A/N: The pacing might feel a little slow at the start. I wanted to dissect more of their emotions at this point for now, as it feels disrespectful to glaze over them just to get to the more exciting parts of the plot. This fic focuses more on trauma and recovery of a group of teenage boys, rather than the underlying suspense and drama.

Still, I've already written up to Chapter 6 at this point, and I assure you that things would be picking up pretty soon.

I'll probably be posting one chapter every day or every 2 days until I run out. I've drafted an outline for this story already but I still don't know how many chapters it'll last.

CHAPTER 4

Kagami exhaled, long and low, when the fresh fabric settled over his skin. It smelled faintly of detergent and softener, probably recently laundered. He cracked his neck, and stretched his arms, trying to force his tight muscles to loosen. Coach Riko had frightening accuracy as usual - Aomine's clothes fit like a glove.

Bending over, Kagami reached over to the shoes he had discarded on the tiled floor, raising them to eye level as he inspected them more thoroughly. The top part didn't look as bad as it did under poor lighting. He flipped them over and nearly dropped them in disgust. The soles were thickly caked in a mixture of grime and dried blood, invading even the smaller, deeper grooves along its surface. He felt a pang of guilt at the waste of such a good pair of basketball shoes. That damn Aomine had decent taste, and the thought of having to discard such a piece… it made Kagami physically ache.

Nevertheless, Kagami decided to distract himself with the idle task cleaning it up as much as he could, and he stood by the bathroom sink, sock-covered feet on the cold tiled floor, going through one groove after another. At the very least, should he accidentally wander over a damp floor, he wouldn't be leaving bloody footprints in his wake.

Once satisfied with his work, Kagami slipped the shoes back on. They felt a little damp, with some water accidentally spilling into the inner lining, but Kagami elected to ignore the sensation. But upon finishing, a large yawn bulldozed its way out of Kagami's mouth, and as it left his body, so did most of Kagami's reserved energy.

The full brunt of the whole day's exhaustion finally caught up with him, further helped along by how comfortable Aomine's clothes were. He found it a little weird, the softness of the fabric, which made Kagami wonder if Aomine had given him his pajamas by mistake. He made a mental note to embarrass the darker boy about them later.

Later. Once they were sure that Kuroko was fine.

Kagami's hands paused mid-air as his thoughts drifted back to his blue-haired friend, and he looked over at the crumpled pile of bloodstained clothes on the floor.

"He'll be fine," Kagami had to repeat to himself out loud, glaring resolutely at his own reflection, daring it to say otherwise. Kuroko will be just fine.

The sound of the door opening startled him, and Kagami's head snapped towards the source of the sound.

"Oh, sorry Kagami, didn't mean to scare you."

Izuki stood by the bathroom entrance, a sheepish look on his face.

"It's alright," Kagami assured him, deliberately averting his eyes from the red puffiness prominent by the corner of his senpai's eyes. "I'm pretty much done here anyway. Go ahead." He picked up his soiled clothes from the floor, hastily pushed them into a tight bundle, and stepped towards the door. Just as he passed Izuki, however, Kagami felt compelled to place his free hand on his senpai's shoulder. "Thanks for being here, senpai."

Izuki threw him a brave thumbs up, a shaky smile stretching on his face. It was nowhere as reassuring as the older boy intended, but Kagami appreciated the effort. Smiling to comfort someone under such ridiculous circumstances was almost herculean. "That's what your senpai's for. We're always here for our kouhai."

We're supposed to look after our kouhai.

The words were left unsaid, but Kagami heard them anyway. After leaving, he stood against the door for a moment, listening to muffled sobs from the other side.

That's right, Kagami realized. He wasn't the only one suffering right now. His team had been right there with him. He'd felt alone and terribly scared the entire time, fighting through the despair as he pressed on Kuroko's wound, as he watched him take one weak breath after another, with his chest pausing every time it settled after each breath, as if it were unsure if it had the strength to rise up again. All that time, while he was in the ambulance, everyone else in the Seirin High basketball team had been pulling for him, hoping, praying, and fearing the worst.

They had gone from a hundred to zero in sixty seconds, and the Winter Cup trophy had been hastily stowed into one of their bags, forgotten, or perhaps purposely hidden away. Under the circumstances… that would've been too much for any of them to take. The gold medals that they each proudly wore at dinner were also nowhere to be seen.

He wasn't alone in his misery. The immense hurt he felt, the soul-deep fear that rattled him as he faced the possibility of losing a dear friend… all of this was shared by his teammates in varying degrees. He had unconsciously slipped back to his bad habit of trying to overcome this on his own, when in fact, just as it had been on the basketball court, this was a challenge they needed to face as a team.

Kagami felt a little proud of this personal epiphany. See, Kuroko? He wanted to brag. He'd gone a long way from the first time they met - that fateful night when Kuroko had declared to him that he would make him the best player in Japan.

It hasn't even been a year since Kuroko slipped in his life. It was too soon for him to leave it.

As Kagami re-entered the waiting area, his eyes cast out to the rest of his teammates in the room. They all looked so worn out, which was expected. Several of them, his fellow first years, had stretched out on some of the empty benches, towels over their faces while they used their bags as makeshift pillows. Despite not seeing their faces, Kagami could sense the unease in the air, and he was certain that no matter how physically drained they all were, none of them would truly get any sleep that night.

His senpai didn't look any better. They remained seated but were nevertheless just as exhausted as their kouhai, with most of them shifting restlessly, trying (and failing) to find comfortable positions on the unforgiving plastic chairs. However, Hyuuga kept one eye on the trauma OR doors where Kuroko had disappeared into, ready to jump at any news about his kouhai. Their coach, on the other hand, was lying on one of the benches, using her father's lap as a pillow, with the old man's hand protectively on her shoulder while dozing in and out of sleep. It was two o'clock in the morning, after all.

"Oi."

Kagami almost hit the ceiling by how high he jumped. Behind him, Aomine yawned, unimpressed. "Stop blocking the corridor, idiot." Kagami caught the darker boy glancing sharply at the soiled clothes in his arms before quickly averting his gaze. He elbowed Kagami out of his way, and made his way back to where Momoi was lying.

Kagami walked behind him carefully, unsure of how to interact with the guy outside of the court. Kuroko had shared stories about his friendship with Aomine a couple of times, but Kagami just couldn't understand the appeal, not just for Aomine but for all of the Generation of Miracles. They were either too weird or annoying for him to like any of them.

Aomine abruptly stopped and Kagami watched him stare down at the sleeping chick, a clearly disgruntled look on his face. She was stretched over the entirety of the bench, leaving no room for Aomine. Kagami wondered how he was going to deal with this situation, and to his surprise, the darker boy turned and walked towards where the Kiyosah was previously seated, claiming his senpai's spot unceremoniously. When Kagami reached him, Aomine glared plainly, as if daring Kagami to try kicking him off the bench. But the redhead just sighed, too tired to get into a pointless fight, and took a seat beside him.

Neither of them said anything else to each other, and Kagami didn't dare point out the fresh rim of redness around the darker boy's eyes.

Kagami didn't know exactly when he dozed off, but it was a light, and troubled sleep, filled with a sensation of faces, occasional movements, and muffled, incomprehensible voices in the background. Kagami was aware, even asleep, that something was terribly wrong. There were no dreams, but Kuroko loomed at the back of his mind, like an itch he couldn't scratch.

He woke up to Aomine abruptly standing, almost knocking Kagami off his seat. He sensed a shift in the mood, and followed Aomine's gaze to a man in blue scrubs approaching them, with a nurse trailing closely behind him.

"Are you with Kuroko Tetsuya-kun?"

Those that hadn't already sensed his approach stood up immediately, and the others that attempted sleep quickly shook off their fatigue and rose to their feet as well. As they huddled closer to the doctor, Kagami glanced at the wall clock and noted the time - 6:15 AM. Just past 6 hours since Kuroko entered surgery.

Hyuuga broke away from the crowd and stepped forward, along with Coach Riko and her father. "How's Kuroko-kun?" Riko ventured, her brows furrowed, mouth pursed, and eyes gleaming with anxiety. She kept a hand clutched over her chest as some kind of futile gesture to ward off any bad news.

The doctor looked at them solemnly and sympathetically, perhaps finally realizing that most of them were just a bunch of teenage kids desperate for any kind of clarity to the absurd situation they faced together. He cleared his throat and paused to consider his words before finally speaking. "We've managed to repair the damage to his internal organs in time. He was stabbed only once, but it had unfortunately hit several important arteries, which was why he was losing blood so quickly. If it hadn't been for your first aid at the scene, putting enough pressure on the wound to control the bleeding, he wouldn't have made it to the hospital."

All eyes turned to Kagami, and he stared down at his own hands in disbelief. The doctor seemed to have caught the movement, and when he spoke again, he was addressing Kagami directly. "You saved his life, boy. Well done."

Kagami felt numb at that statement. It sounded like he was being credited for some heroic dead, but it didn't feel like that at all. There was no glory or satisfaction derived from that unexpected praise. There was nothing admirable about digging his hand over a hole in his best friend's stomach, feeling his pulse ebb and fade beneath his very palms, threatening to completely slip away. It had been a Hail Mary in the midst of what seemed like a hopeless situation, and it didn't even work. The blood didn't stop. It was pure luck that Kuroko didn't die before he got to the hospital. Kagami had nothing to do with that. He had been absolutely useless so far, and he felt angry at this undeserved adulation.

His whole body tensed, and Kagami felt the urge to protest, to set the record straight, but a hand suddenly slapped down on his shoulder. The hand was firm and demanding in a understated way, but it was enough to ground Kagami and it kept the words that bubbled in his chest from erupting. Kagami turned to the source of the hand and found Aomine staring at him intently.

"While Kuroko-kun's life is not in imminent danger anymore, he's not out of the woods yet," the doctor continued, oblivious of Kagami's near-outburst. "Despite fixing the damage, he still lost a lot of blood. We've transfused as much as we can, but the consequences of such significant blood loss can manifest even days after the surgery. His bowel was also perforated by the attack, so the chances of infection in the next 24 hours are high. We'll be moving him to the Intensive Care ward to keep a closer eye on him, at least for the next 48 hours."

"How about his head, sir?" Kiyoshi asked, stepping forward. "He was bleeding badly from there as well."

The doctor nodded. "He seems to have suffered a moderate concussion from a blow to the head by a blunt object. We did a scan during the surgery and fortunately found no bleeding inside his brain, or any damage to neck and spine. There was a small hairline fracture on his right forehead, but that would heal on its own. However, a moderate concussion can manifest delayed effects such as memory loss, difficulty concentrating, coordination problems, and even personality changes."

"Personality changes?" Aomine finally spoke. "What do you mean? He'll go crazy?"

"No, not exactly. We don't have a way of gauging the severity without the symptoms already manifesting. But in previous cases of moderate concussion, the patient can have mild to moderate shifts in their mood, and abrupt changes in behavior, such as a normally happy person becoming sullen and withdrawn, or a usually timid person becoming manic and reckless. Some cases manifested with signs of depression, anxiety and paranoia, and even mild hallucinations. Fortunately, with the right therapy, these changes are usually temporary."

A stiff silence had descended over the group.

The doctor paused and looked over them sympathetically. "We'll do everything we can to help him recover as quickly as possible. Your friend is strong, and I'm sure he could sense how worried you all are for him."

Some of them sniffed and turned around to hide their faces.

"Can we see him now?" Kagami asked, hopeful.

The doctor paused, considering his request. "You can check on him through the observation window to reassure yourselves, but you can't enter his room yet or wake him up. At this point, he's only been a few minutes out of surgery and his immune system is weak. We can't risk him catching an infection from any of you. This is the best we could offer you at the moment."

"We'll take what we can get," Hyuuga replied and bowed at the doctor. "Thank you, sir."

The doctor bowed back and then turned to Coach Riko and his father. "When Kuroko-kun's parents arrive, please direct them to the Intensive Care ward as soon as possible." They nodded at him in affirmation and the doctor took his leave.

Hyuuga inhaled deeply and squared his shoulders before turning to the rest of the team. "Alright, after seeing Kuroko, I need everyone to go home."

He was immediately met with a flurry of protests, but Hyuuga cut them all off with an icy glare. "I know," he hissed through gritted teeth. "I get it, okay? But there's nothing else we could do here at the moment, and we'll just get in everyone's way if we insist on staying in our current state. So we go home, take a bath, eat something, and get some proper rest. Then we come back. We'll come back for Kuroko."

The Seirin team looked at each other for a moment, drawing some unexpected strength from their captain's firm words. The weariness dissipated, and every face became set and determined. Many had their fists clenched or arms crossed, holding tight. Even those whose faces usually glowed with timid kindness now burned with a firm resolve.

Hyuuga nodded approvingly at their expressions, and then looked over at Riko. "Coach and I will set up a schedule for visits so that we don't crowd the ward during the day. We'll get more details on the protocol for the future visits from the doctor in the ward when we get there."

Kagami grunted in affirmation, and so did other members of the team. Even Momoi looked satisfied with the plan. On the other hand, Aomine didn't seem pleased with the idea of something dictating his visiting time, but upon meeting Hyuuga's steely gaze, he huffed in consent as well, albeit grudgingly.

The nurse who had accompanied the doctor was patiently waiting for him to finish. She smiled kindly at them and gestured to a corridor. "This way, please."

Aomine had wished to see Tetsu so badly, but as he stood there behind the thick glass, watching the weak rise and fall of Kuroko's chest, he fought back a compulsion to look away.

His skin was ghastly white, it wasn't even pale anymore, and if it hadn't been for the steady movement of his chest, Kuroko looked as dead as a fresh corpse in the morgue. His eyes, though closed, looked sunken, and he appeared to be thinner, if that was even possible. His face was contorted into a grimace, and even asleep, Aomine could tell that Kuroko was in pain. A thick bandage was wrapped around his head, and there were tubes going in and out of his mouth and body, connecting to various bags hanging overhead, or to the numerous machines surrounding his bed.

It was all so alien and frightening.

Kagami stood beside him, his red fringe casting a shadow over half his face. Aomine averted his eyes. He didn't know what the redhead was thinking, and he decided that he didn't want to know.

Everything was painful enough, as it is.

On his other side, Momoi had leaned on the glass, weeping continuously. Riko had placed an arm over her shoulder, and she was crying quiet tears of her own. Behind them, the rest of Seirin's team stood, and the sound of muffled sobs echoed throughout the ward.

After several minutes, Hyuuga cleared his throat. "We need to go now," he announced, voice still a bit nasal as he struggled to clear his sinuses.

Riko's dad approached them, having taken the earlier opportunity to speak with one of the attending doctors on duty that night. "The hospital has already informed the police station about Kuroko's condition. They're sending over several policemen to post as guards just in case," the old man hesitated, then swallowed thickly. "Just in case whoever did this tried again."

A dark look passed over all of the Seirin players, and even Momoi looked the most furious that Aomine had ever seen her.

"C'mon," Hyuuga snapped, though Aomine could see just how much he was holding back. The sinews of the captain's neck muscles were taut with tension, and his hands wrung the strap of his bag with a morbid determination, and Aomine could almost imagine those hands around the attacker's neck. His eyes burned with a fury that Aomine had never seen in a person before, and the Touou ace would have stepped back but he was already pressed against the observation window - there was nowhere for him to go. Beyond Hyuuga, the Seirin High team radiated with the same seething rage, and Aomine averted his gaze; his eyes stung the way it did after staring at a roaring furnace for too long.

"I know what you're all thinking, but don't back out on our earlier agreement now," Hyuuga started. "Now that we're aware of this possibility, this threat hanging over our teammate's life, it is even more imperative for us to go back to our homes and recover our strength as quickly as possible. Earlier today, we were just a bunch of kids playing ball, and against all odds our two-year old team beat schools with so much more history, resources, and genius talent than we do. We overcame strong, resilient, and even despicable opponents on our way to the top, toppling down one miracle after another." He paused and took something out of his pocket. Aomine winced, eyes catching the sharp golden ray of light that bounced off the item Hyuuga held up for all of them to see. It was his Winter Cup medal.

"I know it feels unfair for our celebration to get cut off so quickly, for that happiness to sour merely hours after we finally achieved it. We might not want to look at this medal because it reminds us of what we had just lost. But that's absurd. This medal is not just a token from winning a game."

He looked each member in the eye, and spoke with such commanding certainty that even Aomine felt compelled to listen. "This is a symbol of our strength, of the collective effort and sacrifice we gave in order to get to where we are now. It's a symbol of all the hours we toiled in the sand and up mountains, of all the ache and sweat and tears we shed together. None of that was lost tonight. None of it ever will. What we gained these past few months can never be taken back."

"But right now, most of us are at our limit, and in this state, we can't draw out our full strength. And so we rest. And eat. And sleep. And I promise all of you this: once we get back to 100% of our strength, we will use that power to protect Kuroko, to protect each other, so that if the bastard who did this to Kuroko tries to hurt him or anyone in our team again, we will crush him completely and mercilessly with our collective might. Together."

What followed was an awed silence from everyone present, and even some nurses who overheard just stared at Hyuuga in speechless astonishment.

Perhaps feeling awkward from all the stares he received, Hyuuga cleared his throat. "Any objections?"

"Aww, that was a cool speech, captain!" Kiyoshi commented, smacking Hyuuga's back goodnaturedly. It appeared to be stronger than he intended, and the bespectacled man buckled under his hand.

"Yeah, you can be really inspiring when you put your few brain cells to work," Riko grinned, elbowing Hyuuga roughly as well, eliciting a pained groan from the boy.

This exchange lifted the atmosphere and granted a moment of levity for the team. Many of them began to smile and others even managed to hide a laugh. Kagami still wasn't smiling, but even he was visibly relaxed.

Watching them all, Aomine felt pleased (and maybe a little jealous). Kuroko had found himself a good captain, and a pretty good team.

As the group turned back towards the entrance of the ward, Kiyoshi cocked his head at Aomine and Momoi, looking at them expectantly. "I'll stay and wait for Kuroko's parents to arrive too," Aomine declared, shoving hands into his pockets.

"What, no way!" Kagami protested. "If you're staying, then I'm definitely staying."

"You're way more exhausted than I am, idiot!"

"Am not!"

"Kagami-kun," Riko stepped forward, a dangerous expression on her face. "Just go home for now, okay? We'll put you in the first time-slot visit, I promise you."

Kagami hesitated, but under the crushing weight of his coach's glare, and the fact that her father was looming threateningly behind her, Kagami had no other choice but to quickly comply. Aomine smirked, though Momoi easily elbowed him in the stomach as a not-so-subtle warning to stop provoking Kagami further.

"Since that's settled, we'll be on our way," Kiyoshi prompted, and the team gave one last glance at their precious teammate on the other side of the glass before walking soberly out the doors. Kagami tried to loiter, but Hyuuga had grabbed him by the collar and dragged him along with them. Soon, the only people left in the ward were Aomine, Momoi, Riko, and her father.

"You should go home too," Aomine told Momoi after catching her unsuccessfully trying to hide a yawn.

"No!" Momoi pouted petulantly at him, stomping her foot like some brat about to throw a tantrum. Aomine rolled his eyes. "You're tired, Momoi. And you're still in your pajamas by the way. Do you really want Tetsu's parents to see you in that state?"

That did the trick. Momoi squeaked in shock, hands flying to her hair as she frantically tried to tame it back to its regular state. "I-I, um, I'll just go to the bathroom real quick!" she cried, looking incredibly flustered. "Stupid Dai-chan!" she added, with a corresponding kick at Aomine's shin.

Aomine yelped in pain. That girl was a nutcase.

"Aomine-kun? Is that you?"

Aomine quickly turned around at the sound of his name being spoken by a familiar voice. He came to face an old man, probably in his early forties, with light brown hair and eyes as blue and clear as the morning sky. Aomine knew those eyes.

The man gave him a small but gentle smile and Aomine's heart clenched. He knew that smile as well.

"Sousuke ojii-san?" Aomine tested, and the smile on the other man's face widened. Beside him was a woman of middle age, long, light blue hair, and a beautiful face that looked so much like her son. "It's been a while, Aomine-kun. It's good to see you again," she greeted him, her voice timid and soft, another stark similarity to the boy that was lying at the other side of the glass. She reached out towards him, and by force of habit, Aomine responded, letting himself be caught in her kind embrace. "Thank you for being here," she whispered into his ear. Against his wishes, Aomine felt the stinging in his eyes return, and he buried his face onto the woman's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Haruka obaa-san," he muttered in between sobs. The woman shushed him gently. "This is not your fault, Aomine-kun. None of it is. We're relieved to see you here. This means you and Tetsuya are friends again, right?"

Aomine nodded in her grasp, and Haruka's hold on him tightened. "Finally. Thank you." Aomine felt a wetness on the side of his neck, and realized that Haruka was also crying. "Tetsuya missed you so much, you know? Now you're here again, and that matters a lot. So thank you, Aomine-kun."

She pushed at him lightly, and Aomine untangled himself from her hold. Sousuke stepped in and placed a hand on her shoulder, letting her lean on him as she wiped away her tears. They both turned to look through the glass window, and Aomine found himself turning away again. He didn't want to see their expressions.

These were two of the kindest, humblest, most loving people in the world, and their son being the epitome of all of their best qualities. This family didn't deserve this at all.

Aomine wanted to kill the bastard who did this to them.

A/N: I am thoroughly convinced that Aomine and Kuroko were close enough during middle school to warrant sleepovers and multiple opportunities on Aomine's part to get to know Kuroko's parents. I can't get the image of the two of them huddled together on a futon while watching a horror movie out of my head.

Once again, reviews are always appreciated!