We settled on two requests. I had to talk him down from not letting me near him while we were on the trip, since there were chances we wouldn't be able to control that. I also had to talk him down from insisting I call him Aomine-sama. It wasn't hard. I just stared at him and called him a pervert and he let it go fast.

Well. He did also throw a book at me.

In the end he settled on having me sneak into the audio room and announce over the intercom to the entire school that I, Hideaki Okabe, was a winy little brat and that Aomine was my hero, my biggest inspiration, and the reason I played basketball. There were a few other things that might have been cutting it close as far as risk management went, such as also declaring that Imayoshi-senpai scared me—which was true. I was gambling on our despotic captain finding that flattering, and would be deeply amused by this entire prank rather than consider it grounds for my immediate evisceration. I was a bit more worried that I had to admit out loud that I thought Wakamatsu was loud, ineffectual, and bad at dancing. No way he wasn't going to come after my life for that one.

Aomine, of course, did not follow me on this venture, but informed me he would know if I didn't do as I was told, which meant he was probably skulking about listening. Not that I had any intention of going back on my word. All things considered, this first request was a non issue for me. My friends and I had pulled pranks like this all the time in my old school, and while there were a lot more people at this school, nor did I have the benefit of all the teachers knowing me since I was in diapers, it didn't really feel like a big deal.

Honestly, I was surprised Aomine even thought this was worth it, since besides the other members of the basketball team, and maybe some of the kids in my class, no one even knew who I was. This would hardly affect my reputation.

The second request was a bit more of an ask, but I'd deal with that when I got to it.

Getting into the audio room wasn't even all that hard. Toss a fib here and there about having to make an announcement on behalf of the basketball team—no, it had to be me, not someone from the journalism club or anyone on duty—and the urgent assurance that this was important was all it took for the other students to let it go.

Believe it or not, most people weren't inclined to shut someone down to their face if asked for something sincerely enough and it didn't seem immediately harmful. They wavered a bit because they might get in trouble for letting me use the equipment, and likely were concerned that I was going to pull a prank, but who would really expect another normal person to just… lie. And anyway, it was on me if I did do something inappropriate.

The regret on their faces was immediate and they cut me off before I could finish off with my tirade against poor Wakamatsu, but I figured it was enough to satisfy Aomine, and allowed myself to be forcefully evicted from the media room.

Of course, somehow, by some strange dark magics, as I stood outside the door considering my next move, I saw Imayoshi-senpai ambling down the hallway towards me. He was showing too many teeth for my life to be safe. From around the corner to the other side of me, Wakamatsu appeared with a face that had gone red from the height of his blood pressure, and steam practically rolled off of him.

I beamed radiantly, hands lifted placatingly, and informed them both that it was for a good cause, and that actually, my intentions were quite noble.

I was pretty sure Wakamatsu didn't hear me, and there was a chance he could not understand human language any more.

Captain Imayoshi-Senpai tilted his head, but not in the way that implied he was paying attention to what I was saying, and more in the way of a cat eyeing a mouse.

I backed up a little, aware that I was being cornered against a wall. Too bad I couldn't actively throw Aomine under the bus for this one. They'd still blame me even if I did, but I'd also been warned by the crotchety prodigy to refrain from tattling.

"Listen," I said very seriously, scrambling for an excuse.

"Hm?" Captain Imayoshi-senpai hummed.

I thought about booking it down the hall before the sharks fully closed in. He must have sensed I was about to bolt, because the resident crime lord/demon king said my name in a singsongy way that told me if I ran now, I would not live to see the light of day. Wakamatsu just ground his teeth with such ferocity it sounded like he was chewing on stones.

I sagged, and offered up one last sheepish smile. "No harm done?"

Wakamatsu smacked me over the top of my head.

Down the hall, Aomine casually leaned against a window, smirking. Momoi-san hovered next to him, clearly berating him, and I was grateful to know that she could recognize when he was involved and cared enough to at least lecture him a little while I was dragged to the dungeons by our tyrannical overlord, and his thuggish enforcer. Of course, I didn't doubt she would have at least a mild reprimand for me as well, if I was ever released alive, but I was decently confident she would go easy on me.

Poor Aomine. He didn't even know that this was just fuel for me to ensure the school trip was a worthy trade-off for all of this.

Of course, I didn't have time to think about that, as Wakamatsu had slung his arm over my shoulders in a way that was really more around my neck and maybe threatening to cut off my air supply.

"So," he said, the words grinding out between his clenched jaw. "I'm a mindless rampaging gorilla. Huh? Huuuuuuh?" His face way too close to mine. "My only skill in basketball is terrorizing the other team so they get out of the way, huh? A steam engine is quieter than me, huhhh?"

"What? Who said that about you!" I demanded, though the farce was a weak one.

He looked about ready to pick me up and throw me out of the window, but Imayoshi-senpai stopped him. "Mah," he began, his smile fixed so firmly and unwaveringly in place it might as well have been held there by barbed wire. "Why don't you let go of Okabe-kun, hm? I'm sure we can resolve this peacefully."

I got the distinct impression that Imayoshi-senpai's idea of peace was very different from mine, as he gently pushed his glasses up his nose and they did that terrifying glint thing where I could no longer see through the lenses. He only did that when he was plotting murders and other nefarious Captain things.

"I would, but this little weasel is squirrelly," Wakamatsu argued, lowering me back to the ground, clamping a vice-like grip around the back of my neck. "I don't trust him not to make a run for it."

Captain Imayoshi tilted his head to the side by a single, terrifying increment. "Okabe-kun isn't going to do that. Are you, Okabe-kun?"

He'd been saying my name a lot. It did not make me feel so good. In fact, my throat was feeling kinda dry, and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I shook my head mutely instead, the movement slightly hampered by the way Wakamatsu was slowly compressing my vertebrae with his bare hand.

"Good," Imayoshi-senpai said, and that seemed to be the signal for Wakamatsu to finally release me.

He still hovered aggressively close though, as I was marched down to the gym, and then down to the locker room. He shoved me into it with impressive gusto, and then stepped aside for the Captain to appear silhouetted in the door.

"So… is this the part where I get shoved in a locker and left here?" I asked, having used the walk down to recover my usual spirits.

"Of course not," the demon lord reassured. And then he produced a small scrub brush from seemingly nowhere. "This is the part where you clean the locker room, and think about how important maintaining a positive and healthy environment is for the well being of our team."

I reached out and slowly took the scrub brush, an ominous premonition dawning across my thoughts. "With… this?"

"Why?" Imayoshi-senpai asked, doing the bad head tilt again. "Was there something else you needed?"

I glanced back over my shoulder into the locker room, then back at him with his freakish smile. "Uh, no. This is… I can work with this."

"Good. I'll come check that to make sure it's properly cleaned," he warned. "If not, you'll have to do it again. After that I think the equipment room needs to be organized and cleaned as well. Make sure you get every single corner."

"Right. Every corner." I hid my grimace behind a poker-face. "Will do, Captain."

He nodded, and then stood there staring at me until I realized he wanted me to start immediately.

I did not manage to contain my grimace as I turned to face the locker room fully, and over my shoulder I heard Wakamatsu snort. "Don't forget the top of the lockers," he commanded, before I heard the door slam shut behind me.

"Positive environment my ass," I grumbled, heading towards one of the sinks on the wall. "No one's making our perfect genius boy scrub floors. Look what he does to the team environment. Grumpy, sour faced, pretentious edge-lord. Scheming, conniving, arrogant, inconsiderate, self-absorbed—"

"Who, me?"

My soul nearly ejected straight out of my skull and into the ceiling from shock.

I don't know why. I should have expected the idiot I'd gone and gotten myself mixed up with to make an appearance so he could gloat. After all, what was the point of getting me in trouble with the Captain if he didn't get to see the fall out.

"Aomine," I greeted, recovering from my brief shock, and drawing a blasé smile across my face. I turned to face him, tapping my scrub brush casually against my leg. "How did you escape Momoi-san? It seemed she caught on to your hand in all this."

Aomine scoffed and tossed a handful of snack into his mouth from the bag he was holding. "Ducked out the window. Clearly I'm better at getting free from the naggers than you are."

He meant it gloatingly, one more thing he surpassed me at, but I refused to give him that win. Instead I snorted in derision. "Ah yes. Aomine, king of avoidance, lord of running and hiding. And brooding."

He stared at me for a second, then a mean smile curled across his lips as he upended his snack all across the floor and used his shoe to grind it into the linoleum and make a mess of fine crumbs for me to clean.

I stared at it for a long moments hen at him, and then I wondered if there was any benefit to throwing my scrub brush at him. But, knowing his freakish agility, he'd probably just catch it and run off with it and I doubted the demon king would be lenient enough to give me a second one. But… maybe he would be. And maybe he'd turn his ire onto our precious ace as well.

"Don't even think about it," the navy-headed idiot sneered knowingly.

I grimaced. He was figuring me out too quickly. "So, what" I began changing the subject. "You're just going to hide here, watching me clean? What's wrong with you?"

He ambled over to one of the benches and sprawled out on it with a grunt and a sigh that made me think once again of an old, scraggly tom cat. "Keep bitching and you'll be here until the sun comes up."

The petty urge to one-up him swelled in my stomach, but I resisted by clinging to the memory that this was all just a battle surrendered in order to win the war of dragging him on the class trip. I'd get my kicks at his expense then.

Of course, he made sure I had to work for it. The constant nagging that I'd missed a spot as I cleaned, and the occasional instance of "careless" spitting on the floor nearly made me want to shove the scrub brush into his mouth and watch him choke on it.

Occasionally he'd snicker to himself and then, without prompting, explain that I really was more like the team's charity case, doing menial errands and chores for them as opposed to an actual basketball player. That might have been the most irritating as I struggled not to point out that by this point I'd been to as many games as he had, and he'd barely even played more than me. It would've been pointless since we both knew the reasons were different so I kept my thoughts to myself.

Silently, I vowed that someday he was going to acknowledge that I was a legitimate member of the team even if I had to give up sleeping for the rest of my life to practice. I guess in someways I should have been grateful to him: I'd almost never been more motivated than I was with the levels of spite building up in me at that moment.

When practise began and the team started to file into the locker room we received more than just a few odd looks. Sakurai looked terrified for some reason. Perhaps he was afraid that as our fellow classmate somehow he would also be held responsible for all our misbehaviour. Or maybe he was just wildly uncomfortable with this much conflict. Who could say?

Wakamatsu came in and absolute laid into Aomine for taking up space in the locker room and being disrespectful and also for clearly having no intention of participating in practise. Of course Aomine's only reaction as to pick at his ear with adored expression on his face until Wakamatsu got so frustrated he turned his anger onto me. He prowled around the room, running his finger over every surface and glowering at me if he felt it wasn't polished to satisfactory levels of perfection.

Captain Imayoshi-senpai didn't even acknowledge me when he came in, which was somehow worse, and although his eyes clearly landed on Aomine and they made literal eye-contact, he simply kept up his inscrutable mask as he changed and left again.

I watched him go appreciatively and shook my head when the door closed behind him. "I swear he's the only person who could handle being the captain of a team with you on it."

Aomine grunted in clear disagreement. What part he was disagreeing with was unclear. Whether it was because he felt Captain Imayoshi-senpai did not deserve that level of praise, or whether he thought himself too impressive to acknowledge it, or maybe out of some leftover respect for his old captain I did not know.

I was finished cleaning by the time practise was almost over, and Captain Imayoshi told me to wait to start sorting the equipment room since there would be no point in doing that with it still in use. However, with the end of practise came more use of the locker room, and he informed me I'd have to clean it up again. It wasn't too bad, of course, but someone had definitely made a point of tracking water everywhere and leaving wrappers lying around. I would have assumed it was Aomine, had Wakamatsu not given me such a triumphant look when I saw.

"This is hazing," I informed everyone clearly.

Someone coughed and spilled their juice box on the floor.

Aomine snickered.

I waited until they'd all filed out to clean that up, and then I moved on to the equipment room. At least for this I was alone, as Aomine had clearly grown bored of his gloating and shambled off to whatever Hellmouth he spawned from every day.

Just as I was about to text Captain Imayoshi that I'd finished if he wanted to come and inspect the job I'd done, I hesitated.

I hadn't had a chance to practise today because of my punishment.

I sighed, and went to get changed. I could fit in a few drills at least. I'd just have to stay up a bit later to get my homework done.

I pulled my bottle of sweet tea from the vending machine and turned around to find Momoi-san standing there with her hands on her hips and her lips pursed in an astoundingly underwhelming scowl.

"You got Dai-chan to go on the class trip," she said without any sort of question in her tone.

I shrugged jauntily. "Don't doubt my persistence. I excel at pestering."

She scoffed. "Obviously. If you were half as much a nuisance to the other team on court you'd be pretty hard to deal with."

I blinked and then grinned mischievously. "Noted. Guess I'll have to start taking a note from the captain's book."

She grimaced and shook her head. "As if. You're scheming but not that kind of scheming. You're better at getting under foot than you are at setting things up."

Well, from here I stood that sounded like the same thing. Still I would have to think it over some more on my own time. "So, did you corner me just to tell me that Aomine's going to actually participate in a group activity for once, or was there something else?"

She squinted at me and my vaguely irreverent tone, so I smiled cheekily at her in the hopes she'd let it slide.

"For a couple of reasons, actually. One, I need to know if you're going to be doing anything else stupid because of whatever deal you made with Dai-chan. It'll be a problem if you get yourself into too much trouble. Secondly I'm putting you on watch duty."

"Watch duty?"

She huffed. "Dai-chan starts wandering off when he gets bored. Keeping track of him on the class trip isn't going to be easy, e specially since the girl's will be sleeping in their own area. Last thing I need is him wandering off and, breaking curfew, and getting into a fight. I've already told Sakurai-kun, but…"

This really as just going to be my new role, wasn't it? Babysit Aomine duty had now been added to my list of random chores and duties.

Then again, I'd not really done anything to prevent this result from inevitably coming to pass. I was relentlessly drawn to stir up problems and Aomine was just to irresistible a target to pass up when he was skulking about right there in front of top me.

Speaking of:

"AOMINE-KUN~" I sang as I say the very idiot Momoi-san and I were talking about sauntering across the yard, yawn wide and still very clearly not ready to be up and about. "Good morning!" I continued, waving belligerently.

He stopped, shoulders tensing and then started to walk away quite a bit faster.

That was no good. After all that torment I had to deal with the day before? Absolutely not. "Momoi-san and I were just talking about our deal!" I called out, "is there anything I was supposed to keep as a sec-er-et between just the two of us?"

Bless our wonderful manager for being quick witted enough to realize what I was doing. She lifted her hand to her mouth delicately, and her eyes widened with comical innocence, "Dai-chan? What deal?"

She really made it seem like she'd just found out he'd been gambling behind her back and I was the nefarious loan-shark showing up to harass her about the money. Which was unfair! Imayoshi-senpai was the one running the crime ring, and Aomine-kun was supposed to be the loan-shark drafted reluctantly into his service after years in prison that kept him from finding a job.

Aomine stilled, and roared with mechanical slowness towards me and his old friend. "Ha?" He asked slowly, taking stock of the situation.

I wondered when he'd stop being so surprised by her betrayal. "You know? The deal? About the thing? Dai-chan?" I smiled widely at him.

His eyes narrowed and I could practically hear his teeth grinding before he scoffed, flicked his chin up at us both in a way that was clearly derisively, and then he left.

I watched his retreating back and felt a glimmer of mean spiritedness growing in me. I glanced down at the pink-haired manager and waggled my eyebrows at her. "Alas, I'll have to depart. But you don't have to worry Momoi-san. I shall certainly be our beloved ace's chaperone when you're not around. In fact, I'm looking forward to it."

She rolled her eyes and waved a hand at me in dismissal. "Go on. But watch it. There's a game the day after tomorrow and the last thing I need is to have him in one of his moods because you drove him nuts, okay?"

I rose my eyebrow, wondering how I hadn't heard of this. But maybe it was something which had been discussed the day before when I was cleaning the locker room, or the day before that when I went to go chase Aomine down about the papers. Damn. I guess that just went to show both how much I'd been paying attention, and how little they needed me.

"You think he'll play?" I couldn't help asking, some of the wind taken out of my sails.

She scratched her cheek and glanced in the direction he'd gone. "No, probably not. I don't really think we're going to need him to be honest. And if I don't think that, he certainly won't."

I felt even more petty after hearing that. Here I was fitting in as much practice as I could while juggling homework and chasing him round, and he couldn't have cared for any of it. All the things I was working for he took for granted and discarded.

I caught sight of Momoi-san giving me a tense, watchful expression. She was too smart to fool.

I shrugged, and smiled at her with crooked resignation. "Well. Doesn't that make me want to give him a hard time even more."

Her face shifted into something a bit more pitying and apologetic.

Well, I was the one who'd gotten myself into his situation. It wasn't Aomine's fault, or Momoi-san's, or the captain's or the coaches. It was what it was.

I rolled my shoulder and started to amble after Aomine, offering a casual salute to Momoi-san as I went. "I'd better be off then," I excused myself. I didn't hear what she said in reply, if anything.

As I rounded the next corner that took me out of sight, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. No messages. Without thinking I opened Honda's contact information, a habit I wondered if I'd ever break.

"Game the day after tomorrow," I typed without thinking.

"U Playing?"

"Nah."

"(˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥⋆) Why not tho?"

I didn't know what else I'd been expecting. I shrugged involuntarily, even though there was no one to see it. "Just gotta get better I guess."

"No kidding."

Ouch. I grimaced, and snapped the phone shut. Despite what I had said to Momoi-san, I ended up just going straight to class after all. When I showed up several of the students stared at me like I was some kind of alien, and a couple others stepped forward to ask me about my prank the day before, which at least explained the weird looks.

Rather than explain myself to them all when they asked why I had done it, given it wasn't something anyone would really get and was a bit convoluted to explain in a way that wouldn't make me seem unhinged, I simply summed it up as a bet with one of my team members. Of course Aomine was just infamous enough for the to catch on who I was referring to without any trouble, especially given the flattery I'd poured out towards him in the midst of my confessional over the intercom.

This brought everyone a great deal of delight however. This was all they needed to see me as an in to ask an insane number of questions about our school's version of a celebrity. It kind of felt like I was the info-dumping extra in a manga or something. It was also weird that I was suddenly the approachable one. Then again, who else were they going to ask? The intimidatingly competent and mysterious childhood friend that was Momoi-san? The confusing and skittish Sakurai who was nevertheless acknowledged as a first string member alongside the likes of said celebrity? Or the guy who'd been dubbed babysitter and now class clown?

I guess I'd take it as a good sign that, unlike the members of my basketball team who all believed I was a devious problem child, at least my classmates viewed my in a more innocent light.

The class president even came up and thanked me for getting Aomine to fill out his form. There was something in the trusting, admiration filled gleam in his eyes that made me uncomfortable. He seemed a little too appreciative and sympathetic all at once. It was like he knew something but had gotten it twisted.

Maybe he thought my prank was a noble sacrifice I'd made just to fulfill his request.

Poor guy. He had no way of knowing I had ulterior motives, and I sure wasn't going to go about correcting that misunderstanding.

Part way through class I got a text, which I checked covertly so as not to be caught by the teacher. I was fully expecting it to be from Honda, and although the tone wasn't entirely dissimilar I realized pretty quickly it was from Aomine.

"Bench-warmer. Gym."

He did know I was in class and couldn't just leave, right? In fact, I was pretty sure it was a class he was also supposed to be in.

Still. What a novel experience for him to be seeking me out again. The last time had been about homework, more coincidence and accident than anything else, and I had fully expected that to be a one-off situation. Which begged the question what was so urgent he was contacting me now.

I raised my hand and when the teacher acknowledged me, I lied and insisted I had a migraine. The teacher had obviously identified me as a troublemaker and I could see by his expression that he was debating whether he had the wherewithal to argue with me. Eventually he waved me out of the room with an irritated scowl that suggested he very much thought the consequences were mine alone to deal with.

I smiled and shrugged with ease when a classmate asked if I was alright, made eye-contact with Sakurai who either looked like he knew what was going on or had seen a ghost hanging over my shoulder, and then skipped class.

What was I even doing? Our ace was such a bad influence. Still, despite thinking that, I jogged down the halls and headed towards the gym.

Aomine was leaning against the stage, glowering into the middle-distance when I arrived.

"Ooh, Dai-chan," I teased, "after all that effort to avoid me this morning, what's this?"

He didn't say anything, his face set into a dull expression.

I moved up to stand at his side and followed his gaze. There wasn't anything there. I lifted a hand to shield my eyes and squinted. "What's this I see? The dark shadows of your painful past flit before my eyes, ghosts not yet laid to rest, sorrows not yet abated. What a pitiable soul you are."

Before I could pat his back with false and over-exaggerated sympathy he grabbed my by the top of my head and moved me out of reach, grunting in irritation.

"Do you ever stop," he complained.

I shrugged, hands lifting up in a what-can-you-do gesture. "For you? Never."

He let go of my head like I'd just told him it was infested with lice, and then smacked the back of it. "Shut up. Don't talk, every thing you say is dumb as shit. What a waste of air."

"My friend," that elicited such an expression of revulsion I logged it as something to call him again in the future, "you're the one who asked for my company this time. I'm just cooperating with that."

He clicked his tongue and swore bitterly under his breath. "You're coming with me."

What's this? An outing? Together? Did my ears deceive me?

He smacked me again. "Stop it. You look like a dog about to piss itself."

I saluted. "Let's do this! Onwards, for death and glory."

His face continued to twist with malcontent as if someone had shoved a handful of umeboshi in his mouth. Another swear squeezed between his gritted teeth, and he grabbed me by the back of my shirt and started forcefully dragging me out of the gymnasium. He didn't stop there though, and continued to bodily haul me off of the school grounds.

For the most part, I was content to be along for the ride and intrigued that Aomine was including me in whatever journey he was on of his own accord. With he exception of hassling me for homework in place of Sakurai, or maybe pestering me to fulfill the second half of our bargain, I had assumed he would forgo my company as much as possible, in the same way he seemed to avoid everyone except for Momoi-san.

Well, with perhaps a bit more vitriol given I had gone out of my way to give him a hard time and had been nothing but a thorn in his side.

Still, as we hustled through the streets, I finally caved to my own curiosity. "So. To what do I owe this pleasure anyway? And in the middle of class at that. I can only assume it was urgent."

No answer.

"I'd have assumed you would have called on Momoi-san? We must have been bonding after all if you decided I was the one you wanted to spend the morning with."

"Can't," he muttered, not expelling anything at all.

"Still doesn't answer what you need me for. I'm assuming its not basketball related—"

He cut me off with a very insulting laugh. "As if I'd ever need you for that."

I wasn't going to take that personally since he didn't think that he'd ever need anyone.

"Not even if it was an army of basketball zombies with lasers a hundred people strong?" I clarified anyway.

He rolled his eyes so hard it could have caused injury.

As it turned out, the pressing issue which needed another person was…

A boutique?

I turned to look at him slowly, struggling in vain to keep the sneaky smile from slithering onto my face. Before I could say anything however, he grabbed my entire lower face with his hand, and squeezed hard, as if threatening to break my jaw with his grip alone. His expression was one of dark warning.

Poor guy. This was yet more proof that he didn't have siblings. You just didn't put your hands near someone's mouth unless you were fully prepared for things to get nasty.

The way he whipped his hand away when I began drooling had the kind of speed I'd really only seen him use on court.

Then he used my own jacket to wipe his hand off.

"So, what are we doing here," I asked rubbing the lingering ache from my jaw.

He stared at me with deep regret and reluctance, before sighing. "Satsuki's birthday is soon."

Surprise flickered through me. This was far more effort and thought than I would have expected from our abysmal ace with his abysmal personality. I would have expected something half hearted, like an incorrect card, or something from a vending machine, or maybe whatever he happened to have on hand even if it was gravure magazine. That, or I could see him forgetting entirely.

It was enough for me to straighten and stow my deviousness for a bit. "Oh, really? Did you just need back up going in there? Or advice? If it's the second, I'm sorry but you picked the wrong person for that."

He did not look surprised to hear that particular detail. "Just shut up and come on."

I followed after him as the bell over the door chimed merrily at our entrance. Immediately I was hit with a heady waft of perfumes from an array of candles, soaps, and other cosmetics. "It might be better to have her come with you than try to surprise her though. Then she can pick out something she wants, and you don't have to brave this place without her."

He stormed through the small store, ignoring the floor person who asked if we needed any help, and headed straight for the back where a display brightly packaged bottles were packed into gift baskets. And then he stopped to stare at it like he was planning out an elaborate basketball play.

I smiled politely at the store worker and shook my head to let her know we were fine for now, and sidled up next to him. Taking a look it seemed this was a display of limited edition sets. Each seemed to have their own mascot in the form of a little blue bear with different costumes including a waistcoat, a monocle and bow-tie, and a top hat and pocket watch. The bottle caps were all bears and there was a little figurine in each basket.

Subtly I reached for my phone because I was pretty sure if I gave our manager a picture of Aomine standing surrounded by such cutesy goods, looking so serious that'd be a pretty great birthday gift in and of itself.

Unfortunately, Aomine was too wily and stole my phone before it was even fully out of my pocket. "Give it a rest," he hissed warningly.

I shrugged easily and smiled in apology. "Can't blame me for trying."

The way he shoved my phone into his own pocket with aggravated force told me that he could do just that. "It's one per customer and she already has her first pick," He at long last clarified.

I blinked in confusion. "And… you're getting her the rest? Does she need all of these?" I peered at the array of bottles in amazement.

I clicked his tongue. "She collects them. Spent days whining about having to choose."

"Couldn't she have just gone to another retailer?"

"You've got too many damn questions." He took one off the display and shoved it into my arms, before taking another one down for himself.

When we left the store, gift bags in hand, I turned to stare at him hard. "You're paying me back for this though, right?"

He stared back until I sighed.

"Fine. Fine. I guess I can get her a birthday gift too."

All the same, I mentally revised my impression of him. This had been a surprisingly sweet move on his part and once again I was forced to acknowledge that he was more than just a conceited prodigy.

With that in mind I decided to offer him a peace offering in the form of an ice cream from a nearby store. As we made our choices from the cooler, I asked one last question. "Hey, why'd it have to be during classes though? Couldn't we have done this after school."

He glanced down at me, and mischief crept into his own eyes. "Oh, that? I was bored. Didn't think you'd actually come running right away though."

A/N: Just dropping in to let you know I went back and did a whole bunch of editing for this. Just fixing a bunch of instances where characters referred to other characters wrong and all the times I fully committed to writing sempai instead of senpai (hopefully I got most of them...and hopefulluy that's right). Anyway, let me know if I've somehow uploaded the chapters wrong because I had to re-upload all the docs and everything and I'm paranoid I doubled up on a chapter or something insane.