1. Erase (Ogiwara Shigehiro/Furihata Kouki)
“You don’t have to apologize,” Ogiwara says, and Furihata know he doesn’t—it’s a nervous reaction when he’s uncertain and grasping for a position in the conversation, even though he knows it’s Ogiwara and he doesn’t have to be afraid.
But he is a little afraid—of making Ogiwara upset, of letting him think he doesn’t care, of saying something mistakenly callous. This feeling as gotten less intense as their relationship has gone on, but the doubt is still lurking there behind everything else. But Ogiwara grabs his hand and smiles, and before he knows it Furihata’s smiling, too—the only way they can erase the doubt is together.
2. Cheering (Hanamiya Makoto, Furuhashi Koujirou, Imayoshi Shouichi)
I’m cheering for you, Hanamiya. Good luck.
Hanamiya deletes the text message and glares at his phone—he is going to kill whoever gave that bastard his number.
“Quit looking at my damn phone! This isn’t any of your business.”
Furuhashi doesn’t bother to look away. “I’m not looking at your phone.”
He cranes his neck even farther. And since Hanamiya would really rather get a new phone than have to put up with texts from that person, he throws his phone at Furuhashi’s face. Unfortunately, it lands right in Hara’s hand. And he’d left it unlocked.
3. Accumulation (Kagami Taiga/Himuro Tatsuya)
He’s never going to get used to traveling this much. He doesn’t hate it (and it’s worth it to play basketball all the time and at such a high level) but it’s physically and mentally exhausting, cramped even in the team plane seats with ample leg room and just too uncomfortable in every way. Every road trip is an accumulation of knots in his back and kinks in his neck; the team’s massage therapist will work out what doesn’t fall away during stretching and practice and yet they always come back.
And then he gets home on the red-eye from the east coast, ready to fall into bed even after the shitty airport coffee and it’s Saturday (not that he can keep track of the days that well) and Tatsuya’s still home, waiting for him in a half-empty bed with covers to tuck around him and dexterous hands with fingers working his back like raindrops on a surface of a lake, creating ripples of malleability in his skin that he hadn’t known was there, loosening his muscles and relaxing him into inevitable sleep. And when he wakes up he still feels good; he walks into the living room and leans over the back of the couch and his back does not protest and he hugs Tatsuya’s shoulders and that’s the least he can do for this. But he’s so glad to be home.
4. Understanding (Aomine Daiki/Kise Ryouta/Midorima Shintarou)
It’s been a long day for all of them in their respective workplaces, but Ryouta comes back the latest. He’s stiff from standing in place all day and while it wasn’t as mentally exhausting as Shintarou’s or Daiki’s work, it’s still physically tiring and he’s about ready to flop down and fall asleep.
And despite their own exhaustion, Daiki and Shintarou understand. They’re there to help him with his clothes and offer soothing touches and they don’t expect him to stay up or stay peppy or draw on what little energy he has needlessly. And this tacit understanding, the way that they are his no matter what, no matter which side of himself he chooses to show, is one of the biggest reasons he loves them.
5. Explain (Hara Kazuya/Seto Kentarou)
Whenever Seto tries to explain programming and starts with logic gates, Hara cuts him off by asking if he can just get to the part where they hack the mainframe already and Seto looks for a second as if he would like to fracture Hara’s elbow. He never does, though; Hara always snickers and leans in for a kiss.
“You’re so cute, Seto.”
“Shut up,” Seto mutters into the kiss.
His hand is fisted too-tightly in Hara’s hair and he pulls on the ends and Hara can taste the pettiness on Seto’s mouth.
6. Prouder (Hayakawa Mitsuhiro, Takeuchi Genta)
Captaincy isn’t something that comes wholly naturally to Hayakawa. He’s good at encouraging everyone, at rallying spirits, but when it comes to the administrative side he’s easily confused and bad at forcing himself to have patience.
But he’s willing to learn, which is why he’s such a clear choice for Takeuchi to make. People can learn to make practice schedules, analysis, and what to do with the data they pick out visually. The learning curve is much steeper for actually seeing things, for knowing the right thing to say, for genuine enthusiasm. And Hayakawa is a joy to teach, soaking up the spills of knowledge like a heavy-duty paper towel—and every day Takeuchi is a little bit prouder.
7. Jacket (Alexandra Garcia/Araki Masako)
Alex says it never rains here, but of course it does on Masako’s second day visiting. Alex lends her a faded purple jacket with the her former team’s logo on the back—Masako doesn’t say anything about that and Alex doesn’t either, and if there’s a story other than the general one about Alex and her playing days it doesn’t lie between them like the proverbial elephant in the room, so it can’t really be a significant one. She tells Masako it looks good on her and that she can keep it if she likes (and she does have more jackets than she’d even need if she lived in Akita and she’s got on quite a stylish one herself).
So Masako accepts, because it must be significant, significant enough for Alex to want Masako to keep it with her. So she wears it on cold mornings when she makes her students do their physical education outdoors (and it’s cold enough that they’ll run hard just to keep warm) and those are the days she replies to Alex’s selfies with ones of her own, jacket draped loosely over her torso and smile on her face.
8. Need (Kagami Taiga/Himuro Tatsuya)
Somehow it’s fitting that it has to be him who chases Tatsuya this time, even if there’s nothing truly wrong between them (other than what isn’t as right as it could be), even if he knows exactly where Tatsuya is and there’s ben an explicit but vague invitation to come and visit him sometime.
It’s snowing when Taiga gets there; the northeast is always pretty in a bland sort of way in the winter when the snow covers the swamps and the dryness of the highways. Tatsuya’s not wearing gloves, and his hands are cold. His face is closed like a trap door hidden under a snowdrift, and the only way Taiga can find it is by kicking through and hoping for the best. So he presses his hands to Tatsuya’s cold palms and begins to talk, to say what he needs to, trying whatever he can so that Tatsuya will listen—and he does.
And he hadn’t planned on Tatsuya kissing him first, but he’s certainly glad it happens.
9. Schoolgirl (Miyaji Kiyoshi/Takao Kazunari)
The uniform doesn’t quite fit, but considering how much taller Kazunari is than the average Shutoku girl and that this is a random spare after all, it should do fine. Besides, it’s sexier if it’s tighter and the top reveals a few centimeters of skin and the zipper on the skirt is a little bit undone. He twirls around; it looks pretty cute in the mirror. And Kiyoshi will definitely like it.
“Hey, Kiyo-chan.”
He saunters into the living room; Kiyoshi looks up from his magazine and drops it on the floor.
“What—Kazunari—wait, what? What the fuck?”
“You don’t like it?” Kazunari says, leaning over the arm of the couch.
“I mean—is this a fucking joke?”
“No,” says Kazunari, and plops down into Kiyoshi’s lap.
Kiyoshi’s face is crimson and his pupils are dilated and he’s already breathing hard; Kazunari squirms in his lap.
“You can touch me if you want,” says Kazunari.
“I know that! Brat, I’m gonna—I’m gonna—”
Kiyoshi can’t even make a full sentence out of a threat. It’s amusing and endearing and in and of itself, kind of sexy. Kazunari squirms again; Kiyoshi gasps. Perfect.
10. Pull (Nebuya Eikichi)
Pulling a muscle is something that happens to other people, not Eikichi—he’s in good shape; he listens to his body; he takes care of himself. Until he does pull his hamstring in practice, extending his leg too much and trying his damn best not to fall down but still failing and crashing to the floor like an earthquake-proof building that somehow is not as advertised.
The trainers examine him on the sidelines and he has to watch the rest of the team continue practice, do drills he really needs to be doing—and then they tell him he has to stay off it for several weeks and for a second he doesn’t register it. But then he does.
And he can’t stop himself from being anxious (and it only gets worse day after day)—what if it doesn’t heal in time? What if he has to sit out the whole season? What if he loses too much muscle mass? What if some kid plays brilliantly in his stead and replaces him? He sits on the couch in the dorm common room, watching TV but paying no attention to the colors that flit and flash across the screen.
Reo sits down beside him and turns it off.
“I was watching.”
Reo looks at him.
“Okay, fine, I wasn’t.”
“Don’t worry so much; it’ll give you wrinkles,” says Reo. “And it’s not like you have anything to worry about.”
“Really,” says Eikichi.
“What Reo-nee means is that we miss you,” says Kotarou, leaning over the back of the couch. “You’re irreplaceable.”
Eikichi grins. A smile is tugging at Reo’s lips, too, and of course it’s something he’d never say—which is what makes it all the more endearing.
“I’m stuck with you guys, huh?”
“Yup!” Kotarou chirps.
And suddenly the worry isn’t really there anymore, other than in the farthest place back in his mind. Everything will be fine.
11. Karaoke (Aomine Daiki/Kise Ryouta)
Kise loves singing karaoke; Aomine loves watching him sing. The motion that takes hold of his body, the exaggerated but well-hit notes coming from his throat, the energy that surrounds him, almost palpable—it’s an amazing sight to behold. Until Kise grabs his arm and pulls him up, thrusting the spare microphone into his face.
“Come on, Aominecchi! Let’s sing a duet.”
“I don’t sing,” says Aomine.
This is a lie and they both know it—Kise’s heard him singing in the shower or around the house under his breath many times, and Kise doesn’t have to bother to say it. He arches an eyebrow at Aomine and tightens his grip around his wrist. The introduction to the song begins and Aomine’s pretty sure this is some cheesy love song or other. And Kise’s blinking up at him with that look on his face, the look that always makes Aomine crumble.
“Fine. I’ll sing the girl part.” It’s the one with fewer lines.
12. Placid (Midorima Shintarou, Kise Ryouta)
Midorima is placid when he reads, reacting events not with the anger and disgust and confusion that he shows reality, but with calm steadiness and a flick of the hand as he turns the page. Kise’s never been much of a reader, but he does know that novels, even the most literary kind, do not take place in reality—there’s a predictability, a rhythm, about them, a sense of events being inevitable (and they are; the author has written them as only one such way). And even though Midorima doesn’t really understand actual people, or real events beyond his control, he can understand the inhabitants and happenings of a fictional universe with this kind of seeming detachment. And yet he’s the opposite of detached; sometimes he’s so absorbed that Kise has to shout his name twice to get his attention away. And it’s this kind of thing, the way he presents as opposite to how he really is, that makes Midorima so fascinating. At least, it is to Kise.
13. Solid (Nijimura Shuuzou/Himuro Tatsuya)
Tatsuya knows where all the best places are, abandoned buildings and unmonitored warehouses and forever-unfinished construction sites, lost in the shuffle of paperwork even as the city fills itself even further with people. And he shows them all to Shuuzou, tugging him along rodent-infested corridors and staircases without railings, shining his flashlight like a lighthouse beam across choppy waters of half-rotted floorboards—he likes to stick close to the edges, though; when he comes to an unfamiliar spot he always tests it out carefully. Shuuzou’s guessing there’s a reason for that (because in the dark in the mountains, on the highway, Tatsuya is as wild and reckless plunging ahead as anything, even if he’ll admit to Shuuzou that he doesn’t know anything about that place) and it’s one of the many stories that Tatsuya refuses to tell (or maybe part of the larger story all of them might belong to). And when the floors are warped and unsteady beneath them, he grips Shuuzou’s hand a little bit more tightly—Shuuzou wants to tell him that it’s okay to be nervous or that they don’t have to do it, but he’s quite sure Tatsuya will take it the wrong way. So he squeezes Tatsuya’s hand back, and once they’re outside again he makes sure they take a sunny detour on the way back, feet hitting the solid sidewalk until they’re tired.
14. Study (Aomine Daiki)
Aomine hasn’t always wanted to be a police officer, and he’s not sure why he does now. It’s not for the glory or the sense of duty, or even the pension, really. But it’s a compulsion that’s taken hold of him, an idea that he really wants to do this, and beyond that he’s well-suited for it. He can think on his feet and he’s in good physical shape; he’ll be able to learn the law and hold it up as he should. And being able to pass the tests (not that he has any doubt about it) would be something to be proud of, as well as a validation of his choice. And so even though he’s never studied hard for anything in his life, he’s going to study for this.