CHAPTER 7
That was the word going through Rukawa's head- the word that had been repeated again and again in Shohoku lately- as he watched the Champions Cup banner rise to the rafters.
It was his third banner ceremony. His third Champion Cup win. After so many years of barely making the playoffs, Shohoku had a dynasty basketball team again. And there was no reason to be modest- it had started with him.
"Doesn't get boring, does it?" Mitsui said.
They were standing together on the court, the whole team gathered around the trophies they'd won last season, including the Champion Cup. The crowd- a packed house, as always- was roaring with pride as the banner ascended.
"No," Rukawa said.
He loved being a Shohoku. He loved what he and his teammates had accomplished here, and he wanted to keep doing it for the rest of his career. He was an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, but he fully expected to sign with Shohoku again. He didn't even want to look at options. This was his team. These were his fans.
And those were his three fucking Champion Cup banners.
Someday his number would hang from the rafters too. He had no doubt that it would be retired here. He'd earned that. Even if he quit right now, he'd done enough to earn that.
"You know what's even better than three Champions Cups?" Mitsui asked.
Rukawa smiled. "Four Champions Cups."
"Fucking right. Let's get it."
"Let's get in," Rukawa agreed.
Home openers in Okinawa always felt a bit ridiculous.
Like all JBL teams, there was a lot of fanfare: videos projected on the court, a whole light show, lots of ball and loud exciting music. Each player was announced individually as they stepped off a red carpet and onto the court.
When Sendoh had played for Ryonan, the energy in the building had crackled with pride and possibility. The team had been making a promise to the fans to do everything they could to win for them. The fans in Ryonan had expectations; they wanted champions.
Okinawa's home openers were more like a pre-emptive apology. There were no promises being made here tonight, just a lot of fancy lights to distract from the fact that the team was truly terrible and would almost certainly lose this game. And the next one.
Sendoh hated it. The worst part was that it didn't even make sense to him. Okinawa had the elements of a great team, himself included. Their new coach, Benjiro Washi, was untested and very young, but Sendoh liked him already. Fujima was a great goalie, and was regularly stopping forty shots or more to keep them from losing too badly. Sendoh was still scoring plenty of goals, but it wasn't enough. He couldn't be a whole team.
As the captain, Sendoh's name was called last. He stepped onto the court, and the fans went wild. They truly did love him here in Okinawa. It was nice.
He took his place, completing the circle his teammates had made around the logo at center court. The Shohoku logo was one of many baffling things about the team: a cartoon drawing of a Shohoku playing basketball. Sendoh wasn't sure how exactly that would work. It was sort of the perfect representation of Okinawa's team, though: a bunch of things mashed together that had no hope of winning basketball games.
"These poor bastard," muttered Sendoh's linemate, Zito Maru, as he gazed at the crowd through the dry ice and the dim lighting.
"Maybe we will win," Sendoh said.
"Sure. Maybe this will be the season we finally decorate the ceiling of this dump."
Sendoh glanced up at the rafters, where exactly zero Champions Cup banners hung.
"Maybe."
"This was one fucking game," their new coach, Takumi said in his gruff, humourless tone. "We've got a long season ahead of us, so let's not start jerking each other off just yet."
There were murmurs of solemn agreement from the players in the locker room. Rukawa nodded along with them, agreeing with his new coach but wishing he could have used less homophobic wording. After nearly thirty years of a life in basketball, though, Rukawa barely knew what counted as homophobic anymore.
It had been a good game. Shohoku had dominated from the very first minute, and their goalie, Kiminobu Kogure, had only let in one goal. Nearly perfect, really.
"Tomorrow," Coach said, "we're going to talk about the power play because it was a fucking mess tonight. Video meeting before practice. Nine A.M."
There were mutters of "Yes, coach." Rukawa honestly wasn't sure what power play problem was, since they'd only had three power plays and had scored on one of them, but he supposed he'd find out. This team stove for perfection, always. It wasn't easy being a Shohoku, but at least the hard work and sacrifice paid off. Only one team in the league had raised a banner tonight.
He couldn't imagine being on a team like Tendouji, Okinawa. Sendoh rarely complained about it, but Rukawa wouldn't be able to cope with the embarrassment of losing that often. It was a bit disappointing, if he was being honest, that Sendoh didn't care more. He missed actually competing against Sendoh. These days there wasn't much challenge.
"Coach didn't cheer up any over the summer, huh?" Sakuragi said to Rukawa after Takumi left the room.
"He's our coach, not our friend," Rukawa said, somewhat automatically.
Sakuragi nudged him. "You didn't cheer up any over the summer either."
Rukawa scoffed, which didn't make him sound any more cheerful.
Sakuragi laughed and threw an arm around Rukawa's shoulders. "Love you, pal. Wanna get lunch tomorrow after practice?"
Rukawa ducked out from under Sakuragi's sweaty arm. "I have my meals pre-planned for the week."
Sakuragi shot him a withering look. "Can I get takeout and eat at your house? I just want to hang out, you fucking kitsune."
"Oh." Shit. Was Rukawa a terrible friend? Probably. "Sure. Whatever."
"Yeah?" Sakuragi asked. "You sure you're not busy with...you know."
"No," Rukawa said quickly. "We won't see each other for a while."
Sakuragi didn't look too sad about that. "Do you think Tendouji won tonight?" He stood and grabbed his phone off the shelf. "Let's see."
God, Rukawa hoped so.
Tendouji lost, of course. But Luca Hachiro scored his first ever JBL goal in his first ever JBL game, so there was reason to celebrate.
"Not the result we were hoping for," Coach Washi said. His tone was almost apologetic, as if it was his fault they'd lost. As if this team hadn't been losing all the time for basically its entire existence. "But I saw a lot that I liked out there tonight. Fujima, amazing game. Sendoh, can I just say, it's a pleasure to watch you up close. Incredible. And where's Luca?"
Across the room from Sendoh, Luca shyly raised his hand.
"The fucking future right here," Tsuchiya announced loudly, ruffling Luca's short, sweaty hair. He handed Luca the ball and everyone cheered.
Not for the first time, Sendoh wondered why the hell Tsuchiya wasn't the team captain. He was basically the team's social director, head cheerleader, and he'd been a Daiei team since his first JBL game six seasons ago.
Sendoh was a shit captain these days. He barely went out with his teammates, and hadn't gotten to know any of the younger players. He felt like ripping the C right off his own jersey and handling it to Tsuchiya right now.
Sendoh watched his teammates laughing and chirping each other as he began to remove his shoes, feeling a million miles away. He used to be the center of this sort of thing, dancing in the middle of the room to make his teammates laugh. Now he only felt a bone-deep exhaustion that couldn't entirely be blamed on the game he'd just played.
The press entered the room, and Sendoh managed a few basic statements for them. Yes, the loss was disappointing, but he believed in this team and was confident they would turn it around this season.
Mostly the reporters wanted to talk to Luca, which was a relief. Once they'd left Sendoh, he happily pulled his sweat-soaken shirt off and tossed it into one of the laundry hampers.
"Spiky," said a cheerful voice.
"Hiromi," Sendoh said, acknowledging the team's social media manager. "You need a shirtless picture of me for Instagram?"
Hiromi laughed. "I mean, it would get a few likes, I'm not gonna lie."
Sendoh did a couple of silly muscleman flex poses, showing off his biceps. Hiromi jokingly fanned himself.
"Damn, I need to sit down," Hiromi said, plunking himself in the stall next to Sendoh's. "I'm about to swoon."
Sendoh grinned at him. If anyone could improve his mood in a hurry, it was Hiromi. Everyone on the team loved Hiromi, which Sendoh appreciated because Hiromi was openly gay. He wasn't sure Hiromi would have been as warmly accepted in Ryonan. He wouldn't have been invited to team outings, that was for sure.
"Everyone's going to party's after," Hiromi said. "You coming?"
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe."
Hiromi smiled in a way that let Sendoh know that he knew he wouldn't be there. He stood and patted Sendoh's shoulder, which was a bit of a reach for him. He was even shorter than Rukawa. "I'd better get out of here before you take your shorts off and I actually combust."
Sendoh's lips quirked up. "Do you ever work for this team, or do you just hang out in the locker room?"
Hiromi winked at him. "Don't tell anyone."
He crossed the room to talk to Fujima, and Sendoh removed the rest of his stuff and headed for the showers.
Ten minutes later he returned to the locker room, which was quieter than it had been when he'd left. He spotted Luca sitting in his stall, still wearing of his jersey, smiling at his ball. Sendoh secured the towel around his waist and walked over to him.
"We can get that, um..." Sendoh couldn't even remember the right word. "Made like a trophy."
Luca quickly set the ball on the bench beside him, as if he were embarrassed about it. "It is just one goal," he said.
Sendoh sat next to him. "I have mine still, in my trophy room at home."
"That room must be very full," Luca said earnestly.
Sendoh grinned. "Very. But the first goal ball is my favorite."
Luca's cheeks pinked, making him look even younger than he was. "Really?"
"Yes. Because it was the beginning, you know? Soon you will have a room full of JBL balls and trophies, but-" Sendoh picked up the ball "-it all started with this one."
Luca ducked his head. "I wish we had won the game."
Sendoh almost made a joke about how Luca would get used to losing soon, but that wasn't the message he wanted to send to his rookie. "Me too." He poked Luca's arm. "Are you going to party's?"
Luca's eyes went wide. "Are you?"
It hurt Sendoh's heart how badly this kid wanted him to come out with the team. How much it would mean to him. He knew Luca had idolized him growing up; he'd read the interviews.
But Sendoh just...couldn't. Not tonight. He didn't have the energy to even fake it tonight.
"Next time," he said with a weak attempt at a smile.
Later, in bed, Sendoh couldn't get his brain to shut up. It was unfortunate because his brain had nothing nice to say about him.
He knew, rationally, that he wasn't worthless. He was an JBL all-star, the captain of his team, and was beloved by fans. He had a wonderful boyfriend who loved him so much he was willing to endure a lot of stress and sneaking around just to be quite him. He was loved.
But he wasn't sure he deserved to be. He couldn't make himself believe that. Not right now.
He wished Rukawa was with him. They'd only been apart for two days, but Sendoh would give anything to have Rukawa in his arms right now.
Weak. His brain said it in his father's voice. Disgusted and cruel.
Sendoh grabbed his phone off the nightstand. Maybe he was weak, but he needed whatever he could get from Rukawa right now. A sleepy selfie. A good-night text. A heart emoji. Anything.
Early the next morning, Rukawa woke to find a missed text on his phone, sent after one A.M.
Akira: Are you awake?
Rukawa huffed and shook his head. Was Sendoh ever not horny?
TBC
Treeviaseesaw: And thank you for the lovely review, cuties! aww, I was loved to know that you would re-read every chapter of this story. Muahh!!
