Lucky Match pt 5

Lucky Match pt 5

By Izumi

 

Jiro blinked again and again as his eyes started getting used to the light. Hisashi was pulling the curtains open. He rolled over in his futon, trying to get in a few more blinks.

 

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” Hisashi called to him.

 

Jiro breathed in deeply. He finally sat up and blinked a few more times.

 

“What day is it?” he asked.

 

“Friday. You do know what day it is,” Hisashi answered.

 

Jiro groaned and lay back on his side.’Final tournament,’ he thought.’Againts Kyoto,’ a tiny voice inside his head reminded him. Damn, he wished he hadn’t met Kaoru at all if he knew that he really was going to compete with him. His heart raced.

 

Pain shot up from his right cheek where Hisashi had painfully pinched it.

 

“OW! What did you do that for?!”  Jiro sat up instantly and rubbed his cheek.

 

“Good, you’re up. Go take a shower and get ready for our last practice. Ami told me that there’s going to be a practice session with the guys from Kyoto,” Hisashi said to him.

 

“Practice session? Kyoto?” Jiro repeated before Hisashi threw a towel in his face.

 

~*~

 

“ Okay, guys. When we walk in there, we walk in with dignity. We’re not scared of Kyoto, right?” Takuro said.

 

Five other heads nodded.

 

They walked out to the court, actually facing their opponents for the first time.They faced each other according to their positions.

 

Teru broke the silence between the two teams.

 

“Okay, guys. We’re from Hokkaido. Let’s just practice now, kay? No real showing off until the real tournament later,” he spoke out.

 

“Agreed,” Kaoru said.They went their separated ways and started practising.

 

Or at least, trying to.

 

Kaoru kept stealing glances at Jiro, and Toshiya was stealing glances at Hisashi, at the same time Hisashi was looking at Shinya. And Shinya…well he was looking at Teru. And Teru was looking at Jiro.

 

They were pretending to practice dribbling (oh really?^^) but they’re balls kept bouncing in the wrong direction.

 

Jiro at first was concentrating on his dribbling, when he finally couldn’t resist the urge to look over at Hisashi. Only Hisashi was looking someplace else, on the other side of the court. At Shinya. So he looked at Shinya. Only to find out that Shinya was looking at Teru, and Teru was looking at…him.Teru was surprised to be caught staring at Jiro and gave a little nod. Jiro smiled in return and continued dribbling the ball.

 

A shrill whistle from Levin made it clear that practice was over.

 

~*~

( In the Kyoto University locker room)

 

Kaoru bent his head.He felt the blood rushing to his face.

 

“I can’t believe I spent half of practice staring at that guy!!! What am I turning into? A big fat baka?” he scolded himself outloud.

 

“Uh, no. If you go on, you’ll be categorized as, well, crazy,” a voice said from the door.

 

Kaoru froze, not wanting to think who was there at the door. He finally looked up. It was Kyo.

 

“Uh, hi, Kyo.What’s up?” Kaoru tried to sound casual, but his voice came out a  little squeaky.

 

“Oh, man. I knew you were weird, but this is something totally new,” Kyo commented, sitting down next to him.

 

Kaoru hid his face in his hands. ’So this is how it feels to be embarrased. It’s awful,’ he thought glumly.

 

“Don’t worry. Just play well, ne? No one can call you crazy if you play really well out there,” Kyo assured him.

 

Kaoru looked up. Kyo gave him a small smile and patted his back.

 

“Arigatou,” Kaoru said in a whisper.

 

“No problem. Better hurry up, though,” Kyo replied. Kaoru nodded and followed him out the locker room.

 

~*~

 

And these are the two teams competing in the Final Tourament today…I give you the University of Kyoto!” the host called out.

 

Shrill screams could be heard as the six team members walked out.

 

“Number 4 and team captain, Kaoru , number 5, Die, number 6, Toshiya, number 7, Shinya,and number 8, Kyo! Let’s give them a huge round of applause!!” the host continued. He was greeted by high-pitched screams of girls (and guys) in the stadium.

 

“And now I give you, the University of Hokkaido!!! Number 4, Takuro Kubo, number 6, Sugihara Yasuhiro, or otherwise Sugizo, number 8, Teruhiko Kobashi, number 10, Yoshihito Wayama, and number 11, Hisashi Tonomura. A round of applause, please!!!” the host called out again. And again, the reply was shrill screams from the girl fans in the stadium.

 

Levin and Ami bowed politely to each other before sitting in their seats next to their coaches.

 

“I’m sorry that you’re gonna lose this one,” Levin said to Ami. Ami glared at him.

 

“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” she replied and tossed her hair and walked away.

 

 

The two opposing teams bowed to each other before taking their places according to strategy. The referee blew his whistle and the team captians jumped up to get the ball.

 

Round 1 of a very interesting tournament had began.

 

~*~

 

“Hisa! Take the ball!” Takuro shouted as he passed the ball to Hisashi.

 

Hisashi jumped up to catch it when suddenly Toshiya came and hit the ball away from him. Hisashi fell to the floor and Toshiya landed on top of him.He smiled.

 

“Hi there, cutie,” he said. Hisashi stared back uncomfortably.

 

“Get off me!” he pushed Toshiya off him and raced for the ball.

 

All Toshiya did was smile.

 

The ball was now in Shinya’s hands. He dribbled swiftly but carefully, making sure no one stole it from him. He was near to the ring when someone proceeded to steal the ball from him.

 

“Hey-!” he protested.He looked to see who had the nerve to steal the ball from him.

 

It was Teru. He winked playfully at Shinya.

 

“Oh, it’s okay,you can have it,” Shinya blurted out. He covered his mouth with both hands as he received a deadly look from Kaoru.

 

**

 

‘Things can’t possibly get any worser than this,’ Jiro thought to himself as he passed the ball to Hisashi. Hisashi caught it and without thinking,shot a three pointer.

 

“HISASHI!!!!!!!!!!! WOHOOOOOO!! KAKKOI!!!!!!!! SUGOI!!!!!” girls screamed out. Jiro even saw some girls pumping pom-poms. He had to snicker.’Okay, I guess things are getting considerably better,’ he thought.

 

His hoped drowned as Die shot a two-pointer, making the score appear to be 50-49. Hokkaido had the 50, but it was just one score more than Kyoto.

 

The referee blw his whistle.Kyoto U called for a time out.

 

Jiro walked limply to the bench and heavily sat down. He closed his eyes.The soft feel of a towel made him open his eyes. It was Hisashi,and he was wiping away the sweat on his face for him.

 

“I’m not tired. Let me wipe your face for you,” Hisashi told him. Jiro shook his head and took the towel from him.

 

“Iie.You look tired. And besides, you’re always wiping away my sweat, let me do it for you sometimes, too,” he said as he wiped Hisashi’s forehead.The blue haired smiled at him.

 

“Arigatou,”

 

**

 

“IT’S OKAY,YOU CAN HAVE IT?!”

 

Shinya winced as he received that from Kaoru.

 

“What kind of spirit posessed you to say that?! You could have scored two more points, and we wouldn’t have to be worried about them catching up in the next two minutes!!!!!!” Kaoru shouted at him.

 

“Chill, Kaoru.They won’t get to catch up.We’re too good,” Toshiya remarked confidently.Shinya hid behind him.

 

Kaoru cast one more angry look at Shinya before grabbing a glass of water.

 

“Anou, Kaoru-san?” Shinya started timidly. Kaoru turned to face him.

 

“What?”

 

“I’m sorry. I was stupid. I won’t happen again, I promise,” Shinya said indigantly.

 

Silence.

 

“Fine. Just don’t ever do it again, or I’m calling an exorcist. I mean it!” Kaoru said to him before wiping himself.

 

**

The whistle blew. The second round had started a few seconds ago and Hisashi had ‘accidentally’ tripped Toshiya.

 

“What’d I do?” he asked innocently.That earned a slap on the head from Takuro.

 

Toshiya stood steadily and exhaled heavily. He saw that Hisashi was crossing his arms furiously. He winked at him before shooting cleanly into the ring. He bowed to Hisashi playfully as the others ran for the ball. Hisashi ignored him.

 

The score was now 68-71. That meant 71 for Kyoto .Takuro wasn’t at all happy about that.

 

They played really seriously, and believe it or not, Shinya actually restrained himself from totally passing the ball to Teru.Toshiya finally gave up on Hisashi, and Hisashi gave up on Shinya.

 

The game went on for an unexpectedly long time. Finally, the referee blew his whistle, announcing that a tie breaker was needed.The score was 118-118.

 

Swoosh!

 

And Takuro received an applause from his adoring fans. He bowed to them and ran to his teammates who were yalling like crazy.

 

“WE WON!!!! WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!!” they hugged each other and cried with happiness.

 

~*~

 

“Now, bow!” the host said.

 

The two teams bowed.

The Hokkaido team were still crying tears of joy and the Kyoto team were crying tears of defeat.

 

They shook hands.

 

It was really Hisashi’s luck that he bowed to Shinya. When he was face to face with him again, Hisashi wiped away Shinya’s tears.

 

“There’s always next year,” he reminded him. Shinya nodded, surprised.

 

**

 

“Let’s go!!” Takuro yelled. When nobody replied him, he turned around to see girls huddling around the other guys asking for their autographs.

 

Soon, girls were crowding around him for autographs.

 

“Well, well.How does victory taste like?” a voice called out.

 

The crowed parted, making way for the Kyoto team to pass.

 

Jiro realized that Kaoru was the one that said that.

 

“Tastes sweet, really sweet,” Jiro replied. Kaoru smiled.

 

“Oh, you mean like you?” he asked. Jiro blushed a deep shade of red.

 

“I think he means strawberrys, right, Jiro-kun?” Hisashi called from behind him.

 

 

They all laughed.

 

“Going back so soon?” Toshiya asked.

 

“Yeah,Yoshiki-sensei’s probably waiting for us back in Hokkaido,” Teru replied.

 

“Oh, well, it was nice knowing you, and liking you,” Toshiya said.He looked at Hisashi when he said that.

 

Hisashi ignored him again. Instead,he put his arm around Jiro’s shoulders and whispered to him.Toshiya fought down the urge to push Jiro away from Hisashi and hug him.

 

“Ja ne! See you guys next year!” they called out to each other.

 

**

( On the plane to Hokkaido)

 

“I knew we would win…..yeah, sensei, don’t worry…mmhmm, trophy’s right here,” Takuro said on the phone.He was talking to Professor Yoshiki. Sugizo was asleep on his shoulder.

 

Teru stared out the window. Ami sat next to him, flipping through a sports magazine.

 

“Hey, look! We made the front cover for breaking Kyoto’s chain of victory….Teru-kun?” she said.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Are you okay? What’re you looking at?” Ami asked.

Teru looked at her and replied,”Well, just now I was looking at the beautiful sky.Now I’m looking at you.You know, you kinda look like the sky,” with that he leaned on her shoulder and fell asleep.

 

Ami was happy enough with that answer.

 

 

“Jiro…kun?” Hisashi prodded him gently. Jiro stirred from his nap.

 

“Nani?” he asked sleepily.

 

“I was wondering…who did you like best among the Kyoto players?” Hisashi asked curiously.

 

“Why?”

 

“Just wondering,”

 

“Kaoru,”

 

“Why?”

 

“Dunno,maybe because of his really cool style,”

 

“Among us all?”

 

“You, of course,”

 

That surprised Hisashi.

 

“Why me?”

 

“ Cause you’re the coolest,” Jiro answered simply and went back to sleep, this time on Hisahi’s shoulder.

 

~*~

(On the train to Kyoto)

 

“I knew we should’ve formed a band,”Kaoru said regretfully.

 

-End-

 

~Owari

 

C/C?? ^_^

 

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