Noisy Neighbours

Chapter 2

"So how long have you played basketball?" Kagami asked, leaning his arms on the back of Aomine's chair. He still didn't know why he was taking the valuable time that he could have spent sleeping to chat it up with this total stranger, but against his better judgment, he was curious, and he wanted to know more about his intriguing if a rather weird neighbour.

Aomine sighed, an uncharacteristically wistful look crossing his face for a moment, before the smirk he'd worn for much of the time he'd spoken to Kagami returned, "Ever since I can remember, I've always had a ball in my hand. It's like breathing; I can't imagine not being able to play."

Good answer, Kagami cracked a half-smile despite himself, glad to have stumbled across someone who seemed as passionate about the sport as he was; even if he acted aloof and careless about it, there was a note of fervour in his voice.

"And how long have you played...that lute or whatever it is?"

As he expected, Aomine's upper lip curled in a scowl at the backhanded taunt, "Bass, retard," he growled. Kagami laughed; he was so easily provoked it was almost ridiculous, "I started playing in my second year of high school, just to pass the time. Plus, the chicks love a guy with a guitar." His expression turned arrogant, a twisted smile stretching his lips, and he strummed out a set of chords, but his eyes remained on Kagami; head tilted back, gaze lingering on his face and his chest.

"Yeah?" Kagami muttered, suppressing a hot prickle of emotion that he didn't understand and didn't want to decipher, "So impersonating a band geek and fiddling with that thing has gotten you laid?"

To his surprise, Aomine didn't rise to the bait this time, and his smirk took on a slightly different, sensual tone that chased a chill down Kagami's spine, "Oh yeah. You wouldn't believe how the babes line up when they see how skilled my fingers can be." As if to emphasize his point, said fingers danced along the bass's thin strings, "And how quickly a 'demonstration' can turn into something else..."

He was silent a moment, giving Kagami time to formulate and then banish a thousand unwelcome mental images. And he blew him away with what he asked next, "Want to give it a try?" A slinking, knowing little tune followed the question, and then his hands withdrew, offering themselves to Kagami, palms up.

Kagami recoiled, flushing to the roots of his hair, "Wh-what are you talking about?" he stammered, though he thought he had a pretty good idea what he meant.

"Just give me your hands, dumbass," the bluenette said gruffly, "I won't bite....yet."

Hesitating, Kagami shifted his arms where they rested on the back of the chair, hands resolutely clenched into fists, but after a moment, he succumbed to that prompting blue gaze and did as he asked; breath hitching as lean, callused fingers smoothed over his knuckles, guiding his hands down to Aomine's lap.

Arranging Kagami's fingers to his liking, Aomine gently brought them down on the taut strings of the guitar, once, and then twice, bringing out a soft, tremulous note.

"That's a B flat," he murmured, shifting one of Kagami's hands down slightly before coaxing out another, lower note, "And that...is an E. Now...keep that hand still, and let me show you something."

Releasing one of Kagami's hands, still keeping one hostage, he returned his fingers to the neck of the bass, and lead Kagami through a sequence of notes, much lighter and sweeter than before. It took Kagami a long moment to realize a small smile had touched his lips, but Aomine noticed, and eventually let go of Kagami's other hand, and repeated the gentle melody on his own, into a repetition of the same few notes. Kagami watched, captivated, as his fingers flew over the strings, and he leaned his chin beside Aomine's head to get a closer look.