This is based on a short scribble comic I saw on Pixiv that gave me AoAka feelings. The title is based on something from the artist's notes.
The first one to leave might have been Kuroko, but none of the rest of them stayed either. With the tournament over, it was time for them to pass the club on to the kouhai anyway. There was no pressing reason for them to stay together anymore.
Still, locking up the clubhouse after practice – a task Akashi had yet to give up, every once in a while he would find Aomine hanging around, seemingly by coincidence. And then they would end up going in the same direction without a word between the two of them, still by coincidence. Until a suitable distance whereupon Aomine would get bored of the game and turn down a different street.
Akashi did not know for what purpose Aomine did this. To be more exact, he did not care to know. It did not matter; they were teammates only in name now, and soon enough they would be in different schools. The next time they meet on the court would be as enemies.
But walking next to the mute shadow beside him, Akashi remembered. A simpler time, when he did not have to tip his head back so much to look Aomine in the eyes. A time when he had actually felt wonder at seeing someone so blessed by something they loved wholeheartedly and without artifice. To think he had once marvelled at Aomine.
No, it wasn't a simpler time. Balancing the needs and wants of everyone with their skill level and enjoyment while still making sure they won? That was far more complicated than the victory that Teikou dictated required. Worrying about nothing except winning was simple, and the only thing they should have been concerned with in the first place.
Watching Aomine turn down a street that did not lead towards his house – just like every other time when he had arbitrarily decided he had had enough of walking together – Akashi wondered what Aomine got out of this. Did he too think of their earlier days? That one-sided conversation they had not long after they both became regulars, did he remember it?
"I honestly don't know what to make of you. You're kind of mysterious, aren't you? But you're really good at basketball, so you can't be a bad guy!"
"I see…"
It didn't matter what Aomine got out of it. If Akashi was simply the only one left that would neither pry into his circumstances nor push him away. It wasn't important.
The only one who can defeat me is me.
Since I always win, I'm always right.
Come next year, one of these statements will become false.
Wait for me, Daiki, just one more year until the stage I have set up for us is ready.