Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ Replica ❯ One-Shot

Rating: PG at most

Warnings: None, except perhaps for vague m/m.

Author's Notes: Written as a gift fic for Keaxy, based on a song title. This one would be #283 on my Winamp playlist, Sonata Arctica's "Replica".

Distribution: My site, FF.Net, and Jumpy Boys by default. Others, please ask first.

Disclaimer: Blessed be Inoue Takehiko, who created and owns these characters. I am but a mere blasphemer and do not seek to supplant canon. Or copyrights.

Feedback: Yes, please.

The swings at the playground were already ancient when Sendoh was a boy of seven, soon to discover the unpleasantness of a tetanus shot. Someone had changed the chains since then, but the large metal rings they hung from stayed there. Steel grated against rust as he pushed himself back and forth on the swing, sneakered feet dragging along the ground.

Scrubby grass had grown in the slight depression that marked generations of playing children. Sendoh wondered if the rumours that the swings were haunted still made the rounds.

A large shadow stopped at his feet, barely brushing his toes. "Sendoh."

He tilted his head back, the corners of his lips quirking. "Yo, Maki. Have a seat."

"I prefer to stand." Maki's eyes did not so much as flicker towards the other swing.

"Maa. That's always been your problem -- you don't know how to play."

"This isn't about me."

Sendoh dug his heels into the grass, stopping in mid-swing. He waited, head tilted like a curious cat.

Discomfort twitched on Maki's face.

"We can always talk about the fine weather, if you like," Sendoh offered with a sympathetic grin.

"No." Maki brushed his words aside with an annoyed frown. And, as if coming to a difficult but unfortunately necessary decision, "Are you all right?"

"Really, Maki, you came all the way here to ask me that?"

"Don't be obtuse."

"I wasn't," Sendoh said mildly. "You are. I'm over it. We're over."

"Just like that."

"Yeah, just like that." Sendoh sat up, stretching his left leg until his foot tapped against Maki's. They were wearing the same brand of shoes, he noticed. "You ended it -- not that I said no. Why are you here now?"

Maki shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. A thousand and one words seemed to march across his countenance, invisible to the eye and seen only by instinct. A familiar thing in the midst of other familiar things, all equally consigned to the past.

What finally broke the hum of white noise was: "I'll see you in some other game, Sendoh."

"Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the greatest rival of them all?" Sendoh chuckled. "See you, Maki."

He leaned back just as their shadows detached themselves from each other. The creaking of the chains deafened Maki's footsteps as Sendoh swung himself up and ever higher, smiling at the endless sky.

-owari-