When Kagami wakes up, its nine in the morning and Aomine's gazing blankly out his open door balancing a spinning basketball on his right index finger. He stares at him, bewildered, for a moment, until Aomine meets his eyes. He sits up then, and watches, with a bit of awe as Aomine crooks the finger balancing the ball, and lets the ball bounce on the bent finger. The ball stops right before it reaches the ceiling and falls down into Aomine's hand.
"Morning." he says, and Kagami can tell he was going for nonchalant but was, for some reason, failing. He wonders about what's on his mind. He wonders too if that little trick he just witnessed is part of Aomine's endless arsenal of 'formless' shots.
"Morning." Kagami replies. He checks his phone "Damn I slept in, how long have you been awake?"
"Not long," Aomine says, not meeting his eyes "we should probably go down for breakfast. I heard mom go downstairs already."
"Sure," Kagami says slowly "will your dad be there too?"
"Nah, he's on a business trip," Aomine turns to smirk at him "you'll meet him this Christmas when you cook that feast." (1)
"When I cook the–" his eyes widen "you've been going to morning practice." which of course meant, that he'd won the bet.
"I'd say that I hate to say I told you so, but that's a lie, I love it. I told you so."
Kagami rolls his eyes "Well it's been good for the team at least. Your stamina isn't embarrassing anymore."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night Taiga," Aomine stands up "but anyway, breakfast."
Kagami lets Aomine lead the way to the kitchen. Aomine's mom had only just begun cooking when they enter. Kagami offers to help but she shoos him away, he wonders if the Christmas feast will even happen when she insists on treating him like an honored guest. He sits across Aomine at the dining table, answering questions she throws his way about his life in America, watching her throw fond looks her son's way every time he made a snarky remark about something Kagami had said. Aomine doesn't see these looks, he thinks Aomine's mom means to hide it from him. He tries not to dwell on why, it'd be rude, he thinks, to pry.
They're in the middle of talking about Kagami's old basketball friends when Momoi walks in eyes blazing. She slams down what seems to be a sports tabloid on the table.
She exchanges brief good mornings with Aomine's mom before turning to them and saying "They're calling you the 'Twin Power Forwards of Touou'," she crosses her arms "not a completely accurate nickname but it's pretty catchy I guess." (2)
Kagami grunts "I'm not sure that's a compliment to be honest." one one hand, he's being put at par with Aomine in terms of skill, on the other hand, people think the two of them are similar.
Aomine leans forward to read the article "Will this exciting new tandem be enough to defeat Kings?" he snorts "Who the heck is writing this crap? How is it on the front page?"
"You've been making sports headlines since we were in middle school Dai-chan," she sits herself down next to Aomine "and naturally they'd be talking about the Winter Cup finals, especially since it's between you and Akashi-kun. Anyway the article's pretty interesting, it's a balanced look at your strengths and weaknesses. The writer's betting on Rakuzan's win though."
"Right." Aomine leans back, looking uncomfortable for some reason.
Kagami's surprised he doesn't say anything more, that there's no snide the only one who can beat me is me, or even I have no weaknesses. He throws him a confused look before turning to Momoi, "So what's the deal with this Akashi guy?"
"A loaded question," Momoi sighs "I promise I'll tell you the whole story tonight but the short version is, he's the perfect point guard, a genius frankly in both basketball and academics."
Kagami nods slowly "Wait. Tonight?"
"Yup!" Momoi lifts a bag "I'm sleeping over, surprise!" she turns to Aomine "You should too Dai-chan."
"Mom can I sleep over at Taiga's?" Aomine asks loudly.
"If it's not a bother to Taiga-kun," she replies "Is it a bother Taiga-kun?"
"Oh, uh," he palms the side of his neck "it's fine... uh.. ma'am."
She chuckles "No need to be formal, just call me auntie like Satsuki-chan does."
Kagami nods, smiling back weakly.
"So why are we staying over?" Aomine says to Momoi.
"I wanted to talk to Alex-san," she taps her fingers on the table "and I want to tell Kagami-kun a story."
"A story." Aomine says flatly "What stor–" his eyes widen "NO."
"It's necessary." Momoi says, meeting his glare "To understand Akashi-kun, if nothing else."
"It's no one's business but ours." Aomine grits out. "You told me you wouldn't." (3)
"And I still won't," she says "I won't tell the team. Kagami-kun's not the team."
A tense silence follows, with the two of them staring each other down. This is definitely about Teikou, Kagami thinks, contemplating on how to calm them. But thankfully, he doesn't have to.
"Don't have a spat during breakfast," Aomine's mom says, setting their food down on the table "leave that for after dears."
"Sorry auntie." says Momoi, "Breakfast looks amazing as usual."
She laughs "Flatterer."
Aomine aggressively picks up his chopsticks and starts eating, still thoroughly pissed. He's doesn't look at anyone for the rest of the meal, but neither woman on the table seemed to mind. Kagami thinks this sort of thing probably happened often. It didn't take much to annoy Aomine after all, although he is more cheerful these days.
After breakfast Aomine's mom offers to drive them to his apartment, and Momoi accepts without anyone else's consent. She then manhandles both of them back to Aomine's room so that they could get ready to leave.
"What's the goddamn rush?" Aomine growls.
"We need to go out to buy new shoes." she says cheerfully.
"Why would we need to buy new shoes?" Kagami asks.
"Oh Kagamin," she's looking at him pityingly and it is frankly pissing him off "have you not looked at your basketball shoes lately?"
"What are you on about?" he growls.
"You'll see," she says, pushing them into Aomine's room "now get ready quick! It'll be hard to find shoes your size, especially at such short notice."
Kagami turns to Aomine intending to share an annoyed look with him, only to find him already packing an overnight bag. Kagami arches an eyebrow at the sight for a moment, and when Aomine doesn't meet his eyes or say anything, he shakes his head and starts getting changed.
Momoi and Aomine's mom are waiting for them at the foyer. Kagami crouches down to put his shoes on but Momoi grabs them before he can.
"Dai-chan should probably lend you some slippers for the ride to you apartment." she gives Aomine a look.
Aomine clicks his tongue "Why should I?"
She lifts the shoes in her hands, revealing obviously disintegrating rubber.
"My," Aomine's mom says "they look like they'll fall apart any moment."
"Exactly auntie, he can't use these to go back to his apartment let alone play a whole game tomorrow." she throws Aomine another meaningful look, to which he answers with a roll of his eyes.
"Fine I'll get him something." he says, walking back upstairs.
It takes him longer than expected to come back down and he looks uneasy when he hands Kagami used looking but clean slippers.
"Thanks." Kagami says, with a confused look on his face.
As they file into the car, Aomine's quiet, and he's shifty for the whole ride to Kagami's apartment. He inches away from Kagami every time they accidentally touch. Kagami thinks Aomine meant to move away subtly, but in such a small space it was hard not to catch someone deliberately physically avoiding you. And it bothers him.
Aomine's been so annoyingly touchy feely with him for a long while now, so seeing him try to be the opposite was more than just a little weird. It wasn't like he was completely avoiding him either, he's still adamantly bickering with him about random shit. It's just... he looks uncomfortable. Kagami wonders if he did something wrong.
Then a memory comes to him, of a dream that he's now realizing was reality, of pressing Aomine's hand to his check, caressing his knuckles and smiling like an idiot before drifting back to sleep.
He doesn't know what he looked like, what Aomine saw, but he remembers now, what Aomine looked like.
Panicked.
-o-o-o-o-o-
It's so dumb. Aomine doesn't know why he did it. They were going shopping for new shoes for Taiga anyway, it's just completely unnecessary. But when he'd gone back to his room to get his old beach slippers and they were there, brand new, practically untouched, and in Touou's colors... He just grabbed the box and stuffed them in his bag.
They're Jordans as red as Kagami's hair with splatters of black as dark as their jersey. He hadn't bought them with any plan to use them any time soon. He hadn't bought them out of any great fondness for his team's jersey either. He bought them, he now realizes, because they reminded him of Taiga's stupid hair, because he'd "liked the shade of red for some reason". Embarrassing. So completely embarrassing.
And now he's brought them along. For what? What was he thinking? Was he thinking of just giving these to Taiga? Of giving away nearly a year's of his allowance just like that?
But then again wasn't that what Taiga's been doing for him all this time? With the giant burgers and the lunches which were more amazing than they had any right to be?
Who invests that much on another person? It's probably not inaccurate to say, he realizes, that right now Kagami's got all his eggs in Aomine's basket. Or Touou's basket. Either way he has a strong urge to invest right back. He kind of already has, but these shoes... they're something tangible. Something solid.
"Do you have any stores in mind Dai-chan? That we should check out first?" Satsuki asked him as they waited for Taiga in his living room. He'd gone to change into something more casual and to 'get Alex to change into something, anything'.
"A few," he said, eyeing his overstuffed bag "but it's fifty-fifty if they'll have shoes our size."
"Well we'll just have to go through every possible store then." she replied, as if it was so easy.
That afternoon they learn, of course, that it's not.
It's exhausting, and none of the stores, as Aomine had suspected, had any shoes their size. They spent hours going around all the shoe stores they knew of, and every failure has Aomine thinking about the shoes in his bag at Taiga's apartment. One store finally said they had his size, but Taiga cursed loudly in English when the store clerk brought back shoes much smaller than they'd anticipated, realizing he'd forgotten to clarify that he was talking about American sizes. (4)
It's late in the afternoon and they're snacking dejectedly on fries at a Maji Burger when Aomine finally decides to say something.
"Let's just go back to Taiga's apartment," he says, and both Taiga and Satsuki open their mouths to object, but he cuts them off "I've got another pair."
Satsuki sighs "I suppose that's a good temporary solution, are you alright with that Kagami-kun?"
"Sure," Taiga shrugs "do we have to go back to your house again though?"
"No," Aomine says, pretending to take a keen interest on his fries "they're in my bag at your apartment."
Taiga nods finding nothing strange about that at all, but Aomine can feel Satsuki's gaze bore into him. He refuses to look up.
On the way back to Taiga's apartment she leans towards him to whisper "You planned to give him those shoes from the start didn't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." he whispers back, which earns him a disbelieving look "But I guess I was thinking about it."
"It's good that you're doing something nice for him."
Aomine snorts, trying to hide how embarrassed he feels. "Are you really going to tell him? About the that last final at Teikou?"
Satsuki's face hardens "Yes. I know why you don't want me to Dai-chan, and I'm glad you're protesting actually. It means you're finally acknowledging that what you guys did was wrong."
Aomine resists the urge to click his tongue. He knows it'll upset Satsuki and he's trying not to upset her whenever he actually thinks she has a point these days. See Taiga? I'm following your advice.
He sighs "I plan on talking to him about the other Zone thing."
"You mean that thing?" her eyes widen.
"What are you guys whispering about?" Taiga asks, frowning.
"Oh just the details of our Christmas party." Satsuki is truly a master at changing the subject "Oh! You'll be cooking for that this year won't you Kagamin?"
Taiga grimaces "Ugh, yeah. Gotta think about a menu now I guess."
Satsuki bombards him with suggestions all the way to his apartment, where Alex greets them with takeout gyudon. Seeing the large stack obviously meant for Taiga, Aomine grabs him by the arm and starts pulling him to his bedroom. No way was he going to wait till after he wolfs all that down to tell him this. He's definitely not waiting till after Satsuki tells him about Teikou either. Not when he doesn't know how Taiga would react.
"Close the door, we gotta talk." he says, after entering the room. He turns to look at Taiga and is surprised to find him looking upset.
"About this morning?" he asks, expression pinched.
"What?" Aomine furrows his eyebrows "What about this morning?"
"You know what," Taiga growls "you've been uncomfortable around me all day."
"No I wasn't." he snaps out automatically "What are you talking about?"
"You were trying really hard not to touch me in the car, it was easy to tell. I–" Taiga shakes his head "I'm sorry I did that, I mean I guess most guys would find what was pretty much hand-holding weird. And whatever face I was making then forget about it, I was half asleep."
Oh. Aomine thinks Oh this is about this morning.
The part of it that Aomine didn't think Taiga remembered.
The part that made him realize just how utterly screwed he is.
I don't want to forget about it. He wants to say, but instead he's gaping at Taiga with his mouth open looking like a dumbass.
"Don't be sorry." is what finally comes out "I mean, that's not– I think I might have given you the wrong impression."
Taiga scoffs "Not wanting to touch me gives a pretty clear message."
"Shut up for a minute would you," he grabs his bicep and squeezes "look, touching. The problem's not – it's not you alright?"
"Please tell me you're not doing an 'It's not you, it's me' speech." Taiga blanches.
"I'm not– ok maybe I am, but it's the truth."
"If you're disgusted just say so, don't try to be nice it's gross."
"Why would I be disgusted!?"
"You–" Taiga blinks "Wow, ok I'm an idiot." (5)
"No arguments here."
Taiga breathes out, and it sounds relieved. Aomine wonders if he missed something around the end there, or in the entire vague conversation they just had.
"So what did you want to talk to me about if not this?"
Aomine lets go of his arm to run his hand through his hair "It's the Zone," he says "I thought I should tell you that the uh, version of it that we've been... accessing, isn't the 'true' version, in a manner of speaking."
"What?" Taiga's eyebrows furrow "What do you mean?"
"Well you know how going into the Zone kinda feels like you're sinking into water?" Taiga nods slowly "So thing is, if you get deep enough, you'll end up in front of a door, just barely at the threshold of something else you know? But, there's a catch, there's a dude blocking the door, a gatekeeper of sorts, and you gotta get through him to reach the next level."
"And.. you've done this?"
"Well," he scratches his neck "no. Not yet. It's never been necessary, I never really had the chance to try. I'm telling you now because I have a feeling going against Akashi would put us in a position where we'd have to try."
"You're serious," Taiga says "you think we could lose."
"We won't lose," Aomine snorts "but... I suppose that it is possible."
Taiga doesn't look too happy about that "Can Akashi go into the Zone?"
"I don't know for sure, but I'm leaning towards yes. He's... well, Satsuki'll explain it to you later." he steps back and scans the room for his bag "I uh, also wanted to talk to you about the shoes." he pulls the box out of his bag and hands it to him.
"Thanks." Taiga's eyes widen when he opens the box "These're Jordans." he says, voice flat in his disbelief "Brand new Jordans."
"Yeah uh, haven't even put them on except the one time at the store." he shrugs, hoping that the heat he feels creeping up from his neck doesn't show on his face "I'm giving them to you."
"Giving?" he looks back and forth between Aomine and the shoes "But these are... Are you sure?"
"Yeah I mean," he clears his throat, and really hopes isn't blushing "it's kind of fitting for you if you think about it."
Taiga chuckles, eyes gleaming as he gazes at the shoes. "I thought you didn't watch pro-basketball."
"Everyone knows Michael Jordan." Aomine's proud that that came out as teasing as it did, seeing as what he really wanted to say was I love your smile.
"You're–" Taiga shakes his head, still smiling "Thanks. This is... This is great."
"Well I've got good taste."
Taiga laughs again. Aomine loves the sound of it.
-o-o-o-o-o-
It all makes sense when Aomine gives him the shoes. It figures that he'd have such a weird reaction to even thinking about doing something nice for someone. It's hilarious how awkward he is and it makes Kagami ridiculously happy that he gets to be a witness to this side of him, that he gets to be the cause of it.
He's in a good mood for all of dinner. So good he doesn't care when Alex starts teasing him about it. So good that he nearly forgets Momoi's sleeping over because she wanted to tell him something.
"So Satsuki-chan," Alex starts "you said you had a story to tell."
"Oh! Yes," Momoi sets down her chopsticks and clears her throat "I take it that you've read my research on Rakuzan's players, Kagami-kun."
"I have," he nods "they're definitely a notch above all the teams we've faced so far."
"Right well, have you noticed anything... unusual?"
Kagami pauses "Well the fact that their captain's a first year I guess, and that fifth starter, that Mayuzumi guy, kind of out of place."
Momoi nods "I have a theory about Mayuzumi-san, but let's leave that for later. It is strange that Akashi-kun would be the captain so soon, that is, if you don't know him. What do you think of his skills?"
"Well I feel like I'm missing something to be honest, I can't understand how that Emperor Eye thing works." he shrugs "But I guess it's kind of like how I don't understand Aomine's formless shots, it's just that it's impossible for me to do personally, so I can't fully grasp it."
"Someone should have recorded that." Aomine quips.
"Shush Dai-chan," a brief look of amusement passes Momoi's face before she turns serious again "I guess I should start from the beginning. Akashi-kun is... how do you say this, there are two of him."
"A split personality?" Alex asks.
Momoi hums thoughtfully "Something like that, and the one in control right now is very dangerous."
"Yeah I know," Kagami grunts "he tried to stab me."
"He..." Momoi stops "He what?"
"Let's talk about that later," Aomine interjects "just get on with the story Satsuki."
"Right." she says, still looking startled "Right of course," she clears her throat again "Well, you see, Akashi-kun wasn't always like that..."
Momoi talks well into the night. About the old Akashi, about his sudden drastic change in personality. About Murasakibara's part in triggering it, and Midorima's great displeasure with it. She talks about Kise suggesting that they compete with each other during matches, how it became a game they played often. How Akashi had taken it to lengths it should have never gone. How they had almost definitely broken the heart of Kuroko in the process.
Her voice was steady, but all the while Momoi looked as if she was near tears, and in the background Aomine's face grew progressively grimmer. When she finishes all of them are quiet.
Alex's face is unreadable, Kagami can't tell what she makes of the story. Momoi's staring at her lap, biting her lower lip. And Aomine... Aomine looks like he wants to get the hell out of here.
"How'd you feel about that last final?" he looks straight at Aomine when he asks this.
"I don't know." Aomine says, voice strained "It was just something we did. It didn't matter to me."
Alex lets out a short burst of laughter "Oh to be young," she says, shaking her head "don't lie Dai-chan, you feel bad. If not back then, then now at least, you do." And then, bizarrely, she winks at Kagami. "More importantly though, this boy Akashi is going to be tricky. It's not just his technical skills I'm worried about, it's the effect he has on other people emotionally. His strategy depends partially on charisma, one he must have a lot of if nobody in Rakuzan is complaining about a first year being the captain."
"The Akashi-kun before he changed had a different sort of charisma than the Akashi-kun now. He used to give off a kind atmosphere. Now he's..." Momoi sighs "I don't know how to talk to him, not really. It's almost like he's a parody of himself."
Aomine snorts at that but he doesn't say anything. He's not meeting anyone's eyes.
"Why tell us this?" Kagami asks "Why not the whole team?"
"Because you might need this information, and I don't think anyone else on the team would."
"I see," Alex sighs "so you're afraid of Akashi turning back to his old self."
"What? Why? Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
Momoi shakes her head "Well, in a way yes, I do want the old Akashi-kun back, but in a way, no it's not good. I don't know what he'll be capable of, and it makes me uneasy, even Dai-chan and Ki-chan are more predictable than he is."
"Don't beat yourself up over it Satsuki-chan," Alex places a hand on her shoulder "you can't analyze data that isn't there, and speaking of missing data, I would worry about that one named Mayuzumi. I don't see any reason why he'd be a starter, but the way you've described Akashi leads me to believe he wouldn't be a starter if he wasn't crucial or special."
"Yes, I was saying earlier that I have some theories about Mayuzumi-san, mainly I think, he could be someone like Tetsu-kun."
"Oh, you're shitting me," Aomine puts his head in his hands "don't tell me he did it."
"I can't think of any other reason." Momoi frowns "It would be just like him to try and create a better version of Tetsu-kun."
"If Tetsu finds out..." Aomine trails off. He doesn't say more, but Momoi seems to have understood what he was trying to say.
She nods "Yes, exactly. And an improved Akashi-kun with another player like Tetsu-kun would be..."
"A huge pain." Aomine continues "But we can beat them."
Kagami arches an eyebrow at him "You sound like you have a plan."
"I do, and I already told you about it."
"You mean the second gate? That's not a plan, we have no idea if we can pull that off."
"He's right Dai-chan! You haven't even been able to do it!"
"Hold on a moment," Alex interrupts "its seems like I'm the only one who has no idea what this second gate business is, care to enlighten me Taiga?"
"It's the second gate in the Zone, we have to 'open' it to achieve the 'true' form, whatever that is."
"Oh is that what he pulled you away for earlier," Alex snorts "so there's another level to the Zone then, do you know how to achieve it in theory?"
"Well." Aomine averts his gaze.
"He doesn't." Kagami says for him "We know it exists and that something's preventing us from entering it but that's it."
"Well you're both better off figuring it out in a real game anyway." Alex pats Momoi's shoulder "Don't worry about them Satsuki-chan, they'll manage something."
"I guess they usually do." Momoi sighs "More of that teamwork from the semi-finals should help."
"Well if we stay up any later we could lose because we're too tired." Aomine grunts.
Kagami nods "Yeah we should turn in for the night. You alright bunking with Alex for the night Momoi?"
"Of course! We're going to complain about you two all night!"
Alex laughs "I'm counting on an interesting night Satsuki-chan."
They part ways in the hallway between the guest room and Kagami's room, and he tells Momoi that she and Alex could use the shower first. She nods and tells him to "be nice". He doesn't know what she's talking about however, until he plops down onto his bed and realizes that Aomine's lingering at the door instead of invading the room like he usually did.
Kagami raises an eyebrow "What's up?"
Aomine looks at him like he thinks the question is a test. Like he's holding back what he wants to say because he doesn't think it's what he should say. Which is... a first.
"You aren't pissed." he says finally.
"No?" Kagami says "No, I'm not."
There's a pause as Aomine tries to read his face.
"Look," Kagami sighs "I knew you were an asshole. Well, are an asshole, but you're a little less of an asshole than before to be fair. Whatever Momoi said wasn't really surprising to me, I mean the fact that there are two Akashis is actually pretty surprising, but everything else was kind of expected. Anyone who's met you guys would expect it. So no, I'm not pissed at you. If you ever did it again I would be, but right now no."
Aomine narrows his eyes at him, Kagami's pretty sure he's trying to see if he should believe him. "Good," he says after a beat "we don't have time for your drama."
Kagami rolls his eyes "My drama, sure." He is planning to meet Tatsuya before the finals tomorrow though. He just hasn't had the heart to send the text yet. "You should apologize to Kuroko by the way."
Aomine stills "That's my business."
"Sure," Kagami shrugs "and it's your choice, but I think you'd feel better if you did."
"Enough of that," Aomine snaps "where's your extra futon?"
Before he can stop himself Kagami replies, "What, you aren't going to sleep with me today?"
And then there's a moment, where he and Aomine stare at each other wide eyed and Kagami thinks, this is it, I finally fucked up.
Aomine finds his voice first, but all he manages is a weak and awkward "Uh..."
"Ignore that." Kagami says hurriedly "It was a joke, I... didn't deliver it well."
"No its..." Aomine raises a hand, but then stops it midair like he's not sure what to do with it "Do you want to?"
"What?" Kagami can feel his face burn.
"I mean," he stiffly waves the hand he has up "I don't mean like–" and then horrifyingly he puts his right index finger through a circle he's formed with his left index finger and thumb. Kagami's pretty sure his face reflects how mortified he is. Aomine looks like he can't quite believe he just did that either.
"Shit," Aomine says "what the hell, forget it. Forget I did that."
I don't think I can, Kagami thinks, lifting a hand to his face, no matter how much I want to.
"Maybe it's for the best..." he says slowly "if you slept on the extra futon tonight."
"Right'" Aomine says "Yeah." he angles is body towards the door "I should– oh, right, Satsuki and Alex went first."
Kagami doesn't know what face Aomine's making, he's too busy trying to hide his own furious blush. They stay there in painful silence for what feels like hours until Alex knocks on the door and says "Shower's yours boys!"
"You should go first." Kagami says "I'll... bring out the futon."
Aomine nods, avoiding his gaze, and heads out of the room.
Kagami buries his face in his hands.
-o-o-o-o-o-
END NOTES:
(1) lmao, watch me avoid writing Aomine's dad bc I don't want to name OCs and it's hard enough writing "Aomine's mom" all the time
(2) yes, both Aomine and Kagami play as power forwards. It's not unusual for a basketball teams' starting roster to deviate from the standard five positions, but I suppose Aomine and Kagami's unique situation would be news and nickname worthy in the knb universe haha
(3) I didnt show the conversation they're referring to here because most of the non-basketball game scenes happen in Kagami's POV, which is obviously kinda changing now though, now that romance is actually happening (i.e. there'll be more Aomine pov, as there has been in the last three chapters)
(4) idk if this is actually a thing in Japanese stores or anywhere else, I couldn't find anything on it, but well it's a thing here in the Philippines. You have to specify if you're referring to American sizes or European sizes in a lot of shoe stores, and then it's also different from one's size in local brands so... yeah. Anyway haha.
(5) Kagami's saying this because he realized that Aomine doesn't even really know what he's talking about. He thought he'd figured out his more than platonic feelings haha but nope. I was planning on talking about this in Kagami's POV in this chapter but since I didn't get a chance to squeeze it in and to avoid confusion about this line, I'm noting this here.
Other matters:
I am in no way confident about the way I write or interpret Akashi, so if you'll disagree with his portrayal in the finals later on, I'm sorry haha.
Because I'm not confident about how I write Akashi, getting out the chapters on the finals might take a while, although who knows, since I actually have a pretty detailed outline of what I want to happen for this match typed down haha.
So, the next update is going to be... idk when. Whenever I finish it. In addition to the above, chapters are likely going to be dense like this one is because we're getting to the end and a lot of things have to happen, so it depends on how stuck I get and how much time I'll have in the coming weeks.
ALSO:
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. I'm so glad you're enjoying the romance part because I was frankly very nervous about it. Mostly because I'm well aware that I've kind of deviated from the usual sort of romance in aokaga fic (which I personally enjoy! A lot! but I felt that it wouldn't have come naturally in this fic).