Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ One Big Family ❯ We're siblings! ( Chapter 1 )

One Big family: Chapter One

/FlashBack/

"Shinji, Kaede… I'm glad you've come…"

Rukawa Kaichi had greeted his two sons as they arrived together at Yuen Restaurant, around 3 blocks away from Shohoku High. Rukawa Shinji grinned at his father, and Rukawa Kaede was as usual, showing his ever gloomy face and ended up elbowed by Shinji.

"Why not dad? Even if it's a hassle to take this kiddo from the basketball court. He's just too stubborn." Shinji eyed his younger brother, who had no reaction about it. Truly, Shinji fetched him from practice to attend some sort of dinner his dad prepared.

"Anyway, they shall be arriving soon." Their dad said, looking at his watch and at the face of his son Kaede. "Would you want some refreshment, huh, Kaede?"

"Okay."

The waiter brought some soda on the table and Kaede grabbed it.

"… And Shinji…"

"Yeah, dad?"

"You've met Kioko, right?"

"Kioko Sendoh? You mean, your best friend when you were in college?"

Suddenly, Kaede's head tilted up, looking at his oniisan and otousan. They also looked surprised by his sudden reaction. Then his brows furrowed as well. Then he thought of something.

Why would he not forget the woman? She's nice and simple, but that's it. Not her children… Especially the eldest.

Sendoh Akira.

Yeah, right. His archenemy. Another annoying person in his life--- and he's also a basketball player. He was lost in thoughts until he was almost choked by the soda as soon as he saw what his family was talking about. Sendoh Kioko, wearing a pink pretty dress entering the restaurant. He saw his dad flinch, and then he had some sort of clue what's going on.

"Oh no, I'd better run… but…" he thought, looking at his brother's hand on his shirt.

"Don't dare run." Shinji whispered. He was right about it. And he thought sarcastically that his brother was a psychic.

He grunted, "Feh,"

He almost jumped off his seat when the next person approached the table, shaking hands with his dad, grinning at him, with spiky dark blue hair. That person looked at him, and made a goofy grin. He took the fact calmly, but deep inside…

"THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kaede wanted to yell out loud.

"Hello, Shinji-san." Sendoh Akira greeted politely. Shinji is already in college, so he addressed him more politely. "Nice to see you again."

"Same here, Akira-kun." Shinji noticed his brother glaring. "Hey, Kaede, look who's here."

"I don't need to---" Shinji cut off his monotonic icy words.

"Well, take a seat now, Akira. My brother must be tired from practice." He smiled. Kaede didn't respond, rather he turned away from the conversation.

"I see." Akira replied. "Yukiro, come here!" A little kid bouncily transferred from his mom's side to Akira's.

"Oniichan!"

"This is Shinji-san." He pointed to Shinji who smiled at the boy. "… and um, that's… Kaede-kun."

Kaede didn't look at them. He continued listening to his mp3 player, as if he was meditating or something. Suddenly, their parents halted talking. Then they looked at all their kids, smiling…

"Everyone, we have something to announce…"

Kaede made a straight face… and after that, the things just became a whirlwind of events…

/End oF Flash Back/

Sendoh Akira realized that Rukawa Kaede wasn't so easy to wake up every morning. He had just taken a bath, and now looking at his younger brother, who was unceremoniously hurled off the dark haired boy's bed.

He was somewhat shocked when he saw his little brother Sendoh Yukiro climbing up Kaede's bed, about to fall down. With his quick movement, he was able to catch him before he fell down. The seven year old boy struggled happily within his arms until he was able to place him back down onto the ground. "That was fun! Do it again, Kaede-kun!" He cried happily, clambering back up onto the dark haired boy's bed as though nothing had even happened.

"Go away." He covered himself with the sheets.

"Please. Kaede-kun? Please?"

"Get him out of here before I do something, Sendoh. I'm warning you." He glared at Akira who subsequently shrugged.

"Yuki-kun, let's go now. Your aniki will be late for school."

At this, the little boy's large brown eyes filled with tears. "He doesn't like me, aniki! Why doesn't Kaede-kun like me? I like him..." He jumped down from the bed, wailing all the while, and clamped onto his elder brother's leg.

"Kaede-kun doesn't like anybody, Yuki-chan." Kaede's elder brother, Shinji informed him as he appeared by the doorway. "He's a sad, sad, very cold guy."

"Do you like me, Shinji-chan?"

"Of course. Not everyone in the Rukawa family is like Kaede." As he spoke, Shinji made his way to the bed where a figure lay snuggled up under the sheets. Without any prior warning, he tipped one side of the mattress up, sending his younger brother tumbling to the ground. "Get up. Breakfast is ready."

Sending Shinji deadly glares as he picked himself off from the ground, Kaede ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to make it seem somewhat neater and stalked over to his wardrobe to get some clothes as Akira watched him go. Shinji allowed Yukiro to clamber onto his back and carried him down to the kitchen

"Good morning, younger brother!" Akira greeted Kaede cheerfully,

Kaede scowled as he pulled out a shirt from deep within the cavernous depths of his closet. "Don't call me that way."

Akira inclined his head to one side. He had finished getting himself presentable a long time ago and had only been waiting for Kaede to get up so that they could go down to the breakfast table together.

"Why in the world not? That's what an elder brother is supposed to call his younger brother, isn't it?"

"I'm not your brother."

Akira pursed his lips thoughtfully. "That's funny. I thought that the kids of a man and a woman that were married to each other are supposed to be brothers..."

"Lawfully yes." Kaede muttered. "But I never agree in lawful stuff."

"Really? Cool!! I never knew that about you before! See, things aren't going to be so bad! Now that your father and my mom are married, we're going to be spending an awful lot of time together! We'll get to know each other really, really well!"

"I can't wait." Kaede said flatly.

God. When will Iwake up from this nightmare? It wasn'tbad enough when dadhad first started going out with hiswidowed mother. Ihad been forced to come together for weekly gatherings of the Rukawa-Sendohclan. At least Ihad been able tohavepretty much sleep through the whole torment, but how am Isupposed to do that with this? He scowled.

No one had been more surprised than Rukawa Kaichi's sons when he had announced his impending marriage a few months before. Kaede hadn't though those things were that serious with the pretty mother of his on court rival. His father as he'd known never looked for other women when his mother died when he was 10.

And now that Sendohs were staying in their home, everything had changed. It wasn't that Kaede particularly minded Sendoh Kioko. She was actually sort of nice, when it all came down to it, always willing to take the time to fix him a snack when he came home from basketball practice. It was all the baggage that she had brought along that disturbed him. There was that grinning fool, Akira who had been placed with him in his room for lack of any better place to put him (He had suggested a cot in the tool shed but his idea had been shot down immediately by his father who, like the others, had also been completely charmed by the older boy). He couldn't stand the guy. He hated everything about him. The way that he was always trying to get him to talk when all he really wanted to do was to sleep, hated the way that he had won over the rest of his family, gullible fools that they were, and the way that Akira's hair styling products were always littered around the room. The thing that he disliked the most though was the guy's ever cheerful manner. Sometimes, Kaede was tempted to kick the guy in the guts just to see whether that stupid, fake smile would remain on his face or not.

Then there was that little brat, Yukiro, that everyone else thought was so cute. The way people acted around him, cooing and cuddling the little monster, you would think that they had never seen a seven year old child before. He was an exact miniature of his elder brother and seemed to have made disturbing his much treasured sleep his mission in his miserable little life.

Looking at Sendoh Akira's disgustingly happy face this early in the morning had that sort of effect on him too...

"You're not a morning person." Akira observed, taking note of the handsome young man's scowl.

"Am I being that apparent?"

"I also sense some hostility here."

Kaede snorted. Hostility was too mild a word. What he felt for the spiky haired young man sitting on the extra bed that had been squashed into his room could be more aptly described as sheer and utter loathing.

"If it's about the whole room thing, Kaede, it's not easy for me either." Akira told him with a soft sigh. He had tried his best to reach out to the younger boy ever since their parent's wedding a week before but nothing had worked. He had tried talking to him about basketball as they watched an NBA game and Kaede had just told him to shut up, he had tried talking to him as the two of them got ready for bed in the bathroom that the two of them had to share and Kaede had told him to shut up because he was about to go to sleep. He thought it was sort of unfair putting all the responsibility on him but he guessed that he owed his mother and Kaichi Rukawa that much so he had promised to try for them. It obviously wasn't working out very well at the moment. "I miss having my own room in my own home too-"

"Feel free to go back there any time you want to. And take your brother too." He murmured sarcastically.

Akira could feel his smile becoming slightly strained. Didn't the kid think it was hard enough for him and his siblings as it was, having to move into a whole new home, leaving behind their house, their friends? He even had to start in a whole new school, seeing as how Ryonan was so far away from Rukawa home. He had had to give up the captaincy of the Ryonan basketball club, something that had disappointed him immensely but which he was willing to do, seeing as how his mother was so happy with Rukawa Kaichi. "Like it or not, we're here to stay. I'm going to have to keep sharing this room with you until we find a new house big enough for all of us, like dad said."

"Dad?" Kaede repeated, a frown maiming his handsome face.

"Yes, dad." Akira affirmed, knowing how much the guy hated it when he called his father that. "We're just going to have to cope with that. I'm willing to try and make it all work out. Mom is so happy with our new father and I like him too. He's a really nice guy! I like Ito and I like this house and even though you're making this very hard, I sort of like you too."

Well, I don't like any of you, Kaede thought to himself as he pulled on some comfortably scuffed sneakers, Idon't like having any of you here. I don't like the fact that so many things had to change because of all of you. I was already happy with the way that things were before. He made his way to the door but Akira blocked his way out.

" Kaede, look. Let's just talk for a minute, okay?"

"Hmm..."

He took that as a sign that he could proceed. But it was hard for him to talk with the guy glowering at him like that. He was so used to people taking an instant liking to him that he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do with this boy that so obviously detested his guts. "Like it or not, I'm here to stay."

Kaede said nothing but his eyes spoke volumes more than any words ever could. It was obvious from the look that the boy gave him that the prospect of being stoned to death with basketballs was preferable to this.

"I'm going to be going to Shohoku with you, Kaede, like it or not." The scowl deepened. "I'm going to be joining the basketball club there, like it or not. There's nothing that you and me can do about the situation that we're in but try to make the best out of it! I don't see why you think this is all so terrible! I mean, you're gaining a mother and three new siblings and we're getting a father and two new brothers! We're only getting good things from this!"

"A headache."

"What?" Akira asked, puzzled, wondering why a headache was being brought up into the conversation.

"That's all that I'm getting from this." He declared, brushing past Akira and making his way down to the breakfast table with the older boy walking past him.

A/N: That's it! Please review. I was some sorta weirded about the plot I've created.