“Hey Dean! Where on earth are we going?” Jeremy complained as he followed his brunette friend who was walking through a complicated path. They passed a small forest then a shallow river and ended up in front of an old inn. “Eh? An inn? Hey Dean, is this the inn you were talking about?”

Dean didn’t respond and looked under an old dusty mat on the floor and found a key there. “Hm, looks like we arrived ahead of them”

“Who are them? And how did you know there was a key there?” Jeremy still shot him questions and gulped after examining the outdoor look of the scary looking inn.

Dean faced him after picking up the key. “This used to be our family inn” he informed him as Jeremy widened his eyes. “Are you serious?!” he stared at the building in front of him. ‘Good thing he used the term ‘used to be’…’ he thought.

Dean was now opening the door but had a hard time opening it and just decided to kick it open in annoyance. “Oi! What do you think you’re going?!” Jeremy scolded as Dean walked in. “wait up!”

After the both of them entered, Dean just returned the door’s original place looking as if it wasn’t broken. “You’re just going to leave it like that?!”

“We have an inn keeper, she’ll fix it”

“Ugh, whatever” Jeremy followed Dean upstairs and up to the third floor where he usually sleeps. They set their things in separate rooms and went outside afterwards after hearing a crash downstairs and voices. “What was that?”

Dean flinched and immediately walked towards the other staircase leaving creaky sounds on the old wooden floor. “Crap!” her cursed and picked up his pace with Jeremy following behind, not silently.

“Where are you going?!”

The two of them successfully escaped the second floor without being seen and stopped by the kitchen when they heard an old woman cooking. “Tanukibaba…” Dean whispered peeking thought the sliding door.

“Tanuki… who?” Jeremy tilted his head to the side.

Dean clamped his mouth, shutting him up and waited for the lady to leave the kitchen. As soon as she stepped out they made a run for it at the back garden that leads outside and into the forest. Jeremy noticed a figure of a girl opening the sliding door and just ignored it and ran off.

…

“Tsukiko! Tetsuya! Emiko!” the three’s grandparents greeted them and gave them a bone crushing hug as they gasped for air. They all made a sour face as soon as the two elders pulled away and laughed. “You four always made that face whenever you visit” their grandma laughed.

“That’s because you always suffocate us with your hug, grandma!” Tsukiko reasoned while pouting receiving a: karate chop from her grandpa.

“Manners Tsuko!” he reminded.

“It’s Tsukiko!” she corrected, merely annoyed of his grandpa’s memory gap.

“Manners!” he chopped her head again as she rubbed it in pain. She sighed and just understood her grandpa’s decision and followed them to the dining room where tons of food waited for them. Every time they visited for the summer, their grandmother would always cook tons of meal for them, showing how she missed her grandchildren.

“Whoa! You’re the best grandma!” Tsukiko beamed after seeing the feast-like dinner that was prepared just for her and her cousin’s arrival.

“You overworked as usual, Oba-chan” Tetsuya commented as their grandmother smiled and knelt down on the cushion in front of their table.

“Don’t worry Tetsuya, never underestimate: Chiyoko Satoshi” she stated jokingly and stifled a laugh.

Tetsuya just sighed and smiled at her while Tsukiko sweat dropped.

The evening went on and all five of them enjoyed their dinner while the three tell about the events happened to them during the school year. They told about the training camp and how they defeated the US team. Tsukiko kept on receiving karate chops from her grandpa because of her unlady-like gestures at the dinner table like: shoving tons of food in her mouth at once. Tetsuya even mentioned that Tsukiko reminded him of Kagami who also choked during the first day of their second year in Seirin sending Emiko silent at his side leaving him confused.

“Speaking of Kagami, I wonder how they are doing.” Tsukiko thought remembering her friends at their inn.

“I believe they are staying at our family inn, correct?” Chiyoko, their grandma confirmed as they all nodded.

“Why don’t you give them a call?” Tetsuya suggested.

“Right!” the brunette agreed and pulled out her phone and receives another chop from her grandpa. “What was that for, grandpa?!”

“No phones at the dinner table!”

“Goro! Leave this moon child alone!” Chiyoko scolded her husband and he huffed continuing to eat.

Tsukiko sighed and called Aomine who took a while in picking up. “Oh! Aomine! How are you guys there?”

“Tsukikooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!” Aomine whined and sounded sick making her worry. “My stomach hurts!!!!”

“Are… Aomine?” she wondered. “Why? What happened? Can I talk to the others?”

Aomine handed his phone to the girl to his side who was Aya. “Tsunekooooo!” she whined and sounded she wanted to cry.

“A-Aya!” Tsukiko got more worried after hearing her voice. “Tsuneko! Help! My tummy…” Aya cried holding onto eat.

“Why what happened?”

“Tanukibaba… she…” Aya wasn’t able to finish her answer when someone took the phone from her. “Tsukikocchi! You didn’t tell us Tanukibaba cooked that way!” he complained also sounding weak.

“Cooked that way? What do you mean?”

“She had Murasakibaracchi stop eating!” he answered making Tsukiko more nervous as she started biting her nails. ‘What on earth Tanukibaba cook?!’

Kise’s pleading voice faded as Akashi took the phone from him. “Tsukiko” he called her with his normal tone of voice. ‘Well Akashi sounds okay…’ she thought with a weird look on her face.

“Akashi! How is everyone? They all sounded sick! I’m starting to get worried!” she exclaimed.

“You don’t need to worry, everyone’s fine, they’re just overacting” Akashi replied.

“But Kise said Murasakibara had stop eating!” with that, she caught Tetsuya and Emiko’s attention. It wasn’t normal that the purple giant would stop eating. They assumed that it was either too horrible for him to eat more or it was too good; so damn good that he ate too much and got bloated. But basing on Tanukibaba’s cookery…

“Don’t worry, he just ate too much, that’s all” Akashi assured.

“And Aya?”

“Same” Tsukiko was about to speak when Akashi beat her to it. “And so are Daiki and Ryota. Unexpectedly, Tanukibaba-san’s cooking isn’t that bad… in fact--”

“IT’S THE BEST DAMN CUISIN WE EVER TASTED!” Akashi let his bloated friends reply by putting it on loud speaker.

Tsukiko flinched at the loudness and snorted afterwards. ‘And they were scared at her first’ “I’ll hand it back to Daiki” Akashi handed Aomine’s phone back to him.

“Mush mush?” he said lazily making Tsukiko giggle.

“Hm, it sounds like you’re too bloated to talk, I’ll call you back later” she told him.

“Hm…” he murmured making her laugh even more and hung up.

As soon as Tsukiko ended the call, her grandparents stared at her suspiciously making her sweat bullets nervously. ‘Crap! I forgot that both of them are here!’ she cursed herself.

Tetsuya saw the nervous look on Tsukiko; he changed the subject clearing his throat. “Anyway, how were they? Did they discover Tanukibaba’s expertise?”

“O-Oh…” Tsukiko snorted and started to laugh softly, covering her mouth. “Manners!” another chop. “Okay!” she complained rubbing her head. “And yeah, even got bloated at the discovery”

They all nodded their heads and finished their dinner. Tsukiko was about to walk to her room bringing her bag with her when her grandmother spoke. “So, Tsukiko” she stopped looking at the old lady. “Is there anything you would like to tell me about… something?”

“Huh? What are you talking about, oba-chan?” she asked.

“Hmm… who’s this Aomine I’ve heard about?”

“Eh?!” she blushed stepping backwards as her grandma chuckled. “H-How did you—did Tetsuya or Emiko told you?”

“No, but the way you smiled when you called him…”

“Gah!” ‘me and my big mouth!’ Tsukiko sighed and looked at her grandma. “You’re not going to allow me sleep until I tell you, right?” she assumed and her grandma nodded.

“It can’t be helped…” she trailed off and walked to her room with her grandmother.

…

“Oi! Dean! Wait up!!!” Jeremy exclaimed annoyingly as they walked pass the forest they just passed when they left the inn. They just came back from town and now returned to the inn.

Dean just ignored him and continued proceeding to the inn. Entering the inn and walking upstairs, he disturbed some of the people who was almost asleep and was waiting for a call.

“What’s that creaky noise again?” Aomine sat up from his futon and opened his door looking up the ceiling.

He slide his door open and so did Kagami whose door was just across his. “You felt it too?” Kagami asked him.

“Yeah, I’ve been hearing that creaky noise since I arrived here” Aomine answered and made his way towards the stairs.

Momoi and Aya also felt it and opened their door. “Daicchi! Did you hear that?”

“Yeah…” he said and reached the stairs, looking up. “Since I got her actually…”

“Do you think there are ghost here?” Momoi looked scared. “Relax, Satsuki-chan, I’m sure it’s just Tanukibaba-san” Aya assured, patting her back.

Aomine walked upstairs and was followed by the others slowly as he turned to a corner to see—“Dean! What the hell?!” Jeremy greeted his eyes.

“O-Oi, you…”

“Eh? Oh! It’s Daiki!” Jeremy called him by the first name since Americans aren’t used to call others by their last names.

“You, what are you doing here?”

“Oi Dean!” Jeremy called his friend and grabbed him by the back of his collar. Dean glared at him and grumbled. “This is the Daiki I was talking about!” he pointed at the raven blue haired boy.

Dean stiffened and faced Aomine giving him a hard stare. “So you’re Aomine?” he raised his eyebrow.

Aomine stared at him and thought that Dean somehow resembled Tsukiko. His hair has the same shade of color as hers, together with his eyes. That stare he was receiving now was the same stare that he used to get from Tsukiko. ‘This guy… is he?’

 “So this is the guy… that Tsukiko’s with?” Dean gave him a cold stare.

Aomine stepped back with gulp feeling intimidated by the gaze.  ‘His presence…’

“Daiki! Let me introduce you to my teammate who DIDN’T ATTEND THE FINALS” Jeremy emphasized the last part glaring at Dean. “His name is Dean, and he’s really good in basketball!”

“Wait, this is a family inn, so how the hell did you guys were able to enter?” Kagami questioned from the back of Aomine.

Takuya glared at him. “Ah, Takuya-sama, it’s nice to see you again” Tanukibaba appeared and recognized the brunette guy that was introduced as Dean.

“T-Takuya?!” Aomine and Kagami chorused.

“Aren’t you Tsukiko’s…?”

“Brother” Aomine finished for Kagami. Takuya scoffed. “Half”

-------------------------------------------------

TAKUYA'S HERE :OOO LOLSIES cliffhanger i know so yeah...  and i notice some of you ship Emiga... >:) hihi, i'll add moments for them but for now... here you go! hope you guys like it!!!

vote and comment pls! <3