Chapter 1

Kagami had gotten up at the crack of dawn just in time to see the remainder of the sun rising from behind the mountain tops in the horizon. He spent the couple of hours before everyone started waking up shooting some hoops by himself in the gym to get his heart pumping and his muscles warmed up in preparation for another day of specialized training. Just because they were the Winter Cup champions didn't mean they could skip out on practice. Especially because they knew that going into the following year's tournament, they were going to be without one of their best players; facing off against strong teams that were undoubtedly going to be even stronger.

That was why he and the whole of Seirin found themselves just barely out of the Winter Cup high already taking part in another training camp in some remote training facility more than three hundred kilometers away from home; one that had regularly been used by Coach Aida in the past.

Nothing peculiar happened that morning, nor during the actual training that followed. Everything and everyone ran like clockwork, and clockwise – Izuki-senpai had said. In hindsight, that should have been the first sign.

Things that ran too smoothly often seemed to be a prelude to bad things to follow for the team.

And right on cue, Kagami's phone started ringing.

The second sign that should have been a clue as to how complicated his day was about to become was the name that flashed across his screen when his phone started to ring.

"Alex?" he answered tentatively after about the fourth ring.

Alex never called him. Rather, Alex never called period. She had occasionally called Tatsuya back in the day when it came time to schedule practice or if she remembered something she'd forgot to advise them on after a lesson. But most of the time whatever she wanted to say could be said through (brief, shorthanded and littered with spelling error) texts.

The fact that she was actually calling, and that she was calling him – felt like an omen. Kagami could feel the shudder creeping up his spine.

'Did you get a really weird call from Tatsuya?' Alex asked by way of greeting.

The purpose of a phone-call was communication between two people from a great distance; but in Alex's case, it was usually a conversation between two people plus whoever was within a ten foot radius, because that was how loud her voice was coming through the receiver. Kagami hadn't even put her on speaker.

Kuroko who was mopping five feet away turned around in query.

"Umm… what? – No?"

'Hmmm… that's weird. Some of the guys got a call too, from Tatsuya's phone but it wasn't Tatsuya. It was some weird guy. They said he asked them some questions, but since it was in another language, no one knew what he wanted.'

"He didn't say anything to you, or ask you anything?"

'No, he hung up immediately after I said hello.'

"That's weird," said Kagami, adjusting the mop in his hand and using it like a crutch to rest his elbow on. His eyes locked onto Kuroko who was staring back inquisitively, seemingly sensing that something was off. Almost on cue, Kagami's phone started buzzing with another incoming call. His eyes widened when he took in the name of the caller. "Alex, I gotta go. He's calling me now." And without waiting for a reply, Kagami immediately ended the call with Alex to answer the incoming one from Himuro Tatsuya (the change of name on his phone was symbolic to the change in their friendship situation).

Kuroko had approached him by the time he pressed to answer.

"Tatsuya?"

There was a rustle on the other end of the line before a rather familiar – though definitely not Tatsuya's – drawl reached his ear. 'Is this Muro-chin's friend? The annoying red-haired guy on Kuro-chin's team?'

"Murasakibara?" His exclamation drew the attention of the rest of the club. "What are you doing with Tatsuya's phone?"

The voice at the other end of the line sounded simultaneously exasperated and tired when he repeated his question. 'Is this Muro-chin's friend or not? This is getting so troublesome.'

"Yes it is! And it's Kagami, jackass. Can't you even remember that?" any sort of worry he'd been feeling up until that call was immediately washed away.

'Oh yeah, Kagami. I thought it sounded something like that. But Muro-chin doesn't have you saved as Kagami on his phone, so I didn't know which number to call.'

That explained the various calls he'd made. He was probably going through Tatsuya's saved numbers trying to get the intended person. However, there was still the case of why he'd felt the need to call Kagami using Tatsuya's phone in the first place, instead of Tatsuya calling him himself.

Dread bloomed instantly in the pit of Kagami's stomach.

"Did something happen to Tatsuya?" he asked immediately, clutching the phone with both hands and letting the mop drop with a thump to the floor.

The rest of the basketball club had convened on him at that point, joining Kuroko trying to piece together what was going on from the bits and pieces of conversation they could get from his end.

'I don't know…'

Kagami would usually have blown up at the person on the other end for making him go through such a vast array of emotions for seemingly no reason and then giving him a stupid ambiguous non-answer. But he reined in his anger, only allowing it to slowly bristle. Especially because there was something odd in the sound of Murasakibara's voice.

Something that sounded suspiciously like concern.

"What do you mean you don't know? Where is he?"

'Right now he's in his room. He said he had a headache when I saw him last time. But he hasn't been to practice or to school in two days. Masako-chin told me to come check on him cause he wasn't answering his phone either. So I'm at his apartment. He doesn't even have any snacks around, not even any of those disgusting funny coloured jellybeans, and he's acting really weird too.'

Kagami had an odd feeling of deja-vu in that instance; being in a similar situation but with him being on Murasakibara's end calling Alex in concern. But it had just been a couple of minutes then from when Tatsuya had told him that he had a headache and went to lie down on the patch of grass beside the basketball court; his arm shielding his eyes from the bright sun rays, to him calling Alex because Tatsuya was – as he'd put it – acting weird.

"Damnit. Did you go into his room? What was he doing? Did he say anything?"

He twisted the phone slightly so that he could still listen to Murasakibara but without the guy being able to listen to him while he addressed his teammates that were gathered around him. "Sorry senpai. But I have to go."

"Is everything okay with Himuro?" Hyuuga asked.

"Umm… I don't know. I think I know what's going on, but I can't be sure until I see him." He was half turned, headed towards the exit for the locker room to get his things when he remembered that it wasn't as simple as just hopping over to each other's house like they used to do in America. Even by train and even though the training camp they were at was closer to Akita than they would have been back in Tokyo, there was still the issue of getting all the way to Akita and then actually finding Tatsuya's place. Kagami could barely get to places back in Tokyo and he'd been living there for more than a year.

"Kagami-kun, I'll go with you."

He turned to find Kuroko staring back up at him, a resolved look on his face.

He nodded. Grateful for the help he wouldn't have known how to ask for.

"You should maybe pack an overnight bag in case," said Riko-senpai. "It's not too far, but it would be bothersome having to come all the way back in case you needed to stay the night."

Kagami turned his attention back to Murasakibara on the other end of the line, and letting Kuroko and Riko-senpai mesh out the finer details.

He'd been half concentrating on Murasakibara's drawling recap on events, but managed to understand the gist of it. Essentially Tatsuya was being stubborn, refusing to admit to being sick even though according to Murasakibara, he looked, felt and sounded sick. There was also the very important part of the story in which he'd been asking for 'tiger', and Murasakibara, evidently not having been paying any attention during any of Kagami and Tatsuya's interactions to even bother remembering his name, had been asking for 'tora' or 'Muro-chin's redhead friend' to the people in Tatsuya's contact, most of whom were English speakers.

At that point Kagami was too concerned to be properly offended.

He asked Murasakibara to text him Tatsuya's address and told him to watch out for him while he tried getting the fastest transport to Akita.

It took Kagami and Kuroko about one and a half hours to get to the train station in Akita closest to where Tatsuya lived. It had been a stroke of good luck that they'd been so close in the first place. And Kagami was relieved that Kuroko had volunteered to go with him because he wasn't sure he'd have been able to get to his destination so quick. He'd never been to Akita before and the last thing he needed was a repeat performance of his first day back in Japan (spoiler: he got lost).

The train ride and subsequent cab ride over had been mostly done in silence. Kuroko was calm and reliable in that way. The only words that had been exchanged was when he called Alex to let her know what was going on, then when Kuroko answered a phone call from Kise who was apparently bored at a hospital while waiting for a check up on his ankle. He'd filled the other guy in on where they were headed and why and Kagami was briefly entertained by the image of Kise all of a sudden showing up in Akita just because he felt like it.

He couldn't stop his foot from nervously tapping all the way up the elevator to the floor where Tatsuya's apartment resided.

Murasakibara greeted them at the door and even though they'd been previously acquainted, Kagami still found himself struck dumb by the sheer size and presence of the guy in person.

Although… 'greeted' might have been a tad generous descriptor.

Murasakibara opened the door when they knocked and proceeded to completely ignore both of them while he talked to someone on the phone.

Both Kuroko and Kagami shared a brief look at each other before stepping into the apartment.

For some reason Kagami felt immediately at home. Everything about Tatsuya's apartment felt familiar; it even smelled familiar. It reminded Kagami of warm summer days playing ball on the streets of LA with Tatsuya when they were kids and stopping for an ice-cream on their way back. The sight filled Kagami with feelings of sadness over how their relationship had since deteriorated and of bittersweet nostalgia that after all this time, there was still a part of Tatsuya that was immediately recognizable.

He still arranged his books the same way and had the same pictures on his mantle; he still organized his trophies next to the little knick-knacks he liked to collect and arranged basketball magazines in the middle of his coffee table.

And he still had the same exact picture of himself and Kagami from when they were kids after their very first street basket match displayed proudly beside his television.

Kagami found himself choking back the lump in his throat at the sight.

"How's Himuro-san?"

Kagami was yanked out of his thoughts by the sound of Kuroko's voice and turned to find that Murasakibara was done with his phone call.

"How's Tatsuya?" he repeated, not caring about the desperation he could feel in his own voice.

"He's in his room," said Murasakibara, Kagami realized that it was the first time he was seeing the guy without him having some sort of snack in hand and that in itself was a telling sign about how serious the situation seemed to be.

Kagami all but jogged towards Tatsuya's room without even waiting for Murasakibara to point him in the right direction. Instinctually, he just knew which room was Tatsuya's.

The room was pitch-black; the only source of light was the brightness that flowed in from the light in the living room when he opened the door. Kagami forced his eyes to adjust to the darkness before taking a tentative step in.

"Tatsuya?" he called. He could see a vague outline of a figure lying under the blanket on the bed in front of him and immediately bent down to a crouch beside it.

Tatsuya was lying on his left side, upper half of his face hidden under his pillow, his arm flung across it like a secondary barrier to keep any light from entering; facing where Kagami was crouched before him. His blanket was pulled up to his shoulder and from that small distance between them Kagami could already feel the heat radiating off him without even having to touch his skin.

Only the lower part of his face was visible and Kagami could see how ragged his breathing was.

"Tatsuya?" he called again but Tatsuya remained unresponsive.

"Kagami-kun?"

He glanced behind him to him to find the outline of Murasakibara's body standing in the door and the much smaller and almost completely unnoticeable figure of Kuroko standing in front of him.

The sight would have been much funnier had the situation not been so grim.

"How is he?" Kuroko asked.

Kagami turned back to look at Tatsuya, reaching over to place the back of his hand against Tatsuya's cheek; almost flinching at the sheer heat radiating off him at the touch.

He stood back up to join Kuroko and Murasakibara by the door, motioning for them to take the step out into the living room before talking.

"Tatsuya used to get really bad migraines back when I knew him. I've only seen him have it twice but he told me he would get them a few times a year. So he either got sick because of the migraine or the migraine was the result of him being sick, but either way, it's not a good combination. I think… I think we have to take him to a hospital." Kagami paused to exhale and to take in the expressions of the two people before him.

Kuroko looked concerned and Murasakibara… Murasakibara had a peculiar look in his face. It wasn't an expression Kagami had ever seen on his face, nor one he thought really belonged there. The only way Kagami could think to describe it was that Murasakibara looked actually and genuinely distressed.

Kagami would have focused further on the uncharacteristic sight had his attention not immediately been attracted by the soft voice calling his name.

He was on his knees by Tatsuya's side immediately, hand automatically reaching out to grab onto Tatsuya's that was clutching the blanket to his chest.

"Hey, Tatsuya, it's me. I'm right here," he said. His other hand pushed the pillow back so that he could look at Tatsuya's face.

Slowly, his one visible eye slit open; at first staring at nothing before he seemed to register the figure leaning close to him and his gaze lifted to lock onto Kagami. When Kagami shifted and a sliver of light shone onto Tatsuya he winced, his eye clenched shut. Immediately Kagami used his whole body to cast a shadow over Tatsuya's preventing the light from reaching him.

"Tai… ga?" he asked, seemingly unsure of whether to trust his own recognition ability. His already soft voice almost a whisper. "'s it time f'training already?" he asked.

Kagami found himself at a loss for words for a moment as his brain struggled to understand what Tatsuya meant.

Training?

Tatsuya recognized him so he must realize that they weren't on the same team. Which meant that what he meant by training was…

"No, it's not time for training yet," said Kagami, he tried not to let his voice sound the way he was feeling on the inside. "Alex, cancelled training today, remember? Cause you're not well."

Tatsuya mumbled a response that Kagami didn't quite catch before his eye slipped shut again, his breath evened out and he fell back asleep.

Kagami reached up to run his fingers through Tatsuya's hair, his hand coming away damp with sweat.

Somewhere in the background he could hear the sound of Murasakibara talking, but the voice that answered him didn't belong to Kuroko.

He entered the living room, reaching back to pull the door to Tatsuya's without allowing it to close completely; plunging the room into darkness again. He found Murasakibara talking with a woman that he'd seen on the Yosen bench during their match.

"He said we should take Muro-chin to the hospital," said Murasakibara when he noticed Kagami's approach.

The woman turned to look at him and Kagami found himself almost immediately stilled under the intense gaze.

"Migraines? So it's more than just a fever?" she asked him when he stepped up to him.

"Umm… I'm not a doctor, I just know what I know about Tatsuya from when we were in America. Tatsuya doesn't like to talk about things like that and whatever I do know I pretty much found out by accident or when he couldn't hide it anymore. But yeah, I think his migraines and this sickness just isn't helping matters at all."

The coach sighed, muttering under her breath about stubborn boys. "My car is downstairs," she said, reaching into her pocked to pull out her phone before she stepped out of Tatsuya's apartment.

Kagami took it to mean that the conversation was over and a plan had been finalized.

The only thing they had to do was get Tatsuya up and down to the coach's car.

Tbc.

A/N - I decided to split this first chapter in two. Just in case someone came back to read chapter two and got confused.