Step 4: Together

(みんなと一緒に)

Breath, cycling through intubation in a rush of air.

Drip, from a saline mix, another round of blood transfusions.

Beep, the monitor watches a steady heartbeat.

Breath.

Beep. Drip. Beep.

Breath.

Beep. Drip. Beep beep.

Midorima glances up from the charts, pushing his glasses back into place with white, encased fingertips—gloved, not taped—as he notices the slight change in heart rate. Increased blood pressure, too? Probably time to pull out the tube pushing air down his patient's lungs. He can't do this until he regains consciousness, so he waits, somewhat patiently.

Breath.

Beep beep. Drip. Beep beep.

Breath.

Drip. Beep beep beep.

Breath.

Inhale. Cough. Inhale. Cough. Gasp.

A flurry of motion. Choking. A deep, dry cough.

"Mi-Midori...?"

"Good morning, Kuroko. How are you feeling?"

"Tetsuya."

There was a blur in front of his eyes. It was moving, getting bigger. He tried to squint, focus on the blur, but another wave of sleepiness swept over him and his eyes closed instead. "Mmm, s'ry. Five m're min'ts." Even his speech felt blurry. Was there something over his mouth?

A hand was on his forehead. "That's alright. Sleep."

Five more minutes. Then he'd get up, put together his lunch and head over to the school.

"How is he looking, Shintarou?"

"He'll be fine."

When he cracked his eyes open the second time, it was in response to a quiet sound, one he couldn't quite place. It was dark, but he easily noticed the large form sprawled over a couch to his side. "Kagami?" He must have stopped over for the night, because his job kept him confined to his department's district. The redhead's clothes looked baggy, so it must have been a late night. As the sound repeated, he chuckled lightly. Kagami always had been a loud sleeper.

A plastic cup sat on a rolling table within reaching distance. He took a few sips to relieve his parched throat. His head felt like it was throbbing, and he resolved never to let Kagami or Aomine convince him to visit a pub with them again.

He drifted off with the light thrumming of his friend's snoring filling his ears.

"Kurokocchi~!"

"Idiot! Don't jump on him."

"B-b-but Aominecchi…"

"Gah! Don't jump on me, either!"

"Kurochin~ I brought vanilla shakes just the way you like them. Aww, Akachin, is Kurochin still sleeping?"

"What're all of you doing up at this ungodly hour? And quit shouting. Some of us are trying to sleep here."

"This is why I suggested you not mention the visiting hours, Taiga."

Kuroko's eyes fluttered open as he was woken by a sudden rabble of voices. Kagami was still slouched over heavily in the couch, widely yawning as he straightened out his collar and jacket. He blinked in surprise as he met a familiar blank stare. "Oh, Kuroko, when did you wake up?"

"Kurokocchiiiiiiiiiiii~!" He tilted his gaze downwards to the floor, where Aomine appeared to have tackled Kise into submission, flattening the pilot beneath him. "Kurokocchi, I was so worried!" the disturbingly high-pitched and much muffled voice cried. Pools of water appeared to be forming beneath his face. Kuroko assumed his inflated tear ducts might be connected. "Akashicchi said—"

"Absolutely nothing," Aomine cut in. He shuffled up so he could continue pinning the blond down while getting a better look at the bluenette above him. "How're you feeling, Tetsu?"

"I feel fine," he said quietly, though he internally winced at the crackling of his words. "What are all of you doing here?" Everyone's eyes suddenly averted. Even Akashi's gaze flickered just the slightest. Kuroko closed his eyes for a moment, and he felt the nasal cannula in his nose, the prick of a needle taped into his arm, and the faint throbbing pain that seemed to ebb and flow. "Why…am I in the hospital?" he asked, almost hesitantly.

"Everyone, please leave the room for a few minutes," Akashi intoned. His voice brooked no allowance for opposition.

Kagami made no movement to get up, and Aomine planted his feet. "Oi!" the officer complained, "You weren't the only one involved in this." The redhead nodded his agreement. He would have been more articulate if he had totaled more than three hours of sleep in the past two days.

The blond didn't possess half of his friend's confidence, but Kise more than made up for it in charisma and eloquence. "Akashicchi, Aominecchi just means to say that you aren't the only one concerned, and the rest of us," he motioned to Murasakibura and Midorima, "would like to be made aware of the situation. The entire situation," he quickly stressed. "Kurokocchi is a very dear friend and we would rather not see a repeat."

"There…" Akashi's eyes narrowed. There will not be a repeat, he wanted to say, but so long as Kuroko retained the personality and perception he had been gifted with since middle school, the possibility of him protecting another at the cost of himself remained entirely possible. Akashi was absolute, so he could utter no such lies, even in condolence. He smothered his grimace as the purple-haired pastry maker spoke.

"Akachin, could I stay too? Kurochin needs his vanilla shakes." The large blue package in his hands was held up as Exhibit A of Kuroko's sugar deficiency, the ice inside slushing around as he did so. The morphine-clouded eyes that moved with surprising efficacy to follow the package could easily be submitted as Exhibit B.

"I will need to be present," Midorima informed him, attention never leaving his instruments as he continued his slight adjustments. A brightly colored, stuffed cow—presumably today's lucky item—sat atop the seat behind him, propped up on a stack of files. "His condition is still listed as critical."

Akashi sighed. When had everyone become so impertinent and stubborn? "Fine. Everyone may stay so long as they remain calm throughout the retelling. Agreed?" He was met with a room of nods. Kagami's head bobbing might have otherwise been attributed to drowsiness, but Akashi took it in stride. "Now, Shintarou, may Tetsuya handle liquids?"

"In most cases, I would say no…" The doctor looked between two large pairs of eyes—one deep purple and the other an endless blue, but both reflecting the exact same emotion. Desire. Okay, perhaps two. Desire and hunger. "But since Kuroko has been stable for a full day and I will be present the whole time, I will allow it."

Only at receiving Midorima's compliance did Akashi nod his own permission to Murasakibura. "Just one," he instructed Kuroko, though it seemed to apply to the purple-haired giant as well. The vanilla shake was extracted from its temperature-controlled carrier with the same finesse one would give objects of incredible value and age. Were the drink an artwork of such magnificence as the Mona Lisa it would have been settled on the bedside table with less care. There was much that the two men could still not come to an understanding on, but when it came to the attention one should give high-quality desserts, the teacher and chef were of one mind and form. Murasakibura settled the table within easy reach, and in less than one sip, the slightest hint of color returned to his pale complexion. His satisfaction was heartily noted by Murasakibura, who pulled out a second concoction for his own eating pleasure.

Aomine removed his knee from Kise's back, and the blond accepted his hand so the tan male could pull him up from the floor. Stuffing a grey hospital quilt and pillow behind him, Kagami moved to one side of the couch to make room for the other two to settle in. Murasakibura, to their relief, was comfortable in the corner seat and Akashi had drawn over a matching cushioned implement from behind the door as he pulled it closed.

"What many of you may have heard from recent news is that Ansho primary school was occupied for a short time by a group of armed and likely unstable teenagers, one of which had a relative attending that day. This is not true. My uncle received what was essentially a ransom note from an angered, former employee demanding compensation for the loss of his job and the unforeseen consequences that followed for the return of his son, and my cousin, Hisoka, as well as his classmates." Aomine nodded as the rest of the room sat at the edge of their seats. Kuroko blinked before taking another slow drink of pure vanilla-flavored heaven. Though he had not been aware of the background information that Akashi was providing, memories slowly filtered back in.

…the first pair of students stealthily crossed the empty hallway, tightly holding hands…

…another teacher nervously chewed her lower lip…

"The school administration reacted quickly and shut down the building, denying the hostage-takers access to the upper floors or any means of exit. My cousin's bodyguard was patrolling the second floor at the time and could not get to him without risking a considerable number of students in the process. I called Daiki and Taiga in to make the situation go more smoothly while we got cameras inside."

…there was shouting from another hallway…

…the woman burst into tears, frantically trying to hold them in with both hands tightly clasped over her mouth…

"The word we had was that a student had been mistaken for Hisoka due to his similar appearance and red hair, a Kaminaga Shoichi. Had my cousin not been outside at the time of the report, I would have assumed it to be him."

"A-and th-then he grabbed Sho-kun and s-said that i-if we weren't quiet, he w-w-would—"

"I'm putting all my faith in you, okay?"

"Between the officers on the scene, many of the first-floor students and teachers were quickly evacuated from a classroom window that had not been properly secured by the emergency procedures. After several shouts and gunshots from inside the building, Taiga and Daiki entered to establish the cause." Kuroko looked up from his beloved vanilla as Kagami let out a quiet snort of disbelief. Aomine had rolled his eyes and covered his mouth to ensure that similar sounds would not emerge from his own lips. Akashi barely gave them a passing glance. "My knowledge of the situation ends there. Whatever transpired, it rendered all but one of the assailants unconscious, many of them due to grade III concussions which have resulted in a complete memory lapse of the event and their roles in it. The one left conscious was apparently in a state of shock and admitted to another care facility for twenty-four hour watch before transferring to police custody."

"I have no recollection of being injured, Akashi-kun."

Akashi ceased his matter-of-fact briefing momentarily to stare into calm, pale blue eyes. "You were shot. Twice." Midorima flinched backwards as the monitor beside him registered a violent jump in heart rate that leveled out almost as fast as it had appeared. The room's other occupants took half a dozen glances each between the steady blips on the medical display and their injured friend's lack of external emotion.

"Ah. That would account for it then." Kuroko responded vaguely as he returned to his drink. "Sho-kun was unhurt?"

"Aside from minor shock, yes. He is recovering at home with his family. Tetsuya, do you feel well enough to relate your own experiences?"

"I believe that I have been sleeping for three days straight, which is more than enough time for me to recover. Midorima-kun, I am not about to attempt walking," he stated as the practicing doctor in the room appeared to have his second heart attack in the last two minutes. He sipped at the vanilla shake to relieve the insistent scratchiness that tickled his throat when he spoke. "I don't remember every detail, but most of that day is clear. When Hisoka-kun was enrolled, his parents specifically requested me as his teacher and I was informed in great detail about the risks it would entail. I had never had parent-teacher conferences that lasted as long as those." The general, non-Akashi population of the room felt sweat run down the side of their faces. None of them would have willingly taken an Akashi as their pupil, not even under threat of death or worse.

"So under the circumstances, I presumed that Hisoka-kun was the target and deliberately went against the school's protocols for such a situation. Instead of locking the door, I organized the students and sent them towards the art classroom." He looked up at Akashi. "Please give my sincere apologies to your aunt and uncle. I did not follow established conduct and I left Hisoka-kun with another teacher to get other students out of the building. My priority should have been Hisoka-kun, because he was entrusted to me alone."

"Under the circumstances," Akashi wryly retorted, "I imagine they already feel deeply indebted to you. Such words will be unnecessary and unheeded."

"If Akashi-kun insists," he assented.

"Now how did you know that one of the classroom windows would not lock?"

"All the teachers are aware of it. The window had to be replaced a month or two ago. It has difficulties with the automatic locking mechanism because the proper installments were not made for the safety bars to slide through. We take turns making sure it is secured from the inside each night. Since the automatic locks are part of the security system, I assumed the lockdown procedures would fail on a window that required manual locks."

Aomine was reminded of a time in middle school when a small fire had broken out as a result of a girl dropping her fragile glass beaker on to a wooden desk. Rather than leave it to the teacher or let the smoke alarm activate the sprinklers, Kuroko had passed a cloth under the tap and pressed it fearlessly down on the chemical fire. His movement was so fast and silent that none of their classmates had even realized. The teacher had turned around from the chalkboard at the front of the room and asked everyone to move away from the glass shards so he could clean them up with a broom, not even noticing the scorch marks or faint smell of ozone until a student in his next class inquired about it.

He should have tried recruiting Kuroko to his department earlier. Who knew that teaching would prove to be the more dangerous job?

"So how'd you convince the kids to be quiet and all sneaky-like?" he asked, elbows propped up on his knees and chin resting firmly between his large palms. "They were pretty composed when we took 'em out, just asking over and over for ice cream."

"Yeah," Kagami recalled, perking up. "And something about team-building, I think."

"Alright, now this is going to be the hard part. You cannot let the students know of the danger."

Kuroko slurped up the last of his shake, looking blankly down at the clear plastic container, then over to Murasakibura. The pastry maker shook his head and he sighed, setting the cup aside and settling back into his pillows. "I told them it was an exercise to teach them how to work together. Everyone had to sneak over to the art classroom without letting anyone know where they were, and all the kids that got over to the entrance would get an ice cream cone and the next day off school."

"And they believed you?" Aomine simply couldn't believe that he had convinced half the school that they had been locked down, surrounded and needed to be completely silent all due to a team-building exercise.

"Of course they did. When you follow an explanation—regardless how absurd—with a goal resulting in ice cream, any child would happily do whatever you ask to achieve their dessert," he stated slowly, as if this were prerequisite knowledge for life itself that Aomine had somehow slept through. Judging by the speed at which Kise was taking notes, however, he hadn't been the only one to miss this particular lesson. "I assumed that they would have at least the next day off as a result of police investigation and parent complaints, so I threw that in to make them more compliant. I believe it worked quite well."

"T-tetsu…" He sighed, covering his face with both palms. Sometimes, he thought, Kuroko could be just as manipulative and underhanded as Akashi.

"It was not as easy convincing the teachers that things were proceeding smoothly, but I believe that they did as well as they could have in the situation. I had them take their classes in pairs so two adults were in each group." He hesitated then, and his monitors showed glimpses of what his composed expressions did not. "One class, though, closer to the front doors, it took a long time to calm Toru-san down. One of her students, Sho-kun, had been grabbed and apparently threatened her and her class. Once she was calm, I told her where the open window was and how to explain the situation to her class. Then I…" His eyes closed as his fingers clasped at the blankets draped over him. There was no lapse in his memory to get around. He simply didn't want to see anyone's reactions. "I went to get Sho-kun."

He heard Kise burst into tears, and guessed by the quiet whispering that he was burrowed in Aomine's chest. The sounds of munching in the corner had stopped entirely. A hand rested comfortingly on his head and Midorima was telling Akashi that this was enough for the day. Kuroko didn't wait for the redhead's response before opening his eyes. "I wasn't done yet," he noted quietly.

Akashi and Midorima were having a conversation that consisted of an odd mix of eye twitches, small gestures at some of the medical readings, and glances over at the topic of their silent discussion. It gave the impression of ending when the doctor gave a small huff as if to say, "Do what you want, because you will anyway," and leaned against a wall with a look belying his apparent approval. Akashi finally nodded to him. "Please go on, then."

Kuroko looked up at Kagami, whose hand remained atop his head. "My hair will not fall off without your support, Kagami-kun." The redhead spluttered, but ruffled his hair with a muttered, "Just in case," before moving back to the couch. Aomine had resigned himself to being Kise's tearfest pillow and motioned for him to ignore the blond's antics. Murasakibura didn't resume snacking until Kuroko began speaking again.

"It wasn't hard to locate where they were. None of them were bothering to keep their voices down. So I walked up behind them, took Sho-kun and left."

The room fell into silence as they tried to interpret Kuroko's words, because he couldn't possibly have just said that he had walked into a place full of armed men, grabbed the child they were holding hostage and simply walked back out on a whim. No, he couldn't possibly have just said that.

"I presume this didn't work," Akashi slowly surmised.

"Well most of it did," he admitted, sipping at a vanilla shake in his hands that seemed to have miraculously refilled itself, an act which did not go past Akashi unnoticed. He shot a look at the purple-haired giant, who simply shrugged, his own cup having inexplicably switched places with Kuroko's as the one in his own hands was empty. If Murasakibura knew anything about this proceeding, he did not let him in on it. Akashi let it go, other priorities currently at the forefront of his thoughts. "I just thought that Sho-kun was small enough that he might substitute for, say, a basketball. When he was being passed from one of the men to the other, he was out of sight just long enough that they didn't notice when I grabbed him.

"But as Akashi-kun says, it did not go entirely as planned. Children are not used in place of birds or scarves in magic tricks because they are harder to distract from, even for a short period of time. I took Sho-kun and left, as I said, but one of them noticed his disappearance and saw me in time to see where I went. I am not a fast runner, so he caught up quickly."

"Was he the one that shot at you?" Aomine asked lowly, almost growling.

"No. I heard him coming well in advance so I was prepared."

"With what?"

Kuroko gave a small smile. "I sent an Ignite Pass Kai to his face."

An image of a man with a badly damaged nose and split lip came to mind. Aomine, having been on the other side of one of his former teammate's quick passes before, shot his hands up quickly to his own face as if to guard from a demonstration of the event. Had the man not tried holding his friend's school hostage, he would have felt very, very sorry for him.

"I passed two teachers who had been on break and taken shelter in one of the empty classrooms, and I tried to convince Sho-kun to go in with them while I led the men away. He wouldn't let go of me, so I told them to barricade themselves in and not move until lockdown was officially ended. It was like being on the court in school, the adrenaline surge," he reminisced. "When they caught up, I had more energy than I've ever had in my life. I don't even remember much about it, except that I wasn't going down without taking every single one of them with me." The corner of his lip twitched. "I'm glad to hear that I got all of them."

He's like a mother bear on a rampage, was the thought that the GoM and Kagami simultaneously had, while Akashi looked pleasantly smug, patting Kuroko's knee through the blankets. No wonder the Akashis have so much trust in him.

Kuroko yawned, and Midorima took the opportunity to pry the drink from his hand to his patient's dismay. "Murasakibura may give you another one tomorrow after you've rested some more."

"Ah, but it's not empty…"

"I know you pulled some kind of switch while I wasn't looking, and I only allowed one. One!" He repeated as pale hands tried to sneak his shake back, handing the cup back to Murasakibura.

The chef gave him an apologetic look as he put the drink back in his blue container. "Kurochin will have another one tomorrow, freshly made~."

"Domo Murasakibura-kun."

"Now the rest of you, shoo! I am perfectly capable of suspending any of your visiting privileges if you continue to keep my patient up with your incessant antics. Kagami, Aomine, I'll still allow one of you to sleep on the couch in here, but only so long as you continue to behave."

"Shintarou, Satsuki will be visiting this afternoon. Would it be better to have her time her visitation for tomorrow?"

The two looked over to Kuroko's bed, which was enveloped by their former teammates. Kise's mood had made a complete 360 flip back to his bubbly, cheerful persona. He'd perched himself up by the bluenette's hip, taking care to avoid the tubes, wires and recently repaired wounds while creating the appearance that he hadn't even noticed any of them. The blond laughed at something Murasakibura had done, the giant also closer to the bedside though still in his chair. In response, the chef shoved a stick of pocky into Kise's mouth. The blond continued giggling around the snack, small crumbs falling from his lips.

Aomine had a large grin on his face as he leaned over Murasakibura's shoulder to snag a pocky stick for himself, to the pastry maker's protestation. Kise mumbled something around his pocky about good manners to which the officer cried foul. "Hey! Sharing! We're all friends here, right?"

Kagami didn't even complain about the noise, stretched out on the emptied couch. A quilt and his work jacket were tossed over his shoulders and it wasn't long before his soft, rumbling snores reached their ears.

"Have her drop by," Midorima suggested, checking the label on a vial he had extracted from his lab coat before tucking it back in. "The visits help, it's easy to tell. He seems to wake every 12 hours for ten to twenty minutes, though we have to wait awhile each time for him to remember where he is." He shrugged. "Worst case, he's sleeping and she returns with you tomorrow."

"She'll want to bring food."

"Convince her not to make it and stick with liquids. I won't see my patients survive surgery just to turn around and be killed by food poisoning, of all things."

Akashi just shook his head in amusement.

A nurse stepped in to put a new bag of morphine on the rack. She had to threaten Kise with a tranquillizer to hook it up to the IV line behind him, and the blond responded predictably. Once the internal switch had been flipped, 4-year-old whiny, immature Kise was replaced by his suave, cool and collected 24-year-old counterpart the former model and current pilot. Immediately the nurse sensed the presence of a very handsome, very charming, and very single Adonis, nearly swooning when he held up her free hand in his own, lightly kissing her fingers in apology.

Aomine rolled his eyes—he'd seen this episode before in plenty of post-game doctor visits—and Midorima forcibly unseated the newly licensed pilot from the bed before he could fly away with a nurse that was "on duty" and "trying to administer pain-killers and post-surgery antibiotics". Murasakibura amused himself by popping the little hearts and flowers that seemed to float around the hapless nurse.

Akashi finally stepped in to remove his three companions from the premises, sending them out the door with a look that promised nothing good in the future—if they, in fact, had a future—if they did not follow his instructions. "Shintarou, I will escort these children back tomorrow. Continue to keep me updated. Tetsuya."

The object of his heterochromatic gaze yawned lazily, dragging his attention from the nurse at his morphine stand to Akashi. It was a slow process. "Hmm?"

"Get better."

"Mmm, 's that 'n order?"

"I don't have to order it. You will get better."

"Tha…" He barely suppressed another yawn and settled into his blankets. "Tha's good. Domo."

Midorima sighed as his horde of former teammates—at long last—departed. With careful fingers, the doctor adjusted his nurse's handiwork. He had no doubt that given a little more time, the former Seirin basketball team would manage a reunion too, sooner if Kagami got around to remembering them.

A series of shouts registered in the hallway outside and he rested his forehead against the fingers of his left hand. The door slammed violently open. "Kuroko, what the hell did you do?!"

The doctor checked his watch. Not even twenty minutes past seven and his day was already looking hectic. Oha Asa had been right, yet again. His lucky item could only do so much for him today. Aquarius may have had the worst luck yesterday, but when it was suggested that Cancers avoid public places today, he could only imagine the absolute ruckus he'd be stepping into.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, everyone! I have a couple minutes to post, but I don't have the time to do any real editing. Heathrow is really busy, has terrible wifi and we can only hope that we are at the right terminal. I may have to do some more running if we aren't. If you see any errors, please tell me so I can correct it once I get off in JFK. Next chapter will be quicker, I promise! Ja ne!