Chapter Text
Kagami Taiga is living the life of his dreams.
The ball clears the rim, silent. Taiga lands smoothly and checks the clock above the backboard. Ten fifteen. Time to wrap it up, I guess.
As he gathers the ball up, his beeper and cell phone go off at the same time. He picks the phone; that's the ringtone for his boss at the fire station.
"Kagami, it's Awamori. You anywhere near Azabudai?"
"I'm in Azabudai. Regular gym's closed for fumigation or some such."
"Send your coordinates to Toudou's truck and get outside. He's gonna pick you up in like four seconds."
Taiga hangs up, sends his location to Toudou, lobs the ball in the vague direction of the storage area, and jogs to the changing room. He tugs on jeans right over his shorts and doesn't bother with the t-shirt; the jersey's enough. Bag in hand, he's out of the building in another minute just as Toudou's truck pulls up to the curb, siren blaring.
Taiga tosses his bag inside and hops aboard, grinning. "Whoa, where's the fire?"
"For a goddamned asshole, you sure are funny," Toudou says. "Your stuff's in the back, don't fall on your ass, junior."
"Fuck off and die in a slow fire," Taiga returns, clapping him on the shoulder as he heads for his turnout gear. "Where are we going?"
"Two more blocks," the driver, whose voice Taiga doesn't recognise, yells.
"It's a private residence, neighbours called it in. Idiots tried to put the fire out before bothering to call, so it's pretty bad. And half the squad's at that stupid hot spring retreat."
Taiga lifts his feet off the floor by turns to make sure his boots are on and shrugs into the jacket, grabbing his helmet off the shelf. "People?"
"No clue," Wakatsuki chimes in from the other side as the truck roars to a stop. "That's the problem. Everyone out!"
Taiga hops off the step and sprints towards Lt Awamori, who points to an off-white duplex with an entrance hidden behind two tall shrubs. "Hige's overheated but he says he saw a guy on the kitchen floor. Go get him."
Taiga nods and heads for the door, zipping his jacket up all the way as he goes. Volunteers aren't supposed to run solo rescues, but when you're short-handed, the book may go right out the window. Lesson number one of working for a chronically understaffed fire department.
His boots thump hollow as he bounds across the broken door. Smoke's rapidly filling up the downstairs. He forgot to ask which way's the kitchen.
"Fire department! Raise your voice if you can hear me!" he shouts, peering around in all directions. In the headset mounted inside the helmet, he hears his colleagues' indistinct shouting.
Taiga glances through the open door into a child's bedroom. Five stuffed rabbits dressed in people clothes give him identical blank stares. This right here is the creepiest part of the job. Not the pained creaking inside the walls or the ominous roar of flames that always sounds farther away than it is. Not even the people who don't make it out, but grey-cast abandoned rooms and discarded toys. Empty places about to burn.
Taiga shudders and pushes further inside, calling out to no response, until he reaches the kitchen, where a man lies on the floor, his back to the doorway. "Found Hige-san's guy; he's out cold or dead, I can't tell," he yells into the helmet mic.
No overt signs of spinal trauma, but Taiga doesn't check too closely; injured or dead, he's got to come outside. The smoke is thicker.
"You're a big enough guy, aren't you?" Taiga remarks conversationally as he drags him out to the hallway. Probably around Taiga's weight, give or take a few kilograms. Taiga could probably lift him, but -- and this has been an endless source of disappointment for him since he first trained for the job ten years ago -- firefighters are no longer allowed to carry people out of burning buildings, because smoke travels upwards, and the worst thing you can do to a victim is expose them to more smoke.
"Almost there," he mumbles, avoiding looking at the creepy bunnies as he passes them again.
Hige meets him at the door with a flattened stretcher and a pair of EMTs. Once the four of them load the victim on, Taiga gets a look at his face, illuminated by an overhead street light, and his heart takes a quick break.
The man on the stretcher is Aomine Daiki, Taiga's one-time basketball rival, his former friend, and his first heartbreak.
Should've left the fucker to burn. Anger surfaces deep in Taiga's chest, as though an evening breeze stirring life into the coals of a fire-pit everyone thought was dead. It's a stale but vicious thing, this old grudge; Taiga didn't even know it was still a grudge until now.
Taiga finds Aomine just outside the sports arena, wearing just his Touou uniform even though it's winter. Ergo, too fucking cold to be prancing around in basketball shorts. "Hey, can I talk to you?"
"That was a good game," Aomine says, not looking at him. "I had fun. I guess we won't have a rematch again."
Taiga shrugs. "We're just graduating, not moving to different planets. You can come get your revenge whenever."
"Nah, it's not the same one-on-one."
"College, then."
"I'm not going to college, are you stupid? I'm fucking sick of school."
That makes one less question that Taiga wanted to ask. "Come with me for a bit. It's freezing out here."
Aomine arches an eyebrow. "If this is about Tetsu's surprise birthday party, I already told Satsuki I'm not going. Parties are for little kids."
"It's not about the party, come on, it's cold."
"You're wearing a jacket," Aomine complains, but he lets himself be pulled along into the building
Taiga unzips his jacket as they get inside; if he doesn't lose his nerve now, he's about to start sweating a whole lot.
For months and months, they've caught each other staring, drew back too sharply if they happened to touch. Taiga's sure that it's not just him. Maybe Aomine's feelings don't run as deep as Taiga's, but something is there. Taiga knows he isn't the smartest or the most observant person, so if he of all people is noticing the way Aomine looks at him, then there's got to be at least something. Something like the feeling of his heart turning to jelly whenever Aomine looks directly into his eyes. Something like the elation he feels whenever he and Aomine battle it out in the paint: having Aomine focusing only on him, looking only at him. Something real. Taiga is sure is there, but at the same time he's not sure. So he has to ask.
He has to try. Now. If he doesn't do it now, he'll never find the courage again. The worst that can happen is Aomine'll reject him and they'll go their separate ways. They're friends, after all. More or less.
"I'm in love with you," he says, fists so tight in his pockets it's as though they're never meant to loosen again..
Aomine's face undergoes a transformation Taiga's never seen before: his eyes widen, his lips part slowly, his cheeks flush with a shade of deep pink that Taiga will never forget. He bites his lower lip briefly and blinks at Taiga. "You serious?"
Taiga nods. He keeps his eyes on Aomine's, determined to see this through to whatever end. "Since a while ago. I just--"
Aomine doesn't let him finish; he grabs the front of Taiga's jersey, pulls him close, and kisses his mouth; it's rough and deep and wet and so perfect that Taiga's knees, already tired from the final match, start to give out. Aomine keeps a tight hold on his jersey and holds Taiga up; he kisses-kisses-kisses him until Taiga's making desperate noises low in his throat; he doesn't mean to, they just come because this feels so much better than he imagined.
Aomine grabs his ass with both hands, shoves a thigh between Taiga's legs and pulls him close against it. Taiga's already so hard he's ready to come just from that little bit of friction if Aomine continues.
But Aomine pushes him away with so much force that Taiga nearly loses his footing. He looks up at Aomine in confusion, but he's looking past Taiga-- no, through him.. He laughs a high-pitched, unpleasant laugh, another thing Taiga will also never forget. "You really were serious, goddamn. I thought you were pranking me, but look how excited you are. Gross."
Taiga's brain has already registered that this is not going to have a happy ending. His heart still hasn't caught on. His heart still hopes it's some kind of put-on and won't let him run. He has to run. He must run before Aomine can say another word.
"I don't know what gave you the idea that I'm some kind of homofag," Aomine says in a low voice. "You're lucky we were buddies until now. I'll let you off this once. But don't fucking ever appear in front of me again, you disgusting freak, or I'll rip your nasty dick off and feed it to sewer rats."
He gives Taiga another one-handed shove and walks away.
Taiga stands frozen until Aomine's footsteps no longer echo in the hallway. His hands are still in the pockets of his jacket -- Aomine was so fierce that Taiga forgot he had hands. They're no longer fists, though. He rubs his fingertips against his still-sweaty palms and realises that it really happened. He didn't just hallucinate the whole thing. And it was much worse than his original worst-case scenario.
He thought he'd be a little more... in pain, but it's a funny thing; he can't feel much of anything at all. He sits down next to a supply closet door -- it's in a little wall niche, so he's not blocking the path. For some reason Taiga has never been more aware of his large, awkward size as he is now. He rests his forehead on his drawn-up knees and doesn't move for a long time.
He learns a few things in that time. One: you don't just fall out of love with someone even if they go out of their way to hurt you. Two: the amount of tears a well-cared-for human body can leak is probably close to infinite. Three: all those other times he thought he felt crushed really were cases of feeling strongly rattled. Four: it is never, ever going to be safe for him to fall in love.
A janitor finds him as the arena is closing, then brings his teammates, who are frantic with worry. They've been searching for him the whole time. Taiga tells them he's sorry.
He tells them he was sad because this was their very last game together. Their very last tournament. It's true: he's sad about that too.
Just thinking about it makes Taiga want to find a hole to hide in, and it's been ten long and pretty happy years since then. Taiga's living the life of his dreams and all, but down there on the stretcher lies his one recurring nightmare. He's fallen in love again since then, more than once, and been loved in return -- but he's never really had a serious, lasting relationship. No one's stuck around long enough for Taiga to remember what it means to trust someone.
He wouldn't really have left Aomine for dead if he'd recognised him to start with; he's a firefighter, not some kind of sociopath. It's a damned near thing, though. I guess this is why my day job is basketball.
The doors shut behind Aomine's stretcher and the ambo shrieks its way into the streets. Taiga spits in its general direction and goes back to work.
*
A few days after the Azabudai incident, Taiga stops by the fire station to sign up for the newest preparedness training seminar and to put fresh clothes into his locker. He's on his way out when Lt Awamori flags him down.
"Kagami, come in here a sec." She waves him into her office.
Taiga adjusts his bag strap and does as he's told. "What's up?" He sniffs the air. Sesame oil and mystery meat from the daily-special shop down the street. "Did you eat lunch at your desk again?"
She ignores the question. "Hige's retiring next year."
Here it comes. "Oh yeah?"
Awamori steeples her fingers on top of coffee-stained paperwork that hasn't been touched in weeks. "Gonna have a spot open on the rescue squad."
Taiga grins. "Someone's gonna be lucky to grab it."
"Quit giving me a hard time, you little shit," she growls. "You gonna go for it or what?"
"Nah, boss, I'm good."
She sighs. "Basketball."
Taiga nods. "Basketball. Besides, if I'm going to make rank then it'll be for the fire unit, not rescue. It's a thing."
She tilts her head. "My kid's the same way, so I guess I get it."
The phone on her desk rings, and Taiga bows out and makes his way across to the exit. As he's about to leave the building, Lt Awamori yells his name again.
Taiga sighs and walks back to her office. "Boss, I'm flattered and all, but--"
She waves at him to shut up. "That's not it. That was the police chief on the phone. Turns out that mook you saved in Azabudai last weekend is the vice squad's star interrogator, so he was calling to convey his personal gratitude."
"Damn, that's kind of a big deal," Taiga says, impressed.
"A huge deal," she agrees. "He even asked your name; you'll be getting an official commendation."
Taiga balks. "Me? Since when are we supposed to be praised extra for doing our regular jobs?"
"Don't complain about it," she snaps. "We can use positive attention from the good old Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, especially in this district. The superintendent's got influence on our budget and the police chief's only daughter is married to him."
"All right," Taiga says, raising both hands as a shield. "All I'm saying is the others aren't going to like it. I'm not even a career guy. Call him back and say you made a mistake. Give him Hige's name. He would've been the rescuer if he hadn't overheated."
"I'm bad at lying," she tells him. "If you were career, this wouldn't be a problem, see?"
Taiga rolls his eyes. "I'm outta here." He's been giving it some thought, the career thing. But he's not ready to quit basketball, and he won't be bullied into it.
As he unlocks his bike from the rack outside the station, it hits him.
The vice squad's star interrogator.
So Aomine ended up becoming a cop. And went and had a weird-ass little kid, if those creepy bunnies Taiga saw are any indication.
"Why the fuck am I thinking about that asshole, anyway?" Taiga says under his breath and takes off towards home.
The old coals flare again, and Taiga takes a few extra turns to ride along the river so he can pedal fast enough to drown the anger out. An early autumn wind pushes hard against his face, and soon Taiga's only concerned with picking up as much speed as he can, so fast he's weightless, a young man from the future gliding along a sparkling river on his hover-bike.
Young, huh. He's closer to thirty than he is to twenty-five. Maybe it is time to think about quitting basketball before he's like those sad sacks in their forties trying to compete on stamina with twenty-somethings.
He slows his pace, navigates across two lively intersections, and then he's in the park behind his building. He stows his bike in the shed next to the fullmoon maple, slings his bag over his shoulder, and digs for his apartment keys as he heads for the main entrance.
Some guy's standing right by the door, making a terrible show of reading the paper. Probably a salesman waiting for someone to mistake him for a resident and let him in so he can ring himself some doorbells and sell some hair-growth potions or whatever the fuck. Taiga's not about to let him in, but he doesn't want a confrontation, either, so he decides to go and grab a burger before heading home.
Mood he's in, he'd probably clean the bastard's clock, and he doesn't want to deal with the potential fallout. Some guys go around trying to get their brains knocked out of their skulls by pro athletes, and then the athletes have to hire lawyers. Some guys go around picking fights with bigger guys just for the hell of it, too. Taiga's got no time for either sort.
"Yo, Kagami," the would-be salesman says as Taiga passes by him. It's a chest-deep baritone Taiga would know anywhere. A little rougher than he remembers, but unmistakable.
"When my boss told me your name, I wondered what the odds were. Long time no see."
Aomine.
[tbc]