Kuroko was bored. He'd been doing jobs so simple that he felt embarrassed leaving his sticky notes behind. And if he wasn't doing that, he was cooped up in the apartment. And Aomine kept leaving.

He was not moping. He didn't care what Akashi said the one time he had talked to him on video chat.

And Aomine was leaving again. So he didn't even have Aomine to entertain him. "Can I go to a friend's house? I'm losing my mind here," Kuroko asked before Aomine could walk out the door.

His immediate answer would have been hell no, but Aomine figured that probably wouldn't fly so well. He settled on asking, "You don't have any more planning to do?"

"No. These missions are easy. Akashi-kun's father's building was ten times harder to get into and I managed that without any planning. I have plans for each and every mission we have." It's what he'd been doing to try to pass the time.

Aomine understood the boredom, but a friend's house was different than staying in the apartment. "You do realize the whole 'police contract' thing is still happening? Technically, I should be dragging you to all these meet ups and handcuffing you inside the car to wait while I conduct business."

"I won't tell him anything about it. Kagami-kun doesn't really press people to talk if they don't want to," Kuroko assured. Being handcuffed in a car sounded awful. At least he could watch movies in the apartment.

"...You know I really don't want you to?" Aomine sighed. He couldn't really think of any other arguments. He wished he could stay at the apartment with Kuroko but work was work. He had criminals to meet and reports to make.

"Please?" Kuroko asked, because he really just wanted to do something other than sit around and make plans for jobs that he could do going in blind and still be bored.

"You should also already know that I'll let you." Aomine returned to the couch from the entryway and handed Kuroko his phone. "Put in the address so I can come find you if I need to."

Kuroko smiled at him and took the phone, quickly typing in the address. "Feel free to stop by when you're done with your meeting. Kagami-kun makes great food; we could all have dinner together."

Aomine leaned down for a kiss before answering, "Are you sure you wouldn't want dinner with just us?"

"I'm sure that neither of us can cook as well as he can." Kuroko replied. "Besides, we have dinner just us every day."

Aomine frowned. "You cold, cold man. What's wrong with wanting to be alone?"

"Nothing. Except that yesterday, you tried to grab my ass instead of eat. Maybe if we add someone else to the table, you'll actually behave."

The frown grew. "You didn't seem to mind my kissing you after."

Kuroko pulled Aomine down by the collar of his shirt. "I still don't," he reassured before kissing him. "But that doesn't meant that I don't want to see my friends," he said after pulling back.

Aomine reluctantly pulled away to check his phone. He really needed to get going. Making a mobster wait was never fun. "Alright, have fun then, I guess." He leaned down for another quick kiss then turned for the door. "I'm sorry I can't stay with you. You know I wish I could," he called over his shoulder.

Kuroko did know that, but he still did want to see his friend. Even if he hadn't been going crazy with boredom, he would miss his friends.

So, he made his way to Kagami's apartment and knocked on the door.

Kagami opened the door to see Kuroko staring up at him. "Kuroko?! Where the hell have you been?! It's been two months since anyone's seen you." Kagami looked at him with a mixture of anger, worry, and slight relief.

"I can't really talk about it, but I'm bored. Can we hang out?" Kuroko replied, giving Kagami an apologetic smile.

"Uh-I guess?" He moved to the side to let Kuroko in. "Did you want something to eat? I was just about to make lunch."

Kuroko nodded and stepped inside. "Thank you, Kagami-kun. It's good to see you again," he said.

Kagami went back to his kitchen to continue making lunch. He really wanted to ask Kuroko about where he had been for the past two months but knew he wouldn't talk about it if he didn't want to. He supposed that as long as he was okay he didn't need to worry about it. He flipped the ten fish he was grilling and called out to Kuroko who had gone to his living room. "I'll be done in a few minutes."

Kuroko nodded wandering into the kitchen. "I like your apron," Kuroko told him.

"Shut up, it was a gift from Alex." He tried to ignore the fact that the apron was a very obnoxious pink.

"How is Alex-san? Is she in America right now?" Kuroko asked.

"Yeah, she went back two weeks ago. She said she had to get back to work." After deeming all the fish were well cooked enough, he placed nine on a big plate and one on a considerably smaller one. He passed the plates to Kuroko to bring back to the living room and started scooping some rice into two bowls.

Kuroko took the plates and put them in the living room, talking just loud enough to be heard from the other room. "That's a shame. I was hoping to say hello to her as well. Although, I wasn't in a state to come over two weeks ago. You were right, I shouldn't start things with people who can beat me. I'm okay now though."

Kagami went to the living room with both bowls of rice and two pairs of chopsticks, "So I'm guessing someone finally beat you at something. About time. You were starting to get kinda reckless."

"How rude. I wouldn't say 'about time' if someone put Kagami-kun in the hospital," Kuroko said, taking his bowl and then passing Kagami his plate.

Kagami slightly choked on his rice. "Hospital?! What the hell happened?"

Kuroko didn't need a sling for his arm anymore. It was wrapped up in a bandage now. He pulled up his sleeve to show him. It had nothing to do with his undercover jobs, so he thought it was okay to talk to Kagami about. "I made someone with a gun mad," he said simply, and then dropped his sleeve and started eating calmly.

Kagami wanted to comment on how his shirt looked too big to actually be his but decided to leave it; it probably wasn't too big of a deal. "You really need to think before you pick a fight with someone. I told you before that you were eventually gonna get hurt," he sighed.

"I know. That's why I said you were right," Kuroko replied. "But I maintain that I was in the right. They were about to beat up some other guy. I couldn't just do nothing."

"Doesn't mean you should get hurt in his place. Y'know you can't just take on every bully you see and think you'll always come out of it unscathed," Kagami said through a mouthful of fish and rice.

"I don't think that. I just want to help. I know it's possible that I'll get hurt. Case and point, two weeks ago I was shot. But how have you been? I'm tired of talking about this."

Kagami didn't really want to drop the subject but conceded, "I've been good I guess, kinda bored though. The station's been pretty quiet."

"That's a good thing though, right? It means that people aren't lighting themselves on fire," Kuroko pointed out.

"Yeah… I guess, just wish there was something to do, maybe even just a cat in a tree or something," He grumbled as he made his way through his third fish.

"I will find a cat to put in a tree just for Kagami-kun," Kuroko decided.

"Uh—no, it's okay, don't traumatize cats just for my boredom."

"Kagami-kun would do it for me, so I should do it for him," Kuroko said, and then remembered that he had invited Aomine. "Is it okay if Aomine-kun comes over for dinner?" Kuroko asked.

"I don't think I'd throw a cat into a tree just to relieve you of your boredom," Kagami took a few seconds to process the second half of what Kuroko had said. "Who the hell is Aomine?"

"Aomine-kun is my..." Kuroko frowned a bit. They hadn't talked about what they were to each other. "...something," Kuroko ended lamely after a moment of consideration.

Kagami hummed, "I never took you to be the type."

"What type?" Kuroko asked curiously.

"The type to have that kind of relationship with someone. Are they a good person?"

"I think so," Kuroko said with a small smile. "We just haven't really talked about what we are yet. It hasn't come up."

Kagami finished off his last fish and his bowl of rice getting up to put them away. "Well, as long as you know what you're doing. Just try not to get hurt."

"I'll certainly try my best. You'll beat him up if he hurts me, right?" Kuroko added the last bit jokingly.

"Of course," Kagami replied seriously.

Aomine slightly limped up to Kagami's doorstep, trying to compose himself enough not to alarm this friend of Kuroko's. He knocked on the door, hiding his other hand behind his back, clenching the fabric wrapped around it in an attempt to slow the bleeding.

Kagami opened the door to see a tan man about the same height as him. He stared at him skeptically for a second. There was something slightly off about this guy.

"Yo, Eyebrows. Where's Tetsu?" he asked, trying his best to search the apartment for the man in question without shifting enough to reveal his hand.

Kagami stared at him for another minute before turning to Kuroko, "Hey Kuroko, there's a shady-looking guy out here claiming to know you." He stepped to the side to give Kuroko a better view of whoever it was standing at the doorway.

Kuroko peeked around Kagami, and his eyes widened in surprise as he took in the state of Aomine. "What the hell happened to you?!" Kuroko didn't often curse, but seeing Aomine beaten up caught him so off guard that it just slipped out.

"A fight. We can talk about it at home, please?" Aomine hoped his voice carried the gravity of the situation. They needed to talk. ASAP.

Kuroko nodded. "Kagami-kun, I'm sorry, but it seems something has come up. I'm going to have to leave a bit earlier than expected." He said, stepping around him and outside next to Aomine.

Kagami looked back and forth between the shady man and Kuroko with a concerned look. He fumbled a bit over his words before saying goodbye.

Aomine had to turn his body and move his wrapped hand out of Kagami's view simultaneously, but managed to make it out of view without limping too exaggeratedly. As they neared the car, Aomine dug the keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Kuroko, ignoring the looks of concern he was receiving over the hand. "You're driving and I'll explain when we're home."

Kuroko nodded, catching the keys, and getting into the driver's seat. He had to adjust it so that he could reach the pedals, but as soon as he was close enough and Aomine was seated, he rushed home.

"Akashi." He was currently staring down at a man begging for his life to be spared, but he had a few minutes to answer the phone call that had interrupted. "Make it quick."

"Akashi, you know everyone worth knowing about, right?" Haizaki asked, toying with a knife while he talked from inside of his office.

"I'm offended that you phrased that as a question." He was also curious as to who Haizaki Shougo needed to know that he couldn't find himself.

"I'm looking for the Phantom. Fucking bastard stole a shit ton of Molly from right inside my building, but no one can tell me anything about him other than who's working with him. You were the first person to start spreading that he was taking contracts. I want a name."