The week passed and all of the players had successfully finished their respective works for their academics. The practice match against Touou had been occurred with Touou’s win since Tsukiko wasn’t taking the game seriously. After the game, she immediately changed and told Emiko about her plans with Aomine and asked if she could tell Tetsuya. Of course, Emiko being close with her just nodded her head and wished the couple’s safety.
“You all set?” Aomine asked as Tsukiko approached him with a smile, with him surprised by her hand lacing its way to his hand. She responded with a nod and stuck her tongue out. “I hope it’s okay if I wore my uniform, it’s a hassle if I brought casual clothes”
“It’s okay” Aomine assured as they started to walk to the city. They were talking about their date today, and him asking her where to go. “Well, you could tour me around the city since I’m still not familiar with Tokyo” Tsukiko suggested.
“Oh, I can take you to the arcade again, and…” Aomine listed the places he would take her. A smile slowly appeared on her face with her cheeks pinked from excitement and squealed hugging Aomine. “Then you can take me to the hospital!” she shrieked.
Aomine looked at her like she was crazy and asked. “Why do you even like to go to hospitals?” he quizzed raising an eyebrow. Tsukiko blinked at him innocently then beamed. “Because I never been to one!” was her reason.
“When I was a little kid, my grandparents would go there often because of my grandpa’s sickness, and they wouldn’t take me with them and leave me with the helper at our house” she started to tell him stories of her past.
“How come?” Aomine asked.
Tsukiko shrugged. “Who knows? And my brother, being the arrogant and stubborn, his curiosity got most of him and would often secretly follow them. Then when he goes back, he’d tell me how amazing the hospital looks like and you can see this thing that can save someone’s life!”
“O-Oh that, clear thing” Aomine uttered, staring up the sky.
“Oh! Oh! Aomine, can you also show me what a mall looks like?” Tsukiko requested.
Aomine stopped and looked at her. “You’re purely a province girl” he told her making her pout.
“That’s why I’m asking you to tour me around the city!” Tsukiko whined and Aomine chuckled.
“Sure, anything for you”
“And you should do that because you’re my prince charming!”
“Will you drop that already?!”
Tsukiko laughed and pulled Aomine with her. They reached the city, with Aomine touring her around. He took her to the mall; they had window shopping and soon went to the arcade again where Aomine challenged her to regain his victory of racing again. She boldly accepted his challenge and had beaten him again. Next they played a shooting game where Tsukiko almost panicked when she saw the fake guns. Aomine laughed at her and explained that they were fakes making the girl pout and her cheeks redden.
“Here, you just click this and aim” Aomine taught her how to play, his arms around her.
“I-I see” Tsukiko stuttered, blushing at the position they had.
They played games and soon enough, Tsukiko had learned how to play and beat Aomine again. “You’re a fast learner” Aomine commented after they bought ice cream and sat on the bench at the park nearby. “Did you learn basketball as fast like that?”
Tsukiko nodded by licking her ice cream. “Actually, I was thought of advance basketball, that’s why I’m good at it” She explained.
“What?” Aomine raised his eyebrow. Tsukiko sighed. ‘I guess this is the part where Takuya is mentioned…’
Tsukiko cleared her throat and started telling her story. “When I was a little kid, I thought I was an only child of my family but turns out my father had an affair and had a kid with another woman” she started. “And with that, there Takuya, oh wonderful Takuya was introduced”
“T-Takuya?” Aomine recognized the name. “So, he’s your brother?!”
“Step” she corrected. Aomine sighed in relief remembering what Kagami has told him. He noted to himself that he’d kick Kagami at the ass if he ever seen him again for telling him false facts, and got him worried for no reason.
Tsukiko laughed at his expression. “You thought that he was like an ex-boyfriend of mine or some sort, didn’t you?”
Aomine blushed making her chuckle.
“Oh Aomine, you’re so kawaii” she pinched his cheeks. “No, he isn’t. He’s just my idiotic step-brother”
“So what happened to him? Why didn’t he come with you to Tokyo?” Aomine asked her.
“I thought I was telling the history of my skill in basketball” Tsukiko reckoned, folding her arms.
“Tch, oh sorry”
Tsukiko chuckled softly and continued. “Anyway, I’ll get to that but first—my step-brother Takuya was introduced to me when I was a little kid. My father let him stay there while he sorted things with his affair and my mother. Takuya was forced to live with me and my grandparents. He was a city child so he didn’t have friends back at home” Tsukiko smiled at the memory.
“So he had no choice but to play with me. I thought him the games back and the province and he thought me his. And that’s when basketball was introduced to me…”
Aomine stared at her unusual smile. It was a smile of pure joy that he hasn’t seen before. A smile Tsukiko hasn’t done for a while since she went to Japan.
“Takuya would come and visit me every summer to teach me new tricks and techniques he learns from his friends from his school. And he even bought advance basketball books for us to study” she scratch the back of her neck. “Yeah, you can say us kids studying advance stuff is pretty monstrous”
“I don’t think that”
“Stop it, you’re making me blush”
“Sorry” Aomine snickered.
“Anyway, Takuya and I started to join the older players in our province who play basketball and evolved rapidly with our skills in that sport. We were later called prodigies, and followed the monsters” she sighed, closing her eyes for a bit but reopened it. “We excelled in the sport that we didn’t realize that people didn’t want to play with us anymore. Nobody dared to play against us…”
Aomine looked at her sadly, understanding the emotion she felt. “Takuya, being a better player than me and was passionate about basketball was really affected and just decided to leave the province for good. His personality even changed. He flew to America with his mother during middle school and I never seen him since” she sighed and beamed.
“Well I haven’t told that story for a while”
“You never told anyone about?”
“Just my two cousins” Tsukiko replied as Aomine nodded. “Have they met Takuya before?” Tsukiko responded a nod. “Yeah actually, those two joined us in playing basketball. And that’s when Tetsuya started to play but never had a chance to be taught by Takuya since he always sleeps whenever he is asked to teach that bluenette”
“I see” Aomine glanced at her. “Does he even bother you?”
Tsukiko looked at him with her eyes narrowed. “Of course it does. Takuya is special to me, and he’s behind the reason why I enjoy basketball” she said with a smile.
There was a guilty feeling growing on Aomine’s chest that he didn’t understand.
“I don’t let it bother me, because one day he’ll return to his normal self because someday he’ll find a competitive player that will surely beat him back to reality that someone else could beat him rather than himself!” Tsukiko grinned at Aomine.
“U-Uh…” he was speechless and looked away.
“Huh? Is there something wrong?”
“N-No, I’m just tired…”Aomine reasoned and stood up. “C’mon I’ll walk you home” he started to walk way without a word.
“H-Hey, wait!” Tsukiko ran after him and took his side. Aomine had walked Tsukiko home, and throughout the walk, he was quiet. Tsukiko noticed he was thinking deeply and didn’t dare who asked him why and just thought to give him some space. Seeing him like that somehow reminded her of Takuya.
10 years ago.
“Takuya! Takuya!” young Tsukiko ran after her step-brother who was just as her age after going back from the court of their province. “Why are you walking too fast?”
Takuya had stopped making her bump onto his back. “Tsukiko” she noticed her step-brother’s face was different. “Why?” he asked. “Why do they treat us like we’re monsters?”
“E-Eh?”
“They don’t want to play with us anymore! Why is that? What’s so exciting… basketball… they made basketball boring…”
“T-Takuya…”
“I don’t understand them, why do they, why does everyone make basketball look boring? It doesn’t look fun anymore like it should be!”
“Takuya calm down!”
“No! Those people… I—they made basketball look boring! It isn’t exciting anymore! Am I really that good for them not to beat me? t-they…”
Tsukiko gulped seeing the scary face on Takuya as he walked away without a single word.
“T-Takuya?”
NOW.
Tsukiko shook her head remembering that memory of hers. ‘Why am I remembering that now?’ she asked herself and bumped onto Aomine’s back. “Oh sorry” Aomine stared at her with his blue eyes and faced her. “A-Aomine?”
“Tsukiko!”
“E-Eh? What is it?”
“I—I---I—”
“C’mon spit it out”
“Aomine sighed. “It’s nothing, we’re here. Go in now”
“Already?”
“What were you doing, day dreaming?” he raised an eyebrow at her. Tsukiko flinched and shook her head. She head to their gate and was about go inside when she looked back at Aomine and called him. “Aomine!”
Aomine stopped and looked at her.
“Arigatou for listening to me today” she smiled at him and attacked him a hug. He was surprised at first and hugged back with a sincere smile. “I don’t want to let go of you” he accidentally murmured but she didn’t hear him.
“What was that?” he blushed and waves it off. “N-Nothing!” Tsukiko pouted surprised Aomine. His eyes widened as he stared at Tsukiko’s leaning face, and felt her lips pressed on his. Tsukiko pulled back with a slight blush on her cheeks.
“That was fun! Let’s do that again sometime!” she said. “And don’t worry about what I told you! Takuya is a nice guy! He’s just a jerk when it comes to basketball!” she waved and went inside.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Aomine muttered to himself and made his way back to his house. “Seriously, I feel guilty after hearing who that Takuya was. If I was still like a jerk like I was, I would’ve hurt Tsukiko twice…”
With Aomine’s continuous talking to himself, he didn’t notice to pass by a brunette guy whom he bump the shoulder. “S-Sorry” he apologized.
“hm, it’s okay!” the guy was cheery and smiled at him and continued to walk. ‘Why is a guy doing here in the dark late at night?’ Aomine stared at him and shrugged. “Who cares?”
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Gah is this story even making sense -__-
SPOILER ALERT: I am putting drama before ending this. LOL.