First Drift

The first time Kagami and Kuroko drifted was during a national state of emergency.

It was the start of their second year of high school, and the future was looking bright. Kiyoshi had recovered from his injuries. Kuroko had recovered from his. He was finally on the basketball team where he belonged. They had an awesome team and were going to take Interhigh by storm. And even though this had nothing to do with basketball, they had an awesome coach whose father was the trainer for Japan's Jaeger pilots. (If that wasn't the definition of cool, then who knew what was?)

But their coach had a pet theory about the drift, formed from glances sneaked at her father's work papers. When she approached her father with it, he agreed it could be valid. He pulled a few strings so that they could test it out. Seirin's basketball team didn't have a clue why they were taken to Japan's Jaeger Program headquarters. Nor did they really care because it was so amazingly cool.

Then the kaiju alert went off while they were there. Only one of Japan's three Jaeger teams was fit for duty, and were deployed. They got to watch in the battle auditorium. Front row seats to watching their heroes get torn apart by a giant monster. The first Category 2 kaiju to make an appearance.

What the military did next, they did out of desperation, because the kaiju hadn't just reached, land, it had reached Tokyo, and dozens were dying by the second. Their two other pilot teams couldn't be sent in, not in the shape they were in. And their pilots' personal trainer was right there saying that they might have five drift compatible sets of partners right here? Even if they were all teenagers . . .

The Japanese head of the program made a decision. "God forgive me . . . let them try."

There were two available Jaegars. Both shiny and new and waiting for pilots that the military could not, for the life of them, find. Riko made the call about who to send in. Kagami and Kuroko. And Izuki and Kiyoshi.

In all honesty, the military brass probably wasn't expecting much. Some gaskets were probably blown when both teams managed to complete the neural handshake. There had still been time to pull out then, but . . . why? Because their pilots were teenage boys and they could die? Children were dropping like flies as the kaiju made its way through Tokyo. Because they weren't actually military? Did that matter at this point? They were drift compatible and could control the Jaegars. They were the only thing that could stop Tokyo from being reduced to a wasteland before noon.

And so they were deployed.

It was a little weird, Kuroko thought, having his thoughts tied to Kagami's. Not in a bad way. It surprised him how in tune they were. The same sense of nervousness was buzzing through both of them, like that feeling Kuroko always got before a game. It was what had him tugging at his sweat bands, and Kagami staying up all night. Their fighting spirits mirrored each other's. Here, in the drift, their on-court chemistry had turned into something more.

"This kaiju is toast," Kagami said, and Kuroko didn't need to see him to know he was grinning like crazy.

"Yes," he agreed.

Kiyoshi and Izuki touched down at the same time they did, but it was clear from the start that this was Kagami and Kuroko's fight. Well, mainly Kagami's, Kuroko thought ruefully. He had never been in a real fight before. Kagami had. Many times in America. Kuroko could feel it in his memories.

He gave Kagami the initiative and followed his partner's lead. Their mental connection allowed him to match up his actions to Kagami's instantaneously. He knew what Kagami was thinking as his friend thought it, and was already syncing up his own movements.

Against Kagami's vicious style of street fighting, the kaiju never had a chance. Especially not with Kiyoshi and Izuki backing them up. The fight was over almost too soon. Kuroko was surprised at himself for feeling so blood thirsty. Then realized that it wasn't him feeling it. Except it was. Because while their minds were connected, what Kagami was feeling was what he was feeling.

And God help him, but he liked it.

Goodbye, Halcyon Days

What happened after that first kaiju hunt felt like a whirlwind. The military tried to keep the involvement of four high school students under wraps, but inevitably, information was eventually leaked. Especially when it turned out they hadn't just found two teams made up of high school students, but six. All from the same high school basketball team. Including their female, high school student coach.

"None of you have to do this," Riko told her boys in an emergency meeting that she called, after the final test proved that all of them were drift compatible. Or at least drift compatible with at least one member of their team. There were a few theories up in the air, about whether they were truly, universally drift compatible, or if Riko's training had just managed to fudge their results so that they were compatible with their teammates.

She had a lot of pretty words prepared for them, giving them a way out. If they wanted off the hook, they could have gotten off it, and not felt like a coward or deserter.

But none of them wanted out. Not for a second.

They knew they were putting their lives on the line. But they didn't quite understand what that meant. They were teenage boys, and young, and convinced of their own immortality. Giant robots and beating monsters to death with their fists? Hell yeah! Who would walk away from that?

They did understand that agreeing to this meant taking on new responsibilities, and that meant sacrifices. It meant no more basketball. At least not officially. No Interhigh, no Winter Cup, probably not even practice matches with other schools, because they would be on call 24/7. It didn't matter if it was the middle of the night, or the middle of a game. When the kaiju alert sounded, two teams had to be ready and waiting to be deployed.

Riko gave them twenty-four hours to make their decision. Plenty of time to talk with their partners, even though that wasn't really necessary. They'd all been in their partner's heads by now. They knew exactly how their partner felt about it.

"I'm sorry," Kagami said to Kuroko as they walked home for the evening, once the meeting was over. "I know what you were hoping to do in Interhigh."

"It's fine," said Kuroko. "Even if we'd won, it might not have worked."

"It could have."

"Possibly. But if it's a question of which is more important, the past with them, or the future with all of you, there's no question what the answer is," Kuroko said. Then he frowned at himself. He seemed to be unusually talkative today. Well, he'd blame that on Kagami's influence. "You're my partner now. And Seirin's my new team, even if we're not actually a basketball team anymore. And it's not like we'll be giving up basketball completely. It's bound to be part of our conditioning."

"Yeah. But I still know how much it meant to you. I've been in your head. And I know how much it hurts to grow away from a friend."

Kuroko met Kagami's eyes then looked pointedly at the ring hanging from his necklace. "I know."

No more words were needed after that. Kagami understood that Kuroko was giving up on his dream because he wanted to keep the people in his dream alive. But he wasn't giving up on them. Where there is life, there is hope, after all. Kuroko was doing what he could to keep it that way. Two of the Generation of Miracles were still living in Tokyo. They could have easily become casualties of the most recent kaiju attack if Kuroko and Kagami hadn't been around. The other three were still in Japan too, and no one in the country was really safe.

Hell, no one in the world was really safe.

"Are we even going to still be able to go to school?" Kagami wondered all of a sudden. "They said we'll be on call 24/7."

"I think our lives as normal high school students are over."

"Yeah," agreed Kagami. "Probably. Is it weird that I think I'm going to miss failing all my classes?"

Not one member of the Seirin Basketball Club turned down the offer to become a Jaeger pilot. And under their guardianship, not one kaiju set foot on Japanese soil even once over the next two and a half years.

Living a Manga

Of course it was going to get compared to a manga. Teenagers recruited by the government to fight in giant robots. That scenario had definitely been used before and they all knew it.

That might have been part of the reason why the military tried to keep them under wraps for awhile. Because they knew people wouldn't just outright believe it. It sounded contrived. Or they might think it was a publicity stunt. Or it could have been because they wanted to save themselves having lots of angry, but ultimately pointless letters written to them by other members of the UN expressing what they thought of using children as Jaeger pilots.

But a secret like that was impossible to keep. Rumors of these teenage Jaeger pilots started to spread and became the talk of gossip shows and news speculations alike. The longer the government held off confirming it, the more fuel was added to the fire, because in every other country participating in the Jaeger program, the pilots' identities were made public. The public wanted a face to give to their heroes. And the Seirin Six, as the military had dubbed their team, were nothing if not heroes. Three more kaiju had surfaced near Japan since, giving every team of the Seirin Six combat experience close to home. They'd even been deployed to the Philippines and South Korea on several occasions, as those countries' Jaeger programs weren't even off the ground yet. Within months, all of Japan knew the name the Seirin Six, and at least a few of the individual Jaegers' names: Clutch Time, Iron Heart, Ever-Changing Magical Star (some people still thought that name was a joke), Catal Rhythm, Can Do, and of course, the team's ace, now Japan's most famous Jaeger, RimFire.

Finally, the military decided to confess what they'd done, and how they'd put teenagers at the helm of the world's most powerful weapons, and sent them to fight earth's most dangerous enemies.

"We intend for four of you to be interviewed on national TV," the program director explained in a briefing that was being treated just as seriously as a kaiju briefing. "Only four of you for now, so that hopefully we can get the country on our side. And the ones we've chosen for this first interview are Aida, Hyuuga, Kagami, and Kuroko."

That made sense, everyone acknowledged. Riko and Hyuuga were their undisputed leaders, who could be most trusted to act cool and mature even on camera. Kagami and Kuroko were their ace team, and the public would be dying to get even a glimpse of them.

"I decline."

Kuroko's monotone drew all eyes to him.

"I beg your pardon?" the director asked, looking at him like he'd grown a second head.

"I decline," repeated Kuroko. "I don't want to be on TV."

Rather than looking angry, the director looked relieved. It wasn't hard to guess why. Kuroko was the most baby-faced amongst them. If any of them could be a rallying point for human rights activists screaming about child exploitation, it would be Kuroko, who looked like he still belonged in middle school.

"Well, there's certainly nothing in your contract requiring you to," the director said. "But I would have thought you would have jumped at this opportunity. You know it will make you an instant hero."

"He's already a hero," Kagami said immediately.

"Yes. Of course. But it would make you famous. You would never be overlooked again."

"Somehow I doubt that. And I don't want to be famous." Kuroko looked anywhere except at Kagami. "Fame changes people."

"Fame changes people."

Kagami held those words in his head as he went on the show that night, dressed in a sharp suit that he was sure made him look ridiculous. He added a few words of his own to Kuroko's.

Fame changes people . . . and the second it changes me is the second I lose everything that matters.

He knew Kuroko like no one else in the world did. Not his absent parents, who still had no idea that their son was a Jaeger pilot. Not his ex-friends who'd been changed by fame and success, and abandoned him. He'd been inside Kuroko's head, not just once, but a dozen times by now, and what Kagami saw there made him feel hopelessly inadequate.

Kuroko could have been a saint. Kagami hadn't known it was possible for someone to be that selfless and it made him feel like such an opportunistic bastard. At his core, Kuroko was pure to the point where Kagami would have gone so far as to say he was holy. And by some miracle, he wanted to be Kagami's best friend? Kagami would never know what he had done to deserve that friendship and trust, or admiration.

He would never be worthy of it, but he would hate himself if he didn't at least try. He would try to never let Kuroko down. He wouldn't let himself change the way Kuroko's old friends had. If he did, there was no doubt in Kagami's mind that his drift compatibility with Kuroko would crack and break. He wouldn't let that happen. The only way he could try to repay Kuroko back for such unwarranted devotion was to try and be the man Kuroko thought he was.

"Stop fidgeting," said Riko, grabbing Kagami by his tie and straightening it. "You're humanity's ace. We need the country to see you as an adult. So stop acting like a little boy who can't sit still."

"Sorry," Kagami said immediately.

Riko stepped back admiring her work and nodded. "You'll do. You've reviewed the questions. You'll do fine. Or you'll run laps until you die."

Kagami sweat dropped. But he didn't have time to fret too much. They were called out to sit down and the interview began.

The question asked were pretty basic and mainly for Riko and Hyuuga, their leaders, who answered precisely and knowledgably. They presented themselves the way adults would. They almost even looked the parts, Riko cool and collected in a professional but pretty suit dress, and Hyuuga looking smart in his own suit, pulling off the look much better than Kagami was sure he was. If Kagami had been watching the interview, he would have been reassured by their cool attitudes, that even though they were young, they could handle what they were doing.

Then the interviewer started going off script. Probably trying to get a better story by stirring up some controversy.

"Doesn't it seem really dangerous to you, letting teenagers control these weapons? Forcing teenagers to put their lives on the line and fight monsters?"

Riko and Hyuuga hesitated. Kagami took the initiative.

"No one's forcing us to do anything. We're doing what we think is right. And it's dangerous no matter who is put in the Jaeger's helm," Kagami said hotly, but taking care not to lose his head. "But do you know what's more dangerous? Not putting anyone in there, and letting the kaiju tear apart our country."

The interviewer gave a big fake smile. "But doesn't that . . . I don't know, seem too much like something out of a manga?"

"Better a manga than a Godzilla movie," retorted Kagami. "Or do you think we should have let Spikeface keep tearing apart Tokyo?"

He referenced the name given to the first kaiju he and Kuroko had fought together, with Kiyoshi and Izuki backing them up.

"A fair point," the interviewer conceded. "But where is your co-pilot today, Kagami-kun?"

"He decided not to come. I guess he didn't feel like he should have to justify his right to fight for your lives on national TV," said Kagami.

Riko gave a cough and Kagami almost cringed, thinking he'd misspoken, but when he looked at his coach, there was approval in her gaze.

"Kagami-san's partner has issues with the press," said Riko, putting emphasis on the honorific, as though correcting the interviewer's use of –kun for Kagami. "Let's leave it at that."

"Well, while we're on the subject of him, can you tell us a little bit about him?" the interviewer asked. "Like, what's his name?"

"He'd prefer that I not say," said Kagami. "So I won't."

"Well can you tell us how old he is at least?"

"My age."

"How many months younger is he then you? I assume because of your reluctance that he's younger?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," said Kagami, fighting down his anger. "What I will tell you is that there's no one in the world I'd rather have at my side, fighting monsters with me, than him. I never want to do or say anything that might drive him from my side. So we won't be discussing him anymore this interview."

Riko and Hyuuga took control of the interview from there, verbally overpowering the interviewer and redirecting the conversation the way they wanted it to go. They told how Riko took on the role of coach for their basketball club despite only being a student herself, building up a case for her maturity. And they emphasized their team's focus on team work and standing together, and putting the things that mattered first, for the good of everyone.

The interviewer was hardly able to get a word in edgewise.

"Well, that went well," said Hyuuga at the end, as they were leaving the studio and about to get into the car that the military provided to take them back to base.

"Look," said Riko softly.

Then Kagami saw. Lined up behind a barrier that security guards had set up were dozens of people. Maybe hundreds. Holding hastily made signs with messages like "Go Seirin Six!" and "I Love Kagami!"

What the heck?

That thought, for Kagami, were accompanied by a sense of déjà vu, from memories leached from Kuroko. He knew how quickly that confused little thrill where you first realized people were paying attention to you could turn into conceitedness and apathy.

"Don't look," said Kagami. "Don't forget what Kuroko said."

Hyuuga and Riko weren't privy to Kuroko's memories, but they must have had their suspicions as to why Kuroko had been so concerned. They traded a look then nodded to Kagami and got into the car without another look at their fans.

"I watched the interview."

Kagami looked across the dorm room he and Kuroko shared, surprised. He felt his face start to go red as it often did when he was faced with an embarrassing situation. "You did?"

"Yes. And thank you."

Kagami colored further. "Well, there was only one thing that idiot was right about."

"Hmn?"

"This is like living a manga."

It was just as fantastic and unbelievable, and had all the elements and themes. Especially where characters were concerned. Kagami had never thought it possible for a friend as perfect as Kuroko to exist outside the pages of a manga. But here he was. And it was the two of them, and their closest friends, united to save the world from monsters. With badass robots. It was exactly like a manga.

"But this is our story," said Kagami, recalling how too many of those stories turned out. "And we're the ones writing the script."

Kuroko did that thing where he smiled, but only with his eyes.

"Then let's make it a good one."

The Seirin Six (Jaeger names and pilots)

(Information currently available to the public by the Japanese Jaeger Program Headquarters)

RimFire: piloted by Kagami Taiga and REDACTED

Clutch Time: piloted by Hyuuga Junpei and Aida Riko

Iron Heart: piloted by Kiyoshi Teppei and Izuki Shun

Ever-Changing Magical Star: piloted by Koganei Shinji and Mitobe Rinnosuke

Catal Rhythm: piloted by Tsuchida Satoshi and Kawahara Kouichi

Can Do: piloted by Furihata Kouki and Fukuda Hiroshi

This fic is actually derived from a oneshot I wrote in my 100 Challenge fic "A Different Side Of Me." That's a fic comprised of mostly unconnected oneshots, and for one of them, (Chapter 5: Kuroko no Drift Compatible), I got the idea for Kuroko to be drift compatible. The AU I created in that chapter was too much fun just to leave as it was, and so this fic was born. If you liked it, you'll probably also like the Kuroko no Drift Compatible chapter, since it's part of this AU, so please go check it out!

And also, please review!