Vicious || Aomine D.

Three

 [ How ironic ]
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Aomine arrived at the Miyoshi residence with a small bouquet of flowers that Momoi had forced him to buy and his stomach knotted with nerves. When he rang the doorbell, his heart was beating so fast that he worried he might have a heart attack. Or a panic attack.

She doesn't hate you.

Even though he didn't believe them, he clung to Momoi's words.

"Daiki! You made it!" Mariko greeted him.

He tried to reciprocate the welcoming smile on her face but fell short, delivering half a grimace.

"Daiki?" A voice sounded from inside the house. It was soon followed by the twins, Shozo and Sugi, running to the door. "DAI-CHAN!" they chorused as they attacked his legs (that was all they could reach) with bone-crushing hugs.

"Twins!" their mother scolded disapprovingly. "At least let him in before assaulting him."

"Sorry," they mumbled in sync and retreated into the house.

"Here. Satsuki sends her regards," Aomine handed the bouquet of mismatched flowers from roses to lilies to Mariko who happily accepted them.

"That's sweet of you. Thank you. Come on in." She stepped aside to let him in and he did as he was told.

Soon, three kids were charging at him, the twins and their older brother Seiji. At sixteen, Riyo was the eldest child in the family. Seiji came in second but he was only 7 years old, the twins were five and Miya was three. The two boys and Sugi started bombarding Aomine with questions about why he hadn't been over for so long and talking over each other to tell him everything that had happened since he'd last seen them.

Aomine heard footsteps followed by paws tapping on the floor coming down the stairs. "What's with all the--"

The rest of Riyo's sentence died when her brown eyes met Aomine's blue ones. His heart skipped a beat. For a moment, there was no hatred, no loathing, no resentment, just her.

"Ao-chan." She greeted him with a polite nod.

"Nee-chan! Why didn't you tell us Dai-chan was coming over?" Sugi pouted pointing a finger at him.

"Must've slipped my mind," she said. Then walked into the kitchen.

The lie rolled off her lips so easily that it was almost unsettling. However, Aomine didn't spend much time worrying over it, as Iverson, instead of following after Riyo, beelined for him. He crouched down to pet the elderly dog.

"Hey," Aomine cooed at him.

Iverson wagged his tail and licked Aomine's hand excitedly. He even barked a few times as if to scold him for not coming over more often.

"Kids! Come set the table!" Mariko called out from the kitchen.

The three let out disgruntled noises before leaving Aomine and Iverson alone in the hall. He'd missed the dog. And by the looks of it, Iverson had missed him too.

"Have you taken good care of our girl, Al?" he whispered to the dog who barked his answer. Aomine let a small smile play on his lips. "I owe you one." He winked.

In the kitchen Mariko, her husband Miyoshi Atsutane, and Riyo were finishing up prepping the dinner to be served. The twins and Seiji were setting plates and glasses on the table.

"Anything I can do to help?" Aomine asked, which made Riyo halt her steps while carrying a plate filled with teriyaki burgers toward the table. She didn't glance at him and recovered so quickly that no one but Aomine seemed to notice her faltering.