Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ Miss Match ❯ Rukawa is Sick ( Chapter 24 )

Hi Dorina, really glad you like this fanfic! Well, I didn't do much editing in this one, so I hope it is just as interesting ^_^

Chapter 24

Yuna forced a yawn back as she looked over the horizon of the ocean, the sun was only rising. She looked back down the ocean water again and leaned her head on one of her hand as she sat crossed leg on the dock. She never imagined she had to wake up so early in the morning and come fishing with Sendoh who seemed to be enjoying it.

"Akira-kun…" Yuna turned to Sendoh then. "Do you do this all the time?"

"Hai, it is a way for me to pass my time." Sendoh said. "It is fun when you get the hang of it."

"I see…" Yuna mumbled looking away and stared down the water again. She wished she could sleep in a while longer but, Sendoh had called her early this morning and asked her go fishing with him. She hadn't seen him lately because he was always busy with practice and she had to serve a community service because Rukawa had gotten both of them into trouble. She sighed inwardly then and hoped he won't bring her into anymore problems.

"So what kind of school work you had on a Saturday?" Sendoh asked after a moment of silent passed.

"Eh…" Yuna blushed. She didn't tell him she got into detention. "Well, it was sort of… er… well…"

"What is it?" Sendoh turned to her then with a small smile on his face. "Please don't tell me you got into trouble in school."

Yuna blushed harder. "Well, it was sort of detention the teacher gave us."

"Us?" Sendoh looked surprised.

"Rukawa and I…." Yuna mumbled.

"What had he got to do with this?" Sendoh asked frowning slightly.

"Well, he… I…" Yuna didn't know how to explain it to Sendoh. Finally she sighed and turned to him. "We got into trouble in science lab…" she finally said. She didn't want tell Sendoh that Rukawa was the one who got both of them into trouble.

"Both of you?" Sendoh asked looking at her suspiciously. "I never knew you were the type who likes to break rules."

"It was a mistake…" Yuna said shrugging and smiled. "Well, at least it's over. Sumimesen… I couldn't meet you."

"It wasn't your fault." Sendoh said smiling in return. "Forget about it."

Yuna nodded once still smiling.

"Let's make use of the time we have today, together." Sendoh said.

"Hai," Yuna replied cheerfully and turned back to the ocean, and sigh inwardly. She never like fishing, for she never had the patient to sit there waiting for a fish to come by.

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Rukawa threw in a three pointer and looked up the sky. He was practicing basketball in the nearby park. He didn't go over to Yuna's place for almost a week now. He knew that Yuna wasn't home and he knew exactly where she went. He frowned slightly then and went to retrieve the ball. He still did not understand why she was putting up with this fiancée arrangement. She had been spending most of her free time with Sendoh and the thought actually disturbed him. She had always been with him until, Sendoh came by.

Yuna, that tomboy… he thought furiously to himself as he dribbled the ball walking to the hoop slowly and gradually picked up speed into a run, jumped up as he reached hoop and did a dunk.

He land on both his feet again feeling slightly disconcerted. Taking a deep breath he walked over to the ball again. If only, he could tell Yuna the truth. Shaking the thought away from his head he continued with his practice. To think of letting go of his ego to tell her such a thing, it would be the last thing he could ever do.

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The sky darkens, as Yuna helped Sendoh packed his fishing gears. She looked up the sky, it was such a bright morning and she couldn't imagine it would start raining so suddenly. She looked at her watch; they had been here for the whole morning for the watch told her it was already noon.

Before they could leave the dock rain start pouring down on them. Sendoh reached for Yuna's hand and both of them ran from the dock.

"There is a bus stand nearby lets go there for shelter until the rain stops." He said.

Yuna nodded. Sendoh still holding on her hand they both ran to the bus stand he had mentioned. They ran into the shed, slightly drenched. Yuna took off her jacket she was wearing then and fling away the water from it. To her surprised then, Sendoh was wiping her face with his handkerchief. She turned to him with her eyes wide.

"I wouldn't want you to fall sick." He said softly.

To stun to say anything Yuna could only stare into his gentle and caring eyes. Her heart skipped a beat then. She blinked once looking at him, who was smiling down at her, both of them standing very close together. When he leaned down, Yuna moved back slightly. Taken aback by his actions, she quickly looked away from him.

"Sumimesen, if I had frightened you." Sendoh said quickly.

Yuna shook her head for she felt like she couldn't speak at that time. She was feeling guilty, but why? Sendoh was her fiancée and she shouldn't be feeling guilty. So why was she feeling this strange feeling? She couldn't understand. Slowly she slipped her jacket back on again.

"Yuna," Sendoh said softly. Yuna turned back to him slowly. "I could see in your eyes that you care about Rukawa more than you can care about me…"

Yuna's widened with surprise then, she never expected to hear that from Sendoh. She turned away from him quickly looking down the ground.

"It's not like that…" Yuna said softly. "Of course not!"

"I don't believe that." Sendoh said moving closer to her and put both his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him gently. "Look at me…"

Yuna looked up slowly, Sendoh was watching her gently.

"But, I am not going to give up." He said smiling softly. "I believe one day you will care about me more than Rukawa. You are my fiancée and I want you to know that I care about you very much."

Yuna gasped slightly staring into Sendoh's eyes which was so unlike Rukawa's uncaring ones. Tears blurred her vision then, and she quickly looked away. She had always wished Rukawa would say that to her but instead someone else did. Sendoh gently hold her chin with one of his hand and tilt her head up slowly. He wiped the tears that had rolled down her cheeks away tenderly.

"Yuna…" Sendoh whispered moving closer to her. "If only you would give me a chance…"

"Akira-kun…" Yuna said softly. "I… don't know…"

Sendoh leaned down to kiss Yuna then. Taken by aback by his actions Yuna stood motionlessly on the spot, her eyes stared at him wide opened.

This shouldn't be happening! Her mind screamed and she quickly pulled away from Sendoh.

"Iya…" She gasped.

"Yuna…" Sendoh looked at Yuna surprised. She looked flabbergasted and Sendoh took a deep breath. "Sumimesen…"

Yuna shook her head.

She swallowed hard and looked up the dark sky. It was still raining hard, and she wondered when it would stop raining. She wanted to go home. She was feeling very disheartened and she didn't understand why she was feeling that way when she was suppose to be having a great time with Sendoh. She never expected him to kiss her!

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As days goes by…

Yuna walked down the school corridor, it was after school and most of the students had already gone home. Rukawa never came to school that day, to Yuna's surprised and wondered what happened to him.

"Yuna-chan!"

Yuna turned to the direction, someone called her and saw Toma running up to her. She smiled waving at him.

"Toma- kun." Yuna said. "Nani?"

"Going home?" He asked as they walked together down the corridor.

"Hai, I was supposed to have gym practice today but, our captain fell sick and it was cancelled."

"Looks like lots of people fell sick this few days." Toma said wonderingly. "Rukawa had fallen sick himself, that was why he didn't come to school."

"Sick?" Yuna turned to Toma in surprised.

"Hai, I heard it from someone that he was sick." Toma said.

"I'm sure Riko would be accompanying him." Yuna said softly looking down the floor. "She is always around him."

"Iya, didn't you hear?" Toma said. "Riko went to Hiroshima this week and won't be back until end of the month."

"Eh?"

"Well, she went back because of some family problem." Toma said stretching his head. "I don't really know the details. This is all I heard."

"…" Yuna stared straight ahead of her without any expression on her face.

"Well, I'll see you in school tomorrow." Toma said heading to the bicycle shed to get his bike when they walked out the building.

"Ja…" Yuna waved and walked out the school front gate.

She knew that Rukawa had been staying alone at home this week because Kasumi had invited him to dinner again and to stay over, but he never came. Worrying something may have happened to him, instead of heading back home she walked over to Rukawa's house. She took a deep breath and walked to the front door. She rang the door bell but no one answered. She waited for another few minutes before she tip toed and reached up to the top of the door where he always kept his spare key. She remembered Rukawa told her once before though she never visits him often in his house so she never used it before. She grabbed hold of the key then.

Unlocking the door she went in. The whole house was very quiet as she entered and shut the door. Looking around the house slightly astounded for the whole house was in a mess. Clothes were scattered around the floor, newspaper screwed everywhere. She put her briefcase aside and put her hands on her hips. He had only stayed alone for a week and the house was in a mess. Then she heard someone coughed upstairs.

Slowly she made her way upstairs, trying to detect where the sound was coming from. It came from a room on her right when she reached the landing upstairs. She headed for the door and knocked. She was greeted by another cough then and she opened the door and looked. She poked her head into the room and saw Rukawa sitting on his bed looking at her with his eyes wide opened. His room was also in a mess with his clothes everywhere; Yuna went inside then trying not to step on his things on the floor.

"You are pretty good in housekeeping everything seemed so…" Yuna teased looking around before she turned back to him and added. "Disorganized."

"If you came here to quip you might as well go home." Rukawa said uncaringly and lay back down his bed.

Yuna raised her eyebrows and went over to him. She put her hand on his forehead to Rukawa's surprised. He looked up at her disbelievingly.

"You feel like you are having a fever." Yuna said. "Do you have a thermometer?"

"I think it's in the bathroom in one of the cupboards." Rukawa said vaguely.

Sighing Yuna left the room to look for a thermometer. It took her sometime to find it because she had search through all the cupboards to look for a small thing. When she finally got it she went back into his room flinging it and checking the thermometer before putting it into Rukawa's mouth. She sat down on the floor next to his bed. He tried to sit up then but Yuna hold him back.

"Just lie still." She said looking at her watch.

Rukawa frowned but obeyed.

After a minute Yuna took the thermometer and looked at it. "What did you do?" She asked. "Your fever it's a 103!"

Rukawa remained silent.

"Had you taken any medicine?"

Rukawa just stared back at her.

"By the look of your face, it means no? Is there any medicine in the house? Aspirin?"

When Rukawa never answer Yuna got up to her feet. "I'll be right back," she said and left.

Rukawa watched her leave his room, still slightly flabbergasted. He never thought that Yuna would come to visit him. He caught fever last night when he was practicing basketball in the rain. He didn't want to go home because he knew that he would be thinking about Yuna spending her time with Sendoh and the thought wasn't pleasant. He was glad that Riko wasn't around and felt pleased that Yuna had come.

Yuna came back into Rukawa's room holding a plastic bag in her hand. To Rukawa's surprised she had went to the pharmacy to get some medication for him. She sat down on the floor next to his bed again taking out the packets of medication she had bought.

"This is for your fever…you seemed like having slight flu so you should take this too." She said taking two white pills out from a white plastic bag and one tiny pink one in another. "And I got cough lozenges for you." She passed the pills to Rukawa and she stood up again. "I'll go get you some warm water."

She left the room again. Rukawa stared down the pills Yuna had given him.

"Here," Yuna said coming into the room again and passed him a glass of water. "You better take a rest after taking this."

"Domo…" Rukawa said softly taking the glass.

Yuna watched him take his medication, and took the empty glass from him. Rukawa then lay back down his bed again and close his eyes feeling very comfortable. Yuna covered him with the blanket then. Not long later Rukawa fell asleep. As quietly as she could she started picking up his clothes and dumped them into the laundry basket in his room. She saw a pile of clean and folded clothes on the corner on his desk. Taking the pile of clothes, she opened his cupboard to put them away.

While she was keeping his clothes she came across a very familiar jacket. Curious she pulled it out from under of his clothes. She flung it in front of her and blinked. The jacket belong to her, she gaped looking at it and turned to Rukawa's slumbering figure. Why didn't he give it back to her? She wondered. Not wanting Rukawa to know that she knew he was keeping her jacket she folded it and put it back into his cupboard.

She went over to him, and looked down at him. He was sleeping so soundly now. Kneeling down next to his bed she watched him sleep with a tiny smile on her face, gently she pushed his fringe away from his face. She wanted to ask him why he was keeping her jacket all this time, but she knew that she wouldn't make herself to do it. Slowly she stood up and taking the laundry basket with her, she left his room closing the door softly behind her.

She went back downstairs, went to the back to the laundry room, dumping his clothes into the washing machine before she come out to the living room again, looking at the mess he had done with her hands on her hips. Taking a deep breath and pushing her sleeves up, she started cleaning up the mess. By the time she had finished the living room, she went into the kitchen. The kitchen was quite clean except that he didn't bring out the trash. Yuna packed away the trash then and saw that the trash was filled with packaging of instant noodles. She raised her eyebrows. He had been eating instant noodles this whole week?

She blinked tying the bags up slowly, that was no wonder he fell sick. She took out the trash then and went back into the kitchen to wash her hands. After that she opened the refrigerator and found that it was practically empty. With a sigh she shut it and left the house again.

Looks like I need to go get some groceries… she thought to herself and went to the nearest supermarket.

When Rukawa woke up his room was already in darkness. His head wasn't hurting that badly anymore after the nap. He switched on the lights and found his room cleaned. He blinked looking around; he couldn't believe that Yuna had cleaned his room for him. His cleaned clothes were already put away, he went over to the cupboard and opened it, he looked through his clothes and found Yuna's jacket. It was still there to his relieve. He had brought this jacket to all his matches ever since Yuna left it to him that night in Akagi's house. It was like his lucky charm.

Quickly, he left his room and went downstairs. The living room was also cleaned, slowly he walked to the kitchen and found Yuna had made dinner for him. She wasn't anywhere in the house and Rukawa saw a note on the kitchen table. He picked it up reading it.

Rukawa,

Try not to eat too much instant food; it is not good for your health. I had already prepared dinner for you. Beside that, tomorrow's breakfast and lunch is in the fridge in boxes. All you have to do is reheat them tomorrow. If you want Kasumi-neechan had asked you to come over to our place for dinner.

Get well soon.

Yuna.

Rukawa turned to the fridge and opened it. He found that Yuna had stock him up with drinks and food. He blinked closing the refrigerator again. He turned towards the stove and realized Yuna had prepared some porridge for dinner. He smiled softly to himself.

And all this time, I thought she no longer cared about me… he thought.

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Hehehehe, Yuna still cares for Rukawa so much… and Sendoh is still her fiancée… made her looked like she is two timing the both of them… anyways, we will see how the rest of the chapters would be like. Will post the next chapter up soon.