Hello, you wonderful readers! Today's chapter, as I said, is more MidoTaka based, though it gets a bit...bumpy...

Oh, jeez, I can already feel you all killing me...

In any case, please read on and enjoy!

Chapter 5

Ours

Midorima Shintarou awake the following Friday morning mildly unamused. He took extra precautions in ensuring that his luck would be the best it could be, after yesterday's fiasco. His eyebrow twitched in memory of the events: finding that Suzume girl prowling the locker room (worse still, the guys' locker room), playing an agonizing round of twenty questions to guess who she was (which Takao had gotten right by question 17), and transporting the both of them in the rickshaw after losing at their traditional coin toss (1) a humiliating number of times.

The relentless deriding of his pride at the expense of their laughter was a whole other matter entirely.

Deciding to skip breakfast despite his mother's protests, he headed out to the convenience store, hoping his lucky item for the day would be something purchasable there. He pulled up that morning's Oha-Asa announcement, hoping he was fortunate enough to not have his sign fall to the lowest rank for a second day in a row.

"The two unluckiest signs today are Virgos and Geminis; be especially careful if you run into each other! Maybe things will swing your way with your lucky items, a blue iris flower and a star-shaped hair clip!"

At that moment, Midorima could have believed that the chipper voice announcing the horoscope was a God-sent gift; he wasn't at the bottom of the pit!

"Good for you, Cancers, you pulled out of last place, but luck still isn't entirely in your favor. Maximize what luck you have in tenth place with today's lucky item, a hawk plush toy!"

Midorima slammed his phone shut with unnecessary force, wishing he could do the same to this deplorable jinx. His good feeling had vanished. Regardless of the fact that he had avoided the rickshaw sitting in front of his house and left early—ultimately avoiding having to meet one Takao Kazunari altogether—it seemed impossible to escape him completely. The stars mocked him. Nonetheless...

The bell to the door of the convenience store jingled as pleasantly as it ever had in the days prior.

"Good morning!" the store clerk greeted him. Midorima looked over curiously; until now, the store had been managed by the old man who owned it. This cashier was decidedly female as she exclaimed, "Oh, it's Daddy!"

Midorima wanted to thrash the Oha-Asa announcer lady for her inaccuracy on today of all days. Cancer's supposed tenth place was definitely the worst luck possible of all the signs. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. If he tried to see any good in this, it would be that things wouldn't get any more miserable than this.

He locked eyes with the girl leaning smugly on the counter, her green eyes an imitation of his with all of Takao's sly, mischievous gleam. But something about the way she rested her head on her propped up elbows boded ill, and Midorima decided to test how unfortunate he'll really be for the rest of the day.

"...hello, Suzume...-san (2)." She shot him an incredulous glare that challenged his choice of words, but opted for much harsher consequences.

She cupped a hand and yelled towards the back of the small store, "Mommy! Daddy's here!"

At that moment, Midorima was willing to sprint back home and lock himself up until Suzume returned to her rightful universe. However, his brain and body did not comply to his wishes, being addled with the hell he was experiencing so early in the morning at the whim of his own daughter. The shooting guard instead stood dumbly as his teammate surfaced, joining Suzume behind the counter for the show.

"Good morning, Daddy," Takao sung, completely enjoying the blush unfolding on Midorima's face. "Are you here to pick me up?"

"No," Midorima deadpanned. "I came here early with the intention of evading you, and alternatively I find you here with... with..."

"With our daughter?" the point guard offered. "Turns out our adorable little Suzume-chan got directions to Shuutoku yesterday from the old man, so she's watching shop today as a thank you. Which explains why we found her sleeping in our rickshaw when we got back from practice." His smirk grew bigger every time he used the words "our" and "we"; Midorima's face started to contrast his hair more and more with each mention.

The next few seconds passed in silence as Takao and Suzume waited for the bespectacled teen to respond or show some other reaction. "...I'll just stay home today," he announced. Takao frowned. That wasn't any fun.

"You know your mom won't let you stay home if you're not physically ill," he pointed out. "Just come to school, I promise I won't bother you... too much." Midorima shook his head, quietly trudging out the door without any reference to his lucky item. Suzume pouted, finding her father's reluctance to accept the situation a little hurtful.

"Fine," she added. "Stay home. Besides, if you're just down the road, I'll just come to cheer you up. Maybe I'll get to meet Grandma, while I'm at it." Takao watched as she adjusted her own glasses similarly to the way Midorima did, smiling to himself as he realized that as troublesome as she was, she was also calculating and desperate. What the cause of the latter was the hawk-eyed player didn't know, only aware that she was trying very hard to hide it.

He walked out from behind the counter, bag in hand, and slung an arm around Midorima's shoulders, ushering him outside. "Just listen to our daughter, Shin-chan. She's telling you to go, so let's go! We have a lot to talk about, after all." At that, the taller boy's rose-colored flush deepened—if that were even possible. Stealthily, Takao gave Suzume a wink and thumbs up, promising her wordlessly to do something about her father's hesitation about their circumstances.

He waved to her, calling, "We'll pick you up after school, Suzume-chan! ...hey, Shin-chan, say goodbye to our daughter! Don't be rude!"

"Er, we'll see you then... Suzume."

The automatic glass doors slid shut softly. The reality-jumper behind the counter couldn't help but feel a little relieved at her mother's efforts to help; it was still painful to talk, even after all that time. Putting on that cheerful show yesterday only made her feel worse.

When he felt they were well enough away from the convenience store, Takao prompted Midorima into conversation.

"Hey, Shin-chan, what's your problem?" he snapped, pushing away from the other boy. "Why are you having such a hard time dealing with Suzume-chan?"

Midorima pushed the glasses up his nose. "You mean, other than accepting the fact that she claims to be the product of my marriage to you? I'd hardly call that a hard time; rather, I'm having trouble understanding how you can believe her so readily." The shorter teen threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Shin-chan, you can't be serious! She looks just like you and me! She acts like you and me! Suzume-chan—"

"—could be lying, for all we know," the shooting guard interrupted. "It's easy enough to imitate appearances and behavior with a bit of observation."

Takao rolled his eyes. "You're being ridiculous, Shin-chan."

"I could say the same about you."

"What benefit would Suzume-chan get from lying about who she is? And you and I both saw the other two kids that came with her! You know as well as I do that Suzume-chan, Naoya, Kei, and all the others are here for a reason!"

The taller man shifted the shoulder strap of his bag, retorting with, "What proof do you have to support this?"

"She's wearing your glasses, for crying out loud! The same ones that you had when we were defeated by Seirin for the first time! But wait, you wouldn't know that because you were too busy freaking the hell out to notice! I've seen the bandages on the side of the frames marked with the exact date in your handwriting (2)! Why can't you get over yourself and trust Suzume-chan?"

"Because I can't simply believe that you and I..." God, it still seemed so wrong to even think about it, let alone say it out loud. "You and I..."

"You and I what?" Takao spat. "Got married, had sex, and out popped a baby? Yeah, Shin-chan, we did, even if it wasn't in this universe."

Midorima shook his head. "Sorry, Takao, but I can't take that as enough information to validate her story." The younger male turned away from him, lowering his eyes.

"I don't get you," he chuckled bitterly. "I thought I did, but I was wrong. Here I believed you were open minded, what with trusting your stupid Oha-Asa predictions every damn day, and you can't even trust your own daughter."

Midorima stared after Takao's figure, standing still, awaiting an answer. The latter snorted when he realized he wasn't getting one. "I'm going ahead, Midorima," he sneered. "Don't bother coming by the store later. I'll take care of Suzume-chan. Alone." Before the bespectacled teen could begin to formulate an argument, Takao had already bolted off ahead, not looking back.

At that moment, Midorima dared to doubt the accuracy of Oha-Asa's horoscope for the first time.

Against his expectations, Midorima still showed up in class later on, but Takao did his best to ignore the man who was supposedly his best friend. He didn't even do so much as glance in his general direction; he wanted to think about how he could help Suzume out instead. Since the shooting guard was so unwilling to offer his assistance, he'd do it by himself. Nearly all of his class time was spent planning out how to budget his allowance so they could buy Suzume's essentials and clothes, figure out how to explain her to his parents and let her stay without selling her out, wondering if you should enroll for the next school year (3)...

And other than that, he spent his passing periods and lunch finding places to hide where Midorima would never think to look. Maybe his luck was high on Oha-Asa's list, being that Ootsubo had passed by perchance in a hallway. Takao had been able to plead off after-school practice to go get Suzume and get to know her.

Not once did he catch the viridescent eyes that stared at him as often as they could.

Wanting to have Suzume safely by his side as safely as possible, Takao ran all the way to the convenience store, only to be surprised and widely panicked when he found she was gone.

Well, not gone, but simply not where he had left her. And he knew the old man wouldn't just let his store go unattended, so he sought the geezer out.

"Oh, Suzume-san?" he repeated. "Shintarou-kun came by not five minutes ago to collect her. He said to redirect you to his house if you checked in."

Takao hurriedly thanked the old man and charged down the path to Midorima's house. What the hell had happened while he turned Shin-chan's plan for today on its head and avoided him instead? He only hoped that his relationship with Suzume had improved, even if just a little bit.

He burst in the house—the Midorima family left their front door unlocked as it was Takao's custom to simply come and go as he felt—and found Midorima's little sister sitting on the couch, minding her own business. Her chestnut hair wasn't similar to his, but Yuriko's eyes were the same shade of guarded green.

"Riri," Takao addressed her, "where are—"

"Nii-san came home a little while ago with a pretty girl. They went upstairs," she replied in a bored tone. "Why? Are you jealous or something?" To hear that Midorima really did have their daughter showed that he was going to at least attempt accepting her as such. The point guard grinned brightly at her.

"Jealous? Not this time around."

Jumping the steps two at a time, Takao reached the door to Midorima's room and prepared to turn the handle, but surged backwards when it suddenly hurled open and someone toppled onto him. Judging by the weight, he guessed it was Midorima.

"Takao, I can say for certain that I accept Suzume as yours, at the very least," he shuddered. Midorima stood to straighten out, ignoring Takao completely. Huffing frustratedly, he got up himself and checked to see what exactly had made the shooting guard react in such a way. He found Suzume sitting at the desk, smiling to herself as she examined some papers in her grasp.

"Suzume-chan?" he called. "What's going on?"

Wordlessly, she pushed the papers at him and went back to her work on the desk, picking up a pencil and setting to her task. Takao glanced over the pictures. They were about Midorima and... was that him? He brought the paper closer, inspecting the pictures. Without a doubt, this was him and Midorima, but they were older. They were smiling, obviously happy, their faces close enough that they could kiss. They only thing really any different was the length of his hair and the fact that he had boobs. He quickly flipped through the other pictures: them at a formal dress party, them holding hands at the beach, them kissing at the altar... and one last picture of them in a hospital room, where Takao was lying on a bed, cradling a baby. Midorima sat right beside him, kissing his cheek, holding a toddler that had her short hair braided, her green eyes trained curiously at the bundle in her mother's arms.

At a second glance, Takao noticed that the pictures weren't pictures at all. They were drawings. Shocked, he turned to Suzume, inquiring, "...photographic memory?" She shook her head, motioning to a the rough outline, where the point guard could make out a faint scene of Suzume staring at what looked like a photo album. He could only guess that she had spent enough time staring at the pictures to remember what they looked like. Turning back to her current sketch, she left Takao to confront Midorima. He started by waving the drawings in the other's face.

"Do you see now, Shin-chan? Suzume-chan is your daughter just as much as she is mine. Sure, she's a meddlesome kid, but for her to be so determined not to give up despite her circumstances is her gift from you."

"...what do you mean by that?" Midorima asked, slightly confused. He was certain that her unyielding dedication to whatever obstacle she encountered was the doing of them both.

Takao waved it away. "You'll see, Shin-chan. Just not now."

"If you say so," the Miracle sighed with resignation. "I only hope that my parents will allow her being here. It'll be hard enough for them to do that without including that Suzume is... ours."

"And what do you mean by that, Shintarou?"

The two froze, not realizing that the green-haired teen's mother was behind them.

"By context, I take it you mean that this girl is your child with Kazunari-kun. Please explain."

Takao, in all his years, never thought he'd have to deal with in-laws he didn't yet have.

(1) the traditional coin toss: Every day, Midorima and Takao have a coin toss to see who will man the rickshaw, but up until this story, Midorima's always won the passenger's seat.

(2) Suzume...-san: Midorima's still not entirely comfortable with the fact that Suzume exists and therefore doesn't know how to address her, despite her being his daughter. So he adds an honorific because he's still a bit reluctant to accept her.

(3) Suzume joining the next school year: As I've explained in previous chapter notes, the Japanese school year starts in April. Since it's the Friday before their spring break, Takao wants to see if he can enroll Suzume during that time. He wants her to attend Shuutoku starting from his and Midorima's second year.

You guys are going to kill me. I can feel it! Not only is the chapter shorter, but it's almost late! (Well, since it's almost midnight where I am, meaning it's almost Sunday and not Saturday.

But I had trouble writing this... "X| Tell me what you think I could improve on, like getting them more in character. Or grammar.

/sighs
I'll get the review responses up within 24 hours, okay? It's just... the week before Finals is almost worse than the actual Finals.

LoveGonzo2: E-eh? Really? How come? /blushes Thanks for thinking I'm adorable! And this story is full of my headcanons, like Aomine being easily embarrassed when his kids are involved. And I updated... but prolly not what you had in mind, yeah? Please don't kill me... And is the MidoTaka satisfactory? I'll do my best to keep it up! Thanks!

hitomi65: Thank you! :3 I appreciate you taking your time to reply, even with a simple message!

DivineCluster: Oh, the angst was good? /sigh of relief I'm actually better at writing angst, but I didn't want it to be too heavy... yet. And dude(tte), you ship all the ships I sail! /high five Thank you!

MikaE123: I'm sorry! I left such a huge cliffhanger on AoKise Day! But you'll find that I do that sort of thing often... whoops. And I'm so glad that my fic had that effect on you! I often flail when reading other people's stories, so it feels good that I can be counted among them. :3 And I try to post every Tuesday and Saturday, but I jump around in terms of chapter focus so we can get everyone in. (And as for AoKise and other ship days, they're determined by the players' jersey numbers. May seventh, 5/7, is Aomine's number and Kise's number. Other examples: October eleventh, 10/11, KagaKuro Day; April twelfth, 4/12, AkaFuri Day, etc.)

Guest (guest): I did?! Whoops! (But yes, I do enjoy it. /evil laugh) But I know the feeling, since I just recently finished a book that killed me with the last line (which was "end of book one"). I will have a nice day, and thank you!

Me-likey-Stowie (guest): Okay, I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're the same person as the anon guest...? But happy (belated) AoKise Day all the same!

Crazy anko (guest): Aw, thanks! It drove me crazy when other authors had an unstable sched (and I admit to being guilty of the same thing in the past), so I try to keep it constant. And where I live, it was still Tuesday when I posted. Sorry if I didn't make the deadline for your area! And as for the Ahomine trait... well, we haven't really gotten to meeting the kids and undermining their full personalities, plus there's Mai. So there's still a chance something else could pop up besides Kise's spazziness. XD And yes, HyuuRiko's baby, though it'll probably be something none of you ever saw coming. Hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu! Kayoubi no chaputaa wo matte kudasai!

Little Strawberry RiRin Chan: Heh! I do that sometimes, too, then I have a little freak out over what just happened. OH GOD PLEASE DON'T KILL ME. I NEED TO KEEP WRITING. AND MY FRIEND BECKY ALMOST THROTTLED ME IN PRE-CAL. But glad I could make your day! Woot, HyuuRiko! And there will be more KagaKuro in the near future, so please look forward to it! I will do my best to continue this quest of epicness!

Ren-a-gayed: First, let me just say that I love your penname. XD And yes, I will update as often as I can! I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the parallel concept! (Originally, I came up with it being that way because I personally can't grasp MPreg "X|) Thank you!

jenrose257: LOL HI BECKY. And yes. You are super predictable, so I knew you wanted to yell at me. HA. And yes, yes, update, yeesh... You are so demanding, woman. XD See you in class!

Fantita: Glad that you like Aomine's parents! I wanted to make them different from what maybe what peope would expect, or at least have them turn out a little normal. And yes, Papa Aomine's got a huge role in this, so... (/ambiguous laugh) And we shall gather all the families together in time, don't worry~ Midorima will have more time to get used to Suzume, if Takao's got anything to do with it.

Reimei-Jennoir: You like the AoKise drama I'm drumming up? That's great! I figured I needed to make the backstories for these boys different from what the readers anticipate, so BOOM. Immediate angst! And I do love writing out how everyone interacts with each other once the ball gets rolling on their story. Please continue to enjoy the story, and thank you!

Matthew (guest) (2): XD Oh, gosh beans, I'm sorry if this confused the heck out of you. I wrote it according to what I know as far as the manga is updated, which is a lot farther ahead than the anime, so apologies for the confusion you're facing. But yes, I love making the atmosphere between these boys awkward. It's interesting to see how they react~ Thank you!

HeArTzCrImSoNaNdGoLd: GOOD GOSHBEANS, THANK YOU! I'm glad it's unique and that you enjoy it so much! And Sei-san? (/ambiguous evi laugh) I won't say anything~ But you'll see. XD