Chapter 2: Polar Opposites
Aomine awakens uncharacteristically aware. Sitting up, his eyes dart around the room. When nothing seems out of place, he sighs with relief.
"What was up with that dream?" he mutters to himself.
Before he assigns full blame to an overactive imagination, his mind focuses on the last image he remembers before waking. The certainty written across the blond's face, while speaking of love, causes Aomine's stomach to flop. Instead of dwelling on this memory, he forces himself to get up and to go about his normal morning routine.
The day passes like any ordinary school day would, which should prove that that reality trumps fantasy, however, Aomine's thoughts return to the blond stranger, who had seemed so desperate to be recognized and remembered.
'Kise Ryouta,' he reminds himself. 'I promised him I'd remember his name.'
Although Aomine recognizes the irrationality of heeding an agreement made in a dream, his intuition tells him that Kise Ryouta is more than a hallucination.
Over the next several weeks, the intensity of Aomine's dream fades, but he remembers every detail. Like a sleeping giant, the memory lies dormant in the corner of his mind.
One morning, while waiting for class to start, he sits content with inaction. Momoi's lively chatter with her friends catches the corner of his eye, and he watches as she trades magazines with them before waving goodbye and flitting to her seat in front of him.
"Are you still doing that magazine exchange thing with the girls?" he asks to create conversation.
"Yeah," she answers tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "This way we each only have to buy one. It saves money, you know."
"Not wasting your money on magazines would save more," Aomine counters.
"It's not a waste of money," she protests. Turning around in her seat, she brandishes her new acquisition. "See?"
Aomine's heart leaps to his throat, when he finds himself staring at a photograph of a younger version of someone he has only seen in a dream. Shock momentarily holds his tongue hostage as he stares at an image of Kise exuding youthful cheer. Unsure how to process his recognition of the stranger gracing the magazine cover, he reacts by blurting out, "I know him!"
Tilting her head, Momoi asks, "Really? He goes to our school, but he's not in our class or anything. How do you know him?"
The information stuns Aomine. "He goes to our school?" he repeats dumbfounded.
"How else would you know him?" she questions. Her curiosity fades into a girlish giggle. "He's cute. Can you introduce us?"
The situation forces Aomine to recant his previous statement. "Well, I don't know him, know him," he mumbles awkwardly.
"Why would you say you know him if you don't?" Momoi asks nailing him with a piercing look.
Since Aomine has always had trouble deceiving his childhood friend, he answers truthfully. "I had a dream about him." Once the words leave his mouth, he realizes how preposterous his explanation sounds. Momoi's reaction makes this fact abundantly clear.
"A dream," she says skeptically. "You had a dream about someone who goes to our school that you don't know. That doesn't make any sense."
Numbly, Aomine nods in agreement.
After a pause, she pushes the issue. "Well, what did you dream about?"
"Basketball," he offers with a sheepish grin.
Rolling her eyes, Momoi responds, "Of course. How typical of you. I wonder why you'd even have a dream like that, though. I don't think he plays basketball."
In a daze, Aomine murmurs, "Kise Ryouta may not play now, but he will. In my dream, he played well, and he…" He trails off as the blond's last statement replays in his mind.
"I'm going to make you fall in love with me," the blond had promised with a knowing smirk and a confident gaze.
The memory of the other male's conviction fills Aomine with foreboding, which causes his cheeks to flush and his stomach to twist.
"Kise Ryouta, ehh?" she teases with a raised eyebrow. "So you know his name."
'I promised him I would remember it,' Aomine answers silently. 'But I can't say that out loud. It sounds ridiculous.' Instead, he searches his mind for an acceptable response and comes up empty. "I, uhh," he stammers feeling foolish.
"What exactly happened in your dream?" Momoi inquires focusing on him with a discerning gaze.
Although Aomine's brain spins to craft a plausible lie, he can tell his childhood friend has already come to a conclusion that hits closer to the truth than he would like. Before he utters a word, class begins saving him from a hollow attempt at deceit.
Aomine's thoughts constantly return to the implausible situation he faces – dreaming about someone claiming to be a ghost from the future, only to discover that the living version exists in a capacity that would easily allow their worlds to intersect.
"I must be going crazy. Talking to myself is just another sign of this," he reasons aloud, while dribbling a basketball at an outdoor court he had frequented during his childhood. When he hears someone approaching, he turns around expecting Momoi. Instead, his gaze falls upon a pretty blond with sad eyes and a sober mouth.
"You!" Aomine exclaims in an accusatory tone.
"Hi, Aominecchi," Kise greets tentatively.
"I must be asleep," the blue-haired boy deduces. Looking at Kise, he can tell that the other wants to speak but defers in order to let him guide the conversation. Finally, he asks, "What's with the "cchi"?"
Kise's lips quirk upwards in a forlorn smile. "I add "cchi" to the names of people I respect. It's what I called you. Or should I say "will call" you?" he muses.
"Ha!" Aomine cries triumphantly. "So that other dream with you in it was real, then."
The blond nods. "You kept your promise, too. You remembered my name."
"How could I forget the name of the person who is making me feel like I've lost my mind?"
"That's so mean," Kise whines with a pout.
Curiosity getting the best of him, Aomine asks a question to confirm a suspicion. "If I'm not crazy and you actually exist, then are you haunting me?"
"Yes, but I'm a friendly ghost," the blond reassures with a grin.
Deciding that rejecting Kise's statements would be counterproductive, Aomine focuses on gathering information. "If you're haunting me, then why don't I see you all the time? Why do you only pop up in occasional dreams?"
Golden eyes dim, and gently curving lips draw into a tight line. After a long pause, he replies, "I'm always with you. I think you can't see or hear me during the day, because you don't believe I'm there. Your sense of reality rejects my presence, but when you dream, I sometimes manage to break through that barrier."
The pained expression that the blond sports unsettles Aomine, and he attempts to figure out why. However, with Kise staring at him expectantly, he feels compelled to continue the conversation, so he says the first thing that comes to mind. "I saw you on a magazine cover a few days ago."
This acknowledgement causes joy to dance in Kise's eyes once more. "I know. That was a really good shoot for me."
With this change in the other's demeanor, Aomine realizes why the blond's grief-stricken look unnerves him, and he verbalizes his discovery. "I don't understand you. How can you look so bright and carefree on that magazine cover, when in my dreams you appear to be holding back infinite sadness? The two yous I've come across seem like polar opposites. I have a hard time believing you two are the same person."
Sorrow once again surfaces on Kise's face. In a quiet, controlled voice he states, "I'm dead, murdered by someone I knew. Of course that's going to affect me. I'm also working against time. By the end of my second year in high school, I'll be dead, and my only option is to rely on someone who doesn't believe in my existence."
With guilt unfurling in his gut, Aomine tries a diplomatic approach. "Can't you make this easier on both of us and just tell me who kills you? Even though I don't know you, I don't want you – or anyone for that matter – getting murdered."
"I wish I could, but I don't remember. You're the only one I can communicate with on this timeline, so I have to depend on you to help me."
"Why me?" Aomine asks. If his first dream of the blond provides the rationale, he already knows the answer. However, he would like verbal affirmation.
"I chose you, because you're the person I love and trust the most."
Rubbing the back of his neck, Aomine comments, "That statement puts a lot of pressure on me. You're basically telling me that I'm responsible for your life, and I don't even know you!" He throws up his hands in a mayday gesture. "I can't even begin to explain how strange this situation makes me feel."
"I'm not trying to burden you," Kise says. "Look at things this way; in the future you're going to love and be loved. In fact, I love you so much that I've come back to see you. That's flattering, right?"
Sighing heavily, Aomine answers honestly. "It's more confusing than anything else. I've never experienced anything like the feelings you have for me, which makes it hard for me to understand things from you point of view."
Kise offers no vocal response, but Aomine sees the other's spirit shatters like crystal against pavement. He quickly adds, "I'm not trying to be mean, and it's not as if I don't believe you. For what it's worth, my gut says that you're telling the truth, that in your timeline we do love one another. However, as I am now, I don't feel the same way for you. You have to understand that there's no possible way I can return your feelings at this moment."
A pensive look crosses the blond's face. After a long pause, he concurs, "I've been unfair. I can't imagine how I'd react if I were in your position, being told that our love is predestined, as if I have no free will. I think I'd hate that. At the same time, I can't ignore the way I feel about you."
With the ghost looking as if he might cry, Aomine suggests, "Why don't we leave things as they are now? You said you won't get killed until our second year in high school; we've got a few years. Either the future you know will come to pass, or it won't."
"Sure," Kise agrees with smile that doesn't reach his eyes, however he makes an attempt to comply with the other's request. "Can we just play one-on-one until it's time for you to wake up?"
Beaming, Aomine responds, "I'd like that."
Aomine's latest dream of Kise haunts him more than the first one, as the memory of the other male's wounded expression clings to him like glue. Unable to banish the blond from his mind, he mentally juxtaposes the Kise in his dreams with the image of the blond on that magazine cover. He still has difficulties reconciling the fact that one person, albeit in different times, can exude such different emotions.
With thoughts of Kise lingering with him, Aomine itches to gaze upon the magazine cover that had started his interest in the other. Instead of asking Momoi for her copy and potentially opening himself to an interrogation, he stops by a convenience store on the way home from school. Despite the nerves churning in his stomach, he forces himself to purchase said magazine, which clearly targets teenage girls. When the cashier surveys him quizzically, he feels heat rise up his neck and settle as a burning flush in his cheeks.
Once in the privacy of his room, his embarrassment fades. With dark fingers caressing the glossy cover, he studies his new possession. The Kise in this image wears the brightest smile he has ever seen. Comparing this innocent joy to the melancholy surrounding the blond in his dreams fascinates Aomine. The contrast between the two Kises feels like a puzzle he needs to figure out.
Then, he remembers one thing the ghost had said: "I'm always with you."
"If you're always with me, then you must be thrilled that I've bought this magazine, that I can't get you out of my mind, and that you've become a curiosity to me," he whispers.
Silence answers his comment, but the hairs on the back of his neck prick, as if responding to a presence behind him. Slowly he turns around, unsure of what to expect. When his gaze focuses on Kise donning a triumphant smile, he yelps.
Reflexively, Aomine squeezes his eyes shut and forcefully shakes his head. Unprepared to accept the image in front of him, he thinks, 'This is impossible. Ghosts don't exist. Even if they did, who has ever heard of a time traveling ghost?'
When he opens his eyes, he finds himself alone, as if the other had been nothing more than a mirage.
Author's notes: I love the Teikou backstory arc! The anime is definitely fueling my feels (as well as providing me with another look a time period particularly pertinent to this fic). Also, do your best, ghost!Kise. XD;; Hope you all enjoyed. Until next time.