The two stopped at the Maji Burger in the mall's food court, where they waited for Momoi. Aomine ordered six burgers, whereas Ren asked for one, but ended up eating two because Aomine practically shoved another one down his throat.

"Sorry I'm late, Dai-chan!" Momoi called out, hugging his shoulders as she arrived at their table.

"Gross, get off of me," Aomine grumbled, pushing her off.

Momoi's eyes travelled towards Ren. "Oh, is this…" She trailed off, looking from Aomine to Ren with a wicked grin.

"No, Satsuki, don't you dare—" Aomine began, but was cut off by Momoi's squeal.

"You must be Ren-chan, Dai-chan's new best friend!" she exclaimed. "He keeps putting me off for you, these days, you know? I had to force him on pain of death to come shopping with me today, but I'm glad he brought you. I've wanted to meet you for a while now, but Dai-chan is just so possessive…"

"Shut up, Satsuki!" Aomine grunted, turning slightly red. "Don't listen to her, Ren. She's stupid."

Ren met Momoi's eyes, grinning. "Does that mean we're not friends, Daiki?" Ren said, pouting at his friend. "I'm hurt. Very hurt."

"You're so mean, Dai-chan," Momoi agreed, nodding.

"Oh great. Just great. Now my only two friends have met and teamed up against me," Aomine complained, throwing his hands up in the air.

Ren laughed. "It's very nice to meet you, Momoi-san."

"Likewise!" she said, beaming at him as she took Aomine's arm. "Now, guys, I need to find a beautiful dress for the wedding I'm going to tomorrow night. And assorted accessories. So we're not leaving here until I have the perfect outfit." She began steering Aomine towards the escalator.

"Ah…I'll look around on the ground floor then, and you two can take the upper floor?" Ren suggested. "That way we can get more ground covered."

"You're smart, Ren-chan! Just call either one of us if you find something nice. Now let's go, Dai-chaaan!"

Aomine looked back at Ren, a worried look on his face, but the younger boy just smiled and mouthed, I'll be fine!

Truth be told, Ren wanted to be alone for a bit so he could buy a present for Aomine, to say thank you for all of the time he had spent training him. He entered a sports store to look for sweatbands for Aomine's arms, as he noticed that the one's his friend owned were quite worn and tattered. He ended up picking two matching ones, in the red and black colours of Touou.

After he had purchased the sweatbands, his phone rang. "Ren-chan!" came Momoi's voice. "We found a nice, blue dress. If you come across some silver or diamonds, let us know!"

Ren told her he would, and went into the first jewelry store he found.

"Excuse me, do you have any necklaces or earrings that would look good with a light blue dress?" Ren asked the storeowner timidly, and he was promptly shown a wide variety of jewelry sets.

He dialed Aomine's number. "Hey, Daiki. Can you and Momoi-san come to the ground floor? I found a really nice store."

"Yeah, sure. We'll be there in a flash."

And sure enough they were. While Momoi cooed over the pretty necklaces, Aomine stuffed something into Ren's hands.

"Hm?" Ren looked at the little paper bag in his hands, and then up at Aomine. "What's this?"

"Every real basketball player needs these," Aomine said, as Ren opened the package, to see two white sweatbands. He started to laugh.

"What?" Aomine said, suddenly defensive. Why is it funny?

"You know, Daiki, we think way too alike," Ren said, trying to stop laughing. He handed Aomine a small bag. "I just got these for you."

Aomine pulled a pair of sweatbands from the bag, his face breaking out into a grin. "Here, I have an idea," he said, swapping one of Ren's white sweatbands for his black and red ones. "There, now we have one of each."

Ren looked up at Aomine, a bright smile on his face. "I love it."

"You two lovebirds come help me pick a necklace," Momoi whined, holding up three or four different necklaces in her hands.

Aomine's cheeks turned pink. "Shut up, Satsuki!" he said loudly, storming off to go help her without looking at Ren.

Ren willed himself not to blush, as he wheeled himself over to where Momoi was.

"They're all fine, Satsuki. Just pick one so we can go home," Aomine said, rolling his eyes.

"I like that one, Momoi-san," Ren said, pointing to a delicate silver necklace.

Momoi smiled. "Ren-chan is a better friend than you, Dai-chan," Momoi said, sticking her tongue out at Aomine. "I'll just go buy this, you guys can wait outside."

Aomine wheeled Ren outside of the store. "Thanks for making her shut up," he said, grinning.

Ren grinned back. "I had a lot of fun though. All of us should go see a movie or something. Or just come here for shopping again. Or just go for lunch," Ren said, thinking of other things he could possibly do with Aomine and Momoi.

Aomine placed his hands on Ren's shoulders. "Or just the two of us could go. Satsuki's boring anyways," he said casually. His heart was betraying his tone of voice though, thumping loudly.

"Yeah? We should," Ren said. "Let's go this weekend! Oh but…movie theatres aren't really wheelchair friendly. I'd just kind of block everyone's way. We can do something else then." He turned his head, smiling at Aomine.

"Hm? Yeah. Sure." Aomine's mind was already thinking about how he could take Ren to the movies somehow this weekend. Take him? I mean…go with him. As friends. Yeah.


"Hey Daiki, do you have a girlfriend?" Ren asked suddenly, as the two were walking towards Ren's house. Momoi had already gone off to do something else.

"No. Why?"

"Just wondering. I mean, you must be pretty popular, being on the basketball team and stuff."

"Not really. I'm actually one of the least popular. I think it's because girls find me scary. Well, I am scary. I mean, they prattle on about useless things that I couldn't care less about, and so I snap at them, and then they run away crying. So no one's asked me out since the first week of school. What about you, you have a girlfriend?"

"I think I would be last when it comes to date-able guys," Ren said honestly. "I mean, I can't really do much, after all."

"That's why girls are stupid. They'd overlook a perfect guy like you, and pick a douchebag like me instead."

"You're not a douchebag, Daiki." He used his hands to stop Aomine from moving the wheelchair, and then turned it around to face him. "You're the only person in all of Touou who doesn't see me as some helpless cripple, you know that? You're the only one that doesn't look at me with pity. You're the only person who befriended me unconditionally, not caring that I can't do most things you can do. I mean, it's like you can't even see that I'm handicapped. You look at my face when you talk to me, not my legs. And you just called me perfect, when arguably I'm the furthest thing from that. I don't know, I'm babbling, aren't I? I just feel normal when I'm hanging out with you. Like I'm just a regular kid, you know?"

Aomine hit Ren's head. "Stupid. You are a regular kid. Just because you don't have legs, you think you're somehow different? No wait, you are different. You're a better person that anyone else I've met, and that's why I befriended you. And you are perfect. If you had a girlfriend…she'd probably be the luckiest girl in the world. So stop with your little pity party already," Aomine said gruffly, walking behind Ren to push his wheelchair before the younger boy could see that he was blushing.

"I'll disagree on just one thing, Daiki. The luckiest girl in the world would be your girlfriend," Ren said softly.

"Stop saying embarrassing things, stupid." Aomine's cheeks were completely red by now. "And don't fall asleep on me! I'm not going to carry you into your house, okay?"


The cheese! It's killing me slowly! No but seriously, sorry about the cheesiness. I just can't help it, it comes so naturally with Aomine and Ren, hahaha. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! - sarah