Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aomine Daiki was content with his life. He was a fairly handsome man in his late twenties, working as a detective in a criminal department at his local police unit, single and not actively looking for a partner (this statement was true for as long as he was not in heat). Strong, fit, muscular and with gorgeously hot body, he laughed at the mirror that the only problem is his face. After a few years of that laughing, in fear of actually staying a virgin his entire life, he might have panicked and bought every skin care product his local drugstore had.

He still had no clue how to use over half of the product he bought that day (and he was sure they were expired at that point), but at last his face went from a far-fetched five, to a strong seven. At least Kise said so four years ago when they last talked.

His hair had gotten longer over the past years, currently reaching his shoulder blades. If Aomine were to be honest, he much more preferred the length he had in second grade of high school, but his experience with scissors and hair cutting was... rather horrible. Last time he decided to cut his own hair, it ended up so badly he just shaved it off almost completely, leaving less than a centimeter all around. And it looked better than whatever he created before that.

Since that moment around five years ago, he had never shortened the length of his hair once - and for the last two he had been planning on doing that in a salon. That was because he needed two weeks to learn how to do a ponytail, and that buying a hair tie is way easier that ripping his hair out with the rubber one he found in his kitchen drawer.

He was even more embarrassed, when he needed seven different tutorial videos and five weeks of daily trying to make a french braid. It was even longer than his learning how to cook.

Yet, after more than two years of daily reminders of going to get the hair cut and daily hairstyles of braids, buns and other ponytails, he was well prepared for having a daughter. Or a son who would like to have long hair. Or just a kid, no matter who or what they were.

And he had no one to have the kid with.

When he was young, every time he had thought about his future, he had imagined himself with a husband and at least one kid. Two or three would be perfect, but one would be great too. There had also been a dog, in his imagination, but that was another story. His plans hadn't yet worked, but he was only twenty-eight, he still had some time to fulfill it.

The family would be harder, but the dog? He could begin somewhere, and a dog seemed like a great start.

He looked at himself in the mirror - his french braid was decorated with flowery hairpins. In a red oversize hoodie that reached halfway his thighs and black leggings, which he always wore for jogging, he looked slightly feminine. Only on the first sight, as he was too muscular and tall to be taken as a woman.

A morning jog to an animal shelter and maybe going back with a dog? Sounded like a good plan.

He put on his running shoes and closed the door. He played the music in his earphones, trying to ignore the city noises. He set up his smartwatch and phone app to record the training, googled where the closest animal shelter was. With navigation on his earphones in the background of his music, he started running.

Following the directions, he ended up in a fairly new environment. While waiting for a green light on one of the crossings, he decided to switch the playlist, as he had already gone through all of the songs.

"Meow!"

He stopped the music and took off his earphones. He listened in, trying to see if it was just his imagination.

"Meow!"

A faint, silent voice was heard again, from somewhere behind him. He turned around and started searching around the trashcans. Soon after, he found a little creature on the verge of death, keeping itself alive by its last energy. The last few days were a disaster in terms of weather - a few storms and almost a constant rain. Because of that, the whole city was covered in ponds and puddles of water. The councils were asking everyone to keep the trashcans closed in order for the water to not hoard inside, however it looked like not everybody had listened.

A tiny little creature was swimming in the trashcan full of water and it must've gotten stuck there a while ago. Slowly, Aomine put his hand towards the kitten, expecting to be bitten and scratched, yet as soon as it felt something to support itself, it clung onto his hand. Once it was out of the water, the creature almost immediately fainted out of exhaustion.

Daiki got it out and checked if it was still alive. He was close to the shelter anyway and they had a vet in there, the most reasonable thing to do would be to take it there and leave it in professional hands.

He walked the end of the way, holding the baby close so it would get slightly warmer. The kitten just shivered in his hands, clinging to his warmth. The little heartbeat that he could feel under his index finger was making him want to run, yet he wasn't sure if it wouldn't put more trauma on the little body.

The lady at the shelter reception was adorable - she was an older lady, maybe already past her sixties, with the mere height of one meter fifty and a lovely character. She joked that he would get a neck pain just from looking at his face, which made him a little uncomfortable at first, yet her warm approach soon melted down the ice. She called in their vet - an average height man, probably around his mid forties, who took the kitten and checked its vitals.

"Don't worry, love, we will take good care of your friend", the lady smiled at him.

"Oh, no, I actually just found him nearby", he explained.

"Well, you two seem to get along well, why don't you take him?"

And that is how Aomine Daiki ended up living under the same roof with his malicious, red kitten, also called Sei - written with kanji for "subjugate", which somehow matched him perfectly.

Chapter Text

"I don't know what you want", Daiki frowned at the kitten who kept meowing at his bowl. "It's food! You can eat it! You're supposed to eat it!"

"Meooow!", the angry noise came down from the floor. The red kitten jumped onto his leg and climbed up his body until it got onto his shoulder. Then, Sei smacked his face with his little paw.

"Do it again, I dare you", Daiki placed his hands on his hips. "Try it again and that'll be the only thing you'll get for the rest of your life."

Sei's ears flopped down and his tail curled up. With a little huff, the kitten jumped onto the counter and rubbed his little head on Daiki's hand.

"Now you're acting cute?", Daiki chuckled, petting the kitten.

"Meow~?"

"Meow my ass", Daiki sighed. "I have work today, you know, Sei? So I'll have to leave you alone in here for longer than I'd like to, but hey, that's how life works."

"M... Meow...?"

"Yeah, sorry buddy", Daiki smiled, ruffling the fur on Sei's body. "I'll buy you some rustling toy."

"Meow?"

"... Just great, I'm so lonely I'm talking to a cat."

Daiki placed his hand over his nape - markless like always. As if someone's mark would randomly appear one day. As if getting a kitten would make his virginity disappear.

"I'm going, Sei", Daiki smiled, scratching the kitten's ear before walking away and leaving him on the counter. Sei quickly panicked and anxiously called him back, peeking over the edge. "Right, sorry."

Daiki placed him on the floor and smiled as Sei followed him to the doorway. Aomine put on his shoes and watched as the kitten stayed on the edge of the genkan.

"Be good while I'm gone, 'kay?", Daiki asked, leaving the apartment. Sei's red eyes shined in fear and his head tilted in confusion, but he stayed in his place with a sad meow as goodbye.

Sei's ears flopped down as he walked back to the living room. He jumped on the sofa and curled up on the pillow. He was happy in Aomine's apartment - it was warm, there was food and water, a heater, comfortable pillows and blankets and the human was good at headpats and scratches. But he was now alone.

Sei didn't mean to get lost. He and his little brother left to run around for a little, maybe hopefully find some food or toys, but then the rain caught them and while they were running away, Sei fell into a trashcan. His brother wanted to stay with him and help him, but instead he decided to run and find their mom. Yet before he could return, the human saved him.

Sei sighed. Were they looking for him? Was his mom sad? Was his brother feeling guilty? Sei hoped he could find them again... They must have been worried sick. He sighed again, closing his eyes. He wished he could bring his family into this nice and warm nest.

Daiki was rushing to work. He wasn't late or anything, he actually ended up early, which made him stop by a pharmacy on his way there, which made him wait in the line, which finally made him slightly late. Nevertheless, he was thankful to his gynecologist for giving him prescriptions so he wouldn't have to pay the full price for all of his heat suppressants.

On his last visit, the doctor advised him on trying out heat suppression injections, but Daiki quickly refused. He didn't need the heat now, but he still wanted to have a baby. And he wouldn't be able to have a baby unless he would get a heat. And those injections - even if they were way more effective than pills - sometimes removed the heat permanently. And Daiki wouldn't let that happen to him.

He ran into his police station and smiled at the receptionist. "I'm not late, am I?", he asked.

"You have seven minutes", the woman chuckled.

"Shit", Aomine ran towards the elevators. There was surely enough time to get to his desk, if only there was an elevator waiting for him—... And there wasn't. He frantically looked at the clock as he waited for the metal doors to open and let him inside. And when they finally did, he jumped into the elevator and slammed the fifth floor button, then immediately started clicking the one to close the doors.

"Woah, you look annoyed", a man's hand held the elevator door open as the intruder stepped in with a cup of coffee in his hand. He clicked the close door button and rested against the railing as Aomine stared at him in fury and annoyance. He glanced at the clock - shit, he wouldn't make it now. Furious at the man who dared to keep the elevator down for one more minute Daiki did not have to spare, he left the box before the doors could close and ran towards the staircase, leaving the confused man behind.

Aomine skipped every second step as he quickly proceeded to climb to the fifth floor. Just in time - the clock ticked six fifty nine as he entered the floor and as Daiki flopped down his office chair, seven o'clock appeared on his watch. Perfect timing - just in time. Now, he only had to survive eight hours in front of his desk in hopes that no criminals decided to do their job today.

His hopes were soon deflated as his boss knocked on his office door and handed him the papers.

"I know you just finished a long and exhausting case yesterday", the woman said, "but I have a feeling you'd like it. There's a guy for some questions, if you'd like to speak with him."

"Yeah, I'll be right there, give me three, maybe four, minutes", Aomine grabbed the papers and opened the file to skim through it. Random fires, possibly connected, little to no witnesses, previously unassigned to a cause, now a possible pyromancy. Amazing. Just what he wished for at seven in the morning... That was sarcasm if you haven't already noticed.

On his way to the boss's office, Daiki read the reports more cautiously, trying to find any potential questions he would ask the guy that was waiting in the office - possibly a fireman who had brought the reports to them. With a knock, Aomine entered the office and raised his eyes from the papers.

Right in front of him, on the chair in front of the boss's desk, was the annoying prick of a guy from the elevator.

Chapter Text

Aomine frowned as he scanned the man up and down with a disgusted look. He? That asshole? He was supposed to be the intel guy?! Daiki took a deep breath and slightly bowed in front of his boss and waited for the dipshit to stand up.

"Kagami Taiga", the elevator asshole smiled, passing his hand out for Daiki to shake. "Fire investigator."

"Aomine Daiki", he ignored the man's hand and instead opted for a bow. "Detective."

"I'm glad to answer any possible questions you'd have regarding the matter", the douchebag smiled. Aomine nodded and smiled at his boss, inviting the man over to his own office to continue the conversation. Daiki closed the door behind them and with a rather annoyed smile, he sat down in his seat, pointing at the armchair in front of him for his unwanted guest to take.

"I have not yet read it fully", Aomine admitted, "so I'll read it now and ask you about it as we go."

"Glad you made it on time", the guy chuckled. "You'd've made it in the elevator too, I actually was already on your floor when you ran into your office."

"I wouldn't have had this problem if you didn't stop the elevator", Aomine tsked, opening the file. "You made the report?"

"Yup", the asshole got more comfortable in the armchair. "That's why I'm the one here."

"Nice", Aomine turned the file around and pointed at the first line. "You made a spelling error."

"... Seriously?"

"And here another error", Daiki pointed in another place. "Wrong particle."

The now humbled asshole grabbed the pen from Daiki's desk and crossed out the particle, writing another one above it.

"Still wrong", Aomine said, barely stopping his laughter.

"Then which one it is?!"

"Wa, but you write it down with the ha hiragana", Daiki chuckled. "Dude, it's like, kindergarten level of spelling. Also, fix the spelling in the first line. You wrote down «dog» instead of «big»."

"Any other comments regarding my writing?", the guy was starting to get pissed off.

"I saw more on the next pages, but I guess I'll decode the meaning on my own", Aomine smirked. "Just for the record, there are classes for adults who have problems with spelling."

The asshole dude squeezed his hand around the pen so hard the pen almost broke. He grabbed a sticky note from Daiki's desk, wrote down his phone number and email, took the papers from him and stood up.

"I'll rewrite it for you", he hissed out. "Call me in regards of any questions."

"I need the copies of them for now anyway", Aomine pointed out.

"I'll email the PDF version to you", the elevator douchebag's weirdly split eyebrow twitched as he left Aomine's office and slammed the door behind him. Daiki observed how the guy furiously left the floor and spammed the elevator call button over and over just like Daiki had moments prior. Aomine laughed while he observed the stupid rage sequence. Good. He deserved it.

Aomine looked at the sticky note on his desk. He grabbed the pen and drew a small fork in the corner of the note, then picked it up and taped it to the edge of his monitor. Temporarily with no work to do, he pulled out his phone and connected to the cameras in his apartment. After locating Sei in the living room, he connected to the television via a video call and waited a moment to see if the kitten would maybe see him.

"Heyy~", he called after a while, making Sei raise his head and look around. His big red eyes landed on the television and he quickly jumped from the sofa onto the coffee table and walked closer. Once he was on the edge, his eyes widened and pupils blew up, as he recognized Daiki. "Hiii, Sei~"

"Meow?", the kitten's little paws excitedly started to biscuit the table.

"Yeah, hi baby~", Daiki chuckled. "I'm just checking up on you. You okay? Not lonely?"

Sei stood up on his back paws, stretching in front of the screen for Daiki to see on his phone. The kitten then lost his balance and fell onto his back, but quickly recovered and tried to repeat the motion.

"Watch out, you're gonna hurt yourself", Aomine called. He stayed on the call for another fifteen minutes before he realized that the elevator asshole didn't even have his email to sent him the PDF file. He chuckled, opening his computer and rewriting the email from the sticky note into the recipient blank.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: Requested PDF file

Good morning,
I have come to a realization about a possible lack of way to asses mutual communication, therefore I am sending this email to You as a way to establish the connection.
I am patiently waiting for the promised PDF file regarding the matter we had discussed in my office this morning.
As a matter of precaution, I would advise using Your business email address for the future affairs instead of Your private one. If the phone number I have been given is also private, please provide me with your work number.

Best regards,
Aomine Daiki
Sergeant, Senior Detective
Criminal Affairs Bureau
Tokyo Metropolitan Police

"Ahh, Sei", Daiki sighed, upon clicking send. "This looks like a horrible weeks ahead of me..."

Sei meowed through the video call, making Aomine chuckle. But before he could say anything more, his mail refreshed and a new undead message appeared on top. He clicked on it with displeasure - he had to hung up on Sei and actually return to work.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:Requested PDF file

Fuck you

Attached: report for the police.pdf

Aomine laughed out loud, startling Sei through the call a little. He apologized to the kitten and waved goodbye to him as he hung up and wrote his reply with a smile.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:Requested PDF file

Good morning,
The conversation, whether they are from public or private email addresses, are visible to the management team as well as regularly checked by the IT Department. Please, refrain from using this type of vocabulary in the future.
My deepest gratitudes for the attached file. I am waiting patiently for the corrected version.

Best regards,
Aomine Daiki
Sergeant, Senior Detective
Criminal Affairs Bureau
Tokyo Metropolitan Police

Maybe those weeks wouldn't be so horrible after all?

Chapter Text

Daiki was in the kitchen, humming a random melody he had heard in an ad in the television, while Sei prepared to attack the pepper. His tail swung from one side to the other and his ears stayed flat as he hid behind an empty chicken meat package. Seconds later, he jumped onto the vegetable, digging his claws and fangs into it. His weight was enough to push the pepper and cause it to roll, taking Sei with it towards the edge of the counter.

"Watch out", Aomine chuckled, stopping the rolling motion.

"Meow?", Sei struggled for a moment to take his claws out, but then happily sat up next to the victim of his attack and closed his eyes, happy with his win.

"Yeah, good job, you won", Daiki moved the pepper away from the edge and let Sei nudge against his wrist with a silent purr. "Don't touch my hand, you're gonna get olive oil on you."

Sei opened one eye and tilted his head, looking at Daiki with confusion.

"Okay, shoo now", he smiled. "I'm gonna cut onion, so you should step back or you're gonna suffer too."

Sei happily obliged and moved the the edge of the counter where Aomine had placed a chair for him to jump on and off easily. He ran towards the living room and lied down on his spot on the sofa - on his fluffy milky brown pillow that reminded him of his father. Except the pillow wasn't breathing and pushing him off.

Aomine swung his hips around to the rhythm of the music he was humming. Stepping from one foot to the other, he tried saving himself from the cold floor, cursing himself for ditching the socks next to the sofa. His hair was put in a loose ponytail, keeping the strands away from his face while he seasoned the chicken and mixed it with the vegetables to make the stew.

He left some of the chicken unseasoned and fried it separately from the rest for Sei. The kitten was growing quickly and happily accepted all the treats he was being spoiled with.

"I'm almost done", Aomine sniffed from the onion, smiling at the kitten resting on the pillow. Sei raised his head and walked closer. He waited for Daiki to finish and then followed him to the table and jumped onto the chair, then the table. His bowl appeared in front of him soon after and Sei gently sniffed it to check what it was. His ears perked up a little - it smelled like some of the food he remembered from the house his dad lived at. Ah, he wondered if they took his mom and brother back in.

Aomine started eating his own food, but stopped once he saw Sei stare at his with his ears flopped down.

"You don't like it?", he asked. "I can get you your usual food instead..."

Sei lifted his eyes, then looked back at the bowl. He began eating, wondering if his family had something to eat, too. His mom always cared about him and his little brother, always made sure they had something to eat, even if she had none. She was always so thin and weak because of that, so he and his brother fought for her since they could move on their own. Now, his little brother was the only one left. If only Sei could get stronger here and come back to his family, he would be able to protect them.

Once the bowl was empty, Sei walked to Daiki and jumped onto his shoulder, then purred loudly as he rubbed his head onto Aomine's cheek. He sighed, missing his family further. He looked at Daiki, slowly chewing his food, then smacked his cheek with his little paw.

"Ow", Aomine looked at him, offended. Sei huffed and jumped down, returning to his pillow. "That was supposed to be a thank you or something?!"

Sei lifted one ear and opened one eye, but not noticing the human getting mad, he returned to his sleep. Aomine sighed, continuing to eat his food while his phone buzzed. He checked the screen as it lit up with his work email notifications. He unlocked it and checked the inbox.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: Report

Good afternoon,
I'm glad we were able to establish a mutual green¹. I am sending you the corrected version of the requested file and I hope the previously sent season² from my private mail did not cause any harm to you. I assure you this situation would not happen splitting point³.

Sincerely,
T. Kagami

Attached: report corrected.pdf

¹ green -> connection (緑 and 縁)
² season -> phase (旬 and 句)
³ splitting point -> again (又 and 叉)

Aomine frowned, trying to read the butchered up mail. He found at least three wrong kanji in use and a few more particles being in the wrong places, but other than this, the email even looked kind of professional. Daiki had to spend a lot of will power not to reply with a mean comment about the errors, so instead he only sent a quick «thank you» and continued his meal.

This could have been worse, he sighed over and over again, as he remembered the asshole's annoying grin as Aomine almost got late to work. Maybe he was being prejudiced towards the fork-eyebrows dude, but maybe he deserved it? Just for the sake of these atrocious spelling mistakes.

Unless he was dyslexic. But also why would a dyslexic dude pick paper work over physical work? It was literally the same workspace, just different department. If he wanted to work with (or rather, against) fire, he still could have been doing that. But sure - maybe the guy liked it. Maybe he liked being corrected over and over in his reports and maybe he liked being ineffective and having to do them over and over again.

Aomine wasn't going to judge. Especially not a guy who couldn't even differentiate «big» and «dog» while having the kanji for «big» in his own given name. Who knew, maybe that was the reason he signed the email in romanization of his own name? Maybe he just couldn't fucking spell it correctly.

Chapter Text

Aomine hated his heat. Even with the blockers, he was still horny - he was just not producing pheromones and his inner omega was not craving alpha penises specifically. Just any type of penis was sufficient, even a rubber one.

The office was silent - most of the people were away for an on-site investigation they were having, a few people could be seen here and there, but they were in the main shared desk area and their desk were far from Daiki's private office. Being a highly ranked officer had its perks after all.

After popping another pill, Aomine went to the bathroom after grabbing a pad and a small, remotely controlled vibrator. Just as he had expected, the pad he had put on in the morning was completely soaked. He did consider double securing with a tampon and a pad, but instead he opted for releasing some of the sexual tension that was building up. He needed no extra stretching to fit the toy into the vagina. He then changed the pad and dressed up before returning to the desk.

He opened the phone app and started the vibrators on a pretty low frequency. He was breathing slowly, he loosened his tie and belt and considered just jerking off, but it was eleven in the morning and he had work to do. But maybe, maybe just a little bit, maybe just one small orgasm would be okay?

Aomine shut the blinds on the windows leading to the rest of the office and locked the door from the inside before flopping down on the chair and spreading his legs. His hand slipped into his pants and wrapped around his dick, gently moving up and down while turning the vibrations up.

He threw his head back and bit his lip, moving the vibrator a little to find the correct spot. His hands started to move faster and the vibrator made squeaking sounds from the horrendous amount of slick. Daiki turned the vibrations further on, his ties curling up in his shoes. The glands in his nape throbbed, yet the blockers kept him intact.

"C'mon, c'mon", Aomine sighed, stroking his dick faster. "Just a little more..."

In his foggy mind, Aomine failed to see Kagami entering the floor. Instead, Aomine switched between different vibrations, trying to find the one that felt the best while he constantly stroke his dick. He came into his underwear and the tissue he managed to grab just as Kagami knocked on his door and tried to open them. Annoyed, he tried to peek through the window into the badly lit office to determine if it was empty or not. Daiki's mind raced as he tried to make himself look like he hadn't just jerked off. He wiped his hands off as well as he could and turned the vibrations off just to make sure there was no way the elevator asshole would be able to hear them. With a deep breath and while still fixing his tie and belt, Daiki opened the door, immediately getting Taiga's attention.

"Were you sleeping on call?", Kagami placed his hands on his hips.

"No, I was jerking off", Aomine replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Disgusting", the douchebag clicked his tongue, then pulled out a file of papers from his bag. "I have some more photos, thought you wanted to see them."

"You could have just emailed them to me", Daiki let him into the office and opened the blinds, as well as turning the light on.

"Only for you to mock my spelling again?", the fork-eyebrows frowned.

"All I'm trying to say is that I find it weird that a dyslexic would torture themselves so much", Aomine sighed, flopping down onto his chair. He took his private phone away from the desk and waited for Kagami to take a seat.

"I'm not dyslexic", Mr Dyslexic said.

"And I'm the Queen of England", Daiki sighed. He grabbed the folder and took the photos out to check them out. There were photos of the pipes and gas barrels - or rather, what was left of them. From what Aomine could understand, the pyromaniac sabotaged the pipes and let the flammable gas out before setting the trash on fire and waiting for the whole building to explode. Amazing guy, really.

"... I'm really not dyslexic", Kagami mumbled, taking the seat in front of Daiki. The armchair was really comfortable, he noted.

"Dude, you wrote «green» instead of «connection»", Aomine dropped the papers. "It's okay if you have dyslexia. It happens. You chose paper work over physical so you gotta check five times what you're writing."

"No, I'm seriously not dyslexic", Taiga sighed. "I'm just... not proficient in Japanese."

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, I—", Elevator Douchebag looked to the side, clearly embarrassed. "I've been living in Japan for four months."

"You have to be a citizen to be a firefighter", Aomine pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I am. Uh, my family moved to America when I was seven or so and I've just gotten back here...", Kagami explained, playing with the pen he had found on Daiki's desk. "Kanji is just confusing."

Okay, now Aomine felt bad. He had been dissing a guy who barely spoke any japanese for not knowing japanese. Just great. He sighed and if he had been a cat like Sei, his ears would've been down and his tail would've been hidden between his legs.

"... When I was in high school I used to write all my notes in katakana", Daiki admitted. "Made it way easier for me to read them and study them later."

Mr Dyslexic looked at him and his eyes softened at the sudden confession. "Why katakana, though?", he asked.

"I don't know", Aomine shrugged. "Like I said, it was the easiest for me to read."

"But like, did you write the particles in katakana too?"

"Yeah", Daiki shuffled the photos, avoiding eye contact with Elevator Douchebag. He frowned and went back to the photo he had skimmed through. "Here", he showed it to the guy, pointing at the door in the very background of the photo showing the pipes. "The lock is broken."

"Well, the whole building exploded", Taiga raised one eyebrow.

"Exploded only by breaking the lock and not the door?", Aomine shoved everything into his bag and stood up. "Let's go. We have a building to check."

"Wait, now?"

"Yeah?", Daiki grabbed his coat from the hanger and held the door open for Kagami, shooing nim out. He locked the door to his office and went with him towards the elevator.

"Now we have time to wait for the door to close, hm?", Elevator Douchebag chuckled.

"Haha, hilarious", Aomine mocked him. "I wonder if your jokes ever get better."

"Apparently with time, according to some people", Kagami shrugged. Aomine looked at him in confusion, but let out a chuckle nevertheless. Fork-eyebrows Dude smiled widely as well, happy with the outcome of his reply.

"I hope your on-site skills are better than your spellings", Daiki said, leaving the elevator.

Chapter Text

They both entered the parking lot under the police station. Taiga followed him like a duckling, carefully watching and observing the surroundings. It must have been the first time he had ever been there, since the floor could be accessed only with a special ID card given only to the personnel.

He took Kagami to his work car - being the super cool and super good at his job detective had way more perks than just a private office. It came with a fairly new Toyota Corolla, painted silver, that was a fully equipped unmarked police car for him to use freely. What was there not to love about his job?

He unlocked it and sat down behind the wheel. Kagami carefully took a seat next to him, terrified of touching anything once he saw the cameras and multiple extra screens inside.

"What are those?", he asked, pointing at the machinery.

"Speed checking other cars. It was used for road control before so it's fully equipped for that", Aomine explained, starting the engine.

"And all those buttons?", Kagami could see two or three radios, a whole panel full of buttons and a bunch more stuff he couldn't make sense out of.

"Lights, signal, speaker, comms", Daiki pointed at different parts of the equipment.

"Ah. Right", Kagami carefully buckled up and gulped, as he stayed as still as possible, scared to touch anything. Aomine left the parking lot once he set the navigation, and swiftly followed it, smoothly changing the gears. Taiga stared in disbelief and shock as Daiki manouvered the gear stick with no problems, like if it was a second nature to him.

Kagami died the last time he tried to use a manual. Or more likely - he thought he was dead once the car stalled and made that terrifying creaking sound that kept playing in his head for years before it rolled down the hill and almost hit a tree, if it wasn't for his brother chasing the car down, jumping in and pulling on the handbrake while Taiga repetitively pressed his foot down on the clutch while trying to brake.

A horrible memory. So horrible Kagami was nineteen when he tried driving again.

But Aomine was a good driver. The car rolled smoothly down the road, it didn't stall once and even the breaking at the traffic lights were barely noticeable, without the jerk that Taiga could never prevent from happening.

He smiled - Daiki seemed so relaxed and calm, as he held one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the gear stick. His hair were loose, completely untied, as they softly wrapped around his face and reached his shoulders. The ends were uneven and split in some places, Aomine was constantly moving them out of his eyes and looking for a hair tie in the different cubbies in the car. He eventually found one while waiting for the green light and put it on his wrist to tie his hair later on.

Kagami realized that they reached the destination only when Aomine finished tying his hair and fixing them in the rear view mirror and looked at Kagami with confusion.

"You're not leaving?", he asked, unfastening his seatbelt and opening the door.

"... I am", Kagami quickly left the car and gently closed the door behind him. Daiki grabbed his bag from the back seat and popped the trunk. In there, Taiga saw something that only reminded him of a certain Fleetwood Bounder RV. Instead of any explaining, Aomine tied his hair in a low bun and secured it with a net, put on gloves and a mask grabbed his ID and a whole set of weird tools Taiga had never seen. Upon seeing Kagami's confused and terrified sight, Daiki have him a pair of gloves from the box and a mask to put on.

They entered the investigation site and found their way down to the basement from the photo. The door was intact, just like Daiki had seen it on the image less than an hour prior. Before doing anything, he killed the lights and turned on the UV lamp he had brought with him.

"What does it do?", Kagami asked, standing still on the side.

"Dude, are you a fire investigator or some random dude they sent?", Daiki stopped his work for a moment. "I thought your job was to investigate why and how the fire started."

"Well, yeah...", Taiga admitted. "But it's usually more of going by the trail of destruction. That usually leads to something. Or people just tell me what happened. Most of the fires I investigate are people forgetting they were cooking something, or kids putting forks in microwaves."

"... UV lights shows blood, urine and semen", Aomine explained. "I doubt I'll find any, but hey, doesn't hurt checking, yeah?"

"You're expecting to find human fluids in a place that burned down and exploded?"

"Did you listen to what I just said?"

Aomine continued looking around until one miniature glowing mark brought his attention. It was located on the pipe, that later gave out from the pressure and exploded, letting all of the flammable gas out. On the particular part of the pipe, there was some blood. Not enough to get anything to the lab for tests, but enough to probably come from a cut finger while the potential suspect was damaging the pipe.

"Go find some video recording", Aomine ordered Kagami, grabbing the powder to lift any potential fingerprints from the scene.

"... Of what? Here?", Taiga frowned. "And why me?"

"Look, if you don't want to do the investigation, I'll just go back to the police station and grab a rookie. They'll be enlightened, probably", Daiki placed his hands on his hips. "I just thought you wanted to do this job, but if your part consisted only of giving me papers and saying bye, then go to your fucking desk and pick up a spelling book."

"Where... Uh, where can I find the cameras?", Kagami asked. He did want to stay. It seemed so cool.

"If you can get anything from this room, that would be fantastic. If not, find anything that had a view of all the entrances here. I'll try to determine the time frames."

"Cool", Kagami left the basement and sighed. He still had no clue where to go.

Chapter Text

After running around the nearby buildings and getting almost no information, Kagami returned to the basement only to find a few more people in there.

"What's all that?", he asked, scared to step in further so as not to destroy any evidence.

"A few fingerprints and two bloodstains", Aomine briefed him. "We're checking if there's enough blood to determine the age of it and possibly get some DNA. I need all janitors and people with access to this area to show up at the station."

"For what? They're suspects?"

"Probably not, if someone had a key, they wouldn't be breaking the lock to enter. But still, there's a chance that some of the fingerprints belong to them. The bloodstains might be theirs, too."

"Hm", Kagami put his hands in his pockets. "So, uh... How's your investigation going?"

"I don't know yet, I'll wait for the lab results", Daiki repeated. "And yours?"

"... Uh", Taiga looked down. "Y-Yeah... So..."

"So you didn't find shit, huh?", Aomine sighed. He grabbed Kagami and together, they went through the door with the broken lock and tried to find the way their criminal had entered.

"Every investigation looks like this?", Taiga asked.

"Nope", Daiki quickly replied. "Not every crime happeneds at this basement."

"Oh."

"Usually, the process of «let's find out what happened» is similar, but everything has its pow-wow effect."

"What's a pow-wow effect?"

"Something's gonna leave you traumatized, more or less", Aomine clicked his tongue. He stretched a little and tried to get his muscles worked up again after they went stiff but to no avail. And his back wouldn't crack either.

"Which one traumatized you the most?", Kagami asked unsurely. Maybe Aomine wouldn't want to talk about that? Maybe he was pushing too much?

"The worst are the ones where you enter the crime scene and there's no crime scene", Daiki smiled softly.

"... What do you mean?"

"I still remember that one, it was one of the first cases that I did on my own after training", Aomine slowed down his walking peace. "There was this lady. She, uh, her husband was abusive. One day, he disappeared. Eventually, someone called the police and reported him missing, or asked about him or whatever, so a patrol came to her house to check what was going on. They reported her weird behavior and how she didn't care about her husband's whereabouts. So we were called to investigate. It turned out the last time her husband tried to beat her again, she grabbed a vase and hit him in the head. He didn't die but lost consciousness. She was terrified and didn't even check his vitals, just assumed he was dead when she started cutting his body into pieces. He woke up with both of his legs gone and she slammed the axe right into his forehead, cut him up, packed his body into small plastic packages, vacuum sealed, then dropped them around the whole district into the trashcans behind stores. When we came in, there was only a piece of his liver, half of his face, both hands and a piece of lung left. She was going out to dispose of them. If we came thirty minutes later, she would have been free. Now, she serves a life sentence."

Taiga froze in one place while Daiki took a few more steps before realizing he wasn't being followed anymore. He turned around to face Kagami and smiled slightly as well.

"You're not a detective", Aomine pointed out. "You don't have to know how you'd react upon seeing that. Technically, you don't even have to be here."

"I want to finish this case with you", Kagami stood his ground. "I was given permission to join you and I am not the kind of person who would give up after one day."

"You really have nothing better to do?", Daiki chuckled, resuming his walk. Taiga quickly caught up to him.

"I have one more place to visit for investigation and I gotta write a report about that", he admitted. "This morning someone left a kitchen rag a little too close to the stove."

"And you're out here on a field trip with me?!"

"A field trip is more interesting!"

"Oh, interesting my ass, you just don't wanna write that report!"

Kagami looked away, clearly embarrassed at being caught in his little lie. "... It is more interesting."

"How long are those reports?", Aomine sighed, annoyed.

"Uh, for this one, probably no more than two pages."

Daiki bit his cheek on the inside, blushing a little. He was not falling for the guy he just met! Definitely not for Mr Dyslexic! No fucking way! Falling for that idiot, there was no way in hell he would do something nice for him or whatever!

"Send them to me, I'll correct the errors for you", he said nevertheless. "... From your private email to my private email. Don't use your work mail for that."

"I wasn't going to use the work one..."

"You totally would've used the work one."

They continued walking down the corridor, looking for an exit. Aomine held the UV lamp in front of him, scanning the area while Kagami stayed close, observing the dimly lit terrain to spot some shining places as well. Kagami smiled as he followed Aomine step by step, observing the whole ordeal.

"So, if we find their way out, what then?", Taiga asked.

"Make a draft of what happened and look for witnesses and potential suspects."

"And then?"

"... And then we find out if any of them actually did it."

"Oh", Kagami chuckled. "And how's it going?"

Aomine stopped and turned around. "Seriously?"

Kagami just shrugged and looked around. He pointed at a very faint and small point on the ground. "Is that urine?"

Aomine looked down on the ground. "No, but it's blood."

Finally, they were getting somewhere. Somewhere that wasn't a wormhole of explanations and different stories he was telling Taiga instead of working.

Aomine kneeled down to mark the area and pulled out a camera to make some photos. After that, they went looking for the door.

"Looks like our criminal is not so smart after all", Aomine chuckled, as he lifted more fingerprints from the door and another bloodstain, the biggest yet. "We're gonna have some DNA sequence from that."

"So we have them?"

"We have their DNA, not them."

"Oh."

Chapter Text

It was supposed to be a lazy day. And instead, he was half-sitting on the sofa with Sei on his stomach and his laptop on his lap. With a cup of strawberry-flavored tea, he was correcting Kagami Taiga's report. Sei was silently purring, content with the warmness of his human. Once in a while he demanded attention and smacked the laptop with his paw, forcing Daiki to stop his work and scratch Sei behind his ear.

"I'm almost done, Sei", he smiled. "The last paragraph and I'm sending it back."

Sei opened one eye and huffed. Why was his stupid human even doing that work? He didn't need to - it wasn't his work! It was the work of that Elevator Douchebag Daiki had been talking about. Sei didn't like that - why would he anyway? His human (his being the keyword) was interested in someone! Unbelievable!

If Sei could have any saying in this, this laptop would have been long out of Daiki's reach. Actually, he might had something to say.

"Sei, get off the screen", Aomine sighed. "Oh, c'mon, I just have two more sentences to finish and I'm sending it back."

"Meow", the judging meowing was followed by a hiss when Daiki moved him away and continued working. Sei slapped him a few times - his human had to rest! Daiki was having his heat, he was tired, exhausted and his hormones were so suppressed Sei could hear them boiling! He was also warmer than usual and his scent changed a little. It was more pleasurable and if Daiki was a cat, Sei would definitely take a second look.

"Please, just one more sentence", Daiki mumbled, placing Sei on his shoulder. He quickly finished writing and saved the document, then opened his private mailbox. "Look, I'm sending it!"

Sei hissed again when Daiki started writing a message, which cause him to abandon any formalities.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: Correction

Good evening,
I hope you are having a great evening - I have just finished correcting your report.

Yeah anyway, my cat's demanding attention so recheck the last paragraph, gotta go

Attached: report-ver2.docx

Aomine closed his laptop and put it aside. Finally, Sei could take his spot on Daiki's lap! And it was warmer than usual! Maybe that laptop device thing wasn't that bad after all, it seemed like a good warmer. And now, all of his human's attention was on him and the telenovela or whatever that was on the TV.

Until Daiki's phone buzzed and the attention drifted away. Aomine smiled at his phone and stared at it for too long for Sei's liking. Who in the hell was disturbing his human again? Did no one could understand that his human was having his heat and needed rest?! It was baffling to Sei that Aomine didn't make a nest, but disturbing an omega in heat was even worse than that!

Sei hissed and the phone and smacked it away from Daiki's hand. Whenever Daiki tried to pick it up, Sei hissed at it and slapped his hand.

"What's your deal?", Aomine frowned. "I'll move you away from me if you do that again."

"Meow!", an angry sound made the human even more annoyed.

"Stop it", he grabbed his phone again to check the mail. Sei angrily attacked the device again, but this time Daiki grabbed him by the nape and put him on the sofa, half a meter away from him. "I said stop it."

Sei whined. He wasn't doing anything wrong! Daiki had to rest and sleep in peace and whoever was the other person on the phone - he was distracting Aomine from that. Which was unacceptable. Sei might have not lived with Daiki for a long time but his human was dear to him. Sure, he was often annoying and utterly stupid, but it was his human. His. And his human was in heat. And Sei was taught how to take care of cats in heat by his mother who other than him and his brother also raised a few orphans.

Surely, taking care of a human in heat couldn't be so different than taking care of a cat, right?

Sei crawled back onto Daiki's lap and demanded to be touched. Daiki grabbed the phone again with one hand, keeping the other for Sei. He huffed - that device again...? But Aomine's smell changed slightly and he got more relaxed. A small smile appeared on his face as he read the mail and he got just a little bit warmer.

Sei lifted one ear. He despised the fact that Daiki was interested in someone other than him, but the smile on his face was pretty. Okay. It will be allowed for now, the messages. Only because Daiki was in heat and shouldn't be argued with.

Sei was definitely not jealous. However, if he was a human, he would fight for the place as Aomine's mate. Technically, he could still fight for that position, but his chances were way too low. Sei sighed, enjoying the warmth of Daiki's hand below his chin. He meowed and purred, smiling at Aomine, who smiled at his stupid phone.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE: Correction

Hey, thanks for the help with the interval¹! Damn you're used to the official style yeah? For a second I thought I really sent it to your work mailbox by accident.

You're a life-saver, really. Definitely saved me a berating or two for the errors. And at least five hours of finding and correcting them. I really can't thank you enough - can I treat you to dinner or something as a thank you?

Also, you have a cat? So cool! Sounds like a piece of work, haha. I hope the cat wasn't too annoyed with the extra work I made you do. Make sure to get some body²!

See ya at tomorrow work o'clock³!

¹ interval -> problem (問 and 間)
² body -> rest (休 and 体)
³ wrong particles

Chapter Text

Filled to the brim and stretched widely, Daiki lied on the bed and panted. The vibrator kept going, pleasuring not only his vagina but also his dick that was just above it. Sensitive and hard, he was leaking onto his stomach, sobbing from the overwhelming pleasure enhanced by his heat. One more day - one more day and his heat is over. His stupid vagina wouldn't produce so much slick anymore and his dick and hole would be so sensitive anymore.

"Fuck, I need an alpha...", Daiki sobbed. "Ahh—"

"Meow?", Sei headbutted the door. "Meeeeeeoooooow!"

"Sei, I can't—", Aomine moaned. "It's me time now."

"Meeeow!", the angry demanding insisted on.

"I'll first cum, then open the door— a-ahh~!"

"Meow!"

Daiki's walls clenched on the vibrator and he wrapped a hand around his dick. It was pretty big for a male omega, but still nowhere near a typical alpha. If it didn't look like an enlarged clitoris, someone might have taken him for a beta. Okay, that would only happen if he was also missing his entire cunt, but hey - he was pretty big and he was proud of that.

He wondered - how big alphas usually are? He knew females were smaller before erection and grew more than males but that was because they had that weird out pull-out system where their dick stayed inside their bodies and popped out when they wanted to. Other than this, he actually never saw an alpha dick in real life. And he knew he couldn't trust those porn videos - everyone there was huge. Hell, even male omegas and their dicks were huge, making Daiki embarrassed.

Aomine's fingers pressed down onto the urethra. He had no sound to fill himself there too, so he only stayed with the vibrator and the buttplug. His toes curled and his back arched as he wiggled on the bed. He came quickly soon after, semen dripping from his cock and squirt flowing out of his hole.

Aomine took a deep breath and pulled every toy out of himself, then grabbed the roll of toilet paper from his bedside table. He wiped himself and put on a heat diaper-like panties. He resisted buying them for a long time, but once he tried them on for the night and got to know how comfortable they are with no pants on, he had to make a stash of them in the bathroom.

He opened the door and Sei immediately jumped in and rubbed onto his legs.

"Yeah", Daiki chuckled. "Your stupid human finally opened the door, huh?"

"Meow", Sei agreed. Daiki went to the kitchen to make himself some warm tea and breakfast. "Meeeeeeoooooow."

"Yeah, I'll get you food, too", Daiki chuckled. He felt Sei jump onto the chair then the counter only to climb into his shoulder and meow right into his ear. "I get it!"

Sei purred, satisfied with the results. While Aomine was making himself chicken sandwiches for work, Sei was stealing pieces of the meat and chewing on them happily. Well, he also got his usual stuff - the dry food - but with the chicken as an entree everything tasted extraordinarily.

"You seem happy", Aomine pointed out when they were eating breakfast together. "Anything on your mind?"

"Meow", Sei replied.

"Honestly, I feel it."

After his breakfast, Daiki decided to go for a run. At least, he tried to, but Sei was crying for him not to. Theoretically speaking. Practically, he was more of... hissing at Daiki and not letting him pass. Then stealing his shoes and running away while dragging them by the shoelaces.

"Sei!", Daiki followed him around the apartment. "I just want to go for a jog!"

"Meow!"

"Sei!"

Sei huffed at him and turned around, still dragging his shoe with him. His stupid human was in heat and had no mate, he couldn't leave the house and go out into the world full of alphas! That was the rule! The omega in heat had to go out with someone that would be able to protect them! And Sei wished he could, but wasn't strong enough to fight off human alphas.

"Sei, I'll take you with me then!", Daiki called. "Will you let me go then? C'mon, we'll jog to the pet store, you'll pick a toy...?"

"Meow?", Sei stopped and turned around. He could go with his human?! He had to think about it - if they went together, Sei would at least know where Daiki was so his stupid human wouldn't get lost, but still, going out while in heat?

"Sei, c'mon", Aomine sighed.

"Meow...", Sei finally agreed and turned around, dragging the shoe towards Daiki. He watched as Aomine happily took it from him and put it on, getting ready for the run.

"You're going?", he asked, waiting for Sei to jump into his shoulder. "I gotta buy you like a child carrier or something. For now, you're staying in my hood."

"Meow", Sei crawled into the hood of Daiki's hoodie, staying close to his neck. He purred - yes, this was the spot. Right over Aomine's scent glands, so no alpha can feel the faint smell of his pheromones. And Daiki's skin was so warm there, even warmer than his stomach and lap.

"Hold on", Aomine chuckled. He jogged slowly, so Sei wouldn't fall and hurt himself. After maybe twenty minutes, they reached a pet store. "Here, I'll buy you a dog carrier - well, cat in your case - and you can pick something."

In the end, Sei ended up in a sack-like carrier on Daiki's chest, wearing a collar, with a few rustling balls next to him and a leash in Aomine's pocket. Sei wasn't exactly happy with him being in front, as he wasn't protecting Aomine's neck anymore, but it was okay - he was observing the whole surroundings while Daiki was running.

"Damn, you're getting heavy", Aomine pointed out. "I don't remember you being this heavy when I found you."

"Meow", Sei huffed. Of course he grew up! He was four months when Daiki found him, and now he was five! He wasn't underweight anymore and his fur was pretty and thick!

"Yeah", Aomine chuckled. "You're healthier too."

Sei looked down and sighed. If only his mom and brother could also be healthy and well-fed like he was...

Chapter Text

"Hey, are you free today evening?", Kagami asked him while they were picking up the results from the lab. "You know, I'd like to treat you to dinner."

"We'll see", Aomine smiled. "I have a cat to feed, you know."

"The cat can go too", Kagami blurted out.

"What?"

"Ah—... Nevermind."

Kagami mumbled something more as he looked to the side, embarrassed by his stupidity. «The cat can go too»?! What the hell was going on in his brain?!

"Hah", Aomine smiled.

"Hm?"

"When you were checking the area for cameras, the guys found some hair and skin pieces as well. They match the DNA from the blood", Daiki smiled. "And the DNA doesn't match any of the workers'."

"So we have the fingerprints and the DNA", Taiga summed up. "And no dude."

"That's just a matter of witnesses and cameras now", Daiki shrugged. "I won't find you a dude out of nowhere."

They went out of the lab and got into the car. Kagami, like every single time, anxiously sat without a twitch while Aomine drove the Toyota to who knows where. Meanwhile, Kagami couldn't help but stare at the beautiful man next to him. Sharp jaw, chocolate skin and slightly curly hair that were pinned up in a half-ponytail. Taiga remembered them as straight, but he also remembered Daiki often wearing braids, so maybe he had been sleeping in one? Who knew. That gaze of those blue eyes could kill, yet it seemed so warm when Daiki was focused on the road. The veiny hand often switched gears, swiftly and naturally, and those long fingers always curled sexily around the stick. Kagami felt disgusting for imagining his dick there instead, but he couldn't help himself.

He was in his rut and his thoughts were driving away from his hold extremely quickly. Kagami had bought new meds the same morning before going to meet with Aomine, but they were still not working their best. It was dangerous - he was getting down bad for his colleague. His alpha colleague. His very nice, senpai colleague that he had yet to address properly. His senior colleague that was way higher in terms of positions.

Yet Kagami's rut made him gay. Who would have thought, an alpha drooling over and alpha? Kagami could never let anyone know. He would never be able to look Aomine in the eyes if he got to know that he was thinking about Aomine's lips around his dick.

So fucking stupid. His rut not only came a week earlier, but also was making him hotter than usual. And the curvy body and lickable skin of the man next to him were driving him crazy.

"We're here", Daiki looked to his side. Kagami frowned - he didn't exactly recognize the place.

"What's here?"

"The clean-up team found the server room and recovered as much as possible from it. Now we gotta search through it and see what actually got saved and what got lost."

"... A server room?", Kagami asked. "This is a residential building, why there was a server room?"

"Okay, it's not exactly a server room", Daiki admitted. "It's more of an office of the security. There were some computers there, some paperwork, some servers to keep the computers in check and that's it. It was mainly a shed for tools."

"So why are we going there?"

"Because some of the computers survived."

"How?"

"Does that matter?", Aomine got out of the car and Kagami quickly followed. They went inside and Taiga looked around - it was some kind of tech repair store. Daiki talked to the owner and they were let to the backrooms, where three computers and one server was placed.

"Two servers and one computer completely burned", a tech repair guy showed up behind them. "In those I exchanged a few parts for temporary so you can turn them on and check if anything's useful."

"Thanks man", Aomine smiled. "The server's connected?"

"I doubt it'll start but you can try", the guy replied. "It might as well burn immediately. All of those parts are actually the remaining pieces from all three that could be somehow saved."

"We'll search through and get them back to the station", Daiki informed and the tech guy left them alone. "Let's go, we have three PCs to go through."

"... Shit."

Aomine got the passwords from the workers so they opened the computers and started going through the data. Folder by folder, they tried looking anything that would resemble the camera recordings.

"Why are we looking through everything?", Taiga asked.

"Because the security doesn't fucking know where the camera recordings are being saved", Aomine mumbled. "You think I didn't ask?"

Two hours later, they went through the computers and started the server. They connected both the computers into the server and started looking through that - with Aomine going A to Z and Kagami going Z to A.

"I got it!", Kagami happily announced. "Who the hell saves CCTV recordings in a folder titled «svids_pro»?!"

"Where did you find it? I can't see it?", Aomine frowned.

"Uhh, I don't know, somewhere under «Sony»?"

"Which drive?"

"«H»? Or «F»", Kagami said. "Okay, I don't know how the cameras are called, but I have folders with numbers «001» to «005» then «027» and, uh, a few more..."

"They don't have them called by the rooms? Fucking hell", Aomine groaned. "I'll start from the bottom now. Look for any entrance or basement videos."

"Roger..."

Kagami thought he was dying. His eyes hurt, his ass hurt and his rut was making him hot.

"Why the hell a residential building needs so many cameras?"

"I'm at «099», please tell me we have some more left...", Aomine sighed.

"I'm at «076»", Kagami replied. "So we have, what, ten left?"

"Uhh, eight, I think", Daiki scanned the folder names. He entered another and played the first video to check what region was it showing - the main entrance. At least it was something useful and not a corridor, like the last twenty files Aomine had found. He wrote down the number in his notebook and continued on. Seven left. Kagami checked another one as well - main lobby from get another angle. Six left. They both check another one - nothing. Four folders left and Kagami had nothing while Aomine found a staircase to the basement - but not the one they were hoping to see. Two cameras left and they gulped as they clicked on the recordings.

"Basement!", they both yelled at the same time with huge grins on their faces.

Chapter Text

On both the remaining two cameras were parts of the basement. Neither were from the actual room where their whole investigation was taking place but one of them showed the lockpicked door from the corridor and the other showed the back entrance and also the window through which the culprit had entered.

"Ahh", Kagami smiled and stretched in his chair. "It wasn't meaningless!"

"Well", Aomine chuckled as he placed his head on the desk. "Now let's see if we actually have any recording to work with."

"... You're telling me the footage can be gone?", Taiga's smile immediately faded. "Fuck. Shit. You got any info about the timeline?"

"Yeah, we're looking at possibly at least four days before the fire had started", Aomine gulped. "So, uh, let's hope there's something there."

It took them five hours to look through the footage for any signs of human activity. Kagami thought he was dying by the time Aomine spotted a person on the video. Upon finding the exact moment of entry, Taiga found the person on his angle as well. They saved all the moments when the culprit was saw onto a pendrive that Daiki had brought with him and closed the computers.

"Woah, I thought you died in there", the tech guy chuckled when the two men left the backrooms.

"Haha, hilarious", Aomine mumbled. "I'll have someone come over and fetch them soon. Thanks for the help fixing them."

"I'll take out all of the spare parts I've put in", the guy said. "Or pay me for them."

"Nah, take them. We just needed the footage."

"Found it?"

"Yup", Aomine confirmed.

"Great. Glad I could help."

They left the store and went back into the car. Aomine tried to crack his back before entering the vehicle, but he couldn't get the right angle. Kagami gulped - should he help? He wasn't a chiropractor or anything but he cracked it for other people a few times.

Daiki frowned once he couldn't feel the crack. He wanted to go around and sit in the driver's seat, but Taiga stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"Uh", Kagami's eyes widened. He acted stupidly again! He didn't mean to! Shit, shit, shit, shit. Shit!

"... Everything's okay?"

"Y-You hungry?", Kagami smiled awkwardly, letting go of Aomine's hand.

"Yeah, I just spent eight hours going through computers", Daiki pointed out. "You're not?"

"No, uh, I am, just—... My dinner offer still stands", Taiga opened the passenger door and got in. Aomine quickly joined him and put on his seatbelt. "So, you know. Whatever you'd want, I'll go to the store and make you. Okay, I can't promise anything, but, uh, whatever's on your mind."

"Wait a second, by treating me to dinner you meant cooking for me?", Daiki frowned. "I thought you'd just pay the restaurant bill or something."

"You prefer a restaurant?"

"You think you can cook well enough to satisfy me?", Aomine grinned. "Not only me, but also my cat? You know how picky he is?"

"I will do my best to satisfy both of you", Kagami tensed up.

"I'll be waiting for that then", Daiki chuckled as he started the engine. "Text me the address and date later."

"... Not today?"

"You're ready for today?"

"No", Taiga admitted.

"Then better take the time I'm giving you", Aomine laughed. In the meantime, he pulled up to a drive thru in a Maji Burger. "Whatcha want?"

"... Twenty cheeseburgers", Taiga said. "And a coke."

"With fries?", Daiki widened his eyes.

"Yeah, three portions."

"Cool", Aomine repeated Kagami's order then added his four burgers, ice cream and a shake. They waited at the window for a while and then the lady at the checkout gave them their six bags of food which Aomine stacked on Taiga's lap and they drove away.

"Now you owe me two dinners", Daiki joked as he looked at the receipt.

"I can pay you—"

"Nah", Aomine chuckled. "Just you're paying next time."

So there would be next time, Kagami smiled. "We're eating in the car or we're driving somewhere?"

Aomine smiled. He could bring the hot guy home with no consequences and the hot guy would comply! Okay, wait, stop. What hot guy? What bringing him home? What the hell was he thinking about? His heat was supposed to be over by now! Where was that horny thinking coming from?! And why was he getting wet?!

"We, uh, we can go to my place", Aomine suggested. Shit. Fuck. Now what? He had to find an excuse! "Uh... I-I gotta feed the cat, too."

"Right", Kagami agreed. "Let's go then."

Aomine pulled up to his apartment complex. He left a quick message to his boss that their investigation ended up longer than anticipated and he took the work car home, then he helped Kagami carry the bags up to the apartment. Daiki pulled out the keys and put them in the lock and it was enough to bring Sei's attention and for the two men to hear a long «meow» coming from the inside.

But something was wrong, Sei realized. The smell that was coming from behind the door wasn't only Daiki's. There was food as well, and something spicy— something, that shouldn't be there.

The door opened and Sei could finally take a look at the source of the smell.

An alpha. Not only that - it was an alpha in rut.

His stupid human brought home and alpha. He brought an in-rut alpha to his home that was drenched with the smell of his heat pheromones. He brought an alpha into his lair!

But that also meant that Daiki picked that alpha. That that alpha did something that made Daiki choose him over the others. Sei scanned him up and down - there was nothing in that asshole that made him stand out. He was plain and smelled weak. Did he manipulate Daiki into letting him in?

"Hey, Sei", Aomine smiled. They both entered and he closed the door with his foot before taking off his shoes and going in further. They placed the bags on the dining table next to the kitchen and went back to the genkan to take their coats off.

Sei hissed when the alpha tried to pet him. Oh no! Sei wasn't going to fall for that tricks, whatever they were! He had to protect his human from that douchebag!

Chapter Text

Sei was eating his food on the table while guarding Daiki. He kept his eyes on Taiga as if he was his prey, observing his every move. One wrong and he was dead. Or at least scratched and bitten.

"You usually order that much?", Daiki asked when Taiga was swallowing the sixteenth cheeseburger. Aomine had just finished his third burger and was finishing his shake and from the moment he picked up the cup to the moment he placed it back down, Kagami had finished yet another cheeseburger.

"... Yeah, I guess", he swallowed before replying, grabbing yet another sandwich.

"Huh", Daiki looked back at his own plate. He grabbed his last burger and unpacked it, taking a bite out of it.

"I'm pretty hungry all the time, so usually I don't go lower than twelve", Kagami said. Aomine nodded, chewing his own food. Awkward. This whole situation was awkward and Sei hissing at Taiga every time he got to close was not helping. Hell - Daiki's panties situation was not helping either! He was dripping wet and he had no clue why! At this point, he should run to the bathroom and put a pad on! Dear heavens, his heat had miraculously returned after two days of being over! Just great!

"I'll go grab some water, where are the glasses?", Taiga stood up.

"Over there, cupboard over the haversack. Use the one from the kettle, I don't have a filter in the tap", Daiki pointed to the place behind him. Kagami thanked him and walked past him.

Walked past him.

And Aomine's throat tightened. That smell was not sweat. It wasn't Kagami's usual odor, it wasn't the detergent or perfume or even Aomine's apartment or the burgers or the smell of the tech repair store.

"You're... Are you in rut?", Daiki gulped as Taiga closed the cupboard after grabbing a glass.

"... Shit", he left the glass on the counter and ran back to the table where on the floor he found his bag. "Fuck, I'm sorry, I forgot—"

Kagami pulled out the rut suppressants and pheromone blockers and took a pill of each, then went back to swallow them with some water.

"I was meant to take them like an hour ago", he sighed. "I'm sorry, it wasn't planned or anything. I just forgot."

"Uh, it's okay", Aomine replied, covering his nape with his hands. Well no shit he was feeling so aroused - the alpha he had brought home was fucking releasing pheromones all around him!

"I still feel bad", Kagami mumbled. "I should have never happened, I— I don't even know why the meds stopped working so quickly, they should've been working for at least two hours more..."

Yeah no shit they stopped working, Daiki thought, you entered an apartment filled with the smell of an omega in heat! Aomine quickly finished his shake and burger and stood up to grab his ice cream that he had put in his fridge so they wouldn't melt right away. He could feel how wet he actually was so he sat back down with his legs crossed.

"It's cool, man, shit happens", Daiki chuckled to release the tension. It wasn't cool - it wasn't cool at all! Now Aomine was having thoughts about Kagami bending him over and knotting him! It would have felt so good, definitely way better than the vibrator. Having Taiga's hands on his hips, his huge (okay, Daiki didn't know how big that dick actually was) cock filling him to the brim and stretching his vagina to the max, he could feel his cervix pulsate as it craved for being slapped with the tip of Kagami's cock while Taiga was filling his birth canal and uterus with his cum—

Stop. What the fuck? No! Ew!

"Yeah, I guess", Kagami moved his hair back. "But it still shouldn't have happened. Sorry."

"Just shut up", Aomine rolled his eyes. "Let me eat my ice cream in peace."

Kagami chuckled as he grabbed his last burger. He fucked up so bad, but why did the meds stop working so suddenly? He had taken them in the morning and on a break during work - they should have been working on their max for this hour as well and only around now the suppression should have been slowly depleting. And instead, they completely ran out way earlier than they should!

Taiga couldn't think of a reason, even when he started feeling better after fifteen minutes. Aomine was still incredibly hot to him and Kagami couldn't keep the image of naked Daiki put of his mind, but it was manageable now. He wondered, how did he look like? Was he muscular, with a six pack or something? Or maybe lean and slender, with a flat stomach and visible hip bones? Or rather, slightly chubbier with soft thighs and squeezable tummy?

Taiga wondered, how would it feel to fuck an alpha? Or be fucked by an alpha? A rectum couldn't take a knot in, so that might hurt instead of giving a break, but other than that - was it pleasurable, did it felt like omegas' vagina or was it different? Kagami's eyes locked on Daiki's lips, as he licked the ice cream off the spoon. Oh how glorious they would look around his cock—

Stop. No more, Kagami gulped, finishing his last bite. Daiki finished his ice cream soon after and went to throw the packaging away. He bent over and Taiga could feel the tent forming in his pants as the fabric or Aomine's clothes wrapped his ass tightly. He wasn't even doing anything sexual, he wasn't arching his back, swaying his hips or making himself look sexy in any way. He was just simply throwing out the trash.

"I'll go", Taiga informed. He had to go - before he did something he would regret.

"It's late", Daiki pointed out. "Let me drive you back."

Kagami gulped. If he hadn't found an excuse, he would've been stuck in a car with Aomine with his rut going crazy and Aomine being so unknowingly hot. "I—"

"Grab your things and let's go before Sei kills me for leaving again."

Shit.

Chapter Text

Of course it wasn't a good idea, both of them realized once they were in a car together. Kagami moved one of his legs up to slightly cover his erection, while Aomine cursed himself for not being able to cross his legs. He was so wet - and because of Taiga's pheromones inviting him to the immoral act, Daiki's body in its my-heat-had-just-ended state was responding by reenacting the heat and sending the pheromones back, which made Taiga more turned on, creating a vicious circle.

"Uh, right on the next one", Kagami mumbled, putting his hand in his pocket and palming his dick. Aomine changed the lane and waited on the red light, getting impatient as well. He could feel his underwear turning into a slushy and he was getting so turned on his dick was getting erected as well. Just great. Both of them were about to have a tent in their pants now.

"Where now?"

"Uh, two times straight, then a left turn, two right turns and it'll be on the left", Taiga briefed.

"Mhm."

It was one hell of a ride, Kagami thought as Aomine parked next to his building. "Thanks. See ya later, man."

He left the car quickly and basically ran to his apartment. Aomine also drove off very quickly, without giving any reply. Kagami slammed the door to his apartment shut and immediately got out of his pants, letting his dick spring up freely. He stumbled into the bedroom and fell onto his bed and while stroking himself he looked for the fleshlight he had stored in his bedside table - recently his rut had been getting more and more annoying to handle so he made the embarrassing purchase in hopes of getting a hold of it.

He threw his head back and moaned, imagining his cock entering Aomine's asshole and not his conveniently blue-colored fleshlight. His orgasm didn't take long - his knot found the cubby in the base of the fleshlight and locked in, as semen splurged out of it in thick white drops. Taiga's imagination was running wildly, starting from Daiki sitting on his lap and moaning as the knot expanded in his rectum, to Taiga's hand squeezing Daiki's knot and making it fill the gaps inside of his hold. Kagami bit his lip as he imagined Aomine's face, with his eyes rolled back, mouth open and ears all red. Kagami would cuddle him and lick his neck as Aomine would slowly breathe in his arms, trying to get used to the knot sealed inside of him.

"T-Taiga~", his imaginary Daiki moaned, looking at him with foggy eyes. "Taiga, you're so big—!"

"You can take it, don't ya?", Taiga chuckled. "My, my, you're such a slutty alpha, Daiki. Taking a knot in your ass?"

"A-Ah~!", imaginary Daiki bit his lip and his toes curled. "Taiga, it's so warm— ah! You're filling me in, ngh, I can— I can feel you in my stomach..."

"Yeah, that's right", Taiga smiled and bit his neck. "I'd mark you if you were an omega. God, I wish I could breed you into one."

"N-No~!", imaginary Daiki covered his face in embarrassment. "I'd get pregnant—!"

"That's right", Taiga smirked. He opened his eyes, but Daiki was suddenly gone and he was left with his cock still trapped in the fleshlight with thick cum everywhere. He sighed. Of course that Aomine wasn't real. There was no way that would happen.

What the hell was he thinking, imagining his senpai like that? Imagining his senpai with a knot in his asshole, moaning his given name. That rut was turning him crazy.

He waited on his bed for the knot to go down. While looking at the ceiling, he couldn't help but think about Aomine Daiki. He sighed. Maybe he was bisexual? Kagami had never really thought about alphas in that way, but made Aomine was just his realization? And even if... What were the chances of Daiki being into alphas as well?

Even if they were incredibly low, Aomine seemed like a cool guy. Maybe he would be willing to try? Or, at least, Kagami's confession wouldn't destroy things between them. Or maybe Kagami would get sex out of it.

All of that sounded so nice.

The knot had finally dropped and Taiga removed the fleshlight, then threw it somewhere on the floor. He would wash it tomorrow - most of the cum dripped out of it anyway and landed on the bedsheets and Kagami's stomach. He had to change them anyway...

Meanwhile, Aomine ran a red light (okay, a very late yellow, but a cop might call it red) while driving back home. He had slammed the car door behind himself and ran into the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, his hand landed on his crotch, palming it and pushing three fingers against the vagina. He moaned and sobbed as he begged for the thing to move faster. He was sure he scared the shit out of Sei when he slammed the main door against the wall while opening it and then again while closing - but not long after, his pants were already down on the floor and he was running towards his bed.

As soon as Daiki ripped the vibrator from the charger and moved his underwear out of the way, Sei started meowing against the door.

"Later!", Aomine moaned. "I have something to do!"

"Meooow!", Sei complained. His pillow was in there! But Aomine wouldn't open the door, so Sei decided on a nap inside of the dropped pants that reeked of Daiki's pheromones. They weren't the most comfortable, but at least they gave him the comfort of his beloved human.

Kind of.

Daiki left his room after half an hour. He looked around for Sei but couldn't find him anywhere near the door to his bedroom, so he opted for cleaning the mess instead. He loaded up the dishwasher, changed the trash bag and as he went to leave the full one next to the door, he picked up his pants. Or at least he tried, until they meowed.

"Sei...", he chuckled, picking up the kitten. "What are you doing there?"

"Meow?", Sei opened one eye. His human stinked of that alpha, but he was safe and sound. Thankfully.

Chapter Text

Kagami had troubles looking Aomine in the eyes when they met again. In his mind, all he could see was Daiki taking his dick in. Which was an amazing view but not when they weren't dating!

"Where's your focus?", Daiki smiled, waving his hand in front of Taiga's face. "Kagami-san~"

Kagami slammed his his forehead onto the desk, making Aomine move back in horror.

"A-Are you okay?", Aomine gulped. Kagami quickly rose his head and focused his eyes on Daiki.

"Yes", he replied, smiling fakely.

"... Okay?", Daiki looked back at the papers in front of him. Their investigation was hung in the air and no new info was getting to them. Which meant that this might have been their last meeting as Daiki would cancel it for now.

"So, there's no new things?", Taiga mumbled. "Like... At all?"

"Nope", Aomine confirmed. "That's why I have to put it on hold."

"Oh..."

Kagami knew what that meant. So when Aomine returned from his boss's office, he was already waiting with all of his things on him. Aomine walked him to the elevator and slightly bowed when he was watching Taiga disappear behind the metal door.

Kagami sighed, as he pulled out his phone and found Aomine's mail.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: hey

wanna go out for a coffee one day?

Aomine looked at the phone. He had only just sat down and someone was already trying to get to him? He unlocked it with a frown, but it disappeared as soon as he read the mail. Ah, Kagami was texting him even if they weren't working together anymore! So did that mean that Daiki was a likeable person after all?! And that Taiga wanted to hang out with him even if he had gone into a rut in front of him and made Daiki experience the best orgasm of his life?!

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:hey

I don't like coffee ;p

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:hey

aw man. Tea?

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:RE:hey

Which one?

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:RE:RE:hey

which one do you like?

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: tea

u know what? Hot chocolate and I'm hooked

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:tea

deal :)

Aomine chuckled, swaying his legs in his chair. He took a deep breath and slapped his cheeks to calm down. A second after that, his boss entered the office with a knock, scaring the shit out of him.

"Two people murdered for you", she gave him the papers and left soon after. "Good luck!"

"... Thanks", he sighed, opening the file. Two random guys found dead on the street with gunshot wounds, tattoos on them - probably yakuza banters. Just great.

Aomine grabbed his stuff and went for a walk to the garage. He entered his car and went to drive to the place for the investigation. He took a deep breath, squeezing the steering wheel. Holy shit. Did he just agree to a date with Kagami? And where the hell was their relationship going?

Aomine wasn't really looking for a relationship, but it was mainly his excuse for being a loser who couldn't flirt and find a partner. And now Kagami Taiga, a very hot alpha, was taking interest in him!

Holy shit!

Could he think that Kagami was into him? Could he really risk thinking that Kagami might be into him?! Would that mean that Aomine had a real chance of losing his virginity before thirty?!

"Yess!", he screamed, throwing his head back. With a huge grin on his face, he started the engine and put the address into his navigation.

He parked near the site and left his car. Two bodies were lying on the ground - one half-sitting against a wall and the other lying face down near the first. They were fairly fresh, around two days old at best. He put on his gloves and mask to walk closer and check the wounds.

"Nine millimeter bullet", Daiki sighed, looking at the cops behind him. "Did you find the shells?"

"A piece of one", one guy showed him a bag with a piece of a shell.

"... It's from five-seven", Aomine pointed out. "This wound", he pointed at the sitting guy, "is from a different bullet."

"Are you sure?", the cop frowned.

"Are you the detective or am I?"

"... You are, sir."

Daiki hadn't finished forensics for some random dude to tell him he didn't know how to differentiate bullet wounds.

"We're looking for two shooters, most likely", he said, standing up from the ground. "Or one shooter with two guns."

Aomine went to grab a camera from his car. "I want a forensics team here to check for hair, skin, blood et cetera. And those bodies in a lab at the station. I'll check them myself."

The cops weren't happy with Aomine ordering them around, but they couldn't really complain - Daiki might have been their youngest detective but he was also the best and outranked everyone in the area. Meaning that all of those older than him guys had to bitterly follow his will.

Of course it flattered Aomine. It was a huge boost to his confidence and he was thriving in his job - okay, he was thriving as long as it was this type of scenario and not him being the leader of a huge corporate-like situationship with a huge lot of people under him asking him about what to do. That sounded horrible.

Aomine sighed, finishing up with the photos. He knew the forensic team would make their own anyway, but it would take a while before he would be able to see them.

He went back to his car and drove back to the station, passing the called team on his way out of the nearby parking lot. He had just enough time for a lunch break before the bodies would be in the lab.

Chapter Text

Aomine had fun at the lab while doing the necropsy with a doctor on his side. There were three holes in the two bodies - from what it looked like, the Numero Uno (the sitting victim) was shot at first and Numero Dos (the victim that was lying on the ground) tried to take the hit for him. All of that resulted in Dos dying from two gunshot wounds to his back and falling to the ground while Uno got shot in the face and one bullet that went through Dos and stopped on Uno's skin. Then, they both slid down to the ground, with Uno on the wall and Dos at Uno's legs.

"We have any info about who they were?", the doctor asked him.

"I'm running them through the database", Daiki explained. "Maybe they're already known."

When he returned to his office, he got a mail from the forensic team - they found a hair strand and a few more pieces of the shell. From what it had currently looked like, possibly two attackers appeared, one tried to shot Uno, but Dos took both of the shots, while the other took a clean shot at Uno, killing him with a headshot. Uno got killed with a nine millimeter and both shots that killed Dos were five-seven bullets.

It started to look like a second hard to crack case on his head. But he would solve it, eventually. For now, he printed the photos of the tattoos on the victims' skin. A snake wrapped around a demonic-looking chalice was a... weird choice for a yakuza tattoo.

He was stopped from his excursion here and there by another mail from Kagami. His frown immediately went away as he read the invitation for a hot chocolate in a cafe near the police station. And even if Aomine planned on staying late and blankly staring at a wall full of notes, photos and ideas, he left his office only fifteen minutes after the end of his shift.

"Hey!", Kagami waved, getting his attention. Aomine's smile changed into a more serious expression - he couldn't look desperate, okay? And he definitely couldn't look as if he was excited to go out with Kagami.

"Yo", Aomine replied. "So, where are we going?"

"Just over there. I won't hold you for long", Taiga assured. "You have a cat to feed."

"Right", Daiki nodded. He got to adore Sei and lived spoiling him, but it was the first moment ever that he wanted the cat to be more independent. Just so Daiki could sit in that warm cafe for a little longer. Just so he could stare at that handsome alpha for a little longer.

"How's the investigation going?", Taiga asked after taking a sip from his coffee. "Anything new?"

"No, and I got another case on top of that, too", Daiki admitted. "Uh, some yakuza fight, two dead, possibly two killers."

"Sounds dangerous."

"Sounds like a normal day at the police criminal department", Aomine chuckled. A man from the bar picked up his coffee and sat down at the table next to them, then grabbed a newspaper that was lying there and began reading it. "And you? Any progress with your kanji?"

"... I, uh, I no longer mistake «dog» and «big»", Kagami admitted. "And that might be all."

"Isn't your name written with «big»?", Aomine smirked.

"Yeah", Taiga sighed. "It's... It's harder than you think it is..."

Daiki took a sip of his hot chocolate. "I can recommend a few books if you'd like."

"Books? I can't write my name, how do you think me reading books would go?", Kagami frowned.

"When I was writing everything in katakana back in highschool, a friend of mine got pissed one day and bought me a book then gave it to me saying that I might like it and that I should read it", Aomine explained. "It was uh, some kind of criminal detective novel or whatever. I don't remember anymore, but I remember that I liked it so much I was reading it with a dictionary so as not to miss out on any word."

"And it worked?", Taiga bit his lip.

"Yeah", Daiki chuckled. He took another sip of his chocolate. He glanced at the man next to them, but he was still reading his newspaper. Weird. Daiki had a feeling as if the guy was looking at them. "Midorima's a weird guy. We're not keeping in touch too much, though, the last time I saw him was at his wedding, I think."

"Cool", Kagami sighed. He was playing with the cup, staring into the abyss of his cup of coffee, biting his lip from time to time.

"Where are you off to, huh?", Aomine asked, kicking his leg under the table. The newspaper dude stood up and left the cafe, giving Daiki a peace of mind. Something was off about him, but maybe that was just his imagination.

"Wha—? Oh... No, it's just... Uh", Kagami took a deep breath. "... This is gonna sound so cliché..."

"Now you gotta tell", Aomine shrugged. "I'm hooked."

"There's... There's this guy I like", Kagami started, lowering his voice. "But, uh, I don't think he's into... me."

"Okay? You can ask around, get closer to him...?"

"Yeah, no, I mean more of... I don't think he's... gay", Taiga almost whispered the last part. "I don't think he's interested in alphas. That's... That's my point."

"Oh", Aomine tensed up, awkwardly looking at his cup. "I can't— I can't really help you with that."

"I figured", Kagami sighed. "Ah, I hope you're okay with me—"

"Look, I'm straight, but I have nothing against, uh, people like you", Aomine gulped and tried to cover his awkwardness by sipping the hot chocolate. "So, good luck with your guy. I hope it turns out well for you."

Kagami nodded and smiled slightly. Of course Aomine was straight. Of course he wasn't interested in alphas - who was Kagami kidding, there was absolutely no way Aomine would ever look at him as he would look on a potential partner.

Aomine finished his hot chocolate. Just great. Kagami was the first alpha ever that made Aomine turn his head twice and he genuinely would love to call this meeting a date. Meanwhile, Kagami was fucking gay. Of all the possible outcomes, homosexuality was probably the last thing Aomine had expected.

Chapter Text

Sei was sleeping on his pillow, breathing slowly, while Daiki walked around the apartment and carefully avoided the notes, papers and photos left everywhere. He opened one eye to find it blocked by a sticky note. With his little paw, he took it off and tilted his head when it got stuck to his paw. What the hell were they making these of? Super glue?

Eventually, Sei grabbed the note in his mouth and went on a journey to find his human. He looked around the apartment, carefully avoiding all papers and jumping from one free wooden panels to another, before he ended up in Daiki's bedroom. His human was face down on his bed, so Sei jumped onto the mattress and nudged at him.

"Mh", Aomine opened one eye and took the note from the cat. He frowned as he read it. "«Remember to cook the soup», huh?"

"Meow", Sei agreed.

"I don't wanna."

"Meow...", Sei slapped him with his paw.

"Sei, I'm dead."

"Meow", Sei wasn't going to believe that lie. If his human was meant to make a soup, he shall make the soup. "Meow!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going", Daiki stood up from the bed. "Geez, you're annoying. It's not like you can eat the soup anyway."

"... Meow...?"

"Yeah, I think so...", Aomine frowned, then pulled out his phone and googled that. "Oh you actually can!"

"Meow!", Sei happily jumped between the pages and got to the kitchen. He prepared for the jump, then made it onto the counter without a chair. After all, he got big and was strong enough to make it in one go.

"You're gonna help?", Daiki smiled, petting Sei. He grabbed him by the tail and lifted his back legs up a little, which made Sei hiss at him and bite his wrist. "Ouch. You have a scratcher over there! Don't use my arm for that!"

"Grr", Sei protested, letting go of Aomine's arm. Daiki pulled out the vegetables and meat to cut them in pieces before putting them in a pot to cook, but as soon as he left the knife on the counter and turned around, he found it gone. He frowned and looked around only to find Sei with the knife in his mouth staring at him, menacingly.

"Give it back", Daiki ordered, but Sei's ears dropped flat and he hissed, the handle of the knife still inside his mouth. "Sei!"

Needless to say, instead of cooking, Daiki was running around, chasing a cat, while avoiding stepping on the work papers. Which was a way harder task for Aomine that it was for Sei.

"Oh come on!", Daiki sighed, when he accidentally stepped on one of the photos and almost slipped because of that. Sei turned around to check on him, but upon seeing that he was okay, he continued the runaway. "Sei!"

Aomine would still be chasing the cat if it wasn't for his phone ringing. He stopped and went to answer it.

"Yes?", he asked angrily, giving Sei the bombastic side eye.

"Hey, is it a bad time?", Kagami asked unsurely. "It sounds like a bad time."

"No, not at all, I'm just trying to get the knife away from my cat", Daiki explained. "Nothing sound of a bad time."

"... What?", Taiga mumbled. "Uh. I just... I just wanted to say that I'm at work right now and, uh, the house fire I'm investigating looks very much like the work of our pyromaniac."

"Cool", Daiki shrugged. "I work seven to three."

"Huh?"

"I work seven to three. It's five twenty. Call me tomorrow at seven. Bye", Aomine hung up the phone and looked at Sei sitting in front of him. "Can I have my knife back?"

Sei though for a moment then handed the knife over and followed Daiki to the kitchen where he jumped onto the counter and lied down on the part right next to the fridge - it was the warmest, because of the fridge's cooling mechanism heating up.

Aomine was finishing putting the food inside the pot when his phone rang again. He picked it up and held it up to his ear with his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Seriously?!", Taiga yelled. "Possibly some new info about the guy behind it and you're dismissing it?!"

"I'm not dismissing it, I'm off duty and I'm busy making a soup with Sei", Daiki explained. Sei meowed loudly upon hearing his name, as if showing Kagami that he was really there.

"... Making food with your cat is more important?!"

"Dude, is the evidence, like, made out of sugar and it's raining?", Aomine groaned.

"No?"

"Then there's no fucking reason for me to get into a bus or a train and get there in the evening while searching for everything with a flashlight. I'll be there in the morning. In my work car. So I can fucking get around between the station and the field trip easily."

"But—"

"Anything else you'd like to add?"

"... No, sir."

"Good boy", Daiki chuckled. "Now, I'll take care of my cooking. Have a great evening."

Aomine left the phone on the counter and continued on with cooking. He pulled up the recipe - a printed screenshot of some website. He added all of the spices as they said to and turned the stove on while mixing.

"Ahh, Sei, I hope it'll turn out good", Daiki chuckled. "If not, I've just wasted two thousand yen worth of meat... And a bunch more of vegetables."

"Meow..."

"Yeah..."

Meanwhile Kagami was still standing with the phone next to his ear. He blinked slowly, rethinking everything that had just happened. Aomine Daiki. His crush. Aomine Daiki had just called him «good boy». Aomine Daiki. The hot alpha cop that's straight as fuck and Kagami had no chance of being with him. That hot cutie of a cop had just called him a good boy. With that seductive voice tone (it was a normal voice tone) and he ended it with that chuckle that could make someone cum (only Taiga would, but do you judge him? He was already down bad for the guy and he had only met him like ten days prior).

"Uh, Kagami-san, are you okay?", a coworker asked him.

"Yes", Taiga replied, shoving the phone into his pocket. What was that guy doing to him!?

Chapter Text

Daiki got some of the soup on a spoon and passed it to Sei. The cat tasted the broth and raised his eyes up onto his human - the pupils immediately dilated and they sparkled while Sei licked the spoon clean.

"Tasty, yeah?", Aomine chuckled. "It's light so you can have more of it."

"Meow!"

It was going great. He poured the soup into jars to preserve it, leaving a portion for himself and Sei for tomorrow. After that, Sei returned to his pillow for a nap, while Daiki continued to fry his brain over the case. Three minutes into his nap, Sei gave up and stood up to join his human. He walked around the papers, looking for whatever his human could have been looking for, but there was nothing interesting on the photos and Sei (obviously) couldn't understand the writing.

So he focused on the photos. On some of them were of the preys, some of them were of some random bricks, walls or ground, but most of them were of the bodies. Sei looked around, carefully observing the photos— oh! There was a konbini store! It was of the brand that he, his brother and his mom used to visit for food! He remembered how there was this nice lady that opened boxes that were a little past the due date so they couldn't sell it but they weren't moldy or anything. She always also took everything that wasn't safe for them to eat out. She was a nice worker and Sei missed her.

"Whatcha got there?", Daiki asked when he saw Sei staring at one photo for a long time.

"Meow...", Sei sighed. He wondered if she still worked there.

"... A konbini?", Daiki grabbed the photo and looked closer. It wasn't anywhere near but if the cameras there were at the right angle, they might see a fragment of the entrance to the alley where the bodies were. "Good job, Sei! That's exactly what we needed!"

"Meow?"

Was it hypocritical of Daiki to visit the store at seven in the evening after a thirty-minute train ride there right after yelling at Kagami for asking him to do the same for a different case? Probably. The point was, Daiki didn't want to see Taiga. He knew it was inevitable, but if he could push it back at least a few hours, he would.

"Why is love life so hard, hm?", he asked Sei that was sitting in the carrier on Aomine's chest. The cat meowed, snoozing into Daiki's warm body. Aomine entered the konbini and went straight to the counter.

"Good evening, sir!", the cashier bowed.

"I'd like to see a person in charge", Aomine smiled as he pulled out his badge. The cashier's eyes widened as he began trembling in fear. "You're not in trouble, I just need to see the cameras."

"O-Oh", the cashier seemed to have relaxed a little. He went to the backrooms and called the manager in. Soon, a man in his fifties appeared.

"May I help you?", he asked, clearly worried.

"Detective Aomine Daiki", he pulled out his badge. "We're investigating a... crime that happened nearby, I was wondering if I could take a look at your camera recordings, especially the ones from these two on the outside."

"Uh, please come in."

Sei silently watched as Daiki observed the recordings. They found the camera and that it did show the alley and then Aomine found the correct day and the approximate hour the crime had happened. He eventually found the moment - two guys entered in, then, around fifteen minutes later two more. Their faces weren't visible, but their silhouettes were - moreover, even if the video was almost black and white, Daiki could clearly see that one guy had bleached out hair and the other had very short dark hair. A while later, the two later men left and the two victims never reappeared on the cameras alive.

"You have an app for CD burning installed?", Aomine asked, pulling out his CD.

"I don't know...?"

"Sure", Daiki sighed. He quickly found and installed something, then burned the recording onto the CD. Once it was done, Daiki filled out the paperwork and asked to speak with all of the workers that were inside the store at that time.

As it turned out, the manager wasn't there, but the cashier was, so Aomine took him aside and began questioning.

"Is that why you've been so scared when you saw me?", he started, pulling out his voice recorder. The cashier didn't reply to that question, but he explained everything he heard following the shots. As it turned out - four shots could be heard, not three as they had noticed. After getting the statement, Daiki wrote down the guy's contact information and left the store.

"Where did the four shot come from, huh?", he asked Sei, scratching him behind his ear. Sei purred and closed his eyes, as Aomine jogged back to the apartment. Once inside, Daiki placed Sei on the pillow while he went to shower. He slipped out of his clothes and turned the water to almost burning hot. He sighed and relaxed, and just as he was about to grab the soap to wash himself, his phone rang.

Annoyed, he stepped out of the shower, wiped his hand and grabbed the phone. "Yes?"

"I found a witness", Kagami said.

"Cool, call me at seven!", Aomine shouted, ending the call. Asshole. Daiki stepped back into the shower and washed his body, then as he poured water into his bathtub, he went to his bedroom to fetch a vibrator. Surely, Taiga was an asshole and apparently couldn't understand what do not disturb meant but his voice was so goddamned soothing. Soothing enough for Daiki to be thankful that he bought the waterproof toy.

It wasn't enough to make him cum, unfortunately, but enough for him to throw his head back and hit it on the wall, then wince in pain as he lost all of his mood for masturbation.

"Fuck you, Kagami Taiga", he cursed under his breath, massaging his head.

Chapter Text

"Meow?", Sei slapped Daiki's head with his paw.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake...", Aomine sighed. He raised his head up and looked at the cat, who sat on his side, deadpanning him. "Did you run out of food?"

"Meow", Sei confirmed. He refused to move and kept hitting Daiki until the human stood up and went with him to the kitchen. Once in the other room, Sei jumped onto the counter and growled and hissed at his bowl until food appeared in it. "Meow!"

"Geez, you're annoying", Aomine groaned. He looked at the clock. "Oh for fuck's sake, it's four twenty!"

"Meow", Sei agreed. He had no clue how to use a clock but he knew it was early.

"Why did you wake me up so early?!"

Sei ignored him completely, eating his meal. Aomine gave up on going back to bed - he dressed up and decided to make himself some food. With a plate of scrambled eggs, he sat down on the table but as he was reaching for the glass of water to take a sip, a certain red cat knocked it over.

"Sei!", Daiki bit his tongue. He stood up to grab a rag and paper towel to gather as much water as possible. Meanwhile, Sei began stealing the food from his plate. "Don't! There's salt in it!"

Aomine grabbed Sei by the nape and raised him away from the table, much to the cat's displeasure.

"I don't think you can eat salt... or can you?", Daiki sighed. "You're still an asshole!"

Sei hissed at him and bit him. Aomine held him with his left and and cleaned the mess with his right one, then sat back on his chair and ate his food, holding Sei down on his lap.

"Stop that! I'm mad at you, too!", Daiki groaned at the cat. "Let me eat in peace!"

"Meow!"

After getting rid of the cat and finally eating in peace, Daiki went to the bathroom to retrieve the animal. Sei of course bit his ankle and hissed at him, but Aomine let it slide. After breakfast, he cleaned the litterbox and looked for the train connections - yeah, there was another route that wouldn't make him arrive just in time, but ten minutes earlier. Sure, he might take it - it was a little longer, but he was awake anyway.

"Why did you wake up and chose violence, huh?", Aomine frowned. He grabbed his whole gear and said bye to Sei even if he got no reply. That brat—

Aomine entered his office and flopped onto his chair. Six forty nine. He hadn't been this early at work in a while. He decided to take a quick nap - Taiga would most likely barge into his office anyway.

And exactly eleven minutes later, he did. With his wild eyes, fury sight and a frown painted on his handsome face, the fork-eyebrows asshole slammed the door of Daiki's office into the wall, making the detective jump out of his sleep in fear.

"What the fuck?!"

"That should be my line!", Kagami replied. "Asshole!"

"What's your fucking problem, dude?!"

"My problem?!", Taiga slammed his hand on the desk. "My problem?! You're the one who fucking dismissed me yesterday!"

"I have personal life outside of job, you should try having it, too!", Daiki could feel how tight his throat was. He wasn't in heat anymore, but Kagami was still at the end of his rut, which made his tone filled with the aura. That fucking aura made out of pheromones that instead of turning you on intimidated you. That fucking ace in the sleeve that all alphas had over omegas.

Their yelling could make every omega's knees break down if only they wanted to. An ability was that meant to give orders to omegas in times of need, in times of attacks or in dire situations. An ability that was meant to give omegas someone to follow so as to organize the mess. An ability that was meant to be used as «run there», «protect the children», «evacuate» but in the hands of assholes could be used to threaten.

Daiki hated that so much. The evolution wanted alphas to protect everyone, the evolution gave them an ability to calm a distressed omega down and the alphas were using it to gain power over them.

I thought you were different, Aomine thought as his heart raced in his chest, as Kagami continued yelling at him with that fucking tone. That tone that could even work on betas to some extent. That tone that never forced other alphas to do anything, but always was only a strong suggestion, impossible to ignore. That tone that could make omegas jump out the window if it told them to.

That tone was the reason why alphas were forbidden from working together with any other gender in high-stress environment. Every airplane cockpit, every police duo, every firefighters team, every medical team and many more couldn't pair alphas with anyone other than another alpha. Any military combination couldn't have an omega being in direct charge of alphas. And all of that simply because of an alpha were to disagree, even if their opinion was completely wrong and could cause great harm, no one there would be able to stop it.

Daiki's hands tembled at Taiga screamed at him. He wanted to yell back at him, he wanted to scream too, but ever since Kagami shouted «shut up» Daiki wasn't able to speak. Not until Taiga would be in the room. He had to leave - someone had to leave, someone had to stop it, but Aomine couldn't move. He was too terrified to move and he absolutely hated that.

"What is all of that noise—?!", Daiki's boss entered into his office. She immediately saw Aomine's terrified face and Kagami's angry face, just as she quickly felt the aura that Taiga made. "Please, leave this office."

"I'm not done—"

"I said leave. Detective Aomine will meet you according to his availability at a different time and place", she repeated and refused to bend until Kagami left the room. She then close the door behind Taiga and ran over to Daiki's chair. "Shh, he's gone, it's okay, calm down."

Aomine was sobbing at that point and nothing could get to him. Reluctantly, she took a deep breath and used her own alpha tone. "Take a deep breath. One more. Breathe in. And now out. A few more times."

She guided him all the way, until he was no longer trembling and crying. "Could you tell me what happened?"

That was why Aomine adored his boss. She was such a lovely alpha. She knew how to use the tone the right way and she listened to the problems if needed. And she was pretty. But that was another story.

"I don't know", he whispered. "I don't know, he just came here and—"

"I see", she sighed. "Do you want me to call the fire station and refuse his input in the case?"

Chapter Text

"It's alright", Daiki gulped. "I'd feel like a coward if I didn't face him again."

"... Listen, it's alright to restrain contact, he threatened you", she explained.

"I'll face him", Aomine insisted. "Just, give me some time..."

"Okay", she sighed. "But if anything goes south, I'll be keeping my radio on channel eighty five."

"Thanks", Daiki smiled. "I think I'm good. I'll go see if he's still there."

Aomine grabbed his bag and left the office. He entered the elevator and took it to the ground floor. Even if he was getting to a meeting with Kagami, he hoped the man had already left. He hoped he would be able to go back to his office and try to focus on the yakuza case.

Yet, next to the glass door leaving to the police station, Taiga was standing, arguing with the security. Aomine gulped and took a deep breath before walking over to the scene.

Taiga stopped mid-sentence when he saw Daiki then tried to say something to him, but was quickly stopped by the security literally throwing him out of the building. Aomine followed them and waited for the woman to finish yelling at Kagami for disturbing the peace of their workspace. Once she returned to the building, Taiga stood up and got the dust off his clothes.

"Did your temper tantrum finish?", Daiki asked him with a poker face, yet deep inside he was swallowed by anxiety. Damn, what one alpha could do to an omega.

"Fuck you", Kagami frowned. "... Can we just go?"

"... Sure", Aomine swallowed his pride. He wanted to hear an apology at least, but he was dealing with an alpha after all. They went together to the underground parking, with Daiki clenching his hand on a pepper spray and Taiga being blissfully unaware of the chaos he had caused.

Inside the car, Daiki set up the navigation and buckled his seatbelt. His hands clenched on the steering wheel, having had to leave the spray in his pocket. After taking a deep breath, he drove towards the house where the witness lived. He parked in front of it and left he car with Kagami, then they knocked on the door.

A woman in an apron opened it. "Mrs. Honda?", Aomine asked, showing his badge. "May we ask a few questions?"

The woman let them in and shooed her kid out of the room.

"If you don't have anything needing censorship to describe, he can stay", Daiki smiled, waving at the boy. The child waved back with a smile. Eventually, the woman sat down on the couch with her son and the two of them took a seat on chairs they brought from the kitchen. "You had something to say about the residential building that had burned down two weeks ago?"

"Yes", Mrs. Honda took a deep breath. "I... I didn't think it was weird until the second building went in flames."

She described the situation - both times, she was walking home, firstly from a store, then from a kindergarten with her son. Both of the routes led next to the buildings that had been affected by the pyromaniac and both times she saw a person mingling with a lock on a gate leading to the background. The first time she assumed it was a worker just getting in, but when she saw the same person in a completely different building, managed by a different company, she thought it was out of place. Yet only after she learned that both of the buildings burned down not long after she saw the scenes occur, she decided to say something.

The suspect she had seen was a young woman, around twenty-five years old, with short black hair that were pinned up in a half-ponytail both times. She was short, probably not more than one meter fifty five, and wore pink military shoes - this was one of the reasons why Mrs. Honda took a second look at her.

While Aomine was writing down everything, he let the kid play with the handcuffs and the baton. After filling some more paperwork, Daiki ruffled the kid's hair, took his gear from him and they both left.

"You have kids?", Kagami asked him when they entered the car.

"No, but I plan on having", Aomine replied.

"How many?"

"I don't know, at least one."

"I see."

"And you?"

"I don't mind staying childless", Taiga smiled.

"Ah, right", Daiki gulped. He was told about the other's orientation. "I forgot you're, uh— gay."

"I'm bi", Kagami corrected him. "I think so, at least."

"Oh."

"Yeah, that, uh, that guy I've told you about, he was actually my realization. I've never looked at alphas that way before."

"And you just... figured out that what you're feeling is lust and not just, I don't know, admiration of some sort?", Aomine stopped at a red light and took a look at the man on his left.

"Yeah. I just... knew. It's hard to explain honestly", Kagami mumbled. "At first it was just a «shit, he's kinda hot», but then it quickly became a «I'd sleep with him if I had the chance» and I started having... uh, n-naughty thoughts about him."

"That escalated quickly", Daiki's eyes widened. He turned left and continued driving. "Aren't you afraid of saying that? Like, in case he's freaked out when he gets to know?"

"He probably would gag", Taiga chuckled. "But still... I'd rather have him know and reject me, even in the harshest way, than have false hope."

"But you're afraid to confess?", Aomine finished it for him.

"Yeah."

They finished the ride in silence. Daiki parked the car on the parking lot next to the second building and pulled the handbrake. He left the car, leaving Kagami in for a moment. Taiga got out after a while, then walked over to Aomine and slightly bowed.

"I'm sorry for screaming at you in the morning", he said. "It was disrespectful of me, you're my senpai first and foremost, I should—"

"... You're forgiven", Daiki bitterly replied.

Chapter Text

In this building, they also found camera footage and the same person could be seen on them that had been seen on the recordings from the first building. This time, the angle was slightly better.

"Stay here with the forensic team, I need to go do something", Aomine ordered. He took the second CD and the paperwork, then left confused Taiga in the basement.

"Seriously?!", he sighed.

Daiki returned to the car and drove to the police station. He entered the lab and left a few things, stroke a conversation for a moment, then left and went back to the burned building. He checked the cameras again to see which way was the suspect coming from and followed her on various cameras until he found where she left from. Then, he did the reverse and searched for where she went. There was no actual footage of the suspect entering the building through that gate that Mrs. Honda described, but Aomine also couldn't find any camera that would point that way.

Eventually, he returned to the basement where Kagami was searching the place with a UV light, helping the forensic team out.

"Two weeks, two residential buildings down", Taiga groaned. "That woman enjoys this or something?"

"Probably", Daiki sighed. "Or it's her way of taking control over her life. Doesn't matter - there's twenty-seven deaths already and way more injured. She's looking at a life sentence or death penalty."

"Damn...", Kagami mumbled. "Is it weird that I don't feel bad for her?"

"No", Aomine replied. "Sometimes you feel bad for people that were driven by their situation, sometimes you don't. For most criminals that did what they did because they just felt like it - it's hard to feel bad."

"Did you feel bad for that wife you've told me about?", Taiga asked.

"Yes", Daiki answered without missing a beat. "Sometimes I wonder if I could go back in time, would I delay the police coming to her home so she could get out and throw the remaining pieces away."

"... Even if she's a murderer?"

"Some people deserve to die. Or deserve to get hurt in some way."

Kagami lowered his head. He wanted to say something, but Aomine got a call. He answered it and see stepped aside. After a chuckle and some short answers, he asked for something to be emailed to him. Then he thanked the caller and hung up. Right after, he made another call and left the room. He returned after around ten minutes and asked Kagami to go with him to the car.

"I found the girl", he said. "The one that Mrs. Honda described."

"Where?"

"In a cafe."

While in the car, Taiga couldn't fail to notice Daiki's weird mood. Was it because he was a douchebag in the morning? Okay, he was an asshole and he really shouldn't have yelled at him, but you had to understand his side of the story too, okay?

Kagami knew he couldn't have Aomine. Just like the talk they had had confirmed it. Aomine was a straight alpha male - he wasn't interested in other alphas, he wasn't interested in male betas even, as that also would be gay. He was straight - he wanted someone who could give him a kid. And Kagami couldn't do that.

Confessing had no point - even if Aomine had told him to risk it, even if Aomine encouraged him to try, Kagami couldn't. This investigation they were doing in collaboration was coming to an end and Taiga knew it. Until it lasted, he wanted it to be rather positive.

«Rather positive» sounded ridiculous while he messed up in the morning by screaming at Daiki. He tried to get him involved the day before but Aomine was more interested in spending time at home instead of with him. It was probably one of the biggest eye-opening moments for Taiga, and that was why he exploded. His stupid ego was hurt that he wasn't good enough for Daiki to consider him a person worth dating.

He wanted so much to be a part of Aomine's world. He wanted to be a part of his family, he wanted to wake up next to him and kiss him, but he couldn't. Honestly, he even had no clue if Aomine didn't have a partner - when Kagami was in his apartment, he had a feeling that outside of Daiki's scent, he could also feel an omega. Or rather - that specific undertone to an omega scent - a slight fragrance of the acidic slick that was the base of every omega scent.

But who was he kidding? Aomine was hot and charming, of course he had someone. Probably a girl/boyfriend or a fiance, since there wasn't any ring on his finger.

"How did you find her?", Kagami asked to break the silence. If this was going to be the end of their situationship, then Taiga better remember Daiki's voice, smell, scent and gaze. And generally everything.

"Some cameras, some asking around, some calls and boom", Aomine shrugged. "It's hard only when you don't know how to do it."

"Hm", Taiga focused on the view out of his window. "So we're done with that? We go there, get her and that's it?"

"Nope, a few more steps along the way. Finally, suspect would be in an arrest at the station, after that there will be a court date where suspect would or would not change into an accused, then into guilty or not guilty, then into a convict, then into a prisoner. It might take a few weeks, probably there would be an appeal, possibly not, but might be, more investigation, then if no actual alibi can be provided and everything would be pointing to the fault of the accused without doubt, or if the accused admits, the case ends."

"... I meant more of... Is this the last time we're seeing each other?", Taiga looked at him.

"Might be."

"Damn, you're not even sad about it in the slightest?", Kagami sighed. "Such indifference."

"You're not my first and you're noty last collaboration, Kagami."

"Right."

Chapter Text

"So, an internet cafe?", Kagami frowned when looking out the window of the car.

"Yeah. Miss Tanaka Rei lives here, temporarily at least", Aomine explained, getting out of the car. They entered the cafe and talked to the guy at the reception.

"Yes, we spoke on the phone, detective", the man smiled. "Booth number fifty eight."

They found the booth and knocked on the door leading to it. Soon later, a short woman opened them with a frown.

"What the hell do you wa—", her annoyed facade dropped down into fear as she looked up at the two men. "... Shit."

"Miss Tanaka Rei?", Daiki asked her, pulling out his badge. "Senior detective Aomine Daiki, this is my colleague, fire investigator Kagami Taiga. Could we speak for a moment?"

"... Mind waiting ten minutes, I gotta finish the match", she pointed at the screen behind her. She quickly grabbed the mouse and bought the gear for the next round and looked back at the men.

"Uh, sure, we'll... we'll just wait here", Aomine widened his eyes. "But the door stay open."

"Sure, whatever, man."

They stood in the pathway between the booths, watching as she played the remaining rounds of her game. She was pretty good at that thing and managed to win the match despite people watching her and standing behind her. Then, she logged out and closed the whole thing. She disconnected the external drive she had attached to the cafe's computer, opened her bag and threw it and all the rest of her things inside.

"Where do you wanna talk?", she asked. "'Cause I'm guessing that clearly not here."

"We can go to the car."

They left with her - she paid for the booth at the reception, while Aomine asked the guy to print something for him, and then they got into the car. Kagami sat on the passenger seat in the front and Aomine got on the back seat with her.

"So, what's wrong with you two—"

"How long have you been homeless?", Aomine interrupted her.

"I don't wanna chit-chat with you two, just get to the point!"

"The point is, the buildings you've been sneaking into to spend the nights in have been burned down. Burned down as it set on fire on purpose", Daiki's tone changed to more strict. "Many people died and if you're proven guilty, you will most likely serve a death penalty. So, you should appreciate that I'm trying to help you out here and collaborate before I'll put handcuffs on you."

"W-What do you mean «set on fire»...?", her eyes widened and she gulped.

"I mean, set on fire. On purpose. By someone. By someone who's trying to frame you", Aomine basically spelled it out for her.

"But—"

"So, I am asking you to help me out here, or you will end up in prison very soon and for a very long time."

"I wasn't me, I swear—", she started crying. "I would never—"

"I know", Daiki assured her. "That's why I need you to cooperate. Because as of now, you have no alibi and your fingerprints are all over the crime scene."

"Please, I— it was cold", she sobbed. "I had no money for the cafe or a hostel, I—..."

Kagami looked down as he was listening to all of this. What the hell was Aomine talking about? Was it some trick he was trying to do? What the fuck he was talking about? All he had to do was arrest that girl and the case would be over, no?

"Here", Aomine reached for the tissues inside his pocket and passed one to the girl. "Take a deep breath."

"I don't wanna go to jail", she cried.

"I know", Daiki let the girl cuddle in. "I know. That's why I want to help you."

"And you promise I won't go to jail?"

"I promise. But for that, I really need you to cooperate."

"Okay", she wiped her tears off and sat up straight. "What do you wanna know?"

"I need to know every building you've sneaked into. Address, which part you've been in, anything at all. Focus on those most recent ones", Aomine pulled out his notebook. The girl started to list everything she could remember. They all were around in the same area, withing two kilometer radius, relatively around the internet cafe.

"Okay", Daiki clicked his pen. "I'm gonna need your fingerprints and blood sample."

"W-Why?"

"We gotta differentiate them from the others", Aomine explained. "... Right, you can't consent to that. You're seventeen."

"Wait, what?", Kagami finally broke his silence.

"It's a long story, okay?", she mumbled. "You wouldn't get it..."

"Maybe we would, who knows?", Daiki chuckled.

"You're a really nice cop", she commented. "My parents kicked me out because both me and my boyfriend were alphas. They said I'm a disgrace and when I rethink my behavior, they might let me back in. It's been one month."

"... Which building have you stayed in recently?", Aomine changed the subject. "This one?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Let's go there", he left the car for a moment to take a seat behind the wheel. "Hey, Kags, you've got a mask and CO detector on you?"

"In the trunk, I've put it before we left the station, why?"

"Maybe we'll catch a fire before it starts", Daiki smiled. "Ah, Tanaka-san, the cafe has cameras, right? And your game records can be checked somewhere?"

"As in, the match history? Yeah?"

"As in, is there a time attached to it."

"Yes, the start and the finish, why?"

"We'll have an alibi for you."

Aomine drove over to the building and parked the car across the street, in parallel. Then, the three of them got out - Kagami took the bag with him, the girl took hers and they all went to the building. Aomine walked over to the first apartment and knocked.

"Hi", he smiled at the old lady who opened the door and showed his badge. "I am so sorry to disturb you, but we've got a call that someone saw some animal roaming around the basement, but unfortunately there's no one here to let us in to actually check. Could I please bother you to lend us a key, auntie?"

The grandma-aged woman chuckled and reached for her set of keys. "I hope you'll catch whatever it is!"

"It's probably nothing, or maybe even a prank call from some kids", Aomine sighed. "Thank you so much, I'll give it back to you as soon as I can."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, am I?"

Aomine thanked the lady once more and turned around to Kagami and Tanaka. "Key acquired."

"Yeah, but that's to the storage area... There's another door for the maintenance one", Kagami pointed out.

"And thankfully, Tanaka-san here knows how to pick locks pretty quickly", he smiled at the girl.

"So am I part of the team now?", she smiled.

"No, but you're close to leveling up from a suspect to a witness."

"Oh."

Chapter Text

They entered the basement and quickly found the door leading to the restricted maintenance area. Kagami gave each of them the FFP3 masks and grabbed the CO detector. Tanaka pulled out her lockpicking set and crouched to try and unlock the door. Eventually, she managed to turn in and the lock clicked.

"Open", she laughed. "That was easy."

"You're not breaking into federal prison", Daiki pointed out. "Let's go. I just want to check the levels, then we're getting out."

They walked in and followed the corridor. The CO detector showed higher and higher values as they got closer to the main furnace, then they heard the hissing sound of a gas escaping a broken pipe. Daiki looked around - he needed just one thing. Just one little confirmation of his whole theory. And then - he saw it. A single strand of hair lying on the ground. He pulled out a bag, secured the evidence inside and sealed it. In that moment, the pipe started hissing louder.

"Get out", Aomine commented. "Everyone, get out, now!"

As soon as they left the basement, Daiki gave the key back to the lady and explained the situation - while looking around, they discovered a CO leak. Then, as Kagami called the fire department, Aomine evacuated the whole building.

Everyone was outside when the firefighters arrived. When they entered the basement, it was already on fire. Thankfully, this time no one was hurt.

"How did you know?", Taiga asked him, as a few hours later Daiki managed to get an opinion about the pipe - the break on it was made manually, just this morning.

"Hey, Tanaka-san, you've got alibi for the whole day?", Aomine ignored him.

"... I've been playing since like five in the morning, if that's what you're asking."

"Good", Daiki smiled. "And to answer your question, I've known who the real suspect was for a while. And for a while, I've also had proof. Now, I'mma drop this at the lab and hear my good news."

"So can I go back now?", Rei clicked her tongue.

"I'm taking you to the lab firstly", Aomine explained. "We have fingerprints from other locations and if you're staying as a witness instead of the suspect, I've gotta clean them out."

After that, Aomine dropped her off at the cafe and paid for the day with his own money. He also asked if she could maybe try reconcile with her parents, but she only shrugged in reply.

The next day, the test results were back and Aomine happily picked up Kagami from the fire station.

"I don't get it", Taiga sighed. "I thought that Tanaka girl was the suspect?"

"She wasn't", Aomine replied. "She was being framed."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I've known that she's not the one when we firstly heard about her. That was the moment I've figured it all out. Then, the rest was just proving my theory."

They stopped in front of a familiar house. "It's past six in the evening", Taiga sighed. "I thought you worked seven to three."

"Yeah, but her husband works nine to five", Daiki sighed as he got out of the car. "Someone has to take care of the kid."

Kagami looked at the house. "Wait, are you saying that—?"

Aomine knocked on the door. A while later, a man in a suit opened it and his eyes widened when he saw Daiki holding his badge.

"Good evening, Mr. Honda", he smiled. "Senior detective Aomine Daiki, are your wife and son home?"

"... Yes", the man confirmed.

"Could you please take your son away for a moment? I'd rather he not see it."

"Is everything alright?"

"I will explain everything in a moment."

When they entered the living room, Mrs. Honda was at the table with her son. The man took the boy upstairs - the child happily waved at Aomine upon recognizing him. Once the men were done, Daiki pulled out his handcuffs.

"Mrs. Honda Kaede, you're under arrest for murder via arson, gravely injuring multiple people, destruction of property, trespassing, attempted murder, attempted grave injury and a few more. You have the right to remain silent, every word may and will be used against you in court. Please turn around and raise your hands."

"... What?", she frowned. "This has to be a mistake."

"It was a nice plan", Aomine pointed out. "Finding a victim to frame, going on a killing spree, watching it unveil as you'd stay in the clear. Unfortunately, you cut your finger, which made you worry that instead of us looking at your puppet show, we'd go straight for the one pulling the strings so you tried to intervene by straight up telling us who your frame victim was. Very unfortunately for you, you only led us to you instead."

"That is ridiculous!", the woman stood up and tried to get away from Daiki. "I didn't do anything!"

"Please stop running around, resisting arrest is only going to add more charges against you."

Eventually, the woman ended up in the handcuffs, inside of the car. The kid stayed inside while Aomine and Kagami talked to the husband and explained everything - from the DNA tests confirming that the blood found on the scene was Kaede's, to her hair being found in the third building, to her lies and her plan, ending in the deaths of twenty seven people. The man cried as he looked with disgust at his wife, who said not a word since she was put in handcuffs.

After they dropped her off in the arrest, Kagami had to ask Aomine about the whole case. Daiki only smiled and said he knew she was lying about being a witness from the second she described Tanaka as the suspect. They had video recordings of the suspect breaking in and even if they and no face there, it was clear that the person was around one seventy centimeters tall. In other words - Tanaka Rei was too short to be the suspect. Not only that, but Kaede had a bandage on her finger - the exact finger which the suspect had cut themselves.

Then, when the woman wasn't looking, Aomine stole a cup from which she was drinking her tea and got it to the lab where they did DNA testing, that confirmed that the blood was hers - it was the first phone call. The second phone call was Aomine looking around the internet cafes for Tanaka after he had found on the cameras where she had gone off to.

After that, he started to make a timeline in his mind and looked through the previous case reports. The buildings were random until last month, where they all started to match the ones in which Tanaka was staying. Meanwhile, he also ran a background check on Rei - she wasn't even from this area and prior to her becoming homeless, she lived almost two hours away by train.

Finally, he assumed that Honda Kaede decided to pick Tanaka as her framing victim. Then, they met with Tanaka, who - surprise, didn't have a cut on her finger - and got a list of buildings she was staying in. Then they went to the building and found a hair strand, which after DNA testing confirmed that it belonged to Honda.

"Not gonna lie", Daiki sighed. "If Honda didn't try and save herself by giving us Tanaka and playing as a witness, we wouldn't have found her."

"Seriously?", Taiga tilted his head. "But we had the DNA and the recordings and everything."

"Yeah, but we had no clue where the next attack will be and we had no names and no faces and no witnesses. It was a good crime. Would've been, if she didn't became impatient and paranoid."

Chapter Text

The court date was three days later. Honda Kaede plead guilty and was sentenced to death penalty. Her husband was on the trial, but her son was not. During the court setting, she scream and yelled how she wasn't in the wrong because setting the buildings on fire was making her aroused and she became addicted to it. She also managed to scream and insult Tanaka who was in the room as a witness.

After the trial, Aomine found the husband sobbing on the corridor. He refused to speak to his wife, he only cried as they took her away. Daiki placed a hand on the man's shoulder and lowered his head.

"I'm sorry", he said. The man raised his eyes at Aomine.

"She's been raising our son", the husband whispered. "What if that psychopath did something to him?"

"I can get you some numbers, you can get him to talk to a therapist", Aomine offered. "He's gonna need it anyway."

"I don't know how to raise a kid—"

"You'll learn", Daiki smiled. "You're gonna make mistakes and it's gonna be hard, but you'll manage."

Tanaka walked over to them, unsurely. She was wearing her most presentable clothes, which was her school uniform that she hadn't worn in a while. When the husband had seen her, he bowed and apologized to her for his wife's behavior. Then, Aomine left the two alone and walked out of the building where Kagami was waiting for him.

"... Being a detective is figuring cases like these out, yeah?", Taiga sighed.

"Being a detective is getting to the true without any prejudice", Aomine corrected. "Which you failed after immediately accusing Tanaka when you heard about her."

"Why didn't you stop me?"

"Why should have I?", Daiki chuckled, passing his hand out to Kagami. "Anyway, it was nice working with you, Mr. Elevator Douchebag."

"«Elevator douchebag»?", Taiga frowned, squeezing Daiki's hand.

"I have you saved in my phone as that."

"Why?"

"That's how we met."

"Touché."

Kagami finally let go and put his hands in his pockets. He bit his lip and observed Aomine for a while. That was supposed to be the end. Their last meeting. That was it. Taiga knew he wasn't going to suddenly get the courage to confess, but he might have enough in him to hopefully ask Aomine to continue being acquaintances or something, maybe even if they could be friends.

"I'll get go—", Daiki started, but he was stopped by Taiga.

"Wanna go grab a beer?"

"Uh", Aomine sighed. "It's getting late and I'd like to get home before it gets dark..."

"We can drink at your place, if you'd prefer that."

"You'll need to walk home afterwards..."

"That's okay, I don't mind."

"Okay, I guess."

The two men walked to the nearest store and bought three bottles of sake and a six-pack of beer. Kagami paid for it all and refused to split the bill. Then, they took a subway and walked to Daiki's apartment. Sei immediately ran over to Aomine and jumped onto his shoulder then started screaming into his ear.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm home", Daiki chuckled, petting the cat. "Oh, you're getting fat, boy."

"Meow", Sei wasn't exactly happy with that answer and didn't hesitate to slap his human.

"Did he get more aggressive or something?", Taiga smiled, moving his hand towards the cat but Sei hissed and scratched him.

"No, he just hates you."

They left the alcohol in the living room and went to the kitchen to grab some snacks. With popcorn and a bag of chips in their hands they flopped down onto the couch, making sure not to move Sei's pillow. Neither of them needed the cat's anger. Aomine opened up Netflix and wrapped his legs up in a blanket. He took a deep breath and looked at Kagami on his side.

Was it really okay? Taiga loved someone else and they looked really... couple-like. Not only that, but Taiga's outburst a few days back made Daiki shove him into the category of «I'm the alpha here so you should shut up» which was the verge first category of people Aomine wanted out of his life.

But Kagami was hot... and that should NOT be enough of a counterargument to continue being in touch with him, and yet here they were.

And even when Taiga's hand appeared on his thigh, Daiki might have listened to the wrong part of his body and instead of shoving it off, he moved closer to Kagami and spread his legs a little. When reaching for another bottle of sake, he also might have bent over more than he needed to. And he might have insisted on drinking with Taiga from the same bottle not exactly out of his laziness and the lack of glasses.

"Is this Netflix and chill, technically?", Kagami asked at some point, pointing at the television.

Drunk and driven by his Taiga's stupid attractiveness, Aomine only mumbled: "It can be any type of Netflix and chill you'd like."

It was stupid. Very stupid. Kagami had someone else in his heart and that guy was an alpha! Daiki had no clue who that was, maybe some dude from the fire station? Maybe some neighbor or someone from the store? Maybe a cashier or a mailman? Or anyone for that matter. The point was - Kagami loved someone, or at least fancied someone, and that person wasn't Aomine.

But Kagami might have forgotten that too, Daiki realized, when Taiga's hand moved higher and brushed against his crotch. They both might have forgotten many things when their lips touched and when Aomine ended up on top of Kagami's lap, with Taiga's hands on his ass.

Kagami tasted of rice alcohol and root beer. Slightly salty, from the popcorn and the chips, and Aomine could feel the remains of the food inside of both of their mouths. But it didn't matter anymore, when Kagami pinned him to the couch and when his hands got under Daiki's shirt.

Chapter Text

Aomine moaned into Kagami's mouth when his fingers ran over his nipples. Daiki's hands cupped Taiga's face and brought him closer while his legs wrapped around Taiga's waist. His hands traveled, from the face to the back and nape, holding his temporary lover in place. Aomine could feel Kagami's erection right against his vagina, tenting up the pants.

They broke their kiss for a second, just enough for Daiki to wiggle out of his pants and for his hands to grab Taiga's belt and undo it. Then, the kissing resumed - Kagami's tongue entered his mouth again and pushed against his own, then slid across his teeth only to rest for a moment under his tongue. And it kept going, Kagami took Aomine's shirt off, his hands groped his chest and squeezed his breasts. His fingers started playing with Daiki's nipples and Taiga began grinding onto Daiki, rubbing their private areas against one another.

"Just take off those fucking pants", Aomine breathed out, kissing him again. Kagami wasted no time in fulfilling the order and his pants quickly ended up on the floor. Now, with only two layers of underwear between them and nothing more, it was starting to get serious.

"You're so hot...", Kagami mumbled, feeling Aomine's body. The room was dark - the only light was coming from the TV and the moonlight out of the window, but both of them kept their eyes closed for most of the time anyway.

"You have condoms?", Daiki asked. He knew getting pregnant outside of the heat was almost impossible, but that almost was something of a chance he wouldn't take.

"Nope", Taiga admitted. "Didn't come here with the intention of having sex."

Aomine should have really stopped it right then. Right in that moment, he should have stopped this whole scenario and kicked Kagami out. But melting in those strong arms, he only whispered:

"Take me to the bedroom. I'll let you take me from behind."

Kagami didn't have to be told twice. He grabbed Aomine by his ass and pulled him close, then whispered into his ear to hold on and picked him up. After almost falling over three times and pinning Daiki to a wall for a round of kissing two times, they made it to the bedroom. Aomine reached to the bedside table to find the lube while Kagami got busy kissing his lower back and kneading his ass.

"Here", Daiki have him the bottle. He lied down on his stomach and wiggled out of his underwear, allowing Taiga to see his behind fully naked. Kagami took a seat on top of Aomine's thighs, with his legs on both sides of Daiki's body, and gently spread his cheeks, revealing the asshole.

It was happening. He was (drunkenly) going to fuck his alpha colleague that he had a crush on. This was his dream. His dream come true.

Kagami poured way more lube than he needed to on the first go, which then he tried his best to collect and push inside Aomine. Two of his fingers went in pretty easily and it made him wonder - was it really the first time Daiki was being penetrated? He was taking it too well...

With three fingers in, Taiga's dick reached its full erection length and girth. His knot had yet not swelled up, so the thick part at the base was barely bigger than the rest.

With four fingers in, Kagami got out of his underwear and placed his tip at the entrance. He pulled the fingers out, lubed up his whole dick and put it in. Centimeter by centimeter, as it was going in, Aomine was moaning into the pillow and shaking. Taiga wanted to stop, his subconscious was making him rethink his choices (we was fucking his STRAIGHT alpha colleague in the ass while they were both drunk and couldn't think of the consequences) but oh it felt so good inside. Kagami hesitated only once, before putting the knot in, but his doubts were gone when Aomine reached to grab his hand.

In one swift motion, the rest of Taiga's cock had entered Daiki and Kagami flopped down on top of him, pinning him to the mattress with his whole weight. He let go of Aomine's hand to grab both of them in a more comfortable position, without twisting their arms, and then began rocking his hips, pulling in and out of his temporary lover.

"Right— there!", Daiki moaned after Taiga hit a point on the walls of his rectum. Kagami assumed it must have been the prostate, whereas he actually managed to bent Aomine's intestine enough to brush against his clit.

Kagami moved his hips quickly, slightly messily because of the permille in his blood. He licked Aomine's nape, cursing the world for Daiki being an alpha instead of an omega and for his glands being in the wrong place. Oh how much he would give for Daiki to be an omega.

Yes, Kagami Taiga was an idiot. But you have to understand his point of view as well - he was young when he moved to the United States and he was raised there. Despite being "the land of freedom", America was way more sexist than Japan. Whereas in Japan, there wasn't a job only one gender could take, there were jobs that were thought to be made for a specific gender. Finding a nanny or a kindergarten teacher that wasn't an omega was hard, but not impossible, just like finding a plumber who wasn't an alpha. Japan also had the rules of limiting the misuse of alpha's tone, which resulted in alphas always being paired with alphas in high stress environment. That meant that there were firefighter teams with alphas only and ones with no alphas at all.

In United States, omegas simply were forbidden from working in high stress environments. Getting a pilot's license, becoming a police officer, a firefghter or a surgeon required a gender confirmation note from a doctor. The only medical fields omegas were allowed in were lab works, nursing and obstetrics.

And for Kagami, who returned to Japan at the age of twenty four and found himself working in a fully alpha team of firefighters, the fact that he could find an omega working for the police was just a ridiculous joke. They weren't allowed to work in any forces after all!

And definitely not as a senior detective in a criminal department in Tokyo Metropolitan Police... right?

Up until this point, it was acceptable to assume that Kagami could mistake Aomine for an alpha. But you also have to take into consideration that Kagami didn't realize that Aomine wasn't an alpha while having sex with him.

Okay, some points to Taiga, he hadn't seen Daiki from the front clearly and he was drunk, but still. Imagine not being able to recognize that the person you're fucking is of the wrong sex and gender you think they are.

Chapter Text

Daiki was moaning, his toes were curled up and he was shivering from pleasure. Taiga groaned into his ear and pushed in further, connecting their bodies until there was no space between them. He licked Daiki's nape again and slammed in until the end, then let his knot enlarge and lock them in. Kagami tried to pull out, but Aomine screamed in pain, making him stay in place. They turned to the side and Kagami reached behind him to wrap them both in the comforter. When he couldn't get it to reach, he turned them around again, wrapping them both like a burrito.

It was the alcohol, most likely, but they fell asleep soon after Taiga came inside of Daiki's asshole. And wrapped in their burrito they stayed until the morning, when Taiga was woken up by Daiki trying to wiggle out of the hold.

Kagami frowned. What the hell was going on? What the fuck happened last night? Why was he so warm? Why was there another person next to him? Oh no, did he stumbled into a bar and hooked up with someone? Shit. It was bad.

Kagami's hand moved up and wrapped around the person's waist. He snuggled in closer, and inhaled their scent. It felt familiar, somehow. He opened his eyes and saw a head full of navy blue hair, currently in a messed up braid. He frowned. Brown skin, navy hair, familiar scent...

Oh fuck. He had sex with Aomine Daiki. Aomine was awake. Aomine knew he was awake. His knot was still sealed inside of Aomine's asshole.

Oh fuck.

"... I need to go to the bathroom", Daiki nudged him, "so mind untangling us?"

Kagami found the end of the comforter that was under his body and got it out, then uncovered them and revealed the connection point. The knot had gone down enough to pull it out, but because of the heat of Daiki's body it wasn't fully soft yet. As soon as Kagami detached them, Aomine sat up on the bed, still not facing him. He got the hair tie out of his strands and tried to untangle his braid - or rather what was left of it - but to no avail.

"It's eight twenty five", he said. "If you have work or something."

"What day it is?"

"Saturday."

"... Don't you work seven to three?"

"Yeah, Monday to Friday."

"Oh."

Aomine stood up from the bed and walked out of the room, while holding a hand on his lower back and limping a little. He went to the bathroom and locked the door behind himself. Under the shower, with hot water running on his body, the reality hit him.

He had just lost his virginity. At the age of twenty-eight. To a guy he would never consider a mate-material.

Kagami Taiga was hot. He was handsome, strong, had that goddamned sexy smile and was generally the pretty one that everyone had a crush on. A nine point nine out of ten (that reduction was for those ridiculous eyebrows), a guy that could get his way by flirting or sleeping around. And Aomine? All throughout highschool his friends laughed at him for being the ugly freak who would never have a partner. He was the ugly friend that was entertained by the friend of the hottie who was busy flirting with his friends and not a single one of those people ever had any intentions of asking him out. He tried his best, he worked so hard, he wanted so badly for anyone to find him attractive. Eventually, he just gave up, somewhere deep inside. «I don't need a partner» was used to cover up «there's no one who would want me». At some point, his gym to keep slim and fit became gym to build muscles, his diet to hopefully fix the skin outbursts became a diet to match the gym schedule, his education to impress someone became education to get a job he dreamed of, his hard work for a promotion to find even a gold digger became just climbing the corporate (or rather, police) ladder and getting a name out for himself.

His whole life wasn't supposed to be like this. By now, he should have had a mate and a kid running around, and he had only lost his virginity in a drunk anal sex to an alpha he wasn't going to consider an acceptable partner because of his misuse of the alpha tone. Just great.

Okay, not only that. Kagami loved someone else. Someone, who Aomine couldn't be. Maybe if Taiga loved him, maybe them he would reconsider that option. Maybe he would be willing to give him another chance. Only maybe.

Daiki had his fair share of people misusing the alpha tone on him. He hated every person who did that and having one of them as his partner seemed like torture.

He washed himself and got semen out of his ass. Or at least, as much of it as he could. His tummy hurt, his back hurt, his bottom hurt, his head hurt, his heart ached and he knew he made a mistake. A huge mistake.

He had just lost his virginity to an alpha he wouldn't mate with. He knew life wasn't perfect and the chances of stumbling across the love of your life in your first relationship were marginally over zero, but he still hoped. He still hoped it would happen to him. That he would get lucky. After all those years of his life being miserable, he hoped that the world would do a flip and he might get lucky one time. Just once. Spes mater stultorum.

He sniffed as he wrapped the towel around his cold body. He felt so disgusting. This should have never happened. But now he couldn't go back in time and stop the drunk himself from being a complete fucking idiot. Now, he could only clearly draw the line for Kagami and hope he wouldn't cross it.

Chapter Text

When Aomine left the bathroom, he wandered back into his bedroom to grab some clothes. He expected Kagami to still be there, but the alpha was gone. Good. Looked like he took the hint and disappeared. Daiki quickly slipped into his sweatpants and a t-shirt, then as he was about to walk around the apartment to check if Taiga has left anything, he heard Sei's loud battle noises coming from the kitchen.

Entering the room and seeing Taiga cooking breakfast wasn't on his bingo list, but he figured the earlier they have the talk the better. But maybe after breakfast? Before seemed a little... off. No, Daiki definitely wasn't avoiding it! Not at all!

"Hey!", Taiga smiled brightly when he saw him. "Uh, I hope you like pancakes?"

Daiki wasn't going to run from his responsibilities. He wasn't going to run!

"... We need to talk", he almost whispered, scared shitless.

"I know", Kagami replied with a bitter smile.

"Look, I'm sorry, but it should have never happened—"

"I know", Kagami repeated. "I know. And I should be the one apologizing, it feels like I've taken advantage of you..."

"So you won't get mad if I say that I hope it never happened again?"

"Ouch, but no", Taiga chuckled. "I've known it won't happen again from the second we stepped into your place yesterday."

"Okay, cool", Aomine finally breathed out. "Uh, I don't mind staying... acquaintances or even friends maybe, just for the record."

"Thanks", Kagami smiled. Aomine sat down at the table and waited for his guest to serve the breakfast. Sei meanwhile jumped on the table and started berating Daiki for sleeping with a random alpha by hitting him on the head and screaming.

"Awawawawawawawa!"

"Yes, Sei, you're completely right", Daiki bowed in apology.

"Awawawawabaawa!"

"Yes, I fully agree", Daiki placed his head on the table and let Sei curl and lie down on his nape and head.

"Awawawa", Sei mumbled, then hissed for the last time. His stupid human. Almost got mated with a guy Sei didn't approve of. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

Meanwhile Kagami could barely contain his laughter. He finished preparing the breakfast and placed everything on the table. Then, he placed Sei's bowl next to them.

"He can't really eat pancakes, so I ran to the konbini next to you and got him some tuna", Taiga explained.

"... You ran to the store?"

"Borrowed your keys for a moment, hope you don't mind."

"You ran to the store to feed my cat?"

"Yeah?"

Maybe Kagami was more of a mate-material than he had previously thought. But no, Aomine wouldn't change his mind! No! Not even if Kagami was making three course meals for Sei every day! Meanwhile Sei looked at Daiki as if telling him «if this kills me, you're screwed» which changed into «it's not as good as yours but I'll let it be». Kagami might have scored a point or two, though.

"They're good", Aomine praised him after a while, clearly embarrassed. When Kagami asked him to repeat, he only coughed and said it wasn't important, but Taiga had well heard him the first time.

"I hope you don't feel disgusting after what happened", Taiga said after a long silence.

"Disgusting?"

"I mean... sleeping with me? Taking it from behind?", Kagami started to count out. "... Yeah, I should've just kept silent."

"I, uh, I didn't mind that too much, I guess?", Aomine blushed. "I mean, with all the lube, it went in smoothly and all...?"

And here was yet another gender conflict that neither of them realized existed. Kagami was sure Aomine didn't want to continue their spicy relationship because he wasn't into alphas and he felt disgusting after being fucked in the ass. Aomine on the other hand often masturbated anally and didn't even thought of it as something weird, but had no intentions of continuing their relationship because of his moral compass.

And here they were. With mutual crush that couldn't be finally brought to daylight because Kagami wouldn't dare to try turning Aomine "gay" and Aomine who wouldn't dare to force Kagami to love him instead of the "alpha" he was already fancying.

If you, dear reader, are wondering how long it would take them to realize their gender/sex conflix being completely made up, you might as well spare some time and relax. This won't happen in this month and probably not at the beginning of the next. They are both idiots after all, Kagami being a complete fucking dumbass and Aomine being a detective who couldn't detective his way out of this mess. However, don't pretend you're not enjoying this scenario. I'm sure you're at least smiling by now.

But back to the idiots.

Kagami bowed multiple times before leaving Aomine's apartment and going back to his. Daiki walked him down to the entrance, wearing his sweatpants and a blanket around his shoulders, wrapping him tightly from the cold.

"Get back safely", he smiled, gently fixing Taiga's scarf. "The winter's getting cold, you gonna catch a cold."

"I'll do my best not to", Kagami mumbled. "You should go back then. You're half naked."

"Eh", Aomine sighed. "Make sure to double check your reports with a thesaurus."

"... What kind of dinosaur is that?"

"Nevermind, stick to a paper dictionary."

Kagami chuckled and awkwardly stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do. Should he go back home already? But he didn't really want to leave Daiki just yet... But he had to, they already said their goodbyes.

"Go home", Aomine said with a slight smile. He then took a step forward and with one hand on Taiga's cheek, he kissed the other and moved back away and further into the building. He waved as he turned around and returned to the elevator.

Kagami stood there in shock. He was never going to wash that cheek. Okay, it was an exaggeration, but he would remember that kiss as long as his memory served.

As he was going back, he thought about Aomine. Despite being an alpha (is this getting boring already?) Daiki had those vibes, those motherly vibes that made him want to lie down with his head on the other's lap and just sleep as Aomine would sing him lullabies. He was caring and gentle and calm, which all were unusual for an alpha (because Aomine wasn't one) - but all of those things only made Daiki even more appealing to him.

Kagami smiled from ear to ear as he walked home.

Chapter Text

Kagami had submitted his report a few hours ago so he was expecting a call from his boss about the mistakes and a round of berating. Once he was called in, he stayed in the bow right after bowing for good morning, just waiting for his round of apologizing.

"Get up, boy", his boss sighed, as she rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That report isn't actually that bad, only one five mistakes in the whole one page long document."

"Oh", Taiga stood straight. "... That's, like, good, yeah?"

"For you?", the woman chuckled. "Yes. That's amazing. If you weren't here because of your money, you'd be long gone."

"I'm not here because of the money", Kagami frowned.

"And your father definitely isn't sponsoring us."

"I don't give a fuck what he's sponsoring, I want to be here because of my achievements!"

"You wouldn't be here then", the woman deadpanned. "Sit down, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Kagami politely sat down on the armchair in front of her. "Yes?"

"That collaboration", the boss sighed. "Honestly, if this was up to me, that thing would've never happened."

"Why?"

"I personally hate the woman who runs the criminal department in there", she briefed him in. "If I could, I'd be marking cases like cats on the trees as criminal activity just so they have more job and more paperwork to do."

"... Something happened between the two of you? She seemed nice..."

"Don't get me started", she cut him off. "I wanted to ask about that guy, Mr. Senior-Detective-At-Twenty-Eight."

"Eh? He's older than me?", Taiga frowned. "I thought he was my age!"

"... That guy was your age by the time he got out of uni", the woman chuckled. "He'd have to have both rich parents and one hell of a sponsoring for the department."

"Don't say that."

"I've heard about him, so I wanted to know", she sat back in her chair. "Is he as good as they say he is?"

"He's better."

"That was a quick answer", she smiled. "Good. I've heard he's doing collabs only now because his partner's on maternity leave or something."

"Oh", Taiga tilted his head. He didn't know they let beta females work in the police in Japan. That was cool! More diversity, but also it seemed dangerous. Wouldn't they get outpowered by alphas in a potential fight on the street? No, that maybe wasn't such a great thing after all...

"Yeah, that's why I'm asking about him. We don't get a lot of pyromancy cases but those aren't the only ones getting into the criminal department", she looked at the pile of papers on her desk. "I've got a few more cases that probably will end up on his desk and the protocol tells me to make them into a collaboration, but the thought of working with that bitch so much makes me wanna vomit."

"Can I take all of the collaborations?", Kagami asked with an innocent smile.

"... The collaborations are meant to bring in more expertise for the detectives to do their job", the boss explained. "I don't see how an accident with a dude stuck behind a fridge in his workplace is your area of expertise."

"Who's area is that?", Kagami frowned.

"Believe it or not, but we have a dude for investigating accidents involving people stuck in weird places. His official job title is «entrapment investigator»."

"How many people are getting stuck in weird places?"

"More than you think."

Kagami stayed for a bit longer in the room - his boss was an alpha woman, older than him, but still surprisingly young for a head of the investigation department. She was strict, but very nice and caring if you could look through her facade. She really helped him out with his horrendous spellings and grammar errors and now, and after two months of living in Japan and working there, he got the word order correct.

As of now, five months had passed and he was making some progress. Not enough to call him a native, but enough to maybe one day consider him proficient in writing. In writing. In speaking Kagami had no problems as long as it was informal language. Because for Taiga "formal" wasn't a whole set of rules and scenarios you had to follow, but just adding "desu" at the end of his every sentence. Which made him sound even more like an idiot, but his boss found it adorable. Which made Kagami mad because he was an alpha, he wasn't adorable, alphas aren't adorable. But then he met Aomine. And oh maybe alphas are adorable after all.

Needless to say, Kagami was screwed. He probably wound never work with Aomine again. They had known each other for a month, so probably that partner of Daiki would be back soon, unless she had some long ass maternity leave, maybe even up to eight weeks? But still, that meant that unless someone set themselves or someone else on fire, Taiga wouldn't work with Daiki ever again.

What a bummer.

He pulled out his phone and found Aomine's private email address. Maybe he should just ask for like a meeting or something? But what if he found it weird? Kagami needed a reason or something! So he started to look around the news to find any event coming up. When he was about to give up, one article caught his eye. Some report from a basketball match.

He hadn't watched basketball in a while and now that he couldn't play it, he was kind of frustrated when looking at it. Maybe it wasn't the best idea? But maybe Daiki liked some sports? Maybe there was a match coming up or something?! Maybe he could ask Aomine out to go watch a match with him?!

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: Sports

I was looking for that dinosaur thing you've told me about and I found some sports articles which made me wonder - do you like any sports? Maybe you'd like to go see a match with me?

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:Sports

I mostly run and hit the gym nowadays, I used to do kickboxing, judo, karate and taekwondo in different periods of my life, all of these are boring to watch tho. And you?

I mostly watch volleyball probably.

Ps. The dinosaur is called thesaurus

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:Sports

Cool, if I had volleyball match tickets, would you go with me?

And thanks for the thesaurian

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:RE:Sports

Skip the tickets, winter high school tournament is starting soon, the entry for the whole thing is like 1500 yen per person or something

Chapter Text

He didn't exactly expect it, but a few days later he was waiting in front of the court for Kagami. The younger wasn't running late or anything, it was Aomine who came in almost half an hour earlier. He sighed and cursed his worried ass - now he was going to stand in the cold, waiting for the guy to show up on time—

"Hey!", Taiga ran towards him with a huge grin. "I didn't make you wait, did I?"

"N-No, not at all", Daiki admitted. "I'm cold. Let's go inside."

"Ah, yeah, uh, sure."

It wasn't a date, they thought as they sat up in the highest row. It wasn't a date, they thought as Kagami wrapped his arms around Aomine. It wasn't a date, they thought as Daiki placed his head on Taiga's shoulder. It wasn't a date, they thought as it turned out Aomine's high school had a team there too and they started cheering for it. It wasn't a date.

"You played volleyball?", Kagami asked when there was a break between the matches.

"No", Aomine admitted. "... There was a sport I used to play but I don't wanna talk about it. It's, uh, painful."

"I get it", Taiga smiled bitterly. "I have one of those as well."

"I started watching volleyball as a replacement", Daiki explained. "It helped. Kind of."

"That's good", Kagami chuckled, moving away from Aomine. It was getting dangerous, they shouldn't be sitting like that.

"I'm cold, don't run away, asshole."

"We look like a couple..."

Aomine pouted, but sat up straight. "One more match left today."

"Yeah."

"By the way", Aomine looked to his side and smirked. "How's your progress with that alpha guy, hm? Any moves?"

Kagami gulped. How the fuck was he supposed to explain it to Aomine now?! He needed a lie, a believable and a good lie. But he was lying to a cop! Not only a cop! A detective! This guy's job was figuring out lies! Which meant he had to tell the truth...

"We kissed", Taiga mumbled. No one said anything about telling half of the truth. He begged Aomine not to realize. "Okay, I kissed him."

"And?"

"And he almost ran away", Kagami continued his half-truth. "He said he'll let it slide but if I ever do something like this ever again, he would immediately go no contact."

Okay, he exaggerated but he needed Daiki to stop asking or his tongue would finally slip and it'd get way more uncomfortable that it already was.

"... I'm sorry", Aomine looked away and focused on the warm-ups on the court. He spoke no more until the match started, which made Kagami feel horrible. He didn't want to hurt him, Daiki was rooting for him and being supportive even if he didn't know Taiga was into him and not some random guy. He was a lovely person (a mean, annoying dick of a person, but still kind and lovely under all of the masks) and Taiga hated seeing him down like that.

"Why did the point go to that team?", Kagami frowned, pointing at the scoreboard of the match in front of them on court number one. "They lost the ball?"

"Yeah, but black three touched the net, so whites get the point", Aomine explained.

"You can't touch the net?"

"No", Daiki seemed to have brighten up a little. He fixed himself of the seat and began explaining various rules to Taiga - rules he had no clue existed and didn't know what they were anyway because of the lack of vocabulary. What the fuck was a libero?

Their conversation went on, with Daiki vigorously explaining how each point was scored for the team he was rooting for, and angrily remarking all the points they lost. Finally, the black team - Touou - managed to win all of their matches for the day and got into the quarter-finals.

"Do you want me to walk you back home?", Kagami asked once they left the stadium. It was dark and cold outside. Kagami just wanted to be nice, he knew that Aomine lived further away than he did and walking alone at night while watching the stars sounded romantic as fuck. Aomine on the other hand mumbled something as he blushed - he was gonna get walked back home by the young alpha and protected in case someone attacked them?! What a charming gentleman! (Aomine was a better fighter than Kagami so if someone was to attack them, Aomine would be the one protecting Kagami, not the other way around, but let the not-a-virgin-anymore omega dream of his prince in a shining armor.)

"Uh, are you sure that's okay?"

"Yeah!"

Daiki turned his head away and smiled. Maybe, only maybe, he had a chance with Taiga? Now that the alpha he liked was out of the question—

No. He wasn't considering Taiga as a potential mate not only because of him liking someone else. It was because Kagami in emotions very quickly turned abusive. He wasn't going to be with someone like that.

A man sitting in a bar with a glass of whiskey in his hand sighed. He rubbed the base of his nose, trying to fight his headache, but it didn't work. He screwed up. It wasn't supposed to end like that and it wouldn't end like that. He clicked his tongue - why wasn't there an incoming call? He had been waiting for days now!

As he was leaving the bar, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and smirked. "Yeah?"

"There's a possible solution you can try, but I don't know if you're be willing to even listen", the voice on the other end said.

The smile faded from the man's face. "What?"

"Meet me somewhere."

"Fucking secretive asshole", the guy groaned, but set the time and date for tomorrow. "I'll be in the park."

"Roger."

He hung up and hid the phone in his pocket. A stupid little mistake and it was costing him so much - who would have thought?

Chapter Text

Aomine was feeling surprisingly nice. He didn't choke in his sleep (or rather, Sei slept on the pillow instead of his face), he woke up on the first alarm and he didn't burn the eggs whole making breakfast. He happily went to work and happily accepted another side quest from the dungeon master. No, wait, wrong reality.

While investigating a robbery, as he was checking the cameras he got extremely lucky. The robbed store wasn't exactly close to the location where the yakuza banter happened, but the shooters went somewhere in this direction, so he decided to check the date while he was there anyway.

And not only the investigation was easy because the robbers were stupid and showed their faces beautifully into the cameras, but also he had a few more details on the yakuza men! Okay, they were on the other side of the street and even on max resolution were barely visible, but from the pixels he did manage to find out that one had short brown hair and piercings here and there and the other was bald - and what Aomine had previously thought was bleached out hair was just a thin hat he was wearing.

As he returned to his office, his boss entered it after a knock.

"You seem happy", she noticed. "Ending that pyromancy case and being free of an asshole alpha can get your mood to skyrocket?"

"I think I'm an idiot", he sighed, his smile down as he banged his head on the desk. "It's bad. I think I'm falling for him."

"... What?"

"I slept with him."

"What?!"

"Just once!", he raised his head and looked at her. She sat down in front of him and crossed her arms on her chest. "We were drunk and it just kind of... happened."

"What happened to you hating all alphas abusing the tone?!"

"I don't know!", he groaned, hiding his face in his hands. He moved them up to his forehead and held his hair out of his face. "I told him it will never happen again. And he said it was cool. Then he asked me out. It seemed like a date, we're going again today."

"... Excuse me?"

"He even walked me back home", Aomine mumbled. "Look, I know I'm making a mistake, but how big of a mistake it is? Like... Is it bad if I give it a chance? Even if he loves someone else but that someone doesn't want him and I'm almost completely sure he makes moves on me only to use me as a replacement."

"Dear gods", she rubbed her temple. "What if he turns abusive? He might just yell at you every time something doesn't go according to his plan."

"I know how to fight, I'm a cop."

"A detective", she reminded him.

"I know how to fight, that's my point."

"Darling, you're not going to win with an alpha using the tone on you", she reached out and grabbed his hand. "I know the world's unfair, but you can't do anything about it."

"... Can you yell at me with the tone so I can practice resisting?", Daiki raised his eyes at her.

"I don't think that's a good idea—"

"Oh, please, what's the worst that can happen?"

"You can become terrified of me and freeze up every time you'll see me?", she sighed. "Or worse - you can accidentally destroy your omega self."

"Yeah, as if that was possible so easily", he huffed. "It takes years of abuse for your body to get an autoimmune response. And even then, getting a restriction syndrom is rare."

"But it's irreversible", she frowned. "I would never put myself in a situation where I could destroy your whole ability to mate and have heats and children! Specially since I know how much you want to have them."

Aomine sighed and dropped his head down onto the counter. "What should I do, huh...?"

"If you don't want to be with him, don't. Live your life, someone will eventually appear in it", the boss smiled. "Now, I have another case for you—"

"I knew you didn't just come in to ask about my good mood", he chuckled. "Thanks for the talk, though."

She smiled and stood up, giving him one last reassuring look before turning around. As she was grabbing the handle, Aomine added:

"Hey, Satsuki?", she turned around and smiled, not opening the door just yet. "Should I let him know it's not a date, that, uh, that date-like thing?"

"Oh, absolutely", she widened her eyes. "That should've been your first line after «hello» yesterday."

"Right."

"Also, don't call me by my name at work. Here, I'm your boss, first and foremost."

The work on the case was simple - the guy who robbed the store had shown his face to the cameras and he was arrested five hours later. Daiki loved those simple cases. Most of them were this type of work, and he loved how he was getting just as much of them as anybody else. Talking about fair treatment here, Momoi Satsuki was a genius at that. She knew exactly who should take care of which case so as not to die out of boredom and not to rage quit midway through.

Aomine had known her before he began his work in the police. She was his childhood friend - older than him by a few years, she used to walk back home from school with him when he was little, as they lived not far off each other. As they grew older and she went to middle school, they lost contact and Daiki had missed her dearly. He sometimes heard about her from his parents or passed by her mother on his way home, but generally they hadn't spoke once.

Until Aomine applied for his job as a detective once he had finished forensics in a university and lo and behold, the boss of the criminal department he was applying to was Momoi Satsuki. Okay, she was a very newly promoted boss after the previous one was involved in fraud, which made her position extremely unstable and untrustworthy for a while, but as months passed by and the two of them got closer again, she gained power, trust and respect of everyone under and equal to her. Without her, the department wouldn't have blossomed so much in those past years.

Collaborations were also her idea - she decided that on specific type of cases, a detective should be working with an expert as a partner not only to straighten the relationship between different workforces but also to ensure better understanding of the evidence. Most of the collabs were done with different fire stations, sometimes with military or sanitary inspectors, rarely with medical personnel. The latters were rather used as consultants rather than full on collabs because of their daily jobs. Fire departments on the other hand had their own inspectors and Satsuki passionately made multiple contracts with different stations to have detectives work together with them with no troubles and little to no paperwork.

Except for one.

The one Kagami Taiga was working in. That fire station for some reason wanted little to no collaborations with them, and they much preferred just passing the cases to them. Momoi often forced the collabs to happen anyway - just as she did with Kagami - but the amount of paperwork she had to fill out was limiting the amount of cases that could be pushed. And all of that was because the boss of that department had something against Satsuki. And the woman clearly knew that.

And yet she didn't want to speak with him about it.

Chapter Text

This time, he waited for Kagami inside the building - it was cold outside and he was freezing. Once the alpha appeared, they went together to the stands and took the place on the side of the court Touou was playing at.

"You think they're gonna win?", Taiga asked him once the first set had finished.

"Nope", Daiki chuckled. "Maybe they'll get to finals if they're lucky."

"Really? You're not even, like, hoping?"

"No, man, I've seen them play more than just these matches. Though, I have to admit, their new first year is kinda good. Better than the previous guy they had on defense, at least."

They sat arm in arm, watching the match when Kagami's hand suddenly landed on Aomine's knee. It gently moved up his thigh and stopped around halfway with a soft squeeze. Daiki gulped, as he grabbed Taiga's wrist and moved his hand up and slightly away from his leg. Kagami focused on him and tilted his head in confusion slightly.

"Look, I don't know what you have in mind, but, uh, this... This is not a date", Aomine explained with his eyes widened. He found Taiga attractive, but he wasn't going to be a replacement for some alpha by who Kagami got rejected. He was an omega and (even if he sometimes hated his sex) he wanted to be treated as one. He wanted to be loved and appreciated for who he was, and not for who he could have been.

"Yeah, uh, I know", Kagami confirmed, getting his hand away from Aomine's hold. "Sorry."

After that, Kagami hadn't touched him purposely once. His warm, big hands rested somewhere on his body - his stomach, his thighs, his pockets, his neck. Which was extremely annoying as Daiki would rather have them on his hip and throat. No - no lusting over Kagami Taiga! The guy was young and beautiful but also not a good partner for him! At least not now...?

Once the match ended, Kagami suggested walking Aomine back home again, but this time, he refused. He couldn't get too attached to him like that. Around the last turn to his apartment, three alphas walked over to him and surrounded him.

"Money, faggot", the tallest (that was still slightly shorter than Aomine) smirked. Daiki sighed and reached to his pocket to find his badge. The three fuckers started to laugh, taking it for a wallet that they would be able to steal and run away. Aomine loved those type of idiots - they were too stupid to use their alpha tone, or they didn't know how to or their tone was weak and easy to resist. Daiki once in his life had a situation where he almost got outpowered because of the tone, but his fight or flights response kicked in the last moment.

Aomine pulled out his badge and showed it to the guy. "Hands up where I can see them, drop to your knees."

"Shit—"

The "boss" tried to run, but Daiki tased him before he could turn around. The other two guys stood in horror - one followed the instructions and lowered his head in fear while the other tried to hit him after a few seconds of decision-making, which ended up in him getting thrown to the ground and held down by force. Aomine pulled out his phone and called the police. Four guys appeared a few minutes later to see three alphas on the ground, with their hands tied up on their backs with zip ties.

"... A citizen's arrest?", one cop asked.

"Uh, kind of? I'm off duty."

After leaving the alphas in the hands of the cops, he went back home. He flopped down on his couch and smiled when Sei jumped onto his chest.

"Hey, cutie pie", he chuckled, scratching the cat behind his ear. "How was your day?"

"Meow~", Sei purred, making biscuits on his chest.

"Yeah, mine was fun, too", Daiki smiled.

"Meow!"

"You must be hungry, huh", Aomine grabbed the cat and stood up. "Want the soup we made earlier?"

"Meow!"

Sei waited patiently for the soup to heat up. He ran around the kitchen, jumping on everything and onto, into and over Daiki, then he saw Aomine open a balcony door. His head poked out and he jumped on the windowsill from the outside.

"I can figure out a way to leave it open without freezing the whole place, if you wanna leave to get some air", Aomine sighed. "But you'll firstly need to learn how to get down from the balcony and back up. This is the seventh floor after all."

"Meow!"

"Or you'll learn how to use an elevator."

"... Meow?"

"Yeah, we'll try."

Aomine poured the soup into Sei's bowl and placed the pot on a wooden tray and started eating it directly from the pot. Daiki finished his meal and stayed with Sei until he finished his meal. After that, he cleaned everything while Sei licked his bowl clean - Aomine rinsed it and poured clean water into it before putting it back on the end of the counter.

He went back to his bed and dropped there. He felt the soft mattress under his hand, when he suddenly stopped. He raised his head and looked in that one spot.

A dried stain of cum. Just lovely.

He turned to his back and closed his eyes. Amazing. Now he had Kagami's dick in front of his eyes. That veiny, thick cock, that reshaped his asshole. That knot that filled him and locked them together for the night.

"Aaaghhh!", he rolled off the bed and curled up on the floor in his comforter. "Stupid elevator asshole!"

He huffed, but stood up soon after and collected everything off the floor. He waddled info the bathroom and grabbed a sponge. He got it wet and walked back into the bedroom. He tried washing it off the bedsheets, but it wouldn't get off. Tired, he took it off and changed all the sheets, then dumped them into the washing machine. Half of it was empty, so he added towels and some clothes.

"Get screwed, dipshit."

Chapter Text

Aomine packed his bags and took Sei with him. He had recently bought him a collar with a GPS tracker and was letting him wander around on his own slightly more than before on their walks. He waited near his door and watched to check if Sei knew how to get to the elevator.

Once the cat found the way there, Daiki waited to see how he would turn it on. Sei gently jumped and ran up the wall, then turned around, kicked the button and landed on the floor. He ran towards him with a smile and waited for the elevator to arrive. Once inside, Sei looked at him and waited for Daiki to click the button, but he did nothing. Sei hissed at him, annoyed, but tried to reach the ground floor button without jumping, but he was too little. Instead, he aimed for the jump again, but he had troubles hitting the correct one.

"That's gonna be troublesome...", Aomine sighed. "But we'll figure it out."

They walked out of the building and went on a run together - Sei could wander around, while Aomine went inside the shooting range to hopefully blow off some steam. Maybe he would put Taiga's face on the aim?

He grabbed a firearm and aimed at the silhouette. He had troubles shooting for a while - his hands were shaking for some reason. He eventually went to the office and got Kagami's face printed out on a paper, then he taped it to the aim and tried again.

All headshots, huh?

He didn't exactly hate Taiga, but aiming at him with a gun felt weirdly nice. As he was about to leave, he turned around and bumped into someone, dropping the unloaded gun and the aim.

"I'm so sorry", the man crouched down to collect everything for him. He stood up and passed the things to Daiki. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah...", Aomine gulped. The man in front of him was most likely an alpha - a handsome, mid-aged alpha, with middle-length and flowy gray hair, a stubble and warm lovely eyes. An alpha man that was holding his forearm reassuringly, rubbing his thumb on it.

"Are you sure everything's okay?", he asked with a faint smile and worry behind his gray eyes.

"Yeah", Daiki replied. He could feel he was all red on his face and it was making him scared. What the fuck was with him and handsome alphas recently?! Firstly Kagami, now some gray-haired dude?!

"... Good aim", the man commented, pointing at the boards. "Your ex?"

"Uh, no, just... someone annoying", Aomine replied. "A nobody."

The man chuckled. "I see. I'm Haizaki Shougo, by the way."

"A-Aomine Daiki", Daiki shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"You free today?", Haizaki asked. "Maybe you'd like to go out with me somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm free", Aomine confirmed, staring at the man. They went towards the exit, took their coats and stuff, left the guns and we're about to leave when Daiki stopped and gasped. "I have my child to find."

"What?"

Aomine found his phone and opened the app. He ringed a noise on Sei's collar and stepped out of the building. Sei was somewhere close and he soon appeared at the corner of the building. He ran towards Daiki and jumped into his arms, immediately rubbing onto his cheek and purring.

"Oh. You're a cat mom", Haizaki breathed our in relief. "I thought you had a human child running around."

"What? No!", Daiki turned around to face him. Sei scanned the alpha up and down, then hissed. "I wouldn't leave a baby unattended like that!"

Shougo chuckled. "I know a cafe nearby that allows animals. Would you like to go there?"

"Sure, sounds nice", Aomine smiled, hiding Sei under his coat so he would warm up.

They walked towards the cafe and then entered in and sat at a table. The waitress brought some warm water for Sei and they ordered tea and some cake, as they started to get to know each other.

Haizaki was slightly older than him, worked as a delivery guy in a factory and was a generally charming man. Eventually, Sei even let him touch his ears, but he quickly jumped away after the first scratch. No. He didn't like the guy. In fact, he hated him. He was worse than the previous one Aomine brought home. This was a liar. The Fork Eyebrows was at least genuine and caring. This man was fishy.

Sei tried to warn his stupid human, but Daiki (despite being a fucking detective and detecting lies was his job) was too focused on getting flirted with by an older man to realize something was seriously wrong. And even Sei hissing and biting his hand while Daiki pulled out his phone to let the alpha put his number in didn't help.

There was something seriously wrong. It wasn't the smiled and touches, it wasn't even the pheromones Haizaki was occasionally leaving near Daiki's nose to pick up, it wasn't even the hand on the small of his back or opening the door for him, it wasn't even the kiss Shougo had left on Aomine's hand before they parted ways. It wasn't his eyes or newly died hair, it wasn't the smell of expensive cologne that an average delivery guy would have troubles to afford, it wasn't even the mannering of the guy who not only immediately knew Daiki was single but also immediately knew he was an omega. It was this feeling that Sei had from the moment he saw Haizaki. That he wasn't there by accident. It was those looks that Sei saw when Daiki wasn't looking Haizaki's way. It was those looks that Shougo was making, those moments when his fake smile dropped down as he scanned his environment, those moments when he clicked his tongue when Aomine disagreed with him on something or those moments when Daiki hesitated. And all of those looks Sei was getting for distracting Aomine. With all of that - something was very wrong.

There was something seriously messed up with that guy, in general. And Sei made it his mission to find out before his human would get hurt.

Chapter Text

Even if Momoi firstly refused, on a fifth thought she had changed her mind and asked Aomine to meet up. After their shifts, they went together to a motel and booked the cheapest room they could find. They entered in and locked the door.

"Why the hotel?", Daiki asked.

"I don't want you to mentally write up your own home or mine as a dangerous space", she explained. "If you want me to help you with that stupid request, then we're doing it my way. In a neutral place where you would return and gradually raising the intensity."

Aomine sat down on the bed and sighed. So embarrassing, he was actually going to get yelled at by his friend. He closed his eyes and lied down on the bed, with his legs hanging from the end of it. "The bed stinks of urine."

"Amazing, you're not sleeping in it."

She stood in front of him and and took a deep breath. Satsuki really did not like where this was going, but if it was to make Daiki safer, then she would comply.

Omegas in the uniform workforce did have to go through tone resistance training, but it was basic and included only lower by rank alphas. The whole mental construct of their society was so complex that many people were left confused just by hearing the statement that the tone didn't work the same on all omegas. For example, resisting a citizen alpha's tone while being an omega police officer was easier than resisting a fellow alpha officer's tone. That was because of seniority and rank - the higher the alpha's status, the harder it is for the omega to resist. And the reverse was true as well - the lower the alpha's status, the easier it is for the omega.

Omegas in specific workforces had to go through full resistance training when it came to alphas of lower than them status. However for those equal or higher no training was provided, as the data from tests done for that showed very poor results and a significant amount of side effects.

One of the most disturbing ones was the higher chances of developing a restriction syndrom - an untreatable, incurable autoimmune disorder that was caused by a mental state and the omega gland rejecting the individual's omega self. The restriction syndrom caused the omega gland to shut down and stop producing hormones - the omega would then stop having heats and stop responding to pheromones of anyone. Restriction syndrom did cause almost full immunity to the alpha tone, but it also caused irreversible infertility and a whole series of other problems - from heart and mind to liver and bone density issues. An omega with a restriction syndrom could live, but the quality of life and the deteriorating mental health were making each day miserable.

"Sit up", she ordered using her tone. She gulped - it wasn't meant to be used like this. This whole scenario made her want to gag. Aomine's pupils twitched and he sat up as ordered. "Look at me."

He did, his breaths starting to quicken.

"Let's start. Do your best, please", she said without the tone. "Look away."

Daiki clenched his teeth and kept looking at her for a few seconds. His heart rate started to rise and he his breaths got quick and sharp. His lips was trembling and he was close to crying, but he kept looking at her. If he would just keep looking, he would eventually be able to resist the tone and no one would hurt him again—

He looked to his side with tears in his eyes, as his breath slowly calmed down upon fulfilling her order. She waited for him to calm down a little before she gave him another command. "Look back at me."

The same story repeated - this time he managed to resist for a second longer. Every few tries they made a break when they just sat on the bed and talked about something nice, then Momoi would randomly in the middle of the conversation use the tone to surprise him. He was getting better and better at staying against for five seconds when they looked at the clock and decided it was the time to go home.

"I can walk you back", she offered. It was dark after all and she did hear about his fun night with the three alphas.

"I'll call a taxi."

"Call an omegas for omegas taxi."

"I know how to order an Uber, Satsuki", he frowned.

"Call me when you'll get home", she reminded. "I'm just worried. You're shaken up, you shouldn't wander around at evening."

"I'm twenty-eight, I know how to get home, mom", Daiki stuck his tongue out. "You be out there safe too. If you disappear, I'm calling dibs on your case, though."

"Figured", Momoi smiled. She waited for him for the Uber and upon confirming that the driver was indeed an omega, she waved her hand goodbye and went on her way to the subway.

"Overprotective husband?", the driver chuckled once Aomine got in.

"No, just a very cautious friend", he replied.

"Oh I wish I had those", the man smiled and began driving. "The best kind of alphas."

"Yeah, I guess."

After a moment, his phone buzzed and he got a text. He smiled upon reading the ID.

Shougo: already tucked in your bed? ;)
Me: getting back home actually
Shougo: at this hour? What were you doing?
Me: I've been out with a friend
Shougo: did you have fun?
Me: kind of, she was helping me out with one thing
Shougo: wow could've asked me :/
Me: yeah no
Shougo: rude

He thanked the driver and tipped him, then got out of the car and walked into the building. He drove to his floor and opened the door to have Sei immediately at his feet.

"Were you waiting for me, my dear son?", Aomine chuckled, picking him up.

Shougo: would it be pushing it if I told you to dream of me?
Me: who knows, maybe it won't in a few dates?
Shougo: deal?
Me: we'll see

Me: I'm home
Me: attached:291120242252_6891639.png
Satsuki: good night!

Shougo: yeah that's not a nice way to end a conversation :( I expected better of you
Me: yeah no way
Me: not after one meeting
Shougo: wow you don't even think of it as a date anymore?
Me: ask me out and maybe I will
Shougo: so demanding
Me: ;p

Chapter Text

"Meow", Sei sighed. They were in an elevator again and Sei couldn't reach the correct buttons again.

"Maybe I'll just place a ladder here for you", Daiki groaned. "I'll write on it «a box so kids can reach all the buttons» and hope no one throws it away!"

"Meow!"

"... You know what, that actually doesn't sound like a bad idea. There's only two elevators here anyway, two on the other side of the building. As long as you'll be using only these two, all our problems can be solved with a box."

"Meow!"

"Let's go buy some plywood and paint", he sighed, clicking the button for Sei. They got out of the building and went towards the construction store. Once they got to a subway entrance, Sei finally realized how cold and wet his paws were. Disgusting.

Aomine picked him up and hid him under his coat so he would warm up. He also mumbled something about getting Sei cat-sized leg warmers. Sei didn't exactly know what that was but hey, he was getting spoiled!

Which made him sad, because his family wasn't.

Inside the huge store, Daiki refused to put him down, saying that he should be glad they weren't stopped at the entry and he wasn't waiting outside in the snow. So Sei kept his head low and acted as a scarf, observing the inside of the warm store.

Daiki bought a plank, a few long screws and some paint and special hooks that could be taped to the elevator wall so the stool wouldn't move. Then he went to the tools area in the store and got the plank cut and screwed together into two stair-lookalikes, each with two steps. He took them back to his apartment and set down an area with old newspapers and boxes, where he began painting them white.

"Once the paint dries, I'll do one, maybe two, more layers and then you'll step on it", Aomine explained. "You'll leave your paws on it... Thank gods I didn't pick the red paint after all, it would look like blood."

"Meow..."

While the steps were drying, Daiki focused on finding a way to have Sei leave and enter the apartment whenever he wanted to. Finally, Aomine decided to look for designs online - maybe someone had already made a cat door in an apartment complex? And just as he was about to open Reddit, his phone rang.

"Hey", he smiled to himself, holding it up to his ear.

"Good morning, pretty", Shougo chuckled on the other end. "Did I wake you up on this beautiful Sunday morning?"

"Absolutely not, in fact, I've already been in a store and I'm waiting for my DIY project to dry."

"The hell are you DIY-ing?", Haizaki hummed.

"A ladder", Aomine replied. "For my child."

"And do you think you'll find enough time to get away from it for two hours or so and go out with me?"

"I...", Daiki looked at Sei. It would be okay if he left him for a little bit - Sei could act for the nine hours he was at work, two or three hours wouldn't make a difference, right? "I actually might find some."

"Amazing. I'll pick you up at three. Just send me the address."

"And where are we going?"

"Surprise. Dress code is smart casual."

"What if I don't like surprises?"

"Then it's not a surprise, just a... sudden explanation of plans three seconds before they happen."

That sounded even worse, Daiki thought, but he agreed and hung up. He texted him the address of a bakery at the corner not far from his building and sighed. Sei jumped onto his chest and purred.

"He sounds nice, what do you think?", he asked the cat. "I kinda want to give him a chance, before he becomes a replacement for Kagami in my mind. That would be awful."

Sei hissed. No. Absolutely not.

"I think I will", Aomine decided with a smile. "Ah, I hope he won't mind that I'm not a virgin... If only he appeared a few weeks earlier in my life."

"Meow...", Sei warned him. Absolutely not. He should not be dating that fake asshole!

"If he asks, I'll agree", Daiki decided. "Maybe he's the one?"

"Meow!", Sei hit him. No! That man was not the one!

"Oh, come on, I'm getting old! No one will want me in a year or two...", Aomine pouted. "And he's hot. Way out of my league. He makes me feel special, you know?"

How so?, Sei wondered. His stupid human knew that bastard for two weeks and he was already acting as if he had nothing to hide! He couldn't believe how Aomine could develop crushes on people left and right! Was it what they call quarter-life crisis?!

Daiki then spent two hours standing naked in front of his wardrobe, trying to find something that would match smart casual as a description. When he finally went with white jeans, a gray t-shirt and a navy blazer, paired with brown suit shoes, it was two forty. And he needed fifteen minutes to get to the address he told Haizaki.

"Be good, 'kay?", he scratched Sei behind his ear. "I'll be back in the evening."

"Meow...", Sei lowered his head. At this point he had to hope Daiki would return. Just... just that he would return. He could go back hurt, but Sei would never forgive him if he didn't come back at all.

The door locked behind Aomine and Sei returned to his pillow on the couch and sniffed. He lost his family two times already, he just wished it didn't happen again.

Daiki meanwhile got to the bakery and waited for Shougo to arrive. He was two minutes early and he had no clue when could the guy arrive. He pulled out his phone to write him a text that he was waiting, but he got interrupted by a black Mercedes Maybach pulling up next to him. The door on the passenger side opened and Haizaki smiled at him, inviting him in.

"I didn't expect a car", Aomine mumbled, getting in.

"Then that's another surprise for you", Shougo chuckled, driving away.

"Where now?"

"To a restaurant. And then we'll see, whatever you'll wish."

"Even if I'll want to go home?", Daiki smiled.

"Well I hope that won't be the case, but of course."

"Oh my, I like that", Aomine laughed.

Chapter Text

Haizaki parked the car in an underground parking lot and quickly got out of the car, then ran to the other side to open the passenger door for Aomine. They went together to the elevator and took it to the highest floor. The restaurant turned out to be a five-star location with an upfront reservation needed to even step into the lobby. Haizaki helped him take his coat off and then gave both of them to the cloakroom. They got to their table together and Shougo's charm didn't end there - starting at the chair and ending at the «I'll pay so don't worry about the price, order whatever you'd like».

"Okay, are you secretly rich or something?", Daiki asked once the waiter walked away.

"... Kind of, not really. I, uh, have some money saved up", Shougo explained. "It's not like I spent a lot anyway, I'm just a single guy eating instant noodles six days a week."

"You never thought about learning how to cook?", Aomine took a sip of the wine. Haizaki smiled at the waiter who brought him the coffee, then took a sip as well.

"Hm, never had the chance", he admitted. "Never had someone to teach me."

"Neither did I, but I made it", Daiki smiled. "I burned the kitchen and myself a few times, but you don't even know how happy I was when it actually began tasting like food."

"I'd be honored to try it one day, hopefully."

"We'll see, I'm not declining."

They enjoyed their talk while waiting for food and then continued the conversation once the waiter brought their dishes. Daiki had fun - Shougo and him shared a handful of interests, and he also happened to watch the highschool volleyball championship, sitting on the seats opposite from him and Kagami - he was rooting for a different team, however.

"You know, I have no clue how we haven't met earlier", Haizaki smiled. "It seems like we've been in the same spaces for years, somehow avoiding each other."

"Maybe we were just supposed to meet now?", Aomine finished his wine. "I call it fate."

"Lovely", Shougo rest his cheek on his hand and stared into Daiki's eyes. "The fate makes me meet the greatest and prettiest omegas it had while I'm already old and out of my prime."

"Oh, like I'm going to believe that, you're nowhere near old."

"I, uh, when I met you, I wondered if it was okay to ask you out, if I wasn't too old for you", he admitted, looking down on his plate. "I still do. So, if I'd understand if you decided that you don't want someone my age."

"I'm not that young myself", Aomine mumbled.

"I wouldn't give you a day over twenty", Haizaki pointed out.

"Don't overdo that flattering, I'm already into you more than probably should be."

"Why the last part? It's mutual, dear."

Daiki bit his lip and ate some more of his side dish. "Let me guess your age."

"Sure", Shougo took a sip of his coffee, holding the cup with two fingers around the ear and two fingers straight, pressed up against the glass, them set it aside and waited.

"Thirty?"

"A little more."

"... Thirty-three?"

"One more", he chuckled.

"Thirty-four is not old by any means", Aomine huffed. "It's the second youth or something."

"Hah. As if."

"Wanna guess mine?", Daiki smiled softly at him. The waiter came by and asked if he wanted more wine, but Aomine shooshed him away and focused on his date again.

"Twenty... two?"

"You got the first number right, but you're quite off", he explained.

"Five?"

"More."

"There's no way, you're lying to me", Shougo frowned. "... Six?"

"More."

Haizaki gasped and thought for a moment. "Eight?"

"Bingo."

"I don't believe you", he clicked his tongue.

"That's true!", Aomine laughed. "You want my ID or something?"

"Oh I'm not going to legitimize you, definitely not on a date."

"I don't mind", Daiki reached to the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out his wallet. He found his ID and passed it to Shougo who hesitatedly took it and read the date of birth.

"Nineteen ninety-six", he sighed, giving it back. "Unbelievable. You're twenty-eight."

"Well, I am", Aomine chuckled.

"I must've been an upstanding citizen in my previous life to deserve to meet you now", he said.

They talked more and eventually a waiter came over and took their plates, then asked about a dessert. Daiki admitted he was actually looking forward to trying the lemon cake, so Shougo got them both a piece. They finished it and left the restaurant - in the lobby Haizaki put the coat on for him as well and then opened every door to the elevator.

"Would you like to go home or... on a walk maybe? Unless you'd like to go somewhere, I'm open to suggestions."

"I don't have the shoes for walking", Daiki admitted, looking at his suit shoes. "But, have you ever been to a rollerskating rink?"

"I've never had rollerskates near me", Shougo admitted.

"Maybe it's the day that would change?"

"Only if you promise to teach me."

"Deal."

So Haizaki drove them to the rink, where Aomine happily rented out rollerskates for both of them and helped Shougo put them on. He could barely stand in them on a carpet and he was supposed to enter in on a hard wooden floor and ride around? Yeah, no thanks. But eventually, he managed to step onto the actual rink and while holding Daiki's hands, he did a few steps.

Some kids next to them were also learning how to skate - a girl around middle school age was trying to show them the way, but two boys just couldn't get it. At one point, she sighed and pointed at Shougo.

"If that uncle can learn, so can you!", she pouted.

"Well maybe he has a better teacher!", one of the boys yelled back.

In the end, Shougo was standing on the side, holding himself up with the help of the barrier while Daiki was teaching the boys how to rollerskate. Every time Aomine looked his way he smiled, observing him, but as soon as the blue eyes' gaze left him, his smile was fading away, taken over by his frown. He was getting bored. He yawned - how much more shit would he have to do to even drag Daiki to bed, he wondered.

Chapter Text

"I hope you had fun", Haizaki said after he parked near the bakery.

"I did, thank you", Aomine smiled. "See you again?"

"Of course."

Daiki grabbed the handle to open the door, but stopped for a second before opening it. He moved closer to Shougo and left a kiss on his cheek. Then, he turned around to get out of the car, but Haizaki lead his head back towards him and held his chin in place for a moment.

"You're such a tease", he chuckled, the he connected their lips in a quick kiss. He moved away and smiled when Daiki instinctively followed. "One more?"

"Yeah", Aomine sighed. So they kissed again - with Daiki's hand on Shougo's cheek and Shougo's hand on Daiki's thigh, squeezing it lightly. Aomine opened his mouth and gently pulled on the older man's neck to bring him closer. Eventually, Haizaki's hand found the button to move his seat back and he started to escape, so Daiki followed him, getting his leg over the automatic gear stick and placing his knee in between of Shougo's legs.

"Come closer", Shougo whispered. "I don't bite... unless you want me to."

Daiki didn't need to hear it twice - he got onto Shougo's lap and kissed him again. "Hey", he said, pulling away for a moment. "Are we... uh, just kissing? Or... something more?"

"Which one would you want?", Haizaki's hands cupped Aomine's ass and gave it a quick squeeze.

"Kiss."

"Then let's leave car sex for a different day."

"You're not mad?", Daiki mumbled before kissing him again.

"No, why would I be?", Shougo chuckled. "I get to kiss you."

Daiki could really fall in love with that man. His kisses felt good and his hands rightly held him in place without getting too far. They tested on his hips, once in a while got onto his ass and gave it a quick squeeze, sometimes rubbed his thighs or waist. Aomine felt good - so good he was soaking wet already and he was almost sure Haizaki knew. But he knew it was mutual, as he could feel Shougo's growing erection pushing on his vulva.

"I think you should go home", Shougo said in between of kisses.

"What?"

"I don't think I'll be able to control myself any longer."

"... Get home safely", Daiki kissed him again, then moved back to his seat. "Thank you for today. I had fun."

"That's great", Shougo tried go cover the visible tent in his black slacks. "Let's do that again one day."

"Yeah."

Aomine left the car and closed the door. He then watched as Haizaki drove away and began walking home. It had begun looking like something worth actually giving a shot at - he thought, as he bit his lip, feeling everything slush around in his underwear. He sighed, thankful to himself for picking a long coat to wear, which made his own erection completely not noticable. It wasn't like his dick was big enough to be awkwardly visible or anything, but he still felt better knowing it was impossible to tell from a stranger's standpoint.

He entered the building and got to his apartment. As soon as he pulled out his keys to open the door, he heard a loud and annoyed meowing behind it. He chuckled, then carefully entered just to have the cat hiss at him and scream upon feeling the alpha's scent on him. He locked the door and undressed.

"Sei, I had fun", he explained. "And I wanna do it again."

Sei disagreed loudly, but Daiki only picked him up and cuddled as he kissed his head. Sei wasn't going to forgive him, not this easily! He hated that alpha and he would never comply with Aomine dating him, being close to him or smelling like him! It was getting out of hand, Sei had to get a hold of this before his human would get hurt!

And yet Aomine was more interested in texting the guy than in playing with him. Smiling at the phone, touching himself through his underwear and looking for the vibrator under his pillow. Sei meowed, trying to get him away and possibly even out of the room.

"Sei, please", Daiki sighed, wiggling out of his panties. "Don't make me kick you out..."

"Meow!"

In the end, Sei ended up out of the room and he spent the entire time scratching the door and screaming. Everything that could go wrong went wrong - Daiki dropped his phone and hit himself in the face, the clit vibrator ran out of power so Daiki had to use the penetration one instead... which ran out of batteries right in the climax. The vibrator ended up being thrown into the wall and Aomine was left frustrated, while waiting for the vibrator to charge. He had no spare batteries, though, so he just dressed up and opened the door.

Sei jumped onto him and climbed onto his shoulders then screamed right into his ear and hit his face with his paw.

"What's your deal, huh?!", Aomine groaned. Sei hit him again, which caused Daiki to grab him by the nape and put him down on the floor. "Leave me alone, Sei."

Sei's ears flopped down. It was getting bad. He needed to do something - and unfortunately the only thing he had in mind was to collaborate with an alpha that he hated slightly less...

Meanwhile, Haizaki had returned to his house. He parked the Maybach in his garage and entered the building. He sighed, observing his erection. Fucking hell, he got so frustrated when that entitled bitch of an omega refused sex. If he hadn't needed to have the omega trust him, he would have just taken him by force. Such an asshole, thinking he had any leverage. Haizaki entered the room and flopped down on the sofa.

"How much longer do I need to screw around with that bitch before fucking him?", he groaned.

"At least a month more, then ask him to date", he got a reply. "Then two or three more months before you'd actually sleep with him."

"What?", Haizaki raised his head. "Why the fuck for so long?"

"You wanna be believable or not?"

"I don't wanna do it at all? Why did you go?!"

"I've looked in the mirror."

"That's a damn good answer."

Chapter Text

Aomine stretched as he got out of bed. Ah yes, a work day. A horrible day to live. He yawned as he waddled into his kitchen and opened the fridge. He scratched his tummy, getting his hair out of his face.

Sei appeared soon next to him and jumped onto the counter. "Meow."

"Hey to you too", Daiki replied. "Whatcha want for breakfast?"

"Meow."

"Gotcha."

Daiki pulled out a pack of tuna from the fridge and some eggs. Sei checked out what he was carrying and hissed at the package.

"I thought this was «meow»?", Daiki frowned, pointing at the tuna. "Sei, if you call everything «meow» there's no way for me to know how to differentiate them!"

"Meooow!", Sei argued.

"Oh, so a longer «meow». What the fuck is that?"

Aomine placed the things on the counter and grabbed Sei, then opened the fridge. The cat sniffed around for a moment, then pointed at the half-empty pack of tofu, then looked up at his human.

"... You can't eat soy sauce, just for the record", Daiki sighed. "I guess I can make it for you in a light broth, but definitely not now. You're having tuna now. You can have tofu for dinner."

"Meeeeeeoooooow!"

"Don't scream at me!"

"Meeeeeeoooooow!"

"One more word and you're gonna eat dry cat food."

Sei looked at him with those red eyes opened widely. They shined and sparkled as the cat tried to get his way and force Aomine to cook him a broth so he could eat tofu. Daiki bit his lip, trying to resist, but with those eyes looking at him...

"In the evening. I promise", he placed the cat down and opened the tuna can. "Eat this now."

"... Meow..."

Daiki made himself scrambled eggs with rice. He ate half of it and put the rest into a contained to bring to work as lunch. Sei meanwhile ate his tuna with a frown painted on his kitty face, wondering how to push his plan forward. How in the world was he supposed to contact that Fork-eyebrows Dude and even if he did somehow do that, how was he supposed to tell him about the Bastard Alpha?!

"The steps have dried, by the way", Aomine mumbled. "I'll try installing them for you in the elevators in the evening."

"Meow", Sei acknowledged.

"I'll print like a message on them or something - «steps so the kids can reach every button»", Daiki explained. "Maybe no one would throw them out that way."

"Meow."

"And as for the leaving an entering the apartment, I'll probably install a cat door in them. Or I'll make the letter hole bigger, so you'd fit."

"Meow."

"Are you angry at me? I've told you I'll make you the tofu, just later."

"Meow."

"Nevermind", Daiki groaned. "Stay here and be mad. I'm going to work."

"... Meow."

"...Bye to you too."

Aomine left the apartment and wandered off to the elevator. Sei didn't move to say bye to him in the doorway, instead he opted for staying on the table next to where the bowl used to be before Daiki washed it and out ot aside to dry.

He had no clue what was wrong with the cat. He was acting strange recently. He had always been overprotective, but with Haizaki? Daiki thought Sei would kill the man.

Eventually, Daiki found himself in the lobby of the police station he worked at. He sighed as he was about to say hi to the receptionist, but a familiar figure being there stopped him.

"Hey man", Kagami smiled. "How's your morning so far?"

"Great", Aomine lied. "Why are you here?"

"I'd love to say another collab, but I'm just dropping some documents in. My boss was supposed to do that but she's not really happy about being here so she's waiting in the car."

"And you're acting as a messenger, huh?"

"... Yeah", Taiga sighed. "I'm actually waiting for someone to take me up to the floor."

"You need a nanny to find your way?"

"I'm not doing a collab so I can't enter there by myself."

"Sheesh", Daiki smiled at the woman in the reception. "I'll grab his hand and lead the way."

"Make sure you'll actually hold it and lead him back down", the woman replied, giving Taiga a visitor badge. "We can't really have guest wandering around."

"Gotcha."

They entered the elevator together and Daiki pressed the button. When the door closed, Taiga chuckled.

"What's so funny, asshole?", Aomine frowned.

"Deja vu", Kagami explained. "At least this time you didn't run out to climb the stairs."

"You have a death wish or something?"

"Yeah, if it comes from you, bitch."

The elevator stopped on the correct floor and both of them left it in silence. Aomine entered his office while Kagami continued on to the boss's office and after a quick knock, disappeared behind them. Aomine meanwhile fell onto his chair and spun around, dragged by Newton's first law. He stopped himself by grabbing the desk and opened his computer.

He sighed. Maybe he should deepen his friendship with Kagami, now that he wasn't having much of a crush on him anyway? He wasn't going to ask him out or anything, but they could go somewhere together, or even just... hang out, right? He wasn't forbidden from having any kind of relationship with him, right? He liked the guy and enjoyed his company. And now, with his feelings all sorted out (okay, mostly sorted out) he was actually missing the alpha's company. Not romantically in any meaning of that word!

Just as he was hitting his head on the desk, thinking what to do, Kagami knocked on his door and opened it.

"I'm done and I need my nanny to walk me back to the reception", he explained.

"Agghhhh", Aomine groaned, but stood up. He returned to the elevator with Kagami and got back to the ground floor. When the door opened, he grabbed Taiga's hand and led him out towards the reception. Once the woman saw them, Daiki proudly raised their connected hands and smiled at her widely. She chuckled and shook her head.

"You're in a good mood, aren't ya?", Taiga laughed once they left the building and Daiki let go of his hand.

"Not really, Sei got mad at me because I wouldn't cook him tofu for breakfast", Aomine sighed. "You know any cat-friendly broth recipe that would work well with tofu? Soy sauce is too salty."

"I'll think of something and let you know."

"Thanks, man", Aomine nodded. "Have a great day."

"Night, actually. I'm going to sleep in an hour or less."

"Finished the job?"

"Night shift."

"Sucks to be you."

"Ha. Ha. Ha."

Chapter Text

As Aomine was heading home, he got a mail from Kagami.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: suop

it was revealed to me in a dream, make a vegetable broth with porn

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:suop

*CORN JESUZ DOSNT FUXK GHE CAT

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:suop

I'm gonna die from laughing what the fuck is wrong with your autocorrect? Gasp, have you been having fun in your alone time??????????? :OOOOOO

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE:RE:RE:suop

kys

Daiki chuckled as he asked further about the recipe. Taiga suggested some more vegetables and Aomine began mentally checking if he had them in stock. He eventually figured he was missing to many items to just slip or replace them and mentally found the most effective way home with a stop on a store on the way.

When he finally made the journey back home, Sei was waiting at the door for him.

"Hey", Daiki sighed. "I'm gonna go make you the tofu..."

The cat walked over to him and placed his paw on Aomine's leg while looking up at his face. "Meow..."

"... I'm sorry too."

"Meow?"

"Yeah, we're good."

"Meow."

Aomine went to the kitchen and began cooking. He poured water into the pot, added corn (not porn, just as Kagami had advised), some carrots and cabbage, topped it all with spices and let it sit for an hour or so. Meanwhile, Sei came over and jumped on the counter, then began rubbing his whole body on Aomine's arms and chest.

"We had a little fight in the morning and you're this needy already?", Daiki chuckled. Sei was not an attention seeker (not then) - he was just leaving his scent all over Daiki so that Asshole Alpha would know that he should not be messing around with his human! But did it matter? His human was letting him do it, so Sei would take this opportunity and abuse it until he would win.

"Meow?", Sei asked, jumping onto Daiki's shoulder.

"Yeah, no, it still takes an hour to cook, I can't just give it to you now", Aomine explained. "But you know what I can do? Leave it on low heat and go install that ladder in the elevator."

"... Meow?"

"The apartment is not gonna burn, I'm not an idiot, Sei."

Sei could argue with that. But he didn't - instead, he went with Daiki to the elevator and watched as his human put a weird hook-sticker onto the wall and then connected the steps to it. He checked if they were intact and weren't moving around, then stepped on them to check if they could hold up some weight. When it did, Sei jumped on it and looked at the buttons.

"We live on the seventh floor", he pointed out, then Sei looked at him annoyed - he knew which floor they lived on! After a little bit of thought, he pressed the ground floor button and with his ears perked up, he observed how the doors closed and te elevator started moving.

"Meow!"

"Yeah, but we gotta catch the other elevator", Daiki explained. "We gotta install the second one."

"Meow", Sei huffed. He knew that, he just wanted to ride the elevator. Aomine pressed the third floor button and the elevator stopped early. They left it and waited for the elevator to continue to the ground floor before calling in again. The same elevator returned so Aomine pressed the penthouse floor and left it. After a minute or two of waiting, he clicked the button again and this time, the second one arrived. They both entered and after Aomine set up the ladder, Sei clicked the seventh floor button.

They entered the apartment and Aomine locked the door. He sighed. "What if I make you a cat door that opens with a chip? Like, for security reasons?"

"Meow!"

"But that's gonna take a while to make, you know?", Daiki walked over to the kitchen to try the broth. It still needed some time on the stove. "For now I can get you like a basket with some blankets to put in front of the door, so I'll be letting you out and when you're back you can rest there until I decide to let you back in."

"... Grr."

"That's a new noise, wow, so that's a no, huh?"

As Aomine was adding some more spices and mixing them into the broth, his phone rang. He answered it and put it on speaker.

"Hey, man", Kagami yawned. "How's your day going?"

"I'm guessing more productive than yours", Aomine chuckled. "Did you just woke up?"

"Yeah", Taiga mumbled. "I woke up to mail you, then went back to sleep."

"What the fuck were you dreaming of, hm? Porn soup? Sounds like one hell of an orgy—"

"Die."

Daiki laughed, tasting the broth. "Hm, it's nice", he commented. "Sei, c'mere, have a taste!"

Sei zoomed across the room from the couch and jumped onto the counter them waited for Daiki to give him the spoon. He licked the hot liquid and his eyes shined as he looked up at his human.

"You want the tofu now?", Aomine asked, petting him, to which Sei replied with a meow, whose excitement couldn't be hidden as well as the cat would like to. Taiga seemed to have also realize that, as he chuckled through the phone, gaining Sei's attention.

"Meow!", the cat immediately stood over the phone and screamed loudly. He had to alert Taiga about that asshole!

"Woah, is he attacking the phone or something? I have no clue what I did for him to hate me like that", Kagami sighed.

"He seems to hate everyone...", Daiki replied. He cut up the tofu into small pieces and put it in a bowl then filled it with the broth. "Here. Watch out, it's hot."

Sei sighed, leaving the phone alone. He needed to see the man in person, but unless he and Daiki find a way for him to leave the apartment and come back whenever he would like to, that seemed impossible.

Chapter Text

Aomine had wrapped up the third case already and the Yakuza case was still hanging on his wall. So annoying. He loved all those hard to crack cases, but he genuinely wanted to just arrest the killers and move on.

He sighed. He wanted this to be over with so much. He was getting bored, he had no job left to do outside thinking about the Yakuza case and still an hour on the clock. He sighed again. He had just finished his report from the now-closed case and was ready to hand it to Momoi.

Maybe he would even print it out for her? Usually her secretary took care of that, but Aomine was sure the guy bad enough on his plate already and he was bored to death so he took his pendrive and left his office. They had that huge printer in one of the rooms, next to the fancy room with red light for photo printing that Daiki never remember the name of (it was called a darkroom, by the way), the printer not only printed double-sided but also stapled the papers together.

Aomine was sitting in front of the printer on the chair that someone had brought it one time and forgot about, waiting for his papers to be finished. As he was about to stand up to soon pick up the papers that were almost done printing, his phone rang.

"Hey", he smiled as he picked up. "How's your day going?"

"Now that I've heard your voice it's even better", Haizaki chuckled. "You're still working?"

"Yes", Daiki mumbled. "Eh, an hour or so left? And you?"

"Hm, I'm done for the day."

"Lucky~", the omega hummed. "I kinda miss you."

"Hah, already?", Shougo laughed. "Then maybe another date? You're free today?"

"I might be. You have anything fun in mind?"

"Define «fun»", Haizaki replied. "Is cinema fun? Is Netflix fun?"

"If it's like an action or adventure movie, then yeah", Aomine stood up to pick up his papers. "Honestly, as long as it's not a horror. Or documentary."

"Huh. I'll pick you up then", Shougo was ready to hang up, but then he remembered: "Send me the address and the time."

"Yeah, sure. But I'll have to be home by seven at the latest, Sei's gonna run out of food and water. And patience."

"Sure thing. I'll have you home by seven."

After saying his goodbyes, Aomine hung up and knocked on Satsuki's door, then entered in upon being given permission. He closed the door behind himself and took a seat in front of her desk. He slid the raport towards her with a smile.

"You seem happy", she noticed. "Your thingamajigies with Kagami-kun are going well?"

"No, actually, I'm not going into more than friends with him", Daiki updated her. "... I met someone."

"What's up with you and different alphas recently? More and more of them start flirting with you. That's like the fifth guy you're telling me about."

"Okay, Kagami was different, because I accidentally slept with him", Aomine pointed out. He still was disappointed in himself for losing his virginity like that but it was an anal intercourse so it didn't count, right? "And we're friends. Nothing more."

"Sure", Momoi mumbled. She well knew those eyes - Daiki was still not over with his little crush on that guy. "So who's the new one?"

"Uh, his name is Haizaki Shougo, he's older than me and I met him at the shooting range", Aomine briefed her in.

Sounds like a terrible start, she thought, but said: "Great, he seems nice?"

"Yeah! We're going on a, uh, third or fourth date tonight!"

"Be safe out there", Momoi reminded. "Our meeting tomorrow still works for you?"

"Yup, I'll be waiting in your office."

"... Dai-chan", she sighed as she put the raport aside and looked at him. "Please. Watch out there. I know you want to find someone and settle down, but... you know the amount of cases we have that involve alphas hurting omegas by going out on dates with them to deceive them."

"Thanks, but I'll be okay", he stood up. "Besides, that's what our motel meetings are for. You can let me of the leash a little, mom."

"Text me once you're home."

"Geez, you're really starting to sound like my mom."

Aomine excitedly waited on the visitor parking once his job ended. Soon after that, the black Maybach stopped right next to him and he happily entered it, giving the driver a quick kiss on the cheek. He then buckled up and observed their surroundings as Haizaki drove to the cinema. He parked the car there and as they were leaving, just to ease Satsuki's overprotectiveness, Daiki texted her the plate number and the address of the cinema they were going to.

Satsuki: Get me his fingerprints and DNA sample and I'll be way more calm
Me: chill out
Me: he drives a maybach btw ;p
Satsuki: tf he does for a job?
Me: idk
Satsuki: ???? I thought I told you to be careful. Dai-chan what does he do to have the money??? Rich parents???
Me: he said he was a delivery guy in some factory
Satsuki: AND THAT DOESN'T SOUND SUSPICIOUS TO YOU???

Daiki locked his phone as Shougo came back with the tickets.

"Want something to eat?"

"Yeah, actually, I'mma go buy that huge-ass bucket of popcorn", Aomine pointed to the stall.

"What type do you like?"

"The butter one."

"You want one or two?", Shougo asked, pulling out his wallet.

"Oh absolutely not", Daiki shook his head. "You paid for the tickets, and for every date until now. You're not gonna be paying for food as well."

Aomine ordered one bucket of popcorn and a drink, then asked Haizaki if he wanted anything - the alpha went with just a drink, saying how he would steal some popcorn off Daiki. As Aomine was about to pay and was holding his card in his hand, Haizaki held his wrist in place and paid for the food then smirked.

"Ha, gotcha."

"Hey, that's not fair! Oi!"

Chapter Text

The movie was some adventure action combo that made no sense and Daiki got the plot lost midway through. Shougo also wasn't necessarily interested as around twenty minutes in his hand began to wander around Aomine's thigh. Around half-way through, when Daiki lost his focus, they also finished the popcorn, so Aomine locked the residue off his fingers and wiped them into his pants. He then placed the empty bucket on the floor.

"Who's that?", Haizaki whispered when some guy appeared on the screen.

"I don't know, I got lost twenty minutes ago."

"Damn."

Shougo's hand moved higher to fiddle with the pocket of Daiki's slacks. His fingers got inside and began rubbing circles on his body. Haizaki eventually turned towards him and gently kissed his ear. "Wanna do something fun?", he whispered.

"Not in a cinema—", Aomine mumbled in reply.

"And if I took you to the bathroom?"

"The first time should be in bed", Daiki placed his hand on his chest and pushed him away a little.

A frown flicked on Haizaki's face, but he quickly snapped back to his usual expression. "Of course, dear."

Once the movie ended, Shougo dropped him off at the bakery and kissed him goodbye. He didn't push to get inside or even to kiss longer or anything. He just waited for Daiki to leave and as soon as the passenger door closed, he drove away. Aomine gulped. Was he just having a bad day or something? Did he need attention to feel better?

Daiki was just grateful Shougo didn't use the tone to force his way into Aomine's bedroom.

As he opened the door, Sei was immediately at his feet, rubbing his head on Daiki's ankles. Aomine scratched the cat's chin and let him jump onto his shoulder as he walked further into the apartment. Sei meowed and purred, but he was clearly mad at Daiki - his human had that alpha's scent on him. His human met with him again.

Sei was about to scold Aomine, but he knew it had no sense. Not when Daiki believed that alpha was the potential love of his life. So Sei was left to hope for a miracle.

And when the days passed by and more and more dates were happening, he began to worry more and more. He had to do something. He had to at least get out and find Kagami. He had to do something.

So every day, while Aomine was going out to work, Sei spent his mornings meowing at the door, trying to get out. Every second of his life when Daiki was home, he spent meowing at the door. And eventually, Aomine admitted they needed to find a way for him to get out. So together with Sei they went to the store to find an answer.

And the answer became a cat door. Or rather, after a few online tutorials, it became a fancy cat door that would be opened with a proximity sensor. Sei deadpanned his human - how in the world was that supposed to be doable, because the last time he checked Daiki didn't know what engineering was about.

"Stop looking at me like that, I'll think of something. I don't know, magnets or some shit", he replied when Sei huffed at him again. Daiki of course had no clue how to make something like that. But he had spare money to commission someone to do that and show him how to. So a week later Aomine had the plans and files to 3D-print and no 3D printer anywhere.

"Meow", Sei sighed.

"Shut up, I'll go find a place that offers 3D-printing", Daiki mumbled. "Be a good boy while I'm at work, m'kay?"

"Meow."

After work Aomine returned late but alone and not smelling of that alpha. He had some stuff with him and as soon as he came home he dropped everything on the floor and sat down with his phone and the printed instructions next to him. The guy he had commissioned was explaining to him how to put everything together over the video tutorial and the thing was so clear Daiki wanted to sent him extra money - a tip or whatever.

After three hours or so of work, he ended up with a frame - he had a few pieces 3D-printed to hide the circuits and most of it was just a metal (cat) doorframe. And now was the time for the worst part.

Okay, rather, it was time to test if it was working. He grabbed the sensor and called Sei in, then put it on his collar, next to the location tracker. He held his creation while he asked Sei to get closer. If he had connected everything like he was told to, the mechanical hinges should open and let Sei through—

And they weren't opening. Great. He had somehow messed up that easy of a tutorial.

He grabbed the instructions again and began to check every connection and every little cable. Something had to be wrong and he hoped he could find it before having to dismantle everything and start over. Especially considering the fact that connecting the cables alone took him an hour.

Aomine Daiki might have been a senior detective at just twenty-eight years old (technically speaking, at twenty-five years old, as he held the position for three years already), he might have aced his studies and he might have been thinking about getting a PhD, he might have been an amazing crime solver and he might have destroyed the fun in the last escape room he had visited with his friends because of that, but Aomine Daiki - first and foremost - was a fucking idiot. If that wouldn't be true, Daiki would have seen through Haizaki's facade, or at least gotten suspicious. And moreover, he would have seen that the circuit wasn't working not because of his poor welding job, but because of the clear lack of batteries or any other power source.

Aomine Daiki wasn't that much of an idiot not to realize it ever at any point. He was a big enough idiot to need forty three minutes to find the fault in his Hi-Tech Cat Door®.

Even Sei seemed to facepalm after Aomine had realized his mistake.

Chapter Text

"Sei, it's late", Aomine sighed, when he finally put the batteries in and the door did work as intended. "Can I put it in tomorrow?"

"MEOW!", Sei yelled at him - he wanted the door now! He would be starting his scavenger hunt late already, one day could be the end of the world!

"... Really?"

"Meow!"

"Sei, please, it's past eleven..."

"Meow!"

"Tomorrow!"

"Meow!"

"Tomorrow!"

"Meow!"

Daiki had no clue how it happened - he disagreed, but he was still in his coat with the front door taken out of the hinges and lying in his entryway. He draw with pencil where the hole would be - in the middle of the door, ten centimeters above the bottom. With it all planned and mapped out, he grabbed the rented circular saw and made a hole in the wooden part of the door. He pulled out the first layer and switched the saw from the wood to the metal one, then started to get through the second layer.

Sei stayed on his side with a flashlight attached to his head and observed what was happening. His hole to freedom. His hole that would save his human.

"I can't see shit, how are you holding that flashlight?", Aomine frowned.

"Meow...", Sei apologized and positioned himself better. A little more drilling later, Daiki pulled out the second layer and switched the saw again. He quickly finished with the second wooden layer and grabbed the outer frame of the cat door to install in the hole. He screwed it in place, then he grabbed the cut-out parts and made them slightly smaller to fit them into the other frame. Once that was done, he installed the circuit and the hinges and assembled the cat door into one piece. He put everything on the inside, leaving only one of the sensor readers outside and one inside. Then, he put the door back into its place.

"Here, you can test it out", he said locking the front door. Sei happily ran over to them and placed his collar next to the sensor. The mechanism clicked and the hinges opened the cat door, letting Sei jump through to the other side. After around ten seconds, the door closed again, leaving Sei outside. The cat repeated the process to get back in and jumped onto Daiki's shoulders to purr and hug him as a thank you.

"Meow~", Sei smiled. He jumped down and grabbed his pillow from the couch to drag it to Daiki's bedroom.

"... You made me do the door now and you're not even going out?!"

"Meow", Sei deadpanned. It was cold outside, he wasn't going out in this cold!

"Are you serious?", Aomine took off his coat and went to grab a vacuum to clean the dust he made with the saws. "My neighbors would've killed me by now if they were home! Sei, why in the world would you make me do it now if you didn't plan on leaving now?!"

"Meow?", Sei waddled into the bedroom and kicked the door closed. He wasn't strong enough to throw the pillow up onto the bed, but he tried nevertheless.

Aomine appeared inside after cleaning the dust and putting the saws back into the containers. He grabbed the pillow and placed it on one side of the bed, then he took all of his clothes off and got into the bed naked. He buried himself into the pillows and comforters, huffing at Sei and his stupidity.

"... You want the collar off for the sleep?", he asked nevertheless, not wanting his kitty to be uncomfortable.

"Meow..."

"C'mere."

Sei jumped over the pile of fluff that Daiki had become and waited for his human to take the collar off. Aomine placed it on the bedside table and Sei returned to his pillow.

"Good night."

"Meow meow."

In the morning Aomine woke up to a reminder on his phone. Right. Two months had passed since his last heat and another one was getting close. He would need to be more careful soon and check up on the meds. Maybe he would buy some more, just in case?

Then his morning went as always - food, putting the collar on Sei, some lunch, checking out what he could do for dinner and then getting dressed and leaving. He probably would get a new case since the Yakuza one was frozen - but he had checked the news in the morning and no murder worth an article could be found so maybe he would get a cute little robbery to ease up his day? Maybe even boring enough to get himself a lunch break with Shougo?

Deja vu, he thought as he entered the building slightly late to run to the elevator that got held open the last second. He was going to be a minute or two late, something Satsuki would frown upon.

"Deja vu", Taiga smiled at him once the door opened again. "I hope you're not gonna run away to the stairs this time."

"I might not", Daiki replied with fake cockiness. "I am going to be late, though."

"A minute", Kagami sighed. "How's your morning going?"

"Fun", Aomine said, pulling out his phone. He opened the tracker to see where Sei was, then showed it to Kagami. "Here, I spent the night pissing off my neighbors by drilling holes in my front door. But now I made it possible for my cat to leave the apartment whenever he would want to."

"... Don't you live somewhere high?"

"Seventh floor, yeah", Daiki confirmed. "He knows how to use the elevator."

"You taught your cat how to use an elevator?"

"He's good at that."

"... Huh", Taiga frowned. "Why did you make it at night?"

"Sei got mad when I said I'll do it today after work", Aomine mumbled. "I wouldn't've done that if my right and left side neighbors were home, though. Both worked a night shift, thankfully."

"So you only annoyed the bottom and top neighbors, huh?", Kagami chuckled. The elevator stopped and the door opened. "Hey, you handle all the collaborations or is there someone else too?"

Chapter Text

An easy case, or so it seemed. Daiki excitedly waited for Taiga to leave Satsuki's office, observing them through the two glass walls. He couldn't wait.

Because Daiki was the only one working without a partner, he was getting most of the collaborations. And this was their collab of this day and Daiki was free with nothing to do, so it would definitely be his! Ah, he couldn't wait!

But why was it taking so long...? And why was Taiga looking disappointed? No, there was no way he wasn't getting the case! What the hell was Satsuki thinking?!

He stood up and barged out of his office then right into Momoi's without knocking. "What the hell is taking so long, I don't have all day!"

"Aomine-san—"

"Commissioner, I don't give a shit. Give me my collab and the file and I'm going on my way!"

"Aomine-san you're not getting the collaboration", Momoi said.

"Watch me", he tsked, grabbing Kagami's wrist and pulling him out of the office. He ignored the woman asking him to get back and went straight towards the elevator, then pulled out his tongue like a kid to get Satsuki even angrier. The metal door closed again, leaving them alone again.

"That was... impressive", Kagami blinked slowly. He cleared his throat then pulled out a file. "We won't get in trouble?"

"I will. Whatcha got there?"

"Uh, it's basically solved already...", Kagami admitted. "Some guy's house exploded."

"Huh?", Aomine widened his eyes.

"The gas cylinder. It exploded. And took the whole house with it."

"Oh. Cool. Why is it in the crime department?"

"... I, uh, I'm actually here against what my supervisor advised", Taiga admitted. "That's why yours didn't want to take the collab."

Aomine nodded. The elevator opened and they both got out. "You're the fire investigator, what happened there?"

"I think someone tempered with the gas tank."

"If there's a viable suspicion, there's a viable cause to start an investigation", Daiki smiled. "Let's go before she calls me back up."

Momoi did call him, but not to bring him back up to yell at him for how childish he acted, rather for how scared she was for him. What she didn't know was that they were already in the car and Aomine had her on speaker as he was driving.

"Dai-chan, please, I'm just worried about you!", she sighed as soon as he picked up the phone. "And I don't think it's okay for you to work with him."

"Don't give me that crap, you're not my mother", Aomine groaned. "I want this collab and I'm doing it."

"Dai-chan, please—"

"Oh shut it!", he sighed. "I'm okay. I'm not gonna die on duty, Kagami won't kill me either."

"... I still don't like it."

"Cool."

"Just how I don't like that jock you've been meeting up with. I actually did run his plates, you know, and—"

"And I don't wanna hear about it now."

"Dai-chan, there's something seriously wrong with that guy's story", she warned him.

"I'll figure it out", he said, then hung up. "Where are we going?"

"... She sounded mad, are you sure we should be—"

"Yes", Aomine reassured him. "She's just mad because she doesn't trust the guy I've been going out on dates with and thinks he's weird. And she always yells at me to differentiate our personal relationship and our work relationship, and what's she's doing right now? Exactly what she told me not to do. So she can suck my dick, I don't give a fuck."

"Wow", Kagami gulped. "Am I gonna be in trouble?"

"No", Daiki's hands clenched on the steering wheel. He would make sure of that - he wouldn't let Satsuki punish Taiga for his stubbornness.

Kagami meanwhile looked down on his knees. Aomine was seeing someone. Someone his boss (who turned out to be his friend) didn't approve of. Someone whose plates Momoi-san had run through the system and someone who was not trustworthy.

"So, you're seeing someone?", Taiga looked to the side with a grin. He had fo play it off cool, he had to be smug and make Daiki share some more details about that bastard.

"Kind of. We're not, dating... I think. I mean, no one really asked the question, you know? Are we dating?"

"Don't ask me?"

"Huh. I guess we're not. But maybe we will."

"Is he better than me?", Taiga asked ironically.

Daiki pretended to think about it, then hummed and frowned. When he stopped at red light, he checked Taiga out a few times, then even took a second look. "Hm, hard to tell, but... yes."

"Aw man", Taiga bit his lip, then seductively threw his arm around Daiki's shoulders. Then, he whispered with a purposely lowered voice: "Are you sure about that?"

"I'm gonna fucking roll the car in a moment", Aomine chuckled, trying to calm himself down. "He's... Satsuki doesn't like him because she thinks I know him too poorly to plan a relationship with him."

"When did you meet him?"

"Two weeks ago?"

"Yeah man, no, you're too trusty", Kagami took his arm back. "Planning a whole life with that guy? Are you a Disney princess or something?"

"No, I'm almost thirty and I wanna settle down and have kids", Aomine sighed, getting serious.

"Does he even want to have kids?", Kagami pointed out.

"... I don't know. I hope he does...?"

"Uh-oh", Taiga smiled. "I wanna have kids, too, man."

"With another alpha it might be hard", Daiki pointed out.

"Adoption exists. And surrogacy", Kagami said. "There are many ways, you know?"

"Kags, I really don't wanna crush your world view, but no one will let you adopt or legally get a kid through a surrogate if you're in a gay relationship... You can't even get married in Japan."

"Seriously?", Taiga's smile faded a little. "O-Oh... You seriously can't?"

"No, I'm sorry—", Daiki clenched his hands on the steering wheel.

"Don't be", Kagami looked at him. "I just got used to the thought that they were legal in the America, forgot it's not everywhere."

"... There's been some progress recently."

"Is it legal to adopt in a different country and being the kid in?"

"Uh, I'd have to get back to you on that."

"Sure."

Chapter Text

"So, now that you're kinda officially a temporary detective", Daiki started once he parked on the street in a residential area, "Kagami-tantei, tell me what the fuck am I looking at?"

"... The building we're supposed to investigate", Taiga mumbled, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Kagami Taiga, this is a roof. On the ground. There's... Where's the rest of the house?!"

"I told you it exploded."

"There's no walls, no nothing! It's a roof on the grass!", Aomine raised his eyebrows.

"... It... The rest exploded."

"What?! How?!"

"That's why I went to the police", Kagami sat up straight. "There's no way that house exploded like that if it was just a valve malfunction."

"Go on, sensei", Aomine crossed his arms on his chest and waited for explanations. "I don't even have gas in my apartment, so you gotta explain quite a lot."

"Shit", Kagami tensed up. This was his chance. He had to explain properly or Aomine would drive him back and ditch the collab! "Uhhh... So, uh, there's... there's... gas."

"Mhm."

"And it can explode."

"Mhm."

"And... and it...", Taiga gulped. "I—..."

"Kagami Taiga", Daiki slowly said, almost spelling it out. "You don't know shit about that, do you?"

"I do!", Taiga frowned. "There's a PRV, an OPV, an arrestor, a CV and a GLD! And for that house to explode like that PRV, OPV and the arrestor would have to fail simultaneously and be in failure for a long time! And the chances of no one noticing were slim!"

Aomine nodded his head, pretending to know what those letters meant. But that logorrhea made him sure that Kagami knew his way around and his reason was truly valid.

Which didn't change one fact.

In front of them was a rooftop. A rooftop that once was a house. The building wasn't big to begin with, and upon collapsing instead of breaking into pieces and ending as a pile of rocks, the walls gave up and the roof in its whole fell downwards and now sat on the ground. Everything was destroyed, so there was little to nothing to investigate.

"I like those types of cases", Aomine commented. "You gotta find your way around using only what people tell you."

"... So you're taking the case?", Kagami's eyes lit up.

"Yeah", Daiki sighed. "I'd've taken it no matter your explanation."

"Oh."

Kagami smiled brightly and chuckled. He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. Daiki quickly followed, grabbing his badge from the compartment above his seat.

They entered through the police tape to take a look around. It was a huge pile of rubbish but the coal marks on the pieces let them determine where the tank was located, more or less. Taiga wandered around and called someone while Daiki took all the photos he wanted. Once he was finished, he came over to the detective.

"Take every photo you'll need because in a few hours a construction crew will be here to lift the whole roof up so we can take a look at the remains of the inside", Kagami informed him. "I'm hoping to find the remains of the valves."

"Which valves?", Aomine frowned.

"The... The ones I've told you about."

"Oh, those STD, VIP, suck-my-dick things were valve names!"

"You didn't know?", Kagami widened his eyes. "Did you understand anything from the explanation I've told you?!"

"Yes, of course I did!", Aomine lied. "I understood there was a failure!"

"... There... My whole explanation was about how there wasn't a failure!"

"Shit."

Kagami tried his best not to laugh. It wasn't exactly appropriate - Aomine was four years older than him and currently was acting as his supervisor. And Kagami really did not want to lose that collaboration and go back to his office. He had an angry boss to deal with back at the station.

Aomine walked around taking the photos and Kagami observed the pro in action. Or rather the beauty of the pro in action. It seemed that Daiki was exhausted these recent days - his face was unshaven and his hair was put in a messy ponytail where half of the strands were getting out in places they shouldn't be getting out of. The man also had bags under his eyes and was struggling to keep them open.

Kagami wanted to ask about it, but when he walked over, Aomine's phone rang. He pulled it out and smiled at the contact name, then gave Taiga the camera and asked him to photograph a certain part for him while he walked away to take the call.

That slightly flirtatious «hey» Daiki said with a smile really ruined Taiga's day. He tried his best not to listen in, but when he realized they were planning another date and it was in a fancy restaurant, Kagami really wanted to throw that camera at Aomine and make him unconscious just so he would miss it.

I have to specify something - Kagami didn't want or plan to hurt Aomine, he just wanted the date to never happen and his intrusive thoughts were a little... aggressive, to say the least. Kagami was good at ignoring them and he knew those were just thoughts, but he still felt bad right after they happened. He would never hurt someone dear to him, even if his mind sometimes told him to.

Every time he told someone about those thoughts, he was called a psychopath for even thinking of that, which made him hide all of that deep inside. He would never hurt someone. He was hotheaded and impulsive, and he often jumped into fights without thinking, but he would never hurt someone without a reason, and he wouldn't hurt someone he loved even with a reason! Some people could never understand that, which always resulted in Kagami having bad words attached to him by people who couldn't care to realize what he truly meant.

His hands clenched on the camera, but not hard enough to break it. He turned around and gulped, trying to ignore Aomine and that stupid phone call. Daiki clearly stated that he was not gay, even if they had drunk sex. No, Taiga shouldn't even be thinking about that night! He had a job to do and he needed to focus!

Chapter Text

"Got yourself a date?", Taiga asked, trying not to sound salty.

"Yeah... I'm even gonna say that's the day", Daiki grabbed the camera from him and skimmed through the photos Kagami took. "This one is useless. Here - it's crooked and the part that was supposed to be visible is blurry. It also has no marker to point the location of this part, so once we'd print out a hundred something photos, you'd have no clue what it is."

Kagami nodded and found the spot on the picture. With some guidance, he changed a few things and took another photo. Aomine checked it and nodded.

"Good luck on your date", Taiga mumbled, even though he really didn't want to.

"... You seem weird", Daiki frowned. "You good?"

"Yeah, just, uh... It's nothing", Taiga mumbled. "Uh, do we take photos of that part, too?"

"Uh, I did them, no?"

"Let me check... No, I don't see them."

"Hm."

Aomine walked over and bent down - and oh god that was a mistake, Kagami should have done that instead, oh god, he suddenly had the urge to stand right behind Daiki, hold him by the hips and grind on his ass.

But no. Intrusive thoughts should be stopped and controlled, especially when they were sexual and about Aomine Daiki.

Kagami was glad Aomine appeared in his life. He was not his first crush by any means, but he was the first strong alpha male crush that always made Taiga take a second and third look. It was the first time the younger felt that way about an alpha - sure, he had minor crushes on alphas back in the States, but not this type of strong.

Was it weird that he wanted to hold the guy in his arms forever, kiss him good morning, call him beautiful and make him smile? He didn't even think about sex when he was imagining their future together - just them, in each other's arms, slowly kissing on a beach or something, with Sei on their side throwing judging looks at them (at Taiga specifically).

Yeah, in his imagination, this scenario was still present. But the one kissing Daiki changed from him to some random omega male that Aomine had been flirting with. The judging Sei was still there, but next to him.

Maybe that was a plan - if he could get Daiki's cat to team up with him and hate on the partner but love Taiga, maybe Aomine would consider giving it a shot?

Yeah, great, now he had to contact a fucking cat.

And if you, dear reader, remember a talk Aomine and Kagami had in the elevator, as well as Sei's plan, you probably already know what is going to happen. Thankfully for Kagami, he also did remember what Aomine said in the morning.

That Sei knew how to use and elevator and he could get outside whenever he wanted. Which meant that the only thing left for Kagami to do was to find Sei outside and have a talk with him. Once he would have the cat and no Daiki nearby, he would figure out a way to communicate with the animal.

What love could do to a human. He was planning on talking to a cat of a straight alpha guy he was interested in.

Thankfully, Aomine quickly finished the photoshoot and they moved on to questioning the neighbors. Which was more interesting than standing in the cold with a camera. Taiga was glad they made it in time before it got dark, but based on the hour the construction crew was going to arrive, his scavenger hunt would have to be postponed until the next day when it got light again.

The first woman who they talked to was a young mother of three that lived in front of the destroyed house. Her kitchen window had a perfect view for the explosion site and they hoped to hear that she was making dinner at that time.

"No, I was in the garden", she explained. "It was cold and I needed to bring wood to lit up the fireplace."

"Why didn't your husband do that?", Daiki asked.

"She was at work", the woman said.

"She left you alone with three young kids and left to work without even lighting the fireplace?", Aomine followed up. "It's that a little uncaring of her?"

"Himiko works more because of the complications I had after my third birth", the omega frowned. "She's not a bad husband, she is doing her best to afford us living here comfortably. I should be returning to work soon, but I am still unable to do a lot of things, so I cannot - our savings would have ran out a while ago if she hadn't been working more."

"I see", Daiki noted something. "Tell me what you remember."

"Like I said, I left to get some wood. It was taking me some time because I couldn't carry more than one, maybe two smaller, logs per one trip, and my walking speed still isn't the greatest. I was stepping out for maybe the fourth or fifth time when I heard a loud bang that made my ears ring and then that rustling, cracking sound and another, way more silent, bang."

"What did you do?"

"I fell down", she showed her scratched hands. "Then my eldest son ran over to me and helped me get back inside. He thought it was another earthquake - back when we lived closer to the coast we had one happen to us while I was pregnant with my second. He got really scared back then and thought I would die."

"How old are they, if you don't mind me asking?", Taiga asked, speaking anything for the first time.

"He's nine, the second is two and the third is five weeks", she replied with a smile.

"Lovely family", Kagami looked at Aomine, mutely asking if he had any more questions. Daiki caught up on the suggestion and before standing up and leaving, he asked one more:

"Anything you know about the neighbor or that house that you think might be relevant in any means?"

"... I don't know, he's an older gentleman, one kid, a son, loves gardening... His son visits him often, but I've never seen his spouse. I assumed they're dead... Uh, I don't think there's anything else on my mind."

"Thank you for your time", Daiki stood up and gave her a card. "Should you have any additional information, do not hesitate to call me."

"Of course, detective."

They left the house and Kagami sighed loudly. "So, what now?"

"What do you mean what now, we have a lot more houses on this street and a whole bunch of more in the area."

Chapter Text

One house after another they finally made it to the last one they had planned for that day. The older beta lady lived on the corner and immediately started cursing them out when she saw them. They ended up with tea and cupcakes in front of them while the lady babbled about every neighbor she had, gossiping about them and straight up cussing them out. After fifteen minutes of a meaningless conversation, she finally moved onto the guy whose house exploded.

"Ah, you know, detectives", Kagami wanted to correct her, but Aomine stopped him. It would only exaggerate the conversation instead of getting to the point. "I always knew something was wrong with him. Only one kid, the youngest son always visited him and installed those beepers and yelled at him how he needed them because he was old and in the middle of a divorce."

Aomine frowned. "Divorce? That's a new one", he mumbled, but the lady heard him.

"I always knew that his husband was a bad woman. Almost fifty years of marriage and she leaves him for a twenty-year-old bitch", the woman scolded. "And she filed for the divorce with him at fault!"

"That's... that's such a small detail, how do you know about it, ma'am?", Daiki sighed.

"I heard! His son came over and yelled at him, he scream how he wasn't doing anything about it and how he should get a lawyer! But he ignored him and said it doesn't matter, or something, I don't remember anymore..."

"Mhm", Kagami tilted his head. "And I have a question about those «beepers»... What are they exactly?"

"Oh I don't know, I'm old and that new technology is out of my mind", the lady chuckled. "I asked them a few times and they said it was for gas, or fire, or some air quality... or maybe it was for radiation...?"

"I see", Taiga bit his lip. "... Did anyone visit him the day of the accident, or the day before?"

"I don't know, so many people visit here", she thought for a moment. "Hamadas in front of me had so many guests recently, those three brats that run around are hell spawns, I'm telling you, horrible kids. Oh, and Takeuchis from slightly further down the road had a fight again—"

"Anything related to the house that blew up?", Daiki stopped her.

"Uh, oh! I remember now! He was doing something with that power box outside of the house! I even asked him what he was doing but he said the fuse disconnected or something, but I didn't believe him, all the Christmas lights the kid had put up on his house were still turned on. Oh, I've been telling them to take those off for so many weeks now, but they don't listen, can you believe that! I'm sure whatever made it explode had something to do with those lights, that's what they get for leaving them on in February!"

Kagami wanted to correct her, but Aomine stopped him, again. "Thanks for all the information, ma'am. You've been a great help."

"Well I hope so! You came to the right person!", she smiled. "If you need anything else, just vist me! I'm staying home all the time anyway..."

"We definitely will, thank you", Daiki said as he stood up to leave. Taiga followed and they walked out of the house onto the street.

"That was... interesting", Kagami sighed loudly, looking at the clock. They wasted almost two hours with that woman.

"Yeah", Aomine raised his eyebrows, looking back at the front door. "Those people ar ether worst neighbors but your best ally when you're doing an investigation. They know everything 'bout you and they're gonna tell the cops everything."

"... You already know what happened, don't you?"

"I have a theory", Aomine confirmed.

"Tell me", Kagami smiled. "I don't wanna be out of the loop again!"

"Nope", Daiki smiled. "I can't."

"Don't give me the «you're not a detective» crap..."

Daiki chuckled as he began walking back to the car. It was past three already and he had a date in forty minutes and needed thirty eight to get back to the station. He didn't really want to leave Taiga out there, so he suggested driving him back to the department, but Kagami refused - he still had a few questions for the construction crew he needed to ask.

"So, why can't I know?", Kagami asked, holding the door to the driver's seat open while Aomine was starting the car.

"Confirmation bias", he said, as he shooed Taiga out of the door so he could close it. Then, he drove off. Confirmation bias, Taiga frowned, what the fuck was that?

Meanwhile Daiki drove into the parking lot and left the building upon clocking out. The black Maybach was already waiting for him and he confidently took a seat on the passenger's seat and smiled at the driver.

"I look like shit", he commented, making Haizaki frown.

"Yeah, you do. Do you want to go take a shower or something? We still have some time before the reservation", Shougo scanned him up and down. "You should change and shave as well, you look horrible. How could you let yourself end up like this...?"

"Didn't sleep well and my day was overfilled with social communication", Daiki sighed. "You can get me home and I'll go change."

Confirmation bias is a fun psychological phenomenon. Aomine as a detective was trained to recognize it as well as act in a way that would minimize the chances of it occuring. From gatekeeping certain theories from the partner before they gather certain amount of evidence to support it to making sure to exchange the theories with the partner before assuming what had happened. He knew that Kagami, as a fire investigation, most likely would look for evidence supporting Aomine's theory if he had shared it, which would corrupt Taiga's way of thinking - and that was why he never shared his theories with him before Taiga investigated the site.

Aomine was trained to find and stop confirmation bias, but it didn't mean he was resistant to falling a subject of it.

Chapter Text

When Aomine showed up to work the next day, he was overjoyed and thrilled. Kagami really wanted to ask about his sudden change in the mood, but deep inside he knew the answer. Nevertheless, he sighed and asked him with a smile.

"I now officially have a boyfriend!", Daiki beamed with happiness. "Today is going to be the first ever Valentine's Day I'm not spending alone!"

"Nice!"

"I can't wait too!", Aomine took a deep breath. "So, did the construction crew cleared the roof for you?"

"Yeah, I'm actually on my way to start the investigation."

"Great! I'll be your faithful listener then."

Together, they went to the investigation site and Aomine widened his eyes upon finding what was hiding under the roof. The whole house was small enough for the construction crew to be able to lift the whole roof in one piece and place it in the garden so they had a nice look on everything under it - which was basically the whole house squashed into a pancake. Stepping under the police tape, Kagami entered the 'house' and found the kitchen area.

"What are we looking for, Investigator-san?"

"... Valves."

"Yeah, I have no clue what to look for."

Kagami looked around and located the stove and the gas cylinder. They were connected by a tube, but little of it was left after the explosion. On the other hand, the cylinder was also mostly gone, but in the pile of debris Kagami managed to find a piece of the top, where it connected with the tube.

"... It's severely destroyed, but by the explosion", he noted. "It's in perfect condition, not rusty or anything, the seal looks like it stayed intact and this mechanism over here indicated that the valve was opened."

"So this one didn't fail?"

"It's a part of the PRV, the fact that this one doesn't seem to be faulty doesn't mean all the remaining ones were intact."

"Mhm", Daiki stood back and watched. "So let's find the other parts."

After almost four hours of the scavenger hunt, they ended up with three valves in ten pieces - which was way more than Kagami thought they would find. Eventually, they decided to go to the lab to try and find anything more about it.

Aomine drove them there and showed him the way. The lab was huge and well-equipped. While Taiga was observing the corridor and the different rooms behind multiple closed doors, Daiki went to change his clothes. He reentered in a lab coat and rubber slippers, as well as with his hair tied and out of the way and his pockets stuffed with gloves and protection glasses.

"Here", Daiki handed Taiga a one-use coat to put on and a pair of shoes covers. "Don't let those Jordans melt in the acidic air of the lab. Or basic. Who knows, there's chemicals in the air."

"What are we going to do?", Kagami asked excitedly.

"Clean them and observe them under a microscope. The department doesn't have those fancy confocal microscopes but shining it with a flashlight while holding it under an eyepiece is fun, too."

"Does that work?"

"Kind of? It's more like a big, strong magnifying glass", Daiki explained while Taiga put the protective clothes on.

"Honestly, I've never been in a lab like this", Kagami said when Aomine opened the door with a card and let him inside. They placed the bag with the valves on the table and slowly began to place them into separate trays. Daiki grabbed a few chemicals and began gently cleaning it with Taiga watching and carefully investigating anything he could have missed.

"Here!", Kagami stopped him and fixed the light. He observed it under the magnifying glass and pointed to a certain point on the valve with a glass rod. "You have tweezets or something?"

"You can use the rod", Aomine suggested. "I don't know what you found though."

"I need something to pick it up."

Aomine looked around the drawers and found an extremely fine metal hook, which Kagami took and after a few tries, picked it up. Daiki passed him the petri dish to put it on. It was an extremely small piece, barely visible with a bare eye, but Aomine managed to make it into a microscopic slide. He pulled out a microscope, turned it on and adjusted it.

He frowned.

"What is it?", Taiga asked. Daiki moved the eyepiece over to him. Kagami looked through it and then back at Aomine. "What is it?"

"... Paper."

"Are you sure? Positive? One hundred percent?"

"Yeah. It's definitely paper. A thin one, black, with no ink, mostly burned... But it's paper."

"... We should... We should finish checking the other valves."

After securing the materials and leaving them in a labeled box, they both left the lab. Daiki checked the clock - he was ending his work day in half an hour and needed to get back to his apartment to get ready for his date. He and Taiga planned on finishing the investigation the following days, but in the middle of their conversation, Aomine's phone rang. He smiled brightly and Kagami wanted to gag. Daiki happily answered but with each word he heard his smile slowly faded.

"... No, it's okay", Aomine said through the phone. "I get it. See you later."

He put the phone away and bit his lip. Taiga wanted to ask what was wrong, but Daiki told him before he managed to pop the question.

"He's busy. So he cancelled today's date."

"Oh."

Like always, he was going to spent the day alone. Aomine said goodbye to him and they parted their ways. Daiki returned to his apartment and flopped down on the couch. Sei wasn't home - he checked on his phone - so he was alone. He had no ice cream, no chips and no cheese to stuff his mouth with and no boyfriend to spend the Valentine's Day with. He found some movie and began watching it when his doorbell rang. He frowned, opening the door. Who the hell was annoying him now?

"Hey", Taiga smiled at him, handing him a single red rose.

"What the hell is this?"

"You were excited about it being your first Valentine's Day with someone and your stupid boyfriend ditched you—"

"Don't call him stupid."

"— so here", Kagami made him take the flower. "You already got used to the thought of spending today with someone, so don't let it be wasted."

Aomine brought the rose up to his nose and inhaled the fragrance. He tried to bite his cheek to stop himself from smiling but he couldn't, so he just moved to the side, letting Kagami in.

This was his first Valentine's Day with someone after all.

Chapter Text

"Baby, I'm so sorry", Haizaki kissed his neck, as he hugged Aomine from behind. "I'll make it up to you, I swear."

"Don't worry, it's nothing, really—", Daiki replied, closing his eyes and humming in pleasure.

"How about I'll take you to bedroom and make sure you'll be having fun~...", Shougo mumbled, his hands wandering down Aomine's hips. "Hm? Would you like to?"

Was it too early? Who cared, Daiki wanted sex and he had a boyfriend who also wanted to, it would be a sin not to do it. So mere ten minutes later, they were in Aomine's bedroom, naked, with a condom on Shougo's cock. Daiki was worried and stressed a little, it was his first time with someone (that wasn't drunk and anal), but Haizaki moved slowly and took care of him.

A few days later at work, Taiga frowned while identifying the bruise on Daiki's neck as a love bite. That asshole of a boyfriend that ditched him on Valentine's Day was fucking him now? Just great.

"Did Sei come back home?", he asked to keep his mind on Aomine but away from that jock.

"Yeah, shortly after you left, actually", Daiki explained with a smile. "He left again the morning but I the last time I checked he was coming back."

"Mhm", Kagami nodded. "What are we doing today?"

"The case is almost over, but yesterday I got a call from the hospital that the guy who lived there can me questioned."

"He woke up?", Taiga widened his eyes. "I honestly thought the guy was screwed, two meters under, that kind of deal."

"He survived. The building collapsed on him and he survived. I respect the guy's will to live", Daiki chuckled. The two of them went to the car and Aomine set the navigation to the hospital. "I also plan on calling his ex-husband and kids in for questioning."

"You think she did it?"

"Someone did."

"... Uh, Aomine", Kagami gulped as he looked for his side. "What if I misinterpreted those marks? And what if that piece of paper we found was something else, that they just happened to lie next to each other on the site and it's unrelated and we just accused someone of exploding a house whereas it was an accident...?"

"Being the detective has its perks and defects", Daiki replied. "But don't worry. I've suspected it was sabotage for a while now. That evidence only confirms it."

"Are you sure?"

"Kagami", Aomine sighed, "I do not call people suspects out of nowhere. And as of now, no one has been called that."

"Sure."

Upon reaching the hospital, the two men left the car and wandered into the white halls of tr building. One thing that Daiki had always loved to do - proudly showing his badge - led them into a room with the older gentleman resting on the bed amongst other patients. Just as they had been told, a second after they had stepped into the room, nurses finish prepping one for surgery and the other for a procedure and wheeled them both out, leaving the older omega, the detective and the inspector alone in the room.

"Aomine Daiki, senior detective, I'm with my partner here today, Kagami Taiga, fire investigator", Daiki introduced them both. Taiga's heart began racing at the words «my partner». "We would like to talk with you about what happened, if that's okay."

"... She sent you, didn't she?", the man asked with a raspy voice.

"Who do you mean, sir?", Aomine asked as he took a seat next to the bed the man was lying in.

"My husband... Ex-husband."

"We actually haven't spoken with her yet", Aomine explained. "We're here because that's the standard procedure for those kinds of accidents."

"So you're not here to arrest me?", the man finally looked at Daiki with hope in his eyes.

"No, we just wanted to know your story."

The man started gently and slowly. He began with how his marriage was and how it started just how it was supposed to. How he got pregnant soon after their wedding and a while later it was confirmed to be either an alpha boy or a beta boy. How excited the husband was and how she already declared the baby would be an alpha.

And how disappointed she was when the baby was a beta boy.

How she pressured him into having another kid very soon and how upon learning that the penis wants visible on the ultrasound she prayed every day that it was an alpha girl. And how utterly angry she was when he held their beta baby girl, and how she yelled and screamed at the doctors.

He told him how it happened one more time and how it went the exact same way for the third time. How tired he was of taking care of three kids alone while she refused to touch them. And as soon as they became coherent, she made sure to brainwash them into hating him, their mother.

When the youngest was ten years old, she ordered to try again. How this time the baby would definitely be an alpha. How she forced him to get pregnant and how she didn't want to know the gender beforehand. How she knew it would be a beautiful alpha son.

It was a son, but an omega. Upon seeing him, she left the hospital.

He tried his best to shield the youngest from her, but she still sometimes got to him. Thankfully, she detested the kid more than the beta kids, which often resulted in leaving them alone. And how he succeeded. How even now that the youngest was thirty two and had a family of his own, and was the only child that every visited him after his husband moved out and left him in the old and unsafe house.

Somewhere along this story Kagami wanted to ask what it all had to do with the explosion, but Aomine didn't let him. So he sat there, on the side of the bed with Daiki, and they listened to the old man talk.

Chapter Text

The man continued his talk - how his youngest son and his husband helped him and took care of renovating the house as much as they could, how they installed all the sensors that a man could invent and find, how they did everything they could to reconcile the man with the rest of the family, but none of them wanted to hear anything about it.

Then finally, as the divorce was coming closer and closer to an end, the house exploded, leaving the man seriously injured and everything destroyed.

Aomine followed up with a few questions, where the man was during the explosion, what had he been doing, had he noticed any signs of break-ins, or any malfunctions of the sensors. Finally, he ended the questioning with a question that had been on his mind for a while now.

"We know that your husband filed for divorce with you at fault", Daiki began, "and that she was trying to get the house from you. That’s why I need to ask this - have you tempered with anything in order to destroy the assets and possibly go down with the building?"

The man’s eyes widened in shock as he slowly shook his head. "She told you that?", he whispered weakly, his voice breaking down. "I swear, I didn’t, I—…"

"I understand", Aomine cut him off. "We have not yet spoken with your husband, as stated earlier. However, we will visit her and the rest of your family. I think I learned everything I wanted to. Kagami, would you like to add something?"

"Yeah, do you happen to know if your gas tank had a fire arrestor?"

"I don’t remember anymore, my son-in-law always changed the cylinders for me…"

"We’ll ask him then", Kagami assured him. "That’s all the questions I had."

With that, they left the room, letting the man rest, and then they headed towards the car. Aomine cracked his back before sitting behind the wheel. Taiga meanwhile pulled out his notebook to write down a few notes.

"Where now?", Taiga asked once Daiki got inside.

"The soon-to-be ex-husband", Aomine sighed, starting the engine. "Based on this guy’s story and what we learned from the nosy neighbor - prepare for rounds of yelling."

"Just what I needed. Why old people are yapping so much?"

"I hope I don’t yap that much when I’m seventy", Daiki groaned.

"Dude, my father can go like that if he has time in his schedule to talk to me."

"You need time in your dad’s schedule to talk to him?", Aomine frowned. Kagami shrugged on his side and pulled out his phone, where in his calendar, next to a bunch of meetings and due dates, were in bright red marked hours titled «Dad». "You’re shitting me right now, right?"

"No, we actually had everything scheduled. Meals, calls, even storytelling when I was young. He had my school stuff in his calendar too, but he never made it to even a single one", Kagami explained, taking a deep breath. "The first Friday of the month, from eight to nine PM. Ever since I was seven, that was the only time he wanted to hear anything from me. He never picked up if I called, he had to call or it didn’t count. And he only tried once, for five signals, so if I didn’t pick up in time I had to wait another month. We had a fight a few years back, he hadn’t called me since then."

"And you still have him in the calendar?", Aomine followed up with a question.

"I kinda hope he would call."

They spent the rest of the journey in silence. Daiki parked under the apartment complex where the husband had currently lived and they went together towards the elevators. Tenth floor, to the left, apartment eighty two. Three knocks and a very young man opened the door, scanning them up and down while chewing on a piece of gum.

"You have the wrong address, faggots", the man spit out. "We didn’t order strippers today."

"… Senior Detective Aomine Daiki, Tokyo Metropolitan Police", Aomine replied, pulling out his badge.

"Cool, they even give you fake badges for that? Oh, whatcha gonna do, handcuff me with pink fluffy cuffs and ride my dick?"

Aomine could see Kagami clenching his fist and getting ready to throw a punch. He stopped him with his hand, pressing his knuckles against Taiga’s sternum. The alpha swallowed the gulp in his throat and let the actual police do his job.

"Hand me your ID, you’re under arrest for insulting a public official and/or the person assisting him", Aomine said, pulling out the handcuffs from his belt.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where ya goin’ with that, slut?", the man smirked, but it soon disappeared when he was pushed against the wall and painfully handcuffed. "Oi, wait! Haruka, help!"

While the man struggled, an older woman entered the hall with a frown. "What is all that clamor? You called the prostitutes again?"

"No! They’re real and they’re arresting me!", the man wiggled in Daiki’s hold and was soon threw over to Taiga while Aomine moved forward to talk with the alpha woman.

"We’re bringing him to the station, please hand me his ID", he asked her. His eyebrow twitched – what was that smell? So strong, giving him that kind of pressure in his chest that he had felt before… oh. She was in rut. Oh shit, he was feeling her pheromones. She was definitely on her last day or Daiki would have troubles standing still, but it was an unpleasant realization nevertheless.

"Can we deal with it some other way maybe?", she tried to negotiate.

"No", Daiki replied. "We came in here to question the two of you about the explosion that happened at your, I’m guessing, soon-to-be ex-wife’s house, but your… partner here decided that he would prefer a trip to behind bars instead."

"… What is he being charged with?"

"Insulting a public official", Aomine explained. In that second the man got out of Kagami’s hold and kicked him in the groin, then tripped and fell on his face on the corridor while trying to run. "… As well as attacking a public official and resisting arrest. If he gets any further, I’ll add in fleeing."

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I’m his lawyer, don’t question him before I get there…"

Chapter Text

They entered the police station, Aomine with a huge grin on his face and Kagami with a limp from the hit he had taken. Daiki sat the guy on a bench and went through the procedures of the temporary arrest, while Taiga tried to stand up still.

"What are you doing here?", a male voice came from the door, causing all three men to look there.

"Ugh, you again?", Aomine groaned. "Can't you see I'm arresting someone?"

"That's not your job", the blonde man frowned, as he walked over to Aomine and snapped the papers out of his hand.

"Wakamatsu. Fuck off", Daiki hissed at him. "Wanna take it from me? Wanna play the detective and talk to him about my case? You'll shit yourself if you saw the things I have to deal with, so get your ass out my business before I—"

"Okay, that's enough", Kagami covered Aomine's mouth with his hand, silencing him. "Finish the arrest and take him to the room, let's do the questioning and get out of here."

Daiki grabbed his wrist and pulled it down. "We have to wait for the woman anyway. Unless he's stupid. And I assume that's the case. So you're right, let's go to the room."

"I'm not stupid!", the young man argued, but he got dragged to the interrogation room without any explanations. They sat him on the chair and finally took the handcuffs off, letting him get a little bit more comfortable on his plastic chair.

"Wanna answer some questions?", Daiki asked with a smile, clearly pissed off at the guy and his previous interaction with Wakamatsu.

"... What questions?"

"What do you know about the explosion?"

"What explosion?"

"Don't play dumb, you know what explosion."

"I don't know anything. I'm stupid", the omega mumbled.

"Oh so that’s how you’re going to act, hm?", Aomine growled, furiously eyeing the scared younger omega. "Is that how much you’d like to spent the night in jail? I can make sure you’ll enjoy your time behind the bars. I’ll laugh when I get to know you dropped the soap."

The omega curled up on the chair and bit his lip. He gulped before opening his mouth like a fish a few times before speaking anything. "I–, I really didn’t know you were real cops, man."

"I could understand the opening line, especially if you recently had ‘visitors’ dressed up in police uniforms, but the view of a badge should have been enough to realize your mistake and apologize instead of throwing kicks around and running away", Aomine explained, "and now you got me pissed off and I’m gonna be the one playing the bad cop."

"So he’s the good cop?", the guy pointed at Kagami who was sitting next to him.

"Unfortunately for you, he’s not a cop", Daiki smirked. "So you only get half of the deal. The bad half."

"… Then who is he?"

"A fire inspector", Kagami replied. "You punched a fire fighter. I hope it made you proud."

"Sorry, mate", the omega mumbled. "Wouldn’t’ve punched you if I knew you weren’t a cop. I have respect for you firemen over there."

"Oh, amazing", Daiki clenched his jaws. "So you would’ve punched me?"

"… Maybe not, you’re kinda cute", the omega smiled and winked. "If you’re down to fuck, you know my add’."

"First question, what were you doing last week, Monday, seven in the evening?", Taiga cut off their conversation before it could escalate any further.

"I don’t know, fucking Haruka, probably."

"Is there anyone or anything able to confirm it?", Kagami continued.

"Uh, I don’t know? Haruka?"

"We’ll check you up on that", Taiga mumbled. Meanwhile Daiki frowned and left the room. "You’re seriously leaving me?"

"I need to make a call", Daiki explained. "Continue. I’ll be back in a minute or two."

While Kagami asked more questions, Aomine entered the room behind the one-way window and called Momoi. After a quick talk, he asked for a favor and explained how they were in an interrogation room after what had happened. The alpha sighed, but promised to check out what he had asked her to. As Daiki left the room to return to the questioning, the older alpha woman had finally appeared and approached him angrily.

"Did you uneducated assholes started the questioning without waiting for me!?", she screamed, her smell getting stronger even if it was slightly dulled by the pheromone blockers she had to take in order to leave the apartment while on her rut.

"Oh, your cute little boyfriend over here didn’t ask to wait for his lawyer and voluntarily replied to our questions", Aomine smiled brightly at her. She opened the door and kicked Taiga out, who tried to argue, but lost it quickly as Daiki pulled him out of the room and closed the door. "She’s his lawyer, she can talk to him without us present."

"What was your call about?"

"We’ll see. Might’ve been useless", Aomine shrugged, but very soon after that his phone rang. He picked it up and waited for the news. "… Send me that."

"What’s up?", Kagami mumbled once Daiki hung up.

"Our stupid cock-warmer over there used his credit card on Monday, three fifty two PM", Aomine smiled. "In a store that’s ten minutes from our explosion site and almost forty minutes away from his sugar mommy’s address… Is it still mommy or grandma already?"

"Grandma kink? Wild", Taiga raised his eyebrows. "… Wait, so you’re saying that he is the suspect?"

"Wouldn’t say a suspect, we lack some evidence", Aomine sighed. "But he’s getting closer and closer to gaining that title. He’ll become the suspect after we go to the site again and find his fingerprints."

"How will you know they’re his?"

"Kagami Taiga, did you forget us scanning his fingerprints before dragging him in here?"

"Oh. Right."

Once the couple finished talking, they continued the questioning without revealing the information they had. They asked about the explosion and their relation to it, as well as what they had been doing on Monday afternoon and evening. According to them both, they were busy having sex as Haruka’s rut had started in the morning. They don’t mention the trip to the store for condoms that the detective knew about, as well as they don’t mention the omega ever leaving the apartment or having his credit card stolen or borrowed.

After that, the omega was placed in the holding cell while awaiting seeing the judge and Haruka had to leave. Meanwhile, the two of them returned to the site to look for fingerprints. As they reached forty minutes before three o’clock, they decided to return to the station and continue the next day. They buckled up and Aomine gulped as he began feeling hot. No. Oh no. There was no way–!

Chapter Text

Daiki gulped. Shit. Shit. Shit! His hands began to tremble as he started getting hotter and hotter. Fuck!

"You good, man?", Kagami asked him when he realized Aomine wasn’t starting the engine for a while.

"… You need to drive", he mumbled, his trembling hand reaching to unbuckle his seatbelt.

"I, I can’t–", Taiga’s eyes widened. "I don’t know how."

"What?"

"I don’t have a driver’s license, I mean, I do, but I did it on the other side of the road. And on an automatic", Kagami explained. "I can’t drive."

"Fucking hold the wheel", Aomine groaned. He clenched his hand on it for a while before lifting one and turning the key in the ignition. He started the car and took a deep breath. He had to get to the pharmacy before his symptoms would become worse. He drove carefully but quickly and with time he became gasping for air and trembling as his temperature rose and his mind was getting hazy. After painfully long and exhausting fifteen minutes, Daiki manages to stop the car next to the pharmacy.

"Maybe we should’ve gone to the hospital–?"

"No. Just… go buy me ‘Tabcale’, the one pill in the biggest dose they have", he mumbled, unbuttoning his shirt as he was getting hotter and hotter with every second.

"… Only that?"

"Yeah, just go."

Kagami left the car and ran into the pharmacy. He asked for the pill and was given the correct one soon after. He paid the surprisingly low price (he had seriously expected it to be at least five times more) and left the pharmacy to return to the car. He looked at the box in his hand and frowned, as he stopped mid-step.

‘Tabcale’. One pill. Four thousand milligrams. Heat cancellation medicine.

Heat? Heat? HEAT?!

He gulped and continued his journey to the car. As soon as he opened the door to enter he was hit with a wave of pheromones. He quickly entered and closed the door behind himself, then gave Daiki the medicine. Aomine tried to get it out, but his hands were shaking so much he couldn’t open it. Taiga grabbed it from him and got it out for him, then placed the pill in Daiki’s hand and he barely managed to get it into his mouth. He swallowed it and started breathing deeply and loudly.

"Does it get better?", Kagami asked after ten minutes when Aomine’s face became less red.

"Yeah, a little. Five more minutes and I’ll drive you back."

"… It came early?", Taiga decided to ask while trying to find out if the pill was really for what was written on the box. Heat. If Aomine had a heat that meant he was an omega. An omega that was a senior detective, a cop. Which also meant that he had a chance. That the sex they had wasn’t gay. That meant Daiki was into alphas. That Kagami being into him wasn’t gay. That…

It matched. Aomine waiting for his boyfriend to confess instead of taking the initiative. Aomine being relatively okay with them having sex despite being straight. Aomine freezing up when Kagami accidentally used the tone on him. Aomine acting embarrassed when Kagami offered to walk him back.

All of that pointed to Aomine being an omega a long time ago. Fucking hell, they slept with each other! Kagami only had to reach forward and feel Aomine’s cunt!

And now? Aomine was taken. And Kagami had lost his chance.

"I’m good", Daiki mumbled, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "We’ll continue the investigation later, I’m taking the rest of the day and tomorrow I'll go home early, so we'll do a little in the morning. And then, I'm taking the whole Thursday off as well, Friday probably too, so I’ll join you again on Monday."

"Why?"

"I can’t take the blockers, I took the cancel pill", Aomine explained.

"… Why?", Kagami frowned. "You can’t take them too?"

"Do you want me to die?", Daiki widened his eyes. "Man, that’s rude!"

"What?"

Aomine slowly turned his head towards Kagami and opened his mouth. "Did you… Have anyone ever told you about the pills on Sex Ed?"

"No, I mean, how complicated that is anyway–?"

"Kagami, you can’t mix blockers and cancel pills in one cycle", Aomine said, terrified. "And you can’t mix any other cancel pills if you took high dosage on the first day."

"Why…?"

"They work in a different way. Blockers only block the pheromones while the rest of your cycle runs normally. Cancel pills, well, cancel everything. It takes like a week for your body to get rid of the substance, but it works effectively only for eight to thirty hours, depends on the dosage. If you take blockers on a rut or heat that doesn’t exist because of the cancel pills and while the pill is still in your body, you’re putting yourself up for a heart attack. Like, seriously. They create a deadly combo together. Like. They react and create a cascade that results in huge amounts of adrenaline. You’ll literally die if you mix them."

"Oh", Taiga hummed. "That’s… good to know, I guess."

"You should have known that since the moment you got your rut!", Aomine hit him in the back of his head.

"I didn’t know pheromone blockers existed until I was eighteen", Kagami admitted. "And I learned that only because my mentor asked me to meet her during my rut and then was confused when I said that I can’t leave my room then."

"Dear gods…", Daiki closed his eyes and sighed. "Who raised you?"

"Uh, nannies…?", Taiga mumbled.

"Okay, we established earlier that your father was a dick, how about your mother?"

"She left when I was nine months."

“She what?"

"She left", Kagami repeated. "Disappeared. Left a note how she didn’t want to be involved anymore, how she had a different lover."

"Is that one of the reasons you wanted to take this case?"

Kagami stayed silent for a while. "No. I didn’t know about the cheating. But–… nevermind."

Aomine started the car again and relaxed in the seat. He felt much better after taking the pill and he had promised to bring Kagami back once the work day ended. He asked about the alpha’s address and took him directly there, parking the car on the side of the street.

"Hey, Kags", Aomine said when the man was ready to leave the passenger’s seat. "I guess that makes us even in accidentally starting the cycle in front of the other."

"… Yeah", Taiga’s face got red when he remembered the time when he got his rut in Daiki’s apartment. "Get home safe. And, uh, I hope the heat won’t be too hard for you."

"It’s gonna be the first one in five years that I’ll have without the blockers", Aomine admitted. "Can’t say I missed being barely coherent."

Chapter Text

Aomine dropped his car off at work and walked home. He messaged Shougo asking if he could spend the heat with him, starting the next day. When he got a positive response, he stepped by a pharmacy to buy a nape cover. He enjoyed his relationship with Haizaki but he was not going to have a mark on his neck after a month of dating.

When he entered his home, Sei was waiting for him. He dropped to his knees and opened his arms, excitedly expecting the cat to jump into his hold. Sei tilted his head, then his ears popped up and he happily cuddled in.

"I missed you too, baby", Daiki sighed. "I’m gonna be back earlier tomorrow. Shougo’ll come over later. I won’t hate you if you leave then, we’re be making love noises."

"… Meow?", Sei blinked slowly. His human smelled different. Daiki was starting his heat? And that jock was going to spend it with him?! Even Fork-Eyebrows was a better option!

"Yeah, it’s getting warmer now, I’ve seen you wander around more. You’ve been going further away too, yeah? Are you having fun?"

"Meow…", Sei mumbled. He still hadn’t found his brother and mom, neither did he found the fireman he was looking for. He closed his eyes and sighed. There was no way he was going to find the guy and make him involved in his scheme in time before Daiki’s heat and Shougo’s arrival.

But he could smell alpha’s scent on Aomine’s skin. Two alphas’, actually. One of them was definitely Kagami’s. Did that mean they were doing a collaboration together again?! Sei could actually find out where the alpha lived if he followed his human to work!

So this was what he had done. He followed his human as he walked to his workplace, or rather only to the train station, where he then sneaked into the train. He then followed his human out of the subway and back onto the sidewalk. He saw the human disappear into the building where he couldn’t follow so he wandered around. He found himself next to some road and after a while a silver Toyota Corolla with his human appeared next to him and then drove off. His human! That meant that if he somehow got into the car, he would be able to go where Kagami was!

For now, he had to find a way back home. Because obviously, he didn’t know which train to take to find himself exactly where he had entered. Which was impossible, because he clearly couldn’t read.

So his only hope was to walk in the direction he had came from. He wandered and he wandered, trying to find anything that would look similar, anything recognizable, but after an hour with no results, he started to accept his fate as a homeless cat (again).

He waited with a bunch of humans for the fancy light to change so they could cross on the funny strips, when he recognized one specific place. A store. A store in which he and Daiki had been while investigating that camera footage. He might have been in it only in a carrier but he was sure he could find his way back to where he had recognized the area from here! He only had to go in that direction and he would see the dirty trashcan he always used to jump over the fence and yes! It was right there! He knew where he was! He remembered the way to his human’s workplace and back!

He would follow his human again the next time he would be at work and he would find that car in whatever it came from and he would hide in it! The perfect plan! Meanwhile, he returned to the apartment exhausted and after a quick drink and a meal, he went to the bedroom to take a nap on his fluffy brown pillow.

He was woken up by Daiki coming home. His human undressed and quickly found the nape cover and put it over his neck. He locked it in front and twisted the key, then hid it in the box and locking it with a code, then he poured water into the specific compartment and stashed it into the freezer. It was the first time he was using it, but the instructions seemed clear and it was said that if the box wouldn’t open after being unfrozen, it can just be smashed open by throwing it against the wall or hitting it with a hammer. Sounded like a fun protection, a truly amazing security. At least it was way harder to do that while it was covered in ice. And as long as he wouldn’t say anything to Shougo about where the key was, his nape was protected from any unnecessary bites marking him and tying him forever to an alpha before marriage.

Sei meowed and Daiki grabbed his pillow and moved it to the couch. "I’m sorry but I don’t think you should be in the bedroom while I’ll be having sex."

"…Meow…", he really wanted his human to cancel it and… maybe he would suffer for a little, but he wouldn’t be with that jock! But it was too late, as Haizaki had already rang the doorbell and Aomine quickly went to open the door and let him in.

"Hey", Daiki smiled, already flustered by the heat getting to him. He was wet and leaking already and he really waited until the last moment before going back home.

"Ready? I’ve bought condoms", Shougo smiled, showing him the bag full of condoms.

"Yeah, thanks for doing it."

"No worries, I’m your boyfriend, aren’t I? That’s what boyfriends are supposed to do", Haizaki chuckled, undressing as he entered the apartment. "Although I don’t get what the nape cover is for."

"Incidentals, accidents and just a safety measurement."

"Sure."

Haizaki tsked as Aomine turned away. Asshole, if he wasn’t that cautious, everything would have been easier. But it was what it was, he couldn’t change it if he wanted to be believable. So bitterly, but with a fake reassuring smile, he dragged Daiki into the bedroom and fucked him for hours, for two and a half days straight. During all of this time, he also was forced to feed the stupid cat that threw at him those hateful stares that would make him gulp. He did not like the cat.

Chapter Text

Saturday morning Aomine woke up with Sei on his neck and Haizaki on his chest. But with no fever and no will to grind himself onto anything with a ledge. He untangled himself from the two bodies and wandered off to the kitchen to take the key out to defrost. So stupid, he thought, when he placed the box in the sink and put it in a bowl of warm water.

He checked what was in the fridge - Shougo hadn't went shopping while he was in heat, so there was only half a stick of butter, mayonnaise and one lonely can of fruit flavored beer. He dressed up and put on a turtleneck to hide the cover and went to the store. He bought some eggs, milk and a few other essentials, then returned to his apartment to make some breakfast for his boyfriend and cat.

He made some rice and once it was ready he fried it with some eggs. For Sei, he pulled out one of the jars with light broth he had stored earlier and made tofu soup with it. He placed everything on a tray with some coffee for Shougo, tea for him and water for Sei and he took everything to the bedroom. Upon placing the tray on the bedside table, Sei opened one eye and raised one ear, trying to figure out what made the noise. Then he undressed and got under the comforter to cuddle into Haizaki and wake him up.

"I made you breakfast", Daiki whispered, kissing his face.

"Mhh, as befits a good wife", Shougo replied, yawning. "What's for breakfast?"

"Fried egg with rice", Aomine replied. "And a coffee for you."

"Damn, I wanted pancakes."

Daiki lowered his head a little. Shit. He should have asked what he wanted instead of assuming... Now he would either have to remake it or Shougo would eat something he didn't enjoy.

"I— I can make you pancakes if you want", Aomine offered, gulping.

"Yeah, you better, I'm tired after fucking you for so long", Haizaki sighed.

Daiki nodded and took the tray back to the kitchen. He covered the bowl with foil and put it in the fridge - he would heat it up and eat it another day. Sei joined him rather quickly, leaving Shougo alone in the bedroom.

"You also want something different?", Daiki mumbled, holding Sei's bowl in his hands.

"Meow!", Sei negated, jumping at his hands to eat the breakfast. Aomine placed the bowl down on the counter and let him finish his meal while he quickly prepared pancakes. He placed all the burned ones on his plate and all the good ones on Haizaki's, then carried the meal back to the bedroom.

"The coffee's cold", Shougo frowned. "Geez, you suck at cooking."

"Sorry..."

"That's it? I was hoping for another one."

So Daiki returned to the kitchen and made him a new coffee, emptying the first one into the sink. Once he returned with the now hot drink, his breakfast wasn't hot anymore and his tea was room-temperature. But he ate with without complains while scratching Sei behind his ear once he laid down on his lap.

"Does the cat have to be with us in the bed?", Shougo huffed, drinking his coffee.

"... I'm not kicking him out. It's his bedroom as well", Daiki explained, holding Sei close. Haizaki tsked at that, but resumed drinking his coffee, then placed it on the tray together with the plate, expecting Daiki to take it and wash them.

And Aomine did, with Sei following him. By the time he was done, the key was unfrozen - he unlocked the box and then his collar finally came off his reddened neck. He massaged the area, frowning. He needed to call Kagami eventually and get back to work.

He wanted to take a shower and relax - he felt so sticky and disgusting after so many rounds, but he could feel the water running already - Shougo must have beat him to it. Maybe he would join him?

Aomine grabbed the door handle to the bathroom and gently tugged at it - locked. Right, why would he need to enter it anyway? Shougo clearly didn't want Daiki to join him during the shower. What was he thinking, his boyfriend had just spent so many hours with him non stop, of course he wanted some privacy. Aomine waited until the man left the bathroom, then he planned on taking one too, and then they could do something together, but Haizaki stopped him.

"I'll go home, now that your heat's finished", Shougo informed. "Talk to you later, babe."

With a fake smile on Aomine's face, he left a quick unrequited kiss on Haizaki's lips and then the man went towards the exit and left without looking back even one time.

Just lovely.

Aomine locked the door behind his boyfriend and went to take the shower. He curled up under the running water and sniffed. Haizaki was just tired, just as he was, it wasn't anything personal. They were both just tired.

When Daiki left the bathroom, he found Sei with his phone in front of the door. The cat pushed the device forward towards him and patted the screen to light it up. There was a missed call from Kagami. Aomine picked up the phone and called him back.

"Hey, how you're doing?", Taiga said softly. "I, uh, heard migraines are sometimes common after heat, so tell me if you need me to speak quieter."

Aomine felt like he wanted to cry. Haizaki was a good boyfriend, he really was. "No, don't worry, my head doesn't hurt."

"Oh, that's good", Kagami chuckled. "Everything's okay? You need me to bring you something?"

"Ah, no, that's okay", Daiki smiled. "It's over, I've been to the store already."

"You've been to the store? Shouldn't you be resting? Where's that boyfriend of yours?"

"Uh, he went home already", Aomine explained. "I've just finished a shower."

"I'll be there in a while", Kagami informed. "Go throw something on and rest, I'll clean the apartment for you a little, okay?"

Daiki sniffed and nodded. "Mhm."

He wasn't making a mistake, was he? Him picking Haizaki was a good choice, right?

Chapter Text

Daiki was sitting on his couch, curled up under a blanket. When the doorbell rang, Sei ran over to the door and grabbed the key. He went through his cat door and handed the keys to Taiga, who entered and closed the door behind himself. He checked up on Aomine, but upon seeing he was conscious and rather okay, he informed him that he would go clean the bedroom.

"Are you hungry?", Taiga mumbled, crouching next to the couch.

"I ate pancakes", Daiki explained.

"Could you sit up a little for a second? I'll brush your hair."

Aomine gulped, but he did sit up with his back towards Kagami. He gently moved the strands behind Daiki's ears with his fingers and brushed them out, trying his best not to tug them. Once he brushed the scalp, he grabbed the rest and held it tightly so as to use a little more strength for the ends. When he was done, he let go of them and ran the brush a few times to check if he got everything.

"I don't know how to do a braid, but I can make a ponytail, if you'd want", Taiga offered.

"You have a hair tie?", Daiki asked, turning around and looking behind his shoulder to stare right into Kagami's eyes.

"No, where do you keep them?"

"Bedside table. Might be in the drawers", Aomine updated him. Taiga gulped, he was so close, he looked so beautiful and his scent was still faintly present everywhere. He had to get a hold of himself - Aomine had a boyfriend. An asshole of a boyfriend, but he wasn't single.

If only Kagami wasn't such an idiot, if only he had realized earlier that Aomine was an omega - he probably would have confessed. He would have asked him out on a date and the boyfriend position would be his, instead of that bitch's.

Taiga went to the bedroom and found the bedside table. He kneeled down and opened the first drawer then gulped.

In front of him, there was a dozen if not more of sex toys. Dildos, vibrators, buttplugs, all in various shapes and sizes that he had never seen before.

He promptly closed that drawer and opened the second one, where there were hair ties amongst other things. He returned to the living room and put Daiki's hair in a low ponytail, covering his nape.

"They're soft", Taiga noticed.

"I'm doing my best", Aomine mumbled. "It's, uh, the new mask I've been using."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

So Daiki told him about his conditioners, shampoos and masks that he had, all while lying with his head on Kagami's lap, as he played with his hair and listened to everything Aomine had to say. Sei joined them quickly, snuggling into Daiki's chest and demanding the same kind of attention Taiga was giving his human.

"Are you hungry?", Kagami asked eventually. "I can make you food, I can run to the store to get you something."

"... There's leftover tamago gohan in the fridge", Aomine informed him. "And uh—, there's some broth too..."

"I'll make you something, anything you'd like."

"Even if I don't have the ingredients?"

"Even if I'd need to run to the market two kilometers away."

"I want a burger. With teriyaki sauce. And pineapple."

"Sure", Kagami smiled. "Do you have any ingredients or do I need to buy everything?"

"Uh, I think I have lettuce?"

"I'll run a quick checklist and go to the store, okay? Sleep if you're tired, I'll be right back."

"Mhm."

Kagami carefully got out from under Aomine and covered him and Sei with a blanket. He whispered something about borrowing a key and left the apartment. Daiki could really fall asleep here. He felt safe and comfortable, he really could just go to sleep and let Taiga do whatever he would like to.

Funny thing - he didn't know Taiga that long and he definitely was not that trusting (oh the lies!), but the alpha had something in him that made Daiki just melt next to him. He could just let the man do everything, use him like a doll and he trusted him that he would be safe and sound.

At some point he felt a heartbeat next to him and the warmth of another body. Kagami was cuddling him? Oh how lovely, just what he needed and wanted. Right it.

"Meow", Sei nudged at his cheek. Daiki opened one eye and yawned.

"What's up?", Aomine asked, sitting up a little. Weird, he was in his bedroom - the sheets were changed, it smelled nice and it was warm, Taiga probably turned the heating on.

"Meow", Sei jumped off the bed and turned around, expecting Daiki to follow him. The human sighed, but stood up and wrapped the blanket around himself to follow the cat to the kitchen.

"Oh, you're awake?", Kagami asked as he turned around and saw Aomine. "The food will be ready in maybe ten minutes."

"... You... You're really here", Daiki blinked slowly. "I thought it was a dream."

"And I'm making you teriyaki burgers", Taiga chuckled. Aomine sat down on the chair at the table and observed the alpha cooking. He navigated around with slight problems, not knowing exactly where anything was, but he was figuring it out. Sei meanwhile came towards the man and began rubbing his face on his ankles while purring softly.

Aomine hid his face in his arms. Even his cat picked a different man. What was he doing?! Was it really a good decision to date Haizaki?! He liked the man and he enjoyed their time together, but everything was screaming at him that he made a wrong choice. Including his fucking heart that was beating like crazy.

"I've cleaned that... uh, device thingy that was in the sink, by the way", Kagami said. "What's that for?"

"Nape cover", Aomine explained. "It physically blocks the nape from being bitten so you don't get accidentally mated during the heat."

"Oh", Taiga turned the stove off and assembled the burgers. "Did it work?"

"Well, yeah?"

"That's good."

Daiki smiled when Taiga placed the plate in front of him. He really got teriyaki burgers just like that, just because he requested it. It felt amazing, did Shougo also feel this way in the morning?

Aomine was in the middle of eating his first burger when he realized one thing - he fell asleep on the couch. Which meant that Kagami Taiga picked him up and carried him to his bed. And based on his memory of the alpha's heartbeat and the heat radiating from his body, it meant that he had been carried...

... bridal style.

Chapter Text

After the meal and the embarrassing discovery, Daiki really wanted to kick Taiga out, but it felt wrong - the alpha had taken care of him, cooked for him and cleaned the whole apartment.

"Do you want me to stay?", Kagami seemed to somehow read his mind.

"I—", Aomine's face was red. "Uh, fill me in on the recent news on the case."

"So, that omega, Takumi, got out of jail with a fine like the next day, Haruka most likely bribed a judge to see him earlier. Uh, we found some more pieces and the forensic team found a few fingerprints, they went to testing yesterday afternoon... Oh, and I'm pretty sure one broken window has signs of a break-in, but you'll have to confirm it."

"Woah", Daiki sat on the couch and patted the bed next to him so Taiga would join him. "I think I'm proud."

"Are you?!", Kagami smiled brightly.

"I think I'm gonna stop", Aomine smirked. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. He switched the channels until he found a replay of a NBA match. "Oh! Shit, didn't know there was a match..."

Kagami's eyes widened as he gulped. Shit. Fuck. Oh no. "Y-Yeah, the season is ending soon, though."

"... You watch basketball?", Daiki looked at him and his eyes sparkled.

"... Y-Yeah?", Taiga admitted not to proudly, scared of where it was going. Shit! He was going to get busted!

"You play too?!"

"... Y-Yeah...?"

"Okay, but are you any good? Or do you suck ass?", Aomine got closer to him and tilted his head.

"I'm the fucking best", Kagami frowned, mad at the omega questioning his skills.

"Yeah? Pla—", Daiki stopped mid-sentence. He hadn't played basketball since middle school. His smile faded as he got back in his seat. "Nevermind."

He stopped playing because it was too painful. Kagami might be telling him that he was amazing and he might be bragging but there was no way to say how good he actually was unless they played one on one. And Aomine made a promise to himself that he would never have anything to do with basketball.

Fucking hell, he forgot himself for a second when scrolling through the channels. Taiga asked him the question and he got dragged into it. His whole scheme of watching volleyball instead to put his mind somewhere else was invented so he would forget about basketball. And now one mention of the sport and he was sucked in.

Kagami meanwhile didn't know whether he should push the subject he wanted to end or should he just keep his mouth shut. But the sudden shift in mood made him worry.

"... I quit basketball a few months ago", Taiga said. "I haven't really played much since then."

"Anything special in your quitting?", Daiki gently pushed the subject.

"Knee injury", Kagami replied. "I was supposed to be in physio, but I quit it after a month. I returned home, packed my bags and moved to Japan."

"... You're an idiot", Aomine sighed. He sat sideways on the couch, facing Taiga. "Which knee?"

"Left", Taiga bit his lip. He turned a little as well - then Daiki placed his hand on his left knee and tugged at his leg until he made Taiga lay it on the couch, on Daiki's right thigh.

"What did you tear?", he asked, his fingers gently caressing the leg.

"Nothing, it was just irritated... Uh, palletal tendritis? Something like this."

"... Patellar tendonitis?"

"Yeah, I guess?", Kagami frowned.

"What the hell did you do to make patellar tendonitis be the end of you playing ball?", Aomine chuckled. "It's like... A cold in your knee. You can heal it with ice."

"I might have... ignored the doctor's orders...?", Taiga mumbled, embarrassed. Daiki's fingers on his leg didn't disappear, only making him worse.

"Idiot", Aomine chuckled softly, and his fingers were still on his knee. Someone just scored two points with a very nice dunk but Kagami's eyes were on someone else now.

"Yeah", he just agreed, as their faces were getting closer and closer.

"Have you been resting now? Taking care of it?", Daiki asked, his tone of voice getting softer. "Don't want you being in chronic pain because of a cold in your knee."

"Don't call it that, it was worse than a cold", Taiga frowned. "It hurt to walk."

"Yeah?", their faces got even closer and their noses touched. "Did you use crutches for that?"

"... No."

"Then no wonder it hurt."

"I've, uh, I've never used crutches", Kagami admitted. "I don't know how to use them."

"Bullshit", Aomine smiled. "Ain't no way you never got a broken leg as a kid."

"I've never broken any bone, actually", Taiga gulped. They were so close, like they were about to kiss! And their faces were angled just right, just a few more centimeters and their lips would touch! He could already feel Daiki's breath on his face!

"Seems like a boring childhood", Daiki bit his lip and wet it with his tongue.

"Yeah? You need to have broken bones for have an interesting childhood?"

"I've broken four and I turned out fine."

"How did you break four bones?", Taiga tilted his head a little bit more. The hold on his knee moved higher onto his thigh.

"One time when I was three I assumed my bike-riding abilities were better than they actually were and I might have decided to use a slide as a dirt bike course...", Aomine began, as his hand traveled further and further.

"I'd love to see that."

"Unfortunately, my dad has picture of it. In the exact moment I'm falling of the slide", he chuckled. "The second time was in kindergarten when the teacher decided it was a good idea to let five-year-olds run unattended around a huge climbing wall."

"Did you fall from it?", Kagami frowned - it wasn't funny, it was dangerous.

"No, we made a challenge who would get to the top and down first and one kid didn't like that I won, so he smashed my head against the wall in revenge", Aomine admitted. "I had a broken jaw and could only eat liquids for like a month."

"They wired it shut?"

"No, it would affect the bone growth and it wasn't that severe, but they put something in that held it in place until it healed", Daiki explained. "Similar to how a year later I had a broken rib, they also left it alone with nothing but a bandage."

"Did that also happen because of bullying?"

"Kinda... One girl called me ugly, then she and her friends opened a window and pushed me through it. I fell like a meter or two and landed onto rocks. Had a few bruises and a broken rib."

"What's up with that? No one did anything about the bullying?"

"My parents sued and they put me in a different class", Aomine closed his eyes for a moment. "The fourth break was when I was eight. I had a broken leg."

"Someone hurt you again?"

"No, I stepped wrong while playing streetball."

Kagami chuckled. Their faces were now mere millimeters apart and Taiga wanted to move forward to close the gap. Eventually he got the courage to do so and ajared his eyes a little before moving closer.

Chapter Text

Kagami could swear he felt Aomine's lips against his right as he felt Aomine's hand on his chest, pushing him away.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not a cheater", he bit his lip and looked to the side. "I can't."

Taiga moved away as well and sat up straight on the couch, facing the TV. He took his leg off Daiki's lap and placed it back on the floor. "Sorry", he mumbled. "I shouldn't have... tried."

After a moment of silence, Aomine pointed at the screen and said: "A foul."

"Yeah", Kagami gulped. "Uh, and why did you stop playing ball?"

Daiki stayed silent, biting the inside of his cheek. Taiga had told him, he should share his side too, but what if the guy would think of him as a whimp? It was so stupid compared to his reason, maybe he should lie?

"Depression", Daiki wasn't a liar.

"... Are you okay now?", Taiga asked, his eyes wide open at the sudden confession. He did not expect that!

"Uh, yeah", he replied.

"Meds helped you?"

"I've never been on meds", Daiki sighed.

"Why?"

"I ignored the doctor's orders."

"Oh so when I do it it's wrong, but when you do it it's okay?", Kagami turned do his side again and raised one eyebrow.

"There's a difference between sitting on your ass for two weeks because you have a hurt knee and can't walk and taking emotion-draining pills for the fate knows how many years in hopes of them making you so numb to everything that death won't feel like a solution anymore!"

"You wanna die?", Kagami asked with fear in his voice.

"Not really anymore, I guess", Aomine shrugged. "I've managed with therapy."

"It sounds cheesy but you can talk to me if you need someone to talk to."

"Damn, boy, already jumping to the role of my therapist?", Daiki chuckled. "I have my personal therapist already."

"Your boss?", Taiga smiled, resting comfortably. A break started in the match but they weren't really watching it anymore.

"Yeah", he admitted, a little embarrassed. "She's... a great friend."

They stayed together for a little more and then Taiga heated up the tamago gohan from the fridge and made some bacon to it. They ate it together with Sei at the table, who enjoyed his own food. After that, Taiga cleaned up the dishes and wanted to leave, but Sei forced him to a round of cuddles and playtime.

"I really gotta go now, though", Kagami said when Sei tugged at his sleeve, not letting him stand up from the sofa.

"Baby, we can't make Kagami miss his train", Aomine picked up the cat and placed him in his arms, then kissed his head.

"Meow..."

They waved goodbye to the alpha and as soon as the doors closed Aomine fell to his knees and screamed, squeezing Sei so hard the cat thought he would choke. The omega was all red on his face and after a few seconds he just fell to his side, ending up curled up on the ground, with Sei still in his arms.

"I can't cheat on Shougo with him", he said. "That's not fair."

"Meeeoooow!", Sei noticed - he could just break up with Haizaki! No problem!

"Yeah, but... I like Shougo", Daiki mumbled. "He's my boyfriend, I care about him."

Oh for fuck's sake, that guy didn't even appreciate you making him breakfast after your heat!, Sei rolled his eyes. But his human was so incredibly stupid he honestly wasn't that surprised about that reasoning.

Yes, because an alpha that's so dogshit about being an alpha that another alpha has to do their job is worth the time. Sei really couldn't believe his human sometimes. Kagami literally done everything that Haizaki should have but for some reason he still wasn't the better boyfriend material. Sei had troubles believing Daiki was a materialist and a gold digger, but he also couldn't understand the reasoning in his stupid bird brain.

But Sei had a mission to matchmake them and he wants going to stop - he would start on Monday, when he would follow Aomine to his work, hide in the car and travel to where Kagami was. And from there, he would find the alpha's address and the way back home.

This would be enough to actually start making some progress.

Haizaki meanwhile enjoyed his time in his house with a whiskey glass in his hand, some porn on the TV and his dick in his hand. The pheromones he had inhaled made him still be in the mood, but he got bored of the omega. Such an annoying brat, Shougo got really pissed off by the nape cover. He hoped for a quick bite, making Daiki his for the rest of his life - it would be so much easier to continue with what he meant to do.

And that fucking cat! If Haizaki could throw him out the balcony, he would! He wasn't the keenest on animals to behind with and that stupid cat was pissing him off more than he ever thought a cat could!

He gulped the rest of his whiskey in one go and placed the glass on the table. The omega woman on the screen moaned loudly as she was getting pounded by a female alpha. He loved female on female sex. Tits jumping with every move, plumpy asses getting squeezed and those glorious moans. Ah, if only Daiki had them tits. Even if they would have been small it wouldn't have been a problem, Shougo would just pay for a surgery to make them D-cups.

He actually thought about suggesting a surgery to Aomine, but not a boob job - some lifts here and there, maybe some filling, liposuction, maybe some butt implants if they were really pushing it, but Daiki's ass wasn't that bad. It wasn't exactly up to his preference, but he would live with it.

If he were to be honest, Aomine was a horrible omega - he was muscular, tall, kind of an asshole, sly and sneaky, with being fucking mixed or something on top of that. Shougo felt disgusting every time he had to touch him and acting like a nonchalant gentlemen of a boyfriend in front of him was becoming harder and harder with every meeting. At least he tried being a good wife and cooked for him, but that often came out either disgusting or he made something Haizaki simply didn't want to eat at the moment.

And the fact that the cat has to be everywhere where he was? It was pissing him off even more.

He poured more whiskey into his glass and changed the video to something else. He got bored of vanilla.

Chapter Text

Monday. Such a beautiful day. Aomine was back at work, he was picking up Kagami from the station to go finish up the investigation, Sei was sitting curled up in his car after he snuck in when Daiki opened the door and dropped his keys, Kagami was in good mood after spending the whole day with Aomine and Haizaki was still pissed at him having to pretend to be into Daiki.

The investigation wrapped up quickly - fingerprints were found and confirmed to belong to Takumi, the omega Haruka was cheating with on her wife, as well as they found signs of damage to one window frame that wasn't done by the explosion but by someone breaking in. A few more camera footages here and there to confirm Takumi drove in the direction of the house instead of Haruka's apartment and one certain nosy neighbor said she did saw a car matching the descriptions of Takumi's car park near her house because she even yelled at him not to leave it there - moreover, she even had the plate number wrote down.

One simple court date later and Takumi was in prison for destruction of property and a murder attempt. And even Haruka bribing the judge didn't help, as she got prosecuted as well for bribing police officers and court workers as well as the years of domestic abuse.

So a good ending - the two bad guys ended up in prison and the older gentleman got enough money to buy himself a house if he wanted to. Or rent something for the rest of his life. Or just had enough to life off and still give a huge lot to his omega son.

"Detective!", the omega son in question ran up to him once the trial ended. He immediately hugged him and whispered right into his ear: "Thank you. Mom would have never sued if it wasn't for you..."

Yeah, the man also got a divorce with Haruka at fault. The only part that wasn't a lovely ending was the scarred mating bite on the man's neck, caused by Haruka rejecting him as her mate. But he also got enough money for a lifelong amount of rejection suppressant meds that would make it more bearable. If only he wished to take them - but it was his choice.

"Your welcome", Daiki whispered back. "Take care of your mother, he's gonna need all the help he can get. Especially with your siblings disagreeing with everything that had happened."

"I know."

The omega smiled at him and took a step back. He then turned to Kagami who stayed slightly away from them to give them some privacy and bowed deeply.

"Thank you, inspector", he said. "Really, thank you so much, the two of you."

"Your husband is waiting", Daiki pointed out, signalling at the alpha behind them.

"Right. Take care", the omega turned around to leave, but he stopped for a moment to tell them the final words. "You two really make a great couple."

And with that, he as gone, jumping into his husband's arms from happiness. Aomine chuckled as he turned around to return to the car.

"... He knows we're not dating, right? He meant «a couple» as in work partners, right...?", Taiga asked once they were in the car.

"I have no clue", Daiki admitted.

"So there might be a guy who thinks we're dating, great."

"Yeah... I sometimes have a feeling a lot more people assume that, for some reason..."

"Weird."

They both bursted out laughing and then proceeded to spend fifteen minutes trying to calm down before they could drive away. They were still chuckling while Daiki drove towards Taiga's apartment and only when they stopped on the parking lot they stayed calm for a few seconds.

"Make it home safe, will ya?", Kagami smiled. "Thanks for the ride."

"Don't die in the elevator", Aomine chuckled. The alpha left the car and closed the door. He went up the stairs and found the red bundle of fur next to the elevator. He crouched and picked it up, then entered the elevator and took it to the highest floor.

While he was opening the door to his apartment, the bundle woke up and looked at jom with those huge red eyes.

"Meow", Sei said, jumping onto the floor. "Meow."

"I still don't get while you're here", Taiga sighed. "And how."

"Meow", Sei frowned. Of course he walked, he only know how to take the train to Daiki's work. He still didn't know which train to take to get here. And don't get him started on the trains back.

"Aomine's gonna be looking for you", Kagami pointed out. "You should go home."

"Meow."

"Yeah, I'll get you something to eat and go back."

"Meow."

Kagami ended up giving him some fish and water then after some scratches the cat agreed to leave. Taiga walked him to the elevator and pressed the button for him, then waved goodbye to Sei as the doors closed.

The first time Sei had visited him, he screamed in fear. Maybe he wouldn't have been that surprised if it wasn't for the fact that he realized the cat had been following him only when he locked the door behind himself and began taking off his shoes. And Sei was just there, sitting in his corridor, watching him.

(In reality, Sei had been following him since Daiki dropped him off at the station, he was in the car as well and while they were taking a moment to say goodbye, he just left the car unnoticed. After that, he walked with Kagami, into the elevator and then into his apartment before getting noticed.)

A week had passed since the first time Sei had visited him and Kagami kind of got used to the short visits of the cat. Okay, he was just happy Aomine's cat liked him - it felt like some sort of leverage over Shougo.

Unless Sei liked Haizaki as well. Then he was screwed. Then he couldn't even get the cat to choose him over Daiki's current boyfriend.

Chapter Text

Aomine woke up to Sei in his stomach. The cat was making biscuits on it and once he realized his human was awake he screamed at him and ran away. What the hell was his problem?

It was March already - it was getting warm and Daiki didn't mind leaving his home with one jacket instead of twenty three. Sei wandered off a lot and some neighbors saw him use the elevator and found it cute (he even got a letter on his door saying how one neighbor always went out to work around the same time Sei was leaving so they always used the elevator together, she also said how it was the best part of her day and how every evening she went to sleep hoping to hear Sei's good morning when she entered the elevator.)

One day Sei also returned wearing a scarf and socks made out of wool and a note saying that he got it from that older lady who lived on the second floor because Sei sometimes kept her company.

"How in the fuck did you meet more neighbors in four months than I did in five years?", Daiki frowned as he checked the amount of letter and notes he was getting from his neighbors about the cat.

"Meow", Sei shrugged. Right, because Aomine was gonna believe that explanation.

He picked up yet another note from the floor that was dropped in through the mail and opened it. "Sei, how did you help an older guy carry his groceries?!"

"Meeeooooow~!"

This was how a usual day of Aomine household looked like. Sei did something not cat-like again, Daiki either scolded him for it or straight up asked him how, Sei somehow talked back as if he was human and Daiki somehow understood as if he was a cat.

One day was different, but it was late April already. When Daiki woke up to make them breakfast, instead of going to the toilet and taking a leak, he ran in and ended up face first in the bowl, vomiting profusely.

Sei quickly ended up next to him, pressing his paw against Daiki's thigh as he coughed and vomited more. He gagged once more and wiped his tears off, trying to asses the situation.

"Meow...?", Sei pushed a water bottle all the way towards him from the kitchen.

"Thanks, man."

He drank a little and spit it out after cleaning his mouth. A few more times and he decided he was good to stand up.

"Meow?", Sei followed him.

"I'm okay, I guess I just ate something bad... Don't know, I felt okay yesterday!"

"Meow!"

"I don't need to go to the hospital for vomiting once. I'll be okay."

"Meow..."

Aomine was right - he didn't vomit again for the rest of the day, even at the date with Shougo. Which went wrong everywhere it could go wrong. Haizaki accidentally put the reservation on a wrong day, the cinema was temporarily closed due to renovations, a different restaurant they went to was full and it started raining when they decided to go for a walk. So they ended up going to Shougo's house.

Which would be the first time Daiki was there. Call him an idiot - three months of dating if not more (I actually lost track of their plot, I should really write it down somewhere) and it was the first time he was going to be there. He was excited and smiled all the way there.

"Are you like, ultra rich?", Aomine mumbled with his eyes wide open as they pulled out to the huge mansion.

"Kind of?", Haizaki smirked. "Is it bad?"

"... I mean, I knew you had some money, you drive a Maybach", Daiki tensed up. "But I was thinking higher middle class. Not... Not mansion-owner type of rich."

"Is it bad?", Shougo repeated with a lesser smile.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Cool."

Haizaki didn't have a lot of things to entertain Daiki - most of the things he did at home included basic human needs, masturbation and work - for cleaning or cooking he had illegal immigrants, for sex he had Daiki and whores, for work he had people, so technically all he did was masturbate.

They could just fuck - they had been doing it more lately and Shougo had a huge room just for masturbation and hoes, he could bring Aomine in there as well.

And so fifteen minutes later they were on the couch, Aomine was moaning while Haizaki held his head down into the cushions, and his hips up for a better ankle.

It wasn't exactly a comfortable position for him to be in, in fact Daiki much more preferred a hundred different positions before this one. He had no support, his legs trembled, his back hurt and his face rubbed onto the couch, burning his skin. Shougo didn't seem to care as he pounded his pussy and slapped his ass once in a while to make him clench tighter.

"I wanna fuck your ass", Haizaki chuckled, spreading Aomine's buttocks with his thumb and revealing the anus.

"Not dry—!"

"Too late~", he smiled as he pulled out and immediately pushed into the ass. Daiki screamed in pain as he tried to get away but the alpha held him tight. After the excruciating ten minutes, a knot filled Aomine's rectum and his guts began to fill with cum.

"You knotted?!", Aomine frowned, turning his head around to look at his boyfriend. "Seriously?!"

"Couldn't restrain myself, you look so hot", Shougo laughed - of course he lied, he preferred fucking Daiki from behind so he wouldn't see his ugly face. It made sex so much better, Daiki couldn't see him either so he didn't have to pretend that he was enjoying it.

"Ah— fuck", Aomine tried to get his face off the cushions but his legs and arms couldn't hold his weight anymore. Haizaki huffed at that view, the omega looked like a fucking worm, like a slave running away from imprisonment but still being tied up.

Now he was into hardcore, shit. And the sluts took extra for that...

Chapter Text

Aomine was sore after the date but he found the sex nice - who wouldn't? He was fucked raw, creampied, knotted and pounded into tomorrow. He went to sleep with a delicate smile on his face and he woke up with the same face in the toilet again.

Sei rolled the water bottle to him again and with a concerned look on his face, he nudged at Daiki's thigh.

"I'm okay", Aomine said with a smile, then puked again. Sei didn't believe him, so he grabbed Daiki's phone and handed it to him. He should call someone. Kagami for example, the alpha would know how to take care of him. Sei didn't like him at first but he was a good guy after all, caring and everything.

"Meow", Sei said. He should call Kagami. Kagami would take care of him.

But Daiki instead dialed Haizaki's number. He waited for the man to pick up and he did so with an annoyed groan - right, it was early, around five in the morning, Shougo must have been sleeping.

"I don't feel well", Aomine explained.

"So our date's cancelled?"

"Yeah, I guess?"

"Gotcha", and with that, Shougo hung up on him. Daiki closed his eyes and put the phone away as he felt yet another vomit coming. While he cleaned out his stomach, Sei got mad at him for calling that jock instead of Taiga and he began clicking the same buttons Aomine had clicked before, except now he clicked on «Kagami» instead of «Shougo». Then Daiki always pressed this button here to make it louder and boom! Done!

"Hey, what's up?", Taiga asked through the speaker with a yawn. Daiki frowned and looked at the phone and Sei standing over it for a second before he vomited again.

"Meow!"

"... Sei?"

"Meow!"

"What are those noises?"

"... It's me", Daiki managed to say. "I don't feel good."

"Do you need me to go there? I can be there in like ten minutes, I'll call a cab", Taiga was already out of the bed and dressing up, they could tell by the background noises.

"I'm just vomiting, it's okay."

"I have an afternoon shift today, I'll be there in ten minutes. Did you call your boss already?"

"I plan on going to work", Daiki explained.

"My ass, you're not going anywhere, it's Friday, tell her you're vomiting and take a sick day."

"I don't have sick days, it's Japan, you go to a doctor and they give you a note saying you can't work", Aomine explained. "But one day off is not enough to get a doctor's note."

"Then call your boss and tell her you're not coming unless she wants vomits on the fifth floor."

With that, Kagami hung up and ran to the taxi stand next to his apartment complex and got in. Just like he said, nine minutes later he was paying the driver and running into Aomine's building. Meanwhile, Daiki did call Satsuki and told her about his stomach problems. She said she would get him on half a day off, unpaid, for now and if it got better he could go in for the rest if he wanted to, if not, she would mark the whole day as unpaid.

The doorbell rang soon after Momoi wished him to get well. Sei passed the key out to Kagami and then led him to the bathroom where Aomine was sitting on the floor, all pale and green on his face, with his hair, face and hands in vomits and his eyes tearing down.

"I'll help you wash it off, okay? Do you need to vomit more?", Taiga asked, gently patting his back.

"No", Daiki replied. He let Kagami drag him under the shower and undress him, leaving him only in his underwear. The alpha set the water temperature and gently began washing his skin with a sponge. Firstly fis face, then his neck and hands, finally followed by his hair. He rinsed it, washed it with a shampoo and once they weren't leaking anymore he began his search for a conditioner. Daiki told him to use a mask, so he did. He then wrapped Daiki in a towel, asked him to take the wet underwear off and carried him to the living room, where he placed him on the sofa. He then went to find some clothes for Daiki so he wouldn't sit naked with him in the room. He got back with a t-shirt and sweatpants, then helped him put them on, all while being considerate of not touching him where it would be inappropriate.

"You have like a bowl or something? For you to vomit into if you'll need to?", Kagami asked, searching through the cupboards.

"In the bathroom, there's the one for laundry."

Kagami went to the bathroom to look for it. He eventually found it and brought it to Daiki, then grabbed a brush to help Aomine get a hold of his hair. He left it wet to air dry since Daiki didn't need to go to work for now.

"What would you like for breakfast?", Taiga asked, searching through the cabinets to find some meds, maybe a thermometer? There it was! He returned to the sofa and aimed it at Aomine's forehead, waited for the beep and... Thirty six point seven.

"Uh, I don't know...", Daiki hummed. "Something light?"

"Maybe just some sandwiches?", Kagami suggested. "I'll run to the store and buy some fresh buns or bread."

"Yeah, sounds nice", Aomine smiled. "Will you eat with me?"

"Sure", Taiga bit his cheek on the inside to stop himself from smiling and jumping in the place. He was so happy! Aomine not only called him when he was feeling bad but he also let Kagami take care of him, wash him, cook for him, everything! And Sei was on his side too!

While Kagami was getting ready to leave, Aomine's phone rang - it was still next to the toilet, so Taiga picked it up. "Your boss is calling!"

"Pick it up on speaker", Daiki replied, and Taiga followed his will.

As soon as the call started, Momoi screamed: "AOMINE DAIKI, ARE YOU PREGNANT?"

Chapter Text

Aomine froze and moved up to look at Kagami with his eyes wide open. He gulped, swallowed the vomits in his throat and his lips began to tremble.

"... No?", he said, almost a whisper.

"Dai-chan, when was your last heat? Ten weeks ago?", Satsuki continued and Taiga got closed to him to hand him the phone. Daiki instead grabbed his hand and kept him close for a moment.

"Nine weeks", he said. "We... We used condoms."

"Did you make sure none of them broke?", Momoi asked.

"I—... I don't know—", he sobbed. "Oh fuck—"

"Do the test", she said. "Then worry."

Momoi hung up and Kagami placed the phone on the coffee table in front of the couch. He sat down next to Daiki's legs on the sofa and gulped.

"I'll buy you a test."

"A few different ones..."

"Okay, I'll buy you a few tests."

The moments of waiting for Kagami's return as well as for the test to show results were the worst. He was panicking, he wanted to vomit again, Taiga tried to calm him down while Daiki just sat there and sobbed.

"It's probably just a stomach bug, it'll go away on its own and that's it!", Kagami tried to explain. "Really, or maybe it's a virus or a parasite—"

"I'm pregnant", Aomine whispered, looking at the test.

"You're not, it's just a—"

"No. I am. It's positive."

"... What?"

The test clearly showed two lines. Two very red, very bright and very visible lines. Kagami grabbed the two more that were on the table. Each of them was positive.

He was pregnant.

"I'm gonna have an abortion", Aomine decided.

"You don't wanna take a moment to think about it?", Kagami asked. "I mean... It's Haizaki's kid, yeah? You sure about it? You two are dating and all, and I get that you didn't plan kids now, but—"

"We've been together for like four months!", Daiki cried out. "It's too early... We're not even mates!"

"I know", Taiga sighed.

He hated it. He hated that Aomine was pregnant with that asshole because it was going to be even harder for them to break up now. It wasn't that he wished misfortune to them, but he hoped their relationship would end. And now? With Daiki being pregnant?

He actually kind of was down for the abortion plan - no more baby, no more reason to stick with Shougo. But he wanted what was best for Daiki. And if he was acting irrational and impulsive, it was in the best interest of both of them to slow down and decide logically what should be done.

And if Aomine ended up keeping the fetus, he would be all the support the omega would need, proving his stupid boyfriend useless. And he would then love the baby as his own if he would be given the chance.

Yeah, that was the best course of action.

Sei jumped onto the sofa and climbed onto Daiki's lap. He placed his head down on his stomach and purred.

"... You knew", Daiki realized, looking at the cat. "You fucking knew. You've been spending so much time on my stomach because you fucking knew!"

"Meow~", Sei looked up at him and relaxed. Kagami was here so it was okay, Daiki was safe with the alpha. And Taiga could take care of the baby, together with Aomine and him! So Haizaki wasn't even needed!

"I'll go make you something to eat", Kagami said, standing up from the floor. "... You might want to call your boyfriend and tell him. Or just get the abortion and keep him in the unknown."

"I'm hungry."

Kagami went to the kitchen to make some sandwiches for them, while Aomine stayed silent, observing the test in his hands. He then found his phone and just texted Shougo «we need to talk, call me asap». Taiga was right - even if he wanted to have an abortion, maybe Shougo would love to have a kid and they would manage. Somehow. Even if Daiki had doubts.

Aomine wanted to have kids, he really did. But not with a boyfriend he had known for four months. His plan involved firstly getting married, then having kids, not the other way around.

"Here", Kagami gave him a plate. "How're you feeling?"

"Physically, better", Aomine sighed. "I don't know what to do."

"Whatever you pick, I'll support you."

"Thanks, Kags", Daiki smiled, moving his legs closer so Taiga could sit more comfortable. Then, he placed his legs over Kagami's thighs and let him place his plate on Daiki's legs. As soon as Taiga wanted to strike a conversation, Daiki's phone rang.

Shougo.

"We need to talk", Aomine said as soon as he picked up.

"Yeah, you literally texted me that", Haizaki replied, annoyed.

"I... I don't know if it's something I should be telling you over the phone—"

"Tell me now or I'll hung up, don't fucking elongate something that doesn't have to be elongated, I don't have all day."

"I'm pregnant."

"Oh", Shougo tried his best to sound surprised. Aomine better be, Haizaki made holes in twenty condoms for a reason. "Cool."

"That's it?!", Daiki frowned. "Really?!"

"Yeah? I want kids, you want kids, you're pregnant, we're gonna have kids. Boom, where's the problem?"

"We've been dating for four months!", Aomine screamed. "I was thinking about an abortion!"

"Don't even say that word to me ever again", Haizaki hissed.

"You're... against it?", Daiki's eyes widened.

"Of course I am! It's a murder!", Shougo yelled. Of course he wasn't, he sometimes raped people left and right and forced them to have an abortion afterwards, it was a blessing, really. But not when his plan involved babytrapping.

"... Okay."

Aomine placed his phone away and looked at the sandwiches on the plate that lied on top of Sei. Kagami's hand appeared on his shin, squeezing it gently for support.

"He doesn't want the abortion", he filled Taiga in.

"Okay, but do you want the abortion?"

"... I don't know anymore."

"Dude, it's like... your decision."

"I know, but... It's his kid, too. And I don't wanna lose him."

Bullshit, thought both Sei and Kagami at the same time.

Chapter Text

Daiki went back to work after half a day and immediately was called into Satsuki's office. He slowly sat down on the chair in front of her and gulped.

"Can I do overtime for the hours I've missed?", Aomine asked silently.

"You have like twenty hours of overtime, I can use those for fill in for the four hours you've missed", Momoi informed him. "Dai-chan."

"You were right", he admitted. "I'm pregnant."

"... What now?"

"I... I don't know? A doctor?", he took a deep breath. "An ultrasound?"

"You're keeping it?", she frowned. "Are you sure?"

"I guess?"

He took the case documents and left the office. He entered his own and flopped down onto the chair. He had to find a doctor. He began looking through the case, some dead wife found at home, all he had to do was just get the body, do the necropsy and he would most likely found the husband's prints and done.

He stood up to get to work - the body was already in the lab, so he just needed to get in, do the work and then done. Some questioning maybe.

"Dai-chan", she entered and passed him a note. "He's a good doctor, if you don't have someone in mind already."

"... Thanks."

The case was this simple. The fingerprints were found on the body, the marks made by the weapon were clearly visible and the cause of death was straight up known. The husband was nowhere to be found and he was the main suspect, so Aomine only had to find him and arrest him.

A few calls here and there, credit card checks, car registration, and boom, the stupid dude drove foo quick in front of a speed camera ten minutes earlier and got busted the same day by a different police unit. His fingerprints matched and Daiki had yet another record speed arrest in his account.

He also had a baby in his uterus and a doctor to call.

It was going to be okay, he wanted to believe. He wanted to believe everything would be fine. He was twenty-eight, four months into a relationship and was pregnant. Wasn't that what he craved for? What he had always wanted? To have a husband and a child?

Then why was he so unhappy?

It was supposed to be the exciting moment that he had always wanted to happen in his life. A positive pregnancy test in his hand was supposed to be better than any birthday party, than any Christmas or any school festival. It was supposed to the best day of his life, he was supposed to be so happy.

And instead? He started in silence at the test. He was alone, Sei went out somewhere again and he wished the cat was home. He just wished he could feel... something. Anything. Just... just anything.

It didn't even need to be happiness. He could feel anger, sadness, misery, fear, anything. Literally anything. As long as he felt something. Just as long as there was a spark of emotions.

Was he broken?

He wanted a kid. He really did, his whole point of life was just to have a kid, he did everything he could. He tried his best to look good, he exercised to keep fit, he took care of himself, he styled his clothes, he studied hard, because he was an idiot, he learned cooking, he even learned that goddamned cleaning! Cleaning! Him! He learned how to do laundry, how to wash the floors, how to clean the dust, how to clean the windows. Everything!

And nothing worked. He was single, miserable and alone. Sei was a great companion, don't get him wrong. He was glad he had the cat. But it wasn't a baby and it wasn't a husband.

Haizaki was the first alpha who took interest in him. He was the first one to take him out on a date, the first one to buy him flowers, the first one to call him pretty and the first one to be his boyfriend. He had everything he wanted, he had a boyfriend, probably soon-to-be husband, he was going to have a kid, he could have a perfect house, a perfect husband, a perfect kid, a perfect cat and a perfect job. Everything could be so perfect. He had everything he ever craved for.

Then why was he so... blank? So emotionless, so... empty?

His phone rang when he was sitting on the ground in his genkan, with his back against the door. It was Satsuki. She wanted to know if he had called the doctor and made an appointment. He didn't even know if Shougo wanted to go, so he called him first.

"I don't care about the visit, baby", he said. "I'll pay for the visit, pick a nice doctor."

He didn't know what to do. Should he call Satsuki and ask? How would the appointment look like?

"Hey", Kagami's soothing voice calmed him down a little. Aomine had no clue why he called him.

"I need to make an appointment... With, uh, the doctor", he started.

"Uh, that's the wrong number then", Taiga chuckled. "... Everything's okay?"

"Yeah", he lied. "Yeah, I just... Shougo doesn't want to go."

"I'll go with you if you're scared."

"... That's stupid."

"You wanna or no?"

Aomine gulped. "What time is okay for you?"

"Uh, I'll send you my schedule in a sec", Kagami promised. "I don't have night shifts, but there are a few afternoon ones."

"Oi, Kags", Daiki took a deep breath. He tilted his head back until it hit the door. "Thank you", he whispered, then hung up.

He closed his eyes. There was a baby in his uterus. A baby that he was going to give birth to. A baby that would grow into a human being. A baby that he had with... with Shougo.

"Meow!", he felt something push against his back and he moved away from the door. The mechanism he had created with some help of a few strangers swung open and a red cat jumped through it, then happily ran over to him upon realizing Daiki was there.

"Where have you been this time...?", the omega chuckled, taking the cat in his arms. "Stay home for a little more now, Sei..."

"Meow", Sei promised, closing his eyes and cuddling in.

Chapter Text

"Good morning", Shougo mumbled while passing by the bathroom.

"Morning", Daiki replied between vomits. "Can you get me some water?"

"Yeah."

Haizaki entered in with a glass in his hand and placed it on the ground next to Aomine. They were in his house (or rather, mansion) and after a date that ended with sex the omega stayed for the night under the promise that he would get a ride to work in the morning. Shougo wasn't exactly happy about that, he had to wake up so early in the morning to drive that bastard to work.

And now it was five forty three and instead if sleeping Haizaki was running to get that bitch some water, woken up by the sounds of vomiting.

"Thank you", Aomine looked up at him and smiled. He had bags under his eyes and looked miserable. Completely unattractive, Shougo had no clue how he even got an erection the day before.

"No prob", Haizaki left the bathroom - he wanted to puke just by looking at Daiki.

Aomine closed the door and then got himself looking presentable and left to make them both breakfast. Shougo was already in the kitchen drinking his morning coffee.

"Anything specific?", Aomine asked, opening the fridge. It was full, like always, so there was no problem in figuring out something.

"Katsudon", Haizaki said.

"... For breakfast? Now?", Daiki's eyes widened. "It's... I don't think I can make it?"

"Shame", Shougo sighed. "Omelette then."

This was going to be a stressful day. Not be use of the morning with his boyfriend, or because of his work, or because of lack of Sei for moral support. No. Today was the day he was going to the doctor to confirm his pregnancy.

"You sure you're not going with me?", Daiki asked Shougo once again just before he went out of the car.

"Why would you need me there? You think I wanna see how a doctor is rummaging in between of your legs?", Haizaki frowned. Aomine nodded and grabbed the handle. "... You want me to drive you there?"

"No", he left the car and closed the door behind himself.

He entered his office and sighed. He lost track of time, he lived hour to hour since the pregnancy test, barely conscious. He flipped down onto his chair and started the computer. It was May already, he realized and banged his head on the desk counter.

"The day barely started and it's already this bad?", a voice said - the door had closed with a silent click and footsteps carried the person to the other desk in the room.

Aomine raised his head and looked at the visitor. "Ryou!"

"Good morning, Aomine-san", the brunette chuckled. He left his bag on his desk and walked over to the wall to check it out. "Oh, a new grand case?"

"Yeah", Daiki confirmed. "Yakuza. Double murder."

"Ew", Ryou frowned. "Sorry."

"How's your life been? You returned after like half a year of maternity leave, you owe me at least that."

"That little shitling finally got old enough to be left with a nanny", Ryou frowned and Aomine could see the veins twitching on his forehead. "Uh, I mean, sorry, I finally could go back to work. Missed you, Aomine-san."

"Mhm, and Imayoshi was just as happy, I bet", Daiki smirked. "What's your husband's problem with me?"

"He's bitter you're better than him", Ryou admitted. "Sorry. You didn't hear it from me."

"Sakurai Ryou, you and your irony", Aomine sighed in a theatrical pleasure that mutely said «I'm glad you're back».

"I haven't been a Sakurai for the past three years. You were my maid of honor, Aomine-san."

"I met you as a Sakurai, you're gonna stay a Sakurai in my heart."

"Romantic", Sakurai sarcastically sighed. "Anything new in your life? «Nothing», as always?"

"... Actually, there's... there's a few things, but I gotta keep some of them a secret for a little bit more."

"What the fuck?", Ryou turned around to face him, finally. "Sorry. What the fuck?"

"So, about the case—"

He filled Sakurai in on everything he knew, he showed him photos of the bodies and the wounds, the site and explained the details. Ryou listened to everything and provided feedback.

Eventually, they left together to walk around the area and maybe get a better idea for more clues. And after some time, their legs led them to a cafe for a lunch break.

"Did you run any fingerprints in the database?", Sakurai asked, drinking his coffee.

"You think I'm an idiot?"

"... Sorry."

"Asshole."

Aomine was glad Ryou returned from his leave. Working on collaborations wasn't something he hated but having his partner back meant doing cases that sometimes could include taking his gun out of the holster.

Sakurai Ryou was a man four years older than him, who insisted on calling Daiki senpai instead of the other way around. Ryou was a detective and if you looked at him there was no way your first thought of his education path was military. Sakurai became a detective in a slightly different way than Aomine did - whereas Daiki finished forensics and detective was his starting point, Ryou started as a rookie and climbed his way up the ladder until three years ago he joined Aomine as a partner following his promotion.

And honestly, Daiki couldn't ask for a better partner. Okay, one thing he hated in Ryou - his husband, whom be met when they were engaged, Imayoshi Shouichi. That guy was his nightmare. He honestly disliked him, but he knew when to shut his mouth so as not to make Ryou mad. Because Sakurai (who was now Imayoshi, but Aomine refused to call him that) was his friend and he wouldn't dare to make him mad.

Mad Sakurai Ryou was scary. Daiki honestly felt sorry for his two kids.

"Aomine-san, what are you doing today after work?", Sakurai asked.

"I'm busy, why?"

"Hm, and tomorrow?"

"Are you trying to sell me your kids?"

"... Sorry?"

"I'll text you when I can", he sighed. "Damn, barely returned to work and already trying to get me into babysitting."

"You're good with kids."

Was he?

Chapter Text

"You okay?", Kagami had been asking him that a lot recently, and Aomine never knew the answer.

"Yeah", he lied like always. Since when he was such a liar? Taiga must have known something was wrong, just like he always did. He grabbed Daiki's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Aomine Daiki-sama?", the nurse called him and Kagami had to nudge at him for Daiki's brain to recognize. They entered the office together and there, behind a desk, was a mid-aged omega man in a white coat. The doctor. The gynecologist. He just froze. What the fuck was he supposed to do, he had never been to a gynecologist. Kagami led him to the chair and sat down there with him.

"How can I help you?", the man smiled at them. Aomine stayed silent with his eyes wide open. Kagami felt bad for his need to laugh.

"... Have your ever been to a gynecologist?", the alpha asked him silently and Daiki just shook his head ever so slightly, trying to swallow the gulp in his throat. Why was he so scared? It was just a doctor's appointment.

"That's okay, it's nothing to be ashamed of", the doctor assured. "What's bothering you, dear?"

"I—... I think I'm pregnant?", Aomine said, his voice being barely anything over a whisper.

"We're going to check that then", the doctor smiled. "Now, I'll do an ultrasound to take a look in your uterus, and we'll see if you're right or not."

"Okay", Aomine managed to mumble.

"Great, do you want your husband in the room with you?", the doctor asked, pointing at Taiga.

"We're not dating", Kagami clarified. "I'm not the possible father either. Just, uh, just the mental support."

"... Oh, okay?", the doctor frowned confused, but didn't question it further. "Okay, darling, here's the door, undress there comfortably and empty your bladder, then come back in here."

"M'kay", Daiki gulped. He followed the instructions and entered the room behind the door, which was just a small bathroom with a sink, a toilet and a place to leave your clothes. Meanwhile, Kagami decided to give Aomine a little privacy and turned away from the door. The omega left after a minute, wearing only socks and a t-shirt, then waddled onto the settee and laid down just like the doctor had asked. Then, the man covered him with a cloth and Aomine called Taiga to walk over to his second side and hold his hand.

He was so scared to look at the monitor, so instead of watching, he closed his eyes and his brain focused on the lubed up, extremely cold wand getting into his vagina. He squeezed Kagami's hand and bit his lip.

Oh how much he would give for the doctor to deny his suspicion.

What? He stopped his train of thoughts. Didn't he want the baby? Why would he be happy if it turned out it never existed in the first place? That seemed so wrong, he shouldn't even be thinking that!

"You are nine weeks and four days pregnant, Aomine-sama", the doctor confirmed. "Would you like me to be your leading doctor or do you have a different obstetrician?"

"... No, I— I want you to continue, sir", Daiki finally opened his eyes and looked at the doctor with his gaze like a deer into the headlights.

"Aomine-sama, is a pregnancy something you didn't want to hear?", the doctor asked.

"I wanted a baby", Aomine squeezed Kagami's hand. He looked at the monitor and saw that nine week old fetus on the screen. "I always wanted a baby."

"You should do what you find right now", Taiga said. "Don't listen to your boyfriend, if he cared that much about you, he would be the one sitting here."

"I wanted a baby", Daiki bit his lip to hold back his tears. "Why am I not happy then?"

No one could answer that question for him. The doctor printed the ultrasound photos for him and handed them to Daiki.

"This part right here, these are the hands, here's the head, this is one leg, the second is hidden behind, and this part here is the heart", the doctor explained. "And I need to you remember that if you decide to terminate, I'll be happy to help you up until your twenty-first week and sixth day. After that, only if it's medically necessary."

"I wanted a baby", Daiki repeated.

"Maybe it's just not this one. There's nothing wrong in deciding to terminate if you're unable to raise a kid. Sometimes it's just overwhelming and we need some time to decide. You should talk with your boyfriend, too."

"I've promised I'll help you out", Kagami reminded. "So no matter what happens, I'll be there for you."

"I'm keeping it", Aomine decided. He handed the photos to Kagami and stood up to get dressed. Taiga sighed as he looked at the fetus. It wasn't his, but no matter what, he would love it. So fucking ridiculously stupid, but who cared. He was in love with Aomine Daiki and he could be a cuckold if that was the only way he would be close to the omega.

They left the building together and Daiki slowly let out most of the air he had been holding in his lungs. Kagami pulled out the ultrasound from his pocket to look at it again. Aomine meanwhile finally began breathing normally.

"I'm pregnant", he looked at Kagami and widened his eyes.

"Yeah. You're nine weeks pregnant", Taiga confirmed, showing him the ultrasound. "And here's your baby."

"I'm pregnant", Aomine smiled. "I guess it's not that bad?"

"You still have time to decide if it's bad or good."

"Yeah!"

They went together to Daiki's apartment where Sei immediately ran over to them to welcome them. Sei rubbed his head on Kagami's ankles, saying hi. He was glad it was Taiga and not Shougo. This. This was exactly what Daiki deserved. Aomine picked him up and kissed him. "Hey Sei", he chuckled. "I'm pregnant."

"Meow!"

Chapter Text

When Daiki entered his office the next day, Ryou was already there waiting for him.

"I revisited that place and rewatched the CCTV you had found", Sakurai started as a good morning. "There are a few more cameras further along the road, have you checked them?"

"Yeah, but two of the shops had fake cameras that didn't record anything, three were of such bad quality I couldn't even recognize myself entering it and one didn't have it faced at the road."

"Let's go further the road then", Ryou shrugged.

"You think I didn't?"

"You did the splits too? Side roads, crossing, traffic lights?"

"I searched and checked every camera within two kilometer radius of the scene", Aomine informed him.

"Right", Sakurai bit his lip. "Sorry."

"I also ran the database for anyone similar and checked the most look-alike suspects."

"And nothing?"

"If I had something, someone would've been in jail."

In the end, they took another case and began investigating a school beating. Normal day, high school, two boys threw hands, one broken nose, two broken fingers and one broken chair after someone decided it would be a good idea to hit someone with it. Thankfully, the chair-assasin missed and the furniture hit the wall, making a dent in it.

"So, anyone wants to make our lives easier and just tell us the story?", Aomine started, sitting on the teacher's desk and looking at the class full of potential witnesses. The homeroom teacher was next to him and Ryou was in the infirmary with the two boys.

The class stayed silent and Aomine clicked his tongue.

"Okay, then what started it? Why did they get so mad they started fighting?", Daiki continued. No one broke the silence again and the teacher started getting frustrated.

"Guys, tell the police what happened or you all will be charged with covering a crime!", she demanded, crossing her hands on her chest. At first Daiki had a feeling that she was using an alpha tone based on her appearance and voice articulation, but he felt nothing, so that wasn't the case. He mentally facepalmed - wasn't she a beta? Oh man, that woman had some power in her small figure!

Finally, one girl broke down - she couldn't hold it anymore and got scared of being prosecuted. She started crying and Daiki walked over to her and crouched next to her desk and began calming her down.

"It's okay, take a deep breath", he smiled at her and spoke softly. He wasn't an alpha, he couldn't use an alpha tone to speak like Satsuki and to make someone way better by speaking to them with the tone and calming them down.

"I'm sorry", she sobbed. Someone in the background clicked their tongue in annoyance.

"Hey, let's go out of the class, okay?", Daiki suggested. The girl nodded through her tears and got up. They walked out towards the window a few meters away from the classroom, so the rest of the students wouldn't hear them. "Is there anything you would like to share with me?"

Through sobs, she told him a story of how one student, a beta male, ran into the classroom and began accusing a male alpha of raping his girlfriend, which then quickly turned into throwing hands and once the beta began losing, he grabbed the chair and threw it at the alpha, who managed to dodge, but slipped and fell on the floor, and then still got his nose broken. Once the beta began punching him over and over while sitting over his chest and not letting him move, teachers were alerted by the screams of other students and the two got detached. And then, the principal called the police and demanded the criminal department to send their detectives instead of a normal patrol.

"Do you know who the girlfriend is?", Aomine asked, giving the girl another tissue.

"N-No, I'm sorry—", she sniffed.

"Don't worry, you were a great help, thank you", Daiki smiled.

He returned to the classroom, after escorting the girl to the bathroom so she could compose herself. He sat down on the counter of the desk again and smiled at the class.

"So, who wants to tell me who Yoshida's girlfriend is, hm?", he looked in the faces of the students. Half of them lowered their heads, half of them avoided eye contact.

"Guys", the teacher frowned. "These aren't jokes anymore!"

"... Yamada Nana", someone said in the crowd.

"She's a first year, class D", the teacher added. Aomine nodded.

"She's at school today?", he asked, then the teacher confirmed. "Please hand everyone a piece of paper. Everyone has to write something down on it. If you don't want to say anything about what happened, write anything, describe your favorite movie or something. Every single paper has to be written. You don't have to sign it, but everyone has to write on it. Understood?"

The class nodded and Aomine left to find the girl. Meanwhile he also grabbed his radio.

"Gooooood morning, ladies and gentlemen, the eagle has landed and is being transported into a hangar—"

"Aomine-san, you're worse than my kids", Ryou cut him off. "Any progress?"

"Might be. You?"

"The alpha screams all the time like a pussy about how hurt he is and how much it hurts while the beta keeps on saying that he deserved it."

"Lovely. I'm on my way to talk to Yoshida's girlfriend."

"Good luck."

He found the classroom and knocked on the door, then entered. He was met with forty one pairs of eyes looking at him. He stood straight, grabbed his badge and opened it.

"Good morning, is Yamada Nana-san in class today?", he asked, looking at the teacher, then at the students. They all looked at the girl in the corner, who slowly stood up with her face pale. "Could you come with me, please? Or is it a bad moment?"

"No, officer—"

"Detective", Daiki corrected. "Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Criminal Department."

"... What the fuck did you do?", one student whisper-yelled at her.

"I—", the girl's hands were shaking.

"You did nothing wrong, darling. Let's go, we'll talk for a moment and I'll send you back to your classes, okay?", Aomine smiled at her. She nodded and grabbed her things, then walked out of the class with him.

Chapter Text

"I don't know what you're talking about", she kept repeating. Her parents had been called as well as the boys' so they were waiting for their arrival while trying to get something out of the teens.

"If you know nothing about it, then how come they were in a fight over it?", Daiki asked, trying to be as delicate as possible. He hated that part of his job, talking to kids. Teens especially, because they could restrain themselves from telling the truth and knew what a lie is.

"I don't know!", she cried.

"Did anyone hurt you?", he asked again, but she denied.

The boys that got into a fight got transported to the hospital to have their broken body parts put back into their correct position. Since no information could be taken out of the girl, they put her into the super-duper amazing police mobile Toyota Corolla that Aomine got from a road control department for some reason and drove to the hospital, where her parents had been instructed to go anyway.

In there, they met up with the parents of the two boys and the father of the girl.

"What is going on?!", one of the mother asked. "Why are we here?!"

"Please, everyone calm down", Sakurai instructed. "No one is dead, no one is hurt more than a broken bone. At least we hope so, because we seriously need to talk with everyone in here."

"What the hell happened?", another woman, but she seemed to be an alpha, screamed at them. They sat them all down somewhere and explained everything that they currently knew. The father stayed silent throughout the entire story, only bouncing his leg out of stress.

"He didn't do it!", the alpha woman, the father of the alpha boy, Umehara, screamed. "He didn't!"

"We are not yet saying that he did", Aomine stopped her. "Not until we get any statement from Yamada-san."

"I don't know anything", she kept repeating, like a mantra. "I don't—"

"Nana", her father finally said. "Has he hurt you? Don't lie."

"... I don't know anything, I swear, I—!"

"I'll go talk to the boys", Aomine sighed.

"Don't we need to be present?!", Umehara asked.

"No. Your son is eighteen, he is an adult, since the law changed."

"That—!"

"If he committed a crime, it doesn't matter if you're in the room or not."

After questioning the two boys again, Aomine got slightly more information - the rape happened two months prior during a party and the girlfriend had been drugged while it happened. She only told him recently because she remembered waking up naked in his bed and felt so guilty she couldn't keep it in anymore. And then, Yamada tried to hold it in, but when he saw Umehara, he exploded and beat the shit out of him.

Umehara on the other hand denied everything and didn't even know which party Aomine was talking about, because no party happened that day. Which he was obviously lying about, because Daiki got photos from it, with a date and hour visible on them.

He returned to where Sakurai was talking with the parents and looked at the girl.

"Since you are sixteen, your father can agree to the procedure for you", he started. "I would like to do a hair follicle, blood and urine tests on you for a few drugs."

"... Dad, no", she looked at him with fear in her eyes.

"Do those", the father replied.

"It would take about forty eight hours. For now, each of the three kids won't be held in arrest at the station, but we will take contact information from you and we will call you to meet up to view the results. Then, your kids would have the chance to put their final statements before we take the matter to court and submit all the documents", Ryou explained. "I would wish you a good the rest of the day, but I'm guessing it's going to be far from that."

Aomine could bet their ride back home was equally bad for each of the kids. But as soon as Daiki entered the Corolla, he bursted out laughing.

"What's so funny?", Sakurai asked with a frown.

"That alpha lady, she was so fucking pissed off! Like it's my fault that her son is an asshole!"

"Aomine-san—", Ryou tried to stop him, but chuckled himself instead. "Why was she screaming all the time?"

"Right?!"

The case was crappy and it involved teenagers, but they hadn't worked together for so long it didn't matter. As they were going back, Aomine offered that he could watch the kids somewhere in near future. Sakurai apologized, but accepted the offer and promised to send him the exact date and drop the kids off at his apartment that day.

"By the way, yesterday you said you weren't ready to tell me what's new in your life", Ryou pointed out. "Sorry, I don't want to push you or anything, just a thought, any updates?"

Should he tell him? He had to tell Satsuki about everything soon anyway and Sakurai had two kids of his own, he knew what to do, he would be a great help, too...

"It's, uh, it's a long story", Daiki sighed, clenching his hands on the steering wheel. "I'm pregnant."

"... What the fuck?!"

"Oh don't be like that", Aomine frowned. "Everyone is like that."

"I left for a maternity leave and you didn't even have anyone you were interested in!", Sakurai pointed out. "And now you are pregnant. Was it a one night stand? Do you at least know the father?!"

"I do! It's my boyfriend", Daiki explained. "It... It wasn't planned."

"Even better!", Ryou took a deep breath. "Sorry."

Daiki knew he was an idiot, but he still didn't like when people still him that to his face. Or behind his back. He was a sucker for praises, not degradation. He hoped for some words of encouragement, for some «wow! so cool!» type of shit.

"Did you want me to congratulate you?", Sakurai asked after a few minutes of silence.

"... No."

"Congratulations on being pregnant. You're going to be a great mom", Ryou smiled. "Oh, sorry, you want some tips?"

"No", Daiki pouted.

"Sure, so first of all, yes, they are breathing—"

Chapter Text

Imayoshi Shouichi was a very specific alpha and Aomine did not like him at all. He was sneaky, foxy and sly and he gave him the chills. But his wife and Daiki's partner, Ryou, was a gorgeous human being who not only always fed him with homemade goodies during the work but also gave him the recipes and taught him how to cook. And their (now two) little gremlins were the most adorable little assholes that thankfully mostly took after their mommy.

They were born almost back to back - they had been married for almost three years and their eldest was a month over two, while the youngest was five months. Daiki enjoyed babysitting them both and had so much fun, even when it came to changing diapers.

The last time Aomine took care of their eldest son (an alpha cutie, according to Daiki) he was a virgin who believed there would be no person to ever be interested in him enough to start a family. Ryou's kids and taking care of them was like a play to him. A play in which he had his family, in which he had a kid. He pretended to love Ryou's son as his own, he pretended to be his mom.

Now, he was pregnant. He had a boyfriend. He wasn't a virgin (and on top of that, he slept with two! men). He still loved Ryou's kids, but now it felt different.

He didn't have to pretend anymore.

Because he also was going to be a mommy, finally.

Sei was surprisingly gentle with the two gremlins when Imayoshi brought them over. He let the older pet him and even didn't scratch him when the toddler squeezed his ear too hard. Of course, Daiki immediately took the kid's hand away, but Sei still took an hour to walk close to the baby again.

Around one hour in, he got a call from Shougo.

"Hey, wanna come over for some fun time?", Haizaki asked, accenting with his voice what the fun time would be about.

"I can't, I'm babysitting for a friend", Daiki explained. "You can come over if you want, but no fun time."

"Nah, keep having fun, then, we'll meet up next time", he refused, then hung up. Daiki placed the phone away and looked at the infant on his chest who woke up and raised her head to look at him.

"Daachaaa!", the two-year-old ran towards him and jumped on the floor, expressing his need for help in getting up onto the couch. "Daacha! Sei!"

"Sei's sleeping", he pointed at the cat. "Shhhh, sleepy."

"Ooohhhh!", the toddler cuddled in next to his sister. "When no sleep?"

"I don't know", Aomine shrugged.

"Daacha don know?!"

With the little girl in his arms, wrapped up in a thin shawl in a make-shift carried, he took the boy to the kitchen to make cookies with him. They were in the middle of rolling the dough when his phone called again.

"Hey there", Kagami said through the phone. "How's your Saturday going?"

"I'm babysitting", Aomine admitted. "It's kinda fun, we're making cookies."

"Ouuh, can I come over?", Taiga excitedly chuckled.

"Yeah, sure!", Daiki replied with a huge grin, forgetting his composure. The baby on his chest cooed, so he began calming her down. Kagami added something about going there and then hung up.

Sei joined them for making the cookies, leaving his paws imprinted onto the dough right after Daiki made it flat. The boy was having a blast making different shapes out of the dough. Aomine was helping him, shaping the cookies with him, while the doorbell rang. Sei jumped off the counter and ran towards the door, leaving flour marks everywhere. He grabbed the key, peaked through his cat door and handed the key to Kagami.

"Hey!", Taiga said as he entered and then quickly joined them in the kitchen. "Who's kids did you end up with?"

"My partner's", Daiki smiled.

"Daacha! Sparkly!", the toddler pointed at the piece of dough he had on his hands.

"Yeah? What is it?", Aomine took the thing from him.

"Sparkly! Kira-kira!"

"Hm? A star?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, wow!", Daiki placed it on the tray and shaped it a little. "It's so pretty, Kou-chan!"

"Hi", Taiga took his hand out at the boy, slightly lost. "I'm Taiga, what's your name?"

"Kou!", the boy smiled.

"This is Kouichi", Daiki explained, ruffling the boy's hair. "And here's Ryouko. And we're making cookies."

The boy smiled brightly with his mouth full of missing teeth and his face covered in flour. Kagami smiled back at him and went to wash his hands to join them in making the cookies.

Aomine didn't have a lot of cookie cutters, so they cut out the hearts, circles and the gingermen, and used the rest to play and shape them however they wanted. With Kouichi sitting on the counter and Kagami making sure he wouldn't fall, Daiki had more space to take care of Ryouko. He prepared the milk for her and took her out of the carrier to change her diaper.

"Daacha and Ta... Ta... Ta-ga?"

"Tai-ga", Kagami repeated.

"Taaga", Kou said. "Daacha and Taaga chu chu?"

"What?", he tilted his head.

"Chu chu? Mama and Papa chu chu", Kou tilted his head. "Daacha and Taaga chu chu too?"

"No, Kou-chan", Daiki came back and kissed the top of the toddler's head. "We're not together."

"No?"

"No."

Kagami got all red in his face and covered it with his hand. So stupid, kids and their brain connections. Aomine placed the child in his arms and began rocking her and humming a lullaby.

He took a deep breath, placing his hand on Kou's back. The toddler cuddled into him and smiled brightly at him, enjoying the warmth of Kagami's body. If this is how his and Daiki's future would look like, he would let someone cut his dick off with no anaesthesia. This. With the cookies baking in the oven, with Daiki's rhythmic singing and a Bluey episode playing in the background.

Chapter Text

Kouichi was sitting in Kagami's arms, building a very tall and very unstable tower out of blocks with him. Daiki was spread out on the sofa behind their backs, acting as a bed for Ryouko, who was curled up on his chest, right next to his other baby, Sei.

The cookies were almost done, so Daiki wrapped both of them in the shawl, locking Ryouko and Sei in a carrier, then went to take them out. He placed the hot tray on the stove and took his mittens off to check if he had anything to put on the cookies. He found a chocolate bar in his cupboard and opened it to cut it and melt it, but before he could grab the knife, the doorbell rang.

Aomine went to open the door while Kou and Kagami continued building the tower.

"Good afternoon", Imayoshi said with his sly smile, that got him Ryou's annoyed look. "How are the devils?"

"This one sleeps and the other—"

"Mama! Papa!", Kou screamed as he ran towards them. Sakurai crouched and held his hands open, letting his son run into his arms. He picked the boy up and left a kiss on his cheek.

"Did you have fun with Uncle Daiki?", Shouichi asked, ruffling the boy's hair.

"Yeah! And with Taaga too!", Kou-chan began to babble about the blocks, the tower, the cookies, the cat and that Daiki and Taiga weren't together and how Daiki was making chocolate to put on cookies, all while the boy's parents took their shoes off and went in for a coffee. In the kitchen, Kagami was stirring the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water not to let it burn.

"So that is the boyfriend we heard so much about?", Imayoshi entered in with his evil grin, even though he had never heard one word about Daiki's boyfriend from Daiki himself.

"No, have you even been listening to your own son?", Aomine frowned. "That's Kagami, my friend."

Taiga was glad his back was facing the rest, because the grin on his face was huge. Oh, he loved being called affectionate words by Daiki. Even if the word was «friend». He was so ridiculously down bad that he was ashamed in himself.

He took the chocolate out of the pot and placed it on the counter to fill a sleeve with it. He grabbed moved it over to the cookies on the table and placed it next to it.

"Kou-chan, wanna add chocolate to the cookies?", Daiki asked the boy with a smile.

"Yeah! Mama, down!"

While Kagami was helping Kou decorate the cookies, Ryou sipped his coffee with Daiki and Shouichi on the couch.

"Are you sure that's not the boyfriend?", Imayoshi asked silently. "You two look like a couple."

"He's not my boyfriend", Aomine repeated. He still had Ryouko in his arms, but Sei had left it and was carefully observing Imayoshi.

"... Does the cat always look like this?", Shouichi asked, pointing at Sei who was sitting on his pillow in the corner of the room, observing them with a judgemental look.

"Yeah, wait until you turn around and he kicks your cup off the table", Aomine shrugged. Ryouko began being fussy and Ryou wanted to take her to calm her down, but Daiki picked her up higher, sniffed her diaper and was off to the bathroom to change it. Meanwhile, the two parents exchanged one look and stood up to join Kagami in the kitchen.

"So, Kagami-kun", Imayoshi started with that disgusting grin of his on his face. "Are you sure you're not the boyfriend?"

"... Yeah? I mean, I've never met him, but I've heard stories about him and—"

"No, but are you sure? Or even if you're for sure are not, are you sure you're not the father?", Sakurai frowned and almost hissed out.

"Dude. I am not", Taiga gulped. "For real. We haven't... done it, even if."

Both of their expressions softened up very quickly as they sighed and took a sip of their drinks.

"Because you know, Kagami-kun", Imayoshi continued. "You're his type."

"I'm not—", Kagami tried to protest.

"If I were to take Aomine-san's type from his wet dreams, make that person real and give them a personality, it would be you", Ryou said with no emotions. "I forced him to download Tinder once and the only people who got a right swipe from him were people who looked like you."

"I'm not his—"

"We get it", Shouichi stopped him. "We just don't get why."

"What's going on?", Daiki asked as he returned from the bathroom with a fully awake Ryouko in his arms.

"We're helping Kou-chan decorate the cookies", Ryou smiled. "I think the chocolate hardened, Kagami-kun, would you mind heating it up again?"

"Uh, sure, on it", Taiga gulped. No shit the two of them got married. They were both terrifying.

Ryou took his daughter in his arms and she immediately began fussing and rubbing her head on his shoulder. He kissed her and took her to Daiki's bedroom to feed her. Aomine meanwhile stood behind Kou and helped him squeeze the chocolate onto the cookies.

"Daacha", Kou looked up at him. "Taaga okie?"

"Hm?", Aomine looked at Kagami, who was all red on his face and immediately turned around once he was spotted. "Yeah, he's okay. He's just happy you're having fun."

"Yeah! Kou-chan happy!", the boy clapped his hands. "Daacha happy?"

"Well of course, how could I not be with such an angel next to me?", Daiki smiled and kissed Kou's cheek.

"Yay!"

Taiga felt a paw on his thigh, so he looked down to see Sei standing ok his back legs to reach as high as he could. He didn't meow at him or he didn't demand anything. He just stared at him, deep into his soul, as if reading his mind. When Taiga blinked, he immediately got down and out of his line of sight, almost as if he disappeared into thin air. Kagami blinked again. What the hell was all of that about?

"Meeeoooow!", Sei jumped on the counter and began sniffing the cookies.

"No! These aren't safe for you—! Sei! Don't eat chocolate!", Daiki grabbed the cat to forcefully open his mouth and pull the food out. "Gag! I made a batch for you, oh dam— uh—!"

Imayoshi chuckled at the struggles of both keeping the language child-safe and taking the food out of the cat's throat. Kagami took a deep breath. Yeah, he could live every day like this, for the rest of his life.

Chapter Text

He still felt indifferent towards the baby. He tried his best every day, he stood in front of a mirror, naked, trying to see if there was any bump. The only one he had ever encountered was indigestion, nevertheless he did his best. He made his exercises less straining, so as to not accidentally hurt the baby. He tried his best not to think about it - he had a job to do and the baby was only ten weeks.

"It's green", Taiga pointed out when Daiki drifted off at the traffic lights.

"I know?", Aomine huffed, turning left. "I was checking if you're not sleeping."

"Yeah, dumbass, keep left", Kagami frowned. "You're drifting onto oncoming traffic."

"Idiot", Daiki pouted, but his heart pounded quickly as he kept left, barely avoiding the car in front of them. "Where now, Mr. Navigation?"

"Right", Taiga checked the maps on his phone. "I said right, dumbass, why are you in the middle lane?"

"Because there's no right turn here?", Daiki pointed to the lane to his right being a straight lane.

"Oh, yeah, my bad. It was a left turn", Taiga mumbled. "Uhh, left on the next one, then straight, two rights and a left."

"Fucking hell, why are you the one with the map?"

"Because you're the one who can drive?"

"Yeah, you clearly fucking can't, if you can't differentiate left from right."

"I can! Left hand is the one where the thumb is on the right!"

"... What?", Daiki frowned. "No, you idiot! Left hand is the one that has an L-shape when you look at them from the top!"

"Wait, it does?", Taiga held out his two hands in front of him, with his palms facing him. "It doesn't!"

"Where the fuck is the top of your hand?"

"Oh."

Kagami turned his hand around and gasped. "Holy shit, you're right!"

"Duh", Aomine rolled his eyes. "Oh, I know where I am."

"Finally!", Kagami sighed, as he looked at the store.

The case had already ended, but since Taiga asked so nicely to hear about it, Daiki decided to tell him the whole story.

Aomine and Sakurai made it to the house of the teenager and her father, then knocked on the door. The man opened it and let them inside, where his daughter was already sitting in the living room. They took their seats and Daiki held the documents in his hands.

"I've already seen what's inside", Aomine said. "So it's up to you whether you want to hear it or read it."

"... Say it", the father ordered, with his hands trembling.

"Sir, your daughter had been drugged", Daiki informed them. The girl hid her face in her hands, crying.

"Nana", the father cuddled her. "Nana, please, tell me... tell them what happened?"

She cried, but she did tell them what she had remembered. Then, silently, she mumbled how she did a pregnancy test and it was positive.

"Nana-san", Daiki gulped. "There are prenatal paternity tests. If you'd agree—"

"Yu-chan can be the dad", she pointed out. "We... We did it a few times."

"Nana—", the father squeezed her hand. "You... You never told me you—"

She sniffed and looked at him. She told him how he was a single dad and she was scared of telling him anything, how he had never had a heat like her, how he was a beta and never had this problem. She cried how he never understood her and she was scared to tell him she even had a boyfriend, not to mention having sex with him! Then she sobbed how she barely even knew what to do during her heats and didn't know she was missing one until she vomited and Yoshida suggested it. After that, she stormed off to her room.

"Her mom was a beta, too", were the first words that left the father's mouth after she left. "We didn't even know it was possible to have a kid that wasn't a beta. I... I still don't know how."

"It's... It's similar to how blood group gets inherited", Daiki sighed.

"... Really? It's... Possible?"

"Yeah", Aomine explained. "Depends on your and her mother genes it might even be impossible to have a beta kid."

"How do I... How do I help her?", he asked.

"Talk to her", Sakurai said.

They left the two alone, and got into the car. In silence, they drove towards the house where Umehara lived. Aomine turned the engine off and sighed, closing his eyes.

"We can't arrest him", he explained when Taiga seemed confused about their actions.

"Why?", Taiga frowned. "He's a suspect—?"

"Japan has like ninety nine percent conviction rate. If we arrest him, he's gonna get convicted of rape whether he did it or not. Look, I'm not saying I believe him, I actually do believe Yamada", Aomine admitted. "But in case somehow it wasn't him. I can't just destroy his life if he doesn't deserve it."

"So what's next?"

"You'll see."

Needless to say, the talk went ballistic. The alpha son screamed how he didn't do it, how they couldn't do that, how he was being framed and how they had no right to take his DNA for testing.

"Shut up!", the mother of the family screamed, finally saying anything. She was a short and fragile-looking woman, but her gaze was scary the second she raised her head. "Sit on your ass and shut up! You're going to do the test and you'll pay for it with your pocket money!"

"But—"

"You heard what I said!", she slammed her open palm on the desk.

They got the DNA sample, and the next day they had their answer. They sorted through the notes they got from the class and Ryou smiled, showing one paper to Daiki.

«He did it. He was bragging about buying rape pills and put it in drinks of random omegas during parties. He sent us some photos of it on the group chat, I have them saved. I have screenshots too. I saw him take that omega, Nana, to the bedroom. She could barely stand still. I can't let them know that I said anything, they would kill me. They hurt someone who disagreed with them, I don't even want to think what they would do to me. Call me: 0XX-XXX-XXXX»

Chapter Text

The guy who answered the call and agreed to meet for a proper interview was a fairly handsome young alpha male, who was also the best friend and a classmate of Umehara Takeshi.

"... I can be, like, protected, yeah?", he gulped. "Look, I know this sounds stupid, but I can't let Takeshi or anyone else know it's me who's talking to pigs about it... Sorry, cops."

"Don't bother", Aomine smiled. "You'll be a protected witness, only the judge and us will know. Your testimony will be read without you being present."

"That's cool, sure", the guy was clearly nervous. He took a deep but quick breath and gulped. He described everything to the smallest details he could remember. His story was tangled and his voice was shaking, he was trying his best to tell as much as possible while not drifting off too much. He wasn't lying, or he was too good of a liar to be caught without using a brain scan. There was no reason for Daiki to suspect anything about him.

Three days later, everyone was summoned to court where Umehara Takeshi officially became a suspect.

"That's a lie! They are framing me!", he still insisted.

"Your honor, Yamada Nana is six weeks pregnant and the suspect's DNA is a father match. On top of that, we have three witnesses, two if we exclude Yoshida due to him being charged with assault, that stated how they saw Umehara put drugs into Yamada's drink and drag her upstairs. Unless the suspect has an identical twin brother that did all of this, there's no doubt in the fault."

"And I completely agree with you, detective", the judge sighed. "And do you have an identical twin brother? May I remind you, lying in court is illegal."

"... No, sir", the boy lowered his head.

It was a quick case. Six years in prison and a restraining order. Yoshida was cleared of any jail-time as court had ruled he acted in defense of his girlfriend, yet because of the character of the fight, he got thirty hours of social work. And the end? Nana got an abortion, went to a therapist, Yoshida and Nana's father got close and Umehara family deeply apologized for what their son had caused and paid for all the expenses of Nana's until her highschool graduation.

"That's it?", Kagami asked when they were leaving one store and going to the other. "Literally, that's it? No fireworks?"

"The bad guy got arrested, me and Ryou had a blast after not working together for so long, the girl got rid of the rape baby", Daiki began counting out on his fingers. "And her dad made progress in talking to his own kid. So yeah. These are the fireworks."

"Boring."

"Boring my ass, this is boring!", Daiki mumbled, as they entered another store. "What the hell is all of this anyway?"

"... It's a maternity store", Kagami pointed out. "You buy... maternity things here. Like clothes, binkies, toys, diapers..."

"I'm not even eleven weeks pregnant, why are we in a maternity store?"

"Dunno...", Taiga shrugged. "You seemed like you'd like to go."

"Why would I— HOLY SHIT, HELLO KITTY PANTS?!"

It took exactly thirteen seconds since they entered the store for Aomine to end up with his hands in the hangers, checking out all the clothes they had. Kagami ended up with thirty items in his hands and they barely moved two meters.

"I can try them on, right?", Aomine asked eventually.

"Yeah, there's a changing room over there."

"Great, let's finish this aisle and go there."

Worse than a woman, Kagami thought as he stood next to a wall in front of the stall Daiki was in. Every minute or two, Aomine opened the door and showed him something new. This time, it was the Hello Kitty maternity pyjama pants that caught his attention in the beginning.

"And?", Aomine smirked, placing his hands on his hips.

"Your boyfriend doesn't go to stores with you?", Kagami replied. "You look like you already gave birth and lost your breast pump in the middle of used coffee mugs."

"... Fuck you", Daiki pouted. "I did call Shougo. He gave me his card and told me to have fun."

"He gave you a limit or something?", Taiga frowned.

"It's a credit card, so...", Aomine gave him a few clothes to put back, "I didn't listen."

"Just great..."

Aomine finished with his round one and left twenty nine things on the counter for the workers to put back on shelves. Kagami ended up carrying only the Hello Kitty pants as he followed Aomine down the second aisle, lending him his other arm to place another dozen of clothes.

"This looks cute", Kagami pointed to a three-pack of pink underwear.

"... Seriously?", Daiki frowned. "I'm more of thongs type of guy."

"Fuck you, you're not?", Taiga huffed. "Last time I saw you in your underwear, you were wearing dotted granny panties that were older than One Piece."

"Excuse me?!"

"Oh you are excused, asshole. Honestly, at that point why even bother wearing panties, hm, Granny? Just go straight for the diapers, at least you'll have some ass to show off."

Aomine stopped, turned around to face him and sniffed, as he tried to stop his lips from curling downwards into a pout. His eyes got full of tears and he stopped breathing before releasing a long and loud wail.

"I get it! I'm flat, I'm ugly and I have no ass!", he began sobbing. "My boyfriend doesn't want to go shopping with me so I have to drag you everywhere! I'm an unwanted bitch with Hello Kitty pants and if it wasn't for that stupid baby I'd already be alone again because I'm an insufferable asshole! Thank the world I already have one cat, such a great start to being a spinster, I should only buy a Russian-rug-patterned shawl to wrap around my head like a Granny and go sell drug candies at kindergarten because that's all that I'll ever be useful for! I'm too bad even for a bad queen at Disney movies!"

Just great, Taiga sighed as Daiki's hormones took over for the first time and he broke down completely in the middle of the store, still holding the three-pack of underwear in his hands.

Chapter Text

"Here, here, don't cry anymore...", Kagami mumbled, sitting next to him on the bench and patting his back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, it was a joke..."

"I know!", Aomine cried, then wailed again. "But I can't stop it!"

Kagami gave him a tissue and Daiki blew his nose in it. After a few more minutes, the cries turned into sobs and then stopped completely.

"Ready to go back?", Taiga asked him.

"Yeah", Daiki said. "That was embarrassing."

"Hormones", Kagami replied. "Let's go buy those Hell-o'-Jello pants."

"Hello Kitty, you dipshit, who are you calling a Hell-o'-Jello?"

"Hell-o'-Jello-Halogeno, who gives a fuck?"

"What?", Daiki frowned, then gasped. "You think Sei would fit in baby clothes?!"

"Aomine Daiki, don't—!"

"Aomine Daiki, yes!"

Kagami had no clue how much money Haizaki had allowed Aomine to spend, but Daiki did not hold back. They left the first store with three bags and before Taiga managed to drag Daiki to the exit, they ended up in five more stores with seven more bags of stuff.

Sei was waiting for them in the door and meowed happily when he saw them, rubbing his head on Daiki's legs. Behind him in the kitchen, the bowls with his water and food were on the ground with everything that was in them creating a huge mess on the ground. Kagami tsked - he would be cleaning it, as Daiki was too much into showing his cat all the things he had bought to care about the mess.

"Man, I'm sorry for letting him buy those", Taiga said to Sei while passing by him so as to get to the kitchen. The cat tilted his head and rolled his eyes. Rolled his eyes. Kagami frowned. The cat just rolled his eyes at him. What the fuck?

"Look at this! Hello Kitty shirt!", Aomine chuckled, picking Sei up and dragging him towards the couch. He left the cat there and returned to grab all of his bags. He found the clothes for Sei amongst dozens other things and began putting them on the cat.

Sei's eyes beamed with happiness as he began playing dress-up with his human. After an outfit had been put on him, he made sure to walk around like on a catwalk, showing off to Kagami who wanted to die. What the hell, why was he enjoying it?! Sei wasn't supposed to be enjoying it!

"Meow~!", he winked at Taiga as he showed off in his newly bought shirt with a collar. In four of his paws were also socks that made the floor a little too slippery for his liking.

"Yeah, yeah, you look cool...", Kagami sighed.

"Cool?! He looks adorable, do you have eyes?!", Aomine picked him up and showed him to Taiga, The-Lion-King-style.

"Meow!", Kagami could swear Sei winked at him again. What the hell was that?!

"Yes. He's... adorable", Taiga smiled. "Is there something a pregnant omega would like to eat?"

"Uh. Oh. Um. I didn't think I had a choice, honestly. Uhhh", Daiki held the cat baby-style and went back to the sofa. "Uhhh, rice?"

"Yeah, we live in Japan, I figured that much."

"Uhhh... I don't know, why did you ask me?!"

"I thought you had something in mind."

"KFC."

"What?"

"KFC and rice. And pickles", Daiki decided. "You have some app or do you want me to order?"

"Uh, I think I have Uber", Taiga sighed. "You have pickles or do you want me to order them at a store too?"

"I've never eaten pickles in my life, so no."

"Then why the fuck do you want pickles?"

"I don't know!", Daiki cried out. "What can I do, the stupid baby doesn't let me live today!"

"Geez, okay, you'll get them pickles", Taiga sighed. He sat down on the sofa next to him and nudged at him. "I don't like them. I always took them out of my burgers and gave them to my brother."

"I don't like goya", Daiki mumbled. "It's bitter."

"Just goya or anything bitter?", Taiga tilted his head.

"Bitter. I also hate bitter nuts, chocolate, coffee...", Aomine started to count. "Uhhh salty and sweet are cool. Spicy is okay but not too much... Sour only if it's lemon."

"... Are you a picky eater or something?", Kagami frowned.

"I don't think so", Daiki huffed. "I like trying new things. As long as they're not bitter, not too spicy or sour and aren't too mushy—"

"Yeah, I get it."

Kagami stood up and went to set the rice to cook. A while later they got the delivery from the convenience store and the restaurant, so Kagami picked them up from the front door, letting Aomine continue putting Sei in different clothes. The cat proudly wore them all, having fun with his human.

"You want me to cut the pickles?", Kagami asked, putting rice into two bowls and placing them on the table, next to the buckets with fried chicken.

"No", Daiki picked up Sei (who had a Little Red Riding Hood dress and cape on for some reason, like, where did Aomine find it?) and sat at the table. Taiga gave him the jar and as soon as the omega opened it, hile raised his eyebrows. He was scared to see what Daiki would do with it.

And he was right, because Aomine put his hand inside and fished out one pickle with his bare hands, then bit it. Just. Bit it.

"Can you get me mayo from the fridge?", Aomine asked and Kagami barely had the strength to restrain his gag reflex. But he did do what he was asked and with fear in his eyes he was forced to watch as Daiki dipped the pickle in the mayo jar and then ate it, mixing it with rice and fried chicken.

"Your stomach can handle this?", Kagami asked, covering his mouth with his hand. He had a feeling that if he let go, he would returned his meal back onto the table.

"It's pretty good!", Aomine smiled. "Wanna try?"

"Hell nah!", he might have said too quickly. He gulped, hoping Aomine wouldn't start crying again. But instead, he heard laughter.

"Your face looks even more stupid now!", Daiki wheezed, pointing at him with a chicken bone.

"Oi, shut up!"

Chapter Text

Taiga was confused. Like. Literally confused. Because he was now lying down on Daiki's couch, with Daiki on top of him, sleeping, and Sei next to him on the pillow, also sleeping, while he was watching Hell's Kitchen on Daiki's television.

Why was he filling the boyfriend role? Wasn't Daiki's boyfriend supposed to be in his place? Why was he the one getting cuddle time?

Not that he was complaining, but still. Where the fuck was Daiki's boyfriend?! The father of the baby Daiki was carrying?!

Ah, he really shouldn't be calling Aomine by his given name in his mind. Knowing him, he would slip and call him that for real. Which would then become a great problem, as he had no clue how would he explain it to Aomine.

"Kagami", the omega opened one eye and moved his head up to look at him. "Mhh, you're so warm..."

"Yeah? Wouldn't you want your boyfriend to be here instead of me, though?"

"Mhh— vomit—"

"What?"

Aomine rose up, covering his mouth with his hand and looking all pale and greenish on his face. Kagami's eyes widened, he wouldn't make it to the bathroom - he grabbed him and dragged him off the couch and rug just in time for Daiki to vomit all over the mahogany wooden panels, avoiding the crimson carpet below the sofa.

"Here, let everything out, slowly, don't rush it", Kagami patted his back as Aomine puked. "Finished?"

"Y-Yeah, I think so...", Daiki closed his eyes. "No, I lied."

He vomited again, adding to the pile on the floor. Kagami folded the rug a little so Aomine would have more space to empty his stomach.

"I'll go grab a mop, can you sit on your own?", Taiga helped him sit with his back against the couch.

"Yeah."

Kagami stood up and went to the bathroom, where in the corner, next to the washing machine, he found a mop and a bucket. He filled it with some water and found a cleaning detergent under the sink. He washed the vomits off as much as he could, then used a paper towel to get the remaining bits off the floor as well. As he was cleaning, Daiki's phone rang.

"I'll get it for you", Kagami said, wiping his hand.

"Just put it on speaker."

Shougo. Daiki's boyfriend. Out all people that could have been calling him, it was his fucking boyfriend. But Kagami did pick up the phone and he did put it on speaker.

"Hey babe, so I was thinking, I got my hands on some nice wine, wanna come over and have a taste?", Haizaki chuckled. "I also bought some sexy lingerie you can wear."

"I just vomited, I don't feel so good", Daiki replied. "Besides, I can't drink alcohol."

"Oh come on, you're really gonna believe that lie that the doctors are telling everyone? Nothing's gonna happen if you have a glass of wine", Shougo insisted.

"I'm not gonna drink alcohol", Daiki stood his ground. "Besides, I'm not coming over anyway. I feel bad."

Kagami finished cleaning and mouthed silently to Aomine: "I can go if you want."

"You can come over though", Aomine offered.

"Nah, don't wanna, you're too far", Shougo yawned. "Call a cab. I'll pay for it."

"I said I don't feel good", Daiki repeated.

"And I said I don't give a fuck", Haizaki shouted. "So get your ass over here, I get out of my way to make you a nice evening and you find excuses and excuses! For fuck's sake, how hard it is to just follow one command?! Are you that stupid?!"

"No, sorry, I'll—", Daiki gulped. "You're right, I'll just call a cab."

"You better. The dinner's gonna be cold, so you better hurry."

And with that, Haizaki hung up and something in Kagami broke. That was the great and lovely boyfriend? That was supposed to be that amazing guy?! That asshole?!

"... You're not going anywhere", Taiga frowned. "You're sick, you're barely conscious!"

"You're not going to tell me what to!", Daiki gulped. He winced in pain as a migraine hit him. Great, firstly vomits then a headache.

"You can hardly stand! That guy is an asshole, he just yelled at you! Aomine, please, don't go there. You don't deserve that—"

"It's my life and you won't be telling me how to live it! I'm going there and you're getting out of my home!", he cried out, loud enough to wake up Sei, who walked over to Kagami to rub his face on his leg.

"He's an asshole!", Taiga repeated. "An asshole!"

"He's my boyfriend! And currently you're the one acting like an ass! So get the fuck out before I make you!"

Kagami didn't know what to do. He couldn't just hold Aomine home and didn't let him leave, it was illegal and was called a kidnapping. And he was pretty sure kidnapping a police officer was even worse than a normal person, didn't they have some sort of immunity?

Nevertheless, it was dangerous. Kagami had only heard good things about Haizaki (okay, he heard also how he was neglecting Aomine and how he was barely even there most of the time, after all, Taiga did most of the things he was supposed to be doing). But Daiki's opinion about him was always positive, so Kagami expected some lovely, energetic man, maybe someone who's a little busy in life, but still would put Aomine on the first place. He expected someone who at least... liked Daiki. And based on the short conversation he heard, he could not say that Haizaki even remotely fancied Aomine. What was the point of dating someone if you hated them?

So it turned out Haizaki Shougo was a piece of shit who only thought about himself and didn't give a crap about Daiki and wouldn't mind putting him in danger.

This couldn't go like this. Kagami knew he had no right to intervene in Aomine's relationship, but he decided to fuck being nice and go with his common sense:

Aomine couldn't date Haizaki for his own good.

Chapter Text

Aomine grabbed his phone and used it as a fan, trying to cool himself down. He was in the taxi, waiting for the green light on his way to his boyfriend's house. He felt bad, he was hot and was nauseous, but it was too late to back out now. Maybe he should have listened to Kagami? After all be was his...

Exactly. Who was Kagami again? His ex-collaboration? Ex-temporary-partner? Ex... What? Or maybe not ex, maybe just a colleague? Or an acquaintance? Or... gasp... a friend? No, no, no, Aomine Daiki barely had any friends! Back in highschool he kind of hung out kind of not with Kise and Midorima, but they weren't exactly his... friends, were they? They didn't go out or hung out after school, they just ate lunch at the same table.

Okay, Aomine did get invited to Midorima's wedding and he did go there, but that was like the last time they had seen each other (and he had spent most of the wedding playing with Midorima's dog, Atsushi, anyway)! He wasn't even getting or sending birthday wishes!

And Momoi? Kind of big sis, kind of childhood friend, he trusted her with his whole heart but again, she wasn't exactly his friend, they didn't hang out or anything, they just texted kind of a lot (sibling related) and often gone out (business related), as well as went to motels for the special training she had been doing with him (gender related) - they didn't do anything friends related!

What friends even did anyway? Drugs? Alcohol? Accidentally get pregnant?

Okay, Aomine had never done the first (that was a lie), didn't do the second now and kind of did the third. But it wasn't friends related, it was boyfriend related!

Wait, what was he talking about again? Ah right, Kagami. Was Kagami his friend? No, that would require some sort of... information, right? Like, a question or something. Like a relationship, you gotta ask the other person, right? So Taiga wasn't his friend, right?! He just was a dude that Daiki went out with, stayed in with, enjoyed spending his time with and texted with the smallest problems or news or just out of boredom— oh dear gods, Kagami Taiga was his friend.

The realization hit him like a train. He had a friend. And he just had a fight with said friend. And based on how awful he felt while getting our of the taxi and paying the driver, he was wrong. Aomine hated being wrong, so he swallowed the vomits in his mouth, grabbed his phone and wallet and entered the mansion of a house.

Really, there was no point in Haizaki living there. What was that all about, bragging? Tax avoidance?

"Finally, the wine's got warm", Shougo frowned as he opened the door.

"I'm not drinking", Daiki repeated. "What's for dinner?"

"Don't know, I bought it", he lied, he had some illegal immigrant cook it for him after he forced her to work for him, threatening her with jail.

"Hm", Aomine sat at the table. It wasn't japanese, he noted, but it was some grilled fish wirh rice on the side that kind of didn't fit in. "... Ginger?"

"What?"

"The spices, it kinda tastes like ginger", Aomine explained, tasting the dish again.

"Maybe?", Shougo frowned. The fuck was that, Erina's God Tongue? He wondered if it worked on semen, like, could Aomine taste what Haizaki had eaten? And if so, could he taste the flavor of sluts' pussies that Haizaki had fucked before him? Well he hoped Daiki didn't.

Aomine ended up in Haizaki's bed almost right after dinner. Lying naked on the mattress, his nausea hit again, causing him to almost black out. Shougo meanwhile sighed, spreading his legs. Thank gods Daiki's pregnancy wasn't visible, he would have been such a nuisance to fuck otherwise. Like, he was ugly already and having to stare at a baby belly for the entire time would only piss Should off even more.

He was pissed anyway. That nape cover that Aomine had worn during the heat destroyed his plans of mating him so Haizaki had to improvise by stabbing the condoms with a needle he found in Aomine's sewing kit in one of the drawers under the TV. And now, since he was pregnant, he wasn't getting his heats, so mating had fo wait not only for the birth but also for the stop of baby feeding and probably even some more because those stupid omega bodies could withstand heats for even up to two years after pregnancy, especially if it was traumatic.

And he couldn't mate with Daiki unless the omega was in his heat. He honestly wanted to just bite that nape hard enough to rip the whole gland off and infertilize Aomine for the rest of his life. Life without glands would make him less of a nuisance, at least - no heats, no pheromones, no possiblity of having a mate, no menstrual cycle, no pregnancies and no to half of the hormones - maybe that was why some sluts had them removed?

Aomine frowned and screamed when Haizaki entered in dry and raw. He wasn't prepared in the slightest and was at least hoping for some spit to loosen things up, but it never came. His moves were rough, his hands bruised up his hips and the tip of his dick hit Daiki's cervix with great force, leaving it sore and bloody from all the friction created by Aomine's lack of slick.

Eventually, Haizaki finished inside of him and his knot connected them for the next ten minutes. Shougo reached for the wine and drank it straight from the bottle, emptying out half of it in one go. He chuckled, looking at Daiki who lifelessly lied under him.

Aomine sighed. Kagami was right. He hated being in the wrong, but he had to admit it (only in his mind, however) - Kagami was right. He shouldn't have gone. He should have stayed home, he should have slept on the couch with Sei like he had been before. And instead, he was barely conscious in his boyfriend's bed, having wine poured on him for Shougo to lick off, in pain and unable to move.

Chapter Text

Daiki woke up and left early. Haizaki was snoring in the bed, like a hard sleeper he was, and Aomine wanted to just get home, hide in his bathtub and cry. He felt disgusting, he had cum dried all over him and was hungry, yet he wanted to leave quickly. He passed by the kitchen to check if he hadn't left anything when he stumbled upon a woman. A dirty-looking, brown-skinned woman. He looked around for any signs of break in, but he couldn't find any, how did she get inside?

Technically speaking, looking at her, Daiki would love to make her a meal and send her away quietly before Shougo would report her as a thief, but it seemed like she already helped herself - she was wearing an apron and she was cooking something. Their dishes were cleaned, most likely by her, and currently stayed on the rack to dry.

"Can I... help you?", he asked, tilting his head. She mumbled something in another language and wanted to run away. She pulled out a bunch of keys from the pocket of her apron and began looking through them.

She had keys? So she didn't break in?

"Who are you?", he asked, not letting her pass by to get to the door.

"I sorry", she said in broken Japanese, "I go, no speak Master, I sorry."

"No, don't worry, I won't hurt you, I promise", he tried to talk go her, but she repeated the same things over and over, then finally found the right key and got to the door. She opened it, snuck inside and closed it behind herself.

What the hell was that?

Nevertheless, if Aomine wanted to leave before Haizaki would wake up, he had to go quickly. Whoever that woman was, she seemed to work there and Daiki was not happy about it. She was definitely an immigrant, but based on her reaction Aomine would even risk saying she wasn't in Japan legally. Which made him question his boyfriend even more.

The bathtub was cold, but the water he had poured in was burning hot. He had taken a shower before to properly clean his body and now he just enjoyed his time in the lava-like liquid. He placed a hand on his belly.

Thirteenth week, fourth day. He was still flat and there was no sign of visible pregnancy. Fuck, he was more bloated than this before.

Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. His relationship with Haizaki was going south, he had a fight with Kagami, he wasn't sure about the pregnancy anymore and he just wanted to drown himself in the bathtub and die.

Maybe that thing that Taiga had told him at the doctor's was true? That about this baby not being the one? Maybe it was really true. He still had some time to reconsider, there was still a few weeks before abortion would be illegal, but it felt weird.

He wanted a kid so much. Why wasn't he happy? Why was he considering getting rid of it? Didn't those things contradict?

He heard Sei's meows from outside of the bathroom door. They weren't locked, so that witted asshole of a cat soon got in, kicked the door behind himself to shut them and stood on his back paws to look over the bathtub at him.

"Meow?", Sei asked, tilting his head.

"Nothing's okay", Daiki replied. "My life got like, asian level hard out of nowhere. And I wanna just... log out."

"... Meow", the cat hit him in the face, frowning.

"Your mom wanted you?", he asked the cat, well knowing he wouldn't get an answer. "You see... I don't think I want this child... What is wrong with me?"

"Meow", Sei looked down. "... Meow meow?"

"I know it's wrong", Aomine closed his eyes. "I wanted this, didn't I? And I yelled at Kagami yesterday too... Fucking hell, such a horrible week."

"Meow meow", Sei assured him.

"How can you know he will forgive me?", Daiki sighed. "This wasn't supposed to be like that, I was meant to be picking wedding dresses, deciding which flowers to put in my bouquet or what flavor the cake would be and then getting pregnant!... What went wrong? What did I do wrong?"

"Meow..."

"I had to do something! I'm almost twenty nine, I'm pregnant with a baby I don't want and my boyfriend is an asshole!", he sobbed. "I don't know what to do anymore..."

Sei jumped onto the dry part of the bathtub behind Daiki's head and gently lowered his paw down to check the water temperature. Then, he carefully stepped into Daiki's chest, avoiding his belly, and got his body into the hot water. Sei then lied down on his human and cuddled into his chest and neck. He hated water, but if Aomine needed someone to hug, then he would do his best.

Which seemed to didn't help, as Daiki started crying more, tightly holding Sei in his arms.

Humans were weird. But Sei loved his human more than ever. Okay, he loved his cat family, too, and he missed them, but right now, there was nothing he could do besides looking for them. If that day he hadn't lost his brother and hadn't fallen in that trashcan, he would have never met Aomine. So maybe his near death experience was something good after all?

And maybe Daiki's very bad experience would turn into something good too? Sei wanted that to happen, just like he wanted his fur to be dry again. But instead, he stayed in the bathtub with Aomine, he got soaked to the bone and he suffered a hair dryer before finally getting into a bed with his human and going to sleep.

"Meow", he said, cuddling into Daiki's chest.

"Good night to you too", Aomine replied, killing the lights on one of the bedside tables. Everything would be alright, he thought, as he tried to fall asleep. He could already feel Sei's steady breathing and he wished he could just pop right into sleep like his cat did. Nevertheless, he smiled. Gosh, it was so nice to have a cat that loved you more than anything.

Chapter Text

Sei waited for Daiki to leave for work before he returned to the kitchen to get some more food. He filled his tummy to the brim and left the apartment. He walked over to the elevator and clicked the button, then waited for the door to open. After a few seconds, it did, and the woman with her son inside stared at him with confusion.

"Meow", he said, getting onto the steps to click onto the ground floor button. It was already lit, so when he pressed it, it became unclicked. Sei then tilted his head and clicked it again. Oh, so they were going to the ground floor too?

"Look, Mom, the cat's using the steps too!"

"Yeah, I see..."

"Mom, that's so cool! Can we have a cat like that?!", the boy, around six, beamed up.

"No, your dad's allergic."

Sei left the elevator and then the building. It was May now and it was warm. A few days back the cherry trees blossomed and now there were petals everywhere. He did his best to be careful, slipping on them far from home would be dangerous, especially this close to the street and cars.

He waited with other people on the sidewalk for the light to turn green to continue his journey. He pretty much knew everything within three kilometers radius like the inside of his own pocket (which he did not had, because he was, well, a cat), so today he decided to go a little further. Outside of the area around the apartment he also knew the day to Aomine's work and to Kagami's place, both by train and by walking, but he much more preferred the train - it was way quicker. He saw some people pay for the trips with their cards, but he didn't have a card, so he was riding illegally. He needed to ask Daiki for the card, but that would be a hard task.

For now, he picked a direction and just walked forward, trying to remember the way. Three lights on crossings, two smaller crossings with no pedestrian lights where he had to wait for the cars to see him (which wasn't that easy now as it was in winter - Sei's red fur blend in with pink petals more than it did with the white snow), so he had to wait for a human for help both of the times.

The streets of Tokyo looked really nice in May, he had to admit. There was some wind that made the temperature sightly chilly despite the thermometers showing twenty two degrees.

Sei yawned, looking around. There were some stores, some konbinis, he could tell by the neon lights. He was pretty sure he passed by a school, too, and it seemed colorful - maybe it was elementary school or kindergarten?

But it wasn't the school, the cars or the petals that brought his attention. It was the red fur, in the same shade as his, disappearing behind a corner. He yawned again, then took a second look. Red fur? Was it just his mind, something else or could it have been—!

He immediately changed his direction and began running to the corner. He took a look into the alley, but it was empty. No, he wouldn't believe it was only his imagination, he definitely had seen something! He went in deeper, dragging a few petals with him that had fallen from the cherry trees onto him and got stuck, and after one turn, he was met with a wall made out of net. A conveniently placed dumpster made it possible to jump over in only one direction, meaning he would get stuck if he decided to go forward.

Sei decided it was worth the risk.

Standing over the net, he had second thoughts. What if he would get lost and he would never see his stupid human again? He was pregnant and needed him, especially with an asshole boyfriend like that. Sei couldn't just not come back home, but at the same time, he finally found something in his own investigation. And living with Aomine the detective made him learn enough of the job to know that this was a breaking point. If he decided not to follow the trail, he might never find it again.

So he jumped over the fence and landed onto the concrete on the other side.

The alley became darker with every step and eventually, he was met with a split way. Since he couldn't see the red fur anywhere, he went left only to find it to be a dead end after one turn. Then, he returned to take the second exit, but there weren't two as he expected - the one he had come from and the right one - and instead there were three. Okay, wait, what? How could they just multiply like that, roads didn't do that, did they?

He picked a turn and went forward. Another dead end? So he returned and pick another - another dead end. He decided to try the last one and... it was also a dead end.

He was not only lost but also stuck, just great! No matter where he went, it was a dead end! He couldn't even find his way back to the net with the dumpster.

Oh no, he gulped, he was seriously stuck! Stuck and screwed! He frantically began running around, trying to find a solution. Don't panic, he repeated in his mind over and over, but he well knew how fucked he was. He needed to find a way out and back to his home, he needed to find Daiki, he needed to be back with his human and he needed to find the owner of the red fur he had seen with the corner of his eye.

He stopped at another path crossing. He had three choices, including the one he had came from. Deep breath, they couldn't change into something new every time he walked forward, right? I'd he just stuck to the left wall, he would eventually find an exit, right?

Except he was walking for well over forty minutes now and he still saw nothing but walls and closed doors that led to the backrooms of different businesses. Not even the net wall.

He wanted to cry, really. Why was this happening to him?!

"Sei?!", he heard a voice, Aomine's voice. Behind him, to the right. He turned around and ran towards it. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Meow...", Sei sighed in relief. He ran towards Daiki and jumped onto him, clinging onto him and stabbing his shirt with his claws.

"How did you even end up here...", Aomine sighed, walking where he came from. He turned left one time and immediately found the net wall. Oh no, but it was one way only! They wouldn't be able to go out that way—

Ah. The door in the net wall wasn't locked, it just needed a push. Great. Just great. He panicked for nothing.

At least he remembered the way back home from there - he could return to look for the red fur another day.

Chapter Text

"Seriously, I know I said you can walk anywhere you want, but getting suck in the back alleys of stores is a little too much", Daiki sighed, holding Sei in his arms. "You lucky I decided to check your GPS tracker during my lunch break, or you'd be stuck there for way longer!"

"Meow..."

"Meow, my ass", Aomine tsked, dragging him towards the car. Sakurai, who was leaning on the Toyota, stood up straight once he saw them and chuckled, putting his phone call away from a moment. "I found the idiot."

"Meow!", Sei huffed. He wasn't an idiot, he just got lost!

"How did he end up here?", Ryou asked, opening the back door for Aomine. Daiki put Sei on the seat and closed it, making the cat sigh. It felt as if he was being scolded, which was honestly unnecessary.

"I have no clue", Daiki mumbled, getting I to the driver's seat. Sei meowed behind him and Aomine frowned, turning around. "One more word and you're grounded for pulling me out of my job to help you getting unstuck."

Sei stayed quiet and curled up on the seat. He waited for Ryou to finish talking with his husband while he silently sat in the car with Sei.

"I saw you take the subway a few times", Aomine said. "On the tracker. How did you do that? You snuck in? How did you know which train and when?"

"... Meow", Sei mumbled. How else would he know how to if he didn't follow Daiki?

"You gotta learn how to buy tickets", Aomine pointed out. "And how to read the schedule, if that's even possible. I'm not gonna be going to Kanagawa to pick you up after you enter the wrong line."

"Meow", Sei admitted. At least that went much easier than making Daiki break up with his boyfriend and get together with Kagami. Eventually Sakurai entered the cat and apologized for making them wait. Aomine drove back to their job place, which was the investigation site for the Yakuza murder. They were digging there again?

Sei wanted to leave the car and go with them, but Daiki was reluctant - it was Ryou who told opened the door and let him out, reminding him not to interrupt their investigation. Sei wasn't planning to, he knew how watch from the side. And he also had to admit one thing - his human looked very nice in a vest with Tokyo Metropolitan Police's Criminal Department logo on the back.

Oh how much he would give for this investigation to finish. Daiki was stressed about it and Sei didn't like it when his human was stressed. Especially while he was carrying a baby. He shouldn't be stressed, he was supposed to be resting and enjoying his pregnancy, but of course he had a stupid boyfriend that could not provide for him!

"You guys are still sniffing around here?", an old woman walked towards them and shook her head in disappointment. "Can Police for once do their jobs right?"

"We are trying, but it's hard to when people stick their noses where they don't belong", Daiki hissed at her, which caused Sakurai's face to drop. He immediately got in between of Aomine and the woman and apologized her profoundly.

"Hah! Your friend here has a sharp tongue!", she tsked. "You see, I hate the police and I ignore them, but I like your attitude, boy. Who ya' lookin' for, maybe I can help."

Aomine chuckled and described the two people to her, as well as showed her the photos they had. She took the prints and nodded, saying how she would ask around in her book and bingo clubs, then grabbed Daiki's number as well and left.

"What the hell was that?", Ryou's eyes widened once she was out of the hearable distance.

"Some old people are savage, man", Daiki sighed.

"How did you know she was one of the savage ones?!"

"... Omega's instinct", he lied. He was angry with Sei's unfortunate situation and lack of new information about the case and he just lashed out on the poor woman.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have that instinct!"

"That's not my problem anymore", Aomine mumbled. He had no clue how he had escaped Sakurai's wrath with that one. It was the luckiest excuse of his life.

However, as for the past few days, they found nothing and Daiki returned home via subway, dragging Sei with him.

"So you have to have a card", he explained to the cat whom he was holding in his arms like a baby. "And you scan the card. The door opens and you go in. See?"

"Meow."

"Yeah, so... I have no clue how to explain trains to you. This one leads home", he showed one white train. "I guess you can listen to the announcements to know which one to pick...?"

"Meow...?"

"Yeah, so, uh, we live in Meguro, so don't enter any train that leaves it, okay?"

Sei nodded. He wouldn't enter any train that leaves Meguro, except the one that goes for Shibuya, because he somehow had to get to Kagami's apartment. He actually well remembered which train to take and which station to leave on, so Daiki didn't have to worry about that.

Meanwhile, Sei could relax in his arms. He was tired, his eyes were barely staying open and Daiki's body was so warm and nice and oh, he could just fall asleep in his human's hold. He purred, making Aomine sigh and hold him closer. He couldn't remember how he got where, but the last thing he remembered was the sound of train moving on the tracks and now as he opened his eyes, he was sleeping on his pillow.

His dad's fur was almost the same color. It was also this fluffy. His dad didn't live with them on the streets, but his mom would have sometimes led him to a hole in the fence and then behind some thujas, there was a garden so big, with grass so green and evenly cut, Sei and his brother always jumped around before their mom could finally get them to come to a gazebo. And under there, he always met with his dad. And his dad was always annoyed to meet them.

The only thing he could remember was getting scolded, dragged around, pushed off and away or being smacked on the head. His dad wasn't the nicest of dads, but lying on his brown pillow in Daiki's apartment, he missed his dad too. Maybe not as much as his mom and brother, but enough to instinctively look for holes in fences, hoping to see some thujas behind it.

Chapter Text

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: No subject

sorry

Aomine sighed as he read the mail. A week had passed since their fight and they hadn't spoken to each other since. Which was Daiki's fault, he should have apologized, but his pride was kind of in the way.

And now Kagami, who did nothing wrong, was saying sorry. Just great, he was an amazing human being, the greatest there ever lived! And why was Taiga, the amazing, loving and caring alpha, apologizing? Because Daiki was a fucking idiot!

He groaned, holding his phone with his thumb over the compose button. So stupid...

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: hi

I had fun that night ;p
Wanna go out for dinner somewhen close?

Of course he would lie. Of course he was too prideful to say that Kagami was right and it went horrible and he spent every moment wishing to be back at his apartment with Taiga.

So stupid.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Title: RE: hi

yeah! I wanted to take you to a restaurant for a while now, there's a cool place not far from your home, I don't know if you heard of it. You have time tomorrow?

Daiki wanted to scream, cry and vomit. Why was Kagami like this? How come he could just ignore the fact that they had a fight and move on, then ask him out to a restaurant?! What was wrong with him?!

But he smiled nevertheless and emailed back his schedule for the week. So stupid.

No, that wasn't stupid. Standing (or rather, sitting on his bed) with the open closet in front of him was stupid. Not being able to pick an outfit was stupid. Sei sitting in the ground and judging him was stupid. No, back, Sei wasn't judging him for his inability to wear clothes but rather for his inability to feed him.

"Meow", he demanded, frowning. And Daiki was still naked in front of the closet. Fucking hell, that thing was half empty (when he firstly designed the space, he left half of it for his future partner, but the more he lived in the apartment, the dustier the half became) and he still had troubles picking a shirt!

"What do you want?", Aomine sighed, standing up. Screw clothes, he would go wearing nothing but the white briefs he had on.

"Meow", Sei smiled.

"You're not getting tofu", Daiki replied and the next thing he knew, Sei's bowls were on the ground. "Excuse me? Do that again and you're grounded."

This story wouldn't be called «Aomine Daiki and his malicious red kitten» if Sei wasn't malicious. So a plastic cup used to water the plants joined the bowls soon after.

"You're grounded, dipshit!", Aomine tightened his fists. He walked over to Sei and grabbed him by the collar, then took the chip from it and walked through the living room area to the office space. He opened the drawer next to his desk and placed the chip there, then locked the drawer with a key. He returned to the kitchen and stuck his tongue out just to annoy the cat.

"... Meow!", Sei frowned. What just happened? What did his human do?! What did grounded mean?! Sei tried to look at his collar to find out what was he missing, but he couldn't take a proper look.

"I'm going to work", Daiki informed him. "Don't make a mess."

"Meow!", Sei yelled at him.

Aomine, dressed up in his work clothes, then left the apartment and sighed. Just great. He had a fight with his friend. He had a fight with his fucking cat. And he hadn't seen his boyfriend since that night. Amazing. Just truly amazing. His life couldn't be better. Almost fifteen weeks pregnant without a ring on his finger.

Haizaki could have at least taken responsibility and proposed. But the more days had passed the more Daiki began to believe that not having an abortion was a mistake. He could still do it. He still had a little bit of time. Still just a few weeks.

Meanwhile at home, Sei began cleaning the mess he had made. He put the bowls upright and put all of his dry food (that wasn't that dry anymore after he mixed it with water) back into one then jumped onto the counter to kick down a rag. He tried to soak as much water into it as possible, then threw it into the sink and dragged another one onto the floor.

Now - it was done. Fixed. No more problems, he was good to go—

And now he realized what Daiki took off his collar. It was the key to the cat door. He was locked inside. Locked until Aomine came back home. No! He had job to do! He had to go and find the owner of that red fur! He had to go back into that alley!

He was absolutely had to leave! There was a window opened but they lived on the seventh floor, Sei wouldn't be able to make it down without dying. Which meant that unless he somehow got his chip back, he was stuck inside until Daiki reattached it.

His past adventures made his daily life way more entertaining. In fact, so entertaining, that he now was sleeping on the couch, dying of boredom. He turned around to the other side and his tail swing around, angrily hitting against the cushion.

There was nothing to do. Literally and figuratively, he was a cat, he didn't have a job. Okay, he had a goal. But his goal was outside of the apartment complex. Inside, he was a lazy bum of a cat that could just lie down and do nothing. Great.

He wasn't used to doing nothing, he always did something. Whether it was wandering around on his own, with his mom and brother, or Daiki, he was doing something.

Having a living home was so tiring, he sighed. He had food in his bowl, water in his second bowl, plants to chew on (although Aomine didn't seem to like that part), pillow to sleep on, bed to sleep in, a human for annoy and a bunch of stuff to throw off the table. And he was bored. The best part was, he couldn't even remember what he did when he was bored before meeting Daiki.

Ah. Right.

He played with his brother.

Chapter Text

"You look amazing", Kagami smiled, metting him in the doorway. Aomine smiled back, gulping. He looked ridiculous, not amazing. He looked like a he was going to a renaissance festival, not on a meeting with a friend.

He honestly couldn't even remember how he ended up in the possession of that shirt. A fucking button up with frills and flounce at the end of the sleeves and around the collar that he decided to tuck into black leather pants and a corset. He bought that thing three years ago and wore it once, in front of a mirror, then took it off and never touched it again.

"Nice rings", Taiga smiled, pointing at his hands. Daiki looked at them, not remembering what he had put on. Ah, right, those flowery rings made out of materials so cheap they turned his fingers green. But hey, he bought a twenty-pack of them off AliExpress for less than four hundred yen.

"Thanks", Daiki mumbled. Kagami stared at him for a moment before Aomine left the apartment and locked the door.

Taiga wanted to scream. Daiki fucking curled his hair. His usually reaching below his shoulder blades hair now barely touched his shoulders and the omega made a half-ponytail out of them as well, decorating the hairstyle with hairpins. He looked glorious and he made Kagami curse at himself for not going with the slacks instead of the black jeans he had on.

They hardly said anything on their way there, but every time their hands brushed, Taiga had an urge to grab it. Just for a moment, he wished he would have a chance, a reason, to hold it.

And then Daiki almost entered the crossing on the red light. Kagami didn't have to be told twice, and his fingers locked in with Aomine's, pulling him back.

"It's red", he said, pointing at the lights.

"Right.", Daiki nodded, his thumb moving over Kagami's knuckles.

Aomine gulped. He had a boyfriend. A boyfriend with whom he was expecting a child. What the hell was he doing, he was sure his attraction to Taiga was over? But at the same time who was he kidding.

Kagami was his first kiss and his first time, even if it was a drink one night stand they never spoke of again. Every time he thought of anal sex, he thought of Taiga. Every time he kissed Shougo, he has Kagami in mind. He lied and lied for himself that his crush was just a quick emotional rollercoaster, but deep inside he knew what was the reason why he spent so much time in front of a closet.

Kagami let go of his hand only go open the restaurant door for him. They entered and it turned out Taiga had a fucking reservation. He booked a table. For them. To eat. It wasn't just a pub or an eatery or a diner, Kagami took him to a restaurant where he tried his best to act like a gentleman while failing at every step.

He almost fell down while moving Daiki's chair for him, he spilled the red wine on the white tablecloth, struggled to keep his food on his plate, got a tissue on fire while cleaning the wine, then almost knocked down the candle that lit up the tissue, and made half of the staff hate him.

But if Aomine were to be honest, it was the best date he had ever been on. He wasn't on many dates, but that was definitely his S-tier. He apologized to the restaurant staff on Kagami's behalf and offered to pay for the mess - he was in a good mood and left with a smile on his face.

Kagami tried to open the door for him again, but this time he was supposed to push, which resulted in Taiga's brain lagging at how to let Daiki leave without blocking his way.

"Step outside and hold it there", Aomine suggested. "It's a push door. You're passing through a push door if you're opening it for someone."

"Oh", Taiga's brain seemed to have caught on and he left the restaurant, then held the door open for Daiki, who followed behind him with a bright smile.

"Thank you", he said. Which was already unnatural for him. Aomine Daiki saying thank you? That was a rare one. But Daiki was in such good mood that he could giggle like a thirteen-year-old and swing his legs.

"Hey, uh", Kagami said when they reached Aomine's apartment. "Have I ever cooked you that dinner I promised?"

"I... You cooked me many dinners", Daiki pointed out.

"Yeah, but when we met, I was supposed to make you and Sei dinner at my place. And I don't think that ever happened", Taiga frowned. "So, uh. Would you like to set a date?"

Daiki wanted to mumble how Kagami didn't owe him anything, how all the care that he was given from the alpha was enough. But hell, he wanted to go to Taiga's place and embarrass him. And if he remembered correctly, he informed Kagami about his and Sei high demands.

Okay, he just wanted to bully Taiga a little.

"Okay. When?", Aomine smirked. "You think you're finally ready?"

"... Now I'm scared", Kagami's smile faded. "Yeah, uh, this Saturday is okay for you?"

"I guess", Daiki thought for a moment. Saturday. He had nothing, most likely, but at the same time, did he want to leave his apartment on a Saturday? "Yeah, Saturday is okay."

"Great, you remember where, yeah? The usual train goes on Saturdays too."

"... The usual?"

"The one that goes there in the weekdays?"

"Which train?"

"... The one Sei takes?"

Aomine's eyes widened. He did see the subway rides of his cat, but he had no clue Sei went to Shibuya, to Kagami's place.

"Excuse me?", he clicked his tongue. "Sei visits you?"

"... Crap, uh. No?", Kagami lied. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Kagami Taiga, how often is my cat at your apartment?"

"Not much", Taiga mumbled. "Sometimes twice a week, sometimes once every two weeks... Sometimes five times a week."

"How did he even find out where you live?!"

"I don't know, I was sure you showed him!"

Sei's journeys confused Aomine even more with each new fact he learned about them. And he now was sure about getting the cat his own train pass.

Chapter Text

"It's nice that the belly doesn't show yet", Haizaki commented, lying in his bed naked. "You still look hot."

Of course that was a lie, Shougo never found him hot, but he looked hotter with a flat stomach than how he would with a pregnancy belly. And Daiki was standing in front of him wearing nothing but white lingerie that showed more than it covered, that he forced Aomine to put on. Daiki's eyelid twitched - crap, he forgot to take his magnesium supplements again.

"C'mere, get your ass on my dick", Shougo chuckled, spreading his legs. He patted his thighs and smirked with that awful look on his face and something inside Daiki just... broke.

"No", he replied, holding his legs closer and wrapping his arms around himself to cover up a little. "No."

"What?", Haizaki frowned. "I support you, I care for you, I take you out on expensive dates and you can't even sit on my dick? Am I really asking for that much?!"

Aomine took a deep breath, then ran back into the bathroom and locked the door. He ripped the underwear off himself and he was sure Shougo could hear the fabric tearing, but he didn't care. He dressed up as quickly as he possibly could and grabbed all of his stuff. When he left the bathroom, Haizaki was on the edge of the bed, getting ready to stand up.

"What the hell?!", he yelled, trying to grab Daiki's hand, but Aomine tightened his fist and punched him right in the face, making him fall to the floor.

"Don't touch me", he hissed.

"Where the fuck are you going?!", Shougo screamed, trying to collect himself after the punch. "Daiki!"

"Far from you!", Aomine slammed the door to the bedroom, leaving him alone.

That was enough. He wasn't going to be a toy for some annoying, physically attractive asshole of an alpha! He was fourteen weeks pregnant, he still had time to have an abortion and completely cut himself off Haizaki, he could start his life again, find someone new (however unlikely that sounded) and if it all failed, he had enough money saved for have a in-vitro with a sperm bank donor!

With each day passed, he hated that fetus more and more. It wasn't a beloved baby to him anymore. He despised it. He wanted it gone. It reminded him of that asshole and he hated every second of his life with it inside.

Kagami was right after all, again. He was right in saying that Haizaki was an asshole, he was right in saying that it was okay to have an abortion and that it just might be not this baby. That it was okay.

As he went home, he planned on calling the clinic to change his eighteen-week appointment into an abortion, but in the end he decided to do it in the morning. He needed that clarity of mind.

And in the morning he overslept and barely made it to work on time. Recently Sei had been begging him more and more to have his chip back, but Daiki hadn't had a moment to think about what to do with the cat. And maybe it was a good thing, because now Sei woke him up to demand food and he was extremely angry (driven by his inability to leave the apartment on his own), which made it impossible for Daiki to sleep through.

He flopped down onto his office chair four minutes after seven. Ryou was already drinking his coffee and observing him with a smile.

"You look different", he mumbled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, more... lively, sorry, as much lively you can be at seven AM."

"... I guess I am", Aomine smiled. Ever since he yelled at Shougo he did feel good.

Their conversation was stopped by a phone call to Daiki's work number. He frowned and answered it. The lady. The angry and mean lady from the time he and Ryou checked out the murder scene again. And she had some great information for them.

Aomine had never been so eager to run into his car and drive somewhere far before.

They met up with her next to her apartment complex and planned on going in for the questioning but the woman met them on the sidewalk with her purse and a sinister smile.

"Uh, ma'am, we can do the questioning at your apartment, we don't have to get you to the police", Sakurai updated her.

"Oh I know, but you're questioning my friend's neighbor's grandson's girlfriend, not me", she grabbed the handle of the backseat of the car and tried for open it. "Open the car, sweetheart, and let's get going, I don't have all day."

That was going to be a long journey, Aomine noted, as he unlocked the car and reentered it with Ryou.

"So why are we here? We could go there without you present", Daiki asked once they were in the way.

"But Eiji lives with his girlfriend and he's a little overprotective and he doesn't let the police in", she explained. "He was arrested a few times and he doesn't trust them. So I'll tell him that it's okay, or rather, I already called his grandma who told him I'll be coming in with the police. He only will let you in if you're with me."

"Oh, so you're our pass, huh?", Aomine cleared his throat. "Lovely. May I know how do you know about some crucial information your neighbor's friend's granddaughter's boyfriend has?"

"No, my friend's neighbor's grandson's girlfriend! I've told you I asked around in my bingo club!"

"Right. Sorry, we didn't catch that", Sakurai sighed.

"Turn right there", she pointed left. "Or was it the next street...?"

Aomine took a deep breath and made a left turn, then gave Ryou the side eye. That better be worth it or they were just driving an old woman around in a cop car for the entire day for absolutely no reason other than to meet up with her boyfriend's friend's neighbor's granddaughter.

Chapter Text

They knocked on the door, or rather, let the woman knock and waited for the man to open it. Based on their description they expected a huge, bulky, bald, Yakuza-member-looking dude wearing a tight black t-shirt, but instead the door were opened by a NEET-looking guy that was maybe one sixty in height and has classes covering half of his face if not more.

"Eiji, it's the police your granny told you about", the woman explained.

"... I refuse to talk about anything related to what I do, you'll just talk to Mika about those guys", he frowned, opening the door. "You also are not allowed to touch anything I don't let you and I don't agree to any search!"

"Of course sir", Daiki smiled, amused by the guy. Was he an alpha? Holy shit, he seemed to be an alpha. Oh how much he had to hate his genetics.

They entered in and they were met with a rather tall female beta in the living room. She was quite shaken up and the man quickly sat next to her to comfort her. The old lady took a seat on the armchair while Daiki and Ryou grabbed chairs and sat in front of them.

"We're here only to question you about the two men from the photos", Sakurai explained, showing them to her. "We heard that you know something?"

"It wasn't my fault, I had a green light!", she sobbed.

"... We're... We're not here to arrest you for anything, those men are suspects in a crime. We're looking for them to arrest them", Daiki explained.

"They... Uh", she seemed to have calmed down a little. "I think they are the same guys, but I might be just wasting your time—"

"We're happy to hear every thought, no matter whether it would be relevant in the end or not", Ryou assured.

"It was somewhere in uh, December? January maybe? I was going home after work and they basically jumped in front of my car on the crossing. I had a green light, and they had red, but they still yelled at me!"

"I see", Daiki took a deep breath. "Could you describe them as much as you remember to a forensic artist?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I have them on video?", she said. "I have a camera in my car, and it saved the video because I hit the brakes hard."

"... You have a video?", Sakurai's eyes shined. "Can we—?"

"Stay here", the man commanded. "I'll get a laptop and the pendrive."

They kept tight on their seats while the alpha (the only one in the room, it seemed) stood up and left the living room. He opened the door to a different room only to reveal a dark place filled with servers. Aomine blinked and took a second look. Fucking hell, the guy genuinely had like five servers inside, and Daiki only saw a portion of the room. What was he doing?

But hey, he was being secretive about his life and very hesitant to let them in, so even if his curiosity was killing him, he stayed quiet and looked away. Now the old woman took care of calming the beta down, as he passed her another tissue and patted her back as she blew her nose.

Eventually the man returned with a laptop and a pendrive attached to it. He set it down on the coffee table in front of them and clicked play. They were met with a recording of a road, from the driver's perspective, and Daiki well knew that road. It was the street not far from the murder scene, he had been there many times to look around.

He stayed silent as the video played. Green light, another green light, then the crossing, nothing visible, green light, red for pedestrians, two men suddenly appear in front of the car, running from behind the building and end up on the car. The men fall down on the ground, the woman screams and hits the brakes, they get knocked down, stand up and they stare right at the driver angrily, before running over to the side of the car to scream at her. One dude runs over and tries to get his buddy away, after a few seconds of insults being thrown, they go back to the sidewalk from which they jumped onto the crossing, appearing on the cameras again.

They had their suspects in four K, sixty frames per second. Just like that. They had to wait almost six months but they had their faces.

Except something was wrong. Those seconds when the men were visible, their faces were clearly recognizable. They could see their face proportions, colors, they were easily identifiable.

And yet one of them seemed too familiar.

Aomine gulped, replaying the video. No, there could be no way, right? No way in hell that this could be true, but yet he replayed it a few times before he managed to stop it at the right moment.

"We're gonna need those copied, I think I have a CD in the car, can you burn it for me?", he asked the alpha.

"Damn, y'all still burn CDs for evidence?", the man chuckled. "Yeah, I think so. I haven't burned one in like twelve years."

"I'll be right back then", Aomine stood up. He needed to go out, he needed a moment to collect himself, he needed do take a deep breath and hit something. That couldn't be the true. He was imagining things. He... He was just tired and shaken by the recent events, right?

He returned with the CD and gave it to the man to burn. As they waited for a moment they wrote down the witnesses' data and statements, collected their evidence and left, dropping the woman back to her apartment.

Later that day at work Daiki stared at the portrait the forensic artist had made based on the video. He replayed the scene a few more times and covered his face, crying.

The man in the video was Haizaki Shougo.

Chapter Text

He wasn't an artist but during his university course he was forced to learn the basics. It wasn't enough to know how to draw a cat, but enough to know how to hold a pencil while changing the portrait a little.

The drawing from the forensic artist was almost identical to the man in the video. One to one. Yet Daiki just needed to see one thing, so he drew a different hairstyle onto it.

The man on the portrait was his boyfriend. Aomine was dating a criminal. So incredibly ironic. Okay, no, stop, he had fo be sure it was Haizaki. He was almost sure, but still, if he could find anything else other than himself being angry at the alpha. Like for example, the other man amongst Shougo's friends or something.

But what if Haizaki suspected Daiki would get to know it?! What if he knew that he knew?! What if—

No. He had to make sure he wasn't acting in emotions. The man could have just been very similar to his boyfriend, right? It would be ironic, but possible. Yes, that had to be the case - Daiki shredded the paper and threw it out. He took the original in his hands and focused on that.

Saturday came and Daiki was on his way to Taiga's apartment. Sei was sitting in the carrier on his chest. He had gotten so big he was barely fitting in. Aomine was planning on getting him the chip back - it seemed that the cat had suffered enough.

They arrived at the station and left the train. Sei then began explaining the way to Daiki who remembered it back when he was often dropping Taiga off after work, but he pretended to care and listen to the meowing.

Eventually they reached Kagami's apartment complex and the problems had started. Yeah, Aomine didn't remember which floor or apartment it was, but Sei remembered and he very eagerly clicked the penthouse floor button in the elevator - the exact one Taiga was always pressing.

Then a little bit forwards and—

"Meow", Sei informed. This door. He was sure that was Kagami's. Aomine didn't seem convinced, but he rang the doorbell. And lo and behold, Taiga opened the door.

"Hey", he said in a high-pitched tone, then cleared his throat and repeated in a purposely lowered tone: "Hey."

Aomine bit the inside of his cheek so as not to laugh and smiled. "Yo. Is the food not ready yet or is the pink apron just your style?"

"... It's... uh", Kagami got red on his face then mumbled: "I forgot."

"Forgot what?", Aomine blinked.

"That you were coming", he admitted. "I only just started cooking."

"What?", Daiki frowned. "You had a whole week?"

"I know. I went shopping on Thursday and I made the broth and then I... forgot", he bit his lip, almost crying. "It'll be ready in three hours..."

Aomine opened his mouth to say something, but bit his tongue and smiled. "I'll wait."

"That's—"

"Just let me in, I'll wait", he sighed. Taiga looked like a beaten up puppy and Daiki's days were bad enough already. He could wait three hours and enjoy a conversation with Kagami before the meal, instead of after. Well, Sei was pretty hungry, but Aomine would find some quick snack for him in the meantime.

"I fucked up—"

"Yeah, kinda", Daiki chuckled, going in. "You're making something good, I hope. It better be worth the wait."

"... It's A5 wagyu steak", Taiga admitted. "Not only—"

"You bought A5 meat for that?", Daiki stepped into the slippers and stopped in his tracks to look at him. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, uh, I bought it for Sei too."

"... Are you crazy?", Aomine held the cat down as he began moving around, trying to escape the carrier.

"No", Kagami's eyes widened. He then gasped and ran to the kitchen. "I'M GONNA BURN THE ONION!"

Aomine unpacked Sei and placed him on the floor, then walked in to where Kagami had ran off to. He entered a big living room with a kitchen connected to it. Quite different from his own layout - Kagami's was going in deep, while keeping it narrow, while his apartment was wide, spreading to the sides from the exit rather than forward.

It was a cozy room, with the walls painted a light color (was it yellow or did it just use to be white?) with some wooden furniture here and there. Pretty empty - there was a cactus on one of the shelves and it was barely alive, so Aomine instantly walked forward to the kitchen and began searching the cupboards. He eventually found a cup and filled it with water, all while watching how Taiga struggled to save the caramelized onions.

"What's it for?", Daiki asked.

"... It was supposed to go into the salad but I don't think I'll put it in if I can't save it", Taiga sighed. "What's the water for?"

"Your cactus is dying."

"It's not plastic?"

"Dude", Aomine rehydrated the plant. "It's alive. Barely."

"I thought it was fake."

"Fake my ass."

"Nah, your ass' real", Kagami mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"What a beautiful day, isn't it?"

When Kagami finished taking everything off the stove, the only thing left was waiting for the steak to finish cooking in the oven. Taiga took off his apron and walked to the couch to join Aomine and Sei for a moment.

Daiki was rewatching the video from the car. He tried to look for any distinctive features that could have been missed prior. Anything. Anything that would point to the man not being Haizaki.

"Hey, who's that?", Kagami frowned, looking at Daiki's phone. "I know him."

"What?", Aomine's eyes widened.

"Remember when we were at the cafe, back in December when we met? We were talking about me having a crush on that guy...", Taiga got embarrassed when talking about that part. "Yeah, he was sitting next to us. You were glancing at him every once in a while, so did I, and I remember him because he was reading his fucking newspaper upside down."

Aomine looked at the paused video and pulled out the drawing. It was that man from the cafe. The man who was drinking a black coffee, holding his mug with two fingers around the ear and two fingers straight pressed up against the ceramic.

It was the way Shougo held his cups.

Chapter Text

"Sorry, why are we here?", Sakurai asked him as they entered the cafe.

"To check if they have video footage from December", Aomine sighed.

"That's nowhere close to the site, you got a tip or something?"

"Yeah, I'm the tip", Daiki bit his lip. "I was here in December with Kagami. The man sitting next to us looked similar."

"You rely on your memories from half a year ago?"

"No, that's why we're here."

They walked towards the bar and a waitress quickly appeared in front of them. She welcomed them with a bright smile, bowing. "What can I get you?", she asked.

"A manager", Ryou smiled, showing his badge. Aomine pulled out his as well. "Sorry."

"... The manager is on a leave, but the owner is here", she informed them. "I'll be right back, please wait a moment."

She returned after a moment with an older gentleman, who invited them to the back. They were lead past the kitchen into a very small and cramped office - so cramped that they stayed outside of it as only the man could fit inside. The room wasn't bigger than your average stall in an internet cafe.

"What do you need to know, detectives?", he asked, moving the mouse on the PC to lit up the screen.

"We need video footage from December", Daiki explained. "You see, were investigating a murder and I'm pretty sure the suspect sat next to me in your cafe a few months back."

"We'll understand if you don't have it, six months of CCTV footage is a lot of storage space", Sakurai smiled. "But we thought we'd try anyway."

"Oh you're in good hands", the man chuckled. "I have only one camera and over ten years of surveillance videos. I never delete them, we have one disc per each year, let me just find it."

"Wow, okay, that's... Nice", Ryou's eyes widened. "We definitely didn't expect that."

"My son takes care of that", the man mumbled. "One time we didn't have cameras and someone harrased our waitress, so I put it on ten years ago and said to never delete anything it records. I knew it will be useful one day!"

The man eventually found the disc, which turned out to be a twenty-five terabyte hard drives, with a year written onto it with a marker. The man handed the drive to them and left the cubicle, leaving them with the PC to run it and find whatever they needed while he returned to help the waiters at the bar.

"Holy shit", Aomine opened the hard drive. "It's catalogued. Into months, then into days, then into the hours where the cafe was opened and when it was closed. It's a gold mine!"

It reminded him of his own shelf at home.

He found the correct day and began shuffling through the videos. He had no recognition of what hour it was other than the sun was still up. But after around fifteen minutes of skimming through the footage, he found himself and Kagami entering through the door.

And at the bar, the man was sitting. Then, he moved and sat next to them, reading his newspaper upside down. He grabbed his coffee mug and drank it, holding the cup with two fingers straight pressed to the glass and two fingers curled around the handle.

Ryou pulled out a CD and they copied the video onto it. Then, they put the hard drive back in its place and returned to the cafe. They got the owner to sign some papers and left the cafe with some tea and hot chocolate to go, on the house as the owner insisted on them not leaving empty-handed (even if they explained how the video was enough).

Such a lovely gentleman, Daiki noted, he would definitely come there more often.

"So you have your answer", Ryou sighed, as they got into the car. He took a sip of his tea. "Oh, it's good."

"Yeah", Aomine closed his eyes. The man from the cafe was the suspect. And the suspect seemed awfully familiar to Haizaki. Meaning that Daiki had fo somehow start an investigation towards his boyfriend without the older man getting to know about it.

He kept thinking about it while going home. What the hell was he supposed to do? Live with it? He was possibly dating a criminal, a criminal who might have known about the case just as much as Aomine knew about it. He did his best to keep his private life and work life separate, but Shougo did know a few things here and there.

He was screwed. Especially when he left the elevator and saw Haizaki in front of his apartment door.

"I know I should have reached out sooner", he said. "But I felt like we both needed that week away from each other to think about everything."

"... Why are you here?", Daiki frowned. That was his nightmare come true in that moment.

"I wanted to apologize", Shougo said, handing him a bouquet of flowers. "I fucked up and I'm sorry. I should have never pushed you into having sex if you didn't want to. But that time away from you made me realize how much I loved you and how much I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. So please, could you give me another chance?"

Aomine took the flowers and bit his lip. Oh, no, not the pregnancy hormones. Not now!

"... Okay", he mumbled. Haizaki couldn't have been the suspect. He knew his boyfriend, he was an asshole, but he wouldn't have murdered someone! That suspect on the videos must have been someone similar. That was all. Just someone who had similar facial bones to Shougo. But it definitely wasn't him, right?

"Lovely", Shougo smiled. "Looks like you're tired, how about I order some take out and we go watch a movie?"

"Okay", Daiki smiled. Yeah, he missed that Haizaki. "You had a rough time at work?"

"Sorry?"

"You seemed different recently. Stress?"

"... Yeah. Exactly. I'm sorry I took it out on you", Shougo grabbed Daiki's hand and kissed his knuckles. "So could my beautiful boyfriend forgive me for oh I have sinned?"

"I guess something could be arranged", Aomine chuckled. Yeah. There was no way in hell Haizaki was a murderer.

Chapter Text

Confirmation bias.

Those were the only two words playing on loop in Daiki's mind as he was kept awake at night by his own thoughts. He had warned Kagami about it, he had been taught how to find it in his own behavior and how to correct it. He had a whole psychology seminar back in the university about it.

The past six months of his life had been one huge confirmation bias. He wanted to believe Kagami was too emotionally unstable not to be abusive in a relationship all while he was dating a suspect of a murder.

Haizaki was unexplainably rich. He was supposed to be working as a delivery driver, but Daiki had never even heard the name of the company. He lived in a huge mansion, drove expensive cars. The lady Daiki found in his home by accident? Aomine wouldn't be surprised to learn that she was an illegal immigrant or a slave.

He was dating a Yakuza member.

And he believed in all of those lies that he was told. Even the stupid abuse vicious circle. He lived through the cycle, he watched as Shougo was getting more and more abusive, only for Daiki to snap back and only for Shougo to manipulate him back in with promises and apologies. And he believed in it like a stupid idiot he was.

He closed his eyes. Back to the beginning, this time with no bias. What did he know?

Someone, the suspect, murdered two people. Daiki began investigating the case. He met the suspect in the cafe. He met Haizaki at the shooting range - why would he be there? Aomine had never seen him be interested in guns. Was it a one time thing? Then they began dating, quickly. Shougo was rushing everything in the relationship, the dating phase, the sex, he even offered Daiki to move in with him a few times. The more Aomine dug into the case, the more Shougo seemed to do his best at keeping Daiki's mind away.

During his heat, Aomine's mind was hazy, but if he thought about it, he could remember the displeasure on Haizaki's face when he saw the collar on Daiki's neck. Or were his memories affected anyway? At that point they couldn't have been a liable source of information.

"Cameras", Aomine quickly rose up on the bed.

He used the cameras to check on Sei when the cat was little. He had cameras everywhere in his apartment. He had the recordings catalogued, just like the guy in the cafe! He had a whole shelf of hard drives, for fuck's sake!

He couldn't sleep anyway, so he rushed out of his bedroom, trying his best not to wake up Sei. He ran past the kitchen and the entrance, to the living room, where in front of the balcony, past the living room, there was a cubby that he had turned into his office. He flopped down onto the chair and moved the mouse to turn on the screen. He wasn't a great IT technician, but he knew a guy - the same one who helped fixed the servers to get the CCTV from the first case he did with Kagami - who set him up with a nice PC setup for the cameras at his apartment.

"Why would you need cameras?", the guy used to ask while helping Daiki out four years prior.

"I'm a cop. You know how much of a life saver they might be one day?", Aomine replied to him then.

He had only a year with of recordings that then got replaced - he also insisted on that year instead of the three months that the tech guy had offered. He found the correct folder after a but of shuffling around and sighed. He didn't remember what time Haizaki came over, so he began shuffling through the videos in search of the moment when he found something more interesting. A moment when Shougo returned to his apartment after going out to buy condoms.

Daiki's monitoring saved all four camera recordings on one file, so Aomine let it play and observed how his boyfriend proceeded to enter the living room and place all of the condoms on the TV stand. He then looked through the drawers below it and found a needle inside Daiki's sewing kit.

And then stabbed each and every condom.

Aomine wanted to vomit. He couldn't believe it - his accidental unplanned pregnancy was not so accidental. He was babytrapped. He had been babytrapped, because Haizaki couldn't forcibly bite his neck and mate him because of the nape cover.

He had been babytrapped.

He wanted to cry. His whole image of reality had been broken, chewed, spat out, stomped on and then crumbled and thrown out and destroyed. His doubts were kicked out the window, from the twentieth floor, then crashed onto the hard asphalt.

Haizaki was doing everything he could to keep Aomine with him. He needed Daiki to be in his control, that was also why he apologized and bought him those stupid flowers. Haizaki for some reason needed Aomine but didn't want him.

Daiki gulped. Shougo knew he was investigating his case. The only reason why they met and started dating was because Haizaki wanted to sabotage the investigation and get the inside information about it.

Shougo had the advantage - Daiki didn't know how much Haizaki knew about the case and didn't know what information he knew that Aomine possessed. He didn't know whether Shougo knew that he knew or whether he was at the keeping him away from the truth faze.

That meant that it was a cat and mouse game. Aomine couldn't investigate how much Shougo knew in fear of the man's finding out while having to assume he didn't have the latest information about the case and while continuing his investigation about the murder. One wrong move and Haizaki might—...

Might what? Get to know about it? Daiki could as well just go there with Ryou in the morning and arrest him.

He might what? Send someone to hurt him? He was a cop, besides he was sure Satsuki wouldn't mind getting him some protection. He might what? Break up with him? Aomine planned it anyway. Make him have an abortion? Daiki was seventeen weeks pregnant, he had an appointment in around a week and he would need to call in and ask for an abortion anyway.

What was there to fear?

Ridiculous how the border between love and hate was so thin. A while back, when asked, Daiki would reply that he had feelings for Shougo and was happy to spend the rest of his life with him. And now?

He was planning the best way to put him in prison for lifetime. He was planning the best way of making him suffer.

He deserved it.

Chapter Text

Aomine couldn't sleep, but he went back to bed anyway. He basically waited out the hours while carefully planning his revenge on Haizaki.

He was hurt, he was furious and he wanted the man to suffer. He made Daiki believe those lies, he made him lose so many firsts to that kind of asshole. He made his first relationship be abusive. Just great.

Not only he was a twenty-eight year old not-so-much of a virgin, but he was also soon to be single again. At that point he should just die, because even if his socially awkward ass somehow managed to find a husband within the closest years, he probably wouldn't her married before thirty two. Thirty three was his best shot. And raising one kid after giving birth at thirty-three would be manageable, but if he decided to have more, he would be screwed.

His morning alarm actually woke him up - but not from sleep but from his thoughts. He ate breakfast and on his way to work bought an energy drink. He needed some caffeine to survive the day after a whole night without sleep.

Sakurai noticed the bags under his eyes but said nothing - he probably assumed it was pregnancy-related, which only reminded Aomine to call the clinic. So as soon as Ryou excused himself to go to the bathroom, Daiki grabbed the phone and found the contact, then called.

He explained how his situation had changed and he was unable to raise the baby as a single mom and asked fo change his appointment into an abortion. The receptionist was friendly and explained the process to him, how they would perform a procedure where he would be numbed, then they would dilate his cervix and remove everything. He agreed on the same date as his previous appointment and thanked her, then hung up.

He didn't need to know the details through the phone, he would now have those in mind. Damn.

Six days left until he would get rid of a criminal's sperm spawn.

The more hours had passed since Daiki's babytrapping discovery, the more he hated the fetus inside his body. With each passing minute it became less of a baby and less of Daiki's. Aomine was seventeen weeks pregnant and the fetus hadn't moved significantly at all - at first he anticipated it, searched for it, dreamed of when it would happen and now? He was glad it never moved. Maybe it was already dead. That would save him some worries.

But most importantly, he had to find more things about Shougo that would incriminate him. And there was one thing he unfortunately couldn't know without revealing his true intentions - he has no clue if he has been bugged.

His phone might have been tracked, there could be people observing him, there could have been eyes and ears on him that he had no way of knowing. And that made stalking Haizaki impossible.

So Daiki did the most logical thing he could thing of and pulled out a burner phone from his drawer. He left the room and locked himself in a storage closet on his floor, then dialed a number he had wrote down from his contacts list and called it.

"Hello?", the voice said after the call was picked up.

"It's me, Aomine."

"... Who's body are we getting rid of?"

"No one's, I have a request", he sighed, shushing the guy.

"I figured that much, if you're calling from a burner."

"I got you out of custody three times, shut your mouth and help me once or I'm telling your wife", Aomine threatened.

"Don't you fucking dare. What do you need?"

"I need you to... investigate someone."

"Just say stalk, man", the alpha sighed. "Name."

"... Haizaki Shougo", Aomine gave him the address that he knew as well as the car information and the phone number he had. "I'll fax you two drawings. I need you to find the bald dude amongst his circle."

"I'll get you a different fax number", the man mumbled. "You're keeping the burner phone?"

"I will for now, but I'll get rid of it if I'll have to", Daiki explained.

"Sure thing, baby boy", the alpha chuckled. "Call me up if you do."

"Call me that again and I'm telling your wife."

"Killjoy."

Daiki hated that part of his plan. Waiting. He could do nothing but wait to get more information, he could only play his role of a oblivious pregnant boyfriend while Haizaki planned on probably murdering him.

Or maybe not, maybe that would arose foo much suspicion. What the hell could Shougo even do in that situation? Try getting on Aomine's emotions and get him to drop the charges or find someone to falsely accuse and take to prison instead of him? Bullshit. Daiki was the type to judge and to do right. He would put Ryou in jail if he had the reason to.

He cracked his bones while reentering his office and plopped down onto his chair.

Waiting. So annoying.

Meanwhile, Sei was standing in front of the gate behind which he had gotten stuck the last time. He had seen a red fur in there, but that place was like a maze. And he needed a plan. So for the last three hours he had been collecting rotting flower petals and trash to leave behind as a trail. One but by one bit, he progressed further, leaving a way back clearly visible. He had also managed to keep the gate open by shoving a can in between of the door and the frame.

He finally ran out of alleys to check and had to go back empty-handed. No sign of red fur and no sign of someone having a way out other than through the gate. Which meant that the red fur was either imaginary or could fly or could go through walls or had someone open a door and let them inside.

And no options were good for him, as all made his search way more difficult. Therefore all he could do was wait.

Waiting. So annoying.

Chapter Text

Five days until abortion. Aomine had told no one about his change of plans. He was in Haizaki's bed, naked, after another round of sex, hoping to jump out the window instead of having those bloody hands on him.

Which made him think back of his drunk night with Kagami. He was glad Taiga was his first time. Even drunk, he could remember Kagami being a way better lover. He remembered the kisses and those hands on him, that hands pinning him down to the mattress and Kagami's tongue on his nape. It was the best sex he had ever had - and he might not have had sex a lot, but Taiga was winning with Shougo in every aspect.

He couldn't exactly remember how big Kagami was, but it was bigger than the dildo he usually used. He also had in mind the feeling of being knotted, which later caused him some issues and a diarrhea worse than the one after lactose consumption, but it was worth it.

Those arms wrapped around him, those hands holding him and that bright smile of Kagami. Oh, he wouldn't actually mind waking up to those.

And meanwhile he was stuck with a criminal in bed, a criminal that just kicked him off his body to leave the room and light a joint. «A cigarette» he called it, but Aomine was a cop, he knew the smell of marijuana. He was at least glad Shougo had left the room.

Which gave him just enough time to look around for the cameras. And since it seemed there were none, he gladly began a search through the cabinets and drawers.

And outside of a horrendous amount of hardcore sex toys, he found nothing important. Not a single suspicious piece of paper, not a joint or any other narcotics. Literally nothing. All that was in those drawers and wardrobes were sex toys, which made him gulp.

This wasn't Haizaki's bedroom. It was a BDSM chamber. Or at least a sex chamber. Which made him wonder - was he the only one being taken in this bed? Was Shougo having prostitutes over when Daiki wasn't there?

So those «bruises» on Shougo's body that sometimes appeared on his skin weren't work related after all. Which begged the question - his boyfriend was cheating on him.

"I'm back", Haizaki said after returning to the room. He smelled of weed and had reddened eyes. "Ready for round two?"

"... You're high", Daiki frowned. "You know I'm a cop and you're doing drugs in front of me."

"I'm not."

"You are! I can smell it from here!", Aomine stood up and grabbed his underwear from the floor. "You know I could arrest you for this?"

"Are you hormonal again?", Haizaki tsked. "You're really gonna tell on me? Get a grip."

"I'm not gonna be your compliance", Daiki hissed. "This could cost me my career."

"And?", Shougo lifted the mattress to open it and pull out a small package from between the foams. He opened it to reveal a small zip bag with a few crystals inside.

"... Put it away", Daiki warned him pulling his pants up.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll arrest you. That's enough. I can look away on a joint, but you're not going to shoot heroin in front of me."

"Arrest me, my ass", he huffed. "You can barely get shit done at your work. How many cocks did you have to suck to be where you are, huh?"

"None, because I worked my ass off to get there myself! And I'm not letting you destroy that!"

"Working your ass, you say", Haizaki chuckled, heating the crystals up over a lighter. "Is that why your asshole is so loose?"

Aomine snapped. He knew he wasn't supposed to act like this if he wanted to get something out of Shougo, he was supposed to act like a good boyfriend who didn't know about nothing, but he couldn't just take those comments anymore.

Enough. He had enough. He had suffered long enough and he would no longer be in this abusive shit.

He marched over to Haizaki, grabbed the filled syringe from his hands and smashed it onto the ground. The syringe shattered and the heroin spilled from it, mixing in with the glass shards. Then, Daiki tightened his fist and hit Shougo right into his left cheekbone, with the most powerful right hand punch Aomine had ever thrown, probably. The impact was so hard Haizaki fell onto the ground, next to the syringe, unconscious.

"... Shit", Daiki gulped. That wasn't the plan. He stepped over and quickly checked if Shougo was breathing and upon finding both a rather regular heartbeat and a rather normal breaths, he grabbed his stuff and left.

Someone will find him, Aomine thought, putting his shoes on. He took a deep breath and left the mansion, then took a rather long walk home, skipping three stations before finally deciding on finishing the journey by a subway.

His burner rang as he was taking off his shoes at his apartment. Sei meowed loudly when he hadn't gone to it within ten seconds, which resulted in Daiki loudly screaming «shut up» at the cat. Sei's eyes widened as he silently got off the couch and walked towards his human to rub his face against his leg.

"You got something?", Daiki asked.

"Your dude is either blissfully unaware that someone could want to know something about him or he's just that stupid", the guy started off with a chuckle. "I have some photos. He met up with you in the evening, I don't know what y'all did but oh boy, you were mad."

"You stalked me too?"

"No, the guy. You just not happened to mention that I'm stalking your boyfriend."

"How is that relevant?"

"Oh it's relevant because... Okay, I wanted to be like nonchalant and stuff, but you gotta sit down. Uh, I don't know how to gently tell you this, but... He's cheating on you. With like. Half of Tokyo worth of sluts."

"... I figured."

"Is this a... stunt relationship?"

Aomine took a deep breath. "No. How about the bald dude?"

"Nothing yet. But I have photos of him getting drugs from some drop-off guys. I know them, they're from the north of Shinjuku, they deal marijuana and cocaine, mainly."

"If you find the bald dude, take photos of the two of them. And fax me them, to my private. Also, anything that incriminates him somehow. Or ties him to—"

"The double murder close to that konbini store? Heard about it. Two guys from the said Shinjuku dealers got offed. A banter between the yakuzas, they tried to scam customers by selling fakes and then dealing the real stuff behind everyone's back to earn more money."

"... That's actually some useful information."

"Wait, really?"

"The two victims were never identified, so yeah. Their DNA wasn't a match anywhere and no family showed up with a missing person report."

"Your welcome. Yeah, anyway, so I'm guessing your boyfie here had his people scammed and got mad at the two and then confronted them which resulted in a few pew-pews and you."

"Kazunari, I'm not a child, don't speak to me like I'm five."

"Heh", Kazunari chuckled. "And then someone called the cops before they could clean up the mess and get rid of the bodies. Which made you eventually reach the point of calling me, the greatest informer that's ever lived."

"How Midorima doesn't know about all that stuff?"

"Shin-chan's kinda autistic, not gonna lie, he doesn't question my taxi business."

"Fair enough."

Chapter Text

"Sit down", Satsuki said to him. They were at the motel again, like they had been at least three times per month since their first meeting. Daiki yawned and slowly walked forward to the bed, then flopped down onto it and stretched, cracking his bones.

"I sometimes think I should go to a therapist", Daiki admitted. "... Y'all won't kick me out of the job for that, yeah?"

"No, usually, unless there's something disqualifying you from doing the job properly", Satsuki informed. She got onto the bed and lied down next to him.

"... Yeah", Aomine closed his eyes. "Happy late birthday, by the way."

"It was two weeks ago."

"I forgot."

"Happy seventeenth week and fourth day of your pregnancy", she smiled. "Raise your hands."

"No", he mumbled. "Don't wanna."

"Hm. Your shoulders are stiff, though. Crack them or something."

"Later."

"Dai-chan", she said softly. "Open your eyes."

"Why?"

"Just do."

"So tiresome", he sighed, but he did, then yawned before looking at her.

"I don't think we need to keep doing it", Momoi explained.

"Why? Doing what?"

"Me using the tone on you", she cleared up.

"You're barely using it anyway", Daiki huffed. "... Thanks for meeting with me all those weeks, though."

"Dai-chan", she rose up and looked at him with a frown. "All of the words that left my mouth ever since we entered the room were with the use of the tone. And I'm using the strongest I am able to. You just ignore it."

"... What?", he blinked slowly. He gulped. He could feel something deep inside, his inner omega curling up in fear, but it became so controllable he didn't exactly have troubles treating them like an unignorable suggestions instead of absolute commands. "You're lying. That can't be your best."

"Okay, it's not", she admitted. "But it's all I can do without the rush of adrenaline to boost it."

"So I'm like... immune to the alpha tone?"

"No, dummy", she chuckled. "You're able to not freak out when some higher-up screams at you."

"Huh", Daiki closed his eyes again and relaxed. "Maybe that's why Shougo's insults didn't fell that heart wrenching like before?"

"EXCUSE ME?!", she turned around and grabbed him by the shirt, then using her tone, she yelled: "Aomine Daiki, you tell me right now what do you mean by Shougo's insults!"

Daiki gulped. Okay, he did feel that one and his heart ached way more than before, making it more than just a suggestion and more of an order. If he tried hard enough he maybe would have been able to shove it away, but it would require some great courage.

"I—... He yells at me sometimes", he admitted. "We had a few fights recently. Yesterday I punched him and knocked him out after he pulled out heroin in front of me."

"... He's a... He's a druggie?", Momoi let go of his shirt. "Your boyfriend is an addict?"

"I guess..."

"You're pregnant with him", Satsuki pointed out. "Anything you would like to do with that?"

Aomine didn't want anyone to know, but it was eating him from the inside. Maybe letting it out would be a good decision? Satsuki was not only his sister but also his boss, she would have to know about it anyway.

"... I'm having an abortion in four days", he said, not looking at her.

"Dai-chan", she mumbled softly. She knew how much he wanted a kid and she could only imagine how painful it must have been to him. "Is that why you wanted to see a therapist?"

"That and, uh, there's some wild cases too. And a potentially abusive relationship I wanna end...?"

"So I was ri—... I'm sorry", she bit her tonfue before she could finish her sentence. The last thing Daiki needed was for her to say she had been right all along. "You're making a correct decision."

"I still haven't broken up with him or something."

"Don't worry, you can just text him tomorrow or something. Or now, if you want", Momoi pointed out. "... I maybe wouldn't advise meeting with him. Especially one on one."

"Yeah", Daiki sighed. "There's still a few things I need to close before the breakup."

"Sorry?"

"There's... There's more to that. But I need to be sure I'm right first", Daiki explained. No matter how believable the whole story was, he couldn't make assumptions based on incomplete data.

He wanted to end it. Just... Close that chapter of his life, move on, forget about everything, about that stupid mansion and black Maybach, about the drugs, the Yakuza, the fact that all of Haizaki's money came from illegal activities and how he used that money. He felt disgusting knowing that he had held Shougo's credit card in his hands and that he had used it multiple times.

Of course he didn't know then, but he could have suspected it. He could have used his fucking stupid brain and thought for a moment instead of living a fairytale. And now he was in a nightmare.

Satsuki saw the tears pooling in his eyes and moved to lie down next to him. She grabbed his hand and smiled.

"You always were a crybaby", she chuckled. "I'm glad to know you didn't change with age."

"Shut up", he mumbled, sniffing. "You're turning into an old hag with each year."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. Thirty-seven is not old, Dai-chan."

"It kinda is. Plus you're single. At this point, a sugar baby might be the only way for you."

"Maybe I don't want kids?", she sighed. "I'm glad you do, I'll be the cold auntie."

"... I was joking if you think I meant that there's no way you can have biological kids."

"I know, I really just don't want kids."

"Oh. Okay. Cool", Aomine mumbled. "Any reason?"

"... Not really", she smiled fakely, but he decided not to push it. Instead, Daiki laughed and took a deep breath.

"I'm gonna close them things as soon as I can. And then I'll break up with him", he voiced out his plans. "And then I'll have abortion. Unless I won't make it in four days. Well, three now, it's almost the night."

"Keep the spirit. Which clinic is it? I can go with you if you want to hold someone's hand."

Aomine told her the address, but said he was okay to go alone. He had imagined that day many times and it had to go as he had planned. Just him and the doctor, maybe the nurse, in one room, with the fetus soon leaving him and being gone.

No one else. Just him, the doctor and the parasite.

Chapter Text

Three days until abortion and he could barely focus. He was hoping to see the best information of his life from Kazunari, but it was radio silence.

He was getting ready to work when he heard his doorbell ring and saw Haizaki through the peephole.

"I know you're in there", Shougo sighed. "Just for the record, half of my face is bruised, so thanks for that. I'm not mad or something, but I guess you are?"

He was right - his whole left eye was bruised and was currently purple and swollen, his cheek was so reddened Shougo seemed to have troubles speaking because of the puffy skin around his mouth. He looked horrible and it kind of made Daiki happy.

"... Oh really?!", Aomine swiftly opened the door, making Haizaki almost fall inside - as it turned out, he was resting in them. "You think so?!"

Shougo stood straight and gulped. "I'm sorry", he said. "I had a hard day at work and I took it out the wrong way."

"... Shougo, I don't think we should keep this going", Daiki admitted. "Really, I feel like whatever we thought we had is long gone. If there's anything you left at my place, I'll drop it off today on my lunch break."

"What?", Haizaki's eyes widened. "You can't!"

"I can and I'm doing it", Aomine repeated. "I don't love you. And I don't want to be with you."

"What do you want? Money? Popularity? Contacts?", Shougo clenched his fist. "What more can I give you?! What is the thing you crave so much with your stupid manipulations?!"

Daiki took a deep breath. He could feel Haizaki trying not to use the tone on accident, which was the only thing he believed was a good thing in the alpha. He had control over his tone and barely used it. Which didn't necessarily changed the fact that he was an abusive asshole.

"I want to end anything between us. And if you don't comply, I'll get a restraining order", he said, standing his ground.

"... Daiki, you can't do that to me."

"I can and I am", Daiki stood his ground. "So I would like you to leave this building and go back home before I'll have you arrested for trespassing."

"Daiki", Haizaki hissed. "You can't do that! I love you, you can't do that to me!"

"Step back", Aomine ordered, getting ready to punch him again.

"Daiki!"

"Shougo, you're delusional", Daiki sighed. "It's over. Thanks for the months we've spent together."

"Daiki, please—... A-And what about the baby?"

"... I'll take care of that myself."

"You just want child support from me! I'll get you however much money you want, just don't leave me!"

"It's not about the money, I don't want any child support from you either", Aomine informed. "I just don't want you anywhere near me."

"That's bullshit!", Shougo slammed his hand on the wall just above Daiki's doorbell button. "You're gonna regret this, you whore."

"Great, you could resolve that matter with one of the prostitutes you've been having over when I'm not with you."

"Nigger!", Haizaki pointed at him, making Aomine's eyes widen. "You're going to really regret this, bitch, so that's your last chance to apologize!"

"Oh", Daiki hummed. "Anything else you would like to add?"

"Fuck you, nigga!"

And with that he left, angrily stomping over to the elevator, spammed the call button and then entered it, turned around and showed Daiki the middle finger and held it until the doors closed.

"Huh", Aomine blinked slowly, then returned to his apartment. Weird. But at least he had the breakup behind him already. And it didn't exactly go as he planned, so he hoped to hear some good information from Kazunari soon.

Which he did not.

He spent the entire day sitting on his ass with a burner in his pocket, hoping to get a call which never arrived. While dropping off paperwork to Momoi, he mentioned his meeting and breakup with Shougo. She was proud and offered to celebrate it in a cafe.

So they went together once their shifts ended and sat at a table in the corner of the cafe. Satsuki ordered them some desserts and hot chocolate and then they enjoyed it with a smile, reminiscing about the times they used to go to school together.

"You were so cute as a child", she chuckled. "I remember how scared you were to walk near that busy road and always squeezed my hand so hard..."

"Oh, I wasn't that scared—"

"You cried when you had to go alone because I was sick."

"... Okay, maybe I did dislike it", Daiki mumbled. She drank her hot chocolate with a smile, knowing she had won their little argument.

"How are things between you and Kagamin?", Satsuki asked, placing her cup on the tray. "You're still in contact?"

"We haven't talked in a while, but yeah", he hummed. "He's around often."

"I'm glad you made a friend", she admitted. "I was scared you would be alone forever after I had to leave."

"... Oi, you think I'm some sort of antisocial goner?!", Daiki frowned. Of course he was, he was friendless, childless and partnerless on top of already having an ugly face. He didn't have to be reminded of how poor his social skills were!

"Yes, I actually do", Momoi admitted. "That's why I'm forcing you into collaborations."

"... What?"

"So you'll talk to people", she smiled. "Even if it's work related, I just wanted you to talk to someone."

"I have a cat."

"You can't talk to a cat only", Satsuki gulped, scared for his well-being. "Dai-chan..."

"... Sei is a good companion."

"B-But he's a cat", she repeated. "Anyway. Would you like anything else! My treat."

They ended up trying a new cake the cafe had to offer. Eventually, Momoi paid for the food and Daiki smiled and bowed at the owner, who recognized him. After that, Satsuki drove him home.

Which he was thankful for, as he had that uneasy feeling of being followed ever since his shift ended.

Chapter Text

Two days until abortion. Still no information from Kazunari. Aomine meanwhile saved all the recordings of the suspect and the one where Haizaki was stabbing the condoms, together with a word file filed with information about the case and everything incriminating Shougo that he had in one file to burn it onto CDs as soon as he would get the rest from Kazunari.

Meanwhile, he went to work to put his mind away. He made sure to stay in the crowd and looked around for any suspicious cars. Once at work, he had a sudden reminder of him being pregnant and Sakurai only saw a blink of him when he ran to the bathroom to vomit.

Or maybe it was the stress?

It didn't matter really, because he borrowed his work car again and drove to the store after work. He bought groceries and then returned home to finally have something to eat and rest.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the burner ring. His smile was so huge Sei got scared of him.

"Check your fax", Kazunari chuckled. "I'm sending some good stuff to your private."

And just as he finished his sentence, Daiki's fax started rummaging around and printing something. He ran over to it and shrieked out of the happiness that overflown him.

Which was kind of weird if you think about it, but who cared.

Because he had the photos of Haizaki not only meeting up with a man that matched the description of the suspect's buddy but also photos of Shougo with a five seven behind his belt, Shougo getting drugs from his bald friend and Shougo hitting on prostitutes.

"You're amazing", Daiki chuckled as he scanned them and added them to the CD file. Then he began burning it in ten copies.

"Hey, Aomine", Kazunari's tone got serious. "Be careful out there. This guy may be stupid and does things out in the open but I can't really tie a lot of locations to him. You know, the address you sent me is the only place owned by him. He's a drug dealer so he had to have a lab, a farm, something. And there's... Nothing. I know that my abilities are limited, but I have a feeling that I'd take the cops some time too to figure out what the dude had behind his ears."

"... Thanks", Daiki sighed. "Say hi to Midorima for me. Also, expect a letter, just in case he would try to destroy all the evidence."

"Sure", Kazunari smiled. "Oh yeah, I don't think you've heard the news - we had a son three months ago."

"Congratulations. I'm sure he's just as OCD-coded as his mom is."

"Don't laugh at Shin-chan. He's trying his best."

"Take care. You have a wife and a kid to protect now", Aomine reminded him. "I'll get going. Keep the photos somewhere safe."

"I will. You too watch out."

Daiki hung up, turned off the burner and took the battery out. He hid them in separate drawers and sat at his computer to burn the CDs. He switched between cooking and changing the disc in the drive, until his food was ready and the CDs had been burned. While eating, he packed them all into envelopes and addressed them to Taiga, Satsuki and Kazunari, then hid three in different places in his apartment - one under the rug, under his bed, one in the vent in the bathroom and the third one under the litter in Sei's litter box. The remaining four he decided to hide outside of his apartment.

He needed that evidence to be safe, because he knew Haizaki would destroy it as soon as he learned about it. And he couldn't allow it to happen.

For the first time in a while, he went to sleep... relaxed. Sei also seemed calm, sleeping next to him and purring softly.

One day until abortion. Tomorrow he would finally make a stop to this chapter in his personal life. The only thing left would be to finish the investigation and put Haizaki behind bars.

His morning went normally. He woke up, went to the bathroom where he emptied his bladder. He made breakfast. He fried the bacon, put bread in the toaster, he fried three eggs and added soy sauce and pepper to the scrambled eggs. He put butter on the toasts, he placed the scrambled eggs onto one piece if bread and covered it with the other, making a sandwich. He ate his breakfast and then pulled out frozen spinach, mango and blueberries from the freezer. He added them all to a mixing cup, together with some fresh apple cut into pieces, some banana and some water. He blended it all with a hand blender and poured everything into a thermos then closed it and placed in the table to take to work.

He went to the bathroom again and brushed his teeth. Then in his bedroom, he dressed up into black jeans and a white t-shirt, then added a light blue blazer on top. He brushed his hair and braided it into a french braid, tying the end with a little white bow hair tie.

He said goodbye to Sei by kissing him on top of his head and wishing him a good day, then grabbed all of his stuff, including the letters to send and hide and his snack for work, then left, locking the door behind. He got into his work car and drove to the nearest mail box. Next to it he left the car for a moment and threw three letters inside, all correctly addressed. Then, he returned to the vehicle and arrived at work a few minutes later.

His day at work was normal. Him and Ryou got a new case and they had things to do, so they wandered around the city for most of the time. In the meantime, Aomine was hiding the letters - one in his car, one in his office. Two left. When Sakurai was in the bathroom, he placed one inside of his bag - he remembered how he recently said something about his bag ripping and having a hole in the lining. And just as Daiki had hoped for, the hole was big enough to slip the letter in, making sure it would take Ryou a few days to find.

He needed just a little more time, just enough to get rid of the fetus, to start the proper case with Haizaki Shougo as the suspect.

Chapter Text

The abortion was tomorrow. He had just finished his shift and was going back home to rest and prepare mentally for spreading his legs in front of the doctor again. He was humming a melody that was stuck in his mind while taking a turn next to the bakery in the corner. He looked through the window - oh, they had some banana bread! Maybe he should stop by and buy some—

Why it was dark? Why was there a hand on his mouth? Why was he dragged into the back of a truck? Why was there a syringe in one of the people's hands? Why was he dizzy?

"If you kept silent like a good fucking wife, you would made it home", Shougo said, closing the van's door. "I told you you'd regret it."

Aomine couldn't reply. He was already unconscious.

Meanwhile, Sei enjoyed his morning. He woke up late, ate his food and drank some water from his bowl. Then he enjoyed the warmth of the sun rays by laying down on the floor next to the balcony door and sleeping some more. Oh, that life felt so good, but so weird at the same time. He had so much free time and didn't have to do anything, but the freedom also made him self-conscious.

Eventually, he stood up from the ground and cleaned himself, then left the apartment. He had a family to find. Aomine was at work until three and then it would take him like an hour to get home... Sei had no real understanding of hours but he knew the position of the sticks in the clock that meant his human coming home. He also knew that if the first two numbers show seventeen on the digital clocks around the city and he was not home he was screwed. And if the first number was a two, he was a dead cat walking.

He yawned while waiting on the crosswalk. The light was red, the cars were driving past him quickly. He yawned again. Oh how much he wished to go back to being a careless little kitten, hidden under his mom's fluffy tail.

He passed the street and continued forward. Some kids on a playground saw him and ran towards him with their cute yellow hats and blue uniforms. Sei didn't mind them. He jumped over the fence to let them pet him and walked over to the teacher then meowed.

She smiled at him, scratched him behind his ear and went inside to bring him some water in a bowl. He loved kindergartens and elementary schools, the kids were always so nice to him. Except for that one devil spawn that put chewing gum into his fur and then the teacher had to put him into the sink and wash him to get it out. He hated it, but he tried his best not to scratch her.

He stayed with the kids for a while, going with them into the slide and almost dying in his way down, but the kids laughed and helped him get back up again.

Eventually they had to go back to class so Sei left too. He jumped over the fence again and continued onward. He passed by the alley made out of cherry blossom trees and found the park with that small bridge, a playground and a pond. He got to the side of it and lied down next to the water, observing the calm movements of the waves made by the wind. It played with his fur as well, cooling him down and reminding him of those days when he was still too little to take care of himself.

Now that he thought of it, his human must have thought he was way younger than he actually was. In reality, Sei was almost one and a half years old, being born in late December, but because of his malnutrition and living on the streets for so long, he was small and week when Daiki found him.

In fact, it was around his first birthday when Aomine took him home and in those recent five months Sei managed to look closer to what he should have looked like.

Was his brother still so small? Was his mom still so thin that he would be able to count her ribs? He hoped not. He hoped they found a home just like he did. His warm home with his lovely human who always made sure Sei had his tummy full and his fur clean.

He cared for his human. He wasn't exactly happy that he was pregnant, but he couldn't change it. His offspring seemed weak, but maybe the heartbeat he felt was just in it's early stages. Maybe with time the baby would get stronger? His human was eighteen weeks pregnant already, it was about time for the thing to start growing independent. Okay, Daiki would have to take care of the baby once it comes out, but Sei would help him. Because that was what cats did. They took care of each other's babies so the mom could rest. And Sei wouldn't be different.

Taiga should help out too, he thought. The baby wasn't his, but when looking at him, Sei had a feeling that Kagami loved it as his already. He would make a good father.

The cool breeze got stronger and Sei decided to change his position. He walked out of the park to continue his journey, when he saw the red fur again. He gasped and charged behind it, trying not to lose it, but the red light on a crossing stopped him. The cars began driving quickly, scaring him, but Sei kept his eyes on his target and as soon as the lights changed, he ran as fast as he could to find the red fur.

It was his day. This exact day would be the moment he would find his family and give them a home. He would introduce them to Daiki and they would all live together, enjoying the warm sun rays on the mahogany floor.

Chapter Text

Sei followed the red fur, trying to catch up. One turn after another, he ended up pretty far away from where he usually stuck around. But it was okay, he remembered the way back.

He followed the red fur into an alley and then through a few turns, into a dead end. He could see the other animal in the end of the cubby, trying to find a way to jump over the high bricked wall.

"Hey!", Sei tried to catch the red fur's attention. The animal looked at him for a brief moment and then continued climbing. "Wait!"

The red fur didn't wait, jumping away even further. Sei ran towards them as soon as he could, but to no avail.

"Please!", Sei called after them, but the only thing he got was a slight hesitation. He still wasn't sure whether the red fur was a member of his family, but he hoped for it.

"Tenth", the red fur finally spoke, without turning around. "... Are you happy where you are right now?"

It was his brother! The red fur he had been chasing for so long, it was his younger brother!

"Yes", he admitted. "I've met a handful of lovely humans."

"Good", the red fur replied. "Stay with them, then."

And with that, he ran away, jumping over the wall. Sei called him again, but his brother was already gone. He followed his steps, doing his best to climb the wall, then got on top of it and looked around.

The red fur was nowhere to be seen.

Disappointed and sad, he went back down the wall and decided to return home. His tail dragged on the ground behind him and his head was tilted down as he observed the sidewalk under his paws.

Why did Ninth left him like that? What did he do to deserve it?

Ninth was his younger brother, his sole and only twin with whom he had shared a womb. They might have had separate amniotic sacs and placentas but he still enjoyed Ninth presence for nine weeks, hidden in their mother's uterus. They weren't her first babies, she had eight more before them, in two different pregnancies, but they barely met them. He and Ninth were the only two that stayed with her.

Well. Now she only had Ninth.

The numbers that acted as their names weren't their order of birth, but rather the order of them opening their eyes and begining to cause trouble. He was the last one to do so, beaten by his younger brother by mere few minutes.

Ninth was always a strict and calm individual with some tendencies to fights, arguments and making everyone believe he was right. Their mother always joked how they were identical, except Ninth acted out on his thoughts more than Tenth.

Sei never believed her before, but living with his human began to melt his heart into the words of his cat mother. All the things he had knocked off the table, all the spilled food and water, all the times Daiki found the litter in his bed or none of the litter in the litterbox.

Yeah, maybe Sei was just as menacingly malicious as his younger brother.

But what was the meaning behind Ninth words? Why did he ask Sei about his happiness? What was all of that about?

He wanted to go back to his mom and his twin brother. He wanted them to be all together again. He wanted them to meet Daiki and he wanted Daiki to take them in too. Aomine was pregnant, he needed the help and care of anothers, especially someone as experienced as their mom.

Sei missed her.

Slowly dragging his paws home, he stumbled upon a certain smell on the street. Or rather, a certain someone.

"Meow", he placed his paw on Kagami's shoe, catching his attention.

"... What are you doing here?", Taiga frowned with his ridiculously split eyebrows.

"Meow", Sei sighed, resting his body against the alpha's leg. The man picked him up and placed him in his arms. Sei purred for a brief moment - only for a short time, purring was reserved for Daiki.

"Wanna go to my place, or back home?"

Sei looked up at him. Aomine probably shouldn't be left alone, but at the same time the omega always assured him how he could be left alone and trusted with things, so the cat chose the first option, letting Kagami carry him all the way to Shibuya. Sei closed his eyes and got ready to fall asleep.

And he was sure he did, because he woke up only when Kagami dropped the keys in front of his apartment door. Sei huffed at his incompetence and jumped down to pick them up. He passed them to the human and waited for him to unlock the door and let him inside.

It was warm in the apartment - Taiga, who used to live in California, missed those heats and often left the heating turned on only to then forget about it and find the whole place heated up to a boiling point of water.

Sei hissed and jumped when he stepped on a floor that had been exposed to sunlight for the entire day. It was burning hot, beyond being a cozy spot. Kagami chuckled behind him, walking to the kitchen to get him some water.

"I can't wait for the summer, you know?", Taiga admitted, when Sei joined him by jumping onto the counter.

"Meow?"

"Hey, I know you hate water, but you think Aomine would like to use his vacation days to go somewhere with me? I kinda wanna take him to a beach", Kagami hummed. "I haven't surfed in a while, I kinda miss it."

"Meow...", Sei tilted his head. What was surfing? And the beach? Was it a place with water, since Taiga pointed out his detest to it?

"... I wonder how many sick and vacation days he has left", Kagami chuckled. "I hope he would be willing to spent just two on me. I wanna swim with him under the starry night."

"Meow."

Well, thankfully, vacation days and sick days were separate leave categories in Japan. And Aomine not necessarily liked spending his vacation leave, making Satsuki angry every year when he had them set aside... again, like the year before.

Chapter Text

Kagami pulled out some food from the fridge - he didn't necessarily gave a fuck what to eat, so he went for some fried fish with fries and random vegetables that were beginning to rotten in his fridge.

He sighed, resting on his right leg. Ever since a few weeks back Aomine laughed at him for being an idiot and not doing anything with the injury he had sustained, he decided to sign up for physiotherapy and finally fix his knee. He could still remember Daiki's fingers gently moving over it as they were sitting on a sofa, watching the NBA match.

He actually was supposed to have another appointment tomorrow morning. And with enough hours of physiotherapy finished, he would make a bold move and apply for firefighter training. So the screwup of a fire investigator he was would actually turn into a proper firefighter that could bring something into the team I stead of just standing on the side and acting like if he knew what was going on.

He wanted to keep it as a surprise for Aomine, one day just show him the completed firework and the test results letting him work on field, but his emotions were taking a toll on him. He wanted to say it to Daiki so badly. He wanted to scream in the older guy's face how he was finally doing something meaningful with his life after he fucking destroyed his life and his NBA career for one streetball match that wasn't even worth it.

He jeopardized his entire life in United States after that. He left his father, who was so furious about having learned of the injury, yet hoped that his only child would finally grow up and take over his business. And instead, Kagami left for Japan and applied for a job as a fire investigator in every single fire department district in Tokyo. His father wasn't happy, but he much preferred having a son in the fire department than having a crippled and unemployed disappointment of a kid.

So he just paid off the Third District to employ Taiga. Or rather, just began sponsoring their financial needs. A renovation here and there, new equipment that the city didn't have the budget to provide, those types of things. He tried to prove that he was there because of his abilities, but many people saw only a rich kid in him.

Kagami didn't have any degree, he barely finished high school, but he did a few courses of fire investigation and rescue back in the States, giving him enough points to put on his CV not to sound like an idiot when entering his interview.

Although he still was straight up told he was accepted because of the money they had received. Talk about corruption, huh.

He had no clue whether his boss just found him amusing over his lack of vocabulary or proper grammar, or she just liked bullying people, but she was a strict and cold woman that often made him rewrite his reports even up to fifteen times just so Taiga would get them right. Nevertheless, he was glad she was the one to mentor him, given her surprisingly huge amount of patience.

She also filled him in on multiple public relations, including the Third District's situationship with the Criminal Department of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Or rather, she mentioned them as her personal pain in the ass and hoped to never work with them, all without stating a reason.

Kagami didn't exactly know why his boss hated them, because the Senior Commissioner Momoi Satsuki was one of the nicest and lovely alphas he had ever met. She was a classy woman in her thirties who was a pleasure to deal with. And if it wasn't for Taiga being used for all the dirty work, he would have never met the godly beauty that was Sergeant Aomine Daiki.

"Meow", Sei rubbed his head on Taiga's ankle and looked up at him with those freaky red eyes and lizard pupils.

"Man, you gotta go home soon", Kagami mumbled, turning the fish to the other side. "Or I'll get my ass whooped too for letting you stay here for so long. You know what your momma's like."

"Meow."

Kagami finished making the food for himself and threw it all on two plates, then carried it to the coffee table in front of his couch. He looked around his apartment.

It seemed so empty, now that he was spending so much time over at Aomine's. His only plant was a half-alive cactus, there wasn't a single rug, hell - not even a dining table. His bedroom had only one bed and a wardrobe, whereas the other room was completely empty.

Maybe he should invest a little in his design? Turn the free room into a guest room maybe? At least he would have a reason to make Daiki stay overnight if he ever came over again. Not letting an omega walk back home for two hours alone in the night was a good enough reason to suggest staying over. It wasn't like he would do something to Aomine, but the thought of him being in the other room just made him... happy.

He was so down bad it wasn't funny anymore. He needed to get his shit together, find a hobby or something.

Maybe turning the empty space into a guest room was a bad idea after all. Okay, so what about a gym? He would save so much on gym membership... but spend a lot on the equipment. And there would be no place for Aomine to stay overnight, so that meant that it would be either him walking back home alone, Taiga walking him home and returning, which would take him around four hours total not using the trains, or... Daiki would sleep with him in his bed since the couch wasn't a pullout and it was too small for someone to comfortably stay there.

Okay. No. It was an even worse idea. Maybe he just... shouldn't have Daiki over at evenings. Yeah. The thoughts of that made him horny.

Chapter Text

"Okay, it's getting late, you gotta go home now, buddy", Kagami said, scratching Sei behind his ear.

"Meow..."

"Be safe on your way back", Taiga smiled. He stood up and walked with Sei to the front door to open them for him. The cat turned around one last time and meowed, then left the apartment and waited for Taiga to put on his shoes and walk him to the elevator. Magami pressed the button, then clicked the ground floor once the door opened and waved at Sei as they closed.

Now he had to catch a train.

Sei walked to the nearest station, yawing once in a while. He got down the stairs to the subway tracks and looked at the arrivals list. He needed anything going towards Meguro. Anything would be good, he knew half of the district by now.

And the last train to Meguro left as Sei was reading the arrivals. He could probably wait for the next one, but he didn't know if there was going to be a next, so he walked out of the subway and headed home on feet.

It was almost June by now. Okay, not really, it was barely over halfway through May, but Sei's spirit was already in July. The warmth of the sun rays, the clear sky, light evenings with the starry nights (that weren't exactly visible in Tokyo with its light pollution) and those lovely warm nights. Oh he wanted to see summer again.

And then he remembered how he suffered in July and August due to overheating. Yeah okay, maybe he should stick with June.

He had messed up and he knew it. He was supposed to be home by now, and instead it was getting dark, the clocks on the huge billboards showed a two and a one in the beginning and he had still almost an hour to get home.

Sei eventually started running, just so Daiki wouldn't worry. Just so he would know Sei was safe and that he didn't run away from him. That he was still coming back and that he missed him.

The warm evening soon turned into a night and the moon shined brightly on the sky. Sei was tired and he hoped he would soon see the familiar stores and alleys, but deep inside he knew he still needed half an hour to recognize his beloved Meguro.

It was cold and dark when Sei finally reached the apartment complex and was met with another problem. Right. At ten in the evening the automatic doors were switched to a manual. Anyone living inside didn't have this problem because they had a magnetic card and they only had to tap it for the doors to open for a moment. However Sei was a cat. He didn't have a magnetic card. So he was stuck outside.

He sighed, walking to the side to lie down next to the doors. He was stuck and Daiki was probably worried sick about his whereabouts.

"Hey, kitty kitty", a man crouched next to him. "You got locked out, huh?"

"Meow!", Sei's ears perked up. He knew that man! He sometimes met him in the elevator!

"Let's go inside, you're gonna catch a cold."

Oh how glad he was that there were still nice people on this world. Sei walked in with the neighbor and waited for the elevator with him. He got onto the stairs and clicked the seventh floor button, then the man added his one - the tenth. They rode together until the elevator stopped at his floor. Sei got out and turned around.

"Meow!"

"Your welcome."

Now he only had to get inside. He ran towards his apartment and got his collar close to the sensor. It clicked then, the cat door opened and he jumped inside. He wiped his paws on the soft mat that Daiki had placed for him and jumped out of the genkan. The lights were killed everywhere and Sei couldn't see his human anywhere in the living room. The doors to his bedroom were ajared and there was no light getting out, so it seemed Aomine was already asleep.

Good, Sei sighed. At least his human didn't stay awake worried sick about him. Sei decided to leave him alone for the night, so he wouldn't accidentally wake him up, then walked towards the armchair that was placed in front of the sofa, next to the TV, and jumped onto it. He made sure his sleeping spot was comfortable and curled up, opting for sleeping there, as his pillow was inside of Daiki's bedroom.

He dreamt of his family. Of his mother, of his younger twin brother and eight older siblings which he had never met. He wondered, were they just as red as he and his brother? Or maybe slightly darker, like his mom? Or maybe they weren't red at all? Or maybe brown like their dad? Or maybe Sei's dad wasn't their dad at all?!

He wondered if Daiki had those types of troubles. Sei had never seen Daiki's parents before, so he wondered where they were? Were they in contact or maybe they had a huge fight and never spoke to each other again? Or maybe Aomine was like him and got separated from his family?

On the other hand Sei was sure he heard Daiki talk to his parents on the phone sometimes. They were rather short, but Aomine seemed to speak calmly and emotionally with them, so Daiki didn't seem to hate them.

Sei kind of wanted to meet them. Oh! Maybe they would approve of Kagami as Aomine's partner and Daiki would change Shougo for him! Yeah, he should do his best to make that meeting happen. And then Aomine and Kagami would finally be together as the should be and they would have babies together and then they would stay together forever and they would be happy!

Sei sighed. Hm, how many kids Daiki would like to have? If he remembered his mom's stories from when he was little, the eight older siblings were from one pregnancy. Maybe Aomine would also like to have a whole bunch like Sei's mom?

Chapter Text

When Sei woke up, it was already late. The clock showed two ones, then a two and a five, which meant that Aomine was already at work. Eh, Sei couldn't say hi again... But he also didn't remember being woken up by his human petting him in the morning. Was he so deep asleep or was his beloved human mad at him for coming home so late?

Sei would wait for him to come back and apologize for his stupidity then.

But he waited and waited, the clock showed one and then a six. Then a seven. And then an eight. And his human didn't come home yet. It was getting dark outside and his human was not home yet.

Was he working so late? Maybe something came up? Sei was a getting a little hungry, he had still some dry food left in his bowl but he was hoping for some nice dinner with Daiki.

In the evening, Sei went to Aomine's bedroom to sleep in his bed. It had Daiki's vague smell but it was too washed out to be just a few hours. Did Sei mistook the situation yesterday? Was Aomine even home?!

In the morning, when he was still alone, he became anxious. He spent the entire day in front of the door, on a seating next to it, waiting for Daiki to come back. Did he do something wrong? Did Aomine got so mad that he left him? Had Sei been... abandoned?

Loud banging on the door woke him up. He heard a female voice, demanding Daiki to open the door. Sei jumped into the genkan and opened his cat door to peek outside.

"... Kagamin? What are you doing here?", the woman stepped away and looked with her eyes widened at Taiga who just left the elevator.

"I got a letter."

"So did I", she pulled out an envelope.

"Sei?", Kagami spotted him, then crouched in front of him. "Can you let us in? Is Aomine there?"

They were here to look for Daiki too? So he wasn't at work and he wasn't with Taiga...? Did he really disappear and left them all?

Sei got back inside and grabbed a key from the shelf. He passed it to Taiga through the cat door and waited away for them to enter. They anxiously looked around without even taking their shoes off, calling for Daiki. He wasn't home, why were they searching for him with those faces? Did something happen?

"He wasn't at work?", Kagami asked after they realized Aomine wasn't there.

"No... He... He was supposed to have an abortion yesterday. I thought he took a day off for that and just forgot to call. But today I got the letter and—"

"... He wanted to have an abortion?", Taiga's heart dropped. "I— he didn't tell me... I would have gone with him or... or something. Or at least walked him there."

"Maybe he didn't want you to know, who cares about that now?! He's gone and he doesn't pick up his phone! And I don't know if you opened the CD but I did!"

"I didn't, I saw the papers, something about murder, I called him but it was dead signal, I got scared and came here", Kagami explained.

"Then maybe you're lucky", Momoi sighed. "There were videos with evidence and a video of Dai-chan's boyfriend babytrapping him, or rather, poking holes in the condoms."

"... Evidence of what?"

"Dai-chan's boyfriend turned out to be a yakuza murderer that Dai-chan was looking for in his case investigation. It started back in November or something, when you were doing your first collaboration."

"He's... You think he did something to—"

"I hope not, but currently, that might be out best bet. Especially with the fact that in the CD, there was a file called «in case I go missing»."

"You think he knew that Haizaki would do something...?"

"We're talking about our prodigy of a detective, he's gonna gonna take chances. And based on the fact that he's nowhere to be found, I think it's safe to assume Haizaki had something to do with it."

Sei was confused. Aomine was gone but something happened to him? And it seemed that bad thing happened when he and Taiga were chilling together. Something bad happened to Daiki and them, who both swore to themselves that were to protect him, failed to do so. Daiki was gone because of him.

It was all Sei's fault. If only he had made it home, then Aomine would have been safe. He would have been able to protect his fragile pregnant human and everything would have been alright. They all would have been sitting at one table, enjoying a warm meal.

And now the apartment was cold and empty.

"Sei", Taiga picked him up. "I'll take you with me until Aomine's back, okay? So you don't starve."

"... Meow."

"I'll find him", Momoi informed. "No matter what it takes, I'll bring him home."

"Commissioner—"

"Just call me Momoi", Satsuki smiled. "Don't worry. It's a promise. I will do everything I can to bring Dai-chan back home, safely."

"I'll help", Kagami gulped. "Whatever you'd need, I'll do my best—"

"I know you care about him", she mumbled. "... I can't say I completely agree, but if you were to make Dai-chan happy, you have my blessing."

".... No, uh, that's— I'm told talking about that—"

"Mhm, don't lie to my face, Ka-ga-min~"

"No, seriously!"

Kagami was a horrible liar. He couldn't believe he just tried hiding something from a chief of a criminal department. Her job was to find liars, Taiga stood no chance against her. He and his stupidly ridiculous crush on Aomine Daiki. His face was red and his heart was pounding in his chest so quickly he was sure Satsuki would hear it.

And she probably did, because she chuckled through her misery and bit her lip.

"Dai-chan is stronger than he seems. He will cry, but—"

He will get through it, she wanted to say. But there was no way for her to know that - she didn't want to believe it, but Daiki's dead body could as well be taking an acid bath right now.

Chapter Text

It was silent, but the silence was different than the one at his apartment. There was no clock ticking, no sounds of water running through the pipes. No paws stomping on the mahogany floor and no crack in that one place next to the genkan that he was planning on getting fixed for three years.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he regained his consciousness. Was it a whole day? An hour? Or maybe just fifteen minutes that felt like an eternity due to the darkness that surrounded him?

Had he been more careful, he would have been home with Sei now. Childless, not pregnant, with an abortion behind him and free. But he hoped for the best - the letters he had sent out should have been delivered by now, so Satsuki knew everything he did. She would work with Ryou and together they would find him. And with Kazunari getting a slightly different CD, with a note saying «if I don't give you a sign of life every day at a different hour and with a different method something happened to me». Kazunari was smart, he hadn't gotten a single one so he was hoping that it meant the police got a few more tips.

It was going to be okay. If he was being held at the mansion then Satsuki only had to write a warrant and boom, they would come here with a whole raid and get him out.

He was so cold. The floor was cold and hard, the metal chain around his ankles and wrists was cold. The blindfold and the gag were cold, even if the fabric was wet and warm from his saliva and tears. He was naked, lying on a cold floor in a dark room.

His body tensed up when he heard the deadbolts open. He held his breath, waiting for the inevitable. A hand grabbed him, forced him to sit up and ripped the blindfold of the gag off him. The bright lights blinded him and he instinctively covered his eyes with his hand.

"What were you to do with it?", Haizaki showed him the envelope that he had pulled out from his bag.

"Fucking guess, bitch", Daiki chuckled. "You'd be dead if I only made it home—"

A kick came in unexpectedly. Aomine expected to be punched in the face and he braced for that, but as soon as Shougo's foot touched him, he gasped for air.

"What makes you think you're gonna ever get it back?", Haizaki huffed. He pulled out the CD and held it between two fingers.

"Don't you fucking dare—", Aomine jerked on the chains, trying to get the evidence from him. Shougo took a step back and with a maniacal laugh, he broke the disc in half. "You motherfucker—"

"It's not gonna be so easy to get me down, slut", Haizaki threatened, getting down and grabbing Daiki by his chin. "Oh you're gonna have so much fun here!"

Aomine chuckled and spat in his face. "You won't see me break."

"We'll see about that."

Haizaki didn't have to know it was only one of the multiple copies. Or that they were already distributed. And that the Sakurai ones was a precaution in case Shougo somehow got rid of the letters and found the ones in his apartment.

He would gaslight Haizaki however much he would be able to. He would make the man believe he had the control over the situation. And he would not let Shougo win over him. He would get through all of the tortures they had in mind and he would gladly put them in for a lifetime behind the bars.

His only goal was to survive. He would stay strong, he would manipulate them I to giving him what he needed and he would not buldge, no matter how many times Shougo would rape him. He had made it through the rape while they were together, he would make it through the rape now.

Haizaki left the room and locked the door behind himself. Aomine couldn't see those - the room was L-shaped and his chain wasn't long enough to see the part with the door. As soon as he was swallowed by darkness again, he covered his stomach with his hands. He was glad Shougo had a terrible aim and the hit landed on Daiki's stomach instead of the uterus.

He couldn't lost the fetus now. It was his savior - if he were to lose the pregnancy, within a few weeks he would start getting his heats back. And while in his heat, Haizaki could mate him, screwing him up for the rest of his life. Aomine couldn't let him get that advantage.

"Which means we're stuck together for longer", Daiki voicelessly said. He hoped there weren't cameras or that he wasn't voice recorded, but in case he was - he would stay silent. He wouldn't say a word, he would fight back and he would get out alive.

He didn't know how much time had passed or what hour it was. The room had no windows, was coated in complete darkness and based on what Daiki had figured out with the short time the light was on and his touch, the walls were covered in sound-muffling foam. The floor seemed to be just wooden panels, smooth, with no texture, but they seemed waterproof. There was no toilet in the room and no food or water, unless Daiki didn't see it nor felt it anywhere.

The chain was connected to a wall, the one that was the furthest from the door. The ceiling was tilted, with the tilt going down from the cubby with the door to the parallel wall, in the lowest part it was around eighty centimeters, whereas on the opposite side it was somewhere around two meters and ten centimeters. So not a full sized height, which made Daiki think his cage was located somewhere on the attic. Be had no clue whether the mansion even had an attic which meant that it could have been a completely different place.

Kazunari told him about his inability to track Haizaki's different buildings and locations, which made him worry a little. He was hoping for a week, two at worst of abduction, but if he was dragged somewhere far and unknown, that would mean he might get stuck here for longer.

Shit.

He at least hoped to get some water and food soon. He was getting hungry... And swallowing his vomits when Haizaki kicked him didn't help filling his appetite.

Chapter Text

A few hours probably had passed by. Aomine fell asleep at some point, then spent some time with his eyes closed, just lying there and thinking about the future. About his dream life, with an unnamed husband with a blurred face that coincidentally was his height, with some nice muscular body, that glorious smile and red hair that faded into black, with whom he had three kids that all looked like him. His imaginary husband's physique was of course just a coincidence and had no correlation to Kagami Taiga.

While he and his imaginary family were enjoying a day out on a beach, playing in the water together, with his husband's arms wrapped around him, and kisses left on his nape as he supported the youngest kid in the water so they wouldn't drown, the waves got bigger. The definitely not Kagami chuckled as he held an arm around Daiki's waist to make him stay in one place.

And then the lights turned on and Aomine frowned. Thankfully, the only light was placed in the cubby with the door, so the only light that got to the omega was rather dim. He looked up into the entryway and expected to see Haizaki ready to rape him or beat him up again.

But instead, he was met with a brown-haired man who held a few bags of things in his hands.

"... Who are you?", Daiki asked, starting off neutrally. He wasn't going to piss of someone who could be also with him against Haizaki.

"Can't really tell you my name, so you can call me whatever you want", the man sighed, placing the bags down. "I brought you a few things."

"And what do you want for those?"

"... I—"

"I'm guessing those aren't free, are they?"

"I want you to work with me", the guy whispered. "I'll do my best to make everything as humane as possible for you, and you'd get me—"

"No jail time, huh?"

"... No. I can go to jail, I deserve it. But my family doesn't."

"So you know holding me here is stupid, huh?"

"I can't really get you out without having my relatives killed, but I am against this whole thing", the man admitted. "And I'm sorry you have to go through this."

"... Is this room bugged?"

"No, there's not even electricity here, the light works on batteries."

"So no one can hear us?"

"And see us", the man confirmed. He reached for the first bag and crouched next to it to unpack it. "Officially, you're getting a bucket and honestly, I hope Haizaki won't be here that often to notice."

The man pulled out a few rolls of toilet paper and a portable dry flush toilet. He pushed both of those towards Daiki, who bit the inside of his cheek. Fucking finally, his bladder was about to burst from all the urine he had been holding.

"I'll leave the light on and step out for a moment, so you can use it comfortably", the man said. "I'd tell you to wait until I'm done with everything but it can take some time and you've been here for almost twenty four hours already, so you probably can't really wait."

Almost one day, huh.

The man then stepped out of the room and Daiki heard the deadbolts close. He didn't waste time with emptying himself out - he didn't know how long the man would be gone for and having him walk in would be more embarrassing that their relationship already was.

Daiki felt bad in his presence - but who would? The man seemed nice, but he was still one of his kidnappers. And Aomine was naked and had nothing to cover himself with on top of that. The man was also a beta, or a weak alpha, based on his scent, which only made the situation even more awkward.

He had finished using the toilet shortly before the man had reentered the room. Before appearing in Daiki's eyesight he asked if he was done, and upon hearing the confirmation, he returned to checking the bags. He grabbed another one and pulled out two pillows and passed them to Daiki.

"Wow, I'm getting two?", he asked, grabbing them.

"Yeah, pregnancy benefit", the man chuckled. "... We're gaslighting Haizaki into believing you should stay pregnant."

"You think he's that stupid?"

"We're more into telling him with pregnancy he has some leverage while if he makes you abort, you might not even get any heat because of stress and hard postpartum, which would be worse for him than just keeping it. Look, I know I'm the bad guy between the two of us, but I believe it's wrong for him to forcingly mate you."

Aomine held the pillow on his lap, to cover himself from the abductor. He gulped. The man was right. If his body resumed the heat cycle, he would end up mated. And he would rather have all four of his limbs amputated than be mated to Haizaki.

"I also got you a mattress and bedsheets", the man said. He returned to the door and moved a rather thick mattress into the dead end where Aomine was. He grabbed it and placed it alongside the wall, leaving around ten centimeters from the wall for the chain lock and stashing some stuff he might get. The mattress fit just right in, which meant that his part of the L-shaped cage was just barely over two meters in length.

Aomine grabbed the sheets from the man and put them on, then put the pillows into the pillowcases and placed them on the side with the higher ceiling. He also grabbed the two fluffy blankets and placed them on top of the mattress, but after a moment of thought he grabbed one and wrapped it around himself to cover his body from the man.

"Finally, some contraband", the man smiled. He passed him a huge pack of batteries and a flashlight. "Hide it somewhere, make sure Haizaki never sees those. He specifically told me to keep you in the complete darkness."

"... Thanks."

"Your welcome. Are you thirsty?"

The man grabbed the final bag, from where he had pulled out a six-pack of two-liter water bottles and a simple porcelain cup. Daiki hid them all behind the mattress, together with the batteries and the flashlight, firstly checking how it worked and how to open it. He would need that skills to do it in the dark in case the flashlight stopped working.

"And, again, you were supposed to get something else, so officially, if anyone asks, you ate dog food. Beef to be specific", the man showed Daiki the can. "So here's today's meal."

He pulled out a plate covered in aluminum foil and two chopsticks then passed it to Daiki. Aomine got his cuffed hands out from under the blanket and reached for the plate. He got the foil off and was met with fried beef with vegetables and some rice.

"Eat, I'll get cold", the man prompted him when he saw Daiki hesitate. "It's normal food. Asiyah made it."

"Who's Asiyah?"

"You met her in the kitchen one day. She cooks here."

"... The one that doesn't seem to be here legally?"

"Yeah, like all of the house staff here. They're all trafficked from Indonesia."

Aomine wanted to question the food more but his stomach demanded to be filled, so he stayed quiet and began eating the food. It was indeed made by the woman, he knew the taste. Every dish he had eaten in Haizaki's mansion had that hand touch to it.

"You're an oversharer", Aomine noted. The man sat down on the wall opposite of him, around four meters away, because that was around how much the room's greatest length was. The chain was only around three so there was no way for Daiki to reach him.

"... I guess", the man sighed. "I know you'll get out of here. You'll either escape or they'll come get you."

"You're still a compliance."

"I know. I knew I'd end up in jail the second Haizaki took over. But with the previous boss I at least knew my family would always be safe. Haizaki on the other hand... he had a few actions already, with someone's family members. He killed one guy's wife in anger, if I remember correctly."

"You just want protection for them? Not... A deal with the judge? Reduced sentence? A low bail?"

"I deserve to be in jail", he repeated.

Chapter Text

The man stayed with him for a while. He grabbed the plate once Daiki finished eating and placed it back into one of the bags. Finally, he took the last one and pulled out an around twenty by thirty by ten centimeters container. He passed it to him and smiled.

"Contraband. Meds. There are pregnancy supplements too, in a separate bag with a small note how to take them. There are some pain meds, ointments, lube, uh, bandages and band-aids."

"I think I'll just call you Contraband at this point."

"Just not in front of Haizaki."

"I'm not stupid."

The man collected all the things and got ready to leave. "I have to turn the lights off, so grab your flashlight. I'll try to come over tomorrow to get you a bucket of water to wash yourself, but I don't promise anything."

"Mhm."

"Oh. Yeah, almost forgot about that one", the man placed the things in the floor for a moment and grabbed the final bag. He passed it to Daiki and smiled. "Snacks. You have any requests for whenever I'd be able to sneak in something more?"

"... A hair tie. And a hair brush", Aomine said.

"I'll see what I can do."

The man, Contraband, took everything and opened the door. He placed the things outside of the room and stepped back in to turn the lights of. The darkness submerged the room as soon as the door got locked and the deadbolt clicked. Aomine turned the flashlight on and smiled.

It wasn't completely dark anymore.

He moved the mattress a little bit more away from the wall to stash everything more comfortably. He placed the meds and the bag full of snacks there, next to the water bottles and left a pillow over them to hide it a little bit more. He also placed the toilet in the lowest corner of the room, behind the mattress, and placed the folded blanket over it.

The mattress was soft and comfortable compared to the wooden floor. The one in his home was obviously way better but it was an incredible upgrade nevertheless. After all, he went from nothing to forty centimeters of foam to sleep on.

He took a deep breath. Now he could look around a little bit more. The room had no windows and the door was sealed off completely, based on the sounds he had heard and on the complete lack of light getting in, which meant that there had to be a vent somewhere.

And soon later, he found it. It was in the part in front of the door, the one he couldn't reach because of the chain length. It must have led directly outside, although no light could get in. Unless it was connected to a ventilation system, but it seemed to silent for that.

Now lying on a mattress, covered in a blanket with a pillow under his head, he returned to his imagination.

The day at the beach, with him lying on the blanket, umbrella above him to shield his face from the sun and a windscreen surrounding him, keeping the breeze outside of his area. The two kids were sitting on the sand next to the blanket, digging a hole, while the youngest was building a castle, often asking the oldest for help getting the sand out of the bucket.

Daiki closed his eyes and relaxed, enjoying the warm sun rays in his body. He smiled and ajared one eye when he felt a hand on his stomach. It moved to his side and soon after, a definitely not Kagami chuckled and kissed him, getting on top of him.

Suddenly, the kids and the windscreen were gone, the sun changed into a moon and a clear, starry sky, Daiki's swimming suit was gone and his legs were spread just enough to fit his husband between them. The man moved slightly up, just enough to move his hand down, trailing Daiki's slim body until it got in between of Aomine's legs and his fingers pressed down on his—

Nope. Back to the previous scene. The sun was up again, the kids were next to them and Daiki was dressed up again. His husband was lying on his side, next to him, with his hand on Daiki's stomach, supporting his head with his arm. He got closer for a moment and kissed Aomine, then moved back up and continued observing the children.

"Kiss me again", Daiki said, smiling at the man. His husband followed his request and connected their lips for a longer moment, sneaking his tongue into his mouth. His hand grabbed Daiki's waist and pulled him closer while Aomine's hands wrapped around his neck.

"Mama!", one of the kids called. "Mama, look!"

Daiki pressed his hand on his husband's chest and gently pushed him away. He sat up and got closer to the kid, all while his husband flipped onto his back and chuckled, reaching his hand out to hold Daiki's.

"Mama, we have water in the hole!", the kid pointed to the hole they had been digging and jumped inside, splashing the water that has appeared there.

"Yeah, you dug to the sea level", Aomine smiled, ruffling the kid's hair.

"Sea level?!", the kid beamed with happiness. "Mama, how long until ocean level?! Can we see coral reef if we dig deep enough?!"

"It doesn't really work like that", his husband laughed. He crawled to the youngest to help them build the castle and sat the kid on his lap. "But if you dig deep enough you'll have your own pool."

"That's so cool!", the kid clapped their hands. "Mama, will you dig with us?!"

"Yeah", Daiki said. He opened his eyes and turned the flashlight on, pointing it at the ceiling. "... I wanna build a sand castle. And dig holes in the sand until water covers them. And make sand tunnels..."

His voice was breaking as he was talking to himself. He sniffed and wiped his tears away, then turned the flashlight off and hid it behind the mattress. He grabbed the extra pillow he had gotten and hugged it tightly.

"I wanna go home...", he whispered.

Chapter Text

Satsuki was biting her nails, sitting in Daiki's office chair. Her leg was jumping on the floor, quickly moving up and down from the stress. Heir hair was tangled and unkempt, and her face had no tint of makeup, clearly showing the bags under her eyes. Sakurai didn't look much better and he felt worse than after giving birth to Kou.

"He was at work. Then didn't come. Then he was gone", Ryou said everything again. "He was abducted somewhere around that time."

"... I've checked the subway cameras. He made it out after work but didn't get in the next day", Momoi gulped.

"So either at home or on his way home", Sakurai filled in the gaps.

"He has cameras at home, he didn't make it home. Only Sei did."

"So somewhere between home and the subway."

It was fifteen hours after Satsuki and Taiga met at Daiki's apartment and realized he was gone. She had pulled each string she could to get anything and spent the entire afternoon looking for any signs until Kagami forced her to go to sleep.

"Let's go take a walk from the station to Aomine-san's home then", Ryou suggested. Momoi needed a moment to recognize the words, but as soon as she did, she agreed and stood up from the office chair.

Together, they traveled to the subway station on which Daiki had left and followed his steps looking for cameras that could have seen him. They entered a konbini and got the recording from there, then a hotel, some business down the street and finally they had reached the bakery.

"We're around the corner already", Momoi sighed. "I can see his building."

"... He had to disappear somewhere here then", Sakurai smiled through the misery. "Sorry."

"There's cameras in his building. It's a newly built complex, Dai-chan bought the apartment in a raw state and placed the walls himself so as to save money."

"Yeah? I didn't hear that story."

"He got to know that they're selling apartments very cheap if you buy them completely raw and calculated that it would be way cheaper to buy it like that and finish it himself", she explained. "For quite some time he lived in a tent inside there, there was so much dust before he poured out the floor and placed the panels. It took so long because he insisted on having floor heating and then spend like a week just placing and connecting the wires. Only to barely use it now."

"Sounds like Aomine-san", Ryou chuckled.

"He also ordered a custom-made bathtub, just because he wanted it to have two meters, look nice and have a hydromassage function."

"... Only to never use it?"

"Exactly."

They entered the bakery and asked to see the cameras. The cashier led them to the backrooms where she opened up a computer and showed them the folder, letting them look for anything they needed to while she returned to the register.

"Aomine-san knows we will find him", Sakurai said. "Just as he knew he would get abducted. He wouldn't have left us those letters if he didn't expect it."

"I still feel like I've failed him", Momoi admitted. "I told him from the start there was something wrong with that guy but he never listened! I should have digged deeper! I—"

"I was with him when we saw the face of the suspect", Ryou cut her off. "I knew something was wrong, I saw it. And yet, I didn't say a word. I should have asked him about it, pushed further."

They both felt guilty about what had happened. Momoi felt horrible, so horrible she decided to take the case for herself and work with Sakurai on getting Daiki back.

Eventually, they found the correct hour and saw Daiki stopping in front of the bakery to take a look at the goods inside. Shortly after a car appeared behind him, the doors swung open and two hands grabbed him - one holding his mouth and the other sticking a needle in his neck. Right after that, two more hands appeared and dragged Daiki inside. The van's door got shut and the car drove away just as quickly as it appeared on the camera.

"I'll go talk to the cashier", Ryou said. "I'll ask who worked then."

"... I'll check the other camera", Satsuki clenched her fist. If someone had seen Aomine get kidnapped and didn't even bother calling the police, she would make sure to punish that idiot.

She found the recording from the camera that pointed inside of the restaurant and found the moment. She could see the reflexion of Aomine in the window, but she focused on the cashier.

He wasn't looking at the window at that time. He was busy fixing the goods on the shelves. By the time he had turned around the van was long gone. There was no way for him to know that someone was just abducted on the other side of the window.

If only they could get the plate numbers of the van, she sighed. It drove off towards Aomine's building, so they still were going to check the cameras there to find where the van had gone further. And if they'd have to, they would follow it on random cameras until they would get to the final destination.

"No one saw anything", Ryou returned to the backrooms. "But the manager is here and he's filling out the papers for the evidence, so if you could go ahead and transfer it somewhere—"

"On it", she said, pulling out a pendrive. Aomine had a weird obsession with CDs but she didn't have the nerves or the time to burn the recordings there. So she quickly transferred them to one of the dozen low-storage pendrives she had and went to collect and sign the papers.

"... I'm sorry we couldn't be of more help to you", the manager bowed in front of her and sighed.

"We're glad your cameras are working", Sakurai smiled at the guy. "We would have been in much greater troubles if it wasn't for the recording."

"Aomine-junsa-buchou was the one who fixed them", the manager explained. "One day a customer turned aggressive and attacked our cashier, he ran in and helped. The police who came in for the arrest asked if we had cameras and when Sergeant learned that they were broken, he offered to fix them. Since then, we've been keeping them under regular maintenance."

"Sounds like him", Ryou and Satsuki chuckled at the same time.

Chapter Text

They went further towards the apartment complex after they left the bakery. The cameras were beautifully pointed at the road in front of it and they hoped to see a few more turns the car had taken.

Eventually, they had spent the entire day walking building to building and looking for the car in the cameras. After a few turns they entered an area with lots of traffic lights so Momoi simple contacted the road administration to get the videos from those.

They arrived at the headquarters an hour later and were welcomed by a worker who led them into the room to see the recordings. They followed the car on the intersection, then towards another and another until the car took a turn into one of the smaller road that no longer were in camera's line of sight. While Momoi was getting the recordings for the evidence, Ryou got a call. He stepped aside to take it and after a moment returned with a smile.

"The car is a Nissan NV200", Sakurai said.

"... Nissans aren't really a rare sight in Tokyo."

"Yeah, but Nissan vans with no windows in the cargo and single sliding door? There are exactly one hundred seventy three vans with those specifications that ever left any Nissan factory in Japan, no vehicles of those specifications were ever legally brought in. And out of those one hundred seventy three, only twelve are registered and in commission in the whole wide Tokyo."

"What?", Satsuki frowned. "That can't be true."

"Well, no, there's around fifty nine in Tokyo. But out of those, only twelve are not registered to a company and don't have any logos on them."

"Millions of people live in Tokyo and there are only twelve vans like that?"

"There's some more, but not that don't have windows in the cargo and have the sliding doors only one one side", Sakurai chuckled. "I'm gonna make a call for someone to check all of the plates for those models and we'll go find the car owners."

They had lots of videos of the car, but the vehicle didn't have the plates screwed on. At first Momoi thought it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but now, with twelve people to check and a high chance of one of them being related even somehow to Haizaki, she had hopes.

Of course, there was also a chance that the car was illegally brought to Japan, stolen or not registered in any way. Or that it was registered outside of Tokyo and they had more than twelve cars to check. Or that it belonged to a company and they were slightly off in their investigation.

There were many possibilities. And they had to check them all if they wanted to find Aomine - all while they did not have the time for that. With each second they spent on looking, Daiki could have been getting hurt. His ribs could have being broken, his hair burned, his nails ripped out of his hands and his eyes gauged out.

She shook her hair and slapped her cheeks. No. She should not have been thinking about it. Aomine was probably okay, waiting for them to come save him.

She marked the address of the area where the van had disappeared. Momoi then grabbed all of the paperwork, the collected evidence and Sakurai and returned to the car. Then, she drove there. They knocked on the doors and asked people about the vehicle with no plates. Some could tell them the general direction, some kids said that they did remember it because the car didn't stop to let them cross the street. Eventually, it was eight in the evening and they were led out of the residential area back into slightly busier streets.

"We should go home", Sakurai noted. "Sorry..."

"No. You're right", Satsuki mumbled. "We need to go back and check more cameras and no one will let us in at this hour anyway."

"Sorry", Ryou sighed.

"I'll drive you back. And pay you for the overtime."

"You don't have to. I'd gladly pull an allnighter just to finish this quicker."

They walked back to the car that they had parked a while back. She dropped him off then arrived at her home. She parked her car in the garage, left the vehicle and entered her house. She took off her shoes, sighed and in her zombie-like walk, she went to the kitchen. She poured water into the kettle and clicked it on while she focused on placing a cup down and finding the box of tea she had gotten two weeks ago from Daiki. It was a late birthday gift and he even apologized for not giving it to her a month earlier on her actually birthday.

She was used to it, it wasn't the first time he was late. He did his best to remember, but she understood when he didn't say a word. She never reminded him - sometimes, a week later Aomine would leave something in her office, sometimes two months later he would bake her a cake. Or sometimes he would realize he had forgotten on his own birthday and make his day about her.

Daiki was a great little brother. And she felt bad that she failed to protect him. She sighed, flopping down on her sofa with the tea in one hand and a beer in the other. A few minutes prior she had also called a news station and was waiting for the information to show up. She upped the volume on her TV. The presenter was happily talking with someone when suddenly her face got serious upon receiving the information over the earphone and the camera zoomed in on her.

With a straight face and a professional tone she told the public about an abduction of an officer. Aomine's face was showed and then followed by a video of him being shoved into the van on his way home.

Momoi wanted to cry.

Chapter Text

Daiki was sitting on his mattress. He didn't know how much time had passed or what day it was and don't get him started on the hour, which made it hard to portion his supplements. So he stuck to taking most of the important ones when he was being brought food. Because of that, he began counting days in meals rather than with a calendar and a twenty-four hour cycle. Which meant that he had already spent there six meals, however many days that was.

The deadbolt moved and Daiki frantically turned off the flashlight and placed it behind the mattress, then got off of it and moved closer to the entryway. He nad been doing that for a while now, as he noticed Haizaki was mainly focusing on him rather than on his surrounding, which made it easier to hide things from the alpha. Aomine hoped it would be Contraband though, he much preferred that guy over Shougo.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Contraband. Instead, it was Haizaki, with his usual pissed-off face expression, earrings in his ears, wearing sweatpants and a tank top. He had also changed his hairstyle, or rather, returned to his previous one. The braids looked bad on him and Daiki could still see the remains of the gray hair dye.

"Still looking bad as ever, huh", the man laughed. "Suck me off, slut."

"... No?", Aomine huffed.

"That wasn't a question."

"Look, you can lock me up here all you want, but I'm not gonna become your sex slave", Daiki looked at him from where he was sitting on the floor. "So you can suck my dick for that matter."

"Yeah? We'll see about that..."

And with that, he left, but Aomine had a feeling it wasn't for a long time. So instead of going back to his mattress to enjoy his time alone in the darkness again, he stayed on the ground and waited for the inevitable.

And he was right - a few minutes or so later, Haizaki reentered the cage and walked towards Aomine. He grabbed him by the hair and yanked him up from the floor, then back down, forcing him onto his hands and knees. Daiki tried to stand up, but he was held down with Shougo's knee pressed down onto his shoulder blades.

"Get off me!", Aomine tried to push him off, but the general lack of energy caused by low calorie intake as well as the chains were in his way to using the proper techniques.

"You shouldn't have pissed me off then", Haizaki forcefully spread his legs as much as the cuffs around his ankles allowed. He then forced three of his fingers into Daiki's vagina, making the omega scream and fight even more.

"Don't touch me!", Daiki struggled under him. He screamed even louder when the fingers were replaced by a toy - a toy that not only was forced into his vagina, but also into his anus, without anything smoothing its way in. Haizaki then turned him to the side and while still holding him down, locked something around his waist.

"Open wide, you're still gonna suck my dick, bitch", Shougo turned him to his back and in one hand he grabbed Daiki's hair, forcing his head back and with the other, he forced three digits into Aomine's mouth to open it wide.

Daiki could bite him and get rid of those, but he knew that the cons outweighted the pros in doing that. If he had bitten Shougo, he would get rid of the hands, but also would get a beating. And the more pissed off Haizaki was, the more punches landed around Aomine's stomach. Which was bad, as he needed to keep the pregnancy so as to not enter his heat and give Shougo a chance to mate him. On the other hand, if he had allowed Haizaki to force his dick down his throat and sucked him off without biting, there was a great chance that the alpha would just leave and not return for a meal or two.

So Daiki was left with no choice but to experience his mouth being raped. He didn't suck or gag for the attention, he wasn't throwing sexy looks in Haizaki's way. He wasn't even looking his way. He focused on the wall next to him, where a dog bowl was placed. A bowl in which he was supposed to be getting food if it wasn't for Contraband getting him normal plates.

Haizaki's dick wasn't exactly huge, but it was big enough to be uncomfortable while forced down his throat - Daiki decided to just relax his muscles as much as possible and wait it out. Shougo would get bored eventually.

And Aomine was right. It took only one orgasm for Haizaki to stand up and get off him. He put his disgusting dick back into his pants and Aomine had never been happier to turn his head to the side and spit out semen.

"Done?", Haizaki frowned, holding a remote in his hand. "Cuz I'm not."

"You can keep going?", Daiki huffed. "Didn't think you could cum more than once."

"I hope you'll enjoy your punishment. Maybe next time I come back here you'd be in a better mood to swallow."

And then, Haizaki clicked a button on his remote, which in return turned on the toys - a chastity belt - Aomine was forced into. He frowned, not necessarily liking the sensation. Haizaki meanwhile walked towards the exit, laughing at him, then locked him in and left.

Aomine huffed. That was supposed to be a punishment? The vibrators were barely over ten centimeters and the vibrations frequency was so low he barely felt stimulated. No wonder Shougo was horrible in bed, his whole knowledge came from overexaggerated porn. The chastity belt didn't even have a vibrating part over his clit and the vibrator barely touched his G-spot.

Daiki couldn't say it was completely ignorable, but it was more annoying than mindbreaking. So once he waited a minute or two to check if Shougo would come back quickly, he returned to his mattress and went to sleep.

When he woke up, he didn't know how long it was until meal time, but the power in the toy had run out. Based on that, he assumed a few hours had to have passed. He grabbed his flashlight and turned it on, then tried to feel around where he couldn't see.

"What an idiot...", he laughed. With his fingers, he managed to find a USB-C port. Which meant that the toy wasn't running on batteries, but on a previously charged power. And Aomine did own a few vibrators like that - he actually preferred those. He also knew they usually lasted for two or three hours before having to be charged again.

So Haizaki's "oh so horrible" punishment was just an annoyance than something that would make him wiggle on the floor and cry in pleasure.

Chapter Text

A while after he woke up, Contraband visited him. Aomine was using his strategy again, waiting away from the mattress, but as soon as he heard the first step, he knew he was safe. He already began to differentiate Contraband's and Haizaki's steps.

Contraband placed a food tray close to him, then frowned as he saw the dried semen on the ground.

"Yeah... Mind wiping it off?", Daiki sighed, taking a seat in front of the tray to enjoy the meal. Ah, he was getting spoiled today, Asiyah made soto betawi on top of already making a duck. He had a feast today!

"Is that yours or is that Haizaki's?"

"Haizaki's, I spat it out", Daiki explained, already enjoying his meal.

"... He was here?"

"Yeah, before the night", Aomine swallowed the food. "Mhh, tell Asiyah it tastes amazing."

"Wait, what are you wearing?", Contraband frowned, pointing at Daiki's waist.

"A chastity belt", Daiki shrugged. "It ran out of power anyway. Haizaki had a porn fantasy in which it made me go crazy."

"Huh", Contraband sat down in front of him, but keeping Aomine's personal space intact, like he always did. Keeping his distance, but enough to let Daiki know he trusted him and was his ally.

"Yeah."

"Oh, yeah, I got you something", Contraband smiled and reached for the bag. He pulled out three rather chunky books from there and gave them to Daiki. "Let me know when you finish those, I'll swap them for something new."

"... Books?"

"Well, i thought you must be bored out of your mind, just sitting here in almost complete darkness with nothing to stimulate your brains, so I got you more contraband."

"Yeah, 'cause that's why I call you Contraband."

"Yeah!"

Aomine chuckled. "I haven't read a book in a while."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I used to read a lot. But recently I had to much work to do, so I just kinda... stopped. Somewhere along moving. I focused on building the apartment instead of reading, then on work and I was kinda stuck in a stupid schedule of taking care of a cat, working, eating and sleeping in an endless cycle."

"I hope you'll enjoy it then", Contraband smiled softly. "Which genre you do like the most?"

"Sci-fi, adventure... I sometimes read romances. Criminal novels as well."

"Really?", Contraband chuckled. "You used to work solving crimes and then come back to read about solving crimes?"

"I haven't read much since I started working, but yeah! I actually enjoyed those, I was solving the crimes together with the characters."

"I also got you a hairbrush and a hair tie", Contraband said. The brush was the cheapest small brush that could be found in an average store, and the hair ties were a pack of three. Both of those were pre-opened so that Daiki had no trash to throw out somewhere.

Contraband stayed with him for a while, keeping him company. Then, he grabbed the empty plates, wiped the floor from the semen, promised Daiki to bring him some more entertainment and some wet wipes for accidents like this, so he wouldn't have to wait in filth until Contraband would come and clean the mess Shougo had left.

The lights were killed and Daiki was stuck in a cage again. He returned to the mattress and randomly picked a book before turning on his flashlight.

Don Quixote, damn, Contraband had some taste for classic it seemed. But sure, Daiki had never read nor watched it before so maybe it was finally the time to do so.

It was so stupid, he had to be kidnapped and raped to find pleasure in reading again.

He was halfway done through the fourth chapter when the deadbolt clicked again. Daiki glanced at the page number, closed the book, turned off the flashlight and dropped them both behind the mattress. Shit. Haizaki's steps. He was barely off the mattress by the time Shougo could see him.

Okay. Did he want to play with Haizaki's scenario or piss him off even more? Maybe it was enough of annoying for such a short period of time. Two meals and one night, too little had passed. He would play along.

"... Please", he whispered, already dying from cringe. "I was so close, please, let me cum—"

"Hm, so you learned your lesson, huh?", Haizaki chuckled. Oh Aomine enjoyed the gaslighting so much. He threw on his best horny expression and looked up at the alpha.

"Why did you turn it off— I was so close, please, just give me a minute more!", Daiki crawled towards him to grab him by the pants and try to pull himself upwards. He wiggled in despair when Shougo took a step back.

"Turn it off? When?"

"I don't know, a few seconds ago!", Aomine lied. Haizaki didn't know how long the power had lasted so Daiki wasn't going to tell him. The alpha tsked and grabbed the key.

"No cumming for you, bitch", he smirked.

"No!"

Haizaki took the belt off and roughly pulled it out of him. Aomine screamed, but not out of pleasure. He did his best to play it as such, however. Then came the worst. Haizaki stepped into his vulva and pressed down his boot. Daiki threw his head back and gasped. Oh fuck, it hurt. He wiggled and screamed, making Shougo laugh. Eventually, after around a minute or so, Haizaki stepped back, leaving him alone.

"No! Please just let me—", Aomine almost vomited those words, hating himself for each second he had to act like a desperate slut. Shougo then pressed his foot down for a few seconds more - enough to make Daiki fake an orgasm.

"That better teach you", Haizaki huffed. "Next time ill edge you for longer so you better behave."

Daiki curled up and began sobbing on the ground. Haizaki laughed at him, them left the cage. The deadbolt clicked, the room became completely dark and Aomine waited a few more seconds before he stopped smfake sobbing. He groaned, getting back onto the mattress to find his flashlight.

"Fuck it hurt", he sighed. He pulled out the toilet and placed it a bit from the bed to use it. It hurt a little during peeing, but it was okay - his clit was red and hurting from the pressure and from being squeezed inside of the belt for so long.

Stupid human biology, he thought. Who designed that? Why did female omegas have separate clits and urethras and male omegas had those weird clit and dick combos?! He had a vagina like a female omega or beta, but above that? Nooo, it couldn't have been the same, there had to be a fe centimeters long little penis that looked like a clit, was called a clit, but functioned as a dick! Who ever thought of putting the urethra there?! Who thought about giving male omegas barely functioning testicles that didn't even produce sperms?! Who thought it would have been a good idea for have male omegas experience two types of orgasms - the typical "female" orgasm and the typical "male" orgasm?!

Aomine groaned. He hated biology. He almost failed anatomy during his university. Who decided that it was a good idea to have six different variations of human genitals anatomy? Most animals only had two, if not one. And them? Fucking six. The intelligent species had to stand out again. Utterly ridiculous.

Chapter Text

Kagami was lying in his bed, sighing every few seconds. He frowned. He wanted to stand up and do something with his life, but Sei jumped on top of his chest and meowed.

"You hungry or something?", Kagami asked, scratching him behind the ear.

"Meow", Sei replied. He was stuck inside because he couldn't get out of Taiga's apartment on his own, which meant that he couldn't go look for Daiki. Kagami also didn't want to let him leave freely, as he was scared Sei would get lost. And finding Daiki's cat in the whole wide Tokyo without having access to the GPS tracker on the collar was close to impossible.

"Sorry, but you're not leaving without me", Taiga mumbled. "... We can go for a walk tomorrow morning."

"Meow!", Sei frowned. Why not now? They needed to go and look for Aomine! Why was Kagami lying there like that?! Sei thought Taiga cared about his human and wanted to be with him! Why was he acting like this?!

"Sei, I can't do anything!", Kagami closed his eyes. "I want to have him back too..."

"Meow!"

"It doesn't work like that!", Taiga bit his lip. "They're keeping me out of the loop, I don't even know if they made any progress! I want to help them, I want to do something instead of just sitting on my ass all day and hoping!"

"Meow!"

"... I'm going crazy", Kagami chuckled. "I'm talking to a cat!"

"Meeeoooow!"

Kagami stood up and placed Sei on his bed, taking him off himself. He walked to the kitchen and clicked on the kettle - he wasn't even sure why, he wasn't exactly a tea drinker and it was too late for a coffee if he wanted to ever fall asleep.

He groaned and hit his head on the cabinet. He just wanted this whole shebang to be over. If Shougo just... never existed - that would have been perfect! No other alpha in Aomine's life that would terrorize him, only Taiga and his stupid ass that would probably still fuck everything up.

His phone buzzed and he tapped on the screen to light it up. An app notification - oh... his rut was late.

Just three days, so still within very suspicious but still somehow safe range, but enough to make him frown. Heats were the ones that could be irregular or change the spacing in between. Ruts were different - ever since the first appeared, they stayed regular and never one should be missing.

The two were based on different constructs - heats were periods of fertile days. They were based on hormones and the surroundings - if an omega was too stressed to have children, the heat would not start. If an omega had a severe injury or any other condition that would not make their body eligible for a pregnancy, the heat would not start. After each pregnancy the heats could return quickly or later on, sometimes even up to a year, if not more. The heats only started when an omega was in a proper situation for bearing children.

Ruts on the other hand were not based on hormones, but rather an internal clock. Every cycle was like a countdown inside of the glands and once it reached the end, the hormones were excreted, causing the rut. The clock was very precise too - only differences of around thirty hours were considered normal. Ruts were periods of passing on the genes and they were at some point in the last thousands of years dependent on the heats of the pack. The omegas in packs had their fertile days around the same time and therefore the rut aligned to those to ensure mating season. However, people had stopped living in packs a long time ago.

Sometimes it was possible to find mating seasons in secluded societies, but on a general basis, they shifted left and right, often missing one another. But because the alpha's clock could be realigned, although only in specific conditions, often mated pairs experienced the rut and the heat at the same time.

Those specific conditions included being mated and a whole bunch of other things. Kagami wasn't mated. And his rut was late.

Which often pointed to cancer and a bunch more other diseases and conditions, all pointing to an issue with the glands. Just great, one more problem on his list of problems.

"Meow?", Sei rubbed against his leg, making Kagami jump in fear.

"I'll kick you against the wall next time!", he threatened, then took a deep breath. "Okay, maybe not. I wouldn't hurt you, you know? I'm just... sometimes saying stuff that I regret later."

"Meow?"

"And I'm explaining intrusive thoughts to a cat..."

"Meow?"

"Yeah... Meow."

"Meow!"

Kagami should have probably call a doctor. But it was late and there was still a chance his rut would come in the next day, where it was still within the relatively safe miss period. So he would call the day after tomorrow, if it still wouldn't appear.

For now, he probably should just go to sleep.

Sei followed him, step by step, as Taiga went to the bedroom with a cup of hot cocoa in his hand and a little treat for the cat. They lied down comfortably under the sheets, with Sei snuggling into Kagami's naked chest and letting him rest the hot mug onto his fur.

"Damn, I always wondered, is your fur red because of the amount of people you murdered out of hatred?", Kagami asked, wrapping Sei's tail around his finger. The cat raised his head and looked at him with confision.

"Meow...?"

"Don't look at me with those innocent eyes, I know you're malicious!"

"Meeeow~!"

Kagami sighed. "Hey, you also miss Aomine, right?"

"Meow."

"Good. I thought I was overreacting, but maybe... You think it's okay for me to care so much? Like, I get that I should care and all and I do, but like... Am I overreacting? He's a cop, he's a great cop, he will be okay... yeah?"

"... Meow."

"I hope so too..."

Chapter Text

«I made the wrong choice» had been ringing in his mind for a while now. It wasn't like he had a choice. Kagami had a crush on an unknown alpha male, he got rejected, got drunk with Daiki, had drunk sex with him, they both regretted it. Then Aomine met Haizaki, trusted him and got screwed over. It wasn't like he had a choice to make, it wasn't a dating simulator. He didn't have a choice between Kagami and Haizaki.

Kagami was simply a friend (a great, caring and loving friend) and Haizaki acted as if he was romantically interested in him from day one. It wasn't like they both confessed to him at the same time and expected Aomine to give them both an answer immediately. No, Haizaki was interested in him and Daiki went for it. That was the whole story.

Aomine closed his eyes and turned the flashlight off. Ten meals had passed since he was locked in here. He didn't know how many per day he was getting, he didn't even know what time of the day it could have been now. He had just woken up so for him, it was morning.

His life was miserable. It all went wrong. Maybe he should have just died? He hadn't felt good since middle school or something and he got tired of pretending that therapy helped. Maybe he should just die, start over and hope for the best? Maybe he would be reborn as someone prettier and he would have better chances at finding love.

A tear got out of his eye and lonely swam down his cheek, then dropped onto the pillow. The handcuffs around his wrists and ankles disappeared from his senses, as he had gotten used to it. He had a limited range of motion, but he still managed to perform basic tasks.

He wanted to go home. But he couldn't tell whether it was because he was free there or whether because he had a knife there. Maybe stabbing himself wasn't such a bad idea...?

He hated waking up in that room. It was fully submerged in the darkness with no light source at all, which made it pitch black. The only light inside was the lightbulb ghat was impossible for him to turn on, the flashlight in his possession and the infrared light his body produced, that was outside of the visible light spectrum. Everything in here was silent too.

He was simply being tortured. Kept in darkness and silence, Haizaki was just waiting for him to go insane.

Aomine always thought of himself as someone who could resist tortures and keep his mouth shut even under the highest of pressures. But now? If Haizaki were to come in here and say that he would let Daiki go if he prostituted himself for a month, Aomine would probably jump at the offer, even if it would be a lie. Just to get out. Just to have a little bit of normality.

He hadn't played basketball in a long time. He was somewhere around middle school when the sport he had loved so much caused him to suffer so greatly. Because of that, he decided to quit it and in highschool he refused to join the club. Kise and Midorima saw him play a few times, and whereas Midorima said it was none of his business, Kise had always tried to persuade him into playing again. The two of them were good friends but Aomine could never understand how they became acquaintances - except for all of them being omegas they had nothing in common.

Midorima was a part of the highschool orchestra, he played the piano. He sometimes played it for them, if they asked, although Shintarou always was fussy and embarrassed about it. He was the one with the braincells between the three of them and if it wasn't for him, Aomine would have failed Maths and Literature. Midorima was also the one to recommend books to him and suffered with him through the kanji-learning process.

Out of the three of them, Kise was the beauty. He might not have been sleeping around (at least Aomine thought he wasn't) but he was definitely dating around. He could have a new partner every two weeks and he was always surrounded by people. But who would expect otherwise - Kise was a model. He was pretty, hot, attractive, took great care of himself and his diet and was rich. Everyone wanted him - he was the best wife material for like half of the school and for all the gold diggers out there.

And then one day Kise told them he was going to be a pilot and fly airplanes and Midorima changed his religion from Shintoism to Buddhism to Christianity to Islam and then back to Shintoism within one minute, calling out every god he knew to make sure he would never end up on a plane with Kise in the cockpit. And then when he heard that Aomine kind of wanted to study to be a police detective, Midorima started crying and yelled out "Great! Not only I'm going to die in a plane crash but also no one will know why-nodayo!"

The two of them were stupid, but Midorima couldn't really resist their pleas and ended up tutoring then for two years every day until they learned enough to pass their exams well and get into the universities that they wanted to go to. Okay, Kise missed most of those meetings because of random dates and modeling sessions, and therefore his exams went worse than Aomine's, but he still got into an aviation school.

Barely.

They still kept in touch for a while after highschool - Kise eventually started traveling around the word for his job and was often gone, Midorima focused on his exams, saying that the med school was sucking all the life our of him and Aomine had enough on his plate to care about forcing them to meet up.

A thing no one ever expected however was them finding out that Midorima started seeing someone. That Midorima that they knew, that guy who carried random items with him every day, the horoscope queen, the nerd and the kind of autistic vibes of a guy - that omega was seeing someone.

And this was how Aomine met Takao Kazunari, whom he later got our of jail a few times and who, as it later turned out, was kind of in the wrong crowd. Daiki then made him promise that Takao would never get in deep enough to have blood on his hands - he was not going to let his friend suffer by sending his husband to prison.

Takao greatly limited his activity, but still stayed in. His taxi company started to actually work as a taxi instead of just being a money laundering scheme and Kazunari retired.

Except for a few favors here and there - Takao's position was high enough to be able to quit and still keep his contacts in prisons, jails and the underground world.

Which Daiki wasn't exactly happy about until he needed those contacts.

Chapter Text

Aomine missed the sound of the clock ticking. He missed the sound of the cars driving. The sound of Satsuki's heels clicking as she walked. He missed the twitching lights and the sound of a printer. He missed Kagami's laughter.

Contraband stayed with him for shorter. He often only brought food, silently sat next to a wall until Daiki finished, then took the plate and left. Haizaki also didn't care about coming anymore.

Meal after a meal, he just silently sat in a corner of his cage, covered in a blanket, sleeping. Sometimes he cried to let his emotions out a little, but often he just lied. Like he did when he was depressed.

Contraband entered the room again. He gave Aomine a new pack of supplements and took the empty one from him. He gave him also a bar of white chocolate, a bag of chips and a bag of chocolate candies.

He said nothing. Just placed the food on the tray he had also brought. Aomine didn't even move to the floor to eat. He stayed on the mattress, waited for Contraband to give it directly to him. Aomine hadn't left the mattress in three meals. He was getting worried about the omega, but he knew the most obvious answer to solve it. And he couldn't grant it.

Asiyah's food was tasty. Daiki however didn't have any appetite today. He didn't know how long ago was his last meal, but he had just woken up and didn't know for how long he had slept.

"Just eat a little bit", Contraband asked. "Please. You barley touched it. Your last meal was twenty hours ago, you can't leave everything on the plate..."

Daiki didn't want to eat anything more, but he forced half of what was on the plate. Contraband then took the plates from his hands and placed them in the cubby. He returned with a bucket of hot water, a big bowl and towels.

It happened every few meals. Contraband would come in and wash him. He would also be forced to have an enema then and both him and Contraband hated that part, but every time Haizaki randomly came, he always checked.

And Aomine absolutely hated that. He hated that he was being treated like a sex toy. That Haizaki acted as if he owned him.

Aomine didn't want to leave the bed, but Contraband dragged him off. He sat him on the floor, grabbed a sponge and got it wet. He poured soap over it and carefully washed Daiki's whole body, then with a clean, wet towel he got all the soap remains off him and laid him down with the bowl under his head. With that, he washed and brushed Daiki's hair, then wrapped them in a towel to dry a little. Meanwhile, came the worst. Aomine lied down on his side, waiting for the inevitable. Contraband put on some latex gloves and while describing his every step, he added some lube to the tube and inserted it into Daiki's rectum. He then poured almost half a liter of saline into him and pulled it out. While they were forced to wait, Contraband cleaned the rest of the things from the bath.

Once it was the time, he helped Aomine position himself above the bowl. Daiki let everything go, then they repeated the process one more time. Contraband washed him after that and then he took everything and left, putting Daiki back onto the mattress.

He was treated like a lifeless doll. But was he anything more than than?

So long had passed, did his friends forgot about him? He knew he was sometimes mean to Ryou and his relationship with the omega's husband was... not necessarily close with "friendly", but Sakurai was someone important to him. And Satsuki? He knew he pissed her off often, but he loved her as an older sister, pissing each other off was something that siblings did, no? And Kagami - excluding Satsuki, he was the first ever alpha to befriend him. He was everything Daiki ever needed in an alpha. He was amazing (except for sometimes being a little hotheaded), caring, a literal husband material.

Except he was into alphas. Okay, Kagami did state that he was bi, that he was interested in omegas, betas and alphas, but Kagami was kinda into an alpha male he knew from somewhere. And Aomine might have been a man, but he was an omega. Which kind of did not align with what Taiga was currently into.

Unless Taiga for some reason would stop being into that alpha guy and would take interest in him. But that would never happen, right? Not in this universe, not in this life. Daiki didn't deserve someone like Taiga to be his husband. He deserved someone who was his equal. Someone like... Haizaki.

His ego was severely brought down by his depression, then even more by being friends with a goddamned model. Kise always made him self-conscious, but he of course didn't mean it. He was an amazing friend, he was always helpful and... okay, he was mean. He was sometimes very mean. But he was also like a puppy, like a golden retriever energy type of friend.

Back in highschool Ryouta often did home spa for the three of them and neither him nor Midorima really knew why, but Kise wanted it and who were they to refuse it? On one of those Kise said Aomine should do something with his skin to make it better and started recommending him random stuff.

He loved his friends, but it was kind of painful when they called him the ugly duckling. He knew they didn't mean to be rude, he knew that Kise was sometimes a meanie and that those were the jokes. That he just laughed how Aomine was painfully single and awfully virgin. That back in highschool it was just funny. Kise had no way of knowing that it would turn out to be true ten years later.

Chapter Text

Momoi was crying in his office. Aomine had been missing for a week. The whole thing was standing still, they were desperately looking for the Nissan, however none of the people they had checked were it. All police units were told to stop any Nissan NV200 matching the description and everyone was desperately looking for the missing detective.

Two days ago Momoi sent the papers to the judge to ask for a warrant - even though she had put a rush on it, only today she got the reply. And it was a rejection on top of that.

She wiped her tears off and quickly fixed her makeup. She would pay a visit to the judge herself today and get everything sorted out. Then suddenly, her phone called making her smidge her lipstick a little.

"I found the car!", Ryou exclaimed.

"What?!"

"So I ran through all of the companies that own that vehicle, I checked them all out and boom! There's a company in the very outskirts, they do plasterboards, deliver them around. They were in possession of the exact car and it was stashed and hidden in a garage."

"How did you get in there without a warrant?", Momoi frowned.

"The manager let me in. Seems like he wasn't in on the scheme - he said the car was broken beyond repair and was kept there because it was supposed to be destroyed."

"Call the judge to claim it as evidence."

"On it."

It was going to be okay. They would find Aomine, he would come back home safely and everything would be okay.

The judge was lucky Momoi was great at controlling her alpha tone, because otherwise the poor omega would not only be traumatized but also would file a complaint against her. Nevertheless, it took almost half an hour of arguing and a few threats from Satsuki's side about disciplinary committee for interfering with an investigation for the judge to finally issue a warrant. She still planned on running a corruption check on the judge.

While Ryou took care of seizing the vehicle and taking care of tw company, she called backup and surrounded Haizaki's mansion. They knocked on the door and waited for the staff to open the gates.

"Tokyo Metropolitan Police", Momoi said, showing the warrant and her badge to a man who opened the door. "We have a warrant, please step aside and identify yourself."

The man gulped, but went with one of the officers to get his ID. Momoi waited for this day for so long.

"Check every centimeter of this house!", she exclaimed. It was the time to bring Aomine home.

Haizaki returned to the mansion four hours after they started the search, but before he could explode in a fury, he was dragged aside for questioning. Two cops stayed with him at all times before someone called in Momoi who happily sat in front of him.

"Where is he?", she straight up asked.

"Who?"

"Your ex", Satsuki huffed. "Don't act surprised. I know you're lying."

"I don't know what you mean", Shougo shrugged. Momoi frowned - unless they found something she couldn't even arrest him. And the worst part of it - Haizaki knew that.

So you can imagine Momoi's happiness and relief when she was called outside and one of the policemen brought her a bag full of heroin syringes. She chuckled, ordering them to get those tested before returning to the room where Haizaki was staying.

"C'mon, we know quite a lot about you", Satsuki smiled. "Tell us where is Aomine Daiki and we may struck a deal."

"Go piss yourself, cunt."

Fifteen minutes later Shougo was sitting handcuffed in the back of the police cruiser getting ready to be transported into arrest for drug possession. And Momoi planned on getting him in for a murder of the two people as well, but firstly she should properly make the charges against him and get him to stand in front of a court.

They still had the mansion to check. And yet, more and more rooms were cleared and there was no sign of Daiki. Less and less space was left to search and Aomine was still missing.

And then finally, each person reported to have finished checking everything and Aomine was nowhere to be seen. Momoi was anxiously walking around, trying to make sure they seriously had gone through everything, but after three rounds around the mansion, her heartbeat started to quicken.

"And the outside?", she asked. "Sheds, bunkers?"

"... They're finishing up, but everything was empty", one person informed her.

"Are you sure?", Satsuki began walking around in circles. No. No! She knew it was going too easily, but she couldn't just—... She just wanted to believe it would be that easy. That she would be able to just... Find him right away. Get him back home, safely.

"We are, Commissioner."

"... Close up, go through everything one more time, check every corner once again."

"Yes, ma'am."

They needed to find him. Haizaki couldn't win like that!

Because besides the drugs they found nothing, they were forced to close up the search and outside of seizing the drugs and arresting Haizaki and one other guy, they were left with nothing. However, once at the station, Momoi swiftly attached Shougo to the double murder back from November and informed him that he would be held in a temporary arrest until he would be transferred to jail, where he would await a court date.

Just great, Shougo thought, as they were taking off the handcuffs once he was in a cell with his buddy.

At least the cops were stupid - or rather, the plasterboard company Haizaki used for money laundering did a good job in creating the hidden rooms. Even the bestest of the detectives got fooled by fake walls and empty walls.

Now the only thing left was to get his lawyer, get out of the arrest, avoid prison and get rid of Daiki - he was already a suspect in the murder he tried to hide, so there was no point in keeping Aomine locked. Maybe he would just throw into the air vent some gas? Kill him with no blood in anyone's hands, just some airborne poison and boom, their problem would be gone.

Chapter Text

Haizaki knew that kidnapping Aomine was a bad decision and would being in more troubles than good. But he also knew that Daiki was close to solving everything - too close to have him just wandering around.

He could have killed him, but Ishida and Mochizuki were against that idea - Haizaki and Mochizuki was already close to being caught for murder, they didn't need another soul lost attached to them. Because of that, Shougo agreed to an abduction instead, even though he was not happy at all with it.

And then he found out he could just rape and abuse Daiki while they held him locked. So he assigned Ishida to do everything involving keeping Aomine alive and clean, just so he could come in when he had a bad day and let his frustration out. He also no longer needed to scam prostitutes out of money - he could do hardcore with Aomine instead!

Ishida insisted he would be able to deal with Aomine alone, so Haizaki made sure that he did his job properly. He micromanaged Daiki and made sure that the omega never felt at ease. Whenever Aomine talked back, Haizaki tied him up more and edged him for hours until he begged and sobbed.

He was glad of one thing - that he had sent Ishida away for the day to take care of the marijuana plantation. Recently Haizaki was getting some complaints that a few workers were smuggling the ware out of their hands. Because of that, there was still someone to take care of keeping Aomine alive but no one to accidentally open the passage with the cops still roaming around.

At least those Indonesian slaves knew how to lock themselves in another hidden room and not poke their heads out when the pigs were walking around. Haizaki's lawyer would have even more troubles getting him out of the arrest and dropping the charges of illegal immigrants and human trafficking.

Mochizuki stayed in a corner, avoiding eye contact with his boss. He wouldn't be surprised if he would get beaten up as soon as they were out of the cell - Shougo must have blamed him for the arrest, after all, he was out of the house when the police arrived and he should have warned Haizaki somehow. He could have, but he didn't even try.

"Wow, aren't you failing at life?", the lawyer came in and laughed at Haizaki through the bars. "I'll be waiting in the questioning room, they'll drag you there soon."

And with that, the man left. The cops arrived soon after that and got Shougo out of the cell and in handcuffs, they sat him down at a table in an enclosed room where the lawyer was already waiting for him.

"I'm taking both of you out, by the way, and you're lucky I had some on me", the lawyer chuckled. "Corruption in here is wild, man... I got a kilogram of a few of your products to get the guys to switch out the evidence before it got checked for fingerprints. Judge's gonna be here in an hour, you don't know anything about drugs, they weren't yours, someone hid them there. I'm gonna tell the same story to Mochizuki, so be nice and just play along."

"You bribed someone with heroin?"

"Uh, with eight hundred grams of weed and a bag full of some random stuff? Heroin was probably there too", the lawyer shrugged.

"That's why I keep you alive, Hanamiya."

"Yeah, you would be in prison if you didn't."

"I'd manage."

"Sure thing."

After that, Hanamiya left the room and went to the one adjacent to it to talk to Mochizuki. While he was telling the guy the same thing, Haizaki placed his head on the table and sighed.

He took over the gang after his older brother got put into a coma during one of the banters. Back then, it was just a small local drug dealing club. They grew weed in the backyards and sold it for coins to local junkies. Shougo was sixteen and already had caused a fair trade of troubles to everyone, so when his brother ended up in a hospital, he got pissed. He took over the gang, dropping out of highschool, and then terrorized everyone on his way to the top. The more they grew in power, the more drugs they sold and the more money laundering they did to compensate for all of the earned money. Finally, the government knew Haizaki as a business owner of multiple different conpanies and no one gave a fuck what he was transporting in his vans.

Until that stupid deal with those guys. Haizaki hot so pissed he dragged Mochizuki with him and got rid of them, but they accidentally caused to much noise and had to run before the cops got there. They had no time to clean up and Haizaki's whole masterplan that jad already been working perfectly for the last eighteen years was about to collapse.

All of this because Aomine Daiki didn't know how to settle down the case and couldn't just throw the papers into the trashcan.

He wanted to make the detective suffer. Haizaki was having his whole life destroyed because of Aomine and he would make sure that Daiki's life would be just as bad if not worse than his because of that!

Hanamiya was an amazing criminal lawyer. He bribed the corrupted officers and judges to make sure they were in the clear. Swapping the evidence bags was his specialty and it wasn't the first time it happened. All he had to do now was wait an hour.

And then he would go back home, order the slaves to get it back in order after the pigs made a mess out of it and he would get his frustration out on Aomine. Maybe he would keep him in the dark for now? Not tell him that the cops were right on the other side of the wall and they just left him there to rotten?

Heh. That would being Daiki's spirit down. Shougo would save that argument for a different time - a time, when Aomine would be mentally drained enough to give up after hearing it.

Chapter Text

Aomine opened his eyes and sighed. It was yet another day when Haizaki didn't care to visit. The first one happened a few meals after he was brought in - Haizaki was gone for eight, maybe nine meals. Daiki liked those breaks.

Today was yet another time like that. A meal after a meal, he just didn't see Haizaki. It wasn't like he wanted to see him, but the wait was making him anxious. Meanwhile, he was just sitting there, on his mattress, reading a book.

He slept more and more. He also cared less and less. The darkness, the lack of sound and the lack of movement was getting to him. His life was one repetitive motion - wake up, use the toilet, read a book, go to sleep, wake up, eat a meal, go to sleep, wake up, use the toilet, take the suplements, go to sleep, read a book, go to sleep. Over and over. He wasn't even sure how many hours he slept for and for how many hours he was awake. He didn't know how many hours passed between the meals or for how many hours he was reading the books.

He felt depressed. He felt incredibly depressed. He missed Momoi, he missed Kagami. He missed Sei. He hoped someone realized that he was gone and that they took care of the cat. That Sei wasn't still at the apartment, hungrily waiting for his bowl to be filled. He sniffed.

He wanted to go home.

He closed his eyes to go back to sleep, but he was interrupted by the sound of the deadbolt. It was meal time already...?

No.

Those were Haizaki's sounds.

Aomine gulped - he moved off the mattress and sat down next to the wall close to the entrance. He hated it. He wanted the man gone. He wanted Haizaki to die.

He wanted someone to come get him and tell him it was going to be okay.

"You don't even know how much trouble you're causing", Shougo hissed at him. "I hope you're fucking clean, or I'll make you eat what leaves your guts after I shove my arm in there."

Aomine lowered his head a little and curled up, trying to cover himself. He hated that he was forced to be naked at all times but with Contraband in the room it didn't even feel that bad. He usually wrapped a blanket around himself and Contraband didn't look at him the way Haizaki did. Haizaki made him feel naked and Daiki hated that.

"Suck my dick, bitch", Shougo hummed, unzipping his pants. He grabbed Aomine by his hair, wrapping his long curls around his wrist and forearm, and held him in place.

Aomine kept his mouth shut. He wouldn't let him win. He hated every moment of it, but he couldn't just let Haizaki win like that. He would rather die than to just surrender. At least now. A few hours back, he would rather be a slut than stay in that cage.

"I said something", Haizaki frowned, then slapped him. "Open your mouth, slut!"

No. He would not. But was meaningless, as Shougo then let him go, walked back to the deadbolt and picked up something. He then grabbed Aomine again and forced his mouth open, then forced an open mouth gag onto him and grabbed him by the hair again.

"Shouldn't have acted like that if you wanted to keep your mouth working", Haizaki spat onto his face, making Daiki close his eyes and frown. Shougo pulled his pants and the underwear down, stroke his dick a few times, then grabbed Aomine by his hair again and forced his penis down the omega's throat.

Aomine had tears in his eyes. Just stop, be thought for the entire duration of the rape. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something else - anything. Just so this would be over. Just so he wouldn't have to think about this.

Haizaki knotted inside of his mouth, with his dick deep inside of his throat. Aomine started to choke. He needed air, he couldn't breathe—

Haizaki widened his jaw even further and took the knot out, leaving as much of the penis in as possible without entering Aomine's throat. The knot started to fade soon after, and a few minutes later Haizaki was soft again.

"You should thank me for letting you breathe", Shougo tugged on his hair. "So?!"

Daiki didn't know what to do. His mouth was locked open and it was still full of Shougo's now soft, disgusting cock. Because of the way Haizaki was holding him and because of the length of the chain connecting his wrists and ankles to the wall, he couldn't bring his hands higher than a few centimeters above the floor - the chain was too short to allow more.

"Turn around like an obedient puppy and spread that ass before I'll get mad", Haizaki slapped his face again.

No. Never. He would rather have Haizaki shove his entire arm inside of his rectum than to act politely in front of Shougo. He stayed in one place after Haizaki let go of his hair. He wouldn't move. He wouldn't let the man win over him like that.

"Is that so?", Haizaki's smug smirk faded from his face and was replaced with his usual frown. He grabbed Daiki's hair again and placed the tip of his dick on his lower lip, then held his chin in place with his other hand. "I'll teach you a lesson, 'kay? A lesson on why you should listen to me and follow my commands."

And with that, came the most disgusting flavor Daiki had ever tasted. It made him gag and his throat immediately clenched, trying to get it out. His eyes teared up, he was crying and wiggling in the hold while trying to bite down onto the gag to break it.

"Enjoying it? One more time you don't do as I tell you and you'll become my personal human toilet until you die", Haizaki said. "So you better think again about your behavior."

Die. Aomine wished that to Haizaki. He, his fucking dick, his disgusting piss that he was forcing Aomine to swallow, his fucking cum, and his ugly ass looking face. All of those could die. Life would be fucking better without them.

Chapter Text

Kagami took a deep breath. The ultrasound wand was pressed rather tightly right under his jaw and the cold gel made it an unpleasant experience. The doctor clicked something on her computer and moved the wand to a different spot, pressing it even further down and making him suffer even more.

"The right one seems okay, there's no visible masses", the doctor smiled. "Please turn your head to the other side."

Kagami followed her request and soon after the ward with yet another portion of equally cold gel was pressed to his neck just on the other side. She carefully examined the other one, but similarly to the first, she found nothing out of the ordinary.

"The blood tests also show everything in norm, cancer markers are negative - outside of slightly elevated blood pressure you are perfectly healthy", the doctor explained while Taiga was wiping the gel off.

"Yeah, so why is it late?", Taiga sighed.

"Hm, let me ask you a few questions: have you been having a regular and rather often sexual intercourse with another alpha who has taken cancel pills withing the last thirty days?"

"... No? I, uh, I haven't had sex at all within the last thirty days. Cancel pills can cause that?"

"Although rather rare there have been instances where the active substance have been found in alpha's semen, but usually there were more underlying issues with that", she explained. "Would there have been a possibility of you taking any blockers or cancel pills for omegas?"

"Nope."

"Any new meds you haven't been taking before?"

"No."

"Any sustained injuries withing the head area?"

"None that I know of."

"Right", the doctor smiled. "Extremely stressful situations?"

"... Yeah, quite a lot", Kagami admitted. "That could be it? I thought rut wasn't dependent on emotions...?"

"Usually stress levels don't interfere with a rut cycle, however there are rare cases when an extremely high amount of stress may cause the pituitary gland to forcefully cancel the rut. Usually, that should happen only when the organism is in such a bad state that a rut would possibly cause death."

"... I don't think I'm dying, I feel relatively fine?", Kagami frowned and tilted his head.

"We'll administer a dose of ruanin - that's the hormone that is responsible for starting the rut. If your rut would start within fifteen minutes then we'll send you home and you'll go back withing two weeks for a hormone level check up. If it doesn't start, that means that the pituitary gland is constantly keeping a certain level of noepressin, which is the hormone that stops the rut."

"So what if it doesn't start?"

"We'll keep you for an immediate check up of the pituitary gland - we'll do an MRI and a bunch of tests to make sure there's no developing cancer."

"Okay", Taiga breathed out. "And if it is cancer?"

"You should keep your thoughts positive", the doctor smiled. "Are you scared of needles?"

"Uh, not really, why?"

"Well, the needle for the ruanin is rather long and it goes inside of your mouth. Don't worry, I'll numb you."

"... That doesn't help at all..."

It was pretty scary - he made the mistakes of opening his eyes and looked at the needle and it didn't help at all. The doctor numbed him and after making sure the medicine worked, she called the nurse. Together, with an ultrasound guidance, the doctor pushed the needle into firstly his right gland, then changed it for another and pushed it into the left one. It was unpleasant and his throat hurt after that, and the disinfectant liquid he had to drink afterwards tasted disgusting but at least it was over quickly. The nurse also brought him a pack of pheromone blockers that would be safe to take during the rut.

And around ten minutes after the injection, the doctor confirmed that he was starting to enter his rut.

"We'll monitor you for ten more minutes, then if everything will be in check, you'll take the blockers and you'll be free to go home whenever they start working", she explained, taking off her gloves.

"That's good, right?"

"Yes, as long as it doesn't happen again", she sighed. "One time can happen to anyone, most of the cases are idiopathic, but if this becomes regular then there's a high chance there is an underlying issue."

Around an hour later Kagami was on his way home. He stopped by a store to buy some food for himself and Sei, then made it home with a slight fever. The cat immediately sensed that he started his rut and looked at him funny. Kagami fed Sei and scratched him behind his ear.

"Can I have some alone time, buddy?", Taiga asked. "You're not gonna freak out and yell at the door?"

"... Meow."

Sei huffed. He didn't enjoy those moments, but sure. He could wait outside for a bit if Kagami needed him to. He didn't like that at all, his human went missing, he was away from his family and now Kagami wanted him out as well. But he stayed on the sofa - Taiga smelled funny. When people smell funny they do mating. And Sei loved Aomine and he grew to love Kagami but not enough to mate with them.

"Thanks, man", Kagami ruffled his fur and went inside of his bedroom, then closed the door.

His throat was still numb and his glands hurt, but as soon as he touched his dick, the only thing he could think of was Aomine. Not even in any sexual sense - it was just Daiki existing. He was right next to him, in some comfortable sweatpants and an oversize tshirt, he was lying next to Kagami, cuddling in. He was slowly breathing, with a faint smile on his face, sleeping peacefully. Kagami was wrapping his arms around him, enjoying the morning sunlight as they both wished the day would have more hours. Just so they could stay for a moment longer in the bed, just so the warmth surrounding them wouldn't leave them alone and cold.

Oh to have Daiki in his arms again.

Chapter Text

Aomine had been wondering about one thing for a while now. And the more he thought about it, the more he drifted towards one conclusion.

Haizaki was an incest child.

Okay, maybe not, maybe it was just a coincidence, but still - Aomine had read about a genetical disorder that matched Haizaki and was rather common in incest relationships - especially those involving betas. All of this was related to how gender was determined - the chromosomes.

People had a total of twenty four pairs of chromosomes - twenty two autosomal pairs and two sex pairs. One pair determined the primary sex - so the appearance. There were two of those - X and Y, and the only two healthy combinations of those were XX and XY. YY were a genetical disorder and caused quite a few issues.

But the secondary sex was determined by the second pair, that worked similarly to alleles. There were three different ones - A, Ω and β, where A and Ω were equally dominant and β was recessive. They created a total of six total combinations, and whereas only three genders resulted from those.

Both Aβ and AA made someone an alpha, Ωβ and ΩΩ made someone an omega, and AΩ and ββ resulted in a beta. The only difference between those was the kids. Because only one of those genes went to a gamete, someone who was AA couldn't have an omega as a child and vice versa - ΩΩ couldn't have alpha kids.

That was also why Aomine suspected that older couple from one of his cases couldn't have an alpha child. The man must have been ΩΩ and Haruka - the older alpha woman - was probably Aβ. Because of that, the only children they could have were either AΩ betas or Ωβ omegas. Poor man - it wasn't even his fault that he was born with the genes he had.

But back to the disorder Aomine had read about. Because ruts were caused by the A chromosome and heats by the Ω chromosome, homozygotes usually released stronger pheromones than heterozygotes. Their cycles in terms of probability were also more regular and they had lesser chance of developing a cycle-related disorder.

However there was one very rare illness that only AA alphas had. It was a recessive allele located only on the A chromosome - both Ω and β also had it, but only in the dominant version, whereas the A could have both. The disorder had a much greater chances of happening in incest children of AΩ betas with either alphas or another AΩ beta. And because of how rare the existence of the recessive gene was in the first place, it happened almost solely in a result of incest.

The Silent Alpha Syndrome - the result of two recessive alleles, a disorder that caused a complete inability to use the alpha tone. It came with a few more things - shorter duration of the knot, higher chance of sperm mutation, fertility troubles and troubles with keeping the erection up. But most importantly, SAS also caused gland dysfunction, mainly the lack of venom production. Instead, it was often replaced by just plain water with electrolytes, which had no effect on anyone.

And if Aomine was right about Haizaki having SAS... Then Daiki didn't have to be pregnant. He could let Shougo do whatever he wanted - he wouldn't be able to force him to do anything, he wouldn't mate him or in fact, do anything to him.

But there was little to no way of Daiki being able to confirm the diagnosis. The only way would be to let Haizaki mate him, and if he was wrong, then he would be screwed for life. He would forever suffer, either as a mated and abandoned omega, or an omega with little to no gland functions. And both of those were just as bad as staying with Shougo.

And based on the fact that Haizaki was entering the cage, Daiki had a chance of pissing him off a little.

"Decided whether you wanna act nicely or be my toilet again?", Shougo smirked at him, already holding his zipper.

"Tell me", Daiki raised his head. "Did you mommy fuck their sibling to make you?"

"You—"

"Oh c'mon, was it a she? Or a he? Hm? Who made your ugly face?"

"Don't you dare talk about her like that—!"

"Oh! So you get mad when I talk about your mommy! That's good to know!", Aomine laughed. "So, who did she fuck?! Her brother or her sister, hm?! Or maybe her father!"

"Shut the fuck up!", Haizaki walked over to him and threw a punch. Daiki blocked it and kicked him in the groin. Shougo screamed in pain and bent in half, holding his crotch and frowning. Aomine had just enough time to stand up, pulled Haizaki towards him and knocked him down onto the floor. He wrapped his chain around Shougo's neck and pulled it, choking him. Shougo gasped for air and tried to get out, he grabbed Daiki's forearms and dug his fingernails into the flesh, he wiggled and punched around, grabbed Aomine by his hair and pulled hardly, making Daiki scream in pain. He still held the chain tightly and less and less air reached Haizaki's lungs.

"I hate you", Aomine laughed. "I hate you! Fucking die already, bitch!"

Haizaki gasped for air once more and Aomine counted to five. He loosened the chain but didn't take it off Shougo's neck until around one more minute. He then pressed his fingers against Haizaki's jugular - his heartbeat and breathing returned, but he was still unconscious. Aomine let him go and started going through his pockets. There had fo be something!

Nothing. Haizaki had nothing on him. Not a phone, not a key, not anything. Not even a belt or shoelaces.

All of this was for nothing. He fought Haizaki for nothing. He did all of this for nothing.

Aomine started crying. He kept his silence for so long, he didn't see a reason to speak. His first words in a long time were insults thrown at Haizaki and he did it all for nothing. He shouldn't have spoken. He should have just kept being silent, he should have just died in the fucking cage, refuse food and water and he would just die out of dehydration. And if they force water down his veins then he would starve himself.

"You fucking bitch!", Aomine cried. He grabbed one of the full water bottles from behind the bed and smashed it against Haizaki's head. "I hate you!"

The plastic bent, but Haizaki started bleeding. Aomine screamed and cried as he kept hitting him, until everything was covered in blood. He threw the bottle away and screamed even louder. After a few more minutes of that, he started to calm down and his screams turned into sobs.

Chapter Text

Aomine was swinging up and down, to the sides, sobbing. Haizaki was still lying unconscious in front of him, but he was alive - he checked that eight times already. There was nothing Daiki could do. Nothing to use to escape, nothing to undo the handcuffs or break the chain with. Nothi—

Aomine stopped his movements. Haizaki had earrings. If the needles were long enough, Aomine might be able to unlock the handcuffs. He wiped his tears with his hand and crawled towards the man. With shaky hands he took the earrings off him and checked the needle. It wasn't as long as he would like, but maybe, maybe if he tried hard enough?

He was sobbing, but he started digging the locking mechanism with the needle. He hummed to himself as he moved it around and then...

It clicked.

Aomine's hands were shaking as he dropped the earring and undid the handcuffs on his left wrist. It worked. It worked! He was... he was free!

He picked up the earring again and unlocked the second hand, then both of his ankles. He was laughing maniacally as he took Haizaki's pants off - he put them on so as to not run around naked, wrapped a blanket around himself and grabbed the flashlight. Just before leaving, he put Haizaki into the handcuffs, locking his hands behind his back and kicking the earring away from Shougo's range of motion.

He chuckled, as he walked towards the light, towards the turn in his cage to see the door that led to the outside.

Those weren't even doors. It was a piece of plasterboard placed inside of a hole with hinges and a deadbolt. He tried to unlock them and after a few moments of trying he managed to pull the plasterboard towards himself and reveal an extremely long and dark corridor. He gulped, turning his flashlight on. He began walking forward, tilting in the narrow and small paths - after around twenty meters he was met with another door to his left.

"Door" - it was another plasterboard, but this time behind it there was what seemed to be the back of some wardrobe or a closet maybe. He pushed it and it popped out rather easily. After that, he found himself in a room on the attic. It was filled with old furniture, random boxes and materials. He left it and was met with a huge space with windows in the ceiling giving light to everything. On the sides, where the ceiling was lower, there were rooms similar to the one Aomine found himself in. And the space in the middle was filled with random huge things - a piano, a pool table, a bunch of instruments and some other stuff, boxes full of papers that for some reason were left all over the billiard table instead of the smaller rooms. And far on his right, there were stairs.

Aomine ran over there and quickly found yet another door at the end of it. Locked. Completely locked.

It wasn't a plasterboard anymore. It was a full on door, unlockable with a code. Not even a key, just a code.

There was a panel, an electric panel shining a faint blue light on his hand as Aomine touched it. It showed four dashes and three words above them.

"Enter the PIN:"

Aomine didn't know the PIN, why would he know the pin?! He was locked. Haizaki was also locked, but Haizaki couldn't get him here. But if Shougo would be missing for too long, someone would realize this and they would come looking for him. And then they would find Daiki and lock him back in. And they would punish him for escaping and beating up Haizaki.

Aomine tried random combination. Failed. Another one. Also failed. He tried ten or something more. All failed, but it seemed there was no limit on how many times he could enter the code. It was definitely four digits, but those were four random digits, probably. Ten to the power of four combinations. If he managed to put in one code per five seconds it would take him fifty thousand seconds, that divided by sixty to make minutes gave him, uh, six times eight was forty eight, ah, no, he needed fifty by sixty, okay, removing the zeros, that was five thousand over six, so back to the six times eight, he had two hundred left over, that was six times three... Eight hundred thirty something minutes. Now divide that by sixty again to make hours, ten to make six hundred, two hundred left over, that would be...

Thirteen hours, give or take. He had no chance of staying alone for thirteen hours without having someone notice that Haizaki was gone. So what now?

He could try getting to a hundred. That would take five hundred seconds, so a few minutes only. He could probably have a few minutes.

So, from the start. Four zeros. Failed. Three zeros one. Failed. Three zeros two. Failed. Three zeros four. Failed. Three zeros five. Failed. Three zeros six. Failed. Three zeros seven. Failed. Three zeros eight. Failed. Three zeros nine. Failed. Two zeros ten. Failed. Over and over he tried yet another number. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed.

He reached a hundred. All failed. He needed to think of something. Anything. Anything that could be the code. Haizaki's birthday? At least the date Aomine knew, failed. His own birthday? Doubted and was right, failed. The date of the murder? Failed. Anything that looks nice on the keyboard? Two five eight zero, one two three four, one three seven nine, two four six eight, all failed.

Chapter Text

Haizaki slowly opened one eye and groaned. He was lying on the ground in the room where Aomine was held, on his back, and his head was throbbing. He touched it and found dried blood all over his face and the floor next to him. In the far cornee, he could see Aomine.

"Get out", Daiki said as soon as they locked eyes. "Get out or I'll kill you."

He was still handcuffed and naked. He was shaking, sitting in the corner, next to his mattress, with blood on his hands and cheek, holding an equally bloody water bottle.

"Get out!", Aomine screamed.

Haizaki's head throbbed. He stood up, holding himself up against the wall. He was dizzy and could barely breathe. What happened? He attacked Aomine and then—... he lost. Aomine choked him with the chain. Shougo could still see where his fingers had entered Daiki's forearms, there were still bloody marks there.

He waddled towards the exit, throwing death stares at Daiki. He hurried to the plasterboard, swung it open, walked past the hole in the wall and deadbolted it on the outside. He was furious - a handcuffed and tied omega won a fight with him. Haizaki walked out the closet and slammed the door to it then yelled out in frustration. He would kill that bitch, he really would. There was no point of keeping him now that the police was on his tail anyway. He should just get rid of him and clear out his name.

Two weeks ago he was arrested after the police had entered in with a warrant and found drugs. Hanamiya quickly got him out of the arrest - the judge was tipped off by them and he wasn't supposed to give the warrant to the police in the first place. And then it took him too long to inform them about it and Haizaki walked home right into the hands of the police.

There was no point of keeping Aomine anymore. He didn't need the kid he was having, he didn't need him. He needed nothing.

But damn he wanted a revenge now.

Daiki humiliated him and made him furious. So now, Haizaki wanted to make sure Aomine would wish for death. He wanted to make sure the omega would never be alive and would never be dead.

He would make Daiki suffer.

Okay, so what with the bastard? Should he leave it in, or maybe call in a few guys to abort it? Oh, how much he would enjoy Aomine having the abortion done with no painkillers or anaesthesia, but on the other hand he could make Daiki keep it, suffer for the remaining few months, he would watch Aomine give birth handcuffed, in pain, he would strap a shock collar on him and he would shock Daiki every time his scream get above a certain level of decibels. And then, he would force Aomine to take care of the baby and when he would fall in love with it, Shougo would give him the knife and force Aomine to kill it.

Yeah. That actually sounded better than an abortion, now that he thought of it.

Meanwhile Aomine counted the time. Once he got to five minutes, he slipped the handcuffs of his hands and ankles. After realizing he couldn't guess the code in one go, he decided to go back to the cage and hope Haizaki was still unconscious. If he would not be, Daiki would go back and continue guessing the code until he would succeed. But if Haizaki was still unconscious, he would dress him back up, get him out of the handcuffs, place him away from himself and put himself back into the chains, but loosely enough so he would be able to take them off.

As he was walking through the attic, he realized that once Shougo would leave, Daiki would be deadbolted inside. Because of the deadbolt being outside and having no connection to the inside, it could only be operated from the corridor - both Shougo and Contraband left it open whenever they came in to him. If Aomine returned, he would be stuck inside anyway.

So when he realized that Haizaki would be out for a little longer, he dressed him up and naked, left the corridor to look for anything useful in the attic before returning for real and locking himself in.

He walked towards the plasterboard and turned on the light for a moment. He spun the screwdriver around in his hand with a smile before sticking it to the screws at the hinges - the ones holding the door part of the plasterboard to the wall part of it. And a few minutes later, he twisted it around a little and with a little push he was able to dislodge the deadbolt enough to unlock it. He placed the plasterboard inside, resting it against a wall and turned off the light.

With a flashlight, he went back to the door to guess the code a little bit more. Maybe a hundred or two hundred more combinations. Just enough to make some progress. Just enough to hopefully guess it within the next few days. He put them in one by one, thanking the fate for not only whoever decided to make a door with a digital panel that made no sound and an infinite amount of tries, but also for the existence of whoever decided to put it in there.

He was at the number zero two one zero when he heard footsteps behind the door. And after that, a glimpse of a conversation.

"... feed—... me off."

"... still cooking... in a bit—..."

Contraband? That might have been Contraband's voice. Shit. He was coming!

Daiki abandoned his tries and sprinted back into his cage. He frantically put the wall back together, hoping that the deadbolt didn't unlock as he was reassembling it, and sat back at his mattress and slipped into his chains.

And he was right to do so, because five minutes later, the deadbolt unlocked and Contraband came in with a tray full of food and a first aid kit.

Chapter Text

Ever since that day, Daiki stayed silent when in the room with him - they went back to where they were. Haizaki started coming more. Each day, he would do some work (or not) and then come over to the attic to take his frustration out at Aomine. Each day he raped him, took him in raw and rough. Each time when he chose the rectum over the vagina, Daiki was covered in blood afterwards. Each day he chose the vagina over the rectum, Daiki's cervix was so bruised he thought his labor had started.

He didn't know how far along was he, but it was definitely at least twenty first week. He could probably say goodbye to an abortion - even if they got him out today, it was probably already too late to do it legally.

What worried him a little was the lack of movement. He was halfway through the pregnancy and felt no motion inside of him. Was it okay? Shouldn't the baby start moving by now?

... The fetus? Daiki wasn't sure what to call it now. He called it a baby at first because he was living his dream of a nice, loving relationship. Then a fetus when he decided to have an abortion. And now? He was basically forced to have it against his will, so emotionally it was still just a fetus to him. A fetus that would turn into a baby. That would grow into a human being. A baby that would be a defenseless human being for a few years, that he would be responsible for protecting.

He placed a hand on his abdomen. Maybe it would be okay? Maybe... Maybe he had people around him that would help out and take care of him when he would need it? Maybe it would be possible for forget the fact that the baby would be half of Haizaki's genes.

If Aomine was right about Haizaki being an AA homozygote alpha with the Silent Alpha Syndrome, then what could the baby's gender be?

Both him and Haizaki had XY chromosomes, so it would be either a girl or a boy. Because YY was a lethal combination, male omegas should only produce gametes with the X chromosome in it. However sometimes Y could also get in - either with the X or instead of it. That was also was a genetical mutation (mainly, sometimes it was caused by a cancer and was therefore technically treatable) and it was also a rare thing - a mutation in genes coding the proteins that were supposed to keep the Y chromosome from entering the gametes. Or something like this - Aomine learned about mutations back in the first year of the university during the biology course. And he attended the first year... like ten years ago.

Oh gods, he was old.

Aomine didn't know if he was a homo- or a heterozygote. Okay, wait, nevermind - he knew he was an Ωβ, his father was an alpha male and his mother was a female beta. The only way for him to be an omega would be a heterozygote.

Which would mean that the fetus he was carrying couldn't be an omega. It was either a beta or an alpha. Maybe it was a good thing? The baby at least wouldn't have to go through all the things he had gone through. The bullying, the alienation, the hate and the discouragement from everyone. Because being a detective or a basketball player wasn't exactly a job suiting an omega. He was told many times how he should pick an omega job instead - a teacher, a housewife or a nanny. That detectives and cops were jobs only for alphas.

At least you'll be able to pick whatever you want without people trying to tell you that you should stay home, Daiki smiled, rubbing his stomach.

He wanted to have kids. He always wanted kids and a family. He actually wouldn't even mind being a housewife. But everyone around him made it sound like a punishment. That being a housewife was the only thing he would ever be able to do. That it wasn't a choice. And all of that, it only made Daiki detest the future he had dreamed of as a little kid.

Haizaki was lying in his bed, observing the ceiling. The things that Aomine screamed at him were ringing in his head. Why was he asking him about his mother?

She was a specific person. She raised him and his brother alone after her husband was arrested and got a hefty amount of years for murder. Shougo never looked into it, he was very young when that happened and he never had any reason to try and get in touch with the man. All he had known was that he was a rather aggressive alpha that had a history of using force on his older brother and his mother. His mother always cared for them and tried her best - people talked about her that she was a single mom because she was a beta. That because she couldn't mate with an alpha, because she didn't have the omega glands, that was why her husband left her.

Both Shougo and his brother had always had behavioral issues - his brother made a gang with his friends and walked around beating and bullying people until he got put into a coma and Shougo took over his little gang, then made it grow to the current size. Ever since he informed his mother about his plans of continuing his brother's job, he had not seen her. She was against the idea and begged him not to do it, but Shougo ignored her and never talked to her nor his brother again.

He didn't even know if he had ever left the coma. Maybe his mother pulled the plug already? He sometimes had Mochizuki drop off money at her house, but he never wanted to hear anything about her.

As far as he was concerned, he was a son of his mother and her husband who was in prison. And that they weren't related in any way. But the questions about incest relationships involving his mother made him feel uneasy.

"Fuckin' bitch", Haizaki groaned. He couldn't sleep because of the overthinking now.

Chapter Text

Satsuki was sitting in a bar, with a glass of whiskey in her hand. Slowly swinging the liquid around, she listened to the even clicks of the ice cube against the glass. Click. Click. Click.

Four weeks had passed. Two weeks ago they arrested Haizaki only for his lawyer to get him out and only for the judge to dismiss the case. Haizaki has spent maybe four hours in the arrest. The thing wasn't even noted on his records, as the judge claimed him as unlawfully suspected and cleared him.

Three days ago Momoi got an anonymous tip. Someone dropped off three envelopes in her private mailbox - one with photos of Haizaki, one with notes of his activity and one with a photo of a letter - similar to the one Aomine sent to her before he went missing. The letters were an unknown detail about the case, but she had to assume Haizaki knew about them.

Was the person a double agent trying to disrupt them or were they another person Daiki trusted? The photos in the third envelope did not show the name of the recipient, but the handwriting was definitely Aomine's. There was also the CD and all of the things that they also got in their letters.

She didn't know what to think of it - if the person was their ally, why did they contact them now? Why not earlier? And if the person was a spy - the same question stood. Why now? Why not early to lower their suspicion?

"Overthinking doesn't look good on you", a calm voice sounded to her right and another glass of whiskey was placed next to her hand. She finished the one she was holding and gave it back to the barman.

"I thought you quit drinking", she sighed.

"Do you see a drink entering my mouth?"

"I see you in a bar", she pointed out. "Isn't that enough of breaking your resolution?"

"Maybe I'm here just for the smell?", the man asked. "You look tired. A hard case?"

"Still the same as the last time", she drank half of the whiskey she was gifted in one sip. "... I should be working."

"You need a break", the man pointed out. "You also look like you need a break."

"Thanks. Just what I needed on top of everything!"

"That is now what I meant", the man assured her. "All I am saying is that you really need a break and—"

"Are you trying to get into my bed again?"

"I am just stating my offer", the man shrugged. "It's up to you whether you'd take it, Momoi-san."

Satsuki groaned. She finished her drink in one go and closed out her tab, then grabbed the man by his wrist and dragged him outside of the club.

"You're lucky I'm into you", she mumbled as she tried to look around and find his car.

The man grabbed her hand and led her to the vehicle, opened the door for her and then took a seat behind the wheel. He drove to her house, parked on the street and helped her get home. Satsuki fished out the key from her pocket and after three failed attempts at getting the key in the hole, she handed it over. Once inside, she wrapped her arms around the man's neck.

"It is okay?", she asked. "I need to be working, I need to find him, I—"

"You need a break", the man repeated. "So let me take care of it."

It wasn't the first time he was over at her house. It wasn't the second either. She wasn't even sure how many years has passed since they met, but she was working in a different department at that time.

"Tetsu-kun", she said softly as she led him to the bedroom. "I think I need a break."

"You do", he agreed. "You really do."

Satsuki was back in highschool when she realized something about herself - when all of her friends started dating, she had her eyes on people she shouldn't be looking at. The hot alpha from another class. The cute male beta, her upperclassman. That adorable and lovely female alpha two years below her.

And finally, that sweet and caring girl from another school. That confident and smart girl she had met at the gym.

She knew she shouldn't be looking at alphas. She was an alpha, her eyes should be on omegas and female betas. And yet, there was something in people of her gender that made her blood rush to the places it shouldn't be rushing to.

Satsuki didn't know how to call it. Was it just a phase? Hormones? Was she just attracted to the alpha pheromones for some reason? Maybe she was an intersexual and her reproductive organs were actually omega's and it was just her true nature speaking?

She had made many mistakes in the past. And hurting the amazing alpha girl from the gym was her biggest one.

"Shh, just relax."

She met Kuroko Tetsuya something around ten years ago. She was around Daiki's current age, mad at herself and the world. She was getting drunk at the bar when he walked in and sat down next to her. He didn't say anything, just handed her a popsicle and opened one himself.

«You look like you need it», he said then. And Momoi was already all over him. It didn't take long. Eventually she figured out Kuroko was into alphas as well and they... ended up in her bed together. Then again. And again. And even though neither of them ever declared a relationship, she had a feeling that they were both exclusive with each other.

Tetsuya's moves were gentle. His hands moved up her torso and his erection rubbed against hers. Neither of them could give the other a child, but she didn't want one anyway. And her partner had enough of kids after his work in a kindergarten.

Their relationship just worked for them. Plain sex, sometimes a date if they needed someone to hold their hand. They both were single, but sometimes Satsuki had the urge to just ask him out and end the fiasco of uncertainty between them.

Chapter Text

"Meow", Sei sighed, lying on Taiga's lap.

"I also miss him, buddy", Kagami mumbled. His rut had finished after two days - rather quickly, it usually lasted three and a half. In a week he had a visit at the hospital for a check up. "I hope I don't have brain cancer."

"Meow?"

"Yeah. That's bad."

"... Meow. Meow?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna be okay", Kagami confirmed. "... I'm talking to a cat, fucking hell, how the fuck do I even know what you mean?"

"Meow?"

"Might be..."

Taiga stood up from the couch and placed the cat next to him. The soup should be done in around half an hour so if he started cooking the meat now, he should have all of it ready at around the same time.

Sei joined him soon after and looked into the pot to smell it. Kagami got him away from the flames six times just in time to stop the red fur from catching on fire. But eventually, after forty minutes of cooking, Taiga placed everything on the coffee table and sat down on the floor in front of the couch to enjoy his meal.

Taiga wondered how did his life end up like that. One year ago he was moving out of Los Angeles in fury after a fight with his friends and family, he ended up in Tokyo and started looking for a job at the Fire Departments only to find out a month into the job that he was hired just because his father paid for the building renovation so as to have Kagami work there. Taiga was even more mad - a man he barely spoke to, a man that said that without him Taiga was a noone, had to make his life even more miserable by pointing it out. Kagami thought he would hate the job because of it, that his father ruined it for him.

And then four months later, as he was planning on changing professions, he was assigned to a collaboration and his boss had sent him to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Criminal Department to, and he quoted, «teach that motherfucking pig what it meant to know one's stuff». And that was the moment Kagami had learned how much his boss hated Momoi Satsuki, for an unknown to him reason.

He thought it would be a pain in the asa of a job for do and he prayed it would take just a few hours at the worst. He had grabbed his visitor badge that day and was told to go to the boss's office. As he was walking there, the elevator started to close, so he ran a meter or two and put his hand in there to hold it open and slip inside.

Where he met the most gorgeous human being he had ever seen in his entire life. And two seconds later he was left alone in there as the gorgeous human ran towards the staircase, muttering something about being late for work.

Kagami was thrilled when he found out he would have the chance of working together with him. The boring job no longer seemed to bad and he changed his prayers - just so the work would last a little longer. Just so he could spend some more time with Aomine Daiki.

And then Kagami proved how much of an idiot he was by assuming the man was an alpha (even though he smelled just like an omega, acted like an omega and his body language screamed how much of an omega he was) which effectively made Daiki aloof towards him. And then, Kagami made the mistake of his life and had a drunk one night stand with that gorgeous human being.

"... Sei, you think he would give me a chance one day?", Taiga mumbled. "I mean, I know he probably would be not in the right place of mind for a relationship when they get him back out, but... you think that once he heals up... that he would want... me?"

"Meow", Sei replied. Of course his human would love to date Kagami. Daiki was an idiot and he knew how to get himself into bad situations, but he had realized a while back that Kagami was an amazing boyfriend material. And Sei believed that if they worked out their differences, they would make a great couple.

"Thanks, man", Kagami chuckled, but then, his smile faded as he realized something. "Aaahhh, I feel so stupid! I made Aomine believe I was into some alpha! Oh shit!"

Right. Kagami had only just now realized that the very subtle hints he had been dropping go hopefully check if Aomine was into him were actually pushing Daiki away. All because he made Daiki believe he had a crush on some alpha instead of stating that the alpha was Aomine himself. Oh fuck. Well, uh, he was screwed. Maybe that was why Daiki was so hesitant of getting closer with him at the beginning?! Because...

"... Did he think I was trying to make him a replacement?!", Kagami grabbed Sei and shook him. "I'm a fucking idiot, Sei, what do I do?!"

"... Meow", Sei sighed. Great. Now not only he had to deal with his family problems, he also had to find his stupid human that went missing and babysit a different human who had just realized how much of an idiot he had been.

"Sei, what I do do...?"

"Meow!"

"Right. We should start at getting Daiki back."

"Meow."

"Fuck, I shouldn't be calling him Daiki... What if be hears me?!"

"... Meow."

"I'm not delusional!"

Kagami missed him. He didn't want to admit it, but he really missed Aomine. He missed calling him, texting him, emailing him. He missed the stupid replies, the horrendous amount of "RE:" in the titles of the mails after they had been texting for too long. He missed meeting up with him. He missed just existing next to him.

"You also miss him, Sei?", Kagami asked, scratching the cat behind his ear.

"... Meow."

"Good to know I'm not the only one."

Chapter Text

Daiki had developed a schedule. Since the fight, Haizaki had been coming over to him every few hours to rape him. Aomine couldn't exactly track the activity or suspect when the next visit would be, but he knew one thing - for a while after Contraband came in, Haizaki wouldn't. It usually gave him just enough time to sneak out and either try around fifty codes or look around the attic for anything useful. For now, Aomine had found old clothes - inside of which there was a bra with wires, which he ripped open and snuck into his cage. He tested them out as well - they worked perfectly for opening the handcuffs, so if Haizaki ever found out he had them on loosely and would tighten them, Aomine still had a way out.

He didn't know how many days had passed since then, but he was getting close to a thousand in the codes, which made him think of around one week. It wasn't a satisfactory result - he would be stuck inside for around one more month on average with that pace, but it was the safest option. He had almost been caught twice before when he didn't follow the schedule and if for some reason he failed and did get noticed outside of the room, he would be dead.

He was playing with fire and he knew it. But at this point, if he wanted his sanity to be intact, he needed to. He needed to know that code.

When he got there for the first time he realized one thing that screwed him over horribly - the touchpad had an anti-fingerprint layer on it, which in result left no touches on it. Because of it, Aomine couldn't tell which numbers were usually inputted to open the door. And from 4! combinations he went to 10⁴ combinations. Shout-out to his math teacher for explaining probability in a logical way and another shout-out to Midorima for making sure he actually understood it.

"So, assuming that was one week, I've been here for maybe five? So that makes you twenty-three weeks, huh?", Daiki thought, holding his hand over his belly. "You're kinda small for twenty-three. Shouldn't you make a bigger bump?"

Like if the fetus could reply.

He was coming back to his cage when he heard someone right behind the door. Shit. He sprinted back, locking everything behind himself and just as he finished screwing in the last of the hinges, the deadbolt clicked. Aomine had never jumped towards his mattress faster and he put his hands and ankles into the handcuffs and sat in seiza just as Haizaki turned on the light and stood in front of him.

"Disgusting as always", he said, and yet he was the one with bruises over his neck and face. "C'mon, turn around and show me those holes and maybe I'll let you use some lube."

Aomine hated it and he was very much into just sitting straight and ignoring him, but... the lube sounded so tempting. He could barely sit for a while now and movements hurt so badly. So maybe this one time... Maybe it was okay if he followed the orders and made it easier for his poor cervix and rectum...?

"Hoo, finally you know your place, huh?", Haizaki chuckled when Aomine followed the command. "Prep yourself. You have one minute."

The bottle of lube landed right next to him and Daiki grabbed it very quickly, then as he lied on his side, he pushed two fingers into his vagina and spread it around just enough so that Shougo's dick wouldn't move against his dry walls. Then, he did the same with the rectum - he knew if he only prepped one hole, Haizaki would purposely choose the other and solely fuck that.

"Time's over, bitch", Haizaki slapped his hand away and put him into a doggy. "You should be thankful... I said something."

"... Thank you", Daiki whispered. His voice was raspy, he hadn't spoken in a while.

"Fucking hell, why did no one fucking shave you, eugh", Shougo tsked. "Bend over more and spread your legs or I'll break them."

Aomine did his best to follow every single command that left Haizaki's mouth. Just this once. Just so he could have one day of relatively low pain. And he hated that it made that rat-looking eggplant happy, but he needed that one day of a break and he would fucking take it.

Haizaki was still rough and it still hurt, but at least only his cervix was bruised and his walls weren't bleeding. And after that, Shougo left him alone of the floor in the darkness, in pain. And as soon as the deadbolt clicked, Aomine started crying.

He wanted to get out. He wanted to see his friends. He wanted to live his life. Why him? Why him? Why did it happen to him? Why?!

He hadn't spoken to his parents for so long. He hadn't visited them for so long. He was busy with work, they were busy with work, his mom invited him many times nevertheless and he was an idiot and refused. He was a fucking horrible son and refused so many times.

His parents were such nice people, they didn't deserve to have a son like him. They deserved someone who was with them, who wouldn't ditch them. A kid who wouldn't get depression over a fucking sport and a kid who wouldn't be a virgin at the age when he should be married. His mom was a lovely woman, she always made sure he knew he was loved. She made sure to take care of her omega son, she made sure to know the theory of everything. She made sure to teach him how to use pads and how blockers work. If it wasn't for her, Daiki would have never made it. His father was loved him, too. He was always supportive, he was always there if Aomine needed to vent and he was always there if he needed a shoulder to cry on. He was an alpha, but he would never use his tone on anyone and made sure Daiki knew everyone who did use it wrongly was a bad person. He made sure Daiki knew his value.

And Aomine couldn't even listen to that. Once he listened to the advice and marked Kagami as a person who would use his tone in a fight against him, he didn't think of the same about Shougo. He was stupid and he got tricked like a five-year-old. He got so into his first ever relationship that he ignored all of the obvious signs of abuse and now what?

And now he was abducted, lying on the floor of a dark room on the attic of his ex-boyfriend, crying.

Chapter Text

Aomine followed each request since then. Silently, with no words said, he fulfilled every wish Haizaki had. Most of the time he was too tired or in too much pain to get out of his cage and guess the passcode or roam the attic. He started skipping meals, he stopped being hungry and he was sleepy all the time again.

His brain got pavloved into getting out of sleeping every time he heard footsteps. If he took a journey out, he would limit his inputs to fifty, which took him approximately five minutes. After that, he would return, sometimes if it was silent he would look around don his way back.

The current number he was on was one seven five zero. Outside of the screwdriver and the wires, he found nothing useful.

Each day was the same. Each day - he hated. From the bottom of his heart, Daiki lost track of the amount of times he wanted to put that screwdriver into his jugular or his trachea. Just to end it all. Wouldn't it be a great option? A simple trade. Daiki would feel extreme pain for a moment, but then all pain would be gone forever.

One meal after another, he was raped, abused and beaten. And one meal after another, he was checking more and more codes. Two thousand. Two one seven nine. Three eight one two. Three nine seven three. Four triple zero.

Momoi cracked her knuckles. She was doing everything she could - she was investigating all of Haizaki's premises. She put him in front of the court twice. She got him arrested twice. And that stupid lawyer got him out twice. Twice the evidence went missing or it was swapped for something else.

She suspected the judge was tipped off by Haizaki, but the claim she had filed was either dismissed or forgotten. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

She entered the office of her colleague - it was an older gentleman, a man higher in ranks than her by one and the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The man had heard about the investigation and the abduction of one of the detectives, but he definitely not expected to see Momoi Satsuki in front of his desk.

"Here", she said. "I need you to investigate this yourself. This is the fifth claim I'm making and if I see if dismissed again, I'll—"

"I think I get it", the man smiled. "... I know this guy."

"... You do?"

"You see, sometimes we do random checks on the judges that work directly with the police and do trials on people in the arrest and every single time he has one done on him, it landed on my desk. He passed each and every one of those by a margin so low it stopped being lucky. As if it was exactly calculated."

"And you never thought to investigate further?", Momoi flopped down onto the chair in front of the desk.

"I did a few times and outside of a judge who sometimes doesn't go with the textbook, it was nothing serious. But the not with the textbook we're talking about is him dismissing a ticket on a car that was speeding to get to the hospital or a jaywalking to get to a crying child who got lost. You'd also dismiss those!"

Satsuki pouted and looked to the side. "Yeah, okay, maybe you're right... But what about those cases he dismissed that involved drug possession? Or illegal firearms?"

"... Those never made it to my desk, Momoi", the man frowned. "His papers were always here for a double check up but because of the dismissal of those little cases. And I never batted an eye because I agreed with his decisions."

"I think you need a bigger investigation team of only trusted members", Satsuki sighed. "I also have a feeling that someone swapped evidence before they made it to the lab. I planned on going to meet Harasawa-san after you."

"Don't worry", the man assured her. "I'll take care of that. And you go focus on finding your culprit ans getting your detective out. Isn't it close to two months?"

"... Don't remind me."

And yet, after another inefficient day at work, she was at the bar again, drinking daiquiri. The liquid moved around in her glass, its level barely lowered since she had bought it. She took maybe one sip from it before the guilt hit her again.

«Am I allowed to even leave the job?» stayed in her mind. Daiki was missing, abducted, and she was sitting in a pub with a drink in her hand. She was sleeping with Kuroko instead of working. She was not working.

She finished the drink in one go, closed out and left. She didn't know what to do anymore. Everything was a dead end. They took over for investigation seven of Haizaki's or related to him businesses, they found nothing. They took the van and confirmed it was used for abduction and that was it. They searched the whole mansionz every warehouse, everything they could connect to Haizaki.

And yet, Aomine was nowhere to be seen.

She returned to her home. It was late - past midnight - already and one thing she definitely did not expect was to see Tetsuya inside. The man handed her a cup of hot chocolate, drinking a homemade vanilla milkshake himself.

"I borrowed your kitchen", he said. "Hope you don't mind."

"... Why are you here?", she mumbled.

"Do you want to be alone now? I can leave."

"Don't you fucking dare—"

"That's what I thought."

Kuroko and Momoi weren't dating. They weren't even interested in dating. But Satsuki would die to stay in his arms forever. Was it okay for her to do so? She was a horrible person, she let her little sworn brother go missing and instead of looking for him, she was crying in her friend's arms. She was a horrible person.

"Do you have troubles sleeping?", Tetsuya asked her around three in the morning.

"... I'm a bad person, Tetsu-kun", she whispered, sniffing. "I should be looking for him—"

"You won't find him sleep-deprived and tired", Kuroko pointed out. "He will be okay. I believe it."

Chapter Text

Momoi was in her office, holding papers in her hand. It took her over a week to finally write the notice and she cried with every word, but the recent talks with Tetsuya and a therapist made her believe it was the best option.

"Knock knock", the man entered her office. "I finished the investigation."

"... Thanks, Susa", she said. Back when she started working, he helped her out a lot with the bureaucracy - if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have made it this far.

"What's that?", Yoshinori asked, pointing at the document in her hand. She placed the pen away and hid the paper in her drawer.

"... How did your investigation go?", she changed the subject. Susa sat down in front of her and presented her the documents he was holding.

"Judge Shinomiya is officially under arrest for corruption", he smiled. "I signed those ten minutes ago, would you like to have the honor of arresting him?"

"With pleasure", she stood up fixed her jacket. "You have more good news?"

"Yeah, I caught three officers as well. All paid off by your Haizaki guy, they changed the statements, the evidence and made sure to put Shinomiya on his trials."

"Lovely", she finally took a deep breath. "So I can finally arrest Haizaki for that stupid murder, hm?"

"... Wait, what murder?", Yoshinori frowned. "I thought he was suspected of abduction?"

"Back in November he and his buddy murdered two people. We had video footage of them doing so and yet, I still did not get a green light for the arrest", she explained. "... I would love to have Dai-chan in the court while Haizaki would be getting his life sentence."

"Let's go arrest the judge firstly."

This was the most satisfying moment in Momoi's recent life. The omega judge who argued and called them incompetent morons getting put into handcuffs and walked into an interrogation room where he was told to await his lawyer and his trial. Satsuki had the pleasure of calling an unaffiliated judge in for the hearing as well as arresting the three officers and finally having an arrest order for Haizaki Shougo and Mochizuki Kazuhiro over the murder of two people.

She was smiling widely as she and Sakurai stood in front of the mansion and with a cheerful walk, they made it to the front door. Mochizuki opened them only to be welcomed with two badges pointing at him.

"Mochizuki Kazuhiro, you're under arrest for the murder of Mihara Tarou and Takemichi Yuki", Ryou happily said, pulling out his handcuffs. "Please hold your hands where we can see them."

"Is your buddy Haizaki Shougo with you as well?", Momoi grinned. "We'd love to have a chat with him as well."

"You can't enter without a warrant—"

"We do have one actually", Sakurai showed it, together with the arrest order. "... I'm sorry, can I say it?"

"Yeah, go for it", Satsuki smiled.

"Boys! Search the house!", Ryou called to the team behind them. And then, with Mochizuki in the back of a police cruiser, they flipped the whole house upside down again. And yet, they found no sign of Haizaki and no sign of Aomine.

What they had however found was a secret room, which turned out to be a bedroom for illegal immigrants that had been human trafficked into Japan. So for the rest of the day, Satsuki took care of finding a translator and finding a shelter for them. She had also contacted Indonesian authorities and was awaiting their response to identify the women.

"Just great... sorry", Sakurai sighed. "... I just—"

"I also was hoping we would find Dai-chan", she finished his sentence. "I... I think at this point we should... broaden the search."

Satsuki hated even the fact that she suggested that. That those words left her throat. But at this point, she was forced to widen her search. The document in her drawer was exactly for that purpose.

"I'm sorry, but don't say that", Sakurai gulped. "We'll find him."

"I know we will", Satuski grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry it's taking so long, Dai-chan..."

They stayed in the house for a while, secured everything with a tape and in the evening, everyone went home. The next day, Momoi went to take care of the seven women found in Haizaki's mansion. After getting in touch with the Indonesian authorities, they managed to identify each and every one as the missing girls that disappeared a while back. All of them were given documents by the embassy within three days and then they were sent back to Indonesia in a plane.

In the shelter, Asiyah left a letter titled to Aomine. She wrote down all of the recipes and put them in there, then signed it and gave it to Ishida before leaving Japan. As soon as he got the envelope, he shoved it into his pocket and walked away into the darkness of the night.

Everything started to go south. Ishida knew this would happen sooner or later, but he was now even more terrified for his and his family's lives. Haizaki had gone into hiding, Ishida was forced to sneak into the attic to feed Aomine as it was impossible to get him out of there now. So Ishida stayed in the attic with Daiki and went out only when Shougo texted with with a burner phone that it was safe to leave.

He was tempted to let Daiki out, but Haizaki had his wife at a gunpoint. And he couldn't let her die. He would have never forgiven himself if he did.

Momoi returned to her office and pulled out the document from her drawer. She read it three times over and over before even reaching for her pen and placing it down to read all over again. She was sobbing bu the time she had reached the end. But, with her heart breaking, she signed it.

She had just broaden the search to look for a corpse as well.

Chapter Text

Aomine continued guessing the code. He got bolder and started inputting more, going up to even two hundred at a time. His current guessing session ended at eight eight zero zero.

There was one thing he had noticed since the last meal - Haizaki stopped coming. And for some reason, Contraband was staying in the attic for a long time. Aomine went out around ten minutes after he had left, but the man was still roaming around the rooms, setting up a mattress for himself.

Why was Contraband staying in the attic? Did they figure out Aomine was leaving the room? He was so close, just twelve hundred combinations away from the worst possible outcome! He couldn't let Contraband ruin it for him by staying inside! He had to leave for food or something!

So whenever he did, Aomine immediately jumped at the opportunity and got in two hundred codes in one go. He then stepped back as far as possible and listened for the sound of the door opening, counting. Contraband came back around four minutes after he had finished inputting the codes, so he had to do only two hundred in one go.

Aomine stayed inside of his cage a lot during that time. He waited for Contraband to come in and do everything that he needed to do. The food also got different, it definitely was no longer made by Asiyah. He was getting meals more frequently, but they were smaller. Sandwiches, cereal, everything that could be prepared without an oven. Aomine got very suspicious of everything because of it.

Why was Contraband with him? Where did Asiyah go?

Daiki closed his eyes and went to sleep again. He had another dream with the imaginary family of his (with his imaginary husband that definitely did not look anywhere similar to Kagami Taiga) but this time it was them in the house. He was holding a baby in his arms putting them to sleep and two more were already in their beds. Daiki placed the youngest under the covers and his husband wrapped his arms around Aomine soon after.

"You look tense", he whispered.

"Do I?"

"Yeah", the chuckle came right before a kiss on his nape. "Would you like me to change it, maybe?"

"Hmm, what do you offer?", Daiki placed his hands on the forearms that were wrapped around him.

"A bubble bath... with some hydromassage..."

"And where do you come in it?"

"Hopefully inside the bathtub with you."

Aomine skipped a few steps because for some reason the scene immediately changed into a bathroom and they were both naked. The husband held his hand as Daiki got inside the hot water, then joined him soon after and sat Aomine between his legs, letting him rest against his chest.

Daiki's imagination wasn't good enough to make the sensation of the bubbles or the hot water on his skin but his own hands traveling on his body were enough to create the feeling of the husband's hands teasing him. Holding his waist, rubbing his thighs, squeezing his sides, all of that accompanied by the kisses around his shoulders, neck and jaw. A dream come true.

Exactly. A dream. Because it was all that it was. A dream.

Aomine was still in his cage, on his mattress, alone. Crying. Silent. He hadn't spoken in a long time - he stopped feeling the need to speak, going non-verbal actually made more sense in his mind. He sighed - the batteries in his lighter had just died so he was surrounded by the darkness. He found the flashlight, found the batteries and changed them out blindly, then turned it on to still see the same ugly roof, the same walls covered in sound-muffling foam, the same cheap wooden floor panels and the same blanket.

He turned it off. He liked his imagination better.

Aomine turned to the side and curled up. He got used to the silence. No cars, no rain, no light buzzing, no wind, no cat, no alarm, nothing. Just him and the complete silence.

He fell asleep, hoping to meet a loving family there again.

He was woken up by Contraband a few hours later. He gave him a plate with some food - a few bought burgers from a joint and a side of fries. Right. If Aomine remembered correctly there was a Maji Burger just around the corner, maybe two hundred meters away from the mansion. It was from there - the food was still in the original wrappers.

Why was he getting takeout? What happened outside of the attic? Where was Asiyah, why was Contraband in charge of making food for him? Why Haizaki stopped coming? Not that Aomine missed the last one in particular, but things were making him worry. Was Haizaki fleeing the country? If that was the case, there was no point to hold him there anymore. Daiki had suspected he was kept there just for Shougo to torture and rape him, so Haizaki being unable to do so would just mean that Aomine would be killed.

Or maybe he was being killed. Maybe Haizaki had ordered Contraband to murder him, that would explain why he was staying there, why Asiyah was no longer cooking for him and why Shougo wasn't coming. Contraband could say that he took Aomine out to kill him and now he was hiding and feeding him to hide the fact that they were still there.

But would Contraband do that for him? Aomine doubted.

Something was very wrong. And Daiki had to find out what or he would be dead before he would notice. All of that only put a rush on guessing the code. He had twelve hundred combinations left and he had checked the options from nine nine eight zero and up at the very beginning just to make sure he wouldn't be stuck checking all of them just to have it be the last one possible. If he hurried up, he had a chance of getting the code before Contraband would return from his trip to get food.

But how much time did he have? Could he split it into two tries? Did he have enough days left before his death to make six hundred in one go and the remaining six hundred in another?

Chapter Text

Sei opened one eye when he heard the bedsheets rustling. Kagami stretched his muscles after waking up and yawned, then stood up and while scratching his belly, he went to the bathroom. Sei considered his options, then stood up and went with him. He jumped onto the sink, slipped and almost fell inside of it wasn't for Kagami catching him, then meowed for attention.

"Damn you're loud", Taiga sighed. "How did Aomine out up with you for so long?"

"Meeeoooow", Sei frowned.

"Yeah yeah..."

Kagami left the cat at home as always, then went to work. He kinda missed the collaborations - every since the abduction had happened everything was stopped because Momoi was too busy taking care of the case to assign those. Therefore Kagami spent most of his time writing reports on fire accidents. It took him quite some time to correct those, but he was finally getting a grasp. After a year.

Aomine's help was irreplaceable - Daiki had a lot on his head always, but he still took his time to sit with Kagami and go over the mistakes with him. He never minded checking the reports for him, he never minded fixing Taiga's mistakes. And he actually stopped doing many of them! He even remember exactly how to write his own name!

Kagami barely sat down at his "office" (a desk in a loomy corner) when his boss entered the "cubicle" (a wall-less one, it was just a desk) and placed a stack of documents on the counter.

"One report to correct and two sites to investigate", she smiled.

"... I miss collaborations", Kagami sighed.

"I do not", she frowned. "Get to work."

"Why do you dislike Momoi? She's a good person—"

"Don't you think you should be calling your elders with more respect?", the woman hit his head with the papers she was holding. "Besides, she's not that good of a person."

"If I made ten reports in a row without a single mistake, will you tell me what the hell happened between you two?", Kagami mumbled.

"No."

Taiga opened his laptop and sighed. He opened the report file and found the section that was marked red by his boss, then slowly worked his way through it, using a dictionary for a few kanji he thought might have been wrong. He finally found the mistake (ah yes, street o'clock, his favorite time of the day) and corrected it, then printed it again and stood up to go submit it. He yawned as he was entering the office of his boss.

"Fixed", he said, proud of himself. She looked up at him from above her glasses and then through them at the paper.

"... We'll see."

Kagami missed doing field days with Aomine. The omega always explained things to him and shared random facts - like the time Taiga learned about his favorite character from the Lord of the Rings (it was Tom Bombadil) or that he absolutely hated Harry Potter for no apparent reason since the very beginning, a long time before it turned out that the author was messed up. He learned how Aomine one day would love to live in a house, have a small library and a reading corner in there. How cozy days under a blanket were the best dates. How he would kill for banana milk and how a month after he discovered banana buttermilk his local store stopped selling it. How Aomine actually planned on having a dog but found Sei in a trashcan on his way to the shelter.

He sighed. Kagami recently couldn't sleep because of the thoughts. He always struggled with intrusive thoughts, but ever since Aomine was abducted they got stronger. He was on his way of developing a twenty sixth method of killing Haizaki. "That's not much, I already thought of more", you'd say. Twenty sixth this day. And it was ten thirteen in the morning.

His thoughts were also much more around Aomine. How he should lock him to keep him safe - which was obviously ridiculous, he wasn't hoping to get Daiki free just to lock him up again, besides Kagami would never kidnap someone (Sei was NOT kidnapped, no matter what he had told you, he was just mad he couldn't leave the apartment freely) nor lock them anywhere against their will (again, Sei was safe and sound and HAPPY, those meows were those of annoyance, not callings for help.)

Kagami did his best to return to work. Ignoring the ringing in his head making him want to go steal Aomine's gun from the locker at the police station (the code was one three eight zero six nine, which was just Daiki's birthday reversed, written day to year), borrow the gun, find Haizaki, lodge a bullet in his bladder via the urethra and then made him pass it out like a kidney stone, then shoot the same bullet up his scrotum, through his rectum and into his sacrum, then break his coccyx and make him seat on his ass until he would pass out from the pain to finally wake him up and cut his limbs off with a dull blade, stop the bleeding and cut his head off with a wooden stick by repeatedly beating him by heating the back of his neck until his spinal cord would be severed - then it would be the time to gauge his eyes out and make him choke on them.

He should thank Aomine for his anatomy lessons when they would get him back. Really, it made his intrusive thoughts even more specific and way more horrifying.

With a frown on his face, Kagami grabbed his bag and went out to investigate the burned areas. Based on the information that he had gotten, someone left a rag too close to the stove and the kitchen burned down. Thankfully, only a small part of it, but they still had to confirm it was an accident and not a deliberate act. Kagami yawned again. Oh how much he would give to have a cuddle date with Aomine and sleep with him in his arms right now.

Chapter Text

Momoi started to have an alcohol problem. This time, it wasn't a glass of whiskey - it was some rum with a juice. She ordered yet another glass of the same drink, with the barman looking at her weirdly. Who wouldn't? It was her sixth drink in an hour. She finished the one she got almost in one go before ordering yet another. The barman said something about maybe the previous one being her last, but she mumbled some words and then sighed.

"Just get me a drink...", she slurred out her words. "Any drink."

The barman gave her a glass and she emptied it in one go. She couldn't taste it anymore, but it was a nonalcoholic one. She bought three more of the same thing before closing her tab and somewhat getting towards the exit. She swung left and right, hiccuping and trying to hold onto something when those somethings became a human.

"Oh— sorry", she mumbled with her eyes closed, trying to get away from the person she crashed into.

"... I'll drive you home", the person said. She looked up at him from where she was (and she was way to close to the floor that a head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Criminal Department would want her body to be).

"Tetsu-kun..."

"You need to stop drinking", he said.

"How can I? I'm thinking if I'm not drunk", she blurted out then gagged.

"A toilet stop before the ride home? I had my car cleaned last week, you're not getting in just to vomit all over the seats."

"But Tetsu-kuuuun—"

"Toilet. Now."

She pouted but agreed to go with him to the restroom. Then, as soon as he opened the stall for her, she fell to her knees and vomited profusely. She coughed and took a deep breath.

"Okay, I'm done", she chuckled. "Okay, nevermind, I'm not—!"

Ten minutes later Kuroko managed to get her to the car after asking the barman for a bag (as a safety measurement, he would not have vomits over his recently detailed seats). Satsuki was singing every song in the radio with the singer, although not knowing most of the words in each of them, swinging left and right and looking all green as if she was to puke again.

But thankfully, they got to Momoi's house rather safely and without a single drop of stomach acid outside of Satsuki's mouth. As soon as Tetsuya parked in front of her garage, she started humming. He walked around the car to assist her and the second he opened the door, Momoi's sluggish body literally fell out and she started vomiting again on the ground.

"I... waited", she managed to say. "I didn't— hic— destroy your seats..."

"Thank you", Kuroko took a deep breath. "Where are your keys?"

"Hehe... They're safe... In my bag...", she giggled.

"Where's your bag?"

"Hmmm, in the locker", she puked again. "At the bar."

"... Momoi-san, it would have been nice if you told me that before we got to your home", Kuroko frowned slightly. "Sit here and don't go anywhere. I'll go back to get them. Where is the locker key?"

"Uhhh, I lost it..."

"... And what is the locker number?"

"I dunno... Hic... Five?"

Kuroko left her on the porch and drove back to the bar. After realizing the numbers of the lockers started with a letter and therefore, there were twenty-six different fives, he talked to the barman and managed to find out where Momoi "lost" her key. The lockers were paid, not much, just a few yen as a symbolic payment, when closing her tab, she just gave it back. And after another person bought the locker for a few hours, they found the stuff inside and passed it on to lost and found.

So the barman let him into the room where Tetsuya rather quickly found Momoi's bag. He thanked the employee and quickly left the premises to go back to drunk Satuski at the porch.

When he came back, Momoi wasn't there. He looked around silently for a moment before starting to worry.

"Momoi-san?", he called out, rather silently, trying not to wake the neighbors up. "Momoi-san...?"

She was behind the house with her head Ina bucket fill of water. Kuroko dropped everything and ran towards her, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her out. He held her cheek with a hand, then lowered it to check for the pulse.

"Owwie...", Satuski pouted when she felt the hand pressed into her jugular. "It hurts...."

"What were you thinking?!", Kuroko raised his voice a little before calming down and putting on his usual pokerface.

"... I vomited again and I got it all over my face...", she mumbled. "I just wanted to wash it..."

"... You could have taken the water in your hands instead of drowning yourself."

"Hmmm", Satsuki giggled. "Tetsu-kun, you love me? Even if I'm a bad person?"

"You're not a bad person", Kuroko grabbed her by her arm and pulled her towards the entrance.

"I am", Momoi tried to help him by getting on her feet. "If I wasn't, Dai-chan would have been here by now— hic—"

"Momoi-san", Kuroko left her on the ground to open the front door, "you're not a bad person, you're doing everything you can to find him."

"I'm not! If I was, he'd be here!", she started sobbing. "And I signed a paper for look for his dead body, too... hic..."

"That doesn't make you a bad person", Kuroko grabbed her arms again to get her inside. "I believe he's alive. And you should too."

"Tetsu-kun, I can't— hic— live like that!", she flopped onto the floor. "I don't wanna loose him again—"

"Let's get you to bed."

"Tetsu-kun, I haven't told him I'm gay... I haven't introduced you to him... He can't be dead, he can't— hic— he can't be dead! I still haven't—... He was supposed to be my best man, who am I going to have as a best man at our wedding now...?"

Kuroko froze. Their wedding? He was having some sort of a relationship with Momoi, but it was more of friends with benefits than anything else. They weren't dating and most importantly, they weren't planning a wedding. He didn't even know Satuski liked him that way.

"... Let's get you to bed, Momoi-san", he said silently, not letting her show that something was wrong. Satuski seemed to like him more than he suspected, but the question was:

Did he like her like that too?

Chapter Text

Ishida was going insane. The police was everywhere around, Haizaki was in hiding somewhere in Sapporo, he was trying his best to get Aomine outside of the mansion alive without having his own family killed and he just wanted all of this to be over already.

He was waiting for the police to come and handcuff him, he was waiting to make a deal - that if they found his family and had them hidden somewhere safe, he would say exactly where Haizaki was and he would talk until his throat went numb.

He was making scrambled eggs for Daiki. It wasn't much but it was half of what Ishida had for himself on top of being the portion that was already meant for him. Haizaki carefully watched the spendings and made sure to keep Aomine at the verge of starvation. Ishida was completely against it, so he began giving his own food away. Daiki was pregnant, he needed those calories way more than he did.

After watching Aomine eat everything, Ishida went out to the store. He had a tight budget and a shopping list longer than the budget allowed. He bought the smallest portions of food he could find, the cheapest ones that were available. Just to hopefully save enough to buy some folic acid for Aomine - the supplements had ended two weeks ago and the last thing Ishida wanted to happen to Daiki would be for him to give birth to a malnourished and sick baby.

Aomine watched him leave, then he ran towards the door after counting to ten and started inputting the codes. This was the day. No matter how many tries would it take, Aomine was going to get out in that moment. Contraband had left and he would be back soon, so Daiki had to hurry up.

One code after another, his hands were shaking and he was inputting wrong numbers in so often. He was hungry, he was tired and he was determined to get out. His heart was racing and his eyes were tearing up.

Ishida quickly ran to the store. He bought everything and withing five minutes he was out of the store. He had to be back within fifteen minutes or Haizaki would hurt his wife. He always gave him those time limits - they started at half an hour, now they were down to fifteen minutes. It was barely enough to make it to the store so Ishida was planning his whole collecting order ahead of time. Firstly the meat, then the eggs and milk, then the premade stuff and bread at the end.

There was not enough time left to buy the folic acid, so he began running back immediately. Haizaki was watching him on the cameras in his office, waiting for him to appear there again. Counting the time.

He run into the mansion, he needed one minute twenty seconds to get to the office if he sprinted, and he did. He opened the door. The camera moved to look at him.

He was safe. His wife was safe. His kids were safe.

He got towards the bookshelf that covered the entire left wall of the room. He moved the books aside and found the button. He pushed it to reveal the door to the attic. A huge knob-less steel door that was the only way of getting in and out of the bunker-like space. The whole attic was a space only on one wing of the building, the one with Haizaki's office in it. The other parts of the mansion also had attics, but they weren't hidden nor had walls that could stop radiation.

The whole left wing of the building had been built like a prison. Walls were one meter thick with a lead barrier inside, windows were made with bullet-proof glass, cameras everywhere, motion sensors - it was a one huge safehouse. And the attic were things that for some reason were the most valuable to Shougo. Most of those were things from his family home. His mother and his brother, his old textbooks, old basketball shoes, a hoop, papers and documents, his mother's and brother's medical history. And multiple hidden rooms for various things. Some were for weapons, some had bombs, some had stashes of cash that Haizaki didn't have time to launder.

One had Aomine.

Contraband opened the door and as soon as he did, he heard footsteps. Quick, rapid footsteps of bare feet running on the floor. He closed the doors behind himself, firstly by clicking the button to make the shelf pop back into the wall and then by closing the heavy metal door. Then, he ran up the stairs into the main attic space. He couldn't see anyone - he left the groceries there and went to the room with the closet, where was an entryway to the labyrinth. He quickly found his way towards Aomine's cage.

The door was broken out, the light was on, and Aomine was gone. Contraband gulped. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit! He immediately turned around and began running back in. He had to find Aomine before he would get out of the attic - there were motion sensors and cameras everywhere, there wasn't supposed to be anyone in Haizaki's office right now, so when the door would open, Haizaki would be notified and not only his family would be dead, but both him and Daiki as well! The left wing had security systems installed, Haizaki could just lock them in and make them starve to death!

When he came back to the main space, he immediately ran down towards the door. Aomine had been sitting on the last steps, inputting one code after another. Contraband ran down, skipping the steps and grabbed his arms, then pulled them away from the lock.

Daiki started to scream and kick in his hold as he was dragging him away from the door. He bit his wrist, tried to grab onto everything, hit him and made it impossible for Ishida to drag him back into the cell.

"I'm sorry", Contraband said, as he reached for his pocket. He pulled out a gun with a tranquilizer and shot Aomine right in his thigh. Daiki's body relaxed in his hold and then slipped and fell onto the ground. "I'm so sorry."

Ishida looked back at the code on the lock.

Nine eight nine one. How did Daiki learn the code? Did he see Ishida input it when he was leaving to go to the store? How did Aomine even took the handcuffs off...?

Chapter Text

Aomine woke up handcuffed in his cage. The light was on, but most of his contraband stuff were missing. He only had his mattress, a toilet and his flashlight. Contraband was sitting in front of him, in his usual spot.

"I'm gonna give you the water and the food back, but only if you promise you won't escape again", Contraband said. Aomine only stared at him angrily. "... I need to to understand that that door is watched. There are motion sensors. I can barely step out of the attic, when the motions detect something, Haizaki's gonna watch the cameras immediately and immediately issue a security alert. You're gonna get locked in one room and you're either gonna be left there to starve and die or if Haizaki's feeling like letting you die quicker then he might turn the room into a gas chamber. Either way, you're not getting out. It's a trap."

Aomine turned around to the other side and curled up. Of course it was a trap. But either Contraband was telling the true or he was gaslighting him. Either way, he was stuck again.

"... Here's everything back", he said, pushing the boxes towards Daiki. "I'm sorry."

And with that he left, leaving Aomine alone in a dark room again. Locked. He started crying. He was so close, so fucking close. If only he acted responsible and wasn't greedy, he would escape tomorrow. If only he broke down the codes for more parts. He was so close. He was in his last hundred. And now, he was screwed again.

Ishida left the room and went back to the attic. His phone was buzzing - usually, the attic was turned into a Faraday's cage, but when Haizaki needed to contact him, the signal disruptor was remotely turned off. Ishida grabbed his burner and picked up.

"You know what, I don't need him anymore", Shougo said with a sigh. "As of now, he only brings in troubles. Half of my insiders at the police were caught and jailed, so at this point, that slut is just a one huge problem."

"... What are you talking about?", Ishida frowned.

"I'm not gonna go to jail because of some bastard of a whore detective", Haizaki sharply explained. "In the attic, stand at the entryway. Now turn right. Forward into the first room on the right, the one in front of you. Don't go to the wall behind the stairs, see the door? Yeah, inside there's a room with some dolls, things like that, toys and other shits, you got it?"

"Yes", Ishida gulped.

"At least you get that, left wall of the room, there's a small lever just above the floor, in the corner. Pull it."

"Done."

"The code is one seven three nine", Haizaki yawned.

Ishida was staring at a rather big safe, hidden behind yet another plasterboard of a wall. He inputted the code and opened the safe.

"Leave those around the whole house. You have one hour. I'll be watching you on the cameras. Three in the attic, the rest as you wish."

Inside the safe, there were a few dozen canisters of gasoline.

"Burn the whole place to the ground", Haizaki said. "Now."

"I—... I don't have a lighter", he whispered.

"There're boxes of matches in the safe. Tick tock, the clock is ticking. If you don't leave it within an hour, I'm sure your wife loves barbecue. I'm gonna treat her to one."

"Don't you dare touch her—!"

"Then hurry up", the line went silent after that.

Ishida's hands were shaking. He pulled out all of the canisters and moved each of them fo the stairs. He used three in the attic, and with the rest, he made a trail around the entire left wing. Then towards the middle and towards the right wing, where he dumped most of the gasoline. Then, with the remaining three, he made a trail to the outside and he lit a match, then threw it onto the gasoline trail that very quickly caught on fire.

And then, Ishida ran away. His burner buzzed and he picked up the phone.

"Hm, maybe no barbecue with your wife this time, but I hope our bitch detective would enjoy it", Haizaki chuckled. "I'm not done with you yet, await further instructions."

Ishida started crying as soon as Haizaki hung up. He made it home shaking and sobbing. He had just killed someone. Daiki was dead. There was no way he would survive the fire. Ishida might have our everything into the right wing, away from Aomine, but the fire would still get to him.

He knocked on the apartment door and sniffed. The woman opened it and then immediately hugged him.

"Where have you been?!", she called, cupping his face.

"I'm sorry", Ishida managed to cry out. "I'm so sorry... Please, forgive me..."

His wife was such an amazing person. She didn't deserve to know about her husband's yakuza activities. She was such a pure soul - her father made debts with Haizaki a few years back and in return, she had offered to sell herself to pay those off. Ishida didn't let her. Instead, he began working for Haizaki. Just to keep them safe. And Shougo knew about them anyway, about her and their eight-year-old boy. And he threatened to kill them so often.

If only she knew how horrible of a human he was, how he was a murderer, how he had just set a house on fire, burning a poor innocent soul alive, she would have left him. She would have screamed at him and told the police about him. Good. He deserved to go to jail.

He just wished his wife had a life after that. That she would be able to pick up their son from the school, that she would be able to take care of her plants, to read her favorite books, to smile. To be alive. It was the only thing he wanted for his wife and his son. For them to be alive and free.

Chapter Text

Kagami was finishing his report when his boss ran out from her office.

"Kagami!", she called. "Go with the first contact team!"

"Why?", he asked, but immediately left everything and got ready to run towards the changing area.

"The Haizaki mansion is burning", she said. "You're on the investigation team with the Crim Deps."

"... On it."

A collaboration, but at what cost. Kagami wasted no time in getting to the garage. He grabbed his gear from the locker and put it on, then got into the last car that was leaving from their station.

The mansion was burning. Literally standing in flames - they covered the entire right wing and we're slowly getting towards the left one even with five different trucks covering it with water and over thirty responders already on the scene to hopefully stop it from spreading any further. Kagami gulped - it looked horrible.

He hoped Haizaki was inside. That he was burning in the right wing, slowly dying while being steamed and fried alive.

Okay, okay, that's enough, Taiga took a deep breath. He needed to kill the fire with the rest of the guys. This whole residence was a police evidence, they would loose so much if it burned completely to the ground.

Kagami followed a captain of the team he had been assigned to - they were the first ones to enter the building, as the first responders just covered the outside walls with water for now on. Taiga stepped inside the hall. It was covered in flamed from the right side, but the left was still pretty much untouched. Everything smelled like coal and burning textiles - melting plastic, glass shattering and the wooden floors that were only making the things worse.

"Okay, get the water!", the captain called, holding the hose with two hands.

Amongst all of the smells, one stood firmly.

"... STOP!", Kagami yelled, but it was too late. The water sprayed out of the hose and hit the ground at the entrance to the right wing. It immediately bursted into a small explosion, shattering one more window and spreading into one room to the side. "CUT THE WATER!"

"What the—?", one of the guys seemed to have realized their mistake.

"GASOLINE!", Kagami yelled, immediately running out to grab a fire extinguisher. Each car has a B class equipped, but for a fire this big, they would need ten helicopters worth of foam and way more cars. "Get the foam!", Taiga called to the people outside of the building. Three cars have already rotated to change the water for the foam and two more left to join them immediately. Taiga could also see someone calling in the air support.

The mansion was set on fire. Kagami had it in the back of his head, but just like the rest, he assumed something just caught on fire since the whole thing stood uninhabitated for a while. But at the same time, what could have just randomly burst into flames? Nevertheless, it was stupid of everyone to assume it wasn't an arson. And even stupider to not let a fire investigator check for the fire type before spraying the thing with water.

Oh yeah, Kagami was a fire investigator.

He returned to the team and killed a portion of the fire with the extinguisher. They fought for the hall for a few minutes with what they had, then the fire trucks returned, loaded with foam and dey chemicals.

Around half an hour in, the Criminal Department arrived. Momoi and Sakurai walked up to him while he was on his five minute break to ask about any details.

"Arson", Kagami said before they could open their mouths. "Boss sent me on a collab with you guys."

"... How much can be saved?", Momoi tightened her fists. She didn't look good - she had bags under her eyes, she was pale and greenish on her face and she smelled of alcohol. Ryou didn't look better - Taiga was almost sure the stain kn his shirt was a baby vomit and scrambled eggs, but he wasn't going to judge, they arrived at the scene when it was outside of their working hours.

"Left wing if we're lucky", Taiga informed them. "We haven't gone there yet, trying to fight for the hall and control the right wing. It'll still be a few hours."

"We'll wait", Sakurai said with a faint smile. "... Sorry, I'll wait, you can go home if you—"

"I'm not going anywhere", Satsuki frowned. "... How much more foam do you need? I can pull some strings, block off a few streets—"

"The coordinators are over there", Kagami pointed to two men taking care of the calls and communication. He then grabbed his helmet and rushed back inside to help take care of the fire. It wasn't looking better at all, the fire was reigniting from itself and the walls were starting to be too weak to hold up the weight. Some parts the furthest from the hall that were burning for the longest started to break down and create holes in the structure of the building - firefighters had to back off for a while to reassess the situation and do a headcount. Thankfully, no one was missing.

Step after a step, they tried to get to the second floor of the right wing before the floor would collapse on itself. Kagami and the team made it to the staircase and with a ridiculous amount of dry chemicals they managed to get up into a wall of flames that met them upstairs. As it turned out, the fire had spread to the left wing on the second floor, although it seemed that it wasn't anything big yet. They had to hurry, if they wanted to save anything from the mansion.

With a help of two helicopters and three different fire stations, they managed to cut off the fire in the left wing. A few firefighters got in through the windows and cut it off from the end. A few rooms managed to burn, but overall, after six hours of hard work, at around one in the morning, they got control of the fire. It wasn't until the early morning that the last flame was put out and it wasn't until almost five in the afternoon that Kagami and a few more inspectors marked the mansion as safe to enter in a protective gear.

Chapter Text

Momoi was furious. More than half of the mansion burned down and it was very clearly a work of an arsonist.

Around midnight she got a text from Kuroko, asking her about her whereabouts. She replied that she was at work and he started asking about the details, so she explained everything. Around ten minutes later Tetsuya arrived at the scene with two cups of hot chocolate and two blankets for Ryou and her. They stayed with him inside of his car for a while, since they couldn't even get closer to the mansion with the fire still in. Around two, all three of them took a three hour nap inside of the car, and around four in the morning, Kuroko left to get ready to work, leaving the two alone for a while.

Around seven, Imayoshi arrived and brought them some breakfast, as well as encouraged them fo go home. Neither of them could, it felt too much of a responsibility to stay there and hope for the best.

What they were exactly hoping for was unknown to them. That the burned mansion would somehow tell them where was Aomine? That they would find anything related to him? It was stupid.

Satsuki kind of hoped to find anything. Even if it was supposed to be a dead, burned to the crisp body. She would prefer to have that that to not have anything at all. It would be a horrible end of the story, but it would be better than having no end at all.

When they were finally let in, Kagami guided them. He explained that based off the damages the fire did, it started somewhere around the right wing and stayed there for a long time. He showed them traces of gasoline all around the left wing, that were cut off from the ones in the right wing and the hall, as if someone wanted the left wing to stay unburned, which made no sense.

Momoi and Sakurai had hope on the other hand. Was it an imposter in Haizaki's crew? Or maybe the right hand wing had all of the important evidence and the left wing had fake ones planted there? Why was it divided like that?

Satsuki carefully listened to Kagami's explanations about the different parts of the building, while she helped Ryou look around for anything signs of break in, human interference and any reason behind the acts of the arsonist.

They didn't get much that day, so together with the firefighters they secured the terrain and went home around midnight. All three of them immediately fell asleep after their face had touched the bed.

In the morning, all were woken up - Kagami by Sei demanding food and attention, Momoi by Kuroko leaving her breakfast on the bedside table and Sakurai by his husband leaving a kiss on his shoulder as he whispered how he would go and coo their crying child.

All of their mornings went horrible and all of them showed up at the site yawning and with bags under their eyes. Momoi stretched as she walked towards them, wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants and a badge loosely hanging around her neck.

"... Still in pyjamas?", Kagami smiled at her. She looked down at her outfit and groaned.

"No... But I did forgot to change", she sighed. "Nevermind, let's get going."

It was nothing on nothing and on nothing, sprinkled with nothing on top. Everything that could have been important was broken, burned or nonexistent.

"Did you lose much evidence?", Kagami asked as they were photographing the building and the damaged done by the fire.

"... A little bit. Most of it was already photographed, we started here", Ryou explained. "We lost a part of the third floor and a chunk of the hall and the rooms above it."

"I'd be better if we found out who did this", Momoi pointed out. "A person would be much more than a few papers."

They continued to take photos until they got informed by a police crew that there were a few people wanting to talk to them. Kagami stayed in the building while Momoi and Sakurai went to listen to them. As it turned out, it was a family with their two kids - a while before the building burst into flames, they saw a weird guy entering it.

The kids described him - a man of average build, brown-haired, in his thirties, wearing a black hoodie and jeans. Momoi asked one guy to drive the family to the station so they could meet with a forensic artist and have a portrait of the man drawn. The kids seemed excited to drive in a cruiser and Satsuki wished them a happy trip before returning to the inside with Sakurai.

Kagami met them at the hall with a huge grin on his face.

"Wanna see something fun?", he asked. "C'mon."

They followed him to the first floor of the left wing, to the part where the fire didn't reach, into the depths of the inside of one of the rooms. At first, none of the detectives could figure out what they were being shown until Kagami opened the closet and revealed three red canisters for gasoline.

One of those had a "I'm sorry" written on it with a marker.

"... You think it'll have fingerprints?", Kagami asked, smiling at them.

"I hope so", Sakurai sighed in relief.

"So...", Momoi gulped. "Haizaki has an imposter on his team, huh?"

They all looked at each other. "Seems so", Kagami put his gloved hands inside of his pants. "Or the guy's lying and trying to think he's on your side."

"I'd say that's our brown-haired dude that the kids saw", Ryou pointed out. "But that doesn't tell us who he is or why did he burn the right wing."

"As soon as I have his sketch, I'll send out a wanted poster after him", Satsuki informed them.

"Sorry, but, uh... You need a judge to get a wanted poster", Sakurai noticed.

"Your husband is a judge", Momoi shrugged.

"Yeah, a... a family judge. He does divorces, child supports...", Ryou explained. "You need a criminal judge to get you—"

"But doesn't your husband have a license for criminal trials?", Satsuki raised an eyebrow.

"... I'll go call him, sorry", Sakurai took a deep breath and reached for his phone.

Chapter Text

Imayoshi was having a blast with the kids at home. He was off work for the morning, only had a trial or two in the afternoon so he stayed with the two kids at home instead of sending them to the nanny.

And then he got a call from his wife. At first, he thought Ryou was finishing up the investigation and called to ask him if he could come get him, but Shouichi soon realized that it wasn't the case.

"Ryou, I don't think I can do that—", he tried to argue, but the phone got quickly taken off Sakurai's hands.

"What kind of criminal judge are you to say no, hm?", Momoi tsked at him.

"I'm not a criminal judge so there's that!"

"... Asshole. You're making me call anotger judge."

"Excuse me?", Imayoshi frowned. "You should have called another judge to begin with!"

Momoi have the phone back to Ryou, who apologized to her in the meantime. "... How are the kids?"

"Ryou, is everything okay in there?", Imayoshi asked. "When are you coming home?"

"In, uh, in a while. Sorry", Ryou mumbled. "We're just... desperate. I guess even more than before."

Imayoshi knew that. His relationship with Aomine wasn't exactly friendly and be was sure the guy despised him, but Daiki was Ryou's friend. And Shouichi could see how hurt his wife was with it, so he did his best to support Sakurai.

Momoi was right about him having the license to get her the arrest order, but he could get into troubles if he did so. And so could Satsuki. It would be better and faster and safer if she just called the judge at the department.

And Satsuki did just that. It took her over an hour to finally get it, but as soon as she did get it back, she went to call the news station. She gave them the portrait made by the forensic artist and after that, she just hoped for the best.

"I think we should wrap this up", Kagami said, coming over to them. "The investigation will take many days, and all of you guys are tired."

"This is the closest we've been to finding Dai-chan—"

"Or the farthest", Taiga cut her off. "You can't tell if any of these are purposely left behind or not. And if they are, then on who's side is the person who left those."

"But—"

"Kagami-san is right", Sakurai agreed. "We all should go home and rest."

Ryou at first wanted to call his husband, but after some more consideration, he decided to take a train back home. He flopped down onto the seat and closed his eyes, trying not to fall asleep. He rest his head on the barriers and waited for the train to go. Eventually, he did seem to fall asleep because a while later he was woken up by the sound of arguing.

In front of him stood an alpha woman and a beta man. The man was accusing her of something, but Sakurai lacked the context. The woman was getting defensive and looking for the support in her two friends, who delivered it.

"Oh, you're awake", the beta said after realizing Ryou was observing them. He sat down next to him and placed a hand on his wrist. "Are you okay?"

"... Yes?", Sakurai frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"Are you sure? Did those perverts do anything to you?", the beta continued.

"Perverts? Who are you talking to!?", the alpha shouted.

"You three! I saw you!"

"I'm sorry, what is going on?", Sakurai took a deep breath. Great, he was coming home from a hard day at work, from mentally draining days and now he was dragged into subway disputes.

"They were taking photos of you and on the last station they wanted to drag you out of the metro", the beta explained.

"We did not!", the alpha's argued.

"You did! I saw it!"

Ryou rubbed the bridge of his nose. Just great. Getting assaulted is exactly what he wanted to happen now.

"Sorry, show me your phone then", Sakurai said, looking at the alpha. He stood up from his seat and held onto the handle.

"Sit the fuck down—", the alpha used her tone. Ryou frowned, disgusting, it made his muscles twitch and spine straighten up. His gut tightened, but he stood straight. She seemed too weak to have any effect on him. Ryou was actually glad they were forced to do the resistance training for those situations, because his lack of reaction shocked the alpha woman and made her gulp.

"Show me your phone", Sakurai repeated. "Or I'll go through it myself."

"Like hell you wi—"

She didn't even finish talking. Ryou might have been tired but not enough to not be able to grab the phone from the alpha's hand just as she unlocked it. He entered the gallery and saw a bunch of photos of himself sleeping from various positions, including with his clothes getting mangled with. Lovely.

"Hey! Give it back!", she tried to get it from Sakurai's hand, but he swerved to the side and make her fall into the seat and hit her stomach on the ledge.

"Apologize and I'll get it back", he said.

"In your dreams!"

Sakurai's walk home got longer, as now he walked with three alpha women in handcuffs to the closest police station. He dragged two with him while the beta male that defended him went with the last one. Ryou yawned as he got put them into a police cruiser and asked the cop to drop them off at the main station. He would release them tomorrow as he would go back to his work. They could spend the night in jail, maybe that would teach them something.

"Sorry, can I have your number?", Sakurai asked. "I'll call you in for a brief questioning tomorrow."

"... Uh, yeah, of course... detective", the guy gulped.

"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?"

"No, it's just... I didn't expect you to be a... cop. You don't look like a cop", the guy mumbled.

"I'm sorry", Sakurai smiled faintly. "Have a safe trip home. Thank you for all your help."

"Yeah, no worries. I'm glad I could help you out", the man smiled. "I'll... Uh, I'll go now, okay?"

"Sorry for keeping you here for so long."

Chapter Text

When Sakurai made it home, Imayoshi was getting ready to leave. The nanny was there and was taking care of their kids, so when Ryou came back home he just fell into Shouichi's arms and immediately fell asleep.

"... You could've called me", the alpha chuckled. "I'd've get ya'."

He picked up his wife and carried him to their bedroom, then closed the door.

"Mama came back?", Kou asked him, holding his favorite plushie in his hands.

"Yeah, but he's tired", Shouichi picked him up. "So go play with Auntie and let Mama sleep, okay?"

"... Mh, can Mama have my teddy? So he sleeps well..."

"But be silent", Imayoshi opened the door and let the kid in. Kou walked up to the bed, left the plushie by Ryou's hand and then smiled and left the room.

"Mama okie?"

"Yes", Shoichi held his hand as he walked back to the living room with him. "Just very tired."

"When will Daacha come play with us?", Kou pouted.

"... I don't know", Shouichi admitted. "I hope soon."

"Is he mad at us? Can you tell him I'm sorry I broke the cup? I didn't mean to—"

"He's not mad at you", Imayoshi said. "Uncle Daiki is just... he's not home, you know?"

"Where is he?"

".... I—... I don't know. Mama also doesn't know. But they're looking for him, and I'm sure Uncle Daiki would love to come play with you when he comes back."

"Is he playing hide and seek?"

"Uh. Kind of?"

"Mh... And Mama is looking now?"

"... Yes."

"Okie", Kou sat down next to his sister. "Daacha was always very good at hide and seek."

Imayoshi gulped. Oh for fuck's sake, he missed that idiot, too.

Kagami couldn't sleep again. He was tired beyond his usual limits, he was exhausted, drained, lifeless, and yet he couldn't fall asleep. He kept just lying in his bed, with Sei sleeping on his side while he observed the ceiling.

It was evening, eight o'clock. He lied down in his bed three hours ago - he hadn't slept for almost two nights because of his shifts and he wanted to catch up on the missed hours, but his brain refused to let him. He was getting frustrated and eventually, he decided to stand up and dress up a little. He woke up Sei with that.

"Meow?", the cat opened one eye.

"I'm going to Aomine's", Taiga informed him. "I... I just—"

I need his presence, any type of it, was what he wanted to say, but those words refused to leave his mouth. Sei liked that idea and just a few minutes later they were at the train station. They entered the one going to Meguro and a few stops later they were going to Aomine's apartment..

Ever since Daiki went missing, Taiga never stepped inside. Only that one or two times with Momoi, just after he was gone, but it was brief and Kagami only collected Sei and his things that time. This time, he planned on staying for longer.

The apartment was cold and empty. The plants were dead, the dust was omnipresent, the apartment was filled with putridity, and the smell of the rotten air was unbearable. But under all of the filth that got left everywhere by the lack of human existence, the whole apartment smelled like him.

The rotten eggs, the lactose-free milk that was already sour, the shopping list on the fridge. The sticky notes with his handwriting, the papers left around, the dirty mug with a teabag mark still inside that Aomine had not had the time to clean. Aomine signs were everywhere. And in the bedroom was the core of it all.

Kagami left his clothes on the dusty floor and got into the bed. It cracked a little when his weight got onto it and then the mattress made a bunch of dust get into the air. Kagami coughed and sneezed, but instead of doing something with it, he just turned do the side, wrapped the comforter around himself and closed his eyes.

The whole bed still smelled like Aomine. Not his perfumes or anything, it was simply just Daiki.

Sei also seemed to feel it because he curled up just behind Kagami and immediately fell asleep. Taiga on the other hand smiled. Embraced by Aomine's quasi-presence, he fell asleep almost immediately.

Kagami didn't have many dreams, but that one was definitely his favorite. It was the same bed, the same room, the same apartment. The morning, as if he had woken up. But he wasn't alone, Daiki was right next to him, lying with his head on Taiga's shoulder, with his hand on Kagami's heart and with his leg thrown over his hips. Aomine was breathing slowly, his chest slightly rising, his heartbeat feelable through his chest.

Then, Aomine opened his eyes. He moved his head up, smiled at him, then moved his body a little and kissed him before flopping down on the bed again. Daiki chuckled, gently careesing his skin, then closed his eyes again.

"Good morning", Kagami smiled at him. "Did you sleep well?"

"Hm, the baby was kicking all night", Aomine opened his eyes and looked right into Taiga's.

"I'm sorry."

"I guess they're ready to get out, hah?", Daiki placed his hand on his baby bump. "... Ready to meet your baby in two weeks?"

"If you are", Kagami replied.

"There's no way I'm ready."

"It's gonna be okay", Taiga wrapped his arm around Daiki's shoulders. "I'm gonna be there with you. Hold your hand. I'm gonna wipe the sweat off your forehead. I'll let you squeeze my arm as much as you'll need and I'll kiss your tears off your face."

"So romantic", Aomine chuckled. "Ouch."

"Kicking?"

"Yeah", Daiki huffed. "So impatient... I guess the Little One is ready to meet their daddy..."

When Kagami woke up, he was alone in the bed. The Aomine was gone, the gentle light shining through the window was gone and got replaced with a gray shine that the sun left after passing through the rain clouds. The golden shine on Aomine's skin got replaced with a dull blue matte of the dust covering the room and the weight of the other body got replaced with the weight of an equally disappointed cat.

Chapter Text

Kagami had to go to work. Aomine's bed wasn't warm or comfortable in the current state of it, but Kagami still found it hard to leave it.

It smelled like him. Lying there was as if Daiki was next to him again. As if he was cuddling to him, like that one time after their drunk sex, which Kagami had regretted so much.

He didn't regret sleeping with Aomine, that was the best sex he had ever in his entire life (and he was not a virgin, oh, he was far from that). He regretted doing it drunkenly and not fighting for anything more. He regretted not asking Aomine out on a date first. He regretted that he didn't try.

And now he was lying in Aomine's bed. With no Aomine. It felt cold, disgusting, he felt like a psycho. Because what type of alpha was sneaking into an omega's apartment to sleep in his bed? It felt psychopathic, an invasion of the privacy. He should be locked up.

But the smell was the only way to make Taiga fall asleep.

Many months back, when Daiki was taking care of Sakurai's kids, Kagami wished for those moments to happen forever. Him, Daiki, kids and a random domestic moment. Aomine in his arms, the kids giggling, them slowly resting.

That day, to calm Ryouko down, Aomine hummed her a song. If only Taiga could remember it, he wanted to hear Daiki's voice so badly again.

His... voice.

Kagami had his voice! He grabbed his phone and scrolled back in their messages until he found it. It was a thirty second voice message, recorded when Daiki was driving and couldn't text. Kagami hit the play button.

«Hey, remember those reports from the lab? You have them with you? Can you get those? I'll be at your station in a few minutes, the traffic is wild today»

Sei behind him rose up and jumped over him to inspect the phone. He looked at Kagami and meowed. Taiga bit the inside of his cheek to stop his lips from twitching. He sniffed and hit play again.

«Hey, remember those reports from the lab?»

«Hey, remember those reports—»

«Hey, remember—»

«Hey—»

«Hey—»

«Hey—»

«He—»

«H—»

Kagami was crying, repeating the message over and over. Aomine's voice, his smell, his room and the lack of him was a deadly combination. Sei also seemed to feel down because of those factors, as he curled up next to Kagami's chest and cried as well.

"I have to go to work", Taiga whispered. "... I'm sorry, Sei. But we gotta go."

"Meow..."

"I also wanna stay here, but..."

Kagami couldn't finish the sentence out loud, but he well knew what he was going to say. «But I won't be able to take it if I stay». Instead of focusing on looking for Daiki and helping the police in the investigation, he would just cry and not have any job done. So he dressed up, packed everything including Sei and went to work. Or rather, back to the burned mansion.

Sei stayed next to him and carefully navigated around the debris. He observed everything and followed Kagami around like a duckling until Momoi and Sakurai arrived.

"... You brought the cat?", Ryou smiled, crouching next to him to pet Sei.

"Yeah, he's careful, so don't worry about him destroying anything."

"I know", Satsuki chuckled. "He's a good boy."

"Meow!"

Sei wandered around a little. Momoi only allowed it after giving him a walkie talkie to take with him, so they would be able to locate him in the whole building by playing marco polo. Taiga then tied the walkie talkie to the cat's back like a backpack and let him loose. Sei spent the day chasing the mice out and bringing them to the rather disturbed detectives, who thanked him with a terrified look as he dropped the animals on the ground.

Eventually, Sei got bored and he went to sleep near the entrance. Meanwhile, Sakurai's phone buzzed.

"Sorry, I have to go", he said, looking at Momoi and Kagami.

"... Something important?", Satsuki asked, as if asking if the matter was more important than looking for Daiki.

"I need to question a guy who kind of saved me from sexual harassment in a subway yesterday", Ryou explained.

"... What?!", Kagami frowned. "Dude, are you okay?!"

"Uh, sorry, yeah, it was just a few photos", Sakurai shrugged.

"I'll go with you", Momoi informed. She looked at Taiga with those eyes that didn't want to hear the negative.

"... Sure, I guess a lunch break it is?", he frowned. He grabbed Sei with him, suddenly waking the cat up, which gave him a few smacks on the face and a hiss for that, and the three humans and one cat got into the car. Momoi drove them back to the station where she and Kagami went to the cafeteria to get something to eat whole Sakurai went to his and Aomine's office to question the guy.

Momoi and Kagami joined him around ten minutes later, carrying two bags of food with them, and one of those was for Kagami only. The both knocked, then entered the room and sat down at the chairs - Momoi in Aomine's spot and Kagami in the armchair on the other side of the desk. Sakurai was finishing up, and the guy was only waiting to sign a few papers.

Satsuki frowned while observing the guy. He seemed... familiar. A little bit too much familiar, but she couldn't connect the dots. Not until she started going through her bag to find a napkin and she stumbled upon the portrait done by the forensic artist.

She pulled it out and looked at it. Then back at the beta in front of Sakurai. Then back at the portrait.

"I'm sorry, sir, but may I ask a question?", she stood up and walked over to the desk. She stood next to confused Sakurai and looked at the guy from the front. "What have you been up to on the eight of August?"

"I—...", the man gulped and looked around looking for anything to help him.

"Momoi-san?", Ryou frowned. "I'm sorry, what is this about—"

She showed him the portrait she was holding. Sakurai widened his eyes, then looked at the beta in front of him. Kagami slowly swallowed his sandwich, watching the story unfold.

Chapter Text

The man gulped and looked down at his hands. He took a deep breath and reached for a pen and sticky note lying on the desk. With shaky hands, he wrote:

"I think he's listening, please, I can't let him know I got caught"

Momoi read it and saw the man's horrified face. She took a deep breath and said: "You see, the location of a case we're working on right now collides with the location of the subway track you were on. We're looking for witnesses."

"I see", the man mouthed thank you and cleared his throat. "I actually live quite far from here, I only was in the area to pick up some things for my wife."

"Hm, well, thank you for your cooperation", Momoi smiled. "Are you two finishing up here?"

"... Yes, sorry for taking so long", Ryou gave him the final papers to sign. The man grabbed the pen and left his signature, then took another sticky note and wrote another message.

"I think the burner he gave me is bugged"

Satsuki frowned. "I'm sorry to keep you here for so long, but we still have a certain procedure and it included you having to identify the suspects."

"Yeah, sure", the man stood up. He grabbed his things and all four of them went to the arrest where the three women were. They were located in the light side of the one-way mirror, while the man was taken into the dark side of it. But before entering, he was told to leave all of his belongings outside in a box.

And the man did, entering only in his underwear.

"... You want a blanket or something?", Kagami asked him.

"I don't think he bugged my clothes, but I'm scared to risk it", the man said. "I don't know where he is."

Sakurai took a deep breath. "Were you in the subway by accident or was it a trail or something?"

"... No, it was pure accident. I actually didn't even know you're one of the detective working on that case", the man admitted. "The name I gave you is real, Ishida Hideki."

"What is your relation to them?", Momoi asked, clearly mad.

"I—... It's a long story. Look, Haizaki fled like two weeks ago. He's out of Tokyo, he said something about Sapporo, but I don't know if he's checking if I'll betray him or if he's really there."

Momoi clenched her hand but then composed herself. "You're getting a wire. Don't you dare betray that trust."

"Yes, ma'am", Ishida gulped. He would not risk losing that trust. Taking care of Aomine gave him that one chance, Daiki believed that he could be given the trust to work with the detectives against Haizaki and Ishida was not going to waste it. "Thank you."

He dressed back up, then left the station with a tracking device on him and a bug that recorded everything. If that was the way for the police to work with him, he would follow it. His only goal was to just make sure his family was okay.

Sakurai took a deep breath. "I'm sorry", he said. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"... I feel you", Satsuki agreed.

"Is this normal?"

"Absolutely not. Usually when people commit a crime, they hide from the police and frantically run away after being near an officer", Momoi explained. "If it wasn't for the portrait, he would have been most likely cleared from any suspicion."

"But I doubt he was trying to avoid getting caught", Ryou added. "Sorry, but he seemed like he... actually was more than happy to work with us."

After the lunch break, they returned to the mansion to look around again. Having found nothing before the sunset, they all returned home.

Momoi entered her house and immediately got out of her clothes. In panties only, she walked to the kitchen to make some food. She was exhausted, drained from any will to live and she was tempted to go grab the bottle of vodka from the fridge, but the promise she made to Tetsuya stopped her. For an hour.

When Kuroko entered the house to check on her, she was shit-face drunk, sleeping on the sofa with an empty bottle in her hand. Tetsuya bit his lip to stop himself from frowning and clenched his fist to stop himself from hitting her. He was furious.

She has promised to stop. She had acknowledged the fact that she had a drinking problem. She was willing to work on that. She was...

She was an alcoholic. An addict.

And Tetsuya believed that addict. He believed her. And ot ended up like always - with him cleaning the vomits, dragging her to her bed, with him ripping the bottle our of her hands and with him making sure she was on her side so as she wouldn't drown in her own vomits.

Kuroko spent the entire night on the couch in her living room. He refused to go home and refused to be in the bed with her. He was woken up by Satsuki cursing her headache and looking through the cupboards for her favorite coffee mug.

"It's in the dishwasher", Kuroko said, standing up from the couch and walking towards her.

"AAH?!", she screamed, turning around in shock. "Tetsu-kun?! What are you doing here?"

"I came in yesterday but you were too drunk to know that", he explained. "Would you like to explain yourself?"

Momoi lowered her head and gulped. She knew she had made a promise, she knew she had broken it as well. But what was she supposed to do? Remember how it hurt that Aomine was still nowhere to be found? Remember that with each hour with no new information she was failing him as the big sister she had sworn to be?

"I'm sorry", she mumbled, getting her mug.

"A while back you said you'd like Aomine-kun to be your best man at our wedding", Tetsuya reminded her. "I don't think I'd ever want «our wedding» to happen if you don't stop drinking."

Chapter Text

Momoi was fidgeting with her fingers as she was nervously waiting for her name to be called. And yet, when the moment came, she froze up and almost puked because of the stress.

She slowly stood up and entered the room. The therapist smiled at her, asking if she would like some tea. She agreed and she was given a cup of green tea, while the therapist sat down and opened her folders.

"What seems to bother you, Momoi-sama?", she asked calmly. She was a rather young beta, younger than Satsuki by maybe five years, not more. She was dressed in smart clothing, with a midi skirt and a white blouse. And in front of that lovely-lookinv professional woman, Momoi was supposed to open up.

"... I—... I have a drinking problem", Satsuki said. "I think so."

"A self-realization is a great first step", the therapist explained. "Is there anything that made you get there?"

"Yeah, my, uh, friend", Momoi didn't know how to call Kuroko. Her friend with benefits? Her what, fuck buddy?

"They seem like a good friend."

"Yeah... I... To be honest I don't really know how this works", Satsuki admitted, gesticulating at the situation they were in. "Do I just start ranting? Like, what do I—?"

"Whatever you'd like to", the therapist explained. "I'm here for listen and provide feedback, as well as help you get your thoughts in the right direction."

"Okay", Satsuki took a deep breath. "So, uh, on the twenty-second of May my little sworn brother got kidnapped by his abusive ex-boyfriend. I've... I've been looking for him since May, and, uh, I'm... I'm scared. I'm scared I'll find his corpse."

"So you're feeling like you're stuck in that limbo-like state, overwhelmed by that sense of inability to do anything, of the lack of response from the police—?"

"No, you don't understand", Satsuki stopped her. "I'm the police."

The therapist took a deep breath and noted something. Momoi decided to continue speaking.

"I hate myself", she admitted, "that I can't just... find him. I hate myself for signing off on looking for a corpse as well, I hate myself for not realizing earlier that the judge giving us warrants was corrupted, I hate that I come home everyday after working for sixteen hours and I still have no clue where he is."

"And what do you do in those situations?", the therapist asked.

"... I grab alcohol."

"Do you know why?"

"I—... It makes me forget."

The therapist put one of her legs over the other. "I would like us go focus on changing that. We'll take those emotions that you're struggling with and we'll try to relocate them, so instead of being overwhelming, they would be a sort of fuel to help you go towards your goal. I understand that the situation you're in is hard and traumatizing, and I'd also like you to understand that it is okay to feel helpless and sad in moments like this. And it is definitely not shameful in any way."

When she left the office, Kuroko was waiting for her outside the building. She got into the car and allowed the man to drive her home. In silence, she read the notes she had gotten from the therapist over and over, until on one red light, Tetsuya asked her about the visit.

"... We talked about Dai-chan", she said. "And that it's not my fault."

Kuroko wanted to hit her with the «I told you so» but instead, he remained silent for a moment. "Did you learn anything new?"

"She suggested I molest a pillow or go to a rage room when I have the urge to drink", Satsuki mumbled. "And how keeping everything inside was way worse than letting it out."

"Interesting", Kuroko admitted. "I have a feeling I have heard that somewhere already."

"Oh don't be such a bitch", Momoi huffed. "What do you want to hear? That you were right?"

"No, actually, I'd just love to hear you promise that you'd call me instead of grabbing alcohol", Tetsuya's hands clenched on the steering wheel. "Momoi-san—"

"We've been having sex for ten years, don't you think it's an appropriate moment in time to start calling me by my name?", she interrupted him.

"That would mean I plan on staying on your side", Kuroko replied.

"... You don't?"

"I would never say that I never did something bad. I had many unhealthy habits, including visiting the bar a bit too often, but I have decided to put a stop to it. And I believe that so can you."

"Tetsu-kun, you don't want me?"

"I want you, Momoi-san. You, not the addict sitting next to me."

"... If I... If I get it under control—... If I stop drinking", Momoi began fidgeting with her fingers. "Will you... Will you—... stay with me?"

"Didn't you say something about Aomine-kun being your best man?", Tetsuya asked. He pulled into Momoi's driveway and turned off the car.

"Well, yeah, but—..."

"I don't think we are close to legalizing gay marriages, but if you'd want to have a wedding, I'll attend", Kuroko got out of the car and Momoi swiftly followed.

"Attend as in be the groom or as in be the guest?!", she chuckled.

"Oh that depends", Tetsuya turned his head away and smiled for a brief second. "Only if you win your fights. And only if you let me help."

"Yeah... I can do that."

They entered the house and Momoi dropped her things in the entryway. She turned around to face Kuroko as she slowly undressed, leaving nothing covering her body.

"Would you like to celebrate twenty-four hour sobriety achievement with me?", she asked, getting closer and closer to the bedroom. Tetsuya took a deep breath, then left his things on the floor and followed her.

"You are a menace, Momoi-san", he said, grabbing the door handle. "Grab the lube."

"Those might be my favorite words", she chuckled, as her hands wrapped around his body.

Chapter Text

Recently, Kagami noticed one thing. Sei stopped doing much. That meant - he wasn't willing to go outside, his daily routine changed from running around the apartment like a demon to sleeping, then eating, then sleeping, then using the litter box, then sleeping. Repeat. Whenever Taiga offered taking him out on a walk, Sei huffed at him and went back to sleep.

It made Kagami worried. He tried his best to cheer the cat up. He offered to cook new food. He ruffled the cat's fur often, he picked him up and carried around to hopefully wake him up for a bit. He tried everything that came to mind. But deep inside, he knew the cause.

Sei missed Aomine just as much as Kagami did.

It was the sixteenth of August. Kagami's twenty-fifth birthday was two weeks ago and in two week, it would be Aomine's twenty-ninth. Daiki had been missing for almost three months by now. Eighty seven days to be exact. Considering how he was eighteen weeks pregnant when the abduction happened, that would make Daiki thirty weeks pregnant now. If he still was pregnant.

Three days ago they found Ishida and bugged him. Today, he was called in for questioning. Momoi had decided to take a long statement from him and Kagami begged them to be present. Eventually, they agreed, marking it as a consult regarding the arson.

Kagami was sitting on the side of the table together with Satsuki and Ryou. Ishida was on the other. Alonez even though he had the right to call a lawyer. The interview had not started yet, they were just sitting in silence, with all three of them trying not to murder the man and compose themselves to not let the emotions take over.

Eventually, Ishida broke the silence.

"How is he doing?", he asked, looking at his hands. He wasn't handcuffed, he was sitting there voluntarily. He was glad Aomine thrown in a good word about him anyway, despite the last few days they had spent together.

"... What?", Momoi frowned. "How is who doing?"

Ishida looked up at them. "... Aomine? Who else could I be talking about?"

He looked at their extremely confused faces and gulped. No. There was no way that they didn't—?!

"... You haven't found him?!", Ishida started to panic. "He was— he was inside the building! I— I was sure he's been in a hospital for like a week already!"

Momoi's face dropped and she covered her mouth and looked at Kagami and Sakurai.

"We... We checked the whole building already", Taiga informed. "There was no sign on life, no answer to any calls, no information on thermal cameras, nothing."

"He... He had food for around a week", Ishida said. "Unless Haizaki sent someone to get him out, he's in the left wing, just over Haizaki's office."

"Kagami, go there", Momoi said. She stood up, left the room and grabbed a radio. "Go."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Take my car", she threw the keys at him. Kagami caught it, but then gulped.

"I don't have a license", he admitted. Momoi took them back from him and grabbed her radio. She called in a police cruiser to take him there, with the lights on. Taiga grabbed his things and ran outside of the building to catch his ride.

Never faster had Kagami run in his entire life. Not even in his prime-NBA days. He sprinted through the burned mansion to the left wing, he found the office Ishida was talking about and he began ripping everything off the walls. Anything that he could grab, he treated with an axe and a hammer. He moved the furniture around, he opened the windows and looked through them, he pulled all of the drawers out, he thew each book off the shelves. Anything.

In a mess that he had created, he sat down and started sobbing. There was nothing in the office. It was empty. The whole mansion was empty.

Haizaki must have had someone take Aomine away.

They were so close, so incredibly close. They were walking around with Aomine just above them. If only they had looked further, they would have found him. And Aomine would have been safe for over a month now.

Kagami wiped the tears off his face. He stood up and took a deep breath. There had to be something, anything, there was no way the whole time Aomine was inside of the office - it would have been possible only if there was a hidden room. But Kagami searched everywhere and there weren't any secret rooms.

He looked outside the window for a moment to take a breath of fresh air. He noticed the unusually thick walls - moreover, outside the window, there were mechanisms. Kagami might have been wrong but those seem like something that would be installed in a safehouse - as if metal doors were to slide out of those and lock the office from the outside world.

Taiga began look around for more things. He looked left and right, then up and down through the window and took a deep breath, followed by a shaky exhale.

Was his eyes messing with him or there was a whole another floor above him? He couldn't take a proper look, but considering how the office was on the highest floor, the space from the ceiling to the top of the rooftop seemed too big to be just construction. And the wall to his left? Even accounting for the incredibly thick walls, it seemed like it was longer by more than one meter from where it ended inside.

He's in the left wing, just over Haizaki's office

Literally over it? That would match Kagami's observations. At first he thought that Ishida meant just right next to it, and common sense made Taiga believe if there was going to be a hidden space where Aomine would be held, the entrance was going to be located inside the office. But maybe he wasn't that far off? Maybe somewhere close to the office, maybe even in it, there was a ladder leading up, into the attic?

Chapter Text

Kagami was running around the office, trying to rip stuff of the walls. Over half an hour had passed by now and while Momoi and Ryou continued the questioning, he was supposed to find the way into the attic. How?!

"Kagami?", Momoi called him over the radio. "You found him?"

"No, I destroyed the entire office, there's no Aomine anywhere!"

Kagami could hear some movement on the other side before Ishida took the radio from Momoi. "Left wall of the room! There's a door in there! Behind the bookshelf!"

Momoi then ripped the radio from Ishida's hands again while Ryou made him sit back down. "You have the door?"

Kagami put the radio on the ground and grabbed an axe. With a few swings, he destroyed any mechanism that was holding the pieces of the shelves together and then ripped them off the wall. As he was tugging on one part, the whole back of the shelf moved with it revealing a metal door.

"Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah", Kagami quickly grabbed the radio and got close to the door. "How do I open it?!"

"He says the code is nine-eight-nine-one", Momoi informed him.

"The code?! What code?! Where do I enter it?"

"On the pinpad above the handle?"

"There's no pinpad!"

Momoi looked at Ishida with a confused look. His eyes widened and he gulped, then thought for a moment.

"It's an electric panel", he said after a brief moment of silence. "It won't work if there's no electricity."

Satsuki frowned and clicked on the radio again. "Kagami, how fast can you get a generator up there?"

"... For what? What type?"

"I don't know what type, the door needs electricity!", Momoi flopped down onto her chair.

"But even if he got the generator, I have no clue how to connect it to the door, it always worked through the secure electric systems in the safehouse installation", Ishida explained.

"... Kagami, just break the door down", Sakurai sighed, as Momoi held the speaking button on for him.

"It's an eighty centimeters thick reinforced stainless steel door with a block of lead in between!", Ishida huffed. "Guys, I know you want to get inside, but putting aside the fact that I was sure you already did, I don't know anything about the systems to help you! And there's no way he's getting through that door with brute force!"

"I don't want to make you guys worry, but there's no way I can connect electricity to the main circuits again", Kagami informed them before they could suggest that option. "The building had severe fire damage, unless an electrician comes in and cleared the isolation on each and every cable in the building, we can't risk electrical fire."

"How long would it take for an electrician to clear it?", Momoi asked.

"Uh, with a building this size and apparently two separate circuits, where one is hidden, days if not weeks. They would have to find all the cables, dig them out and check their status. Even if we got like a dozen electricians, it would still be days before the electricity can be turned on."

"Brute force it is", Momoi informed them. "Kagami, call in whoever you need, break down that wall."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I agree with Ishida here", Taiga stopped her. "Believe me, I also wanna get inside, but it would be faster to go one floor below and dig a hole in the ceiling than to break down that door."

"Then do that!", Satsuki slammed her hand on the table.

"... Wait. He's right", Ishida stopped them. "It'll be easier to go around the door!"

"Go on!", Sakurai hurried him up.

"There are windows in the ceiling of the attic!", Ishida filled them in. "They're locked shut and thick as hell, but if someone's getting inside with brute force, the rooftop would be the only way."

"Kagami, I hope you got your medical clearance for work at heights", Momoi took a deep breath.

"I sure did. Together with my clear pass to use a ladder", Kagami smiled. "Talk to you later, I have a roof to climb onto. Over."

"We'll meet you there in a moment", Sakurai finished, putting the radio to the side. They both looked at Ishida, who politely sat at the interrogation table, smiling at them.

"... Anything else?", Momoi asked him, kinda annoyed.

"I know how this sounds", Ishida started, "but I kinda... I kinda struck a deal with Aomine. But you don't know about it because you don't have Aomine..."

Momoi and Sakurai looked at one another then both sighed simultaneously.

"I'm sorry... What deal?", Sakurai asked.

"... I work with you and go to jail but my family gets protection."

"That sounds like a shitty deal", Satsuki huffed.

"For me? Maybe", Ishida shrugged. "I just want them to be safe. And Haizaki has men that are pointing their rifles at them at all times. I just... I don't want them to die."

Momoi took a deep breath, then grabbed her phone. She dialed someone and waited for the call to be answered. Then, she waited for Ishida to give her the address which she had passed on and requested for Ishida's wife and kid to be safely escorted into the Criminal Department, where everyone would decide what to do with them.

Meanwhile, Momoi and Sakurai went to the parking lot and got into the car. Right after leaving the underground, Momoi cursed at the traffic, pointed at the lights and waited for Ryou to attach them to the rooftop. She turned them on and sped up through the traffic, ignoring everything and everyone until she drove into the grounds belonging to Haizaki (currently seized by the police, good for them, the fucker deserved it and much more worse things) and parked in a designated space for the investigation. Far enough from the building so the mansion suddenly collapsing wouldn't destroy the base or the properties of the city.

From where they were standing they could already see Kagami and a group of firefighters standing on the rooftop. They were working on separating the thick window from the construction to lift it up and get inside.

Based on how fast they were going, Kagami would say they still needed half an hour. I'm coming for you, Taiga thought, as he hit the roof with a crowbar.

Chapter Text

Kagami and the firefighters slowly picked up the heavy glass pane and placed it on the rooftiles. It was heavy - six of them were moving it and they all had to put their full combined strength to move it by a mere centimeter. The whole operation took them fifty three minutes and by the time they were done, the five men sat down at the rooftop, exhausted. All but Kagami.

"You good?", one guy asked Taiga, who was looking inside. The floor wasn't far down, so Kagami quickly jumped inside. "Oi!"

As soon as he was inside, he began looking around. He grabbed his radio and called Momoi over.

"Any info on the location?", Kagami asked.

"There's a room with a closet, apparently inside there", Momoi filled him in.

"Got it."

Kagami looked around with a flashlight and swiftly located the room. Then, he searched through it and found nothing.

"He's not in the room!", Taiga called, panicking.

"Dumbass, the entrance is in the closet!", Momoi rephrased.

"You could have fucking said so!", Kagami yelled. "You got me fucking panicking!"

"Just go!", Sakurai took over.

Kagami opened the closet and shuffled through it. He found the fake back rather quickly and kicked it open. He grabbed a flashlight from his belt and held it in his mouth as he entered the dark and tight corridor. He rushed forward and found himself in a labyrinth of secret corridors. He gulped as he decided to just stick to the left wall. After a few turns and going back a few times, he found himself in a long corridor that seemed to have been ending in a dead end.

The only thing Kagami wanted right now was to hold Aomine in his arms. To gently cradle his face, to kiss his tears away. As long as Aomine would be alive and safe, Kagami could even hear the words of rejection, he would accept being friendzoned. As long as Aomine was okay.

Kagami's dreams had recently all involved Aomine. Daiki enjoying his life mainly - a beach day with his family, onsen, Aomine taking his kids to a water park. And Kagami was always watching from the side, away from Daiki and his kids.

But it was okay. As long as Aomine was happy, Kagami could suffer. Because Daiki didn't deserve that. And Taiga was strong, strong enough to carry the pain that was on Aomine's shoulders.

If he had been given a chance, Kagami would absolutely take it. If only Aomine gave him a sign that he wanted Taiga in his life, that he was into him, Kagami would take it. He would treat Daiki like a queen, like he deserved to be treated, he would carry him around and feed him grapes as Daiki would be resting on a chaise longue like a Roman emperor.

He would love to see Aomine as a Roman emperor, honestly. With golden bay leaves around his head, in a white toga wrapped around his golden brown skin. And of course, a certain malicious red cat was sitting right next to Aomine, enjoying the warmth of the other body.

Sometimes Kagami wished they could be royals. With no worries on their minds, painfully rich and with more free time than tasks to do. Just so he could hold Aomine in his arms every day. Just so he could slow dance with him in the corridors, run with him barefoot through the gardens, laugh with him in the empty palace ball rooms.

Kagami suddenly had the urge to drop his firefighter job and go back to the NBA. Technically, he was on a good track for healing his knee fully, and resuming the career would get him enough money to buy a castle for Aomine, but it would also make him stay away from the omega.

Kagami had a huge amount of money saved up from those few seasons he had played - moreover, the apartment he was living in belonged to his father, he was earning enough to save almost fifty percent of his income and he could always take a second job. However, those millions were definitely not enough to build a castle.

"C'mon, where are you?", Kagami mumbled under his nose. "Aomine!"

He started calling him while still navigating the corridors. It felt like he was going in circles and at some point, he was sure he was lost. What the hell were all those passages for? They were relatively clean, there wasn't much dust, so they were often cleaned. But it only made more questions appear in Kagami's mind.

Eventually, he reached a point where fire damage started to show on the inside, so he turned around. He ran back, calling Aomine's name and looking for a way out. A bit more hugging the wall later, he was back into the room with a closet. And now, with a clean start, he resumed his journey.

As he was calling Aomine, his heartbeat rose so high up he could hear his heart in his knees. He tried to put his mind into something else - back to the castle and the Roman emperor Aomine. Would Daiki even want a castle? Maybe he was more of a small cozy place type of guy. His apartment was pretty big, around seventy square meters if Kagami remembered and costed quite a lot. Taiga heard many stories of Daiki assembling everything inside himself, from pouring and leveling the floor, through painting the walls, to assembling and building furniture.

Which also made him think that Aomine would rather build a castle than just live in it.

"Aomine!", he called out again. Kagami ended up in a corridor he did not recognize, however he very soon realized it was the right place. At the very end of it, a metal deadbolt reflected the light of his flashlight, shining back at him. Kagami ran towards the plasterboard and unlocked it, then swung the thing inwards and jumped in. As soon as he did that, he was met with a smell of human excretions and rotting food mixed with a dulling smell of sweat and body oils. He stepped forward, lighting the cul-de-sac with his flashlight.

Just behind the corner, lying on the ground, was a human body.

Chapter Text

The body lying on the ground in front of him seemed lifeless. He was on his side, tilted with his front to the ground. His arms and legs were held together, joined by the chain that held him in place, not letting him move. His long hair were matted, tangled, covering his face and most of his shoulder and arm. It was full of grease, just as dirty as the rest of his body. He didn't seem like he was breathing.

He was just... lying there. In a puddle of his own urine, with bloodstains around the ground.

"...Ao—...?", Kagami managed to breathe out. His heart stopped breathing rapidly, the heartbeat went silent, he just... stopped.

He took a step forward, with his legs shaking and his muscles barely being able to hold up his weight. His hands were trembling and the flashlight was close to falling out of his grip.

"Aomine!"

Kagami ran up to him and fell to his knees in front of the body. He moved to the side, so he could see Aomine's face, and picked him up, then moved the hair from his face.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!", Taiga sobbed. "No, please, please, Aomine, open your eyes!"

Kagami turned his naked body onto its back and supported Aomine's back and head onto his thigh and forearm. With his left hand, he checked Aomine's pulse. As he closed his eyes to focus on finding the heartbeat, a hand touched his cheek.

Kagami opened his eyes and saw the most perfect image of his life. Aomine was looking at him calmly, holding a hand up to his face. After a moment of realization, Kagami started crying. Aomine initially frowned and rolled his eyes, but after a few of Taiga's tears fell onto his face, his lips started to tremble and he cried out in the most painful to hear, terrified wail. He clung to Kagami, wrapped his arms around him as much as he could and just wailed.

"It's okay", Taiga whispered, rubbing Aomine's back with his hand. "It's okay, you're safe now, it's gonna be okay."

Aomine didn't answered, just clung harder and cried louder. Kagami brought him closer, he cuddled him, kissed his face and completely broke down, sobbing and holding Aomine closer and closer. Daiki didn't stop him, he cuddled him just as hard, he wrapped his chained hands around him.

"You don't even know how much you scared me just now", Kagami cried out. "You looked dead!"

Aomine didn't answer again, he just cried louder, trying to get even closer to Kagami, but the chains weren't letting him. He tugged at them, screamed, and tried to pull Taiga towards him.

"Kagami?", Momoi called over the radio. "Any news?"

Aomine's screams turned into soft sobs as he heard Satsuki's voice. He sniffed and cried in Kagami's arms as the man spoke back to her.

"Call an ambulance", Taiga said. "I got him."

Those three words were the best sentence Momoi has heard in almost three months. She started crying as well, as he fell to the ground and held the radio close to her chest. With shaky hands, she moved it up to her mouth and spoke again.

"Dai-chan?", she sobbed. "Can he hear me?"

"Yeah, but he's crying too much to answer", Kagami explained, still holding Aomine tightly in his arms.

"Get him down here, I want to hug him", Satsuki chuckled.

"Going."

Kagami didn't have many tools on him - outside of the flashlight, he only had a crowbar that he had used to lift up the glass pane earlier. He rubbed Aomine's back and kissed his neck.

"I gotta go find something to unlock the handcuffs", he said. "I'll be right back, I promise."

Aomine clung to him and cried louder. His hands clenched on Kagami's shirt, his arms wrapped tighter, not letting him go. Aomine wailed whenever Taiga tried to move away.

"Please", Kagami whispered. "I'll be right back. I have to get you out of here somehow."

Aomine cried again, pulling him closer, so close that Kagami could barely breathe.

"Aomine", Kagami called him again. "Please, I promise. I'll be right back with you. And I won't let you go again, I promise. Just let me go for a moment and find something to get you out."

Taiga took Daiki off him and held him within arm's length. He placed his hands on his cheeks and smiled.

"Okay?", he asked. Aomine was looking at him with those eyes - those scared, betrayed eyes, than begged him to stay, to never let him go. Taiga grabbed the radio from his chest and unpinned it. He placed it in Aomine's hands and kissed his knuckles. "I'll be right back."

Before leaving, Taiga pressed on the radio and asked Momoi to speak to Daiki all the time. He then grabbed the flashlight and left - leaving Aomine alone in the darkness again.

Daiki was left alone again. He was abandoned again. Firstly Contraband never returned again, now Kagami left him. Was he that much unlovable? The belly with a probably-dead fetus inside seemed to prove it.

Aomine had always thought high of himself. He knew he was the best (and he suffered because of that many times), he knew he was better than an average person, he knew that he deserved certain things happening to him. He thought he deserved to be loved. He thought he deserved to be by someone's side.

But each day, he was proven wrong. The first boyfriend he had turned out to be a Yakuza boss involved in multiple murders, drug deals, human trafficking and slavery. Each and every alpha (and male betas) he went on dates with before either ghosted him after the first one or apologized for giving him any hopes and left.

Kagami was the first alpha to be somewhat interested in him, the first one Aomine felt like dating. But he didn't have that choice. If Kagami wanted him, Daiki wouldn't dare to question himself - his answer would be a maybe a little bit too eager yes.

But Taiga didn't want him. And Taiga just left him alone, in a dark room, with Satsuki's voice on the radio, occasionally disturbed by a static noise.

Chapter Text

Kagami sprinted back and jumped out of the closet (literally, not figuratively). He rushed to the tools left around in the attic and quickly found the thing he was looking for - on a small table, there was a key to the handcuffs. Ishida must have left it there before being forced to evacuate.

Taiga then ran back and slid across the dirty and wet floor towards Aomine. Daiki was lying on the ground, curled up, with the radio in his hands and Momoi still speaking sweet nothings to him, saying how glad she was that he was okay.

"Aomine", Kagami called him again, as he unlocked the handcuffs around his extremities. Once Daiki was free, Taiga lifted him up and cradled him in his arms. "Aomine, look at me, hey—... Hey, I'm back. Like I promised. Please, say something..."

Daiki didn't speak, but he raised his eyes to look at Taiga. They were empty, dead inside, broken. Aomine stared at him as if he was a doll. A soulless, used, broken doll.

Taiga gently wrapped a blanket around him and then picked him up bridal style. He held him close as he tried his best to navigate around the dark, tight corridors. He then went through the closet and carried Aomine out to the main area, where just below the window, the firemen were waiting to get them both up. They lowered a rope, waited for Kagami to wrap it around himself and Aomine, then together, they pulled them up. One guy grabbed Daiki from his arms and held him for a moment, letting Taiga climb out on his own. Then, Kagami picked him up again, and cuddling Daiki close, he got onto the ladder from the firetruck and waited for it to lower down before slowly getting his feet onto the ground.

Aomine looked around. Sunlight. He hadn't felt it in so long. The green grass, the blue sky, the yellowish red sun and the strong arms that held him. The alpha that carried him. The fact that Daiki was naked, with nothing more than a blanket wrapped around him, made it more intimate than it should be. There were so many people around.

Daiki was still holding the radio tightly and Satsuki's voice was still reaching him through it. When they pulled him out from the attic, he heard Momoi excitedly say how she spotted him and how happy she was. As soon as Kagami got on the ground, Momoi and Sakurai ran up to them and immediately hugged him to tightly Kagami had to crouch so as not to drop him.

With his legs and hips still on top of Kagami's lap, with Taiga's hands holding the blanket up around his waist, Aomine fell into the arms of his friends and broke down again. He cried, cuddling them both tightly with his bony hands.

"Let's get to you the hospital, okay?", Satsuki sobbed, patting his back. "Kagami-kun, can you go in the ambulance with him?"

"Huh?", Taiga frowned. He wanted to! He really did! But he assumed that Momoi would want to be there. "Y-Yeah!"

"Mhm, we'll be right behind you then, okay?", she sniffed and wiped her tears. She cupped Daiki's face and pressed their foreheads together. "Thank you for still being here..."

Momoi wanted to go in the ambulance with him, she wanted so much. But she saw how Daiki clenched his hands around Taiga. How he didn't want to let him go. She saw how Kagami held him. And besides that - if she went with him, she wouldn't be any support for him during the ride. She was so close to breaking down into a sobbing mess she couldn't be trusted with being the pillar that Aomine needed. She needed those extra few minutes to compose herself before being able to stay with Daiki and help him in any way he needed her to.

Her hands were too shaky to drive, so Sakurai took care of that. They followed the ambulance to the hospital.

Meanwhile, inside it, Kagami was squeezing Daiki's hand, kissing the knuckles with tears cascading down his face. Aomine was breathing slowly, trying to observe the surroundings, but he was so tired his eyes were closing all the time.

Kagami's hand felt so warm and so real. Not like it felt in Aomine's dreams. One of them moved to Daiki's forehead and moved his hair out of his face.

"Daiki", Kagami called, moving his warm and big hand to Aomine's neck. His thumb was careesing Daiki's cheek, as Taiga whispered his name again. "Daiki."

Ah. His given name felt so nice on Kagami's tongue. Daiki closed his eyes and smiled softly. It was okay if he took a little nap, right? Kagami wouldn't leave him again, right? If he opened his eyes, Taiga would be there, right next to him, he would hold his hand.

Daiki still deserved to be loved, right?

Momoi and Sakurai got to his side as soon as he was pulled out of the ambulance. The EMTs took him inside and a doctor came in to check on him. He could see a bunch of students standing outside of the room. The lady smiled at him and asked if it was okay for the students to come and watch.

Momoi frowned and screamed how insensitive she was for asking that, considering how Daiki was a kidnapping victim, but before she could explode, Aomine squeezed her hand, making he's stop. He looked at the doctor and nodded.

"... A-Are you sure?", Satsuki gulped. Aomine nodded again, squeezing her hand assuringly.

He wanted people to look at him. He wanted people to pay attention to him. He wanted to be noticed. He needed to know that he was important. Aomine had always loved attention. He loved when people praised him, when people knew him, he thrived when people were interested. He loved to be alone whenever he wished, but for now - being alone was the last thing that he wanted to be.

The students had entered the room. There were three of them and they followed the female doctor (who introduced herself as Shimura, a gynecologist) like three little ducklings.

Shimura asked Momoi, Kagami and Sakurai to leave so she could perform a physical exam on him, but Aomine refused. He squeezed Momoi's hand harder, making her hiss in pain. Kagami had let go of his hand when getting out of the ambulance, but he was in Daiki's line of sight, so it was okay.

Seeing his attachment, Satsuki was allowed to stay on his side, while Kagami and Sakurai stood to the side, deeper into the room.

Chapter Text

A student sat on his side and carefully attacked an IV to his arm. Then, another one, inserted a feeding tube. It wasn't the most comfortable experience and the students hands were shaking from stress and the fear of accidentally hurting him. Once those were in, the third student was tasked with performing an ultrasound. He made sure to ask about consent with each motion that he did and he carefully and throughoutly explained what he was going to do.

Firstly, he moved the blanket away (in that moment the doctor asked one of the students to go get some gown for him to dress up). Then, he poured the gel on his belly after warming it up as much as he could. Finally, he pressed the ward to his abdomen and began looking for the fetus.

"Would you like something to write on?", the doctor asked. Aomine nodded and she grabbed the notepad the student was holding and turned it to an empty page, then gave to him. The student awkwardly gave Daiki her pen as well and then she stood still next to her mentor, having nothing more to do.

Daiki temporarily let go of Momoi's hand to write on the notepad, so Satsuki moved her fingers from his hand to his arm and loosely held him there. Once he was finished, he turned the page around.

"When did it die?", was the question.

"... What died?", the doctor asked unsurely.

"The fetus", Daiki added to the question.

"Uh, I—... I don't think it's dead", the student doing the ultrasound on him said. He turned the monitor towards him and pointed at the screen. "Do you know which week were you?"

"It was eighteenth back in late May", Aomine wrote.

"Then you should be around thirteenth now", the student calculated. Thirtieth? Hold up, thirtieth?!

"What day is it?", Aomine wrote with shaky hands. The doctor looked at him sadly and bit her lip.

"It's the sixteenth of August", Momoi said. "You were gone for three months."

Daiki stayed silent for a moment. He also gladly accepted Momoi hugging him. Three months of his life, gone. All because of one scumbag of a human's sociopathic ego.

"... Shimura-sensei, I really don't think it's dead. I mean, it has a heartbeat...?", the student interrupted and pointed at the screen. "It's small for thirtieth week but it looks healthy?"

"Let me see...", the doctor frowned, then turned to Aomine. "Is there a reason that made you think it died?"

"Zero movement and a few punches landed on my stomach a while back", Daiki wrote.

"Zero movement as in you haven't felt anything at all? Not a single kick, no nothing?", she asked and Daiki nodded. She turned to the student and said: "Okay, we'll do a Doppler flow in a moment, for now, please check the AFI."

Meanwhile, the third student returned with the gown.

"Finally!", Shimura-sensei sighed. "Are you able to dress up yourself? Your family can help, of course."

Aomine nodded, so the doctor left the gown on the table while she watched the student continue the ultrasound.

"AFI normal", the student said. "And so is the heartbeat."

"We'll put a monitor on you then", Shimura-sensei explained. "It will monitor the heartbeat and movements so we can know what's wrong."

The student whose notebook was given to Daiki went to get one, then as she returned, she gently lifted him to the side, slipped the band under him and wrapped it around. She then placed the device on Aomine's rather flat stomach and locked it in place with the clip.

Daiki took a look at him body. His bones were so visible he could be an anatomy model for medicine students. The baby bump that he had always dreamed of when he was younger looked disgusting. There was no fat to make it round, so only the amniotic fluid somewhat kept its shape. It was rather hidden inwards, barely leaving his pre-pregnancy body shape, which made Daiki believe it would be invisible if he ate normally.

He was glad that the bed was relatively soft. After sleeping on the floor, Aomine's whole body was covered in bruises. He didn't have any fat or muscle mass to cushion anything so he was forced to lie on his bones all the time.

Right now, he was at the point where he started to realize what was going on. Haizaki was gone, off to somewhere. Based on their reactions and that they haven't told him Shougo was in prison, it must have meant that he wasn't. Three months had passed. It was the middle of August. Daiki's twenty-ninth birthday was soon. And he saw sun for the first time in forever. Kagami was there, Momoi was there, Sakurai was there. He wasn't going to be alone anymore.

Since he last saw Contraband, not much he remembered. There was a moment when everything was hot. The blanket was too much and he was literally burning in his skin. After that came the moments of waiting for Contraband. Then, the moments of realization: he was not coming back. Then, the moments of fear: Daiki was left alone to die out of hunger and thirst. They left him to death, to a very painful and long death. Then, the moments of acceptance: he spent hours lying on the floor, trying to reach the cubby, crying. Then, the moments of lost hope: he stopped moving to drink the remaining water he had. He stopped eating the remaining snacks he had. He even stopped using the toilet. He just lied on the ground, in a pond of his own urine and excretions, too tired to clean himself. Then, the moment of death: at least it was what he thought at the beginning. That a kind angel came to take him to the afterlife. Aomine wasn't exactly Christian, but the one who came for him wasn't a shinigami, it was an angel. He even had a halo.

Only when he heard the angel cry and he felt his kisses did Aomine realize that he was still alive and that he was in the arms of Taiga.

"Do you have any other questions or requests?", Shimura-sensei asked him before taking her students and leaving. Aomine hesitated for a moment, but then he pressed the pen onto the paper and after writing the message, he turned it around.

"Can you kill it?"

Chapter Text

Shimura-sensei stoped in her tracks and gulped.

"I can perform an abortion after legally confirming that the fetus is a result of rape", she said. "Although, I'd rather have a court order as well."

"... Isn't it illegal after twenty-second week?", Momoi asked.

"Not if it's life endangerment or rape", the doctor explained. "But, like I said, you'll have to get an official statement in court."

"It's gonna be okay, we'll get the papers", Satsuki sat on the edge of the bed and hugged him, bringing his head to her neck. She placed her chin on the top of his head and closed her eyes. "It's gonna be okay. We're here for you."

Aomine closed his eyes as well and nodded.

"I'll leave you guys alone for a while. Make sure that he gets some proper rest", the doctor smiled. Daiki gave the student's notebook back to her so she could pass it on to the owner. "I'm gonna get you something to write on."

"Can I talk to you for a moment?", Satsuki asked. She kissed Daiki's forehead and called in Sakurai and Kagami to take her place while she left the room with the doctor. Shimura-sensei sent her students away and made sure to move with Momoi away, far enough for no one inside the room to hear them.

"Is there something wrong?", the doctor asked.

"Why doesn't he speak?"

Shimura-sensei took a deep breath. Her hand clenched on the clipboard she was carrying with her.

"I'm not a psychiatrist", she started, "but if I were to take a rather uneducated guess, it would be that some kind of trauma is keeping him from it."

"What?"

"It is not my area of expertise", Shimura-sensei noted. "I'm going to consult a psychiatrist for that and I'd also advise Aomine-san to speak with him. He went through a lot and he clearly has a lot of issues right now. From attachment issues, through his muteness, to his self-hatred."

Satsuki looked over her shoulder at the door leading to the room Aomine was in.

"What... What do we do?", she slowly raised her eyes at the doctor.

"... I'll go get the psychiatrist", Shimura-san smiled gently.

Meanwhile, in the hospital room, when Momoi left, Ryou basically jumped onto Daiki. He immediately cuddled him, then cupped his face to look at him for a moment and cuddled him again.

"So it's finally my turn, hm?", Sakurai chuckled. "I swear to every thing that can hear, I'd kill you for disappearing like that if it wasn't for the fact that you look pathetic... I'm sorry."

Aomine actually smiled and even chuckled at the comment, his hand clenching on Sakurai's. Ryou ruffled his hair, then looked at the blanket covering Daiki's naked body.

"Let's get you showered and dressed up, okay?", he asked, then glanced at Taiga. "Sorry. Get him to the shower, will you? I'll drag the IV."

Kagami gulped, but he walked over to Aomine, stood in front of him, then all red on his face asked:

"Can I touch you?"

Aomine bit his lip as he stared at Taiga. He was given a chance to consent. He was given a chance to say no. He was asked about something and his opinion mattered. Daiki's eyes became glassier with every second, until he finally broke down into a sobbing mess. He was still staring at Kagami as he nodded and pulled his arms towards the alpha, making grabby hands.

Taiga stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Daiki's torso. He gently lifted him up a little and moved one hand down to under his ass. In one, but not very swift, motion, he picked him off the bed and waited for Ryou to get the IV stand. With it right next to them, they moved Aomine to the bedroom where Taiga placed him under the shower and left so Ryou could wash him.

Kagami waited outside the bathroom door - Sakurai was an omega, like Daiki, so it was okay, right? Kagami understood that Aomine might not necessarily feel good about being naked in front of many people, especially in front of alphas, so he waited outside. That was it. He wasn't abandoning Aomine or anything, he didn't want to make him think that Taiga found him disgusting and didn't want to look at him.

Aomine knew that, right? Right?

As Sakurai was washing him, Momoi had reentered the room.

"Where's Dai-chan?", she asked.

"Sakurai is helping him take a bath", Kagami explained. Momoi nodded and sat down on the chair, then covered her face in his hands. "You good?"

"Dai-chan's gotta talk to some doctors. It's too late for a rape kit", she said. "We need to have some proof of rape to try for that stupid paper."

Rape kit was an invasive procedure, especially in Aomine's mental state. Besides, it would prove nothing, as Haizaki hadn't touched Aomine in a few weeks. Besides - because Aomine was on his heat and got pregnant before the kidnapping, the chances of the court ruling in their favor were slim if not nonexistent.

Satsuki knew the reality. Rape might not often be her field of expertise, as the Tokyo Metropolitan Police had a separate department for sexual assault, but kidnapping was more than the Criminal's Department area. Nevertheless, she knew how hard it was to prove rape that happened during an omega's heat.

And it was because of the pheromones. They made omega's mind hazy and made them search for a partner to get pregnant with. Because of that, almost all omegas raped on their heat are not showing the signs of struggling or fighting back, and any video evidence showed them willing to participate in the act.

Aomine's case was even more complex - the pregnancy wasn't a result of rape, as Aomine did consent to that sex. He didn't consent to being impregnated. And the rape happened much later, it just happened to be the father of the baby.

Needless to say, the chances of Aomine being able to get the permission for an abortion so late in the pregnancy were close to zero.

Chapter Text

Aomine was sitting under the shower. Sakurai next to him was gently washing him with a towel and soap, trying his best to get off the excretions off him without hurting him. He washed Daiki's long hair - they were more damaged than the last time Ryou touched them. And much longer. Maybe only three months had passed, but Daiki's hair growth was impressive.

Ryou carefully washed the shampoo out and wrapped his hair in a towel. Then, he dried his body and once he made sure the soap got rid of the smell, he wrapped Aomine in a towel. He sat on the floor, next to the wall, with Daiki in his arms and waited for a few minutes before putting him into the gown, so his skin could dry a little on its own.

"Are you feeling a little bit better?", Sakurai asked him, rubbing his hand on Daiki's back. Aomine nodded. "That's good. Wanna get dressed up?"

Aomine nodded again. Ryou called in Kagami for help. The alpha entered in and gently took Aomine into his arms, then lifted him and slipped the towel off his body. He was holding Aomine, helping him stand for a moment as Sakurai put the gown pants on him. Then, Ryou put the shirt on him. He took the IV bag off for a moment, slipped it through the sleeve and reattached it to the stand.

"To the bed", Sakurai ordered, buttoning up the clothes on Daiki's chest. Kagami picked him up and then carried him back and placed him gently in the hospital bed. Momoi was there with a doctor, waiting for them.

"Hello", the man spoke. "My name is Hasai Rei, I'm a psychiatrist. I also brought you a tablet for communication."

Daiki took it and grabbed the stylus that was attached to it. He tested it out, by writing "Hello".

"Would it be okay if I talked to you alone?", the doctor asked. Aomine got worried and looked at his friends still present in the room.

"No", he wrote, his hands trembling a little from stress.

"I understand", the doctor smiled. He sat down next to Daiki's bed. "I came to talk to you about everything that had happened. You think you're able to?"

Aomine took a moment before writing his response. Momoi sat down on his side and squeezed his hand for an encouragement.

"I don't know", Daiki finally wrote.

"That's okay", Hasai-sensei smiled. "Keep in mind, you don't have to reply, if you don't want to talk about something."

Aomine nodded. Ryou and Taiga also sat down on the chairs next to him and enjoyed his presence as he talked with the psychiatrist. Daiki wanted them there. He wanted them to listen now, as it would be way harder to explain everything later. As he wouldn't dare to speak about it so openly to his friends directly. As he wouldn't be able to explain it to them without the help of a psychiatrist making them shut up and listen.

The man asked questions about his unwillingness to speak. Be asked if it was related to something that happened when he was locked. Whether they hurt him when he spoke. Aomine denied it. He explained that he just... lost the need to. That no one talked to him so he never felt the need to talk back. That he kept silent and never told him to speak. Then, the doctor asked him if he had any reason to speak now, that he was with his friends, and Daiki had fo think for a moment.

"Yes, but I can't", he replied.

"Do you know why? Is it a certain emotion?"

"No", Aomine wrote. "I don't know. I just can't."

"That's okay, we'll work with that and I'll try my best at helping you overcome whatever is holding you back", Hasai-sensei smiled.

They talked how important it was that Aomine understood that it wasn't his fault and that it was okay to ask for help. That his friends were there for him, that they weren't going to abandon him. That he was safe now and they wouldn't dare to hurt him.

After Hasai-sensei left, Momoi got a call. As it turned out - the firefighters cleared the entryway to the attic and they could come in for an investigation. Satsuki sent a forensic team over to lift up any fingerprints, but Daiki stopped her by squeezing her hand.

"You and Ryou should go there and take care of it properly", he wrote, biting his lip and trying his best not to cry. He didn't want them to leave, but he wanted that fucking rape case to be won. And they needed proof very quickly.

"Are you sure?", Satsuki asked, wiping the tears of his face. "Dai-chan, it's okay, we can stay with you—"

Aomine shook his head. "I want the hellspawn gone", he explained.

"We'll be back as soon as possible", Sakurai said. "Sorry, but I don't know if they let us in after visitor hours."

"I'll stay", Kagami informed. "Uh, if they let me, I can stay for the night, too. Just", Kagami pulled out his keys and gave them to Momoi, "feed Sei for me... please."

Aomine's heart skipped a beat. Sei. Oh god, he was such a horrible being. He wasn't better than Haizaki. How the hell could he have forgotten about his beloved malicious cat?! How come he hadn't asked about Sei yet?!

"Is he okay?", Daiki asked with his hands shaking. Momoi stood up from the chair next to him, letting Kagami take her place. Taiga grabbed Aomine's hand and squeezed it.

"Yeah", Kagami smiled. "I took care of him. Although he's extremely sad - he spends most of his days sleeping and waiting for you to come back."

"I miss him too", Daiki sniffed. "I wanna see him."

"I don't think cats can enter hospitals", Taiga chuckled. "But I'll make sure when you go out for a walk around the building, Sei's gonna be there."

Sakurai and Momoi looked at each other. "Okay, we're going then", Satsuki informed. "Kagamin, I hope you won't disappoint us."

"I wouldn't dare, ma'am!"

"Good."

Chapter Text

Sei was lying on the sofa in Kagami's apartment. His tail was gently swinging left and right as he was listening to the bullshit that was playing in the television. Kagami was less and less home, which only made the cat lonelier.

Sei lost almost all meaning to his life. His human was gone, his family was gone, the only one he had left was Kagami Taiga and even now Taiga was gone too. Sei couldn't leave on his own anymore, his brother and mother were a lost cause most likely.

Sei heard the lock click but he ignored it. Just a other day when Taiga came by late and immediately would go to sleep. Just another day when no one paid any attention to him.

"Hey", a voice that wasn't Taiga's called. Sei raised his head and looked at the entryway. "Where's your food, hm?"

It was a woman he had recognized - Satsuki. She was Daiki's friend and she was also often with Kagami those recent days. Sei sighed and ignored her,but as she passed by, his eyes perked up.

That smell. She had Daiki's smell on her.

"Meow!", Sei immediately stood up and ran behind her. When she stopped to pour him some water, Sei stood on his back paws and sniffed her hand. "Meow!"

"... You smelled him?", Momoi smiled. "Yeah, Dai-chan is back. You're gonna see him soon."

It was true! His human was okay! His human was alive! Sei couldn't sleep that night, wondering when was he going to finally see Daiki again. He had to apologize - he wasn't the nicest to him before he went missing...

Meanwhile, Kagami was lying on Aomine's bed with Daiki cuddling into him. Taiga was telling him a story, but he wasn't exactly listening. The alpha was right next to him. Aomine's head was lying on his chest. Aomine's hand was on his heart. The heart was beating. Kagami's arm was wrapped around him. He was being hugged. Taiga smelled nice.

Aomine had a feeding tube in, as because of the lack of food his stomach was not able to handle much, so he mostly smelled the plastic and the protein mix that was going down his throat. Nevertheless, Kagami's smell was feelable. And Daiki loved it.

He started listening when Taiga said a story of his birthday - when he baked a small cake for him and Sei to enjoy and how they left a piece for Daiki as well. And how the piece was inside the fridge still, waiting for him, although now stale. Kagami talked silently, not wanting to draw attention to the room, so as he wouldn't get kicked and so as Daiki wouldn't be left alone for the night.

"I'm twenty-five now", Kagami chuckled. "That's halfway to thirty...."

Aomine smiled. What was he meant to say? He was turning twenty-nine in a few days.

"Hey, Aomine", Taiga called, his fingers gently moving on Daiki's back. "I'm glad I stopped that elevator."

Daiki smiled. He tried reaching for the tablet that was on the bedside table, but the IV was too short to allow him, so Taiga passed it to him. Aomine tapped the screen and held the stylus in his hand for a moment.

"Thank you", he wrote finally.

"For what?", Taiga asked. Aomine didn't reply for a longer while.

"Do I need a reason?", Daiki finally wrote, hiding his face in Taiga's chest.

"Hm, no, I guess", Kagami chuckled. "Hey, uh, I just want to know that... If you don't get the court to agree for an abortion, I'll help you. Like, I can hold your hand when you'll be giving birth..."

Aomine closed his eyes and held the stylus to Taiga's lips to make him shut up.

"Not now", he wrote with his eyes still closed, barely readable as his hand didn't even found the writing area until the half of the first word. Daiki let go of the stylus and placed his hand back at Kagami's heart. Then, his fingers joined in the rhythm.

Ba-dum, they tapped against Taiga's skin. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

"You shouldn't be lying in the patient's bed", a young nurse peeked through the door to reprimand Kagami. Aomine's smile faded from his face - he clung closer to the alpha, not letting him move an inch. "Especially after the visitor hours had ended. Please, go home. We have work to do and visitors being here is far from helpin—"

"Mei, shh", an older woman, a nurse as well, entered in behind the young girl. "You're going to wake him up."

Kagami looked at Aomine, who was already asleep in his arms. When did he fall asleep? Or maybe he was acting to get out of the situation and force Kagami to stay for the night?

"But—"

"I'll get you a recliner, sir. You can place it right next to the bed, but try your best at actually staying in it, instead of the bed", the nurse smiled. "We have that rule so that it's easier for us to help the patients if something happens that require our attention."

Kagami nodded, still rubbing Daiki's back. He thanked the nurses and as soon as they brought in the armchair for him and left, Aomine suddenly wasn't so 'asleep' anymore.

"I'll stay with you", Taiga said. "I'll hold your hand for the night, okay?"

Aomine was far from being happy about that, but he was glad the nurse didn't kick Taiga out. Because then, Daiki would scream, kick and cry, until Kagami was allowed to stay.

Aomine watched carefully as Kagami reclined the armchair and put the bedding on it. Then, Taiga took off his pants, socks and his shirt, and in underwear only, he lied down next to Aomine and placed his hand on the mattress next to him. Daiki got to the side as much as possible and intertwined their fingers together, getting as close as he could to Taiga.

"Goodnight, Aomine."

Goodnight, Kagami, Daiki replied in his thoughts, his throat not letting him say it out loud.

Chapter Text

The next day, when Aomine woke up, Kagami was already awake, dressed up. He was sitting on the chair next to him, holding his hand and resting with his eyes closed. Daiki hadn't slept well - he was scared for sleep surrounded by people and while the alpha's presence did ease it out a little, Aomine was still too scared. Every time he heard footsteps, he was awake, praying it wouldn't be Haizaki.

Taiga's hand made it possible to close his eyes. Without it, there was no way Daiki would be able to sleep. He squeezed it a little, checking if Kagami was awake.

The burgundy eyes opened and looked right at him, with that lovely shine to them, with the sparkles that happened only when they looked at him (or basketball, but Daiki was unsure about the second, he hadn't seen Taiga play). Kagami got closer to him, then moved his hand up to his mouth and kissed the top of it.

"Have you managed to sleep a little?", he asked, rubbing Daiki's forearm reassuringly.

Aomine shrugged and took a deep breath. He was tired, he missed his own fucking bed. He missed his cat. He missed having a normal life. At this point, he would rather be single for the rest of his life.

The doctor came in a while later and checked the monitor that was on him. She explained that there was nothing wrong with the baby and that while it was moving very little, everything seemed normal. Then, she asked if Daiki would like to do more tests, but Aomine refused.

"If it's not aborted then it'll be left here for adoption", he wrote. "I don't want it."

Kagami felt bad for the baby. It wasn't their fault they were fathered by someone like Haizaki. Being an unwanted child wasn't easy - Kagami himself knew quite a lot about it. His mother abandoned him, his father hated his existence. He was raised by nannies, who changed every few months so Taiga wouldn't grow too close with any of them.

Kagami's mother never wanted kids. She believed that kids cut her freedom. She married rich and focused on her career - she was a chef in five-star restaurants, she planned on opening a restaurant of her own when she had learned that she was expecting a child. Kagami's father didn't care - he was focused on his own life, his own career. Upon learning the news about the pregnancy, he shrugged and returned to work. Despite not wanting to have kids and having three previous abortions from three earlier accidents, the two of them decided to maybe give it a chance. They were well into their thirties by then and figured they could always get a nanny. So despite neither of them wanting kids, Taiga was born.

From a very young age, he knew that he was unwanted. At first, his parents were excited. He saw millions of photos of his pregnant mother, the baby shower, the gender reveal. Then, came the labor. His mother hated every second of it and as soon as it was gone, she scream how she would never do this again. Both of them hated waking up at night to feed Taiga, both of them quickly lost interest in the child when they found out they had to care for it as much as they had to enjoy the perks of having a son.

His father never played in the yard with him, his mother never cooked with him, she not once breastfed him after leaving the hospital. Every day, he ate with them in silence, hating the fact that he was brought into the world, hating how he was forced to live as the unwanted one. His father never hid his mother's abandonment a secret - when young Taiga asked where she was, a cold reply came: "she didn't want you and left when you were nine months". Since that day, Kagami's father blamed him for his ruined marriage.

Kagami never could find his place in the world. He met Alex and Tatsuya when he was young, he learned how to play basketball and he excelled at it. At sixteen, he got accepted into NBA training program and one and a half years later, he started his first season with them. His father ignored him until one of his co-workers congratulated him on Taiga's joining the Bulls. At that moment, the man have not even realized that Kagami wasn't living with him anymore.

At twenty-three, Kagami injured his knee. He was forced to end the season early and return to Los Angeles for physical therapy. With his father's oh so encouraging words about finally quitting the child's play of schoolyard games and finding a real job, Taiga took his things and left.

The last time he had been in Japan was when he was an infant. When his mother left, his father packed all of their things and moved to the United States, leaving nothing but an old apartment behind. Kagami moved in there and started looking for a job - and to his father's (surprising) content, he began working as a fire investigator in a fire station. It wasn't until two weeks into his job that he learned that his very own father began sending money to the station just so they would keep Taiga working there and not let him return to playing basketball.

Kagami knew what it meant to be unwanted. And he hated the fact that Aomine's baby was just like him.

"I'll take them", Kagami said when the doctor left. "If they're not aborted."

Aomine's eyes widened as he looked at the alpha. "What?"

"Instead of giving the baby up for adoption, give them to me. I'll raise them."

"Why?"

Kagami bit the inside of his cheek. "... No one deserves to be unloved from the moment they're born."

Daiki looked at him confused for a while before taking a deep breath. "Do whatever you want", he wrote on the tablet, then placed it aside.

Chapter Text

The breakfast was nice. It wasn't much since Aomine's stomach wasn't used to eating a lot after three months of poor amount of meals, but it reminded him of Asiyah. He wondered, where did she end up?

Kagami stayed with him during breakfast, but he hadn't eaten anything. After the breakfast, Taiga got a wheelchair from the corner of the room and asked Aomine to get in.

"We're going on a walk", he said with a smile. "You need some fresh air."

Daiki's muscles were weak and he had troubles walking because of the lack of strength, but he tried his best to move there on his own two feet. Kagami helped him and held him up a little, but Daiki still did most of the job. Taiga then moved the IV to the hook in the wheelchair and did the same with the feeding bag.

"Where are we going?", Aomine wrote as Kagami drove him to the elevator.

"Outside. It's a nice weather, warm and sunny. I asked the nurse if it was okay when you were sleeping and she said that as long as we didn't leave the hospital premises it was okay", Taiga explained. "Besides, Hasai-sensei said you should wander around. That it was good for you."

Aomine didn't question it - he just let Kagami roll the wheelchair outside, as he enjoyed the warm air and the heatwave that hit him. He listened to the bird humming a song and closed his eyes, resting his head on Taiga's palm that held the wheelchair handle. Then, he heard a long, familiar scream.

"MEEEEOOOOW!"

Aomine opened his eyes just in time to see a red pile of fur jumping at him. He opened his arms and smiled as the cat cuddled into him and began purring. The claws dug into the hospital gown and refused to let go. Daiki wrapped his hands around Sei and smiled.

"He knew you were back when I came to feed him", Satsuki explained, joining them soon after. "He sniffed your smell on me."

Yeah, because he's a smart fella, Aomine thought as he kissed Sei's head. The cat cried in his arms as Daiki left kisses on him, enjoying every second of having the pet back in his arms. After almost ten minutes, Sei moved away, huffed and lied down on Aomine's lap after making biscuits for a moment.

Ha! That was the cat Aomine had known so well!

After staying on the outside with Sei, Satsuki and Taiga for a while, it was the time to go back to the room. Or rather, he was about to have physiotherapy.

Aomine's body was weak, but he was cleared by the doctor to try walking on his own again. So now, wearing the hospital gown, Daiki was being out on his own two feet by Kagami and the nurses. And after that, he walked slowly towards the physiotherapist. It wasn't an impossible task, but it was enough to tire him out. Nevertheless, Kagami's bright smile kept him going, unbeknownst to any of them.

Around lunch, Momoi switched with Kagami, as Taiga went to grab something to eat and change his clothes. She stayed with him until the evening, when Kagami came back again and stayed with him for the night. Then, they entered a routine, where Kagami, Sakurai and Momoi stayed with him outside of their work shifts, always making sure he wasn't alone at any given time.

On the twenty-first of August, a judge paid a visit to him. Or rather, a representative that took his statement to present it in court during the hearing, since Daiki was excused from being there himself. Together with him, there was a lawyer that Momoi hired - a young alpha who introduced himself as Miyaji Kiyoshi.

"Dai-chan, is it okay if I go to the toilet for a moment?", Satsuki asked when the representative left, leaving only the lawyer. Aomine nodded, but unsurely about it. Momoi then excused herself and went to the bathroom connected to Aomine's room, giving Daiki just enough time to question the lawyer.

"How's Kazunari?", Daiki asked, turning the tablet with the question around.

"... Nothing escapes your eyes, yeah? You're kind of like Takao in that matter", Miyaji chuckled. "He was worried sick. He sent out a bounty for Haizaki - only alive. He said something about letting the bastard rot in jail. And oh believe me, he will after all the words Takao spread out about him."

"How's the kid doing?", Daiki wrote.

"The kid? Takao's?", Miyaji frowned and Aomine nodded. "I'd have to get back to you on that."

Aomine stayed silent for a moment before writing his final question. "Be honest. What are the chances of the court agreeing to the abortion?"

"... Almost non-existent. The video of him poking the condoms helps, but still, most of those types of cases get rejected even before the judge hears the story."

Seconds after that, Momoi returned and sat down next to the bed again. Miyaji assured them he would do anything to fight for answer they wanted to get, then left the room. Daiki took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He wanted to go home. He wanted this whole nightmare to be over. He wanted... to live. Again.

"I'm gonna be with you no matter what", Satsuki whispered. She cupped his face, kissed his forehead and then rested her own against his. Aomine wanted to believe that everything would be okay, but he knew the truth.

He was going to be stuck with that demon spawn. His only hope was to believe that it would die before being born or that it would be a stillbirth.

Nevertheless, Kagami's words rang in his mind. Deep inside, Daiki knew it wasn't the baby's fault that it was about to be born. It was Haizaki's fault. He was the rapist. He was the one who babytrapped him. But still, Aomine knew that those were Shougo's genes and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't love the fetus. He couldn't love something that was made by someone who hurt him so much.

Chapter Text

Momoi and Sakurai were in the court while the case was being discussed. Kagami stayed with Aomine at the hospital, waiting for the news.

Which weren't great. Miyaji tried his best and presented a very solid case, but the judge unfortunately wasn't an omega-ally. She was a beta herself, which made Kiyoshi throw a few arguments how "she herself could have been in a similar situation", which at first made the judge's strict expression soften a bit, but in the end, she refused. Then, Miyaji disagreed with yet another factor - Daiki's health was poor and there was a chance that his body would not be able to handle the stress of labor and delivery.

The judge still stood unchanged. This time however, she agreed that it was an important part of the question, but currently Aomine was able to handle it.

"However, that situation may change in minutes", she explained. "And that is why I am going to agree to a late termination of pregnancy, but only on specific conditions. And that is his health. As of this moment, there is no permission, yet, the second his health depletes and there's even the slightest risk of the plaintiff losing his health to that depletion, you have my consent."

It wasn't what they were hoping for, but it was something. Aomine wasn't happy with those result nevertheless, no matter how much he mentally prepared to hear something worse.

"I'm sorry I couldn't fulfill your expectations", Miyaji apologized after they explained everything to Aomine.

"Thank you for trying", Aomine wrote, not even looking at Kiyoshi when he showed it to him. Kagami squeezed his hand, he rubbed his thumb on the skin of Daiki's knuckles, as if telling him that everything would be alright. That he wouldn't be alone.

That he was going to be there.

Aomine had a lot of time to think while he was abducted. Thinking about his feeling, about his future, about the past - it all became his routine. Taiga had always been in his thoughts since then - it was just like Satsuki. His found family.

He hadn't talked to his parents in a while. They were amazing people, but Daiki was always busy, they were always busy and they had little to no contact for the past three years. Now, Aomine regretted that. He wished he had never stopped answering his mother's calls. He wished he had never stopped visiting them once a month for a dinner. He wished he hadn't refused his father's proposals to go out with them, together.

Daiki wasn't alone and he was thankfully for it. There was Sakurai on his side, reading a book out loud for him, but Aomine hadn't listened for a while now. He took a deep breath and placed his hand over his belly.

He didn't want the baby. Bo matter how much he tried, he couldn't want it. He wanted to be a mom, he wanted to hold a little bundle of joy in his arms, he wanted to make cookies with a toddler that would spill every ingredient outside of the bowl, he wanted to walk home with a kid that would happily sing the songs learned at the kindergarten, he wanted to help a child with the homework, he wanted to listen to the annoying thing that one teacher did, he wanted to hear everything about the amazing person a teenager would have a crush on, he wanted to sit in the first row and watch as a young adult is being walked to the groom waiting up front. He wanted to see so much.

But not a single one of those visions had the baby from his uterus in them.

"... Sorry, are you even listening?", Ryou huffed and pouted. "For how long have you been in the clouds?"

Daiki's fingers twitched on the tablet in his hands. He grabbed the stylus and held it above the white canvas for half a minute before his grip relaxed and the pen fell off of his hand. Sakurai observed him for a while before reaching to grab it. He passed it back to Daiki and waited for him to grab it again.

"How's your family?", Aomine eventually asked. "Kou, Ryouko, Imayoshi?"

"... They all missed you very much", Ryou smiled. "Kou couldn't wait to play with you again."

"Liar. There's no way Imayoshi missed me."

"He did. Shou might not like you a lot, but he cares about you.... Okay, he missed teasing you, mostly. But he was worried."

"Yeah, that's more believable."

Sakurai chuckled. He grabbed Daiki's hand and squeezed it. "Aomine-san... Please don't try doing anything stupid. We're going to help you fet through those weeks, and then you can leave the baby up for an adoption. You don't have to take care of them."

"... What are you implying?"

"That you're going to hurt yourself to get rid of the baby."

Aomine did think of that. Ever since he heard that ruling, he thought of grabbing any type of meds that he would get his hands on and eating them, just so his state would worsen and just so the doctors would immediately decide to terminate the pregnancy. He had it in mind, but he was too scared to be left alone to do it.

Because none of his friends would allow it to happen.

"Aomine-san?"

"I'm sleepy, goodnight", he wrote and placed the tablet on the bedside table. Sakurai connected the charger for him and took a deep breath as he watched Daiki turn his back to him and curl up in his bedsheets.

Ryou knew Daiki did think of that. And that was why he brought it up. He wanted to talk further, to explain how this wasn't the answer, how hurting himself wasn't going to do anything. The baby was at the thirty-first week of the pregnancy, if Daiki did something to hurt himself, the baby would just be born prematurely. Which could make Aomine even die, but wouldn't kill the baby.

Sakurai knew Daiki wanted to get rid of the fetus, but he couldn't let Aomine lose his health or life for it.

Chapter Text

Kou carefully entered the room, hiding behind Ryou's legs. Aomine smiled at him and waved, which instantly made the kid beam up and run up to him. But a few decimeters before the bed, he stopped and gulped, as he started playing with his fingers. He bit his lip and looked down with a pout before sniffing and raising his eyes again.

"Mama said Daacha's sick... A-And Daacha can't speak... A-And I need to ask before", he sniffed, "hugging Daacha, a-and that—"

Aomine smiled and placed his index finger over Kou's mouth to shut him up. Then, he reached out his hands to the kid, waiting for him to jump into his arms. The kid smiled brightly and walked into Daiki's hands, holding on and waiting to be picked up. Aomine tried, but from the position he was in and weight of the child, he didn't have enough strength.

"... Maaamaaaaa! Daacha can't pick me up!", Kou sniffed. "So no more airplane...?!"

"For now, no, I'm sorry", Ryou sighed, as he walked over to his son and picked him up. He placed Kou on the bed and slowly helped him sit next to Daiki without hurting him.

"Nee, Daacha, you can have Bunbun", Kou said as he made grappy hands towards Sakurai, who pulled out the kid's favorite toy from the bag and gave it to him. "Bunbun makes people strong!"

Aomine smiled as he took the bunny plushie into his hands. He bit his lip and wrapped his arms around Kou, bringing him into a hug. He kissed the boy's head and ruffled his hair.

"Daacha...", Kou mumbled after a while. "Taaga keep you safe?"

Aomine cuddled the kid tighter as his face got all red. Kagami Taiga. The alpha that... Well, that what. That took care of him even if he didn't have to? That acted more like his boyfriend than his first ever boyfriend did? That did one thing wrong in his whole relationship with Daiki and it was using the tone once on him in emotions?

Aomine's heart was going crazy every time Kagami and him were alone in the room. Every time Kagami stayed for the night, Aomine felt much better. He spent days hoping to get back home not to leave the hospital or to finally be there, but so that the nurses wouldn't tell them to sleep in separate beds. He wanted to go back home so that he could lay his head down on Kagami's chest, so that he could have Sei sleep with them as they would enjoy their lazy mornings.

Somewhere in his vision there are kids too, but that was the background.

Sakurai and Kou stayed for a while, until they got switched by Kagami. Taiga stayed a moment with the two of them as Kou recognized him. Before leaving, Daiki placed Bunbun back in the boy's hands. Kou protested, but then Aomine wrote "I have Taiga to keep me safe, so you gotta have Bunbun". Kou of course couldn't read, so Ryou read it out to him by whispering it into his ear, so Kagami couldn't see or hear.

"Ohhh!", the boy caught on and smiled brightly. "Okie! But promise?"

Aomine nodded and held out his pinky finger. Kou happily accepted the promise and then asked Daiki if he could visit again in a while, to which Aomine agreed.

"... Haven't seen him in a while", Kagami pointed out after the two Imayoshis left (because if you have forgotten, Aomine's work partner's name was Imayoshi Ryou, née Sakurai, and his kids were Imayoshi as well).

Aomine nodded, his hand instinctively searching for Taiga's, whose fingers intertwined with his almost after the slightest twitch indicating Daiki's need for so. Kagami stayed silent for a moment before speaking up.

"I won't be able to come for two days", Taiga admitted, making Aomine's heart stop. Daiki squeezed his hand so hard Kagami not only wondered how much strength could he posses but also was forced to yelp in pain and get his hand out of the hold before he would also be admitted to the hospital.

"Why?", Aomine's eyes screamed so much that he didn't even have to write that question down.

"I'm having checkups done", Kagami explained. "For the rut. So I can't take any meds. So I'm gonna stay for two days in the same hospital, just two floors below you in a closed room."

Daiki's hand muscles loosened and he wrapped his hand around Kagami's again. "Is everything okay?", he wrote down.

"... One was late so I've been having a battery of tests for a while now. For now, all I can say is that I do not have pituitary cancer."

"You had a cancer scare?!"

"Yeah, but just a scare."

"Thankfully. I don't know what I would have done if I lost you", Daiki hid his face behind the tablet as he showed the message.

Ah. There it was. The Aomine Daiki Kagami knew well. The asshole that sometimes made Taiga think he had a chance.

"You're getting released in three days", Taiga reminded him. "So you better finish your physio and get cleared, so I can take you home quickly, asshole."

Aomine chuckled, biting his lip. "Will you stay with me?"

"Are you asking me to move in?", Taiga frowned.

"... No?"

"Cuz like... If you need someone to help you around the house, then I'm down, I guess?", Kagami mumbled, scratching his neck.

"Yeah, I might need a cook."

"I can also clean, do laundry and wash the dishes", Taiga huffed, which made Aomine smile again. "... Yeah, I wanted to ask you something."

Daiki tilted his head, waiting for the question.

"... Is there something you'd like to do on your birthday? Go somewhere? See something?", Kagami asked. "It's in nine days after all."

Aomine thought for a moment before grabbing the tablet. Then, with the device in his hands, he stood still before writing one word from his dream on the white canvas.

"Beach."

Chapter Text

Kagami couldn't exactly explain what he was feeling. His heart felt bigger than it was normal, as if it grew so big it couldn't fit in his chest anymore and was pressing against his sternum, making it hard to exhale. His throat was clenched, sucked in by the pressure created by the suddenly grown heart, and his tongue rolled back into his esophagus, not letting him swallow his saliva. He could hear his heartbeat in his brain and his arms and legs became so heavy he couldn't move them.

He tried to speak, but his words were stuck in his throat, held back by the tongue and pulled in by the pressure in his chest. It felt like a heart attack - Kagami never had a heart attack, but he was taught how to recognize the signs on his first aid classes.

Aomine was looking at him funny. After a moment, he reached out his hand and cupped Taiga's cheek. His hand was bony and cold, but it felt the best. Kagami's shaky hand covered Aomine's and held it in place as Taiga slowly began to take deep breaths again. Daiki waited for an explanation, clearly worried about the sudden explosion of emotions.

"On the day you went missing", Kagami started, "Sei was with me. And I said how I wanted to take you to the beach in the summer."

Taiga chuckled, squeezing Daiki's hand. He kissed the inside of it, just over the wrist, before he spoke again. "I used to surf when I was younger. I wanted to teach you a little, I even bought a board. I never went to try it out."

Daiki bit his lip. He ran his thumb over Kagami's cheek, making Taiga close his eyes and relax. When he opened his eyes again, Aomine was sitting on the ledge of the bed in front of him, holding a tablet on his lap.

"Teach me surfing."

"... I will", Kagami smiled, still holding Aomine's palm in his hand. "I promise I will."

Aomine placed the tablet on the bed and stood up in front of Taiga. He refused to take his hand off Kagami's cheek, as he sat down in Taiga's lap. Only when he cuddled in did he let go of Kagami's face and wrapped his arms around the alpha's neck and back.

"Aomine", Taiga almost whispered, cuddling him. He tightened the hold around Aomine's waist and upper back, put his nose in the crook of Daiki's neck and closed his eyes. "I hate you so much sometimes."

Aomine huffed, annoyed, and moved away a little to look Kagami in the eyes.

"But you're still my favorite person", Taiga finished. "Like, ever. I don't think I ever had someone better in my life."

Daiki cuddled into him again, trying to hide his stupid grin and his glassy eyes.

Later in the night, when Kagami had already left and got switched by Momoi, Aomine was lying in his bed, holding her hand and looking at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep again (maybe that was why his state wasn't getting better?), but it wasn't just the movement and steps this time.

This time, it was also the hand wrapped around his heart, squeezing it. It was the weight drenching him and making it hard to breathe. And most importantly - the squeezing and twisting stomachache that happened whenever Kagami said something affectionate to him.

It made him wonder - what the hell was that? A newly developed praise kink? Or rather, a new awakening of it, as Aomine was almost sure he had it before. Okay, he was pretty kinky for a virgin, but he was a porn addict after all and he never said he was not.

A year or so back, he would have already gone crazy after such a long time without a vibrator, but now? Having sex felt weird. And he didn't crave it at all. Instead, he wished for closeness, platinical even, just as long as he could feel safe.

From his perverted journey through the porn sites as a teenager and a young adult, Aomine learned four things. One - he was into anal. Two - he had a praise kink. Three - he liked it rough. And four - he liked toys. There was also five - he loved dress-ups - but it was proven wrong by Haizaki even before Daiki was abducted. Every time Shougo made him put some fancy lingerie on, he hated it. He just couldn't bring himself to like it.

Then, he got abducted and was raped anally even every day at certain times. He had a few doctors check it out and was even close to a reconstructive surgery, but since it had already started to heal up nicely, the doctors decided to give it a few more days to see if it would be necessary.

Which crossed realizations number one, three and four off his list, leaving only number two.

Daiki sometimes wondered if it was his fault. If he deserved it. Maybe he did - maybe he deserved to be raped, kidnapped and almost murdered for being a dick to everyone. Maybe he didn't deserve praises.

Which crossed realization number two off his list, leaving nothing.

It sounded absurdly ridiculous, but Aomine couldn't help but wonder - will his relationship with sexual intercourse ever be normal again? Will he ever be able to undress in front of someone, hold their hand as they would touch him where that bastard did, would he ever allow someone to see him throw his head back.

Would he ever be able to throw his head back in pleasure? Would he ever be able to feel pleasure? Hell, would he ever be able to not have a panic attack with someone so intimately close?

There were many things Daiki was thinking about. Now, that he wasn't speaking to anyone, he found writing bothersome and focused on writing less than he was thinking, meaning that many matters stayed in his mind instead of being spoken out loud.

He wondered the most about his emotions - or rather, the indifference he was feeling. It was the same feeling that clenched around his heart when he was depressed and honestly? It just made Aomine think that out of all possible outcomes, a depressive episode might be his best result.

One thing didn't match up to his depression, however. And that was the clenching around his heart when he was near Kagami. Somehow, no matter how similar they seemed, Aomine could tell those two apart. Which made no sense. Why was he indifferent differently towards Taiga?

Chapter Text

Aomine gulped. He couldn't exactly tell what was going on with him - his heart was racing, his hands were twitching when they wrapped around anything that wasn't Taiga's body part and he was waiting for Kagami to enter the room.

But he didn't come. Just as he said he would. Three days later, Aomine was getting ready to be discharged. Momoi was holding his stuff and asking if he had everything packed, when Daiki randomly looked at the door to the room and refused to move.

The smell. He knew that smell. That faint smell of the alpha in rut - not just any alpha, the one that he already smelled before. It was the exact same scent as the one that spread around his apartment after a certain someone accidentally got his rut in the middle of it.

"Hey", Kagami said as he entered the room with a knock. Aomine immediately jolted out of the bed and jumped into his arms - his movement was still compromised but it didn't seem so when he ran across the room. "Missed me that much?"

Aomine lifted his legs off the floor, hanging himself onto Kagami, who laughed as he kissed Daiki's cheek and spun him around. After Taiga placed him down again, Aomine cupped his cheeks and smiled brightly.

"Hey", Kagami repeated, wrapping his hands around Daiki's waist.

"Okay, sweethearts, let's go home, you're gonna finish being lovey-dovey there", Momoi chuckled. "I'm glad you're enjoying your company, but I bet there's a certain cat at home waiting to also be hugged."

Aomine immediately pushed Taiga away and began walking towards the elevator. No matter how happy he was to see Kagami again, Sei was waiting for him! And Aomine was still guilt tripping himself for not carrying about the cat more. He should have thought about his little rascal every day and instead? He almost forgot!

Daiki didn't run away far, as he was taking breaks every few steps, so Kagami and Momoi quickly caught up to him after gathering all of their things.

Satsuki smiled. "He didn't get a panic attack as he lost us both from sight", she whispered to Taiga, as they were walking two meters behind Daiki, following him out of the hospital.

"... That's good", Kagami exhaled, as if the first time in a while. His shoulders relaxed and he instinctively smiled as he looked at Aomine.

"Yeah."

They followed him to the elevator, then down towards the reception where Aomine picked up his final documents and signed a few papers. After that, he waved to the receptionists and left, holding Kagami's hand.

They got into Satsuki's car, both of them taking the backseat and letting her drive in peace while they both focused on thinking about their stupid emotions.

Kagami's hands were sweating, his heart was racing and it felt like he couldn't breathe. Why? He had no clue. It seemed to have been Aomine sitting in the car with him, observing the road in silence. They fingers were intertwined, Daiki's head was resting on his shoulder and all of this just felt so... domestic.

As if they were meant to be like this.

Kagami couldn't spend the rest of his life like this, which totally didn't help. Which meant one thing. His crush on Daiki had evolved. Into something huge. So huge Taiga was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold it in. Which was bad, especially now that Taiga's feelings were compromised because of the baby Daiki was trying to get rid of.

Kagami tried his best to ignore those feelings inside him but it was hard. It wasn't like he was pro-life and fully against abortion, no. He was against Daiki getting rid of an almost thirty-two week pregnancy just because the kid was unwanted.

Okay, that sounded bad. That sounded really bad. Not wanting a kid was a completely valid reason to want an abortion, but...

No matter how he would state it, it sounded bad. Kagami felt do horrible about even thinking about forcing Aomine into an unwanted motherhood, but his inner child knew what happened to unwanted kids.

Kagami just wanted the baby to be loved. So technically... If it died, that problem would be gone. But in order for that to happen, Daiki would have to get hurt. And Taiga didn't want that to happen.

So he was pushed into a situation with no good exit. Abortion meant harm and lack of it meant the birth of an unwanted baby that would suffer their entire life.

Aomine nudged at him once he realized Kagami was deep in his thoughts. "What's wrong?", as if his eyes asked.

"Nothing... I was just thinking 'bout you", Taiga admitted, making Daiki blush and look away.

Aomine's feelings were confusing. He had never felt anything like this before - his heart racing, his guts twisting, his throat clenching and his head pounding. What the hell were those supposed to be? Some of them happened during his depression era, but not all at once! If he thought deeper, he kinda had a slightly similar combo before - at the beginning of his relationship with Haizaki, when the man acted like a gentleman and spoiled him with gifts, fancy dates, compliments and his fake charming persona. Could it be—?

No. There was no way Aomine's crush on Kagami was back, right? There was no way in hell Daiki was falling in love two weeks after being pulled out of living hell. There was no way in hell Aomine had just been raped for three months and almost killed on multiple occasions and he was falling in fucking love?!

During his sleepless nights at the hospital, Daiki had thought about falling in love again. Would he ever be able to trust someone new? Would he ever be able to allow himself to engage in a new relationship? Would he ever be able to get comfortably naked in front of someone?

And then. There was Kagami Taiga. Who helped Aomine bathe in the hospital, who was patient with him, who had a great relationship with his son (Sei), who declared his help in raising the kid that wasn't even his (the fetus) and whom Daiki trusted so much he wouldn't allow him to be away for too long.

And whose hand he was now holding as he was slowly falling asleep in the back of his sister's car. Just great.

He was falling in love. Again. Like a dumb bitch of a teenager. Moreover, he was falling in love with a man he didn't deserve.

Chapter Text

Aomine tried his best to stay positive. To not think about the past three months. To just... Shut it deep inside and ignore for the rest of his life.

When he opened his eyes after falling asleep in the car, he was in the elevator of his apartment complex, resting in the arms of Kagami Taiga, being carried bridal style to his home. Oh, the deja vu.

As they were leaving the elevator, Daiki fixed his head's position to give Taiga a sign he was awake. Kagami smiled at him and continued carrying him until they reached the apartment door. As soon as Satsuki turned the key in the lock, a loud "MEEEOOOOW" sounded behind it. Momoi chuckled as she opened the door and the red devil jumped out, immediately climbing Kagami's legs and cuddling into Daiki's arms.

"Damn he's heavy!", Taiga chuckled as the extra weight in his arms. He walked inside and left Daiki on the sofa, letting him rest together with Sei. "We cleaned your apartment three days ago and refilled the fridge a little."

"I'm gonna go to the store and grab the rest of the groceries", Satsuki informed them. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

Aomine waved at her before curling up on the couch and cuddling Sei so hard the cat would remember the hold for a week. But Sei didn't care - he purred and licked Daiki's face before calming down and deciding in becoming a guard of his human.

"I got you a whiteboard", Kagami said, passing a small, tablet-sized whiteboard with a black pen and a small magnetic sponge to erase the writing. Aomine smiled as he took the gift. He held it in his hands and just stared at it, catching Sei's attention. The cat purred and placed his head on Aomine's chest. He licked Daiki's cheek and closed his eyes.

"Are you going home?", Aomine reluctantly turned the board around, hiding his face behind it.

"... Do you want me to?", Kagami turned the tables. If it depended on him, he could move in here and stay with Daiki forever. Okay. No. Stop. His feelings for Daiki shouldn't be involved in this. Kagami should try his best to put those aside, he shouldn't look at Aomine as someone whom he would fuck. That was stupid. Daiki had suffered enough, he didn't need Taiga on top of that.

"No", Daiki wrote, kissing Sei's head. "Stay."

"I will then", Kagami smiled so brightly Aomine was taken aback. Taiga meanwhile cursed in his mind. Fuck. He was supposed to hide his crush on Aomine, not show it around! "Any request for dinner?"

"Made by you", written on the whiteboard made Kagami prouder than it should have. Taiga couldn't contain his stupid grin and happily ran to the fridge to check what he could make for the four of them (although Sei would be getting a different versions, most likely). Aomine meanwhile turned around on the sofa to peek over the headrest and observe Kagami cook. At some point, Satsuki came back and joined Daiki on the sofa after unpacking the groceries.

"If you want to get back to work, you can say it", she said. "I don't know what your plan is, whether you want to rest or get back to a normal life, we'll support you."

Go back to work, huh? Aomine was lying with his head on Satsuki's lap, with her hand brushing his hair. He closed his eyes. Did he want to get back to work now? Eventually of course, but now?

"You don't have to reply", she smiled at him. "Focus on what you need right now."

Daiki was almost falling asleep - ah, how he missed those days back in highschool, where he was enjoying the warmth of the sun on the school rooftop, with Kise and Midorima arguing above him. How Midorima was a total ass tsundere but he never said anything when Daiki placed his head on Shintarou's lap during the lunch breaks. Kind of similar to how he was lying on Satsuki's lap now. Except Midorima was always too stunned and shy to touch him, so he just awkwardly avoided all eye contact and kept his hands away from Daiki's face.

Aomine didn't even remember what they were mostly arguing about. Food probably - Kise was often on a diet because of the modeling career, which pissed them off, especially that one time when they found out Ryouta was eating cotton wool to lose weight. Oh, they never let him live that down.

"The food is ready", Kagami informed them, wiping his hands in a kitchen towel. Daiki slowly sat up, then wanted to stand up to sit at the table, but Satsuki and Taiga brought the food to the coffee table instead. They waited for him to sit down comfortably, then gave him a plate.

He missed Kagami's food so much, Daiki realized as he was enjoying the meal. He finished the entire plate - he hadn't felt so full in so many months, he wanted to cry.

And actually soon later, he did. He gave the empty plate to Momoi so she could put it down on the coffee table and he started sobbing, wiping his tears away. Kagami quickly sat down next to him, leaving his plate on the table as well. He unsurely and hesitantly wrapped his arms around Daiki and pulled him into a hug. Soon after, Sei raised his head from the floor where his bowl was placed and also joined in.

Momoi sighed. "Don't leave me out...", she chuckled as she also put away her food and wrapped his arms around Aomine from the other side. "Why are you crying, hm? Ah, good to know you're still the same little Dai-chan I walked to school every day..."

Aomine found his whiteboard and placed it on his lap. With shaky hands, he wrote "I'm happy", before wiping the board clean with embarrassment written all over his face. Satsuki chuckled and pulled him closer into a hug, while Kagami sat there stiffly, proud of himself.

Chapter Text

As they finished eating, Satsuki was putting the dishes into the dishwasher and observing as Kagami gently took care of Daiki and Sei.

"Dai-chan, maybe Kagamin should stay with you and help you around, hm?", she suggested.

"A-As in...?", Taiga blushed furiously.

"I don't know, move in for a while?", she joined them on the couch. "If you don't want to, I can do it—"

"If it's okay with Kagami", Aomine cut her off by holding the whiteboard in front of his face, covering his own blush.

"I—I mean, would you like me to?", Taiga mumbled. The yes that appeared on the whiteboard might have been written a little too quickly.

Momoi smiled - it was so obvious that they had a fling for each other. She had seen it for so long now, that the day Daiki told her about his boyfriend, she was sure it was Kagami. It might not have been the best moment to get into a relationship, but she believed they could finally realize their feelings and at least maybe confessed - she had hoped Taiga would wait for Aomine to be ready to date again and he wouldn't pursue a relationship without making sure it was what Daiki truly wanted.

"I can stay for a while, if you wanna go grab some stuff from your apartment."

"It's gonna take a while, by a train here and there", Kagami pointed out. "So I'll be back in maybe two hours or so..."

He looked at Aomine, as if waiting for permission. Daiki nodded, wrapping his hands around Sei who was in his lap again. While Kagami rushed home to grab some stuff, Daiki cuddled Sei again. All he could think of was his love for the cat - or rather, the apparent lack of it as he barely thought about the pet in those three months. He didn't wonder if someone gave him food, he didn't wonder if Sei had a roof above his head. He was a horrible human being.

But Sei still purred in his arms, he still listened to him, he still loved him. Aomine didn't deserve it.

Eventually, Momoi finished up cleaning and sat down next to him on the sofa.

"I have something to tell you", she said, not looking him in the eyes. "And I need you to listen."

Aomine stayed silent (which wasn't actually a surprise, considering how he was fucking mute), and turned towards her a little, as if letting her now that he was indeed listening.

"When you went missing I lost control of my life", Momoi started. "In that time, I started drinking. I was black-out drunk even every day at some point. I've... I've been going to therapy for a while. And uh, I've been sober for almost four weeks now."

"Congrats", Daiki wrote on the whiteboard.

"... You're a fucking brat", Satsuki let out the air from her lungs. "It took me two weeks to confess that and all you have to say is congrats?!"

She jumped at him and started ruffling his hair. "You little annoying brother— I swear, I'm out here pouring my heart out and you take it in as if it's nothing?!"

Daiki smiled, but he wasn't laughing. He hadn't laughed in a while. But he smiled brightly, making Momoi laugh for them both. "Glad to know you haven't changed", she said, cupping his face. "You're still the same Dai-chan."

She wanted to tell him about Kuroko at first, but she couldn't. So she changed her confession right after saying the first words. Firstly, she would ask Tetsuya out, then she would tell Aomine. And Kuroko had promised to agree to start dating once she would one hundred fifty days sober. Then, she would invite Kuroko and Aomine over to dinner where she would introduce the two.

After almost three hours of them enjoying their time together, Taiga came back, carrying two duffel bags with him. He left those near the door and joined the two at the sofa.

"I'll leave you guys alone", Satsuki said, gathering her things. "Oh, yeah, what's your plan for shifts, Kagamin?"

"I have one tomorrow morning", Taiga pulled out his phone. "And uh—"

"Send me the days, I'll come over with Sakurai to switch you out", Satsuki smiled. "As long as you want it, obviously, Dai-chan."

Daiki nodded. He still had the irrational fear of being alone, but it seemed to be getting better - he wasn't frantically checking his peripheral vision to look for people, he was okay with them being not in his field of vision, but somewhere behind him, making noises.

Okay, maybe it wasn't irrational - he had been abducted and help captive for three months, it was a miracle his mental health didn't deteriorate further. It wasn't the greatest - he couldn't speak for a reason he couldn't understand; he was staying silent in captivity because he didn't have a reason to speak, but now? He had people he cared about around him again, he had all the reasons to speak, but his throat was clenched shut and refused to open. He was still listening into the steps and the cracks, he was seeking patterns and he could differentiate Momoi's presence from Kagami's and Sakurai's. He felt psychotic.

"I'll call a therapist", Satsuki informed. "Would you like to visit the office or have the therapist come over?"

Aomine thought for a moment. Going out seemed scary, especially going out alone. He didn't want to leave home alone. Inside, even without someone close he felt safe but outside? Nuh-uh. Yet on the other hand, having a therapist over? He also didn't like that.

But if he asked, someone would go with him, right?

"Outside", he wrote. But did Aomine deserve to have someone go with him? He felt like an ass, his friends circulated between their lives, between their work, their home chores and visiting and taking care of him. All of that for nothing in return. He was a burden to them, a useless doll they now had to take care of. Kagami even moved in to watch him! And Daiki was just an ungrateful bitch. And he still used them for his own gain like a selfish slut.

"Okay", Momoi smiled, unaware of Aomine's thoughts.

Chapter Text

After Satsuki left, Kagami went to grab his bags and brought them to the living room.

"Hey, wanna take a bath?", Taiga asked randomly, pulling Daiki away from his thoughts. "I mean, you p-probably haven't relaxed in a while, yeah? There was only a shower in the hospital—"

"Yes", Aomine wrote, cutting Kagami off. The alpha sighed and walked over to Daiki, then held his hands out, waiting for Aomine to grab them. Sei raised his ears as he felt the movement and hissed at Taiga. No one would be stealing his human now, even if it was Kagami.

"Sei, we're just going to take a bath", Taiga ruffled the cat's fur. "You can go to the bathroom too."

Aomine carefully placed his hands in Taiga's gentle hold and allowed him to helpd him stand up. Kagami supported him under his arm, but didn't rush him or carried him. Instead, he let Daiki walk in his own peace, he allowed him to take all the time he needed and to be as careful as he wanted.

The bathroom was clean - someone scrubbed it crystal clear, they even got rid of the calcium stains on the mirror. Daiki sat down on the closed toilet and looked at Kagami.

Oh. This would be the first time Taiga would be there to bathe Aomine. All the time in the hospital, Kagami would carry him to the bathroom, leave him under the shower and let Ryou do everything, then carry Daiki back to the bed and eventually hold him upwards for a moment for Sakurai to dress him up. But he had never bathed Aomine on his own.

Oh this was going to be awkward.

"Should I leave?", Taiga asked, crouching in front of him. "I—"

Aomine shook his head. His hand instinctively found Kagami's and squeezed it. He was very embarrassed, especially with his heart beating so quickly with Taiga nearby, but he wanted someone close to him. He wanted to be hugged, he wanted to lie in somebody's arms and sleep.

And that somebody had a face of his husband from his dream - the definitely not Kagami Taiga.

"I'll go grab your whiteboard", Taiga stood up and let go of his hands. "I'll be right back."

Daiki's breathing got heavier when Kagami left the bathroom, but it was okay, he was still making noises, he was still there, he was still talking, Aomine wasn't abandoned, he was going to be okay—

"I'm back", Kagami said, reentering the bathroom. He gave the whiteboard to Daiki, who hesitated for a moment before writing "bathe with me" on it.

Kagami stared at the whiteboard with his whole face red and his eyes barely being able to look in Aomine's direction. He gulped and stuttered as he spoke up finally:

"A-As in... You want me to—... B-bathe... With you?"

Aomine nodded, playing with his fingers. He began thinking - he knew he changed, no matter what Satsuki had said before. Previously, he would stand proudly in front of Taiga and inform him about his will, he would smirk and joke about it, he would tease Kagami for being a pussy and not wanting to agree. And now? He was sitting on the closed toilet, holding a whiteboard in his hands, drained out of energy.

Was it okay for him to ask that? Was it okay to ask if Kagami could bathe with him? Was it okay to push that kind of physical contact onto the alpha?

"Okay", Taiga mumbled, his face still as red as his hair. "Okay..."

Daiki raised his eyes, they were wide open in shock. Really? Was it really okay? Could he really—?

"Let me undress you", Taiga said, as he was turning on the water. He set the temperature and crouched in front of Daiki again. He carefully helped Aomine undress - he helped him stand up, he pulled the shirt off him, he slipped his waistband down, making Daiki's pants and underwear drop down onto the floor.

Kagami stared in awe at the goddess in front of him. Aomine had gained some weight in the hospital - his bones were no longer protruding from his skin, he regained his colors and his face was no longer gray, his hair had grew longer and now we're reaching his waist, falling down his body in cascades. He was still thin, but there were some healthy rounding around his body. Ever since he had started eating normally, water had started to collect in his body, making it chubbier. His face was round, his thighs got thicker, his belly no longer looked five months pregnant - now it was bigger, still relatively small, but definitely visibly round. His breasts got bigger too - nothing like a D-cup or anything, but they were slowly reaching the standard size for male omegas during the pregnancy. He looked godly, even without the months of skincare and haircare that he always did.

"You look beautiful", Kagami babbled out, instantly realizing how he should have said that in his mind instead of out loud.

Aomine blushed, but still looked into his eyes, looking for lies. After finding none, his lips creaked into a faint smile.

"... Step in", Taiga pointed at the bathtub that began filling more and more. Aomine broke the eye contact and carefully, while holding Kagami's hand he sat down in the middle of the bathtub, looking at the space behind him, hoping Kagami would take the hint and sit down behind him.

Meanwhile, Daiki observed as Taiga grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head, revealing the toned abs and - oh for fuck's sake - the thin trail of hairs going up to his navel from under his waistband. Aomine gulped, taking a insightful look at the hot alpha in front of him. Had Kagami exercised more? Or maybe he had changed his training program?

"You're staring", Taiga pointed out. He wanted to tease Aomine, throw in a comment, but he didn't know if it was okay. What if Daiki took it badly? Kagami felt like he was stepping on eggshells near the omega and he had no clue if it was even what Aomine wanted him to do. He took a deep breath and decided to risk it. "Like what you see?"

Chapter Text

Aomine bit his lip when he was asked and looked away for a moment. Shit. What now? Of course he liked what he saw, Kagami was a hot young lad that was undressing in front of him!

Okay, Aomine had a feeling that he was aging himself. He was almost twenty-nine, Kagami was twenty-five. Yeah, he was younger, but not a lot. Those were just four years.

Aomine looked back at him in the moment Kagami was pulling his pants and underwear down. Daiki caught a glimpse of the scene and immediately turned his head around, looking at the water in front of him. After careful consideration, he closed his eyes altogether. A few seconds later, he felt Taiga entering the water behind him.

Kagami gulped - he shouldn't have asked that. Aomine was clearly touch-starved and Taiga felt like he was using that for his own gain. Aomine sat down in the way that basically forced Taiga to sit behind him and let Daiki take a place in his lap. At first Kagami hoped that they could maybe sit next to each other sideways, or maybe in front of one another, so that it would be easier for Kagami to hide his erection once it happened - which would most likely happen. But now, he was screwed.

As soon as he sat down, he gently pulled Daiki towards him until he was between his legs, but sitting on the bathtub surface instead of his legs. Which wasn't any better, as his dick was still touching Aomine's body - just not his vagina, but his ass.

Daiki tilted back until his back was pressed against Taiga's chest. Aomine placed his head on Kagami's shoulder and opened his eyes. It was warm. Kagami's arms were on the edges of the bathtub, scared to touch him - was he disgusting to touch? Aomine wanted to be embraced, to feel the closeness of the person he—

He what. Cared about? Aomine was at the point of his life where he couldn't imagine it without Kagami. When he thought of his birthdays, Taiga was there. His weekends? Kagami. His job? Kagami. His meet-ups with friends? Kagami. His wedding? Kagami. Playtime with his kids? Kagami.

No matter what Aomine thought of, Kagami was there. He felt safe in his arms, he felt happy when Taiga was there, he felt like he belonged in the embrace that he had experienced. The moment he saw Taiga enter the cage and find him, he felt like he had been saved. His heart yearned Kagami's hold, Kagami's touch, Kagami's smile, Kagami's smell. He couldn't live anymore.

Taiga sighed behind him, then wrapped his arms around Daiki. He pulled him in closer and closed the water with his leg while moving slightly back and bringing Daiki with him. He lied down comfortably on the slope and tried to relax. On the shelf in front of them, there was a basket with a bunch of shampoos and bathing salts Aomine had been using.

"Wanna make bubbles?", Kagami asked, pointing at the basket. Daiki look at him, then nodded. There was a bath bomb if he remembered correctly. He moved away from Kagami and pulled himself towards the basket, then fished it out. He opened the plastic wrapper and threw the blue ball inside. It immediately started to sizzle, turning the water into a foamy, blue mess. While at it, Daiki also grabbed another bottle and poured some into the water, then returned to Kagami and sat back down in between of his legs. He closed his eyes for a moment, listening into the sizzling and Taiga moving around a little to make bubbles.

Then, Daiki opened his eyes again and turned on the hydromassage. The bathtub squeaked a little and soon after began working, making the water move around and creating bubbles. Kagami chuckled and wrapped his hands around him again, but this time he placed his head next to Daiki's and pressed his cheek to Aomine's temple. He swayed him around a little, humming a song Daiki couldn't recognize.

Then, Taiga's hand wandered down and rested on Daiki's pregnant belly. The second one stayed wrapped around Daiki's shoulders, just above his breasts.

"... Ever thought of a name for them?", Taiga asked silently. "At any point, not just recently."

He shook his head. He reached his hand out towards the closed toilet and grabbed the whiteboard and the marker.

"I was never sure if I wanted to carry to term", Daiki explained.

"Please don't hurt yourself", Kagami hugged him tighter, his lips almost kissing Daiki's jugular as he spoke. "I won't handle it if you die."

Aomine dropped the whiteboard and the marker outside the bathtub and cuddled into Kagami. The warmth of his body made him feel that special way - the way that Haizaki never made him feel, the way that Daiki wished Haizaki would make him feel.

Aomine could fall into his dream again. A dream where there was Kagami, their kids, Sei and a sandcastle on the beach. He could live in a dream where Taiga was holding him, dancing in the moonlight with him, kissing him as the sun was setting down, holding his hand as they would be walking back to their home, with the kids jumping around and chasing Sei around them. He could live in a reality where waking up next to Kagami was an every day occupance, where there was a mark on his neck, where there were butterfly kisses left on his face in the morning, working as his alarm. He could exist in a place where nothing else mattered, but the warm sun rays falling on his body, the smiles of people he cared about, where there were two hands that perfectly matched the shape of his hips. A world where he would slow dance in the middle of the day while the sauce in a pan would be burning and sizzling, where there would be eggshells in the scrambled eggs after the child helping to make it squeezed the egg instead of cracking it. He could live in a world where—

Holy shit. He was in love with Kagami Taiga.

Chapter Text

"Meow", a little annoyed sound came from the bathroom floor. Sei huffed at them and jumped onto the toilet to check out what was going on. Then, he hissed and jumped on the edge of the bathtub, then after checking the water temperature, stepped inside and cuddled into Daiki, who happily accepted him.

"He missed you", Kagami pointed out, scratching the cat behind his ear. "He refused to go outside for so long. He was staying at the couch, waiting for you for days."

Daiki smiled as he cuddled the cat. Sei's fur was all wet, but the cat didn't care, surprisingly. It was almost the same as those weeks prior, when Aomine had a mental breakdown and was crying in the bathtub. Sei joined him in as well. But this time, there was also Kagami and his arms wrapped around Aomine's body, there was that gentle hold, the murmur of the hydromassage, the nice feeling of a bath bomb and gel dissolved in the water.

"Can I wash your hair?", Taiga asked, playing with the half-wet strands that were dipped in the bath water because Daiki was too lazy to tie them up. Aomine nodded and moved forward so Kagami could change his position.

Taiga grabbed the shampoo and the conditioner. He reached towards the small bowl that was lying under the shower - Daiki used to mix hair masks in there before applying it and leaving it under the shower to dry. He never had a chance to pick it up since then. But it allowed Kagami to swiftly find so something to pour water into so he could wet the rest of Aomine's long hair. Once they were soaking, Taiga poured some shampoo onto his hands and then gently combed Aomine's hair, applying it neatly.

He massaged his scalp and brushed his hair with his fingers. He then rinsed the hair with clean water and grabbed the conditioner, all while Daiki observed him in awe. Taiga knew how to wash the hair properly and he knew how to apply conditioner. Did he do his research or something? Because the last time Aomine checked, Kagami didn't even know his hair porosity (or that there were different types, even).

Aomine wouldn't lie, it made his heart beat faster. Someone had made research just because they wanted to what? Impress him? Satisfy him? Please him? Didn't matter - Taiga did it for him. For him. Not because he had a need for himself, but because Daiki cared about it.

Kagami carefully separated each strand and added conditioner to it. Once he was done, he grabbed a hair clip and pinned Daiki's hair up do they wouldn't touch the water.

"How long do you wait?", he asked, embarrassed, as he finished. His hands were resting on Daiki's shoulders and his lips were basically touching Aomine's neck.

Daiki showed him five fingers as he leaned back into Taiga's hold again. Sei in his arms stood on his back paws and licked Kagami's face, then snuggled in between of the two, stealing some of the attention.

Aomine looked up at Taiga. His hair was wet as well and smelled of Daiki's shampoo - when did that sneaky bastard had time to wash his own hair too? Aomine turned around in his arms and sat on his lap, with two of his legs on the separate sides of Kagami's body. Sei lied down on Taiga's chest so as not to drown while Aomine placed both of his hands on Kagami's forehead and then combed his hair back.

God damnit, Taiga looked hot. With that smug smile of his, with the ajared eyes observing his every move, those sharp white teeth and with his lip corners pulled up with the zygomaticus major muscle and not with the risorius. Aomine wanted to scream.

And yet, his vocal cords couldn't make a sound.

"Your birthday is in three days", Taiga pointed out after Daiki had been staring right into his eyes for a little over three minutes. "I'm taking you to the beach. I took two days off."

Aomine tilted his head. His hands moved downward and rested on Kagami's neck.

"You have a swimsuit? We can go buy one tomorrow if not", Kagami asked. He placed his hands on Daiki's hips and fought the urge to bring him in closer - however if he did that, their private areas would not only touch but also rub against one another and no matter how hard Taiga tried to fight back his erection, his will would not be strong enough.

Daiki thought for a moment before shrugging. He did have a swimsuit but he probably wouldn't fit in it because of the stupid belly. And it would look ugly. And it was old, why would he show himself in something old in front of Kagami—

Why was he even trying to show off? Thinking of sex disgusted him. Dating? He had shivers just thinking about it. Trusting someone so deeply again, letting them into his heart, showing his fears and his deepest regrets, letting someone see the full of him again.

With Taiga it felt different, natural. Like it was supposed to be that way. It gave Daiki the hope of being understood, but at the same time his hands were shaking at the thought of allowing that to happen.

And yet, he was in the bathtub naked with the guy he was in love with, thinking about how to impress him while being pregnant with his rapist's baby.

"Meow", Sei purred, still lying on Kagami's chest. The cat shivered a little and sneezed.

"Yeah, we should get out", Taiga chuckled. "Let me rinse your hair."

Aomine took Sei in his arms and turned around. He let Kagami unfo the hair clip and waited as he rinsed the hair in running, clean water. Then, he moved as far away from Aomine as he could and stood up. Daiki held his breath and tried not to look - he shouldn't. Why would he even want to? That seemed like a sexual thing to do and every time he thought about sex, he had Haizaki in front of him.

Kagami stole a clean towel from the shelf and wrapped it around his waist, then with another one, smaller, he walked up to Daiki and grabbed Sei from his arms. He covered the cat in it like a croissant and left him on the washing machine.

"Don't move or you're gonna fall down. I'm gonna dry up your human now", Taiga said, grabbing another fluffy towel from the shelf and walking up to Daiki. He held out the towel in front of him using his pinky and ring fingers pressed down onto his palms and held out the other six digits for Aomine to grab. Daiki stood up and stepped out onto the floor mat, then was immediately wrapped in the towel with his arms locked inside. Kagami smiled, then picked him up bridal style like that and carried him to the bathroom, accompanied by Sei's protests of leaving him there.

Chapter Text

Aomine was lying naked in his bed, with his hair wet and a total tightly wrapped around his body, unable to move. Okay, if he tried then he would get free, but why would he try? He was safe. He felt safe.

Kagami and Sei joined him soon - Taiga was holding the cat with one hand and his whiteboard in the other. He placed the cat next to Aomine and looked at them from above. He stared at them for a moment, then left the room and returned after a few second with his phone in his hand and quickly took a photo of them both, lying next to one another with only their heads peaking out of the towels.

Kagami smiled as he climbed onto the bed and got ready to take another picture, this time from straight above.

"Smile?", he chuckled, as Daiki pouted. He bit his lip, but followed Kagami's request, smiling at Sei right next to him and then at the camera. "Fucking hell, you guys look amazing."

Kagami smiled as he entered his phone gallery and made the close-up photo his lock screen wallpaper. He locked the phone and threw it onto the mattress before grabbing Sei and quickly drying him enough to release him from his towel prison. Aomine got unrolled soon after.

"Where's your PJs?", Taiga asked, sitting in between of Daiki's legs. Aomine's thighs were resting on Kagami's hips, comfortably. Aomine wasn't against the touch, even if only the towel around Taiga's waist separated them.

Daiki shrugged. He kept them in his bedside table, so they were probably there but he didn't want those. For his entire stay in the hospital, he craved Kagami's touch. He craved another body next to his during his sleep, no matter how unnatural that sounded. He felt safe in those arms and he wanted them to hold him. And today? Lying naked in Kagami's hold, with nothing separating them seemed like the only option to spend the night.

Aomine grabbed the whiteboard and the marker, then while holding the cap in his mouth, he wrote: "Sleep with me tonight. Naked." Then he erased it before showing it to Kagami.

"Stay with me tonight", was what he decided to turn around.

"In your bed?", Kagami asked.

"Yeah."

"Sure", Taiga smiled. "Where's your PJs, though?"

"Forget it", Daiki quickly wrote, holding his legs down so Kagami couldn't escape. "Naked."

"... Are you sure?", Kagami gulped. "I—"

Aomine opened up his arms, waiting for Taiga to fall into them. After a moment of wonder, Taiga grabbed all three towels and threw them off the bed, then plopped onto the bed next to Daiki. Sei also caught up onto the play and happily jumped around on the bed, leaving wet paw imprints everywhere.

Kagami smiled as he wiggled the comforter from under them. Once it was out, he covered the three of them with it and wrapped his arm around Daiki's shoulders, inviting him to lay down with his head on Taiga's chest which Aomine gladly accepted. Sei meanwhile snuggled in between of them, in the tight but warm space, with his ear pressed down to Daiki's chest.

"You know what?", Kagami said, poking at the cat. "I doubt he would leave for a while."

Aomine looked up at him with confusion.

"I took him into my apartment so he was locked home outside of the walks I did with him. Now he has his door back but he doesn't seem to want to leave your side."

Aomine smiled at Sei who seemed obvious to everything that was going around him.

"He loves you", Taiga whispered and his heart was telling him to continue and add 'and so do I', but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Daiki desperately needed some healthy human contact, Kagami would be no better than Haizaki if he used that to force Aomine into a relationship.

Aomine closed his eyes and placed his hand on Kagami's heart.

"Still beats, yeah?", Taiga joked. "Tell me when it stops."

Aomine smiled, throwing his leg over Kagami's and snuggling in closer. Sei meowed, reminding them that he was still squeezed between of them. Daiki moved his chest away so the cat had more space. Sei opened one eye and looked at Daiki, then at Taiga.

"Hi, baby", Kagami chuckled, making the cat close his eye again and relax.

Aomine opened his eyes and stared at Kagami in confusion.

"I was talking to Sei", Taiga clarified. "... I can call you baby if you want me to, though?"

Daiki bit his lip and hid his face by pressing his forehead down onto Kagami's shoulder. What was going on with the flirting today?! Kagami was getting bold with the comments and maybe he had always been like this but Daiki had never realized because he hadn't been up to the fact that he was very much into Taiga. So into that it was beyond just physical attraction.

"Or anything else. Whatever makes you happy when you hear it", Kagami's hand from Aomine's shoulder moved down onto his back and gently rubbed it.

Daiki thought for a moment. There were many pet names he would love to be called. Princess made him blush and want to dress prettily, baby made his heart feel warm, honey made him smile, kitten made him feel special because of Sei, darling made him nostalgic.

Aomine raised his hand from Kagami's chest and with his finger he began writing two kanji. Taiga's chest was covered in small, thin hair - they were soft and felt nice against his skin.

"Daiki", Kagami called him after Aomine finished trailing the kanji on Taiga's chest. Aomine smiled, placing his hand over the heart again. "Daiki."

Aomine smiled brightly. Then, he lifted his hand again and gently wrote the kanji for 'big' on Kagami's chest again. This time however, it was followed by a different one. A kanji for 'ego'.

"Taiga", it made together. A name that Daiki at first thought was very fitting. The great and only me. Those were one of the first thoughts Aomine had about Kagami. That he was an asshole who only cared about himself. And now? He was lying down naked in Daiki's bed, with Sei in between of them, comforting Aomine. Completely selfless act of kindness.

Daiki hated being wrong. But this one time? He was glad he was proven wrong.

Chapter Text

"You up?", Kagami asked. It was the morning and Aomine had just been woken with gentle movements of two hands on him. "I have a morning shift, Sakurai's gonna come over with the kids to sit with you. And then I'm gonna come back and we can go shopping for a swimsuit."

Aomine hummed in response.

"Want something for breakfast before I go?", Kagami wrapped Daiki's hair around his finger. Aomine shook his head, his eyes still closed as he was resting against Taiga's body. "I gotta go now or I'll be late. Stay in bed, though, sleep."

And Aomine did - he turned around, wrapped his arms and legs around his body pillow and slept for a few more hours. He was woken up by two little gremlins jumping onto the bed and Ryou quickly coming into the room to shush them and drag them out.

"But Mom!", Kou protested. Daiki opened his eyes and peaked from under the bedsheets.

"Uncle Daiki needs rest", Sakurai explained, leading them out of the room. "He hadn't slept in a while, let him catch up a little okay?"

"But Sei can check on him and I can't?!", Kou pouted.

"I'm sorry—", Ryou sighed.

"I wanna see Daacha, Mom!", the boy stomped his foot on the ground.

Meanwhile, Aomine stood up from the bed and opened his wardrobe to find something comfortable to wear. He moved through his clothes, opening one door after another until he opened the previously empty side of the wardrobe. The side that had always been empty, waiting for the clothes of his husband.

Kagami's duffel bags were placed there. They weren't unpacked, as if Taiga didn't want to push it onto him, but they were still inside the wardrobe. Aomine smiled. He slowly unpacked everything, stealing one black t-shirt in the meantime. He slowly filled out the empty shelves and drawers, he put Kagami's shirts on the hangers and looked at the whole thing with a weird warm feeling inside his heart.

Eventually, he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and put them on too, then left the bedroom to say hi to the kids.

"Daacha!", Kou happily ran up to him and hugged his leg once Daiki appeared in his field of view.

"How are you feeling?", Sakurai asked, holding Ryouko.

Aomine shrugged, then smiled at Kou and waddled to the sofa yo take a seat. His back hurt already - his body wasn't used to standing or walking, especially with he extra weight.

"Daacha?", Ryouko babbled, making grabby hands towards him. Right. She was at the age to babble. Aomine was just sad he wasn't there to hear Ryou get excited about being called mama by his daughter.

He waved at the girl and focused back on Kou who brought a book and placed it on Daiki's lap. There was some text next to it, but the boy started making up his own story, pointing at the images. Aomine listened to the made-up story, with his arm around the boy as he cuddled into him.

If the devil spawn were to be born, would he also love it like this? Would he enjoy staying with them like this, reading books, cuddling in? Would he ever be able to touch it like this? Look at it with affection?

Kagami was right. It was just an innocent baby, it wasn't it's fault that its genes giver was a rapist. But it also wasn't Aomine's fault that he hated it. Back in the hospital Taiga said that he would take care of it if Aomine was forced to give birth, all while asking for nothing from Daiki, but that deal felt weird to him. Why would Kagami want to unconditionally take care of a baby that wasn't his own? For what?

"Have you eaten?", Sakurai asked. Ryouko in his arms was getting fussy, trying to get to Daiki, so Aomine reached out her arms towards her, making Ryou sit her down next to him on the sofa. She smiled brightly and cuddled in, clapping her hands.

Aomine shook his head in response to the question.

"Okay, I'll make you something", Sakurai replied. "Sorry, you want something specific?"

Daiki thought for a moment, then shook his head. While Sakurai prepared some quick meal, he had fun with the kids. Then, he ate the meal Ryou had prepared for him and enjoyed his time with Kou. Then, Kagami came back from work.

"Nee, Daacha", Kou pouted as he looked up at the omega. "Are you dying?"

Aomine's hands trembled as he heard that. In a sense of the word, yes, he was dying. His mental state wasn't getting better, he wasn't speaking, his throat hurt more and more with every sound he was making, he was waking up every time he heard a movement, every time the lights changed. Being naked didn't make him ashamed, instead it made him relive the moments in his life. Having anyone stand next to him with their private areas on Daiki's eye level made him feel the pressure of the open mouth gag, putting drinks in his mouth made him think of all the times Haizaki made him drink urine, using the toilet made him think of all the times he was given an enema and all the times he had feces forced down his throat while Haizaki fucked his throat right after having his dick inside Daiki's rectum.

"Uncle Daiki isn't dying, honey", Sakurai sat down next to Kou and ruffled his hair. "He's just a little sick, you know?"

"Mom, why is Daacha sick?"

"... I'm sorry", Sakurai froze up. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? He couldn't just look his (almost) three years old child in the eyes and say 'Hey, yeah, so he's sick because he was held hostage and raped! Hope that explains everything!'. Kou was too young for that, way too young! He might have been a smart kid (speaking in full sentences at three? Pretty impressive), but he wasn't mature.

"Maaaama", Ryouko saved them with her babbling. Ryou immediately got up to get and picked her up, then started talking to her, leavi g Kou's question unanswered.

The boy lowered his head and sniffed. "I don't want Daacha to be sick", he admitted. "Everyone is sad when Daacha is sick..."

Right. Everyone is sad because of him.

Chapter Text

When Kagami came back home, Sakurai was preparing a meal for all of them. Taiga quickly joined him and helped bring everything to the coffee table where everyone gathered to eat. He also happily took over the role of a caretaker for the kids so Daiki and Ryou could eat peacefully.

After that, Sakurai and the kids left, leaving the two emotionally constipated people together in one room.

"Ready to go or you want a moment?", Kagami asked. Aomine thought for a moment. He could go now, honestly. "You changing clothes?"

... Should he change clothes? Well, he was wearing sweatpants and Kagami's t-shirt, but surely he didn't look that bad, right?

"... Also, is that my shirt?", Taiga frowned as he pointed at Daiki, who instantly blushed and turned his head away. Why did he even think of wearing that! Kagami's wasn't his boyfriend or something, he was just a friend that temporarily moved in to help him with the daily life and Daiki had went though his stuff without permission, he was completely out of line!

Kagami was now going to call him disgusting, take off of his stuff and leave. He would cancel the birthday trip he had planned for them and would never speak to him again and Aomine would end up alone forever with a fucking kid he would hate and everyone would call him a horrible mother and he would end up in jail because of the Child Protective Services and—

"It looks good on you", Kagami smiled. "Wear whatever you want from my clothes. Most of those are plain black tees anyway."

Aomine looked at Kagami with his eyes and mouth wide open. He wasn't being cussed out...? He did something wrong and he wasn't being beaten?

"You look scared, everything's okay?", Kagami sat down next to him. Sei, who until now had been sleeping on the armchair, raised his head in confusion. "Hey, Daiki? Hey, take a deep breath, it's okay, you're safe, hey, baby, breathe."

Aomine couldn't breathe. His heart hurt, his throat was clenched and he couldn't breathe. He was choking, he was crying and he couldn't even make a sound. He couldn't describe what he was feeling, he couldn't say a word. He couldn't even whine.

He just stayed frozen in Kagami's arms, as Taiga's rubbed his back and tried to get him to take a breath again. He was running out of hair, he was dying, he wanted it to stop. Why was he suffocating?!

"Daiki, baby, I'm here, hey, shh, you're safe, no one's gonna hurt you, please, Daiki, just inhale once, please, I'm begging you, just one breath, honey, just one...", Kagami's voice was breaking down. "Please... Daiki, baby... I'm sorry, please, just take a breath... Just one... Please...!"

Aomine couldn't see anymore. His chest hurt, his head was spinning and pounding and he was losing his consciousness. Then, in the last millisecond before blacking out, ithe weight from his chest disappeared and he inhaled deeply and loudly. Kagami, began rubbing his back, holding him up a little. He lied Daiki down and raised his legs, then grabbed book from the windowsill and began using it to fan Aomine.

"Daiki", he cried out. "Fucking hell, breathe, please, just one more!"

Kagami didn't know what to do. Call an ambulance? Start CPR? He was terrified, Aomine just randomly started choking. Was it a foreign body? Should he do a heimlich maneuver?! Sei was running around just as confused as he was, meowing at Daiki and begging him to calm down, too.

"Please...", Kagami wailed. "I'm sorry, just please—..."

Aomine tried his best. He clearly saw Kagami cry for the first time and he hated it. He hated how it hurt him, he hated how Kagami's tears felt when they were falling onto his hands and face, he hated everything about that moment.

The breaths hurt but they made Kagami happy so he continued putting himself through that. He stayed in Taiga's arms until he could breathe normally again and then until both Kagami and Sei calmed down.

"You okay?", Taiga asked, wiping his tears away. Daiki nodded, exhaling through his mouth.

"What happened?"

Aomine gulped. He found the whiteboard next to him. "Panic attack, I think."

"Why? Did I say something? Is it my fault?", Taiga panicked.

"No. It was just", Aomine's hand forze over the whiteboard, "trauma, I guess."

"... Rest for a while, 'kay? And then we can go shopping if you'd still like to."

Aomine nodded. He stayed on the couch and tried to compose himself while Kagami went to the kitchen to clean up after the meal. Once he was done, he went to the bedroom. Taiga opened the wardrobe doors to find his duffel bags and pull out a new shirt - his was covered in tears and mucus, of both Daiki and him - but instead of seeing the two bags he had put in that morning, he saw all of his clothes on the hangers, filling the empty half of the wardrobe.

Aomine had hung his clothes. He segregated them, he put them in place, he took them out of the bags. As if Kagami wasn't a guest anymore, as if he was a member of the household. As if it was his place to be there.

He quickly grabbed a different shirt and switched it out, throwing his previous one into Aomine's laundry basket behind the door. He then joined Daiki on the sofa and wrapped his arm around him.

"... How are you feeling?", he asked. Daiki closed his eyes and placed his head on Taiga's shoulder. "You feeling like going out? I don't need to go out if you don't want to."

"I wanna go buy that swimsuit", Aomine wrote. "Ten more minutes and I'm going to change."

"Sure thing", Kagami smiled. If it depended on him, he could stay all day like this. Sei stretching on Daiki's lap, Daiki in Taiga's arms, sleeping peacefully. But Kagami had to admit, he loved how determined Aomine was to go buy that swimsuit. At first he wanted to suggest that maybe Ryou would take him out shopping in the morning, but after some consideration, Taiga wanted to be there. He had no clue why, but he wanted to be there and see Daiki shopping.

Maybe it was because of how much fan Taiga had the first time the went together, buying baby clothes for Sei. Or rather, he wanted to see that smile again.

Chapter Text

The store was rather big. Aomine was wearing some loose and long pants instead of his sweatpants, but he kept Taiga's t-shirt on. Which made Kagami stare - a while back when he had his rut forced out by the doctor, he masturbated to the thought of Daiki in loose and comfy clothes. Exactly the ones he was wearing now. The Aomine in front of him was literally the person from his dreams.

They walked hand in hand, looking around. Once in a while Aomine stopped to take a look at something that he took interest in. Eventually, they made a circle around the store and Daiki had not a single thing to take with him to the dressing room. Which was weird - the last time Daiki was picking every single item that he stumbled upon and now? He had nothing.

And that made Kagami wonder - was it just that the store had nothing Aomine liked or was his self-esteem so low he was scared to try things on.

"This one looks nice", Kagami pointed at the swimsuit next to them. It was a nice looking bikini with some good coverage. A simple, plain, black swimsuit. "... You're looking for only the bottom or both?"

The debate - should pregnant and breastfeeding male omegas cover their boobs? Because of the hormones and the milk their breasts were bigger and resembled female breasts more, making people force bras onto them. Kagami honestly didn't give a damn, he had only learned about it in his late teens and was confused by the expectations. The fuck was wrong with people? Why was one thing okay then suddenly not?

Aomine didn't know what he was looking for. Before the Haizaki fiasco he was always proudly wearing speedos that were revealing and made him look like a slut. He wouldn't mind being called that back in his early twenties - he would thrive wearing that title. But now? Being called a slut made him self-conscious. Daiki would rather hide in clothes three sizes too big and cover himself with a cardigan than be called a slut or easy.

All of the swimsuits looked nice. If they were shopping one year ago, Daiki would have tried half of the store on by now. But now? Everything looked so... revealing. Aomine felt bad in them just by looking at them. The one Taiga suggested looked so nice, but it would show off the hips, the upper thighs, his tummy would be visible, his chest, his legs—

"... How about we go find something you like design- and fabric-wise?", Kagami suggested. "And then an extra piece to put on top for the cover?"

Daiki didn't know how Taiga was doing that. How he knew about Aomine's problems without Daiki even hinting them. How he could read him like an open book.

He nodded grabbing the two-piece from the shelf in the correct size - at least what used to be his correct size. Now, he had no clue. He placed the swimsuit in the basket Taiga was carrying and dragged him back to a different place where he saw a different one he liked. The second one was just briefs, rather short, they could cover only around one third of his thighs. But they were red and had cat paws design.

"Looks nice", Kagami smiled. Then, he grabbed Daiki's hand and led him to the area with swimsuit covers. They were just mantles for once you leave the water and hang out on the beach, but Kagami smiled and told him that there was no one in the universe to tell him whether he should wear them in the water or out of it.

Aomine bit his lip and began looking through them. He eventually picked two - one was white and with koi fish pattern and the second one was in different shapes of blue, resembling waves.

Then, they went to the changing room. Aomine tried the swimsuit on - firstly the black one, trying his best not to destroy the protective cover on them. He was alone in the stall but Kagami was just outside the door, he could see his feet.

"Want me to enter and give you an opinion, just knock two times", Taiga whispered through the door.

Aomine gulped and looked in the mirror. The bra was too small, the bottom matched. He could ask Kagami to get him a different size but that would mean Taiga had to leave him alone in the changing room. And Daiki didn't want to be left alone in a public place, especially while he was half naked. So instead, he took the swimsuit off and put on the shorts. Those were the correct size so he knocked twice on the door and opened them so Kagami could see him.

"... You look gorgeous", Taiga smiled. "How's the second one, you tried it already?"

Aomine looked at it and shrugged.

"And the covers?", Kagami pointed at the two hangers.

Aomine grabbed one and immediately put it on. It had bell sleeves and was loosely hanging around his body, reaching his knees. It was see through but it still made Daiki feel less exposed.

"Judging by your smile I'm guessing you like them, huh?"

Daiki tried the second one as well. The shape was relatively the same, just the design that was different. He honestly liked them both and didn't know which one to choose.

"... I'm buying both, dress back up and let's go", Kagami decided, abruptly ending Aomine's wondering. Wait, what did he mean by 'I'm'?! Why was Taiga implying that he would be the one paying for the shopping?! No, no, no, that wouldn't happen!

Five minutes later they were standing at the cash register. The lady behind the counter was packing the two covers and one swimsuit. Kagami paid for them with his card and grabbed the shopping bags with one hand and Daiki's hand with the other, then they left the store.

"Wanna go somewhere else?", Kagami asked.

'So you can pay for me and make me feel even worse about you wasting your money on me?!', Aomine screamed in his mind.

Chapter Text

When they came back home, Sei was excitedly waiting at the door. He jumped out with a loud and long meow and climbed Daiki's legs. He sometimes despised the fact that he was a cat because he couldn't tell Aomine about his day.

Shortly after Daiki and Taiga left, so did Sei. He decided that since his human was with Kagami, he could take a little break and resume his search for his family since he hadn't had time for that in over three months. He quickly ran towards the place he had usually seen his brother in and began looking around.

"I thought you gave up", Ninth said. Sei turned around to see the thin cat lying on top of a trash can, swaying his tail left and right. "It was finally calm without you around."

Ninth would lie if he said he didn't miss his older brother. Ever since the first time he had spotted Tenth around, he instinctively was brought back in the same place just to hopefully see him again.

Between the two of them, he was the one to be the better fighter, the more agile one, the one who was supposed to protect. All those months ago where he took Tenth out to grab some food for their mother, they ended up being chased by dogs. Ninth swiftly jumped up the trash cans and on top of the brick wall, thinking that his older brother was just behind him. The dogs were keep barking at him, so Ninth kept running until he lost them. Only then did he turn around and realized he was alone.

He went back and looked for his brother, but the dogs successfully kept him away from coming close. The rain was pouring down heavily and Ninth was getting cold and weak, so driven by guilt, he returned to their mother in tears. He cried for hours, apologizing that he had lost the older brother somewhere and he was probably dead already, eaten by the dogs.

His mother was heartbroken, but she didn't let that get to Ninth. They stayed together throughout the entire night while the young cat promised to go back and look for Tenth in the morning.

When the morning came and the rain had stopped, Tenth wasn't there. Ninth looked everywhere for him or his corpse, but there was not a sign of the red fur. He had only returned once it was the evening, empty-handed and even more apologetic than the day before. He had promised to stay strong, to protect the mother for the two of them, that he would make her proud. He took everything onto his own shoulders.

Meanwhile - while Sei was running away from the dogs with him, he had fallen into a trash can. The garbage cushioned his fall, but it also made it impossible to escape. Rain was slowly filling it, making him more and more terrified. Ninth had run off, thinking Sei was following him, whereas he was stuck with the dogs around him. He was almost dead when two human hands picked him up.

The human wasn't his mother or his brother, but he was kind and lovely. Sei wanted to protect him just like he had been protected that day. Nevertheless, he had always kept his cat family in mind.

And now, they were standing in front of one another, wondering what to say.

"... My human got hurt", Sei explained. "He was missing for all this time. I couldn't just leave."

Ninth huffed. "You really like that creature? Humans hurt Mother and you trusted one?"

"He's a good human."

"There's no thing such as a good human. They're all bad omens. They destroy everything they see, they hurt everyone that's weaker!"

"But isn't Father the same?", Sei hit him back. "He's an asshole. But you would still follow his every word. That is love, Ninth."

The cat stayed silent. Sei looked at him more throughoutly - he seemed to be doing better, his fur was thicker, he didn't seem that thin anymore, he was chubbier than before - still underweight, but visibly bigger.

"You found a steady food source?", Sei changed the subject, sitting down on the ground. He cleaned the fur on his head with his paw and got comfortable.

"... None of your business", Ninth huffed.

"How is Mom?", Tenth finally asked.

"She thinks you're dead", his younger brother admitted. "So did I before I saw you again."

"Do you blame yourself?", Sei tilted his head. His question remained unanswered. "I don't blame you. I'd go too. It was dangerous."

"They got to you?", Ninth jumped down from the wall and walked over to him, finally being on his eye level.

"The dogs? No. You shielded me from them. They followed you, leaving me alone."

Ninth took a look at Sei. His fur was shiny, the collar on his neck seemed domestic, he was well fed, he looked happy. It seemed that whoever that human was, Tenth was taken care of.

"How's Mom?", Sei asked again.

"Weak, but alive. She went to see Father again recently, returned three days later sad and had been staying in her spot since."

"Can I see her?", Sei gulped.

"... I don't want your filthy humans near her", Ninth gritted through his teeth. "That's one rule. No humans with her. You know how she was hurt."

"I promise. No humans ever close to Mom."

"I'll kill you if you break it."

"I won't."

"... Let's go."

The walk seemed familiar, yet Sei didn't recognize the place. Halfway through the journey he found certain areas that he remembered from his early childhood. Then, they had entered the part where Sei knew every brick in the wall, every crack, every rock and every sand grain. And yet, when he turned left, running in front of Ninth, he was called back.

"We moved", Ninth said. "... We waited for you for many months before we started to get harrased out of there. I couldn't protect it alone."

If Sei had been there, they wouldn't have been pushed out of their place. The spot that his Mom had fought so hard for.

"I'm sorry", Sei finally said, as he was following Ninth into their new home.

"Shut up", Ninth groaned. They finally entered a hole in the wall that led them to a small space in between of buildings. It was thin, cold, dark and damp, nothing like their cozy place behind a fence. Thankfully, it was at least covered in soft and dry trash, making it warmer than it actually was.

And amongst all of those things lied his Mom.

Chapter Text

She was sleeping and Sei didn't know if it was okay for him to wake her up. Should he even come closer? He hadn't seen his Mom in almost a year, what if she didn't recognize him?

"Mom", Ninth nudged at her. "Look who's alive."

She slowly opened her eyes and raised her head, then looked firstly at Ninth then at the guest. For a moment, her eyes went wide, then she slowly stood up and walked over to him, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Then, she checked on him. She walked around him, she smelled him, she touched him.

Then, she smacked his head and began yelling.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!", she cried. "LEAVING US LIKE THAT?! YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS?!"

Sei lowered his head and took a few hits before his mother started crying again and hugged him tightly. "I missed you", Tenth admitted.

"I thought you were dead", she sobbed. "Where have you been?"

"I was looking for you", Sei admitted. "Ninth took care of you?"

"Of course he did", Mother chuckled. She returned to her spot where she had been lying down and invited both of her son's over. She noticed the collar on Tenth neck right away, but said nothing. Her son had returned so she had reasons to believe he wasn't being hurt or held home against his will. Tenth also didn't mention it, so she trusted her judgment and let it slide without some questioning. Right now, she was just happy her son was back in her arms, sleeping curled up with her and his brother.

Sei felt overwhelmed. Daiki had recently came back and was safe, now he found his family and they were okay, they were alive and well. His mother's body felt as warm as it had felt last year, her ribs were just as visible as last year, her fur was just as patchy as last year. Sei easily had fallen asleep in the cuddle nest.

When he woke up, it was the middle of the night. His mother was cleaning his fur while Ninth had just returned with something to eat. Sei looked at them, looked at the starry night and gulped.

He could stay here. He could ditch the collar, stay with his mother and brother, he could live a life of a stray cat, just like he had done for the first months of his life. But somewhere out there, somewhere in an apartment complex, somewhere behind the door with a cat door in them, there was a certain pregnant human who was waiting for him as well. And Sei loved that human. He wouldn't be called Sei if he hadn't.

"I have to go", he admitted when Ninth started splitting the food into three portions.

"... You're leaving?", Mother looked at him bewildered.

"There's—... I promised I'll be back. And I'm making the same promise to you", Sei said. "I'll always be your Tenth..."

'But I'm also someone's Sei', he wanted to add, but didn't. He had promised not to bring up humans near his mother.

"I'll be back", he placed his forehead against his mother's. "I'll be back..."

Sei turned around and left. Not long after that, he was followed by Ninth who knocked him over and pinned him to the ground.

"You'll remember the way back in?", Ninth asked. Sei smiled at him and confirmed. "... Come back soon. Mom will miss you."

"I know", Tenth got out from under him and pressed his forehead against his brother's. "I won't let you down again. I promise."

Ninth closed his eyes and nodded. "... Don't disappear again. I'd kill you if you do."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Sei left. He ran back home, through the streets covered in the starlight, with the night sky above him lightning his way. He ran as quickly as he could, hoping for the door to still be opened once he would reach the apartment complex. And yet, his hope was crushed down as he stood in front of sliding door that wouldn't open.

The complex Aomine lived in was looking expensive, but the apartment inside were rather middle class-ish. The lobby looked like if it belonged to a hotel, but it was only because the ground floor was actually a huge shopping center. Then, to reach the apartments you had to enter it, go to the elevator, then up towards your floor.

Daiki rarely used the stores below his home - they were mostly clothing brands, some pharmacies, some make-up stores, one or two fast food joints. A rather classy area for people living in nearby buildings that were even more expensive than that one.

None of it changed the fact that Sei was stuck outside with no way in.

"Deja vu, kitty", someone laughed next to him. "Ahh, I gotta start coming from work earlier than almost three."

It was the same guy who had let him in the last time. Three months ago, the day Aomine went missing. The day Sei had spent his afternoon at Kagami's and didn't manage to protect his human. It was the exact same guy, the exact same scenario. The man opened the door for him and let him in. They rode the elevator together, Sei thanked him and ran home.

This time, he was hoping that Kagami and Aomine were inside, safe and sound. That no one went missing. That no one was hurt. Sei wanted to protect those close to him, but he was only a cat. He couldn't do much.

When he slipped inside, he noticed one thing - the lights were on. A muffled voice came from the bedroom, it was Taiga, repeating something over and over. Sei entered the room and meowed, catching their attention.

"Where have you been?!", Kagami yelled. Aomine started sobbing louder, opening his arms and waiting for Sei to jump into them. The cat's ears flattened as he immediately got onto the bed and into his human's armsz licking his face and apologizing.

Tenth loved his mother and loved his brother, but he was also Sei. And Sei loved Aomine Daiki more than any other human, and seeing him cry like that made his heart hurt. No matter how much Tenth wanted to live with his cat family, Sei couldn't leave his human one.

"Meow...", he apologized, letting Daiki drag him under the sheets. He was glad he left and got to see his mother, but seeing his human heartbroken like that made him rethink his choices.

Was looking for Mom and Ninth a good decision? Now, when he found them, it seemed like he was only hurting them all...

Chapter Text

Aomine smiled as he held his old phone in his hands. It took a while but Momoi was finally able to search through enough of the rumble at the mansion to find the bag Aomine had with him the day he was kidnapped.

Everything inside looked the same - almost. The CD was missing and his phone no longer had the SIM card, but Momoi replaced that for him with a new one. And she even charged it. Everything looked the same once he turned it on. The same wallpaper, the same photos, the same tracking app for Sei's collar that could have been so useful to have the day before when the cat didn't return home for half the night.

"Thought it might be useful to have on your trip", she admitted. "Have fun there."

Aomine kneeled and took Sei into his arms. He cuddled the bastard and kissed his little forehead before putting him into a carrier and letting Kagami carry him into the train. They waved to Satsuki from their seats and got comfortable.

"Excited?", Taiga asked. Aomine pulled out his phone and opened notes app.

"Yeah", he wrote, resting his head on Kagami's shoulder. "You have things planned?"

"I have a whole ass schedule but I'm down for changes", Taiga explained. "I want you to enjoy it. So whatever will catch you attention, we'll go there."

It was the thirtieth of August, early morning, around five. They were on a train out of Tokyo, not far actually. Kagami said it was a small resort near a beach and that they had surfing boards for rental.

"I know it's not much, but I've wanted to teach you surfing for a while now", Taiga admitted. "I—... I was hoping you'd like to—"

Aomine grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Yes", he showed him on the phone. "Also, you're repeating yourself. I've been waiting for the lessons for a while so you better teach me, don't you dare backing out."

"... Right", Kagami relaxed.

"Meow?", Sei peeked from his carrier.

"We're going on a trip, you can't leave."

"... Meeeeoooooow!", he pouted. Daiki sighed and opened the door, then pulled Sei out and wrapped him around tightly with a blanket that was inside the carrier and placed Sei on his belly, cuddling him into his chest. The cat carefully placed his paws onto the body, making sure that he wouldn't be hurting Daiki or his baby.

"Happy now that you're stealing my company?", Taiga snickered. He smiled and ruffled the cat's fur.

Aomine noticed how careful Sei was being with him and gulped. He couldn't stop thinking about the due date that was getting closer and closer. He was thirty two weeks pregnant by now and there was still no fetal movement. He was having checkups once in a while as well as he was going to a therapist to manage at least some of the trauma, but Daiki knew that most of it would depend on him and on his ability to accept everything and move forward.

And he tried. He tried his best. He tried to live a normal life, he tried to fall in love, he tried to celebrate his stupid birthday and all he could think of was checking the corridor every time the doors would open to see if it wasn't Haizaki with a gun.

He was paranoid, but would you blame him?

During the ride nothing much happened. Sei slept in Daiki's arms, Kagami talked with Aomine for a while, then grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers together. Daiki also went to sleep after that, with his head resting on Taiga's shoulder and with Kagami watching over him like an angel.

Then, Taiga woke him up by gently nudging at him.

"Our stop is nearby", he said. Daiki hummed, letting him know that he recognized the words that were said to him, then went to sleep again. "Oh, come on, wake up!"

Aomine smiled as he tried to still pass on as being asleep. Kagami noticed what was going on and grabbed Sei from his chest and placed him back into the carrier.

"Looks like I'd have to carry all our luggage, Sei and you to the taxi", Kagami chuckled. "Good thing we only have one bag."

The train stopped and Daiki wanted to see how far Kagami would believe him - because Aomine of course did believe Taiga's poor acting skills and was fully immersed in his equally poor acting. But Kagami said nothing. He put the bag over his shoulder, grabbed the carrier with Sei inside in one hand and kneeled in front of Aomine's seat. Then, he wrapped Daiki's arms around his neck and held him by the thighs, picking him up like a child. He then stood up and got out of the train where he adjusted the hold and picked him up the proper bridal style, all while holding the carrier in one hand.

"Okay, hold up a little or I'll drop something", Kagami whispered. "Also, you're gonna have to open the door or we're not gettin' anywhere."

Aomine opened his eyes and chuckled. He wrapped his arms around Taiga's neck and watched as Kagami approached the taxi parking. Then, he stood on his own two feet walked alongside Kagami, so as not to tire him out.

Eventually, they got to the taxi and traveled to their destination, where they checked into the room. Apparently, Kagami also paid for an early check-in, so at barely past eight they had a place to stay.

It was a standard japanese-styled room. Tatami floor, two futons to lay out for the night, yukatas to change into, kotatsu. One part was different - just outside the room, where Aomine had expected just a window, there was a garden. Not just any, but with a private onsen. A full on. Private. Onsen.

"Thought you'd rather have something private", Kagami explained. "So that you wouldn't have to be naked in front of strangers."

Aomine smiled brightly and hugged Kagami tightly. Literally best alpha human Daiki had ever met. The sweetest, the most caring, the cutest person in the universe, with the smile that can melt ice, with the greenest shade of green painted all over him. And to think that there was a time when Aomine thought Kagami was a horrible husband material.

Oh how wrong he had been.

Chapter Text

Sei was finally let out of the carrier but it wasn't like he even wanted to leave. He fell asleep and now he didn't want to be disturbed. So Kagami and Aomine left everything in the room and went to grab some breakfast together. With a few plated full of food, they returned to eat at the kotatsu.

Kagami felt proud when looking at Aomine eating. It was just the fact that he ate. That he was gaining weight, that he wasn't falling further into his anorexia, but that he didn't bounce off back and wasn't entering obesity. He was getting physically healthier with every day and Taiga couldn't help but feel proud.

Sei eventually joined them and demanded some food. Then, be found out the kotatsu had the heating turned on and hid under it, between their legs.

"Wanna go somewhere?", Kagami asked. "Or straight to the beach?"

Daiki pulled out his phone. "Where is somewhere?"

"I don't know, wherever we go. There are forests nearby, bet there's some cool hiking tracks, or uh, we can wander around he town...?"

"I want to go to the beach after lunch and stay until the night", Daiki wrote on his phone.

"Sure", Taiga smiled. "Wanna see the sunset too?"

Aomine nodded. "And swim under the starry night!"

"I don't think the stars will be that visible, we're not that far off from the light pollution", Kagami noticed, "but sure. Let's stay until the stars can be seen."

They decided to take a walk around the town. It was at an extremely slow peace, they were often taking breaks for Aomine to sit down for a moment and rest. They found cute souvenirs, bought food at the stalls, tried on some handmade clothes, then found a place to eat lunch and headed back to the hotel. Sei had finally woken up and peeked from under the kotatsu, so they changed into the swimsuits, grabbed towels, grabbed Sei and with their normal clothes over the swimsuits, went to the beach.

It was rather empty - or more like the place they had chosen was further from the crowd. Kagami placed a blanket down and left all of their stuff there.

"I'm gonna go rent a surfboard", he said, taking off his shirt. "Is it okay if I leave you with Sei for a moment? I'll be over there, you'll see me all the time."

Aomine thought for a moment. He looked at the stall, where Kagami had pointed. It wasn't that far, maybe a little over one hundred meters and he had a clean line of sight at it. Hesitantly, he looked back at Taiga and nodded.

"I'll keep my phone on me, you can call me and I'll run back to you", Kagami said. He stood up and after giving Daiki a reassuring smile, ran over to the stall. Aomine wrapped his arms around himself and frantically looked around. There was no one there, he could see Kagami, he was safe, right? No one would hurt him, right?!

It took Taiga a moment but eventually he returned with two surfboards. He placed them on the ground next to the blankets and sat down next to Aomine.

"You good?", Taiga asked. Sei, who was lying in Daiki's lap until now, stood up on his back paws and licked Aomine's face. Daiki nodded. Of course he was okay, he wasn't scared at all, he wasn't hating himself for not being able to fucking stay alone for two minutes, he hated the universe for punishing him like that, he hated Haizaki for traumatizing him, he hated himself for existing. He hated everything about the current situation.

He sniffed and wiped his nose with the top of his hand. Kagami moved closer and wrapped an arm around him, bringing him closer. Aomine's head rested on Taiga's shoulder, his cheek sticking to the bare chest.

"Everything's okay now", Kagami whispered, kissing his forehead. "I'm sorry, I should have just asked to to go with me."

That wasn't the point, Aomine noted in his thoughts. He just wanted to be normal again. He just wanted not to panic whenever he was left alone.

"Meow!"

He smiled, cuddling Sei. Daiki took a deep breath and grabbed his phone.

"Let's make a sandcastle", he wrote, untangling himself from Kagami's arms.

Kagami stayed in his place and covered Daiki with a towel while he took off his clothes and put on the cover they had bought together. With the swimsuit already on and his body covered decently, Daiki stood up and walked over to a patch of sand in front of the blanket. He sat down in it and began making a huge pile of it, shaping it into a mountain.

"Ahhh, you could've told me you wanted to play in the sand, I'd've bought you some pail and shovels!", Taiga chuckled as he joined him. Eventually, he began carrying water over in his hands and wetting the sand so Aomine could shape it more easily. The sandcastle gained one floor, then the second, then cat pawprints became its windows. Kagami found some sticks nearby, which became the flags, Aomine dug out a moat around the castle and build double walls surrounding it, then another moat and connected it all to the sea which filled the tunnels with water.

It was evening by the time they finished. Sei was proudly watching the castle from inside the country yard, trying his best not to destroy the little houses. On his head, there was a crown made out of seaweed which the cat didn't exactly like but it made Daiki smile so he wore it. Kagami was walking around taking photos while Aomine flopped onto the blanket exhausted.

"Five minute break and we're going surfing", Aomine wrote on the phone and showed it to Kagami.

"I rented them out for twenty four hours, we can go tomorrow morning."

"No, today", Daiki frowned. "And we'll surf until the water is too cold to swim in it anymore."

"... Okay", Kagami smiled. Of course he was happy with the plans and he believed that Aomine would tell him if he would ever feel the need for another break, or to go to the toilet again (during the building Kagami went with him like every half an hour, leaving Sei on the guard duty, because Daiki refused to go alone and refuted to lock himself in the stall alone, so Taiga awkwardly stood inside facing the door with his eyes closed while Aomine peed).

So he lied down next to Aomine and watched the sky with him for a little over five minutes. It was closer to fifteen, actually. And then another toilet break.

Chapter Text

Aomine looked beautiful. The water was reaching only his mid-thighs but the cover-up was already getting wet at the ends. His long hair was tied up in a bun - firstly Kagami braided them and then wrapped them around to hold them away from the sand. Aomine was just standing there, doing nothing. He was moving his hands around, playing with the water. And Kagami was standing at the shore holding two surfboards like an idiot.

Aomine's mind, meanwhile, was busy with slightly different thoughts. Did Taiga stay at the shore so as not to be near him? Was Kagami embarrassed to be seen around with Daiki? Taiga was obviously the hotter one, he was tanned, muscular, his hair was slit back. He was standing on the shore as if he owned the beach, while Aomine was awkwardly standing in the water, unsure what to do. Get in further alone? Go back to Kagami? Both options felt equally bad. Kagami was meant to go in with him, teach him surfing, hold him, be with him. And instead, Aomine was left alone and he was starting to panic. He wasn't facing Kagami but he was there, right? He hadn't left? If Daiki turned around, he would be there?

Aomine was scared to look at the shore. What if Kagami wasn't there? What if he was left alone? What if someone came and grabbed him? Aomine wouldn't be able to fight back, he would get abducted again, he would get locked again, he would be alone again—!

Arms wrapped around him and Daiki's heart stopped. He froze up, then fainted from fear. When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on one of the surfboard. Kagami was sitting next to him, holding his legs up.

"You good?", Taiga asked. "Geez, you got me scared! What happened? Did you feel bad?"

Aomine looked around. They were still on the beach, no one was there, just Kagami and him. The closest people were still pretty far from them.

"You were out for like ten seconds maybe", Taiga explained. "Did you feel lightheaded?"

Aomine shook his head ans took a deep breath. He took the phone that Taiga passed to him. "I got scared."

"Did I—... Fuck, I'm so sorry", Kagami gulped. "I— I really didn't mean to, you were just standing there as if you wanted someone to come and grab you—... Shit, that sounded really bad, I didn't mean it like that, not that you looked like you wanted someone to come and assault you, I meant it in like a loving way—... I— I'm sorry."

So instead of surfing they took another ten minute break for Aomine to get back to his colors and then another five minute toilet break. When they returned to the shore, both of them were already dry and we're slowly reentering water with Kagami dragging both of the surfboards with him.

Once they were waist-deep, they crouched to get wet up to the shoulders. Kagami then helped Aomine get up on one of the boards and jumped on himself. Then, Kagami explained everything he thought could be useful and added random lessons as he saw Daiki struggle. He taught him to paddle, what was white water, which waves to avoid, then he got into the specifics of different board shapes and sizes. Aomine just sat there, listening. Happier than ever.

Maybe he was wrong? Maybe Kagami wasn't embarrassed to be seen with him after all?

"Yeah! There's some fun waves coming, wanna see me surf?", Taiga brightly smiled. Aomine looked around - there was no one nearby, and even if they were, he could be able to see them coming. He nodded. "Wave if you need me back!"

Aomine watched in awe as Kagami paddled towards the waves. He positioned himself, waited out the right moment, then stood up and just... did it. Then he turned around, got down, paddled again and caught another one. After the second, he returned to Aomine, still standing on his legs. Aomine clapped his hand, sitting on the board with both of his legs on different sides of it.

"Wanna try standing up?", Kagami asked. Daiki hesitated, but nodded. Kagami then talked about the theory, how he needed to place the hands on the board, how he needed to swiftly place both legs on it, how he should immediately go into an athletic squad, with his knees bent and arms out, how one foot should be in front of the other. Then he started talking about something regular something goofy but Aomine couldn't understand one thing. Apparently it was a leg thing?

Kagami suggested Aomine try it on the sand first, but Daiki didn't feel like going back out of the water now. The cover-up was all wet and sticking to his body, making it look rather revealing. Aomine didn't want people to look. And they would if he left the water. So he followed all the steps - the placed the hands on the boards, got one knee on the board, then jumped up and fell off it and into the water. Kagami chuckled as he fished him out and got his hair out of his face.

"... Toilet break?", he chuckled. Aomine nodded. He knew it was just an excuse to get back to the shore so he could try on a steady surface instead of in the shaky water, but now that Taiga had mentioned it, he really did need to go to the toilet again. The bastard was pressing onto his bladder for the last two days so much he was going in every thirty to fourty minutes and it wasn't funny anymore.

They entered the stall together, Kagami stayed at the door, facing it with his eyes closed. Aomine, despite having Kagami inside with him, didn't feel embarrassed. After so many weeks of being watched from every corner, after so many times he was forced to spread his legs in front of Haizaki and Contraband, he didn't find peeing in front of someone embarrassing. And the fact that it was Kagami made him feel rather safe.

He trusted Taiga. Possibly even more than Momoi and that was hard to achieve.

Chapter Text

After a few tries on the sand, Aomine caught up on the theory. They then returned to the water and Daiki tried his best to repeat it. Kagami was standing next to him, ready to catch him. Aomine had problems with the form because of the baby bump, but it wasn't impossible because of the rather small size of it.

It was maybe the tenth try and Aomine was exhausted, but with a smile on his face he hopped on again and placed his hands on the board and jumped, pushing himself upwards. On shaky legs he landed and tried his best to balance himself. Then, the surfboard stopped shaking and Daiki was standing on it, with Kagami clapping for him from below.

"Wanna catch a wave?", Taiga smiled brightly, helping him get down. Daiki gulped. It seemed scary, but Kagami would be next to him, right? He nodded, unsurely. "I'll fish you out if you fall!"

He used Kagami's help and got positioned on the board. Together with Taiga they paddled towards the waves and turned around. Taiga spoke to him the entire time, how to start, when to stand up, how to fall down, which wave to take, which ones to avoid. It all seemed overwhelming and scary, but Kagami was there with him, so Daiki felt like he could do it first try.

The wave came and he felt the board being picked up. Kagami was right next to him and once the right moment came he yelled out to Aomine - "now!". Daiki jumped up and almost fell. He lost his balance and thought it would be the end of his surfing journey when Kagami got right next to him - their boards clicked together, Taiga grabbed him by the arm and helped him stabilize. Once Aomine was standing steady, Kagami let go and moved away a little.

"Now slowly forward, you can try turning softly", Kagami said, staying right next to him. The wave had already flattened out a little and it was only slowly moving Aomine forward. He tilted forward a little and turned the board towards Kagami who slowed down in order to avoid crashing into Daiki. Aomine tried to even out and tilted backwards to turn left but he lost his balance and fell into the water. Kagami caught the board before it could be carried on by the waves and jumped into the water. He grabbed Daiki's hand and pulled him into a hug.

Aomine moved the hair away from his face and coughed. He got surprised by the fall and drank some water by accident. He wrapped his arms around Kagami's neck and let Taiga place his hands on the back of his thighs, carrying him.

"How was it?", Kagami asked once Aomine stopped coughing. He moved one hand to rub Daiki's back and pat him a little to help him cough everything out.

Aomine's smile replied to that question. Kagami placed him down on the seafloor and grabbed the surfboard, then passed it to Daiki.

"One more?", he asked. Aomine nodded, already trying to get onto the board.

The night was slowly appearing on the sky and they kept on catching the waves. Aomine's limbs were burning from exhaustion but he didn't plan on stopping. He wanted to stay longer. He wanted to keep on falling and keep on being cuddled. He wanted to keep being held and keep being smiled at. Eventually, three hours had passed and Aomine's time was ending - or rather, he ran out of time before the pee break.

Aomine didn't want to, but he eventually signaled to Taiga that he needed to go. They passed by Sei who was sleeping on the blanket, guarding their stuff. They left the surfboards there and continued into the bathroom. Once inside, the same thing happened as many times before that day.

"Are you embarrassed?", Kagami asked, still facing the door while Aomine relieved himself. "I think I already got used to it. You know, the... uh, closeness... between us. Even if it's me staying in the bathroom as you pee."

Aomine was standing facing the toilet - his belly was still small enough to still let him be able to piss while standing but big enough to be in the way of everything. He bit his lip and he pulled up his swimsuit then flushed the toilet.

He turned around and placed his forehead on Kagami's shoulder. Taiga opened the door and left the stall, going to the sink to wash his hands. Daiki followed him, firstly to the sinks then out of the bathroom and back to their blanket.

"Wanna swim again?", Kagami asked. It was late already, they were the only people left on the beach. It was getting cold, but Daiki only hesitated for a second before running into the water and dropping in. Kagami laughed as he followed. He wrapped his arms around Aomine's waist and spun him around, lifting him a little. He held him by the hips and moved them down onto Daiki's ass, then picked him up and waited for Aomine to wrap his legs around his waist.

They spent their time just running around the sparkly water, watching the stars and dancing in the shallow water. Aomine was smiling, Kagami was laughing, Sei was still sleeping and their skin was producing goosebumps. Eventually, they ended up in each other's arms, in a tight hug while the water reached their waists.

Aomine moved away, not even a full shoulder length, just enough to see Kagami's face in full. He had something in his chest that he had been keeping for a while. That feeling of someone pushing him, of something not letting him sleep until it would be completed. His heart was pounding and Taiga knew it was - he could hear it from there, in the silence of the night, with the sound carried by the waves. He wasn't pushing Daiki into explaining, he just waited and gave him all the time in the world. And then, he was rewarded with the most wonderful and beautiful gift he could have ever wished for.

A mere silent whisper.

"... Th—... ank... yo—u..."

Chapter Text

Kagami at first thought he had just imagined it. That Daiki's lips opened and no sound left them, like always. Like for the past two weeks. Because only that much had passed since they got him back.

Kagami didn't believe in miracles. He was always forced to be down to earth, he was never allowed to have dreams. There was only hard work and practice and both took time. So when he learned that Aomine's trauma forced him into a selective mutism, he accepted that he might not hear Daiki's voice in years to come. He accepted that he might never hear it again, even. He also made a promise to himself that he would do his best to support Daiki at every step of his recovery.

Two weeks is very small amount of days. It's not enough to study for all of the exams, it's not enough to get a degree, it's not enough to climb a mountain, it's not enough to learn basketball, it's not enough to teach someone anything, or to learn something. It's not enough to change a habit.

And yet, it took two weeks for Aomine to start healing. Slowly, deliberately. Step by step. Not just the words, but also the actions. Two weeks it took for him to be afraid of losing sight of certain people, of being alone, of sleeping alone in bed, of not letting strangers touch him, of not speaking, of waking up at the slightest sound and movement, to being okay with being alone in a known place, to being okay with losing the sight of Kagami for a while, to being okay with leaving a safe zone, to being okay with touch and nudity, to speaking two words.

And those two words were ether most beautiful sound Kagami could wish for.

He bit his lip, trying to stop himself from exploding but he couldn't. Just a few moments later he turned into a mess, ugly sobbing in front of Daiki, all while still holding him by his waist. He choked on his own tears, and there were so many of them they were not only running down his face but also flowing into the nasal cavity from the tear ducts and out of his nose, some of them even flowing into his throat. Some of them got into his larynx, making him drown.

Aomine stepped to Kagami's side and tilted his body forward, then hit him a few times between the shoulder blades to help him cough the tears out. Taiga couldn't stop, he kept on crying and sobbing uncontrollably, basically lying in Daiki's hold from the lack of breath.

Aomine meanwhile didn't know what to do, so he slowly started to drag Taiga towards the shore. Once the water was reaching only their ankles, they both fell down - Daiki onto his back and Kagami right next to him, on all fours. He gasped and coughed, then climbed on top of Aomine and cupped his hands with his hands covered in saltwater and sand. He smiled and his tears dropped onto Aomine's cheek.

"... Can I—... Can I hear it again?", Kagami choked on his own words. His thumb caressed Daiki's cheek as he stared into his beloved's eyes with the purest happiness one could show.

Daiki stared at him unsurely. Saying those words costed him a lot and he wasn't sure anything more could leave his mouth. Besides, what should he even say? With the "thank you" he exactly knew what had to leave his throat, those were the only two words on his mind. And now? His mind was empty.

Well, there was a certain someone there. And those certain someone's hands were cupping his face.

"... Ta—...i—... ga", he said, barely anything above a whisper, his voice so hoarse he could barely make a sound.

Kagami's smile when he heard his name in Aomine's voice was making his heart race. His smile, his stupid smile, his tears that were still falling onto Daiki's face, those hands holding him. Everything looked perfect. And his chest tightened, his lungs pushed the hair out, his vocal cords tightened, as if pushing him to say it again. Just to see Taiga smile again, for longer, brighter. Even if Daiki could barely see it anymore, even though the night was colder and colder with each second. The stars shined around them, the water sparkled in the moonlight and the two of them just lied in the cold water, with Kagami crying and Aomine trying to force his throat to make another sound. Not because he won with his trauma - no, he still didn't have the need to talk, his brain still tried to shut everything down. But his heart? It raced and screamed, hoping to make Taiga happy again.

"Taiga", Aomine said, looking into those burgundy eyes. It wasn't even a whisper anymore, there was almost no sound made. Maybe a decibel, maybe two. Aomine's throat had given up already, after staying mute for so long, but his lips repeated the name over and over, even if no sound was made anymore. Kagami could hear it anyway. Even if there was no sound, his brain could fill the gap.

Kagami pressed his forehead against Aomine's and closed his eyes. So many words wanted to get out of his mouth, but none could. So many beautiful epithets, poems and phrases, but the only thing Taiga could actually sound out were simple, yet heartfelt three words.

The waves moved against the sand, hitting them every once in a while. Aomine's hair was completely soaked and filled with sand. Stars shined in his blue eyes, his whole face was covered in freckles from the sun exposure. His lips were slightly ajared, looking so tempting, but Taiga wouldn't dare. He would never dare, not without Aomine indicating he would want him to. The wind was tangling their hair, a few navy strands got out of the hair ties and currently stayed pressed against Daiki's face or wrapped around Taiga's arms that were still cupping his face. Kagami moved away the strand that got into Aomine's eye and was getting tangled with his eyelashes.

Kagami opened his mouth and with a bitter smile on his face, he let out what lied on his heart:

"I love you."

Chapter Text

Aomine's eyes widened. What? Did he... Did he hear that right? Did Kagami just say what he thought he heard?!

"Again", Daiki slowly moved his lips, hoping Taiga would be able to read the words. He placed his hands on Kagami's wrists, holding him in place.

"... I—... I love you", Kagami repeated, his face getting read at the realization of his sudden confession. He tried to move away but Aomine moved his hand upwards and held it on his nape. Then, while pushing himself upwards and pulling Taiga towards himself, he slightly tilted his own head and pressed their lips together, closing his eyes.

Kagami froze. His hands moved down from Aomine's face. One stayed at his neck, with his fingers caressing the gland on his nape and the other landed on his ribs, moving further and further towards his spine. Eventually, he closed his eyes too and let himself drown into the kiss.

They didn't even move their lips. Just stayed in one place, touching. With not a millimeter of movement between them. They just sat, in a steady kiss.

Then, Daiki broke it and moved just a centimeter away. Just enough to separate their lips but still feel the heat radiating from the other body. He slowly opened his eyes and waited for Taiga to do the same. And when Kagami did, they stared so intensively at each other that it felt as if they were reading each other's souls through their pupils.

"Let's go back", Kagami whispered after a long pause. "It's... uh, it's cold."

Aomine nodded, his nose touching Kagami's cheek as he did. Taiga didn't want to, but he moved away and stood up, then helped Daiki stand on his feet. He was soaked, more than Taiga was because he was lying on the seabed the entire time. His hair was full of sand and Kagami was certain he could see some algae and seaweed tangled in as well.

Taiga wanted to let go of Daiki's hands but only one of them managed to slip out of the hold. The other one stayed firmly, kept in place by Daiki's fingers. So Kagami didn't question it - he started walking towards the blanket where Sei was sleeping, he let go of it for a moment to gather their stuff and waited for Aomine to follow him as he carried the surfboards to their spot. Then, he turned around and looked at Daiki, still wearing that wet koi fish patterned cover, now carrying Sei in his arms. He held his arm out and waited for Aomine to grab it again. And once he did, Kagami led them back to the hotel, where he invited Daiki over to the shower and washed him throughoutly, brushing out all of the sand from his hair.

"Happy birthday", Taiga said when he wrapped Daiki in a towel. "It's the thirty first."

The clock showed two twenty nine in the morning. Aomine hated going to bed with wet hair but he was exhausted, so he straight up dragged Kagami to the futon, skipping the hairdryer part.

Aomine didn't know what to think about this whole day. It all felt like a dream, like his imagination running wild, just as it did in the closure. Everything seemed like a fake reality. Because there was no way Taiga had confessed, right? There was no way he said that he loved Aomine, right?! And there was no way that Daiki's response was... a kiss. It couldn't be real, Aomine didn't deserve to be in that situation. At least, the current Aomine would say that.

The Daiki that Kagami had met all those months ago was different. He would laugh and take pride in being loved. He would stomp his foot and loudly inform that if was the correct approach, that it was what should be done, that others should follow Kagami's example and also say nice things about him because this was what should be done. He would be cocky and prideful. He would know he deserved it, he would be sure that was the only correct answer.

Because the previous Aomine was a bastard and an asshole. He was an annoying fuck that would scream at people and insult them, even if they were people he had to interrogate. He would argue with everyone around him, he would snatch papers out of people's hands, he would act and then think, he would be a bitch about it and he would always stick to what he thought was the best for him.

The current Aomine was the opposite. Brainwashed into believing he was a nuisance and a mistake, he would silently accept anything. He would agree to be hit, he would agree to be raped, abused, yelled at. Because he was sure he deserved it. He was coerced into believing in his fault, into thinking that he was a punishment to everyone around. That he was made to be nobody.

And then, there was Kagami Taiga. A man who tried to make the previous Aomine shine again. An alpha who was the opposite of what Daiki was forced to believe in.

Those three months in closure weren't a lot, but they were enough to make Aomine a different person. A very self-conscious, anxious person. He didn't know what to think about Taiga's confession. Was it true? Was it a lie? What happened to the alpha guy Kagami was so much into a while back? Did he get a wife? Was he still in contact with Taiga?

Was Daiki still a replacement? What was there to love in him anyway? A rape baby and self-esteem issues? Or maybe the flabby body and stretch marks?

"Daiki", Kagami's voice made him snap back to reality. "This might sound corny, but... You are the reason I'm still in Japan. I thought about quitting and going back many times before and the day I had a tab with flight tickets opened, I met you in that stupid elevator. You're the reason I didn't give up."

Aomine stared at him in disbelief. There was silence, only stopped by Sei's breathing and purrs as he was cuddled into Daiki's chest.

"I... I started physiotherapy. I actually even finished it. Fixed my knee. I, uh, had health problems and went to have them checked out, I think it was the first time ever that I went to the doctor's without having to be dragged in."

Aomine turned to his side and stared right into Kagami's eyes.

"You're the reason why I wanna keep going, why I've been working so hard to fix my broken Japanese, why I never gave up on finding you, why I fucking removed that stupid reminder from my calendar, the— the one about my dad."

Kagami moved his hand forward and slipped it into Aomine's. He intertwined their fingers and squeezed it.

"And this gonna sound selfish, but... But I wanna be the reason why you fight. I wanna be the reason why you'll go see a therapist, why you'll want to wake up, why you'll want to eat or why you'll have a reason to smile. I— I wanna be your reason to live..."

«It's the corniest shit I've ever heard», Daiki thought, closing his eyes.

Chapter Text

They woke up late - or rather, Kagami woke up late, since Aomine was still sleeping. It was almost ten and the breakfast would stop being served in a while, so Taiga slipped out of Daiki's hold and quickly dressed up. He snuck out of their bedroom and went to the hotel's lobby where the owners were serving food. He grabbed a few plates of food and went on his way back to bring Daiki the goodies.

When he opened the door, Aomine was gone. Kagami placed the plates on the dresser next to the door and started frantically looking around.

"Daiki?!", he yelled, checking every corner. "DAIKI?!"

He opened every door, checked the bathroom, the little garden with the onsen, every cubby, even the corridor - he was running around like a headless chicken, trying to find the missing omega.

He came back to the room and grabbed his phone. He didn't know what to do, calling the police seemed like the only option. He had to report Aomine missing and have a team immediately search for him.

Oh god. What if Haizaki followed them and waited for the moment Kagami would leave the room?! What if someone kidnapped him again, this time to be killed?! Sei was missing as well, did he follow Daiki, wherever he was being taken to?!

"Meow!", suddenly sounded out in the room. Taiga shut up, listening in. "Meow!", sounded out again. Kagami's head moved to the side, to the closet for the bedding. He sprinted to it, expecting to find Sei tied up by whoever took Aomine, but instead in front of his eyes was Daiki.

Curled up in the small space, shaking and crying, there sat Aomine, tightly hugging Sei. His eyes were all red, he looked terrified and was swinging forward and backward.

"Daiki!", Taiga finally exhaled, grabbing him and pulling him into his arms. "What happened? Why are you hiding?"

Kagami had deja vu. The arms were wrapped around him so tightly - they were like that once before. In that stupid hidden room in the attic, where he had been hold. When Kagami found him there, Aomine was clinging to him the exact same way.

Ah.

No one had entered the room. No one tried to come in and hurt Daiki. He was crying because of him.

Aomine had separation anxiety. And Taiga had just left him alone in an unknown place, without telling him where he had gone off to. Daiki must have woken up and unable to find Kagami, he got a panic attack.

"I'm sorry", Kagami whispered. He managed to free Sei from the tight hold, but the cat stayed close to them anyway. "I'm so sorry, Daiki, please forgive me."

Aomine sniffed and cuddled in. He wasn't clenching his arms around him anymore but he was gently lying in his arms and refusing to move.

"Shh, Daiki, I'm so sorry", Taiga kissed the top of his head. "I went to grab you some breakfast, I'm so sorry, I— I should have left you a note or something, at least... O-Or just wake you up and take you with me..."

The grip of Daiki's fingers around his forearm told him the whole sentence Aomine wanted him to know. "Don't ever do that again."

"I promise I'll never leave you alone without you wanting me to", Kagami whispered. It took Aomine maybe half an hour to even allow Taiga to move. He then sat at the kotatsu, pouting and mad at Taiga for making him so scared and waited to be served the food that Kagami had brought.

They ate in silence, that was occasionally broken by Sei's noises. And after that, they went to the beach again. The sandcastle was still there - Aomine could even tell where they had kissed yesterday.

Ah.

Kissed. Right. He fucking kissed Kagami. And Taiga told him that he loved him. And Daiki replied with a kiss. What the fuck did it mean then? What were they? A cou—... ple...? No, no, no, no, no, they weren't dating, Kagami would never want to date someone like him, Aomine was not only ugly, had no muscles, was chubby from all the water accumulating in his body, and on top of all that, was pregnant with a kid that wasn't Taiga's! Kagami might not have been an ordinary alpha, but there was no way in hell that any alpha would take care of someone else's baby!

No matter how kind and lovely human being would they be.

"You seem down", Kagami noticed while carrying the two surfboards to the place they had been in before. He placed them on the sand and set up a blanket for Sei and Daiki. "Is it about the morning still? Daiki, you don't even know how bad I feel—"

Aomine shook his head.

"... Then what's wrong? I—... I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong. Or... Text me. Or something. Just—... share it with me somehow."

Aomine gulped. He slowly touched his lips and looked away, embarrassed. His face was red and Kagami seemed to have caught on.

"O-Oh—... I—", Taiga mumbled. Of course Daiki was acting weird, Kagami had said so many embarrassing things yesterday, he made a whole ass speech about his love for Aomine! "... I would never push you into doing anything you don't want to do."

Daiki turned around and undressed. He was already wearing the swimsuit so he only fished out the coverup and quickly out it on. He found a hairbrush in his bag and handed it to Kagami, together with two hair ties.

"... Can I put your hair in two pigtails?", Taiga asked, voicing out his intrusive thoughts. Okay, those seemed to be impulsive, but it was still bugging him so much as if it was yet another one of his intrusive ones. His hands itched to do it, it felt like he couldn't move on if he didn't put Daiki's long and beautiful hair into two stupid pigtails. He didn't have OCD, but sometimes his thoughts were annoying him so much it seemed like he did.

Aomine blinked slowly and looked at the hair ties in his hand. He was twenty-nine years old as of today, wasn't he too old for pigtails?

He nodded anyway, pushed by the warmth in his heart that was slowly melting the iron cage around it. It was irrational, but the petite sparkle from his heart seemed to have thought otherwise.

Chapter Text

Aomine looked so pretty. With his two pigtails that reached his waist, sitting on the surfboard, observing the waves. He often was falling down, struggling to steady himself not just because of his lack of experience but also because of the thirty-two week pregnancy belly. Nevertheless, he caught on so quickly Kagami couldn't believe that it was the first time Aomine was touching a surfboard. He was a natural, he quickly adapted, changed strategies, learned from his mistakes and repeated things over and over. He perfected everything - when he was falling forward because of the center of gravity being in a different place due to the belly, he lowered his stance and stabilized his knees. When he was falling to the sides on turns, he changed the position on his feet. When he was falling backwards after coming down from a wave, he found a way to get down safely in the perfect moment.

Kagami was flabbergasted. He didn't even have to surf, he could just sit on his ass and watch Aomine have fun. Because it seemed like he did.

"You look amazing", Taiga slipped out once Daiki paddled towards him. He was soaked, they both were, but Kagami was less - he mainly stayed on the board watching Aomine, who seemed to have the full control of smaller waves. Daiki's pigtails were wet and didn't look so fluffy anymore, but he still looked adorable.

"Taiga", he mouthed out, voicelessly. "Taaaigaaaa."

"Yeah?"

Aomine smiled. He grabbed Taiga's hand in a 'come with me' motion and dragged him towards the waves. They spent an hour more running around and then, slightly before lunch time, they gathered their things and went back to the hotel. On their way home they stopped by a restaurant and ordered some food, then enjoyed it. They walked back, holding hands, with Sei in Daiki's arms and Kagami holding the bag. Once they got back, they hopped into the shower.

Kagami tried his best not to stare, but it was hard. Aomine looked amazing. A queen, not even a princess. Eventually he did notice Taiga's staring and covered himself a little with his arms.

"Sorry", Kagami mumbled, looking away. He was also naked, under the shower, right next to Aomine. He gulped and grabbed the soap to wash himself. Oh god, his dick was about to get hard. That wasn't good. There was nowhere to hide.

Eventually, Aomine sat down on the stool next to him and grabbed a shampoo to wash his hair again and get the sand out. Kagami took a deep breath and popped the question:

"Can I wash it for you?"

Daiki hesitated, but then nodded. He sat steadily and let Taiga take care of things. It was calming, reassuring. Kagami's fingers moving on his scalp, brushing his hair, gently washing them, then rinsing with warm water, drying a little with a towel and then tying them in a bun with the help of a long kanzashi they had bought the day before at the market.

Then, Kagami grabbed his hand and led him to the onsen. He guided him down into the water, towards the seats, he sat down next to him and closed his eyes, relaxing. Sei, who up until now had been sleeping next to the doors leading outside, got closer to them and flopped down, curling his behind Daiki's head.

"We're going back in three hours", Kagami noted. "Anything else you wanna do before going to the station?"

Aomine thought for a moment, then shook his head. He could just enjoy his day with Kagami, take a slow walk to the station and sleep on the train. Taiga nodded. They were still holding hands, just now underwater.

"... So, what did you think of surfing?", Kagami asked after a moment of silence.

Aomine placed his head on Kagami's shoulder and relaxed. He could do anything as long as it was with Taiga.

Wait, but they still had not talked about the confession! Were they dating? Was this whole shebang a date?! What the hell was going on?! Did Aomine even want to date Kagami...?

His crush towards the guy was changing a lot - at first it just happened and Aomine tried to fight it, then he met Haizaki and forgot about Taiga (or did he not? He technically spent quite some time comparing Shougo to him and regretting his decision) and now he was developing a crush again. Or maybe, rather, not a crush but he had a reverse Scandinavian syndrome... No, wait, it had a different name. Uh, what was it called...? Aomine was sure it was some city in Scandinavian region - definitely not Oslo, it was longer. Copenhagen? Helsinki? No, it started with an S, didn't it?

"What's up with you, you look like your brain is frying", Kagami chuckled. Aomine frowned and turned around. He reached for the phone that he had left on the ground a bit further from the onsen and opened Google Maps.

Stockholm! The reverse Stockholm syndrome! He wasn't falling in love with his captor but with his savior!

... Wait, that was bad. How could he now know if it wasn't that? How he was supposed to know if his love was genuine or whether he only felt like it to repay Kagami for everything?

"Daiki?", Kagami watched as Aomine placed the phone away and returned to his previous position as if nothing had happened. Was he in love with Kagami just because he ended the nightmare? Was he in love with him just because it was Kagami who found him? If it was Momoi, would he love her like that? What if it was someone else? Someone he didn't know? Some other firefighter or some other police officer?

What if it wasn't Kagami? What if Kagami never entered that attic? Would Aomine fall in love with someone else? Could it even be counted as that? Maybe Daiki didn't fall in love but his previous love had just been reignited? Maybe it was just his heart telling him that Taiga was the right man? That he was the right choice, the one that felt like home, the one that he should marry?

"... Daiki, you're scaring me", Taiga moved towards the center of the pond. He crouched in front of Daiki, still in water that was now reaching his throat. "What's wrong?"

'I don't know if I love you, asshole, that's what's wrong!', Aomine gulped.

Chapter Text

I want to dance in the rain with him, Aomine thought as he walked with Kagami, hand in hand, to the station. Sei was sleeping in his arms, Kagami had the bag with their clothes thrown over his shoulder and was carrying the carrier for Sei in his hand. His fingers were intertwined with Daiki's, he was leading the way, making sure the pace wasn't to fast for Aomine.

Aomine had never really been much of a romantic person. His favorite type of fate was the one that involved the couch, a blanket, possibly a movie in the middle of which he would fall asleep. His favorite type of birthday party was the one that didn't happen. His favorite type of going out was not. His favorite type of romantic gesture was a homemade dinner, favorite type of confession was insult and favorite type of celebration was sleeping.

He wanted to exist with someone, insult them, yell at them, fight with them, argue with them, piss them off and then be kissed goodnight and smooched on the cheek when he was pissed off at something serious. He knew he was a horrible dating material - if he wasn't pushing people away with his demeanor he would have a husband by now.

And now, walking with Kagami, all he had in mind was dancing in the rain with him. It could even be heavy rain. It could be a storm. It could be raining so much they would be freezing. But he just wanted to be there, with Taiga, for a little while. Holding him in his arms, just to enjoy the moment as the time would be slipping through their fingers like sand.

"Bathroom break?", Kagami asked as they reached the station.

No, Aomine must have loved him before. There was no way everything that he was feeling was fake. Every single thought, every heartbeat, every sting, every butterfly, every twist, cramp, stab and jab, everything felt just as it had felt those months ago when he had a crush on Kagami. Except this time, they were stronger. So strong Aomine could barely contain them.

He nodded. They went to the bathroom together, to the disabled one, so Aomine wouldn't have problem to sit down with the limited mobility caused not only by the belly but also by the horrendous muscle cramps after spending the last two days so actively. But the pain only made him feel alive. He hadn't felt that good in a while.

"Meow?", Sei's head rested against Taiga's shoulder as he was held up by him while Daiki used the toilet. Kagami pulled him down and ignored him when Sei smacked him with his paw. He waited for Aomine to finish and then gave the cat back to him and grabbed the carrier again.

Once at the train, Sei was pouting in his carrier. Unfair, he had to stay there while Kagami could freely hold Aomine!... Good for him, good for him. Sei was still jealous, but content with the relationship between his human and Kagami. Good. It should go even further.

They arrived in the evening and Momoi picked them up from the train station. Aomine could tell she was nervous, as if trying to say something important. In the end, she didn't. Daiki wondered what that could have been - he kind of felt hurt that Satsuki was hiding something, but he wasn't about to push her into saying.

She stepped in for a tea and listened to them talking about the two days they had spent together. She praised Aomine for all the hard work in learning, praised Sei for always watching their stuff for them on the blanket and when she thought Daiki couldn't hear her, she deeply thanked Kagami for making him smile. Of course, both of them skipped the love confession part while telling her everything.

"I wanna go back to work", Aomine showed her on his phone before she left.

"... Okay", she sighed. "Tomorrow?"

Aomine nodded.

"Okay then", Satsuki smiled. "See you tomorrow at work..."

Momoi was unsure about it - sure, during the shift Aomine would be with Ryou at all times, but during the commute? He could borrow his work car and keep it at home at all times, but he would still need to drive it without anyone else in the vehicle.

"... Maybe I'll come pick you up?", she offered. "So, uh, so you wouldn't have to get there alone...?"

Aomine didn't think about that. He gulped. Shit, he got so used to Kagami being there that he forgot Taiga had his own job. Which meant Daiki would have to be alone. And for someone who couldn't go to the toilet alone without panicking, be was just screwing himself over with his stupid request.

He nodded, accepting Momoi's suggestion. Tomorrow was going to be a terrifying day.

"Tired?", Kagami asked once they were alone again. Daiki flopped down on the sofa and finished his tea. Taiga sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around him. "You have a therapist visit tomorrow, no?"

Aomine nodded. It wasn't the first talk with the woman and probably wouldn't be the last but he was kind of excited to tell her about those few words he managed to say to Taiga... Maybe he should ask her about the feelings? Maybe she would know what to do?

But that would mean Aomine had to go alone in there. Up until then Kagami went with him and sat with him. But Daiki had never had the need to talk about things regarding his feelings towards Kagami. Maybe he should talk about it with Taiga firstly?

"What's wrong, you've been like this for a while now", Taiga frowned. "Did I do something?"

Aomine hesitated. He reached for his whiteboard and took a deep breath. "I think I'm in love with you."

"... Oh", Kagami tensed up. "That's— uh— thank you."

Aomine slowly raised his eyes at him and blinked. What the fuck was that reaction?!

"THANK YOU?!", Aomine wrote angrily. "SERIOUSLY?"

"WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO SAY?!", Kagami cried out. "... I'm happy you love me... I love you too, so, uh... Thank you... I guess."

Aomine looked back down at his whiteboard. "What now?", he wrote.

Chapter Text

"... I don't know, I never thought I'd get this far", Kagami admitted. "Uh, whatever you want. We can... I— I don't know."

"Can we change nothing?", Aomine asked, hiding his face behind the whiteboard.

"... Y-Yeah", Taiga mumbled. Did that also mean them calling each other a couple? Did changing nothing meant Taiga couldn't call himself Daiki's boyfriend?

"I'm scared", Daiki admitted, his writing was small and he didn't raise the whiteboard to show the message, just kept it on his lap.

"Wanna talk about it with the therapist?", Kagami asked, looking at his hands. Should he ask about the name? Should he ask for permission to call Aomine his boyfriend?

Daiki nodded. It must have been as awkward for him as it was for Kagami, maybe slightly less - Taiga felt so bad for telling him that now. Two weeks after Daiki escaped hell. And Taiga was already coercing him into another relationship. Aomine was in no shape to be in a relationship, and yet Kagami was a selfish asshole.

Meanwhile, Daiki was fighting against his throat clenching from stress. He wanted this. He wanted Kagami to love him romantically, he wanted to be with him. But he felt so bad at not being able to be a good boyfriend. Right. Boyfriend.

"Wait so that means we're boyfriends?", Aomine wrote. He slightly tilted the whiteboard towards him, looking away.

"... I-If—... If—... A-ah, so that means we're... d-dating?", Kagami mumbled, all red.

"I can't be a good boyfriend", Aomine's handwriting was small, in the corner of the board. "... And you still want me?"

"Yeah", Kagami grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "I know that you're not really mentally ready for a relationship, so I won't do anything with it. I'm gonna help you as I did until now. A-And I don't need dates, romantic moments, o-or any... touch."

Aomine looked at where their hands were touching and squeezed Kagami's palm. He thought for a moment before writing his words. "Will you touch me if I want it?"

"... Y-Yeah, I guess", Taiga mumbled, embarrassed. He didn't think Aomine would want to experiment with him.

'So, we are dating', both of them thought, awkwardly avoiding each other's gaze. Aomine eventually bit his lip, took a deep breath and stood up. He pulled Taiga's hand towards him and waited for Kagami to stand up and then led the alpha to his bedroom. Taiga's hand was sweating and trembling from the sudden stress. What the hell was going on? He had already slept with Aomine multiple times! What the hell was different now, that they weren't friends anymore but a couple now?! It was just a name change, their relationship was still the same as before!

"Uh, Daiki?", Taiga started questioning what was going on when Aomine's hands got under his shirt and pulled it up over his head.

Daiki reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He showed the message, covering the lower half of his face with it. "I can touch my boyfriend, can't I?"

With that, Daiki placed his hand over Taiga's chest and just... squeezed the right pectoral. Kagami stared at him in pure confusion and with his eyes widened. Aomine put his phone away and his second hand soon ended up cupping Taiga's left pectoral.

"Are you having fun?", Kagami asked. Daiki slowly raised his eyes at his... boyfriend's... face and nodded. "Good, uh, anything else would you like to touch?"

Daiki shook his head, moving his head down again to look at Taiga's chest.

"Wanna maybe lie down on the bed?"

Aomine raised his eyes, staring at Kagami like a deer in the headlights and nodded. But before they could move, Aomine grabbed his phone again and quickly wrote a message, then stared at it for almost a minute, thinking if he wanted to show it.

"Will it be weird now if we sleep naked?"

Kagami froze and gulped. His eyes widened, his face got red and he wanted to look away so bad, but he was too terrified to move. What the hell was he supposed to say? Yes, now it was weird because now they were dating?! It was weird the other way around, why were they sleeping naked together as friends?!

Why was it so hard to just.. switch? Why was it so different?

Aomine looked down and sighed. He bit his lip and turned around to grab his pyjamas and change into them before going to bed, but Kagami gently grabbed his hand as he was walking towards the bathroom. His fingers moved down into Daiki's palm and his pinky finger hooked Aomine's pinky.

"I'm scared", Taiga admitted, very silently. "I'm scared I'll hurt you even more. I want you to be happy and everything, but—"

Aomine turned around and walked over to Kagami. His pyjamas landed somewhere on the floor as Daiki raised his hands to cup Taiga's face.

"I'm an idiot", Kagami sniffed. "A-And dating comes with a lot of stuff, a-and I don't want you to have another image of your boyfriend being an ass and hurting you, so— um, I—"

Aomine shut him up by pressing their lips together.

It wasn't sex. It was far from being anything intimate. Aomine was lying on his back, naked, Kagami, equally naked, was on his side, right next to him. One of his hands was under Daiki's neck, wrapped around him, the other was moving against his naked skin. Kagami's fingers trailed downward, then stopped once they reached the top of Aomine's belly.

"Who do you think it's gonna be?", Kagami asked with a smile. He pressed his lips against Daiki's forehead and closed his eyes. Aomine shrugged a little. He didn't care, a boy, a girl - it could even be a rabbit for all he gave a fuck.

Kagami had asked him a while back if he could raise the child. Now, they were dating. Did he still mean it? But wouldn't that mean that Taiga wanted to raise it with... him? As a couple? As in, the baby would be theirs?

"Can I?", Taiga asked before moving his hand further. It felt surprisingly nice - it was the first time Aomine had anyone's hands on his belly since he got pregnant. No one ever touched him like that before. No one tried to "talk" to the fetus inside him.

Maybe it was for the better? Aomine didn't want anyone doing so. It was off-putting to him, he wanted to gag just thinking about it.

"Hey, Little One", Taiga whispered, placing his whole hand in the middle of the bump. "You have a very strong and beautiful mama, you know?"

Aomine liked people talking to the fetus inside him.

Chapter Text

The first day of work in like... Four months. Almost. Aomine didn't know what to feel - should he be proud of himself? Kagami seemed to be proud of him, but Daiki felt anxious, not proud.

And so did Sei. The moment Aomine, Momoi and Kagami left the apartment, he felt the anxiety washing over him. He had promised to meet up with his family often, then disappeared for three days. He was sulking a little as he was walking to the spot, trying to find some words for an apology.

Finally, when he arrived at the crack, he was met with Ninth dropping the food he had found in front of their mother. Once they saw the shadow, Ninth stood on guard and turned around angrily.

"... Hello", Sei mumbled.

"Where have you been?!", Ninth yelled at him. "You made a promise to come back and then you disappeared for so long!"

"I—... My human needed me", Sei admitted. "It was his birthday and we went to the bea—"

"Do you hear yourself?!", Ninth shouted. "You ditched your family! Fa-mi-ly! To be with some human?!"

"Ninth", the mother stopped the arguing. "I'm glad I can see my son, no matter how long I had to wait."

"Mother—"

"Ninth", her soft voice made Ninth calm down. He walked over to Mother and passed some of the food to her.

"Eat", Ninth mumbled. "You haven't in a while."

"... I brought some more food", Sei admitted. He grabbed the little bag of meat that Aomine had packed for him - or rather, Sei grabbed the meat and brought both it and a small bag over to him and refused to let Daiki move anywhere before he got the thing packed up.

Aomine seemed so touched by that, he even showed a message on his phone to Kagami, proudly exclaiming that his little son grew up and was taking lunch with him to 'work'.

Sei didn't eat with them, he just watched Ninth suspiciously sniff the food while their mother consumed a little bit of what both sons had brought her.

"Tenth", she asked, "why do the humans call you?"

"Mother, why would you—", Ninth interrupted.

"Sweetie, could you go get us all something to drink?", she purred.

"Oh, no, I'm good", Sei immediately protested.

"He can go grab water on his own, he has two pairs of working legs", Ninth huffed, but left the home anyway to bring Mother something to drink. Which probably would be some water from a puddle, hopefully. It rained recently so he hoped he would be able to find something clear, without mud everywhere.

With Sei being alone with his mother, he felt uneasy. They hadn't been alone in a long time, and even when they lived together, mostly Ninth and Sei stayed together. The two inseparable twins. That was what their mother had called them.

"Sei", he admitted. "The humans call me Sei."

"It's a beautiful name", the mother admitted. "I once had a human name, you know? I lived with them for a long time, when I was young."

"... Why did you leave?", Sei asked, lying down next to her.

"I ran away and met your father", she chuckled. "I never came back after that. I planned to, but he made me want to stay there with him all the time."

"What was your human name?", Sei asked, cuddling into her.

"It's not important anymore", she closed her eyes. "I had many. The kids that lived in you father's human house called me one name, the lady that worked in the store called me a different one, the humans that raised me called me a third one. There were many names."

Sei didn't know that his mother lived with humans for so long. He knew that she was now scared of them so he tried his best no to talk about it with her, although it was going rather awfully wrong. He had always had a soft spot for her that made him spill everything that was resting in his heart without a single thought on his mind.

Ninth was the strong one. He was the one with the backbone, the one who took care of them. He played the role of a father after the humans found out about them and kicked them out.

It was a long story - they lived with the father at first, in secret from the house owners. The kids loved them and they watched carefully as Sei and Ninth were born. Their father even took care of them sometimes, helping their mom with the two infants. Then, the parents of the kids found out that their precious home cat had babies with a stray and Sei, Ninth and their mother ended up on the street, despite the protests of the kids.

"Hm", the mother huffed. "Quite a coincidence, now that I think of it."

"What is?"

"Your father's human name was Masaomi, if I remember correctly", she smiled. "Same writing, different reading as yours."

"... I don't think I should have that name, then", Tenth lowered his head. "Ninth should have it. He tries so hard to be like Father—"

"It's your human name", the mother nudged at him. "Besides, Ninth doesn't want to be like Masaomi. He hates him. He just tries to protect everyone and make sure everyone he cares for is safe."

Mother hated humans because if the injuries she had sustained. It happened not a long time before Tenth gained his human name. They were living a peaceful life when a few young human boys found them and kicked the mother almost half to death. Sei and Ninth left so many scratch and teeth marks on them the boys ran away crying.

But since then, Mother had troubles walking, eating, just... existing. She was weak and tired all the time and depended on them entirely. And then, Tenth left her when she needed him the most.

"Loving a human is a feeling you should cherish", she said. "You don't get to experience that often, it's never guaranteed. But one you find that one, you'd want to do anything to make them happy. It differs from romantic love a little. Because humans are a family. Just like the three of us are."

"... I apologize", Sei sighed. "I left you two to—"

"Don't", she stopped him. "I'll love you the same, always. Whether you have a human family to take care of or not."

Chapter Text

Aomine was all stressed out at work but he was welcomed rather warmly. Surprisingly, as there weren't many people who tolerated him and even less who liked him. And yet, the first person to greet him was no one other than Wakamatsu Kousuke, the bitchface from Community Police Affairs.

Aomine felt good with all the attention, surprisingly. After spending so long alone he craved it, somehow. And yet, when met with so many people around he was regretting his outfit choice - maybe he should have put on something fancier than leggings with a severely oversized sweater?

"Look who finally decided to show up, huh?", Wakamatsu huffed at him. "We made bets if you'd make it out alive. Never doubted you, I told them mother fuckers that a cunt like you would live just to prove them wrong. So thanks for winning me some hefty sum."

Aomine couldn't help but smile as he pulled out his phone. "Aw you missed me?", he showed, followed by a few smiling emojis with heart around them. Wakamatsu frowned and snickered a mere "very funny" at him before caving in and wrapping Daiki in a tight hug.

"It's good to have you back, Sergeant", he whispered, patting Aomine on the back three times before letting him go.

'It's good to be back', Aomine thought, breathing out the air that he was keeping in. Many people were surprisingly happy to have him back, but most of the comments were still about how silent it felt without him. And Daiki, who was still struggling with selective mutism, didn't feel any better after hearing that.

After they finally let him to the office (prompted up by Momoi who ordered everyone back to work), Sakurai met him with papers in his hand.

"Ready to go crack a case?", he asked. Daiki didn't even have the time to sit down, and it seemed that Sakurai could pick up the slight hint in his voice regarding being tired already (oh be serious, he was not only locked up and forced to lie down almost all the time for three months, but also eight months pregnant and sore from his two day long birthday trip, of course standing for fifteen minutes or so would make him tired) so Daiki sat down in his office chair, which cracked under his weight and closed his eyes, getting the nostalgia feeling.

Sakurai leaned against the counter, pressing his hips against them and opened the file. He began explaining thighs about it to Aomine, who leaned back in his chair and placed a hand on his belly. He slipped it down and tried to push it upwards a little to give a rest to his skin and spine.

"You should go on a maternity leave at least a week before the due date", Ryou reminded him. "Sorry, ready for the trip to the elevator? I'll drive the car."

Aomine took a minute more before standing up and leaving the building with Sakurai. The case they were working on was almost finished, so Aomine just tagged along for the entire day before Sakurai drove him home and left the car with him. He stayed for some tea until Imayoshi picked him up. Or rather, upon realizing that Kagami still wasn't home, the couple stayed together with Daiki, awaiting Taiga's return.

Once that happened, they went back to finally send the nanny home.

"Nice of them to stay with you", Kagami pointed out. "I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier."

Aomine was glad to have him there anyway. Just as glad he was when Kagami wasn't rushing him while they were in the car with Aomine behind the steering wheel.

"Everything's okay?", Taiga asked, grabbing Daiki's hand that rested on the gearshift. Daiki nodded. He could do it, it was just a car. He could drive a car! He started the engine and released the handbrake, then slowly rolled out of the parking spot. The navigation was set to the therapist's office and it wasn't the first time Aomine went there, but the first time he was driving there.

He was kind of scared. Irrationally scared. He was kidnapped into a car when he was walking, he shouldn't be scared of driving.

"I can call a cab", Taiga offered, but Daiki refused. He turned on the turn signal and drove into the street. The drive there was the most stressful twenty minutes of his life. Somehow. Okay, they weren't the most, but they were surely stressful.

Now, he wanted to figure out what to tell his therapist about his emotions.

She welcomed them with a smile, like always. The only difference was that Aomine stood right next to the entryway and held Kagami's hand tightly, not letting him go and sit down. He took a deep breath and showed a prewritten message to them both.

"I need to talk about something alone."

Kagami squeezed his hand. Whatever it was, it seemed to be important. Was Taiga doing something wrong? Was suggesting a relationship a bad move after all? "Are you sure?"

Aomine nodded, but unsurely.

"... I'll be just outside the door", Taiga promised. "I promise I won't listen in. And I promise I'll come in whenever you'd need me to."

The second the doors closed with Kagami outside, Aomine's breathing got heavier and shallower. He was shaking and crying, the therapist gave him a tissue. He hesitated - should he just ignore his needs for a private talk and get Kagami back before he would have a panic attack?

"Would you like to start?", the therapist decided to try and get his mind focused on something else. Aomine took a deep breath and nodded. With shaking hands he grabbed his phone, still looking at the door every few seconds to see if he could still spot Taiga's shoes through the gap between the door and the floor.

"We started dating", the message read. "Nothing wow effect, just a different name for what we were already doing. I've had a crush on him when we met, then I got over it (I think?) and started dating Haizaki. I don't know what to think of my feelings towards Kagami. Is it the crush? Or am I into him just because he was the one that saved me? Is this some kind of savior complex??"

The therapist took a deep breath. "I think you already have an answer to that question", she said. "Whether you like him for who he is, or whether it was because he saved you, the outcome would be the same. If instead of him, someone else got you out, would you date them?"

Daiki looked at his hands. He shook his head.

"Then what are you worrying about it? Aomine-san, if you're just looking for a reason to stay out of the relationship, you don't need to look for complicated way outs. You have the absolute right not to be ready for a relationship and I'm sure Kagami-san will give you all the space and time you need. There's no point in rushing things, just to make yourself feel bad."

Aomine wanted that relationship. He wanted normality, he wanted to forget about the three months, he wanted to have a loving boyfriend, wake up in someone's arms every day. He wanted to be with someone. With Kagami. Just not alone.

Before calling Taiga into the room, Daiki wrote one more thing. "I spoke to him."

"Is that so?", she smiled. "What did you say?"

"Thank you and his name", Daiki bit his lip.

"You mentioned that there were no reasons for you to speak. And yet, those words left your mouth. Did you, perchance, find your reason?"

"I don't know", Aomine sighed. "I just had to say them. It felt like if explode if I didn't."

The therapist smiled. "And from now on, we will work on making you feel like that more often."

Chapter Text

The days looked the same. Waking up together, Kagami's warm body right next to his, a breakfast that Aomine didn't have to prepare, a long and complicated journey to work (firstly picking up Sakurai, then dropping off Kagami and then going to work, so Aomine wouldn't be alone in the car).

It was one of those days. September. Twelfth. Sei and Daiki were still sleeping, while Kagami could be heard in the kitchen. Aomine yawned and stood up from the bed, supporting his lumbar spine with his hands. Wearing nothing but Kagami's t-shirt that was no too short for him because of the belly, making his whole ass visible, he walked to the kitchen and peeked from behind the fridge to see what was Taiga making.

"Good morning, beautiful", Kagami hummed when he heard Daiki's footsteps. "I'm making you pancakes!"

Kagami flipped the pancake on the pan by throwing it up in the air, then chuckled as he caught it. He placed a plate full of already cooked ones on the table and got Daiki a separate plate, some cutlery and toppings.

"I cut up some fruits if you'd like", he smiled. "And made whipped cream."

Taiga took the pancake he had flipped off the pan and added to it the stash. Aomine smiled as he sat down and grabbed one to eat. Sei joined them soon and Kagami gave him his own pancakes, made with ingredients that he could eat. Then, after finishing up the batter, he sat down next to Daiki and ate it with him.

After they cleaned out their plates, Kagami collected everything and brought it to the sink. He rinsed them and put into the dishwasher. Aomine observed him while drinking his mango-flavored tea. He should buy more of it, it was so good. The pomegranate one as well, he was already on track to run out of it.

He took a sip of his tea, then frowned and looked down on his stomach. Kagami noticed Aomine acting weird and asked what was wrong.

Daiki placed down his cup and waited for one more time and when it happened, he sharply inhaled some air, feeling it get knocked out of him.

"Daiki? Baby, what's wrong? You feel bad? You need to lie down?"

Aomine shook his head and stood up. He grabbed Kagami's hand and pressed it against his stomach. Taiga observed him with confusion all over his face, then he felt the same thing that knocked the air out of Aomine.

A faint kick.

Daiki moved his Taiga's hand, trailing the kicks and punches. One after another, Kagami could make out more and more of them. He giggled as he feel to his knees in front of Aomine and lifted the shirt, revealing the beautiful brown skin decorated with stretch marks. He observed it excitedly, waiting for the inevitable.

And then, he saw it. A small hand imprint on the skin, just next to Daiki's belly button. He gasped in awe, pressing his hand in that spot.

"Hi, Little One", Kagami whispered. "Hm, are you stretching?"

The fetus pressed the leg in another spot, so Taiga moved his hand there, just next to Daiki's hip. He playfully started pressing his hands where the fetus pushed, catching Sei's attention. The cat jumped onto a chair, then also joined the play, gently putting his paw against the fetus's hand.

"Oh, you're so big already, aren't you?", Taiga chuckled. "You seem ready to get out, but it's too early yet. There's still six weeks to go, you know? But don't worry, everyone will be waiting for you, you just gotta come on time, no surprises, hm?"

Kagami caressed the skin, then when a hand imprint could be seen again, he chuckled and kissed the spot. Then, his beautiful smile faded from his face as he realized what he had done.

"I—...", he stood upband pulled Daiki's shirt downwards. "I should have said that. I—"

Aomine knew which part he meant. The 'waiting for you' one. Because no one will be waiting for it. And there will be no one to take care of it. And them both would come back empty-handed. All because Daiki planned on abandoning the fetus as soon as it was born.

"... You know I would never force you into anything, right?", Kagami asked, grabbing Aomine's hand. Daiki nodded, looking into his eyes. He waited and waited until Taiga found the courage to say what was on his heart. "I want to raise that baby with you."

Aomine knew this was what Kagami wanted to say. He fucking knew. He knew that face, he could tell that Taiga wanted this baby to be born from the second he had learned about it. He knew that while Kagami didn't mind abortion, he would rather take the children and raise them alone. Aomine knew. He knew Taiga's history, he knew the house he grew up in. He knew the abandonment, the lack of attention, he knew Kagami was an unwanted kid. And he knew how much it meant to Kagami to give unwanted children the feeling of being loved.

Aomine knew Kagami would want to raise the kid, now that if couldn't be aborted. And yet, his heart ached when Taiga said that.

"Daiki", Taiga said softly, placing his head on Daiki's shoulder. "I want to raise that baby, your baby. With you. I—... I know I'm not the father, but—... I wanna be a dad for them. Even if I'd have to do everything alone, even if you wouldn't raise a finger to help, I still want to raise that baby."

Aomine knew. No matter what would be wrong with the kid, even if it would be missing half of its head, Kagami would still raise it. Daiki didn't know what to think about that. He could refuse. He had the choice of not only saying no but also of leaving the baby at the hospital and going home without it. He would hurt Kagami, possibly severely, but the baby would not be in his life. Taiga might also not be there.

And if he took the baby home? What if it looked like Haizaki? What if he would be forced to look at his rapist's face for the rest of his life? What if he and Taiga break up? What would happen then?

What if they would break up over the stupid baby?

Chapter Text

The days were similar. Kagami making breakfast, Aomine sleeping in with Sei. Them going to work, then coming back and doing something. Either a therapist visit, weekly on Mondays. Sometimes shopping. Often just sitting on the sofa, watching something. Every day, Kagami lied down between Aomine's legs and spoke softly to his belly. He gently caressed it, making sure Daiki was okay with his every move.

The baby moved more and more. Aomine couldn't sleep at night, but this time it wasn't from his anxiety but from the kicks and punches to his internal organs. And the only thing that helped and calmed the bastard down was Kagami's presence. Only when Taiga's hands were on the belly, only when he softly spoke to calm the baby down, only then did it stop kicking.

Aomine got better at staying alone. What started only as therapist visits, then became solo trips to the stores with Taiga waiting outside. Daiki tried to get close to the bakery, but he was shaking every time he got close. On the other hand, he started to be okay with staying alone at the apartment.

Step by step, he was fighting his traumas.

He began to love the routine, although he had hated it with all of his might just a month prior. But somehow, with Kagami on his side, the routine felt good. Waking up with him every day felt good. Having Kagami talk about his job while cuddling him on the sofa. Eating meals with him. Everything. It felt right as it should feel.

"Good morning, princess", Taiga kissed his cheek. "What would you like for breakfast?"

Sei was out of the room, somewhere in his litterbox, probably. Was it a bad decision to try and make a step forward? He was getting okay with touch and everything, but in almost a month of dating he and Kagami barely even kissed outside of the pecks Taiga was leaving on Daiki's cheeks and shoulders while waking him up.

"You?", Daiki showed the message on his phone and Kagami's face immediately got all red.

"I— uh, a-are you serious?", Kagami mumbled, placing his hand on Aomine's waist. It wasn't so visible anymore since Daiki got slightly chubby from the pregnancy and (finally) normal eating habits, but he was beautiful nevertheless. "I—..."

"I'm scared", Aomine admitted, writing slowly on his phone. He turned to his back, cuddling into Kagami who was on his left side. Taiga's hand now moved to the belly, trying to find out if the bastard was awake. Taiga placed his cheek on the top of Daiki's head and sighed, wrapped his right arm around Aomine's shoulder.

"Me too", he whispered. "I'm scared for you. I'm scared I'll hurt you, I'm scared I'll fuck everything up, I'm scared I'll lose you, o-or that you'll hate me, or that one day you'll just... go back... t-to that lifeless doll I found in that cubby."

Kagami never talked about his emotions on the whole case. Sure, he often said that he was glad Aomine was back and okay, but never got into more details.

"Wanna talk about it?", Aomine wrote on his phone. Kagami could see the whole screen, Daiki wasn't hiding it from him.

"I—", Taiga hesitated. He would probably cry and he didn't know if it would be okay to spend his Saturday morning sobbing in Daiki's arms, but... Aomine was his boyfriend. Although it was only a name and Kagami had promised to not want anything relationship-y out of him due to his mental state, Aomine was still his boyfriend. Which meant it should be okay, right? They should build their lives on trust, not choking on emotions because they were too afraid to say them so as not to hurt the other.

Kagami raised his head to look at Daiki's face. He waited. Didn't push him into that, didn't write one more word. Just waited. Taiga slipped back into the hold and moved his left hand from Aomine's belly upward to grab his hand.

"You know, a few days before you went missing I was thinking about asking you to go out to the beach with me", Kagami admitted. "I wanted to teach you surfing, spend the whole day with you, just playing in the water. And then I sent Sei home since it was late and you were probably worried. Then the next day I think, or maybe it was two days after that, I got the letter that you sent out."

Aomine closed his eyes and clenched his hand a bit. He placed Kagami's hand back onto his belly when the bastard woke up and started kicking. Taiga chuckled, letting Daiki navigate his palm around.

"Those were bad months, you know? I wanted to just ditch everything and go back to the States and restart my life again, but there was this huge part of me that had to stay and find you. I did so many things during that time - I went to physio, finally fixed that cabinet door, I started exercising again, I got my papers for an actual firefighter job, went onto missions, I started running into the fire and doing a whole lot of dangerous things because I finally could. All because I wanted you to be proud when I'll get you back. I wanted you to stay that I've worked hard and that I wasn't a disappointment—"

Kagami was breathing heavily and his voice was cracking. Aomine could feel his tears on his head.

"You did a great job", Daiki wrote. "And I knew you wouldn't give up. The Elevator Asshole I know is would never give up."

Kagami chuckled. "I forgot you called me that."

"Still have you saved in my contacts as that."

"... Are you serious?"

Aomine went into his contact list and found Taiga's number. Now, since they started dating, it wasn't just Elevator Asshole - it was «My Elevator Asshole» followed by a heart emoji. Taiga bursted out laughing once he saw it.

"You bitch, you have me saved as that since we met?", Kagami chuckled. "... I was at least nice when saving your number."

Aomine looked at him confused. Taiga meanwhile reached to the nightstand and grabbed his phone then scrolled through his contacts lists and found Daiki's number. Saved as «hot detective aomine».

"You spelled my name right?", Daiki teased him.

"Shut the fuck up."

Aomine smiled. He grabbed Kagami's phone and out it aside to grab his hand again.

"... As I was saying. I tried my best and then I was the first one to run into the attic. I begged for you to be there, that it would all be finally over. A-and you were there... I—..."

He had nightmares of that image. Aomine lying on the ground, with his hair matted and tangled, with human excretions all around him, smelling of rotten flesh and mold. The lifeless body that Taiga took in his arms, the dead eyes at stared at nothing. He was choking just thinking about it. The overwhelming stench of iron and dust, the smell of Daiki's body and the worse of all, the image in his head.

Aomine turned to the side and placed his hand on Kagami's cheek.

"I still see it", Taiga whispered so silently it was barely audible. "I still see you on the ground, looking dead, I—..."

"Taiga", Aomine moved his lips, voicelessly. "Taiga, I'm here. And I'll stay here."

"... I fucking hope so", Kagami cried out.

Chapter Text

Awkward. This was how the situation could have been described. It was so awkward Kagami's intestines were twisting and turning from cringe.

They were sitting on Daiki's sofa, in front of one another, crosslegged, their knees touching, both of them terrified to make a move. Like fifteen-year-olds they were waiting for a miracle to happen, embarrassed.

Then, Aomine cursed out everything and everyone in his mind and grabbed Kagami by the collar, bringing him closer. He hesitated one last second, as their lips were brushing against each other but not yet touching, but his worry disappeared half a second later when Kagami filled the gap between them.

Aomine didn't think they kissed again after that time on the beach. They were taking things slowly and going at the pace Aomine needed them to go at, but sometimes Daiki wanted to just screw it all and fuck with Taiga like rabbits until the morning. Which wasn't exactly a great idea with how badly he was taking romantic gestures and anything related to sexual subjects.

So now they were kissing. Like teenagers, on the sofa, sitting in front of each other, with their lips pressed against one another's, without moving their lips, without tongue, without touch, with their eyes closed.

"Meow?"

"Yes, Sei, meow", Kagami replied, looking at the cat with the corner of his eyes. He hadn't moved much from Aomine, so as he spoke his lips brushed against the other pair. Daiki leaned back in to continue the kiss and Taiga didn't hesitate to get back at it.

This time however, their lips started to move, their heads tilted to get closer and deeper and Daiki's lips parted oh just so slightly to let Taiga's upper lip slip in between. Kagami placed his hand on Daiki's cheek and held him gently in one position as he fixed his own, not letting go of the kiss. He moved away a bit to leave a peck on Daiki's lips, then he returned to a deeper one again. His hand grabbed Aomine's and Daiki gladly accepted it, intertwining his digits with Kagami's. Taiga didn't push anything further, he wasn't trying to deepen the kiss further, he wasn't using his tongue, he wasn't making anyone uncomfortable.

Except for Sei, that was still watching them annoyed.

Aomine was scared, but he parted his lips a little, hoping that Kagami would push it a little bit further, just because Daiki was too terrified to move forward. Taiga hesitated, but fulfilled his sweetheart's request and parted his lips as well. They deepened the kiss but neither of them wanted to engage their tongues just yet.

It felt good, Aomine thought as he moved up from his position and pushed onto Kagami. The younger turned to the side until his back was against the couch, then let Daiki climb his lap. The belly was slightly in the way of them shifting into one shape, but Taiga didn't mind. He would never mind. Aomine looked hot a d now that hottie was kissing him.

Then, finally, Kagami sighed into the kiss. The hand from Daiki's cheek traveled to his nape and tangled into his hair, the second hand that was holding Aomine's palm got placed on his hip. And Kagami's tongue unsurely brushed against Aomine's teeth.

It was scary, but Daiki wanted more. His heart was racing, his hands were trembling, but he let Taiga melt him. He relaxed in his arms, his heart was still racing, but his own tongue wasn't retracted back into his throat anymore. Instead, it was curiously moving forward to meet Kagami's.

And then, they touched.

It felt better than the drunken kisses they shared during the one night stand. It felt better than the kisses Kagami was showering him with every morning. The hands on his body, Taiga's gentle touch, his steady breathing and those lips that made Daiki forget the bad days. Everything was perfect. Everything was perfect because Kagami was there, exactly where he was meant to be all along.

Aomine was such an idiot, blinded by his own insecurities, he should have realized a very long time ago how perfect of a boyfriend material Taiga was. He should have pushed further, made Kagami realize that he was into him. Maybe he would have never dated Haizaki if that happened.

Ah. Right. It wouldn't happen. Because Kagami was into someone else then. And only after a long time and a rejection Taiga's focus shifted onto Daiki. So stupid.

But now, Kagami was his. And he was Kagami's. They were kissing, full on tongue involved french kissing.

Daiki had no clue how much time had passed since they started. Sei ignored them all together and left for a walk, Aomine was sure quite some time had to pass because the sun rays were no longer hitting his eye, and they were still kissing. Not for long after that, as Daiki moved away a little, his forehead pressed up against Taiga's, their breaths exhausted and shallow. In between of their lips there was a trail of shared saliva that still somehow didn't break and stain Kagami's black t-shirt.

They were breathing normally for a moment before those turned into deep shaggy breaths that made Aomine collapse into Kagami's arms. And Taiga just held him, he pressed his cheek against Daiki's nape, he still had not opened his eyes and he wrapped his arms around him.

"I love you", Kagami finally said, after a long break needed to catch their breaths. Love confessions. Aomine relaxed and moved his head around a little, trying to get his nose closer to Kagami's jaw joint - it was one of the pheromone release areas coming from the glands. Another one was lower next to the jugular vein and the third one was inside the mouth. Taiga reeked of those, and that was probably the reason why Daiki felt so lightheaded. After kissing for so long, even if their cycles didn't start, they did release some pheromones. And Aomine had been basically drinking those for the past no one knows how many hours. But it was okay, he liked Kagami's smell. It was a smell he wanted to feel every day.

Aomine grabbed his phone to reply and Taiga's heart raced. He wanted to see it. He wanted to see that stupid I love you written on Daiki's phone.

"I need to pee", was written on the screen and Kagami bursted out laughing.

Chapter Text

Sei left the two lovebirds on the sofa and went out to meet up with his mom and brother. On his way out he grabbed a whole bunch of stuff Aomine was leaving in his bowl so as not to come in empty-handed. He enjoyed his way there, observing the surroundings. Finally, he snuck into the place where his mother lived, but it was empty. He left the food on the cardboard box in the corner and left to look around for them.

"Ninth?", Sei called while running around. "Mom?"

Finally, he found her. She was sitting next to a trashcan, watching over the fence. They were on a small hill so she was in the right position to observe the city below her.

"... Mom?", Sei sat down next to her, joining her in watching.

"Your brother blames himself for your disappearance", she said. "He doesn't show it and gets mad at you for disappearing, but when he returned that day after realizing you were gone he was crying and apologizing over and over. He might be younger, but he had always swore to protect you. So you living with humans makes him believe that he failed at the only job he was supposed to do."

Sei thought for a moment. "But it wasn't his fault. I—"

"I know", she cut him off. "But he doesn't."

They returned to the «home» after observing the city for a bit more. Sei hadn't done that in a while - when he lived with Kagami, he was kind of forced to spend his days observing the city below him, but after a while it got boring and the only thing he was doing was waiting.

Now, it seemed different. Calm. Lovely. And Sei liked it.

Ninth met them there, he had arrived earlier and was frantically looking around for mother. He scolded Sei for taking her out, but she only laughed and reminded her youngest that she might have been weak, but she was her own feline being and she left herself, while Sei was just bringing her back.

Tenth missed it. He missed days like these. The three of them, eating together, just enjoying their presence. Every time Sei visited them, he was reminded of how fragile things can be.

Mother looked weaker and weaker with every visit.

It was evening when Sei came back to his human home. Kagami was in the kitchen, making some tea for Aomine - Sei rubbed his head on his ankles and managed to get some snacks from the fridge.

"You're gonna get fat, asshole", Taiga mumbled, scratching his chin.

"Meow", Sei denied. He was walking around too much to be fat. He wasn't dumb, he knew how much he could eat. He knew his limits unlike two certain individuals that were in the room with him.

Both of them joined Daiki on the sofa. Sei squeezed himself under the blanket and cuddled into Daiki's arms while Kagami sat next to them and gave the teacup to Aomine.

"Pomegranate", he said. "You ran out of mango."

Aomine nodded. They really needed to figure out a different method of communication - Kagami was pretty great at knowing what Daiki meant without words, but it wasn't any elaborate speaking. If only there was a way for Aomine to say what he meant without actually needing to speak...

"SIGN LANGUAGE", they both thought at the same time and moved to look at each other, but only Kagami yelled it out.

"If we both learn sign language, you won't have to use writing to communicate! A-And there won't be that much pressure on you speaking again, a-and—!"

Daiki grabbed Taiga's chin and held his face in place. He squeezed his cheeks, making Kagami's lips pout outwards. Then, he left a peck on Taiga's lips and smiled, letting go of his face.

"Lemme find some classes for that", Kagami mumbled. "We'll learn together."

Aomine smiled as he cuddled into Taiga's body. He was one lucky motherfucker. Not only he had an alpha that took him in despite him being pregnant with another alpha's kid, but he also took him used, broken, ugly and mentally ill. And not only all of that, but he was also sacrificing his whole life for Daiki. And not only everything previously mentioned, but Kagami was also willing to learn a whole ass different language for him. Just so he would convenience Daiki a bit. It wasn't even a great quality of life update. It was a meaningless change, from written words to signed words.

Aomine didn't know what he had done to deserve it.

"Hey, angel?", Kagami mumbled, stealing the tea from Daiki for a moment to take a sip. "You know you're not a burden, right?"

Aomine raised his eyes at him with a frown. How the fuck could he read minds? That was getting annoying, why couldn't he read Taiga's mind as well?

"I'm supposed to have my rut in like... two weeks? On the, uh, on fourth", Taiga explained. "I will take suppressants, but I'm gonna have to visit some doctors then."

Aomine bit the inside of his cheek. Right. Taiga could have cancer. They did the screenings and everything but he still could have cancer. He could be slipping away from him, right as Daiki found him. Who designed the fate? Who was such a bitch that gave him the man of his dreams only to keep him withing arm length for so long, and now that he had finally pulled Taiga into his arms, he was falling apart?!

"Daiki?", Kagami kissed his temple as Aomines stayed silent for a long time. "Daiki, I'm not going anywhere, I'm gonna be okay."

"You can't know that", Aomine angrily wrote the message on his phone. "I'm gonna be alone again if you leave."

"Except I won't", Taiga closed his eyes.

"You can't promise me that", Daiki put into a translator just to hit the speak out loud button, so Kagami wouldn't have to open his eyes.

"I can and I am."

"What if you break it? You can't know for sure that you'll not have a cancer diagnosis in two weeks."

"Even if I do, there's chemo, hell, there are experimental treatments! I'll fight and I'll win."

Daiki sighed. Life was so fucking unfair.

Chapter Text

Thirty six weeks pregnant. It was the twenty sixth of September, Kagami was cleaning the bathroom and Aomine was standing in the entrance, watching him from the doorway. Taiga was on his knees, scrubbing the floor while he was doing what?

Nothing. He was lying on his ass all day, doing nothing but wasting air. He wants even allowed to clean Sei's litterbox. He was a waste of space and energy.

Thirty six weeks. Thirty six weeks ago was his last heat. Thirty six weeks ago he had sex with Haizaki. Thirty six weeks ago Haizaki poked the condoms.

Aomine looked in the mirror in the door of the closet in his bedroom. Their bedroom. Kagami had been living with him for four weeks now. The closet in front of Daiki had just as many clothes of Taiga's as it did of his, Kagami's stupid little cactus was standing on the windowsill in the kitchen next to Aomine's carnations, his training equipment got its own shelf in the closets in Aomine's office - all of Kagami's things were now in Daiki's apartment. Some of them were in the basement, most of them in the rooms. Kagami had moved in. And Daiki wasn't mad at it.

Taiga was currently renting his apartment to some guys - the lease was signed three days ago for three months. Kagami said he didn't want Daiki to move out of the space he felt comfortable in, but offered moving in with him eventually, if Aomine would want a place with two separate bedrooms instead of one. Daiki's apartment was big - huge even, it was around seventy square meters, a family of four could fit into fifty! - but Aomine designed it as a temporary living space for a childless couple. He designed it as a paradise for having sex on every surface of the apartment. There was a huge sofa, a huge bed, a two meter long custom bathtub with hydromassage, a big desk that was relatively clean so as not to knock anything important off it while performing questionable activities and a balcony with a nice view.

It wasn't really a good space for raising kids. It lacked a bedroom, a place to play, it lacked rooms. So Kagami was right, maybe they should move somewhere else to raise the kid?

... Wait, hold up, since when he was planning on raising the baby? He meant to leave it in the hospital, go back to his own apartment, enjoy his life with Kagami, have sex on every surface, get married, THEN move out and build a house and have kids.

And yet, by the time that checklist would get completed Aomine might be a little too old for kids. Reasonably speaking, eight years seemed like an appropriate amount of time to complete it and while he would probably not be having a menopause at thirty seven, the age seemed too old to be a good time for parenthood.

... Okay, Satsuki was thirty seven and she wasn't old or anything, but she also didn't exactly plan on having kids and definitely wasn't planning on giving birth to them (since that would require a uterus which she clearly lacked). She was also an alpha and could become a father at sixty if she wanted to.

Aomine looked in the mirror. He looked thirty six weeks pregnant. He was fat (he really was not, but compared to the anorexic body he had last month?), bloated in every place someone could be bloated, his face was chubby, his skin was glowing and his whole body accumulated so much water he looked like he weighted four times more than he actually did. He was pregnant. Visibly pregnant. Very much pregnant.

"You good?", Kagami asked when passing by the doors, getting to the kitchen. Aomine sighed, not even looking at him.

Baby. There was a baby inside him. A baby Kagami had craved so much. A baby that he has craved so much. And a baby that wasn't Kagami's and wasn't wanted by him.

"Angel", Taiga mumbled, walking towards him. "You look beautiful."

Aomine finally turned his head to the side and looked at him.

"Daiki", Kagami whispered, cupping his face. "Everything's okay? Something hurts? Baby kicked you too hard? Are you constipated? Need to pee? Thirsty or hungry?"

Aomine sniffed, then just broke down crying quietly. Kagami didn't question anything, just hugged him tightly and rubbed his back.

"Are you in pain or is it just emotions and hormones combo?"

Daiki tapped his back two times to let him know it wasn't any physical pain. Taiga relaxed a bit, knowing that his boyfriend just needed reassurance and some support rather than a first aid kit. He dragged Daiki to the bed and cuddled in with him.

Aomine waited until Kagami fell asleep and snuck out of his arms. He went to the bathroom and undressed on the freshly cleaned floor. He was pregnant. Kagami wanted the baby. He wanted to be the dad of the baby despite having no genetical connection to it. And with each smile on Taiga's face, with each time his hands caressed the belly, with each kiss he left on it and each word he spoke to the baby, Daiki started to crave that image.

But would he be able to love it?... No, not it. Them. Would he be able to love that baby? Would he be able to look at them, love them, kiss them, raise them?

He mentally slapped himself across the face. The previous Aomine Daiki wasn't a bitch, he took in challenges left and right, he lived to prove people and himself wrong. He was a miracle-maker and he never gave up. So this bitch he saw in the mirror better also do the same.

It was time for a new Aomine Daiki. Not the depressed bitch, not the slut with a sharp tongue, not the painfully single bitter detective. He had a boyfriend, he was pregnant, he was going to start a new chapter in his life, so it was finally the time to cut himself off from the past.

And with that, Aomine grabbed the scissors.

Chapter Text

When Kagami woke up alone in bed, he didn't think much of it. Aomine must have woken up and either went to the bathroom or do eat something. Taiga yawned and stretched his muscles - the nap might not have been long, but damn it was refreshing. While scratching his stomach, Kagami left the bedroom to look around. He couldn't see Aomine anywhere in there, so he turned to the right to check if he wasn't in the bathroom.

His jaw dropped when he stood in the doorway.

"D-Daiki?", he stammered, walking forward unsurely. "What... What happened?"

Aomine's long beautiful hair that reached his bottom, his hair that he took so much care of, everything was lying on the floor. The strands cut off and mangled, the glorious curls were hung everywhere - some of them were on the sink, a few still attached to the rest, although Aomine was holding them and the scissors were cutting through them with a crunch right as Kagami stared at it.

Everything that was left of Aomine's long and beautiful hair was a pixie cut, with the hair on the back of his his head having maybe three centimeters left. His bangs was still long, reaching just below his chin, but Aomine grabbed those to cut it too.

Taiga ran up to him and grabbed his wrist, then took the scissors from him.

"What the fuck?!", he shouted. "What the fuck happened?!"

Aomine tried to grab the scissors to finish the job, but Taiga wasn't letting him.

"What happened? Hey, look at me!"

Daiki did. His eyes burned with fire, his gaze wasn't that of a scary cat anymore. He stared right into Kagami's soul and he demanded the scissors back.

"... I'll get you a professional to finish that", Taiga said, leaving the bathroom with the scissors. He hated to be that guy, but he pulled out his phone and called his boss. "Hey so I know you said not to contact you off duty on your private cell if it wasn't an emergency—"

"So this better be one", she clicked her tongue, then sighed. "Who died? Was it Koganei again?"

"What, no—... It's, uh, it's a private matter", Kagami explained. "I—... Fuck, this sounds so stupid."

"I'm hanging up."

"No, wait!", Taiga moved the phone away from his ear to see if it was still connected. "... Your husband is a hairdresser, right?"

"Kagami, what are you even on about—? Yes, he is?"

"I, uh, I think Daiki had a mental breakdown? He cut off all of his hair just now. And I need someone to fix it without taking him out to the public like that."

"... Send me the address", she sighed.

Once that was taken care of, Kagami returned to the bathroom to find Aomine sulking on the ground. He helped Daiki stand up and undressed him, then cleaned him off the hair that was ticking him in places he couldn't reach and took all the hair off the shirt before putting it back on Daiki. Then, he led him to the living room and gave him a cup of tea as they waited for the arrival of the help.

Kagami was cleaning the bathroom again when the doorbell rang. He opened the door and found his boss with her husband next to her. They both came to the living room where Aomine had been waiting for them, sitting on the sofa, drinking his tea.

"... Sorry for destroying your evening plans", Taiga muttered. His boss replied how it was nothing that serious (although her tone told a different story) while her husband walked towards Daiki and sat down not far from him.

"You had anything in mind with the cut?", the husband simply asked. Aomine grabbed his phone and scrolled down his gallery so far it couldn't go further. Then, he found photos from over ten years ago of him and his friends in the second and third year of highschool and showed some to the man.

He nodded with a slight smile. "Can I finish that cut for you?"

Aomine was sitting on the chair in the bathroom, with that funny cape around him and with the alpha gently cutting his now wet hair into the shape he had wanted. He didn't touch Daiki too much, and if he had to then he asked first, he was gentle and always made sure to keep his scissors where Aomine could see them, so that he would know it was safe around him.

Aomine might have stayed quiet during the entire time, but the man sure talked a bit. His voice was soft and rather silent as he complimented Aomine on his hair routine. He finished rather quickly and grabbed a hairdryer to finish the styling on dry hair.

Meanwhile, Kagami made coffee for his boss and himself in the kitchen.

"You look worn out", she noticed. "Maybe you should take a break?"

"I can't", Kagami mumbled. He had to take care of Aomine, he had to make sure he was alright, that he had everything he needed to have. He had to make sure Aomine felt safe and loved, that he wouldn't be raped for talking or disagreeing, he had to make sure Daiki knew it was okay to—

"You're losing yourself", she said. "I know you're trying to care for him, but you're dying for the sake of him having everything you can give."

"I'm here to do that—"

"No", she stopped him. "You're here to give him what he wants. You're here to ask what he needs and work with him on that. And instead, you're babying him, stripping away his autonomy. He already had it stripped, you don't have to do that again."

"But—"

"Have you asked why he cut his hair? Because right now, looking at it all, I think you just assumed he had a breakdown. Because to me, he looks completely sane and is mad at you for treating him like a toddler."

Kagami wanted to argue back, but the bathroom door opened and the husband left it alone.

"Finished", the alpha said proudly.

"Good job, Junpei", she praised him. "Wanna cut mine too? They are getting too long."

"Yeah, I'll cut them at home", he walked over to her and stole her coffee to take a sip.

"Thank you", Taiga bowed in front of them, "for helping us out on such a short notice."

"Since when you know words like that?", she huffed. "It was nothing, we're glad to help you out."

"How much do I owe you?", Kagami asked, grabbing his wallet from the windowsill in the kitchen.

"Eh? No—, man, really, it's not that deep", Junpei said, refusing the money. "Really. Riko has been worried about you two for a while anyway, so really, I'm happy I could help you guys out."

"Excuse me, I was not!", Riko frowned. "Ekhem. Now that everything is settled, I think we should go back home."

They both gathered their things to leave. As they were passing by the bathroom, with Kagami following them a few steps behind, Riko stopped and turned around.

"That's not a face of someone you want him to be", she whispered, pointing at Daiki with her head. Kagami walked over and looked into the bathroom, where Aomine was standing in front of a mirror with a huge grin, admiring the new hairstyle. "Oh yeah, didn't you guys have a cat?"

Sei. He went out a while ago and now had just arrived at his mother's home. He entered, expecting to see her warm smile and tired but welcoming eyes as always.

Instead of that beautiful image, she was lying on the ground. Seemingly lifeless.

Chapter Text

"... M-Mom?", he unsurely walked forward to nudge her. She wasn't moving, Sei wasn't even sure if she was breathing. She was cold. "Mom!"

Sei nudged at her, again and again, but she wasn't moving. She wasn't responding, she wasn't waking up. She seemed dead. He started to panic, trying to wake her up over and over, but she wasn't responding. Ninth was no where to he seen as well, so he couldn't even ask if that was normal. Or rather, whether those things happened often to her.

With no Ninth in sight, Sei had to make a choice. It was between looking for Ninth and them together trying to help, while it might be too late, or Sei taking her to Daiki and completely breaking Ninth trust, breaking any relationship they could ever form.

The choice was simple. So with her limp body on his back, he ran home as quickly as he could, making sure she wouldn't fall off. She was light. Too light for a cat her age and size, which made Sei worry. She wasn't eating? Ninth and Sei couldn't bring a lot, they never could, but it wasn't that bad. Sure, their ribs has always been visible, but she was beyond that. Her thick fur might have been covering her skin but now that she was pressed against him, he could feel just how thin and weak she was.

The elevator was the worst. Sei had to lay her down gently, press the button and then pick her up withing the seven floors to be ready to jump out. Then, the main door was a second problem - he stayed very close to the latch to make sure they're open all the times, then he dragged his mother through them and left her right at the entry, while he run in looking for Aomine.

"MEOW!", he screamed, jumping onto he sofa and immediately scratching Daiki, who who gasped in shock as claws ran across his forearm.

"Hey! What are you doing?!", Kagami grabbed him by the neck and pulled him away. Sei hissed at him and started hitting Taiga to get out of the hold. Finally, he managed to scratch Kagami's arm who yelled in pain and let go of him. Sei landed on the ground and jumped towards Daiki again, this time biting onto the sleeve of his sweater and pulling him off the sofa. "Oi! Bastard!"

But Aomine seemed to have caught on. Of course he did, between the two humans, Daiki was the one with braincells. So he slowly stood up from the couch, and followed Sei to the main door. So did Kagami, so once they walked towards the way to the cubby at the entrance, they both froze in shock.

Kagami was the first one to run over and press his fingers to the cat's chest. He waited for a while, then turned around to look at Daiki.

"Still alive", he said, "but barely. We need to go to the vet."

Aomine nodded and slipped into his shoes. Kagami ran to their bedroom and found a small blanket, then wrapped the injured cat in it. He dressed up himself and they left the apartment, with Sei following them and his mom wrapped up safely in Kagami's arms. They all entered the car in the underground garage - Aomine behind the wheel, Kagami next to him, Sei at his feet, trying to get a look at his mom.

Aomine drove to the vet he had known - the one that he first took Sei in. The one where he decided to take Sei in. It wasn't the closest, but it was the one he had always gone to with Sei. His hands were sweating as he was holding the steering wheel, he was stressed - who was the cat? Sei was so worried about them, dragged them all the way into the apartment and everything. They also looked similar - the same fur, although slightly different shade. The cat looked like a stray, just like Sei. Could that be his family member?

The average-height man in his mid-forties took the cat in - the exact same doctor that made the first ever check up on Sei when Daiki brought him in around a year ago. He even recognized Sei - although they only went there a few times for vaccinations and the receptionist lady made all of them (as it turned out, she's some kind of a nurse for animals, or maybe just a vet that didn't want to deal with the serious injuries due to her age), so it was the second time the doctor saw Sei.

"She's an older cat", he noticed. "There's also signs of previous injuries. This leg has been broken and healed on its own, she also has a few broken ribs... Possible skull fracture too. She lost a lot of blood, but I don't see any wounds."

He took the cat in and asked them to wait outside. Sei didn't want to let her go, but Daiki held him back and comforted him as they waited for any news.

Two hours bad passed by before anyone told them anything. She has massive internal bleedings, lacerations, many somewhat healed injuries. No wonder she had so much trouble moving around, she was barely holding together. Most of her organs were detached from their places, she had an injured diaphragm and she was in such bad state because one of those injuries finally sent a blood clot big enough to block off most if her aorta. When Sei found her, her aorta was already ruptured and she was bleeding out into her thoracic cavity, compressing her lungs and her ability to breathe. Even thirty minutes more would make the rupture big enough and she would have bled out internally.

It was a long and complicated surgery that involved the doctor and the receptionist as well as lasted many hours. They were told to go back for her the next day, so they grabbed Sei and went home. Kagami was holding him tightly, his arms and face got scratched by the cat refusing to leave the waiting room.

"It's gonna be okay", Taiga repeated as he held down Sei, who was crying and yelling at them both.

They were supposed to safe Mother, not lock her away... Maybe Ninth was right? Maybe no humans should have been trusted?

Chapter Text

The next day, Sei was woken up for a brief second. He recognized he was being carried somewhere, but he fell asleep again soon after. He was too sleepy to wake up, he had so much trouble falling asleep because of his stress, even after Daiki gave him some drugs to ease it.

He was woken up again a while later. Aomine shook him a little, waited for him to open his eyes and look around. They were at the vet again, in the waiting room. But this time, Kagami wasn't there with them. Aomine stood up with him after he realized that Sei was awake and carried him into the building, behind the door. There was Kagami, together with the doctor and...

His mom.

She was lying on the table, unconscious and weak. She was covered in bandages, she had an IV drip and a blood transfusion going into her leg, she was weak. But she was visibly breathing.

Daiki placed him carefully next to her and let him check if she was alive. She was breathing now. She was alive. She wasn't cold anymore. They saved her. The humans saved her.

"You can take her home now", the doctor said. "But she's going to need daily medications and care. There's a long recovery in front of her. I've fixed the broken bones and reattached everything, fixed her aorta and intestines. She lost a few centimeters of it, unfortunately. I also realigned her skull, so it should now heal properly."

"We're gonna take care of her", Kagami said, placing a hand on Sei's head. His whole arm was covered in cuts after Sei's violent outburst from the day before.

"She's a stray, no? You plan on taking her in?", the doctor asked.

Aomine looked at the two cats. Sei wouldn't let her go now, right? Now that he found his mom. And she was so sick, they couldn't just let her out into the street again. He took a deep breath and nodded, then pulled out his phone.

"She's gonna need a name", he showed to Taiga.

"Yeah...", Kagami smiled, his hand still on Sei. He ruffled the fur. "If you had a chance, what would you call her?"

"Meow", Sei replied.

"Of course you'd call her that", Taiga chuckled. Aomine thought for a moment, then wrote on his phone two kanjis.

"Shiori."

Sei was in the backseat with Kagami and his mom. She was in a transporter, after being put in it carefully. Then, they were at home, and she was placed on the sofa, with the IV drip still attached to her.

Shiori. She got a human name from Sei's humans. A kanji name. A very beautiful name meaning knitted poetry. She was taken in by his humans. She was sleeping on their sofa, she was alive.

Sei had to go and find Ninth. He must have been so worried, having her disappear like that with no word and no trace. He had to go and find him. So he looked at Daiki, who was staying right next to Shiori and upon making sure she was okay, he walked over to the entrance.

"Where are you going?", Kagami frowned.

"Meow", he replied. He had to find Ninth. "Meow."

"Of course you'll be back", Taiga scoffed. "Don't be back too late. She's gonna need you when she wakes up."

Sei nodded. He knew she would need him. But right now, Ninth needed the news. Finding him wasn't easy - he wasn't at home and he wasn't around it as well. He had to go around and search, often asking other about Ninth. Some old stray dog eventually told him to go check a few certain shops, which was where he had often seen that cat. So Sei did, and found nothing. In an act of defeat, he began searching the spots Mother told him about.

"The very last spot", Sei sighed in relief. "I was about to give up, I thought I'd missed you somewhere."

"... Mom's missing", Ninth said. His voice was shaky and he was barely awake.

"She almost died", Sei mumbled. "She—... I'm sorry."

"What did you do...?", Ninth finally turned around to face him. "Tenth! What did you do?!"

"I—... She would have died."

"Tenth!"

"I brought her to humans. To a doctor. A human doctor."

Ninth stared at him in disbelief and with the look of betrayal on his face. He walked over to Sei and hit him. "Get out of here! Never show your face to me ever again! How could you?!"

"Ninth, you have to—"

"No. I don't have to do anything! Just like you didn't have to drag her there! You're a liar and a scumbag, Tenth", through clenched teeth, he hissed at Sei. "You just wanted to piss me off. We were okay without humans! It's all your fault! You disappeared and went with them, you brought humans to Mother! You took away my brother and my home, now you're also taking away my mom? Is this who you really are?"

"No, Ninth, I—"

"What did I ever do to you? What is so important in your goal to destroy me, to strip away everything from me?!"

"Ninth, I would never—!"

"Die. You're not better than Father."

And with that, Ninth left, not turning around to look at Sei. However before he could disappear from the hearing distance, Sei told him the way to his human home.

"If you ever... If you ever want to visit—"

"I won't!", Ninth yelled from the distance. "Leave me alone!"

Sei came back home sad. He lied down next to Mother... Or rather now, Shiori, and sniffed. She couldn't answer. She couldn't reply. She was unconscious and very sick. And everything was breaking down because of that.

Aomine sat by him and scratched him behind the ear. He could know something was wrong and Sei didn't exactly try to hide it either. So when Daiki offered to take him into his arms, Sei accepted it and let his human pick him and carry him to bed. Shiori was safely placed on the ground too, relatively immobilized so that she wouldn't move even if she somehow woke up earlier than she should have.

Sei took one last look at her before going with Daiki to the bedroom. Kagami was already there, in the bed, breathing calmly. Sleeping. It must have been late - Aomine should also have been asleep. He would probably come up with yet another ridiculous excuse why he wasn't.

Sei wasn't better, he also should have been sleeping.

Chapter Text

Shiori woke up later the next day. Her mind was fogged and she had troubles even looking around, but Sei calmed her down.

"I'm sorry", were his first words. "I messed up so much."

She couldn't exactly reply but she listened to her dear son.

"I—... I brought you to humans", he admitted. "You weren't breathing. They say you were minutes from death. But I—... I also made Ninth angry. So angry that he disowned me."

Humans. It was true that she disliked them, but not to the extent her youngest son painted the image. She was more hurt by them than traumatized, although it was indeed true that she preferred the lack of contact over relationships with them.

She closed her eyes and invited her son to get closer. She was weaker than she had ever felt before and she knew she wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for humans.

"I'm not mad at you bringing me to humans", she weakly said. "And neither should be Ninth. Please tell him that when you see him."

"I don't think I'm gonna see him again Mom", Sei mumbled.

"... You will", she smiled. "Now, that I don't limit him, he's going to thrive."

After an hour or so, Daiki and Taiga arrived home. Aomine walked up them with medicine for Shiori. He gave her the pill - she didn't complain, but it wasn't because of compliance, but rather because of her hazy mind and lack of strength to resist something like that. Then, he stayed with the two cats and gently brushed their furs.

"I'm gonna go clean the litter box", Kagami informed him, and Aomine nodded. He wasn't allowed to clean it since he got pregnant and he was starting to miss it, surprisingly.

After giving meds to Shiori, he want to go grab some food for both of the cats. Sei ate only half of his bowl, whether out of stress or worry, but Daiki didn't exactly pushed him further. Shiori was fed the special food that they had bought on their way home - she didn't exactly want to eat, but Daiki put some in her mouth and pet her as she swallowed. She had to eat something.

"They named you", Sei purred as he stood up to groom her a little.

"They did?"

"Yes", he closed his eyes. "Shiori."

"It's a beautiful name", she noted.

Aomine lied down next to the cats and placed his hand next to them, brushing Sei's paw with his index finger. Shiori moved a little and placed her head on his palm, making Daiki smile. Sei joined in soon, with his head on Aomine's forearm.

"Did you fall asleep?", Kagami gently shook him, moving his hair out of Daiki's forehead - they would have reached his eyes if they hadn't been cut. Now, they only reached his eyebrows.

Aomine opened one eye and looked up at him confused. He was sore and his back hurt - he really must have fallen asleep with the cats, on the floor of his living room. Kagami chuckled and after moving him away from the cats, he helped Daiki stand up and wanted to lead him to the sofa so he could lie comfortably, but the tracks swiftly changed to the bathroom.

A silent night. Movie on the television, tea in hands, a bowl full of popcorn on Taiga's lap and Aomine cuddled into him. An amazing evening. The baby kicked him a few times, ever since they finally began moving, Daiki had been disrupted almost all the time by the kicks and punches, but Kagami always smiled when he felt the touch.

"Will you leave me if I leave the kid up for adoption at the hospital?", he asked, quietly showing his phone.

Kagami thought for a moment. "No. I'd rather raise it, but as long as it has a loving family, I won't mind anything. And I definitely won't make you even look at them if you don't want to."

Stupid bastard. Who taught him being so good at love? Who told him what to say in those types of situations?!

Aomine didn't reply to that. He kept on watching the movie, enjoying the family life. Right - family. Because now Sei was sleeping with his mom, Kagami was sleeping on the sofa with him, snoring slightly as he always did when sleeping upright, and Daiki was the only one awake.

Family. It felt like family. There was a baby, a husband, two cats, and him. There was love, happiness, care and warmth. And not only that - Daiki belonged there. He felt like it was the exact place he should be in. That it was what life was supposed to be.

"Taiga", he whispered, not really using his larynx. It was so silent he doubted anyone would have been able to hear it. "Taiga."

The name felt so good on his tongue.

When Aomine woke up, he was in his bed, together with Kagami. It was very early morning, around five, but Daiki needed to go to the bathroom, so he stood up, leaving Taiga still asleep in the bed. Aomine made himself some tea and after wrapping himself in a blanket, he entered the balcony and sat down in one of the chairs.

It rained during the night, so everything was still moist. The air smelled of water, the neighbor's dirty tiles had algae on them again, his flowers died by now and even the water wasn't able to save them. He should plant some new ones. He had always wanted hydrangeas, but having them in a balcony pot seemed like unnecessary life events. He doubted he would even make them grow, as the winter was coming.

Sakurai texted him a few minutes before six o'clock - he asked if Daiki felt good enough to go and take on an actual case rather than some favors for others here and there.

He missed cracking mysteries. That was how he met Taiga, if you think about it. That stupid pyromancer case. That stupid elevator, stupid rush, stupid arguments and a stupid collaboration.

And now, Kagami was sleeping in his bed.

Chapter Text

Aomine opened the file and read through it briefly. A murder - one person found dead, in quite rotten state. The victim was living in his apartment alone, and as the rent was due, the owner came to visit and demand the money. Then, the owner found the tenant's corpse and called the police.

"... We don't have to take this case if you don't want to see corpses", Ryou said. "There was also a break in, we can switch files with—"

Aomine stopped him. He was a detective. A damn good detective. A prodigy of a detective for fuck's sake! He wasn't going to be scared of a body!

It wasn't the most comfortable ride nor was it a comfortable to walk up the stairs. Before entering the apartment he put on a mask and some gloves, then walked in. It smelled horrible - he used to be used to the smell of blood, rotten flesh and death, but now it made him gag and his throat clench.

It reminded him of the cage he had been held in. A small dirty room with a body lying on the floor in front of the TV, console connected to it and the controlled still in cadaver's hand. He felt light headed just as he had entered the room and left it soon after to take a breath of fresh air.

"Sorry, should we keep this going?", Ryou asked him. "You're clearly not okay with the scene."

"It's just the smell", Daiki wrote, his hand on the belly, frowning from the kicks. "I'll get over it."

"... Okay", Sakurai nodded. "Maybe try finer filter for the mask? There's an anti-gas one in the trunk, no? I'll bring it to you."

He looked ridiculous in the mask with the big filters and it wasn't easy to breathe in it, but he couldn't smell the corpse anymore. It let him wander around more easily, which made him be more helpful to Sakurai.

After taking all the photos, they packed the body and got it transferred to the lab, where they both also went to. Ryou rubbed his temple on the way, frowning.

"I haven't done it in a while too, I got lightheaded", he explained when Daiki gave him a worried look. "Sorry."

They arrived at the lab and entered in to check the body - Sakurai in a standard mask and Aomine in his anti-gas one, as they slowly started to work on the corpse.

"No signs of injury", Ryou noted, although the corpse was pretty destroyed. They could see mold eating it in certain places. Daiki grabbed some on a swab and placed it all over a petri dish to cultivate. Together with Ryou he made a few more of those and got some tissues to prepare and check under a microscope. He managed to get some blood as well as pieces of liver - which was showing damage from alcohol as well - and lungs.

As he was preparing the specimen, Sakurai got a call from the team that was securing the crime scene.

"Someone fainted on scene", Ryou passed on the news. "Good thing you put on that mask... I guess not a lot of people are resistant to a smell that strong."

Aomine nodded in understanding as he was putting the blood sample under the microscope. He clicked his tongue as the kick almost made him drop the glass pane. He sharpened the view and frowned, looking around. Then, he switched the sample and stood up. He put on his mask again and walked over to the corpse. He took a few more samples from the lungs and put them in test tubes.

"What's wrong?", Sakurai asked. "Sorry, is that—"

"He died of CO poisoning", he wrote. "Get people out of that building, call in firemen."

No wonder everyone felt so lightheaded. It wasn't just the smell, it was the lack of air. Not only that - the apartment was damp. The corpse was wet and Daiki saw rust in many places. The apartment was in a very poor state - state which couldn't be made just by the tenant living there.

"Arrest the owner", Daiki showed the message.

"Firefighters were disposed, they're going to look for a leak."

"There might not even be a leak", Aomine noticed. "The apartment has leaks, so there's probably mold everywhere. His corpse has mold on it. Rust is everywhere. Either the owner doesn't care about how his tenants live or he wanted to get a certain tenant out."

"He is definitely out of the apartment now", Sakurai sighed. "You think the owner did it on purpose?"

"Doesn't matter, if he knew about the mold and everything, he's getting arrested for life endangerment. And if the monoxide poisoning was caused by his negligence, he's getting charged for murder."

"Too quick of a case", Ryou hummed.

"I like quick cases", Daiki noted.

When they arrived at the crime scene, the firefighters were looking for the leak. Taiga walked over to him and took own his mask. He left a kiss on Aomine's lips and smiled.

"Did you breathe anything in?", he asked, concerned. Daiki shook his head. "Oh, that's good. Good thing you guys spotted it quickly, no one really got hurt. All of the building seems fine, only that one apartment had a small leak."

"Sorry, is that so?", Sakurai frowned.

"Yeah, but we can't find it. We know it was small based on the concentration and dispersion rate, but no matter what we turn off, the readings don't change."

"... As if someone was putting CO in and taking the appliance out?"

"Yeah, I guess", Taiga hummed. "What, you have a suspect?"

"We might", Sakurai mumbled. "Sorry, but it's a stretch in my opinion."

"Whatever it is, it's better than nothing", Kagami chuckled, then turned towards Aomine. "Oh, right, I found a study group by the way, if you're still down for the, the sign language idea."

Daiki nodded, massaging his belly. Those fucking kicks again. "Continue at home?"

"Yeah", Taiga said.

"You guys are learning sign language?", Sakurai smiled. "Sorry for listening in."

"We'll see how that goes", Kagami explained. "I'm going back, you know where to find me if you have any questions... Or answers."

Chapter Text

Aomine tried to focus but that motherfucker was not letting him live. Kicking him over and over, right in the cervix and his spine as well. He was cursing under his breath, trying not to crash out and cry, as the fucker punched him right in the bladder, almost making Daiki wet his pants in the middle of the field trip.

He took a deep breath and massaged the skin. If only Kagami was here to do that. The baby seemed to always calm down with him.

They were interviewing the owner who claimed not to know anything about the property - he knew about the overall bad state and often offered to switch things out or repair them but the young beta tenant refused. The owner even showed them photos of the apartment from three years before when the man had moved in. And it was an extremely safe and clean place.

As the CO readings lowered enough for Aomine and Sakurai to safely return inside with the face masks on, they started looking for more things. The leaks that were caused by damage to the walls, the overall damp state of the apartment, the mold that actually grew out of the rotten food in the shelves and the burned electricity outlet that seemed to have almost caused a fire one at one point.

Then, they heard a worried gasp at the entry. An older beta lady at standing there, looking at them.

"Ma'am, you shouldn't be here", Sakurai told her as he escorted her out of the apartment. "There is a possible CO leak, the whole building got evacuated until the leak is found and sealed off. How did you even get here?"

"I used the fire staircase...", she said. "Like always. It's closer to go to the store from there, I don't have to walk around the block..."

"I see", Ryou called the firemen and asked them to check the fire exit and lock it down too, as he walked down the stairs with the lady and safely out of the building.

"What happened?", she asked worried. "Why is there so much police...?"

"Ma'am, one of your neighbors has been found dead, we're investigating the causes", Sakurai vaguely explained.

"Oh my! Rin-kun? Oh, I knew something was wrong when he was the only one not to come over for my Sunday dinner... But I thought he was just busy with his games again... Oh my, I should have checked on him sooner..."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Oh that poor boy, his apartment was always so cold, he had always borrowed my gas heater, sometimes using it for hours...", she sighed. "Haha, I still remember him asking if I could put it close to the wall between us so his bed would be warm for the night..."

Sakurai froze on his way back up. "... A gas heater?"

"Yes, dear. It's an old friend of mine of some kind, always kept me warm during cold days. I gladly borrowed it to Rin-kun when he needed it... He was always so cold during summers."

A gas heater. An old, leaky, rusty gas heater. The man died of his own stupidity and the fault of an old gas heater. His rage in games made him throw objects and the walls, eventually damaging water pipes and causing his whole apartment to be moist and cold. Because of that, he never opened the windows. After realizing he caused so much damage to the apartment, he refused to let the owner in or tell him about the state of it, scared of the consequences. Instead of fixing the root of the problem, he found solutions for the symptoms and borrowed a heater.

The heater that turned his apartment into a gas chamber.

And then, he slowly choked to his death, even without the heater being inside the apartment.

"Case closed", Aomine wrote as he looked at the old heater that the firemen brought out of the lady's apartment. "Accident, no one at fault."

"... That's a sad ending", Ryou mumbled.

"No, you know what a sad ending is?", Daiki frowned. "That the lady hallucinated her whole family coming over for her Sunday dinners. She dined alone with the victim. And they both hallucinated other people at the table."

"So now she's going to not only live alone again but also not even have any guests over ever?", Kagami frowned. "That's messed up."

"That's a sad ending", Ryou confirmed. "Sorry, let's go, our job here is done."

They returned to the office. On the way back, Daiki held his hand on his belly more often than he should have, massaging it gently at each crossing red light. Eventually, as they got out of the car, he almost bent in half, holding his back. That motherfucker—

Inside the office, he finally say down in his chair and threw his head back, trying to relax.

"... Baby kicking a lot today?", Ryou asked. Daiki nodded, holding his nose by the bridge and trying to ignore the pain. Fuck, he was going to need painkillers if this keeps going.

He opened his computer to start writing the report while Ryou pulled out Daiki's noted to start and segregate them. Their murder suspicion turned into a simple accident, and that still did not give them an excuse to make someone else write the report. Criminal Department and its shenanigans.

"Aomine-san, how long as the baby been kicking?"

Daiki had to think for a moment. "Since the morning."

"Has it been getting more frequent as the day goes on?"

"Yeah."

Sakurai frowned, putting the notes aside.

"Aomine-san, which week of pregnancy that is?"

"Thirty eighth, I think?"

"... Sorry, I don't want worry you but I think you're in labor."

Aomine looked at him and huffed with a smirk. Labor? Nice joke, he would know if he was in labor. Aomine knew his own body. And right now he knew his body was telling him he needed to go to the bathroom.

Except when he stood up he might have already started leaking.

"... You're definitely in labor, your water just broke right in front of my eyes."

Holy shit. He was in labor.

Chapter Text

Aomine didn't plan it to go like this. No one planned it to look like this. He was in an ambulance, Ryou was calling Kagami on Daiki's phone and telling him to go to the hospital while talking to Momoi on his own phone at the same time. It was a rush, a massacre, Daiki was panicking, the EMT was putting an oxygen mask on him to help him breathe, the baby was pushing onto his cervix and it hurt so much, so so much.

They got him to the hospital, moved him into maternity ward, got him undressed without cutting the clothes, which was a challenge but bless the nurses, put him in the hospital gown and onto the funny bed where they raised his legs and called a doctor in. Kagami rushed into the room before the doctor could made it and the nurses tried to get him out - it wasn't common for fathers to be inside the birthing room, but Daiki refused to let him out and as soon as he grabbed Taiga's hand he held it so close there was no way Kagami was leaving the room.

Ryou wished him good luck as he left the room and Momoi managed to slip in for a moment to kiss his forehead and tell him she'll be waiting to pick them up from the hospital as soon as they would be able to leave. On her way out she also promised to bring them some clothes and asked whether they wanted her to buy some baby stuff.

Finally, the doctor - a male omega - arrived and check how far along he was.

"You're eleven centimeters dilated", he said with a smile. "Now, give me a big push."

Aomine took a deep breath and pushed. His hand clenched on Kagami's, his brows frowned, he jaggedly exhaled the air as he contracted his muscles. Then a brief relief. Two deeper breaths, Kagami moving his hair back and kissing his forehead.

"You're doing so great", he whispered as Daiki wanted to get out, as he wanted to be over it and it didn't even start yet. "One more time, okay, baby?"

Aomine nodded, as he breathed through his mouth. One more breath, and again, his hand clenched, he exhaled rapidly, he lifted his head off the rest and he pushed. He gasped, he wheezed, he looked at Kagami with that fear in his eyes, that look that begged to be saved. Almost the same as the one he had seen in the dark cage, as he held Daiki so tightly neither of them could breathe.

"I'm right here", he said, kissing his forehead again, "I'm not going anywhere."

"And ready?", the doctor asked.

A deep breath, a push, and with it came the pain, the wheezing sound of air coming out as Daiki couldn't scream, the gasping for air, the hands clenching so hardly the knuckles were white, Kagami's fingers being squeezed so much his fingertips were red, those words that filled his ears, the nurses assisting the doctor who skillfully checked the baby's position with an ultrasound and a speculum.

"The head it going past the cervix", the doctor smiled. "Just a little bit more, sweetheart, just a few more pushes and it'll be much easier."

Aomine didn't like those news. It hurt. It hurt so much, it hurt like it had never hurt before. Haizaki's rapes and abuses didn't hurt that much, being tortured didn't hurt that much, accidentally spilling concentrated vitriol on his lap during university lab classes didn't hurt that much, his first ever sex didn't hurt that much, nor did the knot in his ass. He wanted to scream but his throat wouldn't let one sound out. As if his larynx just couldn't make them anymore. He was sure with the way he was breathing the vocal cords were opened, but still, only wheezing and rigged breaths came out.

"I'm right here", said by Taiga made him keep pushing. Even if it hurt like hell, even if he wanted to pass out and wake up once it would be over, he still pushedz he still gasped for air and he pushed, and pushed. Pushed so hard he couldn't even tell if he was pushing the urine, the baby or the stool out and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

He was in agonizing pain, crying and sobbing as the doctor still told him to push, he wanted to ask how long he still had to push? For how long he had been pushing already? It seemed like an infinity, he wasn't even sure where he was already.

Kagami cuddled him, wiped the sweat off his forehead, rubbed his chest in attempts to make him breathe better. He held his hand, he let Daiki squeeze it as hard as he needed, he massaged Daiki's shoulders as they got stiff from all the pain, he inhaled with him, he breathed with him.

"Can you give me just one more?", he whispered for no one knew which time, Daiki had heard it so many times already. Just one more, just one more, and after that there was still one more left! Just how many mores there were left?!

But he pushed, the midwifes ran around faster, the doctor was busier, the nurses brought more equipment in, there was now a baby bed waiting, and he was still screaming silently, not table to make a sound.

"You're doing so well", Taiga said as he kissed his forehead again, he moved his hair back again, he squeezed his hand again, he wiped the sweat off again and he told him to inhale again. And Daiki did, he shakily did, then exhaled it faster than he should, squeezing so hard he was sure the baby would be out by now, but then it was just one more again.

"You're almost there, sweetheart", the doctor assured him but Daiki wasn't so sure of that anymore. He tried again and again, and five more just one mores later it was still not over. He was struggling, he was in pain, he had enough of it all already and he wanted to go home. He cried and he sobbed as he tried to give up but it hurt so much. He could feel where the baby was, he could feel body lodged inside him, he could feel his cervix throbbing in pain.

"Just one more time, Daiki, c'mon, give me one more push", Kagami whispered again.

Chapter Text

"Just one more time", Taiga mumbled. "Baby, please, push for me?"

Aomine was wheezing, crying and choking on his own tears, as he tried to finally do the real one more time. The last one.

"You're so close, sweetheart", the doctor assured him but Aomine felt far from that being the truth. He frowned and one deep breath later when was wheezing again, trying to finally get it out. He was sure he had just pissed himself, or maybe it was just his imagination? Or maybe that was just blood trailing down his vagina. Who knew.

"C'mon, Daiki, you can do it", Kagami smiled at him, his eyes red as if he hadn't slept in hours.

"And one more big push", the doctor had his hand in his vagina at that point and Daiki just wanted the guy to grab the bastard by the head and pull him out.

So he pushed one more time, as much as he could, as long as he could, and then stopped, took a deep breath and with wheezing coming out of his lungs and Kagami holding his hand, Daiki actually made the last one more push.

"And here we go!", the doctor smiled, pulling the baby out by the shoulders. Oh, that wasn't the doctor's hand, it was the baby. The baby was in his vagina. And now the head is out and now are the shoulders and oh god, Daiki can't feel the baby inside of him anymore. "Daddy wanna cut the cord?"

Kagami hesitated. "Can I?"

Aomine closed his eyes in brief relief. He nodded. Taiga wanted that baby so much, he could do anything to it.

So Kagami got his sore palm out of the hold and with shaking hands grabbed the surgical scissors from the midwife and cut the umbilical cord right where the midwife told him to. Then, the doctor rubbed the baby's back as Kagami returned to Daiki's side and held his hand again.

Baby's cries filled the room and Aomine didn't know if he was happy or sad hearing them. The doctor tried to explain something to him, but Aomine couldn't hear anything - it was something about the placenta, something about the uterine layers, something about another birth? His mind was hazy and he couldn't exactly make sense of the words until Kagami kissed his forehead again and he slowly came back to his senses. He opened his eyes and looked at Taiga while slot calming down his breath.

"You have a beautiful baby beta girl", the midwife called as he weighted and measured the baby. She washed her, wiped her and dried her, she secured the rest of the umbilical cord in a bandage and walked over with the baby to them. "Would you like to hold her before I wrap her up?"

Kagami looked mesmerized while looking at her. And him? He felt indifferent. There was no hate, no love, no feelings. Daiki shook his head and the midwife took the baby away to cover her in a blanket and put a little hat on her. Then, she walked back and waited for Daiki to hold his hands out and grab the baby, but that moment did not arrive.

"... Can I hold her?", Kagami asked Aomine, scared to do it without his permission. Daiki turned his head away but nodded. He didn't want to watch Taiga get all giggly and excited as he would be holding the little girl. She was crying again and Daiki had enough of the noise already, he wanted to sleep, he was hungry, he was thirsty, he wanted to get out of the room that smelled like blood and vaginal discharge, he wanted to be back in his bed, with the baby gone and never see her around ever again, he wanted his life to go back one year, so he could ditch Haizaki and tell him to fuck off, so he could risk it all, slam his hands onto Kagami's desk and tell him to ask him out on a date, he could...

If only he wasn't that much of an idiot, it would have been a happy moment. The baby in Taiga's hands would really be his, Aomine would be excited to hold her, he would love it, he would have a family with Kagami.

"Did you think of a name?", the midwife asked, helping the doctor clean the scene. The man was still taking stuff out of Daiki and it wasn't funny at all, especially now that Aomine was sure he was looking at the staff cleaning the feces and urine off everything around.

"Not really I guess", Kagami replied, still holding his little bundle of joy in his hands. "We'll figure something out, right?"

Aomine finally looked at them. He looked at his boyfriend, at the baby in his arms. It could have been such a loving moment if only the baby was actually Taiga's.

But Kagami didn't seem to care. He seemed to already love the baby. He seemed to already cherish her and live her as his daughter. Daiki didn't know if he could do that. He wanted to be able to do that—...

Did he?

He got transferred to a different room to rest. The baby girl was next to him in a small bed and a nurse was feeding her with a bottle as Daiki refused to try and breastfeed her. Kagami saw how torn apart Aomine was, so he stayed with him and whispered sweet nothings into his ear instead of feeding the baby himself.

The nurse frowned as she gave the baby the bottle. She put her punky finger inside the mouth, she put the bottle back in, but her face still presented a frown. She left the full bottle on the nightstand and went to get a doctor, who tried the same things. Kagami looked at them with concern while Aomine observed them with curiosity.

"... Everything is okay?", Kagami asked silently, with the omnipresent fear in his voice.

"We'll need to do a few tests", the doctor replied.

Chapter Text

The doctors got blood samples, different swabs, they checked her reflexes, made them sign some forms and Aomine was getting less and less excited, and he wasn't much excited to begin with.

The nurses tried to feed her a few times after that, but one hour after birth the little baby girl now has an NG tube going through her nose into her small stomach. Kagami was holding her in his arms, as she slept peacefully in his arms. Aomine was torn, he didn't know what to do. Taiga was bonding with the kid and Daiki would hate to take the baby away from him and leave it for the adoption. He had to decide now.

But Kagami's warm smile made his judgment impaired. How could he now rip the baby away from him? But it was his choice, not Taiga's. He hadn't even held the baby. He hadn't looked at her, he hadn't seen her.

"Can I hold her?", he unsurely turned the phone's screen towards Kagami. The alpha gasped and happily moved forward, then waited for Daiki to sit upright and open his arms. He did so slowly and retained his hands a few times before finally letting Taiga put the bundle in his arms. He had no clue how to hold her, but Kagami pur his hands in the right position and moved the blanket a little, revealing her face.

She looked like him. She had dark blue hair, darker skin, she had his facial features, she looked like him. She was his little copy.

"... If you want to leave her and go home then at least let me tell goodbye first", Kagami's voice was cracking as he said that. He wiped his tears away with his hand, turning bis head away so Aomine wouldn't be able to see him.

The baby in his arms opened her eyes and looked at him. Beautiful ashy blue eyes - the only thing that she had after Haizaki. They would fade a little as well, eventually fully becoming gray, but for nowz they were still presenting some blue undertone. She didn't cry - she clearly found the feeding tube uncomfortable, she grimaced a little and sneezed, but didn't wail or immediately cry. She sobbed a little and cooed, as if asking to take it off.

She observed him with those big eyes, waiting for his move.

She was small and thin, and Daiki had no clue whether it was caused by the long starvation period or just her being small, but it wasn't important now. After giving birth his belly almost immediately flattened, leaving only the weight he had gained due to water hoarding, which showed how actually small she was. If he hadn't started eating normally those past few weeks, he might have been visually five months pregnant during labour.

Daiki threw his head back and sighed. What to do. He would destroy Kagami if he decided to leave her after many hours or even days with her, but he couldn't make the decision yet. He didn't know what to do.

Kagami turned towards the little girl again and rubbed his finger on her cheek. He smiled through his tears and sniffed.

"Hey there pretty", he mumbled.

The nurse entered the room again to feed her. She smiled at the three and walked over to them. She found the end of the NG tube, exposed it for a moment and pushed it some milk with a syringe.

"The doctors are checking why she has troubles with the sucking reflex", she explained. "In the meantime, we're doing some oral exercises to help her develop it."

While Daiki was still holding her, she gently opened her mouth and showed both of them how to create the stimuli for the baby to hopefully work on her sucking. The nurse explained everything in great detail, then as she saw the baby falling asleep in Daiki's arms, she removed her hands and let her rest.

"Let's put her to bed for now", she offered, taking the baby from him. "I'll help you shower, dear, you must be exhausted from the labor."

He was. He wanted to fall asleep so much, but he was bloody, dirty, all sweaty and he wished for someone to finally tell him something. He couldn't move, he had stitches on his vagina, he was still in pain and he was sure the pad the midwife put on him was already soaked with blood. The nurse asked if Daiki wanted Taiga to stay in the room and Aomine confirmed - she said that she would help him take a proper shower tomorrow but for now, as everything was still fresh, she would clean his body with wet towels and show him how to use a breast pump.

He looked ugly - his skin was floppy, he had stretch marks in so many places, he was bleeding so much he thought they would need to put him on blood transfusion - the nurse told him it wasn't actually much blood, that it was the uterine lining shedding and the remains of the water from the amniotic sack. Whatever. He was cleaned, dressed in new gown, he got a new pad (or rather a diaper looking at the size of it) and then the nurse put a breast pump on him and showed him how to use it.

It was a funny feeling, watching milk come out of your nipples. Aomine would have quite some of those weird feelings now.

Once the nurse helped him get the milk out of both of his breasts, she said how she would put them in the refrigerator and they would give the baby girl that milk instead of the formula.

"Now, you should rest", she said, basically tucking him in. "You just went through fourteen hours of labor, you deserve many hours of uninterrupted sleep. Don't worry, I'll take care of feeding her."

Fourteen hours. It must have been the middle of the night now. What day was it even? What day was her birthday?

Why did he care of her birthday? It wasn't like he was going to celebrate it, right? That would involve keeping her and getting a whole year with her and Aomine wasn't sure if he even had what it took to spend three days with her.

... Would she want to spend her life with someone like him?

Chapter Text

The doctors came over in the afternoon. Aomine was woken up by the nurse drawing his blood - it was an accident, she apologized for waking him up. Kagami was on his side, holding the baby girl in his arms. As if he knew he didn't have much time with her, so he spent each second cherishing her.

"Based on our physical evaluation, as well as the symptoms presented, we are doing DNA methylation analysis to check for possible genetical mutations that could be the reason", the doctor said. "While that is being done, we would like to ask for permission for an MRI."

"What tests have you done so far?", Aomine asked - he had slept through most of them, so he was out of the loop.

"Firstly VFSS to determine whether we should try feeding her or a tube would be needed, then the tube was put in, then EEG, which showed no signs of seizures, metabolic screening, ENT evaluation showed poor muscle tone, but doesn't point towards nerve dysfunction, we are monitoring her oxygen levels and heart rate, but those look normal. CBC normal, blood culture negative, TORCH screen all negative."

"So you have no clue what's wrong?", Aomine frowned. A bunch of incompetent idiots.

"... We are doing genetical testing to figure it out. And we would like to do a brain MRI to check for any possible signs of tumors or mass losses."

"She's a AB beta", Aomine told them. "And I'm pretty sure the father has SAS."

"Did you have it tested, sir?", the doctor asked Kagami.

"Oh, um, I'm not... I'm not the biological father", Taiga explained. "He's... It's a long story."

"He's raped me then ran away", Daiki wrote, making the doctor open his eyes wide open and clear his throat.

"Right, we'll... We'll keep that in mind."

Aomine signed the MRI agreement and watched as the doctor took the sleeping baby away for the test. Kagami grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

She was sick. Aomine barely wanted her, and now she's sick. If there was ever a chance of Daiki wanting that baby, it was now lost. There was no way he would take in a baby that was not only a result of rape, but also sick.

The MRI came back normal. The doctors asked them to stay in the hospital for some more time and offered Daiki to still stay as a patient due to his previous health problems. Kagami slept on the pull out again. Just as those six weeks before when Aomine was found.

Momoi dropped off some clothes for both of them in the morning and asked about their wellbeing. She didn't touch the baby, not wanting to accidentally get it sick with something, but she saw the NG tube and the cables monitoring her heart and saturation. Neither Kagami nor Aomine spoke about naming her. She was signed with Daiki's name and that was it.

The DNA test came back the next day, a total of fifty three hours after the baby was born.

"... She had PWS - Prader-Willi Syndrome", the doctor informed them, holding the results in his hands. "It's a—"

"Paternal deletion or maternal duplication?", Aomine cut him of by showing the screen of his phone.

"Deletion", the doctor explained. "... So I assume you know what it is?"

"I learned about it in biology in my first year of uni", Daiki explained. "What about the SAS?"

"The alpha chromosome is indeed a carrier of the allele."

"... What's PWS?", Kagami asked.

"It's a genetical mutations of the paternal chromosome fifteen, in the Q arm", the doctor explained. "The region just at the end of the chromatid is responsible for a few various things, but some of its genes are methylated - that means they are inactive. The chromosomes fifteen work in a pair, certain genes on the maternal chromosome are active while the same ones on the paternal are inactive and vice versa. So when one of those regions is mutated on one of the chromosomes, the balance is disturbed. And the damage in the paternal region caused PWS."

"It can happen either by the paternal chromosome being damaged or maternal chromosome being duplicated instead of one maternal and one paternal", Aomine added.

"Right. So on the paternal chromosome the genes that are expressed are the ones that control for example the sucking reflex. And that is why she had troubles eating", the doctor added.

"... So you can't fix that?", Kagami gulped.

"Unfortunately no. The region she's missing is responsible for puberty timing, hypothalamic regulation, neuronal growth, RNA splicing, gene regulation and neurodevelopment. She will have troubles eating at first, then once solid foods will be introduced she will have troubles with weight control as she won't be able to really control the sense of hunger. Her intelligence will also be affected, there is a high possiblity of her being somewhere on the autism spectrum as well. Uh, she will have delayed development, she will take longer to start walking and speaking, she will have poor muscle tone and growth, then behavioral troubles, problems with sleeping..."

"So a lot of work", Kagami summed up. Yeah. He could start saying goodbye to his beautiful baby girl. No way in hell Aomine would take her home. She was still just hours old but Taiga had already knew how she would end up. In an orphanage, alone, not understanding why she was alone. Not only Aomine wouldn't want her but also no family would ever pick her over a healthy baby.

Aomine bit his tongue. Incredibly fucking funny joke from the universe. The baby that was forcibly put into him was also sick with an illness it got from the rapist. Literally so funny his belly hurt. Hilarious even!

Aomine could see Kagami's expression. As if he was trying to force himself into drifting away from the crib. As if he was trying not to look, not to feel anything anymore. It hurt him. It hurt both of them. And Aomine hated seeing Kagami like that, he hated those eyes and he hated himself for that, but maybe, just maybe it would be okay?

"What do you think of Mikomi?", he showed him the message, making Taiga gasp as he read it.

Chapter Text

Aomine Mikomi. Momoi was picking them up from the hospital and a little baby girl with a surgically placed G tube was in his arms. That little girl's name was Aomine Mikomi. She was four days old and was being brought home from the hospital. There was nothing waiting for her at home, there wasn't a crib, no clothes, no tools, no pacifier, no bottles, no bathroom necessities, no formula. Nothing.

At least it was supposed to be nothing waiting for her, but instead they opened the door to a whole stack of packages waiting for them in the living room.

"I crashed over at your place for four days", Satsuki informed them. "Took care of Shiori and Sei. Picked up your mail today morning..."

"Satsuki what's all that?", Aomine asked, pointing at the stack of boxes.

"Your mail, dumbass."

While Aomine sat on the sofa with two cats next to him and a baby in his arms, Kagami and Momoi assembled the crib - a gift from the guys from the police. They bought a crib with their own money. For him. For Mikomi. As a gift.

And apparently Wakamatsu and Momoi paid for like forty percent each but Aomine really didn't believe in Kousuke's donation. But who knew, he could never crack that guy.

"Meow?", Sei asked as he peaked at the baby and sniffed her. There was a baby. A baby that smelled like Daiki. His human had just gave birth which meant that Sei was now an uncle and Shiori was now a grandma!

"That's Mikomi", Kagami chuckled, looking at the cat. "Don't you dare scratch her, because you're gonna be the one to fly out the window if you do."

"... Meow?"

Momoi stayed for dinner. Kagami made a tasty meal like always, then he heated up some milk for Mikomi and gave it to her via the feeding tube.

"I took two weeks off", Kagami said as he was cleaning the counter once Momoi left. "And you have your eight weeks off. I bet Momoi will give you six more if you ask."

"You look scared", Daiki noted.

"Will I be a good dad?", Taiga asked instead. "You... You put that trust in me, and I don't want to fail you and that a very lame think to say but I... I think I'm scared?"

Aomine stood up from the sofa - he really shouldn't, he shouldn't be walking or moving in fact - but the baby was lying next to Sei who was keeping watch on her, Shiori was sleeping and he really needed to hug Kagami.

He was doing all of this for Taiga. Thanks to Taiga.

"You're the reason I'm alive", Daiki's lips moved but no sound left his larynx. "You're the reason Mikomi is in this apartment."

"But—"

"You're. You're the best father she can have", Daiki continued. If Kagami listened closely he could hear the air shaping the words. "You're the greatest dad I could have wished for her."

"I won't disappoint you."

The nights were making Aomine regret taking her in sometimes. She was waking up in the middle of them - the crib was attached to their bed and she slept with them so Kagami usually just pulled her into his arms and made her calm down while he waited for the breast pump to get some milk into the syringe. In the day, they tried breastfeeding. Kagami did lots of oral stimulation so she would hopefully develop at least some kind of sucking reflex. Aomine had enough of everything. He had enough of being woken up at night, enough of the breast pump being attached to him, enough of the attention Kagami was spending on Mikomi.

But he said nothing. He kept quiet and not once did he wake up at night to calm her down. Not once did he offer to change the diaper for her instead of Kagami. Not once did he offer to watch her so Taiga could shower in peace.

Sei wandered around a lot. Shiori slowly regained her strength. Based on the expressions on the cats' faces, they were looking for something. Maybe a third family member.

Mikomi was developing slower, just as the doctor said she would. She was crying weakly, she wasn't gaining weight despite being given growth hormones, she was weak and fragile. Just like Aomine was after being freed.

He wasn't eating much as well. Just his diet and stress made him lose weight and although his body was still far from returning to it's normal shape, he was thinner and visibly flatter around the stomach. Less water had also been collecting inside of his body, so he wasn't looking so chubby anymore.

Kagami was preparing cupcakes one day as Aomine entered the kitchen.

"Some occasion?", he asked by writing.

"... Mikomi's first birth-month?", Kagami mumbled. "She was born on October ninth... And today is November ninth, so I—"

"Birth-month", Aomine repeated. "It's been a month?"

"Yeah."

Time flies so fast, Daiki thought as he sat at the table. He took one cupcake in his hand and smiled. One month. Four weeks and three days. He had three and a half weeks left before coming back to work. Then what? They needed a nanny or something. Maybe Ryou could recommend a nanny? Or at least tell him how to look for one.

Didn't babies have to be at least one to be enrolled in a nursery?

"Hey there", Kagami smiled at the baby who had been sleeping in the stroller. "Look who woke up."

Mikomi smiled back after some time and cooed at him. Kagami picked her up and patted her back. He carried her over to the kitchen, talking to her all the time. He was struggling to warm up some milk for her while holding her so Daiki walked over and took her from him.

Those big eyes that turned more and more gray with each day looked at him with such admiration he couldn't help but smile to some extent.

Maybe naming her hope was a right decision? After all she did seem to bring some hope into his dull life. A hope of a happy family. And a promise he made to himself.

Chapter Text

Aomine was packing his bag, not really knowing what to expect of tomorrow. Two months had passed and today they had celebrated Mikomi's second birth-month, or whatever Kagami had called it.

She was sleeping on Kagami's chest now. Taiga had been at work for six weeks now and Aomine was glad the PWS was making her so sleepy because there would be no way he would take care of a normal baby. He was exhausted with her and he didn't even have to wake her up to feed her.

She had no head control, she wasn't kicking, she wasn't moving. She was sleeping all day like a cat, she still wasn't sucking and now she wasn't also grasping and had barely any startle reflex, which was worrying Kagami but not him.

Daiki didn't love his daughter, at least he thought so, and yet he spent his days researching Prader-Willi Syndrome while Taiga was at work. He was tired, which was ridiculous, as Mikomi needed way less attention than a normal baby did.

It was way easier to take care of a baby that only slept and was fed with a syringe. No breastfeeding, no often waking up at night, no playing with her and keeping her occupied.

She just slept. Sometimes even twenty hours a day, and she was nine weeks by now, she definitely shouldn't be sleeping that much. She was making some progress with feeding on the other hand - last week Taiga manged to get her to drink a little from the bottle and he looked like the happiest man alive. He spun her around and jumped from happiness and after around two minutes or so Mikomi smiled as well. Her delayed responses were cute sometimes.

"Time to go to bed", Aomine mouthed, as well as showed Kagami the sign for bed. Taiga smiled. They only went to three of those meetings and had another scheduled for two days from now, but they both had learned some signs. And he was glad to see Daiki making progress and using both lip reading and signs to communicate.

"Are you sure about taking her to work?", Taiga asked, standing up. He scooped Mikomi into his arms and carried her with him. "I can take a few days off, find a nanny..."

"I'll take her", Aomine signed the whole sentence, one sign by another, carefully picking his words.

"Sure. Text me if you'll need to."

It felt nice. Sleeping with Kagami, naked, arms and legs tangled, the lips kissing his neck, right into his gland. He lied in his arms, having one thought in his mind. The thought of his heat coming eventually and the thought of Kagami making him his. Because Aomine would allow that.

He was scared of getting hurt again, but Taiga would never hurt him, right? He was an amazing dad, he lived Mikomi so dearly, he loved Daiki so dearly. He would never hurt any of them.

Mikomi was lying in her crib - one wall was missing, connected to their bed so they wouldn't have to stand up when she would wake up. Daiki could see her breathing.

It reminded him of when Sakurai learned about his pregnancy. The first tip he had ever gotten was: «yes, they are breathing». Funny. Aomine couldn't remember checking if Mikomi was still breathing. He remembered Kagami doing so the first night at home. He hardly slept that night, instead lied by her side and checked her every few minutes.

"You think Mi-chan matches her energy? Maybe Mi-tan? Mimi? Komi?"

"What's wrong with just Mikomi?", Daiki showed on his phone.

"Nothing, just wanted to give her a cute nickname."

"Mi-chan seems nice", Aomine decided.

"Yeah, I also think so."

For how had Aomine been free? A little below four months, if he counted correctly. Was four months enough to heal someone from three months of rapes?

Aomine seemed to think less and less of those. He still had separation anxiety and didn't like being alone without someone trusted present, but he no longer searched for them so actively he couldn't focus on anything else. He still didn't speak, but he doubted it would come back so quickly. He still didn't have sex, but he blamed the labor on that now. He still didn't want hands near his private regions and he blamed Haizaki for that. He still sometimes turned around, expecting to see Shougo behind him.

Contraband, or rather Ishida, and his family were given witness protection. They got different identities, they got relocated and started a new life. Ishida had to serve five years, all in home arrest. Aomine never learned what happened to Asiyah, but he got her letter and her recipes. Kagami sometimes made them for him, but they didn't taste the same. Once in a while his fax printed a short message from an unsaved contact. All having the same message.

"Hawks are still patrolling."

It seemed like Takao refused to give up on searching and Aomine was thankful for that - the Criminal Department hung the case on the wall and did nothing more. Aomine didn't expect them to do more. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack and they did f even know if Haizaki was still in Japan. Kazunari and his contacts had better chances at catching him, assuming Haizaki would use some of his connections sooner or later.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word", he heard in the middle of the night. Kagami was next to him, with Mikomi in his arms, putting her back to sleep after she woke up out of hunger. "Daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird."

And if that mockingbird don't sign
Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring

It wasn't the intended result, but Aomine seemed to be returning to sleep.

And if that diamond ring is brass
Daddy's gonna buy you a looking glass

He could barely understand some words. Was Kagami speaking English always so therapeutic?

...And if that horse and cart turn round
You'll still be the sweetest little babe in town

It felt like he missed some words. But of did it matter now, that he was asleep with Kagami and Mikomi right next to him?

Chapter Text

Aomine walked into the building with a bag full of diapers, bottles, tissues, with a breast pump sticking out of the pocket and with syringes packed in sterile wrappers. But the most important detail was a little bundle that was awake and looking at the world, resting her very heavy head on Daiki's chest and shoulder, while dangling floppily in a carrier.

"Good morning, Aomine-junsa-buchou!", the receptionist called and Daiki responded with a wave. "And who's that cutie?"

Was it going to happen with everyone, he wondered, as he pulled out his phone with his daughter's name written in the notes.

"Oh isn't she adorable?", the receptionist smiled, expecting Mikomi to smile back, but she didn't. She just stares at the woman with her eyes wide opened, barely even blinking. "... Is she okay?"

"Sleepy", Aomine mouthed.

"I see..."

He went the elevators, then up to the fifth floor where he was welcomed by everyone turning towards him. He gulped and waved unsurely, then walked towards his office and locked the door behind himself.

"Enjoyed your eight weeks of sleepless nights?", Sakurai asked, sitting in his office chair. "Sorry, should I start with where's your nanny?"

"... I don't know how to find one", he explained.

"You know, sorry, something like a text or a mail exists, right?"

"She's silent, I can work with her", Aomine wrote.

"You deserve a rest from her, no matter how silent she is."

"Taiga was scared the nanny won't be able to feed her properly", he also admitted, omitting the fact that he was just as scared of that.

"Aomine-san I know that she is different from most babies, but believe me, I bet nannies would find her even easier to take care of."

Maybe Sakurai was right? Maybe they shouldn't stress that much? Just find a nanny, leave Mikomi at home, ignore everything.

An alarm in Daiki's phone rang. Feeding time. Since Mikomi couldn't say when she was hungry, they needed a schedule. Daiki pulled her out of the carried and with her on his lapz he found the end of the feeding tube and attached the syringe to it, them pushed the Luke warm milk inside her stomach. She wasn't crying. She wasn't finding it uncomfortable. She was like a dead doll, taking everything what was given. Aomine had also been like this. Ironic how Haizaki screwed them over the same way and he hadn't even met Mikomi.

Aomine sometimes still had flashbacks from his labor. He sometimes relived the pain and his throat being clenched, not letting him scream. He hated his body every single time he looked in a mirror. He was thinner, but his stomach was still flabby and the stretch marks on his thighs and belly reminded him of the pain. All of that just to give birth to a sick rape baby. He hated everything. He hated those stupid stretch marks so much his bathroom cabinets were filled with creams that were supposed to fix that a d make them go away. Their function was still questionable and Kagami's eyes always seemed sad when he caught Daiki watching himself in a mirror, which didn't make anything better - it only made it look like even his boyfriend was disgusted in his postpartum image.

At least Shiori seemed to have recovered. She was walking around carefully sometimes and no longer required that much medication. Sei had also grew to trust his mother more and was leaving her alone for longer periods of time.

Today, Sei was wandering around the area, still looking for Ninth. He was asking around, even came to the dangerous and aggressive stray dogs and refused to leave until he would be told everything they knew. It wasn't much, but they said they had seen him north from there a few weeks back.

Sei had promised Shiori that he would find Ninth. And he wasn't about to give up. Even if he would have to walk around for days or months, he would find Ninth and bring him home. They were going to be reunited, even if Sei would have to look forever.

One step after another, he spent his days walking around and looking for Ninth. As he was walking by the back alleys of stores, a female voice called.

"Prince!", Sei turned around. Who was she calling, there was no one else but the human woman and him in the alley. "Don't just stare at me like that! Come here! You've been gone for so long, you didn't even say goodbye!"

Sei frowned. He didn't know that woman. But she seemed to know him, or at least know someone who looked like—... Could it be that she knew Ninth?

"Where have you been? You got me all worried that you froze somewhere", she chuckled. "Winter's pretty cold this year, don't you think?"

Wait, if she knew Ninth, that meant that Ninth used human help. He got chubbier when Sei had met him again those months ago - he wants fat or anything, but his bones were no longer that visible. He also avoided answers as to where he was getting the steady source of food from.

Human. Ninth, the cat who disowned him for bringing humans to help Shiori, was feeding off of them up to the point he had a human name given to him. What a hypocrite.

Sei walked over to her and looked up. The human frowned and tilted her head. "... You're not Prince", she noted. "Prince has those funny heterophobic eyes."

"Meow", he confirmed. He was Sei, a different cat.

"You haven't seen him, have you? Is Prince your brother? You two look similar..."

"Meow."

"I see... You know where he is?"

"... Meow."

"Mh. I've also been looking for him", she sighed. "You have a collar, huh? So you have a home?"

"Meow."

"Prince didn't have a collar."

"Meow", Sei confirmed. Ninth hated humans... apparently. He wouldn't let any human out a collar on him.

"Please tell me when you'll see him, okay?", the woman scratched him behind the ear, then checked his name on the collar. "Sei. Good to know. I guess I hope to see you again."

She stood up straight and returned to the inside of her coffee shop. Stupid ass hypocrite little brother, Sei tsked. He better find that brat quickly and smack those stupid abandonment ideas out of his head. He shouldn't be disappearing like that, there were people and cats who loved that bastard!

Chapter Text

"Maybe we should get like a cake and throw a party? I can go buy a cake...", Kagami mumbled, wiping the counter after dinner.

"Why?", Aomine signed.

"... Half a year. That's... That's like half a year", Taiga mumbled.

"Half birthday?", Daiki smiled.

"Yeah."

"Maybe bake?", he signed. "Together."

"Yeah", Kagami sighed. "Maybe you're right. What flavor can she eat?"

"Can't eat cake", Aomine replied. "Mushy veggies and fruits, maybe."

"Hm."

Mikomi never properly developed a sucking reflex, but around two months ago she learned how to swallow foods when they were put in her mouth. It looked hilarious, feeding her milk with a spoon, but it worked for some reason. Even the doctors were surprised to see it, as four-month-olds eating with a spoon was a rare sight.

They started to introduce more foods to her in hopes of getting the G tube out. She still couldn't sit or even raise her head, but with either of them holding her up, she would eat relatively normally. Recently, she started to move around some more and even kicked Taiga once, making him gasp and smile.

And now, Mikomi was turning six months old. In three days, actually.

"I wanna throw her a party", Kagami shrugged. "Can we?"

"Yeah", Daiki replied, then fixed Mikomi in his arms and stood up. "Half good."

"What?"

"One year, good."

"Oh."

A few months of learning the sign language wasn't much, especially with practicing it fully only once or twice a week, but it have them a new method of communication. Aomine's signs were simple, he wasn't trying to make sentences or speak every word he meant, just the necessity he needed as well as what was necessary for Kagami fo understand him.

But in the study group with deaf people and their families? Aomine tried so hard to sign clearly and fully, he was trying his best. As if it was the only thing driving him towards normality.

"I guess you're right", Taiga admitted. "I'll make cupcakes then, and something for dinner. And some mushy fruits presented in a fancy way from Mi-chan."

"She sees no difference", Daiki pointed out. "Fancy or no."

"Probably", Kagami crouched in front of her and moved her bodysuit slightly away from her legs to sniff the diaper. "But we do."

Aomine smiled as Kagami took her away from him and went to the bathroom with her to change her diaper, baby-talking to her on his way there. She was growing quite slowly and based on her behavior she was three month old at best instead of six, but Kagami still loved her more than anything.

"Your poops start to smell!", Kagami chuckled from the bathroom. "We're gonna have some problems when you start moving around..."

Aomine smiled. Kagami was right, they should get her a cake.

The birthday party was small - just the three of them, Momoi, Sakurai and his family. And together with Satsuki came another alpha. Carefully, waiting outside for Aomine to let them in - he explained how barging into an omega's safe zone without permission was a bad behavior.

"That's Tetsu-kun", Momoi said, playing with her fingers, her coat was hung over her forearm and her head was lowered. She took a deep breath and finally raised her eyes to look at Daiki. "My... My boyfriend."

"Kuroko Tetsuya", the alpha bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Aomine-kun."

Boyfriend. His fucking sister had a boyfriend for god knows how many weeks and he had not been told yet. He frowned. "How long?", he signed. Satsuki and Sakurai were amazing friends - whereas they didn't know much, they did their best to learn at least some signs to be able to communicate with Daiki freely.

"... A-A few months... Three, I think...?", she stammered.

"Three months?! No information?!", Aomine's eyes widened as Satsuki frantically looked at Taiga to help translate the yelling. "Am I not important?! How hide if not now?!"

"Okay, okay", Kagami walked over to save the day. He fixed Mikomi in his arms and pulled Aomine into a hug. "Yeah, take a deep breath, baby. That's it."

"I hate you", he showed with one hand, hugging into Taiga and Mikomi, looking away from Satsuki.

"I—... There was a lot of things happening. A-And I— I didn't want to push that onto you as well", she explained. "There was never good time to tell you and when there was, I... I was scared. I tried a few times but the last moment I switched it to something else..."

"Long friend?", he asked, barely making sense with his signs.

"... Aiuuhhhh... E-Eleven... years...", she mumbled, her voice high pitched.

Aomine moved away from Kagami and turned around. "What?"

"We have known each other for eleven years", Kuroko repeated. "We used to be friends with benefits during that time."

"WHAT?", Daiki grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him on that «You're banging my sister?!» motion.

"Dai-chan, can we— can we just come in?", she gulped. "Are you mad?"

"YES?!"

They eventually were allowed inside. And Momoi was forced to explain herself from keeping information like that away from Daiki. He could understand the relationship, but her orientation? For almost twenty years? He felt bad. Was he so untrustworthy, did he seem so homophobic that his sworn sister was too scared to tell him that she was gay?

He wasn't even mad. Just sad and heartbroken.

Somewhen as they were celebrating, with Kagami preparing the meal and the Imayoshi kids playing with Mikomi, the doorbell rang. Aomine frowned and looked at Kagami with a slight smile, then showed two signs to Taiga.

"Apparently", he smiled, going to the door. "Yo! You made it!"

Momoi tensed up as she heard the female voice of the newly arrived guest. She gulped and tried to hide herself behind other guests but it didn't seem to work. As the two entered the living room, cheerfully chatting with Kagami, a pair of brown eyes suddenly spotted Momoi and a painful silence erupted in the room.

"... H-Hey?", Satsuki waved awkwardly.

Chapter Text

"You know each other?", Kagami said for both himself and Aomine. "Well, of course you do, you guys work together."

"We detest each other", Riko explained, taking a deep breath. "But don't worry, I'm sure no scene will erupt. We're here to celebrate something and not to dig through the past."

"Sorry... I forgot you guys—", Kagami mumbled. Of course he knew Satsuki and Riko had some kind of past!

"Shut your mouth or I'll double your work."

"Yes ma'am!"

Riko and her husband might have always stayed as far away from Satsuki as possible, but no drama happened. They just didn't interact with each other. After everyone but Momoi and Kuroko left, Daiki finally asked what had been bothering Taiga for so long.

"What happened between you and Hyuuga Riko-shoubouseikan?", Aomine asked by writing on his phone.

"... I knew her as Aida", Momoi sighed. "We—... We met at a gym, back in highschool. We kind of hit it off and then suddenly we were dating and I didn't even processed that I might be gay."

Aomine sat down next to her. Shiori and Sei were sleeping together in their little bed that was currently placed on Aomine's office chair, Kagami was cleaning everything and putting dishes into the dishwasher and Kuroko was nowhere to be seen, which made Daiki a little anxious at first until he heard the alpha's voice behind him, helping Kagami clean up the mess.

"She— She was an amazing girlfriend", Satsuki chuckled through tears. "She was everything my highschool self could have wished for. We were those dumb teenagers, hiding in the bathrooms to kiss or sneaking out of the house to talk on the phone for hours. We lived that dream life, hiding from everything and everyone. We were meeting at the gym and she pretended not to be into me as she acted like my personal trainer. It was her family's business and she sometimes snuck me into the employees only area to kiss."

"Love?", Aomine signed.

"Yeah. I think so. We dated for like a year before she said she wanted us to come out to our parents. Said that she wanted to tell the world about us", Satsuki bit her lip. "I was scared. Of my parents' reaction, of her parents' reaction..."

Aomine closed his eyes and leaned into her. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"So when she suggested we come out at the same time, I stupidly agreed, and then... And then I lied to her. I told her that I came out, that they were neutral, that they didn't care but didn't want to meet her and all of that. And she came out for real, she got into that huge argument with her parents and almost moved out. She was barely home since then and she always said how lucky I was they just ignored me and didn't make problems."

Satsuki wiped her tears away. Mikomi was lying in her crib, sleeping, but Daiki heard her silent mumbling, indicating that she woke up. Taiga was her main caretaker but moments like this made him question his maternal instincts. Did he really develop them? Did he really care about Mikomi that much to hear her barely audible whimper from two rooms away? He excused himself and went to get her. With the little girl in his arms, he sat down next to Satsuki again.

"I lied to her for so long, and when she found out she was furious. It was... Five months I think. I made up stories from home, I made up things my parents said, I said nothing for so long."

"You got into a fight for almost twenty years because you didn't come out to your parents and liked about it?", Aomine wrote one handed, supporting Mikomi's head with the other.

"... No. It was because when she found out we had a fight. And I said she deserved to be alienated by her parents for forcing me to come out when I wasn't ready."