A/N 50 CHAPTERS! WHAAAAAT? I'm super excited about this! It's like a roadmark!

Sorry for missing last week's update. I had a fun-filled weekend, though, and I hope you guys did too!

Timeline: One year after the end of Prince of Tennis (that includes all the U-17 shenanigans that will be completely glossed over except for the occasional mention of some high schoolers and some tennis moves that the characters learned during that time) when all the third-years are in their first year of high school, after Inter High but before Winter Cup, at the start of season 2 (this story will be going through Winter Cup)

Warnings: Fem!Ryoma, Fem!Kuroko, Nice!Akashi, Akashi and Kuroko as cousins, somewhat altered timeline (due to gender switches and all), dark themes (like with all my stories), BS tennis and basketball moves, potential (extreme) OOCness, cussing, SomewhatOverprotective!GOM, eventual and inevitable GOM/multiple other characters bashing, obvious partiality to multiple other characters

THIS STORY TAKES SOME INSPIRATION FROM PRINCESS OF MIRACLES AND THE ICE PRINCESS OF RIKKAIDAI by Starian NightZz (you guys should read those stories if you haven't yet). If you see some similarities, please note that this is why, and that I will try my best to come up with original ideas.

And sorry that this is a bit late, but this story only follows the anime. I have not read the manga, and will not search through it for everything I need to make this story as canon as possible, so just a (belated) little warning.

And another really late note: sorry for not mentioning this way earlier, but I have found that I am also drawing inspiration from the crossover fic A Friendship Of Sorts by herondalefan. Maybe some of you have noticed, maybe you haven't. Sorry for not mentioning this earlier! (But seriously, if you guys are still reading this fic, you'd love this crossover fic. It's ridiculously well-written!)

Another late addition to the plethora of permanent A/N stuff: if it's not already obvious, I have taken A LOT of inspiration from many different fics and fused those ideas with some original ones of my own. If I'm to be honest, naming all of the fics that inspired me would be a pain for both you and me. To not waste both your and my time, I'd just like to ask that if you guys think that my fic parallels a bit too closely to another fic that you've read before, or one that you have written, or that if you think that I have outright stolen an idea, either leave a scathing review or PM me. (though you guys are all really sweet about my fic-I swear, I haven't gotten a single hate review or flamer yet, so props to you guys XD)

Disclaimer: Neither Prince of Tennis nor Kuroko no Basuke belong to me.

Fiftieth: Trivialities

Kagami responds absentmindedly to his teammates' farewells as they leave his house. The atmosphere is heavy with somber from the previous conversation. He had never believed the Generation of Miracles could more bastardly than they already are. At the same time, the air feels lighter, as if a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. He's sure Tetsuya feels the same way-if not more so.

His shadow is sitting in the living room, her sobs slowly tapering off with every passing second. Kagami is hiding out in the kitchen until they've fully stopped. The kettle begins to whistle, signaling that the water he's been boiling is ready. He picks it up, setting it in the middle of three mugs. Unsure of Echizen's tea preferences, Kagami digs out a handful of different flavors from the box his mother had stashed in the cabinet when she visited during her vacation. Dropping them next to the kettle, he lifts the tray and slowly heads back to where Tetsuya and Echizen are sitting, hoping that Tetsuya has stopped crying.

When he enters his own living room, Kagami feels like an intruder.

Tetsuya is dabbing at her eyes with a napkin, smiling in a way that Kagami only sees after a game as she converses with Echizen, who seems to be trying her best to make the older girl laugh-and succeeding. For the first time, Kagami marvels at the relationship between the two. There's no way that they've known each other for more than a month or two, and yet here they are, acting as if they've known each other for years. There's a comfortable camaraderie between the two that exists between Kagami and Tetsuya, and they've known each other since the beginning of the year.

As Kagami walks further into the room, Echizen tilts her head back, golden eyes full of slight amusement and full adoration lighting upon him. Her smile sharpens into a smirk as she notes the tray in his hands. "You're a real house wife, you know that?"

Kagami snorts but otherwise doesn't dignify the provocative jab with a response. Tonight isn't a night for snide taunts and sneered responses. Tonight is calm and peaceful and-god damn it stop smirking at me like that. "At least the food I make is edible," he shrugs, setting the tray down with a thump and plopping down onto a cushion, stretching his feet out under the low table and leaning back.

Echizen reaches for a mug, not bothering to respond to Kagami's slightly defensive remark. He turns his head to look up at Tetsuya, who folds the napkin in half and blows her nose loudly. Even with red eyes and nose, cheeks stained with tear tracks, and wisps of hair plastered to her forehead, she looks more content than ever before. "You know, we're all happy that you told us, right?"

Kagami may not be the roundest ball in the storage ball (case in point: his horrendous attempt at a basketball metaphor), but he likes to think that he understands Tetsuya, more so than the rest of the team. She's concise and straightforward, not the type to speak circles in vague terms to deflect attention from a certain topic. Her misdirection in word form is much less effective than in reality. He wonders if she'll tell him now that they're alone (with Echizen, who is reading through the packets of tea with a rather serious look on her face).

Despite everything, Tetsuya's lips don't move further than a twitch, so Kagami smiles for her. "I know," she murmurs quietly, as if afraid that if she speaks any louder she'll start crying once more. "I'm happy too."

"I know," Kagami echoes, grinning widely at her. "But you haven't told us everything. What happened to your eyes? Is the same thing that happened the reason why you wear contacts?" Tetsuya's eyes widen slightly, and Kagami's grin widens even more. "I saw you putting them in during winter camp. I'm more observant than others think, see? What made Akashi change so much during your second year? You seemed to have a close relationship with him before-still do. Actually, now that I think about...are the two of you in a relationship?"

"No!" Tetsuya stares at Kagami in horror, shaking her head once and harshly. Echizen is chortling beside her, adding several lumps of sugar into her tea (the girl's like a sugar addict, with all the Ponta she drinks-and is that six cubes of sugar?). "No, Seijūrō and I will never be in a relationship."

Kagami raises an eyebrow, racking his brain in an attempt to remember all of their interactions. From what he can remember, the bastard actually seems to listen to her, so he can't imagine any other reason. Besides, he can see the two of them being romantically interested in each other. Hell, they helped develop each other's basketball styles-to a basketball idiot like Kagami, that's synonymous to a declaration of love. "What? Why?"

Echizen is still laughing as she mixes the sugar into the tea. "For one, it'd be illegal." Tetsuya opens her mouth, supposedly to correct Echizen, and the tennis player rolls her eyes, cutting her off. "Okay, fine, at least, in the States."

Kagami frowns, mulling the tennis player's words over in his head. "Illegal? Aren't you two the same age?"

"Wow, he really doesn't get it," Echizen murmurs, taking a careful sip of her drink. She glances at Tetsuya over the rim of her mug, raising an eyebrow. Kagami's partner sighs softly, nodding in response to whatever silent question her friend had asked. "They're cousins."

Kagami jerks up so fast, his shins bang into the chabudai, causing the tablecloth to flutter and settle half on the chabudai, half on the floor. "Wait what?"

Echizen rolls her eyes, muttering something about idiot bastards into the mug. Tetsuya is the one who affirms, "Yes, Seijūrō and I are cousins. That is the reason why we seem so...close. And I personally find myself repulsed at the idea of dating him."

"Yeah, no, go you," Kagami replies somewhat dazedly, still trying to make sense of the idea of two people as different as night and day being related to each other. "Incest is sincest."

Echizen raises an eyebrow, lowering the mug. "Damn, did you come up with that phrase all on your own? Impressive."

Kagami's eyebrow twitches, and he glowers at her as he slowly leans back down again. "Shut up. Some of my old friends back in the states were hardcore weebs. Never did understand the obsession with incest."

Tetsuya picks up her own mug, raising the kettle with her left hand. Her movements are smooth as she fills the cup to the brim then sets it down again to look for a tea packet. "Incest or not, neither Seijūrō nor I are interested in each other. I think it's better to stay that way."

"You have any cousins?" Echizen questions, dropping another cube of sugar into her mug. Kagami wonders how she doesn't have diabetes yet.

"Probably," he answers, not really thinking about it. He's never met any extended family except for his grandparents on his father's side, and even then he can barely remember their faces. He doesn't even know their names. "Never met any of them, though. I think my parents are a bit of a sore topic for the rest of the family."

Echizen raises an eyebrow but otherwise doesn't comment, stirring her tea before stating, "I have a cousin. She's my mom's sister's daughter. She moved out of our house and into her fiancé's because he got her knocked up about a year ago. Now she's too busy with the little tyke to come and visit. I think she's happy."

"You think?" Tetsuya repeats, blowing lightly on the surface of her tea before gingerly testing the heat with her lips.

Echizen shrugs, golden eyes cool as she wipes her finger with a napkin and drinks her tea. "It's not like we talk anymore. She's busy."

Sensing the vibes of I don't want to talk about this pouring off of Echzien, Kagami fishes for something else, something different enough. "You lived in the US, right?"

She nods, crossing her legs and pulling Nigou from his position next to Tetsuya and onto her lap. "Yeah. I grew up in Los Angeles. We had a tennis court right next to a swimming pool in the backyard, and there were trees everywhere. Tall, green, and leafy-not like all the scrawny ones around here." Tetsuya's lips twitch, and Kagami snorts. Of course, Echzien Ryoma would describe flowering trees as scrawny. "I was practically born with a tennis racket."

Kagami nods, scooting further away from Echizen when Nigou wiggles around in her lap, his head popping up and resting on the knee closest to him. "Guess that makes sense. I lived in Miami. They had great waves there, you know. I bet, if I hadn't discovered basketball, I would've tried to pursue a career in surfing." Kagami grins, remembering salt and water saturating his clothing, sinking into his skin until he was practically salt and water and wind. "Imagine that, huh? But then I never would've met you two, so I guess I'd better take my losses with my wins."

"Who're you calling a loss?" Echizen snaps back, leaning towards Kagami. Nigou's face ends up even closer to Kagami's hip than before, and he shudders as he scoots even further to the left.

"You, not Tetsuya," Kagami snaps back, scowl replaced by a smirk when he hears Tetsuya chuckle quietly. "But, man, surfing. The worst thing about Japan is the fact that it's such a long fucking ride to the beach. Coach didn't even let us swim after training during camp, the demon."

"We did the squats in the water," Tetsuya offers, only looking annoyingly amused when Kagami scowls at her.

"Yeah, that's not swimming," he grumbles, crossing her arms behind his head and staring up at his ceiling. He wonders how late it is. Tomorrow's a big day. They'll need as much rest as they can possibly get. "I haven't surfed for almost an entire year now."

"Never would've taken you for a surfer," Echizen remarks, lightly scratching between Nigou's ears.

"Too Japanese?"

"Too much of a basketball idiot."

Kagami rolls his eyes as Tetsuya laughs again. The redness of her eyes seems to be fading. "What about you, huh, Tetsuya? Any cousins besides Akashi?"

Tetsuya ponders the question, lightly tracing the rim of the mug with a fingertip. "None that stood out to me. The Akashi's are a very...proliferate family, so to speak. Seijūrō and I are the odd ones out, being the only children of our parents. Besides, the rest don't live in Japan. Because there are so many different branches to the conglomerate, many different branches of our family are based all over the world. Mother's older sister lives in Germany with five of her children, and the other three already have families of their own in Australia, Chad, and Canada. At least, I believe so."

Kagami's eyes are practically bulging out of his head. "What? Wait, how rich is your family?"

Tetsuya blinks at him. "You aren't aware of the Akashi family?"

Kagami frowns, scratching his head. "I mean, I've heard of them. Pretty sure my dad works for some branch of the company, but I didn't think it was so big it had campuses in that many places around the world."

"I myself am not even aware of just how what Uncle does, but to make things concise, I'll say that the Akashi corporation is an international business that is a part of many different fields, ranging from business to shipping to entertainment and food." Tetsuya glances towards Echizen. "Did you know that the company that produces Ponta is actually owned by the Akashi's?"

"No way." Echizen gapes at Tetsuya before grinning widely. "Do you think you could hook me up with a lifetime's supply of grape Ponta? Oh man, Ryoga would get so jealous!"

"You'd have to ask Seijūrō about that," Tetsuya replies dryly, picking up the kettle and pouring more water (this time, lukewarm) into her mug. "He's planning to succeed Uncle once he has graduated from university. Who's Ryoga?"

Echizen has her phone out and is furiously typing a message, most likely to Akashi asking about the Ponta. Kagami thinks it's kind of endearing. He can't imagine Akashi Seijūrō looking at his phone while doing whatever it is he does at this time of night and seeing a text message from Echizen asking for a lifetime's supply of Ponta. He can't imagine anyone else being able to do this without having their heads cut off with a giant pair of kitchen scissors. "Oh, he's my bastard half-brother," she replies absentmindedly.

"An actual bastard?" Tetsuya asks, slight amusement in her tone.

Echizen snorts, a sardonic half-smirk twisting her lips. "Ha ha, real funny. Yeah, actually. Oyaji impregnated a woman before he married mom. When she died, our aunt took custody of him but eventually shipped him off to oyaji. He only lived with us for a few years before she had a change of heart and demanded him back. So, yeah, Ryoga's a real bastard." After a final jab at the screen of her phone, she drops the phone. It lands on Nigou's back, and he turns his head to stare balefully up at her. "Ooh, sorry, Nigou." She quickly scoops up the phone as it buzzes, and Kagami raises an eyebrow at the surprisingly swift response as Echizen reads it. "Damnit, Seijūrō, it's a simple request. Why're you being so stingy?"

"At the rate you're drinking it at, a lifetime's supply of Ponta would be equivalent to half the company's net worth," Kagami snorts, pushing even further away from the tennis player when she swipes at him. "I mean, on average, you probably drink at least three cans a day?"

"How would you know?" she replies, slightly miffed. "You've only seen me four days in the past couple of months."

"And those four days are enough for me to determine your Ponta drinking habits."

"You make it sound like I'm an alcohol addict."

"I mean, I don't know, you do seem to spend a lot of money on Ponta. I bet those vending machines are loaded with yen because of you."

"Fuck you."

Kagami glances past Echizen towards where Tetsuya is sitting. Her arms are folded on the chabudai, her face cradled within them. He can't tell whether she's listening to them or actually asleep. Just in case she really is asleep, he lowers his voice. "You have such a poisonous tongue for being thirteen-years-old."

"What does my age have anything to do with this?"

"Some people might find it strange that the majority of your friends are people years older than you."

"Some people meaning you?"

"Including me. And you've gotta admit, it is weird."

Echizen sniffs, setting her phone down on the floor and twisting so that she's parallel to Kagami. Stretching out her legs, she leans back until she's resting on the ground, facing Kagami. Nigou wriggles on her lap, finding a new position draped over her stomach. Hopefully, she can still breathe. "Most people my age are idiots. And besides, all the best tennis players are in high school now. To even get a challenge, I had to follow them to Rakuzan."

"What about the US Open or whatever? What about professional tennis?"

Echizen laughs sardonically. "Yeah, like they'd accept me."

"But didn't you play in a pro tournament?"

"As a wild card. And I lost before quarterfinals. None of them took me seriously before as a thirteen-year-old girl playing against twenty to thirty-year-old men-which, by the way, is probably in violation with some sort of rules and only allowed because oyaji has huge clout in the tennis circuits-and none of them will take me seriously after I lost before reaching quarterfinals. No point in rushing into a world where everyone hates me."

"But you still did pretty well, right?"

She smirks, but there's no amusement in it. "Sure, but nobody cares if I did 'pretty well.' I need to do 'the best.' Otherwise, it's meaningless."

Kagami frowns. From everything he knows about the tennis player, he never would've imagined her to care so much about first place. "Who told you that? Akashi?"

Echizen raises an eyebrow at him. "It's none of your business. I don't see why you'd care about something like that. You're really weird, Kagami. You like surfing, you're failing English despite having lived in the US-"

"Wait-did Tetsuya tell you that?"

"-and you're deathly terrified of dogs. I'm more of a cat person myself, but I still like dogs. Why are you so scared of them?"

Kagami wonders whether he should let her change the topic in a not so smooth way. The coldness of her golden eyes convinces him to go along with it. "It's a real phobia," he grumbles, eyeing Nigou distrustingly. "I got diagnosed and everything. I just hate everything about dogs. I hate their tails, I hate their teeth, I hate their eyes. I swear they're out to get me."

"Sounds more like paranoia than a phobia of dogs," Echizen snorts, lightly petting Nigou.

"Imagine having a dog bite your ass when you were five-years-old and peacefully petting it. Who wouldn't be terrified of the inhumane bastards?" Kagami shudders, remembering the glowing red eyes and razor sharp teeth of the chihuahua that had practically taken a bite out of his ass.

"I'm surrounded by weirdos," Echizen groans, lightly lifting Nigou from off of her and setting him down next to Tetsuya. Pushing herself up, she combs her hair out of her face and checks the time on her phone. "Oh, it's almost midnight. I better get going."

Despite her words, she hesitates slightly, glancing out the window that reveals the pitch black of the night.

It looks like I'm not the only one afraid of something.

Instead of teasing her (it's way too late for that), Kagami offers quietly, "Do you want to stay the night? I have an extra futon that you and Tetsuya can share if you guys want to. It's too late for the both of you to go out walking the streets of Tokyo alone."

Echizen gives him a grateful look and nods. "Yeah. I'd like that."

While Kagami goes off in search of the futon, Echizen shakes Tetsuya awake. He hears one of them stumble into the bathroom, turning the shower on. He doesn't think that either of them has a spare change of clothes, and digs through some old clothing that no longer fits him and hopes he gets the sizes right. As he's setting the futon out, Echizen takes the clothes he had found and knocks on the bathroom door, knocking on it and waiting for it to open. After a while, it opens a crack and a pale arm reaches out to grab the clothes before quickly receding.

Kagami quickly glances away when Echzien catches him looking, and he hopes that he isn't blushing as he quickly finishes up.

"The futon's ready," he calls to Echizen where she's in the kitchen, washing the mugs. "When you guys are done with the bathroom, turn off all the lights and don't forget to remind Tetsuya to set an alarm. I tend to hit snooze a lot, so it's better if she's the one who wakes us all up."

"Yeah, yeah, go to bed!" Echizen calls back, the sound of the faucet in the kitchen turning off.

"Good night!" he hollers back, even louder, just to spite her.

His bedroom door is almost closed behind him when he hears her call back, quieter than him, "Good night, Kagami."

It isn't until just before Kagami falls asleep does he realize that Tetsuya never answered his questions about her injuries.

I wanted something light and fun and probably nonsensical and filler-like before we got to the Seirin-Rakuzan match, which will start, unfortunately, next chapter. It's going to be both fun and hell, I just know it.

Yeah. Peace, see ya next time, hope you liked it!

Never (LivingDaLife)