Fic

Genre: Ruhana

Title: Time will tell., epilogue

Author: F5C

Rating: PG

Posted: Fanfiction.net

E-mail: chatterbox_shil@yahoo.com

~*~

"But I don't think I love you Rukawa"

~*~

Could it be? Could the Ice King of Shohoku actually fall for me? The rambunctious loud red head? I doubt it! Some things are just not meant to be and this was one of them. I mean seriously. I have been dumped by 50 girls and I think that I would have also been dumped by Haruko making it 51, however I never did manage to find out that part.

Haruko.

Sweet and innocent, maybe a bit slow, alright she was a lot slow, I practically flooded her with hints of my growing affection but she never realized. Or did she? I'll never know now, and I don't think it'll actually make a difference. No matter what, she'll always be special to me.

Do you like basketball?

Such a simple question. It was the question that laid my future. Do I like basketball? Now I'd agree whole heartedly without sparing a second but then. I don't think it was that easy. Spoken by one with such innocent angelic beauty how was I suppose to voice the truth. I was blinded by her, I did everything for her. all for one simple goal, to be her one and only. I'll never know if I succeeded.

America.

I may have matured in that one year and my skills may have dramatically improved but my goal were always the same. Be the best, prove them wrong, beat the kitsune and finally win Haruko. Win Haruko? I can't believe that I actually thought that was possible. I make her sound like a thing. She is no thing. She is a very important person to me. She introduced me to this new life I have; one without gang fights and bruises, one where the thumping of the ball against a hardwood floor is music to my ears, one where the rush of the game gives me the perfect all time high.

But in the end it all comes back to the kitsune.

The male ego really can work wonders can't it?

First for me, it pushed me so as to prove that I am the best, better than some stupid fox eyed super rookie. No matter how much I try to deny it and no matter how many different angles I recount the situation, he was and will always be there. He was my 'driving' force so to say.

As I said the male ego can do wonders. I would have never have admitted the fact that he was the reason I got so far, in fact I still will never voice it out. why bother?

Second time round the ego worked for him.

Aishteru Hana. aishteru. I am not playing with you. I don't do that. But I seriously love you Hana. Aishteru.

It would have taken a lot for him to actually say that out loud. In fact, I actually look up to him for what he did; even after being punched by me he resisted and tried to get his point through by any means possible.

A kiss.

Do you know how it is to be kissed as a source of persuasion? I doubt it. Normally it never happens but there's always the possibility.

My first kiss.

Ahh. my first kiss. No, it surprisingly wasn't with Haruko. In fact, shockingly enough, it wasn't with a girl. So what if I happened to be undergoing a sexual identity crisis. It isn't every day that a guy starts doubting his sex and finally on realizing he might actually be gay allows himself willingly to be kissed by the same sex.

Willingly.

I doubt that ever occurred to him. Having my consent and all. After all it was only a kiss. But to me it was my first kiss and even if it may have been with a guy or if it had been with my so called mortal enemy or if had been one of persuasion, point is it'll always be my first and a good first at that. Boy that fox really knows how to kiss. I mean I was obviously repulsed by the idea of a guy kissing me, no matter how much I had agreed that I was most probably gay, the concept was still new. And to me, I hardly believed that it would happen. But I'll never regret it. He sucked me dry. I still remember the way his tongue slipped into my mouth and there I tasted my own blood mixed with the soft lingering citrus taste of himself. It was heaven. The exchange of fluids as some may call it. It was what I'd refer to as a passionate kiss but not the type with the excessive groping. He just held me in place and kissed and sucked me. That's it. But that in all was enough to make my first memorable.

All good things have to come to an end.

So capable of expression yet so cold all the time.

We drew back and I stared at him. He was no longer the walking block of ice that we knew. He was no longer the lover who had enjoyed endless nights of sex with Sendoh. He was now just a normal guy, with normal feelings, standing in front of me declaring his undying affection for me. And to think that all this time I thought he hated me.

There's a thin line between love and hate.

I've never actually thought of that statement before, but as I stared into those beautiful blue orbs, ahh and yes. at that moment those orbs were definitely beautiful, not the blank icy ones we normally saw, but clear blue eyes sparkling with every nameable feeling, although now that I come to think of it, I think he was most probably really nervous of what was to follow. I don't think that saying I don't think I love you helped the matter all that much. I mean seriously how would you react after declaring your affection only to be denied it? I'll never know how he accepted it, but it'll just be another one of those things which I'll always admire. Getting back to the thin line, that was the only logical reason I could come up for his behavior at that moment. I mean how else could a person fall for their so called mortal enemy. They say that your best friends make your worst enemies. It is practically the same thing as the thin line between love and hate. He told me that he had loved me for quite sometime now. He always used loved, never liked, never fond but always loved.

Did he love me?

Then? At that moment? I don't know. I always believed that it was infatuation, the same as Sendoh had for himself only with places switched. I think that I was his most intriguing ride as Sam told Sendoh. Never more, never less.

~*~

I stared out of the window. The orange and red mixed with the pink of the cloud surfaces and with the blue of the midnight sky creating a completely exhilarating scene. Sunrise. a new day. a new start.

The red haired man stared out of the window longingly. His face he wore a distant yet calm expression. He turned his head away from the window, at the same time brushing away his now long red mane. //Rukawa Kaede//

I felt something brush against my neck and I looked over only to end up staring at the cause. There right next to me sat the fox himself, with his head nicely snuggled in the crook of my neck. //Kawai! He always loves snuggling, especially against my neck//

FLASHBACK "Kitsune, why do you always snuggle against my neck" "D'aho. why can't I?" "No I was just curious that's all" END OF FLASHBACK

He may not have told me the reason then, but one night after hours of tedious passion, he snuggled up to me as per usual and it was then I heard him whisper. "It is to keep all the bad away" He snuggled up against the scar on my neck in an attempt to keep the bad away and cease all my pain and suffering.

"D'aho" "Huh?" I snap out of my daze and look down at him. He looks at me questioningly through his half lidded eyes. "The sunrise" He snuggled up closer to me and together we watch the sunrise.

As I said the merging of red and blue is definitely an exhilarating sight.

~OWARI~

Whoah!! Me finally finished me ficcy I can't believe it. I actually did it in 15 chapters with an epilogue At least now I know I'll keep on living There you go TR your happy ending (TR: YAY! *pumps fist in air* This is good!) Anywayz, sorry if it seemed rather abrupt but I always wanted to have a unique end. That and I felt that the intensity of the fic was ruining it and dragging it out. Me been dying to actually complete this fic for a while aleadi Anyhoo, hopefully you enjoyed the story altogether. I mean other then making Hanamichi more mature and giving Sendoh brains I think I stuck to their characters rather well. although I doubt that Rukawa will ever actually run up to his love's doorstep and without warning declare his love. But why not? Had to add the twist somehow. Ya know. I was actually tempted to leave the fic like that without an epilogue. ya'all owe TR cause she made me write the epilogue (TR: Well, lets say that my romantic mush of a heart won't accept an ending like Chp. 15. Besides don't you think it's far better this way? I know I do!) Anyway your comments are always welcomed. and as for me. I am going to take a much needed break from angst. I just realized that recently me been rather angsty and that just isn't me. I a spoilt selfish naïve irritating brat *grin*

But whateva PLS R&R