#im just thinking like momoi: wdym he doesnt say i love you. i guess that makes sense but still

[tenacityreturns]

❛ staying up till 4 am to talk to you is worth every minute. ❜ / aomine

@peachmuses​

there’s something amazing about being seventeen. taiga doesn’t pause to think about it, but he isn’t blind to the moments that he realises that these are the good old days. he’ll be stretching with the seirin guys, listening to them chatting about the last game, the next game, yesterday and tomorrow and the days after that, and he’ll think out of nowhere that next year will be different. the team will change. who will be captain? he doesn’t want to think about it. he’s not even a sentimental kind of person, but thinking about the end of this specific group of seirin starters makes him realise that he’ll be thinking about these guys when he’s making it big for himself in the nba ( which is an eventuality, not a hopeful dream ). if not for them keeping him grounded and in good spirits in the most dramatic of moments, where would he be?

he’ll have another moment of recognition when he’s talking to nijimura. he’ll be graduating sooner than taiga lets himself think about. he’ll be leaving soon too. will nijimura remember to call him to talk about nonsense bullshit like he does now? or will they drift apart and each become closed chapters in the other man’s life? what about himuro? taiga braces himself for a period of silence from his brother while he acclimatises to whatever early adult life will bring him.

ew. adult life.

but being seventeen is something special. for the first time, he’s surrounded by people who care about him. they care if he’s not doing great, they care if he’s busy or free to hang out, they care if he’s even in the country. one specific person cares in a different way. he’ll text him stupid emojis instead of having a conversation like a normal person; he’ll notice when taiga absently announces that he needs new shoes, or a new hoodie, or, fuck! a new basketball, he guesses, but first let’s run away from that broken window? to make matters worse for everyone, taiga has taken to aomine’s nocturnal habits and they can be found in places they shouldn’t be at two o’clock in the morning. they’ll be on a rooftop, in a basketball court, at a twenty-four hour convenience store buying junk food. aomine isn’t the bad influence, it’s taiga. aomine could lie around and do nothing, but taiga is restless and prone to this kind of thing. he feels so alive like this. it’s his normal, his safe. making the most of being six foot four, two-hundred pounds. almost no one fucks with him at two in the morning, less so when there are two of them. one of these days, taiga’s going to act on the impulse to get on a train going anywhere and take a mini vacation. maybe he’ll still be as restless when he’s twenty-five, but it’s sure not the same as sneaking out as a kid.

tonight’s realisation that he truly loves how his life is turning out, he’s safe in bed. they have school tomorrow, but he’s been on the phone with aomine because he can’t sleep. aomine, that is. taiga could’ve gone to sleep at eleven, but he doesn’t want to just abandon his boyfriend like that! they’ve been talking bullshit for the last three hours. it’s nearly 4am, now. taiga doesn’t think he’s said one coherent thing, and he knows for sure that aomine hasn’t.

“i’m tired, man,” taiga wipes his hand down his face, phone resting on his pillow beside him.“i’m tired,” aomine replies like that’s somehow more important.

“then go to sleep!” he snorts, “what are you talking to me for?”

“because you can’t sleep, obviously.”

“what-- no, you said you can’t sleep!”

“you said--”

“no!” taiga sits up and his head spins.

“yeah! hey,” aomine hisses, “you don’t know what i was gonna say. listen to me.”

“okay,” he lies back down again.

“what?”

“i’m listening!”

“go to sleep, taiga.”

“how long have you been tired, dude?”

“like-- i don’t know. two hours?”

“two hours? daiki! i was waiting up with you!”

“that’s what i was doing with you. bah! stupid.” aomine drops the attitude and laughs to himself. he ends it with a sigh. “so we can go sleep now?”

“yeah, i guess,” taiga yawns, “sorry for keeping you up so late.”

“staying up till 4am to talk to you is worth every minute,”

“pfff, shut the hell up,” but he’s smiling wide. “even if it was a waste of time, it was kinda fun.”

“oho, yeah? it was only alright.”

“i’m going to sleep.”

“finally.”

“love you,”

“mhm,” taiga can hear aomine plugging his phone in. taiga is not going to do that, and he will regret it later. aomine continues before he can be called out for not saying it back. “right back atcha.”

it’ll do. they hang up. taiga is smiling until the very last second, and wakes up exhausted and miserable, but without a regret in the world. aomine texted him a rooster emoji to wake up to, and kagami replies saying “i dont wanna see your cock!!!!” and they both have a tired, miserable day, but they’re young and in love so everything works out in the end.