title: quizzical

author: black rainbow

pairing: senru

genre: song-fic

status: one-shot, unedited

archive: fanfiction.net, moonflower.tk

disclaimers: slam dunk characters belong to takehiko inoue. Song by: juliet the orange

warnings: OOC, grammatical and punctuation errors will probably occur, not to mention typos. fluff. sap, even, maybe. completely pointless fic written for no specific reason. this is my first, and probably only, SenRu, since i am not too fond of this pairing!

1 QUIZZICAL

Rukawa Kaede's eyes slowly fluttered open, and he instantly raised a hand to shield his eyes from the light. "What time is it?" he mumbled. He turned his back to the window, and raised his head slightly to see his boyfriend in front of the mirror, patiently gelling up his hair.

"Noon," Sendoh answered cheerfully. Rukawa groaned. He was going to be late for practice. Pushing the bedcovers away, he climbed out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, he came out of the bathroom, and promptly dressed, ignoring Sendoh's obvious ogling of his body.

Then he started to walk out of the room.

"Kaede? Where are you going?"

"Practice," he mumbled, stopping for a minute to look at Sendoh. Suddenly he felt confused, thinking about their relationship. He wondered what Sendoh saw in him. He glanced at the room floor, where his clothes were still scattered around. When he turned his attention back to Sendoh, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, refreshed now, but still rumpled.

"Aren't you going to have breakfast first? Or comb your hair?"

Rukawa shook his head, saying quietly, "I'm late." /And I never comb my hair./ The words he didn't bother to say out loud, because he figured that Sendoh would have realized that fact by now (they /have/ been together for almost three months).

I don't even comb my hair

When I wake up in the morning

I've always been like that

My clothes are on the floor

And I just don't have the time to put them back

"Okay, then," Sendoh said, still cheerful. He stood up and walked up to Rukawa, and wrapped his arms around Rukawa's waist. "But don't ever forget to kiss me before you leave, ne?" He slowly lowered his head to Rukawa's, their lips touching for one brief moment before he pulled away. He smiled, bemused at the look in Rukawa's eyes. "Now, shoo," he said. "You have a practice to go to, and I need to finish gelling up my hair," he continued, pushing Rukawa out of the bedroom door.

Rukawa rode his bicycle to practice without falling asleep that day. He couldn't stop thinking about Sendoh, and he knew that he had fallen, and fallen hard, for the older boy. But he wondered again what Sendoh saw in him. After all, even though he was the dream boyfriend of (almost) the whole female population of Shohoku high school, he had to admit to himself that he wasn't "boyfriend material." He had a tendency to hide his emotions too much. He doesn't talk much. He was too cold - his nickname among his teammates was the "ice prince", for god's sake. He rarely smiled. He could list a thousand reasons maybe, he thought. A thousand reasons why he wasn't a good boyfriend. Maybe a little more than that. Why did Sendoh want him? He wondered.

Is this what you truly want for a (boy)friend?

Or am I just someone you find pretty cute for a good time?

He was scared, actually. Yes, Rukawa Kaede was scared. He feared that Sendoh wasn't that serious about him. He feared that Sendoh would end up leaving him, like his mother. Or maybe Sendoh would just get bored and he would be invisible to Sendoh, like he was with his father. His fear was not completely irrational, he reasoned. Sendoh /did/ have a reputation as a playboy around Ryonan.

Normally he wouldn't have cared much. He had learned not to get too close to anyone, learned not to care too much, ever since his mother left him and his father. But with Sendoh... somehow the Ryonan ace had managed to break through all of his defenses. When Sendoh touched him, he could feel all the walls he had built to keep people away falling down in a pile by his feet. And he knew from their first kiss that he wouldn't have been able to handle Sendoh leaving him.

Don't go breaking my heart

I think very deeply and I hold very dearly from the start





That evening, Rukawa stared at the mess he has apparently made in the kitchen. He was hungry, and he thought it would be nice if he made dinner for Sendoh that night.

It was a disaster.

He closed his eyes as he heard the front door open and close. Sendoh was back. How was he supposed to explain the mess? He opened his eyes again and continued staring at the kitchen.

"Kaede?" Sendoh walked into the kitchen. "I thought I heard you -" he stopped as he took in the sight before him. "Er... what was going on?"

Rukawa shook his head. "Sorry," he said quietly. "I'll clean it up."

Sendoh was already heading peering into one of the pans near the sink. The food vaguely reminded him of the green lumps Calvin's mother always tried to feed Calvin with in the comic Calvin and Hobbes.

He looked up at Rukawa. "Why don't we eat out tonight?"

I'm so useless in the kitchen

And my cuisine is lousy

It makes you want to curl





Rukawa was quiet throughout dinner. He was still puzzled over why Sendoh would want to be with him. The disaster he had caused in the kitchen was just one more reason for him to think that Sendoh could have done better.

After dinner they headed straight back to Sendoh's apartment. They watched television for a while. Or actually, Sendoh watched television while Rukawa was steadily falling asleep with Sendoh's arms around him.

"Kaede? Kae-chan?"

Rukawa responded by burying himself deeper into Sendoh's embrace, and only woke up when the older boy pushed him away. "Kaede."

He yawned and opened his eyes to look at Sendoh. Seeing the serious look in Sendoh's face, his eyes widened and panic bolted through him.

"What's wrong? You were so quiet today. I mean," Sendoh continued, with a barely noticeable smile, "you're even more quiet than usual."

Rukawa lowered his eyes and shook his head. He didn't know how to explain what he felt to Sendoh.

Don't expect me to be crawling over you

For maybe I am just a poor unromantic

"Why do you still love me?" he finally asked, his voice so quiet Sendoh almost didn't hear him.

"What do you mean?" Sendoh asked, surprised.

"I'm messy, I can't cook, I'm too quiet, I'm not even romantic..." he trailed off in a whisper, and swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat. "So why do you still love me?"

Sendoh's smile grew wider. "Baka," he murmured. "I don't love you because of all that... I love you because of what you make me feel." He pulled Rukawa back into his embrace. "I love you exactly the way you are - mine."

-owari-

if you have bothered to take the time to read it till the end, thank you, and please please please take the time to tell me what you think about it. C/Cs are very much needed!!