A/N: I'm so sorry.


For such a blockhead, Kagami is surprisingly observant.

"You like him, don't you?"

Aomine stills from his position inside the convenience store's freezer. He glances up to look at the redhead behind him. "What are you talking about?" he asks, keeping his tone even. Kagami could have a tendency to think out loud sometimes; who's to say the other is talking about him?

But Seirin's ace is staring squarely at him as he shrugs. "It's kinda obvious," he replies simply. "You've been giving him weird looks all day."

"So what?" Aomine turns back around. He hopes the embarrassed heat in his face isn't visible.

"You should just tell him," the other power forward insists, "He isn't good with subtlety, y'know. You need to tell him outright, or he won't think you're serious." The redhead pauses, as if not sure he wants to further breach the subject. "I'm pretty sure he likes you back anyway,"

Here Aomine straightens up and faces the other fully. "What the hell? Why do you care?" He may be making good points, but seriously, where is this coming from? Kagami never struck him as one to play matchmaker.

Now it's Kagami's turn to glance away. "Uh, well, he's just been… kinda out of it lately, and I can tell something's been going on with him and… I dunno, you're a regular cause of his problems." Red eyes dart over to meet navy in a defensive glare. "He's my friend too, y'know. I care about him, and if you two getting together helps, then whatever."

Aomine can only stare at the blushing ace in shock because wow, okay, that could have been encouraging or something. Who thought he'd have Kagami in his corner? But then again, that brings another, less comforting thought. If even this idiot can figure me out, then who else knows!?

"Well if you're so good at this stuff, what do you think I should do?" Aomine challenges-slash-honestly-asks-for-advice-because-he-has-no-idea-what-he's-doing.

"Why should I do everything for you?" The redhead retorts. "Do I look like an expert?"

"Then don't bring it up, dumbass." He rolls his eyes as he tosses the frozen treats he'd retrieved at the other and walks towards the pay counter. Did he really expect Kagami to have romantic advice? He was quite possibly even more hopeless than Aomine.

Once the two get to the front of the store, the blue haired male turns to the other ace. "I'll leave you to pay for those," and walks out without a second thought. He's not a hundred percent sure leaving the two outside was a great idea, and it's not like Kagami needs his help paying (hell, the redhead should be able to handle the entire trip on his own—why'd Aomine have to go with him?).

His predictions turn out to be more-or-less correct as he finds the two in an actually pretty awkward embrace. He's a bit incensed, to be honest. He'd only been gone a few minutes, and yet Tetsu's already tried to make a move (if you can consider this an advance. Kise passes out hugs left and right to the shadow anyway). "Oi," he says after pulling them apart, "how long did you think we'd be gone?" It's directed at Kuroko, though the shadow doesn't respond to him.

Kise smiles cheekily, pulling at his attention. "Aww, is Aominecchi jealous? You can have a hug too~!" And then the idiot blond is nuzzling his face into the power forward's middle, and he's too close.

He shoves the blond away, frowning at the way Kise smirks at him. "Cut it out." Kise fakes a whine. The ace is wary of things that might-or-might-not have been said, and he's actually kind of concerned. Tetsu is a sly bastard; he's spent too much time with Akashi. He may play a fair fight on court, but it's entirely different when there's no referee and plenty of loopholes.

Not that this is a game—because it's not (damn Akashi planting words in his head).

Kagami comes back surprisingly fast, glaring heatedly at him. "Don't just leave me like that!" He yells, though Aomine couldn't care less. He does care, however, about the fact that the dumbass didn't get him any ice cream. Jerk move, Bakagami. Still, the frustrated look the redhead throws at Kise doesn't slip his attention. What could that be about? He's about to press when Kise sighs and turns to him with a sort-of-fond expression.

"Here," he says, handing over half of his ice cream, "You can have some of mine, okay? So don't whine about it," Aomine takes the treat, and a sort of nostalgia hits him. It feels kinda like middle school when they'd go out for ice cream after practice. He'd take some of Kise's sometimes, even if he had his own. Kise would whine about it, but he was never really upset. It was just another side to their (complicated) relationship. The ace sort of pauses before shoving those thoughts back and taking a huge bite of the cold treat. Don't think about that stuff.

"I don't even like this flavor," he mumbles around a mouthful of ice cream. Kise lets out a soft laugh. He seems subdued—contemplative, maybe. Aomine briefly wonders if the thoughts that cross the blond's mind mirrored his own.

Tetsu catches his eye as he moves closer to Kise, gently ushering the blond forward. Kise doesn't seem to notice as he snaps out of his own little trance and chatters on about some work-related incident (or something like that). Aomine frowns as he's once again forced beside Kagami. Really, this was supposed to be my day… Oh well. Kise turns to give him this natural, easy smile, and Aomine sort of gets lost in it. The blond is pulled back into the conversation, laughing at something said between the Seirin duo, and the moment is gone.

The three of them walk Kise to the station. Kise makes them promise to hang out again soon. Aomine thinks maybe Kise hesitates when he hugs him goodbye (because simple waves aren't enough for the blond), and he says, "I had fun today, Aominecchi,"

"Yeah," the blue haired ace manages in reply, "We should do this more often." Kise pulls away, offering (another) weird expression (when did he get so hard to read?) before turning to Seirin's light and shadow to say bye to them as well.

When Kise is gone and Bakagami is out of sight, Aomine addresses Kuroko. "You're such a little bastard."

"I wouldn't have had to intervene if you hadn't tried to confess," Aomine wants to call bullshit on that, especially when he isn't sure of what happened during Tetsu's and Kise's exchange outside the convenience store, but he holds himself back. He doesn't really have the will to fight with the other right now. That doesn't mean he isn't willing to show his irritation.

"Don't stand there and tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing." He retorts lowly from where he's seated himself on a nearby bench. Hell, he's fairly sure the other had done what he had tried. And that pisses him off, because how unfair is that?

Then again, he supposed the shadow would be a little more smug if he had successfully tried something. So maybe…?

After a few moments of silence, Aomine finds himself glancing over at his former shadow from the corner of his eye. "Hey, you aren't really going to listen to him, are you?" Kuroko blinks inquiringly. "So what if he thinks it's 'wrong'? That isn't how this stuff works, y'know? At least, I'm pretty sure…"

"What do you mean?" The pale haired teen questions softly.

Aomine could think of several answers to that inquiry, all of them ending with him questioning their former captain's morals about the situation. Because to be honest, this feels weird to the power forward. Like, why do this now? Why do this at all? If Akashi really liked Kise, would he really call them all out like this to—to compete? Aomine hates using a word like that to describe this thing the five of them are involved in, but that's the vibe he's getting from the Rakuzan captain. He's heard of love being called a game, but he doesn't want to think of Kise as something so trivial. Kise is a person, but more than that, he's important to Aomine. It's kind of like his outlook on basketball: It's not just a sport or a game; it's his life (not that Aomine would describe Kise like that).

But the thought of explaining all of that to Tetsu is a pain, so instead he just shrugs. "A bastard like him can't really like someone, can he?"

"Just because you don't like Akashi-kun doesn't mean he can't have feelings for someone as well. Though… it is odd that all of us have the same feelings for Kise-kun," the shadow concedes.

"Tch, no kidding. Guess it's got something to do with why he's so popular. Everybody likes Kise." The words feel heavy on his tongue. Life could be so unfair.

The tanned male sighs. "You know… I'm not sure whether I like the idea of chasing him or not. It seems… backwards." Kise was always the one chasing him. To some extent, he takes comfort knowing when he turns back, he'll see Kise right there behind him. Now he feels like he's on the other end, and while the blond seems to be in his reach, it's still so unclear on whether or not he'll actually be able to make it back to Kise's side (he gives props to the blond for sticking with it for so long). He doesn't like the uncertainty. Role-reversal wasn't something he was fond of.

Kuroko only shrugs. "Kise-kun doesn't chase me like he chases you." Aomine tenses. I shouldn't have said that out loud.

"Yeah…"

Tetsu leaves soon after that, leaving Aomine with his thoughts. Okay, so to recap today's events, I didn't spend any alone time with Kise. Great. Though he supposes making a "date" out of a one-on-one was destined for romantic failure. It's Tetsu's fault, though. But, if he had asked Kise to do something else, like…

Goddammit.

He groans. This totally isn't his area of expertise; he's feeling possibly the slightest bit out-classed—especially when Tetsu has Kise wrapped around his finger.

"What the hell," he mutters under his breath. He stays slumped against the bench for a few more moments, trying to block out his own thoughts (normally it isn't so difficult). After a while he hears the soft ping of his cell phone, alerting him of a new text message. Reluctantly, he pulls the device out of his pocket.

bakagami [19:54]: ask him to the festival on sunday

Touou's ace stares flatly down at the message. Festival? Right, there was something like that going on this weekend, wasn't there. He remembered Satsuki talking about it at some point. It wasn't like a big thing, just some little festival being put on along one of the beaches in the Tottori prefecture. It seemed like a rather long trip over for what would likely be only a couple hours, as well as a little cheesy. But, hell, what do I know?


Besides a few of the regular text messages (IE the usual greetings and emoticons via Kise), Aomine hasn't actually talked to the blond since the little one-on-one… thing. Kise had said he'd been busy on Monday, so he didn't bother, and then it somehow slipped his mind Tuesday, and then Satsuki cornered him on Wednesday and dragged him out to go shopping (in which she didn't buy anything except some singing toothbrush that he thought only Midorima would have as a crappy lucky item), and then suddenly it was Thursday and he hadn't even tried to talk to Kise.

So he decided he'd pay the blond an impromptu visit. He had the day off from practice; that would give him more than enough time to hitch a train to Kanagawa before Kaijou's practice ended. Aomine figured Kise would be the sappy type to appreciate a gesture like that.

Luckily he manages to get to the school without much complication (there were some bratty kids causing a scene at the station; nothing major). Somehow, he expected it to be harder than it was.

Practice hasn't quite ended as he enters the gym. It seems as though they're wrapping up a mock game, and the power forward watches as Kise pulls off a jump shot reminiscent of one of Midorima's. The blond doesn't notice Aomine right away, but other players off court sure as hell do. They make a point of staring at and murmuring about him. He doesn't pay much attention to them, of course, and moves closer to the edge of the gym.

Kise doesn't notice him when the practice ends, nor does he glance over before he engages in razzing his senpai over the "win." The captain—Kasamatsu—hits the blond over the head, saying something about modesty and showoff-y freshmen. Kise pouts, but can't keep up the hurt façade.

It's only when one of his other teammates approach him that the blond's attention is finally directed towards Aomine. Golden eyes zero in on the tanned ace, surprise clear in his expression. But he smiles soon enough and waves as he runs over.

"Aominecchi! What are you doing here?" He asks, head tilting to the side. But then his smile turns into a teasing grin, as if he'd put two-and-two together. "Miss me already?"

"Idiot," Aomine responds. He doesn't want the blond getting a big head over the ace coming to see him. "I had nothing better to do, so I thought I'd drop by." The model's grin widens. He decides to change the subject before Kise can tease him further, "What are you doing after this?"

The blond blinks, smile mellowing out. "I was gonna head home, of course. I'm wore out." He looks a bit apologetic. "Sorry."

"For what?" Aomine asks, shifting his weight back.

Kaijou's ace shrugs. "You came for a one-on-one, right?"

The tanned male shakes his head, "Like I said, I'm just killing time. Your practice is over, right?" The blond nods. "Then hurry up and get changed. I'll treat you to dinner." Kise goes slack-jawed, seeming utterly shocked. Aomine feels heat rise to rise face. "What!?"

"Sorry, I'm just surprised!" Kise explains, hands raised in surrender. "Normally I'm the one trying to entice you to hang out," He grins wryly. "But that sounds good—just let me get changed, okay? Wait here."


Kise is noticeably quieter than usual as the two walk side-by-side through the streets of Kanagawa in search of some place to eat. Aomine glances at him from the corner of his eye from time-to-time, mostly during lapses in conversation. While the blond keeps upbeat, he seems somewhat weighed down. But it's not like Aomine's one-hundred percent there either. Stupid Bakagami's words echo in his head, as if taunting him. "He's not good with subtlety." What the hell does Kagami know about Kise? If anyone should know Kise, it would be Aomine. But still… there was a certain confidence behind his words, even when he'd said he was "pretty sure" Kise liked him back. That should instill some self-assurance in Touou's ace, right?

"—pretty good; they're kinda like Majis, but more expensive." Kise looks expectantly at the taller male, and Aomine realizes he's zoned out a little too much. "I mean, I shouldn't say it like that. It's better quality, I guess."

"Uh, sure," Aomine agrees blindly, not really caring. He may be the one paying, but Kise ate light anyway, and he was planning on eating at home later.

A coy smile pulls at the blond's lips, "You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

Busted. "You said it was like Majis," he replies, trying to refute the statement. Kise laughs and tugs him forward, presumably in the direction of the restaurant. "You're zoning out too," he accuses half-heartedly, mumbling under his breath.

Kise somehow hears anyway and apologizes. "Ah, sorry. I've got a lot going on right now, I could use a break." He stops in front of a small building, fluidly pulling the door open for the blue haired teen. "Ladies first," he teases.

"You're more of a girl than I am," Aomine counters, grabbing the door and pushing the blond inside just to spite him. They find a small booth towards the back and sit down. As the place isn't busy, they're waited on almost immediately. The waitress is quick to bring their drinks, and Aomine notices she's pretty cute (and then he notices the way she's eyeing Kise up). He's quick to dismiss her, though Kise is more polite about it.

As she walks away again, Kise turns back to the teen across from him. "So, how are things between you and Kurokocchi?" he inquires as he stabs his straw into his water.

Aomine bristles, "What do you mean?" Why would he want to know about him and Tetsu? He wasn't suspicious, was he? Would Akashi be upset if Kise managed to unravel this on his own?

The blond shrugs, taking a quick drink before pushing his glass back. "I thought you guys had made up after the Winter Cup, but you were acting weird last weekend." He levels the other with a questioning stare, while Aomine returns it with one of forced nonchalance. "So what's up with that?"

"We're just… in a disagreement over something," he offers ambiguously. It's close enough to the truth, anyway; they were disagreeing over who should get to go out with Kise or… whatever. Actually, that's something he hasn't really thought about.

Kise hums thoughtfully. "It must be important if it's got you so tense," he retracts the straw from his drink and lets flecks of water drip onto the power forward's arm before plunking it back into the cup. "Or is it just something simple? You get mad over stupid things sometimes." As the blond grins wryly at him, Aomine wonders what category Kise himself would put the situation into.

"You'd probably think it's stupid," he decides, "But it's important to both of us."

"Ooh," The model leans across the table, head tilting to the side in interest. "Now I'm really intrigued. You and Kurokocchi don't have a lot in common." He doesn't press, though, and Aomine is grateful. Instead he says, "Momocchi and I are in an important debate as well."

This has Aomine lifting an eyebrow. "Over what?"

"Akashicchi's type." Aomine chokes on his own spit.

"What the hell," he manages to spit out as Kise laughs. "Why would you ever want to think about that?" He knew Satsuki and Kise could get down and discuss some pretty weird stuff (really weird stuff), but seriously, why?

The blond smirks, "Actually, we were talking about everyone's types, but Akashicchi's was the only one we couldn't agree on." He elaborates, and Aomine's not sure how to feel about that. He doesn't get time to ask as the waitress returns with their food, and Kise quickly abandons the topic in favor of eating. The blue haired teen has to agree, the food is better than Majis. The place itself doesn't hold the convenience Majis does, though, so he's not sure he can say he likes it better.

They both decided to eat light, so they finish their food quickly. Kise looks minimally disappointed, but doesn't make any comments. When the bill arrives, Aomine goes to grab his wallet and pales.

Seeing his expression, the small forward smirks. "We can go Dutch," he suggests.

"'Dutch'?" the taller male weakly echoes.

The blond sighs playfully. "You're hopeless, Aominecchi." He says, giving the other a mock-reprimanding look. "You pay half and I'll pay half, alright?"

"See… the problem is, I forgot my wallet, and I only just now realized." Kise gives him this exasperated look before laughing at his mortification. Aomine retaliates by leaning across the table and smacking him upside the head. "Shut up, idiot!"

Kaijou's ace shakes his head, "I feel bad for the girls you've dated," he comments, laying a wad of money on the table. "Come on, let's go."

As they're walking out of the restaurant and down the street again, Bakagami's text somehow slides to the forefront of his mind, and he swallows heavily. He's got to ask; if it fails, he can say it was just a friendly invitation (which is basically what he has to say anyway). The festival may be all the way in the Tottori prefecture, but it would still be a good excuse (besides, long train rides were always being described as romantic opportunities, right? Maybe? He so just made that up, didn't he? Oh god). So he clears his throat in an obvious way, gaining Kise's attention. "So, uh, have you heard about the festival going on this weekend?"

"The fishing thing?" Kise asks. Aomine can't say he knows, so he just nods. "Yeah—actually I've got a date for it," he grins slyly, and Aomine feels his stomach drop. "Why?"

"Uh—'cos—," Struggling with the knowledge that Kise has a date, Aomine's mouth runs on its own. "I'm going with Tetsu," he blurts out, and immediately wants to slap himself. That's it…

Kise's eyes light up, and his expression freezes. It's a look he's seen maybe once or twice on the blond, and each time Satsuki had pulled him off in some other direction. "So I guess your disagreement isn't so serious, then," he comments. He gives a closed-eyed smile, "Maybe we'll see each other there."

And that's the end of the conversation. Kise forces it aside and launches into a whole spiel about some article he'd read online about some inane topic he couldn't care less about. Soon after that, Kise breaks off, saying he's got things to do before tomorrow, and leaves Aomine outside a chocolate shop. He watches the blond leave, and once he's out of sight the power forward pulls his phone out of his pocket. He hurriedly calls one of the five people he really didn't want to talk to right now. The other picks up after the third ring.

"Aomine-kun?"

"We're going to the festival together."


A/N: This is likely going to be re-written...
To the guest who told me to "just update already": I did it. *lets off world's tiniest confetti cannon* (no, but srsly, that was the worst guilt trip I've ever been on, please don't do that to me)
All I wanted was to get this done before the day school started back up, and I succeeded (with, like, two hours to spare). So, because of that, updates might be more frequent, maybe. I like to procrastinate, and this is what I spent summer procrastinating on, ahahaha...
In other news, I'm excited for the, uh, date. ;) I've been contemplating this for a while. Sorry for just reiterating a lot from last chapter, but I felt like Aomine's POV was important...? Kagami sure made an impact, lol. I knew he had a reason for being here!