It was the weekend. The three boys were at the court near Kagami's house. They'd been playing for a while, but were struggling to find a way to make it work with an uneven number of players. At first, Kuroko had automatically teamed up with Kagami, and it had honestly been a pretty even match, even if Kagami would never admit it, but after a few minutes, Aomine spoke up.
"How come you get Kuroko?" He swerved suddenly to the right, easily bouncing the ball out of reach as Kagami lunged.
"Because he's my teammate." The ball flew out of Aomine's hand suddenly, and Kagami caught it.
"See?" Aomine said, twisting around to face where Kuroko stood behind him, hand still hovering over where the ball had been a second ago. "You've got an unfair advantage. We should switch it up."
"Are you scared you're gonna lose? I thought you liked a challenge." Aomine snarled and charged towards him. He dodged, dribbling the ball out of reach.
"Aomine-kun is right. It would be fair for me to switch teams once in a while," Kuroko said. Kagami growled.
"Fine," he said, glaring at Aomine, "but I'm still gonna kick your ass." Aomine scoffed.
They played like this for a while, but it wasn't long before Kagami and Aomine were fighting again. Kagami was convinced Kuroko and Aomine had been playing together longer than Kuroko and himself, but Aomine was sure their time wasn't up yet.
"This isn't working. We can't keep fighting over him," Aomine said finally.
"This would work just fine if you weren't trying to hog him! What else can we do? We can't just leave him out!" Kagami threw the ball hard towards Aomine.
"We have to find a way to make it work with three people." Aomine calmly tossed it back. "Three teams."
"You can't play basketball with three teams!" Kagami aimed for Aomine's face this time, throwing as hard as he could. Aomine caught it easily.
"Why not? We'll just all play, and whoever gets the most points wins."
"That won't work!"
"Why not?"
"Because…" Aomine smirked at Kagami's hesitation, bouncing the ball absently. "Kuroko can't play by himself!"
"I'll be fine," Kuroko said.
"See? He'll be fine." Aomine smiled at Kuroko, and he smiled back. Kagami scowled at both of them, but then Aomine turned that lazy smirk towards him instead, and the fight drained out of him.
"Fine," he sighed. "We can try to make it work."
It wasn't long before Kagami completely forgot about his protests. It was hard to think about anything but basketball with Aomine in front of him, breathing hard and covered in sweat. His eyes were fixed on Kagami, wild and hungry. He stepped away suddenly, going from almost absolute stillness to full speed so fast Kagami almost didn't see it, but he was ready for that. He lunged after him immediately, ducked, swiped at the ball and spun around him. They reacted to each other so smoothly and quickly it almost seemed coordinated. Kagami reached forward one last time and grinned as his hand finally collided with the ball, knocking it to the ground. He pounced after it as it bounced away, but before he could grab it, it was gone. He looked around frantically. Kuroko stood under the net, poised to shoot. Kagami yelled as the ball left his hands, and leapt towards him, but it was too late.
"Yes!" Kuroko said quietly, pumping his fist in the air. Aomine swiped the rebound, and Kagami bolted after him again.
The sun had disappeared behind a thick layer of clouds hours ago, but a weak orange glow was sinking towards the horizon. Kuroko had collapsed on the concrete a while ago, panting and exhausted but smiling, and decided to watch the other two play until they were bored. He was sitting on a bench, leaning against the fence surrounding the court, when he felt a drop of water on the back of his hand. He looked up, squinting, at the dark grey gradient sky.
"Kagami-kun, Aomine-kun," he said, trying his best to speak up, but neither of them responded. He sighed, and settled with watching them a little longer. He wouldn't have been surprised if they would have ignored him even if he screamed, considering the way they looked at each other. He'd never seen either of them so deep in concentration as when they played together. They danced around each other rhythmically, shouting and snarling like wild animals. They flew past him suddenly, so close he could smell them, feel their heat and the air that ruffled his hair from their movement. Kagami tore away from Aomine and crouched in front of the net. Kuroko gasped when he flew into the air. Aomine jumped after him, their chests almost touching, but was easily left behind. He rose so high he had to reach downwards to slam the ball through the hoop. A triumphant grin blasted across his face, and Kuroko couldn't stop himself from smiling, too. Aomine's shirt flew up as he fell, exposing the little trail of hair leading down from his bellybutton.
Kuroko noticed this last fact only because he noticed everything.
"Hm?" Aomine stopped suddenly, holding his hands out and looking up. "It's raining."
"No it's not." Kuroko smirked. Of course Kagami had to argue.
"It is! I felt it!"
"A bug probably peed on you."
"Bugs don't pee on people," Aomine said. He pointed at the ground, where tiny dark spots were starting to appear on the concrete. "See? It's raining."
"…So what?" Kagami said, bending over to get the ball, which had rolled away after he dunked it.
"So, we should probably go home," Aomine said. "We've been out here for hours, anyways. Kuroko's too tired to play anymore"
"Ugh, I guess you're right. I don't want to, though." Aomine sighed.
"Me neither," he admitted. Kuroko smiled, remembering when Aomine used to sleep through practice, and complain when he was forced to play.