𝔸𝕜𝕒𝕥𝕤𝕦𝕜𝕚 ℕ𝕠 ℍ𝕚𝕞𝕚𝕥𝕤𝕦

4• how bitter sweet •4

(Ho boi, one chapter to go! If we get to seven, yes I said 7, comments, I'll update again! Thanks for your support everyone, and I hope you're enjoying ANH so far!)

Aomine had never been one for passing. He never felt it necessary, considering his speed and skills. However, something about Kanata made him trust that whenever he called for a pass, that it was the right decision.

Normally when he’d play against Murasakibara, he’d get blocked several times. When he’d play Haizaki, it made him play harder since the guy was pretty good. That game, though, he hadn’t been blocked once. And as his teammates celebrated their win with cheers and high fives, he found his eyes drawn to Kanata.

The brunette was beaming as the point guard patted him on the back with an equally large smile. Then, his eyes moved to find Aomine, and settled on his form with a soft smile. “What are you doing all the way over there?” Kanata cocked his head.

“Nothing,” The ace shook his head, chuckling as he went over and gave each of them a high five. I could get used to this, he thought as his eyes were once again drawn to the brunette, the only one he had yet to high five.

As they both raised their hands to do so, the ace wondered for a split second how Kanata would high five. Would it make his hand sting? Would it be just hard enough to make the clapping sound? Would it be kind of wussy?

Ah, Aomine smiled as they high fived. My hand doesn’t sting, but I can still feel the imprint of his skin on mine. How bitter sweet.

I might get addicted to this feeling.

~*~

“So it was like that,” Akashi walked with Kuroko the following day, having been discussing the game the second string had won three days ago, thanks to Kanata. “Thank you, Kuroko.”

“Of course,” The phantom replied. “But, Akashi, where are we going?”

“Well,” He hummed. “I recently procured which class Kanata is in, so I wanted to go visit him to invite him to eat lunch with us.”

“Oh, is that so,” Kuroko smiled slightly. “That’s a good idea.”

So, the two continued on their way until they arrived at the aforementioned classroom. Sliding the door open, they found it devoid of life except for one person. He was in the second to last row near the windows, his head laying on his arms with his eyes closed.

Kanata was asleep.

Both boys were stunned by the beauty they were witnessing as the sun caressed the brunette’s features, highlighting him in a way that made him look serene, almost angelic.

“I think it best if we leave him be,” Akashi was the first to break away from the spellbinding sight, retreating from the classroom with Kuroko in toe. “It’s a shame, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” He mumbled. “Who is closest to this class that can get to Kanata before he falls asleep?”

“Um,” Kuroko spoke after a moment of silent deliberation. “Haizaki’s classroom is only a few doors down.”

The two players looked at each other, in an almost assessing manner, before Akashi shook his head and continued forward. “That would be a disaster in the making, Kuroko.”

“Yes, now that I’ve said it out loud, I completely agree.”

~*~

That day, Kanata wasn’t at practice.

“Are you sure about this?” The boy asked as he sat in the car with Sakuma, who was driving them to a prestigious doctor.

“Yes, I’m more than willing to pitch in to make sure you’re alright,” She smiled over at him in the passenger seat. “Besides, you can’t afford the regular check ups that you need. I’d feel awful if something happened to my favorite little boy.”

“If you say so,” Kanata smiled softly. It had been one of those times that he’d slept over at her place, but for some reason had left some documents on the desk in the guest room where he usually stayed.

One of those documents happened to be a medical report he’d gotten a week before during his annual checkup. On the paper, there happened to be some doctor’s notes on the bottom, stating that it would be better for Kanata to come in for monthly checkups rather than yearly ones.

So, when Sakuma had read that, she decided to make it her mission to make sure the brunette got his checkups as often as he needed. Therefore, every month around the same time, she’d pick him up from school and take him straight to the doctor.

There were several things that Kanata got checked up on during those times, but luckily for the past few months, there haven’t been any significant changes and it was reported that his condition was getting much better much faster.

His grandparents did not know of these extra visits, and when she’d taken up this gauntlet, Kanata had made Sakuma promise not to tell them under any circumstances. Other than his impending death, of course.

As the two arrived at the doctor’s office, the people in the Teiko gym were feeling weird, just sort of empty and unmotivated after it was announced that Kanata was not going to be joining them that day for personal reasons. The coaches noticed almost immediately and decided to let them off with only half a practice that day.

Normally, doing such a thing would never even be considered in the realm of possibilities, but the head coach was the one who authorized and commanded it.

It’s obviously Kanata’s doing, he thought as he watched from above. He’s quite the special one. Even Midorima looks a bit down, and they haven’t interacted all that much from what I’ve gathered. What an amazing affect.

“I could use this,” He put his hand on his chin, several ideas running through his head as his players ran around under him. How interesting it could be if we used him as a motivator, a balancer, and someone to steady the team?

This could just be an even bigger trump card than Akashi’s discovery of Kuroko, the coach smirked lightly. Oh yes, I can already see how well this will work out.

“Achoo!” Kanata sneezed, and suddenly his ears started tingling.

“Looks like someone’s talking about you,” The nurse giggled, offering him a tissue.

“Or maybe it’s the blasted AC on in here.”