A/N: Had to cut this one because it was getting long, which means look! An early update! And will probably update on the weekend. Also, if anyone recognized the reference I used for the series the drama Kise's in is based off of, come to me let me /love you/
xXmini-chibiXx: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like the character interactions *u* Yes Love Stage is cute! It's fun and happy and you should definitely give it a shot. And yes, your questions will be answered in the coming chapters haha! There are supposed to be more characters but there's that tag limit haha you'll see!
moonlightclock: Thank you! I'm glad it made you laugh *u*
Wondering Snow: Thank you! You'll see in the coming chapters!
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Under the sun, Kise would sometimes look up to the sky and just smile at how bright it was. The light gave him energy, and made him want to tackle the day with all he's got. Kise was a morning person. Or he'd like to think that he was a morning person. At least, when the definition of morning didn't include the hours immediately following midnight, where most of which did not, in fact, involve any actual sunlight.
It didn't agree with him, the idea that pitch black skies and barely any light at all was considered morning. It took more effort and strength than usual to fix himself up when he had those ungodly call times at the most ungodly hours. Sleep recharged him, but the sun woke him up; powered him. Kise was barely up when he had to get dragged by his impossibly chipper older sister into the shower, dragged out, stuffed into clothes, and dragged into the elevator. There, at least, Kise had developed the ability to stay upright regardless of his levels of consciousness, but had to get dragged out of the elevator and out the glass doors of the condo where he lived, and dragged into the back of a car where he had flopped over on his sister's lap and collapsed back to sleep.
When he was shaken awake, it was still dark, and therefore not morning in Kise's eyes. But his sister still greeted him "good morning" for the fourth time since getting him out of his bed, and hoisted him upright with a big sister's strength and pulled him out of the car. He employed his ability to stay standing despite his state of half-consciousness, and his sister stood in front of him and smacked both his cheeks with her palms.
Kise yelped, tears immediately pooling in the corner of his eyes. "Rika-nee that hurt," he cried, all his words coming out like a child's whine. Kise rubbed both cheeks, groaning, and wrenched his eyes open, blinking rapidly as he tried to focus. Once Rika made sure that Kise was at least more than just half-awake, she pushed him into the studio building and towards the elevator.
"You need another smack?" Rika asked him when the doors slid closed.
Kise sighed. "Nah, I'm good," he mumbled, rubbed his eyes, then shook his head. He smacked his own cheeks with loud claps and let out a huge huff. "M'awake," he announced.
"Good morning!" Rika said again, beaming.
"It's not morning if it's this dark," Kise muttered, mostly to himself. "Good morning," he told her anyway.
When the elevator dinged open, they were greeted warmly, and Kise was as bright as he could manage, pulling on a smile in front of everyone else who got up earlier than him. He wasn't at one hundred percent yet, and his body just knew that the sun wasn't out still, but he was going to punch those ungodly hours in the gut and beat them to a pulp.
# # #
It was still dark when Aomine found himself sitting upright on the sheets, hair tousled, brows knotted, and wide awake at three fucking AM in the morning.
Jetlag is a bitch.
He had tossed around in bed until he was somehow sitting up, and he was tired but he couldn't sleep and goddamn he forgot how jetlag worked. He was usually much better at sleeping than this, and he hated being awake when he had no business being awake, especially at these stupid ungodly hours.
Aomine groaned, ripping the blanket off of him and jumping out of bed. He landed with a wince when he forgot that he had a stupid ankle thing that he's been cursing for weeks since no one's letting him play basketball because of it. He rocked on his heels a few times, rolling his foot to stretch it out, then glared at the clock.
Three fifteen. He smacked a palm over his face, frustrated because he was not supposed to be awake at this time. Standing there, awake and annoyed, Aomine growled, then leaned forward until he fell towards the floor, face first, and caught himself just before slamming onto the ground as he did a series of pushups.
By the time he breached two hundred, his ankle started complaining like a little shit, so he decided to cap it off at two-fifty, hoisting himself up and glaring at the clock
It wasn't even four AM yet.
Aomine cursed at the ceiling and huffed towards the refrigerator, downing two glasses of water and stuffing some ice into a bag. He sat in the middle of the room, on the floor, with his legs outstretched, nursing the ice pack over his ankle as he finished a large helping of milk. For minutes he just sat there, glaring at his stupid ankle, and waited. It didn't take long before he was fed up of it and started digging around his bag—he hadn't completely unpacked yet, more or less just flinging out whatever he needed and subsequently making a mess—and fished out his jacket, phone tumbling out of the bag with it. He looked at the jacket for a few moments, jet black and gold lined with white accents and the bold flash of lightning in the logo of the Thunderbolts, his team. Aomine's eyes softened before he slung the jacket over the nearest ledge, then picked up his phone.
It was a little past four. Aomine scrolled through his messages—his coach asking if he had a safe flight back to Japan, some of his teammates telling him to bring back some sweets, try not to play basketball, if you hurt your leg any more I'll break it—Aomine sighed, but not without warmth. He tapped replies back to pass the time, then spotted new messages coming in from Satsuki.
Figures she'd also be going through jetlag, and figures that she'd rather be working since she wasn't sleeping. Aomine read through her messages: "If you're like me and are awake at this time, do NOT do anything that would hurt your ankle. I repeat, DO NOT do anything that would hurt your ankle. That includes any exercise that involves putting unnecessary weight and stress on it, especially basketball, you hear?"
Aomine rolled his eyes. Satsuki's messages went on. "Put ice every so often." "Make sure you're eating the protein stuff coach got you." "They're in the small red box on the fridge, if you didn't know."
Aomine sighed, exasperated. Satsuki had somehow taken it upon herself to be Aomine's mom. He resisted replying "yes mom" as he scrolled down to her more recent messages.
Good job yesterday, by the way! Ki-chan was so happy!
Aomine couldn't stop the smirk that curled up his lips. Kise's weight and warmth was still fresh in his mind, the way he laughed and smiled still the same, but somehow also different. Aomine continued scrolling.
And you got Kisaragi Jin's attention! That's great! We should talk about the offer, Dai-chan. PLEASE.
He rolled his eyes again. He wasn't entirely sure why the hell he accepted the invitation to appear on that show, but Kise was involved so he felt like he might as well, for the heck of it, maybe. Aomine shrugged it off as a bout of goodwill, sentimentality and nostalgia playing at him. He didn't want much to do with that world where celebrities bathed in the light of camera flashes and studio lights and had all these different faces. That was Kise's playing field, not his. Aomine was pretty sure he'd screw that up. Basketball was simple, honest, and he's survived the limelight on that field so far.
Another new message popped up from Satsuki. "It would be good to accept! I'll come over so we could talk about it okay!"
"Geh," Aomine flinched. He stared at his phone, thinking of how to get out of having to talk about the offer, when a thought occurred to him.
With a few taps, Aomine pulled up his most recent contact. A simple Kise was listed under a photo of the smiling blonde, and Aomine just stared for a few seconds. He really did look the same, just more made up, a bit sharper around the edges, less like the boy that had marched right up to their gym loudly announcing his intention to join, and more like the opponent that had stared right into Aomine and sped past him with his exact movements, a copy of him. Aomine could just hear the insistent "Aominecchi! Let's play one-on-one!" in his head, and smiled.
Aominecchi. It's been a while.
Without thinking, he poked the call button and brought the phone to his ears, shifting his foot under the ice pack slowly melting over it. After a few rings he belatedly realized that it was barely even five in the morning, and Kise obviously wouldn't be jet lagged, so why the heck would he—
"Aominecchi?"
Aomine almost jumped in surprise, not expecting to hear Kise's voice answer on the other end of the line. "Kise," he managed. "Did I wake you?"
"Ah, no, you didn't," Kise replied. Aomine could hear the faint noise of other people on Kise's side. "I've been up for a while now. I'm just on break from a shoot."
"Oh, really," Aomine said simply.
"Aominecchi why are you awake," Kise chuckled. It was light and made Aomine feel light too. "Can't sleep?"
Aomine leaned his back on the edge of the bed. "Yeah, I've been fucking awake since three and I can't stand it."
Kise was laughing again, and in the background there were people talking and mulling about. "Do some pushups or something."
"Already did. Like two hundred, Jesus Christ."
Kise laughed louder, and Aomine found himself smiling. "That's too much!" Kise was still chuckling. "You're gonna hurt your ankle!"
"Shut up that's supposed to be a secret," Aomine snapped.
"Whoops, sorry." Aomine could still hear the smile in Kise's voice. "So why did you call me?"
"Let's hang out."
There was a pause. "Eh?"
"How busy are you, superstar?" Aomine asked. "I wanna go somewhere."
"Er, well, I'm free for lunch? Like late lunch. Really late lunch. Wait." There was shuffling, and Kise talking to someone from far away. There was a yell in reply, then Kise's voice came back on. "Ah, Rika-nee said I'm free after this!?" Kise sounded like he was surprised about it himself. "One of my appointments was moved!"
Aomine visibly lit up. "Great," he said. "Let's eat. I'll pick you up."
"You'll what—" someone was calling Kise on his end, and Kise spluttered into the receiver. "I'll be right there!" he was saying to someone. "Aominecchi, you'll what?"
"I'll pick you up," Aomine repeated. "Sounds like you're busy. You go do your thing, I'll see you later."
"Wait what—"
Aomine flicked the call off, standing up on one leg as he lifted the ice pack off his ankle and dumped it in the sink. He finally switched the lights on and padded to the refrigerator to grab a red box. When he opened it, a small note was stuck above everything, saying, "Take care. Eat plenty. Coach." Aomine tugged it out and stuck it under the lid of the box, grabbing two of the snack bars and immediately chomping on one. He tucked the box back into the fridge and moved to the bathroom, shrugging off his clothes along the way. He tried to take his time in the shower but still finished quick, tried to take a while changing but dressed up in an instant, grabbing some sunglasses and a cap and rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. He wanted to jog, but Satsuki would have his head, so he settled for chomping on a few more of those snack bars and glaring at the clock until he stomped out of the apartment just past seven.
One of the wrappers of his snack bar slipped out of his hands and fell on floor of the entryway as he left, a discarded piece of evidence to his escape.
# # #
There were excited whispers and hushed giggles when Kise spotted Aomine in the hall, hands in his pockets and head bowed slightly under the shade of his cap. He wore sunglasses over his eyes and looked for all the world like a celebrity, himself.
"Aominecchi?" Kise said, stumped. He stepped out of the studio and approached the basketball star, running a hand through his hair and blinking repeatedly, as if unsure that what he was seeing was real.
Aomine looked up. "Yo," he said, pulling his sunglasses off to reveal those deep navy blue eyes. "You done?"
Kise was still blinking. "Yeah, almost," he replied simply. "Were you waiting long?"
"Nah, just got here," Aomine waved his hand. About an hour ago.
"Ryouta!" Rika suddenly called from behind him. She jogged to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, huffing out a few pants before looking up at him. "Good work today!" she smiled. "I forgot to tell you, since you were doing your zombie thing this morning but your ratings are off the charts!"
"Huh? Why?" Kise cocked his head to the side.
"Because of yesterday, you fruit loop," Rika laughed, poking his nose. "The feature, the preview, that thing you did! Everyone's in love with you all over again."
"Oh," Kise's eyebrows shot up. "Wait, what 'thing I did'?"
"You know, when you leapt into Aomine's arms in such an adorable—peh!"
Kise squished his sister's cheeks, flushing. "Oh my god, don't say it that way," he pleaded, his own cheeks burning.
Rika was laughing all muffled in between Kise's hands. She swiped them away and beamed at her brother. "Anyway, everyone's talking about you. Your popularity's gone up even more, the drama's getting sponsorship calls here and there, we're getting all these calls for offers for you, and everyone's crazy about your reunion with Aomine-chan! It's a trending topic, Ryou! All the social media places and forums are talking about your touching reunion."
Kise was sure he was fully red in the face. A complete tomato. His mouth was agape but he couldn't say a word. He was supposed to be used to being famous. He thought he was used to it, but then there's that thing about the drama and the trending and the thing he did and the forums. God, those forums were both a blessing and a curse—you don't know what the hell you could find down there, what people know and what they say about you—most of the time, Kise didn't want to know, but it was his sister's job to, so he hears about them anyway. He was at least thankful that his sister only told him the good parts, whether or not she was aware he knew that she did.
Behind Rika, Aomine snorted, stifling a laugh. Rika bounced in surprise, turning. "Wah! Aomine-chan? I didn't know you were there! Why are you here!" she was so excited, it practically radiated off of her face.
"I'm gonna—" Aomine grabbed Kise and pulled him away from Rika, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. "Steal your brother for a bit." Kise jerked under Aomine's arm, almost as if recoiling from the touch. Aomine raised an eyebrow, side-eyeing him. Weird.
Rika's eyes started sparkling, but she blinked it away in favor of donning her protective sister face. "And where do you think you're planning on going?"
"We're gonna eat lunch," Aomine stated, then glanced at Kise, who was still trying to process the news of his rise in popularity, and the arm around his shoulders. "Right, Kise?"
Kise blinked, shaking his head. "Y-yeah. Lunch! 'Cause I'm free, right, nee-chan?"
He looked so hopeful and happy for the break that Rika's expression softened into a tender smile. She had pushed forward that afternoon appointment fully intending to give Ryouta a break, and she was going to work all the way until that evening, so Aomine's presence was a welcome one to her—at least Ryouta would have someone to spend his break with.
"Yep!" she agreed cheerily, smiling brightly. "It's way too late for lunch though. But you deserve the break! Take the time to relax, Ryou."
Kise lit up so visibly he seemed brighter than the lights in the hall. Aomine almost squinted at how brilliant he was. "Yay! Thanks nee-chan."
She smiled at him, then turned a stern face towards Aomine. "You take care of my brother, alright?" she said firmly.
Aomine's eyebrows raised a fraction. "Yeah, sure." He saw the same determined set to her eyes as he did in Kise's, filled with so much care and love for her brother that Aomine felt like if he bottled it up and drank it, he'd live to a hundred years. It made him want to grab Kise's head and keep it directed at her just so that he could see how much this woman cared for him, maybe even shield himself from her gaze because Aomine felt like he didn't deserve to have it pointed at him.
Rika dug around in her pockets and tossed him a set of keys. Aomine caught them without flinching and shot her a questioning look. "You can drive right?" she said, grabbing her phone from her pocket next. "The car's parked in basement five. You can use that."
Aomine raised an eyebrow, but accepted. "Really, nee-chan?" Kise looked at her with such guileless wonder, Aomine saw a child. She smiled sweetly at him, nodding, then looked at Aomine again, stern. Aomine was amazed at how quickly her face could change.
"Don't keep him out too late, okay?" she directed.
Aomine bit his cheek to keep him from spitting out a "what are you, his mom?" because she was close enough to a mom, and because she looked like the kind of woman you didn't want to cross, especially when it comes to her brother. So Aomine nodded instead. "Yessir," he couldn't resist saying.
Kise snorted, stifling his laugh. Rika slapped Aomine's arm. "'Yessir', my butt," she jeered, but she was smiling at him. Her phone started blinking and vibrating on her hand, so she reached out and started pushing Kise to the side. "You're done for the day, Ryou," she told him, taking a moment to smile up at him. "Now go before an appointment magically comes up to get you."
Kise beamed, then ducked away from Aomine's arm to give his sister a short, tight hug. She chirped happily, surprised for a moment, then returned the hug with a tight squeeze of her own. She gave him a soft push towards the elevator as it dinged open, then pressed a fist to Aomine's lower back.
Aomine glanced over his shoulder at her, tipping his cap up. Their eyes met, and she gave a soft push with her fist as he stepped inside the elevator. Rika looked at them both and flashed a hundred megawatt smile. "Have fun on your date!" she waved.
"Nee-chan!" Kise whined, and Aomine laughed.
# # #
When they reached the car, Kise happily opened the passenger's side of the door and jumped right in, looking for all the world like a kid about to go to an amusement park. Aomine slid next to him behind the wheel and stared at the overly cheery and bouncy Kise, feeling his own mouth curl up into a smile without much thought.
"What's got you so happy?" Aomine asked, pulling on his seatbelt.
Kise beamed, excited. "I never get to ride in the passenger's seat."
Aomine almost wanted to pinch his cheeks. "Are you serious?"
Kise tried to pout, but he was too excited. Now Aomine wanted to pinch his nose. "What, I always get stuck in the backseat. I like how big the window is up front."
Aomine wanted to say something to that, but couldn't, sighing instead and leaning towards Kise. He reached across him, shoulders bumping, his arm grazing Kise's chest, and felt Kise tense. Aomine vaguely registered how close they were, feeling Kise's breath hitch against his jaw, and grabbed the handle of Kise's seatbelt, pulling it across him as he moved back.
"Don't forget your seatbelt then, brat," Aomine said, fastening the seatbelt with a click. For a second Aomine saw Kise exhale, as if in relief, and for another second he wondered what was up, but when Kise pouted at him again he pushed the thought away.
"I could have done that myself, thank you," Kise grumbled.
Aomine snorted at how childish he looked, mouth easily breaking into a smirk. "You totally forgot about it until I fastened it though."
Kise's cheeks were instantly dusted pink. "Shut up. I told you I rarely get to ride in the passenger's seat."
"Yeah yeah, I got it, princess," Aomine jeered, sticking the key into the ignition. A pillow suddenly whacked him in the arm.
"What the heck—" Aomine turned to look at Kise, who clutched a pillow to his chest. Aomine was supposed to be frowning, supposed to be furrowing his brows, but he couldn't help the upward curl of his lips at seeing the huge-ass child sitting next to him. "Where'd you get that?"
"Backseat," Kise answered simply, still excited and far too much in a good mood to keep pouting. He snickered. "I sleep a lot back there, so."
For a moment Aomine just stared at him, then started chuckling. "You're such a kid. I wonder why you have so many fans."
"Obviously because of my good looks and charm," Kise flicked his hair, sitting back comfortably.
Aomine snorted again, then raised his hands in defense when Kise threatened to smack him with the pillow again.
"Shut up," Kise said.
"I haven't even said anything yet."
"You were going to say something mean, I could feel it."
"Fine, whatever, I was going to compliment you, you know," Aomine backed off, turning the engine on.
"Yeah, right."
"Can't a guy compliment his friend?" Aomine snickered, slowly driving the car towards the exit.
"Do you even know what a compliment is, Aominecchi."
"Of course, I always make sure to compliment myself on a regular basis."
"Oh my god," Kise stuffed is face in his hands, trying to muffle the laugh that started bubbling out of his throat. "You really haven't changed."
"Hey, I know how to drive now, that's new," Aomine was grinning. It's felt like the most times he's smiled in weeks.
"Oh yeah, 'cause that's amazing. Did you learn from one of those arcade racecar games?"
"Hey, those are pretty accurate."
As if on cue, Aomine almost missed the turn up a ramp to the next floor, sharply curving the car and driving it up the slope with a lurch. Kise yelped, clutching the overhead grip handle, then settled down when the car leveled again. Kise's eyes widened. "Aominecchi," he started to say, serious. "Can you really dri—"
"Of course I can drive, you twat," Aomine interrupted, glancing at Kise.
Kise actually sighed in relief, only barely reassured by Aomine's confident movements. "You had me worried for a second there."
"What do you take me for, an idiot?"
"Well—"
"Friendly reminder that I'm driving this car."
"Of course not, Aominecchi!" Kise smiled brightly. "You're a smart and talented young man with the amazing ability to drive a car!"
"The way you said that pisses me off," Aomine chided, frowning at him. Kise laughed, patting Aomine's shoulder playfully. Aomine seemed to be unable to sustain any anger near Kise, so he just huffed, getting out of the basement and into the road outside, squinting at the bright light from the sun. Beside him, Kise made a noise of happy surprise, and Aomine took that chance to glance at him.
The afternoon sun loves Kise, that much Aomine was sure of. The light made his fair skin glow, made his blonde hair look like shining silk and made his eyes sparkle gold, like precious jewels. He looked like he fed off of the sun's energy, radiating brightness and life like a flower blooming under the sunlight. Aomine almost rolled his eyes, turning his gaze back to the road as Kise basked in the warm light and hummed happily.
"Ah man it's like I haven't seen the sun in ages," Kise said. "It feels like I just started the morning."
"You were awake pretty early, now that you mention it," Aomine was half-paying attention to the directions, finding that he knew where he wanted to go despite having been away for so long.
"I had to wake up at three AM. It was horrible."
"Same as me then," Aomine mused.
He could see Kise gape at him from the side. "Why?"
"Goddamn jetlag," Aomine grumbled, taking a right turn.
He heard Kise chuckle, the sound travelling straight to his chest and making him feel lighter. "Right. Jetlag's a bitch," Kise said.
"Damn right," Aomine agreed, feeling Kise's eyes on him.
"Where are we going, by the way?" Kise asked, still staring at Aomine.
"You'll see."
"I'm suspicious."
"We're gonna eat, superstar. Aren't you hungry?"
Kise blinked. Right, lunch. He hadn't eaten lunch yet. And it was already way past noon and he'd just realized how empty his stomach felt. "I'm starving," he announced. "Have you eaten?"
"Not yet," Aomine said, watching the road carefully. Kise was still staring. "Was waiting for you."
"What? You could have at least grabbed a snack. I told you I'd be late."
"I also said 'let's eat', so we're gonna eat together," Aomine half-panicked when he almost missed a turn, and he squinted at a somewhat obscure street sign that he nearly overlooked.
Kise just stared at him, feeling a weird warmth in his chest. He watched the sun touch all the edges of Aomine's face, defining his jaw and cheekbones with a gentle shadow that sharpened his features. His eyes reflected light like a deep blue ocean, like drops of night sky brought out in the day. Kise looked at the relaxed set of Aomine's shoulders as his hands rested on the steering wheel, gaze trained on the road with a calm focus and an unmistakable maturity that felt knew to Kise.
"Why are you staring at me so much, it's creepy," Aomine muttered, eyes briefly flickering to look at Kise.
"Nothing, I just—" Kise tried to form words. "You look all grown up now."
The eyebrow that Kise could see raised up, and Aomine spared a longer side glance at him. "Well, you too," he said, looking back at the road. "Even though you look the same."
Kise felt his cheeks warm a little, then tore his eyes away from Aomine's profile, not quite sure why he was so rapt in the first place. "That doesn't make sense," he said.
"Yeah well, a lot of things don't make sense, even when we're older."
"That was pretty deep, Aominecchi," Kise smirked. "Never mind grown up, you sound like an old man."
"Who's driving this car again?"
"The most wonderful, youthful, profound basketball pro ever!"
"That's better."
[tbc]
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A/N: Thanks for all the favs and comments so far! You're all awesome. If anyone wants to chat or find me elsewhere, I'm also kittlekrattle over on tumblr so feel free to hit me up :)