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Pay Attention Please
by Annie D

Author's Note: To Ghostwriter, yes, I know there are sooo many RuHana hints in the anime - most of which cause me to squeal, "Just snog him, you idiot!" at the telly. See, it's true! ::wail wail:: Thus it explains why I'm a RuHana shipper, and why I need to write this *$^@&! story even if I still can't find a plot. Can't they just live happily ever after without giving me a headache? Please? ::sigh:: Apparently not...

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to my cousin who decided to complete her Slam Dunk manga collection by buying the last 8 of them in one go when we were at our grammie’s together, thus allowing me to read through her entire collection non-stop.

Chapter 1: Ground Zero, Minus the Zero

The tranquillity of the new morning was about to be broken.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa! I’m late I’m late I’m late!"

A bunch of innocent little birds that had gathered on a pavement block to peck at crumbs of a fallen pastry scattered in a panic as a tall bounding figure with distinctive red hair ran past them.

"I’m late I’m late I’m late!"

He turned the corner sharply, his shoes screeching violently against the pavement.

"K’so! I’m late!"

This specimen is none other than Sakuragi Hanamichi, basketball tensai (so he claims), late for his first day back at Shohoku. He had been an invalid during most of his holidays, much to his frustration, but he had finally been released, was now home, and had planned to make a dramatic entrance at school in front of anyone which had unfortunately (or fortunately) not happened thanks to his faulty alarm clock.

So, with his ridiculously long strides propelling him at super speed, Sakuragi quickly reached his destination: the Shohoku school building, which was now quiet as the students had all retreated into their respective classes for the day.

Not taking a pause even to breathe, he steamed through the gates, into the main school building, up the staircase to the Year 2 floor and scanned frantically for his classroom.

Just then, somebody behind him shouted, "Sakuragi Hanamichi!"

K’so… He slowly turned to see the disciplinary teacher standing down the corridor, tapping his foot impatiently against the floor.

"Late for your first day of school, Sakuragi? I suppose you overslept," the teacher said sarcastically as he slowly walked toward him.

"Hah hah hah, well…" Sakuragi scratched behind his head. "Does it really count? It’s only my first day back and-"

"You have always been a troublemaker, Sakuragi!" the teacher snapped. He had quite a lot of guts to speak to Sakuragi that way, seeing that the sophomore basketball player was more than a foot taller than him and could easily - if he wanted to - fling him out the window by barely twitching a muscle. But Sakuragi, who was already in something of a panic because he had woken up late, luckily forgot to be angry.

"Now get to your class! Over there, now, chop chop!" the teacher snapped, waving his arms. "And don’t let me catch you coming to school late again, or else…"

Sakuragi blinked. "Or else what?"

"Or else…" The teacher narrowed his eyes. "Just go to class, Sakuragi!"

"Hai!" and Sakuragi bounded off to his class.

When he slid open the door, he found himself the recipient of the stares of his seated classmates and the Year 2 English teacher, who smartly did not say anything about his tardiness (he had been forewarned of Sakuragi’s antics).

"Ohayo!" Sakuragi announced cheerfully as he waved at his friends at the back, unaware of how the rest of the class cringed simultaneously at the sound of his over-loud voice. His best friend Yohei had saved him the window seat, which he gratefully dropped into.

"Welcome back, Hanamichi!" whispered Takamiya, who leaned back in his seat to grin at him. "You’re looking good."

"Yeah, how’s the back?" Yohei asked.

"The tensai is in perfect condition once again!" Sakuragi told them. A bit too loudly, as a number of students around them turned to give dirty looks.

Yes… The tensai is finally back! I wonder how the team has been doing since I’ve been away… Oh, poor things, having to cope without the tensai being around… But Haruko-san’s the assistant team manager now, I’m sure she’s been going a great job! Of course, now with the tensai back they will have nothing to worry about anymore…

Unable to control himself, Sakuragi laughed aloud. "Hahahahahahaha!"

Takamiya sweatdropped, Noma and Yuji strived to make it appear that they didn’t know him, the rest of the class either shuddered in shock or scowled in distaste, the teacher just sighed and tried to continue teaching.

"Ayako-san!"

Ayako turned to see Haruko running toward her, eyes bright. "Nandeska, Haruko-chan?"

Haruko stopped in front of her and paused for a moment to gather her breath. She was smiling. "Sakuragi-kun’s back! I just saw him a moment ago."

Ayako smiled, then turned to Ryota. "Hey, hear that, Ryota? Your rebound-o king is back."

Ryota scowled, although it was quite obvious that he was happy with the news as well. "Oh no, just when the team was getting together so well…" He sighed. "He’s gonna make trouble all over again, just like before."

Ayako nudged Ryota in the ribs teasingly. "And how are you going to control him, Ryota? You can’t do Akagi-sempai’s head-bash, can you?"

"That’s what you’re here for, Aya-chan," Ryota replied with a smirk.

Haruko giggled. "Oh, isn’t this wonderful? Now that Sakuragi-kun’s back, we can make up for the loss of Rukawa-kun from the team."

Ryota smirked. "He’d be happy to hear that…"

Now-Captain Miyagi Ryota was certainly right about that last bit, because after school when they gathered in the gym for practice, Sakuragi made a particularly lovely dramatic entrance to make up for his late arrival in the morning - he framed himself in the double doorways of the gym (which was quite effective, considering his height and build), hands on hips, laughing like a madman (which he is, actually).

He struck a pose ala Ultraman coming to save the day. "Have no fear, the tensai is back!"

Pindrop silence followed.

Some of the newer players looked at each other. "Who’s that?"

"Hm?!" Sakuragi stomped up to them, causing a number to shrivel down in terror. "You don’t know who I am? You don’t know the tensai?!" His scary face then switched to a gleeful one as he snatched a basketball from one of the trembling freshmen. "The tensai will show you, newbies."

At the bench, Ayako slapped her hand over her face in frustration.

Haruko smiled weakly at her. "Hasn’t changed, has he?"

And so Sakuragi ran dribbling to a hoop, jumped and did a rather loud slam dunk - the first he’d done in quite a long time and was a little stiff but still impressive all the same. He landed, then turned to look at the stunned freshmen with a smug expression on his face.

"Wow…"

"He jumps so high!"

"Hey wait… I know him!"

Sakuragi smirked. I knew they’d recognise the tensai sooner or later…

"He’s the funny red-head that kept getting disqualified during the Kanagawa trials!"

Wrong thing to say, as the freshman discovered. Ryota had to peel the poor guy off the court floor as Haruko calmed the steaming Sakuragi down. Ayako sighed in the background, waving her paper fan in a nonchalant way.

"Okay, new members, this is Sakuragi Hanamichi," said Haruko.

Sakuragi puffed out his chest proudly, eyes sparkling with touched tears as Haruko the went on about how he was a regular member and quite well-known for his rebounding and defence skills. I’m so happy… Haruko is still so proud of me… I cannot let her down!

"Don’t let it get to your head, Hanamichi," Ryota mumbled, kicking him slightly in the shins. "You haven’t been practising for quite a long time."

"Ryocchin, I know you’re relieved that the tensai is back!" Sakuragi said, patting him on the shoulder. "Don’t need to pretend, I know you were worried I wouldn’t come back in time, right… Heh heh heh… And a few months off hasn’t done anything to the tensai’s POWER! Hahahahahahahaha!"

Ryota shrugged. "Whatever."

And so practice started. Sakuragi was back in his element, enjoying himself immensely now that he had the freshmen to bully ("Just let the tensai control under the basket, I have more experience than you, little newbies, hahahahaha!") and his back was no longer giving him any trouble.

It was about an hour later before Sakuragi finally noticed that something was… well, not exactly wrong, but missing. Kind of like a sound that's constantly in the background, but you don’t notice it’s there until it stops and all you have is silence.

He couldn’t really explain it, because in all appearances everything was all right. Haruko, now assistant team manageress, was spending more time with the team - and helping him personally, heh heh heh - he was back on the court where he belonged (basketball tensai! Yosh!), and even Ryota wasn't bugging him as much because he was teaching the newcomers.

But the gym seemed strangely quiet, even with all the noise around him.

Being the slow person that he was, it was Ayako that had to point out to Sakuragi what was wrong. The team took a five-minute break, and Sakuragi - who didn’t need breaks with his stamina - was tossing a basketball from hand to hand to practice the switch-hand move that Ryota had grudgingly taught him.

"Hey, Hanamichi," said Ayako, striding up to him.

Sakuragi eyed her paper fan carefully. When it became clear that it would not be circulating his head anytime soon, he relaxed and looked at her. "Nani, Ayako-san?"

"So you feeling excited this year?" she asked.

"Shohoku is going to win nationals!" Sakuragi boomed. A few freshmen nearby fell over in the shockwave.

"Very optimistic, that’s great!" Ayako exclaimed, patting Sakuragi gently on the back. She looked at the ceiling innocently then asked in a cheerful voice, "So… How do you think the team’s doing now that Rukawa’s gone?"

"Grrr… Don’t say his name in front of me," Sakuragi growled on reflex. Then suddenly it clicked. "Ooooh yeaaah! That’s why the gym has been so quiet! Those annoying cheerleaders haven’t been around since the kitsune left!"

"That’s true," said Ayako, sighing a little. "Been a bit of a relief."

Ryota walked past and smirked at Sakuragi. "But with you around it doesn’t make much difference since you make more noise than all those cheerleaders combined."

"Say that again, Ryocchin!"

Haruko, who had overhead the conversation, joined them. "You know, I heard that Rukawa-kun’s doing very well in the All-Japan team."

Sakuragi scowled. Stupid kitsune. Even when he's not here he still gets Haruko's attention.

Then Haruko added, "But he hasn’t been made a regular member, yet, though."

Sakuragi’s eyes glowed. "Yessss! See, even the All-Japan admit that the kitsune’s talent is only so-so… They should’ve got the tensai to join - muahahahahaha!" When he stopped laughing, he leaned back against the wall, grinning happily.

Oh yeah, so that’s it, I forgot… The kitsune left the team! No surprise I didn’t notice because the baka was always so useless and quiet anyway. He raised his head and looked around, still grinning. The team is so much better without him. He can no longer hold the tensai back! The kitsune is GONE GONE GONE!

"Hahahahahaha!"

It was a dream come true (so it seemed) for Sakuragi to return to the Shohoku team in full health and without the stupid show-off kitsune hovering around stealing the spotlight all the time. This year was going to be a good year.

Rukawa’s gone. And without him, Haruko’s attention is all mine… He looked at her, smiling like a silly schoolboy boy with a crush (which was exactly what he was, of course). I’m glad the kitsune’s gone, and I won’t ever think of him EVER AGAIN! Things will only get better for the tensai from now on!

So he said.

We know better, right?

-TBC-

This chapter is also known as: Yes, I Know Nothing Interesting's Happening Yet – And It's Not Because I'm a Tease But It's Because I'm Stalling While I Figure Out What Happens Later On.

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