A/N: So sorry for the updating delay! Thank you once again to my lovely reviewers – I hope you enjoy this installment, let me know what you think :)
I woke with a pounding head that made sure to protest rather aggressively against the ringing of my mobile. I picked it up, groaning, "What?"
"Satsuki, dear, are you alright?"
Cussing internally at the way my mother's voice assaulted my eardrums, I made an effort to clear my throat so that she wouldn't think I was suffering from a horrid hangover, "Hello, mother."
"You sound quite coarse, dear. Are you alright?"
"Yes, mother," I mumbled, "just a little congested."
"I see, darling. Are you feeling better from your flu last week?"
"Yes, mother," I yawned, "I'm about to head out, actually. How're the Maldives?"
"They're gorgeous, sweetie! I can't believe your father extended our trip – and we both managed to get a whole month off work. A whole month! Can you believe it?"
"Dad's great like that," I chuckled, running a hand through my hair, "what're you doing?"
"Just about to go to the spa, love. Thought I'd check up on you before I went."
"Thanks, mother, I'll let you go now."
"Bye, Satsuki, have a lovely day!"
I hung up and let my hand fall over my eyes with a sigh, mentally steeling myself for what was bound to be one bitch of a day. With a groan I heaved myself up, holding steady for a moment to fight back the wave of nausea swelling within me.
I ignored the dull throbbing as I went about my morning routine.
… Brush my teeth – check
… Take a shower – check
… Puke in the toilet – check
… Brush my teeth (again, hopefully for the last time in the morning) – check
After pulling on some baggy clothes (that were probably pyjamas), I meandered around the house before heading for the bus stop.
A rather bumpy ride later and several pauses along the way to ensure I wouldn't hurl in the middle of the street, I trudged in to the entertainment centre, wondering if I had remembered to re-tie my hair from the messy bun I'd slept in.
"Momoicchi!"
I yelped when the voice came from right beside me, too loud and much too close for comfort.
"What?" I hissed, hiking my bag higher up my shoulder, hoping to hide my rather disgraceful appearance.
"You look… charming," his mocking undertone sent my hand jabbing into his side before I could stop it.
"Go away, or shut up," I grumbled, rubbing at my eyes, "it's much too early for this."
"Here," taped fingers grasping a green thermos appeared before my eyes, "drink it."
Eyeing the bottle wearily, but too tired to argue, I grabbed the drink from Midorin and took a tentative sip. The moment the caffeine touched my tongue I knew I was fucked. I promptly spat as much as I could, choking over the deliciously bitter coffee, cursing Midorima to the very depths of hell.
"Midorin!" I cried, "I – I – you idiot!" I made to hand the drink back to him, but Akashi was suddenly glaring down at me.
"Drink it, Momoi-san."
Angry as I was, I chose to glare back up at him, "It took me a whole year to stop drinking that stuff-"
"I don't care," his tone was stern, "you're going to drink it, and you're going to be wide awake in order to analyse the team we're playing and the teams around us."
I was tempted to splash the hot beverage in Akashi's face, but the frantic gestures of Kise behind the Captain (the classic 'cut throat' motion), prompted me to keep my grouchiness to myself.
"Yo," Daiki and Tetsu slinked up behind Midorin, and I forced myself to stay calm at the sound of his voice.
His navy eyes skirted our group before coming to a stop at me – and I suspected my shitty appearance did wonders in convincing him of my rather hazy memory. He cleared his throat and greeted me rather huskily, "Satsuki."
"Shh," I winced, "you're too loud and I'm too hung over."
The morning progressed and we were conversing in the common room, me sipping rather grudgingly on the delicious coffee offered to me.
"Momoi-san," Akashi's voice cut into my horrid haze, "I know you're hung over, but if you could at least tell us which play you think would work best against Seiho, it'd be much appreciated."
Risking a rather grumpy glare in his direction, I sighed and shrugged, "They work on an ancient martial arts regimen, as you know," I brought a hand up to massage my temples, closing my eyes as I did so, "keep your basics good and you'll be fine. Make sure to guard low. Don't let your guard down. Dai-chan, be careful with your formless shots, they've scouted us and so they've set up likely precautions. Midorin, keep an eye out for their guard, they'll probably double-team you. Ki-chan, don't try to imitate their play, it'll only slow you down. Mukkun, stay under the net at all times, leave the offense to everyone. Akashi… just do whatever the hell you usually do. Tetsu-kun, don't get in the way of their passes, they'll knock you out with their follow through."
I ignored them as they filed out of the room, concentrating on trying not to throw up my insides in front of everyone.
"Satsuki."
I cranked open an eye just a fraction, peering up at Daiki as he shifted nervously from foot to foot.
"So… uh… quite the night, huh?"
I opened my other eye and shook my head, "Was it? I conked out after I got Midorin and Akashi to dance on the table with me."
Shock. Confusion. Understanding. Relief. Disappointment.
The mixture of emotions crossed his face so fast that I would've missed it if I hadn't been trying to catch them.
"…shirtless…"
"Eh?" I frowned at his rather shy comment.
"You got them to dance on a tabletop shirtless with you."
Despite knowing perfectly well that they were shirtless, I made a rather convincing show of laughing hard enough to want to throw up, and he laughed with me.
"Hey… so you don't remember-"
Luckily Tetsu cut him off by poking his head through the doorway, "Hurry up, Aomine-kun, Momoi-san. Akashi-kun is mad."
We followed him out onto the painfully loud courts, and I set to sluggishly taking notes, doing my best to pay no heed to the way Tetsu stared me down rather expectantly at every interval he got.
Daiki's words kept bouncing around my head, tugging on my concentration, nagging away at my resolve to set the thermos down and let the coffee go.
"…I dunno, kiss you when you look so goddamn cute…"
I glanced down at my baggy pyjama-like clothes, quirking a brow. Me – cute? Psh.
"… fuck you as hard as I can on your stupid desk…"
That… now, that didn't sound too bad.
"…hug you every fucking morning on the bus…"
I felt my cheeks burn at the thought of him, greeting me with a hug and a kiss, or letting me sleep in the crook of his arm when I was too tired for tutoring in the morning.
"…might fuck everything up…"
What did he mean by that? He couldn't possibly think I didn't want him. Then again, I'm not really the best at knowing whether the 'signals' I gave him were proper, to say the least. Sure, I gave him notes and slept on him a lot and was generally the rather annoying bus buddy that coerced my way on to his basketball tea- okay, maybe my 'date signal' had been misinterpreted as a 'crazy-bus-girl signal'.
"…and I want to do this right, Satsuki. I want to do it right so bad…"
Now that… well, I can relate. Which is why I won't be 'remembering' my rather forward advances on to Daiki in my drunken state. But I mean – it wasn't as though I didn't want him, and that my actions were purely alcohol driven. I've liked Daiki for a while now, it just took that extra push for me to see it.
"Why are you acting like you don't remember?"
I stiffened at the sound of Tetsu's voice, shooting him a panicked glance before double checking to make sure Daiki hadn't come out of the locker rooms.
"Remember what?" my voice was about five octaves higher than usual.
"You know what, Momoi-san," he stepped forward, lowering his voice, "he told me right away. He was so happy that you feel that way, and so upset that he didn't get to take you on your first date before you kissed."
At the Phantom Man's words, my face exploded in a rather ugly shade of red, and I spluttered, at a loss.
"Just know that Daiki cares about you," he told me, "a lot more than he's cared for other girls. Please take care of him."