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A Conversation in the Bleachers
by Annie D

Author's Note: Probably takes part in the same universe as my other RuHanaRu ficlets, which means that Rukawa and Sakuragi are already an item. Also, in this universe Sakuragi is still playing for Shohoku, while Rukawa is not. Why? Just because.

Dedication: Phillip’s other half, because you are a fanfic darling, yes you are. ::kiss::

Disclaimer: I do not own Slam Dunk. Yet somehow, life goes on.

It was very different, Rukawa realised, when he was watching a game rather than playing in it. Well of course he had been a spectator for many basketball games before, but they weren’t like this. They didn’t cause his heart to ram against his ribcage, or his fingernails to drive themselves into his palms, or his stomach to twist into inconceivable knots.

“Oh my god, Shohoku stole the ball!” someone behind him screeched.

Rukawa was just barely able to prevent himself from jumping out of his seat. Just barely.

“Run, red-head, run!” another spectator behind him shouted. “Run, dammit! What the hell are you doing?!”

He’s doing the best he damn well can, so shut up. Yet Rukawa kept his mouth closed, and not only because he was grinding his teeth together.

When the red-head of interest approached the attacking zone, Rukawa felt a collective hush fall on his neighbours. His breath caught in his throat, and then—

Bzzzt!

“Half-time!” someone behind him shrieked. The crowd almost seemed to exhale in unison.

Behind him, the guy’s friend cursed. “That has got to be one of the most… Man, I don’t even know how to describe it! Dude, that was some serious playing there…”

“You’re telling me. I can’t even feel my fingers.”

Rukawa allowed himself to settle back down into his seat as much as he could. Shutting his eyes, he let his mind drift back into the efficient calmness that it was more accustomed to. And while doing so, he carefully unlocked his jaw and massaged the joint where it was the most sore. Honestly, it was as though he were just—just some common spectator. Which he wasn’t, not by a long shot.

He opened his eyes just in time to see the red-head wave his arms frantically at the coach as they were leaving the court. Arguing about something, as he usually did. Rukawa smiled internally.

“That was a great first-half, wouldn’t you say?” someone beside him said.

It took Rukawa a moment to realise that he was the target of the question. “Hm?” He turned.

“I said, great first-half, eh?” There was a lady in the next seat, and her eyes were sparkling as they focused on him. She was much older than him, but not old enough to have lost the rose in her cheeks. She had a little Shohoku flag in one hand, which she waved at him childishly. “I haven’t been this riled up since… Since whenever. But anyway, what do you think? How about the red-head, eh? What was his name again…?”

“Sakuragi,” Rukawa said. His expression made it clear that had no intention of continuing the conversation, but the lady didn’t seem to mind.

“Right, right, Sakuragi Hanamichi,” she said, nodding. “He’s one great player. Wasn’t his debut just last season? I missed most of it, but I heard the stories. Boy, those were some stories. A very wild player, they said, unpredictable. Would occasionally make stupid mistakes, but he always made up for them and then some.”

Rukawa knew that. Of course he knew. He’d been watching all along. And for reason.

“I’ve never seen such life in a person before, and I’m not just talking about in basketball players, mind,” the lady chatted on happily. “That guy… I’ve been watching his games, and it’s difficult not to develop some sort of mental chart of the guy. Not that I’m assuming stuff, of course, but just seeing what’s there, yes? And I can see that he’s always optimistic, always looking up and forward, always ready to tackle whatever challenge is before him. A boy like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were popular with the ladies.”

Rukawa’s eyes flashed briefly, but he said nothing.

“That team manager girl looks pretty close with him,” the lady continued, seemingly oblivious to the way Rukawa’s shoulders had stiffened at her words. “You can see by the way they talk to each other, even on the bench.” The lady, despite her age, let out a small giggle. “Oh, now I’m being silly, but I reckon that she’s going to be his girlfriend, if she isn’t already.”

“He’s with someone else,” Rukawa found himself saying.

“Oh?” the lady was surprised. “I haven’t heard anything about that, but then again I haven’t exactly been around the latest basketball gossip and all that. Are you sure about that? Do you know who it is? Hey, how would you know about that sort of thing, do you know him personally or something?”

Or something. Rukawa let out a little puff of exhalation.

“Don’t leave me in suspense,” the lady urged, poking his shoulder gently with the stick of her flag. “Is she in the stands? Is she somewhere supporting him? Do you know her? Do you know him? Do you know Sakuragi Hanamichi personally? Are you in his school? Hm?”

By then, Rukawa already felt like slapping the lady for her badgering. Some people just didn’t know that when the other half of the supposed conversation was pointedly looking anywhere but at them, that meant that they weren’t interested. At all.

“So, do you know him, then?” the lady pressed, her gleeful face a little too close for comfort.

If only to shut her up, he answered. “He’s my boyfriend.”

There was a stunned silence, which made Rukawa surprisingly proud of himself. He was just about to sigh with relief when the lady picked up the thread.

“I see,” she said, though her voice was considerably less chirpy. “I see. Well. I must say, I didn’t see that one coming. You been together long?”

Long enough. Rukawa gave a non-committal shrug.

“That’s really something.” To Rukawa’s horror, the lady regained the pace of her chattiness. “Really something. Surprising. Don’t worry, I won’t mention it to anyone. I know how some people frown upon that sort of thing among athletes. Perception, misconception, that sort of thing, blast my limited vocabulary. And here he is, a rising star of local basketball, I never would’ve thought. Some people—”

“People do not matter,” Rukawa said softly. “Our choice is our choice.”

“You really believe that?” the lady asked, her tone keeping the innocent inquiry. “The public eye. The public thought. They won’t matter?”

Rukawa was silent. That was a topic that had been skirting the outside of his thoughts more often lately, and he’d found it easier to avoid it. The nosy lady’s questioning annoyed him, but it drew a twinge of fear from the pit of his stomach. She would be first of many nosy people, the first of many whom would question them…

“They may matter,” Rukawa said. “But we’ll overcome.”

“I’ve seen many relationships fall apart because of that kind of pressure,” the lady said, and there was a hint of sadness in her voice. “So many people hurt. And they all say the same thing afterward, the exact same thing, I tell you, and that is that it would have been much better if they had never gotten together in the first place.”

“No!” Rukawa hissed, staring straight ahead. “I don’t believe that.”

“There will be backlash,” the lady said, her eyes wide as the topic plunged on. “More so that he’s got the spotlight on him. I can’t imagine the things they’d say about him. I mean, you’re okay, you’re the boyfriend, but he’s the star athlete, the rising basketball man and it’ll be like, can he handle it, I wonder?”

The fear bubbled. Fear that Sakuragi, his Sakuragi, might be hurt because of their relationship. Careers and basketball did not seem as important as… He’d never seen it as a problem, but it would be. Eventually, even if he ignored them. Stupid lady, mind your own business. But oh, the public will make it *their* business, won’t they? An involuntary shiver worked its way through his spine as worst-case scenarios unfolded themselves in the darkness of his mind.

Rukawa shut his eyes, and behind his eyelids he remembered. Mental polaroids, he called them. Images caught in the stillness of his memory… Kisses, hugs, touches, whispered words…

“What we have is worth it,” Rukawa said. “Worth anything they can throw at us. And, with all due respect, please shut up.”

The lady was annoyingly undaunted. “He must be really something, then?”

“He’s special,” Rukawa said, just barely above a whisper. There must have been something in his tone of voice, because the lady fell silent. And it wasn’t just a thinking silence in which she was just conjuring up more nosy questions and comments for him, but a kind of silence where she had finally realised that there was nothing to say on the matter. Rukawa tried not to visibly relax with relief, in case that would induce her to continue chattering.

A loud creaking noise signalled that the doors had opened and the two teams were returning back to the court at the end of half-time. Rukawa gave a little sigh, and suppressed a smile when he saw Sakuragi step out into the court and head to the team bench.

Sakuragi seemed to sense him, and he turned. When his brown eyes spotted Rukawa in the crowd, they lit up instantaneously. Carefully, he raised up a hand and flexed his fingers outward in an almost shy little wave.

Rukawa opened his palm in a stiff non-wave. His blue eyes said all that needed be said, and Sakuragi beamed happily at the sight of them.

Worth every bit.

Just then, Sakuragi’s eyes shifted, and his mouth formed an ‘o’. His right hand, which had been preoccupied with the Rukawa-wave, suddenly shot upward in a frantic different kind of wave. He started jumping up and down.

What the… Rukawa turned, and saw that the lady next to him was waving at Sakuragi.

“Ganbatte, Hana-kun!” the lady shouted.

Sakuragi nodded. Then he started pointing at Rukawa. “That’s him!” he mouthed.

The lady nodded. “I know!”

Rukawa just scowled at the lady, wordlessly demanding an explanation.

The lady just grinned at him. “Hello. I am Mrs Sakuragi, Hanamichi’s mother. Pleased to meet you, Rukawa-kun.”

Rukawa’s mouth dropped open. Oh shit?

“I’m sorry for my prying,” she said as she placed a gentle hand on Rukawa’s shoulder. “But you can understand the concern of a parent, can’t you? Hanamichi’s not exactly fragile, but he’s not exactly unbreakable either. And there will be plenty of situations in the future that would require great strength of heart. He cannot stand on his own, though he’d never admit it. So I just wanted to know whether…” Suddenly she grinned, her eyes sparkling with the confident warmth he saw was almost identical to Hanamichi’s own. “But let’s not dwell on that now. We ought to concentrate on the game, right?”

Rukawa nodded dumbly.

“Oh, and by the way,” Mrs Sakuragi said, “I expect you to join me and Hanamichi for dinner afterward. I want to know more about this strange kitsune who’s stolen my son’s heart, and yes there will be more prying. Will you join us? You may nod. Marvellous, I knew my son had good taste.”

-FIN-

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