Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ This Way ❯ Part 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Part 4

"All right, gimme the camera," Mitsui insists, motioning with his hand. I raise an eyebrow and hand it over. "Okay, how do you work this thing?"

Rukawa lets out a long-suffering sigh and takes the camera from Mitsui, shaking his head. Mitsui gives him a dirty look and Rukawa just smirks ever so slightly.

"You know what you're doing?" Mitsui asks him. Rukawa shrugs.

"Okay…" Rukawa begins in that always-soft voice of his. "Sakuragi, can you…hm. Why don't you just sit down? Kiyota, next to him." We both sit on the bed and look at Rukawa expectantly.

He looks to be at a loss. Suddenly Mitsui bursts out with, "Ne, you guys, remember the time Maki knocked Sakuragi on his ass?" Kiyota just busts out laughing.

"Hey!" I protest. "It kinda hurt to have that old man knock me over! That bastard…" Kiyota keeps giggling. "Yeah, well, I do seem to recall that first game we played where you were bragging like a fool and then the old dude came and knocked the shit out of you!"

"Hey!" Kiyota yelps, but he's still laughing. He smacks my shoulder as we both giggle somewhat hysterically. I am surprised to see the camera's flash go off. I look at Rukawa and he simply cocks his head and smiles.

Mitsui approaches and murmurs something to Kiyota. "Nah, man…" he objects. "I don't-"

"Oi, Hanamichi, c'mere. You wanted this to be kind of experimental, ne?" Mitsui asks me. I nod. He pulls at my arm and somehow a few moments later there are three of us laid out on the bed. I am laying flat on my back between Mitsui and Kiyota. Rukawa giggles and climbs a chair to get a bird's-eye view. Kiyota looks a bit uncomfortable. Suddenly I feel Mitsui's fingers on a very ticklish spot on my side.

"Hey!" I yelp, swatting his hand away. Mitsui laughs and I flail a bit, bumping into Kiyota. Rukawa snaps a couple of pictures. Mitsui hops up and takes the camera from Rukawa. While he tries to get Rukawa to explain the camera to him, Kiyota turns to me.

"Well, it was nice and calm for awhile…" I laugh lightly and he smiles. *Snap*. "Okay, no more for me," Kiyota sighs, climbing over me to get off the bed.

Somehow Rukawa is now in front of us and says rather loudly (for him), "Smile!" We both look up in surprise, Kiyota halfway across my prone body. *Snap*. Kiyota almost falls down as he gets down from the bed. I finally sit up and take the camera back from Rukawa.

"Ne, I wanted to photograph you two together," I gesture toward Mitsui and Rukawa. They glance at each other and then at me. I shrug. "Maybe it's just the blue eyes and dark hair, but you look nice together…"

Kiyota nods. "I can see that." Mitsui gives him a rather sharp look, which I find odd. "Ne, Mitsui, just go sit how we were." Mitsui sits on the bed and Rukawa sits next to him.

"Okay, both of you look here," I instruct, snapping a picture of the two guys looking into the camera.

"Now…look at each other," Kiyota says softly. He puts his hand on mine and pushes the camera down gently, as if telling me to wait for something. He doesn't look at me, just at the two boys on the bed. "Just relax, ne?"

As we stand and watch, Mitsui and Rukawa just stare at each other. It seems as if they're searching each other's eyes, and I'm starting to get a weird vibe like the one I had when I was photographing Mitsui by himself. A strange tension. Kiyota nudges me and nods. I slowly lift the camera and take a shot.

"Okay, now keep doing that," Kiyota says in the same gentle voice, as though he's trying to hypnotize them. "Just do whatever feels right." I give him a questioning look and he just waves it off, as if to say `I know what I'm doing.'

I'm a bit taken aback, and apparently so is Rukawa, when Mitsui reaches a hand out to touch his soft-looking hair. *Snap*. They can't take their eyes off each other. All of a sudden I know that Kiyota was right about Mitsui. About both of them. I can't really process this. I have a strange feeling in my gut and I can't even tell if the feeling is good or bad.

Rukawa scoots closer to Mitsui and allows him to run his fingers through his hair. Then he slides his fingertips down the younger boy's cheek. *Snap.* I'm once again mindlessly capturing what I see without thinking about it. A wide-eyed Rukawa scoots even closer. It seems almost inevitable when their knees touch, when Mitsui leans closer to press a hand against one of Rukawa's cheeks and his lips against the other. Rukawa's eyes close, his lips part slightly. He has a blissful look upon his face and I can't…

"Take it," Kiyota whispers next to my ear. I reflexively take the picture when he says that. But then I whisper back, "It's too…"

"No one else has to see it. But it's better to decide to get rid of it later than to miss it."

I turn my attention back to Mitsui and Rukawa and realize they are again staring at each other, Mitsui's fingers tracing Rukawa's lips. Suddenly I feel too warm and I don't understand what's going on.

Suddenly Rukawa gasps and backs away. "Ne, Kaede, it's okay," Mitsui tells him quietly, grasping his hand. He scoots closer to Rukawa and says softly, "Do you want to leave? We could go somewhere and talk if you want…" Rukawa nods, looking at the ground, his cheeks a soft shade of pink. Mitsui whispers, "Okay," and stands up, linking his fingers with Rukawa's. He glances at me and I just try to give him an understanding look. He puts a hand on Rukawa's back and lets him go ahead.

As they wander toward the door, Mitsui stops for half a second and murmurs to me, "I'll talk to you later, yeah?" I nod. I know what he means by "talk."

With a sigh I sit down and look at the pictures of Mitsui and Rukawa, shaking my head. "What the hell is going on? Did you know something about this?"

Kiyota looks a little sheepish. "Hey, I was just calling it like I saw it."

"Bullshit," I tell him good-naturedly. He flushes a bit and sits down on the floor.

"Okay, listen." As he talks I am still pondering these photos. "A while back, Mit-chi and I were sitting around drinking and just talking shit, right? Well he was getting fairly wasted and I guess I was too, if you ask the hangover I had the next day. So anyway, he gets all philosophical about what love means and whether gender or sex or whatever really makes a difference. And he starts asking me if I'd ever been attracted to a guy. Or if there was any guy I'd date but not necessarily in a sexual way, does that make sense?"

"Not really," I muse.

Kiyota giggles. "Well, I promise you it did at the time. Basically he was asking, have you ever thought about dating a guy, even if you've never let your mind go as far as sex?"

"Hm."

"So we start talking about guys we know, who we'd date, what they'd be like to date, who was a big *no way*…the only big no way we could agree on was Sendoh…"

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? I dunno, he seems all right. I would've thought you'd say Maki."

Kiyota laughs. "Actually, he was on the top five `yes, please' list."

"Yah. You're nuts."

"But anyway, Mitsui said that he'd always kind of been fascinated by Rukawa, and it wasn't for a few years until he started thinking about him in something of a romantic way. But he says now, and for the past few years, that would be his number one choice. And I just knew he had a chance, so I figured it would be kind to give it a little push."

I chuckle. "It's all very weird. Even though lately, I've been seriously wondering about Mit-chi being bi, I guess I wasn't exactly prepared for all that."

"Does it bother you?"

I shrug. "No. Like I said, I think they look good together. It was just…kind of surreal. It was strangely romantic, and I guess…kind of sexy, maybe?"

The conversation is starting to weird me out so I flop over onto my back and let my head hang off the side of the bed so that I'm looking at Kiyota upside-down. "Oi, Nobunaga, who'd you pick?"

He laughs…nervously? "Well it's changed over the years. I guess I was always a little too attached to other guys too. In high school, for sure it would've been Maki. But…what I told Mitsui…was you."

*