A/N: Ugh, I just started school today… I already want this semester to be over. I woulda had this out yesterday but I wanted to spend my last day chillin with my sis. Anyways, here's the next one.

Btw, since I had a timeline of everything and the general things I wanted for each chapter I guesstimated it would be 23 chapters, but I keep adding stuff… so it may be around there or perhaps less if I get more stuff in a chapter than I had thought I would. It all depends.

UM IK THAT I SAID YOU'D FIND OUT WHAT KAGAMI IS THIS TIME, BUT IT'S ACTUALLY THE NEXT ONE! Sorrrrryyy.

Enjoy~

Takao sighed and glanced over at Midorima, whom was currently hunched over his desk. He was happy that Aida had made a full recovery; in fact she was healthier than she was previous to contracting the disease. It was something to be pondered over, the power that Kagami had was revolutionary. If only he was awake to give them some more information on how he did it. They of course had interrogated Kuroko about what he had seen that night on Akashi's orders, but that didn't give them much. He exhaled again, quite noisily, enough that Midorima huffed and glared at him.

"What now Takao?"

He pursed his lips, looking back at the room where Kagami lay, "did he come in today either?"

It was Midorima this time that sighed, eyes downcast, "No."

"Hasn't it been a week now Shin-chan?" Midorima scowled at the nickname, but he had realized that Takao would never stop using it no matter what. In the end he had given up trying to change it. Not that he really minded anymore, but he would never admit that to Takao or else he'd tell everyone in existence. Takao came over and looked up at him, before sliding into his personal space to sneak a kiss onto his cheek. He coughed and looked to the side, if there was anything good other than Aida recovering that came from what had happened, it would be that it pushed them together.

Once they got finished with settling Aida into another room for the night until they could take a closer look at her Midorima asked Kuroko to come back later to talk. The bluenette nodded and just like that disappeared into the shadows. He looked at where he had stood, gathering his thoughts on what had just happened, before a hand brushed his arm. Midorima jerked his head up and clashed gazes with Takao. Sadness and worry shone through them.

"Come Takao, let's go check on Kagami." Takao nodded mutely, giving him a weak smile.

"How do you think he's doing?" He asked as they walked back down the hallway. Somehow, it seemed colder than a few minutes ago, and he shivered. Midorima glared at him before shrugging off his jacket and pushing it towards him harshly.

"Idiot! Don't catch a cold. I already have too much work on my hands as it is." Takao chuckled at that. In Midorima's language that just meant that he was worried about him but didn't want to show it. "And Kagami's throat should heal soon, but I am worried if he has the disease that Aida had. I didn't have time to properly check on him and…" Midorima glanced down at Takao's risen eyebrow, "And that's not who you meant is it?"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "Aomine seems worse off than I would have imagined him being. Didn't they mate on accident?"

"That is correct, Takao. Kuroko says it was the side effect of the soul string."

Takao cringed with guilt, "ehehehe… oops…"

"I think that is an understatement." The greenette pushed his glasses further up his nose. "But, regardless of that happening, they would have ended up together anyways."

"Hmm? What makes you say that?"

"Idiots seem to gather together."

Takao laughed at that, "Pffffttt. Geez, no mercy on them even though Kagami's in a coma, eh?"

He huffed, and just altogether ignored Takao to continue on what he was saying, "everyone noticed how they acted together. And the opening ceremony was the start of it all. Aomine has always been caught up in himself, and since Kagami came and challenged him he has… changed."

"Oooh? Just like you Shin-chan? Did you change for me?" Takao chirped and latched onto his arm. Midorima narrowed his eyes at him and was about to reply when they heard whisperings coming from Kagami's room. They realized that it was Aomine who was murmuring to Kagami, sitting in a chair beside his bed. Before Midorima could leave Takao dragged him to the door side and peeked through. "Shhh. Let's listen!"

"I do not think this is an appropriate action to take, considering that Kagami is my patient."

"Stop being a tsun-tsun Shin-chan~ you know you wanna hear too! Now be quiet, I can't hear that well."

"Taiga… I just, can't even believe that you're in here. What were you thinking? Were you trying to be a martyr? Huh?!" Aomine slammed his fist on the bed. "I don't understand how this could happen. You freakin' idiot, do you understand what you've done? What you're leaving behind if you go? If I could go back to stop you I would, because fuck, Aida doesn't deserve the disease, but dammit, you don't either!" Growling could be heard from inside the room, and Takao's eyes softened at the sight.

"No… no… that wont happen. Bakagami, you always said you'd beat me in a fight, so where's your damn fight now? Fuck…" Aomine's shoulders hunched and Takao couldn't see clearly, but he figured that his head was in his hands. When Aomine spoke again, his voice cracked momentarily, "T-Taiga... don't you understand you're leaving me behind? Just a little more time… please, just a little more."

Now Takao was all for peeping, and eavesdropping, but this was taking it a little far. So he leaned back and took Midorima's arm to pull him away. He felt a little embarrassed at hearing the usually lazy, bored Aomine in such an emotional state. When they were a little farther away he said, "We can check on Kagami tomorrow." The taller man just nodded in agreement, and followed where Takao dragged him while lost in thought.

Takao closed the door to his room behind him. "Wow Shin-chan, have you ever seen him like that before?" He turned to face Midorima and stopped at the odd look on the man's face. "What's with that loo— oomph!" His eyes opened in surprise when he was pushed against the wall close to the door and lips pressed against his. At first they were bruising, almost desperate, but slowly turned buttery soft. Takao melted against him and brushed off his surprise to put a slight pressure back against the others. Midorima groaned and pulled away, breathing heavy.

"Oh Shin-chan," he stated breathlessly. "Not that I'm complaining but what was that about?"

"Nothing." He was about to pull away when Takao stopped him.

"Don't give me that Shin-chan. Don't turn away from me now." He placed a gentle hand on Midorima's face, bringing it so that he was looking into his beautiful green eyes again. There was an emotion in them that even Takao couldn't interpret. "You know how I feel… but you never said anything to me. Are you playing with me? Using me to comfort yourself?"

Midorima's eyes widened, "Of course not! I would never do such a despicable thing."

"Then what? What is this? I can wait if I have to, I have all eternity after all, but I only ask that you don't lie to me when you tell me." Takao slid his hand off, thumb caressing his soft lips one more time before he turned around. "As long as you need me, I'll be here. Don't ever doubt that. Good night Shin-chan."

"Takao I…" He paused, and Takao stepped toward the door. Midorima looked down, thinking back on how pitiful Aomine had sounded. When he heard the handle squeak his eyes snapped up, and he made his decision. Takao may be able to wait for forever, but he couldn't. And he wouldn't, not after seeing what happened to Kagami. Not after seeing how Kiyoshi had acted. No matter if they had supposed immortality, life was not so nice as to give them second chances like some deserved. With all that in mind he grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. "I… do not disagree with your presence. In fact, I wouldn't mind you by my side…forever."

Takao was for once in his life, speechless. He knew in Tsundere speech that meant he loved him too. So without waiting any longer he threw himself at Midorima. The door slamming in the background was almost like the end of something old, and the beginning of something new.

"Indeed it has been a week. Kagami's relatives should be arriving later to see if they know anything. And Aomine's been spending a lot of time in the forge since that night." Midorima looked down at the work lying on his desk. It had been a long week of testing hypotheses and retesting. Kagami's cells weren't anything special, so he had taken that out of his ideas right away. From what Kuroko had stated, Kagami's magic was what caused the healing in Aida's body, but he hadn't said what type. Midorima could see that Kuroko knew what Kagami was. And although they never got along, usually Kuroko was very honest, so he wondered why he was holding back knowledge that could possibly help with their investigation and make Kagami wake up.

"The forge? What's he doing there?" Takao tilted his head, confused.

Aomine swiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve before slamming the hammer down. Clanging could be heard for miles around, and Aomine held nothing back. His anger was pouring out of him with each strike, molding the heated metal into what he desired. It was very therapeutic, even with the extreme heat of the forge behind his back.

A hundred or so years ago he had broken his sword and when he went to the blacksmith he couldn't find one that was balanced the way he liked it, and no matter what the man tried he couldn't get it right. So Aomine had simply told the man to teach him, so he had taken up blacksmithing, and realized that he liked it quite a lot. It had been a long time since he had taken up a hammer, but it was like swordplay, he could not practice for a while but it came back easily.

His thoughts strayed and he found himself thinking about that white room. His shoulders tensed, and he could almost feel Kagami's loose hand in his. Aomine growled, flipping the metal over with the tongs he started on the other side, pounding the metal. Image's flashed through his mind with each strike, Kagami glaring at him, Kagami laughing, Kagami smirking after Aomine did something dumb, Kagami smiling. Kagami, Kagami, Kagami.

Snarling fiercely he threw the hammer away from himself. To his surprise it stopped midair, and a figure stepped into the forge and around the hammer, "Now now Aomine-kun. That's no way to say hello to a friend." He glared at Kuroko and just grunted, before shoving the hot metal into water bin next to the anvil. It hissed and steam flew up from the bucket, but he ignored that. He waved his hand and the hammer flew into his hand.

"Tetsu," he stated before his eyes moved to the people behind him, the question clear in his gaze. There was a tall blond woman and a shorter male that looked way too pretty to be a guy. Aomine recognized the woman from when he was in Kagami's memories. Alaina? Alenea? No, that wasn't it, Al…Alex!

"Aomine-kun. These are relatives of Kagami-kun. They'd like to speak with you." Kuroko looked at him, and though there was a sternness there that warned him to behave, Aomine could care less. It was hard to care about anything lately.

"Yeah, I know." He turned to grab a different piece of metal with the tongs that was done heating up. When he faced them again, he just looked down at the anvil and started hammering away. Kuroko's eyes narrowed, and Aomine could feel the annoyance coming off of him.

"That means Aomine-kun, that you have to stop what you're doing."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't stop, "Hah?! Can't hear you." Kuroko's eye twitched, and when Aomine ignored him for a few more seconds he grew tired of it so he resorted to drastic measures. He raised his hand and said a small chant; the hammer flew out of his hands again, as well as the metal piece, "Oi! What the fuck're you doin' Tetsu! I was workin' here, dammit."

"You will speak with them." Kuroko stated firmly, and Aomine glanced at them again. Amusement could be seen on their faces, which only annoyed him more.

"Why don't they go see Taiga? They're here for him, not me," he growled, and tried to force Kuroko's magic to let go of his tools, but to no avail.

"They already did, if you had just listened to me I would have explained that. Now talk with them, or did you not want to hear about Kagami-kun's condition?" Aomine's face cleared, and he paused. They knew what was wrong with him?

"…Fine…"

Kuroko smirked slightly, "You may want to take them somewhere more private." Aomine grunted, and waved the two forward.

"Let's go." Without waiting for them to answer he snapped his fingers and a portal opened up to the room that was connected to his room. He stepped through and when they appeared on the other side he let the connection go, the portal dissolving into nothing behind their backs. Aomine gestured to the seats surrounding a table and took the seat at the head of it. "What is it ya want?"

The male looked at Alex before speaking, "Aomine-san, it is good to finally meet you. Taiga has told me a lot about you. I am Himuro Tatsuya, Taiga's brother and this is Garcia Alex, a mother figure if you will."

"Is that so?" He hummed, "And what has Taiga said about me?"

Himuro smiled, "That you're a arrogant, snide, lazy, idiotic vampire with no life skills whatsoever." Aomine snarled but before he could speak Himuro went on, "but he also said that you were an amazing swordsman and that you were more than what you seemed at first."

"Tch. He's the Bakagami, not me," Aomine grumbled, crossing his arms childishly, but he couldn't help how his heart constricted painfully. He didn't want to hear this from Kagami's brother, he'd rather hear if from him. Even if they were mostly insults. Just at thinking that Aomine rolled his eyes, Kagami had turned him into a sap.

Himuro chuckled at that. "Ah yes, he mentioned that you called him that."

Aomine eyed him, taking in the pale skin and the dark hair. "So you're his brother huh? Funny, you don't look like him. And in fact, if I remember correctly, Alex found him in the streets when he was younger."

Alex started, "he told you that? Taiga never tells anyone that."

"Yeah, well he told me." Aomine ignored the voice in his head that mentioned that Kagami didn't really tell him per se, and that he only found out because of his memories.

"I am not his biological brother as you had probably already guessed. We met when we were younger and I visited Alex in the New World, it was two years after he was taken under her care."

"That's great an all. But let's cut all the bullshit. Why are you here? What do you want of me? What is Taiga's condition?"

Alex snickered, "So many questions eh Aomine? Why cant we just meet the vampire that Taiga has mated?"

"You had other ways of meeting me, you didn't need to come all the way here. And you had already seen Taiga, so why are you acting so comfortably about this? Aren't you worried? No… you are… but," his eyes opened as it clicked. "This has happened before hasn't it?" Aomine growled to himself, so that idiot had sacrificed himself before?! That Bakagami…

Himuro looked at him approvingly, "You are much more shrewd than I would have imagined, or that Taiga had led me to believe. Indeed this has happened a couple times before. Actually the first time he showed either of us, it was when I contracted a severe illness. Alex caught him in the act, healing me when I was sleeping, much like I hear he did with Aida-san."

The blond leaned forward, "Taiga has a very giving heart, and he would give everything to help another person. So it wasn't shocking to find out he had done it before to other people, and would continue to do it no matter what we said." She frowned, and crossed her arms making Aomine's eyes lower to the two huge boobs pressing together before flitting back up to her face when he realized this was practically Taiga's mother.

"What is it he can do exactly?"

Himuro looked at her, and almost like she could feel his eyes questioning her she nodded and Himuro cleared his throat, gaining Aomine's attention. "We told him to keep it a secret. After all, it is a very unique ability, and many are willing to go to great lengths to have such a thing. Taiga's magic is used mostly for healing, and he's absolutely awful at any normal kind of magic. We think that it's because he already has such powerful magic, that it balances it out that he can't do any sort of regular human spells. There have been times that someone has found out of his ability, and gotten close to him just because of it. And when he healed them or whomever they needed, they would disappear. It would leave Taiga devastated and hurt that he had been used. Another time…" His face went gray and he looked down. Alex's face softened and she continued for him, hearing the straining emotions in his voice.

"One time Taiga was found out the person threatened to tell everyone about it if he didn't do everything that he said. He abused Taiga's powers. You see, Taiga's powers take the sickness into himself, and his soul's healing magic clears away whatever he takes in, no matter the illness. But that is not the only thing he can do. When he's healing he connects his soul with theirs and when he takes a sickness he has a limited amount of time before its absorbed into his soul for healing."

Alex wiped away a tear that escaped from her eye, "This person… well he made Taiga take a sickness out of someone and put it into his enemies, essentially torturing him or her and Taiga too. He still hasn't gotten over it, but he did learn to keep it a secret since then. So if you understand now, then you know that Taiga will recover from this illness, but depending on how strong it is, it may take a while. And that's why we're not that worried. So don't think us as cold, we just know that he'll survive."

Aomine was quiet for a while, absorbing all that they had told him. A huge weight had been taken off of his shoulders at hearing that Kagami's comatose state was only temporary, that he would be okay. But just at hearing how someone had used Kagami in such a way made anger so fierce it even surprised himself burn in his stomach. How could someone have done that to such a kind person like Taiga? His fist clenched and he finally looked up at them.

"So why are you telling me?"

Himuro spoke up softly, "you are mated to Taiga. But more than that, you will be the one with Taiga from now on, as we cannot always watch out for him we felt it necessary to tell you so that you could prevent him from such things, again. Though we know that Taiga will always do what he pleases, we just ask that you can be there for him if he does it, since it is very strenuous on his body and he usually faints afterwards. Just… protect him, cherish him."

"…I see." Aomine struggled, but he swallowed his pride, "Thank you, for telling me."

Alex smiled at him, her head turning in his general direction. "Do you mind if I get closer?"

Aomine blinked, "Hah? What for?"

Himuro laughed at his expression, "Alex may be blind, but she's able to map out your general looks within seconds after touching you. She just wants to see who has captured Taiga's heart enough that he would mate with a vampire, and a male at that." Alex nodded at the explanation.

"Uhhh… Sure?" She stood up and walked over carefully, fingers brushing the table. When she got close enough Aomine grabbed her wrists and placed her hands on the sides of his face. Her palms and fingers spread out, gently running over the bridge of his nose and eyebrows, making him squirm under her touch. Alex chuckled and leaned forward, bringing her face closer to his again. Himuro blinked then realized what she was going to do and stood up quickly, drawing Aomine's attention away from the blond.

"Alex NO—," she smirked and pressed forward, smacking him straight on the lips. Aomine jumped back, wiping his sleeve against his lips.

"What the FUCK?!" Any other time he wouldn't have minded a hot chick with big tits kissing him, but seriously, Kagami's mother figure? No thank you. He glared at Himuro who looked sheepish.

"Ahh, she just does that. Don't mind her."

"Ahh I see now," Alex drawled.

"What? What do you see?" Aomine was terribly confused. Kagami's damn relatives were absolutely mental.

"Why Taiga fell for you. You're quite handsome." She gave him a wink, "And you taste good."

Aomine groaned, "How long are you guys staying?"

"Till Taiga wakes up and maybe a bit after that." Himuro answered, shooting Alex an exasperated look. "Kuroko said that you would show us to where we could sleep." Aomine sighed, that bastard did that to get back to him for being snippy earlier. That jerk.

A/N: So the relatives come~ hehehe, and you got more MidoTaka. Plus a little more history on Kagami and his magic ability (not all of it like I said would be explained this chapter, but a bit) and you'll see next chapter about it more.

Comments are love :3