Can I Help You?
Chapter 3: Rotation.
On the next day after he hung out with Tetsu and his friends, Aomine found himself practicing with his body on autopilot.
It was so much easier this way, he had made this autopilot mode when he started to feel more and more bored with his favorite sport. He was dribbling, shooting, driving, and overall practicing under Akashi's watchful gaze, but his mind was definitely elsewhere.
It was certainly different, but only he could feel the difference. Whenever Midorima and Murasakibara argued, it used to be Tetsu who broke them up with his green-looking face, but now, it was Akashi's stern orders to 'stop' that ceded their bickers.
Kise still liked to challenge him to a one-on-one battle, but in less frequency. Probably because he didn't need to proof to Akashi that he also deserved some of the phantom's passes. Kise was still a happy-go-lucky idiot, but he wasn't a hyperactive puppy who would try to tag along with him, Satsuki, and Tetsu after practice.
His relationship with Satsuki was the only thing that didn't change significantly. The only difference was Satsuki never mentioned any boys whatsoever in front of Aomine. Other boys were too ordinary for her, and he was a good for nothing idiot (according to Satsuki), and there wasn't any Tetsu who was special and had the graceful charm she had always dreamed of from a man.
On the Saturday off, Aomine laze around his house for a while before finding himself walking around town all by himself. It felt so lonely, though. Saturday was the day Kise usually asked him for an one-on-one to determine who got to have Tetsu's passing right on Monday, Saturday was the day he would spend just walking around town trying to find new hanging spots with his shadow.
And now he was alone, it felt really really empty.
On Sunday, Aomine walked around town again, only with a specific thing in mind. He wanted to find Tetsu, he wanted to talk to him, probably he could figure out more about this crazy world. Maybe this was just an elaborate prank Tetsu had made because he was pissed from yesterday's accident. Maybe, maybe...
But then he spotted it once again, those powder blue hair that seemed to always disappear within the crowds. Aomine ran, again, as he tried to reach the only person he felt the strong urge to apologize to. He had broken Tetsu's heart, after all. Not just his heart, his entire hard work and things he had been doing with all his determination... Aomine had destroyed it as if didn't matter at all.
He ran, trying to reach those pale and lithe figure. He ran and reached a basketball court full of people.
It was a street basketball tournament he had run to, a very nostalgic place he had never gone to after the day he found himself being bored with his favorite sport.
A sudden rush of nostalgia crept Aomine's chest slowly yet steadily as he bit his lower lips, trying to contain how irate he was. The sound of ball bouncing, people's cheering, and people's laughter got to his nerves as he noticed that they all had fun within a sport that had tormented him with both boredom and love.
Suddenly, a voice high above the others grabbed his attention.
"TAIGAAAAA FLYYYYY!"
Aomine turned to find Ogiwara Shigehiro shouting with glee and laughter as Kagami Taiga tried to land a dunk on the court just behind Aomine's back. And as he thought, Tetsu was there.
The tealhead was wearing casual clothes, his usual blue-striped white t-shirt and khaki shorts. His shoes were his usual Asics Gel Hoop V3, meaning he had gone out with an intent to play basketball of sorts. Even when he was in different school, Tetsu still wore the same brand of shoes he wore during his Teikou days, and it somehow comforted Aomine... but to have it crushed again the moment he saw how those shoes matched with Ogiwara's own.
And now that he noticed it, it wasn't V3 that he wore, it was V5. Aomine felt uncomfortable once more. Damn, just when he thought he had found some similarity within this world and his own...
He was snapped out of his reverie the moment he noticed that Tetsu was no longer next to Ogiwara. His phantom sixth man had gone out alone and this was a chance for him to talk to him alone.
The ace of Teikou headed over the food stand, where he found Tetsu buying some lunch for him and his friends (the term sounded really weird in Aomine's ears, though, after all he was Tetsu's friend). He took a deep breath and tapped his shoulders lightly. Keep it cool, keep it light. "Yo, Tetsu." He greeted casually.
Azure orbs stared right through Aomine's navy ones and he couldn't see any recognition there...
"Can I help you?" Tetsu asked, his voice calm, level, and held a tiny hint of curiosity. As if talking to a mere stranger. Aomine clenched his own fists. "Um, you remember me, yeah? It's Aomine, we met... yesterday." He spoke reluctantly. They didn't meet just yesterday.
Tetsu furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, for once his expressions clear as a day. The shorter boy seemed to think hard to remember their meeting yesterday, only to shake his head. "That's... that's impossible..." Tetsu said, his usual monotonous voice making a slight pang on Aomine's chest. But then azure blue clashed with his own navy with blank emptiness.
"Because I have never met you before."
Aomine flinched.
No, no way, but, they just met a few days before! It's not like Tetsu to forget something like meeting people! He was supposed to- he had to remember! This must be a-
"Tetsuuuuuu!" A voice slightly higher than the others invaded Aomine's ears lightly. "Ah, Shigehiro-kun." Tetsu's voice barely changed, but Aomine could detect the slight happiness and relief in Tetsu's voice. Aomine turned to see the owner of those voice.
Once again as their gazes met, Ogiwara looked at him with eyes that were full of disdain; as if he knew something. And Aomine somehow knew that something was up.
"C'mon, Tetsu! Taiga's team won the round, they'll proceed to the next one! We should bring him his drinks, okay?" Ogiwara- the brat put his arms around Tetsu's shoulder and brought him away from Aomine's place. He could faintly hear a 'you know Teikou's Aomine, Tetsu?' coming from his lips and a slight head shaking from Tetsu.
Something was really strange here...
The strange thing was, whenever Aomine met or ran into Tetsu somewhere, the tealhead could never recognize him.
It was always the same, like an endless loop. A circle. Aomine would greet him, hung out with him (sometimes with Ogiwara, other times with Kagami, but never only the two of them), say goodbye or even make a promise of playing basketball together, but the next day, Tetsu would never recognize him.
He always uttered that overly polite 'Can I help you?' to him, like he was a total stranger and not even an acquaintances and on his seventeenth meeting with Tetsu, it occurred to him again. "Because I have never met you before, um, Aomine-san... was it?"
It hurt. Every single time it hurt.
It got Aomine thinking, though. He had always felt the happiest whenever he was with Tetsu. And yet he never appreciated or cherished Tetsu's presence. If only he knew that being ignored was this painful, Aomine wouldn't have ignored his shadow even for a second.
And another thing he realized was the fact that Tetsu seemed to always say that he had never met Aomine before... and it linked to what he heard before the space got distorted. Tetsu's wish. His shadow had wished...
He wished that he'd never met Aomine.
And this world gave him exactly what he wished for.
Ogiwara Shigehiro entered the dorm room he had shared with his best friends with a lazy yawn, still dripping wet from the shower he just took.
Taiga was already fast asleep; probably tired from having his menu doubled for coming late because of his detention, so there was nobody to get mad at him for coming in only with his boxers or wetting the floor. Ogiwara whistled to himself as he walked over to the desk across his bed, or the messiest desk amongst the three desks in the room.
Taiga's desk was clean, there were only some basketball magazine here and there, his books were all crammed within his drawer or was never let out from his school bag at all. Tetsu's desk was, of course, the neatest between them. His books were organized perfectly in alphabetical order and his homework that was due tomorrow were stacked in perfect order.
Ogiwara stole a milk from Tetsu's desk and drank it loudly. He even gargled just for the sake of it, earning a light chiding of 'honestly, Shigehiro-kun' from the Moon of Meikou, who was already getting ready for bed.
Tetsu looked really cute with that blue-white pajama of his, though. Ogiwara sat down on Tetsu's bed nuzzled his still-wet cheek on Tetsu's own and wished him a good night. Tetsu rolled his eyes before uttering a good night and a reminder to turn off the light.
Ogiwara looked around the now-silent room with a content smile across his face. He had Kuroko, no, in this world it's Tetsu, with him. He was playing with him in the same court, sharing a smile and happiness together. He had seen what Kuroko was capable of in the other world and it was easy for him to help Tetsu develop his talent here in this world.
Because in a world where Kuroko Tetsuya does not meet Aomine Daiki, Ogiwara Shigehiro and Kagami Taiga were his destined lights.
And he would do anything to keep it that way.
Confirmation: Yes guys, Ogiwara also comes from the canon world. He already saw Kuroko's phantom playing and was the one to awaken his talents in this world (because Kuroko never meets Akashi). The world Aomine gets thrown into was the world Ogiwara had wished for the most, after all XDDD