Step 5: There…

(行ってきます。)

As it turned out, both Kuroko's former teammates from Seirin and Momoi arrived too late to do anything more than catch up on his current condition, leave small gifts and whisper that they'd be back tomorrow.

When Kuroko next woke, the room was unexpectedly quiet. Aomine was now occupying the couch, though the position he was sleeping in looked less than comfortable. Someone had just left the room, judging by the small movements the half-shut door was still making. A pile of blankets in the corner chair made him assume that he had another friend that had spent the night with him. A small smile graced his lips. His friends were crazy to the point of being almost clinically insane at times, they could be cruel and not realize the pain they inflicted at times, and all too often, they were scarily possessive. But when it came down to the line, he knew that his friends, old and new, would be there for him.

His throat was parched, as it always seemed to be when he woke up, and he reached for the ever-present plastic cup. The table had been moved, probably by a nurse, putting the water just out of his grasp. His eyebrows furrowed and he stretched just the slightest bit too far. He gasped, withdrawing his hand to hold it just above his side, not wanting to aggravate the injury but at the same time trying to make it stop aching.

A shadow fell over him and pale fingers closed over his hovering hand, squeezing them gently before pushing them back down to the sheets. "You shouldn't be moving around too much, Tetsuya. The muscles are not fully healed yet."

Kuroko blinked owlishly. Processing new information was a slow process while he was on morphine. It was an unusual feeling, always being a step behind. On the bright side, he supposed he could better sympathize with Kagami after this. "I was not aware that Akashi-kun had moved to Kyoto."

His middle school captain was hardly fooled by his misdirection. "I have not. My aunt, Hisoka's mother, has allowed me to stay in her guest room while I am here."

"Akashi-kun, I will survive if you need to leave for work."

Akashi gave him a skeptical look and Kuroko looked down. "How does your side feel? And 'I'm fine' is not an acceptable response."

The bluenette frowned. "It doesn't hurt too much. I am on morphine, you may recall."

Clearly that was not an acceptable response either. Akashi sat down on the bed and moved the hand attached to the IV line off his chest, pulling up on the sheets tightly tucked around his chest. Until Midorima determined that he was perfectly stable and his wounds healed to an acceptable degree, his patient was clad only in long, cotton pajama pants so as to make accessing the bandaging around his abdomen easier when the nurses rewrapped it. A quilt had been wrapped around his shoulders at some point to keep him warm during the blood transfusions.

He winced as Akashi pressed carefully around the wound. "No swelling and no signs of tearing in the stitches."

"Then please stop poking it."

Akashi sent him one of those looks, but he bundled him back up. "Still, stretching beyond your limits should be avoided. If you want something, shouting should alert Daiki." He reached across the bed to snag the plastic cup that had initiated the situation. "I believe your teammates from Seirin will be joining us today. Aida was particularly insistent." Kuroko accepted the drink and took a few sips of the cool water. "Even Shintarou had a difficult time dissuading her."

"Ah, I was supposed to meet Izuki-kun for lunch two days ago. He must have called Riko-san when I didn't show." Just as his bonds with his middle school team had not faltered after finishing school, he had remained in close contact with his friends and teammates at Seirin. Kiyoshi had moved out of the area for a job offer in Niigata, as had Furihata in Nara, but they maintained a long distance relationship with their former team through a constant flood of emails, texts and occasional phone calls. Since Izuki and Riko lived not far from Ansho primary school, he often met up with them after work or on weekends. If he couldn't make it, he always called ahead of time.

If his unexplained absence hadn't panicked them, then any news reports or calls to his coworkers would have done the job. He had no doubt that Kagami would have completely forgotten to mention his admittance to the hospital.

Which just so happened to remind him of another problem.

"Akashi-kun, would someone mind dropping by my apartment to check on Nigou?" The huskie, who had grown significantly since his unofficial adoption in high school, was as smart as ever. Nigou knew exactly where Kuroko kept the food, and given time and effort, would be able to help himself with minimal mess. He wouldn't be nearly as enthusiastic about the lack of exercise he was getting. Their morning walks had turned into morning and evening walks as the puppy grew in both size and stamina.

"Ryouta has been dog-sitting since you were brought in," Akashi replied with some amusement. "Between Ryouta and your fellow teachers, Nigou has had an overabundance of attention."

Kuroko let out a sigh. He was lucky to have such close friends.

Akashi patted his pillow and took the water back. "You're going to want to rest and recover your strength. Aida will be coming in to complain about your choice of students as soon as visiting hours start."

That seemed like reason enough to go back to sleep, but first, "Will Akashi-kun be staying here?"

"Of course."

"I am told that sleeping in chairs does terrible things to one's posture."

For that, he earned another patented Akashi look. "Tetsuya, some things are more important."

Midorima had finally allowed semi-solid food, to his patient's unnoticeable delight. Eating nothing but soup did terrible things to one's appetite, especially when said soup was distilled in the bland way that only hospitals and school cafeterias can manage.

As the nurse left him with the small bowl of rice he had requested, the door flew back open without ever managing to close. "Kuroko, what the hell did you do?!" Had his green-haired doctor been present, he would have felt a creeping sense of déjà vu.

"Riko-san," he quietly responded, laying his chopsticks across the top of the porcelain bowl before managing to get more than a mouthful of rice, "I apologize for not being able to speak to you yesterday."

His former manager's wild aura calmed almost instantly, Kuroko's toneless words and expression, as always, neutralizing even the most emotional people around him. "You're awake!" She made her way to his side, pulling over an empty chair and resting her elbows on the bed. "How are you feeling? That Bakagami didn't so much as message anyone, so it's a good thing I still keep in contact with everyone else. Geez," she huffed, "the things I put up with for you."

"I am doing much better now. It was not my intention to worry you."

"Obviously," she rolled her eyes. "We got the news from Aomine. Hyuuga, Izuki and Mitobe are on their way too once they manage to grab Koganei. Oh, and Kiyoshi and the others say that they'll try to get a couple days off this week to drop by. Hey! Don't stop eating on account of me! Eat up, or I'll feed you myself!"

Riko had lost none of her frightening aura. He unhesitatingly complied. Only once the bowl was entirely emptied did she continue speaking. "So I didn't manage to pull the whole story out of Ahomine, but what I did get is that you were a regular hero, getting all the kids out." She smirked as the faintest hint of color emerged on his cheeks. "Ah ha! So I was right! I can tell that you're going to be a tight-lipped brat about this hero business, so I'll have to extract it from Bakagami. Of course you won't get out of this so easily." Her grin grew, as did Kuroko's unease. "It'll sneak up on you right when you least expect it," the woman chuckled evilly.

What had he done wrong in his previous life?

Momoi entered the room in a burst of color not long after, bearing a large gift basket—thankfully, store-bought—and an array of balloons, Riko's promised entourage trailing just after her. After a hefty dose of (s)mothering from Momoi and Riko, a whole barrage of stories from his high school teammates and a short video conference with Kiyoshi, Midorima came in to shoo them all out. An hour, he felt, was more than enough time for well-wishing and tomfoolery. They left with his reassurance that he'd be home before they knew it and lighter hearts than they had entered with. He suspected that Aomine, in true fashion, had completely overstated this whole thing and gotten the lot of them worked up into a frenzy on purpose.

Aomine, still snoozing away on the couch, was in no state of mind to contradict his argument.

After a short rest and a bowl of the dreaded soup, he felt terribly sympathetic towards the door to his room, which was slammed open yet again. The frame was already beginning to look worse for the wear, Kuroko thought as Kise skidded to a halt beside him, bursting with energy and messages from the teachers he had spoken to and/or flirted with. Murasakibara and Akashi were not far behind him, the former carrying a familiar bag with him. Kuroko was instantly pulled from Kise's rambling to stare intently at the tote bag. It wasn't until the vanilla shake was removed and placed in his loving care that he paid attention to his friends.

Aomine had been woken by the blond's loud commentary at this point, to which he grumbled and complained, but refrained from kicking Kise at Akashi's pointed look. Midorima poked his head in just long enough to mouth "one hour" before ducking back out.

Kuroko, after convincing Murasakibara to crank his bed up so he could see them all properly without straining his neck, listened to a great deal of amusing situations that had transpired while he was out.

At the police station, varying takes of his "heroic actions," as Aomine put in air quotes, had travelled very far very quickly. Particularly far-fetched stories featured death-defying jumps from the second story, a bomb-strapped hostage taker, wild gun battles and a female teacher of stunning beauty in distress. Those who had heard the account straight from Aomine put in requests to have Kuroko teach them misdirection for future reference. All in all, the resulting affair at the elementary school had been considered an unexpected success. "And," he concluded with a toothy grin, "there's been talk going around about making sure all schools have a couple unbolted windows during lockdown."

Upon receiving Akashi's call, Kise had been sitting at the airport in Yokohama, waiting for his return flight. To no one's surprise, he had completely overreacted. He had presumably interpreted "Tetsuya's been shot and we're taking him to the hospital," as "Tetsuya's been shot and he's on the brink of death so get over here right this second." After quickly turning the nearest television set to the breaking news on the shooting, he had cried his heart out on the flight attendants and just about every other female in the terminal, who cooed sympathetically over him. One woman had offered him her seat on the next flight. His response was somewhere between a heartfelt thanks and a marriage proposal, depending on who you asked.

Murasakibara had put all of his bakery's resources towards ensuring that he had a fresh supply of vanilla shakes and other clearly necessary confectionaries in reserve. His employees, who had never received a personal request from the manager and head chef in their lives, rushed headlong into his directives as if their lives depended on his satisfactory responses. The end result was a fully stocked refrigerator in his apartment awaiting his arrival. If Kise's rapid nods were anything to go by, Kuroko suspected he wouldn't have to cook for himself for many nights to come. Momoi had dropped off some meals as well, though Kise assured him that they had all been store bought under his and Murasakibara's careful watch.

According to Aomine and what Aomine had heard from Kagami, Midorima had no shortage of nurses willing to keep a twenty-four hour surveillance on his patient. During the first day after surgery, Aomine could personally attest to seeing a card table and chairs set up in the hallway just outside. He didn't think that the door had even once been allowed to close. Kagami, who had been allowed to spend the night, had cheerfully informed him that the good doctor himself had been in and out at least once an hour, even long after his day shift ended. Day two had been even more hectic as a blood transfusion resulted in a high fever and chills that refused any attempts at temperance for several hours. Midorima, he said, had called it a nonhemolytic reaction when he stepped in for his afternoon shift and told the clamoring nurses to get back to their stations, but he'd made sure that there was at least one nurse present in the room with a wet towel, thermometer and freshly warmed blankets when he wasn't present. Midorima is such a tsundere, the room's occupants simultaneously thought.

Several loud sneezes were audible from down the hall. Aomine snorted.

"Anyway, Akashi's family was pretty pleased with this whole affair, which is a good thing because they wound up being the ones who paid for all the ice cream," he noted with a chuckle. From where he was leaning on the wall, Akashi all but rolled his eyes. "And they did get the next two days off school. Of course, I think it was mostly because the parents and teachers were in hysterics and there were some problems taking the building out of lockdown. That, and the reporters kept trying to grab people to interview. It was nearly impossible to find a parking place."

Kagami arrived during his entertaining reenactment of the barricading that the administrators and nearby officers had to do to hold off the "swarming, blood-hungry piranhas," just as Aomine held Murasakibara in front of him to fend off the invisible invading cameramen. "I've never seen such a lively hospital room," he remarked, a smile coming unbidden to his face as he was handed a vanilla shake by the pastry chef and temporary riot shield. "Has this party been sanctioned by the doc?"

"Midorima-kun wouldn't have let them in if he hadn't," Kuroko said.

"Point taken."

...and back again.

(ただいま。)

A week later, after much fussing by a whole crew of nurses and a final once-over, Aomine drove him back to his apartment in his squad car after receiving a whole list of instructions for Kuroko to follow to prevent infection, swelling, ripping stitches, and something unpronounceable that he casually disregarded. Once Midorima started using words longer than five syllables, his former teammates tuned out of the conversation to avoid brain damage. Takao was the only known exception to the doctor's mind-numbing terminology, even managing to respond with equally ridiculous words. What it inevitably came down to in layman's terms was that he wasn't to lift anything heavier than ten pounds without assistance, stretch beyond the point of stiffness, stand for more than a few minutes at a time and he absolutely could not resume work for a month. It would have been a shorter period of time had Kagami not made a joke about the kids being more detrimental to his health than a hostage situation. Midorima had not been amused.

Kuroko fell asleep midway through the ride, his small bag of medications and extra gauze padding still tucked between his hands. Though the injury to his leg had been less severe—managing to somehow miss any major blood vessel and bones—he still had gauze wrapped around the stitches and a padded boot strapped on that he was to use for at least the next two weeks.

Aomine pulled up to the side of the building and shifted into park. His mouth twitched into a smile as he looked over at his sleeping passenger. He put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead," he said as Kuroko slowly blinked sleep from his eyes. "We're here."

"Already?" He stifled a yawn.

"Yup. Let's get you upstairs. I bet your futon's more comfortable than my passenger seat."

Kuroko shot him a deadpan look, but the officer was already out of the car, stepping around the back to pop the trunk. He settled with a heavy sigh instead and opened his door. With the plastic bag's dangling from one wrist, he prepared to step out to the parking lot.

"Wait, wait! Give me one more second." He heard clicks from behind the car and stretched his neck out to see what was causing the holdup. "One more… There!" In a clack of metal, Aomine appeared with a triumphant expression. "Your carriage awaits, my lady." He punctuated his statement with a dramatic flourish. Had he not been explicitly told to avoid making any sudden movements, Kuroko would have punched him in an instant for that comment. Going by the way Aomine was biting back either a laugh or other smartass remark, he knew it too.

"I can walk," he said, barely gracing the contraption with even a disdainful look.

"Uh huh. That's not what Midorima and every other nurse in your wing told me."

"It's been a week and a half. I can walk."

"Tetsu, just get in the wheelchair. Don't you dare pout at me. So help me I will carry you like a princess," he threatened, waggling a finger.

His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

It took only a few seconds for Kuroko to decide that the indignity of being pushed around like a cripple was worth avoiding the mortification of looking like a girl. Aomine helped get him from the car by elevating his legs while he swiped at the wheelchair parked beside him. "Wipe that smirk off your face," he grumbled, cringing at the off-tune whistling above him as he squirmed in the chair.

"I consider this a major victory," Aomine said. "I think it's why everyone voted I take you home."

"There was a vote?"

"Not really. Kise suggested it and everyone agreed. I wasn't even in the room at the time," he huffed, stopping at the three steps in front of the apartment building. Aomine maneuvered his hands under the seat and easily cleared the short flight in one quick lift. "Kagami offered, but he doesn't actually have a car. Wheelchairs are hard to attach to the back of motorcycles, ya know." The double doors were harder to clear, considering they opened outwards, but between the two of them, they managed. "You should complain to the building manager about this. I mean, honestly, what if some little old lady came in with a walker or whatever? She'd have to wait at the door for someone to let her in."

"I apologize for not considering wheelchair accessibility when choosing a place to live, Aomine-kun."

"As you should," he shot back. "If there weren't an elevator here, I'd have dumped you at someone else's house." He stabbed at the up button a second time when the doors didn't open fast enough. When the elevator arrived, the wheelchair was backed in carefully. "Your toes in?"

Kuroko wiggled the five sticking out of his boot. "Should be."

The door closed, and when it wasn't accompanied by a shout, Aomine draped one arm over the bluenette's head. "So, uh, I know I don't live close by or anything, but if you ever need a ride or help with something—"

"Then I'll ask Riko-san." He peered up at the tall male through the fingers blocking his vision. "But it was a nice offer."

"Uh, yeah…" Aomine ran his free hand through his hair as he grabbed at his derailed train of thought. "There was a point to this besides that, and I think I just lost it." With a ping and a small bounce as the elevator reached the fourth floor, the wall of metal before them shuffled aside. Aomine was pushing him out as he suddenly snapped his fingers. "Ah! I remember. Since the whole incident at Ansho, my boss stuck me on paid vacation. I think it's for the next two-ish weeks, but I figure I'll get a call the day of asking where I am so I didn't bother to write the date down."

Kuroko raised an eyebrow. "Is this relevant?"

"Well yeah, considering I'll be sleeping over until then."

The eyebrow didn't go down. If anything, it arched higher.

"Look." He stopped outside their destination, fiddling with his ear as he moved to stand in front of Kuroko and not quite meeting his unblinking and distinctly unnerving stare. "I…I mean we…no, wait, I wasn't supposed to mention that. I just wanted to make sure someone was around in case, you know, something happened and Wakahisa said that my depressing mood was disturbing everyone so I might as well take some time off so I went back to my apartment but Midorima said he wouldn't text me updates more than twice a day and I might as well just stay over so he could get back to his job and I figured that when you came home it might be difficult moving around for a while even though you've been doing nothing but sleeping so I just told Momoi that I might as well stay over and then she might have told Kise, who told Murasakibara and anyone in hearing range, which included a lot of other people including Kagami and Riko and—"

"Should I expect a week-long slumber party?" Kuroko interjected as he noticed that Aomine's mouth was nearly the same shade as his hair.

"Nooo… I mean, I'll be crashing for a week, but I think Kagami and Kise were going to do shifts after that since they live closer."

"So there's a surprise party, then."

Aomine smacked his head into the nearest wall—twice—and then took a deep breath before composing himself. "I can neither confirm nor deny that statement, but that's not the point of this."

"I'll pretend to look surprised."

"You never look surprised, now quit interrupting me. I was going to say something meaningful about all of us being really composed about your, uh, altercation—"

"I was shot."

"—but it was really, really hard." He pressed both palms to his eyes, as if trying to grind them out. "Ugh, this whole thing has just been… It's been hard and frustrating and dammit why didn't you call me or someone else before running off on your own? I would have driven faster or…or gone in sooner instead of waiting for you to come out with the rest of the teachers or…something!" Aomine went down on both knees in front of the chair and gripped the armrests with both hands, fixing his eyes unwaveringly on the wide blue ones above him. "Don't ever scare me like that again, Tetsu," he demanded, voice steady and determined as purpose rose in his throat. "I've had to make too many calls to people to tell them that someone they care about isn't coming home for dinner. I don't know if I can make that call to Kise or Kagami or Momoi or another of our friends because you pulled some stunt without thinking about how we might feel standing around waiting to see if you'll wake up. Did you know that Midorima didn't sleep until you woke up? And Murasakibara and Kise went on a spending splurge to make sure you wouldn't be hungry for the next month because you looked so happy after that vanilla shake? And Akashi got into an actual fight—raised voices, swearing, the whole nine yards— with his uncle for not bringing this up before things got out of hand? And Kagami washed his hands for…" He stopped to rub at his eyes as his voice broke, "…for hours and hours because he said the blood wouldn't wash out."

Two small hands wrapped around his head until they met at the nape of his neck, and let them pull him forward until his chin bumped against a pair of knees. He bit back a sob. "I'm sorry," came a quiet, slightly wavering voice and he felt a head bump against the top of his. "I'm so so sorry, because if I had to do it again, I would do it all the same."

Aomine blinked back tears three, four, five times. Then he gave up and just let them run their course. He propped his elbows up on the seat and laid his broad palms against the arms pressed tightly to his head. "I know," he choked out, "but maybe…send Akashi a text so he can ride in, scissors and swords and all?"

"He has swords now?" Kuroko responded weakly.

"Probably handed his scissor collection down to that cousin of his." He sniffled, pulling away a little to rock back on his heels. "God, I think I just had a Kise moment."

"Kise-kun wouldn't have been that coherent." Aomine nodded until it was followed up with, "You're just getting old."

"Hey!" He only let it go because those big blue eyes were suspiciously shiny. "I am in the prime of my life. Have you not seen these muscles? My abs have abs. Don't laugh, I'm serious!"

"So, just to be clear," the teacher cleared his throat as if he were suppressing a cough and not a rare display of strong emotion, "there is a surprise party."

"I never said that."

"Supposing there were a celebration of sorts waiting for us to enter so they can douse us in confetti," he looked up at Aomine, who put his palms forward and made a zipping motion with one across his mouth, "then what flavor would this cake be?"

"Hypothetically speaking," Aomine started, "it would be an ice cream cake with a candy store dumped on top of it. And, obviously, our local master chef would hardly let this cake be anything but handmade."

Kuroko nodded understandingly. "In that case, we shouldn't wait too long. The hypothetical ice cream could be melting as we speak."

Despite the wet eyelashes framing red rimmed, shadowed eyes that showed hours of worry and sleepless nights, the grin that tugged on Aomine's lips was as carefree as he had ever seen it. "Welcome home."

And despite the ache tugging at his abdomen from bending forward that demanded another round of narcotics, his own half-smile was equally bright. He may have taken the long, winding, and not-quite-so-scenic route, but he'd had plenty of helping hands to catch him when he fell…

"I'm home."

…Kuroko didn't regret a single step.