Disclaimer: I STILL do not own Kuroko no Basuke
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
"God it's freezing, hurry and open up, Bakagami..." Pounding hard on the door, Aomine wraps his arms around himself, trying to warm himself up. Apparently, recklessly running out of his and Kise's apartment without a jacket of any kind was a dumb thing to do. He would be lucky if he didn't lose any of his fingers on his way here. Without even himself knowing, he had walked over to KagaTsuna's love nest, not caring even if it was 4 in the morning. Heck, even if Kagami was in there making love to Tetsuna, he still wasn't gonna wait out here and freeze his to-die-for ass off.
Hearing light shuffling from the other side of the door, a young girl with twin light blue ponytails and reddish-brown eyes greeted the tan male.
"Aomine ojisan, why are you here so late?" Kagami Haruka yawns as she rubs her eyes, trying to rub away the sleepiness from her eyes. In her arms was a plush toy rabbit that Midorima Shintarou, Shuutoku's ex-shooting guard, had given her. Being the tsundere he was, he had said that it was one of his lucky items that he didn't need anymore so he had given it to the adorable child before Aomine now, when in fact, he had gone shopping with Takao to get the best quality cottoned plush toy for her, taking in the fact that she would probably be sensitive to any other materials as her body wasn't fully developed yet. (Aww, tsundere-ish and mother-ish Midorin is so cute! I wanna glomp him~)
"Oi Ahomine, don't be so loud! Tetsuna's asleep! We don't need your loud-ass voice waking her up!" Kagami yelled from the kitchen, taking out a bowl of popcorns from the oven and adding caramel to it.
Aomine couldn't help but sweatdrop at what Taiga had said. Who was being the loud one here? Chuckling to himself, he removed his boots and entered the house, gently closing the door behind him. The Kagami's house wasn't as huge as his and Kise's apartment but it had a warm family-like atmosphere that could warm the coldest of hearts. Haruka perched herself on the sofa, waiting for her daddy to bring the popcorns out for her to munch on.
Walking over to a display cabinet, trophies from many basketball competitions lined Kagami's shelf, just like it did in Kise's apartment. Aomine looked at the various photo frames that showed the different times of their lives. When the whole gang, excluding Kagami, was in Teikou, with Momoi and Tetsuna as their managers. The times after each of the Generation of Miracles had lost to Kagami, with Tetsuna barely noticeable in the photos. The happy and carefree times when nothing really ever mattered. A flicker of light appeared in Daiki's eyes as a particular photo caught his attention. It was a photo of Kise and Aomine playing the pocky game. Smiling gently to himself, he picked the frame up and shut his eyes, holding the frame tightly in his arms as he hugged the photo, holding back his tears from slipping past his closed eyes.
"Stop being creepy, aho... Put that frame back down and come here, there's enough popcorn for all three of us..." Kagami said, walking over to where his daughter was, putting down the bowl and picking up the remote control to start playing a movie in the DVD player. It was a Disney Princess movie. Frozen, to be exact. He couldn't understand why Haruka and Tetsuna loved the show so much but still...he loved the both of them so he had to love this show too.
Grabbing a handful of sweetened popcorn, Aomine shoved it into his mouth while watching Elsa build an ice castle of her own. "Ojisan, stop hogging the popcorn! I want some too, dumbass!" Haruka whined, kicking her legs in frustration. Grinning mischievously, Aomine just grabbed another handful of popcorn and shoved it in his mouth again.
"Daddy! He's bullying me! Help me beat him up!" Haruka complained, turning to her laughing dad. Placing his hand on her little head, Kagami smoothened her clear and silky blue-ish hair. Aomine could only stare at them in envy, heart weighing heavier than before.
"Ne Bakagami, what have you been showing or teaching her? She curses more than I do, does Tetsu know about this? Man, I would pay millions to see her beat the shit out of you!" Aomine laughed heartily.
"Oh haha... So, why'd you come over?" Kagami asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well... Had a fight with Kise... So I just...ran away..." Aomine said, clenching his fists together and talking through clenched teeth.
"Ran away? What are you? A 16-year-old? Grow up idiot!" Kagami said, patting his back, trying to comfort the other male.
Wanting to change the subject, Aomine commented, "Also, should the brat really be staying up so late at night? Or should I say morning?" Looking at the clock, it was 6 in the morning and Haruka still wasn't asleep, which was not a good thing, especially for a 5-year-old.
"Oh right..." Finally realizing the time, Kagami switched off the player and television, only to find a peacefully sleeping Haruka curled up into a ball on the couch, snoring away like an angel. A smile crept up to both males's faces as they watched her sleep, both letting the sleepy spell overtake them as well as they drift into unconsciousness...
*A few hours later*
Kuroko Tetsuna slowly made her way downstairs from her room with a big and soft blanket, knowing that Taiga and Haruka both stayed up late again to spend some quality time with each other. However, the sight of another male on the couch did not surprise her. Sighing softly to herself, she covered all three of them with the blanket and took out her phone, eyes scanning through the long text that a certain blonde had sent her early in the morning. Her face darkened as she stepped on something that crunched under the weight of her foot. Looking down, she paled at the revolting sight of sweetened popcorn on the floor...again. This was the fourth time already and not wanting to be the one to clean the mess up, howls of anguish was heard from the Kagami's.
Meanwhile on Kise's side...
"Kise-san, are you alright? Do we need to take a five minutes break? You look awfully pale today and your eyes are so red and puffy that even our makeup can't cover it up!" The director of the shoot asked, sincerely concerned for the model's well-being. Everyone in the studio knew something was up with the blonde model but didn't dare to question him, scared of what might happen if they did. The last person to ask him if he was upset with anything, Ryouta had broke down so badly that they had to take a two hours break for him to finally calm down and continue with the shoot. Not that there was any improvement to his mood or anything but at least work was being done.
Shaking his head, Kise gave a tired smile and asked for the shoot to proceed on as planned, wanting to quickly finish the shoot so that he could go home and sulk all he wanted. Ever since Aomine left the house, Kise stayed up the whole time watching angsty or tragic movies about romance and texting Tetsuna a long and emotional text while in the car driving to the shoot with his manager. His manager, Tachibana Rina, had received the biggest shock of her life when she opened his apartment's door to find that Kise was lying on the ground, tear marks staining his flawless cheeks. She knew about the couple and had accepted the both of them, even happily congratulating them for getting together. To get to know that they had so suddenly broke off, she herself was more than shocked, depressed even. Nevertheless, she was still Kise Ryouta's manager and friend, meaning that she had to be the one to keep him in one piece, physically, emotionally and mentally.
"All right people! That's a wrap for today! Thank you for all of your hard work!" The director exclaimed, getting off his chair and going up to shake Kise's hand. After greeting a few of the staff, Kise quickly excused himself into his manager's car to take a breather. Closing his eyes, he took in the lavender-scented air freshner and exhaled loudly.
"Ryou-chan, don't take it so harshly on yourself. Here, have a bento, it's homemade~!" Rina appeared, with a brown boxed bento in hand, trying her best to smile cheerfully despite the dark cloud in her heart. Kise couldn't help but give her a small smile for the appreciation and effort she did all these years to support him. He didn't know if he could've made it this far without her guidance and patience. Picking up the chopsticks and lifting the lid of the bento, he picked up a tamago and bit into it, the sweetness of the egg seeping into his mouth but not sweet enough to ease the bitterness growing in his heart. He finished up the last of it as his manager started up the engine and slowly drove back, being extra careful as it was raining quite heavily.
It was like as though the skies were crying on his behalf. He couldn't help but laugh a little at his newly formed theory. As he looked out of the window into the heavy downpour, a thought crossed his mind. Telling his manager a few directions to take, they soon reached their destination. Taking out an umbrella, Kise opened it and started walking towards the landed property.
Before he could even ring the doorbell, the door was opened by a woman in her 20s.
"Ehh? Ki-chan? What are you doing here?"
To be continued...
Note: It's 4.21am here now and I must say, I'm a little happy with this chapter as I feel quite accomplished. Thank you to all those that read, voted and commented on the first chapter and I hope to receive more comments about my writing so that I can improve on it. Also, feeling a little selfish, I just wanna be praised~ LOL
