Work Text:
“Should we start dating officially?”
The question itself surprises Kagami, secondary to his shock that this is the first thing out of Kuroko’s mouth after a kiss. Both of which take a back seat to the biggest surprise of all: that Kagami kissed him.
He definitely wasn’t planning on it. He’s not even sure he’s ever thought about Kuroko that way until ten seconds ago. The moment got away from him. They were the last two in the club room, and Kuroko was chatting idly about something. It wasn’t related to basketball, otherwise Kagami might’ve actually paid attention instead of stealing glances at the way Kuroko’s lips moved when he talked with a small smile.
He’s actually a chatterbox, Kagami remembers thinking right before he leaned in. It flipped a switch in his chest when he realized that Kuroko is only this talkative around the people he’s most comfortable with.
The kiss itself was fine. Kuroko halted mid-sentence (the small-breed dog park he and Nigou have been frequenting?) and stood perfectly still until Kagami pulled back and let his brain catch up with his body. It took a while. Kuroko’s lips are softer than they look.
In the silence afterward, Kuroko asked his deceptively simple question, and Kagami has no idea where to start.
“Uh. Officially?” he asks, uncertain that they’ve been dating unofficially up until this point.
“You usually only kiss the people you want to date,” Kuroko explains with his uncanny seriousness. It’s always a toss-up whether he’s genuinely this robotic or just pulling Kagami’s leg. The small grin is a nudge toward the latter. “I’m flattered, by the way. I’ve always thought you’re pretty handsome when you’re not scowling.”
Kagami frowns. “Huh?”
“Exactly like that.” Kuroko shuts his locker, bag slung over his shoulder. “And I say officially because I’m not sure being public with a relationship would go over well for the rest of the team. Coach, specifically.”
Kagami slips his shirt on, which he was going to do much earlier before he got distracted. “You’re right. She’d probably kill us and not be gentle about it either.”
Kuroko angles his head toward the exit as if to indicate they’re walking home together. Kagami rolls with it, going as far as to hold the door open for the boyfriend he didn’t have this morning.
“So,” he says as Kuroko locks the door. “We’ll just keep it between us for now?”
“It’ll be exciting, don’t you think? Like we’re spies on an undercover mission.”
Kagami walks on the side of Kuroko that doesn’t have his sports bag, because the tiny black and white hellspawn has popped his head out from the zipper and is panting happily in the fresh air.
“You read too many comics,” Kagami says. When the instinct to reach out and hold Kuroko’s hand kicks in, he doesn’t resist.
Kuroko does, though, taking his hand back to grasp at the strap of his bag. “We should at least wait until we’re off school property. It won’t be much of a secret if we’re so open right off the bat.”
“I knew that.” Kagami did not know that. He scratches the back of his head, mentally noting to add a vanilla shake to his regular order at Maji Burger. “How hard can it be?”
After a weekend of nonstop skirmishes, between which Riko made everyone on the team do five laps per missed basket, Kagami is exhausted. The only saving grace for his overworked legs is that the training camp took place at a school too far to walk from, so they have a bus.
He sits in the back with a heavy slump that makes the whole vehicle rock on its wheels. The sun is going down, and tomorrow is Monday, which means he can’t sleep in, and he absolutely has more running to do during practice after a long day of classes.
It’s two hours to get back to Seirin. Kagami will be damned if he doesn’t get some shuteye, and thankfully everyone else is just as wiped as he is, so the bus is delightfully quiet.
A warm presence that he has started to recognize as Kuroko slides into the seat next to him. He keeps his eyes closed, head resting on the back of the seat, but scoots over a few inches to help Kuroko get more comfortable.
“It’s creepy how you do that,” Koganei says from the row in front of them.
Kagami opens his eyes to the second year blinking curiously at him.
“Do what?” Kagami asks.
“You reacted the moment he sat next to you without opening your eyes! I’ve known Kuroko just as long as you have, and I still get jumpscared on a daily basis.”
Kagami shrugs and glances to the side. Kuroko is buckling himself with half the speed of a sloth, giving no indication that he’s listening to either of them. If this weekend’s games were hard on Kagami, then Kuroko is rendered basically useless after all that training.
“Probably because I’m on the court with him the most.” Which is part of the truth but not all of it. Even Kagami was caught unprepared half the time if Kuroko showed up out of the blue, but that’s been happening less and less since they started officially-unofficially dating. What he can’t tell Koganei or anyone else is that it’s kind of hard to ignore someone you’ve had so much physical and emotional contact with recently.
Kagami is so aware of Kuroko’s whereabouts because being with him is like slipping into the softest pajamas after a whole day of wearing a stiff school uniform. He thinks about him all the time. It’s a miracle his own hair hasn’t turned blue.
A better question would be how could Kagami not notice Kuroko?
When the bus starts moving, Koganei turns back around with some comment about Americans and superpowers. Kagami feels a little smug for that.
Kuroko is already asleep, head dangling at an awkward angle. No one’s looking. Kagami balls up his own Seirin jacket and carefully guides Kuroko to use it as a pillow against his shoulder.
Confident that they’re both more comfortable, Kagami closes his eyes again and lets the hum of the engine lull him into blissful oblivion.
He wakes up to the sound of the bus being turned off, but also a few sarcastic aww’s and someone’s camera going off.
“They’re as cute as a couple,” Izuki coos.
It takes a few more seconds for the rest of his surroundings to fill in. Kuroko is still asleep next to him. Kagami’s cheek is pressed against the soft hair at the top of his head. Kuroko’s hand is tucked into his elbow like an almost-cuddle.
Yawning, Kagami stretches his arms and pretends he didn’t notice the position at all. The soreness in his muscles makes itself known.
Kuroko finally stirs, blinking open his blue eyes that shine steadily in the early twilight.
“Are we back at school already?” he mumbles. Half-asleep Kuroko apparently does not remember their secret, because he turns and buries his face in Kagami’s arm.
More laughs and camera clicks.
“No couples on my team!” Riko yells from the front of the bus.
The roof is a no-go for lunch with how hard it’s raining. Kagami meets him at the usual spot, and they decide to find somewhere under the covered walkway between the school and the gym to sit and eat.
The steady downpour drums rhythmically against the metal structure, but at least it’s not cold or windy. They sit on the steps that lead to the gym doors, and Kagami hands Kuroko his lunch. Before either of them can get the bento lids off, company shows up.
“Oh, hey,” Furihata greets, tailed by the other first years. They all have sandwiches and snacks from the cafeteria. “We don’t normally see you two during lunch period.”
“Hello,” Kuroko says, and Kagami nods his own greeting.
He likes the roof because no one else ever bothers them. They still keep to their “plausibly platonic” interactions when at school, but the seclusion of the roof allows them to let some of their walls down—sharing food, talking about date plans, maybe exchanging a kiss or two. Nothing too incriminating.
Even if it’s just for one day, Kagami does not like having to give all that up.
Kuroko elbows him, and Kagami coughs around a mouthful of rice.
“Hey,” he greets properly, un-scowling his face. “Uh, is it okay if we hang out at your lunch spot today?”
The others are already setting their bags on the floor and joining them in a small circle.
Kawahara breaks the seal on his drink. “It’s like a secret Seirin first years meeting.”
“Strategizing for practice already?” Fukuda asks with a laugh.
Kagami returns to his food as the other three launch into discussions about basketball. He’s content to tune them out. The stone stairs are narrow enough to give him an excuse to let his thigh rest against Kuroko’s. No one would call him out for that, and even Kuroko radiates little sparkles as he takes his first few bites of lunch.
“Whoa, is that some kind of crazy coincidence?” Furihata asks mid-conversation.
The question makes Kuroko stiffen, which is the only reason why Kagami blinks back into the present moment.
“What?” he asks.
Furihata points to their bento, in identical boxes with identical wrappers holding identical meals. It all looks the same because it all came from Kagami’s kitchen. Because he made lunch for both of them. Which he’s been doing a lot since they started dating. Oh, shit.
“It is a coincidence. Can you believe it?” Kuroko says.
Kagami’s eyebrow twitches. As if anyone would believe you with that deadpan voice!
The other first years exchange dubious glances with each other. Kagami sputters and covers it up with another cough.
“Uh, he’s been bugging me about trying my food, so I made him one. Just this one. So he stops asking. Right, Kuroko?” Kagami could roll his eyes. If Kuroko is guilty of being too casual, then Kagami’s response wasn’t casual enough.
Kuroko has always been the shittiest liar, but it’s usually not a problem because they’re supposed to be having lunch alone instead of with an audience. Damn rain.
“Right. It’s delicious. You’re a really good cook, which I didn’t know until today. Thank you for sharing your food with me, Tai—I mean Kagami-kun.”
“That’s a little much,” Kagami mutters under his breath.
If the others find Kuroko’s response weird in any way, they must be used to his oddities by now. One by one, they chime in with how good Kagami’s cooking was during their first training camp, sighing wistfully at Kuroko’s bento.
To placate them—and to release himself from further suspicion—he offers to bring lunch for everyone tomorrow. The suggestion is enthusiastically received.
Kuroko’s phone rings while he’s in the shower.
Kagami wasn’t going to answer it, but then he sees the caller ID. The name kicks the monkey side of his brain into action, and he flicks the phone up to his ear before thinking better of it.
“Yo, Tetsu—” comes Aomine’s annoying drawl from the other end.
“Tetsuya’s busy right now,” Kagami says bluntly. He should hang up and leave it at that, but monkey-Kagami wants to rub it in Aomine’s face just a little more.
“Kagami Taiga,” Aomine hums, sounding less angry than Kagami would like. “Hand me over to my former shadow.”
“Can’t. He’s in the shower.”
A pause. “Why are you at his house?”
Kagami could ask why Aomine cares, or even better, why he’s calling someone who hasn’t been his teammate since last year, but the truthful response is the best of all.
“We’re at mine.”
He hopes Aomine can hear it. We as in just the two of us. We as in we’re alone. Not out with the team or a group of friends, and Kuroko is currently unwinding in Kagami’s apartment with Kagami’s soap and towels.
Aomine clicks his tongue, and it’s very satisfying to hear.
“Tell him to call me back when he’s no longer being smothered by such a dim light.” And the call drops.
Kagami lets him have the last word and claims the rest of it as victory.
Some minutes later, Kuroko emerges from the bathroom wearing Kagami’s pajamas, rubbing his hair dry with a towel. Kagami glances over from where he reclines on the bed and briefly wonders if it’d be too much to snap a picture and send it to all of the Generation of Miracles.
He knows that would defeat the purpose of keeping it a secret, but a guy is allowed to think possessive thoughts about his boyfriend once in a while.
He collects Kuroko in his arms when he comes to bed. His hair smells so fresh, the damp ends of it tracing cool patterns on Kagami’s forehead as they kiss.
Aomine would break his phone if he got a picture of this.
The mental image makes Kagami smile against Kuroko’s lips. He drops his head back on the pillow, letting Kuroko settle comfortably in the crook of his arm.
“Your phone buzzed while you were in there,” he says, handing the device over. “It was Aomine.”
“You answered it?” Kuroko clicks through the call history and furrows his eyebrows at the screen. “What did he want?”
“Beats me. Didn’t sound too happy that he had to talk to me instead. He hung up after I told him you were busy.”
Kuroko’s thumb hovers over the redial button. “Aomine-kun almost never calls. I wonder if it was important.”
“If it was, he’d probably have Sakura-chan tell you.”
“Sakura-chan?”
“The pink one.”
“Her name is Momoi Satsuki-san,” Kuroko admonishes gently. He tilts his head back on Kagami’s shoulder, an amused glint in his eyes. The phone flips shut. “You’re right, though. I’ll see what he wanted the next time we talk… Did you say anything else to him?”
“Like what?” Kagami is very distracted by Kuroko’s pouty lips. The sleeves of his t-shirt reach all the way to Kuroko’s elbows.
“Anything that might have compromised our secret.”
“We’re keeping it a secret from everyone? I thought it was just the team.”
Kuroko blinks, looking slightly alarmed until he sees the smirk easing onto Kagami’s mouth. He’s not the only one who can pull off some dry humor.
“Don’t scare me like that,” Kuroko sighs. “If you really riled him up, he might break down your door any minute.”
Kagami rolls them over, pinning Kuroko’s wrists to the bed as he leans into his space. His silver chain dangles off his neck, catching the light and reflecting in Kuroko’s deep eyes.
“Good thing I’m an ace at keeping secrets,” he muses, going in for the kiss.
They’ve barely gotten started when Kuroko’s phone rings again.
Kagami pushes up on one hand, the other very busy keeping pace between their bodies.
Kuroko stretches for his phone and reads the caller ID. The blue glow of the screen splashes across the blush on his cheeks.
“It’s him again.” He sends Kagami a questioning glance as if to leave the decision of answering it to him.
Kagami just grins and pumps his fist nice and slow. “Go on and pick up.”
Kuroko’s teeth worry at his lower lip. He checks the screen again and hesitates longer than an innocent person would.
“That’s a terrible idea,” he decides and rejects the call. His phone goes silent and dark, leaving just the two of them in the sea of pillows and blankets.
“You thought about it. I felt you twitch.”
“I did not.”
“You’re a shitty liar. And a little freak.” Kagami leans in close enough to nip at Kuroko’s ear. “You like the idea of someone hearing the noises I can get out of you. Almost like you want them to know you’re all mine.”
Kuroko’s arms go around Kagami’s shoulders to hold him there, his breath turning harsh as his fist speeds up. Kagami presses a line of kisses down his neck and relishes in the weak sound of protest that stops in his throat.
“Not going to deny it now?” he asks with a twist of his wrist.
Kuroko takes a deep breath. “Give me a moment. I’m still thinking of a witty reply, but rest assured it’ll be a good one.”
Kagami laughs because it’s genuinely funny that this is the person he has feelings for. And to think they wouldn’t be here right now if Kagami hadn’t spontaneously kissed him that first time. He’s thankful that he did, though, because it means he can kiss Kuroko whenever he wants.
Which he does again right now.
Maybe they’ve grown too bold. But after five months of successful secret-keeping, they’re less strict with how close they’re willing to get while at school. It’s been unexpectedly easy to fly under the radar.
This might come back to bite us later, Kagami idly thinks as Kuroko corners him in the gym’s supply closet.
The same Kuroko who didn’t want to hold his hand at school five months ago is now pushing those hands into Kagami’s shirt, groping to his greedy little heart’s content.
Kagami lets himself be pinned against the wall, tilting his head back when Kuroko lifts on his toes to mouth along his throat.
“Shouldn’t you be saving your energy for practice?” he comments, but still appreciating the thigh that wedges between his legs.
“This is just my warmup.”
It should be impossible for such a deadpan tone to sound so hot, but Kagami blames it on the fumes. He scrubs a hand through his hair as Kuroko gets to his knees, almost not wanting to look down because he knows he’d be a goner.
He looks anyway, tracking Kuroko’s hands moving through the dark to tug his shorts down a few inches. His own knees go weak like he’s been doing squats, and that’s before Kuroko parts his lips and leans in.
Kuroko prolongs it too, stopping every now and then to pepper kisses on and around Kagami’s hips. Sometimes he bites. Kagami curses, belatedly remembering that anyone could walk into the gym at any moment.
The potential of getting caught is more thrilling than he cares to admit. Not that he’d actually want anyone to see him—or worse, Kuroko—like this, but his fantasies run with it anyway. He lowers his hand to Kuroko’s hair, tugging not too hard, and has decent control over his voice when the climax hits him.
“You took forever,” Kagami complains half-heartedly, still catching his breath. “There’s barely enough time to do you.”
Kuroko stands, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I told you, that was a warmup.”
“Most people just say foreplay, you know.” A few things hit Kagami at once, the first being that Kuroko means he has more planned for after practice. The second is that he still has a whole practice to get through before that. “So you saved your energy, but I had to use up all of mine just in time for drills?”
Kuroko fixes Kagami’s shorts and smiles up at him. “It should be no problem for you, Taiga-kun. You’re very athletic.”
By now, Kagami can spot the sarcasm from a mile away.
“Kagami-kun, shirt off.”
Kagami flinches. He thought he’d managed to last all evening without drawing suspicion. His jumps were only slightly off during practice, but nothing escapes Riko’s scrutiny when she’s hell-bent on picking apart their insecurities seemingly for the fun of it.
It won’t be too bad, Kagami thinks as he stops in front of her and pulls his shirt off. I’m not injured, I swear. Just didn’t sleep well, a bit tired, definitely nothing to do with a certain ‘warmup’ from Kuroko.
Or so he thinks will be the case, but then he sees the whistle fall out of her mouth as she gapes at him.
He looks down, past the sweat rolling over his skin, to the scrunch of his basketball shorts and the waistband of his boxers hugging his hips. Barely visible above the fabric, slightly inward from the jut of the bone, is a bite mark.
A very fresh bite mark that he got from some sort of horny vampire just a few hours ago.
Riko’s lack of a response calls attention from the rest of the team. They all peek around to see what she sees, and everyone’s eyes go wide. All except for Kuroko’s, who is currently extremely engaged with tying his shoelaces.
“Everyone sit your asses down, right now,” Riko barks, and everyone goes down like there’s incoming cannon fire.
She paces in front of the group, leaving a dead silence. Kagami almost wishes someone on the team would start teasing him just so he wouldn’t have to sit here imagining all the ways Riko is about to kill him in a minute. She’ll make it look like an accident.
“In light of recent revelations,” she finally says, “I guess I’ll be giving a lecture about safe sex—”
All at once, the team erupts into sudden noise. Groans and yelps, and some people even cover their ears. Hyuuga, especially, makes it loudly clear how much he dislikes hearing her say that word.
She crosses her arms, face pink like she doesn’t want to be saying it either. “Shut up and listen, because your lives are most certainly over if you end up accidentally getting someone pregnant.”
“I promise I’m not getting anyone pregnant, Coach,” Kagami blurts out in an attempt to end the lecture before it begins. He shouldn’t have said anything, though, because Riko is a lot smarter than she looks. Certainly smarter than he is.
Her pacing halts abruptly, and she narrows her eyes like she can see all the way down to his skeleton. Kagami prays, but there is no being in the universe higher than Aida Riko. Slowly, she scans the faces of the entire team, stopping on the person sitting at the end.
Shit.
“Kuroko-kun. Stand up. Shirt off.”
Kagami can’t watch, so he drags a hand over his face instead. Next to him, Kuroko complies with Riko’s orders because there’s nothing else to do. There is another long stretch of silence as she analyses whatever data she can glean from Kuroko’s torso.
The moment it clicks, it’s like a bomb going off. Riko gasps suddenly, covering her mouth with both hands. The rest of the team each take turns looking back and forth between Kuroko and Kagami, and then, like a domino effect, all of their jaws hit the floor.
Now the teasing starts, and Kagami looks to Kuroko for some support, face red.
“She knows,” he says helplessly. Everyone knows. One of the second years grabs his shoulders and shakes him. Someone else wolf whistles.
Kuroko smiles at him.
“This should be interesting.”