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Pay Attention Please
by Annie D

Author's Note: I am very much aware of the various technical bugs in my story. Look, it's a fanfic. Ignore the bugs. I do. PS: Nina........ T_T You scare me.

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to my friend and fellow RuHana shipper San-chan, who squeals whenever Rukawa "valiantly goes to Sakuragi’s rescue". Whee~!

Chapter 2: A Little Reflection On the Situation

Far, far away in the training centre of the All-Japan team, Rukawa Kaede was facing a problem of his own, although he wasn’t fully aware of it yet. And no, it had nothing to do with Sakuragi… mostly.

"Rukawa!"

He caught the ball and dribbled it carefully, eyes darting to the players around him. It was a practice game for the junior members of the All-Japan Highschool Level, a clique into which Rukawa had been placed. When he had first arrived for the team he hadn’t expected any special treatment despite Shohoku’s success in the nationals the previous year, and no special treatment was exactly what he got.

I will be the best… I will be the best… I will be the best…

Rukawa charged through the defense wall and leapt to make a jump shot. It sailed over the head of the player that had jumped to block him, and fell into the hoop almost lazily.

Rukawa landed, and a moment later felt a hand pat him on the shoulder.

"Nice one, Rukawa-san, but you need to brush up on your reflexes," said the coach. "You’ve been losing your concentration lately."

Rukawa nodded calmly, but mentally he cursed.

It was a Big Deal if the coach made a helpful comment like that, because that meant he was not perfect. And being less than perfect meant not being able to make the starting line-up of the team - the goal that had eluded him since his arrival, and seemed to be out of reach no matter what he did.

The competition was all good and well, since all the other players vying for acceptance on the starting line-up were just as intense as he was, if not more. Quite a number were strong and silently dedicated just like Rukawa was, which was a strange change from the atmosphere of Shohoku High and regular highschool basketball, where no matter how intense a game could be, it was still a game. Here, at the All-Japan, basketball was no longer a game. It was life.

As Rukawa and the other players on his team moved into defense mode for the opposing team’s attack, his mind started to, against his will, brush off the dust from his collected memories of his days with Shohoku.

Rukawa didn’t like to reminisce. He had barely any memories of childhood, elementary school and junior high, other than the basketball games which he needed to remember in order to learn from. Rukawa had never been down memory lane, nor had he even seen the signboard that would show him how the hell to get there. Yet suddenly the proposition to look for a map seemed quite appealing.

One of his teammates, a tall muscular guy with a buzz cut got the ball and started dribbling quickly for a fast break.

As Rukawa ran alongside for the attack, he immediately thought that had this been Shohoku, the player would have shouted, "Fast break!" But not here… Not for the junior members, where competition was fierce to become regular members. It wasn’t good enough to better than the other team, you had to be better than your teammates. And that meant playing for yourself, and yourself alone.

I want to be number 1!

After some near-violent but still silky-smooth tapping and steals between various players, Rukawa eventually got his hands on the ball. He immediately jumped and made a fade-away shot that sailed in.

He landed and waited to see whether the coach would have any comments. Nope. Did that mean his play didn’t need criticism or did it mean that his play wasn’t worthy of praise?

A few other players gave him dirty looks before turning away.

That was another thing about playing with them. You couldn’t make friends. Perhaps once on the actual team and with teammates that were secure about their positions it could be possible, but not here when your position (if you had any in the first place) was still uncertain. Survival of the fittest. The weak shall perish and the strong shall survive. (But since when did Rukawa Kaede need friends?)

I am one of the strong. I shall move on. I shall be number 1 in Japan.

After a few minutes, Rukawa was removed from the game to let another player have a go. As he sat down on the bench with a towel around his neck, his brain - which under normal circumstances would have just done the whole tape-recorder number 1 number 1 number 1 - decided, for some strange reason, that this was the perfect time for reflection.

Here, basketball was cold.

Everything was so cold, and so impersonal. None of the players gave a rat’s ass about each other, unless it was to their own advantage. Even the coach didn’t look at them as people - just as players, tokens for a chess game on a basketball court. Choose the strong pieces, stamp on the weak.

Damn. Welcome to memory lane, Rukawa Kaede.

Shohoku. They had all cared. Really cared. While basketball had still been just a game, the team had definitely NOT been just a team. They were family. A dysfunctional family, yes, but a family all the same. Akagi, the protective and strict father, watchful over his offspring - even the troublesome ones like Ryota, Mitsui and Sakuragi.

Oh no, you just had to think about *him*, didn’t you?

Sakuragi Hanamichi… Rukawa had never really understood why Sakuragi had hated him so much. He was vaguely aware that there was a girl involved at some point, but he had never so much as looked at a member of the opposite sex - Ayako didn’t count because she was the team manager. But even then, Sakuragi had been a big, number 1 do’aho.

Rukawa admitted he had hated Sakuragi in the beginning. After all, the guy had dumped a rack of basketballs on his head, flung curses every time he opened his mouth and took any chance he could to beat him up. It had been the easiest thing in the world to hate Sakuragi. He continuously screwed up games, made a fuss over the smallest of things and constantly distracted him from playing properly. Oh, okay, so the first one had diminished sharply as time went by, but the rest of Sakuragi’s traits were still the same.

At least, it had been that way until Rukawa had left. He had refused to let his thoughts linger on Sakuragi, and it had worked… to an extent.

I wonder how the do’aho - I mean, how Shohoku’s doing now…

Sakuragi was more successful than Rukawa at this point, because he had successfully shuffled the kitsune into the dusty back portions of his brain, and had not been bothered for nearly a week. Well, at least he thought so.

"Haruko-san, how was that?" Sakuragi asked.

Haruko clapped her hands together. "Good dunk, Sakuragi-kun!" she said, nodding.

Sakuragi’s nose went bright red as he grinned from ear to ear. So he had also been right about Haruko’s attention being all his, not including the parts where she also has to help the other players on the team - but at least she wasn’t going all fangirly anymore because of the lack of Rukawa. Sakuragi was of course very happy with all the attention she was giving him.

"Pay attention, Hanamichi!" Ryota yelled, snapping his fingers in front of his eyes as he dribbled the ball with the other hand. "Honestly, you are so easily distracted."

Hanamichi pointed. "Ayako-san’s calling you!"

Ryota turned, cheeks going pink. "Aya-chan?"

On the bench Ayako sighed. "Baka…"

"Hahahahahahahaha!" Sakuragi grabbed the ball easily and twirled between his hands. "Talk so much…" He dribbled away.

But as he did so, he suddenly tripped and fell splat on the floor in a display of perfect clumsiness. He jumped up quickly and set his eyes on glare. "What did you say?!"

Ryota blinked. "Nobody said anything, Hanamichi."

Sakuragi paused. "Oh." He scratched his head. "Oh." That didn’t feel right. He shrugged it off and went to picked up the ball, which he then started bouncing a little unsteadily.

Haruko called from the bench, "Sakuragi-kun, are you okay?"

"Huh? Hai, I’m o-kay!" Sakuragi nodded. The ball then twisted from his grip again, and it rolled away. He blinked, then shook his head again. Carefully he turned left and right. The other players had all noticed his clumsiness, but no one had said anything.

He scowled. Something was definitely not right.

Kakuta picked up the ball. "Sakuragi-san?"

"What did you say about the tensai?!" Sakuragi roared.

Kakuta dropped the ball and squeaked, "Nothing."

Sakuragi scowled again. Ryota came up to him and patted him on the back. "Hanamichi, do you want to take a break? You look tired."

Tired. Yes, he felt tired. Not physically, because he was always in perfect shape, but mentally - which was quite an achievement for someone who carried out as little mental work as Sakuragi. The sensation was could be pictured as such: imagine having a third arm, it's there, it helps you work but you never really notice it until one day when you want to punch something and you find that it's suddenly gone.

The tall red-head retreated to the bench where he sat down and tried to figure out what was wrong.

Haruko sat down next to Sakuragi and peered at him. "Sakuragi-kun, something’s wrong, isn’t it? Your concentration is a little off."

Somewhere behind them, Ayako muttered, "Has been since he came back…"

A small subconscious bit of Sakuragi’s brain yelled at him angrily, No one’s called you a do’aho in months!

But dear ‘ol Sakuragi didn’t hear it, of course, because at the forefront of his thoughts was the only driving force he had left, and that was the need to impress Haruko.

He turned to look at her. Her eyes were wide with concern as she gazed up at him - and of course he blushed tremendously in response.

"Do you want to take a break, Sakuragi-kun?" she asked carefully.

"Break? No no no, the tensai is in perfect condition!" Sakuragi said quickly. "Hahahaha, thank you for your concern, Haruko-san, but really..." He walked off with the ball to rejoin the rest of the sophomores on the other side of the court.

Haruko clasped her hands together and turned to Ayako. "Ayako-san, what's wrong with Sakuragi? Is it his back? I thought it was all healed already."

Ayako looked at Haruko for a long while, the steady look in her eyes just barely revealing the massive turning of wheels behind them. "It's not his back," she said.

"Then what is it?" Haruko asked.

More thinking went on within Ayako's head. After a while she blinked slowly, as though making a decision. Then she raised her paper fan. "Let me ask you a question first. How many times have I whacked Hanamichi with this fan since he came back?"

Haruko made a surprised sound. "What?"

"Think. How many times?"

Haruko frowned as she tried to think. "Well, he's been back for a whole week... And um... I don't remember exactly..."

"Twice," Ayako told her matter-of-factly. "Once when he was about to beat up Morikawa for successfully blocking his lay up, and once when he pestered Anzai-sensei to give him the Shohoku number 4 jersey."

Haruko's eyes widened. "Only twice?"

Ayako nodded. "Isn't that strange, you think?"

"Well, yes!" Haruko agreed. "I mean, last time Sakuragi-kun was well... I don't remember there had been five minutes that could pass without oniichan punching him or you hitting him with your fan." She smiled as she recollected the memories. "He's such a troublemaker, isn't he?"

A small smile twitched the edge of Ayako's mouth, but she hid it quickly. "Yes, he is."

"I mean, it's good that he's not making trouble anymore, but... Why? I mean, why has he suddenly become so... Well..."

Ayako said helpfully, "Drained?"

"Yes, that's it, drained," Haruko agreed. "I would have thought that without oniichan around to control him he'd be an even bigger problem than before but..." She looked at Ayako suddenly. "What is it? You know what it is, don't you?"

Ayako raised a finger. "Wait a moment, Haruko-chan." Calmly, she strolled across the court and brought her fan down on a freshman who had been arguing with Sakuragi about how to dribble properly. Sakuragi started to laugh at him, when a thwack of the fan on his own head shut him up. Ayako nodded, pleased with herself, then strolled back to Haruko's said.

"Okay, so that's three times," Haruko said. "Must be an all-new low record."

"I'll say," said Ayako.

"Then what is it? What's wrong with Sakuragi-kun?"

Ayako sighed. Without saying anything, she turned to watch Sakuragi and a freshman named Nagai do a one-on-one to display the basic techniques of defense. Haruko turned to watch, too.

Nagai dribbled carefully and jumped to make a lay-up. Sakuragi jumped to defend, the sent his arm down in a Akagi fly-tap, but Nagai somehow managed to get the ball past him and into the hoop. Sakuragi landed and immediately looked up with a particular fierce scowl – tense and all fired up as if he was waiting for something.

But Nagai just turned to talk to Ryota. Sakuragi deflated by the lack of attention and knocked his head a few times with his left hand.

"What do you think, Haruko-chan?" Ayako said finally.

Haruko shrugged. "I don't know."

Ayako growled slightly under her breath and turned away, leaving Haruko to blink stupidly after her.

-TBC-

This chapter is also known as: Hey, Why Is It So Still Bloody Slow, Oh That's Because I'm Setting Things Up For The Next Chapter And Also Because I Still Have No idea What Should Happen And Had To Bang My Head On The Computer Table A Couple Of Times In Order To Get Typing

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