Kagami had it pretty easy. He'd wake up as Kuroko went to work, cook breakfast for them, then lounge around in sweatpants reading basketball magazines and watching TV until Kuroko came back from work. Depending on how they both felt, they'd either spend the afternoon in the house before having dinner, or they'd go out for a walk before it.

Even though they lived in the same city that they had in high school, Kagami couldn't believe it was the same place. The neighbourhoods were different. Trees sprouted in places where they hadn't before and buildings had sprung up where parks had once been. There were a lot more shops, many of them filled with things that were totally alien to Kagami, with new brand names and products and unknown celebrities endorsing things. If he didn't have Kuroko to lead him around, Kagami probably would've gotten lost, even on streets that had once been familiar to him.

Today he was doing his usual, flicking through channels on TV, when Kuroko came in. The other seemed tired, and Kagami looked to him, saying, "You look beat."

"Lot of work today," Kuroko murmured, shoving Kagami's feet off the couch onto the floor and sitting down. "We had our kindergarten graduation-"

"Kindergartens have graduation now?" Kagami asked, scratching his head, "Where do they even get mortarboards that small?"

Kuroko stared at him, coolly.

"Instead of handing them their degree, do you give them the picture they coloured in that day?" He asked. Kuroko jabbed him in the side, causing him to wince and rub the space under his ribs he'd hit.

"It's a nice thing to do for the kids," Kuroko said.

"For the kids? Do they even realise the day is any different from a normal one?"

"…it's a nice thing to do for the parents," Kuroko relented, and sat back, closing his eyes. "Oh, by the way, there was a message on the answering machine for you."

"There was?" Kagami asked, sounding surprised. He'd been in the apartment all day – well, except for the thirty minutes when he'd gone grocery shopping. They must have called then. "How do I get it?"

Kuroko stood up and motioned him out into the hall. A few minutes later, and he had a detailed explanation of how to work the answering machine. He poked at it uncertainly, then set it to speaker phone to listen to it.

"I don't get why everything has to have touch screens now."

"You sound like my grandma."

The message started to play.

"Kagami, hey- I hope you don't mind me calling your place. Look, I wanted to invite you to a night out we're having. It's the usual bar, this Friday. Give me a call if you wanna go, okay? Oh, right, it's Ueda."

The message ended, and Kagami stared at it.

"Do you remember him?" Kuroko asked.

"Of course not," Kagami said. If I don't remember you, how am I gonna remember some guy from work? Kuroko frowned, disappearing for a moment before reappearing with an APPLE IPAD™ (I got two dolla from that sick product placement) in hand. Kagami groaned. "Not another touch screen."

"Be quiet," Kuroko said shortly, pulling up photos and flicking through them. He stopped on a picture of Kagami with a group of strangers. "Let's see…" he murmured, scanning the faces before pointing a guy out. He looked too short and a little too chubby to be a firefighter, but Kagami did not voice that thought. "Right, that's Ueda."

"Ueda," Kagami muttered, memorising the name. "And who are the others? Do you know?"

"Fortunately, I do," Kuroko said, before listing the rest of the people in the photograph. Kagami tried his best to commit them to memory.

"But why 'fortunately'?"

"Because you're going to that night out," Kuroko said, looking to Kagami. Kagami just stared, and Kuroko said, "It might jog your memory if you talk to people other than me. Don't you think?"

"I… I'm not even old enough to drink-"

Kuroko turned to face him, catching his face in both of his hands and holding it still as he looked at him.

"You. Are. Going," Kuroko said, firmly. He let go of Kagami's cheeks, but his hands moved to grasp his shoulders. "Really. I think it'll be good for you."

"But… I don't know anybody," Kagami protested.

Kuroko shook his head. He was clearly not having any of his excuses. "I'll teach you your names. Just stay quiet and nod along to conversations, alright? They know you're having trouble remembering things after your accident, just not that it's full blown amnesia – so just go out and have fun, alright? If they bring up something you don't remember, just change the subject." Kuroko said it bluntly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kagami thoroughly disagreed, but it couldn't be helped. Kuroko was determined.

"Go and have a few drinks and talk to people," he said, "Stay for an hour, at least. And then you can call me and I'll come pick you up."

Kagami was still not convinced.

But anyway, that was how he found himself outside a bar, waiting for friends he didn't even know. He wished Kuroko could have come with him, but when he'd suggested that Kuroko had shaken his head firmly. "Nobody at your work even knows I exist," he said, which made Kagami feel a little weird. He was reading old texts on his phone – he'd found it to be a valuable source of information, both personal and otherwise – when someone came up to him, and greeted him with a bright, "Yo, Kagami!"

He looked up to see Ueda and smiled uncertainly, slipping his phone in his pocket. "Hey," he said, straightening up.

"You're not in the bar yet? Everyone else'll be waiting."

Kagami shrugged. He had poked his head into the bar, saw the table surrounded by his colleagues, then freaked a little and left. He'd been trying to build up the courage to go back in (unsuccessfully) when he'd been found out.

"I'm going in," he muttered, and followed the shorter, plumper man inside. There, he sat down beside Ueda and another guy, a woman across the table from him. She ordered a sake for him, asked 'oh, isn't that what you usually order?' when he looked puzzled, and laughed when he answered 'oh, right, of course it is'. It took him a moment to remember her name was Sumire, and she worked at the station as an office assistant. She kicked at his feet under the table, and giggled when he blushed.

Kagami severely underestimated the strength of sake. By the time he had realised he was drunk, he was being led down the street by Sumire. It was well past the hour that Kuroko had agreed on with him. It was dark, and the cold air stung his cheeks, his hands, anywhere the wind touched his skin. The hand that she held was warm, though, and when she turned to look at him, he blushed and his cheeks heated.

"Kuroko's going to be worried," he mumbled.

"Who?" She asked, falling back to walk side by side with him. Her hand remained in his. He turned to look at her. Her profile was pretty, and her black hair had been curled and framed her face nicely. She really was good looking.

"My, uh…" Kagami hesitated. "My room mate."

"Well, if you don't wanna bother him this late at night," she said, "how about we go to a hotel?"

He almost choked on his own spit.

"Or back to my place."

That was even worse.

"I've never been with an older woman before," he said. She laughed.

"How drunk are you?" She asked, tipping her head back to look at him straight on. Kagami blinked, then realised what she mean. Right, she looked about twenty two, which felt old to him – but in reality, he was older than her, right?

"I mean, you're very mature for your age," he said.

She laughed again, and leant into him. She was at least a head shorter than him – the same height as Kuroko actually. Why was he thinking about Kuroko? That annoyed him.

They had stopped walking now. A neon sign hung above them, and the building looked shabby. She held his hands in hers, and turned to face him.

"Do you wanna stay the night?" she asked. His mouth felt dry. She smiled when he nodded.

The room was tiny. It had a double bed, a ratty carpet, peeling wallpaper, and a TV. He lay on the bed and flicked through the channels while she was in the bathroom. When she came back out into the room, he looked up from the TV to see her standing in her underwear, her small breasts contained in a lacy black bra with matching undies. He stared at her, dumbfounded.

"You're always so quiet at work," she said, sitting at the edge of the bed. "You never talk about yourself. Do you have a girlfriend?"

He shook his head. Well, that wasn't a lie, was it?

"Then why don't you ever accept any of the girl's confessions?" She probed, leaning over to him, "And why do you turn down every woman who asks you out – including me – and then come here tonight? None of this makes any sense, Kagami."

Tell me something I don't know, Kagami thought. But he remained quiet.

"We've got the room until tomorrow, so why don't we have some fun?" She murmured. She knelt between his knees, unzipped his fly, and took him in her mouth. It felt nice, and his body responded to it, but Kagami wasn't into it. He stared at the ceiling above him, and wondered what Kuroko was doing right now. Was he waiting for him, worried about him? Or did he not care at all? His phone was in his jacket pocket now, and silenced – if Kuroko was calling or messaging him, he wouldn't even know.

"Hey," she said.

He looked up. She was where she was before, but her head was propped up in her hand and she was gazing at him, a look of annoyance on her face.

"Usually I don't mind sucking guys off, but when they just lie there I'm not too into it. Show some response, yeah," she sighed, her eyes fixed on him. "Is this what you're usually like in bed?"

"I don't know."

"You're kinda weird, you know that," she said. "Want me to finish you off?"

"Not really."

There wasn't much more he could say. His erection was already wilting without her mouth over it, and she seemed unimpressed.

"Guess there's not much reason for me to be here, then," she said, sitting up. She pulled the skirt she'd been wearing on, then her shirt. With her back turned to him, she said, "But I've gotta ask. Are you just too drunk to keep it up, or am I not good enough for you?"

He didn't understand how she could ask that. She was young, pretty, with a nice body, and he'd no idea how he could think she wasn't good enough for him. "I think you're very attractive," he said. He couldn't help but notice the amount of hurt in her voice when she replied, "Yeah, right."

"Seriously," he said. "I've just got a lot on my mind." He paused. "With the accident, and all that-"

"Right," she said. "Right!" Now she sounded embarrassed. Her back was still to him as she stepped into her shoes. "God, I'm so embarrassed – who goes and hits on a guy right after he gets out of hospital?" She grabbed her bag and tugged it onto her shoulder, "Kagami, please… don't tell anyone at work about this."

"I won't," he said. If it meant nobody got to hear about his embarrassing night, he'd never breathe a word about it to anyone as long as he lived. "But what about the room…?"

"You stay here," she said firmly. She was at the door now, leaving. "Goodnight. I'm sorry."

The door slammed, and she left. Kagami stared at it. How pathetic; coming to a hotel with a girl, messing up his first time – or the first time that he could remember – and then being left to spend a night alone. He could hear the couples on the other sides of his room fucking through the thin walls, and he wished he wasn't alone. Not in that way… but lately, he really did feel like he was alone. Even if Kuroko was kind and supportive, and if his mother phoned every Sunday to see how he was doing, and if people from his work still texted him to ask when he was coming back – he was alone.

He rolled over the bed, grabbing his jacket from the chair it lay on and fishing out his phone. It was past 1AM, and his phone's home screen was covered in missed calls and texts from Kuroko.

Shame pulled in the pit of his stomach. He tucked his cock away and zipped up his fly and closed his eyes. Sleep came to him quickly.

In the morning, he woke up to a pounding headache and more texts and calls from Kuroko. It was only 6AM, so when he hit the button to call him, he didn't expect an answer – but Kuroko picked up almost immediately.

"Where are you?"

"I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Kuroko sounded worried, and Kagami felt bad. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kagami said, sitting up in bed. He felt gross, the way you did when you'd slept in your clothes. "Sorry for worrying you."

"Worrying me?" Kuroko repeated. "I was calling everyone I could think of- and then people said they thought they'd saw you leave, and you left with a girl, and…"

He trailed off. Kagami said, "I'm at a hotel."

"So it was true," Kuroko said.

An awkward pause followed. Trying to smooth things over, to make things right, Kagami said, "We didn't do anything."

"What would it have mattered if you had?" Kuroko said. He was trying to sound apathetic, but Kagami heard the bitterness in his voice. "You're an adult, and you're single. You can go out with whoever you want."

Kagami leant against the wall, the phone cradled between his shoulder and his ear.

"Actually, she went down on me," he said. Kuroko was quiet, so he continued, not wanting it to lapse into another uncomfortable silence. "But the whole time, I was thinking, 'this isn't right, I shouldn't be here', that kind of thing. And I just wanted to be at home with you."

The other end of the line was quiet still, and Kagami wondered if Kuroko had hung up. But then he spoke.

"If you say things like that, you're going to get my hopes up," he murmured.

"I want to go home," Kagami said.

"Then come home."

"No," Kagami muttered. His voice sounded tight, as though he was trying not to cry. "I really want to go home. I want to go back to my bedroom and wake up and flunk a Japanese test, and then I want to go and play basketball with everyone, and then go out for burgers. I want to go home. I don't belong here. None of this makes sense."

Kuroko was quiet. "Where are you?" He asked again.

"Fuck-" Kagami choked, "I told you, I don't know!"

"Look out the window," Kuroko said. His voice was patient, gentle. "Tell me what you see."

Kagami obliged. "There's a convenience store," he said, after wiping the condensation off the window with his sleeve. "And a gas station next to it."

"Alright," Kuroko said. "I've got you. Wait for me there. Don't go anywhere, okay?"

Kagami nodded, as though he'd forgotten that that kind of thing didn't carry over phone lines. Kuroko seemed to understand, though- he hung up without another word, and Kagami curled up on the bed once again, wishing his headache would go away.

a/n: gomen nasaiiiiiii for the long wait minna-chans!