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Pay Attention Please
by Annie D

Author's Note: The previous chapter had a cliffhanger? Really? That would mean… there’s a plot! Woo hoo! And sorry to bust (anyone’s) bubble, but I like anti-climaxes. ::blinks innocently::

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Dove dark chocolate. Simply because I can. Oh, and it’s also dedicated to my muse. She’s back! Yay! So that means I’ll be finishing this story much faster than I originally thought… Which is a relief.

Chapter 4: Same Old Same Old

It was unnaturally quiet in the Shohoku gym. Various players scattered the area, either sitting on the floor or standing up while staring off into nothing, or in the case of Captain Ryota, pacing back and forth with hands clasped tightly behind his back. Although all were in their sports attire, no one was anywhere near a basketball.

Sakuragi himself was standing alone by the double doors of the gym, every now and then taking a peek out to see if anyone was coming.

"Where are they?" he asked impatiently.

"Be patient, Hanamichi-kun," said Ayako. "They’ll be here."

The ‘they’ in question were Haruko and Anzai-sensei. You see, Anzai-sensei had the heart attack, had been immediately sent to the hospital and had been kept there for the past few days. The entire Shohoku team had agreed unanimously not to practice until their coach was back. On some levels not a particularly smart thing to do since their first game of the IH eliminations were close by, but after they had all witnessed first-hand the horrible sight of their coach gasping in pain, nobody had the mood to play as long as they felt that their coach was less than well.

"I wish I could’ve gone with Haruko-chan to pick him up," said Sakuragi. "I don’t know why he asked us to meet him here."

"Probably because he’s afraid of the ruckus you guys’d make at the hospital," said Ayako, trying to lighten things up a bit.

Sakuragi stuffed his hands into his shorts as he stomped around the door a bit. How long more did they have to wait?

And then there was a tingle, like a soft flick at the bottom of his spine.

Just as he was about to turn to look at the door, he felt the hard contact between somebody else’s foot and his butt, and before he could yelp he found himself flying outward, and landed with a smart splat on the court floor.

He scrambled to his feet, turned and went through: confusion – anger – recognition – shock.

"Kitsune!" Sakuragi screeched, pointing at the figure in the doorway as though it were some demon from the depths of hell. What it really was, of course, was Rukawa Kaede, dressed in civilian clothes and with a bag slung casually over a shoulder.

Ayako and Ryota gaped, then ran to him. "Rukawa-kun, what are you doing here?"

"Kitsune!" Sakuragi screamed again, his voice going shrill.

"Is Anzai-sensei all right?" Rukawa asked the captain.

"Kitsune!"

"Haruko-san went to pick him up," said Ryota. "He said he wanted to meet us all here, and so here we are."

"Kitsune!"

Rukawa frowned briefly. "Hm."

"Kitsune!"

And Rukawa finally turned to look at Sakuragi, whose mouth was still opening and closing jerkily, and still had one shaking finger pointing at him. His eyes were bulging, his face slightly pale in shock, and he blinked stiffly a few times, as though the action would cause the image of Rukawa to disappear like the bad dream he thought it was.

Rukawa dropped his bag. Ding ding – rematch!

"Do’aho."

All innocent bystanders held their collective breaths.

Nobody present could be sure who made the first move, because suddenly they both launched at each other (and in Sakuragi’s case accompanied with a manic war cry), fists all a-flying, and the dust picked up around them as an honest-to-goodness Rukawa-Sakuragi fight went underway.

Ryota sighed, the rest of the players sweatdropped and Ayako covered her mouth with her hands to muffle her frantic giggling.

Another sound caught everyone’s attention, a feat only manageable if it were louder than Sakuragi’s curses, and this one happened to be exactly that. It was a mighty bellow, which was followed by two fists charging downward onto Sakuragi’s and Rukawa’s heads with simultaneous and painful precision.

Sakuragi cursed, Rukawa cringed, and the both of them looked up to see the looming figure of Akagi Takenori standing over them.

"Still cannot keep out of trouble?" Akagi demanded, crossing his arms across his chest.

Haruko peeked from around the large bulk of her brother. She gasped when she saw Rukawa. "Rukawa-kun!"

Rukawa ignored her, too, as he jumped to his feet to bow at the last of the new arrivals. "Sensei."

"Ho ho ho..." Anzai-sensei waved at him from the doorway. "Rukawa-kun, how nice of you to visit."

"Sensei!" All the players rushed to greet their coach.

"Oyaji!" Sakuragi exclaimed, relieved that the old man looked all right. He started to walk toward to join the greeting party when he froze in mid-step and slowly turned to look at Akagi. "Gori? What are you doing here?"

"Ah, that’s what I came to tell all of you," said Anzai-sensei, getting everyone’s attention. "The doctor said that I’m still quite all right, but I need to get a lot of rest and cannot be your coach for a few months."

"Then…?" Ryota trailed off.

Akagi spoke up. "I’m taking over part-time."

Sweatdrops from the freshmen that had never seen a scarier sight than Akagi Takenori, as well from the sophomores and seniors who knew that there was no scarier sight than Akagi Takenori.

"Gori’s back!" Sakuragi said. Suddenly he remembered something and turned his face to Rukawa, taking the time to fix upon it a nasty scowl. "And you…"

Rukawa shrugged.

"So, Rukawa-kun, what do I owe this visit?" Anzai-sensei asked him.

"I wish to talk, sensei," Rukawa said softly.

"Ho ho ho... Is it about your new team?" he asked.

Rukawa nodded.

"Very well," said Anzai-sensei. "Follow me, let’s go for a walk."

And so the white-haired coach turned to leave, and Rukawa quickly followed him.

"Oi oi oi, he can’t do that!" Sakuragi protested. "Anzai’s our coach, he doesn’t have to talk to Rukawa about anything, and Anzai-sensei came to see us, and what’s he — itai!" He rubbed his head at the spot where Akagi’s fist had connected with it again.

Akagi raised a hand to point at a little vein that had appeared above his eyebrow. "See this? This vein hasn't given me any trouble since I graduated, but two minutes back here and it's already pounding."

"Oh," said Sakuragi, nodding, but he turned quickly. "But the kitsune—"

"START YOUR PRACTICE!" Akagi roared.

"Hai!" Even though they weren’t the direct recipients of the order, all the players quickly rushed off.

Ryota grinned and saluted Akagi. "Nice to have you back, Akagi."

"Hmph," Akagi snorted. "I don’t know how you managed to control that baka on your own."

"It’s funny, but he hasn’t really been that much trouble," said Ryota, before turning to look out the door where the two had exited. "You know, I wonder what Rukawa came back to talk to the sensei about."

So talk wasn’t really the best word to describe it. They had walked a bit around the outside of the gym in the Shohoku grounds, ignoring the various students that stopped to point at the tall basketball player. Rukawa knew that Anzai-sensei was very good when it came to reading players, and he wasn’t really sure what he wanted to talk about either, so he just walked on quietly.

Finally Anzai-sensei spoke. "Did you make the team, Rukawa-kun?"

Rukawa nodded. When he had seen the posting he’d been relieved. Well, mostly relieved.

"Doesn’t that make you happy? Isn’t that what you want?" Anzai-sensei asked. "You’ve always wanted to be the best, Rukawa-kun, this is your chance. Why the hesitation?"

Rukawa sighed. "I don’t know, sensei."

Anzai-sensei stopped walking and sat down on a bench. Rukawa stood nearby, hands shoved in pockets uncertainly. What did he want to talk about, anyway? He hoped Anzai-sensei knew better about that than he did.

"It’s very competitive out there, Rukawa-kun," said Anzai-sensei, "as I’m sure you have noticed. But once on the real team, things will be better. Ho ho ho… It’s nice to see you’ve finally realised the importance of being a team."

Rukawa nodded.

Anzai-sensei adjusted his spectacles. "So why did you really come back here?"

Rukawa started in surprise. "Sensei?"

"You are a very proud person, Rukawa-kun," said Anzai-sensei. "I’m sure visiting an old man who’s just recovered from a heart attack was a good excuse to come back, don’t you think? Ho ho ho. Shohoku has a charm of its own, isn’t it?"

Rukawa paused, then slowly nodded.

Anzai-sensei held his gaze a for while longer. "I’ll go say goodbye to the team then I have to be heading home for the rest I need. I suppose you’ll be staying to watch them practice?"

First reaction: No I won’t. Second reaction: Oh well, no harm, right, just watching. It’s still basketball, after all. Maybe I’ll learn something. And Akagi’s back, maybe he can give me some pointers. Yeah, that’s it. It’s not like I’m here to see anyone in particular. Oh wait, I did come to see Anzai-sensei. But that’s it. Yes.

He nodded.

"Ah." Anzai-sensei stood up, patted him on the shoulder, then slowly walked off.

"That was so nice of Rukawa-kun to come visit Anzai-sensei!" Haruko told Ayako at the bench.

Sakuragi glowered. Although it wasn’t the same sort of jealousy since he had gotten the Haruko crush out of his system, he was still angry. How just like the kitsune to stoop so low. Hah! As if he really came back to visit the oyaji. I bet he’s here to gloat about the stupid All-Japan team. It’s not like he really ever cared about Shohoku.

"Hanamichi, pay attention!" Ryota shouted.

"Huh? Oh…" He ran off to join in the warm-up jog. Stupid kitsune… If only I could show him how the tensai has improved after recovering from such an injury… I bet he thinks he’s so good and high and mighty because he abandoned the team.

"Baka, pay attention!" Akagi shouted, thumping the back of his head. "We’re practising passing now!"

"Okay!" Who does he think he is, wanting to talk to Anzai-sensei like that? He has nothing to do with Shohoku, the oyaji’s wisdom belongs to us, and he’s only just recovered from the heart attack he can’t strain himself anymore, and how just like the kitsune to be so insensitive…

THWACK! Sakuragi looked up to see Ayako’s steaming paper fan retreat.

"For heaven’s sake, Hanamichi!" Ayako exclaimed.

"Huh?" Sakuragi looked down to see that he had grabbed a freshman’s head, thinking it was a ball. He quickly released to poor guy and scratched behind his (own) head. "Sorry, I wasn’t—"

"Paying attention, I know," sighed Ayako. "Can you at least try to differentiate between a basketball and your teammate’s head? I wouldn’t want to see you try and dunk."

"Err herr… gomen," Sakuragi said sheepishly.

Akagi pressed his fingers against his forehead.

"What is it, oniichan?" Haruko asked him.

"I’m trying to remember why I agreed to be Anzai-sensei’s part-time stand-in," he mumbled.

"H-hahahaha, gori, don’t need to worry!" Sakuragi said quickly, patting Akagi on the back. "You shall see how the tensai has improved since you left…"

Akagi looked at him. "Right."

Abovehead, alone in the seats since most of the audience knew that the Shohoku team had been taking a ‘break’, Rukawa watched the practice. He wasn’t hiding, because he just happened to be sitting in a place that was not visible to the players on the court. Nope, not hiding.

He sighed as he watched Akagi give Sakuragi another scolding. Seemed the do’aho really hadn’t changed. But at least his back wasn’t giving him any problem. (Not that he cared, of course.)

"Oi," came a soft voice from behind him.

He turned to see Ayako approach him, crouching low so she also wouldn’t be seen by the people on court. "Rukawa-kun, why are you—" he was about to snap quickly that he wasn’t hiding dammit, but what Ayako really said was, "—sitting on this side? The view is better over there."

Rukawa shrugged, trying to make it clear it didn’t make a difference where he sat because it wasn’t like he wanted a better view… But oh well, since Ayako had gone through all the trouble to climb up to tell him, it would be a waste if he didn’t act on her help, so he shifted down the seats. Ayako was still following him, though.

"You know it’s strange, Hanamichi hasn’t been like this since school started," Ayako said, her voice strangely jovial. "He hasn’t made any trouble… well, very little trouble, when he rejoined the team, and now look – Akagi has to keep banging him on the head every few minutes again." She chuckled softly. "Maybe it’s the company."

Rukawa looked at her in surprise.

"Akagi-sempai does have that effect on people," Ayako added innocently.

Rukawa turned his attention back to the court.

"Ah well, it’s nice to see you again, Rukawa-kun," Ayako said, smiling brightly at him. She was about to leave when she added, "By the way, it’s Sakuragi’s turn to clean up the gym today. Oh, sorry, I don’t know where that came from, because I know you don’t care about that sort of thing. Ah well, ja ne."

Rukawa shrugged as he heard her leave the audience bleachers to return to her place on the bench.

Sakuragi made a dunk, then laughed proudly, hands on hips. The sound, which had not reached Rukawa’s ears for months, felt oddly comforting.

Rukawa sighed. The do’aho really hadn’t changed at all. He knew that technically it had been only a few months since they had last seen each other, but it felt much longer. Even after the injury in his back, Sakuragi's fire hadn't died, if anything it was only burning much brighter. The indomitable Sakuragi Hanamichi, supposed basketball tensai, always living life to the fullest, not caring what anyone thought about him, and playing for the love of the game. He was everything that the All-Japan hadn't been able to offer.

Not that it made any difference to Rukawa, of course.

-TBC-

This chapter is also known as: Oh Thank Goodness The Both Of Them Are Finally Within The Same Vicinity And Now We Can Get A Move On

PS: Hahahaha yeah, the heart attack was just an excuse to bring Rukawa back. Whaaaaaat you thought I’d really hurt Anzai-sensei? The purpose of this story is just to get Rukawa and Sakuragi together, that’s it! Tee hee hee…

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