Chapter 1

Aomine Daiki did not cry. Of course not, his anatomy didn't allow for such wussy ridiculousness; the only liquids that ever streamed down his cheeks were sweat, shower water, and - on the odd, rare occasion - blood. Never tears. The ducts at the corners of his eyes were too damn tough and hardened to produce them, he figured.

If, however, Aomine's chest did feel unnaturally tight; throat too thick to swallow, eyes burning and itching even when he tried to blink the sting away, he wouldn't make a big show about it. He sure as hell wouldn't break down and punch the locker in front of him hard enough to dent it and produce an echoing, deafening bang, biting back a screaming sob of frustration and anger and loss….definitely not that last. No, he certainly wouldn't crumple to the locker room floor, breathing painful and erratic, and hang his head with a deep sigh of despair, covering his eyes with his hands.

When some of his teammates came rushing in at the loud slamming noise and found him on his knees in such a position, it was just because he'd dropped his phone and was crouching down to retrieve it, that was all. They, unfortunately, seemed to have other ideas.

"Pressure finally getting to you, Aomine?" Wakamatsu asked coolly, and Aomine could just picture his smug face looming from the other side of the locker room, along with Imayoshi, Sakurai, and - fuck - Satsuki.

"Shut up," he spat viciously, rising to his feet, arms snapping to cross over his chest as he glared haughtily back at the bastard.

"Hey, not my fault if you're going to be little bitch about -"

"I said shut the hell up!" Aomine snarled, baring his teeth and feeling a twitch of guilt as Satsuki shrank away from the belligerence not intended for her.

"Are you alright, Aomine-kun?" she broke in, voice wobbling, and Aomine had to fight a cringe, hearing her call him that. She insisted on it, despite how often he scowled and protested that the formal, impersonal title sounded gross coming from her. He knew the real reason he detested it. Her compassionate, gentle voice invoking it sounded too damn much like Tetsu, and dammit, that was dangerous, unstable ground for his thoughts to tread right now. Especially after…

"I'm fine," he grit out, forcing a careless, arrogant sneer, "We won, didn't we? Even doubled their score, thanks to me. I'm fucking super."

"You don't look it," Satsuki murmured, wringing her hands, "Was it because we saw Tetsu-kun agai -"

"No." Aomine cut her off, throwing his jacket on almost violently and turning to walk away, "Just forget about it. Worry about your own damn self."

"Aomine," Imayoshi's sleek voice broke in, and there was a note of steel in it. Reluctantly, Aomine halted, but didn't turn back around.

"What." he said shortly.

"If whatever this is inhibits your game-play, I will personally make sure your ass is glued to the bench; understand?"

Grinding his teeth, Aomine slung his bag over his shoulder with a jerking motion and threw a reply over his shoulder, "I understand, Captain." Laying a delicate stress on the word, he pushed past the locker room door and stormed out, footsteps so harsh they echoed in the wide, empty hallways, and probably should have left molten singe marks on the tiles behind him. It took him a moment to realize he didn't know where he was going in the huge, unfamiliar building, and he stopped at the edge of a stairwell, still seething though he didn't even know why anymore.

"Dammit Tetsu," he cursed under his breath, hands clenching into fists at his sides.

Oh, he had expected the outcome of today's game, of course he had...the only one who could beat him was his own damn self, after all, and there was no way in hell a mediocre team like Seirin was going to change that fact...regardless of Tetsu's presence on said mediocre team. But some part of him had hoped, nonsensically, that Tetsu had beaten all odds and found an answer; found the player more amazing than Aomine that he'd promised existed out there somewhere. Some part of him that he'd kicked down and suffocated almost to death for months since leaving Teiko behind had hoped he would somehow lose, when he and his former "shadow" had finally reunited on the court, wearing different jerseys and different expressions but carrying that same old intertwined history between them.

Whatever. This was not the time or the place for remembered sob stories - not that Aomine was the sobbing type - in fact, he should have been celebrating his victory, like the rest of his team. But that victory felt hollow...even more so than what had become normal for him. Every time he tried to feel jubilant that he'd qualified for the Inter-High and freaking doubled the score of his most recent opponent, he remembered the despairing, haunted look in Tetsu's too-blue eyes as he lay on the polished wood floor….remembered the cutting words falling from his own lips as he looked down on him; "Your basketball will never win."

Yeah, he could be a real dick sometimes. At least he could admit it to himself, but underneath those words of scorn that he'd seen had cut Tetsu deep, there had been a wealth of frustration and disappointment welling up inside him. Disappointment. That was one emotion he'd never wanted to direct at the person he'd believed in and supported with everything in him since the day they had met. He'd cheered Tetsu on, all but waved fucking pompoms when he finally reached his goal and became a starter on Teiko's team...but he'd actually wanted to get in his face and scream at him by the time today's game had ended.

This is what you give me to work with?! You latch onto a shiny new "light" and promise a challenge, and then fall over yourselves like a bunch of fucking bowling pins when I'm not even trying? You've got to be joking!

Of course, he didn't say any of that, but that dismay and fettered anger had been a large part of why he'd blown up in the locker room; why, even if he would never admit it as long as he lived, he'd had to dash honest-to-God tears from his eyes before Satsuki and the others could see them. It was cruel, though...for Tetsu to get his hopes up like that and then fail to deliver. Kagami had seemed promising, he admitted, even if he'd crashed and burned pathetically when Aomine first tested him on the street court. He'd been moving stiffly and painfully then; perhaps he'd been injured, and Aomine had tentatively hoped for more from Mr. Dim Light when they faced each other for real. What a letdown that turned out to be; just another weak opponent he could crush to dust while barely lifting a hand.

And Tetsu….Tetsu infuriated him all the more. Refusing to give up even when his defeat was inevitable, plain as fucking day; mocking Aomine openly - though of course the bastard didn't intend to. What was he supposed to do? Pull punches so his failure wouldn't be as total and devastating? Reassure him that he'd tried his best and that was all that mattered? He knew the reason Tetsu tried so hard was because he knew Aomine couldn't stand people who gave up too easily, but trying and trying while failing helplessly and completely wasn't any better, goddammit! He'd talked big and put up a relentless fight, but in the end he'd been blown right over like a house of cards. Why bother and take up Aomine's valuable time in the first place? He'd finally reunited with the person who had once inspired him to play harder, practice longer, give everything he had...and he'd been bored. Bored and frustrated fit to explode because underneath it all, he'd expected more...so much more from his little "shadow" that now stood beside a different light.

An unwelcome, half-buried memory reared its head, and he tried to shove it down, actually pressed the heels of his hands to his temples where he stood beside that stairwell, but the dusty, sentimental snippet of the past wouldn't be stopped from trickling back into his mind.

"Tetsu, have you ever kissed anyone before?"

They were lounging amiably side by side, on a park bench, watching the playground fall into red and orange shadow as crying children were ushered home by the stern hands of departing parents. Aomine's elbows rested on the basketball in his lap, his Teiko bag rested against his calf where he'd set it on the ground, and his gaze rested expectantly on his friend beside him.

"No, I haven't," Tetsu replied mildly, sounding unfazed by the impromptu question, but Aomine could see in his round, wintry eyes that he was surprised, "Have you, Aomine-kun?"

"Nah," Aomine grinned, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "But I'd like to try it sometime, wouldn't you?"

"Maybe," Tetsu said, shifting so that one of his knees brushed against Aomine's, subtly scooting closer to him.

"Who would you kiss, if you could?" Aomine asked curiously, returning his hand to his lap, placing it lightly on their adjacent knees.

"That depends," Tetsu turned his head away to gaze back at the playground, his pale hair and equally pale skin illuminated with rosy highlights under the setting sun.

"Yeah, I'm not sure either," Aomine admitted carelessly, "But I really do want to know what it's like."

Tetsu turned back to him, something uncertain in his otherwise inscrutable eyes, and he moved a few centimeters closer, "Then…" he said slowly, "I would like to kiss Aomine-kun."

Aomine blinked, taken aback, "Hah? What do you mean?"

"Aomine-kun…" Tetsu murmured, leaning up slightly to try to compensate for their difference in height, "May I kiss you?"

Fidgeting, Aomine commanded himself not to shy away from that penetrating, sincere gaze, "Um, ah, I dunno, I…" he stammered.

"Please," Tetsu added softly, and Aomine's resolve broke; he was undone by the genuine compassion and curiosity in his friend's familiar eyes.

"Uh...okay, sure," he shrugged, banishing the beginnings of inhibitions threatening to surface. What could go wrong, really? If it was too awkward, or felt too weird, it wasn't like they ever had to do it again, right? It was just an...experiment, between friends. Yeah.

Seeming hesitant, Tetsu rose up on his knees, bracing a hand against the back of the bench, and his face loomed over Aomine's, searching him with crystal clear, inquisitive blue portals. Tetsu bit his own lower lip indecisively, so close that Aomine could count his silvery eyelashes, and feel his warm breath puffing lightly against his chin. But he didn't act, holding himself back and appearing to wrestle with himself.

"Well?" Aomine managed, not a little anxiously...this would be his first time kissing another guy - kissing anyone - after all, and he was both excited and a little apprehensive about that.

Slowly, Tetsu closed the remaining few centimeters separating them, and tenderly touched their lips together. It was a frightened little peck, those smooth, cool lips barely even making contact with his own, but something like an electric shock jolted through Aomine, and his hand lifted to cautiously sift through Tetsu's silky hair, inviting him with a gentle pressure to the back of his head to press harder, fit their lips together more fully. Tetsu did, a soft breath released from his nose as it slid against Aomine's, eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks, and after a few minutes of tentative contact, he withdrew, a tiny thread of spit connecting them briefly before it broke with the kiss itself.

Tetsu's cheeks were a little pink, but whether it was embarrassment or something else, Aomine couldn't be sure, "How….how was that?" he asked quietly, his voice that was always rather soft even more subdued.

Tracing his lips with his tongue, savoring Tetsu's lingering flavor on them, Aomine gave him a crooked half-smile, "Hey, it was my first kiss, I'm not sure. Maybe if I had something to compare it to…?"

Tetsu looked at him in confusion, but then it seemed to click and a tiny smile tilted his lips - lips Aomine now knew on a personal level - upward as well, "Alright, if Aomine-kun wishes it…" He leaned close and pressed their mouths together again, this time with more assurance, wrapping his slender arms around Aomine's neck.

If Aomine had known then that that first real kiss would lead to only a few dozen more before he would be bereft of those clear blue eyes and soft, sweet lips forever, he would have taken more time to savor each one while he had the chance.

Mind returning to the present, Aomine registered that he was leaning his folded arms against the metal banister of the staircase, staring into space absently, and someone was yelling at him.

"Aomine-kun! Aomine-kun, are you even listening to me?"

Jerking, startled more than he cared to admit, Aomine whipped around to see the familiar and definitely ticked off form of Satsuki standing right behind him, hands on her hips, pouting angrily at him.

"Not really," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and averting his gaze.

"I was asking what you're doing over here all by yourself. Everyone else has already left."

"And you came looking for me," Aomine said bluntly. It wasn't a question.

Satsuki sighed, "I'm worried about you, Aomine-kun; you haven't been yourself today."

Aomine just grunted a sound that could have meant anything, stepping away from the stairwell and Satsuki and trudging in the opposite direction.

"It's about Tetsu-kun, isn't it?" Satsuki prodded insistently, jogging to catch up and falling into step beside him, "You haven't seen him since middle school, and now…"

Aomine sighed, covering his eyes with a hand, "Yeah. Yeah, okay? It's Tetsu." He took a deep breath and walked out the doors of the building with her, glancing up at the sunset painting the huge gymnasium - the adults' playground - with red and orange, "...It's always been about him."

TBC

((Because I owe the world an AoKuro (probably AoKagaKuro) angst fic... I found a picture with this title, and it kinda stuck with these two in my head. I know I really shouldn't be starting -more- fanfics when I've got so many I haven't updated in forever, but when inspiration calls… We'll just see where this goes, alright?

Feedback is much appreciated, as always, it means more than you know.

-Shinsun))