First I must lament:
Why, oh, why is there no Buzzer Beater fanfiction to be found anywhere??? What's more, why is there not even a category for it here? Soooo heartbreaking. Write some, people. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the manga at (myidolgeniusbestmangakaever) Takehiko Inoue's site. Then go watch the awesome 2-season anime.
This little quickie scribble takes place sometime around the middle of Season 1 of the anime, before we discover that Lazuli and Hideyoshi are more than they appear to be.
Disclaimer: I don't own Buzzer Beater, and I don't think I'd want to. It's more than safe in Takehiko Inoue's capable hands.
Exposed
She scowled fiercely to herself, water dripping from her stuck-out upper lip as she stood under the shower spray. It was ice-cold - of course it was, after all the hot water had been used up by the men. Cha-che liked being a girl and took pride in her gender, and therefore maintained the opinion that women being women was good, and it was just men being men that messed things up.
She always had to wait twenty minutes or so after practice to use the locker room, once it had been vacated by all the male members of the team. It was just long enough for the sweat on her skin and clothes to become really unpleasant, and long enough for her to get so steamed up about the injustice that the freezing temperature of the shower hardly mattered. Except that it did.
She turned off the faucet with an irritated twist of her wrist and proceeded to squeeze the moisture out of her wet, pink-burgundy hair before wrapping herself in a towel and stepping out into the bench area. Blinking the water out of her eyes, it took her a moment to register that there was someone standing by the lockers.
"HIDEYOSHI!" she screamed immediately, leaping back and dropping her shampoo to hold up the towel protectively with both arms.
Actually, the scream had been an irrational instinct; Hideyoshi had had his back to her before, but the noise had caused him to spin around, and he was now all-out staring at her in her towel-wrapped glory. He himself was shirtless, she suddenly noticed, all those hard muscles sticking out on top of his ribs. She didn't know how he managed to stay so thin with his habit of devouring sixth helpings of every meal.
But, back to more to pressing matters. "Y-you!" she squeaked, a hot blush spreading over her cheeks. "G-get out!"
"But-but -" Hideyoshi stammered, seeming just as mortified as she was. He had reddened too, his pink face contrasting intriguingly with his electric blue hair. "I - I thought you were DT! He always takes the longest in the shower!"
Being likened to a male served to repress some of Cha-che's embarrassment in favour of her fury. Her shampoo bottle sailed through the air, accurately thwacking Hideyoshi in the middle of the forehead as he ducked and ran out. "Ow, ow, ow! What was that for, ugly hag?! You're the one who stepped out from behind the curtain!"
Breathing hard, she waited until she could no longer hear his plaintive blustering in the hallway outside, then scurried into a stall and threw on her clothes in a flash, not wanting to run the risk of getting caught in a compromising situation by another player.
It took a solid half-hour of drying her hair to slow her racing heartbeat.
* * *
DT shut the door behind him with a quiet click, readjusting his striped toque as he did so. Playing hooky, eh? he thought, settling his hands comfortably in his pockets and ambling down the corridor. I guess I am, at that.
He turned the corner and stopped, his eyes registering surprise before a slight grin upturned his lips. "Hideyoshi," he said to the blue-haired, bare-chested figure sitting up against the wall with his arms around his knees.
The kid looked over quickly, appearing extremely wary for a moment before relaxing into a sullen mutter of "DT." There was a red welt at the centre of his forehead, as if it had been smashed by a blunt object.
"That looks painful," the enigmatic point guard observed. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Hideyoshi replied shortly, reaching up to muss his hair so that it semi-hid the mark.
"What happened to your shirt?" DT persisted, quite curious now.
"Nothing," Hideyoshi returned in a voice so murderous that it obviously couldn't be nothing. "Shut up!"
DT quirked a sceptical eyebrow, then shrugged casually. "If you say so." Pursing his lips as he fought off a smile, exhaling gustily, he had only just resumed his stride when he saw Cha-che approaching from the opposite direction. Her hair was down, falling straight over her shoulders, and her reddish-tinted eyes were hard-set, as if she were trying very hard to quell a strong emotion. She also seemed to be carrying some kind of white fabric.
"Yo," said DT, raising a hand lazily to greet her.
"Hi," she said plainly, barely glancing at him before giving her attention to Hideyoshi, who was now staring at her with something close to panic written all over his boyish features.
She marched over to him, hands on her hips, and he leaped to his feet and cringed away, stammering unintelligibly. She narrowed her eyes dangerously, raised her arm as if to give him a good slap, then tossed the white fabric at him, draping it over his head.
"You forgot your shirt," she informed him brusquely. DT thought he saw her clenched fist tremble, as if she were itching to punch Hideyoshi. But she resisted the urge, turning on her heel and stalking haughtily off.
DT scratched the back of his head, staring after her, then focused his intent gaze on Hideyoshi, who had tugged the white shirt from his face and was now examining it doubtfully, as if it might be poisoned. Really, these kids had no sense of subtlety. Still, it was more fun that way. "Aha," DT said mildly, and smiled quizzically.
At this one small (yet very telling) statement, Hideyoshi's head snapped up and he growled defensively, "Oi! What're you looking at, bastard?!" He pressed the shirt against his chest, glowering ferociously.
Actually, DT was looking at a number of things - the red welt on Hideyoshi's forehead, the shirt he was clutching, and most interestingly and amusingly, the light blush on his pouting cheeks.
"Nothing," DT said easily. He turned away, smirking.
e n d
A/N: I officially heart DT. I don't think it would be possible for me to write anything Buzzer Beater without including him in it. But of course, in addition, Cha-che x Hideyoshi is too cute to refute. (Wow, refute? That sucked.)
I'm not really expecting any reviews for this, since Buzzer Beater seems not to have discovered the Planet Fanfiction...but I'm always up for surprises! :)
