Chapter Text
Kagami Taiga hates it. He hates this intangible crimson string tied to his left pinky; he almost hates it as much as he hates dogs. He despised its presence ever since the day his mother left his father years ago because it was proof, proof that even though you may have found your soul mate, your soul mate is not your mate for life. Kagami still remembers the day his father changed because that heartbroken man picked up the remaining shards of his heart and replaced it with a heart of stone.
A young Taiga would often tug the hem of his father’s unkempt dress shirt.
“Dad…”
His father would often grunt, “What?”
“… I met a boy named Tatsuya and-“
“Goddammit Taiga! Can’t you see I’m busy?!”
Kagami knew that he lost his father’s warm smile forever.
So what if he is projecting his anger onto the string rather than his absent mother? Even if that was the case, that doesn’t change the fact that every time his father’s relatives come and visit, they would pester him like flies, asking him the same rudimentary questions as if they were programmed by society to utter these questions in chronological order.
Have you met your soul mate yet?
When are you planning to look for them?
Waiting for your true love? Are you still held up about that crazy nonsense? Your soul mate is your true love!
Kagami refuses to listen, refuses to follow their expectations, so in order to block out the noise, he plays basketball from dawn to dusk until the noise becomes a buzz, until the word soul mate is no longer in his train of thought.
Aomine Daiki is desperate. He desperately wants to find his soul mate, but his parents tell him to wait patiently, to wait for the perfect opportunity.
“But they don’t understand!” he grumbled to his childhood, pink-haired friend. “They get their fairytale ending. Why can’t I have mines?” He puffed out his cheeks, sulking at the memory of his lovey-dovey parents ruffling his short midnight blue hair and smiling their condescending smiles.
Satsuki, who was doing her homework at the time, paused. “You’ll meet her, Dai-chan.”
He pouted, not satisfied with her answer. “How can you be sure?! I might never meet her until we’re old like raisins!”
Tatsuya is his best friend. He is somewhat like a savior, but Tatsuya is too shy to accept Kagami’s rare but precious kind words. Even though Tatsuya is too modest to admit it, Kagami reveres him as the older brother he couldn’t have.
Another addition to his makeshift family would be Alex, his mentor and mother. Though she is not his blood mother, she is more than half of a mother his biological mother would ever be. His real mother disappeared without a trace. Mentioning her became taboo. Kagami doesn’t care because he has Alex now. Tatsuya mutually agrees. Besides, she scolds them whenever they were out of line and spoil them with gifts whenever their birthday is around. She is the best mother a kid could ever have.
One day Kagami was curious and asks her, “Teacher, do you have a soul mate?”
Alex, who was usually an energetic ball of sunshine, stiffened. She lightly touched her pinky with such care that it looked like she was touching a newborn for the first time.
“I do,” she replied, “but he’s no longer here in this world.”
Kagami shuts his mouth and widens his eyes. The guilt starts to creep in.
Alex chuckles at the young boy’s shame.
“Do not worry, my dear.” She embraces her two favorite boys with a crushing hug. “Who needs a soul mate when I have two angels by my side?”
It’s official. Aomine can’t take it anymore. Basketball is getting boring with each game. Kuroko tried, but the effort is useless. This is all useless. Why is it useless?
“The only one who can beat me is me,” he repeats to himself.
This pent-up frustration is consuming his very being, and the leftover steam from the last match is not waning. He glances down at his hand, and his eyes trail the red string, which extends all the way to the corner five blocks from where he is standing.
He runs after it with hope burning in his chest because at this point, nobody could stop him, not even Akashi.
His first kiss was to some random chick he met at the rooftop with orange streaks in her hair and strong vanilla perfume. Aomine stopped pursuing his soul mate ever since he followed his string all the way to the ocean three weeks ago. He screamed at the body of water like a madman, cursing it with every bit of profanity he knew. Besides, Imayoshi told him to stop waiting, so he did.
He begins to cup her breasts, but he stops himself before he goes any further because the hand he used is the one with the red string attached. Does this count as cheating?
“Sorry,” he breathes out, fumbling over what to say. “Next time we’ll-“
His classmate shushes him with her finger and mischievously smiles. “I’ll be waiting,” she teases.
Finally, he thinks, someone to look forward to.