Archive of Our Own

prelude

/ ˈprɛljuːd /  

an action or event serving as an introduction to something more important.

***

Kagami Taiga doesn’t know how he ends up here. 

He doesn’t know why he’s standing in an unfamiliar room, his bag dangling from his hand, annoyance burning through his thoughts fast enough that he contemplates chucking said bag at the person looking back at him, smug smirk like gasoline to Taiga’s fire. 

There’s not a single logical explanation for the words Aomine Daiki just said to him, words that enter his ears and take a moment to process, to understand, to take apart the familiar sounds and analyze them. 

“Roomie.” 

Absolutely nasty.

Kagami Taiga does not know how he ends up here. 

(This is, of course, a lie. 

Taiga very much does know what events lead to him standing here, right now, though he likes to pretend that this isn’t the case to make himself feel a little better about this entire thing. 

And it somehow happened like this:)

Kagami Taiga has seen a number of different emotions on Aida Riko’s face; anger, frustration, disappointment, anxiety, joy, pride, shame and a lot more that he couldn’t count on all ten of his fingers even if he tried – more of the sort where the negative aspects aren’t usually aimed at the entire basketball team of Seirin. 

(This isn’t where it all started, not completely, but Taiga will get to this in a second. He will.)

But this , Taiga muses as his shoulders burn from being exposed to the direct sunlight for the last thirty minutes, this is something new. Even for him and his teammates. It feels as if they should be done with the whole ‘experiencing wildly unexpected and never seen before things’, it does, though it seems as if the universe has a few more things in stock for them. 

The joy .

Not a lie, however. Their coach stands in front of them, a once crisp and wrinkle-free piece of paper clutched between her hands and a frown on her face. Brown eyes shift from the paper, go somewhere to the side and then to the floor. 

If one were to ask Taiga, not that anyone will , he’d tell them that Riko looks embarrassed. In and off itself nothing they’ve never seen before, but her being ashamed of her cooking in a way that brings tears to her eyes (Taiga swallows and perishes the thought) is different than – well, this . 

“Um,” she says.

And doesn’t continue. 

“Riko.” Hyūga Junpei, their current captain and a man brave enough that Taiga could kiss him on the lips to show his appreciation, steps forward and puts a hand on Riko’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Honestly, for someone with a temper bad enough to easily rival Taiga’s own on the court, Hyūga’s voice is ridiculously soft when he addresses Riko. Taiga doesn’t think he can recall even one time when their team has been spoken to by their captain like this, not even when they pulled through and beat Rakuzan. 

Squinting against the glare of the sun the same way Riko does when she looks up makes it possible for Taiga to not only ignore how weirdly blinding Kuroko’s full head of blue hair is next to him – seriously, he looks like a damn highlighter and he doesn’t even have the strangest hair color of all of the Miracles – but also to see the flush of Riko’s cheeks. 

One split second before it hits Taiga like a basketball to the face this all seems relatively normal to him considering the time they’ve spent standing around like a bunch of morons, but then he happens to catch the redness of Hyūga’s face, much darker than Riko’s and– ah . 

No wonder they’ve never been talked to like this. And some people like to call Taiga oblivious. Ha . 

However intelligent Taiga momentarily feels is immediately shoved to the side when Riko takes a deep breath, nodding at Hyūga before addressing all of them. Her voice is clear now, none of her former.. anxiety? embarrassment? present when she says, “There has been a mistake with the reservations.”

Koganei, standing in front of Taiga and Kuroko, waves a hand at Izuki, who shrugs in return as if to say ‘And how am I supposed to know?’. Izuki then smacks Furihate and Kawahara between the shoulders, both of them look to their left and down at–oh, great. Kuroko brought his damn dog. 

Nigou barks, tail wagging. 

Taiga shudders. 

A pale hand lifts. “Riko-san?” Kuroko seems to just ignore the rest of their team and their weird fumbling around, eyes on their coach alone. “Could you please elaborate on that?”

“Of course.” Riko stops choking the paper. Instead bring it to her mouth, clearing her throat. The next time her voice reaches Taiga’s ears, she sounds completely normal again. “Do you guys remember how I brought this trip up?”

Kuroko nods, and Taiga can remember as well. 

(This is truly where it all starts, though Taiga likes to pretend, later on, that this can all be traced back much, much further. To his birth, to be exact. But that, of course, is an exaggeration. A little dramatic.) 

[“A training camp?” Hyūga asks, dragging the back of his hand over his mouth after taking a sip of his water. “Weren’t we just at one a few weeks back?” 

“Well, yes, but this one is different!” Riko, who had just burst into the gym after leaving them with her father, a stack of papers in hands and an excitement in her step not seen on a day to day basis, waves said papers around. Taps on them with a finger. “Usually, a team will apply to a camp or sign up and wait for confirmation from the place hosting it to know if they’ll be able to go or not. This one not only asked us if we’d like to attend, but they’ll also reserve double rooms in the lodge on the property for us, not to mention that the travel expenses will be covered, too!

“And before you guys start complaining – shut your mouth, Kagami, I can see that – every other big name school is going. Kaijō, Rakuzan, Tōō” – this is said with a pointed glance in Taiga’s direction and damn it because it has the desired effect – “Imagine if you guys are the only ones missing out. Don’t even think about not calling yourselves a big name either. Because you are. Don’t forget that!”]

A metaphorical storm cloud throws a heavy amount of shade on Taiga as numerous bad thoughts start popping up in his head. He frowns. “Are you about to tell us that our reservations are gone, or something?” 

“No!” Riko exclaims, throwing out her hands. Then she takes them back and scratches her neck with a finger. “Well. Not exactly?” 

“What–” 

“Huh, but I thought–” 

“Do we have to go all the way back home now, or–”

“I’m sure,” Kuroko says, voice not louder than usual but still able to break through the tangled up questions of the others with ease, “that those questions will be answered in one second. Won’t they, Riko-san?” 

Riko nods. “Yes,” she says. “Now, our reservations are still very much there, but the employee at the front told me there’s been a slight mess up in the entire system. As a result, some of the reservations have been a little jumbled up, and those unfortunately include ours. We planned to take two four-bed rooms, one two-beed and a single room exclusively for me. 

“Because there has been an issue, everything still stands apart from the two-bed that has been updated to a four-bed.”

Taiga takes a moment to let that sink in. 

It doesn’t like too much of something to cry over, but something about Riko’s words and her behavior just a few seconds ago doesn’t quite match up with each other. If the update was all that had happened, there wouldn’t be anything to be upset or ashamed about in the first place, no?

All this would usually mean is that, logically, there would be more space in the rooms they got considering they are ten players here in total and Riko, plus her father mulling around somewhere that Taiga doesn’t actually want to know. 

Having two more beds doesn’t sound terrible at first, but Taiga still cannot figure out what the big deal is, which is why he asks, “What’s the catch?” 

“Now what makes you think there has to be a catch?” Hyūga asks and Taiga doesn’t know if he imagines it or if Riko actually throws an exasperated glace at the back of his bespectacled head. “Why look a gifted horse in the mouth like that?” 

Taiga opens his mouth to answer but then snaps it shut again as Hyūga’s words sink in. Opens it again to correct his captain and in a very fishlike manner closes it without saying anything as he thinks better of it. 

“So that’s the thing,” Riko says, and now she’s back to twisting the paper in her hands as if it personally did something wrong to her. “There is a catch. Our rooms aren’t the only ones that got a little messed up, and another team has their rooms updated just like ours, with the difference that they didn’t get extra beds but that beds were taken from them. Two, to be exact.” 

There’s a split second in which Taiga is completely oblivious to what this means. A very short, nice moment Taiga soaks in the rays of the sun and completely ignores how much he’s going to curse later on to make sure he hasn’t been sunburnt. It doesn’t last forever, though. One second stretches into the next, and time moves forward. 

Riko clears her throat, brows pulling together. “Someone.. is going to have to share.”

And then, before Taiga is able to even do as much as blink, Hyūga appears at his side as if he recently just learned to teleport and throws a heavy arm over his aching shoulders. “What a coincidence that we have this cute pair of juniors who befriended everyone under the moon, right?” 

“Now hold on,” Taiga says, his voice getting drowned out by the others speaking up at the exact same time, making it impossible to hear what anyone is saying. “No, I’m not–”

***

(Taiga and Kuroko get outvoted. 

It’s a quick, clean and painless process. 

Taiga kind of wants to turn around, grab his bag, stuff Kuroko under his arm like an overgrown carry-on and leave. 

He doesn’t, though. Of course he doesn’t.)

***

Taiga has a moment of absolute horror as he’s walking down the broad hallway of the lodge they’ll be staying in, his bag smacking against his thigh with every step he takes and his elbow brushing Kuroko’s, in which he imagines it’s someone like Hanamiya they’re going to have to room with for the time they'll be staying at this camp for. 

Just as he’s about to voice this horrible, truly terrible thought to Kuroko, and as if called forth by a higher being, Hanamiya Makoto rounds the upcoming corner and starts walking into their direction. 

Now Taiga is faintly aware of how much this starts to sound like the beginning of a very bad joke when Hanamiya looks up, catching Taiga and Kuroko in the same hallway as himself. His thick brows pull together before he promptly turns and begins walking into the other direction without as much as a mocking comment.

“Suppose we’re not thrown together with him if he just hauled ass like that,” Taiga says. He glances at the little number attached to the key Riko had thrown at him with the strength someone else would use in an attempt to cause bodily harm. 401, it reads, and both him and Kuroko come to a stop when they reach the door with the same number engraved at normal eye-height. 

Eye height for Kuroko, that is. The number floats somewhere at Taiga’s upper bicep, just shy of his shoulder. 

“Kagami-kun’s face might have scared him off,” Kuroko says quietly, head still turned into the where Hanamiya had been a second ago. He does meet Taiga’s eyes when Taiga begins to sputter because excuse him, and then, with a voice deadpan enough to be clearly audible, says, “You have the ability to contort your face in ways I have never seen before when you think someone is unpleasant. Not that I necessarily disagree with your assessment of Hanamiya-kin, but this is impolite. It comes to no surprise you often make enemies of opponents long before they behave inappropriately.”

Forget figuring out who they’re supposed to stay in a room with and that it’s not the captain of Kirisaki Daiichi High, Taiga thinks and lowers the key for a moment to stare at Kuroko in something close to horror. Not only is this the most they’ve said since they arrived here, but this was all targeted. 

“Damn, Kuroko. Tell me about how you really feel, why don’t you?” 

“What gives you the impression I didn’t just do that?” Kuroko tilts his head the smallest bit, and if Taiga wasn’t so caught up in feeling a tad insulted, he might have possibly allowed himself to admit that it’s cute. “How Kagami-kun managed to come back from America in one piece is a mystery to me.”

Technically, and if Taiga wants to be completely honest, he hasn’t come back completely unharmed because his mouth ran faster than his feet one too many times and the group of guys he played against were less than amused by it, resulting in nothing more than a few slight bruises fairly received. But Taiga is not about to tell Kuroko that, especially not now.

Instead, he turns back to the door with a shake of his head, eyebrows drawn together as annoyance simmers inside of him. Couldn’t Kuroko have waited with his top grade assessment until they were out of the hallway and away from god knows whom and spare him the embarrassment?

Honestly. 

The key fits into the lock without any issues, unlocking the door and causing it to swing open almost all the way without Taiga having to give it even the slightest push. It reveals a spacious room with windows big enough to invite a healthy amount of sunlight inside. 

Thick, red blinds are pushed to either side of the window front that leads out onto a small balcony facing the city. A closed door is to the immediate left, most likely the bathroom, and on the opposite wall, further into the room, is another one. A rug the color of dried grass lines the floors, swallowing the sound of Taiga’s feet as he takes a step inside. Four single beds stand close to the windows, headboards pushed against the walls, two on the left and two on the right. 

Not too bad, Taiga thinks at first glance, letting his bag slide off his shoulder to hit the floor. He pushes it to the side and into another bag of the same brand, most likely put there by whomever their roommate must be. 

Huh. Maybe rooming with other people won’t be bad after all?

Sometimes, Taiga will find himself thinking much later on, it’s better to not have these kinds of thoughts for him. Every single time he does happen to let one escape before he’s able to catch himself, it’s like the universe listens in and decides that it doesn’t like Taiga very much. 

Because not a moment later, and just when Kuroko squeezed past Taiga and into the bathroom to do – well, whatever, honestly – the other door further into the room nearly gets pulled off its hinges when it flies open. Taiga is barely able to get a glimpse of empty clothing hangers before a big, dark shoe smacks onto the carpet loud enough to be heard. 

A metaphorical cloud of the same color appears over Taiga’s head, bringing thoughts miserable enough to make his shoulders drop with it as the person the shoe is attached to comes into full view. 

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Taiga says, his annoyance rolling over him and translating into the way his voice rises in volume. 

“Damn, shut the hell up. Has anyone ever taught you what an inside voice sounds like?” 

Taiga doesn’t react to that comment, for which he’s immensely proud of himself because not only did his parents, Alex and then later Tatsuya attempt to teach him how to ‘shut the hell up’, but Kuroko just went on about his terrible manners. Instead, Taiga lifts a hand to point and says, “What the hell are you doing here? Get out of my room.” 

“Ah, no one’s told you the lucky news yet.” A snort reaches Taiga’s ears and his eyebrows twitch in response. “Not particularly happy about it either but you can’t kick me out of here; that’s not just your space for the next couple of weeks, roomie. ” Dark eyes slide over his shoulder. “Sup, Tetsu.” 

“Aomine-kun.” Kuroko’s bright head bops in a nod, and Taiga can’t say if he’s hallucinating from the shock that momentarily takes hold of his entire body or if there’s an actual, small smile on Kuroko’s face.

Taiga’s entire eye twitches. 

Riko had said that other teams would be here, had even singled out a mention dedicated to Tōō to egg Taiga on with a smirk he had pretended not to see but had convinced him to attend regardless – because he’d never let that blockhead Aomine go to some camp that possibly put him a lot further success wise while Taiga sat on his ass at home. But never would’ve thought that this would be how they’d spend their time here.

Sharing a room with one Aomine Daiki has to be a very delayed punishment for something Taiga has to have done either a lot of years back or in his past life. Honestly, Taiga might have a nasty mouth and doesn’t think too often before he lets some shit escape but he doesn’t think he deserves this. 

But, he adds mentally while Kuroko, the traitor, exchanges words with the devil himself, if they’ve been thrown together with one Tōō player, this can only mean that the matching person cannot be too far, right? Because if it’s their downright unsettling capt–

The unmistakable sound of plastic bags being set down none too gently rips Taiga out of his thoughts before they have a chance to spiral more than they already are, and he blinks against the brightness of the room.

“Now I know we said the room needed to be aired out, but honestly, Aomine-cchi,” a much more welcome voice calls out from the entryway, though it’s not any less confusing to hear. A mop of messy blond hair comes into view as Kise steps into the room, bags in his hands. “Leaving the door open like that is a little careless, don’t you think?” 

“Uh.. no?” Aomine crosses his arms and leans against the wall. “What do you think is gonna happen? Someone’s dumb enough to break in and then what? You’re gonna have to bark at another tree here, that one’s not even on me.” 

“Yes, yes, you’re very scary and strong but if someone like Hai–wait, what?” Kise’s head lifts, his brown eyes widening at the same time his mouth splits into a wide grin. Before Taiga has time to react, he finds himself in a bone crushing hug that nearly squeezes all of the air out of his body. Kuroko is squished somewhere on his left, unrecognizable sounds escaping his mouth. “Kuroko-cchi! Kagami-cchi!”

Taiga tries to answer but he doesn’t have enough breath to respond. Neither can he inhale enough air to form a clear sentence, and when he does try he gets a mouthful of hair instead. 

Perhaps this is how it’ll end for him; he won’t even have to sleep with one eye open to escape spontaneous assassination attempts when he gets literally hugged to death. 

“Oi Kise, you’re gonna have to let them breathe if you want an answer.”

Ah, yeah, leave it to Aomine to be the voice of reason. The absolute horror. 

The arms around Taiga disappear and blood rushes to Taiga’s head, blocking out whatever Kise’s moving mouth has to be saying. Taiga doesn’t know what it says about him that he contemplates putting his hands on his knees while he tries to breathe. 

Taiga doesn’t know why he keeps forgetting that Kise is not only one of the Miracles but also a literal machine capable of copying every single one of them easily. How friendly and bubbly personality on a day to day basis must’ve been why. The pats on his back remind him not to forget again. 

“Fresh air,” Taiga manages to say before squeezing past all of them and escaping onto the balcony. Once there, he takes deep breaths, his gaze wandering from the few buildings that lay on the other side of the street to the bus currently rolling onto the parking lot. 

They’re not too high up to make it impossible to see who gets off the bus, but even squinting doesn’t allow Taiga to see what’s written on said bus. Tall guys escape the bus, one spilling onto the pavement after another until an unmistakable blob of green hair appears, followed closely by a slightly shorter, dark haired one. 

As if sensing Taiga’s gaze, Midorima suddenly lifts his head and turns, immediately looking up. Taiga wonders if he should wave, as Takao now does, wildly swinging his hand in greeting. But his mood sours again when Midorima raises a hand to push up his glasses with his middle finger. 

Deciding he’s gotten enough air now that the view is ruined by that , he goes back inside. He slides the door closed behind him, locking the heat of the outside and then freezes. His eyes snap from one end of the room to another, finding the bags Kise has been carrying on one of the beds. A familiar red and black jacket is carefully laid on the bed closest to the door, but its owner is missing. 

“Where’s Kuroko?”

Aomine, laying sideways on the bed next to Kise’s with his shoes kicked off, shrugs. “Dunno,” he says, though Taiga assumes that’s a lie. Aomine doesn’t look up from his phone, cheek leaned against his free palm, when he asks, “Done crying?”

He’s been inside for all but one second and he already wants to leave again. He weighs his options against each other; going outside and seeing Midorima or wandering the hallways and risking walking into Hanamiya? Neither sounds particularly pleasant, so Taiga goes to his bag and starts unloading his clothes. 

“Shut up or I’ll start again,” Taiga says with less heat than he wants to. A question pops into his head. “How come Kise’s here anyway? I thought this room situation was supposed to be two people from our team, two from another one.”

“Sakurai’s too freaked out by your ugly mutt and Nigou,” Aomine says, dropping his phone to lift a finger with each thing he adds, “Satsuki needs a break and Imayoshi said if he had to stay here he’d walk off the balcony because Tetsu’s too unsettling or some shit.” He waves his hand around. “He’s all buddy buddy with Kasamatsu, so him and Kise swapped.”

Tōō’s captain, Imayoshi Shoichi, is undoubtedly one of the weirdest and creepiest people Taiga’s ever had the misfortune of meeting, not to mention that he deals with Aomine as if Aomine’s just some guy, and he’s freaked out by Kuroko ?

Out of all the things to choose from and instead of picking his own, freaky reflection staring back at him from the mirror, he picks a 5’6 guy. It's not Taiga’s place to comment on, but it is a little funny. 

“Couldn’t you have swapped with anyone else?” Taiga continues refolding his clothes and slowly but surely emptying his bag. “Honestly, Akashi and one of his teammates would’ve been just fine.” 

A snort reaches his ears. “Yeah, as if you wouldn’t have been too afraid to close both your eyes during the night.”

Taiga doesn’t mention the fact that he’s had a similar thought just a couple of minutes ago and instead frowns. “I’d sleep just fine.”

“With enough luck, maybe.” Aomine drops his phone again to lean against the headboard of his bed, arms crossed behind him and a curl to his lips that makes Taiga want to set him on fire. “Let’s not pretend your clothes wouldn’t be drenched from sweat halfway through the night.” 

His words bounce around in Taiga’s head; from left to right, up and down, backwards and forwards until Taiga has their bitter taste on his tongue and grimaces. He momentarily gives up on his task and welcomes the annoyance that has become a natural response to Aomine’s presence. “Hey, idiot. What are you trying to say here? I’m not scared of Akashi.” 

Aomine snorts a second time. “Sure you aren’t.” He does this thing that Taiga finds annoying as hell where he raises a single eyebrow, slow enough to make the action come off as condescending. Coupled with him looking down his nose at Taiga despite being sat down, he paints an infuriating picture. “It’s not like you nearly pissed your pants the last time we played together.”

Now that’s not even what actually happened. 

The last time the Miracles and Taiga met to play around was just a week after Kuroko’s birthday, on the same court at the same time. Takao and Midorima had arrived right on time with Murasakibara and Tatsuya, telling everyone else their former captain would run a little late – something apparently not a single one of them would have imagined in the past year. 

So when Akashi actually did show up, they were in the middle of a three on three with Taiga having the perfect angle to not only score but also trip Midorima without it seeming like it was on purpose. And he just appeared at Taiga’s elbow, as if conjured up out of thin air, and that scared the living hell out of him. 

Then he proceeded to kick everyone’s ass without breaking much of a sweat.

He talked to Taiga after, apologizing for spooking him and Taiga might have stumbled over his words and then his feet and okay, yes, maybe he’s just a tiny bit intimidated by Akashi Seijūrō.

Sue him. It’s not Taiga’s fault. 

A key rattles in the lock and the door opens just then. Kuroko and Kise come back from wherever they’ve spent the last few minutes and Kise has his hand in yet another bag when he says, “We’re back and we brought some–” He stops. Looks at Aomine, then at Taiga. Shares a glance with Kuroko. Sighs deeply. “It’s not even been an hour and you two are already knocking heads?” 

“We’re not–”

“I was just–”

“I cannot say I’m surprised but I assumed you two to be more mature than that.” 

“Kagami’s afraid of Akashi.”

“You’re scared of Akashi, Kagami-cchi?” 

“I’m really not –”

“I’m aware.” 

“Not you too, Kuroko?” 

“Exactly what I’ve been saying!” Taiga doesn’t know when he moved, but suddenly Aomine’s standing on his bed (damn that agility of his), pointing and waving a finger in Taiga’s general direction like a fucking moron. “Thank you, Tetsu.” 

Taiga, in the moment that follows, drops the shirt he was just about to fold and puts his head in his hands. He barely refrains from screaming as a smaller hand pats him on the shoulder once. Remembering what Aomine’s said before, Imayoshi’s threat of walking over the balcony honestly doesn’t sound unappealing to him. 

***

Since Riko had declared that the first day was just for arriving at the location, getting to know their surroundings and truly calming down after the slight trouble of traveling – this more for the people coming from regions further away than Seirin – there’s not much to do, really, until dinner. 

Taiga isn’t in the mood to explore before that, considering how much his stomach has grumbled in the past five minutes and now that it does it again, he’s long lost count. Kuroko seems occupied with people watching on the balcony and Aomine’s thumbing through a magazine with an expression so bored Taiga’s surprised his eyes haven’t glazed over yet. 

Once his clothes are all folded properly and sorted in the right way, Taiga shoves his bag under his bed and gives it a stink eye, picking up the first stack after. The sound of his quiet footfalls is accompanied by rushing water from the bathroom, where Kise is currently showering. 

Pushing the door open triggers a light motion sensor that, for some odd reason, is only in their clothing space instead of the entire room. Tall closets that stretch from floor to ceiling are lined up next to each other. Similar to the beds, two are positioned on the right and two on the left. Dark clothes already spill out from the one on the far right, a combination of lighter ones from the one next to it, marking those as Aomine’s and Kise’s. 

Taiga walks to the one he’ll claim and pushes his clothes in, turning to repeat the process. He gets the work done without any issues or interruptions, and his thoughts are quiet and clear, entirely undisturbed and peaceful. 

They remain that way until Taiga pushes in the last of his clothes and the back of his hand makes contact with the left wall of the closet. And with it, a slimy goo attached to it. 

For one small, terrifying moment, Taiga completely freezes. His thoughts halt, his pulse pounds in his ears, he doesn’t breathe. Slowly, he risks a glance downwards and notices a green substance stuck to his skin. His eye twitches, and then he’s moving without thinking.

His slippers manage to make loud slapping sounds on the soft carpet, the door to the clothing space painfully catches his shoulder when it swings closed behind him, but Taiga barely takes note. The bathroom door opens easily, and colorful smelling steam punches his face when he enters. 

Kise either doesn’t seem to notice that someone entered or doesn’t seem to mind much; Taiga isn’t too sure which one it is and he cannot find his voice to ask. He turns on the sink and holds his hand under it, a huge weight lifting of his shoulders when the goo vanishes without issues. 

Taiga turns the water off again and wipes his hand, on the way to leave the bathroom again and about to close the door behind him again when a blood curdling scream comes from the shower. He freezes, freshly washed hand wrapped around the handle of the door and then immediately turns around again. “Kise? Did something happen? Are you.. are you okay ?” 

The answer to his question doesn’t come instantly. Instead, Taiga catches a hand blindly slapping the tiles of the wall before catching the fabric of a bathing robe before it vanishes again. 

A moment later, the glass door of the shower gets shoved hard enough that the handle smacks against the wall, the sound echoing around the quiet bathroom. 

Kise emerges from the steam, soapy water clinging to his neck and hands, thick droplets falling from his long lashes when he blinks and shampoo in his hair. The slippers he must’ve just slipped in are being worn the wrong way, and Taiga would’ve been able to laugh if it weren’t for the anger radiating off of Kise. 

“One question,” Kise mutters quietly, the cheer usually accompanying anything he says completely gone. He holds up a finger. “Who,” he starts, poking Taiga in the chest hard enough that it’ll bruise and repeating the progress with every word he adds, “just barges into the bathroom when someone else is currently using the shower, Kagami-cchi?” 

“Someone without the proper manners,” Kuroko drily comments from the balcony doors. “You’re a bit of a brute, Kagami-kun.” 

“Look, Kise, I’m sorry. I should’ve knocked and–” Taiga breaks off his half mumbled sentence, a cold shiver running down his neck as goosebumps appear on his arms. He has the sudden feeling that danger looms close. “Are you okay?” 

“Well, sure, if you ignore that I almost had a heart attack just now.” 

“I’m genuinely sorry and–” 

Already on the way to finish his shower, Kise waves a hand over his shoulder. The door is halfway closed when he sticks his shampooed head back outside. “And for everyone’s information; the sink and shower seem to be connected. The hot water flow is interrupted when the sink runs.” His eyes slide to a point over Taiga’s shoulder. “Stop frowning like that, you’re going to give yourself wrinkles.”

“What, you wouldn’t like that?”

“Goodbye. ” With that, the bathroom door closes a tick too fast to be called normal. 

Taiga twists around, his gaze finding Kuroko’s across the room and completely ignoring Aomine and where he’s leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “I’m not a brute, am I?”

“You are.” 

Holding up a hand in Aomine’s direction, Taiga says, “Literally didn’t ask for your opinion in this matter. Anyway, Kuroko?” 

Kuroko blinks at Taiga, the movement slow enough to appear owlish, and it’s only then that Taiga truly notices how tired his partner looks. There’s a dark tint around his eyes, only barely visible, and his eyebrows are slightly pulled together; something he usually only does when annoyed, or deep in thought. Kuroko blinks slowly, again. “Well–”

Their door bursts open before Kuroko has the chance to say anything else, and Taiga doesn’t entirely know how he manages it, but he doesn’t jump at the unexpected, sudden sound. 

He looks over his shoulder and brings his hand to his eyes to give them a good rub, hoping that what he’s seeing surely is either some sort of hallucination or that there’s someone with a camera team around the corner following the two people barging into their room. 

But no, when he lowers his head again they’re still there, barging into their room. 

Technically, this is a bit of a lie. He doesn’t suppose that anyone could bring Midorima Shintarō, taped fingers curled around a small item, to do something silly like that. 

“Hi guys!” Takao Kazunari stands in the doorway with a smile on his face and a hand raised in a two finger salute. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“Well now, that’s not a way to greet visitors, much less ones that are friends,” Takao says, eyes glinting. In the second after, when not only Taiga and Aomine but Midorima protests as well, Takao snorts. “Damn, chill a bit. We heard screaming and became alarmed, that’s all.” 

Taiga takes a beat to let those words sink in , grimacing and rubbing the back of his neck where the weird sensation there starts again. “Heard it? Didn’t think it was that loud.” 

“It wasn’t,” Midorima says in the kind of tone he always uses when speaking to Taiga, the one that clearly implies something should be obvious when it’s.. not. “Takao coincidentally took note of it and became concerned.” 

That answers one of the questions, kind of, but it absolutely doesn’t explain why Mirodima is here too, then. Though Taiga supposes that if Tatsuya can move a mountain, then Takao can most likely work some of his magic on Shūtoku’s ace, easily. 

Humming, Takao nods. “Yeah.” Dark strands jump in front of his eyes when his nodding becomes more frantic, arms crossed behind his head. “You should keep it down a bit, by the way. Especially in the evening. Yelling and arguing gets projected through the walls like nothing, considering they’re paper thin and we kinda don’t have the privilege of having the better rooms. Despite Shin-chan wanting them.” 

Taiga has half a mind to poke fun at Midorima for that, because of course he wants to get a better room than what the normal folk is offered – though this by itself is a lot better than some of the hotels of higher value Taiga has seen. But then Takao’s words fully sink in. “The walls?”

“Did not.” 

“Did too, you big baby. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Actually, definitely something to be a little embarrassed about. You’ll be fine, probably.” Takao snickers, his eyes following Midorima as he promptly whirls around to step outside. The fondness in his expressions dims when he tilts his head to the side. “Yes, the walls. Didn’t Aomine tell you?”

“Fuck no I didn’t.” 

“We have the room next to yours.” 

Taiga doesn’t necessarily like repeating himself more than he has to but just this once he’d like to remind himself and everyone included that Imayoshi did, indeed, have the right idea. Going over the balcony sounds like a quick way out of this.

To rehash this entire thing: not only does he have to share a room with Aomine, he managed to piss off Kise and now Midorima is his next door neighbor. 

Wonderful. 

It can’t get much worse than this, can it?

i.

The first time it happens is on the day the training part of the training camp starts. 

At the very start of the day they’re being lead away from their more than fulfilling breakfast – and oh my god, the cafeteria they have here is gigantic enough to seat all of the teams attending, and Taiga doesn’t think he’ll ever stop thinking about the food – and to a side building hiding a gym inside. Its sheer size could maybe.. potentially.. definitely.. fit Taiga’s apartment over twenty times inside and still have room left. 

Surprise isn’t something that immediately hits Taiga, and he thinks that it shouldn’t make his eyebrows wander upwards at all considering what Riko said about this place reaching out to them and not the other way around. A little crazy is what this gym is, but something expectable. For rich people. 

At first, Riko orders all of them to stretch before the volume of her voice seems to make her grow in height and she chases them all over the entire length of the gym. And damn if Taiga isn’t completely distracted by all of the motion going on around them; the squeaking of gym shoes, the quiet chatter of conversations here and there, the voices of different coaches breaking through this all. 

Once Taiga’s fingers make contact with the rubbery, familiar, slightly bumpy surface of a basketball, everything else is forgotten. 

There are no worries about Kuroko, no annoyance at their room situation, no anxiety rolling up in his chest when a mop of magenta hair appears in his peripheral. 

Instead there’s only him, Kagami Taiga, the court beneath his feet and the net he needs to deliver the ball to. 

Taiga breaks out of the gym with Kuroko by his side, his eyes closing against the glare of the sun momentarily blinding him, but not bothering to do anything to shield them. His pulse is still fast in his ears, breath not yet back to normal. Sweat cools on his forehead, arms and neck as the slightest breeze decides to grace them, sending leaves tumbling to the floor.

His muscles burn, a pleasant thing that makes him aware of every little movement of his body and makes him feel settled, grounded in a way. 

“Kagami-kun.” Taiga opens his eyes, squinting for a moment before a water bottle appears in his line of sight. His water bottle. 

Ah, Taiga thinks. Kuroko must’ve grabbed it on his way outside, while Taiga was busy actively hiding from the little creature Kuroko likes to call a dog. Not hiding, he means, of course. Not from Nigou, or Akashi, whom Taiga is not even the slightest bit afraid of. 

“Thanks,” Taiga says, his fingers brushing against Kuroko’s when he takes his bottle and immediately twists the cap open to drink. His skin tingles and Taiga sighs, cool water like a gift of the Heaven’s to him. 

Now that his eyes are a little more accustomed to the brightness of the natural light after being cooped up inside for the previous hours, Taiga takes a good, long look at Kuroko and he doesn’t think he’s ever seen Kuroko as winded as he is now in such a short amount of time. Considering how wildly the teams they all get thrown into are, it doesn’t surprise him a lot that even cool, calm and collected Kuroko is left a sweaty mess. 

Honestly though, whoever decided it was a good idea to immediately have Taiga and Kuroko team up with Kasamatsu and several other guys he forgot the names of to have them go up against Murasakibara and Tatsuya almost first thing in the morning needs to get fired. 

.. or something of equal measure that Taiga doesn’t feel like doing right now – not that he has the power or authority to get anyone fired, ever. Actually, he doesn’t feel like doing anything at all right now. Apart from maybe eating. 

His stomach gives a loud grumble before he’s even finished that thought and Taiga brings a hand to it, face heating for another reason entirely than the weather and basketball when Kuroko gives him a look and blinks slowly at him. 

And then, as if a higher being of some sort had listened to Taiga and decided to do something graceful instead of taunting him for once in his life, Hyūga pops out from behind one of the trees lined on the grassy field surrounding the gym that seems to bleed into a soccer field further down the path. 

Their captain holds up one hand in a wave and shakes a little red and white box with the other one. 

“Captain,” Kuroko says when they manage to make their way over there, stepping over legs of more players Taiga doesn’t remember the names of to reach their goal. Hyūga opens his mouth, only to immediately snap it shut again when another figure steps around him. “Imayoshi-san.” 

Imayoshi squints at them, making a face as if he just bit into something extremely sour and unpleasant, and Taiga can say with the utmost confidence that his face definitely mirrors that expression back at him. Not his fault, Imayoshi just is.. special. Tōō’s captain groans. “Yes, yes. Hello. Found them.” He uses a long, thin finger to point at them before pushing his glasses up his nose with the same finger. “Goodbye.” 

With that he brushes past them, grimacing a little more when he almost runs face first into Kuroko and then does end up knocking his shoulder against Taiga’s in a manner that reminds him of a lot of someone else. No wonder he gets along with Aomine; both of them piss him off to no end and probably sit together to exchange little tricks or whatever. 

“Ah, Kagami! Kuroko!” Riko appears from behind Hyūga, Izuki and Mitobe stepping apart to let her through. In her hands are two lunch boxes resembling the one Hyūga is gripping like a lifeline, sticky notes with their names attached to them. “There you two are. I have lunch for you. After training this intensely, we need to get some food into you and let you digest for a little before you go at it again.”

At the sight of Riko with food in her hands, Taiga’s heart drops all the way to his stomach, where it turns cold and makes him feel dizzy for a split second. 

Here’s one thing: Taiga knows how cooking works. He’s had to cook for himself and then later for himself and Tatsuya, sometimes Alex, long enough that it’s become something of a passion of his – though not one as intense as basketball. Grabbing ingredients and creating something comes like breathing, like shooting hoops to Taiga. 

And he knows, technically, that it doesn’t matter if the food is good or not as long as it comes from the heart. He’s very sure Riko’s creative, ah, creations are filled with love and care and everything that counts. 

They taste like weapons, however.

While Taiga is unable to respond, Kuroko – bless him – grabs their boxes with a small bow of thanks. “Thank you, Riko-san. You took the time to prepare these, I assume.”

Riko puts her hands behind her back, eyes on the floor that reminds Taiga of the previous day. “Well, yes. Kind of, but I also–”

“--had a little help.” 

Momoi Satsuki approaches them from the left, wiggling her fingers at them with a smile on her face and her long hair moving in the breeze. She’s wearing a shirt that, for some reason, Taiga’s sure he’s seen before and over it her signature mint colored jacket. She comes to a stop next to Riko, nodding at Taiga. “Kagami-kun.” And then, to Taiga’s surprise, does the same for Kuroko. “Tetsu-chan.”

“Momoi-san.” 

How very.. very fucking strange. 

“Uh,” Riko says when no one else moves for a second, scratching the back of her neck with one hand. “Yeah, Satsuki-chan helped me and showed me how to better slice some stuff after we bumped into each other in the hallway because she had the same idea and–”

“Two birds, one stone. Isn’t that right?” Momoi turns the full force of her smile on Riko and–and color appears on the top of Riko’s cheeks. And the top of her ears, and–oh. 

Oh! 

Oh , Taiga’s a fucking idiot. Not that he’ll let anyone know about this, or snitch on the coach that put the imprint of her hand on his back just a few months ago. 

“Ah!” Momoi walks away, only to return a moment later with two more lunch boxes, this time they’re a dark blue, clearly meant for Tōō players. “Could you two maybe give those to Dai-chan and Ki-chan when you see them? I’ve looked everywhere I could think of for them, even got someone to unlock the roof for me, but nothing.” She shoves the boxes into Kagami’s hands before he can react to even one thing she just said. Momoi sighs, shaking her head. “These two will cost me my sanity.” 

While Taiga doesn’t necessarily disagree, he thinks that captain of theirs does a good enough job at that. Or, well, this is what he would like to say if he hadn’t accidentally seen how nice Imayoshi can be if he wants to. It was weird enough that Taiga contemplated pouring bleach and soap into his eyes. 

“Alright, fine,” Taiga says. He looks at Kuroko, darkened blue strands plastered to his forehead, eyes droopier than usual. “You stay here and sit down and eat or some shit. I’ll try to find these two idiots.” 

“Are you sure, Kagami-kun?”

“Yeah, just relax for a little. Can’t take too long to find them, can it? I run into Aomine enough on a day to day basis that this shouldn’t be hard.” With that, Taiga starts walking into the direction of the soccer field. “Later,” he calls, throwing a wave over his shoulder. 

Before he’s out of earshot, he can hear Kuroko say, “Satsuki-chan?” and Riko splutters in reply before she yells after Taiga, “and don’t forget to keep hydrated.” 

Oh brother. 

***

When Taiga had said that it shouldn’t be too hard to find both Aomine and Kise, he really meant it. 

Unfortunately for him, several minutes have passed and Taiga’s began to sweat again, the heat of the sun unbearable and beating down on his back. And he still hasn’t found them. 

Honestly, what the fuck? The property isn’t even big enough to easily get lost in, ignoring the fact that no, Taiga hasn’t circled the entire thing yet, but of course they must have somehow managed to fuck off to the very last corner of it. 

What Taiga has managed to discover, however, is that there’s a small bus stop right after the soccer field. It seems to be leading into the city close by and doesn’t cost them a single yen during their stay here; apparently the entire thing is covered by the people scouting teams for this camp. 

Well, either that or the kind elderly lady by the soccer field Taiga nearly bulldozed into is a liar. 

He chooses to believe her, though, because right after that she asked him if he’d seen the pond yet and of course Taiga hasn’t seen any fucking ponds because what do you mean this place has one.

So Taiga tramps through the grass that appears to be taller than the one in the immediate era by the gym, ignoring the way it tickles his ankles and resisting the urge to bend down and scratch at the same time. And then, after what feels like years and much, much longer than he thought it’d take, he thinks he’s at the right place. 

The first thing Taiga can make out is a small and calm body of water. Rays of the sun reflect off its surface and a pigeon seems to be slumbering in the colorful flowers growing around it. Then, after blinking away the dots clinging to his vision from the sun’s glare, he lifts his gaze and thinks, finally . 

He stomps around the pond, careful around the area close to the pigeon so as to not disturb it and it’s only when he steps closer that his brain catches up with what his eyes are seeing. 

Kise is leaned up against a tree, the shade of the leaves throwing his face into shadows, hair pushed out of his face and phone in hand. His eyes are focused on whatever he seems to be typing and he doesn’t notice Taiga approach at first, which is good because otherwise he would’ve caught sight of Taiga’s slack-jawed expression before he’s able to hide it. 

Because–because there, pillowed on Kise’s lap, is Aomine. Or, well, his head is. The rest of his body is laid out on the grass; one foot stretched up, the other one angled upwards, hands on his stomach and moving up and down softly with the breaths he takes. His eyes are closed, mouth opened just so and his face relaxed in a way Taiga’s never witnessed before in his life. 

It’s so.. strange to see Aomine like this that Taiga almost stumbles over air with the next step he takes. 

And that seems to be what alerts Kise of his presence. 

His eyes snap up, finding Taiga’s easily over the top of his phone and causing him to freeze when he recognizes the sharpness in Kise’s gaze. One of Kise’s eyebrows rises in question, or in what Taiga thinks is a questioning way. 

“I–” 

Kise covers his own mouth with a finger, the universal sign for “shut the fuck up” or, more polite, “shh.” His eyes go to Aomine for a second, who is still breathing deeply, before returning to Taiga, which Taiga takes as his queue to hold up the lunchboxes. 

He hands them over, moving slowly and with the care of someone handling a newborn, suddenly feeling as if one hasty moment will trigger his own spontaneous combustion. 

“Thank you, Kagami-cchi,” Kise says, voice barely louder than a whisper and Taiga simply nods in a “don’t mention it” kind of way. Kise hums softly, mouth curling up on one side. 

Taiga’s stomach twists painfully as he watches Kise open one of the boxes and reveal perfectly shaped onigiri. He takes this as his sign to leave and he doesn’t know if Kise catches it, but he lifts a hand up in a wave when he’s a few steps away. 

He doesn’t turn around to check if Kise responds in kind.

He just keeps on walking, leaving Kise and Aomine to their privacy.

ii.

Riko and the other coaches, meaning some of the actual adults that have come with them (mainly the coaches of Tōō, Kaijō and Rakuzan) decide to give the players the weekends off after seeing how exhausting the training schedule here leaves them. 

When Taiga hears this, he'is ready to stand up and argue, but then he notices how much his own muscles burn in protest and scream and beg for a break after going at it for nearly five days and then he shuts his mouth again.

That, and he’s had to wake up Kuroko the past two days because he managed to sleep through all seven of Taiga’s alarms that blared loud enough that someone from next to them (not Takao and Midorima, but on the other side) had either kicked against the wall they shared, or threw something as a signal to make Taiga shut it off for good. 

(both Aomine and Kise were long out of the room by then, something Aomine, of course, gloated about art breakfast since him and Taiga had, without speaking about it, started a competition to see who would arrive first in the cafeteria and claim one of the arguable better seats that faced the wall of windows and showed off the woodsy view on the other side of the building)

So, weekends are off and Taiga should have known that the wanted down and freetime that Riko and Momoi both talked about when they were standing in front of the Seirin team (Taiga had, since the thing with the lunch boxes had happened, stopped questioning why Momoi popped up out of thin air every time Riko did something and just accepted her as part of the team. Team adjacent, or something.) wouldn’t go as planned. 

Not because of Aomine and Kise for once, though Taiga isn’t past pushing the blame on them, but because of the other downright otherworldly occupants of the room next door. 

Right after a relatively calm dinner in which Taiga managed to avoid passing away when Akashi, whom Taiga absolutely didn’t try to avoid after that first day and the conversation that ensued about him, made direct eye contact with him from here he was sitting next to Mayuzumi (Taiga didn’t even notice him at first glance, and isn’t that ironic) and nodded at Taiga with the smallest of smiles on his lips. This caused Taiga to promptly choke on the burger he was attempting to inhale. 

Kuroko did save his life by smacking his back harder than Taiga would’ve thought possible and Aomine did totally throw a smirk his way, a glint in his evil eyes to which Taiga might have possibly lifted his middle finger but he digresses. 

As he was saying. 

Right after dinner, once they’re back in their room and right when Aomine turns to say, “Not afraid of Akashi my ass.” 

And Kise comments, “Midorima-cchi looked like he was trying to shoot lasers out of his eyes at Kagami-cchi.” 

There’s a knock on the door. 

Taiga takes a moment to throw glares at Aomine and then Kise, who holds up his hands in a gesture of innocence, and then walks over to throw open the door. He blinks. Then blinks again when the smiling face of Takao doesn’t vanish, and neither does the sour grimace that accompanies Midorima whenever he and Taiga are forced into close proximity with each other. 

“What do you want?” Escapes Taiga before Takao has the chance to do more than open his mouth.

“Rude, Kagami,” Takao says, and then puts a hand to his chest as if he’s hurt by it. “You didn’t even give me a chance to say hello.”

“Hello,” Taiga says, “What do you want?” 

“Rude.”

“I’ve been telling you,” Kuroko says from behind Taiga, walking under the arm Taiga uses to hold open the door and holding up a hand in greeting as Aomine snorts loud enough that Taiga is tempted to rip the door off its hinges to use it as a projectile. “Takao-kun. Midorima-kun.” 

“Kuroko, my favorite person in the whole world.” Takao swiftly dodges the elbow that Midorima swings out, grinning when a “hey!” sounds from the balcony. “And Kise, of course. No worries, gentlemen, I have two hands.” He lifts them up as if to show, then his grin widens. “And two feet. But I digress.”

Taiga, who’s two seconds away from pulling Kuroko inside and slamming the door in Takao’s and Midorima’s faces (more Midorima than Takao, he wouldn’t mind if it actually hit him a little bit in that chin of  his), feels his eyebrows beginning to twitch. A mixture of confusion and slight annoyance makes itself known as faint pressure behind his eyes. “Can I help you.” 

It’s a question, though it doesn’t really sound like one. Takao doesn’t seem to mind much. 

It doesn’t come as a surprise to Taiga personally because he cannot imagine how much patience it takes to deal with one Midorima Shintarō every day of the week, and especially when he’s lugging around a lucky item the size of his legs. Taiga does suppose that Takao continuously teases him and that it balances everything out; their relationship is clearly much more complex than what he just made up but this is neither here nor there. 

“Yes, with movies.” 

“Movies?” Kuroko asks.

“Yes, those funny little things you watch on a TV and–” 

“Takao.” Midorima pushes up his glasses with a taped finger. “I’m sure you don’t have to explain what movies are to them.” 

“You’ve been taking away all my fun lately; it’s like you don’t even like me. What if I started taking this personally?” Takao waves his hand as Midorima opens his mouth. “Excuses, excuses. Anyway. Movies?” 

“No,” Taiga says, strangely feeling as if he’s witnessing something he most likely shouldn’t. “We don’t have any.” 

“What?”

“Movies..?” 

“No,” Takao says and now Taiga’s the one who’s confused. What does he mean no, he really doesn’t have any and – “I’m aware you guys don’t have any, or in Aomine’s case any I would want to watch since I don’t think sitting my ass down to watch NBA reruns until my brain starts to smoke is enjoyable.” Taiga blinks. Kuroko does the same. “I meant to ask if you guys want to watch some movies.”

A heavy weight settles on Taiga’s shoulders, taking him by surprise and almost causing him to lose his balance and topple on top of Kuroko, probably taking down Takao and Midorima as well. “Hm,” Aomine hums, way too close to Taiga’s ear for comfort. “What kinda movies?” 

Oh, what the hell, Taiga thinks with a frown. He hadn’t even heard Aomine approach, and wasn’t he at the opposite side of the room just a few seconds ago? “Oi,” Taiga says, trying and failing to push Aomine’s arm away, causing Aomine to raise an eyebrow at him in clear amusement. “What the hell are you doing? Get off me, you oaf.” 

“Nah.”

“Nah?” 

“Well, we tried convincing the others of normal ones and had a vote, which got knocked onto one side when Akashi chose to pick a side. We landed on horror.” 

“Midorima-kun isn’t a fan of horror, though.” 

Takao winks. “That’s okay,” he says, “he’s got me to hold on to and protect him from any creepy monsters trying to get to him.” 

“I don’t believe this is a laughing matter, Takao.”

“Now, now, Shin-chan. Who says I’m joking?” 

“I’ll go.” 

Takao’s face splits into a wide grin, and he bends sideways in an attempt to look past Taiga and where Aomine is hanging off his shoulders like a piece of overloaded baggage no one asked for. Kuroko, too, turns but he can perfectly look below Taiga’s arm and into the room. 

“Hah?” Aomine says, way too loud for how close he is to Taiga’s ear to be comfortable (not that any distance in close quarters would be comfortable with Aomine) and looks over his shoulder. “You don’t even like horror movies. Thought you got too freaked out by them?”

“I do.” Kise walks up behind them, squeezing himself between Taiga and Aomine, which leads Aomine to finally drop his arm. Taiga winces and rubs his shoulder, watching as Kise stops next to Takao and shares a look with Midorima. (Those weird fucking people, Taiga thinks, and their wordless conversations). Kise’s brows pull together. “But it can’t be worse than watching you guys do this all evening. No offense.” 

“I agree.” Kuroko agreeing with Kise this fast is something Taiga did not see coming like that, but here they are. “I cannot say I enjoy movies of this category either, but it will be better than this.” 

There’s a short beat of absolute silence between the six of them. 

Taiga looks at Kuroko, who looks at Kise, who looks at Aomine. Takao’s eyes go from one of them to the other, an amused smile plastered to his face. Midorima seems to be dissociating through this entire conversation altogether. 

Or that is what Taiga assumes until there’s a noise from his general direction. It’s not loud, and something he absolutely would’ve missed if all of them weren’t quiet for this to be clearly audible. It’s–it's not a snort, but something that comes very close. Less than a huff, and more like a breath pushed out a bit faster. 

“Now what the hell are you laughing at?”

“You,” Midorima says. “I knew this would happen. Oha-Asa predicted Cancers to have a splendid time near the end of the day and Leos to have the opposite. Once again, this is why I trust my sources.” 

Takao reaches up and pats him on the shoulder. 

Taiga turns his head, Aomine meeting his gaze with a bewildered one. “You know what,” he says, not addressing anyone in particular. “I’ll come too. Just to prove your stupid horoscope wrong and see you cry when you get scared.”

With that, Taiga grabs his slippers and checks if his phone is in his pocket, sliding Kuroko’s in too when he walks by it. There’s a faint whooping sound from Takao that gets interrupted by him going, “ouch!” 

Once he joins the others in the hallway, Taiga takes notice of Aomine looking at all of them with an expression annoyed enough that Taiga suddenly feels his own spirits rise. Aomine’s face gets even darker when he glances at Taiga, who’s not sporting a smirk that has absolutely nothing to do with Aomine’s foul mood, and then turns to Kise. 

Kise simply raises a brow at Aomine. 

Aomine lets out a massive sigh, his face lifting towards the ceiling. “Fine,” he says, not sounding the least bit happy about it. He stuffs a key into his pocket, shoving the door closed behind him and knocking a shoulder into Kise’s (which, might Taiga add, he does a lot lighter than when he does it with Taiga). “Only to be able to say ‘told you so’ later.”

“No need to be such a pessimist,” Takao comments drily. “It won’t be that bad.” 

***

Taiga finds out how wrong Takao is approximately two hours later, when the small bowl of popcorn clutched between his hands nearly drops to the floor as his whole body flinches in surprise when a pale face pops up way too close to the TV screen they’re all focused on. 

The protagonist, whose name Taiga cannot remember, rightfully screams, as does someone else in the room they’ve found themselves in. He doesn’t recognize the person by voice alone and really doesn’t feel like looking around. 

And even if he were, he finds that he cannot take his eyes away from the movie. 

Even Kuroko, sat close to him on the rather spacious sofa they’re on, in a common room neatly tucked away around a corner of the first floor and close to two vending machines Murasakibara emptied beforehand, startles. 

That’s how Taiga knows this movie is serious business. 

Unfortunately, the scenes on the TV continue like this for the next forty minutes; the protagonist (who, at the beginning, split from their friends since that is for sure something smart to do when you know you’re being haunted, and is now alone) keeps tramping around in the semi dark, the batteries of their flashlight low enough that they don’t see the being that keeps chasing them until they pop up on the screen with a loud gurgling noise. 

If someone were to ask Taiga, he would confess he could have done without those. 

Every time there’s a sound from an off-screen location, the protagonist seems to believe it’s the best thing to investigate. At the climax of the movie, this happens one too many times and then the scary entity grabs one of their ankles and drags them down a long hallway as the protagonist tries and fails to free themselves, palms uselessly pawing at the floor. 

Out of nowhere, their friends pop up out of nowhere and somehow manage to banish the entity, and friendship seems to save the say for now. 

As the credits finally roll, and with sweat clinging to his palms, Taiga thinks he wouldn’t have been too sad to see the protagonist go just this once. 

Someone, Taiga cannot make out who it is in the darkness that clings to the room, pops out the DVD and shoves in another one without consoling the rest of the audience. Not that Taiga’s complaining about that, his limbs still haven't recovered from the constant surprises and his pulse isn’t quite back to normal yet. And it’s not like he’s tired either.

The menu of the new movie flashes across the enormous screen – and Taiga can confidently say that he doesn’t know this one either – and it’s bright enough to illuminate the rest of the room as Takao promptly starts bickering about the choice of subtitles with Rakuzan’s Hayama Kotarō. 

Taiga decides it’s the perfect moment to let his eyes wander.

He catches sight of Akashi and Mayazumi as he turns his head to the right, the small smile on Akashi’s lips barely visible. Right next to them are Hyūga and Mibuchi Reo. Murasakibara, Tatsuya and Nebuya Eikichi are sitting together with Takao and Midorima on the far right side of the room. Imayoshi and Hanamiya sit close together with their heads smushed together as they talk quietly with grins on their faces and then Imayoshi smacks Kasamatsu’s chest, seeming to invite him into the conversation.

Seeing Kaijō’s captain promptly reminds Taiga of something, and he’s immediately on the search for a familiar head of blond hair. He finds Kise soon enough, sitting next to where Riko and Momoi are close together on a smaller sofa, his hands clutching his own bowl of popcorn tightly. Taiga is about to say something when his eyes catch on to something on Kise’s right. 

Tucked against the end of the couch is Aomine, slumped down with his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. His arms are crossed as well and, to Taiga’s surprise, his eyes are closed and his head tilted to the side and pillowed on Kise’s shoulder. Deep breaths let his arms move up and down. Fascinatingly enough, he seems completely relaxed despite the mess that just played on the TV. 

“Kagami-kun,” Kuroko says, causing Taiga to jump. “The movie is about to start. What are you looking at?” 

“What?” Taiga whips his head back around, using the same quiet tone as the title of the chosen movie flashes across the screen again, eerie music creeping out of the speakers. “Nothing! Thought I could catch Midorima looking stupid and scared. Doesn’t matter.” 

“But I believe Midorima-kun is on the other side of the–” 

“Popcorn?” Taiga holds the bowl up, at the perfect angle to block Kuroko’s line of sight and make him momentarily go cross eyed. Kuroko looks at Taiga for a second, and it’s one of those looks that clearly says ‘do you think I’m stupid?’ which – no, of course not, however . “Eyes on the movie, Kuroko.” 

The sounds rolling out of the speakers turn a little louder as a new protagonist eventually walks into the scene, and Taiga feels the bowl get a little heavier as Kuroko grabs a few pieces for himself. “You’re one to talk.”

Taiga shrugs as if he doesn’t know what Kuroko’s talking about, reaching out with his free hand to physically turn Kuroko’s head for him. His fingers linger on blue strands and if Taiga, in this moment, hadn’t been preoccupied with what he just saw, he might have had it in him to be embarrassed. 

At least a little bit.

iii.

Taiga is stood in the middle of the street, heavy, full bags held in his hands, excited screams filling his ears. The sun shines directly in his face, his sunglasses are stuck to the front of his shirt, his feet hurt, sweat runs down his back and his nose tickles. 

If Taiga is being completely honest (he’s not), he doesn’t know how this came to be (that’s a lie), but he’s sure it’s not even a little bit his fault (again, a lie). 

Now this all started exactly two hours ago, and it went like this: 

“Kagami-kun.” 

Taiga, who is just on his way outside to check the bus stop he’s seen there on their first day here and the times the bus leaves, experiences something that comes close to a full body flinch. His phone meets his chest in a smack, catching his neck painfully and his chin turns down to send Kuroko, who he’s sure has to have popped out of thin air just now, a bewildered look. “Holy fucking shit, Kuroko.” 

Kuroko blinks up at him, standing in the open doorway as if he’s never been anywhere else. “Hello.” 

“Where,” Taiga asks, swinging his head back and forth, trying to see if he’s missed any little hiding places Kuroko could’ve been standing in, maybe a plant that throws a gigantic shadow or anything, “did you even come from?” 

“I’ve been standing here the entire time.” 

“I have no reason to lie.” 

“Yes, well, okay, maybe not but–huh. Weird, I didn't even see you.” Not a single muscle in Kuroko’s face moves, his gaze and everything else stays exactly the same. But Taiga’s been around Kuroko long enough – one might even be bold enough to say that he’s studied his partner carefully enough – to notice a subtle change in the air around him. 

(and Taiga has a very, very small moment of absolute insanity in which he thinks, ha, bet Aomine can’t do that shit)

It has the same effect as another person taking a finger to point at themselves and go, “duh.” 

“I mean,” Taiga adds, “apart from the whole.. you know.” 

Kuroko just turns and walks outside. 

Taiga blinks at the empty air he leaves behind before scrambling to follow. The sun immediately starts beating down on the top of Taiga’s head despite the relatively early hours of the day, and he pulls out his sunglasses to shove them onto his face, tinting nature around them darker, making the glare of the sun just a smidge more bearable. 

There’s another pair of sunglasses in one of Taiga’s bags, though this specific one is all the way back in his apartment, that darken everything so well that he can basically see his own reflection in the lenses thrown back at him. And kind of whatever happens behind him. After the horror movie night they’ve just had, however, Taiga thinks he’d actually rather not know what happens back there. 

It only takes a few more steps for Taiga to not only notice that barely anyone is outside apart from them, a stark difference to the days leading up to today – most of the other teams and their own members most likely still buried in their beds – but also that they’re walking into the direction of the bus stop. Conveniently where he was going to go anyway. 

“Kagami-kun might have noticed me sooner, or at all,” Kuroko starts, sending him a look out of the corner of his bright eyes that has Taiga pursing his lips, “if he hadn’t been squinting at his phone from way too close, and if he hadn’t allowed the phone screen to block his entire view.”

“I didn’t even,” Taiga begins, but then clamps his mouth shut again and takes a moment to actually think before saying anything else. He was kind of engrossed in his phone, but he was sure to glance up occasionally, wasn’t he? Then again, Kuroko isn’t exactly tall enough to appear in his straight line of sight. 

Not that Taiga is going to tell him that. 

He can faintly recall one time he let go off a comment regarding Akashi’s height, before getting to know him, and questioning why all these bigger guys were intimidated by him. He doesn’t really want to recall what happened after, but sure to say he understands now! Nobody’s going to catch him questioning Akashi Seijūrō ever again!

“Huh.” Perhaps Kuroko is right. Taiga doesn’t want to admit this out loud, not that Kuroko would gloat or anything like that, but still. “Say, Kuroko,” Taiga starts a few seconds later, grass rustling under both of their shoes, “where are we going?” 

Clear, strong blue is visible upwards, clouds nowhere in sight to offer shadows as a momentary break from the sun beating down at their heads. Butterflies chase each other in circles, colorful wings beating fast, birds chirp happily from the trees. 

If the answer to his question would be ‘nowhere’, Taiga doesn’t think he would mind. There is something quite peaceful about walking around when the day around them begins to thaw and wake up. Taiga finds that he enjoys it a lot; he doesn’t think he ever did back in America, though there were beautiful sceneries too.

“I am intending to go to the bus stop. As are you, I assume, seeing as we’re nearly there.” 

“Huh,” Taiga says again. “That.. yeah. Hey, wanna check the bus times with me? I want to see if Vike has brought out their new shoe collection yet?” 

Kuroko tilts his head slightly to the side, something that most likely shouldn’t make Taiga’s inside feel like he just stuck his finger into an outlet but absolutely does. He nods. “Curious that we end up in the same situations all the time, even on pure coincidence. Don’t you think so?” 

Kuroko doesn’t even give Taiga a chance to reply to that, something Taiga is quietly grateful for because what do you even say to that, and instead rams a finger between Taiga’s ribs out of fucking nowhere. 

Taiga lets out a yelp of surprise, jumping a little, taking back whatever he’s just thought about this entire thing being peaceful with Kuroko at his side. “What the hell, Kuroko–”

“Kagami-kun.” 

“What.” 

“You are ticklish.” 

Wrapping his fingers around the one Kuroko has raised as if he’s presenting evidence, Taiga leans a little closer to hiss, “Your bones might just be extremely pointy.”

When Kuroko meets his stare, Taiga’s face heats up a little – definitely from the sun. Kuroko pokes him again, this time with his free hand, and Taiga lets out another sound he would like not to describe, jumping away and waving a hand in his direction. “What the fuck , Kuroko. Okay, yes, fine, I might be a little ticklish, alright. Are you happy now?” 

The corner of Kuroko’s mouth twitches, once. “Yes. Ah, Kagami-kun?” 

“If you’re going to do some weird shit again and then poke me, again , I’m leaving. Who even does that? That’s really mean, Kuroko. Didn’t you just recently say I don’t have manners because that’s rich coming from–” 

“Kagami-kun,” Kuroko repeats, this time a little louder. It catches Taiga so off guard that he immediately shuts his mouth. Kuroko, using one of his ridiculously sharp fingers, points to something over Taiga’s shoulder. “The bus is already here.”

Taiga turns and would you look at that, it really is. 

They manage to make their way to it quickly and without any other interruptions, Taiga remembering how full of shit the bus drivers in America are, only to find out that the driver is currently taking a short break. As Taiga stares at the driver’s seat, wondering aloud about how they’re going to find out if this trip is actually free or not, and where he would even put his money, another voice calls out. 

“It is.” Taiga’s eye twitches when he turns and–there he is. Akashi Seijūrō, seated in the middle of the bus with Mayuzumi next to him, lifts a hand. 

“Akashi-kun,” Kuroko says, giving Taiga a push to start walking into the direction of Akashi and his teammate. 

“Kuroko, Kagami. Hello.” Akashi nods at them, a small smile on his face. “Apologies for inserting myself in your conversation, but what I said is the truth. The company behind the training camp covered all of the rides for the length of our entire stay. There is nothing to worry about.” 

So the elderly woman was telling the truth. How convenient. Taiga’s not about to start complaining about this; it’s not like he’s short with money or anything of the sorts, but saved money is saved money. 

Kuroko squeezes himself into the window seat behind Akashi, prompting Taiga to take the one by the walkway. The bus is still empty, there are many seats still open he could sit in but why would he? He doesn’t mind sitting with Kuroko, and who knows? Next thing he knows someone like Hanamiya or, god forbid, Haizaki could walk through the door and plop down next to him.

Taia ignores the fact that this is a highly illogical train of thought since Hanamiya doesn’t even breathe the same air as him and Kuroko and since Haizaki isn’t even here. This is just to prove a point. Or something. 

Eventually Kuroko nudges Taiga, which is to show that he can be very gentle when he wants to be and doesn’t want to see someone keel over with laughter. Taiga squints at Kuroko. Kuroko subtly nods in Akashi’s direction. Taiga pulls his eyebrows together in confusion. Kuroko just stares at him. 

“So,” Taiga says, not sure why he suddenly feels like there’s something stuck inside of his throat. “Headed to the city too?” 

He immediately wants to break the nearest window and jump out and start running and never return again. Of course they’re headed to the city, they’re in the same fucking bus. 

“Mh.” Mayuzumi hums. Something rustles and Taiga can see his broad shoulders move as he does.. something. Then he holds up a pair of shoes, the laces way too short and damaged. “Hayama stomped on the laces of both shoes with his big feet, not looking where he was going. Tore both of them clean off in the process.”

“I feel like commenting on his shoe size is a little uncalled for.” 

Mayuzumi puts away his shoes again, then turns his head. “Maybe. But so is ruining my stuff.”

“I’m sure this has not been done on purpose. This possibly could have happened to anyone, more so people not acquainted with your.. talent, no?” 

“Perhaps.” Taiga’s head swings from left to right. He doesn’t know why, but it’s strangely fascinating seeing those two interact with each other. More fascinating than watching the other members of Rakuzan do anything, though Taiga supposes they’re another category for another day. “Not you, though.” 

Akashi’s eyes narrow a little as his smile grows, turns softer around the corners. “No, of course not.” His expression doesn’t change when his eyes wander to Taiga. “To avoid creating an uneven number of available players off and on the field, we’re getting this fixed immediately. Coincidentally, I know someone capable of doing this.” 

“That’s good to hear,” Kuroko voices. “How have you been?”

Taiga kind of clocks out mentally for a little while as Kuroko and Akashi go back and forth, letting his thoughts wander. He thinks he kind of gets why both Kise and Aomine – and just anyone in general – is always surprised when they find out Taiga’s a little intimidated by Akashi off and on the field. 

Sure, he’s a formidable opponent on the court, but he’s still.. nice.. kind of.. giving you tips with one hand while cutting off your chances at success with the other. It’s impressive, especially because he’s done nothing but be kind and polite and forthcoming since their eye opening finale at the winter cup. 

Taiga yawns into his elbow, Kuroko and Akashi’s voices a background murmur to accompany his thoughts, until just a second later someone steps onto the bus and audibly yawns. 

Me too, brother , Taiga thinks and is halfway to forming the words when he looks up and realizes whose unhinged jaw he’s unfortunate enough to glance into. Said jaw clicks shut, sharp eyes open slowly and immediately zoom in on who’s in the bus. 

It doesn’t take more than a split moment for them to land on Taiga and then narrow. 

“Oh fuck no,” Aomine says, stopping in the middle of the aisle. Kise, right on his tail, promptly walks into his back. “Oi, watch where you’re going.”

“You say that as if you didn’t just stop without a warning!” Kise says, voice nasally as if he’s covering his nose. “Ouch! What prompted you to do this now?” His head appears over Aomine’s shoulder, the hand rubbing the bridge of his nose dropping down. He looks from one of them to the other, a twinkle in his eyes when they jump from Taiga to Akashi and then back. A knowing smile spreads over his slips. “Oh, hello.” 

Oh, hello, indeed , Taiga thinks. He has half a mind to stick out his elbow when Kise, after a few more beats of Aomine turning into an unmovable object, just squeezes past and approaches them. He decides against it; he doesn’t know when the bus driver is coming back, nor how long the drive will be. And he’s already seeing enough of Aomine’s face as it is. 

He decides, just this once, not to make his life harder than it needs to be. He’s very proud of himself for this and he decides to tell Kuroko about it, but Kuroko just gives him a Look. “What I gathered from this, Kagami-kun, is that you decided to be normal for a chance?” 

Like, okay. Whatever. Sure. 

***

The bus ride to the closest city is only said to be about twenty-five minutes. As someone used to being on public transport to go all around Japan, for their tournaments and to fetch stuff in different places, this is usually nothing for Taiga and extremely convenient. 

There’s no Aomine Daiki or Akashi Seijūrō in his train or bus when he commutes on a day to day basis; those stakes worsen the quality of the ride. Even though sitting with Kuroko is enjoyable and the murmur of quiet conversations around them fades into the background. 

Something about hearing Aomine comment on the scenery and the shapes of the buildings they pass, no matter how infrequent his commentary is, really starts to grate on Taiga’s nerves and he’s very much wondering if anyone else has ever told him to shut his big mouth when the bus jerks to a stop in a calm district of the city. 

All of them spill out of the car and into the fresh air outside, the day now much warmer than when they left the training property. Taiga checks his phone once they’re outside, for the general directions he’s going to have to walk into to find the shop and sees a new message from Hyūga at the top of his screen. 

He texted their captain a few minutes ago, checking in and letting someone know that Kuroko and him were away for a bit, and now Hyūga’s sent a thumbs up emoji, followed by a pic of him sitting at a table somewhere in the sun. He’s accompanied by Kasamatsu, Imayoshi and.. Tatsuya? Taiga thinks the purple smudge at the corner of the picture could potentially be Murasakibara but even if it isn’t.. what an odd group of people to be sitting together like this. 

“We arrived in the city,” Kuroko says as Taiga shoves his phone back inside of a pocket. He looks around, blue eyes brighter than usual, hair glowing in the sun. “What now?”

“What do you mean, what now?” 

“I mean ‘what are we doing now’?” 

“What do you mean , Kuroko? Did you just tag along without any plans to do shit here?” 

Kuroko blinks at him, which is as close to an admission as it’s going to get.

Taiga sighs. Of course Kuroko did this, Taiga doesn’t know why he’s surprised – but if he thinks about it for a second, he does know why; this is the same guy strategizing in the middle of their games, the same person who figured out his misdirection mess in the middle of the winter cup finale against Rakuzan.

The human mind is fascinating. 

He turns around after a moment, takes a step. Looks over his shoulder to see Kuroko still standing exactly where they exited the bus. “Well?” He calls, jerking his head to the side. “You coming, or what?” 

“Of course, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko says, taking fast steps to catch up with him, and off they go.

The plan for this visit was short. Easy. Go to the store, look for Vike shoes, purchase them. Straight to the point. A good plan. 

It doesn’t turn out to be nearly as easy as it should be, especially with Kuroko at Taiga’s side. Before they’re even five minutes into the walk, Kuroko stops and points to a rather small store holding souvenirs, asking Taiga to wait a second before vanishing inside. 

Taiga doesn’t mind; he stands in a sunny spot, sunglasses covering his eyes again, enjoying the warmth of the rising sun. 

Kuroko, true to his word, doesn’t take longer than maybe two minutes in the store. He’s clutching a medium sized bag in one of his hands, the logo of the shop stitched into the fabric with golden yarn. 

“I promised my mother to bring her something,” Kuroko explains before Taiga is able to ask any questions. He opens the bag, holding it open to make it possible for Taiga to take a look. There’s a wrapped painting inside, one of those that you can finish yourself at home with all the paint and other utensils included. 

“That’s really pretty,” Taiga says. The cover shows a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. “Can’t say I’m an expert on your mom, but I think she’ll love it.”

“Thank you, I think so too.” Kuroko nods and they begin walking again, their shadows stretching over the asphalted pedestrian zone the further they go, creating shapes that slowly turn unrecognizable. “You could, you know. If you would cease being afraid of her.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not afraid of your mom.” 

“Is that why Kagami-kun never comes to visit?”

“I have been at your house just last week?”

“Yes, for twenty minutes. Then my mother came home with Nigou and you got so freaked out that you left early and left behind your special edition basketball in the middle of our living room.”

Well, fine, okay, sure, he might have done that. But it’s not his fault that Nigou scares the shit out of him; it doesn’t matter that he’s relatively small for a dog and doesn’t seem to have any growth spurts on his schedule, but dogs always freaked Taiga out. And he looks like Kuroko. That’s just a little freaky, no? 

“So that’s where it went,” Taiga says, contemplating all the accusatory texts he’s fired off at several people about said item. He shakes his head, getting rid of those thoughts, and something catches his eye. “Hey, check this out. A sandwich store!” 

They make it to their planned destination (again, the only stop Taiga had in mind) after a good forty minutes of wandering into random stores and looking at shirts and other merchandise of shows either Kuroko, Taiga or both of them like. 

Taiga half expects Aomine to sneak up on him out of nowhere and hit him over the head with one of the numerous baseball bats that are on display here, but quickly lets go of that horrible thought. It hasn’t even been a full week and Taiga’s become fully paranoid, only when it concerns Aomine, though. He has to have a doctor look at him when he gets back home. 

A funny thought pops into his head. Midorima is knowledgeable about medicine, is he not? He half wants to ask him to take a look but he thinks Midorima would much rather eat his own hand than do that. 

Taiga’s so lost in his own head that he doesn’t notice Kuroko vanishing from his side until he quite literally walks into another person. This abruptly snaps him out of it and Taiga blinks, rubbing his shoulder and turning with an apology half formed on his lips. It dies fairly quickly once he realizes who he walked into. 

“You have to be kidding me.” Aomine looks up at the ceiling, his eyes closing as he sighs deeply enough that Taiga genuinely understands. “Resorted to physical violence now, idiot? Honestly, why the hell are you everywhere? Am I cursed or some shit?” 

“Physical viol–that wasn’t on purpose, moron. I’m not any happier seeing you everywhere either.” 

“Yeah, clearly.” Aomine doesn’t meet his eyes, instead continuing to go through the stack of shirts he was most likely inspecting when Taiga bumped into him. He does, however, lift a finger and lets it circle in front of his own face. “You get this crazy glint in your eyes every time. Kinda scary. Get that checked or something.” 

Taiga’s jaw drops. “I–what the fuck–now listen here, you–” 

“Done?” Aomine asks and Taiga kind of wants to grab one of the basketballs on the shelves close by to start pelting Aomine with them for being so fucking rude when Kise appears on his right, two bags in each hand. It doesn’t take a lot for Taiga to put two and two together and figure out who Aomine was talking to. 

If Taiga and Aomine weren’t like a feral cat and a tank of water outside of matches in tournaments or their regular get-togethers with the others, Taiga might have been able to admit how impressive it actually is that Aomine seemed to just sense Kise was approaching. 

He supposes he can do it in the confinement of his own head. It is impressive, but also kind of weird. 

Wait, Taiga thinks. If Aomine just knew that Kise was getting closer, does this mean it’s possible he might’ve known Taiga was barreling towards him and just let him, to insult him afterwards? Oh, who is he kidding? Of course he would do that. 

“Yeah, sorry for the wait, the system had an error and I almost paid double for some articles.” Kise sighs, shoulders slumping. His gaze meets Taiga’s. “Kagami-cchi.” He nods. “It’s weird to see you all alone for once.” 

He doesn’t mention that one time Taiga brought them their lunch and so Taiga doesn’t mention it either. 

“Yeah, where did you leave Tetsu? Thought you were attached at the hip or something by now.” 

“Aomine-cchi.” 

“What? Tell me it isn’t true.” 

“Well, I can’t really do that but–” 

“But nothing. Thank you.” 

“Kuroko is–” 

“Right here.” Taiga and Kise both jump. Aomine, to Taiga’s great and utter annoyance, doesn’t even blink at Kuroko’s sudden arrival. He doesn’t know why, but something about him being so attuned to Kuroko’s vanishing and reappearing, even after all this time, makes Taiga’s head hurt. “Kise-kun, Aomine-kun. It’s nice to see you two again.” 

Kise rubs his chest with a grimace. “Yes, hello again, Kuroko-cchi.” He then hands one of the bags to Aomine, who takes it without any complaints. “How come Seirin still hasn’t given you one of those charms that make noise? Like a bell. An anklet, even.”

“Hyūga tried. Kuroko said no. End of story.”

“Still getting spooked like that?” Aomine asks, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Rookie mistake, honestly.” 

“Wanna come here and say that again,” Taiga says as if he’s not already way too close to Aomine to be comfortable, “and see what happens?” 

Kise waves a hand around, his bags hitting Taiga in the stomach. “Let’s reschedule that little bit of fun, shall we? Those employees over there look like they want to throw us out already.” He pouts. “Not that I can blame them.”

A quick turn of his head shows Taiga that Kise has been right; a man and a woman, wearing matching jerseys with the store’s name printed over the front in a swirly font stare them down from the counter, frowns on their faces. 

“Kagami-kun.” Kuroko looks up at him. “What about your shoes?” he asks, pointing around the empty air around Taiga, most likely searching for a bag of his own. “Have you looked at them yet?” 

“Huh? Oh, no, not yet. Really funny story,” Taiga says, not meaning a single word but covering Kuroko’s head with his palm anyway. “Thanks for reminding me, though.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Taiga can see Aomine lean closer to Kise. “No wonder he doesn’t realize,” he says, not even bothering with attempting to look as if he doesn’t want all of them to hear. “The new Vike ones that just got released?” 

“Yes.. why?” 

“Yeah, don’t bother. None in your size available here anymore,” Aomine says and Taiga has a very, very short moment in which he thinks fuck that because why in the world would he even know that before it makes click inside of his head and Aomine starts smirking. He opens the bag Kise handed him, revealing a shoebox. “Should’ve come a little earlier.” 

What would happen, Taiga wonders, if he just tried to steal them from Aomine by barreling into him again? He won’t, of course – he’s just curious, not stupid. And he knows that Aomine’s fast enough to make this a task impossible. 

Taiga’s shoulders drop and Kuroko pats his back, muttering something along the lines of “poor jocks” as if he isn’t literally one too, and then they eventually make their way outside, though Taiga later doesn’t remember how they managed that. 

“Cool,” he says, knowing this isn’t cool at all and instead catastrophic. “Now we have to go into the other shop.” 

“Except that you can’t,” Kise comments from the side, his smile turning into a wince when a weak ‘what do you mean I can’t’ escapes Taiga. “That one is closed for the season due to maintenance.” 

“Tough luck.” 

“Eat shit, Aomine,” Taiga says without any of the venom he’d like to put into those three words. 

“Oh my god!” Someone close to them says, rushing past three of them to stop in front of Kise, who looks down at her with eyes almost as wide as hers. It’s a girl, probably around the same age as the four of them, with short black hair curling around her ears. Her hands are in front of her mouth. “Are you, by any chance, Kise Ryōta?” 

Kuroko makes a soft sound from next to Taiga, followed by a quiet, “Oh.” 

Oh indeed.

As soon as Kise confirms that that’s indeed him, approximately twelve other teenagers appear out of nowhere and walk towards them to start crowding around Kise. Before Taiga can do as much as blink in surprise, Kise’s bags get handed to him and Aomine – and holy shit what does he have in them? Bricks ? 

So.

This is how Taiga ends up like this. Nose itchy, hands full, biceps and shoulders screaming, sunglasses stuck to the front of his shirt, the full concentrated blast of the sun on his head. And Aomine is here, too. 

Taiga lets out a sigh and Kuroko pokes his biceps, much less lethal than this morning. 

His stomach begins to grumble and Taiga can’t help but sigh again. 

“Yeah, we’re gonna be standing here for a little,” Aomine says, somehow balancing all of the bags Kise’s handed him in one hand and typing on his phone with the other one. “Might as well make yourselves comfortable.” 

“Right.” Kuroko nods before sitting on the stone steps that lead to what appears to be a cathedral, his own bags close to his side. 

“Great,” Taiga says but refuses to move. 

Some weird, competitive part of him wants to keep standing as long as Aomine isn’t sitting down either. Fuck Aomine if he thinks he can outlast him and then start gloating about it. Absolutely not going to happen. 

After all, how bad can it be? 

***

Taiga should know better by now and refrain from asking hypothetical questions like that since he always comes to regret them a lot. Which is what he does now, wincing as he steps back onto the bus that arrived a second ago to take them back. 

His face is burning, surely sunburnt and about as red as some strands of his hair are, the soles of his feet hurt after exploring the city once Kise was free again. His shoulders are screaming in agony. 

And he’s all alone now. 

This part, at least, isn’t as bad as Taiga makes it sound; Kuroko went to fetch a bottle of water for himself. There’s no chance of him missing their ride either since both of them just watched the driver go off into the same direction. 

Kuroko, undeniably the smarter person out of the two of them, continues to be perfectly fine since he opted out of standing in direct sunlight for as long as Taiga and Aomine did. Though Aomine looked just fine , which is a big load of bullshit. 

Taiga drags his feet inside, letting out a sigh once the blast of the air condition inside hits him square in the face. He lets his eyes wander over the empty seats, from the very front all the way to the back – which is where they stay. 

Long, tan legs are stretched out over the broad row of seats at the very back, and that’s about all that Taiga is able to make out, but who’s Taiga to just stop there when he’s just positively burned off all his remaining brain cells? 

“Oi!” he calls, and then a palm appears over the headrest of a seat more to the right – the hair tie looped around the wrist makes it obvious whose hand that is. 

Taiga approaches further, partially because of his curiosity and partially because the seats in the back are completely thrown into the shadows by the big trees lining the street they’re parked on. Once he’s close enough, Taiga’s completely confused because Kise hasn’t lowered his hand yet and so he doesn’t do much more thinking before he just reaches out and lightly smacks Kise’s palm with his own in a high five. 

“What are you doing?” Kise asks, and then Taiga is finally close enough to make out his face. He is slouched so far down into the seat that his knees and calves press into the back of the seat in front of him. His bags are in the window seat next to him, his phone in one hand. “I was trying to tell you to be quiet, not asking for a high five.”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that?” Taiga asks, reaching up to rub his aching forehead. “I can’t read thoughts, you know? Why the hell do you want me to be quiet anyway, I just came over to–” 

It’s only then that Taiga notices the lack of annoying comments, and a glance downwards reveals why they’re missing. Aomine’s eyes are shut, his cheeks flushed, his mouth completely relaxed in sleep. His head is pillowed on Kise’s stomach, which explains the highly uncomfortable looking position. 

“Oh.” 

“Mhm.” Kise hums softly, looking down at his phone and typing something before turning it around. “Cute, yes or no?” 

Taiga squints against the sudden brightness of the screen, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Once they do, there’s a picture of Kise and Kuroko staring back at him. They seem to be standing in front of a mirror, both of them throwing up peace signs. “Yeah?” Taiga comments.

Kise turns it back around, tapping some more. “Thought so. What about this one?” This time, when he turns his phone around, it’s a picture of Kise and Aomine. Kise is on Aomine’s back, a bright smile on his face as he winks into the camera and seems to ruffle Aomine’s hair. Aomine, in comparison, only looks mildly inconvenienced, which is a big improvement from his usual expression. 

The two of them seem to be in some park and there’s tons of blurry shapes in the background; they clearly weren’t the only two people present when this was taken, yet the picture seems strangely intimate to Taiga. 

“I guess.” He shrugs. 

“Thought so,” Kise says, his eyes flicking up to Taiga before they narrow and his lips curl up, giving his expression something mischievous. Taiga doesn’t like it. “Interesting.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Taiga says and means it (another lie). Kise tilts his head, blond strands falling over his eyes, and opens his mouth as if he’s about to add something else but Taiga turns around again. “I’ll leave you two to it.” 

He winces with every step he takes, but doesn’t stop until he finds two seats far enough from Kise and Aomine not to disturb them. There, he takes out his phone, forehead leans against the cool glass of the window, and waits for Kuroko to come back with a yawn.

iv.

RIko catches Taiga after their practice for the day is over before he’s able to do more than approach the door slowly, muscles aching. 

He stops, towel slung across his shoulders, water bottle in hand, shoes held in his other hand and then turns around. He raises his brow questioningly when his coach jogs over to him, Momoi at her side, one of her arms moving from side to side in a wave as if it would ever be possible for Taiga to miss either of them. 

(Riko is loud and confident enough that Taiga is able to locate her with closed eyes. Momoi has pink hair.)

“Yes?” Taiga asks, taking a sip of water before nodding at Momoi in greeting. “What’s up? Did something happen?” 

“No, of course not. What gave you that idea?” 

Well, the fact that Riko isn’t immediately criticizing something he’s done terribly wrong during their last practice match that even he noticed and winced at, for one. He stood with his legs apart and got passed by Hanamiya, of all people, throwing the ball through his legs and into the waiting hands of Imayoshi. 

The creepiest pair of people. Who thought that combination was a good idea? 

“Nothing,” Taiga says. If they don’t want to bring it up, who’s he to remind them of this embarrassing move? “So? Can I help you two?”

Momoi nods. “Yes, this is actually why we’re here. Harasawa-san, Takeuchi-san and the others had a little get together last evening and brought up the idea of sitting at a bonfire with everyone to grill some meat and relax.” 

“And,” Riko says, “maybe people can try making these s’mores Kagami-kun and Himuro-kun keep gushing about. I’d like to try my hand at it, too.” 

“I will make them for you.” 

“Huh? Not that I don’t appreciate that, but do you really think I couldn’t handle something as simple as–” 

“Uh.” Taiga clears his throat, wiping his face with his towel to get rid of the sweat clinging to his skin and hair, using the motion to hide his expression from the both of them. Yes, Riko probably should let Momoi make those, but he’s not going to tell either of them that. “Okay, so we’re grilling? Cool, I guess. But what does that have to do with me specifically? I don’t really know how to start a fire like that. Careful.” Taiga reaches out to guide the two girls to the side so that they’re no longer blocking the doorway. 

“Oh, right,” Riko says, rolling up the sleeves of her jacket and putting her hands on her hips. “We were instructed to find people that are free to help with carrying some firewood to the fire-spot in the backyard.”

“And since you’re tall and strong,” Momoi continues, pushing the tips of her fingers together, “we thought you could perhaps do this?”

“We would do it, but–”

“No, don’t. It’s fine, I’ll do it. No need for you guys to get dirt over your clothes; I'm already sweaty anyway, might as well do something useful.” 

“I’ll help too.” 

Taiga is extremely proud of himself when he doesn’t jump at Kuroko’s sudden appearance at his side. A glance at Riko and Momoi shows that they didn’t react either, however Riko’s eyebrows climb up. “Kuroko, what?” 

And Momoi furrows her brows, putting a hand to her chin as her bright eyes scan Kuroko’s form. Her frown deepens. “Tetsu-chan, I don’t think you are quite strong enough to handle this in any shape or form without overstrainig your muslces.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say with this, Momoi-san. I’m plenty strong, I believe.” Kuroko slips out of his jacket, rolling up the short piece of fabric covering his biceps to flex his arm. “Check this out.” 

For a short moment, all of them are quiet and Kuroko stares at the three of them with a serious expression on his face. They, in turn, stare down Kuroko’s biceps. The only sounds reaching Taiga’s ears are the familiar squeaks of shoes in the back, some players still mulling around while others start wiping down the floors. A cart carrying all of the remaining and used basketballs gets pushed into its rightful place, wheels screaming. 

Taiga’s sure that there is strength in Kuroko – physical strength, he means. He knows for a fact that mentally, there’s a lot Kuroko can handle, that’s completely out of the question. He probably wouldn’t have made it that far in the world of basketball and wouldn’t have been able to reach Teiko all those years ago, and he especially wouldn’t have been able to hone his skills and talents once Akashi made him aware of them if that weren’t the case. 

And Taiga does know Kuroko isn’t necessarily weak physically either. He supposes, with all the help carrying other, lighter stuff Kuroko has offered, he’s pretty sturdy for a 5’6 guy. Maybe. Kind of. Definitely not sturdy enough to go head to head with Taiga on a hand to hand basis, though. 

“Kuroko.” Taiga sighs, trying to find words that’ll make Kuroko understand and won’t be too mean, when Momoi chimes in.

“Akashi-kun is sitting this one out, too, you know? Nothing wrong with that.” Taiga’s eyebrows rise in surprise. “He offered to help us with some of the other preparations that need to be taken care of. What do you say,” she says, her eyes getting bigger, “do you want to join us too?” 

“Yeah!” Riko exclaims. “We could use another opinion on the set up and everything since we were given free range and only have to report to the other coaches for their final agreement. Until then, though, it’s probably better to have four sets of calculating eyes on the scene. Well, five. If you want to count Takao, but I assume he won’t be that much help at all.” 

A snort leaves Taiga. Yeah, go figure.

Kuroko looks at the girls for a moment, then nods with a quiet hum. “Alright. Let me bring away my stuff and grab Nigou from our room–” 

“No need, we’ll just come with you!” Momoi says, grabbing hold of one of Kuroko’s arms to start dragging him through the door with Riko in tow. “See you later, Kagami-chan!”

“Kagami- chan ?” 

“Kagami-kun.” Riko might be standing in front of him, but her eyes keep leaving his face and watching where Momoi and Kuroko are disappearing around the corner. “You’ll find the other guys helping out behind the main building; Harasawa-san will point you in the right direction. If you don’t find anyone or get lost,” she adds, “Text Himuro-kun! He’ll be there to help!”

“Roped Tatsuya into this too, huh?” he says, but by the time the words leave in his mouth she’s already gone, her short hair ruffling in the slight breeze as she takes big steps to catch up with the other two. 

Well, Taiga thinks, hosting his own bag over his shoulder again before dropping his towel on top of it. Time to put his stuff away and find his friend. 

***

“Ah, Taiga!” Tatsuya says the second Taiga rounds the corner of the building, before he’s able to look around to make sure he hasn’t been thrown together with.. like Midorima. Hanamiya and Imayoshi, again. Or Aomine. Tatsuya approaches, and then when he’s close enough that Taiga wants to reach out and pull him into a hug – how come he doesn’t walk into his literal brother as often as other people – Tatsuya promptly sneezes in his face. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

Taiga takes his towel from where he’s slung it over his neck to drag it over his face with a grimace. Good thing he decided against leaving it in their bathroom, he figured he’d need it anyway, and he was right. Not exactly in the way that he expected to be, but still. “Nice to see you too, Tatsuya. What the hell kind of greeting is this?” 

“God, sorry, fuck, I’m genuinely so sorry. The glare of the sun took me completely by surprise, and my nose has been itchy all day and–” 

“Come here.” Taiga pulls Tatsuya in a hug, squeezing him and letting out a laugh. He keeps a grip on Tatsuya’s shoulder when he steps back. “Not the first time you’ve done that, why start worrying about shit like that now ?” 

“Don’t remind me,” Tatsuya says. “We were children, though. It’s only right to apologize.” 

“I don’t give a shit about that, not from you. Are you okay, though?” 

Tatsuya shrugs with a soft smile. “I mean, I think so? Come on, let me show you where to go while we walk.” He takes Taiga’s wrist, leading him down a plastered path lined with potted flowers that opens into a spacious yard surrounded by a tall, broad fence. Logs are placed around a hole in the floor, a grid made out of metal placed near it; most likely the fireplace they’ll be using later.

They leave the trail for another one, the shadows of the trees swallowing them and offering a much needed break from the sun. Bugs squeak in the fields and bushes around them, birds travel from one tree to the next as they sing, squirrels chase each other over the dirt path and up the sides of trees. 

“I am okay, I think. Might have caught a little something from Atsushi.” Tatsuya nods to the path in front of them, where Taiga can not only make out a small wooden hut with tons of chopped wood blocks piled on top of each other, but also Murasakibara’s figure. 

It wouldn’t be hard, even if it weren’t for his easily identifiable height, because – well, he has a head full of purple hair. 

“He’s been complaining about a bit of a sore throat since yesterday morning, but he doesn’t like the taste of the cough drops and syrup they had in the apothecary and instead of resting peacefully, he shoved our beds together several times. He sleeps easier that way, he says.” 

Taiga snorts, but doesn’t have anything to say to that. He doesn’t have any personal problems with the taller guy, not like he has with Midorima and Aomine. That’s not to say that Murasakibara and Taiga will start linking arms and getting along with each other, Taiga is aware of the fact that he annoys the shit out of Murasakibara occasionally, but he respects him enough to keep his mouth shut. 

Or to do anything other than call him a big baby, which is the truth. 

“I woke up about eight times last night because I thought I was being strangled when Atsushi threw his arm over my chest,” Tatsuya says, rubbing his chest as if it itches. his necklaces chiming softly with the motion. “I don’t have anything against being cuddled, but you can imagine how heavy his arm is.” 

Once they’re close enough, Taiga takes a glance at Murasakibara and his exposed arms, the toned muscles of his biceps and forearms. “I can imagine,” Taiga says. He opens his mouth to add more when two things happen at the same time. 

One: Murasakibara inhales and then sneezes loud enough that some of the birds around them flee from their trees. 

Two: Kise steps out from behind Murasakibara, holding two neatly spit pieces of firewood, lips pushed into a pout. “What where you’re aiming those, Murasakibara-cchi. There’s only so much suffering I can endure at one time.” 

“My bad, Ki-chin.” Murasakibara rubs his nose with one hand, the other one coming up to first cover Kise’s head and then ruffle his hair. “You’re right. You’re too pretty to get sick.” 

“Exactly, I am! Too pretty to carry all this wood, too. Ugh, this sucks!”

Hold on, Taiga thinks and glances around from the left to the right, trying to catch sight of a familiar head of dark blue hair and letting out a breath when he can’t see Aomine anywhere. It’s a little confusing, and very welcome. He has believed it to be impossible to catch Kise and Aomine in two places at the same time, and almost wonders if this is real. 

This means he’s offered a break from idiotic comments, for now. 

As if Kise has read his thoughts, he rolls his head back and looks up at the crowns of the greenery surrounding them. “How come Aomine-cchi is off placing tables around and going errand shopping and I get stuck doing this?” 

“That was an option? No offense, Tatsuya, I like being around you, but.” 

“None taken.” 

“I know, right? You’d think he’d be here helping with this stuff but no, strong Aomine Daiki is decorating our dinner site with Akashi-cchi and Kuroko-cchi and Midorima-cchi and how come he isn’t here either, I just saw him lug around some heavy lucky item –”

“Oi, Kise!” Kise flinches, taking a step to the side as if he’s about to hide behind Murasakibara’s form when Kasamatsu steps out from behind the hut with a glare. His arms are laden with two massive pieces of wood in each one, and he somehow still manages to point at his ace with a finger. “Less complaining, more working.” 

“But–” 

“No. If you helped as much as you talked, we’d be long done by now.” 

Kise groans but doesn’t disagree. 

Tatsuya and Taiga follow Murasakibara to the firewood, all of them grabbing as much as they can carry before making their way to the fireplace. Tatsuya’s shoulder bumps into Taiga’s as Kasamatsu somehow manages to run loops around them despite having much shorter legs. “Kinda feel like I’m ten and getting scolded by one of the older kids on the court.” 

Taiga nods in agreement and Murasakibara, accompanied by a sniffle, says, “Kasamatsu-senpai’s no fun at all.” 

(Despite Kasamatsu being ‘no fun at all’, Taiga believes he alone is the reason they manage to wrap up their work in less than an hour. With the help of him, Kise, Tatsuya, Taiga and Murasakibara – who is capable of carrying more than anyone else but walks a lot slower than them – their work finds an easy rhythm and the noises of the woods around them, of nature waking up and going to sleep, doing what it does best without the interruption of human life, turns into a background melody.

Once they’re done, there’s a sizable chunk of wood near the fireplace and some steps behind the wooden lugs placed around it, close but not too close to risk anything catching fire on accident. 

Sweat clings to Taiga’s face, his arms hurt and his fingers are red, but as he first meets Tatsuya’s eyes and then finds Kuroko standing by one of the tables neatly placed nearby, he feels okay. Good. 

Murasakibara lets out another loud sneeze, Kise yelps and tumbles into Kasamatsu, who in turn grumbles in annoyance. 

Tatsuya’s shoulder meets Taiga’s and they both let out a snort at the exact same time.)

***

Taiga didn’t realize before just how many people are attending this camp, but he does now as his eyes jump from the guys sitting in groups at the tables to the ones standing in little groups together. 

Sure, all of them belong to teams he technically knows and has either faced on the court or watched compete with another team. He’s been aware that there’s a lot of players here every day at practice, but Riko had let slip that the gym has split times since not all of them can fit at the same time. 

And being aware of it and knowing and actually seeing it are completely different things. 

“Don’t hold it so close to the fire!” Taiga watches as Tatsuya, seated on the other side of the fire with Murasakibara at his side, waves his arms around. 

Murasakibara is holding on to a long stick, a marshmallow attached at the pointed tip, and holding it over the fire with the kind of determination in his eyes Taiga’s only ever seen during basketball games when he gets pissed. 

Tatsuya tries to put his hand over Murasakibara’s, probably to guide it away from the fire, but Murasakibara quickly moves it to his other hand and holds it out of Tatsuya’s reach. “Atsushi! If you’re not careful, it will either fall off or catch f–”

The marshmallow trembles. The outside of it starts to get darker, darker, crumbling into itself as if to shy away from the flames before it abruptly catches fire, detaching from the stick to fall into a bigger flame and becoming a part of it. 

“See,” Tatsuya says, putting a hand on his partner’s shoulder, a smile on his lips. “I’ve been trying to tell you.” He blindly reaches behind him and produces another, fresh marshmallow. “Want to try again? Keep it further up this time.” 

“I don’t wanna.” Murasakibara thrusts the stick in his hand in Tatsuya’s direction like it personally offended him. “Muro-chin should try instead.” 

“Alright. Now sit back and watch, Atsushi. I’ve done this a million times for Taiga, too.” 

Takao, somewhere on Taiga’s right, lets out an amused, “Ha!”, Midorima snorts, Akashi coughs into his hand to hide a laugh that clings to the corners of his eyes.

Taiga promptly feels offended when even Kuroko looks up at Taiga with something close to amusement in his eyes, face thrown into warm light from the proximity of the fire, bright flickers transforming the expression into something soft. 

“Is that true?” Kuroko asks him, probably remembering how much Taiga gloated about wanting to make the perfect s’more for Kuroko to experience and remember for the rest of his days. He tilts his head to the side. Nigou, damn him, sits obediently next to Kuroko and does the same. “Is Kagami-kun really this bad at roasting a marshmallow? Didn’t you say that–”

“Of course I’m not that bad.” 

“Yes, he is.” 

“Now hold on–” 

“He’s never been able to get them just right, you know? His previous attempts have ended with the marshmallow either burned to a crisp from Taiga wanting to accelerate the process by sticking it directly into the fire, too cold and barely roasted from Taiga taking it back too soon or with it never making it out alive.” Tatsuya’s smile gets wider around the corners. He turns away to cough softly into his hand. “You are very impatient, Taiga.” 

“Come on now, Tatsuya.” 

“Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me.”

“You too, Kuroko?”

“Well,” another voice says and Taiga’s head whips around to see Riko, sat at a table a small distance away, turned into his direction with Momoi by her side and a furrow to her brow. “You are a little impatient.” 

Taiga takes a moment to look from her to Momoi, then to Takao whose face is pressed against Midorima’s shoulder as his own shake in silent laughter, then to Tatsuya, to Kuroko and back to Tatsuya. “This is bullying,” he declares, standing with a shake of his head, “and not true. Just you watch, I’ll show you.” 

He grabs a pack of marshmallows for himself from a nearby table so he doesn’t have to get up and tramp over to Tatsuya’s side to steal a fresh one in case he does mess up. Which he won’t, because he’s not too impatient. Taiga is a very patient person, he thinks, and prides himself on the fact that he hasn’t left his own room spontaneously after having to share it with– 

Now hold on. 

Taiga narrows his eyes, freezing on the spot with one leg in the air like some sort of bird. Something isn’t right here. He was just minorly ganged up on and ridiculed enough that even Akashi spared a laugh, albeit a politer one. Midorima laughed. Murasakibara just looked inconvenienced by his own shit but Taiga’s sure he secretly enjoyed this. 

And isn’t there always someone right there, first row seat, every time something embarrassing happens to Taiga?

He half expects to suddenly hear an annoyingly loud voice jumping in on the fun and Taiga’s head whips around in search so he can stop this before it even happens. He’s sure that idiot is even more impatient than Taiga, which is easy to accomplish – since Taiga’s patience is on a normal level. 

His eyes jump around, half expecting Aomine to materialize right in front of him to go “BOO!” or some other stupid shit when his eyes stop on Kise. He’s sitting next to Akashi – how the hell did he miss that? – on a log not even far away from where Taiga just sat. Kise’s hands move as his lips do the same, Akashi and Mayuzumi both nodding along every now and then. 

Kise’s hair appears brighter in the light from the fire, similar to molten gold or the sunset. 

Taiga narrows his eyes, looking around some more, coming back to Kise when he doesn’t find Aomine anywhere and Kise decides to lean back at this exact moment, revealing him. 

Aomine is sitting on the floor, sideways to face Akashi and in between Kise’s legs. His head is leaned back against Kise’s thigh, his arms crossed loosely. Half of his face is thrown into shadows, but Taiga can guess from the way he looks completely at peace that he’s probably out cold. 

No wonder he hasn’t been chiming in, Taiga thinks and then shakes his head. He continues on his way then, sitting back down next to Kuroko with a sigh, their knees bumping together when he rips open the marshmallows in one swift move.

“Ah, there you are,” Kuroko says, “what took you so long?”

“Hanamiya was hogging the rest of the marshmallows,” Kagami says. It’s not a complete lie because he is hogging the pack of marshmallows that seems to belong to him, but Kuroko doesn’t need to know that it’s not the complete truth either. 

Honestly, Taiga doesn’t even know why he doesn’t say the truth, but since he’s walked into Aomine and Kise in the clearing like that, he’s been feeling as if it’s the wrong thing to gossip about – something inside of him twists when he imagines someone else gossiping about those two. 

He also doesn’t want to seem like a weirdo with how many times he’s seen this happen so far. He takes a marshmallow and shoves it onto the stick he stole from Takao without him noticing. 

“You really want to do this, Taiga? Are you sure you don’t want me to roast one for you?” 

“Hey, quiet over there!” Taiga snaps and Tatsuya laughs, handing his own marshmallow to Atsushi once he’s squished it between two crackers. “Okay, so, Kuroko. The first thing you need to do is put the marshmallow on a stick, right..” 

“Right.” 

“Then you carefully hold it over the fire and let it absorb the heat.” 

“Sure.” 

“And then–”

“Kagami-kun?” 

“What now?” 

“I do know how to roast marshmallows the right way.” 

….

...

“What the hell, okay, and ? Watch anyway? Watching a professional do it is the best way to learn something, now shut up and check this out.”

v.

RIko stops their last practice match of the day, two weeks into their stay and when they’ve officially crossed the halfway mark, with a raised hand. “Seirin, can you come here for a second?” 

It takes a moment, but their team manages to stand together with Taiga being the last to join them because he’s trying to detangle himself from Rakuzan’s Hayama, who starts biting him in the forearm as if he’s either a feral animal or twelve years old. 

“Erm,” Riko says, her eyes leaving the tooth marks on Taiga’s skin and landing on Takao. He stands out with his orange jacket and gigantic grin, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “Only Seirin, Takao-kun.” 

“Yeah?” he asks with a glint in his eyes Taiga doesn’t like very much. “Where’s the problem?” 

“You’re not part of this team.” 

“Ouch,” Takao says with an even bigger smile, putting a hand on his chest in a very unserious matter. “Hit me where it hurts, why don’t you?” He takes his hand off and waves it around for a moment. “Go on, go on. Standing here was easier than tracking through the entire gym to where Shin-chan sticks out like a sore thumb to see what Nakatani-san has to say. I’m guessing it won’t be anything special considering every other coach is talking to their team, too.” 

Taiga stands there, looks at Momoi, then at Takao who puts his elbow on Kuroko’s shoulder to lean on it and back to Momoi. “Neither of you is part of Seirin. How come no one has mentioned Momoi?” He feels a jab delivered to his side, clenches his teeth and adds, “no offense, Momoi. Not that we don’t want you here or anything like that.” 

“None taken, no worries.” Momoi folds her hands behind her back. “I’m very much not part of your school, but I’m also not responsible for coaching Tōō. And I’m sure Dai-chan can handle himself without me.” 

At the mention of him, Taiga looks over to where the Tōō team is gathered around their coach. Now that Taiga has a moment to observe, he thinks it’s kind of off putting that a man coaching basketball looks unnaturally fresh and what some others might consider as attractive. Then his eyes slide off the coach, over Imayoshi and land on Aomine. 

Aomine, who stands at the very back, hands on his hips and looks back at Taiga with a bored expression. Well, it’s bored until Taiga grimaches, slightly annoyed at being caught staring. Then Aomine, without changing his expression, removes a hand from his hips and puts it behind his back.

One finger after another gets put down until he’s flipping Taiga off across the entire gym. 

Taiga has half a mind to do the same when Riko clears her throat and Taiga’s limp uselessly drops to his side again. Riko’s brows are furrowed when he risks a glance at her, a frown tugging at her mouth and her arms crossed, clipboard stuck under her bicep.

“Kagami-kun,” Kuroko says. “Perhaps you shouldn’t engage in this kind of behavior from Aomine-kun. He’s too skilled at hiding it from people with authority.”

“Kagami-kun,” Riko says and Taiga’s ‘I didn’t even flip him off, what are you attacking me for?’ gets drowned out by the look she sends him. She doesn’t add anything, just sighs and uncrosses her arms, successfully ignoring Takao’s chuckles. “Now, I called you guys here because we got notice from an official weather warning for tonight. Nothing too serious, but the groundskeepers advised us to let everyone know about it.” 

Hyūga takes off his glasses and starts cleaning them with the bottom of his shirt. “Thank you, Riko. Is there anything to consider? Any precautions?” 

Precautions? Taiga is about to ask about this but then he takes an actual look outside and all the trees close by the two main buildings and remembers that they’re basically surrounded by the woods. 

“Well, the administration would like everyone to stay inside as it rolls over us, which won’t be much of a problem considering the reports say it’ll basically arrive in the middle of the night. Another good thing is that if you’re a heavy sleeper, you’ll breeze right through this.”

Kuroko raises his hand as if they’re back in the Seirin High building and confined to a classroom, learning about.. shapes.. and.. other stuff instead of standing in the middle of a gym surrounded by basketball crazy jocks, them included. “What about our electronics? Should we leave the plugged out?” 

“We were informed that the buildings are equipped with the regular lightning rods,” Momoi chimes in, “so, technically, it should be fine to have anything plugged in, and it’s entirely up to you to decide if you want to keep stuff in or out but I’d vote against it. Just to be sure.”

Taiga kind of dissociates during the rest of the conversation, but he’s present enough to notice when it’s over and snaps out of it with a huff. “We got interrupted because there’ll be a little thunderstorm?” Taiga questions and immediately gets another elbow jammed into his side, as players from other teams walk by them. “Ouch! What now?” 

“You’re being insensitive.”

“How is what I said being insensitive? It’s the truth; I’ve seen enough storms to run out of fingers if I tried to count them.” 

“Kagami, I have a question,” Takao says and slides right up to him, somehow managing to throw an arm around Taiga’s shoulders despite the difference in height between them. The way Takao grins at him looks a little evil to Taiga. “If someone were to inform you that a location you’re really interested in visiting frequently gets guests on the furry side,  would you be glad that someone informed you about it or not?” 

Taiga has a moment of absolute insanity in which he has no idea what Takao is trying to say here because his mind is stuck on some of the words he’s said, not their meaning and definitely not them together. Which is why Taiga, with the eloquence of someone trying to inform another person of something serious and precious, bursts out, “Furries?” 

Taiga is faintly aware of Riko smacking her own forehead and Momoi patting her shoulder.

“Ha?” Aomine yells. 

“Furries?” Midorima exclaims, followed by a very disappointing sounding, “Takao.”

“I didn’t even say that!”

“Yes, you did!” Taiga says with the confidence of someone who actually listened to their conversation partner. 

“No, I did not. Nuh uh, listen to me,” Takao says and pulls Taiga closer with the arm he still has wrapped around his shoulders that now slips around his neck in a totally non-threatening way. “Visitors on the furry side does not mean furries, you absolutely incredible mind. I was talking about dogs , you know? Ones like Nigou that you are afraid of.”

Taiga blinks. “Oh.” 

“Yeah, oh.” 

“Well, if someone told me beforehand, I suppose I’d be glad about it? Thankful, maybe? Dunno, honestly, since Kuroko never does.” 

“Nigou does not follow simple rules that would allow me to announce his presence at a place beforehand.” 

Now Taiga has no fucking idea what that is even supposed to mean but he genuinely doesn’t even want to try his hand at deciphering that one. 

“Switch Nigou and dogs in general with storms and you have the answer you’re looking for.”

Riko leans forward, her eyebrows still furrowed and embarrassment from Taiga’s outburst still visible on her face. “There might be people here who are afraid of thunderstorms, Kagami-kun. It’s only the right thing to do beforehand, with the time it’s supposed to happen so they can prepare in whichever way they deem necessary.” 

Okay, well. Taiga supposes this makes a little sense. If someone gave him the chance to know about Nigou’s appearance before just being surprised with his presence, and excluding the cryptic thing Kuroko just said, Taiga believes he’d feel a little better and could at least attempt to get himself ready for it. 

He gets it, he truly does, but still – 

“Afraid of thunderstorms?” he asks, one of his hands finding Kuroko’s elbow just a second before it hits him again in the spot Taiga’s sure will sport a nasty bruise in the following days. “But that’s just the weather. Who’s scared of a little nature?” 

Kuroko’s turns away for a moment, Taiga’s grip on his elbow dislodging. “Kagami-kun,” he says, “you say all this, and yet you’re scared of this .” When he whirls around again, it’s with Nigou between his hands. He holds him up as if he’s a child, brings him close to Taiga’s face, close enough that Taiga can feel his breath. 

Taiga physically recoils, bumping into Takao and nearly falling on his ass. “Okay, okay, fair enough! I get it now!” Goosebumps spread over his body, a shiver runs down his spine. “Now please stop holding him up like this. You’ve made your point.” 

Nigou barks, tail wagging wildly as if he’s agreeing with Taiga and Taiga grimaces.

***

Just as Riko had told them, dark clouds started to roll over the clear sky right after all of them had their dinner in the cafeteria. The lights in the hallways blink on by themselves once the natural sunlight disappears and the sky is slowly but surely getting covered.

Taiga changes into a fresh shirt and shorts after coming out of the bathroom, much earlier than he usually does – less to be careful for himself and more for Kuroko, who urged him to get ready for bed before Taiga had even had both of his feet inside their room. He takes his bedside table once he’s done, carrying it over to the space between his and Kuroko’s beds, plugging the small lamp on it back in. Then he plugs out Kuroko’s own lamp.

Kuroko, who’s now holding one of the basketball magazines Taiga offered him just a few minutes ago, looks up for a second to frown at the sudden change in lighting. Then he looks back down. And up again as Taiga throws himself on his own bed, as if contemplating something. Kuroko vanishes into the clothing room without making a single noise, faster than Taiga can blink, and reappears with.. flashlights? 

They’re small, the color of Kuroko’s hair – as is every single accessorie he owns, which is a little crazy but endearing as well – and perfectly lays in his palm. “Kagami-kun, catch.” 

Taiga’s fingers wrap around the cool metal of the flashlight, and he watches as Kuroko hands out the other two to Kise and Aomine, keeping one for himself. “My mother packed these for me just in case. if one of us has to get out of bed tonight and it’s still storming. Just to be safe.” 

“Thanks, Kurok–AH!” Taiga yelps, slapping his hands in front of his eyes as his sight is suddenly assaulted by a flash bright enough to rival the actual sun. “What the hell?”

“Ah,” he can hear Aomine say from the other side of the room. “So they do work.” 

Kuroko makes a clicking sound with his tongue. “Aomine-kun, did you think I brought flashlights that weren’t working?” 

“Don’t put words in my mouth. Just wanted to check.” 

“And you decided to aim that blast directly into my eyes? What the hell?”

“Fucking hell, stop yelling, I can hear you just fine at room volume. Didn’t expect it to be that bright, my bad.” 

“Kagami-kun, are you okay?” Kuroko asks him His mattress dips close to his legs, probably from Kuroko sitting down on it. A hand shakes his shoulder. “Kagami-kun, can you hear me?” 

“I got hit in the eyes, not the ears,” Taiga says, wrapping his own hand around Kuroko’s wrist and giving it a squeeze before letting it go and slowly, ever so slowly, opening his eyes. He blinks against the tears that pool into his eyes, willing them away until his sight is clear again. “My god, that’s insane.” 

Kise points a beam of his own light to the wall closest to him and away from Taiga’s poor, innocent eyes. “They are really bright. One would be enough to light up this entire room.” 

Kuroko half turns on Taiga’s bed. “Those were newly developed, some of the best on the market. I believe they don’t operate with normal bulbs and batteries and instead with LED electricity.” 

“Is that not what cars use? How is that legal?” 

“Well, it shouldn’t be,” Taiga says, flopping down onto his back and making Kuroko nearly fall to the floor with it. He puts a hand over his closed eyes, trying to will away the bright spots printed to the inside of his eyelids. “I feel like I just had a near death experience.” 

“Dramatic as hell and for what?” 

“Let me turn on my flashlight, point it at you and then we’ll see who’s being dramatic.” 

“All talk, no action. You couldn’t even come over here if you wanted to, fucking loser.” 

“And whose fault is that ?” 

“Stop,” Kuroko says and in the very same second the door leading to the balcony slides open with enough force to create a loud slamming sound when it does. Taiga opens his eyes to see Kuroko look down at his hand in open wonder 

Taiga snorts and then Kuroko gets up to close and lock the sliding door, whatever he’s had at the tip of his tongue now forgotten and unimportant He closes his eyes again, listening to the rustle of pages being turned and Kuroko’s quiet footfalls as he returns to his own bed. 

***

Taiga snaps awake with the faintest of gasps, a scream threatening to rip free from his throat. His eyes open to pure and total darkness. His pulse is racing in his ears and it takes a moment for him to remember where he is and what’s happening.

The echo of the clap of thunder that ripped him out of sleep still echoes in his ears, the wind outside whistling deeply, creating a song Taiga has heard many times before but can never quite recall in the mornings that follow. 

Another clap of thunder sounds, followed by a flash of lighting bright enough to illuminate the entire room and long enough that Taiga can see the shadows it throws, stretching across the floor and reaching out to the furniture and beds like long, thin fingers. 

Another noise, though this one comes from the inside of the room; a rustle of blankets as someone is apparently twisting and turning in their bed This is followed by a sigh, annoyance and something else Taiga cannot identify weighing down the sound. A second sigh follows the first one. Then, words. 

“Aomine-cchi.” Kise’s voice is a whisper, quiet enough to easily be drowned out by the storm raging outside and possibly not to disturb anyone fast asleep; even someone as easy of a sleeper as Kuroko. There isn’t an answer and Kise sighs again. “Aomine-cchi,” he repeats, not any louder than the first time but with urgency. Kise’s voice faintly breaks and Taiga frowns at the sliding door leading outside, not wanting to move and at the same time feeling as if he’s intruding. “Come on . Are you seriously asleep?” 

“Not anymore.” Aomine’s voice is deeper than usual, a mixture of disuse and sleep giving it a funny rasp. “What.” 

“I can’t sleep.” 

“Try closing your eyes.” 

“Aomine-cchi,” Kise says, tension audible in the way he pronounces each letter. Taiga bets that if he could see Kise right now, he’d have one of those expressions that’s caught between a grimace and a smile. “I cannot sleep.” 

“Hm? Yeah, you just said tha–oh.” Aomine suddenly sounds a lot more awake and honestly it’s not any of Taiga’s business what they’re talking about, not even a little bit, but now he’s curious. What does that mean ? There’s another rustle of fabric. Alright, alright, shit. Move over?” 

“What?” 

“Is the darkness making it harder for you to listen? Move your ass to the side, Kise.” Despite the curses Aomine uses, his voice doesn’t sound the way it does when it’s aimed at Taiga. With Taiga, they’re wielded and sharpened like weapons, like something with the intent to hit and maybe bruise and hurt. Now, he almost sounds.. kind. “Stop hogging the blanket. Here,” he says, something sliding over wood – possibly the bedside table, “put this in your ear.” 

“Your finger?” 

“My fing–No, Kise, not my finger. The earphone I’m holding.” 

“Oh!” Kise doesn’t say anything else but Taiga can hear him move around now. Then he lets out a sudden, quiet yelp. “Ugh, you’re heavy!”

“Shut the hell up,” Aomine says, quieter than before. “Just press play already. Concentrate on that. In through the nose, out through the mouth, remember. Here, hold this.” Something thumps softly and he yawns.

“What’s even in there to make it that heavy,” Kise mumbles, before yawning as well. More rustling, much more faint than before. 

“You.” 

Taiga has a very short second in which he wishes it wasn’t the middle of the night so he could start gagging in disgust. This is followed by wishing he wasn’t awake so he wouldn’t even have to witness this or live on with the knowledge of this conversation.

“You’re such an ass,” Kise says. “Saying such things out of nowhere. Your head is filled with basketball, insults, rocks, useless stuff like curses to bring up the next time you see Kag–” 

“Mention him again and I’m leaving.”

“And you’re an actual baby. An overgrown one.” Aomine huffs quietly and Kise yawns again. Taiga’s eyes, by now, have adjusted to the darkness and he’s able to faintly make out the silhouette of the trees closest to their room. Their leaves twirl wildly in the storm, the branches bending in angles unnatural on any other day. “Thank you, Aomine-cchi.” 

“Hmm.” Aomine sounds like he’s halfway back to sleep by now and Taiga wishes, once again, it wasn’t the middle of the night so he could get up, leave, put his head under running water or go to the gym to attempt forgetting what he just witnessed. 

And then, finally, there is silence. 

Now that Taiga can listen to his own thoughts again, he realizes how dry his mouth is. He leans on his elbow and blindly throws his hand out to grab his water bottle and take a sip. Right when he’s in the middle of pouring more water into his mouth, a flash of lightning appears. 

It lights up the entire room, enough for Taiga to see the entirety of it. Enough for him to see Kise’s head propped up by more pillows than he himself has in his own bed, a cord connecting the phone in his hand to his ear, eyes barely open. Next to him is Aomine, his head on Kise’s shoulder, face turned to the side and impossible to make out more before the room is thrown into darkness again. 

Taiga somehow manages to swallow his water without spitting it everywhere despite wanting to. He flops down on his mattress, arms thrown out and eyes tightly closed, hoping the exhaustion in his bones grabs him soon and drags him back to sleep. 

It’s barely a few minutes later, Taiga’s consciousness on its way out, when something occurs to him. 

He could have just put his own headphones on, or pressed one ear to the mattress and covered the other one with either his pillow or blanket. It’s not like Kise and Aomine were loud in any way. 

A curse pops into Taiga’s head, a very colorful one that disappears again as soon as he’s fully thought about it, slipping through the cracks into the darkness, with him following as he finally, finally goes back to sleep. 

+ i.

Players of different teams start dropping like flies when they have just about a week at the camp left. 

Taiga isn’t surprised when he hears about this, and sees the effect it has on their practises, not with all the coughing and sneezing he’s been hearing not only during dinner but even during the occasional walks through the hallway. He’s even less surprised when he gets a rather miserable sounding text from Tatsuya, informing him that his brother is down too, as is Murasakibara. 

Considering he’s the one who sneezed into Taiga’s face, Taiga supposes he should be glad he isn’t down with anything. So far.. he feels perfectly fine. 

When he voices as much to Kuroko during one of their water breaks that both of them take outside, standing under a tree and enjoying the warm breeze, Kurko takes a look at Taiga that lasts long enough that Taiga kinda begins squirming a little before he says, “I don’t mean to be rude,” he says, which is already a great start, and then takes another sip of his water before continuing, “but perhaps this is possible due to all the hot air contained in Kagami-kun’s head.” 

“Yeah, yeah, exactly,” Taiga says with a nod, the words that left Kuroko hitting him like a brick to the face a second later. “Hold on, what ? Are you calling me an idiot ?” 

“Hear, hear!” Aomine’s voice calls out. He stands at the entrance to the gym, lifting his bottle as if in toast before another arm tugs him out of the way and back inside 

“No, I didn’t say that,” Kuroko says, but offers no other explanation to disprove him calling Taiga an idiot and airhead both. Just like that. 

Which.. okay, fine. 

Taiga won’t disagree that maybe, potentially on a very rare, or sometimes even less rare occasions he’s being a bit of a dumbass. But.. who isn’t, right? Surely there’s no one out there who can confidently point at themselves and declare they’ve never done anything stupid in their entire lives. Akashi, maybe, but even then, Taiga would doubt that. 

So.. being a dumbass? Sure, he is. Hell, he’d even go as far and say that it’s part of him by now. But being an idiot? Hell no. No matter how much Aomine might like to call him one, Taiga would like to think that not only are dumbass and idiot two different pairs of shoes, but also that he can only claim one of those titles for himself. 

By the time Taiga’s nodding to himself like – well, like a bit of a moron, if he’s completely honest – their break is over and done with and RIko is standing at the entrance to the gym, waving them over. 

They trudge back over, change their shoes, put their water bottles back in the spots they’ve claimed as theirs on the first day. After joining the rest of their team, Riko is fast to divide them up and send them to different ends of the gym for simple rounds of three on three. 

Usually, they would’ve had a bigger match against a broader group of people but since so many of them are sitting out and others are stuck in their beds, that won’t work. 

Through sheer luck, Taiga and Kuroko are teamed up together and told to go to the far left. Since nothing can ever be simple in Taiga’s life, however, they’re quickly joined by Kise and Aomine. Both of them sport matching yellow bands around their wrist that signals them being in the same team. 

“Not again,” Aomine says when his eyes meet Taiga’s and Taiga doesn’t have the energy to come up with something in return because he, for once, agrees – and that alone is enough to make him check his own forehead. “And you got Tetsu? Give me a break.” 

“Aomine-kun.” Kuroko nods once, with one of those smiles that aren’t visible anywhere but his eyes.

Sometimes Taiga goes to wonder when exactly he’s gotten to know Kuroko well enough to notice things like this? And when he does, his face always gets hot and he feels like he’s having a heart attack. It makes him stop, because what the hell does that mean, right? 

(in secret, where no one else will be able to guess, Taiga admits that he knows what this is. he knows it, he has known for quite a while, he’s familiar with what it’s called, but he’s not ready to to speak it out yet. he’s not ready to acknowledge it fully yet without feeling like it’ll cause a full blown panic attack) 

Kise puts a hand on his hip. “You’re acting as if I’m not useful. If I were anyone else, I’d be hurt, Aomine-cchi.” 

“Well, I didn’t say that but Tetsu’s Tetsu and you’re.. like..” If Taiga were someone with even less manners than he has, if he were truly a mean bastard, he wouldn’t be trying to hide his chuckles in the collar of his shirt. “.. not.” 

This brilliantly strawn together sentence is accompanied by a faint hand motion.

“Wow,” Kise says, the corner of his lips twitching into a smile. “Astute observation. Is there more where that came from?” 

“Shut up. You know what I mean.” 

“I don’t think I do. Mind explaining it to me?” 

“It’s like..” Aomine makes some unexplainable hand motions that make Taiga a little dizzy when he follows them with his eyes. 

He raises his brows because what . Weirdly enough, he thinks he kind of gets it but he also really does not? Is Kise not literally able to replicate all of them without much issues? He supposes it’s not exactly the same as paying with Kuroko, but still. 

Kuroko takes a deep breath. “I take back what I said earlier,” he says. “I apologize for calling you an idiot, Kagami-kun. It seems to me that you have direct competition from Aomine-kun.” 

Aomine promptly looks like a fish pulled out of water, his mouth hanging open. 

Before he can say anything, however, and before Taiga can process what Kuroko said, another voice chimes in. “Aw, are you guys already starting all the fun without us?” 

Takao appears behind Kise and Aomine, stepping out from behind their taller frames with a wave and an amused grin plastered to his face. And then Akashi steps out from behind him, holding up a hand in greeting and nodding at all of them. 

“How very rude to let us out of this.” 

Taiga doesn’t react to that though, his eyes caught on the bright band around Akashi’s wrist, his other hand holding a polished basketball. “Hold on,” he says, lifting his own hand and using it to point at Aomine, “So not only do you have Kise, you also get Akashi.” 

“Why are you saying that as if I’m not worth anything?”

“Because Kagami-kun still lacks manners.”

“ Rude .” 

“My point exactly.” 

“What?” Taiga waves his hand around in an attempt to diffuse the situation because now hold on. “What, I didn’t mean to make it sound as if you’re not good or anything like that but–” 

“Oh, I get it, don’t worry.” The grin Takao sports grows even wider and if Taiga has learned one thing during his time in Seirin and through all the matches they’ve faced Shūtoku in, it’s that this cannot mean anything good. “You’re right, I’m simply a small fry compared to Akashi and his talents, though I hope you’ll accept my lowly self and my help in this training match.” 

“Hold on, I–” 

“If Shin-chan could hear this.” 

“Oh, yeah,” Kise chimes in, hand still on his hip. “Where is he? I haven’t seen Midorima-cchi all day, now that I think about it.” 

“In bed, hopefully. He’s got one of those nasty coughs that make him sound like he’s barking. Ironically enough, his lucky item of the day is a little plush dog that he tried to use as a weapon when I pointed it out.” 

Akashi twirls the ball between his hands. “Mayuzumi is currently resting as well,” he says, a small smile on his lips. It’s such a stark difference from what he looked like when Taiga got to know him, blank faced and crazy as hell, but somehow this is more intimidating. “If my being here counts as an immense imbalance, I would be willing to swap places with someone else after a few rounds.”

“See, now that’s a smart guy! Take notes,” Aomine comments with a glare in Taiga’s direction. 

He didn’t even do anything to deserve this!

“You have no idea,” Kise says with a sigh, his eyes fond. 

“Well, if no one has any arguments against it, shall we?” Akashi asks before letting the ball bounce off the floor and catching it without looking away from the rest of them. “Kuroko, Kagami, Takao,” he says, his maroon eyes flicking from person to person. “Good luck.” 

***

Taiga doesn’t know why he thinks it’s sometimes easier to play three-on-three, he really doesn’t. 

(this is another lie, he does know. it’s because usually, during practice, he’s playing with his own team whose progress he is witnessing firsthand, and because this is the generation of miracles – plus takao)

Truly, it’s not. If Taiga were to be completely honest, he’d admit that the first part of this entire thing is him getting his ass handed to him by Kise, Aomine and Akashi. Though Akashi is much nicer about the entire thing. 

At one point he starts giving Taiga tips as he plays fast enough to make Taiga tangle his own legs in with each other, which is truly so very nice of him but also extremely patronizing. He can’t stay mad at Akashi, though, not when he helps Taiga up again with more strength than you’d think a man of his height would possess.

Takao and Akashi swap places after some rounds, the bright band on Akashi’s wrist wandering to Takao and Taiga in no way wants to say that the games are easier now that those two have swapped but, well. 

And then Kise and Kuroko swap, which makes the entire thing even more fun until Taiga is on the receiving end of Kuroko’s vanishing drive combined with Aomine’s agility. Then the fun’s over. 

It’s during one of Aomine’s attacks when it happens. 

He charges forward, sidesteps Taiga faster than Taiga can fully process only to get the ball stolen from him by Akashi, who hands it to Kise fast enough that the ball blurs in front of Taiga’s eyes. 

And Kise walks one step, just one. It’s only because Taiga is so focused on Kise’s face, trying to catch his gaze, that he notices exactly when something goes.. very wrong. 

His eyes go from focused and sharp to hazy in a matter of seconds. The color leaves his face in a rush, his cheeks, flushed from exercise, clinging to the pale canvas of his face. Kise seems to attempt to take a step, and completely fumbles. He loses his balance. His legs wobble, and he tilts to the side, as if he’s going to faint. 

Taiga moves, but he knows he’s not fast enough to make it in time, but someone else is. Aomine rushes past him in a blur, wrapping one arm around Kise and bracing himself on one knee, leaning Kise against his opposite leg. His eyes go wide. “Oi, Kise? Kise? Hey, don’t do any stupid now.” 

Akashi lowers himself to his knees on Kise’s other side. He takes Kise’s hand, pressing his fingers against his pulse point. The ball that Kise had been holding bounces uselessly off the floor, coming to a stop against the wall. 

It’s now that Taiga, over the racing of his own heart, notices the complete silence in the gym around them – broken by the rushed slaps of shoes hitting the floor as someone comes closer. 

“His pulse is normal,” Akashi says. A frown clings to the corner of his mouth, his eyebrows turn down and his eyes scan Kise’s face. “He’s too pale, his cheeks flushed. Check for a fever.” 

Kise’s ridiculously long lashes flutter as his eyes open slightly. His voice comes out way, way too weak when he says, “Aomine..cchi? I don’t feel good.” 

“Yeah, no shit,” Aomine comments, his voice hard and in complete contrast to the hand that brushes away blond bangs to feel Kise’s forehead. “Fucking hell, you’re hot.” 

A snort escapes Kise. “Aw, thanks. Don’t feel too hot right now.” 

“Kise-kun!” Riko attempts to stop near Taiga but doesn’t quite manage and nearly takes Taiga down like some sort of human bowling ball as she barrels straight into him. Her fingernails bury into his arm as he reaches out to stabilize the both of them. “What happened, is he–” 

Akashi lets go of Kise’s wrist, putting the back of his hand against Kise’s cheeks, then his forehead. “He fainted. Most likely as result from a mixture of exhaustion and the slight fever he has. Use the back of our hand, Aomine.” 

“Kise-kun, do you want us to call someone? We need to get you into bed. Someone needs to get someone who can bring him–”

Kuroko gently puts his hand on Riko’s shoulder. “RIko-san,” he says, “I don’t think that will be necessary.” 

“Yeah, don’t bother,” Aomine interrupts. He shares a glance with Akashi and Akashi nods before removing his hands and standing up as Aomine pushes his other arm under Kise’s knees. He rises without any protests, holding Kise as if he weighs nothing. “I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure, what about–” Riko’s voice quietens down as Aomine starts walking to the exit without another word. He doesn’t stop for anything, not for their belongings or to swap out his shoes, just walks straight out with fast, long strides. “--that..?” 

Taiga watches as Akashi makes eye contact with Momoi as she approaches, and then nods as she takes Riko’s arm. 

“But what – what about his belongings and –”

“Kagami-kun and I will take care of them. Don’t worry about it.” 

“Are you sure–” 

“Yeah, Riko. It’s no biggie, don’t worry.” 

“Kise is in good hands. I’m confident that he will be back at full health quickly.”

***

Dinner is a relatively quiet affair after that.

More players than Taiga initially thought are resting in their beds, and Kuroko and Taiga end up sitting at a table with Akashi and Takao – it’s less by chance or choice and more by force of Takao’s gigantic and incredibly loud mouth that makes his voice loud enough to echo in the room they’re in. 

It doesn't take more than three minutes of them pushing their food around on their plates for Takao to declare he’s not going to return to his own room tonight. He follows this up by saying that he somehow managed to bribe their coach to hand him the keys to a completely empty room.

“Shin-chan likes to turn his lucky items into projectile weapons at every chance he gets when I annoy him, so I think it’s best for me like this until he gets better,” Takao says, gesturing with his free hand. “He’s a moody, sick person.” 

“Midorima has always been rather fascinating when dealing with stuff he’s prepared to help others for.” Akashi takes a sip of his water, a private smile whispered against the rim of his cup. “Mayuzumi tends to do this, too, though he’s rather.. grouchy and.. like a very tall cactus the rest of the time anyway.” 

“Never would’ve guessed,” Taiga says through a mouthful of rice. He promptly chokes when Kuroko rams his elbow into his side. After emptying most of the water in his cup, he whirls around. “Can you stop doing that?” 

“Can Kagami-kun start having manners?” Kuroko retorts. “Talking with a full mouth is impolite, you’re going to keep choking. You’re being rude.” 

Taiga suddenly feels like sticking out his tongue but decides against it when he remembers himself, and their company. “Since when are you buddy-buddy with Mayuzumi?” He risks a glance at Akashi, but he still sits there with a pleasant expression. “No offense, of course.”

“You don’t have to be close to someone to offer them some respect.”

“I didn’t say you had to.” 

“Some things do not need to be said out loud to be heard, Kagami-kun.”

Taiga swallows. He has the sudden thought that this isn’t even about Mayuzumi or his manners, but something completely different instead. And he has absolutely no idea what the topic behind all of this is supposed to be, which means he’s unequipped to keep going back and forth, and especially because Kuroko has a glint in his eyes. 

Something tells Taiga he’s waiting for Taiga to say something, and now Taiga’s a little afraid. Not of Kuroko, he doesn’t think that is truly possible, but of blurting out something he shouldn’t reply with and disappointing Kuroko in return. 

Heats rolls over his cheeks and he lowers his eyes to the table. 

“Right,” Takao says, putting down his chopsticks. He tilts his hair, dark hair falling over his sharp eyes. “Are you guys planning to go back to your room like that?” 

“Like what?”

Takao turns and shares a glance with Akashi before Akashi takes another sip. Waving his hand around in their direction, Takao says, “Like that .” 

Now it’s Taiga and Kuroko’s turn to look at each other. Taiga, for his part, can say that he doesn't really follow what Takao’s trying to imply with this – he feels a little better when the same confusement is visible on his partner’s face.

“I don’t think I follow.” 

“I believe what Takao is trying to say,” Akashi starts, “is that your bickering, while endearing and entertaining, most likely doesn’t create the best environment in a room to help Kise find the rest he needs.”

Oh, right. 

Kise . 

Taiga doesn’t know how that managed to slip his mind but he promptly feels terrible about it; so much, in fact, that he barely notices when Kuroko asks Takao if there’s enough space available in his extra room to fit the two of them in, too. 

Huh, Taiga thinks but swallows it back down before it falls out of his mouth. It’s probably for the best if they stay somewhere else for this night; even if Kuroko and Taiga manage to be civil again – which they obviously will – there's still Aomine. And being civil with him is something Taiga cannot bring himself to be. 

During matches? Sure, maybe. 

Like this, however? Not a chance. 

Bringing his hands above his head, Takao lets his back curl over the back of his chair in a stretch. “It just so happens,” he says, “that I still have two free beds. Congratulations, you’re in!” 

“Two? But when who..” Taiga trails off, his eyes meeting Akashi’s. “Oh!”

“Reo wants to take care of Mayuzumi, and I would rather not be in the way and get involved in their fights.”

“Sure..?” 

Something slams down on the table to Taiga’s left and Taiga, not even having heard anyone approach, rightfully flinches hard enough that his shoulder bumps into Kuroko’s. A shudder runs down his spine when he twists around and sees Riko put down two closed containers, silverware and wrapped chopsticks on top. 

“Kagami-kun, Kuroko-kun. Please deliver this to Kise-kun whenever you have the time. Actually, no. Do it as soon as possible to make sure Kise-kun won’t neglect his hydration.”

“Uh.”

“Don’t give me that look, I didn’t make this.” 

“I didn’t–” 

“You did, but it’s fine just this once.” She reaches out to ruffle Taiga’s hair strong enough that it makes up for Taiga’s comment. He’ll have to brush this out at a later time. “The left one is for Kise-kun, the other one is for Aomine-kun. Thanks.” 

Then she walks away again, but not without nodding at both Akashi and Takao first. 

Pushing back his chair with a sigh, Taiga stands up. He takes the containers in his hands, warmth radiating off the bottoms. He glances down at the soft call of his name and shrugs. “I was done eating anyway, might as well do this right away. We would’ve had to get some of our stuff anyway.”

“See, this is being polite.” 

“Fuck off, Takao,” Taiga says, turning and beginning to walk. He doesn’t stop when Kuroko calls his name and for him not to forget his – “Yeah, yeah,” Taiga interrupts, throwing a grin over his shoulder. “I know, don’t even worry about it.” 

And then he’s off, the door of the cafeteria softly swinging shut behind him.

***

Taiga manages not to spill a single thing as he balances both of the food containers on one arm and uses his free hand to shove his key into the door, twist it and then push it open softly. He turns and closes it, making sure to reach out and lift it to avoid the god awful squeak that they discovered in the middle of the night roughly a week ago. 

He quickly slips out of his shoes, padding over the carpet and past the clothing room he needs to go through before he leaves. “Ao–”

“Shut the fuck up,” comes Aomine’s reply before Taiga can even do more than think of what he’s going to say. Aomine’s voice sounds off, it’s a rumble that reminds Taiga of thunder rolling over the sky, quiet as if it’s trapped inside of Aomine’s chest instead of being set free in the sky. 

When Taiga rounds the corner separating his and Kuroko’s half from Aomine’s and Kise’s, Taiga freezes in the split second it takes for him to meet Aomine’s gaze and take in the scene in front of him. 

Aomine is leaning against the headboard, their two beds shoved together, phone in one hand as the other one dangles over Kise’s chest. His arm supports Kise’s head as it’s pillowed between Aomine’s neck and shoulder.

Kise seems dead to the world, face with more color but still less than ideal, cheeks flushed and blind strands tangled, a blanket thrown over him. A folded towel is on his forehead, and his chest moves with the deep breaths he tales. 

But nothing is necessarily out of the ordinary here; the thing that freezes Taiga to his spot, that makes his eyes go wide as if he’s a deer caught in headlights, that makes him feel like the prey that just stepped into the perfect trap laid out for it is the expression on Aomine’s face, the glint in his eyes. 

Here’s a thing: Taiga knows Aomine can be serious and intimidating when he needs to be, he’s seen him be an absolute shithead and downright nasty to numerous people since getting to know him, he’s seen him scare off people without having to put much effort into it, but this; the sharpness of his gaze, the fire hidden by lids half lowered that Taiga doesn’t think he’s ever seen before. 

But then he thinks, no, no. He has seen this on Aomine’s face before, back when he got a glimpse of him walking out of the gym to deck Haizaki in the face, and then right after the fact.

“What?” Aomine asks, the word hitting Taiga like a lightning bolt despite the quiet way it’s said. 

“Food,” Taiga whispers back, and then waits as Aomine seems to consider him for a second before tilting his head to the left and into the direction of the bedside table next to him. “Alright..” 

Taiga takes one step after the other; slowly, carefully, kind of feeling as if he’s going to discover the entire room has been booby trapped if he makes the wrong move and goes faster than at a snail’s pace. He slowly but surely makes his way towards the bedside table, feeling Aomine’s heavy gaze track him as he does. 

“If you wake him up,” Aomine says, causing Taiga to stop with one of his feet in the air and ready to take another step, “I’m going to fucking kill you.” 

Yeah, so Taiga doesn’t doubt him. At all. Not while he’s wearing that expression, but Taiga is also a huge fucking dumbass who should probably learn to shut his mouth more often than he does, which is why he replies, “I don’t think you will.” 

He regrets it almost as soon as it leaves the confinement of mouth, even though it’s the truth. Aomine would definitely throw him out of the window on purpose, but there’s a very, very small chance he’ll do it while he’s holding Kise in a.. very.. tender way. 

Aomine doesn’t deem this with a repose, but Taiga can see that his free hand flips him off. And he did kind of deserve that. 

Taiga eventually makes it to the bedside table, managing to deposit the food and the cutlery with chopsticks without making any noise. He’s relieved, but he doesn’t allow himself to take an actual, proper and deep breath until he’s retreated out of Aonime’s line of sight and to his own side of the room. 

Now he quickly, but still quietly, rushes into the clothing room, grabbing the few items he needs, doing the same with the nightstands and the bathroom. He leaves again once he’s done, still shoving stuff into the bag he took, closing the door quietly behind him. 

As he walks back down the hallway, Taiga has a thought, and it kind of goes like this. Aomine kind of looks at Kise as if Kise possesses the kind of beauty one has to refrain from looking at for extended periods of time, the same way Taiga refrains rom directly gazing into the sun. 

As soon as the thought crosses his mind, Taiga grimaces openly and gags. He’s definitely going to have to wash his mouth and entire head with soap later. He’ll be happy when he can go back home again soon, he fears this place is tuning him weird . 

Aomine looks at Kise like a fucking stupid idiot , that’s what it is. 

( extra: 

The sound of rushing water surrounds him, the falling drops like an orchestra of the finest sorts, its echoes thrown from wall to wall in the bathroom, traveling through the steam built up from the hot water. 

Taiga turns around, letting the steam hit his tense shoulders and back. Leaning forward exposes his neck to it, he watches droplets of water cling to the tips of his hair until they lose their fight with gravity and fall to the tiled floor below.

Water runs up and down his face when he tilts it down, a mimicry of teardrops confused as to where their destination lies until Taiga closes his eyes for a brief second, bends his head further, curling his back in a stretch that allows him to touch the floor before lifting himself up again. 

More water gets pelted against the glass wall and door of the shower, small drops chasing each other on their journey downward, some of them colliding and combining, deciding to share their strength.

The fogged up glass resembles a canvas, hiding anything beneath and– 

An animalistic scream rips free from Taiga’s throat, his heart pounding hard enough in his chest to be hard. His fingers curl into his palms as he tries to escape the stream of water behind him.  He presses his back uselessly against the tiled wall as his water that had been hot and enjoyable one second ago is now ice cold.

“What the fuck,” escapes him and then he grabs the towel he’d thrown over the door to wrap it around his middle and thank god he does because – he grabs the handle of the door and turns and.. it doesn’t turn. Taiga uses his palm to wipe away some of the condensation on the glass to see a chair shoved under the handle, at an angle that makes it impossible for anyone to escape the shower like this. “Wh–what?” 

“Oh, so that’s where my chair went,” a voice drawls from the direction of the sink and Taiga can feel his eye begin to twitch as looks up with a glare. Aomine leans against the sink, the water running on full blast, feet crossed at the ankles and eyes lowered to inspect his nails. “Oops. Must’ve misplaced it by accident.” 

“Aomine? What the hell is this–let me out?” 

“Ah, right, not an accident at all.” He looks up then, eyes narrowing and a smirk on his face. “Right, Suo, idiot. Enjoying your shower?” 

“Fuck you.” 

A brow raises. “Huh. Alright, I’ll leave my chair then.” He makes as if he’s actually about to leave and Taiga screams ‘wait, wait, wait!’. Aomine snorts. “Changed your mind?” 

“What’s your fucking issue?” 

“How am I the one with the issue now? You’re the one stuck in a cold shower.” 

“And whose fucking fault is that?” 

“Yours? Obviously. Taste of your own medicine and all that.” 

Taiga tries to think about what this is supposed to mean, he really does, and he goes through every single day here, trying to find something that might’ve angered Aomine this much and then – “You mean because of that shit with Kise? It was an accident , I apologized !”

“Huh,” Aomine says. “Must’ve missed that part or something.” He shrugs and Taiga kind of wants to start screaming at Aomine that he’s full of dogshit because he literally glared daggers into Taiga, but he refrains. Aomine looks down at his phone. “Odd,” he says and then just.. walks out of the bathroom. 

“Oi, hold on?” 

“I’ll be back in two minutes, stop crying.” 

“I’m not fucking cry– hey , Aomine, you can’t seriously–”

“Enjoy the rest of your shower.” 

“Aomine.” 

There’s no reply. Taiga has half a mind to ram his fist into the glass and break it to escape, because hell if he will let Aomine pull a fast one over him, and Taiga almost gets giddy at chasing Aominen down in his bathrobe with a crazed look in his eyes. But there’s two things holding him back.

One: he’ll be embarrassed. 

Two: there’ll be glass on the floor, which is less than ideal for an escape when you’re barefooted. 

“Aomine.” 

Silence. 

“Aomine, I’m going to kill you when I get out of here, mark my words!”

(he doesn’t. 

he’s way too cold to even attempt that. 

what he does do, though, is get dressed quickly and then whack aomine with the towel that’s still soaking wet and cold. 

“ew, are you fucking stupid? that's your bath towel!” 

“i don’t care! you locked me in the shower!” 

aomine looks at taiga, then calmly bends down, picks up a sock from the floor, pelts it against taiga’s cheek faster than taiga can blink. 

taiga promptly passes out, which, he thinks, is the appropriate response to this.

.. later, much later, kise will tell him that was a clean sock and laugh, and taiga will think back to what imayoshi had said about walking off the balcony and, once again, he will think that it’s a wonderful idea.))

fin,