[Kise's POV]
As soon as I heard my alarm and the groan emitted from my dorm mate I rushed to turn it off, "Sorry-ssu," I said softly.
My roomie glared at me, "Sorry doesn't put me back to sleep."
"Don't be mad," I pouted at him.
He turned over in his bed, "Tch."
I smiled and looked down at phone, it was four in the morning. I'm sure my roommate had been looking forward to the cute girls that always surrounded me when he found out I was a famous model, not the reality of my often long and inconvenient work hours. Girls sometimes come around, but I only smile and give them an autograph or picture if they want it. My fans are cute, but none of them are Shiracchi. I blushed and tugged on my hair to remind myself not to let my mind wander.
I'm pretty pathetic, a poor excuse for a man really. I had only dated one girl since Shiracchi; she was sweet, but I couldn't move on and I haven't. Even though I'm immature I know what happened was on me. I know I overreacted and I meant to apologize, but I kept putting it off and suddenly weeks turned into months, and months into years, and here I was now; an overgrown five year old running away from the consequences of his actions. I was scared of how Shiracchi would react if I told her how I felt, would she laugh at me? Would she sigh and give me one of her pitiful or apathetic stares? I didn't know, and the uncertainty made me reluctant to face her. As I walked half asleep to the studio, I wondered when I had become like this; I was the fun, fly by the seat of your pants guy, and here I am desperately trying to press the repeat button on my freshman year of high school. I loved Shiracchi more than I've ever loved anyone, and my feelings had never wavered in these past years, but it was exactly because I loved her so much that I couldn't say that to her now. I didn't want things to change, I couldn't deal with Shiracchi not being in my life. It had been so easy when I was in high school, I had told her I loved her almost every day, but I couldn't do that anymore. Not after all that's happened. "Shiracchi, I love you," I said to the empty street I was walking down. I hadn't said those words out loud in so long, and I loved the way they sounded coming from my lips.
"Kise, who died?" my make up artist asked me once I got to the studio.
"What are you talking about?" I asked her.
"You look so sad," she said powdering my face, "This is a happy spread darling, not an ad for funeral suits."
I gave her a fake smile, "It's nothing, I'm just tired that's all."
Five hours later, when I was walking out from the job and through the crowd of girls that had gathered, I heard a familiar voice go, "CAPTAIN!"
I looked over to see one of my underclassman from Kaijo, "Can you give me a minute?" I asked him, pointing at the fangirls holding out pens and paper to me.
After I had signed and taken all the photos the crowd desired, I walked over to my kouhai, "Hihi," I said cheerily.
"Hey captain," he greeted back.
"What are you doing in Tokyo?" I asked him, "And on a school day?" I said in a fake stern voice.
He laughed, "We're here for a basketball game."
"And you thought you'd pay a visit to your favorite and beloved senpai-ssu?" I said.
"Something like that," he replied.
"Wait, how did you know where I was?" I asked.
"Your fanpage literally tracks your every movement," he answered.
"Yeah, I forgot about that," I laughed.
"But I came here on a mission," he said while grinning.
"What?" I asked.
"You know how you visited us a few weeks back?" he asked.
"Yeah," I answered.
"Well, we were rooting through all our old stuff in Coach's office, and you know how he made the graduating seniors write letters to their underclassman?" he said.
"Yeah," I chuckled, "I remember when you guys read mine, I believe there were tears shed."
"Captain, I think you might be embellishing," he said.
"Anyway-ssu, what about them?" I asked.
He smiled, "We went all the way to the bottom of the box and found yours."
"Mine?" I asked.
He beamed, handing me a stack of envelopes, "Apparently it's a longstanding tradition that Coach has the seniors do, and they give them to the underclassman before the first game of the winter cup. Only, Coach said you disappeared right before the Winter Cup in your freshman year and they must've never gotten to you," he finished.
I took the envelopes from him, "Thank you."
"No problem, I gotta go cause we have a game in an hour, but it was nice seeing you captain!" he shouted as he ran down the street.
I waved after him, before practically running back to my dorm room to read the letters. The first one I read was from Kasamatsu senpai, who basically told me to stop being a brat and make sure to become a good senpai to my underclassman. I made a mental note to call and check up on him. Moriyama senpai's was a wordy complaint on how I never threw him a mixer, and Kobori senpai's letter was a generic "it was a pleasure to be on a team with you, good luck with your future endeavors". I sighed and looked to the last letter, the envelope was yellowed and torn, and was blank on the outside, but I knew who it was from the moment I read the first word.
"blondie,
Sadist sensei has threatened me that if I do not write these letters that he will give me a two hour lecture on how I am a part of this team, and given how everyone else acts about sports around here, I don't want to risk him bursting into tears and telling me how much my friendship means to him. So here it goes; at the start of this year I absolutely hated you, and that wasn't fair, especially since (as Rima so kindly brought to my attention) you probably don't know why. I hated you because my best friend just so happens to be Haizaki Shougo. I know you recognize the name, and I know it's met with negativity, and I know he's a dick, but he's also my childhood friend and my adopted younger brother. I feel very sisterly towards him, and in my head you had hurt him and I automatically didn't like you. I don't know why I didn't tell you this sooner, but I think it's because I got used to your sunflowery ass in my life, and I didn't want us to stop being friends just because of Shougo. Over the past year, you've grown on me like a tumor kid, and I don't think I've ever met anyone in my entire life as interesting as you. As for the Winter Cup, I don't worry about you at all. You've got this childlike ambition inside you; you think the world can't touch you and you're an invincible force that can do anything you set your mind to. I've never met anyone like that in my entire life. Keep being yourself Kise, even if it gets you picked on, and maybe...just maybe, you'll get me to fall in love with you in the next decade, lord knows you're a spoiled brat who always gets what he wants.
-Shira"
My heart seized as I read the letter; I was so wrong, so horribly wrong. I had to get to Shiracchi and make things right, she was the greatest friend I ever had and I need to apologize. I sprinted to go out of my room when I was stopped by an unlikely trio. The face I was met with first was Shougo, then to the left was Aominecchi, and then to the right was someone who I had only met once, briefly, before he punched me in the face, "Aominecchi…" I called out softly to the only person I was friendly with.
Aomine grunted, "We need to talk Kise."
"Eh talk? Can it wait? I have something important to do-ssu," I said hurriedly.
" 'fraid not," the guy to the right said coldly.
I suddenly felt scared and sort of wanted to slam my door shut, "We need to talk about Shi," Shougo said.
My ears perked up, "Shiracchi?" I asked.
"Yeah," Aominecchi said.
"What do yo-" I started to say.
"Just shut up and listen," Shougo said.
"It's real simple, you need to get your head out of your ass and man up," the guy to the right said.
"Excuse me?" I said in a sassy tone.
His eyes narrowed, "You may look at us and be a judgemental pompous little bitch if you want, but at least we know how to take care of the women we claim to love, and we all tried with Shira, but for some reason she's in love with your little fluffed up ass."
"Except for me, Shi's like a big sis to me," Shougo said.
"The last time I saw you, Shiracchi ended up bruising her ribs," I said to the black haired guy.
"WHAT?" Shougo said loudly.
"Calm down Zaki, it was a long time ago," he said.
Shougo narrowed his eyes, "I hate you so much Zami."
Aominecchi rolled his eyes, "I thought we already established that we all hate each other, we're here for Shira remember?"
"But Aominecchi," I said confused, "I thought you were in love with Momoicchi."
Aominecchi's lips turned into a scowl, "Hah? Who the hell told you that?"
"Kurokocchi," I answered.
Aominecchi's brow twitched in irritation as he turned around, "Where'd that blue midget go?!"
I flinched as Kurokocchi popped up, "I'm right here you giant ganguro."
"Where in the hell did you get the idea that I'm in love with Satsuki?" Aominecchi yelled.
"Shira-kun," Kurokocchi said.
"Fuck she's so dense, why'd you spread that around Tetsu? You know it's not the truth," Aominecchi groaned.
"Don't take that tone with me Aomine-kun, you seem to be content with telling Kise to man up, but at least he had the balls to tell Shira-kun he loved her straight up," Kurokocchi said.
"Thank you Kurokocchi," I practically squealed.
Kurokocchi looked at me blankly, "You seem to have lost them though, with the way you've been acting."
"Nevermind," I said with tears in my eyes.
"Anything's better than the, "'I love this friend who's in love with one of my best friends"' confession though," Kurokocchi said.
"What kind of half assed confession is that?" Shougo taunted.
"Haizaki-kun, should you really be talking? The way I heard it from Sakura-kun, she clung to you like a spider for months without you doing anything, and she got so impatient with you she kissed you forcefully," Kurokocchi said.
"That's weak," Zami laughed.
Kurokocchi studied the black haired guy, "Stabby-kun?" he questioned.
"Huh?" the guy said stupidly.
"Are you the one who stabbed Hanamiya-kun?" Kurokocchi asked.
"Yeah," he answered.
Kurokocchi smiled, "it's nice to meet your acquaintance Stabby-kun."
"WEAK? How the fuck did you confess then Zami?" Shougo yelled.
Zami/Stabby-kun(I don't know what his real name is-ssu :D) looked up, "Well, I shoved Shira, and she slapped me, and then I was like, "'That kinda turned me on,"" and then-"
"We don't need to hear anymore," all of us said in unison.
"So Aominecchi," I said turning to him, "You don't love Momoicchi, because I thought you two would be really cute together."
Aomine grimaced, "Satsuki? God no, I mean don't get me wrong, she's physically my type and a great girl, and in another universe sure, but it'd feel like dating my mom. We're just friends, besides, I'm in love with Shira."
I looked at Aominecchi with wide eyes before looking down, "Don't worry, I'm not gonna try and steal her away from ya, if anything I want to keep this quiet so she doesn't feel awkward around me," he said.
I was still looking down at the floor, "But you were there for Shiracchi when I wasn't, maybe you'd take better care of her."
Aominecchi scoffed, "Of course I'd take great care of her! But that's the whole reason we're all here. She doesn't want me, and she doesn't want Takeda, she wants you. You love her and she loves you, stop beating around the bush and tell her how you feel."
"Takeda?" I asked.
"Stabby-kun," Shougo answered.
"Don't call me that," Takeda sneered.
Shougo chuckled, "I'm gonna spread it around so much it'll be your new street name."
Takeda narrowed his eyes, "I'm going to stab you."
Shougo just smiled widely at him in response, "FUCK!" Takeda yelled.
Aominecchi looked at me with thoughtful eyes, "Kise, about what you said about me taking care of Shira, did she tell you about the pinky promise?"
I nodded, "What?" Shougo and Kurokocchi inquired.
"You're brother's a douchebag," Aominecchi said to Shougo.
"He is a fuckin douchebag," Takeda chimed in.
"He is a d-bag-ssu," I added on.
"I know he's a fucking douchebag, but my question is...How do you guys know?" Shougo asked.
"He tried to take advantage of Shira and I found her in a park at 3 in the morning," Aominecchi replied.
"Aominecchi, the pinky promise," I said.
"Fuck the pinky promise, if she's gonna violate it, I'm gonna violate it," he said.
Shougo clucked his tongue and started to walk away, "Wait! Shougo, where are you going?" I asked.
"TO KILL A BITCH!" he yelled.
"Wait for me Zaki! I got my knife!" Takeda shouted out as he ran to catch up with him.
"Well, this isn't really any of my business, so I'll be leaving," Kurokocchi said before disappearing.
"Tch," Aominecchi said in response.
"Aominecchi," I said sympathetically.
"Don't look at me like that, okay? I'll get over it, I knew from the very beginning that she was so in love with you she wouldn't give me a second glance, so I'm way better off than someone like Takeda. He got his heart crushed," Aominecchi said.
"Yeah," I said lowly.
"Just don't hurt her again, I don't care what toll you think these past two years have taken on you, but it's nothing compared to how hard it's been on her. She fuckin fell for you man, she fell for you so hard and then you just abandoned her and it crushed her so bad. She acted like she got over you and moved on, but she was always waiting, hoping you'd come back," Aominecchi sighed, "Look, I'm just saying, if you hurt her again I'll punch you in the face, and I'm sure there are five other guys who'll be waiting in line to beat your ass as well."
"I won't," I said seriously.
Aominecchi locked eyes with me and laughed, "Why do I believe you?"
"Because you know when I'm not playing around," I said in a steely tone.
"Go to her," he said.
I grinned, "I was on my way, before all you assholes decided to hold me up."
I pulled out my phone as I walked past Aominecchi and out of the University, dialing Shiracchi's number as I did so. I frowned as the phone only rang once before stopping, and I wondered if she was screening her calls and didn't want to talk to me when I heard the automated voice of a woman say, "I'm sorry, but the number you have dialed is currently located in the NTT Medical Center Tokyo and the service is unavailable. Please call back at a later time."
My heart skipped a beat, Shiracchi was at the hospital? Was she hurt? I immediately ran towards the hospital, it was a twenty minute run, but I knew I wouldn't catch a taxi or a train at this time in the morning. When I entered the hospital, my heart was beating out of my chest, "Excuse me, I'm looking for a patient by the name of Haizawa," I said breathlessly to a woman at the front desk.
"She's on the sixth floor, can you please sign in," she said trying to hand me a clipboard, but I was already running towards the elevator.
"Sir! You need to sign in!" she yelled at me as I got impatient with waiting for the elevator and ran up the stairs.
I ran up six flights of stairs and emerged from a door, only to be greeted with another front desk, "Haizawa," was all I managed to breathe out.
The woman smiled at me, "She's quite the popular lady, she's already had two visitors today, it's such a shame though...she's so funny and full of life...to only have a couple months left…," she sighed sadly, "She's in room F11."
I jogged down the hall as tears streamed down my face. Months left? . . . Months was not enough time for me to show Shiracchi how much I loved her, months was not long enough to do all the things I wanted to do with her. I wanted years, decades, centuries with her. I was greedy, I wanted all of her all to myself, no one else could take her from me now, not even death. I couldn't let it. .No. My body crashed against a wall and I slumped to the floor, letting out a silent scream as I gripped my hair tightly and tears flew from my face. My hands shook as I fought back the urge to vomit, because it felt as if my whole entire chest had fallen into my stomach. I forced myself up. I only had months. Months. Months. Months. I was wasting time. Thirty seconds in this hallway was time lost with her. I had to go. Go. Go. Go. Shiracchi. I had to go to Shiracchi.
I burst into the room once I had found it, Shiracchi stood up from the chair she was sitting in. "Kise? What's wrong?" she managed to ask before I grabbed her into a tight hug.
I cried harder, "You can't die, you can't. Not before you know how much I love you. I fucked up so much, I'm so sorry Shiracchi. I'll spent the rest of my life making it up to you, but you have to stay alive for that. I can't lose you. You're supposed to fall in love with me, we're supposed to get married, and have tons of kids, and I can't do that with anyone but you."
"Kise," she said softly right before I pulled her into deep kiss.
This wasn't how I planned Shiracchi and I's first kiss in my head, I had a hundred different scenarios, all of them strikingly romantic, but this beat out all them because it was...so...Shiracchi. It was urgent and raw, I brushed my tongue against her lips and her mouth immediately opened in acceptance. Shiracchi tasted sweet followed up with a bitter bite, a combination of cigarettes and lollipops that was so distinctly her. One of my hands gripped the back of her head tightly while the other made it's way around her waist and pushed her into me as much as possible.
Shiracchi's hands gripped my shirt even after our lips parted, "Kise," she said with hazy eyes, "I'm not dying."
"That would be me dear," I heard another voice say in the room.
That was when I actually looked at the hospital bed, which was inhabited by a frail old woman with Shiracchi's stark black hair and signature smirk. I could only deduce that this was Shiracchi's grandmother that she was so fond of...the one with the same last name...who was dying...and trying to have an emotional moment with her granddaughter...that I interrupted...with my hormones...well, my love, but she probably thinks it was my hormones.
I ran out the room. This morning I had made a wonderful metaphor in my head about being the proverbial five year old running away from his problems. Fast forward to this afternoon, where I, Kise Ryouta, literal five year old, was running away from his literal problems.
[Shira's POV]
Kise felt soft, his shirt was soft, his hair was soft, his skin was soft, his lips were soft, and on top of that he had to taste great too. It irritated me to no end that this guy would probably never understand the concept of bedhead, dry skin, chapped lips, or bad breath, but that was Kise. Being so close to him, hearing him say that he loves me, it made me happier than I thought I could be. That happiness was short lived however, because Kise bolted the minute I got an actual sentence out, "You only love me when I'm dying?" I asked myself.
I heard my grandma laugh, "You better go after him Shira, he's the one."
"Grandma, don't say stuff like that," I said blushing.
She laughed harder, "Trust me, it's the ones that cause you the most trouble that are the ones you're meant to be with. If you had any idea what your Grandfather put me through, he reminds me a lot of him, that blonde child. Your grandpa had literally plastered himself to a tree on our wedding night, sobbing about the trouble he had caused me and how our families disapproved. I told him to wipe his tears on the bark and meet me at the shrine when he was done feeling sorry for himself."
I smiled, "Shira, people like you two will always eventually come together, it's better to spend as much time as possible with them. I'm glad I'm going after your grandpa because I don't think I could deal with his blubbering self at my deathbed, but I'd give anything just to have ten minutes with him. Decades go by like seconds when you grow older, you don't have any time to waste, so get your ass after him. I promise I won't die while you're gone," she said shooing me out the door.
I had to abandon my heels and run after Kise barefoot in the halls of the hospital. I managed to catch up to him because he wasn't running, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him into the nearest room. Pushing him onto the ground, I sat on his lap and place my hands on his shoulders, "Why are you running away?" I asked him.
He was still crying and then started crying even harder when I asked him the question. I laughed, "Shiracchi, it's not funny. I thought you were dying."
"I know," I said in between laughs, "But it's your crying face, it's hilarious."
Kise grabbed onto my waist, "I love you so much-ssu," he said, nuzzling his face into my neck.
I kissed his head and said in his ear, "I love you too."
He sniffed, "Do you mean that?"
I ran my fingers through his hair and wrapped my arms around his neck, "I do," I said, kissing his temple.
"And Kise?" I said rubbing his back.
"Hmm?" he asked.
"I'm letting you rub your snotty tear stained face on my shirt. If that's not a testament of my love for you, I don't know what is," I said.
"Say things like that to me for the rest of my life," Kise mumbled against me.
I smirked, "Well, you're the only guy my grandmother's ever met and she likes you, so there's no other option but for me to get married and have a bunch of kids with you."
Kise looked up at me and grinned, "You're edgy and I'm cute. Our children are going to be perfect."
"You could say they'll be perfect copies," I spat out.
Kise frowned, "You're ruining the moment-ssu."
"You already ruined the moment with your snot, and Izuki would be proud of me," I said defensively.
"Do you mind?" a voice asked.
Both Kise and I looked over, and for the first time noticed two old men in beds, "Aw Seymour, let them be, they're just in love," one said to the other.
"Shut up Bill, Helen won't let you talk to me like that," the other one said.
"Helen's been dead for eleven years," Bill said to Seymour and then turned to us, "You have to excuse him, he's got a touch of dementia."
"I do not have dementia," Seymour said.
"Oh yeah? Then what did you just say to that couple over there?" Bill asked.
Seymour looked at us, "There is probably more than a 50% chance their kids are going to have blue eyes and blonde hair. They will not look Japanese at all."
Hi there! Thanks to everyone who reads/follows/favorites this story, and a special thank you to the awesome and lovely people who take the time to leave reviews.
To ThatOneHeffalumpInTheCorner, I am right there with you in regards to the love for Murasakibara. He is my son, my 6''10 son, and if he was chibified, I'd file
for shared custody and he could be both of our pets. To amy1945, Aomine's confession in this chapter wasn't to Shira, but I hope it lived up to your excitement
nonetheless, and I really love the Murasakibara moment as well, especially when I read through it after I wrote it and realized that Sakura was already up, so
there was a free bed for him to use, but I kept it in there because I have this very strong headcanon that Murasakibara likes to cuddle. To Akashicchi-ssu, I feel the
sadness too, it's hard for me to think that I'm almost done writing this fic, and I also wish someone would wake me up like Mukkun did in the last chapter, because
how can you really have a bad morning when pocky's the first thing you see? To WaffleeLi, I hope the confession was okay, it wasn't very dramatic per say, but at
least there's no confusion as to how he feels now. And I am not ready for this to end either, but hopefully we'll weather the storm together and get to the next fic
alive. Much love back to you xoxo, thank you so much for your continued support and dealing with these children and their inability to admit their feelings for so long.