Catch My Disease
"Oh, come on! How can you hate summer?"
"It's hot. There are flies. And there are people bloody everywhere. Pods and pods of them popped open to infest everything."
Sendoh Akira grinned. "I know! Isn't it great? So many cute ones to choose from – yep, a summer fling is so in order."
Rukawa Kaede groaned. "Don't you ever get tired of it?"
"How can I? We've been having gorgeous weather, the water's always warm, the nights are made for kissing … I LOOOOOOOOVE SUMMER!" Sendoh exclaimed, prancing happily in circles around Rukawa.
"I think you've made that quite clear," Rukawa winced, and shot out a hand to still the bouncing Sendoh.
Sendoh pouted as he fell into step with Rukawa. "You're no fun. Killjoy. Spoilsport. Party pooper. Wet blanket."
Rukawa sighed. Oh, when Sendoh got into these moods, it never ended well … "Tell you what – try me today. Convince me summer is all that mumbo-jumbo, lovey-dovey, nonsensical song thingies you keep spouting at me."
Sendoh's face lit up. "Oh, you have got yourself a deal, Ice Prince."
Then, as an afterthought, he added, "And we are going to the beach!"
***
"Snow cones! I want one, I want one!"
Rukawa made a face as Sendoh paid for a bright blue one. "Ugh, how can you eat that? It's just shaved ice with syrup! Full of colouring and additives and really bad sugars…does it have trans-fat?"
"Shut up and try it. Go on, Rukawa, just stick out your tongue and scoop some into your mouth. There." Sendoh waited expectantly as Rukawa reluctantly licked the cold, sweet treat. "Well?"
"It's not so bad. Quite refreshing, actually," admitted Rukawa, in between a few more slurps. "What?" he asked confusedly as Sendoh began to gurgle with laughter.
"Oh, nothing," Sendoh replied between giggles as he caught sight of Rukawa's blue-stained teeth and tongue.
Rukawa sighed with annoyance and turned to walk again. He glanced at the still-shaking Sendoh as the older boy dutifully tagged behind him.
I wonder if I should tell Sendoh his lips are blue.
***
"Again, why are we doing this?"
"Because it's relaxing."
Snort. "You mean, boring."
"Aww, give it a shot, Rukawa. Maybe you'll even catch a fish," Sendoh wheedled.
"…Whatever. Don't really care."
The two boys sat in silence for a while. Rukawa cracked an eye open to find both of Sendoh's closed; a soft smile on his face as the salty breeze tugged on his hair. Rukawa heaved a sigh and stared out at the gently lapping waves again. It was quite peaceful, to just sit and watch the ripples fall and tumble over each other, again and again and ag–
"Omigod. Sendoh. Sendoh! My ball thingy sunk!"
Sendoh blinked, startled by Rukawa's sudden outburst. "Eh, what?"
"It wasn't my fault, I swear, it just disappeared–"
"Rukawa, calm down," Sendoh ordered. "Then go get the net. I think you actually caught something!"
***
"It's just a clump of seaweed."
"Don't care. I caught it, didn't I?"
Sendoh frowned. "You can't exactly catch seaweed…"
"And it even had a seahorse clinging to it," Rukawa continued stubbornly, peering into the bucket. "Look, it's coming to my finger."
Sendoh tried not to smirk as Rukawa stuck his hand into the bucket. Really, one seahorse and the junior got all dotty about it.
The smirk abruptly faded as Rukawa swung his head up and glared at Sendoh with the same stubborn expression. Oh boy, now what?
"I want a starfish, too. It can be the seahorse's friend."
Oh, boy.
***
"Remind me why I'm doing this."
"You were trying to get me to like summer," Rukawa said lazily. "Now, the bigger shells should be below the smaller shells – but the prettiest ones go on top, got it?"
Sendoh muttered under his breath as he sullenly pressed seashells into the base of the gigantic sandcastle Rukawa had insisted on building. Except the junior was not helping in the building part. No, he was lying under the shade of a coconut tree and obnoxiously calling out orders to Sendoh: "The moat isn't deep enough!" or "The left side is all lumpy!"
So when a gentle snore alerted Sendoh to Rukawa's dreamland state, the older boy quickly decided on his revenge.
Whistling quite happily now, Sendoh began piling sand over Rukawa's body.
He really couldn't wait for Rukawa to wake up.
***
"You. Are. Dead. Meat."
Sendoh tried his hardest not to laugh as Rukawa struggled beneath the sand. "Hmm, let me see … I'm still breathing, which means I'm still alive," crowed Sendoh as he cheekily sat down beside Rukawa's head – the only part visible of the younger boy.
"You won't be when I get out," growled Rukawa, with another vain attempt to budge the sand off him.
"You mean, if you get out," laughed Sendoh as he patted Rukawa's head.
Rukawa now simply longed to bite Sendoh's roving hand. "You – you…"
"Oh, don't worry, I'll let you out in good time," Sendoh grinned, "just as soon as I'm done with this…"
"Sendoh, what're you – what the effing hell are you doing?!"
"Giving you a body makeover," the spiky-haired boy replied cheerily, as he set about sculpting the sand on top of Rukawa.
The junior sputtered. "That's a girl's body. That's wrong."
Sendoh frowned. "Yeah, you're right. Your boobs need to be bigger…"
"SENDOH!"
***
"Shoot, I said I was sorry."
"Sorry?" Rukawa's eyes bulged. "Let me get this straight. You trapped me in sand while I was asleep. You gave me a girl's body with the hugest tits I ever saw. You stood by when our team-mates passed by and started laughing along with them."
Rukawa took a deep breath, his face a bright red. "Not to mention, you let me get this god-awful sunburn! And all you can say is sorry?!"
"Ahh, get over it, Rukawa. It was a joke. And a damned good one at that," Mitsui Hisashi grinned as his junior looked ready to implode. "It'd do you good too, to have some colour on your cheeks. Now you don't look anaemic."
Sakuragi Hanamichi snorted. "Yeah. Now you look like a walking cherry lollipop instead."
Again, the Shohoku team fell into helpless giggles. The Ryonan team tried to contain themselves, but lost the battle as Fukuda Kicchou began to roll on the ground, laughing and holding his sides. Rukawa murderously glared at them and plotted their slow, torturous death. Sendoh especially. Speaking of the devil, where was the porcupine boy?
As Rukawa located him, an evil plan hatched in his head. Rukawa marched down to the end of the pier where Sendoh was standing and tapped him firmly on the shoulder. The older boy whirled around with an apologetic smile. "Look, I really am sorry. See, I got you this–"
The rest of the sentence was never finished as Rukawa gave him a hard, deliberate shove over the edge.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
***
"You pushed me."
"Stop being a baby."
"You pushed me," Sendoh repeated in disbelief. "It was 10 feet above the water and you pushed me. I'm so lucky I didn't die."
Snort. "Pity."
Glare. "Yeah, thanks. I lost the starfish keychain I just bought for you." A sneeze erupted. "And now I'm cold, too," Sendoh said mournfully. "The sun's already going down. I'll never get dry."
Koshino Hiroaki patted Sendoh's back sympathetically. "Cheer up, mate. It's not that chilly out – it's summer, after all." He shot Sendoh a sidelong look. "And you did make a fool out of Rukawa…"
Kogure Kiminobu brightened. "Hey guys, why don't we build a bonfire?"
Whoops of agreement sounded from the group of ragtag boys as they scuttled off to look for kindling.
***
The fire crackled happily as pleasant warmth began to spread to the boys. Ayako had brought a bucket of fried chicken, which was being greedily consumed by the two basketball teams. Another one of them (probably Mitsui) had produced a few six-packs of beer, which were slyly being introduced to the members of the group who barely had experience with alcohol.
Already, a few faces were red, and it wasn't from the earlier sun or the flaming fire either.
Sendoh was sitting to the side in his still slightly damp clothing when another presence materialised in front of him.
Rukawa was holding a plate of chicken. "Here."
"Thanks," Sendoh said as he took the offered food. "You wanna sit down?"
Rukawa dropped beside Sendoh and watched as the older boy quickly devoured the chicken drumsticks. With a satisfied burp, Sendoh put down the plate and patted his firm stomach. "My, if I'm not careful, I'm going to lose my abs."
"Not before Mitsui loses his," Rukawa stated flatly, gesturing towards the other side of the fire. Mitsui's plate was littered with a small mountain of chicken bones. He was also engaged in a drinking contest with both Sakuragi and Fukuda.
"Hmm."
Sendoh and Rukawa sat in mellow silence as they watched the activities going on around them. Akagi and Uozumi were placing bets on who would outlast the rest in the drinking competition. Kogure was merrily chatting with Uekusa and Koshino about their respective coaches and training regime. Ryota was–
Oh.
Rukawa dropped his gaze, embarrassed, as he spied Ryota busily kissing Ayako.
"Almost makes me jealous." Sendoh's voice was wistful.
Cough. "Yeah." Rukawa didn't know what prompted him to reply. A sniffle sounded beside him and he glanced towards Sendoh. "You still cold?"
"A little."
Awkwardly, Rukawa put his arm around Sendoh. "Is that better?"
"Much."
After a few moments…
"I'm sorry I pushed you in," Rukawa muttered.
"Well, I'm sorry I piled you in sand and made you a girl and got you sunburnt." Sendoh's voice was miserable. "Now you'll never like summer," he sighed as he snuggled closer to Rukawa.
There was a hint of a grin on Rukawa's face. "Yeah, but I've still got my seahorse."
"Mmm," Sendoh mumbled and then he planted a gentle kiss on Rukawa's lips. Rukawa's eyes widened slightly, but then he closed them again as he slowly began to kiss Sendoh back. A round of catcalls sounded from the rest of the basketball teams' members but Rukawa paid them no heed as he concentrated on how soft Sendoh's lips were.
Oh, yeah. He could so get used to this, Rukawa mused.
Perhaps summer wasn't so bad after all.
END
AN: What did I tell you about plotless and idiotic? Blame Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease". That song is simply too contagious in its cheeriness. It made me go a little bubblybonkers and took me on a madcap summer journey.