𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟾

"Hey, Shin-chan!"

"What could you possibly want, Takao? We should be focusing on our next qualifier."

Takao waved dismissively at the sharp remark and held back his snicker. It was hard to take the green miracle seriously when he was clearly distracted by searching the stands for the very person the point guard was going to be meeting.

"My sister says that she needs me to pick up something for a school project, so I figure I'll go run that errand before heading home tonight. You know how that is, right? Being a big brother yourself?"

Midorima frowned and Takao could sense the rebuttal forming on the tip of his tongue – most likely something about how he 'certainly knew where to find any troublesome objects' as a way of saying they could run the errand together. As resistant as Midorima was to outright saying that he appreciated someone or enjoyed their company, he always found some 'logical' reason to assist the people he apparently considered friends. Too bad Takao was more interested in his meddling plot to enjoy the hilarious tsundere's habits.

"I don't want to make you too late getting home and I'm sure my own little sis' is going to make me head straight back, so it's just a better idea overall for us to just go home separately tonight, yeah?"

Takao could see that if he pushed a bit more, then he was clearly going to win the argument. Midorima was distracted, his resolve wasn't given enough time to harden into his famous stubbornness, and if he drove home the guilt factor just a little bit more, he might be home free from any questioning.

"Speaking of little sisters, do you ever work on school projects with 'Rima-chan? She seems so independent I wouldn't be surprised if she went out on errands for herself all the time!"

"Fool! Of course, I help my little sister with whatever she needs! Her self-sufficiency does not mean that she doesn't know how to ask for help! Go, focus on helping out your own sister. Heaven knows you'll need every brain cell you have to do it right.

Now, be quiet! I need to be absolutely focused on this next match. Momoi and Kise say that Seirin will likely give us more trouble than we expected, so we must be diligent!"

Takao waved another dismissive hand, though he was much more interested in this little slip.

"Really, now? Momoi and Kise? What? Did Kuroko-kun suddenly agree to join them?"

The point guard's luck must have really been on a streak because the tsundere finally saw fit to give him answers to his questions – or he really was paying such little actual attention to the questions asked.

"That would be the reason that we need to be diligent, Takao. Any team that could pose some threat without another miracle is a ludicrous idea, but Momoi seems convinced that she and Kise have managed to help Seirin cultivate a talent on par with the Generation.

It's exaggerated if you ask me, but Momoi's assessments have also never been wrong before. She can predict a player's future as accurately as Oha-Asa reads our luck, so it would be foolhardy for us to throw away a chance to observe."

Takao took that as his cue to actually be quiet or he would be seriously pushing his luck. In the meantime, he took the chance to send off a quick text to his future companions with a signal that he was good to go.

*

Kasamatsu, Kuroko, and Takao decided to meet up at a local restaurant that the phantom Miracle was familiar with. Hilariously for Takao, the reason had been because Midorima associated the place with a terrible natto fight during a previous team dinner. For all the begging the Shuutoku point guard tried to do, Kuroko didn't divulge any more information than that.