CHAPTER 4

"I fucking love basketball," Miyagi said with a big grin. He tossed his camp-issued bagged lunch on the coaches' table and slid energetically into the opposite Sendoh.

"It shows," Sendoh said, because Miyagi had absolutely thrown himself into coaching this camp.

"I just-" Miyagi glanced at the tables of kids all around them. "This is seriously the best. I've been mad at the game for a while, and I needed this."

"I get that," Fukuda said quietly. "I mean, not for the same reason. Your situation is unfair and awful, but I kind of hated basketball until I, y'know, quit."

Unlike Fukuda, Miyagi always spoke loudly and confidently. He pointed a finger at Fukuda and said, "The JBL did you dirty, Fukuda. I never liked how you were treated, and I like it even less now that I've met you and know what a sweetheart you are."

Ayako dropped into the seat next to her husband. "Are we talking about how much we love Fukuda?"

"No," Fukuda mumbled to his sandwich.

"We're talking about how fucked up basketball is. And how we love it anyway," Miyagi said.

Ayako smiled. "Yep. That's the problem right there."

Sendoh glanced at the end of the table, where Rukawa was sitting. As Sendoh had suspected, Rukawa looked confused and uncomfortable. Basketball had never made Rukawa sad for a minute of his life.

Sendoh couldn't pretend to know how it felt to be let down by the game he loved- not in the way Miyagi or Fukuda had been- but he was more aware of basketball's flaws than Rukawa was. He'd been paying more attention, over the past few years, to the darker side of his sport.

"Hey," Miyagi said to Sendoh, "what do you think of your new coach?"

Sendoh shrugged. "Haven't met him yet."

"Yeah, but it's a pretty interesting hire, right? I mean, how old is Benjiro Washi these days? He must be in his thirties still."

"He's forty-one," Rukawa said, because of course he knew. Benjiro Washi had been a forward in the JBL for eleven seasons, before he'd retired nearly decade ago. He'd never been a star, and had earned himself a reputation as a "difficult" player to manage, though Sendoh had never known why. Washi had still been playing when Sendoh had started his own JBL career, but Sendoh had never interacted with him.

"He's cute," Ayako said. "Like, I watched him being interviewed on TV. He's aged well."

Miyagi placed a hand dramatically over his heart. "I can't believe you'd say that right in front of me."

Ayako laughed. "Well, he is. Fukuda will back me up on this, right, buddy?"

"Nope," Fukuda said. "No comment."

"There is no way Washi is hot enough for Fukuda," Sendoh said. "Have you seen his boyfriend?"

"Uh, yeah," Miyagi said. "Ayako and I Googled him last night. What the heck, dude? He's, like, an actual angel or something."

Fukuda crumpled his empty lunch bag in one hand. "You guys are weird." He stood to leave, but paused and said, with a small smile, "But yeah. My boyfriend is super hot."

Miyagi slapped the table. "Love it. Be proud of your hot man, Fukuda."

Fukuda walked away, shaking his head but probably smiling.

"So besides being cute," Rukawa said in a somewhat clipped tone, "what makes Washi a good coach?"

"He played in the JBL," Sendoh said. "Might make him good."

"No offense," Mitsui called from his end of the table, "but Tendouji probably didn't have a lot of coaches to choose from, y'know?"

"Hey," Fujima protested. "Just because we're bad, and in a city that no one wants to play in, and we have no fans..."

Mitsui laughed loudly at that. "See? Your goalie gets it."

"Just wait," Sendoh warned. "We are turning it around this year. You will see."

"Sure," Mitsui said. "I believe in you. One hundred percent."

Sendoh was going to say something snarky back, but at the moment Sakuragi rushed up to the table clutching his own bagged lunch.

"Sorry if I missed everything," he said. "Had to deal with a family emergency."

"Did your wife have another baby?" Sendoh asked dryly.

"Is everything okay?" Rukawa asked with far more concern.

Sakuragi waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. No big deal. Just a missing stuffed alligator."

"Wow," Sendoh said. "Did you call the police?"

Sakuragi sat across from him and glared at him. "I know you don't, like, care about other people, but Daichi fucking loses his shit without Bidoo."

"Did you find it?" Ayako asked.

"Uh. Yeah. In the back seat of my car. Here at the court. So I had to, like, do a FaceTime call so Daichi could see him and, y'know. Talk to him."

Sendoh grinned. "What does Bidoo sound like?"

Sakuragi ignored him. "Anyway. Crisis averted. But I'll have to check my back seat before I leave from now on."

"You're a good dad," Mitsui said.

Sakuragi sighed as he poked a straw into his juice box. "Sometimes. I barely know what I'm doing most days, but I love them and would do literally anything for them, so that's something, I guess."

Sendoh glanced down at the remains of his own sandwich. He made fun of Sakuragi a lot- for a million different reasons- but he secretly admired his ability to parent four young children. He was a good dad, as far as Sendoh could tell. His kids were great; his wife, Haruko, was awesome. Sendoh probably envied him, but he would never admit it.

"I'm pumped for this afternoon," Miyagi said. He pointed at Rukawa. "Our team is gonna destroy you guys."

Rukawa smirked. "We'll see, pal."

The kids were being divided into four mini-teams, each led by two of the coaches. Rukawa and Mitsui had one team, Sendoh and Miyagi had another, Fukuda and Fujima had one, and Ayako and Sakuragi had the last group. They would be playing half-court scrimmages, and, while officially the coaches weren't supposed to play, they probably all would. Sendoh was looking forward to it.

"Hey," Miyagi said, leaning over the table and dropping his voice. "Do you think it's a good idea, putting Genkei and Taki on the same team?"

Genkei and Taki had been clashing with each other all week. There always seemed to be two kids who had a history at these camps.

"Sure," Sendoh said easily. "It will bring them together."

Miyagi put his hands up. "All right. I'm just saying, those two kids are ready to choose violence."

"Will be fine."

It wasn't fine. Less than halfway through the game against Fukuda and Fujima's team, Genkei had Taki pinned on the court, and was punching his face with his fist.

"Seriously?" Sendoh said.

Miyagi reacted more quickly, and usefully, by calling out, "Hey!" and hauling Genkei off the other boy.

"He started it!" Genkei protested.

"You're such a lying little shit," Taki spat back.

"Yo!" Miyagi said. "We don't use that language at all." He glanced at Sendoh. "Want me to take them to the locker room, maybe?"

"I'll do it," Sendoh said. "Come on, ding-dongs."

He heard Miyagi calling out instructions to the remaining kids as Sendoh left the court, shifting their attention from Genkei and Taki being disciplined. Sendoh kept his body between the two boys as they walked to the closest locker room. Once they were inside, he made them sit on opposite sides of the room, facing each other.

"What is going on?" Sendoh asked.

"He's mad because I made the A team and he didn't," Genkei said.

"No I'm not!" Taki protested. "I'm mad because your dad fixed it so you'd get my spot."

"He did not! You weren't good enough!"

"I'm way better than you."

Good god. What had Sendoh gotten himself into? He knew he should assure the boys that nothing unfair had taken place and maybe talk to Taki about being a sore loser, but he was curious. "What does your dad do, Genkei?"

Taki snorted. Genkei mumbled something that Sendoh didn't catch.

"Sorry?" Sendoh asked.

"He's the coach."

Sendoh laughed. He couldn't help it. With this new information, he started to suspect that Taki might have a valid argument.

Genkei stood. "I'm on the team because I earned my spot."

Taki snorted. "As if."

"Okay," Sendoh said, calmly, "there is only one way to decide this."

Both boys looked at him with wide eyes, as if they'd forgotten the JBL superstar in the room.

Sendoh somehow managed to keep a straight face when he said, very seriously, "Both of you balance on one foot. Whoever does it longer is the best basketball player."

"What?" said Taki.

"That's ridiculous," said Genkei.

Sendoh folded his arms. "Three, two, one...go."

Both boys immediately stood straight up, and lifted one foot each. Genkei wobbled slightly at first, but they both remained balanced. After a few minutes of the boys glaring at each other from across the room, Sendoh said, "Hmm. You are both good at this. Maybe try hopping?"

It took even less time than Sendoh had expected for the boys to start laughing. Taki broke first, and Genkei quickly followed, grinning broadly and snickering as they hopped.

Finally, Genkei stumbled and had to put his second foot down.

"Wow," Sendoh said. "I thought a coach's son would be a better basketball player, but okay."

Rukawa entered the room when everyone was laughing. He looked confused. "I saw you guys leave the court," he said. "Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Sendoh said. "We are heading back now."

The boys left first, shoving each other, but in a playful way, not an aggressive way. They were both still laughing.

"What the hell?" Rukawa asked, when he and Sendoh were alone.

"They are rivals," Sendoh said grinning. "Genkei made the A team. Taki did not."

Rukawa wrinkled his nose. "Then Taki needs to be a better loser"

"Ah, but listen. Genkei's dad is the coach. So maybe skill was not the only thing that helped Genkei."

Rukawa shrugged. "Anyway. We need to get back out there."

"Did everyone see the fight?"

"Probably. But we'll get everyone focused on the right thing. This isn't Camp Taki and Genkei."

"Not yet," Sendoh said, nudging Rukawa. "But maybe they will be the new us, one day."

"Then I'd better warn Genkei not to fall for Taki."

"Oh, are you Genkei?"

"Obviously. He made the A team."

They smiled at each other, and Sendoh leaned in a bit. He couldn't help it. They hadn't had sex all week because Rukawa didn't want his mom to hear, and Sendoh was crawling out of his skin.

Rukawa dodged him. "No way. We're not making that mistake again."

"I like making mistakes with you."

"You can make mistakes on the court. As usual."

"Damn, that was a fun week," Miyagi said to Rukawa on Friday afternoon. "Thanks again for inviting us."

The Kanagawa camp was over, the kids were gone, and it had been, Rukawa was pretty sure, a success. "Of course. Thanks for coaching. You ready to do it again next week in Okinawa?"

"For sure. I had a blast. That surprise appearance by the MVP was great."

"That was all Mitsui, just in case he hasn't made that extremely clear." Rukawa was teasing, but he was touched that Mitsui had used his day with the cup to share it with the camp kids. Rukawa was using his own day next week at the Okinawa camp, and he was grateful that the Kanagawa kids hadn't been left out.

Miyagi laughed. "He mentioned it. Invited us to a party tonight too."

"You gonna go?"

"Sure. How often do you get invited to a street party with the MVP medal?"

"Every time Mitsui wins one."

"Are you going to be there?"

"Um." Rukawa glanced to his left and saw Sendoh approaching. "Maybe. I have other plans but I'm going to try to do both," he lied.

"Are you talking about Mitsui's party?" Sendoh asked.

"Yeah. You wanna go?" Rukawa hoped not.

"And celebrate Shohoku's cup win? Yuck. No."

Rukawa made a show of rolling his eyes, which made Miyagi laugh.

"You guys are kind of adorable," Miyagi said.

Sendoh waggled his eyebrows at Rukawa. "Adorable."

Rukawa's cheeks heated. Had they been too adorable? Maybe they should tone it down.

He took what he hoped was a subtle step away from Sendoh and said, "Have a good night, Miyagi. We'll see you and Ayako in Okinawa."

As if summoned by her name, Ayako appeared at the end of the hallway with Fukuda. When she reached her husband, she kissed him on the cheek and said, "Ready to roll, babe?"

"Yeah. Let's get a nap in so we can party all night, okay?"

Ayako rested her forehead on Miyagi's shoulder. "I am way too old to party all night."

"Until midnight, then."

"Deal."

They smiled at each other lovingly, and Rukawa felt a hot flash of jealousy, followed by the urge to kiss Sendoh in front of everyone. Would anyone here even care? Fukuda already knew...

"Your mom is looking for you," Fukuda said. "She's in the office."

"Right," Rukawa said, shaking off the absurd ideas that had momentarily clouded his brain. He turned and walked quickly toward the office. He was surprised when Sendoh caught up with him a few seconds later.

"Okay?" Sendoh asked.

"Sure," Rukawa said tightly.

Sendoh hummed softly, then, as soon as they were around a corner, grabbed his wrist and tugged him toward an open door. It was one of the locker rooms, dingy and kind of gross and a whole lot like the one they'd first made eyes at each other in, over a decade ago when they'd filmed a commercial together.

Sendoh closed and locked the door, then pressed Rukawa against it.

"Oh," Rukawa said, and then Sendoh was kissing him, hard and with purpose, as if this was a form of physical therapy.

"Better?" Sendoh asked, when they finally pulled apart. Both men were breathing unsteadily. Rukawa's fingers were digging into Sendoh's hip and his shoulder, and Sendoh had one hand tangled up in Rukawa's hair.

"Yeah," Rukawa whispered. "Fuck, I want you so bad."

"It has been a long week," Sendoh agreed.

"Mom's going back to Okinawa now. We'll have the house to ourselves."

Sendoh kissed him again, this time in that filthy way that made Rukawa's toes curl.

Damn, what were they doing? He broke the kiss and said, "Later. Not here."

"Okay." Sendoh stepped back and began to smooth out Rukawa's camp polo.

"This room remind you of anything?" Rukawa asked as he traced a finger along Sendoh's forearm.

Sendoh's lips curved up. "When you were very unprofessional, making that commercial with me."

"After you pointed your boner at me."

Rukawa's mouth fell open. He closed it. Then opened it again. "You were showing off."

"Showing off?"

"Yeah. With all your naked muscles and ass...flexing."

Sendoh laughed. "What?"

"You knew what you were doing."

Sendoh kissed his forehead. "Maybe."

Rukawa rested his head on Sendoh's shoulder, breathing him in and trying not to wonder how things would be different if Rukawa hadn't been unable to control his dick that day in the showers. Would Sendoh be holding him now, more than a decade later, with a tattoo of a loan on his arm?

"I'm glad you're such a show-off," Rukawa said.

Sendoh patted his back. "I am glad you get hard so easily."

"Shut up," Rukawa said, but smiled into Sendoh's neck, relieved that they were both thinking the same thing.

TBC