Have I mentioned lately than I am a horribly slow writer? But at least I write.
Chapter Four:
Ryota had convinced Ayako to stay after practice by telling her that he had talked to Sakuragi and that he wanted to share the conversation with her. He knew that when she agreed she thought he was going to talk about Hanamichi's recovery. He did feel guilty for tricking her like that, but he knew that if he had tried to approach her any other way that he would have been blown off.
Ryota locked up the doors and went over to where Ayako was chatting with Haruko. He felt more, more than saw, Yohei peel himself off the wall and follow behind him. He was still nervous about this confrontation but he was pretty relieved that everything would finally be out in the open.
Mitsui was hiding behind a conveniently placed tree that would keep him within hearing distance of the conversation. He felt kind of bad for eavesdropping, but he never could say no to his curiosity. If he could, he and Kogure would never have gotten together.
"So Ryota, what did Hanamichi tell you?" Ayako asked, in a slightly interested tone of voice.
Ryota glanced over at Haruko, "Haruko-san, this is kind of a personal conversation. Would you mind leaving?" he asked politely.
"If Mito-san can be here for it, so can I. If I leave he should too," she responded. She didn't like the glare that Yohei was giving Ayako, and had a bad feeling about where the conversation was headed.
Surprised by Haruko's response, Ryota stepped back until he was almost touching Yohei. "He stays."
Ryota looked over his shoulder at Yohei and motioned his head at Haruko asking if she could stay silently with his eyes.
Yohei glanced at Haruko and shrugged, "Might as well since she's such a close friend." If anyone had missed the biting sarcasm in those words it would have been Haruko.
"Thank you, Mito-sane," Haruko smiled, the sarcasm apparently lost on her.
"Now that we have that settled will you please tell us what Sakuragi said," Ayako asked a bit irritated.
"Well he didn't tell me anything about his recovery or when he was coming back, but he did give me some information about you, that he thought I might like."
"What do you mea, 'information about me'?" Ayako asked confused.
"When were you going to tell me that you're dating Akagi?" Ryota asked quietly, "And that you've been dating him for a year?"
Ayako's eyes widened and Haruko gasped. "How would Hanamichi know that," asked Haruko.
"I told him," Yohei said, standing up a bit straighter.
"You promised you wouldn't tell, Mito-san. How could you lie like that?" Haruko asked shocked.
"I'm not here to discuss him; I'm just here to get some answers and to try to sort things out. So, I would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt," Ryota said, glaring at Haruko.
He turned and looked at Ayako with hurt in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let me believe I even had a chance?"
"Listen, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you Ryota, but we thought that it was best not to. We were worried it would affect your game play," Ayako held her hands out in a pacifying gesture.
"My game play," Ryota was pissed. "You didn't tell me because you thought I would play bad?"
"We were trying so hard to get to the nationals, Ryota. You were too," Ayako tried to explain.
"So the nationals were more important than telling me and then wasting a year of my life trying to prove to you I was worthy?" Ryota started to shake and he wasn't sure if it was from anger or hurt.
"It wasn't like that Ryota. Maybe we should have told you, but we had no idea how you would react. It could have damaged the morale if the team," Ayako said.
"Miyagi-san, it's not exactly like you carry no blame either," Haruko said softly, "You didn't have to keep pursuing Ayako."
"Oh, I know I was a moron now, bur how was I to really know? She never told me no and she's the one that said that when I was the number one point guard in Kangawa she would go out with me. How is that my fault?" Ryota was getting really close to completely losing his temper. He was so angry that he felt like crying, so instead he clenched his fists by his side.
"What is it you want, Ryota; an apology, or for me to break up with Akagi and date you? Or would you like for me to miraculously wipe out the entire last year?" Ayako asked in exasperation.
"An apology would be nice, but meaningless coming from you right now. What I really want is for you to learn how to treat people right; especially those who you say are your friends. Because you just lost one tonight," he walked away leaving Ayako staring at his retreating back in shock.
"You're lucky I don't hit girls," Yohei said with a glare, "and you're also lucky that he doesn't mean what he said. I know he still wants to be your friend, but he's got to get over how you hurt him first. Which means you've got to prove that you're worthy of him this time," Yohei turned to follow Ryota.
"Why do you even care?" Ayako asked.
Yohei looked over his shoulder at her, "Because friends are supposed to care," he jogged away to catch up with Ryota.
Haruko put her arm around Ayako. "Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure he'll be fine. All will be forgiven in time, I'm sure."
Ayako sighed, "You were right you know. I should have told him sooner." She started walking with Haruko.
"The damage has already been done, so you can't focus on it. All you can do is look towards the future and try to repair your friendship. It's going to be hard, but fixing mistakes always are," Haruko said gently.
Mitsui stepped out from behind the tree when he knew he wouldn't be spotted. He was very surprised by the conversation he had heard. He felt really bad for Ryota, and also very angry at Akagi.
He always knew that Akagi wanted to win the nationals, but he didn't think that Akagi would take it quite that far. It pissed him off to think that anyone could treat a person like that, even if it was unintentional. What made him so angry was that it had been done intentionally.
He, himself had done worse things and it had taken the beating of his life to realize and work to change himself into a better person. With a solid thought in mind he went to pick up his Min-kun.
Yohei followed Ryota, maintaining a short distance between them. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to follow Ryota, but he had felt compelled to. He wanted to make sure that the other teen was fine with what had just happened. If he had been in Ryota's shoes he wouldn't be sure whether he was okay or not. So for now he just followed him, making sure nothing happened to him while he was thinking.
Ryota wasn't using his walk to think over what just happened, his mind was still too numb to think about it. He was in a kind of white static, like the white noise that comes on a television station after it was off the air for the night. He knew that he had to force himself to think about something, but he didn't know what to think about. He couldn't seem to grasp onto a single thought. He just kept walking, it seemed to be the only thing that his body wanted to do.
After about an hour, Yohei got fed up wit Ryota's silence. Four times he had watched Ryota nearly walking to a light post, but Yohei had drawn the line when Ryota almost crossed a busy street. Sighing he jogged the last few feet and drew even with Ryota. When he looked over and saw the blank look on Ryota's face he cursed.
This was definitely different than when he had dealt with Hanamichi's rejections. With him it had usually been anger and sadness, but he knew that this was shock. He hadn't had to deal with shock before. A couple things flashed through his mind about how to get Rota to pay attention, to wake up from whatever he was seeing or thinking.
The first thing that came to mind was punching him, which while it normally would work, he discarded it almost the second he had thought of it. He knew there was no way he could hit Ryota on purpose, even if it was for the other boy's own good.
The next idea was to kiss him, but Yohei himself wasn't ready to do that and he feared it would make Ryota's reaction to him worse.
If there was water he'd splash some on Ryota, but he didn't have any readily available. Yohei for once, was at a complete and utter loss as to what to do. He reached a hand out to put it on Ryota's shoulder and gave him a shake, thinking that maybe a hard shake would snap him out of his shock.
The second Ryota felt the weight of something on his shoulder he struck out by instinct, catching Yohei in the nose.
Yohei felt a sharp pain in his nose almost at the same time that he registered the first and the crack. The punch was hand enough to knock him down, with the back of his head hitting the ground once he landed. He blinked for a moment and then pushed himself into a kneeling position. "Holy shit, you're one strong bastard," he muttered before shaking his head to clear the slight ringing in it.
The second Ryota felt his fist connect with something, he snapped out of his daze. When he saw Yohei's head hit the pavement and heard the dull crack it made, he started moving forward. When he saw Yohei sit up he stopped and knelt down in front of him. "I'm sorry Mito-san. I didn't mean to hit you like that. I just wasn't paying attention and you shocked me. Are you all right?" he asked, his voice filled with self-loathing.
Yohei touched his nose and came away with a bit of blood, "Yeah I'm fine, don't worry about it," he stood up slowly and was surprised to find his legs a bit wobbly.
"Are you sure? I did hit you really hard and your nose is bleeding and your head hit really hard and..."
"I'm fine," Yohei interrupted. "Trust me, I've had much worse than this so stop babbling." Yohei leveled an even gaze at Ryota, "Besides, you should get home before you go off in your own little world again."
"I won't," Ryota was not happy that Yohei had brought up his lapse, but at the same time he felt responsible. "My house is about five minutes from here. You might as well come with me to clean your face up."
Yohei nodded and pinched the tip of his nose to keep any more blood from falling on his shirt.
Ryota led the way to his house in silence. He wasn't sure what was wrong with him. He was acting like a completely different person and he had been doing it ever since he had talked to Hanamichi. The problem was, he didn't know which part of his conversation with Hanamichi had resulted in his strange behavior, but he knew he would have to figure it out eventually. For now though, he would wait since his brain was jumbled enough as it was.
He unlocked the door to his house and led Yohei into the kitchen, "Sit down while I get something for you to wipe up with." Ryota left Yohei wondering if he would be able to get the spots of blood out of his shirt.
Ryota came back quickly with a slightly damp wash cloth and a clean sweat shirt. Yohei held out his hand to take the wash cloth, but Ryota swatted it away. "Don't be stupid, you'd miss half the blood on your face because you can't see it." He sat down and started wiping at the blood that had already dried.
Yohei started to scowl but it quickly turned into a wince as the back of Ryota's hand brushed against the side of his nose.
Ryota saw the wince, "Sorry, but it's going to hurt for a little bit."
"I know that. It's not like this is the first time I've been punched in the face," Yohei replied, sounding a bit offended.
"No, I'm sure a tough guy like you gets punched all the time," Ryota responded while smirking.
"Shut up." Yohei responded with a grin on his face.
Ryota finished cleaning up the last of the dried blood and handed Yohei the clean shirt. "Thanks for keeping an eye out for me earlier. I didn't know that I would react that badly." He stepped back, giving Yohei enough space to unbutton his uniform shirt, slip it off and put on the sweat shirt Ryota had given him.
"I wasn't expecting a reaction quite like the one you had," Yohei said, his voice muffled slightly while he pulled the sweater over his head, "but it wasn't the worst I've ever seen."
They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Ryota started pacing around the room.
"You're nervous around me," Yohei noted, watching the pacing.
Ryota nodded.
"It's because of what Hanamichi told you."
Ryota nodded again and looked at Yohei. "I just don't know how to deal with knowing you feel that way about me...on top of everything that's happened. I've never even thought about guys that way before. It's uncomfortable."
Yohei stood and walked over until he was directly in front of Ryota, effectively blocking his path. "I didn't mean for him to tell you and put you in this situation. You not being interested in me isn't the end of the world."
"It's not like that," Ryota snapped, his eyes lighting up in slight anger. "It's just that you're male and if you really think about it, we barely know each other." Ryota was feeling frustrated because he couldn't find the words to say what he really wanted to. He actually was almost having difficulties forming the thoughts of how he wanted to say it.
"Ryota, calm down," Yohei said pitching his voice to be as understanding as he could. "Not many people would know how to react in this situation. I completely understand that it's not something you've thought about before. I'm not looking for an answer or anything. I love you and if you only want to be friends, I ca accept that."
"How do you know that? How can I trust that friendship will be enough?"
"For starters, by being my friend you'll learn to trust me. You already do to an extent or we wouldn't be having this conversation. And to answer how I know I can handle it?" Yohei grinned, "I used to have a crush on Hanamichi and I confessed to him. He reacted badly at the time, but we're still best friends."
Ryota thought that over. "All right, I think I would like being your friend," he said with a grin.
Yohei grinned back at him and they shook hands.