Pairing: Kasamatsu/Kise

Warnings: slightly not worksafe, shonen ai, lime, swearing

Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basuke and its characters belong to Fujimaki Tadatoshi.

Description: The one where Kasamatsu finally steps up to the challenge of pinning Ryōta down.

A/N: Okay, it was three in the morning and we just finished several bottles of wine with my friend, so I really can't be blamed for the any of this. (Forgive me, Kasamatsu-chin!)

There is no oxygen

-xoxoxo-

They are in Kise's room, where the prodigy owner has dragged Kasamatsu practically by the hand after the classes were over. Kasamatsu did protest in earnest, but in the end gave in just to stop the whining. His ears are still ringing even now.

It's not all bad, honestly. Kise's mom brings over cold drinks and they are welcome to help themselves to as many bags of junk food as they can carry upstairs in one go - because, let's face it, there's no way either one of them can be bothered to come down for the rest one more time.

And yeah, sure, the walls of Kise's room are plastered with ripped out magazine pages that in turn have Kise's pompous mug plastered on them (not at all inappropriately, in Kasamatsu's opinion). But at least there is a fan, the actual enormous fan here, and in the middle of July, that's all that really matters.

Kasamatsu nests right in front of it, relaxing into the breeze that caresses his face and shoulders. He just pummeled Kise's ass into the ground in NBA Live and that's after Kise had two weeks quality time with it to practice. That's just pathetic! And also a balm for Kasamatsu's soul. The genius copycat may be stronger than him on the actual court, but no one beats Kasamatsu when it comes to sports video games. No one.

"What'd you wanna do next, Senpai?"

The blond head, hanging off the edge of the bed, looks rather disgruntled.

'Kick your ass a few more times for good measure. What else you've got?' He almost says that. It's just, he has no strength left to physically utter the words. No strength left to breathe, for that matter. There is no actually oxygen in the fucking air. It's been sucked out by an abomination known as mid-summer heat wave.

"Ugh.." is really the best he can do right now.

Kise, spread on his bed in a sulking puddle, tilts his head back even more, until golden locks are sweeping the floor.

"What's that mean?"

"It means 'shut up and leave me alone'."

"Hey, that's just boring! I can do that by myself, you know."

"No whining!" Kasamatsu grunts warningly. He could swear Kise's whimpering is freaking ultrasonic.

For a blissful while they descend into silence and Kasamatsu can go back to try and pretend his clothes aren't melting into his body.

Which, of course doesn't last long.

"Hey."

"What now?"

"Wanna go another round?"

"No."

"Wanna... I dunno, do our homework, or something?"

"No."

Kise huffs audibly, then slides down the bed, until he's on the floor, right beside Kasamatsu. It makes Kasamatsu dizzy just to see that much movement.

"...Wanna make out?"

Scratch that, he didn't know dizzy.

Kise sits up formally, on his heels. Eyes Kasamatsu cautiously.

"I mean like, kiss and stuff. Not like make out a pie chart..."

"No, yeah, I get it..."

They are just sitting there, in Kise's room - two sweaty teenage boys crazed with heat, facing each other.

There is no oxygen. Nothing to breathe. A vacuum.

"It's too hot..." Kasamatsu mumbles finally.

"Sure."

Kise scoots away from him and tugs his long legs all the way up to his chin. He looks like a kicked fucking puppy. The most pitiful kind. At this point, unless Kasamatsu kills himself with a shovel, he feels like he's not fit to be called a human being.

"Quit it." Why is it always like this? This whole home visit was such an obvious ploy to get them alone, yet he missed it completely. And how come Kise always manages to blindside him into doing stuff that should normally earn him a solid kick in the head?

"What is this, dating by ambush?"

Kise snaps his head at him. "That's the thing though, this isn't dating, is it? Not really. I so much as graze Senpai's finger and there's already kicking and screaming." His words are fast and muddled, slipping out of him rapidly, as if afraid of being caught.

"It's not - "

- 'like that', Kasamatsu wants to say, but stops himself. It's actually depressingly accurate. "I just don't get why you like this touchy feely stuff so much."

"I just like - forget it, never mind. I'm starving. You want some chips? I got shrimp flavor."

They are watching some TV. Kise is chewing on a strawberry Poky, occasionally stealing Kasamatsu's potato chips. It's fine. It doesn't really matter. Except, Kasamastu wouldn't be able to name what it is they are watching, if his life depended on it.

"I just never know what you're thinking," Kise suddenly says very quietly, more to the TV screen than anything - anyone else. "It's only when we do... stuff. It's only then, when it feels, really feels, like you want it too."

There is a moment, one fleeting moment, when it feels like Kasamatsu has been punched in the ribs.

It's gone then. Just like Kise's moment of saying something real. Something that doesn't come with a serving of over the top, sparkling smiles, which make a sane person want to gag. Kise is back to his usual chirping instantaneously. It's like he's got this hidden mood switch, for which Kasamatsu never got the manual.

It's still them sitting sprawled on the floor, staring at the TV screen, but while Kise goes on flailing about the latest games of college basketball, it's all Kasamatsu can do not to feel like a piece if gum, chewed out and smeared on the concrete.

Kise does have a vulnerable side. He's good at hiding it, so good in fact that it's easy to forget he even has one, but he does. And Kasamatsu just keeps hitting him where it hurts. Every damn time, he steps right into it.

And the worst part is - this is so not what he wants. Not what he wants at all.

He didn't want it when he swallowed every last bit of his manly pride and said a very guarded 'yes' to Kise's repeated advances. And it wasn't what he wanted just now.

There is no real reason, why they shouldn't make out. Aside from, maybe, the excruciating embarrassment of it all.

He should be able to do it. He's a teenager, for god's sake! He should be able to grab Kise by the neck and crash their lips together, and touch him, and feel him.

Instead, Kasamatsu just sits there with his ass rooted to the floor. To suddenly do it like that is quite frankly beyond his mental capacity.

And what if Kise has already changed his mind? What is he doesn't want this anymore?

Kasamatsu keeps shooting Kise considering glances, searching for openings, or even any hint of invitation, but of course finds none.

In the end, the subject of 'doing the do' never comes up again.

At some point he tries to inconspicuously brush against Kise's hand, but ends up knocking down a glass. It's when his uniform slacks are soaked in pineapple juice in all the wrong places, that Kasamatsu knows he's hit his daily humiliation limit.

The evening takes the edge of the unbearable heat and he can finally go home.

Kise comes down the street to see Kasamatsu off. He is easygoing and mellow, and cutesy as usual. They are walking side by side, but they might as well be on the opposite sides of Tokyo and it still would feel like they're closer.

In one last ditch effort not to end the evening on such a crappy note, Kasamatsu tries to pet the blond head, but has to stand in his tiptoes to do it, which of course makes him feel like a complete retard. Kise is not making it easy either, just sort of freezing up on him. And it's all awkward and terrible and just... just...

In the end Kasamatsu wastes the night away agonizing over his own stiffness and Kise's neediness, and this fucking hell of a relationship that they are sorta in.

By morning he's solemnly resolved himself to slamming Kise into the nearest wall upon sight and pretty much all but raping the guy.

He makes it through school with one eye opened. There is a chemistry test, but when he submits it, the formulas look more like doodles. Kasamatsu skips the cleaning duty and heads for the freshmen floor.

The classes have ended and the remaining students are becoming increasingly scarce. He finds Ryōta perched on his desk in an empty classroom, staring outside the window with unseeing eyes. The warm glow of the sun highlights random strands of his hair just enough to make it seem like he's glowing from within.

Kasamatsu opens his suddenly very dry mouth, but shuts it closed just as quickly.

Don't say anything. If you start talking now, the moment is over.

And for god's sake, don't think!

Strategy is overrated. He's just gotta go for it.

Which Kasamatsu does. Burst into the classroom without as much as 'hello'. Walks over to Kise and grabs him by the neck, crashing their lips together.

Just like he planned.

Just like he wanted.

Well, not exactly like that. Their teeth clank together and for one endless, horrible moment Kasamatsu just knows that he's ruined it all and will now have to spend the rest of his life stewing in shame.

That's when Kise shudders under him.

And Kasamatsu isn't even looking, but can still somehow see golden eyes fluttering open with surprise, shock, confusion. Then Kise slowly goes pliant in his arms, his lips soft and yielding under Kasamatsu's. And god, fuck, yes! Kasamatsu can feel him giving in, as he pries Kise open. And he knows he's got him now - the genius he was never able to so much as touch before - he knows he's got Kise begging. And damn, what a rush this is!

When he finally comes off this high enough to regain his sense, Kasamatsu has already climbed on top of both desk and Kise. To be exact, he's got Ryōta pinned down flat on his back and gasping for air in a quivering mess.

"Sen..pai.." rolls off the abused lips more like a prayer.

And yeah, all right, aesthetics and stuff aren't really Kasamatsu's thing, but even he gets right now in this moment, that the blush spreading on Ryōta 's cheeks is beautiful... and precious.

"I do want it too. Get it, you needy moron!" He says, bumping his forehead against Kise's affectionately.

"Senpai?.."

Kise is chewing on his reddened lips strenuously. Really, why did Kasamatsu ever think this would be embarrassing for him? He's actually quite proud of his handiwork.

"Got something to say?"

"Well... this is very... wow. I mean, really. It's just.."

"What, want more?"

"Wouldn't fight it. It's just... I didn't know, I didn't think we were ready to go public." Kise finishes sheepishly.

Public? Right, they are at school after all. God...

"It's fine," Kasamatsu grins down at him. "There is no one else here but us."

"Which is in a way correct, seeing as we technically aren't here."

It takes a while for Kasamatsu to realize that he didn't say that. And neither did Kise.

Moriyama is practically keeling over in the far corner of the classroom, bubbling with laughter. Behind him Kobori tries very hard to look like he really isn't there, while Hayakawa is too far gone, openly gawking and pointing.

"That's right, we're really downstairs right now, shooting hoops."

"And of course, no one saw anything."

It's all three of them. All fucking three of them.

Kasamatsu doesn't even bother asking. Any questing of how long they have been there is pretty much answered by Hayakawa's face, with his mouth opening and closing without a sound like a stupid oversized fish.

Kasamatsu sort of just slides off of Kise into a chair. Because for the life of him, he isn't be able to stand. Just as well, his legs at this point have probably turned into jelly.

Left alone, spread on the desk, Ryōta is pretty much reduced to a single six-feet-tall blush.

This is beyond mortifying. It's fatal.

For those fucking voyeurs, at least.

"How are you... why are you even, why..?" Kasamatsu barks out.

"Does it really matter?" Moriyama is the first to regain at least partial composure. Although small outbursts of laughter are still escaping him now and then. "No really, Kise-kun, I gotta say, congrets! I see you finally bagged our Captain."

"Moriyama! I swear to god, I'm gonna - "

"What, kiss me to death?"

He says that, but the bastard is still backing towards the door as far away from Kasamatsu as possible. It's a wonderful blend of cheekiness with cowardice, truly. And Kasamatsu would probably be able to enjoy it so much more, if the whole thing didn't make him want to eat the desk.

"C'mon guys, let's give the lovers some privacy."

"Fuck you, you little shit!"

Moriyama shakes his head at him already at the door. "Don't make Kise-kun jealous."

They are fucked. So royally fucked! If Moriyama knows, it means the whole club knows too, which is only hop, skip and a jump from the whole goddamn school learning of the notorious gay couple.

Kasamatsu glances up at Kise, but the other boy is being surprisingly docile.

It takes Kasamatsu a few moments to put a finger on why.

That's right, Moriyama did drop the L-Word. That cunning bastard. God knows what Kise is imagining now. A little peck on the lips and the guy is probably already planning their wedding.

"It's fine." It's not until he hears himself say it, that Kasamatsu really decides.

Fuck it! Kise's been nothing but trouble from the day he walked into the club anyway. So Kasamatsu might as well at least get some fun out of it.

He reaches up and tug down on Kise's shirt, until he can get a hold of that feeling again. Kise's lower lip caught between his own.

They can deal with future infamy in stride. For now he gets an armful of this bombshell of a blond. And Moriya gets a flying kick in the face.