A/n: Thanks for the patience everyone, enjoy and leave any reviews/questions there are~!
To Save this Goddamn Town (6)
The Captain's first reaction was to grab Taiga by the arm, unintentionally making him stumble and nearly fall on top of him.
"God, you made it," he said, eyes shifting to Tatsuya over his shoulder, "Both of you."
Taiga nodded dumbly and with more shock than he meant to let through, said, "So did you guys."
Instead of a cuff to the head, there was more staring.
"What happened to your shoulder?" his captain asked, after another moment.
"Huh?" He looked down, before remembering the huge bandage Murasakibara had wrapped him up in. "Oh, it's fine. Got attacked by units, but they patched me up. Doesn't hurt or anything."
Under normal circumstances, he was pretty sure the captain wouldn't have taken his word for it or simply nodded blankly in reply. As it was, Hyuuga looked like he was having enough trouble just deciding what he wanted his face to express. Taiga must've stood there watching for a whole beat, before the edge of his lips twitched into a tight, awkward smile.
"I knew you'd get out of there," his captain said, releasing his arm.
He clapped him once on the good shoulder and despite the stiffness of it, the relief in Hyuuga's eyes couldn't be mistaken. Taiga felt himself smile back.
"It's good to see you, sir," he said and saw Tatsuya smile and nod too from the corner of his eye.
He supposed the whole reunion could've just ended right after that. Captain Hyuuga wasn't very adept at expressing much of anything but anger and sarcasm, so all the little feelings that'd been wrapped up in this situation would've been swept aside if he'd
had his way.
Not that he ever did.
"KAGAMI! HIMURO!"
For someone his size, Kiyoshi-senpai was damn fast when he wanted to be.
Taiga croaked as all the air was suddenly expelled from his lungs. His brother and the captain, who'd been at least an arm's length away, were suddenly crushed up against him, their expressions just as stunned.
"I can't believe you guys are here!" Kiyoshi exclaimed, practically swinging them around by their necks. A dopey smile was wide on his face. "This is like ten times better than cookies. How did you even get away? Not that we thought you wouldn't but—oh whatever, it doesn't matter! God, this is awesome! Isn't this awesome, Hyuuga?"
"LET GO, YOU MORON!" Hyuuga's eyes bugged, going from awkward relief to homicidal fury in less than a second.
"Oh, come on, Hyuuga," Izuki said, plastering himself to them as well, "Don't you think we need to just hug it out for a minute?"
A pulsing vein on the forehead said exactly what the captain thought, but it was with blithe experience that Izuki ignored it, turning to Taiga and Tatsuya instead.
"Nice to have you guys back," he said, smiling sincerely—a gesture Taiga would've reciprocated if he didn't feel like his lungs were being compressed into paper.
"K-Kiyoshi," Tatsuya squeaked, vaguely blue, "Can you l-loosen—it's kind of hard to brea—"
Click
Their heads whipped around, just as Takao was lowering a rather clunky-looking camera from his face (and where the fuck had that come from?).
"Shit, this day's just getting better," Takao was muttering, grinning at the photo, "I can't believe I got the whole team in one shot."
"Most impressive, Takao-kun," Kuroko agreed, studying the image, "If you took a few more, you could probably get some high-value trades in town."
"I'd go to Hayakawa-san," Momoi advised, "According to my data, he'd give you the best deal."
Before Taiga could process that he was literally being exploited right to his face, Kiyoshi's eyes widened further.
"Hey, when did Kuroko get here? KUROKO!"
Without another moment's pause, Kiyoshi was barreling towards the trio, arms extended. Taiga would've taken perverse pleasure at how quickly their expressions morphed into terror if not for the fact that he was being dragged along for the ride.
"Oi! Stop running!" Hyuuga shouted, eyes wide, even as Kuroko's arms flew up in a meager attempt to shield himself.
"K-Kiyoshi-san, please slow down!"
He didn't of course. In fact, Kiyoshi-senpai did one even better by tripping over a stray pebble, sending them all hurtling off the porch in a tangle of limbs.
"Oops."
Takao and Tatsuya screamed, and though Taiga would swear against it later, he kind of did too. Kuroko pushed Momoi to the side at the last second, while Izuki laughed, perfectly cheerful, even as his feet fluttered in the air.
"Incoming~!"
One literally bone-crushing group hug/dogpile later, Kiyoshi finally deemed it acceptable to release them.
"Man, so you guys ended up at the clinic too huh? We must have missed each other by just a few hours," he said, as they sat inside the cabin. He was still beaming and hadn't stopped even after Hyuuga had tried to lunge at him, being barely dragged off again by Taiga.
Tatsuya chuckled, hands nervously probing his chest to make sure his ribs were still intact.
"It would seem so, though this really is unbelievable. We had no idea you were here."
"Yeah," Taiga added, giving Kuroko a pointed look, "You'd think this would be something worth mentioning early-on."
Kuroko didn't even blink.
"I thought it would be a nice surprise."
Izuki laughed, "That was thoughtful of you, Kuroko-kun. Though our captain's nerves should probably be spared this kind of stuff in the future."
A glare was shot at him. "Shut up, Izuki."
"It's true," Kiyoshi said, grinning at Taiga and Tatsuya, "I mean we were worried too, but Hyuuga was freaking out. He was ready to tear back up the mountain for you guys."
"Kiyoshi!"
"Wouldn't sit still either," Izuki added, keeping up the tag-team, "Must've pissed the hell outta Midorima-kun, didn't he, Takao-kun?"
The sharp-eyed boy chuckled. "Yeah, but Cancer hit twelfth that day so he was just in a shitty mood to begin with,'" he said, and then shrugged a little sheepishly at Taiga and Tatsuya's stares.
"Right, did I forget to mention I was there too? It was my last shift, okay? One minute I'm trying to teach Shin-chan how to use his own stove and the next Aomine's bursting in with the Iron Heart over his shoulder."
"…okay, so see this knob here?" Takao pointed at a black button over the generator-powered stove, "It is very, very important, Shin-chan, that you do not forget to turn it off. Seriously. Like I want you to check eighteen times."
"I know how a stove works, Takao." Midorima snapped, scowl dark, "Why are we doing this? Murasakibara's the one that cooks."
Takao raised an eyebrow.
"No kidding. He told me what happened last time you tried."
A muscle in Midorima's face twitched, "I was handling it."
"Yeah? 'Cause apparently Ryou-chan shunned you for six days."
Midorima made a dismissive noise. "It was his own fault. He shouldn't have been standing so close."
Takao was about to point out that the other side of the kitchen did not qualify as 'close,' when a resounding 'BANG' echoed through the house.
"Midorima!" Aomine's voice roared, from somewhere further in, "MIDORIMA!"
Takao jolted, having never heard such urgency in Aomine before. There wasn't time to contemplate it however, or even be surprised for very long, since Midorima was already racing out of the room. As they hurried through the winding halls, Takao caught the sound of things rolling to the ground, muttered curses and beneath it all, a faint and wisp-like moan.
Takao's eyes widened, but if Midorima seemed taken aback by the sounds, he certainly didn't show it. With one long hand, he grabbed the handle of his office door and threw it open.
Aomine was standing under a pool of lantern light, his shirt torn to ribbons. Two men were leaning against each other on his left side, while he supported a third against his right shoulder. The man's leg was mottled with bruises, the knee having swelled to the size of an orange.
A whiff of burnt flesh crept through the room. Aomine glared at them.
"Fucking finally."
"Ah, yeah, I remember that," Kiyoshi nodded, "Jesus, he moved fast. We were at the top of the slope, but it felt like he reached us in seconds."
Taiga and Tatsuya stared at him. Despite somehow missing it on their first glance, there was a long tight bandage around Kiyoshi's right leg. Although expertly bound, the limb looked bulky and hard to maneuver.
Aomine carried him? Taiga thought, vaguely shocked, while his brother leaned forward.
"Are you okay, Kiyoshi?"
"Hm? Oh, fine, fine," he said, waving away their concern with a laugh, "I'm fine. Looks a lot worse than it is."
"Yeah, 'cause a torn ACL is nothing at all," Hyuuga snapped, "You're a freaking idiot, you know that? I told you not to get so close."
"Oh come on, Hyuuga, relax, I was trying to clear the pathway."
"What even happened, Captain?" Tatsuya interjected, eyes still wide with surprise. Hyuuga just shook his head.
"Y87. Came outta freaking nowhere and blindsided us."
"We were fighting our way down the mountainside," Izuki explained further with a sigh, as if just the memory was exhausting, "At least we know those rumors about Mount Kiseki are true now. The sentinels were everywhere."
"Hyaa, it was so scary," Kiyoshi said, as if they were recounting some mundane walk through the woods, "It was acting like a G unit the whole time, so I got grazed by one of its V59 punches."
Taiga winced hard. With all the traveling Seirin did, he'd seen the effects a direct hit from a V59 could do to the human body (at least in the cases where there was still enough of a body to look at). Although Y units didn't have as much strength as the real deal, he couldn't imagine the experience had been any less unpleasant.
As if reading his mind, Tatsuya said, "You're lucky that was the worst of it. Y87 packs up to eighty percent of the original's power."
"He was lucky," Hyuuga snapped before Kiyoshi could reply, "We were all pretty damn lucky actually since no trees went flying from that fucking tornado punch."
Izuki patted his shoulder, before he could steadily work himself up again.
"What matters is that everyone's still kicking," he soothed, turning to Takao, "Is Aomine-kun alright by the way? I remember his arm was hurt pretty badly."
Taiga blinked. The memory of the white bandage Aomine had been sporting floated through his head.
"He's fine," Takao replied, "But his arm was a freaking mess. Turns out he was probably the most injured out of all you guys that night. Shin-chan must've yelled at him for at least an hour."
"So did I," Momoi said, an exasperated look crossing her face, "Stupid Dai-chan. I can't believe he hurt the same place again."
"How'd he hurt it the first time?" Taiga asked, surprising even himself with how intensely curious he sounded. Both the captain and his brother shot him stern glances, while Momoi seemed startled, looking strangely again at Kuroko, who answered.
"Just an accident, Kagami-kun," he said, and there was no elaboration beyond that.
They talked a bit further about Kiyoshi's leg, which would require at least a week to heal completely, before the matter of Taiga's own injury was brought to the foreground.
"Ouch," Izuki murmured, when Taiga pulled up his shirt, "Looks like you guys weren't having a fun time either."
"Where did you end up anyway?" the captain asked, "I remember the car was starting to give out."
"We actually had to ditch it," Tatsuya admitted, sending him an apologetic glance, "I'm not too sure where we were though, 'cause we got separated afterwards. Kuroko-kun had already found Taiga by the time I saw him again."
They all looked at him and though Taiga didn't think "found" was exactly the right word, he gave a single, confirming nod. There wasn't any pressing need to recount all the embarrassing things that happened that night after all.
Maybe out of generosity, Kuroko didn't say anything either, keeping his gaze down.
"Were you attacked, Kagami-kun?" Momoi asked suddenly, "After meeting Tetsu-kun that is?"
Taiga blinked. "Uh, yeah, I guess it was a little after that. "
She stared at him.
"And it attacked you specifically?"
Her eyes were pinned on him, with such surprising sharpness that Taiga fumbled to reply.
"U-Um, I'm not sure exactly, it happened too fast."
Before Momoi could say anything else, Kuroko suddenly stood up.
"I believe we should be on our way, Momoi-san," he said, "It's already past noon. Your break must have ended a while ago and I told Midorima-kun I would be back before lunch."
At that, Takao's eyes widened and he glanced out the window at the sun. "Aw, crap, is it that late already? I should probably go too. Gotta check if Miyaji-san wants to kiss and make up tonight."
The rest of his teammates rose to see them out, with Hyuuga and Tatsuya thanking Kuroko once more, while Takao implored them all to come around town again ("Seriously, you guys are about the most exciting thing that's ever happened to Kiseki.")
Taiga rose too, and despite feeling slightly perturbed, he clapped Kuroko on the shoulder.
"Thanks for everything, man," he said, and then with more hesitation, added, "He probably doesn't want to hear from me, but if you could tell Aomine…for my teammates…"
"I will," Kuroko said, smiling gently, "I actually hope to see you at the shop again, Kagami-kun." His gaze was intense again, eyes sinking to half-lids so they accentuated how long his eyelashes were.
He really was too pretty for a guy and Taiga felt his cheeks beginning to heat again.
"Sure," he somehow managed to say.
Kuroko's smile widened.
"We await your arrival," he said, bowing and then stepped out onto the path, Takao and an oddly reticent Momoi in tow.
After bidding Takao farewell, Kuroko took care to walk directly past the market on his way back to the shop.
When Momoi followed him without even pausing, he sighed inwardly and turned to her.
"You are going to get in trouble, Momoi-san."
She crossed her arms, giving him a stubborn and yet reprimanding look.
"And you're planning something, Tetsu-kun."
Kuroko stared at her. "I'm not sure what you mean."
"Does Akashi-kun know that you were attacked?"
"Yes."
"And that it was only after meeting Kagami-kun?"
Kuroko didn't blink. "Of course. It is difficult to hide anything from him."
"Not for you."
A breeze sifted through their clothes, dry and hot.
"I know you're frustrated with Akashi-kun," Momoi said, "It's been five years, Tetsu-kun, and I know you are. I am too. And…and you don't have to tell me anything, but Kagami-kun and Seirin, they're good people and you have to promise me you won't let anyone get hurt."
There was silence. Kuroko just looked at her again—her furrowed eyebrows and scrunched up mouth. Momoi was one of the oldest friends they still had and likely the only one who kept their secrets. Even Akashi was fond of her, though that alone hadn't been enough to win his trust.
It hadn't pushed her away. Their past, their problems, all the ugly, ugly things they kept from her. None of it had.
She did not understand and never could, but she had still taken it.
She had still taken them.
And as Kuroko continued looking at her, guilt began seeping through the crevices of his heart. Enough that he turned back to the road.
"It is not my intention to hurt anyone."
She laughed—a soft, wistful sound.
"I know that. It never was for any of you."
He could imagine her smiling.
"But you break a lot of hearts, Tetsu-kun. It's not what you intend, but it's what happens."
A shadow of pain lingered in her voice, old wounds being brought to the surface. Kuroko clenched his fists. He had rejected her as kindly as he could, as best as he could, but the ache was still in her and he did not know how to take it away.
"Momoi-san, I…"
"It's okay," she walked up next to him, a faint smile on her lips, "I think deep down, I always knew. That you weren't mine."
They looked at each other, but she did not let him reply—not that he would have known what to say anyway.
"Well enough of that," she said, turning away, "Let's go. Midorin and Mukkun are probably annoyed and I've just decided I'm taking the rest of the day off. Sakurai-kun can cover for me."
Her smile widened, though the sun cast shadows over her eyes. With a spun heel, she was running up the trail ahead of him, her footsteps pattering like drops of rain.