Wooo! I actually finished this one on time, as promised! And, drum roll please, there is Ao-Kuro action in this! So sit back and enjoy!
Chapter 11
Kuroko resolutely stared down at the table and sipped sullenly at his vanilla milkshake. The two redheads sitting with him were seemingly oblivious to their friend's sulking as they continued to make eyes at each other. Kuroko half expected one of them to throw dignity and inhibition away at any moment now and leap across the table and start mauling at the other. He mentally gagged at that thought. So it was with great relief on the pale haired boy's part, when a shadow fell across their table. Looking up to greet the inevitable appearance of a member of the Generation of Miracles (somehow everything that had been of significance seemed to either involve, occur or begin at Maji Burgers) Kuroko's heart flopped in trepidation and timid hope when his light blue eyes met familiar glittering sapphires.
"Ah, Daiki, you made it."
Shooting a vaguely annoyed look at Akashi, Aomine dumped his tray heaped with teriyaki burgers and fries down on the remaining seat at the table, which was conveniently situated across from Kuroko.
Grunting a brief, "Tetsu," in greeting and nonchalantly sliding an extra-large vanilla shake across the table, he proceeded to devour the food in front of him with gusto. Seeing this, Kagami took it as a challenge of some form and determinedly peeled the wrapping from the first of his pile and stuffed the entirety of it into his mouth. Aomine paused and narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the red head who just grinned jeeringly back, revealing lumps of unchewed burger in the process. That was it. War had been declared and there was no backing down. The two fierce aces were a blur of motion as they methodically unwrapped, stuffed, chewed (this step was optional), and swallowed. Repeat.
The two remaining basketball players shared a look of exasperation, well, Akashi's eyebrows were slightly wrinkled and Kuroko's eyelid had twitched once. Cradling his new tumbler of vanilla goodness reverently, Kuroko's previous irritation and bad mood lifted with every burger that disappeared, and was replaced, instead, with a mixture of fondness and intense warmth that only the dark skinned boy had ever been able to bring out in him. His contented observation continued until Kagami slammed the last wrapper down triumphantly, punctuating his victory with an obnoxious slurp of his Coke and a loud belch with a fond pat to his newly formed paunch.
Kagami was just about to taunt his arch rival on how he had lost again, when a small insistent hand tugged on his.
"Taiga, we are going to miss the movie."
"Crap! I completely forgot, gotta go! See ya Kuroko, Ahomine," still snickering, Kagami swept out of the fast food restaurant behind his boyfriend.
Outside Maji, Akashi glanced back through the window to see Aomine's flabbergasted expression and smirked smugly in satisfaction. His plan was well on the way to completion.
What. The. Hell.
Aomine's brain was spluttering in absolute shock. Akashi, their brilliant, commanding, terrifying, insane captain was…was…with Kagami? Just that mental image had him reaching for the bleach to eradicate any stray thoughts on that – couple. But…Kagami was in love with Tetsu! Wasn't he?
Swinging his gaze from the slowly closing doors of the entrance to the boy sitting in front of him, Aomine demanded in a shaky voice, "What was that?!"
Tetsu blinked up at him and finished off his drink with a relish before replying in a matter-of-fact tone, "They're dating."
Like that answered anything.
"Since when!"
"Two weeks."
"B-but, Kagami and y-you."
To Aomine, the slight twitch of the left corner of Tetsu's lip in response to that remark was equivalent of a full blown condescending glare from anyone else.
"Kagami-kun and I are friends."
With that, the Seirin player got up and slipped through the crowd to order more food.
Aomine slumped back into his seat, rubbing his forehead. If what just happened had actually just happened, and wasn't just a figment of his imaginations, then everything had changed. Bakagami wasn't into Tetsu and there were clearly no feelings on his former shadow's behalf either. No matter how well Kuroko was able to hide his emotions from others, to Aomine, he was an open book; Aomine would have been able to pick up on even the tiniest scrap of resentment, smallest sliver of jealously and slightest hint of hurt that would have flickered across Tetsu's face when Akashi had taken Kagami's hand or when Kagami had so clearly brushed them off in preference for the Rakuzan player's company.
It finally hit him that there were no obstacles anymore. With hungry eyes, he unerringly located Tetsu amongst the mass of customers, trying desperately, and failing, to catch the attention of the assistant behind the counter. With a fond smile Aomine rose from his seat and headed towards his shadow. Slipping behind him easily, Aomine rested a hand on Tetsu's hip in the pretence of maintaining his balance before leaning over the smaller boy's shoulder to place their order. Thanks to his earlier epiphany, Aomine was on high alert and took notice of the way Tetsu had stiffened underneath him and the slight hitch in his breath. To confirm his suspicions once and for all, on the way back to their table, he gently encircled a dainty wrist with his hand and sure enough, Tetsu's pulse was pounding away. Aomine gleefully tightened his grip, his own heart beating an elated, rapid rhythm.
The two slipped into a familiar and companionable quiet, punctuated by quiet remarks and light laughter, smiles that shone in their eyes and shy, affectionate glances at each other. Aomine had missed this. During their Teiko years, this had been a near daily occurrence after a hard session of practice. They were sometimes joined by their team mates but more often than not, it had been the two of them. Aomine had considered those occasions the bright point in his day; he had eagerly looked forward to them and had treasured those moments dearly. He hated that it was because of him their friendship – and that lingering hope and sense that there was something more – had been cut so cruelly and abruptly. It wasn't until Tetsu had up and vanished at the end of their third year and Aomine, previously the go-to guy on the whereabouts of the phantom sixth man, had been unable to find him – and trust him, he had tried, hell he hadn't put so much effort into a single activity before – that he realised just how engrained Tetsu was in his life. He wasn't just his faithful shadow or the best friend he had ever had or even the one person who had understood and known him completely and yet still accepted every flawed aspect of his person without question, Tetsu was a part of him. Losing him had been horribly painful and left him agonisingly lonely.
As their second meal drew to a close, Aomine resolved to rectify his past blunder. The evening felt significantly cooler than the previous hours of daylight as he walked Tetsu to the station. Aomine wracked his brains for the right phrase to smoothly inject his intentions into their conversation. The overhead speaker announced that Tetsu's train was approaching, and the pale bluenette turned to say goodbye. Aomine panicked. Before he could rethink his actions, his arms had reached out on their own volition to pull the shorter boy into his chest and his lips had slammed against his.
Electricity seemed to flow between them, shooting waves of shock down Aomine's body, energising every nook and cranny and when Kuroko's hands came up shyly to rest on his shoulder and to tangle in his hair, Aomine swore that he could see fireworks go off behind his closed eyes. The tiny, tentative touch of Tetsu's tongue on the seam of his lips had the taller boy's knees waver and threaten to give out. The shrill reminder of the loudspeaker pulled the two apart, gasping. Now that, that was a kiss.
Resting his forehead on Tetsu's, Aomine pressed a soft peck to the tip of his adorable nose before demanding breathlessly, "Go out with me."
The blinding smile that spread across Kuroko's face had Aomine kicking himself for not doing this so much earlier. He was an idiot, pure and simple.
"About time, Aomine-kun."
This is not the end, my friends. I'm not done with this adorable couple yet, I still have a few more chapters roughly outlined in my head, it will most likely be filled with fluff, fluff and more fluff, so stay tuned!
Any feedback is appreciated; after all it is the sustenance of all writers! :D