Youhei walked briskly with his hands deep into
his pockets of his winter coat. His eyes scanned the area for a familiar mop of
raven hair. He cursed silently to himself as it began to snow again and a brisk
wind whipped his scarf behind him. Nearly a half an hour ago, his mother had
called him on his cell phone telling him everything that had happened. She had
called Rukawa's house and no one had picked up. She explained to him that he
must now find Kaede and see if he is all right. So now he was here trudging
through the snow, trying to see through the swirling white mist around him. An
idea suddenly hit him. 'Maybe Kaede is…' He hurried to a small park that
was near his house. Sure enough, he spotted a slender figure swaying back and
forth slightly on one of the swings. He walked up to Rukawa and sat down on the
adjacent swing.
"You never did change, did you Kaede?"
Rukawa looked up in surprise. "Hei-chan…" Rukawa
spoke softly with a great amount of uncertainty in his voice.
Youhei winced a little at the nickname and then
smiled warmly at his childhood best friend. "Kaede, did you know you had us all
worried? What are you doing here?"
"…"
"Come on. Tell me what is wrong. I know that you
always come here when you have something troubling you. Ever since we were
little, you would come here if you were sad or had something to think about. I
would always know that you were here and come and cheer you up. I just can't
believe that even now when we're grown, we'll end up doing the exact same
thing. So what happened?"
"…nothing."
"Don't give me that crap! You know that you can
trust me with anything. So why won't you just tell me?" Youhei exclaimed
impatiently.
"…"
The fox-eyed boy turned away from Youhei,
looking down on the pristine white ground.
Looking at his friend, he decided that a bit of
prodding was in order. Maybe if he told him that he knew what happened between
him and Hanamichi, he would open up. It might backfire on him, but he had to
take a chance. Youhei didn't want either of his best friends sad.
"It's about Hanamichi, isn't it?" He ignored the
look of surprise on Kaede's face and continued. "I know that he likes you. How
do you feel about him?" He asked bluntly.
"I… I…"
"You're probably surprised that I know. Well, I
knew from the very beginning. Hanamichi confessed to me that he liked you about
four months ago. Why do you think he suddenly wanted to be friends with you?
Why do you think he suddenly wanted to spend so much time playing basketball
with you? No it's not because he wanted to get better at basketball in order to
beat you, but he did it to get to know you. Tell me. How do you feel about
him?"
"How do you feel about him?"
The words repeated in his mind like a mantra. He
asked himself the exact same question over and over again for the last hour. He
knew that Sakuragi is a very close friend. He even confided to the redhead
about his feelings about his parents. He trusts Sakuragi and he instinctively
knew that Sakuragi would never betray his trust. 'I never knew that he felt
anything for me.' Suddenly Sendoh's words from a few days ago surfaced in
his mind. 'You can have this too if you are willing to take the chance.'
He finally understood what the spiky-haired Ryonan player was talking about.
Apparently Sendoh knew of Sakuragi's feelings too. 'Am I really that blind?'
"He's… a trusted friend." Rukawa answered
slowly.
"Are you going to give him a chance?"
Rukawa was thrown off-balanced again. 'Damn
Youhei. Him and all his questions that I'm not ready to face.'
"You know that you can't drag this out." Youhei
continued. "You're just going to hurt Hanamichi more with your silence. He
deserves an answer. You have been his friend for four months now. You're a lot
happier now that you are his friend. I can see it. There are times that I see
that you are fighting not to crack that cold mask of yours. You truly enjoy
being his friend. You care about Hanamichi whether you want to admit it or not.
You cannot change the facts. I'm sure that you don't want to hurt him any more
than necessary. So you must tell him how you feel."
"But I'm not sure…"
"It's okay. Just think about how you feel when
you are with him." Youhei had a mischievous glint in his eyes that almost made
Rukawa back away uneasily. "Think about how you felt when he kissed you."
Rukawa's face burned up like a comet as he
glared blackly at Youhei who started to chuckle earnestly. He fluidly scooped
up some snow, making it into a snowball and threw it with deadly accuracy at
Youhei's face. It hit the other boy smack in the middle of his face. Youhei
sputtered and fell off his swing. By the time Youhei got back to his feet,
Rukawa had a couple of more snowballs in his hands ready to be fired at him.
Youhei raised his hands in surrender. "Okay,
okay. I'll stop teasing you." Youhei suddenly turned serious. "But please
think about what I said."
Rukawa let the snowballs drop to the ground and
swayed back and forth some more in his swing. He subconsciously noted that
Youhei sat back silently into the swing next to him as his thoughts whirled
furiously in his head. 'I enjoy spending time with Hanamichi. He brings
color to my world in a way that no one has been able to before. He makes me
feel, whether it's happy, sad, or angry. Hanamichi is like a breath of fresh
air in my dull world. So am I willing to give him a chance?' Rukawa thought
back to the kiss. It was his first kiss. He remembered the passion and fire
coming from the redhead as the other boy pressed his lips against his and swept
his tongue inside his mouth. He never felt so wanted before in his life.
Sakuragi kissed him as if he wanted to devour him whole. He could still feel
the warmth from Hanamichi's body and his lips. He lifted a hand and touched his
lips, blushing lightly when he realized that he liked the way that Sakuragi
kissed him. 'So I do feel something for him. And I'm not disgusted by his
kiss. I… enjoyed it.' Finally making up his mind, he turned to Youhei who
started to shiver from the cold.
"You finished thinking? You came up with an
answer?" Youhei spoke with puffs of mist coming out of his mouth while
shivering slightly.
Rukawa nodded affirmatively and got up from his
swing.
Youhei stood up as well. "Come on. Let's go to
my house and defrost a bit. My mother is worried about you. So it's better if I
just bring you over and let her see for herself that you are okay."
Rukawa nodded again affirmatively. He shivered
slightly as he suddenly realized how cold and dark it has gotten.
They walked in companionable silence to Youhei's
house.
*****
Youhei's mother breathed a sigh of relief when
she saw two familiar figures stroll up the walkway to the house. She threw open
the front door before Youhei could dig his keys out of his pocket.
"Youhei! Kaede! Where have you two been? I've
been so worried about you two!" She ushered them both into the house. Hanamichi
was looking at his mug uncomfortably ever since she had said Kaede's name.
Pouring out two more cups of hot chocolate, she placed one in front of each boy
that came in. She watched discreetly as Kaede and Hanamichi glanced at each
other from time to time. At one point, they caught each other's eyes and then
looked away blushing slightly. 'Hmm… they just need a little push in the
right direction.'
"It's getting late. Hanamichi, why don't you
walk Kaede home?" Hanamichi looked up in her eyes and then looked away.
"…ok." Hanamichi replied softly.
Rukawa looked up at her too and then nodded
slightly.
Suddenly she had the feeling that everything was
going to turn out just fine. She bid both the boys good night and then gave
them both a motherly kiss on the cheek.
Youhei walked them both out the door while she
watched the two best friends of her son from the window with a contented smile
on her face. Youhei shut the door and then walked back to where she stood.
"Do you think they will be alright?"
"Yes."
"What makes you so sure?" Youhei asked worriedly.
"Because I've watched them both grow up."
Youhei thought for a moment and then a big smile
grew on his face. "Hai. You're right, okaasan." He said as he gave her a warm
hug.
*****
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