AN: Hey there! Sorry for the late update, but exams are finally over! Yay! Not that the competitive exams aren't loomig around the corner, so my updates are still going to be sporadic, I can guarentee updates, for I do not give up on my stories! That said, onwards with the tale!

Enjoy~

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"Dialogues"

'Thoughts'

Chapter 2

The first thing Kise had noticed was his face.

Waking up, half-bleary and reluctant, he'd stumbled into the bathroom to splash his face with water when he'd seen it. His cheekbones had become sharper losing some of its roundness. Kise smirked; he certainly looked more handsome now. It was the onset of puberty. Brilliant.

The next moment, Kise was struggling to keep a sharp yell in – the hell was going on? For, it was not just his face, but his whole body! Muscles – those that only came from long workouts and intense practice – were more prominent than he remembered it being, he was another few inches taller and his hair was longer than usual. And his voice, damn, his voice had cracked and turned deeper now, the tone not quite what it used to be. How had it all happened in one night?

After nearly convincing his parents and sisters that he was seven kinds of crazy, he'd extracted all the information he could out of them. So, it was apparently two years into the future than he last remembered it being, they'd shifted to Kanagawa because of his father's work, he now attended Kaijo High School (Bloody high school? Whatever happened to middle school?), he still worked as a model and was a part of the basketball club. Okay, so, at least one thing was alright.

It was on his way to school, face peering outside the bus window to take in the sights of this new area, that Kise had an errant thought. A simple 'I wonder what Akashichhi is going to say, when he realises that I don't remember anything from the past two years' random thought and Kise gasped.

"Shit." Kise murmured in a low tone, "This is Kanagawa prefecture! Dammit, we'd all planned to go to a high school in Tokyo! What if – what if, I'm the only one attending Kaijo?"

That was an alarming assumption, but was quite possible. And Kise wondered then, if it was not his old teammates, who did he play with now? Where were his old teammates? Why was he in the future, in the first place? It was all confusing, very confusing. And now that the initial shock had worn off slightly, a tendril of fear crawled up his spine. What if he'd actually forgotten the past two years for some reason? Or what if he was the only one who'd travelled through time?

Kise gulped, 'This is not shaping up to be a good day.'

Kuroko found his class easily enough – he'd written it on his books after all – and his shoe locker had his name pasted on it with paper, but finding his seat inside the class…well, this was proving to be difficult. Deciding to simply go with instinct, he chose a seat near the window. It seemed like a desk he would choose; next to the window, the last row and slightly at the back. If it wasn't his…well, it had nearly been a week his since school began; his classmates were bound to know where he sat.

Roll call helped. Kuroko now knew who most of his classmates were and the huge red head in front of him provided enough cover that Kuroko wouldn't be easily seen. The last thing he wanted was to be called upon to answer a question whose answer he'd never even heard of. Though with his low presence, that chance seemed quite small.

"…and Japan went into a complete isolation. Trade cycles with other countries were stopped and – Kagami!" The teacher, short and slightly balding in the head stopped right beside 'Kagami', glaring at his sleeping form.

"Got ya!"

Kuroko barely managed to contain a snort as the red-haired individual's hand shot out, grasping the bald head of their sensei. His classmates were less reserved and slight chuckles erupted as the teacher twitched, flicking his book over the sleeping teen's head sharply, waking him up immediately.

"Oi, Kuroko!" Kagami turned in his seat, much to the blue-haired teen's surprise, as their teacher walked back to the front after berating him for dozing off, "Why didn't you wake me up? And how are you not tired from yesterday's match?!"

"Kagami! Pay attention!"

"Er… yes, sensei!"

As the lesson continued, Kuroko's eyes narrowed in thought. Match? So the slightly sore feeling and aches in his muscles was because of that. Kuroko had first assumed it to be so because of the Inter-Middle Finals; he was bound to be sore after that; but thinking about it, it shouldn't have been so. If he'd played the match two years in the past, it was no reason for his muscles to ache in the future…This time travel thing was getting irritating real quick.

But wait! A match? Then that meant Kagami and he were in the basket ball club together! Perfect! Kuroko had not found Aomine-kun yet, but if he just followed Kagami today, he'd be sure to find the tanned player at the gym at least!

Slumping in slight relief, Kuroko gazed down at his history notes. Well, at least it was Japanese history, his best subject. He wondered how he'd have fared if it had been maths.

"Kise-kun looks as hot as usual!"

"Kyaa! How handsome!"

Kise flashed a small smirk at a girl as she waved who promptly blushed and turned back to her girlfriends, chattering excitedly.

"I'm surprised though, you know,"

"He seems quite jovial as usual!"

"Yeah, thought he'd be a bit down after yesterday…"

Kise paused at that, slowing down to hear them better, 'What am I supposed to be feeling so down about?'

"Oi, Kise!"

Kise turned to see a shorter, dark haired teen walking towards him with quick strides.

"Where were you this morning? Losing one match doesn't mean you can skip out on morning practice, get it?"

'Who is he?' Kise blinked, then, 'Wait! What?! We lost a match? Lost?! How in the – oh, yeah, right. Not Teiko. I've no idea how strong this school's team is either…'

"Are you listening to me, Kise?"

Kise instinctively dodged the other teen's knuckles as it tried to knock into his head, "Yeah, yeah, got it, senpai." Flashing a quick smile, he lied through his teeth, "Just got held up at home for some reason. I'll be there for after-school practice for sure."

That seemed to satisfy him and he walked ahead of him, calling out a greeting to another teen who responded enthusiastically with a 'Hey, Kasamatsu!'

"Kasamatsu, huh?" Kise muttered, "Wonder what position he holds in the team? Must be either Captain or Vice-Cap, with the way he ordered me. A second or third year, probably. I was right about his age then…Gah! This is so confusing!"

Getting into his class and finding his seat was easy – there were already a bunch of girls standing near it, waiting for him to take a seat before they began gossiping. Replying automatically and vaguely, he waved off everyone after a few minutes, claiming to be tired and needing a bit of pre-class nap. They cleared off immediately with sympathetic pats on his back.

'Lost a match, huh?' Kise thought back to that conversation as he pulled out his phone and began scrolling through, 'If the season's not yet begun, it was a practice match definitely. And if I actually lost, then…Aha! Here we go!'

Only recently – or perhaps in the recent past, two whole years in the recent past – after the Inter-Middle Semi-finals, they had been nick-named as the 'Generation of Miracles'. The name was flashy and sounded a lot more cool than a mere teen basketball club deserved, but they'd all been rather proud of it. The sports world had taken to following them rather actively after that, also planning to write an article on them. Kise didn't know what happened to that article now, but if the name Generation of Miracles had stuck through these two years, then the news of Kise losing a match was sure to be spread out on social media groups.

'Against Seirin High,' Kise read, thumbing down to see a picture of the final score, 'It was a pretty good match, huh? We only lost by two points…Wait!' Kise gulped, his eyes widening at one photo even as his body slumped in relief, 'That's Kurokochhi! Kurokochhi is in Seirin!'

"This is perfect!" Kise grinned, "I can ask him what happened now. And, well, he would know, wouldn't he? He'd know something at least…or even hear me out before calling me crazy…"

"Kise-kun." Ah the sensei had arrived, "Phones in for now, please. I'll be starting roll call."

Kise was beaming as he complied. It didn't really matter right now. This was certainly a crazy time, all alone in Kanagawa with Kuroko in Tokyo (He must be, should be, even if he hadn't really heard of Seirin) and not knowing where Aominechhi or Akashichhi were, not knowing anything about what was going on…but if anyone had a chance of hearing him out, even if it was a silly time-travel theory of his, it was definitely Kuroko!

'Oh no,' Kise sighed as he remembered then, 'I still have to attend basketball practice... This is going to be a long day…'

"Yosh! Listen up!"

Aida Riko, the coach of the basketball team and a second year student. Why was their coach a second year? But, Kuroko lost most of his complaints after seeing her conduct a successful practice; though he did miss Shirogane kantoku's coaching. Even if it was harder than this.

'Akashi-kun would be appalled,' Kuroko thought, 'but there is certainly a difference. Instead of the rigorous training of Teiko's, it is a slower paced, but longer menu. Well evened out too. The stretches leave a comfortable burn in the muscles. And Kagami-kun is a good player. I can see it just by looking…'

Kuroko was rambling.

Not aloud, of course, but in his thoughts. Rambling to keep his mind off other matters, such as Aomine-kun. The Teiko ace had usually been one of the first members inside the gym for practice. Be it after a hard-won match or the day before a school test, Aomine would never pass up a chance to spend more time playing basketball. It was never training for him – it was playing and that was also one of the reasons why Kuroko had grown to love his attitude regarding it.

So Kuroko had known. The moment he and Kagami-kun had stepped inside the gym and not seen Aomine-kun or Momoi-san, Kuroko had known. Aomine Daiki certainly didn't attend Seirin high school.

"Okay, we'll play a mini-match first to get you into gear," Riko said, "The elimination rounds for the Inter-High begin next month, so I'll be changing your training menus accordingly."

"Have the match-ups been drawn already?" Koganei asked.

"They'll be out by tomorrow, earliest," Hyuuga replied as he bent forward to touch his toes, Izuki applying a light pressure on his back.

"Yes, which is why I'm saying this now," Riko said, "For the first few matches, we'll have Hyuuga-kun, Izuki-kun, Koganei-kun, Kagami-kun and Kuroko-kun as the starter members."

"Great!" Kagami grinned joyously.

Kuroko blinked with surprise as their seniors began patting Kagami on the back, telling him to keep training and that he was expected to do better. Him, a starting player? That was a different strategy compared to Teiko's. Well, it was a different school too. And it was just best to go with the flow for now.

"None of those lousy passes you displayed in yesterday's game," Hyuuga said sternly to Kagami, "you and Kuroko start polishing your co-ordination. We'll be depending on your Light and Shadow stuff and what not to keep us going against your old team mates, yeah, Kuroko?"

"Hai." Kuroko responded in a bland tone, earning a couple of chuckles as Hyuuga twitched at the unenthusiastic reply, 'And that's another thing. Kagami-kun is now my light.' Kuroko gazed at him in consideration, 'He seems to be a power-player based on height and muscle definition. A lot like Aomine-kun. Maybe that's why…?'

But, in the end, no matter how many explanations he gave, Kuroko still didn't get it. Why had he and Aomine-kun split up? Their partnership was one of the best! A perfect duo that often managed to get the better of even Akashi-kun! Why then? Why was he not studying in the same school, playing on the same team as Aomine?

'What kind of school have I chosen?' Kise groaned, 'A test right off the bat? And on maths too. I'm pretty sure Gemini must be ranked last today, what with this horrible luck of mine…'

Akashichhi was already a bit mad that he was not keeping up with algebraic equations; God knew what level of difficulty High School mathematics was on. And there wasn't even Akashichhi or Midorimachhi to help explain things to him now!

His fellow classmates were worriedly discussing the paper, "What did you mark for question seven? I'm pretty sure that was based on cosine rule…"

"Idiot! That had the tan function in it! You're supposed to use the sine rule then –"

Yeah, that. Maths. Trigonometry. Kise tried to unsuccessfully block his ears as he packed up his book bag and headed out towards the gym. Thankfully, he had one other basketball member in his class and was content to follow him to the gym. The school was huge and confusing anyway.

"Kise! I want to have a word with you, concerning yesterday's game."

Kise turned his head; he was getting called on rather a lot today. Especially by his basketball club members. Was him losing the match truly such a depressing matter? Kise supposed he had been acting rather happy, but what could he do? The last the thing the blond remembered was enjoying a hearty meal with his teammates to celebrate winning the Inter-Middle Championship. He didn't remember losing any game, certainly.

"Hai, kantoku?"

The portly man who'd called out to him, paused slightly, an odd expression crossing his face and making Kise wonder if he'd said something he usually didn't. Usually…as in, before the whole travelling to the future… thing...whatever.

"Kise, I hope you learnt a lesson from yesterday's match –"

'If I actually remembered playing it, kantoku, yeah,' Kise sighed.

"– and I think I don't need to tell you that you also owe your captain an apology. And your coach," The man looked at him pointedly but Kise had no idea what he was supposed to be apologising for. The coach sighed at his blank face, "Very well. I know the loss stung, but take heed from it and improve, and you better start making up for your previous absences. You will come to every practice, unless of course, your work demands otherwise –"

"Work?" Kise interrupted before he could stop himself, earning an odd look as he laughed it off, "Ah yeah, right. Of course, kantoku! I'll get right to it, in fact! I'll go and get changed now, yeah?"

Kise excuse himself politely, heading towards the locker rooms and swinging his locker open. Mechanically changing, Kise dug out his uniform – his mother had thankfully handed it to him this morning – ignoring the other players. He seriously needed to start learning their names, he couldn't keep calling everyone senpai, it'd get confusing real soon. And knowing the first years' names was first priority. He couldn't call them any variation of senpai, after all.

'I wonder what this work was,' Kise mused as he ran a few laps for warm-up, 'Modelling? Couldn't be, could it? And make up for my absences? Was I actually missing practice before? I never cancelled Teiko's trainings for modelling jobs. A part time job? Oh kami-sama, I hope not! How am I even going to know about this? I suddenly wish I kept a journal of some sort –'

"Hey, Kise," the teen from this morning, Kasamatsu, joined him then, "After yesterday's match –"

'Oh kami-sama, not that again!' Kise groaned inwardly, 'And what do I need to apologise for, anyway? I'm seriously not doing it until I know, so he better not be here for that. And who is this captain that I'm supposed to apologise to?'

"– I think it's better if you told us now. Early enough so that we can prepare for it instead of mid-match like with Seirin. Oi, are you listening to me, Kise?"

"Ah yeah," Kise nodded, "Uh…what are we talking about again?"

Kasamatsu gave him an unimpressed glare, "Your old teammates, idiot! I'll kick you, seriously…"

Kise sweat-dropped at that last threat, 'Kick me? This guy is odd. And I still don't know, is he the vice-cap? Or captain? Well, can't ask him either way…'

"What about my old team mates?"

"Kise, are you seriously alright? You're still not moping about yesterday's loss, are you? I know it was your first loss, but man up already!"

"No, not that," Kise interrupted, finding ten things odd about Kasamatsu's statement as well as a bit insulting, "But what are you talking about, senpai?"

Moping about a loss? First loss? Kise had lost to Aomine tons of times! He still hadn't managed to win a one-on-one against him; he was certainly no stranger to loss. Having joined the basketball club only a few months prior, and with such talented teammates, even Kise's abundant skill hadn't gotten him the top position of best player as was the norm. And the fact that he had a challenge instead of an easy win was what made the basketball club fun!

Besides, he'd lost a practice match against Kuroko – his current (Previous? It was the future after all) trainer – someone who had taught him most of the technical skills Kise knew. In fact, he was sure that pit against his old team mates, to declare a winner would be difficult. They knew each other's play styles so well, that countering it would be easy as well as a task in itself. And so what if he'd lost against Kurokochhi now? He'd certainly make sure to win next time! He couldn't have Kurokochhi gloating about it for too long, or start betting vanilla shakes on the outcome of the matches…

"What do you want me tell you about my old team mates?" Kise asked, pulling out of his thoughts, finding the prefix 'old' quite odd while referring to his friends.

"Their strengths! Their weaknesses! Any odd quirks you remember," Kasamatsu said exasperatedly, "What else? Oh, and yeah, if any of them have a tendency to disappear on court, knowing that would be good too."

Kise laughed at that description of Kuroko, "No, that's only Kurokochhi! Besides, he can't do that –"

"For an entire game," Kasamatsu completed, "yeah, you told us that. And a warning would have been greatly appreciated. Having him steal the ball from my hands –"

'Well,' Kise thought, tuning out the teen's words as another thing struck him, 'Kurokochhi certainly made an impression on him. But…if Kasamatsu-san is actually mentioning Kurokochhi, remembering him instead of Aominechhi…does that mean, Aominechhi and Kurokochhi are not on the same team?'

Kise had not found any pictures or mentions of Aomine playing of Seirin on any chats he'd seen this morning, but that didn't necessarily mean Aomine was not at Seirin. But if Kasamatsu was more fascinated with the shadow instead of the light, then… Why? Why was Aomine not playing with Kuroko? And if they'd split up, then did that mean all of them had done so too?

Kise's gaze lowered to the floor, 'I…don't know what's going on anymore…'

It was one of the few times, Kuroko thought, that he was actually happy to see Kise-kun call him.

"Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, pulling away the red-head's attention from his teriyaki burger, "I must take this call, I shall be right back."

"Huh?" Kagami blinked, "Yeah, of course, Kuroko. Geez you don't have to be so formal all the time,"

Giving him non-committal nod, Kuroko pushed away his chair and walked towards the exit, straying a bit further from the door before he accepted the call.

"Hello?"

"Kurokochhi! You picked up! You finally picked up! The phone rang for so long – oh, I'm Kise, Kise Ryota, remember? And you need to please listen to me –"

"Of course I know who you are, Kise-kun," Kuroko responded but it got lost in the following barrage of words and the passing specialist was reminded why he didn't usually answer the blond model's calls.

" – and I know this sounds crazy, but I'm telling you it's not! I suddenly got up today and everything had changed! Well, not everything, but most things –"

"Kise-kun. Kise-kun!"

Kise paused at Kuroko's raised voice, "Yeah, Kurokochhi?"

"Kise-kun," Kuroko paused, hesitating before simply saying it, "What do you last remember? The meal after –"

"– the Inter-Middle Championship?" Kise completed with audible hope in his voice, "Yes! Yes, yes! Oh, thank kami-sama! You wouldn't believe how scary it was, I thought no one else remembered and people kept talking about a match we played with Seirin and I kept thinking –"

"Calm down Kise-kun," Kuroko smiled imperceptibly, his own panic abating now that he'd found a friend in the same boat, "I don't know what is going on either. But at least it means this is all real and I'm not dreaming it."

"Or perhaps Kurokochhi and I are sharing a dream~!"

"Impossible." Kuroko shot down immediately, ignoring Kise's retaliating 'So mean!'. The mere fact that Kise-kun was back to making jokes and quips, showed that the blond was calming down, "We need to meet Kise-kun. And we need to talk about this. I – I am quite uncertain as to how to proceed,"

"Yeah," Kise agreed, "And, Kurokochhi…I checked out on all social media groups I could about yesterday's match –"

"I don't know anything about it," Kuroko said.

"No," Kise breathed in harshly, "not that, it's just… There was no mention of – I mean – even my team mates never said anything – and I wanted to hear it from you, but, so I –"

"You're right." Kuroko responded softly, understanding what Kise was trying to say, "You're right, Kise-kun. Aomine-kun does not attend Seirin."

There was a light hiss through the receiver in reaction, as if Kise's doubts had been confirmed, "Then yesterday's match?"

"Kagami Taiga." Kuroko replied, "I've apparently chosen him as my new light. He's a good player and very similar to Aomine-kun in play style."

"Do you know why –?"

"No. No, I have no idea why Aomine-kun and I are not in the same school. And no idea whether it is only the both of us or…"

The silence stretched on for a while, Kuroko could not voice it out. While Kise might be a part of whatever weird thing was going on, it did not mean the others were too. And both of them were worried, worried that they would find out that they'd somehow lost two years of their lives while the others remembered incidents and events they did not.

"Do you remember the court?" Kuroko said after a while, "The one we used to play on during weekends?"

"Yeah, the one right near the big children's park?" Kise confirmed, "Tomorrow? After practice?"

"At six o' clock," Kuroko amended, "We can tell each other all we learnt and figure out where to go from there."

"Yeah, okay," Kise agreed, a slight cheer in his voice now, "I'll see you tomorrow then, Kurokochhi! It's a date!~"

"Idiot." Kuroko muttered fondly after the line cut off, a small smile playing up on his lips, 'Well, at least I'm not alone now.'

Stepping back into the burger joint, he reclaimed his seat in front of Kagami, nearly spooking him with his sudden appearance.

"Huh." Kagami leaned forward, "Must have been some call, you're actually smiling."

"No. I'm not." Kuroko schooled his face again, amusement bubbling up at Kagami-kun's earnest expression.

"You were!"

"Was not."

"Were."

"Was not."

"Were!"

"I refuse to argue with you like a five year old."

"A five – hey! Kuroko!"

Kuroko truly did smile at that, making Kagami crow in triumph. Well, Kuroko thought as Kagami unwrapped another burger, Kagami-kun wasn't Aomine-kun but he was quite a good friend in his own way.

AN: So, how was it? Do let me know! Feedback helps a lot! And it highly encourages me to write faster, so yeah, a review? :)

Also, before people start questioning it, the lack of details will be covered up soon. Kuroko and kise just got to know their teams, I'll be writing more about them soon enough. And, if anyone is wondering why Kuroko didn't call Aomine on the phone like Kise did...well, there's a reason for that too. You'll just have to keep reading to find out! ^_^

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To Guest - Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you are enjoying this story. And I know the premise is a bit unique, but I'm having fun writing it so I hope you have fun reading it :)

To Rheizen - Thanks for reviewing! Thank you for the compliment! I'm glad you're liking my story and writing style! Their friendships will certainly be odd, and not quite canonical. The GoM are still a bit in their middle-school menatailities, so you can't expect them to adapt and adjust quickly either, but their dynamics with their high school teams will also be discussed, for sure! :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

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