AUTHOR'S NOTE: After a year and a half, I finally revived this fic. Uhm, yeah. Right. On to the story!
DISCLAIMER: Slamdunk is the property of Takehiko Inoue.
* * * * *
"Hanamichi, wake up."
A grunt. An unintelligible reply that James barely understood.
"Hanamichi, for the love of gods, get out of bed!" said James more forcefully.
"Five more minutes," mumbled Hanamichi. The red head snuggled deeper into his bed and dismissed the butler with a wave of his hand. James could swear that in a matter of few seconds, Hanamichi was snoring once again.
James swore under his breath. It had been like this for the past week. He would try to wake up his young master from sleep but the latter would just ignore him and go back to sleep once again. The task was more daunting than he expected.
"Your grandmother and uncle are waiting downstairs. Please, get out of bed. Right now." pleaded James. Hanamichi didn't even stir.
James saw the pitcher at Hanamichi's bedside. He picked it up and was ready to dump its content to the sleeping boy in front of him when the door swung open and a familiar mass of auburn hair entered the room.
"Is he awake?" Kathleen asked the already purple-face butler in front of him. "And what are you going to do with that pitcher?"
"I was torn between pouring water at him or just simply crash this thing to his skull," James said quietly. It looked like he was seriously considering the latter of the two choices. Kathleen couldn't help but laughed at the butler's dilemma. "Let me do it. I'll wake him up for you. You do not have the patience for this. Just go downstairs and tell Lady Sophia that we'll come down in a minute, ok?"
James heaved a sigh and put down the pitcher at the bedside table. "I wasn't paid to wake up this, this…" he seemed to have been lost for words to appropriately described the still slumbering red head in front of him. "Duke?" Kathleen tried to help, her eyes twinkling with mirth. James rolled his eyes at this. "He's not going to be a duke at this rate, miss." James said with a sigh for much added emphasis.
Kathleen let out a small laughed again and promptly pushed James out of the room. "I can handle this. Now, go!"
"Good luck, miss," James said. He bowed and exited the room. He hoped she has more luck than he did. "Of all the good quality that he can inherit from his father, why does it have to be this?" James thought morosely but smiled at the sight of the two teenagers inside the room. "Well, it looks like I wouldn't have to do this dreadful job after all." James closed the door gently and walked away from Hanamichi's bedroom to give the two teens some privacy.
* * * * *
Kathleen tiptoed towards Hanamichi's bed and sat lightly at the edge. "Christ, what a big baby," she exasperatingly said. She wasn't far from the truth. Hanamichi was clutching a pillow like a kid who doesn't want to let go of his teddy bear and Kathleen could have sworn that there was a dribble of drool on Hanamichi's chin. All that she could do was to shake her head disapprovingly at this sight. "The future duke, a secret slob!" she thought amusingly. Well, she better wake him up before the meal got cold downstairs.
Kathleen inched closely towards Hanamichi, an evil glint crossing her eyes. How will she wake him up this time? Last time, she shook him so hard that he jumped right out of his bed and caused quite a raucous by threatening his imaginary enemy that he'll pay big time for waking the red head up. She never imagined that he could be that loud. Hanamichi, of course, found no one in his room but her and it only took a few seconds for it to register that it was Kathleen who woke him up. She thought that it was so cute that he blushed when he realized the violent display she had witnessed.
Well, that method was out of the question now. Kathleen never does the same thing twice. "I'll tickle the bejesus out of this guy!" she giggled maniacally at the image of a squirming Hanamichi begging her to stop. She inched even closer, her fingers already comically wiggling for the job ahead. She assumed a straddle position for more balance and psychotically whispered, "Prepare to meet your maker!" Kathleen then launched a full-scale tickle assault on the sleeping boy.
The result was better than she expected. The red head was very ticklish! "Are you awake now? Are you awake now?" Kathleen said in what she hoped was a threatening voice but then she instantly dissolved into a burst of giggle. Hanamichi's eyes flew open and managed to let out a groan when he saw that his assailant was a girl. Kathleen laughed even more at his reaction because she knew that this guy wouldn't even lift a finger to hurt her the slightest bit. "Kami… stop! Hahaha, stop...it! Hahaha! I'm war – ahahaha - ning you!" Hanamichi managed to blurt out in between laughing and trying to gently prying off the girl on top of him. "Or what will you do? Huh? Huh?" Kathleen replied and continued tickling the poor guy. Hanamichi, seeing that threat was not working for Kathleen, did the one thing that he said he would never do. Beg. "Please — hahaha! — stop! I can't breathe — hahaha! Don't tickle me there! —anymore!" Hanamichi wheezed out but there's no stopping the girl. "Oh, begging now, huh? I don't think so! Serves you right for giving James and I a hard time everyday trying to wake you up!" she smirked, but mercifully stopping her assault on Hanamichi.
Hanamichi's chest was heaving and he silently thanked Kami or whoever gods were listening for saving him from death by tickling. He was splayed on his back, gulping for air. He was aware that Kathleen was sitting Indian sit on top of his legs. Good thing she was light because energy was literally drained out of his body. "Why do you always do that?" Hanamichi asked sulkily, still gasping for air. "Do what?" Kathleen said, pretending that she didn't have any idea on what he was talking about. "That!" Hanamichi cried out, raising his head slightly. "You mean this?" Kathleen coyly said and acted as if she's going to tickle Hanamichi again, to which the poor boy let out a pitiful whimper and brought down his head once again on the pillow. She withdrew her hand, amused at the boy's reaction. "Well, if you weren't such a log, then we don't have to do this every morning!" said Kathleen. "Well, I'm sorry but it's not you who sleeped late every night for the last two months to prepare for that duke thing!" Hanamichi said sharply. Kathleen rolled her eyes at him albeit there's a smile playing at her lips. "Ok, ok. Fine. You're tired and obviously wanting of sleep. I'm sorry, oh future duke," said Kathleen mockingly. Hanamichi just grunt in reply. She merely grinned at his utter annoyance.
"Come on, we have to go down. Your grandma's waiting for us," Kathleen coaxed Hanamichi. She slid out of his legs and sat at the bed's edge once again, offering her hand to Hanamichi. Her grin widened when she saw him reaching out for her hand. "That's the spirit! Let's go!"
But Hanamichi had other plans. He took hold of Kathleen's hand and pulled the girl towards the bed. Kathleen squealed when she realized that she was now at the receiving end of the tickle assault. "How do you like that?" Hanamichi said. He was mercilessly tickling Kathleen, getting back at her for disturbing his sleep. There were tears already spilling at her eyes and she couldn't form a coherent sentence to make him stop. He was obviously enjoying her "pain". "Stop! Hahaha!" she said, breathless and distraught because of all that tickling. She placed one hand on Hanamichi's bare chest and tried to push the red head away from him, all the while still giggling at their childish antics. Hanamichi stopped but he was also laughing.
"Take that. No one gets away from Sakuragi Hanamichi unscathed," Hanamichi said in a low voice, a smirk besmirching his face. Kathleen smirked in return. "You may have won this battle but I will still win the fight," she replied, her eyes twinkling at this little exchange. They jokingly glared at each other and both trying not to burst out laughing. But suddenly, both became aware of how they looked like.
Kathleen's right hand was still on Hanamichi's chest and her other hand was resting lightly on his arm. Hanamichi was on top of her, each of his hand palmed down on the bed, his arms supporting his body. He could see that she was also catching her breath, her mouth partly opened to let the air in. Her hair was spread out like a fan behind her and her eyes twinkling with amusement. Hanamichi never felt more nervous in his life just looking down at the girl beneath her.
Meanwhile, Kathleen could clearly see his features and found that she was mesmerized. He could see in his eyes the same swirl of emotions that she was feeling now. Joy, confusion, shyness, nervousness. She felt being sucked in to this golden brown vortex into his soul. His face was glistening with sweat that made him looked ruggedly handsome. His hair was swept back but a few of it fell down on his face and slightly covered his eyes. But Kathleen was even more aware of his skin touching her skin. How she could feel his heartbeat through her palms. It was hypnotic and…intimate. She felt the color crept up her cheeks but to her horror, saw Hanamichi grinned at that little display. "That color suits you," he said huskily, never taking her eyes off her. She smiled inspite of her self.
She didn't know how long they were in that position but she was asking God to not let this moment end.
* * * * *
"Were are they?"
"Probably Hanamichi was harder to wake up this time?" Henry suggested.
"Of all the things to inherit from his father…" Sophia trailed but she nevertheless found it amusing that father and son shared the same bad habit. Henry tried not to let her see that he's laughing but the lady was a hawk. "Stop laughing. You're worst," she said so sternly that Henry stopped laughing at once and blushed profusely.
"Finally! We've been waiting for you and the food's getting cold,"
Hanamichi and Kathleen entered the dining room timidly and took their respective places: Hanamichi beside his uncle, Kathleen in front of Hanamichi. The two met each other's gazes but both abruptly looked down also, a pink blush tingeing their cheeks. The meal was eaten in silence. But though it looked like something escaped Sophia, Henry was a bit sharper.
Henry was looking at the two and found two teenagers looking flushed and a…bit shy around each other? He looked at his nephew then at Kathleen and tried to guess what made this two seemed unusually quiet. A tiny blush was even evident on each of their faces. Both are also stealing glances at each other when one of them isn't looking. Glances that spoke volume and was hastily cut short when the observed made even the tiniest of movement.
Henry saw all of this and smiled inwardly.