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Red Hood

*this is a repost from another tumblr that I deleted. This used to be in many parts but I’ve put it all together here. Note that it may not be the exact same words (though pretty close!) to the first time I posted it because this was copy & pasted from a Word document from back when I wrote this. When I was posting in sections, I would post sections & edit a bit in tumblr. It should be 99% the same though! :)

[an AoKaga Summertime Red Riding Hood AU]

There’s more than one way to be eaten by a wolf.

AN: While the individuals are involved in basketball in this story, it’s an AU where the GOM/ high school teams never happened. The characters simply met as classmates in their respective middle or high schools. Also note that the Red Riding Hood story is more of a guideline for the events of this fiction and it’s not an exact replica crack story (that’s next time, mwahahaha).

Part ONE

Kagami stumbled through the dark woods, hands grasping onto branches that threatened to snap across his face. Where was the path he was supposed to take? Was this the path? Oh crap, he’d lost the path. He had no time to look for it, the—the animal was right behind him. Wolf.

He could hear it breathing in the darkness. Shoving his hood back from his face, he turned his head quickly. Left. Right. No path—wait, was that it? He pushed away some whip-thin branches and staggered into the open clearing.

A full ring of trees surrounded him.

This was no path, just a chance opening in the forest. He had to find the path, he had to - branches cracked behind him.

The wolf was there.

He spun around, gasping heavily and eyes straining into the darkness at the edge of the clearing. Where was it? What was it going to do? Eat him? A small bit of filtered moonlight worked its through the forest branches and Kagami saw the wolf step into the edge of the clearing. It was standing still, perfectly balanced on four feet and looking up at him with dark eyes and dark hair turned silver in the light of the hazy moon.

You ready? it breathed. It bared a smile just wide enough that a pair of pointy incisors peeked into view. I’m going to eat you whole.

Kagami drew breath to scream as the wolf pounced and—

“Next stop approaching. Next stop approaching. Stand clear of the doors.”

Kagami’s eyelashes flitted open, then closed. What? Wolf. Forest. Where was he—oh. Right. Cold air-conditioning. Train. He let a breath out. Dreaming. Alright, he had been dreaming. No wolf. No clearing.

No being eaten.

Well, that was a relief. Cracking his eyes open, he peered blearily into the aisle. Man, the train got empty this far out of the city. Why was Kuroko spending his summer out here? There were few apartments this far away from the core, mostly little houses on little streets. But, no, Kuroko had insisted: I’ll be fine, Kagami-kun. It’s just a little ways out.

And then the idiot had gone and gotten himself sick. He’d probably been out tending a garden or talking to birds—What did people do without pavement to walk on?—and gotten wet in the rain. Served Kuroko right, ditching him for the whole summer with nothing to do. If Kuroko had been there, they could have gone to the movies or something.

Ah, well. The kid had sounded like crap when he’d called Kagami earlier and begged—well, asked politely, it was Kuroko—him to bring some cough medicine. Kagami-kun, it would be much appreciated. It wasn’t like Kagami had anything better to do on his summer holidays anyways. Besides, he’d been in the middle of making himself some food so it had been easy enough to make a little extra and stick it in a basket along with some pills. The little shrimp probably didn’t have enough to eat anyway and if he was making the trip out here, he’d might as well bring something besides a lousy plastic bottle of pills.

Nodding to himself, Kagami leaned back against the train seat and glanced up at the map overhead showing the route. Two more stops until Kuroko’s. He fiddled idly with the laces of his shoes. They were worn down; he probably needed new ones. Maybe on the way back he’d get some. Someone walked by on the way to the door and the movement of their passing caused small curls of air-conditioning to twist around Kagami’s bare calves and neck. It made him want to pull up his red sweatshirt hood but - something nagged at the back of his mind. The hood would block his vision. It needed to be down. He needed to be able to see the wolf. He need to be able to run, he needed-

That damn dream. Whatever, he might as well leave the hood down. He was getting off soon anyways.

“Next stop approaching. Next stop approaching. Stand clear of the doors.”

The apartments were all gone now and so were the little houses. Scraggly trees pushed against the wire fence surrounding the train tracks and Kagami saw a bird land on an overhead wire and stay there, bobbing up and down as the train sped by.

“Next stop approaching. Next stop approaching. Stand clear of the doors.”

Finally. Tucking the basket of food and medicine under his arm, he stepped up to the doors. The view of blurry trees outsides the plastic window came into sudden focus as the train came to a silent stop at the station.

“Stand clear of the doors.”

As Kagami stepped out of the air-conditioned train car and onto the old train station platform, a wall of sticky heat hit him across the face. Sweat instantly beaded across his forehead and the back of his neck. This was awful. Shouldn’t outside the city be cooler? Maybe he should take his sweater off. Kagami tried tugging the hoodie over his head as he walked towards the exit stairs. The red fabric made it about halfway up his face before it stopped dead. Damn it, it was stuck on his necklace.

Flailing at the top of the train station stairs with the sweater halfway over his head, he didn’t realize there was someone behind him until a dark voice whispered into his ear.

“Move.”

Woah. That voice. It was—

I’m going to eat you whole.

Trees. Gasping for breath. A clearing. Wolf.

Sweater still over face, Kagami staggered aside and let the stranger pass. Once freed, he looked down at the dark haired stranger stepping indolently down each step in front of him.

The guy didn’t look like a wolf. At least, not from behind. Dark hair fell to the nape of a tan neck and a black T-shirt with cut-off sleeves showed off strong—but human—arms. His shorts were denim, frayed at the knee and showing clear brown skin down to a pair of black and white high-tops- nice high tops.

Whatever. Just a coincidence.

Kagami gathered his sweater and his basket for Kuroko and started down the stairs. He was almost at the bottom before he glanced back up from his feet and saw the stranger standing in front of him - right in front of him. Oh.

Hooded, dark eyes fixed him lazily from under dark bangs. Slowly, lips smirking, white canines peeked over skin. “Hey. Long time no see.”

Predator, something whispered inside of Kagami. He’s a fucking predator.

“Excuse me?” he asked, putting as much confidence as possible into the words. Bluster. “Do I know you?”

The other boy blinked and the wolf grin faltered. “Do you know—you’re joking—” His eyes narrowed. “Did you get amnesia, asshole?”

Kagami shook his head slowly but kept his eyes on the dark boy in front. “I’ve never met you in my life.”

And what kind of person calls someone they just met an asshole?

Asshole.

The stranger’s dark eyes looked momentarily pained but quickly flashed back to indolent. “Ah, well. Too bad. Could have made it worth your while.” He smirked.

“Uh—”

“See you around, maybe.”

With that, the other turned on the heel of his black high tops and walked down a dirt path that lead from the train station and into a stand of nearby trees. There was something both injured and arrogant about the way he held himself and Kagami couldn’t help but watch as the boy walked away.

Maybe walked was the wrong word. Prowled was more like it. The dark boy moved like he had a chip on his shoulder and the claws to swipe at you if you tried to knock it off. From the back, you couldn’t see the sly smirk—all you could see was long lines of muscle and lithe movement.

Why did the boy think he knew Kagami? Did he know Kagami? Kagami didn’t think he’d forget someone like that. No way in hell.

All of this watching and thinking meant, of course, that when the dark skinned boy turned around at the edge of the trees and looked back at the train station, Kagami was still standing at the train station stairs like an idiot.

A hoarse laugh came through the air and Kagami was pretty sure he saw the flash of white canines once more before the dark boy blended into the shadows of the trees.

Predator.

Prey.

Part TWO

Man, finding this house of Kuroko’s was turning out to be impossible. Kagami could have sworn Kuroko had said it was only five minutes from the train station but he’d left the station over half an hour ago and there was no sign of any house. He’d gotten hot enough trudging around to take off his red hoodie and tie it around his waist, though he felt like a dork doing it.

The path that had lead into the forest at the station had mostly stayed in the forest, though it occasionally passed behind chain-link fences through which Kagami could peer onto dusty roads. He was hoping he’d be able to find way through from the path to the road soon - maybe there’d be signs on the road or something to lead him in the right direction.

He was debating whether he should just climb over the fence -but then he might spill his basket of food and medicine- when he rounded a corner in the path and ran smack into something dark-haired and waist-high. Whatever it was, it was considerably lighter than Kagami and bounced off him to land on the dirt of the path. It stared up at him with twin pigtails, accusing eyes and a frightfully wobbly lip.

Crap. He’d knocked over a little girl.

“Uh, are you okay?” he bent down in front of the kid and tried to pick her up by the elbow as gentle as he could. “Do you need me to, uh, find your mom or dad?”

The girl shook her head. “I’m okay. I’m five.”

Kagami nodded like that made perfect sense. “Oh, of course.” He looked around. No way this kid was alone in the forest. Right? She had to be with someone. And...maybe whoever she was with knew how to find Kuroko? “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Yuno.”

“Um, Yuno, even if you’re okay - are your parents around? I’m looking for someone and they might be able to help me.”

Yuno shook her head. “No one else is here. Mum and Dad work during days. I’m at home with Aki. He’s my big brother and he’s playing video games. He doesn’t know I’m out.” Her eyes got really wide and teared up again. “You won’t tell, right? I didn’t go far.”

Kagami hesitated - maybe her brother would know Kuroko?- but couldn’t resist the tears in the little girl’s eyes. He quickly shook his head. “I won’t tell - but maybe you can help me find my friend?” It was worth a shot, anyways.

Yuno straigthened up and nodded.

“His name’s Kuroko. Kuroko Tetsuya. He’s short - well, shorter than me, taller than you - and he’s here in a house somewhere. He said it was near the train station and had a green roof.”

Yuno shook her head. “I live near the train and there’s no Kuroko family there.”

Crap.

“Well, it might not be a family. I think it’s just him right now. Are you sure you’ve never seen him? He’s kind of unusual-looking. He has really pale skin and blue hair...” he trailed off as he looker down at Yuno. Her eyes were huge.

Yuno leaned in really close and whispered, “You know the ghost boy?”

“What?”

Her voice was hushed, almost reverent, “The blue haired boy. The ghost boy. Mr. Okazaki leaves his house every summer to work far away and the ghost boy comes.”

Kagami groaned. This sounded way too familiar. “Does this....ghost boy, does he appear out of nowhere? Like, you’re not looking and suddenly he’s beside you?”

Yuno nodded solemnly.

Kagami made a show of looking around. “Okay, I’m going to tell you a secret. Can you keep a secret?”

Yuno’s eyes got even bigger - Kagami hadn’t thought it was physically possible to have shoujo manga eyes but apparent no one had told that to Yuno - and nodded one more time, really slow.

“Okay. Yuno. I’m a friend of the ghost boy. I bring him, uh, ghost food. He needs this ghost food or he can’t stay a ghost. Can you bring me to Mr. Okazaki’s house so I can give the ghost boy his food?”

The girl hesitated, obviously conflicted between helping the ghost boy and going near the ghost boy. “Alright,” she finally agreed, “But I’m not going too close. I’ll point you to where the house is and then run to my house, okay?”

Kagami nodded. Then pinky swore. Then double pinky swore. Then followed Yuno down the path in the direction he’d just come. Okay, maybe he had been lost.

Five minutes later, after a couple turns down half-invisible cross paths, Yuno stopped suddenly. They had reached a two way fork in the road. She pointed to the left, “That way is the train station and my house.” And, pointing right, “That way is Mr. Okazaki’s house.” Pointing left again, “I’m going to run that way now. Okay?”

Kagami dipped his head. “Thanks for the help, Yuno. Be safe going back!”

She smiled briefly. “I will! You be careful too! Of the ghost boy!”

Kagami grinned. “Oh, I’ll be fine.”

Yuno waved once and than ran down the left hand path. Kagami turned right, praying to whatever forest gods might be listening in that he would get to Kuroko’s fine.

He was feeling like an idiot again less than a minute later when he saw a low building right next to the path with a bright green roof and a brass name plate showing Okazaki. How had he missed it? And there was going to be no lying to Kuroko about it. This close to to the station, the shrimp had to have heard the train go by half an hour ago.

Whatever. He grumbled as he pushed open a short gate that blocked off the house’s yard from the forest path. Kuroko could laugh all he wanted. Kagami would take the upper road and give him lunch and medicine and maybe hang around and cook him dinner...

Kagami rang the doorbell.

No answer.

He knocked. “Kuroko?”

His cellphone vibrated. The door is open. - K

Ah. Whoops. Kagami pushed open the door and stepped inside. Whoever this Mr. Okazaki was, he made nice money. The inside was lush. Simple, but lush. A tiled entranceway gave way in front of him to a hardwood dinning room and a kitchen and more rooms beyond. To his left, a hallway stretched with several closed doors.

“Kuroko?”

His phone buzzed. Second room on the left.

Kagami kicked off his shoes at the front door and was stepping onto the hardwood when he noticed something that made him stagger twice and slip, sock feet high, next to the entranceway.

There, in front of him, were Kuroko’s sneakers. Tiny sneakers, at least by Kagami’s standards. That was fine.

Right next to them, however, was a pair of black and white high tops.

Large black and white high tops.

Too large for Kuroko and definitely not Mr. Okazaki’s.

Familiar-looking high tops, like he’d seen them already that day on the feet of a boy with dark skin and a predator grin.

The hairs on the back of Kagami’s neck prickled.

Wolf.

Part THREE

Kagami picked himself up from the entranceway and glanced down the hallway of the fancy house. As he unfolded himself, his eyes fixed on the black and white high-tops next him at the tiles. They...couldn’t be the same pair that he had seen on the guy from the train station, right?

Kagami rolled his shoulders. So what if it was? It’s not like the guy had been an axe murder or anything. Just a little pissed when Kagami has said he didn’t know him.

And maybe his eyes had looked a little hurt. Maybe.

That little window of hurt gnawed at Kagami’s belly and made him feel guilty. No way he knew the guy, right? He closed his eyes and pictured the guy from the train station. Dark hair, right? Lots of Japanese teenage boys had dark hair; it wasn’t particularly distinctive. Tan skin. Yeah, pretty tan. Attitude, so much attitude. But - the first smile, though a smirk, had been genuine.

Wait.

A weird feeling of familiarity slipped in to his mind. Maybe....summer? Last summer, maybe he had...

Bzzz. Kagami’s cellphone buzzed in his pocket. Are you lost inside the house, Kagami-kun? Kuroko.

He was still standing at the entranceway, next to those black and white high-tops. His basket of food and medication was at his feet. he had no idea how long he had been standing like that. Hell. Kuroko was going to think he was an idiot.

Well, let’s be honest, he was pretty sure Kuroko already thought he was an idiot. But, at least he didn’t have to prove him right by standing at the front door forever.

Picking up his basket, he slipped down the hall. The walls were wallpapered a soft, dark green that was reminiscent of the forest outside. Below him, Kagami’s sock feet slide down slick wooden floorboards and barely made a sound. This was a pretty fancy house. Even the doors were fancy - dense wood a shade darker than the floorboards with curved metal handles on every door. Kagami was half-tempted to turn a bunch of the handles to see what was behind the doors of this fancy house but the room Kuroko had specified - second room on the left - was already ajar and Kuroko would be able to hear him snooping.

Kagami was reaching a hand out towards it when the house creaked and the wooden door closed slightly.

Kagami swallowed and was overcome with a sense of foreboding. What - what if it wasn’t Kuroko behind the door? What if it was the wolf? Or an axe murderer? Or what if it was the dark boy from the station and what if he turned into an axe murderer or a wolf and ate him?

Right.

You’re an idiot, Kagami, he said to himself and he pushed the door open.

No wolf. No axe murder.

No dark-haired boy.

Kuroko waved at him from the bed.

Ah.

“Uh, hi. Sorry, I’m late. I got lost.”

Kuroko nodded and used a pale arm to wave him over. Dumping his basket on the floor, Kagami shuffled over and perched himself on the corner of a small night table next to the bed.

Looking up at him, Kuroko’s eye’s crinkled. Quickly typing something out on the cellphone that was lying on the bed in front of him, he held up the screen for Kagami to see.

Sit down on the corner of the bed, Kagami-kun. You may break the table.

Kagami rolled his eyes but quickly shifted himself off of the surface and moved over to sink into the corner of the bed. It was a massive bed, probably king size, and had thick covers and pillows like Kagami had seen in some hotels in America. Kuroko had thrown all the covers and tiny pillows down to the bottom of the bed and seemed to just be lying on a sheet with another thin sheet covering his legs. “How are you feeling?” Kagami asked.

Kuroko shrugged. Sick, his phone read.

“When did you lose your voice? It was crap when you were talking to me this morning but at least you still had it.”

Silence. I had to talk to another idiot besides you today. Loudly.

“Oi, don’t assume I’m an idiot! And don’t call me names when I came to see you when you were sick!”

You took 30 minutes to find a house that is three minutes on a straight path from the platform. I may call you as I wish.

“That was not a straight path! There were a bunch of forks.”

Kagami’s pronged eyebrows were pulling together in frustration when he looked over at the face of the blue-haired boy next to him and saw the faint smile flickering around the other’s mouth. Oh.

“Ah. I brought you the meds you asked for. And food.” He gestured to the basket that he had dumped on the floor.

You’re like that girl with the red cloak in the American fairy tale you were telling me.

“Red Riding Hood? I’m pretty sure she was French.”

Kuroko shrugged.

“But anyway, I’ll just go grab you a glass of water for the meds and then pull it together lunch for you.” Kagami nodded to himself and started to pick back up his basket from the floor as Kuroko typed a quick Thank you.

As Kagami pushed himself up off the bedside and stood up, he glanced towards the bedroom door. “You didn’t happen to buy a pair of extra-large high tops and leave them at the front door, did you? I just saw a pair as I came in and thought they looked more like ....someone else’s. Do they belong to you? Or to the owner of this house - who owns this house anyways? And, uh - yeah.” Kagami forced his mouth shut to stop the rambling and looked hesitantly down at the small boy next to him

Kuroko looked at up him steadily, as if trying to measure something in Kagami’s face that would change how he answered the questions.

Nodding, he reached down to his phone and typed out. The house belongs to Mr. Okazaki, a scientist who leaves in the summer for overseas research. I have come here for a few years to help him take care of things when he is gone. The shoes belong to another idiot friend who came to help me -

Footsteps sounded in the hallway and then - was that a bark?

Kagami’s eyes were riveted at the door

-dog sit.

“Yo.”

The dark boy from the train station was standing in the doorway, smirking at Kagami. The muscles in his arm bunched and unclenched as he changed the position of the small black and white dog in his arms. His dark blue eyes looked straight at Kagami’s red ones.

“Good of you to finally show up, Kagami...Taiga.”

The sound of his first name sliding past the dark boy’s lips caused something deep inside Kagami to clench.

Kuroko rolled his eyes and tapped Kagami on the leg. Kagami-kun, this is Aomine Daiki from my middle school. He is also an idiot but he is a good friend.

Kagami looked back at the dark boy and held his eyes. Damn this guy if he thought Kagami would back down. “Nice to meet you, Aomine Daiki.”

Something changed in the other’s expression and for a second Kagami thought he saw a desperate wanting in the other’s eyes. Just as quick, the dark eyes shuttered and boy sneered. “Yeah, yeah.” He looked down at Kuroko. “I’m taking Nigou out for a walk, okay, Tetsu?”

Kuroko nodded and Aomine stepped backwards out of the room. Kagami stood in silence as the other disappeared and didn’t say a word until he heard the front door slam.

He looked at Kuroko. “He calls you Tetsu?”

Like I said, he is a good friend.

“Uh, Kuroko? Don’t be mad but I think your good friend hates me and I don’t know why.”

Kuroko got very still and seemed to be thinking about something deeply before typing out his response. He does not hate you. Quite the opposite, actually.

“What do you mean? I’ve seriously never met him before today and all of sudden - bam- death glare.”

Aomine-kun has met you before, he says.

“Are you sure?”

I was not there but Aomine is quite sure.

Kagami shrugged. “That still doesn’t say why he hates me.”

Kuroko stared at Kagami incredulously and then flopped back down in his pillows.

“What is it?”

Sitting back up, Kuroko stared at Kagami again for a long while. Finally he shrugged and began typing. Aomine-kun will kill me for this but since you are both complete idiots this is the only way that anything in this situation will progress. Keep in mind that if you tell him I told you this, you will likely not have me for a classmate after this holiday as I will be in the hospital or perhaps the morgue. Alright?

Kagami nodded.

Kuroko nodded, typed something once more, hesitated briefly and then held the phone up for Kagami to see.

For a second, Kagami was confused. The image on screen was different from the notes Kuroko had showed him before. It was - somebody else’s message to Kuroko?

From: Aomine Daiki Subject: i don’t care what you say you loser... Message: ...i’m coming over, i just want to see the idiot’s face again. And btw i don’t care if you think i’m stupid - you always think i’m stupid. And while i’m at it, i’ll walk the fucking dog.

The date on the message was today.

Part FOUR.

“WHAT?!” Kagami sat back down on the bed, fast. “What the HELL, Kuroko?”

Kuroko typed. Calm down, Kagami. You are not helping the situation.

“Screw calming down! What do you mean? That text is from him, right? From today?”

Yes, but I do not know much else besides. He has told me that he met you somewhere. That encounter apparently made a significant impact on Aomine-kun and you have been on his mind since.

He saw a picture of you and I from the sports day and wanted me to introduce you. I was worried about how much it mattered to Aomine-kun to meet you and I did not want him to be hurt so I - pause in typing- ....didn’t.

And apparently, rightfully, as while Aomine-kun did not forget you, you have evidently forgotten him.

The encounter that caused Aomine-kun such - pause - significant feelings was meaningless for you. That is why today Aomine is acting like a spoiled child who has had his toy taken away.

Oh.

The smirk on Aomine’s face sliding into a scowl at the train station when Kagami said he didn’t know him, the pain in dark eyes that quickly shuttered closed, the informal use of his first name - they all suddenly made sense. Kagami knew what it was like to want and not get, what it was like to pick at old sores to pretend you were unbothered by them, to justify to yourself that if you were causing another to feel pain at your encounter, at least you were causing them to feel something because of you.

He knew that feeling. He knew it intimately, like a second skin.

Kagami sat staring at Kuroko but through his eyes he instead saw a very different boy, sitting on a different bed in a country across an ocean and leaning towards Kagami with curiosity in green eyes.

The image caused Kagami’s stomach to clench. I can’t do that again. I can’t survive that again.

Never again.

Kagami-kun? Are you alright?

Kagami jolted out of his head, away from blond hair lit by sunlight and the sound of American voices talking about baseball statistics through an open doorway, back into Japan and looked down at the blue-haired boy looking up at him in concern.

“Um. Yeah, I’m fine.”

Kuroko cocked his head sideways. Alright, Kagami-kun. Let me know if that changes.

“Yeah, I will.”

Whatever. That situation was definitely different than how Aomine was feeling. The situation between Kagami and Aomine was way different than what had happened with Kagami and...the other boy. Him.

Way different.

Still, it was obvious that Aomine had met Kagami somewhere before. Or maybe he had met someone who just looked like Kagami? Nah - Aomine struck him as a bit of an idiot but not enough of an idiot to completely mix up two different people. And, to be honest, how many people looked like Kagami?

So. Aomine had met Kagami. Kagami had forgotten Aomine. That meant that the encounter couldn’t have been significant or for very long - but Kagami had only been in Japan for less than a year, so it couldn’t have been that long ago.

What had he done to affect Aomine so much?

“So..Kuroko...did Aomine say why he..wanted to meet me?”

Kuroko, sitting up still, shook his head.

Kagami...aside from certain inappropriate comments about gravure models, I have never seen Aomine-kun want to meet someone the way he has bugged me about meeting you. He usually is too lazy to care. I do not know why or when or how he came to have the fascination with Kagami-kun. Aomine’s attractions are is his business. He did not chose to share.

It may simply be a crush of admiration or it may be something more. He has not elaborated on it with me.

You will have to ask him yourself.

Kagami rubbed his face with his hands.

“This is so complicated. As far I can remember, I just met the guy today.”

Kuroko nodded.

“I’m going to go make your lunch.” Kagami unfolded himself from the bed, picked up his basket and walked towards the door. The sound of Kuroko clearing his throat behind him had him turning around once more.

Kuroko was smiling at him and holding out his cellphone for Kagami to read the message. It will be alright, Kagami. It will work out.

Kagami smiled back at him. “Thanks, Kuroko”

Walking to the kitchen, he unpacked the rice and vegetables he’d brought to make a summer stir-fry. Putting the rice on to boil -did this house not even have a rice cooker?-, he quickly got lost in chopping onions and peppers into small pieces.

Hard knocking at the front of the house an undetermined amount of time later brought him back enough to walk to the door but he was still lost in his thoughts as he swung the door open.

For a brief moment, the knocking overlapped with the sight of Aomine standing in his black T-shirt at the doorway and the sight of it triggered -

Aomine with shorter hair and a tank top on. Hotter air. Summer? Summer. That sly smirk sliding into a full out smile that stretched from ear to ear. A repetitive noise in the background. Bam. Bam. Someone knocking? No, it was -

“You going to let me in?”

“Basketball.”

“What?” Aomine looked at him with an eyebrow cocked and tried for a mocking smile again - but Kagami had seen the slight widening of his eyes at Kagami’s word. The wolf was scared.

“Did we play basketball?”

Aomine’s dark eyes looked directly in his. “If you can’t remember, it doesn’t matter.”

That’s a yes. “Then when -” The train of thought disappeared as the dog that Aomine had been holding under one arm leaped down and started sniffing his feet. “Oh, oh crap.”

The dog sniffed both of Kagami’s shoe-less feet and then started weaving around Kagami’s legs.

“Oh, oh crap. He’s touching me. Oh dear. Shit. Crap.”

He looked at Aomine in despair.

The other’s face had shifted into a incredulous smile and he stared at Kagami in disbelief. In a moment, he was doubled over laughing. Gasping, he asked “You’re over how many centimeters and you’re scared of a puppy? It’s, like, a tenth your size!”

Kagami was slowly backing into the house and stammered, “I’m, I’m more of a cat guy. Not, oh crap he’s licking me, not really a dog guy.”

Aomine was almost on the ground in tears as he snickered. “Tetsu said you were scared of dogs but I thought he meant big dogs not Nigou-sized.”

Kagami had managed to get the dog off his feet in the middle of the foyer and thought he was home free when he tripped over the raised step around the entrance and landing flat on his back. The dog -Nigou- immediately jumped over and started licking his face.

Kagami screamed.

Aomine, taking his shoes off, watched him squirm for a few seconds and then bent down and reached across Kagami over to pick the dog up. The long, smooth motion of his reaching out put his body a mere handbreadth away from Kagami’s horizontal chest. Putting one hand under Nigou, Aomine easily lifted the dog off, his eyes locked to Kagami’s scrunched up face and squinting eyes as the redhead lay prone on the floor beneath him.

Whispered.

“You know, you may be a dog-phobic idiot but....this isn’t a bad view. Flushed. Squirming. Yeah, you’re pretty cute when you’re on the ground like that, Kagami Taiga.”

Kagami’s eyes opened slowly as Aomine drew back from him. Searching each other’s faces, their eyes were locked and Kagami could feel an intensity in the gaze that he had never experienced before. He wanted to say something, wanted to tell Aomine...something, wanted to press his words into the other’s ear and make a connection - but the lanky boy above him blinked and broke his gaze.

A whisper floated down. He wasn’t sure if it was something Aomine was saying to Kagami or just a desperate thought that slipped out the other’s mouth.

“Remember me, idiot.”

Kagami opened his mouth to speak, to try once more to respond - but Aomine was already prowling into the living room. The dark-haired boy flopped down in front of the television set and turned it on.

News. Shouting voices in a drama. Music blaring.

Kagami closed his eyes again and let out a shaky breath.

What was he going to do? He’d thought he could just ignore the whole thing but the last few minutes made him think that might not be possible. Damn that little Nigou dog. This was all the dog’s fault, really.

He hated dogs.

And wolfs.

And Aomine.

And Aomine’s soft voice in his ear.

No, don’t think about that.

Definitely time to go back to chopping vegetables.

And avoid the living room.

And pray he didn’t cut himself with the knife.

Yeah, right.

Part FIVE

Success. Fucking finally.

Not that it was a big achievement, really: Kagami was just celebrating that he’d managed to cut up all the vegetables for Kuroko’s lunch without cutting off one of his fingers in the process.With the time it had taken him to get to the house and get everything ready, it was way to late for lunch but Kagami figured the food would work well enough for dinner.

And having all of his fingers still attached was a definite triumph, considering the...circumstances.

Those circumstances were, of course, that Aomine Daiki - tall, dark, and unffff - had been sitting in the living room the whole time Kagami had been in the kitchen.

The two rooms weren’t really connected but, by looking out the kitchen door and across the dining room table, Kagami could see the wisps of Aomine’s dark hair sticking out over the edge of the living room couch. Judging by the amount of his head poking out over the edge, Aomine was way too long for the couch. Nonetheless, that hadn’t stopped him from flopping himself over both armrests and idly changing channels while Kagami made food.

That is, slowly made food....while also checking on those wisps of hair every so often.

Sometimes Aomine would mutter at the screen, the deep syllables would slip back to Kagami’s ears and the red-haired boy would twitch slightly.

He didn’t even know why - what was making him so bothered?

What was Aomine Daiki to him? Nothing.

A faint memory of basketball in the summer. Nothing more than that. He couldn’t even place in his memory when the event had taken place. Kagami had come to Japan in the spring of first year and he had only been here for a bit more than a year now. Last summer? It had to be. But when?

Damn it, he wished he could remember. The event - he - had meant something to Aomine, that was for sure. The other boy had seemed so sad under his hard eyes, had seemed so wanting when he stared down at Kagami on the floor.

And the text Aomine had sent to Kuroko basically screamed that something more than a simple hello had happened..unless they had only run into each other and Aomine was the kind guy who believed in love at first sight?

Kagami snorted. Nope, not likely. Unless it was love at first boobs, that seemed more Aomine’s style.

Kagami didn’t have boobs. Breasts. Whatever. What was Aomine playing at?

Mixing up the last of the vegetables with some oil, Kagami turned the gas down and leaned against the counter. What should he do? He could treat Aomine’s apparent interest like it was nothing, just some mild admiration for an event Kagami had forgotten...or, alternately, he could ask Aomine about his “crush”.

Kagami cringed and rubbed his face in his hands. Crush sounded so stupid in the same sentence as Aomine Daiki. He couldn’t even imagine saying it to Aomine’s face. It was so...so shoujo. So blushing faces in the backyard of school with a confession letter crushed in sweaty palms. So NOT the feral boy with his dark eyes and his half-smile of pain at the train station.

What should he do? Act on it or ignore it? Acting on it would probably result in the whole situation blowing up in his face. See, Kagami had liked another guy before. A few guys, if anyone was curious. And, somewhere around the end of junior high, he had realized that he only liked guys.

It hadn’t meant a great deal to him right away. He’d had no time for giggles or rumours or romances - he was too busy playing basketball.

In the end, he’d told only a few people - Alex, some friends at school that he’d gone to overseas - and even then, he’d only told because they kept trying to set him up with girls and he’d had no time for it - evenings were for basketball practice, right?

For a little while, that had been fine. His friends had stopped trying to set him up with girls, he’d gone back to basketball and everyone was satisfied with the outcome. Well, almost everyone. Everyone except one person.

A straight American friend who had found out had fixated on Kagami’s sexuality as a point of personal amusement, flirted outrageously with the redhead and then became...disgusted when Kagami, hesitantly but earnestly, began to return the flirtations.

The whole thing had cumulated with Kagami, laying in fetal position in the middle of the boy’s hardwood floor on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Laying where he had fallen when the blond boy had pushed him away when Kagami tried to kiss him. Freak, had come the cruel whisper.

Kagami’s heart had broken, right there on the hardwood floor with baseball stats playing from a TV in the room next door. But but but he’d thought to himself, but I gave up basketball to hang out with you today. But, you kept touching my arm. But, you kept playing with my hair. But, I thought you’d tilted your head up to mine. But, I fell in love. He’d stayed curled up on the floor until the blond boy had reached over and shook his shoulder.

That had snapped Kagami from sad to mad, fast.

“You don’t get to touch me ever again.” he’d said. Grabbing his backpack, he’d walked straight to the front door, stepped into his shoes, walked out into the afternoon sunlight and headed straight to a basketball court. From then on, the only thing Kagami loved was basketball.

Present day Kagami, leaning over the counter in Mr. Okazaki’s kitchen, rubbed his face once more and turned back to the stir fry. Almost done. Putting in a pinch more of spices and a little more oil, he stirred the vegetables and meat as they browned.

Really, though Kuroko didn’t know it, the person most likely to get hurt in this Aomine-Kagami situation wasn’t Aomine, remembering someone who had forgotten him.

It was Kagami himself. Kagami didn’t need another straight boy playing around with his heart.

Snap!

Oil popped with heat, jumping up off hot metal to land on Kagami’s face.

“Fuck!”

Kagami scrubbed at his face with his hand, trying to wipe off the hot oil.

“You okay there, kitchen boy?” the lazy voice floated in from the living room coach.

“Yeah, fine, just a bit of oil - FUCK!” Another - much larger - drop of oil jumped up, landing on his hand. “Ouch, ouch, OUCH.”

He yanked down the gas on the stir-fry and turned towards the tap to cool down his hand.

Reaching out for the tap handle, his hand bumped into someone else’s.

What?

Aomine was standing next to him. “You sure you’re okay?” he said, turning on the tap. Kagami stared at him, speechless. “What?”

Aomine grabbed his hand and shoved it under the tap, then stepped back. The cold water brought Kagami snapped into reality. “What the hell?” He looked back at the living room. “Weren’t you on the couch?”

Aomine shrugged. The motion moved the muscles in his strong shoulders in a way that had them flexing and loosening against his black T-shirt. Damn, Kagami thought. “I thought you might need some help. You were shouting. And swearing.”

Kagami looked at him incredulously. What did you do, run over? Also, like you don’t swear? “I’m fine. Seriously, just fine.”

“Oh, okay.” They both watched Kagami’s hand cooling down in the water from the kitchen tap. They hadn’t talked during the afternoon and Kagami wondered if Aomine was thinking of the last words they’d exchanged on the ground after the dog incident. Kagami certainly was.

- You’re pretty cute when you’re on the ground like that, Kagami Taiga.

And then - Remember me, idiot.

Aomine was sending out the right signals, wasn’t he? In combination with the text he’d sent Kuroko, Kagami was sure - well, maybe not. Maybe he should just not mention it. He didn’t want to get burned on love again. Anything was better than getting burned.

A minute passed with the tap running and Aomine was still standing there, lean and predatory even in this kitchen setting. Eventually, Kagami pulled his hand out from the water and dried it off.

Aomine still stood there. Kagami didn’t know where to look. Then-

“Where did the first one land?”

What? “What?”

“The first drop of oil.” Aomine said it lazily.

“On my cheek. Why? It’s fine - YO, WHAT are you DOING?”

What Aomine was doing was gently but firmly gripping Kagami’s chin and titling the redhead’s face sideways.

“Just seeing if I could see a red spot. And I don’t. You’ll live.” His eyes, dark and secret, roamed over Kagami’s face, taking it in. Then, just as fast as he’d grabbed him, Aomine let him go, releasing Kagami’s chin and moving to go back to the living room.

Kagami’s heart was racing faster than he’d thought possible, slamming into his chest quicker than his Jordans on a fast break.

And Aomine? Aomine was walking away. Again.

Not fair.

Fucking straight boys.

Not again.

No, you know what? he thought. Not again. Not this time. No more wondering and half-flirtations. No more Aomine the snark-master and mystic savant. No more laying on the ground as someone he’d trusted crushed his half-formed dreams.

Kagami wanted all the cards on the table. All the players on the court.

He took a deep breath and then- “Uh, Aomine?”

Aomine was still walking slowly out of the kitchen. “Yeah?”

“Kuroko says you maybe like me. Like you know, like me.”

Aomine stopped still. Blunt, Kagami thought, but effective. He couldn’t say it clearer than that. Now the ball was in Aomine’s hands.

Without turning around, Aomine muttered, “Kuroko is going to die a very early death.”

“But, do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Do you...like me?”

“What are you, a junior high girl? Are you going to ask me to walk you home if I say yes?” His deep voice dripped with attitude but his body was rigid.

“So, the answer’s yes, then.”

Silence.

“I didn’t say that.” Aomine leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen entrance. He stared off above Kagami’s head. “Remember, I don’t really know you.”

What the fucking fuck.

Kagami ground his teeth. This asshole. His eyebrows drew closer together. This asshole. Just another jerk jerking him around. ASSHOLE.

Aomine, still lounging on the doorframe, continued. “Yeah, according to you, we’ve never met before. Weren’t you the one who’s so sure about that? Oh, wait, maybe we played basketball. Maybe. Tell me...Taiga. How did you go from not remembering anything to caring if I ‘like’ you, if I love you, if I said something like that to Kuroko?”

He smirked and the way it twisted his face made Kagami want to punch him. But - there was something underneath it, under the meanness of the smirk, some pain that was peeking through that made Kagami keep going. Even if the jerk was messing with him - such a JERK- there was something there.

Something hidden, something that had made Kagami go liquid under him when he’d picked up Nigou off the floor, something that had lit up on Aomine face as he watched Kagami laughing and yelling at the dog, something in the joy that had turned to pain as he’d seen Kagami at the train station only to see Kagami’s confusion and question of “Do I know you?”

The twisted smile reminded Kagami of his own face, his own feelings, as he’d walked out of that American house and onto the sunny Saturday basketball court. Feelings of hope turned to crushing disappointment. He knew how that felt.

Because he did, he was going to give the smirking boy in front of him one more chance. But after that - no more. He didn’t need any more abuse. Maybe he was imagining it. Maybe Aomine wasn’t Kagami, maybe he was the blonde boy again, just someone else jerking him around for fun or to get his rocks off.

One more deep breath. “You told Kuroko you knew me. You told him you wanted to see my face today. That’s pretty fucking close to a confession.”

Aomine slowly turned around. “You said you don’t remember me. Why do you care?”

“I don’t remember you! But you, apparently, have an ~ important ~ enough memory to turn you into a whiny brat!”

Aomine’s dark eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t mock me.”

“Then, choose. Yes or no.”

“What?!” Aomine handsome face was confused - but no longer smirking and no longer hiding pain. “What are you talking about?”

Better, thought Kagami. “Choose. Either you like me or you don’t.” And if you don’t, I’m never going to trust any guy again.

Silence. Kagami looked at the floor. More silence. This was hard. He glanced back up from under his lashes.

Aomine was staring at him with the weirdest look on his face. “Kagami. Why would you even consider...wait, are...are you gay?”

Deep breath. “Yeah.”

He hadn’t told any of his friends here in Tokyo yet, worried about another incident of fetishization and rejection. He’d tell Kuroko soon; he didn’t want to keep secrets from his best friend that he’d just told to a stranger. But - this thing with Aomine felt important and Kagami was honest to a fault. He just didn’t have it in him to subtly lie. Be angry and bitter, oh yes, but not subtly. So, he’d just say the truth and watch where the game went.

Aomine’s face, blurry as Kagami looked up through his eyelashes had an even weirder look on it now. It might have been nausea - or it might have been a look that screamed Oh all the gods how did I get so lucky. Or maybe nausea.

Aomine’s voice spoke, thick with emotion: “Yes. Yes, I like you.”

Kagami’s stomach seemed to drop a foot. “What?” he hissed. “Really?”

Aomine shrugged awkwardly. “Well, yeah. Got a problem with that?”

Such an idiot. Such a beautiful idiot.

Kagami didn’t know what to do. On one hand: Aomine, strong and beautiful, standing in front of him and telling him he liked him. On the other hand - oh God, what if he’s still just playing. “Aomine, be serious. I just met you.”

“Well, I didn’t just meet you. I swear! We’ve met before.” Aomine looked awkward. He moved his shoulders in circles, shifted foot to foot and stepped closer. He was standing in front of Kagami now, looking the redhead straight in the eye. Smoldering, Kagami thought, like a dark ember.

Please let it be true. I don’t even know him but he has such an effect on me. If it was true, if he likes me like he says, maybe we could work something out. Maybe we could be...be together. A voice in Kagami’s head was desperate and begging.

But another of his inner voices was less trustful. Test him, it said. Call his bluff.

And so he challenged him.

“Kiss me.”

Aomine’s eyebrows shot up. “Right now? Right here?”

Kagami nodded.“Yeah.” Prove it. Show me that you like me. Show me how much you like me.

He leaned forward and Kagami’s stomach clenched in anticipation. What now? A laugh? A confession - that it had all been a cruel joke? That deep voice chuckling and cutting him down with a label of Freak?

Or maybe...it would be heat and smoke and everything that Aomine’s voice promised.

Maybe it would all be true. Please.

Aomine’s face was an inch away. They were so close Kagami could see the detail on the small hairs of Aomine’s face, see the unexpected glints of colour in his dark eyes. Aomine looked right back at him, dark eyes staring into Kagami’s red ones. But he didn’t say anything.

Kagami closed his eyes and felt Aomine come closer, body warmth seeping into Kagami’s skin. Oh, God, oh God. His stomach twisted tighter and tighter until, until - there was an infinitesimally brief touch on the lips.

Barely a rasp of skin on skin and then Aomine pulled back. What?

Aomine - smoldering Aomine, hot as a fucking bonfire, lustful eyes and sinewy predator limbs - had given him a kiss like a grandmother at New Year’s. No lust, no passion, no love. Kagami’s heart sank. He’s taken it farther than the last but he’s not serious either, is he?

He opened his eyes, eyes blurring through sudden tears that he blinked away.

It wasn’t real, the hard voice in his head whispered. Cut him away, cut your losses now.

So, Kagami, hurting and confused, scoffed.

Loudly. Bitterly.

“Yeah, sure you like me. Not. You met me before somewhere that told you I was gay, didn’t you? Some dark bar. Thought you’d have a little fun? Okay, I get it. You don’t like me. You didn’t have to prove it with such a lame kiss.”

Aomine’s face shuttered.

His eyes, glinting with anticipation just moments before, were suddenly hard. He stepped back from Kagami, stopped a full foot away. “You still don’t remember.”

Kagami, suddenly losing the body warmth, felt cold.

What was going on? The joke was over. Bluff called. Wasn’t Aomine supposed to laugh it off? Admit it? Let Kagami die alone of embarrassment?

Aomine spun around and kept walking - out of the kitchen, down the hallway, to the front door. Kagami heard Aomine’s feet on the hardwood, heard him pull on his high-tops.

He’s leaving? Kagami thought. All that and he’s just leaving?

Well, there’s your answer, Kagami. He didn’t want you, he just wanted a slightly different notch on his belt. A joke.

Kagami leaned against the counter. So much for that.

Then Aomine was back in the kitchen doorway, filling the frame. “Fuck it.” he hissed.

“What are you -” Kagami’s words were suddenly cut off.

The wolf was upon him.

Aomine, Aomine, Aomine everywhere. Kissing him like his life depended on it. Pushing him back into the counter and Kagami was gripping his shirt tight and pressing their bodies together Somehow, this body he had never seen before, never touched before today, fit into his so right. So warm. Kagami was so warm. Held, tight. Aomine had one arm braced against the counter and one wrapped around him. The wolf, the wolf was eating him whole. A warm tongue in his mouth made him gasp. So warm. And then kisses, moving from his mouth and down his neck. Kagami had never thought of hickeys being attractive but - oh God - this was driving him crazy. Small gasps burst from Aomine’s mouth between sucks and then words - “Taiga. Oh, oh, Taiga.” Everywhere, all around him, was Aomine, warm, strong, hard. Oh, damn, hard. Crotches rubbing, he was suddenly aware that this was at least as much of a turn-on for Aomine as to him. Warm and hard and strong and then -

Aomine pulled away. “Can you remember? When I do this, when we feel like this, do you remember?”

Kagami weakly shook his head and Aomine let out a sound that was half growl and half moan.

“Not fair, not fair, Taiga. Taiga, I like you. I love you. I’ve had you a hundred times in my mind.” Kagami gaped at him and Aomine just continued on, blurting everything out, “I have all these feelings and I have all these memories and you don’t remember and it cuts me to bits. I know it’s not your fault, not your fault, but it hurts. Maybe I’m just crazy. Kagami, do you have any idea what it’s like to want someone who doesn’t want you back? To have someone - someone you want more than anyone - ask for a kiss out of curiosity and not out of desire? To then have them reject you? It hurts. I’m done here. I thought maybe - you would - maybe. Maybe. I wanted to start slow, I didn’t want to hurt you. But, but, you’re hurting me and I just can’t do this. No. I’m leaving. I just wanted to...show you..one last time....make you remember...or something like that.”

He pushed his dark hair back from his face. “I’m an idiot, Kuroko was right.” He looked right at Kagami. “I’m going home.”

He slammed the door fully behind him.

Kagami leaned against the counter. Yes, I know what it like to love and yearn and be slapped down. I shouldn’t have done it to you.

But I did it because I thought you were doing it to me.

Fuck. Fuck, I don’t understand.

He slid to the floor.

“What the hell is going on?” a faint voice croaked from the hallway. Kuroko padded into the kitchen, blue hair tousled and face still flushed with fever. “Where did Aomine go?”

Kagami just looked at him. How could he ever explain?

Kuroko, ever the observer, didn’t ask questions. He just saw.

“Oh, Kagami.”

He walked over next to him and dropped quietly to the floor.

Leaning against him, the pale boy just sat there as Kagami started to cry in big, gasping sobs.

The sound spilled through the empty house and out into the summer evening.

Part SIX

“I don’t cry. I’m not crying.” Kagami insisted - then sniffled.

Kuroko silently handed him another tissue and chose to keep his mouth shut about the twenty minutes of sobbing he’d just witnessed.

Noisily, Kagami blew his nose and threw the wadded-up tissue onto the floor to join several of its friends. He watched as Kuroko’s eyebrows twitched and the pale boy’s mouth twisted in mild disproval but, in the end, Kuroko said nothing.

I guess that a few tissues on the ground aren’t a big deal compared to one of your best friends coming out to you because your other best friend kissed him senseless in the kitchen before running away.

Oh, and don’t forget the issue of one of these two best friends remembering a significant relationship with the other that the other best friend seems to have forgotten. Fuck.

Kagami’s face was flushed, warm and red, and his eyes were tired and crusted from the crying - what the hell, he never cried. He wanted to just curl up on the kitchen floor and sleep.

I just don’t understand.

This combination of frustration and confusion was the worst. He could fix the problem, get over the problem, if he’d only understood half of what Aomine had been saying. Memories that I can’t remember? What the hell? Did I bang my head really hard in the court on day and got amnesia - no, don’t be an idiot, maybe, no - what had Aomine called it again - oh yeah - “Kuroko, what...do I do?”

Kuroko shrugged and croaked out, “I don’t know, Kagami-kun. Aomine-kun ne-” he broke off, coughing. He tried to speak again but it just lead to more coughing. Pulling out his phone, he continued by typing. Aomine-kun never told me that he thought he knew you this....way. I simply had the impression that he had met you somewhere in the city.”

Kagami frowned. “That’s the thing, I think I have met him before. Summertime, maybe. Somewhere, I’m not exactly sure where. I barely, barely, remember, but I think we played basketball together, or something. But I think I would have remembered more if it mattered so much to Aomine...”

Kuroko typed out, Well, that would have been last summer, most likely. Aomine-kun stopped playing basketball in the beginning of middle school and didn’t start again until last summer.

“Why did he stop? Or start again?”

You’ll have to ask Aomine-kun. That’s his business.

Typical Kuroko. Quiet keeper of many secrets, teller of none.

Kagami rubbed both of his hands through his spiky hair and shook his head to clear it. Alright, moving on time. Even if he was confused and frustrated, Kagami Taiga didn’t sit around weeping, he did things to fix his problems.

Step one, no more tears. Okay, done. So now, step two: figure out what to do now. He could stay at Kuroko’s a while more, the last train wasn’t for a few more hours. Or maybe he’d just sleep over; it was the holidays, anyways. Step three: fix shit. Maybe tomorrow, he’d get Aomine’s number from the shrimp and call him. Figure out what was going on, with Kuroko next to him to run interference if Aomine started talking about memories and weird stuff again.

Am I a masochist? Kagami wondered. Chasing after someone who has already hurt me? Oh, probably.

But, but, but - there had been something there. We have - oh God, chemistry sounds like a dumb word - we have...significance. He makes me burn with feeling, so much feeling. And if I can feel like that with someone and if that same someone seems to - want - me so desperately, I’m willing to risk a little more pain, even if the situation is a little weird.

Bzzz. Kuroko’s phone vibrated. Then - a croaking voice: “Oh, dear.”

Kagami looked over. Kuroko was looking down at his phone. He sighed lightly, he bit his lip and held up his phone for Kagami to see.

From: Aomine Daiki Subject: Yo Tetsu...

Message: ...you can’t give my contact info to the redhead, to Kagami. Please, i can’t do it. And sry i left so quick, hope u get better.

Kagami looked up at Kuroko. “What?!”

Kuroko shrugged awkwardly. “Sorry, Kagami-kun.”

Kagami groaned. “Damn it, Kuroko!”

Kuroko’s face was firm.

Growling, Kagami yelled, “You got me into this! And you did it by breaking your first promise not to tell me anything! Can’t you break one more to get me - us- out of it!?”

Kuroko looked at him with steady eyes, his blue focused on Kagami’s red. “No, Kagami-kun. I broke the first one because I didn’t think it was very important. I was wrong, and now my two best friends are hurt. Aomine-kun is hurt because he is an idiot and Kagami-kun is hurt because he hurt the idiot Aomine-kun.”

Damn Kuroko, loyal and and honest to a fault.

So, what now? Never see Aomine again? Forget it happened? Pretend that the kiss, the burning feeling between them was...nothing? Fuck.

Kagami banged the back of his head against the wooden cupboard behind him, over and over again.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Meeting Aomine was - basketball - basketball in the summer? What had happened? Aomine, short hair and -

“However, I can contribute one thing to this issue that you might not be aware of.”

Kagami didn’t look at him. “What?”

“If it is of any interest to you,” Kuroko rasped. “Aomine-kun’s likely still at the train station.”

Kagami jerked his head around and stared down at the blue-haired boy.

Kuroko shrugged. “Aomine-kun left about twenty-five minutes ago, trains come by here every forty-five minutes in the evening and I haven’t heard the bells of one passing by since I heard Aomine-kun slam the door.” He started coughing again.

Kagami’s heart was beating loud in his chest. His ears buzzed. The train isn’t here yet.

I could catch him.

I’d have to run, it could be here any time. I’d need to leave now.

But what do I say?

And do I care that much?

He closed his eyes, seeking comfort and answers in the darkness behind his eyelids. Instead of darkness, an image bloomed, then another, then another.

The first was one from the memory he could barely remember, the memory from last summer. Aomine - short hair, a dark tank-top, that smirk sliding into a wide white grin. Happy.

The second - Aomine again, but right after he had pulled away from the second kiss, the real kiss, babbling and confused and so much hurt in his dark, dark eyes. Injured.

The final image wasn’t a real memory, it was an imagining, but it hurt more than the others. It was the silhouette of a boy, dark, feral, standing on edge of a rural train platform. The silhouette was defined by light of the train coming down the track and Kagami’s watched as the train stopped and the boy got in and disappeared.

Fuck, no. Not going to happen. Not on his watch.

Kagami stood up.

“I’m going to, uh, I’m going to...” He looked back down at Kuroko, who still sitting cross-legged on the floor.

The pale boy was smiling up at him, holding up a glowing cellphone with a message already typed on it: Good luck, Kagami-kun.

Kagami nodded and bolted to the front door.

He was hurriedly pulling on his shoes when he heard Kuroko walk up next to him. As he looked, the boy held out Kagami’s basket, empty now, and Kagami’s red sweatshirt. Thanks for the food and medicine. You hopefully won’t be coming back soon so you should take these, the cellphone said. Kagami nodded, pulled the hoodie over his head and grabbed the basket.

Then he was off, jerking open the door and walking - no, running now - down the path.

He glanced back once as the house’s path met the main trail through the forest and saw Kuroko standing in the doorway, watching him go. The blue-haired boy looked so thin and pale and worn out - more like the ghost boy that the little girl had called him than Kagami had ever thought before. But, he was smiling. With a small wave of his hand, Kuroko motioned Kagami - go - and closed the door.

Kagami took a deep breath of the evening air, pulled his hoodie up around his head and started running.

Run. Go.

He put aside all thoughts of what he would say and what Aomine would do and what the hell he was doing and just - ran. The basket, handle tight in his clenched fist, bumped against his leg, marking his pace. Bump, bump. Run faster, Kagami. Bump, bump. Yo, idiot, he’s leaving. RUN.

The night forest was quiet and Kagami could hear small animal noises and laughter from other houses as he ran by them. Ordinary people, ordinary places. Don’t mind the gay boy running outside your window to see if the guy who’s been a semi-asshole to him all afternoon may be the love of his life.

Shut up, Kagami. Run.

He ran, fast as the darkness would allow - and, to be honest, he thought he’d make it time.

Then - he heard the bells. At first, he took them for music from someone’s open window. As they got louder, he realized what they were - train bells.

The train. Arriving at the platform.

Maybe it’s the train coming from the city, the one that brought us here, the wrong one to take Aomine back home.

Maybe it’s not. Maybe he’s getting on it right now.

Kagami opened up into a full sprint now, gasping in as much air as he could muster. The forest was dark around him but he could see straight ahead a gap in the trees and, barely, across a field, the train platform beyond. He needed to get there. He needed to get there before Aomine left. He couldn’t wait. He needed to see him now. He might not see him again. I need to catch that train.

Kagami spilled from the forest into the large field around the train platform just as the train pulled into the station, bells clanging. It wasn’t coming from the city, it was heading for the city. Aomine’s train to leave.

“Aomine!” his cried out, loud as he could, desperate to make it heard above the train sounds.

“AOMINE!”

“DAIKI!”

Stop. Turn around.

Kagami kept running for the platform but the field was large and the platform seemed to get farther and farther away.

A dark figure detached itself from one of the benches at the platform. The train door was opening, light spilling from within, and Kagami could clearly see - Aomine. The brown skin of his arms under the black T-shirt, dark hair spiky, strong hands rubbing at his eyes.

The figure walked to the edge of the platform, seemed to hesitate for half a second at the edge of the lit doorway and then - stepped into the train.

Fuck.

“DAIKI!” Kagami shouted.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

The train doors closed.

Kagami closed his eyes.

Bells rang, loud, and then stopped. In response, the train grumbled once, twice, and pulled away from the platform.

Kagami watched as the train pulled away from the station. Gone.

Turning his back to it and the now-empty platform, Kagami slowly walked down the gravel path towards the forest. As he passed under the shadow of the first trees, he kicked at a root. Fuck. So much for that try. I guess I’ll go back to Kuroko’s for a while and...just...not think about it. Yeah.

And if Kuroko’s falls asleep, maybe I can steal Aomine’s number from his phone - no wait, he said he didn’t want to talk to me, that would be rude.

Fuck it, I’ll be rude.

By then, Kagami was back at the edge of the forest and the darkness under the trees swallowed him.

Under the canopy, there was only the briefest hint of light. The evening stars were covered by clouds and smog from the city and the moon hadn’t shown itself yet. The lack of light made walking dangerous.

How did I not fall and break my neck on my way to the station? I’m a lucky bastard.

Well, I guess, not so lucky if you think about the whole situation.

Yeah, never mind. Walking back from the train station alone in the dark because you missed the train that your could-have-been-lover-if-your-ass-wasn’t-so-slow got on is NOT lucky.

Fuck.

More trees, more branches.

Fuck.

Man, it’s super dark out here now. The roots were everywhere and grass was growing more persistent underfoot. Kagami trundled forward, careful foot after careful foot. Weird, it hadn’t seemed this overgrown on his way out. Maybe he’d just been so desperate that he - Aww, no, aww, no. Kagami turned and looked up the path, back the way he came, then spun a full circle.   Yeah, he’d lost the path. Again. What an idiot.

And it was very unlikely that any cute pig-tailed girl was going to be running around this late at night to lead him back to the house.

Ugh.

Okay, he’d just text Kuroko to come find him. It would be embarrassing but...he’d just have to live with it. Except - the image of Kuroko standing at the doorway, pale and sick but still waving him on, flashed in front of his eyes. Kagami sighed. Kuroko was sick. It wouldn’t be fair to call him out into the dark. The night was getting colder, too. Kagami’s run through the woods had left him somewhat soaked under his red sweatshirt and the crisp evening air was giving him chills. Kuroko, still feverish, would be even worse off. Yeah, he couldn’t call Kuroko out here now.

Kagami sat down on the ground next to the path. Okay, new plan. Stay here until the moon rose higher and he could see better in the forest. Hopefully, he’d be able to find the main path by then. If not, he’d just wait for the sound of the next train to lead him back to the platform. He could always just go home.

Without the number? Admit defeat?

Kagami groaned. What a weird day. He pulled his red hood up close and tightened the drawstrings, then loosened, then tightened, then loosened. What a weird, weird, weird, day. This is definitely not how I thought it would end.

At least there weren’t many animals out here; the forest was quiet. He could hear music from somewhere distant and the occasional tree branch rustling as nocturnal occupants went around their lives. But mostly: silence.

Kagami lost track of the time as he sat listening to the quiet forest sounds and waited for the moon to rise. Eventually, his exhaustion from crying and running and the white noise of the shhh shhh shhh of the wind in the trees had his eyelids drooping. Maybe I’ll just close them for a second. Kagami breathed, in - out - in -

SNAP.

His eyes flew open. Moonlight was coming down through the forest. How long had he slept?

SNAP. A crashing sound came through the forest. Kagami pushed his hood back.

Shit shit shit. Something big was coming. We’re not that far from the city, what could it be? Maybe it’s just a really big squirrel. Or an outdoors cat.

Or maybe a wolf, the stupid part of his brain answered.

Kagami remembered his dream on the train and the dark wolf that had hunted him through a forest much like this one. Terrified, he thought, Wolves are essentially really really big dogs, right? With lots of teeth? Crap. He sprang to his feet. Better to be safe than sorry.

Kagami grabbed his basket and started running again, fast as he could be and still be quiet, away from the sound. Behind him, he could hear branches cracking and small scuffs of feet on the packed ground. Whatever it is, it’s on this path. Shit, maybe I should get off the path. He pushed his way through the small trees lining the edge of the trail and ran off the path into the deeper woods. It was harder to see here, dense leaves and small branches whipped his face.

Kagami stumbled through the dark woods, hands grasping onto branches that threatened to snap across his face. This was a dumb idea. He couldn’t run here after all, he had to get back to the path. Which way was the path? Oh crap, he’d lost the path. He had no time to look for it, the—the animal was right behind him. He could hear it crashing behind him, breaking its way through the dense forest. It sounded bigger than a squirrel, bigger than a cat, so much bigger - and it had left the path to follow him.

“Kagami!”

Was that his name? What was going on?

He remembered the wolf from his dream and its deep voice - You ready? I’m going to eat you whole.

Shit shit shit. Talking wolves, talking wolves, keep running.

Left. Right. No path—wait, was that it? He pushed away some whip-thin branches and staggered into the open clearing.

A full ring of trees surrounded him. This was no path, just a chance opening in the forest. He had to find the path, he had to - branches cracked behind him.

The wolf was there.

I’m going to eat you whole.

Kagami spun around, eyes wide. His basket dropped to the ground.

Aomine Daiki stepped into the clearing, into the moonlight. He was out of breath, panting, his bare arms covered in scratches from the forest trees.

His deep voice rumbled out.

“What the actual fuck, Kagami?”

Part SEVEN

The moonlight was bright overhead. It shone down through the trees of the small forest and highlighted two people. A redhead boy stood in the middle of a clearing, backing away as another boy, dark-haired and sinewy, emerged from the trees.

Kagami blinked as Aomine Daiki, scratched and panting, materialized from the forest in front of him. What the hell is going on? Hadn’t he left on the train? I saw him leave!

And where is the wolf that was chasing me?

He turned over the last few minutes in his mind: waking up in the moonlight, the terror of the night sounds, the wolf - I’m going to eat you whole- crashing after him.

His name called behind him as he ran.

Understanding dawned. I’m an idiot.

“Oh. I thought...you were a wolf. You’re not.” Kagami gave a sheepish grin.

His heart was slowly coming down from its previous frenetic rhythm - though refusing to go back to completely regular beating. The adrenaline spike caused by Aomine’s presence was only slightly lower than the one that had peaked when Kagami thought he was being chased by a wolf. He stared at the other boy. What is Aomine doing here? What is he going to do?

The long, brown body in front of him was covered in sweat, more than made sense for their fast but brief dash through the woods. Not that Kagami was complaining exactly; the droplets fell in curved patterns down Aomine’s throat and across one exposed collarbone that peaked out from a T-shirt collar. Unf. Yeah, this view definitely wasn’t slowing his heart down.

Aomine looked at Kagami incredulously, still panting. “You’re an idiot. You’re,” - he gasped - “an actual idiot.”

Okay, maybe Kagami’s heart could go back down to regular beating.

Kagami scowled. “Don’t call me an idiot. I don’t spend that much time in the woods, okay? Who knows what wolves sound like anyways? I figured that it would be safer to - wait, why am I arguing with you? Why are you even here?”

Aomine looked away, still pulling in deep breaths. Even sweaty, his face seemed proud and regal in the moonlight, each angle emphasized by the moon’s shifting highlights as Aomine breathed in and out. Under that light, Kagami could see emotions playing across Aomine’s face. Frustration, yes, but also embarrassment. And something else, something more. Kagami suddenly remembered that the last time him and Aomine had talked, Aomine had been holding on to him and breaking down. Not fair, not fair, Taiga. Taiga, I like you. I love you. You’re hurting me and I just can’t do this.

Aomine panted. “I, uh, I decided to come back.”

Kagami gave a non-committal grunt. I hadn’t noticed, really. You know, with the running terrified through the woods and all.

Aomine continued, “I, ah -” He drew in a gasping breath. “Sorry, wow, give me a second to catch my breath.” He bent over and placed his hands on his knees.

“You okay?” Kagami asked, despite himself.

Aomine shrugged, still bent over, and let out another deep breath. “I’m okay. I’ve just been running for a while.”

Kagami nodded, then drew back.

As they stood there, Aomine’s breathing slowed and evened, but he didn’t speak. The silence grew between them, only made more obvious by the stillness of their surroundings. Animals made noises in the bushes, a midnight cargo truck downshifted in the distance, Kagami looked at the ground and Aomine looked somewhere vaguely over Kagami’s left earlobe. Not fair, not fair, Taiga. Taiga.

It got the the point that Kagami couldn’t stand it anymore. “So, I -”

Aomine started talking at the exact same time, “You r-”

They both stopped short. Shrugging, Kagami motioned for Aomine to talk. Not like I was going to say anything productive anyways.

Aomine swallowed, then said softly. “You ran to the train station. I saw you.”

Kagami looked up, startled. “Yeah. I did. But - I didn’t think you heard me calling. You got on the train.”

Aomine’s mouth twisted into that ever-present smirk. “I didn’t hear you. I had headphones in.”

Kagami groaned.

Aomine kept talking. “I didn’t hear you, but - I saw you, once I got on the train. I looked out the window and saw you running for the platform.” The smirk loosened and faded and Aomine’s embarrassment seemed to show through again. “I, uh, I got off at the next station and ran back beside the track. Then, I ran back to Kuroko’s house but you weren’t there and Kuroko said you might be out in the forest still so I came to find you.”

That’s why he’s so sweaty. He’s been running for over half an hour, the whole time I was lost or sleeping. The next station must be at least a few kilometers off.

Kagami broke in, “The last time I saw you, you said you didn’t want to see me again.” Taiga, I like you. I love you. You’re hurting me and I just can’t do this. “Why...why did you come back?”

Aomine shrugged nonchalantly, but his eyes were glittering and intent on Kagami’s face. “You ran after me.” He shifted on his feet. “You cared enough to run after me. It made me think that maybe I was leaving too quick.” His eyes - oh, his eyes. They were locked into Kagami’s. “Now you answer why.”

“Why what?”

“Why did you come running to the station after me?”

Shifting from foot to foot, Kagami looked away. Well, might as well be honest. “I’ve got a bad record with guys, so I don’t trust people coming onto me easily. Even though you seemed, uh, attracted, and I was really attracted and really wanted it to be real, I was scared that you were just playing.”

He took a deep breath, “In protecting myself, I hurt you. I don’t remember, can’t remember whatever is so important to you - but you still feel important to me, more than makes sense. When you left, I realized how wrong I’d been. It felt important to find you, hold onto you again - and I ran.” He brought his eyes up to Aomine’s face.

To his shock, the other boy was smiling. Smiling like he’d smiled in Kagami’s old memory of last summer, open and free with a little wicked tilt to it. “So, you’re really attracted to me, huh?” Aomine asked.

“Is that all you heard?!” Kagami demanded.

“Nope,” Aomine replied, “But, now that the rest of it’s been said, that’s what I want to know.”

Kagami’s ears turned red. “Yeah, yeah, I like you.”

Aomine cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly. “So, that first kiss. The lame one. Can I have a re-do?” His voice was hoarse.

“You already gave me a second kiss!” And it blew me out of the water.

“Kagami, please?”

Kagami blushed and rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly. “I...I guess.”

Aomine stepped closer, and closer and closer - and then his body was against Kagami. Last time they’d kissed, in that last desperate mesh of bodies before Aomine had stalked away, he’d pressed Kagami down into the kitchen counter, down and down. Now, though - now he drew him up, drew Kagami against him and held him close. Both of his arms came around Kagami’s back - hard, strong and hard- and the warmth from them eased Kagami’s soul. A whisper in his ear - “Sorry, this is what I should have done the first time.”

Aomine’s lips nipped, here, there - everywhere. A brief touch on Kagami’s cheek, another on his nose, a long press on his mouth. Mouths touched, parted, touched again. Breaths mingled, tongues brushed and Kagami drank in the taste of him. Aomine smelled like sweat but he tasted like cinnamon and sugar - a maddening combination, but a sweet one. Moonlight filled the open clearing and Kagami could see that in its light they cast one shadow, tangled limbs and two heads attached at the lips.

Suddenly, Aomine’s hands were under Kagami’s ass and he was squeezing and lifting and - oh God - Aomine’s arms flexed and he brought Kagami off the ground and spun him around in circles.

“What the hell are you doing?” Kagami laughed. “Put me down! I’m the same size you are!”

“Yeah, but I’m stronger!” Aomine was grinning and whooping and Kagami couldn’t help but get pulled in.

Aomine was strong - but gravity was stronger. One spin went a little too far and Aomine toppled over and spilled them both onto the ground. Kagami landed in the grass, still laughing.

He flipped over on his stomach to look at Aomine. The other was a foot away, smiling at him. “Better kiss?” he asked. Kagami nodded. “I’m glad you ran.” Aomine whispered. “It made me brave enough to come back.”

“I’m glad you came back.” Kagami smiled back at him than rolled over on his back to look at the stars. “You know...you still owe me an explanation about the memory thing. Kisses are nice but they don’t answer anything.”

Aomine’s voice, soft. “I know.”

Silence.

Aomine’s voice again, “I don’t know where to start.”

“Start with basketball last summer.”

“What do you remember?”

“I have a memory of us playing, your face, but nothing else.”

“Last summer we played basketball at a street court and I kissed you.”

“What?!” Kagami was incredulous. “Seriously?”

“You totally forgot.”

“Yeah.”

“I swear it’s true. Swear it on...everything.” Aomine’s voice was quiet. Somewhere in the background, insects chirped and buzzed.

Kagami thought hard. “I have no idea how I forgot this. When did you kiss me? Like, when did we play basketball? And where?”

“Uh, the July national holiday last year. And, ah, a street court near my house.”

“Oh. That might explain it. You live near Tōō, right?”

“Yeah...why?”

“A friend of mine came to Tokyo from America at the holiday last year and stayed in a hotel in that area. We got drunk in her hotel room that night - like, way more drunk than I usually get. Anyways, the next day she basically left at the crack of dawn and I was still a little buzzed so I don’t remember it super clearly but I know I ended up just wandering the streets near her hotel and played street ball there for a couple hours. That’s probably when we played. And kissed.”

Aomine huffed. “That’s so lame. Forgetting someone because you were drunk. That’s like fucking shoujo manga stupidity...”

“Yo, I don’t remember people’s faces when I play them anyways, I remember their basketball!” Kagami felt compelled to add, “Also, guy don’t usually kiss in shoujo, idiot. That’d be BL.”

“Whatever.”

Kagami was smiling, softly, and he knew that if he looked over at Aomine lying beside him in the grass, the other boy would have a similar expression. “So you kissed me, huh?”

“Up against a chain link fence. It was hot.”

Kagami laughed. “Man, I’m really sorry I can’t remember now.”

Aomine was silent, now. It was a different kind of silent, uneasy and wanting to be filled.

“Was that it?” Kagami asked. He reached his hands up towards the moon, circled it with his fingers and then flopped his arm back down. His fingers brushed Aomine, laying next to him, silent. Kagami poked him. “Was that all I forgot? You seemed to be a lot more insistent about memories and stuff earlier, I thought more happened.”

Taiga, I like you. I love you. You’re hurting me and I just can’t do this.

Aomine stayed quiet.

“Aomine?” Kagami’s voice was careful.

Aomine’s voice, hoarsely from beside him: “You’re going to think I’m joking or I’m crazy.”

What? “What is it?” Kagami flipped back onto his stomach. He pushed himself forward on his elbows until his face was over Aomine’s, lips hovering a few inches over lips.

Aomine’s face was shadowed by Kagami’s, but the redhead could still see him frowning. His eyes were open but they didn’t meet Kagami’s eyes.

Then - a small sound as Aomine’s mouth opened. It sounded like the breaking of a seal on an old bottle. The words that bubbled out had evidently been kept secret for a very long time.

“Do you believe in, like, past lives? Or parallel lives?”

What? WHAT? Kagami’s spiked eyebrows disappeared under his bangs. After everything, I really don’t think he’s playing me but REALLY? He pursed his lips. “Are you actually asking me that question?”

Aomine’s eyes were closed. At Kagami’s words, his mouth trembled, ever so slightly; if Kagami hadn’t been right over him, he never would have noticed. He’s playing it cool but this is important to him. Treat it seriously.

“Well, not really.” Kagami admitted. “Like, I’ve heard stories but I always assumed they were fake. Why?”

Aomine’s eyes were still closed, but he answered. “I do. Believe in parallel lives, worlds, all that.” Aomine’s face, shifted, then settled. He opened his eyes. They were firm now, determined. “It’s a long story, alright?”

Kagami nodded. “Okay. Are you going to tell it to me?”

“Yeah.”

Aomine sat up, his long brown legs folding under him in the grass.

Kagami, still on his belly, flipped over and sat across from Aomine. Picking at pieces of grass and twigs, Kagami fiddled as he waited for Aomine to speak. He looked up at the sky - the moon is getting brighter - back at the ground - yep, still lots of grass - and into the forest. He stole quick glances at Aomine’s face but little could be seen there except for a faint crinkling of Aomine’s dark eyebrows.

Wait, Kagami, he told himself. Breathe. Sometimes the best slam dunks need a bit of a longer layup first.

Silence stretched between them for so long that Kagami was startled when Aomine finally spoke.

“I’m bi.”

Kagami sighed. Well, that’s a relief; it’s not one of those “I’m only gay for you” deals. Kagami told himself. But that really isn’t the issue here. Now, what about the parallel lives thing? But, no - wait, Kagami. He’s getting there. Let him say it as it needs to be said.

Aomine continued on,“I’ve known that I’m bi for a while - basically since elementary school. I guess I realized it wasn’t the usual way of things but, to be honest, it didn’t really mean much to me ‘cause I was focused on other stuff. Friends. Basketball. Mostly basketball.” His voice trailed off.

Kagami smiled to himself. That sounded familiar. He played with a piece of grass between his fingers and glanced up at Aomine. “I really like basketball too.”

“Yeah, I know.” Aomine voice sounded oddly nostalgic. “Anyways, in elementary school, all I really cared about was basketball. I played street ball for hours after school. I’d never been on a team though, just street ball. When I was going on to junior high, I thought it’d be great to get on one with a basketball team so I could play even more. So...I went to Teikō Junior High.”

“They have a really good program, right? Kuroko mentioned something about it.” Kagami was curious.

Aomine laughed, softly “They have the best program in the city. Did Kuroko tell you he was on the team?”

“What? No - I didn’t know Kuroko liked basketball! Or that he even went to Teikō! ” Kagami’s head whipped up in shock but Aomine didn’t meet his eyes.

Aomine’s voice was regretful. “He loves it.” He cleared his throat and reached out a hand to fiddle with a shoelace “We both were on the team. Well, Kuroko was really low in the rankings - but I was a regular. Anyways, I ran into him in an empty gym one day and we became friends. We stayed friends...even after we stopped playing basketball.”

“Why did you stop?” Kagami whispered.

Aomine sighed. “About halfway through first-year, some guys found out I was bi. The fuckers spread it across the school and team. Other players started making rude comments during practice...some of the upper years told the coaches that they didn’t feel comfortable with me on the team.”

“Assholes.”

“Yeah,” Aomine agreed. “But, as it turned out, Teikō had enough great players that they didn’t need to keep me on. I got kicked out. Well, they ‘suggested’ I leave for the good of the team but it was basically the same thing. And Kuroko - you know how he is - he got mad at the coaches and said some things. Gave them a speech in front of the whole team. Pretty sure the words ‘cowardly’ and ‘bigots’ were involved.”

“Did they kick him out too?” Kagami could barely imagine Kuroko getting mad. The pale boy was usually quiet and unflappable. But, maybe for a friend - yeah, Kagami could see that happening. Loyal and honest to a fault, he thought.

“Nah, Kuroko quit. Part of that speech. Anyways, he was out of the team, I was out - in more ways that one, if you know what I mean. Kuroko and I stayed friends after that. But anyways, the point of all that was that I was done with basketball and I stayed done with it for a very long time.”

At least when I got rejected, I still had basketball, Kagami thought.“But you started back up again, right? We played together last summer.”

Aomine was quiet. Too quiet. Oh no you don’t, Kagami thought - and poked him.

“Fuck!” Aomine yelled. His eyes, for the first time since he’d started his story, snapped up to Kagami’s. Better, Kagami thought. He just arched one eyebrow at Aomine, though, and motioned for the other to continue.

“Geez,” Aomine whined. “I was getting to it!” A deep sigh escaped into the night air. “Last spring, I started getting these dreams.” he admitted.

“What kind of dreams?”

Silence, then - “Dreams about a...parallel world. A parallel life. My parallel life.”

Kagami was silent.

Aomine’s stuck his face in front of Kagami’s, his dark eyes intent on Kagami’s own. “Yo, did you hear me?”

Kagami nodded. “Yeah, it’s just - Shit. You know.”

“Unbelievable?”

Kagami cocked his head, red hair shifting. “I...I don’t think you’re lying to me. I just don’t know...what...or how to believe. I’ll...I’ll listen, though.”

Aomine grinned wide and then leaned over and, softly but firmly, kissed Kagami on the mouth.

Instantly, Kagami’s ears were as red as his hair and the blush spread to his cheeks as Aomine put his hands on both sides of Kagami’s face and pulled the two closer together - before breaking the kiss with a pop. “In this life, or any other, you are one of the best people I know.” he said hoarsely, still grinning.

Kagami rubbed the back of his hand over his ravished mouth. Man, he kisses well. And, geez, my ears are still burning. Please don’t let him notice. But all he said was, “If you’re kissing me, you’re not explaining your story. Tell me about the dreams. I’m in them, right?”

Aomine rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “Yes, your Majesty. And, yeah, you’re in them.” He thought for a moment, then continued, “The dreams - they feel different than any other dream. More vivid, more present. I’m still me, though - you know, second year at Tōō - but my life is different.”

“That’s why they call them alternate lives.” Kagami muttered.

Aomine ignored him. “In the dreams, I didn’t stop basketball at Teikō - I don’t know if no one found out I was bi or no one cared - but, in them, I still play basketball and I play on Tōō’s team. I’m their ace, Kagami. And Kuroko...he plays basketball too and so do some of the other kids that were in our year at Teikō. We’re all at different schools in Tokyo and we all face each other in basketball.”

He let out a breath and looked over at Kagami. “Still with me?”

Kagami nodded, but said wryly, “Face each other? What is this, Slam Dunk?”

“Yo, shut up.” Aomine’s voice sounded embarrassed. “It’s complicated, okay?”

Kagami grinned. “You said you know the dreams are real. How?”

Aomine’s face twisted into a half-smile. “I didn’t think they were at the beginning. But, I was walking by Kaijō one day last spring and saw some students that I’d never met before in this life who were in my dreams.” He laughed to himself. “I was so freaked out that I ran over to one of them and asked him if we’d ever met ‘because I see you in my dreams’.”

Kagami snorted. “Did he think you were confessing?”

Aomine grinned, nodding. “Yeah, I got my ass kicked.”

Kagami hooted and, at the laughter, Aomine seemed to relax a bit more. He was so worried I was going to call him crazy and leave, Kagami thought. He smiled to himself. “So that’s why you wanted to play basketball again?” he asked.

Aomine looked even more embarrassed and Kagami was shocked to see a faint blush show on his cheeks. “Well, that and...you.”

Kagami’s head jerked back. Right, I’m an idiot. I forgot how this how thing started. “In the dreams, do I like, cheer Kuroko on, or something?”

Aomine shook his head and huffed his breath. “No. You’re on the Seirin team too -”

“What?”

“ -and your fierce love of basketball is what makes me - made me, in both lives, actually, fall in love with it again.”

Kagami turned even more red. “Really?”

Aomine smiled. “Yeah.” The insects in the background filled in the silence.

Kagami gave a loud exhale. “Wow.” More silence. “So, is that the end of your surprises? No more crazy revelations from your alternative world?”

Aomine gave a wicked grin. “Well, in the alternate world you’re also my boyfriend. And we fuck.” “WHAT?”

Aomine rolled his eyes at Kagami’s gaping mouth. “Look at how close we feel; look how fast we got together here! Is the idea that in some alternate world - where we know each other a lot better, by the way - we actually end up falling in love and fucking so hard to believe?!”

Kagami was wordless, his mouth gaping open like a market carp. “Falling in love? Fucking?” He made a noise (that in anyone smaller would have been called a squeak) and fell over backwards onto the grass. Forget my ears, he thought, my whole fucking head is red. Aomine has dreams of us doing ...oh God.

Aomine leaned over from his sitting position to straddle the prone Kagami. “Yeah. Fucking. Falling in love.” he nuzzled the words into Kagami’s ear.

Kagami was covering his face with his hands and rocking side to side on the ground. “Why didn’t you say that at the beginning?” he whimpered. “That’s the most important part.”

Aomine laughed. He was enjoying this, Kagami could tell. “Okay, okay, I’ll do a redo. Another redo, from the beginning. You’re so demanding. Just let me get in a...comfortable position.”

He cleared his throat and, with obvious intention, lowered his body so his front was directly against Kagami’s. His voice slid into Kagami’s ears, smooth and sensual and wild. Wolf. Such a fucking wolf, Kagami thought.

Aomine’s breath was hot on his covered face, in his ear. “Hello,” his dark voice whispered, “Hello, I’m Aomine Daiki. Nice to meet you on this train platform, Kagami Taiga. Yeah, I know your name. Guess what? I have dreams sometimes of an alternate life where you and I are getting it on and where you inspired me to love basketball again - but I dunno if you also have these dreams. Do you?”

Kagami gave a low grunt in response and Aomine covered it with a kiss before continuing “Also, you might have forgotten but one time last summer we played basketball at a court near my house and then I kissed you up against the fence while you moaned. I thought then that you knew about the dreams.” He broke off to stick a tongue in Kagami’s ear. The sudden wetness made Kagami flinch and his body bucked up against Aomine’s.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t know.” Kagami gasped. “I probably just thought you were hot.”

His hands slid off his face and he tried to grab for Aomine but Aomine looped an easy hand around his wrists and held them above his head, pushing them gently into the soft grass. “Not done explaining yet.” Aomine whispered.

“So, there I was, with...sticky dreams every couple nights and the uncomfortable knowledge that you were in Tokyo - but no way to find you again. You never showed up at that court again.” His breathing was a little faster now. “I went to the Seirin basketball practice with Kuroko, you know? But I didn’t tell him why, just that I wanted to see who was on the -ah- team. But you weren’t on the team in this -ah- life.”

Kagami could feel Aomine getting hard against him. If you keep grinding on me, idiot, one of us is going to lose it in more ways than one. Not that Kagami made any movement to stop Aomine’s rocking motion or move his face away from Aomine’s mouth - which had now progressed to soft kisses and quick nips on Kagami’s lips between sentences. “I almost tried out for the team but ended up being part of the go-home-club when I met Kuroko. How’d - how’d you find me?” Kagami asked, breathless.

Aomine pulled back a little bit to laugh quietly. “Kuroko had a picture tucked in his agenda of a bunch of the people in your class on a field trip. That’s it.” He snorted. “Imagine how shocked I was to see the damn redhead I’d been looking for standing in front of the aquarium holding up a peace sign and a stupid grin.”

Kagami stuck out his tongue. “My grin is not stupid.” Aomine had let go of his hands at some point and Kagami lifted them up now to wrap around the dark haired boy and pull him back down. “Is that the end of the story?”

“Mostly. I let some of it slip to Kuroko - not the dreams, but that I’d met you before - and he was worried so he didn’t let me meet you or tell me anywhere you’d be. Well, until he let it slip that you were coming over today.” Aomine gave a wicked grin and started moving against Kagami again. “There’s something to say for an illness to addle someone’s brain. I figured I’d come by and see if you wanted to make out against a fence or a tree or something again.”

“But - ah - I didn’t know you.”

“Yeah. And so I was an asshole.”

Kagami laughed. “You were a complete asshole.”

“I thought you were pretending to forget me!”

“I thought you were playing me!”

Words got faster, sentences shorter. Whoever wasn’t talking was touching the other, small pats, small sucks, squeezes and pinches and - oh God.

“I didn’t play you.”

“I didn’t pretend to forget you.”

Aomine’s breath caught in his throat. “Exposition done? Feelings sorted out?” He was pressing intense kisses to Kagami’s face, pulling off Kagami’s sweater and pushing his hands under Kagami’s shirt to press his palms to the defined muscles beneath.

Kagami moaned, deep and loud. “Fuck feelings, just touch me.”

Aomine grinned and rolled over, pulling Kagami in top of him. Startled, Kagami slapped a hand down on the ground to stabilize himself. “What are you - oh.”

Aomine’s hands, still under Kagami’s shirt, had slid south. He stroked Kagami’s waist and bumped his hipbones before slipping under Kagami’s waistband to cup his ass. “Nice butt, Taiga.” he whispered, half-smirking. Kagami blushed further.

Partly for revenge and partly for pleasure, Kagami braced a second hand on the ground and started his own rocking motion. Hesitant at first, he soon got the hang of it and settled into a slow rhythm of grinding his own crotch into Aomine’s. Grind, grind - pause - grind, grind - pause. It was fascinating to see Aomine fall slowly to pieces below him. The pauses were the worst for the other boy. His strong arms would flex and his hands, still on Kagami’s ass, would grab hold. Trying to pull the other closer, he arched up, trying to force the pressure again. Nonetheless, the two were pretty well matched in strength and Kagami managed to hold himself just a little off the other in the pauses. Watching Aomine lose control is worth the few seconds of separation.

Kagami was gasping, Aomine was moaning and Kagami should have know what was coming - but he was still surprised when Aomine’s hand slid around to the front of Kagami’s waistband and reached inside his boxers. “Can I?” came the throaty whisper. Kagami’s only answer was a quick nod and pushing his front into Aomine’s hand.

Aomine pushed the waistband down and, as his hand wrapped around Kagami’s dick, Kagami was pretty sure the summer sky became filled with fireworks. Oh damn oh damn oh damn.

Sweaty and just a little rough, the sensation was overwhelming. Kagami didn’t know how long they stayed like that, Aomine pumping his arm slowly, muscles shifting under dark skin with Kagami shuddering just slightly as he braced himself above Aomine. Grind, grind, pump, pump. Oh damn oh damn oh damn.

Then it was too much: Kagami’s arms started to buckle and he could feel himself falling down. “Faster, Aomine, faster.” he groaned. Aomine’s only response was a small grunt - but he increased his rate of pumping to the point where Kagami didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or scream. Is it possible to die from a handjob? His arms shaking visibly now, Kagami didn’t know if he wanted to feelings to end or continue on forever. Is it possible to die from feeling too much?

Just as his arms were about to give out, Aomine shot him over the edge. Kagami gabbled out, “Coming, Daiki, coming, coming.” and collapsed on top of Aomine.

As he came back to reality, he was aware that where him and Aomine’s crotches met was sticky and warm. “Ah, I’m sorry.” he murmured.

Aomine rolled his eyes. “What did you think I was trying to do? Make you sing? This was kind of the expected outcome, idiot.” His cheeks blushed slightly and he continued, muttering. “Besides, I came too. This isn’t just you making us sticky here.”

Kagami lifted a forked eyebrow incredulously. “You came? I didn’t even touch you.”

Aomine shifted beneath him. “It was just the situation and - well, you know - and...you called my name.”

Kagami wrapped his arms around Aomine’s head and softly kissed his smooth dark hair. You’re secretly a softy, aren’t you? he thought. Pushing himself off Aomine, Kagami rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky. The moon was bright now.

“So, what now?” Kagami asked. “Back to Kuroko’s?”

Aomine looked down at himself and over at Kagami. Aomine’s shirt was spattered with him and Kagami’s release. He pointed at himself and the mess of fluids. “Like this?”

Kagami laughed, clear and free. After the tension of the day and the overwhelming sensations of the last few minutes, it felt like heaven to just let the air out. “Good point. Kuroko would figure it out in a second.” He reached across the grass to where his red sweatshirt lay. “You’re the worse off, how about you wear this?”

Aomine grabbed the sweater. “Uh, I still don’t know about going back to Kuroko’s. He’s not going to say anything but he’s going to look at us super reproachfully like he does.”

Kagami grinned and thought for a moment. “Well- want to come back to my place? I live alone and we could wash up and...stuff.”

Aomine’s eyes were dancing wickedly. “Yeah, washing up and doing...stuff sounds great.” He pulled Kagami’s sweater over his head and stood up, pulling the redhead to his feet. When Kagami’s face was level with his own, Aomine cupped his hand behind Kagami’s head and pressed a quick kiss to the redhead’s lips.

“I’m so glad I got to meet you in this world, Kagami Taiga. I’m so glad I get to fall in love with you again.” Kagami just nodded, red as his hair. Aomine smiled down at him. “Let’s go.” he whispered and started running down the path towards the train station.

Kagami followed him, softly aughing. Catching up with Aomine momentarily, he pressed the other against a tree and returned the kiss. “Let’s go.” he agreed.

And as he ran next to Aomine on the path, he looked over at the laughing face and the red sweatshirt next to him.

Which one of us is the red-hooded girl? Which one of is the wolf? Who chased who? Who caught who?

Aomine raced past him, sprinting up the path. “Come on, Kagami!” he yelled. “I have no idea what time it is! We don’t want to miss the last train! Kuroko will laugh at us!”

Kagami let out a whoop and ran faster.

I don’t know who’s the wolf and who’s the prey - but it doesn’t matter. We’re both the happy ending.

Epilogue

Early next morning, a business man walking through the woods to the train station for work and saw something just off the pathway in a clearing. To his surprise, it was a woven basket, discarded in the middle of trampled grass.

“Just like that fairy tale.” he laughed to himself. “Oh well, I’ll bring it home tonight. Yuno will like it.”

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