Chapter Text
Kagami’s knees are hurting almost constantly now as he grows from a normal sized kid to a conspicuously tall one. The pain isn’t a problem, or rather, the pain in it of itself isn’t the problem, it’s the fact that every authority figure around him absolutely insists on worrying about him because of it. “Oh, Taiga, please take it easy.” “Kagami-kun, please, do you have to play basketball right now? Can’t you relax for a bit?” “Taiga! Just chill out for a bit. You’ll ruin your legs!” How about, no?
Kagami sneaks out while his mother is on the phone. He retrieves his basketball, but holds off on bouncing it until he’s around the corner. He doesn’t need his mother worrying about him right now. Right now he needs to be playing basketball.
“Hey! Yamata! Hayato! Wanna play a few games?” he calls out when he sees his classmates across the street.
“Hell no, Kagami! I hate getting my ass beat!” Yamata yells back.
“Yeah, no. Remember? You totally beat our shit last time! And Minami-san was totally watching!” Hayato wails at the thought of his crush seeing his ass handed to him by the red-haired little devil.
“Pfft. Whatever. Fuck you guys anyway!” Kagami yells back, not particularly heated. An old woman wrinkles her nose at the twelve year olds’ foul language. Kagami shoots her a grin.
“Not our fault you’re like a fucking basketball god!”
“Not true…” Kagami mumbles to himself, blushing. He wouldn’t call himself a basketball god. Maybe…master?
“Yeah. Totally not our fault. And I thought your knees totally hurt?” Hayato calls.
“Jeez! They’re fine. Everyone needs to get off my ass!” Kagami shouts back.
“Whatever, Kagami. See ya at school,” Yamata calls over his shoulder.
They start walking away. “Pussies,” Kagami mumbles under his breath. What I wouldn’t do for actual basketball. Why’s everyone gotta suck so much, huh? I wanna get my ass beat for once… His only hope is that maybe some of the older kids at the court will let him join their game. They usually laugh him off, telling him he’s got no chance and he’s too short and blah, blah, blah, but the point is, he doesn’t care. He’s tired of winning all the time in gym against his classmates. Tired of them blowing him off cause he’s too good. He wants a challenge. He wants to lose. The thought of playing someone stronger than him make him giddy and excited. It’s why he loves basketball.
He dribbles his ball further down the street, hoping to at least catch a good game to watch. He spots a three-on-three going on one of the back courts and decides to stick around for a bit. He sits down on the ground outside the fence, tossing his basketball between his hands.
He scrutinizes the court for a while, noticing that the game appears lopsided. Is one of the teams missing a player? And then he sees a vaguely person shaped blur speed by in an instant and a ball go flying at an impossible angle and magically makes it’s way through the old, net-less hoop.
“The fuck…” Kagami mumbles to himself.
The person shaped blur slows down and reveals itself as a person shaped person. A small one at that. Shorter than Kagami even. A kid.
“No way.”
The kid’s grinning like an idiot and the highschoolers he’s playing against nearly simultaneously place their foreheads into their hands. His own teammates cheer him on, patting him on the head.
“Way to go, little man!” one says, ruffling his short, navy blue hair.
The kid laughs. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s finish kicking these pussy-asses.”
“Wait, wait,” one of the highschoolers from the opposite team holds up a finger as he says some things into the phone at his ear. After he hangs up he says, “Sorry guys, I gotta go.”
“Ah, no way man! We gotta finish the game!” says one of his teammates.
“Real sorry guys! But I really gotta go,” he says, picking up his bag. “Later!”
“Fuck! Now what?” says the other highschooler on the kids team. “Oh, sorry kid. Probably shouldn’t cuss like that.”
“Oh, fuck all that shit up your ass,” the kid replies. Some of the other highschoolers laugh at his profanity. “Anyway, we gotta find someone to finish up. I ain’t done yet,” the kid says, bouncing restlessly on his toes.
Before Kagami knows what he’s doing, he’s speaking up. “Um, can I play?” he asks.
They all turn to him. He and the kid lock gazes. He’s got these crazy intense blue eyes, that remind Kagami of bolts of electricity. It’s like he has all this pent up energy he’s keeping bottled up, but it escapes through his eyes, through that look, brimming over the top like he just can’t quite contain himself. Kagami looks back at him with the same intensity, trying to convey how badly he needs to be on the court right now.
After a second of silence the boy nods. “Yeah,” he says like he’s the one calling the shots. He glances over at the highschoolers with those eyes, daring them to tell him any different. Kagami has a feeling that this kid gets his way a lot. All the highschoolers mumble affirmations and start heading back into their positions.
“Hey kid,” says one of the guys on Kagami’s team. “Don’t slow us down, ‘kay?”
Kagami nods. “‘Kay.” He feels the skin on the side of his face prickling and turns to find the kid staring at him with those eyes again. His lips twitch slightly, like he’s repressing a full out grin. Kagami glares at him, thinking he’s making fun, but the boy throws his head back and laughs.
“Come on, let’s go!” He shouts, bouncing up and down again. This kid really is like a tightly coiled spring. He’s about ready to go nuts any second and for some reason Kagami can’t wait.
“Here kid,” one of Kagami’s teammates hands Kagami the ball, motioning him to the sideline.
Kagami nods. Taking a second to assess the court. Kagami decides to take advantage of the kid’s height. Or lack thereof. He tosses it high and the guy the kid’s guarding manages to jump up and catch it. Kagami sprints into action, turning on his heal as a member of the opposite team tries to block him. He starts in the other direction, totally open, and hoping he’s the only one so he’ll get a pass.
“Right here!” he calls, holding up his hand. The guy with the ball has no choice. He passes it to him. Kagami catches it easily and quickly looks for an opening…there! He darts to the left, knowing he’s not as good shooting for that side, but it’s still a simple shot to make. He plants his feet and then jumps with all his might. Everything slows down, like he’s the only one in the world as he drifts towards the apex of his jump. And then there’s a hand right in front of him. The kid!
How in the hell did he catch up to me! But Kagami’s too high up all ready and he’s a bit taller than the kid anyway. He shoots, willing it to go in…
It does. Without the satisfying “swoosh” of the net, but it goes in cleanly regardless.
He lands back down on the ground. “Yeah!” he yells, pumping a fist in the air. That’s when he notices that his voice had broken the silence the same way his fist had broken through the air. “What?”
“Damn kid! How’d you learn to jump like that,” one of his teammates asks.
Kagami shrugs, bashfully scratching the back of his head. “I dunno. I just do it I guess.”
“Damn these kids, huh?” one of the others says. They keep talking as everyone gets back into position, but their voices muffle and warp until they bend to nothing as Kagami stares into the insane blue eyes of the kid who somehow moved so fast Kagami isn’t sure he didn’t just teleport there. And his eyes, they turn from a wild cacophony, an orchestra warming up in all different keys and times, to a well conducted symphony. A narrowed, precise, beautiful focus that sends shivers down Kagami’s spin.
“You’re good,” the boy says, a manic grin materializing on his face. “You’re good.” And then he saunters off, that smile, that symphony never leaving his face.
This kid…
Kagami shifts his weight, trying to guard his much taller opponent as effectively as possible. He keeps his eyes on the kid, now on offense. He’s seemingly undeterred by the tall barrier in his path.
Lightning quick, he’s got the ball and Kagami is after him. The kid manages to drive past the other two with blinding speed without much effort. He gets ready to take the shot but Kagami’s in the way already.
Instead of looking mad, or worried, or even trying to calculate his next move, the kid just grins at him like he’s happy he’s being blocked. He takes a step back and leans to the side, tossing the ball on an insanely curved, graceless trajectory towards the basket and Kagami thinks to himself that there is absolutely no way in hell that could go in and yet…
“Hahahah! Yes! Fuck yes!” He calls out, and practically skips away and Kagami was right. This kid does always get what he wants, even when what he want is for an absolutely impossible shot like that to go in.
They play for another hour or so and it starts to get dark.
“Hey guys, I think we better call it quits,” one of Kagami’s teammate says, panting.
The kid pouts briefly. “Fine.”
“Hey, I never did get your name,” Kagami’s teammate asks.
“Kagami Taiga.”
“Well Taiga-kun, you’re pretty awesome. For a brat,” he replies, ruffling his hair.
“Hey!”
“Haha! I’m Tekai and this is Kibuchi,” he says gesturing to their other teammate. “If you ever wanna play, we’re here a lot. You should come by.”
“Really? Can I?” Kagami asks, excited to have people to play with on a regular basis.
“Of course! But only if you call us senpai,.” Kibuchi says self-importantly.
“Of course, Kibuchi-senpai!”
“Hahaha! Yeah, good. I like that.”
They say their goodbyes and Kagami looks over his shoulder to find him and the kid alone. The kid glides over to him. “I’m Daiki. Aomine,” he says, tucking his basketball under his arm.
“Kagami Taiga.”
“Kagami. Taiga. Good to meet you,” The kid - Aomine - his wild eyes have hardly wained at all. He still has that insane light behind them as he looks Kagami up and down. Kagami fights the urge to turn away.
“You’re really good, Aomine-kun,” Kagami tells him.
Aomine cocks his head to the side and grins, white teeth flashing brilliantly against his dark skin. “Yeah. I know. But so are you.”
Kagami blushes. “Thanks.”
“We should play again sometime. Just us. One-on-one, yeah?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Good,” he smiles that slightly manic smile again and then digs around in his backpack. “Hey, give me your number,” he says, pushing his phone into Kagami’s hands.
“Oh…’kay. Here.” He hands Aomine his phone in kind.
They punch their numbers in the others phone.
“I’ll text ya,” Aomine says, stuffing his phone in his shorts pocket rather than bothering to open up his backpack again. “Bye!” He takes off running the opposite direction from Kagami’s own house.
“That kid…” Kagami whispers to himself. “Is fucking nuts.” But he grins. Finally. Finally someone good enough to have Kagami’s heart racing, because that is certainly why his heart is racing as he looks at his phone wondering when Aomine, that crazy, mysterious kid with the wild, wild eyes, was going to text him so he can see him and hear that wonderful symphony again because once certainly wasn’t enough…