DISCLAIMER:: I do not own KNB or its characters. However, I do own this story. Please do not redistribute without permission.

Chapter III: Humiliation


There was complete silence.

For the first time in his life Kise felt as if everyone was staring at him, mocking him. He didn't want to cause a scene, he just wanted to fade into the background like Kuroko had done in the last few years. He didn't want to be bothered. He didn't want to make a lot of friends and have to deal with the emotions of multiple people. He didn't want this. Not at all. But in the end he had embarrassed himself and broken the only promise he had made before moving to America.

And it was all crumbling down because of one guy.

"A-AOMINE?!" Kise's current state made him slur as he attempted to glare at the man above him. But the more he stared, the more he realized that his "book sharing partner" was more than what the rumors lead on.

He was beyond attractive.

Taller than Kise, with piercing dark blue eyes of his own and a matching hair color to go along with it. Kise was speechless. How to hell did he have blue hair? Was it natural? Did the drapes match the carpet?

His face. The look on his face left Kise breathless, almost frozen, almost tantalized.

His look was hard and stern as Kise's golden orbs gently traced every muscle, every jaw line and every curve of his face, every single movement made the blond melt and he realized that his eyes were lingering on the tanned males skin for too long, way too long.

He was mad at himself for being so physically attracted to this delinquent. He was a delinquent, right? He skipped class, went through girl after girl and had the most intimidating-if not inappropriate-reputation that Kise had ever heard of.

But he still lingered, still looked over every muscle that was visible under his extremely tan-and enticing-skin, which reminded Kise of caramel chocolate.

And he wanted a bite.

"In the flesh." Aomine ironically said as he noticed Kise's persistent eyes on his skin. The blond's eyes suddenly shot back up and he pushed his hands in front of him to increase the distance between them. He knew that if he didn't, something in his brain would tell him to throw out all logic he had and fling himself on Aomine right then and there.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he huffed and brought his hand up to ruffle his hair. He was a mess and he knew it. And he certainly didn't want Aomine out of all people to have this be his first impression of him.

Drunk and vulnerable. It couldn't get any worse.

"This is my party after all." Ok. It could get worse, a LOT worse. The gears clicked in Kise's head and he realized that the whole time he was with Aomine, he was speaking about how he wanted to punch him to his face! Without even knowing it was him!

"YOU'RE THE H-HOST?!..." Kise stuttered and held his head, he was undeniably screwed for the rest of the night-if not his whole life. The music that was blasting from the living room only got louder and the blond swore that his ear drums would burst if he couldn't get out of there.

Or maybe that was just his excuse for wanting to get away from Aomine. When in reality he wanted to screw him.

He had never been so physically attracted to someone like this before.

He cringed inside. He couldn't have loathed himself more.

"Yea. Why else would I be here? I don't go to parties that aren't mine." Aomine shouted a little cockily as he walked closer to Kise, a smug look plastered on his face. The smaller male swore that that look would send him overboard, and he pushed past Aomine and went to go look for Elle.

If he was the host, did that mean, Elle knew him? Knew about him all this time?

Kise ran past Aomine and didn't dare to look back. He didn't care if the tanned male with flawless muscles and a grin worth a thousand stars was chasing after him or not, he needed to get out of there before he made a bigger fool of himself in front of the person he wanted to impress.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks. Impress? No, no. That wasn't the right word. His mind was boggled and scrambled and he made the excuse that the alcohol had him screwed up.

Not impress. Never impress.

He didn't owe Aomine anything.

He didn't even like him in the slightest.

Kise stumbled into the living room with a pulsating headache, the music only increased as he moved closer to the sound. His vision was slightly blurred and he wanted to scream Elle's named out, but he knew that doing so would only make him lose his voice. Still, he hoped that somehow she would be able to hear him through the music and see him through the cheap smoke.

"Elle?! Elle?!" He coughed out, waving his hand through the air to try and clear his vision.

This is why he hated parties. Absolutely despised them and yet, here he was, wheezing and teary-eyed and lost in the crowd.

Kise swore on his grave that he must've done something right in his life because in that very fleeting moment of self-doubt, Kise saw Elle's beautiful hair swaying back and worth.

Without hesitation he ran up to her frantically, almost hysterical as he grabbed both of her shoulders and lightly shook her.

"Elle we have to-"

"Who the hell are you?! Get off me!" A slightly tipsy and angry girl turned around to slap Kise's hands off of her shoulders and grunted disgustingly.

Shit.

Now he felt even worse. Kise stuttered as his mind tried to come up with something clever to say.

"S-s-sorry." He voiced as quietly as a mouse, which went unheard by the strange girl as she scoffed and turned back around.

For the second time in his whole life, Kise was scared.

He felt lost, helpless, powerless, impotent,

weak.

As he walked away from the girl and her drunk friends he stumbled and found himself pressed up against the back of someone much broader than him.

His heart fluttered.

He smelled the scent of the strange person he was leaned up on and almost melted. The stranger smelled of yellow bush daisies and dafodils.

They were the scent of Kise's favorite flowers.

Before he could push himself off of the body, the person turned around, startling the blond and having him go red in the face.

"O-oh. So-sorry." The blond tried to form a coherent sentence with his head pounding like crazy, and he saw the taller person turn around with a wide smile and beautiful rows of glistening white teeth.

"Hey man it's okay." The stranger looked muscular, way more than Kise and he was suddenly reminded of the tanned devil he had just escaped from, and quickly glanced around to see if he was anywhere near.

Sighing out of relief-or secretly disappointment-the blond didn't see Aomine anywhere near. He turned back to the stranger and stared, looking at his eyes that had him mesmerized.

There were too many hot guys here in America.

"Hey dude are you alright?" The male asked again, reaching a hand out to steady the blond that was suddenly shaking.

"U-uhm.." Kise nodded slowly and tried to stop shaking.

Everything he was doing tonight just seemed to get worse and worse.

"Hey man let me take you outside. You look like you need some air." The stranger spoke clearly and loudly enough for Kise to hear, but his brain was still processing thoughts too slowly. Before he could object, he was dragged out of the smoky, congested room by this stranger that was holding him tightly by the hand.

It was warm, he felt content. But only for that fleeting moment.

The cold air from outside startled the blond, and he coughed as he breathed in the clean, fresh air.

It took his mind and body a couple seconds to adjust to the suddenly new environment, and he felt as if his brain was cleared just because the smoke had vanished and the music was only a mumble in the background.

Kise looked back at the stranger that had freed him from what he felt was prison, and he nodded as he spoke to the male.

"Thanks... That was just too much for me." Kise nervously giggled and brought his hand out. He would still never forget the politeness that his family taught him growing up.

"Ryouta. Ryouta Kise." He said his name backwards to appeal to the male-assuming that he said first and last names respectively-but the male laughed and responded by shaking his hand.

Again, it was warm.

"It's okay. I'll call you Kise. I can tell you're Japanese but your English is amazing." The sudden comment had surprised the small blond, and he blushed slightly. He opened his mouth to ask the infamous question of who this guy was, but he was cut off by another toothy grin that made his stomach preform acrobatics.

"I'm Kagami. Kagami Taiga. If you feel more comfortable talking in Japanese, please feel free. I don't really know anyone else that knows both Japanese and English except for a couple of my friends. So if you ever get lost-" Kagami took out his phone and opened up the contact list, creating a new profile for Kise. He simply stared at the blond, waiting for him to realize he wanted his number.

"Oh. Yeah." He quickly typed it in and nodded again, his blond locks moving over his eyes slightly.

"-text me." The stunning redhead finished his sentence with a grin and a wave that again brought Kise's stomach to his heart. He gazed in amazement as the red head walked back into the toxic filled house.


A/N;; HEY GUYSSS WOOOOOOOOOH. I've decided that I'm going to start giving you shorter chapters while updating them more frequently. I think that would be better in the end I guess. What do you guys think? Shorter chapters with more updates or longer chapters with less updates? So yeah, I don't really have anything to add. Other then work and school are kicking my ass but you know, life.

Prettylittleliers:: AHHH thank you thank you. This is exactly what I was going for. I hope that Aomine's attitude will make Kise open up and accept stuff about himself hehe.

Pureblood-Uchiha:: Haha YAY. I'm glad you like it c: I hope to make you fangirl some more in the futureee.

Lauren:: Thanks Lauren! Here is your update :).

As always, my tumblr is woirick, and if you have any questions or want to chat, please feel free to contact me.