A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and favs so far! Y'all keep me going 3

TykiTavi: Aaaww thank you so much! They're still dorks so they're slow and stupid but they've grown at least a little so they'll get there eventually! ;)

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A soft, faint light caressed Kise's cheek, brushing a gentle warmth over his skin. He let out a long breath, a completely satisfied, mellow exhale, and slowly opened his eyes.

He blinked a few times, eyes moving to focus on his dim surroundings. He shifted just slightly, against the mattress, burying the side of his head deeper into the pillow and relishing the comfortable warmth of a blanket lightly covering him. He closed his eyes for a moment, smiling, feeling like he'd just woken up from the best sleep he'd had in a long time, then snapped his eyes open again when he realized that he was not in his room.

Kise sat up on his side and glanced around. It was morning, just barely twilight, the light of the day meekly seeping into the room. It was a smaller space than the one he lived in, the window just a little bit closer to the bed and the walls a shade darker. His heart started to drum at his chest, mind moving into quick action to try to recall when exactly he'd fallen asleep. He'd had a meeting in the morning, then a shoot in the same building, then Aominecchi picked him up to eat at Maji Burger when some fans found them out…Mitobe-kun had helped them escape, and they ate in the car…and then—

Kise wrinkled his nose, wracking his brain to rewind, to remember. Kise had finished his takeout—that he was sure of. Aomine started driving shortly after, and Kise vaguely remembered watching the setting sun cast this golden glow on Aomine's face, and feeling so calmed and relaxed at the sight, at the warm presence beside him. He remembered the smell of sun-touched hair, short locks tickling his cheek; and a gentle but firm touch. He had leaned on a snug, steady press of heat at his front, felt the rise and fall of breathing against his chest, like soft waves. He'd felt steady hands at the back of his knees, and a soft brush of fingers at his hair. He remembered being wrapped in a blanket, atop a soft bed with a certain smell and warmth woven into the sheets, and a voice, deep and low, telling him with a warm laugh, "Goodnight, sleeping beauty."

Kise didn't know which parts of those memories were dreams, but he felt the heat rise to his cheeks nonetheless. He ran his hands down his face and tried to calm down, his train of thought stopping at Aomine—where was he?

When Kise looked around the room, he didn't spot any tall, navy blue-haired basketball pros. He started trying to get out of the bed when his blanket got stuck, just a little, and Kise glanced to find Aomine seated on the floor, leaning against the edge of the bed and on a corner of the blanket.

Kise's stomach did a flip. Aomine was just lounging there, legs sprawled in front of him with an ice pack resting on top of an ankle. His hands were limp at his lap, and his head was cocked ever so slightly to one side as he quietly slept. Kise was stuck, watching the steady rise and fall of Aomine's shoulders and the light flutter of his eyelashes. He heard his pulse drum at his ears, and tried to put two and two together, noticing the black jacket loosely slung over a chair and the small bits of trash and clothes littering the floor. He must be in Aomine's apartment, on Aomine's bed, with Aomine sitting—and sleeping—on the floor right next to it.

Kise took a moment to just…put his hands on his face and contemplate his existence.

After a few deep breaths, he steadied his pulse and tried to reign down the heat in his face. Kise smacked his cheeks with both palms and tried to squirm out of the blanket without rousing Aomine, but Aomine's head had been resting on an edge of the blanket and the smallest movement tugged at it.

Kise froze, watching as Aomine's head shifted, eyebrows scrunching. He grumbled, one arm absently reaching up to his hair, and blinked his eyes open.

Kise had half a mind to lie back down and pretend to sleep, but caught himself right as Aomine turned to look over at Kise. He blinked a few times, squinting at how the light was hitting Kise in the softest of ways, and lifted his eyebrows.

"Mornin' sunshine," Aomine mumbled, his grumpy expression softening into a playful one.

Kise blinked at him. "G'morning," he mumbled back.

"You finally awake, ya little shit?" Aomine's face split into a lopsided grin as he heaved himself up, lifting the ice pack off of his leg. Kise watched Aomine stand by the side of the bed, still slow and dumbfounded because it was morning which means he had spent the night in Aomine's place just sleeping. Aomine reached out and ruffled Kise's hair. "Your sister's going to kill me, I'm sure." Aomine grimaced.

Kise flailed under his hand, and Aomine gave a light chuckle. It was a pleasant sound, gentle and calm. "What happened?" Kise asked.

Aomine cocked his head, smirking. "You completely knocked out before I could ask you for your address," he answered. "You were totally gone, like a damn rock. Wouldn't wake up no matter what I did. I feel like if we'd crashed or something you still wouldn't have woken up."

Kise grimaced, embarrassed. All that tiredness he'd accumulated must have really hit him hard the moment he relaxed. Guilt started to creep up to him when he realized that he had just been—and is being—a huge burden to Aominecchi. Like a huge sack of potatoes that was dumped on him without warning.

"So I carried your huge ass up here and just let you have your beauty sleep. Be grateful." Aomine fluffed Kise's hair again, slightly frustrated that it could look so good and fall so neatly even after just waking up. He wanted to keep running his hand through that hair just to mess it up and stop making it look so damn flawless all the time.

He pulled his hand away and grudgingly watched as Kise's tousled hair just flowed right back down like it couldn't be bothered to look anything less than perfect. Aomine gave up and sighed, shifting to move away, when he caught sight of Kise's face.

"Aominecchi," Kise whined, looking like the sorriest, guiltiest little thing that Aomine had seen. "I'm sorry!" he bowed his head, hair flopping down with a jerk. His hands gripped the edge of Aomine's blankets in tight fists, and his ears were pink.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, you doof," Aomine sighed, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. "You're not really that heavy and you crashed so hard, it felt like I'd be doing something cruel if I woke you up. How much sleep are you even getting, geez."

Kise looked back up at him with eyes filled to the brim with guilt, but sparkling with gratitude. Aomine wanted to smack a hand over his face with how conscious Kise was making him.

"Did you sleep on the floor?" Kise practically cried.

"What? No. I woke up way too damn early again so I did like two hundred pushups and iced my ankle after," Aomine waved his hand. "Then I somehow fell asleep."

Kise looked relieved. "Okay," he sighed. Then got confused. "So where did you sleep last night?"

Aomine raised an eyebrow. "On my bed, duh. Where else will I sleep?"

Kise squinted so hard his whole face was scrunched up. The bed was pretty big, could fit two people at least, but that wasn't the point. "So we shared the bed."

"What, did you expect me to let you sleep on the goddamn floor?" Aomine frowned at him. He knew he wasn't the nicest guy around but he wasn't fucking evil.

Kise sputtered into his hand, sighing in defeat. Okay. So that happened. Okay. He pulled his gaze back onto Aomine. "Okay no, sorry. Thank you, Aominecchi. Sorry."

"Stop apologizing, geez," Aomine scratched the back of his neck. "Just make sure your sister doesn't murder me and we'll call it even."

Kise couldn't help the bubbling laughter that escaped his mouth. "She won't, she won't. I'll explain to her," he sighed again, still feeling the remnants of guilt clinging at him, but otherwise feeling warm. The fluffy feeling only lasted for a few seconds before a thought hit him and his blood immediately ran cold. "Wait—what time is it?"

He snapped his head around to look for a clock, and Aomine shot him a questioning look before stepping aside to turn to a bedside desk behind him where the clock stood. Kise's eyes zoned in on the numbers immediately, when Aomine's cell rang and he cursed. After a beat, Aomine groaned and put the phone to his ear and braced himself.

"Satsuki," he sighed, then immediately furrowed his brows. "Yes, I'm awake. What, I didn't know if you were too why would I call you at six fucking AM—okay okay we'll fucking talk about the damn off—what? Huh, what? What?"

When Kise had processed the numbers on the clock he immediately sprung up from the bed like he had been ejected from it, panic and urgency starting to overtake his brain. He looked himself over and found that he was still wearing yesterday's clothes, but his phones weren't in his pockets. He scanned the room and spotted them by the same chair Aomine's team jacket was on, next to his wallet. Before he could grab them, though, Aomine grabbed the back of his collar, causing Kise to get yanked back with a yelp in a sudden recoil.

"Geh!" Kise stumbled backwards, immediately trying to look over his shoulder to glare at Aomine.

"Alright, alright, alright, I got it! Yes, yes, Jesus fucking Christ calm your tits woman I said I got it!" Aomine had his eyes shut tight in an obvious effort at trying to keep himself from blowing a fuse, body so solid that his arm barely budged when Kise tried to escape his grasp. "Yes, okay, I know. I'll do it. Goodbye." He ended the call with an aggressive tap, and glared at the phone as if it had wronged him. Aomine let out an exasperated, long-suffering sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose, then turned to look at Kise, who half-hung under his hand with a pout.

"Go take a shower," he instructed, releasing Kise's collar.

"I have an appointment—"

"At a studio," Aomine finished. "I know. Satsuki just told me. You still have some time so take a quick shower first. I'll drive you there."

Kise stared at him. "I can drive myself—"

"Hey, no," Aomine snapped. "I'm driving you, superstar. I already told Satsuki I would."

"No no no," Kise blurt. "I've already troubled you enough—"

"Oh for the love of god, Kise," Aomine smacked a hand on the blonde's head, anchoring him where he stood. "You didn't fucking 'trouble me', or anything stupid like that. I was the one who dragged you out to Maji Burger, alright? And you fell asleep because you were tired and lacked sleep. Don't make it seem like sleeping is a bad thing, goddammit. I like sleep. Sleeping isn't wrong."

"But—"

"Sleeping. Isn't. Wrong. I will fight you."

Kise gaped at him dumbly. Aomine had that urge to pinch his cheeks again, then ruffled the model's hair. "Now take your goddamn shower." He shoved Kise in the general direction of the bathroom, and Kise stumbled with a yelp.

"Okay, okay," Kise whined, flailing in defeat. He threw a pouty look over his shoulder at Aomine, who raised a fist in a threat, and Kise huffed and trudged to the shower.

He took a cold bath to pull him out of his disgruntled thoughts and cool his blood down. In the middle of shampooing his hair with the lone bottle of shampoo Aominecchi had—Kise ignored the brand on purpose—he started reviewing the things he had lined up for the day and mentally prepared himself for the crunch. He finished showering in what felt like record time, and right as he began to towel his hair off, he realized that he had no clothes to change into.

Kise's brain started going into full throttle, trying to come up with a solution, when he heard a door from somewhere in the apartment close. No sooner did he hear Aomine call out to him.

"Hey, I'm going in."

Kise was glad he still had his fast reflexes when he instantly wrapped the towel around his waist, just as Aomine pushed open the door. He paused when he saw Kise, eyes quickly processing the sight, and looked much like he made a very conscious effort to make very direct eye contact with Kise. "Oh, you're done? That was fast."

Kise managed a small nod, and pulled his lips into a wonky smile. "Yeah, gotta rush. Gonna be late." He tried not to think about the fact that he was more or less standing naked just three feet from Aomine.

"Relax, I said I'll be driving you," Aomine waved his hand, stretching his arm out to offer Kise a small plastic bag. "I got your spare clothes from your car," he said. "There wasn't a shirt though so I'll loan you one of mine."

Kise accepted the bag. "Oh, thanks."

Aomine jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Go change in the room," he directed. "Let me shower real quick. The shirts are on the bed so just pick whichever."

Kise nodded, looking everywhere but Aomine's eyes. "Alright. Thank you." Aomine stepped aside and let Kise out, neither of them looking at each other. Kise scrambled to the bedroom and let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, then ran a hand through his hair. On the edge of the bed was a small pile of shirts and jackets, strewn all over the place as if they'd just been dumped out of a bag, which they probably were. Kise mentally thanked himself for always keeping spare underwear in his designated car, and slipped them on along with his pants. He plucked out a random dark shirt from Aomine's pile and slid it over his head, not surprised that it was almost a perfect fit—he and Aomine always did have a similar build, with almost the same height; and they'd accidentally switched clothes back in Teiko more times than they can remember, it wouldn't be surprising to find one or two of Aomine's shirts in Kise's drawers, and vice versa. It was just a little bit loose, but otherwise comfortable. Kise couldn't help but notice that the shirt smelled like Aominecchi.

He was just about to walk out into the living room when Aomine stepped out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs and a towel around his shoulders. Kise nearly tripped on his toes but managed to catch himself, spinning on his heel in what he hoped was a graceful manner before he would give away that he'd been staring.

"Want a drink or something?" he heard Aomine say behind him.

"Just water, please," Kise replied, cautiously heading to where he remembered the kitchen was. He hadn't noticed how dry his throat had been.

Aomine grabbed two glasses and swiftly poured them both some water. Kise mumbled a thanks as he downed the glass with large swigs, almost choking on his last gulp when he'd caught sight of Aomine's throat bobbing as he drank, the built muscle right under it more defined and bulked up than Kise remembered. Aomine set his glass down and noticed Kise looking, and Kise's throat ran dry all over again when Aomine's lips curled into a knowing, smug-ass grin.

"Thirsty?" he sneered, haughty.

Kise narrowed his eyes, then flicked his head, nose upturned. "Get dressed and let's go."

As he stomped around Aomine to refill his glass, he couldn't suppress the stupid smirk and flush that crept up his face while Aomine's laugh faded into his bedroom.

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Aomine was beginning to wonder if Kise had something against seatbelts, considering how he completely forgot the existence of the one he was supposed to use again. When Aomine reached over and fastened it for him, Kise did that thing where he stiffened against him, only relaxing with some effort after Aomine pulled back. It was only when Aomine started driving and Kise held on to his seatbelt for dear life that he decided it wasn't the case—then again, maybe Kise made a special exception when Aomine stomped on the gas.

They made it to the studio just a few minutes early, and Aomine shot Kise a self-satisfied smirk that Kise threw his pillow at after he'd peeled himself off of the leather of his seat. Aomine laughed at him and clicked Kise's seatbelt open when he almost tried to leave without doing so, and just barely caught the beanie that came flying at his face when he started to laugh again.

They stepped out of the car Aomine had pulled up at the entrance to a huge studio. Both of them immediately noticed Rika standing right out the doors beside a taller man with ashen hair who had his back turned to them, talking on the phone. When Rika spotted them, it was as if a fire had been lit, and Aomine braced himself as she yelled, "Ryoutaa!" and started stomping towards them like a blazing comet.

Kise immediately threw himself in front of Aomine and in the line of fire. "Nee-chan!" he greeted, a bright, disarming smile lighting up his face.

"Ryouta!" she let out a huff. "Thank god you're on time."

"Of course! It's because Aominecchi drove me here." Like the devil, Kise finished in his head.

Rika's hand reached around Kise in a flash, smacking Aomine upside the arm.

"You little doop you could have told me that Ryou was going to stay over at your place," Rika snapped at him, round eyes looking up so strongly and determinedly. Aomine almost flinched back from her gaze, really seeing how much the Kise siblings resembled each other.

Kise flapped into his sister's way again. "Rika-nee it's not Aominecchi's fault! I fell asleep in the car!"

Rika huffed at Kise, calming down just by seeing his face. "Like a rock," Kise added, letting some of his guilt show. Rika blinked up at him and sighed.

"Augh, sorry Ryouta," she groaned. "You've really been working so much the past few weeks I know I should have tried to kick something off to give you a break but—"

"It's okay, it's alright!" Kise flailed, waving his hands. "I'm okay with the workload, really. It's been hectic but it's okay! It's great!"

She pouted at him, then bent to peek at Aomine. "Does that mean you carried Ryouta up to your place?"

Kise stepped aside to let Aomine answer. "Yeah?"

Rika put a hand on her face, sighing. "Oh geez, sorry about that. Ryou could turn into literal deadweight when that happens."

Aomine raised an eyebrow. So it's happened before. "It's no big deal," he reassured. "He's not that heavy."

It was Kise's turn to pout at him then, and Aomine noticed the man behind Rika finish his call and walk towards them. When he stepped out into the open, Aomine's eyes widened in recognition.

"I take just two days off and you manage to get into a mess," the man sneered. "Really, Ryouta?"

Kise's pout just deepened, and he huffed with a shrug. "Shut up. I was on break."

When the man neared, his grin was wide with amusement and a speck of fondness. Aomine's eyebrows kept climbing higher, and the man snickered at Kise right before their eyes met.

"Haizaki?" Aomine spat, incredulous.

"Yo," Haizaki greeted, eyes lighting up in recognition, a corner of his lips quirking up in that crooked grin of his. "Long time no see, Daiki."

Aomine blinked, open surprise on his face. Haizaki stood just about as tall as him, his hair back to its light gray color, trimmed a bit shorter and tamed back some. He wore a pale blue button down tucked into pleated pants, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows like a small rebellion against dressing formally.

Rika looked back and forth between Aomine and Haizaki, and Kise was pouting but his mouth started curling up into a smile. "Oh, have you met?" Rika asked, eyebrow raised.

Aomine's brows knotted together. "What are you doing here?" he blurt out.

Haizaki's smile widened into a cheeky grin, as if he was about to reveal the secret of a magic trick, or announce that he'd just succeeded in robbing a bank. Kise shrugged beside Aomine, nonchalant, and nodded at Haizaki.

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Basketball Superstar." Haizaki stuck out his hand playfully, the smile reaching his eyes as they twinkled with delight. To the side, Kise chuckled lightly. "I'm Ryouta's bodyguard."

[tbc]

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A/N: hit me up at kittlekrattle over on tumblr if you want to chat! I reply there faster~