Chapter 3

Finally, after a probably more tiring experience than the previous game, they were ready to leave with the others. Kise had took forever to change and Akashi regretted not going in first. After he finally finished taking like ten minutes to put some lotion on, he had wanted to watch some TV. Akashi couldn't believe that he was so childish for such a mature basketball player. He was almost even worse than Murasakibara. At least all Murasakibara wanted was food.

"Where are we gonna eat?" Aomine yawned, stretching and leaning against the wall of the hotel lounge area.

"Shush. Akashi and I are currently looking for a restaurant," Midorima replied.

"Oi, Tetsu, where do you want to go?" Aomine ignored Midorima, continuing to chat in his obnoxiously loud voice.

"Quiet down, Dai-chan!" Momoi chided him.

Murasakibara almost looked dead from lack of food. Kuroko looked around and saw Kise, who was surprisingly not even bothering to listen to the conversation. Maybe Akashi had been harsh with him. Kuroko wondered if he should go over and comfort him, but then thought about Kise's clingy attitude towards him. But he was Kise's former teammate after all.

"Kise-kun, are you not feeling well?" Kuroko sat down next to Kise.

Kise looked up at Kuroko, but it looked like his former happiness was gone. "I'm fine, Kurokocchi," he mumbled. "I'm just tired."

"Let's go get some umbrellas for everyone at the front desk," Kuroko suggested.

Kise wordlessly got up to follow him.

Akashi's eyes followed him out the lounge.

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They had finally decided on a casual Italian restaurant within walking distance, also known as Pizza Hut. On the way there, Kise still seemed moody.

"He's like a hormonal teenage girl," Midorima scoffed.

"Maybe the fangirls are rubbing off him," Kagami theorized.

"That's actually quite a possible theory," Midorima said.

"Woah! Is Bakagami becoming smart?! What will happen next? Will he quit basketball and become a scientist? Or a doctor? We will now end this episode of Into the Wild-" Aomine announced jokingly.

"Please stop," Midorima cut Aomine off, glaring at the laughing teen.

Meanwhile, Kise was trailing behind in the back, apparently deaf to how he was the topic of their talk.

Akashi thought that maybe he had been a little harsh yelling at Kise. He would have usually never done this, but he went over to apologize.

"Are you perhaps tired? When we go back to the hotel I can... massage you..." Akashi managed to offer. He couldn't believe he was stooping that low for Kise.

"Um, maybe, I guess," Kise murmured, avoiding Akashi's gaze.

Akashi wasn't going to let it go, even though he wanted nothing but to leave Kise alone. The group was somehow not the same without Kise's cheerful idiocy.

"I'm sorry for earlier, and... yelling at you," Akashi started again. "I-I still... love you..." his mind somehow didn't have control over his mouth at that moment and the words unintentionally slipped out.

"Really?" suddenly Kise was alert; rainbows and blue skies filled his vision.

"Um, I meant, um, not really, but um,I love you as a... friend, teammate..." Akashi was stammering now.

It didn't matter to Kise because he was already hugging Akashi and dying from happiness.

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Dinner was actually okay, Akashi decided.

They ordered a pizza, but it wasn't quite enough for Murasakibara, who ordered his own eight-slice pizza. Kagami ordered like 3 giant bowls of pasta, and happily finished Kuroko's, who barely ate half of it. He mostly just sipped at his vanilla milkshake and listened to people talk.

 At first, Aomine and Kise were arguing over whether ants could fly or not, and after a while they started arguing about the quality of cheap and expensive eyeliner, which got Momoi into the argument. Midorima was simply enjoying his meal and being out of the rain. Akashi was just trying to remember basic eating etiquette so he could lecture them about it, but he somehow couldn't remember where to put the fork and knife after done eating. Was it in the middle of the plate side by side, in an X, or on the sides of the plate?

Akashi inferred that the stupidity of some certain people in the group was influencing him. Aomine and Kise had now gone on to talking about various foods, which obviously got Murasakibara and Kagami into the conversation.