A day to remember

>Clang...< The ball rebounded off the rim and back into Aiba's hand. He gave her a cocky smile before he made a hook shot just above her head. The ball went into the basket with a woosh. 'Yatta! I won again!' Aiba shouted proudly.

Rei sat sulking on the grey cemented basketball court. 'Ceh... You have the height advantage! You don't have to rub it in by doing the hook shot, meanie!' She shot him an angry glare. Her jump was useless against that shot of his.

Aiba laughed and patted her head. 'Don't be such a sore loser! Baby, I got skills...' He winked as he pulled her up and half-dragged her to their barbeque pit. Rei pouted her lips at him.

The basketball court overlooked the sea near Rei's family's private beach house. Aiba had driven for 3 hours from Tokyo just to be with her on their one year anniversary. The sky begun to look pink now.

Rei sat with her back on a tree trunk while Aiba started the fire on the charcoal in the pit. She drank a bottle of water and kept her eyes on Aiba. They had been playing basketball for two and a half-hours she realised as she checked her wristwatch lying on the straw mat next to her backpack. Aiba didn't give any sign of being tired, but she was sure he must be so. A feeling of guilt washed over her. I shouldn't have mentioned anything about today...

'Rei-chan... Daijobu desu ka?' Aiba asked as though he had heard her inner thoughts. He wiped his hands to rid of the charcoal residues as he walked back towards her.

Rei gave him a smile. 'Other than the fact that I lost, everything is fine.' She moved a bit to accomodate Aiba sitting next to her. 'Want some water?'

Aiba accepted her bottle of water. 'Arigato.'

'Hope you choke on that...' Rei said under her breath.

Aiba squeezed the water bottle at Rei causing her to scream. 'I heard that!' he said laughing as Rei wiped off the water from her face.

'Aiba-kun...' Rei's voice sounded murderous as she located her target. Aiba sensed trouble and left quickly. Rei followed him closely behind. They ran around playing tag until Aiba surrendered lying on the mat breathless and apologising to Rei.

'Gomen, gomen!' he managed to blurt out. His palms together in front of his face as a sign of his apology. Rei's anger was all ready long forgotten, but she played her role as the indignant princess.

'Hmmph...' she began haughtily, 'I'll forgive you... But it's only because you're the cute Super Idol!' She pinched his nose. 'Ahh... Kawaii!!!!'

Both of them burst out laughing. Rei sat down next to Aiba's head. Aiba took this as an invitation to lay his head on her lap. Rei's eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't say anything. Her cheeks felt warm.

They remained silent, consumed by fatigue from all the running. Each of them didn't realised that they had fallen asleep under the shade of the tree canopy. Rei was the first to wake up and noticed that the sun had almost disappeared into the horizon.

She looked down on Aiba, sleeping on her lap bathed in the reddish-golden light from the remaining sun and the glowing charcoal in the pit. He was gorgeous. Her eyes trailed from his hair to his eyes, nose, mouth and settled on his left shoulder where his birthmark was exposed by his sleeveless basketball shirt. She made sure that Aiba was still fast asleep before touching the birthmark of his. Uncertainly and cautiously at first until she was confident that he couldn't feel it. She didn't know how long she was running and tracing her fingertips on his birthmark. It felt so nice to touch him like that.

Aiba slowly opened his eyes when he felt something ticklish on his left shoulder, but kept still. He watched silently for a moment as Rei ran her fingers gently on his birthmark with a serene smile on her face. He was in awe with this beauty bathe in golden lights. He couldn't believe she was willing to stay by his side eventhough he rarely saw her. He felt so lucky to have her. A contented sigh escaped him causing Rei to move her hand quickly and looking bewilderedly at him.

'Umm... Did I wake you?'

'Not really. Felt a bit ticklish though.' Aiba replied as he moved to sit next to her. 'Your legs aren't cramped are they?'

'No... no... They're fine.' Rei adjusted her seating a bit. Now that he mentioned it, her legs did felt a bit heavy. However, she wasn't about to tell him that!

Aiba stretched his right arm over her shoulders to pull her up on his lap and hugged her. The day was almost up. He had to return tonight as he had a recording scheduled for tomorrow morning. He kissed the back of her right ear. 'I have to leave soon...'

Rei gave a small nod. 'I understand.' She touched her right palm on his right cheek and kissed him on the other. 'Mou ichido tsuyoku dakishimete...'

Aiba tightened his hug on her. Please hold me tight just once more..., she said. He held her for a long time. He wished he didn't have to let her go.

Alas, when the moon had taken over the sun and the stars began to appear in the dark sky, Aiba had to let her go. They packed up their basketball, picnic basket, mat and cooler back to her beach house. She persuaded him to take a quick shower before heading back to Tokyo. She used the time to prepare him a packed dinner from their left over barbequed steak, chicken and fish.

They walked hand in hand to his convertible red Porsche. 'Here you go. Drive safely, okay.' Rei advised as she handed him the food package.

'Don't worry, I will.' He put the package on the passenger seat. He turned back to her and manouvered her so that she was trapped between him and the car. 'I have something for you.' He reached for his trousers pocket.

Rei's eyes widened as he revealed a small black velvet ring box. He gave her a gentle smile as he opened the box to reveal two platinum rings. One smaller than the other. He took her left hand and slid the smaller ring on her pinkie. 'I hope you like it.'

Rei was too overwhelmed with emotions to answer him back. Aiba looked relieved. He let go of her hand to hold the box.

'This is the other half of the couple rings...' he said as he took the bigger ring. 'This is my promise to you that we will always be together.' He was about to slide the ring on his pinkie when Rei stopped him.

'Let me...'

Aiba gave her the ring. Rei gave a wavering smile and slid the ring slowly on his finger. She held on to his hand and kissed the ring on his finger.

'Rei-chan...' Aiba gushed as he tilted her head back and kissed her sweetly.

'Happy one year anniversary...' his voice trembled as he wiped her tears flowing on her cheeks. He kissed her again. 'I told you that I won't miss this for anything.'

Rei gave him a beautiful smile. 'I believe you, Aiba-kun.' Rei hugged him tightly before they kissed again.

'Aishiteru...'


The end.

Thank you for posting this! This one is one of my favorites of your one-shots. Aiba-chan kawaii so! ;D

You're welcomed, ladygemma! Although I do have some reservations abou tposting my fics up here - just in case people get sick of seeing my fics everywhere. Ha...ha...ha... ^^;; And just thinking of posting the long fics... Ai yai yai~~~ Ha...ha...ha... >dies<

Yeah, I like this one too. ^^ I thought a bit about this one before writing it. Heh...heh... Basketball is great ne~~~

NONO!!! Put them all!!! There might be some people who haven't seen them in other places and we don't want to deny them!!!

Aiba-chan+basketball= the whole reason we have Aiba-chan to begin with....silly boy thinking he could play bball with SMAP...lol

This one-shot was so cute, I love Aiba-chan so much!

i love this!! i love anything that has aiba in it!

i was SO sure i did a post here after reading the fanfic, but apparently i didn't O__________O
i'm sorry

anyway, that's a nice story you wrote, really cute, really sweet, kinda realistic

this is sooooooooo nice!!!! Aiba-chan and Basketball, cannot go wrong *heeheh* lovely stuff u wrote here

Uw~ah cho kawai~i! I love your fic, Aiba is soo cu~ute! I hope you write more!