Sooo you want angst? How about a fic/hc/scenario where a fem!reader who's friends with Aomine and liked for a long time (since Teiko) but Aho-mine takes her for granted because: 1. He knows she likes him 2. She's not like Horikita Mai 3. She's not affiliated to the basketball club. The reader is left heartbroken and eventually gave up. He only realized that how important she to him is when she's gone, and that he always liked her too when he sees her with someone else. (Bonus points if it's Kagami~) Especially when he sees that guy being all gentle and sweet. Angst and regrets for Aomine, but a bit fluffy for the reader~ "You'll never know what you have until you lose it, *Aho*mine"
Aomine x f!Reader
Word Count: 12,784
yes this is 39-40 pages on the doc, I’m warning you guys, it’s a bit long, but hey~ get your christmas reading in, I guess?
Note: I can’t believe I had to track down the general timeline for this to the point where I found a reddit thread that had the mangaka’s notes on these types of things. The dates given aren’t canon, but the months should be canon in terms of when mentioned canon events happen? The new school year date I’m 99% sure is correct, since it starts the day after spring break.
current 🏷: @nadav-ii, @carinacassiopeiae, @kendrex13, @roppongiperfume, @thesongstressayre, @kimigiri09 (it’s unfortunately not tagging you? i can only make a link to your tumblr)
wanna be in the taglist? check out this post!
»»————— ☼ —————««
[2 years ago]
“Hey…” a boy with cropped hair turned to you sheepishly with a friendly smile. “My bad, but… could you help me with these questions? I don’t really get it, and you seem to know your stuff.”
“Huh?” You looked up from your desk to see a bashful expression for him, clearly finding it embarrassing to ask for help. To help him save face, you quickly agreed, patting the empty table next to you for him to sit. It was before class, an ordinary day in Teiko, though nothing is really “ordinary” in a school like Teiko to begin with.
“Thanks,” he grinned at you.
You nodded at him before asking, “What is it you have trouble on… um…”
“Aomine Daiki,” he finished for you. “And on these questions. I don’t get them…”
“Okay, Aomine-san,” you nodded, leaning closer to properly read the questions. “Here’s how you do them…”
. . .
“Holy crap, you’re an actual life-saver!”
Aomine quickly rushed to the front of your desk after class to thank you, nearly scaring you out of your wits while you were clearing out your space.
“It’s nothing, really…” you insisted, putting your hands up out of shyness. Being praised out of nowhere like that definitely wasn’t a part of an “ordinary” day.
“I’m serious!” he shot back earnestly. “If it weren’t for you, I woulda failed that pop quiz…” He gulped at the thought of Akashi and Midorima figuring out his academic scores. “So I really appreciate you teaching me, even if you didn’t even know me at all!”
“Pfft,” you laughed. “You’re more than free to come ask me for help.”
“Oh yeah,” he turned to face you, with an expression oddly serious for someone like him. “I never got your name.”
You smiled at his outstretched hand and shook it with your own.
“(l/n) (y/n).”
———
[December 12th]
“Aomine!! You made Momoi cry again?”
“Shut up already, and quit naggin’ so much or you’ll grow wrinkles.”
You only give a huff of indignation before sending your best glare to him. He merely looks at you from the corner of his eyes before closing them with a sigh. That was an indication that he wanted this conversation to end—to change the subject elsewhere that wasn’t as annoying to think about.
“... Go easier on her, okay?” you give a sigh of your own before turning away from him. “She only does these things because she really cares for you. I’m really serious.”
Because I care too.
“Everyone worries for you… Kuroko has been really down in the dumps lately… did… something happen between the two of you?”
“You really are more annoying than Satsuki,” Aomine mumbles, getting up from his resting position to sit up with a slouch. You turn around to face him to participate in a banter again, but his pointed look at you stopped all the words from forming on your tongue. You only stare at him when he continues again. “Seriously, I just wanted a nap on the rooftop and you’re always pestering me, for what?” You furrowed your brows to snap at him.
“To practice, Aomine! Practice sucks, I get it. I personally would want to sleep and chill all day, too. But the fact is, everyone is doing their best on the courts, whether in games or drills, and I know that a part of you wants to also be at your best when the games come, so it’s just so frustrating to see you throw away practices like this—”
“What do you know about me?”
You flinch. You have his entire attention now, his sitting position turned completely to face you. His arm is propped up on a knee, and his lips are pulled in a taut line. What does he even mean…? You’ve been friends for years… right? You hesitate before continuing.
“... I might… not know you as well as Momoi, I know that for sure. And Kuroko, too—but when I see those two visibly upset for your sake, I just can’t help but hate to see how your friendships together are just—you guys were so close and then just, something must’ve happened—”
“Shut the fuck up already.” His eyes finally sharpen into a clarity that fully reflected anger. Clearly, your words touched a nerve. “People like you who act all high and mighty when you have no idea what you’re talking about are the most irritating.”
“... Did something happen at practice recently?”
He abruptly stands up before he walks to the ledge of the higher concrete structure, his back to you. You have no idea what his face looked like at the moment, but after a moment of tense silence, he finally lowered his head as if he thought hard about something.
“... You wouldn’t understand.”
And with that, he jumps down, not even bothering to use the ladder to get down. A harsh screech of the bulky door was the only indication that Aomine left the rooftop to no doubt sleep somewhere else. Silence follows.
“I wouldn’t understand… huh…” you whisper out to no one in particular, staring at the city view obstructed by the safety fencing around the rooftop. You bite your lip in hopes of tamping down the awful feelings threatening to bubble out of you—the powerlessness in helping the person you love; the frustration of him never opening up to you; the lost isolation of being constantly left in the dust. This wasn’t the first time he did this to you, always storming off in his own tantrum when you confronted him on these matters—you weren’t a stranger to them at all. You’ve known him for nearly three years now—you shouldn’t be surprised. So why… why do you feel this way now?
But he’s never lashed out on you like this… ever.
You rapidly blink in hopes of regaining your composure, the kind that would pretend everything was okay and that his words didn’t really hurt you at all.
Yet, even when your lips begin to quiver uncontrollably, your eyes take on a glint of determination, your mind made up. It’s been years since you’ve known him, and you’re going to try to get to the bottom of this.
I want to understand him.
———
[December 13th]
“Aomine doesn’t hate you, (l/n)-san.”
“Eh?” You shoot your head up at Kuroko’s words. You decided to look for Kuroko the next day to confide in him about what happened at the rooftop, even when you two aren’t particularly close to each other. But you knew that Kuroko wouldn’t turn you down if matters were about the Generation of Miracles, let alone Aomine. Kuroko is just far too kind to turn away from people in need of help. Even when you know he’s busy, he insists that you two sit together on a bench to talk things out.
“I… I don’t know,” you whisper. “I think I said something that seriously messed up our friendship.” Kuroko offers you a consoling pat on the head when he sees you trying to hold back tears.
“Aomine-kun… tends to say things he doesn’t mean when he’s angry.” Kuroko sighs a bit, but something lurks deep within his eyes before it disappears altogether. “He’s going through a tough time right now, so I think it’s best to give him space.”
“A tough time?” You widen your eyes a bit before turning away. How come Momoi never told you this? Why didn’t Aomine confide in you? “... May I ask what happened?”
“... As much as I want to tell you,” he begins, “it’s not in my place to say. You’d have to ask Aomine-kun himself when he’s ready.” He drops his hand from the top of your head and faces ahead of him, presumably observing people walking by you two as a form of distraction. He’s thinking about something, and you feel that this conversation has been progressively turning more intrusive on your end. You opt to also stare at the passersby while you ask the next pressing question in your mind.
“Then, is it in your place to tell me what happened between you and Aomine?” You instantly regret your question when you see Kuroko stiffen up and bow his head lower to hide his face. “I… just wanted to ask, because I don’t like seeing how you two practically became strangers in a day, when you guys used to hang out so much, as if you two were inseparable… I thought Aomine’s foul moods lately were because of that… but—you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to!” You add the last part in a rush in fear of sounding too demanding.
“Yeah…” he trails off in response. “It’s a bit complicated… I’m still not sure what happened either. It was during our game against Kamizaki when Aomine-kun changed.”
“Oh… Kamizaki…” you reply, uncertainty taking over your voice as you scramble your brain to try to figure out a connection, but to no avail. You mentally curse yourself for not knowing enough about the sport to help out Aomine. “Um, Kamizaki is…?”
Kuroko, thankfully noticing your confusion, patiently explains the context. “Kamizaki is one of the strong teams that gave us a hard time during one of our national matches last year. Aomine had been looking forward to going against them again.”
“Ah!” you chime as if a lightbulb went off in your head. “So you guys lost this year?”
“No, we won that game.”
“Then…” you mumble, furrowing your brows. “I don’t get it… he’s upset that he won?”
(“You wouldn’t understand.”)
“I think it’s something more than that.” Kuroko gets up from the bench while facing you. “Sorry, it’s almost time for practice. I’ll have to get going soon, (l/n)-san. And please don’t be disheartened by Aomine’s words.”
“I’ll try to apologize to him and make amends,” you say with a smile. “If he can scare me away that easily, then I have no right to call myself his friend!” Kuroko gives a small nod and a miniscule smile of his own as he readjusts his book bag on his shoulder.
You only give an automatic wave and nod of your own before he turns to walk away. You, however, miss the somber light in his eyes as he departs for the gym.
———
[December 16th]
You constantly tail after him like a lost puppy at every chance you get, Aomine notes, watching you dash to him with a wave of your arm and a huge smile the moment the school bell signaled the end of the day. He frowns a bit when your eyes fall to the ground when you stop in front of him. Surprisingly, he’s being patient, waiting for you to face him and say what you needed to say. A part of him doesn’t like the troubled look on your face.
“I’m sorry.”
He’s absolutely bewildered, his face giving away what he felt. There’s no way he expected to be forgiven so easily after what he said to you. As much as he knew that he meant every word he said, there was a bitter aftertaste in his mouth after he harshly reprimanded you the other day. You didn’t really deserve him lashing out on you.
“Huh?” He narrows his eyes as he takes a closer read at your face and body language. What the hell? Were you messing with him? “What are you doing?” A rhetorical question he proposed, knowing that no sane person would be this apologetic for something he knew was the one more at fault in the situation. His pride refuses to let him voice out his thoughts though.
“No, really. I’m really sorry for what I said a couple days ago. It was out of line and not in my place to speak when I don’t even know the whole situation and still assume things… so…” you trail off, scratching your cheek in trying to summon up the rest of the words you practiced for your apology for the entire day prior to meeting up with Aomine.
“Oh…” he blinks at your words, replaying the scene at the rooftop in his mind. “That? It’s whatever. Don’t think too much of it.” It’s not really your fault.
“Argh, I’m serious about this, y’know!” you scowl, a complete 180 from the uncertainty on your face seconds earlier. “How could you forget it already?” Despite your words, you’re relieved that he didn’t come to hate you. Besides spending the day practicing your dreaded apology, you spent another day coming to terms with the high possibility that he’d hate you for the rest of his life… and thus, you played out nearly every scenario in your head in how you’d have to beg for forgiveness or find ways to be in his good graces again. The woes of liking someone like Aomine Daiki really came to bite you in the ass quite frequently recently.
Aomine’s eyes follow your hand gestures and explosive outburst before they fall to your side in a weird moment of silence coming from you. You’re thinking about something unnecessary, it seems.
Your thoughts are interrupted when he lightly flicks your forehead. “O-Ow! What the hell?!”
“You’re thinking way too hard about this. Don’t worry about it.” He’s back to his normal self, face impassive once more as he looks down at you. “Geez… you take things way too seriously.”
“R-Right…” you mumble, clearing your throat after a few seconds of him staring at you. “Anyways… I made an extra bento box today, considering that I heard from Momoi that you’re always stealing food from everyone when you’re hungry… just take it. As a token of apology, or something…” With that, you pull out the lunch from your bag and nearly chuck it at him out of embarrassment before you run out the opposite direction where you came from.
“Heh…” he huffs out a chuckle, half-exhale, before looking at the bento box in his hand. “Token of apology, huh…” He opens up the lid to find every part of the lunch meticulously cooked and delicately placed. Octo-dogs were placed in the corner on top of a small pile of rice, while you made small veggie animals with shredded nori sprinkled generously around. A smirk grows on his face when he observes how much work you actually put into it, and if anyone who knew him saw him right now, they might dare to call his smirk somewhat boyish. “Now that’s a load of crap if I’ve ever heard one in a while, (y/n).”
Now… where should he nap for today? He didn’t want to go back to the rooftop for a while, now that either you or Momoi might come up again to disturb him, and there aren’t a lot of locations who can offer that same level of quiet. Aomine grabs an octo-dog to munch on while he walks down the hallway, thinking about where to go for today. That is, until he hears hurried footsteps that he’s very much grown accustomed to for many years now.
“Dai-chan!” Momoi huffs out of breath before she slows down her running to match his stride. “You didn’t even wait for me to get out of class! You’re such a meanie, ugh!”
“Yeah, yeah…” he automatically replies, already drowning out her voice as he keeps walking. He grabs a cat-shaped carrot to pop into his mouth before noisily chewing it to further block out her chattering of anything that may have happened in the Teiko practices lately. Momoi suddenly stops her usual chirping to tippy-toe to get a better look at what he’s holding.
“Eh? Isn’t that (y/n)-chan’s… lunch?” Momoi’s inquisitive voice brought him out of his mind at the mention of your name. He turns to look down at her pouting face.
“Huh? What about her?”
“Don’t tell me you stole it from her! Mou, if you’re gonna keep doing this to people, at least spare (y/n)-chan! Actually, you should stop stealing people’s lunches—”
“Tch,” he clicks his tongue. “Don’t get it twisted, Satsuki. (y/n) gave me one. Said she had an extra.”
“Oh… I… see,” she drops any further assumptions and turns rather thoughtful, something that Aomine never associates with anything good if her mind wasn’t thinking about something basketball-related.
“You better not think of anything stupid,” he says, proceeding to lazily pick up another octo-dog while picking up his walking speed. Momoi, noticing that he’s trying to divert the topic, also picks up her pace to catch up to him.
“(y/n)-chan is a nice girl, isn’t she?”
“Huh?” He stops walking abruptly. Momoi, in trying to catch up, bumps into Aomine’s back before she takes a few steps back to face an annoyed Aomine. “What the hell’s that gotta do with anything?”
“Nothing like that,” she responds, still deep in thought. She continues with a concerned tone of voice. “Just treat her nicely okay? I saw her crying the other day with Tetsu-kun when I was looking for him.”
“And you think it’s my fault for making her cry,” he coldly finishes her thought, not liking where the conversation is going.
“I-I didn’t say that!” Momoi raises her voice defensively, surprised at his unusual reaction. “I was just trying to see if you knew anything about it, Ahomine! Besides, I’m just warning you to be gentle with her or else you’ll never stop hearing it from me!”
“First you’re gonna nag me about basketball, and now this thing with (y/n)? You’re not my damn mom.”
“Because I know you’re never honest about your feelings!” she retorted, getting straight to the point. “If you’re gonna be an asshole, leave her out of it, seriously! (y/n)-chan’s my friend, so any business she has with you is also mine!”
“What (y/n) does is none of my business.” His voice takes on a more hostile tone. “Unlike you, I don’t hover over her constantly.”
“Liar,” she hisses, dropping her playfulness. “Then what was that whole thing about when you scared off some guys who were going after (y/n)-chan two weeks ago? You clearly were around her a lot more to the point where even Tetsu-kun asked me if you had a thing for her!”
Something rises within Aomine when he hears Momoi’s accusations—sickenly warm and terribly uncomfortable, as if his entire body was feeling the effect of pin needles from lack of blood flow. Whatever it is, he hates it.
“I don’t care if they wanna get close to (y/n) all they want. They were invading my damn personal space,” he spits out. “Those dickheads aren’t her type anyways.”
“So you like her then—”
“Hell no,” he scoffs with an inscrutable expression. “She’s definitely not my type. Let’s get that straight, Satsuki.” He finally decides to look at Momoi with his peripheral vision, but all he discerns is her face clearly glaring at him. “The hell are you looking at me like that? Are you gonna tell me that I can’t have a preference now?”
Momoi softens her harsh expression at his question. “Well… no, but…” She stops before she sighs and decides to drop her interrogation. “I just have that womanly instinct, you know? I think (y/n)-chan might see you as—”
“... I know.” His tone becomes one of defeat, his face also softening from his usual frowning countenance.
“Dai-chan…?” Momoi, immediately noticing his change, tries to look at his face to peer into his eyes, but Aomine averts his eyes away under her scrutiny. “You’re going to have to at least tell her, you know that, right…?”
He grunts under his breath as his only response, but his eyes fixating on your half-eaten bento as he keeps walking ahead speaks volumes to Momoi about his inner turmoil.
She drops the subject for his sake.
———
[January 17th]
You’ve stopped bugging Aomine about basketball entirely.
Bringing it up, you reason, seems to be a really sore spot for him as of late, and it’s hypocritical of you to lecture him on it when you have no clue on the topic to begin with. Maybe you can entrust that role completely to Momoi… after all, he’s much closer to her than he is with you. Maybe instead of “being his mom,” like Aomine says, perhaps you should take the time to observe and appreciate the things around you and mind your own business. Like the trees starting to bud… the refreshing breeze… and white noise of students excitedly talking to each other as they pass by buildings… the therapeutic page flips next to you as Aomine slouches to get himself comfortable on the concrete. Though, that’s what you tell yourself as you continue to hear Aomine give an occasional hum of approval.
The knowledge of the content inside those pages isn’t therapeutic in the slightest. But you’d rather endure your petty feelings of jealousy than to risk upsetting him again. You clench your skirt pleats with every increasing number of page-turns you hear… he’s been going through his new collection a lot faster than usual, too…
You hone your focus on your modern history worksheet on your lap instead, hoping that staring at the printed figure of Yamagata Aritomo hard enough could somehow transport you into Meiji-era Japan and escape your current predicament. Still, you’re grateful that you have the chance to sit next to him at the usual rooftop once again. You don’t know how exactly you two agreed to come up to share the space again, but when you decided to come up to the rooftop on a whim, Aomine was already there. All he said was a lazy “yo” before he went back to reading his issues, which you took as a way for him to tell you that he didn’t mind your presence. And you settled yourself a few feet away from him, making yourself comfortable on the concrete before settling down your bag. Hence, leading up to this point… which you sort of regret being here now.
No matter, if you’re already here, you might as well actually start studying for your high school entrance exams. Normally you’d also turn to Aomine to scold him to take his studies just as seriously, but when you habitually turn to face him and open your mouth… you stop.
What am I thinking? You’re not his mom, remember, (y/n)? You want him to see you as a desirable woman. Stop being naggy!
You give a wry smile to yourself, watching Aomine at peace in this shared moment between the two of you, even if his object of his undivided attention was Horikita Mai.
It’s okay… you think. As long as I get to remain by his side like this, I won’t ask for more.
You force yourself to peel your gaze away from him to look back at the historical figure printed rather crookedly on the paper. You resolve yourself to pick up your pencil and start writing.
You don’t really know how much time passes between the two of you. It could’ve been only thirty minutes; it could’ve been a couple hours. But you begin to find solace with the rhythm of the graphite sliding across your paper, your mind too occupied with recalling lecture notes and your ears too filled with the sound of your pencil scurrying across the print to register anything on Aomine’s end. At last, you finish the last short-answer question on the page, and you gently drop your pencil as your body finally releases all the pent-up tension. Shifting your seating position slightly, you dare to take a peek at the ace of Teiko…
… only to find that his eyes were on you.
Both of you jump and look away at the unexpected shared eye contact, both equally mortified that the other had caught each other staring.
“S-Sorry…” you mumble, “I was just checking on you after I was done with work on my end…”
“Tch… you got too quiet, so I thought you got replaced or somethin’...” he trails off before he goes back to his usual cocky self. “Seeing your ugly face though was more than enough proof that you’re still here.”
You gape at him. “Eh?! What’s that supposed to mean, Ahomine!? Like you’re one to talk, stupid!”
He lazily blinks before putting a pinky in his ear to further irritate you. “Dunno, whenever you’re here, you usually get steam coming out of your nose, like some folklore monster.”
“What?!” you gasp. “I do not!”
“Just like that.”
“Geez…!” you click your tongue, turning away from him to disengage from the banter. “I might have an ugly face, but your nasty attitude won’t get you anyone either, idiot.”
“So what?” he shrugs languidly. “All I need is Horikita Mai-chan, anyways.”
You involuntarily grimace at his serious tone… even if there was (or so you hope) a slight chance that he’s just joking. Thankfully, your face was already turned away for him to notice.
“Yeah, yeah,” you sigh, trying to sound casual. “All those magazines are pretty self-explanatory, y’know.” You then nod your head in his direction, referring to a few scattered booklets strewn around his legs. Turning away, you stretch your legs out, put your things back in your bag, and get up to stand with one final stretch.
“You’re leavin’ already?” he raises a brow at your sudden movement.
“You know that sitting on cement like that for so long isn’t ideal for studying,” you half-chide, inwardly thankful that coming up with excuses has become much easier lately. “I’m probably gonna head home right now before it gets too dark. Are you really gonna stay here all day?”
“I’m too tired to move.”
“You’re so childish, you know that?” You give a small laugh at his antics. “Well, do whatever you need to do. I’ll be on my way. Seeya.”
You skip a bit, eager that you get to escape without raising any suspicions. Aomine might not excel academically, but he isn’t stupid… quite the opposite, in fact. You often get annoyed at how sharp he gets for the most random situations.
“Oi.”
You’re on the first ladder step going down when he calls out, freezing as you grip the sides of the ladder. You watch him get up into a comfortable sitting position, before he looks at you for a bit.
“Er… did you want something?” you tilt your head in slight confusion.
“Never mind,” he sighs. “... Had something on my mind, then forgot. Make me a bento for tomorrow, yeah?”
“He averts his gaze when he lies,” Kuroko said.
You were walking home together, deciding that visiting the convenience store for a quick snack would be a good detour.
“Who?” you stopped licking your ice pop to look at Kuroko’s stare boring into you.
“Aomine-kun.”
“Eh? Why are you telling me this?” you raised a brow at the odd turn of conversation.
He only gave you a knowing look that you couldn’t completely understand before he replied: “I noticed he had this habit recently, and I was wondering if you also noticed it too, seeing that you guys hang out a lot, (l/n)-san. Even if we grew distant, he’s still an important friend to me, so I was hoping if you knew something that was possibly troubling him. I did tell him that I wasn’t going to make him tell me anything he wasn’t comfortable with.”
“No,” you shook your head. “But I’ll keep your words in mind.”
“Thank you.” He smiled. “If you ever have something that’s troubling you, you can come talk to me. You’re my friend, too.”
He’s not looking at you.
You open your mouth to ask what he was about to say, but you close it just as quickly. It’s not your business to prod, after all. Your own gaze skids away while your lips pressed together.
“Well, then…” you say. “If that’s all, then I’ll be off. No promises on the bento, though.”
The sound of metal squeaking and clothes rustling follow your descent down the ladder before metal screeches echo as you open and close the door of the rooftop entrance.
(“You’re going to have to at least tell her, you know that, right…?”)
Aomine sighs loudly in annoyance before he goes back to indulging everything Horikita Mai had to offer in the 27th volume special.
———
[January 22nd]
“What did I say about taking (y/n)-chan’s food?!” Momoi trails after Aomine with a scowl as he continues to walk unbothered. “This is the 5th day in a row!”
“Is it really a problem if she lets me?” Aomine holds your bento box in one hand while covering his face with the other as he yawns. “You can ask her yourself if you don’t believe me.”
“You really don’t understand the heart of a lady—ugh! I swear, you’re as dumb as a rock!”
“Whatever.”
Momoi harshly knits her brows at his apathetic attitude towards you. What should she do? Should she tell you? Should she keep pushing Aomine to be honest? She swallows before deciding it best to keep quiet. But her heart hammers in fear of witnessing another friendship between you, Aomine, and herself crumbling before her eyes again.
Dai-chan… she thinks, looking at his back as he munches on your onigiri. Stop being an idiot for once, would you?
———
[March 1st]
“Thanks,” he says, immediately snatching your bento box out of your hands the moment you pulled it out of your bag.
“What the hell?!” you glare at him, putting your hands to your hips.
“I know you packed an extra one, (y/n). Don’t get mad at me now.” He merely picks up the chopsticks before digging into the tempura. “Ish perrty good shrimp.”
You widen your eyes, forgetting completely to be angry at the sight of Aomine genuinely enjoying your cooking. You avert your gaze at the compliment. “T-Thanks…”
Aomine looks at you, the you that has grown to become compliant and bashful in his presence recently.
(“You’re going to have to at least tell her, you know that, right…?”)
He goes back to finishing your lunch instead of thinking about the difficult things. A part of him likes the current dynamic you two share recently, a nice balance between entertaining banter, peaceful privacy (especially when you stopped yapping his ear off as of late), and free food. Saying the things that Momoi wants him to say could ruin everything you two had. So he doesn’t say anything.
Since when did you start making him lunch every day without him saying anything? It’s been a month since this started, ever since he made that one off-comment about making him lunch to throw you off from his uncharacteristic silence. You never complained that it was too much work, and you certainly never slacked off on your craft when it came to your bento boxes. Every lunch he’s eaten from you was carefully curated and cooked to near perfection.
It’s unfair for you, he knew. What would he say though? He’s never been one with words at all. He frowns.
“Something wrong with my lunch?” you tease, and he looks up to see you staring at him so fondly.
Quit looking at me like that…
“Tch, it’s edible enough,” he slightly sulks at your good-natured tease before shoving another helping into his mouth.
“Say,” you begin, eagerly leaning forward to get his attention. “What school are you thinking of enrolling in a couple weeks?”
“None of your business,” he snorts, already satisfied at seeing your fond, sappy look turning into a more combative expression. There it is.
“Oh come on!” you insist. “So you already chose a school without telling me? Let me guess, it’s one of those… Kings of… schools—the really strong schools for basketball?”
“Three Kings of Tokyo,” he corrects you. “Nah.”
“Tell me,” you huff with your arms crossed. “Or I’m not making you bento anymore, and you can starve to death.”
“Geez, I was about to tell you anyways,” he drawls, already finishing the last bite. “That one school called Touou.”
“Huh? But I’ve never really heard of that school from anywhere though, especially for basketball.”
“Yeah, got an offer, though.”
“Oh…” you hum, packing away your own lunch into your bag. “If that’s the case, I might consider that school too, then.”
“Hah?” He raises a brow. “Why?” He puts his utensils down to look at your figure.
“Uh…” you mumble, fiddling with the hem of your shirt. “Someone’s gotta have to keep you in check, right? Besides, I personally don’t have any idea where to go yet either.”
“If you’re just coming to tag along with me,” Aomine begins, narrowing his eyes. “Forget it. Satsuki is already coming with me, no matter how much I tell her to buzz off. I don’t need another person to nag me 24/7.”
“But—!” you counter, raising your eyes to meet his own. “How are you gonna manage with lunch and all?”
“I’m not a kid, (y/n), and you know that,” he coolly responds. “They have cafeterias, vending machines, and fast food spots. I can manage without you.”
“Um, even so…” you argue, though your voice dwindles at his strong attempts of pushing you away. You feel uneasy at the inevitable argument that’s to come right around the corner. “I’m not as easy to get rid of either like Momoi, you know that more than anyone, too.”
Goddamn it, why were you so stubborn at the wrong times? Can’t you take a hint?
(“You’re going to have to at least tell her, you know that, right…?”)
“Look…” he sighs, eyes looking straight at you to convey his message across. “I know you like me, and all. But you’re not my type. I don’t see you that way.”
But even though he tries his damn hardest to look at you, he can’t. He chickens out at the last sentence and looks away.
“I-I… I know… I’ve known,” you weakly reply. “But staying by your side as friends is more than what I can ask for. I value our friendship more than anything else.”
“And I’m not the guy for you, either,” he carefully continues. “Can’t believe I’m sayin’ this, but choose a school for your own good—”
“Who are you to decide whether or not you’re good for me?” you snap, visibly frustrated at the turn of events. Weren’t you two just enjoying each other’s presence a few minutes ago? Was it all in your head? “I make the choice of whether or not I want to spend time with you! And you know how persistent I can be… I’m sure Touou has a really good curriculum and selection of extracurriculars, too, I can make it work—”
“You’re an actual dumbass,” he hisses, his short temper getting the better of him after you went hostile on him. How could you not see his point? “How does this shit keep flying over your head?”
You flinch, the feeling so familiar to the time he lashed out on you at the rooftop. He’s glaring into your widened eyes, but he doesn’t care right now, the words he’s been struggling to form and tell you for months now flowing out of him with no filter. If he only realized you liked him a couple months back, how long have you actually liked him? A year? More than that? The adrenaline right now is the only crutch in giving him the courage to give you some type of closure you deserved, even if a part of him hates to see you upset.
“... The hell’s that supposed to mean…?” Your voice cracks at the end, and your hands grip the straps of your book bag so hard they’re shaking.
Where’s the boy I liked from 2 years ago?
“I mean exactly what I said,” he spits out, his own frown further deepening into a visible crease on his face. “Look, (y/n), you can’t keep tailing after me forever. That’s hella annoying.”
“What about Momoi…?” you whisper. “I get that you’re childhood friends, but how come you always let her stay by your side?”
“Look,” he shoots back. “Satsuki is different—”
“Aomine-kuuuun!” Momoi’s voice rings across campus, and Aomine whirls around to see her running to him at breakneck speed. “Hey, hey! There’s a new coffee shop around the corner! We should totally try it together! I’ll even pay for you if you ask nicely enough…”
You stare at the floor, trying to hold back unshed tears by gripping your bag straps even harder. “... Excuse me.”
“Wha–hey!” Aomine turns back to face where he presumed you were at, only to see you gone from his sight.
“... Was that (y/n)-chan?” Momoi shoots a curious glance behind his back.
“Tch, don’t worry about it.” He gives a long, winded sigh before scratching the back of his head. “Just leave her be.”
She only gives a worried look at him before she continues with her prior conversation.
———
[March 4th]
You avoid him for the next few days… that much he expects. He’ll never say it out loud, but he finds it sort of amusing to see you try to keep yourself completely hidden from him. The way you duck when you see him; the way you scramble to grab your belongings before you book it; the way you try to run so fast to escape his line of vision when he can easily catch up to you if he just jogs. But he doesn’t.
Because even though he’s a bit bummed about what happened the other day, he now doesn’t feel the pressure to stick around you just to build up his courage to finally give you that closure.
It feels quite nice to not have any obligations and demands expected of Momoi or you. Naps have never been so peaceful now that his sense of conscientiousness has been relieved. Other than Momoi occasionally bothering him, but that’s manageable… he’s quite used to that.
He’s not 100% used to not seeing you around him every day, though.
It’s probably for the best.
Still, maybe he was too harsh on you (like always). But there’s no way in hell he’s going to march up to you and grab your arm while you’re running and then apologize. That might give you the wrong idea—
“Pssst, hey, (y/n)-san seems distant from Aomine, lately.” A small group of people huddled around a desk, surrounding a guy sitting on it, who appears to be the source of the voice.
“Weird, isn’t it? She follows him around every day, and he’s always guarding her or something.”
Bullshit. He doesn’t “guard” her—his resting bitch face and his ridiculous athletic build have always been advantageous for both (y/n) and Momoi to repel off the creeps. Not that he cared. It’s only when they get so noisy and too close in his bubble that he gives them verbal threats of violence. And that almost always works to scare them away.
“Think I can have a chance with her this time?”
“I dunno… (y/n)’s not the passive type to go along with it. I mean how else could she deal with Aomine every day?”
“... You’re right.”
“I mean… there’s Momoi…”
Aomine sighs. They really have nothing better to do, huh.
They’re right that they’re the type of people (y/n) wouldn’t like in the slightest. He doesn’t know what you see in him, but at least your standards aren’t abysmally low where you’d happily go along with one of them. He scoffs to himself in a way to mock their desperate attempts.
They don’t know what’s coming to them if they actually were serious about dating her. Avoiding her romantic advances is like dodging a bullet, actually.
He kinda misses your cooking, though. His self-assured grin instantly flips into a frown at the stray thought.
———
[March 5th]
Imagine his unadulterated shock when he sees you casually walk up to his desk and drop a wrapped package of (what he assumes) his bento box the next day.
“What,” you dryly say. “Did you think you could get rid of me that easily?”
“... Whatever.” He merely eyes the lunch before he carefully tries to get a read on your face. Holy shit, you look awful, eyes slightly puffy probably from all the crying you did behind closed doors. He chooses not to acknowledge the weird pang his heart does at the sight of you.
“Aw, don’t be like that,” you goad, though you sound a bit too exhausted to be provoking. “At least, until we graduate and go into our high schools, let me continue making lunch for you. As… a symbol of our… good friendship.” You hesitate to try to find the right phrasing for the last part… Now that you really thought about it these past few days… were you two really friends? You just bothered and tagged along with Aomine your entire three years here at Teiko, and you always tried to cater your schedule and interests around him. Here you were, trying to understand him as best as you can.
Did he even try to understand me at all the entire time we’ve known each other?
“... What’s your game?” he says, clearly thrown off guard, He opts to look away from you to stare at the window by his desk. “... Did I not make it clear last time?”
“Yeah, yeah… I know.” You give a sad smile before your grin grows unnaturally wider to hide your vulnerabilities. “You were unusually honest. So honest, it threw me off.”
No more… I’m not opening my heart to you any longer.
“Are you here to just embarrass me or something for revenge?”
“No one has that type of deplorable thinking like you,” you chastise, seemingly back to your old self. “Besides, we’re friends, first and foremost, and I can’t ignore a friend in need. You were probably starving yourself like an idiot, or something.”
Aomine was still facing the windowsill, but at your words, his eyes flitted to look at you once more. “... You sound like Tetsu.”
“Oh wow!” you gasp, putting a hand to your mouth in surprise. “How’d you know we’re dating?”
He whips his head to you. “What?! What the hell are you talking about?—”
“Kidding,” you interrupt him before he gets too explosive on you. “You can’t be that much of an idiot to not be able to call out that bluff.”
“Screw off.”
He can only click his tongue in absolute annoyance as he hears you laugh to yourself walking out of the room before the school bell rings.
Yeah, you're definitely back to your normal self.
He’s a bit reassured that he’ll still have you in his life.
———
[March 15th]
It’s been two weeks since Aomine completely crushed your hopes of a romantic relationship with him. You don’t feel okay, not at all, but you’re eagerly counting down the days before you can go to Seirin with Kuroko.
And no, you never planned to go in order to be by Kuroko’s side. It was a mere coincidence that you found out.
[March 8th]
“(l/n)-san, what’s wrong?” Kuroko sipped his vanilla shake, popping up out of nowhere while you were in the middle dwelling in your negative thoughts alone at your table. Your burger was left half-eaten, and your fries got cold.
“EEP!” You were shocked out of your daze, jumping in your seat. You eyed a worried Kuroko across the table. “Ah, geez, it’s just you. When’d you get here?”
“For a while actually,” he admitted. “I first called out your name from afar, but it didn’t seem like you noticed me.”
“Well,” you sweatdropped. “I don’t think I would’ve noticed you anyways under any other circumstances…”
“When you’re upset…” Kuroko said. “You have your own habit of looking down, whether it’s your lap, the floor, or what’s in front of you.”
“Leave it up to you to easily figure that out,” you sighed. “You’re always with me when I’m thinking about something dumb or just messed up. Sorry that you constantly have to deal with that.”
“It’s not a problem, (l/n)-san.”
“Yeah…” you mumbled. “So, I’m gonna get straight to the point… Aomine knew he liked me, and yeah, it didn’t end well…”
“Ah.”
“Don’t worry, though,” you reassured him. “I knew all along that it would… end up this way.”
“... Even if you hoped for more?”
“I can’t help that, can I?” you sighed again. “Anyways, right now, I was thinking about what I want to do after I graduate from Teiko… I never thought about these things like that. ‘Cause, you know, I thought I could figure things out on the go while being by both Aomine’s side… but I guess he’s right that I shouldn’t mindlessly follow him everywhere… and Momoi has her own plans of going to Touou as their basketball manager. I should leave those two be.”
Kuroko stayed silent for you to continue.
“Seirin seems like a good school… It’s new, but it has really good facilities, and even if I don’t know what to do, it seems like it can give lots of good opportunities, and if anything, it can give me a fresh start.”
Kuroko slightly widened his eyes. You noticed and tilted your head for him to explain his reaction.
“I’m also going to attend Seirin.”
“E-Eh?!! That’s a scary coincidence… What’s your reason for picking it?”
“... They seem to have a good basketball team,” he quietly replied, his eyes looking as if they’re looking so far back. “I like their teamplay. I’ve been wanting to be in that type of team for a long time.”
“I see…” you murmured. For a moment, you noticed Kuroko’s pained look… but remembering Aomine’s words about being nosy, you decided not to press into it.
You give a long sigh again. And here you thought that you can end your last year at Teiko well and happily. Right now, you would usually look for Aomine in his usual spots: Maji Burger, the school rooftop, or the local park. It’s different now. Sitting on an empty table outside to finish up the rest of those pesky kanji worksheets, you finally truly take in your surroundings… the trees starting to bloom this time… the refreshing breeze… and white noise of students excitedly talking to each other as they pass by buildings… but there are no longer the therapeutic sounds of page flips next to you as Aomine slouches to get himself comfortable on the concrete. Though, you pretend you’re next to him as you continue to somehow hear Aomine give an occasional hum of approval at whatever filthy page he feasted his eyes on.
Once again, the knowledge of the content inside those pages you imagined isn’t therapeutic in the slightest.
It hurts.
And there’s no way you can focus on the questions, not when thoughts of Aomine continue to pervade and fill up every damn crevice—every crook and cranny—of your mind.
Were you missing something? Were you not pretty enough? Were you not relatable enough? Was there another way for Aomine to consider seeing you as a romantic partner?
For the first time, you really let the implications of Aomine’s words sink in… If you had more agency—more independence—in the first place, would he have considered letting you tag along to Touou? What if… you had more knowledge on basketball like Momoi?—
“(y/n)-chan…!”
A familiar, chirpy voice breaks you out of your wallow in self-pity and a flash of pink fills your vision. Of course your thoughts accidentally summoned her here, you wrly think. Momoi represented the complete opposite of your current emotional state, flouncing around quite cheerfully to grab your attention. Though, if you are completely honest, she has the same look of sorrow in her eyes similar to Kuroko’s.
“What’s wrong, Momoi?” you ask, giving her a reassuring smile to encourage her to share her potential troubles.
“Eh…? What’s wrong with me?” she frowns in confusion.
“You look a bit down, that’s all. You and Kuroko share the same look in your eyes sometimes.”
“Oh…” she averts her gaze. Normally, she would squeal about having something in common with her “true love,” but she takes on a somber note of acknowledgment. “I guess you can say that… but more importantly!” She directs the subject of conversation to you. “You! (y/n)-chan! You look like you need more comfort than me.”
She takes a seat next to you and eyes at your worksheets, noting the sporadic dried splotches across the paper. You’ve been crying.
“I guess it takes a sad person to know another one,” you joke, though your smile doesn’t quite reach your eyes. Momoi frowns at her only friend (besides the GoM) in such a distressed state, even if she knows you’re actively trying to hide it.
“It’s about Dai-chan, isn’t it?”
“Ah…” you look down at your worksheets. “So you knew.”
“Sorry…” she murmurs. “I told him to be gentle and honest with you.”
“Well he certainly gave me the latter,” you softly laugh. “Hey, hey… there’s no need to be down for my sake.” You immediately reach out to gently ruffle her hair with a head pat. She widens her eyes at the unexpected physical contact.
“Sorry, did I push my boundaries?”
“No, no…!” she denies, shaking her head to reassure you. “You reminded me of Tetsu-kun right now… that’s all.”
“Huh, I guess he’s been rubbing off on me,” you muse. A thought comes to you. “Actually, can I ask you something?”
“Eh?” She blinks. “Sure, I’ll try my best to answer whatever it is.”
You finally look up to face Momoi head on. “Was I ever too overbearing on Aomine? I wonder if I crossed any boundaries with him at any point. If you noticed anything at any point, please tell me everything.”
“No,” she firmly reassures. “You didn’t do anything wrong at all. Dai-chan is the real idiot here. You’ve only done what’s best for him, and I would’ve done the same in your place.”
“Pfft, he always calls us nagging grandmas, doesn’t he?”
“Right? He has no tact, at all!” Momoi huffs, puffing out her cheeks in a pout. “Despite all that, he cares for you, (y/n)-chan. I’m serious. Even if he’ll never admit it like the idiot that he is.”
You give a rueful smile. “Thank you, Momoi.”
Turning away from Momoi, you look up at the trees, so full of flowers that it fills the void in your heart by gazing at them. You sense that she’s also doing the same.
“... Hey, Momoi?”
“... yes?”
“You love Kuroko, don’t you?” You turn back to face Momoi. She gives an innocent simper at the mere mention of his name.
“I do. But even though he’s not the type to date, I want to be by his side.”
You smile too, her joy too contagious to ignore, but that smile somewhat deflates when your thoughts go back to Aomine against your will.
“Hey… how do you love someone who doesn’t love you back?”
She pauses and takes in the many implications of your question. “I don’t know,” she admits. “It just happens, you can’t always control it… I’ll wait for Tetsu-kun, even if it’s the most idiotic thing to do. I just can’t help it. That’s what love is, I think.”
“I see…”
“It’s not for everyone. Loving someone like that.”
“I thought I could do that…” Your whisper comes out so hoarse. “With Aomine—I thought… as long as I got to be by his side, I wouldn’t ask for more… but it hurts to go back to being friends—it hurts to see him… I don’t want to see him anymore.” The last part of your confession ends up being a choked sob.
“Shhh…” she hushes you to console you. “It’s okay, it’s good to cry it out.” She rubs down your back as tears endlessly plop onto your worksheets, no doubt ruined by now.
“Please… please don’t tell—”
“I won’t tell anything to Dai-chan… I promise.”
Dai-chan… were you truly honest with (y/n)-chan?
———
[April 6th]
“Aomine-kun! There you are! Where were you? Sheesh, we don’t want to miss the entrance ceremony!”
Aomine towers over the crowd, his eyes clearly scanning—looking—for something amidst the countless students walking around and socializing amongst one another. Even as Momoi tugs on his new uniform blazer (not properly worn, no doubt) to get him to walk, he stands to face the front gates expectantly.
“... Where’s (y/n)?”
“Huh?” Momoi looks at Aomine like he grew three legs. “She’s not at Touou, Ahomine. What are you even talking about?”
“... Thought she woulda tailed me here too.”
“You told her off to choose a different school!”
“I did not,” he grunts. “I told her to choose a school for a reason that’s not on me. Besides, my words never stopped her from annoying me all the time… Wait, when did you hear me say that?”
“You were shouting at her that day! Anybody nearby could’ve heard that!” She glares at him. “And well, those words of yours certainly stopped her now. Do you hear yourself right now?”
“The hell…” he ignores Momoi and curses, kicking the gravel before lazily walking with his hands in his pockets to his assigned seat for the ceremony. Of course, Momoi tails after him despite being pissed off.
Words from all the speeches from the faculty and student alumni went in one ear out the other for him in a continuous slur of nonsense. His body goes on autopilot, standing and sitting when everyone else does the same, while he continues to scan over the hundreds of heads, thinking he must’ve missed your dumbass by mistake. Of course he notices Momoi sitting a short distance away from him; the way everyone ogles at her is obnoxiously contagious and far from discreet.
But where are you?
———
[April 10th]
“... Do you mind if…” you hesitate, turning to Kuroko after he signs his name on the basketball club interest form. “... You teach me more about the sport?”
Kuroko looks at you curiously at your question, and you quickly clarify yourself. “It’s not for Aomine’s sake, or anyone else’s for the matter. I just want to watch a few of your practices, and things like that… it might be fun… I wanna try something new.” You give a small smile, albeit nervously. “I won’t be in the way, I promise—even if I don’t know what’ll be happening most of the time—”
“I’ll ask the coach when the time comes,” Kuroko reassures you, his own smile mirroring your own growing grin at his answer.
“Alrighty!” you cheer. You stop yourself when you see a student who easily towered over everyone at the basketball club booth. “What the… that guy’s a high school student?!”
“Oh,” Kuroko turns to where you were pointing. “He seems like someone with a hot temper.”
“Reminds me of a certain someone, doesn’t he, Kuroko…?” You give a soft elbow jab and a playful lilt, though both of you knew you were both still recovering from the emotional blows from last year.
He quietly nods before he follows you to the other club booths nearby.
———
[April 20th]
“Where did Kuroko go…!” You’re breathless at the bench, watching the game between Seirin and Kaijo. This is just a practice game? It’s way too intense to be considered such.
Riko, amused at your reactions, gladly explains what’s going down on the courts as it happens. “Kuroko’s greatest strength is using his lack of presence for his misdirection—”
“And wait—Kagami is—!” You near-completely ignored Riko’s explanation when Kagami steals the show with a dunk, completely leaving you in awe with his impossible vertical. “What kind of person jumps that high… what the hell?” She merely chuckles with a hand to her lips before she turns her full attention back to the game.
Kise experiences his first taste of defeat soon enough.
You ignore the way your heart flipped when Kagami dunked the final basket on Kaijo.
———
[May 23rd]
Aomine lays serenely on the rooftop, but his mind is far from relaxed. Tomorrow is the day Touou would crush Seirin in the Inter-High preliminaries.
… Seirin, huh.
He remembers when Momoi broke the news to him when they walked home together after the entrance ceremony. Thinking about it still pisses him off—he can’t help it though, he can’t stop thinking about it… his mind involuntarily plays that conversation in his head over and over. No amount of porn magazines could bury the dull thuds in his chest when he thinks about you.
[April 6th]
“She’s at Seirin right now.”
“What?!” His eyes slightly widened as he stopped walking to incredulously look at her. “You’re seriously pullin’ my leg right now, Satsuki.”
“I would totally yank your stupid legs if I could, Ahomine,” she petulantly grumbled. “But I’m telling the truth. She told me before we went off on our spring break when we said our goodbyes to each other. I told her I was going to miss her, and I also told her to take care of Tetsu-kun for me and let me know if anything happened over there.”
What the hell? When did you get close to Satsuki enough to confide in her? How come he didn’t hear shit from you?
“Hah, so you’re telling me she’s tailing Tetsu now that she can't follow me?” He gave a derisive snort, not liking the development of your relationship with Kuroko for some reason. Momoi gave him that knowing look of admonishment.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, idiot! One! They don’t see each other like that, and two! How (y/n)-chan decided on her school is none of our business. I’m sure she has her own reasons, and you have no right to judge her at all!”
Aomine stared at Momoi, who’s usually so compliant to his demands and harsh words. To see her stick up for you so adamantly was more than surprising. He furrowed his brows before walking ahead of her in a feeble attempt to cut the conversation short.
“Tch… I know that already…”
He releases a heavy sigh. His ego wouldn’t allow him to simply go up to Kuroko and ask about your wellbeing, let alone asking him to set up a time and place for him to meet up with you. What were you doing over there right now? Were you doing okay? Are there random people harassing you or bothering you now that he’s not there with you to scare them off?
He slings his arm over his eyes and sighs again.
“... This is annoying. I’m tired…”
God, it sucks so bad, but he really misses your lunches. Satsuki’s atrocious cooking is still lethal to this day, and Sakurai’s octo-dogs he sometimes steals only measures up to a fraction of the taste of your own octo-dogs.
He’s been hallucinating for a bit—even while he naps, he’s sworn that he always hears pencil scribblings and annoying sighs nearby. He swears that it’s you, that you’re actually enrolled in Touou and that somehow, you roped Momoi into agreeing into this sick prank to get back at him for all the shit he’s done to her all these years. He swears he can hear you muttering the questions out loud before you deftly solve them. He swears he can hear you nagging him to practice even if you haven’t had a clue what basketball entails.
What the hell… He thought that you two would still be friends—attached to the hip, even if a romantic relationship was out of the question. He supposes that it’s a bit naive on his end to think that. Damn it, damn it… Seirin isn’t that far from Touou either… wouldn’t you normally find the way and time to stop by and annoy him like there’s no tomorrow, anyways?
———
[August 14th]
“Kuroko, who do you think would win?”
“I don’t know,” he replies. “This is the first time I’ve seen two Generation of Miracles starters play against each other… However, Aomine-kun inspired Kise-kun to play basketball.”
“Really?” Kagami turns to him in surprise. You stand nearby, listening to Kuroko’s words carefully. After all, they pertained to Aomine.
“They used to play one-on-one a lot, but Kise-kun has never won.”
Aomine… was THAT good? You blink in surprise, remembering about Seirin’s practice match against Kaijo before you turn your attention back on the court. Well, you shouldn’t be that surprised, considering that the Seirin returned with a loss against Touou in the preliminaries… before getting eliminated altogether later on. Knowing how amazing Kagami and Kuroko are at basketball… if they both got single-handedly defeated by the ace of Touou, you shouldn’t doubt Kuroko’s words about Aomine’s strength. You weren’t there to watch that game after all.
You feel a warm, heavy hand pushing on top of your head.
“H-Hey!”
“You have a scary look on your face that I almost mistook you for Aomine,” Kagami says quite seriously, though if you squint, you swear that he’s teasing you. Irk marks pop onto your temples as you try to shoo his hand off of you.
“Oh—come on! Lay off, will you? I do not have a scary face! If anything, it’s you!”
“The hell do you mean by that?!”
“I mean exactly what I said, Kagamidiot!”
Kuroko, unbeknownst to anyone, observes your interaction with Kagami with the faintest smile before turning his attention to see the referee starting the jump ball.
“Everyone, it’s starting.”
———
[December 7th]
He… he lost.
He finally lost.
Aomine stares at Kuroko and Kagami, still reeling from the foreign sensation of defeat creeping into him.
“Why are you acting like it’s all over?” Aomine snaps out of his daze to focus on Kagami. “Things are just getting started. Let’s play again. I’ll take you on.”
Aomine stands there at a loss for words until he scoffs at him, but if anyone was to look at Aomine right now, they would say he’s relieved and pleased to hear those words. “Shut up, idiot.”
“Aomine-kun…” Kuroko calls out, bringing Aomine’s attention from Kagami to his former “shadow.” A moment of reflection is shared between the two of them before Aomine finally acknowledges Kuroko’s style of basketball.
“You win, Tetsu.”
Kuroko contemplates for a bit before opening his mouth. “Can I ask you for a favor?” Kuroko raises his hand in a fist bump before Aomine makes a noise for him to continue. “You still haven’t returned my fist bump.”
“What?” he retorts, slightly flustered at the sudden request. “Who cares about that?”
“No,” Kuroko says, deadpan as ever. “Try putting yourself in the shoes of the ignored.” Aomine gives a long look, hesitant and unsure before he finally relents.
“Fine. This is the last time though… Next time, I’ll win.”
“Okay.”
While still holding the fist bump, Aomine finally brings himself to ask the question plaguing in his mind for the past couple months: “Hey… is it true that (y/n) is in Seirin?”
Kuroko widens his eyes in momentary surprise before he carefully responds. “Yes, she’s actually been cheering us on these past couple months. She’s somewhere in the stands right now. Though, I’m not sure where.”
“I see…” The ace of Touou separates from the fist bump first and turns to get ready for the team lineup, looking rather thoughtful.
Kagami raises a brow at the question that came out of seemingly nowhere for someone like Aomine, but in truth, he knew. You told him everything about what happened between you and Aomine a couple weeks ago while shedding tears.
“There’s nothing wrong with you at all.”
“Eh?” You attempted to wipe the last of your tears before you looked at Kagami to see his reaction. He still could see how red your eyes were even despite trying to remain unbothered about the ordeal. He remembered how distraught you were retelling your past friendship with him… and how you used to like him. How did you even manage to think that you weren’t pretty enough? Helpful enough? And how did you manage to believe yourself to be the most annoying person in the world? Remembering what you said made him boil.
“I can’t believe that guy’s full of it even outside of basketball, that idiot!”
“Honestly…” you gave a sardonic smile to mock your own weakness. “What do you mean?”
“Huh? Well…” He looked away with a comical pout before facing you again. “If I was him, I wouldn’t take you for granted like that. Who the hell would read dirty magazines in broad daylight like that? Seriously, it’s so funny I could bust a spleen!” His response took on a more mocking tone at the end, and he noticed your eyes taking on an amused light at his reaction.
“Didn’t Kuroko correct you that it’s ‘gut,’ and not a ‘spleen’ way back months ago?”
“What? It’s the same thing.” He crossed his arms with a sigh before he looked at your face again, satisfied to see you slightly cheered up. “Anyways, if I ever become like that type of guy, feel free to hit me or something.”
“The way you went and above at being pissed for my sake, I don’t think I’d have to worry about that, Kagami.” Your smile grew to be teasing and affectionate, and his heart started to race at the sight of it.
“Uh—well…” Kagami averted his gaze, scratching his cheek to hide his flushed cheeks. “It’s just… I think you’re fine the way you are.”
You widened your eyes at his words.
“Really…?”
His heart broke at how truly surprised you were at his candor. He meant it; he really did, and it wasn’t fair for you to live like this just because some prick didn’t have the balls to be nice to you, something you deserved again and again.
“I’ll wake that idiot up for you, I swear it.”
You started laughing at him, catching him completely off-guard as his face started heating up even more. “What—hey! What the hell’s so funny?! I’m trying to be serious!”
“Ah…” you breathed out, wiping out the last of your tears after doubling over for a few minutes. “Don’t worry, Kagami. I believe in you. Beat his ass in the Winter Cup for me, yeah?”
Kagami cleared his throat before he mustered up the courage to give you a gentle head pat (albeit very clumsily).
“Y-Yeah…”
Kagami frowns, wondering if you and Aomine will ever sort things out after this game. Part of him worries that your next encounter with him wouldn’t go very smoothly, knowing how complicated Aomine is as an individual.
Kuroko looks at the floor before continuing, almost as if he read Kagami’s mind. “We should also move to line up, Kagami.”
“... Yeah.”
———
[December 8th]
“Shopping is such a damn pain,” Aomine yawns, holding his box of new basketball shoes under his arm. Momoi, of course, is already next to him ready to scold him into oblivion.
“Did you forget that your feet are humongous? Of course the shops wouldn’t have your size,” she sighs at his childish attitude. “Now you’re going to try this new pastry shop with me! You promised to come with me if I went with you to shop for your shoes.”
“I don’t remember promising anything.”
“Meanie! You did! Now don’t be like that and wait here! I’m going to check the lines and available tables.” And before Aomine can wedge another complaint in, Momoi dashes like her life was on the line, clearly risking everything for a chance to taste the strawberry mille-feuille that the shop was famous for.
Geez… he mentally sighs before deciding to look for a place to sit. She better hurry her ass up.
Luckily for him, there’s a spare empty bench near some trees despite the busy crowds. Taking the opportunity, he plops himself down while settling his shoe box next to him. He looks at the box for a moment. He finally has a rival now, huh. Seirin… he wonders how long it’s been since he last saw you… a couple months? Actually… it’s been almost a year.
Indulging Horikita Mai-chan feels off now, and indulging even more of her featured volumes made him feel worse than if he didn’t read any of them to begin with. The temptation to pick up a new racy issue has declined drastically, and Wakamatsu’s threats of burning them are becoming less dire as the days go by. If he actually burned them now, he probably would remain just as unphased and still not show up to practice. Well, now he’ll consider showing up to practice with or without the threats anyways, now that Kagami can keep him on his toes.
He gives a rueful smile. You’re always meddling in his affairs and ruining the consistent routines he’s set up for himself, even if you’re not physically by his side. That’s just like you to ruin him like this. He frowns. Or maybe you’re doing this on purpose as karma for him being an asshole to you all this time. Maybe you’re an Imayoshi, and you’re playing him like a fiddle?
Nah, he thinks, a small chuckle escaping from his lips. You’re too much of an idiot to think like that. You’re too easy to read, (y/n).
He shoves his hands into the pockets of his navy puffer jacket, and he leans forward on the bench with a long exhale. This isn’t good, he’s been thinking about you way too damn much. It’s actually concerning. Is it because he feels bad about chasing you off? Is it because of the uncertainty of his current standing with you in terms of your friendship? Maybe.
He amended his friendship with Kuroko through basketball, something that he’s very comfortable in navigating about. But you? How is he going to approach you?
He’s too much of a coward to stop by Seirin and look for you and get the answers, though.
“Your grades are absolutely atrocious, what the hell? How are you gonna fare well on the final exams for the semester?”
“That’s… we’ll worry about that when the time… comes.”
“Wrong answer! We can’t have you failing when you’re just a first year!”
“Oh come on, I still have two more years to pick up my slack, don’t I?”
Aomine slightly perks up at the familiar voices, the conversation breaking him out of his own thoughts. He freezes when he sees you.
The sight of you sends his own heart into a frenzy, his heart pounding against his chest so incessantly—painfully. The adrenaline he accumulated from his last game is no match for the compressions he feels at this very moment. Is it because he hasn’t seen you for nearly a year that he feels this way? You look different—older for sure—and definitely just as expressive as you were back in Teiko. You’re wearing your casual clothes and the biggest smile he’s seen from you yet.
But the person who’s making you smile like that isn’t him. His eyes finally stop focusing on you to look at the bigger picture in front of him. His eyes widen further when he registers that it’s none other than Kagami.
“Oh come on,” Kagami sighs at your pout. “Don’t be like that…”
“Look, I’ll even offer you tutoring free of charge, but you can’t neglect your studies.”
“Fine, fine…” Kagami ruffles your hair to appease you. “Just know I’m not that good with these types of things. You’re gonna have to take it easy with me.”
“Obviously! Did you think I was gonna bust out a master theory textbook on you? I’m not heartless! Honestly…” You punch his arm before you smile at him. “Before we get going, how’s your legs? You haven’t pushed yourself too much, have you?”
“Nah, I’m okay now.” He sweatdrops when he sees you raising your brow in suspicion. “I’m serious this time!”
“Pffft,” you snicker at how easy it is to get a reaction out of him. “How about to celebrate your win, we can go try that new pastry shop down the street? I heard the strawberry mille-feuille is really good there… maybe we can both try our hands in making a homemade recipe after?”
“Huh, I haven’t had that in a while, actually. Sounds pretty good.”
“Actually, what types of desserts do Americans even serve over there? We can save a day where we can bake the team an entire stockpile for them to try? Though, I hope Riko doesn’t somehow tamper them with protein powder…”
It’s comical to see Aomine having his eyes so bugged out of their sockets that they look like they might fall out with a nudge. But he doesn’t care—his mind’s racing so much, overclocking and overworking in trying to connect the dots at the scene he’s trying to register and comprehend.
“Where’s the shop again?” Kagami asks, scanning around for any sign that indicates “sweets” and “baked goods.”
“There.” You point ahead of you in a general direction, and Kagami, taking advantage of his height, easily spots the shop. What catches Aomine’s attention is how you wrap your other hand around his arm. What really bothers him though, is how nonchalant Kagami is at your touch.
“Come on.” Kagami snakes his hand to gently encapsulate your hand, the same one that casually wrapped around his arm moments earlier. Aomine’s breath gets caught in his throat, watching you two like a hawk. Kagami tugs your hand behind him as he leads you through the crowd, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
It shouldn’t be natural, though. It shouldn’t be Kagami holding your hand. It should’ve been—
(“And I’m not the guy for you, either.”)
Yeah, Aomine knows that he sure as hell ain’t the guy for you. But Kagami? Of all people? Aomine grits his teeth watching you two. He’s sure as hell that Kagami isn’t the one for you either. He would even rather prefer Kuroko being by your side like this than him… But he can’t deny how Kagami does a better job at making you happier than he himself could ever do. You’re in good hands, and he doesn’t have to worry about any potential asshats bothering you at Seirin, or anywhere for that matter from now on.
So why… Why does his heart continue to pound so hard when he sees how gentle his rival is with you? Why isn’t his chest letting up? Why does he feel like his windpipes are constricted? His mouth is parted like a fish, his body motionless, his new shoes forgotten. He doesn’t move until you’re no longer in his line of vision, completely swallowed up by the crowded lines and mobs of other shoppers.
Did Tetsu know about this?
He finally closes his mouth, allowing himself to swallow, though his mouth is impossibly too heavy and dry to do so comfortably. Still leaned forward, he rests his elbows on his knees, his eyes opting to stare at the cracks and dried gum. His brain’s had enough from all the processing.
What the hell’s wrong with me?
This isn’t like him. You’re dating Kagami. So what? And he’s not a bad guy. He still has you as a friend, and it’s not like he didn’t lose you for good… right?
His body contradicts his rationalizing when his hand tingles against his will… as if it wants to be held by you. He clicks his tongue in annoyance, gritting his teeth before giving a despondent chuckle.
I’m pathetic, aren’t I… all this time, I’ve never realized that…
He sees a flash of your clothes before you disappear around the block, holding your dessert box to-go while still holding hands with Kagami.
… that what I wanted was…
“Dai-chan!” Momoi races to him after emerging from the crowd that you just came out of earlier. He looks up to face her. “I finally got myself their house special! Luckily for you, I got another one before they sold out! Here, be grateful!”
She hands him a daintily packaged box with a fork, and he opens it to face the popular strawberry mille-feuille. He stares at it.
“Uh… is there something wrong?” Momoi tilts her head at his unusual lack of scathing comments, slightly unnerved at his extended silence. Aomine stares at the dessert for a second longer before looking up to see her face contorting into an expression of worry. He averts his gaze.
(“Because I know you’re never honest about your feelings!”)
Keep Your Eyes on me (R18) [a wholesome fic. totally my favourite one]
Erasing the You of Now (R18) [this one I just *chef's kiss*. a whole 44 chaps. very good and worth the read. got me into having a lot of emotions throughout the chaps]
hello everyone! its been a while isnt it? but i promise to slowly post more in here and with that im going to make a part two list of my recommendation aokaga fic!
Ok, I saw your requests are open, and I’m dying to see this one shot idea come to life. Ok, so what if MC somehow figures out that Artem likes her and then in response she decides to tease him a little throughout the day (like in a flirtatious way… make him all flustered and can’t think straight kinda way), maybe hit on him a little, before just asking him out herself at the end of the day. I would die to see that. She/her pronouns if that’s cool. Thanks!!
quit playing games with my heart
character/s: Artem Wing
pronouns: she/her as requested
warning/s: not proofread
notes: this was such a cute ask! I took my sweet time with this bc i find this really fun to write. The title is so cheesy SWJSHSJSKS.
also, we reached 143 follows (interesting number, it's bc i love yall yieeerr) you guys are the loveliest!
comments, feedback, and reblogs would help a lot <3 masterlist.
"Truth." You declared, beads of sweat running down your forehead.
Your colleagues looked incredulously at your flushed form like you singlehandedly broke the office's coffee dispenser that serves their favorite source of caffeine everyday.
"Oh come on!" One of them flailed their hands in the air in exasperation, some even sighed.
"Only cowards choose truth," Your coworker, Grace, crossed her arms and playfully rolled her eyes at you, "or are you afraid we might make you do something you'll regret?"
She stood from the foldable seat that she specifically brought for today's camping trip.
Some days ago, Celestine decided that it's the perfect opportunity to go out for recreational activities since there are many rookie recruits that joined this month.
That's how you ended up here. The darkness of the night enveloping the quiet forest, as the flames cackled and danced in front of you. The bonfire giving your colleagues' faces a bright golden glow. Crickets sang, the cool air hitting your skin is giving you a feeling of sentimentality, and the sky shimmered with stars so beautiful.
Your situation isn't.
You raised your eyebrows at her with suspicion, her smirk only grew.
"For example," She put her right hand on her hips, winking at you, "giving Artem a kiss." She then clapped her hands together and squealed like a little girl.
Heat rushed to your cheeks as several ooh's and whistles came out of everyone's lips, you convinced yourself that you felt hot solely because of the fire.
You looked away, trying to calm the pounding in your chest. The thought of kissing Artem was too much for your lovestruck heart.
"What are you saying?" Trying your best to keep your voice even, you forced yourself to look at her.
You can't remember when it started, but ever since you and Artem became partners, your senior coworkers won't stop gushing about how the two of you could become the most formidable "power couple" in all of Stellis.
Ever since that day, they've been doing everything in their power for you and Artem to finally get together. Whenever you and Artem were with each other, they would make up excuses to leave the two of you alone. Playful looks, meaningful smiles, matchmaking schemes that failed because of Artem's obliviousness and your impending embarassment - these kind of stuff were regular occurence in the firm.
Unfortunately for you, tonight wasn't an exception.
Grace sighed, "You don't have to hide it." She then gestured to the 5 people around you on the bonfire, "Everyone knows you have feelings for him." The said people nodded their heads in unison.
The look on their faces were almost comical, that you would've laughed if the attention wasn't so directed on you.
"If only sir Artem would make the first move.." Kiki let out a long sigh beside you. You groaned. Not Kiki too.
You cleared your throat, "You guys are imagining things. Our relationship is purely professional." You said with so much conviction you almost fooled yourself.
"Oh yeah?" Grace raised her on fleeked eyebrow with a smirk. You're certain she's not going to let you go anytime soon, "You chose truth. Then I have a question for you."
You felt your heart jump to your throat upon hearing her words. You've played truth or dare enough times in the past to know where this is going to lead. You felt the sudden urge to skeddadle then and there, desperately wanting to get out of this hot seat.
"Do you like Artem in a romantic way?" You were expecting this question. You weren't even shocked, but she asked it so casually like your not-so-casual feelings aren't on the verge of getting revealed for the world to know. You know she added the words 'in a romantic way' so that you wouldn't dodge the question with the answer 'of course i like him, we're partners' or some bs.
You didn't need to look up to them to know that anticipation were evident in their faces, thr cold air earlier was replaced by a heated atmosphere, "I need fresh air." You said, looking down in an attempt to hide your flushed cheeks.
"Look, it's fine. You don't have to tell us," Grace leveled herself to your sitting position and placed a hand on your shoulder, "We're really just rooting for you, is all."
You chuckled at her, "I know."
Kiki beamed at everyone, "I think that's enough for tonight, guys!" She looked over to you briefly with concern, "it's getting late, we should prepare our tents now."
The rookie employees began to shuffle around as they grabbed the materials needed to prepare.
"Y/N," Kiki gazed at your eyes, "We're not teasing you just for the sake of it," She grinned, "because we see it, the both of you are clearly whipped."
You don't know what to feel at the possibility of Artem reciprocating your feelings, so you just stared at her, mouth gaped. A pang stirring in your heart at the mere thought of Artem seeing you the same way you see him.
"The looks that Artem give you?" She pinched your cheeks lightly, "I never saw that directed to anyone else." You whined, rubbing your cheeks when she let go.
Grace nodded in agreement and pinched your cheeks as well, "Who knows, maybe he'll act first if you push his buttons correctly." She then winked and let you go, "Kiss him goodnight or something so that he'll get the message."
You completely forgot about the sting from all their pinching when you registered her words.
You shoved her lightly with pink dusting your cheeks, "You're the worst."
Her lighthearted chuckle rang through the silence of the night, "Oh, trust in the power of flirting. You'll thank me later." She winked before scooting away.
You quickly turned to Kiki to subdue the pounding in your chest, "So uh, speaking of Artem," You looked at the path that leads to the entrance of the forest, "It's been 20 minutes since he left with Celestine." You find yourself yearning to gaze at his cerulean eyes again, "It's getting late."
One of the rookies made a mistake. That mistake being the reason why Artem and Celestine had to go back outside the forest - that's when your other colleagues decided to play the torture of a game called truth or dare.
When the whole team was preparing to sleep for the night a little earlier, each of you began to bring out your sleeping bags. After doing the headcount along with the number of bags, there was one missing.
The rookie said they forgot because of too much excitement. Well, you can't blame them, work in the firm is stressful and static, news of a collective outing would definitely thrill anyone's nerves.
The said rookie can't get a sleeping bag for themself because this forest has a pass system wherein you can only get in and out freely at any time during your stay only if you have a pass card under a reservation name.
Your firm's reservation is named after Celestine and Artem, they're the ones fetching a sleeping bag right now.
Kiki yawned, creating tears in her eyes, breaking you out of your thoughts, "Let's go to sleep now, Y/N." She tugged at your arm but you stood still.
"I'm staying," You glanced at the pathway again, "I'll wait for the two of them."
Kiki snickered amidst her droppy eyes, "It's alright, you can say Artem." Before you can even retort, she made her way to the tents with a wave.
You sighed and stretched your limbs. What's taking them so long?
Bored, you tilted your head up to look at the shining stars, their twinkle forming a fairy tale-like veil in the night sky. Beautiful, you clenched your chest with your hand, closing your eyes shut, but out of reach. Butterflies rumbled in your stomach when you realized that this is the same feeling that you get when you gaze at Artem's ocean eyes, a vast blue so captivating these stars can't even compete.
You shook your head as you kicked a small pebble, I'm getting too sappy.
You foot decided to play around with the said pebble when your peripheral vision caught movement by the trees. What's that?
You put yourself in a stance where you can defend yourself, eyes trained on the spot where the movement came from. Slowly making your way to the trees. You were ready to scream if push comes to shove. You resemble a horror movie protagonist right now going right into the villain's trap.
Your heart thumping in your ribs, you tilted your body to take a peek behind the tree, expecting a terrifying sight. However, your eyes caught sight of brown fur and a fluffy tail. A tiny squirrel.
You let out an exhale, relieved.
"I'm telling you Artem," You stiffen. Ears perked up at the voice, your heartbeat accelerated at the mention of his name, "she likes you back."
This seems like a bad time to reveal yourself, so you quickly hid yourself behind the tree, scaring the squirrel in the process.
Your heart fell when you processed Celestine's words. She? Who's she? Artem has someone he has eyes for?
Your mind searched up for ideas on who could the lucky person be, but your brain is scattered. Heart broken. Must be quite the perfect one if Artem is interested, stupid me for thinking I had a chance. You frowned.
The top attorney cleared his throat, "Please be quiet. Anyone can hear us." You peeked and you saw the blush dusting his cheeks. He looked adorable, but he would look even more adorable if you're the one who had caused it.
You didn't know it was possible for a broken heart to break even further at the thought of another person making Artem flustered like that.
You held your breath, You know you shouldn't be listening, but the rarely talked about topic regarding Artem's love interest is too sweet to pass.
"Oh please, Y/N is probably already asleep by now. She's probably tired from all the activities we did," She giggled, "You two looked cute while sleeping together in the bus earlier, by the way." Celestine sat on the stone you were sitting on earlier while playing truth or dare. The tree you're hiding in is just beside her.
Me? Your eyes lit up in anticipation, hope bubbling in your chest, what about me? You're so intent on hearing more that you didn't notice Celestine's comment about you falling asleep on Artem's shoulder on the way here.
Artem flushed beet red and eyes showed visible panic, he put his fingers to his lips, "Don't say her name out loud." He said in a hushed whisper. Now you're even more intrigued.
"Why?" Celestine smirked, the bonfire reflecting in her playful eyes, "Afraid she'll find out you're in love with her?" she casted a brief glace in your direction, unbeknowst to you and Artem.
It hit you like a wall of bricks, did you hear that right? there's absolutely no way -
"Yes I am. Now can you please drop the subject?" The confirmation from Artem was all it needed for a gasp to threaten to fall out of your lips.
Your hands quickly fly to your mouth. You know eavesdropping is never good, and you know that this is a topic that needed privacy without prying ears, but they can't catch you like this.
You heaved, head spinning from the information you just heard. Artem Wing... likes you?
Letting the pleasant news sink in, the corners of you lips turned up in an uncontrollable smile. You crouched down, trying hard not to squeal. Oh, how bad you wanted to squeal right now. Blushing and beaming hard your cheeks feels like they're going to burst. Giddiness filled the air around you, like a shojo manga protagonist with flower effects in the background.
You were so elated that you didn't notice them already heading out to sleep on their respective tents.
Realizing they're gone, you slowly walked out from your hiding spot, and took your sweet time to walk towards your shared tent with Kiki, welcomed by her soft snores. As you get ready to slip into your sleeping bag, your mind kept replaying what it just acquired. Artem likes me... Artem likes me... like a mantra. You still can't believe it.
Your thoughts drifted to Grace and Kiki's words. He won't make the first move. Should you really put matters into your own hands? Makes sense, from how badly he wants to avoid the subject about his feelings earlier, it seems like Artem isn't going to confess soon.
Kiss him goodnight, huh. You shook your head, you agree that you should show him signs, but isn't that too straightforward!? Well, it's not that you don't want to kiss him or anything.
You pumped your fist. Now that you know that Artem reciprocated your feelings, there's no need to be afraid. You'll do your best to make him realize that you like him back. He's a really kindhearted person, he'll definitely won't mind if you tease him for a bit, right? You recalled his flustered state when Celestine mentioned your name, and you'd do anything to see it again.
Sleepiness began to flood your system, and you were sure you're going to dream of him tonight.
The next morning, you woke up to an incredibly good mood. From waking up to preparing for team activities, you were certain that everyone has noticed - your lingering and broad grins, a bright glow in your features, the skips to your step, you were so painfully obvious.
Well, can they blame you? It's not everyday you find out that the person of your affections likes you the same way. You hummed softly while you seasoned the pork for lunch.
Yes, lunch. Everyone slept really late last night that it's only inevitable for all of you woke up at noon.
"Ehem. you're extra smiley today," Grace nudged your shoulder, and lowered her voice, "did you kiss Artem in your dreams last night or something?" From the way you were acting, it's not surprising that she thought that way.
"What? I'm just in a really good mood, it's a beautiful day. You can hear the birds chirping beautifully," you gestured towards the sky, "the sun shining down brightly on us, and the breeze of the forest feels nice. I feel alive." You beamed at her, she just responded with a shrug, suspicion in her eyes as she mumbled a teasing sureee and went on to do her tasks.
You looked around to see if nobody is looking, the coast is clear. You discreetly locked your gaze on Artem Wing. The debonair stood there, wearing a camo jacket that fits his form really well. His hair perfectly brushed the same way it always has been, a small smile on his face as he grilled barbecue. The sight is enough to make your heart race. He looked so lovely, basked in the light morning rays of the sun like this - your favorite look on him is still when he blushes, though.
Speaking of blushing Artem, an idea popped in your mind.
"Kiki!" you half yelled to get your friend's attention, her hands currently tending to chop some vegestables from another table. She looked at you with curious eyes and you gestured for her to come closer.
You pulled her and whispered in her ear, "I want you to try something..." You knew she wouldn't agree to this right away, you would beg if you have to. After telling her your plan, she looked at you like you have two heads.
"WHA-" Before she could get the attention of everyone, you quickly put your hand on her mouth, "Please Kiki, I'll do anything, just this once? You said you wanted to help me with Artem." You gave her puppy eyes as you kept shaking her shoulders, pleading.
She looked at you incredulously for a few moments, and sighed, "Fine. You owe me so, soooo much for this." She adjusted her glasses then looked over to Artem with shifting eyes, hesitating.
"I know, and I'm sorry. You're my angel, Kiki." You patted her back and gave her a thumbs up. She sighed again.
"Quite frankly, I admit I want to see how Sir Artem would react to this." She said as she put on a determined face, ready to face the challenge you bestowed before her.
You watched in anticipation as she walked over to Artem, "Sir Artem!" Artem tore his eyes away from the grill, looking over at Kiki, "Can I hug you?" She said, eyes twitching.
You're so gonna make up for her later. I'm very sorry Kiki, you're the best. I swear I'll buy you every merch of your idol available. I'll even buy yiu concert tickets if I have to.
Artem looked as composed as ever as he focused his attention again on the barbecue, "I don't know where that come from but I can't. I'm busy, you see." Artem flashed her a small smile.
He didn't blush.
You rubbed your hands together as it was your turn now. The verdict. The final show. This will decide whether or not you should act on your feelings for him. You wanted to see how he'd react to other girls flirting with him, and compare it to his reaction to yours. To see if you really have a chance.
Kiki went back to you with a sigh, "I'm rooting for you, Y/N." She then flashed you an encouraging smile, "Do it." She said firmly, resolve pooling in her brown hues.
You nodded eagerly.
You tried to calm your nerves by taking deep breaths, you felt like your knees are gonna buckle as you made your way to Artem. What if he rejects me?
You shook your head, I won't know unless I try.
This is it, "Artem." he perks up from your voice, tearing his eyes away from the food he's cooking. "Yes?" His cerulean eyes bore onto your form, it's gentleness grounding you. Suddenly, you're not so nervous anymore.
This is Artem Wing. The Artem that always reassures you that you're doing well. The Artem that cares for you very much. There's no need to be nervous around him.
"Can I..." you looked away, pink in your cheeks, as you forced yourself to look at him in the eyes to see his priced reaction, "Can I hug you?"
Artem's eyes widened, unblinking, "You..." Why is he in demand for hugs today? He wondered.
Your anxiety is growing as he stood there in silence for a few seconds, before gently reaching out his arms to you, "Of course," He cleared his throat, as his cheeks flushed, "You don't need to ask."
Your eyes lit up at his words and you turned your head to look at Kiki in pure shock, you met her brown eyes, a proud grin on her features.
You turned back to Artem, "Okay..." you moved closer, his body engulfing yours as you hugged his waist. He put his chin above your head as he rubbed your back in comforting motions.
You should do this more often.
You began pressing your face on his chest, inhaling his vanilla scent. But then vanilla changed into a burning smell when you noticed that he had forgotten to tend to the pork.
"Artem, the food's burning!" You pried away from each other, and you're thankful that the other coworkers were busy enough to not see the moment you two shared.
"I'm sorry." He shook his head as he mentally scolded himself for being too distracted.
After cooking, your team gathered around a picnic table to eat. Everyone's mouth watering from the delicious aroma of barbecue.
Your stomach is already telling you to eat, so you grabbed one and took a bite, "Artem, this is delicious!" You looked over to him sitting beside you, getting his own share.
He took a bite, "Of course, the whole team made this together." while he talked you can't help but notice the stain on his mouth from the barbecue's sauce.
You had a great idea.
Grabbing a napkin, you spoke up, "Artem," he turned his head to you so innocently that it made you warm inside, "Hold still." you murmured as your fingers inside the napkin felt the warm corners of his lips, wiping away the sauce.
You caught him off guard, "Tha.. Thank you..." He cleared his throat, and he wanted to ask why you did that, but he held himself back, keeping everything to himself and his wildly beating heart.
"Artem. Your food is getting cold." Celestine snapped her fingers from across him after she noticed that it has been 10 minutes when Artem last touched his food.
He snapped out of his thoughts with reddened cheeks, resuming to eat his food again.
You grinned, your mission for today is going smoothly with every attempt.
After eating dinner and playing some board games, Celestine wanted to have another activity to strengthen each other's bond.
She told everyone to hike in pairs seperately, and upon reaching the mountaintop, all of you would be stargazing. It's 4pm, and the road to the top is long, so it'll be by night when you get there.
To no one's surprise, of course you were paired with Artem. You weren't complaining though.
At this point you were convinced that this 'recreational' activity that she had suggested isn't for the sake of whole firm, you're beginning to think that they were all in cahoots to try to get you and Artem together. That wouldn't be farfetched.
Every pair took different paths on the way up, you and Artem ended up with a path so narrow that the back of your hands graze every now and then.
"Tell me if you feel tired." Artem whispered as soon as you stepped foot on the trail. It was almost sunset, giving the forest a spread of orange and red hues. Giving Artem's handsome features a magical glow.
"Of course." you replied, taking in the breathtaking sight before you.
As the two of you hiked side by side, you were thinking of ways to fluster him like you did before. The leaves crunched under your foot, noises of small animals can be heard, and you felt his hand brush against yours again. The both of you looked away from the contact.
That's it. You grinned.
"Artem?" you called out to him, and he turned to you with curious eyes.
"What is it?"
You took a deep breath, trying to cool the gradual heat in your face, "I want to hold your hand."
"Wha-" His eyes were wide as saucers as he almost stumbled in his step, but he quickly rebalanced himself and tried to gain composure, you two stopped hiking for a bit.
He cleared his throat, "Y/N," he looked at you shyly, his cheeks red as a tomoto, "Why do you want to hold my hand?" He hesitated, "You've been doing unusual things lately, I'm just curious."
Your face fell, embarassment eating you up, "I just," You looked down on your shoes, "I just wanted to hold your hand, Artem." You turned away from him in panic, and awkwardly waved him off, "I'm sorry, I think I crossed the line. Let's get goi-"
You heard a gasp leave your own lips when you felt something warm grab your hands, "I never said I don't want to do it," He intertwined his fingers with yours, the skin to skin contact making the both of you feel shy, "I wanted to hold your hand too..." He finished with a fond smile. His ocean eyes casting a spell on you, putting you in a trance.
"Let's go." He tugged on you softly, and the two of you went on your way up. You can't help the growing smile threatening to make your cheeks burst.
His warm hand is giving you all the heat that you need. Artem's hands on yours paired with the mesmerizing golden sunset, this is the perfect place to be.
The two of you exchanged random stories on your way up, mostly childhood stories, the two of you were comfortable enough to share anything to the other. When the two of arrived to the top, the night sky was already enveloped in a blanket of dazzling at captivating clusters of stars, and some of your colleagues were already there.
As expected, your entwined hands didn't get unnoticed. Celestine looked like she had hit the lottery's jackpot when she rushed to you along with some others. You can hear some excited oh my gosh's, their eyes were glued to your hands.
Celestine placed her hands on yiur shoulders, "You guys finally confessed to each other! That's good!" She beamed so bright, the sun stood no chance.
"No we di-" You shook your head and flailed your hands around to disagree, but no one heard because they were too busy squealing. Artem shook his head with fondness beside you.
"THIS CAUSES FOR A CELEBRATION!" Grace shouted as she told everyone to get beers from the beverage container, and murmered a quiet 'congrats' in your air.
"Wait, guys, you got it all wro-" Your voice was drowned out from all the gushing,
"I'm so happy! I'm already looking forward to the wedding!" Kiki took your free and clasped it, she's jumping up and down with so much enthusiasm that you almost can't bring yourself to turn her down.
"Guys-" You were about to protest further when youu felt Artem squeeze your hands, he leaned to you and you felt his hot breath tickle the sensitive part of your ear, "Calm down, we'll tell them once they're done with this ruckus." You looked up to him and you saw him smile warmly.
"I wonder what their child will look like?" One of the rookies suddenly blurted out, Artem's warm smile that etched into his features before morphed into a coughing fit.
Your cheeks reddened as you pat his back, "That goes for the both of us, Artem."
Celestine suddenly pulled the two of you away from the group by the arm, "You enjoy this night together, you two." She literally shooed the two of you away, and you can guess why.
The two sighed at the same time, you noticed this and you looked at each other, stiffling your laughs.
Artem shot a look at the group, "They're free from stress, huh?" Letting your hand go, he took off his backpack to get a blanket that you two can sit on.
You almost whined at the loss of contact and warmth. You don't want to be clingy, but the feeling of his hand on yours is a feeling you're not willing to let go of yet.
Oh, to be able to hold Artem's hands everyday.
You were wallowing in your sadness when he put his hand back on yours again, tugging on it as an invite to sit with him on the small blanket, "The stars are waiting." He beckoned you on with a smile.
Butterflies rampaged in your stomach as you slowly sat beside him, your shoulders and thighs touching. His hands finding it's way on yours again feels too good to be true. If he proposed to you then and there, you would definitely say yes.
Dummy, you haven't even confessed yet. You sighed.
You feel so in love right now. In love with the stars above you, in love with the faint laughter of your colleagues from the distance, in love with the breeze hitting yoir face, in love with the warmth filling your senses.
In love with the man beside you.
And you wanted so desperately to let him know that you feel the same way as he does.
As you watched the sparkling stars mock your nervous heart, you suddenly remembered a pick up line that you read somewhere. Stars...
Gathering courage, you looked up to Artem only to find him already staring at you. He quickly looked away.
You felt heat rise to your cheeks, as you collect the almost non-existent pieces of your courage once again.
"Artem, I have something to tell you." You bore your eyes to him. He likes me back, I just need to be confident about this! You cheered yourself on.
"If a star fell down everytime I think of you," You squeezed his hands as you tilted your head up to gaze at him from beneath your lashes, "The moon would be so lonely." You let out a breath you don't know you were holding.
His mouth formed to an 'o' as he registered your words, his lips spluttering a series of broken words and he hid his face. When he finally recovered his composure, he greeted you with a stern face.
"You know... You shouldn't say things so casually like that," He looked away, turning his focus to the starry sky instead, "I know you're joking, but if I were a different person, I might misunderstand your feelings." His cheeks were still red, and he looked down.
You gave him the same stern face, "Who told you I'm joking?" you put your hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at you, "You aren't misunderstanding anything here, Artem." you finished with a soft smile.
He looked at you with disbelief and you continued, wanting to finally clarify everything, "What I'm saying is I'm in love with you, Mr. Artem Wing." you pulled him closer hiding your face in his chest because of embarassment.
"I'm in love with you too..." He declared in the softest voice you've ever heard from him, throwing away all masks of invulnerability.
You felt so ecstatic right now that even before you could stop yourself, you were already pulling the back of his neck, and latched your wet lips into his. The heat setting your whole body on fire.
Realizing what you just did, you pulled away from him with trembling eyes, "Artem! I didn't mean to-"
Before you could continue, his arms pulled you by the waist, and muffled your words with his mouth. You straddled his lap for a more comfortable position, as your mouths continue mingling hungrily under the starlight.
You smile into the kiss. Grace, I can finally give him a goodnight kiss for real.
Keep Your Eyes on me (R18) [a wholesome fic. totally my favourite one]
Erasing the You of Now (R18) [this one I just *chef's kiss*. a whole 44 chaps. very good and worth the read. got me into having a lot of emotions throughout the chaps]
Summary: Soulmarks aren't rare, and neither are soulmates, but what is rare, is a person who doesn't want to meet their soulmate, but Toho Academy has two.
Or: Five times Aomine was curious about your tattoo, and one time he saw it.
TW: a small amount of angst, I suppose one part might be comparable to a panic attack, and some swearing, but I promise it's mostly fluff.
A/N: I had an idea! Since I have no requests currently in my inbox, I thought I would jot it down before I forgot about it.
1.
"You guys do realize that you should be practicing, right?" you asked when you walked into the gym and the boys were all shirtless, showing off their soulmarks.
"They're trying to prove who's is the biggest," Momoi informed you, making you snort.
You were almost one hundred percent certain that you had them all beat, except for maybe Aomine.
Your soulmark was a special image somewhere on your body, and animal, a place, something like that. They were colorful, and looked like tattoos.
The mark on your body corresponded with the one on your soulmate's body.
You knew that Aomine had your matching tattoo, not that he knew that, and that was okay.
The black ink of his tattoo was stark against his tan skin, but you knew that he wasn't showing it off with pride, it was him just proving a point.
Top dog on the team, biggest soulmark, he was unbeatable.
Aomine had made it clear that he didn't appreciate the thought of soulmates, that he was fine with not knowing who they were, not knowing who you were, in your case.
"What's yours (Y/L/N)-kun?" one of the boys asked and you snorted, a hand flying to cover your mouth, sometimes you hated hanging around teenage boys all the time, it made your mind go to weird places sometimes.
"Sorry boys, you don't want to see my mark, trust me," you muttered, touching your shoulder softly.
Aomine's eyes were on you, burning a hole through your body, but you ignored him.
"What is it?"
"None ah," you said.
"None ah?"
"None ah ya business," you replied, dropping your bag by the bench.
The boys peeled off into laughter, and Momoi gave a small giggle.
You smiled softly, tugging your sweatshirt off.
The boys were getting to practice, though Aomine was still watching you, watching you with those startling blue eyes.
"Are you going to practice or are you going to just stare at me like a creep?" you asked, crossing your arms over your chest, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Nah," he muttered, moving to head out the door, but you moved in front of him.
"Nope, you're here," you told him, throwing your arms out. "If you're here, you're practicing, even if that means you have to practice with me."
Aomine squinted at you, and you were 99% certain that he was going to try and shove you out of the way, but he sighed, heading back to work in drills with the other boys.
Momoi was watching you, eyes glinting in the way they did when she watching a game and her data was proved correct.
"Momoi-san," you said, "why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's just a hunch," she murmured, wandering off to watch Aomine play.
You frowned after her, wondering what the hell she was talking about, but you shook it off.
Those two were weirdos.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2.
"So, (Y/L/N), what's your soulmark?" one of your friends asked, and you sighed.
"It's nothing all that impressive," you lied, flipping the page of the textbook you were skimming through.
"But what is it?" she persisted.
"A pain in my ass," you muttered, touching your shoulder lightly again.
"(Y/L/N)-kun," one of your classmates said, "one of the basketball boys is waiting for you outside."
"Thanks," you replied, gathering your stuff up.
You were a back-up manager for when Momoi was away watching other teams play.
You were surprised to find Aomine leaning up against the doorframe, practice clothes on.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey yourself. Are you actually going to practice again?" you asked, hauling your bag over your shoulder, wincing at the weight.
He made a small noise, which made you think that that was his version of a yes.
"Why don't you show off your mark?" Aomine asked.
"Why don't you?" you replied, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Soulmates are bullshit," he muttered. "I don't like being told what to do. I hate being told who to love even more."
"My soulmate doesn't want me," you admitted after a moment of walking, readjusting your bag on your shoulders. "No point in showing off something that symbolizes someone who hates that I even exist."
Aomine paused, running his eyes over you again, and you glanced back at him.
"What?"
He didn't answer, he just stood there watching you. He had been doing that a lot, and you were a little worried about it.
"Are you coming or what?" you asked, heading for the gym.
He followed behind you, eyes boring into your back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.
"What's your soulmark?" Aomine asked.
You had gone to the roof to tell him to get his ass to practice. He had been coming more and more often, but he had been staring at you for most of it, despite urging from both you and Momoi to actually practice.
"Nothing important, not like you practicing," you deflected, standing in front of him with your arms crossed.
"Snippy," he quipped. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
"Perv," you muttered. "And I've already seen your mark."
"Yours is on your shoulders, right?" he asked. "You keep touching them whenever someone brings them up."
"Yeah, it's a pretty big one," you admitted, reaching to touch your shoulder absentmindedly before you registered that you were doing it. You dropped your hands to your sides again, frowning.
Despite the fact that you already knew your soulmate, and how he felt about the whole thing, the mark was still comforting to a degree.
Aomine was still watching you, he had been doing it a lot, though you weren't entirely sure why. Every time he did, it jump started your heart, making you wonder if he knew.
He made a small noise, then dragged himself to his feet.
"Gotta go to practice," he mumbled, bumping shoulders with you as he headed down to the gym.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.
Aomine started appearing more and more after that. He wasn't following you exactly, but it was almost like your schedules had overlapped.
Then you had gotten assigned to do a group project together.
"Nice place," he muttered when he walked through the door into your home.
"Thanks," you said, shutting the door. "I'm telling you this right now, Aomine, I am not doing this entire project by myself, and if I do end up doing it by myself, you are not getting your name put on this. Do you understand me?"
"Yes ma'am," he muttered. "Do you have any bread?"
"What?" you asked, then you remembered his weird carb obsession. "Uh, yeah, just . . . give me a minute," you said, setting your things down on the couch before you headed into the kitchen.
Snacks were something you could do.
You got him a drink too, and when you set a plate and a drink down in front of him, he glanced up at you appreciatively.
"Thanks," he said.
"No problem," you told him, sitting beside him on the couch.
"What are we doing the project on?" he asked.
"I have no idea," you muttered. "It would be easy to do a keynote or something, but there are going to be so many people doing that."
You pulled the project requirements out of your bag, your eyes flitting over it.
"What if we did like a . . . a soulmark examination?" you asked. "We were reading a book about how people think soulmarks mean something to the pair that share it instead of simply being an indicator, right? All we would have to do it take a picture of one of our soulmarks and make up some sort of metaphorical bullshit and make it look pretty when we present it."
"We should do yours," Aomine immediately suggested.
"Why mine?" you asked, panic starting to float into your veins.
"Because I want to know what it is," he replied, grinning at you.
"How about we do yours? You have your own fan club and I'm sure they'd be ecstatic to know what it is. Besides, yours is easier to do than mine," you told him.
"How so?"
"Mine is across my back," you informed him. "That means that I would have to take off my shirt and my bra for us to get a picture, and there are so many things that could go wrong with that. Besides, it's not like anyone in the class hasn't seen your back already, it's not new information."
"Fair enough," Aomine said. "But, when I get fakers pretending to be my soulmate, you have to be the one to fight them off."
"Deal," you said, holding your hand out to him.
He took it, shaking it firmly once, before he tugged his shirt over his head.
"Let's get this over with," he muttered, curling his shoulders forward so that you could get a clear picture of the black panther lounging across his shoulders like it was a tree branch.
You snapped a couple photos from different angles, and resisted the urge to touch it.
It was the same as yours, and you wondered vaguely if you had ever found your tattoo as beautiful as you found Aomine's.
"We good?" Aomine asked.
"Yeah, we're good," you croaked, then cleared your throat as he pulled his shirt over his head again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.
Your project had gotten a great grade, and you were both proud of it, but now Aomine seemed to be hellbent on figuring out what your mark was.
"Just show me!" he'd whined.
He'd been up on the roof again, and you had been charged with getting him off the roof and down to practice.
"No, Aomine. Now get off your ass and get down to practice," you told him, arms crossed.
You had been in this position for the past couple of weeks, and it was almost routine now.
"I won't even be a dick about it," he had promised you, his eyes looking almost sincere as he pleaded with you. Almost.
Aomine, you had learned, had adopted you as a friend, in the last few weeks of being stuck around him.
You and Momoi had started walking to class together, and Aomine had started trailing behind like a lazy guard dog, much to the chagrin of Momoi's many suitors.
"He really likes you," Momoi said one morning.
"Oh yeah?" you asked, chuckling.
"He hasn't liked someone like this in a while," Momoi told you. "He's a long time basketball junkie, so seeing him take an interest in someone that doesn't have much of a connection to the game is a relief to me."
"Momoi, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't profile me," you told her, giving her a small smile.
"I can't help it," she whined, taking a hold of your arm. "You have to tell him (Y/F/N)!"
"Sorry Momoi-san, I can't do that," you replied. "He doesn't want that."
"How do you know if you won't tell him?" she asked, pouting.
"Momoi-san, he's made his stance on soulmates exceedingly clear, and he likes me now because he doesn't know. I want it to stay that way. I'd rather be a friend than anything else. Besides, he doesn't like me like that," you informed her.
"I've been friends with him since we were kids," she said, glancing at you with those eyes. "I think I know when he's interested in a girl."
You snorted, but your conversation tapered off when Aomine joined you again.
"Seriously, what the hell is your soulmark?" Aomine demanded. "I have asked literally everyone I can think of that might know. No one in this entire fucking school seems to know what it is."
"Sorry Aomine," you said, slipping into your classroom, throwing a grin over your shoulder at him. "A girl needs to keep her secrets, besides, you aren't the only one with a soulmark thing."
His growl resonated into the classroom and you chuckled lightly as you sat down at your desk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+1
Of course, the one time the teams tries to do some team bonding they chose to go to the fucking beach.
Of course, Aomine had also been the one to suggest the beach. The others thought it was because he wanted to see girls in bikini's, but he had glanced at you and winked.
He wanted to see what your mark was.
"I hate you," you snarled, cornering him, before he left for his house. "You scheming son of a bitch."
"Such vulgar words," he teased, giving you a dark look. "And I have no idea what I could've done to make you hate me, baby girl."
"You know exactly what you did," you growled, ignoring the pet name. "The whole beach thing was your idea."
He grinned, and you suddenly understood why your mark was a panther.
Something flashed through you, and your let your own grin show through.
"You want to play games Aomine-kun?" you teased, keeping eye contact with him. "Fine, then let's play."
"What do I get if I win?" he asked.
"You'll have to choose that for yourself, if you win," you told him, storming out of the doors.
When the day came to go to the beach, nothing was out of the ordinary, save that the boys had decided that one of them had to be with you and Momoi at all times.
"You guys don't need to babysit us," you chided when you climbed onto the bus. "We tend to stick together anyway, and pervs, unless they're in groups, tend to pick the girl that splits away from the pack. Momoi-san and I can stick together and reduce the risk. This is more for you guys than it is for us anyway."
"Yeah, we don't need a guard dog," Momoi agreed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I'll stay with them," Aomine offered, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and Momoi's, and you rolled your eyes.
"You just want to know what my soulmark is," you told him, glancing up at him.
"Wait," Sakurai murmured, "even Aomine doesn't know what your soulmark is?"
"Nope," you said, popping the 'p'. "He's been trying to figure it out for weeks now. That's why he suggested going to the beach."
"You clever son of a bitch," the captain said, and you shrugged.
"He and I have a small little wager going," you admitted, shrugging his arm off your shoulders. "If I can keep my soulmark hidden from him for the whole day today, he drops it."
"And if he wins?"
"She's being cryptic about that," Aomine said, and his eye twitched lightly.
"If he sees it, he can decide what he gets for winning," you told them. "He'll understand if he sees it."
And so the game began.
"Are you going swimming, (Y/F/N)?" Momoi asked you.
"Are you?" you asked her.
"No, I want to work on my tan," she admitted, waving a small bottle of tanning lotion.
"Then I'll stay with you. I have some reading I need to catch up on anyway. Besides, I want the sunscreen to sink in, I burn easily," you admitted, having applied it as soon as you got to the beach.
You were wearing a one-piece bathing suit (since it was harder for something to happen with one on), but you had thrown a thin white crop top on over it to cover your shoulders.
After Momoi asked you to get her back, you settled onto your towel, pulling your assigned literature book out of your bag, finding your page.
"Seriously, why don't you just show us what the damn thing is?" Aomine asked, settling down next to you forcefully.
"Because it's a part of my body, meaning I can show it off when I want, or cover it up when I want. Besides, I told you earlier, my soulmate doesn't want me," you said, flipping your page leisurely. "Don't need them hating me more than they already do without knowing my identity."
Aomine was clearly displeased, but it wasn't like he could argue with you about it, soulmarks were a very personal thing to some people.
"You're at the beach," he began a few minutes later, tone incredulous, "and you're reading a book. What is wrong with you?"
"A lot, which issue are you referring to?" you asked nonchalantly before he scowled at you. "I don't feel like going into the water," you told him, glaring at him over your sunglasses. "I have work to do, and this is a good time to catch up on it. Besides, shouldn't you be with the rest of the team? This was for you guys."
Aomine scowled, but stood up, heading for where the team was playing a game of beach volleyball. Or, they were attempting, none of them seemed to be having much luck with it.
"You know, not very many people can keep Dai-chan at bay as much as you're able to," Momoi said, making you snort.
"You just have to know how to deal with it. You can do it."
"But not for long, and not once he makes up his mind about something. You've kept him at bay for months, I've never been able to do that. My top score is a week."
"Does it bother you?" you asked quietly.
"No, not at all," she said, a little too quickly. "Okay, well, it bothers me a little. I've known him since we were kids, and you can handle him better than I can just after a few months, but I know why."
"Honestly Momoi, I don't think it's because we're soulmates, because he doesn't know. I think it's just I refuse to let him win at all."
"You two are definitely two of the most stubborn people I have ever met," she agreed, rolling over onto her stomach.
"I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or not," you muttered.
Momoi giggled and you smiled. It was nice, hanging out with her. It was nice to have a female friend.
"I'm a little peckish, do you want a pretzel or something from the concessions thing?" you asked, gesturing to the snack shack type thing that they had set up a few meters away.
"No, I'm all set, thank you though," she said.
"Alright, just thought I'd ask," you told her, standing up, wiping sand off your legs as you headed over with your wallet.
You dodged a pair of kids that looked like twins, who were trying to splash each other with water, and you laughed as one of them tackled the other.
"Idiot, you can't just wander off," Aomine chided as he sidled up next to you.
"I didn't," you pointed out. "I told Momoi where I was going."
Aomine frowned, glaring at a guy that stepped too close for his comfort.
"The point of this trip was so that the team could bond," you told him, "so that means that you should be over there with the team."
"You're a part of the team too right?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at you.
"Technically, yes, but I'm talking about the part of the team that plays on the court. I just tend to make sure that your ass shows up."
You glanced at Aomine, who was frowning.
"Out with it," you demanded, glancing around as you walked to make sure neither of you bumped into anyone.
"Does your mark make you uncomfortable?" he asked, carefully choosing his words.
"No," you admitted. "It's comforting actually, but there's no point in showing it off. Besides, it makes my back really hot when I'm out in the sun. That makes me uncomfortable."
You placed your order, which consisted of a fruity drink on ice and a small snack that would hold you over until lunch.
"What have you eaten today?" he asked.
"Nothing. I had coffee this morning and then left the house. I don't normally eat breakfast," you told Aomine.
"How are you alive?"
"Have you taken health classes?"
"Not what I meant, asshole," he snapped. "You're gonna run yourself into the ground."
"Aomine, I'm fine," you assured him. "Besides, I'm drinking plenty of fluids."
He frowned, but he seemed to realize it was useless to argue with you about it.
"Go back to the team, Aomine, I'm fine," you told him, shoving him towards where the boys were sitting in the sand.
You tossed your snack wrapper in a garbage can that was placed strategically, glad for the little bit of food in your stomach.
But then the kids ran by again, and one of them got you instead of their brother.
"Sorry!" he called, darting away.
Normally you wouldn't have minded, the water felt nice against your skin, but you knew that your cover-up would start to be see through, and with the breeze blowing off the water, it was sticking to your back.
You sighed, slipping it over your head as you headed for your towel.
After drying your shoulders off, you set your shirt out to dry, then began rooting around in your bag for your backup, before remembering that you had forgotten to put it in your bag before you left.
"Fuck," you muttered, glancing at where Aomine and the other boys were chatting.
You supposed that it was fine for now, but you would have to be careful if they came back over.
"Momoi, please, for the sake of our friendship, you can't say anything to the boys about this," you said when she looked over and saw your back.
"Why are you so worried about him finding out?" she asked, carefully running a hand over your back, tracing the lines of the mark.
"Because, he might be a dick, but he's a friend, and I don't want to lose that friendship because of some dumb cosmic presence that decided we were meant for one another."
"Do you love him?" she inquired.
You licked your lips, then pursed them.
"Do you love him?" she repeated.
You waited for a few moments before you confessed, "I might. Whether it's love or a crush, I can't say for sure."
She sucked in a breath.
"What?" you asked.
"You know that he likes you back, right?" she asked quietly. "You know that it has nothing to do with the Mark. It's not like he's seen it and knows that you're the woman he's going to marry."
"He'll hate me if he finds out."
"No, he won't."
"I think he will."
"How long are you going to keep this from him?" she demanded. "He at least deserves to know that you're an option!"
"I'll wait until he's married if I have to," you snapped, making her rear back. "Satsuki, in the end, this is my choice to make, and I've made it. He can't know."
"It's his decision too," she reminded you. "This isn't a one way street!"
"Right now, it is," you snarled. Then you softened your tone. "If I'm ever put in a situation where he finds out, I will let him make his own decision, but right now, it's my decision, the ball is in my court so to speak, and this is the move I'm making."
"I think it's the wrong move," she whispered.
"Luckily, it's not your move to make," you replied. "I don't mean to be cruel, Satsuki. I want him to be happy. I just don't think that he'd be happy with . . . me."
"How are you so sure?" she demanded, looking close to tears. "How are you so sure that knowing you're his soulmate would make him miserable? Why can't you accept the possibility that maybe him knowing would make him love you even more?"
You remembered all the times he had raved to you about how soulmates were bullshit. You remembered every vehement denial that he wanted to know who his soulmate was. Every venomous word and the pure hatred in his eyes.
If he looked like that just because of the idea, how would he react to the real thing? Something physical he could take his anger out on?
You highly doubted that Aomine would ever physically hurt you, but the idea still sent a shiver up your spine, despite the warm weather.
"Call it a gut feeling," you murmured, wrapping your arms around yourself.
"I just want you both to be happy," she whispered.
"I can't speak for him," you told her, "but I'm content with the way things are right now."
"Content and happy aren't always the same thing," she argued.
Something in your eyes must've told her that you weren't in the mood, because she sighed, going back to her tanning.
You laid on your back, trying to think of ways to hide the mark, but it took up the entire expanse of your shoulder blades, there was no way to hide it unless it was completely covered with a shirt or you laid on it.
"Momoi-san, (Y/L/N)-san, do you wanna come play two truths and a lie with us?" Sakurai asked.
"Sure, I would love to," Momoi said.
"What about you?"
You paused, thinking it over, before you grabbed your shirt, throwing it over your head after beating most of the sand out of it, making sure that no one saw it.
It wouldn't do much, you didn't think, but it would make you feel better all the same.
"Okay," you murmured, wandering over to fit in the circle with the boys.
They had decided that the person to their right was going to have to guess which was the lie, and you despaired to find that Aomine was on your right.
"Since the girls have now decided to join, new score," the captain said and you winced.
"Ladies first," Aomine said, giving you one of those glances that made you want to kiss him and punch him at the same time.
You decided to find a good compromise and you pinched his arm, hard.
"Okay," you murmured, trying to think. "One: when I was six, I popped my elbow out of my socket throwing a tantrum. Two: I have more than five dresses in my closet. Three: my music selection has a disturbing amount of love songs."
The others started whispering amongst themselves, and Aomine squinted at you.
"Number two has to be the lie. I've seen your music selection, and you mentioned the arm injury when you first became the manager," Aomine declared confidently.
"Wrong," you told him, grinning. "I have six dresses in my closet. I wasn't throwing a tantrum when I popped my elbow out of my socket. I fell off the monkey bars at the park."
Aomine glowered at you, and you laughed.
"You're just shitty at paying attention."
The boys were surprisingly bad at this game, either that or you were just good at guessing when someone was lying.
"One: I hate cherry lip gloss. Two: I can play the guitar. Three: I've never had a celebrity crush."
"Every girl has a celebrity crush," Aomine muttered, but then glanced back at you, frowning. "I say one is the lie."
"Nope! I can't play the guitar. I was taking lessons until I was eleven but I can't remember any of it."
"Wow, despite how much time you guys spend together, you really don't know much about her, do you Aomine?"
"Shut up," he mumbled, cheeks flushing.
Momoi, who was situated on your left, seemed to be very concerned with how good you were at guessing hers.
"That's the sixth one in a row that you've guessed right!" Satsuki cried, and you laughed.
"Sorry Momoi-san, but you're just very transparent and I'm too competitive to lose."
Aomine hadn't managed to guess any of yours, and you could feel him simmering beside you.
"Alright, since Aomine sucks at this, and (Y/F/N) is simply too good, let's change it up a little."
Suddenly, they were all going against you.
"I take it back, we all suck at this," Imayoshi muttered a few rounds later when they had yet to get one right.
"Sorry guys, I'm just good at hiding things," you said. "Remember, I've been hiding my soulmark from you all since the beginning of the year."
"That's it!" Satsuki cried, pointing at you, making you jerk towards Aomine to get away from her. "If we can get one right, just one, then you have to show us your soulmark!"
You wanted to decline, you wanted to act your way out of it, you knew what would happen if you lost, but that glint in her eyes made you want to prove her wrong.
"Deal," you told her.
"Okay, think about your answers carefully," Aomine said.
"Shouldn't they be saying that to you?" you asked him as you thought of something to say.
After listening to the ocean for a moment, you said, "One: I sleep like a baby during thunderstorms. Two: snapping turtles scare me to death. Three: I have a college age reading level."
Everyone started deliberating, and you smiled, leaning back, soaking in the sun.
"We have an answer," Imayoshi said, and you cracked open an eye.
"Shoot," you told them, sitting up.
"It's number two," he said.
The blood drained from your face.
You knew that they had taken a wild guess, but you hadn't expected them to get it right.
You took a deep breath, closed your eyes, and nodded, not trusting your voice.
You took another steadying breath as you stood up, brushing yourself off, trying to control the shaking in your hands that was slowly spreading up your arms.
You vaguely heard Imayoshi telling you that you didn't have to, that you had the right to say no.
You wanted to take the out he was giving you. You wanted to act your way out of it, you wanted to try and run, and you wanted to tell them that you backed out but . . . .
But you had been keeping this to yourself for a very long time. And you wanted to know sooner rather than later whether Satsuki was right or not. You wanted to know whether this was as terrible as your mind was making it out to be.
You got a firm grip on your shirt, and you were about to lift it off, but suddenly Aomine was in front of you, his hands covering yours as he stared you down.
His eyes were boring into yours, and his hands were firm, but gentle, in their grip.
He was telling you that you didn't have to, that as much as he pried, he wasn't going to let you feel pressured into doing this.
You stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before you shook your head, lips pressed together in a hard line.
"You deserve to know," you whispered, barely able to keep your voice from shaking.
Aomine nodded, slowly moving his hands, before he settled back down where he had been.
You took one last, steadying breath, turning your back to your team.
You tugged the shirt over your head, pulling the straps of your suit to the side so that they could see the expanse of the mark across your back.
Your entire team was silent as they realized what they were seeing.
"Holy shit," someone breathed, though you weren't sure who it was.
"I'm sorry," you whispered, though you weren't entirely sure who you were apologizing to.
Momoi was suddenly in front of you, pulling the straps of your bathing suit back up.
"(Y/F/N), you're shaking," she murmured.
"I know," you told her.
"He's gone," she informed you, and you collapsed into the sand, letting out a shaky breath you hadn't known you were holding.
"How pissed with me is he?" you asked her.
"I-I don't know," she confessed. "I've . . . I've never not been able to read him. He . . . he was completely blank. I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," you murmured, staring at the sand in front of you. "I should have taken the out. I should have stayed home. I knew what he was trying to do. I knew that you wanted me to tell him. I knew how he would react. And a small, foolish part of me dared to hope that I was wrong. A small, naive, stupid, masochistic part of me believed that it wouldn't matter. I should know by now that I'm rarely wrong about this kind of thing."
"But I know him!" Satsuki said, looking close to tears. "I know how he looks at you! I see the little things! I don't why he . . . ."
"Don't worry about it Satsuki," you told her, standing up, turning to your team. "Sorry guys."
You headed for your spot, gathering up your things, making sure that you had everything that you had come with, just to give yourself something to focus on.
"Are you going to be okay?" Sakurai asked.
You saw that the whole team, save one member, was standing there in various states of shock, anger, and something akin to pity.
"I knew it would happen eventually," you murmured, then told them, "I'll survive. I'll be myself at practice on Monday, promise. Have a good rest of your weekend guys."
You dug your phone out of your pocket when you were far enough away from the team.
"Hello?"
"Taiga, hey, can you come pick me up?" you asked. "Something went down with Aomine."
"I'm on my way," he said. "Hold tight. Wait, where are you?"
You sent him your location, heading for the parking lot.
By the time Kagami actually found you, you were pretty sure you had cried yourself out.
You didn't remember crying, but Kagami had taken one look at you and wiped at your cheeks.
You had gone with Aomine when he had challenged Kagami at the street court, and you had stayed in touch with the red-head slowly becoming friends with each other.
He knew about your mark as well, though he had promised to keep it to himself. He hadn't told Kuroko either, which surprised you.
"What happened?" he demanded.
"He knows," you admitted, letting him wrap an arm around your shoulders. "He saw it."
As you explained what happened, Kagami got quieter and quieter, and when you glanced at his face, you were surprised to see a serious amount of anger on his face.
"Taiga?" you asked quietly.
"I'll murder him," Kagami growled. "He's such a fuckin'-!"
"You don't have to murder him," you told the red-head, who looked shocked at your response.
"But-!"
"No, I knew it was going to happen. I knew that I would lose him, I was just trying to hold on for a little longer. He hasn't done anything wrong," you said. "I guess that means that I don't have to hide it anymore."
"He's an idiot," Kagami declared.
"I already knew that though."
"Did he even explain himself to you?"
"No. But he doesn't need to. I already know that he doesn't want me. I knew when he started pawing around about my mark. I knew, but I didn't stop him. I led myself to this point."
"Stop taking responsibility for him being a dick!" Kagami snapped. "Do you realize how many people would kill to have you as a soulmate? Or to have one like you?"
"That's not the point!" you told him. "The point is that the one person I want to want me as a soulmate, doesn't. And there's nothing I can do to fix that! Because he seemed to like me just fine thinking I wasn't anything special to him, but the moment fate steps in, I'm fucked. So unless there's a way to pretend like this mark isn't a permanent reminder that the guy that's supposed to be perfect for me, hates my guts, then I guess this is my life now!"
"Kuroko is so much better at this than I am," Kagami muttered to himself. "Look, have you tried calling him?"
"He made it pretty clear that he wanted nothing to do with me."
"Try it anyway."
"I think I'm good. My heart's been broken enough today, thanks."
"Seriously, this is fucking insane," Kagami stressed, opening a door for you. "From what I've seen, your the one person he actually listens to and hears."
"Because he didn't know what I was! I took advantage of that, and now I'm paying the price for it. I should have just told him and dealt with the consequences when I didn't want him! Now it hurts that much more and I have to watch us go back to being strangers. Maybe I should just transfer."
"Um, (Y/F/N)," Kagami said, tapping your shoulder.
"No, I'm serious! Why torture the team with our angst when I can just move schools? There are plenty in the area. Maybe I could move to Seirin. My parents-"
"(Y/F/N)!" he hissed, turning your head to look at something.
"Fuck," you muttered, locking eyes with Aomine, who had his hands thrown up like he had been using them to make a point to Kuroko, who was glancing back and forth between the two of you.
Kagami dropped his hands from your face and you took the opportunity.
You turned and bolted from the Seirin gym.
You should have been paying attention. You should have made Kagami take you home, you should've asked where you were going before.
Multiple people shouted after you, but you ignored them.
You had to get away from him, you had to make sure that he didn't think you were trying to-
Do what?
You slowed down with a sudden realization. If your life had been a cartoon there would've been breaking sound effects and skid marks behind you.
Why should you care what he thought when you had walked into that gym? He didn't care anymore, not now that he knew what you were, why should you?
Fuck what he thought!
If he wanted to let you go, who gave a fuck what it seemed like? You were friends with Kagami, and by default, Kuroko.
How were you supposed to know that he would go to Kuroko after this sort of thing?
Was it really that weird, that wrong, for you to do what you had just done?
You took a deep breath, letting yourself relax. You were probably over thinking things yet again.
A street court caught your eye and you stared at it for a few moments before heading over.
Someone had left a ball there, whether from pure forgetfulness, or a trust in humanity that someone wouldn't take it.
You pushed on it, checking the air, before you dribbled it around.
You could have gotten on a team if you had wanted, but after middle school, you had had enough of the inter-team drama, and had decided to give it up. So you had managed the boys team to be close to the sport without having to deal with a lot of the drama.
You practiced with them sometimes, when Momoi was managing and you had nothing better to be doing.
You made a few lay-ups, a few foul shots, and moved onto half court shots, soaking in the sound of the ball falling through the net.
The heat of the day was soaking through your t-shirt, soaking into the mark, and you touched it lightly, wondering what you were going to do on Monday.
You had promised the team that you would be back to normal, but would you be able to fake being okay well enough to fool them? How much would it take to fool Aomine into thinking that you were okay?
"Why him?" you asked yourself, tilting your face up to the sun. "Why did it have to be him? It could have been literally anyone else, and you chose the one guy that would never be able to love me for what I am, for what we are."
A breeze rustled the trees around you and you breathed it in, moving to leave when you caught sight of him standing in the entrance of the court.
"Shit," you muttered, looking for another way out. There was no chance that he hadn't seen you, even Aomine wasn't that much of an idiot, but you were seriously considering climbing the fence to get away when he spoke.
"I'm sorry," he started.
"No, stop, I don't want your apology," you told him, wrapping your arms around yourself, not able to look at him. "You have nothing to apologize for. I knew when I made that damn deal that I was risking our friendship, I was just tired of having to hide the damn thing. You of all people realize how much of a pain in the ass it is to cover up. And now that I think about it, it's probably better that this happened now. I can't imagine how badly it would've been if I had gotten even closer to you.
"Besides, now you're free to make your own decision. Satsuki got what she wanted in the end. Go figure, I guess. Anyway, you don't have to worry about it. You won't have to worry about me doing anything now that you know. And I already told you that if you won you would get to decide what you got for winning. You won't have to deal with me after this, I promise. I'll disappear since that's what you want."
"So when you told me I got to choose, you were basically telling me that I could choose whether I wanted you or not?"
"Yeah, pretty much, and I shouldn't've. I already knew which one you were going to choose, I was just being naive."
"That's not how it works dumbass," Aomine said.
You screwed your eyes shut, turning your head away from him.
"I know," you whispered. "Why are you even here?"
"I was looking for you, obviously," he grumbled.
"Why? I already know that you don't want this, you made that abundantly clear with your stories and reactions to me at the beach. What are you trying to do here, Aomine?"
"Trying to tell you that I like you," he stated. "But you keep trying to push me away."
"Huh?" Your eyes flew open at the words, and you stared at him.
"Idiot," he murmured, walking over.
You backed up, trying to keep the distance but he backed you against the fence.
"Do you want me to be honest with you?" he asked softly.
You nodded, wondering what the hell he was doing.
"I might be in love with you, and not because you're my soulmate," he said, which made you cock your head in confusion.
"But . . . all that stuff you said about hating soulmates and not wanting to meet yours . . . ."
"I didn't think you were my soulmate moron," he murmured, reaching out to toy with your hair. "I'm okay with it being you. I'm grateful for it actually."
The look on your face must've said it all because he sighed.
"You should've told me sooner," he told you. "I want to go out with you. No secrets, no lies, no weird games where I'm trying to get you to take your clothes off."
"You had me until that last one," you muttered, taking the hand that was playing with your hair.
He laced your fingers together before you could take your hand away.
"Sorry, I couldn't help it," he told you, wrapping his other arm around your waist. "So what do you say? Go out with me?"
You watched his face as much as you could in the crappy lighting, waiting for any sign that he was joking, waiting for him to yell 'Psych!' and walk away.
But his arm stayed wrapped around your waist, and he seemed too busy watching you to question what was taking you so long.
"If I say yes, am I going to be the laughing stock of the school?" you asked.
"No, I may be a dick, but I'm not that mean," Aomine told you.
"Okay," you whispered. "Yeah, I'll go out with you."
The smile Aomine gave you could've lit the whole court.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"I hope you realize that Kagami and Tetsu think we're both crazy now," Aomine said.
"They already knew," you told him, wrapping an arm around his neck. "You have to be crazy to put up with the both of them."
Aomine snorted, nudging your forehead with his.
"I'm sorry that I ran from you," he said. "I shouldn't have done that."
You waited, sensing that he had more to say, he was just gathering his thoughts.
"I don't know what I was thinking," he muttered. "I just had to get away from my own stupidity I guess. I should have guessed that I was your soulmate. You were so on edge whenever I brought it up, but when someone else brought it up it was more like you were sick of the questions. I know you enough to know that if you reacted differently to me that it was because of me. I just . . . I acted on instinct."
"You don't have to explain anything to me Aomine," you told him, burying a hand in his hair. It was softer than you had thought it would be.
"No, you deserve an explanation. I am the whole reason you're even at Seirin."
"I was at Seirin because I wanted to talk to Kagami and that was where we ended up. We could have just as easily gone to his place or to mine."
"Tetsu's been trying for years to get me into the whole 'soulmate' thing, so he was the first person I thought of that could me explain what the fuck was going on. I wasn't upset that it was you, I was upset because you hid it from me and that you thought I was going to flip out about it. I mean, I did, but just not the way you expected."
"I figured you would yell at me, maybe push me around a little bit," you confessed. "I didn't think you were going to run like your ass was on fire to go talk to Kuroko."
"I wouldn't hurt you, for multiple reasons, the main one being I like you."
"I know, but the mind is a strange thing, and mine has a tendency to think worst case scenario first."
He hummed, and you saw the tension melt from his shoulders.
"Come on, let's get out of here," you told him. "Maybe you could go practice with Taiga and Kuroko."
"I want bread, we should go to a coffee shop or something," he suggested.
"Actually, yeah, that's a better idea," you agreed. "I really don't feel like explaining to Seirin what this whole thing was about. I'll call Taiga and explain, how about you call Momoi-san and tell her that everything's okay, 'cause she was really worried when I left."
"Yeah, I got it," he murmured, digging his phone out of his pocket, but he didn't unwrap his arm from around your waist.
"Hey, Taiga," you said when he picked up his phone.
"Where the hell are you, idiot?" Kagami asked.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you even more. Everything's fine now. Aomine kinda cornered me in a street ball court."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, we worked things out. You don't have to worry about it, I promise. We're gonna go to a coffee shop somewhere nearby. I'll call you when I get home so that you know that I got back safely."
"Alright, but if he starts being a dick again, just give me a call."
"I will, thanks for everything Taiga," you told him, ending the call.
It wasn't really explaining things, but you could always tell him about it later, which you were probably going to have to do.
"-fine, Satsuki," Aomine was saying, looking exasperated. "She wants to talk to you."
"Hi Momoi-san," you said when he handed you his phone.
"(Y/F/N)! Are you okay? Where are you?"
"Momoi-san, breathe," you ordered, laughing. "I'm fine. Aomine and I worked things out, I promise."
"Are you dating? Because if you aren't then that's not working things out!" she cried.
"Momoi-san, we worked things out," you assured her.
"So you're dating then?"
You pursed your lips and glanced at Aomine.
"You'll find out soon enough I suppose," you told her, hanging up before she could say anything else to you.
"I think she likes you more than she likes me," he said, and you could hear the repressed pout.
"Nah, you'll always be Dai-chan to her," you told him. "You're her best friend, I just happen to be someone she needs to like because of my affiliation with you."
"You make it sound like this is some sort of business thing," Aomine whined, wrapping an arm around your shoulders.
"I'm not used to you liking me, Aomine, you're going to have to let me adjust to this. I have been deliberately avoiding the fact that I like you all year."
"Fair enough," he muttered. "But don't expect me to be all conservative about this."
"What's this?" you asked him.
"Us, the fact that you agreed to go out with me."
"I retain all rights to pretend like I don't know you if you get too dramatic," you warned him, which made him scoff, like he wasn't expecting you to go through with it.
"Bold of you to assume that I'm joking," you said, letting his arm slip off your shoulders and he paused.
"You can't be serious," he muttered.
You kept walking.
"(Y/F/N)? You aren't serious right?" he called after you, slight panic in his voice when you didn't turn around.
Does anyone know this one aokaga fic where aomine sent like 300 pics of him to kagami who was all the way in LA and then after some time aomine flew there and got drafted along with kagami as nba players? like it was a surprise for kagami? I don't remember much but I need the title to that fic 😔✊
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