Disclaimer: Kurobas is distinctly not mine.
Aomine, no matter how deeply he loved basketball, could not help but grow frustrated when practically everyone that he played against gave up so easily. At first, this fact had done little other than piss him right off; he became angry and violent, scolding his opponents, unable to understand their way of thinking.
After all, what could possibly be better than a game of basketball where you had to give your all just to have a hope of succeeding? In Aomine's mind, the answer was an honest 'nothing'. All he asked was that he could play an exhilarating match that tested the extent of his ability.
He was, however, denied such a pleasure but the universe - or maybe it was fate, or God or hell he didn't know anymore - and so, he stopped asking, and held firm, instead, in his belief that the he was the only person capable of defeating himself.
At the very least, he wanted his match against Tetsu to be interesting - and he supposed that Tetsu's new light had some potential, but dammit is this really the best that you can do look we freakin' doubled your score - well. And then there was the match against Kise, which had come close, but it was nowhere near what he was looking for.
Well. And then there was Kagami.
Ka-freaking-gami. To be fair, when they had played at the Interhigh, it was clear that Aomine had misjudged him a little. Turns out - and Satsuki had told him this without Aomine ever asking - that he'd injured his legs against Midorima. Huh, guess that could account for some of his weakness, Aomine thought.
Once Kagami had been benched, though - at the Interhigh, that is - instead of accepting defeat like every other player that he went up against, the red-head had silently stewed in determination. Even on the bench, he had tremendous fighting spirit, and if Aomine hadn't been playing, he may have just sat there and enjoyed the sight of it until he forgot how to think. At the time, all that had really run through his mind was how much he loved seeing that, even on someone whose light was too dim.
What he was learning, though, was that Kagami was like a sunrise: the light was weak at first, but it got brighter, slowly but surely, until the sun rose and the sky bloomed into beautiful colour that you couldn't help but stare at.
If there was any indication of what emotions would transpire, it should have been how sentimentally Aomine was thinking about the other ace. Seriously, he was starting to sound like Tetsu.
It had become somewhat of an unspoken agreement with himself that he wouldn't get too hopeful of finding a rival. That one was out the window, obviously - for even though Kagami hadn't been strong enough before, he had done well before being benched. And, Aomine found that he was sub-consciously reminding himself of this fact: Kagami had been playing with an injury at the time and hadn't reached his full potential yet.
So, against all rationality, Aomine was excited for once, if only internally. The night before they were scheduled to play Seirin at the Winter Cup, he'd had trouble sleeping as a result of the pent-up anticipation.
Afterwards, the game was a bit of a blur, but Aomine knew that Tetsu was stronger and that Kagami was less of an idiot - and, above all, that he had suffered the most amazing defeat of his life.
Kagami had beaten him.
Oh, God, it felt so good just to think about it.
Kagami Taiga had beaten him and he finally had a rival who he could play against with all of his heart.
It was like Christmas.
If he wasn't so elated, Aomine might have stopped to consider any of the other reasons that his head was full of a big, red American idiot - but the elation won out.
About a week after the Winter Cup ended - Seirin won, if only through sheer power of will - the blue-haired ace gave in and asked Tetsu for Kagami's number, because seriously, it was getting ridiculous, and like hell he was gonna sit around on his ass and wait for them to meet coincidentally again. Tetsu hadn't asked any questions, but he'd given his former light a bit of a funny look that said "I know exactly what's happening here."
It was about midday on a Saturday when he called - he'd been awake for hours, but didn't want to ring in case Kagami was still sleeping (what was happening to him) - and out of all the things to get ridiculously nervous over, did it have to be this?
"Hello?" the red-head answered distractedly after the fourth ring, some kind of busy-sounding background noise audible.
Aomine swallowed thickly - there was no way it should be this nerve-wracking.
"Yo," he greeted, as casually as possible.
"Who is it?" came the reply, a fraction more interest in his tone this time.
"What, did you forget about me already?" Aomine asked sarcastically, because apparently that was how he dealt with things.
"Aomine?" he sounded bewildered, bless him, although the bluenette knew that he had the other player's undivided attention now.
"Yeah. Are you doing anything right now?"
"I - " he was almost lost for words. Almost. "I'm at the supermarket. Anyway, how the hell did you get my number?"
"Tetsu gave it to me," Aomine replied off-handedly. He heard the other teen grumble something about Kuroko being a bastard, and grinned a little. Kagami's anger was soothing, somehow.
"How soon can you meet me at the street ball court from that time?" he asked, hoping that the other wouldn't ask him to be more specific - this was dumb enough already.
"About an hour - wait, what the hell for? You can't just - " Kagami exploded, but Aomine cut him of with a question of his own.
"Does it really matter?" Kagami fell silent and Aomine's heart did this weird thing that he really didn't want to think about.
"Fine," Seirin's ace said, after a heavy pause. "See you, then," and when he hung up Aomine couldn't help but wonder what he was getting himself into.
Touou's ace was absently shooting from the free throw line. He'd just been dicking around for half an hour because he had to be a girl about it and get there early.
Aomine had just scored another basket when he heard footsteps behind him.
"Oi, oi, that's just not fair... Don't get started without me."
Kagami was there, in a tank top and baggy shorts and his basketball shoes - and if Aomine's subconscious (which sounded oddly like Satsuki) had any lingering doubts that he wasn't falling hard, they melted away.
Without preamble, they started playing. It wasn't like their game almost two weeks previously, however - less like a battle and more like actually playing.
In all honestly, Aomine could scarcely remember feeling as alive as his did when he played Kagami on that street ball court. Their faces both held expressions of unbridled joy, both sporting dumb grins.
Kagami was about to make a particularly good break, when, of all things - he tripped over a loose shoelace. He fell into Aomine, and they rolled a little until Aomine was staring down into startled red eyes that were much closer than they usually were.
Any semblance of a serious atmosphere disintegrated right then. Aomine fell to the right of Kagami, and broke down laughing. He wasn't even sure why - but the whole situation seemed ridiculous and he was just so damn happy that he couldn't really contain it.
He threw a tan arm over his eyes to block out the sun as his body shook with laughter that was deep and smooth. He shifted his arm slightly to glance at Kagami; the other teen was sitting cross-legged, facing him with an expression of honest confusion.
"What's so funny?" the red-head asked blankly, and Aomine just sat up slowly, shaking his head as his chuckles died away.
"Nothing, I guess," he grinned lopsidedly. "It's just, ah..." Aomine rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Well, I suppose I'm just really glad I met you."
Kagami snorted. "Pull the other one."
"No really," Aomine insisted. "That last game was the best one of my life!" he threw his arms out to the sides to emphasise his point.
The other grinned sharply at him, and wow, there goes his heart again -
"I know, moron. I was there, remember? There'd nothing better than a tough match like that!"
Aomine put on his best 'I'm-probably-in-love-with-you' face - denial was pointless - but it must have come across as 'I-really-love-basketball', because Kagami didn't notice.
Another hour later, they were drenched in sweat and as happy as could be. Kagami wiped his face on the neck of his shirt, but it didn't really achieve much. Aomine, for his part, was leant up against the chain-link fence.
"Hey," Kagami called out to him, his voice a bit breathless. "D'you want to come back to my place? I gotta shower, and i can make us some food."
"Sure," Aomine gladly accepted, surprised. He couldn't turn down an offer like that, surely?
The red-head's apartment fit him, somehow, although Aomine hadn't expected him to live alone. Must get lonely...
"What makes you say that?" Ah. Had he said that out loud?
The bluenette shrugged his shoulders loosely. "Guess it's just 'cause I've always got my parents and Satsuki buggin' me."
Kagami kind of grunted, pulling two bottles of water out of the fridge and tossing one to Aomine, who caught it easily with a 'thanks'.
After a few large gulps, he wiped his mouth, leaning against the counter. "I'm not really here that much, but yeah... sometimes."
Looking a bit uncomfortable at the topic of conversation, Kagami offered, "Why don't you have a shower while I cook?"
"Sure. Where is it?"
Kagami showed him where to go before getting into the cooking. Although, he couldn't help but wonder where this had all come from or, more importantly, why it hadn't happened sooner.
When they'd both showered and changed - Aomine borrowed some of Kagami's clothes - they sat down at the low table in Kagami's living room to eat the curry he'd made. While they ate, and long after they finished, they talked about anything and everything, each learning a great deal about the other.
It was about four thirty when Aomine decided that he had to go.
"If I don't get home soon, my mum's gonna think I've joined a gang, or something equally stupid," he explained.
"Alright," Kagami agreed, even though he really wanted him to stay longer. "This was fun. We should do it again sometime," he proposed as they lingered in the hallway.
"Same time next week?" Aomine offered hopefully, his heart doing another one of those weird spasmy things.
Kagami looked thoughtful for a second before he nodded. "Yeah, that's good."
"It's a date," Aomine smirked crookedly, and reached over to peck Kagami's cheek.
It took Kuroko a solid hour to explain to his light that yes, what happened that Saturday was a date, no he's not joking, and yes, of course you feel the same way.
The next Saturday, Aomine stayed the night.
i wrote like all of this in one night whilst procrastinating. yey.