Losing was a very unfamiliar feeling. He didn't remember the last time he'd lost. "The only one who can beat me, is me." He used to say. But he had been defeated. The feeling was crushing and painful, and at the same time, immensely relieving. It had been so long since he enjoyed himself so much during a match, so long since the last time he felt motivated to improve himself, knowing there was someone out there that was stronger than him. He was so excited about it! He couldn't wait to get back in the court and face him again. No, face them again, without knowing for certain if he'd win or lose. And he'd win next time. He'd be stronger. He wouldn't be caught by surprise. He'd show Tetsu how good he truly was and then…

Tetsu. He didn't know why, but the more he thought about it the more he felt he had to impress Tetsu, prove to him that his light would always shine brighter than anyone else's, especially brighter than Kagami's, and then maybe he'd want to go back to being his shadow again, like it always should've been.

He shook his head violently when he realized how deeply those thoughts were latched into his mind. It was ridiculous. He had changed a lot, and so had Kuroko. Whoever they used to be back in Middle School was long lost, as was the connection that made them work as light and shadow. There was no going back to that time.

And more importantly, Kuroko had a new light. One that, much as he hated to admit, had shone brighter than his. And whatever connection the two of them had right now was leagues stronger than anything Aomine had ever had. He clenched his fist as the unavoidable memory of the two boys kissing flashed through his mind.

He wished he'd never seen that. It was only a fraction of a second. If his eyes had been elsewhere on the court, he would've missed it and everything would've been fine. But he hadn't, and now the image was permanently imprinted in his memory, and it hurt like bitch. It just figures that he'd come to realize his own feelings for Kuroko only after seeing him kiss Kagami and knowing he would never have him back.

Shit.

His eyes stung a little. This was pathetic.

"That was an amazing game, Aominecchi. You were really cool."

Daiki snapped his head to look at his blond ex-teammate.

"Aaah. And here I was hoping I would be the one to beat you. Since Aominecchi is always saying 'the only one who can beat me, is me', I thought I could be the one to become 'you' and beat you. Guess we were both wrong."

Aomine scowled. "If you only came to mock me…"

"That's mean, Aominecchi. You really think I'm the kind of guy to do something like that?"

"Then what else do you want, Kise?" he really wasn't in the mood to deal with Kise's stupidity right now.

The blond copy-cat sighed. "Is it that bad of me to come check on an old friend? I know Aominecchi the best, I just wanted to make sure you were okay, with everything that happened."

Aomine wasn't sure if he'd heard it right or if he'd only imagined it, but something in the way Kise said that last part made him believe he wasn't talking about the game. Could Kise possibly…? No, that was impossible, he hadn't been aware of his own feelings until just a little while ago. And besides, Kise had been seating way up there among the crowd, there was no way he'd seen Kagami and Kuroko kissing.

The thought made his eyes sting again.

"Seriously, Aominecchi, when you make that face you make things really difficult for me. You probably don't know it, but I hate seeing Aominecchi cry. I can't stand it."

Before Aomine could ask what the hell he was talking about, Kise was standing in front of him and pulling his face downwards by the chin to press their lips together in a lightning-flash kiss. The blond boy pulled back almost immediately, his eyes glued to the ground and his face turning a bright red color.

"Ah… I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Sorry."

And he dashed away from the scene before Aomine could process what had just happened.

The dark-skinned ace covered his mouth with his hand and his face grew hot.

What the hell?


A few days later, Aomine found himself watching the Kaijou vs. Fukuda Sogo quarter-final match and smiling to himself when Kise turned the game around with his Perfect Copy. He remembered when he'd first seen that technique and experienced it on the court. Back then, merely a couple of months ago, it had been incomplete and Kise had pushed himself too hard and injured himself, but it had still been a little scary. He didn't want to imagine facing Kise again, now that he had a better hang of it. Akashi had been completely right when he'd said Kise had the most potential out of the lot of them. If he kept improving that Perfect Copy he would become unstoppable.

His hand moved distractedly to graze his lips and he blushed remembering the foreign pair that had touched them just a few days ago. His eyes scanned the bleachers to find the shock of baby-blue hair that stuck out, right next to a firey red one and his heart clenched. He clicked his tongue in frustration and exited the stadium, wanting to clear his head of every confusing thought.


In the end it had all been useless, Kise mused. They'd lost. He choked on his tears as Kasamatsu-senpai dragged him out of the court, for his foot hurt so much he could hardly walk anymore. If he'd gone back to the game five seconds earlier, just five more seconds… Even Kurokocchi's praise didn't make him feel any better. Didn't Kasamatsu-senpai say his job as an ace was to keep moving forward and guide the team to victory? What was the point of being unstoppable if he had failed to meet his ultimate goal?

He limped out of the locker room. He needed air, desperately and he felt too ashamed to face his teammates and hear Kasamatsu-senpai and the other third years bid their farewells. It hurt too much.

Suddenly, he bumped into another person, and the pain on his injured foot made him lose his balance. He stretched his arms trying to avoid crashing on the ground face-first, but something held him by the elbow firmly, keeping him from falling. The same force pulled him back on his feet and tch'ed in annoyance.

"Damnit Kise, pay attention to where you're going."

He rose his face to find a pair of dark blue eyes, not too different from the sky in the dead of night and his cheeks heated up.

"A-a-aominecchi…"

He'd been avoiding his friend, rival and crush ever since that day when control and reason had slipped through his fingers long enough to make him think that kissing him was a good idea. In his defense, Aominecchi had looked beautiful with his sad defeated face and Kise had wanted to comfort him and conveniently decided to forget that one of the reasons Aominecchi was hurting was because he'd just discovered he had one-sided feelings for his former shadow. It wasn't a very strong defense, he realized in hindsight.

He opened his mouth, trying to apologize for what he'd done. It had been rude and insensitive and selfish. But before he could utter any word, Aomine smiled at him and said "I know you don't really want to hear this, but that was a great game." And something inside him cracked, he felt the tears overflow his eyes once again and before he could reign himself back he had thrown his arms around Aominecchi's neck and, with a strangled cry of his name, the name of the man he loved, found his way back to those dark lips he'd dreamed about for so long. He felt those strong arms embrace him back and his partner's lips started moving against him, hesitantly, clumsily, but soothing and hungry at the same time.

Kise felt warm inside. For a brief, wonderful moment, he wondered if his feelings had finally reached Aominecchi, if he'd finally understood how much he meant to him. But right when he was about to deepen the kiss, he was pushed back and took a wrong step that made him wince in pain. He looked up at Aomine, who was blushing and panting.

"S-s-sorry, Kise…" he started, averting his gaze to avoid his friend's golden eyes. "I… this is very confusing…" he wiped his lips mechanically. "I just… I can't… return your feelings…"

"Ah" Yes, of course, what had he even been thinking? Aominecchi had been crushing so hard on Kurokocchi since forever, there was no way it would disappear overnight. And in spite of being aware of that, Kise thought he might want to call an ambulance right now, because his heart was positively, literally broken and had stopped beating and shit. He bit his lip to hold back some tears and clenched his hand over the left side of his chest, on that spot that felt like it was being torn apart.

"That's mean, Aominecchi… if that's your answer, don't hold me like it's the other way around." He mumbled sadly, briefly remembering the warmth of that embrace and regretting not having imprinted it on his mind when he had the chance.

Of course this was going to happen. He wanted to slap himself. What had he even hoped for? He'd always known Aominecchi liked Kurokocchi. This love polygon was never going to have a happy ending for him. Honestly, he deserved to get hurt like this, he'd basically begged for it when he'd kissed Aominecchi, who was probably as heartbroken as he was, just to satisfy his selfish desires. Aomine would've never forced himself like that on the person he loved. This sucked so bad and he wished the ground could swallow him whole.

"No what… what I mean is that… you know there's someone I… l-l-l-like…" Aomine blushed and scratched his nose, still not wanting to meet Kise's eyes. "But it's… it's never gonna work out…" Kise could see the pain in his face. "I-I've been thinking about this, okay? Since the other day…" the memory made him blush even harder. "I can't l-l-like you in that way but… we could still hang out and… do some other stuff."

At first, Kise didn't know how to feel about that proposition. Him? The consolation prize? The "I'm just gonna' pretend it's okay when you call that other guy's name when we fuck?" No way, never, ever. It was almost insulting that Aomine would suggest it. No. He deserved better than that. His self-respect was a lot higher than this. He would not stoop to this, no matter how much it hurt and how much he wanted it and how good that kiss had felt, because he had self-worth and he'd—"Yeah… yeah, let's do that."

Shit.

To be continued

This is a story I've been writing on and off for almost a year, and finally decided to start publidhing it for Aomine's birthday, our precious, stupid, angsty teenager virgin. I just love the trope of one-sided Aokuro becomes mutual Aokise and I'd been really excited about writing it. I hope you enjoy it, please let me know your thoughts. It has been really hard to write it (I have a couple of chapters drafted out already), but I think I like where it's going.

Please leave comments or thoughts, I'd really like to know what you think of this since it's my first time writing Aokise