Kise hears the loving strum of a familiar melody on his heartstrings.
x
They are eighteen.
Graduation day is only just over, and to Kise, it feels like everything is coming to a close where most adults would say is only just the beginning.
He's still waiting for his end-year exam results. He hasn't thought of a proper college to go to, or if he even still wants to continue studying. Modeling, of course, is an outlet for him, but he is torn between taking up an arts course or going abroad for a while to widen his horizons before coming to a decision for himself.
In a desperate fit of panic and despair at the fuzziness of his once golden future, Kise had taken to complaining wildly to Aomine, the one person he'd never imagined would listen.
At eighteen, things have already begun changing, whirring the ball of life into a steady, ascending roll.
Aomine brings his guitar over when he comes to his house and demands he treat him to dinner and breakfast the next morning, because he is staying over to keep Kise company - but deep down Kise knows they are both lonely and there are a lot of things to be made certain of in the future, but neither have fully decided to come to terms with that.
"I'm gonna join the police force." Aomine says as he leans against Kise's bed, sitting cross legged on the carpet.
Kise shuts the window quietly after stubbing out his cigarette. He has taken up smoking during the winter, thanks to Kuroko making it look effortlessly cool every day after school lessons ended and they were hanging outside of Maji Burger trying to decide what course in life would seal their fate. But really, they were only sticking together in the cold because they were lost, and they knew that everything would start changing from graduation.
"When did you decide that?" Kise sighs, and a small billow of smoke floats out of his mouth and nose as he exhales.
Aomine meets his gaze. "When they were handing out college application forms."
They were Touou's teachers and school guidance counselors, of course.
"I see." Kise takes a sip of beer from Aomine's can because he has finished his.
"You gonna keep on modeling?" Aomine asks quietly, shifting a little closer to Kise now that the blond has sat down beside him.
Kise wonders if the weather is still really all that cold.
"I guess." Kise runs a hand through his hair, and the silvery blue of his earring glints as it catches the light from his ceiling. "I don't know what to do, I ... I think I'm just lost."
The calm of the pause between them lulls Kise into a variety of his own thoughts, sucking him into a vortex of chaos only his eighteen year old mind can comprehend.
Aomine's left hand reaches across his neck to cup his jaw in the warmth of his palm. Kise jerks a little, unaccustomed to this new development.
"Just go with the flow." Aomine's deep voice rings volumes of certainty and confidence. "Like you always do."
Their lips meet in a gentle kiss, and Kise finds himself in a stillness of surprise and sudden realization that Aomine has changed and is maturing and will always be a couple of steps ahead, maybe fumbling a little, but that's the way everyone does it when breaking out of the chrysalis.
When they break apart for a couple seconds to make proper eye contact and assure each other that everything is alright, and no one is about to bolt, Kise wraps his arms around Aomine's neck. Their kiss deepens, and there's tanned hands running a trail of fire along bare, fair skin, and slender fingers clenching into dark blue locks, tousling Aomine's hair up and his brain, too, as Kise moans and jerks and squeezes around his cock, tight and deliciously wet for their first time with this level of intimacy.
Kise comes first, with a jerk and a shudder and a long, drawn-out moan, with Aomine swiftly following suit as he empties himself inside the blond, hands gripping the sheets and Kise's pillow. Kise's legs slowly cease their squeezing around his hips and thighs as he slackens, growing loose now that he is satisfied and relaxed.
Pulling out slowly, Aomine leans down to drop chaste offers of love and apologies down the side of Kise's jaw before meeting his mouth in a swollen-lipped kiss. The bed springs creak a little as he gets up, body tingling with the sensation of post-sex glow and the quiet, triumphant feeling that the blond is his.
He is still wrapped in a little bubble of disbelief as he cleans the bed and the blond, but when Kise lifts his head and smiles at him, there's a strong sense of something that passes between them.
Kise laughs.
"Are we out of beer?" He asks as he rolls off the bed lazily, reaching for his pack of menthols and lighter.
Aomine wraps his arms around him from the back as they both lean out the window, breathing in the chilly night air and the scent of Kise's cigarettes.
It's spring, and the warmth of Aomine's skin on his own lights a warm blaze through his body. It's telling him that everything will fall into place.
Later on, late into the wee hours of the morning, Kise awakens from a deep slumber to listen to Aomine tuning his guitar as he sits on the red beanbag by the open window. He smiles upon discovering Aomine has placed two coats and the blanket over him so he won't catch a chill.
The quiet, low strums of Aomine guiding the pick over the strings gently pulls him back to sleep.
Kise keeps on modeling.
x
Most of them are twenty-nine.
Having been born in June, Kise is already thirty.
It's summer and it's just after they have ended his birthday celebration, and Aomine had come home from work earlier to shower and hide the beer and cake with candles because it had been the kind of surprise party that he knew Kise would love.
Almost everyone they knew had come, and the house Kise shared with Aomine had been noisy since dinner time.
Kise touches the glossy postcard Midorima has written his birthday wishes and regards from Paris, where he is currently on a honeymoon with Takao. The photo he has attached is both funny and loving at the same time - Takao with his arms wrapped around his neck, Midorima's mouth quirking up into an almost smile before the camera caught their moment in time. Kuroko and Kagami are in the guest room, both quietly drunk and content and probably utilising some condoms Aomine has purposefully snuck in there for the married couple's free usage.
"You know," Kise says in a confidential tone as Aomine shuts their bedroom door ater having checked in on Hyuuga and Kiyoshi, both snuggled under a blanket on their couch. "I'm thinking of quitting modeling."
Aomine stills.
"Not because I don't like it, I still do and I think that I always will." Kise eases a smile. "And I've aced the air engineering exam, but I don't think being a pilot would suit me very much. It's great to lose myself up in the air, looking at nothing but clouds and the navigation system. But I don't think I can handle being away from you for months on end."
Dark blue eyes meet gold orbs, and Kise shrugs. "I'm thirty, Daiki. I'm going to be old and needy soon, I think."
Undoing his watch - a present from Kise last year - Aomine huffs a laugh as places it on their bedside table.
"What do you feel like doing next?"
Breaking out into a happy grin, Kise crawls over to lie in Aomine's lap after he sits on the bed.
"I love that you never ask me what I want to do."
"Because I know you'll never know what you want, exactly, until you try something." Aomine chuckles, fingers brushing through golden blond strands. "I know you like the back of my hand, Ryouta."
Kise giggles, loving every second of Aomine's touch.
Aomine glances at Midorima's postcard before asking softly. "Do you want to get married, Ryouta?"
Kise stares at him for a while, before shaking his head.
"It's not really my top priority, Daiki. I mean, I love you so much it feels like more than half of my heart is the color of yours, and I would definitely say yes, and I know you know that ... you do know that, right?"
Laughing quietly, Aomine ducks down to envelop Kise's lips with his own. "Of course. We're practically married already."
As Kise strokes his cheek and runs his fingers over the small but still noticeable scar on Aomine's collarbone - a souvenir from a knife fighting crime case the police force had cracked five years ago - his tanned boyfriend smirks into his palm.
"You could try writing."
Kise's grin widens. He gets off the bed to locate Aomine's old guitar in a corner of their room.
"Play me that song you were playing on our first night." He says.
Dark blue eyes look at him, puzzled.
"When we were eighteen." Kise prompts.
"Okay." Aomine leans against the wall and positions the guitar in his lap. "I haven't played this in ages."
As Kise watches tanned fingers pick the strings with the same love Aomine bestows upon him, he feels eighteen all over again.
x
They have hit the forty-five year mark.
Magazines for dads in their prime are littered around Kagami's house.
Kagami and Kuroko's son - birthed via a surrogate mother - is screaming about something or other with Midorima and Takao's son, possibly arguing over which basketball jersey belonged to whom. They are sophomores in high school and going through a lot of things most boys their age experience.
Kuroko effectively breaks up their fight with a loving hug, which they return.
Aomine is watching the news on TV, and Kise is donning an apron while keeping an eye on the creamy mushroom and potato soup Kagami has told him to watch over. The redhead's menu is western today, and the sounds of Midorima sniffling over chopping onions are accompanied by the sizzling of steak on the grill Kagami is expertly wielding over the stove's heat.
"I bought the drinks!" Takao announces in a singsong voice as he clicks the front door shut.
"Dad!"
One of the teenagers call, and Takao goes to join Kuroko after depositing the drinks on the kitchen counter and dropping a kiss on Midorima's neck while giving Kise's right ass cheek a happy squeeze.
Aomine stumbles into the kitchen right on cue, and flicks Takao on the forehead.
Midorima growls amidst his sniffling, and Kagami chuckles while scooping the finely chopped shallots away into a bowl for blending sauces. Aomine slides his arms around Kise's slim waist and breathes in his scent from the nape of his neck.
Outside of the kitchen, Takao and Kuroko can be heard clapping and cheering while their sons take turns to play Aomine's borrowed guitar.
It is in that moment where Kise's heart does an odd little jump, and a thrill of something akin to absolute contentment travels down his spine.
Somewhere at the back of his mind, he can still hear the strumming of Aomine's guitar from the time when they were still teenagers on the brink of adulthood. And when he leans back into Aomine's toned chest, he can feel the steady rhythm of his other half's heartbeat.
It sounds like a familiar melody resonating somewhere inside his own heart.
At that moment in time, he realizes it is one that he hopes will stay with him forever and never end.
x
Kise feels it is love.