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Sharing Spaces (2013.03.01)
"Oh!" she exclaimed when she opened the door to find the two of them standing there. As if they hadn't called ahead for such a reason. "Well then, c'mon in!" Still humming and bouncing the baby on her hip with the ease of long practice, the three of them moved into the apartment. Kagami noticed it wasn't that small, and was very neatly ordered though there was evidence of children's toys and safety measures in odd places, like the corners of the coffee table.
The infant burbled, spit bubbles spilling onto its bib, and she wiped them away with a towel. "I'll make tea in just a minute, so take a seat."
"I can help," Kagami said. She opened her mouth to protest and he moved into the kitchen. After being roped into helping Alex through her first pregnancy he had developed a very keen sense of respect for the pains they had to go through. He found tea packets on the counter and cups and was done in about three seconds it took for Akashi to block her (ha, the Eyes did come in useful outside of a basketball court) entry into the kitchen. He set the whole thing on a tray and Akashi, giving him a look of I trust you have this under control, went outside to (presumably) teach the toddler advanced game strategy or poker or something.
"Well!" she stuck her hands on her very widened hips. Her baby bulge stuck out obscenely but Kagami knew better than to look. "That was very helpful, Kagami-kun. But don't think you'll get away with bossing me around my house all the time."
"Wouldn't think of it," he almost added ma'am, until he recalled how much it hurt when Alex smacked him when he said that. "Momoi. The haircut's nice."
She puffed up - which was alarming, given the size she already was - and then none too gently smacked him on the arm anyway. He suppressed a wince. "Oh, you big flatterer! No wonder Akashi-kun likes you! He always did like a good ego-stroking."
Among all the other things I do for him. "If you haven't started lunch, I can cook," he offered. She hemmed and hawed a bit about "not making guests work" and "boldly barging where Bakagamis shouldn't go", but in the end sank into the kitchen chair with a sigh and simply acquiesced with, "I heard from both Dai-chan and Tetsu-kun that you cook a sight better than everyone else in the Generation of Miracles combined."
He paused at the names. Perhaps she didn't know. He tried for flippant. "I'm alright, I guess. Comes from the necessity."
"I forgot," she said, apologetic. Ah, so she does know. "That you and - yeah. You got a new apartment after you moved out, didn't you? Dai-chan went to the party, I remember. Spent a lot of time looking for tickets and things online - you would've thought he was planning a damned wedding, with all the preparations he did. Going to America to see his Tetsu."
"Yeah," Kagami said. His throat felt closed and tight and abruptly, he looked down to make sure he hadn't added anything strange to the stir fry. Thank God it was only stirfry, which could contain most of the raw vegetables in the refrigerator and yet still taste okay.
"You...what about that apartment? He said you left in such a hurry...did you leave it to Tetsu-kun too?"
Briefly he entertained the idea of Kuroko abusing the key and him and Aomine having sex on on his apartment floor. It seemed like the salacious, dastardly thing to do, but that was probably just Kagami's vitriolic bitterness talking. "Yeah. Watering the plants and all that." Or hell, maybe all of his tomatoes were dead. Kuroko certainly couldn't cook worth shit and he doubted he went through all the trouble of giving them to Alex.
"And now you're hanging out at Atsushi-kun's place, without a job."
It was actually Himuro's, but the sentiment was correct. "Yeah. Was thinking of becoming a fireman here, too."
Momoi tapped her finger to her chin in thought. "Well...that's not the most out-there proposition I've heard. I mean, you worked as one over there, right? So it's not like you don't have experience or credentials, just...the test. That's what you need help with, isn't it?" He nodded.
"Uh-huh." He pushed the stir fry onto a plate and started on the fried rice. She had a half-finished jar of kimchi next to two empty ones and smirked. Alex had been hooked on that too during her nine months. He added some into the rice.
"Do you still love him?" she finally asked. When he looked back she was staring out the window, the pout of her lips sad. Absently she stroked her stomach back and forth hypnotically, until Kagami had to look away. Life kicked away inside of her, and like the image he had of her in his mind, he knew Momoi would get over this. She was strong, stronger than him - maybe someday she could even reconcile herself with the fact she had loved and lost the bastard who did this to her.
Her eyes found his. "Well?" she said, with just a hint of fire.
"How couldn't I," he said. He had never put words to this except for in his head, in the dark hours when Akashi was asleep in his arms in the very beginning of their relationship. "He moved with me, read my thoughts, my feelings...he let me do what I was born to do." He thought of waves meeting ocean and crashing sound against rocks and Kuroko who looked up at him as if Kagami was everything, and he longed for nothing more. Such a deluded little dream. He poured the rice into a bowl and started rooting through the refrigerator again for something, anything he could cook.
"I loved him too, or at least I thought I did. As if he was some sort of prince in a fairytale...as if free popsicles meant love in return." She dragged the chopsticks towards her and somewhere in the conversation he saw that Akashi had settled the infant into the child seat and had taken his own place at the table.
"Hmm. Not all guys are meant for children and a white picket fence."
"Not him. Not..." There was a peculiar way she said that word that made Kagami glance back suspiciously.
"Wait. Waitasec. Who knocked you up again?"
She shot him a baleful glare, but didn't comment on the crass word choice. "Who else? Ran off with his junior high school lover that I never had a chance with. Dai-chan was always shit at letting go." Tears welled in her eyes and Akashi, looked disturbingly out of his element, pushed a box of tissues towards her.
Kagami was more forward; he wrapped her in a hug and held her while she sobbed. "Stupid pregnancy," she mumbled into his shirt. "Stupid emotional mood swings. Stupid Dai-chan. Stupid Tetsu-kun. This is all so stupid. And you - you're not supposed to be this nice. I'm not supposed to think you're a good match or whatever."
"You're interested in me?" It was surprising.
She sniffled belligerently. "What, never got hit on by a girl before?" Next to them, Akashi was very quietly drinking his tea.
"Well - no, actually. Unless you count Alex, but Alex hits on everyone." Momoi couldn't help but laugh then. Kagami feigned surprise and added, "What, you too? Man, I always knew she swung both ways." Now Momoi really laughed, her small hands squeezing his arms.
"Isn't she like - your surrogate mom or something?"
"Big sister," he corrected. "Loud, horny, raunchy big sister."
"Did you ever want this?" The look in her eyes was so earnest and so damned hopeful. Kagami didn't know if he could steel himself against her disappointment. "Kids, a family, a wife - did you ever think of these things?"
He fingered a lock of her short hair - strawberry blonde, just like he remembered. She had been cute then, bouncing and perky and full of life. She hadn't changed - aged a little maybe, but in the way that sea glass was beautiful. He recalled, with a flush of guilt, that he had jacked off to the thought of her once. "Maybe when I was a kid. I think I even thought it would be perfect and happy." Finally, a family of my own. "Then I met Kuroko, and my dreams changed."
"He does have that way about him, doesn't he?"
"Like a meteor from the sky." Ocean stones and the brush of sand against his sneakers - blue like sky and freedom. The soaring sensation in his stomach every time Kuroko smiled at him. "I thought love was supposed to liberate you."
"Me too." She didn't even bother to apologize for her moods, and Kagami didn't need to hear it anyway. "Why - why couldn't it be someone like you?"
"Hey, we could still get together now. Leave those two suckers in the dust. I think we could pop out some pretty hot babies." She smacked him on the arm and put up a fuss about at least finding them bowls. She was still muttering when the front door opened and two other people tromped through, apparently having let themselves in with another key.
"Um," Kagami said intelligently as one of the people propped up his glasses with fingers that were no longer taped.
"Kagami. Akashi." Midorima nodded to both in turn. Takao gave them a much warmer welcome and made a beeline for the baby. "Oooh waka-waka-waka-poooo Tetsuya you little booooo noo don't splash your soup at me!" He made a cringing face as Tetsuya wiggled his arms and legs in excitement. "Now now, drink your...is this milk? What're those orangy bits inside of it?...uh, drink, let's say, and then maybe Mommy can take us for a walk!"
"Takao, you aren't a dog and you don't need walks - get over here and eat." Having ascertained that Momoi hadn't been the one to cook, Midorima had eagerly started to pile his bowl with everything in sight. He paused at the tamagoyaki, then looked slowly up at Kagami. "How did you know Akashi liked this?"
Kagami threw up his hands at the other redhead next to him. "Is there anybody in the Generation of Miracles you didn't sleep with? Or was there some sort of initiation ceremony that I haven't heard of? Man, you guys were in junior high school - half of you probably still had spots!"
"I did!" Takao's hand shot up in the air. After a moment, Tetsuya copied him, giggling.
"Not asking you!"
"I did not have spots," Akashi answered primly. "When my father dies and passes all of the belongings to me, I have pictures for proof. And for the record, I didn't sleep with Haizaki, he had a small cock and no stamina. And he was unforgivably crass. Oh, and there might have been an initiation ceremony to tattoo the name of the girl you like on your ass when you entered, but that was mostly an informal thing that was below my participation."
"You went around tattooing each other's asses--" But by then even Midorima was shaking with the effort not to chortle out loud and Takao was literally pounding the kitchen counter in his mirth. Kagami closed his mouth when Akashi tilted his head at him, just a tiny movement. The flash of his eyes was - with no other words that came to mind - playful.
He grumped as he fished more baby food out of the cupboard for the brat (and it started crying, so it had officially earned that name) and then frowned when he stomped back to the table. "Where the hell'm I supposed to sit?"
"I could share with Shin-chan--"
"Takao-kun NO, we all remember what happened last time and I'd prefer not to expose Tetsuya's eyes to that so young!"
"--oh his eyes are probably still looking backwards or whatever I learned in Pediatrics 101--"
"Takao, sit on the ground."
"Wha - no! Shin-chan, this is my uncle's house! Awww, don't make me sit on my uncle's house's floor! You're here on my good graces anyway!"
"Blackmail is an efficient method to get oneself out of undesirable situations," Akashi nodded.
"Yeah, see? The yakuza guy says so!"
"Ohh, please don't talk about adult topics at the lunch table! Tetsuya's going to --"
"--wail his head off about it? C'mon Momoi, he only knows things like WALK!" The baby squirmed excitedly at the word.
"You're yakuza?" Kagami said to the man settled on his lap. "And you have a bony ass. I never noticed that before."
"Too busy kneading it in the heat of the moment, I'm sure." Kagami was quite impressed with the way Akashi only let his smirk show behind his teacup.
Takao had noticed the seating change. "Oooh, so that's why he left Kuroko in such a hurry! Good choice, Kagamikkers, I approve!" He gave the stunned (Kagami) and amused (Akashi) couple an enthusiastic thumbs up.
"'Kagamikkers'?" Midorima repeated incredulously.
"Yeah, rhymes with 'knickers'! You know, the mutual tearing-off of."
"NO ADULT TOPICS AT THE TABLE!"
"What about on the table?" Takao waggled his eyebrows at Midorima, who blushed. "Ohh - I always wanted to know if you remembered that night. You were fantastically smashed, you know."
"Takao, do shut up."
Takao leaned across the table, his best challenging smirk in place. "Hmm, why don't we say - make me."
Momoi put her head in her hands. "It's hopeless," she moaned. "I give you guys five minutes together and you all revert back into provocative freaks who can't keep their hands off of each other!" Kagami patted her shoulder awkwardly. While she had her head down, Akashi leaned in. The kiss, while sweet, also squashed their noses from the odd position they were in.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kagami asked. Akashi's eyes were positively wicked.
"What could that possibly be?"
"Hey, you don't have to say it like I'm an idiot or something."
"I would never imply something so untrue."
"Fuck you."
"As you have done on many occasions and presumably will do so again in the near future," Akashi added serenely, and stood. "Since Kagami did the cooking, I expect the cleaning will get done by someone else. People who are not hindered physically at the moment." He started to drag Kagami towards the door.
"Whoo-hoo! Get a room, you two! In fact, you can borrow ours!" The statement actually made Akashi pause until the next sentence. "Hey Shin-chan, we still have the video cameras, you think your ex-boyfriend would let us -"
"Takao, shut up!"
"I'll call you about the civil servant exams," Kagami tried to say, but Momoi was still muttering into her hands about men being a different and unwanted species of unearthly creature that was just far too insane for her to contemplate. "Why wasn't I a lesbian?" she wailed. Tetsuya wailed with her.
"We'll uh, be back," Kagami managed to say before the front door shut. "Hey, that's a line from 'The Govenator'!," Takao called in answer.
"Wow, that was a madhouse," Kagami said once they were back home. The ride made him feel wind-whipped and fierce. From the look in his eyes, Akashi had also enjoyed it. "Whatcha smirking about over there, huh?"
"Your pick-up lines need work. But thankfully for you, I don't need to hear them."
"'Need'," Kagami repeated, grinning. Akashi sank oh-so-naturally on top of him, legs parted. He had opted for a pair of Himuro's old jeans and the casual, mussed look was a very nice change. Without any shyness or hesitation Akashi stripped off jacket and shirt. He batted Kagami's hands away when they reached for his belt buckle and instead slowly undid his pants. The bulge poked out from the V and as Kagami watched, he began to stroke himself through his underwear. Kagami followed suit.
He stared at Akashi through eyes half-lidded with pleasure. Here in the late afternoon sun filtering through the blinds, sex was lazy and casual. Different from night, when it seemed furtive in the shadows and all the more mysterious for the moonlight that sucked out the colors in the landscape. Kagami liked both ways, just like he liked Akashi - the way his lips part, the way he licked them when they were dry, the way his hand moved leisurely over both of them. This wasn't one of their "run & gun" sessions (or so Kagami privately called them) when the main purpose was to jerk off as fast as possible, or one of their intense bondage sessions. This was just him-and-Akashi, dabbling a little, kissing, touching. He let his fingers drowse against his mark, then up Akashi's spine, then back down. Comfortable and slow.
"So you're a denizen of the underworld, is that it? Can't say I don't find it hot, wanking a guy who grew up with guns and violence in the house."
"It was hardly that. Father never did business at the mansion, that's what the office is for."
"You got a hand in it too, then?"
"Yes, Taiga - every morning I rigged the pachinko machines with my own hands," he answered sardonically. "Even when I was young, I was interested in other things. More wholesome ones."
"You know, I'm sure from an alien point of view we would all be crazy, chasing a brown ball around a court for the sole purpose of tossing it into a metal hoop."
"We are crazy, all of us. You are. I am. Mmngh." They kissed long and slow, tongues twining, lips sucking. Their hands, clenched together, squeezed and twisted. The even sounds of Akashi's hand moving slickly over both of them filled their corner of the room. The afternoon sun made Kagami's skin feel prickly. The warmth matched the amused arousal mood.
You make me crazy, he finished in his mind. Out loud he said, "Aliens wouldn't get why I love this either."
Akashi's eyes snapped back to his face, boiling up all the sluggish calm in the air. He didn't repeat the word but it hung there like a sun, something bright and shiny and unavoidable that Kagami couldn't take his eyes off of.
There, on a sunny afternoon in his brother's room, another man's dick rubbing next to his and another man's hands roving restlessly all over his body, he whispered awkwardly, "Yeah. You heard me." These words I never meant to say to you.
Akashi squinted at him, trying to tell the truth from the lie. In the end he nudged their foreheads together and his long, long red lashes lapped against his sun-kissed cheeks as he sighed. He said Kagami's name like he always did in the heat of the moment, but this time Kagami was keenly aware of what went into that utterance. "Taiga." Longing. "Taiga." Fear. "Taiga..." Kagami was filling in the silences with his own thoughts, but unless he asked he hardly knew if they were true or not.
He wanted to answer all of those wobbling uncertainties with Trust me, it'll be alright, but since he wasn't sure, he settled for tracing his thumb over the cuts on Akashi's hip, over and over again, until Akashi blazed with his skin aglow and his throat bared, still clad in his jeans and socks. He was perfect in that flawed, stilted kind of way that sometimes thumped inside the cavity where Kagami's heart was supposed to be. The space he took up in his chest seemed to expand every day they woke up next to each other.
I'm learning to fly again and it's all your fault, he said with every kiss, every touch. Give me the song, and I'll sing it back. I can do this for you, Akashi.
Resting in the awesome aftermath, Kagami tested the nickname out silently in his head: Sei. He wondered if Akashi would like it, if he ever got around to saying it someday.
Love you, Sei. It had a good ring to it.