Warnings: AoKise. Written for AoKise day. I feel like this makes absolutely no sense at all but hey it's whatever

Akashi's new secretary is hot, Aomine concludes upon first landing his eyes on the guy. Kise is his name, he recalls, and then proceeds to appreciate the fact that it sounds really good. Kise Ryouta, what a gorgeous name for a gorgeous guy. Because Kise really is gorgeous. Blond hair, tall, lean, yet muscular – just the perfect package if you ask Aomine.

(Which no one does but he's quite happy to share his opinion anyway.)

And he'll even get to see Kise every day from now on, considering they work at the same place! This must be heaven.

Being all smitten from the first sight, Aomine wastes no time in chatting up the new guy when the opportunity arises. So, during lunch, he corners Kise in the break room, offering him a seductive smirk. "So, Akashi's personal secretary, huh? That's gotta pay well."

Kise gives him a long, thorough stare, before cocking his head to the side. "It does, not that it's any of your business."

Well that didn't go as planned. Aomine frowns, trying to think of something to say. "Aomine Daiki," his brain finally supplies. Maybe skipping the introduction was what made Kise so wary of him?

"Kise Ryouta. Nice to meet you." The smile he gets in reply is as stunning as it is fake, and Aomine's frown deepens. When Akashi introduced Kise to them, he got the image of the blond being very talkative and bubbly, but now… Kise seems arrogant to the point of being rude.

How fitting, Akashi getting himself a secretary with a split personality, Aomine thinks wryly.

For the next few days, Aomine doesn't try to approach Kise, instead watching him from afar, studying his behaviour and trying to read him. Kise smiles and laughs a lot, starts conversations first – all in all he appears to be exactly like Aomine's first impression of him was. And everyone else seems to have no problems talking to Kise either, at least from what Aomine can see, so he decides to try again.

Maybe Kise was just nervous because it was his first day? Or maybe he was in a bad mood? Anything's possible (or maybe it's just wishful thinking because Aomine doesn't want to consider the possibility that he made a bad first impression on Kise and consequently destroyed any chance of ever getting together with him).

Be as it may, he really wants to talk to Kise again, so he does. A week after Kise's started at the job, Aomine catches him during lunch and steps closer with a confident smirk that he hopes masks his nervousness.

"So have you gotten used to the job yet?" Aomine drags out the 'o' on so, making his tone playful and even somewhat teasing. Please let it work…

Kise glances at him with a raised eyebrow. "I'm a fast learner," is all he says before turning away again. Aomine's jaw goes slack from disbelief. The nerve of this guy, just casually ignoring him like that…! Well, he's not gonna stand for it. He still hasn't given it his all so Kise'd better be prepared to be swept off his feet. Which he will, as soon as Aomine figures out the way to Kise's heart.

"Well that's good, Akashi must be happy to have such a competent secretary." Aomine rushes through the sentence and curses in his head. Why is it suddenly so hard to talk? And why is Kise looking at him with such exasperation in his eyes?

Kise lets out a long sigh, and even though he then opens his mouth to talk, it doesn't make Aomine the least bit happy – it's clear in his expression that Kise's not going to say anything nice. "Look, Aomine-san-"

"Good day, Aomine-kun, Kise-kun."

They both jump at the greeting.

"Fuck Tetsu, you shouldn't sneak up in people like that!"

"I've been here for a while now but you didn't seem to notice so I decided to greet you," Kuroko replies evenly, his gaze flicking to Kise briefly before returning to Aomine. There's something in his expression that Aomine thinks he should read, like a secret message or something, but Kise interrupts his train of thought.

"Kurokocchi! Want to eat together?" Kurokocchi? What the fuck's that about? And what's with the overly excited smile and sparkle in Kise's eyes all of a sudden? And why does it make Aomine's stomach churn so uncomfortably?

Kuroko turns to Kise, his face as expression as blank and ever and yet it feels like he's still trying to tell Aomine something without words. "I thought you were eating with Aomine-kun."

"He is," Aomine quickly says. Kise's nose wrinkles a little and his expression turns displeased. "But Tetsu can join us."

That brings the smile back on Kise's face, although not as bright as it was before that. "Well, let's go out to eat then," he says, turning his back on the other two and walking out of the room. Aomine stares after him (wow we're having lunch together), and then frowns when he remembers he's going to have to share Kise with Kuroko now.

"Your jealousy is unsightly, Aomine-kun," Kuroko remarks in monotone, as if reading his thoughts.

Aomine, to his own horror, blushes. "Shut up Tetsu!"

(But really, he can't help but wonder why Kise seems so displeased whenever Aomine talks to him, yet seemed to be quite elated at the mere sight of Kuroko.)

It's not just Kuroko. Aomine soon comes to the realisation that Kise treats everyone nicely – except for Aomine himself, of course, and that confuses him endlessly. What has he ever done to Kise? Nothing, he's pretty sure of that, which makes it all the more incomprehensible.

Okay, so he's tried to flirt with the guy pretty blatantly a few times, maybe Kise's annoyed because he's not into guys or at least not Aomine? Or maybe he doesn't like being hit on at work? But even so, couldn't he just tell Aomine to back off instead of treating him badly?

(Because Aomine would; he's not that big of an asshole, although he is willing to admit that the overly confident way he first approached Kise with might've given that impression.)

"Oh, Aomine-san." Kise flashes another one of his fake smiles at Aomine as he takes a seat and digs into his lunch. Kise always eats very little and since he started eating earlier, he's almost done already. Aomine grunts a reply, focusing on his food so he wouldn't get caught up in staring at Kise like he usually does.

Say it. Ask him. You'll feel better afterwards, even if he rejects you.

"What's your problem with me?"

Surprised, Kise looks at Aomine again.

"You're all smiles and whatnot with everyone else, but whenever you talk to me it's like… you hate me or something. And I don't think I've ever done anything to make you that mad at me." It's quite humiliating to actually admit to being bothered about Kise's attitude towards him. What does he care anyway? Kise spends most of his time with Akashi, being his secretary and all, and Aomine only sees him during breaks. So by default, he really shouldn't care.

But he does.

Dammit, he feels a twinge of jealousy every time he sees Kise being all smiles with someone. Why is it only him that gets the cold treatment?

"You know, I think you're letting your personal feelings interfere too much. I mean, it doesn't really matter whether we get along or not since we don't even need to be close to each other when working." Kise's tone stays polite but he doesn't smile at all, not even in the fake way he usually does around Aomine.

"Well yeah, but it's still kinda bothering me. I mean if I've done something to offend you then you can tell me."

"We've only talked a few times, why do you think you've done something to me?"

"Your attitude," Aomine counters, inspecting Kise's expression keenly. The blond frowns a little, clearly annoyed, and avoids Aomine's gaze.

Something hits Aomine across the head just then. He yelps, whipping around, only to find Momoi standing there with a rolled newspaper in her hand.

"Gee Dai-chan, are you scaring people again?"

"Momocchi! I haven't seen you for a while!"

There it is again, the blindingly bright smile accompanied with a nickname, just as long as it's someone other than Aomine. Momoi smiles back even as she glances at Aomine questioningly. He shrugs. At this point he doesn't even feel annoyed, just tired of Kise's inexplicable coldness.

He's given up on hoping to be treated the same as everyone else; at this point he just wishes he could get an explanation for it.

Kise exchanges pleasantries with Momoi before getting up, gathering his things and leaving. Momoi takes the seat previously occupied by Kise and turns to Aomine.

"How's the courting going?" she asks with a knowing twinkle in her eye. Aomine nearly chokes on his rice. Of course he's mentioned his stupid crush to Momoi, she's one of his best friends after all, but her comment is still uncalled for.

"Really fucking well, he always finishes his lunch way before me and runs away as soon as he's done so he doesn't have to talk to me," he says snappily, prodding the rice with the chopsticks. Momoi's smile vanishes instantly.

"Eh? But… I mean, Ki-chan talks to you sometimes, right?"

Ki-chan? So Kise isn't the only one with cutesy nicknames, huh. "When? I only see him at work."

Momoi looks like someone just struck her on the head with a hammer. "I see," she says after a moment, finally digging into her own lunch (not home-made, Aomine notes, because the food actually looks like it's edible).

Neither of them mentions Kise for the rest of the lunch break.

It's been two months since Kise started working at the office but, despite his best efforts, Aomine isn't any closer to understanding him. Literally everyone else gets showered with Kise's affections, to the point of annoyance even (at least on Midorima and Kuroko's part), and Aomine is left with the forced smiles and annoyed frowns whenever he tries to approach the blond.

He invites Momoi over for dinner one night; she's just started dating some guy she met and he wants to congratulate her. Or so he tells her but he's almost certain Momoi knows he just wants to vent about Kise.

"I wouldn't give a shit about him and his shitty attitude if he wasn't so damn good-looking," Aomine groans.

Momoi looks at him pensively but there's a mischievous glint in her eye. "Really? I could've sworn you told me you were crushing on him."

Aomine swats at her head, annoyed. "Shut up," he mutters. Momoi yelps, slapping Aomine's arm in retaliation before melting into a smile.

"It's gonna be okay, Dai-chan." She has a Look, one of having information Aomine doesn't, and it bugs him.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well, if nothing else works, you're gonna move on eventually. Trust me," she says, smiling mysteriously. Aomine raises a suspicious brow but doesn't bother asking her to elaborate – somehow he gets the impression that she's hoping he'll get there by himself and he's not too sure he can. Not yet, at least.

"The sooner that happens the better," he finally settles on saying. Momoi studies his face with an unreadable expression for a moment before nodding and moving on to talk about her new boyfriend.

Still, the feeling of not being told something important doesn't leave Aomine for the rest of the evening.

The next day at work, he starts thinking about it and realises that Momoi's right. He will move on; he's had crushes before and it always feels the same, like it's never going to end until one day it does. So things will be fine, the rational part of him recognises that, and really the rest of him should too.

However, the moment he sees Kise walk into the break room, all of his resolve crumbles just like that. Kise's so beautiful, so graceful, and so – so out of his reach.

Eventually Kise notices Aomine's staring and turns to him with a frown. "What?"

They're the only people in the room, Aomine realises, and apparently that is good enough of a reason for him to act like a creep. "You're really handsome, you know."

Wow, if Kise didn't already hate him before, he for sure does now. The displeased tightness in his lips is quite telling. "I've already kind of figured out you feel that way," is the snappy reply.

Aomine flinches at the harshness of the tone. Then again he probably deserved that; he should just leave Kise alone already, ignore the attraction he feels towards the guy and move on. Yeah. He can do that.

"I'm sorry," he says, quiet, resigned. Kise studies his face for a moment before sighing.

"You're not the first person to say that to me so you don't need to apologise. Just… stop staring at me every time we're in the same room, and it'll be fine." There's a smile accompanying the words but it's mechanical, completely insincere, like something Kise has to do a lot and that's the only reason it comes to him so easily.

Aomine doesn't like it at all. "So you think I could just ignore your presence like that?"

"Fake it till you make it, isn't that what they say," Kise replies nonchalantly, avoiding Aomine's gaze by inspecting his nails with a bored expression.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just think about it. If it's just physical attraction, it'll fade with time, right? What else could it be when you don't even really know me? And by the time you start realising I'm not that handsome or whatever either, you won't even pay attention to me being in the same room. Until then you can just deliberately ignore me."

Aomine makes a protesting sound, trying to interrupt to tell Kise that none of what he's saying right now is true but he doesn't get a chance; Kise keeps talking.

"Most of the people who have been interested in me have given up the moment they realise I'm not at all how they thought I was. Because they'd built an image of me in their minds with no regards to how I really was and the difference between their idea of me and the real me was so big they couldn't take it." Kise rambles on, losing more of his composure with every word. Aomine still finds him attractive though, maybe even more so than ever because this is a side of Kise he's never seen before.

And wow, how the fuck did he ever think he could give up without even trying?

"I want to have dinner with you."

Kise steps back with a startled look, getting all quiet as if he'd just been slapped in the face. "You… what?"

"I want to take you out for dinner, you know, a date or whatever. Isn't that what people do when they like someone?"

"You mean you really want me for more than just my body?" The amount of incredulity in Kise's voice throws Aomine off. Just what kind of dicks has this guy dated before?

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Well yes, I mean, have you seen me? I've seen the way you look at me many times, and not just on you. A lot of people just want me because I look good and for some reason they think I'm fine with that." Kise sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I'm a romantic at heart though and I'd really like to have a real love story, you know? But I guess it won't ever happen."

The defeated tone in Kise's words makes something inside Aomine's brain snap and he momentarily loses the filter on his mouth. That's why the next thing he blurts out is, "It will. I'll make it happen."

After a heartbeat of silence accompanied with confused staring, Kise outright laughs at Aomine's face. "Confident, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am. And I can even show you it's not just talk if you give me a chance," Aomine replies seriously. Kise's eyes go wide.

"But… you don't even know me that well."

"I've had lunch with you every day for the past three months , even if there's always at least one other person with us, and I've listened to you talk about yourself. I do know you, at least if all the things you've said are true." Aomine feels a sudden urge to caress Kise's cheek with his fingers so he shoves his hands into his pockets to stop them from moving. Touching Kise without his permission right now would probably just get him punched as well as destroy the slim chance of actually getting Kise to agree to a dinner date.

"And yeah, at first it was just physical attraction but I would've given up a long time ago if it was just that."

The usually composed mask of Kise's face is full of cracks as he searches for words. "But… Momocchi said you tend to be drawn to people with pretty faces so I thought…"

So that's what they were, all those meaningful looks on Momoi's face. She's been talking to Kise all this time, getting his side of the story, and just waiting for Aomine and Kise to get their shit together. "…thought I saw you just as a pretty face? Fuck no, if that was how it was, I would've stopped trying to have lunch with you long ago. I mean, I'm not stupid enough to keep running after someone for just a pretty face."

"…" Kise opens his mouth, his lips twitching up a little at the corners, and holy shit is he going to say yes –

"I really wish you would handle your personal matters outside work hours, Aomine, Kise." Aomine jumps about a meter into the air at the sound of his boss' voice; Kise goes even paler than usual and the hint of a smile is gone.

"S-sorry, Akashicchi," he mumbles, trying to regain his composure. Akashi walks around Aomine to get to the coffee machine, apparently not the least bit perturbed by the budding work place romance at his office.

(Or at least what Aomine hopes is a budding romance.)

Akashi finishes pouring himself a cup and turns around to face his employees. "Good luck," is all he says before exiting as quietly as he entered. Aomine and Kise spend a stunned moment in silence.

"So-"

"Tomorrow after work. I'll wait at the parking lot."

Before Aomine's gathered enough of his mind to make sense of Kise's words, Kise has already snuck out of the room; Aomine can hear his shoes clicking against the floor as he hurries after Akashi. He's running away from Aomine once again but somehow Aomine can't quite bring himself to care.

How could he when Kise finally agreed to a date?

A/N: what do Aomine, Kise & co do for a living? Who knows (I sure don't)

Also, Momoi's boyfriend is Imayoshi. It has no relevance to the story whatsoever but ImaMomo is nice and I wish more people shipped it so yeah ;~; (also maybe I'll someday feel like writing a spin-off featuring ImaMomo…)

I'm gonna post this on ao3 as well but that'll have to wait till Saturday; I've forgotten my password and I can't recover it before Saturday bc I'm not supposed to use my email today or on Friday bc of a school assignment (actually the assignment is to not use the internet or my phone at all for 48 hours (except in emergencies) but it's AoKise day so I'm gonna make an exception to post this fic lol)

(feedback is very welcome ;w;)