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Hey guys, review naman o! In english, please review, it means a lot to me when you do. Keeps me going and stuff. Thanks so much

On to the story!

You Mean, Rukawa has a best friend

Chapter Seven

Kira smiled as she looked up. Standing in front of her was Sendoh Akira, in a smart dark suit, one hand holding her hand and the other in her waist. It was then that she noticed that she was wearing a silky red dress. Music was playing somewhere and they were dancing, just the two of them. She smiled as he smiled back, and he was beginning to lean in, still looking at her...

Tap, tap, tap.

Someone was tapping behind her. Sendoh didn't seem to notice, as he leaned in closer. She chose to ignore it, but...

Tap, tap, tap.

The tapping was harder now, and she was losing her patience with it, then...

TAP, TAP, TAP.

Then the tapping became shaking. Violent shaking.

Kira's eyes flew open. Sendoh had disappeared, and she drowsily looked around. She was wearing pajamas again, not a dress, and she was in her own room, not a ballroom, and standing by the side of her bed was -

"Kaede!" she cried, looking indignantly at him with sleepy eyes.He was still shaking her."What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" She looked out the window. The sun hasn't even risen yet and when she saw the illuminated clock it showed that it's five thirty in the morning. She groaned.

Rukawa was indeed standing by the side of the bed, in a coat and pants, though Kira could see that his basketball uniform was peeking underneath, so it was without doubt that underneath his pants were his shorts. He was also holding a bag, no doubt with towels and his ball. "Were you dreaming?" he asked suddenly.

Kira yawned, and smiled at the thought of her dream. It was one of the dreams that she was happy she remembered.

"Well?" demanded Rukawa.

Kira looked at him after rubbing her eyes. "As a matter of fact, I was." she said. "Why?"

"Is it about Sendoh?"

"How the hell do you know that?" she demanded, thanking the gods it was still dark and he couldn't see her blush.

Kira wasn't sure, but she felt that Rukawa was glaring. He always glares anyway, so what else is new? "You were muttering his name."

"So you interrupted my dreams." said Kira, then rolled to the side and fell back again. "I'm going back to bed, see if I can get my dream back."

"Oh no you're not." Rukawa dropped his bag, and grabbed one of her arms, and pulled her up so she was sitting in her bed.

Kira moaned. "Why?" she complained. "It's too early, the sun hasn't risen yet..."

"Exactly." said Rukawa. "Get dressed. We're going."

"Going where?" she asked sleepily.

"To the courts."

"But it's too early..." she whined, yawning. "I wanna go back to beeeeeed..."

"No," said Rukawa sharply. "By the time you're ready, the sun would have risen completely, and we'll be the first there in the courts, no annoying Sendohs or stupid red headed freaks there to bother me."

"Then go by yourself.." she whined again.

She felt his glare again. "I want you there." he muttered.

At this, Kira stopped yawning to get a good look at her best friend. He was staring defiantly back at her, as if waiting for an answer. She responded by giving him a small smile. "Okay, Kaede, I'll get ready," she said. Kaede was not the type to show that he wanted a girl to be in his practices, so this rare event made her quite happy. It was one of those small things that he does at times that she just can't resist."How did you get in anyway?"

"Your mother let me in." he answered shortly.

"Oh," she said, rising from the bed, and stretching. She made a mental note to tell her mother that he, Rukawa Kaede, no matter how close they were, should never be allowed in her room before the sun has decided to riseand greet the new day. She doubted that her mother or her father for that matter would listen, but it was worth the try. "Now, get out, get out," she was pushing him out the door. "Wait for me downstairs, I'll be down in twenty minutes."

She had turned Kaede around so he was facing the door and was pushing him towards it. He looked over his shoulder back at her.

"Make it ten." he muttered.

"You're out of your bloody mind." she answered, and slammed the door in his face.

Thirty minutes later, Kira came down, all fresh and newly dressed, in dark denim jeans, pink shirt under a thick blue overcoat. Hanging in her shoulder was a large guitar case inside of which was, undoubtedly, a guitar. She smiled as she came down, which was in complete contrast to what Rukawa was giving her.

He was giving her a sharp, cutting glare, causing Kira's smile to falter a bit.

"You. Said. Twenty." he said, emphasizing each word.

"Did I?" she asked casually, and quite mischievously, "Sorry, but you did wake me up at five thirty in the bloody morning." Considering the fact that she was a girl, thirty minutes was hardly a drop in the bucket.

Rukawa glared even harder. Apparently, he thought she didn't think that time was of the essence.

She gave him her sweetest smile. Rukawa's glare softened, just a teensy little tiny tiny bit.

"Come on," she said, grabbing his hand, "before stupid red headed freaks and annoying Sendohs might beat you in the courts."

"Funny," he muttered, though he didn't laugh.

Once they were out the door and walking through the snowless, but nevertheless cold sidewalk, Kira looked up at Kaede and asked, "How do you know that the courts are open today anyway?"

"I checked." he said shortly. "They open at six o clock in the morning every day."

"Oh," said Kira, looking in front of her, "Okay," she answered then, "you mean we're gonna do this every morning!"

Rukawa didn't answer. She didn't take it as a good sign but decided to put it behind her. There's nothing she can do about it anyway.

They walked on in silence, not that Kira minded. She was used to Rukawa being silent for long stretches, and it wasn't a type of uncomfortable silence, it was a nice silence, a silence that didn't demanded one to force conversation with another, and for that she was grateful.

Still, she wondered sometimes what Kaede would be like if he was more talkative, at least to her, and not answer her in short quick phrases with tones that almost always indicate that he would be the one to end conversations. But people often reminded her that she should count herself lucky. Rukawa actually talks to her in more than grunts and constant mutterings.

Still, she was a girl, a talkative girl at that, if he turned out to be at least as talkative as Mitsui-sempai is, she wondered what would have happened to them...

"Kira."

Kira almost jumped, still lost in her thoughts, and looked at Rukawa, slightly surprised.

"Sorry if I woke you up." he said, but didn't look at her.

Kira smiled up at him, though she wasn't sure that he noticed, and looked ahead. "It's okay," she said brightly, "this way I won't need an alarm clock anymore."

He didn't answer.

"It makes a nice change too," she continued, "You waking me up."

"If you say so." he muttered.

They were now in the courts, having passed by what looked like the man who unlocked the doors. They both answered his good morning greeting and Rukawa immediately opened the door.

Instant warmth was felt by Kira as they came in. Heaters must be new, she thought, as she looked at Rukawa and saw that he was in complete basketball uniform. Kira blinked a few times. How did he do that? She didn't even see him remove his pants or coat! Not that she wanted to see, she reminded herself as she felt a small blush creep in her face.

Rukawa must have noticed. "What's up with you?" he asked.

Kira quickly shook her head. "Nothing, nothing," she said, smiling.

Rukawa looked at her for a second before turning to the basketball net and shooting the ball neatly into the basket in his first try.

"As always," she murmured. She clapped loudly and even whooped. Rukawa gave her a look, a look that she smiled at. "What?"

"Nothing." he said.

They didn't talk for a while so Kira decided to open the guitar case to reveal her guitar. She had longed for a guitar ever since they were ten when she saw someone playing beautifully in their Christmas concert in school. Since then she had taught herself how to play, with the help of her father, who turned out to know how to play magnificently, and she had been saving her money to buy herself one. Having bought a lovely acoustic guitar, which, much to her delight, was baby pink, there was never a day that she wouldn't take it out and play it. She had even managed to teach Rukawa how to play the guitar, and it turned out that he was very good at it, though through his glare she knew that he would strangle himself first before anyone gets a chance to hear him play.

She looked at Kaede as she strummed the strings. Kaede stopped and looked at it, then turned back to the game. Kira smiled. She had assumed that that kind of reaction meant that he didn't mind, so she played loudly, though not loud enough to break his concentration.

There were times when she thought that Kaede himself was getting into the music himself. The ball would be bouncing in the rhythm of what she was playing and once she had seen Kaede's foot tap to the music, though she would never mention it. She didn't want to anger him. The last time they argued, she ended up going to Ryonan High.

She frowned suddenly. She strummed again. That wasn't right, she thought, and strummed again. No, definitely not right. She moved her fingers differently. No, still not right. She glared at her guitar and tried to remember the right chords, but somehow it was slipping from her mind. She strummed again.

"That's not right,"

Kira looked to see that Kaede had stopped shooting and was looking at her guitar.

"I know," she muttered, "but I don't remember the right chords."

She strummed again, trying a different chord.

"Still not right." said Rukawa, now standing next to the bench where she was sitiing. "Give it here."

Kira gave him the guitar, fixed his fingers in what looked to Kira was the right chords and strummed.

"Oh," she said, grinning, "of course."

But Kaede wasn't stopping. He continued, and was playing the gutar beautifully, while Kira tried not to smile but couldn't help herself. She started humming to the music, and then she couldn't hold it anymore.

Foolish heart, hear me calling

Stop before, you start falling

Foolish heart, heed my warning

You've been wrong before

Don't be wrong anymore

The sound of clapping interrupted their little music session, and made Kira and Rukawa look sharply to the doors.