A/N: I wanted to write this for a long time but LOL PROCRASTINATION. written for OTP Battle. Like I said, all of them are /lies down.
Starting Points
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[They say a proper goodbye this time.]
This is a better graduation than Teikou's, Aomine decides. Which is fairly obvious, but there are the up's and down's for both.
They find Tetsu only because of Kagami's fiery red hair, a head or two above almost everyone else's. Tetsu's grandmother is also there, eyes twinkling when Daiki spots her.
Satsuki cries just as much and maybe even more than she did at Touou's graduation (which Tetsu attended, by the way), pulling Tetsu and his granny and Kagami into an awkward four-way group hug.
Daiki waits for them to break apart, and shoves a bouquet of flowers at Tetsu, who blinks at it for a few seconds.
"Thank you…?" he looks back and forth between Satsuki and Daiki, most likely wondering who the hell it was that actually bought it.
"Dai-chan specifically ordered the arrangement," she explains, like a proud mother, and Daiki can feel the heat rushing to his cheeks. "This is for you both, by the way."
Kagami, to Daiki's mild surprise, doesn't mock him or make a disgusted face at him, and even hugs him.
"Wanna get off me now?" Daiki pats Kagami's back. "I know you're gonna miss me 'cause I mean yeah, I'm pretty awesome, but dude - no, oh my God, Satsuki don't cry!"
Satsuki's rubbing at her eyes and blabbering something incoherent, and Kagami eventually lets go of Daiki to lead her away, along with Tetsu's grandma.
"I'm glad I met you, Aomine-kun." Tetsu's voice is so quiet that it almost gets lost in the midst of all the other graduating third-years. He stares at Daiki - which always becomes unnerving if he does so long enough - and Daiki feels like he's looking at the bits of Teikou's Aomine Daiki left in him, wondering how much of those there even are to find.
"I know," Daiki answers, jokingly, but it comes out breathy and soft and definitely not the way that he had intended it, "I'm glad I met you too, Tetsu."
"I know," Tetsu returns, smiling.
The fear hits him hard and the desperation claws at his chest, because it will only be the street court they will stand together on, only the phone or the internet they will be able to speak to each other through on a regular basis; they will move on forward, like they did three years ago, and they will find new people to have fun with and become friends with and to play basketball with - and with that, their time now ends.
"I'll miss you," Daiki says, thinking a hundred different thoughts and of all the new beginnings and journeys and ends when he does, and clamps his mouth shut when he belatedly realizes that oh fuck, he'd actually said it out loud.
(It's okay though, he supposes. After all, they'll still meet up once in a while and there won't be another person to eat popsicles together with on the way home from school. And though there will be other people whom Tetsu will bump fists with and play pranks on and laugh with, there won't be another Aomine-kun and for Daiki, there won't be another Tetsu, and that's pretty much all that matters.)
Tetsu looks up at him, blinks (away the tears gathering on his lashes, Daiki would say, but Tetsu would totally deny that), and says, with a hundred different meanings behind those three simple words: "yes, me too."