The room they found for him really was just a room – it was a bedroom in the house of an elderly landlady. He shared a communal kitchen and bathroom, and was told he was welcome to use the living room as he pleased so long as he didn't leave a mess. The rent was low, but regardless of that, he'd need to find a job soon.

He doubted that would be all that easy, though. His boss at the station wished him good luck and gave him a praise-filled reference letter after he'd handed in his resignation letter, but Kagami couldn't imagine anyone jumping at the chance to hire a thirty year old amnesiac whose doctor forbid him from working full-time or doing physical labour because of his still-healing injuries.

As he'd expected, the first four interviews he had – at an animal shelter, a dentist's office, a funeral home and an ice-cream parlour – didn't go well. As soon as the whole "I have a 15 year gap in my memory" thing came up, most lost interest, or thought they were the victim of a very strange practical joke.

His fifth interview was at a jeweller's shop. As soon as Kagami stepped in, he felt a little intimidated – the place was obviously high end, and he felt out of place in his too-big suit jacket. He was trying to straighten his tie and neaten up his hair when the owner stepped into his field of vision.

Higuchi, who ran the place, was very old and walked bent forward at the waist, supported by two walking sticks, and had glasses so thick that they were nearly opaque. He was nearly half the height of Kagami. In spite of all this, Kagami felt intimidated by him, and not just because really old people were kind just kind of scary.

Higuchi closed up shop to take Kagami to the break room, where he read over his reference letter, then put it to the side, and read a letter from Dr Sakamoto detailing his condition. Then he folded them and slipped them both back into the envelope, and handed them both back to Kagami.

"Well, I can't say I've ever interviewed a prospective employee with amnesia before," he said, a smile playing on his thin lips. Kagami didn't know if he should be offended or not. "But you've been giving a shining reference from your previous employer. You were there… how long?"

"Eight years," Kagami said. He couldn't remember it himself, but Kuroko had given him a rough timeline of events up until now.

"And no formal education qualifications after high school?"

"I have some credits from my first year of college."

"In English and a figure drawing class," he said, reading Kagami's resume now. "You failed everything else, and then dropped out in your second year." Kagami nodded sheepishly- he felt like a child being told off. "And why was that?"

Kagami took a moment to consider this. Kuroko hadn't gone into specifics, and he hadn't asked.

"I was probably bored," Kagami said, "I never liked studying."

To his surprise, Higuchi laughed. They spoke a little more about what Kagami had done between quitting college and starting his previous job (mostly manual labour, construction work, that kind of thing), and they spoke a little about whether Kagami would feel comfortable working with people, and then the old man looked Kagami over with unimpressed eyes and said, "One thing, though. You'll need a suit."

Kagami was confused. Lost for words, he said, "But I'm wearing a suit."

"Not that tacky thing!" Higuchi tutted, and Kagami looked down at his suit. It wasn't too bad, he thought – it was black, which kind of made it look like he was dressed for a funeral, but other than that… "I won't have you working here in a suit you bought off the rack that doesn't even fit. You'll scare half our customers away."

Kagami hadn't thought that working in a jeweller's would be so high maintenance. He didn't think his wallet would agree with buying a new suit, much less a nice one – and he wouldn't even know how to begin shopping for one. He made a mental note to ask Kuroko at some point. After that, Higuchi said goodbye to him, and said he'd phone once he'd come to a decision, but Kagami was not hopeful.

Later, Kagami phoned Kuroko, as he had every evening. It had been thirteen days since he'd moved out. Sometimes their phone calls went on a little longer than they usually did, especially if he'd had a job interview that day, or if something interesting had happened at Kuroko's work, but usually they were curt, and to the point.

Tonight, Kuroko answered just before the phone went to the answering machine.

"I thought you weren't going to pick up," Kagami said.

Kuroko sounded a little breathless as he replied, "Sorry. I was in the bath."

"You could have just phoned back."

"I know. I wanted to speak to you just now," Kuroko said. "Because your interview was today. How did it go?"

"Alright," Kagami said, leaning back on his bed. Honestly, he wasn't sure how it had went, but he was pretty sure it had been okay at worst. "Better than the others, I think. He said he'd call me back. I'm not too hopeful, but…"

"Well, that's something."

"I guess," Kagami said. There was a brief pause, and then he said, "What do you know about buying suits?"

"I think I've worn a suit four times in my whole life," Kuroko replied, "Why?"

"The guy who owned the store I interviewed at said I needed to buy one. I was wearing one, but he said I needed a better one."

"Well, you did buy it off the rack," Kuroko said. "While it was on sale." He added, as an afterthought. "If you get an offer, let me know and we can go shopping.

At some point, Kagami discovered he liked tea.

He'd been grocery shopping when he found himself in front of the stacks of tea and coffee. Why he'd ended up there, he didn't know – as far as he knew, he detested tea. In high school he'd drank soda and energy drinks almost exclusively, and water when he was training. In the past few weeks he'd stuck to water and fruit juice, because carbonated drinks were just too bubbly. He wondered if that was a part of getting old.

When he got home, he checked his cell phone, found a missed call and a voice mail message waiting for him, and listened to it. Afterwards, he called Kuroko.

"I got the job!" He'd half-yelled before Kuroko had gotten out his overly polite 'Kuroko speaking'. Then, disappointed that Kuroko hadn't replied or offered any form of congratulations, he asked, "You there?"

"I'm still here," Kuroko replied. "It's just that I went by the store had your interview at, and I'm surprised someone like you got employed there."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kagami grit out, and then- "And don't stalk my workplace. Creep."

"I was kidding," Kuroko said, and then: "So, do you still need help finding a suit?"

"Yeah," he said. "That'd be good."

"When do you start?"

"Tuesday."

"Then we'll go on Sunday?" Kuroko asked, and Kagami agreed and they set up a time.

As they were about to say goodbye, Kagami said, "I think I remembered something."

"Oh?" Kuroko's carefully maintained monotone slipped a little, and Kagami grinned as he heard unhidden surprise in his voice. "What?"

"Do I like tea?"

Kuroko was silent. Kagami egged him on. "Good, huh?"

"You are a huge idiot," Kuroko said. He sounded annoyed, which made Kagami annoyed. Sure, his discovery wasn't anything amazing, but after buying a pack of green tea and enjoying it, he'd felt pretty good. And it wasn't just the detoxifying effects the label claimed the tea had at work.

"What?"

"You actually got my hopes up."

"Hey-"

"I can't believe you."

"Don't be an asshole," Kagami bit out, defensively.

"I'm going now," Kuroko said. His voice had returned to it's usual even, quiet tone, but Kagami knew there was annoyance bubbling beneath it. "Goodnight, Kagami-kun."

When he'd hung up, Kagami fumed at his phone for a few minutes, then brewed up some of the passion flower tea he'd bought that was supposed to be good for stress.

a/n boring chapter sorry dear readers next chapter old friends start to show up again tho ^w^