Chapter 5:
The shop would have been creepy even if it hadn't been located in one of the shabbiest corners of downtown Tokyo. Sunlight wouldn't have mattered either, but the dark sky gave it an even eerier aura. Plus, the fact the sign was done in curvy, almost unintelligible kanji, horrible green tones and surrounded by what could be called werewolves and zombies didn't help one bit. The shop was, in one word, gross.
Aomine bit the inside of his cheek. "So, why are we here, again?" he said.
"Because this is the address Midorimacchi texted me," Kise replied with a frown.
"I thought we were supposed to meet him at his apartment."
"We were, but when we were on the train on our way back from Akashicchi´s he texted me again and gave me this address." Kise fished his phone out of his pants, found Midorima´s most recent message and held the object out for inspection.
Blue eyes squinted at what had been typed down. A sigh came. "I´d say Midorima is messing with you…"
"Midorimacchi doesn't joke."
"… but yeah, I know the guy hasn't ever had a sense of humor. Also, since it´s our little weirdo we´re talking about, you have to admit it´s not impossible to believe he´s in here."
"But why would he be here of all places?"
"Maybe he´s getting his Halloween outfit already. This crappy shop sells costumes after all."
At the blonde's annoyed expression Aomine had to smirk.
"Be serious for once in your life, will you?" Kise snapped angrily.
The bluehead looked smug all of a sudden. "Oh, I plan on being dead serious tonight, baby, at least where you´re concerned," he almost purred.
Before Kise could recover from his shock enough to even think of a reply, the creepy shop´s door opened, and Midorima walked out with a lighter in one hand and a witch´s hat in the other.
The Generation of Miracles´ star shooter faltered in his step when he saw his two teammates-but-also-some-sort-of-friends right outside the shop. Serious green eyes went wide for a split second before they narrowed in suspicion.
"You," he said, and the single word sounded almost like a curse.
Aomine nodded to him. "Yo."
"Hi, Midorimacchi," Kise said with a wave.
"What are you doing here?"
"Um, meeting you."
"How did you know where I was?"
Kise raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean how did we know? Because you texted me the address, of course."
"I did no such thing, in fact."
"Yes you did."
"I did not." Midorima pushed his glasses up with the hand holding the lighter.
Aomine and Kise exchanged glances. "So, what, a ghost sent Kise the texts?" Aomine said.
The greenhead frowned. Kise blinked, and then some stifled guffaws became audible.
Almost in unison, the three prodigies turned around. As expected, they found Takao leaning against the shop´s door, his hands over his mouth. His whole body was shaking with loud and boisterous laughter.
Aomine snorted. Kise sighed. A vein started throbbing in Midorima´s forehead. "Takao," he growled, separating each syllable in a rather menacing tone.
The former laughed even more, and with so much force he almost fell to the floor, rolling with it.
"Takao," Midorima said again. He sounded like he was about to murder his boyfriend.
Takao held up a hand, as if asking for time. Midorima gave it –not happy, mind you– while he squeezed both objects he held in his hands.
After a minute, Takao´s laughter was reduced to chuckles. He straightened up, cleared his throat and with shiny eyes said, "Ah, I´m sorry, Shin-chan. I´m sorry."
The greenhead ignored the apologies. "What did you do?" he demanded with a glare.
The former point guard grinned, crossed his arms behind his head and said, "I think it´s pretty obvious. Good to see you, by the way, Kise, Aomine. Glad you could make it all the way into this tiny shop from hell."
Things clicked inside the blonde´s head. "You texted me," he said.
"I did… from Shin-chan´s phone." The grin widened. "Surprise!"
Silence, and then:
"Yeah, surprise," Aomine mocked, rolling his eyes.
Kise frowned. "How on Earth did you text me without Midorimacchi noticing?"
"Oh, you made it really easy, texting when Shin-chan was showering or when he let me grab his phone. It was very convenient."
There was more silence, and then Midorima said, "Why did you two want to meet me anyway?"
Aomine looked at him. "That´s it? You´re not going to kill Takao for grabbing your phone and bringing the three of us together?"
"I brought this unto myself, in fact."
"Eh?"
"He means it´s not my fault for texting you guys without him noticing. Instead, he means it´s his fault for letting me use his phone," Takao clarified. His expression said it all, though. Midorima wouldn't hurt him, not because it was anyone´s fault –it didn't much matter whose, but because after all those years… Midorima had come to tolerate and love his spontaneous, loud nature.
Kise smiled. It was about time, he supposed. Takao had stuck with the superstitious, serious tsundere since the start of high school, and had loved him since before they began their second year. The least Takao deserved was to be loved back.
And they made a good couple, sort of like a little kid and a babysitter, but still, Kise knew most of the Generation of Miracles was like that: they needed to be taken care of. Murasakibara had found Himuro; Midorima had Takao; Kuroko had turned out to be Kagami´s babysitter (or maybe it was the other way around; he couldn't tell with those two). Akashi… well, after what he´d just seen he suspected Nijimura was the one who kept Akashi in line and in touch with reality. And Aomine had always had Momoi around, but they were a non-romantic pair so they didn't really count.
But what a minute. What about him? He´d never had a babysitter except Kasamatsu-senpai, and back in Teikou he´d sort of looked over Aomine when Momoi couldn't or wouldn't because she got too fed up with all the stupid things he did. Also…
Oh no, no, no. He wasn't going to look into the babysitter angle any more. If he did he´d end up with the terrible conclusion that…
He shook his head, forced himself to smile and said, "Anyways, Midorimacchi, now that we´re here I´d like to give you…"
"No, we´re not going to talk here," Takao interrupted, and caught the attention of the three taller men. He motioned to his surroundings. "This is a creepy place and I hate being here. Let´s go somewhere else."
Aomine´s eyes narrowed. "Why are you here in the first place? I thought we´d meet at Midorima´s place."
"We were, but he–" Takao jerked a thumb in Midorima´s direction. "–checked up the Oha-Asa site and next thing I knew, he dragged me all the way here."
"I know of no other place to buy costumes, and Oha-Asa was very specific about tomorrow´s item," Midorima put in. "A velvet witch hat. I had to come, in fact."
"I know, Shin-chan." And Takao´s tone said he knew very well. "Well, at least today´s thingy was small and easy to get."
Aomine glanced at the witch hat, then the lighter.
"You´re still going strong with the lucky items, huh?" he murmured.
Midorima gave a curt nod.
"See, Kise? I told you since we were dealing with Midorima it wasn't impossible to think he was here." When the blonde only rolled his eyes he sighed. "Right, so, why don't we do what Takao said and we get out of this hellhole, or am I the only one who´s had enough of the owner of this crappy shop glaring at us from behind the crappy window?"
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Kise knew from the moment he bought Midorima´s clothes that the latter would appreciate them as much as Aomine would, maybe even less, given how… ah, standoffish he was. He´d had a hunch about it, he´d even gotten a premonition about it, so as soon as he´d purchased the clothes he went looking for another gift, one Midorima would appreciate and actually thank him for.
He had gone into three weird mystic paraphernalia shops before he found the perfect thing. As soon as he saw it, he knew he had to buy it. The thing screamed Midorima, and since that was what he´d been looking for, he´d bought it on the spot.
Now, as Takao gushed over the 'expensive, stylish and Shin-chan-ish' clothes Kise had handed over in their respective gift bag, he kept his eyes trained on the greenhead, who cradled the ugly wood statue between his hands as if it were a baby, and his own, newborn baby at that.
"What is he holding?" Aomine whispered to him. He looked dazed and a little silly craning his head to see the greenhead. . After leaving the creepy shop and area, they´d walked and tried to find a good place to sit down and talk. A small lake and park had been the closest thing. Since they couldn't find a free bench, they ended up on the grass. Midorima, Takao and him were still sitting. Aomine had laid down on the ground with his hands behind his head the moment they arrived.
"Oha-Asa," the blonde replied.
"… Come again?"
"Oha-Asa. The statue belongs to the first merchandise wave that came out when the horoscope just started. It´s a chibi, unpainted version of her."
"On wood?"
"People do stupid stuff to see if it sells."
Aomine sighed. "It´s ugly as hell."
"Yep, but I thought he´d…"
"Thank you so much."
The deep voice jerked both their heads around, and Kise´s mouth dropped to the floor when he saw Midorima´s bowed head in obvious gratitude.
He got goosebumps all over. He broke out into a sweat. What he´d just seen was too weird and scary.
"Uh, sure, sure, you´re welcome, Midorimacchi," he said, and waved his hands. He gave a nervous smile. "I´m glad you like it."
"It is the best gift I could have received, in fact."
"I´m glad."
Midorima gave him some serious nods, then went back to cradling the statue. Takao said, "Oi, Shin-chan, stop hugging Oha-Asa and look at this jacket Kise brought you! It´ll look amazing on you."
Verdant eyes went to said item, then back to the statue. Takao sighed.
"At least someone likes the clothes," Kise told him.
"Like them? They´re amazing and expensive and just so damn cool-looking! Shin-chan´s lucky he´s got a model friend. Is this the first time you've brought him back designer goodies?"
"No. I brought him back some lotions during middle school, gloves and stuff for hand care during high school, but I don't think he ever used them."
"Probably not." Takao chuckled, folded the jacket and pulled out another one. His blue eyes brightened. "Oh, he´ll look awesome in this."
"Takao, shut up," Midorima said absentmindedly.
"But you will." He glanced at the other clothes before looking back at Kise, who was playing with the grass strands in front of him. "So, still talking about the gifts, how did you get your hands on them? Did you bring for anyone else?"
Kise couldn't help but smile. This was one of the reasons he liked Takao so much. The ease in which he spoke, how he made himself at home wherever he went, the amicability he oozed off. Even though they hadn't had much contact through high school, the few times they did meet up because of Midorima, because Kuroko summoned them or to celebrate someone´s birthday, the two of them hit it off. Takao was a man after his own heart, after all.
"I got them from my last shoot in Italy," he said, and the blue eyes brightened even more.
"Italy. Ooh! Talk, pretty boy," Takao said.
As Kise launched into his story about working with Gucci, Aomine accommodated his body on the grass. The story would take quite a while with those two chatterboxes, and maybe he could take a nap while…
"Do you two plan on spending the rest of the evening with us?"
At Midorima´s question, Aomine began to crane his head, but realized he didn't have to because the greenhead was crawling –Midorima crawling while hugging the statue, he had to tape that– towards him.
"Yeah," he replied.
"You don't even know where we´re going, in fact."
"I don't care. Since Takao is here, I´m pretty sure we´ll have a great boys´ night out."
Midorima sat next to him, pushed his glasses up. "We´re not going clubbing or to a university party, if that´s what you think."
"You´re not?"
"No."
"I hadn't expected it, to tell you the truth, you being the one we´re hanging out with."
Midorima frowned.
Aomine smirked. "So no clubbing or wild partying. You guys going to hit the bars, maybe?"
"I don't drink, in fact."
"… I´m not surprised." He sighed, then sat up and rubbed at his face. Apart from partying, clubbing or drinking, he had no idea what a date could be about. Sure, movies or bowling were options, even going to an amusement park, but he sort of felt those were dates high schoolers would go on. Not freshmen in university, and not someone as reckless and him.
"Did you hear me?" Midorima interrupted his thoughts.
Aomine blinked, then frowned. "Nope. What did you say?"
The former sighed. "I said Takao and I are going to the hot springs tonight."
"To the hot springs? Why the hell are you going there on a Friday night?"
"Because it is my first weeknight off since the semester started, and I need to relax."
"You want to relax? You of all people."
The greenhead rolled his eyes. "University is very different from high school, and more so when you´re studying medicine. Whether you believe me or not, and you should because this is difficult for me to say… I need some time off, in fact."
Aomine barked a laugh, then gave it some thought. In the end he said, "The hot springs sound like a weird concept for a date, but what the hell. I´m in."
"I wish your answer had been negative."
"Any other day I would have said no, but Kise and I made a bet. I´ll definitely lose if I chicken out because you and Takao have stupid ideas for dates, so wherever you go, we go."
Midorima raised an eyebrow. Though he looked as serious as he always did, some curiosity could be found in the green eyes.
"What bet?"
Aomine shrugged. "Kise won´t say he loves me, but we both know he does, so the bet is by the end of the night he´ll confess to me."
Midorima raised his other eyebrow, then grunted… or did he chuckle? "You are both so annoying and competitive," he muttered. "But this is the dumbest thing I´ve heard from you two yet. You don't play with love. Idiots."
"I´m not playing. I´m just trying to get a confession."
"A confession is given when the time is right."
"I´ll arrange the time."
The greenhead frowned. "Why do you want to hear it anyway? It´s pretty obvious. It always has been, in fact."
Aomine actually laughed at that. "Has it?"
"Yes."
"Well, so it has, but neither of us has done anything about it until now. Let us work through it our way."
Midorima looked offended. "I hadn't planned to interfere in the first place."
"You hadn't?"
"No. I am not a meddler."
"No. You´re a weirdo, not a meddler." When the greenhead looked even more offended, Aomine almost guffawed like Takao.
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"I can´t believe this place is so empty."
"It´s Friday night, Kise."
"Exactly! Shouldn't people be all over the place? The weekend is coming, after all."
"And because the weekend is coming, people want to go drinking tonight, sleep late tomorrow morning and come to the springs on the afternoon."
"Hmm." Kise finished folding his clothes into his basket before putting it back on the shelf. When he was done, he looked down at his body draped in a towel, then glanced at Aomine, who was still wearing his jeans.
"You have to take all of your clothes off if you want to get into the water," he said.
Aomine gave him a sidelong glance. "Are you trying to get me naked?"
"No,"
"Liar."
The blonde frowned, cursed under his breath and began to walk towards the water, but then he stopped cold.
"By the way, Aominecchi, did you talk to Midorimacchi about what we sort of betted on?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Yeah." Why would he lie?
"Why did you tell him?"
Aomine shrugged, then shimmied out of his jeans, taking his underwear in the process. Kise averted his eyes almost automatically.
"Why not tell him?" the bluehead replied. He wrapped a towel around his waist. "It´s not like we´re going to hide our relationship from him and the others."
"We don't have a relationship."
"The night is young, Kise, and the setting is perfect." Aomine walked over to the surprised blonde and gave him his signature smirk. "And you know what´s the best thing?"
Kise wasn't sure he wanted to ask, but he did it anyway. "What?"
"Midorima, Takao, you and I are the only ones in the whole place, and the two lovebirds are on the other side of the wall outside, meaning we´ve got half the springs to ourselves."
Sapphire blue eyes met honey brown ones. Something passed between them.
"You´ll play dirty, won´t you?" Kise murmured.
Aomine grunted his answer. Play dirty? As if.
"Dirty? Ha. He´d never play dirty. Whether he likes it or not, he´s too much of a goody-two-shoes," a familiar voice came.
Kise and Aomine stilled, then turned to see as no other than Haizaki walking into the small room. Though he was clothed, he carried an empty basket in his hands.
The bluehead took a hostile stance. The blonde a defensive one.
Haizaki laughed at them. His eyes slid to Aomine for a couple of seconds before they landed on Kise. They lingered there, appreciating all the golden skin on display, the muscled but not ripped figure, the tall but not lanky male figure, the way the towel hung low on those gorgeous hips.
Kise would have squirmed at the intensity if he wasn't used to people ogling him during shoots.
The fact he didn't feel uncomfortable didn't mean he liked it, though, so he sort of crossed his arms over his chest, which only made Haizaki smile wider.
"Shougo-kun," he said.
"Hey there. You´re looking scrumptious these days, Ryouta."
"Oh, give me break," Aomine muttered, but he agreed. Kise was… sort of mouth-watering, and he didn't appreciate anyone else but him taking notice of this, less of all saying it.
Haizaki said, "Took the words out of your mouth, Daiki?"
"I´ll put my fist in your mouth if you don't leave us the hell alone right now."
"Why would I do that? This place is open to everybody, and it so happens I was walking by when I saw you guys come in, and it so happens I suddenly wanted to relax, walked in and surprise, here the two of you are, ready to go and with Ryouta looking like he needs to be bitten all over. The towel keeps the picture from being perfect, though."
Kise balled his hands into tight fists. Aomine fought the urge to pound Haizaki into the wall.
However, there was something about their former teammate that didn't let either of them take action. Kise, particularly, didn't want to hurt Haizaki, so all he did was mutter, "Go to hell, Shougo-kun," before he turned and walked out.
The other two men exchanged glances.
"Something wrong, Daiki? Thought you would have him to yourself tonight?" Haizaki said.
Aomine narrowed his eyes. "Who says I won´t, you shameless bastard?"
"I say it. Coincidence is a funny thing, don't you think?"
Coincidence his ass… or rather, Kise´s ass by the way thing were looking.
To be continued…
Hello! You know? The whole time I wrote this I thought Takao would be the one to help these two do something, but after watching the first episodes of season three again Haizaki came back into the picture and hurrah! I had a breakthrough, hahaha. :P Anyways, thanks for reading!