Hello there, how do you do? This is the first time I've ever shipped two guys together and also the first time I've ever written a yaoi fic, so I hope it turns out satisfactorily.

But I ship this so hard it hurts. XD

This chapter is dedicated to jenrose257, who heard the story first. Hope you like it!

EDIT: [Oct. 11, 2016]

Welp, after two years of not updating and college handing my ass back on a silver plate, I finally decided to revamp this fic! It's going to be a fairly quick process, but the new material might take a while, what with finding my old docs and reintroducing myself to the fandom. (I never watched S3 because I didn't have time.)(Also my 16-year-old self writes like my 12-year-old self. Eugh.)

Also this story will be cross-posted on AO3 under the username spellboundcrown, once I actually get an AO3 account.

Chapter One:

Dropping the Bomb

It was a regular day for the members of Seirin High School's boys' basketball club. Nothing out of the ordinary: an uptight captain yelling at them, a scheming coach plotting something akin to torture, and the sound of a basketball slamming against the ground between the players on the court. Spring was around the corner, marking the end of the school year and foretelling a summer of training camp hell.

The team took a break. Koganei wheezed on his way to the water bottles, collapsing dramatically on the bench. Kiyoshi, who had stuck around as "co-coach", calmly sat next to him. Hyuuga sulked over and wiped down his smudged glasses with care. The other Juniors joined them, warily watching their kouhai.

"Wh-what the hell..." Koganei whined, "Kagami and Kuroko—have gotten—a whole lot—faster!"

Mitobe sat up and attempted to maintain his breathing while he recalled the match they played (and lost) against the Freshmen. The unusual pair had definitely gotten stronger in the weeks that followed the Winter Cup. Sure, it had gone exceedingly well: they had won (somehow) and Kiyoshi's knee was holding up a little better than doctors had previously thought (somehow), but still. Their improvised run 'n' gun tactics were definitely not cutting it.

It was hard enough to steal the ball and get into the rhythm of the match, but Kuroko's passes were improving in speed and timing, making it difficult to judge where the ball was most of the time. On top of that, most passes went to Kagami, who was refining his speed despite the caution paid to how far he was pushing his legs. Worst of all, perhaps, was the fact that their centerpiece was Furihata.

The timid boy was admittedly a spazz, yes, but he was attentive and more of a calculating demon than he let on. Not a single risky play was made, leaving a near impossible chance of scoring. To be honest, Koganei didn't understand how they had gotten 21 measly points off their 48.

The Juniors continued to mull over the small details of the game, making note of how they and their kouhai could improve. It was relatively quiet, so it should have been easy to concentrate...

But it was too quiet for things to be alright. Hyuuga glanced over at Riko, who shrugged nonchalantly. Instead, they focused on the Freshmen. Furihata and the others were going about business as usual, but Kagami was oddly silent, sitting on the bench as his gaze darted around the courts in search of Kuroko.

"Normally, he'd be bothering me with that mutt at his side," Kagami muttered. "Where is he?"

"I'm right here, Kagami-kun."

He let out a yelp and turned on his friend, grasping Kuroko's head in his hand. "What the hell, Kuroko! Stop doing that!"

Kuroko gripped Kagami's hand with his own, failing to make him let go. "I wasn't trying, Kagami-kun. But more importantly, Nigou is missing." Kagami's grip slackened.

"What do you mean?" Kagami wasn't particularly worried for the dog, but for the teammate in front of him; Nigou was, after all, the beloved team mascot.

"Normally, he's here by the bench while we practice, but he's not here or in the locker room. And no, he's not in the shower room, Kagami-kun."

Riko rushed over, concerned for the well-being of their pet. "Puppy's really missing?" she fussed.

Kagami scowled. Why did she insist on calling the mutt "Puppy"? It had a name, and besides that it was a Malamute. A Malamute. For now it was the size of a Husky, but it would be way bigger than that when it was fully grown. Why couldn't Kuroko have picked up a stray of a smaller breed, like a Corgi?

"He could have gotten out! He could be anywhere!" Hyuuga patted her on the head, consoling her. She whipped around and pointed an accusing finger at Kagami angrily. "It's all your fault Puppy's gone, Bakagami!"

"Wait, what? How is this my fault?" he yelled back. He'd rather not have anything to do with the dog at all. Hell, he could barely even look at the thing without freaking out! How could it be his fault the damn mutt was gone?

Kuroko's sorrowful, condemning expression stopped him from retorting further. "Well, Kagami-kun does hate him. Maybe Nigou didn't want to inconvenience you anymore and left."

Oh, geez. Here comes a migraine, Kagami thought to himself. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. There wasn't any other goddamned way to get out of this mess. "Fine," he spat, "I'll look for the stupid mutt." With that, he trudged out of the building.

Kiyoshi sighed. "Now, is there any particular reason that you sent Kagami out looking for Nigou or...?"

"Nope," chirped Riko.

"We're guilt-tripping him," Kuroko explained. "He's too nice for his own good sometimes, so Coach suggested we make him do something he doesn't want to do in order to test his level of resistance."

Mitobe sent a sympathetic glance towards the door. "He didn't try too hard to say no," Koganei translated.

Riko snickered behind a hand, causing Hyuuga to step back cautiously. "Riko, what are you planning?" he ventured. He had only seen her like this once before, right after Winter Cup, when she was pressuring him into finally getting the balls to ask her out—

"Oh, hell." Hyuuga's eyes met his girlfriend's dark, glistening own. He shivered in anticipation of the chaos to come. Kiyoshi stood off the the side with an indiscernible expression, making it difficult to determine if he had his own vague inklings of what was going on or if he was simply lost.

"Hmm?" Riko buzzed innocently. "What do you mean, Junpei?" The captain shook his head. It was better to leave Riko do her matchmaking devilry. After all, the one time she did it for personal gain, it worked. Quite beautifully, too, Hyuuga noted shyly.

A lengthy creak from the door caught their attention, Kagami slinking in nervously not too long after. He looked out of sorts, even more than anyone would have expected from simply holding Nigou. Then again, he shuffled inside awkwardly and empty-handed.

Kuroko was a bit annoyed. He knew Kagami didn't like dogs, but coming back so soon with no visible results was unacceptable. His eyebrow twitched and he scowled lightly at his partner. "Kagami-kun," Kuroko pouted, "did you even try?"

However, Kagami was unfazed by the waves of disappointment from his Shadow and from Coach. Jerking his head awkwardly towards the rest of the team, they could see he appeared beyond uncomfortable. "Er... I did... That is, I did find the dog, but—"

"No buts!" Riko yelled, holding out her hands in preparation for holding Nigou. "Now where's Puppy?"

"Right here," a voice answered. Riko paused where she was, mid-stride, caught between fright and confusion. The voice sounded a bit like Kuroko, but he was still standing next to Kagami and the sound came from the doorway. Nigou came bounding in like his usual self, the Number 16 jersey blurring in his sprint towards Riko. She pet him as he jumped up on her, wondering if she had been hearing things. There was no way a dog could speak, right?

And as suddenly as he had come, Nigou pricked his ears towards the door and jumped off her, eagerly greeting the stranger who strolled onto the courts. The boy looked about the same age as them, sporting a tight, sleeveless teal athletic shirt and dark gray sweat pants.

Riko was surprised; even vaguely, she could gauge that his muscles were well-developed and that his numbers were of a familiarly monstrous magnitude. And then she saw something she almost missed: out of the blue, the numbers plummeted. Her eyes weren't dysfunctional, since she could still see the vague numbers of all the other boys around her, but it seemed the harder she tried to see the stranger's data, the lower the numbers got. She couldn't gauge his strength.

Riko was intrigued. This had never happened before. How could it be that he had basically no strengths when his levels were so insane just a moment sooner? Then it hit her, the reason why she felt as though she'd just had déjà vu. He was scarily similar to both Kagami Taiga and Kuroko Tetsuya... in a way she knew was impossible.

"Who are you?" she asked uneasily. The stranger smiled at her slightly, kindly, his dark red-maroon-black hair spilling out messily to either side of his head for the most part, akin to a dog's flattened ears. He approached them with Nigou in tow, one arm extended in greeting. Riko gave a baffled gaze at his hand before she processed that he wanted a handshake. An American gesture used when meeting someone.

"My apologies, I'm Naoya," he replied. He met Riko's gaze confidently, another sign that he was used to the Western way of things. But that wasn't the most shocking thing, however; his sky blue eyes had a nearly identical resemblance to Nigou's eyes, who in turn looked like...

Riko quickly shifted her gaze to Kagami, who was sitting on the bench as though defeated, Kuroko kneeling, trying to console his Light and figure out what was wrong. Kuroko felt Riko staring and glanced up at her briefly, then stole a glimpse at Naoya, who met his gaze in return. Naoya's face brightened up at this and he trotted over, Nigou squirming excitedly at this stranger. The Phantom stood to address him.

"Thank you for bringing Nigou back, Naoya-kun." Kuroko held out his hand, expecting a handshake to be exchanged as what happened with Riko. In place of a handshake, however, Kuroko found himself on the receiving end of a full-on hug. A bit flustered at the sudden display of affection, he froze where he was, eyes darting to Kagami for help. Unfortunately, the ace was still struggling with whatever it was he had encountered while he was out looking for Nigou. Naoya, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice or care.

He flashed Kuroko a particularly brilliant smile. "It's nice to meet you, Mom!" he exclaimed in English. It took a while for Kuroko to process what he had said (even though he was good at English, it was still different to be speaking it when caught off-guard), but once he gathered his wits, he understood why Kagami had gone somewhat brain-dead.

"It's nice to meet you, too, but I'm not your mother," Kuroko responded. There was a slight notch in his eyebrow; this was quite the cryptic first encounter, but the honest gleam in Naoya's eyes told him he wasn't lying. Even though that made no sense whatsoever.

By that time, the senpai had figured out for themselves what Naoya and Kuroko had said and were going on a rampage.

"K-K-K-Kuroko!" Riko shrieked, feeling overly stupefied and slightly betrayed that he was already at that point in a relationship. "You had a kid? What? How? When? With who?"

Though the conversation was in Japanese, Naoya didn't miss a beat. He pointed at Kagami, still on the bench due to his meltdown, and answered, "With Dad, of course."

Kuroko wasn't easily surprised, but this... This was an entirely, completely, utterly unconventional predicament. Riko's frantic screaming wasn't helping.

"Coach, please be logical about this," Kuroko scolded. "There's no way that Naoya-kun is my child, let alone with Kagami-kun. For one, we're both male... obviously. For two, Naoya-kun seems to be the same age as us. And for three, Kagami-kun and I aren't like that."

Calming down, Riko muttered, "Not yet, you aren't..." She cleared her throat then, recollecting herself. "Then who is he really, and how did he get here?"

"He—" They turned to Kagami, who was breaking out of his unresponsive stupor. He drew a deep breath and looked up at Kuroko, meeting his eyes. Involuntarily, the Phantom gulped. Kagami making eye contact wasn't a good sign.

"He's not lying, Kuroko. I know this is going to sound stupid, but it's the truth. Naoya's our kid from the future of something like a parallel or alternate universe." The rest of Seirin stared at him in incredulous silence, not quite catching the full translation but understanding that it was disquieting.

"Kagami-kun—"

Kagami held up a hand, stopping his Shadow from speaking. "It's the truth, Tetsuya. Just look at him."

With that, Riko gave a muffled squeak and the spotlight went to the newcomer. His hair was the darker shade of Kagami's two-toned vermillion locks, he had the same tanned skin, and his eyes were practically a carbon copy of Kuroko's own skyward cerulean. Naoya flashed a quick smile, then turned his attention to the keening pup at his feet. The others were utterly lost, the shock of Naoya's existence combined with the mostly English conversation overwhelming them.

"Kagami-kun—"

"No, Tetsuya, don't. He... he has my ring."

Panicked, Kuroko's hand flew to his shorts pocket, checking for the keepsake Kagami had entrusted to him. It was still there. Naoya snickered, rubbing Nigou's belly—though the dog kept looking towards an increasingly skittish Kagami. He turned to his "mom" and reached for a pendant hidden underneath his shirt.

On the thin silver chain were two things: one was a metallic dog tag with Seirin's 16 emblazoned on it, the other a thick ring that was identical to the band that belonged to Kagami. Kuroko pulled the one from his pocket and compared them; they were identical, even to the engraving inside, save for a single word.

For Himuro T. • Always my older sister

"Yeah," Naoya explained. "The Himuro Tatsuya you know is different from Auntie Tatsumi. But Grannie Alex still loved her and Dad the same in my world."

With a resigned sigh, Kuroko glanced at Kagami. This was far too elaborate to be a stupid kid's prank, and Naoya wasn't lying; Nigou would have gone berserk if he sensed even the slightest bit of reason to lose trust with someone. And Nigou was a drooling baby with Naoya.

"Fine, Kagami-kun, but that still doesn't give him a reason to be here." He glanced over at their "son" with a critical eye; he was eerily and otherwise inexplicably similar to both of them. Naoya fiddled with his—or rather, Kagami's—ring, mulling over something in his head.

Riko gasped, seeming to realize something very important, but kept her thoughts to herself nevertheless. She anxiously shuffled where she stood, catching Naoya's attention.

"Do you have something to say, Auntie Riko?"

If she had any qualms about being called "auntie," she didn't show it, nor did she seem bothered by the fact that he had just spoken in Japanese. "Hmm?" she trilled, feigning ignorance. "No, no I don't. But why are you here, Naoya-kun?" She knew he knew she was plotting something, but Naoya opted to trust Riko to her own devices and continued with his reasoning.

"I'm here to get these two together!" he declared, putting an arm around each of his parents.

Kagami's face exploded in embarrassment, burning a shade of red brighter than his hair. His mouth opened and closed without emitting any noise, and he refused to even do so much as peek in Kuroko's general direction.

Surprisingly enough, Kuroko was just as flustered, choosing to study the laces of his shoes. The flattering rosy blush on his face had some kind of connotation that Riko took as suggestive, if her incessant squealing was any indication.

"This doesn't make any sense," Kuroko muttered. "How do you even know what goes on in this world, and how did you get here in the first place?"

Naoya released his parents and scratched his head, sighing heavily. Kagami and Kuroko made a point of putting some distance between themselves, much to Riko's chagrin. "I hate explaining this stuff," he admitted. "Ryuu is better at making sense of these kinds of situations, so it'd be better for all of us if you could wait until we find him." Naoya sat on the floor and beckoned Nigou over.

Kagami's mouth went dry as he struggled to find his trembling voice. "Naoya, who is Ryuu?"

"One of the other nine that came with me," the boy answered plainly, shaking paws with Nigou. He glanced up briefly and chuckled at Kagami's expression. "Not all yours, don't worry, Dad. Ryuu is someone else's kid. He's really smart, seeing as how he's the one that got all of us here in the first place. We got scattered, but we're all here."

Furihata found his ground, daring to make an inquiry despite the mass confusion swirling in his head. "So whose kid is he, if he isn't Kagami's and Kuroko's?"

Naoya asked, "Is there a Furihata here that anyone knows of?" Oh no.

The boy in question swallowed dryly. "That would be me..."

Naoya smiled, seeing the resemblance now that Furihata had stepped forward. "Congrats, you're one of Ryuu's parents. Technically speaking."

"Am I his dad?" the brunet quivered.

Rubbing Nigou's belly, Naoya smirked a little to himself. "His mom."

Furihata paled. The others wished to console him, but felt they had no place to say anything; after all, none of their kids had suddenly appeared from the future of an alternate universe. Instead, they wished him the best in silence.

"I think it'll be clear who his dad is when you meet him," Naoya reassured him. "Not to be rude, but he'll be fine. He's got a good head on his shoulders. I'm more concerned about my sister." Kuroko's eyes widened and he had the urge to confront this issue alongside Kagami, but he fought to avoid looking at his... partner.

Blanching, Kagami asked, "You have a sister?"

"Yeah, younger," Naoya said. "Well, I have a sister and a maybe-sister." He met Kuroko's eyes intentionally, hoping to drop a hint that would save him from any awkward justification. It had worked; Kuroko reddened and glanced down to his shoes again.

"A maybe-sister?" Kagami put out, puzzled. Ah, balls. Naoya had forgotten he was in his dad's presence as well.

Naoya breathed out, hoping no drastic reactions would take place. Meeting Kagami's fiery eyes, he reported, "Mom has a bun in the oven."

Promptly following the response, Kagami's gaze flitted over Kuroko's flat stomach before his face went crimson and he passed out.

Okay, I know the ending kinda sucks (IMO) and that the parallel future still has a gaping hole, but I do have this planned out, so please bear with me!

In related news, we'll be meeting the other kids and finding out who their parents are, so I can guarantee it'll be... fun.

Anyway, let me know what you thought! If you loved it, hated it, were indifferent, have suggestions, caught typos, whatever. Just go ahead and feel free to drop a review. Thanks!

~Randomness

EDIT: [Oct. 11, 2016] haha today's KagaKuro day woopwoop

Changed some things, like Kiyoshi being "co-coach" but everyone knows he's there so he can help the team beat Hanamura in his stupid face at Inter High. At the team's request, of course. Also Nigou is no longer a Tiny Pupper but is now a Medium Pupper. He should have been huge by Winter Cup, so he's gonna get huge throughout the fic. (HAVE YOU SEEN MALAMUTES? SO MUCH FLOOF)