Hey, Mom,

I got your letter. You really didn't have

to send me money (but thank you - I could

really use it). I've paid off a few of my

mortgages now, so my house has gotten a

little bigger.

Maybe you and Dad could visit? Taiga.

"Thank you for stopping by, but you should consider heading home soon, Kagami," Pelly said, carefully placing Kagami's letters in the "to-be-sent" pile.

Her concerned look confused Kagami and prompted him to ask, "Why? Is something the matter?"

"You didn't hear? A huge storm is rolling in! Katrina predicted that it would uproot trees and tear the siding off of houses..."

"Katrina...the fortune teller?" Kagami questioned slowly. It was clear that he was a sceptic. Not only that, but a quick look outside showed no threat of this "disaster storm" that was supposedly pending.

"Katrina has never been wrong about these sorts of things, so please get home," Pelly instructed, a tad desperately at that. "I would hate for you to be stuck outside when it finally comes!"

After getting verbally shooed out of the town hall, Kagami sighed and ruffled his hair. "Was she really being serious just now? There's not even a cloud in the sk-" He gulped back his words. Though not menacing in nature, clouds of puffy white had suddenly popped up like popcorn. To Kagami, they even started to look like popcorn. "Geez, now I'm getting hungry..." he groaned.

"You should be home, nanodayo."

Taking a big bite out of his sandwich, Kagami looked over at Midorima as he chewed. After swallowing, he asked, "Why? Because of the storm?"

"Precisely, yes."

"There's not going to be any storm. You guys are just being too cautious." He took another bite. "And besides, the sky isn't even all that bad-" By now, the "popcorn" clouds had turned into "mashed potato" clouds.

"Caution has nothing to do with it," Midorima protested. "Katrina is never wrong. If she's predicted it, it will come true."

"Yeah, okay," Kagami sighed. He crumpled up his sandwich bag and shoved it into his pocket. "And let me guess, that pinwheel that you're holding, it's your lucky item, right?"

"Wrong. It's yours." Handing the pinwheel over to Kagami, Midorima explained, "I figured you wouldn't have it with you, so I took it upon myself to bring it here."

Flicking the wings of the wheel, Kagami clicked his tongue and responded, "Well, thanks, but you really didn't have to do that. I don't buy into all of this voodoo stuff."

Kagami watched as Midorima's expression turned from a serious frown into a scowl. "It's not voodoo. It's fate. It's destiny, nanodayo."

"Whatever you say," Kagami sighed for the umpteenth time. "Whatever you say."

3 hours later

In a matter of minutes, the sky had opened up and rain came pouring down. What had once been a portrait of lovely mashed potatoes was now a sea of utter darkness. All power had been knocked out, and Kagami was pretty sure that, in the distance, he had heard a tree or two fall over. But where was he right now, you ask?

"Don't breathe on the candles like that, idiot."

"I'm not breathing on them! Flames have a tendency to flicker, you know."

He was taking refuge in Aomine's basement.

Here's how it played out:

Even after the air had turned soupy, and countless of other townspeople had warned him of the storm, Kagami still didn't believe them. It wasn't until the first few raindrops had begun to fall that he ran into none other than that arrogant wolf, Aomine.

"What're you doin' outside still, Bakagami? Didn't you hear about the storm?" Aomine scoffed.

"'Course I've heard about it. I just don't care to believe it," Kagami grumbled.

"You don't care to believe it? What'd'ya mean? It's not like this is just some made up story."

"But it is," Kagami noted. "All of you guys are worried over something that's probably just going to turn out to be a normal thunderstorm and nothing more. It's a waste of time. I have things to-" A soft rumble of thunder cut through his sentence.

Growling, Aomine snatched Kagami's hand and began to drag him in the direction towards his house. "Look, I'm not doing you a favor here, or anything like that. I'd just hate to see an idiot like you get drowned like a rat out here, when things get serious."

And things got "serious" pretty fast. By the time they had reached Aomine's small cabin, they were soaked through and through. Kagami's bangs stuck to his forehead like glue, and Aomine's fur felt soppy and wet to the core. Both of them felt absolutely dreadful.

Cue thirty minutes later, and there they sat, drying off with towels and candle light in the safety - but not in the serenity - of Aomine's basement.

The wind howled and moaned outside, and even with being all the way downstairs, Kagami could distinctly make out the sound of Aomine's shutters slamming against the side of his house. "You probably should have shut your shutters, before the storm started," he mentioned.

"Shut up! I can't think of everything, you know," Aomine snarled.

"It'll be your own fault if they're not there, when the storm's over."

"I don't need your sass, Bakagami, so just be quiet."

After that, silence loomed over the duo for quite some time. One of the only ways Kagami could tell that Aomine was still there was by the way that his tail flopped against the stone flooring in order to get it to dry faster. Kagami himself had took to using one of the towels to dry off his hair...again.

A surprise to both of them, Aomine was the first to talk. The bigger surprise, however, was what he had said. "So...I heard that you're interested in Kuroko."

Kagami had nearly bit his tongue, with the way that he rushed to deny Aomine's statement. "Wh-what?! I'm not interested in him! It's just..."

"I get it," Aomine interrupted. He reluctantly took a seat next to Kagami on the floor. "He's a fascinating guy. He rarely ever comes outside, and when he does, it's hard to get an impression of him. I mean, that alone can make you wonder."

Fitting his hands into his lap, Kagami asked, "Are you and Kuroko close?"

Aomine laughed a bit wryly. "We used to be. Not anymore."

"Oh? Did something happen? Did you two get in a fight?"

Waving a paw to dismiss Kagami's questions, Aomine said, "Nah, nothing like that. I guess, if you could put words to what had happened, we kind of just...grew apart."

Kagami could relate to this. Back in L.A., he had gone through many friendships, some lasting longer than others, but most just fizzling out. "Do you think that he and I would get along?" Kagami asked. "I mean, I still haven't even met him...and I've already been living here for quite a while."

Aomine gave Kagami a snotty once over, much like he did upon their first meeting. "You're a doofus," he stated, to which Kagami had almost thrown a fit, "but you're just the type of guy that I could see Kuroko hanging out and having a good time with."

It took about an hour or so for the storm to completely die down, and once it was over, Kagami and Aomine climbed back upstairs and took a look outside. Upon seeing the destruction that had taken place, Kagami could only think of one thing: Katrina had been right.

Leaves and branches littered the ground, while a few small and under developed trees had toppled over like building blocks.

"Aw, crap," Aomine cussed, surveying the damage to his own house. "My shutters are gone!"

"Told you," Kagami snickered.

"Oh, you hush up," Aomine growled. "I bet your house is worse for wear, too."

"Doubt it. Mr. Nook does an excellent job, when he's remolding my home. He makes sure that everything is super secure and in place." Boasting about his realtor/former employer gave Kagami a sense of pride. It felt nice to give the man some credit for all of the hard work that he had done.

"Secure and in place..." Aomine repeated, almost as if a daunting thought had occurred to him. "I've gotta go."

"Huh-what? Where are you going?" Kagami called after him, seeing as Aomine has already bolted off into some unknown direction.

"I've gotta make sure that Kuroko is alright," Aomine called back.

"What do you mean by that? Doesn't he have a basement?"

"He does, but his house is the oldest one in Kiseki. I wouldn't doubt it if it's been reduced to shambles."

Grateful that only a few portions of the siding had been blown off, Aomine breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like even old houses can withstand disaster storms, huh?"

"Is Kuroko in there?" Kagami asked.

"Hey! Why did you follow me all the way out here, idiot?!" Aomine barked. He hadn't suspected that he was being followed.

"I was worried, too. But that doesn't answer my question." Kagami fit his hands into the pockets of his shorts. "Is he in there?"

"Probably not, but I can check."

As Aomine was knocking on the door, Kagami found himself a bit confused by Aomine's statement. "What do you mean that he's probably not in there? We just had a really big storm!"

Still knocking, Aomine replied, "Yeah, but Kuroko hates to go through these kinds of things alone. My guess is that he's either at Kise's place or with Akashi."

"Oh, I see..." Kagami responded, and allowed himself to ponder for a moment. 'Not very sociable, rarely goes outside, and now I've learned that he's afraid of storms...I wonder what else this guy is like.'

After a minute of constant knocking, Aomine shook out his paw and stepped off Kuroko's door step. Motioning for Kagami to follow, he began, "You know, I really meant what I said earlier."

"Huh?" Kagami wasn't exactly sure what Aomine was referring to.

"You know, about the whole you and Kuroko hanging out thing. I meant it."

"Okay, so...? Why are you bringing it up?"

For a moment, Kagami could have sworn that Aomine had looked something akin to depressed or melancholy. It wasn't until their gazes had met that Kagami could tell that what Aomine was about to say was something serious. "I may not have always been there for him, but that doesn't mean that I've altogether stopped caring about him."

"Well, that's apparent," Kagami input. "You practically ran over here to make sure that his house was okay."

"That's not what I'm getting at," Aomine sighed. "What I mean is, when you two do become friends someday, which I know you will, it's practically inevitable, I only have one thing to ask of you."

With a raised brow, Kagami questioned, "Oh yeah? And what's that?"

Lowering his snout, Aomine exhaled slowly and shook his head. "You better not hurt him the way that I did."

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! I know I had fun writing it, haha!

Thank you for taking the time to read! (:

- Chappy