Jesse whistled to the wind as she whizzed down the sidewalk on her inline skates, opting to use those instead of her Harley. She had gotten more than a few weird stares from pedestrians and passersby whenever she went out on her bike, and she noticed that the cops were looking at her with feral looks in their eyes, as if they were ready to pounce on her, so just to avoid causing any trouble, she decided to use her skates today.
So far so good, she thought with a happy smile on her face. She had managed to help Ciel with her problem, and they were going to have a more proper game with Shoyo in a few days' time. It can't get better than this.
No, wait, of course it can, Jesse thought, grinning when an image of Rukawa Kaede's face slipped into her head. Currently, her dream game would be a one-on-one against Rukawa. A silly smile appeared on her face as she tried to imagine how it would go. Wow, that would be fun! And I'd sure love to kick his butt one more time…maybe I can organize another game with Shohoku! They seem to have gotten a lot better now, and it'd be fun to play against them and see how much they've improved.
As she skated down the street, she passed by a secluded little park. Through the bushes, she saw a familiar black-haired, pale-skinned figure slumped in a bench, staring at a black kitten sitting near his feet. Charmed, Jesse applied the brakes, and looked at the scene before her with a smile. Rukawa.
* * *
"Hey Kaede. What're you doing all the way out here?"
Rukawa blinked the moment he heard the familiar feminine voice. Eh? He looked up, and saw Jessica Drakensburg standing on the sidewalk in front of him, her arms crossed casually in front of her and her lips curved in a smile. Her feet were shod in a pair of inline skates.
She laughed at him then, and skated over to him. "Aren't you going to say hello?"
"Konnichiwa," Rukawa mumbled, but didn't look up at her anymore. He was too busy staring at the kitten.
Jesse must have noticed this, because she immediately took a seat beside him, and bent over, holding her hand out to the kitten in a beckoning gesture. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Come here sweetie!"
The kitten looked at her with a green-eyed gaze, and then after a while, got up from its haunches, walked daintily over to her, and purred while rubbing its head against her hand.
Rukawa stared at Jesse with utter shock and amazement. "What did you do?"
"Let's just say I have a gift when it comes to animals," Jesse replied with a laugh as she petted the black kitten. The small cat arched it's back, and rubbed it against her hand, coaxing another laugh from her.
Rukawa stared at Jesse as she continued to play with the kitten. He was amazed at how easily laughter came from her lips, how she could find something funny in anything and everything. How can she be so cheerful all the time, he wondered to himself. There's nothing to laugh about in the world anyway, except maybe when Hanamichi makes a fool of himself, and even then it isn't that funny to me.
It was only then that he realized Jesse was looking at him, and there was a bemused expression on her face, a small smile curled up on her lips. He cocked an eyebrow upwards. "Naze?"
Jesse grinned a little more, and shrugged. "I was just thinking about something."
"And what would that be?"
Jesse smiled a little, and turned away from him. "You know, Hanamichi was right when he nicknamed you 'kitsune', and not just because you look a little like one."
Rukawa stiffened a little, but remained silent. Why would she bring that up?
"When I was a little girl, I used to live in a big villa in South Africa," Jesse continued, completely oblivious to his silence – or perhaps intently ignoring it. "That was before my father was assigned as the Ambassador of South Africa to the United States. Anyway, like every other kid I asked for a pet, in my case, a pet fox. After much prodding and wheedling and whining, Dad gave in and brought home this beautiful kit with sparkly blue-gray eyes, a coal-black body and white paws with a white-tipped tail.
"At first it was pretty hard for me to get Ferris – that was the name of the kit – to like me. He was always running away and hiding, or just staring at me from some high place where I couldn't reach him. It took me a while to get him to trust me, but in the end, it was worth my while and hard work. There was even a time when he'd sleep with me in my bed, like a warm fluffy pillow."
Rukawa didn't see the point in it all, though some part of his heart said he did. "Why are you telling me this?"
Now Jesse turned back to him, and her expression was rather solemn, an expression he had not thought she would be able to produce. "Because you and Ferris are a little alike," she answered him softly. "Just like Ferris, you're hard-to-reach, and although you may deny it, you're always running away from affection. I don't know why you're like that, and I suppose it isn't my right to know, but…you can't keep away from it forever, Rukawa Kaede. 'No man is an island', as we say in the States, and I learned that the hard way too. You can't keep on relying on yourself forever. If you do that you're just going to break yourself. That isn't going to do you any good."
"What are you trying to say?" Rukawa asked, his voice edged with more ice than usual. "Don't tell me how I should live my life. You don't know anything about it."
Jesse shrugged. "I don't, and I won't pretend that I do. But I can tell that we're both the same here," she gently pushed a finger against his chest, "and that you're just trying to cover it up by being all cool and nonchalant about it. We're both hurting, maybe you more than me, but you can't bear it all by yourself. You've got lots of friends; why won't you learn to trust them?"
Rukawa smirked. "Friends? I don't have any friends. I don't even have parents. How am I supposed to trust anyone but myself?"
"But you trust Coach Anzai, don't you? And you trust the rest of Team Shohoku, right?"
"Maybe, but Anzai-sensei IS my coach, so I have to trust him. And as for my teammates, that's only on the court."
"So are you saying that you prefer to be a loner?"
"Maybe I am."
Jesse sighed, and shook her head. "You know, this is one of those times when I think you're an absolutely hopeless case, but the more I think about what you've said, the more I believe you're wrong." She got up, giving the kitten one last pat on the head before glancing at him again, her dark brown eyes glimmering in the waning afternoon light. "You're going to have to hit that brick wall sooner or later, but when it does, I hope that what I said will be of some help." And with that, she turned her back on him, and skated away, leaving him to ponder on her words.