A/N: Yoooooo, I'm back. I know it's been a long time (nearly three weeks!) and I'm so so sorry. I lost inspiration for a while, but I finally found it, though I seem to only ever get inspiration in like the dead of night when I'm supposed to be sleeping... But anyway, I hope this long overdue chapter is enough for my beautiful readers. Thank you for reading and reviewing and being amazing people in general! Hopefully this is a good enough chapter. Thanks for reading!
The one time Aomine had a good reason to skip practice was also the one time Wakamatsu had had enough.
iv. Aomine's absent streak
During roll call, it wasn't unusual for Aomine's name to be called out only to be followed by a long silence. Someone, usually Momoi (sometimes Sakurai if he wasn't too busy apologizing to someone for something), would then say three words that everyone at Touou Academy was used to hearing by now: "Aomine is absent."
The members of the Touou basktball club stopped expecting Aomine to show up a long time ago. So much so that Wakamatsu rarely ever mentioned anything about it anymore. He'd just mumble and grumble about it every so often.
Just how like they were used to Wakamatsu flying off the handle about any little issue or to Sakurai apologizing for something, they were now used to Aomine never showing up for anything.
The Touou team could be at times compared to a very dysfunctional family.
Where Aomine went, that was always the question. Sometimes he'd just be napping on the roof, or maybe he'd even be skipping school entirely and just stay home or go to the arcade near his house that he was always so fond of. Momoi stopped calling him and urging him to attend school ages ago, and would only ever remind him to come if she knew there was something important going on that day (though she still sent him a text every morning).
One day, however, Wakamatsu had enough.
As soon as Sakurai finished bowing and apologizing for not keeping a close enough eye on Aomine, it was expected that Wakamatsu would gruffly mutter something about it, but this time, he completely lost it.
"Why don't you ever do something about this?" he screamed at the already pissed off Imayoshi. "That brat is always missing practice and skipping school, why doesn't he ever get punished?!" Imayoshi didn't reply, and instead just continued to dribble the basketball in his hands. Wakamatsu took that as a sign to continue, though it really wasn't. "He shouldn't be let off just because he's the 'ace' of our team!" Wakamatsu looked at Susa, as if expecting the older boy to agree with him. "I'm right, aren't I?"
Susa just rolled his eyes. "Don't drag me into this. I don't care what Aomine does as long as we keep winning."
Wakamatsu groaned, annoyance seeping through his entire body. Why did no one else understand how annoying it was to constantly see some idiot first year get special treatment all the time? Just because he was good at basketball and maybe good looking doesn't mean he should be treated better than anyone else. In fact, if anyone were to get special treatment it should be him considering he's the senpai and he's more hardworking and-
"If I let you go find him will you stop talking?" Imayoshi asked. The pissed off aura surrounding the Touou captain seemed to have grown larger.
Wakamatsu's mouth reflexively clamped closed. Had he been talking out loud?
"Yeah, you know you have a bad habit of doing that," Susa said, answering the question he hadn't realized he actually asked. "I'll be sure to let the idiot first year know you think he's 'maybe good looking'."
The Touou center started to walk away, humiliated and on the brink of just giving up ever getting fair treatment entirely, until he realized what his captain had asked him a few seconds earlier. "Wait, really?"
Imayoshi stopped dribbling and looked at Wakamatsu. He was clearly annoyed, but knowing Imayoshi, he was doing all he could to contain it. "Sure. If it'll get you to stop talking about it then be my guest."
Wakamatsu was already out the gym before Imayoshi could even finish his sentence.
Momoi walked in the exact moment that Wakamatsu ran out. In fact, he nearly pushed her over as he was so excited about finally being able to hunt the first year brat down.
She looked behind her curiously as she walked up to Imayoshi, a rather large stack of papers in her small hands. "Here's the data on our opponents next week," she said, handing them off to the captain. "What was that all about?" she then asked, referring to Wakamatsu's frantic exit.
"I let him go find Aomine and he got really excited," Imayoshi offhandedly replied as he flipped through the papers. "Hey, do you know anything else about – what's wrong?" He stopped when he noticed the younger girl's eyes widening drastically.
"Oh no, Dai-chan is going to kill me! I forgot to tell everyone that he has a reason to skip practice today. He's going to meet his favorite model!" She had lapsed back into calling her childhood best friend by his given name, though never to his face.
"Why would he need to meet Kise?" Susa asked. A slight teasing grin could be seen on his usually stoic face.
Momoi giggled but shook her head. "No, no, his favorite gravure model, I think is what he said. If Wakamatsu-senpai finds him and takes him back before he can meet her he's going to hate me!"
"It's alright," Imayoshi said with a shrug. He didn't seem all that bothered, in fact, he looked rather amused. "Maybe it'll teach him to not miss practice for such trivial purposes so often."
Momoi pouted. "But I can't have him hating me. He won't talk to me until he gets over it. And he holds grudges for a long time, doesn't he Sakurai-kun?"
Sakurai, who had been cowering in the corner innocently tying his shoelaces, jumped at the sound of his own name. He immediately apologized, but then nodded, attesting to Momoi's claim.
Imayoshi wasn't all that worried. "I'm sure you'd be better off without him, anyway."
"But Senpai, I promised his mother I'd take care of him!"
"Well if you promised his mother to keep him out of trouble you're not doing a very good job of it." Susa stated. There must've been something put in his drink earlier or something, Susa seemed more talkative and playful than usual.
"Senpai!" Momoi cried, giving him a look as if he was horrible for saying that. "It's not my fault! Dai-chan is just so hard to take care of."
She then started to list off all the things Aomine Daiki needed to get on with his day. Imayoshi, Susa, and Sakurai stood there listening in disbelief as the list continued to get longer and longer.
(Shoes and girls were a common theme in Aomine's daily necessities.)
"And Dai-chan is the type of person who won't come to school if he doesn't feel like it. He's that bad!" Momoi finished with a dramatic wave of her hands.
Susa chuckled as he ruffled Momoi's pink hair, trying to calm her down after getting her so worked up. "We know. You're a good person for keeping Aomine in check."
She blew her hair out of her face. "But I guess you're right. Wakamatsu-senpai doesn't know where he is so it'll be pretty hard to find him."
Momoi's phone dinged at that exact moment. She blanched as she read the contents of the message she received and immediately ran out of the gym, the other three not far behind her.
"Senpai!" Momoi gasped. The sight in front of her was pretty funny, but she couldn't bring herself to laugh.
Wakamatsu had Aomine in a chokehold, and Aomine was kicking and screaming as he fought to get out of it. Though Aomine was the stronger one of the two, it seemed as if Wakamatsu had caught him off guard and rendered his strength useless.
"Let me go!" Aomine shouted. He kicked his leg up and tried to send his foot to Wakamatsu's face, but his limited flexibility didn't allow for it and Wakamatsu just tightened his hold on him. "I was at the front of the line! How could you drag me out when she was right there!"
"Because we have practice, you brat!" Wakamatsu continued to drag the screaming and kicking first year to the shocked group.
Aomine's eyes lit up in anger. "Practice is the least of my worries!"
"Oh no..." Momoi muttered, putting her head into her hands.
Susa could no longer hold in his laughter and was almost on the floor at this point. Imayoshi just adjusted his glasses, though the smirk on his face didn't go by unnoticed. Sakurai had already run back inside to get a few other members to come out and break up the arguing couple as it was evident that neither Momoi, Imayoshi, nor Susa was going to do so.
"You've already missed four days of practice in a row. It's about time you came to practice with us!" Wakamatsu said. He somehow managed to drag Aomine all the way to the entrance of the gym where everyone was gathered. Without any gentleness at all, the Touou center dropped his kouhai onto the ground like he would a sack of potatoes.
Aomine growled as he hit the ground with a thud. "Then what's the problem with me missing one more day!"
He couldn't believe that Wakamatsu had the nerve to just run up and grab him in front of all those people. Especially when he was the second person in line! He was beyond mortified, not to mention what a lost opportunity it all was. Horikita Mai, please wait for me!
Seeing as how he knew he wasn't going to get anything else out of Wakamatsu's idiotic tendencies, he stood up with a huff and brushed himself off. "You owe me, Satsuki," he said, knowing it was her who had forgotten to mention anything about his excused absence. She could only squeak in reply. Aomine then started to walk towards the gate of the school, hands in his pockets and without even so much as a greeting to his other senpais.
"Where are you going?!" Wakamatsu shouted after him. His eyes widened angrily and he was waving his arms around like a madman. "We still have practice!" After all that work to jump at Aomine when he wasn't paying attention and using up all of his energy to drag the brat back to school, this was what was going to come from all of it?
"I'm going home," was the short reply. It would be too late to go back to the fan meet now. "Don't come after me!"
No one really expected anything more from him.