How long has it been? Too long. Hello, friends.

Anywhoo, my sincerest apologies. I haven't been able to write anime stuff for a long time, and now that I found the urge in me, I'm finishing up stories. Yay. To those of you who waited - please ignore that the style of my writing changed, just... ignore it, okay? To those who are first time readers of this particular fanfic - this chapter has been uploaded after like a year or something of not writing, which is why the writing has changed.

I hope you enjoy.

OK LOVE YOU BYE

p.s. Just a little heads up - there's some smut in this chapter.

Kise stared at Aomine, examining how his fingers gripped the wheel, how his muscles rippled with every turn of the car, and how his smile returned whenever Aomine caught Kise looking. Not that Kise tried hiding that fact. It felt so easy, not being afraid of breathing the same air as the blue-haired guy. For once, he reveled in the fact he was allowed to watch Aomine, to finally notice all the things that changed in him throughout the few years they hadn't seen each other.

The change had been remarkably big, on Aomine's part. He got taller. Bulkier. More beautiful. Kise sighed, thinking that in all of the years he'd loved Aomine, nothing got him this ruffled like Aomine's smile did. It held the same childish quirk, the wide-all-teeth, almost embarrassingly huge smile. Certainly, Aomine's face bore the signs of adult-like features; His jaw bone more defined, his eyes covered in dark circles from overworking, his eyes wiser and more sad.

"Why did you sigh?" Aomine caught Kise off guard.

He cleared his throat and brushed his hair back. "I've been thinking about how much you've changed."

"I have?" Aomine said, again, showing that humble quirk of lips, reminding Kise so much of the Aomine he first met. The one that still liked playing basketball, the one that didn't scream out 'I HAVE A FUCKING HUGE EGO'. Kise hadn't realized how much he missed it.

"Yeah," Kise said. "I mean, you're still you, but I see you've grown. Whenever I imagined you, I saw the Aomine from far away, this tiny ripple of the older you."

"What the fuck does that even mean," Aomine said and huffed a laugh out, to which Kise responded with a smile. He made Aomine laugh. "I swear to God, you haven't changed a bit."

Kise laughed. "Still stupid?"

To Kise's surprise, Aomine shook his head. He made a rough turn, and had his eyes fixated on the road. "Nah. You still have that effect on me. You say something and make me reevaluate my whole fucking life."

"I'm still me, then," Kise agreed. Aomine bit his lip, and the car fell into a comfortable silence, crowding upon them like an all crushing wave. Warmth bloomed in Kise's chest when Aomine's hand slowly retreated from the wheel and fell palm-up in the middle of their seats. Kise froze for a second, an excruciatingly unreal moment of his life, this single eye-blink of his existence that sent shivers down his spine, made his heart beat in a thousand loud drums, took his breath away and spared him a chance to breathe again when he reached out, brushed his fingertips against Aomine's tender flesh. Aomine visibly inhaled through his nose, a faint blush covering his cheeks, and Kise took that as the final step. He tentatively wrapped his fingers with Aomine's, feeling the heat wrap around his fingers like a storm. Bursts of energy flowed through Kise's body, tingling most in the places Aomine's and his skin touched, somewhat erupting in even more affection that Kise had ever felt.

"You're still you," Aomine said, a little too breathless.

Kise smiled so hard that his heart nearly burst at a gentle squeeze of Aomine's hand.

Aomine got them a hotel outside of town, leaving Kise alone in the room while he went grocery shopping. Kise checked every nook and cranny of the room just to have something to do, until he flopped onto the only bed in the room. He breathed deeply and slowly, thinking about every event that happened in the past few weeks. He shot a person. Joined forces against Akashi. Got his lover back? That was still a huge question mark. Although when Aomine asked for a kind-sized bed, it got Kise all kinds of flustered. Did that mean they'd sleep together again? Were they moving too fast?

The phone on the small nightstand vibrated with a Nokia tune, saving Kise from fantasizing about Aomine's body and kisses. He groaned while getting up, shuffled forward and gripped the phone tightly in his right hand. He pressed answer.

"Yes?"

"Where's Aomine?" Kuroko's voice filled the other end of the phone line.

Kise pouted. "Kurokocchi, you disappoint me. Am I not sufficient enough for news?"

He could imagine Kuroko's annoyed eye-roll. Kise chuckled to himself.

"Why are you laughing?" Kuroko demanded. "I need Aomine on the phone. Is he there?"

Kise sat on the bed again and fiddled with his jeans. "He's out. He said he'd be back in a few. I'll make sure he calls you back."

"Are you safe?" Kuroko asked.

"Do you mean in bed, or –"

"I didn't mean it like that," Kuroko said, amusing Kise to no end. The dude had zero humor filter. "Are you in a safe location?"

"I am indeed on a bed," Kise answered, to which Kuroko responded with a sigh. "We're gonna go to a safe-house tomorrow. I have a gun."

Which, Kise thought idly, didn't make him safer. He didn't even want to touch that thing, much less see it.

"Alright," Kuroko said. "Make sure Aomine calls me back."

"Gotcha the first time," Kise said.

Kuroko hung up and just as he did, Aomine entered the hotel room, carrying three bags of groceries. Kise leaped up to help, but Aomine quickly shut the door, dropped the bags where he stood and strolled over to Kise, who stopped midway. Aomine's hands flew up to catch Kise's face, and he did it ever so gently, something Kise had never expected from Aomine anymore. Aomine's eyes twinkles with newfound energy, immediately igniting flames in Kise's body.

Kise reached up and covered Aomine's hand with his. "What happened?" he asked.

Aomine simply shook his head and leaned forward, pressing his lips to Kise's so lightly, Kise's lungs threatened to burn.

Kise gently pushed Aomine away, leaving his hand on his chest. "Aominecchi?"

Something crossed Aomine's face, leaving a thin smile that could only mean Aomine couldn't contain himself. Kise has seen that particular smile so many times in the past. Usually when it came to basketball.

"Say that again," Aomine said, his voice husky and dry, as if he ran the whole way from the shop and couldn't let himself breathe.

Kise gulped down some air, and blinked. "Aominecchi," he repeated.

Aomine kissed him once again, muffling Kise's surprised sound, which quickly turned into a more heated kiss. Kise wrapped his arms around Aomine's neck, bringing him closer, kissing with more fever, nibbling on Aomine's bottom lip twice before he felt Aomine's tongue peeking in between Kise's lips.

And oh God, did it feel like it was the first time kissing another person.

Kise let his body flow, mind going completely numb just to allow his soul and lust carry this deed. Aomine seemed to respond in the same way, hurrying, tongue brushing against tongue, and the taste, fuck, the taste hadn't changed at all. Wild. Spicy. Exquisite. Extremely Aomine.

Aomine's hands trailed down Kise's arms, trailed down his waist and fingers hooked over the buckle, pressing their hips flush together. Kise gasped at the way Aomine's covered erection pressed hot against his thigh, making his mind reel over the fact that this was happening.

It clicked.

He quickly retreated his lips from Aomine's, aching for that bliss with his whole being, yet when Aomine followed for another kiss, Kise had to control himself.

He pressed a finger to Aomine's parted mouth.

"Behave," he said. Aomine rolled his eyes, which were now only flecks of blue in a disarray of black pupil.

"Do I ask for your consent, or does this work another way?" Aomine asked, a playful tone in his voice.

Kise chuckled and clasped his hands to Aomine's shirt. "You have my full consent, you know that, Aominecchi," Kise said. Then, Aomine, leaned forward again, but met Kise's hand on his chest, pushing slightly forward. Kise hummed and continued. "I have two questions. First – what got you so hot? Second – are we a thing again, or are we standing on uneven ground?"

Aomine stared at him for a full second before clearing his throat. He made a point to look anywhere but at Kise. "I kinda – I kinda came back, opened the door and saw you sitting there and I couldn't help myself, call it instinct."

Kise raised his eyebrow. "You got bothered because I was sitting here."

Aomine concentrated hard on playing with Kise's hair. "Strange how accepting your feelings change the way your animalistic behavior takes control."

"Does 'feelings' make us a thing?" Kise asked.

The blue-haired man finally met Kise's eyes. He breathed in. Breathed out. Released Kise's flock of hair and brought their foreheads together. "We did great six years ago," he said, slowly, quietly, almost a whisper. "And thinking about anyone going near you again makes me want to strangle someone. As much as I want to stay mad at you and ignore what I feel, I'd also very much love to see you in my bed and under me. Yeah. I fucking guess that makes us a thing."

"We're a thing," Kise repeated. He closed his eyes. Somehow, seeing all black made it all the more real.

"Quit calling us a thing. We're people, for fuck's sake. This doesn't make us a fucking object."

Kise laughed quietly, heart lightening by the second. "You got back to swearing," he said. "I love that."

"I love you," Aomine said.

Stop.

Time stopped.

Done. The world didn't spin. Birds grew silent. Kise's heartbeat halted.

"Oh God," Kise said, breaking the time-stopping, existence-fading-into-nothing moment. "Oh fuck, I love you – Fuck, I love you too –mmph –"

Kise couldn't finish the sentence when Aomine attacked him with fierce, yet satisfying kisses, peppering them all over Kise's face, kissing away the years of pain, of loneliness, of misery, of all the rights and wrongs, of all the memories. His kisses were true, they were more real than anything in the entire universe. Kise realized that he lived for those kisses, lived for every single moment he'd get to enjoy Aomine's lips on his skin, the faint scent of Aomine's body wash he hadn't changed for years, or the way Aomine's body responded to Kise's light touches.

He didn't feel when he started crying, but he did notice Aomine kissing the tears away.

He didn't feel when he fell onto the bed, but he did sample all of the ways Aomine could unbutton a shirt and the fly of his jeans.

Lips on his collarbone. On his neck. Playful bruises covering his shoulder and a light bite-mark near his veins. Soothing tongue gliding over the kiss marks right after they appeared on his skin.

The heat. Jeans somewhere across the room. Hands on him, everywhere, touching every patch of skin they could find. Palm on his dick, making him arch into the bed, crushing silence and pleasure, all-consuming in the way Aomine breathed into his ear, these raspy, too quick inhales of musk and sex.

The sounds, distinctly reminding him that they were his own, muffled by the open-mouthed kisses Aomine used whenever Kise got too loud, or too obnoxious.

Aomine murmuring sweet nothings into his ear.

And then, fingers gliding beneath boxers, wrapping themselves around Kise's leaking dick, making Kise's eyes come to focus, and his ears concentrate on what was going on.

"So hard for me," Aomine whispered while kissing and licking across Kise's jawbone. "Beautiful."

Kise whined, and Aomine did a twist over the crown of Kise's dick, using the precum for additional lubrication.

"I could come just from hearing you moan like this," Aomine murmured, all while moving his hand up and down in a mindless fit, his hand mapping out all the patches of Kise's anatomy he had once known by heart. "Oh God –"

Kise's hips thrust for more friction, whole body alight with heat, his dick throbbing with the need for release. Aomine's hand sped up, meeting Kise's shallow thrusts, so uncoordinated that it got hot and heavy faster than they both anticipated.

Kise came with Aomine's name on his lips, vision blacked out and body trashing against Aomine's, who watched Kise come undone with immense satisfaction.

This. This had been what Kise thrived for. Aomine's touch, Aomine's love, Aomine's hands, Aomine's eyes, Aomine's heart.

He came down from his high, pressing against Aomine and confirming he loved him by chanting I love you a million times before Aomine lifted his hand and licked off all of the come Kise released on Aomine's fingers. If Kise hadn't come seconds before, he would've now. He'd never been so invested in someone else tasting his release. Not even when they were back together. Somehow, this felt more intimate than ever.

Aomine kissed him again, letting Kise taste himself on Aomine's tongue, which he accepted in an eye-blink and ravaged Aomine's mouth with everything he had. Kise wanted to return the favor, nearing his hand to Aomine's tight bulge, when Aomine stopped him.

Kise looked at him, confused.

"No," Aomine said, affection and sincere love in his eyes. "Later. We have to get ready."

Kise pouted. "But Aominecchi's still hard," he said.

Aomine snorted. "Uh, not really."

Kise looked down at Aomine's bulge, seeing a small patch of wetness spread around the middle of his crotch. His eyes snapped to Aomine's not even embarrassed ones. The fucker had no shame.

"You –" Kise started.

Aomine groaned theatrically. "It's like I'm fifteen again," he said. "Coming inside of my pants, fucking bullshit."

And just like that, Kise laughed. Laughed so hard, that when he remembered that he hadn't laughed like this in a few years, he only felt a giddy happiness inside of his chest instead of the usual remorse and guilt.

At last, when they cleaned up, Kise snuggled into Aomine's chest as they lay on their bed again, Kise's eyes widened and he slapped his own forehead. "I forgot," he said, when Aomine looked at him in question. "Kuroko called. Asked you to call him back."

Aomine scrambled to get up from their embrace, leaving Kise almost pissed off that he found a situation where he could fucking remember that their friend called and deprived himself of post-bliss cuddling.

Aomine speed-dialed Kuroko, tapping his foot against the wood floor.

"What?" he said forcefully after listening carefully to Kuroko for a few minutes. "Alright."

He hung up and looked at Kise.

Kise gestured nonchalantly for him to go on.

Aomine sighed. "Akashi fucking made us go on police radars," he explained cautiously. "Apparently, we're convicts on the run."

Kise gaped at him like a fish. "We're what?"