Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ High School Never Ends ❯ My Friends Over You ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Demystifying a legend.

PS: Kira is my own creation, and I even hate her.

Part 3: My Friends Over You

"Are you sure he's not gonna kill us for breaking into his house?" Rukawa yelled from down the hall.

"Get out of there! Come back here, he should be home any minute!" Akagi chided. "And we didn't break in, we used Sakuragi's key."

Hanamichi laughed as he hung up a sign that Ayako had made, reading aloud, "'Almost 30!' This is what he's more likely to kill us for." Mitsui was already freaking out about turning 29…Ayako was amused by pointing out another reason to panic. "Hey ya know, Gori, he'll probably have Kira with him."

Ayako noticed the bitter tone her friend used and responded, "Hana-chan, you are far too over-protective. I know he's your good friend but you shouldn't hate every girl he dates."

"Eh he just wants him for himself," Yohei teased. Sakuragi snorted and shook his head.

"No, I just think she's looking for a sugar daddy. Even Yumi was better…she wanted a guy with time for her over a guy with money. Nobler priorities, maybe."

Rukawa sighed and slid down into a kitchen chair. He felt bad. He knew already that Mitsui's former fiancée, Yumi, had ditched him right before he finished law school because he had no time for her. He felt like he had caught up on a lot of information today.

In the 36 hours since Akagi had woken Rukawa and Sakuragi up, they'd barely left the bedroom. Yesterday had been an odd day, alternating fooling around with just talking. The weirdest thing was how comfortable they'd seemed to become all of a sudden. Happy thoughts…like himself and Hanamichi lying around naked, looking at yearbooks. Talking about Haruko's wedding to Yohei, in which Sakuragi had been the best man. About how Rukawa had been the one to convince Akagi to finally propose to Ayako. Taking a break briefly to go down the street and let Rukawa kick Sakuragi's ass on the basketball court. Coming home…to…not his home of course, Sakuragi's home…to eat and watch basketball on TV and screw around some more. He'd barely seen the outdoors for 2 days but definitely felt like he'd gotten a workout.

Then his mind wandered to the inevitable discussion they'd had of past partners, which led to Rukawa voicing his curiosity about Sakuragi's coming-out experience. Turned out the former redhead had not even experimented until finishing school. He'd admitted that the first person he ever kissed was Sendoh Akira. Rukawa sighed and tapped his foot fitfully as he recalled this. Apparently there had been a graduation party at the Akagi residence, and Gori had had some visitors as well. A couple of former Shohoku students, even some from Ryonan (obviously) had shown up. He wasn't clear on the details, because, well, neither was Hana. All he knew was it bothered him. Which was stupid, considering…but jealousy can work retroactively, he decided.

With a sigh and a shake of the head, Rukawa resolved to stop thinking and try to enjoy the rest of his brief vacation.

Half an hour later everyone was bored because of trying to be quiet and listen for their friend's arrival. They did not want to end up being the ones getting surprised. Suddenly Ayako hissed, "Car! Close the kitchen doors!"

Rukawa and Sakuragi glanced at each other and Sakuragi giggled quietly. "He is really going to kick your ass, Akagi…"

"SHHH!"

From the front door Rukawa could hear Mitsui's familiar voice. "You want anything to eat? I didn't have time for lunch today so I am starving…"

The voice got louder as it approached the kitchen. More quietly, from near the front door, they heard a feminine voice say, "Oh no, I'm not hungry…"

Sakuragi rolled his eyes and pretended to shove his fingers down his throat. Ayako whispered almost inaudibly, "She's anorexic, not bulimic." Sakuragi stifled a snicker and quietly smacked her arm, which earned him a silent gori punch.

As soon as the door stirred, everyone yelled "SURPRISE!"

"YAH! JESUS CHRIST!" Sakuragi and Ayako almost fell over laughing as Mitsui grabbed the door for support and gaped at them. Rukawa laughed a bit to himself. "I swear to God…whose fault is it? Thanks a lot you retards, I think I had a heart attack."

"Well happy fucking birthday then!" Hanamichi scowled playfully, giving the shorter man a hug.

Rukawa was glad to see another familiar face. He'd kept in close touch with Akagi and Ayako, and would have with Haruko and Yohei had they not moved to Kyoto. Perhaps if he had, he would have seen Sakuragi sometime in the past 8 years. Bygones, he decided.

Mitsui, like Hanamichi, looked all grown up. He had hair a bit longer than when he'd graduated, and it was spiked up into perfect disarray. He was wearing a dark green button-down shirt and black pants with a black tie. Suddenly Rukawa was startled when the man he was observing yelled again.

"Holy shit! Rukawa! What's up, man?" He moved toward Rukawa with outstretched arms but was somewhat impeded by Hanamichi hanging onto him from behind, with his arms around his shoulders.

"Noooo! No, you said if you switched teams I would be the first! Leave him alone!" Sakuragi whined, trying to pull Mitsui away from Rukawa. Just then the kitchen doors swung open to reveal a very annoyed Nishita Kira.

"Honey, what is going on in here? …Oh hello." She frowned a bit at the sight of the man she was dating being sandwiched between two other men. He had his arms around someone Kira didn't know (fortunately in a brotherly sort of hug, aside from the fact that they were both frozen in place). But she definitely recognized the man who had his arms around Mitsui from behind. "Sakuragi-kun," she smirked, "I think your idea of a birthday present is misdirected."

Well at least she's aware it's his birthday…Sakuragi thought snarkily. "Eh, always gotta try," he laughed, attempting to smack the birthday boy's ass. But he quickly dodged out of the three-way glomp and grinned at the girl.

"Can you believe these fuckers came up with this?"

"Yes, I had no idea anything was going on," she mused, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Yikes. Rukawa could already see why no one liked this girl. She hadn't even been included in the party plans. She seemed quite offended at having to share her man's attention with his friends.

"Happy birthday Mitsui-kun!" Haruko broke the silence. She had taken to calling him the affectionate-yet-respectful name, even though he was older than her. He turned and gave Haruko a grin and a warm hug.

After everyone had given their greetings, Akagi announced, "This was just the staging area for the party. We're going to meet Noriko, Kazusa, and Shinji at that sushi place you like, and then…"

"Karaoke?" Mitsui beamed hopefully.

"Yes!" Sakuragi crowed. "You and me are gonna do some Jay-Z and Linkin Park and-"

"Okay, whoa. We can't do that. We do Linkin Park, you know I'm gonna have to rap. And you can't sing. I'll do "Somewhere I Belong" if you can find me someone who can sing."

"Shut up!" Sakuragi yelled. It was directed at both Mitsui's comment and Rukawa's laughter.

Sakuragi drove himself, Rukawa, Mitsui and Kira to the restaurant. Rukawa was almost completely turned around in the front seat, smiling and mostly listening as Mitsui babbled on happily. When the conversation lapsed, Sakuragi filled the silence.

"Can you direct me where we're going? I was not informed properly of this event."

"Oh, I thought you planned it."

"Uh, no, Gori didn't say a word to me till yesterday! Can you believe that? He thought I couldn't keep it secret! I know how to keep a secret! No one ever knew I was gay in high school!"

"Boy, I knew it before you did!" Mitsui laughed. "And once you did figure it out, you kept it to yourself for about 3 days!"

Sakuragi tried to stifle a laugh. He didn't succeed very well as he responded indignantly, "Yeah well, I'm doing a great job right now of keeping my new man a secret." He smiled to himself.

Mitsui just laughed. "You think so?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Hanamichi could see Rukawa's eyes go wide and a blush creep across his face. "Nah, I'm just playin', dog," Mitsui continued. "You haven't said anything so what would I know? So do tell. I'm gonna be even more impressed with your subtlety if it's someone I know."

"Maybe later."

***

"Nope, I'm done for the night. No more drinking for me. I got wasted last night," Rukawa said, waving Kira away.

"Geez, girl, leave him alone!" Mitsui said, sitting down next to Rukawa. Rukawa sighed inwardly. Kira was fawning all over him for some reason. He was going to have to say something before the end of the night. Mitsui was too good for her.

"Alright. So let me ask you something. Why the hell are you so talkative all of a sudden?" Mitsui grinned, appearing to get over his momentary annoyance at the prissy girl.

"I don't think it's that sudden," he started, momentarily distracted by Sakuragi and Ayako onstage singing "Like a Virgin." He snorted with laughter when he realized what it was. "Which of them could that song possibly refer to?"

Mitsui snickered and smacked his arm. "Don't let Gori hear that. He'll beat the crap out of you for smearing his girl's good name. Hey besides, maybe Hanamichi's a virgin. Maybe he's never had any luck with the guys either."

Rukawa snorted again, face breaking into a sarcastic smile. "Yeah. Right."

"Now what the hell would you know…"

"Anyway, why I talk now? Well…here's the thing. When I was pretty young, in elementary school, I was always kind of tall for my age but always really skinny before I started working out. At school, I was always getting picked on, even by girls. And even then I was sleeping through class, so I was getting yelled at by my teachers. For some reason, when I started junior high, these guys from another class would wait and beat me up after school. I don't know why. Ayako later told me she thought they were jealous because girls were already stalking me. Not that I noticed anything like that."

"So…one day I was watching the basketball team and decided, I could do that. Maybe I'd have some friends if I did that."

By this time Sakuragi had returned to the table and was listening to the tail end of Rukawa's story. "So. What I did was, I would watch the guys who were really good and see what they did differently from the ones who weren't as good. So when I marched into their practice one day and nailed a couple of shots from center court, they couldn't say no. The weird thing was though, I was already so antisocial that I ended up being really nervous about talking to new people. Ayako always tried to talk to me, and I would hang around her but never really talk back. But I think she noticed that I accepted her presence and kept talking to me. I ended up focusing all my attention on getting better at playing and kind of wussed out on my plan to make friends.

"As you can imagine, it was even worse when I got to high school. And I thought every one of you was insane. Particularly you two," Rukawa made a face at both Sakuragi and Mitsui. "But eventually I started trying to talk to Hana. He never noticed though. Of course, I guess I wasn't exactly talking nicely."

"You dork, you were so mean to me!"

"Because you were mean to me! If you'll recall, you started it. The thing was, one day Ayako came up to me and said, 'He doesn't hate you, and I know you don't hate him.' Long story short…too late…Ayako finally got me talking after years of trying. And I guess…being quiet for so long…I kinda built up a lot to say." Rukawa chuckled. "Now I have a hard time shutting up."

"Man." Hanamichi muttered. "I can't believe how stupid I was. And of course, Kaede, you know what part of my problem was…"

Mitsui cocked his head and was about to ask a question when Akagi approached. "Okay, Rukawa, since Hanamichi is not being forthcoming, what happened to you two last night? I just about panicked when I couldn't find you, but Ayako said not to worry…"

"Um…"

"And if I remember correctly, you were together when I called you yesterday and this brat was being very suspicious…is everything okay?"

Sakuragi and Rukawa gave him confused looks, oblivious to the wide-eyed stare they were receiving from Mitsui. "Um…well, yeah, everything's okay…" Rukawa began.

"OH MY GOD!" Everyone jumped when Mitsui smacked his hand down on the table. "No way!" he yelled, jumping up from his chair. "NO WAY!" he cried again, pointing back and forth between Sakuragi and Rukawa. "Oh man Hanamichi, are you serious?" he cackled.

"Serious?? I didn't say anything!"

"You win, man. You win. This is much bigger than a surprise party. Let me tell you Gori, this man can keep things to himself!"

"Eh, you only gave him a day," Rukawa smiled. "He probably would've caved by the end of the night. Thanks for not selling me out though, Hana."

"Oh," Mitsui murmured, calming down a bit. "Oh, sorry."

Rukawa shook his head. "No one knows what you're talking about anyway!"

Ignoring Akagi and Haruko's looks of total confusion, Mitsui stepped in front of the seated Hanamichi and leaned forward to put his hands on his shoulders. "This is what you were talking about in the car, right? Ohhh Hana, I'm soo happy for you!" he squealed playfully.

"Shut up baka!" Sakuragi grinned, slapping his shoulder. "You're killin' me."

"Oh stop. Let's do a song."

"Drunk much?"

"Just buzzed. Come on, we'll do-"

"Not 'In the End'!" Rukawa warned.

"Let's do J-Kwon! 'Tipsy'!" With a grin, Mitsui turned and gave Rukawa a hug, surprising the younger man. "I'm glad," he whispered to the basketball player. "Now I get why you've both been so happy tonight. I hope everything turns out okay for you guys." Just as quickly, he was gone, hauled to the stage by Sakuragi.

Akagi and Ayako seated themselves. "So what was that about?" Akagi asked.

"Here comes the 3 to the 2 to the 1, homeboy don't know I got the gun…" came from the stage. Mitsui actually was really good onstage…

Ayako called his attention back, saying, "Oh my goodness, Kaede, what's going on?" She dropped her voice to a whisper. "I don't mean to be rude or nosy, honestly, but Hisashi was causing such a scene…"

"Um, he seems to have figured out what happened after Hana and I left the club last night." She raised her eyebrows and Rukawa continued. "We, ah…we went to my hotel and um…well that's where we were when Akagi called…"

Ayako gasped. "Rukawa-kun! Are you telling me…?" He nodded. "Eeee!" Ayako squealed. "I knew it! I knew he was gonna be all over you and Nori didn't think you'd even notice much less-"

"Hey, hey, let's quit taking bets on this!"

On the other side of Rukawa, Kira sighed. He looked to see her shaking her head. "I don't know why he had to get drunk tonight and be so obnoxious…"

Rukawa chuckled. "He's always been loud. And come on, it's his birthday. He deserves to have fun. By the way," he continued, suddenly completely irritated with the girl, "You need to back up off me. And while you're at it, you should leave Mitsui alone too. You don't deserve him. You don't appreciate him for who he is. And you might as well give up on me because I have a boyfriend." With that he got up and met Sakuragi as he left the stage.

"Hana…you know…I'm leaving in 12 hours."

"Ah, God, you're right."