Dear Kagamicchi,

Please read these letters. I did not

write them. I think reading them

will make you see that it's time for

you to come home now.

Again, I did not write these-ssu. Kise.

4 days before Kuroko's moving date

"Welp," Kise sighed, rubbing his forehead with the back of his paw, "I think that's the last of them, Kurokocchi! Are you really sure that you want to sell all of these things-ssu? Don't they hold some sort of special meaning?" The puppy was referring to Kuroko's vast collection of clocks, as well as his assortment of tea kettles and picture frames.

"I'm not going to have any room for them in my new home," Kuroko stated simply, as he moved from box to box, applied pressure with his tape gun, and sealed each package shut. "Besides, I want to restart my life. Start fresh, you know?"

"Fresh," Kise repeated thoughtfully. He hadn't hear Kuroko use such a word in quite some time, if ever, really. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Starting fresh-ssu, it's healthy. It's...?"

With the way that Kise's sentence - which was implied to be a statement - had rolled off into a question, it prompted the feline to ask, "Is something the matter, Kise?"

Kise paws were prodding around in a box that had been labeled "Documents" on the side of it with, what appeared to be, permanent black marker. What he had come across was a bit shocking, if not remorseful. "Kurokocchi..." he started slowly, raising his head in much the same fashion, "what are all of these letters addressed to Kagamicchi doing in here?"

Kise had never seen Kuroko's eyes grow so wide before. In an instant, the fuzzy feline had stalked his way over to the box, grabbed it out from underneath Kise's grasp, and tossed it off into an undisclosed location. "Kurokocchi-?"

"You shouldn't be looking through anyone's personal documents, Kise," Kuroko hummed lowly. "Especially when see something that has not been addressed to you."

Although he felt a bit ashamed, Kise was still very curious. Really, why had Kuroko kept all of those letters? And mostly, why did he write them in the first place? Kise would have to come up with an idea to occupy Kuroko's attention elsewhere. In that way, he would be able to poke and pry through whatever "personal documents" he had pleased. Yes, Detective Kise was on the case.

It was around noontime when he had come up with the perfect plan.

"Say, Kurokocchi," Kise began sweetly. Both he and Kuroko had decided to take a short break from taping up boxes to sit out on his front porch and enjoy the warm, April air. "Can I ask you something-ssu?"

"Sure," Kuroko nodded, his tail flitting expectantly behind his back. "What is it?"

"Well, I was just wondering...why did you forgive me?"

"Pardon?" Kuroko wasn't exactly understanding what Kise was getting at.

"It's just, I mean, I've said some cruel things to you in the past. You know, about Kagamicchi. I just, I never thought you would forgive me."

"Ah," Kuroko nodded once again, acknowledging Kise's thought. "I agree. At first, I didn't think I would forgive you, either."

"So..." Kise continued, "why did you?"

With his ears just barely twitching, Kuroko inhaled deeply, later exhaling with just as much strength. "You know," he murmured, his voice hardly audible over the soft gust of wind that had begun to rattle his outdoor wind chimes, "I've come to the conclusion that I can't blame the world for something that Kagami has done. It wasn't until recently that I've stopped blaming myself..."

"Kurokocchi..."

"Please let me finish, Kise," Kuroko whispered, countering his interruption. "Over the duration of this year, I've grown. Not physically, but mentally. Though, maybe a little bit physically; I feel like I've gained some muscle from lifting all of those boxes. Anyways, when Aomine left, I was in a dark place. I'm not proud of how I acted, I'm really not. It's the same with Kagami. I'm not proud of how I handled my emotions. I was pathetic, really. But not anymore. I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to become more independent in this life of mine. I've always been this sort of shadow-figure, leeching off of a light for truth and for guidance. But you know what they say, right?"

"What do they say, Kurokocchi?"

"If you stare into the light for too long, it'll blind you."

After their discussion, Kise had finally been able to work his plan into motion. Feigning hunger, the pup suggested that Kuroko make a quick run over to Nook 'n' Go and pick up something for them to eat. Reluctantly agreeing, the feline trotted off down the pathway that lead up to his cottage, veering left when he was met with the crossroads. Out of sight, out of mind, Kise raced back into Kuroko's house, heading straight for that very same box that was labeled "Documents".

He was a hypocrite, and he knew it.

"Taiga, sweetie! You've got some mail!"

Hearing his mother's call, Kagami tugged his earbuds out of his ears, the muffled sound of Desperate Measures by Marianas Trench playing through the speakers. "What?" he shouted, returning the call. "I was listening to music. What did you say?"

Knocking on his bedroom door before entering, Kagami's mother peeked her head through the crack and repeated, "You have some mail. Look's like it's from...Kiseki Village? Taiga, isn't that the name of the little town that you lived in last year? I've wrote to you enough to recognize the name."

Wide-eyed and scatterbrained, Kagami quickly got up and opened his door for his mother. Yanking the thick, manilla envelope out of her hand, earning him a scolding of "You shouldn't grab things out of people's hands, Kagami", he surveyed the package for its sender, pleasantly surprised to see that it was Kise's name, neatly written, on the front of it.

"Dinner will be ready soon, Taiga," his mother informed, deciding to leave her son alone to open up his mail in private. "Be sure to wash your hands, before you come downstairs."

Agreeing to his mother's words, Kagami cleared a space on his desk for the envelope and sat back down. What had happened? Why was Kise sending him mail? Was everything okay?

Oh. Wait a minute. That's funny. Two out of those three questions were probably what everyone back at Kiseki was thinking. "What had happened to Kagami?" and "Is he okay?" He felt like an idiot. Actually, now that he gave more thought to it, he didn't just feel like an idiot, for the love of God, he was an idiot.

Kagami ripped open the top of the envelope, nearly jumping out of his seat when he was suddenly showered with a barrage of finely sealed, secondary envelopes. One of the envelopes, however, stood out far more than the others. Of course it did. It was bright yellow, after all.

Somehow, Kagami knew that it would be in his best interest to read from that envelope first. So, with semi-steady fingers, he carefully tore open the top flap of it and pulled out the bubble wrap stationery that was within.

Dear Kagamicchi,

Please read these letters. I did not

write them. I think reading them

will make you see that it's time for

you to come home now.

Again, I did not write these-ssu. Kise.

Kagami felt his stomach drop. Something must have happened, something major, that had forced Kise to message him. What was it? He didn't know. He didn't write all of these? That was peculiar. But if he didn't...then who did?

One look at the handwriting of his name on the front of each and every one of the envelopes, and Kagami no longer had any reason to ask.

These letters, by no doubt in his mind, they were written by Kuroko.

"Mom, I want to go home."

Confused and concerned, Kagami's mother set down the stack of plates that had been in her hands to look at her son. "What was that? What are you talking about, Taiga?"

"I told you, Mom," he spoke once more, "I want to go home."

"But, darling, you are home-"

"No, I'm not. This isn't my home anymore. This is, it's my childhood home." Kagami ran an anxious hand through tuffs of his duel-shades of red hair, trying to find a way in which he could properly rationalize his reasoning. "My real home, it's back at Kiseki. Kiseki Village, Mom. I need to go back. I need to go back."

Fitting her hands into her hips, Kagami's mother pressed her lips into a thin line. "What's with this all of a sudden, Taiga? I'm confused. Just yesterday, you were having so much fun with your friends here. I don't understand."

Kagami sighed. Of course she couldn't understand. It was something that someone who hadn't had the "Kiseki experience" could ever begin to personally understand. "It's not something that you'll be able to comprehend, Mom. It's not something that even I fully comprehend myself, but please, you just have to trust me on this one. I need to be there. I have to go back."

After much deliberation on the topic - a yes here, a no there - followed by a brief discussion with his father, one where he earned his full and whole-hearted support, Kagami had been booked for the earliest flight out of California that he could get his hands on. Unbeknownst to him, that flight was set to land on the very same day that Kuroko had planned as his moving date.

The morning of Kuroko's moving date

"Kurokocchi!" Kise cried, jumping for the fragile feline. He was in need of moral support. However, just as all four of Kise's legs had gone airborne, Kuroko had skillfully moved out of the way, sending him straight into a wall of boxes with a loud crash. "Ow! My nose!"

"That's what you get for being noisy," Kuroko murmured, obviously suppressing muted laughter. "Come on. Help me load these clothing boxes into the wagon."

"Will do-ssu!" Kise nodded. "Oh, wait!"

"What?"

"Let me go get Aominecchi! He's good with lifting and he can help us. The job will go by a lot faster, won't it?"

Approving the idea, Kuroko said, "That's smart. Go get him; I'll wait here."

"Okey dokey, Ku~ro~ko~cchi!"

"That was lame."

"Shhh!"

Scampering through the town and toward the train tracks, Kise was pleasantly surprised to see that the guard rails were closing down upon his arrival. 'That's odd,' he thought. 'I didn't think the trains ran on the off-hour.'

Waiting for it to pass and for the rails to open up for him, Kise ran across the tracks and rounded the corner of the building to take a peek inside of the train station.

The sight he was presented with was enough to make him yelp out of dumbfounded delight.

"Ka-Ka-Kagamicchi?!" he barked, quickly earning the attention of the redheaded teenager as he stepped out through the train's sliding doors and onto the platform.

"...Kise?"

"Kagamicchi!" Kise wailed, running straight for his long-lost friend's legs. He hugged them affectionately. "Kagamicchi, oh, Kagamicchi! You're home! You're finally home! I can't believe it...I can't believe it!"

"Whoah there," Kagami chuckled, patting Kise's fluffy little head. Oh, how the pup had missed those tender little pats. No one else had loving hands quite like Kagami. Then again, no one else in Kiseki Village really had "hands" to begin with. "Kise, calm down, calm down."

"Calm down? Calm down?!" Kise yipped. "How can I calm down, when you're finally home! You're finally here-ssu! You're-!"

"Where's Kuroko?"

"...Eh?"

"Kuroko," Kagami repeated certainly, "where is he?"

Unable to wait for Kise and Aomine any longer, Kuroko began carrying his clothing boxes over towards his wagon on his own. He had done heavy lifting before, he could do it again.

Just as he was about to set the last of the boxes from that section down into the wagon, there was a three-part knock on his front door. This had horribly baffled him. "Kise? Didn't I tell you that the door was unlocked? You don't have to knock, you know. Just come-"

"Kuroko."

Every sense, every fiber of Kuroko's being was telling him not to turn around. No, this was a mistake. This was a dream, and he merely hadn't woken up from it yet. There was no way that this was happening. Absolutely no way.

"Kuroko, open the door."

There it was again, that voice that clearly had not belonged to Kise. It certainly wasn't Aomine's, and there was no way that it could have been anyone else's, for they were all night owls in nature and slept in during the mornings. Murasakibara especially.

In his dream-of-a-state, Kuroko wandered for the door, only to hesitate when he had reached it. He knew that it was time to twist the knob and face his fears, every single one of them, head on. But he did it. He opened the door and he lifted his head. And there he was. Standing directly in front of him, in all of his undefined and inexplicable glory, was the very reason that Kuroko had decided to press the reset button on his life in the first place.

"Hey," Kagami whispered, speaking so softly that he couldn't guarantee he had even said anything at all.

"Hey," Kuroko returned, just as soft-spoken.

"We need to talk." And Kagami was right. Regardless of Kuroko's move, there were many things that he and his estranged best friend needed to talk about.

"Yeah, we do," Kuroko nodded, stepping backward to allow Kagami entry into his home. "Come in."

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

Back and better than ever with my cliffhangers, whoop!

Can you believe it? This is it, everyone. This is the final stretch. Next week will be the very last chapter of Kagami no Crossing.

What's going to happen next? Will Kuroko still move? Will Kagami convince him to stay? Will Midorima ever get to eat seedless watermelon again? We just don't know. (Actually, I do know, but I'm not going to tell you. You'll just have to wait and see.)

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope that you've enjoyed! (:

- Chappy