A/N – This was inspired by the Episode #69 ending where Aomine is seen racing boys on other sports teams and winning. He looked so good running I couldn't help myself :p

A/N2 – The title for this story was taken from the song "Be a Man" in the movie Mulan. Somehow I picture Aomine running to be "swift as a coursing river".

Kise had just reached the gates of Tōō Gakuen. It was Saturday, and the school was holding its annual sports festival. His boyfriend of two years now (even though their relationship had been strained for most of the previous year), Aomine had invited Kise to come and watch (and also perhaps to cheer him on). Since Kise had nothing to do that day, he had obliged and made the journey from Kanagawa to Tokyo.

It was strange that Tōō Gakuen was having its sports festival so close to the end of the school year. Most schools would organise their sports day in the middle of the school year. Then again, Tōō Gakuen was a rather unconventional school.

Aomine had explained to Kise about the house system in his school. Apparently, Tōō Gakuen was one of the few schools in Japan to have this system. Upon enrolment into the school, each student was allocated a house for sports competition purposes. There were four houses in Tōō Gakuen, and each house corresponded to a particular colour – blue, red, green and yellow. Aomine said that it was to foster a spirit of group loyalty amongst the students. Kise thought it was fascinating, as it was different in Kaijo, where even though the school focused on sports, it mostly focused on nurturing sports teams.

Despite the fact that Tōō Gakuen had a house system, Aomine said that there was also a competition of running amongst the sports teams in the school. Each sport team would send a male and female (if any) representative to race in a 200m sprint. There would be an event for the boys and an event for the girls. And guess who the basketball team sent? Aomine, of course. Well, he volunteered, which was surprising to all his team members, including Momoi. But Aomine reasoned that he was the fastest sprinter amongst them, so it was a no-brainer to send him. No one could argue with that.

Kise entered the school. He adjusted his sunglasses and pulled his collar up to disguise himself against his fans, who would surely flock over to him if they saw him alone. Kise immediately sent a text to his boyfriend to tell him that he had arrived.

Not more than a minute later, Kise received a reply, telling him to wait where he was as Aomine would be coming to fetch him.

Kise leaned his back against a tree. He looked around him at the many students bustling about the school. It looked like there was an event already going on, judging from the screams and cries coming from the direction of the field.

"Kise!"

Kise's head whipped around to the direction of the sound of his name. Aomine was jogging towards him.

"Aominecchi!" Kise yanked his sunglasses away and leapt forward to engulf his boyfriend in a hug. The distance between Kanagawa and Tokyo meant that Aomine and Kise didn't get to meet as often as they'd like, what with Kise's busy schedule as a model, so meetings such as this were precious. "Did I miss your race?"

"Nope," replied Aomine. He took Kise's hand and led him towards the crowd. "Are you thirsty? Do you want a drink?" Aomine pushed the red ribbon he had tied around his head that was falling into his eyes back up.

"I'm alright," Kise replied. He looked at Aomine. "Why are you wearing your basketball jersey? Not that I don't like you in it…"

Aomine laughed. "I know you do. I like you very much in it too," he said wagging his eyebrows suggestively. "But I have to wear it for the race later – representatives of the sports teams have to wear their uniform so that the judges know which team they're representing."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"Kii-chan!" a feminine voice called from the crowd.

"Momocchi?" Kise perked up. He looked around but couldn't find the owner of the voice.

Suddenly, there was a tap on Kise's shoulder. His head whipped around to come face to face with the pink-haired girl. Momoi was wearing a pink cheerleader's outfit and was holding a pink pompom in one hand. "Kii-chan!" she squealed, snatching his hand away from Aomine's grip. "I'm so glad you could make it!"

"You look so cute, Momochi!" Kise exclaimed.

Momoi blushed. "I'm not participating in any of the sports, so I thought I'd cheer people on," she replied. "See? I'm even wearing a neutral colour!"

"If you wanted to be neutral, you'd be wearing black or grey," grumbled Aomine.

"But those colours are so dull!" retorted Momoi. "They don't match me at all!"

"That is true," Kise pointed out.

"Whatever," muttered Aomine. He wrapped an arm over Kise's shoulder. "So is there anything for me to do? If not, I'm going to steal Kise away for a while."

Momoi immediately flushed at Aomine's insinuation. "Well, everything's fine right now, so we don't need any help… but Dai-chan! This is an institute of learning! Don't tarnish it!"

Aomine smirked at Momoi. "We won't," he replied. "At least not too badly," he finished with a cackle, before pulling Kise away and disappearing into the crowd.

The last Kise heard of Momoi was an exasperated, "Dai-chan!"

"Aominecchi," Kise mumbled. He was a bit distracted as he was trying not to bump into too many people.

It stunned Kise that Aomine had even heard him. "Hm?"

There was a pause as Kise narrowly missed crashing into an excited second year student. By then, Aomine had managed to pull him out of the other end of the crowd. "Don't you have to stay and support your house or something?"

"Honestly, I don't really care which house wins or loses," Aomine replied, scratching the back of his head. "I only volunteered to run for the basketball team because… well, it's the basketball team. We have a reputation to maintain."

Kise stared at Aomine. Then, he burst out laughing.

Aomine shot Kise an annoyed look. "What's so funny?"

Kise was still laughing. "It figures that Aominecchi would only go all out if it is for basketball," he said. "You are a basketball nut!"

"Shut up, Kise. This doesn't even have anything to do with basketball!" growled Aomine.

"Ah, but it's for the BASKETBALL team, isn't it?"

"Well, yes… but…"

Kise planted a kiss on Aomine's mouth. "That's okay. You're my basketball nut."

Aomine grinned and returned the kiss. "Only yours," he said.

Aomine led Kise to a secluded area of the school. From where they were, they could still see what was going on in the field in terms of the sports festival like the event that was taking place, but it was too far to take notice of the details like who exactly was competing. But judging by the colour of the participants' T-shirts, Kise could roughly tell which house was winning or losing.

Aomine flopped down on the floor and took out two juice boxes from his bag. He tossed one to Kise, and Kise also settled himself down beside Aomine.

Aomine wrapped his arm around Kise's body and brought the blonde closer. "I know you wanted to observe nearer, but there were just too many people around to have a private moment."

Kise smiled. "I understand, Aominecchi. But this is perfect."

"Good," murmured Aomine.

Aomine and Kise spent the rest of the afternoon basking in each other's presence (with some cuddling) and watching the sports events take place from afar. It was fifteen minutes to 3pm when Aomine had to leave to prepare for his competition.

As Aomine made to leave, Kise kissed him. "For luck," he said with a coy smile. "Win this race, Aominecchi."

"Will do," Aomine replied, taking Kise's hand into his and squeezing it. "You'll stay here and wait for me?"

Kise nodded. "Okay."

Kise watched as Aomine made his way down to the field to report himself for his event. He saw the starters of the basketball team and Momoi crowding around Aomine and speaking to him (they probably were encouraging him, but judging from Wakamatsu elbowing Aomine viciously, Kise couldn't be too sure). Kise crept closer to the field to get a better look.

Aomine tied a red ribbon around his torso like a sash. Kise looked at the other participants, who were also tying similar ribbons of differing colours. It was most likely to identify the participants in the race.

Then, Aomine and the other contestants made their way to the starting line. They took their positions. When the gun went off, they started running.

Kise watched in awe as Aomine sprinted. He knew that Aomine could run very fast – that's how he could get from one end of the basketball court to the other in a matter of seconds. But to see Aomine in action right there and then… it was fantastic. Aomine took the lead the moment the race started. He outran all the other participants in the race. And the way Aomine sprinted… Kise couldn't take his eyes off him while he observed Aomine run. Kise knew that a lot of people likened Aomine to a panther, but when he was running, Kise thought he resembled a cheetah – graceful and majestic, yet quick and agile. Kise was falling deeper in love with Aomine.

As soon as the race began, it also ended just as suddenly. A boy wearing a yellow shirt managed to catch up to Aomine near the finish line, but Aomine was just too fast. He crossed the finish line first; the second place followed a mere 3 seconds later, but it was enough for Aomine to clinch first place.

Kise could see Momoi, Imayoshi, Susa, Wakamatsu and Sakurai at the side-lines jumping and cheering with joy. As soon as everyone had finished the race, they rushed forward towards Aomine congratulating and high-fiving him.

Kise smiled to himself. When they had started their first year of high school, Aomine couldn't be bothered about the basketball team. He just wanted to play basketball, but didn't want the involvement in team activities. He didn't attend practice, he ditched the team whenever they went to watch a match (the basketball team had to go through some very extreme measures to make Aomine come along with them)… But now, after Tōō Gakuen had lost to Seirin in the Winter Cup preliminaries, Aomine had become a more amiable person – towards basketball and life in general. Granted, Aomine was still the irritable and grumpy person Kise loved, but his grouchy moments seemed to be milder as well. And Kise had to thank Kuroko for all of this.

Aomine had truly come a long way.

Kise could now see Aomine walking towards him. Ever since Kise saw Aomine sprinting in the race, Kise had been feeling a heat pool from the pit of his stomach, and it didn't take a genius to know that he was hot and bothered at observing Aomine's handsome face light up in excitement at running and the muscles in Aomine's body clench and unclench at the force of running. Aomine just looked so good running that Kise had gotten horny from just watching him.

Kise pounced onto Aomine and slammed his lips against Aomine's.

Aomine was surprised by his boyfriend's actions, but he didn't hesitate to return Kise's kiss with equal ferocity. "Oi, baby, what's up?" he asked when Kise broke apart from him to inhale a large gulp of air.

Kise didn't speak. He took Aomine's hand and brought it to cup the front of his jeans.

Aomine's eyes widened when he realised that his boyfriend was very hard. "You got that hard from watching me?"

Kise nodded. "I want you to fuck me…" he gasped.

Aomine's astonished expression quickly changed into a grin. "My house is five minutes away," he said. "Three, if we run."

Kise returned Aomine's grin. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Aomine laughed loudly as he took Kise's hand in his before dragging the blonde home, where they could proceed with more intimate activities.