Chapter Seven- The Beginning of a Change

A/N: I've noticed I write a lot about sleeping and cuddling. I think it's because as an over worked college student all I want to do is sleep. It's my favorite activity. I have started to plan a prequel for this series.

Kagami woke up to an empty bed. Again. How many days had it been that they kept missing each other? Seven or eight? It wasn't Aomine's fault, but their training. Because they were learning different skills their schedules didn't match up and they were always too busy to meet up in the day. Aomine, from the rumors Kagami had been hearing from the hushed gossip in the castle library, was doing very well in his sword training. His schedule had him waking up at the crack of dawn to practice drills with the elven guard. After that, Kagami wasn't too sure what his boyfriend was up to, but he knew at some point of the day he was getting private lessons from Midorima. The gossip that Kagami most heard happily prattled was about this, as most of the elves found it highly amusing that the man the high strung Midorima had pegged as an 'idiot' was performing unprecedentedly well. Aomine always went to sleep early, completely passed out from exercise. Besides that first day, Kagami had never seen Aomine awake, nor had the chance to talk to him.

The gossip about Kagami was not nearly as nice, he had earned his nickname 'bakagami' once again. He hoped the names people were calling him didn't reach Aomine for many reasons. Most likely Aomine would just laugh it off thinking that this was the natural outcome of things, after all back home Aomine's stupidity had earned him his own nickname. But there was still the chance Aomine would be ashamed or embarrassed of him, but that was mostly because Kagami was feeling ashamed of himself. He was trying, but progress was slow and hard won.

Kagami usually woke up in the mid morning, and stayed up reading in the library until late at night. The lessons with Himuro were slow, every book had to be dissected and explained for hours. Kagami was at least understanding them now, and was making steady progress learning the runes and language of the divine magic. His favorite part was learning about the lore. The history of magic was a long and exciting one, and the stories of wars and miracles were much more exciting then the rest of his lessons. Kagami was still failing miserably at magic casting. It had taken him five days to finally light the candle, and only then because he had cheated. Instead of all the complicated words and spell designs, Kagami decided to just throw his magic at it and hope for the best. It had taken him a while to get the hang of it. The first attempts Kagami made he had used too much energy, causing exploding flames that caught various things around the study on fire. Including Himuro's shirt one time. Kagami had thought multiple times over the course of their studies that Himuro was too kind to deserve Kagami as a student. Which is why today Kagami thought he would give him a break and play hookie.

Fully dressed, Kagami made his way downstairs and outside the tree-palace. He walked briskly, feeling the tingle of guilty freedom as he continued past the road he would normally turn down to go to the study. He didn't have a destination in mind, and decided to explore farther into the city. They weren't able to tell when they arrived, but the tree city spanned about three square miles, and then dwindled into small farms on the edge of the forest. The city was never a flat constant height, but flowed up and down on the terraces. As Kagami wandered the white cobble stone streets he was lured in by the smells of fresh breads laid out by the bakeries for the morning rush. Kagami traded in one of the strange silver coins he was given to spend for a bag filled with pastries and bread. He continued on weaving his way until he came upon a fairly large park. It was mostly lawn, with small flowering trees and plants growing in patches. Kagami instinctively looked around for a basketball court, and his heart felt heavy when there was none. Instead, he decided to lay down at the base of a shady tree and nibble on a piece of bread. Overhead the wind slowly rustled the leaves and lulled Kagami into a relaxed contentment. No wonder Aomine used to do this a lot, Kagami thought as he drifted off to sleep.

The first thing Kagami noticed when he woke up was the sharp pain in his side. Then it was the world around him, that suddenly was upside down and out of focus. He tried to move, but immediately stiffened, grabbing his side in pain.

"Get up." Said a voice behind him. Willing himself to move, he forced himself to his feet to meet his adversary. He vaguely noted that it was a masked women, for he was far too distracted by the lightning she grasped in her hand.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Kagami yelled at her as hard as his wound let him.

"Fight me." Was the only reply he got before she threw a bolt at him. Kagami felt the hot sparks as they streaked past his ear, barely missing him as he charged at the woman. The masked villain met him head on, but Kagami used his strength to grapple her to the ground.

"What are you trying to do?!" He yelled again. The girl shifted below him and grabbed at the wrists of his hands that were pinning her down. Her hands lit up again, and Kagami felt a searing electric pain, and was kicked aside in his weakened state. As he was recovering the women regained her battle stance.

"Fight me with magic." She replied and released another bolt. As it flew toward him, Kagami realized that it wasn't a bolt of lightning, but bird. Some sort of lightning bird she was summoning! He then had a plan, if he broke the contract she couldn't shock him with those painful birds anymore. Most likely it was the mask she wore, which was made metal and wood and studded with small stones.

"I can't do magic, I'm too much of an idiot!" He yelled and charged her again. He missed grabbing her mask, as she side stepped him. With a sweeping motion she knocked his legs out from under him. He crashed to the ground hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.

"Use your instincts." She said. The masked woman had him pinned on the ground, her foot pressed painfully on his neck. She summoned another one of the birds, and aimed it towards his head. "Last chance." She warned him, and then fired.

The blinding light of the bird filled his vision, and his last thoughts were that he was going to die here in this foreign land by the hand of an unknown stranger. But then his mind went blank, and everything around him greyed out besides the woman and her bird. He could feel his magic inside him, hot and burning, a rushing water trying to break free of a dam. His raised his hand to shield himself, and the magic flowed out and solidified around him. A shining shield was there for a mere moment, before it shattered as the bird impacted, and both it and the shield faded out. No harm came to Kagami, but he grew weary of the woman and her games. His magic rolled off of him, swirling into daggers of light. He gave the shards a little flick with his mind and they suddenly shot forward, catching the woman by surprise. She moved off of Kagami to dodge the daggers, and Kagami released a second wave that snagged the woman by her clothes and pinned her to a tree.

"Sorry but I can't let you kill me yet." He spoke calmly as he approached her. Later Kagami would remember that his voice sounded strange, and that his body felt foreign to him. For now he could only focus on the masked assailant. "There's someone who would be upset if I died you see." He began again. He reached up and grabbed her mask. "He may be an idiot and a ganguro, but he needs me." He yanked off the mask. Long yellow hair spilled out, and sharp blue-green eyes glinted up at him. A clever smile curved on her lips. "Alex?!" Kagami stuttered, and in his surprise the daggers faded out and released her.

"So you can learn!" She laughed. "I knew Himuro wasn't suited to be a teacher."

There was minor chaos back at the castle. When Kagami didn't show up to his morning meeting, Himuro had declared him missing and started a search. Aomine, who was worried for Kagami, couldn't focus on his swordsmanship and was allowed to help search for him. The castle guards spread out over the castle and city. The gates to and from the forest were locked. Momoi gathered her maps of the area, and began strategizing where an enemy might take him, and what their response would be. It was in the middle of this chaos that Alex and Kagami returned. Guards seized both of them, and escorted them into a waiting room. Before Kagami could sort out what was happening and ask what was going on, Momoi, Aomine, and Himuro burst into the room.

Upon seeing him Aomine was immediately relieved, and collapsed onto the couch next to Kagami. Aomine elbowed him playfully, muttering about how worried Kagami had made him and the revenge he would have later.

"So it was you master! Please don't go stealing my students without telling me." Himuro directed a sour frown towards Alex.

"Don't blame me for your student playing hookie." Alex laughed, then put on a mischievous grin. She moved to caress Momoi's cheek. "After all I was just on my way to visit this cutie to help out with a request." Alex leaned in for a kiss, but was shoved away by a flustered Momoi.

"Geez! Alex cut it out!" Momoi was blushing brightly at the harassment. "Kagami is the reason I called you here. As you know right now he is being trained by Himuro-"

"Who is doing a terrible job by the way." Alex cut in.

"Hey, at least I'm trying." Himuro shrugged.

"Like I was saying." Momoi began again. "Himuro is trying to teach him. Kagami needs a proper teacher, no offense to you Himuro. You are a splendid mage, but teaching was never your strong suit. It was fortunate for us you were able to come here in such short notice Alex, my city has few human mages, and none of them with your talents." Momoi's expression became more serious. "There is another reason why I called you here, but I couldn't risk it in a letter. Kagami and Aomine travelled here by strange means, and brought with them something even stranger." Momoi went on to tell a summarized account of the boy's travels so far. "I need your help identifying what they brought with them." Alex leaned forward, curious now. "Kagami do you have your necklace on you?"

"Of course," Kagami replied, and removed his necklace. The crystals gleamed and glittered in the witch-lights as he handed it to Alex. Alex turned it over in her hand a few times, examining the crystals from various angles. The blond haired woman muttered to herself in concentration, trying to call back to her memory inscriptions in books read long ago. She set the necklace aside and rummaged through her satchel for a piece of chalk. On the table before them she scribbled out circles of runes, some of which Kagami was happy that he recognized. In the center of the largest circle she placed the necklace. The ruins started rotating, like gears of a clock. As they spun faster they started to light up, and it wasn't long before everyone had to advert their eyes. They ruins changed colors, flashing from blue to red to green, and then faded out leaving one rune circle etched into the table.

"Let me guess," Alex began. "You think this is the Seraph Contract don't you." Alex sighed and returned the necklace to Kagami.

"That's exactly what I think. These past few days I have been searching through the ancient books in the library's vault for any record of the higher contracts. I found this." Momoi fished out an old book whose blue binding was so faded it appeared almost brown. She flipped through the yellowed pages until she came upon one with a drawing of a necklace. "This book is the journal of the third son of King Genta, brother of the one who found the Heaven's Jewels. It recounts mostly the wars, but towards the end he notes the change in his brother, and drew this picture of the necklace."

"Well that necklace certainly is our necklace here then." Alex confirmed. "My scrying told me that this necklace was old and forged by the hands of man. It tells that it was hidden away in the darkness for a long time, then it saw the light of day once again. It was then sent away to be hidden away for a long time again, until recently when it was found. All this, combined with the book confirms that this necklace is the one from the legend, and most likely contains the Seraph Contract." A silence broke over the room, and some of them shifted nervously in their seats.

"Uh, what does that mean for us?" Kagami asked. Momoi knit her eyebrows in concern.

She looked into Kagami's eyes and held his gaze. "I don't know, but keep that necklace safe."

Kagami had hoped that after the meeting they would let him and Aomine have a day off. Instead, he was dragged off by Alex and Himuro to the study. Himuro shoved Kagami into a chair and gave him a disapproving glare.

"I don't think I have to tell you this, but do not try and get out of your lessons again." Kagami stared at the floor and twiddled his thumbs. He wished he could turn invisible.

Alex laughed, "You can hardly blame him, you were doing such a bad job of it! Not everyone learns like you, you can't use the same method on everyone kid."

Himuro frowned at her now too. "Why is it that you always know seem to know about things even when you aren't even here you meddler?"

Alex avoided his gaze and stared at the ceiling. "Ah well, you know how it is. Traveling takes so long, and it's so boring, so you can't really blame me if I decide to check up on my students from time to time."

"I knew it! You've been scrying on me again!" Himuro prickled. "I told you to cut that out geez. How long were you even doing it for?"

Alex chuckled and put on a sly grin. "Long enough to see that my little Himuro has grown up and making eyes at the captain of the guard."

Himuro blushed a deep red. "If you say anything more I really will blow you up. No more scrying!"

"Yes, yes." She complied patronizingly.

Kagami settled down into his seat feeling out of place. If they were going to bicker at each other and not at him they should have just let him leave. "Now about you Kagami," Alex said turning her attention back to him, "I will be replacing Himuro as your teacher."

Kagami paled a little bit, "Does that involve you attacking me some more?"

Alex grinned at him, "Maybe, but that's all dependent on you. You are the type to learn with your instincts and figure things out on the fly. If you need a little push to get you going, I would be happy to help."

"Great. Thanks so much." Kagami replied sarcastically, crossing his arms to emphasize his point.

"Oh, you looks so cute when you're grumpy!" She teased. Kagami suddenly found himself being smooched by the blond. He shoved her away quickly, and scrubbed at his lips, but he couldn't stop his checks from tinting pink. "I healed you so its alright, right?"

"Like hell it is! It freaking hurt.

"Well just think of it as toughening up." Himuro replied in monotone. He skillfully blocked Alex's attempt to smooch him too, and headed for the door. "I'm going to aide Momoi in the vaults. Hopefully between the two of us we can find more clues. I leave you in Alex's capable hands. After all, she was the one who trained me."

Kagami felt more productive that half day with Alex, then he did for the entire week he trained with Himuro. Maybe because Kagami was finally able to go outside and be active. Alex had set up moving target for him, and he had to concentrate his magic into more of the light shards to shoot them down. Because he had done it before he knew the feel of it, and it became a lot easier to channel his magic. They had completely done away with the runes, Alex said told him that they were there only for structure and concentration. It was the most common type of spell casting, because it allowed for a more concrete casting of magic that most people needed. By the end of the day Kagami had hit all of the targets, and felt a noticeable drain in his stamina and energy.

He lagged behind when Alex lead him back to the castle. "Tired?" She called back to him.

"Yeah. I feel like I just played a semi-finals basketball game."

"What is basketball?" Alex asked.

"Oh it's uh," Kagami suddenly felt bashful. "It's this game we play in my home world. You try and get a ball to go through a hoop. There are rules and stuff so it's a bit more complicated, but it's really fun. Its how Aomine and I met actually. You should see him play one day, he makes it look like an art form. He's so fast and graceful. He does these shots and you would think that there is no way they could possibly go in, but they always do! It always amazes me when I seem him play."

Alex smiled, "You really love it huh? It sounds fun, I think I would like it a lot."

Kagami shifted his gaze to the ground. He smiled sadly, full of thoughts of home. "Yeah, you would love it." To himself he whispered. "You do love it."

(A/N: As a reward next chapter will have smut!)