Fandom: Slam Dunk

Summary: All he ever wanted was to help the guy To do something great. How was he to know that the cause of such a noble deed would be his noble breath?

Title: Twitch of Fate

Author: Hana Rui

Genre: morbid humor

"Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you"

Alanis Morissette, Ironic

His dusky tangles fluttered feebly to the gush of a cold, frolicsome afternoon breeze. Slowly, he forced his eyes open and caught sight of a lone sparrow gliding leisurely across the azure sky. How he wished he could be as cool and free as that creature. As cool and free as how he had been before.

Or how he had believed he was, anyway.

He took a deep breath and made a rather timid step.

The wind, now alarmed and perceptive of what he was about to do, delivered a rattling slap smack-dab on his face. As though attempting to wake him out of his derangement.

He took another step, nevertheless. And another. Utterly ignoring nature's way of obliquely telling him to reconsider. It was too late to back out now. He had been hurt enough, strained enough, and tormented enough by this sheer castigation called reality.

He couldn't take it any longer. This was it. This was the end.

He swung a leg over the railing and was just about to prop himself up to make the jump of his salvation when the door to the rooftop swung open.

"Rukawa-san!" huffed the new entity. "Dont do it!"

Kaede Rukawa, chafed to his tiniest cell by the unexpected disturbance, looked over his shoulder at the exorbitantly meddling 'what's-his-name-again' baka and snarled, "Go away!

-0-

Hikoichi Aida of the prestigious, illustrious er far and remote Ryonan High hadn't really intended to come by this neighborhood. Let alone be at the top of an elite seven-story condo building. He had been sent earlier on some errand by his bossy and domineering onee-chan who was unfortunately not spared a benign enough heart to let him rest on a Sunday afternoon.

And he had been walking for a couple of hours too, had consequently reached the point when he could no longer ignore the tormenting protests of his decrepit legs. and had even come so close to giving up on it altogether and just head back home. If only he could think of a strategy effective enough to counter his onee-chan's deadly tirade

Apparently, his recurring stupidity had once again taken its toll on him.

It was just frustrating how he could watch basketball players with unfaltering acuity and attention and yet be so dumb when it came to following directions. Well, it was partly his onee-chan's fault for not making it clear which was top end and bottom end of the map she had drawn.

He had been walking for an hour and a half before he realized he was actually holding the map upside down! So instead of reaching his supposed destination and get his task done and over with, he ended up in this place. Faced with a fresh, new task of confronting a discomposed man in the verge of taking his own life.

"Go away!" was the harsh, churlish reply to his agitated plea. Stunned and baffled by the unexpected raise in the usually quiet guy's voice, Hikoichi staggered backward and began to regret having let his perceptive, instinctive and impulsive nature push him through those flights of stairs to try his luck at retracting the other guy's twisted views.

What ever made him think that his meek and humble self could actually make an impact on a callous and highly impenetrable block of ice in human form?

Well, the guy didn't really look so callous to begin with. And in his current state of mind, it was safe to assume that all his impenetrable barriers had gone feeble and torpid as well.

But, that was not the prevalent point at the moment, right? It was that he was here, right now, and was the only being on earth who could possibly stop super ace Kaede Rukawa from killing himself.

What could've happened if he hadn't lost his way? What could've happened if he hadn't watched that sparrow in its flight? He wouldn't have seen Rukawa in the rooftop. His sentient instincts wouldn't have brought him here at just about the right time.

He wouldn't have been given a chance to do a noble deed.

Yes, Fate had made all these transpire for a reason.

And he vowed to not let this chance go to waste.

-0-

Rukawa was now awkwardly straddling the railing. One sudden jerk and he could slip off and tumble all the way down to hell. Then again, wasn't that what he had intended to do?

Or was it?

"Rukawa-san, please!" came another irritating plea.

"I said, SCRAM!" he growled, gripping the railing hard for support. He felt the cessation of the flow of blood to his hands and watched his knuckles pale slowly as his temperature blazed down to double negative zero.

He hadn't expected it could be this nerve-whacking.

Dammit Kaede! He chided himself. How the hell are you gonna pull this off if you're so-

Petrified? Wasnt he supposed to be demented? Irrational? Totally bummed? Then why the hell was he panicking?

"This is not the way to go about this, Rukawa-san!" the kid cried again, taking slow, measured steps toward him. "You can-"

"Stop!" The startled kid obligingly froze in his tracks. "Don't come closer or I jump!"

Yeah right, fool, the little voice in his head jeered. He frowned slightly, wondering if that was the right thing to say. Didn't it sound like a major cop-out or something?

Damn that Do'ahou! His heart cried in extreme hatred, his eyes convulsively darting to the ground. The asphalt covered pavement, as though wanting to mock his shivering ego, seemed to stretch down for miles and miles endlessly.

He closed his eyes tightly as vertigo instantly settled in.

-0-

Hikoichi could tell beyond any shadow of a doubt that the raven-haired guy was in pain. Extreme and consuming pain. Tormenting and deadly

Well, he should be if he chose to resort to this kind of escape.

He watched in utter horror as the pale, slender body wobbled dangerously over the railing. "Don't!" he cried desperately, trying hard not to abandon the ground he had pitched himself on for fear of inciting the other guy's suicidal propensity.

Kami-sama, what am I supposed to do? he silently asked as he tilted his head up to the heavens.

Upon hearing a wheezing grunt, he turned his eyes back to the basketball ace and was utterly relieved to see that the guy had resisted the insistent pull of gravity and was currently fighting to keep his balance and what was left of his sanity in tact.

At least, he still had that urge that will to stay alive.

"You don't wanna do this, Rukawa-san," he said as calmly as he could while desperately trying to keep his legs from turning into a heap of goo. "W-We can talk this over. I-I'm not really a good counselor, b-but I'll try my best to be your friend!"

He gasped when Rukawa shot him a glare. The kind that could make sniveling kids cower from him for the rest of their traumatized lives.

"R-Rukawa-san" Hikoichi whined helplessly.

"What do you know about me?" the guy demanded in a low, sibilant voice. "What makes you think you can help me?"

"Anou" Somehow that statement, coming from a guy whose name alone could summon the adoration of half of the district and the unblemished and unimpaired respect of a mere bench warmer like him, stirred Hikoichi to anger. Too tired of always being treated like an underdog, a totally worthless, useless, gutless doormat on legs, his calm temperament finally gave way to a string of enraged spiels.

"And what makes you think I can't, huh?" his voice was indignant and challenging, his face screwed up in an overly exaggerated frown.

Rukawa was shocked by the sudden outburst and regarded the other guy with an amused frown for a few seconds before turning his blank gaze back to his faintly shaking knuckles.

Hikoichi, on the other hand, was by now too upset to notice this fleeting change in the guy's emotions. "I'm so tired of people underestimating me!" he went on. "I'm so tired of people who think I can never be good at anything! I'm so blah-blah-blah yadda-yadda-yadda Yet, look at me! Have I ever thought of killing myself? Have I ever thought of doing myself in? NOOOOO!" he drawled with empathy. "Ill never be stupid enough to take the coward's way out!"

He droned on and on for about five minutes or so, almost lulling Rukawa to sleep. He went this way and that, turned around and made the same point over and over again.

At last, as a finale, the faintly gasping guy broke down to a terrible fit of tears, his salty streams mixing with the apposite snot oozing out of his nose. "Rukawa-san," he sobbed, his indignant and challenging tone melting back into a soothing, desperate plea. "Think about your future! Your dreams! All the opportunities that will be lost if you do this. All the people who will miss you. All the people who love you! Rukawa-san, think about them!" Adding more pathos to the scene, he slowly stretched out his hand to the other guy. "I I can help you please"

Rukawa merely sighed and lifted his eyes to him, the agony within their lackluster orbs digging into the very depths of his soul. Then, those thin stolid lips suddenly stretched into a bitter smile that seemed to say, "Goodbye world" in a thousand different languages.

"Thanks anyway," he muttered.

And that was all Hikoichi needed to see and hear to get his impulses and reflexes overworked. He immediately abandoned his post and rushed toward Rukawa, downright determined to haul him off the ledge by all possible means.

He may be shorter, weaker and just plain inferior compared to the guy, but he didn't care at all. The spontaneous and raging rush of adrenaline through his veins made him feel stronger and somewhat powerful. Strong and capable of just about anything.

He knew he could pull this off. He knew he was the right man for the job. He knew-

What the? His mind cried in astonishment as Rukawa suddenly and unexpectedly dismounted the railing and nonchalantly turned his back on him.

The shattered pieces of his rattled brain slipped all the way down to his feet

-0-

Rukawa heaved a deep and loud sigh of relief. It was over at last. Thanks to that meddler, he finally got the drift of this "internalizing" thing that Kogure-senpai had advised him to do as preparation for the play they were asked to perform for the school anniversary tomorrow.

He must admit that the 'familiar-yet-still-nameless' guy did a much better job than his co-actor in this particular scene who also happened to be the redheaded dolt behind their doltish script.

He was utterly vexed when that guy suddenly barged in and almost ruined the mood he was trying to build for himself. Then he decided to just make use of his unwanted presence by acting on, as convincingly as he could, along the script.

And it helped much that the guy was pretty good in spurring words, too. In all aspects, he was a thousand times better than that do'ahou could ever be. He made it easier for Rukawa to feel the right emotions. Be in the right mood. Act in the most appropriate manner.

He knew he owed the guy a lot and was about to ask him how he could return the favor when a loud, ear-shattering cry suddenly assaulted his ears.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He instinctively spun around and gripped the railing as he watched or rather gaped in sheer horror at the screaming, flailing and tumbling body of the Thespian who could have been Japan's next possible bet for an Oscar.

"Oh shit!" the utterly stunned raven-haired baka mumbled.

-end-

Note: Written for the SD Slamfest 2003: Scene 11: Rukawa is contemplating suicide. Hikoichi tries to talk him off of the ledge.

Thanks for reading! :)