Ishimura stood in front of the house, feeling a little uncomfortable. She had convinced herself this was a brilliant idea until she had actually arrived and realised that, most likely in order to get him to speak to her she was going to have grovel on her knees and beg him for forgiveness. Ishimura was not one for grovelling or begging, but she was willing to push past her pride. She needed this. She couldn't let it dig at her any longer.

Tentatively she raised her fist up to the door and took a deep breath, her knuckles rap against the hard wood gently. She wasn't sure if it was loud enough for anyone to hear, and most of her was telling her that no one as home and that she should just turn around and walk away. The rest was telling her she should run away.

Ishimura sucked in a deep breath when she heard footsteps on the other side of the door and she could feel her heart thumping hard in her chest. This was going to be so awkward and she wasn't good with awkward and oh god what the hell was she thinking coming here and- the door was unlocking. She instinctively straightened her back more and bundled her fingers into fists, trying to keep herself calm.

Midorima seemed very confused to see Ishimura standing at his door. His scowl softened for a moment before it hardened again. He was clearly expecting someone else, most likely Takao, and Ishimura probably was the last person he expected. His expression did well in convincing Ishimura this was a very stupid idea and she felt like she was going to vomit.

"Ishimura-San, what do you want?" Midorima grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. The nauseating feeling in Ishimura's stomach began to rise considerably. She breathed heavily again before forcing out a very wonky smile, trying to keep herself steady.

"Um, I er." Words were not on her side and instead she looked to the side, running her hand along her bandana. The material made her feel a little better but she could feel her body reacting before her mind could give an order. Abort mission seemed to be the option it was taking, and her foot moved back so there was more distance between her and Midorima. "Nothing, I just."

Ishimura turned and started walking away. She felt like an idiot and swore that she would never be able to look Midorima in the eyes ever again. She barely made it to the gate to his house when she felt his hand clamp down on her shoulder, roughly pulling her to a stop. Ishimura turned around to face him, feeling her cheeks flare a little. Hell, when did she become Saka?

"Grumpy-San," Midorima said, considerably softer than when he had answered the door, "are you all right?"

Ishimura stared at him, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to think of an answer to that question. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had asked her so directly. Shira was always asking what the hell was going on, which was a hard thing to answer when she didn't even know, but being asked if she was all right?

"I, um, I don't really know."

...

"So Touou's match, when we playing them?" Jo asked as she walked beside Meyer. The latter was slowly sipping on a chocolate thick shake, her eyebrows pulled together in worry. She looked up to her friend, blinking twice as she mulled over her question, being drawn out of her deep thoughts.

"After it all finishes."

"What? I thought we were going to play them as soon as possible?" Meyer looked ahead again, sipping at her shake again. Jo sighed, sticking her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Shira hadn't come back after going off in an attempt to find Ishimura, nor had she bothered to send a message to Jo about whether or not she was coming back. Takami had least let them know she was going to go to Maji's with Katsumi.

"We can't," Meyer admitted after a long silence.

"What?"

"You saw Aomine. We need to train more," Meyer sighed as she wiped her nose. It had gone red in the cold, despite the fact that she was more rugged up than Jo was. Jo had already given the captain her scarf, which she had rugged up around her neck so it was just under her lips. Her fingers tightened around her shake before she released them, looking around the street. "I wonder where Ishimura wandered off to."

"I wonder where they all got off to," Jo replied, pulling away from the subject of Aomine. Meyer shrugged her shoulders as she wandered over to a rubbish bin on the side of the road, throwing away what was left of her shake. She always ordered the largest size and she never managed to finish it. She rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them up as she ran after Jo, who had continued walking. Out of all of the girls, Jo had known Meyer the longest. They had met when they were four, in kindergarten.

...

Jo Kida hid her face in her mothers skirt, tears still streaming down her cheeks from the tantrum she had thrown earlier. She had not been happy about being forced to kindergarten after her mothers two week holiday, but there wasn't much choice. Her father was busy working and her mother had managed to secure a job that was forcing Jo to go to kindergarten. They had recently moved to Tokyo, Jo's father having to transfer, and essentially knew no one well enough to look after a rather unhappy four year old. A four year old who was standing well above the rest of the children her age.

Jo Kida was not necessary a large child, she was rather thin and wiry, instead always being rather long. Her hands were nearly the same length of some eight year olds and she was already a size six in shoes. This made her very uncomfortable, especially as the other children were very wary about approaching her because she towered above them and she was too shy to approach someone of her own devices. So when her mother left her in the care of a strange woman she had never met before, in a class she had never been in, in a city that was foreign, she was scared and lonely. After silently nodding yes or no to the questions she was asked by the teachers, she walked to the furthest corner of the room and sat down, curling her knees close to her chest and bowing her head, hoping to hide in on herself. If they couldn't see how tall she was, they might come and play with her.

On the table before her was a range of different shaped blocks and with one hand she started moving them around, nudging them together to make a colourful snowflake. She was rather pleased with her efforts, so when a shadow fell down over the table she looked up. The girl in front of her was quite pale, with big wide eyes the colour of grey and long brown hair in pigtails either side of her head. She looked as though she was deep in thought, her eyes all but boring into Jo. The latter felt even more uncomfortable and waited to be called a name under her breath. That's what she was used to, after all, she was used to being called things when the teacher wasn't near.

"You're really tall." Jo blinked at her twice. The way she had spoken wasn't nasty in anyway, but instead seemed to be in awe. Her head tilted to the side, her lips pulling apart to show a wide grin. "We should be friends."

"F-friends?" Jo repeated, unsure of whether this was her being mean. The girl nodded once before frowning and shaking her head. Disappointment filled Jo's heart and she resigned to slumping back slightly before the girl jumped into the air, punching it before putting a hand on her hip and pointing at Jo with the other.

"No, not friends! Best friends! Wait, what's your name?"

"Huh?"

"Your name! We can't be best friends if I don't know your name!"

"Jo Kida."

"Jo. Kida. Kida it is! Oh, you don't know my name. I'm Meyer Victoria!"

"Vi-tor-i."

"Eh, Tori it is! Come on, let's go get some cookies!" Jo was yanked out of her seat before she even had a chance to do anything about it, stumbling slightly as she was tugged along behind this hyperactive, strange girl. Best friend, Jo thought as she looked down to this girl Meyer Tori. There was something very strange with her, no one had ever just approached Jo without at least first whispering and pointing.

...

At the time, Jo thought Meyer was a very strange person. Hell, sometimes she still thought that there something strange with the cogs in Meyer's brain, but she never felt lonely after that. Best of all, Meyer was always the chatty one, so Jo was able to just tag along and makes friends through Meyer, becomgin comfortable enough with people because of her.

Jo looked up to the sky as she heard Meyer skip into step beside her, the latter beginning to talk about their next training session and how they were going to have to work whole heartedly as a team to face the Miracles. Jo wasn't listening. She just wanted to games to come and be done with already. Hopefully they would come sooner rather than later.

...

Midorima's room was incredibly neat, not that Ishimura expected any less. There was an open text book on his desk, and his basketball shoes were sitting neatly at the end of his bed. When Ishimura glanced at the book, she saw that it was about biology, and wondered if Kuroko had been right in him being willing to tutor her. Probably not, she sniffed. He probably hated her after what she said the last time she saw him. Ishimura winced as she thought about the last time she had been at Shutoku. That was part of the reason why she wanted to come and talk to him, to apologise for what she had said. It was the truth, but the way she had said it wasn't fair.

"I, um, that is," Ishimura mumbled, rubbing her fingers together before looking over to Midorima. He had sat on the edge of his bed, looking very precise and stiff. Ishimura had taken the chair at his desk, feeling that sitting on the bed was too much of a familiarity. Plus, it would probably have made Midorima even more uncomfortable. "I'm, I'm sorry, ya know? Sorry for what I said, at Shutoku."

Ishimura knew the apology sucked. She should have been more, well, more like Midorima about it. Precise about what she was apologising for and looking him directly in the eye instead of looking at his nose. Midorima didn't say anything straight away, he just kept his gaze on Ishimura, steely and strong behind the lenses of his glasses. He made Ishimura uncomfortable and she shuffled in the seat, looking back to the text book.

"So, you understand the..."

"You were not wrong."

"I, what?" Ishimura's mouth hung open as she relayed Midorima's words in her mind. That wasn't exactly what she was expecting at all.

"I was also in the wrong. What I said was also unfair, although true. I believe that we are even."

"You're not angry at me?" Ishimura asked slowly. Midorima frowned, shaking his head as he motioned towards his mobile.

"Did you not receive the message I sent you?" Ishimura stared at him for a moment before patting her mobile in her pocket.

"I thought, I thought Takao sent it," Ishimura laughed, realising that she had been wrong. Midorima frowned but didn't say anything against it. Clearly he wasn't too surprised as her assumption, and she wondered how many times Takao had stolen his phone to send messages. Midorima probably needed a lock on it, or something like that. "Sorry, that I didn't reply I mean."

"Grumpy-San," Midorima said after nodding her apology away, "I suspect that you didn't come just to apologise."

"No. I didn't," Ishimura sighed. She slumped back into her seat and looked to the side. She felt awkward again, but not like she had when she had knocked on his door. Now she didn't feel like talking about what was bothering her and just wanted to sit back and relax. But she had come here because she needed to talk, and she couldn't just back out now, that she had come all this way. "I watched the Seirin Touou game."

"You don't sound as pleased as I would have presumed."

"I thought I would have been, you know? I mean, Aomine losing, after what he had done, what he said, I should have been happy. But I'm not. And I don't know why." Midorima frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose as he seemed to get lost in thought for a few moments. Ishimura watched him, watched as his eyebrows knitted together and his lips pressed into a tight line. Without meaning to, Ishimura's mind jumped to the Shutoku party. She felt her cheeks beginning to blush and she looked away, rubbing her palm along her bandana. That party felt like years ago, when it had only been a few weeks. She wondered if Midorima ever thought about the night, or the morning after.

"Grumpy-San, whatever upset you with Aomine, you have realised that him losing a match will not fix it. Whatever it is, you need to go yourself." Kibo, Ishimura thought, and his basketball. She ran a hand through her hair and nodded gently. After their matches with the Miracles, she would definitely try and find him. Ishimura smiled to Midorima. She was sure she would have come to a conclusion like that herself, but it sounded better coming from him, she just didn't know why.

"You know, maybe-"

"Shintarou, would you..." the door was thrown open, causing Ishimura to jump up out of pure habit. She didn't know why she felt so guilty, she had no reason to, except for maybe what happened at the party. Midorima's mother was standing at the door, her mouth hanging open slightly, most likely due to Ishimura looking incredibly guilty and jumping to her feet. She looked from Ishimure to Midorima then back to Ishimura again, her lips spreading into a giant smile that made Ishimura worried. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise you had a guest over Shintarou. You should have let me know, I'll set an extra place for dinner. I hope you like red bean soup."

"I-"

"Mother-"

"Dinner will be ready in half an hour, I'll see you then." Ishimura reached out with her hand, wanting to say that it wasn't necessary and that there was really no need at all but his mother just shut the door. Glancing quickly to Midorima, Ishimura tried to figure out who was feeling more panicky.