"I understand going somewhere with Kise," said Aomine. "He's the Avatar and he knows how to score free food anywhere and we won't have to put up with him that long until he goes somewhere else or something covert avatar business. But why are we bringing Kagami along?"
"Oi," said Kagami, who did indeed have something to offer: he could read maps. He was looking over what they had and trying to remember his own travels, with Kise offering little to no actual help at all.
"Kagamin is travelling too," Momoi said, reasonably. "Why shouldn't we go together?"
"We barely know him," said Aomine. "He could be a serial killer, like on the radio. Also he eats like a komodo rhino."
"Don't you think we could handle a serial killer?" said Kuroko, appearing without warning behind Aomine with a box, and scaring everyone. "You eat as much anyway."
"If Kagamichi was a serial killer," said Kise with all apparent seriousness, "Why hasn't he tried anything?"
"He's trying to lower our guard," said Aomine, reasonably. He had emptied a box of 'treasures' in front of him, and among them was what Kagami could only call shiny rocks and bones. Hung around Aomine's neck was a set of Polar Bear Dog teeth and claws, and their fellows also sat in the box. He fingered the curve of a saber-toothed moose lion's canines and set them aside in his 'keep' pile.
"I object to being called a serial killer," said Kagami, but absently, looking at them hollowing out the house. He'd left behind everything he had when he left, not that much of it had been his in the way that this house was theirs. He'd also known (always known) that someday he would go back.
"You're new," said Aomine. "You don't get to object to anything."
"That's true," said Kise, folding the same blanket over and over again. "I never got any say either."
"You still don't get any say," said Aomine.
"Kise-kun would get a say if he said anything worth saying," said Kuroko. Once they had dragged out the personal stuff and left the furniture and most of the houseware to stay with the house, the heavy stuff was mostly Kuroko's books and an assortment of knickknacks provided by Kise. They discarded the souvenirs heartlessly. Kuroko was donating most of his books to the school, keeping only a few slim favoured volumes and, for some reason, the yearly almanac. None of them had much in the way of clothes, not even Momoi, whose largest contribution to that pile was her armor. She picked a few choice pieces- her arm guards, her fans, and her boots- to wear on the road. It was better to be safe than sorry. Kuroko laid out an array of water tribe weaponry, well-kept and well-made, their bone edges gleaming with use. Kise lifted some of them because apparently Kise could not ever stop being everywhere, and whistled down their length.
"Did you make these?" said Kagami, interested. He'd seen their type before, but not up close.
"We traded for some of them," said Kuroko. "I don't possess the skills for creating them. Southern Water Tribe goods come through quite often." The best metal in the house was Momoi's weapons, and Aomine needed no weapons. After a whole day of this they sat on the packaging of Aomine's, Momoi's and Kuroko's life and ate leftovers for dinner.
"Most of our food comes from stuff the Aunties give us," said Momoi, when Kagami's discomfort got a little too obvious. "Meat we get ourselves and share out, but we've always sort of been children of the community."
"Ah," said Kagami, and tried to look as though he hadn't been horrified at the thought of having literally eaten them out of their home. Aomine caught a bit of that tension and his eyes narrowed; it wasn't like they didn't get along fine on their own, hadn't gotten along fine on their own.
"If we were going at the right time I'd say we could have caught a convoy across the water," said Kise. "An air bison convoy, I mean. We never ask for much, you just have to pull your own weight for a while and not be a total asshole."
"That's how I crossed from the Fire Nation," said Kagami. "Doesn't it get a bit weird for large groups, though? They don't ask questions, but you don't like to impose."
"If they're already on the way it doesn't much matter to them," said Kise. "We're travelling light anyway, right? Sometimes I just catch up to a convoy and sleep with them then go on my own way in the morning."
"Travelling advice for people who can't fly, Kichan," said Momoi.
"Air Nomad Convoys would be a good idea if we could get to them," said Kuroko. "There's safety in numbers and I like Air Nomad cooking."
Aomine made a face. Endless vegetables. "But we want to get to Republic City," he said. "Don't they go to Republic City?"
"They do," said Kise. "Just not now. I know there's one circling the North Pole, and another should have just landed at the Eastern Air Temple, but none are doing direct routes to Republic City, and none are anywhere near us right now." He sighed. "Sometimes I hitch onto Fleet ships," he said. "But that's not exactly practical."
"I wouldn't think so," said Kagami, who had very vivid memories of the battleships, massive and gleaming, all the men and women in their crisp uniforms running over it like ants- exactly like ants, stripping a corpse to the bone, united in military might and purpose, and vaguely terrifying in their gold and red. Somehow he did not think anyone- not the Avatar, and not any of them- could reasonably commandeer a Fleet ship. Well. Maybe Kise. If it was something world-affecting.
"We'll just have to manage," said Momoi, with that supreme confidence, and Aomine remembered that Satsuki had always taken in strays easily. As for him- well, he didn't mind them, and Kagami was a good fight and Kise was occasional fun and Tetsu would keep them all in check.
"Yes," said Kuroko, nodding. That was alright, then. Tetsu would be careful for them. Between the three of them, they would be fine, even if Kagami and Kise wandered off again. "We'll manage."