Gerlonso

The warm shower water slid down his skin, washing away the escaped tears as it swirled down the drain. He couldn’t stay here forever. He had to leave the locker room at some point. He told his teammates that he’d be fine alone so they headed out without him after much hesitation. Kise eventually dried himself off and put his clothes on.

What now? He didn’t feel like eating. And he didn’t want to go back home yet either. Maybe a walk would be nice.

The blonde gathered his belongings and headed out of the arena, mind numb and heart flurrying. But as he stepped out, he was greeted by the last person he wanted to see.

“My god, you still take forever to get ready, don’t you?” Aomine said, hands buried in his pockets as he approached Kise as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

“It takes time to look this good, Aominecchi,” Kise said sarcastically, forcing a smile onto his face. The last thing he wanted was for Aomine to know how hurt he was about losing.

Aomine let out a deep chuckle that left Kise on edge. “I’m sure it does. You played well. How’s your leg doing?”

“It’ll be alright. Looks like I still can’t beat you, huh?” Kise sighed, making sure not to look Aomine in the eye.

“If it’s any consolation, you came real close,” Aomine said. He could tell that Kise didn’t want to speak to him right now. As much as Kise was putting up an act, Aomine could see right through him. He didn’t know when he learned to detect it, but he knew when Kise wasn’t okay.

“Not close enough, I suppose,” Kise said, staring at the ground like it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. We’re Aomine’s feet always that much bigger than Kise’s? Huh, he never noticed.

A silence fell between the two as Kise searched his mind for something to say. He so badly wanted to tell Aomine how he felt, but the only thing he could focus on at the moment was not crying in front of him.

“Are you heading home?” Aomine asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I should probably get going,” Kise lied.

“Hey, um, let’s go get something to eat first. You must be starving. It’s on me,” Aomine offered, not wanting to split ways just yet.

“It’s alright, I’m not that hungry, thanks though,” Kise refused.

“Are you sure? I was thinking we could go to that restaurant we used to go to together, back in the Teiko days. What was it called again?”

“Grill En Rose?” Kise said, stomach grumbling upon remembering how good the food was there.

“Yes! That one. And was that a grumble I heard? I knew you were hungry,” Aomine grinned as he put an arm around Kise’s shoulders. “Come on— for old time’s sake.”

The smell of Aomine’s cologne wafted through Kise’s nose, bringing him both comfort and panic. He really shouldn’t be going out with the boy he just lost to. Moreover, he shouldn’t be going out with his crush at a time where his emotions were extremely vulnerable. And yet, “Alright, fine,” he muttered.

“There we go,” Aomine smiled triumphantly as he walked by Kise’s side.

The walk to the restaurant was uncomfortably silent. It didn’t take too much thinking for Aomine to realise why it was like this. It was usually Kise doing all the talking and conversation initiation. But it seemed like the cheery blonde he knew was out of it today. What was he thinking, inviting Kise out right after he beat him in a game? No wonder Kise wasn’t talking. It was his fault. The longer the silence dragged on, the more Aomine came to realise that this was an awful idea. But it was too late now.

They finally arrived at the restaurant and they took their seats across from each other. Once they placed their orders, Aomine looked at Kise expectantly, though he didn’t receive any eye contact in return. In fact, Kise hadn’t looked at him straight all night.

“Looks like neither of us have changed our orders, huh?” Aomine said, trying to get Kise to talk in some way or the other.

“Yeah,” Kise said curtly, fiddling with his fingers as another silence fell between the two. “Hey Aominecchi, why’d you call me here?” Kise asked after a few minutes.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve rarely hung out with me since middle school, so why today? Did you want to rub the loss in my face or something?” Kise asked, tone harsher than his usual bubbly one.

“No it’s nothing like that. I don’t get to see you often, and this is the first time in a while so I figured we might as well go out while we’re here you know?” Aomine explained. Kise went silent for a moment, almost as if he didn’t believe Aomine. “Well, there’s also one more thing.”

Kise’s head finally perked up for the first time that evening. “What is it?”

Aomine hesitated for a moment. Was now really the time to bring it up? “You know what, never mind. I can save it for later.”

“No, say it now. God knows when I’ll get a hold of you again,” Kise insisted.

Aomine let out a sigh. “I don’t really know how to put it into words yet. Can we save it for after dinner?”

“Alright,” Kise responded.

Once the food arrived and they dug in, Kise seemed to cheer up ever so slightly. Perhaps he was hungry after all. The blonde finally began to initiate conversation with Aomine, talking more like how they always would about stupid things that didn’t matter. His warm smile briefly returned for a moment, making Aomine soften up as he gazed at the sight.

“What? What’s wrong?” Kise said, snapping Aomine out of his trance.

“Huh? Nothing, why?” He said instantly, taking a bite out of his food to appear more nonchalant.

“You were just staring at me. Is there something on my face?”

“No no, there isn’t,” Aomine replied.

“You better not be lying,” Kise warned half jokingly as Aomine simply chuckled in response.

Once they were done eating, they left the restaurant in a heated not-so-serious argument.

“I told you that I don’t mind paying!” Kise whined, whacking Aomine’s arm.

“Yeah well, I said that dinner was on me before we got here, didn’t I?” Aomine shot back.

“But still, you could’ve at least let me pay for the drinks.”

“Too bad. Just let me be a gentleman for once, will you?” Aomine said, making Kise burst out into laughter.

“Oh my Aominecchi, the gentleman? I never thought I’d see the day that that would happen,” Kise teased as the two of them began to walk along the pavement.

“Shut up, dumbass,” Aomine snapped. “Hey that park we always used to go to is right around the corner. Wanna walk around there for a bit?”

Kise thought about it for a moment. He was supposed to be mad at Aomine, yet he was actually enjoying himself with him. He was laughing with him as though they didn’t just play a game where he lost. What happened? “Yeah sure,” Kise replied, letting his feelings for Aomine get the best of him. Every moment he spent with Aomine was dangerous, almost as if Kise was a ticking time bomb of emotions waiting to explode. If anything, he’s surprised that he made it this far into the night without either confessing to Aomine or bursting into tears.

The two of them walked along the cobbled path of the park that was illuminated by the dim street lights. A light breeze blew through their hair as they walked past the empty children’s playground.

“Remember when we used to hog the swings after practice?” Aomine reminisced with a smile on his face.

“I can practically hear Midorimacchi yelling at us to get off them,” Kise laughed. It went quiet for a moment as they both seemed to play back memories in their heads. “Hey Aominecchi, what was that thing you wanted to tell me earlier? Back at the restaurant.”

Shit, he was hoping that Kise would forget about that. “Oh, right. Well, this might be a bit weird for me to say, um, how do I put it?” Aomine stuttered as they both stopped in their tracks.

“Any time now,” Kise joked, beginning to grow nervous by how much Aomine seemed to be hesitating.

“So like, I know that we’re friends and stuff, and we’ve known each other for a while— no wait, let me rephrase that, it sounds cheesy,” Aomine paused to mutter to himself again.

“My God, why are you so scared, just spit it out,” Kise laughed.

Aomine’s eyes met Kise’s and for a moment, time seemed to freeze around them. All Aomine could think about was how gorgeous Kise looked, even under this dim park lighting. His amber eyes seemed to sparkle and Aomine’s lips ached to press themselves against Kise’s.

“Eh, fuck it,” Aomine mumbled before succumbing to his desires and pushing his lips onto Kise’s.

Aomine’s arms snaked around Kise’s waist, sensing how shocked the blonde was by the way his body seized up.

What on earth was going on? Was this just one of Kise’s dreams? Aomine Daiki was kissing him.

His mind went into a frenzy, trying to figure out what was going on, and yet his body seemed to be perfectly fine. The initial shock wore off and Kise was now melting into Aomine’s touch, locking his arms behind Aomine’s neck to pull him even closer.

It was real. And it was better than either of them had ever imagined. Their lips melded into each other’s as though they had finally found their missing piece. And perhaps it was the chocolate milkshake Aomine had ordered, but his lips were surprisingly sweet— Kise couldn’t get enough of it. Kise had his fair share of kisses before, but none of them lit a spark in him like this one. His heart was racing so fast that he was certain that it would zoom out of his chest at any moment. The musky scent of Aomine’s cologne filled his lungs as all his previous worries faded away like it was nothing.

The moment passed and Aomine broke away from the kiss with a exasperated smile on his face.

“Woah,” was all that Kise’s shaky voice could muster as he took a small step back.

Aomine’s fingers ran through Kise’s hair, “You’re a damn good kisser— who would’ve thought?” he said as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Upon hearing that, Kise immediately whacked Aomine’s arm away from him, even though he did enjoy having his hair played with. “What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I’m a good kisser— don’t be surprised,” Kise snapped.

“Okay okay, geez. I was messing with you,” Aomine chuckled, messing up Kise’s hair.

“Tch,” Kise tutted in annoyance as he tried to fix it. “So, what now?”

“Well now, you’re my boyfriend,” Aomine grinned cheekily.

“Hold on, I don’t remember agreeing to that,” Kise said, unable to fight back the dorky smile that was spreading across his face.

“So is that a no?” Aomine questioned, knowing full well that Kise was not going to say no— it was written all over his face.