Warning: Shounen-ai, yaoi, BL & fluff.

Story # 01: "Substitute"

"Oi Sendoh!"

The Ryonan gym looked deserted.

Uncertain, Kaede Rukawa took another step inside and scanned the vast empty space. Deciding to step inside further to explore, he nearly jumped at the loud rumble of the main door closing. The Shohoku Ace wheeled and there, standing by the doorway eyeing him, was Akira Sendoh. That self-confident smirk ever-present on his face, and it always slightly ruffled him. A year into their friendship and suddenly these looks –speaking volumes in a language he wasn't familiar with- always making the younger boy feel like he was being scrutinized… very intimately. It was similar to the preying look he got from his avid stalkers –only this was Sendoh; And that made it entirely something else somehow…

So Rukawa just stood there, with his usual silent defiance. It usually intimidated everyone else. Except Sendoh. It only seemed to amuse him. But then he suddenly became aware of the Ryonan captain's attire: not his basketball jersey. Not anything sports-like. Not even close. Didn't Sendoh tell him to come here to the gym to play basketball?

Unless, he planned to play… in a tuxedo.

Before he could comment about how he didn't find practical jokes like this the least bit funny, and how whoever moron even dared pull it off on him usually ended up hurt badly, the well-dressed object of his growing annoyance walked up to him and nudged a bouquet of flowers under his nose.

Flowers…?

The cheeky Ryonan Ace was certainly going a bit too far with this joke, and it wasn't even April Fool's. Not that it would make this prank less annoying if it were…

"Nandayo?" Rukawa plainly said, his expression unfazed.

"Dou desu ka?" Sendoh returned. Which wasn't really the answer he was expecting. If it was even an answer at all.

Rukawa continued to look detached, but of course Sendoh knew by now that he was traipsing along the lines of peeved.

"Do you think my date will like it?"

'Date?' Came the mental echo in the fox-eyed boy's mind.

Just what was Sendoh playing at? If this was his lame idea of a joke, it was going from 'lame' to 'downright f*cked up' real fast, even by a clown's standards. What did he ever do to deserve to be made the brunt of this distasteful joke? He half expected Sendoh's teammates to pop out of nowhere any time now and laugh at his bewilderment. Not that he was going to stand around and give them the satisfaction.

But Sendoh looked dead serious even with that insufferable grin plastered on his face; And somehow that didn't help his waning patience. Deciding he didn't have enough left to spare waiting for Sendoh to explain himself, he pushes the bouquet away and turns on his heel with a petulant, "Kaeru."

"Matte!"

Rukawa pulled his arm out of the other's grasp just as quickly as it took Sendoh to grab it.

"Hey Rukawa-kun, why are you in such a bad mood?"

"Why?!" Seriously, this porcupine-yarou could be so dense sometimes! "This is why." Rukawa held up the ball to eye level. "You called me out here, to play basketball."

"I know." Sendoh said, looking desperate for a moment. "But you wouldn't have come otherwise!"

"Oh!" Rukawa scoffed. "Well your plan worked, congratulations! I'm leaving."

But he found himself held fast. The porcupine-bastard was strong when he wanted to be.

"Sorry okay? I have this… "girl problem", and need your help."

Rukawa gave him the most unsympathetic look he could muster. "You need "my" help about "a girl"? Yeah right… usotsuki!"

"It's you she likes." Sendoh said simply. Resignedly. "You are all we ever talk about."

Though still ruffled, that unexpected bit of information made Rukawa pause.

"The way your hair is so perfect it didn't need fixing; The way your eyes twinkled like constellations reflected off the face of the night sea; The way your voice never goes beyond sotto, yet always powerful enough to bring an entire bleacher of fans to their knees… It's funny…" Sendoh looked woefully away from the fox-eyed boy and down to the flowers he held. "But it took her to make me realize, what I've been feeling all along…"

Rukawa felt a jolt beneath his rib cage –a mixture of sudden fear and excitement he couldn't place… He swallowed the lump growing in his throat in an effort to calm his heart down.

"She saw so clearly, so fearlessly, what I couldn't. She was brave enough to love someone with all her heart, even if she knew the chances of that person loving her back was zero to none. I knew… from the moment I asked her to start going out with me, that it was you she really liked, and she told me so…" A hollow laugh. "She did… But I… I told her I didn't mind. Looking back, maybe it was even the reason I became attracted to her in the first place. It made the feelings I tried so hard to repress, easier to bear, when someone else was expressing them for me… we were similar, only very different. The difference is, she never gave up, whereas I never even tried. Compared to her, I am nothing… but a coward."

Rukawa's confusion was evident now. The lump in his throat seems to have wedged itself in his chest, and was expanding with each word that Sendoh uttered… it was getting so hard to breathe…

"We broke up this morning." Sendoh continued, his grip on Rukawa's arm getting painfully tighter; A stark contrast to the uncharacteristic wavering resignation in his voice. "I thought that if… If I… "distracted" myself enough… pretended those same feelings didn't exist in me, then I wouldn't have to deal with it… that it would go away eventually… but… it didn't."

"What the hell do I have to do with any of this?" Rukawa finally hissed through gritted teeth.

"She said she'd only forgive me… if I promised I would never do it again." Sendoh grabbed both Rukawa's shoulders, and met his blue eyes pleadingly. "That I would never again, try to find a substitute for the one I truly wanted; That I would stop wasting any more time letting the one I was in love with slip away…"

Rukawa blinked. Frustration and stupefaction royally rumbling in the pit of his gut. "What the hell are you saying kono do'ahou?! I don't get why you need my approval to confess to the one—"

A kiss to his cheek drowned the acerbity of his words in his throat, and Rukawa's blue eyes were wide when Sendoh found them again, as if they were now utterly convinced the latter had gone mad.

"Will you… please go out with me, Rukawa-kun…?"

When Rukawa's eyes only grew wider, Sendoh added…

"Ah… preferably some place more romantic than the basketball court… I made a reservation at that fancy Italian restaurant you always go on forever about wanting to try… It cost a month's worth of my allowance, so you have to say yes."

Rukawa remained mute for what seemed like minutes. Trying to sort out and make sense of all the information he just unwillingly received. He was never good at these things so he didn't have much success. Finally, he spoke up, "You got stood up by your date… and… want me to fill in… is that what this is all about?"

Sendoh laughed then cleared his throat. "Well, that… kind of… depends… What I really want to say is…" He bent down and whispered into his companion's ear, "I love you, Rukawa-kun…" Then straightening up, he searches the other's eyes for a moment before saying, "So are you going to stand me up?"

Sendoh manages to slip the bouquet of flowers into Rukawa's hands, who looks down at the lovely bunch to find his name scrawled in the note attached. And before he could protest, Sendoh gives him another soft kiss on the cheek, just barely grazing the corner of his mouth. Rukawa's eyes flutter shut at the sudden mind-numbing sensations that flood through him, a soft gasp escaping him. Before he knew what was happening, the world was spinning even faster, as the taller boy finally makes his intention unmistakable, with a gentle, but passionate kiss… this time to his lips.

Rukawa didn't pull away, nor was he completely unresponsive. Sendoh inwardly rejoiced that he got the response he was so fervently praying for (and even so much more!). He was almost sure he had died and gone to heaven when the younger boy leaned closer to him, ever so slightly, tentatively… returning his wooing kisses with the innocence of a child. By the time they broke apart, they were both quite breathless and flushed.

A bright big smile playing on the Ryonan Ace's face.

To which the Shohoku Ace's cheeks tinted a shade deeper. "You are such an idiot."

"C'mon, love," Sendoh latched his arm around Rukawa's shoulders and started leading him away. "I have a tuxedo ready for you in the locker room… I promise we'll play after our dinner date… any game you want."

Rukawa elbowed him in the ribs, muttering more profanities.

Sendoh's hearty chuckles echo off the gym walls.

The basketball, forgotten.

Notes:

Conceptualized sometime 2005
Completed on 05/10/2014
x-posted: dA & AO3: MarieFolie