(A/N: And here is the last chapter. Thank you very much to all who tagged along and bear with me throughout this. I am sincerely hoping that you've liked it. I have a special fondness towards tsunderes, for I was quite tsundere during my younger years, and I identify with them a lot so Midorima is always a fascinating character for me and I really like his dynamic with Takao. I hope I was able to convey my appreciation of both these characters and the lovely bond they seem to have.)

"So where are you going for the honeymoon?" Momoi asked cheerfully as she sipped from her drink.

"Paris!" Kise exclaimed but Aomine was rather indifferent,

"A classic!" Momoi nodded happily as she patted Kise's shoulder,

"Couldn't we go to somewhere more fun? Hawaii or Bali would have been better..."

"Yeah and you would just laze all day at the poolside or on the beach."

"And what is exactly wrong with that? You know how busy I am normally, you are busy too. We could relax."

"Jeez Aominecchi, you are like an old man..."

"Oh and going to Paris and sightseeing is actually 'youthful'?"

Kise pouted slightly and turned her attention to Momoi,

"You see 'this'? Perhaps I made the wrong decision."

"I've been telling ya Ki-chan, you should not have accepted a half-assed proposal like that in the first place."

"Oi! You two are insufferable, really..."

"Are you guys going to vacation anywhere this year?" Momoi turned to ask Takao who was eyeing the dance floor,

"Hmm... Not really. My lease is finishing up next month and I kind of want to move before the schools reopen. I think I want a bigger place and you know it will be costly and busy. So a summer vacation is out of the question."

Kise and Momoi nodded absent-mindedly but then Midorima commented, with an indifferent voice too,

"You could always move in with me."

Takao spurted almost a mouthful of his drink, Momoi almost dropped her glass, and Kise stood with his mouth wide open in shock. Midorima was confused at their reactions and then glanced at Aomine, who seemed to be trying hard to keep himself from laughing. He was not very successful at that apparently and started laughing loudly the next second.

"God... Oh God... I am so done with you. I am so done with you all!" Momoi almost yelled as she got back to her senses, Kise gave a dirty look at Aomine, "Aominecchi..." he only muttered but it really was a code word for the blunette to stop laughing.

"Shin-chan... ah..."

"What? It is always an option. It would cost less."

"Oh My God! I am going to rip you into pieces Midorin! Do you have to be so callous about this?"

"Callous? I am kindly offering him a better option. It will be economically much more advantageous for him."

"Okay okay, calm down Momocchi... Midorimacchi, I think you are missing out... on something. These kind of questions should not be asked like this. And your motivation is not... well, not sensitive enough let's say."

Midorima looked at Kise, very puzzled and Momoi sighed,

"Come on! And obviously he will not get it when it is coming from you Ki-chan: you got proposed in a bar too. While everyone was more or less tipsy."

"Well, I wasn't the one who proposed right... It was not my decision."

"What am I going to do with all of you?! I mean I really wanted to throw a great wedding and I could have planned the best proposal in the world but not, Dai-chan had to screw it. And now Midorin is... I mean I could have helped him pop the question, I could have redesigned the interior... But no. No, you guys just blurt these out casually as if you are asking out for a couple of drinks. I really can't do this anymore... I am done with you losers."

"Oi! Why are you two bringing me into this? My proposal aside, when I first asked Kise to move in with me, even I was smoother."

"Yeah, now that I think about it, even your 'Hey, Kise, we have to move in together, or else with room mates and all, we cannot have sex any time and any place we want. It is such a pain in the ass' sounds much lovelier now..."

"Well, at least I did not make it a matter of money."

"You did say that it would cost us less..."

"Yeah but that was like my third reason or something, right? My first was the ease of access to sex, which is because I love you so it counts as something romantic."

"Hmm it actually makes sense..."

Momoi gulped down her drink in a fury, sighing deeply afterwards she spoke with a scolding tone,

"You are no better Dai-chan! Ki-chan, stop helping him feel proud. He does not deserve it. And Midorin, even you should know that asking somebody to move in with you is not just a matter of economic convenience, it is an important and emotional decision. You should talk about it at length and then decide, not just blurt it out as you casually sip from your wine in a bar."

"I really do not think the ambience of the location actually changes anything?" Midorima raised an eyebrow to Momoi and it was rather hard for her to control herself from not hitting her friend. Truthfully, she wished Akashi was around; he was better at controlling and explaining things to these dorks than she ever was. She simply sighed and turned to Takao who was gazing at the liquid in his glass, lost in thoughts,

"I am sorry Taka-chan, don't think I will be of any help here... You'll have to drill it into him yourself. He is really thick."

Takao giggled at that slightly and Midorima furrowed his eyebrows in irritation. It was Kise then who changed the topic quickly, as he could clearly read Takao's discomfort; and really, starting a conversation about "perhaps you should start thinking of planning your own wedding Momocchi, come on, there must be some candidates!" was a very good idea. Momoi liked complaining about the fruitlessness of her private life and how most men were boring and uninteresting and oh so unlike Kuroko.

Takao gave a sigh of relief and nobody realised it, except Midorima.

So on the way home, in the silence of the car barring the absent-minded humming that escaped Takao's lips, it was Midorima who brought the subject up again:

"I do not understand why it is inappropriate for us to talk about you moving in with me."

Takao gave a sigh, not of relief but of bother now.

"Well... it is not necessarily inappropriate that we discuss it, it is just rather inappropriate that we discuss it there and with the rationale... you gave."

"Does the ambience really matter?"

"You do take me to expensive restaurants whenever you want to announce something important right?"

"Well... fine. I guess I understand. Societal conventions and what not. But I still do not understand the rest."

"It is... because... look, Shin-chan, you never really had that much experience with dating but moving in is actually an important decision, it is not that much different than proposing in a way."

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? Come on... Do you really want me to move in because it will be advantageous for my bank account?!"

"Obviously not!"

Midorima's voice was strained but Takao snorted,

"Yeah, perhaps you also care about easy access to sex as well huh? Like Aomine? Not that you could ever utter something shameless so openly but I know you are very much into the pleasures of the flesh these days..."

Midorima's face went completely red and he knew very well why Takao had taken this twist in the subject: normally, faced with this kind of an attitude, Midorima would chastise Takao for being so shameless and confine himself to an embarrassed silence. Not that night though, oh no, Midorima would not relent.

"You are so shameless but yes. Yes. Perhaps that is also a reason. There are many reasons. I never said it being economically beneficial for you was the only reason. I obviously would like to live with you because I have feelings for you. That should be apparent! We have been going out for some time now but other than sex nothing much has changed about our relationship, maybe because as you say we were closer than friends before anyway but I want to do something... I want to do something to show you that I care about you. I would buy you a ring and propose to you but you would find it old-fashioned or say that I am rushing. But I want to do something. I want to show you that we are not just friends anymore or some unidentifiable thing that goes beyond friendship; no, we are lovers, we are clearly lovers who are also best friends."

Midorima huffed and puffed then and Takao pushed on the breaks, causing the car to come to a sudden halt near the street. His eyes turned in astonishment to Midorima whose face was throbbing red and he was glaring intently to the front, not sparing any glance to Takao, and despite the sudden stop that caused both of them to jump a little to the front he was acting as though he was an inorganic piece of baggage in the car.

"What did you... what did you say?"

"You- you heard me. You do not need me to repeat it."

"So you do understand... what it would mean... for me to move in?"

"Of course!" Midorima turned then and he was angry, he was slightly stuttering as he continued,

"Why do you guys have to take me as a child? Because I didn't date as much as you all did? Because I could not realise the full extent of your feelings? I am a little oblivious maybe. I am inexperienced maybe. But I am still an adult. I am much more mature than most of you. I... I want to take responsibility too. If Aomine can bloody propose, I should be able to do at least this much."

Takao started giggling then, he could not help himself looking at the almost pitifully painful face of the man in front of him, red as a tomato too, even his ears... The giggling caused Midorima to feel painfully conscious of himself and shy and he did not know how to deal with these emotions; were his feelings being mocked? Could it be that? He felt insecure for a moment. As fury took over his eyes, he started undoing the seat belt,

"Bloody hell... I... I hate you!" he said, and as he said it he could not help but think just how childish he was acting... His fingers were shaking and he felt even stupider but then Takao held onto his hands, gripped them strongly and leaned forward,

"I love you too."

"I did not say I loved you!"

"Oh but you did Shin-chan, isn't tsundere anger how you convey your love?"

"Don't call me tsundere!"

"... is exactly what every tsundere says. You are so cute that I could gobble you up right now."

"Are you out of your mind?! What part of me is cute?"

"Every part of you, is cute."

Takao said, with an especially smooth tone to his voice, his eyes glinting with tenderness, and he slowly buried his face to Midorima's neck, it smelled like apples, courtesy of the recently added apple scented shower gel added to his bathroom's large collection of various toiletry.

Feeling the warmth of the arms circling around him and not paying attention to the inquiring gazes of the passers-by, Midorima also loosely draped his arms around his lover, his initial irritation dissipating further and further each passing minute as the pleasant breath of Takao pulsed on his bare neck.

A moment of silence engulfed them then. No words were spoken but a lot was communicated and perhaps to affirm the content of the silent exchange, Takao asked with a small voice later without moving away even an inch, his lips grazing Midorima's neck as he spoke,

"Do... do you really mean that? Things you said? You really mean them?"

Midorima was so used to Takao's confident ways that these rare moments of fragility always touched him in a special way; he thought, he believed – and he was right to believe – that he was the only one Takao could ever be fragile to.

"Yes... yes." he said, a clear confirmation in his voice and though he could not see Takao's face, as it was way buried over his neck now, he could feel the raven haired man smile.

"Well... I guess I won't have to look for an apartment then..." Takao mumbled.

And after a pause of silence, Midorima chuckled sincerely in a small voice, it was almost like a hum.