Vicious || Aomine D.

Twenty-Two

[ I Hope ]
_____

I'm sorry.

The words were staring back at Riyo from the crumpled piece of paper that she couldn't bring herself to toss. For days, she'd been carrying the damn thing with her along with the picture that, unlike the note, she fully intended to keep.

"Why did he have to go and leave the picture?" she mumbled to herself unintentionally catching Kiyoshi's attention.

Riyo had stopped by the gym while the Seirin boys had been at practice but she hadn't felt like going in so she had settled on waiting outside, leaning against one of the walls. However, the practice had ended a while ago and she still hadn't gone home. Even the sun was about to set.

"Miyoshi?" he asked rounding the corner.

Their gazes locked and for a brief second, Riyo must've looked like a deer in headlights. Her whole body stiffened.

"Kiyoshi-senpai," she breathed out a sigh of relief. "You scared me."

He winced. "Just call me Teppei, please?"

Riyo nodded, unable to come up with an excuse to deny his request. "But then you have to call me Riyo, instead of Miyoshi."

Teppei dipped his chin in agreement and flashed her a pleasant smile before his gaze sharpened. "What are you doing out here at this hour?"

"I was waiting for Kagami-kun. I must've lost track of time."

It had been more than that. She had fallen so deep into her thoughts that she had forgotten about basketball practice and Kagami. Teppei seemed to pick up on that too because his dark brows bunched together in concern.

"It's been at least two hours since practice ended," he noted.

Riyo shrugged and averted her gaze. Teppei lowered himself to the ground next to her and leaned his back against the cold cement wall. It had been a hot day but the night would get chilly. Riyo could tell by the cool breeze in the air.

"What are you doing?" Riyo asked and it was her turn to frown. "You could catch a cold."

Teppei chuckled and placed his hands behind his head to get more comfortable. "You could too."

"I'm not preparing for a national basketball tournament," she argued.

"Then what are you doing?" Teppei fired back steering the conversation back to its original course.

Riyo sighed and felt like banging her head against the wall. She refrained. "I don't know."

"What's that?" the older boy asked nodding at the note Riyo was still holding between her fingers. She reluctantly handed it over along with the picture that she fished out of her pocket.

Teppei read the note and studied the faded image. "It's a cute picture. Those must be the other Miracles."

"Yeah," Riyo sighed. "It's my favorite picture of us."

Teppei gave her back the picture and note. "Do you miss them?"

"All the time."

"Hmm."

"Are you gonna tell me to accept his apology? Or throw the note away and hate him forever?"

Teppei raised his brows slightly. "Why would I? You know him better than I do. I don't know if he deserves to be forgiven. You do."

"I think it's more complicated than determining what he deserves," Riyo said letting her gaze linger on Aomine's concentrated face.

If she could go back in time, she would go into the moments before the picture was taken. And she would've kissed him before their bubble had been broken. Maybe that would've changed the course of things, and if not, at least she would've had the memory of kissing him and he couldn't have taken it away from her.

"See? I told you, you know better."

Riyo snorted. If she was supposed to know what to do, why didn't she have the slightest clue?

"I still don't know what I should do," she admitted.

"Do what your gut tells you to. Life's too short for anything less," Teppei replied with an easy-going smile on his face. A deeper emotion flashed in his gaze and suddenly Riyo's brain was making connections between his injured knee and his carefree attitude.

"You're playing basketball even though you know it might mess up your knee." She had stooped to stating the obvious. "You wanna play more now than you will in the future?"

"Not necessarily. It's impossible to know what I'll want in the future or how badly. I might not even be alive," he explained earning a horrified glance from Riyo that slightly dissipated when he flashed her an apologetic smile. "You never know. I might get hit by a bus tomorrow. Anything could happen. I don't want to bank on what might be or what I might want in a few years when right now I know for certain. I'll play for as long as I can with my team, my people."

"They're your chosen family," Riyo added as understanding dawned on her. At a time, she had felt the same way about the Miracles. "I get it."

"You're a part of it too. Like it or not."

They exchanged a look and a smile. Kiyoshi Teppei had a talent for putting people at ease.

"I want them back. And not just these cold, empty shells of the people that they used to be, but the sweet and kind and caring people that I know exist underneath all that talent and arrogance," Riyo told him, her voice carrying a bitter edge.

"I think you can bring them back." Teppei's even tone surprised Riyo. It was almost like he wasn't joking. And when he turned his head to look at her with his kind eyes she saw that he wasn't. He was dead serious. "I've seen the Kiseki no Sedai, their icy gazes and their arrogance. They're cruel and cunning but there's more to it than that. They're riding a high of consecutive victories and sooner or later, they'll crash."

"What are you saying, Teppei?"

"The people you knew are still in there somewhere. Sweet, kind, and caring," Teppei repeated her words. "They just need to be reminded of who they really are beneath their obsession to win."

"How do you know?" Riyo asked, watching the dark blue sky. The sun had already dipped below the skyline and one by one, stars were blinking into existence.

"I don't." Teppei rose to his feet and offered his hand to Riyo. "I hope."

She took his hand and let him help her up.

Hope.

That's what the picture and apology note had given Riyo, hope. The same kind of hope Teppei was talking about. Hope that everything wasn't as lost as she had originally thought. If Aomine was as cruel and cold as she had made him out to be in her head, he wouldn't have been having dinner with her family every week, and he wouldn't have given up the picture. He wouldn't have gotten mad when he'd found out about her living arrangements with Kagami.

Riyo had wanted to hate him and by avoiding him she had been able to let the pain of his actions tear apart every good memory they'd made together and create a version of him in her mind that was easy to hate. She'd forgotten about all the good things because it was easier and less painful. She had been hiding like her mother had said.

"You should go home. You need to rest before tomorrow's tournament," Teppei said. "You are still coming, aren't you?"

A genuine smile touched Riyo's lips as she responded, "I wouldn't miss it."

Teppei ended up walking Riyo home that night. When she opened the door, she was met by an excited Iverson wagging his tail and a sightly-crazed Kagami whose face seemed to have frozen in a frown and whose hair was pointing in every direction like he'd run his hand through it one too many times. Riyo, however, felt lighter than she had in the past few months.