Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke!
CHAPTER 10:
Aomine's room
That night, Aomine was unable to sleep. He tossed and turned around in his bed, feeling slightly guilty about his behaviour in Maji Burger. Flipping over to his side, he found himself staring into the bright yellow eyes of Ao-chan. Why he had carried the bear home, he didn't know, but so far, the bear was doing a wonderful job of reminding him about a certain blonde he was sure he had hurt with his harsh words.
Ao-chan's eyes were staring into his soul, stirring up mixed feelings of anger and remorse in the boy. He groaned as he ruffled the bear.
He knew that he had gone a little overboard. He could have laughed it over upon finding out about the prank, and everything would be okay, but his pride and anger had made him irrational and he lashed out at the rest, particularly Kise.
He wondered if Kise was sad or angry or both. He didn't wish to cause Kise any of those feelings, but his actions had obviously done so. He groaned again and rolled over to face the ceiling. The last he saw of the blonde's face was the hurt he was desperately hiding and seeing that expression on the normally cheerful blonde made Aomine sort of regret making him feel like that. 'Sort of' because a tiny vengeful part of him thought that Kise deserved it for trying to mock him.
"Arghhh, forget it! Sleep, you moron!" With that, Aomine buried himself under the covers and after 3 hours of staring into darkness, his eyelids finally drooped and he fell into dreamland...
Aomine was lazing on the rooftop as usual when all of a sudden, a large wind blew and Kise appeared in a cloud of pink magical sparkly dust.
Aomine had to rub his eyes twice to confirm what he was seeing. Kise was wearing a black witch hat and robes, and his yellow eyes were glittering in the suddenly dark sky. Thunder rumbled in the distance, making the atmosphere seem more ominous. Kise advanced towards him, his clawed fingers stretched out as if to grab him.
"Aominecchi, I hate you! I hope you break your leg and never play basketball again!" Kise cried animatedly and started chanting frantically. His words sounded like gibberish, and his eyes were rolling crazily in their sockets.
Aomine was really freaked out by such a horrifying sight. Maniacal laughter in the background along with the thunder didn't help to make things better. In fact, Aomine wanted to run as far as possible from witch Kise, but his entire body refused to bulge, and his legs were slowly crumbing to pieces.
"What the hell are you doing to my legs!?" Aomine bellowed as his lack of legs made him drop onto the ground and he howled in pain.
Kise didn't answer him, and the beeping sound that ensued worsened the situation. Aomine now had to hear thunder, Kise's creepy laughter, and the shrill 'beep's combined. It seemed as if Kise had prepared this horrendous mixture of sounds just to antagonise him.
Beep beep beep...
The beeping was getting louder, Aomine felt his arms grow heavy and he looked down, only to find bombs strapped to his arms. He shrieked.
"Get them off me! Kise! Get them off!"
Kise shook his head.
"Not a chance, Aominecchi. I'll destroy you. See? I've already triggered the bombs." Kise raised the remote control in his hand for Aomine to see.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The volume of the beeps increased, and Aomine, in a last ditch attempt, tried to crawl over to Kise.
"Kise, I'm sorry! Kise, get them off please!"
Kise shook his head again, and his crazed expression became crazier.
"Die, Aominecchi."
BEEP BEE-
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The only one who can kill me is me!
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!" Aomine shot up in his bed.
Phew, a dream...
The beeping noise was still there though; Aomine looked around for the source.
Just the alarm huh...
Said alarm was Satsuki's usual morning call. Aomine picked up the phone and promptly cut the call. Fumbling out of bed, he dragged himself to the bathroom to get ready for school.
Satsuki was already waiting for him outside his house, she was on the phone with someone, and she was nodding gravely to whatever the speaker on the other side was saying. The pink-head turned and spotted him trudging out of his home. Aomine raised an eyebrow when she quickly snapped her phone shut.
"Who's that?" Aomine meant it as an off-handed question, but Satsuki's reaction was suspicious.
"A classmate was asking about homework. Geez, you'll think she should have done it yesterday... Come on, let's go to school!"
Satsuki was doing a good job acting, but Aomine knew her better and could tell that she was hiding something. He shrugged; it wasn't any of his business anyway. Satsuki would tell him if anything important cropped up.
The two began their walk to school. Satsuki was giving him her usual lecture on the importance of showing up for practice, class and other stuff Aomine didn't care about. He yawned after her first three words and didn't bother paying attention after that. He heard it so many times, he could recite it backwards already. Satsuki carried on, despite knowing that he was probably shutting his ears again. Her next words jolted him back though.
"So when are you apologising to Ki-chan?"
"Huh?"
Satsuki rolled her eyes.
"Ki-chan! When are you apologising to him? You are going to apologise, right?"
Aomine had the decency to look sheepish.
"I didn't think of apologising."
Satsuki sighed:
"Dai-chan, you hurt him really badly laat night. Your words were too harsh. He was trying really hard not to cry you know? And I can tell you, it's not a prank, Ki-chan really likes you."
"It's not? Hold on, you are not trying to trick me again, aren't you?" Aomine repeated Satsuki's words, not even trying to mask his accusing tone. He felt sick. He didn't understand why, but there was a throbbing in his chest. It must have been the stress from the recent spate of events. He thumped his chest a few times and ended up coughing. Satsuki rolled her eyes for the second time in a few minutes.
"It's not. Ki-chan really likes you. I'l be honest, we were just trying to help him woo you. I heard about you helping Takao get Midorin, so it's the same thing here."
Aomine shook his head.
"If he likes me then he should just confess straight! Why bother doing all those ridiculous shit he was doing?"
"Would you go out with him if he had confessed directly to you?" Satsuki cut in, her knowing eyes irked Aomine a little.
"Ki-chan had no confidence since you two are guys... I guess he used all those indirect methods so the pain of rejection would be lessened." Satsuki looked thoughtful as she said this.
Even though Aomine knew he had a right to not feel guilty, he was still unable to shake off the guilt evoked from Satsuki's words.
"I see..."
Satsuki smiled.
"So do you understand now? Let me suggest this, give Ki-chan a chance and go out with hi-" she was cut off before she could finish her sentence.
"Wait wait wait, you want me to date Kise? He's a guy!" Aomine gave extra emphasis on the last word, hoping that Satsuki was able to see his point.
"So?" Satsuki stared at him, her gaze unmoving.
"Isn't that the main issue here? Do you want me to be gay that much? Don't tell me... You are secretly a lesbian?!"
Shocking himself with his own words, Aomine took a few steps away from the secret lesbian and raised his arms in a defensive position, as if the girl would pounce on him and make him gay.
Satsuki rolled her eyes. She seemed to like to do that whenever she was with him. Aomine frowned.
"What I am saying is, what's the harm in dating a guy? Ki-chan's not a bad catch, his entire fangirl and boy population would kill to date him."
Yeah and if I date him, the one they'll kill is me.
Seeing the unconvinced look on Aomine's face, Momoi resorted to extreme measures.
"Dai-chan... You do know of Ki-chan's suicidal tendencies, right?"
This was another major shock for Aomine. He gaped:
"What suicidal tendencies? I've never heard of it!?"
Satsuki sighed dramatically, and she looked mournfully at Aomine.
"It was in fall, three years ago..."
Oh great, a story.
"Ki-chan had just joined us, and he fell in love with this beautiful and kind girl, Tetsuna."
Satsuki went on to describe the amazing qualities of Tetsuna, sounding as if she was in love with the girl herself. Aomine nodded. This confirmed that Satsuki was a lesbian.
"Ki-chan then mustered up his courage to confess, he bought a giant bouquet of roses and a diamond ring and asked to meet her behind the basketball court."
Momoi thought that the diamond ring might have been a little too extreme, but she shrugged and carried on weaving her story.
"So he confessed, but the girl rejected Ki-chan immediately without even considering it. This heartfelt confession in which he had toiled over the script for ten days... Of course Ki-chan was devastated."
Aomine was getting immersed into the story and he nodded his head, urging Momoi to go on.
"Ki-chan fell into depression. And... Remember when he didn't show up for practice for a long period of time? The truth is, he stayed in his room and attempted suicide and had to be hospitalised for days. This matter was hushed up by Akashi-kun, who did not want this incident to affect our team spirit."
Momoi couldn't recall if Kise had not been to practice for many days, but she hoped that Aomine didn't remember either.
Aomine was horrified. To think that Kise was such a devoted person... His heart clenched for the pitiful blonde.
"So you see? Ki-chan had suicidal tendencies. He did once, he could do it again. You don't want to be the cause of someone's death right?"
Aomine was still disturbed at this revelation. All along, he had been hanging out with Kise, and he wasn't aware of the blonde's suicidal tendencies. Kise was a better actor than he had thought.
But wait... Kise likes me and I have just rejected him... W-What if he really kills himself?!
Scenes of Kise committing suicide flashed through his mind:
"Aominecchi, I hate you!" Kise cried as he sawed his hand with a knife frantically while advancing towards the object of his hate. Kise's blood was pooling at his feet and spreading out to where Aomine was standing.
Flash!
The scene changed to Kise standing on top of Touou. A fence separated the two of them as Kise looked down at the ground below and smiled twistedly at Aomine:
"Aominecchi, I hate you!" and he jumped.
Flash!
Kise choked out his words as he spasmed with the noose tightening around his neck:
"A-Ao *cough* M-Mine *cough* Cchi *cough cough* I *cough* hate you!" and he died.
Flash!
"Aominecchi, I hate you!" Kise jumped into the lions den at the zoo.
Flash!
"Aominecchi I hate you!" Kise drank the bottle of poisoned Pocari.
Flash!
"Aomimecchi, I hate you!" Kise threw himself in front of a passing vehicle.
ENOUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Aomine had enough of seeing Kise die repeatedly. What was that? 1001 ways to kill Kise?
His face paled as he looked at Satsuki in fright.
"W-What should I do?"
Satsuki was quick to answer him.
"Go apologise to him, Dai-chan! Get him a gift! Ask for forgiveness! And then go out with him!"
Aomine nodded and hurried off to do whatever Satsuki ordered. He decided to go get the gift first.
Momoi watched the tanned boy scurry off at her instructions and smiled. Flipping open her phone, she dialled a certain someone.
"Midorin, he believed me! He's off to apologise now." Momoi did nothing to keep the smugness out of her voice.
Midorima's words on the other end had her nodding.
"I told him Ki-chan had suicidal tendencies. He panicked like we predicted him to, of course."
She smirked at Midorima's reply.
"Yup! Are you and your boyfriend stepping in? Oh, I see. Okay bye!"
Momoi's laughter after hanging up could be heard miles away.
Dai-chan... You are still as gullible as ever!
At the convenience store...
Aomine scanned the shelves as he walked along the aisles in search of his gift for Kise. What did Kise even like anyway?
Chocolate... No, that was too simple. Toys... Kise had Ao-chan already! Wait that reminds me, I have to return Ao-chan. Arghhhhhhhhhhh. Kise wasn't a girl anyway, so he couldn't get him the typical girly stuff girls liked. Aomine sighed.
See, this is how difficult dating a guy is. Aomine grumbled in his mind.
Gritting his teeth, Aomine was resolved to pick the perfect gift for Kise. He would not lose when it came to simple things like choosing a gift damn it!
"Alright, let's do it!"
At Kaijou...
Kise shuffled his feet as he walked down the hallway towards the basketball hall. His eyes, red and puffy as a result of last night, failed to hide the obvious fact that he had been crying.
"Kise-sama, are you alright?"
"Who did this? I'll beat them up for you, Ryou-chan!"
"Kise-kun, don't be sad! Here, have some candy!"
The concerns of his fans touched him, and he almost broke down into tears again. He seemed to be very emotional these days, he laughed to himself bitterly.
Even Kasamatsu-senpai was concerned about him.
"Oi, Kise. Whatever happened has happened, don't let it get to you." Kasamatsu placed one hand on the blonde's shoulders and patted him uncomfortably. Kasamatsu was turning red slightly at his unusual display of concern. Kise smiled. He appreciated the sentiment.
"I-I… Thank you senpai!" Following his words, Kise expressed his appreciation by hugging Kasamatsu.
"Get off me, you idiot!" Kasamatsu batted Kise's swarming hands away, causing the blonde to laugh.
"Senpai's being kind to me, so I must enjoy it!" Kise leapt back on Kasamatsu, his worries forgotten in that instant.
"Oi, Kise."
The deep and gruff voice broke the two of them out of their playtime. Both guys turned to face an annoyed Aomine. Kise froze for a moment before he spoke.
"A-Aominecchi..."
Aomine stood in the hallway, in his arms were Ao-chan and a white plastic bag.
"You brought Ao-chan!" Kise reached out for the yellow bear, but was blocked by the taller boy.
"Come with me, Kise." Aomine grabbed Kise's hands, shaking him off Kasamatsu.
"What's your problem? Coming here to manhandle Kise, you don't even belong here in the first place." Kasamatsu muttered.
Aomine ignored him and continued to drag Kise down the hall until he reached the outside. Kise was flung away from him roughly once he stopped moving.
"What the hell was that?" Aomine demanded.
Kise didn't understand.
"Huh?"
Aomine made a noise of irritation.
"That cuddly scene with that guy, what else? You claim you like me, and yet you go and flirt with other guys?!"
Kise was made even more confused.
"I wasn't flirting with senpai! Senpai was just cheering me up!"
"Cheering you up? It's simply an excuse to touch you! I saw your hands being all grabby with him! Is that called cheering up?!" The more Aomine talked, the more he got irritated by the blonde. That senpai was totally taking advantage of Kise's depressed mood to touch him!
"Well if someone didn't upset me that much, there wouldn't be a need to cheer me up!" Kise retorted, his eyes blazing as he started to get angry himself.
Aomine found that he had no smart-ass witty retort to that, it was indeed his fault Kise was upset. He fell silent.
Kise stared at him, his face unreadable as he crossed his arms and waited for him to say something.
Aomine started speaking, his tone hesitant:
"So, are you angry? Or are you sad? You are not going to kill yourself right? Life is precious, you know." Aomine felt nonsensical saying the last line, but he needed to make sure Kise understood the meaning of life and would not go around trying to kill himself.
Kise's expression finally changed. This time, he was exasperated.
"I was sad at first, but now I am angry. I don't understand why my actions would warrant such an extreme outburst from you."
In his mind, Aomine was prepping himself up for his apology.
Breathe in, breathe out. Keep calm and apologise nicely.
He took an extra large breath and threw out his words like the merlion spewing out water.
"EhKiseI'msorryforlastnightforgiveme?"
Kise didn't know whether to laugh or remain angry. Aomine looked so pathetic, with his face tomato red from having to apologise and his words all garbled. He decided to torment the boy for a while.
"I don't know... Aominecchi... I feel really hurt... I don't think I can ever forgive you..." Kise sighed elaborately and put on his best sad expression. Aomine fell for it.
"Look! I have a present for you, to apologise for my actions last night!" He thrusted the plastic bag into Kise's arms.
Kise looked down at the bag in his hands.
"You want to buy my forgiveness with gifts, Aominecchi? Am I that easy to you?"
"NO! No, that's not it... I really mean it as an apology gift. I mean... Er... Hey, look here!" Aomine, having run out of things to say, raised Ao-chan up into Kise's face.
"Kise Mama, forgive Papa? Papa is reaalllly sorry so please forgive him." Aomine used the highest voice he could reach (which wasn't high at all), and waved the bear's arms around.
Kise melted immediately. Ao-chan was too cute! He patted the bear on its fluffy yellow head and smiled.
"Okay, if Papa promises to not be so mean to Mama again."
Seeing Kise's smile again stirred something in Aomine's heart. For that very moment, Kise looked very beautiful to him, an aura of pureness and bliss seemed to surround the blonde. Aomine would have continued to stare at Kise but the blonde looked up at smiled at him, breaking him out of his trance. He immediately shook the mildly disturbing thought out of his head.
Kise opened the bag Aomine bought him and pulled out a badly wrapped lump he supposed was the present. He tore the wrapping paper open and gasped at what he saw.
"Facial products? Thank you, Aominecchi! How did you know I was running out of moisturiser?" Kise beamed as he examined the contents of the present.
Aomine scratched his head.
"I didn't know what else to get you... If you don't like it I can return it, I have the receipt somewhere." He opened his bag to search for said receipt.
"It's okay! I really appreciate it. Thank you, Aominecchi!" Kise shot another of his dazzling smiles at Aomine. Aomine couldn't take it anymore.
"Er... So are we...?" Aomine inquired, unsure of where things stood between them now.
"Yes we are!" Kise wrapped his arms around the taller boy.
"Oh... I see..." was Aomine's reply.
The thoughts of both boys were similar, and yet different:
I guess we are...
together now.
best friends now.