Kagami had never been a morning person. It wasn't unusually to see him falling asleep during first period (or any other period, for that matter), or running morning laps with sleep in his eyes and his hand covering his mouth as he yawned.

He usually had difficulty waking up, but for some reason, coming out of whatever sleep he was in now actually hurt. His head ached, a dull, throbbing pain, and his vision was slightly blurry as he blinked awake. The room he was in was not his own. The walls were white, the bed uncomfortable, and there was a hum of activity and noise in the corridor outside. He lifted his hand and felt something tugging on his wrist, and he looked down and felt his heart beat a little faster as he saw a drip attached to him. What had happened to him…?

He couldn't remember how he got here, he thought, with a creeping sense of dread. The last thing he remembered was afternoon practice- going out to get food with Kuroko- then he'd come home, did his history homework (sloppily, I might add), and fell over into bed. None of that made sense, though, when he tried to connect it to where he was now. People didn't just go to sleep and end up in hospital.

And something else was wrong, too. The hands he was looking at were not his own.

Or rather, they were his. He recognised them, big and tanned and calloused from handling basketballs. But there was something wrong about them – there was a scar he didn't recognise, one that extended from between his ring finger and pinkie and reached the bottom of his palm, from a cut that would have been sore and couldn't possibly have healed up overnight. His nails, too, had changed; he'd never really taken care of them before, but now they were clipped short and neatly filed. He ran his thumb over them idly. Smooth as a baby's bottom.

What had happened…?

He was dragged out of his thoughts when he heard a voice say, "Kagami-san," and he looked up to see a man in a white coat. A doctor. The badge on the breast of his white coat read: Sakamoto.

"How are you today?" Dr Sakamoto said, moving to the edge of the bed. He cradled a clipboard in his left arm, a pen held poised in his right. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"

"A little," Kagami replied. He was too confused to say much else.

"We'll get you something to help with that soon. For now, I'd like to talk to you a little," Sakamoto said. "You were in a car accident, Kagami-san. You're in a stable condition now, but we're a little concerned about you still. Can you tell me the date?"

Kagami frowned. He couldn't remember any accident, and he didn't know why he was being asked that, but more worryingly, he didn't know why he didn't know what the date was. He thought back, hard as he could; he remembered writing the date on the top of his history homework last night.

"January 9th."

"And the year?"

Kagami stared at him. The doctor pressed, "What year is it, Kagami-san?"

That had to be a trick question, right? He could see getting the date wrong – after all, maybe he'd been knocked out for a few days – but there was no way he could get the year wrong.

"2012."

He'd thought there was no way he'd get the year wrong, but the doctor was concerned as he wrote something down, and Kagami wished he could see what he was writing.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Dr Sakamoto said, shaking his head. That only pissed Kagami off. Being told nothing was wrong when something clearly was wrong was the most annoying thing in the world. "Tell me, Kagami-san – does the name Kuroko Tetsuya mean anything to you?"

"Of course it does," Kagami grumbled, irritated. "He's my friend. We're team mates."

The doctor didn't write anything down this time, but he stared at Kagami for a few seconds before saying, "Okay. I'll be back soon, Kagami-san. Please rest. You lost a lot of blood in the accident, and you need to let your body heal itself."

Is that why he felt like crap?

"On top of that, you fractured your skull, and your collarbone is broken."

Oh. So that was why his head ached, and why it felt like it was about to fall off whenever he moved.

"Until then, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask anyone for help."

Kagami nodded silently. Of course.

The doctor left. He'd been given a pretty good idea of what had happened to him, but Kagami still didn't feel satisfied. He knew nothing. He could tell he hadn't answered the questions the way the doctor wanted him to – but then, what did that mean? Was it really not the year Kagami thought it was? And why had he asked about Kuroko of all people?

Kagami sat still for a few minutes, and then he decided he had to do something. He couldn't just sit there while nobody told him anything. He sat up properly, wincing as his body protested. With a lot of effort, he swung his legs over the side of the bed – his left one hurt like a bitch – and stood up.

He bit down hard on his lip to remain quiet as pain shot through him. It was agony, like nothing he'd felt before – but he told himself he was fine. An injured body could still move, even if it hurt. He limped over to the cabinet beside his bed, rifling through it, and after finding no clues in it to where he was, when he was and how he got there, he turned towards the door. He supposed it was lucky that he'd had a private room, because they curtains were drawn over the window that separated him and the rest of the ward and he could stumble about without someone seeing and coming in to return him to bed.

He took hold of the drip stand he was attached to and dragged it with him as he hobbled over to the door. It opened onto a bathroom, as he'd expected, but what he hadn't expected was who would be in there.

A stranger was staring at him.

It wasn't another person, though; he was looking into a mirror, but the face that stared back was unfamiliar. He could see parts of himself in it – those dumb double eyebrows, his eyes – but other parts were unfamiliar. He didn't have those creases on his forehead, last time he checked, and his hair hadn't been cut this short since he was a kid. He leaned against the door frame.

He looked old. The kind of old you were afraid to be when you were a kid.

"What the hell is going on…?" He muttered, reaching up a hand to touch at his face, still in disbelief that it was his face.

He was in a state of shock, and he barely heard the door of the room open and hurried footsteps cross the floor to him.

"Taiga!"

"Kuroko."

Kagami recognised the voice immediately, even if it was calling him a name it normally wouldn't. It was like his hands, like his face – different, strange, but familiar and unmistakable. He let the other support him when he felt his body sag and he fell forward, and by some miracle (because even in this weird reality he found himself in now, Kuroko was a good half a foot shorter than him) they made their way over to the bed. Kagami collapsed on it, eyes shut and teeth grit as he let out a low hiss. He'd pushed himself too far trying to get over it, and he was feeling the burn.

"Taiga, you really shouldn't be up and about," Kuroko chastised him, and it took Kagami a moment to realise what was wrong with the sentence. It wasn't the concern in his voice - though he didn't think he'd ever heard Kuroko sound so worried. It was something else.

"What did you call me?" He grunted, looking up. He blinked, his vision clearing, and took in the image of Kuroko. The other was the same as always, though he was wearing a white dress shirt and dress pants that were definitely not school uniform.

"Tai…" Kuroko began, but he caught himself. "I called you Kagami-kun, the same as always."

"You didn't," Kagami grunted, but he couldn't bring himself to argue. He didn't have the energy. "You called me by my first name. I heard you."

"Why would I do that?" Kuroko said bluntly, and Kagami was beginning to doubt himself. Kuroko was always polite – there was no way he'd be so casual all of a sudden. But then, this wasn't all of a sudden. This was however long had passed between that "accident" and now…

"Kagami-san, Kuroko-san." It was the doctor's voice that joined them now, sounding a little annoyed. Kagami opened his eyes, and he saw Dr Sakamoto with a frown on his face. "I thought I told you to rest, Kagami-san, not to go for a stroll," he said, but he was clearly not amused. His gaze swung to Kuroko, and he said, "And I thought I asked you to wait for me before going in, Kuroko-san."

His voice was gentler when he told Kuroko off, which Kagami found a little annoying. He was the one in pain here! He pulled himself back into bed and straightened his leg out, and Kuroko stood to help him pull the covers up over him. He hit the other's hands away and pulled them over himself. Why was everyone treating him like he was an idiot?

Kuroko looked to the doctor. "Should I stay?"

"Maybe it would be better," Sakamoto said. "You can help with some of the things Kagami-san doesn't remember."

Kuroko took a seat by the bed, but the doctor remained standing. Kagami looked to his friend, and he found himself surprised that he'd thought Kuroko looked no different before. The other hadn't aged as dramatically as he had, but there were clear signs that he'd grown in years – his features had hardened slightly, and he didn't seem as scrawny as he had before. The bags under his eyes- Kagami didn't know if they were from advancing age or tiredness, but either way, they weren't a good look for him.

"Let's start with some facts," Dr Sakamoto said. "It's currently February 14th, 2028."

Kagami gaped. No!

"Yes," Sakamoto said, "You're still Kagami Taiga. Is that a surprise? Did you think you were someone else?"

"No, I knew I was me," Kagami snapped. He wasn't a total idiot. But he clutched his head in his hands as he muttered, "But that would make me… that would make me…"

Math had never been his strong suit, especially not math while he was already under stress. Kuroko helped him out. "Thirty, Kagami-kun. Turning thirty one this year."

"That's messed up," Kagami muttered.

"What age do you feel you are, Kagami-san?"

Kagami frowned at the doctor's question. That was easy. He was fifteen, duh! But there was an overwhelming amount of evidence that was beginning to prove him wrong on that point.

"I'm… I was fifteen, last I remember."

"And you don't remember anything between January, 2012, when you were fifteen, and today?" Sakamoto asked. Kagami shook his head, and the doctor frowned. "Then everything we've seen suggests you're suffering from retrograde amnesia – that is, you're missing memories from before your accident. Your brain scan shows everything is normal, though, so we don't think there'll be any impact on your memory from now on. It's just the missing memories that are the concern."

"Is there no way he could get them back?" Kuroko asked. Kagami was glad he did, because he was in too much of a daze to ask himself; he was still floored by the revelation that he was missing fifteen years of his life. Half of his memories- more than half of them, really- wiped clean in an instant.

"This area of medicine isn't one that's particularly well covered, unfortunately. It doesn't help that I'm not a doctor with a lot of experience in the condition- or neurology at all, for that matter." Well, that helped Kagami's confidence in him. Sakamoto continued, "There's a chance that Kagami-san will regain his memories and make a full recovery, but unfortunately recoveries are often spontaneous, and as far as I know there's no way to deliberately induce them. It's simply a matter of waiting at the moment."

"That's not very helpful," Kagami growled, and the doctor looked startled. It didn't even occur to Kagami that a thirty year old man was far more intimidating than how he was used to being seen.

"It'll be fine, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said. His hand moved to squeeze Kagami's forearm. "You can stay with me while you wait on your memories coming back. You don't need to worry."

He found the other's words oddly reassuring, though he didn't know why they were so comforting.

"Thanks," he muttered, and he didn't understand why the doctor looked so uncertain. What was wrong with that arrangement?

"Then, if you've got a place to stay, Kagami-san, I'll prepare your discharge for tomorrow." Kagami looked surprised, and Sakamoto said, "I'm sorry if it seems like we're throwing you out, but physically you're able to cope with some help from Kuroko-san, and we need to free up the bed. We'll be needing you to come in for check-ups, but beyond that you're perfectly find to go home."

"Thanks," Kagami muttered.

Sakamoto looked back to Kuroko. "I'm sorry to ask you this, Kuroko-san, but I'd like to cut visiting time short today. Kagami-san has been through a lot lately, and I don't want to overwhelm him."

Kuroko nodded, and Kagami half wanted to protest, but he stayed quiet. He wanted Kuroko to stay there with him, to fill him in on everything he'd forgotten, to explain who he was now, how they'd stayed friends after all these years… but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. He had been through a lot, after all, and he was tired. Kuroko looked to him, and with an expression on his face that Kagami couldn't understand, he said, "I'll see you later, Kagami-kun."

"Bye," Kagami grunted. The other left, the doctor left. He went back to sleep.

He was woken a few hours later by a nurse, one who held out a phone and said, "There's a phone call for you, Kagami-san. It's from your mother."

Kagami rubbed his eyes and took the cordless phone – they had these in hospital now? – and pressed it to his ear.

"Mom?"

"Taiga, thank goodness you're awake," his mother said, and he felt a little happier for the first time since he'd woken up. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Kagami answered, "And sore. Are you still in America?"

He guessed the doctor had told his mother about his situation, because she didn't challenge his lack of knowledge.

"Yes," she said, "But don't worry, I'm coming right back to Japan as soon as I can get a flight."

"Oh no, it's okay, Mom," Kagami said quickly. Flights were expensive, and even though he kind of wanted to see his parents, he didn't want her taking time off work to see him- especially if she still worked at her old job, where she was a senior member of her company. "I'm fine. Kuroko's going to help me out for a bit."

She was quiet. Kagami wondered if she was disappointed, or offended, or if she'd forgotten about Kuroko. He'd certainly told her enough about him in his letters and calls to her when he'd joined Seirin – maybe he didn't talk about the other so much anymore?

"You know Kuroko? He's my-"

"Yes." She interrupted him. Her voice was oddly cold, but it softened slightly as she said. "I'm… sorry, Taiga. It's just… you know I don't like talking about him."

Kagami hadn't known that. When he'd spoken about his team mates before, his mom had always been happy to listen, pleased he was making friends and enjoying himself. But her voice now… he'd never heard voice full of so much dislike for someone she barely knew.

"Well, I won't come out if he's going to be looking after you," she said. She was trying to hide the harshness in her voice now, but it didn't work. He knew her well enough to tell when she was unhappy. "But I'm going to visit you as soon as I get some time off work. That's alright, isn't it?"

"Yes," Kagami said, a little quickly. "That's fine, Mom."

"Well, I'd better go," she said, and Kagami wasn't sure if she was leaving because the conversation had suddenly turned awkward or if she really had to say goodbye. "It was nice hearing your voice. You've got to call me more."

Kagami felt a pang of guilt. "I will, Mom. I'll call you in a few days."

"I'll believe it when I hear it," she said, but he could tell she was smiling. "I'll talk to you then."

He bid her goodbye and hung up, placing the phone on the table beside his bed. The room was quiet now, save for the beeping of the drip next to him occasionally, and the noise of people moving around in the corridor outside. Kagami closed his eyes. He felt like his memory was a jigsaw puzzle, and someone had hidden half the pieces. But maybe… maybe with Kuroko's help, he could find some of them again? Or maybe, like the doctor had said, one day they'd just all show up again and the puzzle would be complete.

Kagami had never been good at puzzles.

a/n: hey there, minna-chans! maybe it's stupid to start a new fic when i'm in the middle of a bunch of other ones, but maybe i'm stupid. anyway, this is a new fic! i hope you enjoyed it. let me know what you think if you have any comments you'd like to make, and thanks for reading!

there have been some edits to the first two chapters, but nothing major! thank you to the readers who have been kind enough to point out mistakes i've made so i can fix them. (^ ^)