"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

He had always disliked hospitals. Ever since he was little he could remember the idea of them being unpleasant; distant and cold. Then again it could have been some kind of personal bias. After all, he had spent most of his life frequenting one. He had always been sick when he was younger, name any childhood disease and he had them all most likely at some point or another. He had what the doctors liked to call "the immune system of a fish", a.k.a. a non-existent one.

Maybe it wasn't fair to say he hated hospitals. More so that he hated the things that happened inside them.

Being alive was a horribly messy business, and dying was an even messier one.

The routine had been the same for a while now: live a normal life for two weeks, hospital, normal life for two weeks, hospital. It had been that way for a long time, if asked exactly when it became so monotonous, he didn't know an answer.

"Ah Midorima, are you here for treatment? I haven't seen you in a while it must be going well."

Why do people say such careless things?

"It's alright. I'm fine."

It's not alright. I'm not fine. How could anyone like me ever be "fine?"

The nurse was saying something else but he wasn't paying attention anymore. Midorima had seen him around the hospital a few times over the past few months, he must be fairly new to think that things "must be going well". Things weren't going well. They also weren't going badly either. Nothing had really changed in the past two years at all actually.

The elevator doors opened, finally. He stepped out, letting his feet take him on the route he knew so well simply as a force of habit. He had walked down this hallway on Ward 4 so many times over the past year, and yet he still felt the same thing this time as he did the first: fear.

It was an irrational one, he knew that. An irrational phobia that something would go wrong this time, or that it had gotten worse and he would have to keep coming back for more than just another six months.

That was all he really wanted. To get out. He wanted to walk through those doors for the last time without worrying about when he was going to have to come back. Normally someone would have come with him, his mom or dad. But he was almost nineteen now, maybe it was time to start facing it by himself.

That's right. I can do this.

He slowed down subconsciously as he neared the door.

Breathe.

This was fine. It was all fine. There really isn't anything to worry about. It's just another treatment that's all. Breathe. Let it go.

He reached out with his one good hand left and twisted the knob slowly, stepping into the room labeled "Chemotherapy Room 2"

"Kagami-kun you shouldn't eat so fast,"

"Don't tell me what to do."

"You're gonna get sick!"

"Oi Kise are you gonna eat that?"

"Don't be rude."

"I'm not!"

I see they haven't changed at all since last time. He set down the usual black coffee and glanced around at the table. The cafeteria at the hospital seemed especially vacant today, with just a few wandering patients wandering to the different stations and some nurses on standby. And then there was them. He shut his eyes, knowing their voices by memory.

"Tetsu, are you gonna eat that?" That was Kagami opposite him.

"If you're still hungry then go get more food!" Kise to the right.

"Here, I lost my appetite." Kuroko diagonally across.

They never stopped talking, those three. He found it miraculous he was even able to be considered one of their friends when he could hardly get a word in edgewise. Not that he really wanted to anyway.

Wait, isn't it unusually…quiet?

Opening his eyes again he was greeted with three identical gazes staring at him, half filled with concern and the other half filled with apprehension.

"What is it now?" He muttered, feeling his glasses slip down his face and adjusting them with a push of his fingers.

"Are you okay?" The question came from Kise, whose voice could drop to a deceivingly low volume when he was serious. Why are you concerned about me? Midorima didn't know the full rundown of Kise's history, but he did know this was his second time out of remission and that it was a miracle the brain tumor had let him live this long.

"I'm just fine."

"Are you sure?" Kagami leaned forward onto his elbows, eyebrows drawn together "You're really pale-"

"I said I'm fine."

Kagami had some kind of blood cancer that made him especially prone to infection. Most of the time he wasn't even allowed to leave his room and the fact that he was even sitting at the table proved he must be improving.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't a little bit jealous about that.

Kuroko continued to stare at him for a few moments before finally relaxing looking down at the table. This seemed to put the other two at ease as well, for the time being at least. With Kuroko the details were still fuzzy. Whatever had happened to him prevented the use of his legs. He had been in a wheelchair since the first time they'd met.

Do I even really know these people?

There were so many things he didn't know, even the simple things as to why they ended up in the long term treatment ward. Why don't I know these things?

"Hey if you're gonna say you're fine don't go around looking depressed, got it?" Kise nudged his elbow and beamed that million dollar smile. It really was a shame. With looks like he had Kise could have really made a name for himself.

"I'm not depressed. Just tired."

"Hmmmm that's a lie."

"It's not a lie, stupid!"

Kise and Kagami both laughed and Kuroko smiled faintly and shook his head.

Idiots.

"That sounds more like the Midorima we know!" Kagami said between his laughs which began to slowly turn into ragged sounding coughs.

The cough rapidly got worse. Kise stopped laughing. One of the nurses close by came to help and drag Kagami back to his room.

That was how their lunch together ended. Getting sick in the middle of meals wasn't exactly uncommon. But if there was one thing Midorima could never understand it was the fact that they could all gloss over it so effortlessly.

After a few minutes Kise got up and said he wasn't hungry anymore, sulking off in the direction of the residential rooms.

"He'll be alright. I think he still gets a little shellshocked despite himself." Kuroko said once the other had disappeared through the double doors. His eyes slid to Kuroko who was sipping at a bottle of apple juice. It was a little scary how that ghost of a boy could read people so easily.

"Doesn't matter to me." he replied, trying to sound as steady as possible. They sat that way for a few minutes in silence until Kuroko abruptly unlocked the wheels to his chair and pushed away from the table.

"Midorima?"

"What?"

"It appears you have a stalker."

"Huh?!"

The nod the other gave to look behind him was almost imperceptible. "Don't look to fast, you might scare him." and then with a few rolls of his hands on wheels and he was gone.

A…what?

Taking Kuroko's advice and slowly turning his head to look to the tables behind him he found no one, but then out of the corner of his eye there was a tumble of dark hair and flickering eyes that immediately shifted when they made contact.

Well someone's definitely…there.

He shifted his head a little more until he had turned almost completely around. Yes there he was, slightly floppy hair and slightly angular eyes looking everywhere in the room except at him.

Do I know him?

The boy seemed vaguely familiar. Maybe it was just his striking face that made him stand out but it was almost like one you would see in the background of a picture or a glimpse in a dream, not quite there and still memorable.

And it was in just the briefest of moments that their eyes met, and in that single second Midorima could have sworn that strange boy smiled at him.

ahh finally i got something else written for this. i'm very sorry of midorima seems terribly ooc, i promise i attempted to not completely fail but well this happened (⊙︿⊙✿)

anyway i hope that the backstories aren't too confusing or vague (really they go more in depth in One Day More and i kept forgetting that this story is separate and almost forgot to put them in there oops) but yeah i promise that there will be some actual plot and substance after this, i really wanted to set everything up from both sides before the story proceeded!

as always thank you to everyone who reads/follows/favs/reviews you are all sweetie pies *✧₊✪͡◡ू✪͡