hey @fucklovingmeme what a coincidence. I edited my queue bc this was scheduled for later bc. wow. i was your secret santa. how about that.
anyway,, we seem to have so many hcs in common, so i loved writing this. i hope the rest of your year is good !
-
The “good feeling” he had about this play was about to pay off in the sweetest way.
He could read these first years like a book.
Dropping the hand with three raised fingers, Kouki eyed the attempting point guard in front of him, slightly leaning off to the left, in turn making the kid balance on his right. He glanced up to see Kagami blocking off the last one and veered right, slipping past the first year and, with the rest of them all guarded by their seniors, went right for an easy layup.
He dropped back to the court, the frustrated groans of the newbies making him smile slightly. Kawahara came and knocked his shoulder, sporting his own proud grin, and the second years on the sidelines let out a few catcalls at the hopeless expressions now on the faces of their newest recruits.
A sharp whistle sounded the end of the play. Another two after ended practice itself.
Kouki looked over to see the whistle drop back onto Riko’s chest, one hand on her hip and the other clutching her clipboard. “Fine, fine,” she called. “Clearly I won’t see anything today, since some people-” she pointedly looked at Kouki and Kuroko, who had wandered up next to him, “-like to show off. We’re done for the day. Go change.”
Kuroko curls a palm around Kouki’s shoulder, his own small smile embedded on his lips. “Great play there, captain,” he muttered before wandering over to where Riko was still muttering, the second years around her beginning to disperse.
“Seriously, how to you lose one-oh-seven to forty-nine? Forty-nine! And we went almost an hour over today, which cuts into my time and ugh I do not get paid enough for this-”
“Sorry about that, coach,” Kouki called out, coming to a stop a couple feet away. Riko looked up at him and pierced him with her third true glare of the day. It’d been a long day.
“You are too much, Furi,” she told him, quite bluntly. “What the hell was that last move? I didn’t teach you that. It was perfect, too. What the hell.”
“Slide,” Kuroko told her, joining them. “It’s something new we’ve been working on.”
Riko drops her clipboard to the ground with a clang and doesn’t hesitate to squeeze Kuroko’s head between both her hands, bringing a pained expression to his face and muttered stutterings of pain. “You. Why do I even bother? It’s a weekend and my midterms are coming up, and here I am apparently useless because you coach yourselves.” She sighed then, letting her arms drop. “Not that I don’t love it. Just. We just let these first years join. I have to see what they’re capable of, y’know? You gotta give them a chance.”
“We let them have half,” Kouki muttered, then froze. A mistake.
She jabbed her pointer finger against his chest, making him flinch back. “I don’t wanna hear it!”
“At least they all seem to be normal,” a new voice called. “You don’t have to deal with any idiots this term.”
Kuroko immediately cracked up into an open palm, muffling his laughter. Kouki’s face screwed up as he watched Riko’s eyes meet Kagami’s as he wandered over.
“No. There are idiots.” She shrugged. “I’m talking to one of them.”
Kagami threw his hands up, trying to speak and failing. Harsh. Still, Kouki collapsed into giggles himself, which earned him a glare from the redhead. Well. He kinda fell into that one.
“Um, Coach Aida?”
She tipped her head, angling towards, well well, one of the first years who had wandered up. “Yes?”
“I was just wondering, well, is it true Seirin doesn’t aim for Interhigh like Fukuda was saying?”
“Hmmm.” She pursed her lips, thinking. “Yes, I suppose it is. We still try, but uh, until next season, there isn’t much of a point. They have too much of a trump over us.”
“Unless Daiki gets injured,” Kuroko muttered. Still, it’s loud enough to be an interjection, and the first year squeals and moves a few steps back, almost falling to the floor.
Immediately, Riko turns on him. “Kuroko! What have I said about scaring people?”
He raised his hands. “In my defense, some things never change.”
Kagami rolled his eyes in the background. “More like some things never improve with time.”
“Whatever.” She turned back to the kid. “In short, we fucked up a couple years ago, so our overall chances of victory over them, and entry into the interhigh competition, is very, very slim. Doesn’t mean we don’t try with all our might, but if anyone tells you not to get your hopes up, they’re doing you a favor. I think Shuutoku’s supposed to have the highest chance this year, actually.”
The first year nodded, stunned.
“Language, Riko,” Kouki hissed, eyeing her warily.
“We can’t afford to have our coach fired,” Kuroko said, voice monotone, like he honestly didn’t care. He did, but. Still.
She spun around then, slamming a foot down onto her clipboard still on the ground, and oh, yep, there’s the fourth glare of the very long weekend practice day. Right there. There it was.
“Hurry up and change,” she seethed. “I want to leave. Badly. Desperately. Please.”
That did the trick. The remaining members made their way to the locker room, leaving her to inspect the damage to the wooden clipboard.
-
Kouki didn’t understand how it could be only October in Tokyo and yet be cold. But there he was, on the doorstep of his house, jangling his key in the lock and watching his breath appear from his mouth like fog.
When he finally gets the stupid thing to go in, he breathes out a big sigh of relief, pushing the door open and eternally grateful for the warm air he’s met with. “I’m hom-Uh . .”
He pauses in the entryway, long enough for Akashi to look up from his phone, swinging his head back behind him and meeting the other’s eyes.
He closes the door, suddenly suspicious, and kicks off his shoes. In turn, Akashi picks himself up off the couch and pockets his phone.
“Hi,” he says, a little sheepish.
Kouki stands there for another moment, calculating just how much later he got off of practice that he was supposed to, and then sighs in defeat, figuring he owed his boyfriend for waiting than getting on to him for making an impromptu trip. He wandered over into warm arms, humming in a soft greeting. “Hey. What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d pay you a visit.” He returned the hug, enjoying the moment while it lasted.
“How long have you been waiting?”
“A while.”
That was a different voice.
They broke apart and Kouki saw his mother in the archway to the kitchen, leaning against the wall. “Seriously Kouki, what took so long?”
“Um.” He blinked. “First year testing. Sort of.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But it’s too late for Akashi to take a train home now, he’ll have to stay the night.”
“Uh,” Akashi began beside him, brows furrowing. Kouki already knew where this was going. One, he didn’t want to impose. Two, the trains were clearly still running, and would be for some time. He still hadn’t quite embraced the niceties of social engagements, such as this, his mother being concerned with him leaving while it was dark. So, like any good person, he took care of it.
“That’s okay. Thanks, mom,” he interrupted, giving his boyfriend a pointed look. That shut him up, and also made his mother wander back into the kitchen with a nod of her head. She called that dinner was almost ready, and Kouki led the other up to his room. He didn’t shower at school, so he at least needed to change beforehand.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Akashi muttered, trudging behind him, letting his hand be held out in front of him.
“There are some things she just won’t let you get away with,” he retorted. “I just made your impending loss of an argument come sooner, saving us all time.”
Akashi winced. “Harsh.”
Kouki ushered him inside and closed the door with his foot, letting out another -how many times was that this evening?- sigh as he stripped his shirt and edged over to his closet to grab a clean one. “Sei, what’s the point of this visit?”
“There uh, well . .” Akashi slumped his shoulders. “There isn’t. Not really.”
“Hmm.” Well, he couldn’t help that. He said as much aloud. “Okay, it’s good. Nothing we can do now. You’re kinda stuck here.” At the silence, Kouki turned to peer at him. “Not that I’m not happy. I missed you.”
Akashi’s bottom lip pursed. “Yeah. I missed you too. That’s why I’m here.”
“Aww.” He wandered closer, looping his arms around Sei’s neck. “You’re such a sap. Hey- is that my sweater?”
The soft smile on Akashi’s face froze. “Um. Yes. That’s why I came -to return it.”
“Liar.” Kouki sniffed. “It’s okay, you’ll probably leave with another.”
“Well, if I have permission-”
“You don’t-”
“Okay okay,” he laughed. “Sorry.”
He scrunched his nose. “It even looks better on you than it does me. How is that fair?”
A blush decorates Akashi’s cheeks. He’s suddenly aware Kouki’s arms are still around him. “T-Thank you.”
“Oh? That’s unusual.” Kouki smiles. “For you to stutter.”
“Well-” Akashi’s protests die as he gets kissed on the nose, softly. He feels an impending breath leave, and his eyes widen, slightly.
It comes back as a voice yells at them from down the stairs.
Kouki’s lids lower in exasperation, and he separates from Akashi. “Oh well. Come on.”
As they depart for the kitchen, he couldn’t help but send a silent, mental word of thanks to Riko for letting them have the day off tomorrow.
Merry (belated) Christmas @naniething !!! Sorry for the slight delay!
When I first got your assignment, I was so happy and excited to see kiridai! They’re my favorite team too, so I made sure to put a lot of love into this piece! It’s not very Christmassy, but I always liked to imagine them playing games together. I’d love to share kiridai headcanons with you sometime! Hope you have a wonderful rest of the year!
Happy holidays, @kurokonomochi! I was your KnB Secret Santa! The AoKa Christmas light showdown was such an awesome idea, I had to write it! I hope you like it!
Also on AO3!
**********
They were living the dream, Taiga thought. He and Aomine had graduated high school a few months ago. Neither of them had the greatest grades, but they were enough to pass. And now they were going to UCLA in America on basketball scholarships. It was what they had always wanted to do, be able to play basketball.
The two lived in one of the dormitories, luckily managing to get single rooms next door to each other. They could have gotten one dorm room for both of them and no one would have bat an eye at them, as America was far more accepting of gay or bisexual couples than Japan, but they had each wanted their own space for the time being, and so they’d gotten separate rooms.
Being in America was a completely different experience from Japan. Taiga had lived there before and was used to the differences between the two countries, but it was a whole new experience for Aomine. “Just about everyone calls me Daiki, not Aomine!” he had told Taiga in surprise after their first day of classes. “And they barely even know me!”
“Yeah, that was something it took me a while to get used to when I first came here,” Taiga had admitted. “They use given names in this country, not family names.”
But now, a few months into their first semester, they were both used to being called Taiga and Daiki, not Kagami and Aomine. Some of Taiga’s classmates had even started calling him Tiger, which still made Aomine laugh. They had even started speaking a little bit of English amongst themselves, not just when they were talking to Americans, though they preferred using Japanese.
On a quiet November day, the couple walked into a large superstore. “What are we doing here, Kagami?” Aomine asked. “Getting groceries?”
“Well, it’s almost Christmas, so we have to buy some decorations,” Taiga answered, leading the blue-haired boy to the Christmas section. “I forgot the pack the ones I had in my old apartment.”
It was a little overwhelming, looking at the massive variety of Christmas things. There were countless rolls of wrapping paper and nametags and everything else needed for decorating presents, lots of ornaments in every color of the rainbow and of pretty much anything imaginable, and plenty of shining lights. There were huge inflatable things that were meant to be set out on the lawn and tons of boxes of holiday cards. It almost made Taiga’s head spin.
Aomine was going wide-eyed with shock. “Christmas sure is a lot different here than in Japan,” he managed.
That was an understatement. “Yeah,” Taiga agreed. “Here it’s all about family and togetherness and lots of presents and food.”
“I bet that was always your favorite part of the holiday,” Aomine teased, poking Taiga in the stomach.
Taiga glared. “I’m still basketball fit no matter how much I eat!” he snapped at the other boy, who couldn‘t stop laughing.
“And I’ll never figure out how, Bakagami,” Aomine smirked, using the nickname he‘d used to call Taiga back in high school. “I’ll never forget the day you ate forty burgers at Maji’s!”
“Never gained a pound after it, either, Aho!” Taiga said proudly, using his old nickname for Aomine as well. “And you’ve eaten at least a couple dozen burgers after playing, too! Or have you forgotten?”
He put the conversation with Aomine out of his mind for a moment and looked over at the rows filled with different lengths and colors of lights. He picked out a medium length string of multicolored lights. “I’m going to put this around my dorm door, I think,” he mused.
Aomine smiled again, but it was a soft, gentle smile that he only ever gave to Taiga. “You’re so cute, Taiga, with how much you like Christmas,” he teased, kissing Taiga on the cheek.
Taiga immediately turned a shade of red nearly as dark as his hair. “Aho!” he whined. “That’s embarrassing!” Turning away to hide his red face from Aomine, he asked. “Do you want anything for your door, too?”
“Nah, I’m good,” Aomine said dismissively. “I don’t need that stuff.”
Taiga shrugged. “Suit yourself. Come on, Daiki. Let me go pay for this.”
**********
The other residents of their dorm liked the lights he hung around his doorway. They oohed and aahed for a couple of days, and then the popularity of his door faded. Some of the other residents hung lights or decorations as well, and they were simple like Taiga’s.
The following day after class, Taiga returned to his dorm room. He was surprised to see people gathered around Aomine‘s door. Taiga went over to where everybody was and had to blink several times to make sure he was actually seeing the sight in front of him. His boyfriend’s door was covered in several strands of multicolored lights, which were all blinking. He tried not to show it to the other students, but Taiga was seeing red
After everyone else had dispersed and no one else was around, Taiga went over to Aomine’s door and banged on it. “Aomine!” he yelled.
Suddenly, the door opened, revealing Aomine’s smirking face. “Yes?” he asked. His voice oozed innocence, but his eyes sparkled with mischievousness.
“What is all this?” Taiga exploded.
“I changed my mind. I decided to decorate after all,” Aomine said. “Don’t you like it? I think it might even be better than your non-blinking lights.”
Taiga glared. “You weren’t even interested until you saw everyone looking at my door. You were jealous!” he declared, pointing at Aomine.
“And now you’re the jealous one,” Aomine pointed out with a smirk. “Catch you later, Taiga.” And with that, he closed his door.
Taiga fumed as he unlocked his own door and went into his room. “He thinks his lights are so great? I’ll show him!” He collected the money his father had recently sent to him and headed for the store once again.
**********
The next day, those living in their dorm were gathering once again at Taiga’s door. Now he didn’t just have the plain multicolor lights on his doorway. There were also blinking lights on his door. He didn’t put up as much as Aomine’s, but Taiga’s lights didn’t just blink. They also played a variety of Christmas songs. The watchers laughed and sang along with the tunes.
But the best part of the day was seeing Aomine glaring at him before slamming the door to his room closed.
*********
The talk of the dorm nowadays was the all-out decoration war between Taiga and Aomine. Now it wasn’t just their doors involved. There were also decorations in their windows and in the dorm rooms themselves.
It reminded Taiga of the days when he and Aomine were rivals playing the same position at their different schools. He had missed those days where he had thought of nothing but playing basketball against this one amazing boy. Sure, they had always played one-on-one against each other, and then they had played for the same team, first Vorpal Swords and then at UCLA, but it wasn’t the same as a great rivalry that came from being on separate teams. There was a certain pleasure that came from beating Aomine, however temporarily, at something.
The two were sitting on the couch in Taiga’s room, watching a movie. Taiga snuck a glance at Aomine, who was glaring at the silver tinsel laying around the television. “Something wrong?” Taiga asked.
“These decorations are so ridiculous!” Aomine blurted out. “Why do people here like them so much? I’d never put this stuff up normally!”
“So why did you?” asked Taiga, raising an eyebrow.
“Because you did, and everyone liked your decorations!” the blue-haired boy yelled, pouting. Taiga thought he looked adorable like that.
“Daiki,” Taiga said, taking his boyfriend’s hand. “You don’t have to be jealous of my decorations, especially if they‘re not really your thing.. I have to say, though, it was really fun being able to compete with you again.” He nudged Aomine’s side and grinned.
He was thrilled when Aomine shot a small smile back at him. “Yeah, that was pretty awesome.”
“But I’d rather sit here with you and watch movies and play one-on-one and do ordinary things. I don’t care if you’re not crazy about Christmas. I can decorate enough for both of us.”
“And cook enough, too,” Aomine‘s smile widened. “I bet you could make a Christmas feast for both of us.”
Taiga nodded. He’d cooked all through high school as he lived alone and learned to make really amazing food. If he hadn’t wanted to be a basketball player, he would definitely want to go to culinary school and become a chef.
“So don’t worry about it anymore, okay?” Taiga kissed Aomine, and soon Christmas decorations were the furthest thing from either of their minds.
**********
The next day, Aomine’s decorations were gone, and Taiga went back to just having his simple lights hanging around the doorway and some garlands around his window and room. They both liked it so much better that way.
“We can still compete in one-on-one, right?” Aomine asked as they worked on their homework side by side.
Taiga snorted. “Of course. And basketball season’s starting soon, so we‘ll be playing a lot.”
They smiled at each other. Yes, everything is going to be so much better, Taiga thought.
to: @fueledbyfangirling note: i hope you had a great holiday season! sorry this fanfic sucked huge booty i’m caught up by something in my personal life and that led to a writer’s block. i’m in a slump at the moment and i’m sorry your gift had to suffer. @knbss2k17
