Hello people!

neko11lover: I'm glad you're reviewing again, thank you! Um, this is gonna be RukawOC, hope u don't mind, keep reading k? I have the story all worked out up until the end, promise. U from pinas right? Any chance of mangoes and bagoong? Hehe..kidding.

keia mizuki: or is it indeed...thanks for the review

Miss Hachigatsu Kuroi: I hope u don't mind that this is the norm for me, don't know what kind of twist that u like, but I assure you none of mine will be dull, so keep reading!

dollarbanks: hello! and thanks for reading! continue, eh?

Anyway, I thought that this is such a cruddy chapter that I think I might put the next chapter up right away afterwards. What do you guys think?

On with the story!

You mean, Rukawa has a best friend?

Chapter Six

"So," said Rukawa, in the tone of a father scolding a child for something he or she did very very badly, "Sendoh walked you home."

Kira was fixing her hair, looking at a mirror. Reflected in the mirror was Kaede, who was sitting in his bed, a basketball in his hand. He looked at the ball for a few seconds beforeshe saw his reflected eyes glaring into her own.

They were in Rukawa's bedroom. It was a large room, and as the larger it is, is was more of a complete and utter mess than most rooms. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Mostly it was light shirts, shorts and socks. On the corner of the room were a couple of pairs of basketball shoes. The window on one side of the room was wide open, to let a light breeze in. The walls were painted a rich light blue, and on the bottom of walls there were drawings, done in paint of mountains and flowers and basketballs and hand prints. He and Kira did those when they were nine and ten, and every now and then, Kira would just go and add another, this time more artistically beautiful drawings, mostly of roses and basketball courts.

"To accompany the basketballs," she would say.

On the farther corner of the room stood a shelf full of basketball trophies and memorabilia, the center of it was the autographed Miami Heat basketball from Kira last Christmas, sorrounding it was a bunch of trophies from junior high. Hanging next to the shelf was an acoustic guitar. Rukawa would rather jump off a cliff than be heard playing. The only person so far who has heard him was Kira and the people around the house. Kira taught him how to play, but there would be no chance in hell that that musical instrument would replace the game of basketball.

Rukawa ripped his eyes from the guitar and turned to Kira again, who had still not answered the statement he made and instead focusing on her reflection in the mirror. She was running her fingers through her hair, and then looking closely at her eyes.

"You look fine," muttered Rukawa, after she ran her finger on the outline of her lips.

Kira turned around to face him directly, and amused smile in her face. "I didn't know you care." she said.

"Hn."

Kira smiled, and - with one last look at her reflection - sat by the foot of Rukawa's bed, catching the ball easily thrown by him.

"You didn't answer."

"Answer what?"

Rukawa glared at her. "Sendoh walked you home yesterday."

Kira nodded, trying hard to conceal the delight in her face.

"Why?"asked Rukawa coldly.

Kira's smile faded. Evidently, Rukawa still hasn't forgotten that he was insulted by Ryonan's ace player."Erm," she said slowly, "he wanted to?"

Rukawa continued to glare. "Not good enough."

"Since when was anything Sendoh did good enough to you?" she asked with a slightly amused smile in her face.

Rukawa's glared deepened.

"Look," she said, her smile faltering and sighing, "I didn't even realize that he was walking me home! He was just poof! there all of the sudden and we started talking and then the next thing I know we were in front of my house!"

Rukawa snorted. A likely story, he thought. He even wanted to point his finger accusingly at her and exclaim those words but he knew from the look of incredulity on Kira's face that she was telling the truth. Besides, it wasn't like Kira to lie. Maybe stretch the truth a little bit, but never lie. Besides, he catches it way too easily when she lies.

"Anyway," she continued, looking straight into his eyeswhenhe didn't say anything, "all we talked about was you."

Rukawa looked at her, not giving anything away, but he's sure that she knew that his interest was about to perk up. "Me?"

Kira nodded, smiling, "Hmmm," she said, "though I wasn't too sure whether he was happy about it..."

Rukawa inwardly smirked to himself. He was sure Sendoh wasn't at all happy about it, and that cheered him up a bit. "Glad to know you still think about me when I'm not around."

Kira gave him a wicked grin. "Anytime."

She passed the ball back to him, and he caught it just as easily. Rukawa looked at Kira. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to phrase it, or she would rather not say it, but heck what are best friends for but to have the entire life of one blurted to the other so he said, "Spit it out."

"Are you mad at Sendoh?" she said, looking at him.

"Mad?" asked Rukawa sitting up straight, "why the hell would I be mad? He's only showing up in practices that he need not show up in, he's only trying to monopolize my best friend's attention, he only told me that I'm a bad basketball coach and he only had the decency to walk you home when that is clearly my job, now why would I be mad?"

Kira blinked at him. "Wow," she said, "that could be, like, a paragraph."

Rukawa narrowed his eyes.

Kira blinked again. "Well I'm glad that you're not mad." She was smiling at him, as if to say don't be mad anymore.

Rukawa glared at her.

"C'mon, Kaede!" she exclaimed. "It's not like he led me into a dark alley and tried to rape me or anything!"

Rukawa's eyes widened a bit at the thought. "HE WHAT?"

Kira slapped a hand in her forehead. "Kidding!" she said hastily. "I was kidding! Take a joke, sheesh..."

They were both silent for a minute. He continued to play with the ball for a while Kira went to the farther end of the room and took the guitar. She went back and after fixing it so that it was in the right tune, played a few strums until she was making a light rhythm.

"What's that?" asked Rukawa.

Kira shrugged. "Just strumming," she said, then paused for a second to look at him. "You know, walking me home isn't exactly your job."

Rukawa looked at her.

"You've never walked me home since you started basketball practice."

"Yes, I have," said Rukawa, feeling slightly offended, "when you come to Shohoku and watch practice, I walk you home all the time. And when we have games over there at your school, I walk you home."

Kira smiled. "All right, so you walk me home at times, when it's convenient to you," she said, "but that doesn't mean that it's necessarily your job. I'm a big girl now, I can walk home by myself."

Rukawa looked at her. True, now that he thought about it,he hardly walked her home, which he always thought was wrong of him, but he couldn't afford to miss practice. Hey wait a minute…

"Sendoh took you home," he said suddenly, "and he had baketball practice!"

"Well yeah, but he said he doesn't mind being late," said Kira, shrugging,"while you, my bestest friend in the whole wide world, make basketball your life."

"That's not true," lied Rukawa, looking out into the sky.

Kira grinned. "Ah, Kaede, but it is," she said, in a deep breathy tone, as if pretending to be wise. "And don't lie to me, bestest friend in the whole wide world, you don't look at me when you lie and I don't like it." She added, and stuck out her tongue when he turned to her again.

Rukawa placed the ball beside him in the bed, though he had no intention of sleeping with the thing, he wasn't that obsessed. "Does it bother you?" he mumbled.

"Kaede, if it bothered me, you would've known a very long time ago." she answered.

"So it doesn't bother you."

Kira looked highly amused. "No Kaede, it doesn't." she said, "why? What would've happened if it bothered me?"

Rukawa shrugged. "I might walk you home more often." he mumbled.

Kira laughed. "Yeah, that's highly likely." There was a slight sarcasm in her tone.

"I would!" he said defensively, arms crossed in his chest, which was slughtly puffed. "I'll be late for practice, but I can always catch up."

"Yeah, sure," she said.

"What?"

"Are you doing this because Sendoh did it too?" she asked suspiciously, her green eyes narrowed.

Yes, he thought, but, "No." he grumbled. He would not stoop that low, or he wouldn't tell Kira he had stooped down that low. "If you want me to walk you home all you have to do is ask."

Kira grinned rather slyly. "Careful there, Kaede," she said, "you might just fall in love with me."

Rukawa had no reply to this.

After about five seconds in what looked like an unforeseen shock in Rukawa's face, a pillow hit him. When the pillow was peeled off his face, the picture in front of him revealed a grinning Kira, looking at him. "I was just kidding Kaede," she said, "just kidding."

"Hn." he muttered, glaring slightly.

Kira had returned to strumming, playing a song he heard from one of Kira's CDs in her room. She was humming along, and every now and then words would burst out from her mouth. She would also look up at him and smile every once in a while.

Careful Kaede, you might just fall in love with me.

The words echoed in his head, but mentally he shook it off. A girl would just complicate things. All he had was basketball. Basketball and Kira.

Kira and Basketball.

No, Basketball, then Kira.

Basketball.

Always put basketball first.

Kira.

Careful Kaede, you might just fall in love with me.

No, I won't, he thought stubbornly, as long as there's basketball.

Kira smiled softly at him again, eyes bright and twinkling.

Oh, holy crap.