Title: Cherries
Pairing: Ayako/Haruko
Rating: G
Author: Pastles
Email: tensaipastles@random-wish.net / pastles@yahoo.com
Web: /
Archive: Yes (if the admin sees this.) and Pe.e TV eventually.
Summary: Time waits for no one, and some things should not be missed.

Warnings: Yuri. (Which means girl on girl). Hasn't been beta-ed yet, because I'm typing this out /now/. Will probably post up the edited version on my page.

a/n: My first SD fic in a while. C & Cs most welcome. DO kick my ass if there are any glaring mistakes. Thank you.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cherries.

That was the first thing she thought of when she felt the lips on hers. She wondered if it was because she ate cherries, or if it was due to the perfume she wore. It was a nice fragrance, and after today, she will never look at cherries without remembering.

It had started out simple enough. She had written a short note, asking for a meeting in a corner deserted park. Later that night, when she tossed about in her bed, she wondered if the kiss had felt more intimate because she could look right into the eyes of the other person, where she had almost lost all sense of self in. The chocolate brown eyes were so easy to fall into. She fell asleep amidst thoughts of soft lips and the scent of cherries.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

All it took was a telephone conversation with a classmate.

"Haruko-chan!"
"Ayame-chan, how are you?"
"Fine. Are you enjoying your holidays? I've not seen you since the last day of school."
"My holidays?" She had laughed, or twinkled, as a certain red head would have described, at this point. "What holidays? I'm in school almost every day."
"Oh yes, your basketball club. How are the practices coming along?"
"We're going to conquer the Nationals this year!"
Her friend chuckled, "You sound just like your brother!"
She agreed; the Shohoku basketball team had become as important to her as it did to her brother.
"I guess this means that you won't be able to come and meet my new boyfriend at the barbeque tomorrow then."
"Oh, is the barbeque tomorrow? I thought it was next week!"
"Silly. It IS already next week. The last time I spoke to you, it was last week!"
While her friend was describing her new boyfriend, she thought, "Where had the time gone?" Before she knew it, she was making Ayame promise to take photos and that they WOULD meet sometime during the summer holidays.

After the conversation, she had sat back down at her desk, and went through the practice schedule for the team. She had no complaints about the amount of time the team carved into her life. She enjoyed it. It made her feel useful. Yet, as she listened to her classmates lives, their heartbreaks, their loves, it made her feel a little… needy. The team had been enough at first. She had good friends there; she had a rather important role to play. And then, there was Rukawa.

Rukawa Kaede, Ace of the Shohoku Basketball Team, Star of the Japanese Junior Team, Recognised Rival of Sendoh Akira.

And Holder of Haruko's Heart.

He did not even know that she existed. Oh, he knew that she was Haruko, the team manager, and Captain Akagi's baby sister. But of Haruko, the girl, he had absolutely no idea. Listening to her friend talk about her boyfriend had made her feel that she was missing something in her life.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When she met up with her classmates, she was rather surprised to see that most of them had a partner. The girls had their tall, good-looking boyfriends, while the boys had their shy, pretty girlfriends. She felt conspicuous being single, and uncomfortable. She had blushed beetroot red when she had accidentally stumbled on a couple kissing. They were kissing right outside the toilets! How was she to have known that? Apologising profusely, she had not failed to notice the slightly smug smile the girl had thrown her.

She admitted to herself, the kiss did look good to her. The way the girl had seemed to fit right next to the boy's body. The way their mouths had meshed together. It did not look weird, the way she thought movie kisses were. It looked… natural. And right. And oh-so delicious. She wondered how it would feel to have someone hold you so tight that it was difficult to breathe. How did it feel to have someone's hands running all over your body, as though you were a silk cloth, smooth and precious?

She did not want to be the only one who did not know what that felt like.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She had no one else to ask. That day during practice, she made up her mind to ask Ayako. She did not know what prompted her to write the note and to slip it into Ayako's locker. Maybe it was because of the peck on the cheek that Ayako had given her once. Rather, she thought that since she asked Ayako for advice on so many matters, it seemed natural to want to ask Ayako for help on this too. And she most certainly could not ask her brother. He still blushed at the kissing scenes on TV. Not to mention the fact that he would probably kill anyone who he thought his little sister was kissing.

She thought the practice lasted longer than usual, and had to resist running out of school the moment practice ended. Instead, she made small talk, and took notes from Ryota, all the while keeping half an eye on Ayako.

Ayako, on the other hand, did not give any indication that she had read the note. She had written that she would wait there till 9. If Ayako had not arrived by then, she would go home and the two of them would forget about the matter. Of course, she did not write the real reason why she wanted to meet Ayako, but she hoped that she made it intriguing enough for Ayako to be curious about it.

It gave the whole affair a whole sense of mystery, when all she wanted was a kissing lesson.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ayako arrived just as she was about to give up and go home. It was already 9.30 and she ran out of excuses to tell herself. It was right at the moment when common sense reared its head and she had lost her guts. As Ayako looked at her curiously, she tried to catch her breath. It was embarrassing how fast her heart was beating.

And she tasted cherries.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

*Fin*