Hi, Mom,

Thanks for sending over more money for

the New Year. I think you'd be happy to hear

that my house payments are coming along nicely.

My downstairs has a new room to it now.

Everything is a heck of a lot more spacious than

it was, when I first moved in. It's still crazy cold here.

I'm telling you, I'm really thinking about coming back

to L.A. for a bit. Just to visit, you know?

I still miss you guys. Taiga.

"Is that a letter for your mother?" Kuroko asked curiously. He and Kagami had just so happened to cross paths on his way to the town hall. Not that either of them minded, of course. After all, the two of them were becoming rather acquainted with one another.

"Yeah, it is," Kagami affirmed, holding the thin envelope out for Kuroko to see more clearly. "My mom and I are kind of like pen pals. We send each other letters and pictures and stuff."

"Pictures?"

"Yeah! You know, like, photos from home and things like that. I get homesick sometimes," Kagami admitted, a tad sheepishly at that, "so she mails me some pictures of her and my dad and of our house and the neighborhood that I grew up in." When Kagami turned to give Kuroko a sideways glance, he was almost shocked by how absolutely intrigued the small feline had looked.

"Do you think that maybe, after you mail this letter out to your mother, you could show me some of the pictures that she's sent to you?" Kuroko asked politely.

Kagami didn't even have to think very much at all, before answering, "Of course! I'd love to show them to you! Man, Kuroko, I think you're really going to like them. The beach of Kiseki is nothing compared to the beaches of L.A.! I mean, no offense, but when I show you, you'll understand where I'm coming from."

"I'm sure I will, Kagami," Kuroko nodded. "I'm sure I will."

"Thank you, Kagami!" Pelly smiled, cheerfully accepting Kagami's letter to be sent. "I'll get Pete to deliver this right away!"

"Thanks," Kagami replied, smiling in return. Honestly, Pelly's bright and vibrant personality was dangerously contagious. No matter how hard he tried to imagine it, Kagami just couldn't picture Pelly with an angered expression. "I'll see you sometime next week for my next mortgage payment."

"Sounds great! I'll be sure to let Tom Nook know that."

"Thanks again. Take care now," Kagami said with a wave.

"You, too!" Pelly giggled. "And, even though you didn't have to mail anything, it was nice of you to stop by as well, Kuroko!"

Silently nodding in acknowledgement, Kuroko ducked beneath Kagami's arm as he held the front door open for the both of them. Once they were on the outside, he looked up to the adolescent with an almost alert demeanor, and questioned, "Can you show me those pictures now?"

"Hold your horses!" Kagami laughed. "I never would have pinned you to be the impatient type, Kuroko."

"Hold my...horses?" It was clear from Kuroko's vacant expression that Kagami's statement had left him very confused.

"Oh, uh..." Kagami rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "It's a saying. It means, like, try to be more patient, or something like that."

Kuroko's tail swayed back and forth majestically. "Was I being too impatient? Should I wait for a better time?" he wondered.

"Nah, I was just joking with you. Tell you what, how about I head back to my place, grab the pictures, and then bring them over to your place so that we can look at them together?"

With a raised brow, Kuroko inquired, "Is there any particular reason why you don't want me to come over to your house, Kagami?"

Kagami's eyes widened. "Oh! No, Kuroko, it's not like that! It's just, my place is kinda messy right now, so I don't really want to have any company over. And especially if that company is you, I feel like it'd be kinda rude, haha..."

"I see," and without much left to say, Kuroko broke away from Kagami's side and began the long walk back towards his cottage house.

Kagami hadn't been lying, when he had said that his house wasn't fit to have company in it. It desperately looked like a tornado had graced the place. He knew he had no excuse to be so messy, so he would just go ahead and say it: he was lazy. He had become incredibly, incredibly lazy. How could this have happened? Back in L.A., he wasn't exactly spotless, but he never let his room get this bad. Maybe he had been hanging around Murasakibara too much...

After collecting up the photographs and momentos from his mother, Kagami tucked them away underneath his jacket and left his house. It was on route to Kuroko's when he had bumped, literally bumped, into Kise.

"Oof!" the small pup barked. "Ooh! Kagamicchi, hi!"

"Geez, Kise, I'm so sorry about that," Kagami apologized. "I honestly didn't see you there."

Rocking to and fro on his heels, Kise smirked rather deviously at Kagami, and asked, "Are you in a hurry to get somewhere-ssu?"

Even though he knew he had no reason to be embarrassed, Kagami felt a distinctive heat rise from the center of his chest to the base of his neck, all the way up to the very tips of his ears. "Not really a hurry, no. I'm just going over to hang out at Kuroko's," he explained. "We're going to look at some pictures together."

Kise's smirk was gone in an instant, only to be replaced by something much more genuine. "Is that so? I'm glad..."

"Glad? Why are you glad?"

Kise shook his head at that. "I don't know. I just, I'm glad-ssu. You remember it, don't you? Before you showed up, Kurokocchi never came out of his house. And when he did, it was only on super duper rare occasions, like Himurocchi's goodbye party, for example."

"I guess you have a point there," Kagami nodded.

"I know I have a point. Kagamicchi, this might sound really cheesy, but I'm going to say it anyway, because I'm secretly just a big ball of cheese. You've changed him. For the better, I would say-ssu. Even though he still doesn't socialize as much as I would like for him to, he's starting, and he's starting with you."

Kagami didn't know what to say to that. His mouth had fallen agape and his eyes were wide with stupidity. When the chilling sensation of a snowflake tickling his lip had pulled him back to reality, Kagami snapped his mouth shut and cleared his throat. "I, uh..." he stammered, "Well, thanks, I guess."

Kise smiled warmly, and giggled, "No, thank you, Kagamicchi! Thank you for allowing Kurokocchi to find a friend in you!"

"I thought you bailed out on me," Kuroko murmured, opening the door for Kagami after his third round of knocks.

"Tch, I'd never do that," Kagami scoffed, and allowed himself inside.

Closing the door behind him, Kuroko turned to Kagami and asked, "Did something happen?"

"No, not at all." Kagami busied himself with removing his scarf and his jacket; there was no way he would be needing them in here. It was one of the things that Kagami absolutely loved about Kuroko's cottage: he always kept the place really, really warm. "I mean, I ran into Kise on my way over, so I guess that delayed me a bit."

"Really? Did you have a conversation with him?"

"A brief one. We didn't really talk about too much." Kagami knew that it was a bit of a lie, but he really didn't want to just come out and say, "Oh yeah! We had the most pleasant of conversations! We talked all about you, too. Basically, you were our topic of discussion."

"I'm surprised," Kuroko said, carefully taking a seat on his ranch sofa. "I didn't think any conversation with Kise could ever be brief."

Kagami merely chuckled at that, moving to sit next to Kuroko on the sofa. He pulled out his stack of photos and laid them out onto the coffee table before them.

"Alright," he began, getting ready to explain each and every photo to Kuroko, "this one right here, that's my house. It's the one I grew up in. Up until last year, I've lived there my entire life."

"I see..." Kuroko nodded. "And that one?" He pointed to a photo of Kagami's parents.

"Yeah, those are my parents. That's my mom," he pointed to his mother, "and that's my dad," he pointed to his father. "Everyone says I look more like my mom. What do you think?"

Kuroko gave Kagami a quick once over and nodded. "I agree. You do resemble her."

"Oh! Here, look at this one, Kuroko!" Kagami spoke eagerly. He had picked up a picture of himself from the very first time he had gone surfing. "This is what an L.A. beach looks like. A real beach. Isn't it awesome? Oh, and this is what it looks like at sunset. Man, I'm so glad my mom sent these over...Kuroko?"

Kagami could tell that he had lost him. Kuroko's eyes, normally dull and borderline lifeless, had become so full of energy and excitement. They were absolutely glued to both images, and Kagami could see that Kuroko held a strong fascination for each of them.

"Hey, Kuroko...?" he tried again, this time giving the cat a gentle shake of his shoulder.

Coming to with a start, Kuroko quickly turned his gaze to meet with Kagami's. "Yes?"

"What's up? You looked really different just now. Like you were mesmerized, or something."

"It's..." Kuroko's attention was drawn back to the photographs. "I'm sorry, but they're just so beautiful, Kagami. I don't think I can help myself from staring."

Kagami gave a soft laugh. 'Wow,' he mused, 'he's so honest.'

"Is it okay if I look at them for a bit longer? These two in particular?" Kuroko asked. He had questioned him in such a gentle way that Kagami couldn't possibly imagine anyone ever saying no to such a sweet inquiry.

"You know what," Kagami breathed, standing up and stretching his lower back, "why don't you keep 'em for yourself? I mean, you probably don't want this one with me in it," he plucked the photograph of his first surfing endeavor from Kuroko's paws, "but you can keep that one. Do you have a frame for it?"

"I'm sure I could buy one," Kuroko answered, "but, Kagami, are you sure? You'd really allow me to keep this? Isn't it from your mother? Don't you want to keep it for yourself?"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Kagami smiled. "I lived there. I know what it's like. You on the other hand, you've never even seen anything like this before, right?"

"I have not, no."

"Right. So until I can take you to L.A. with me, this will have to do."

Kuroko blinked. "Pardon?"

Kagami blinked, as well. "What?"

"What you just said," Kuroko responded. "You want me to go to L.A. with you?"

"Well, yeah! I mean, eventually. I think it'd be pretty cool, don't you?"

Kuroko didn't say a word; he only nodded and began admiring the photograph that Kagami had gifted him with once more.

'Very cool, Kagami. Very cool, indeed.'

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Kagami and Kuroko are really starting to get along with one another now, aren't they? I hope you like their interactions!

Thank you for taking the time to read! (:

- Chappy