The Last Miracle

He was warm when he started regaining consciousness. It felt a lot different from the alleyway, a lot more comfy, a lot nicer smelling, and drier. He willed his eyes to open up and they did in a flash, his vision so blurry that Kuroko felt like throwing up. Everything was bright, spinning, his stomach was acting up trying to regurgitate everything, but he hadn't eaten anything in what felt like... ever, so there was nothing to throw back up.

He found it easy to move his hands and started clenching them open and close as he waited for his vision to return. His hands were clenching something really soft, a thick wool blanket it felt like. He moved around a little bit and realized he was lying on a bed. Whose bed? Was he in a hospital right now? Did someone call an ambulance? It didn't smell like a hospital, more like... Kuroko started sniffing. He smelled a cinnamon flavor, a lot of spices, and just this really calming scent in the air. Was a candle lit right now? Did that explain the calming scent? Or better yet, all the scents?

When his vision finally returned Kuroko looked around the room he was in. It certainly wasn't a hospital room, more like just a normal bedroom. He saw a mirror, two closet doors, a dresser, nightstand, some lamps, shoes and clothes all over the floor, posters of... he couldn't see that far yet to make them out. He was in a bedroom though, and judging by the color of the blankets which were a deep, dark red, and the clothing articles on the floor, it was a man's.

Slowly Kuroko willed himself to lean up, it taking every ounce of strength he had left in him. Everything came back awake and started screaming, his bones, his muscles, his flesh. His stomach hurt the most and he remembered being stabbed there before kicked repeatedly. How was he alive right now? Kuroko looked down at himself and saw a bandaged wrapped around his arms; he was wearing an oversized shirt that definitely wasn't his and a pair of basketball shorts that were tied tightly around him, probably to keep them from falling off.

Here's what he analyzed so far. He was in a man's house or apartment, home basically, with his wounds taken care of wearing clean clothes. Someone must have saved him from that alleyway where he was left to die, someone saved his life. Someone gave him the chance to continue on living. Kuroko wanted to meet this someone and thank him before leaving, started on his new life goal of getting revenge. If that someone wasn't here though he'd settle for stealing anything worth money before leaving; starting a new life wasn't cheap and he had nothing left in his name, not even the clothes on his back anymore.

Kuroko grabbed onto the nightstand and attempted to stand up, actually making it to his feet. When he took a deep breath pain shot through his stomach and he bent over, groaning lightly. Breathing was not an okay thing to do it seemed, but what about walking? He kept his hand steady on the nightstand as he took a step towards the door. It hurt, but it should have been hurting a lot more than it was. His savior must have gave him pain killers or something. Kuroko made it to the door holding onto everything on the way there, twisting the door handle and pushing it open. He was led let into a hallway, one way leading to a door wide open revealing the bathroom; the other way showed a couch and some decorations proving to be the living room. He started heading down over there, vaguely hearing conversations in the background.

When he made it there he saw that it was nicely decorated house. Everything had a light brown lumber feel to it, decorated in a forest green color. It wasn't a bachelor's pad, that was for sure. It looked too homely, but at the same time barely anything filled the room. It reminded Kuroko of his old home. He never had anything there either just in case he had to leave it at the drop of a hat, which was normal in his profession. This home was decorated a little more than that though, Kuroko saw paintings and far off pictures of people in frames. Maybe this man just didn't like having nice stuff?

The TV was the thing that was providing the voices running through his ears, the channel on a basketball game showing highlights. Kuroko was drawn to it for a second and walked over, resting and sitting down on the couch. After all that exercise, he needed a good resting. His breaths were short and fast, resting a hand on his stomach while the other one ran through his hair. He couldn't move again, not without help, not with all this pressure building up in him.

"Hello?!" Kuroko finally yelled out, wanting to know if anyone was really here or not.

His voice was all scratchy and rugged, so dry that it barely came out as a squeak. Kuroko cleared his voice and tried that again, ignoring the pain as he took a deep inhale of breath.

"Hello?!"

In return of his call out, Kuroko heard cursing and the banging of what sounded like pots and pans. There was the distinct sound of a glass breaking and Kuroko wondered if it would have been better to just sit here quietly and wait for someone to come back to watch TV. It was too late now though; there were loud footsteps coming from down the hall and Kuroko turned his head that way. In walked a man, just like Kuroko suspected, but it wasn't just a man.

This guy was huge, easily towering over himself and half of his old friends that he's sworn to kill, probably shorter than two or maybe even one. His expression was one of the business, scary and evil, the man's eyebrow- no, his eyebrows were split and a dark red color scrunching together making him look super pissed off. Kuroko's eyes wandered up to his vibrant red colored hair and wondered how natural all of that was; it was sure an eye catcher. If he dressed up in a nice pressed suit, he could have easily been a part of the business. Easily. The way this man held himself, presented himself, there was just an air around him that said "don't fuck with me," that Kuroko was really enjoying.

That expression on his face vanished though and was replaced with something else, making all of Kuroko's previous statements vanish with it. His face softened staring at him and he sighed out gently, a small mixture of a smirk and smile appearing on his lips as he stared. Kuroko was confused for a second, wondering if that expression was for him or not? It made him not look as scary as he was before and actually pretty handsome.

"I was wondering when you'd wake up; you must be doing alright if you're moving around." The man said to him, his voice dark and deep.

Definitely would have fit right in with Kuroko's line of work. Perfect. He would have started as a lowly solider, but Kuroko would have taken a liking in him just like he was doing now and brought him up to higher status. With a man like this guy being his light they could have done a lot of work together; he was like his previous light to his shadow. Kuroko blinked, shaking his head from these thoughts. He couldn't think like that anymore, he didn't work like that anymore.

"Were you the one who saved me?" Kuroko asked, getting straight down to business.

The man in question blinked and nodded his head, "yeah; I was taking out the trash and-"

"Thank you for that, you saved my life. Now if you can just please return my old pair of clothes I'll be out of your home and out of your way." He interrupted.

"Now hold on a second, you're in no condition to be going anywhere!" His savior told him.

It wasn't like Kuroko could go anywhere right now; he could barely feel his feet. The man talking to him didn't know that though and rushed over, standing in front of him, honestly thinking he was about to waltz out of here.

"I don't wish to be of anymore bother to you."

"Trust me, if I didn't want you bothering me then I would have left you for dead on the street. Now you don't have to go right now, I don't mind having you as my guest for a few days to get back on your feet."

That would have been truly wonderful. Kuroko wondered if God was on his side about killing miracles since he sent this mir- this man to his rescue. He nodded and leaned back into the sofa, resting his eyes close.

"If you insist."

He heard chuckling and peeked open an eye, seeing the man grin.

"Wow, that easy? You sounded so determined there, I thought I might have to do some more talking."

"You are right, I am in no condition to be going anywhere. Since you're offering I'm simply accepting. Thanks for your kindness..."

"Kagami Taiga," Kagami introduced himself holding out a hand.

Kuroko reached out his hand and grabbed it, liking the firm shake Kagami was giving him. "Kuroko Tetsuya."

"I understand if you don't want to talk about what happened, if you're hungry though I just finished making lunch."

There was a silence before Kuroko took a deep, shaky breath. He grunted lightly when he sighed out and opened his eyes, nodding his head twice.

"Please."

Kagami gave him a short nod in return and walked over to the coffee table, picking it the remote up and placing it beside Kuroko before leaving the living room. How long had it been since Kuroko's watched TV? He picked up the remote and started pushing random buttons, looking for the news channel. He felt so incredible... normal at the moment.

There was no news reports about anything out of the ordinary in their city, nothing about him in it; figures, miracles liked working in secrecy and keeping everything as down low as possible. So what was he doing now? Letting himself rest his head for a few days seemed like a good start, no more than three, as he got his grand scheme in plan and got back on his feet. Kagami Taiga... he could have been using him, but Kuroko didn't know for what. No one knew about him, he was a shadow, so maybe he really was doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

Why was he at his personal home though instead of at a hospital? That was the part that stumped Kuroko, along with other questions that he would get the answer to as soon as Kagami returned back into the room. His eyes scanned for something, anything to protect himself with just in case there was something Kuroko didn't like about him. On the coffee table was a bunch of letters, a letter opener sticking out from under them. It was really his lucky day, Kuroko smirked lightly reaching for it. He slipped it in his oversized sleeves and played the part of simply watching TV until Kagami walked back in carrying a tray.

"I made curry, hope you like it; then again I've never met someone who hasn't liked curry." Kagami said placing the tray over his legs.

The scent had Kuroko's mouth watering; he licked his lips to prevent it from slipping down his chin. It was a beautiful looking lunch, the rice a brilliant white color while the curry topping was steaming hot and full of life and color with square shaped carrots and potatoes peeking out. There was a tall glass of water next to his meal and Kuroko reached for that first, nearly drinking the whole cup in one gulp. Kagami left the room and came back with a pitcher of water and his own tray of food, sitting down on the couch as far away from Kuroko before he started eating.

Kuroko took a spoon full and licked the curry topping, letting the flavor settle in his mouth as he checked for any added ingredients to the mixture. Just because he was out of the job didn't mean people still didn't want him dead; he couldn't be too cautious. He didn't taste poison though or anything of the sort, but something delicious bursting with flavors that Kuroko had no idea just plain curry could taste like this. He stopped himself on the first bite, waiting to see if anything would kick in, before he couldn't help but gorge himself on the meal.

The plate was empty in a matter of seconds along with his glass drink and Kagami chuckled lightly to himself.

"Seconds?" He asked getting up, grabbing his tray of food.

Kuroko nodded and Kagami disappeared, going back for seconds twice before Kuroko was satisfied and filled with food. He yawned out loud and settled down on the couch, closing his eyes. For some strange reason, he let his guard down so easily and fell asleep right then and there on his couch. It took quite a while for Kagami to notice, but when he did he simply picked up the sleeping man and walked back to his room, settling him back on his bed. There was a clinking sound on the way there, after Kagami got him all settled he back tracked a little and saw his letter opener on the ground.

He looked back at Kuroko and scrunched his eyebrows together. Did he have this on him? For what purpose? To protect himself from him? Well duh, of course Kuroko would still be wary after simply waking up in his home, only being told his name and nothing more. Kagami walked back to the room and placed his letter opening on the nightstand beside his bed, hoping Kuroko would see it when he wakes up.

He wanted the man to be comfortable and not feel scared or anything of the sort being around him, and if holding a weapon made him feel that way, then Kagami would allow it. He didn't want Kuroko to leave so suddenly, without the chance of getting to know him, without the chance of knowing more about him. Kagami stared down at his sleeping guest and felt this overwhelming need of something he didn't know; he couldn't explain the feeling. The thought of Kuroko Tetsuya leaving though made his stomach go into knocks and his head feel dizzy. It was exactly like when he first came across him.

He was just about to get off work, five more minutes left to go on the clock, when his boss ordered him to take out the garbage before leaving. Kagami was going to do just that, grabbing an umbrella and using it to shield the raindrops as he left out the back where the dumpster was with his tied up bags of trash in his hands. He didn't see the man lying in the middle of the alleyway at first, his back facing against him, but on his way back to the door he was in plain sight.

Kagami thought it was just a dead person lying in the alleyway, a trail of blood sliding down the ground towards the street. He rushed over to check if the person was still alive or not, and when he saw him... Kagami didn't know how to describe it. It was like... he's never seen another person before, another human being and was staring at one for the first time ever. The sight was something to behold, the man was covered in blood and cuts, there was bullet wounds and slash marks all over his clothes, and bruises on the skin that showed, but something in Kagami told him that he was handsome.

He had knelt down and cupped the dying man's, or dead man's, cheek, stroking it with him thumb feeling how soft and cold he was. He couldn't help but trail his hands up to the spiky patch of hair he had on his head, the brightest and softest blue color he's ever seen before in his life. Like adding only one drop of blue paint to a paint can filled with white and stirred; that's how bright his hair was. After an uncomfortable amount of time of just touching his hair, Kagami realized that the man was still breathing, his chest slowing moving up and down, but just barely. Without a second thought Kagami had grabbed him and the rest was history.

Here they were now, inside of his home safe and sound, and hopefully after a couple of days, completely well.