A hooded figure quickly approached a blond male, shoving him against the wall. The blond yelped but reacted as quick as he could, trying to push his attacker away.

"What do you think you're doing?!" The blond had a fire in him, that was for sure. His eyes gave more anger than fear, and he was doing his best to push back, but his attacker was stronger, successfully pinning him against the brick building.

No one else seemed to be around. The moonlight illuminated their struggle, then reflected off a large blade the attacker pulled out from his jacket. The blond gasped and froze.

"Wait, stop. Please, I'll give you whatever you want. I'll give you my wallet."

"I don't want your money."

"I don't know what you're after just please…!"

The attacker put the blade to the blond's throat. "I'm after something a little more complicated than money."

The blond began to shake, a look of horror formed on his face.

Aomine woke up sweating. His orange tabby cat leaped off the bed, startled as he sat up in bed quickly, wiping the sweat off his brow.

"Shit. Again?"

This goddamn blondie had been appearing in dream after dream lately. His face was vivid. Amber eyes with eyelashes longer than he'd probably seen on any other guy, short blond hair that was silky and shiny….that guy probably worked on his hair about as much as Momoi worked on hers. He was tall and slender. His smile was big and bright, even though Aomine hadn't seen it much in his dreams because every time he dreamt about him, he was either getting hurt or about to get hurt, each scenario similar to the dream he'd just had. This dream was the…third one? Fourth one? He didn't know, but he really needed to stop dreaming about him because…

This guy wasn't real. Aomine had never met him before in his life and it made no goddamn sense. This wasn't the type of person he was interested in nor was this particular guy anything like himself. This guy looked like he could be a model or something, and Aomine was a college basketball player. Outside of both being Japanese, they were worlds apart from each other, so why the hell would Aomine dream over and over about someone like that?

The only light pouring into his room was the moonlight, big and bright outside his bedroom window where the curtain was only half drawn. What fucking time was it? Rubbing his eyes, he glanced at his alarm clock. Four AM. Four AM? Really? Well at least he could squeeze in a few more hours before he had to be awake.

He flopped back down in bed, pulling his blanket over his head and groaning. His cat mewled from his bedside, a usual call for attention.

"Yeah, yeah, get back up here," he groaned. The slender cat leapt back up to the bed, slid underneath the blankets and nuzzled up to his chest, laying there. Aomine sighed deeply as he stroked the back of the cat's neck, wondering if he could even fall asleep at all after this. Usually when he had a dream this vivid, particularly with Blondie, he didn't fall asleep again.

"Do you have dreams, Ren?"

The orange cat responded by purring as Aomine stroked him for another moment.

"You have the good life. You can sleep all you want." Pouting, Aomine closed his eyes, hoping he could get back to sleep.

He didn't. The most he was able to do in those few extra hours was shut his eyes and pretend he was asleep, not that he was surprised. He was very much inclined to stay in bed and see if he could nap the day away, but that wouldn't work anyway because Momoi would probably be banging on his door if he was so much as running late to his first class. They didn't have the same classes, but they met up every morning, and there was no way she was ever going to let him get away with skipping, particularly when he had to maintain his grades to stay in the Tokyo University basketball club. Some things never change.

He showered and dressed before chugging an energy drink. Why he even tried drinking those damn things, he had no idea. They never did much for him, for whatever reason, and he still felt like death. With the energy drink, he was just slightly more lethargic death. Too bad he pretty much hated coffee unless it was more cream and sugar than coffee.

He must have been running a little later than he thought he was because he heard a familiar, demanding knock on his door. Grabbing his bag with a groan, he walked to the door and opened it.

Momoi stood there with her hands on her hips, but as soon as she saw him she gave him a puzzled, concerned look. "Did you have another nightmare?"

He yawned, joining her outside and shutting the door behind him. "Yeah. Am I late?"

"Not yet, but you better hurry up."

He started walking and she quickly joined him, looking up at him curiously. "When are you going to tell me what these dreams are about?"

He sighed. "They're just dreams, Satsuki."

"But you're having too many. Are they different dreams? Recurring dreams? Come on, tell me!"

Frowning, he rubbed his ear as they headed down a flight of stairs on the apartment complex not far from campus. "Stop being so noisy this early, jeez."

At the bottom of the staircase was a smaller figure that almost slipped by Aomine's gaze, but he saw him out of the corner of his eye. Tetsu. He was passing by and stopped when he saw them. Just as Aomine expected, the moment he opened his mouth to greet him, Momoi practically flew down the remaining few stairs, collapsing right into him for a tight hug.

"Tetsu-kun!"

Kuroko, in all his 168cm glory because some people stop growing freshmen year of high school, somehow managed to stay on his feet this time, but his face was almost as blue as the hair on his head as Momoi squeezed him tightly.

"G-Good morning."

Aomine rolled his eyes, meeting them at the bottom of the stairs. "Jeez, let him breathe, will you?"

Momoi let him go, beaming as ever. "What a strange sight to see you this early! Especially without Kagamin."

"I have an early committee morning. It's nice to see you. Hello, Aomine-kun."

Aomine rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey."

Momoi began to walk again, Aomine and Kuroko following closely. Aomine noticed Kuroko looking at him curiously, but Kuroko never said anything. Probably figured there was no point, Aomine guessed. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he hadn't slept well.

"Dai-chan had another nightmare, Tetsu-kun! And he still won't tell me what they're about."

Aomine immediately scowled. "You told Tetsu about my nightmares?"

"Well I would have told him about your nightmares if I knew what they were about!"

"What the hell?! I told you, they're just dreams! It's not important!"

Kuroko's quieter voice interrupted them. "Some people believe dreams reflect our subconscious, Aomine-kun."

"That's ridiculous," he sneered. "What about when you watch a monster movie, and then you have a dream about that monster? See? Total bullcrap."

"Did a monster movie give you nightmares, Dai-chan?"

"No! It was just an example. Shit, you're giving me a headache."

Aomine caught a glance of Kuroko's face, and he could swear that he saw him smirking.

"You can admit if a monster movie scared you, Aomine-kun."

"Screw both of you!"

A dream about a monster would have made a lot more sense. He'd be able to easily track the source of that kind of dream. The problem was that his dreams didn't make any sense. The face he dreamed about was surprisingly vivid for a face he'd never seen before and made up in his mind. It seemed so strange to create such a detailed picture of someone who didn't exist. It wasn't like he was an artist or anything like that. One of the most unsettling parts about these dreams with Blondie was that Aomine himself wasn't even in them. The dreams were never about him nor did he ever appear in them. He was always merely watching Blondie find himself in harm's way every time.

The dreams were always similar to the one he'd had last night. Blondie, in a dark alley late at night, with some guy in a hood coming at him with a knife. The knife was pointed to his throat in most of the dreams, but there was a dream where it was pointed to his chest instead and in that dream the knife had been a dagger instead. That had been the first dream, but in every dream since, it was a knife to the throat, just like the last dream. He wasn't sure what the differences meant, if anything, but it still meant the same kind of danger for Blondie. He dreamed this scenario four times now, with the same absolutely vivid face that his mind had created, that had nothing to do with him whatsoever.

How could he explain any of that, even to Satsuki or Tetsu?

Momoi giggled a bit but apparently decided to drop the topic as they continued walking to campus together. "Dai-chaaaan, can you do something for me?"

"I'm not telling you about the dreams."

"There's this singer, he's kind of new, and he's performing here in a few days! Will you go with me? Please?"

He bit his lip in thought. "Well, what day is it?"

"Thursday night. You don't have any games or practice so will you please go with me? Please, Dai-chan? Tetsu-kun, you should come too! Bring Kagamin!"

Kuroko looked a bit unsure. "Who is the singer?"

"His name is Kise. Kise Ryouta! I found his songs online and he's been signed recently. He's very good and I wanna go see him!"

"I'll ask Kagami-kun."

Aomine blinked. Kise Ryouta? The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember meeting anyone by that name before. Surely he'd remember a name like that, wouldn't he? Especially if it was a singer, and he couldn't remember ever meeting a singer before. He was always pretty much knee-deep in basketball anyway, so someone like that would have definitely stood out. Maybe he'd met someone with a similar name before. Whatever.

"Dai-chan?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go. Whatever."

"Yay!" Momoi smiled and turned around, walking a step ahead of them. They were almost to campus now, for which Aomine was almost thankful for, because this felt like it was going to be a really long day.

"Aomine-kun?" Kuroko called quietly, looking up at his taller friend.

Aomine was halfway zoned out, recalling his dream again. "What?"

"If you decide you wanna talk about the dreams…."

"Yeah. Thanks."

Aomine didn't know how Momoi did it, but somehow she was able to talk Kagami and Kuroko into going to this concert. Apparently this guy was some new pop artist with a target audience of girls, but Momoi swore he was really good and that they would enjoy his songs. Aomine would have much rather spent the time reading his magazines, sleeping, or….fuck, doing anything else. But the moment that Momoi asked him, he knew he'd be going no matter what. It was just as well, because at least this way he could make sure that any creeps kept their distance from her, which they usually did when he was around. Hopefully this Kise guy didn't suck too much. In any case, he was prepared to lose his hearing temporarily if what Momoi said about his target audience was true.

The day came. Kise was set to perform in the courtyard on campus. It was a fairly modest set up and from the looks of it, this guy wasn't too big yet. This would have been just fine with Aomine, but after he and Momoi arrived, the crowds kept growing.

And growing.

And growing.

"Where the hell did you say you found this guy again?" Aomine demanded, looking around for Kuroko and Kagami in the standing crowd. If he had to suffer through this, so did they!

"Online! I didn't know he was this popular already….wow…."

"I don't think his people knew he was this big already, either," Aomine muttered, his voice too low for Momoi to hear over the crowds. Kise wasn't even on stage yet and the girls were screaming for him. He couldn't imagine what was going to happen when the guy finally showed up and he definitely would not have agreed to this if he knew this was going to be the outcome.

A familiar head of red hair weaved his way through the crowd, towards him and Momoi. Within seconds, Kagami emerged from the crowd of fangirls, holding Kuroko's hand, tugging the smaller boy behind him. Kagami looked about as annoyed as Aomine felt.

"Who the hell is this guy again? I thought you said he was a new artist," Kagami said to Momoi.

"He is! I didn't know this many people would show up," Momoi said.

Kagami just sighed. He was still holding Kuroko's hand as he looked over at him. Out of the four of them, Kuroko looked the least bothered. He looked back at Kagami and Aomine had to resist the urge to roll his eyes to oblivion because they were doing that thing again where they look at each other and have an entire conversation just by their glances. Jeez, get a room.

He didn't have much time to dwell on the thought because music started and the large crowd surrounding them, mostly girls, started screaming. It was a light, catchy beat that actually wasn't too terrible, but he didn't have to admit that to anyone, and he still hadn't heard this guy's voice yet.

The four of them were pretty far back in the crowd, but near the front, a young blond male wearing a headset was running towards the stage from the side. Blonde….? The screams around them got louder and Aomine had to resist the urge to plug his ears, but he supposed he'd have to get used to this as the concert was only just starting.

Kise ran up the short stairs to the modest stage set and jumped enthusiastically as he got to the center, spreading his arms wide. "Hi everybody! Wow, there's so many of you!" the singer said with a giggle as the music continued playing from the band behind him.

Aomine froze. They were several rows back in the crowd, but he knew that face, that blond hair, and that figure anywhere.

It was the face from his dreams.

"You've all been so patient," Kise said, smiling brightly as he walked across the small stage. "I think I have a little something for you. Maybe I should sing a few songs? Hmm, I dunno, what do you guys think?"

The crowd erupted in cheers.

Kise giggled again, blowing a kiss to the crowd. "You are all so special to me, thank you for coming."

The music picked up in pace as Kise began to sing, dancing across the stage, radiating with energy. Momoi clapped her hands, watching eagerly. She looked over at her male friends, gauging their reactions.

Kagami looked bored out of his mind already while Kuroko was watching curiously. These were probably the expected reactions, but between Kuroko and Momoi stood Aomine, who still stood stunned, staring at the stage.

"Dai-chan?" Momoi called over the crowd. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head quickly, trying to refocus. "Yeah. Fine."

Momoi looked back at the stage, cheering and singing along with Kise a bit. Even if Aomine wanted to explain this to her now, he wouldn't have been able to in the middle of a screaming crowd. But why would she, or anyone else, believe him anyway? He'd dreamed of a face he didn't even know existed, and now he was standing in the crowd, watching him perform. Who in their right mind would believe something like that?

He wasn't even sure he believed it himself. Maybe he'd seen this guy in passing before, or seen him in a magazine. As much as he wanted to believe that, there was no single instance he could recall. He simply had never seen Kise's face before, but he'd dreamed of it, and he was real. Blondie was real.

Truthfully, even if he had briefly seen Kise's face in the past, it still didn't explain why he kept dreaming about him.

Kuroko and Kagami glanced over at him, giving him the exact same confused look. He glared at them. "What?!"

Kuroko simply looked back to the stage again, but Kagami glared right back at him.

"What's your problem? Save the attitude," the redhead said just loud enough for him to hear. Of course, after he said this, Kuroko glanced back at Aomine again, looking concerned.

"I don't have a problem," Aomine said defensively.

"Good."

Aomine looked back at the stage again, trying to keep from losing his cool, but it was a struggle when he was looking at the face he thought he'd made up in his dreams. Of all the times in the past where it felt like he was losing his mind, this truly took the fucking cake.