Chapter Text
Officially, Kagami Taiga left the field three years ago. Officially, he got burned out by being on the front line; that business with the serial bomber three years ago signalled a turning point in his career, so when a cushy desk job came up working for a government agency he jumped at the opportunity for a quiet life.
Officially.
There's a little truth to the story. It was a turning point in his career all right. It was the most dangerous case he'd ever worked, and with the highest stakes. He'd caught the guy, too; diffused the bomb with his own hands with seconds to spare. Kagami had done a lot of good in his time on the force but that was his crowning achievement. He'd gotten a medal for it, and everything.
It was also the reason he got transferred to Imperium.
It's true that Imperium is, officially, a government agency. If Kagami's asked, he's got a pokey little desk in a cubicle (which is true) and he spends his day drinking too much coffee (also true) and data input. But t hat's the part that's not quite true. Because while officially, Imperium is a benign office designed to give valuable, burned out government employees somewhere to relax their way into retirement, there's a lot going on behind closed doors that's not quite government-sanctioned, so to speak.
Unofficially, they focus a little more on the data collection aspect, than the data input, so to speak. There's more to it than that –Imperium dabbles in all sorts of things the public (and sometimes even the government) will never even know about, but that's strictly classified, obviously.
Kagami never left the field at all. He just switched agencies.
Put simply, he's kind of a secret agent.
A secret agent who can't figure out how to use this fucking photocopier.
"Takao!" Kagami hollers aggressively, giving the stupid thing a smack to see if that does anything to help. It didn't the first or the second time he did it, but third time's lucky. "This stupid printer's fucking jammed again!" The screen just flickers feebly at him like it has no idea what he wants it to do.
He wants it to photocopy. It's a photocopier for fuck's sake. It's not that hard. It's one of its primary functions!
Thankfully he doesn't have to wait long. Takao Kazunari; printer, copier, and fax machine extraordinaire, wanders over with a mug of coffee in hand and casually presses a single button. Of course the stupid thing starts working for him immediately.
"Oh." Kagami promptly deflates like an old balloon.
"You're welcome," Takao snickers, and gives him a sympathetic pat on the back as the photocopier starts firing out papers; no doubt having already taken stock of the bags under his eyes, his crumpled shirt, and the pen stains on his cheek from where he fell asleep on his desk. "Long night huh?"
"You have no idea." What can he say, it's been a busy time of year. Kagami can't remember the last time he was back at his apartment for more than a few hours at a time. Even Christmas day was spent in the office. Working, too, apart from the half hour he took off to call his dad. But thanks to all the overtime he's closed a whole bunch of assignments he was chomping at the bit to get closed, and he's now no longer at risk of falling behind. In fact, for the first time in months, he's ahead. It's a good feeling.
Small victories. All part of the bigger battle.
Now it's just the few left sitting on his desk to deal with. But unfortunately for him all his leads have stalled and he can't for the life of him get them going anywhere fast.
"Let's get some coffee into you," Takao decides cheerfully, wheeling him towards the office coffee machine as Kagami collects up his armful of paper. As a kid, he'd always thought it would be so cool to be a secret agent. And it is. He gets to kick in doors and chase down bad guys and all the badass stuff that you see in the movies; it's just that there happens to be a lot more paperwork than he thought there would be. On cue, Takao downs whatever's left in his cup, declaring, "I could use another."
Some kind soul has already put the coffee pot on, so it's already steaming and ready for them. The guy's only been in the office for two hours but Kagami's already seen Takao polish off three cups of the stuff. All the same he helps himself to a fourth.
"You should probably slow down on that stuff," he points out bleakly, and pours one for himself anyways because he's a hypocrite. He lives on the stuff himself (they all do, bar Kuroko who can't tolerate even an ounce of caffeine, and Midorima, who thinks he's better than the rest of them because he drinks tea), but at this point Takao might as well just snort the coffee grinds for how much he consumes.
"Hmm? Oh no, I'm gonna need every drop," Takao assures him, "Because someone –" Oh no, that look looks like it's for him, "Forgot to turn off the camera in his car again, and I get the privilege of reviewing and logging every minute of footage. Every minute."
Well, that does sound like something he would do.
"...Was that me?" Kagami inquires sheepishly, even though he already knows the answer.
"...It was," Takao informs him dryly. "Again. I swear to God Kagami, if I have to trawl through another four hours of you snacking during a stakeout…Did you know that you ate seventeen cheeseburgers in the last one?"
"Uh…?" That sounds about right. So he likes cheeseburgers, big deal. Seventeen doesn't sound like that many anyways.
"...And four large fries, a bag of sour candy, a forty piece of nuggets, an ice cream sundae…"
"I get hungry! " Kagami protests, more than a little defensive. It's a long time just sitting in a car!
" –Two burritos, a box of mints, a family serve of nachos, and an entire chicken."
"Everyone snacks on stakeouts –" he tries to remind him, but Takao is having none of it this morning.
"That's not snacking, Kagami," Takao exclaims, jabbing a finger into his chest, "That's Christmas dinner in some households! And I had to watch and log it all!"
Kagami does feel bad for it, really he does. Just like he feels bad about it every time it happens. Which is pretty much every time he takes his car out on an assignment. "...I thought I turned it off."
"You turned the sound off."
"Oh." Why are there even separate buttons for video and sound? Inevitably he forgets to turn off one of them. "....I'll turn it off next time," Kagami mumbles apologetically, and then corrects himself when Takao looks unimpressed, "...I'll turn both of them off next time."
Takao pats him on the arm as he heads back to his desk.
"That's all I ask."
"...Why would they make it two buttons?" Kagami grumbles mutinously, heading back over to his desk with his coffee and his papers, ready to get back to it. Takao's good at what he does because he's got a real eye for detail, but he uses it for evil as often as he uses it for good, because once he's logged each excruciating minute of wasted footage, Kagami has to read through his logs and submit them with his other paperwork associated with the assignment to his boss. His boss, who then personally reviews all of his paperwork, and chews him out for wasting not just Imperium resources, but (and more importantly) his time.
Great. He's got that to look forward to next week, then. What a way to start the new year.
But as he logs back into his computer terminal, he catches sight of something that fills him with a sense of triumph. Something that's made all that overtime worth it. Because standing in the center of the office, set in pride of place is a gigantic whiteboard split into two columns with a name and a number heading up each column; one in red and one in blue.
Kagami's is the one in red. And after flagging behind for months, as of two, glorious days ago, his number is finally higher.
But as they say, pride cometh before the fall, and the feeling of sweet, sweet victory is short lived. Because not twenty minutes later, who should roll on into the office, but possibly the worst person in the world.
And that's some achievement in Kagami's books. Over his career, both the official and unofficial ones, he's taken down bombers, corrupt politicians, and terrorists, but somehow, he can still count Aomine Daiki amongst them.
Like this, for example, just swaggering on in like the owns the fucking place, nevermind that the rest of them have been busting their asses for the last two weeks while he's been off on what, holiday? And maybe Kagami's just bitter because he's covered in coffee stains and pen marks and he's still wearing the clothes he slept in when Aomine looks like he's just waltzed in fresh from a spa vacation, but he's pretty sure his irritation is completely unbiased and totally justified.
"You're late, Aomine," Midorima Shintarou pipes up from the cubicle across from Kagami. " Eighteen minutes late, in fact. "
"Only eighteen minutes huh?" Kise Ryouta, across from Kagami in the other direction, pipes up, sounding disappointed. "That's pretty much early, for Aominecchi."
"...Who cares if I'm late?" Aomine himself scoffs, not even bothering to ditch his usual motorcycle jacket and helmet before he's striding with purpose directly towards the whiteboard. "Akashi doesn't."
"That's hardly the point --" Midorima snorts irritably, like this isn't the same argument they've had every week for the entirety of Kagami's tenure with Imperium. And Kagami has never gotten along particularly well with Midorima after an unfortunate situation with a lucky mug, but the enemy of my enemy, and all that. It's nice to not be the one getting called out for being late.
Wait, wait.
Where the fuck does he think he's going ?
"No, no ," Kagami growls, automatically rising up out of his seat as Aomine draws up beside the whiteboard, eyeing it with a concerning level of interest, "What do you think you're doing?" At being called out, Aomine flings a smirk back over his shoulder. It makes Kagami's blood run cold.
"Better than you," he gloats, rubbing away the number under his own name and picking up the blue whiteboard marker, "Like always."
" No way ," Kagami protests, in vain, as Aomine adjusts the numbers on the whiteboard.
"Huh, would you look at that?" He remarks smugly, stepping back to admire his handiwork and seeming very pleased with the results. Kagami can only watch in horror, because how the fuck is he already three ahead again? "Nice try, but your ass is mine, Kagami."
The bet, as most bets are, was a dumb one.
Kagami joined Imperium three years ago, but he wasn't the only one. Around the same time, Imperium received another new recruit, this one from Special Forces. And maybe they were both used to being big fish in small ponds and were both out to prove that they were still the best of the best, or maybe it had something to do with how the guy had scratched Kagami's car the first time they met and then acted like it was an improvement, but from their very first day, there had been sparks between he and Aomine Daiki.
Sparks and gasoline, that is. Regardless of whether it's in the office, in the field, or down at the training gym, if they're within earshot of one another it's a guarantee that they're clashing. And if they're not, then they're about to be. They come from different service backgrounds, support different basketball teams, and are both (as Takao has aptly put it) cripplingly competitive. Which Kagami is self-aware enough to admit to being true; he doesn't like backing down, that's for sure. Which is what gets him results, but when paired with Aomine's holier-than-thou attitude when questions, results in bloody hand-to-hand combat sessions and getting sent to the boss' office. Let's just say, a team meeting's hardly a meeting until one (or both) of them have been kicked out.
One absolute idiot had scheduled the pair of them to sit their fitness physicals at the same time and Kagami had pushed himself so hard he'd puked. So had Aomine.
It was actually one of the few times they'd called a truce; both too busy chucking their guts up in neighbouring bathroom stalls for slinging shade.
(And then, when Kagami's score had come back higher, victory had tasted so, so sweet.)
Kuroko says they can't see eye to eye because they're so similar, which Kagami thinks it possibly the worst thing his best friend has ever said to him. Them? The same? What a joke. Since day one, Aomine has been walking around like he's top shit, and maybe he gets results, but so what? Kagami gets results, too. Just as many. More, probably. And when he'd finally gotten sick of the guy preening about the office and called him out on just that, Aomine, the cocky fuck, had given him a cool look and smirked,
"You wanna bet?"
Whether for better or for worse, Kagami's always had a bit of a competitive streak. And there's something about the cocky lilt to Aomine's jaw and the glint in his eyes that brings out the worst in him.
"Sure."
That had gotten the attention of the entire office. Even Midorima, who liked to pretend he was above the office politics and gossip, had had his interest piqued.
"What're we betting?" Takao had immediately piped up, even though he wasn't betting anything. "Well," he'd shrugged, when Kagami had given him a questioning look, "If it's a bet there's gotta be something at stake, right?"
It was a good point. So Kagami had given some thought as to what would cripple the guy the most after already having been taken down. Something that would really rub salt in the wound of defeat. And after two years spent clashing with the guy he knew that there were really only three things that Aomine cared enough about that he would be devastated for Kagami to take from him; his step-sister, the Philadelphia 76ers, and his motorcycle. Now, Kagami likes Momoi Satsuki well enough but if he wanted to ask her out he'd just ask her out himself, and he wants nothing to do with the 76ers when his favourite basketball team is the Chicago Bulls, so that had left one thing.
"Your bike," he'd decided, and a light ooh had gone up from the room; the kind that echoes through a classroom when a student gets summoned to the principal's office. He hadn't realised just how many people were listening. Which was everyone. So of course he'd had to double down. "If I win, I get your bike."
Aomine's gaze had narrowed at that; like he hadn't quite expected Kagami to go all in. "And when I win?" he'd shot back, eyebrow raised.
Yeah, the asshole had said when.
"What do you want?" Kagami had shrugged; not particularly worried about what he stood to lose. Off the top of his head there's nothing Aomine could possibly demand that he cares for quite like Aomine cares for his motorcycle. His own car's kind of a piece of junk; the guy would honestly be doing him a favour if he took the damn thing off his hands.
"Playoffs tickets," had been Aomine's weak counteroffer, "Two of em. Game of my choosing." It had been almost laughable, really, because b asketball tickets? But Aomine had had a little something up his sleeve to even the playing field, and had smirked as he delivered the final blow.
" –Courtside." He flashes him teeth and a wink. "76ers are gonna do good this year."
The fuck.
"You're fucking joking, right?" Kagami had practically exploded; aghast that the guy would try and pull that sort of shit on him, "Do you know how expensive courtside tickets are??"
Oh, he knew.
"Do you know how much my bike is worth?"
Kagami really hated it when the guy got in the last word, but had eventually had to concede that he made a fair point.
"Well, Kagami?" For some reason, shaking his hand had already felt like losing, "We got a bet or what?"
So that was the deal Kagami had weighed up. Courtside tickets if he loses. Aomine's bike if he wins. The tickets would hurt, but his dad would probably be able to get him a deal that would avoid bankrupting him, but obvious that sort of thing would only matter if he lost. And he had not intention of losing.
"Fine, playoffs tickets is it. Courtside," Kagami had agreed, reaching out to shake and then snatching his hand back at the last second. " Up to the value of your damn bike . Sorry but if you wanna see the Lakers you can pay yourself. Not that it matters, since I won't lose."
"Who cares about the Lakers?" Aomine scoffed, which, if nothing else, had showed that they don't disagree on everything.
They shake on it, and it's on.
Over the eight months since then it's been back and forth. Aomine's biggest lead on completed assignments was five; Kagami's was three, and it's been three whole months since his last lead. And now Aomine just swoops on in here after being away from the office for two weeks and steals it right back.
Un-fucking-believable.
"Uh, Kagami? Shin-chan is gonna be mad if you break another one of his mugs," Takao chimes in, peeking up over the divider to see Kagami gripping his mug so tight the little frog printed on the side has started looking nervous. Kagami obligingly sets it back down on his desk and throws himself down in his seat in disgust. But only a second later he's back on his feet, struck by inspiration.
" --If you're looking for new assignments, I'll tell you what I told Daiki two minutes ago," his boss states the moment Kagami bursts into his office. Akashi doesn't even look up from his paperwork. "There aren't any."
Dammit, how did that asshole already beat him in here.
"Nothing?" Kagami presses, trying not to sound crestfallen.
"If you're looking for work, perhaps ask Tetsuya," he suggests sagely, flipping through some of his notes, "Since he hasn't been cleared for fieldwork again, he might need–"
Kagami doesn't hang around to let him finish his sentence, and slams the door behind him as he makes a beeline for Kuroko's desk.
Fuck, Aomine's already there.
"Hey Kuroko," Kagami greets, deliberately hip checking Aomine out of his way as he sidles up to his friend's desk. Perfect, he knocked over a rubbish bin. Serves him right for getting in his way. "How's your day going?"
"I started twenty minutes ago," Kuroko replies, expression as deadpan as ever, "...But so far so good."
"Good, good," Kagami hums, and then jumps to the chase because Kuroko is already waiting like he knows he didn't come over to make small talk. Guy's been his best friend for three years now, trust him to see right through him. " So , I got some free time now, and I was just wondering if you had any open assignments you maybe needed–"
"Oi, I asked first," Aomine growls back, and Kagami nearly knocks Kuroko's morning milkshake over as he takes his turn at getting shoved out of the way. Kuroko steadies the glass with a single hand, and gives them a terrifyingly impassible stare that politely suggests they desist with the horseplay before something terrible happens to them both. Neither of them make any further attempt to knock the other off balance.
"As a matter of fact," Kuroko admits, pulling a file down from his in-tray and skimming through it, "There is a matter that I could use some reconnaissance –" He could have said there was legitimate data entry for all Kagami cares, already helping himself to the file in his hands.
"Reconnaissance? Perfect, I love reconnaissance." Reconnaissance is one of Kagami's least favourite parts of the job (and Takao's, because that's where most of his car footage comes from) but he'll take anything to get that number on the board climbing again. "Wait, for New Year's Eve? Really Kuroko?"
"Oh, did Kagami-kun have plans?"
He doesn't need to put it like that , not when he already knows he doesn't. None of them do actually, apart from Aomine who has been gloating for the last three weeks about the exclusive party he's somehow snagged an invite to. Apparently it's a big deal. Lots of models and famous people, and models.
He'd mentioned that part a lot.
Kagami sighs, because Kuroko is waiting for him to admit it as punishment for snatching. "...No. I don't have plans."
"Wait, Tetsu, don't just go giving this guy your assignments –" Aomine complains immediately, abruptly yanking the file from Kagami's hands and holding it out of reach when he makes a grab for it.
"Hey, that's mine."
"It's mine. I was here first."
"Oh, I thought Aomine-kun already had plans," Kuroko remarks evenly, and Aomine sends him a scornful look.
"I can cancel."
"Huh, are you really that scared you're gonna lose?" Kagami can't help but goad, getting a satisfying handful of Aomine's face and using it as leverage to snatch the file back; all the while being very, very careful not to get anywhere near Kuroko's milkshake, "Careful Aomine, you're lookin' a little desperate."
" Hah ?" Aomine scowls back, barging back up into his face and jerking a thumb back towards the whiteboard, "Says the guy who's losing ."
Okay, so he has a point, but Kagami's the one with the file now so who's the real winner?
"....Then I leave it to Kagami-kun and Aomine-kun," Kuroko decides, finally having decided that enough is enough and they all need to get back to work sometime this morning, "Since you both offered to help. It will probably be better if you go together, anyway."
"Wait, what?" That wasn't at all what Kagami had agreed to at all. He wanted an assignment that wasn't one of the ones growing stale on his desk, but he certainly doesn't want to have to work with Aomine. And he can tell that Aomine shares the sentiment.
"I'm glad to have such reliable friends," Kuroko says, signalling that this conversation is over, and while his expression remains neutral, Kagami gets the distinct feeling he's laughing at them.
“I don’t see why Kuroko sent both of us out here,” Kagami complains when New Year's Eve rolls around and he finds himself parked up in his car in some shady park in the middle of nowhere, with Aomine sulking in the passenger seat beside him. Sulking, because he's just gotten his hand smacked away from the bag of chips Kagami's been steadily munching his way through for the past hour. If he wanted stakeout snacks he should’ve brought his own stakeout snacks. "I could've handled this on my own."
"Yeah, if you wanted to look like a total perv ," Aomine snorts, and then lowers his pocket binoculars in disbelief when Kagami gives him a confused look.
“You’re joking, right?” he deadpans, “Did you even read the file?”
“I read the file,” Kagami scoffs, offended. He’s not an idiot . But from the look on Aomine's face, he clearly seems under the impression that he is.
“...Do you even know where we are?”
“Uh, a carpark in the middle of nowhere?” Kagami's not sure what about his answer gives Aomine any right to stare at him so incredulously.
“...You were a virgin all through the academy, weren’t you?” he states after a long moment of contemplation, and Kagami practically chokes on some chip crumbs.
“What kind of a question is that?” he splutters, followed by an emphatic, “ And I was not . What does that have to do with anything?”
“...This is a makeout spot, idiot ,” he says, as if it should be obvious.
“What do you mean this is a makeout spot ?” Kagami splutters incredulously, and Aomine begrudgingly hands over his binoculars with a wry look.
“If you did some work instead of stuffing your face you would’ve noticed,” he points out, and Kagami only has to take a small peek through the lenses to get an unobstructed eyeful of exactly what he’s talking about. Well, that does kind of explain why there are so many cars up here at this time of night.
But this was not in the file. Kuroko had just said Imperium had it on good authority that the son of a major player in the business world had some skeletons in his closet that his very rich rather would like to keep quiet, and he had a hunch that they’d be able to get their evidence at this location. He hadn’t said what kind of skeletons or what kind of evidence, but after seeing what sort of activities were going on in the other cars scattered around the lot, Kagami’s starting to get the idea.
“I have not been stuffing my face ,” Kagami grumbles, but shoves the packet of chips under his seat and goes for a packet of candy instead. He always keeps a couple of bags in the glove compartment, and he has to reach through Aomine's legs to get there. Of course the guy has to make things needlessly complicated, and complains when Kagami smacks his knees (on purpose) in his efforts to retrieve a bag. He was really hoping for some gummy worms, but mints will have to do. “I’ve been checking the license plates instead of being a perv.”
“I’m not being a perv , I’m trying to find our guy.”
“ Says the guy peeping into cars with binoculars . What are you, ninety?” Kagami snaps back. Who even carries binoculars these days? He checks his watch with a sigh –it reads a depressing half an hour until the stroke of midnight –then returns to covertly scanning the area to see if another car’s pulled up since he last looked.
Nope. No new cars. Although the one not too far over has started to steam up a little.
Okay, so maybe he should’ve realised where they were. An inconspicuous carpark well off the main drag with a pretty average view of the city? Marked as private property, no less. Even on New Year’s Eve, why else would there be cars here? There's no view of the fireworks from up here, and they're all scattered across the lot without pattern or reason.
It feels a little dirty, knowing, and sitting here with one of the last people he'd ever imagine himself sitting at a makeout spot with. Not that he's ever been to a makeout spot. Sure, he knew they were a thing, but even as a teenager Kagami had lived alone so he'd never had to worry about sneaking off somewhere to hook up or anything like that.
He sighs, tossing back another mint and yanking the box away when Aomine tries to help himself.
"Get your own," he huffs.
"Didn't think we were gonna be here this long," Aomine complains, sinking back into his seat with a sigh and rifling through the various compartments within arm's reach to distract himself, "Maybe Tetsu's hunch was bad."
"Kuroko's usually onto something with his hunches," Kagami reminds him flatly, and begrudgingly extends the packet to him if it'll stop him going through his stuff. "...He'll be here."
Lucky them, they don't have to wait too much longer, because finally, over the sound of the cheesy music from one of the cars parked surreptitiously away from the rest, he hears it; the sound of a new vehicle approaching. Ears pricking up, he swings his gaze towards the entrance, and sure enough, there's a fresh set of headlights winding down the secluded street towards them. He smacks Aomine in the chest to get his attention.
"I see them, quit it."
"Car's the right make," Kagami says excitedly, and celebrates when he catches sight of the license plate before it disappears into the gloom again. It matches one of the guy's known favourite cars. What an idiot. Who goes around hooking up with people they shouldn't be in their own car? "Nice, looks like it's our guy." Aomine's already got his dumb binoculars out again. Kagami reaches instead for his camera, and takes a second to adjust it for the darkness before lifting it up to see whether he can get a clean shot. It hurts to admit it so he won't out loud, but he can see why Aomine told him to park in this particular spot. They've had a good angle on pretty much every car that's been pulled up, and he manages to get a couple that frame their target nicely. But they're not here for him, they're here to find out who he's with.
" Perfect ," Aomine mutters under his breath, "He's got company."
Well, that's good news, in a way. What kind of perv goes to a makeout spot on his own on New Year's Eve, after all?
"You got eyes on who he's with?" he asks after a beat, sounding suddenly all business. It's kind of jarring to hear what he sounds like without the snarky attitude. If he spoke to him like that more often then maybe, just maybe Kagami wouldn't feel like punching the guy quite so much.
"Not yet," Kagami admits, snapping a couple of shots anyway. Takao can do magic with even the grainiest of pictures, so there's no harm. "Female, by the looks of it. Blonde, maybe? But that's all I got." It's a shame, but what he's got is not exactly a lot. There's a lot of blonde women in the world. But if they get into it at all like what's going on in the cars around them, it won't be long before he gets the money shot they're looking for.
It feels a little disrespectful, but that's reconnaissance for you. And no one has secrets as far as Imperium is concerned. Not the rich, not the famous, not the government. It's a hard job keeping the world in check, but someone's gotta do it.
After a concerningly small amount of time, Kagami hears a new layer of music joining the rest, and he can only roll his eyes when he makes out what song's playing. He feels a little bad for whatever woman this guy's managed to swindle into sneaking up here with him.
"This guy is so tacky," he grimaces, and he's both surprised and relieved that Aomine nods along in agreement, looking likewise troubled by his song choice. But the music signals that things are about to get a little more serious, so he waits with his camera in hand for the moment he can capture enough of the woman's face to identify her. This guy is meant to be married, so the very fact that he's up here is incriminating, but Akashi doesn't like when stones are left unturned, so it's better to be thorough.
"Got it," Kagami eventually sighs, very relieved to be able to pull back from the lens of his camera and leave the two strangers to their amorous liaison. With the lighting as bad as it is he won't be winning any photography awards, and Takao's probably gonna chew his fingers off fighting with the shadows, but it should be enough for Kuroko to mark his assignment as complete. And hopefully Kagami gets to get a little piece of that credit and mount his comeback.
He's starting to get a good feeling about tomorrow, actually. The success of tonight compounded by a full night's sleep at home, a long shower, and maybe even a cooked breakfast as a New Year's treat for himself; those stonewalled assignments aren't gonna stand a chance.
But as is becoming a concerning trend, Kagami's good mood is short lived, because he's just zipping away his camera when he hears the sound of tires crunching on gravel again. Which wouldn't be a problem; they've been hearing it every now and then in the time they've been loitering here, but for some reason this one makes Aomine curse under his breath.
"Ah shit, that'll be the cops."
" Why would you know that ?" Kagami splutters, only to let out an expletive of his own when he sees the familiar red and blue lights flaring to life in the distance. While technically the goals of Imperium as an underground operation align with those of local police, they don't always, and on the off chance they're working on something that doesn't, they're supposed to tread very carefully. Everywhere local police are concerned, in fact. And because of that; because he doesn't want to explain what he's doing here and why he's got a camera full of suspicious material, Kagami immediately reaches for the keys to get the car running. Aomine smacks his hand away before he can so much as fits them into the ignition. "What're you doing?" Kagami growls, when Aomine snatches the keys and refuses to hand them back, "We got the shot! Let's get out of here before they get to us."
"You really wanna draw their attention?" Aomine scoffs, raising an eyebrow. Clearly he's been thinking along the same lines but has gone in a very direction from him. Kagami wasn't aware there was a direction other than getting out of there immediately. But he has a point. Hitting the gas and speeding out of there in a trail of dust (in his personal car, too, what an idiot) as soon as the cops show up is a surefire way of getting the cops far more interested than they needed to be.
"Well what are we supposed to do then?"
There are a few rules of Imperium, some unwritten and some clearly stated in their contracts. That you don't touch anything on Midorima's desk without permission unless you're Takao is one of those unwritten ones. That you keep your true role discreet is one of the written ones. And no one's said it in as many words but it's common knowledge that Akashi will cover for you once, and only once, and after that it is your mess to clean up. And if, for some reason, that mess leads back to Imperium, well.
Let's just say that no one slips up twice.
Kagami's already had his slip-up, and he is not going to risk his job (and maybe more than that? Who knows, where Akashi is concerned) on getting tangled up with cops over some dumb sex scandal.
"Aomine?" he presses, a little more urgently, because the squad car has just pulled up beside the car closest to the exit and the two officers are getting out, presumably to investigate what business the people in there have in trespassing on private property at this time of night.
" I'm thinking ."
"Don't hurt yourself." Aomine hits him with his binoculars for that, craning his neck to see where the cops have pulled up and scanning Kagami's car for the eject seat, or whatever it is he thinks is gonna get them out of here without having to answer some awkward questions. And maybe he finds it, because with a sigh, he starts clambering towards the back seat. The least cool Kagami's ever the seen the guy looking was right after that fitness-test puking episode, but this comes in at a close second.
"What are you doing?" Kagami deadpans, smacking him when he nearly takes a foot to the face. The car is way too small and they're both way too big for him to be doing that sort of shit.
"What are you doing?" Aomine demands, finally disentangling himself from the front seats and throwing himself down into the too-small backseat. Then with a huff, he sends him a vehement glare and gestures for Kagami to, what? Join him? "Now hurry up."
Kagami does not hurry up. In fact, he's not entirely sure what he's being hurried to do. It feels like he's missing something here.
"...Kagami this is a make out spot ," Aomine sighs meaningfully, like he's annoyed that he has to spell it out for him, "You really wanna get caught peeping here?"
"...We're not peeping, " he huffs, even though the photos on his camera provide rather damning evidence that actually, they were.
"Well, you wanna explain to the cops what we're doing here if we're not peeping?"
He's got him there.
"That's what I thought," Aomine snorts dryly, and makes the same sweeping gesture, "...If they think we're here for the same as everyone else they'll just move us along."
Here for the same…
Oh, he's got to be fucking with him, right?
"...So get back here and suck my face before we get caught."
No way.
He's serious.
Kagami gags a little.
" You've got to be joking ," he splutters, hoping desperately that his grimace is violent enough to convey exactly what he thinks of that idea, "Are you seriously coming onto me right now?"
"Don't flatter yourself," Aomine scoffs, nose wrinkling in a sneer, "Like I'd really waste my time on you."
"At least you know you'd be wasting your time," Kagami shoots back out of reflex, and then feels a pang of alarm as he catches a glimpse of one of the officers leaning heavily on the window they've just pulled up to. But the interaction seems short, and the car's headlights come alive a few seconds after the cop draws away, like he's done exactly as Aomine said they would, and has just sent them on their way. No drama, no ticket, no arrest for trespassing. Just a finger waggle and a get home safe.
Huh. They...must be used to that sort of thing in these parts.
Which means....
Ah shit.
Shit .
Which means that their best chance of getting out of here no questions asked, is...
It always hurts admitting that Aomine is right, so Kagami doesn't do it. Instead, he just grits his teeth and directs his attention towards the back seat of his car where Aomine's waiting expectantly in the too-small middle seat; legs lightly splayed and arms strewn along the back. When he sees Kagami looking, he doesn't bother urging him to hurry up in so many words --no, he just pats one of his knees impatiently, like he's inviting him to come and take a seat.
It's official. This is about to be the worst night of Kagami's life.
"You better not tell anyone about this," he declares vehemently, mentally preparing himself for both the embarrassing journey into the back seat as well as the humiliating experience that will immediately follow. He doesn't wait for an answer, just throws himself out of the driver's seat and sets about trying to maneuver himself across the center console and into the back seat without kicking out a window, the horn, or Aomine. He'd already watched Aomine do the same thing, so he knows he looks as ridiculous as he feels, and the worst part is that once he's managed to get his body through the small gap, there's really nowhere for him to go except right on top of Aomine.
Aomine lets out an annoyed oof as Kagami reluctantly plonks himself down in his lap with a grimace; one leg spread to either side of his hips. It's not particularly comfortable, but he has a feeling that there's gonna be nothing he can do about that.
"How hard was that?" Aomine huffs, like Kagami's the one making this difficult.
"Shut up," Kagami hisses, nose wrinkling as he slowly leans in to brace himself against the back of the seat. It's been a while since he's been up this close and personal with anyone, and he's pretty sure he's never been in the backseat of a car with someone. At least not this car, and he's had this car a long time. "And if you say make me I swear to god I'll --"
He doesn't get the chance to tell him what exactly he'll do, because Aomine decides then and there to shut him up instead.
For how close they already are, it feels like it comes out of nowhere. One second there's a foot of space between them, and the next there's none. It's a little embarrassing because Kagami's been kissed before, but the moment Aomine's lips capture his own he goes completely rigid; back ramrod straight and his fingers frozen as he clings to the backrest for dear life. It's not even a particularly unpleasant kiss --which is probably the surprising part, actually --it's more the fact of who he's kissing; or rather, who is kissing him, because in that moment Kagami doesn't have the presence of mind to even consider kissing him back.
In fact, as far as first kisses go, it's pretty good.
And if that ain't the most horrifying thought that's ever crossed Kagami's mind, he doesn't know what is.
It's the first time someone's sighed after having kissed him though, and that annoys him a little more than it probably should. But that's definitely the sound Aomine makes as he pulls back, shaking his head like he can't believe Kagami still doesn't get it.
"C'mon Kagami, put some spirit into it; like we came out here to fuck ," Aomine presses, hips bucking lightly against his thighs and making him jump. It's hard to know whether it's the words or the movement that snap Kagami from his momentary stasis, but regardless of which it was, Kagami, newly back in control of his own body, sends him an icy glare, rising a little higher onto his knees so he can't do that again. “...It’s like you don’t even want to blow me." How can the guy seriously say that with a straight face, and still have it come out as an insult?
“ I don’t .”
"Then at least act like it," Aomine huffs irritably, fingers drumming agitatedly on the seat next to him, and Kagami could be imagining it, but there's a shred of what looks like nervousness to the way he slings a sidelong look out the window in the direction of the approaching officers. "...I thought you were a professional."
That hits a nerve. It's the perfect shot too; cheap, like most of their digs are, but perfectly timed, targeted, and worded to wound his pride. Because he is a professional, dammit, and he takes pride in doing whatever it takes --whatever it takes --to get the job done. He's been undercover before; this is no different. Usually he has a brief and time to prepare, but he can adapt on the fly, same as Aomine. Better than Aomine, for sure. Because a nything Aomine can do, he can do better.
"...Fine," Kagami decides coolly, swallowing to steel himself before sinking deeper into Aomine's lap; spreading his legs a little wider until he's nice and comfortable. Or rather, as comfortable as he can possibly be with his neck bent so he doesn't smack his head on the roof and with his rival between his thighs. This change in attitude --or maybe the abrupt proximity of their bodies --catches Aomine off guard, and Kagami feels a petty sense of triumph as confusion blows his blue eyes wide and startled. Snickering to himself, he reaches for the hem of his shirt and in one smooth motion, rips it up over his head, leaving him bare-chested and straddling him.
Now Aomine really doesn't seem to know what's going on.
"What're you doing?" the words fall from his lips on a whisper as his gaze dips to the heavy contours of Kagami's chest. He barely seems aware of having spoken them, and a small, triumphant smirk fans across Kagami's face as he balls up his shirt and throws it to get lost in the darkness pooling around Aomine's ankles. It's not very often he sees the guy genuinely on the back foot, and he's gotta say, he kinda likes the view.
This guy ain't seen nothin' yet.
“We’re here to fuck, right?” Kagami taunts, voice pitched low, “...So let's get to fucking.”
If that's the way he wants it, fine. He's gonna rock his fucking world.
To his disappointment, his devastating delivery doesn't have quite the desired effect. Because now that the initial surprise has worn off, Aomine's cocky smirk is back in full force.
"Good to see you're finally getting serious," he drawls, taking Kagami's hips in his hands without hesitation and tipping his chin expectantly.
"Shut up," Kagami says again, then swoops in and kisses him. And he's ready for it this time; ready for the heavy press of Aomine's lips parting against his own and the little spark of what is unmistakably pleasure that comes with it, but what he's not ready for is the heat that comes with it.
Aomine knows how to kiss, that much is obvious. But Kagami knows what he’s doing and is committed to proving it. So he takes Aomine’s jaw in one hand and kisses him deep and hard; throwing his whole body behind it and slamming Aomine’s back against his seat and pinning him there. With their size it’s hard to get the angle he’s looking for but he works with what he’s got and he can’t help but be a little smug when he feels Aomine start to gasp in between deep, heavy drags of Kagami’s lips against his.
But Aomine gives as good as he gets; hands slipping from his hips until they’re crawling up over the thick lines of his back, tangling in his hair and holding them steady as their bodies strain under the sway of their lips tearing at one another. He mustn’t like the control Kagami’s had over the pace so far though, because he jerks him away with a light yank to his hair, and changes it up; moving first to light, teasing nips that give Kagami no time to latch onto and leave him chasing air for purchase, and then abruptly shifting to searing, open-mouthed kisses that leave his head spinning and have his fingers twisting into his hair.
A soft moan leaves Kagami’s throat.
“Louder,” Aomine whispers against his lips, and Kagami hates being told what to do but there’s about the way he says it that sends a low shiver down his spine, and he can’t help but comply the next time Aomine captures him in one of those deep, steaming, head-spinning kisses. The sound must do something for him because Aomine groans too; a thick, low rumble that Kagami feels on his skin and against his lips.
Obviously, the logical next step is to feel it on his tongue.
Aomine offers no protests when Kagami sinks his tongue into his mouth. There’s no teasing, no preamble, just his tongue curling around Aomine’s own; demanding to be treated in kind. And Aomine does not disappoint; abruptly taking Kagami’s face in both hands and kissing him so deep, so rough, so hot that with a pang of horror Kagami starts to feel a familiar heat begin to build within him; the kind of heat that makes him yearn to be kissed like this all over, and more.
Aomine’s hands start to grow more determined, raking down Kagami’s biceps and back and then down over his hardening nipples and core drawn taut. His skin’s starting to feel a little too hot; the air a little too dense. But that just means that they’re on the right track; just means that when the knock on that window comes it’ll look believable.
Just a little longer.
Just a little more.
Aomine releases his grip on him to go for the buttons of his shirt, but it’s Kagami who wrenches it open to reveal the chiselled body beneath. And he already knew the guy was stacked; changing rooms exist after all, but there’s a difference between going shirtless at the gym, and having it under him in the back of a steamed up car.
With a low gasp, Kagami tears away from Aomine’s lips and starts tracking kisses along his jaw, then down, mouthing at his pulse then giving it a hefty suck. Aomine groans, and he takes the way his head lolls back as a sign not to stop.
" Fuck , Kagami, what're you doing?" he breathes, voice ragged and hot against the shell of Kagami's ear.
"Aw c'mon Aomine," Kagami taunts back, eyes narrowed as his teeth catch on skin of his throat, "...It's like you don't even want to fuck me." Something ignites behind Aomine's eyes at that –something that makes Kagami's mouth run dry and makes his gut pull tight –and without warning he grabs his ass in both hands and pushes Kagami’s hips down at the same time he rolls his pelvis. Unprepared for the jolt of pleasure that fires off from his crotch where their bodies meet, a low, strangled keen leaves Kagami's throat before he can stop it, and Aomine offers him a smug smirk when he tries, too late, to bite it back down. He does it again, the bastard, and Kagami’s helpless to stop the way his head drops back, eyes sinking closed into a full body shudder as he feels a familiar static throb through him in all the places he’s accustomed to feeling pleasure.
"You really wanna play that game, Kagami?" he whispers huskily, and sparks immediately flare hot behind Kagami’s eyes and down his spine.
Well, if it’s a game he wants.
Nevermind the strange heat flaring within his body or the low tingle in his belly and his nipples and on his lips, Kagami drops his hips and grinds . This time it’s Aomine who can’t quite hold back a groan, so Kagami does it again, circling his hips against his crotch and ending with a deft, deep roll .
It tells him two things.
Number one: Aomine’s hard.
Number two: So is he.
But he has precious little time to decide what to do with that information though, because that’s when Aomine reels him in by his hair to meld their mouths back together; pulling and yanking until his mouth finds the right angle to kiss him deep and just right. Kagami gasps as his tongue sets back to work; deft and deliberate as it teases, taunts, then plunges deep to steal the wind right out of his lungs. And once he’s got Kagami’s mouth right where he wants it, that’s when he goes for a handful of his ass again; urging him to keep going.
Kagami doesn’t need to be told twice; bracing himself against the backrest of the car and rocking his hips down into Aomine’s crotch until he finds a rhythm he likes, one that grants him the right amount of pressure against the erection straining against the zipper of his jeans. And it must hit Aomine just right too, because the next sound that leaves his throat is guttural and raw and unmistakably aroused, has him hauling Kagami right in against him; skin flush against bare skin. Like this Kagami can feel Aomine’s chest heaving and his pulse racing, and he’d mock him for it, for getting so easily worked up, except that he’s really not faring any better right now. Whether it’s because this is the most sexual contact he’s has in a long time, or simply because Aomine knows what he’s doing with his tongue, the hands dragging up his body and the heavy, restrained thrusts of the hips under him are starting to feel really good.
Now that he’s got Kagami snug against his body, Aomine’s hands are growing more adventurous; dragging down his thighs and appreciating the contour of his ass, fingers counting up his abs digging into the dips of his hips. This new closeness is intense; their skin hot and damp wherever they connect, and with every grind his nipples graze against Aomine’s skin and tingle like they want to be touched. Suddenly, the heat of Aomine’s lips on his is too much, and Kagami has to dip back to mouth at his throat to center himself a little; hands loosening their grip on the seat in favour of exploring his bare shoulders and catching on his collarbones. Aomine’s breath stutters against his cheek; a hand fisting back in his hair to hold him there, hold him steady, but he doesn’t stop moving with him, and hisses as Kagami’s hands skim down over his pecs and then lower. The defined lines of his abs pinch tight under his touch, and when the underside of his wrist catches on fabric, Kagami realises with a flash of hysteria that the heat he’s just brushed against is Aomine’s dick.
Aomine doesn’t stop him. In fact, the next jerk of his hips has the edge of his erection lightly straining up into his touch. And Kagami doesn’t mean to moan his name, really he doesn’t it just comes out like that all on its own.
“ Aomine… ”
The hand on his thigh starts drifting, slow but deliberate as it tracks higher, and Kagami knows instinctively where it’s headed. And he knows he should stop him, knows this is probably too far, but if Aomine's hands feel this good on his bare skin, at a guess they'd feel pretty good pressed against his cock.
The sudden bang on the window hits like a goddamned gunshot , dragging him back to reality so violently that he smacks his head on the roof.
“ Ow, fuck !” Kagami yelps, nearly losing his balance completely as he recoils, white spots flashing behind his eyes. “What the fuck was that?” he growls hoarsely, eyes watering as he reaches up to soothe away the pain in the back of his head. Dimly, he’s vaguely aware of a voice speaking, sounding irritated but unsurprised, and Aomine at least still has the presence of mind to roll down the window. The heavy beam of a flashlight immediately catches him clean in the face and he flinches, holding up a hand over his face to protect his eyes.
Oh, right.
The cops .
“What seems to be the trouble, officers?” Aomine inquires smoothly, hands casually slipping down Kagami’s thighs. His voice sounds a little strange; a little strangled. About half an octave deeper, too and about six times more gravelly than usual. Kagami immediately smacks his hands away from him and puts as much distance between them as he can in the confined space, feeling red churning up into his cheeks and down his chest as the torch beam swings away from him and onto Aomine. Hopefully it comes across as the embarrassment of being a grown-ass man getting caught fooling around in the back of a car. Because that's not even an act right now; he's feeling really fucking embarrassed.
“You know this is private property, right?” the cop sighs reproachfully, like this isn’t the first time he’s had this conversation tonight, and knows it isn’t the last. With no regard for the state he's just been caught in (and what a fucking state it is) Aomine just offers up an apologetic look and a half-shrug that seems to say is it? The cop sighs again, shaking his head like he can't believe that this is what he has to spend his New Year's Eve doing (Kagami can relate), and while his flashlight swings back Kagami's way to take in his state of undress, they've clearly sold the ruse enough well enough that he doesn't feel the need to press them any further.
(If how Aomine looks is anything to go by, they must look a right state.)
"How about you guys take this elsewhere," the cop advises with a measure of disapproval, and even though it was the whole point, Kagami suddenly finds himself wishing he could tell the guy that it's not like that; that he's not the kind of guy that lets himself be talked into having sex in an abandoned parking lot. But that would defeat the purpose of this whole exercise, so he has to suffer the judgement in silence.
"...Let's," Kagami agrees weakly, and with an exaggerated sigh (and a little difficulty) fishes into his back pocket to relinquish his keys. Thankfully the cops seem to take them at their word that they'll get going, and Kagami gets to make his way back to the driver's seat through the doors instead of suffering the indignity of climbing back through over the console. Aomine does the same, and if he'd been any slower at getting the door closed behind him, Kagami would have for sure driven off without him.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Kagami laments, forehead dropping down onto the steering wheel as he hits the ignition. He's never been happier to hear the squeaky noise it makes on startup.
“...Works every time,” Aomine shrugs, and while he probably means that to be reassuring, it decidedly isn't. "You forgot your shirt," he adds, belatedly, handing it back to him. Kagami refuses to thank him for it; just jerking the damn thing over his head the moment he snatches it back before slamming the car into gear. The sooner he can get out of here, the sooner he can dump Aomine at a bus stop and put this nightmare of an evening to rest. He needs a good night's sleep, a long shower, and something that will bleach both his mind and body of what happened here tonight.
"What?" he demands crossly, when after a few minutes he catches Aomine making a face out of the corner of his eye.
"...It's inside out."
"You, shut up," Kagami grinds out for what feels like the hundredth time tonight.
"You asked."
That he did, but he's not really in the mood to be reminded. He also doesn't care if the damn thing is inside out, but he can't resist a quick glance in the mirror to see if Aomine's winding him up, and immediately regrets doing so. Because i f he thought Aomine was a wreck, shit . He looks like he’s just been fucked for real. His hair’s a mess, his lips are swollen and pink, and there’s telltale and decidedly amorous sheen of sweat dusting his skin.
Not to mention...
"...You good?" Aomine remarks after a beat, flinging a meaningful look down towards the traitorous bulge still evident against the fabric of Kagami's jeans. Just when he thought the heat in his face had dissipated, there it goes flooding back.
"It's been a while," Kagami growls with heat, taking one hand off the wheel just long enough to adjust his pants in an effort to try and make his erection a little less obvious. He'd thought that the shock of getting caught dry humping like horny teenagers would have been enough to snap him soft, but apparently not. It's gonna be a long, cold shower tonight, apparently. "What did you expect to happen?"
It's a New Year's miracle that Aomine decides not to answer that. He does, however, bite down on his lower lip like he's trying not to laugh.
"Laugh and you won't be making it home tonight," Kagami heaves, ears, collar, and cheeks feeling inordinately hot. Aomine promptly finds a reason to look out the window, and while his shoulders quiver slightly, he doesn't make a sound.
Unfortunately, Kagami gets only a couple of minutes of blessed silence in which to stew; his internal mutterings over all of the terrible choices he must have made in a past life that led to this point being rudely interrupted by the sudden and unexpected blaring of his phone. Kagami immediately frowns, because who would be calling at this time of night? It could be his dad, ringing to wish him a Happy New Year, but he doubts it. Dad isn't really the kind for seasons greetings. Aomine intercepts it before he gets the chance to even pick it up and check the caller ID.
"That's mine --" Kagami complains, but Aomine just gives him an unimpressed look for trying to check his phone while driving. Which he deserves.
"It's just Takao," he states, doing the decent human being thing for once and checking the caller ID for him. "You wanna take this?"
"Sure," Kagami replies vacantly, honestly a little confused as to why Takao would be calling him at this kind of hour. He knows he was out on assignment tonight, and if he needed anything Kuroko's meant to still be in at the office with him...
Hang on.
Kagami's blood instantly runs cold and his knuckles steadily begin to whiten on the steering wheel as a horrifying thought occurs to him.
He's not that much of an idiot, right?
He's not.
An uncomfortable, unnatural sweat starts to bead on Kagami's brow.
He...turned it off, right?
Oh no.
No. No.
No.
"Kagami's driving, make it quick," Aomine drawls casually, like it's not so strange that he's answering Kagami's phone for him at this hour, "You're on speaker."
There's something loaded to the way Takao greets him. "H ey Kagami. "
The silence is unbelievably loud. Kagami lets out a feeble croak; an ominous, clammy feeling of overwhelming dread starting to spread out across his entire body.
"I'm gonna assume from your reaction that you've just realised why I'm calling you."
"I didn't turn it off, did I?" Kagami whispers hoarsely. And he said he would. He promised he would. They talked about this only a couple of days ago, didn't they? That he'd remember to turn it off next time. Both buttons. But now that he thinks about it, he doesn't remember hitting even one.
Fuck.
To his credit, Takao keeps his voice unnervingly, unwaveringly matter-of-fact. "You did not."
"Didn't turn off what?" Aomine queries, clearly annoyed that he's missing something. Not looking away from the road for a single moment, Kagami grits his teeth and reluctantly gestures up at the little light blinking back at him from the dashboard of his car.
" The camera feed," Takao supplies helpfully. He's cracking; Kagami's been working with the guy long enough to know that he's cracking.
"Camera?" Aomine echoes, eyebrows arching high and wide, "Wait, you mean you got that all on video?"
"That's seriously your reaction?"
" With sound, " Takao replies helpfully and Kagami groans again. Louder this time. His life as he knows it is totally over. Takao's gonna log each minute in crippling, excruciating detail, and he's gonna make him read it, and then Kagami's gonna have to hand it over to Akashi and know that he's gonna read it too.
"...Can I get a copy?"
That's it.
"Give me my phone, I'm pulling over," Kagami declares hotly, swerving a little more forcefully than strictly necessary so that Aomine eats a face full of window, "You can fucking walk home for all I care!"
It's not very often that Takao Kazunari is rendered speechless, but that had pretty much done it. It had been a pretty boring night, too; taking a couple of calls and catching up on the mountain of surveillance footage Akashi had asked him to log, and when he had seen the little icon flashing in the corner of his screen indicating that there was an active feed, he'd been very prepared to settle in for yet another nausea-inducing live stream of Kagami eating his weight in snacks.
Safe to say, he was not prepared for what he saw instead. And heard, because Kagami (the moron) hadn't even remembered to mute the feed this time. Kuroko had been very quick to remind him that it was not appropriate to be watching pornography in the workplace, and Takao hadn't quite had the capacity to tell him that he wasn't. All he'd been able to do was roll away from his screen just enough for Kuroko to see for himself.
Kuroko Tetsuya was renowned for being hard to read, but there was no denying in that moment that he was as shocked as Takao.
The video feed had very rapidly devolved to amateur soft core porn, and Takao had been quick to switch back to the standard, very boring and not-at-all porn-like footage he'd been working on before his curiosity had gotten the better of him. If he has to review the footage of whatever goes on inside that car (and he will; that's his job), he'd rather only have to watch it once. He doesn't need the live performance.
Thankfully, Kuroko had gotten a text message from Aomine confirming that they'd gotten the information he needed, and Takao had deemed it safe to tune into the camera feed to check in on them. Hence the phone call. He's not sure whether Kagami made good on his threat to dump Aomine on the side of the road because he finally cut the feed just after hanging up on him. But an interesting thought had occurred to him during the last interaction he and Kuroko had managed to catch before Kagami finally remembered to kill the sound, too.
"What the fuck Kagami, I've got a hickey! Like some sort of sixteen year old girl!"
"What're you blaming me for? This was your idea!"
"Hey Kuroko," Takao muses conversationally, considering what they both witnessed before deeming it too weird to be watching live, and wondering whether he's reading into it a little too much. "...What do you say to a little side bet, huh?"
"...I'm listening."