Kagami felt better tomorrow. He was up and about with no difficulty, and the bandage could come off his head now – though he still winced whenever he saw the Frankenstein like scar across his forehead.
"It looks worse than it is," Takao said, patting him on the back. "You know you've to come back next week to get the stitches out, right? Don't forget to call if you've any trouble- oh Shin-cha-!"
The green haired doctor sent a cool glare at Takao, who cleared his throat and said, in a tone that would have been mocking if it hadn't been so affectionate. "I mean, good afternoon, Midorima-sensei." And then, surprising Kagami, who hadn't even seen the shorter man enter alongside the other, "And hello again, Kuroko-san."
"Hello," Kuroko said, nodding. "Is Kagami-kun ready to go?"
"He's all patched up," Takao answered, "Just make sure you don't burst those stitches! Take it easy for a few days, nothing that could cause a… sudden rush of blood."
Kagami blushed so hard his whole frickin' head turned red! And Takao was warning Kuroko about that kinda thing! It didn't make matters any better when Kuroko only nodded and said, "We'll be careful", and Kagami was thankful that he had a comrade in seriousness in Midorima, who pushed his glasses up his nose and coughed and said, "If you're all done clowning around, shall we go visit?"
Kagami remembered his promise to Kuroko and instantly regretted it. But a promise was a promise, and he wasn't one to back out of them. He picked up his bag of things that he'd somehow accumulated in his short stay (Kuroko offered to carry it, but he stubbornly refused – he'd only had stitches, he wasn't an invalid), thanked the nurses at the station, and made his way downstairs.
The ward they entered now required Midorima to swipe his name badge, and he told Kuroko and Kagami to wait outside while he went inside. He was there for a while. Kagami looked to Kuroko, whose expression was unreadable, and as though sensing his confusion, Kuroko said, "He has to make sure he's ready for visitors today."
"Is he still…" Kagami trailed off, unsure how to put it sensitively. Finally he decided to hell with sensitivity, that guy had thrown scissors at him! Freakin' scissors! "…Crazy?"
"He's better now, but don't expect him to be your best friend," Kuroko replied, to which Kagami snorted. Fine by him.
Eventually Midorima reappeared, and Kagami noted that he had taken his tie off, as well as shed his white coat and pushed the sleeves of his dress shirt up to his elbow. It was a far more casual look, but not one that suited him, like when you see a dog wear cool sunglasses and you think, "Wow, that looks cool, but also hella weird."
"He's decided he'll take visitors today," Midorima said, and Kagami couldn't help but get the impression that Akashi clearly thought it was a great honour for them to be allowed to see him. Whether that was a delusion of grandeur brought on by his illness or if his ego was just that big, he didn't know, but he didn't give it much more thought as they walked through the ward.
Hospital wards were never particularly comforting places, but this one seemed even less welcoming than usual, with gloomy lighting and patients mulling about aimlessly. When Midorima guided them into a brightly lit room, Kagami was thankful, but his brief relief from the dark corridor was shattered when gold and red eyes turned on him and Akashi said, in a very pleasant voice, "Hello, Tetsuya, Shintarou. And Kagami-san – thank you for coming to visit."
Akashi sat in a large armchair that only served to make him look smaller. His legs were tucked underneath it, and a newspaper was spread out on the table in front of him, opened to the sports pages. Kagami glanced down. There was a story about baseball, and a slither of coverage of a soccer game, but there was no basketball.
"You're looking well, Akashi-kun," Kuroko said pleasantly, taking a seat by the bed. Midorima followed without hesitation, and Kagami hovered uncertainly.
"Please don't look so nervous, Kagami-san," Akashi said. Again, pleasantly, but there was an unsettling smile on his lips. It didn't look entirely real. "I'm not going to bite you, or throw scissors at you again. I'm very sorry for that, by the way. I simply wasn't myself that night."
Kagami shrugged. Akashi closed his newspaper, then looked to Midorima. "Shintarou, can you get me a coffee?"
Midorima seemed to hesitate. "You're not allowed hot drinks-"
"An iced coffee, then," Akashi said, his voice as cool as a can of iced coffee.
"You don't like…" Midorima began, before he sighed. "I'll ask one of the nurses-"
"No. I want you to get me it."
Midorima seemed torn, but finally he stood, leaving the room. Akashi waited until he'd left, and said, "He's really not supposed to leave you two alone with me. I'm surprised at his negligence." He folded his hands in his lap, then said, "But it would do no good to have him here while I try to talk to you. He still thinks I'm delusional after I told him about Kuroko. Rest assured, I may be unwell, but as of this morning I am free of delusions."
Kagami sat down awkwardly in the seat Midorima had left, and Akashi looked to him.
"So here is what is going to happen, Kagami-san," he said, "You are going to take Tetsuya and let him stay at your house."
Kagami stared at Akashi, unsure if he'd heard him right. Once he was sure that he hadn't misheard him, he said, "Uh, you know, I don't have a house- I live in an apartment."
"My mistake. You are going to take Tetsuya and let him stay at your apartment."
"That… isn't the point," Kagami said, rubbing his forehead. "I live in a one bedroom apartment. It's tiny. There's barely even enough room for me in there."
"Well, maybe if you weren't so comically oversized," Akashi quipped. "In any case, I think it's quite clear that Tetsuya can't live with me anymore. I pose a danger to him, and Aomine-kun has spoken to me and we've both agreed that the process of finding him food is a rather risky one. I can no longer house or feed him, and so I'm handing the responsibility of him over to you."
"What is he, a cat?" Kagami growled, looking to Kuroko, who looked up with big eyes that were cute enough to belong to a baby animal. But he wouldn't let puppy dog eyes sway him! For one thing, he didn't even like dogs, and for another, he had no room for Kuroko – and besides, he didn't even want to think about what feeding him would involve.
"Kagami-kun…" Kuroko said, and Kagami shook his head. Nope. Nuh uh. No way.
"Kagami-san, shouldn't you do whatever you can to help a friend?" Akashi said. Kagami shook his head harder. N-O. His stitches hurt.
"Then Tetsuya will be forced to live on the streets," Akashi said, "That's fine."
Kagami's head stilled, and he frowned. Was there really nowhere he could go? Aomine couldn't find a place in his heart (and apartment?) for his best friend? Midorima probably lived in a home worthy of a doctor's salary, and he couldn't spare one of his five bedrooms? Kise and Kasamatsu's place must have been cramped, but surely they wouldn't mind helping out a friend? When it came down to it, though, Kagami knew that the problem Kuroko faced wasn't exactly where he stayed, but who with. Kagami knew about his secret, but he was one of the few who did – Kise, Midorima, and Momoi were all oblivious to it. There was no way he could stay with them.
"I guess he could stay… for a few days! Until he finds somewhere else," Kagami said, arms crossed over his chest defiantly.
"Well, now that that matter's dealt with," Akashi said, and Kagami couldn't help but feel as if he hadn't taken the fact that it was only for a few days into account. "I heard you were planning on helping Tetsuya with some 'unfinished business'. What exactly does that entail?"
Kagami felt a little pressured. It was one thing to promise Kuroko that he would help him, and he had a pretty idea of what he wanted to do to fix that, but when it came to putting his plans into words… he faltered. He had a vague idea of what seemed good, but no way of knowing what would actually work.
"I thought, maybe…" He frowned. "Kuroko… wanted to play basketball again, with everyone? And have fun with it?"
"Play basketball," Akashi repeated. Kagami nodded, and he sounded strangely melancholy as he said, "Kagami, do you think I sit in a chair all day because I enjoy it?"
Kagami stared at him, bamboozled, before he pieced it together. Of course – all the times he'd seen Akashi, his legs had laid perfectly still, even when he'd been thrashing around in his chair before, even now. And a glance at the door to the room confirmed his suspicion – he didn't know how he'd missed it, but there it was, a collapsible wheelchair folded up neatly by it.
"So as you can see, playing basketball is impossible. Find another solution."
"It's not impossible-"
"Find another solution," Akashi repeated, his voice firm. Kagami couldn't really bring himself to argue – where there was a will there was a way, but Akashi clearly did not have the will to even attempt to play, and there was no way that plan could go ahead without his cooperation.
Kagami looked to Kuroko, feeling exasperated. "What other regrets do you have?"
Kuroko shrugged, which annoyed Kagami, but he realised the reason for his silence as Midorima came back into the room, clutching a can of coffee. He handed it to Akashi, who thanked him and then with frail hands opened it.
"I didn't think you liked cold coffee," Midorima said.
"I don't. I like it hot," Akashi replied. "But I can't be too picky when they're not allowed to give me anything that has the potential to be a dangerous projectile. Do you want to play Shogi, Shintarou?"
I don't know if you've ever watched two people play Shogi but lemme tell you if you're not interested in it, it is booooring! So for the sake of people reading this fic who are not interested in the greatest spin-off of chess since sliced bread, I'll just tell you now that Akashi won. Unfortunately, Kagami had to sit through the game, and finally seeing Akashi win and Midorima saying they'd have to get going ranked as one of the happiest moments of his life, alongside the only time he'd gotten an A+ in his life (home ec. class, the day they were making hamburgers) and when his date to junior prom let him get to second base (unfortunately, another 'only time' in his life. Dang.).
Kagami stood and stretched as Akashi cleared away his Shogi board (more like Shogi BORED, am I right). It had been a long day, even though it was only four in the afternoon, and he had work to do still. He had to catch up on laundry and go shopping, and even though he had the rest of the week off (his boss had been adamant that he was not going to come into work with stitches in), it seemed like an overwhelming amount of chores for one man. Maybe he could make Kuroko do some work, but he wondered if the other was even capable of taking care of a house. His apartment had practically been bare, after all, and everything had been covered in a film of dust.
"Do you want a ride home, Kagami-san?" Midorima asked, and Kagami was going to decline – they didn't have far to walk, after all, and with the traffic it would probably even be faster, but Kuroko interrupted him.
"Yes, thank you," he said, before adding quietly when Kagami gave him a questioning glance, "It's rare for Midorima-kun to do something like this. He wouldn't offer if he didn't want to."
Kagami frowned, but he didn't say anything. Midorima drove a swish, green – okay, what is it with these freakin' baskeball players and colours? – car. Kagami took the back seat. To his surprise, Kuroko didn't sit in front but sat in back with him, which made him feel kind of awkward. Midorima wasn't a chauffeur, after all.
"So, how are you feeling?" Midorima asked, breaking the silence first. He didn't sound particularly enthused, but going by what he knew about the man so far, Kagami knew he probably wouldn't ask if he really wasn't interested.
"I feel fine now. They took good care of me."
"Takao seemed to like having you on the ward."
"He was a big help."
"Yes, well, he's good for something, at least," Midorima said, and he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they waited at a stoplight.
"How did you guys meet?" Kagami asked, not wanting to the conversation to end and that uncomfortable silence to resume.
"We met through basketball," Midorima answered, after a pause. It didn't take Kagami long to realise that that pause had been because he was conscious of Kuroko in the back seat. "We played on the same team in high school."
"You kept playing after the accident?"
Midorima didn't answer, and Kagami wondered if he'd touched on a raw nerve. It was obviously a sensitive subject, though Midorima's expressions were hard to read.
"Forget I said anything," Kagami muttered, and the conversation ended there.
They pulled up outside their apartment a while later, after even more uncomfortable silence. Midorima said goodbye curtly before speeding off, and Kagami sighed.
"Well, let's go inside," he said, but when he turned he found the door to their building blocked by a familiar blonde.
"…Kurokocchi?"
