Author's Note 2: I cannot believe I am doing this now, I mean I do have other things on hand to do but I simply decided to revise this fic of mine, revamping it into something better. Well, here goes nothing and on a side note, the sequel up and running now.
Title: Lost and Found
Genre: comedy/general/romance
Rating: PG-13/ T
Pairing: Fujima Kenji/Sakuragi Hanamichi
Summary: Fujima Kenji and Sakuragi Hanamichi used to be childhood playmates; the two of them ended up losing contact with one another after some unforeseen situation occurred that resulted in Sakuragi's move from the neighborhood.
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Slam Dunk nor its' characters.
Lost and Found- Chapter 8
The whistle sounded signaling the end of the match between Shohoku and Ryonan, Shohoku had finally won due to the contribution of Kogure's 3 point shoot. It was the end of the Kanagawa district tournament, and a mere beginning for the National tournament. Today's match had decided the two teams – Kainan University Affiliated High School Basketball Team and the runner-up, Shohoku High School Basketball Team, the above teams will be representing Kanagawa to enter the National Tournament taking place in the Summer Season in about two weeks time.
Applauses echoed throughout the stadium as the award was been presented to the respective teams, and Rukawa Kaede of Shohoku High was chosen as one of the top five outstanding players in this year's Inter-High Tournament. He was the only first year to be picked out from the whole lot of players for this year's tournament.
Fujima Kenji smiled in response to Shohoku's victory, causing his friend and team-mate Hanagata Toru to look at him strangely for the third time in the same week.
"Fujima... care to enlighten me on the reason behind why you are positively beaming?" Hanagata asked, quirking an eyebrow up in question as he voiced his doubts across to his friend.
Fujima Kenji froze for a moment before recovering from his shell-shock state, was his happiness so obvious to his friend? Resisting the urge to groan aloud in response, the eighteen year old merely coughed twice into his fist up hand and said.
"Well... I'm just glad that Shohoku managed to win against Ryonan. They had after all defeated us and so I thought it should be them that had a chance to go for the Nationals. We have always been seconded to Kainan, and if Shohoku managed to lose to Kainan by marginal points…they would have no reasons to lose against Ryonan, isn't it? Kainan was after all far more challenging then Ryonan, and moreover if they'd lost to Ryonan despite winning against us, our school's name and reputation for being the second best in Kanagawa would be affected, isn't it? " Fujima Kenji reasoned, hoping that his reasoning actually sound logic to his friend.
Fujima answered as calmly as he could manage, but still he couldn't help wincing at the excuse he'd come up with. Hanagata Toru, meanwhile, said nothing but merely lifted his eyebrows skeptically up in response before shrugging and joining the rest of the team for some beverages by the vending machine situated out in the hallway of the indoor stadium.
-Shohoku's holding room-
The team was busy packing up and preparing to head over to the hospital and inform their beloved coach of their victory match against Ryonan High today. Ayako, the team manager, was busy doing some last minute check on the members when she noticed a certain redhead's absence. Turning towards the Captain of the team, Akagi… the curly-haired manager asked.
"Akagi-senpai... do you happen to know where is Sakuragi?"
Akagi, otherwise known as 'Gori' to a certain self-proclaimed genius on the court glances around the room and upon finding no sign of that red-haired idiot, bellowed at the rest of the team members. "WHERE DID THAT IDIOT SAKURAGI WENT?"
Meanwhile, Sakuragi Hanamichi was actually speaking with one Fujima Kenji near the vending machine area where the majority of the Shoyo Team players were gathered around. Therefore, when Akagi's thundering voice was heard echoing down the corridor-way, most of the players' eyes found themselves landing upon the unsuspecting figures of a particular redhead of Shohoku team and their Captain cum Coach, Fujima Kenji.
Sakuragi Hanamichi sighed for a minute before he started to scratch the back of his head in sheepishly and said. "I think I better get back to the team before Gori decided to hound me down and drag me back with him..."
The brunet chuckled lightly before nodding with a reassuring smile as he replied. "Sure, we'll continue the conversation again, tonight."
The redhead said nothing but grinned brightly before making his way back to the holding room where he was more than certain that his team-mates would be busy holding 'Gori' off, except from perhaps Rukawa Kaede. As soon as the figure of Sakuragi Hanamichi disappeared around the corner, Fujima Kenji turned his attention back to his own team members and said in a calming manner.
"Alright, I'm done... we can go now."
If Fujima Kenji was bothered by the bewildered glances being directed his way by his team members, he pretended not to notice them.
'They probably were wondering why I was spending my time talking with Sakuragi Hanamichi of Shohoku... Well, let them wonder then... because I'm not telling anything.' Fujima thought inwardly to himself, all the while maintaining a neutral expression on his face such that no one will knows what he was thinking about.
However, what he failed to notice was that his other best friend – Hanagata Toru had been shooting quizzical glances towards him throughout their journey back to the school while he was immensed deep in his thoughts. Upon reaching the school gate of Shoyo High, several members of the team headed immediately towards the school buildings as they all had their extra lessons to attend to while Hanagata Toru and Fujima Kenji was left standing in front of the school gate doing nothing in particular.
"Toru, I had got something on now... I'll see you around in school tomorrow!" The brunet started after chancing a look at his wristwatch.
Without even bothering to wait around for his friend's response, Fujima Kenji began to jog towards the direction of his home, leaving behind a speechless Hanagata Toru staring in his wake.
Now he was pacing around in the living room, waiting for a certain redhead's return from the visit to the former school team's coach with anxiety. He had decided to confess his feelings for his childhood friend this particular evening, and had specially made it a point to rush home and prepared dinner personally for the event. His parents' were currently away from town at another relative's place, and would only be back by tomorrow evening. His twins' siblings were overseas studying, and so he had the entire house to himself giving him the privacy which he seeks.
As soon as he heard the key turns in the lock, he literally jumps up from his seat and dashes to the door to welcome his favorite redhead home.
"Welcome back, Hana!" Fujima Kenji greeted cheerfully.
"Huh? Thank you..." Hanamichi replied, looking rather bewildered by his friend's sudden warmth welcome.
Fujima Kenji then led the bewildered Sakuragi Hanamichi towards the dining area and sat the redhead down in the seat opposite from his usual one. Gesturing towards the dishes placed on the dining table, the eighteen year old brunet teen said. "These were made especially for your sake..."
Hanamichi's eyes widen at the variety of food present on the table, and then he asked "Really? All these were made especially for me?"
"Yes..." Fujima responded, finding it rather hard to prevent a smile from tugging on his lips as he took in his friend's childlike behavior.
Fujima Kenji observed the redhead's reaction closely from the corner of his eyes, but was shocked when he found tears running down Hanamichi's cheeks. He was just about to panic when he heard his friend whispering the words "Thank you..."over and over again, with unbidden feel of gratitude.
Fujima Kenji heaved a sigh of relief, as he knew now that his friend's tears had nothing to do with being upset but more of it having to deal with being touched by his actions. Settling back down in his seat and continue with the wonderful dinner, the duos started to dig into their food with enthusiasm.
"How is it…?" Fujima could not help but asked.
"This is good; I didn't know you could cook." Sakuragi commented, smiling brightly at his friend.
"Excuse me, I wasn't that much of an idiot…okay?! Home economics does falls under part of the school's curriculum, alright? Besides, I do help my mother occasionally with her cooking task." The eighteen year old huffed in annoyance at the redhead's thoughtless comment.
"Okay…okay, my fault…there's no need for you to flip on me about this." Hurried to put his hands up in a surrendering gesture, Sakuragi Hanamichi started to beg for his friend's forgiveness in his typical dramatic way of expressing his thoughts.
Dinner continues on in the jovial mood, with the duos joking and laughing at one another's antics. Once dinner was over, Fujima made a move to start clearing the dishes away while Sakuragi visited the bathroom. The elder teen was just loading up the dishwasher when he felt arms snaking in from behind around his waist, causing him to gasp in shock and nearly dropped the plates on his hands.
"Hana… what's wrong?" Fujima Kenji asked, after saving the plate from the fate of being dropped with his fast reflexes.
For a while, there was silence and just when he was contemplating on repeating his doubt across to his friend, he heard the distinctive soft voice of Sakuragi Hanamichi responding.
"No, nothing is wrong... I only wanted to thank you for doing all these for me... it's been a long time since I had people doing that for me...and I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't a dream..."
"Well... if you want to... I'll cook for you everyday..." Fujima said, with some slight hesitancy evident in his tone of voice.
"Eh? Really, you will do that?" Hanamichi looked at him hopefully, almost causing him to melt under those gaze.
"Yes, I will..." Fujima replied, inwardly wincing at how weak his response actually was to his own ears.
"Thank you!" Hanamichi beamed at him before leaning down to kiss him gently on the forehead.
Even if the kiss was merely a form of showing gratitude on Hanamichi's part, it still makes Fujima Kenji's heart fluttered at the slight gesture. Unable to control his urge, the eighteen year old lifted up his head and kiss Hanamichi on the lips lightly before pulling away and went back to his task of cleaning the utensils.
Silence permeated the air as self-proclaimed genius of Shohoku searched his mind for a possible reason to explain the elder teen's previous actions while Fujima Kenji continue doing the dishes as though he did not just kiss someone on the lips.
"Fujima..." Hanamichi started, while the teen in question paused in mid-actions wondering what was going to happen next.
Without warning, the redhead reached forward and pulled the elder teen in for another session of kisses.
Fujima Kenji could felt his own eyes widening at the younger teen's actions, before surrendering himself when he noticed the serious look in the other boy's eyes. He knew there are bound to be a lot of obstacles and problems encountered along the way of their budding relationship, but he didn't want to think about it just yet.
Pushing all doubts and thoughts to the very back of his mind, Fujima Kenji decided to just enjoy this moment of pleasure and worried about them at a later point of time.
Owari
Date started: 26/03/05
Date completed/revised: 28/04/05
Date edited: 02/03/2013
A/N: Okay, this is it… the ending… the next chapter, I'm going to scrape it or see if I can work anything better like an epilogue or something.