SORRY FOR THE WAIT! Hope you like this chapter. Heheheh. And please don't be shy to tell me your thoughts! (In that line-of-thought, thank you to those vocal readers of mine! I love you)
WARNING: I'll be using present tense now! Sorry for the inconsistency, and do inform me if it sounds weird.
DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Slam Dunkand Kawamura Takashi from Prince of Tennis.
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CHAPTER 11: Preamble
Two days have passed since the whole Mitsui fiasco..., and that means there are five more days left before that blasphemous ban from club activities is lifted. None of the people who has fought have been allowed to even step foot inside the gym outside of P.E. classes, which to some means more free time, and to most a serious punishment. The fact that the public court's currently being repaired... for various reasons... makes it even more the latter.
To Sakuragi Hanamichi, who is currently standing in front of a certain stupidbakakitsune's house, it is both.
Wind passes by her as he stands there like the idiot that (people say) she is, fighting herself whether or not to press that flashy doorbell. Her finger hovers over the button, retreating and approaching, until she finally steps back.
His parents are doctors for goodness sakes! There is no need for her, there. But he has taken that punch for her. There is no honor in doing nothing for him.
She lifts up her hand to stare at the paper bag filled with groceries.
Her sense of responsibility is admirable, she thinks, and she is so proud that she does not notice a frail figure has appeared behind her.
"Hello, miss—"
"EEK!"
Her back is touching the wrought iron gate, then, completely surprised at the woman's sudden appearance and is now as far away from her as she can, given the circumstances.
She has exaggerated (like always) which becomes obvious when her sights clear and she sees the woman's kind and warm appearance. The woman looks at her, obviously about to ask what her business is, but her gaze drops down to Sakuragi's grocery bag and the sudden knowing look on her face automatically makes Hanamichi panic. "I-It's not what you think!"
"Are you here not to visit Kaede-san?"
"W-Well, I am, but—"
"If you go through with it, will he not owe you?"
"AH," At this, Hanamichi's embarrassment is replaced by her characteristic arrogance. "That's right—HAHAHAH"
Maya laughs with her, but mostly because she is amused by the girl's simple-mindedness. But then just as she is about to open the gate, the redhead is already crouching down on the floor, an aura of depression surrounding her. "But he won't owe me, because I owe him..." "I'm just balancing the favors. How boring."
The older woman gingerly pushes the door open, but her eyes never left Hanamichi. She is very intrigued. "How do you owe him, Sakuragi-san?"
"He... took a punch for me," she says shyly before abruptly standing up, starling the woman. "I'd hate to owe that guy anything, so..."
"I understand." The woman says, but somehow Hanamichi could hear her giggling. "Please come in."
And she does, indeed. She doesn't announce herself though and only takes off her slippers where she must and marvels at how soft the interior slippers are. She makes a mental note that she'll definitely make her mother buy this sort of house slippers.
She lifts her head and takes her attention away from the fluffy footwear as she goes deeper into the house, following the old woman's back silently. She hears audio of cheers and announcements, which gradually becomes louder. They reach the large house's living area some time later and the first thing she sees is the back of his head. She sees a glimpse of that blue textile that supports his cast as well.
As expected, he's watching basketball games, those set in the U.S., and she wonders for a moment if he has dreamed of playing there. Her shoulders drop softly as the thought pass by her head. Silently, she walks to behind the sofa and leans down a bit.
"Psst," she says and he turns, only to have his cheek rudely met with a certain idiot's pointing finger. "Yo."
He is surprised—she almost always never fails to do so—but, like every other time, the only thing that could've given him away is the slight widening of his eyes.
His eyebrows meet and he immediately looks around the room for someone that is not this Idiot and he sees Maya, bright and definitely full of herself for having part in catching him off-guard. He silently swears to make her laundry a bit more difficult to clean.
"What do you want?" he asks with a sharp tone, turning his head back to the television and pretending not to care what her answer is.
She lifts the paperbag she's holding in response, and flops it down to the cushion beside him. He tries to ignore the fact that she's now leaning on the back rest, very close to his shoulder. Before she explains what the hell is in the bag, he mentally calls her an Idiot a dozen times.
She frowns, as if hearing his thoughts, but surprisingly does not voice it out. Instead, she opens the bag to reveal its contents. Inside the bag are various foods like salmon, yogurt, and huge amounts of green vegetables. As the son of doctors, he is aware that they were food to help him heal his bones. He pushes down that surge of something sappy and looks up. "I'm impressed that an like idiot you know this."
Maya flinches at this, much like that time in the courts all those years ago. "Kaede!" She yells, and is obviously about to add that he shouldn't be so rude. But looking at his teammate, who's wearing a smug look on her face, he has no doubt he offended no one but Maya with the comment. This Idiot probably does not hear anything more after the word 'impress'.
"This genius knows many things," is what she says and he sighs, not surprised at all. But he finds his head gravitating to look at her—still barely a feet or so away from him—and he realizes that her gaze has been fixed on the paper bag beside him (noting in the back of his head how she has unusually long eyelashes, one of the many abnormal things about her, which isn't obvious because of its color and lustre). And do all redheads radiate so much body heat?
She is looking at it with gentleness that she almost never wears and he knows it has something to do with her father.
"You're not going to make me soup, are you?" he quips, rather rhetorically. He does not expect her to actually grin at this.
"You should grovel at my feet and yell your thanks. The great me makes the best soup!"
She's probably exaggerating like always, so he shrugs, wordlessly telling her to do what she wants.
.
.
He has never been so wrong.
But it's too late. His eyes are already wide, empty spoon frozen in his mouth and, even for just that instant, the Idiot has seen it. That pompous grin on her face is unmistakable. "Admit it," she teases. "I even added carrots, because Maya says you like it."
He gives her a pointed look, commanding each of his facial muscles not to betray him. And they don't. "Not bad," is all he says and Maya only smiles from behind the Idiot. Apparently, he has given a compliment.
He is surrounded by idiots, he thinks, and he stands up to purposely ignore them both. "I'm going to my room."
However, as he walks to the stairs, and takes his first few rises, he turns to look at the Idiot who seems to be following his tracks. "Where are you going?"
"I wanna see! I bet its messier than mine."
His step almost falters. Almost. "Are you an idiot?"
"What?"
"Girls your age shouldn't enter guys' rooms so leisurely," he says just as they reach the landing. "Stop being a sissy," she retorts. "Besides, i'm used to it. I go to Yohei's room all the time."
This makes him stop walking, getting the Idiot to bump onto him. "What?" She mumbles angrily while Rukawa just stares at her, ignores the proximity, before turning away with a sigh. He enters his room unceremoniously and flops onto his bed, pretending that she isn't in there at all.
Hanamichi, on the other hand, is impressed. Every boys' rooms she has been in (which is to say members of her gang and a few old friends back in the day) has been unruly in one way or another. Rukawa's room is neat and unexpectedly light, although in retrospect modern styled room fit him quite well. (It would've been funny if it's frilly though, seeing as he has a pink bike and all...) It must be because of his housekeeper. Lucky jerk.
But a bigger part of her knows that Maya probably don't touch anything in this room at all. Rukawa's actually a neat freak, which isn't a very big surprise for someone who will likely become a doctor in the future.
She walks across the room, eyeing the impressive amount of books on basketball and medicine lining the bookshelves as she goes. Rukawa is always asleep in class, she wonders what he does during the night—
She stops herself and freezes, her head whipping to look at Rukawa on the bed. He's trying to sleep, apparently (what a bad host), so she just shrugs and continues on surveying the room, until she reaches the large window he has at the end. She's surprised at what she sees.
"You have a basketball court inside your house?"
Rukawa takes away the arm that's covering her eyes and slightly leans up to look at the Idiot staring out the window. She obviously wants to try it out, but she will never admit it. He also knows that the park's basketball court is under improvements since that morning (he thinks it's her fault for dunking and playing rough in there after the fight in the gym, not that she knows someone else is aware of this).
"It's top-of-the line," he drones out a lie. "Don't try to smudge it with your idioticness."
"Why you—" but she stops herself and she just crosses her arms in defiance. "I'll show you a player that a court will be happy to have!"
...
The Idiot practically drags him down, saying she can't use the court without him in there because that's ill-mannered and a tensai like her knows a lot about manners.
"Mitsui," he utters out the moment they step on court. "What happened to him is similar to what happened to you." He states those words in an uncaring tone of voice and she wonders where that has come from, but she shrugs.
"Wrong." She tells him. "First of all, I would not want this on my greatest enemy—which happens to be you, by the way." "And second—he's completely healed for two years now. That jerk. Makes me want to beat him up."
Her posture changes then, apparently about to throw her free shot. But she ends up using an odd stance with her legs far apart and she looks as if she'll be throwing laundry on the laundry basket. The shot goes in though, to his surprise.
"You didn't learn how to do free shots?" he asks, which is a lie since they have had a free throw competition not too long ago.
"This is the first way I learned, and more comfortable." she tells him just as some sort of sparkle of confidence seem to float beside her. "And it looks cool."
No, it doesn't. But that's too many words and he's too lazy to voice it out. So instead, he utters the easiest word to utter. "Baaaa-ka."
Her eyes twitched at this but they are interrupted by Maya calling from inside the house. "You have a call!" She says. "It's from your father."
It is a video call and from their reactions, Sakuragi knows they do this all the time. Still..., do all rich people use large flat screen televisions for video calls?
And more importantly: How can someone with such a serious apathetic face and baritone voice speak so quickly?
"We got a call from your school." "So it is true." "How's your arm? And your head? And everything else? "
With the same stoic face, Rukawa replied: "It's nothing serious. I will recover in a few days."
"My son has turned to a hooligan." The older Rukawa states with certainty, barely a muscle shifting in his face. "Is this what people call the rebellious phase? But isn't this lasting for too long?" Then he shook his head. "You could've lost the arm you need to perform surgeries in the future!"
Rukawa does not say a word. "Say something!"
Hanamichi sighed. Rukawa's dad is a nag, a very intimidating nag. But she really wasn't one who can stay quiet after so many words have been spat. "He doesn't talk much," she says as she enters the viewport of the camera.
The older Rukawa only stared at her. Now that he is staring directly at her, she is suddenly reminded of Dracula. "Who are you?"
"I'm his rival."
"Rival?" Dracula repeats. "Where?"
"In everything."
"You sound like you might hate him." Rukawa sighs, expecting to hear some vehement and idiotic-sounding affirmation of sorts. But Hanamichi doesn't do so.
"I don't," she says with such nonchalant sternness that forces him to face her. "He has that injury because he shielded me from a punch." "Despite being annoying, he turned out to be a decent guy."
"Is that so?" Dracula finally utters after a long pondering silence. "Anyway, I'll be returning home soon," he says with a sigh. The younger Rukawa sighs as well, as 'soon' is equivalent to a month or so. "Your mother will, as well." Dracula then adds, which means they'll return for even longer.
"I hope you get your act up by then." Dracula says dismissively, throwing Hanamichi a look. "Bye."
And the television returned to the international basketball channel, just in time for to see the star player missing a shot.
...
Maya has forced her to stay for dinner. She and Rukawa, as they wait, watches the television in complete silence. During dinner, Maya has done most of the talking. She is a very nice woman, Hanamichi notes, and she wonders she'd have to be—to last with this baka-kitsune for so long.
"Your father's talkative. I guess your wordlessness came from your mother?"
He glares at her. It's a sensitive topic.
Hanamichi doesn't know the circumstances, but she somehow knows the reply.
"Well, at least you have Maya."
...
After dinner, as she helped wash the dishes, Hanamichi finds out from Maya that Rukawa's parents aren't divorced, but they are separated. They have been drifting apart for as far as they can remember.
Maya even shares the fact that they have cheated on each other countless times during their separate travels with their respective organizations, and so far he's sure his mother's currently with another man. The only thing keeping them from divorcing is the fact that divorce is much too messy.
Hanamichi clears her throat, unsure of why Maya is telling her so much. She is uncomfortable, yet she is a bit... flattered... which in turn makes it even more uncomfortable.
Maya only smiles knowingly, as if proud of the awkwardness she had caused in the red-head's heart. They spoke of trivial things from then on, but Hanamichi does not absorb a single thing.
Half-an-hour later, it is finally time for her to leave. She feels tired, but it is the sort of fatigue that happens when one accomplishes great a many things. Still, she is eager to leave and gather her thoughts at home but—Maya stops her... again.
"Wait!" Maya yells and Hanamichi is seriously considering to pretend not to hear. "Show her out, Kaede!"
"What?"
"Just do it!"
"Tsk."
He does so, in the end, albeit he literally drags him feet across the floor, and they do reach their destinations—not that they haven't had those urge to punch or trip each other every step of the way. Rukawa halts his steps by the gate, and she does too. For a moment, she has thought he'll turn around without a word. Instead, he only stares at her, with a barely visible but mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Decent, eh?"
She blushes, and for a moment he has expected her to retract her words. But she doesn't. "Otherwise you won't be worthy of being my rival."
He pats her head and shows her an expression she doesn't know he is capable of making, his eyes wearing a glint reminiscent of that time in the rooftop—only it's a lot more obvious this time.
"Thanks," he tells her quickly and it somehow turns into a warm moment—and she smiles despite herself—but then he seems to have realized this, and his gaze turned to the usual unnerving ones, just before he abruptly turns away.
"D'aho."
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END OF CHAPTER 11
Coming Soon:
CHAPTER 12: Misunderstandings
Mito inadvertently causes a chain of some very weird misunderstandings
REPLIES TO ANGELS
Hikaru Itsuko – I'm back! Sorry I update this story so slowly. Would be great if the fandom livens up again. T_T Anyway, thx for reviewing and I am so happy you love this so far! *hugs*
BloodyFangKing95 – Thank you for reviewing! And I shall do my best to keep up the good work. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. :D
Hopelessromantic – Hi Kabayan~! Haha. Super glad I made your day, and I hope I can somehow continue doing that. I hope they remake the anime tho! The show is too golden. We must let the next generation know of its brilliance! xD Thank you for reviewing btw and hope you enjoy this too!
ErgophobiaVictim9008 – Double yay for the fact that you liked it, despite it taking forever! xD And thank you for reading and reviewing! Much appreciated~!
Kawaiishiella – Here it is! Not nearly as soon as I hoped but here it is! Haha. Hope you like this one as well, and thank you for reviewing! *brofist*
Mrsklemzak74 – lolol I really considered making this a massive harem. xD But I realized he and Ayako look great together so I will end up shipping them. Haha. And you'll re-read the earlier chaps? I'm flattered and happy and I hope you don't like them less (since you'll definitely see more faults lol). Thx for the review btw!
Arcana The Wolf – It is going to update! Unfortunately it doesn't have a fixed update time *sobs* but I definitely have plans at least for many more chapters. And I AM HONORED indeed! Haha. It's sooo hard to type with iPad, may the force be with your fingers! xDDD thx for reviewing~
Roe2 – Hi there! Haha. I'm soo happy you decided to check this out, and you even liked it Kabayan! xD And yay! Slam Dunk and Prince of Tennis FTW. Hahaha. Finally, thank you so much for the review~! :D And oh, btw, did you delete your other stories? Pity, they're all very lovely.
Lunary – Thank you for reviewinG~! XD Some SakuxSendoh scenes coming up next chap! But unfortunately nowhere near as many as you would've wanted. I'll try to add more in the future tho, but pls enjoy this chap regardless!
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Thanks for reading!
And do know that telling me your thoughts—now matter what they are—is my greatest motivator.