Week 7
Monday
Coach Anzai was putting them up in a hotel for the night and everyone was ready to fall into their futon, the exhaustive traveling draining their last strength and transforming them into liquid blobs of laziness.
Sakuragi was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
"Man, I wish I were rooming with Ayako." Miyagi said mournfully as he sighed and scratched at the door like a puppy.
"Shut up. It's too expensive to book too many rooms, so either put up and shut up or shut up and get out." Akagi said without remorse, as he sat down on the futon next to the wall.
"Akagi's just tired." Kogure explained as he patted the still mourning boy on the shoulder in an attempt to placate his teenage heart--more like teenage hormones-- the ones that yearned to sleep in the same room as Ayako.
Kogure took the only bed in the room and ruffled the covers. Mitsui, walking out of the bathroom, hair wet and towel around his shoulders watched transfixed as Kogure patted down the sheets, the small forward slightly bent over the bed.
Mitsui walked up to Kogure and smiled, more than ready to hop into the same bed.
"You're sleeping on the floor Mitsui." Akagi cut in all knowingly, his back turned to them, but somehow still able to tell what was happening on the other side of the room.
"Eh…" Mitsui's excited face fell like a deflated tire and Kogure could only pat him on the shoulder and try to placate his heart--definitely his teenage hormones--and send the boy off to the unknown recesses of the floor.
Mitsui flopped down grumpily on the futon next to Akagi and Miyagi after he was done scratching at the door, came over to the futon sandwiched between Mitsui and Sakuragi. The red head already out cold and snoring like a freight train.
Rukawa who had been sitting off in a corner and listening to his CD player didn't enjoy the fact that the one remaining futon was on the other side of Sakuragi. He knew they had a game tomorrow, and that he needed a full night's sleep--even more than the others considering this was him--to properly function.
"Go to sleep." Akagi said, again all knowingly from his place on his futon, his back turned to him, but somehow still able to tell that he didn't want to go anywhere near his futon, not with Sakuragi so close.
"Rukawa." Akagi said with a note of finality, his back still turned to him and Rukawa knew that he could fuss, but it wasn't going to get him anywhere. He came over to his futon and sat down wearily, the sounds of Sakuragi's loud breathing filtering through the dark room and the moonlight streaking over the sleeping bodies of his teammates.
He lay back on the futon and couldn't help but check to his right, noticing how close Sakuragi was and how even in sleep, he still annoyed the shit out of him.
Well one thing Rukawa could say about Sakuragi. He was a genius at annoying people.
Well at least he was a genius at something.
Rukawa closed his eyes and the sounds of Sakuragi's breathing just got louder.
Shut up. He wanted to say, but he knew the others were trying to get some sleep.
He squeezed his eyes shut and thought that if he just did this, then sleep would catch up to him. Unfortunately what caught him first was Sakuragi's left arm. Sakuragi's heavy left arm.
It hit him right in the stomach and he sat up from the unexpected contact.
He looked down at the idiot and Sakuragi was still snoring away, unaware that his left arm had made itself a new home. Rukawa was about to correct this problem, but suddenly Sakuragi rolled, his head now on his stomach.
Rukawa could only stare on in unmitigated horror as Sakuragi without a beat burrowed into his chest, the snoring only growing louder as the idiot sunk deeper and deeper into sleep.
Rukawa taking a deep breath pushed him off of him--the fucker was heavy--and Sakuragi with the momentum landed on Miyagi.
Miyagi snorted awake. "Huh? What…?"
By that time, Rukawa was making himself comfortable in his futon, as Miyagi still confused as to why Sakuragi was practically sprawled on top of him, elbowed the larger basketball player in his side. "Sakuragi, get off me. God you sleep worse than a bear."
Sakuragi rolled back on his own when an elbow was lodged into his ribs and Rukawa was dealt the unfortunate fate of having a 183 pound power forward roll right on top of him, the bastard actually tucking his face into his neck like some ridiculous child and going back to sleep. Rukawa thought this would be a good time for hell to open up from under the floorboards and finally swallow him up.
"Sakuragi." He gritted out the name and prayed that the moron wasn't so paralyzed with sleep that he wouldn't roll off of him. "Idiot, wake up." He gritted and it was all hardly a whisper, as he didn't want the others seeing him in such condition. "I will murder you in your sleep."
Sakuragi snorted and grumbled something that suspiciously sounded like "just try it" before nodding back off again.
Rukawa pushed at the shoulder edging into his arm and Sakuragi made a loud whining noise before flopping around and shoving a knee a little too close to Rukawa's penalty zone.
Rukawa went as still as a shadow, his body going tense and his eyes widening in the unending darkness that surrounded them.
What the hell was Sakuragi doing!
Rukawa tried to squirm away and for all his attempts, Sakuragi pressed him down harder into the mattress.
Tuesday
They won their basketball game.
Rukawa made it a point to avoid Sakuragi, even when the idiot had done some especially idiotic things during the match. It had taken a lot of self-control on Rukawa's part to ignore said idiotic things and not comment on them, like he really wanted to.
Wednesday
Sakuragi had come to yell at him for some reason or another, but instead of doing the smart, easy thing and yelling back, he had ran in the other direction, like his ass was on fire. Ran, not walked.
When Miyagi saw him running, he had shouted after him that those tacos from the cafeteria hadn't agreed with his stomach either.
Thursday
It was unquestionable.
He had a serious phobia of Sakuragi.
Ever since that awful night, he couldn't stop himself from running away from the idiot, the reason a strange case of embarrassment on his part.
He thought he was overreacting.
That Sakuragi had no idea that he'd completely felt him up under his night clothes when the fucker had rolled on top of him, successfully keeping him up for the rest of the night in a half conscious, agitated state of horror and strangely warm…
Ew! Ew! Ew!
Friday
He hated Sakuragi.
He hated him so much that he had resorted to taking Sakuragi's water bottle and chucking it out the open window of their locker room.
When Sakuragi realized what he'd done and the rest of the team had realized what he'd done, he felt strangely discombobulated.
He thought that maybe today he should self reflect.
On Sakuragi's face.
So he goaded the idiot into fighting him and said idiot had lived up to his expectations.
Saturday
He was watching Sakuragi play a lonesome game of basketball on the outside court that they usually practiced on come weekends.
He actually, strangely wanted to join in, but his feet wouldn't let him.
Although, he didn't like just standing here, letting precious basketball playing practice time be wasted and so he made up his mind to do the smart, logical, completely natural thing and walked onto the basketball court. Because try as he might at ignoring Sakuragi, he couldn't just let it interfere with his game time. That was…just…unthinkable. So just for today, he wouldn't ignore Sakuragi. Yeah, just for today.
Sunday
He scored the winning point in their practice match and Sakuragi had stomped his feet and called him a cheater.
When Rukawa had gone for his water bottle, he had accidentally picked up the wrong one and chugged from Sakuragi's. On this discovery, he wiped his mouth clean, but when he realized he was still thirsty and that his water bottle was all the way over on the other side of the court, he went ahead and drank from Sakuragi's anyway.
