imagine this: nba

it's tradition » devin booker

i jusT GOT THE USUAL 1.30AM FEELS AGAIN BYE I'M SORRY

It was supposed to be a normal night. She'd spent the night at her parents' place in Phoenix instead of Devin's because he had somewhere important to go to with the boys.

She'd been completing some homework when the sound of a guitar filled her ears. She frowned and skeptically made her way towards the window, pushing it open.

She was in complete awe when she found the shooting guard standing over her backyard with a guitar in his arms. Alongside him is D'Angelo, Karl-Anthony, and Ben.

"What the fuck ya'll niggas think you're doing?" She deadpanned, staring blankly at the group of basketball players in her backyard. What surprised her even more, was that they were all wearing the filipino traditional costume — the barong. And it was weird because she doesn't remember mentioning anything about that.

"We're gonna make harana!" Ben said happily, trying to swallow back his giggle and jumped in his spot. "It's filipino tradition, right? Serenading but with more meaning."

"That's after you make ligaw to her," she threw her head back and rolled her eyes. "I bet you don't even–"

"I asked your parents if I could ligaw and they said yes," Devin finally spoke for the first time that night and grinned up at her. "Where are they, anyway? I wanted them to be here when I did this."

"They went to run a couple errands," she answered hesitantly. "Wait, what are you even gonna sing?"

"Trust the process," Karl grinned, placing a finger over his lips.

Devin sucked in a deep breath and let it out shakily. He's been preparing for this night for as long as he could remember and it could end up being a total mess for all he knew. He carefully placed his finger over a chord, starting to strum, "uso pa ba ang harana?"

"Devin, what the fuck?" She laughed. She couldn't even think straight. Here Devin was, practically and indirectly confessing his feelings for her. She didn't even get a warning before the waves of emotion had drowned her.

Once the song had ended, her brother had squeezed himself next to her in the small area of the window and gave the boys two thumbs up.

He grinned back at his younger sister, "I taught them that!"

She flicked his forehead then turned back to Devin. "When the hell did you have the time to learn to play the guitar?" Devin was just about to answer when she asked another question. "How did you even manage to remember that song? Or know what ligaw is?"

"We did our research, thank you very much," D'Angelo cut in once more, sending her a fake smile. "And it's called memorizing. You're in school; you should know that."

"Shut up." Devin reached back and smacked his friend to shut him up. He lifted his head and shrugged, "I wanted to make sure you didn't feel homesick being so far away from the Philippines."

She tried to laugh to cover up how thankful she felt. "But, Devin, you only make ligaw and harana to someone you want to make your girlfriend."

Karl groaned loudly even before Devin could answer. He swung his hand up and pointed it towards her accusingly, "she's so stupid!"

"It's called 'not being complacent'," Ben spat, "now let the man confess."

"Shut up, rookie," D'Angelo shot back, smacking the younger boy's head.

Devin let out another shaky breath, desperately trying to block off his friends' banters. "Um... yeah, I like you. And I was told that if I got rejected, you'd pour a bucket of water over me.

"Please don't do that. Just say 'no' then we can move on with our night," Devin grinned innocently up at her. "I'd like to go through the long way to make you my girlfriend, if you don't mind."

Her teeth found her bottom lip, leaning against the window pane as she stared at him. It was cute what he'd done — going out of his way to make sure that he didn't let the tradition die down just because she was so far from home.

He'd always done this even when they were just friends and she didn't know how she was going to repay him with the gesture.

On the other hand, Devin had been planning this for months. He learned how to play the guitar and memorized a song from a whole other language just to satisfy her. Just because she was halfway across the world from where she'd grown up in, didn't mean that she shouldn't experience these things.

Besides, he found the entire thing such a cute concept. He was slowly going to win her heart over — and her parents — and transition into a relationship together. It was an adorable way of taking things slow.

"Is that a yes?" Devin smiled hopefully up at her, finally setting the guitar down. He'd been so nervous that he totally forgot that he was still holding it in his arms.

"I'd like that," she giggled, running a hand through her hair. "Now, change out of that. You all look ridiculous."

NFBSIEJF THIS WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO BE RICKY RUBIO BUT DEVIN BOOKER PUNCHED ME STRAIGHT IN THE FEELS SO HERE YA GO

AND LIKE THIS IS FILIPINO TRADITION ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it'S A REALLY CUTE CONCEPT I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS LMAO I'M OUT