Imperfect match // Daiki Aomine (Kuroko no Basuke)

30. It's hard to pretend

Out of the bathroom, they get ready.

Unable to stop himself from looking at her, he feels lucky, and even if it only means she's his for a day, he'll take it.

"What time is it?" She asks after finishing to dry her hair.

"Just past 9am." He answers, sitting on the bed, looking through his phone.

"Shall we go somewhere today?"

"We've panned to have a friendly game, there are courts in the village next to the beach."

"Any volleyball courts?"

"No, but there are beach-volleyball nets on the beach just next to it."

"Oooh, I'm interested now." She grins.

She's so cute today, in her denim shorts and baggy white sleeveless top letting oversee her sexy black bikini.

"Let's go have some breakfast, I'm starving." He says standing up energetically.

"What am I supposed to do?" She asks as he looks at her confused. "I don't know how to act... you know... as a girlfriend."

She feels a little sick at the thought of it now. She still has a bad feeling about belonging to someone, being submissive. She's mistaken in what she thinks it means to him. He loves her dominant side.

"Just be you. As long as you don't flirt around, you can do whatever you want. I don't have a leash on you. Things shouldn't change. You shouldn't change."

"Oh." It might not be as bad as she thought.

Leaving their bedroom, they reach the end of the corridor. Nobody seems to be up. Everybody is probably still snoozing because of excessive alcohol consumption or just how late they came back.

She puts the kettle on and he looks through the fridge and cupboards. She gets some rice ready to cook and he starts to fillet some fish. She chops some vegetable to add to a miso soup and he chops some onions.

The way they move around the kitchen, they way they do things, it's as though they knew each other by heart. They both have something to do and are aware of what the other one is doing, they don't have to talk, they just know and enjoy it.

Remembering cooking with him the day before and how much the onions hurt, she wets a cloth and comes close to him to wipe his irritated eyes.

"Hey." She says softly.

He turns to face her, tears falling down, his nose tickling and he smiles when her hand cups his cheek. Softly passing the cloth over his soar eyes, she gets lost in his handsome traits for a second.

The burn he feels from his eyes is nothing compared to the burn he feels from restraining himself to kiss her. It is close to unbearable, but he has asked her to act as his girlfriend in front of his friends and kissing in the kitchen is not part of the benefits their friendship is about.

The moment is there though and she feels it too. Should she kiss him? If she did, she'd give him something he is craving, she knows that but she'd also give him the illusion that their story is possible. And she can't do that. She can't deceive him. She can't! Obviously she shouldn't!

Just a pec then. She already feels bad but it's good too. His lips are such a treat.

He smiles at her gift, thinking he has won the internal battle he knows she must have had to face.

"Alright lovebirds, get a room. No need to rub it in our faces." Atsushi drops as him and Midorima enter the kitchen, without stopping on his way to the fridge.