Fandom: Slam Dunk

Summary: It has always been like this on the first day of each year: the snow falls, the tears pour, and two estranged hearts remember.

Title: Snow Falls

Author: Hana Rui

Genre: shounen-ai, drama

Pairing: Nobunaga Kiyota x Kaede Rukawa [KiyoRu]

CHAPTER ONE

From the moment he stepped into his gloomy room, Kaede Rukawa knew he needed a diversion right away. Anything to keep him from thinking. From reminiscing about that certain part of his past. He just knew he could never survive another minute if this kept on. What with it happening again on this day just as it did in the past several years.

There were the neatly wrapped stuffs he got for his birthday scattered on the floor of his room, but one derisive glance at them and he knew he was soon a dead man. Not much hope of diversion in those since he didn't really need to check them out one by one, knowing full well they contained more or less the same stuffs as last year. Designer clothes, perfumes, shaving creams (like there was really much to shave on him anyway!), more clothes, more stinking perfumes, more goddamn creams and hygienic ointments that his mom had strictly told him to use religiously everyday…

There were even three craps at one corner resembling basketballs! Last year, he had five of those, and the year after that, ten. This year, his collection had just about grown to a hundred, starting from when he was three. It was all thanks to his dumb relatives who weren't even bothered by the thought that he only had two hands to play balls with.

And, no, he never did dream of teaching himself to juggle basketballs to spite them—not that they would even pay attention anyway.

Still, even though it annoyed him very much, he kept every single ball. They were not just balls after all. Or at least, he'd like to think so. They were the best and most expensive types from the American market. He probably held the record of having the most number of imported basketballs in the district—or perhaps even in the whole nation!

For all he knew, he might be the only one who had this much in the whole world! They were beginning to crowd his room already that he was seriously considering donating half of them to Shohoku High.

"Shohoku High? Munchkin, why such a cheap school?" his mother's rattling dulcet voice suddenly rang in his ears. Those were the words she had exclaimed almost a year ago on the phone from some other part of the world when he told her about taking his senior high education at Shohoku. "Why not that posh, private school, Ryotofu—"

"Ryokufu," he had corrected her flatly.

"Yes that. Were they not recruiting you—"

"It's too far."

"Well, then how about Shobo?"

It didn't take him a while to figure that one out. "It's Shoyo, Mom."

"Yes. Yes, Munchkin. Why not go to Shoyo?"

"Too far…" he practically drawled.

His mom let out an impatient breath, obviously getting annoyed by his son's bullheadedness. "O—kay. Then go to Kaiman."

He rolled his eyes and sighed, utterly irritated by his mom's unrelenting stupidity. "It's Kai -nan."

"Whatever, Munchkin. I heard they have the best baseball team in the district."

He was tempted to quip, "I play basketball, you old hag!" but decided to just conclude the irksome conversation with a final, curt remark, "My mind's made up."

Coming back to the present, the jaded young man pulled off his muffler and lay with a lazy thud on the carpeted floor. If I had only known he would be there…

He groaned, shook his head off that regretful memory and, locking his eyes on the ceiling, directed his mind instead from thoughts of the past to the unplanned one-on-one match he had with Mitsui-senpai this afternoon.

Everybody else on the team had either gone somewhere or was staying home with his family for the New Year. Only he and Mitsui-san didn't feel like staying in…

"Ch!" the former MVP sputtered as he defended the basket. "Some family! They can't even trust their own son to change. Up to now they still believe I'm part of some rowdy street gang and would always keep a watchful eye on me! They're so annoying!"

Rukawa simply snorted and kept dribbling the ball. Some family, all right! This guy didn't know how lucky he was to actually have a family. While he—

He was suddenly snapped out of his reveries when he felt the ball get snatched out of his hand. What the— His face creased with a menacing frown sending a silent threat to the sneering third year dribbling the ball with all cockiness in front of him.

A threat that was easily ignored by the equally brash shooting guard.

"It's not good to reminisce in the middle of a game, y'know." Mitsui ran pass him, jumped up and deftly got a basket in from the three-point area.

"Kuso," he cursed under his breath, turning his back on the senior pumping his fists for joy.

"Say, what about you, Rukawa? Why are you here anyway?"

"My folks are gone for the holidays," he replied on his way to get the ball.

"Without you?" Mitsui was obviously perplexed.

He bent and palmed the ball, saying, "I'm actually kinda used to it." Why wouldn't he be? It had always been the case in his goddamn house. Holiday or no holiday, his parents had always been off on some trips. Sometimes concerning business, sometimes just plainly for fun. He could hardly even remember how his folks looked like! He just might bump into them one day along the sidewalk and not recognize who they were!

"Ch! Who needs them anyway?" Mitsui-san huffed. Or had Mitsui-san really said that? He wasn't quite sure for at that moment, though he saw his senpai move his lips, it wasn't his senpai's voice that he heard, but an echo of a memory from a seemingly distant past...

That guy… Why did all paths today lead to the memory of his past with that guy? That cocky airhead? That… that creep?

Rukawa sat up and took out a picture frame from under his bed. That of him as a skinny ten-year-old and that guy… He was strangling him playfully with his fleshy arms and was smiling like a mad man to the camera. He had then the same hairstyle he had today—long and shabby black strands so sexily framing his round face. He was as loudly obnoxious then as he was today. And Rukawa, being a naturally quiet, timid kid was oddly paired with him.

But, even though each of them was everything the other was not, they shared a genuine friendship that transcended whatever differences and incongruities there were in their characters.

"Oh look, here comes that rich bastard!" the taunting voice echoed through his head and plunged him into an inescapable retrospect. Back to the time when he was in elementary and the cocky kids in school made fun of him because he had never brought his parents to any school event that required their presence. If they weren't calling him rich bastard, he was the parentless kid.

And he would always get into fights because of that, and get so terribly beaten up that this guy always had to carry him home on his back after, of course, beating the hell out of his tormentors.

"You are too impulsive, Kaede," he would say in gentle reproach as he—little Kaede Rukawa—wept on his back. "How many times do I have to tell you not to mind them?"

"I—I'm not an orphan, ne, Nobu-chan? My parents are someplace else, but—but, they have not abandoned me, have they?"

"Ch! Of course not."

"Do—Do they love me?"

"Of course. What kinda question was that?"

"Then, then, why don't they come home? Why won't they stay long enough to take care of me?" His tears poured out, unreserved. "Why won't they Nobu-chan? Why won't they!"

"Don't cry," the fat kid consoled him. "Who needs them anyway? As long as I'm with you, you're gonna be all right."

He—the little frail kid—sniffed, "Do you… Do you love me?"

"Yes, of course," Nobu-chan said, turning his head a little to look into his eyes. "I love you Kae-chan. Now don't cry anymore, okay."

Present day Rukawa brushed his slender fingers on the image of the one person in the world he had learned to trust and had since then held very dear to his heart. "Nobu-chan," he muttered, staring longingly at his former buddy. Though they were two different ends of the block, they were inseparable in their elementary days and had always done everything they could to help each other through. Whenever. Wherever. Whatever.

And since both of them had parents who were too busy with work to bother about them, each other was all they had. As long as they were together, there was absolutely nothing they could not survive through.

Absolutely nothing? The words came almost like a curse. A mockery. Rukawa felt the first tear slide down his cheeks as he turned his gaze to his own frail image, face twisted in discomfort and pain. This picture was taken on the same day as today, five years ago. They were both in their winter clothes and were all red and puffed up from running around the hills of snow at the backyard of the Rukawa Mansion.

"Why won't you smile for the camera, Kae-chan?" Nobu-chan asked teasingly, pressing his arms harder around his neck.

"N-Nobu-chan," he choked, pulling desperately at the plump, stalwart arms. "Itaiii…"

"Oi, oyaji," Nobu-chan called out to the Rukawa family's loyal butler who was standing before them with a wry smile. "C'mon! What are you waiting for?"

"Uh, hai." The dutiful butler, though not really liking the idea of his master looking like crap in the picture, raised the camera to his face and clicked it, putting into still frame their last happy afternoon together…

Rukawa stared harder at his image. If they hadn't been so flushed up, his face would've clearly shown something he could never let Nobu-chan know. Not ever.

There were a lot that a still picture could hide behind those colors. Despite catching a part of a certain moment and preserving it forever, there were still a lot of things it could never tell. Like in this picture…

Only he knew how warm his cheeks had turned and how hard his heart had pounded at that moment Nobu-chan held him close like he was never gonna let go. He had never felt as much warmth before as his buddy had given him. From that moment on, he knew how special Nobu-chan was to him. He was the only one he wanted to be with for the rest of his life.

He bit his lip and hugged the frame close to his chest, tears profusely watering his wan cheeks. It was such a shame that they had to part ways.

Nobu-chan… I… I miss you…

tbc