I had the inspiration to title the chapter so from a few images I found online. I'll leave the links on my tumblr profile, my url is variondcs

Note that Kagami swears quite a bit, don't know, I've always pictured him like the type to.

And despite knowing that in fact Kise's the oldest of GoM (apart from Kuroko I think), I chose to ignore that and went ahead and made him the youngest. Beware.


Kagami Taiga wasn't the nicest guy on earth by far. But an upbringing like his, though rarer these days, didn't exactly permitted him to behave badly towards others (at least not willingly) without feeling a great amount of guilt.

His father (as absent as his work as a single-parent/provider made him be), had instilled in him good manners, even though his bouts of temper couldn't always let him keep up with them. But the moral grounds in which his father had raised him kept at bay, mostly, what little dark thoughts his mind conjured up.

And it wasn't his intention to brag, but his roughness was by far, milder a flaw compared to a certain bunch of assholes he had the enormous pleasure to have met (by which he meant to say, none whatsoever).

His animosity didn't quite apply to every miracle though.

Besides of course his shadow and the obvious affection (read: love) he felt towards him; there was another member of the generation of miracles that he was rather fond of.

At first they all had gotten on his nerves (especially that tanned bastard), with their never-lose-never-will shity attitude. Because he, who couldn't even in his most frustrating moments (one of them being his fallout with Tatsuya) bring himself to hate basketball even a little, will never truly understand what they had been going on.

Not that he had any right to judge them, but as stated above, he wasn't keen on being cruel to others. He tried for the most part to respect other people, and although his competitive stride was miles long, he didn't take to degrade opponents, or let his arrogance acquire an offensive tone.

When it came to Kise though, he felt a tiny bit conflicted. Because while at the start of their acquaintance he came off as a really obnoxious character who annoyed Kagami to no end with his arrogance and aloofness, he still, at the time, managed to earn the redhead's respect thanks to the amazing skills he displayed on the court.

And despite the initial negative feelings he harboured for the blonde, with time he came to regard him with positive ones.

Because apparently one couldn't spend time in Kise's proximity without being [drawn] by his happy demeanor and radiance. At least in his case, the blonde's personality had really grown on him, and he couldn't seriously deny that he found him rather cute (and he wasn't blushing dammit).

With the bright and extrovert traits the blonde exuded in the form of big sunny smiles, and kind eyes, it was proving difficult for Kagami not to get swayed by his charm and sweetness.

So it was surprising, but not really, that his reaction to the onslaught the rainbow knuckleheads had layered upon Kise, was pure and utter rage, simmering hotly under his skin. And which he thought would only cool down by spilling a high amount of blood, and giving several black eyes to certain individuals (seriously, that asshole Aomine sure had it coming).

But his brief moment of bloodthirst almost instantly vanished when a great worry for Kise and his wellbeing, took over his priorities.

He was well aware of the way they treated the blonde. But more than that, he knew what that did to Kise, although he wasn't sure if his observations were spot on.

Not one of the miracles seemed to really grasp the concept of a sensitive and fragile Kise even though he was the youngest. To him, it was obvious that despite not being a damsel in distress, Kise still evoked strong feelings of protectiveness from others, because he really was a sweet person, and Kagami had seen the hurt flash in Kise's eyes sometimes when the others said or did unkind things to him only to be masked a second later by a dismissive gesture and a put out pout, followed by an over the top tantrum that only made the others more irritated and annoyed. So he may do one hell of a good job acting like a carefree and untouchable person, but Kise wasn't fooling Kagami, and he wondered how such intelligent people (except Aomine obviously and Murasakibara maybe) like the miracles could be so stupid and oblivious to the effect of their doings on Kise

Seriously, it was like dealing with five years olds, without the cuteness of preschoolers (well, with the exception of Kuroko and Kise, obviously), but with the desperation when trying to reason with them. His responses to them were so frustratingly dismissed.

What was baffling was not the surge of ire but rather the fierce instinct to protect the blond puppy.

And as he re-read the Facebook messages he could sense his body heating up once again.

He also took notice of the blond's silence, and could see that there hadn't been a response from him in several minutes. So he pointed it out because apparently, the idiots couldn't bother to pay attention at least once.

And he could keep trying to drill into their thick heads just what they had probably just provoked. But the need to check on Kise was more important than anything (or nothing) his words managed to [make them feel].

So he stood, having been sitting cross legged on the floor of his department in front of his laptop that was on top of the coffee table and reading the onslaught, and made for the veranda's door. Nothing like fresh air to chill down, because he needed his temper in check before attempting to talk to Kise.

He'd had the blond's number on his contact's list for a while now, and it sure came in handy, just for situations like this. Kise tended to just indiscriminately send him tons of mails a day, varying in themes and degree of importance, either just random info about his day (anything that managed to enrapture the blond's interest), or invitations to join him and his dickhead of a boyfriend to play two on two for him and Kuroko. Whatever the case, at first these messages made Kagami rethink his life choices, they used to annoy him, both the texts and Kise. But now (although he would be damned if he ever admitted it aloud) every time he got a text alert to later see it was from Kise, he couldn't keep the fond expression off his face, and sometimes he had to endure embarrassing questioning if he was around other people.

He wasn't really sure what he'd tell Kise, his forte wasn't being subtle or tactful, and he was afraid of hurting Kise further by saying the wrong thing. It wasn't like he could just up and say 'fuck em', because the blond could be really hurt by those idiots' words but Kagami knew that deep down, Kise wouldn't, couldn't bring himself to hate them, or push them away. And the redhead really had trouble understanding the relationship between the miracles, but he could respect Kise's (Momoi's and somewhat Kuroko's) determination to go back to the way things were ages ago, when they all were happy together.

So, armed with determination himself, and a little lot of hope for him not to screw it even more, he dialed Kise's number. Mentally bracing himself for any further rage Kise's state would no doubt ignite in him.


I'm sorry for the awful and super loooong delay guys, you can't imagine the hectic hell my life has become. But here I am back again for a new beginning, and although this is a short chapter I sincerely hope it will suffice for now and redeem the long wait at least a bit. Gave it a twist by making it Kagami's POW, not sure if I'll do the same with many characters, but I'm out of the author's block and have a clear vision of what it is that I want to do with my story. For now, please bear with the slow updates please, probably will do one a week, it seems to work better for me that way.