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BANDS OF black AND blue
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13 : play games with the best
Aomine Daiki is surprised when he finds out that Kuroko is a deep sleeper. He had never bothered asking, simply assuming that the other would have been easy to wake up. The opposite turns out to be true: after a particularly strenuous practice session with the regulars of the first-string, where everyone was ordered to run two hundred laps around their double-sized gym, Kuroko looked about ready to pass out.
Nonetheless, he had insisted on staying late and practicing some more after the official practices, and then the unofficial practices, and then 'Really this is getting ridiculous people you have to go home and sleep' practices. Aomine shrugs, because he'd been thinking of getting some more speed on his hook shot, and so he stays behind with Kuroko.
Kuroko, he notices, has been advancing at marvelous rates - at first he barely had enough confidence to step onto the court, before, he was too shy to even give other people his name. Now... well, Aomine must admit that the other is still as quiet and reclusive as ever, but at least he's taking easy strides into the game, as opposed to those embarrassingly hesitant first steps the regional runner-ups had to have been witness to.
"Eh?" he intones, when he notices that Kuroko has stopped practicing. He glances around the court, unable to find the other. "Kuroko?" he calls, thinking back to that (ridiculous - but memorable) first-time experience with Kuroko (it involved ghosts - he still refuses to acknowledge that part).
"Over here," the other replies, and his eyes swing over to the once-deserted bleachers. Kuroko is sitting - hunched-over, but still sitting - atop the lowest set of bleachers, head bent over and elbows placed heavily atop his knees. Aomine doesn't even think of making another basket, dropping the basketball to go over to his teammate.
"Woah Tetsu," he says, impressed that he managed to so quickly get his heartrate to such a normal speed, "Are you okay? You shouldn't have stayed so late! It's practically..." he pauses to glance at the clock on the other side of the court, "Eight 'o clock! And you've been running for pretty close to two hours!" Aomine sits himself down next to the other, feeling the stark contrast between their skin tones, their heights, their sizes, their everything.
Kuroko laughs in response and the laugh sounds out-of-breath and flighty. "I wouldn't have guessed," he starts, and Aomine can hear his partner's uniquely playful sense of humor bleeding into his speech (it must be the exhaustion, he thinks), "that Aomine-kun was the mothering type," Kuroko chuckles to himself.
"Wha - ? No way!" Aomine protests, cheeks flushing. And then he feels a weight settle onto his shoulder. "Tets - " he tries to get out, turning his head. His eyes recognize the strange shade of blue hair and then all his mental processing systems subsequently stop - self-destruct or shut down or something - because he realizes that Kuroko, Kuroko who doesn't like hugs and is awkward with high-fives, is leaning his head against his teammate's shoulder.
And then, all of sudden, his brain fires up again, no doubt racing desperately to catch up to the speed of his now-thudding-away heart. It takes a great deal of effort to remember to breath (and that breathing requires the use of your nose and your mouth as opposed to, say, your feet or something). The words 'does not compute' keep flashing across his mind.
"Ah, Daiki-kun," Teikou's captain, Akashi, notes, raising an eyebrow at the curious position his 'Light' and 'Shadow' are in.
"Oh - captain - this isn't - " he starts, and then feels Kuroko's head leave his shoulders and he doesn't even need to think - just watches his hands shoot up and catch the other. It is the most impossibly awkward position in the universe, he thinks, to have his partner's face awkwardly cradled in-between his fingers while the captain of their basketball team regarded them with the same amount of interest and amusement that he used on chess games.
"Why not have Tetsuya-kun sleep in your lap?" Akashi smoothly suggests.
Aomine hopes that he has enough 'WHATTHEFUCK' in his repertoire to pull off the appropriate expression.
"Here, I'll help," Akashi continues, striding over and casually easing Kuroko atop of Aomine's not-at-all-liquefied-legs, effectively rendering Aomine's (once-proud) what-the-fuck expression useless. "There," the blasted captain has the decency to add, "much more comfortable, isn't it?"
"Why are you here?" Aomine asks, doing his best to appear collected and calm, however much resemblance his face may have with a tomato at the moment. "I thought you were the one that told us to stop practicing and rest." It's impossible however, to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
"Ah, well, that is..." Akashi chuckles, eyes roaming over his two dear teammates, "I was finishing up some paperwork," he smoothly lies and Aomine doesn't bother to call the captain on it (everyone knows that Momoi's the only one who ever goes anywhere near the paperwork). "It's good to see the two of you putting in some extra effort though," the captain continues, before switching the subject to: "He is doing unnaturally well, isn't he?"
Aomine tenses up - all-too-aware of the weight of Kuroko's head, practically nestled in his gym shorts.
"What do you mean?" he asks, feeling his mouth go dry.
"Nothing particular," Akashi replies, squatting down to examine Kuroko's sleeping face. "Poor boy, he must be terribly exhausted," he murmurs - more to himself than Aomine, "It would do him good if you walked him home," he notes - and Aomine nods, because their captain does not know the meaning of the word 'suggestion'. "You did well," Akashi continues, reaching forth a hand to brush - assumedly - a couple stray locks from Kuroko's forehead, "But you will do so much better."
And then he stands up - like nothing out of the ordinary (or particularly homoerotic) had just happened, giving a nod to a very-tense Aomine Daiki before making his merry way out of the basketball court that is his kingdom.
"I thought he would never leave," Kuroko mumbles, turning his head and exhaling right on top of Aomine's knee.
Aomine jumps up, shrieks like a ten-year-old girl, and subsequently causes Kuroko's head to crash against the top of the bleacher.
"...ow," Kuroko monotones, as Aomine is busy attempting to catch his heart rate again.
"Don't... ever... do... that... again...!" Aomine says - while his voice is still hysterically high and he can still taste his heart in his throat.
All the same, he stills walks Kuroko to his apartment complex that night - and every night after.