Aomine has school phobia. He needs to change high school otherwise he will never graduate and keep skipping classes until he gets expelled and nobody ever wants to work with him ever.
There’s a nice high school that is perfect for him, exactly for students like him, who can give private lessons and adjust on his level, etc. The first problem is: it’s in the north west of Japan and far away from all his friends.
Especially Momoi, who decided to join Aomine in Touou even though she could’ve picked any better high school, just to stay with him and take care of him.
The second problem is that their basketball team is so unpopular that it doesn’t even make it to tournaments and even if Aomine joined, he probably would be the only one to play seriously.
He had a long and difficult conversation with Momoi that ended up in her crying in his arms and saying she just wants what’s best for him and she’ll come visit him every time she can. He also cried in the end, realising how grateful he was to have a friend like her.
For the basketball part, he looked around and noticed another high school not so far away had a really good team, and with his status of a top player he could maybe enter the team.
And that’s how, on their second year, on a random Sunday, Aomine left far away from his friends, hugging them tightly.
The first few months were the worst, Aomine kept thinking he made the wrong decision. He couldn’t sleep at night, felt like the school wasn’t for him, didn’t feel like himself on the team, ghosted his friends for weeks, didn’t manage to make friends in class.
After some time, he received a thousand of texts from his friends, the reason: he didn’t participate in his team’s first game.
He replied to only one person, Kuroko, saying he didn’t feel like playing basketball in a team anymore. It wasn’t for him, he couldn’t bring himself to play with his teammates and pretend everything was alright when he was so far ahead and felt so disappointed every time he stepped on a court.
What he really needed was to play in the street, meeting new opponents from all ages and all type of skills on random courts, even if it was windy, rainy, sunny…
After knowing the reason, his friends were still pretty much worried about him. Maybe he was overreacting, maybe he needed help, maybe he was bullied. But after getting some news from him saying he finally felt some progress in class and that he made a bunch of friends that were part of different sport’s teams, they calmed down.
Kise was the one who kept more in touch with him. He was calling at least each week to tell Aomine about the recent games, his friends, random facts about his daily life. Momoi was texting him a lot too but it wasn’t the same as being with her all the time so sometimes he was ignoring her just to avoid the nostalgia. Overall, he was texting everyone, keeping them updated about how he was and how he felt, which made him feel happy.
Summer, holidays, inter cup.
Aomine comes back for the first time in Tokyo, to see his friends and see who will win this time.
It feels weird at first to know he won’t fight against any of them for the cup, but the feeling is washed as soon as his friends come to greet him.
Kise literally runs to his arms screaming “Aominecchiiiiiiiii” and Aomine has never felt so happy to see him and hug him back. They all hug him, saying how glad they are to see him again and how they missed him.
They all agree to a game together, like the good old days, and with Kagami this time.
Everyone notices how Aomine is more calm, smiling also. He’s still throwing insults and teasing his favourite rivals, but in the end, he’s better than he was before.
He spends the holidays at Momoi’s like the good old times, and everything is perfect again.
