Of all the things Yukio Kasamatsu expected to see on his way into the locker room, Moriyama doing his best Kise impression in front of the mirror was not one of them.

"I can't come to practice, I have to go to a shoot, ssu! And then I have a date with Aominecchi, but I'll be back tomorrow with tons of hickeys! And I have to tell everyone how I got them, even though nobody cares! But I still get all the girls, even though I'm dating a guy!" He noticed the laughter at this point, and quickly distanced himself from the mirror. "What are you doing here, Kasamatsu?"

"Coach wanted me to help him with some stuff. You should have kept going with the impression. It was funny. But… aren't you dating a guy, too?"

"Um…" Moriyama's face turned bright red at this point, and he was unable to look at Kasamatsu directly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, I have to go, bye!" He tried to leave the locker room, but it was foiled when Koji Kobori happened to come in right at that moment, allowing Kasamatsu to catch him. "Really, you too, Kobori?"

"Kobori's not in on this. Anyway, I already know you have a thing with Shun Izuki, so don't even bother hiding it. I read somewhere that girls like bi guys, but I'm sure that still won't help you."

"It is pretty obvious."

"Anyway, you should do your Kise impression for Kobori. He'll love it!" Nakamura walked in at that moment.

"What's going on?"

"Hey, Nakamura. Apparently Moriyama has a Kise impression. Want to hear it?"

"Of course I do!"

Moriyama had no choice but to go along with it.

Kensuke Fukui was eating a Maiubo when an idea came into his head.

"Hey guys, watch this." He put on the most bored expression he could manage and said, "I'll crush you," before eating the rest of the Maiubo in one bite.

"It really is just like him," Himuro said, laughing. Given the amount of time Murasakibara follows him around, he would know how he acts.

"I don't want to practice. Where's my candy? Murochin? It should be naptime right now, Murochin."

"'Tis an accurate depiction of him," Liu added. "I will crusheth thou. 'Tis timeth to eateth mine marchpane. Anon I shall goeth on vacation with mine secret boyfriend that ev'ryone knows about."

"That was supposed to be a secret?" Okamura added.

"I think so. I tried to ask Atsushi where he went that weekend, and he mentioned something about visiting his parents. And unless his family has a cat, that doesn't explain the scratches down his back on Monday. I wouldn't be surprised if the Emperor was covered in bruises. But on the bright side, if they try to have sex after the practice match, Coach will never let him hear the end of it if she catches them."

"It still sucks that he gets more action than me." Okamura looked sad, but it wasn't yet to the point where he was crying.

"Don't worry. We could always go to the zoo and find you a date." At that moment, Fukui put on the face of a concerned friend, but Okamura wasn't buying it.

"We'd really go hitting on girls at the zoo? It's usually just moms there with their kids."

"I know. We're looking inside the cages."

Okay, now Okamura was crying.

"Did I ever show you the video I shot on my phone the other day?" Shoichi Imayoshi asked to the rest of the team, minus Aomine.

"I'm sorry, Imayoshi, but please don't show them that video! I think I'd die if anyone else saw it!"

"It'll be fine, Sakurai. I told you, Aomine will never see it."

Sakurai still looked unsure, but he gave his consent regardless.

The video was of the two of them, saying Aomine's catchphrase with various pronouns. As usual, Sakurai looked like he was about to start crying throughout the whole thing, but he still went along with it. Susa laughed, but Wakamatsu had a very different reaction to the whole thing.

Sakurai looks really cute. He's cute when he cries, but his smile is cutest of all. What the hell am I thinking? What's wrong with me? Am I getting sick? I should probably go to bed early tonight.

"What did you think, Wakamatsu?"

He definitely noticed that I spaced out. Of course he did, this is Imayoshi, after all. I'll just say it-

"How was it, Wakamatsu?" He could deal with Imayoshi, but once it was Sakurai asking the question, Wakamatsu could feel his brain shutting down.

"I love y-the video. It was pretty funny."

Calm down, Kousuke. You'll have time to figure out this sudden attraction to Sakurai later, but for now, you need to act normally.

Later, once practice was over, Wakamatsu hurried out of the locker room, failing to notice Sakurai looking as sad as he usually did, but for a completely different reason.

He almost said it. I guess I'll have to find a way to get it out of him. I can use the tricks Takao showed me.

Kazunari Takao pulled a pair of fake glasses out of his pocket. Nobody else knew why he had them, but knowing his playful personality, they could make some guesses.

Their suspicions were confirmed when he put the glasses on and said, in an unusually low tone of voice, "Cancer is number one in luck today, nanodayo." He laughed in his usual tone before adding, "Momoi and Kise did a good job picking these frames. The three of us and Sakurai all went shopping together."

Kiyoshi Miyaji, who was standing nearby, laughed. "Wow, you nerd. Say, do you still have that video?"

"I sure do!" He quickly went to the video menu on his phone and played the video in question.

"I will draw them to me, and pass."

"How does that never get old? I haven't watched it in a while, but I still remember everything."

"That was from the game against Seirin, right? Didn't you also take his glasses off him and do his 'Whether it takes a hundred thousand or a hundred million shots' line?"

"Yeah, that was that game."

"I even saw the coach laugh when you did that. Well, we all were, but I think he laughed the most. You could probably be a comedian when you get older."

"Nah. It's always the guys like me who end up as authority figures when they get older. Shin-chan seems to think I'll make a good teacher. Coaching might be kind of fun, too."

"Really? You want to deal with kids like you?"

"I like kids. And the shock they'll feel when they realize that I was just like them when I was their age will be hilarious."

"I am absolute."

"Did you say something, Mayuzumi?" Reo asked. Mayuzumi had no idea why he was there, but he wasn't about to ask, feeling Reo would take it as an invitation to stay.

"No."

"That's what I thought. Anyway, since you didn't show up to Akashi's team building exercise, we're going to ask you again: what is your most embarrassing moment?"

"You don't have embarrassing moments when nobody ever notices you."

"I don't think that's quite true. Akashi's stopped you from leaving practice early a few times. He obviously does see you."

"I think there is one. Akashi caught me calling him 'Tiny' to his face."

"That doesn't count! It has to be unintentional. Like when my autocorrect told my mom I was going on a date with the team when we were going to a game."

"But aren't you g-"

"It doesn't matter! You think any of you guys are anything special? The soccer team, though… nice. Anyway, I'm sure Akashi has seen you do something embarrassing."

"…He caught me saying 'I am absolute.'"

"Seriously?" Reo was almost crying with how hard he was laughing. "How did that turn out for you?"

"That was on the day I spent the whole practice running laps."

"Oh, so that was why that happened. I was wondering about that." When Mayuzumi didn't respond, he tried another topic. "Akashi's been really down since he got back from Tokyo, hasn't he?"

"He might be. I try not to pay attention to him. He's pissed cause I knew about his secret boyfriend. I have to wonder if he's as demanding in bed as he is on the court. Or maybe he gets really submissive. I'm sure you've thought about it a lot more than I have."

"How crude. I don't want to talk about this," Reo said as he left.

As soon as Reo was out of sight, Mayuzumi pulled out his book and resumed reading.

"Mission accomplished."

"I was here the whole time," Hyuga deadpanned. "That was really weird when Kuroko texted me the other day, asking me for permission to date Kagami. I didn't even know they were… Later, he explained that Akashi said he had to ask his captain for permission to date Kagami, and how he obviously meant Akashi, but he called his old middle school captain because I was in school. I couldn't have come up with anything better myself. I'm so proud of him."

"You sound like a dad," Koganei pointed out. "Who's mother then? Coach?"

"O-Of course not!" Hyuga sputtered. "Anyway, you and Mitobe are far more like parents than I am!"

"Way to dodge the question. Why does it matter who the parents of the team are?" Tsuchida asked.

"Oh, I know this one! It's because none of our parents are ever shown, except the really screwed up ones like Akashi's dad. Sure, the author of this story made up some family characters, but she couldn't have for everyone- Mitobe just told me to stop talking, because I'm breaking the fourth wall. Silly Mitobe! I'm not breaking any walls!"

"Come on, Koga, you're not Deadpool. Shut up."

But before Koganei could react to Hyuga, he suddenly turned to Mitobe, looking scandalized. "Mitobe! That was dirty!"

None of the other Seirin second years knew how to respond to this.

As Kagami and Kuroko were headed to work one Thursday morning, Kagami saw Kuroko peeking at the scrapbook page he'd made in high school of all of their friends.

He fondly watched the scene for a moment before feeling the need to prod him along. "Come on, Tetsuya. We're going to be late. What will the kids say if their teacher is late?"

"It's still so amazing to see how far we've all come. Kise's studying for his pilot license, Murasakibara's in Paris working under a top chef, Momoi has her own business, Aomine's in the police academy, and Midorima's finishing med school. I think Akashi's traveling, but he seems to particularly like France. Turns out he was doing some of his own business on the side, so he was okay even after his dad cut him off."

"And we're still together after eight years. You have your teaching license and I'm a firefighter. It's hard, but I'm glad we're here. I don't think there's anywhere else I'd rather be."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that sounded like a proposal, Taiga."

"Oh, whatever! You've said some damn sappy things too! Especially during basketball. I'm still surprised we managed to keep our relationship a secret for as long as we did."

"Is that old temper coming back, Taiga? Anyway, you're right. There's nowhere else I'd rather be, either."

I never thought that I'd finish this series, so it's pretty crazy seeing how far I've come. There have been times when I wanted to quit, like when my depression gets really bad, but now that's it's actually over, it's actually kind of sad. I guess we'll have to wait for the Extra Game movie. I do have a couple of other story ideas, but I don't know when I'd write those.

Words can't describe how thankful I am for everyone who's ever read this even once. I never thought anyone would, so I really do appreciate everyone.

Well, thank you for reading and have a good... whatever it is where you are. It's morning here.

~Aurora