This Text file is old! In a 🏛️Museum, an unsorted archive of (user-)pages. (Saved from Geocities in Oct-2009. The archival story: oocities.org)
--------------------------------------- (To 🚫report any bad content: archivehelp @ gmail.com)
>

Title: Bowling Time
Author/Artist: MK
Pairing: Sawada Shin x Yamaguchi Kumiko
Fandom: Gokusen
Theme: #26, If Only I Could Make You Mine
Disclaimer: I don't own Gokusen, but did anyone notice the music in drama 8? 
Ladyakumu pointed out that it's from Kindaichi! How cool is that?!

	Yankumi popped a chocolate in her mouth and let it melt a little on her 
tongue as she stared fiercely at the page.  This couldn't be! If it happened like 
this, she would just die!

	//'Lei-sensei, we've lost! We've lost the tournament!'// Loque's face had 
tears streaming down it, and Yankumi felt her own eyes tear up a little.

	//'A Champion Bowler must face down defeat and understand that 
pain,'// Lei-sensei replied, tall, proud, full of knowledge.  //'This has been a good 
lesson for you.'//

	//'Leiiii-senseiiiii~!'//  Yankumi closed the book and breathed out through 
her nose, rolling onto her back.

	"Aaah, that's how bowling should be!"  Grandfather laughed from across 
the room.

	"You're still reading that manga after all these years, eh?" Yankumi 
grinned, stretching her arms up to the ceiling overhead.  

	"Of course!"  'The King of Bowlers, Loque' was what had inspired her to 
start bowling, after all. It was only natural that she still loved it this much.  

	"Ah, Yankumi," Shin wandered into the room rubbing his hair dry and still 
dressed in his workout pants, "Don't you have to go meet Nakashima?"  She 
stared at his hair for a moment before it hit her.  

	"Nakashima! Aaah, I'm going to be late!"


	
	She made it, but barely.  Nakashima waved at her from a small table in the 
caf where they had agreed to meet, a drink in front of her.

	"You made it, good!" 

	"Sorry I'm late!" Yankumi breathed a little more heavily and sank into her 
chair.  A cute waitress came over, took her drink order and left.  Kumiko 
shrugged off her jacket so it hung on the back of her chair and smiled.  "How's 
Yuta?"
	
	"He shows off his spin every time we go to the park, it's great!"  Yankumi 
laughed.  When Kyo had taught her how to hit the solar plexus, she'd repeated it 
for a week on various kumi members before she realized it was a bad idea. 
Spinning at least was not nearly so dangerous. 




	They chatted aimlessly over bubble tea before Nakashima suddenly leapt 
on a topic Yankumi had hoped to avoid.  "So Sawada Shin, eh?"  Yankumi 
choked a little, swallowed and looked up.  

	"Uh"

	"How long?  How? When? Details!"  

	"Uh"  Slowly she got parts of it out, starting right at the beginning when 
she had started teaching at Shirokin.  The more she talked about it, the easier it 
became though, and it was nice to have someone, a woman, whom she could talk 
to about it.  It felt good to get it out there and have someone listen and nod 
appreciatively, to laugh at the right parts and look excited or sad or anxious at 
others.  

	"That long then I had no idea!"  It had been a little over a year since she 
had met Sawada, so she supposed it had been awhile, but it wasn't like he had 
been specifically interested in her for that long.  He had only kissed her two 
months ago, really.  She said as much, and Nakashima threw back her head and 
laughed.  

	"You really have no idea!"

	"What?"

	"Yamaguchi," Nakashima leaned forward, "He's obviously been interested 
in you much longer than that.  If he wasn't, Fujiyama wouldn't have teased you 
about it."  

	Oh.  "Uh"  

	Nakashima laughed again.  "You're really interesting! Poor Sawada!"  



	She thought about it the entire way home.  Suddenly, all sorts of things she 
had said in the past felt incredibly awkward. She had treated him so casually, 
teased him about many things, goofed around.  

//"Didn't you say in love you have to throw a strike?"//  




"I'm home~" she called, wandering inside.  The house was quiet.  "Where 
is everybody?"  Shin lay sprawled out back with the doors open in a patch of sun 
that had filtered through the trees.

"They're gambling downtown," he replied, not moving. She sat down next 
to him, legs dangling over the edge.  

"All of them? Why didn't you go?"

"My luck is too good, and Kyo needs to run for his life sometimes."  She 
laughed at that; it was true.  She had heard about Shin's luck at cards (apparently 
only when he wasn't playing against her) and his luck with escapes.  Kyo on the 
other hand had terrible luck with cards.  

"Shin"  He tilted his head to one side to look over and up at her.  "You 
said you were going to throw a strike, right?"  He sat up and looked directly at 
her.  

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, go for it." His eyes flickered down to her mouth for a moment, 
then back up to meet hers.  

"Kumiko," he said slowly, "I'm in love with you."  She felt dizzy, warm.  It 
was one thing to wonder, it was another to hear it directly.  She leaned in a little 
closer.

"Shin" They met halfway, the wood warm beneath her fingers and sun 
soaking into her skin.  Once, twice, just softly.  "I me too" And she could feel 
him smiling then, that goofy grin she had only rarely seen.  

With Shin, it seemed it would always be spring: messy, but warm.  

NOTE: Bowling Time is an actual song. I'll upload the Mp3 and post it 
with this part, though the song is uh of a different mood and meaning than this 
part. >_>  Quite different, really.  There's also a short film of it. One day I might 
post that, too. 

[King of Bowlers Loque is not a real manga.]

Text file Source (historic): geocities.com/yankumisensei/gokusenfic

geocities.com/yankumisensei

(to report bad content: archivehelp @ gmail)