Filler chapter because I'm lame but it got something done. I moved time ahead, got some of the other characters introduced and got a starting point for the next chapter. So enjoy this and I was letting you all know that I am still working on this story. I want to say thank you to everyone who left reviews/comments I really appreciate the support. This chapter is safe for work, but the next chapter won't be and hopefully the next chapter will be longer and get more of the story out. So read and enjoy and leave your thoughts below. See ya at the bottom.

DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN KnB only this story which is for non-profit.

The rest of the day going to be utter hell. I had that feeling. I still had university to attend to. I scowled and went to get dressed but not before popping a few pain pills into my mouth, knowing that the pain would probably come back. I pulled on whatever clean cloths I still had in my closet. Which turned out to be a band t-shirt and to my utter horror… skinny jeans.

Why the fuck do I own a pair?

I grimaced, but with one look at the clock I knew that I didn't have the time to find and wash another pair of pants. I tugged the shirt on and did an odd hop, twerk, jerk dance to pull on my pants.

I decided against breakfast, I really didn't want to be late.

The walk to the bus stop was going smoothly, that was until my ass started to hurt again. I winced, but continued walking, it was only a little further away, I started to limp finding that eased the pain a little.

However the limping slowed my pace, and I almost missed the bus and had to run to catch it before the doors shut. That sucked terribly. Skinny jeans really aren't comfortable to run in. Also the run had caused my ass to hurt even more. The bus ride wasn't much better, the jarring that occurred caused my lower back pain to hurt with a vengeance. I tried my hardest not to show my discomfort.

Thankfully when I arrived on campus I didn't run into any familiar faces, and I got to class on time. The lecture wasn't terribly important so I spent my time in that class contemplating my current situation.

It wouldn't be totally unreasonable for me to contact Kise would it? I mean I have the right to know where we stand.

But do I really want to know that answer?

I huffed, and the girl next to me shushed me. I just flicked her off. She made an odd hrmphing sound and turned back to the lecture.

The reasonable part of my brain was telling me that I should text Kise and tell him that last night was a mistake.

The other part of my brain, the part still in love with Kise despite his rejection, was telling me that I should ask him if he wanted to go on a date with me.

I scowled when the bell rang. I wasn't anywhere closer to figuring out what I was supposed to do about this situation. But both parts of my brain were in agreement about the fact that I needed to contact Kise.

My next two classes provided no time for me to think through my predicament, as they were both labs that day.

Eventually my final class of the day was finished and I went to a late lunch at the diner on campus. It wasn't busy thankfully and I was served rather quickly. I ate my teriyaki burger in relative peace.

Until…

"Hello Aomine-kun."

"GAH!" I shrieked and inhaled the bite of burger I was chewing on.

Tetsu waited paitently as I struggled to find my breath again.

"What the hell Tetsu?"

The former phantom sixth man just arched an eyebrow and sipped on his milkshake. "I've been here for awhile, you just never noticed."

"Announce your presence when you sit down!" I yelled at him and earned a couple of annoyed looks from other patrons.

He just continued to sip on his milkshake.

"What are you even doing? Don't you have class with Bakagami?"

"The class was cancelled and Kagami-kun wanted to get some extra practice time in." He replied.

I exhaled, Tetsu was still an enigma even after knowing him for almost a decade.

"Also Momoi-san asked me to make sure you weren't going to skip practice today."

Fuck.

"That's today isn't it?" I mumbled.

Tetsu for his part arched an eyebrow. "You forgot?"

Shit, now he's going to figure out something happened.

"Aomine-kun is everything alright?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow. "You never forget a practice even if you don't go."

"Yeah everything's fine. I'm just having one of those days." I replied

Tetsu didn't looked like he believed me, even if his face didn't change. "Aomine-kun, don't you know how many years I've known you?" Tetsu paused to sip his milkshake. "A long time and for nearly three years of that time I was your shadow, I think I would know you fairly well by now."

"What're you saying? You're usually so blunt." I grunted waving a fry around.

A near-sigh the Tetsu spoke again. "I'm saying that you don't seem like yourself. So did something happen?"

Tetsu was probably one of my closest friends, Satsuki took the number one spot, and I knew that the shadow would probably have some advice onto what I should do. I chewed on my cheek wondering if I should go ahead and tell him about Kise's sudden appearance. He knew about what happened that day, in fact he had tried to comfort me he spent several hours just sitting by me while I broke down. It's not like I didn't trust him. I should hint at least. I shook my head. It wasn't going to happen again.

Yeah it's no big deal. It was a onetime thing. I declared. I could handle this. I'd probably cause more worry than it's really worth, I'm just overreacting.

Apparently I was too silent for Tetsu, as the shadow broke the silence. "Aomine-kun, do your 'one of these days' always have you limping around?"

"Huh?" Shit! He noticed that?

"You were limping when you entered the building were you not?"

"You were there since then?"

He nods, and I sigh. How does Kagami even deal with this guy?

I waved my hand coming up with a quick lie. "I just slept wrong and ended up cramping something and then trying to work it out I may have stretched it too far. It's nothing."

"Is that so?" Tetsu asked chewing on the straw of his shake. "Still, you should take more care of yourself. You still play basketball and if you want to stay a starter then you shouldn't get hurt. Otherwise Kagami-kun's going to stop playing small forward and become the power forward."

"Not like you're secretly hoping from that." I mumble.

"I'm not, as long as he gets to play I'm happy."

"How cliché." I say at the same time as another voice says. "Oi, Kuroko!"

Kuroko looks up calmly, and my face quickly forms a glare to aim at the newcomer.

"Hello Kagami-kun."

"Het Kuroko, thought you'd be here. Didn't expect Aho over there, however."

"We met by coincidence."

Kagami looks straight at me serious. "You sat down at the table he happened to meet right?"

"So noble of you to know your boyfriends habits." I retort.

There's a vein that throbs on Kagami's head it always comes out the moment we start talking to each other. It's actually rather funny, because then I know that he's in the mood that I can easily provoke him in. But it doesn't become prominent, and I frown.

"Kuroko do you need another shake?" He ignored me! What the hell?

I stare in shock and blink a few times. What? Did I enter that crappy earlier American TV show called the twilight zone or something? This day's been too weird for me not to be. First it's Kise breaking our two year silence and having sex with me, after he rejected me, and then Kagami's ignoring my attempts to start our usual arguments.

"-ne-kun."

"Aomine-kun!"

I jumped back startled by the volume in Tetsu's voice even though it was only a little louder than a normal talking level I knew that I had started to irritate him. He stared at me sipping his shake, which must've been the new one that Kagami bought him considering that there was an empty cup on the tray where Kagami was devouring a mountain of burgers.

Even I can't eat that much, can Murasakibara even eat that much? I shake myself knowing that Tetsu was still waiting for a reply. "Yeah?"

"You're spacing out, it's very unlike you outside of a game." Tetsu replies calmly all of his earlier irritation gone.

"I'm tired."

Kagami swallowed then spoke. "Playing video games all night or reading gravure magazines?"

Perhaps it was because Kagami ignored me earlier or because I didn't think those were fair accusations, and even though I did that back in high school I grew up. So for some reason I found myself lying to them. "No, I was working on a paper."

Kagami actually choked and Tetsu pat his back while giving me this blank look that I knew was surprise.

"You were working one something?" Kagami gasped out.

"Yes, I actually do my work now."

"Right." Kagami said slowly, and Tetsu was still staring at me with this blank look and I felt like he was trying to decipher my soul.

"Aomine-kun if you're hurt and tired, then you shouldn't go to practice, you could make your condition worse and there's a tournament next week that we can't afford to not have you with us, its Midorima's school after all.

Could he tell that I didn't' want to go to practice? Or that I wanted some time to myself. I pretended to mull it over. "Yeah, might as well."

Kagami and Tetsu share this look. I knew that there was an entire conversation happening between them even though they only held each other's eyes for a few seconds. I found myself surprisingly envious, I wanted someone I could do that with. I ran a hand through my hair, I don't know why I want that… I just do. I did feel bad for being envious of my friend's happiness, I was grateful to Kagami and Tetsu was well… Tetsu so I wanted him to be happy.

I stood up quickly, wincing as I did so. I tried to leave with an air of calm around me. I figured that running into my former shadow would've been a bad thing, though I fully blame Kise for this because he's the one that had to upset the balance in my life I worked so hard to restore.

The bus ride was smoother on the way home. I don't know if it was because of the streets, the driver, or I was just in less pain. It was a relief. Since it was early afternoon there was hardly anyone on the bus so I got to start my solitude before I even got home.

It was a rather uneventful ride however and I made it home within decent times. It was that odd part of the day when no one was entering or leaving the apartment complex so I was able to get to my apartment without any of the overly talkative elderly neighbors stopping me.

I stopped before I turned the key. Kise probably had my house phone number, the damn blond was back in my head fuck. The hopeful part of me wondered if he didn't call the house phone in consideration to me having classes. He knew that I was at university because I told him right before I confessed.

I slapped my palm to my face and dragged it down, I was not going there with my memories. I turned the key and pushed open the door. My usual coming home routine vacated with my want to listen to the answer machine. When there was nothing but a few missed messages, one about my doctor's appointment in a week and the other from my mom asking me to call her, I sighed and emptied my pockets forgoing placing them in their usual locations.

There was a shower calling my name, and I answered it happily. There was something mystical about a shower like it's not only cleansing physically but it was also mentally cleansing. My stress about this whole Kise thing was being washed down the drain, I figured that this wouldn't be the last time that I was going to wallow in my regret over last night but it was an injury that was freshly made.

I heard the phone ring and I debated on getting out of the shower. I decided that it wasn't worth it, getting soap and a water all over the house. Though wondering who would call me at this hour was a mystery and caused me to speed up my shower. Everyone I knew was either working or in class at this time. Well, there was one person who I knew but didn't have any idea of their schedule. I refused to get my hopes up.

Leaving the shower I made sure that I took a long time to dry off and then slowly walked to the phone, why I still had a land line was a mystery when everyone I knew had my cell number. I hit the play button wondering who it would be, and if Kise was actually going to be the one on the other line.

Instead it was Satsuki yelling at me for not telling her that I was sick and she had to get the information second hand. I ran a hand through my hair. I'd deal with her tomorrow, I sat on the couch and turned on some lame TV show.

I had hopped Kise would've called today so that we can talk about last night to see where we stand. I growled I had been fine, I hadn't really thought about Kise other than the times that I could've gotten into a relationship I was over than pathetic whining and lusting over him stage a long time ago. Then he had to come back into my life and make me remember him.

I went six weeks without him contacting me, and a week after that first night I had come to the conclusion that I wasn't going to see him again and there was no chance for us to talk about things. I was back on my way to getting over him.

Then on a Tuesday, just after I finished cleaning up my table after dinner, there was a knock on the door and when I answered it Kise was standing there. It was almost identical to the first time, only this time Kise wasn't crying and he had this strangely determined look in his eye.

"Kise."

"Aominecchi… can I come in?"

Cliffhangers are one of my MOs of writing chapter stories. So I hoped you enjoyed this and aren't going to hate me for it being a filler chapter so early. Ugh. Leave your thoughts below and all of that jazz. Later! ~IF