Thanks for reading!

***(1)***

It was a normal school morning, where it was too early for Aomine to function. He yawned and trudged alongside Momoi, who was pulling him along with an annoyed face. "Mou, Dai-chan! You need to start waking up earlier by yourself. This is why your mom is so worried that she has to call me to wake you before she goes to work."

"Ugh," Aomine grunted. Yet another morning of having Momoi nag at him again. His mother was equally annoying. He would never ever marry a girl who liked to nag.

"Kya!" Momoi screamed and let go of Aomine when a sudden gust of strong wind blew, lifting up her skirt. She pushed the front down with one hand, but the back was lifted instead. "Oh no, what do I do?" Momoi panicked as the winds came and gone, hurriedly pressing down with both hands. She didn't wear any shorts under her skirt today, and she could hear the other middle school boys start to catcall and leer from the free show. Feeling tears brim in her eyes, she looked towards Aomine for help but the idiot was dozing off while standing up.

"Here, let me help!" A bright and cheery voice caused Momoi to look forward with hope, and her eyes met an equally bright smiling blond boy. He removed his jacket and bent down to help tie it around her waist. "See? Now it won''t fly anymore," Kise grinned.

"Oh, thank you so much! Um, I'll wash it and return it to you, so-" Momoi said in a fluster, but Kise just laughed and waved it off. Aomine blinked and became awake again when he heard the refreshing and cheerful laughter.

"You can keep it. I'm in a hurry, so see ya!" He dashed off ahead, and Momoi stared after him in a daze, before seeing the other students run. She checked her watch and gasped in shock.

"Dai-chan! We're late let's run! If you're late again you have to get detention!"

"Shit!"

Aomine grabbed Momoi's wrist and dashed ahead.

"Ah wait, Dai-chan slow down! I can't keep up!"

***(2)***

Aomine became the owner of the jacket because Momoi said it was too big for her. They tried to look for the blond haired owner, thinking he would stand out and be easily recognizable, but they had no such luck for weeks. It was stylish anyway, so Aomine liked to wear it, even when Momoi said he should wash it and return it. It was perfect for autumn since it kept him comfortably warm, especially since he got a cold. He never really felt like returning it until he heard some passing gossip.

"Sweet, did you see that jacket?"

"Shit, doesn't that cost a few hundreds? I saw online that it was one of the pieces for a design competition."

Well fuck. It didn't sit right with him to wear something so expensive when it was someone else's. And thinking about it... that blond guy gave up his jacket just to help Momoi who was in a pinch. He was a good guy... plus he should probably be missing his jacket right about now, huh? Probably saved up to afford this.

He sighed, wondering if he should ask around to see if anyone knew someone blond. Perhaps tomorrow.

He broke out of his thoughts when he reached the entrance of the school. The rain came down hard and cold since it was autumn. Aomine cussed out loud when he realized he didn't bring his umbrella today. He sneezed and rubbed his nose, wondering if he should head back to the classroom to nap and wait for the rain to subside.

"Ahchoo!" Curse this damned cold...

"Bless you!" Someone called out, in that familiar happy voice that was pretty high for a guy. Actually, he was really pretty for a guy. Aomine turned in shock to see bright blond hair that he had been searching for. "Aah, that jacket looks good on you." Golden eyes twinkled despite the dark and heavy atmosphere from the rain.

"I've been looking for you to return it to you," Aomine explained once he overcame his shock.

The blond boy looked taken aback by those words. "Oh, it's okay! You'd be cold with it. Get well soon," he smiled sweetly.

"Ah... thanks..." Aomine scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Wait, you. What's your name?"

"Me? You're asking who I am? Kise, Kise Ryouta," Kise laughed as though there was some secret joke Aomine didn't get. "Here, you can have my umbrella. You should get home early and rest before that cold turns into a fever." Kise thrust the umbrella into Aomine's and waved with a grin. "See ya."

"Wait, what about you?" Before Aomine got all the words out of his mouth, Kise was already dashing out into the rain.

"It's okay, I like the rain!" Kise turned around to holler, and waved enthusiastically with his arm in the air.

Aomine waved by reflex, and Kise turned to rush ahead again.

"Pfft," Aomine chuckled in disblief. "What was that? What a strange guy..."

***(3)***

"Kise Ryota? You mean you don't know who he is?!"

Aomine scowled as the class president gaped at him like he was an idiot. Aomine had asked him whether he knew a blond kid named Kise thinking that he might know who he was. "Look, just hurry up and tell me already."

"He's our classmate!"

What?! He had most definitely never seen a blond kid in their class before. Then again, he was skipping class half the time. Even still... how could he not have noticed something that noticeable? Kise was so shiny that he brightened the whole place up just by being there.

"And he's one of the top models in Japan! He's well known throughout the country, let alone our school. Only a person living under a rock won't know him," the president concluded. "He hardly comes to school because of his schedule though."

"What did you say about me?" Aomine growled, causing the president to shrink back and apologize profusely. Grumpily, he went back to his sit and sat down loudly with a clatter, crossing his arms on the table and resting his head on them.

"Didn't sleep well?"

Aomine looked up to see Kise grinning at him with two cans of coffee. "You...!" Aomine pointed at him in shock. Kise passed him a can of milk coffee, which he took mutely. He watched as Kise opened the can and gulped the contents down like a much needed drug. Looking at him closely, Aomine could see some eyebags coming out. He was probably very busy being a model or whatever.

"I'm your seat mate," Kise clarified, making a point to sit down in the seat next to Aomine's. He snickered at Aomine's dumbstruck face. The person he was looking for was right beside him all the time. "I guess we were always missing each other. When I was here you were never in class. This seat was always empty." Kise pointed at Aomine's seat.

"What! Those are my words! Those seats are supposed to be empty!" Aomine retorted indignantly, irked that he skipped class so often he completely didn't know who his seat mate was.

His anger dispelled once he saw how the sunlight that fell through the window illuminated Kise's face, making the laughing boy look like the sun itself.

"Then, although it is a bit late since it's the middle of the semester," Kise snickered, "Please take care of me, Aomine-kun."

"...Ahh, same here."

The teacher entered, and Aomine tore his eyes away from the perpetually smiling boy. He yawned, preparing the nap in the lesson like he always did.

"Aomine-kun, please don't be so prepared to sleep. We have a test today," the teacher chastised lightly, shaking her head.

"What?! No one told me!" Aomine exclaimed in surprise, looking around at his snickering classmates. He looked towards Momoi, who was looking at him from the front with an angry expression which screamed that she had tried to tell him but he never paid attention. Well, shit. Scratching the back of his head, he sighed and resigned to his fate. Rustling through his bag, he became panicked when he realized he didn't even bring his pencil case today.

Kise watched him curiously, then smirked when he realized what was going on. "Wow, a student that doesn't bring a pencil case to school. This is the first time I've seen one."

"Oh shut up, I recall you saying you hardly come to school anyway," Aomine grumbled, preparing to fling paper balls to the person sitting in front of him to make him turn around and lend him some stationery.

"Geez," Kise snickered, taking a pen and pencil out from the pencil case and placing it on Aomine's table. "What will you forget next time, huh? I'm looking forward to it."

Aomine bit his lip and didn't rise to the taunt, since Kise was helping him. "Hn, thanks."

He was surprised when Kise pulled out a penknife to slice his eraser into two.

"Hey, there's no need! I can just cancel," Aomine spoke in a fluster, and Kise just grinned at him.

"You have to shade your answers you know, and I'd rather you not fail just because you don't have an eraser," Kise said honestly, cutting the eraser into two. "Here you go."

Taking the eraser from Kise's hand, he frowned. "It doesn't really matter. I always fail anyway."

"Ah? Me too," Kise giggled, and Aomine was surprised by the twinkling sound it had. Somehow it felt good to share a similarity with Kise.

"Hey, you two at the back! Stop chatting and start doing the test or I'll count it as cheating."

"Yes sensei," they chorused obediently, and Aomine sneaked a glance to see Kise having a cheeky smile.

Kise left right after they collected the test papers, only stopping at the door to wave goodbye to Aomine. Too shocked by him suddenly leaving, Aomine could only wave and realize he was starting to have more and more of Kise's items without returning them to him. He sighed, wondering when he would see the sunny boy again.

***(4)***

Aomine had been attending class regularly, much to the shock of his teachers and classmates. He didn't want to miss the chance to meet Kise and return his things to him. It was annoying having to carry his jacket while wearing another one, so Aomine continued to wear Kise's jacket.

"Mornin'!" The voice like morning sunshine greeted him, and he turned to see the smile that always warmed his heart and made his chest feel full.

"Hey," he replied, playing it cool. He suddenly realized what he had tried so hard to come to school for the past few days for. "Hey, Kise, I gotta return you all your stuff, it's getting ridiculous."

Kise eyeballed him for a bit as though it was really unexpected. "But you can keep all those, you know."

"No, borrowed things must be returned right?" Aomine insisted.

"That's fine and all, but it seems like today will be a cold and rainy day," Kise laughed, pointing at the jacket Aomine had taken to wearing. "Are you sure you can last today without any form of protection?"

"...Oh yeah," Aomine cussed quietly under his breath at his stupidity. "I can return you your stationery at least."

"Sure," Kise shrugged, smiling a gentle smile. He seemed to find Aomine's intense need to return him his things amusing.

"Give me your phone number, I'll bring the things over to you next time when you're free."

Kise looked pleasantly surprised. "Sure," he took the phone Aomine handed to him and typed in his number quickly, and gave himself a call so he had Aomine's number. He smiled as he saved Aomine's number in his phone. "You should be honored though. God knows how many girls want my number."

"Yeah, yeah," Aomine replied patronizingly, making a face at how Kise saved his name as Kise followed by lots of hearts. He had an idea how Kise saved his name as well.

"Kise-kun!"

Was it his imagination or did Kise's smile falter when he turned to look at the group of male classmates that surrounded him?

"Oh hey guys," Kise grinned. "How have y'all been?"

"School is so boring, you're so lucky to be able to skip just because you're a model."

"Ah... yeah..." Kise trailed off, looking slightly troubled and put-off. He still had to take exams and was always struggling to keep his grades up even amidst his busy schedule.

"So did you bring what we asked you for?"

"That's um..." Kise replied awkwardly, smile fully dropping off his face now.

"Hey come on, we're friends aren't we? Don't be so stingy when you're earning so much," one of them egged.

"Mm," Kise reluctantly agreed, lifting up the various bags of things he had brought to school.

"Woah! You're the best as always Kise. Limited edition Adidas shoes in red!"

Something was obviously very off here. Kise's smile was back on his face, but it was obviously very forced and did not reach his eyes at all.

Aomine growled, unable to watch the spectacle any longer. He slammed his fists on the table, causing everyone in the classroom to flinch and look over in surprise. He stood up and kicked Kise's table away with a loud clatter, causing murmurs and screams to erupt concurrently. Kise just looked on in muted shock as Aomine glowered at the cowering boys surrounding Kise.

"You guys look damn pathetic, swarming around Kise like leeches. Work hard and afford you own things instead of living lie some gigolo."

"Yeah?" One of the guys challenged, though losing some of his bravado when Aomine snarled at him. "W-What about you? You're also wearing one of his things."

Aomine cussed loudly. "I'm going to return this you piece of shit. Friends don't extort things from each other."

"A-Aomine-kun!" Kise cried out urgently, face full of desperation. He gripped onto one of Aomine's clenched fists. "Please stop."

"See, Kise is fine with it. We're not threatening him or anything," the annoying smug boy retorted.

Aomine looked at the teary golden eyes which held a submissive resignation to their fate.

"No, Kise. You're not actually alright with this. I can't stand you putting on a smile when you're obviously in pain." Aomine shook off Kise and went ahead for a punch. Real shrieks occurred, and some of the girls rushed out to get a teacher as Aomine pummeled the boys quickly and viciously.

"You better not let me fucking catch you doing such things again you pieces of shit! Don't bother Kise ever again, what kind of shit friends will do such a bastard thing?!"

"Aomine!" Kise tried his best to hold the raging boy back. "That's enough you idiot!"

To his utmost surprise Aomine turned and slugged him a good one too. "You're the idiot, idiot! Who told you to let them do that to you?"

Kise crashed into the table behind him, causing everything to fall into a messy heap.

"I just wanted everyone to be happy!" Kise screamed while tears flowed down his cheeks from the pain and shock of the sudden blow.

"What about you?! You don't look fucking happy to me!"

Kise's face fell blankly like that was an utterly foreign concept to him. He couldn't yet understand the intense rage and indignant look on Aomine's handsome features.

That was when the teachers stormed in and restrained Aomine and brought all of them to the disciplinary office.

***(5)***

Kise stopped going to school for awhile, because the video of the fight went viral and his manager told him to lie low. Of course, most of his fans were very supportive and pitied his circumstances and cursed the other boys. However, the number of angry comments towards how violent and how Aomine should die just didn't sit right with him. They hadn't contacted each other at all, and Kise wasn't sure if he should have. All he knew was that Aomine was suspended.

"Geez," Kise grumbled with a slight smile as he touched his bruised cheek. No one ever stood up for him like that before. He was always told since he was young that he was a good kid who made people happy, and should continue doing so. He had lived his whole life going through lengths to make people around him smile, and learned to smile at any time to make people happy.

He didn't know when it had gotten hard and painful for him to do so. Maybe when the boys started to exclude him after he became a model and the girls started to idolize him, and he felt like he had no friends. He worked doubly hard to make them see him as a person, but... It never really worked. He was so lonely he started to throw himself into work and superficially maintain a harmonious relationship with the class boys.

His phone rang with a message tone, and he reached over to his phone to read it.

"Momoi?" He mumbled to himself, wracking his brain to remember who that was. "Ahh, the pink haired girl with Aomine-kun..."

Kise-kun, it's Momoi. I secretly got your number from Dai-chan. He's in big trouble! He might be expelled from hitting you and the other boys. He already has a very bad disciplinary record. Please forgive him for hitting you and save him. Dai-chan isn't a bad person, he just has trouble expressing himself...

"Huh?" Kise re-read the message. "Huh?! EXPELLED?!" His eyes bulged out from their sockets. Shit, he couldn't let Aomine be expelled just because Aomine stood up for him. Rushing to put on his coat, he roughly shoved his feet in his sneakers and dashed over to the school. He ignored the calls of his names from the public, and headed straight for the disciplinary office.

By the time he made it, he was sweating buckets and gasping for breath. He pulled open the door with such force that it made a loud bang. In the room, Aomine gaped openly at his sudden and disheveled appearance, and the principal was shocked as well.

"Wow, Kise you look like shit. And your socks are mismatched," Aomine said offhandedly. Although it was too serious a situation to laugh, Kise had to resist the urge and the corner of his lips quirked up.

"Aomine-kun! It's enough that you haven't repented, but that isn't a tone you should take with Kise-kun!" The principal admonished, turning with an apologetic face. "Don't worry Kise, we'll take appropriate disciplinary action.

"No, I..." Kise huffed. "I'm... here to ask you to... not expel him. He was just helping me."

"Huh?"

Kise explained everything to the principal, of how the boys in class kept asking him for expensive things and he was too afraid to reject them in fear of upsetting them. Aomine then interrupted to give his version of how the boys were downright using words to pressure and threaten Kise if he didn't want to be hated and outcasted. He was surprised how willing the principal who always readily punished and judged him, was listening earnestly to their story.

"Is that so, Kise-kun?" he turned to his student for confirmation. Blushing slightly in shame, Kise nodded. "I'm so sorry about the behavior of our students, Kise-kun. I will send them to counselling and punish them to undertake reformative actions. I will revoke the expulsion and suspension notice. However, Aomine, you are too quick to violence no matter if it's a good cause you're fighting for. I will send you to counselling as well."

"Yeah, yeah," Aomine grumbled sulkily, pulling Kise along to leave the room. He eyed Kise for a bit then looked away, sighing. "Look, Kise. I'm sorry for punching you. I lost control of my temper. Especially since you need to sell your face for work..."

"Aomine-kun," Kise called out so Aomine would look over.

"Yeah and stop with the formalities, it's weird-" Aomine looked over and was dumbstruck by the radiant smile on Kise's face.

"Honestly... thank you so much for helping me."

Aomine blushed and had to force himself to look away from the teary smile. It was giving him too many fuzzy feelings. All he knew was that these paternal feelings would cause him to protect Kise from now on as his friend.

"What, Aominecchi, are you embarrassed?" Kise asked teasingly with a devious smile.

"Wha- What the fuck is an Aominecchi?!" Aomine was fully cherry red now. "Stop that! It's gross!"

"Aominecchi~" Kise cooed, sticking himself onto Aomine with a bear hug.

"Agh! Let go off me! You're making me feel strange!"

Kise laughed, and in his eyes were happy tears.

"And are you sure you're alright looking like this when you're a model?" Aomine drew the attention back to Kise, who looked down at himself and shrieked.

"Oh my god! What the heck am I wearing! To begin with my socks don't even match!" Kise fumbled to take out his phone. "Dang, I gotta call my manager and stylish over to save me!"

Aomine snickered, "Hey, what kind of guy worries about his appearance that much?"

"It might not mean much to a person like you, but I'm a model y'know," Kise pouted. "I'd rather not show up on the news as a fashion disaster and get work cut off."

"Ah? Then maybe I can be a model in your stead?" Aomine asked jokingly.

Kise's eyes twinkled at the idea. He jumped up and down excitedly, grabbing Aomine. "That's an idea! It'll be so fun to work together! You're tall, tan, handsome, you're sure to be a hit!"

"Yeah, so if you become a fashion disaster, just become my manager instead," grinning smugly, Aomine didn't dodge the smack that came his way.

"Yeah, because it'd be all your fault that I've become a fashion terrorist," Kise pouted.

It was fun to bicker, and for once in their lives, they looked forward to coming to school.

***End***