He had always been running, hadn't he.

Away from his home, away from help, away from himself. He had always thought that he was runningtosomething, and that was why he was alone. But what if that wasn't the case?

Aomine Daiki took a long drink of coffee, side-eyeing the white, fluffy cat curled up next to him on the seat. Momoi Satsuke, his childhood best friend, had dragged him to this cat cafe when they were in middle school. After being chewed out by Kagami Taiga earlier, he had found himself there again.

You don't learn.

What was there to learn? He was the best. He was-

Haven't you hurt him enough?

His hand tightened around the handle of his mug. He stared down at the light liquid. Only a few people were aware that he actually preferred his coffee sweet. Momoi knew, at least.

It was six in the morning by the time Aomine made it to Momoi's apartment. He managed to ring the doorbell while still carrying her. The door opened and the woman on the other side took in the scene with widening eyes. "H-honey!" she called out.

Momoi's dad soon approached from behind his wife, his own eyes enlarging at the sight of his daughter. "Satsuke..." He didn't hesitate to take Momoi from Aomine, who gently transferred her into his hold. "She fell asleep at an acquaintance's place," he explained as Momoi's dad carried her to her room.

Momoi's mother turned back to him, her eyes hardening. Before he could react, she brought her hand up and slapped it across his cheek. The lingering pain of his father's slap from the night before heightened the sting. "Is this what you do to her, now?" she demanded. "Worry her parents to death when she's been for hours, at suchlatehours, only to have them find out she's been withyou?"

Aomine tried to find the words. Tried. But his eyes only drooped in resignation. He would just take it.

"What am I supposed to think," Mrs. Momoi continued, "Wwhen she runs off in the morning and doesn't return until the next, unconscious inyourarms?" She raised her chin defiantly. "I have had enough of you ruining her. She's a kind, gullible girl, and people like you do nothing but take advantage of that. I don't care that you've known each other since elementary. The fact remains that you've become a bad influence."

She began to close the door. "I'm sorry, Daiki." She looked genuinely disappointed. Sad, even. "Please don't hang around Satsuke anymore."

There would be no more nights in the Momoi household. No more cringe karaoke celebrations, or random pizza parties. There would be no more homemade food from Satsuke's father, no more hugs from her mother. There would be no more late-night tea conversations.

He rubbed an eye with a palm, looking down when the cat meowed at him and stretched out, its paw going onto his leg. He narrowed his eyes at it. "Better not be laughing at me," he warned. It blinked lazily at him, its red eyes ticking him off for some reason.

The cat meowed again. "Alright, alright." Aomine scratched under its chin, its soft purrs reverberating through his hand. "Happy?" He sighed and drank from his coffee again. "At leastyouwant me around."

Haven't you hurt him enough?

His hand tightened on the handle. He muttered a curse. "Move," he told the cat, nudging it off the chair. It gave him an offended look, to which he stuck out his tongue. "I need to go apologize to someone. You can wait."

Aomine was surprised to see Kagami and Kuroko still on the court when he came back. He had been gone for at least six hours. Maybe they had taken a break and come back to practice basketball some more. That had been Aomine's goal, at least. He had wanted to get in a short practice session by himself before facing his walk of shame to the apartment. But seeing Kuroko there...

"Tetsu."

Kuroko turned and looked over at him. "Aomine-kun." Behind him, Kagami narrowed his eyes in a silent warning.

Aomine ignored him and walked up to Kuroko, looking down at his precious, former shadow. His friend. he studied him, taking in his pale blue eyes that nobody could ever read, his slim figure, his hair that Aomine knew was soft from all the times he would run his fingers through it.

Where were his thoughts going?

He sighed, closing his eyes to settle himself. When he opened them again, Kuroko was still looking up at him like he was the universe. Like he didn't rip the guy's heart out just a year ago and stomp all over it. He swallowed. "...sorry."

"You should be."

Kuroko looked past him to the owner of the voice, while Kagami paled. And Aomine...

Aomine knew exactly what sort of trouble he was in as he turned and came face to face with Akashi Seijuro, the Generation of Miracles' former captain and the current heir of a global empire.

Also a person who didn't look too pleased at the moment.