Hi all!
First of all, thanks to everyone for reviewing my other stories. A big thank you to: MomoISsan, Demm, twisted-sheets, gyess, unwillingjoy, deathmeister23, cielshadow17, yesss91, themrsbrightside, eyes17k, aspergianstoryteller, alliedforces, heather, anoesism, skullera, lovegonzo2, roronoas, kusanagi hikari, animedork95, nala87, jengurl24, cet'lux, ccchat8, babyboo6, winterimperfect, midnight-tsukihime, stardust dreams, neko-miyuki, bareerah123, kattan tieguchi, noname12321, and sanz0girl. Your reviews mean much to me.
I know I have another fiction going along right now, but I've just started University, so this has been eating at me all day. I'll try to update my other stories, (for those of you who read my WoT one, the next chapter is nearly done) but I think this one will most likely be my favorite.
I've changed things in the main storyline a bit, but not much. There are no real big spoilers if you've seen the anime. I haven't had a chance to read the manga yet, so no spoilers there. Anyway, enjoy! Let me know if there are any requests!

It is one week before graduation when Taiga receives his admissions letter.

It's beyond him to even think that a University would bother to send him a denial of admissions, since obviously he has known at the moment he sent in his application that it would be for nothing. Sure, his basketball record is ridiculous; his winnings have made him desirable in any basketball community- but this is University, its not the court, and he can hardly picture any Dean waving away his low testing scores and the fact that he's not trilingual. Just for basketball.

But he opens it and he's in; he's miraculously in, and other than the fact that he has to somehow come up with thirty-five grand for the year, he's somewhat excited. He doesn't have to go back to the states, though he misses them, and he doesn't have to sit and waste at a community college. He has no idea what his major is, but he'll figure it out in the next two years.

The most exciting part is that within the next hour, Tetsuya is calling him and telling him about his own admission, a hint of happiness in his voice. He's all over the place, as much as Tetsuya can be, talking about move-in dates and dorms and finances and...

Somewhere along the way Taiga agrees to room with him, regardless of knowing that it will be a complete disaster.

High school is different in that aspect; he sees Tetsuya on the weekdays- he has to play with him on the court, he has to see him, hear him, watch him- but he can take a break when he goes home or on the weekends. He can forget that recently he can't breathe around him anymore, and he can pretend that when Tetsuya texts him on Saturday nights that he's some sort of imaginary friend that won't judge him when he finds out- that is, when he finds out about-

Tokyo University. Now that was going to be a nightmare. He'd already signed the roommate agreement before he really had a chance to think about it. Sure, he'd shared rooms before, on sleepovers and the like. But this was... this was living together. Eating, breathing, sleeping- the whole deal. He's so scared of the thought that he nearly misses the deadline to send his physicals in for Osaka Basketball Club. He sends in Tetsuya's as an after thought and is sure that it couldn't be all that different from Seirin.

In the middle of summer, Taiga finds out that Tetsuya is giving up basketball. He says it nonchalantly, in the middle of Kyoto Sushi, his chopsticks dragging on his plate. His stomach drops for a second; Taiga immediately thinks of catching Tetsuya's passes and the way they play at the city park when the sun sets. Its corny as hell but he can't help it; though he plays by his own rules now, he cannot deny the fact that Tetsuya is still a fundamental part of him, a defining factor in the way Taiga breathes and lives.

"Giving up? Like, professionally? Or... just, you never want to touch a basketball again?"

The dread creeps into the back of his tongue and he has to take a slam of soda to make it go away.

When Tetsuya doesn't answer, Taiga prepares himself for the worst. He cannot imagine a time where he and Tetsuya couldn't reach each other on that level. They'd been doing it for four years straight- it was the only way of life Taiga knew outside living by himself in his apartment.

"I still like being on the court. I just... I feel like I want to do something else."

Taiga can't picture him doing anything else. He would make a horrible teacher; he's too quiet for that. He's good at Japanese but doesn't have the imagination to become a writer. He hardly has the nerve to be a doctor. When he goes down the list, he finds Tetsuya can't be anything other than what he is now, right then, next to him, because that's where he's always been and...

It takes a few days to realize that he's being selfish and that he'll be playing on his own. He cannot imagine looking at the court and not seeing anyone; hell, even Daiki- looking back at him. He's not nervous, he never really is, but its different and he's never done this before and-

No. No, he's definitely nervous.

Taiga grimaces a bit at the bulletin board in the hallway. Move-in box in hands, he shuffles forward and has to lean down a bit to read the small print.

Congratulations to our incoming Freshman! With a 12% acceptance rate, Tokyo University welcomes our top scholars. May your years here be filled with learning and higher understanding.

A 12% acceptance rate. Top scholars. There's no way in hell that he's been accepted on his application alone; his GPA had been a measly 3.1 when he graduated from Seirin, a good seven points behind Tetsuya, and that had been when he was busting his balls to get here. In the summer, when he would stare at his acceptance letter tacked on his wall, he thought perhaps University wasn't really just for big wigs. Maybe a 3.1 really was something to the higher-ups. Or maybe Tetsuya had just lied to him and had put all his chips on the fact that Taiga's basketball record would take him farther than academics.

The hallway is loud with the chatter of incoming freshman, boxes being shoved down until they find their small dorm rooms, doors slamming and key codes being punched in, people complaining about being locked out and the wail of parents when they find they've been issued parking tickets. Taiga uncomfortably shifts his box- his only move in box- and attempts to find room 225.

He's only brought the essentials; basketball shoes and shorts, his clothes, a couple of magazines, some toiletries, bedding, and his wallet. Other than that, he's only brought one guilty pleasure; a picture of Tetsuya and himself, right after the Winter Cup in freshman year, both of them leaning over the rail on the second floor of Seirin's library. It occurs to him that Tetsuya has gained a couple of inches since then. He looks... smart, and it never came to mind that his tutoring had gotten him through high school.

I'll drop out within the first week. I'll flunk the roll call.

He quickly pushes the picture farther down. He feels guilty for looking at it, always has.

He passes multiple women, their bright bedding in hands, mounds and mounds of clothes being pulled behind them on dollys. Men walk by, baseball caps on, and most of them are closer to Taiga's height now. He could remember towering over the his entire high school and it takes a few moments to adjust to not having to look down at all those faces. Very few of them are familiar; some glance at him. People he's played on the court spare a few seconds to smile, their own boxes being lugged in front of them. It is strange to see such a world existing outside of basketball.

Down a hallway on the second floor, Taiga finally spots a familiar blue hue making its way into a room, backpack and suitcase in tow. He feels the familiar stomach kick, and his throat dries up. He hasn't seen Tetsuya in a month; he's been up here at Osaka on orientation business and other events that Taiga couldn't really be bothered to attend. Before the suitcase can disappear over the threshold, Taiga hurries himself down the hall and picks the other end up, easing it into the dorm room.
Tetsuya is surprised to see him there of course; after all, he's not supposed to be here for another week- and nearly drops his backpack. Years at high school has made Taiga more susceptible to the faces Tetsuya is willing to make, but its obvious that Tetsuya has changed, too. His face betrays more emotion than it used to, and his eyes light up every now and then. Its been years since he's been able to scare Taiga with his presence. Standing there, it seems as if he hasn't changed, but his stature and height has forced Taiga to adjust that thought.

"You're here?"

It's definitely a question, with a hint of stress to it. Taiga cocks his head a bit, trying to understand the underlying tone to it, but brushes it aside as he drags the suitcase over.

"Yah. Everyone's moving out back home. Didn't want to be in the city by myself. Besides, why do you get all the fun? There's tons of girls here, right?"

He's amazed his voice doesn't shake.

Tetsuya doesn't move for a second, but he picks his backpack up and throws it on his bed of choice before Taiga can pick the one by the window.

"See, that's just unfair."

He doesn't mean it and so he makes a smile to lighten the statement, and tries not to let his burning fondness for the man get the better of him.

"I guess I thought you'd take longer. You're a bit slow."

Taiga bristles a bit at that and lifts his nose like he's smelled something awful. He wants to say that he's not slow, that he was just lonely, but that's ridiculous and pathetic, so he keeps his mouth shut and accepts the affectionate insult.

"Maybe."

He lets his box onto his bed on the opposite side of the room and takes in the place they'll be sharing. Its small, and he doubts he'll fit completely on the bed, but the windows take up the entire back wall and the desks aren't half bad. The carpet is decent and it doesn't reek of past occupants either.

Across the way Tetsuya is unpacking his clothes, neatly folding them into the back closet. His computer is already set up on the twin desk and curtains have already been tacked over the windows. His hair, which has grown in the past month Taiga hasn't seen him, is slightly brown again at the roots, the blue dye fading out. He's never seen him completely brunet, but he can imagine that he'd be...

"Is that all you brought?"

Taiga jumps a bit but keeps it from becoming visible, and quickly looks at his box like he hasn't been caught staring.

"Yah. I think I under-packed."

"You think?"

Tetsuya walks over and peers into the box, grumbling a bit.

"No sheets? No hangers?"

In all honesty, he hadn't thought of hangers.

"I've got what I need, right? I'll throw my clothes in the drawers. It's not like I have much."

He stops his embarrassment from piling up to his cheeks and pulls a random shirt out. Its a t-shirt he'd bought from Boston when he'd been in Massachusetts last year, the bright letters reading Red Sox across the top.

"See? I've got this and... I don't know, five others. Waste of hangers, anyway."

Tetsuya sort of rolls his eyes and picks a handful of his own hangers and throws it at him, smug.

"I brought extra-" he claims, "everything. Extra everything, since I knew you'd forget."

Taiga wants to argue that he didn't forget, that he just didn't need them, but he's reveling in the sound of Tetsuya speaking to him in person after a month. He'd almost forgotten how much the Seirin team had done for him, opened him up, made him speak. The blankness was still slightly there, but he was talking at least, and if you knew how to look, he was brighter than he had been.

Taiga realizes that they're falling into their normal routine, so he murmurs thanks instead and turns away. He'd also forgotten how utterly embarrassing it was when Tetsuya spoke to him; that open ease, that soft voice. He forces himself to pick up his clothes and start hanging them, trying to ignore that at some point, these hangars have most likely been in Tetsuya's room, in his back closet. He had come to know that apartment intimately well, and it was weirding him out to think that soon this dorm room would be the same.

Taiga tries not to grumble to himself because he knows Tetsuya will pick fun at him for it, and instead tries to retreat into his head like he's been doing. Its four years of this, so he better learn to swallow his feelings while he's ahead.

He eyes Tetsuya's side of the room. He's finally got his pictures up, the ones from their going away party. Riko sits with the team on the stairs at Seirin in one, and Ryouta is smiling at a festival with Tetsuya and himself in another. Hanging in a frame on the wall is the two of them during finals week, bags on the floor and jackets off from the heat. And in the back, he knows, will be the picture of all of them, including Daiki, at his old apartment. He doesn't want to look at it for reasons he can't explain.

For a second he regrets bringing his own photo, and thinks that maybe, regardless of Tetsuya having brought his own, it's slightly weird. He knows its at the bottom of his box, beneath his clothes and bedding, and he hasn't even brought a frame for it.

Tetsuya looks at him apprehensively, and glances at the photos. For a moment, he seems worried, his brows knitted together.

"Taiga-"

He would never get used to it, hearing him say that name. He couldn't even remember when they had started doing that, saying them with such abandon. He hadn't heard Kuroko in years it seemed.

"I forgot to tell you. Daiki is across the way."

He's holding his toiletry bag in his hand, about to put it away, and he has a feeling that this will be one of those moments he'll never forget a single detail of for years to come. He hadn't even known that anyone else was attending Tokyo, let alone- let alone...

He doesn't know how to describe the man. He's no longer his rival- too many nights out at the bar and talks of basketball have ruined that- if anything, hes a slightly strange secret, one you aren't sure needs telling or not. He's got an idea that Tetsuya knows whats going on, regardless of the circumstances, but its so frustrating because inside he sees himself telling him no, really, you were here first and just because he's here doesn't mean a damn thing, and just because you don't have basketball anymore doesn't- it doesn't mean; and it's so funny, that something as terrifying as that could come out so easily from Tetsuya's mouth.

He swallows his spit and turns away, pretending to be putting away his clothes.

"Oh? That's interesting. He goes here?"

He comes off as nonchalant. At least, he hopes he does.

Tetsuya oddly shifts his weight to his other leg and nods.

"Yes... he moved in last week. I forgot to say anything."

Taiga gives a slight inclination of his head and looks out into the hallway from their propped open door.

"Oh. Maybe we'll see him around. I guess I'll see him at practice."

Daiki is here. Here, of all places.

He can't help the swirl of jealousy that comes up.

His primary thought is that he's harbored his attractions for the both of them this long simply because the idea of it is alluring. Alluring, and easy. Tetsuya and Daiki were a close knit bundle of everything people talked about; it was as if they were a piece of forbidden fruit, their past some dark mysterious tragedy. Regardless of Taiga knowing the entire story, he had found himself intoxicated. It is simple yet horrifying to find oneself staring at the dynamic between the two. And where do you fit in, when both of them are here now?

"That too, about the practice. He isn't playing basketball, either."

For a moment, Taiga's thoughts flare in his head. Why the both of you? Why are you quitting? What is going on- the court isn't good enough? I'm not good enough? Its stupid and childish.

Taiga looks at him, one of his shirts held up in front of him. Tetsuya looks slightly perturbed but isn't doing much about it.

"He texted me awhile back. He gave it up. He wants to be a policeman."

In Taiga's head, the walls are slightly coming down. Basketball was everything. Basketball was how he had met the two, how he'd come to know them, how he'd-
He blinks and watches as Tetsuya continues about the room like he's said nothing life threatening.

"So I'm the only one?"

His partner continues his own ministrations; reorganizes his photos a couple of times before he does anything else. Taiga can practically feel the buzz of anxiety coming from him. When he faces Taiga again, he's slightly stooped and seems sad.

"Kise is, but he's in America."

His words sound like they're trying to cheer him up, sound like they're pitying him.

Taiga hardens his face before he can stop himself. In a rush he nearly crushes Tetsuya with objections, but years of self restraint around the smaller man force him to be compliant.

"So, no basketball. Right. I- I'll just-"

"Don't tell me you're quitting."

Taiga's lungs stop taking in breath for a second, but his eyes find Daiki's, standing in the middle of the doorway, his arms leaning up and bracing his thick figure. At the sight his breath lets out, all relief, because regardless of the situation, Daiki's cockiness is still there, still a slap of sarcasm across his face, and he's looking around the room as if he owns the place, other hand in pocket.

It takes a few moments for Taiga to bring himself back together. On autopilot he puts his clothes back down and sneers halfheartedly.

"Got into Tokyo, did you?"

He knows there's no hint of hate to it anymore. The man had grown on him since high school.

"Naturally. Looks like we're hall mates."

Across the hall, Daiki's door is open, revealing the sparsely decorated room inside. It's a single, of course; Taiga doubts that Daiki could ever possibly share a room with a stranger. When people aren't swarming the hall he can see inside where the bed is already made, a single poster of the NBA logos hanging over it. He knows there's no computer in there regardless of not being able to see the desk- Daiki never had the patience to sit and do nothing.

Daiki is still a mass of grace and muscle, standing there and peering in, even in a jacket and shorts. Without the jersey he seems slightly less intimidating, but the prowess factor still sits beneath his skin. Taiga had nearly forgotten how dark his skin was.

He wants to ask him why he quit, why he would throw away that endless fountain of skill and expertise, but something tells him that its a conversation for another day. Over the years, the man had slowly become less of a hothead and had eased into a strange friendship with the both of them, that anger and hatred from the court slowly dissipating, leaving the current Daiki left. His words had a bite to them occasionally, but more than anything he just tended to give Taiga shit.

He really does look like a cop.

Daiki looks at him weird right then, his grin spreading across his face in one curved, thick line. "Missed me that much?"

In the next instant he's got Taiga's shirt over his face.

Tetsuya laughs as he straightens the room more, washing over everything with a Lysol wipe. He doesn't seem to be in a big hurry to make Daiki leave. Taiga imagines that this will be his lifestyle for the next couple of years.

More than anything, Taiga had missed eating with Tetsuya.

Quietly across the table he's eating a burger with fries, and for once a soda- the school doesn't offer milkshakes. He'd been upset about that. He's quiet, which is a normal occurrence when they're eating, and his lack of Seirin uniform is strange but attractive. He's glad Tetsuya isn't speaking much; he doubts he'd be able to hear much over the scramble of the dining hall. What he does catch are snippets of what Tetsuya had been doing over the month he'd been gone, being with his family and deciding what he wanted to do.

Taiga wants to tell him then, like he usually does. He wants to say how much he misses high school, how much everything has changed, but not this. He wonders if Tetsuya will ever find out on his own, will ever ask him about it. For the first couple of nights in the dorm he refuses to sleep away from the wall; a confession is on the tip of his tongue and he knows that if he turns, turns and sees him sleeping there, he'll fucking say it and it'll ruin what they have. He sleeps in a few minutes late regardless of how much it pains him to do it, his legs itching for a run or his stomach screaming in starvation, because he knows that if he wakes up to something as domestic as Tetsuya putting on his shirt or shoes he'll snap.

In a way he's glad Daiki is across the hall; he is a breath of fresh air when he can't take being alone with Tetsuya any longer. At other times he isn't. When Taiga comes back from Freshman Composition to see the both of them- one on the computer, the other lying on his bed, throwing trash into the plastic basketball hoop on the wall- he caves a bit. Its a fantasy he likes to play in his head from high school, and to see it now, physically real; well, its enough to make him go mad with restraint. His fingers clench and his eyes widen; he feels the back of his neck prick up in anticipation. Daiki lazily waves to him from the bed and throws another wad through the hoop, his legs leaning up against the wall. It nearly kills Taiga.

He's over the fact that the both of them are men. He's been to Sex Ed, he knows what he is. He's in college now, and its not like gay men aren't around. In high school his thing for Daiki had been some adolescent want; some dark, aggressive temptation he'd only been willing to explore in the dark hours of the night. Back then, it had been easy to understand- Daiki was a powerhouse that had culminated into some serious wet dreams Taiga had had to face. But... now. Senior year he had seen the first real smile Daiki had directed at him, but now, now they came easier. Now it was as complicated as the mixed up love Taiga held for Tetsuya, that same mixed up secret that stopped him from ever pulling away too far or moving in too close. He isn't sure what he's going to do about it, but he won't lie and say it isn't nice to see the both of them being there in his room in the afternoons.

For now, he hesitantly drops his backpack on the floor and sits next to it, leaning against his bed roughly where Daiki's hips are, and tries not to think about it.

(A/N)::
I totally get that reading their first names is different, but... they've known each other for years, yah? It's just something I like to play with. Plus, I like the idea of Tetsu gaining a bit of personality.
Any requests? I'll write quick one shots! I'd like to get in on the community!
Any fic recs? I'd love to read some nice DaiTaiTestu, or any type of those three. Thanks for reading!