Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ Unreasonable Things ❯ Epilogue ( Chapter 5 )

Epilogue: If I Ain't Got You

[A/N: This is the end, beautiful friend, the end. I'm serious this time. "If I Ain't Got You" is by Alicia Keys. Rock on, girl. Warning: this is super-sappy, as requested. ;-) ]

"Ooh, it's pretty windy out there!"

Mandy looked up from the reception desk and smiled pleasantly at the young woman who'd just come blustering through the door. She was quite beautiful, with long, straight red hair and blue eyes, tall enough to be a model. She wore a black suit with a knee-length skirt, and her professional appearance was only marred by her wind-swept hair.

"Geez," she muttered, shaking her head and running fingers through the mess of her hair. "I look like some riff-raff off the street, don't I? I promise I'm a professional, though," she chuckled.

"I understand how the weather can be, ma'am," Mandy smiled. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm here to see Sakuragi Hanamichi."

Mandy blinked and wondered for a moment if Hanamichi had a half-sister or something who was white. She was awfully tall, and that red hair…

"Sure, I can page him for you. May I tell him who's visiting?"

"Ah, yeah, I'm Julie O'Brien-Mitsui. I'm his lawyer. He's expecting me."

Mandy nodded and dialed an extension on her phone. Julie grumbled a bit and frowned at her reflection in the frame of a picture over the desk. She shook her head almost incredulously as she tried again to tame her hair.

"Julie-imouto!" Julie jumped slightly as Sakuragi bounded through the door, giving her a big hug. She smiled and leaned up to push a stray strand of hair behind his ear.

"What's up, Hana-chan? You have somewhere we can sit and look over these papers?"

He nodded and led Julie back to his desk. She smiled up at the man who was a year older than she, and insisted on calling her `little sister.'

"Alright," she smiled, pulling a paper out of her briefcase. "This is it."

Hanamichi looked over the form Julie handed him. He flipped through a few pages before looking up. "Kaede already signed it?"

"Yeah, it's on the last page. You'll sign right next to him. Basically, all this does is add you as a co-owner to the house."

Sakuragi grinned and flipped to the last page. He giggled at Rukawa's huge, flashy signature. The other man had taken a lot of enjoyment in learning to write in romaji letters, and he had surprisingly nice handwriting. "Can I sign this in Japanese? My name's too damn long. I don't like English." Julie just laughed.

After a moment, however, she sighed. "I just wish there was something more…significant we could do. But sadly, the legal system is still in chaos over these things…"

"Yeah. But it doesn't matter. This is legal. And tomorrow we do the part that's actually meaningful. How are things over at your place? Is Sashi-ani freaking out?"

Julie rolled her eyes and laughed. "What do you think?"

The two redheads shared a quiet chuckle. In their years of friendship, Sakuragi had learned that Mitsui Hisashi could be a bit high-strung. It often seemed that Julie and Hanamichi were the only people who could calm him down and get him to relax, which was probably why they were the two people closest to him. The last truly astonishing thing Mitsui had done was pack up and move to Houston three years ago, a year after Sakuragi did. He'd met Julie a few months later at a party for several law firms, and as far as Hanamichi could see, fell immediately in love. So now, since Hanamichi had taken to calling Mitsui `big brother,' his wife was `little sister' by association.

Hanamichi smirked at the large pink diamond adorning Julie's ring finger. "Man, after a year that thing still blinds people in the sun."

"Oh shut up. You're jealous. Yours will be nice. Not quite so feminine, sorry. Hisashi picked them up yesterday."

"Did he really pick them out himself?" Hanamichi asked, still skeptical

"Yes! I swear to you, he has a better sense of style than me. You've raised yourself quite the little metrosexual there."

"I'm so proud. Well anyway, is it okay with all those people at your house?"

"It's fine. It's not that many. Most people are staying in a hotel for the weekend."

Hanamichi sighed and fiddled with his tie. "I just hope this isn't a bad idea. All the people, I mean."

"What, are you worried about surprising Kaede?"

"Well, yeah, I'm starting to worry. I mean…as far as he knows, I rented the restaurant out for just the two of us. We're going out to celebrate his birthday. And then of course he expects that you and aniki will be there for the `ceremony' I suppose, but he thinks this is all private. Man, is he gonna kill me?"

"I don't think so. Don't worry about it honey, how could he be upset that so many of your friends wanted to come celebrate with you? And of course as you know, the guys at my firm know people. They will keep the media out. As far as anyone will hear, it will simply be a surprise 30th birthday party."

Sakuragi sighed and nodded. He glanced at the document Julie was taking and smiled slightly. "It's too late to worry now anyway. Hopefully everything will be okay!"

Hanamichi stood up along with Julie as she prepared to leave. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and said quietly, "I hope you're not planning to wear white tomorrow. I've stayed in a hotel room next to you, you know."

Hanamichi blushed bright red. "Echi imouto!" he hissed. She just laughed her lively, musical laugh and waved as she left.

*~*~*~

"Are you ready to go?" Sakuragi asked, glancing himself over in the mirror. He admired the new hair-color that Rukawa had talked him into a week ago…a dark auburn shade of red. He was dressed in a black suit with a green silk shirt and black tie.

"Yeah, are you?" Rukawa asked, poking his head into the bedroom. Sakuragi smiled and opened his arms to him. Rukawa smiled in return and came into the room to be embraced by his love.

"Happy birthday," Hanamichi said softly. "You look great."

"Thanks. So do you." Hanamichi smiled and ran a hand over Rukawa's charcoal gray Armani jacket. With his gray suit he wore a blue silk shirt and a darker blue tie. The basketball player gave the redhead a sweet kiss and stepped away. "Don't wanna mess up your hair."

As the car approached the hotel where the party was to be held, Sakuragi felt more and more nervous. He hoped this went over well with Rukawa. All the guests were to park in the same garage as the hotel guests, so there would be no reason to suspect their presence. As they approached the door to the hotel's restaurant, Hanamichi took a deep breath and pulled on Rukawa's wrist to slow him down a bit.

"Hey, listen, Ru," Sakuragi began, calling the man by a silly nickname from years ago. "I just…I really hope you like this. This is a really important night and I just…I really hope I'm doing this right."

Rukawa frowned. "Don't be silly. I'm sure everything will be wonderful."

Sakuragi nodded and took another deep breath. He steeled himself and opened the door of the restaurant.

"SURPRISE!" Rukawa jumped at the loud proclamation from the fifty or so people in the restaurant. Sakuragi let the door close behind them, watching Rukawa's face with concern as the basketball player gawked at the small crowd before him.

"I-I invited everyone who's close to us…I-I didn't know…is this okay?"

Rukawa whirled around, his eyes wide and glossy. "Hana, I only wanted to keep this private because I thought you'd want it that way. Believe me, I wanted to get married in front of our friends. Thank you," he murmured, enveloping the redhead in his arms. "Thank you. I love you."

"I love you," Sakuragi responded, squeezing the other man tighter. He smiled and pulled away, taking Rukawa by the hand and leading him toward some people in the crowd.

"Kae-chan, honey, I'm so happy!"

"MOM?" Rukawa put a hand over his mouth as he took in his parents, sister and brother-in-law all beaming at him. Hanamichi gaped as Rukawa seemed to force back tears. After another moment of staring, the raven-haired man caught his mother in a tight hug, burying his face on her shoulder.

Hanamichi, standing nearby, could barely hear the other man speaking shakily to his mother. "I didn't think you'd be here!"

"Now honey, you know we all love Hanamichi."

"I-I know, but…well I wasn't expecting *anyone* to be here but…I-I can't believe you came all this way…I didn't think it'd be that important…"

"Mm, sweetie, a wedding's a wedding. And when my baby gets married, that's important."

Rukawa pulled away and wiped at the tears running down his face. Hanamichi smiled softly at him before drifting off to mingle.

Dinner was spent catching up with family and friends, a great many of whom had come from Japan. Hanamichi played with Haruko and Yohei's new baby, while taunting Akagi on the potential looks of the baby Ayako had on the way. Mitsui and Julie kept giving each other terrified looks throughout the baby conversation, which amused Sakuragi to no end.

After dinner, Julie and her husband dragged the couple of the evening to the middle of the dance floor. Julie had clipped small microphones to herself as well as Sakuragi and Rukawa.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she began, quieting everyone in the room. "I am not a priest. I am not a minister, nor am I licensed to perform a marriage. Because what we are doing here today is different. We are observing the vows of two men who love each other deeply and wish to spend the rest of their lives together. Not only that, but they wanted all of us to be here today to witness this symbol of devotion and commitment. I assure you," she said with a mischievous glint in her eye, "My part in this will be brief since I believe Hanamichi and Kaede can express this better than I can."

So saying, Julie smiled at Mitsui, who handed her one of two matching black boxes. They opened the boxes and allowed Sakuragi and Rukawa to remove the rings from the boxes.

Hanamichi looked over the ring in his hand. It was a simple band of white gold,,,but it had something carved into it. On closer inspection, he saw that it was the kanji for Itsumademo…forever. He whipped his head up to stare wide-eyed at Mitsui. "You-"

Mitsui just smiled and gave the redhead a wink. He nodded at him to proceed. Hanamichi turned dazedly to face Rukawa, who looked to be deep in concentration.

When Rukawa glanced up, Sakuragi almost wept at the look in his blue eyes. He figured this was the first time he had actually seen what the abstract concept of love looked like.

Rukawa slid the ring onto Sakuragi's finger. "With this ring, I promise to love you, respect you, and cherish you…itsumademo."

Hanamichi did start crying then. He sniffled a bit before slipping Rukawa's ring on. "With this ring, I promise to love, respect, and treasure everything about you until the end of time."

Rukawa choked down a sob and threw his arms around the other man to the sound of cheers and at least a few women crying. He buried his face in Hanamichi's shoulder and let himself weep for a few brief moments before drying his eyes against the fabric of Hanamichi's jacket.

"So is there gonna be a first dance?" Mitsui asked once the two separated.

"Well, there is a song I had in mind for our first dance," Sakuragi stated, "But I think this should be a dance for everyone."

Guests started milling toward the dance floor as a graceful piano solo started. Rukawa immediately recognized Sakuragi's favorite song, though this was a solo piano/vocal version. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Hanamichi as the velvet voice of Alicia Keys filled the room. He knew this was Hanamichi's "theme song" for their relationship.

*Some people live for the fortune

Some people live just for the fame

Some people live for the power, yeah

Some people live just to play the game

Some people think that the physical things define what's within

And I been there before but that life's a bore, so full of the superficial*

Hanamichi lifted his head and sang along with the song, albeit an octave lower.

"Some people want it all, but I don't want nothing at all

If it ain't you baby, if I ain't got you baby…

Some people want diamond rings, some just want everything

But everything means nothing if I ain't got you, yeah…"

Rukawa smiled serenely at his boyfriend…correction, husband. "You know, we've been together for four years, but do you realize that I've known you for almost half of my life?" he asked softly.

Hanamichi returned the smile and nuzzled his nose against the other man's. "And now you're stuck with me for the rest of it, aren't you?"

"Good," Rukawa giggled, leaning forward to kiss the other man softly.

*Some people search for a fountain

The promise is forever young

(You know) Some people need 3 dozen roses

And that's the only way to prove you love them

Hand me the world on a silver platter

And what, what would it be?

With no one to share with, no one who truly cares for me*

Sakuragi, meanwhile, decided he shouldn't have worried about all the people…because at the moment, he wasn't aware that anyone else was in the room with him aside from the love of his life.

"You think Julie and her friends will really be able to keep all this quiet?" Hanamichi wondered aloud.

"I don't care. I really don't. I say it all the time and one day you will believe me. It's like your song, this song that you love, says. Give me everything I think I want, but what would it be without someone who cares for me?"

Sakuragi sniffed back fresh tears. "We're married now, Kaede. Maybe no one else cares or thinks it's true, but it's real. We're married."

"I know," Rukawa said happily, positively beaming at the shorter man. "What was that you said about never getting married?"

"Didn't think I'd find a willing husband."

Rukawa actually grinned. "I'd have thrown you off a bridge if you'd refused."

"Um, wouldn't it be more poetic and dramatically correct for you to throw *yourself* off a bridge?" Hanamichi demanded.

Rukawa just smiled like a maniac and sang along with the end of the song, shocking Hanamichi that he knew the words and could sing them at the proper pitch.

"If I ain't got you with me baby, ohh, ooo…Said nothing in this whole wide world don't mean a thing if I ain't got you with me baby…"

~OWARI!~

this is the end, peeps. Quit reading. I'm done!