Author's Note: Happy Halloween, souls.

… I did absolutely nothing that faithful day. (Okay, I did update a special Halloween chapter, but it doesn't fit in with the storyline so I ended up deleting it. Sad.) XD Yup, this one's edited too, but only partially.

By the way, as of this chapter, when Lily's around, it's English. And when she's not, it's Japanese. For convenience's sake.

I don't own Kuroko no Basuke!

Ah, Children

Lily was dropped off at the daycare the next day. She stepped in the daycare.

Orange walls, low ceilings much wider than it was long, and peach rugs.

"Hi!"

Lily looked behind her to see a girl.

"I'm Mari and I'm half American and half Japanese. What's your name?"

"Lily."

"Nice to meet you! Since nobody'll know what you say if you say English, I'll teach you Japanese, okay?"

"Mmhm!"

Mari motioned to a teenage girl showing somebody how to draw something.

"That's Mrs. Ross, and she's not the real teacher, just a helper. Kinda."

She motioned to a black-haired lady to their right.

"She's the real teacher. Her name's Mrs. Fuyu. But you call a teacher in Japan sensei, so she's Fuyu-sensei. And the other girl's Ross-sensei."

"Any teacher?"

"Yup."

Lily paused.

"What happens if I don't call them sensei?"

"Well, it's rude."

"Oh. Okay!"

"I'm not here all the time, but when I am, I'll help you talk to everybody. They speak Japanese, you see…"

Introductions took place, lunch passed (after a fiasco where Lily discovered you had to have lunch), and it was time to go.

Mari was waiting with Lily and Mrs. Ross.

"Do your parents like to be late?"

"No. I don't know where my mom and dad are 'cause I'm living with rainbow heads…"

"Rainbow heads?"

"Yup. Red, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, and purple."

"That's amazing."

What must have been the exact replica of Mari, but older, came into the daycare.

Mari brightened.

"That's my sister. I gotta go, Lily. Bye!"

"Bye!"

A few minutes passed and it started to rain.

Lily took shelter with Mrs. Ross under a tree.

"Lily, do you know anyone you can call?"

"No..."

The woman sighed.

"We'll wait here a few more minutes and then I'll look in the contact book for your family's numbers."

Lily and the teacher waited for the rain to stop silently.

"... I feel like we're forgetting something. Have we?"

"No, we didn't... I think."

"What do you mean, you think?"

"I meant that - oh. We forgot Lily."

Silence.

The Miracles began to panic as the realization came upon them. Kise wasn't helping either, with his constant blubbering of possible scenarios that could've happened to Lily, as it was raining.

And this girl was potentially kidnapped.

Akashi recovered first. "I'm going to pick her up." He ran outside.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Gom were currently calming down Kise.

Well, trying to calm him down.

"Lily might be getting sick! What will we do if she gets sick?"

"We'll just take care of her."

"We don't know what the five year old likes! What if she's allergic to something?"

"... Is she five?"

"We aren't inhumane enough to not take care of a sick child, Kise-kun."

"Ah, I didn't mean to imply you guys are cold and heartless!"

He looked off to the side.

"But sometimes you guys can be really mean."

"Only with you, Kise."

"See? Mean!"

Mrs. Ross had left to get the book, leaving Lily alone in the rain.

And then she saw a familiar red from a car window.

"It's the red guy!"

It was then that it occurred to Akashi that the girl never knew their names.

He got out of the limo.

"I'm Akashi. Call me Akashi-nii-san. Or just Akashi-nii. I'm sorry for being late."

"It's okay," Lily sneezed. "Akashi-nii."

Akashi proceeded to take Lily's hand and lead her inside the limo, but Lily stopped, stopping Akashi with her.

"I have to say bye to Mrs. Ross!"

Akashi paused.

That wasn't what he remembered the teacher's name to be...

Alarm bells suddenly went off in his head.

Had they left Lily alone for some nearby woman to find her?!

Akashi set out to secretly follow Lily.

What if Mrs. Ross was some dangerous kidnapper or murderer who had gone away to get a knife?!

For once, he thanked his studies. He could defend himself and Lily if he had to...

Akashi looked around.

Caught in his thoughts, he'd lost track of Lily.

Stones settled in his stomach.

(AN: And this is the point where it's no longer edited, at all. The goodbye is a new thing, so it's completely skipped over in the next part.)

Peacefully, the two went home, with Lily sneezing from time to time.

"Winter, are you-"

"... Winter? My name's Lily."

"-Are you okay? Also, don't interrupt me."

"I'm okay!"

That peacefulness didn't last long, though.

As soon as Lily stepped through the door, she was glomped by Kise.

Then she noticed that the other Miracles were staring at her.

"Oh yeah! I don't know you guys, your names. Could you say them?" She placed her hands behind her back.

Kise stopped hugging Lily and introduced himself first. " Oh, I'm Kise Ryouta! Call me Ryo-nii!"

He silently waited for Lily to recognize his name.

She didn't.

"But isn't Kise your first name?"

Maybe she only knew him as Dad... Oh well.

"Nope! In Japan, we say our last names first."

"Oh."

"I'm Midorima Shintaro. When's your birthday?"

"December 19! Do I call you Shin-nii?"

"Winter, you-"

"Call me Lily! Everybody's calling me Winter!"

"... Okay. Your birthday is at almost the same time as Akashi."

"When's his birthday?"

"December 20."

"Really? That's amazing!"

"... Now that I think of it, you know a lot of words. Where'd you learn them?"

"Um… books? School?"

Midorima froze.

School?

"... What grade are you in, Lily?"

He was just hoping it was kindergarten.

"First grade. I'm turning six soon!"

God didn't answer his prayers.

... Well, there were many advantages for going into school a year late...

Lily looked at Midorima.

"So what do I call you?"

"Oh, Mido-nii is fine."

"Aomine Daiki. Nice to meet you."

"Ao-nii?"

"I guess."

"I'm Murasakibara Atsushi. Hi."

Murasakibara scanned Lily.

"You're tiny."

"Well, I'm gonna grow up and be taller than Abraham Lincoln! Oh, I'll call you Mura-nii!"

Silence then.

"Light blue head, you didn't say your name!"

Kuroko was slightly surprised at Lily's ability to see him.

"Ah, I'm Kuroko. Kuroko Tetsuya."

"Kuro-nii it is!"

And our adventures begin!

Almost.

"Achoo!"

"I knew it! Lily, you did get sick! I'm so sorry... Let me take care of you! I've been taken care of by my sis-" Kise opened his arms willingly to Lily midsentence before Midorima interrupted.

"Your clingy behavior disgusts me, Kise."

"That's mean, Midorima-cchi!"

"I'm not sick-" As if on cue, Lily sneezed.

"You're a horrible liar, Lily! Come to Papa!"

Lily pointed a finger at Kise.

"You look like my daddy, but you're not my daddy, Ryo-nii. Your name is different. You're not my daddy!"

Kise paused for a moment.

Maybe she was in denial... Or maybe his older self was astoundingly handsome, so she just didn't recognize his face because he wasn't as attractive.

Time to just go with things.

"Not your real daddy! I'll be like a daddy!" Kise opened his arms wide, ready for a hug.

He heard a mutter of "pedophile".

Kise started crying. Crocodile tears were streaming down his face, while still holding his arms wide.

He just thought she was cute!

And tiny and adorable, and she was definitely one of his future kids if she looked so…

Okay, he was starting to see why they were calling him a pedophile.

Meanwhile, Lily ran happily into Kise's arms.

"Kise-kun, Lily, we exist."

"I didn't forget you guys! Oh, now that I think of it..."

Lily's voice got quieter and quieter as Kise ran off to the nearest room with her to get a sweater to keep her warm.

Or something.

"That pedophile nincompoop's going to screw this up somehow..."

"I'll help the idiot... Oh, but it's not like I'm doing this for any reason other than obligation."

Midorima speed-walked in Kise and Lily's direction.

"This is interesting. Would help some of our members mature as well."

"I agree, Akashi-kun."

"O-oi! I thought Tetsu was supposed to be the ghost, not me!"

"Aka-chin forgot about me too..."

"We did not forget you, Aomine, Murasakibara. We were simply having an inside conversation."

"Could I join too, then, Aka-chin?"

"That conversation already ended, Murasakibara-kun."

Their attention was grabbed by a yell.

"Kise! That's too big, idiot! Do you want to smother her?!"

"Aka-chin, I'll be going to help them. Maybe sweets will cure her. Sweets are justice~"

"Go ahead- Wait. There is a secret stash of candy in Kise's room. Is that your true intention?"

"How is there candy in Kise's room?"

"Modeling extras."

"And you learned this from sources, Akashi-kun." The question sounded more like a statement.

"Yes I did. Murasakibara, you can go anyway."

"Thanks, Aka-chin."

"Oh, where's Aomine-kun?"

Author's Note: Please don't ask me how the Miracles know so much English at thirteen slash fourteen when they're Japanese - it's fanfic logic, I guess. And Aomine is still there with Akashi and Kuroko, but they're pretending he doesn't exist. Poor soul.

... Aww, I'm reading this over and it sounds really boring!

I'm sorry if it's like that. But as I've been saying, it gets better...

(Note from future self: It actually does. Though it's still pretty cringy, at least to me.)