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It's a wonderful Sunday afternoon when Taiga leaves the doors of the grocery store. The sun isn't too hot, and it's quite breezy. He's already finished with his own personal practice for the day, having gone to the gym for a couple of hours. With two bags flanked on each hand, he makes the trip back to his apartment. He has some Japanese History homework and Biology homework, but he'd rather not deal with those pains in the asses. In fact, Taiga decides that he'll begin brainstorming what exactly he could do to procrastinate.
There's, well, more practice. He would meet up with Kuroko but he's spending the day off with Ogiwara. Since the end of the Winter Cup, the two have been meeting up every month for something or another (mostly basketball, Taiga assumes). So that's off the table. His upperclassmen...maybe he could ring them up? He's also really due for a call with his dad.
In the midst of his musing, Taiga notices a figure standing behind some tall, potted shrubs as he turns the corner. Beside them on the ground are two bags. The individual, whom Taiga realizes is a guy, has a hat and shades, and occasionally peaks from behind the cover of the shrubs.
That's really fucking weird.
So, Taiga goes closer, and not even a few steps later he sees distinct, green hair spilling out of the hat, and lord help him, is this—
"Mi...dorima?" He asks tentatively. Then again, why the fuck was he asking? Who else in Tokyo is both taller than Taiga and has hair the color of matcha?
Midorima jerks his head towards Taiga, looking at him over his angled shades like he snatched his lucky item and promptly vomited over it. The disdain is completely uncalled for, in Taiga's opinion.
"What are you doing here?" Midorima asks accusingly.
"Bro," Taiga starts, "I live in Tokyo. Seirin is in Tokyo. My apartment is like, 5 minutes away."
Midorima's brows shoot up—if it's because Taiga called him bro or out of his own forgetfulness, he isn't sure. Either way, Midorima clicks his tongue and trains his eye back on whatever the hell he was so intently focused on earlier.
Taiga, on a usual day, would move on. Nothing is worth tangling himself with these Miracle freaks. But the papers at home are far from alluring and he can't help but be slightly curious.
"You're being really creepy. You stalking someone?"
"Shut up and keep moving along."
"Fucking hell, you are! Jesus, dude, all that astrology shit has—woah!" Taiga's pulled to the side behind the shrubbery alongside Midorima, the latter's hand tightly gripping his elbow.
"Ow, you bastard! What was that for?"
"I told you to shut up and keep moving. I need to focus." Midorima rips his hand away from Taiga, wiping it vigorously on his shirt.
Taiga rolls his eyes. Drama queen.
"On? I'm sure you have—" Taiga follows his line of sight. "Oh."
"Not a word."
"So why can't you just. Go up to him—"
"Naturally, I can’t. " Midorima hisses.
"—and say hi. Well, why not? You’re attached at the hip anyway. "
Midorima, sounding incredibly indignant, says, "I—what? Ta-Takao and I are not attached at the hip! Get your damn eyesight checked, and perhaps your brain too, while you are at it."
"Hey! My eyes are just great! And you haven't answered my question."
"So you don't deny needing your brain to get checked? Naturally, we agree there." Oh, this prick. Taiga's expression morphs, and he bites his lip hard to stop himself from an outburst. Wow, those mindfulness podcasts are beginning to do wonders.
"Alright, you're pissing me off. You know what, I think I'll go say hi to Takao. Play some ball with him."
But before he could turn and step out, a calloused hand enclosed itself around Taiga's wrist. Taiga looks back and sees Midorima, who appears incredibly constipated at the moment.
Taiga nearly says just that, but Midorima cuts him off.
"...ing him." Shutoku's ace averts his eyes, which Taiga has never seen him do. Ever.
"Hah?"
"...kao...ing him."
"Midorima, what the hell are you—"
"I'm following Takao. I'm sort of. Keeping track of him." Go figure, the man's stalking him.
"O...kay? Is he in, like, trouble or something?"
"No."
"Are you codependent? Can't survive without him sorta deal?"
Oddly enough, Midorima hesitates slightly before saying, "Obviously, no! I wasn't aware 'codependent' was a word in your scarce vocabulary—"
"I'm trying to help you here, goddamnit—"
"Fine. If it makes you calm down and cease screaming—"
Taiga clenches the bags tighter. Don't crash out don't crash out don't crash out don't crash out don't crash out…
The rest of whatever bullshit Midorima decides to end that statement with vanishes into thin air around Taiga's ears, because why spout all of this if you're clearly asking for some help? Taiga's not the one who prolonged this mess.
“So, I woke up and proceeded through my usual morning routine, which involves listening to Oha Asa’s daily horoscope readings, naturally. Today’s horoscope for Cancer is incredibly…vague but is unusually tied to the horoscope of a lo—friend.” Midorima’s face scrunches. “As a Cancer, in order to guarantee the normality of my day, I needed to get myself and said friend the same lucky item.”
“Again, your issue’s what exactly? Your ‘friend’ or whatever—you made it pretty fucking obvious that it's Takao—knows like the worst of your ticks.”
“But that’s not the issue, naturally. Takao, apparently, according to Miyaji-san, listens to Oha Asa every day. For what, I haven't the slightest clue, but that clearly indicates that he’s listened to today’s reading as well.”
Jeez, this is so roundabout. Taiga needs him to stop beating around the bush.
“Midorima. You’re just embarrassed to call him your friend.”
“I’m not embarrassed!” Midorima nearly yells, and his eyes dart back and forth between Taiga, who’s in front of him and Takao, who’s across the street and seated on the bench, scrolling on his phone.
“How does your team even manage you?” Taiga mutters with awe.
“I could ask the same for you, troublemaker.” Oof, he got him there. Taiga can remember all the times Riko and Hyuuga have hit him over the head for something or another. But hey, it’s not entirely his fault! Sometimes the people around him were rude assholes (occasionally it’s him, by accident).
“Well damn, alright, whatever. Let’s move on—”
Before Taiga can even finish his sentence, Midorima declares, “He’s moving. We have to go.”
He, once again, grabs him by his elbow and drags him in a different direction.
“Hey, let go! I can walk by myself!” How exactly is this man dragging him? Height be damned, Taiga’s broader and heavier.
Midorima eventually lets go of him, but he continues stalking away at his own, persistent pace. He clearly expects Taiga to follow him. Against all of his better judgement, he follows. After a few more minutes of walking, they stop (behind another set of shrubs, what is the deal with the shrubbery?).
“He’s going into the shop. Watch the door.”
“How about you show me the lucky item, first?” Because clearly, Taiga’s going to have to be more assertive here.
Midorima shoves the two bags over to his hands. Taiga opens one.
“What the fuck.” He states. It isn’t even a question, at this point. “Why the fuck do you have Yeezys?”
“They are today’s lucky item. But in order for the horoscope to work, I needed—”
Taiga lets out the biggest groan he can. He hopes the disappointment is largely obvious. It sorta makes sense that people here don’t know much about Kanye West. Not to mention, Japan’s only recently started to slowly become more culturally diverse. He still remembers people’s reaction to Papa Mbaye Siki, not to mention their own reaction to him, a fully Japanese dude who’s apparently lived in the U.S. long enough to be gawked at.
But seriously, Midorima’s supposed to be one of the meticulous ones, damnit! C’mon Taiga, don’t crash out….
“Do you even know who Kanye West is?!” He crashes out.
“Who is that?” Midorima remains oddly cool in the face of Taiga’s frustration.
“He’s an American rapper. He’s also a giant, um, racist asshole. You can find better things to spend $100 on.”
“Kagami, I refuse to buy a lucky item of lower quality. Money is not an issue, naturally.”
“Ohhhhh my god, fuck me.” He rolls his eyes and facepalms.
“Stop overreacting and explain, then! If you want to convince me, you need to elaborate and provide evidence, naturally. That’s how debating like a civilized human being works, Kagami.” Midorima pushes up his glasses, which were slowly drooping down the bridge of his nose.
“I thought you did your research before buying shit!”
“Not usually. Typically items are never brand-specific.”
“He—ugh,” Taiga starts, and decides it would be better to just show him.
Taiga brings out his phone from his pocket and rapidly types away, searching for images of Kanye’s far from respectable tweets from various sites. Once he finds some good examples, he shows them to Midorima, whose English is decent enough to comprehend the shit-spectacle of comments. Midorima’s expression morphs from confused to somewhat horrified, which, good. He should be. Taiga himself isn’t a history buff (his history grades both here and there show this), but he would have to be living under a rock to not equate support of Hitler to bad on so many different levels, ragebait or not.
“I see. You are surprisingly aware.” Midorima looks down at the bag, eyes gaining a newfound light. Like reconsideration (for Oha Asa? For Taiga?). “Well. I suppose this time around, I can buy ripoffs.”
Taiga sighs in relief. “Yeah, man, of course you can. Oha Asa doesn’t give a shit about that stuff.” Oh shit, he shouldn’t have said that.
However, Midorima only hums non-committantly. Taiga's not sure if he even heard the last comment.
“I will return these at the end of the day."
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure."
“But," Midorima sighs, “Takao is a lot more interested in western music artists than I am. Surely he would know of Kanye West…” His voice gradually gets quieter, as if he’s muttering more to himself than Taiga.
“What’s the big—ohhh. I mean, he’d probably understand? He’s used to dealing with your weird antics, anyway.”
Midorima, whose green-eyed gaze flits back to the opening of the shop, keeps his eyes trained on the sight of Takao at the cash registers. He, again, hums in consideration. Wow, Taiga’s a bit in disbelief. He’s actually managed to get some of his own comments in and the dude isn’t being mouthy at all.
It quickly becomes apparent that he spoke much too soon about Midorima’s placancy. Without warning, Midorima struts out of the shade and into the sunlight, a man on a mission. Taiga squawks in surprise from the quick turnaround. Up until now, for the past 15 minutes, this four-eyed bastard had just been standing here; half the time he was insulting Taiga and the other half he’d been justifying himself and his own inaction.
Thank god, at least now something’s happening.
After a moment of recovery, Taiga also leaves the cover of the shrubbery and crosses the road. As he reaches the other side, he sees that Midorima and Takao have already begun talking. Takao pokes Midorima on his bicep, an easygoing smile on his handsome face. Midorima simply looks more constipated than ever, but at some point his ears turn a faint red.
For someone with complete awareness of his surroundings on the court, he looks shocked to see Taiga here.
“Yo, Kagami! What’s Seirin’s ace doing here on this fine day?” Takao waves at him, and the red bag hanging on his wrist sways with the motion.
“I was out shopping and I saw Mi—” From the corner of his eye, Midorima glares daggers at him, threatening him to finish the sentence as it happened. Well, ha ha, he’s not scared at all. But, there are some rare times when even Taiga knows to be hush-hush about things, so he acquiesces the best he can.
“—this guy over here taking a stroll. You know. The usual.”
He fails and winces at the poor lie. Midorima also visibly cringes, an action that does not go unseen by Takao, whose amber gaze flits back to him.
“Is that so…”
“Yes, naturally.”
“Yep.”
“You both suck ass at lying.” Damn it. “So. What were you doing together?”
"We should be honest.” He leans and whispers to Midorima. He can feel Takao’s eyes boring into him. Taiga’s not entirely sure why they’re whispering when Shutoku’s point guard likely hears it anyway.
"Absolutely not. No way am I going to admit to Takao that—"
“Admit what?” Takao interjects, looking impossibly more amused than before.
“It's genuinely not even embarrassing. You're just being a wimp,” and for extra impact, “a coward.”
It's such obvious, childish bait but he can’t even help it. Midorima, likewise, rises to the bait and fully faces Takao.
“Takao!”
“Ah! Yes?” Takao squeaks.
“Miyaji-san informed me that you listen to Oha Asa of your own time and volition. I was not aware of this.”
“Haha,” Takao says sheepishly, “that’s true, yeah.”
“If that’s the case, then you know Cancer’s horoscope today.”
Takao’s eyes glint with recognition at Midorima’s words, and Taiga can see some kind of elated emotion rising on his face. Right, the horoscope was about some friend thing.
“Yeah, yeah I do.” The words come out achingly soft, which, yeah, super friendly in Taiga’s opinion.
“But,” Midorima forges onwards, “even though I was able to procure the items, it has been made aware to me that they are controversial.”
This snaps Takao out of his reverie, and he curiously peeks into the bag Midorima opens. The Yeezys stare back at him pitifully.
“Oh—oh my god, Shin-chan—pfft.” Takao claps his hand over his mouth, but the little giggles and laughs spill out. “Shit, Kagami, did you know about this?”
The humor and stupidity of the situation catches up to Taiga all at once, and he can’t help but open his mouth.
“No, haha. I saw this guy standing behind a bunch of trees just fucking staring at you—”
“Shin-chan—!”
“Kagami, if you have any ounce of respectability in your barbarian body, you will stop,” Midorima seethes.
“No, no, this is your fault, because you roped me into your fanboy shit!” Taiga accuses, and then continues. “Anyway, he was getting all shy saying he had to get the same lucky item for his friend—”
Immediately, Takao mouths ‘friend, huh?’ with an arched eyebrow to Midorima, who turns tomato red. Taiga doesn’t think much of it.
“—and then he whipped out these and I had to tell him all about Kanye West.”
“Yes, getting back to that and away from the waste spouting from Kagami’s mouth,” Midorima interrupts, “I did in fact discover Kanye West and his prior actions. Though, for the sake of our—er, uh, wellbeing, I made the decision to keep the shoes for the day. I intend on returning them before tomorrow’s broadcast of Oha Asa, naturally. If that is. Acceptable.”
“That sounds perfect, Shin-chan.” Taiga notices that Takao has the same expression Hyuga gives Riko when she goes on her demonic coach tirades. Fond. Kind of dopey.
At this moment, a dinky light bulb of realization flickers in Taiga’s head. Midorima, who’s been growing more team oriented in the past few months, still typically never openly used the word ‘our’, at least not in relation to Takao. Especially not off the court. Looking back and forth between Shutoku’s light and shadow, he also sees Midorima doing something he’s never done before.
He fidgets. Rubs his fingers absentmindedly over the inside of his fingers. Takao seems to catch onto this, and he takes the bags from Midorima’s hand and sets them on the ground.
“I—good. I expected you to agree, naturally.”
“It’s a good thing you found about Kanye West, huh?”
“It’s not something I wouldn’t have found out about eventually,” Midorima grunts.
“Hmm, yeah. Say Shin-chan, that still doesn’t explain why you were stalking me.”
“For the last time, I was not stalking you! I was simply finding the right moment to do…all of this.”
The longer Taiga stares at this conversation (as someone who’s been completely forgotten and sidelined) the more he feels like he’s watching something he shouldn’t.
Quietly, because on top of mindfulness he was learning about tact, too, he ducks away. Someone of his stature disappearing from the surroundings should be ringing some bell in Takao’s head, but he’s looking at Midorima with too much of something to really care.
----------
It’s only when Taiga stands over the wok in his kitchen, tossing a stir fry of vegetables, that a rerun of Oha Asa’s earlier broadcast plays as an ad on the TV.
“And a good morning to Cancers, ranked seventh today,” the voice crackles, “Single Cancers, keep a look out! Your lucky item is a pair of Yeezy’s. Taken Cancers, your stars are deeply intertwined with another sign today! If you want double the luck, make sure to get double the items! One for you, and another, ideally for your lover~. And now, moving on to Leo…”
The wok clatters, hot oil fizzles on the table, and the lightbulb in Taiga’s mind finally shines.