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Aomine missed the first two periods because he couldn’t bring himself to leave the bed and go out into this cold, uninviting weather. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t noticed by Ryou, who kept staring at a piece of paper with a particularly constipated expression. Daiki shrugged it off, assuming they must have gotten their test back during one of the classes, and promptly went back to sleep.
Satsuki disillusioned him when she ambushed him during lunch, forcefully pulling him away from Ryou’s bento to hand him a piece of paper without a word of explanation. For a moment, he just stared at Ryou’s name scribbled with Satsu’s impeccable handwriting, before shifting his confused gaze back to her.
“You missed the morning practice again,” she said, crossing her arms. “That was the only name left in the jar. You’re Sakurai-kun’s Secret Santa, unfortunately for him.”
Aomine blinked dumbly. “His secret what?”
Satsuki sighed and reluctantly explained the idea. By the gist of it, out of all her stupid ideas, that was decidedly the stupidest one and Daiki was inconsolable. Didn’t Satsuki know that he was the absolute worst at the whole present thing? He never knew what to buy – the process required at least the bare minimum of insight that Aomine substantially lacked.
“What the hell am I supposed to get him?! A better personality?!”
Satsuki narrowed her eyes dangerously, poking his chest with every word. “Don’t. Screw. This. Up. You have a month.”
Daiki whimpered. This was definitely the worst thing that has happened to him since meeting Kagami Taiga. From the lack of better immediate ideas, he decided to simply give Ryou cash, but Satsuki said no. When he wanted to make Ryou tell him what he wanted, she also said no. Then she left him, just like that.
He spent the rest of the day moping and sending death glares at the unsuspecting Ryou, as if it was all his fault. At some point, he figured he could always buy the guy a basketball or something, but he had the feeling Satauki would say no to that, too. There was no other way around it than to admit it – he was being forced to think.
Expecting it to be exhausting, he postponed it until he was safely in bed. He scrunched his brows in concentration and raked his mind for any clue as to what would be the least inappropriate gift for Ryou. His first conclusion came surprisingly fast – Aomine simply didn’t know the guy at all; he had no idea what his interests were or what he liked, nothing.
He was so screwed.
❄
Not that he would ever admit it out loud to anyone but he was actually losing sleep over the issue – he slept so badly he even came to school on time. He wasn’t feeling guilty or anything, but it was kind of annoying to realize that Ryou was hovering over him almost as much as Satsuki and the only thing Daiki knew about him was that his bento were delicious.
He kept avoiding Ryou, which wasn’t really rocket science before lunch break. But as soon as Aomine lied down in his usual spot on the rooftop and closed his eyes in order to catch up on the sleep he’s lost last night, he heard the door creaking as they opened and closed. He didn’t have to look to see who it was, but he decided to humor Ryou.
“Oh, A-Aomine-san! What a coincidence! I didn’t know you’d be here, I’m sorry!”
Daiki rolled his eyes as he sat up – Ryou’s acting was even more horrendous than his own, especially considering the fact that everyone knew Satsuki has made him Aomine’s official babysitter and it was simply Ryou’s job to follow him around. Not to mention that he was holding two lunchboxes. Daiki sighed in defeat, making Ryou yelp.
“I’m so sorry! I know you don’t want me here! I’m sorry! I’ll go! I’ll leave the bento and go! I’m so sorry!”
Aomine sighed again. Really, there was a distinctive difference between his “whatever” sigh and his “I’m gonna rip your head off” sigh, why couldn’t people see that? Now, he had to actually say it.
“You can stay,” he muttered.
Ryou looked confused, as if he hadn’t heard right, so Daiki scowled, absolutely refusing to repeat himself. When Ryou remained glued to his spot, Aomine clicked his tongue in irritation and reached out his hand for the bento. That finally made Ryou move, and when he was close enough for Daiki to take the lunchbox, he ordered Ryou to sit down.
It was awkward as hell, obviously, but it had to be done – how else was Aomine supposed to know what stupid present Ryou even wanted? He still wanted nothing more than to offer him cash, but he had the feeling Satsuki would find out about it, even if he sworn Ryou to secrecy. Whether he wanted or not, he had to get to know Ryou, and fast.
“We’re gonna eat lunch together every day and you’re gonna talk about yourself,” he decided.
Ryou was too shocked to say anything.
❄
It literally never stopped being awkward for a second. Getting Ryou to talk was harder than consciously trying to enter the zone, and that was for someone with far better social skills that Daiki. It wasn’t that Ryou was suspicious, he just honestly didn’t think he was interesting enough and didn’t want to bore Aomine.
“You sell yourself too short,” claimed Daiki, chewing.
Ryou apologized, of course, but didn’t open up. It was really starting to piss him off because, from what he’s noticed, Ryou didn’t seem to clam up around other people – he’s seen him get excited during conversations with Satsuki, so he clearly have no problem talking to her. When he asked about her secret, she looked at him as if he grew a second head.
“There is no secret, Aomine-kun. It just comes up naturally. We make small talk, I ask him questions and he answers them. Sometimes he even offers information just because I accidentally mention something that interest him. Maybe he’s afraid of you. Have you tried being less, hm, crude with him? Not everyone has my resistance to your dubious charms…”
Daiki scratched his cheek lazily. “Wait, wait. You said you ask him questions?”
The outraged noise Satsuki made couldn’t have possibly been human, and Aomine was so surprised that he didn’t notice her fist aiming straight for his head. He cursed, rubbing the sore spot, but before he could demand an explanation, Satsuki had already stormed off.
Whatever, he got what he needed. So the secret were questions, he realized triumphantly. He had no idea what kind of questions to ask, seeing as he had never been interested in another person and didn’t know the protocol, but he could rely on his instinct – it’s taken him so far, right?
During the next lunch break, Daiki was confident he was going to pull it off, but he was soon disenchanted, as he couldn’t come up with a single question to ask and Ryou just sat there awkwardly, silently munching on his lunch and avoiding eye-contact altogether.
As Aomine did exactly the same, he suddenly experienced what could only be called an epiphany. He suddenly realized that he’s never bothered to ask about Ryou’s bento, despite eating them nearly every day he spent at school. He almost choked, trying to swallow faster and get it out in the open.
“Why do you make your own bento anyway?”
Ryou startled and looked up, blinking slowly, and Daiki was worried for a second he’s managed to mess it up somehow, but Ryou’s face unexpectedly lit up. He started explaining animatedly, forgetting about his food that Aomine snatched stealthily as he listened. Ryou apologized for getting carried away when he finished, but even then he couldn’t hide his bashful grin.
Daiki just stared at Ryou’s dimples.
❄
Once he got the hang of it, squeezing information out of Ryou turned out to be a piece of cake. He wasn’t stalking or anything but Ryou turned out to be a pretty interesting guy once Aomine started paying attention (going through someone’s bag totally counted) and asking the right questions, and it wasn’t even boring!
Most things about Ryou were just hilarious – what kind of nerd took up a sport because he read a manga? Besides, he had this way of getting passionate about things Daiki never gave a shit about that it was nearly impossible not to be swept by his enthusiasm – before, Aomine has never expected to not to be weirded out by the fact that some guy could draw or sew, let alone be impressed by it.
But Ryou was odd, too, and not because half the time he couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch someone or apologize to them. What actually baffled Daiki was that Ryou genuinely enjoyed taking care of people. Who in their right mind liked being responsible for others? Aomine didn’t even want to be responsible for himself, seriously.
He supposed all that was what made Ryou so interesting, anyway, and he was never the one to try and change people more to his liking. In the end, he just accepted all the weirdness and, soon, things were incredibly boring withoutRyou around, so Daiki become instinctively suspicious of all his extracurricular activities.
“Where are you going this time?”
“Um, I- I’m in the P.E. Committee!” explained Ryou, ducking his head. “I’m sorry, I have to attend a meeting!”
Aomine’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “P.E. Committee, huh? Guess it makes sense you get along with Satsuki so well.”
“Yes! Momoi-san is wonderful! I’m sorry for taking so much of your precious time with your friend, but Momoi-san is always such a great help even though she belongs to a different committee! I’m so sorry!”
“Stupid,” huffed Daiki, reflexively ruffling Ryou’s hair. “Should be thanking you for taking her off my hair.”
His hand lingered on Ryou’s head for a while, and Aomine wouldn’t even notice if Ryou didn’t suddenly freeze up and lift his ridiculously big, confused eyes to look at Daiki. They both turned beet red when their eyes met, and Ryou immediately apologized before taking off. Aomine scowled at the palm of his hand as if it held all the answers to the questions swimming through his head at the moment.
Well, that certainly was awkward.
❄
For some time after that, Daiki felt like sulking for some reason. Satsuki wasn’t useful at all and remained deaf to his cries for help in identifying his problems; he knew he had at least one, he just didn’t know what it was. Instead, she dragged him shopping on the weekend, hoping he’d pick something for Ryou, but he wasn’t in the mood for thinking so he decided to take it out on her.
“Why don’t you ever apologize for taking my time with Ryou?” he complained when they sat down for a milkshake. “He should be drawing that manga for me, and making food for me, and hanging out with me, and you keep slaving him down. And when you’re not, you drag me around to carry your bags.”
Satsuki gaped at him in shock and put down her cup before covering her mouth with her hands. It made Aomine feel uncomfortable, because it meant she knew something he didn’t, which was never good for him.
“Dai-chan,” she drawled. “Are- are you jealous? You never get so possessive over people! Food, yes, but not people… Don’t tell me… you have a crush on Sakurai-kun?”
Daiki spluttered indignantly. “Oi, who’s talking anything about-”
“You have to tell him!” she insisted, completely ignoring him. “It’s obvious that he likes you, but all you talk about is breasts, so how is he supposed to know it’s okay to make a move?!”
“Oi, ugly, don’t get carried away! What move? What okay? Are you stupid? And boobs are the best, so- so there!”
He knew he wasn’t making much sense, but it was Satsuki who was acting crazy! Where did she even get this nonsense? And where did she get the guts to look at him as if he was acting unreasonably, shaking her head in exasperation and pointing an accusatory finger at him.
“Well, Sakurai-kun doesn’t have any so he’ll feel bad about it you don’t tone it down, Aomine-kun! You wouldn’t want to make the person you like sad, right?”
“Wh- No. I’m not listening to this. I don’t like Ryou. I mean, I like him, but I don’t like-like him. I don’t like him. And you’re ugly. Bakatsuki.”
Satsuki puffed out her cheeks, blushing angrily, but her expression softened as she watched Aomine lose his shit right in front of her. He was trying to convince himself he didn’t like Ryou like that. He liked spending time with him, sure, but he didn’t want to, like, make out or hold hands or anything. Which, admittedly, would probably be very nice because Ryou’s hands looked very holdable, not that Daiki was paying that much attention, and his lips seemed really soft at first glance, but-
“Holy fucking shit, I have a crush on Ryou,” he muttered, slumping down on the table in complete and utter defeat.
Satsuki squealed in delight.
❄
The worst part was that he couldn’t just bail on their lunches and start avoiding Ryou, because he would most definitely think it was his fault. Aomine might be an idiot, but even he knew hurting Ryou would be counterproductive to, well, dating him, or whatever. What could even go wrong, considering that, according to Satsuki, Ryou already liked him back?
Sure, it was awkward and he was more than a little self-conscious, but Daiki refused turn into a love-struck maiden all of the sudden. He wasn’t going to lose to Ryou, who acted the same was as always, stubbornly oblivious to Aomine’s internal turmoil and more preoccupied with picking a stupid present for some idiot from their team.
“Who you got?” he asked with a tired sigh.
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell, it’s a secret,” said Ryou with a small smile. “But it’s not you, Aomine-san! It would be much easier if I had to give you present…”
Daiki couldn’t help the hitch of his breath at the words. Maybe he shouldn’t read too much into them, but there was something in Ryou’s tone of voice and his smile that boosted Aomine’s confidence. He smirked, feeling smug, and leaned back a little, giving Ryou a bit arrogant look.
“You really pay a lot of attention to me, huh?”
Ryou’s eyes widened in panic instantly and he flailed his hands. “I’m sorry! Of course, I li- admire Aomine-san a lot! But I don’t mean anything weird by it! I’m so sorry! I just meant that Aomine-san isn’t shy about his interest in gravure! I’m sorry!”
His shoulders sagging, Daiki immediately realized that acting overconfident wasn’t the right thing to do, after all. Not only did he make Ryou feel like he didn’t want the attention, but also officially confirmed that Satsuki was right,again – Ryou was convinced Aomine had nothing but boobs on his mind. Feeling himself panic, Daiki scowled defensively and crossed his arms on his chest.
“I don’t just like boobs,” he grunted.
“Excuse me?”
Aomine’s frown deepened. “I don’t only like boobs. I like other… things. Flat things. A little more on the skinny side. Bony even. That smell like strawberries, not that I should know what they smell like. Shit. Not only boobs, okay? Shit. I gotta go.”
He could hear Ryou calling after him but he needed to hide for, like, forever.Except he wasn’t a hider – he chased unwanted people away instead, and he had a nasty feeling it wasn’t going to be too difficult with Ryou, who was easy enough to scare as it was. All Daiki had to do was glare if Ryou got close enough to ask any questions.
Ryou didn’t approach him, though.
❄
The rest of the week was like an annoyingly stressful blur, and Aomine awaited the weekend even more than usually. Ryou decided to pretend nothing’s happened, which was initially a great relief, but soon became incredibly infuriating, because Daiki didn’t get it – he wasn’t the smartest tool in shed so he needed to be told straight what the issue was, and not even that always worked.
As things were at the moment, he didn’t know if Ryou didn’t react to Aomine’s weird-ass confession because he didn’t take the hint, or it wasn’t a big deal for him, or he consciously decided to ignore it for whatever reason, or something else entirely. Daiki was at a loss, and he couldn’t ask Satsuki for help because her scorn would probably only make him more confused and miserable.
He certainly couldn’t ask Ryou, because that would literally kill him, there was no doubt about it. Exhausted by feelings and other stupid shit, or rather by his method of dealing with them, which was playing basketball on the court near his apartment until he couldn’t move anymore, he fell asleep with the intention of not waking up until the holiday break.
Unfortunately, a call woke him before noon. He groaned, blindly fumbling for his phone and hoped something was at least burning if they bothered him so early on Saturday. Before he could even speak, he heard Satsuki’s ice-cold voice.
“You had one job, Aomine-kun.”
He was confused for a second before he realized that he’d forgotten to show up at the secret stupidity thingy. What was even worse, he forgot to actually buy anything for Ryou. Unbelievable – due to all the teenage drama he was the center of for the last few days, he completely forgot about the actual reason for said drama.
He tuned out Satsuki screeching about how embarrassing it had been for Ryou, because he didn’t need an additional guilt-trip. He left the phone on the bed, letting Satsuki vent as he got dressed in a hurry. When he found something to wear that didn’t smell like it died, came back to life, fell into a cheese vat and died again, he picked up his phone.
“Shut up already, I’m on my way.”
“Don’t bother showing up anywhere near the clubroom,” warned Satsuki. “Wakamatsu-san wants you dead. He destroyed the present he bought you.”
Aomine scoffed. “Whatever, I bet it sucked. And I’m not scared of him.”
“I kind of want you dead, too” she added sadly. “Besides, Sakurai-kun went home already. Good work, Dai-chan.”
Before Daiki could tell her to choke on her self-righteous judgment, she hung up on him, leaving him completely speechless – he knew she was mad, but didn’t think she was that mad. Now that he stopped feeling pressured, he sat back on the bed and stared at his phone dumbly, trying to come up with some way of fixing things with Ryou.
He was so screwed.
❄
He couldn’t actually explain what pushed him to do what he was about to do. It was most probably a stupid impulse, considering he was standing at Ryou’s doorstep empty-handed and counting solely on luck. He was never a thinker, so doing the first thing that has come to his mind seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he just felt like an idiot.
Some stupid plant dangling over him kept tickling him in the head and whenever he tried to swat it away, he got unsteady on his feet because of the thin layers of ice splattered here and there, so he pressed the doorbell out of sheer irritation at some point. Ryou opened the door wearing the ugliest sweater Aomine has ever seen, and even uglier socks.
“Aomine-san?!” he yelped, instantly blushing and trying to cover himself from sight. “Please, go away! I’m sorry, but you can’t see me like this! I’m sorry!”
“Wait!” grunted Daiki before Ryou could shut the door in his face. “I came to… you know. Do this thing when you fuck up and you kind of feel bad about it. Uh.”
Ryou blinked in confusion, tilting his head. “Apologize?”
“Yeah, that. Look. I forgot. I didn’t mean to, it’s just… you, and me, and… stuff.”
Aomine already had a feeling he was doing terribly, and the way Ryou wouldn’t meet his eye was an unmistakable proof. It pulled nastily at his gut. It was stupid, everything was stupid, Ryou was stupid too, and Daiki was the most stupid of everything. Ryou startled when Aomine groaned loudly in frustration, absentmindedly swatting the annoying plant off his head again.
“Ugh, this pisses me off so much! I’m pissed off! I was going to get something strawberry because you like the stupid fucking strawberries! But not like a shampoo, okay, something cool. I was going to find something that was strawberry and cool. And I forgot. And I’m- What the fuck is this goddamn itchy weed?!”
Daiki finally looked up, trying to identify the annoying plant, but got distracted by the odd expression on Ryou’s face that caught his eye. He looked confused and maybe even worried but also kind of amused, and Aomine decided it was much safer for his heart to look at the weed. When, to his horror, it turned out to be mistletoe, he couldn’t snap his eyes back to Ryou any faster.
“I’m sorry, Aomine-san,” said Ryou gravely in the same moment, making Daiki hold his breath. “I don’t think a gift like that exists…”
The air left Aomine with a whoosh, and he almost wanted to smack Ryou for playing with his emotions like that, but that would involve admitting he was feeling feelings, which just wasn’t happening, especially when Ryou looked so pleased with himself. He returned the grin, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck while Ryou kept looking at him expectantly.
The atmosphere changed all over the sudden. The tension was nearly tangible with Ryou sneaking cautious glances at the mistletoe that Daiki determinedly pretended not to notice. He knew, somehow, what was in the air, and that all he had to do was ask, but it hardly seemed romantic. Deciding to be bold and live up to his own motto, Aomine ducked his head and surged forward with closed eyes, expecting gravity to guide him to Ryou’s lips.
Then, he slipped on the ice.