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| Laree's Slam Dunk Fanfiction |
| ~**~ Kogure blinked down at the younger boy that had prostrated himself in front of him. Koshi-kun had always been a rather strange guy, but it seemed as though he had gotten even worse with time. "Hiroaki-kun…Get up. Please. You're making me really uncomfortable here…" Kogure had been baffled enough when Koshino had appeared from out of the blue at his doorstep. Now, as he tried to coax the younger boy out of his position on the floor of the Kogure living room, he wondered if he should maybe call the guy's parents up so that they could come and pick him up. It was pretty obvious to Kogure that all was not well within the workings of his junior's mind. " Kimi-sempai! I am so sorry…so sorry. This is all my fault." The bespectacled boy watched in bewilderment as Koshino began to beat his fist against his chest in a show of extreme penance. " What's all your fault, Hiro-kun?" " That Sendoh ever set eyes on you." " What are you talking about? And what has Sendoh got to do anything? Please, Hiro-kun. Get yourself out of that ridiculous position so that the two of us can talk. I don't want my mother to come walking in here and seeing you like that." Koshino obediently followed his senior towards the couch, settling himself at the spot that the older boy indicated. "Now, Hiro-kun. Tell me what the matter is. I'll try and help you out in any way that I can." " I feel like a bloody pimp." " Oh, come on." Kogure laughed merrily. " It can't possibly be that bad!" " Tell me, Kimi-sempai. How would you feel about going out with Sendoh?" Koshino muttered. He knew that he shouldn't be so worried about what his senior's reaction to the proposal would be. Kogure was not a violent person, so he was in no immediate physical threat. So then, why the hell was every nerve in his body telling him that there was no way in hell that he would ever let Sendoh Akira go out with Kogure Kiminobu? Kogure's eyes widened slightly at this very unexpected question. Now where the hell did that come from? He wondered. It seemed as though Koshino badly needed some sort of an answer though, so he gave him one. The question seemed pretty pointless to him but Koshino seemed to think it was very important. " Your friend was really nice and all, Koshino-kun. But…To tell you the truth…he's not really the type that I would consider going out with. Let's just say that his reputation is known, even in Shohoku." " That's what I thought…" Koshino perked up instantly upon hearing this. At least he had tried! Sendoh should be happy with that. Love couldn't be forced and if Kogure didn't think that Sendoh was his type, there was really nothing more that Koshino could do to press the matter, was there? Feeling as though a considerable load had been taken off his shoulders, Koshino stood up, about to take his leave when Kogure jerked him back down onto the couch before he could do so. " Wait a second, Koshino. I answered your question. Now it's your turn to answer mine. What the hell were you asking me something like that for?" " Would you believe me if I told you that it was merely out of curiosity?" Kogure shook his head. " No. Not really. I've never known you to be much of a gossip…" " All right then. Let's just say that I'm indebted to someone. Sendoh Akira himself, to be precise. I owe him big time and he's called in his favor, which just happens to sort of involve you. Now isn't that funny?" Koshino let out the poorest excuse for a laugh that Kogure had ever encountered in his life. " No. It doesn't seem funny to me at all." He retorted, killing off the younger boy's false mirth. " Tell me, Koshino-kun. How did I, someone who Sendoh only met this afternoon, somehow get involved in all of this? And how the hell did you manage to get in debt to him anyways? You don't owe him money or anything, do you?" " No. It's nothing like that…Well…You see…" Koshino's cheeks flushed. Even thinking about that horrendous date with the Kainan freshman succeeded in making him sick to his stomach. " I had this really, really, unbelievably horrendous date a while back…" " How bad was it?" " Very bad. Let's just say that there was a little incident involving some dead seafood and that I'll never be able to show my face around that restaurant again. Or Kainan, for that matter." " Maa, Koshino-kun. We all have our less than pleasant dates. Now, tell me how Sendoh figures in all of this." " Well. By the time that Kiyota got around to playing out a little dance routine with the lobsters that he'd ordered, I just snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. Kimi-sempai, all of the people in there were looking at us! They were just staring at us!" Koshino shuddered. Unlike Sendoh, he had never really liked too much attention. That's why he preferred to stay in the background of his more outgoing and cheery friend. " So I made some lame excuse and I went to call Sendoh up. I begged him to come and get me out of that hellhole. There was no way that I could last much longer without giving in to the urge to jump up and throttling that stupid Kiyota. But Sendoh was in the middle of a date with Fujima Kenji then. He's had a crush on that guy for the longest time and this date really meant a lot to him but I needed to get out of there! I begged, and I pleaded and I swore to him that I would be eternally indebted to him if he just did me this one, single favor. And then he came and bailed me out. Something about my pet cat being stuck up a tree. Sendoh's not the fastest thinker in the world, obviously…" " All right. So you owe him. What exactly do you owe him?" It took a few seconds of stalling before Koshino finally managed to spit it all out. " Kiminobu-sempai…He…he wants you…" Kogure blanched at this. " Wha…what?" " He wants me to set him up with you." Koshino repeated. " But really, you don't have to agree to it or anything just because of me. If you don't want to do that, then please don't force yourself on my account. I won't mind and I'll just do something else for Sendoh then." " He wants a date with me?" " Yeah. That's it, basically. But as I said, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can understand you completely. I realize that Sendoh couldn't have made that much of a good impression on you when you first met him. He's not the smartest guy around and he's a bit of a goofball." Kogure took off his glasses and began to wipe the lenses off on his shirt. If Koshino really needed some help from him then he should give it to him readily. It wasn't as though it would be that unpleasant. Sendoh, though he wasn't the usual type that Kogure would go for, seemed like a nice enough guy in their brief encounter. So he was a bit goofy and had a reputation for being a playboy. But if Kogure knew anything about life, it was that chances should be taken. Besides, he hadn't been out on many dates lately and going out for a while with this Sendoh Akira and having a bit of fun could be nice. Taking a deep breath, he popped his glasses back on, a smile on his lips. "He didn't have to ask you to arrange it for him, you know. He could have just asked me himself and I would have said yes." For a while Koshino thought that he had maybe heard his senior wrong. " What? Yes?" " Yeah. We can go out after the practice match then." " Oh…that's…good." Koshino knew
that he should have been a lot happier about the whole thing than he
really was, so what the hell was the matter with him and why was he
feeling so much disappointment upon hearing his senior's
agreement? ~**~ " I don't see why you have to come along with us…" Sendoh grumbled as he riffled through a stack of photo albums on Koshino's study table. He stopped at one particular photo of Koshino with his teammates from back in Junior High. There was Kogure standing right beside the gigantic Akagi smiling up at him sweetly. " Kawaii!" He breathed, not noticing the dark look on his best friend's face. " Will you stop going through my stuff, dammit?" " Calm down, Hiro-kun! I was just looking over your old photos. Has anyone ever told you how sweet you looked before?" Sendoh propped the large album up onto his lap so that his companion could see what it was that he was looking at and pointed at one particular picture that had caught his eye. It was one of a very young Koshino, presumably around twelve years old, flashing a gap toothed grin towards the camera as he hugged a squirming black Labrador puppy to himself. Sendoh looked from the picture, to Koshino and back to the picture once more. " What the hell happened to your teeth? And I can't believe that stupid dog of yours was actually a cute puppy once…" Sendoh liked animals. He liked pretty much anything and anyone when it all came down to it. But he had never been particularly fond of the hellhound that Koshino had for a pet. The thing hated him with a vengeance. All it took was the sound of the spiky haired player's voice to whip it up into frenzy. He could remember a few instances, when he had had a particularly bad misunderstanding with Koshino, which had ended with the horrid dog being released and set after him. " Nori-sempai accidentally threw a ball into my face, all right? And Cuddles is a sweetie." " What person, in their right mind, would name such a savage, soulless killing machine "Cuddles"?" Koshino raised an eyebrow at this. " You questioning Kimi-sempai's taste now, are you?" Sendoh held back a sigh. He should have known. What was it with the guy and the cute names thing? A bear named Fufu, a killer hound named Cuddles…"I pity the future children that I will have with Kogure-kun." Koshino snorted. " Don't think that far ahead, Sendoh. And what the hell are you talking about? Were you absent for the whole unit of sex education that we had last semester? It's physically impossible for you to have children with Kiminobu-sempai unless there are some sort of medical miracles in the near future that will allow a man to reproduce with another man…" " I've always had a great belief in science." " Oh yes. Shown perfectly by that incredible grade of D minus that you got last semester." " God, Koshy-kun. Must you always be so testy?" "Must you always piss me off with your stupidity?" " All I was asking was why you needed to be around on my date with Kogure-kun…" Sendoh pointed out, somehow managing to look incredibly affronted. " I mean, shouldn't let the two of us have some time alone by ourselves so that we can get to know each other better?" " And what exactly do you mean by 'get to know each other better?'" Koshino demanded, his eyes narrowing. The guy couldn't have any good intentions in his mind. Not with the way that Sendoh was smiling. After being best friends with him for the past two years, he could by now read the guy like a book, and that smile meant that ole' spiky was up to something. Something that Koshino was very sure he would not like or approve of. " God, Koshino! It's not like I'm going to jump the guy or anything!" Sendoh would have felt very hurt at his best friend's seeming lack of faith in him if it wasn't for the fact that he knew that he had done several things in the past to deserve such doubt. " For some reason, I have a very hard time believing that. I'm going with you on that date, Sendoh. Take it or leave it." " But Koshino-kun! Don't you think that it's…it's…" Sendoh scrambled around madly in his mind for a good reason that Koshino shouldn't be there while he was out on his date with the adorable Shohoku vice-captain. How the hell was he supposed to have a good time with Koshino glowering at him if he even dared to touch Kogure with one finger? He loved Koshino to bits, really. He was closer to him than anybody else in the world, but Koshino was not his idea of a good chaperone. Rather, Koshino struck him as the type who would chaperone too well. " Don't you think that it would be an infringement of privacy or something like that?" " Not at all. I prefer to think of it as making sure that Kimi-sempai isn't put through the ordeal of your wandering hands…" " I'm not that much of a pervert, Koshino!" " Yare yare…so. What will it be? Do I come along with you and Kogure, or do I call him right now and tell him that the date is off?" Koshino held up his cell phone to indicate his readiness to do so. " Make up your mind, Sendoh." " Hey! Wait! You have to do this favor for me! You owe me! You can't take all of this back!" " That's right, Sendoh. I do owe you. But this part of the whole thing is non negotiable. Either I come with you, or say bye-bye to the date with Kogure." " Koshino-kun!" The smaller boy made a big show of scrolling through the numbers in his phone book for Sendoh's benefit. " Fine. Fine. Whatever you want." At this, Koshino flashed him a
cheerful smile that Sendoh very seldom got to see, and threw the phone
onto his mattress. " I knew you would see things my way,
Sendoh-kun." ~**~ "I'm ready! What do you think, Koshino-kun?" Sendoh demanded as he turned from side to side in front of his best friend to give him a full view of his outfit. Koshino scowled. He hated to admit it, but Sendoh looked incredible in his simple blue button down shirt (the top two buttons undone to give just a little enticing glimpse of his broad, perfectly formed chest) and a pair of well-cut jeans that showed of his lean legs to its full advantage. It made Koshino wish that he were wearing anything but his ratty old black Limp Bizkit T-shirt and baggy shorts. " You look fine, all right? Now can we just get going? Kimi-sempai must be at the meeting place by now." " Think he noticed me at the game, Koshi-kun?" Sendoh wondered, stopping before a mirror to give his hair one last look over. " Do you think he noticed that amazing shot at the last second? I hope he did…I did it all for him after all…" Koshino rolled his eyes. " Maybe if you weren't so busy pulling stunts to get him to notice you, the game wouldn't have been so close?" " Nah. Shohoku was great. They're going to give us a lot of trouble later on…" " Don't let Taoka-sensei hear you saying that. You're high enough on his shit list as it is." Koshino advised him as they stepped out of the locker room that Shohoku had provided for their use. " By the way, Kimi-sempai invited a friend of his to come along with us when he heard that I was going to come along…" " Really?" Sendoh snickered, digging an elbow into Koshino's ribs. " Maybe Kogure-kun saw how lonely you were and decided to try and fix you up with someone! Or may be he thinks that you're an annoying third wheel and that bringing someone along will help get rid of you!" " Do you have some sort of death wish, Sendoh?" " Uh…no." " Then I advise you to shut up. Right now." Sendoh was not stupid, contrary to popular belief around Ryonan. He knew perfectly well when it wasn't safe for him to push the limit. This was one of those times. So he quietly followed Koshino to the pre-arranged meeting place. They soon came into sight of the senior that Sendoh had by now decided he was madly in love with, and the said senior's companion, a red head whose voice could be heard, even from the distance. The spiky haired boy began to wildly wave his arms above his head in a bid to gain the attention of Kogure. " Kogure-kun! Yoo-hoo! Kogure-kun! Hey!" Koshino scowled when he saw the smile on Kogure's face at the sight of his best friend. Sendoh obviously amused him. He was actually glad to see Sendoh! This pissed him off, and when Koshino got pissed off, he usually took it out on one person. Surreptitiously, Koshino stuck out one foot just as Sendoh sprinted forward towards the Shohoku vice-captain. What happened next was not pretty. The spiky haired boy went sprawling some distance across the grassy front lawn of Shohoku High, finally landing face first on the ground. The Ryonan point guard smirked
inwardly to himself as he watched Kogure look on in shock, his red headed
companion wracked by a hysterical fit of laughter. Well, Sendoh's
date was off to a pretty good start, if he did say so
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