Light teal eyes stare off into space as Kuroko's swing creaks back and forth unsteadily. Somewhere ahead of him, a group of children Kuroko's age run around, laughing.
The boys are playing basketball, and the blue eyes follow the bouncing orange ball as it thuds. Sweat drips slowly down to the ground, and the players move around, dodging and dribbling and passing.
After a while, as the movements of the playing children slow, exhausted, a brown-haired boy who stands particularly out as one of the better players calls a time out and they all rush off to rest and take greedy gulps of water, grateful for the break.
The boy makes his way towards the swings, wiping his damp forehead with the black headband on his wrist. His mouth wide open in a boisterous smile, he reaches out for the chain of Kuroko's swing and prepares to sit down.
"Ah! Um… stranger-san…" Kuroko attempts to alert the boy sitting on him to his current predicament. Unfortunately, his quiet voice proves to be a disadvantage as the boy does not appear to hear him.
"Excuse me… Excuse me, stranger-san, you're sitting on me…" Kuroko speaks louder, tapping the boy sitting on him lightly on his shoulder.
He turns around abruptly, gasping and immediately standing up. "I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there, sorry! Hey, are you okay?" The boy starts to apologise and waves his arms about, apparently flustered and embarrassed by the fact that he did not notice Kuroko.
"I am alright… It's fine, a lot of people don't see me at first." Kuroko offers a small smile. "Ah! That's great! Hey, do you play basketball? We're missing one person, but it was mostly okay just now because we were winning even with one less person… Oh! Yeah, I'm Ogiwara Shigehiro! What's your name?" Ogiwara grins at him. Kuroko blinks.
"My name is Kuroko Tetsuya. Nice to meet you."
Ogiwara then proceeds to drag him into their game of basketball.
The loneliness from earlier still lingers, though, no matter how hard Kuroko tries to squash it down.
It'll be alright.
Aomine-kun is changing.
Kuroko sits on the swing with that thought as he watches his dark-haired light play streetball with the rest of the Miracles.
They're all changing.
He closes his eyes as Akashi's eyes flash gold briefly. Murasakibara chews idly on a stick of Pocky, the coated purple end moving up and down, clicking against his teeth. The Miracles all have various amounts of boredom displayed on their features, tossing the ball around carelessly but with frightening accuracy.
Kuroko's eyelashes flutter as he feels a tap on his shoulder. Teal blue meets dark azure, and Aomine gruffly says, "It's time to go now, Tetsu. C'mon."
Kuroko smiles slightly, the pain hidden deep within his heart. "Yes. Let's go, Aomine-kun." It reminds him of the old Aomine. Maybe it'll be alright. He hasn't changed, we're just all growing. Momoi smiles at them both. Maybe she senses that Aomine is okay, too.
He chooses to ignore the obviously fake smile plastered on the pinkette's face.
It'll be alright.
"We've won."
We've won.
They've all matured, and changed, and so have the rest of the Generation of Miracles.
He's met his high school team. Seirin. And they've trained hard, and worked, and laughed together. And he and Kagami have grown close in the year that they've been teammates, light and shadow. They've fought battles together, lost together, faced the world together.
And their team - they've won the Winter Cup.
After all of the grueling practice, the sacrifices they made, all that sweat and blood-
They've won.
Pale cheek pressed to the rusty chain holding up the swing he is sitting on, Kuroko smiles through tears threatening to spill from his teal, doe-eyes.
"Oi, Kuroko. Aren't you a little too old for that swing? And you call me childish."
"Hey- hey, Kuroko, you aren't- I swear, I didn't mean to make you cry! Oi, stop crying!" Kagami's eyes widen and he flails, nearly hitting Kuroko in his panic.
"As someone who still screams and hides every time you see Nigou, Kagami-kun shouldn't talk." He chooses to ignore the rest of Kagami's rant. Kuroko's faint expression disappears, but the affection and happiness in his eyes hasn't. Kagami shouts something in his rage, but Kuroko just closes his eyes and allows the smile to surface again.
"Come on, Kuroko. Let's go."
Kagami reaches out a hand and roughly pulls his shadow up. Once Kuroko is steady on his feet, Kagami turns and starts walking forwards. When he doesn't hear a matching set of footsteps, he stops and looks back.
"What is i- oh."
A small fist, fingertips curled towards a calloused palm, outstretches towards him.
Kuroko has always been emotional and dramatic, and nothing Kagami does or says will ever change that, and so he indulges Kuroko, even if it isn't after a match.
He doesn't notice the loneliness fading, slowly but surely, from his shadow's bright eyes.
It's alright.
And this time, it really is.
~owari~