Disclaimer: Do not own.

Set some time in the future, following the jobs!AU. Enjoy!


As the front door slams firmly shut with that last tearful wail of "You're horrible, Aominecchi!" still reverberating in the living room, even Aomine gets the feeling that he has screwed up. Big time.

But what did he do this time?

Aomine sprawls out on the couch and thinks really hard about what happened just now. Well, as hard as he could and would, anyway. He thinks and thinks, and it hasn't been ten minutes before he decides that all this contemplation is making his head hurt.

It's eight o'clock on a Friday night; surely he would have better things to do than trying to figure out why Kise just suddenly snapped and broke down and darted out of their shared apartment (in tears, no less). It's not as though this is the first time the blond acted like this, anyway.

Okay, maybe this is a little more serious than those times before. The darting out of the apartment in tears part is a first. But Kise's always been temperamental, and Aomine just can't figure out what the hell is going on in that blond head of his. Even after all this time.

And that just pisses him off all the more.

He contemplates chasing after the idiot, and then he decides that he can't give a damn. Maybe he would try phoning Kise later, but he's almost certain that the blond would have switched his phone off.

"Ah, what the heck," Aomine mutters irritably. "Screw it."

He reaches for the remote and flips through the television channels. Retarded variety show – switch. Retarded game show – switch. Switch, switch, switch.

After a shitload of channels, a soap opera is playing on the screen. Aomine stares a little harder and remembers that this is probably the drama that Satsuki's obsessed over. What's so good about this crap anyway?

The girl in the soap is sobbing hysterically, and for a moment Aomine almost thinks that it's Kise's tear-stained face on the screen. Then he curses himself. The crying and screeching from the actress are making his head throb. He almost switches the channel before making out what she's screaming.

"You don't understand me at all!" The girl says shrilly, jabbing a finger at the guy in front of her. "You're so insensitive, you don't ever care about what I want."

That sounds really familiar to Aomine. Kise's probably said the same things to him before, once or twice.

Fine, maybe more than that, but he doesn't exactly want to start counting. As a matter of fact, he believes that Kise might have said that just now. Something like, "Aominecchi, you insensitive jerk!" Probably.

The dude in the drama reaches the girl in one swift motion and pulls her into his arms. Kinda unrealistic, if you ask Aomine. Who could stand such hysterics in real life? The girl's chest is big, though, but even he knows that it's not the point.

"I'm sorry, baby," the guy coos, and Aomine wants to puke. "I'm sorry I said that to you, I won't do it anymore. So please forgive me?"

The girl looks up with her eyes shining. "Of course."

That is the last straw for Aomine. He turns off the television, pressing down hard on the remote, and finds his thoughts inadvertently flowing to Kise. He's never sweet-talked the blond like that after fights and they're still fine, aren't they?

Aomine looks around the empty living room. Okay, maybe they're not so fine.

It has to besomething he said that upset the blond. Actually, Aomine has a pretty good idea about what it is. But he just can't figure out why Kise was so upset about it. They were seeing each other for the first time in two weeks (the busy pilot's finally back from Rome), neither of them has work tomorrow, and even the atmosphere was just right (or so Aomine thought). It was the most normal thing to say.

Or was it? He wouldn't know, right?

"Ugh, this is too troublesome," Aomine grumbles. He can try calling up Satsuki or Tetsu to ask them what they think, but he can already imagine their responses. Satsuki would put her hands on her waist and berate him for 'saying mean stuff to the poor thing again', while Tetsu would just give him a unnerving stare and tell him something along the lines of, 'this has happened many times already, Aomine-kun'.

Besides, it's more likely than not that Tetsu will be too occupied with that redheaded idiot to answer his call anyway. That thought makes Aomine snort loudly.

All of a sudden it starts pouring, and Aomine rushes off to shut the windows. "Damn weather," he curses, before realising that Kise has not brought an umbrella with him when he stomped out. Aomine looks around and sees that the idiot didn't even bring along his wallet for fuck's sake. Where the hell is he now? Is he wet, or has he found shelter somewhere? Is he still crying?

"Screw it," Aomine mutters again, and reaches for his phone. The call is picked up almost immediately, and Aomine feels his chest constrict slightly (fuck, is he a fucking schoolgirl?), but it is not Kise's voice coming through the phone but the toneless recorded message.

"The number you have reached is not available. Please try again later."

Kise's turned off his phone just as Aomine has expected, but suddenly he is at a loss of what to do. Half an hour has past, and the blond could be anywhere now. He's never tried to make up with the blond when they fought in the past, so he needs some advice pretty damn badly right now, but calling Satsuki or Tetsu won't be of help. Who else can he ask?

Not Akashi. Definitely not Akashi. The very notion of approaching his former captain for relationship advice (what more, it's about Kise) makes Aomine feel very uncomfortable. Preferably someone collected and able to give some solid advice.

Aomine really doesn't want to talk to the person who just came to mind, but he knows he has no choice.

"Can't believe I'm actually doing this," he groans.