At the School Festival
It had been a morose rainy season for the start of June, very much reflecting Aomine Daiki's thought on the infernal exam season, which had ended a few days ago.
He hated exams (wors time of the year)! But, luckily, they were over! And now the long awaited School Festival was upon them!
If there was one thing Aomine Daiki could commend the school upon was the fact that they'd chosen to place the festive celebration so soon after their exams had ended, kind of like a symbolic celebration for getting through all the hell and hard work. Of course, the celebration could have been better placed right in the middle of exams so that that damn thing didn't feel so long and draining, but he supposed he couldn't have everything.
Today happened to be the day before the Festival, and every classroom was getting ready for the celebration. And frankly, he would have been excited for it, had it not been for the theme that his classmates had chosen… better said the theme that a certain classmate proposed and everyone else just accepted because he was on the Student's Council Committee and no one really wanted to get in trouble with him.
Midorima Shintarou was Aomine Daiki's least favorite person in the whole school.
He was weird, he was nagging, he liked to carry around little weird objects because some cracked lady who presumed to know the fate of each person by looking up at the movement of the stars was telling him to buy them. And he had green hair (was that even natural? Aomine pondered as he scratched his own blue hair in wonder).
Of course, all those on their own would have not been enough to make Aomine hate the guy, after all, he could put up with weirder shit (like Kise's incessant blabbing, and Satsuki). In Basketball, they didn't have to interact much. Power Forwards were usually stationed close to the basket, while Midorima and all his weirdness were stationed way outside the 3-throw line. No, when the two of them didn't have to interact, Aomine was perfectly capable of ignoring the green-haired, and Midorima was quite content with nagging at him less that he would Kise and Murasakibara so he didn't actually mind all that much. It was when the two were forced to interact that he started minding the other's nagging personality. And, unfortunately for them, the two just so happened to share the same classroom.
And unfortunately for him, Midorima had suggested they help out the Astrology Society (because the club was not so popular so it didn't have many members).
He took one look at the weird crystal ball thingies and the creepy cards with weird designs on them and did 180 and was straight out the door. There was no way he would get involved with that shit!
He exited the building onto the first playground and decided to go and see what Akashi was up to.
The red-haired had been quite prominently figured in his mind now that Basketball had gotten a bit more exciting.
He didn't know why it was, but he'd undergone a sudden growth spur of sorts, gotten a bit bigger over the winter, and he felt in perfect shape and confident, like there was nothing he couldn't do when it came to Basketball. He'd managed to make some of those crazy shots he'd only dreamt of doing, and practice seemed to be getting so easy that he'd just breeze through most of the training. So he'd had a lot of time on his hands to observe his team mates. And that's when he'd started noticing him.
He knew Akashi was pretty special since the get go, if he were to be honest, he'd never had any complaints with regards to the red-haired and newly appointed Captain of their team. And he'd always thought him vaguely appealing to look at, but then again, he realized that he'd never actually gotten to actually see the red-haired up until that point when he actually got a good look at him, during that one Training Session when he'd gotten so bored sitting on the bench, he'd actually take to observing the other players.
It was then that he noticed that vivid red hair, because, really, that should have been the first thing to pop into his brain, it was such an intense shade. With eyes just as red and captivating, whit an intelligent look to his face. His Basketball style was also impressive. Barely making any unnecessary moves, he was swift and effective, dribbling the ball with absolute confidence, passing with absolute precision, and assessing any situation he was in calmly and swiftly devising a plan of attack or defense. He was really a treat to watch, and Aomine had found himself wondering why he hadn't bothered to observe him up until that day, or why he was wasting so much time thinking about a boy of all things?
It was somewhat confusing, since he was certain he was straight. He liked Gravure Magazines and big boobs for crying out loud! He was not attracted to flat surfaces, and he took his unresponsiveness to Kise's pretty face as a clear sign that he was not swinging that way (because he'd heard that most straight guy would go gay for someone like Kise, so he just assumed that if he wouldn't, that meant he wasn't). And he didn't like flat chested girls either, so, he really didn't understand his sudden obsession with wanting to observe his Captain so much, or just wanting to be near him.
He'd honestly give up on the subject after he'd found no solution for it after sleeping on it for a whole night, and just decided to go with the idea that Midorima had somehow used his weird magical green frog to curs him into liking Akashi (after all the green-haired had remarked he'd suffer a significant change that day).
"Excuse me!"
Someone shouted at him impolitely and Aomine turned to snap at whoever was being so annoying as to wake him from his musings, when he came face to face with two cute girls. They were both wearing Senior's badges, so that made them a year older than him, but they were average height for the girls in Japan, so that still meant he was taller than them, and one of them just so happened to be well endowed.
"What – what is it?" he asked, reframing himself from snapping at them.
The two of them held up a banner and asked in that ever so sweet way with identical charming smiles onto their faces.
"We're members of the Riddle Club and tomorrow our club is going to hold its contest, but we're not sure anyone's been informed yet since the guys forgot to put up the banner, so we decided to do it ourselves, but we can't really reach."
The girl looked miserable as she stared up the two long trees that were standing in front of them.
"We were wondering if you wouldn't mind helping us out?" he other girl asked shyly.
"Sure! No problem!" Aomine responded cheerfully and took the offered banner from the girl's hands and climbed up a tree.
It was better helping cute girls than going to spy on his Captain anyway.
He managed to tie the first end of the banner to the first tree, and jumped down to get started on the next and realized that the two girls disappeared. He was certain they might be busy, but he was upset that they hadn't cared enough to wait for him to finish his job before departing, it made him itch to dump the whole thing and run off to find Akashi…. No! That one sounded a little bit too creepy, and he had no idea how to explain himself to Akashi, for suddenly popping up for a visit, so he climbed up the second tree to tie the banner up.
And it was then that he spotted Satsuki wondering about on the ground.
"Satsuki!"
He called out to her and she responded with her usual motherly enthusiasm by reproaching him for sliding down the tree.
"I already said that I'm fine. You're too worried."
„But if the ace's hands were to be injured, it would be troublesome during the next competition."
That response completely left him cold, since he'd felt like his childhood friend and he had been drifting apart ever since Middle School started. She even called him Aomine-kun now, like they were some kind of strangers and hadn't practically grown up together in the same damn neighborhood.
„So you were more worried of the competition…" he actually didn't know how to respond to that, but she distracted him by asked him about his class project, which he obviously deflected since he had no intention of revealing to her what his class was actually doing. He had the misfortunate idea to asking about her class's project, and had the horrid notion of Satsuki baking crêpe and serving that monstrosity to some poor bastard that was gonna eat the thing in good faith that the ones responsible for the food actually know what they were doing, and he was suddenly ill. He's face turned an unsavory shade of purple once he realized that that poor bastard could have been him had he not asked and found out what the girl was planning to do for tomorrow, and then he thanked the gods he'd been spared.
Satsuki threatened he'll regret not dropping by to eat her „food", but he honestly didn't see how that was possible, and didn't wish to continue such a conversation with his friend, so he... well, he didn't run away, he just distanced himself from her at an abrupt pace.
He let himself wonder, without really being aware of where his feet led him, up until he ended up in front of the Basketball training ground for the First Strings. He was surprised to find Akashi standing there, tapping his foot impatiently at the two girls from the Riddle Club who'd asked him to hang up the banner earlier.
It was actually quite weird, because he really did remember liking the two earlier, but, now, when the two were standing side by side with Akashi, he couldn't find himself remerging what was so appealing about them to begin with. His eyes were continuously drawn to Akashi, particularly his frowning face, and Aomine didn't quite like the look of that expression, so he went over to investigate as soon as the girls entered the Basketball Club.
"What are those two doing here?" Aomine asked, and Akashi stiffened slightly, seemingly take by surprise, before composing himself and turning to face him.
"They wished to borrow the Basketball Court for their competition tomorrow."
"The Riddle Club thing?" he asked confused, or maybe just wanting to strike up a conversation with Akashi and being completely unable to think of something better to say.
"Yes. They apparently want to use the Gym to create some sort of game for their contest. Though I honestly can't imagine how that would be useful in a riddle competition," Akashi said and shuck his head in disapproval.
"Maybe it's made for the idiot ones," Aomine suggested and Akashi gave him a funny look.
"Why would the idiot ones want to partake in a riddle competition?"
"Maybe they have a good prize? Not really sure."
Aomine shrugged. Akashi considered it.
"Perhaps… By the way, Aomine, what are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to help Midorima with the Astrology Club?"
"We finished." Aomine lied, and he somehow had the feeling that Akashi could pick up on that. Nonetheless he seemed to brush the matter off.
"Than you're free?"
He asked looking up at him with the barest hint of a smile, and Aomine found himself rooted to the spot and unable to respond.
Why would Akashi pose such a question? What was he after….? He couldn't possibly…? Could he….? Could he really want to ask him…?
"Um… Yeah, I guess…?"
He managed to barely choke out a response while averting his eyes from the other.
"Great!" Akashi exclaimed relieved. "Than you wouldn't mind helping me out with moving the Basketball Hoops and balls from the club? I'd hate the through of someone damaging or misplacing them while they're preparing for whatever it is they're planning to do for their little club activities."
"Hm…? Oh! Yeah, sure! I'll help." Aomine said and furiously scolded him for letting his imagination wonder.
True to Akashi's character he didn't slack off on the job and helped with every single one of the hoops they had to carry around. At one point in time Aomine became worried he might actually break something, what with being so small and looking so fragile.
They didn't make much small talk aside from the absolute necessary to move the things around, and the whole process ended up completely wasting all of their afternoon, since the hoops were so heavy and there were only two of them. But Aomine did get a pleasant and unexpected reward out of all this: Akashi was dripping sweaty by the time they were finished.
He'd left his coat in the locker room, and his tie had been discarded a few hours ago, with barely one of the buttons of his shirt left open, but the aforementioned garment was tousled and stuck out of his pants, with the sleeves rolled up. His hair was slightly messy thanks to the constant whipping of sweat from his forehead, and his cheeks were flushed from all the heat, and lips slightly open, breathing in heavily.
The red-haired was quite a sight, and Aomine was so very grateful for the excuse that being tired after a long day's work provided for his labored breathing, because otherwise this would have turned very awkward very soon.
"Thank you very much for helping out," Akashi said as he turned to him, and Aomine couldn't help but follow a bag of sweat that was traveling down his cheek, and heading for his neck. Without realizing what he was doing, he reached out a hand and wiped it off.
He didn't know for sure if it was fatigue playing tricks on him, but he though he saw Akashi's cheeks flush harder for a second, but he suddenly blinked and the flush was gone and Akashi's eyes were lowered to the ground.
"You should go and drink some water. You look like you're about to drop dead from dehydration." Aomine teased, mostly to cover for his earlier indiscretion and partly out of concern too. The red-haired did look like he was about to drop dead from exhaustion… and then he realized that might have not been such a bad thing, because he'd get to play the gallant night and carry the boy to the infirmary, and this was getting too sappy even for him.
Akashi huffed indignantly and spun on his heals to do "just that", and Aomine really started to regret his earlier teasing.
That was the last he saw of Akashi that day, and soon as the red-haired left, the two girls from earlier kind of started to become cute again; through Aomine held a personal grudge against them for leaving him stranded up a tree earlier.
Aomine walked home with the usual bubbly group that night (Tetsu, Satsuki, Kise, Midorima and Murasakibara), Akashi had gone home early, like he usually did (which very much irked him, for reasons he was not yet quite ready to admit to himself).
"I wish you'd help a little more suu~" Kise whine at Murasakibara. "You're part of our club after all!"
Murasakibara continued munching on one of his chocolate cigarettes and paid the blonde no mind whatsoever.
"Same goes for you too Aomine! You should consider contributing more to activities that your fellow classmen are engaging with nanodayo! It might actually help you make some friends," Midorima picked in like a squeaking quack, and Aomine wanted nothing more than to cover his ears and double back, maybe he'd forgotten about Satsuki and could use her as an excuse to escape.
No such luck. His pink haired friend was glued to his best friend and partner Tetsu, who'd apparently made the misfortunate decision to invite her to participate in some weird contest with him…
"Don't compare me to you!" Aomine snapped at Midorima. "Just because you don't have any friends doesn't me I ain't got any! Ow! Tetsu! What was that for?"
"For being an insensitive jerk!" It was obviously Satsuki who replied. Kise had taken to try and console Midorima, who was unleashing his vitriol upon the poor misfortunate blonde, while Murasakibara really couldn't be bothered to interfere, and Satsuki and Tetsu had taken to ganging up on him. Yep, another ordinary night for him.
Or at the very least it started out ordinary, till he started having those ridiculous dreams about Akashi suddenly getting too hot for his shirt and slowly unbuttoning it to reveal his milky white skin, cheeks flushed with a cute pink hue and lips slightly parted with eyes staring seductively at him, beckoning him closer –
And that is the point when Aomine jumped out of bed feeling completely horrified and rushed to the bathroom to soak his head in cold water. He did not manage to go back to sleep that night, and he prayed to whatever god would hear him that he not encounter his Captain at Tomorrow's festival, else he'd die of shame if he had to look the red-haired in the eyes after that!
-OOOOO—
AN: So, I plan for this to be a two parter, or longer, I don't know yet exactly, but I do love AoAka, and since they are my OTP from KnB I decided to write this little fick for them (it's inspired by the Second Novel, the one with the Festival). Hope you like it and please Review!