I was thinking Boston when I wrote this.

Grey Skies, Warm Eyes

"Goddamnit, is it snowing again?"

Tachibana had been whining for the entire subway trip, hands shoved into pockets, collar pulled up, hat pulled low, shivering.

"Does it ever warm up in this hellhole?"

Hiiragi, who had visited the States before, and liked the cold maybe a little bit more than his friend, shoved him a little with his shoulder.

"Don't you ever shut up? What did you expect? It's winter!"

"Yeah, well, Kami-sama knew we were coming, so he should have made better plans."

Hitonari rolled his eyes. When Akane decided on something it was impossible to dissuade him of it, and it seemed he had decided that the weather was horrible.

The conducter's voice came over the audio and the white-haired Japanese sighed. Finally.

"It's our stop next, idiot. Don't forget to get off."

"You would be the one to forget to get off, bastard!"

Their voices cut through the cold air, breaths misting with clouds of words. It seemed to echo, the day was so close. The sky was grey and flat, seemingly smooth all the way from horizon to horizon. The fact that no one around them seemed to notice the snowfall had bewildered Akane, who always celebrated the few snowfalls in Kouzu. Hiiragi was much better at hiding his culture differences. He could get used to living here, he thought.

They reached the university's gym easily enough, sounding out the english signs with a little trouble. Thankfully, the symbol for basketball was pretty much universal.

If anyone had noticed a pair of Japanese teenagers enter the building, they would have noticed the sudden slump of their shoulders, the clearing of their faces, the sudden signs of relaxation filling their bodies.

Despite their differences in quality, team or level, all gyms are the same. The sounds of a basketball game, the fans cheering, the squeek of shoes against the polished wooden floor, the smell of sweat and excitement, and the enternal sound that a basketball makes when it falls through the hoop: shwoosh.

"Now this is more like it!" enthused the black-haired one of the two, hurrying to the railing behind the seats. The place was packed with fans from both sides, and they were lucky to even have standing room.

Their university scouting had gone pretty well thus far, but here there was a marked difference. The sheer ability of the players was just that one notch higher than all the others, and they were clearly dominating the game. When the opponants, sweaty and fustrated, called a time out, Akane turned to comment on the speed of their point guard to Hitonari, his words fell dry in his mouth.

It had been a long time since he had seen that look of longing on his partner's face, that desire to fight to be the best, to play with people who would force him to improve even more. Akane knew that Hitonari had been getting bored recently - that's why he had asked him to come with him for this trip - but he hadn't realized quite how far it had gone.

A sudden fear siezed Tachibana Akane's chest and he grabbed the slender arm resting on the rail and started pulling him out of the building, pushing forcably through the croud. He had finally hit his growth spurt and was a size that no one would mess with, especially after dealing with his kick.

"Tachibana! What are you doing! I wanted to see the end of the game, bastard!"

"Shut up!"

They fell silent, panting into the winter air, the cold burning their lungs. Akane was looking fearful, fustrated, as he lightened his grip on that arm, but did not release it. Hitonari looked merely confused, angry, and maybe a little concerned.

"You're not going to someone like them," growled Akane finally, tugging Hitonari closer to him by the wrist. Hitonari was caught off guard and stumbled forward, all of a sudden far too close to be safe.

"And since when do you dictate my future?"

The hint of iciness in Hitonari's voice was unmistakable. Admittably, they faught a lot, but it had been a long time since this argument had been brought up. He had hoped that it was buried, but apparently not.

"You're better than them," sighed Akane, gazing somewhere over the youngest Hiiragi's shoulder. The second part came out as a half-mumble: "And a team like that wouldn't take someone like me."

"Idiot," the other teen sighed finally, shaking his head with a little smile. So that's what it was. "You know that if they didn't take you then I wouldn't play."

Akane scratched the back of his head and released Hitonari's wrist finally, looking sheepish.

"Well, you looked like you really wanted to play with them..."

"Never more than with you."

It was now that Hitonari shivered, as if suddenly realizing that they were outside, smiling softly at the particles of snow collecting on the dark eyelashes in front of him. Noting with a sting at his pride that his teammate had yet again grown a few centimetres, the snow-colored boy leant in and brushed his lips against chapped ones, a hiss of breath sucking in to the snake of desire that quickly uncoiled in his stomach.

Akane quickly responded, as always, pressing a little harder than kindness allowed for, his own desire showing. As Hitonari's fomerly ensnared hand drifted up to tangle itself once more in Akane's body, he was suddenly hit by a realization and stopped it at the coated chest.

Pulling back, he gave Akane one of his rare devious looks.

"At least let me watch the rest of the game. If it's not over already. I want to see more of that point guard."

Akane was about to retort when an echoing call of "dirty fags!" came across the courtyard. It was not something that needed translation. The point guard of the two froze and glared down at the ground, uttering a swear woord from between his teeth. Akane's anger boiled and he calmly wrapped an arm around Hitonari's waist in an unusual show of intimacy as he used his other hand to flip the bird at the guy standing a little ways away with his gang.

If it had been just him, he would have gone right over there and beat them all up to show them what that word really meant, but right now Hitonari wanted to see the rest of the game, and that's what they would do. Because Akane knew if he played his cards right, at the end of the day it wouldn't matter what anyone had said to them during the day.

When they reentered the basketball court, they were amused and heartened to find that the visiting team had started playing some serious basketball and already had a ten point lead.

"Maybe we should go visit them, eh?" Tachibana mused as Hiiragi blew on his hands to warm them and the opponant's sharpshooter got another three-pointer in easily.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly, eyes and voice much warmer than his body. "After all, they seem like a team who would take even a hopeless case like you."