"That's what Love is For".
A Slam Dunk songfic by Minako.
Lyrics from the song "That's what love is for", performed by Amy Grant.
Dedicated to ... hell, the list would be too long to put it here. T_T 'Kay. To anyone who's reading it not feeling sick 'coz of its sheer waffiness. I think that after the KoHana, I need to make up things with MitKo and RuHana.
*****
(Sometimes we make it harder than it is
We'll take a perfect night)
Mitsui Hisashi glanced into his lover's sweet brown eyes. The boy who shared the couch with him was leaning against his frame, half-asleep in his lap. Like a kitten. And it fitted him perfectly, being kitten-ish when it came to tell him love words.
It wasn't always like that, of course. There were two years of longing and bitterness, where he himself denied the truth that was deeply hidden. That he was in love and he was ruining it himself after having it in his own hands.
(And fill it up with words we don't mean
Dark sides best unseen
And we wonder why we're feeling this way)
"It's not that I doubt of you being in love with me", he thought watching at Kogure's cute face. "I've been doubting so much about myself and my own heart. I wonder why our closeness wasn't enough before, and now it is - or am I just making up and lying to deny that it isn't? Heck".
He felt the weight of Kogure's body leaning heavier on him. Meaning that due to his half-slumber or intuition (he could never know), Min-kun was wanting to have more of his touch and presence.
*****
(Sometimes I wonder if we really feel the same
Why we can be unkind
Questioning the strongest of hearts)
Slaps flied that half-dreaded, half-blessed afternoon when he came back. The one that hurted more was the first, when the glasses were knocked down to the floor, and Kogure was forced to face him. Oh Hell, that pain. The brown eyes filled with sadness, and for a brief moment, with tears.
However, Kogure didn't cry. And it was him who ended up sobbing like a kid after the hurt of being re-born.
Subtly, even after he was back in the team, Mitsui wondered once in a while, if he was doing right. Showing love to the one he hurted for so long.
(That's when we must start
Believing in the one thing that has gotten us this far)
Then, Kogure opened his eyes fully.
"Hisashi, what are you thinking of?", he murmured in his lover's ear, eagerly tightening their warm embrace.
"... No-nothing", Mitsui murmured. But hearts don't lie.
Kogure smiled again and leaned even closer for a kiss, a very suave and slow one, and a caress on Mitsui's chest, placing his hand over the heart beating fast...
*****
(That's what love is for
To help us through it
That's what love is for
Nothing else can do it)
A butterfly touch went down the scarred boy's neck.
"Hisashi, I told you it was over".
"Hm?".
"That it's all right to me", Kogure said soothingly. "I know you better than myself and I know what's troubling you".
Mitsui's reply was a slightly sad wry. And Kogure's was another reassuring smile.
(Melt our defenses
Bring us back to our senses
Give us strength to try once more
Baby, that's what love is for)
*****
A sudden movement and Kogure placed himself nearly fully atop of Mitsui, trying not to overwhelm the other boy with the weight of his body. A flexible body really helps yout to do some maneouvres in a quite reduced space like that couch of Mitsui's house.
"But then again...", he mused.
"But then what?", Mitsui retorted. "Are your trying to confuse me, aren't you Min-kun?".
Kogure poked him lightly in the forehead with his free hand. The other was caressing his back, gradually relaxing the 3-pointer specialist squirming under him. When finally comfortable, Kogure looked up.
"You're feeling guilty again, Mitsui Hisashi".
******
(Sometimes I see you
And you don't know why I'm there
And I'm washed away by emotions
I hold deep down inside)
-- FLASHBACK --
No one knew of Mitsui's new habit after quitting the b-ball team. Since those days Mitsui, from a cheerful young boy full of energy, turned into a youth full of bitterness and usually hiding and alienating himself. A single glance from him was of such a frozen anger that even in summer, persons would feel the cold.
"He's the one your daddies have been warning for, girls", once the Shohoku mag stated jokingly, only to be ripped off from the school mag-table, and the editor beaten up so badly that ended up in the hospital.
Once in a while, however, Norio would be greeted with the very rare sight of Mitsui standing by the fence, glancing off the distance.
Mitsui himself, the very only one chance Norio dared to ask (thinking that he had the hots on a girl), kicked him in the guts and scowled at him for asking him such a nosense. But as he looked up, he was met with a pair of shocked eyes. Scared and pained cocoa brown eyes.
Mitsui's heart froze as he recognized Kogure, looking at him in utter shock and horror. He was the one he just was looking at through his bangs, pretending to be only distracted.
It was just before the sweet boy bit his lip and turned to walk away. Leaving a stunned Mitsui and a still dazed Norio behind.
--- END FLASHBACK ---
****
(Getting stronger with time
It's living through the fire
And holding on we find...)
At that memory, Mitsui unvoluntarily jerked on the couch, thus making Kogure lightly pull away. It's true that he has changed and was half back to the one he used to be. But hell, we're humans, and like that, we cannot forget so easily. Specially not when you've been hurting yourself and others for two years, ne?
But Kogure was kissing his lips again. That boy, he was a master at shoothing sharpnesses. A little of his silky touch and even a porcoupine would turn into a fluffy Angora cat.
Mitsui gave up his defense for a moment and held his lover back to his body, eagerly pulling him closer.
*****
(That's what love is for
To help us through it
That's what love is for
Nothing else can do it)
As they parted, Kogure slightly straightened himself, his hands supporting him over Mitsui's chest. In that way he could look right into Mitsui's black-blue eyes.
"Hisashi", he said in a firm, but smooth voice. "Don't doubt any single time of this love".
"It's not that", Mitsui replied a little dryly.
Kogure caught that and playfully smiled. Then, leaning again against Mitsui's chest, took his lover's hand and put it over his soft cheek.
(Melt our defenses
Bring us back to our senses
Give us strength to try once more
Baby, that's what love is for)
"Do you feel it?", he asked huskily. "Do you feel the warmth of my skin and my self?".
Mitsui answered without any doubt now. "I feel it".
"If it wasn't for you, Hisashi, I would be frozen. Believe me I would", Kogure continued. "Ever, since the time you hit Norio-kun in the hall".
He didn't give Mitsui time to tense as he held the hand tight with his own and closer to his cheek.
(Believing in the one thing
That has gotten us this far)
"Believing that someday you'd be back... kept my heart alive, Hisashi", Kogure murmured. "Hoping against hope... that my love wouldn't be for granted... and that its destiny was to be received".
Slight moisture was in his eyes as he said this last sentence.
(That's what love is for
To help us through it
That's what love is for
Nothing else can do it)
Mitsui felt his heart tighter than ever. But filled also, with an entirely different sensation. Its tightness wasn't for sadness anymore, but for the inmense happiness of knowing that any doubts were flying away, blown gently by the breeze, and by the love that he had now, materialized in the boy who was now hugging him tight and nuzzling his slightly wet cheek against his shoulder.
(Round off the edges
Talk us down from the ledges
Give us strength to try once more...)
Kogure silently sobbed, his tears flowing slowly. Mitsui let him cry, cradling his sweet lover, as he felt the weight being lifted off his shoulder, and knew now why he was like that.
Sometimes your joy is too great to express it in words, too sacred to waste it in laughter.
But by now, both lovers were curling against each other in the couch. There was no one but them.
Mitsui felt the tremble stopping as Kogure reached for the most sweet kiss of the night, whispering a last love phrase before settling his mouth on his'.
"Mitsui Hisashi... That's what love is for...".
(Baby, that's what love is for)