Unrequited Love?

[yellowcopycat]

Kaijou and Seirin had just had their first practice match, which was shaping up to be a tradition of sorts. This time, Kaijou had gone to Seirin. The gym was nice, newer then Kaijou's but maybe not as big. 

 

He was breathing heavily, but smiling broadly. It always felt good to play, even if it was just a practice match and they weren't going all out. After all, he wanted to keep some of his new tricks up his sleeves, just like he was sure Kagami and Kuroko were hiding some of their new tricks too. This year's match had ended in a draw. Better than last year's practice match, which had ended in Kaijou's loss by two points.  

 

Just thinking about Kuroko made Kise look over to the Seirin team, focusing in on the smaller boy. 

 

For awhile now Kise had realized that he had feelings for Kuroko. Kise had looked up to Kuroko for awhile, but it wasn't really until after the Winter Cup that Kise realized he was probably in love with Kuroko. 

 

He took a towel that one of the first years offered him. "Thanks," he said absently. He scrubbed at his face, his thoughts racing. He had been thinking about Kuroko a lot lately, and seeing him only brought those thoughts back to the surface, only pushed aside when the game had begun. Now with the game over he couldn't focus. The warm glow in his chest that came whenever he thought about Kuroko was back with a vengeance.

 

The Kaijou team was gathering their things and getting ready to board the bus. He told the first year that he'd be along in a bit and began to head over to the Seirin team. 

 

"Kurokocchi~" he called out. No time like the present, he thought. He didn't know if Kuroko would return his feelings, but he was hopeful. The time Kuroko had cheered him on while he went up against Haizaki stood out in his mind. 

 

"Kurokocchi! You got a minute?"

Comments

[misdirects]

Most of their summer vacation passes without much fanfare for Kuroko, the majority of it spent studying and every moment where his head wasn't in the books was instead used on street ball. He feels less guilt about roping the others into joining him when they aren't busy preparing for tournaments.

He doesn't expect Kise to really send out an invitation given how busy he is, but it is nice to squeeze in some time before school starts up again. He arrives at the cafe a few minutes before their designated meeting time and notices the blond already seated.

He takes the chance to slip into the seat across from him, fully expecting his misdirection to work at full power due to Kise's lack of exposure to him and idly waits for him to notice.

[yellowcopycat]

It takes a few minutes, but between blinks, suddenly, Kurokocchi's there.

There's a drop in his stomach. The fact it had taken him so long to notice him meant that something had drifted between them.

"Hey, Kurokocchi!" he said, smiling brightly and reaching into his bag. "I've got your souvenirs here!"

[misdirects]

He does feel a little bad about using his misdirection, but the wait coincides directly with their meeting time...

"Hello, Kise-kun. Welcome back."

[yellowcopycat]

Kise hums and pulls out a Spurs' bag. "Here you go!" In it is a Spurs Jersey, number with the number Eleven on it.

And the light blue rooster in it, with a fancily tied ribbon with little rainbow hearts on it. "I might have gone overboard with the gay," he said. "They had gay everything in this shop, Dad and I found."

[misdirects]

At the jersey, Kuroko's eyes sparkle, reaching out for it, heart warming at seeing his number on it. He picks up the rooster in one hand with a small smile. "It's not too bad, I think. It'll be a nice decorative item for my desk."

[yellowcopycat]

"You should have more faith in me," Kise said, putting on a pout. "It's like you thought I'd bring you a dildo."

[misdirects]

He suppresses a snicker behind his hand.

"I was simply noting that it isn't 'overboard', like you said. It's cute, thank you."

[yellowcopycat]

"You're welcome," Kise said, settling back with a soft smile. "Though now I am going to buy a sex toy for your next birthday."

No, he wouldn't, but he felt the need to tease.

[misdirects]

He now fans his hand over the bottom half of his face, hopefully covering his light blush.

"Please, that would be better received by Aomine-kun."

[yellowcopycat]

"Nah," he said after a minute. "Aominecchi'd yell that he wasn't a bottom, and I should have gotten him a fleshlight or something, preferably the see-through kind."

He shook his head, grinning. "Maybe I should do that. But not in front of Aomine-san." Lord knows Aominecchi's mother was a saint.

[misdirects]

"Do spare her the indignity." She has enough to deal with when Aomine's her son.

"How are you settling back in? Have you gotten over the jetlag yet?"

[yellowcopycat]

"Mostly. It's not my first time dealing with it, but it's the biggest jetlag. New York Standard Time is a bigger difference than Hawaii and LA." Where he had done photo shoots before.

"Dad has it worse but keeps weird hours, so it doesn't bother him as much as it could."

[misdirects]

"I read somewhere that even an hour of time difference could take a whole day to get over."

Kuroko looked it up out of curiosity.

"At least it's still summer vacation, otherwise I get the feeling you'd be falling asleep during classes."

[yellowcopycat]

"Hmm, I guess that's true enough," Kise agreed, thinking of the times he dealt with it."

He gave another pout. "Hey, I haven't fallen asleep in class since first year!" He really tried to stay awake starting their second year.

[misdirects]

"I remember." They had been in the same class before Kise ever joined the basketball team. "I always thought it was because you were too busy with your modeling work."

[yellowcopycat]

"Partly that, partly because I didn't care," Kise admitted sheepishly. "But I started caring! Well, caring about the results."

[misdirects]

A small smile at that.

"You did need decent grades to stay on the team. Our group study sessions were rather chaotic."

[yellowcopycat]

Kise remembered those. Murasakibara would either sleep through it or ace it all. Midorima would be smug about everything, and he and Aomine would bicker a lot.

"They were... a bit too chaotic." They only got him from barely passing to slightly better than barely passing. English was the only subject he cared about.

[misdirects]

And the only one he ever did very well in was Japanese literature.

"Yet, somehow, we survived. They are some of my fondest memories of our time in Teikou."

[yellowcopycat]

"Yeah, they were pretty great," Kise agreed with a soft sigh. And then he wasn't sure what else to say.

[misdirects]

It's at that moment when the waitress finally notices there is an extra person sitting at the table with Kise and prompts him for an order with an apologetic manner. Kuroko pays it no mind and naturally chooses a vanilla milkshake, watching her scurry off to tell the kitchen.

Other than patiently waiting for his drink, he also isn't really sure what to say. He's always been the least conversational out of all of them and the last time they saw each other in person... awkward.

[yellowcopycat]

Well... this is awkward.

Might as well go for the kill shot and break the ice—or something like that. "I never fell out of love with you," he said.

[misdirects]

Well, it's a good thing he didn't even have a drink, because Kuroko surely would've choked on it.

"L-love?" He thinks back on some of the conversations they had, where Kise had indeed declared his love, but... "I thought it was platonic..."

[yellowcopycat]

"Kuroko, I confessed to you and asked you to date me," Kise said, voice going deadpan. "You might have convinced yourself it was platonic on my end, but it wasn't on my end.

I don't think it ever was."

[misdirects]

"Ah... I suppose I had taken you at face value. And then you said you liked Akashi-kun, so I assumed..."

He assumed Kise moved on. He was not exactly too bright on the matters of love.