"Nice try," Haizaki smirked, "But not good enough."

"The deal was that when the mission is complete, you die," Midorima snapped, "It is now your turn to die."

Kuroko stared blankly at Midorima; he had forgotten that he had agreed to being killed at the end of the operation with all of the events occurring. He supposed that he was supposed to be terrified, right now, staring up the barrel of the gun that was about to end his life. Kuroko, after all, had nearly been swallowed by his fear of death the night before.

But right now, he could not feel anything. The assassin just felt… blank. Like a plain piece of paper, with no cause. That's right, Kuroko told himself, his only cause for living was not alive now. He was dead, lying on the cold floor with a bullet wound through his head. So, no. Kuroko did not feel fear for his own death. He just wanted this to end. The pain, the suffering, everything.

He could see Midorima tightening his grip on the trigger, preparing to shoot. Kuroko closed his eyes slowly, letting a small smile grace his face. Soon, he will be able to join his brother. Just one single shot. Kuroko ignored the nagging feeling in the back of his head that told him he could still take revenge; seek out Haizaki again and kill him. It was all too late now, too late for anything.

The sound of a gun being fired echoed through the room, breaking the deathly silence from the moment before. Kuroko clenched his eyes shut and braced himself for the burning pain, but it never came. How strange, Kuroko thought, was this what death was like? But no, he could still feel the burning in his legs and the cold tiles beneath his palms. How could this be? He should be dead by now, a bullet through the heart could not take that long to kill. Midorima could not have missed, he was the Miracle sniper. So how could this be?

Slowly opening his eyes, as though he could not believe it, Kuroko warily took in his surroundings. He was still in the coldly lit room. His brother's body was still on the ground. Akashi, Aomine and Murasakibara were still standing in the position that he had last seen them in. But something was missing… Kuroko turned towards Midorima with an agonisingly slow pace. He did not was to move too fast in case he did something wrong.

What Kuroko saw made he do a double take; the sniper was standing in his firing position, a smoking gun in hand. His arm, which was originally pointed at Kuroko before, was roughly pushed to the side by a certain blonde model. Kise Ryouta. Kuroko decided that the man must had moved at the last second to push the gun aside; saving his life. His action was obviously unexpected by everybody. Kise did not usually act recklessly like that. For him to do such a thing was a first.

"Why?" Kuroko asked, staring up at the blonde. "Why did you do that?" He wanted to know so badly. After he was captured by Akashi, he had not spoken a single word to the blonde at all. There was no obligation for Kise to save his life.

Midorima seemed to be wanting the answer, too. "Kise," he growled, "He is a threat. It is our job to eliminate threats. It is our job as Akashi's miracles to make sure of that. Why have you done this?" The sniper had a large scowl on his face to display his anger and irritation. He had not expected to be stopped, and he was now out of bullets. Curse that foolish blonde.

Kise started, as though he was surprised that the two would even ask such questions. "Did you not see, Midorimacchi?" he asked, grip on the other's arm tightening. "Kurokocchi there saved my life a few moments ago! He even let Haizaki to do so!" Kise's voice rose to a higher volume. "Akashicchi is our boss, but remember the thing that he taught us! It is a life for a life! You cannot just kill Kurokocchi like that after he risked his own life to save mine!" The copy-cat glared at Midorima with determination in his golden eyes. Kuroko had wasted his chance of obtaining revenge to save him, a person he never did talk to. Kise could not overlook this fact. The assassin was kind, and Kise cannot simply let a person as selfless as that die. Even if mean facing the wrath of the Miracles, Kise had decided that he would protect the person who carelessly threw away his revenge and his last chance at fulfilling a wish before dying to save a stranger.

As a child, Kise had never been treated this way. He was always surrounded by the crowd because of his looks and skills. But they never did care for him as himself. They would abandon Kise at any moment without notice. And those people would certainly not throw away their last hope and chance to save a stranger's life. Kise had grown up believing that the whole world was this way. But when this man, Kuroko Tetsuya, had thrown away his only chance of revenge to save him, all that Kise had believed in shattered. Kuroko had shown him that even selfish humans could be kind. He had given Kise a second chance at life with that punch. Now it was Kise's turn to do the same to the assassin.

Midorima glared at the blonde, but he did not move to kill the blunette. After hearing the man's speech, he felt conflicted deep inside. Kuroko Tetsuya was a major threat to Akashi. He has the potential to break into the man's shell and worm his way into his heart. The sniper knew the dangers of letting somebody into your heart. You will be totally vulnerable to attacks, no matter how strong your mental self was. That was proved by Akashi himself, long ago. He did not want that to happen again. This was the reason that he want Kuroko to be dead. He could not let harm approach Akashi and break him again. He treasured the other like one would a sibling, after all.

The decision to kill Kuroko was immediate. But then the assassin had to go and save one of the Miracles' lives. That Midorima could not overlook. The Generation of Miracles' philosophy was "a life for a life". Not to mention, to throw away an only chance at revenge to save a possible enemy's life? That was pure kindness. It made Midorima have second thoughts about the personality of Kuroko Tetsuya. He may be the only person who is capable of fully mending Akashi's heart.

But if the sniper thought wrong, and Kuroko turned out like her, Akashi would break. And this time, the Miracles would not be able to piece him back together. Midorima could feel a migraine build up, and he groaned. The assassin did save Kise's life. He could not be that horrible if he did that.

Still, Midorima decided to look for guidance. He looked towards Akashi, eyes silently asking for support and a choice. Akashi's gaze was strong, and he stared right back. The message was clear. Midorima let a small, wistful sigh escape his lips, and turned to face Kuroko again. "Come on," he murmured, suddenly tired, "You are bleeding to death. We need to patch the wounds." With that, he helped the assassin into a sitting position so he could better access the wounds.

It only took the sniper-turned-medic a few minutes to apply enough pressure to secure bandages to stop the flow of blood. He announced that he would need more equipment to be able to properly clean up the wounds. Midorima ignored the confused looks that he received from Kuroko, and wordlessly picked him up.

"There is nothing left for us here," the sniper turned to face Akashi, "They knew that we were coming. Any trace of information would be gone." There was nothing left, Midorima conveyed, so they should leave quickly.

Akashi nodded, and the rest of the Miracles glanced at their leader for the silent order, eyes flashing when the message was received. In sync, the group turned towards the exit, leaving the room. They did not look back at the corpses that they had left behind, not once.

Kuroko could barely keep his eyes open. The loss of blood and the events of the day had made it impossible for him to stay awake. Exhaustion washed over the assassin's body, and he let himself lean again the chest he was carried against. He could mourn over his brother later. Right now, he was so tired. Phrases of conversation passed by Kuroko's ears, but he could not process the information in his tired state.

For the whole mile back to the car, Kuroko had the sensation of flying. He was not running, something told him. He must be carried. Briefly, Kuroko wondered about the warm and caring touch of the person who carried him, but soon, darkness overtook him and he fell into oblivion.

Midorima simply ignored the now-asleep assassin against his chest, and continued to run at an equal pace alongside his comrades.

'I hope that you would not regret your decision to keep Kuroko alive, Akashi.' He thought to himself, tightening his grip on the limp man in his arms.

As if sensing his thoughts, Akashi moved to run alongside the sniper. "I won't," he murmured. "I won't."

Lol there was basically nothing there. Please forgive me. But thank you all for those wonderful reviews!

Truth be told, I forced myself to type this up today. I am extremely exhausted. The year 12s are graduating and we have this tradition called "Muck Up Day" which lasts for 4 days. It consists of stink bombs in classrooms, condoms on doors, summoning satan, water balloons waiting at the exit after school just to name a few. While this is fun, it tires the crap out of me. three more days to go...

Anyways, I don't think I'll be able to update tomorrow as I have to do an assignment due the day after *haven't even started* *gets shot*

But, yeah. This is just a bit of stuff...

Do you wonder who "she" is to Akashi and what had happened to "Ogiwara"?

Lol honestly I have no idea either... So if you have one, put it in the review?

Okay, I lied, I have a basic idea. Feel free to make a guess!

Love you all!

-Rem