And so it went. Sumire was starting to settle in pretty well in Shoyo, especially given the fact that was she had been through almost everything before. Her grades were soaring right through the roof. She had earned the respect of her teachers and peers, and the guys loved her. She was looked upon as something of a heartthrob among the freshmen, more for her intelligence than for her beauty.
But her true friends were the players of the Shoyo Basketball Club. As the new manager, she hung out in the gym with them after classes, keeping track of the records and all that. She and Fujima had become very close, since their work was closely tied together, and because Sumire rather liked the Captain and Coach of Team Shoyo.
He isn't like most other guys, she mused as she continued to scribble down statistics while she watched Fujima play with his teammates. He's so friendly and nice, and most of all, he doesn't have an ego. Too many guys are like that. Even Toru-kun has an ego. But not Fujima-sempai. No, he's not like them at all.
Earlier that day, Toru came down with a horrid case of the flu. His temperature was up by several degrees, and, according to him, his head ached like someone had bashed a backboard on it. Sumire offered to skip school to take care of him, but he just waved her off…
~ ~ ~
Toru attempted to grin at her from his bed, even though his face didn't look too good. "Don't worry about me, Mire-chan, I'll be okay on my own. This isn't the first time this has happened."
Sumire winced when Toru sneezed. "I don't know… You don't look like you can stay here alone…"
"I'll be perfectly alright, Mire-chan. Just think about school for the meantime. Your exams are coming up soon, ne? Well you can't miss a single day at school. That'll make you lose your edge in class."
"I KNOW almost everything already, Toru-kun," Sumire pointed out. "What's one missed day to me?"
Toru sighed. "Mire-chan, just GO, okay? I'll be alright by myself. Trust me."
Sumire rolled her eyes, and turned to the door. "Well, if you're going to be stubborn about it, then fine, I'll go." She glanced back at him, and smiled slightly. "You want me to go to Fujima-sempai and ask him for your homework?"
"Hai, that would be a great help," Toru answered. "Arigatou, Mire-chan. Take care of yourself!!"
"Hai!"
~ ~ ~
And so it was that Sumire went to school by herself, where in other cases Toru would have gone with her. She met up with Fujima that morning, as she was about to enter the school gate…
~ ~ ~
"Oi, Sumire!"
Huh? Sumire turned around, and watched as Fujima came walking up to her. Fujima-sempai?
Fujima smiled slightly at her in greeting. "Ohayo, Sumire. Where's Toru?"
"Toru-kun is at home, sick with the flu," Sumire answered as she and Fujima started walking together towards school. "He wanted me to ask you to take down all the homework you would get today, then to give it to me so he could look it over when I came home."
Fujima nodded. "Hai, I would've done that even if you didn't tell me…" He glanced at her then, worry seeming to cloud his eyes a little. "But if your cousin is sick, how are you going to get home?"
Sumire laughed. "Fujima-sempai, I'm not exactly disabled, am I? I can walk home."
"That's not what I meant," Fujima said. "Do you really plan to walk home by yourself? In the dark?"
Sumire fell silent then. That's the exact same thing Toru-kun said when… "I don't know. Maybe I will."
Fujima grinned then, and gently nudged her with his elbow. "I'll walk you home, if that's alright with you."
Sumire immediately looked up at him, eyes wide. "Nani? Demo, Fujima-sempai, you live all the way on the other side! You don't have to take the long way around!"
"It's nothing to worry about," Fujima said with a shrug. "Aside from the fact that Toru would slaughter me if I didn't, I just don't like the idea of you walking by yourself at night. If something happened to you it'd weight down on my conscience for the rest of my life."
Sumire stared at him for a moment, at the determined look on his face that seemed akin to the one she had seen during her first day in school. "Well, okay, if you say so…"
~ ~ ~
"Ja ne, Sumire-san! Give my regards to Hanagata-sempai!"
Sumire smiled at Nagano, and waved back. "Ja, Nagano-sempai! See you tomorrow!"
Beside her, Fujima grinned as he wiped off his sweat with a towel. "That was a good practice." He turned to her then. "So, what are the stats?"
Sumire leaned back from her chair so that Fujima had better access to the statistics she had recorded. "Everyone seems to be getting better and better," she said as she stretched her back to relieve some of the tension that had built up from sitting for too long.
Fujima read over the stats, and a smile slowly suffused on his face. "Hmm, this is good. The way we're going, we could be a formidable force by the time the Inter-High rolls around."
Sumire nodded, and smiled. "Hai. That's a very good sign."
Fujima sighed then, and stretched. "Well anyway, I'm going to take a shower and change. Then I'll walk you home."
Sumire grinned then, and waved her hand towards the locker room. "Go on ahead, Fujima-sempai, take your time. I'll just be waiting for you here."
* * *
Fujima stepped out of the shower, feeling refreshed and clean again after a long hard afternoon of basketball practice. He smiled as he toweled himself off, and put on a fresh pair of pants and a clean shirt. That felt good…
But what felt even better was the fact that he had less to think about nowadays. With the burden of being the manager taken off his shoulders, he could now think about what was most important and where he excelled: playing and coaching. And I have Sumire to thank for that.
In spite of her tendency to belittle her own abilities, Sumire made an excellent manager, having a sense of order and time management that was so crucial to that position. Her methods of record keeping were impeccable, and Fujima had yet to find fault in them. It had only been a month, and already she had proven to be a valuable asset to the team, though she might not have played on the court. She had spared him a LOT of headaches already.
Not only that, she was also an optimist, always encouraging the players and telling them to keep their chins up. She was a funny girl too, using her sense of humor to bring more life to what would otherwise be another mundane practice. Things were never boring when Sumire was around, from the chasing of Toru round the court to the teasing that she and Ito were an item already.
And there was something else that, so far, only Fujima seemed to know about: the intuitive sense that allowed Sumire to say when things were going wrong or if someone felt bad. Fujima often found himself on the questioning end of Sumire's "What's wrong?" or "Are you okay?", and he had to admit, she was always right on target. When he wouldn't say anything, she would smirk, and say, "Don't think about her, she doesn't love you yet."
She always seems able to make me smile, Fujima thought with amusement, even as he felt an actual smile tug at the edges of his mouth. Even thinking about her is enough to make me smile.
He had just finished packing up his things, and he walked onto the court, searching out Sumire.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!!!
WHANG!!!!
"Aw man, missed again!"
Fujima turned, and noticed that Sumire was standing beneath one of the goals, right on the free throw line. She was dribbling the ball, and eyeing the ring the way a tiger would eye a rabbit or some other potential food item. He watched as she took the ball into her hands, and jumped, throwing the ball upwards towards the ring. Unfortunately, the ball came too short, and instead bounced off the edge of the ring.
Sumire scowled, and went over to retrieve the ball.
It was then that Fujima chose to speak. "You should bend your knees a little more."
Sumire looked up, and laughed a little when she saw him, her cheeks suddenly flushing red. "Oh, Fujima-sempai! You got to see that? Oh jeez, that's embarrassing…"
"No it wasn't," Fujima reassured her as he dropped his bag and approached her, a smile on his face. "We all have to start somewhere, ne?"
Sumire laughed again, and the blush deepened. "I know, but isn't it pathetic that I can't get a simple jump shot right?"
"Why don't I help you a little then?" Fujima suggested with a grin.
Sumire stared at him as though he had just asked her to do the impossible. "You? Help me? Are you sure about this Fujima-sempai?"
Fujima shrugged. "Why not? I don't see anything wrong with that." He tilted his head slightly, amused at her reaction. "So, shall we get to it?"
Sumire gazed at him for a while longer, and then she grinned. "Fine, show me how it's done!"
Fujima laughed, amazed at the amount of spirit and candidness this one little girl displayed. If only my team had the same spirit, then maybe we'd be the best team in Kanagawa, no holds barred. He stood to the side to observe her profile. "Bend your knees more, that'll help you make a higher jump."
Sumire obeyed his promptings. "This enough?"
"Yeah, that's good. Now, the arms. Move them up just a little more…higher…a bit lower…there, you got it! Now, when you jump, both your feet should leave the ground at the same time. Your balance will be thrown off if you let one foot remain on the floor while the other goes up, and that will affect the accuracy of your shot. And when you shoot, the movement in the arms should be smooth and easy. Don't force it; if it's jerky, then it will most likely fall short of the ring or move off to the side. Relax and it will come to you."
"Hai," Sumire answered quietly as she followed his instructions. After a few seconds, she jumped, and shot. The ball sailed through the air, and went clean through the ring without touching the edge.
Fujima smiled broadly, and clapped. "Sugoi, Sumire! That was pretty good."
There was a look of happiness and exhilaration on her face, but it was tempered somewhat. "Let me try that one more time…it might've just been a lucky shot…I want to see if I can do it twice in a row."
"There was nothing lucky about that shot, Sumire," Fujima told her, though he did pass her the ball.
Sumire caught the ball, and prepared herself again. She jumped up, and threw the ball. It arced up smoothly, and bounced off the back rim of the ring before it fell through. She stared at the shot for a while, then started jumping up and down in jubilation. "I DID IT!! I DID IT!!!"
Fujima grinned, watching her with a hint of pride on his face. But then, she came bounding up to him, and the next thing he knew, Sumire was in his arms, her own wrapped around his waist, hugging him tightly. Na-nani?
"Arigatou, Fujima-sempai," Sumire whispered to him. "Thank you very much. I don't know how I could've done it without you."
Fujima laughed half-heartedly as he returned her embrace. "It was nothing, Sumire. Nothing at all." It was then that it hit him: her scent. She smells like vanilla and nutmeg… She had always smelled that way, he knew, but this was the first time he had ever taken notice of it. Like it was the first time that he noticed how soft her hair was, how it smelled like the same vanilla and nutmeg smell she had all over her but with hints of lilac and violet, and just how slim her waist was…
Sumire pulled away from him then, and it took a conscious effort on his part to loosen his grip on her waist. She grinned up at him then, and there was a blush on her cheeks. "Gomen nasai, Fujima-sempai. I'm always so emotional…a fault of mine that nothing can cure. Sorry."
"Iie, it was nothing, Sumire," Fujima replied, schooling his features into something that closely resembled nonchalance while at the same time attempting to keep his voice as neutral as possible. He grinned as he went over to pick up his bag from where he left it on the gym floor. "It's pretty late. Your cousin will worry if you don't come home soon. Are you ready?"
Sumire smiled brightly at him then, and Fujima's mind immediately created a mental picture of that smile, stowing it away in the depths of memory. "Hai! Let's go!"
AUTHOR'S OOC:
Harle sighs: I can smell the hints of a developing romance here…
Maia giggles: Yeah, you can smell it from a MILE away!!!! And what a cute pairing it is!!!
Chibi-Fujima looks rather cross: You two are like bloodhounds.
Harle twitches eyebrow slightly: Well you can't complain like that. YOU managed to know what exactly Sumire smelled like, and all in the course of one hug!!
Chibi-Fujima features frighteningly neutral, voice in an even monotone: You were the one writing that.
Maia gapes, and shivers: He's starting to act like Rukawa… Creepy!!!!
Harle nods: Yeah, creepy…
Chibi-Ayako evil grin on her face: All he needs is a good whack to the head… brings out paper tessen, and swings
WHACK!!!
Chibi-Fujima rubbing head: ITAI!!!!! Now I know how Sakuragi feels when he gets hit with that thing…
Chibi-Ayako sweetly: Want another go at it?
Chibi-Fujima backs away: Err…no thanks.
Harle grins: I'm so glad my chibis are getting along well.. Anyway, let's get this show on the road again people!!