Sometimes,
when Izuki Shun hangs out with Hayama Kotarou, he gets the distinct feeling
that he is being seduced. Which is a very strange feeling, for one thing,
because he is not really the type of person who gets seduced, much less
by an athlete of Hayama’s caliber, and also because he’s not entirely sure what
is involved in the finer arts of seduction, but it’s not certainly not always
what he would expect.
“That
is… certainly a very… thorough powerpoint presentation on the superiority
of bisexuality,” Izuki says slowly.
“Right?
It’s good though, yeah?”
“Yes,
er,” Izuki says, noticing Hayama’s particularly eager expression and wondering
if maybe he wanted feedback on his work. “The purple font on the pink
background made it a little hard to read, but I liked the animations and the
embedded sound effects. The, er, charts were also illuminating.”
“Thanks! I made those myself.” Hayama is still looking at Izuki expectantly,
like he’s waiting for Izuki to say something in particular.
“You
should send me a copy,” Izuki offers, “I’ll show it around Seirin. We’re a fairly
bisexual bunch.”
Hayama
blinks. “Wait, what? Like, all of you?”
Izuki
shrugs, feeling like he shouldn’t get into particulars about what he suspects
about the other members on the basketball team, “Good majority. You know, we’re
all about team play in Seirin. Never leave anyone bi themselves, that’s our motto.”
Hayama
bursts out laughing, and it will never stop being a surprise when he laughs at
one of Izuki’s puns. When Hayama leans in to take his phone back from Izuki, he
stays a little bit closer to him, and Izuki doesn’t move away.
*
“Is
he hitting on you with powerpoint presentations?” Hyuuga asks after reviewing
the presentation on Izuki’s phone.
“I—really
have no idea,” Izuki says. “Maybe?”
His
friend looks at him suspiciously. “Is it working?”
Izuki
shrugs, feeling a little helpless, “Kinda? It had some pretty impressive
charts, and apparently I am easily seduced by statistical analysis and
appreciation of puns.”
“Ugh,”
Hyuuga says, “This is going to make games against Rakuzan even more
complicated.”
“Oh
yeah, whereas crushing on people in the same club as you never has
complications,” Izuki says dryly.
“I
have now idea what you’re talking about,” Hyuuga says, scowling.
“Uh
huh, sure. Give me my phone back.”
A/N: I am so sorry for how long this Hayama/Izuki prompt has taken me! And also for
how short this one is. I feel like those two are a work-in-progress, and I’m
not entirely sure where they’re going to end up in this story. I love HayaIzu
though, so thanks for the prompts, anon-friends!!
Thank you for your question,
anon-friend, I am glad you can enjoy the my stories even if it’s not your ship!
(I am a mono-shipper myself when it comes to KNB, so I know how that goes).
As a disclaimer, I would say that
since Izuki is a minor character, pretty much any ship that involves him is
going to be a rarepair. And I somewhat feel like anyone who intensely loves a
rarepair at least has to be up front about the fact that there’s not going to
be much of a canonical reason as to why you ship them, and there’s
not even so much of a “reason” beyond the fact that you really like the ship and it
brings you joy. So I primarily ship HayaIzu because I really like those two for
each other, and I’m willing to admit there’s not much reason beyond that, although
I am happy to provide a few aspects of the ship as to why it brings me joy for
you, anon-friend.
I am pretty sure the first thing
that planted the ship in my brain was reading this short series, and I
probably stumbled over it on AO3 one day and vaguely had the reaction of
“wait, someone ships those two?” but then immediately was followed
by, “actually, you know what? I totally see it.” (It is, by the by, also a very lovely series of fic and I totally recommend these stories). Up until then, I
didn’t have a ship for either Izuki or Hayama (or know that there were any
other ships involving those guys).
(Incidentally, that author is also
the reason I ship Nebuya/Reo, which is not something that has ever appeared in
any of my stories, but I always like to think it could be, there in the
background, lurking.)
Upon rewatching KNB, and the Rakuzan
game in particular, repeatedly and with great devotion, I fell even more in
love with the ship and here’s just a few of the reasons, in no particular
order:
I love the fact that in the entire
series, Hayama is the only one who laughs at one of Izuki’s puns. It is second
only to my absolute favorite reaction to Izuki’s puns, which was Kasamatsu not
even realizing that Izuki was making a joke.
I love that Izuki’s reaction to
Hayama laughing was complete and utter shock because this has never happened to
him before and he doesn’t know what to do with it.
I am super weak to ships where the
genius athlete completely underestimates a minor character’s (ie, not the
protagonist of the show) only to be completely blown away by how they play.
(This is a very specific weakness, and it’s only happened one other time as far
as I can recall, but I’m weak to it nonetheless.)
I really, really love the moment
when Izuki remarks that he’s glad he got Hayama to take him seriously. Because
I think it reflected a lot about Izuki’s character—he knows he’s not the best
player, he’s not a genius player, he really only had the one skill and everyone
agrees Takao does it better. But he still got one of the Uncrowned Kings to
notice him and that’s amazing.
“I’m just glad you weren’t
smarter than me.”
Hayama having to use his special
5-finger dribble on an “ordinary” player.
I mean honestly, I think the main
reason is the tension between Hayama as an extraordinarily gifted athlete and
Izuki as an athlete who works hard. (Which, let’s face it, is the reason behind
a lot of my ships in KNB)
So hmm, yeah, that’s about it. I
don’t have super intense feelings about the ship like I do for my other ships
in KNB, but it is by far my favorite rarepair ship and it is the rarepair ship
that gets “Most Likely To Get Longer Fic” if I ever write a longer
fic about one of my rarepairs.
Thanks again for your question,
anon-friend! I’m always happy to talk ships =D
Please enjoy this actual conversation from Cross Colors, which is a real, official game and (I think????) not a fanfic:
[Hayama and Nebuya are throwing snowballs at each other, but one goes wild]
Midorima: …that’s cold. Hayama: Woah, is someone there!? Takao: Bwaha! Shin-chan, did you get hit by a snowball? Midorima: Quiet. Don’t laugh. Takao: Awww. Here, there’s snow in your hair… [pat pat] Hayama: Sorry! I didn’t think anyone was around. Takao: It’s okay. We were crouched down at the edge of the yard, so you couldn’t see us. Sorry! Midorima: …… Takao: Shin-chan, don’t make such a scary face so early in the morning. Aren’t you glad the snow bunny didn’t get hit? Takao: Here, it just needs ears and it’ll be done! Midorima: …Right. Hayama + Nebuya: Snow bunny? Takao: Yep. Midorima’s lucky item today was a snow bunny, so we made one. Midorima: Here it is. Hayama: Hmmm, a snow bunny! I’ve never seen one before! Nebuya: Nice job. Midorima: Thank you. Takao: Hayama-san, you two were having a snowball fight? Hayama: You bet! We got all fired up~ Takao: Sounds fun! Takao: I haven’t been in a snowball fight since grade school. Hayama: Seriously? Want to join us!? Nebuyai: Yeah, let’s do it! Takao: Can we? I’d love to! Right, Shin-chan? Midorima: I’m not interested. Takao: Whaat~? We don’t usually get this much snow, it’ll be fun! Takao: A snowball fight will be good exercise! Midorima: …… Takao: Okay, it’s settled!
just moving along like everyone else 