Disclaimer: Slam dunk is not mine.
Author's notes: No pairing.
Akira woke up with heavy eyelids. He vaguely wondered what woke him in this ungodly hour then felt a sudden shifting beside him. He turned to face a small sleeping baby in his armpits.
"Shit!"
"I thought that you shouldn't swear coz tender ears are present."
"You're suppose to be sleeping, Rukawa."
"Can't sleep in a strange bed."
"Then go back to your bed."
Kaede glared at the man on the dark. "I would have if Hanamichi didn't keep a tight hold on me."
Akira looked down, and true enough, Hanamichi was clinging to Kaede.
"Never have I ever dreamed that a day would come that I would be sleeping with my two roommates," Akira murmured dejectedly.
"Horrible, isn't it?"
Akira nodded.
To say that the night was terrible was an understatement. First, Hanamichi and Kaede turned into babies, and Akira was stuck being a father of the two. Second, the grocery store ran out of diapers, so Akira had to knock at their neighbors' doors to ask for some. The neighbors raised their eyebrow at the request but gladly complied when Akira explained that he's currently babysitting his nephew. Third, Hanamichi kept crying for an hour in hunger. Akira ran around the kitchen, nearly blowing everything in sight while Kaede tried singing Hanamichi into sleeping. But it was no use; Hanamichi was too hungry. Fourth, the wicked witch from the north (the landlady) knocked at their door to stop the loud noise emanating from their room. 'Neighbors were complaining,' she said. Fifth, Hanamichi kept crying even though he had already drank two bottles of milk. It turned out that he's sleepy. So Kaede took charge and sang the baby a lullaby. Akira went to his room and dropped to the bed. He never ran a mile around the apartment before. But before blissful sleep could consume him, Kaede appeared beside the bed, and demanded that Akira slept with Hanamichi tonight. Akira protested, but consented when Kaede explained that Hanamichi might fell off the bed if he's alone. Kaede promised that Hanamichi would sleep with him tomorrow night. But the baby had other plans; he refused to let go of Kaede. Akira informed Kaede calmly that the baby would just have to sleep with him tomorrow.
"Don't you have a date tomorrow?" Kaede asked softly.
Akira blanched.
"Okay then," Kaede turned to exit the room. "You'll watch the do'aho tomorrow."
"Wait!" Akira shouted.
Kaede turned back and looked at him dispassionately.
"Okay, he'll sleep here tonight." Akira reached out for the baby, and tried to pry him from Kaede. Hanamichi woke up and cried loudly again.
Akira sighed as he remembered. Hanamichi had clearly had strong lungs. He only stopped screaming when Kaede had laid him down between them.
The silent boy was also not happy at the arrangement. He frowned deeply as he tried to sleep again. It was near three in the morning yet no sleep came over him. During his high school days, sleeping anywhere was no problem to him. But since, sharing the apartment with a bossy mother hen and a bothersome clown, he learned to sleep in his room only.
"Is your ankle hurting still, Kaede?"
"No. The pain was gone right after I drank the potion."
"The book says that anyone who drank the potion would heal all his injuries, past or present," Akira disclosed softly as not wake up the small siren. "It wasn't stated that it would make the drinker young again."
"It's still your fault for thinking that you could play god with potions."
Akira chuckled mirthlessly. "Coach Nota was talking of kicking you out of the team if you were still absent for a week. So I thought that I should help your injury heal faster."
"You should have known that Hanamichi would take care of me. I don't need potions."
"Yeah."
Kaede fell silent as he thought of something. "Anou..."
"HN?"
"You said that the potion heal all injuries, past or present, right?"
"Yeah." Akira frowned at Kaede.
"Does that mean that Hanamichi's back injury would be gone now?"
Akira's eyes widened in the dark. "You're right. Of course, it's gone now. He was doing flip-flaps just a few hours ago."
"But he's a baby."
Akira laughed. "You don't have to remind me. He's making my arm sleep." To prove his point, he tried moving the little one away from his arm but the baby only went back to his position. Akira let him be, if moved further, Hanamichi might wake up and showed the world how strong his lungs were.
Kaede gently caressed a chubby cheek. He smiled when the rosebud lips made a sucking motion.
Akira turned his head away when he, with the help of the moonlight, saw the soft smile on Kaede's face. He never knew when the two became friends. The first time he met the two during their freshmen year in senior high school, the two had been more than willing to kill each other. But before Akira graduated in senior high, he heard a rumor that the two had been very cozy with each other. He thought at first that it was true. Especially in the course of his and Kaede's first few weeks as roommates, the emotionless ocean-blue eyes often warmed up every time Hanamichi went to visit them. But the thought vanished when Hanamichi began living with them. Akira never saw the two in any compromising situation, and he was too polite to ask directly if the two had any relationship in the past. It was very notable the protectiveness Kaede shown to Hanamichi and vice versa. But Akira was subjected to Hanamichi's mother hen attitude as well so no malice was placed on that. The school was not so open-minded though. Their relationship had been questioned by different people. Akira's only answer was a hysterical laughter, Hanamichi's was a blink and blush, while Kaede's was a blank stare. The rumors refused to die down though it didn't seem to affect Akira and Kaede's dating spree. Hanamichi had admirers too, but he rejected them all by burying his head in a book of any kind.
"Do you love Hanamichi?"
Kaede looked at Akira in surprise. He had been expecting that question from Akira since the very beginning; he was a bit puzzled on how the man kept quiet about it for long.
Akira looked at Kaede as well. Eyes were showing not a single emotion.
"Yes, I do," Kaede answered honestly.
"But our innocent redhead has no idea."
"Not exactly." Kaede went back to caressing the baby's cheek. "He loves me too."
Akira frowned. "You're lovers?"
Kaede looked at Akira balefully. "No, we're not lovers." He sighed as his eyes gazed at Hanamichi again. "He's my best friend, and I his."
"Then all rumors were not true?"
"If it was, then that would mean you're gay."
"I'm not."
"We're not either."
Akira nodded.
Silence filled the room, but it was not uncomfortable.
"When did you become friends?"
"I can't remember."
"You were mortal enemies before, and then you can't remember when you became friends?" Akira's voice was laced with disbelief.
Kaede shrugged his tiny shoulders. "I honestly don't remember. You probably knew by now that I'm not a sentimental person."
Akira nodded again. "True." He paused for a moment. "Hanamichi's very cute as a baby, isn't he?"
Kaede chuckled. "Yeah. You can take his pictures but not mine."
"You're cute too."
"Fuck you!"
"Kaede Rukawa, no swearing remember?"
"Didn't you ever hear the words, 'you practice what you preach'?
Akira's eyes glinted mischievously in the dark. "Being philosophical, aren't we?"
Kaede grinned back. "Just growing up."
The bed shook as Akira laughed. Hanamichi frowned in his sleep, and then curled up closer to Kaede's arm.
"Damn! Can't win against you, can I?"
"Damn right!"
Akira relaxed and stared up at the ceiling. "We better go to sleep. I bet Hanamichi would be quite a handful tomorrow."
Kaede silent agreed. With a final caress on a chubby cheek, he closed his eyes. To his surprise, sleep didn't evade him this time.
