Chapter Seven
"Second years and captains only!" Hikoichi raised his voice to be heard above the crowd, clearly flustered by the number of people beelining for the showers.
"What about me?" Mitsui protested, the only third year on both teams who hadn't retired, trying to ease his way past an eager Miyagi. "Hey, Ryota, get out of there, I'm going in first!"
"I'm the captain," argued Miyagi, batting Mitsui's hand away before rounding on Rukawa, who was pushing the door open at the next stall. "Hey, Sendoh, we're your guests, shouldn't we get to go first?"
He stopped in his movements and shrugged his shoulders. "Go ahead. I'll go later." Mitsui let out a roar of victory and stepped past him in glee into the stall, closing the door noisily behind him. Miyagi grinned, flashing him a thumbs up before following suit into the neighbouring stall. All around them, there were the sounds of gratification as both teams' players welcomed the hot water running over their exhausted bodies from the first day of boot-camp.
He stifled a yawn and turned to Hikoichi. "Round up the first years for me, will you? Let Shohoku use the shower first, followed by our first years." The words rolled off his tongue easily, surprising Rukawa himself at how easy it was for him now to call Ryonan his team, when the first month after the switch had been complete hell. On some days, he genuinely wondered if the other players in Ryonan had figured it out already that he wasn't actually their captain, but were just too polite to tell him.
The Ryonan first year gave him a quick salute. "Aye, captain. Ryonan first years, wait here. Sakuragi-san, Rukawa-san, this way!" The Shohoku first years followed Hikoichi, including Sendoh, who paused when he was next to him and leaned forth to whisper in his ear when no one was looking. "You can come in with me, you know."
He swallowed hard. At that moment, Fukuda stuck his head out of his stall, distracting Rukawa from any embarrassing displays of a momentary lapse in willpower. "Sendoh, could you pass me the shampoo over there?"
"Sure," answered Sendoh automatically, before realising his mistake. Fukuda stared at them quizzically. "Uh, Sendoh, could you get that?" Sendoh corrected, nudging Rukawa with his foot.
"Huh - yeah, sure," he answered, still breathing a little heavily, and followed the direction Fukuda's hand was pointing in to snatch up a bottle from the bench — "here you go." Fukuda murmured his thanks, giving Sendoh an odd look before closing the door again. They let out a sigh of relief.
"Just shut up, you idiot," He murmured through gritted teeth, not looking directly at Sendoh.
There was a barely audible breathy noise that was the sound of Sendoh laughing, most probably at himself, and Rukawa became extremely conscious of the fact that Sendoh's right hand was now tracing patterns across his biceps, disguised from the others only by the proximity of their bodies to each other.
"Hey, captain, you haven't gone yet? Go ahead." He felt Sendoh's hand fall away quickly and saw Uekusa walking out of the shower with a towel around his waist towards them.
"Thanks, but I'll go later," he replied, relieved that his voice came out steady.
Uekusa shrugged and addressed Sendoh this time. "Rukawa, do you need to use the shower?"
"I'm okay," came Sendoh's easy reply. "I can take one afterwards."
Uekusa took his hesitation as a sign of respect, and urged him with a gentle smile. "It's fine, Rukawa. You guys are the guests, after all. Sendoh can use the shower after you're done, right, captain?"
His mouth was strangely dry as he echoed Uekusa without really processing anything in his brain and nodded numbly. "Yeah, guests first." Sendoh's eyes flickered towards him, then at Uekusa and gingerly headed into the cubicle the other had vacated.
Behind them, Fukuda had also come out of the stall, towel-drying his hair, and Sakuragi pushed past him impatiently.
"You took forever, Fukusuke!"
"This first-year brat has no manners, as usual," muttered Fukuda under his breath while Koshino nodded in agreement. The stalls were emptying out quickly, players walking out refreshed after a hot shower. Rukawa waited until it was just him and Hikoichi left.
"Thanks for all your help today, Hikoichi. Go on ahead."
Hikoichi turned to him, his eyes bright and friendly. He could see why Sendoh liked the first year so much. Now that he recalled, although Hikoichi had always been on the bench, he seemed to be the first year Sendoh depended on and talked to the most out of the whole team. To his credit, the boy didn't refuse and gave him a wide grin instead.
"Sure thing, captain. Thanks for today as well!"
He watched as Hikoichi entered the stall, shutting the door behind him, and let go of the breath he was holding. Then, heart beating fast in his chest, he headed in the same direction as Sendoh did a while ago, hesitating for a brief moment before pushing on the door.
There was the sound of water from inside the stall, and Sendoh turned as he entered.
He cast his eyes down, trying to ignore the way Sendoh's eyes followed hungrily as he stripped himself of his clothes and joined the older boy under the welcoming spray of hot water. The shower stall was tiny, barely enough to fit one person, let alone two of their physical build, so they ended up having to sidle in, their backs coming into contact with the cold tiles on either side whenever one moved. It was the first time they had seen each other completely naked, thought Rukawa belatedly, although there was nothing special there, since he was technically seeing himself naked. He allowed Sendoh to slide his hands, lathered with soap, eagerly down his front and sides while he ran his own fingers through the other's soggy hair.
It was less awkward than the first time they had done this. He was already hard - from the time the other boy had suggested them using the shower together, and he could feel Sendoh's length pressing rising against his stomach in the much too cramped shower stall. There was no time for any gentleness. He flattened the palm of his hand over Sendoh's cock and got to work immediately as Sendoh pumped him forcefully in return, looking him straight in the eye. His cock ached too much to even kiss, and so he pressed his hands on the tiles on both sides of Sendoh and thrust against his hand repetitively until he came. He nearly lost his balance then, but Sendoh's hands were on his shoulders, steadying him, laughter in his eyes. "You okay?"
His breath was still coming out ragged. "Yeah, yeah I'm good." Then stopped short, embarrassed, as he realised that the older boy had still not come. But Sendoh only grinned and waved it away like it was not important, before guiding him gently to stand with his back to the wall and massaging some shampoo into his scalp. Despite himself, he relaxed into the touch, listening to the repetitive drum of hot water quietly while letting Sendoh wash his hair, then his back, and the rest of his body.
He could make out the sound of Sakuragi humming from two stalls down as he came out of the shower, and waited until the footsteps had faded away before turning his attention back to Sendoh, who had now put some distance between them and was concentrating on lathering soap into his own hair. It seemed like the hot shower had done nothing to relax the older boy - he was rubbing his hair with a force that was almost unnecessary, and Rukawa could see the tension in his arms.
It took him two tries to get Sendoh's attention.
"You sure you're okay?"
Sendoh gave him a weak smile and he sighed, shaking his head at the other boy's insistence. Well, at least his body wasn't lying.
He dropped to his knees and took Sendoh in his mouth.
"Hey, hey, HEY," Sendoh yelped, suddenly forgetting that they were in a public place, and clutched at his hair in surprise. He ignored the protests, taking in as much of him as he could in his mouth and trying at the same time to get his teeth out of the way, remembering the discomfort he felt when Sendoh's teeth had grazed against his length accidentally in the locker room earlier that day. Sendoh responded by twisting his fingers deeper into his scalp, a throaty sound escaping his lips. Psyched by the response, he hollowed his cheeks and sucked, letting his tongue wrap around the base of Sendoh's cock. Sendoh throbbed in his mouth, warm and alive, and he could feel the ache on his jaw as he struggled to keep up.
He had never done this before, and all he had to compare was from earlier when Sendoh had done the same for him. He tried to visualise how he could eke the same response out of the older boy, keeping his lips and tongue and jaw busy as he was guided by Sendoh's reactions, from the way his knees trembled to his hands tightening around his nape. Sendoh was calling his name out in warning and tried to wrench himself away as he felt his release nearing but he refused, and in their struggle the other boy ended up coming unceremoniously centimetres away from his face.
Sendoh's face was unexpectedly red as he stood up and washed the come out of his hair.
"You didn't need to - "
He cut him off, secretly smug. "You should try that when your knees stop trembling, idiot."
Sendoh's mouth snapped shut instantly, and he gave his hair another few scrubs before stepping away from the shower to allow the other boy to finish up. He had already changed and was drying his hair on a towel when Sendoh finally came out, taking a seat next to him on the bench, uncharacteristically meek.
He broke the silence first.
"You're not thinking of apologising, are you."
Sendoh opened his mouth once but nothing came out.
"If you are there's no need for that."
The other boy played with the towel in his hands for a couple of seconds, wringing it and smoothing it out, before setting it aside on the bench with a loud sigh.
"I… I wanted you to think that I was experienced."
He looked at the other, stunned.
Looking utterly embarrassed now as he ran his fingers through his hair, Sendoh avoided all eye contact with him as he continued. "But yeah, that kind of fucked up pretty badly. I'm sorry."
He was suddenly seized by an uncharacteristic urge to laugh. "You mean to say, that despite all that you've been saying about girls, you've never actually - "
Sendoh winced and didn't reply.
"And what you did with me today, you - you've never -"
Sendoh groaned, hands in his face now. "No, stop it."
"I… I wanted my first one to be special." He said quietly, alternating between sneaking glances of Rukawa's expression and looking down at his hands balled into fists on either sides of his lap. "I know it's funny, and I don't tell most people because I know they will laugh at me for it and call me silly. It is kind of silly, if I think about it. I'm turning eighteen this winter, and everyone has the same knowing look whenever the topic comes up, because I'm a star player on the team and they're all expecting me to have had twenty girlfriends or something."
He could understand that. The hoards of fans watching him at every practice, cheering as he scored in matches, and how many times had he already heard the phrase "you're so lucky you're popular" from his classmates, hell, even his teammates were constantly on his case about his fanclub and shooting him looks of distaste. It was not like it amounted to anything when in mattered, like in basketball, but Sendoh - Sendoh was different. He was someone Rukawa aspired towards, that he had vowed to beat before they graduated, and he had a genuine love for the game which Rukawa shared.
He shrugged. "I've never been with anyone either."
Sendoh laughed. "And I still can't believe that, until now," he said as Rukawa turned questioningly to him. "I mean, just look at your fanclub and well, your face. You're pretty hot, especially when, when - " He didn't finish his sentence.
"When I'm sucking you off?"
"Yes," replied Sendoh honestly. "Not… that I'm trying to be crude or anything."
He couldn't help the way his lips curved up into a small smile at that. "Dinner?"
Sendoh responded with a bright smile of his own. "Yeah, I'd like that."
Author's Notes: Sendoh's characterization in the SD fandom is always somewhat of a confident, sexy, sexually experienced guy, and for once I wanted to try something where he was less sure of himself and more real, only you'd have to be lucky enough for him to be willing to show it. You will not believe how much I angsted over the characterization here, but I hoped it worked out in the end. Feedback, comments, flying tomatoes are all welcome. If not, thanks for reading and staying with this story.
On another note, I tend to update over at Archive of our Own faster than on here. Feel free to check the story out there. You can find me there under the same penname. :)
