Disclaimer: Come on… do you guys HONESTLY think I own Slam Dunk? If you do think that… that's cool— but not true… Okay? I don't own Slam Dunk or Gravitation or Hana Yori Dango or Fushigi Yuugi or Samurai X or any other famous anime for that matter… :) glad we cleared it up now!

Warning: OOCness… a bit of idiocy… did I already mention the characters would be a bit out of character? It's not quite similar to the manga or series… it's— different! :) hehe… but it's bearable—

Notes: Hellouhr everyone! I know this is a break from my usual thingies… but… I noticed that there are not enough love triangles to make your heart tear up over here!! So… I decided to have a leap of faith and write something— normal— for a change… I mean— something not yaoi… :) but I guess yaoi is also normal… ne?

Pairing: see for yourselves…

My first SD fic so don't kill me with flames and insults on the first chapter just yet… maybe on the second… :) But review anyways…

So everyone… here's the story…

1: The Moment I Laid My Eyes On You

Kaede Rukawa woke up and gently rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He knew it was time for school— but… a growing boy needed as much sleep as he could get! He rolled off his bed and landed with a soft thud on the carpeted floor. He shook his head slightly as he stood up and walked towards the bathroom.

He thought about a lot of things… well, he always thought about a lot of things— mostly about basketball, freestyle dribbling, hoops and oh yes— how could he forget— basketball.

But today, he thought about a different topic— gakkou (that's school ne?).

He shivered slightly when he thought about his junior high days. He knew that it was all in the past but he couldn't help but grimace at his stupidity.

He actually liked a girl.

Yep… he even went as far as convince himself that he loved her.

How moronic.

He remembered that his obsession for basketball was the only thing that kept him from actually asking the girl out. Hell, he even forgot the girl's name already…

So he decided that he wouldn't let himself fall for a girl ever again…

That would just suck.

Haruko Akagi walked through the busy students and made her way to the door outside her first period classroom. She knew that Matsuo and Fujii would be waiting for her there, since they never knew where she was these days.

Before she made it into the classroom, however, she bumped into the sleepy Rukawa and fell to the floor.

She reddened a little and started muttering her sorry as she looked around, gathering the things that were within her reach. She blushed even more at Rukawa's extended hand.

"It's okay… I can manage," she muttered, hiding her flushed face from his blank stare. She then stood up and smiled at him, "thanks anyway… uh… Rukawa…"

She blushed even more when she thought about how good he smelled. She knew that his smell was only one of the many reasons why she liked the Shohoku's ace player.

"Whatever," he muttered as he continued his way down the corridor, not wanting to look back at the threat of his resolve.

"Mr, Rukawa, please pay attention," said the Math Teacher (whose name nobody ever bothers to remember…), impatiently tapping her ruler on the table, "the relationship between the measurements of the lines in a right triangle are all explained in the Pythagorean Theorem…"

Rukawa merely grunted as he looked outside the window and spaced out again. 'Pythagorean theorem huh? The one with the sine, cosine and all the other stuff? That's pretty easy…' he said to himself as he tried to concentrate at the color of the sky. 'Must be somewhere between baby blue and navy blue… then again, some parts make it look like it's…"

"Mr. Rukawa! Please show some respect to your teacher and pay attention," the teacher said, a bit angrily now.

Rukawa shifted his gaze a little and regarded his teacher blankly. 'She certainly has a thing for me,' he decided as he pretended to listen, while actually debating which shade of blue really described the blueness of the sky.

Hanamichi Sakuragi was snickering to himself, unable to contain his happiness. 'Finally,' he thought, 'Ms. What's-her-name scolded Rukawa in front of the class… must be my lucky day…'

He looked at the board.

'This is easy,' he thought, 'Haruko told me about this yesterday… when the basketball has a diagonal line connecting two corners— they form two right triangles. So, the line with the ring is called the x and the line perpen.. perpendi… perpendicu…where the judges usually sit can be considered y… But usually, Haruko said, people describe the relationships as opposite and adjacent… yep! Haruko sure makes learning fun! I wish that she would start seeing the possibility of us having a relationship though…'

He chuckled inwardly and rested his chin on this hand, while looking at a picture of the object of his affections, "me and Haruko…" (yep! I know… wrong grammar… but Sakuragi isn't smart enough to say 'Haruko and I' since in the Japanese language, there isn't much of a difference… anyways…)

Haruko looked at the clock on their wall, while tapping her pencil impatiently on the desk. She wanted to go the bridge near bay that afternoon, like she had been doing for the past weeks, and just— think and spend some time alone.

"Hey," said Matsui, turning around to face her friend, "do you want to come to the mall with us later?"

"… uhmm… I was actually going to the bay later…" muttered Haruko.

"You're depressed again?" asked Fujii, "we know you always go there when you're depressed…"

Haruko nodded slightly. She knew it was pointless to pretend nothing was wrong— especially to her friends.

'Okay then," said Matsui, "just make sure you call us when you're un-depressed…" She then turned her attention back to the blackboard.

Haruko walked silently that afternoon, with her head bowed and her hair covering parts of her face. She already knew the way so she didn't have to worry about losing her way— even if she was sulking. She then looked straight ahead as she neared he destination, but abruptly stopped dead in her tracks.

She saw a guy— a tall guy, with a weird hairdo— sitting near the bridge. She noticed that, oddly enough, he was holding a rod— a fishing rod— and he was constantly yawning.

Fishing? She thought, a bit puzzled, I didn't know there were fishes there…

She then decided that it would be better if she had a new friend to share her boredom with— after all, she already saw that guy from somewhere… although she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Akira Sendoh sat on the bridge, holding his infamous fishing rod. He leaned back a bit and dropped the line into the water. He had just discovered this location and happily went there, hoping that he'd finally get some fishes there.

He squinted a bit as the sun set, turning the clouds around him into a beautiful combination of oranges and purples. He let his gaze wander a bit as he noticed a lone figure approaching him.

"…?"

"Hello…" the girl had said, smiling a bit shyly.

"Oh…" Sendoh just smiled pleasantly, "you often come here?"

"Yup," she said quite enthusiastically, "after classes..."

"You're from Shohoku?" he asked, noticing her uniform.

"Yup… I'm Haruko Akagi…"

"Akagi? Sounds familiar… is he your brother? he's a basketball player ne?" he inquired mildly, looking at the fishing rod in his hands. Akagi wasn't old enough to have a highschool daughter ne?

Something in Haruko's brain clicked when she suddenly realized why the guy looked so familiar.

"Yes… and you're— Sendoh? I hope I got it right…" she said, still feeling a bit awkward— waiting for him to invite her to sit with him.

"Yup… come enjoy the view with me," he said, gesturing to the sunset, "sometimes, I just want to sit back and rest... it's been pretty hard you know— basketball, school and home… barely enough time to relax."

"I never thought I'd hear it from you though…"

"Eh?" Sendoh looked at her puzzlingly. I didn't even think I'd ever say it out loud, he thought.

He wasn't the kind of person who lets people in on what he felt… he just wanted them to see the mask Sendoh placed in front of them— he wanted them to think he was okay… that he wasn't lonely…

"I mean… never mind," said Haruko, turning a bit red and willing herself to look at the sunset— ignoring the adamant and loud beating of her heart. She knew she shouldn't have said that… especially since she had just met the guy. Why am I blushing? I like Rukawa— not Sendoh…

But that didn't stop her heart from beating faster.

"So… you like fishing?" asked Sendoh, finally breaking the awkward silence that surrounded them.

"Fishing? I never actually got the chance to fish here, 'coz I'm not sure if there are fishes in this area— and honestly, I didn't know how to…" she said.

He looked at her questioningly. Who doesn't know how to fish? Everyone he knew knew how to fish…

Haruko met his gaze and for a moment, stared at his blue eyes. "So… have you caught fishes in this area?"

"This is my first time to come here… but you should know that since you've been here everyday," said Sendoh, looking at the darkened sky.

"Oh my gosh!" Haruko clapped her hand to her mouth, "Dinner! I better go then… ja ne?" she told Sendoh as she stood up.

Sendoh just smiled before resting his eyes.

— end of 1—

I still can't bring myself to call my elements "elements" today… maybe I feel a bit tired… but do let me know what you think… i utterly despise anonymous bastards who have nothing better to do with their lives than put people down...

:) just kidding...

bastards are also welcome to review...