"Ah, damn...it's hot …"

Aomine rubbed his neck, the perspiration sticking to his hand, and quietly cursed the sun for lingering overhead as glaringly hot as ever. There was no breeze to ease the swelter, just a thick, drowning, inescapable heat. Muggy air plugged his nose and mouth like hot water; it was just one of those days.

Even the shade provided little to no relief, although, come to think of it, there should have been no trees nearby to cast a shadow...

"Aomine?"

"Nn. Tetsu … What are you doing here?" he lolled back his head and lazily flicked his eyes up into the empty stare of his proclaimed 'shadow'. Kuroko eased himself onto the bench beside him, Aomine wincing as the sun glared at him in the sudden absence of shade. He found himself smirking for a reason annoyingly unapparent to him.

Kuroko didn't really answer his question, but if Aomine minded any he didn't seem to show it. The other boy looked casual even out of his jersey, he noticed, wearing just a faded t-shirt and shorts that didn't quite fit. What preoccupied Aomine more than Kuroko's lazy manner of dress however was the way his shirt gaped at the neck while it clung to him in other places from the heat, and how his fair skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat. He also held a broken-off half of a popsicle in his hand which was slowly melting though it looked otherwise untouched. He seemed almost dazed in the heat, not privy to Aomine's watchful eye.

"What's that?" Aomine asked with disinterest, obviously aware that it was a popsicle but making pointless small talk. It was a little game of his to get Kuroko talking though he was not sure if it was the boy's almost robotic behavior that amused him, or the rare, fleeting glimpses of something more human.

"Momoi gave me half of hers," he responded matter-of-factly. Aomine snorted lightly, knowing all about Momoi's affections for Kuroko. If the kid was aware of them himself he was completely impervious to them.

"Do you want it, Aomine?"

Aomine slightly bared his teeth for just a brief moment, as if in disgust, before shrugging him off. Despite that he doubted the thing had ever touched Kuroko's lips he had no intention of taking that risk. He mentally berated himself for thinking of something so childish as an 'indirect kiss' even if the thought had been a mere millisecond of a flash in his mind.

"You eat it. A scrawny, pale kid like you will easily get heatstroke, you know—if you don't keep hydrated."

"Are you concerned for me?" There was no hint of making-fun in Kuroko's voice—well, there was never a whole lot of anything in his voice, but Aomine thought the puppydog look of his eyes seemed genuine enough. When he didn't immediately answer, Kuroko added, as if it would reassure him somehow, "I drink plenty of water, Aomine."

The lean, dark-haired boy couldn't hold back a scoff at that one. This unbearable heat was messing with his temper, "Hardly. I was just pointing out that you're weak." He said a bit meanly.

He didn't have the heart to look over at Kuroko's expression right away. Sometimes even Tetsu was capable of having his feelings hurt, Aomine reminded himself, though he always pretended not to know. What would be even worse, though, somehow, would be to see him not even bat an eye, as if to say he believed Aomine and agreed with him. Damn right he was weak, and if it weren't for his passes he really would be utterly hopeless at basketball; still, it irked Aomine somehow to see him so easily accept his limitations.

When he did at last glance over, however, the boy had donned an unreadable, distant expression, the popsicle now tucked thoughtfully between his lips. It was a scene that Aomine felt he could not touch. Silence fell between them, the only sound the dull thrumming of cicadas bzzz-ing in the trees, excited in the scorching summer heat.

Aomine leaned back into the bench and fanned himself with the lower-half of his shirt, exposing his tanned torso to cool his body. This heat was ridiculous. He clenched his fist and pretended not to notice when Kuroko's eyes quickly darted to the newly exposed skin and back. The silence lingered between them before it was broken at last, surprisingly, by Kuroko.

"Why don't you go inside?"

Aomine felt annoyed. It was a stupid question, he felt, but all the more stupid when he realized he didn't even have a good answer.

"It's annoying. I don't feel like dealing with people right now. Besides, it's isn't any cooler indoors… " he grumbled, allowing the silence to settle in once more.

And then his eye was caught by a watery blue trickle of melting popsicle, sliding in a sticky line down Kuroko's chin, and neck, meandering over the peaks of his barely exposed clavicles until it disappeared into his shirt. Aomine wondered how far that sweet blue line had dripped down his slender, white stomach before finally dying out. As he pondered the heavenly mix of blue ice and red tongue he imagined the taste of it, sticky sweet and salty sweat on Tetsu's neck..

And when he found himself suddenly reaching out to brush the back of that neck Aomine could not stop himself in time, eyes widening with surprise before resuming a carefully controlled glare.

A bug. He would say it was a bug. It might seem strange to Kuroko, or likely anyone, for him to bother with a bug, but it was a hell of a lot better than telling the truth, whatever the truth even was. He didn't know why he'd done it. But he never got the chance to explain. Kuroko hadn't moved or so much as flinched. He made no comment nor did he turn to Aomine for an explanation.

Somehow this was much worse, he thought. Staring at Kuroko, whose gaze had seemingly become quite fixated upon his shoes, Aomine couldn't help wondering if the steadily rising flush on the boy's cheek was wholly due to the summer heat or not.

He was better off not knowing, he reasoned. It was just hormones, anyway.

He turned his gaze away, muttering to himself,
"Ah, damn...it's hot …"