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Aomine rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, stretching lazily as he ambled towards school. He was only ten minutes late today- which was somewhat of a miracle for the navy-haired teen. He tossed a basketball from hand to hand as he wondered what he’d be made to do in practise today, and yawned again at the thought. Because sure, he was actually going to practise nowadays, ever since Tetsu and that Bakagami had somehow managed to beat him, but it still wasn’t exactly fun. The guys on his team were alright, but they couldn’t exactly be considered exciting to hang out with.
He yawned, wondering how long it’d take before he could one-on-one with Bakagami again and test out the redhead’s skills, see if they had developed any more, if they could provide any more of a challenge.
He felt tension rise a notch at the thought and had to dampen it down as he yawned again, feeling the heat of the sun radiate down on the back of his neck and wondering how long it’d be until it was too hot for street ball. But today would be a pretty good day to nap on the roof… maybe he’d just skip the rest of first period and go up there instead. It wasn’t like he was any good at maths anyway, and the teacher hated his guts, so there wasn’t really any point…
“I’m sorry!” Aomine was broken out of his thoughts by a familiar voice coming from down the alley next to school. “I don’t have anything! I’m sorry!”
The ace frowned and looked around the corner, where Sakurai was backed up against a wall, apologising profusely as usual, but this time with two larger guys cornering him against the brick, and they didn’t look very friendly.
Aomine frowned; the wimpy shooter really wasn’t very good at being dominant or assertive, or even at simply standing up for himself, and instead tried to avoid conflict with a ridiculous number of apologies, which pissed people off more than anything. Including Aomine. Admittedly, Aomine had grown to tolerate the apologetic mushroom a little more since they’d played in official games together. While his normal self, Sakurai was more annoying than anything, but when he got fired up playing against a worthy opponent, he was actually quite impressive to behold. And Aomine could appreciate that, as much as he’d never admit it aloud.
“Don’t fucking give us that!” one of them laughed, shoving Sakurai back into the wall. “You’ve gotta have something.”
“I…” Sakurai shook his head, but did nothing when the other one pulled his bag off his shoulder and opened it roughly, not caring when his books fell out, spilling across the ground in a mess of white paper even as Sakurai looked like he was about to burst into tears. His basketball gym bag was the next to be ripped away from him, gym clothes scattered on top of the sheets, and Aomine wondered if he should move now. He could still move on, this was effort after all. And the bullies would move on as soon as they’d had their fill. But… something stayed his feet.
“Ah, he’s got a bento!” the second boy laughed, pulling out the box that Aomine usually stole from his smaller team member, and Sakurai didn’t even try to protest about it anymore since it had become such a common occurrence.
At that, Aomine was not impressed. What would he do for lunch without Sakurai feeding him?
“You lied to us,” the main dude tsked and took a step closer to Sakurai. Before Aomine could move a single muscle, Sakurai cried out and slumped down the wall as the other male had punched his face unexpectedly.
Aomine dropped his bag just inside the alley and stopped the hand of the second bloke that was just about to open the bento box.
“Excuse me,” he drawled, “but that’s my lunch.”
“Who the fuck are you?” the stranger snapped, pulling back and turning to face Aomine.
“Aomine-san!” Sakurai sounded surprised, and Aomine glanced at him. He didn’t look too bad for the moment, the punch had clearly just avoided his eye, but it was still likely he’d have an impressive bruise just from the sheer force of it. He gave a quick head jerk towards Sakurai in acknowledgement, but focused back on the bullies, who’d both turned to him and were giving him unimpressed looks, despite the fact that he was taller and more built than the both of them.
“What the fuck do you want?” main guy drawled, staring up at him with an unimpressed look, narrowed eyes and sneer pulling at his lips. “Run along.”
Aomine pulled himself up to his full height, staring down at the two of them. “You’re messing with my food,” he murmured lowly. “That guy doesn’t make bentos for me to steal for them to be stolen by you asshats.”
“The fuck?” main guy sniggered. “He your girlfriend or something?”
Aomine rolled his eyes. “Sure, he’s my fucking girlfriend. So fuck the fuck off and don’t mess with my food again, got it?”
“I don’t think so,” second guy butted in. “That bento there looked real good. I think we’ll be taking your ‘girlfriend’ and having him make us our bento from now on.”
“Yeah,” number one jumped on board as they both took a step close to Aomine. “Two on two is fair. You guys win, we leave. We win, we get mushroom here to make our food for us until graduation. Or else.”
“A-aomine-san?” Sakurai’s voice trembled a little and Aomine sighed, glancing back at the shooter.
“Fine,” Aomine sighed, grabbing the bento box and shoving it backwards into Sakurai’s hands. “But he’s a wimp so it’ll be two-on-one. That’s fairer, anyway,” he smirked, cracking his neck and taking a step forward.
The other two glanced at each other, clearly a little surprised and unsure at Aomine’s easy acceptance of their challenge. But with a small nod, they seemed to regain their courage and charged towards him. Aomine tsked as he used their own momentum against them and sent them sprawling to the ground.
“Do we have to go on?” Aomine yawned, “I’ve got class to go to.”
The two stared up at him, their confidence clearly knocked.
“H-homos!” one shouted, getting up and backing away. “Fags.”
Aomine watched as the other followed his friend at a run around the corner and disappeared from sight. Sighing once more, he turned towards Sakurai who was hesitantly gathering all of his stuff from the floor, head down.
“You alright?” he asked gruffly, crouching down to pick up a couple of pens by his feet.
“I-I’m sorry,” Sakurai murmured, stuffing the sheets into his bag hurriedly. “Thank you, Aomine-kun. I’m sorry.”
Touo’s ace shrugged, frowning as Sakurai’s hurried movements didn’t calm down. If anything, the shooter seemed to be more flustered now than he had been after taking the hit to his face.
“What’s up?” Aomine asked bluntly. “You’re being weirder than usual.”
Sakurai’s head snapped up, doe brown eyes watery, horrifying Aomine. The fuck was he supposed to do?
“I’m sorry,” his teammate hung his head again. “I just… I am gay,” he admitted quietly.
“Huh?” Aomine blinked, Sakurai’s words taking a moment to sink in.
“And I… I’m sorry but I like you,” Sakurai continued, picking up the last of his sheets with trembling fingers. “So… I’m sorry, but when you said that I was your girlfriend, I’m sorry but I was kind of happy,” he confessed, cheeks on fire. He couldn’t quite look at Aomine’s face, focusing on the pens in fingers loose from shock. “I’m really sorry. I’m so worthless,” Sakurai continued, unable to deal with the silence as Aomine failed to reply. “I’ll go now. I’m sorry.”
And before Aomine could react, Sakurai’s pens had been pulled out of his hand and the apologetic mushroom was running around the corner towards school, out of sight.
“Shit,” Aomine sighed, still crouching in the same position. This was not exactly how he’d planned for his day to go.
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Sakurai avoided Aomine for the next two days. Imayoshi, despite being an evil bastard most of the time, had seen the bruise flowering on Sakurai’s face and let him off practise for the last two days of the week, so he’d also have the weekend to recover.
Aomine spent more time on the roof than usual, trying to ignore Sakurai’s words and failing.
I like you.
Fuck. Aomine groaned as he slung an arm over his eyes and wished he could figure out what to do, what the fuck he felt about this. He’d always been too obsessed with boobs and his love, Horikata Mai, to think about people, especially guys, like Sakurai.
With a sigh, his stomach growled, reminding him he’d not finished the bread he’d bought from the canteen, since it wasn’t nearly as good as Sakurai’s bentos.
“Dai-chan!” Momoi’s reproachful voice reached him as she climbed over the edge of the roof. “Practise started ten minutes ago, you know!”
Aomine groaned. “Satsuki,” he pulled his arm away from his eyes a little, squinting up at long pink hair and a disapproving face.
She crouched next to him with a sigh. “Sakurai will be back on Monday, you know. No need to sulk so much.”
“I’m not sulking!” Aomine snapped back, but sighed when all he got was a raised eyebrow. “Yo, Satsuki. What’d you do if someone told you they liked you?”
“Depends on the person,” she replied simply. “If it were Tetsu-kun, I’d have eternal happiness,” she added with a grin.
Aomine rolled his eyes.
“Sakurai finally told you, then?” she asked softly.
Aomine glanced at her, but decided he didn’t need to know how she already knew.
“Yeah,” he sighed.
“And you don’t know how you feel about it?” Sakurai continued. Aomine nodded. She sighed. “You’re so emotionally stunted Dai-chan, I swear. What do you like about Sakurai-kun?”
“His bento,” Aomine replied instantly.
Satsuki rolled her eyes. “Really, Dai-chan? If that’s all then you should tell him that you can’t return his feelings. You shouldn’t date someone just for their food.”
Aomine sighed. “Fine,” he groaned. “His… I don’t know. The way he’s so meek, but secretly you know if he needs to he’ll stand up for himself. He’s decent on the court when he’s fired up. Even if he’s always fucking apologising he never complains, gets on with it. He’s got spine, underneath all that…” Aomine waved his hands, trying to find the words for what he meant and failing.
Meanwhile, Momoi’s expression had softened as she stared at her best friend. “Oh, Dai-chan. There’s something of a human in there after all!”
“Oi!” Aomine half sat up, offended.
Momoi laughed. “Joking, I’m joking. But honestly, Dai-chan. You should tell him. You’d make him very happy, you know.”
“I’ll fuck up,” Aomine replied simply.
Satsuki nodded. “Everyone knows that. But Sakurai-kun wouldn’t like you if he thought he couldn’t handle you. You’ll have to try, but if you stop and think once in a while you could make this work, you know.”
Aomine sighed. “Maybe,” he accepted, and Satsuki’s grin widened. Her basically-a-brother was finally growing up.
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Aomine spent the weekend wondering how he could get Sakurai alone and tell him that he liked him too. Which made him feel stupid, the idea that he had to fucking confess back.
But Monday came around without any ideas, and Aomine trudged into school feeling like shit. What the hell was he supposed to do?
“Sorry, go-good morning, Aomine-kun,” Sakurai said quietly as he stepped into class and flopped in his seat.
“Ah,” Aomine felt his cheeks heat and cursed himself. “’Mornin’. How’s the face?”
“I’m sorry! Ah, it’s much better, thank you,” Sakurai replied, gesturing to the side of his face where the bruise was fading into an awkward yellow.
“Good,” Aomine nodded abruptly. “Ah, listen. I need to talk to you. Later. Not here,” he glanced around at his classmates, though no-one was paying attention.
Sakurai visibly tensed.
“Meet me on the roof at lunch?” Aomine asked, glancing up at doe brown eyes that quickly averted from his.
“Sorry. O-okay,” Sakurai agreed quietly. “Lunch.”
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Aomine skipped third period, feeling awkwardly nervous for this stupid confession and hating himself for being so awkward about it all.
Ten minutes passed after the lunch bell and Aomine wondered if Sakurai was even going to come. It was taking the usually punctual boy a long time to get up here.
But just as Aomine was debating whether or not to go and find him, Sakurai’s head poked over the rungs of the ladder and he carefully climbed over the side of the roof.
“Ah…” Aomine couldn’t think of anything to say and cursed himself over again in his head. The fuck was he doing?
“I’m sorry! It’s okay, Aomine-kun!” Sakurai started a minute of awkward silence later. “I know I must have weirded you out before, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make things awkward or anything. I’ll just keep it to myself, I’m sorry, you don’t have to worry about me doing anything to you or anything. I’m really sorry I messed things up like this. I’m so sorry.”
Sakurai looked like he was about to cry again and Aomine couldn’t deal with that face. Stepping forward, he did the only thing he could to avoid seeing the pain on Sakurai’s face and provide comfort, bringing his arms around the smaller boy and pressing his face awkwardly against his chest.
“I’m not weirded out,” Aomine denied. “Well, maybe I was a little at first,” he admitted, “I didn’t know you felt like that way, or anything. Nor did I really think about… that sort of stuff. But…”
Sakurai tensed in his arms and Aomine sighed. “Well, it looks like I like you too,” he confessed gruffly. “I don’t know how the whole guy-on-guy thing works. But, I like you as a person. If you’re willing to put up with my shit some more then… fuck… basically, will you go out with me?” Aomine sighed, before he got any sappier and said more stuff that he’d probably regret.
Sakurai slowly pulled back, doe eyes peeking into navy. “I’m sorry but… You’re not joking?” he asked in a timid voice.
“No,” Aomine replied. “Satsuki helped bash some sense into me, as usual.”
Sakurai’s lips quirked up into a small smile, more relieved than anything, but disbelief was still rocketing around his core. Aomine had confessed back to him, had asked him out. What on earth?
“So… that’s a yes?” Aomine asked.
Sakurai nodded, a little dazed still, and Aomine felt himself break out into a grin.
“I’ll probably fuck up,” he warned Sakurai, leaning down an inch or two, keeping navy eyes connected to brown, blinking at him hesitantly, as if barely able to believe that he was here, in Aomine’s arms, and allowed to meet his eyes. “You’re gonna have to be patient, and teach me shit.”
Sakurai nodded. “If you want me to, I will,” he accepted quietly, relieving Aomine a little.
“And you’re gonna have to make me a bento every day,” Aomine added with a bigger grin.
Sakurai laughed, but his arms twined around Aomine’s neck carefully, barely any pressure, as if he was afraid to push anything, but left it so their faces were now less than an inch apart. “Sorry. That was already a given, wasn’t it?” he asked, a little cheekily for the shooter.
“Then I want a better bento,” Aomine replied stubbornly, but before Sakurai could reply again, pressed his lips hesitantly to his teammate’s, relieved when Sakurai kissed him back.
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Momoi watched secretly from the rungs of the ladder as Aomine and Sakurai embraced and a relieved smile spread to her lips. She’d do everything she could to help Aomine not fuck up this relationship, since he was an idiot after all. But Sakurai wasn’t a weakling, and she smiled as she thought of all of the revelations Aomine would have soon enough. This was going to be fun to watch.