The match between Kaijo and Fukuda Sogo was almost over, and Kise had wowed both the audience and his teammates with his fantastic performance on the court - copying the Generation of Miracles had been an amazing feat, but anyone who looked at the young teen could tell that it had taken its toll on his body. He was exhausted, to say the least, and Kuroko, who had been watching from the audience the whole time, couldn't have been gladder that this match was nearly over. That meant that they could get the blond cooled off and check on that pesky little ankle of his. The model had overworked it during the period between the Summer Championship and the Winter Cup, and everyone was worried about how it would hold up.

The ball was suddenly on the court again, and Haizaki had it in his hands. Kuroko saw his lips move, saw him say something to Kise, who was guarding him, and saw him lunge forward and slam his foot down on top of the model's injured one.

Kise's face contourted in pain, and he twisted to try and get out from under Haizaki's foot.

The loud crack that followed sounded throughout the whole stadium, and Kise fell to the ground with wide eyes, his foot bent at an incredibly awkward angle.

At first, nobody moved. Even the audience and referees were silent. It wasn't until Kise screamed that everything burst into motion once more - first, his teammates leapt for him. Kasamatsu-san reached him first, unsurprisingly, but didn't go for his foot. Instead, the raven-haired captain skidded to a halt and landed on his knees beside the blond and turned him onto his back. The third-year then supported Kise's head with his hands and started speaking urgently to him. Kise's panicked face turned to look at his captain, and even though he was clearly in a lot of pain, Kuroko could tell that he was listening to him.

The rest of the Kaijo guys had reached them at that point and had settled around Kise. Moriyama-san was holding the blond's hand, Kobori-san was patting his knee, and Hayakawa-san was bouncing in place, looking anxious. Even the coach had gotten there, and was near Kise's head with Kasamatsu-san. The rest of the team was just hanging back, unsure of what to do, and Kuroko couldn't help it anymore. He rose from his seat and squeezed past Kagami so that he could get down to the court. Thankfully, no one stopped him.

He got down there in just enough time to see Aomine and Momoi reach Kise. The two had clearly had the same idea as Kuroko had, and bent down near the blond to try and see how bad the damage was.

Seeing as there were enough people trying to comfort the model already, Kuroko decided to check out his ankle first. He got through the crowd of people relatively easily - thank you, lack of presence - and bent down to get a better look at it.

He almost wished he hadn't.

In addition to being twisted the wrong way, the bone had also poked through the skin, and blood was staining the model's white sock and shoe. The skin around it was already dark purple in color, and there was no doubt that it was broken - badly.

Kise let out a strangled cry of pain, and Kuroko looked up in time to see Kasamatsu-san run his hand through the model's sweaty blond hair and murmur something to him. Kise was sobbing, holding onto the front of his captain's jersey and shaking from head to toe, but when Kasamatsu-san spoke, he looked up again and listened. Under any normal circumstances, Kuroko would've smiled at how much trust Kise was putting in his captain - the Kise from Teiko would've never done such a thing. Of course, their captain from Teiko would've never gotten down on his knees to try and comfort one of his hurt teammates, either. Akashi just wasn't that type of person... but clearly Kasamatsu-san was.

At that point, the medics had reached them, and after a quick examination, they ushered the people back so that they could get Kise up on a stretcher. They did have a bit of a problem with that, though, for Kise did not want his teammates or former teammates to leave him alone. The blond held onto Kasamatsu-san's and Moriyama-san's hands like his life depended on it. It was only after the paramedics and the two third-years convinced him that even though they couldn't ride in the ambulance with him, they would be there soon, that Kise would let go and allow himself to be taken away.

None of them looked happy about his departure, though. In fact, Kasamatsu-san didn't even get to his feet until Moriyama-san helped him up. His steel blue eyes seemed fixated on the splash of blood that Kise had left behind on the floor.

"Who hurt Ki-chin?" Kuroko was startled by the slurred, lazy voice that sounded behind him. Murasakibara had approached from behind and was now peering down at where Kise had been laying. The purple-haired beast didn't look too happy, but Kuroko didn't blame him.

"Murasakibara-kun," he greeted softly and inclined his head a bit. "When did you get here? I didn't see you in the stands."

The much larger young man sent him a dull look. "I was in the back with Muro-chin and heard Ki-chin scream. Who hurt him?" he repeated, gesturing to the blood on the floor. "I'll crush them."

"Well, I don't know exactly what happened..." Although Haizaki probably deserved any punishment he received from any - or all - of Kise's friends, Kuroko didn't want to be the one to throw him under the bus. Thankfully, however, he was rescued by Moriyama-san, who had clearly heard their conversation.

The third-year approached them and cleared his throat. "I don't think anyone needs crushed today, but thank you for the offer," he murmured sullenly. It was very out of character from what Kuroko had seen from this particular young man. "Besides, I think our captain can handle the crushing on this one. Kasamatsu's pretty furious."

"Who isn't furious?" That was Aomine, who walked up behind Murasakibara. His navy blue eyes were narrowed into chips. "Haizaki injured him - on purpose - and you expect us to do nothing about it?" he snapped, clenching his fists at his sides.

Moriyama-san sighed deeply and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I can't tell you guys what to do. It's not like I'm your senpai or anything," he replied. "I'm just saying that you might need to think for a second. If you hurt Haizaki, how would that make you any better than he is for hurting Kise?" Kuroko might've been imagining it, but he thought the third-year's voice broke a little at the end of his sentence.

Aomine blinked a few times and looked down at his shoes. "Whatever," he muttered, and trotted off the court - in the direction the paramedics had taken Kise. A tearful Momoi was hot on his heels - for once in a long while, she didn't even cast a glance at Kuroko. She was too worried to think about things like that at the moment.

Kuroko turned his gaze back toward Moriyama-san, who just gave him a nod and walked back over to Kasamatsu-san. The captain had just returned to the bench and grabbed a couple of crisp white towels that Kaijo had brought with them. Instead of drying his sweat, however, he approached the blood stain and bent down to clean it up. Everyone else, apart from perhaps Moriyama-san and a couple other Kaijo members, was too busy to care too much about the mess, or the young man scrubbing the floor.

"Kuroko?" Kagami's voice brought Kuroko's attention back to reality, and he turned to look at his Light. "Are you okay?"

Confused, Kuroko nodded. "Of course I'm okay, Kagami-kun. I want to go check on Kise-kun, though," he admitted, fidgeting a little. To tell the truth, the sight of Kise's mangled ankle had bothered him immensely. "It looked bad."

"How about we head on over to the hospital, then?" Kagami offered with a small smile. "Don't worry. It's probably not as bad as it looked."

"Right," Kuroko agreed with a compliant nod. Kagami always seemed to know what he needed to hear. "Let's go."

Kaijo and the other teams had already left the gym, probably to go to the hospital with Kise, and the audience was slowly dispersing. However, Moriyama noticed that Kasamatsu made no move to leave. The captain was still on his hands and knees in the floor, scrubbing at the no-longer-existent stain on the shiny, polished linoleum. His shoulders were tense and his breathing seemed a little... off, somehow. Like he was struggling to get air.

Sighing, Moriyama walked over and knelt beside his captain, placing a hand on the other young man's shoulder. It was then he noticed that the steel-blue-eyed man was shaking. "Kasamatsu, are you all right?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together in worry. "You know that's clean, don't you?"

"I know," Kasamatsu mumbled in return with a soft exhale of air. He shut his eyes tightly. "Why would you even ask me if I was okay? Kise's the one..." His breath hitched, and he clenched his jaw tightly. "What if I did this to him?" he whispered brokenly, and tears flooded his eyes. "I shouldn't have put him in, Moriyama. I should've known how bad it was. I should've... I should've..."

He broke off into a wretched sob, and Moriyama was taken aback. "What do you mean, if you did this to him?" he questioned. "How would that be your fault?"

"I'm the captain!" Kasamatsu burst out, clenching one fist and slamming it hard against the floor. Moriyama flinched. "It's my job to make sure all the players are healthy and able-bodied. Kise was clearly not!"

"But Kise chose to-"

"Kise's an idiot," the captain choked, tears running down his cheeks. He put one hand over his face and gritted his teeth. "I'm an idiot. What if he ends up like Seirin's Kiyoshi Teppei and needs surgery? What if he can't play basketball anymore?"

Moriyama blinked a few times and took a moment to think about what that would mean for the young blond. Kise was unbelievably talented and had quite the career ahead of him if he played his cards right. Unfortunately, the model didn't seem to think about that kind of stuff too often, because he constantly overworked his underdeveloped body, to the point of exhaustion... and clearly to the point of broken bones.

"I... didn't see his ankle," Moriyama said slowly, choosing his words carefully so as not to upset his distraught friend further. "But I know that Kise is very tough. He'll be okay, Kasamatsu. Even if he needs surgery, he'll be all right."

Kasamatsu took a few shaky breaths, clearly trying desperately to calm himself down, and swiped at his eyes in an attempt to rid them of tears. Moriyama chose not to say anything else, knowing that he would probably just be making things worse on the poor captain.

Eventually, the raven-haired young man calmed down enough to breathe right and stop crying, but his eyes were puffy and his nose was red and congested. He sniffled and looked at Moriyama helplessly. "Do you think we can go see him now?" he asked, his voice strained and a bit hoarse from all the crying. "I promised him that I'd be there as soon as I could."

"Yeah," Moriyama replied with a small, reassuring smile. "I'm sure that would be fine."

Welcome to my new little story c: This shouldn't be too, too long. KiKasa broshipping is my favorite pastime, though, so I can't promise anything.

Read, review, and enjoy!

God bless you,

anim8or