Second chap! I 'm sorry I said that not many people would be interested in a Maki fic (it's cuz there aren't many fics about him out there) – I was proven wrong (by quite a number of furious ppl! Ha ha!), and I'm glad I'm wrong. : ) Enjoy!
Tensaispira: You're getting more, don't worry. : )
Keaxy: Thanks! Read on!
Jo-sen7: Christmas present? Please? Ha ha! Am glad I chose the right guy to write about and made you happy. *grins*
Alexia: Thanks! I'm so happy you like this : ) I'll try to put Jin in when I can, all right? But I can't promise you anything. I think you would've noticed that I focus a lot on the main characters and not much on the supporting ones! Gomen! I can't help it!
Silhouette Panther: Thanks, SP! Okay, okay, I was wrong. People ARE interested in Maki. Stop making me feel guilty already!
Lambie: Thanks, lambie. I suppose there are grammatical mistakes somewhere – I don't check, actually. I type it out and whoosh! Put it on the net and never realise anything until they point it out to me! But I'm glad you couldn't find any! Ha ha! Saves me from embarrassment!
Joy: Writing tips? I don't think I'm THAT experienced to give you some! Just write something you yourself would love to read, and you'll be fine. : ) My holidays are absolutely boring. ABSOLUTELY, so spare me some sympathy too, okay?
Fer-chan: Me? Kill you? Have I ever done that? And hey, what's Jt's story, the one that you mentioned? Is it good? Are you going to recommend it to me??
Patty g: I pictured Maki as bossy – I think it fits him! Ha ha! Drop by again, patty-san!
Tiran: Great entry? Where? *nothingtodo scratches head* Manipulate the characters?? Me? Manipulate is such a harsh word – let's just say I… make them to do what I want them to do. : )
Shirodachi: Am continuing! Thanks, Shirodachi!
Lazuli: Where are the rest? Rest what?
SLL: Thanks a lot sLL! Am glad you love this fic – at least I'm not wasting my efforts! Ha ha!
Fiery Ice: It seems that I am writing one for every player! Wonder when it'll be Kogure or Jin's turn.
Kka: Yeah, I do. *laughs* Holidays are very boring. I'm supposed to study, but since I'm a NORMAL teenager, I simply refuse to do it. : )
Chapter 2
She burst into the gym ten minutes after two, gasping for breath. She hadn't even the time to straighten herself when he loomed in front of her. "You're late."
Mai waved her hand casually. "Extra maths work – stupid teacher – wants it handed in today – thinks we're all super-smart or something," she explained.
"I don't tolerate latecomers, Mai," he warned her, crossing arms over his chest.
Mai sighed. "It's only been ten minutes, Maki."
"And it's only your first day," he pointed out bitingly. "What about next week? How late will you be then? Half-an-hour? Forty minutes?"
Mai glanced around and saw that all the other girls were now looking at them. She started to blush furiously, ashamed at being scolded like a baby in front of her juniors. "I'm sorry," she said a little too spitefully. "I won't do it again, okay? Now stop looking at me like that."
He didn't budge. "I've already explained the basics to them. We're now practicing dribbling, which is the most basic of all basics. Get a ball and start." And then, he was gone, walking away to the other end of the gym to assist a girl and leaving her standing there helplessly.
Mai looked around desperately and caught one girl's eye. "Help."
The girl stared at her for a moment, as if hesitating. Then she smiled back and came over. "Hi."
"Hello. I'm Mai Kiraki," she introduced herself briskly. "I missed the first ten minutes. Can you help me? Because apparently our coach is a little too angry to repeat everything he said."
"My name is Kikiro," the girl replied. "You sure made him mad."
Aw, not you too! Mai groaned inwardly. You're my junior! You're not supposed to reprimand me! "Sheesh, I'm only human. As if he's never been late for anything all his life."
Kikiro smiled. "No, I don't think he's ever been late."
Mai frowned. "Thanks," she said dryly. "I feel a whole lot better. What are we supposed to do?"
"Dribble."
"That's all?" Mai snorted. "I can do that. Don't tell me I ran all the way here like a charging bull just to dribble a ball?"
"Dribbling is easy, Kiraki," Suddenly Maki was right beside her, looking down sternly. Kikiro backed away respectfully, and in what Mai thought as a betrayal, left them alone. "But try doing it while running and jumping and maybe even while doing a 360 degrees turn."
Mai coughed nervously. He had always made her nervous in some ways, but now that he was looking at her straight in the eye, standing close in front of her, flesh and blood, he was all but intimidating the living cells out of her. "Sorry," she apologised, though a little half-heartedly. "I didn't mean what I said."
He tossed her a ball. "You did." He stepped a little closer. "You may think this is child's play, Kiraki, but you'll find out soon enough that it's not. Now I want you to stop scoffing at every little thing I tell you to do, be it dribbling or drooling. I want you to be serious and focused, understand?"
Understood, she thought, but not agreed with. "Hn."
"Now start dribbling."
Muttering under her breath, she started bouncing the ball in between her hand and the floor. It was easy enough – for the first fifteen minutes. Then her hands started to get tired, and the ball slipped past her a few times, rolling away and forcing her to waddle through other girls to get it.
Everybody else seemed to be doing fine, though. Embarrassed, Mai started again. She was a volleyball player, for heaven's sake, and volleyball's all about the strength of the hands and legs. If she can't even dribble for a straight hour, the volleyball club members would bury themselves under the ground in shame – after they buried her first, of course.
"Good." Maki announced after precisely one hour, but for what to Mai seemed like eternity. "Now dribble while walking."
Now that was hard. Mai's ball slipped deviously out of her control every three minutes.
"Run."
Run and dribble?? Are you nuts?? Her first attempt was absolutely disastrous. Foolishly tripping over her own ankle and landing stomach-first on the rolling ball was an absolutely novel way to show off. Other girls politely came over to offer a helping hand, but Mai's cheeks flamed miserably at their amused eyes. "I'm okay, I'm okay," she awkwardly got up to her feet and brushed the dust off her clothes. "Bones still joint, brain still working."
Maki was watching her expressionlessly.
Mai turned even redder. Darn it.
On her second attempt, she lost the ball in the process of lifting her left leg and fell on another girl. Then she crashed into a wall while trying to catch the ball before it bounced off the planet and into space. Seconds later, she dribbled the ball wrongly and ended up twisting her legs together like a corkscrew before toppling down to the polished floor.
By the end of the practice session, Mai was aching all over, and a few girls were glaring mercilessly at her, at the same time rubbing whichever body part that Mai had injured them with. No apologetic look that Mai had expertly mastered could make them cool down.
"Easy, isn't it?" Maki inquired with a fake serious expression, as if he was asking a question about life and death as everybody else headed home. "I've never seen such play before."
Mai gritted her teeth. However, she smiled at him, just as fake. "Yes, it was easy," Easy to get me into ER, "I'm so pleased that you're impressed by my skills."
He smiled back, equally dishonest. "I am," he assured her. "As a matter of fact, I am so impressed that I feel somehow duty-bound to give you private coaching."
Mai's smile disappeared and her face contorted. "What?"
"You see," Maki said reasonably and smoothly, like a winning politician. "Your skills are way beyond the others that I feel we need to tone it down. Having you practice the basics apart from the others might – shall we say, avoid accidents? Not that you caused it, of course. We all know it was the stupid ball's fault."
Mai's eyes narrowed.
"And I think you'll make better progress with extra attention. Most of the other girls have had experience playing unprofessional basketball – either with their brothers or cousins or pets – so they are more or less competent. Not to say that you're not, of course, though you must admit you've never played it before. It'll be better if you separate yourself from the others as not to… well, not to influence them so much with your superiority in basketball."
The cool tone in which he spoke only intensified the insult. "You mean, so I won't slow them down?" she asked acidly.
"Well… since you've put that way, then yes."
Mai grabbed hold of her bag and started to stalk away when he blocked her. "This is not the place for egos to butt in," he said bluntly, but gently. "You may be deeply insulted and terribly angry, but if you'll just look past your pride for a moment, you will see that what I'm doing is for the best."
Mai glared at him.
"You're co-captain of the volleyball team," he reminded her. "I believe you'd do the same thing if you were faced with the same problem in your team."
She blinked and then sourly looked away. "I would," she admitted. "And I did, as a matter of fact. All right, Maki, private coaching it is."
He smiled again, genuinely this time. "You're not all that bad," he murmured encouragingly. "You have enormous potential, and if moulded properly, I think you'll be just fine."
She made a wry face. "Why, thank you, coach. I think that's a first."
"First what?"
"First nice thing you've said to me today."
He raised an eyebrow. "If you'll work harder and be more serious, I'll be spilling praises out of my mouth for you." He told her.
She snorted. "Not if you choke on them first." Shifting her school bag, she glanced briefly at him, even managed to notice how nice he looked, all sweat and muscles. "Goodbye, Maki."
"The phrase is 'see you', Mai," he corrected her. "I think we'll be seeing quite a lot of each other from now on."
She couldn't find a reply for that.
I think they're getting along just fine. Ha ha!