Assume that every character is using a suffix when it comes to people closer than strangers with the characters specifically.
If the people who they’ve no real relationship with are interacted with, I will use “-san”.
Okay? Okay.
Let’s go!
Taiga’s American Girlfriend – Kagami Side
He looked at her, as he stopped mid-game with Rakuzan.
YOU CAN DO IT, TAIGA!
He’d heard before he’d frozen in place. Even among all the other shouts of encouragement, hers had reached his ears the most.
Her red and yellow hair, while a bit weird he’d grown used to it in America.
“Sunset?” Kagami Taiga had muttered, Kuroko looked to his friend in confusion before looking to where his Light’s gaze had gone.
He saw a girl. Bright colored hair, nothing he hadn’t seen before, waving down at the team but even he knew that it was specifically aimed at his friend. Looking back at his tall teammate, he saw a grin spread across his face that nearly shocked the former sixth man of the Generation of Miracles.
He’d seen Taiga smile before, usually when it came to basketball. He’d seen him grin, usually when it came to facing new challenges, but he’d only seen this specific grin once.
The relaxed eyes, the bright expression, and the sharp breath he’d taken before letting it out slowly.
He’d only seen it on Taiga whenever his aggressive teammate looked at his phone in the locker room.
He wiped his face, resting in the locker room after their match with Astushi Murasakibara. Taiga’s friend had been on Yosen’s team and he’d been amazing. Murasakibara’s partner had been incredible for the lack of Zone the others in his past group had had.
Kuroko wiped down his face, thinking about what they’d need to do when it came to facing Akashi. Further contemplation had him turning to Taiga… Who was smiling?
Looking further at the Light to his Shadow, Kuroko noted he was looking at his phone. His grin was big enough that it made the Phantom Man curious.
Walking around to Taiga’s back, the tall, red-haired player too engrossed in his phone possibly not even noticing even if he
wasn’t busy with his phone.
Coming around Taiga’s side, he looked at the phone’s screen which surprised Kuroko with its contents.
There was a girl on Taiga’s screen. A girl with yellow and red hair, teal eyes, tan-orange skin, and casual clothes finished with a black biker’s jacket on.
She was smiling at the phone’s camera, having some ice cream, while hanging with a… pink girl, what?
Sure, he’d heard about America having some literally colorful people but he didn’t think he’d see one so… off the normal color wheel. He looked down and saw captions on the photo.
Caption under the picture read: See you next Summer!
He’d never really seen Taiga’s phone before. More because he respected the American’s privacy than anything else.
Perhaps this was a friend like Himuro Tatsuya was? A girl one at that. It made him curious—
Did she like Basketball? Was she on a female team? Perhaps that pink girl was a teammate like he was for Taiga.
“Ah! Kuroko?!” Taiga jumped back, his legs hitting the bench behind him and sending him bottom-over-backward over it.
Hitting the floor had sent the phone flying out of his hands before Kuroko caught it.
He stared at the screen again before moving over to offer a hand to his disgruntled friend. The young man grumbled before taking the gesture for what it was and pulled himself up.
He looked away from Kuroko’s curious gaze, face slightly red.
The blue-haired player tilted him head for a moment before sending Taiga an apologetic smile.
“Ah, sorry,” Kuroko said, handing the phone back to his friend who took it back.
“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled. Looking at the phone for a moment, he tucked it away in his locker.
Seirin’s basketball team played once more with renewed vigor, the cheers from the crowd pushing them forward.
Every moment Kuroko could hear two specific voices the most.
His old friend from middle school, who Kuroko thought had given up on basketball and himself. As well as the girl from Taiga’s phone.
He could see Taiga grinning like a loon as he crossed over Akashi, surprising the Emperor Eye wielder.
He looked out at the night sky. The game was over, in Seirin’s favor, 106 to 105.
Kuroko couldn’t stop the grin that latched itself onto his face, not that he’d want to.
He thought back to the group, all who’d gone on to receive praise, none more so than Taiga, who’d disappeared some time ago. Though, he had an idea where the owner of the True Zone had gone.
~NRK~
He ran down the pathways of the stadium, looking left and right with a fever-like passion.
‘Goddammit, how hard is it to find a girl with hair like hers?!’ he thought furiously as he stopped at another entrance into the stadium. He’d already seen and spoken to Himuro, the chain bouncing off his chest felt far lighter than ever before.
Turning a full rotation before he settled for walking to the next entrance.
“Taiga!” he froze at the voice before his lip settled into a grin as he turned around. Her hair always stuck out to him first, of course, due to the color.
Her red and yellow hair was as straight as usual with the ends going wiggly as always. She wore a teal, thin, long-sleeve top with a red and yellow sun on the chest. She also wore a pair of dark jeans that lead down into a pair of brown boots.
All in all, she looked great as his own red eyes locked onto her teal ones.
She smiled as she walked over to him, Taiga meeting her halfway, before giving each other a hug.
“Mm, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.” Sunset Shimmer said playing with a lock of her hair, watching as Taiga smiled at her with those sharp red eyes of his. His white and black jersey fit the tall player well, his jersey jacket open revealing the black tank top beneath.
All in all, he looked as ferocious as she remembered him being with his grin at the sight of her that sent a red splash across her face.
They moved to a bench outside of the stadium with Taiga standing near it and Sunset beside him with a knee on the bench.
They looked over the cement railing of the stadium and looked out into Tokyo.
“So how’s it going with the girls back home?”
“Oh you know,” Sunset twirled a lock with a grin. “Nothing crazy has happened in a while.” Taiga raised an eyebrow before he looked around.
A few moments later, he let out a sighed before focusing on Sunset.
“Not even with the whole ‘rampant magic’ going off?” he emphasized with air quotes, causing the young woman to giggle.
“Thankfully no,” she moved her knee from the bench before sitting down and patting the space next to her.
Taiga eagerly sat next to her, his girlfriend laying her head on his arm with him also leaning into the sideways glomp.
“With the whole thing at the Games, nothing has really come out of the magical world as of late.”
She’d told Taiga of magic, well, possibly one month after they’d even met.
Which was possibly the warmest memory she had of him.
She sat down on the grass, hands, pants, shoes, and just about all of her and her clothes were a mess with cement and plaster on them.
She sighed, eyes closed as she thought back to everything she’d done.
Enslaving the school.
Stealing from the castle of the Princesses, notably Twilight Sparkle’s crown.
Turning the Elements of Harmony against each other in the human world.
And let’s not forget, enslaving the entire student body along with the teachers.
She held her head down before a growl rang from her stomach causing her to grab it in protest.
When was the last time she’d eaten again? She couldn’t remember, though that thought was rearing its ugly head.
She never noticed the pair of sneaker-covered feet stopping by her.
There was a shuffle of plastic before she looked up and found a box being presented to her.
Following the arm up to a boy around her age, she thinks.
She saw the short mop of spiky, red hair, and tan skin. A boy with red hair and eyes gave her an impassive look.
She looked at the box before holding her hands out to receive it.
The smell hit her first and she looked at the boy one more time, him nodding, before tearing open the box top off and drooling at the food within.
She saw neatly packed rice with a red fruit on top, several pieces of salmon sat squarely off to the side with a set of delicious looking carrots sat next to them along with a yellow, rectangular looking piece of food, she assumed.
She was handed a pack of plastic of utensils from the boy. She tore those out, grabbed the fork and tentatively cut a piece of the yellow thing.
A second late, and the piece in her mouth, her eyes went wide.
‘Eggs!’ And it was delicious!
The boy watched in horror as the girl devoured his food with reckless abandon. Sweat slipped down the side of his face as she polished off the bento box he’d given her in under two minutes.
Sunset let out a sigh with a smile on her before she froze and a red blush found itself on her face. She let out a nervous laugh.
“Hehe, um, here you go?” she put the lid on the box and handed it back to the boy. Her lips trembled as she saw the look of absolute horror on his face.
“Um, yeah.” His voice was a bit deep, putting him likely around her age.
She watched him put it away and tighten his strap.
“You should make sure to actually eat before working.” His piece said, he took a step.
“Wait!” he turned his head to look at Sunset. The girl did her best to wipe off the building paste on her clothes causing the red-eyed boy to roll his eyes.
She kept trying to wipe off her hands and found the action futile as it simply smeared her hands.
A cloth appeared in front of her face, Sunset looked up and saw it was the guy again. She flushed in embarrassment.
Accepting and thanking the boy, she wiped her hands and held out the now clean appendage.
“I’m Sunset Shimmer,” is all she said with her hand out. He looked at her hand and she came to a shocking possibility.
‘What a weird name,’ the boy thought.
‘Does he know?!’ she wondered. She’d never seen this person from school. Now that she thought about, she’s never seen this guy in her entire life.
Grasping her hand, she noticed the strong grip and callouses. “Taiga. Taiga Kagami.”
She tilted her head at that. ‘What a weird name.’
Shaking his hand, she let go and eyed him.
… What was she supposed to do now?
Sunset watched as Taiga looked back towards the streets before scrambling and searching his pockets.
A second later, he pulled out his phone and looked at the screen.
“Shit!” he exclaimed before running off. “Later!” one last shout and he was gone.
Sunset winced at the expletive before watching as he left. She thought about how weird the boy was before she wiped her hands in the handkerchief once more.
She stopped and stared at the piece of cloth, white in color and now matted with grey plaster.
“Oh…”
Taiga looked at Sunset, wondering and completely happy about how they ended up together.
He was passionate, he would say with complete honesty. Some people couldn’t really handle that, which he could understand.
Not many people could handle him at his most, which was why Basketball teams were so awesome! They were just like him! Seirin was like, the best place in the world!
Yet, the girl beside him was easily able to get him. Sunset seemed quite passionate herself, though he wouldn’t have guessed it.
What with her doing nothing but paving the front of the school she’d destroyed when they met.
She watched as he left his school, hands in the pockets of her jacket. Red-eyed boy, Taiga, walked out of Eastfield High School. He was wearing a tank top and shorts with a duffle bag over his shoulder.
She looked on as Taiga spoke to a group of other teenage males before he separated from them.
She fidgeted as he saw her and jogged over to Sunset.
“What are you doing here? Uh…” he frowned as he looked at her with a disgruntled expression. “Sunlight? Sunrise?”
“Sunset,” she supplied, rewarding her with a wide eye expression from Taiga. “We met at Canterlot High a week ago?”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” He said with a curious look.
She scuffed the sidewalk a bit before taking a deep breath.
She’d been thinking about this for a while. Sunset Shimmer was not a social person, not from lack of trying so much as… a lack of trying.
Since she met Taiga, she realized something once she’d been defeated by Twilight. Once she’d been hit by their beam of Friendship and all of a sudden she’d doing the best to repay the school.
Sunset realized that she was lonely. It’d been well over a month and a half since the incident at school and she’d been either left alone, abandoned in Snips and Snails case, or scorned, which made sense in context.
She’d not talked to anyone cordially in well over a year and hadn’t spoken to anyone on an equal level in three months.
“So I was wondering if you’d like to hang out?” she asked with a strained smile and desperate eyes. Taiga gave her a weird look.
“What? Sunset, isn’t your school like a three-hour bus ride away?” Sunset blushed.
“It felt like two,” he looked at her weird.
“Well, I’m going to the basketball court, so you can come if you want.”
“Awesome.”
And, just like that, he’d found himself saddled with someone weird to walk with.
Sunset, on the other hand, thought things were going fine. She’d made first contact and brought things to her pace. Good, things could proceed with smooth progress.
‘Never been this far into the city.’ She thought as they ventured past some of the nearby delis and Super Markets before passing the Big Bang Burger to find a nearby street court.
She looked left to right as Taiga set his stuff near her on the steel bleachers.
He went to work, removing a basketball from his bag, shooting it at the hoop.
The ball hit the backboard and Taiga ran after it, catching up quickly with long strides before tossing it once more.
The ball hit the backboard once more and went in this time.
Sunset saw the grin on Taiga’s face and looked at the ball.
Taiga looked at Sunset as she stepped onto the court, jacket off on the bleachers with his duffle bag.
He grinned.
He smiled as they sat on the bleachers. Well, he sat as Sunset laid down, a wet rag over her face as she struggled to breathe as she used her jacket as a cushion.
“Didn’t expect you to be any good at basketball,” he slapped his large hands against the basketball. “But you got some talent. You on a basketball team?”
Sunset let out one ragged breath before responding. “No, that’s the first time I’ve ever played.” She couldn’t see the shocked look on Taiga’s face.
“Really?!” She jumped before lifting the cloth above her eyes. “I had to correct you a bit but you fell into it pretty quickly.”
She blushed. “Well, I don’t know, I couldn’t possibly have done basketball at my school.” She froze as she finished saying it.
Kagami frowned. “Wait a minute, I know Canterlot High has a team. The hell are you saying?” she looked away nervously.
“Oh you know—hey aren’t you interested in other things?” preferably not her past with Canterlot High.
“No, Sunset talent like that shouldn’t be thrown away,” he said, turning the ball in his hands. “Why haven’t you at least tried?”
She sighed at the question, “Because Taiga, I’ve done some pretty horrid stuff at school okay.” She grumbled as she said, sarcastically emphasizing his name causing him to wince.
He looked down at the ball and she couldn’t help but feel like this was a mistake.
Friendship? Negative.
“Hmm,” Taiga hummed. “Did you apologize for it?” he asked, causing the other redhead to look at him before putting her face into her hands.
“That’s why I’m redoing the front of the school,” she answered as Taiga’s mouth dropped and she realized that maybe that should have been kept to herself.
“YOU DID THAT?!”
“It was a mistake, okay! I like to think I was different compared to now.” Taiga looked at her in confusion.
“…”
“…”
“… How’d you do it?” she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“The front of the school, how’d you do it?” he looked at her with a vested interest.
“What, don’t like Eastfield?” he grinned but shook his head.
“Not everyone here is really scary, so I’ll have to turn you down.” She smiled before frowning. Taiga looked at her for a moment before shrugging.
“Alright, don’t need to hear it,” He said, which startled Sunset. “You don’t look too happy thinking about it, so it’s not important.”
She looked at Taiga for a moment, surprised he’d let her have this privacy. He seemed way too aggressive to be this considerate but the surprise wasn’t unwelcome.
She looked up and noted that the sun was halfway past the horizon before getting up and dusting off her clothes.
“It’s been fun, Taiga, but I got to go.” He nodded.
“Alright,” he said before packing his stuff and picking up his duffle bag. “I’ll walk you to the bus station.” She tilted her head.
“Taiga, what about your parents?” she asked, which received a shaking head in response.
“The ‘rents know I’m usually out here, so they’ll pick me up if I forget to call ‘em.” He said as he pulled out his phone and type something into it before putting it back in his bag.
“Let’s go.”
She wondered what she looked like, having Taiga follow her to the bus station with a duffle bag over shoulder.
Thinking of it, Taiga was just a bit taller than her, for them being the same age but boys tended to grow like that. Her head came up barely passed the middle of his face.
From his muscular build and duffle bag, sharp red eyes and facial feature, it probably looked like he was guard more than a fellow teenager.
She giggled at that, she’d made a friend today. Sure it was a big ol’ drive to get here but it wasn’t like it was an everyday thing, right?
‘Wait, do friends do that?’ she thought before turning to Taiga.
“Hey Taiga?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you like do, besides play basketball, I mean?” she asked.
“Nothing really, basketball is my life!” he grinned. “I can’t imagine life without basketball.”
‘Yeah, hoofball would have definitely been his Cutie Mark back in Equestria.’
It was a sobering thought. She’d never be able to go back to Equestria. It never really popped up to her, in the months following the incident but she was never going to be able to go home.
And she thought getting into high school was hard.
Seeing her thinking face, Taiga spoke up as they were about to pass a slew of buses.
“Yo, Sunset, we’re here.” Sunset looked up and felt a pit form in her stomach.
“Yeah, yeah I guess we are.” She mumbled before turning to look at Taiga, only to find she wasn’t the only one. “I’ll talk to you later, alright?”
“If you make another trip like that, at least let me know in advance.” She blinked before holding out a hand.
Catching it with his own, they shook on it, before Sunset went on into the station itself.
Watching her go in, he nodded and left back the way they came.
Thinking about the whole event had him wondering why she came all the way here just for that.
He was sure that there had to be someone who’d be friends with Sunset.
… He wasn’t sure but he did have fun. Someone who had talent in basketball was worth hanging around.
“TAIGA!” he heard and turned to Sunset leaning out a window in the back of the mostly empty bus. She was waving a small notebook with a pen in hand.
“I don’t have your phone number!” she exclaimed as he just stared incredulously before laughing.
He jogged up to her and quickly wrote onto the book before getting out the way.
“See you later!”
He grinned.
A week later and Sunset was more than happy to do the front of the school. It was actually looking pretty good.
“So, does this mean you have no time for food?” she heard behind her and jumped before turning to find one Taiga Kagami standing behind her with a cloth-covered box, a bento box, she recalled.
A growl echoed from her stomach before she chuckled nervously.
“Wouldn’t mind it, I was about to break for a bit, anyway.” She said before sauntering over to Taiga and accepting the bento. They sat down on the grass and ate in comfortable silence.
“Isn’t your school like a three-hour bus ride from here? ~”
“It felt more like two.”
It’d been about a year and some months since they met and about a year since they started dating.
They talked for a bit, Taiga wondering how things were in America and Sunset wanting to know about his streak in his basketball games.
“Is Rainbow still—”
“Learning under your teacher, yeah. Ever since she starting holding basketball seasonal trainings, Rainbow’s been going every chance she could get. You really should meet her one day.”
“Maybe that’ll be soon enough. I have a couple days off soon, so maybe I can make a trip to finally meet your newly made friends.”
“And they’ve been great ones at that.” She said, bumping shoulders with Taiga once more as they got up.
“There’s a lot about Japan I’d like to show you, hell, I’m still trying to figure out some of the stuff here!”
“Oh yeah, not another Big Bang Burger here in Japan, is there?” she asked. Kagami’s eyes lit up and his stomach growled loudly.
“They do! I wasn’t expecting it but I took the challenge the first chance I got!” she giggled at her boyfriend’s bright eyes and drooling mouth.
Yeah, the first time she saw how much he ate, she was more surprised he even knew how to cook with how much he inhaled food.
Kagami’s expression brightened.
“Where are you staying by the way?” he asked an eager expression on his face only to blink as she looked away from him with a nervous chuckle.
“I may have just got here,” she showed her empty hands. “I was kind of hoping you could put up with me for my stay in Japan.”
“Well, that’s not like you at all,” Taiga said, giving her an incredulous look.
“I know, I know, I was trying to get all that taken care of but stuff—“
“Stuff,” Taiga said with air-quotes.
“Stuff came up and I couldn’t make the plans, so… I winged it.” He gave her a funny look before he chuckled.
“Well, sure, I’m game.”
“Your parents won’t mind?”
“They’re not here,” he said. “They’re still in America, doing whatever, right now.” Sunset’s eyes went wide.
“They let you stay here? All alone?” he shrugged.
“I wanted to come over to Japan for a while,” he scratched his head. “Though they might think it’s because of my heritage and I wanna be here to soak it in.” Sunset stifled a giggle.
“So they left you here to take in the culture? Pfft!”
“Yup.”
“Hahaha, I can’t!” she laughed. “How could they think you care about culture!” she guffawed at the thought.
The mixed-race basketball player shrugged.
“I know lots of people who’d love to visit Japan,” she brushed away a tear. “Most of them though don’t have a lick of Asian in them.”
“Well, they are missing out. Sure, it’s a little weird here, the people here seem way too nice. I’ve seen vending machines that sell… things.” He stuttered on this, causing Sunset to look at him. “I’ve actually seen a lot of stuff I didn’t know about and most of it is pretty cool.”
She smiled, Kagami seems a lot different compared to the last time she’d seen him. Besides being as tall as always, he seemed calmer. Still hot-blooded but he had direction for it now more than ever.
She was proud of him and more than happy to be his girlfriend.
Thinking about that, she got on top of the bench and beckoned him over with a wave of the hand.
“What’s up?”
“Close your eyes, I’m want to show you something.” He looked intrigued before doing so. She grinned.
Leaning in, she raised a hand to his cheek before laying her lips over his. His eyebrows shot up but his eyes stayed close. He wrapped his arms around her waist and reciprocated with vigor.
“Ha, ha, Kag-Uh…..” They heard before broking off in shock and watching as Kuroko did his best to go unnoticed.
He was annoyed that it wouldn’t work now of all times.
“Kuroko?!” Taiga Kagami’s face was alit with red, Sunset not that far behind, as the newcomer did his best not to look at his best friend.
‘So this is their relationship.’ He thought, which he was happy for.
Kagami was his best friend, outside of the Generation of Miracles who were rekindling their past ones. To see him have a girlfriend made him proud of and happy for the usually aggressive player.
Though, knowing this relationship helped Kuroko put together some of the pieces had been without when it came to the American.
Like with Satsuki back then.
Kuroko watched as she sat there, drenched to the bone by pool water and she looked beyond terrible.
A towel was thrown over her head before it scrubbed gently.
"I can't imagine how hard your hair is to dry," Taiga said with an impassive expression as he moved the towel to the sides of her head. Satsuki flushed as the sensation. It was surprising that Kagami could even be gentle but surprises were everywhere.
Finishing off with head pat, he hung the towel over his shoulder before walking past Kuroko.
"You should take care of this Kuroko."
He stood there awkwardly. Sunset was the first come back from her embarrassment.
“You’re Kuroko?” she asked as she scratched the back of her head. Not even looking at him.
“Yes,” the short blue-haired one said only to have a hand held in front of him.
“Sunset. Sunset Shimmer, you must Kuroko Tetsuya, it’s nice to finally meet you.” He looked at her quizzically before accepting her hand.
“You know me?”
“Of course. When it comes to basketball, Taiga does nothing but talk about the games and the people in them.” Kuroko couldn’t help but look at her strangely.
The way she nonchalantly said Taiga’s first name spoke a lot of their relationship, though it might have been because she was American. He wasn’t sure but if the way he caught them was any indication, it was with greater affection than a friend.
“Ah, yes,” he shook before letting go. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to know about me in America, Shimmer-san.” She looked at him like that before her eyes went wide.
“Oh, um,” she fumbled. “Sorry, I’m not good with honorifics yet. Tetsuya-san, right?” he looked at her weird before smiling.
“You’re supposed to use the last names of strangers and first names with far more intimate relationships.” Kuroko supplied and found Sunset looking over a notebook.
“Yeah, yeah that’s right. Thanks, Kuroko.” He blinked before looking at Taiga with a sly smile.
“Opposites do attract, Kagami,” Kuroko said but Taiga felt like the smaller male was giving him a backhanded compliment.
“Kuroko!” Taiga growled as the phantom man moved behind Sunset, the teenaged girl shielding the blue-haired player with a laugh.
“Come on Taiga,” she walked forward and pat his Taiga’s chest. “You know him better than I do and even I can tell he’s playing.” She smiled at him, deflating the red-haired man’s faux anger.
“Besides, I should probably go and pick my stuff up from my hotel.” Taiga gave her an inquisitive look to which she responded, “I still had to put my stuff somewhere Taiga. I just paid for a day there to hold me until I hit you up.” Taiga nodded.
“Alright, whenever you’re ready I’ll come and get you.” She nodded to this.
“I’ll see you soon.”
Waving her away, Taiga looked at Kuroko.
“Hmm, I wasn’t expecting to meet your girlfriend anytime soon. I didn’t even know you had one.” Kuroko stated causing Taiga to grunt.
“I don’t really bring it up because it’s nobody’s business. Unlike the other guys, I don’t like to bring it up, it’s my business,”
Kagami said as they talked for a bit after that until reaching Seirin.
Kuroko made to continue forward before being stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he figured it'd be Taiga.
“Yes?” Taiga looked to the side.
“I know you’re happy to be in the know but…”
“It’s fine Kagami,” Kuroko smiled. “I promise.”
They locked eyes for a moment before Taiga nodded. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
~NRK~
He moved his duffle bag to the side on the floor near his couch before falling on said couch and bringing out his phone.
He scrolled through his contacts, passing Aomine, Himuro, and Kuroko, to reach his “S” section and hitting the only important contact there.
Three rings later and he heard her pick up.
“Kagami?” he heard over the phone. There was the sound of running water, a shower, he thought before going beet red.
“Sorry!” he closed the phone as quickly as possible before slamming his face into his pillow.
‘Dammit! Bad timing!’
He grumbled before getting up and finding his way to his kitchen. He was feeling hungry anyway.
Halfway through boiling some pasta noodles, he heard his phone ring.
Turning down the flames under the pot, he closed it with a lid and leaped over the couch and landed on its soft cushion before opening his phone.
“Yo.”
“Kagami? Sorry, you caught me earlier at a… inopportune time.” She said, causing him to blush.
“Y-Yeah, it’s no problem. What’s up?”
“Nothing really but I’ll be ready to be picked up in an hour. That okay? I could just wait a day, I’ve booked it for that much, remember?”
“I do but it’s fine. I’ll eat and make my way over,” he got up from the couch and checked on his food. “Where are you staying by the way?”
He moved along the sidewalk at a brisk pace, eyes moving from side to side before he caught eye of a food stand.
Sunset turned around to the knocking at her door and smiled as she opened it to reveal Taiga holding a nice smelling paper bag.
“Sup,” he said as he moved into the room. Turning around in circles, he eyed the leather bed headboards, the lamp + drawer combination that sat beside the bed. There was a TV sat in front of the bed on the wall.
He turned and sat down on the plush blanket before opening up the brown paper. Sunset closed the door before walking over to her boyfriend, who offered her a fish-shaped item.
“This is…” she tried to remember before pulling out her notebook and searching through the notes.
“Taiyaki, right?” he nodded. She reached over, receiving the snack and taking a bite.
“Hmm,” she contemplated the taste before looking through her book. ‘Red bean paste?’ she wondered before taking another bite.
“Yeah,” Taiga was already finished with one of them before going on to eat another. He eyed Sunset as she took her small bites, looking at her notes all the while.
Yeah, Sunset was always this nerdy but he’d long come to like that side about her. Her being smart made her reliable in his eyes since when it came to student work, he was kind of… dumb. Yeah, dumb.
She finished it with a lick of her thumb before using a handkerchief to wipe her fingers.
“It was pretty good. Really good, thanks Taiga.” He waved her off before crumpling up the bag and shooting it across the room into the trash bin.
“And it’s good.” Sunset supplied.
She sat next to Taiga before bringing out her phone. Leaning over her shoulder, Taiga looked down as pictures scrolled past her cell phone’s screen.
First, it was a blue-skinned girl who was midway to the hoop, basketball in her hand. Next was her, a pink girl, a white, super pale white, girl and a tan-skinned girl, all in a kitchen, wearing chef outfits and wielding spatulas.
The pink one and blue one were fencing on top of the counter.
“What in the hell are they doing? Why are Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie fighting in the kitchen?” Sunset giggled at that.
“We were trying, keyword being trying, to make a cake for a baking contest as a group.” Sunset rubbed her forehead.
“Before we even got anywhere, Rainbow decided that she’d be excellent at sword fighting—”
“And Pinkie joined in, right? How have you guys not gotten suspended already?” He asked as Sunset nodded.
“He he, well…” Sunset trailed off.
“Nope, don’t want to hear about it,” He said with a wave of the hand as he stood up.
“So where’s your stuff?”
~NRK~
“So, how do you guys wanna do this?”
“I think we should make it a surprise and ask Kagami to make food ahead of time and not tell him we’re coming over.”
“You think that’s a good idea, Mitobe?”
“How do you understand him?”
“It’s an art.”
“Regardless, you sure we can do that? Kagami-san seems like the type to try to kill you for that.”
“Ah, you don’t know him like we do Satsuki-chan! Kagami’s way more chill now!”
“Well, if it’s for Tetsu… I’m in! I’ll tell the others all about it!”
“A party with the Generation of Miracles again, this’ll be amazing.”
“Izuki that smile isn’t encouraging.”
“Calm down Hyuga-taichou, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Not helping Fuyuhashi!”
~NRK~
It’d been three days since she’d moved in with Taiga and Sunset could certainly get used to this.
They got up at about the same time, so no waking each other up. Taiga was an amazing cook and Sunset could work around cleaning clothes. The two-toned Americans could easily see themselves moving in together if things went astray or even if
they wanted to.
Sunset was sitting on the chair in Taiga’s living room as the taller American was in the kitchen making something for lunch before his cell phone began to ring.
She picked it up and looked at the phone number and name.
“Fu-yu-ha-shi?” she pronounced before bringing it over to the waiting Taiga. Taking the phone from Sunset he held it up to his ear.
“What’s up?” Sunset watched as her boyfriend’s face contorted as he listened to the phone.
She watched his eyebrows raise before he nodded with a “yeah”. His eyes narrowed before he closed them and held his chin in the hand opposite the one holding the phone.
A few seconds late, he nodded, “I’ll see what I can do.” He hung up and turned to see Sunset looking at him with questioning look. He froze before grumbling.
“Kuroko’s birthday is coming up.” She looked excited causing him to sigh.
“They want me to cook something up for tomorrow.”
“Awesome!” she exclaimed as she grinned. “I should go shopping for some new clothes.”
He facepalmed as she said this causing Sunset to look at him.
“Taiga…” she approached him with an accusing stare. “Is there something I should know about?”
He locked eyes with her, her green clashing with his red.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“… Dammit, they might not know I have a girlfriend.” He sighed out in defeat. Sunset looked at him incredulously.
“How do they not know?”
“I don’t exactly go out of my way to shout ‘I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!’, okay?” she gave him a funny look before smiling.
“For god’s sake Kagami, it’s not like it’s any different from my friends, I thought this was serious.” He snapped his head in
her direction with wide eyes.
“What?!” she shrugged.
“I want to surprise them when you actually visit.”
“Don’t girls talk about this stuff all the time?!” she shot him another accusing look. “Not that I think you’re like that.”
She held her glare for barely a moment before giggling at Taiga’s relieved expression.
“It’s not untrue, if I’m being honest, me and the girls do have sleepovers all the time and we do squeal a bit.” He cracked a smile at that.
“That so…” he pounced on her, grabbing her around the sides and moving his hands in worm-like motions.
“Eeeeeeeeeeee! T-Taiga I-I swe- eep!” he cackled like a hyena.
They moved to the couch, Sunset struggling and laughing in Taiga’s arms, and devolving into laughter
~NRK~
He looked through the window, eying the large slab of beef before him with a glint in his eyes and drip of drool pouring from his mouth.
“Come on, you know you want it,” Sunset said from his side with an exasperated sigh.
They’d been looking through windows for clothes and food though Taiga seemed to get stuck on the last one.
She pulled him away from the window and guided him down the street.
~NRK~
“Alright, so how are we going to do this?” Sunset adjusted her apron before finishing off the tie at her back.
“Alright, so we’re going to look at the beef and cut off as much fat as possible,” Taiga said, as he looked at his knives before picking one.
They continued like that for a while, Taiga moved a saucepan from the stove to the ceramic pot and poured it over the seasoned beef in it. The food steamed before Sunset put the lid over it.
They moved over to the stone where a ceramic tray sat.
“Let’s do a meatloaf covered with parmesan, alright?” Taiga had said causing Sunset’s mouth to water in anticipation.
“That sounds amazing! Teach me, teach me, teach me!” she chanted with a grin on her lips and rumble in her stomach.
Kagami reciprocated the grin. “I’ll make us a small one before the party.”
“Yes! Awesome!”
They put the tray on the oven rack before shaking parmesan over the top and sliding it in.
“What’s next?”
“Hmm,” Kagami cupped his chin before snapping his fingers. “Bread!”
“Bread?”
“Bread!”
Sunset kneaded the bread with fury, hands coming away with more of the gooey dough more often than not.
She looked at it with a frown before slumping.
“Taiga this thing hates me!” she looked over to her boyfriend as he looked away from his perfectly rolled dough to her flat broken mess and held in a laugh.
“It doesn’t hate you,” he walked over. Picking something up from his side and putting over to her.
“You didn’t add flour to the counter.” She looked at it suspiciously.
“This is going to help?”
“Yes. Didn’t you say you were in a kitchen before?” Taiga asked with a raised brow watching as Sunset looked away.
“Pinkie Pie and Rainbow got us kicked out of the kitchen and the competition.”
Taiga laughed long and hard before helping Sunset knead the dough correctly.
They finished and let the dough sit before taking a break.
Sitting on a stool by the other side of the counter, crossing her arms and laying her head on them.
Taiga took the stool beside her.
“What do you eat, now that I think about it?” she groaned at his question.
“Mmmmmm, I got takeout usually. If Applejack/Pinkie Pie, who did this often, baked. I never really had the best cooking”
Taiga looked at her while muttering before moving the kitchen and bringing back a book.
Sunset looked at the literary tool and gave him a glare.
“That’s not funny.” She said causing him to chuckle before opening it. Her eyes went wide as she saw note after note in the book. Pictures of food, the in-between, and the ingredients. Arrows pointed at everything, moving from notes to food to ingredients and more notes.
Taking it gently from Taiga’s hands, she noted that it was pretty old. The ink was faded in most places with some of it looking new.
She slowly moved through its pages before closing it and looking at Taiga.
She lunged before wrapping around him and laying the biggest kiss on his lips.
They made out for a minute before moving back from each other.
“Best. Boyfriend. Ever!”
The bread just finished baking and the time read 5 o clock as she washed her hands.
This had been so fun! Both hanging with her BF and cooking with him as well as the added bonus of getting Taiga’s personal cook notes from his childhood.
She moved to Taiga’s room, ignoring all the Lebron posters the room was remarkably neat and well organized considering Taiga’s aggressive nature.
She sat at the edge of the bed and rifled through her suitcase worth of clothes, sundries, and affections, before pulling out a new set of clothes they’d bought the other day. A short sleeve, well-fitting, dark red dress shirt, dark brown capris with black socks. No need for shoes inside Taiga’s home.
She removed her dirty clothes, threw them in Taiga’s dirty clothes hamper and walked into his bathroom to take a well-deserved shower.
“What the hell are you doing here, Kuroko?!” Taiga asked incredulously, looking around outside as he saw nobody else with the Phantom Man.
“Ah, Kagami, I was told to come over here at around six to help bring the food.” The short basketball player said, dressed in a blue t-shirt and jeans combo.
“R-Really?” Taiga wasn’t that bothered with Kuroko being here, seeing as his shadow knew about Sunset and her arrangement.
Letting him in, Taiga watched as Kuroko looked around before sniffing the air.
“That smells delicious, Kagami,” The blue-haired teen complimented as he looked toward the kitchen.
“Is all this for something? Are we having a party for winning?” Kuroko smiled at that, it sounded fun.
Kagami’s grin came to life at full force.
‘Kuroko doesn’t know!’
It was a surprise party, huh? He could get behind this.
“Taiga I’m out!” came a yell from within the house that startled Kuroko, causing the teen to jump.
“A-Ah, Shimmer-san is here?” he let out a breath. “Of course, I forgot, sorry.” Taiga received a small bow from Kuroko which the American waved off.
“It’s whatever, as long as things don’t get weird its fine.” Taiga looked down the hallway to his room before walking to it.
“Just chill right here Kuroko, you can have a piece of the bread if you want!”
“Yes, thank you.” He heard before the TV was turned on in the background.
Walking up to his door, he put his back to it and knocked. “Sunset?!”
“Yes?”
“Kuroko’s here.”
“O-Oh, okay! I’ll be done in a minute… hold right there.” She said, leaving him in waiting before he heard the opening of a door and got hit with a hug from his back.
His face went bright red before the sound of the door closing hit his ear.
Stuffing his face into his hand, he did his best to remember the sensations on his back as he walked into his living roo-!
“THE HELL ARE ALL YOU DOING HERE?!” Kagami yelled as he looked at the group now sitting in his living room, chewing on his bread without a care in the world.
“Yo, Taiga!”
“Hi Kagami-san!”
“Hey, bush brow.”
“Hello Taiga, sorry about Murasakibara.”
“Mmmm, this bread is so good Kagami!”
“Kise watched your mouth.”
“Don’t be like that Midori-chan, you’re eating bread as well.”
“Taka I swear—”
“Kise! Watch it!”
“Come on, Kasamicchi! Here eat some bread.”
Kagami began to sweat as most of the Generation of Miracles sat in his house with their attachments. The American homeowner shook as he pointed at them all.
“HOW? WHY? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”
“Calm down, carrot-top,” Aomine Daiki said as he sat back in his couch, with Kuroko and Satsuki flanking him on both sides.
“I didn’t know you’d all be here,” Kuroko looked on in wonder at them all. “Are you all coming to the party?” the unasked question “Where’s Akashi?” was left about.
“We all came to help carry some food or somethin’,” Aomine answered with a shrug before tossing back another piece of bread.
“Who told you all to come here?!”
“Koganei,” Kuroko answered.
‘I’m going to KILL HIM!’
“Kagami?! Something wrong?” came a voice, a female voice, from his hallway causing the room to go silent.
They all went red. “Kagami your teacher’s not here again… is she?” Kise Ryota stuttered out but they could see the smile on his face.
The woman who came out was not, in fact, Ms. Andrews. The hair being both red and yellow, compared to the pure yellow of the adult woman.
The outfit she was certainly eye-catching and the teal eyes were wide as she stopped just outside the hallway.
“…”
“…”
“…”
‘Crap’ both redheads in the room thought.
“Ah, Sunset,” Himuro spoke up, catching everyone’s attention. “I wasn’t expecting to see you in Kagami’s home, in Japan.” Kagami’s sworn brother grinned maliciously.
“Now what’s Kagami’s girlfriend doing in Japan?”
The room was silent as Kagami dragged a hand down his beat red face.
“THE HELL HE DOES!”
“THE HELL’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN YOU ASS?!”
“Kagami! You never told me!” Kise cried as he looked at the red-haired American with wet eyes before being smacked on the back of the head by Kasamatsu.
“Hmph, while that is seemingly impossible, it’s none of my business,” Midorima said with a cold logic causing Taka to laugh.
“Fuhhahah! You don’t sugarcoat anything huh Midori-chan!”
“Oi!”
“Mmmm,” Atsushi hummed before taking another piece of bread. “Whatever.”
“Not interested?” Himuro asked with mirth in his eyes causing the large player to shake his head.
“You’re mean Himuro.”
“Nice to meet you!” Satsuki greeted with a bright smile and a pep in her step. It wasn’t often that she could get another girl in their group so she was eager to welcome Kagami’s girlfriend into the mix.
“Oh, hello there…”
“Satsuki Momoi but you can call me Momoi!” the pink-haired girl said easily as she shook hands with Sunset. “You have to tell me how you and Kagami met!”
Sunset smile nervously at that before offering the story. “Well it all began with me repairing the front of the school…”
“You got something to say to me, Aomine, huh?!”
“You heard me! You couldn’t get a girlfriend if your life depended on it!”
“Eat a dick! Aomine Dicki!” a vein pulsed above the dark blue-haired player’s forehead.
“Fuck off, Cockgami!” They pulled at each other’s shirts and butted heads, much to the amusement of Himuro and Kise.
Kuroko watched the chaos and smiled at how fun this all was before he heard a knock at the door.
He looked around and saw everyone else occupied before he got up and walked to the door and opened it to reveal all of Seirin standing there with a bunch of party supplies and a large brown box in Kiyoshi’s arms.
They stopped and watched as chaos ensued inside Taiga’s home with gobsmacked looks.
“The hell happened here?!” Izuki might have exclaimed but it was nothing to the two hotheaded players arguing in the middle of the living room.
Koganei looked around before noticing Satsuki talking to another girl in the room.
“Who’s that?” he asked, causing the rest of Seirin to look at Sunset speaking cordially with Satsuki, the pink-haired girl’s face going through a rapid set of emotions.
“Oh,” Kuroko smiled. “That’s Kagami’s girlfriend.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Kuroko please stop messing with us.” Riko pushed to the front with a frown on her face before looking at Sunset.
“That’s Sunset Shimmer from America and I’m not lying.”
“Kuroko,” Furihata said cautiously as he looked at the girl in question. “You sure you didn’t hit your head while we weren’t here.” Kuroko gave him a curious look before walking over to Sunset and tapping on her shoulder.
Turning, Seirin was front row to more of Kuroko’s phantom antics before the trio walked over.
“Oh, you must be the rest of Taiga’s team, right? I’m Sunset,” she held out a hand and Riko shook it with a wide eye expression before turning to the others and huddling together.
“So… Kagami’s got a girlfriend.” Riko started.
“It can’t be true! How could Kagami get a girlfriend before me?!” Koganei sulked.
Mitobe looked at him with a determined expression.
“What do you mean ‘It’s not like it’s impossible,’ Mitobe?! This is Kagami we’re talking about!”
“Maybe she’s trying to turn him around and be more mature?” Izuki suggested.
“… You guys do realize she can hear us, right?” Hyuga added with a push of his glasses.
“Yes, I can,” Sunset said with a ticking eyebrow. “And for your information, I’d say Kagami had more to do with turning me around than vice-versa.”
They looked at her like she was crazy.
“She’s a foreigner! This has to be the difference! Damn you, Kagami!” Koganei said before the group moved into the room, catching the attention of the Generation of Miracles and their basketball pairs.
“Ah, let me help with that,” said Kasamatsu as he got up and took some of the burden off Hyuga who nodded in appreciation.
“Why is everyone here? I thought we would be taking the food somewhere for the after game party?” Kuroko asked with a tilt of his head.
Everyone else looked at him before rushing over to the boxes, removing several party poppers and paper kazoos each.
“One…” Hyuga started.
“Two…” Riko said next.
“Three…” Satsuki finished before blowing. Kuroko Tetsuya jumped at the sound.
“Happy birthday KUROKO!”
He stared, looking at them all before locking onto Taiga’s grin.
“Gotcha!”
“So our tiger helped you?” Riko asked as the entire group sat around in various spots in Taiga’s living room. The young man in question sitting at the foot of the chair Sunset sat in cross-legged and leaning back against the arm the chair itself.
“Yeah, I had sort of a rough rap at school and Taiga was basically my first friend.” Sunset said with a shake of his shoulder, causing Taiga to blush and look away from the group.
‘Oh god this is real.’ The entirety of the group thought as they looked on.
“All over one year ago,” Satsuki tapped her lip in thought. “That’d be before Kagami came to Japan, right?” she asked to which Kagami nodded.
“Hmph, before he even set foot in Japan,” Aomine grumbled. “Bullshit.” Kagami’s eyebrow shook.
“Wait, you said ‘had’ so it got better right?” Hyuga asked. Sunset nodded before bringing out her phone.
She clicked on the phone for a bit before turning the screen around and showing the group its contents.
“Whoa… I’ve never seen so many colors on a person before.” Kise said as he look at the picture in wonder.
“…”
“Mitobe’s right, Americans are super colorful. That one’s even bright pink!”
“This one looks like she actually plays a sport,” Aomine mumbled, catching the attention of everyone else as he pointed to the girl with rainbow-colored hair.
“… I mean, the hair’s not that surprising honestly.” Midorima said to which the GoM all nodded as they remembered that one sempai of theirs.
“… This one’s literally white! Is that even healthy?!” Riko said with shock as she looked at the girl with voluminous purple hair.
“Here’s a purple one,” Murasakibara added as he pointed at the girl with the green and purple dog.
Let him repeat, the green and purple DOG.
“America can be a bit… crazy,” Himuro finished after some thought before pointing to each of them. “From what Sunset tells us, they’re:”
“Twilight.” The purple girl.
“Rarity.” The completely white girl.
“Applejack.” The one girl who looked normal in comparison.
“What, she work on a farm?” Taka asked.
“Yup,” Sunset answer before Himuro continued.
“Fluttershy.” The yellow one.
“Hold up, Fluttershy? What?” Kise asked, looking confused. Sunset could only shrug as Himuro finished.
“And Rainbow Dash.” Obviously the one with rainbow-colored hair.
“We started with normal names and ended on weird ones, the hell?” Hyuga wondered aloud.
“Where we live in America, is a town named Ponyville. Most of the people there have names like that.” The group nodded before leaning back.
“Oi, Kagami,” Aomine caught Kagami’s attention. “You ever meet the blue one?”
“Nah,” he shook his head. “I only knew about them through Sunset, never got the chance to meet them. Mostly since, they became friends while I was here in Japan.” Aomine nodded. “From what I know, Rainbow does play basketball but she also does a lot of other sports. Somehow the captain of every sports team, still not sure how that works.” Kagami finished before tossing a shrug at the disbelieving Hyuga.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“What does Fluttershy do?” Kise asked with a grin. “I bet she’s the type to make dolls and stuff, right?” the copy man said before raising his eyebrows at the shake of a head from Sunset.
“She actually takes care of animals.” Sunset said to which Kise’s grin returned.
“Like rabbits, dogs, and cats.”
“Chipmunks, gophers, squirrels,” Sunset added.
“Snakes, lizards, pet alligators.” Taiga grinned at the shocked look on Kise’s face, not even acknowledging Sunset’s ‘dog’ comment.
“Haha… you’re joking right?”
“Nope, I’ve even seen a bear under her care before.”
“W-What?!”
“What about Rarity?” asked Taka who was holding in his laugh at Kise’s expense.
“Rarity’s all about fashion,” Sunset said.
“Oh, she’s actually normal,” Midorima said, causing Sunset to shrug.
“I’d say most of them are but they tend to surprise me too.”
“I bet Twilight’s a total geek,” Koganei said.
“Got it in one.”
“Applejack seems fairly straightforward,” Kiyoshi Teppei said as he scratched his knees.
“Pretty much, she’s pretty competitive,” Sunset snorted the heads turned her way. “Geez, she doesn’t really play basketball guys.” She nearly laughed as the basketball stars of each team seemed to deflate.
“Damn it,” came Daiki’s disgruntled grunt. Sunset shook her head.
"Bunch of basketball fanatics,” She giggled at the thought, she was dating one of them though so she was used to it.
“Oh right,” Riko stood up in alarm. “Let’s have Kuroko’cake!” Murasakibara’s head snapped up at the mention of the baked goods.
“Cake?” He stood and followed along just as quickly with everyone else trailing behind.
Kagami got up and offered a hand to Sunset who took the gesture easily.
Kuroko smiled. “I’m happy for you Kagami.” The larger man smiled before raising a fist.
Kuroko met his fistbump halfway. “Happy birthday Kuroko.”
Sunset smiled at the display of friendship before Kuroko looked at her. “Take care of him Shimmer-san.”
“Of course, you didn’t even need to ask.”
The cake was brought to the table in the middle of the living room. Kuroko sat in the center couch in front of it, flanked by
Aomine and Satsuki with the GoM around the back of the couch or the side.
“1”
“2”
“3” Kuroko blew out the candles to welcome and warm applause.
“I’ll see you for another street game, Kagami.”
“I’ll see you in a bit, later.”
“Good-bye Kagami, Shimmer-san.”
“Please Kuroko, call me Sunset. We’re friends now, after all.” A smile before he walked down the steps and they closed the door.
With the amount of people that had been in here, cleaning had been a breeze and things were nice and neat before everyone left.
“Hooo,” Sunset sat down and deflated into the chair. “It was nice meeting all your friends Taiga.” The other American nodded before moving to the kitchen and putting up the now dry plates.
“Yeah, I’m glad we were able to give Kuroko the kind of birthday he deserves.” Sunset got up and walked into the kitchen before hugging Taiga from behind. The young man froze for a bit before relaxing in her grip.
They stayed like that for a minute or two before Sunset made to go to their room.
“I’ll be in the room.”
“Yeah, see you in a bit.”
Kagami thought back to all that happened today and felt the most relaxed he’d been in a long time.
Finishing up, he tucked in the last plate and left the kitchen. He removed his shirt just as he reached the door.
Opening it had led him into a trap.
Sunset lunged.
“Time for some private time.”
He loved when his girlfriend came over.
~NRK~
Author's Note
And that does it for the Kuroko no Basket half in Chapter 1. Expect the second chapter to be a continuation of this one but with Taiga visiting Sunset instead.
That’s all really. Tell me how this was received and I’ll strive to do better.
Later.
