Winter Cup - inspired by DeafAU! Aomine fic)
Chapter 1: The Accident
It was an ordinary Sunday (meaning no practice), and Aomine Daiki, former power forward of Teiko middle school and current Ace of Touou Gakuen, was doing what he did best in this world; street basket. Not wanting to waste a sunny day, he had quickly gotten dressed that morning, putting on casual basket clothes with an arm sleeve for extra flare and sped down to the local basketball court. Unfortunately, as it was a Sunday, no players were present that early. Impatient as usual when it came to the sport, he played alone for a while until there were enough players assembled for him to quickly convince into playing a three-on-three match. After one match, it evolved into a best of 3, then best of 5. Some were experienced adult players and while they were no match compared to the Generation of Miracles or Kagami, it was enough for him to work up a sweat and actually have some fun.
High-fiving one of the players on his team after a successful shot, Aomine ran off court to the benches. "Just grabbing some water," Aomine called behind his back, digging out the bottle, and they nodded and kept playing. The sun was high in the sky now; as the street player lifted his head to the sky, he shielded his face with his hand and thought "This sort of thing isn't half bad. This might actually become fun again. Now that I know Tetsu and the others can provide some real challenge, playing around with these guys doesn't seem so boring anymore. I had forgotten what it meant to play for fun. To feel the warmth of the ball…"
As the blue haired teen drifted off in thought, he caught sight of the orange ball whizzing through the air in his direction, shielding the sun for a split-second before it sped forwards in its path. Not wasting an opportunity – "I got it!" he cried and ran after it. Through the opening in the gate of the court he ran and saw its trajectory about to fly into the road. Wanting to impress, he knew he could make it, Aomine jumped off from the ground, onto the street railing, and pushed off hard, stretching out his arm as he did so. For a moment, he was flying, and everything was right in the world while he caught the ball. Smiling, he could feel his horizontal jump-shot coming up as he began to descend. Something prickled his ears though, something about 'dangerous' and 'look out', but they were just distant voices, far away from his euphoria in the sky. He flicked the ball with his wrist and it flew sailing. Then, Aomine blinked, wanting to catch a glimpse of the beautiful clouds before setting his body straight for landing. However, that never came. Instead he blinked and found himself looking at red.
Like a flashing light, everything came all at once. The pain in his back, the shock of an impact being slammed right into him and the crash of hard cement underneath him. No time to think, no time to breathe, Aomine felt his body smash and roll onto the ground before it stopped moving as his still outstretched arm rammed into something.
Finally, the sensations and the senses of his body kicked in. A loud ringing was pulsating in his ears and Aomine saw large red spots blink across his vision as he tried to open his eyes. All sensations flew into an overdrive and it all at once became too much for the brain to register. Faintly, he could smell gasoline and the scent of burnt rubber. Realizing those two elements did not mix well together, the tanned teen had enough sense left in him to react. Slowly, military-style, he crawled to what looked like shade and the netting of the court he had just played at. His legs quickly protested when he tried to move them to help in the process; shooting a bolt of pain to his entire body, through his spine and into his head. He grimaced and used only the strength of his arms and upper body to move the couple of feet required to get to the wall of the netting, before every bone in his body suddenly gave out to immediately draining fatigue. Somehow, he managed to move his head forwards, his eyes slowly giving way to a blurry vision. Vaguely, he could make out his right arm in front of him, dipped in something red. He could also see his own flesh, ripped open at the elbow through the arm sleeve he wore. While he looked at his now bloodied excuse of a shooting arm, only one thought occurred to him at that time.
"Huh, what a shame. I liked that arm sleeve…"
Aomine blinked a couple of more times and his sight returned to almost normal. Almost at the same time the ringing in his ears began to fade, but still blocking off comprehensible hearing capabilities. He could hear a lot of shouting now. In the distance, he could spot several running figures, racing towards him. He found this rather odd. "Strange…"he thought, "why are they running as if my life depended on it?"
Then, finally, finally- the pain kicked in! It split his head open and Aomine let out a gutting scream. Coursing through his body, through every single cell he could feel, he felt pure, unadulterated, agony. Throbbing at his head, his vision became blurry with red again, but this time, he realized, because of the blood that was running from his forehead wound into his eyes. His back was the worst hit, he could feel it- any slight movement, any at all, sent a rampage of hurt to his very core, leaving after-shocks so powerful he wished he could just faint on the spot. His legs, which he had previously had believed to be merely bruised, were clearly fractured, or worse. Only his left arm appeared somewhat intact, and he clasped it onto his head, hopefully covering the wound as he let out another yell.
He couldn't believe this just happened. What just happened? He had just been shooting a shot…glancing to his right, he saw a bright red car, parked in the middle of the road. Its front-facing window was completely crushed, and part of its hood had been damaged too. Eventually, Aomine put two and two together, and the basketball player's eyes widened in shock and horror. "That…that hit me! It ran into me…no, I landed on it…" It hurt to think and instead focused his attention on something closer instead. He felt like if he didn't focus on something he would pass out any second. Several figures had surrounded him- calling out his name, shouting things. Someone put a soft object on his head, gently lifting his arm away from his skull. Not having the strength to resist the arms attempting to move him from the position he was in on the ground, the last thing he could coherently comprehend was a bright blue flashing light from a white van stationed right where he had just been, before letting the darkness take his consciousness.