It happens after they beat Touou. It's a gradual thing, and doesn't happen right away. It starts out slow but the fact is that it starts there and only keeps getting worse.
It's been less than a year since they've known each other, less than a year of playing basketball together, less than a year of being his light, but in less than a year it's already too late to pull back. Every faint smile, every soft touch, every quiet word, every pass– his pulse skyrockets and his throat clogs with emotion. Kagami's known him for less than a year but Kuroko's already stolen his heart.
They beat Touou, and Kagami's so happy, so proud, because this is what Kuroko wanted, what he so desperately desired and therefore what Kagami so desperately wanted. And maybe somewhere, deep inside he thought that maybe, maybe if they beat Touou, beat Aomine, maybe Kuroko might...
But that doesn't happen. What does happen, now that he's been beaten, is that Aomine starts being himself again. Starts being smiles and laughter and camaraderie. Starts enjoying basketball and going to practice and fistbumping again. And the new Aomine, the old Aomine really, is the one that Kuroko first chose, first bonded with and played with.
He's never been anything but a replacement really.
It's starts off slow. Nothing big or obvious, but it happens. Kuroko still plays games with him of course, still gives him fistbumps and rare smiles and cherished embarrassing comments, but now he's doing the same things with Aomine again.
What had been a Kagami-and-Kuroko duo was now a Kagami-Kuroko-Aomine trio.
It takes him a while to realize that Kuroko feels nothing for him beyond friendship, sate and mild. Nothing like the ever intense bond between him and his old light, fierce and strong and still growing.
What was once Kagami-and-Kuroko, then Kagami-Kuroko-Aomine has become Kuroko-Aomine... and Kagami.
He's still not sure why he's so surprised. It was bound to happen eventually, after Aomine got that stick out of his ass.
Sometimes he almost wishes he could have lost that game against Touou and that Aomine could have kept living his life in arrogant solitude; but then he looks at Kuroko's smile, the tangible joy that Kagami himself could never elicit, all because of Aomine. He could never regret something that made Kuroko so happy.
Finally, at the end of a match, Kagami turns to offer his fist to Kuroko for their ritual post-game bump and... he's not there. No, Kuroko's on the sidelines already with a beaming Aomine and bumping fists with him.
He wishes he could bring himself to hate them, either of them.
And he's watching their backs, side by side as they walk away from him, grow smaller and farther and he feels very cold inside. He wants to reach out, to pull him back, to scream at him what about me?
But he can't. Too far already, out of reach. Always out of reach. Rather the question is, had he ever been within reach in the first place?
It seems in the end, that his light had been too dim after all.
Hahaha. Ow. Inspired by 'Primary Colors', where Kagami asks if his light is too dim. ;-;