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All my knowledge of Japanese New Year traditions and the Meiji shrine come from either anime or Wikipedia. I meant no offense if I got anything about them wrong.

Last Official Chapter

Kagami's apartment was in chaos, but the very best kind of chaos. Everyone was there: The entire Seirin team including Ogiwara, all the regulars from Shuutoku, Kaijou, Touo, and Rakuzan, Himuro all the way from Yousen, and of course, all the Generation of Miracles. Even Kiyoshi was there, on crutches when he wasn't sitting.

Kuroko sat perched on the back of the sofa, since sitting space was a little scarce with so many people there. From his perch he could see everything that was going on. Kagami was talking with Himuro, the two of them leaning against the all, looking more comfortable than Kuroko had ever had the privilege of seeing them act together before. Their brotherhood seemed completely restored. Their smiles were easy and they were able to laugh together for what Kuroko was certain was the first time in a long time.

Miyaji from Shuutoku was deep in an animated conversation with Moriyama from Kaijou as they watched Kouhaku on TV. Both were fanboying over the female acts of the New Year's Eve singing contest, while Kimura and Kobori sat on either side of them, looking embarrassed to be associated with them. When poor Tsuchida walked by, he was ambushed by Moriyama, and dragged down to sit between him and Miyaji, looking bewildered as Moriyama declared to Miyaji that Tsuchida had a girlfriend and was therefore Moriyama's teacher in romance. Nearby, Nebuya was pestering Murasakibara for an arm wrestling match, but Murasakibara was too busy eating to pay him much attention. Mibuchi was trying to flirt with Kasamatsu, who had gone red in the face and was stuttering.

Mayuzumi was completely owning Kiyoshi at hanafuda, mercilessly raking in all the Uncrowned King's corn chips, as though those were a precious commodity or something. As though there weren't twelve more bags of them in the kitchen, and a bowlful within grabbing distance. Wakamatsu and Hayakawa were arguing over something, but they were too far away for Kuroko to hear what about. Though on second thought, they might have just been talking. With those two it was hard to tell.

Akashi and Imayoshi were having a discussion, that probably involved a lot of subtle insults, if their expressions were anything to go by. Both looked to be at their most devious. Behind Imayoshi, Hayama and Takao were tossing pieces of popcorn into Imayoshi's hood. It was a difficult shot, but they were both national level basketball players, and so far they'd made each throw. Midorima was shaking his head disdainfully, but didn't deign to stop them, suggesting he was secretly amused by their antics but wanted to come across as more mature than them. Akashi didn't do a thing to stop them either, and he definitely saw what they were doing.

Aomine was in the kitchen, getting yelled at by Momoi for trying to spike the punch, while Ogiwara stood by laughing. Hyuuga was sending them glares now and then, clearly finding them a nuisance to the conversation he was trying to have with Ootsubo.

Mitobe was with Sakurai, who was dissecting various Mexican foods on his plate, probably trying to figure out how they were made. Koganei kept up a running commentary for what Mitobe wanted to contribute.

Susa was talking with Seirin's freshman trio, though Kuroko couldn't imagine what about. Whatever it was, Susa found it funny, because he threw back his head and laughed as Kuroko was watching. His reaction was a far cry from Kise's reactions to the food related puns Izumi was making to him.

"It's nice, isn't it?" asked Riko, leaning against the back of the sofa right beside Kuroko.

"Yes," said Kuroko, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "I never thought something like this could be possible."

"You made it possible," said Riko. "You know that, don't you?"

Kuroko was silent for a moment. "A lot of things made this possible –"

"But it would never have happened without you," said Riko softly. "You're the reason so many people who love basketball are here right now, finding friends in rival teams. All these players are here because of the Generation of Miracles, and the Generation of Miracles is here because of you. There's no one else they'd all come together in a place like this for, is there?"

"If Akashi-kun requested it, we would."

"Except he wouldn't," said Riko. "You know that doing something like this wouldn't even occur to him."

"Well, it did occur to him to crash this party," pointed out Kuroko.

"Only because Kagami-kun made it very clear he wasn't invited."

"That must be why he RSVPed. Not to be polite, but to annoy Kagami-kun," said Kuroko, not bothering to hide a little smile over that.

Riko laughed. "But Kuroko-kun, do you really think Akashi-kun would have any interest in something like this normally?"

"No," Kuroko admitted.

Riko beamed. "So you see? This is all thanks to you."

Kuroko tried to find an argument against that, because his sense of politeness demanded it, but he wasn't able to come up with anything. Riko's smile grew.

"You do see. You're just too modest to want to admit it. And that's alright. You're fine how you are. Just as long as you know. And just as long as you know that we know. And appreciate it," said Riko. Then she boosted herself up onto the back of the couch to sit beside Kuroko and held her plate toward him. "Want a churro?"

Kuroko accepted, mainly to help negate the solemnity brought on by their conversation. Sitting there in silence, not doing anything but watching people would have been a little awkward after that conversation. Sitting there in silence eating was more companionable.

The party continued on into the night, and strangely, even though everyone there loved basketball, it was rarely spoken of that night, even after the Seiho team showed up to crash the party. Kuroko didn't even know how they'd found out about it, but didn't really mind. No one really did, except maybe Kagami, who went several rounds with Tsugawa when it came to verbal sparring. And Kise, who hadn't liked Tsugawa back in middle school and didn't like him now. They got into an argument that devolved into a name calling contest, that ended when their respective captains simultaneously whacked both freshman in the back of their heads and made them bow and apologize to each other.

Throughout the night, Kuroko was never alone for long. No one was. Kuroko saw everyone change who they were hanging out with and talking to multiple times. Poor Tsuchida tried talking to and hiding behind just about everyone in his attempts to get away from Moriyama, but the senior always inevitably dragged him back. The longest reprieve Tsuchida got was when Akashi took pity on him and pulled him down to sit with him for a little while. Not even Moriyama would dare cross Akashi.

Midorima got into an animated discussion with Mibuchi about the validity of tarot card readings. Hayama got into a conversation with Kagami and Himuro about the similarities between surfing and skateboarding. Tsugawa cut between Kuroko and Kise when Kise was trying to talk with him, and hijacked the conversation, draping his arm around Kuroko and giving Kise an infuriating smile, that finally made the blonde lose it and go off. It took both Akashi and Kasamatsu to get him to shut up.

Finally, people started trickling out. The party had run long past midnight, and it was getting so late that it was getting early. Imayoshi finally put the hood of his hoodie up when he was about to step out the door. The action spilled out all the popcorn that Hayama and Takao had filled it with, over his head and put a startled, confused look on the former Touo captain's face. Takao was there with his cell phone snapping pictures, as Hayama rolled on the floor in laughter. Even Akashi cracked a smile. Kuroko didn't think his former captain disliked the former Touo captain. He just liked seeing him made a fool of. Otherwise he probably would have reprimanded Hayama, especially after Hayama started rolling through the fallen popcorn.

Kuroko didn't think that anyone went home that night without exchanging email addresses or phone numbers with someone. He ended up with contact information for Tsugawa (despite Kise's wailing protests), Sakurai (who'd joined in on a conversation he'd been having with Mayuzumi about light novels), and Moriyama (who wanted to know Kuroko's secret for getting Momoi so obsessed with him.) He'd already had Mayuzumi's since they'd had some good discussions about books when Kuroko was in the hospital, but now he ended up making plans to meet up with Mayuzumi again before the senior left Tokyo and went home to Kyoto in a few days.

Seirin stayed after everyone else had gone home, and helped clean up. With everyone pitching in, they were done in no time, and Kuroko, Kagami, and Ogiwara saw their teammates off before locking the door and heading back to the living room, where they all collapsed onto the couch.

"That was fun," said Ogiwara. "Let's do it again next week."

"Let's not," said Kagami. "Those Miracles are freaking annoying."

"I thought they were funny. That bald guy too. By the way, what does that Kasamatsu guy have against our coach?" Ogiwara wondered out loud.

"Kasamatsu-san seems easily intimidated by girls," Kuroko informed him.

"So you mean to say he's like that with all women and not just Coach?"

"As far as we can tell," said Kagami.

"It's very late," said Kuroko a few seconds later, when neither of the others spoke up to fill the silence. "We should go to bed."

"Yeah," agreed Ogiwara.

"We should," said Kagami.

But none of the three of them moved.

"If we fall asleep here, we're all going to have back aches and stiff muscles tomorrow," commented Ogiwara.

"Yeah. We will," agreed Kagami.

But still none of them made a move to stand.

Then Kuroko slumped against Kagami's shoulder.

"Huh? Kuroko? Don't tell me you're asleep already?" said Kagami.

Kuroko didn't answer, only breathed steadily, like he always did when he was asleep.

"He's definitely asleep," said Ogiwara.

"Should we move him to his room?" asked Kagami.

"The doctors said to let him sleep whenever he does go to sleep, right? Unless we absolutely have to wake him up, we're supposed to leave him alone. We might wake him if we try to move him . . . and let's be honest, we're not really planning to get off this sofa until tomorrow, are we?"

Kagami gave a tired laugh. "Probably not. No. Not really."

"Right. Good night," Ogiwara said, and gave up any pretense of trying to stay awake. He closed his eyes and leaned back.

"G'night," Kagami agreed, then carefully shifted Kuroko so that instead of leaning against his shoulder, Kuroko was leaning against his chest, and one of Kagami's arms was draped around him, lending him a little warmth, even though the apartment's heat was on. The last thing he wanted was Kuroko catching a cold this soon after getting out of the hospital. This soon after finally, perhaps for the first time in his life, coming home.

Because that's what Kagami's apartment was now. Not just for Kuroko, but for Kagami now too. Even after having lived there for over a year, it had never really felt like home until Ogiwara and Kuroko moved in.

Kagami took one more look at his newfound brothers before closing his eyes and giving in to sleep.

The summons from Akashi had come just before noon. Coming from their former captain, that was courtesy at its finest. If they hadn't all just stayed up until 3:00 in the morning, he probably would have sent them the summons around 6:00 so they could get there early and beat the crowds.

Meet at the Meiji Shrine entrance at 1:00 under Murasakibara.

Kuroko intended to go alone, remembering how horrible the last time he'd brought anyone to one of Akashi's summons turned out, but Kagami and Ogiwara flat out refused to let him.

"Your arm's still in a cast and that place is going to be crowded like crazy," said Ogiwara. "People aren't going to see you and they're going to run into you and jostle you like mad. We'll go with you and Kagami can scowl at everyone to clear a five foot radius around you."

Kagami rolled his eyes at Ogiwara, but agreed. "And we don't have a handle on your epilepsy yet. Until we do, you shouldn't go anywhere alone. Even after that, it's safer if you've always got someone you know with you."

"But . . . last time . . ."

Kagami sighed and rolled his eyes. "We'll just go with you until you meet up with those idiots, then be on our way. I promise not to provoke the crazy scissors captain again, if you promise to call us to come get you when your meet up is finished. Or get one of those idiots to bring you home. Preferably one of the less annoying ones like . . . oh wait. None of them can really be considered less annoying. They're all horrible."

"I thought," Akashi said, once they were all gathered together, "that it would be nice to make our first shrine visit of the year together. We brought in the new year together, after all. And we all learned to love basketball together. Or relearned to love it together. Thank you all for coming."

"Like we had any choice," grumbled Aomine. "I was sleeping, you know."

"Dai-chan, enough," said Momoi, slapping his arm lightly. "I think it's nice too. Thank you for inviting me along, Akashi-kun."

"And thank you for not attacking Kagami-kun with scissors this time," commented Kuroko.

Akashi had actually approved of Kuroko having a chaperone this time, and probably wouldn't have gotten violent or even difficult if Kagami and Ogiwara had insisted on tagging along. He seemed to think it was safest for Kuroko to be accompanied by a friend now too, thanks to his new condition. Kuroko hoped that after they had a handle on it his friends would relax a little. He didn't really mind their protectiveness but he didn't want to be a burden to them either. It had been a little bit embarrassing when Akashi promised Kagami and Ogiwara that he would drop Kuroko off at the apartment before it got dark, like he was a little kid or something. But since it had ended without Akashi giving Kagami a demonstration on how you don't use scissors, Kuroko tolerated it.

"Think nothing of it, Tetsuya," Akashi said generously.

"While we're here, I intend to stock up on lucky items," Midorima stated. "Good luck charms purchased at the beginning of the year are always of a higher caliber than those purchased at other times."

"And there are lots of New Year's sweets that they only sell at New Year's," said Murasakibara lazily.

"Thus the reason for them being New Year's sweets," commented Kise, slinging an arm around Kuroko's shoulders. "Shall we go in?"

They made their way toward the shrine, struggling to stay together in the crowd. It made for slow going, but they managed not to lose anyone. Kuroko only managed to stay with them because of Kise's arm around his shoulders, and Akashi walking on his other side, gripping his sleeve.

They hit up the snack stands first, or there would have been no placating Murasakibara. Akashi treated them all to sweet rice cakes, and Murasakibara bought a bunch of other stuff. Then they went to the charm and souvenir stands next. Midorima managed to dupe Kise and Aomine into carrying the extra bags of charms and potential lucky items that he bought that he himself couldn't carry, by riling them up, goading them into a game of paper-rock-scissors, and beating them both soundly. It was fun. It reminded Kuroko of the festival they'd gone to together during the summer before they all fell apart. They were taller now, and none of them were wearing yukata like they'd been then, because it was winter, and quite cold, but in all the ways that mattered, things were the same. They were friends again. They could laugh together, and tease each other, wind each other up, and joke it off.

As they made their way to the shrine itself, where they would make their offerings and wishes for the new year, Midorima pulled Kuroko aside and placed a light blue omamori charm in his hand.

"For health and safety," Midorima said, pushing up his glasses, looking embarrassed, but determined. "Because . . . it would about kill us if something else happened to you."

Kuroko accepted the charm, hanging onto Midorima's hand for a brief moment when the taller boy passed it to him. "Thank you very much, Midorima-kun."

Kuroko hadn't really been planning on making a New Years visit to a shrine until Akashi called him up. He hadn't thought of a wish to make, but now that he was trying to, he realized that . . . he really didn't have much to wish for. Everything that he'd really wanted, everything important, as unbelievable as it still sometimes seemed, he now had.

Let it last, he prayed, when he and the rest of the Generation of Miracles made it to the altar box, and tossed in their coins as offerings, clapping their hands as they did so. Let us have lots more good times. Don't let it fall apart this time.

Kuroko remembered how easily it had fallen apart last time, but even though this was what he used as his wish for this year, he wasn't worried that it would happen again. Their friendship was stronger now than it had been back then, and it was stronger because it had once been broken. They all knew what it was like to be alone now, to lose what they had just gotten back, and the reforging of their bonds had tempered them, like well crafted steel.

This was proven by the fact that all the rest of the Generation of Miracles all made similar wishes for their friendship's longevity. No one said it, but Kuroko could tell, by the steely set of their jaws, and by how their eyes had all suddenly gone over-bright.

"Can we stop by the snack stands again on the way out?" asked Murasakibara, finally breaking the solemn silence that had descended over them.

"How about we go to a restaurant instead?" suggested Akashi. "The longer we stay, the more likely we are to lose Tetsuya in this crowd. And I think we've kept him out in the cold a bit too long too. We should get him somewhere warm."

"I'm fine –" Kuroko started to protest, but was immediately swamped by attention.

"You're cold? You should have said something, Kurokocchi!" said Kise, immediately glomping him from one side as Momoi did the same thing from the other side.

"We'll keep you warm, Tetsu-kun!" Momoi promised.

"Hey, get off him. You'll suffocate him," Aomine said. Then, "Are you really cold, Tetsu? I'll give you my coat. I'm wearing a sweatshirt underneath."

"No, I'm fine," Kuroko said quickly. "But thank you."

Something soft was suddenly draped around his neck. Midorima's scarf. The shooting guard didn't say anything, but carefully wrapped the scarf around Kuroko's neck and tied it so it would stay on.

"You can have this, Kuro-chin," said Murasakibara, handing him a steamed bun from his bag of snacks that had probably been piping hot when he'd gotten it, but was now lukewarm – but it was the thought that counted.

"Enough," said Akashi, but he was smiling. "Come. I'll treat you all to ramen."

That had the opposite effect of what he was aiming for. Instead of coming along, the rest of the Generation of Miracles froze on the spot.

Akashi, sensing that they weren't following, stopped and turned around to look back at them. "What?"

"Treat us to ramen?" asked Kise.

"This is the incentive often given in videogames, is it not?" asked Akashi. "And ramen shops prepare food quickly, and it's warm. So it seemed like a good thing to suggest."

"Ramen sounds good," said Kuroko quickly, stepping forward to walk beside his captain.

The others quickly voiced their approval and started moving again as well.

And as Aomine stepped up beside him to sling an arm around Kuroko's shoulders so they wouldn't lose him, and Akashi gently gripped his arm again for the same reason, with all the rest following behind them, Kuroko felt a warmth course through him that had nothing to do with the promise of ramen, and everything to do with the light that was blazing in all his friends' eyes.

Thank you for reading! And thank you very, very much everyone who reviewed! I hope the official ending has lived up to your expectations!

Wow, this is the longest thing I've ever written. Ever. But like I said previously, I'll be writing other stories set in this AU, and uploading them as extra chapters to this fic. That way they're all in one place and easier to find, and everyone who reads them will have definitely read the backstory for them. I have a couple planned already, but I'm sure I'll come up with more in the future. Thank you again, and please check out some of my other fics if you enjoyed this one!