Kagami was happiest whenever he was with Aomine, he had to admit. But he couldn't stop thinking about the other day at his apartment. Kagami wasn't sure exactly what Aomine had in mind when he had his arm around him. Although it was kind of awkward, Kagami actually liked Aomine touching him. He really was tired but mostly it was just an excuse to rest his head on Aomine's shoulder. It was a relief when Aomine didn't protest. Leaning on Aomine, his hand rubbing Kagami's shoulder, it felt very comforting and Kagami thought he would actually fall asleep like that. He even wished he had moved himself closer to get more comfortable. Kagami was really considering it until his phone rang and nearly made him jump off the couch. After the initial shock, he checked to see who it was and it was none other than Himuro. Kagami silently cursed him for interrupting before answering the phone.

"Hey, Tatsuya," he got off the couch and walked towards the kitchen, leaving Aomine by himself.

"How are you doing?" He asked in a kind voice.

"I'm fine… I was kind of in the middle of something," Kagami couldn't help but show a little bit of his bitterness.

"Oh? I'm sorry, should I call back?"

"Well, unless you called for something important?" Himuro didn't call too often so it might've been something he needed to tell Kagami.

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you and the person you like are doing," Himuro said with a small laugh.

Kagami felt his face heat up and wanted to yell at Himuro that: in fact, he had just ruined a moment he was having with that exact person now but just shouted, "Don't call me for something like that!" and hung up in his anger, Himuro still laughing at the other end. Sometimes Kagami felt like Himuro did some things purpose just to tease him.

That was about a week ago and Kagami was still thinking about that day. If Himuro didn't call, what would've happened? Probably not much else, but he couldn't help but wonder.

After classes were over for the day, Kagami headed straight to the gym before practice. He and Aomine had been meeting up early at the gym for the past week to get a little extra practice in for the upcoming Interhigh preliminaries. Kagami was glad that Aomine didn't seem to skip out on practice that much lately, it seemed like a good sign that Aomine's passion for basketball was returning. He definitely seemed to have more fun whenever he played, and having a real game will probably be even better.

He was still mulling over that day as he walked through the hallway. He managed to not let it bother him much but today he had just couldn't get it out of his head. Probably because the lessons today were especially boring and he didn't feel like paying much attention to it.

"Um, excuse me…" Kagami was about to open the door to exit the building when he heard a quiet voice from behind him that snapped him out of his thoughts.

Kagami turned around to see one of his classmates, fidgeting with the hem of her blouse. She was in the same class as him but sat on the other side of the room and she was really quiet so he wasn't sure why she was trying to talk to him right now. They had worked on a project together once in assigned groups and she barely talked during the whole thing.

"Oh, hey. Is there something you need?" Kagami asked.

"Um, Kagami-kun, do you mind if we talk outside?" she said meekly, not quite making eye contact with him.

"Sure…" Kagami said slowly.

He couldn't even begin to guess what she wanted but he followed her outside anyway. They walked around the building until she came to a halt where there seemed to be no one around.

"Uh, is there something you need behind the building…?" He asked confused.

The girl took a deep breath and dug through the pockets of her uniform and took out a folded piece of pink paper.

"P-Please take this!" She said in one quick breath, holding out the paper to him and staring at the ground.

Kagami took the paper, still unsure about what was going on and started to unfold it to see what was inside.

"Please don't read it right now!" she squeaked and Kagami stopped immediately. "I-I have to go, read it later, ok?" she finally lifted up her face and Kagami saw that she was bright red. She turned and quickly left Kagami by himself.

Kagami made sure she was out of eyesight and continued to unfold the paper. He read it over and he suddenly understood what that strange ordeal was all about.

'I didn't think something like that would happen,' he thought to himself. He sighed and stuck it in his bag and made his way to the gym.

Aomine was on his way to meet up with Kagami before practice. He got out of his class a little early so he figured he'd drop by Kagami's classroom to walk with him to the gym today. He wondered if Kagami would act all coy and say something along the lines of 'I didn't need you to come pick me up!' Aomine snickered to himself, picturing the face Kagami would make.

Walking outside, he saw Kagami who he was about to call out to until he saw that he was walking with a girl. Aomine stopped and watched the two round the corner of the building. His curiosity got the best of him, and Kagami should've been walking towards the gym in the opposite direction, so he followed the pair, trying to go unnoticed.

Aomine stood by the corner where they had just turned and tried to listen in on their conversation.

"Please take this!" He heard the girl say and Aomine peeked around the corner to see her holding out a pink piece of paper towards Kagami.

This was a scene Aomine was all too familiar with. The countless girls he dated in middle school had all done similar things to him when they asked him out. Kagami just got confessed to by that girl! Aomine wanted nothing more to jump in, snatch the letter, and rip it to shreds right in front of them but realized that obviously was not a rational option and ended his eavesdropping at that and left for the gym.

'I'll just confront Kagami about it when he gets to the gym,' he thought to himself.

Aomine reached the gym and headed straight into the locker room and started getting ready. He had just finished changing his clothes when Kagami walked through the locker room door.

"Hey, that took a while, did something happen?" Aomine asked, knowing full and well what the answer to that question was.

"Ah…" Kagami hesitated, "No, not really. Just had to stay and finish up some work a couple minutes after class." Kagami set his bag down on the bench and began to take his clothes out to change.

'Liar,' Aomine thought to himself.

"Hey, I'm going to head to the bathroom so you go ahead and I'll meet you out in the gym, alright?" Kagami said walking towards the stalls.

"Sure," Aomine replied and waited for Kagami to be out of site before digging through his bag. This was definitely an invasion of privacy but Aomine didn't care. With girls who confessed with letters, they usually set up a time and place for the reply, and damn if Aomine was not going to find out that information exactly.

'Found it!' he spotted a shade of pink in one of the bag's side pockets and quickly opened it up to read it.

'I like you, Kagami Taiga. Will you go out with me? I will be waiting outside after your first game. Ps. Good luck!'

Just like Aomine thought, she arranged a place for a response to her confession. Aomine quickly stuck the letter back just how he found it and walked out of the locker room into the gym.

He had this information, so now how was he going to deal with it?

"Hey, Taiga, how about we go do something after the game today?" Aomine leaned over the bus seat to ask Kagami who was sitting in front of him.

The team was on their way to the first game of Interhigh preliminaries, they were beyond confident that they would easily pass through the preliminaries and make it to the finals. But that did not mean they didn't plan to perform their best for their game today.

"Hmm? Ah, I'm not so sure…" Kagami said nervously, side glancing in Aomine's direction.

"Why not?" Aomine knew why but he wished that wasn't the reason.

"Umm… I just have something to do…" Kagami mumbled and turned away.

"Like what? Can't it wait until later?" Aomine persisted.

He still hadn't come up with a way to keep Kagami from meeting up with that girl. He figured he might be worrying for nothing; Kagami never showed any signs of liking anyone but what if he decided to try going out with this girl after all? Aomine didn't want that but it's not like he could just say 'don't go out with that girl' because then there would be the issue of admitting how he found out. Confessing that he eavesdropped on their conversation and that he dug through Kagami's bag may not result in a positive reaction.

"I… I just… have to do this today, ok?" Kagami stumbled over his words.

"Why today?" Aomine nagged further.

"God, leave him alone, Aomine!" Wakamatsu, who was sitting next to Kagami, spoke up. "He doesn't need you bothering him constantly."

"Hey, how about you mind your own damn business," growled Aomine, throwing a glare in Wakamatsu's direction.

Kagami was about to interject until Imayoshi spoke up.

"How about all of you shut up? It's only a matter of hours until the game starts and you should be thinking about your plays and focusing on winning instead of planning your little play dates afterwards."

Aomine sunk into his seat with an annoyed 'hmph' and Wakamatsu obeyed similarly. Kagami just sighed and put his hand on his forehead.

Not much later, the team had arrived. It was a little exciting to finally be playing at their first official game today. Even Aomine felt a little thrill to be able to finally play a real game again. Not only was it that, he finally could play an official game with Kagami by his side. Since that day when they were young and promised to play on the same team, he had waited for this moment. But he couldn't help but not feel completely happy since in the back of his mind, all he could think about was Kagami going to meet up with that girl after the game. He tried his hardest to ignore the nagging feeling as to not have it bother him when all he needed was to concentrate right now.

In a staggering win of 101 – 39, Touou dominated the game. Kagami got subbed in for Wakamatsu during the second half and that's when the combination of his and Aomine's basketball secured a promising defeat.

It felt so good to be under the bright lights of the stadium, surrounded by a crowd and his team and most of all, be playing right beside Kagami. This is what he thought he had lost, Aomine thought. The passion for basketball that he thought might've been gone forever was now back. Aomine thought about what it would've been like if Kagami had chosen a different school, what would it have felt like to actually play against him? But it didn't really matter right now; he was the happiest with Kagami close to him – being close with the Kagami that was now smiling like an idiot over his first win of the season.

Kagami shouted in victory and gave Aomine a tight hug, "We did it, Daiki," he said, barely audible over the crowd's applause.

"Yeah, we did it," Aomine replied, hugging him back. He could never get tired of this, he thought. He wanted to keep winning to feel this happiness again. He wanted to win every single game after this.

But the euphoria came to an almost screeching halt. After the speech in the locker room from the coach and a warm down, Kagami slipped out quietly. He seemed to go unnoticed by everyone except Aomine who had been keeping an eye on him ever since they had got into the locker room. Aomine excused himself and said he was going to the bathroom, with Imayoshi replying 'don't take too long' and went after Kagami. Aomine had to stop him, he was in denial about Kagami actually going out to meet with that girl, but him sneaking out to do just that confirmed all his fears.

Kagami stepped outside and clearly looked like he was searching for someone. By that time Aomine had caught up with him.

"Taiga!" Aomine shouted and Kagami jumped in surprise, turning around to look behind him.

"Wh… Daiki?" Kagami asked confused, "What are you doing?"

"What are YOU doing!?" Aomine asked, out of breath. He had just played a game of basketball but he was definitely never this out of breath before, and it was just from chasing after Kagami.

"I… I told you I had to do something! Why did you follow me?" Kagami looked away and searched around the area again.

Aomine's mind was in a haze, he had to do something. Now. Even if it was something irrational. He grabbed Kagami by the wrist tightly.

"Ow! Wh-"

"Don't go," Aomine said in a resilient voice, "Please, don't go," his voice waivered a bit the second time.

"What has gotten into you!?" Kagami tried pulling his arm away from Aomine but he strengthened his grip.

"Please, Taiga. Please don't go and meet up with that girl," Aomine pleaded.

Kagami's eyes widened, "H-How do you know…" Kagami's ears started to turn red.

"I saw you with her, and I read the letter," Aomine confessed. He wanted to avoid admitting to that, but his desperation won over. He would do whatever it took to prevent Kagami from going to talk to her.

"You… You went through my stuff?"

"Yes, so don't go!" Aomine pulled on Kagami's arm, but Kagami remained rooted in place.

"Why? Give me a good reason why? And why did you listen in on us and go through my bag?" Kagami started getting angry.

Aomine sighed deeply and gripped Kagami's hand. "I…" Aomine exhaled another long breath. Finding his resolve, he spoke again, "I'm ready to tell you why," he said firmly. "Why I ignored you for a year, and why I acted so strangely, and why I wanted to end our friendship."

Kagami's expression softened, "Really?" he asked quietly.

Aomine nodded. "I'll tell you everything."

End of Chapter.

I think this is the first actual cliffhanger this story has had. The suspense!

Once again, thank you for reading! :*

And I want to give a happy early birthday to Aomine! Hopefully Kagami will give you something special~