He grabbed onto the back of the redhead's shirt as he jumped up to dunk, yanking him back down to the earth. Kagami, caught completely unawares, stumbled as he landed while trying to regain any sense of balance. He moved back a few steps before falling on his rear with a curse.

"Shit!" He yelled with all the fury he could muster. "What the hell Ahomine?"

The other shrugged before shoving his pinky in his ear with a bored expression.

"Just thought it'd be interesting to see you fall on your ass."

Kagami's blood boiled at the answer. He would do something like that just for the entertainment? What if he had hit his head when he fell? What if he had landed on Aomine and one of them had broken something because of it? A million thoughts raced through his mind as he stared angrily at the person in front of him.

"Ah, jeez." He finally said after his deliberating got him nowhere. "I'm going home for today. Don't try to contact me until your asshole level goes down a bit."

Kagami stood up and walked over to where their bags lay, snatching his towel off the fence as he did. He didn't look back to see Aomine staring after him with a very out of character expression on his face.

Aomine watched him go, his actual emotions beginning to show on his face. He was nervous. They had been going through the habit of playing one-on-one every couple of days after school for about three months now. One of them would send a text with a court and a time and the other would respond whether they would meet up or not, it was a pretty good system. But then something changed. Aomine began noticing the differences in how Kagami played. It wasn't so obvious that his team would call him out on it, though Kuroko probably knew already, but it was very worrying to Aomine.

Kagami was improving. Yeah, yeah, most people would say the it's to be expected and that its impossible not to after playing every day but this was different. Kagami was beginning to show the exact same signs that the rest of the Generation of Miracles had shown before their team broke apart, and this really worried Aomine.

He had undoubtedly had been through the worst out of all of them and knew exactly what it could do to a person. When he had seen Kagami jump, his arm had moved without him thinking, dragging him back down so that he couldn't make that final basket.

Aomine grabbed his towel and leaned down for his bag so he could walk home, still worrying like some mother hen, only to come face to face with a large pair of expressionless blue eyes.

It was Aomine's turn to fall on his ass and yell profanities at the silent offender who ignored him and took another sip of his milkshake.

"Tetsu!" He yelled after calming down a bit, just a bit mind you. He was still rather startled. "The hell did you come from?"

Kuroko regarded him silently for a moment, then spoke.

"Just like everyone else, I emerged from my mother's womb Aomine-kun."

Aomine swore he saw those pale eyes dance with mirth for a moment before returning to their normal flat stare.

"Okay, okay." Aomine groaned as he stood up. Damn his ass hurt now. He felt a little sorry for Kagami who had fallen with considerably more force. "What I mean is how long have you been here?"

Kuroko stared at him for a bit again before answering seriously.

"I saw you two begin the last game."

Aomine groaned inwardly. Now his former partner was probably going to lecture him on how he was manhandling his precious light.

"Aomine-kun," He began, looking like he was trying to bore a hole through the other with his eyes. "I see what you're worried about but that is not the right way to go about helping Kagami-kun."

Aomine gaped like a fish before remembering that this was Tetsu he was talking with. The shorter boy could probably read his mind by now, seeing as how observant he had become and how much he knew Aomine.

"Well what else was I supposed to do? Enlighten me your honour." He said dryly, keeping up his public asshole face.

"I am not quite sure either but for one, you need to practice more." Kuroko retorted. Even through his lack of expression Aomine could see that he was worried for both of them. He knew why Aomine rarely practiced and saw that the only way for Kagami to stay the same was for him to have a rival. They both needed a goal.

Aomine sighed as he figured out Kuroko's thought process.

"Also, one more thing." Kuroko spoke again, confusing Aomine who though he had said his two cents and was done. "Momoi-san says to tell you that she's been accepted for the studying abroad program she signed up for. She'll be leaving in a week for four months in France."

Shit.

He had been hoping that she wouldn't go, although he should have known better since she was at the top of the class. Now he would have to find some way of managing on his own.

He grabbed his bag and began the journey home, waving a goodbye over his shoulder to Kuroko who stayed and simply watched him go.

As Aomine reached home, he noticed a large amount of noise coming from inside. That was strange. His parents normally weren't home until dinner, yet he could clearly hear their voices. He kicked off his shoes at the entrance and wandered into the kitchen, the source of the noise. He was met with excited stares from his parents as they noticed his presence.

"Daiki!" His mother said with a huge grin on her face. "Your father and I get to go on a trip!"

What.

His father smiled over his coffee cup. "Your mother and I won the trip in the lottery the company did last month!"

You've got to be kidding.

His mother spoke again.

"We'll be off to the Galapagos Islands for three months! Isn't that amazing! We get two months of paid vacation time and we don't have to spend anything!"

Yeah that was great and all but what about food? Aomine couldn't cook to save his life and his family knew it.

"We've already arranged everything. We signed up for a catering service for you!"

His mother handed him a large booklet. He quickly looked through it and almost drooled. They had everything from scrambled eggs for breakfast to customizable cakes for dessert.

He nodded and congratulated them before heading upstairs to his room. They would be leaving in a week, the same time as Satsuki. He sighed and flopped down on his bed, suddenly tired. He would have to rely on himself for a while. It might even mean dropping the whole proud asshole thing a few notches for a while. It's not like he was always that way, in fact he was actually a rather decent person way down deep, he was just too used to acting like an ass. It was easier that way. People gave him his distance, didn't twist their words into niceties when trying to talk to him and generally just left him the hell alone. This suited Aomine just fine. If he wanted to, he would take the initiative to talk to them.

He reached over to the other side of the bed and grabbed one of his magazines. As with most of them, this one was featuring his beloved Mai-chan. He listened intently and heard his parents making dinner. They would be occupied for a while. He eased off his clothes and pumped a palm full of clear lubricant he kept in a hand sanitizer bottle. If Satsuki had seen it in the original packaging, it would have been gone before it was even opened. He used to have to attach fake covers to his magazines before she had just given up on getting rid of them.

He stared at his favourite shot while he slowly began stroking himself. He did this so often that it didn't take much time at all before he was nearing his peak. His hand moved faster as he neared the brink, yet he couldn't quite reach the pleasure he desired. He groaned in frustration. As he tried to push himself over the edge, his mind wandered a bit to the day's events. He found himself thinking of the rush of adrenaline that came with playing basketball. That pushed him a little closer, but not as far as he needed. He gritted his teeth as he moved faster, his arm aching at the prolonged use and speed he was going at. Out of nowhere, a face entered his mind. Kagami. Grinning like an idiot after winning the first game. His face flushed with exertion and dripping sweat. Aomine's body jolted and he let out a deep groan as he finally pushed himself over the edge, then laid there in a rather pleasant state of relaxation and bliss.

Then reality kicked in and invaded his afterglow, causing him to realize exactly what he had just done.

He had just used Kagami as masturbation material.

Kagami.

A guy.

His basketball rival.

An airheaded food monster that was hard, muscled and most certainly did not have big pillow-like breasts.

Aomine was very confused. He knew that Kagami was one of the few people he actually enjoyed talking, arguing, playing and just essentially hanging out with but he had assumed that the feeling drawing him to the redhead was a sense of companionship. As he thought about it more, he realized that it actually made an alarming amount of sense if the feeling went deeper than that. It would explain the loneliness and disappointment every time the redhead couldn't make it, the leap of joy whenever he got a text asking him for a match and the continuously nagging voice in the back of his mind that said 'I wanna go play basketball with Kagami' almost all the time.

He wiped himself off and sighed. He had only ever liked someone seriously once before, granted that one was a girl, and was rejected when he asked her out (He hadn't done his research and she already had a boyfriend). What he had felt for her was nothing compared to how he saw the current object of his affections.

He finished cleaning himself up and put his clothes back on. He would play it normal for now. Just realizing something that had might exist wasn't going to change anything. He'd try to get closer to Kagami first and see if this was actually the case.

"Daiki! Dinner's done!"

Aomine heard his mother call from the kitchen and went downstairs. Time to start plotting.