Little Lion Man

No one suspects it. Well, some do, but that is beside the point. When you're gullible, holding onto a childish naivety like Kise Ryouta, being cheated on by the person, the one person that you absolutely and positively love far more than yourself, it's the last thing on your mind. And of course, it was the last thing on Kise's.

Long out of high school and well beyond his university years, the renowned and far-too-handsome-for-his-own-good model had spent the weekend away from his beloved—much to his hesitance, of course. He begged and pleaded for him to come along, but no, no, someone had to hold down the fort in Kise's absence, right?

"It'll only be a few days," he was reassured as Aomine Daiki had ushered him out the door.

"I'm going to miss you so much, Aominecchi…" Kise remembered pouting. "I'll call you every night, okay?"

"Don't bother. Wacky time zones, remember?"

Kise rammed the flat of his palm to his forehead. "Right, right, okay-ssu. Well, I guess I won't be seeing or hearing from you until I return, then."

"Yeah, I guess."

Waiting at the door with duffle bags and suitcases littered all about his sides, Kise shifted his weight back and forth from foot to foot. After a minute or so, he crossed his arms impatiently. "Uh, Aominecchi, aren't you forgetting something?"

This amusedly confused Aomine. "…No, I don't think so."

Kise gasped and threw his arms forward. "My kiss! My goodbye kiss!"

"Oh, oh! Right, that's right," Aomine responded, putting up an act to make it seem as if he had actually forgotten.

A quick peck was what had sent Kise on his way to the vibrant and exciting west coast of America. His three day, two night ordeal was quite the adventure. He had never known that he had such a large fanbase out in the states and was pleasantly surprised with the turn out from the fashion show. Afterwards, of course, autographs were signed and pictures were taken. It was a shame that Kise's English was very rusty and broken, otherwise he would have put on his usual, all-that-and-more charm.

And that was all.

Kise had been so incredibly tempted to call Aomine during his trip, but he wasn't very good in determining what time it would be back in his native country if he had decided to call Aomine at say, two in the afternoon. Yes, because a phone call from your hyperactive boyfriend at four in the morning would have been just so lovely.

With all of that discarded from his prior knowledge at the moment, all Kise knew currently was that it was eleven at night, he was at the airport, and his desire to see Aomine was rather large. He began to plan what he would do when they reunited. It had only been three days, or however many you calculate with the strange time confusion, but to Kise, it was three days too many. Maybe they would kiss first? No, a loving embrace seemed more fitting. Or maybe they'd skip all of the formalities and just jump right into bed. Whatever the case, Kise's burning need turned into a buzz of anticipation and excitement.

Excitement. Yes, excitement. So exciting.

Tipping his taxi driver an extra generous amount, Kise made an eager dash into his apartment complex. He had no time for the elevator; his legs would carry him up those stairs much faster than any box strung to old and rusted metal ropes would.

Kise yearned to see his love, but after his strenuous exercise, his lungs yearned for precious air. Catching his breath while he fished through a few of his suitcases for his keys, Kise composed and collected himself. He even took a moment or two to fix his hair and clothes. Rain, nor sleet, nor jet lag could place a damper on Kise's runway-ready beauty.

Now, Kise had wanted to see one thing and one thing only, and that was Aomine. What he did see, however, was really baffling. Were those…beer cans? And whose high-heeled shoes were those? Aomine had better not have picked up any strange, cross-dressing fetishes while Kise was away. It had only been a few days!

"…Aominecchi?" Kise called out. His voice had been a bit raspy from the long journey, but it still should have been audible enough for his lover to hear him.

There was no response.

This worried Kise. What if Aomine had gotten drunk and hit his head somewhere? He could have been passed out on the ground for hours with no aid or assistance.

The kitchen; that was the first place Kise had checked. Then came the living room, the bathroom, and finally, the bedroom.

"Aominecchi, are you—"

The bitter sweet scent of sex and sweat assaulted his nose, right along with the constricting concoction of alcohol and women's perfume. Kise could feel hot bile rising in his throat, but he forced it back down. Instead, he allowed the slow stream of tears to take its place.

Even with eyes as glassy and as far gone as a dead fish's, Aomine knew he had been caught doing wrong in the act. The woman, being the much more sober of the two, quickly clung to the sheets, bringing them upward to cover up her voluptuous bosom.

Drunkeness was no excuse for being unfaithful, even Kise knew that much. And he could see it within Aomine's guilt-ridden exposure that he knew it as well.

At this point, it was practically the cue for Kise to go mental; scream, throw things, and call Aomine all the different names of disgrace under the sun, but even for someone as immature as he claimed to be, he exerted a certain composure that was well beyond his years. Simply pointing his finger backward, he gave no address to the female beneath his bed sheets, but she understood full well that she had better leave quickly, before Kise did turn into the stereotypical wild man. She dressed, collected her things, and left in no more than two minutes flat, allowing Kise to beg the question as to just how many times had she done this kind of thing before. And just how many times had she been caught.

Kise stood at the doorway to what didn't even feel like his bedroom for quite a while, waiting, just waiting for Aomine's eyes to grace his own, but such a thing never occurred. When enough was enough, he released a broken sigh, before whispering, "In the morning, I want you to be gone, too."

Though the roles were rather reversed, Kise spent the night sleeping restlessly on the couch. There was no way he could ever meet with unconsciousness knowing all of the things that Aomine had done with that other woman if he had slept in the very bed where they had once been. No, he couldn't even fall asleep in the farthest part of the apartment from where the scene had taken place.

Regardless of claiming to have not gotten a wink of rest, Kise awoke to blinding sunlight, something very brutal to his unprepared pupils. Stretching his arms and his legs, the very first thing on his mind was to check his bedroom. He had to. And as he walked slowly down the hallway toward said room, a very small part of his cherry-coated heart hoped that Aomine would still be there.

But of course, he wasn't.

There was no note and the bed had been made up nicely—like such a thing would make up for all of the terrible things that had taken place on those primly-pressed sheets just the night before. Kise imagined himself ripping the covers back and tossing the mattress out the window, but his better judgment stopped him. That, and there was no way a full-sized mattress would fit through their box-sized window.

The bed was not the only thing that Kise had noticed, of course. Where all of Aomine's clothes used to be were now empty drawers and extra closet space. It was funny to think how a man of such defiance could obey so cooperatively.

Kise dared to sit on the edge of his bed, and when he did, the squeaking protest of the springs made him stand right back up again. With a soft chuckle, he spoke to himself, breathing out the words, "So, this is what it's going to be like from now on, huh?

Although the memories haunted him, and visions of that vivacious woman plagued his everyday thoughts, it had been a couple years before Kise moved out of the apartment that he had once shared with the man that he had once, and still, undoubtedly loves. Kise and Aomine had spoken civilly with one another since their break up, but of course, it wasn't the same. How could it be? Aomine himself had even come clean and confessed to having multiple affairs during the numerous of times that Kise had been absent from their life as a couple. Kise didn't mind this. It was what made their split all the more bearable, because honestly, if it had just been a one-time deal, Kise's well-known kindness would have more than likely forgiven Aomine over the course of time, leading him right back up into the trap of heartbreak.

But no, Kise was much stronger than that. He was a lion, a little one at that, but a courageous beast nonetheless. And so that was why he could smile again. He could laugh, and he could enjoy himself. When he looked to the sky, he didn't feel imprisoned; he felt free. But freedom, of course, came with a price.

Kise had no worries, though. He had long paid off his toll.

Hello, everyone! Chappy here! :D

Whaaa...angst, angst, I'm sorry for the angst! D:

Regardless, this one-shot is a present for my friend, Hirocchi! I feel kind of bad that she's receiving angst as a present...maybe I should have thought this through better. XD

However, thank you for reading and I hope you've enjoyed! (:

- Chappy