"Hatsukoi wa Ryusei" (A Puppy Love's like a Falling Star), part 1
"Hatsukoi wa Ryusei" (A Puppy Love's like a Falling Star).
A Slam Dunk Yaoi #FanFiction by Minako
Characters: Mitsui, Kogure, and... ^^ (1)
Part 1 of 3
"Well, well", Eri said, clapping her hands, "practice's over. Guys, doll up the gym, then doll up yourselves and go home".
"'Kay, Eri-chan!", the players of Ryoukufu HS replied, leaving the basketballs on the floor to have a short rest before they started to clean up. They were tired but happy, seeing that they were progressing very fast.
Their captain Michael Okita (2), who recently got back from the USA (where he was constantly training) rolled a ball between his hands as he sat on the floor. "Hey guys, I'm very impressed. And also afraid that no matter what I do in the States, I'll be behind of you in a few time".
"Don't show that false modesty Okita, you ARE still our ace", Ebina retorted combing his short hair with his fingers. "You're just playing that game so Eri-chan won't say again that you're a show-off, stuck-up snob".
"Hardy har har", a girl voice snarled from behind. Of course it was Eri, smiling smugly. "I see how much you appreciate me".
"Maaaa, Eri-chan, relax", the younger (3) of the Tsurumi twins, Keiji, said, while his (slightly) eldest brother Seiji grinned. "With this thingie of us preparing for winter Inter-High, you're becoming lately much of a tight @$$".
"You bigmouth!", Eri squealed angrily. Keiji turned to reply but Seiji, right then, tried to push him away of the fuming girl. He put a hand on his brother's chest... and his other one, in a rather "particular" part of Eri's body.
"HEEENTAAAAI!!!".
Okita had to intervene to calm poor Eri down.
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When Okita was done and Eri was a lot more calmer, she sat down in a chair next to a desk. There was the junior of the team, Katsumi, sitting on the table and swinging his legs back and forth. Eri didn't remember that he was involved in the recent catfight. The cute young boy was, instead, very distracted, lovingly staring at what he had in his hands, his cheeks slightly tinged in red.
And... well, she wasn't the only one aware.
"Oi, Katsumi-kun", Totsuka inquired getting closer, and glaring at what he had. "... Hah! You're growing up fast!".
"Nani?!", poor Katsumi jumped, his gray eyes popping out in panic. But Totsuka turned to the guys and announced out loud:
"Katsumi-kun has two love letters!!".
"WHAAAAT?!".
In a span of seconds the Ryoukufu team were all around the table Katsumi was sitting on. Katsumi blushed deeper and held the two envelopes tighter in his hands. One was white, the other pink.
"Katsumi-kun", Nadaka started. "Don't be so shy! Why didn't you tell us?".
"I-iie", Katsumi tried to start. "It-it's NOT what you think guys. Not really".
"Aw", Ebina continued, his curiosity piqued. "We're all happy for you! You're our very only junior, our little brrther, so we all wanna know about you being happy!".
"Ooooh...", Katsumi mused. This was getting out of control. Seiji leaned closer to get a better view of the still not-opened letters, and he could see that the pink envelope had Katsumi's name written on it. But the white one... it didn't have anything.
"Wait!!", he cried out waving his hand to make the others shut up.Once they were silent, he continued: "One is a letter FROM him. Not FOR him!! For whom, Katsumi-kun?".
"Stop that. Please".
Okita, who was silent all the while (surprisingly, in normal circumstances he would've been the most eager to know), suddenly broke in and talked in a very serious, slightly biting tone. Softening a little, he added, "Guys, you're pressing Katsumi too hard. Don't you see?".
The guys glanced at Katsumi, who was very red-faced still and nearly in the verge of tears. Eri shot a stern glance at each boy (specially at Okita who smirked at her like saying 'Hey, they didn't let me talk earlier'), then took a handkerchief out of her breastpocket and offered it to Katsumi.
"Thank you, Eri-san", and he blew his nose into the handkerchief.
"Why... thank... it's a... pleasure", she murmured, her face green.
"EEEEEWWW!!!". (4)
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Katsumi put his belongings in his bag as he got dressed, very glad that Okita took care of this and didn't let his older teammates tease him anymore about the missives. His captain was the best guy around -- he meant, 'around', as there was ONE person (in his opinion, that is) surpassing him.
A pair of shining blue eyes popped in his mind as the boy leaned against the wall and closed his own. Red appeared again over his cheeks while he started thinking.
Despite him being now 15-going-to-16, Katsumi Ichirou once in a while would still be still a kid at heart. Undestandable, as he was an only child raised by his mother alone (his dad passed away when he was in elementary school). He could be naive and open like a child, and for worse, as Ebina said, he was the only junior, so his teammates sorta took upon their shoulders the mission of "taking care" of this "younger brother" and protect him in this oh-so-cruel-world
Katsumi disapproved this. He was grateful to see that the guys liked him enough, but he disliked to be still treated like a child. What did they think that he was? He was right now (no matter what the others said) feeling more like a man, than like a boy. He could take care of himself better than his teammates even suspected that he could. He wa a titular in the team (not very hard to aknowledge since they were few), unlike many of the sportos of his age (Oda, Rukawa and Kiyota were the only exceptions apart of him).
And there was another thing too.
He was in love.
Like men are.
Katsumi sighed, opened his eyes and took the letters out of his jacket.
The pink envelope -- he found it that same morning in his uwa-baki (indoor shoes) box as he took the white shoes out. No sender's name, no parfum, only his own name in the front, and some rather girlish hearts drawed with calypso-coloured ink on the back. He glanced around then searching for signs of the sender; but none of the girls near to him had the typic lovesick signs (blush, heartshape eyes, shivers, etc). So he had no clue, nor ways to know who was his fangirl, until he read it...
But -- he was mostly thinking of the one who would read HIS letter. The white envelope contained a paper sheet telling the truth he had deep within himself. It would reveal to that special one what he had come to feel after years, whenever he thought of...
Her?
Nope.
Him.
Yep, of HIM.
Katsumi thought of it through many days. He wasn't 100% homosexual, and still, he'd prefer to fall in love with a girl, if he had to choose. But as he started to think differently of Mitsui Hisashi, his former sempai in Takeiichi, and now the shooting guard of Shohoku High, Katsumi questioned himself, and concluded that this was not a matter of the male body Mitsui was enclosed in. It was a matter of the soul beating in his heart, and Mitsui's was so alive and glimmering, that Katsumi decided that he didn't matter if they were both male. He loved Mitsui, and at the sole thought of him, Katsumi would feel his own heart going faster, and his spirit filling with a warmth that (still) no girl could awake in him.
Katsumi glanced at the envelopes in his hands. Well - the pink one wouldn't end up in the thrash can, that was for sure. He'd keep it, if only to find out who did send it to him, and to remember those highschool years. The white one - he'd go and make sure it reached his crush.
No matter what, Mitsui Hisashi would know that Ichirou Katsumi was in love with him.
Katsumi got himself back in RL and glanced deeply into his own eyes, facing a mirror in front of him. Yep, as he supposed, he was still blushing like a girl, his eyes sparkling with life.
"Gotta get rid of the blush. Here", and he splashed his own face with water. "Not good? Oh well. Remember, Katsumi, this is your 'D' day. Think of it, you are in love for the first time, yet you're brave enough to go and tell him. Trust in your own heart".
He suddenly went in SD. "WAH!! This... this is... like a shojo manga!!".
Katsumi nearly giggled, finding it funny out of the blue. The WHOLE situation was very shojo-ish, indeed.
Sighing, Katsumi put his hair in place with a tiny comb; then he put the pink envelope in a book and the white one in his jacket's breatpocked, and took his bag to walk away.
From quite a distance, Eri and the guys saw the younger boy run out of the Ryoukufu school complex.
"Do you think he'll be grinning like that the next time we see him?", Keiji wondered.
"Who knows. And it's not our business. Katsumi is big enough to go by himself once in a while, ne Missy? *wink*".
"Michael...".
TBC
(1): For those who don't know. Ryoukufu isn't a team of my invention, but the one the Shohoku boys had to play against in the Slam Dunk third OAV, "Shohoku Sadai no Kiki" (Shohoku's greatest crisis). Far my favourite OAV too, Virgo!!
Their captain, Michael Okita, is a konketsu (Japanese/American), who was scouted by the NBA itself. Eri Fujisawa is the team's manageress and "pet" (at least Michael loves to tease her), and Ichirou Katsumi is a junior who was Mitsui's partner and teammate in Takeiichi. And I like to think that Katsumi loves Mitsui. He's very cute in his admiration of him!!
(2): As his name is an Occidental one, I'm adressing Okita by his first name, not by his surname like the others.
(3): I'm not sure if Keiji IS really the youngest of the Tsurumi twins, but in the OAV his brother Seiji was adressed first than him, so I assume that he is.
(4): If you wanna annoy Japanese, do what Katsumi did. It's very bad seen among them. They'd rather be sniffling by hours than cleaning their noses in front of others. ;)
--
"Who says that the AntiChrist as to be a man?".
(Art Bell)
