2 months later

Hey, Mom,

Can you believe it's already October?

I sure can't. How are you and Dad doing?

Oh, thanks for the care package, by the

way. I ate all of the candies. The money

was appreciated, but I thought I told you

that U.S. dollars don't work here. I'll still

keep them, though.

They remind me of home. Taiga.

Relishing in the crisp, autumn air, Kagami drew in a deep breath. "Man, this has to be my favourite time of year," he said and gave a pleasant sigh. "It's not too hot, you can breathe without feeling like you're about to die, and it's the start of basketball season!" Kagami smiled. "Basketball...I wonder if any of these guys are interested in it."

Kagami had spent much of the day just wondering around the village, not really having much of anything planned other than to search for fossils. Strolling through one of Kiseki's many apple orchards, his eyes lit up at the sight of a small, x-shaped mark in the dirt. "That's gotta be a fossil!" he said excitedly. Readying his shovel, Kagami pierced through the ground and dug up the mystery item. It was no fossil. In fact, it was rather creepy. "The heck is this...?"

"That would be a gyroid, nanodayo."

Jumping higher than the Hollywood sign, Kagami shrieked and spun around. "Mi-Midorima?! Why did you have to scare me like that?"

"That was beyond my intentions," the small frog scoffed. "I was merely answering your question."

"I was talking to myself!" Kagami shouted. "I wasn't asking anyone anything!"

Fixing his glasses, Midorima said, "You're a perplexity. Do you do this whole 'taking to yourself' thing often?"

"I-" Kagami stopped. Scratching the side of his cheek, he tried to tally up the number of the times he had spoken to himself just today.

'Wow! Is that a fossil?!'

'Man, I wish Himuro were here.'

'No new letters? That's a bummer.'

The boy's face grew dim. "Uh..." he murmured, "yeah, I guess I do talk to myself a lot."

"Tch. It amazes me how you've become so popular around here, nanodayo," Midorima said, a hint of attitude resonating in his words. However, this had drawn out Kagami's interest.

"Popular?" he asked. "Me? Popular? Hah, I don't think so." Keying in on how intently Midorima was studying his reply, Kagami's expression turned snarky. "Unless that makes you jealous, Midorima."

Absolutely baffled by Kagami's accusation, Midorima stammered and stuttered, finally shouting, "I-I am no such thing! Who would be jealous of some over-sized giant like you?!"

"A midget frog."

Midorima's pulse had popped. "Whatever! I'm only envious of you, because of your height! Someone like you will have no problem collecting all of the acorns and it's not fair!"

'He admitted it?! And in such a hypocritical manner?!' Kagami inwardly gasped. "Wait, what? What are you talking about? Acorns?"

Folding his arms, Midorima sighed and shook his head. "Are you that dense that you haven't even noticed your surroundings? Take a look around you, stupid."

Doing so, Kagami realized that he could no longer chastise Midorima for calling him stupid. He was stupid. There were acorns everywhere. "When did this happen? They weren't here the night before..."

"That's because this week is the start of the Acorn Festival," Midorima explained. "It happens around this time every year." He offered Kagami a disconcerting look. "You wouldn't know, because you've only just started living here."

"I've been living here for five months," Kagami countered.

"That's nothing compared to Kuroko. He's been living here for ten years, from what I hear."

'There's that name again. Kuroko...' Resting his hand on the back of his neck, Kagami sighed. He disregarded Midorima's comment about Kuroko and replied, "Let's get back to this Acorn Festival. What is it? What do you do?"

"You collect acorns," Midorima answered simply.

Cocking his head to the side, Kagami questioned, "That's it? That's all you have to do?"

Midorima nodded. "You collect them and bring them to Cornimer to reviewing. He presents you with mushroom furniture for your findings."

"Cornimer...? Don't you mean Tortimer?"

"No," Midorima grimaced. "It's Cornimer, nanodayo."

"Okey dokey, then. So, my guess is that you're determined to collect as many acorns as possible? You really must want this, what was it? Mushroom furniture?"

Midorima's hard expression became soft, before turning melancholy all together. "Yes, that is my goal," he responded solemnly. "I tried my best to do it last year, but like I said, I envy you for your height, nanodayo. I'm small and I can't reach most of the large acorns that are resting up in the trees. The year before that, I was ill and couldn't participate, and the year before that one, I wasn't even living here."

'Geez...' Kagami mused. 'I never thought I'd say it, but I actually feel kind of sorry for the guy...' Biting his tongue, Kagami knew what he was about to do and began to deeply regret the words that slipped through his lips. "If you'd like..." he started awkwardly, "...I can help you with your collection."

"Perfect," Midorima nodded. "Let's begin."

'Somehow, I feel like I've just been used.'

The first hour of hunting and collecting wasn't so bad. Midorima had busied himself with picking up all of the acorns that littered the ground, while Kagami worked on getting them out of the trees. The next hour wasn't super awful, either. It was in the third hour that Kagami lost his cool, and it had nothing to do with acorns.

"What do you mean you don't like basketball?!" he hollered.

"I didn't say that, you idiot!" Midorima shot back. "I said that I can't play it, not that I didn't like it!"

"Huh? Why can't you play?"

Midorima rolled his eyes. "Why are you helping me collect acorns, Kagami?"

"Because you're shor-oh." The number of times that Kagami had felt like an idiot had racked up to two that day.

"Yeah. Exactly."

After five hours of continuous hunting and scavenging, Kagami felt like he was about to collapse. "Don't you think...we've collected enough...?"

"I believe so," Midorima affirmed. "Let's bring them to Cornimer, nanodayo."

"Ho! What do we have here? So many...er...acorns!" Cornimer chuckled. There was no doubt in Kagami's mind that this turtle figure was Tortimer. He knew better than to voice this aloud, though. "Are these all for the Acorn Festival?"

"Yes, they are," Midorima piped up, almost a tad too eagerly. There was a distinct glimmer in his eye. "I've collected them all. This means I can get the mushroom furniture, right?"

"Well, let's see here...do you have at least two-hundred and thirty acorns?" Cornimer asked.

"We have three thousand and eighty-two," Midorima answered sternly.

"Three thousand?! Me, oh my! How hard have you two been working?"

"Very hard," Kagami groaned monotonously. He dropped his sack of collected acorns, not really caring that they had spilled out all over the place. "Very, very hard."

Inspecting the acorns before him, Cornimer nodded and confirmed, "There is no doubt in my mind, then; Midorima, please take the entire series of mushroom furniture as my gift to you. You deserve it. And Kagami, thank you for helping him. You two must be very close friends!"

"We're nothing of the sort," both Kagami and Midorima had replied in unison, displaying looks of disgust towards one another.

"Haha, I must say, I'm a bit surprised," Cornimer laughed lightly. "Most choose to span their acorn hunting over the course of the week. It's very rare to have someone bring me all of the necessary acorns on the first day! I don't think it's ever happened before!"

"Wait," Kagami interrupted. "What do you mean by 'on the first day'? This event lasts for more than one?"

"It lasts all week, my dear Kagami," Cornimer informed. "Did something make you think otherwise?"

"Then why-!" He turned to Midorima in a huff. "Why did we do all of this work today, if we could have spaced it out over the span of this entire week?!

"Isn't it obvious?" Midorima questioned. He straightened his glasses, puffed out his cheeks, and looked up to Kagami. "I really wanted my mushroom furniture."

Hello there! Chappy here! :D

And I'm here a day early with this chapter! The reason for that is because tomorrow is Kagami's birthday and I will be writing a small drabble to celebrate! (:

Also, I wonder if you guys picked up on the irony of Midorima being a small little frog, when in reality, he's really very tall. ^^;;

Thank you for reading and I hope you've enjoyed!

- Chappy