so hi uhhh
this is my first story on ffnet! i haven't written anything in a few years so writing again and then coming out with this almost 12k monster is a bit ? i have no idea what to call whatever it is i'm feeling right now. nervousness? excitement? maybe both... yeah actually
(new community new fandom and i still don't know what i'm doing)
anyway i hope you guys like this one!
Considering that all he's doing is covering for his cousin's shift at a café just so said cousin could go on a 'date of a lifetime' and that this is Rukawa's first time ever having to watch over a shop alone for two hours and be responsible for closing it…
Rukawa doesn't know what to do. But more importantly, he's grumpy.
He was forced to take time out of his day to take over the last hour of his cousin's shift, his shoes fell apart after a particularly ambitious basketball move, he burnt his hand while pouring coffee into a cup, and he crashed into a pole while cycling to the workplace.
And under the light of the moon, he is standing inside a dusty café, staring down at a lone sleeping boy who probably has no idea what's coming.
Well, unfortunately for him, what's coming are three large history books being slammed a few inches from his head. As expected the man wakes up, back straight and eyes wide. Rukawa forgets the shock and now feels nothing short of satisfaction in his chest.
The man blinks at his surroundings before turning his head and tilting it up to look at the raven haired barista.
Dark blue eyes stare back at Rukawa, evidently laced with sleep. His gaze is heavy, and Rukawa can't seem to look away.
Rukawa places a gentle hand on the stack of books he purposely dropped on the table. The man had black spiky hair, with some strands swaying near his face from the (probably long) nap he had at the table. He's still clearly dazed from sleep, but Rukawa couldn't care less. It's a couple minutes past nine in the evening, and all he can think about is going home.
"Sir, the shop is already closed. I would advise you to leave immediately," is all Rukawa says, trying to maintain the slightest bit of professionalism left in him.
Rukawa could be in bed right now, asleep, but instead he's in an empty coffee shop with shelves full of books on the walls. The stranger just yawns at him.
"Sorry but could you repeat that?" he finally says, his voice low from having just woken up.
(Someone up there in the sky must really be having the time of their life toying with him.)
I really don't have time for this. "The shop is already closed," Rukawa repeats. Firmly, this time. "I need you to leave so I can go home."
"Oh." Realization hits the stranger like a freight train, and he scrambles to get up, nearly knocking the chair over Thank fuck. "Oh shit… I'm really sorry I uh-" The man quickly shoves a couple bond papers in his bag, and Rukawa frowns at the fact that they're all going to end up crumpled the next time they see the light of day.
A pen rolls to the ground and he leans over to pick it up the same time Rukawa does to help and quicken the process, but while Rukawa was too slow to grab the pen, the man accidentally hits his head under the table with a loud bang as he gets back up.
Ouch.
Rukawa flinches at the sound. "Ow ow ow ow that's going to bruise…" he hears the man whine. Rukawa can see him holding the side of his head.
The employee sighs, feeling the slightest bit of pity swirl in his gut. He mumbles, "Be careful not to hit your head on any more tables on your way out."
"I won't, I won't," assures the man with a breathy laugh, standing at full height now. This stranger, to Rukawa's dismay, seems slightly taller than him. It doesn't help that the man's spiky hairdo only accentuates his height.
Rukawa thinks he's going to leave, but the man is still standing in place, looking at him as if thinking of good parting words.
(Rukawa wonders if glaring at him is going to make him think up a sentence faster.)
Finally, he grins at Rukawa sheepishly. "I wanted to say, uh, thanks for waking me up," he says before looking down at the floor. "I came here with my friends, actually. I thought they'd let me know when we were going to leave but I guess they thought it would be... funny or something to leave me here."
Some friends you have.
"It's okay," comes the curt reply.
The man looks up and gives him a small nod before he heads to the door. Rukawa sees him walking, and then breaking into a jog when he probably thought he was out of view.
Not that it really matters because Rukawa is alone, finally. The momentous jingle from the bell attached to the door became his only company after the strange man took his leave. Rukawa turns to the table and carries the history books to take them to their respective shelves.
(These are heavier than I expected, he thinks. But it's too late for me to feel bad now.)
Rukawa hadn't even walked past a single shelf when he heard the jingle yet again along with some hasty footsteps.
"Hi, uh, sorry for coming back I just uh-" The stranger makes his presence known, sounding out of breath. Rukawa gets a good look at him, and he seems stressed out, agitation clear on his features.
He gives Rukawa a look like he was going to ask him a serious question. 'Should I say this or should I go?' his expression clearly states. The man bites his lower lip in thought.
But instead of whatever life changing question Rukawa was expecting, it wasn't: "Did you see a rubber eraser shaped like a cupca-"
"I didn't, sorry." Rukawa cuts him off immediately, turning his back on the stranger to take the books to the shelf.
At this point, all he can think of is his bed, going home, his bed, going home, his bed… Why won't this guy just leave the shop and end it at that?
"Oh, uh, okay. Thanks." A brief pause follows the disappointed reply. "Okay, have a good night."
Rukawa hears some more footsteps followed by the familiar jingle from the entrance. When he looks out the café from the corner of his eye, he sees the man standing outside with a palm on his face, and his teeth clenched. He's clearly embarrassed about something.
Then he shakes his head as if bringing himself back to reality and then walks off.
Weirdo, Rukawa thinks.
He's left to stand in the middle of two large shelves alone now. However, he stays still for half a minute or so just to make sure that the guy really was gone before he starts shoving the books into their slots. A bit of dust flies toward him when he slams forward one of the books, so he might have to stay a bit longer to dust some of the shelves.
It's only when he's cycling home when he realizes that he forgot to tell the man about the large bold penis scribbled on his left cheek.
But Rukawa probably won't see him again.
As much as he hated having to learn how to draw a cat on milk foam just to get laughed at with every attempt because it looked more like an ostrich than the well-known feline, he doesn't really mind because at the end of the day, he can stand a few hours of humiliation if it means getting money as compensation.
Because there is, standing in front of a huge aisle with all sorts of shoes on display, none of which are on sale. There's red running shoes, yellow tennis shoes, green hiking boots, and so on, but Rukawa is particularly eyeing the ones that would be great for basketball.
He's not a big fan of colored shoes, so Rukawa just quietly eyes the black and white ones, paying a bit more attention to the latter. He catches two good looking white shoes on the second row and lets a nearby clerk know
Shortly after, she comes back with a stack of two boxes. Rukawa thanks her before he takes it with him to the nearest bench.
His shoes fell apart yesterday during a short round of basketball by himself, and even though all Rukawa wanted to do in that moment was eviscerate all the suns that caused his shoes to give up, he could only sigh and head home to see if he can afford a new pair.
(He could! Rukawa had his cousin to thank for a good chunk of it. He didn't want to end up asking his uncle to lend him some money; it wasn't that the man was a penny pincher - he was a generous man. Rukawa just didn't want to ask for help.)
As he was tying the laces of the first shoe together, he could hear some chattering near the end of the aisle.
Rukawa didn't care, but the people engaging in conversation were close enough that he was forced to listen in.
"-'ve got to admit it was pretty funny," one of them laughs, voice filled with nothing but plain amusement. Rukawa tries to drown the person's voice out but ends up messing up the ties.
"Funny?!" exclaims the other. "Uozumi-san had to walk me out in front of everyone!"
Wait. Rukawa freezes.
Where had he heard that voice before?
Rukawa could hear a large gasp. It almost sounded fake. "He did?! Holy crap what did he say?"
"I can't repeat what he said word for word but he gave me some wet wipes and said something like 'You have something on your left cheek,' and I asked him what it was and he got red in the face and just told me to wipe it off."
"He didn't want to say that you had a dick on your face?"
Shit… Rukawa quickly turns his back to them. Not only was the voice familiar but there was probably only one guy walking around with a penis on his cheek yesterday.
Rukawa closes his eyes, trying to put all his focus on tying the laces of the matching pair. He does a little step as he listens.
"Oh come on, Kosh. This is Uozumi-san we're talking about."
This 'Kosh', and apparently the one to blame for the incident, could only laugh. "You're right but still… My bad." One hell of an apology. "I thought the employee at the café would just let you know or something. Maybe a little 'hey buddy you got a little uh...'" From the rustling, Rukawa assumes that Kosh got jabbed by his friend. Snickering follows. "Shit that hurts, quit it! Listen, it was pretty big-"
"Detailed too, you dickhead."
"Yeah yeah whatever. So he couldn't have missed it unless…"
A dejected sigh. "Unless…?"
"He purposely didn't tell you."
Well… Rukawa didn't do it on purpose. He noticed it, and just simply forgot to mention it before he left. If ever they meet again and he gets confronted, Rukawa will just apologize and say that the stranger hurried out the store before he could say anything.
Plus, Japan is quite large, and it's not like Rukawa is a permanent hire at the café, meaning chances of meeting him again would be low. Rukawa shouldn't even be caring this much in the first place.
Still, he slips this plan at the back of his brain just in case.
"I wouldn't put it past the guy," replies the man from yesterday, "He seemed grumpy when he woke me up. Like I was some sort of roach he stepped on with his favorite shoe."
"What'd he do?"
"He slammed a stack of books down, and it was like, so close to my head I thought I was dead when I woke up." Oops. "I'd give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was an accident but he was scowling the whole time!"
"Well he seemed like a grump, honestly. He switched with that one guy, right? He didn't smile once since he stepped in. Scowled the whole time, you'd think we did something wrong just by showing up."
Rukawa frowns. Taking over a small part of his cousin's shift didn't require him to be friendly and open to customers. He was just there to make drinks and serve pastries for an hour, that's all.
(Embarrassingly, Rukawa realizes that the other pair of shoes is still sitting in the box, neglected. He takes off the pair he has on and takes the other pair before the clerk nearby successfully stares a hole in head.)
"It's a shame, really," continues Kosh. "He's a really handsome man, right?"
"Haha…. Yeah," comes the strange reply. The man sounds uncomfortable. Obviously, Kosh ends up picking it up and gasps dramatically.
"Akira, don't tell me you-"
"No!" Rukawa can hear shuffling in the back. "Shut up! Don't say it out loud. You don't know who could be listening right now."
Yeah, like the guy you're talking about.
Kosh's laughter mixes in with his weak booing. The stranger from last night, (Akira, Rukawa assumes) clears his throat before continuing, "Doesn't matter what I think, anyway. He still probably hates my guts for sleeping and keeping him at the shop longer."
"Sounds like a 'you' problem."
"You caused it!"
"Mhm. Anyway, me, Fukuda, and probably Ikegami are going back some time this week. Their coffee's good and cheap, and they have a lot of the books we need."
Then Akira chuckles slightly. "Am I invited?"
"Only if you want to be."
"Great, because I'm going to be taggig along no matter what, anyway. I might apologize… and ask him why he didn't say anything, maybe."
Despite the serious tone in his friend's words, Kosh just teasingly goes, "Right… Because I'm damn sure that's going to be all you're going to do."
"Don't look at me like that, I know what you're hinting at."
But before Rukawa can hear Kosh's reply, the clerk from before approaches him with a shy smile on her soft features. It's then when Rukawa remembers the shoes he tried out. She asks him kindly if he's ready to take them to the register, and to this, Rukawa looks down at both his options.
Eventually he sighs and hands over the less better of the two to the woman before walking off to the nearest cashier.
Based on how that conversation he overheard, those two are coming back to the café. Now, Rukawa has to avoid that place in the meantime. That should be easy. The café is a train ride away after all, and it's not like he works there.
But fuck him, right? Because when he gets home, his cousin then calls on the phone and asks Rukawa if he can take over his shift this afternoon.
("Fine, but I'm taking your bike again."
"Bu-"
"And pay me extra.")
The fates are laughing at Rukawa Kaede. Slapping their knees, he's sure.
On the same day after buying his shoes, Rukawa's standing behind the register. The clock ticks 3:32 PM, roughly half an hour after his cousin's shift started, and he's staring back at the same pair of blue eyes from yesterday.
The small guy he's working with today (Hotaru or something; Rukawa doesn't remember) gives him a curious glance before he continues foaming some milk.
Rukawa ignores him. He keeps the same calm yet stoic face he always makes, and rings up the orders of Akira's friends. He's trying his best to ignore the nervous energy coming from the spiky haired man just a few feet away.
It's hard not to when he keeps tapping his foot on the ground while chewing on his lower lip.
One person from the group tells Akia to meet them at the table by the historical fiction novels. They walk off after they receive a nod, leaving Rukawa and him alone. Well, as alone as they could be in a public setting with people present and one man behind the counter with the scowling barista. Hotaru, thankfully, minds his own business and just works on… well, nothing, yet.
"So," the stranger starts, holding out a hand. "My name's Sendoh."
So Akira might be his first name. Sendoh Akira, huh?
Rukawa awkwardly looks down at Sendoh's hand. (If Rukawa looks closely enough, he can see that it's shaking slightly. He's not that intimidating is he…? He just ignores it for Sendoh's sake.) He takes it, tentative. The other man's hand is strangely warm and comforting. No calluses, just a soft palm.
He lets go. And Rukawa looks up at Sendoh, not trying to analyze his gaze before he turns around and works on the drinks, giving Hotaru the ones he doesn't know how to make. The small man looks grateful, weirdly enough.
Rukawa starts by taking out a large cup from a stack and eyeing the blender nearby.
"Ah right you're working a shift. That's cool, haha." Sendoh lamely says, fake coughing. "Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for waking me up yesterday. Properly this time." There's a brief pause before he continues saying, "And to say sorry too for having you deal with me and stuff."
"It was no problem," replies Rukawa over the sounds of what he's doing. Ice cubes hitting ice cubes, containers hitting the counter.
Truthfully, he doesn't dislike Sendoh. The man seems harmless enough, but he also seemed like he likes to chat.
And Rukawa, despite temporarily taking this shift where he had to talk to customers, does not.
"Yeah…" From the corner of his eye, Rukawa can see the tall customer drum his fingers on the glass display case. Probably another nervous habit of his. He then lowers his voice, clearly so only Rukawa could hear. "Well I also wanna ask why you didn't tell me about the little, uh, drawing on my face yesterday."
Rukawa accidentally knocks over one of the cups but luckily catches it before all the milk in it spills on the counter. Still, despite the lack of physical mess save for a few drops on the counter, it was too late. He's sure Sendoh noticed it so he can't lie about this anymore considering he's been caught knowing what Sendoh was talking about.
(Hotaru looked like he was going to ask his much taller co-worker about the accident, but chickened out when he saw Rukawa click his tongue in poorly hidden annoyance. He simply stepped away, far from Rukawa and the spiky haired customer. Smart move.)
Said tall barista turns around slowly, avoiding Sendoh's amused look. At least he had the decency to not laugh at him, but he's clearly thinking 'Bullseye' in his head right now. Rukawa leans on the counter, fully facing him.
Rukawa exhales. He wonders why he's so nervous. Maybe he just feels bad.
"It was dark… and you left before I could say anything," he says like he had practiced just a few hours ago at the shoe aisle. He crosses his arms, his next words almost coming out like a huff. "You were already out the shop before I could tell you about it."
Sendoh pokes the inside of his cheek with his tongue, as if mulling over Rukawa's words. Rukawa thinks he's off the hook and doesn't have to deal with spiky anymore until-
"But I came back, right?"
Oh fuck. Rukawa forgot about that. "When you asked for your...?"
Sendoh's cheeks flush, forming his lips into a thin line. He quietly replies, "Eraser."
"Right."
(Why did you say that? Rukawa scolds himself in his head but tries not to show any frustration on his face. Now how are we going to get out of this?)
There's an air of awkwardness around them, brought on by the silence of the temporary barista who's calmly putting a loosely clenched fist near the register.
"Listen," Sendoh says, cutting off whatever thought is playing in Rukawa's mind. He scratches the back of his head before he starts poking at the glass display. "I uh- I know I'm making it a bigger deal than it is but the thing is that I got kicked out of a sushi restaurant yesterday and that was when I found out about it."
Ah, the story Rukawa heard at the shoe aisle.
"I'm sure I didn't wake up with it on my face this morning and no one jumped me and drew on my face when I was heading there from the café... which means you could've seen it then."
Rukawa already knows this, he just wonders where Sendoh's going with it. Keeping the same tone, the latter continues.
"I guess I just wanna know if I made you mad or something. I'm sorry if I did…" he says before he focuses on this one specific spot on the display case, but Rukawa is sure he's not looking at any of the pastries on display. Probably the best thing to describe the look on his face right now would be 'kicked puppy.'
Fortunately for Sendoh, Rukawa gets it, so he turns back to working on the drinks while he speaks. "You annoyed me but I didn't do it on purpose," he says as gently as he could while he takes some straws in a cubby underneath the counter. "Like I said, it was kind of dark, and I only had going home in my mind at that time. I missed it."
Sendoh still looks deep in thought, so Rukawa frowns and tries again.
"You don't have to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."
Sendoh laughs lowly, "Except sleep past closing time?'
"Except that."
And just like that, all the pent up worry from Sendoh seems to release itself, and Rukawa finds himself looking back at his easy smile. He looks much calmer, and more mature now that he's not hunched over like he's going to get scolded by a superior, fingers about to get smacked by a ruler.
"I see," he mumbles. "Honestly I thought you did it as some revenge plot against me for keeping you past your shift."
Rukawa shakes his head, disagreeing with the accusation. "Not really. If you actually made me mad I wouldn't have woken you up."
There's a short moment of silence before Sendoh replies, "...So you would've left me here?"
Rukawa rolls his eyes, taking out some tissues. "Guess."
Sendoh's silence is enough of an answer.
Hotaru slides over a finished drink to Rukawa, which he takes with a small nod. He gathers all the drinks in a single tray and slides it over to Sendoh, whose smile seems to crack a bit at Rukawa's brutal honesty. "Here."
Sendoh looks down, realizing that the items on the tray are one drink short in number. He frowns.
"Huh, so Kosh didn't get me anything…" Sendoh mutters to himself. He looks up and gives Rukawa a charming smile. "Could I get an Americano?"
Seems the interrogation is over and he's back to customer mode.
Rukawa nods. After a meek 'thank you' and a few crumpled bills, Sendoh walks away and joins his group of friends who, Rukawa just now realizes, had been eyeing the both of them from afar this entire time.
He doesn't know for how long, but when they see that they've been caught by the raven-haired barista, they quickly look away as if nothing had happened. One of them starts whistling.
Rukawa does the same, and ignores them. He makes Sendoh's drink in silence all while pretending that never happened and that Hotaru isn't staring at him with unabashed curiosity right now.
After placing the flat plastic cover over the large cup, Rukawa takes some tissue and a straw, taking Sendoh's order to the table. When his friends notice him approaching, they scoot away from Sendoh, huddling by themselves over a small book and putting the spiky haired man in the imaginary spotlight.
What for, Rukawa couldn't even begin to start, but he ignores it.
Sendoh doesn't even seem to notice his friends shuffling away from him. He absentmindedly flips over a page of whatever book he's reading in silence, unaware of his friends' doing.
Rukawa doesn't really feel like giving it any more thought than necessary. He places the drink along with the tissues and straw near Sendoh before knocking the surface of the table lightly. The spiky haired man looks up from what he's reading and gives him a quick thanks before messily stabbing the straw into his drink.
He misses the hole when Rukawa looks at him, he laughs, clearly embarrassed. He tries again, misses, and gets red in the face. When he stabs it in the right spot, Rukawa already has his back turned to him and is walking away.
While walking back to the register, he ignores the badly muffled laughter and playful smacks. Rukawa could easily tell them to pipe down, but honestly he'd rather not deal with them and just go back to the register and people-watch until his cousin's shift that suddenly became his own ended.
("Rukawa-san," Hotaru calls from next to him, sitting on a stool. Rukawa looks down at him. "They're pretty loud."
He's referring to the table near the historical fiction shelf. Sendoh is clearly losing in an arm wrestling competition against a curly haired man. The other two in the table cheer quietly (loudly). Finally, after a few more seconds of struggle, Sendoh's hand is pushed down to the table, and the other two are now clapping. A couple two tables away looks at them in blatant annoyance.
"I can't be violent to customers," replies Rukawa, turning his back to the rowdy bunch.
Hotaru doesn't say anything more.)
Some hours later, when there's about less than ten minutes left before he has to close up the shop and Hotaru has already left, Sendoh and his friends get up from their seats and leave. The bell on the door jingles loudly as they pass.
Of course, except for one.
"Hey again," says Sendoh, leaning over the display case. Rukawa glares at him, and he quickly stands away from it, smiling sheepishly.
If the employee takes a peek to his left, he can clearly see Sendoh's friends standing outside, laughing to themselves. They must be waiting for Sendoh to finish whatever business he has to do in the shop.
Rukawa doesn't say anything back. He simply turns to clean the counter using a random rag he found within arm's reach.
("There's nothing left to clean," Rukawa can hear the sparkling countertop say. "What are you doing?"
Shut up. Just once, let me have this.)
"Sorry, I get you're busy I'll be quick but uh…" Sendoh trails off shortly, sounding a bit hesitant. Way to make it quick. "My friends and I just wanna know if you feel like playing basketball with us?"
Rukawa immediately halts his movements, but his back remains turned to the other man.
Sendoh notices that he's got the barista's attention, and so there's less nervous anticipation in his voice. He scratches the back of his head. "The thing is, I saw a basketball on the floor near the counter. I just kind of assumed that it was yours since the other guy working already left and didn't bring it with him."
Rukawa looks down, and sure enough, it's still there, sitting on the floor innocently.
"You play?" Rukawa finally asks, quickly abandoning the rag. He whips around to face Sendoh. He doesn't fail to see the happy grin on the taller man's face, either.
The taller man nods. "Yeah, so do my friends."
Rukawa bites his lip. It's been a while since he's played with people that weren't his teammates from Shohoku.
Even out of Shohoku practice hours he's been playing at an empty court by himself since the only other occupants were children, and Rukawa wasn't that big of an asshole to do a dunk over a 4ft kid and gloat.
He doesn't mind if he had an opponent or none, but if he had to have one, he would much rather play with someone of Sendoh's build, someone that looks strong enough to be a decent opponent at court.
"What time?" Rukawa asks. Might as well get straight to the point while they're at it. "I still have to close and clean up."
Sendoh frowns in thought. "Okay, hold on." He gives Rukawa a reassuring smile before he opens the door to talk to his friends. Loudly, too, but Rukawa doesn't want to eavesdrop yet again so he busies himself with cleaning.
("I really don't think today's a good time, Akira," one of them says. "Didn't they say there'll be an eighty percent chance of rain in a couple hours or something?"
Silence.
"What? I'm right."
The rest of the group looks at him. "And how do you know that?"
The first one who spoke looks at everyone else incredulously. "Did none of you watch the news last night? Jeez… None of you really pay attention to forecasts."
"Kosh… You fall asleep to action movies. In what world would you pay attention to weather forecasts?"
"Wh- Shut up, Akira! It's always good to be prepared. While you buffoons are out here without umbrellas at least I have not only an umbrella but also a rainco-"
"Blah blah," someone says, cutting in. "Koshino doesn't give a crap, I literally caught him eyeing a poster of the weather girl this morning.")
Rukawa can see them about to get into a physical fight outside, albeit a playful one. The shortest in the group is very quickly getting red in the face as he's waving a fist around. Rukawa doesn't have a clue how they ended up there, since he's sure all Sendoh did was ask if they would come along.
Sendoh steps back into the shop, a disappointed smile on his face. Rukawa can already tell what's coming from his expression alone. "Apparently it'll rain later. Maybe another time, I guess."
"That's fine." Rukawa nods, not feeling particularly bothered by it. "We can play another day."
Sendoh laughs, "Of course." He pockets one of his hands and tilts his head, gazing at Rukawa in a way he can't put into words. He looks as if he's contemplating whether or not he should say something or not. Rukawa hoped it's the latter. He doesn't really feel particularly chatty at the moment.
"The door is right there if you're lost," Rukawa says when he notices Sendoh still standing in the same spot even after he's done keeping things in the right shelves.
Sendoh has the gall to raise his eyebrows in mild surprise before he laughs. "Yeah sorry it's just fun seeing you double check everything. You've checked the same drawer about four times already, just so you know."
Rukawa rolls his eyes, opting not to reply. He walks off from behind the counter to fix the chairs around the shop. Better to ignore Sendoh, after all, since he doesn't have all the time in the world to humor one customer that's just getting in the way of Rukawa and his comfortable bed.
Sendoh watches him silently for a few more seconds or so before he breaks the silence. "Do you need any help?"
"No," Rukawa lies. It had been a pretty busy day so honestly he wouldn't mind a hand or two but he wasn't going to say that. His pride won't let him, either.
"Okay."
And so Rukawa continues doing the heavy lifting, flipping the chairs upside down and putting the seat on the table. Shortly after, Sendoh catches on to what he's doing.
"Alright at least let me help you with this," Sendoh says, picking up a chair and doing the same thing Rukawa's doing. "You'll be mopping the floor right? I'd feel bad for your arms if I let you do this alone."
"You don't have to."
"It's fine. It's just a couple chairs."
Rukawa doesn't stop him.
Despite the answer that came before, Rukawa can hear him grunt every couple seconds or so. He doesn't know why Sendoh's really pushing to help when he can just leave like every other customer does. Still, he waits for Sendoh to flip one more chair.
(When Sendoh notices him looking, he quickly masks his exhaustion, pretending as if he wasn't struggling after only flipping three chairs.)
Rukawa taps Sendoh's arm with his knuckles when the man finishes, catching his attention.
"That's enough, Sendoh-san," he mumbles. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Sendoh replies. He turns to look at him. When their eyes meet, Sendoh quickly looks away and to something outside. Rukawa's eyes follow, and lands on the taller man's friends who seem to just be chatting, save for one who's crouching down.
Rukawa glances at the other man quickly just to see a flustered expression on his features. He looks vulnerable like this.
The man has pretty eyes, that's all.
"You should go," Rukawa says, trying to not sound like he's kicking the man out (even though he kind of is). "It might rain, after all."
"Yeah…" Sendoh agrees with a light chuckle before turning to look at Rukawa again. "But wouldn't you be all by yourself then?"
Rukawa tries to hide his surprise at the unexpected question by scoffing, "You don't have to worry about me."
"But I'd feel bad leaving you here all alone."
"Don't be. I know a move or two." A lie. Rukawa's been in too many fights. He definitely knows more than twenty.
Sendoh's eyes seem to gleam when he says this. Rukawa sweats, wondering if he was going to-
"Can you try hitting me on the arm?"
(Of course, Rukawa wants to smack himself on the head.)
What is he, twelve years old? Rukawa shakes his head. Based on how Sendoh had reacted when he found out Rukawa could fight, he could easily leave with a large bruise if the employee fulfilled his request.
Rukawa just tries to get him to leave, now. "I won't hit you, but trust me. I'll be fine." And it's not like it should bother you, anyway, is left unsaid.
"That's too bad, but it'd be weird if you punched a paying customer, I guess."
Rukawa looks at the other man with a deadpan look.
Sendoh's grin seems to widen, if anything. "And it's something you're against doing, right?"
"Yeah." Rukawa continues, "But that only applies to customers that leave when I tell them to."
Sedoh's laugh now has an edge to it, clearly worried. "Yeah well I think you can hold your own, actually. That's all. I really don't want to go home with a broken arm tonight."
The employee frowns. "I'm not that strong."
"Yeah right, and I don't have black hair," teases Sendoh, and Rukawa rolls his eyes at him.
He looks at Rukawa for a moment. The latter notices that he had the same expression from last night when he came back to ask for his eraser. Like he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if he could.
Before Rukawa could say anything, Sendoh beats him to it. The man shakes his head slightly, cheeks looking a bit flushed.
He smiles, then says softly, "Guess I'll see you around. Have a good night."
Sendoh doesn't wait for a reply, instead he smiles at Rukawa one last time before he walks off and heads for the door.
And then finally, he walks away and leaves the establishment. When the bell ends its chime and he sees Sendoh and his friends turn a corner, Rukawa looks at the clock on the wall behind him.
The day is over, and yet Sendoh is still fresh on his mind. No one can really blame him for it, though, since it's not everyday a customer helps him out after closing and basically frets over whether or not Rukawa gets lonely.
(And also asks said man to punch them in the arm.)
Past all that, Rukawa just finds Sendoh odd.
He shakes his head. He doesn't see the point in delving too far into it, and he's just wasting his time by standing in the middle of the shop thinking about a man that's probably already on his way home by now. Rukawa looks at his surroundings one more time before going to the restrooms to get a mop.
On the way there, he accidentally kicks his basketball into the employee room, where it bounces back after it hits an empty box. Rukawa walks over and picks it up, this time making sure to stuff it safely in his duffel bag and zip it closed.
Rukawa wonders if the stars are playing with him tonight, because on his way to his cousin's place to leave his bike, collect his pay, and walk to the train station to go home, he ends up hitting a familiar man with his bike.
He didn't do it on purpose, mind you. He didn't see Sendoh from far away and just floored it.
Although Rukawa would get into fights, he wouldn't purposely try to hit a guy that's just ambling on the sidewalk. The thing was, Rukawa dozed off during the ride and the next thing he knew, a stranger was on the ground in front of his fallen bike and so was he.
Rukawa is awoken by the impact of his side hitting rock hard cement. Lucky for him, he doesn't seem to be hurt.
Still, it takes him a while to snap out of it. When Rukawa finally manages to get the sleep out of his eyes, that's when he gets a good look at the other person who he assumes he'd hit. He stiffens when he realizes, of course it would have to be him again. Of all people in this area of Tokyo, he would have to hit someone he knows.
Not just that, but the same man he had been thinking about on the ride home.
"Sendoh-san?" Rukawa feels a bit awkward saying his name, but he does it since Sendoh still wasn't getting up nor paying attention to the one who hit him, just sitting down and rubbing his leg.
"Um… Sendoh-san?" Rukawa tries to get his attention again, not only itching for a reply but also getting worried.
He was used to getting scrapes and bruises from getting into fights, especially with a certain redhead from back in Kanagawa. But Sendoh gave him the impression of someone who's never been in a serious physical fight before, so Rukawa thinks he was rightfully concerned.
As serious as Rukawa was for potentially giving Sendoh a serious injury, the man seemed to huff out a breathy laugh when he recognized the owner of the bike. "It's you again," he mumbles, amused.
"That wasn't my question." Rukawa kneels next to him to see if he has any developing bruises, so far none. Sendoh watches him quietly while Rukawa checks for any injuries. When he's mostly sure of his condition, Rukawa breathes a sigh of relief, sitting back on his ankles.
Sendoh lamely jokes, "You know when I asked you to hit me back at the shop, I didn't think you were going to run me over."
Rukawa gives him a look. Sendoh stiffens and nervously chuckles.
"Haha kidding…" he mumbles before coughing into his hand.
Rukawa opts to ignore him. He gets up and picks his bike off the ground, along with his fallen duffel bag on the side. Sendoh stands up too, facing Rukawa awkwardly.
"You still haven't answered me," Rukawa reminds him.
Sendoh sighs, kicking a pebble on the ground. "I'm fine. My leg hurts a bit but it's not a big deal, I can still walk around, see?" he answers, walking a bit before doing a spin. Rukawa breathes out an exhale of relief. Sendoh calmly slides his hands into his back pockets and quickly changes the topic. "Let me guess, long day?"
Why is this fool asking about him of all people? "It's late, I got sleepy. It's nothing for you to care about." Rukawa replies.
"I see…"
When he sees the other's smile crack, Rukawa wonders if he was a bit too harsh with his words. His grip on the bike gets a hair tighter. He mutters, "Sorry for hitting you."
"It's okay. At least no one got seriously hurt, right?" Sendoh says, and Rukawa agrees with a nod.
He couldn't even begin to imagine what would have happened if Sendoh left the incident with something as serious as a broken leg. Rukawa didn't even know if such a thing was possible, and he doesn't want to think about it either.
Just when Rukawa was going to get on the bike and pedal off, he feels a tug on the sleeve of his jacket.
When he turns his head, he sees Sendoh loosely holding on to the fabric, something akin to desperation in his eyes. As soon as he realizes what he's doing, Sendoh immediately lets go as if he had been zapped. Even with only a few post lamps to rely on for light, Rukawa can see that he's red in the face.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to," Sendoh apologizes. "I just wanted to ask if you had any other plans tonight?"
What? Aside from biking home? "That's none of your business."
Sendoh's shoulders rise at the sharp reply. He shakes his head in denial at what Rukawa's getting at. "I wasn't trying to be nosy, I swear."
Rukawa eyes him suspiciously. "Then what is it?"
The spiky-haired man hesitates, as if wondering whether or not to speak or not. In the end, he points his thumb at the area behind him. "I know an ice cream parlor about four blocks from here. Do you want to get a cone or two? My treat, of course."
He sounds apprehensive. Apprehensive but hopeful.
Before Rukawa could say anything, the evening breeze slid past the both of them. A few whips of wind push back Rukawa's hair. The man gets distracted and tilts his head forward, shaking it slightly so his hair is back to the way it usually is. When he lifts his head back up, he sees a faint twinkle of amusement in Sendoh's eyes.
"I only met you yesterday," Rukawa says. It's not a yes or a no, but he still says it nonetheless.
"Yeah I…" Sendoh bites his lip. "I know how it looks but I swear I don't have any ill intentions. I just thought it would be nice, that's all."
Rukawa squints at him. Sendoh's only slightly taller than him but Rukawa's sure he could beat him in a fight. Just from Sendoh asking Rukawa to punch him at the shop, and him being unable to dodge an incoming bike, Rukawa could tell he could probably overtake the taller man easily in a physical fight.
The man is harmless, Rukawa concludes.
After a beat, the shorter man realizes he still hasn't replied, and Sendoh's still looking at him with clear worry on his face, from the slightly furrowed brows and tongue poking inside his cheek. Rukawa has to give him an answer anyway, so he nods.
"Yeah, sure." Why not? Rukawa could go for some ice cream right now, anyway.
(Plus, someone else is footing the bill. He's cheap, get over it.)
Sendoh immediately breaks into a happy grin before he schools his features and just gives Rukawa a friendly smile. "Let's go before it closes then."
He turns around and nearly stumbles on the flat lane. Rukawa pretends not to notice for Sendoh's sake.
The shorter man awkwardly gets off his bike and wheels it, walking with the same pace as Sendoh. Of course, it was only a few steps of complete silence before one of them spoke.
"So-"
(Rukawa doesn't know why he's bracing himself)
Rukawa gives him a sideways glance. Sendoh looks calm and carefree, yet smiling or anything like it. He looks back ahead.
"You're not from here, are you?" Sendoh asks.
Of all the questions he could ask, and that is what he says. Rukawa was expecting something stupid but shallow like his favorite color or what it was like working at a café. Not this.
(Rukawa wonders if his honest answer was going to be followed by a 'you don't belong here!' as dramatic music plays in the distance.)
Nonetheless, the man doesn't feel like letting Sendoh know that he was right immediately, so he just blankly asks, "And how did you get to that conclusion?"
"Good question."
Rukawa scoffs. Right back at you.
"I guess I just haven't seen you around here before." Sendoh admits. "My friends and I frequent your workplace from time to time but it's my first time seeing you, so my best guesses are either you're a new hire or you're just visiting. Maybe you're even from America or something."
Rukawa's caught off guard, he ends up pausing his strides. He does a little jog to catch up to Sendoh who stops to wait for him when he notices Rukawa lagging behind. Rukawa asks, "America?"
"You have blue eyes."
"But so do you."
Sendoh plays dumb, looking up briefly before looking back at the shorter man. "Huh, really? Well I guess you're right."
Rukawa glares at him and doesn't say anything in reply. Sendoh's clearly having fun toying with him because he's chuckling despite the intensity of Rukawa's glare.
Well to be fair, for all Rukawa knows, Sendoh could just be wearing contacts.
But before Rukawa could say anything more, he and Sendoh are suddenly casted a comforting glow from the light coming from the inside of an ice cream parlor.
"Told you it would be a short walk."
"No you didn't."
Sendoh opts to ignore his frowning companion. He smiles at the establishment before heading inside, meanwhile Rukawa makes sure to lock his bike before he quickly follows.
As soon as he steps in, he's greeted by warm, comforting air. He takes a seat in one of the booths meant for six people. Considering that he and Sendoh, along with four people total, are the only customers at the moment, he doesn't feel too guilty about it.
The entire shop seems to take an old 1960s diner aesthetic, from the black and white tiles to the red cushion seats on the barstools and booth seats. There's a large jukebox at the corner, too, but he ignores it. Rukawa doesn't know how to use one, and he doesn't know if rock music is even included in the options.
(And as curious as he was, the last thing he wants to do is break it by accident.)
It's not long before Sendoh's walking over to him with a laminated menu in hand. He softly says, "Pick anything you like," as he slides it over.
Rukawa takes it and scans it briefly before thinking Fuck it, and tells Sendoh that he wanfs a mint choco chip. Funnily enough, he probably won't forget the look Sendoh gave him right after - just one of pure, unbridled judgement.
Of course he was going to get that look.
"I didn't even think you would be the mint choco type," Sendoh says once he slides in the booth with both their orders in his hands. He pushes Rukawa's cup to him. "I thought you'd pick something safe like vanilla or maybe cookie dough considering it's your first time here."
Rukawa shrugs. "Why not? It could be my favorite."
"So it's not?"
He shakes his head. "I've never actually had it before." He looks down at his order. Just a creamy looking green ball dotted with chocolate.
Sendoh scrunches his nose at him when Rukawa goes to try out a small scoop. The latter can feel eyes on him, expectantly watching to find any sort of reaction.
He doesn't get any, because Rukawa just swallows and scoops another light serving, pretending not to notice the presence of his company and at the same time, the man who invited him here in the first place.
When Rukawa looks up, he finds Sendoh looking at him with anticipation. Eyes twinkling from the lights of the parlor. "... So?"
"So what?"
Sendoh sputters, "We-Well… What do you think?*
"Eh," answers Rukawa, honest as he could be. "It could be better."
"That's all you have to say?"
"It could be worse, too."
Sendoh gives him a deadpan look before he cracks and snickers. He's clearly amused, if not entertained. Rukawa feels like he just played peek-a-boo with a toddler.
"Do you want me to say more?" the shorter man asks.
Sendoh looked like he was going to say Yes, actually, but to Rukawa's surprise he instead picks his own cup. He looks pensive for a bit before he smiles and mutters, "No it… it fits you just fine."
Rukawa watches as the other man takes a scoop out of his cup. A pale creamy yellow sits on top of Sendoh's spoon.
Now that it's his turn, Rukawa asks, "What did you get?"
Sendoh seemed genuinely surprised at the question. Rukawa supposes he just didn't expect him to ask him anything. The spiky haired man just shakes his head. "Just my usual. A lemon sorbet."
"That sounds sour."
"Not really," Sendoh replies, studying a spoonful of lemon sorbet before putting it in his mouth. "It's perfectly balanced."
Rukawa scoffs.
"Hey hey you don't have room to speak, you deliberately ordered mint chocolate."
"This is my first time. That's probably your fortieth."
The taller man just shrugs. "I've probably had this more than forty times already," he admits. He chuckles before he tilts his cup at Rukawa. "Wanna try?"
He's kidding, right? "No," Rukawa firmly declines. He quickly shoves a spoonful of mint choco in his mouth, trying to hide his dissatisfaction with a hard swallow.
They eat in silence for a bit before Sendoh speaks again.
"By the way, you never told me if you're really from here or not," Sendoh lightly says. "I'm still going to stand by my guess and say you're not a new hire - you're just not from around here."
Rukawa sighs, putting down his already empty cup on the table. Swallowing down mint choco was easy, but if he ever comes back here, he'll definitely pick out a different flavor.
"Wouldn't it be more likely for me to be a new hire? You saw me struggle with those drawers back at the café."
"You're not wrong but you could just be throwing me off by saying that." Sendoh gasps playfully, "Are you?"
Rukawa rolls his eyes, sighing. "I'm not. I'm here because I'm doing a favor for a relative."
Sendoh's mouth forms an 'O' shape. "A favor," he repeats.
Rukawa wonders if he should say. He won't really lose anything from being honest so he just answers truthfully, nodding. "He wanted me to take over two of his shifts just so he could go on a date. Yesterday and, uh, today."
"Huh. So that explains why I've only seen you recently," Sendoh mumbles to himself, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest. "But you said you're here to do a favor, so that means you're not from around here, right?"
"Right," Rukawa replies, holding a spoon in his mouth. "But I'm not from America like you said."
"Could've fooled me," Sendoh grins. He looks thoughtfully at a random blur next to Rukawa's head before looking him in the eye. "So, uh, where are you from really?"
"And why should I tell you?"
Sendoh blushes before nervously laughing. "I dunno… why not?"
Rukawa doesn't look convinced so Sendoh tries again.
"I mean, it wouldn't hurt to know more about you. You definitely seem interesting to me," Sendoh admits. "My friends are kinda scared of you but I think you're alright."
The shorter man thinks back to what he heard at the shoe aisle this morning. "Is it because I scowl a lot?" he asks, referring to the friends bit of Sendoh's sentence.
Sendoh laughs, pitching up his voice. "Ding ding ding."
All he gets is a weak glare.
Rukawa thinks for a bit. He could easily say that he's from Shohoku, but then he remembers the round ball in his duffel bag, the sane sport they share some familiarity with. He spins his half empty ice cream cup in his hand.
"We both play basketball… So we'll meet in court eventually," replies Rukawa.
Silence. Sendoh looks at him quietly, amused by the other man's answer. "And if we don't?"
"Then we won't."
Unexpectedly, Sendoh breaks into a big grin. Rukawa just stares, finishing the last of his ice cream. If Sendoh plays basketball just like he does, then they're likely bound to see each other again, be it in court or just a glance from opposite benches. He wouldn't mind seeing Sendoh again.
It's not everyday you meet someone with a penis on their face and let them roam around town with it, hit them with your bike the day after, and then get invited to go eat ice cream after.
Rukawa finds Sendoh interesting. But he probably won't see him again. At least not very soon.
(Right?)
"I guess we'll have to find out," Sendoh quietly retorts, taking one last spoonful and drops down his cup. Rukawa's caught by surprise, thinking for a moment that his mind had been read. Before Sendoh could say anything more, the shorter man takes his and stacks it on his own, placing their plastic spoons inside.
Sendoh's strangely silent, seemingly mulling something over. Because he's usually the one who starts the conversation, there's an air of awkwardness around the both of them.
Weakly, Rukawa starts, "Sendoh-san-"
"Just call me Sendoh," the man cuts him off, leaning back on the booth. He chuckles a bit to lighten the mood and it works like a charm. "It feels weird being called that."
"Sendoh," Rukawa continues, "I have to go. The trains close at eleven tonight."
The taller man's eyes widen, quickly, panic sets in. "Ah right, shit," he mutters, sliding out of the booth, eyes locked on the clock that reads 10:02 PM. He takes both his and Rukawa's cups to throw them in a nearby bin, apologizing to Rykawa on the way. "Sorry for keeping you so late."
"It's fine," comes the curt reply.
"Sorry about a while ago. I just remembered that I have a match tomorrow, actually," Sendoh randomly says while he waits for Rukawa to take his duffel bag from the booth seat. "Nothing big but the coach wants me in good shape for then."
A match, huh? At the word, Rukawa wonders if he's forgetting anything.
("We're going to be having a practice match this coming Monday with-"
Rukawa forgets.)
"Will you be up against a strong team?" he asks instead of thinking too much about the other question that's swimming in his head at the moment.
The taller man frowns, looking down at the cream colored table. "Coach says they're weak, that they're going to be an easy opponent."
Rukawa eyes him curiously - Sendoh's sentence feels unfinished. "But..?"
The man huffs, amused that he was got. "But... I don't really like thinking that before the game starts." He looks up at Rukawa with a small smile. "You could say a team is weak or strong before a game but you never really know that for sure until it starts."
Rukawa nods in understanding. He doesn't see any point in underestimating an opponent you've never once played against. And even if you have, times could change how you play.
"Good luck tomorrow then," he mutters, trying to sound friendly, looking at the spiky haired man. This effectively finishes the topic of Sendoh's match tomorrow. When he looks up, Sendoh looks touched.
Christ, the shorter man thinks. He's an easy one.
They briefly stand there, looking at each other. Rukawa with his duffel bag and Sendoh with the faint blush on his cheeks. Eventually, the latter shakes his head and looks away.
"Come on, It's getting late. The place will be closing soon," he says to Rukawa.
And of course, Rukawa follows suit. They both head outside, facing the evening chill yet again. Rukawa goes to get his bike and walks over to Sendoh who's just calmly leaning on a lamp post. When he sees him get approached, he stands and smiles softly at Rukawa.
"Thank you for the ice cream," mumbles the shorter man, hands a bit sweaty over the handles of his cousin's bike. He tries to hold the other man's gaze.
"Don't mention it," says Sendoh, shaking his head. "To be honest, I didn't think you'd agree to come at all."
Rukawa looks down at his bike. He stays silent, waiting for the taller man to continue.
"It's just- you know how it is. You don't know me and I don't know you, so I thought you would turn me down since we've only met for less than what, three days?"
"That's true." Rukawa pushes down the words To be honest I only came with you because I think I can probably beat you in a fight, anyway. "I guess I just came along since I wanted ice cream."
"You can say it's also because it's my treat, you know," teases the spiky haired man with a chuckle. "I'm sure that convinced you somehow."
Rukawa frowns, looking to the side. Bullseye.
"I already hit you with my bike," he scoffs, facing the empty street. "No need to make myself look even worse."
Sendoh just laughs at him. Rukawa doesn't feel like saying anything more so he just gets on his bike. The other man watches him silently for a moment, and when he's caught staring, he quickly pretends to be fascinated with a crushed can on the sidewalk as if he shouldn't have been looking at Rukawa in the first place.
There's a thought swimming inside his head. Before he can stop himself, Rukawa opens his mouth.
"Will you be okay? Going home on your own, I mean."
Rukawa almost regrets saying it. It felt weird to have such a question come out of his mouth. He frowns, defeated. But here we are.
Surprisingly, Sendoh gets red in the face. Especially with the lights of the ice cream parlor just a few feet away from them, the other man couldn't have looked even more obvious. Rukawa doesn't acknowledge it, though, but the image of Sendoh looking stunned with burning cheeks will probably be burned in his memory for a long time.
(Rukawa believes it's because the image itself is funny. That's all. A man with a spiky hairdo with a red face, har har.)
"I-I uh," stammers Sendoh, "I'll be fine. I was heading back, uh, home when we bumped into each other anyway."
"I see." Rukawa nods his head at him. Well... "Good night, Sendoh."
"Have a good night… Ah, wait!'
Rukawa looks up curiously.
"I never really caught your name, did I?" Sendoh laughs, embarrassed and looking a bit flustered. "You hit me with your bike, I took you out for ice cream, and the whole time I never even knew your name."
"It didn't come up." Rukawa shrugs.
It doesn't come as a surprise to Rukawa that Sendoh never knew his name since he didn't have a nametag back at the café considering he was sort of a temporary hire. What comes as a surprise to him, though, is that for all the time they've spent together so far, his name wasn't brought up once.
He looks up, Sendoh's eyes, he notices, have turned a deeper blue in the moonlight. He looks… Rukawa panics, trying to look elsewhere before his mind runs off.
Eventually, his eyes land back on the ground. "It's Rukawa," he answers, voice sounding oddly small as the words leave him.
"Rukawa…" Sendoh tries it on his tongue. He smiles. "You have a pretty name."
And as if a lightning strike had aimed and hit him perfectly square in the chest, Rukawa heart races.
He couldn't even look Sendoh in the eye at all, so he turns and looks away from him. He doesn't say anything back, opting to just let the other man stand there in silence.
(Now Rukawa feels like the easy one.)
"Well good night, Rukawa-kun. Second time I've said that tonight," Sendoh chuckles. "Let's see each other again on court?"
Rukawa nods, still looking away, before he caves and glances at him briefly. Sendoh has on the same fond smile he gave Rukawa inside the café when it was just the two of them alone. There's a hand in one of his pockets, and his posture is calm, even laid back.
His eyes are soft and deep blue, like a calm sea.
Rukawa inhales.
They both stand there, and even as the clock ticks closer and closer to eleven, Rukawa feels like there are more words he could say. Something.
But the shorter man eventually breaks eye contact and quickly pedals off into the quiet street. A part of him wants to look back, but in the end he doesn't. He probably won't be seeing Sendoh again for a very long time. If he does, he wouldn't know what to do.
Rukawa doesn't want to admit it, but his brain itches with the thought of Sendoh the entire ride home. He thinks of his smile, of the way he looked in that moment just right before he left. He looked...
Rukawa shuts his eyes. Handsome, he thinks. That's the word.
If it's good for anything, it helps to keep him awake even after he's on the train ride home.
Rukawa denies still having Sendoh stuck in his head the moment before he fell asleep, even if it had been hours since he last saw him.
Well that was a pretty shit sleep.
Whatever feelings- no, thoughts he had last night were completely gone as soon as the sun peeked out of his blinds and hit his eyes. Which was good, because then he could focus on trying to wake up. His eyelids feel heavier than usual, and his craving to sleep during the day came a bit stronger.
He frowns before shrugging it off. He could always sleep in class to make up for the loss.
When he gets to school, he bumps into Ayako who reminds him to meet up at the gym later with the rest of the team for one last discussion of their strategy. Apparently, it was for a practice match with one of the top four schools in Kanagawa.
("Practice match?" Rukawa feels like a parrot.
"Yeah, with Ryonan."
When Ayako doesn't get a reply. She sighs, placing a hand on her hip.
"Rukawa-kun…" their manager trails off, frustration seeping in her words. "Don't tell me you forgot."
The blank look on his face tells Ayako everything she needs to know. She can feel a headache coming on. So does Rukawa.)
Unlike Rukawa had planned, he hadn't been able to sleep in any of his classes. For some reason, on this day of all days, his teachers have been trying to get him to stay awake the entire day. He had been moved to the front despite his height and every single time he was close to putting his head on the desk, he would be called up to read a random line, to put chalk on the board and whatnot.
Still, Rukawa made it to the meeting later that afternoon, where he was told that he was going to be guarding the ace of Ryonan, number 7.
Before Rukawa could find out what his name was, Sakuragi had already interrupted, complaining that there's now way a fox like Rukawa would be able to guard the genius in Ryonan. The rest of Shohoku panic and try to get him to calm down before he gets a particularly hard knock on the head by their captain, Akagi.
Rukawa drowns them all out. He just really wants some shuteye, so he focuses on a random blank on the wall hoping that time could move faster.
Maybe on the way there he could get a few minutes of sle-
No he doesn't. The fates don't like Rukawa.
On the train ride, Akagi thought it would be a good idea to sit on the air, their behinds just a mere inch away from the seats. When they could finally sit down Rukawa, embarrassingly enough, gets a small cramp on his thigh and spends the entire ride rubbing the sore spot.
Rukawa wonders when he got so unlucky.
When the members of Shohoku get to Ryonan and have finally changed into their jerseys, Rukawa takes this time to do some warm-ups near Shohoku's bench.
(He notices two of Ryonan's players looking at him while whispering to each other. One looks tall and intimidating, meanwhile the other is a bit shorter, his hair parted in the middle. Something about them looks familiar, but considering the common descriptions, it could just be a coincidence.
Then they're laughing, but it doesn't feel like they're laughing at Rukawa specifically. He finds it annoying, still.
The raven haired player glares at them, and they quickly look away. One of them whistles innocently.
Rukawa feels like he's getting déja vu.)
During his stretches, his mind drifts back to last night, wondering if Sendoh was as tired as he is. He had a match tomorrow, he said, and so Rukawa wonders if he's in top shape like his coach wanted him to be.
As much as Rukawa wanted to be nice and polite and say he hopes Sendoh is, he truly hopes not, since it's his fault that Rukawa isn't.
He wonders if the team Sendoh's up against is weak like their coach had said. Their game could have ended by now, or maybe it just started. Either way, he shakes his head. Rukawa has his own match to focus on.
When he walks over to the court to try and shoot a few balls, he nearly crashes into their red headed power forward. Rukawa gets the itch to kick him in the thigh.
Sakuragi had already created a mess in the locker room with the whole jersey incident, and now he's seeking out the ace of Ryonan. His voice is loud and oozing with confidence. Where he got it, no one knows. Even if you didn't want to pay him any mind, you unwillingly end up giving him an ear or two.
He cackles, "I'm going to be the one to beat him! Me, the genius Sakuragi Hanamichi! He doesn't stand a chance, that Sen-"
Suddenly, a ball flies by inches away from Rukawa's head. He blinks, turning to see where it came from only to see Kogure nervously apologizing with his hands clapped together. The younger man shakes his head. "It's fine, senpai."
It doesn't surprise Rukawa that Shohoku's nearly in shambles from nervous anticipation alone. From Kogure nearly hitting Rukawa's head with a basketball, to Akagi who's silently brooding with a hard frown, eyes glazed over. More obviously, his leg is bouncing. Even Ayako looks annoyed with it.
The outlier is Sakuragi, who seems oblivious of his surroundings. He's shouting about what a genius he is like he always does.
This is their team's first serious match of the year, and it's against one of the top four teams in Kanagawa. As much as Rukawa can tell that most of the people in Shohoku are trying to stay calm about it, they're not doing a very good job of it.
Rukawa picks up a lone ball off the polished floor and aims for a three-pointer. It falls in the hoop.
"WHERE IS HE?!"
At the loud exclamation, everyone turns to look at the source of the sound curiously. Rukawa, too, glances at Ryonan's bench just to see that their coach is red in the face, yelling at the players. Some look embarrassed, meanwhile some look pissed off.
"W-We haven't seen him since this morning, we-"
Ryonan's captain, Uozumi, looks down at the player with the middle-part hair. "Koshino, you didn't see him in class at all?"
"No, but-"
"When you find him," their coach says, cutting the person off, voice low and serious. Everyone in Ryonan has their back straight, eyes pointed to their coach. "Tell him he'll be running an extra five laps on top of the usual six when this match is done and over with."
Rukawa winces internally. That's harsh.
(Then he remembers the number of their ace, and the person he was tasked to defend: none other than lucky number seven.
When he scans Ryonan's side to see if he can catch a glimpse of this ace of theirs, Rukawa doesn't see anyone wearing a seven on their back and front. But he does see a jersey with a large number seven hanging over one of the chairs close to the coach.
It hits Rukawa, So their ace is the one that's late.
No wonder Sakuragi hasn't made a declaration of war to anyone yet.)
Just as he was going to make another shot within the ring, a mere two points, he ends up overhearing a conversation that's within earshot.
"-endoh's always like this."
The ball misses.
Rukawa nearly snaps his neck from how quickly he turns it towards his voice in surprise. He sees one of Ryonan's shorter players, the one with the middle part from earlier, talking to their captain. Rukawa's eyes are focused on the two of them. Did one of them just say-
No, Rukawa shakes his head, looking back at the hoop in front of him, closing his hands into loose fists. I could just be hearing things.
There's just no way, right?
"Trust me," he hears one of Ryonan's players say, middle-part guy, sounding sure of himself. "Akira will show up."
Rukawa looks at him, only to find the man staring back.
Why is he looking at me? Rukawa thinks. But more importantly…
Their ace's name seems to be Akira, too. Rukawa scowls at this. It can't be the same Akira, probably. There are many people in Japan named Akira, it's not too rare of a name. It's a pretty name, so many people would want to name their children that. This can't be the same Akira.
He wonders if the fates have toyed with him so much that he's gone insane.
Before Rukawa's thoughts begin to spiral, suddenly, the sliding doors of the gym open, revealing a tall man in Ryonan's school uniform. Everyone's eyes land on him, but Rukawa's don't. Not yet.
The man laughs nervously, trying to ease the tension from all the eyes on him, including his coach's which Rukawa assumes is burning with fury by now.
"Sorry?" comes the weak apology, almost sounding like a plea for mercy in the large sea of stares.
And Rukawa turns his head towards the familiar voice, the familiar laugh.
He finds himself looking at the ever so familiar face of Sendoh Akira, gentle blue eyes and friendly demeanor to match.
The same man who walked around Kanagawa with a penis on his face because Rukawa forgot to tell him. The same man, who, on the following night, helped Rukawa close the café, and bought Rukawa ice cream after said man hit him with his bike.
The same man who called Rukawa's name pretty.
Rukawa closes his eyes.
You have got to be kidding me.
i have to admit this fic is honestly pretty self-indulgent and because i only write when i feel like it or have free time i have no clue when exactly i'll be updating this BUT but but i have an idea for where this is going and how this'll end so yeah i'm crossing my fingers and hoping i actually write and not just stare at a blank document for 4 hours
til next time (hopefully soon?)