Note: Slam Dunk is a manga and anime owned by Takehiko Inoue. I am merely a fan- since I was 10 years old and yes, I'm in love with his masterpiece and other works.

NEVER TELL

Chapter 4: CHANGE!

Kaede Rukawa hated various things. For instance, he hated the team's pet monkey, a poor excuse of a power forward named Hanamichi Sakuragi. He hated gangs who do nothing but laze about and be pathetic. He hated annoying and noisy girls who do nothing but cause commotion, disturb him in his sleep and got in the way of basketball.

But what he hated the most were situations that were out of his control. It gets to him like nothing else.
He'd been an only child all his life, with his mother gone and his father busy with work, he basically lived alone and was used to living as he pleased, until recently.

For months he'd tried being nonchalant and disconnected about the whole matter. When Reed dropped the bomb of wanting to adopt a child, Rukawa treated it as momentary insanity and when he said that he wanted to adopt his client, a grown teenager who he claimed wormed her way into his heart, Rukawa ignored it as one of his father's idiotic episodes. Until one day he saw his father sleeping on top of a pile of papers he was reviewing the night before. When Rukawa got closer he saw that the papers his father was studying were the adoption papers he was to sign.

The night before his father left for his two-week-NY-trip they had the real talk.

"I've been telling you for months, weren't you okay with it? Don't give me an attitude because of this. I've made up my mind. I've always wanted a daughter and Eiri's a good kid. I will never marry after your mother and whenever I close my eyes and imagine myself on my deathbed, and you staring down at me with that stony expression, I get the chills. Look son, I know you love me, but unless you're the type to cutely say *Otoo-san, and bake sweets, then, I don't think I can change my mind, and even if you can bake, I won't change my mind. Eiri belongs here."

Rukawa could do nothing about it. As long as his father pays for their living expenses and giving him all the things he wants and needs, then he can't say anything about how the man lived his life.

The only way he could tolerate things was to continue living his life as if nothing changed and to ignore the things that were no use to him. He rarely saw his father's new daughter and when they do see each other she had sense enough to keep quiet, so ignoring her wasn't too hard.
Still there were changes around the house that he found annoying.

His father left for New York two days ago. He'd be gone for two weeks. Usually when he leaves he'd just tell him to "Act like a grown man and eat meals on time", now he had to add "Look after your sister." Which was ridiculous since the man knew his son didn't care to hurt a hair on his leg for the girl's sake.

Rukawa went down the stairs in his running gear. He opened the refrigerator to make the Saturday morning shake he drank before his run, and he frowned when he saw the compartments stocked with chocolates. He had to move cartons and boxes of chocolate covered candies out of the way to get the things he needed which were pushed at the back. Annoyed, he made a mental note to buy his own refrigerator for his use only.
He went to the counter, took out the blender and began putting in the ingredients one by one when he heard the opening and closing of a door down the hallway, seconds later light, slow footsteps echoed through the hall and in appeared his father's adopted daughter, in her blue pajamas with her light copper hair a messy nest and her gold eyes barely open. It was hard to ignore her since she was headed for the fridge which was right beside the counter he was occupying. She opened the fridge, took out a huge box of chocolate chip cookies and grabbed a carton of strawberry milk, then turned around, retracing her steps back to her room with the food.

Eiri ate her breakfast of cookies and strawberry milk with gusto. Today's going to be a long day for her since she's going to tryout for the track and field. She was on her seventh piece when the door to her took burst open and she froze on the spot when she saw Kaede Rukawa standing on her doorway.

Shock overcame her and she had to blink thrice to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The cookie was frozen halfway into her mouth.
"G.. Good morning." she greeted, placing the cookie back in the jar.

"Oie," Rukawa's voice was cold and deadly, "Freeloader. Let's set things straight, father won't be coming home for two weeks. Don't expect me to cook your meals for you."

"I understand, I—"

"I don't care what you do in school or outside of school, but be home by 7pm everyday. That's the only rule. Break that and I'll break you."

"Wha—"

"And don't ever talk to me in school." Those were Rukawa's last words to her before he slammed the door behind him. Eiri knew that he didn't care for her but he really despised her, she didn't even feel like he spoke to her like a human being. There wasn't an ounce of concern or curiosity, no 'how was your first day?' 'Are you fitting in?' 'How are they treating you?' 'Do you have all your books?'
Nothing.

She was over it now. She couldn't understand him and she won't waste her new opportunity in life thinking over things that she couldn't change.

Finishing the last of the cookie in the jar, she changed into her running gear and went to the try out.

TBC

It's been a long time guys! Thanks for reading. If you've been a long time reader you may have noticed that I changed Eiri's name from Shin to Eiri since I'm already using Shin in my story 'FALSE'. Thanks, you guys!