"Kuroko-sensei!"
"Ah, it's Akashi-sama!"
"Wow! Look at all the basketballs!"
"Eh? Who's the scary looking ganguro?"
"Must be a sensei."
"Are you going to teach us basketball, ganguro-sensei?"
Aomine never, was as flustered as he was at this moment while the interested children swarmed around him. Speechless, he gawked at the red head who bid them farewell.
"Tetsuya, I'll see you tonight, " he said in a seductive manner towards Kuroko.
Then, almost as if the dumbfounded pro was an after thought, he smirked at the doorway, "Have fun, Ganguro-sensei."
Flashing a gentle, fake smile towards the adoring children, Akashi left the gym.
"Shit," the basketball player muttered under his breath, before immediately regretting saying it and covering his mouth, hoping that no one heard. Unfortunately, these kids had exceptional hearing.
"Sheet?"
"I think he said 'shit'."
"What's shit?"
"I think it's another word for 'thanks.'
"Oh, then shit you for sharing your cookie with me."
"You're welcome! Shit to you too for letting me borrow your toys!"
Kuroko shot a scowl at the tanned man who acted sheepishly, as he informed the innocent children, "That S-word is a bad word. Only bad adults say that, so don't go copying Aomine-sensei."
"So Aomine-sensei is a bad adult?"
"Yes, he is! I can testify!"
Aomine recognized that chime like voice and turned around. Standing with her arms crossed, a blonde girl glared at him with puffed cheeks.
"Well look who it is," the man said dully, "It's Kise's brat."
"It's not Kise's brat," she spat, "The name's Taki, but you can call me Taki-sama!"
He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever you want your highness."
The basketball player watched in slight amusement as he watched the girl smile triumphantly, only to realize that she was actually being made fun of. In all honesty, he found it funny how everything she thought was so blatantly displayed on her face. He had to stifle a laugh as her face turned fifty shades of red.
"Aomine-sensei, stop teasing Taki-san," Kuroko scolded him, "Also, children, please sit in your squads and give us your full attention!"
Obediently, they followed his orders – much to Aomine's surprise – and split into two lines of five. Clearing his voice, the smaller man gestured towards the pro.
"As you've guessed, Aomine-sensei here will be teaching along with myself for the next month. We'll be playing basketball."
All of the children let out a cheer of happiness, and Aomine was slightly excited to teach these eager youths (although he'd never admit it).
"Since there are ten of you, we could easily begin a normal basketball game, but as many of you are beginners, each sensei will train one squad. Then, on the last day, we'll have the two squads play a game against one another."
He passed the tanned man a clipboard. "Squad A will be with Aomine-sensei and Squad B will be with myself."
This brought mixed reactions from the students, some excited and other nervous. Two kids however, were getting fired up.
"I hope you're ready to lose, Souta!"
Aomine saw the young blonde point at a boy with blue hair and red eyes.
"Nuh-uh," he snorted, "Both my dads were a part of the generation of miracles! I can wipe the floor with your whole squad by myself!"
"So what? You're not even blood-related. I have 100% of papa's blood in me. Papa calls me a genius!"
"Your papa's a liar! Your squad is going down, Taki!" The small boy flung his hands our towards the girl, wanting to shove her down.
Kise's little girl had guts though and dodged, "In your dreams, Souta!"
Souta snorted, embarrassed to have missed, "W-whatever! A-and, Dad is the one coaching my squad and you've got a ganguro to coach yours. Can he even play basketball?"
The blonde winced, unable to answer his question.
Kuroko bopped the boy on his head, "Souta-kun, don't be rude."
"What'd you hit me for, dad?"
Aomine raised his eyebrow, "Your kid?"
Kuroko nodded, "Yes. He is Akashi-kun and my adopted son, Akashi Souta-kun."
"For a kid who wasn't conceived by you guys, he looks freakishly like the two of you." From somewhere in his hazy memory, he recalled getting an email about this.
"Anyways," the other man changed the subject, "Aomine-sensei is an amazing basketball player. He's come back from America, where he plays in the big leagues."
Some kids oohed, Taki and Souta however, remained unimpressed.
"Hmph," the blonde girl squinted her eyes, "That's nothing. Bakagami played there too."
"That's right! Even Bakagami who needed dad's help just to beat Taki's loser papa was able to make it in America."
"What'd you call papa, stupid Souta?"
Both children glared at each other and Aomine could feel the tense crackle that he recognized as the atmosphere of true rivals. Unable to contain the mirth that the squabbling kids provided him, he let out a laugh. Thinking of the large, red-headed lug being looked down upon by these three-foot tall, sassy little children was too funny.
"What're you laughing about, Ahomine?"
"Who you calling Ahomine, you midget?" he fit in between chuckles. Then, he gave her his signature smirk which frightened many opponents. However, Taki wasn't afraid. Instead, she folded her arms and stood her ground defiantly. She had totally changed from the sobbing infant he met a week ago. No, rather, this was who she truly was. She probably had confidence that she had the back up of her posse and Kuroko, and felt a need to be strong. She reminded him of his childhood self.
"Well," he said, "let's see if you've got the skills to back up your talk. 100 laps around the gym, oh – not all of you guys. Just her brat highness, Taki-sama."
Taki gave him a look of disgust and stuck out her tongue. Aomine stuck out his in response.
Kuroko rolled his eyes at the pro's childish behaviour.
Half an hour and a lifetime's worth of immature bickering later, the ten kids were sweaty and all warmed up. The two men had split up the gym with a divider that had slowly come down from the ceiling. On Aomine's side, he sized up his squad. Surprisingly, he only realized now that Taki was the only girl out of the five players. Rubbing his temples, he also recalled that Kuroko's team had two. Huh, he thought, three to seven. I thought that these days they tried to equalize the classrooms gender wise.
Watching his trainees though, he found out quickly that gender really didn't matter much at age five, as he observed how Taki acted as queen. She wasn't exactly bossy, but commanded authority. A natural leader.
It also helped that she was good at basketball for age, and they all knew it.
He watched silently as the children began practicing dribbling. Even with the smaller balls, the four inexperienced students found it difficult to bounce the ball with a single hand. With practice, they learned quickly – absorbing Aomine's tips and teachings like fresh sponges. Some time later, they could bounce the mini balls steadily and even walk around a little before losing control. Oddly, the pro found this extremely impressive. Perhaps he was getting ahead of himself, but he asked them to switch hands. All four balls slipped out and short legs chased after them. Back to square one.
Then, there was Taki.
With powerful and dexterous movements for a child of her size, the young blonde dribbled her ball confidently. First with her right, then switching to her left. Around her leg it'd go, before traveling around her other. Behind her, to the side – she was able to skilfully manoeuvre the bouncing object. She's a genius, just like her father, Aomine thought, ignoring the stab in the heart he felt at the thought of him.
Taki noticed that the pro had been watching her and appraising her positively. She looked up and gave him a smug grin before turning around and dribbling towards the tiny hoop. With a grand leap, she dunked the ball and hung onto the rim before landing gracefully on both feet. Her team mates cheered in awe, and the girl faced Aomine again. With a mock bow, she boasted, "This is elementary stuff!"
In response, the tanned man tossed the ball he held with one hand and sank it in the hoop, startling Taki and winning the respect of his temporary students (except the lone girl).
"Hmph," he shrugged his broad shoulders, "You're right, that is easy. You could even train a monkey to do that. Can you do that, though?"
Face blushing from embarrassment, she pouted and looked away from him. "Get back to practicing, you brats." His words were sharp, but his smile was genuinely happy.
The rest of the time flew by quickly. The session was split in two, one hour segments with frequent breaks, but with the reluctant help of Taki, the remaining four learned the basics quickly. They still had sloppy movements and made many mistakes, but they were worlds better than when they started. Before they knew it, it was time for the children to get picked up by their parents.
"See you, Aomine-sensei!"
"Thanks for teaching us basketball!"
Smirking, he shouted back, "Whatever. Just don't complain later on, it's only going to get tougher."
Innocently, the kids giggled off his warning and ran out of the seemingly larger gymnasium. Now, almost completely empty, the tanned pro felt that he had shrunk in the time he spent here. Exhaling, he cracked his neck and stretched his arms. To his pleasant surprise, this didn't suck so much. With the exception of the occasional pain he felt when he looked at Taki, it was a good distraction from his heart-break. Speaking of that brat...
Unlike all of the others, she stayed in the gym, practicing by herself. Aomine spoke out, "Don't you have to go back to your dad too?" His voice cracked as he said dad. He still wasn't used to seeing Kise as a father in his head.
The young girl didn't look at him, and continued practicing, "Papa works until the sun sets."
Aomine checked the clock, safely protected behind a metal cage on the wall. It read: 5:00. The weather channel had predicted that it would set near seven.
Aomine scratched his head. Kuroko had already gone with the other kids to see them off. As much of a trouble it would be, he couldn't just leave.
He snuck up behind the blonde and stole the ball from her.
"Hey! Give that back, Ahomine."
"Hey, it's Aomine-sensei. Show some respect. Who'd you get that rude mouth from?" Actually, he didn't want an answer to that. To his relief, she only scowled.
"Respect is earned, not given."
"Think you're such a hot-shot, don't you?"
"They call me a genius," she leered.
He rolled his eyes. "Let me teach you a lesson about the real world, brat."
"Like I told you, it's Taki-sama to you."
"Like I told you, it's Aomine-sensei."
Aomine didn't care how immature he looked. He wasn't losing to a kid.
"Fine," she huffed, "Let's settle this with basketball!"
It must have been a ridiculous sight to anyone who passed by. A fully grown man, over six feet tall, playing so seriously against a five-year old girl who was practically half his height. The pro was crushing her, all while teasing the poor sap. Nevertheless, Taki didn't cry. She didn't even get angry and quit – not even as Aomine sank shot after shot while blocking all of hers.
Ten minutes later, the pro obviously had won. He lazily dribbled the ball while gloating, "Where'd all that big talk about your skills go?"
Panting, the girl shot him a displeased look... before pouncing at the ball: an action so unexpected that Aomine couldn't even stop her. Unbalanced but determined, she ran as quickly as her short legs could carry her.
"The game's not over until I say so!"
Chasing after her, he replied to her declaration, "Like I'd let you, idiot!"
He caught up to her in a second but she kept running and then jumped – right pass the hoop.
"You planning on jumping to Canada, stu – "
Elegantly, her next moves shut him up. With a proud smile, she gently tossed the ball above her head, and it soared behind her... and into the basketball hoop.
"Nope! I'm planning on jumping to Winners-ville!" she smiled, shooting him a V-sign.
"Where'd you learn that from?" he asked.
"Papa taught me it," she said, proudly.
"Geez, you're a ridiculous child," secretly thinking that Kise had learned that from him.
Taki giggled in response, but Aomine picked up the ball and tossed it behind him – scoring in the opposite hoop. "Still not good enough though. 2 to 1, I'm winning still."
Her smile disappeared and she frowned, "Again! Play me again, one more time!"
"Don't expect me to fall for anymore of your tricks," he teased.
She gave him a thumbs down.
"One more time!"
Her golden hair was sticking to her face but she didn't care. Her legs had given up, but she didn't care. Aomine's heart ached as he remembered how Kise used to chase after him like this... and found it strange that still, he couldn't hate his ex's daughter. He knew it from the moment he found out and had pondered it for the week he had lived as a recluse. Her charm was irresistible to him, he found her endearing.
"You're done, you know that."
"J-just give me a second. Don't look down on me! I-I'm tougher than this, you'll see!"
"You should know your body's limits."
"Be quiet, Ahomine! Stop thinking you're so hot just 'cause you're bigger than me!"
He laughed and crouched down.
"Get on."
"I don't need your help."
"I'll leave you here alone then." He stood up and began walking away. Behind, he heard the sounds of crawling.
"Don't... don't go...!"
The blonde child was staring at him with her a scared look in dark eyes and he went back to piggyback her.
"You should have just accepted my help to begin with."
Her childish innocence was refreshing.
The warmth of her body felt strangely comforting and he couldn't help but think that if she were his daughter, he'd spoil her silly.
But that's impossible.
Shut up.
The two of them walked out of the gym, and Aomine went to find his friend. Wandering around, he soon got lost with all of the corridors. Groaning, he found himself in a room full of tables and vending machines.
"Are you hungry?" Taki's voice asked, tiredly. He could feel it vibrate against his back.
"Not really," he said, "Are you?"
The girl paused for a second, and then the tanned man felt her stomach growl.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"No..." she whispered, "Taki promised papa she'd eat with him."
Aomine stiffened but didn't say anything more about it. Alternatively, he offered to buy her a drink since she must have been thirsty. The girl had drunk her hello kitty water bottle dry.
Too parched to refuse, she answered with "strawberry milk" when asked what she wanted. Rummaging through his shorts, he found enough change to buy her choice of drink and another bottle of water for himself. Taking the two beverages with one of his large hands, he brought them over to an empty table before gently letting the girl off. She sat down next to him, and fidgeted.
"You can take it, you know," he passed the milk box to her.
Nervously, she accepted it with both hands and thanked him shyly.
"So you have manners after all," he joked, and smiled when her chubby cheeks reddened.
Both of them sat in silence, and Aomine studied the young child thoroughly for the first time.
There was no doubt that she was Kise's child. Everything about her outer appearance was nearly an identical, female reproduction of the model's own features. The only noticeable difference between the father and daughter pair were the eyes; Kise had amber eyes whilst Taki had dark blue ones. He hated himself, but he thought that they looked so similar to his own azure irises. Then he thought, that if only Kise or himself had been a girl. Maybe... Taki could have been his baby too.
"I wonder who's your mother."
"Mama is papa."
"Hm?"
"Taki's mama is papa." Aomine realized too lately that he had actually said his thought out loud, and that she was plainly answering his inquiry.
"You don't know who your mother is?"
She looked at him impatiently, "Taki said, mama is papa!"
"Then who's your papa?"
The girl shot him a look that said she pitied him for being so unbelievably stupid, "Papa is papa! You seemed to know papa before Papa even let you be one of the -cchis."
So her mom really did abandon her, he thought. Although Kise leaving him still bothered him, he felt a bit of sympathy for her.
"Ah, Aomine-kun, Taki-san."
"Woah!"
Aomine still wasn't used to his friend popping out of nowhere all the time, "Where'd you come from, Tetsu?"
"I've been standing here for a while now," he said, before looking at the child, "Taki-san, Kise-kun is here to pick you up."
"Papa?" Her eyes glowed with affection upon hearing her father's name. Jumping down from her set, she ran with her milk box out the door. The two men then heard the squeak of sneakers stopping abruptly and watched as the little blonde ran back towards the tanned pro.
She looked up at him with warm eyes and cleared her voice, "By the way, I let you win today. I felt bad to beat you on your first day around here so I went easy. Don't expect to win the next time we face off!"
He snorted.
Satisfied, she turned around to leave again, this time stopping at the door to say, "But you still did pretty well. Sp, I've upgraded you to Ahomine-sensei, andI guess I'll let you call me Taki without the –sama. Be grateful!" and then she ran down the corridor to the front desk where Kise was probably waiting.
"Tsk," Aomine frowned, "She's so rude and conceited. I wonder who she got that from?"
Kuroko observed his best friend with tender eyes and muttered, "That'd be you."
"Did you say something, Tetsu?"
"Ah... no, forget it."
"Whatever."
The smaller boy saw the change in the tanned man, and realized that this must have been Akashi's plan. To let Aomine start to love Taki...
Exhausted from his long days of worrying, he sat down.
"The love between a parent and child is so amazing."
"Huh?" Aomine gave him a confused look.
"Nothing."
Just that... Aomine-kun... already, you have the expression of a father. Taki's father.
Behind his light blue eyes, Kuroko wondered what kind of face his friend would make when he found out that Taki was indeed, the daughter of not only Kise, but the basketball pro's as well.
A/N: Yay! Chapter 3 is here! Oh my god it's so long . (for me that is lol) Honestly, I had the most fun writing this chapter. I adore Taki and Aomine together. I always think of how it'd be if she was already a teenager. Definitely, she'd be much sassier. Haha. Well, that was my attempt at some fluff /. Hope you guys found it cute too.
Er, Souta was kind of on the spot in creation. Let's just say he's going to be a useful side character in the future. And yes... AkaKuro will be a side fluff coule who helps move the story along haha. I have no confidence in writing AkaKuro well though... so please don't throw tomatoes at me when I try!
Just a side note, having all male parents make it a bit confusing when kids refer to them. So, I gave each one of them a variant. Basically, Akashi = Father, Kuroko = Dad, and Kise = Papa ;D