Work Text:
Everything they say about the IT center underneath the library is true. If anything, it makes Kise regret his days as a non-believer. He descends the flight of stairs to the basement carefully – god knows what kind of shit he might step on in the dark.
When he pushes open the glass door of the IT center, he realizes that if the college library is considered as heaven, then this place might as well be hell on Earth. There is a faint smell of Coca-Cola in the stale air and frankly speaking he wouldn't even need to be here if it weren't for his dumb mistake.
He surveys the room, trying to find a living soul that could possibly help him. There's a guy with his face on his keyboard. May God help us all.
The sound of a clicking mouse alerts him to the opposite corner of the room. Kise speeds towards him. The faster he can solve his problem, the sooner he can leave this hellhole.
"Um," Kise starts, in an attempt to get the other guy's attention. "Can you help me with something?"
Kise makes a pathetic attempt at waving his hand, careful not to touch the grime on the help desk counter. He looks over the monitor at the young man and barely makes out the words on his shirt: Temporary Co-Worker. Please don't ask me any hard questions.
"What do you need help with?" He grumbles.
Kise squints to decipher his name tag.
"Aomine-kun, do you know how to hack into a professor's email?"
Aomine looks up this time, eyebrows raised to the edge of his forehead. This is the first time Kise gets a good look at his face and wow, fuck is he hot. With the measly amount of lighting his computer monitor offers, Kise can trace the outlines of his chiseled face and the furrows of his eyebrows. And Kise gulps because he's just made this situation more embarrassing for himself.
Aomine cocks his head to the side, resting on an open palm. "I don't think that's legal, strictly speaking."
"It's very important that my professor does not open that email. Very, very important. I'm kinda desperate here," Kise says, his hand on the back of his neck.
Aomine doesn't look very convinced. The small signs of a cocky smirk emerging suggests that he's even enjoying watching Kise squirm.
"I'll give you 50 bucks?" Kise offers.
He watches Aomine have his mental debate. Aomine grunts a tone of 'okay' and gestures for Kise to come around the counter.
Aomine points at his keyboard, asking Kise to key in the necessary details. Stuff like his email address and his professor's name and Kise is trying his best to find the letters on the god damn keyboard – isn't this thing supposed to have lights – when-
"Are you kidding me? You type with two fingers?" Aomine laughs.
Kise tries to appease him with an embarrassed smile but all he gets in return is the roll of Aomine's eyes.
"Kise Ryōta," he hears Aomine mumble from behind him. "Interesting name."
He pushes the keyboard back to Aomine and watches his long, slender fingers seemingly fly across the keyboard. There is a lot of typing and clicking and one way or another Aomine has managed to access his professor's email account.
Kise breathes a sigh of relief. Thank god it's still unread. But before he can tell Aomine to delete it, Aomine's already clicked on the attachment out of curiosity. To his horror, the Microsoft Word document loads in all of its shameful glory and Aomine is choking with laughter so loud that the dude with his face on his keyboard is stirring from his sleep.
"You sent your professor a rec list of porn sites," Aomine says, pretending to wipe the tears from his eyes. "It even has stars and cute little remarks at the side. Oh my god."
Kise shrinks a little and tries to smack Aomine's hand away from his mouse. He quickly deletes the email and logs out of his professor's account.
"Fifty bucks please," Aomine laughs smugly.
"Yeah, hold on," Kise replies. "Let me send him the correct shit first."
It's a little hard to use Aomine's computer with Aomine staring at him, compounded with his already slow typing.
"A word of advice, Kise-kun?" Aomine offers. "Maybe it would help if you stopped naming your files 'asdfghjk' and 'asdfghjk1'."
The flush of pink on the back of Kise's neck turns a shade darker. He mumbles a word of thanks, shoves a fifty dollar bill into Aomine's hands and runs out of that place.
Everything people say about the IT center being hell on Earth is true. No one knows the last time the carpet floor has been vacuumed. The IT center employees are actually zombies. Despite that harrowing experience, Kise thinks about Aomine and his devilish smile, mourning over the fact that he blew his chances of flirting with a guy like him. He'd probably never see him again.
~~~
Kise then spends half his waking moments thinking about him. Kuroko has to use the sharp end of his pencil to poke him during lecture to make sure he pays attention. Kise thinks about all the ways he could have handled the situation better, wishing that he hadn't run out of the room like a little kid. Then he thinks about Aomine's roaring laughter and the way it continues to ring in his ears.
"What are you obsessing over this time?" Kuroko asks when lecture has ended.
"I'm not obsessing over anything," Kise rebuts. He stuffs his notebook into his bag and slings it over his shoulder. "I'm just thinking intensely."
Kise uses fifty percent of his brain's energy to think about all the things that went wrong with Aomine the previous night, but barely manages to identity him in the dining hall. Aomine is standing in line by himself, hands stuffed into his coat pockets. Kise can't help but internally groan at the universe's cruel joke. He contemplates skipping lunch altogether, but his stomach warns him that he's already reached his quota of dumb mistakes this week.
Aomine looks even better in daylight. His midnight blue hair is alluring in all the same ways as his dark eyes. Kise can't help but stare from his position in the line. He looks at how broad Aomine's shoulders are and the way Aomine's eyebrows furrow when he realizes that he might not get the last piece of chocolate cake.
As predicted, the jackass in front of Aomine swipes the last piece of cake and no one is there is replenish it. Aomine ends up taking two bowls of miso soup and Kise watches as he angrily stalks across the dining hall to an empty table. It is both menacing and endearing at the same time.
He has Kuroko sit opposite him to provide cover so he can stare at Aomine discreetly. Kuroko starts talking about their midterm paper but Kise has long stopped paying attention, transfixed at the way Aomine is furiously jabbing his phone screen. When Kise and Kuroko get up to return their trays, Kise makes a clever detour so that he walks past Aomine to get a glimpse of his phone screen. Of all things though, he never expected Aomine to be playing mindless games on his phone.
~~~
Kise sees Aomine every day for the next three days. It's a little disconcerting how he's never seen Aomine's face at all in his first year in college, and now after that time in the basement he sees Aomine popping up everywhere he goes. It's almost as if the universe is mocking him for his poor life decisions. He sees him in one of the basketball courts and even in the college bookshop. Just this morning, he saw Aomine take one of the GO VEGETARIAN fliers from this guy in a broccoli costume, before promptly shoving it down the nearest bin.
So when Kise enters the laundry room in his dorm and sees none other than Aomine inside, he is unable to suppress a groan of frustration.
Aomine turns his head around and looks at him with all his eyebrows up.
"What are you doing here?" Kise asks, still standing at the door.
Aomine looks annoyed. "What do you mean what am I doing here. I live here."
Kise probably still has a puzzled look all over his face. He walks over to the washing machine next to Aomine's and starts throwing his clothes in.
"Nothing. It's just that after I met you for the first time, I started seeing your damn face everywhere I go," Kise explains.
"Well I could say the same for you. I realized why your name sounded so familiar that night. I see your fucking commercials all over the place," Aomine chuckles, leaning against the vibrating machine. How is that even comfortable, Kise thinks.
Kise smiles. Things aren't going as bad as they could be. Maybe the universe isn't so terrible after all. He loads the last of his clothes into the washing machine and only then realizes that he forgot to buy a new box of dryer sheets. He sighs.
"Aomine-kun, do you happen to have an extra dryer sheet I could borrow? The ones from the vending machine give me a rash."
"Yeah, sure," the other responds almost immediately. He hands over a single sheet from his box and this is the first time Kise has seen Aomine smile.
"Wow, didn't know you had a face other than your default face."
"My what?"
Kise mimes a frown and raised eyebrows. "Your default face."
Aomine starts laughing and it reminds Kise of Aomine laughing at his porny endeavors. Again with the rich, throaty laughter and the wrinkling of the corners of his eyes. Friendship sounds like a good idea.
Aomine begins talking about annoying broccoli that ambushed him on his way to his Japanese History lecture, preaching about stopping the savagery that is meat consumption. As much as he wanted to shove the fliers up the guy's ass, he was already running late.
"You want to be a historian?" Kise asks.
Aomine nearly cracks. "God fucking no. I wanna be a cop."
It's hard to imagine Aomine being a morally upright and righteous police officer. He's always pegged him as defiant. He did help him illegally access his professor's email after all.
While waiting for his clothes to be done, Kise bombards Aomine with all sort of questions. He finds out that yes, Aomine has been living in the same building since he started school and no, this is not the first time he's doing his laundry. He stays on the second highest floor and the laundry room he usually frequents is closed. They continue talking while folding their clothes and Aomine walks him to the lift lobby. It is only when Kise has walked out of the elevator, doors closing behind him, that he realizes that he's forgot to ask for Aomine's number.
~~~
Kise wakes in the morning to a text.
From: Unknown
- i have your underwear
His eyes widen in surprise. Could it be one of his stalkers? He loves his fans, but sometimes they do go a bit overboard.
To: Unknown
- wtf who are you
From: Unknown
- who the fuck else, you idiot.
He can almost hear Aomine mocking him from ten floors above.
To: Aomine-kun
- how did you get my number
From: Aomine-kun
- well the school's database has lousy security
- what's your room number
- i can personally deliver your precious underwear, no charge.
Aomine is outside Kise's door ten minutes later, holding Kise's underwear with two fingers like it's the most disgusting thing he's ever touched.
"Thanks, pervert," Kise says, swiping it from Aomine's hand.
"Hey, it's not my fault that we share similar tastes in underwear brands," Aomine shrugs nonchalantly. Kise, with his wandering mind and all, struggles to suppress a rising blush.
They walk down together but part as soon as they leave the building. Aomine has a statistics class in the North part of campus, while Kise has English on the East side, but they do agree to meet for lunch later back at the dining hall.
~~~
During lunch, Aomine is trying to slurp down his udon while listening to Kise complain.
"Sometimes I don't know why I'm paying for an education!" Kise exclaims, swinging the chopsticks in his hand in an exaggerated manner. What a drama queen, Aomine muses. "My professor spent an entire hour talking about the difference between a microwave and a microwave oven! Like I need to know that to graduate!"
Aomine grunts with his mouth full of noodles.
"And I was gonna text you about how dumb it was but my professor was all like 'what are you doing with your phone'. So he quizzed me on the god forsaken microwave, and believe it or not I was actually paying attention, but then I had to fuck it up by calling my professor the wrong name," Kise says in exasperation.
The corners of Aomine's start to curve upwards and he looks at Kise in the sweetest way possible.
"If your life were a reality show, I'd call it Kise Ryōta: Human Disaster."
~~~
Kise's been spending a lot of his free time with Aomine these days. His previous impression of Aomine being this suave, aloof and handsome boy has been completely shattered. Well, maybe not the last part. Aomine is still rather hot.
From: Aomine-kun
(Aomine-kun sent an image)
- should i wear this black shirt or the other black shirt
To: Aomine-kun
- they both look the same to me
- maybe the one on the right
- that shade of black really brings out the color of your soul
Sometimes Aomine comes over to his room when his roommate isn't around. He rolls around on Kise's bed a lot just to annoy him. He also teaches Kise how to organize the files on his laptop to prevent any inconvenient disasters from occurring again.
"You're never gonna let it die, are you?" Kise asks.
"Nope, dumbass," Aomine laughs.
And then Aomine drapes an arm over Kise's shoulder and ruffles his hair. Kise feels like a giddy fifteen year old all over again.
Sometimes Kise wonders if he should be concerned that he thinks about Aomine during class too. Somewhere in the middle of mixing copper(II) chloride with excess aqueous ammonia during Chem lab, Kise thinks about how this deep shade of blue reminds him of Aomine's hair. He doesn't even take offence when he hears Kuroko complain about having an incompetent lab partner.
To be honest, Kise doesn't know whether Aomine might like him in that way. They're probably just friends and Aomine is just being nice to him. But then one day after his pottery class, Aomine hands Kise a rather shit looking vase that's painted the color of the sun. "For you, I guess," Aomine shrugs. "My teacher told me to think about someone I admire and I thought about you but it ended up looking like shit."
Kise loves it. It makes him feel happy and confused all at once.
This only contributes to his never ending cycle of misery magnification.
~~~
Kise pops into the IT center to visit Aomine at work with a bag of light bulbs.
"I don't think fixing the lights will make this shit hole look any better," Aomine says. He's holding a torch light up at the ceiling while Kise is fiddling with the lightbulb.
When Kise turns on the light, he realizes that sufficient illumination actually does make the place look worse.
"Why do you even work here?" Kise asks.
Aomine simply shrugs his shoulders. "No one wants to work here. I get paid fifteen an hour to do nothing because no one comes here. Well, except you."
It was really nice and romantic until Kise accidentally puts his hand on a dried puddle of Coke.
~~~
On Friday night, Kise accompanies Aomine outside their dorm. Kise complains. It's snowing and the wind is so strong and he doesn't have enough layers to keep warm.
"Will you shut up for once, baka," Aomine sighs. He pulls Kise close and wraps an arm around him like it's nothing. Kise tries not to die inside.
"I don't understand why you had to order pizza tonight, Aominecchi," Kise says.
"... Aominecchi?"
Oops. "Uh...I give nicknames to people I like."
Kise looks up at Aomine for his reaction. A quiet smile and the barest hint of rose on his cheeks. Or it could be due to the cold, of course.
The delivery guy arrives late and Aomine gets his pizza for free.
"It's like the first rule of ordering pizza or something," Aomine explains over dinner. "Always order when there's bad weather and you'll probably get it free."
Kise nods in agreement. Somewhere between his third and fourth slice he recalls how alone he used to be on nights like these.
~~~
Three weeks before finals, Kise brings Aomine to a college party.
"I can't believe you've never been to one of these!" Kise screams in Aomine's ear, trying to talk over the obnoxious music.
Aomine just groans. He points at the drunk people lying around and the filthy floor. How do people even socialize with music this loud?
"Your IT center is just as disgusting."
"Except for one fundamental difference," Aomine corrects. "There is absolutely no one there to bother me."
Both of them don't really do much except stand next to the snack table. The beer is pretty shit too, but it's free so Aomine can't really complain. Occasionally Kise sees someone he knows and they make shallow small talk for a while.
Kise is talking to this guy called Takao from his English class while munching on éclairs and accidentally gets a little cream on the corner of his mouth. Aomine doesn't know what compelled him to reach over and wipe it away, laughing at how clumsy Kise can be sometimes.
And then Takao says "you guys are like an old married couple or something" and that earns him two embarrassed smiles.
Kise laughs a little too loudly, saying, "Come on, we're like best friends!" Aomine pretends to laugh too, trying to hide the small part of him that's crumbling inside.
Kise is probably too oblivious to realize it anyway, but that night on the way back to their dorm Aomine walks a little further away from Kise, hands stuffed in his pockets.
~~~
The both of them usually text each other every day. Aomine usually starts first, with some inane message before the conversation gets rolling.
It's 5.20 p.m. and Aomine hasn't texted him anything yet.
To: Aominecchi
- wanna hang tonight?
He gets a message back almost immediately.
From: Aominecchi
- yeah, we can get dinner in the dining hall
- can't hang after that though. need to study for finals.
The same thing happens tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Kise suspects something's up.
To: Aominecchi
- since when did you study this hard
From: Aominecchi
- well, i need to pass right?
- besides, we can always hang out after finals are over.
Kise supposes that sounds reasonable. He could also spend the next two weeks studying. It's not like he won't get to see Aomine anyway. He can always meet him in the cafeteria and the laundry room. Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad.
As comforting as that sounds, Kise can't help but mope around. He has his face on his textbook, complaining about how lonely he is at such a difficult time. Kuroko prods Kise's head with the eraser on the tip of his pencil. "What did you do to Aomine-kun?"
"Nothing, Kurokocchi," Kise says, lifting his head up. "He just said he needs to study."
Kuroko doesn't look very convinced. "Well, if that's what you believe."
Kise frowns. Of course I believe Aominecchi.
Kuroko gets back to working on his math problems, while Kise continues to think. Was it something he did? He makes a lot of dumb mistakes. He's also a clumsy eater. He remembers Aomine's fingers on his face and his radiating warmth, and recalls screaming to the whole world that they were just 'best friends'. Then he thinks about that shit-looking yellow vase on his desk and realizes yet again that he might have fucked up.
~~~
He decides to give Aomine some space until finals are over. For all he knows, Aomine might actually be one of those people who love to study in private.
As soon as he steps out of his last exam, he texts Aomine.
To: Aominecchi
- finals are over. let's hang out tonight.
- not taking no for an answer, you asshole.
From: Aominecchi
- whatever you say, idiot
To: Aominecchi
- hey what's your room number btw
From: Aominecchi
- what do you need that for
When Aomine opens his door at 5 p.m. that day, he is taken aback.
Kise is holding his pillow and his comforter. "I think it's pretty rude that we've known each other for months and you've never invited me to your room."
He pushes past Aomine and dumps his stuff on his bed.
"Got sexiled. My roommate wanted to celebrate with his girlfriend or something. Figured I could crash here tonight," Kise says and plops onto Aomine's bed.
"How did you even manage to score a single room anyway?" Kise asks before Aomine could respond. "No wait. Don't tell me."
When Aomine chuckles, Kise remembers why he's missed that voice so much. Aomine talks about his finals, how he couldn't remember this fucking general's name so he made up a name that he hopes is close enough.
"So you ditched me for an entire week and still fucked up?" Kise jokes.
Aomine groans. "It was just one name. It wasn't that bad, Kise."
"Yeah, yeah. So you wanna explain what's up? Why you haven't been talking to me?"
"Nothing. Just needed to concentrate on my studies," Aomine explains.
Kise leans forward in his seat, his arms on either side of his body. "Don't lie."
"What?" Aomine asks. He fumbles a little and palms the back of his neck with his hand. "I mean, I-"
"Are those my magazines?" Kise suddenly interjects with amusement, pointing at the stack on Aomine's table. He walks over to the pile and skims through the entire thing.
"The girl down the hall was clearing this shit last week and I felt sorry for you. I guess some people get tired of looking at your god damn face."
Kise is going to burst with laughter. He holds up the issue on the top and points.
"But this is this week's issue, Aominecchi."
Well, fuck. There isn't anywhere else to run. Aomine tries to come up with excuses. I thought that one was especially ugly so I bought it to use as blackmail. Someone left it in the pantry and I felt sorry for you again. I bought that shit for my mom.
Instead, Aomine falls backwards onto his bed in a sorry state. Just thinking about Kise and his stupid face makes his head throb.
Better get it over and done with, he figures.
He covers his eyes with his palms and groans. "I just like you a lot, okay?"
"Aominecchi..." Kise starts to say before he is promptly cut off by Aomine.
"Shut the fuck up and let me finish, Kise," he huffs.
"I think you're stupidly pretty and nice and basically everything I'm not. You're dumb and clumsy, you keeping fucking up, and you're so needy."
Kise almost wants to hit him.
"But then I think about how you only spend time with me and how you fit perfectly at my side and it makes me happier than I've ever been. I figured if best friends was all we're ever gonna be, I had to get over my stupid crush on you. So I tried to distance myself away from you the past two weeks and I felt miserable all the time. I still think about you a hell lot and it drives me crazy."
Aomine cannot believe he just said all that. It sounded dumb in his head but now that he's actually said it out loud, it sounds fucking stupid. He doesn't even want to look at Kise right now.
He sits himself up. "There. You happy now?"
Kise is looking at him in a way he's never seen before. Kise's biting his lip, but he cannot tell if he's biting back a smile or a frown or whatever shape his stupid lips make.
Aomine points at Kise's pillow and starts talking. "Look, I don't mind if you don't want to crash here tonight anymore and I-"
He feels Kise's lips on his and he doesn't know how Kise got there. Kise is in his lap, one hand snaking around the back of Aomine's neck, brushing the soft hair on his nape. It feels unreal. Aomine presses his chest flush against Kise's, his hands on the small of his back. Aomine kisses back with all of the dumb feelings he's been holding in all this while. He feels the hand on his nape tighten its grasp and Kise slips in a little tongue. Aomine knows he's done for.
When they finally pull apart, they are both panting.
Kise looks into Aomine's eyes and mutters, "Very. Very happy."
Aomine loves the way Kise fits in his arms, like it's the last piece to the puzzle. Kise adores every lingering touch on his arms, his shoulder, his neck. His laughs, those little hugs and even the shit-looking vase. They all meant something. Kise could almost cry.
Somehow the idea of dinner doesn't strike any of them. The sun sets a while later and Aomine is too comfortable to get up and turn on the lights. They just continue to lay on Aomine's bed, talking about their stupid feelings. Kise laughs and burrows his head in the crook of Aomine's shoulder. It's a little hard to maneuver around in the dark, but Aomine manages to wrap his arm around Kise's waist.
It kind of reminds him about the way they found each other in the first place.