Series: Kuroko no Basket
Genre: Romance, Drama
Rating: PG-13/T
Pairing: AominexKuroko
All original characters belong to Fujimaki Tadatoshi.
Contain some OOcness.
Nevertheless they still needed to drive to Niigata.
Kuroko packed his bag and walked to his Seirin team that still stood there awestricken completely by the situation.
Aomine stood near the car. He wanted to say goodbye to Kuroko and maybe... exchange a few words.
He wanted to send Satsuki a message that he would probably be late for classes, but when he put his hand in pocket he found out he didn't bring his phone with him. He needed to return home anyway.
Aomine saw from the corner of his eyes as Haruto approached him.
"Aomine-kun, do you have a minute?"
Nodding, he glanced behind him; Kuroko was still talking with his friends. Even from his position he could see his red, puffy eyes.
But it was alright.
"Of course, Mister."
Kuroko's father scratched his cheek, then his nose to finally put his hands down.
"I'm sorry for what I said. I like you and I don't think you have a bad influence on Tetsuya..."
That was a good sign. Aomine didn't know how he could copy with himself if that man would hate him.
"I guess I was just a little bit jealous too..."
Ah, that's totally normal.
Wait, what?
His surprise was most likely visible on his face, because the raven haired man chuckled. He instantly hid his mouth behind his hand.
"I'm sorry for that, but you made that weird movement with your eyebrows..." But he straightened his body and looked him right in the eyes. "Well, I was just jealous that maybe you would take Tetsuya away from me as you have been spending a lot of time with him. But now I know I shouldn't worry."
Aomine still couldn't comprehend what the man was talking about.
Haruto patted him on the arm as he turned around and saw that the blunette was walking towards them. He put on his smug smile and moved to finally close the trunk.
Oh man, Aomine began to stress.
"Hey, Aomine-kun..."
Oh no, no, no his mind blocked his ability to speak for awhile. No words wanted to form in his brain or leave his mouth. What to do?
But Kuroko continued.
"I wanted to thank you that you came here. It really means a lot to me... so I just wanted to thank... you... yeah, so thanks..."
He stopped talking and Aomine still didn't reply.
Kuroko massaged his arm with his other hand and stared at him expectantly. His eyes shone with something.
It looked like he was waiting for him to say something specific.
Okay, calm down Aomine. He needed to say it to him. He needed to say it.
"Tetsu... I..."
His voice sounded weird . . . like it wasn't him who was speaking.
His mouth was dry, so he swallowed the gathered saliva and licked his lips but that didn't help to get rid of nervousness.
Say it to him. Say it!
But his father was looking at them (he felt his eyes on his back) and Seirin stood behind Kuroko (Kagami was almost drilling a hole in his head with his look).
But he couldn't do it now, when everyone was looking at him.
Something in his mind was still encouraging him to do it, but the giant part of it was telling him to back off for now.
And he unfortunately trusted the other part. To not that is...
"Why weren't you answering my messages?"
Kuroko blinked a few times watched as that warm and sparkly look disappeared from his orbs.
It almost broke his heart to see him so disappointed. Does it mean that he too...?
"I just... accidentally crashed it..."
"How can you accidentally crash your phone?"
Kuroko shrugged but a playful smile appeared on his lip.
"Long story..."
His father shouted to Kuroko that they were leaving soon followed by the sound of the door opening.
Say something more! Say...
But Aomine suddenly had no words. All the way here he thought about what he would say to him and there were so many options. And when he was met with the situation face to face his brain decided to turn blank. Thank you!
"C-call me if you get to know something... or when you feel lonely... and whenever you want..."
Great Aomine, just great.
Kuroko's father knocked on the window from the passenger side. It looked like they needed to get going.
And he still didn't do anything! Come on brain work! Woooorrrrrk!
"I'm going I just need to..." He heard Tetsu's soft voice and then... suddenly Kuroko moved to him, stood on his tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Well, it was meant to be placed on his cheek but in the last millisecond Aomine's face twitched and boom... Kuroko kissed the corner of his lips.
Before Aomine could understand that, whoa... Tetsu had kissed him on the cheek-almost lips, Kuroko jumped away, face as red as a tomato and eyes as wide as two plates.
Aomine still felt the residue of the soft touch on his lips.
Kuroko stuttered his goodbye and in a blink of an eyes he was inside the car and they were driving off.
Daiki only waved to him, because... wow... this really happened.
Oh... my...
Aomine felt his cheek get warmer and warmer. Then the image of Tetsu's face so close to him, with his pink lips planted softly on – almost - his own appeared in his mind and his stomach made a back flip.
"Well, cowardly Ahomine, it looked like someone else decided to make the first step..." He heard Kagami voice behind him.
He slowly turned to him.
"Wow, you look like a tomato... And stop grinning like an idiot!"
Was he grinning?
He knew he should stop, but he was just so happy that nothing could destroy his mood.
Well, almost nothing.
"Okay Dai-chan, you're scaring me? What happened?"
It looked like his grin didn't want to go down for the rest of the day.
"It's nothing..."
Satsuki rolled her eyes.
"Yeah nothing~ this 'nothing'..." Here she made a quotation gesture with her hands "Made you grin through all day. It's not that I complain about it... but it's just weird..."
It wasn't his fault. It was all because of Tetsu.
To tell the truth Aomine felt like talking about it, he really wanted to say what happened. But... it was Satsuki. His female best friend; the very same one that had a crush on the blunette!
Yeah... That wouldn't end well if he were to say that to her.
But... argh...! The memory was still fresh in his mind!
"The last time you were so happy... or are happy is because..." Satsuki gasped suddenly.
Aomine felt his stomach go up. He turned his head to look anywhere but her, but no luck as she ran in front before walking backwards to face him.
"What did Tetsu do? Wait or what did you do to Tetsu!?"
Aomine bit his lip. How should he answer that? Should he lie (and protect her feelings) or tell the truth... What was the right answer to this?
He put his hands in the pocket as he moved further.
"Nothing..." He said lowly, afraid he would stutter. Thankfully he didn't.
His fastened his pace so Satsuki in front was almost running backwards.
Aomine couldn't look her in the face and suddenly all his happy feelings disintegrated. He couldn't do this to her. He just...
They were on a road unvisited by many people. Even now, when it was still pretty early in the evening, there was only one woman a few feet away from them.
Satsuki finally gave up running and moved to walk next to him. Aomine automatically slowed down and hid his face in his jacket collar.
They walked for some time in silence and thought that maybe she would leave this topic.
But no...
"You know... you can tell me. I won't be mad or angry or anything..." She said.
Aomine turned to her. Satsuki looked back and her thin lips formed a small smile.
"Of course I could be jealous and sad... but I want you to be happy too..." She bumped his fist in his arm. "So you can tell me!"
Aomine smirked.
"You're really just curious!"
"That too!"
He took a deep breath and told her what happened.
She listened to his story (he didn't say at first what happened, but explained the whole situation) with mixed feelings playing on her chest. From worry, to happiness, between sadness and fear to finally turning into joy as he finally (finally!) told her what had happened.
It was so embarrassing telling it to the point Aomine finally hid his face in his hands as he was speaking the last few words.
He didn't know how she would react to that so he stayed there (they stopped midway) with his face hidden. After a few seconds he peeked between his fingers curious as to what kind of expression she would have. In the end he didn't see it as the girl jumped at him and hugged him tightly.
"Oh my gosh! Congratulations! Well, I mean you did nothing and all, but still congratulations!
Her voice was cheerful.
She let him go and rested her hands on his arms. For the first time in his entire life he felt that her hands were heavy. It wasn't her typical nice, kind touch. Of course, it had a tingle of reassuring, but now it was stronger.
"Take care of him..."
What was happening? Why was everyone around him suddenly fully conscious of his feelings? How did they do that?
"But I still didn't do anything..." He found himself whispering before he could understand what he was saying. Yeah great, tell her about it. "Well I wanted to, but... it wasn't the time and I just..."
Satsuki rolled her eyes.
"You are really miserable Dai-chan. Even when you try to pretend that you're an angry, dangerous man you're still a little, helpless boy! You need to tell him!"
"I know, I want to but..."
But what?
He was so close to revealing his feelings, why did he back down? Was he scared? Of course, but he conquered it, so why didn't he do that? Was it because Seirin and his father were around them - maybe?
Argh, the words were there, at the end of his tongue waiting to be told. Three simple words yet they were the hardest in his life.
"You can't make him wait you know, Dai-chan? The longer you make him do this, the worse for the both of you. You know I can always steal him away from you..."
It was now Aomine's turn to roll his eyes. He just opened his mouth to add something when it happened again.
He shuddered like someone had just poured cold water behind his collar. He knew the feeling. Lately it appeared way too often.
But he pushed that thought away.
He tried not to show it on the outside, but to not show it was draining his energy leaving fear to replace it. They needed to get out of here, as fast as possible.
"Let's go..." He only murmured.
Satsuki lifted her eyebrow but said nothing more.
Aomine glanced at the road behind them. He only saw some old man walking slowly behind them.
No it wasn't him. But Daiki was sure. He could feel it. He was somewhere near him.
Too close, they needed to get away from here.
Aomine quickened his pace. No, he told himself, this was suspicious. He didn't want to scare his friend.
In a few minutes they were in front of her doors. She looked back at him, opened her mouth, then closed and opened it again.
"Send me a message when you get home..."
Aomine nodded and waited until she disappeared behind her door.
Then he turned around and walked away. But the feeling only rose, making it almost impossible for him to hear something more than his beating heart.
It will be okay, only a few streets and he would be safe at home.
He glanced back. There was definitely someone behind him, he could see his shadow.
Just don't panic. You're older and stronger, you can fight back.
But could he really do that?
No, he can't lose it now.
At the last street he just simply ran to his home.
From his pocket he took out his keys (almost dropping them twice) and put them in lock.
He stormed inside and closed the door.
For a brief moment the only thing he could hear was the beating of his own heart and his erratic breathing. Only then did he hear that someone was talking, maybe shouting, at him.
Aomine turned and locked the door just to be safe; just to be safe.
In front of him stood Masahiro, with both of the twins clenching onto his legs. The girls were looking between him and Aomine with a questioning look.
"Daiki-kun, what happened?! You look... terrible..."
Aomine brushed away the sweat from his forehead. His hand stayed there and he could feel and see as it trembled.
At first he wanted to blurt everything out in an instant to take the weight of his chest, but then he saw the girls and found himself not being able to do it.
They know nothing about the case. They were born long after it all happened.
"Nothing..." He said. He wanted to face palm himself for this. There was no way they would believe him, but he repeated. "Nothing happened..."
He walked past them and moved to the stairs. He could feel their looks on his back as he silently walked inside his room,
The darkness of it calmed him a little but not enough. The feeling was still alive in his mind, his muscles, and his bones. Like a growth, parasite, slowly moving higher and higher to his brain.
He fell down on his bed and curled up.
He couldn't stop shaking.
Aomine hadn't felt like that for a very long time. Helpless, scared, terrified; not being able to do anything, alone. The idea of his mother still at work who needed to go home alone scared him.
He felt once more like a child, where he locked himself in his room unable to help his mother. He hated that time, he hated how he acted.
But now it only repeated. He was older, stronger and could stand for himself and yet... still... he felt like a child.
"Daiki-kun?"
Someone opened door letting the light inside. It landed perfectly on Aomine's eyes. He needed to squint them, but he moved his head instead.
"Can you pick up mom from work?" He asked.
Masahiro moved to close the door before he could reply.
"Yeah, I will do it."
Daiki heard as the man moved closer to him and not soon after the additional weight was put on his bed.
Aomine didn't move.
"Hey, what happened?"
Should he tell him or not...?
It wasn't like he hated him nor did he have any negative feelings. When Mom introduced the man to him he felt... nothing. Neither happy nor sad.
It wasn't his father so it was fine. Everyone beside's him were fine.
They had lived together for a pretty long time, next to each other, not contacting; just two strangers in the same house.
Aomine never did something to break the wall between them - he never felt that he needed to do it anyway.
Until now . . . Until he couldn't do anything.
But there was still something stopping him and he put his mind through it.
His throat was dry.
"It's just..." His voice was hoarse, almost like it didn't belong to him. "It's just..."
Nothing. He didn't know what to say, where to start. Once more words were at the end of his tongue, but were unable to be spoken.
Why couldn't he suddenly do this!? He was supposed to be strong! He was supposed to help everyone, save everyone, be the one everyone depended on.
And yet here he was.
"Hey..." He felt as the man touched his arm. "You can tell me..."
The problem was Aomine never told him anything.
They only exchanged typical sentences and answers like 'How was your day?' 'Fine' 'Alright' 'What do you want for dinner?'.
He really wanted to do it, but... but...
Just couldn't.
"Maybe later..." He only answered.
He sat next to him for some time, but Aomine said nothing more so he stood up and walked out of his room.
"You know... you can always talk with me..." He said before exiting.
Aomine didn't respond, because he didn't know how to respond to that.
He wanted to talk about it with someone he knew, with someone who was familiar with his situation. He needed someone to rely on, right now.
He slid his phone out of his pocket and stopped his movements. Right... he didn't have his phone right now.
Aomine cursed under his breath and threw his phone somewhere at the end of his bed.
He couldn't sleep all night. He only heard his mother and Masahiro enter the house very late and it calmed him, but not enough to fall asleep. He heard them talking in the living room, quietly. He couldn't understand what they were talking about. He only had a feeling it involved him.
He welcomed the sun slowly rising up almost with joy. Only it wasn't joy.
Aomine got up because he had had enough of lying in bed doing nothing and trying to sleep even though he know he wouldn't do. He washed himself under a shower and changed into his uniform. For the first time in his high school life he could be early at morning practice.
Maybe basketball would soothe his mind.
He walked inside the kitchen to eat something and almost jumped when he saw his mother already there cooking something, humming along as she did.
He hadn't seen her doing that in a long time. She worked hard, often going to work early in the morning and returning late, so these calm, peaceful mornings were rare in their household.
"Ah, good morning Daiki. You're up for some scrambled eggs and coffee..."
Aomine nodded and sat down. In a few seconds a plate was in front of him. His stomach rumbled at that sight and only then Aomine understood that he hadn't eaten in a while. Not to mention it smelled delicious.
It was still hot, but Aomine didn't mind. Very quickly, there was nothing on the plate.
"Wow, you were really hungry!"
"You don't even know how?"
His mother smiled at him, the smile she put on where she was in good mood. And it made him happy, even if only a little bit.
She turned something off on the cooker and sat next to him with her own plate. Aomine drank his coffee.
"How's work?" He asked.
"As always, hard, too much paperwork, too many problems - Typical life of an adult..." Her lips moved into something between a tired smile and a smirk, but Aomine laughed as she had some egg on her chin and lip.
She brushed her chin with her wrist and showed him her white teeth in a smile.
"So, I should ask the same question in return right? But I already know the answer to it..." Here she made a grumpy face, what was probably an imitation of his everyday face. "'School is boring... I don't even know why I go there... I only want to play basketball...'" Even her changed voice was similar to his.
Well, Aomine couldn't argue with that. At least now he couldn't argue with her (month earlier it would be a totally different topic, but now he was his old-new-self...).
"'I want to play basketball with be cute little Tetsu!'"
Seriously? Everyone?
"Mom!" He yelled feeling his cheeks got warmer.
Hanari snorted and hid her mouth behind her hand.
"Does everyone know? Like seriously?!" He looked up at the ceiling with his hands high in the air, but nothing happened, so after awhile he turned around to face the slight surprised but still cheerful woman.
Something was off.
"What?"
She shrugged and put one of her feet on the chair her head now resting on her bent knee.
"Nothing. I was just joking about you and Tetsu, but it looked like you revealed yourself~" Oh my... she even said it in that singsong tone.
Aomine felt like someone had just poured a bucket of cold water over him.
"So you didn't... And I just..." He hid his face in both palms. First Kagami, then Satsuki, now his Mom. What was he doing wrong?
Suddenly everyone knew his feelings for the smaller boy. Everyone . . . beside's that one special person.
"Hey, don't worry about it! I'm not going to judge you. Of course, I thought about it like that once or twice... but never thought it was real..."
Please, stop it. Aomine didn't want to hear more words leaving her lips.
He was so embarrassed.
"But heck I don't mind it!"
Wait...
Aomine peeked between his fingers
"You don't?"
He never thought, in his entire life, that he would be having that kind of conversation with his parent. Never, ever...
She rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the entire universe
"Of course not! And I can understand why you fell in love with Tetsu, he helped you a lot, you hang out for most of your free time, not to mention he is smart and adorable!" At the last part she giggled like a school-girl.
Even that at that old she often acted like she was a child. Some part of her was still a kid inside.
Now she could be herself, a proper adult but at the same time a young girl. A few years earlier it was totally different.
But it was in the past; it was behind them.
But was it?
Aomine bit his lips remembering that feeling from yesterday.
Should he tell her about it? She should know... but she was in such a happy mood and he... kind of didn't want to ruin it.
Maybe she felt safer, maybe it was only him. If yes than he was glad. He could cope with him, he could fight.
"I need to go to work..." She looked at him and stayed in that position, like she was waiting for something. Like she expected for him to speak.
"Okay."
Maybe later he would think that it was a bad decision not telling her, but now it was fine. It was fine.
Yahoo. So much fluff in the beginning, totally love it :3. But I can say I moreover ended Kuroko part, so now it come time for Aomine xDD.
Answeeers :3:
OctoberGladness - Thank you, thank you, thank youuuuuuuu :3. I'm so happy someone like it (and thank you for very long review, I really appreciate it :3). Yeah, I really love fluffiness xD It is so adroableeee :3. And yeah Aomine and Kuroko are pretty dumb in romantic matter. I have already every chapter checked, but thank youuu anyway :3!
Great thanks to:
TheAnimeHannah - for checking this and helping me :3. You're great :3!
And thank you Reader for being here with me and reading this story!
See ya!
(Only three more chapters!)