"Dai-chaaaan!," Satsuki greeted, sending Aomine a bright smile when he accepted the Skype call. "You picked up!"

"Yeah, yeah," he said lazily. "This time zone shit kills me, it's way too early."

"Isn't it 10AM for you?"

"Yeah, what's your point? Who wakes up before noon?"

Aomine had been in New York for a month now. Long enough to get over the jet lag, but he still slept in way too late or, if he couldn't do that, took frequent naps during the day when he wasn't busy. So…not too far from normal. However, this combined with his schedule meant that it was next to impossible to talk to Satsuki, who was still all the way on the other side of the globe in Tokyo.

They both had schedules to follow, but his was a little different. She was in college in Tokyo.

He had been drafted to the NBA's own New York Knicks late into his first year of college, shortly after his 19th birthday.

"Silly Dai-chan. How's the apartment? Are you cleaning it? Let me see it. It better not be messy!"

"Sheesh, you're so loud." He leaned to the side in his chair, letting his camera capture the view behind him for her to see. Behind him was a small red sofa, clean and empty. Hanging above the sofa was a poster of his very beloved Mai-chan on a beach, with some smaller shots of some of her other shoots hanging nearby.

Out of the camera's view were stacks of boxes he had yet to touch. He'd….get to those eventually, probably. Maybe. The clothes he needed were in the closet, he had the bare minimum cooking and eating utensils placed carelessly in cupboards in the kitchen, and even though his bed was comfortable, it was messy as well.

But those were things that Satsuki couldn't see nor would he show her.

She shook her head when she saw the Mai-chan poster. "Oh, Dai-chan. You haven't changed. I bet the rest of your place is messy, isn't it?"

"It is not!," he claimed, looking off to the side at some opened up box he'd been meaning to go through that contained his old Touou merchandise.

"You're a bad liar, Dai-chan."

He frowned, looking back at his computer again. "Well, I'm busy."

She just laughed. "So tell me about the NBA! Is it exciting? Are you ready for the season to start? How are your teammates? Tell me everything!"

That was a lot of questions. In a way though, he didn't mind. This was the first time in weeks that he'd been able to speak Japanese freely to someone that wasn't a translator. The translator he usually worked with was all right enough he supposed. She was Japanese as well and worked closely with the team, but their relationship was purely professional. His grasp on English had improved a bit over the past couple of years, but when it came to communicating with his coaches and teammates, it got tricky.

Being able to talk to Satsuki normally was…nice.

"It's different. We've only been playing practice matches, but they're good."

"You're keeping up, aren't you?," she teased with a sly grin.

"Oi! Of course I'm keeping up! Just because I'm the youngest on the team and I'm an international doesn't mean I can't keep up. Sheesh, don't be ridiculous."

"You better practice hard! You're going to every practice, right?"

He had to chuckle a little. It was easy to recall a time when practice felt like a drag, even when he'd started going again. But now…it was different. Sure, not everyone on his team had the most impressive talent, but most everyone was skilled enough to keep his attention. It wasn't like his college team back in Tokyo, and it wasn't like high school either. It was different now, and in the best possible way.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm practicing," he said with a faint grin.

"Good. You're practicing your English too, right?"

His face fell a little. "Uh….."

She pouted, her face a little stern. "Daiii-chaaaan."

"I'm working on it, okay?"

He almost didn't want to bother. His teammates seemed to have enough respect for him as far his basketball skills, but he could hear their whispers about him when they didn't know he was listening, or even could. Sometimes the things he heard struck a nerve.

"Is he really Japanese? He doesn't look very Japanese…"

"Did he really just say that? Does he know how stupid he sounds? I don't think he's even studying English."

"He's just embarrassing himself. Where is his translator?"

When it came to his English, he could understand it better than he could speak it, and he sure understood it well enough to know when they were talking about him. Even though there were other internationals across the NBA, he was the only one of Asian descent on the Knicks. While that in itself wasn't a problem, his lack of fluency in English led to judgments and, ultimately, alienation.

But if you asked him? Well, he wasn't here to make friends. He was here to play basketball, and when he was playing it was a lot of fun. So he didn't need anything else. Soon he would be playing actual games when the preseason started in a couple of weeks, the main season a few weeks after that, and that's what he was really excited for.

Playing some really good basketball was all he needed. It excited him, invigorated him like nothing else ever could. What more could he need?

Satsuki frowned. "Tetsu-kun's English has gotten pretty good. I'll ask him if he has any books! I'm sure he can help you."

Aomine couldn't help but snort a little. "I don't think he's learning English from textbooks."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Nothing, nevermind."

He held back a small sigh. He hadn't thought about it much since he got here, mostly because he tried not to, but every single person he knew was clear on the other side of the world. Every last one. The strangest part of it was being this far from Satsuki. They used to see each other almost daily, even when they entered college. Sure, a lot of it was her pushing him to study and making sure he still attended practice but….she couldn't do that anymore. She had to stay in Tokyo and think about her own future.

Aomine had no doubt in his mind that she would still find ways to nag him, though. She was already starting, wasn't she? It was just…different when it was over Skype instead of right next to his ear when he was passed out taking a nap wherever.

How often would he hear from anyone else? Probably not often, he imagined. Before he left, Tetsu said they should keep in touch, and he was sure that they would to a point, but he didn't expect them to talk frequently. Then there was Kise, who he had hung out with on a semi-regular basis when he was still back home, usually to play one-on-one but sometimes they just had burgers together and talked. Couldn't do that anymore, either. Kise said they would still talk all the time, but he was getting high profile modeling jobs in Japan now, even bigger than his previous jobs. Aomine wasn't expecting to hear much from him.

So, he was alone.

But, you know, whatever. He was here to play basketball. All he needed.

He let Satsuki continue talking for awhile, filling him in on her college and life adventures. She had taken an interest in sports medicine and was enjoying it. She made sure to tell him that it wasn't the same without him there, but she was still happy nonetheless. There were also some friends she was making in college, but she still kept in touch with everyone from their past and considered them her closest friends.

After about an hour of her rambling and Aomine leaning his chin on his fist out of grogginess because, yes, 10AM was in fact too early, she said something that caught him off guard.

"I'm proud of you, Dai-chan."

He blinked at his screen, and it was hard to tell with the video quality, but her eyes looked moist. "Huh? Don't tell me you're crying."

She quickly rubbed her eyes, composing herself. "It's late here, I have to be up early. We'll talk soon, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Goodnight, Dai-chan."

"'Night, Satsuki."

She disconnected the call and he sighed, closing his laptop before trudging out of the chair. Might as well get his day started.

After a long shower and realizing his fridge was embarrassingly empty, he decided he'd go to the store for at least some kind of sustenance, even if it would probably end up consisting of energy drinks and TV dinners (much to Satsuki's chagrin if she were here, but she wasn't).

Not having eaten anything yet so far in the day, when he arrived at the grocery store down the street from his apartment complex, he was still in a bit of a groggy daze. The first thing he went for in the store was a 10 pack of Monster energy drinks, setting it into his cart when suddenly a voice was screeching loudly behind him.

"Aominecchi!"

"Eh?"

He barely turned around before a slender body slammed into him, arms wrapping around him in a big, tight hug. For a moment, he couldn't move. It didn't feel real. Wasn't he supposed to be in Japan?

"Kise?"

Kise let him go, giving him a smile that could probably power all of New York City. "I can't believe I found you already!"

"What the hell are you doing in New York?," Aomine asked, noting the people around them looking on. He wasn't sure if they were staring because of Kise's shameless enthusiasm or because they were speaking Japanese, or both.

"I got a job with a modeling company here in Manhattan! I just moved here last week. Can you believe it? What are the odds!"

Aomine's eyes widened a bit and, for whatever reason, he couldn't form words. It was probably because he was still tired. That made sense.

Kise giggled and tugged on his sleeve. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Hey, you wanna have lunch? My treat. I wanna hear all about your adventures with the NBA so far! You must be so excited. What do you say?"

Back in Tokyo, even though they hung out pretty often as time went on, it usually consisted of Kise inviting him and Aomine lazily accepting his invitations. So, he was puzzled when he heard himself responding in a slightly different way this time around.

"Yeah….yeah, I'd like that."