Imperfect match // Daiki Aomine (Kuroko no Basuke)

41. She's my girl

When he wakes up, naked in the middle of his bed, his tight ass half covered by his bedsheet, his body aching from his prowess of the night before, he's reluctant to open his eyes.

Rolling on his back, rubbing his face, he opens them and sees that he is alone in his bed. He tried to keep her close after the nth time they made love, and he knows for certain that she rested in his arms after they showered, but she still managed to sneak out.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, his heart is aching, his hands shaking slightly, probably due to low sugar levels and he thinks.

'She couldn't just have gone. She'll probably start to look for a place and stay here while she does.'

It's 8.47am. He barely slept four hours and is now too late for his first lecture.

They are usually up at 6.30am and go for a run together. If they have late classes, you can smell coffee in the apartment. No coffee scent this morning.

Slipping into his trunks, he walks out of his room and checks down the corridor for a sign of life. No sound can be heard.

He then walks to her room where the door is opened. Her bed is neatly made as she slept in his room last night. Her room is tidy, as usual, but a few items are missing from her desk and bedside table, gaps in her bookshelf and photos missing from her pin board.

No need to snoop around her wardrobe and drawers, he knows that she's taken a few things, not everything, and that she has gone. His stomach hurts.

So what was last night? Good bye sex? No need to be dramatic. She needs time and space that's all. She'll realise that she needs him as much as he needs her. She will.

As confident as he wants to be, when it comes to her, he's so doubtful that it really affects him to the core.

After getting ready, and forcing some food down (he's not hungry but knows he should eat), he checks his phone and sees a text from her, his heart now racing.

[Satori: I'm staying at Akiko's for a few days.]

It's brief, sterile, blunt. Regardless, he is relieved that she didn't just disappear and is away for 'a few days' for now and glad that she'd thought of telling him where she is.

He goes to class, hoping to get distracted from this painful but hopefully temporary situation.

"Hey Satori. Are you okay?" Akiko says worryingly, letting her friend through her apartment door.

"No. I'm sorry it's so early." Satori says apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. I made some coffee."

Satori enters her friend's place at dawn, dropping a couple of bags in the entrance before taking her shoes off.

She then sits on a cushions on the floor in the little studio, before Akiko places a cup of coffee on the table in front of her.

"So. Wanna tell me why I receive an emergency message at 5.30am this morning?"

With her hands on her cup of coffee, feeling like crying but unable to because she has used up all her tears the previous night, she takes a deep breath in before saying all that needs to be said to Akiko.

It takes a little while but Akiko listens patiently as she sees her friend, who always seems to have it all together, opening up like she's never before, feeling her pain, her doubts and her anxiety.

She had no idea that the cool headed, always smiling, one night stand expert Satori could be so fragile.

Once all is said, Akiko says nothing but shuffles around the table to lock her friend in a bear hug, even though she is smaller than Satori.