ONE ; COTTON CANDY

THEME ; FLUFF, CHILDHOOD

WORD COUNT ; 1,735

RATING ; K+


Sometimes, when his hunger was at its peak, Aomine saw her hair as pink, fluffy cotton candy.

It was during those times that Aomine found the urge to tug, (not playfully though, since Aomine was everything but playful), on the seemingly perfect strands of hair, maybe even run his hand through it. But his thoughts quickly stopped there before they escalated to greater heights.

Momoi, after all, was a person not to be messed with, even if Aomine saw her hair as a treat filled with sugary goodness. Having such odd hallucinations was bound to be unhealthy and the supposed remedy would be confession but he could never bring himself to do so since, well, a slap from Momoi would be inevitable.

But laying out the consequences only furthered his thoughts of Momoi.

He scoffed at his present state. It was weird. These kinds of thoughts towards his childhood friend were popping up daily in his mind lately and he still was not used to it.

"Yea, what's so good about her hair anyways? It's just all pink and not sexy at all. Nothing like- what was her name again? That porn star from that new photo book…Mai? Mei? Well, whatever." The thing was that he was, in no way, interested in Satsuki. "No way. No way in hell."

And so he tried to busy himself with as many porn magazines he could get hold of, replacing his memories of pink hair with short, stylish blue; dangerous magenta eyes with safer pale blue. By the time he finished his supply of 'reading materials', he came to the dreadful realization that the person he was replacing Momoi in his mind with resembled much of his former basketball partner, Kuroko Tetsuya.

That was when the sound of his doorbell promptly rang through his house, saving Aomine from plunging into the deep abyss of his swirling thoughts and fated to never return.

When he opened the front door, Aomine was shocked to see the source of his troubles standing in living color. Hair messily combed, Momoi tapped her foot impatiently on the concrete floor. Her mouth was spewing words but they became incomprehensible since Aomine tried to bite down the blush that fought its way to his cheeks. Part of him said that it was probably due to the fact that the person indirectly responsible for his troubles had arrived at his doorstep suddenly. But another part of him, which was probably right, claimed it was because he had actually tried reimagining his childhood best friend with Kuroko.

"Aho-mine!" she snapped, waking Aomine from his thoughts, "are you even listening to a single thing I've said?!"

Aomine shook off his blush and quickly regained his composure. He turned around to head back into the house, while raising his hand in a dismissive wave, "Yea, yea. I'm tired." He faked a yawn and looked back, expecting Momoi to follow him like how she always did whenever she came over.

"Well you obviously haven'tbeen!"

Aomine didn't even have time to react before the world spun and he felt himself being dragged by the sleeve. He stumbled before regaining his balance as he quickly adjusted his pace to match the irritated pink haired girl's.

"We have a game today, Dai-chan! You forgot?!"

Oh. Oh right…

He winced as he felt his skin getting clawed by manicured finger nails deeper and deeper with each stride Momoi took. "I'll walk by myself, so let me go, Satsuki!"

The female refused and made another curt response that had him regret saying a single word. Remaining silent proved to be another wrong choice on his part as Momoi walked faster than humanely possible. Aomine felt he would collapse before he even arrived at the match and was about to ask his childhood friend to slow down when she suddenly halted without the slightest warning. Her eyes lingered somewhere far off towards the scene in front of her.

Confused at first, Aomine recognized the childhood paradise through the familiar faded chalk drawings on the ground. Several other drawings overlapped it; and if it weren't for the fact that he spent hours perfecting the drawings to Momoi's high standards, he wouldn't have been able to make out the leftover outlines of what was once a child's masterpiece. But it wasn't the only thing that had changed. The tree Aomine hung a tire swing from was gone, as well as the sandbox where the two of them reenacted 'sand castle wars.' It was saddening to Aomine though the new recreational fixtures, legitimate swings and red blue monkey bars, attracted more children than previous ancestral fixtures ever could.

But not everything was different. In the outskirts of the park were two cylinders lying rooted to the ground and designed for people to crawl through. It used to be a shelter during unexpected rain for the duo's past younger selves, the prospect bonding time and simply escape from the world they lived in and travel to one that was perfect for just Momoi and Aomine.

Children's' faraway laughter burst Aomine's recollection and the tan skinned boy glanced at the other, trying to see what thoughts her expressions would give away. After only seeing her hooded eyes, he sighed and wrestled himself, almost gently, from her grasp. The coach's fingers gave without struggle, a total 180 from before. Aomine walked softly to the small tunnels, their past self claimed territory. His hands grazed on the peeling paint. He heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

"Your mud lemons were horrible, you know." Aomine said as he felt her presence next to him.

He was returned with silence and a light punch in the shoulder, a low chuckle slipped through his slightly parted lips. Glancing by his side, his back went slightly rigid at the sudden lack of distance between him and Momoi. She was close enough for him to inhale the light, lavender perfume she wore. It puzzled him. When was the last time she'd worn perfume? Oh, yeah. Back in the Teikou days where seeing Tetsu was an everyday thing. At this point, Aomine felt an urge to run away. The reminiscent of the blue haired boy and the pink haired girl together was making him feel lost, out of place.

A wrenching feeling twisted in his gut uncomfortably.

He was about to make this feeling known when Momoi suddenly faced him, eyes shining brightly, with a pointed finger and an eager voice. "Look, Dai-chan! Cotton candy!"

Aomine followed the direction of the pointed finger to a man selling cotton candy, surrounded by laughing children and scolding mothers. He watched as the object of his distractions stared wantonly at the cotton candy with shining eyes.

Geez, give her another second and she'll start salivating.

Somehow the thought of seeing liquid sliding down the pinkette's chin was humorous, laughable, and…so Momoi-like. Many of her fanboys at school might see her as a princess in wait for a shining prince in armor. Aomine knew very well, however, this wasn't true at all. It wasn't in the girl's self to stand majestically and delicate-like. She had a short fuse, mostly due to his reckless actions, and an uncanny habit of spewing personal knowledge.

A thought entered his mind and Aomine nearly choked on his own spit. Determined to ward them off before they could affect his system, he was about suggest them to leave the playground to the ongoing match when suddenly the soft smile that appeared on her face caught him off guard.

For a split second, Aomine was stunned. His muscles froze and time seemed to stop, but everything quickly crashed back when Momoi broke into a big grin and pointed to the kid-surrounded seller.

"I want cotton candy." She said with childish glee.

The afternoon light reflected on her pink hair, outlining girl in bronze, reminding Aomine of happier days. Times when he didn't have to deal with annoying, mixed emotions when it came to the person who unconditionally stayed by his side. It was strange because on special occasions she wasn't near him, he felt an uncontrollable wave of discomfort. As if without the little pink girl, the norm of his life wasn't an option.

The basketball player's eyes widened at the sudden train of thought and he realized that his mouth was open, as if ready to blurt something out any second. He quickly closed as recognition seemed to dawn upon him.

I want cotton candy.

Aomine's hand went to his eyes as he abruptly started laughing, his shoulders shaking in borderline hysteria. Momoi gave him an incredulous stare.

"Dai-chan, are you making fun of me? Is that how it is? What's wrong with wanting something?" The manager pouted childishly and huffed, turning her back on him.

Her face scrunched up in confusion though, because deep down inside, she knew that that wasn't a mocking laugh. If anything, it was more like…

She felt a hand go on her shoulder and Momoi turned her head. Aomine sighed, but still had a smirk on his face, "I'm not laughing at you. I just realized something."

"Eh? What's that?"

Aomine glanced at her curious expression, "Well, I guess I just want cotton candy too." He leaned in closer to Momoi, lowering his head so that he was almost eye level to her. Dark blue bore into light pink, the collision of colors impaling every of Momoi's senses. It was rare that the basketball ace ever looked at a person directly, let alone in the eyes. By staring straight into the eyes of the person who knew this fact the best, Aomine grinned wickedly, relishing the confusion that took over her face. Deciding he wanted more, he continued further, "And not just any kind. I want the best pink cotton candy in the world."

Momoi, still recovering from the dark blueness of Aomine's eyes, didn't notice the weird glint in the other's eyes as they flicked to her hair and lips. "Wh-what?"

Aomine chuckled, "C'mon, I'll treat you to some and then let's go to the match."

Momoi gasped and brought her hands violently to her head, "Ah! The match! No way! How could I forget something like that?! Aho-mine, I think your stupidity is contagious!"

Another set of chuckles rippled through the air, mixing with the happy cries of innocent children and the exasperated sighs of mothers.

"Hai, hai."


Hi everyone! Hoped you enjoyed this one-shot enough to look forward more to come! I really like Aomine x Momoi so it's such a pity that there's an immense lack of stories of them. Hoped this fanfic did their coupling justice. This is actually one of my most random ideas for a fanfic, but oh well, whatever goes.

~Lime