"Oh come on," said Taiga, staring upwards. "Not you."

Aomine cracked his jaw, and leaned over her menacingly. "What was that?" he said dangerously. "You are the one who sent a fucking emergency text to Satsuki, then when I got the call from her asking to look in you, you fucking hung up on me and-"

"I didn't mean for her to send you," said Taiga. His hand landed on her head. "Ow, let- SIT DOWN! SIT! NOW!" she dragged him into the Maji Burger booth with her, leaning over his lap to furtively peer out at the rest of the restaurant.

"What. The hell," said Aomine. He'd banged his elbow on the table and she was clutching him hard enough he actually thought he might bruise- what the hell did this girl bench press- but on the other hand he was dangerously close to having a lapful of wriggling girl, so he set his teeth, grabbed Kagami Taiga by the back of her collar, and deposited her back in the seat in front her mountain of burger wrappers. She was lucky he didn't throw her back out, and go back to what he had been doing, which was browsing shoes at the shop four streets down. He'd jogged to get here, and all because Satsuki had sounded so worried when she called him on the phone. It didn't sound unlikely at all to Aomine that Kagami Taiga, one of the most annoying girls he knew, couldn't stay out of trouble just getting burgers in the shopping district.

"Ow," said Taiga, and she sat up and sank down from sight at the same time, so that she was curled up against him, wedging herself against his arm, which dropped onto her side.

"Your breasts are touching me," pointed out Aomine.

Taiga tried to scoot back, but his arm was still around her, and they were big people, the booth didn't give them that much room to move.

"I didn't say that was a bad thing," said Aomine, and smirked at her. "Why don't you want to be seen, or whatever it is we're doing here? If you wanted a date, you could just ask me out, you know."

Taiga made a face. "Yeah, as if," she said. "No, I- I saw this girl I used to know, and I texted Momoi to see if she was around. That's all."

"I'm here because …." said Aomine slowly, "You're scared of some little girl?"

"I texted Momoi," Taiga reminded him. "I just needed to- I'd have gone out by myself even- where the hell are you going?"

"I'm hungry," said Aomine. He got up, and ordered, and paid, ambling back to the booth with his tray. Just something small, since he didn't think they would be staying long.

He sat back down, and said, "Are you seriously afraid of that little thing, I could break her in half with my pinky finger."

"She was in my middle school," said Taiga. Aomine stabbed his drink, and took a long, calming, noisy sip. "She- augh, this sounds so lame- she bullied me back then, okay? She hates my guts. She made it her business to make sure I was miserable as possible." Taiga curled back up to him, as innocently as a kitten. "She knows I'm in here," she hissed. "She's waiting me out."

"Why didn't you just smack her around until she stopped?" said Aomine. He chomped through his first burger. He'd only bought three, which was about as long as he expected any sob story to last.

"Oh, yeah, I should totally have beaten her up in middle school," said Taiga. "Then I could have gotten expelled for slapping around a girl half my size instead of suspended for punching out her boyfriend and his lowlife friends."

She said it so matter-of-factly that Aomine just stared at her, crumpling his empty straw sleeve between her fingers.

"He was in the club," she explained. "The basketball club. He's- not out there. But I don't think they ever forgave me for showing them up, so- I had trouble." She set her shoulders, and reached for her drink before she realised it was empty, shaking it sadly. There wasn't even ice left inside, from the sound of it.

"Look it's not a big deal," she said, defensively. "They just came down hard on me. I mean, after I did that it died off among the boys. And the girls got a little scared, so they just froze me out after that. I just- I didn't want to walk out where she could see me alone."

Aomine dusted the crumbs of his second burger off his fingers, and tapped his drink against the table. He thought he saw why Satsuki had called him, and said that Taiga needed him to take care of her. Needed anyone.

"Anyway, sorry you came out here," said Taiga. "Look, fine, I'll owe you, okay? For Momoi calling you out."

"Yeah?" said Aomine. He finished his last burger, and reached a decision. "Let's go, then."

He reached out to Taiga as she was getting out, and took her hand to pull her in close to him. "Put your arm around my waist."

"What- oh, we're doing that again," she said. She put her arm around him, gingerly. "Fine. It's not so far out of the restaurant, you know."

"Yeah, we're doing that again," he said. He thought again about how tall she really was, and how now, suddenly, she seemed smaller, pressed against him through all their layers of clothes. How she was making herself smaller, trying to hide herself away.

"I'm all you're looking at," he murmured into her ear. He pulled her along with him, two young people draped all over each other without a care in the world, and she came, willingly. "You're better than her, you don't even see her. She's nothing. Look at me."

Taiga looked at him, and he believed it- that he was all she could see.

They walked out the door and down the street, and once they were far enough away Taiga shook herself free, and smiled at Aomine, a little embarrassed, a little relieved. "Thanks," she said. "I'll remember I owe you."

"Damn straight you owe me," he said. He pulled his jacket straight and stood up without compensating for her weight; he felt a little colder, where she'd been touching him before.