A/N: It took me longer than I planned to update because Kasamatsu was a bit less immune in the fic than the summary suggests so I made it less so for at least the first few chapters so it's more like a slow descent into insanity...i mean, love.
Speaking of love, feel free to leave me some in the comment box :DDD
Kasamatsu would rather not ask Midorima how he does it, (it being not falling under whatever love spell Kise seemed to be unconsciously casting) since he could very much guess what his answer would be, from the life size magical girl body pillow he was lugging all around the hot springs.
He did not ask. He did not want to know.
Especially since his last question of 'how the hell did both their teams end up in the same resident hot springs?' was answered with 'Oha Asa works in mysterious ways' and 'Cancers and Leos are eternally destined to clash at the ends of the same paths'.
He left before the ace shooter decided to go through the entire zodiac.
"It could've been worse senpai" Kise waved off Kasamatsu's scowl with a laugh, in proper hot spring attire, which was hardly proper at all! "I heard from Kurokocchi that Seirin met up with Touou on their hot springs trip"
Even with the mist of steam, Kasamatsu could see Kise's expression cloud over slightly, Kaijo's loss still fresh on his mind.
If these had been normal circumstances, as normal as he could hope for, Kasamatsu would've grunted a reply, something stern and motivating, maybe if it was just him and Kise, something a bit more friendly. But right now, he was more concerned with keeping the blood inside his nose, thank you very much.
"Senpai? Is everything alright?" Shit, the idiot was too close, with his pale, heat flushed skin. Skin. So much skin.
"I think Moriyama-no, Kobori needs help washing his back. Desperately. " Moriyama's impulse control was too unreliable in serious situations like this. "Go on then! Help your senpai!"
Kise mock saluted, and skipped his way into the water.
"At least he's wearing a towel" Someone commented around a strangled gasp. Kasamatsu couldn't say if it was from his own perverts-he means people, or Shuutoku's, but decided it didn't really matter anymore. The whole world, and probably a few aliens too, were in love with his ace, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Well, on the bright side, at least this will make them forget about trying to peek into the girls' side. It was amazing how many things he, as captain, had to be responsible for, had absolutely nothing to do with basketball at all.
Once the blood went back into his brain (it's unsurprisingly easy when he's pretty much surrounded by almost naked guys who aren't Kise), he picked a spot in the far end of the springs, far away from his nosebleed inducer and lowered himself into the lava.
"Mmhmm…" This was just what his aching muscles needed-no demanded. Basketball was not kind on the average athlete's body. Kasamatsu groaned and stretched his arms to either side. That's when his hand bumps on something soft and wet.
To his credit, he didn't scream until after he turned to find himself face to face with a magical girl smiling, no, sparkling at him, in its own unique inanimate way. Were sparkles really that necessary in his life?
Owner of the inanimate, now wet, body pillow, frowned like Kasamatsu had corrupted it out of its luck.
"Kise, he's.." Is what Kasamatsu ended up saying, because surprise, surprise, they didn't have that much in common. In fact, it was hard to believe Midorima had much in common with anyone. He all but a step away from becoming one of those street preachers who informs random passersby that they're going to hell.
Not that Kasamatsu needed the warning.
"Kise's up at the front" He told Midorima, trying not to let the sparkling body pillow in his peripheral vision affect him. "So if you wanted to...I don't know, go to him, maybe? I know it's been awhile since you last got a chance to talk face to face"
Midorima inched the corner of his lips oh so slightly upward, and it was gone in a flash, leaving Kasamatsu to wonder if he imagined it.
"Tell me, Kasamatsu-san, why would I do that…" He held his silence and stared steadily at his body pillow's wide eyes instead of Kasamatsu's, his poor eyesight thus ruining his moment of suspensory drama "…when he will undoubtedly come to me"
Kasamatsu opened his mouth to say something along the lines of 'That idiot can't find his way to the damn locker-rooms, let alone Midorima's admittedly well-muscled arms', but his voice, along with the rest of him, was drowned out by a splash.
"Miiidoriimacchiiii~ Come and play with me!"
Midorima stared triumphantly some more at the body pillow, that Kasamatsu couldn't for the life of him see the resemblance to him, before turning to Kise.
"In your dreams" He rebuffed Kise coldly "And my nightmares"
Kise didn't take well to the rejection, by which Kasamatsu means he sidled up to Midorima in a way that should be illegal in Japan, his hands tugging and pulling, and were it be Kasamatsu in that position, he'd long be on an ambulance due to excessive nose bleeding.
"So cold, Midorimacchiiii! Aren't we friends?"
"Stop clinging to me, you overgrown monkey!" Which of course made Kise cling to his old teammate even harder.
"I'm not a monkey, you're the monkey!" What, were they 5!? Kise, he could imagine, but Midorima stooping down, quite far down to Kise's level, his soaking body pillow all forgotten in its drowning glory.
Kasamatsu turned to the magical girl embodiment of a body pillow, feeling they share the same feelings of abandonment.
"I think he got his share of luck today, so you can cut back on the way home, make him self-righteously fall into a ditch or something" He muttered belligerently and suddenly, a bit too late, realized there were suspiciously familiar snickers coming from his right.
"You know Kasamatsu-san, they say talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity" Takao pointed out, Shuutoku point guard and apparently the Kuroko to Midorima's Kagami with the way he was shadowing the shooter around.
"I wasn't talking to myself, I was…" Just talking to this painted anime character in a piece of fabric. She's great company! ; his mind supplied weakly for him. Kasamatsu didn't know how high 'talking to yourself' was on the crazy scale, but 'talking to inanimate objects' was definitely a few ladders ahead.
"Your teammate's ambushing mine" He couldn't help the delightful shiver that ran up his spine at the word mine. God, he was so pathetic!
Takao raised a slanted eyebrow.
"Really? It looks kind of like the opposite to me"
Kasamatsu followed his fellow point guard's gaze, and immediately wished he hadn't. Kise was blatantly hugging Midorima, not even bothering to keep any distance between their towel-clad lower bodies from what Kasamatsu could see. Midorima was struggling half-heartedly, his flushed face easily ascribed to the sweltering spring water and Kise himself playfully saying things like 'You can't escape me now, Midorimacchi~!'
That level of total control was beyond Kasamatsu's fast waning immunity. The reluctant voyeur knew then, that Midorima was way ahead in his game than he could ever hope to be.
That doesn't mean he won't try though.
He successfully imitates Midorima for 3.5 days. Minus the glasses, ever present lucky item and the impossible shooting. In fact, minus everything except for his apparent Kise seduction skills. Which was basically to pull further and further back, until Kise pushes so hard, he crashes headfirst into Kasamatsu. No, he was not in any way thinking about Kise's lips in the process of the headfirst crashing, why do you ask? He was immune after all.
His plan backfires spectacularly, because Kasamatsu's life was an unfunny joke people smiled strained and politely at. With all the ignoring, insulting and all around Midorima-esque behavior, Kise had come to the conclusion that Kasamatsu truly hated him and was begging his teammates for help. His teammates who drew lots and took turns to be the ones to be the shoulder Kise cries on.
On day 3.5, he walks in on Kise on some kind of toweled throne, wailing and weeping about being 'hated by Kasamatsu-senpai' while the entire basketball club, and a few members from the baseball and volleyball clubs too (and was that the head of the literature club?), comfortingly patted his head, or any other body part within reach.
"There, there" They consoled, like they were not having the time of their life. Those traitorous bastards! They didn't even notice their captain creeping up on them.
"Having fun?" He released his control over his ever present demonic aura, and the Kaijo basketball club (and the other various club members) jumped back from Kise as one.
Kise, on the other hand, falls onto his knees with an impressive thud, and bangs his head against the gym floor in a violent version of dogeza, and wailed.
"I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!"
"Sorry for what?" Could it be that Kise had discovered all the trouble his pretty boy pheromones were causing Kasamatsu and the team?
"For whatever I did to make you hate me!"
"You didn't-I, I was just" Kasamatsu looked away in helplessness. There was no way he could tell Kise he was trying to strengthen his resistance against Kise's charms by imitating Midorima.
"Midorima does this all the time, and you're never in tears about it!" He finally decides was safe to say, combined with a punch to Kise's arm just because he was starting to doubt his status in the Japanese school hierarchy.
"But Midorimacchi's not serious when he says that" Kise whined, rubbing his arm.
"Neither was I!" Kasamatsu grumbled, feeling oddly ashamed of himself.
"Senpai should leave the copying to the experts. I was so scared that you hated me and I asked every one for help and they" Kise prattles on, linking their arms, and it should be romantic in every sense of the word, but Kasamatsu couldn't help but feel like he was back in elementary school field trip, and the sensei tells everyone to hold on to their buddy so they won't get lost.
Unknown to him, mascara glares burned into his back and lip-glossed lips cursed his name, all from a distance not too far away.
~TBC
A/N: With Midorima being the star of this chapter, let me tell/remind you about MidoKise week that's an actual thing that's actually going to happen! The dates and themes are out so check it out at midokiseweek on tumblr ^_^
Also leave me a word or two (or preferably more!) of anything you'd like to say down below? :DDD