Warnings: AU. AoKiseKaga. Angst(?).

Kise doesn't come back to the cafeteria so five minutes before lunch break's end, Aomine goes searching for him. He finds Kise outside, sitting on a bench and staring into nothing with an absent smile on his face. Aomine flops down next to the blond casually. Kise doesn't react.

"You know, me and Satsuki really are just friends nowadays." Aomine glances to the side but Kise isn't looking at him. "We both agreed that us dating was a mistake in the first place so there's no hard feelings or anything. So really, you don't have to worry about her."

Kise still won't turn to him. "You could date girls. Kagamicchi too."

"Well yeah, I could, but you're not a girl so I don't really want that."

What a sappy answer. Aomine kind of wishes a hole would appear beneath his feet and swallow him so he'd be spared the embarrassment of the moment. But then he feels Kise move closer to him, slipping a hand into his and damn, he doesn't care about anything as long as he can have this. Besides, he meant every word even if the execution was somewhat clumsy.

"You like me, right? And for this… thing between us and Kagami to work, we need to trust each other." Aomine slowly drags his thumb over Kise's hand in a calming manner, happy that Kise at least lets him do that. "So if you have any insecurities, you need to talk about them, not just keep it inside and pretend you're okay."

"…wow, you're really good at this kind of talk, huh?" Kise chuckles softly to himself and presses closer to Aomine. "Thank you though. It really means a lot to me."

"So you'll meet Satsuki?"

Kise stays quiet for a moment before nodding. Aomine feels as if a weight has been lifted off his shoulders; Satsuki really means a lot to him so of course he wants her to meet Kise and them to get along.

With the relief comes an urge to kiss Kise so he turns to face the blond and does just that before his brain kicks in and makes him think. Oh well. He's already stolen a kiss from Kise and back then they weren't even dating, and Kise will tell him if he doesn't want it, right?

(Kise doesn't move an inch, and Aomine swears he can feel the blond smiling against his lips.

What a brat.)

As much as Seijuurou dislikes Ryouta's new boyfriends, he can't deny the fact that the three of them look really good next to each other. Maybe it's their similarity in height, or their skin tones, or their hair colours – whatever it is, they just look like they're meant to be.

Kagami is already used to the twins, he's been their babysitter twice after all, but Aomine looks extremely uncomfortable as he stands in front of the kids while Kise reintroduces them. They're going to have a family dinner, and of course Aomine wants to make a good impression on the twins since he knows how important they are to Ryouta but his discomfort is written on his face clear as day.

Seijuurou feels very satisfied that his and Tetsuya's mere presence can do that to Aomine.

"You're not good with kids, huh, Aominecchi?" Ryouta nudges Aomine with his elbow, a teasing smile on his lips.

"Wh- I am," Aomine replies indignantly, though way too fast for it to sound convincing. Seijuurou glances at Tetsuya and knows that they're thinking the same thing: it wouldn't take much more to scare Aomine away. But…

Seijuurou turns to Ryouta, sees the affection in his eyes and the pleading look he sends Seijuurou, and just like that he knows they'll have to be nice to Aomine; otherwise Ryouta might get mad. Or worse, feel hurt.

Again Tetsuya is on the same wavelength. "We were hoping you could cook for us, Kagami-san. Your food was so good last time."

After recovering from the shock of Tetsuya appearing out of nowhere, Kagami looks positively elated to hear that the twins actually like his cooking. Ryouta smiles at him and apparently decides to take mercy on Aomine by telling him they can help Kagami and then ushering them both into the kitchen.

"I don't think I like Aomine-san," Tetsuya says quietly. Seijuurou sighs.

"We have to be accepting, Ryouta is so happy with them." He knows Tetsuya agrees but it still stings to say it out loud. Giving Ryouta their blessing would mean he'd start spending more time with his boyfriends, right? And that would mean the twins would be left to their own devices more than now. But then again, they realise that Ryouta has already given up so much for them, and this is the first time he's tried to reach out to people since he made friends with Takao and Seijuurou does love his brother very much so more than anything he just wants Ryouta to be happy.

"As long as they don't make him cry," Tetsuya says eventually, his voice as monotone as ever but Seijuurou can hear the underlying promise of real pain if the two idiots ever hurt their precious Ryouta in any way. He smiles.

"As long as they don't make him cry," he repeats. Tetsuya smiles too.

(As it turns out, the dinner goes well; Aomine still freaks out whenever he notices either of the twins looking at him but all in all he makes an effort, and anyone's who's willing to work for Ryouta can't be a bad person, at least not in Seijuurou's books, so it's all good.)

"I used to be such a big fan," Momoi blurts out, her face slightly flushed as he stares at Kise, unashamed. Aomine swears her eyes are sparkling; Kise seems slightly uncomfortable under her scrutiny.

"I only modelled for a very short time," he replies, the polite smile on his lips barely concealing the underlying panic.

"I know but you were so cute!" When she realises what she just said, her face goes completely red and she claps her hands in front of her mouth. Kise blushes furiously too, turning to look to the side.

This is awkward. Aomine coughs in hopes to break the tension. Kise hasn't modelled for years and Aomine didn't even care about the blond when he did plus Kise's gay so really, he has no reason to feel jealous about Momoi gushing over Kise. Yet he does and it makes him feel like a moron. "Yeah, Satsuki wouldn't shut up about how amazing you were."

"Dai-chan!" Momoi punches him in the arm, her face an even darker shade of red than before. "I didn't talk about Kise-kun all that much!"

"Yeah, whatever." Aomine yawns, already bored of talking about Kise's modelling days. He doesn't even remember what Kise looked like back then; sure he can recall Momoi waving around some magazines with Kise's pictures in them and fangirling his good looks and what not but other than that his memories of Kise in middle school are very vague.

Momoi stomps on his foot under the table. "I didn't ask you to introduce us so you could embarrass me in front of Kise-kun so shut it."

Kise laughs. "It's okay, Momoi-san, I know Aominecchi isn't the nicest person out there."

"Hey!"

"You're right, Dai-chan's an idiot. I'm sure you could find someone better to date." Momoi sighs and shakes her head like a mother talking about her unruly child.

Oh god, these two are going to be unbearable. Aomine is really starting to regret going along with Momoi's request. To avoid further teasing he gets up, feeling the others' curious eyes on him. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

After Aomine leaves an uncomfortable silence settles between Kise and Momoi. Momoi seems nice enough and she's pretty too, but Kise just can't bring himself to look at her. What should he say? He hates being left alone with a friend of a friend, on their first meeting no less.

"So," Momoi finally breaks the silence hesitantly.

It's gonna be okay, she's nice. Just look at her. Kise wills a smile onto his face and hopes it's convincing before moving his gaze to Momoi.

"I just wanted to meet you because… well, Dai-chan always sounded so different when he was talking about you. And he's always been so loud about how much he likes girls, especially certain… assets they have." Momoi glances down for a second, just enough for Kise to catch the hint. He blushes and averts his gaze. "Then suddenly, he can't shut up about some guy he started talking to at school and then he and Kagamin even almost had a fallout because of you…"

Kise feels like he should say something but no words come so he just sits there, that automatic polite smile still plastered on his face.

"I was really surprised to hear that all three of you got together though." Momoi shakes her head fondly. "Dai-chan's an idiot so you're gonna have to be patient to make it work. All of his past relationships ended because he just… didn't really make an effort to make it last. Like he was in on it only for the sex and when the actual relationship stuff came up, like going on dates, hanging out together and whatnot, he just wasn't interested. In a way it makes a lot more sense for him to be into guys because at least then they'd have some common interests, other than sex."

"Is that why you broke up with him? Because he wasn't into the relationship?" Suddenly Kise can get his mouth open and the question just comes out without him really wanting it to. Stupid stupid him. Didn't he already resolve the situation with Aomine before? Aomine said there was nothing to be worried about, that the thing between him and Momoi was just a mistake. And Kise wants to believe him, he so badly wants to trust Aomine, but – he doesn't really know either Aomine or Kagami all that well, does he?

Momoi shakes her head again. "The only reason we even dated was because everyone else kept saying we looked like a couple. But… it was weird. I kind of felt like I was dating my brother or something like that. I mean, we've been friends since we were really young so I can't really remember a time without Dai-chan. We grew up together, always went to the same school, lived next door to each other so we were practically siblings."

"Oh," Kise says. He feels kind of stupid now. But Momoi just smiles at him, warm and gentle.

"Really, I don't know you that well but I hope we can become friends. Dai-chan is a bit of a… how should I put it…" She momentarily gets lost in her thought and in the ensuing silence Kise absently notes that Aomine's been in the bathroom an awfully long time. "He wants the people he cares about to get along. He'd never date someone his friends don't approve of, especially if I'm the one who hasn't given their blessing. And I must say, you and Kagamin are both quite good catches! At least look wise, Kagamin could use some brain for things other than basketball and cooking. And Dai-chan's hopeless in everything but basketball."

Momoi's last comment startles laughter out of Kise. "Aominecchi and Kagamicchi really are basketball idiots, aren't they?"

"I knew you were gonna talk shit about me the moment I leave the table." Aomine swats the back of Momoi's head lightly, making her yelp in surprise.

"You're finally back. I thought you might've fallen into the toilet or something," Kise says with a teasing smile.

"As if," Aomine scoffs.

(Later, when Aomine and Momoi are walking home, she asks him if he left the table to give her and Kise a chance to get to know each other without Aomine bothering them. He denies it, but it's not like he could ever fool Momoi.

"You're a nice guy when you want to be," Momoi says. "It's almost a shame it didn't work out between us."

"Who'd wanna be nice to you?" Aomine teases. That earns him a slap on the arm and results in them bickering the rest of the way.

But still, Aomine is satisfied with how the day went.)

A/N: wow I haven't updated in ages . haaaa school's been keeping me pretty busy and my writing muse went missing for the longest time OTL

Anyhow, as I said in the previous chapter, there's gonna be some drama in the future yeah this is just some fluffy filler chapter to get me back into writing (man my skills are rusty…) and also I just wanted to get Momoi meeting Kise and Aomine and Kagami meeting the twins and getting their blessing out of the way

And then the usual: thanks for all the support! All feedback is greatly appreciated so do leave a review if you have the time uwu