CHAPTER 2: THE FUGITIVE
Hanamichi woke up with a startling headache and a premonition of something bad happening to him if he ever does go to school. This was after being harassed and plagued by the Rukawa Shinetai as they chased him home.
"I don't want to go to school." He moaned as he snuggled deep into his blankets. Alas, his mother won't let him be as he heard the familiar footsteps and familiar knocking on his bedroom door.
"Hana-kun. Get up or you'll be late." She called none too gently. "Don't give me the I'm-sick excuse, it won't work. Get a move on it!"
Hanamichi grudgingly trudged to the bathroom to get ready, dreading the moment he will enter Shohoku. 'Damn it, fox! This is your entire fault! The tensai's image is ruined!'
Cold sweats appeared on his temple, trailing down and staining his armpits and other body locations too disgusting for words as he enters the school of doom. 'So far so good. No sign of those crazy and rabid fangirls.' He walked carefully scanning the horizon left, right, back, front and center. 'No sign of the fox, either.' He muses, feeling a little bit, well, a little bit let-down. 'Nani? Do not go to that line of thinking tensai!' he scolded himself, not taking notice of a herd of rather obnoxious girls shouting murder at every loud step towards the oblivious redhead.
"Aka-atama! You're dead!" Their leader shouted at the top of her lung capacity while yielding weapons of sort that can yield untold body injury to anyone who dares to dare them. Hanamichi's eyes grew the sized of saucers and although he is not a stranger to fights and bruises (too many gang fights, mind you), he also made the sorry pact of not picking on girls, even if they are the annoyingly annoying Rukawa Shinetai. A promise he is regretting that moment for the girls' eyes are screaming for his blood. 'Blasted girls! They're lucky that the tensai is a gentleman.' He cursed under his breath and willing his legs to work faster to avoid contact with various objects being thrown at him.
"Baka! What have you done to Rukawa-sama? You're purposely sabotaging Rukawa-sama's reputation. Come back here, aka-saru!" shouted a particularly athletic girl who seems to make the habit of lifting weights due to the over-developed biceps and gastrocnemius.
After what seemed like hours of cat and mouse. "Teme! Quit following the tensai!" Sure he is athletic too and has stamina stronger than most Japanese teenagers, but a man can only take so much. The girls also seemed to have developed an organized way of hunting him for they chase him by batch. This must be the third batch for he noticed two groups of girls currently taking a break from the trail at the corner of his eyes. The girls have come prepared, what with the cups of sports drink being passed to those who desperately need them. Think marathon. 'Kuso! They just won't quit it!' It is also particularly hard to lodge objects being hurled at him from behind. He can't move his eyes backwards to catch a glimpse at those thrown stuff if he doesn't want to trip on his feet. Then it would be game over. One time, a red brassiere found his head that caused him to sweatdropped. At any rate, he wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the hound, the girls would be losing various articles of clothing. Mercifully, the alarm bell rang signaling the start of classes. This brought the chase to an abrupt end.
"You're lucky, baka. We'll get you after class. Mark our words." The leader of the Rukawa Shinetai promised, huffing and generally disappointed with the non-existent torture for the redhead. All those late practice and strategy orientation last night and still wasn't enough. Hanamichi furiously growled at those girls. "Teme! How many times do I have to tell you? Leave the tensai alone!" He shouted at the top of his lungs before proceeding to his own class.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he was momentarily out of the clutches of the Rukawa Shinetai. But relief was short-lived because as soon as the classes for that day are over, it's time again for round 2 with those girls. Time flies extra fast when you're dreading something. 'Kuso. I hope I can make it to the gym if I have to make a dash for it. Hopefully, with my body parts still intact.' But no can do and lady luck was not on his side that day. The rabid fan girls are hot on his heels the minute his shoe hit the first brick outside his last class.
"Eeeeeeeep!" was all he could utter after suffering the contact of a particularly pointy shoe and his nose. It was followed by a bang on his forehead, this time a backpack as the culprit.
"Yamero!" Hanamichi shouted as he slightly lost his balance from the onslaught.
"Baka! Stop harassing our Rukawa-kun!" screeched those girls, all the while still throwing random items at his direction.
'Won't they ever run out of stuff to hurl?' he wondered exasperated. "Those hurt a lot, you know?"
"That's what you get for tainting our Rukawa-sama!" they hollered back at him.
As it is futile to make those girls stop, he surrendered to what his primitive instinct is telling him. RUN. Run as fast as you can. Run as fast as his legs could carry him. And so he ran towards the gym, the first place his subconscious is guiding him. Naturally, he was late for practice that day and that earned him a combination of Gori bash and Ayako fan swat, adding bruises to his already bruised body and salt to his wounded ego.
"Why are you late, baka? Do 50 laps around the perimeter! Now!" Akagi shouted at him
"Itai! It was not my fault gori! It's those girls!" The chase was momentarily forgotten as the girls were testing the waters, what with Akagi nearby. Then all hell broke loose as the rabid fan girls did not show any indication of stopping the chase of causing extreme body damage to the redhead. On and on, the chase goes. On and on, they follow him around the court, still throwing random object in his direction.
'Damn it! They must have a truckload of ammunitions!'
At the corner of the pandemonium, the root cause of all this madness was quietly watching the commotion. Icy cobalt blue eyes are surveying the action while his pale marble-like façade is not indicating any sign of emotion. The girls reinforced their organized substitution of chasing to let some of their member rest while the others took over. Finally, Sakuragi Hanamichi notices the dark-haired fox, the reason for his unending nightmare, and this was enough to make his blood curdle at the sight of his nonchalant expression.
"RUKAWA! Yaro! This. Is. All. You. Fault! Take back what you said!" Hanamichi screeched, pointing at the fox. He no doubt made the kitsune hear whatever it is he was saying plus breaking a few eardrums in the process. The kitsune just rolled his eyes.
Huffing and puffing, it goes, on and on around the perimeter of the court. It's going to be a very long day. At one point, one can see Hanamichi's stamina silently relenting. Nobody made a move to help the redhead because either they found the situation too funny or they don't want to risk their particular health.
"Hanase! Make them stop! Please! Onegai! Kami-samaaaaa!" Hanamichi shouted and pleaded and cried to no one in particular. Rukawa, with an amused look in his eyes and a smile threatening to break from his lips, sighed inwardly. He finally took pity on his beloved redhead for after all, THIS was his own doing. He sighed again and positioned himself between the do'aho and the gaggle of girls insisting on harming him. He held out a hand and quietly said "Stop." This only successfully transformed the girls who were screaming for Hanamichi's blood a few seconds ago into a group of swooning and giggling airheads. They do not quite believe that Rukawa was actually talking to them.
"Yah! Rukawa-kun! Kawaii desu!"
The cacophony of the girls' scream are enough to rouse any dead alive.
"He's talking to us!"
"He's looking at me!"
"No! Me!
"It's me, he's looking at!"
"He's looking at the two of us!"
"He's falling in love with me!"
Everyone sweatdropped at this point.
Rukawa shook his head vehemently. "Iie. I meant what I said yesterday." With that he grabbed the redhead hard and planted a kiss on the stunned redhead with some added tongue action to prove his point. "And, I'm not possessed either." Two complete sentences from the fox. Things must be serious.
Hanamachi, on the other hand, after being aggravated all day was clearly at the point of breaking down. It seems that the simple mind of his could only take so much torture and just, well, short-circuited.
He lost consciousness.
It was dark when he stirred. "Ahou. Get up. It's getting late." Rukawa said in between kicks to his rear end, which proved to be very effective as the redhead was up and about in no time.
"Teme, fox! What are you playing at?" The redhead screamed and was about to launch the overdue punch when he suddenly remembered. He remembered quite clearly the accounts of what happened before he fainted. Blushing furiously, he quickly spun around to hide his discomfort.
"Whatever. I'm out of here." He fumed and stalked away.
"Do'aho, matte."
No reaction from Hanamichi.
"I said wait." Rukawa situated himself between the gym doors and the redhead.
"Yaro! Let me out!"
"Do'aho."
"Teme!"
"You can't get away that easily." Rukawa raised his eyebrows. "I never take no for an answer, ahou."
Being courted was an entirely new and weird disposition for Hanamichi for he is the one making all the moves during his earlier bouts with puppy love. New and weird but not exactly a displeasure.
"Get away from me!" He ran and made a go for the doors only to be tripped by the fox, successfully pinning him on the ground. He looked at the redhead's warm, brown eyes, willing him to understand all the pent-up emotions he has bottled up inside. Hanamichi averted his gaze. He was seemingly aware of the kitsune's body sprawled against his own on the gym floors. This caused him to blush furiously and realizing to his horror that he does not detest the body contact. At all.
'Oh, no.'
Rukawa sensed that he is no longer in trouble, jumped up to his feet and pulled Hanamichi. "I'll walk you home."
With that, he clasped their hands together. Hanamichi let Rukawa lead the way, every fiber of his being focused on the perfectly fitted intertwined hands.
'Well, it does feel nice.' Hanamichi said to himself. He looked wistfully at the fox, which was at the moment staring dead center at some point to his left but with a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks giving him away. 'Maybe I'll tell him next week or at the very latest, by the end of the month. No need to rush. I mean, those bruises really do hurt.'
However, fate must have had other plans for Rukawa shifted his gaze towards him and asked. "Ahou. Do you like me as well?"
'Shit.'
OWARI