Title: Reinventing the World
Author's Note:Well, It seems that people are actually reading my story. I'm glad! What am I stalling for? Go on and read. More from me at the end!
⇒Please make sure you heed the bolded font. Especially the are there for a reason.
Pairing: Aomine/Kise
Rating: T/PG-13
Warnings: AU-ish, OoC, Fluff; This is not m-preg.
Summary: When Kise had gone to bed last night, he hadn't had a son, and by the time Aomine had turned up at his door today at noon, he did.
Disclaimer:
Kuroko no Basuke does not belong to me. All rights belong to Fujimaki-sensei.
It was sort of like an epiphany for Aomine. Now that he realised he could hold Sora without him crying, that Sora actually liked Aomine enough to share a smile with him, he wanted to do it all the time. He actively joined in when Kise played games with his son instead of watching from a distance, or he'd let Kise hand Sora to him when he needed free hands instead of putting him down on the rug. He never thought he'd get so involved with a friend's baby, but figured this was a special case. It was Kise, after all.
The rest of their friends' introduction to the baby was a little dramatic, if only because Kise was his usual thoughtless self and didn't think to warn any of them about Sora before he turned up at a group practice holding him.
At first, the others thought that he was just baby sitting his neighbor's child, or that the baby would be a cute mascot for today. It wasn't until a few minutes in that Midorima, who had been talking quietly with Kise until that moment, shrieked, "He's yours?!" at the top of his lungs that the truth got out.
Atsushi, Kagami, and Kuroko were quiet about it, but it was clear from the looks on their faces that they were shocked. Midorima called Kise by about every variation of the word 'stupid' that he could come up with before a frown from Kuroko and a well-timed comment from Atsushi about how Kise was probably already aware of the gravity of the situation shut him up.
Momoi just stared for the longest time, hands over her mouth.
It took them a long time to finish their practice regimen between everyone's distraction, and Kise's frequent trips over to Sora to get him to quiet down. Atsushi and Kuroko had to leave pretty quickly for other appointments after, but Aomine saw the two of them talk to Kise separately before they left, and from the smile on his face, it seemed like what they said must have been pretty encouraging.
The others that stayed behind stuck around. Midorima hung back, chatting with the Kagami, but Momoi finally got to approach Sora for the first time, looking at the baby with awe in her face.
"Kise…" She choked out, tears springing up in her eyes, and Aomine felt a little uncomfortable watching. It was strange to see Momoi so emotional over the whole thing when she hadn't been involved with it until now.
"Are you crying, Momo-chan?" Kise laughed, letting Momoi press her fingers to the baby's chubby cheeks.
"You're a daddy. You didn't tell me." Momoi was obviously trying not to sound accusatory, but the slight sadness in her tone was probably worse, and Kise immediately sobered up.
"I haven't been telling anyone," he assured her. "It's meant to be a secret, so I haven't been going out of my way…"
His words seemed to placate Momoi, but they just made Aomine feel funny. Up until now, it'd made him feel special that he was the only member of GoM who had a clue about Sora's existence. But now, he wondered, if it hadn't been for the circumstances in which he found out, would Kise have told him sooner? The idea that he probably wouldn't have been the first person on Kise's list to go to had he not literally turned up at Kise's door the first day Sora arrived, made him feel jealous and a little bit sick. He'd been there for so many firsts – the first time he'd rolled over, the first time he'd pushed himself up on his arms – and the thought that that could've gone to someone else, that he could've missed them, made him want to fall into a dark sulk.
For once, though, his bad mood didn't last for long. All it took was the news from Kise that Sora had stopped feeding at night and was actually sleeping through for five to six hours at a time, and he was as cheerful and proud as if it was his own son.
"It's so good to actually have a full night's sleep," Kise told him over dinner. Aomine had brought him something so he'd stop subsisting solely on cup noodles, and from the way Kise was chowing it down, it looked like he'd needed it. "It was okay when I could nap during the day, but I can't really do that anymore, so… I think this is a good step."
He beamed at Aomine, and Aomine's eyes crinkled as he smiled back.
Indeed, Kise started looking happier and healthier over the next week, no doubt the result of getting a substantial amount of shuteye for the first time in over a month. Sora's feeding pattern started to regularise as well, and it felt like there was nowhere to go from here but up.
Of course, the moment Aomine thought that, something just had to go wrong.
It was hard to know how they managed to do it. Kise had been so careful since the very beginning, but someone eventually managed to get a shot of him with Sora, and soon it was all over the gossip magazines. Aomine unconsciously flew into a blind panic the second he found out, almost sure that Kise was going to return to the same anxious mess he'd been when Yuna had up and left Sora with him a month and a half before. The thought that this could mean the end of Kise's career if the executives so decided it barely crossed his mind; it was Kise's wellbeing that he had in the forefront of his mind, and Aomine was pretty sure he broke every traffic rule in Japan that it was possible to break on the drive over to Kise's apartment.
Kise had long since given Aomine a key to his place, telling him that since he spent almost half his time and left half his stuff there anyway, he may as well have one.
Aomine let himself in expecting the worst, but all he found was Kise sitting placidly on the sofa, feeding Sora from his bottle.
"Hey, Aominecchi," he greeted him with a cheery smile, nothing out of the ordinary. "I thought you were having dinner at home tonight."
He must not know yet. That was the only explanation Aomine could think of as to why Kise would be so calm. He half wanted to pretend he didn't know anything, but Kise would definitely find out later, and there was no point prolonging the inevitable.
"Your… your picture," Aomine began, voice shaky. He swallowed thickly and straigened up, clearing his throat to start again. "It was…"
"In the tabloids? Yeah, I know. It sucks." Kise's reply was heartfelt, but still strangely flippant. "Momoi-san called me up herself, but there's nothing we can do about it. We can't make something up, since that'd make it worse when the truth got out. And I'm not willing to lie about Sora either."
Aomine stared, unable to think of anything to say. Eventually he just sat down, and Sora let out a loud noise soon after, leaning in Aomine's direction.
Kise grinned. "He wants you," he told him, handing the baby over.
Aomine's heart fluttered as he took Sora in his arms, and even though he knew things were going to be difficult for quite some time from here on out, with the three of them in Kise's apartment, squashed up on the couch together, he felt strangely at peace.
As Aomine had predicted, things got harder from then on. Kise had already said that, given his agency's history, suspending or firing him wasn't much of an option if they wanted to keep ahead of rival magazines. But that didn't mean the company didn't have other ways of punishing him. Aomine knew Kise had been expecting something to happen ever since the pictures went public – he'd known there was no way he was getting out of it unscathed – he just hadn't been sure what. It turned out that, while he wasn't going to be suspended officially, they could still do it in everything but name.
It was the first time Aomine could remember Kise ever rejecting his company and comfort. He tried to tell himself that it was probably because he felt guilty – after all, all future plans for Kise to come and practice had been put on hold which affected Aomine too – but it still stung a bit. At the very least, in the brief time he'd spent with Kise before politely being told to take a hike, he knew that Kise wasn't blaming his misfortune on Sora. He'd been as gentle and caring with his son as ever while he explained to Aomine that, in no uncertain terms, he would prefer to be alone right now.
Still, as much as it bothered him, Aomine could understand. Kise was still being featured in the monthly magazines but outside of that, they'd taken everything from him. As well as the postponement of the release of an important interview, he'd also been pulled from the advertising campaigns he'd been a part of, replaced in an upcoming drama he was supposed to have a role in and, most heartbreakingly of all for him, he'd been told by the executives to quit his participation in GoM .
Compared to that, the rest of it was water of a duck's back. Aomine wasn't sure, but he thought that Kise had probably cried when he'd learnt that he was going to have to be taken off of the team. He'd said a few times that the rest of the members were like family to him. Now he was losing one family to keep another.
Kise's parents had finally found out about their grandson as well, but Aomine wasn't yet sure what the reaction had been. He imagined they were probably more upset that he'd kept Sora a secret from them than they were over the fact that he'd been born in the first place. He'd thought that Kise should've told them from the start, but he got the feeling that Kise had wanted to prove that he could handle it on his own, rather than falling back on his mother and father for support as he would inevitably have done.
Aomine didn't see Kise or Sora for the next three days, and what would've once been a perfectly normal amount of time for him to go without seeing Kise suddenly felt excruciatingly long. It made him antsy. On top of that, it seemed like a million and one women were stepping forward, claiming to be the mother. Every time another one spoke up about it, Aomine couldn't help the feeling of resentment that began to brew in his stomach. Sora's real mother didn't even have anything to do with him anymore now that all the paperwork declaring Kise as the father was out of the way, and these women trying to lay claim to him just because they liked Kise's pretty face aggravated Aomine.
It wasn't a good time for either of them, but Kise eventually accepted what had happened. He called Aomine up when he was finally ready to see him again, seeming much calmer than the other day when he'd sent him out the door.
"I was ready to give up work for him completely," Kise said, back to sounding like his old self again, Aomine noted with some relief. "Having to lie low for a while is better than losing everything. And now I have more time to spend with Sora, making sure he gets all the attention he deserves. It works out, right?"
"Yeah. And you're still appearing in the magazines." Aomine didn't voice the thought he most wanted to, feeling strangely shy. It would sound strange to tell Kise, another guy, that he missed him. Him and his son.
Almost as if he could read his mind, Kise brought it up for him. "I think Sora misses you," he said, and Aomine bit his lip to hold back a grin. "We'd like it if you'd come see us sometime."
"Alright," Aomine replied casually, as though his heart wasn't soaring as he spoke. "I will soon."
He smiled absently up at the ceiling after he hung up, holding the phone to his chest.
It was good seeing Sora again. Aomine had been half convinced that he'd already be walking and talking and have completely forgotten him after the four days that had passed, but knew it was ridiculous. Babies didn't age overnight and their memories weren't that short.
Sora seemed as delighted to see Aomine as Aomine was to see him, and he practically ignored Kise for the first hour to play with Sora and his toys.
"It's funny," Kise commented later, once they'd put the baby down to sleep. "I've gotten really used to you being around. It felt weird not seeing you."
"Oh, well. Yeah." Aomine couldn't meet his eyes and didn't know why. After all, he'd felt the same way, hadn't he? "Well... Sora-kun is still really young, so it's hard alone..."
Kise laughed quietly, keeping it down to avoid waking the baby. "Yeah. It's getting easier, though. I've become a good papa."
He sounded so happy praising himself, and it made Aomine chuckle before he remembered what he'd been meaning to ask Kise.
"Oh. How were your parents with the news?"
"Mm, good I guess. Mostly upset I'd kept it a secret." Aomine had guessed as much, but he didn't interrupt to say so. "Mom thinks that I should get married. She says it'd be good for Sora to have a mother."
Aomine felt his stomach twist, and he looked at Kise with alarm. He didn't like change, and he'd only just gotten used to the idea of thinking of Kise as a father. Seeing him get married was something Aomine wasn't ready for yet.
"You can't just... do that though. Can you?" He said lamely, feeling queasy at the thought.
Kise looked amused. "I wasn't going to. Love will find me when it's time, right?"
Aomine had never before been as grateful for Kise's romanticist attitude as he was at that moment.
Momoi was a good friend. She instinctively knew when people needed help, and she always knew what to do or say to get them through a rough patch. And Kise's current situation – losing so much of the work that was so important to him at the same time as struggling to be a good father – most certainly counted as a rough patch.
Given this, Aomine supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that Momoi was suddenly falling over herself to come over and check up on Kise, make sure he was eating right, cook for him, and offering to take care of Sora so he could have some time alone.
But surprise or not, Aomine couldn't help feeling annoyed. Kise had gotten this far without Momoi's help, so why would he need it now? Between himself and Aomine, Kise was just fine without another person butting in and throwing off their routine when Sora most needed a strict schedule to grow up healthy.
He tried to mention this to Kise, but Kise just laughed and shook his head, telling Aomine that Sora was still eating and sleeping at the usual times, so Momoi's extra help did no harm.
"Besides, I know what I'm doing now," Kise told him, sounding so proud of himself that Aomine didn't dare argue further.
Didn't mean he had to like it though; especially not when Momoi was always there when he came over, playing with Sora or cuddled up on the couch with an arm around Kise while Kise held Sora in his lap, as though they were a family. It made Aomine feel like his insides were made of jelly, unsettled and wobbly as he tried and failed to fit himself into the picture.
Sora's excitement upon seeing him whenever he arrived largely made up for it, but when Aomine came over one evening to find Momoi there, playing with Sora and a toy that Sora and Aomine always played with together, he couldn't help feeling cranky.
It didn't help when Kise greeted him with a blinding grin and said, "Aominecchi, just in time! Momoi-chan came over to make me dinner tonight and there should be enough for three," then started to gush Momoi's praises.
Aomine tried not to look as unenthusiastic as he felt, but he could already feel a slight frown forming and his eyes glazing over as he tried to tune Kise out.
"Actually, I just... came over to get something I left here," Aomine lied. It was probably unconvincing, but at this point he didn't care. "So I'll just grab it and go."
Kise gave him an odd, almost quizzical look.
"Well, you're invited to dinner now. You're not busy, right? I bet Sora will be so happy if you play with him while Momo-chan cooks."
It sounded suspiciously like Kise was manipulating him into staying, but when Aomine gave him a dubious look, Kise was staring at him with wide, sincere eyes and a guileless expression.
"Alright." He couldn't help giving in, even if he was pretty sure Kise was, as usual, being a conniving brat.
"Aomine!" Momoi beamed when he made his way over to them, and Sora dropped his toy, losing interest in it to direct a sunny smile up in Aomine's direction.
"Ba!" He beamed, and Aomine felt his spirits lifting already as he slid cross-legged on to the ground next to the two of them.
"Ba," he repeated, grabbing the toy from where it had dropped and holding it up for Sora to grab again.
When it became obvious that Aomine had completely stolen Sora's attention away from her, Momoi chuckled and got up to start dinner.
"Your son has no taste," she told Kise, motioning over to him and Aomine, but the friendly jab carried no heat – half because it was Momoi and she never meant anything maliciously, but half because Sora had chosen Aomine over her, and after that, none of Momoi's friendly teasing could bother him at all.
Momoi ended up leaving before Aomine did in the end. He stayed behind, clearing the table and doing the dishes for Kise while he spent some time with Sora. Despite the rocky start to his evening, there was nothing that made him smile quite like walking out into the living room to see Kise with Sora in his lap, flapping his arms and cheerfully telling him, "Now we're butterflies!"
"Cutest butterfly I've ever seen." Aomine flopped down onto the nearest couch, and Kise grinned over at him, batting his eyelashes.
"Thanks."
"I was talking about the tiny one."
"Aominecchi, you're horrible." Kise attempted to sound offended, but the chuckle he didn't quite manage to smother ruined the effect. He was silent for a moment, before smiling somewhat slyly. "Sora really likes Momo-chan."
Aomine sat up a little straighter, attempting to keep his face neutral. "Ah."
"But... you can keep a secret, right?" He leant back against the leg of the sofa and lowered his voice to an exaggerated whisper. "I think he likes you best."
"Best?" Aomine felt his ears burning hot.
"Well. Not as much as me," Kise clarified. "But definitely second best."
"Ah," Aomine repeated, and ducked his head, unsure of why he felt so embarrassed.
He let it turn over in his head as he drove home from Kise's, after he'd helped put Sora down to sleep for the night. Obviously Kise had noticed his reaction to Momoi's presence in the apartment and his frustration over Momoi's monopolisation of the baby's time and had felt the need to reassure him of his importance. But that made Aomine feel weird; Sora wasn't his, and he certainly didn't have a say in how much time Momoi spent with him. It was probably good for Sora to be exposed to new people, and even if Kise could get on fine without the help of another extra person, it still made his life easier.
He probably resented having to share Sora when he'd been his and Kise's secret for so long, Aomine figured. After all, he'd never really liked sharing.
He wondered if he was getting too weird about Kise's kid, and spent a moment considering whether maybe he should cut back on his visits. After all, he and Kise had never spent this much time together before Sora's arrival (though at least now that the secret was out, his parents actually believed him when he said he was going over there to visit) and now that the baby was five months old and Kise had gotten the hang of taking care of him, he didn't need to rely on Aomine as much anymore.
But the thought of deliberately separating himself from the two of them just wasn't appealing, and Aomine was pretty sure that Sora wouldn't like it, which meant that Kise, by default, wouldn't like it either. Besides, it was fascinating to see how much a baby developed over a single week. He'd just started to recognise and respond to his own name, and was getting closer and closer to being able to sit up without any help, and Aomine was damned if he was going to miss that happening.
He reassured himself that at least his presence gave Kise a chance to step outside and take a break for a while, so it wasn't entirely for his own benefit.
Taking care of Sora in Kise's absence was much easier for Aomine now, and so when he was over one afternoon and Kise said that he needed to nip down to the store, Aomine didn't bat an eyelid.
"Okay." He and Sora were already occupied with a rattle, so intensely focused that neither of them looked at Kise when he went to leave.
"Sometimes I wonder if you like his toys more than he does," Kise called over his shoulder as he headed out of the room.
Aomine ignored him, but couldn't deny that it was probably true when Sora tired of the rattle before he did, directing his interest to Aomine's fingers and shirt sleeve instead and giving them a good tug.
"Hey." Aomine chuckled, pulling his hand away. "Gentle."
He tickled Sora in revenge, delighting in the way laughter bubbled up from his throat. He'd started giggling weeks ago, but the full belly-laugh that erupted when Aomine tickled his feet, the one that was so reminiscent of his father's, was something that he didn't think he'd ever tire of hearing.
He didn't notice when Kise got back until he heard him sit down behind him, finally ending his assault on the soles of Sora's feet to turn around and acknowledge him. His eyes were soft as he watched them and the smile on his face was unguarded and tender. Aomine couldn't help offering a small one of his own in return, stomach flip-flopping.
That was about the time things started to change.
There had been a time during their teens when Aomine and Kise had been closer than they were for most of there friendship. During that time, Kise had stuck to Aomine like a little shadow until he'd gained enough confidence and finally branched out on his own. Now they were back to being almost inseparable thanks to Sora's arrival, finding a common interest in him. Aomine found the subtle changes in Kise, with his newfound maturity and sense of responsibility, to be quite likeable, and although he'd always been fond of him he'd grown to see him in a new light and appreciate his companionship in new ways.
It was around then that Aomine started looking forward to seeing Kise as much as he did to seeing Sora, sometimes staying so late into the night to chat once Sora was asleep that they'd doze off on the couch together. Aomine didn't, however, start seeing the anticipation of being with Kise for what it was until the evening when Kise fell asleep on his shoulder. He looked so content and tranquil in slumber, as though he didn't have a care in the world, and Aomine caught himself leaning in to kiss his forehead before he even realised the urge had crossed his mind.
Kise smelt like a combination of vanilla shampoo and lavender-scented cologne, and Aomine had to fight the urge to bury his face in his hair and breathe in, forcing himself to pull back.
It was less of an abrupt change or sudden realisation, and more like a light coming on in a dark room that, until then, he'd been blindly feeling his way around. Everything had already been there, all laid out in his head, but until that moment he hadn't been able to see it with such clarity.
Aomine sat very still, listening to Kise's even breathing, and the hum of the refrigerator coming from the next room.
It explained the intensity of his possessiveness whenever somebody else tried to lay claim to Sora and, by association, to Kise; was perhaps the reason for the feeling of serenity and togetherness he experienced whenever he was alone with the two of them.
They were already a bit like a family and perhaps that was where the feelings had sprung from. Aomine wasn't sure, and it was hard to think clearly with Kise's soft cheek pillowed against his shoulder, or the warmth of his body so close by. He needed his own space, his own room, to go over his thoughts.
"Kise." He jostled his friend gently, trying not to pay attention to the adorable way his eyelashes fluttered as he came awake.
"What's it?" He asked around a yawn.
"It's late," Aomine nudged him upright and off his shoulder. "I'd better go."
Kise let him up without any fuss, taking over the sofa once Aomine vacated it and stretching out.
"Goodnight Aominecchi..." He offered Aomine a sleepy not-all-there smile, and when the urge to carry him to his bed and tuck him in hit, Aomine knew he needed to do a runner.
"Don't fall asleep there," he warned him, knowing full well Kise wouldn't heed his advice. "I'll see you later."
After giving it a bit of thought, Aomine decided that Kise was probably the worst person he'd ever fallen for; worse than falling for his pretty best friend, or the girlfriend of the most popular guy in high school. He also knew that, like those previous crushes, it was impossible to fight. He was as stubborn as anything, but he'd never been a master of self control when it came to matters of the heart.
As he lay in bed, staring blankly into the dark, Aomine decided he wouldn't tell anyone about these newly discovered feelings, much less Kise. He'd force himself to act like nothing was different, and then maybe things would go back to normal by themselves if given time.
Acting normally turned out to be significantly harder than Aomine had originally anticipated, though. Now that he knew he felt something for Kise, his heart melted whenever he saw him holding his sleeping son, or saw him sprawled out on his stomach playing with Sora and his toys, or when he stroked the baby's fine, blond hair and cooed to him about how much it had grown... in fact, Aomine found himself with an almost constant case of butterflies in his stomach and a pounding heart.
One would think he'd get a break during Sora's naps when Kise was baby-free, but no. Those were the times when Kise lay around in his boxers and loose tank tops, sprawled on the sofa, stretched out to his full extent. With a baby around, dressing fashionably had taken a backseat to dressing comfortably, but Aomine, for some unfathomable reason, found the expanse of skin his lying-around clothes left exposed to be far more alluring than his tight designer jeans and form-fitting shirts. And those moments were worse, because at least when Sora was there, Aomine's feelings for Kise were limited to pure, innocent affection; the desire to take care of him, to be a second father to Sora, to be a family.
But when Sora was out of the room, asleep, and it was just the two of them… well. His feelings certainly took a turn for the more adult. Having a baby there kept everything wholesome, but the moment he wasn't, suddenly Kise's exposed throat was just asking to be kissed, the sliver of stomach from when his shirt rode up was unbearably erotic, his loose clothes were begging to be removed...
Aomine was a little horrified by himself. Sure, he was a guy, and all guys had needs, they just weren't supposed to have those needs with Kise. But god, he wanted him in almost every sense of the word, mind, body and soul.
He started to have dreams, of his and Kise's sweat-slick limbs tangled together, Kise kissing his face and panting in his ear to be careful not to wake Sora before hushing him with his mouth. He dreamed of the two of them skin on skin, Kise's voice low, breathless, hands hungry to explore every inch of bare flesh they came across. He always woke with his body tingling and heart hammering and, sometimes, on the nights he was overwhelmed by helplessness, he'd cry himself back to sleep in frustration, because he'd never realised it was possible to like, to want someone so much, and the feelings had nowhere to go.
A/N: Chapter two out of the way. One more chapter left, guys! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know a lot was going on; Sorry! Please leave a nice little review for me, you hear? I live and breathe off of those things. Flames will be used to roast the rotting carcasses of pigs! Anyway, the next update will be posted on my profile so if you ever get curious to when the next update will occur—feel free to check there! Thanks for reading!
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