TITLE: Burdensome

PART: One-Shot

PAIRING: Sendoh Akira x Rukawa Kaede

GENRE: Implied Yaoi (Humour/ Continuation)

DISCLAIMERS: The series I'm referring to does not belong to me… ^_^ only this weird story does.

NOTES: Blah is for the interludes. Blahis for emphasis. /Blah/ is for conversations over the phone, /Blah/ if for dream sequences or flashbacks (if any). /Blah/ is for the conscience, or whatever inner voice there is, talking. Blah is for thoughts or random Japanese words. Some of these words are footnoted at the end of every page (I'm beginning to understand the need for footnotes in fiction. Thank you dear friend, you know who you are. ^^). This piece of fiction was originally made as a contender for Anduril's SenRuSen 'Summer' Fanfiction Contest... but I decided to nix the plan... my reason? Don't ask... Just don't ask. >.<

OOO

BURDENSOME

OOO

There was something really weird whenever he woke up every morning. Yes, it was quite true that the sun was up and the noisy birds were twittering shamelessly on the branch just outside his window, but it was the presence of the annoying alarm clock that bothered him. Well, not exactly...

It was the lack of an alarm clock that disturbed him.

Because he swore that every night he sets it up and tunes it to ring at precisely six o'clock in the morning...

And then he would wake up at nearly half an hour after seven with the damned clock missing... so he had to buy another one for the next day... and then the same thing would happen again.

What was worse was that... the clock would turn up just when he opened his door on his way out... and it was smashed to smithereens.

Tough luck.

And mornings suck.

Take what happened a couple of weeks ago as an example...

O

CRASH!

Rukawa buried himself deeper into his cottony blanket. The harsh sunlight was penetrating deep into the nooks and crannies of his room... and silently; he wondered where the night had gone. He felt safer then, so secure. But now, he knew for certain that he was trapped... the morning sunlight bequeathing him the gift of the mask... pushing him to another gruelling day with the idiots composing his basketball team.

Basketball.

Slowly, his eyes opened, lashes still partially covering his line of sight as the view of his pristinely white ceiling greeted him. Damn, sleep escaped him once again. What was wrong with him? He just couldn't understand why he was feeling so put off these days. The birds were chirping oh-so-gaily outside... worms were tunnelling underneath the jungle of his lawn and would somehow, he knew, turn up once again, slithering out of the drain in his bathroom... the dog was annoying the pants off everyone with its hellish yowling. Nothing new... he encountered them all every single day... well, with the exception of his alarm clock - which he had just bought yesterday in some local department store. There was no use buying something costly when you knew it would end up in the trash the next morning anyway. That was new. That clock was new.

His eyes strayed over to where his clock should have been. Missing... again. Another clock lost to him... just as he was being used to its loud and obviously annoying ticking. It was probably the same ticking his teammate Mitsui Hisashi heard when a baseball clocked (No pun intended) him on the face the other day during P.E. Baseball.

And straight to the dentist he went - his dentures were knocked out... again - for the umpteenth time.

Dentures.

There was an icky time when the porcelain pseudo-teeth fell into Kogure Kiminobu's Gazpacho during lunchtime... and he nearly ate it if Aida Hikoichi didn't point it out to him just as he was about to take in a huge spoonful of the weird-looking soup.

Soup... heh. The do'ahou (His name was Sakuragi Hanamichi but it was too taxing on the tongue so do'ahou would be better, after all, he is an idiot... most of the time) he had for a best friend eagerly consumed said soup in one big gulp, droplets spattering everywhere, hitting Rukawa's face as if droplets of pouring rain.

He sighed dejectedly, a he turned towards the windows. It was going to be a hot day, he could tell. How he wished that the rain would come and wash the sweltering weather away. But that was futile. It was the middle of summer.

And he had a lot of washing to do... too much practice was equal to too much laundry. He had to go home right after school. Nix practice. Clothes are much more important. After all, he couldn't run around the basketball court naked now, could he?

But he was needed during basketball practice... or, at least, his tyrannical college team captain Maki Shinichi needed him. He was volunteered by said jerk to coach the freshmen along with his long-time fan Mizusawa Ichirou. Not that he had anything against the boy, but he was too... well... he was much like one of his fan girls most of the time and he couldn't help shuddering at the unbidden thought of him wearing a white cheerleader outfit and waving those bundled-up glittery strings high up in the air, screaming his name as he made shot after shot. Oh man... that was nasty.

And to top it all off, said captain was acting so high and mighty for someone named after sushi... not that it was bad or anything, but whenever he heard his name, he tensed up like crazy and his eyes scrunched up as if in concentration. Others may think it was because of his über-competetiveness but it was actually only a fraction of his reasons. Truth was... his captain's name had such a huge impact on him that it made his stomach growl. And he always ended up thinking of what he would have for dinner... or, if he thought of him earlier than practice hours, lunch... or if earlier than that - breakfast. One thing he still did not have as he lay in bed waiting for the Second Coming.

He wondered if he had enough food in his fridge to make a decent breakfast. He was supposed to go grocery shopping after practice yesterday, but was sidetracked after Fujima Kenji and his partner in everything, Hanagata Toru, decided to drag him to their two-storey home for dinner. They really were acting much like his parents would when he was a lot younger... pushy and loving both. And it gave him a mushy feeling as he stared at the two going all kissy mid-somen bite.

And it was good somen too... what he would give for another bowl of it made by Culinary Wonder Hanagata-san now. He didn't quite understand why it was not Fujima who did the cooking... after all; he was the 'wife', right? Perhaps, the rumour that he had made blue clam chowder flavoured with curdling milk was true?

Rukawa thought it a good thing that Jin Souichirou, one of his basketball seniors wasn't there when that happened. He was one of those weird people who ate clam chowder right smack in the middle of summer, and he would hate to see him frothing in the mouth after ingesting said monstrosity.

But frothing in the mouth can be achieved by people with or without the help (?) of nauseating catalysts too. Take Koshino Hiroaki for example. He frothed in the mouth whenever his girlfriend Ayako talked too intimately to her former boyfriend Miyagi Ryota from our rival university... And the same thing happened whenever his best friend Sendoh played a prank on him, like switching his new team shirt with a soiled one during halftime.

Sendoh Akira.

Ah yes... the bane of his existence. He excelled in sports and constantly beat him during team practice games. Sendoh ate everything in sight - starting with whatever Rukawa was eating, snatching ice cream from him right under his nose, being nosy with private stuff, asking once if he was a briefs-person or a boxers one...

But he had good points too. He cared for his teammates. He cared for his family. He cared for his studies and his future... and most of all, he cared for Rukawa in such a way that made him feel special... told him that he can never live without him by his side... told him that he was the only one in the world who can make him happy...

And deep inside, it flattered him, injecting a warm fuzzy feel everytime they were together... and he loved every minute of the special attention lavished on him most of the time... even if it didn't seem so...

O

Yes, there was something really weird whenever he woke up every morning. It was quite true that the sun was up and the noisy birds were twittering shamelessly on the branch just outside his window, but it was the lack of the annoying presence of his newest alarm clock that bothered him.

And yet, come to think of it... was that really the reason?

Before it was that and that alone... however, time passed and changes occurred.

Now there was something more disorienting than the apparent lack of the proverbial clock...

It was the presence of the body next to him, just as warm as his... and just as naked, an arm latching onto his midsection, prohibiting him to stand up and prepare for class...

Sighing, he turned to his side, a smile weaving its way to his lips.

"Baka Akira, wake up or we'll be late..."

O

OWARI

O

A/N:Okies... here's a fic for all of you to read (And enjoy too - I hope) while you're lounging about doing absolutely nothing and bored to hell... ^____^ Tell me what you think! ^__________^