Kise probably shouldn't have been going to a practice match between Seirin and Touou, but it was a Thursday afternoon and he was actually feeling kind of lonely. It was easy enough for him to sneak into the Touou gym unnoticed, considering the fact that he'd been forced to learn the best ways to get through the school without gathering a crowd of admirers, and for a few moments he simply stood by the door and watched the group on the court.

It was immediately obvious from the relatively slow pace of the match that neither Aomine nor Kagami were playing at the time, and although he could see Kagami sitting on the bench and talking to his coach, Aomine was nowhere in sight. Kise frowned at the sight of only four players sitting with Harasawa and Momoi, although he couldn't say he was entirely surprised.

Aomine trained more now than he had since Kise's early days at Teiko, but he still had his moments.

Making eye contact with Harasawa, Kise couldn't help but smile at the way the coach rolled his eyes, now entirely used to Kise appearing at training sessions and Aomine disappearing from them. He jerked his thumb to the side and Kise followed the movement, spying Aomine sitting on the elevated area to one side of the court with his back to the action. Raising a hand in thanks, he made his way over to his boyfriend, who was still completely unaware of his presence.

Upon seeing exactly what Aomine was doing, Kise found himself grinning like an idiot. He really should have guessed, considering what seemed to happen whenever Aomine was in the vicinity of Kuroko and Seirin, but it still made his heart melt from sheer cuteness.

Predictably, Aomine had taken possession of Nigou and had the little dog sitting in his lap, scratching under his chin with a gentle finger. He was murmuring something that Kise wasn't quite close enough to hear and Nigou yapped happily in return.

Still grinning, Kise plopped himself down next to his boyfriend, knocking Aomine's shoulder with his own and rubbing Nigou between the ears. Both of them turned to Kise for a moment, Aomine with a casual nod and Nigou with a short bark, but they immediately turned back to each other without offering Kise anything more.

As cute as it was to see Aomine let Nigou use his chest as a place to prop his front paws, Kise pouted at the affront of being rejected twice. Sure, he and Aomine didn't exactly flaunt their relationship in public, but their friends and teams knew and had never cared when they greeted each other a little affectionately.

"He's pouting, isn't he?" Aomine asked the dog climbing all over him, lifting him up with one big hand until he was at eye level. "What a loser."

Even though he knew it was all in good fun, Kise still huffed and turned away, feeling the tiniest bit of hurt. He had thick enough skin to brush off anything said by nearly anyone, but Aomine was unfortunately a special case.

"Kise," Aomine said in a less abrasive voice, moving Nigou to his other hand and wrapping his now free one around Kise's waist. The model didn't move, still staring off to the other side so that Aomine would have no chance to see that flicker of insult in his eyes.

"Kise."

"..."

"C'mon, Kise. You know you're not a loser."

"..."

"Sorry...Ryouta."

Feeling his heart skip a beat, just like it did whenever Aomine decided to use his given name, Kise finally turned to face his boyfriend. He was immediately greeted by Nigou licking the tip of his nose from where Aomine was lifting him up, and it was only the arm around Kise's waist that kept him from falling back in surprise.

With a deep laugh, Aomine set the dog down and prompted him to run off, just in time for Kise to dive forward, wrapping Aomine in his arms and knocking him back. Aomine couldn't catch himself in time and ended up with his back on the floor, Kise now the one propped up on his chest.

"Not in the gym, Dai-chan, Ki-chan," they heard Momoi call out, but Kise took the opportunity to peck Aomine on the lips before sitting back up, hauling his boyfriend after him. Aomine grumbled and rubbed at his back, but his 'pain' mysteriously disappeared when Kise put one hand over the area and used the other to pull Aomine in for a kiss on the cheek.

It was only then that Kise thought to look around for any outsiders in the gym; thankfully he couldn't see any. The last thing he wanted was for pictures of him and Aomine to end up on one of his borderline creepy stalker sites. At least he knew for a fact that none of the basketball players would try to out them, considering that none of them were willing to face Aomine's wrath.

The few who had experienced Kise's wrath were twice as wary.

"Do I need to separate you two?"

Kise jolted when he realised that Momoi had left the bench and was now standing next to the stage, hands on her hips and a fond smile on her face.

"Shouldn't you be watching the game?" Aomine grumbled as they both turned around, shifting until they were sitting with their legs hanging off the end of the stage. Kise vaguely noted that the game hadn't gotten any faster, but Kagami looked like he was getting awfully restless on the bench.

"Oh, sure," Momoi said with a roll of her eyes, gesturing for the two boys to make space between them, "I'm the one who should be paying attention to training."

Levering herself onto the stage, Momoi settled between the other two and crossed her legs, smoothing her skirt down. Aomine slapped his hand against the stage twice and waited for Nigou to run back into his lap, and Kise simply leant back, using his arms to support himself as he watched the players run up and down the court.

Eventually getting curious, he tried looking over Momoi's shoulder to see what she was writing, but she quickly held her notebook to her chest, tutting quietly. "If you're going to spy, Ki-chan, then we won't let you into the gym ever again."

"That hurts, Momocchi," Kise whined, putting his hands over his heart with an overly dramatic flourish. "I'm the prettiest cheerleader your team has."

"You're probably right about that," Momoi smiled, patting him on the knee. Kise returned the expression, feeling his chest warm up with something entirely different than the feelings Aomine gave him. He could honestly say that he hadn't felt so happy in years, and he owed it all to the two people sitting beside him.

"Oi," Aomine drawled lazily as the other two continued smiling, "Stop flirting with my boyfriend and find your own, Satsuki."

"Oooh!" Kise exclaimed as he sat upright, eyes sparkling as he surveyed the court. "I'll help! What about...your number eleven? He looks like he might clean up well."

Momoi laughed, shaking her head so that her pink hair cascaded loosely around her shoulders. "I don't think so, he's a first year and a little young for me."

"You want to go older, then?" Kise contemplated, before a mischievous grin broke out on his face. "I've never seen a ring on your coach's finger, and he's pretty hot."

The strangled noise of outrage that Aomine let out made Kise wink at Momoi, and she immediately clicked on and picked up the thread Kise had left hanging. "You make it sound like Dai-chan needs to watch out for competition."

Laughing, Kise pretended to check out the teacher sitting on Touou's bench, nudging Momoi like they were both in on some big secret. "I think Aominecchi's safe for now, but you never know..."

Nigou barked indignantly as he was displaced from Aomine's lap, forced to duck away when Aomine jerked up to move closer to Kise.

"Oh, sit down, Dai-chan," Momoi giggled as she tugged on his arm, Aomine reluctantly doing as he was told with a petulant expression on his face. "We're just joking."

"I know that," Aomine grumbled, not even reacting to Nigou nosing at his arm.

"You know you're the only one for me," Kise said, his tone light despite how very true he knew the sentiment to be. He looked at Aomine over the top of Momoi's head and blew his boyfriend a kiss, holding his arm out behind Momoi and trying to encourage Aomine to do the same. Still looking petulant, Aomine finally gave in and they linked their hands together, Momoi cooing over how cute her friends could be.

"Still, neither of you should be trying to fuck that guy," Aomine muttered. "You can do better, Satsuki."

"I agree, of course, but who's your choice then?" Kise asked, squeezing Aomine's hand. After a few moments of silence while he looked across the gym, Aomine smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Seirin's girl coach."

Letting out a surprised laugh, Kise turned his head to look at the Seirin bench. Aida Riko was calling out to the team that she still coached even while at university, although apparently her father had taken on a lot of the training duties. Even at the distance they were sitting, her passion for basketball was obvious in her entire demeanour, and Kise hummed approvingly.

"She's smart, cute, and has as much of a basketball obsession as you do. I gotta say, I think I agree with Aominecchi on this one."

Finally looking back at Momoi, Kise froze when he saw the bright red flush on her face, realisation quickly dawning. "Holy shit."

"What?" Momoi replied a little too quickly, a little too defensively.

"You like her."

"No I don't!" The squeak in Momoi's voice was a complete give away, and Kise nudged Momoi with his leg. Before he could say anything, though, Aomine interrupted.

"Liar."

"I have to go," Momoi announced as she slipped off the stage and into a standing position, looking thoroughly flustered. She walked away quickly, and Kise saw her head instinctively turn towards Riko as she passed the Seirin bench, only to quickly jerk back to stare at the ground.

"Holy shit," Kise repeated, and then he collapsed onto Aomine, shaking with good-natured laughter. A strong arm wrapped around his shoulders as he scooted closer, eventually calming himself down and just enjoying the warmth of Aomine's body.

He waved at Momoi when she looked in their direction and was glad to see her wave back with a smile, even if she did still seem to be missing some of her usual composure. The warmth in his body became a full-blown blazing fire and Kise hid his face in Aomine's chest, grinning so hard that his face was beginning to hurt.

The arm around his shoulder held him tight, and in more ways than one Kise Ryouta felt completely and utterly loved.