WARNING REMINDER: Major Character Death, Implied Suicide
X
Aomine was walking to school when he hears it. The sound of a whimper from a box abandoned by the side of the pavement. He struggles internally whether to leave it alone but his mind is made up when when he hears a pitiful whine come from within the box. He peers inside and finds a thin puppy with black and white fur and pale blue eyes.
He startles lightly as the pale blue eyes fixes its gaze to his and the thought that they look similar to someone's flashes through his mind.
He can't remember who though.
He approaches the puppy slowly, holding his hand out in front of him as a sign of peace, so that it wouldn't get scared away. The puppy looked frightened of him at first and flinched when he touched it but it slowly relaxed as Aomine stroked its fur tentatively.
Aomine would have liked to give it something to eat, noticing how thin the puppy was as he gently lifted it from the box. He could feel its ribs clearly and he felt a pang of guilt for not having any food to give him. He tucked the shivering puppy underneath his jacket, hoping his own body heat will warm it up, even if a little.
He gently cradled it with a hand, securing it against him as he started to jog towards Momoi's house.
X
Momoi was surprised to find Aomine with a puppy outside her door but she didn't question it. She took one look at the miserable puppy and ushered them in, tending to the puppy immediately. It is only later, when the puppy had been fed and was sleeping peacefully swathed in blankets did they talk.
"Dai-chan, where did you find that cute little puppy?"
"I found him abandoned in a box a little bit outside of Maji Burger." Aomine answered as he pilfered through her pantry. Momoi gave an exasperated sigh but otherwise let it go.
"Um… his eyes look really familiar don't you think?" Momoi says quietly after a short silence and he frowns at the cautious way she said it. As though she was afraid that Aomine would react badly or something. Why he would get angry or anything over a pair of eyes elude him.
"You think so too? I don't remember where I've seen them before though." He shrugs, frowning a bit more when he sees the crestfallen look that crosses Momoi's face.
"Is that so…"
X
"All right, good job everyone! Go home and rest up for practice tomorrow morning!" The coach yells as practice ends. Aomine was accepting a towel from Momoi and wiping off his sweat with it when he hears the few first years talking about a former phantom sixth man among the generation of miracles, of how that person specialized in passing.
Aomine is confused but doesn't say anything as he heads to the locker room to change.
There was no phantom sixth man.
X
"Hey, hey, Aominecchi came up to me with a puppy yesterday and asked me what name would be good to give it." Kise burst out suddenly as they were doing cooling down stretches after practice. Aomine had been called over by their coach that had prompted Kise's memory of it. He felt vaguely smug that Aomine had asked him.
"Oh? He actually asked you for advice?"
"What's with that rersponse, Midorimacchi?!" Kise pouted at him but Midorima merely ignored him. "Anyway, I had the perfect name for it the moment I saw it!"
"Is that so? What name did you suggest then?" Midorima humoured Kise, not really caring about what name he had come up with, but knowing that it made it easier and quicker to get Kise to shut up. The third years were already looking at Kise irritatedly.
"Tetsuya! Or Tetsu since it sounds more cuter don't you think?"
He was only met with silence.
X
Aomine huffed as he watched his puppy chase excitedly after the ball. The puppy had met him halfway from school, waiting by the court and so they had played a little bit of basketball together. He plopped down onto the concrete to rest as the puppy slowly but determinedly rolled the ball over, plopping down next to Aomine as well, panting in exhaustion.
Aomine chuckled, lifting a hand to scratch his puppy behind its ears absentmindedly, his thoughts going back to the name Kise had suggested to him.
Tetsuya. Tetsu.
Somehow Aomine hated that name.
X
Sometimes Aomine dreams. It's rare but it does happen. And whenever he does dream, he'll always have the same one.
Of being with someone, smaller than him yet it felt as though that person was Aomine's entire world. They would go to basketball practice together, they would pass by the same court Aomine did afterwards and play basketball a little more. They would stop by the restaurant Aomine always stopped by at and that person will buy the vanilla milkshake Aomine always did.
And then it'll flash to little kisses, warm and sweet filled with promises of forever, of pale skin burning him where they touched, of drowning in pale blue eyes that resembled the morning sky.
He'll wake up sobbing and dry heaving, feeling as though his breath had been stolen from him, a name on the tip of his tongue but never spoken aloud because by then he would have forgotten.
It always ends the same way.
X
"Aomine-san, how was Kuroko-san like?" A first year asks Aomine one day during a break at practice. Complete silence descends upon the second and third years as they look towards Aomine and the naïve first year. Aomine finds that his chest and throat had constricted at the name and now there was a rock stuck in throat and he can't seem to make a single sound.
But what could he say anyway?
"I…" Aomine trailed off when he heard how hoarse his voice had become, and how it had felt on the verge of cracking. It was then that Akashi interrupted them; scolding the first year and saying that he would explain it to them after practice.
The fact that Akashi would willingly explain something to a bunch of first years that wasn't about basketball must mean that it was important.
Was it important?
X
"I'm home!" Aomine calls out as he takes his shoes off at the door. He hears an answering call from the kitchen and heads to his bedroom to take a shower and change. He sees his puppy on his bed and he smiles at it as it barked at him in greeting.
He goes to take his shower and plops down onto the bed beside the puppy when he comes back, intending to rest a little before he heads down to dinner. The puppy immediately climbs onto his lap though.
"I must be upset for you to just suddenly plant yourself on me." Aomine laughs a little, ignoring how it came out a little strained as he starts to pet it. They sit in silence for a while until Aomine speaks aloud what was running through his mind.
"You remind me of someone. Someone that was really precious to me." He pauses, the back of his eyes prickling with unshed tears.
"I can't remember who though."
X
It is during training camp for the first string members that Aomine has his worst dream yet.
He's running, he's not sure exactly where but he knows its winter; could hear the snow crunching beneath his feet as he ran. He finally reaches his destination and realizes that he's at a bridge above a river. He doesn't see anything else though, his gaze immediately drawn to the person standing on the ledge, his silhouette as ethereal, as pale and light as the snow beneath his feet.
He is quiet and unmoving but soft as snow when he falls forwards towards the freezing waters below. Unlike the snow though, his fall is fast and swift, and Aomine is left to clutch at empty air as he reaches for that person desperately.
He screams; eyes wide open against the harsh winds of winter, screaming with all his might. He chokes, unable to breathe yet still screaming and then he realizes that he's looking up at a thatch roof, though the vision of rushing water swallowing a lithe body still floats before him. He continues to scream, even as he hears Momoi scrambling towards him, Midorima screaming for the teachers and Kise screaming for water while Murasakibara was hauling him up and Akashi pushing his hair away from his forehead, murmuring to him to breathe. Just breathe.
But he couldn't stop. He couldn't stop screaming his name.
Tetsu.
X
Hours later he finds himself at the doorway to his house, staring resolutely at the ground as his parents look at him worriedly. He ignores them, passing them into the house and going straight up into his room. His throat feels raw; like someone had poured an entire desert through it and now sand was coating the sides.
He opens the door to his room, planting face-first onto his bed, not bothering to change out of his clothes. Moments later he hears the light tapping of small paws and knows that it's the puppy. He remains where he is, feeling miserable enough to not care about it right now. He feels the sheets pull though as the puppy begins its climb onto his bed, walking over his prone form before settling itself in the crook of Aomine's neck, nuzzling at him as though to comfort him.
Aomine would have cried at the gesture but his eyes felt too dry to even conjure any tears. He felt as though there just weren't any more tears for him to spill. So he simply buries his face in the puppy's fur and tries to breathe.
He doesn't sleep for three days.
X
Aomine slings his bag over his shoulder, heading home for the day even though there's practice. He isn't allowed to participate or stay in school for long, Satsuki saying that he was practicing too hard and needed to rest, Akashi's orders. He didn't get it and it frustrated him not being able to practice but he wouldn't question Akashi. He was passing by the basketball court when he sees his puppy, who barks at him in greeting.
"Hey, puppy. Want to play a little basketball before we head home?" Aomine couldn't help but smile a little at seeing his puppy, even though he felt like shit. He never did decide on a name for him. he goes to pick it up only for it to suddenly dash away from him, racing off towards a path Aomine had avoided the past few months.
"Puppy! Get back here, you'll get lost!"
He isn't sure why he had avoided that path and feels apprehension at having to go through it to find his puppy. But he couldn't leave his puppy alone, what if it gets lost and can't find the way back home? So he follows it even though he feels his chest tighten painfully.
He walks down the shaded path, winding through a park before it opens up to a bridge above a river. He swallows, remembering how he used to walk down this path every day. He remembers that that person had loved how cool it was, beneath the shade that the trees provided. How cooling the spray from the river had felt on his skin.
He didn't know why he had stopped.
Aomine reaches the bridge and finds his dog sitting on the ledge beyond the railing, barking at the river beneath. The puppy looks up when Aomine comes closer, coming back through the railing to his feet but Aomine wasn't paying attention to the puppy anymore.
He trails his fingers along the railing, staring at the spot where someone had stood upon it, where that someone had consequently fallen from. He peers over and he thinks that he can see that someone falling, falling as gracefully as an angel falling from the sky.
Aomine barks out a laugh which sounded more like a sob laced with bitter anger and grief as he grips the railing so hard that his knuckles turn white. The thought was so ironic though that he couldn't stop laughing, even as tears blur his vision and wets his cheeks.
Kuroko Tetsuya was no angel.
X
"Tetsu!" Aomine calls out as he reaches Kuroko, who had been waiting for him by the bridge and was watching the river, half his face buried in his scarf as the winter wind blew at him.
"Hey, Tetsu!" Aomine calls out again as he came up beside Kuroko when Kuroko had shown no sign of hearing him. Aomine peers over to see what has Kuroko so entranced but sees only rushing water.
"Ah, Aomine-kun. Sorry, I didn't hear you." Kuroko glances at him and the small smile Kuroko gives him makes Aomine's uneasiness fade away.
"Here, your vanilla milkshake."
"Thank you, Aomine-kun."
They continued their way to Kuroko's house, chatting about this and that, and of course, about basketball as well.
"It's like they forget that you're on the court! And then you steal a pass and bam! Their shocked faces are the best!" Aomine laughed as they walked side by side, their gloved fingers loosely intertwined together.
They had just finished a practice game earlier on and the adrenaline was still rushing through Aomine's veins. The fact that he could also hold his boyfriend's hand on the way home since the path was usually deserted at this time only made the day even better.
"People's gazes will always be drawn to the light. But I'm a shadow. And Aomine-kun is the light."
"I suppose you're right." Aomine grinned down at Kuroko. "And you'll always be my partner right? the shadow to my light?"
Kuroko smiled back up at him but didn't say anything. Aomine hadn't thought much about it, knowing that Kuroko was a quiet person and thinking that his smile was affirmation enough. They walked comfortably in silence but Aomine couldn't help but notice how Kuroko seemed to be fixated on the water again.
"You okay, Tetsu?"
"Hm? Yes, I'm fine." Kuroko smiled at him again but in hindsight, Aomine should have noticed how hollow it had seemed. But he had been too caught up in his own excitement and so had shrugged it off as Kuroko being tired.
"Please don't forget me." It was a whisper so soft that Aomine hadn't been sure if he had even heard it properly and Kuroko had never said anything more. Aomine hadn't understood what he meant at first.
Because how could he forget the boy he loved?
Hours later, they lay cuddled in Kuroko's bed, Aomine having decided to stay over. Aomine sighed in happiness as he slowly settled in to sleep, his arms holding Kuroko tightly to him. Today had been the best day in Aomine's life so far and he hoped it would continue to be like this forever.
"I'm sorry, Aomine-kun." A whisper just as Aomine was about to doze off.
"Tetsu?" Aomine fought against sleep as he heard it, not understanding.
"It's nothing, Aomine-kun. Go back to sleep."
It had been another warning sign but he had been too drowsy to realize it. He just wrapped Kuroko closer to him, not knowing that it would be the last time he would get to feel his heat, to hear his heart beating in time to his own.
It was only hours later did he realize what Kuroko had meant. When it had been too late.
I'm sorry we couldn't be forever.
X
He sits on the edge of the ledge, at the spot where Kuroko stood, watching as the river rushes by beneath him. He sits there for hours just watching until he sees the crimson rays of the setting sun reflected in the water. It is only then that he raises his head, looking towards the sun itself, tears of regret and loneliness dry on his cheeks.
He stands, dusting off his pants. He takes a moment to feel the wind buffeting his hair askew, before succumbing to the ones curling around his feet, pulling him forward, extending his arms towards the sun before him.
Maybe he could catch the sun for the boy who couldn't.
END
A/N: Story inspired and based on Cat by hamnet on AO3. Go take a look at hers too~! ^^
Thanks for reading!