AUTHOR'S NOTE

I finally got it through my dumb brain to finish writing this chapter and deliver something. At the same time, I decided to move forward with the plot, so I do hope you enjoy it slightly. Also forced a couple of my own feelings and thoughts somewhere in here. Also will edit this chapter later because it's pretty messy.

As always, leave a review and follow/favorite if you haven't already. I finished this chapter because of your reviews, and I'm always shocked to see the number of follows and favorites every time I come around here.

*Psychological Conditions: Attempted suicide

JULY 23

Kise had no idea what to say. Sure, Momoi had invaded his personal space (his bedroom) and snooped in places she shouldn't have been snooping in, but this was insane. In her hands was the letter he had written a couple days ago, and he had hidden it very well - or at least he thought he did. It was almost as if she knew what she was looking for - wait a second, didn't she lie too?

He thought about it for a second. He could try to deny everything, say that the letter was completely foreign to him and he must have disassociated or something, but Momoi would know. She knew his handwriting. She knew how he wrote. She knew how he lied. It would not be a smart idea to lie, he supposed.

The panic arose in his chest. Would Momoi tattle on him? Would she expose him as mentally ill? Would she lock him up in a cage? Would she send him to a shrink because he needed help? Honestly, he didn't think he did; he deserved everything she had said, he deserved -

"Ki-kun," Momoi's voice rang in the distance. "Ki-kun, what are you saying?"

Kise locked himself onto Momoi's sweet, gentle voice as soon as he heard it. Although it was hard, he was attracted to the voice - it was as sweet as sugar, so pure, so kind, so gentle.

"I'm touching you, is that okay?" Momoi asked. Kise let out a noise, and she assumed it to be a yes. "Ki-kun, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone through your things." She turned to Aomine, who had been leaning against the doorframe for quite some time. "Dai-chan, can you carry Ki-kun to his bed?"

Aomine didn't respond, but he lifted the frail boy off the ground. Noticing how light he was, he frowned as he carried him onto the bed. "Kise, why the hell do you weigh nothing?" he asked. It wasn't healthy for a basketball player, much less a Miracle, to be this light.

"I've never weighed much?" Kise said. "Akashicchi and Kurokocchi don't weigh much either," he pointed out.

"Yeah, you weighed more last month," Aomine said. "And those two are way too small for their own good." Kise let out a small 'hmph', but he didn't answer the question. Aomine didn't press for more anyways.

Aomine set the boy on his bed, and Kise almost immediately went to sleep. He figured he wasn't in the mood to answer questions, much less ever. Therefore, Aomine covered Kise up with a soft blanket, Momoi wished him a good night sleep, and the two of them crept out of the room silently.

After Momoi shut the door, they walked back into the living room. Momoi was holding tightly onto the letter in hand, but she didn't say anything else as she gathered her belongings and left Kise's apartment. Aomine followed her wordlessly.

She waited until they were safely outside his apartment and heading back home before she made a comment. "Dai-chan, should we be leaving him alone?" Momoi asked, bottom lip trembling.

Aomine sighed. While he was generally known to be an idiot, he wasn't stupid enough to play with people's feelings again. One time was more than enough for him. "Uh, probably not, but Kise probably wants his own space right now."

Momoi gave him a half smile. "You're right. He needs to process the fact that we found out about it. Let's come back tomorrow and talk to him."

Aomine shrugged. "Okay."

JULY 24

True to their word, Momoi and Aomine showed up at Kise's apartment the very next day. It had been early in the morning when they rang his doorbell, the sun was only halfway up in the sky, and the sky held a beautiful orange color.

After waiting for a moment or two, Momoi revealed something she stole last night from Kise - the key to his apartment. She opened up the door to the place and let herself and Aomine inside. She then instructed Aomine to go wake up the sleeping Kise up.

Knocking on his bedroom door, Aomine did not wait for an answer to go in. Seeing the blonde still fast asleep made the guy sigh with relief. He quietly tapped on Kise's shoulder, gently trying to wake him up. "Hey Kise, it's Aomine, get up."

No response from Kise. Aomine tried again, but with more force and diction. Still no response. Worried that Kise had done something stupid overnight, he rolled him over so that Kise's face was looking at Aomine's. He checked for his pulse on his neck, to which he learned that Kise was still breathing fine, just slumbering away. Deciding that the bed looked nicer than the thought of waking Kise up from his sleep, Aomine climbed into bed with him and pulled the covers closer to the both of them.

Much to Aomine's surprise, Kise rolled over to him. His arms wrapped around Aomine's body, but Kise himself didn't wake up. As much as Aomine wanted to complain and whine about the skinship, he didn't force Kise's hands away just yet. Perhaps he even felt a little flutter in his heart for the small gesture - not that he would admit it or anything.

Momoi had luckily been able to procure some premade breakfast from the convenience store on the way to Kise's apartment, so as soon as Aomine fetched Kise, the three of them could eat. However, she ended up finding the boy in bed with Kise. She almost nagged his ear off, until she realized that Kise was holding onto Aomine. Sighing, she left the two in peace for a little while longer, and retreated to the sofa in the living room to nap.

Later, the two of them woke up naturally. Kise woke up first and stretched out his limbs. He felt oddly well rested and not very tired in the slightest. Hitting his hand against something hard, he turned to see Aomine, whose eyes were opened the tiniest bit.

Kise flashed him a small smile. "Good morning, Aominecchi."

Aomine grunted. "Morning sleepyhead."

The two of them didn't say much more after that. Momoi, who heard the commotion in the bedroom, arrived outside their door to call them to breakfast (that may or may not be cold by now). Aomine replied with a short 'okay', and proceeded to get out of bed. Kise, however, stayed in bed.

"Oi Kise, get your dumb ass up," Aomine demanded. "Before I pick up you up and carry you down myself."

Kise whined about having to leave the comforter, but obliged to Aomine having to carry him downstairs. Aomine rolled his eyes, said that he was joking about that part, and left him for breakfast.

The room was oddly quiet after Aomine departed, in Kise's honest opinion. Not that he minded, but the guy's voice filled the room just enough to make him feel like he's still there, alive and participating as a somewhat active member of society. Kise liked the quiet, but at the same time, loneliness tugged at his heart. Knowing that the party was probably in the kitchen, feasting on breakfast, Kise trudged over.

Momoi watched the two of them finally arrive for breakfast. It was almost like she was the mother watching her children get up in the morning and get ready for school. Aomine came first, then Kise followed shortly afterwards.

"What did you get at the convenience store?" Aomine asked as he sat down and dug in the food.

"Just some natto. Nothing fancy," Momoi replied.

They ate in silence. No one really had much to say in the first place. Aomine and Momoi were both glued to their phones anyways, since some of the other Miracles were texting in the group chat. Kise left his phone in his room, so he was out of the loop temporarily.

Kise, stiffened by the unnatural and unexpected silence, finally decided to break the ice. "Why are you two still here?" he asked, shoving a spoonful of natto into his mouth.

Momoi glanced at Aomine briefly before responding. "We were planning on going to the movies today with the others."

"Why didn't you just text me and wait for me to respond?" Kise asked.

"You took too long. We asked hours ago," Momoi answered.

Kise sighed. He left the kitchen table to go grab his phone, and he came back, eyes staring at his phone.

"Oh," he mumbled, "I didn't see these. Sorry Aominecchi, Momoicchi," Kise gave a tiny hint of a smile. "My manager wants me to come in today for a shoot. He just texted me a few minutes ago."

Momoi frowned. "Aw Ki-kun, it's okay! We forgot to ask if you had a modeling shoot today, so we can reschedule for a different day."

Kise nodded, heading back upstairs to get ready for the shoot. "Yeah sure, just let me know when and what movie we're seeing."

"'Kay," Aomine waved off.

The three of them left the apartment as soon as Kise was prepared and soon went their separate directions. Momoi and Aomine headed off for the mall, while Kise left for his shoot.

The shoot wrapped up quickly, and Kise was almost blessed by this. After every picture taken, the energy was draining out of Kise as if someone had left the air out of a balloon. By the end, Kise was sure he was running off of borrowed energy. From where, who knows.

"Good work out there, Kise!" someone called out.

Kise quickly thanked them before grabbing his paycheck and walked out of the premises. He noticed a car that had just pulled up in front of the building, and realized it was an Akashi limousine. Tuckered out from the day, he stumbled into a taxi and gave him directions to his apartment.

When he arrived home, he threw a wad of yen at the driver. Kise specifically made sure to tell him to keep the change too, since it'd be a hassle to take care of the extra money - plus, he's pretty well off anyways. He wouldn't miss the money. Then he walked up the stairs to his apartment and turned the key.

The apartment was silent, as per usual. It seemed as if no one had been inside in quite a while, which was true. There was only one sign that Aomine and Momoi had been by earlier, and the evidence laid on the kitchen table. Kise picked up the piece of paper and read it thoroughly.

Ki-kun,

I'm sorry if this might be butting in a little too much, and you can hate me all you want, but will you please do me this one favor? I might have signed you up for therapy...and the appointment is tomorrow...please don't kill me! Here's the information:

Who: XXX

Where: 123 S Tokyo Ave

When: 1PM tomorrow

Please go, there's a lot of people who love and care for you, and we want to see you get better.

(And if you're wondering, it's fated for you to do it anyways. Sorry, I snooped a little too much!)

Momoi Satsuki!

Kise sighed as he read through it. Was she actually being serious?

Behind Momoi's letter was another envelope, and Kise recognized it right away. The white envelope had practically just laid in his room for the longest time, and he had yet to read through the contents for the last month. If Momoi was right…

Opening up the envelope, he pulled out a letter dated for the 25th of July. Sure enough, a letter existed.

July 25: Today was a mandatory therapy appointment with the new psychologist. It was a one on one therapy, which was nice, and the guy was pretty cool too. Turns out I'm not a lunatic too, and it's okay to feel like this. Something struck me though.

Did I want to get better? The answer has always been yes. I just didn't know how to go about it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I'm sure some of you were surprised, mwahahahaha. Thank you for the lovely comments about Kise being the mystery dead character. I enjoyed them while they lasted.

Don't forget to leave a review!