Summary [chapter 21]: Shintaro opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again, realizing who could posibly be the woman on that picture. That long and bright red hair and an achingly familiar and infectious bright smile... Kagami's mother. What he was looking at was a butsudan. A shrine to the Fallen.

Following the canon chronology with some additions for the purpose of the story. Main pairing of the story: Midorima x OC.

Written in the third person. The words in italic are characters' thoughts and the words written like this are said in another language (French or English). No harem x OC.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OCs

[HALCYON DAYS ARC]

FRAGMENTS

~.~

Chapter 21: a shrine to the fallen

Surprisingly, restlessness was something Ryouta wasn't familiar with. Or rather, it was something he wasn't familiar with it anymore. He had felt it for the first time against Aominicchi. A year later, it vanished. He could hear the wind blowing in his ear again.

Even more surprisingly, he didn't feel restlessness after losing against Seirin. He felt relieved.

But now that he was injured and unable to play basketball, he was itching to play. All he could do was to watch his teammates from the bench. And he just did the same with Seirin as well. That afternoon with them was far from boring but he wanted to play against Kagamicchi on a one-on-one. And most importantly, he had a revelation.

If he could copy Kagamicchi who was on par with them, the Generation of Miracles, it meant that Ryouta could also copy the Generation of Miracles themselves. And the key to that was stamina training. And observation. Lots of observation. The only people who could learn him that was Kurokocchi, who used his observations for his misdirection and Masukocchi, who had an analytical eye on par with Ryouta but used to more wisely thanks to her experience.

He suspected it was one of the reasons Masukocchi willingly let one of her main rivals observe her team in details... and with her outstanding work. It had been a shock to see the wonder she did as Seirin's manager in such a short time.

Ryouta hadn't felt so fascinated by someone in a while... She was the first one who made him feel that way after Kurokocchi.

He took his phone. It was 8P.M already. Practice ended an hour ago and he came back to an empty home. His sisters would come to visit in a few days and his parents were still working.

"Man, why isn't that guy answering me? How cold."

Was Midorimacchi playing tsundere again?

Despite repeating how annoying he was being with his constant flow of texts and emojis, Midorimacchi always answered him. Ryouta suspected that Midorimacchi secretly was happy about the attention.

'Are you already at Masukocchi's apartment for your date?'

"Maybe I shouldn't tease him so much about Masukocchi..." Despite that, he was curious to see how things would progress. He would have to ask Kagamicchi about it. As oblivious as Kagamicchi could be, he payed attention to his best friend and Ryouta could swear he saw him eyeing Midorimacchi and Masukocchi when they were interacting sometimes.

'It's not a date, Masuko wants to work on her Japanese.'

"Finally an answer!"

'Be nice with Masukocchi (≧∀≦)'

'Idiot.'

Ryouta sweatdropped. "Typical Midorimacchi..."

'There's no reason for me to be rude to her. Unlike you, she's civilized.'

That time, he blinked, unsure he read that right. Ryouta read it again. And again. And again just to be sure. "Eh..."

He didn't have the time to answer since he received an incoming call.

He read the ID. Curious, Ryouta picked up the phone. "Kagamicchi?!"

"Yo."

"Why are you calling me?"

"I kinda forgot Emilie would get help from that bastard for her Japanese and I made too much food, d'you wanna come? Kuroko's already here and..." Ryouta heard someone shrieking in the background. "Shut up! Too late, I told him to come!" Kagamicchi said to the person (Kurokocchi was so mean).

To stay alone at home or eat delicious food with friends?

He grabbed his jacket before answering "Sure!"

Maybe feeling restless wasn't all bad. He couldn't wait to be able to play basketball again with his senpai and play against his friends and rivals.

Shintaro raised his hand to knock on the door before stopping his move. He had no idea why he was nervous... It was just a study session with Masuko after all.

(and not a stupid 'date' as Kise put it... what a foul that guy was.)

The door suddenly opened, frightening him in the process. He could smell from there the food being cooked in the kitchen.

"Midorima!" she shouted.

"Masuko! How did you know?"

She shook her head. "I didn't know it was you, I heard someone and thought it would be Taiga. He tried to make me take some of the food he made but I'm already cooking something for us. I hope you don't mind having a cheat meal tonight."

"No," he answered before remembering he was supposed to give her the omiyage that was in his bag. "It's nothing special but here is a little something for you," he recited in a flat voice.

Instead of politely bowing to him to thank him and accept the gift she tilted his head. Shintaro didn't expect that from her.

"'Tsumaranai mono desu ga...'" she repeated, confusion obvious because of the expression she had on her face.

It took him another ten seconds to finally understand why she looked confused. She never faced that situation until now.

"It's a sentence usually said to offer thanks while saying the fact we brought a gift isn't a big deal."

Her eyes sparkled. "Oh! I see."

"My father suggested me to give you a traditional Japanese gift for you," he explained, looking away from her.

"Would you thank him for me, please?" That girl, still polite as ever. "I wonder... how do you usually accept these gifts? Is there a particular way to do it?"

"With a bow and a 'thank you'."

"How Japanese..." she noted, mostly to herself.

"And how do you do it in France?" he asked.

She put a hand on his shoulder, making him bend to her level without any warning and kissed his cheek. "Merci, Midorima."

He coughed and put his glasses back on the bridge on his nose. "As I said, it's nothing."

She smiled before bowing and putting the omiyage on the nearest table. "The genkan is here, you can use these slippers if you want," she said as she showed him the genkan on the left.

How did she know about these Japanese traditions but not about omiyage? As if she was reading his thoughts, Masuko started talking again.

"Maman... My mother has a 'no shoes inside' policy even when we were living in France and in the US."

It made sense. "I see."

"Let's eat dinner first, it'll be ready in five minutes. I hope you'll like my confit de canard... I mean confit of duck."

French cuisine.

Unsurprisingly, her dish tasted amazing. He wondered how she and Kagami could cook so well, it was as good at the food he had tasted in the luxurious restaurants, if not better.

"Do you plan to become a professional cook?" he asked as she washed the plates and he wiped them after.

She laughed, visibly surprised and amused by his question. "Perhaps as a back-up plan but I'm flattered."

What's your career plan then?

"And what's yours?" Masuko asked.

Shintaro stopped moving, realizing he said it outloud. He could feel his face becoming red. He always made a fool of himself with Masuko, didn't he?

"I don't mind you asking me this, it's normal between friends. I'll have to face that question publicly in a few months anyway," she seemingly whispered the last part to herself, bitterness lacing with irony. She stopped the water before she looked up, chewing her own bottom lip. "To tell you the truth, I still don't know. Football is my passion and I have enough talent to play professionally in women's football but I don't know if it's what I want."

Shintaro grasped the subtile change in the tone of her voice.

"After Nationals, I was supposed to respond to my federation's questions, my fans' curiosity, the journalists' rumors... They thought I was a male and hailed me as a potential genius among the likes of my idol but once I revealed who I really was, they had even more questions. But the main question remained the same."

He knew where it was going.

"'Do you want to become a footballer?' The answer is simple: I don't know yet. I used my injury as an escape and reported everything to when I'll be healed. I ran away and came here sooner because I was tired. I love my team and I'm pleased we won Nationals but as selfish as it is, I needed to leave." She smiled to herself. "They even encouraged me to do so, I'm thankful."

Shintaro clenched and unclenched his hand repeatedly, not sure of what or how to answer to Masuko's heartfelt words. She had never been so open in front on him, not even last month, in the corridor of the hotel. He didn't know what to do either about that familiar ache appearing whenever someone mentioned his career should be exclusively baketball-related.

He understood too well what Masuko felt. Except he didn't have to deal with the pressure and expectation coming from his country.

"I don't know either," he finally admitted.

(to himself and to her.)

She didn't answer. Instead, she made closed the gap between them to pull him closer and wrap her arms around him. The warmth of her body against him flustered Shintaro but he felt comfort in having her head burried in his torso, the smell of cinnamon and something he couldn't recognize making him close his eyes.

"We'll figure it out," she murmured with confidence. She also added something he couldn't hear, her voice muffled by his shirt.

Shintaro had no idea how long they stayed like that but he knew it was too long to be just an ordinary hug.

"Let's go to my bedroom," she ended up saying.

He blinked. "What?"

She gently tapped on his shoulder. "To work on my written Japanese... Not that I mind hugging you but my knowledge in kanji is mediocre at best. But do not fear, I'm updated with the way syllabic systems work, I mainly rely on my hiragana and katakana at the moment to read and write Japanese."

Shintaro sweatdropped. How did she even manage to get top grades in Seirin with that?

"I didn't have time to clean up my desk so I apologize for the mess," she casually told him as she guided him.

"It's fine."

All the rooms were empty except what appeared to be a friend's room already decored and another bedroom freshly painted judging by the smell. Shintaro supposed her bedroom was the only room with the door closed.

"I've just finished decorating it! I'll do something for some of the other rooms before everyone arrives," she continued as she opened the door.

A flowery scent immediately reached Shintaro's nose. He recognized it as that faint smell on Masuko that was mixed with cinnamon.

Her bedroom was everything he expected yet different than he thought. Did she really do all of that herself?

"Taiga helped me to paint it, I chose the scheme."

Several tones of purple had been combined, with the darkest shade balancing the palest. It was a tasteful and sophisticated approach to decorating.

"Let me find my Japanese notebook... You can sit on this chair," she showed him in a hasty way as she looked around the papers placed on her desk. Apart from that piece of furniture, the rest of the room was tidy.

It was the first time he entered a girl's bedroom (who wasn't from his family) so he had no idea about what to do. He sat on the chair and discreetly looked around.

What he noticed first were the imposing bookshelves full of titles he couldn't read for most part along with the trophies and medals she won.

The black and white photos framed on the walls were mostly related to football. He could distinguish some famous players among them and Masuko with some of her teammates in other photos. His attention was focused on the photo displayed in the middle. The distinguishable joy radiating from Masuko holding a trophy (Nationals?) and her teammates by her sides was somehow reaching Shintaro. He inexplicably felt a tinge of jealousy.

His eyes went back to the trophy shelf, where he could find a minuature version of the trophy she was holding in the photo. She objectively owned an impressive collection, even for him. She probably had as many, if not more medals and trophies than him.

"Not bad, don't you think?"

Masuko's voice stirred him out of his thoughts. She was now watching him with amusement, the notebook in her hand.

He huffed. "It's decent."

"Most of them aren't even football-related," she shrugged. He frowned at her off-hand remark as she was looking for something else on her desk again. "Now, I have to find that other notebook..."

It was only at that moment that his eyes caught the visibly self-made small table and the frame on it. Shintaro opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again, realizing who could posibly be the woman on that picture. She had long and bright red hair and an achingly familiar and infectious bright smile.

Kagami's mother.

What he was looking at was a butsudan. A shrine to the Fallen.

Shintaro felt a wave of sadness and something akin to guilt reach him. He had never considered Kagami other than his new annoying rival who could equal (or even surpass, he added to himself) the Generation of Miracles until recently. But now, they were... friends in a way, yet Midorima never wondered about anything related to his personal life, apart from Masuko who was always with him.

He really needed to learn how to become a good friend.

"Thank you, Midorima. I'm sure that by the end of vacation, I'll master kanji." Enough to survive in highschool at least, she added to herself.

Miyuki released the pen in her hand before standing up. She slightly bowed.

"It's nothing." She could hear a hint of exasperation in his impassive tone. She was sometimes being overpolite on purpose to annoy him but that time, she was being genuinely thankful for his help.

She smiled and they remained in a comfortable silence until she finished organizing the papers on her desk. "Do you want to drink some tea? I only have the English one though, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all."

"We can have pastries served with it. Do you have a preference for the tea?"

He shook his head. "My knowledge concerning tea is limited to Japanese tea."

She tapped on her chin thoughtfully. "I would recommend you spiced red fruits tea or ginger peach tea."

She made slow and careful steps to reach the kitchen. Midorima was behind, watching her attentively. It reminded her of his father, Midorima-sensei. She gulped after remembering the reason of her next visit at the hospital.

After (finally) reaching the kitchen, she started brewing tea, opting for the spiced red fruits tea. She realized with embarrassement that she could not reach the matching teacups in the cupboard by herself. She did not feel confident enough to stand on her tiptoes to get them given the (still) fragile state of her knee. "Could you take two teacaups in there, please?"

He seemed to understand her predicament and made a step forward to take them without a word. Miyuki tilted her head, taking into consideration their height difference. Being continuously surrounded by basketball players had forced her to recognize that she was not tall (a voice that strangely sounded like Taiga said something about 'height complex') but even in that stantard, Midorima was tall.

Her head barely reached his shoulders when they were hugging.

"Thanks."

She took the canelés in the fridge to put them in the oven to heat them just a few minutes.

"Taiga and I need to go to the convinience store to buy food again..." she murmured. It never occured to her that consumtion habits in Japan differentiated conspicuously from the French ones.

She frowned when Midorima crouched down before realizing he was holding one of the pictures she put on the fridge. Realizing which picture it was, she frozed.

It took her ten seconds to take the photo he was handing her. "Thanks... again," she whispered, in an absentminded voice, her attention back on the two young women smiling on the picture.

"I know you have questions about one of the women on the picture." Miyuki had first pretended not to notice Midorima's eyes on her self-made shrine but she realized it was not the good thing to make.

She had to face things. And get the courage to talk.

"It's not like it's a secret," she started in an attempt to soothe Midorima's apparent guilt. "You must have deduced who the woman with red hair was." He adverted his eyes from her. She took it as a 'yes'. "This is Taiga's mother with my mother back to when we were still living in Los Angeles. They met each other at Beverly Hills Cancer Center."

Miyuki's mother lung cancer was one of the reasons why her family had stayed longer than planned in the U.S. Back then, her eight year old self did not understand the extent of her mother's health issue but she was clever enough to know that it was life-threatening. Her parents' sweet reassurance and Tatsuya's presence had always been something she was grateful for, especially when her mother's health declined to the point that she had to stay at the hospital. Especially with another baby coming.

"Maman! I made a new friend," she excitedly said as her father pushed the door of her hospital room. She stopped in her steps after noticing another woman with her mother.

She was beautiful. So beautiful and elegant that it was almost intimidating.

"H– Hello, my name is Miyuki Masuko," she started in a fluent English.

"That's a pretty name! I'm one of your mother's friends, Aki," the beautiful lady answered.

She blinked, already feeling more at ease. "Japanese?"

The beautiful lady (Aki-san) giggled. "I'm Japanese as well, there's no need to talk English with me."

Miyuki blushed, avoiding her gaze.

"I'll let you have some ladies time and come back in two hours." Her father kissed maman on her cheek and made a head movement to greet the beautiful woman before leaving them.

Papa probably knows her.

And even at age eight, Miyuki understood that the new friend her mother made was a patient as well.

"Sit with us!"

Miyuki made some hesitant steps before sitting on her mother's lap.

"Who's your new friend?" her mother asked.

"He's in my class and he's Japanese too. Tatsuya and I invited him to play basketball yesterday! His name is Taiga and he has red hair like Aki-san!"

"Taiga? That's my son!" the beautiful lady cheerfully announced.

"He is?"

"Yes, Kagami Taiga! I'm happy to hear my son is finally getting friends."

"She passed away when Taiga and I were ten. Brain cancer."

Midorima and she were now sitting on the couch of the living room, each of them holding a teacup in one of their hands. She explained how brain surgery only managed to remove part of the tumor and how it wasn't enough to reduce the signs and symptoms. She confided how it was almost a relief to have her aunt's suffering ending after seeing her motor skills, speech and vision affected.

He looked like he was about to say something but chose not to. The fact that he had left his pride aside and finally admitted he wanted to know more was more than enough. In a way, he was showing he did care about Taiga as a friend as well.

"My mother and her were best friends... My sister's middle name is Akira."

Auntie... Aki-san had been by her mother's side during the complicated pregnancy and had supported her in a way that neither Miyuki or her father could sometimes. She was even her sister's godmother and Miyuki still considered Aki-san as her aunt.

She unconsciously moved closer to Midorima, the warmth of his shoulder brushing hers bringing her comfort. "As I said, it's not like it's a secret... It doesn't hurt that much anymore but I know that it's still hard for Taiga to talk about her sometimes." She played with the photo between her fingers.

Taiga wasn't a sentimental nor a materialist person as the lack of decoration in his apartment confirmed. However, he too had a shrine for his mother. He had also kept the portrait Miyuki had painted and sent him last year for his fifteenth birthday along with the letter that auntie entrusted her mother to give him every year for his birthday. "I'm sure he would tell you about her if you would ask him."

She wondered if her mother had already sent the yearly letter auntie had written for Taiga's sixteenth birthday... If she did, Taiga did not say a word about it.

"I see."

"It's better for you to know to avoid having you making assumptions about where his mother is and ask him about his parents..."

She took another sip of tea, the taste of red fruits and cinnamon soothing her tongue as sleepiness began to affect her.

"Thank you."

Midorima's deep voice startled her. She was about to ask 'what for?' before understanding the meaning of this short yet impactful declaration.

"You're also Taiga's friend."

It was heartwarming to see Tetsuya, Midorima and pretty face trying their best with the complexities of friendship, she thought before closing her heavy eyes.

A/N: I wrote and rewrote many scenes in this chapter to make it sound right but I did promise more Masuko/Midorima back so here we are! This chapter highlights in more ways than one their development as characters but also in their relationship. Both of them are facing their issues: Midorima tries to learn to become a good friend and Masuko now tries to face the issue and talk instead of just silently thinking. It's a slow burn but both of them don't easily trust people.

Another point in this chapter is of course Kagami's mother... The fact that she passed away is canon information (the mangaka indicated the only family member Kagami has is his father in a Q&A, albeit we have no other information) and I thought it would be interesting to write about it.

I'm genuinely thankful to see that there are people who still haven't given up on this story in 2018!

I would like to thank the people who has favorited or/and is following this story after I published the previous chapter: chasseurdereve, cielo1827, ConflictingSoulzz

Guest: I'm so sorry it took time to update, I was on vacation then I got a job ! I'll be quicker for the next chapters (this arc is ending in two or three chapters hehe)

Once again, thank you for the fav/following! Don't hesitate to post comments, I'll make sure to answer them on next chapter's A/N or through PM :)