Shoes squeaked against the wooden floor. The basketball bounced quick and hard, returning to Ishimura's hand as she glanced around her. Shira was off to the side, trying to break away from Takami who was refusing to let her step into acceptable sight. Jo was being shepherded by Meyer, the small point guard matching the giants one large step with two smaller ones of her own. In front of Ishimura stood Saka, and no matter how Ishimura attempted to get out of her way, she would be there, blocking her path to the ring. Before she had a chance to step around, or find a weakness in her opposition, a loud whistle bellowed across the court. Saka relaxed her posture but her eyes didn't move from the ball that Ishimura was still bouncing.

"It's been half an hour! Time to hit the gym!" Jean's voice echoed across court as the girls began to relax from their furious game play. Ishimura, Jo and Shira were on offense, whilst Meyer, Saka and Takami were on defense. It was a tough half an hour, with the girl scoring a total of ten points between the two teams. Jean had watched them carefully, taking notes as per his sisters request and as they jogged over, they all could see a page was filled with his small, neat writing. When they grew close to him however, he used his crutch to point to the doors of the gym. "You have a five minute break before the six sets of fifteen minutes in the gym."

"I thought Meyer ran us hard," Takami muttered under her breath as she traipsed to the gym, closely followed by Shira. Meyer shrugged her shoulders as she followed after them, but threw a questioning look over her shoulder to her brother. When she told the girls that Jean was going to be running their training sessions from now on, everyone had expected it to lighten up. It went in the complete opposite direction, Jean running a harder training session than Meyer would even bother to do. They'd already been running around the the track for a food half hour, before they had to play a game of basketball against one another.

"When did that kid become so sadistic?" Ishimura groaned as she stepped into the gym, all but collapsing onto the ground and letting out a groan. Jean had told them when they went running on track that there were times that each of them were meant to beat individually. Meyer and Ishimura had the shortest amount of time, and she was honestly surprised she had managed to make her ten laps within the time he'd given her.

"Since I asked him to train us, apparently," Meyer shrugged, scratching the back of her head. Ishimura shrugged as best as she could on the ground before rolling onto her stomach. Jo had walked over to the chin up bar and was looking down at it in irritation.

"Why is everything so short?"

"They're not short, you're just freakishly tall."

"I'm going to put you on a hook if you don't shut the fuck up, Ishimura," Jo growled. Shira let out a giggle, clutching her stomach and even Meyer cracked a smile at the threat, knowing that their centre was more than capable of doing so. When Jean had been annoying her insistently when they were younger, Jo had simply picked her brother up and hung off one of the hooks in Meyer's bedroom. Sufficient to say Meyer has plenty of photos of a sour Jean suspended from the floor.

"Whoa, temper temper. You better - PUT ME DOWN!" Ishimura struggled as Jo gripped the top of her arms tightly and lifted her clean off the ground. Meyer and Shira fell to the ground, giggling as Ishimura struggled to pull out of Jo's grip. Even Takami was laughing, holding her stomach as she wiped a tear from her eye whilst Saka snorted, pointing at Ishimura and struggling to speak. Meyer couldn't blame her, even Jo was laughing as Ishimura kicked her legs desperately in an attempt to be put back on the ground. Eventually the teen gave up and just hung there, a rather sour look decorating her face as her friends all laughed.

"I thought I said... Jo that's not nearly as funny as you think it is," Jean commented as he entered the room, leaning heavily against one of his crutches as he raised one eyebrow to the centre. Jo just shrugged her shoulders before relenting and touching Ishimura back to the ground. The small forward scowled and shrugged her shoulders, muttering something under her breath no one quite managed to catch and swatting away Jo's hand as the taller teen attempted to pat Ishimura on the head.

"I'm on the punching bag! And a print out of your face would be nice!" Ishimura huffed as she stomped over to where the punching bag had been strung up, resulting in muffled laughter to errupt once more. The scowl on her face had been enough to set the girls off, her irritated comment just sealed the deal. Meyer shook her head, trying to wipe the smile off her face before she looked around, trying to figure out what she wanted to do. Jo had returned her attention to the chin up bar, trying to figure out how she could raise it even higher, whilst Takami and Saka seemed to be more interested in the barbells. Shira seemed more fascinated with attempting to get the book of notes off Jean, who was warding her off with a crutch. Her lips cracked into a small smile as she shook her head, wandering over to the treadmill. How would she survive without these idiots?

...

Takami stood in front of the milk aisle, looking at the different brands trying to remember which one her mother had asked for her specifically. She scratched the back of her head before wincing, rubbing her upper arm unhappily. Jean had eventually kicked her from the barbells onto the punching bag to be trained under Ishimura (who was more than adept at using the damn thing) and for the rest of the training she'd been stuck on that. Of course, they had stopped after Jean and Meyer got into an argument about her not getting off the treadmill. It eventually turned violent, with the pair entering a rather furious wrestling match that ended when Jean kneed Meyer in the stomach.

"Even without a leg he knows how to fight," Takami murmured to herself before giving up and just grabbing the milk nearest to her. She ran a hand through her hair as she slowly trotted to the counter. Jean and Meyer had always been so alike, and so close. They played basketball together, Jean used to come and see Meyer every day for something or other at school no matter what and she watched over him like a guardian angel. It was hard to imagine that they would ever be separated, and yet...

Takami's eyes flickered down to the phone in her other as she placed the milk onto the counter, giving a half hearted smile to the shop assistant. It was possible that her friend had been mistaken, but he had never been wrong before. She heard the cashier mumble something about a price and she pulled a note out of her pocket, placing it on the counter as she opened up the message she had recieved that day at the beach. She had never confronted Meyer about it, after all their captain always had her reasons for doing things the way she did, but Takami wouldn't deny she was very interested in knowing if it was true.

"Have a nice night, miss."

"Thank you, you too," Takami looked up to cashier and smiled before taking her milk, leaving the change behind. It wasn't a long walk from the shop to the apartment they live in, and along the way Takami's focus was mostly on her phone. She had read and re-read that same text more times than she could remember, and she wondered what would have happened if Kuroko hadn't interrupted her brainless moment of almost telling Jo. "Out of all of us, she'll take it the hardest, I think."

"Is there someone you're attempting to talk to, or you enjoy looking like a moron?" Takami looked up, shoving her mobile into her pocket as she slowed down. She blinked twice, registering the face of the person who stood to the side and she let out a sigh, stopping and raising on eyebrow.

"Oh, it's you." Jean readjusted how he was standing and cocked his head to the side, a shit eating grin that would overpower even Ishimura plastering itself on his face. Takami rubbed her arm again stepping off the side of the sidewalk to make room and stood next to Jean, still slightly confused as to why the middle schooler was in this part of town. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"No, I'm waiting for a few friends. Just thought I should let you know you look like an idiot."

"You're always so well behaved when Meyer or Jo aren't around," Takami smiled, resulting in Jean to laugh and shrug his shoulders. There was something different about him when his sister or Jo wasn't around, he seemed like a little kid on Christmas morning, unsupervised and able to get away with anything he wants. Takami's eyes shifted to Jean's leg, or lack of, quickly. Not quick enough apparently, because Jean's cheeky grin turned a little grim as his head cocked to the side.

"Yeah, I still can't get used to it either."

"You could always try using your prosthetic," Takami replied. Jean poked his tongue out, pulling a face as he vehemently shook his before poking her shin with a crutch.

"Don't want to."

"You're too stubborn, like your sister."

"Are you kidding? Meyer would already be playing basketball with her prosthetic by now," Jean muttered sourly, scratching the back of his head as his eyes drifted downwards. Takami tilted her head to the side, frowning slightly at his comment.

"Is that why you refuse to wear it?"

"Huh?"

"Because Meyer..."

"I don't care."

"You're the one who compared," Takami muttered before looking down to the milk in her hands. Her mother would want her to come back, her father was probably aching for a cup of coffee at the moment. She looked back up to Jean, opening her mouth to deliver the excuse as to why she had to leave before she caught herself, remembering what had first caused her to go into deep thought. Takami fished her mobile out from her pocket, flipping it open and quickly scrolling through the messages. "When was she going to tell us, anyway?"

"Tell you what?" Jean frowned as Takami clicked away at her phone. She didn't say anything until she had the message up, turning the phone around so Jean could see. He blinked twice, frowning at the words on the screen before his eyes grew wide before hi gaze shifted to the ground. His shoulders shrugged in the lazy way he did whenever he tried to get out of trouble. "How'd you find out?"

"I have more friends than you would believe, apparently. So when is she going to tell the others?"

"You're not going to dob?"

"And get them pissed off in my face? No thank you. I'll leave the temper tantrums to Meyer," Takami smiled before reaching out. She pet Jean's head gently before kissing his cheek, readjusting how she was holding the milk and turning on her heel to continue home. Jean didn't say anything else, but when Takami looked over her shoulder she saw the younger teen frowning and deep in a troubling thought. A strange look on the usually carefree teenager.