Midorima and Kise remained together, collapsed on the ground and crying for another hour and a half. They had eventually calmed down and their sobs turned into mild tears. It didn't mean they were any less upset; it only meant that they knew they couldn't remain there forever. So, once Kise was ready to face reality, he excused himself to go to the bathroom to wash up, while Midorima remained on the floor. The green-haired male was caught between being embarrassed for his out of character action and just numb over the situation.

"Midorima, come home with us. You shouldn't stay here alone." Kasamatsu was speaking calmly and had crouched down to look Midorima in the eyes. He felt bad when he saw the devastation in his eyes and written all over his face. "You need to be around friends now and until Kazu's return."

"No. I... am alright." The green-haired human hesitated before he abruptly stood up. He wiped at his face and shook his head. Determination now showed in his eyes alongside the sadness. "I have to stay here and wait for Takao to come back. I don't want him to return and see me not living here anymore."

"Midorima... I..." Kasamatsu wanted to argue but knew once the other human decided something, he wouldn't change his mind. "Alright, but if anything comes up or you need anyone to talk to, then call us. We'll be here for you. So, lean on us."

"You're being particularly kind today. I'm not sure it suits you." Midorima's tone was slightly snarky, which caused the other human to smile slightly. Kasamatsu hoped that his snark returning was a good thing. He was about to respond when another voice joined in the conversation.

"He's right Midorima. We'll do anything to help you. Besides, it's now my job to protect you. I have to keep you safe in place of Kazu. He'd hate me if anything were to happen to you while he was away." It was Kise speaking now. He'd returned from the bathroom and heard the end of their conversation.

"Thank you, Kise, Kasamatsu. I truly appreciate you both and your assistance through all of this." It was pure honesty from the green-haired human. He wouldn't usually say that out loud, but he knew he needed to be truthful with his two friends. At least, at that moment he needed to be. His words caught the two off guard and had to look at each other in to make sure they actually heard what was said correctly. They weren't completely sure how to respond to Midorima being so open with them.

"...You mean a lot to us both Midorima... I mean Shintarou." The human flinched at Kise using his given name, but he didn't reject it. However, he nearly involuntarily shoved the angel away when he approached him and wrapped his arms around the human.

"What are you doing?"

"Hugging you. Is that a problem?"

"...Yes..."

"Too bad." Kise smiled at the human, but even though he was smiling, there were still clearly hints of sadness written on his face. He was trying hard to hide the sadness and be happy though. "Don't worry, Shin. Kazu will return to us." With that, Kise released the human and turned to his lover. "Let's go home." Kasamatsu looked to Midorima, who nodded his head to tell them it was okay.

"Alright. Well, like I said before, call us if you need anything. Even if you just want to talk." Kasamatsu truly wanted the human to go with them, but he'd settle for a phone call. He just wanted to make sure his friend was okay, or at least that he wouldn't do anything irrational.

"I will." The green-haired male walked the two to the door, which wasn't there. The three couldn't help but stare at the broken door. They had all forgotten about it.

"...Ryouta will pay for your door."

"Thank you." So with that, the angel and human began to walk away from the green-haired human. It was only that moment when Midorima realized that he truly didn't want to be there alone. Even so, he didn't call out to them. He couldn't tell if it was his pride that stopped him from calling to his friends or if it was something else, but he just knew it wasn't right to do.

Once the two were gone out of sight, the green-haired human turned to his apartment. He took in all the damage and things he needed to clean. He was glad that Kise was able to leave the barrier up until his door got fixed since his living room was a disaster. Takao's blood was soaking into his floor and the towels full of his blood were thrown around, also soaking into the floor. The remains of the failed exorcism were spilled on the table and on the ground around it, the salt scattered around was the thing that was truly everywhere, since the demon nor human had cleaned up. That caused Midorima to realize that he as well was a mess. Drying blood covered him in various places and salt stuck to where the blood was.

Midorima wanted to clean up, but his entire body felt heavy and weighed down as if he could fall through the floor any second. All the energy he once had was drained and he felt as if he could sleep for days. So, ignoring his common sense telling him to clean up, he decided to head to bed. He had to take a quick shower to rid himself of blood, but it turned into only rinsing himself off. He was way too tired to do much of anything else, however, once he was in bed, he couldn't sleep.

The human hadn't even had the energy to put clothes on or dry his hair fully. He'd just gotten out of the shower, dried himself slightly and fell into his cold bed, but now he was wide awake. The thoughts of the past day flew through his head. Things he could have done differently and things that he should have realized. Every thought led him to blame himself further. He told himself that all that happened was his fault and that Takao almost dying was all on him. Even though Midorima was aware that blaming himself wasn't right, his grief was clouding his reasonable side and wouldn't let him think any other way.

As the night continued on and the human remained lying still in bed, the exhaustion finally took over. As Midorima began to fall asleep, he reached out to Takao's side of the bed and grabbed a hold of the pillow the demon would use. The human pulled the pillow to his body and realized it smelled like his precious demon. The scent was relaxing to him and caused him to slip into sleep faster. While sleep overtook the human, he couldn't help but think that he'd have no dreams, but he was incorrect. His dreams were full of Takao and the times they spent together.

When morning came, Midorima had to face the day. He pushed aside his feelings and cleaned up the evidence of what had gone on the previous days. While cleaning, he found out two good things. The first was that there were no lingering stains in his floors from Takao's blood, and the second was that his blood-soaked phone was fine. Apparently, it's battery just died, but once it was charged it was working like normal, so it turned out to be blood proof.

As he messed with his phone to ensure it was not only clean but fully functioning like he thought, he saw he had four missed calls and a voicemail. All were from the same person, which was the man who'd fired him from the hospital he worked at before he was cursed. Seeing the calls and message honestly intrigued the male, so nearly instantly, Midorima clicked the message to hear what it was.

"Hello, Midorima. I'm sure you must wonder why I've been calling, so I'll just right to the point. After some consideration, I've decided that if you want your job back, you can have it. Think about it and call me with your answer." His boss sounded annoyed at having to make that call. He didn't seem pleased with rehiring the green-haired human, so the orders must have come from above him.

To be honest, there was no thinking needed. Midorima wanted his job back. Not only his job but his life, and that's what he knew he needed to do. With his curse gone, the human knew he needed to go back to his life as he patiently waited for Takao's return.

Despite having ill feelings towards the goddess after Takao's almost death, Midorima kept his promise to her and began the restoration of Yoshi's shrine. He brought his angel friends; Kise, Kagami, Himuro, and Momoi, along with his human ones; Kasamatsu, Kuroko and Murasakibara, to help fix the shrine. They made offerings together and even recruited some of their friends too. Along with that, Midorima's friends also did another job for his sake. Their second job was to ensure that the green-haired human was never able to feel alone or to feel pain.

Even with as much as they tried and did for Midorima, they weren't enough. A few months passed by and even though he had his friends, job, cars and even his normal lucky life back, Midorima still had a hole in his heart. He heard nothing about Takao, even though Akashi had returned already. The demon merely said that the cleansing was taking time. He refused to say anything more and began to ignore the human's phone calls. It infuriated Midorima, but most of all, it caused him more pain.

His mind kept wandering off to Takao and his feelings for the demon. Along with that, if it wasn't the past with him he thought about, it was all that could have been in the future. To make it worse, every night Takao filled his dreams. There were good dreams where Takao was never even hurt and terrible ones where his precious demon never returned. One thing was the same each morning, Takao was not in bed next to him like he wished. It was a painful way to start the day.

Of course, Midorima's group of friends were well aware of the pain he carried. He might have still been his usual self on the outside, but they knew his silent suffering and were very worried about it. So, to help lift his spirits, a few of the group members decided to take Midorima out to Kise's bar to have a fun night of drinking. The group consisted of Momoi, Aomine, and Kagami, along with Kise and Kasamatsu of course.

However, it was the blond angel that was able to get the green-haired human to arrive. Midorima put up a fight since he wasn't one who usually went out drinking, but Kise had been very persuasive. That honestly only meant the angel threatened to drag Midorima to the bar by force if he refused. So, the human reluctantly showed up a little after the others. However, he didn't make himself known and was even debating on leaving without a word. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't in the cards for the night.

"Look who finally decided to show up. Thought we were going to have to drag your ass here." The blue-haired demon was the first of the group to notice Midorima, who in response glared at Aomine.

"Sorry I'm late, I didn't want to show up." Midorima's snarky retort caused all the group members, except Aomine, to chuckle. The blue-haired male grumbled something as he turned back to his drink.

"We're glad you came! I feel like it's been so long since we last saw you!" The pink-haired girl couldn't help but hug the human, much to his dismay. She was louder than usual along with slightly slurring her words.

"We just saw him last week Satsuki." The redhead noted as he pulled the lone female off the uncomfortable human.

"But Tai, it feels like forever!"

"Sorry Midorima, she's a lightweight and is already drunk." The female was trying hard to struggle against the red-haired male. It was mostly just her flailing around though until she was finally pulled away from the human.

"You're a lightweight too Taiga. Why aren't you drunk yet?" Aomine was amused to watch his lover try to wrangle his guardian as she tried to latch herself onto Midorima again.

"Because I know how to pace myself." Kagami might have said it, but no one there thought it was the truth since it wasn't the first time they'd gone out together.

"Isn't it better to just get drunk? Don't worry, I'll carry you home." The demon had a suggestive smirk on his face that caused Kagami's face to go as red as his hair. Aomine just laughed and ignored his lover's sputtering. Instead, he chose to reach out and pull Midorima to him, before pushing him onto the empty seat next to his left. "Are you a lightweight too? Will you need me to carry you home? I wouldn't mind if I had to. I'm sure it'd be fun." His comment caused a chorus of different versions of his name, all sounding exasperated with the demon.

"I haven't drunk much before, so I wouldn't know. Either way, I will not need anyone to carry me home." Midorima ignored the suggestive tone in Aomine's voice and the equally suggestive smirk on his face. The human decided to not even allow the demon to say anything more, so looked to Kise. "Give me a drink. I don't care what it is."

"You could be a little nicer." The angel pouted but went to work making a drink for the human.

"Make him something with a lot of alcohol. I want to see him drunk." It was the blue-haired demon again, causing the little group to glare at him once more.

"Dai, be nice." Momoi scolded her friend, but he waved her away. That incited her to want to attack him, leaving the red-haired male to need to hold her back again.

"I'm making him something special that Kazu had been wanting me to make so he could convince Midorima to come here." As Kise explained, he finished stirring and pouring various things into a glass. With a satisfied smile, he presented the drink to the human. "Here you go. Try it."

"What is it?" The green-haired human was skeptical as he looked at the slightly dark maroon drink.

"You'll see... Well, taste actually." Kise looked quite proud as he waited for Midorima to drink it. Despite the pressure to drink it, the human was hesitant, but in the end, he decided to test it anyway. As he sipped at the drink, his eyes widened in shock.

"This..." The human was speechless and could only look at Kise with his shock filled eyes.

"Yup! It's a red bean soup cocktail. Kazu was very pushy about me coming up with it. You know how difficult figuring out how to work it into a drink for you was? You should be happier." The angel was happy enough for both of them due to his creation. "So, how was it?"

"...It's acceptable..."

"Can you taste all the alcohol in it? There's more in that then I'd usually put in one drink."

"So, maybe we'll see a drunk Midorima?" Aomine was smirking at the human, who just shook his head in return.

"I highly doubt I will get drunk." Well, that's what Midorima had said, but he was wrong.

After a few more of those strong drinks and an unnecessarily long conversation about Takao, Midorima was too far gone. It definitely wasn't in his nature to get drunk, but he couldn't help it. Kise's creation was incredibly good and Aomine kept irritating him, causing him to drink faster. The whole Takao situation was the thing that pushed Midorima over the edge and give into drinking with the group. The human ended up drinking too much too fast.

"Hey Midorima, I think you need to call down with the drinks." It was Kasamatsu who finally spoke up to try to stop the other human. He was able to tell how far gone Midorima was since he was slightly swaying in his seat. That led to Kasamatsu, who was sitting next to him, to become worried for his friend.

"Why?" Midorima took another sip and looked at his friend. The one word he spoke was not slurred, but the drunkenness was written all over his face, despite his argument. "I'm...drunk..not..." Those words were what gave away his current state. It took longer to speak and it was like he had to truly think about what he was saying to ensure it was correct, even though it ended up not being correct.

"...Midorima you just..." Kasamatsu shook his head and took the drink before walking behind the counter to dump it out. He looked at his lover and spoke up again. "Ryouta, he's cut off."

"I am fine."

"No, you're actually wasted. You clearly aren't aware of this, but you're talking to an empty seat. Yukio isn't there anymore." Aomine was trying desperately to not burst into laughter.

"...I see..."

"You don't. Where the hell are your glasses?" Kasamatsu was getting even more worried now. It wasn't like his friend to be so strange and he couldn't believe no one noticed his lack of glasses before then.

"I may have left them in the bathroom." With that, the green-haired male began his journey to the men's room. Along the way, he stumbled passed the already unconscious Momoi and Kagami. They were laying in random booths where they passed out a little after Midorima had arrived. Aomine had kept feeding them drinks and even got into a drinking match against his lover.

Right before Midorima entered the bathroom, he decided he needed to clear his head and cool off. So, without his friends realizing, despite him bumping into tables on his way, the human left the bar and escaped outside. The chilly night air felt good to the drunk and overheating male. It also felt good to finally be away from people. He wasn't accustomed to being at any social gatherings, especially being drunk at one, not that he'd admit he was drunk.

"I should get home..." He wasn't sure why he spoke out loud to himself, but it got weirder when he nodded his head in agreement with his own statement.

So without his glasses and without telling anyone that he was leaving, the green-haired human began to walk home. Well, in his hazy mind he was but he was actually going the wrong way and didn't notice it. He also thought he was walking normal, but he was actually stumbling over his feet and swaying. He was venturing dangerously close to the road as every stumble caused him to go further from the sidewalk.

If Midorima realized how much closer the cars suddenly looked, he didn't care. As the cars sped by seemingly feet from the drunk man, neither them nor anyone else watching cared either. It was almost like no one saw how close a person was to them as they went by. So, the human continued along, until his foot collided with a random and large rock hidden in the grass.

This caused Midorima to lose his balance and stumble over. Since he was so close to the road, he ended up just falling into it. Dazed and unsure of what had happened, the human slowly stood up. It was a struggle to do so as his legs didn't want to work well and gravity seemed to want him to stay down, but eventually, both feet were on the ground, even though he was swaying unsteadily. Of course, the human paid no mind to himself standing on the road, meaning he was completely ignoring the cars coming. Not only the cars, but he ignored the cuts and gashes he now had due to his hard fall.

For some reason, his impaired mind thought it was a good idea to walk to the other side of the road rather than the two feet to where he originally was walking. This caused him to walk right in front of a car, who slammed on their breaks immediately. Still, the car was about to collide with Midorima and he didn't seem to care much at all. He remained standing there in the road, blinded by the bright headlights quickly approaching him.

It seemed like Midorima was about to be hit until there was a flash of black and something other than a car hitting him. Within seconds, the human was laying on his back on the cold grass. A body was pinning him to the ground and a face was far too close to his. With the lack of light, all he could distinguish from the being above him were glowing amber eyes that had worry written in them. As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he was able to see more of the being's face.

"You know, we need to stop meeting like his, Shin." Those words were all Midorima heard as he slowly blacked out. Along with that, the heartwarming smile he knew so well and loved so much was the last sight he saw before it all went black.