Disclaimer:  Ya da…ya da…ya da…  The usual disclaimer that everyone's annoyed with applies.  Slam Dunk does not belong to this Lazy Neko, and it'll never be, 'cos Takehiko Inoue sensei is its rightful owner!  But…the OC's are mine and mine only!  Bwahahahahahaha  :D  K…so what if this Neko's a loony?  Hahahahahaha :P  =.=

NB:      "…"     Character's speech

            …    Character's Thoughts

            (…)      See Neko's notes…

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Chapter 1 – Prelude

Stepping out of the supermarket, her face faltered at the heavy rain that had started without warning.

Why is this happening to me?  Today's just not my day!  She heaved a heavy sigh and lifted her right hand, using her handbag as a miniscule mean to shelter from the rain whilst carrying two grocery stuffed plastic bags in her left hand.  She dashed toward the silver CLK 320 Kompressor coupe parked on the other side of the road and jumped into the driver's seat as soon as she managed to get the door open.  Dumping the bags onto the back seats, she grabbed a heap of tissue out of the tissue box, attempting to dap away the water clinging to her new Prada suit and now messed-up hair.  She soon found her efforts futile and threw her hands in the air in exasperation.  Great! First it's the new klutz intern, and then it was the love-sicked secretary who just won't stop bugging me about how to get aniki's attention, and now this!  Do you really hate me so much, kami-sama?  More importantly, why the hell am I talking to myself?!  This has got to stop this instant!  Pronto!

She rolled her blue eyes skywards, put the key in the ignition, started the engine and headed homewards.

After parking and stopping the engine of the car, she stepped out of her CLK with both hands filled with grocery plastic bags, handbag, laptop and her attaché case.  She kicked the car door closed and walked into her apartment's lobby, nodding at the security guard on the way to the elevators.  She pressed the lift button with one of her free finger and waited.  The lift soon came and she pressed the button numbered five as the elevator closed.  Turning to the right after she exited the elevator, she stopped in front of a door with 5B engraved into the gold badge beside the door and opened the solid oak door with her key card.  Once she stepped inside, one could hear her temporal vein pop over the rather loud Tchaikovsky piece that was blasting out of the home theatre system's speakers.  It took her every ounce of her control to stop herself from screaming.  She put everything in her hands on the polished timber floor and took off her hills before stepping into the living room, where a tall, spiky-headed male in his late twenties was humming along the Tchaikovsky piece happily as he put up the new wallpaper.

"ANIKI!"  She hissed through gritted teeth, standing behind the guy after she had switched off the sound system with the remote.

The spiky head turned around with a big grin and hugged her with all his might.  "Okaeri, Sazae-chan!"

Sazae stomped on her brother's foot heavily, forcing her over-energetic sibling to let go of her.

"Itai…hidoi yo Sazae-chan!  How can you be so cruel to your dear brother?"  Sendou Akira pulled his puppy face at his furious sister in attempts to soften her temper.

"And I am going to wring my dear brother's neck in a sec if I don't get a good explanation out of him as to why he's changing my wall into such monstrosity!"  Her azure eyes ablaze with irritation as she glared into the same pair of eyes both siblings shared.

"It's not monstrosity!  It's art!  It's fashion!  It's…"  Before Akira can finish his dramatic description of the new wall he's creating, Sazae cut him short by snapping, "It's monstrosity!  It's atrocious!  Change it back now aniki or you'll be sleeping in the hallways outside tonight!  Do you not remember you are a house guest here?!"

"But…but…don't you think purple is a much happier colour than that dull cream before?"  Akira pouted cutely as he made his last attempt to convince his sister.

"Purple is a happy colour, but this atrociously bright purple does not spell happy, it shouts monstrosity!"  Sazae hissed as she sent eye-daggers Akira's way.  "Now, change it back to the way it was.  Even though you are one of the top interior designers in the county, I don't need your professionalism in my apartment aniki."

Akira continued to pout, but relented and began to remove the purple wallpaper.  "Hai, hai…I'll take them off now."

"Thank you!"  Sazae said rather relieved and went to pick up the bags she'd left by the door.  She popped her handbag and work stuff on the couch and walked into the kitchen with the groceries.  She felt something was amiss and returned to the living room.

"Where's Ai-chan?"  She asked her brother puzzlingly.

"She went to the library and said she'd be back…around now."  Akira replied with a glance at his watch and continued stripping off the purple wallpaper.

Sazae paled with fear at her brother's words and her lips trembled as she tried to squeeze words out of her mouth.  "H…how can you let her go out alone at night, aniki!?"

Sazae scrambled to pick up her handbag and rushed toward the door.  Akira held her back with a firm grip and his face sullen.  He knew all too well why his sister freaked out at the young one's absence.

"Calm down Sazae.  Ai-chan will be fine.  She said she'll be back by eight and she will.  Don't be so paranoid."  He said with a calm voice.

"Paranoid!?"  Sazae's eyes widened in disbelieve.  "How can you said that I'm paranoid!?  Any parent will worry for their child, especially for one who'd had her child kidnapped before!"

"Sazae, Ai-chan is almost ten years old now and on top of that, she's a genius child with an IQ of 200, no one can get the better of her.  Five years ago, those kidnappers were caught because of Ai-chan's quick thinking."  He said with a softened voice, trying to calm his frantic sister.

"But…but…"  Sazae fell to a heap on the floor with Akira's hold softening her fall as tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

"Tadaima."  A soft child's voice called out as the solid oak front door opened and closed.

Both adults turned to the voice and Sazae rushed onto her feet and hug the child tightly.  "Goodness, don't you scare me like that again Sendou Aine!"

Aine eyed her uncle questioningly and Akira returned with a looked that told her the answer.  She heaved a mental sigh and drew her short arms around her mother comfortingly.  Closing her fox-like blue eyes that were a couple of tints darker than her mother's, "Kaa-san, gomen, I didn't mean to worry you.  I thought I'd be home before you would and Kira ji-chan did accompany me to the library.   I asked him to come home first and I'll follow behind real soon.  Gomen ne, I promise this won't happen again."

"Ai-chan, gomen, kaa-san overreacted.  I know I shouldn't be overprotective, but I just can't help it.  Kaa-san promise not to go berserk again," Sazae smiled weakly at her little princess.

Aine smile up at her mother and smoothed out Sazae's long black hair with her little hand.  "I'm glad kaa-san loves me so much and I understand why you worry yourself sick over me, but you have to believe in me kaa-san, and know that I can handle various situations on my own.  So, please don't worry too much ne, if not you'll grow lots of wrinkles and become and old lady.  And…I sure don't want an old lady as my mother; I want kaa-san to stay pretty, as you are now, forever."

Sazae stifled a chuckle at her daughter's words, "Hai, O-Hime-sama.  Wakarimashita.  Now, let's go make dinner together?"

Aine nodded and the mother-daughter pair waltzed into the kitchen hand in hand with sounds of laughter echoing out of the kitchen every few minutes.  Akira smiled at the picture presented to him by two of the most important females in his life.  He couldn't help but be relieved that the kidnapping that happened five years ago did not leave dark shadows in Aine's heart, but his sister however, was really worrying too much.  But, guess he can't blame her for worrying though, like Sazae had said, all parents worry about their child and especially for someone in her position, she'd be worrying at a higher scale since that kidnapping was targeted against her.

Five years ago, when Aine didn't come home from school, Sazae almost had a mental breakdown.  The scoundrels had kidnapped Aine to force Sazae, who was still in law school landed a court case to represent the State against an infamous yakuza boss, to relent the case against their boss, but before they knew it, Aine had outsmarted the kidnappers and alarmed the local police at where she was taken to and had the kidnappers arrested.  As a result, Sazae ended up winning the court case beautifully and graduated law school with honours, plus a position with a premier firm.

Guess it's a good thing to have a genius child in the family…err…only at certain times that is, since the kid's a pain in the behind most of the time. He grunted mentally as he returned to his re-redecorating work on the wall.

☊         ☋         ☊         ☋         ☊

Sazae walked into the building of Nijigawa and Partners located in the CBD of Tokyo, holding a cup of freshly brewed Blue Mountain coffee in her right hand and her laptop and attaché bag in her left.  Dressed in a navy Armani suit and three inch hills, she is the very image of a highly qualified barrister and every stride she took radiated her self-confidence.  To top it off, a pair of chrome coloured glasses sat smartly on the bridge of her nose and her long hair pulled backward into a French knot.  She smiled at various acquaintances as she walked across the large, classy lobby to the elevators that will take her to the office she shared with another barrister, Amano on the twelfth floor, three floors down from the president's office on the top floor of the building.

Stepping out of the elevator, she walked into the large common work area of various assistants to her and Amano.  Greeting everyone with an ohaiyou, she turned left at the end of the common work area into her private work area where her personal assistants and secretaries sat.  Walking passed her team of staffs; she opened the door to her office with her chief secretary following in behind her, waiting to announce the day's schedule to her superior.

After Sazae sat down on her chair, placed her laptop on her desk and took out documents to be processed by her staffs, her chief secretary Nagazaki Ryouko began listing out her day's schedule and appointments.  It was at this time every morning when Sazae wondered why Ryouko can be perfect and efficient secretary when she's doing her job, but a complete 180° opposite when she wanted tips to her brother's heart from her.

"And, that's it."  Ryouko said with a smile as she ticked off the last line on her trusty palm pilot.  She then looked up at Sazae and began to smile slyly at her boss, making Sazae shiver unconsciously because she knew the meaning of that smile all too well.

"I heard that Akira-san is staying in Tokyo for sometime to show of his latest exhibition at the National Gallery?  So, when is he free to come out and have dinner with us?"  Ryouko asked enthusiastically as her eyes morphed into heart shapes as her thoughts fell onto the spiky head.

"You have his number, call and ask him personally, don't ask me," Sazae tried to shrug-off the request from Ryouko.

Ryouko pouted at her boss's reply, "You know he doesn't answer my calls."

"Then why don't you just quit chasing after him then?  I've already told you that he ain't straight and he's got a boyfriend already and a damn intimate one too."  Sazae rolled her eyes at Ryouko's hopelessness.  When will this woman learn!?  And, I wonder how Hiroaki-kun put up with that hyperactive brother of mine…

"But…but…isn't there even the slightest chance that Akira-san will finally take notice of me and change his preferences?"  Ryouko almost whimpered as she said these words.

Gees, this woman is really getting good at her acting. Sazae commented silently.  She took a quick glance of the clock sitting on her desk and said, "Isn't it almost time for me to see that client that Shachou was making a fuss about at yesterday's meeting?  Have you readied all the necessary papers and files of this client for me?"

Ryouko did her infamous face change again and turned back into the professional secretary from the love-sicked, ill-fated woman she was only seconds ago.  "Hai, all the files are ready and I have made copies of them for Oshiro-san, who will be your legal assistant on this private lawsuit."

Sazae nodded and started to flip through the stack of files set on the right side of her desk.

"Tell the klutz, err…correct that, the new intern Higa Chitose-san that her job for today is to help Hara and Watanabe on the Furinkan Case.  I don't want to see her clumsiness all over the office like yesterday again," Sazae said with a slightly irked tone as she remembered yesterday's disaster, the new girl accidentally pressed the wrong button on her computer and caused the whole server to freeze without warning.  She's been with the firm for the last two weeks and she still caused silly problems here and there, and it's making Sazae nuts.  That's why she will not take anymore chances and make the new girl do some simple paperwork instead of the general legal work.

Ryouko couldn't help but stifled a chuckle.  She had been working with Sazae ever since Sazae graduated from TouDai's law school and knew how her superior hated people who are nervous at work, because nervousness represents clumsiness, in other words, zero productivity and 100% calamity.  Therefore, she rather pitied the newbie that had been assigned to study under Sazae.  Hope that girl gets into shape quickly, if not her summer internship with this firm is going to be hell.

"I'll give you a buzz ten minutes before the meeting."  Ryouko said as Sazae dug into her work.

Sazae nodded without looking up at Ryouko as the latter picked up a manila file containing documents to be process from her desk and walked out of her office, closing the door behind her softly as not to disturb her superior.

Sazae, Ryouko and her legal assistant for the case she's attending to, Oshiro Ginji, took the elevator from the twelfth floor down to the fourth floor where meeting rooms for seeing prestigious clients were located.  As the trio stepped out of the elevator, the receptionist at that floor greeted them and informed them of which of the three meeting rooms the appointment will take place.

"Shachou and Kudo-san are already in there with the client, Sendou-sensei," the receptionist said politely.

Sazae smiled and nodded at the receptionist and led her team toward meeting room two where her client was waiting.

"Nagazaki-san, do you know who this all important client is?  How come Shachou is so worked-up about this case?"  Oshiro asked Ryouko while they walked to the meeting room.

Ryouko shrugged, "No idea.  Only heard that if we win this case, the firm will gain an even higher stature on the legal stage.  Guess that's why Shachou's all tensed."

"I see…"

The trio soon stood before a buffed glass door with the label Meeting Room 2 on it.  Sazae knocked and pulled the handle down to open the door.  When she stepped inside, her face was grazed with a professional smile and radiated confidence and success.  She bowed to her the occupants of the room and the smile continued to cling to her face when she rose from the bow to meet her superiors and client.

"Shitsu…rei…shi…masu…"  Her smile froze as she saw who her client-to-be was…the man who'd plagued her heart and dreams for years.  The man who had broken her heart and stomped on her pride, injuring her to an extent that no words can describe ten years ago…

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Akane の Teahouse

Honto ni hisashiburi desu ne, mina-san!  =.=  Mina-san wa, genki? :D

Hmm…guess I've vanished for quite some time hey?  What?  What's that you're asking?  Was I on hiatus?  Naw  I'd just been lazy…as you know…me = The Lazy Neko =.=  bwahahahaha :P

Anyways, err…don't think there're any Jap terms in the chapter that needs any explanation right?  I'm sure I've only used the commonest ones ;P  But do let me know if there is a need to put up some translation for them ne ;)  arigatou :D

Okie dokes, me outta here… remember to leave me a review ne   Arigatou gozaimasu =.=

The Lazy Neko signing out…

P/S:  If you're wondering what the title of this fic means, it means It's Not a Coincidence.  Jya… ;)