"Leg up."

"Yeah yeah, I know."

Kagami wasted no time or breath arguing. He placed his leg up for her to better see, and silence began to waft in as both found themselves too preoccupied with their own thoughts than one another. It was commonplace for Esashi. She was lost in thought more often than not, and Kagami typically was the one saying something or seeking to rile her up in the process. It only served to make her thoughts nag about this uncharacteristic quiet.

He was so much easier to deal with today.

She had made many notes about his behavior and its alterations as the school year had progressed; he had become more well-mannered, less intrusive, and easily more controlled. Regardless, however much she bore witness to this, she couldn't refute the fact in him still being a troublesome boy to be in a room with.

So when she raised her pink eyes to peer covertly at him from her down-tilted vantage, she found herself surprised that he was hardly even paying attention. His eyes were on his leg, yes, so he watched as she felt around and applied light pressure, and so thoroughly peered down the length of his calf for signs of injury and strain, yet the dull stare of his deep red eyes seemed strangely absent. It was as if her procedure was merely the backdrop for the projection of his own consuming thoughts.

Her eyes lowered back down to her own hands, and while she felt compelled to speak up and ask, she found herself drawing a blank. What was she supposed to ask him? It was strange to just note that he wasn't paying attention to her process, wouldn't it? She wet her lips in nervous fumbling, and though she could hear herself internally searching her vocabulary for a potential way to word this, she found herself beat to the punch.

"Did… Kiyoshi come by here?"

She sensed hesitation trickling into his tone, but making no mention of the oddity, she simply responded, "he did, but I turned him away."

"Huh?!" Now backed with his usual volume, the male stiffened from his lax position, leaning forward and focusing much more intently than before, "why? For what?"

She scoot away in her wheeled chair, having finished checking his legs for any abnormalities. "I don't know what he did. I honestly don't know if it was done from basketball or not; it looked like he was in a fight or something." She folded her arms so firmly across her chest, a stern and disapproving look on her face, "but you all seem to be forgetting, I'm not a doctor yet, and I'm not a nurse; I'm just a girl that helps one. I remind you all there are things I can't do, and frankly I don't like the idea that I may be used as a substitute for an actual medic. That's just irresponsible."

She was sure that Kagami knew something about it. He had become so reluctant when asking about Kiyoshi in the first place, that it seemed like he was almost far more in the know than he attempted to let on.

"I swear I don't even know how you can sustain these sort of injuries in this sport," she light scoffed, dragging on her lecture as she reopened one of her personal medical journals, "this is why I'm so firmly against the way you throw your bodies away so recklessly. That's honestly a prime example of-.."

She stopped herself.

She chose to bite her tongue, and as her words severed and began to trail off, she averted her gaze and took up a thoughtful reflection. This may have been one of the first times she had ever taken a step back in the midst of her chastising and taken the time to hear herself. Surely, she had scolded herself once for this kind of talk, but hindsight was 20/20. Hearing it from her own lips at the exact moment she had spoken it seemed to carry a different impact.

"I'm sorry," she said instead, quietly but with a soft conviction, "that was insensitive of me."

The dead air trickled on for a moment, though it was somewhat unexpected. What wasn't as expected was the way the red haired male shifted slightly to settle his feet in hanging over the side of his perch, "yeah, kinda."

Esashi's eyes turned to mere dots concerning his response. She said nothing, but her thoughts sparked with offense 'how dare you! Really, you aren't suppose to agree!' She could feel her face grow hot with displeasure, and with her lips upturned in disapproval, she shifted her head away from him stubbornly.

"You didn't come to the game, huh?"

Her raspberry hues shifted to the guy, her head tilting somewhat. As if so blatantly responding in the same manner, she only responded, "no, of course I didn't."

Unlike her, however, he so bluntly retorted, "don't say it like that!"

Her fingers subtly hid her lips, successfully masking the amusement that took root, "I wasn't aware that was a surprise in any form."

"You're too uptight. It's not a surprise-"

"Hold your tongue…"

"'Sides, you'd probably get hit in the face again."

"Stop talking…"

She heard the snicker weasel out of the corner of his lips, though she opted to ignore it and attempted to so briskly move the subject along. "What compelled you to ask, anyway?"

"Hm?" he started, as if he had forgotten just that quickly, but as it came back to him, his mood made another minor decline, "oh. Just was wondering."

Suspicion crept into her. She had known him for a little time now, and one thing she came to find was that despite how it seemed as if he were completely unpracticed in the art of thinking, and as if he a vast majority of the things he did were truly for no reason, that was not the case. Even when he seemed to perpetuate that thought, he was in no form subtle enough to make it believable. "Well, if you must know-"

"I didn't ask you to explain-"

"IF you must know," she strongly reiterated, "I contemplated it when asked. However, Kiyoshi-san told me that he wouldn't think it would be a very fun game to watch. I wasn't sure what he meant, but I like to believe it wasn't tied directly to his injuries…"

It was. Kagami knew well. What that did serve to tell him, however, was that Kiyoshi had been well-aware of the route their most recent game would have taken. Somehow it made him feel all the more bitter, thinking of the events of their game against Kirisaki Daiichi, but it also net Kiyoshi even more respect with him. He had never seen someone put their body on the line for their team in a game that way: not like that.

"It was, wasn't it..?"

A delay in response, though a solemn, "yeah" came soon after. "Those assholes played dirty. I wish I could have just-!"

A beat of sweat slowly dripped down Esashi's cheek, "why didn't you inform the referee?"

"The damn referee didn't see it! We were in this last game to the finish with the cup on the line and we got stuck with a blind ref!"

"They just… didn't do anything about it?"

"Not a damn thing. I could've handled it if I'd got my hands on that dumbass with the gum-"

"Gum… Why was he chewing gum on the court?"

"Who the hell knows."

Well, color Esashi stumped. She knew she didn't know much about the sport, but at the very least she didn't imagine this. It sounded like some sort of unruled outlaw game where everyone did whatever they wanted despite safety precautions. "That explains a lot actually…"

"I'm pretty sure Kiyoshi isn't gonna go to the doctor."

It was a quick switch back to the previous topic, but it caught the nurse's assistant by surprise. She furrowed her brow, eyes lithe with uncertainty as she leaned back and allowed herself to take his words more seriously. "Why do you… think that?"

"'Cause he already has his knee to deal with," in truth, Kagami didn't know how to fully explain what he meant to say. He didn't know how to speak on Kiyoshi's thoughts and feelings from a role of someone that just knew him so well. He did have reason to suspect what he did, but part of it… "I know it's what I'd do. If my knee was already shot and a new reason popped up that'd make it hard to play, I'd keep it to myself."

"Yes, I know," Esashi quipped, tongue dripping with sass and a full anticipation for his reaction, "isn't that how you nearly found yourself suspended during the summer season?"

"What!?" Kagami practically sputtered, "why did you have to go and bring that up?"

"You were the one that inserted yourself. It was too easy to let pass by. Still," She paused, and she took that lingering time of pause to contemplate. She hadn't considered Kagami's point; though without a doubt, she should have. It made a frightening amount of sense, "not everyone is as reckless as you are."

That wasn't something he could easily refute. As much as her calling him out that way made him want to bite back just for the sake of pride, there was a lot of truth in her words. He wouldn't think twice about pushing himself to the limit; he had already done it several times before. Maybe that last match taught him though… that Kiyoshi may not have been so responsible either, "not everybody's as good as you think they are either."

Her eyes seemed to glaze with disinterest. He was right. She knew that full well. Somehow, she just hadn't gotten used to him saying such introspective and intelligent things. It was practically out of character. Either way, she tapped the end of her pen against her notebook, "I'll… bear that in mind. Ah… and your leg's fine. I wouldn't imagine Aida-san would be very happy about you being so late getting back to practice."

He hopped up without wasting too much time, and with no carefulness to his legs after finding they were fine. Instead, he just stretched out, and surprisingly, he gave a passive, "thanks."

She peered away and her fingers vented her nerves in the way they wrapped so tightly around the top of her notebook, "there isn't a need to thank me. This is my job… so if you'd actually like to show your appreciation, just try to be careful going forward, alright?"

She heard the door open, but a delay in it shutting behind him. She figured he had decided to just go on and ignore her little constant reminder since he had heard it so many times before. The door, however, still had yet to shut. She tilted her head, peering up to the office door to find Kagami still lingering as if lost momentarily in thought. Whether it was her comment, or something else, she couldn't quite place, but as she went to ask, she received a careless, "no promises" in reply.

"Kagami-san," she spoke, ready and willing to hit him with yet another scolding, but as she finally spoke up, he saw himself out swiftly to avoid her cold wrath.

Loosing a sigh whence alone, the brunette brushed her hair behind her ear. Maybe she shouldn't have turned Kiyoshi away. It wasn't as if he had showed any signs of being disappointed or out of options. He just smiled as he always did, accepted her response, and merely told her that he would take her advice to heart.

Come to think of it, he never said he would go to the hospital, or even a doctor. There was no way that he was specifically choosing his words like a loophole, right? He was too kind for that, dare she say, a bit too airheaded.

Still, with that paranoia of his condition fresh in her mind, she figured that she should at least rescind her decision if it would make a difference for his overall health. It was just… she couldn't help him in school. As long as she worked as the nurse's assistant on the school grounds, she had to follow the rules that were given to her. If she overstepped her boundary, it was possible that she could have landed herself in trouble, and if she informed the nurse, there was a chance Kiyoshi would avoid both her and the nurse. That is, if he were really trying to keep all of this unwrapped for the sake of his club participation.

"Why are they all unnecessarily complicated..?" she trailed, rubbing her fingers into her temples.

She got up from her seat, setting her notes aside for her return.

She would just make a quick trip to the gym and see if she could speak to Kiyoshi quickly, then leave right back out.

Unfortunately, just as it always seemed to, the good old wrench that waited by with baited breath to foil her plans flung itself right on cue.

"Esashi-chan!"

She could feel herself grow instantly heavy to the sound of her voice being called over the echo of the gym. It was Riko, without a doubt, come to probably greet her or scold her about ignoring messages the way Kagami had said she supposedly felt Esashi did.

"I have an invite for you!"

Immediately, Esashi could feel that heaviness growing and the weight accumulating onto her shoulders. "An invitation..?" The last invitation she received had her in a training camp for a couple of weeks and searching endlessly for freedom by the end of it.

"Mm!" Riko seemed keen on buttering her up, locking her hands behind her own back and mocking the gestures of shy inquiry, "you see. We're going out to a hot spring in a couple of days…"

"N..no..." Esashi spoke up. There was no way in the world that she was going to spending time at a Hot Spring. Especially considering the operative word in action here was 'we'. W e? The team? She hardly even went out to places like Hot Springs with her friends - scratch that, she didn't really have any friends-, but what would make Riko believe that she would go along?

"Please? It won't just be us. I invited some others!"

"Others? And the team is going..."

"Well yes, but they aren't mixed baths!"

So Riko believed that the way to soften Esashi up to an idea of going out to these springs with her, was to inform her that they would be attending with others, plus a team, and who knows what other people Riko also decided to invite that strayed away from the members of Seirin's basketball team that she had actually gotten at least somewhat used to being around after staying in the inns and attending the training camp with them? Didn't this coach know that that was part of the reason Esashi avoided her texts? Wait - no, she didn't avoid her texts, she was simply busy, that was all.

There was no way. Simply no way.

She would only be talking briefly to Kiyoshi about her issue then seeing herself out.

She would not be attending a Hot Spring.

A/N: She would be attending a Hot Spring.

I'm beginning to really like the way they interact! They've cooled off a lot. SO. I was GOING to write out the Kiridai game and have Esashi attend but I decided against it. I feel that she would listen to Kiyoshi, but seeing as the condition he's in now, I think it would make her a little more careful when assessing these things.

Q.Q also the poor girl doesn't know that Kiyoshi's actually an evil genius!

Also ALSO! I got something in the timeline a bit wrong, so there are events I left out. It's a set of events I confuse the order of a lot. I was a little distressed and thought about reworking the last chapter, but after some thought on it, I think it actually worked! There are a few things that will come soon based off of that information and it's going to be pretty fun. I'm actually planning to put a teensy bit of emphasis on the time Kagami spends in America too, so that's fun.

Everyone gather together and wish Esashi your collective luck for the Hot Spring, because I will be writing that in the next chapter and I already know it's going to be filled with ridiculousness.

Can't wait to see what you guys think! Thanks so much for reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting! I appreciate you all!