Work Text:
Monopolize
“Aomine, I am gay.” Kise whispers softly. Kise slowly averts his gaze as he turns toward the sunset. The setting sun glistens upon his golden locks as Aomine stares blankly at him.
Aomine laughs it off, “There is nothing that can ruin our friendship.” He replies, nudging Kise’s shoulder playfully. Kise stands still, unmoving.
He turns back to him, eyes watering. “Of course! We will always be friends.” He chokes out.
As soon as Kise utters these words, he hastily leaves the rooftop.
Aomine watches, speechless as Kise’s figure disappears behind the doorway. That was not what he was supposed to say.
“Aomine! Can you please sign these papers for me?”
Aomine lazily looks up from his computer. He sighs deeply as his coworker greedily hands him a stack of papers.
“Sure.” He mutters angrily under his breath.
“So much paperwork.” Aomine complains as his pen glides swiftly across the white sheets.
As soon as Aomine finishes signing the stack of papers, the police station was nearing closing time. Aomine slowly cracks his fingers as he begins to stretch.
“I am leaving for the day!” He screams behind him as he grabs his jacket upon departure.
Aomine gracefully exits the police station as he looks to his left and right. It was a fairly peaceful night. The soft buzz of crickets fills the air as Aomine makes his way to his quaint apartment. As he nears his home, Aomine notices a figure huddled outside his our door. He notices the figure dons a disheveled appearance, gently caressing its arm.
Aomine recognizes the identity of the figure instantly.
The figure was none other than his childhood friend Kise.
Upon realization, Aomine runs over to the injured blonde and hastily yanks his arm backward. Kise flinches at the pain.
“What happened to you?” The dark skinned male bellows. A sense of panic and alarm is evident in his voice.
Kise looks up at Aomine. His face is stricken with dried tears as he struggles to find the words.
“Help me.” He whispers tenderly as he collapses on the taller male’s chest. Aomine embraces the smaller male tightly, making sure that he did not exacerbate his wounds.
Aomine feels the smaller male wince in their embrace. He pats Kise’s back lightly as he eases the male into his apartment. Aomine delicately leans the blonde along the stairway as he steps past toward the bathroom.
The dark skinned male hurriedly makes his way over to the bathroom, grabbing various bottles of medicine off the shelves. He silently curses to himself. It was his fault that things got this bad. It was all his fault.
After moments of self-loathing, the larger male makes his way back to the blonde to start tending to his wounds. Immediately after disinfecting the wounds, the dark skinned male begins to wrap the blonde's arm in a fuzzy gauze. The dark haired male’s face contorts into a grimace as he notices the blonde wince every time he touches his bruises.
“What happened?” Aomine asks after what felt like an eternity of silence.
“Nothing.” Kise replies bleakly.
“I just.” He pauses.
“I fell.”
“You fell?” Aomine questions, blatantly disbelieving but allows Kise to hold onto his lie as he continues nursing the male.
“Did he?” Aomine stammers, racking his brain for the right words to say.
“Did he hit you?” Aomine asks, barely above a whisper. Aomine mentally smacks himself. Why did he even ask? He already knew the answer.
“No!” Kise shoots back.
“I mean, yes. But he.” Kise falters, “I deserve it. I deserve all of it.” He says as his eyes start to fill with tears.
The dark skinned male can feel his heart plummet to the floor. Time seemed to stand still as the two males stared blankly at each other. Aomine has heard this same response many times before. Every time Kise gets in a new relationship he is always so happy, so enthusiastic. Though, all of his relationships ended the same way. Kise always gets betrayed by his so called “lover.” Aomine recalls every time Kise came to him bruised, physically and mentally. Each and every time he did not know what to do. He was so scared and petrified at the unknown.
Whenever Kise came to get his wounds tended to, the two childhood friends also would never talk to each other.
Aomine would always point out how ironic everything was. Childhood friends who did not talk to each other? How funny?
Aomine always knew Kise wanted comfort when he came, but he could never provide it. What right did he have to call Kise his best friend if he could not even help him when he needed him the most? He always hated himself for his lack of action.
“And he always thinks he deserves it.” Aomine reiterates to himself. “Just because he is gay.”
“He feels as though he deserves this maltreatment.” Though Aomine can never understand why. Aomine recalls all the times Kise came to him, injured due to domestic abuse. He always knew what was going on but he just could not do anything about it. He felt so powerless. He felt so harmful, so evil, knowing that these things were happening to his friend. However, he was too immobilized to do anything about it. Of course he wanted to do something, though he never knew what to say. He never knew what to do. What could be do? A straight man telling a gay guy that he understood him? What right did he have to dictate Kise’s life? What right did he have?
“Why do you keep doing this to yourself?” Aomine asks. “You know that those relationships never work out. Why do you…” He pauses.
“Why do you always choose men who treat you badly?” He asks.
“It is what I deserve.” Kise replies bleakly. “It is because I am gay. I know it is sinful. I know I deserve everything that comes to me. I know that this is God’s way of punishing me. I know.” The blonde male begins tugging at the gauze on his arm. Tears begin well in his eyes.
“But I…” Kise’s voice cracks.
“I cannot help the way I feel.” He replies hopelessly, gripping his arms ever more closely. Tears begin to fall down on his cheek, smearing his black eyeliner all over his model face.
“Is it so wrong…to love a man?” Kise brings his knees to his chest and places his head his thighs. His eyes have lost their youthful, innocent golden glow from high school.
“Is it so wrong to want love too?” He states as he stares off into nothingness.
“No, it is not!” Aomine retorts indignantly. How could Kise even think that? He thinks to himself.
“You and I, we both deserve to be happy. I know that you will find someone that will love and cherish you as much as-“ Aomine is practically screaming at this moment. He can feel the feelings of anger and jealous in his voice. Jealousy? He ponders.
The dark skinned male gulps suddenly mid sentence. “As much as…” He wonders to himself. Just what was he about to say?
Kise looks up at him with cold, hardened eyes.
“What do you know? How could you even understand how I feel?” The blonde replies furiously.
“I know that you, you do all of this because you think it is what you deserve. You do this because you think it is your punishment.” Aomine whispers delicately.
“You have no idea how hard I try to make things work. I let them hit me because I think that it will make them feel at ease with their sexuality. In the end-" Kise chokes during his next sentence.
“They always decide that being with me is a sin.” Kise’s voice is barely above a whisper.
Aomine reaches forward and pulls the blonde in for an embrace. He hugs the blonde tightly as seconds ticked by.
“There is nothing wrong with being in love.” He assures. “You deserve happiness. Just as much as I do. All those guys, who treat you like this do not love you. As much as I care about you.”
Kise looks up and stares into Aomine’s eyes.
“What do you mean by that?” He questions.
“What I’m saying is…” He trails.
“We accept a love we think we deserve.” He mutters. “You accept this abuse because you think you deserve it.” The male pauses while searching for the words to say. “The truth is. You deserve love just as much as anyone else.”
“I am sorry I never told you this before, but I will be sure to protect you from now on. I will not let anyone else hurt you. I was a fool. I was blinded by my own cowardice to do anything all those times you came for my help.” He continues. “I am sorry.”
With those words Kise can feel his chest grow lighter. Finally, someone told him the words he wanted to hear. The fact that his feelings were not wrong or immoral. The fact that he, like anyone else, deserved love too.
The End