Title: Penny for Your Thoughts

Author: Crescent Quetzalcoatl

Disclaimers: Lightning may strike me if I own Hana-kun. .

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Notes: This is the edited version. The later part of the chap is entirely different from the previous. Pardon the overlooked spelling and grammatical errors. Gomen for making Rukawa OOC (he was shouting), as well as Sakuragi too (he was, well, a bit creepy) *sigh*

Chapter 9: Blunt Hypocrisy

There he was again.

Looking at me but not seeing me.

To him, I was space.

To him, I was nothing.

===

Rukawa Kaede finished his three-point shots for that afternoon. It was actually the last day of classes for the first term and the last day of basketball practice. And it has been almost two months, two agonizing months of not hearing the familiar laugh of the resident loudmouth of Shohoku.

The raven-haired boy picked the loose orange balls around the court and put them back into the baskets. Then he headed to the showers to rid of the fatigue and pain in his muscles.

As he opened the doors to the locker room, he heard the faint sound of splashing waters inside the shower room. The first thought was, who was this guy who didn't even bother to help their captain in cleaning the gym?!

But instead of scowling and barging into the showers, the pale Shohoku captain settled on scowling only, and waited for the delinquent to come out. Meanwhile, Rukawa placed his bag on a bench, opened his locker and took time to take all of the necessary things out.

He heard the shower being turned off. Finally it was his turn; he has no qualms about joining anyone for a bath, he just wanted the shower room to himself. Carrying his toiletries, Rukawa posed in front of the shower doors and waited for the man to come out. Then the sliding door revealed a tall figure with the most striking red hair in all Kanagawa.

Hana!

Standing in front of the door, Rukawa was frozen in his position as he willed his mind to think of something… to do something…

Oh, Kami-sama! I don't know what to say!

He looked in his eyes, his eyes of dull copper and silent anger. His beloved stared at him like the most hateful creature on earth then raised an eyebrow on him.

"I didn't know you're still here," Rukawa managed to blurt out.

The redhead didn't reply and walked passed him, ignoring him. Rukawa felt his heart constrict painfully in his chest. Screams he can take. Insults he can take. Mockery he can take. But not indifference. Such silence stabbed him like knife, twisted painfully in his heart. Rukawa suppressed the urge to look back and hug him for all his worth, removing the bad memories and corrupted feelings that were keeping them from each other.

Yet he didn't. He doesn't even know if he can.

"Hanamichi…" his name flowed out of his lips in weary.

"Who gave you permission to call me that?"

The voice rang through his ears like siren and Rukawa just had turn to him again. All he could think of was, 'he's talking to me', and the raven-head's eyes lighted in silent hope and want.

"Who gave you permission?" Sakuragi's voice were composed, yet subtlety deadly.

"No one," Rukawa answered, biting the sudden surge of happiness caused by talking to the redhead.

"Damn right no one!" the redhead snarled, pounding on the tiled wall next to the pale ace.

The movement made Rukawa jump; his heartbeat went wild, he went looking, staring back at those beautiful brown orbs that were always full of emotions, always full of life.

He wanted to reach out and touch the soft, crimson tresses gracing the finely sculpted face of his beloved.

He wanted to hear him calling his given name, call him 'Kaede' without flinching, without loathing.

He wanted to whisper words of affection, of passion, ardent to be roused by mere touch, by soft, sweet words.

He wanted him by his side, embracing his warmth, reaching to him, loving him, making love to him…

He wanted… yet he could only want.

"What do you want, Rukawa?"

Rukawa inwardly winced at the venom in the redhead's voice, his coppery-brown eyes glaring at him.

What do I want? If you knew, Hanamichi… will you give it to me?

He felt Sakuragi sneer, and put his face near his, almost touching.

"Aaah… I know what you want, fox…" Sakuragi's mouth turned into a small devilish grin. "I know what you want. You want… me."

Sapphire eyes widened, its pupils dilated. The pale boy went even paler on what he heard, surely this was a joke!

Sakuragi brought his face closer and captured Rukawa's lips in a searing kiss, backing the other boy to the walls of the locker room. Electricity blazed coursing through their veins, yet only the wide-eyed raven-haired boy felt its intensity causing him to dropped his toiletries at their feet and wind his arms around the redhead's neck, shakily… nervously…

Oh, gods…

Rukawa let himself drown in the kiss that tasted so luscious like ambrosia filling his senses. His eyes involuntarily closed at the sudden contact, his hands found its way to the other's neck and shoulders, clinging as if his life depended on it. Sudden heat rushed up to his cheeks, his limbs and all the way down to his feet that if he wasn't holding on to Sakuragi, he would surely give away.

He moaned in his mouth. The raven-head boy couldn't think of anything else now save the hot yet soft lips playing against his… moving… dancing… and all he wanted to do was to open his mouth and give access to his playful tongue… give him access to his soul…

Hanamichi…

"Was that what you want…?" He heard the redhead's voice.

Rukawa hadn't felt that the kiss ended. His eyes were still closed and his arms still around his neck. "What…" he breathed, his lips moved again, desperately seeking the other's warmth.

"Was that what you want, Rukawa? Do you want my services now?"

Lids opened; dark-blue eyes disturbed. The raven-head snapped back into reverie and untangled his arms from their embrace quickly as if burned. His face still flushed from the fervent kiss they shared before but it was also marred with a twinge of regret and he was disoriented much to his distaste.

Sakuragi's voice showed great hatred and disgust; his lips red from their 'activity' was thinned into line, his eyes were dangerous and dark, that showed no real emotions at all.

"Services…?" Rukawa tried weakly. He doesn't know what Sakuragi was talking about. He doesn't know why he was mad, it was he who initiated the kiss, wasn't he?

Then it hit him.

Sakuragi was talking about his past and the deal he had made with the boss in order to release the redhead from their reins.

"No! It wasn't—!" Rukawa started to protest.

"Really?" Sakuragi sneered, cutting his objections. "But you enjoyed it, didn't you, Rukawa? You're tired of waiting and you're itching to get your hands on me, and milk it for all your money's worth! Say… how much did you pay for my body, Kaede-kun?"

"I resent that!" the raven-head screamed frantically. "I didn't do it because of your services! I wanted you out of the sinful trade, out of vile and lecherous hands of—!"

"—So you could humiliate me! As if defeating me everytime on the courts, on every one-on-one, wasn't enough for you, was it, Rukawa? You're just the sly fox that I always thought of," Sakuragi stated bitterly.

"That's not true," Rukawa restrained his voice but not his argument. ""Why in the world would I want to humiliate you?"

"Because you hate me," Sakuragi spat.

"Hate you?" Rukawa asked. "I have no reason to hate you, Hanamichi!"

"Stop calling me that!"

"If you didn't notice, it's always the other way around!" Rukawa didn't heed to the other's ranting. "Everything was because of that Akagi-girl—"

"—Her name is Haruko!" the redhead butted.

"—Everything was for her, your world revolved around her! Not once you paid attention to the lame camaraderie we had, an excuse to get us to work together on the courts! Not once, you give me the respect that I earned nor the attention that I deserved!"

"You're being too noisy, Kitsune!" Sakuragi was aghast, he didn't know what Rukawa had become. He was scared of the different kitsune in front of him that he shoved the pale boy to the wall. The redhead didn't know that he had changed too, and it was also scaring the other boy.

"Well, fuck, Hanamichi!" Rukawa was furious. "Can't you see? Can't you see what I have become because of you? Three years! Three years I have been the coldest person alive with no feelings at all but for basketball and you had changed all of it!"

The redhead stared hard, speechless at Rukawa's outburst.

"Why?" sole word escaped from his lips.

"Why? Why the hell do I care about you?" Rukawa asked, grimly but averted the heated brown eyes. "One reason…"

"Then tell me, dammit! Quit stalling, fox!" the other caught his face and forced it to look at him.

"Because I DO care for you! That's why!" Rukawa hissed.

Suddenly, the locker room's door burst open. A name rushed out of the redhead's lips as he pulled his hand away from the pale boy.

"Youhei…"

-tsuzuku-

Crescent speaks:

Finally! The edited part is up. Okay, maybe the cliffhanger is still there but I had to put Youhei because in the next chap is his POV and Hana's. Maybe three more chapters and an epilogue will be needed to complete the fic. I don't want this to get stretched to 20 chapters or more.

Minna, thank you so much for being patient. I will do my best to make this good as possible.

Still, thanks to everyone!

Chris – thank you! Well, the prostitution bit was really harsh but the story quite evolved from that. Hope u'll enjoy this!

Annachan – ehehehe… well, I really need Haruko out now. But at least she realizes her mistake, ne? yeah, and bad experience do something to you even if you don't want it. Thank you so much!!! Yeah, here's Rukawa's part!

Seraph-Kirin – you love my Haruko bashings? Ehehe… thanks! Here's a new chap! Oi, I was planning to write a SenHana for you… ^__^ Thanks, for reviewing 'PS' and 'OWR' too!

Keitsu Han-ei - hope you enjoyed this! Quite angst, ne? Er… Sendoh might not be in the future chaps… having him makes the story quite difficult to write. ^^:: thank you!

Miyahara Yuuki - *hugs Miyahara so thight* Thank you so much!!! Those are really evil haruko fans… ^^;; blood money is actually money paid for the victim so the marauder will be acquitted. It's a Moslem concept, I hope the meaning's right though. Rukawa's POV and angst-y. Enjoy!

Kristel – Thank you for reviewing! I sure would like to join the party but I'm still writing *sweatdrop* yeah, I was finding a lot of SenRu's at ffnet. *sigh* oh, blood money as I've told Miyahara-san is money paid for someone's release in place of punishment. But in other cases it is also the money paid by the victim in order for the bad man to be punished. Moslem terms… Thanks!

Justme – hey! I think you did reviewed on my other one-shots, ne? Thank you so much!!! Well, Hana's starting to find the bitter facts on his free life. ^^;; hope you like this!

Akane-san! – nope, the torture for Hana won't be long… ^^;; such ambiguity… anyways,, thank you so much for putting up this fic on your site. You're so kind! *hugs Akane-san* yeah, I hope I did something good this time for Hana but I need Rukawa's POV and Youhei's first to solve their problems… Thank you so much!!!