"I'd like to have Okonomiyaki Chibo with additional of bacon mochi and cheese, and kim chee shrimp," Aomine ordered his meal from behind the menu.
"You, sir?" the young sturdy waiter with wavy black hair turned to Kagami, his pencil poised over where he'd written Aomine's order down. "Your order?"
Kagami cracked a sheepish smile. "I don't—"
"Make it two," Aomine put down the menu and raised two fingers.
The waiter noted this down. "How about drinks?" he asked.
"Hot sake for two as well," Aomine said.
"Noted. Anything else, sir?" he inquired.
"Nope. That's all."
The waiter disappeared after repeating their order. It was afternoon and Chibo Restaurant was thronged with people who were clad in formal suit. The chairs around diner-style counter had been filled while two chefs were on duty to prepare the dish in front of the customers. The sweet smell of okonomiyaki and yakisoba enveloped the restaurant. Aomine had chosen to sit in the corner to attract less attention to them, yet they still stood out like a sore thumb due to their casual outfit—and their ridiculous height made it worse too.
Aomine paid no heed to their surroundings, casually thumbing through the menu even though Kagami had fixed a menacing glare on him.
"What are we doing here?" Kagami asked through his gritted teeth.
"Having lunch."
"We've had our lunch, Ahomine," he bellowed. "Or you have forgotten the fact that you used my money to buy two large crepes?"
"And?"
"You fucking shoved one down my throat, asshole!" Kagami thumped the table furiously. It swirled people's attention to them. He muttered a curse under his breath. "Sorry," Kagami raised a hand in apology.
"You're loud, Bakagami," Aomine said.
"That was your fault."
"I didn't do anything."
"You did everything, Ahomine," Kagami rested his folded arms on the table and leaned in. "You dragged me around Ginza which happened to be on peak hour and people kept bumping shoulders with me because you kept marching forward without looking back, and we did that for a goddamned white t-shirt that can be found in any stores in Japan, and we ended up not buying it. You made me pay for your fucking crepes and apparently I've gotta eat that as well even though I've told you 'no' for thousand times. And now you dragged me here to have lunch? Fuck you."
Finally, Aomine put the menu aside and clashed gaze with him. "Are you on period?"
"What?" Kagami was suddenly whisked away from anger.
"Are you on period? I can buy you chocolates. Tons of them."
"What the—of course not!" he sputtered, his cheeks bright. "I'm not a girl, you idiot."
"You sure?" Aomine cocked his head to the side. He sounded too skeptical by this. "Because you just recounted the whole thing, from a-z, and I genuinely thought only girls are capable of doing that."
Kagami was lost for words because of his silent fume. Aomine had a smirk plastered on his face. Irritated, Kagami removed his glare from Aomine and pursed his lips. "I fucking hate you so much."
"I know that," Aomine said, amusement bubbling beneath his words which convinced Kagami that Aomine never believed him and dismissed it casually. It felt different from their usual bickering which often loaded with hatred and anger. There was something familiar about the tone Aomine had taken with him and the way he'd said it.
The waiter arrived with a large bowl and a plate of additional ingredients and drinks they'd ordered. He switched on the teppan (special hotpot) that had been fitted on the table for cooking later. Kagami offered him a polite 'thank you' for his service while Aomine quietly sipped on the hot sake.
"Enjoy your meal," the waiter wished.
Kagami nodded.
"Kagami, cook okonomiyaki for me," Aomine said, not quite requesting, after the waiter had left.
"Seriously?" Kagami gave him a withering glare. "You're a grown-up man now. Do it yourself."
"But your cooking is the best."
Kagami stared at him for a second in shock, and then smiled, picking up the spatula that had been placed by the teppan and the bowl that contained the mixture. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood," he poured the mixture on the teppan; one for him and one for Aomine. Kagami flattened the mixture to form two pancakes. He added a few pieces of bacon and shrimp on top of each pancake before skilfully flipping them over.
"Man, you make a great housewife," Aomine commented in a childish-like glee.
"Stop saying that," he glowered at Aomine.
Aomine smirked around the mouth of sake cup. "Make me dinner later."
"I'm not your wife."
"I didn't say anything about that."
"You're an asshole."
"But now I'm your guest and you need to treat me nicely. So make me dinner later," Aomine parried effortlessly.
Kagami shot him an annoyed look. "No."
"I'll buy the supplies."
"I said no."
"My treat," Aomine bargained.
"No means no," he pointed the spatula in Aomine's direction warningly.
"Your fridge is getting emptier. Might as well fill it up," Aomine pointed out.
Kagami backed away in surprise. "Wait a second! Are you saying you rummaged around my fridge?"
"I wanted to make breakfast but it is almost empty, hence the take-out," Aomine shrugged like it was no big deal and returned to sipping his sake.
"Well, you don't have to fill up the fridge, though," Kagami muttered in embarrassment, rubbing his neck. "It is my fridge, so it's my responsibility. Not yours."
"I don't care about whose responsibility or whatnot. I want you to cook me dinner, so I'm gonna buy some groceries," Aomine decided.
"Stop being so difficult."
"You stop being difficult."
Kagami's stern look shifted and eventually fell away at the obvious superiority and warning on Aomine's face. He flipped their okonimiyaki over to avoid them from getting burnt and Aomine's sharp eyes. "Do whatever you want. I don't care anymore."
"You don't have to be so uptight about this," Aomine sighed.
"I'm sorry for refusing to rely on others," he said, his tone thickened with stubbornness. His apology sounded empty and fake. Anger was roaring just below his skin. Kagami hadn't moved his eyes from the okonomiyaki, starting to stab them with the spatula in protest.
Aomine caught his hand to keep it from destroying the okonomiyaki. "You're such an idiot. Sometimes it's good to rely on other people and be open with them."
That struck a chord in Kagami. He snapped his head up so fast it almost gave him a whiplash. "Stop saying like you fucking know me!"
Aomine wasn't deterred. "Try me."
"You weren't even there when I was at my worst," he flung. "So shut the fuck up and don't speak like you know me."
"Then tell me," Aomine suggested. "If you're so damn adamant about me not knowing you, then tell me everything."
Kagami frowned, not liking the direction of their conversation was heading to. "Since when you become a counsellor?"
"Since you threw me those shitty accusations," Aomine paused to take an audible shallow breath. "You got frustrated, I get that. From your nightmare, I know it's getting worst too. You really need to talk about it."
"Your okonomiyaki is ready," Kagami suddenly announced and took a set of chopstick with the intention of swivelling Aomine's attention away from the topic. He wasn't overly fond of sharing his problems with people.
"Bakagami."
He sighed. "What do you want to know?"
"What happened to you?"
"What happened to you?" he shot back but much harsher. "You fucking disappeared! Without a word, too."
"Told you; working," Aomine was unperturbed.
Kagami snorted. "Working," he scoffed complacently.
Aomine snapped the chopstick into two. He cut the okonomiyaki into smaller pieces with the chopstick. "Another mood swing. I'm honestly starting to question your gender. Let's buy a pink dress for you."
"Can you please stop doing that?" he gave Aomine a dark look.
"Doing what?" Aomine feigned lost.
"You're a fucking bastard," Kagami snapped. He nibbled on a small piece of okonomiyaki to chase the anger away. It tasted good. Seemed that his cooking skill hadn't yet gone rusty. A little thing, but it made his heart lift a little.
"So… I'm not only an asshole and counsellor, but now a bastard as well?"
"They sound pretty much similar to me."
"Different meaning."
"In your case, they're semantics," he said, mindlessly taking a larger bite of okonomiyaki. "Everything leads to poking into someone's life."
"You're using a difficult word. I don't get it," Aomine shoved another piece of okonomiyaki into his mouth.
"Don't worry, Ahomine. I'm not expecting anything from you," Kagami smirked, inserting a dark humour there. He caught a subtle twitch on Aomine's brow—Aomine got it—and that felt so good.
"Shut up, Bakagami. Just eat your okonomiyaki."
Kagami grinned, a genuine smile that wasn't hinting any trouble or hiding any pain. It felt honest and right although he was smiling triumphantly at Aomine's pouting look—at Aomine's childishness as he chipped away at his okonomiyaki with his chopstick but he knew Aomine didn't mind it because of the pleasant smirk emerged on Aomine's lips right after.
It felt really good.
.
Kagami and Aomine returned home—Kagami's place—from the grocery, armed with plenty of supplies to make sukiyaki (a hotpot dish prepared with thinly sliced meat, vegetables, mushroom, tofu and shirataki—konyaku noodles—simmered in a sweet soy sauce broth, which Kagami had laughed at Aomine's request, considering the fact that Aomine had stubbornly declared he doesn't eat vegetables) to accommodate the cold weather.
"I'm home," Kagami said to no one particular out of pure reflex.
"Welcome home," Aomine said as he traipsed in.
The simple greeting left Kagami feeling a bit nonplussed. It rooted him to the spot. He used to hear his greeting unanswered, echoing throughout the dark apartment like a hollow voice. Now seeing someone else there and having his greeting answered, they quelled the ache of loneliness and brought a pleasant feeling fluttering in his stomach.
But, no. He wasn't going to admit it. "That's wrong, Ahomine," he said peevishly to conceal the flutter in his stomach. Kagami entered the living room after he'd placed his and Aomine's shoes in the shelf.
Aomine had tossed his jacket to the couch and put down the plastic bags on the counter top, not really caring, and started to rummage around. Kagami, too, began sorting out the supplies and filling up the fridge. His hands dived into one of the plastic bags but he got distracted when Aomine, too, shoved his hand in.
"Hey!" Kagami backed away in surprise.
Aomine casually whistled a tune and fished a regular-sized cup of Häagen-Dazs ice-cream out of the plastic bag. He marvelled at the ice-cream for a second, lifting it up in the air like a kid just got his first Christmas present, and Kagami was honestly questioning Aomine's mentality at the moment. Aomine proceeded to get a spoon and prise the lid open before digging in, not giving a flying fuck even when Kagami stared at him in disbelief.
"When did you get that?" Kagami inquired.
"Wven you vere zo busy choozing the eggz," Aomine answered around the spoon, his teeth holding it.
Kagami squashed the urge to reach forward and yank the spoon out of Aomine's mouth. "That thing is expensive."
"But tasty," Aomine pointed the spoon to him.
"Don't do that," he pushed Aomine's hand away and went to sorting again. "Disgusting," he said, voice heavy with annoyance.
Aomine placed the spoon between his teeth again. "Vanna try?"
"No," he snipped. Kagami wondered if Aomine did that to rile him up.
Distracted by the supplies, Kagami didn't realize the spoon nearing him until it was pressed between his lips. Startled, he jumped away at the direct contact and shot a look at Aomine with the back of his hand on his abused lips. He could taste the sweetness of chocolate on his lips.
"The hell, man?" Kagami asked.
"Say 'aaaahhhh~'" Aomine wiggled the spoon.
"No."
"Say 'aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh~'" Aomine opened his mouth wider.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-nine days younger than you," Aomine tentatively closed the distance between them.
Kagami gave him a dark look. "You're not going to give up, aren't you?"
"Never."
Sighing, Kagami gave it a try. The sweetness of chocolate flooded his mouth, and Kagami almost moaned in bliss. True to Aomine's words, the ice-cream tasted great, he secretly admitted with a faint blush on his cheeks.
"Satisfied, now?" Kagami muttered peevishly, going back to the supplies to avoid the eye contact with Aomine. Embarrassment was simmering just below the surface.
"Very much," Aomine smirked, voice suffused with satisfaction. He edged around the counter with a hum of a merry tune, heading to the couch.
Seeing an opportunity, Kagami quickly took off his winter jacket. "Ahomine," he called out to Aomine and pitched it to him, which Aomine successfully caught it without so much effort.
Aomine arched a brow, the spoon – again – between his teeth.
"Put it away for me. I'm going to start cooking now," Kagami folded the sleeves to his elbows and wore a white apron he'd gotten from the cabinet above. "And make sure you keep your damned spoon and ice-cream away from my jacket," he warned Aomine.
Aomine lowered the spoon away and stuck his tongue out. "Bitchy," and he went to the bedroom, closing the door.
"Don't push your luck, Ahomine!" Kagami shouted as to let Aomine hear him. Kagami walked around the kitchen to gather the items he needed for cooking. He separated the vegetables and beef slices, placing them under the running water. As the pan was heated up, he closed the water tap and mixed soy sauce, sugar, stock, and mirin together in a bowl to make sukiyaki sauce. Then he started prepping the vegetables and beef slices.
Kagami looked up from the counter. Aomine hadn't come back from the bedroom. The door was still shut close.
He continued searing the beef slices. A sweet scent of burnt beef wafted in the air. Kagami grimaced at the heat the pan emitted. As soon as the beef slices turned brown, which was moments later, he moved it to the corner and added the vegetables while keeping them separated. The sauce was poured into the pan, the sound of sizzling beef and vegetables dissipating as the thick liquid filled the pan.
Kagami looked up again. Still no sign of Aomine. Without Aomine's presence the hollow silence seemed ominous. The living room suddenly felt wider, and darker. It gave him an unsettling feeling, a memory of loneliness, and threatened him to knock him into depression. Kagami swallowed thickly.
He quickly shook his head to distract himself and put on the lid to cover the pan. Kagami took a few brisk strides to the bedroom.
Opening the door ajar, Kagami slipped his head in.
He found Aomine laying on his stomach, in his bed, his cheek pressed into the pillow with his eyes close indicating sleeping. Half of Aomine's face was buried in the white pillow. The spoon in his right hand was dangling over the side of the bed, close to the bedside table (how he still could hold the spoon in his sleep was indeed a miracle). Aomine's lips parted a little, and a light snore was heard, and for a moment Kagami felt relief surge through his body, his shoulder and his hand on the doorknob relax, and a sigh left his lips.
He picked up his way to the bed. Kagami sat down on the floor by the bed, cold spreading across his thighs, and he watched Aomine sleep.
Aomine looked peaceful when he was sleeping. There was no scowl marring his face or frown knitting his brows together. His shoulders were relaxed. His back was heaving in a steady tempo, the telltale sign of normal breathing. Aomine suddenly let out a sigh, to Kagami's surprise, and all of the tension seemed to leak out of his body. No sign of menacing aura either, just a childish look in Aomine's expression as though Aomine was now left unaware of his surroundings.
Kagami pondered if anyone had the chance to see Aomine Daiki sleeping peacefully. Somehow, he felt privileged to have the chance to see this rare side of Aomine.
He quirked the slightest of smiles at the thought, feeling a tingling sensation swooping in his stomach. He got to his feet with a loud huff, intending to store the sukiyaki into the fridge for tomorrow.
However, the smile vanished as soon as Kagami glimpsed the dripping ice-cream on his bedside table. And right then Kagami didn't see anything but red.
"Damn you!" he bonked Aomine's head, hard, without mercy. Aomine jolted out of his sleep with a loud pained yell.
"What the fucking hell?!" Aomine spun around on the bed and lifted his head just enough to level Kagami with a glare, left hand on his sore head.
Kagami stood straight, taller. "You left your damned ice-cream dripping, bastard!" he flung his arm to point at Aomine's ice-cream.
Aomine's eyes followed his pointing finger, his movement slow and languid. He raised a brow. "Ah… ice-cream," he simply said, letting his head fall back to the pillow. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm.
"Don't give me that shit," Kagami kicked Aomine's leg. "Get up and clean up your damned ice-cream. The sukiyaki should've been cooked by now. Get up, get up, get up," he lightly kicked Aomine again.
"Don't wanna," Aomine groaned.
"Don't make me drag you out of the bed, Ahomine," he threatened.
"Aww… c'mon."
"I'm serious," he lifted Aomine's right leg up with a raised brow.
"Okay, okay, okay," Aomine pushed himself up to sit. Kagami caught the spoon touching his bed sheet but too annoyed to care. "I'm up. No dragging, okay?"
"Now, on your feet," Kagami said.
"Geez," Aomine whined, hauling out of the bed.
"Your ice-cream," Kagami reminded him.
Clicking his tongue, Aomine grabbed the ice-cream and put the spoon into his mouth. "Mama-Gami," he snubbed, his word disoriented, and shuffled out of the bedroom.
Kagami followed him with an amused smile.
.
Kagami had lost count of the number of times he'd blinked in the darkness of his bedroom.
Insomnia kept finding him every time he placed his head on the pillow with the intention to sleep. The memories of Kenta and Tatsuya kept flickering behind his eyelids. The voices inside his head were crying out in alarm, begging him, blaming him, reminding him of his mistakes.
He tried to relegate them to the back of his mind but his mind was full of water, deep water with an endless depth, and down below, there were blood and nightmares, creeping around his legs ever so slowly, waiting for an opening, even a slightest opening to bog him down into despair. Kagami could never force its obedience, only build more and more useless thoughts around them to barricade himself in his bubble. However, few pieces of Tatsuya and Kenta memories would always find a way to circle his mind, and Kagami was left awake in his guilty.
No matter how exhausted his body was, Kagami couldn't sleep because the water was still there. It existed and didn't care about the condition of his body.
Refusing to give in, Kagami roused from the bed. He needed to move around and distract himself to regain the control over his mind. He needed to build walls around it, walls of unimportant tasks that always obeyed him, stupid thoughts, or even a boring basketball game.
Kagami staggered out of the bedroom. Bright light from the couch caught his attention. He was halted in the doorway.
Aomine was still wide awake, eyes to the cell phone in his hand.
"Aomine?" Kagami called out.
Aomine met his eyes without flinching. "You haven't slept?"
"I… uh," he hesitated, eyes looking away. "…can't sleep," he mumbled under his breath but still loud enough for Aomine to hear. He felt bashful all of a sudden, the taste of embarrassment and shame on the tip of his tongue too strong for his liking.
"Insomnia again?"
Kagami nodded hesitantly, in hopes the darkness of the living room conceals the blush on his cheek.
"Oh," Aomine simply said, glancing at the TV. "You think you have Wall-E DVD stored in somewhere here?" he suddenly asked, taking Kagami by surprise.
Kagami blinked at Aomine, clueless, the whirling thoughts and embarrassment diffusing into genuine surprise. Aomine tossed him a questioning look, not paying heed to the surprise expression of Kagami's look. Kagami recovered after a second. "I think it's in the DVD shelf."
"Alright," and without another word, Aomine flipped his cell phone close and went to the DVD shelf. Kagami kept watching, incredulous, as Aomine searched said movie, a hum of an unknown song leaving his lips. Aomine whooped gleefully when he'd found the DVD and raised it to Kagami's line of sight without looking back. He put on the DVD and walked over the couch again. He flopped down and motioned for Kagami to join him. "C'mon. The movie is starting."
And that just made Kagami more confused.
"Hey, come here. The movie is starting," Aomine said, putting his outstretched legs on the table.
Shaking his head to arrange his cluttered thoughts, Kagami took a seat next to Aomine. Aomine absently draped the blanket Kagami had lent him over Kagami's body. Kagami threw him a perplexed look but Aomine had fixed his eyes on the TV.
"Just watch the movie, Bakagami," Aomine told him without returning the look.
Kagami shifted his gaze ahead. "Why Wall-E?"
"Because it's awesome and Eva is awesomely cute," Aomine answered. "Just don't cry, okay? I'm not good at dealing with tears."
Kagami felt a ghost of a smile curl his lips. "Yeah, coz' you're too arrogant to give a shit about others' feelings," he shifted to get more comfortable. Without thinking about it, Kagami was actually shifting closer to Aomine, shoulder meeting shoulder, and he sank deeper into the couch. He couldn't help feeling relax at Aomine's stupid remark.
Aomine hushed him. "I'm watching the movie already, Bakagami."
Letting out a low, rough chuckle, Kagami shot back with Aomine's own words. "Just don't cry, okay? I'm not good at dealing with tears."
"Shut up."
The movie had started with Wall-E wandering around the landfill site, its wheels whirring noisily. The screen emitted low light as it showed the planet which was littered with waste materials floating alone in the universe.
And somehow, to Kagami, they were strangely relaxing, slowly lulling him to sleep, and his eyes slowly were fluttering close.
In the end, Kagami didn't have the chance to see Aomine crying. He had actually drifted off even before Wall-E met Eva.