Disclaimer: I do not own Slam Dunk and its characters; Takehiko Inoue does.
Note: I am sorry for the delay. thanks for reading and reviewing
"Youhei, what's your plan?"
"Huh?"
"How do we help hedgehog? He seems really serious about Mitchy, and to cap it all, this may turn out to be our biggest gig yet! Putting them together!" Takamiya hooted excitedly.
"You think so? Rukawa doesn't seem like he's gonna loosen his grip anytime soon, nor easily for that matter." Youhei said problematically.
"That's why we have to do something about him; lock him in the toilet, kidnap him, hogtie him and stick him around the flag pole… anything."
"Does he really have to be the antagonist here? I mean-"
They all shot a nasty look at Youhei.
"Seriously, Mito, are you even asking us to do this crime? Pffft!"
"Fine. What do you geniuses propose?"
"That's what we're asking you, dummy."
"Hmmm. I don't have a good background in match-making but how about we let them take the stage and we, the front row seats."
"…" No one dared to speak. Well, not for the moment. Not until they recovered coherent thinking,
"What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Saying?"
"Let's just watch the turn of events. The floor is theirs. " Youhei answered flatly.
"Hey you're the one who promised hedgehog you'd help him."
"Yeah. And you know what they say about promises; they're meant to be broken."
"Fine. You stay out of this from now on. We'll figure out a way to get them together and when it happens, you're not gonna be there to witness the greatest love story in the making." Takamiya said indignantly.
"…"
"Let's go guys." Takamiya announced, to which Ookuso and Noma followed almost immediately after throwing a disgusted look at Youhei.
Far away from their knowledge, Youhei Mito was to turn the tangled love affair into a very cinematic, motion-picture caliber drama.
He figured it out. The Guntai could manage very little creativity in his absence. Youhei Mito was after all, their leader. He hid behind the trash bin, snorting at the unpleasant odor of its contents and at the same time missing quite a number of pieces of the conversation. There was Hisashi Mitsui, non-suspecting and minding his own business when Takamiya and Noma arrived in the scene to ambush the senior in his little activity. He heard these important lines anyway:
"Meet him at six p.m. at the rooftop." The fat boy insisted in a demanding tone.
"And why would I do that?" Mitsui asked in a reserved tone which was accompanied by an air of utter confidence.
"Secret admirer's gonna reveal himself; you don't wanna miss on that."
Mitsui assumed a pensive state. "Fine. Six p.m. tomorrow. Got it."
At that, without lingering on for another minute, Youhei sped of to first year class 10. He soundlessly slipped past the sliding door and crouched behind Rukawa Kaede's desk. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of the super rookie's drool that had pooled on the uneven surface of his desk. The Shohoku ace was sleeping the class away, possibly dreaming of a certain three-pointer. Now Youhei was tugging the sleeve of his blouse as suspicious glares darted in their direction. And he might as well silently create imaginary shapes using Rukawa's drool; that might have more effect in waking the rookie up.
"Rukawa," he whispered against the rookie's ear, almost touching it with his lips. He pronounced the name repeatedly and slyly to avoid the professor's attention.
Mission: Impossible
Not quite, so,
"There's Mitsui-san!" Youhei yelled, his voice shot halfway down the corridor.
Instantaneously, if not simultaneously, Rukawa, in incredible abruptness, propped his head up as if snapping out of hypnosis and muttered in a clear, monotonous undertone, "Where?"
The professor aborted his occupation of scribbling what Youhei saw as meaningless shit on the blackboard and turned to come face to face with the culprit.
"What do you think you're doing here, Mito?" his voice sounded like a thunder.
"I-er, I'm waking Rukawa up." Youhei answered lamely. The room continued to buzz.
"What are you doing loitering around in another classroom during class hours?"
"Sitting here—I mean, sitting in, yeah, I'm a sit-in student."
"OUT! You and Rukawa, out, now!"
And they were both thrown out of the classroom.
Rukawa let his eyes wander around what seemed to him as a cavernous corridor. Upon finding nothing of his interest, he asked, "Where's sempai?"
"At the roof top at six p.m. …tomorrow." Youhei answered.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Be there. He'll be waiting for you."
While at the same time in Ryonan High…
"Shohoku rooftop?" Sendoh asked in dismay.
"Yeah. Six p.m. Anything more romantic than that would cost you 800 yen." Ookusu said blankly.
"Ok… six p.m. it is. Tomorrow, the decisive day,"
And so came the next day. The clock struck six p.m. on the dot. With the arrangement in play, at the Shohoku rooftop it was a scene of much hilarity, or was it foreboding chaos? What with Ookusu, Noma and Takamiya hiding behind the broiler room with mouths gaping in idiotic excess, whispering, hissing and cursing at each other,
"What the fuck is Rukawa doing here?"
"This is your fault; you know he hangs around here all the time!"
"What, it's my fault now? I knew, yeah fine whatever as you fucking say, but didn't you?"
"Shut it, Noma, this was your idea!"
Three tall boys, all with black hair and blue eyes faced each other, forming a triangle. Two of them were staring with longing eyes at one target and throwing murderous glares at one another.
And somewhere in a safe distance, Youhei was hanging in a balance, his right arm strapped around the ladder of the water tank, his free hand locked mercilessly around his mouth, suppressing laughter. His ears were perked up and wildly alert as his amusement elevated itself in its moment in history. He assiduously restrained a fit of giggles in fear of missing a single word. Anyone could easily mistake him for a lunatic.
"They didn't tell me I had two secret admirers, and big-shot ones too at that." Mitsui started, his fascination working up on a higher pitch as the moments passed by.
"Sempai…" two voices spoke at once.
"So... it's you two?" The senior asked in between grinning widely and shaking his head in amusement.
No one answered.
"Well…it's been nice knowing. Now if you'd excuse me, I have a practice to attend too." The handsome senior announced before stuffing his fists in his pockets and turning to his heels to make for the exit.
"Sempai, listen." Again two voices spoke the exact same words.
Mitsui stopped, sighed and shook his head, feigning regret.
"Listen, you two, this is boring."
Two hearts shattered into a million pieces. Two sets of lungs tightened to suppress their breathing. Two sets of eyes summoned seas of salty water. Two sets of lips trembled like rock movements beneath the ocean floor. Two worlds falling apart, slowly, painfully, only to crash into nothingness.
Ookuso, Noma and Takamiya watched and gasped in horror as the love story they 'directed' dissolved before their very eyes, disintegrating into dusts. At this very moment, however, Youhei lost his grip on the iron ladder to fall flat ass first on the concrete floor.
"Ouch." He muttered, rubbing his bottom. He looked around stupidly, blinking, chuckling apologetically, perhaps innocently, before waving at the three star players.
A set of blue eyes momentarily stared at him, transfixed. Mitsui advanced on him, lowered himself into a squat and rested his elbows on his knees, his handsome face looming only inches away from Youhei's . Rukawa and Sendoh remained still on their spots, tormented and anguished by the senior's indifference.
"Are you okay?" Mitsui asked Youhei.
"Yeah."
"Are you one of them?"
"Huh?"
"One of my admirers."
Silence. Long silence. Vey long indeed.
"There seems to be a misunderstanding here, Mitchy," Youhei tried to explain. Looking nervously at Sendoh and Rukawa, he continued, "I just fell—"
"You fell, huh? That's some style you got there."
"Huh?" the freshman shot him a puzzled look.
"So, you fell…in love with me. How cute." Mitsui said, his dimples appearing on both cheeks.
"No! I fell off the ladder-"
"And what would you be doing hanging around the water tank? Expecting me to break your fall?" Mitsui asked, the corners of his lips almost touching each other around his magnificent head.
"Watching..." Youhei said shakily.
"Watching me?"
"Yes- I mean, watching you guys, I—"
"You've been watching me a lot lately, during practice sessions."
"We were observing! We were on a special investigation!"
"You mean to say, there are more of you out there?"
"You completely miss the point, I-"
"That's okay. I choose you." He gazed meaningfully at the younger boy.
Dumbfounded. Jaws dropped almost hitting the ground. 360 overhaul. Electric shock threw them all off their guards. Eyes opened widely like luminous orbs.
He couldn't answer. This wasn't what he planned. He wasn't prepared for this. Surprise of the century.
Two muscular arms from two different owners grabbed him by the shoulders; Sendoh and Rukawa were dragging Youhei away from where he was sitting.
"You'd better explain this." Sendoh muttered through clenched teeth.
"But-but all I did was-"
"Double-cross us." Rukawa 'finished' the sentence for him. His eyes were flaring beyond reasonable anger.
"Hey!" Mitsui called as the two aces simply ignored.
"Help!" Youhei would holler over and over again.
The remaining Guntai stared at each other in blank expressions. And then, slowly, they nodded to each other before popping out of their hiding place, giving away their positions.
"Guntai to the rescue!" They announced in unison.
A look of relief dawned in their ally's face.
"Kidding!" The Guntai declared and set themselves rolling off the floor with laughter.
And Mitsui was left to pry Rukawa and Sendoh's hands off Youhei… if he could, that is.
END
Note: Pardon me if it's a little confusing. What happens here is that Youhei finds it boring that Sendoh is to end up with our dear Mitsui without competition or challenge. So what he does is that he inserts Rukawa in the scene hence ruining the other Guntai's plans. Unexpectedly though, Mitsui appears to be uninterested in the two aces, even more surprising is that he turns out to like Youhei and leads himself to believe that the freshman is one of his countless admirers. Rukawa and Sendoh then accuse Youhei of treachery and decide to resolve the matter by teaching him a lesson. The rest of the Guntai refuse to help because Youhei is indeed a naughty boy haha.
And yeah, it would be highly unfair if Mitchy ended up with either Sendoh or Rukawa.
This is pretty much the ending Night Strider and I agreed upon to start with, I'm not really sure about the delivery though because I wrote this last chapter alone and after typing it I asked Strider's opinion, she seemed okay about it, I hope you're okay with it too.