Anatomy of the Heart (Lesson 6)
Title: Lesson 6: Sena's Heart (Covert Operations)
Fandom: Eyeshield 21
Characters: Hiruma/Mamori, Sena, Suzuna, The Devilbats, A few others
Genre: Romance/Angst
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Spoilers if you haven't read up to 241 yet.
Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.
A/N: Wow. I bet you all are out there wondering what was happening with this one. Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I have been busy with work and also busy with life, and other things LOL! But I am back for the most part and I do want to finish this one as well as the one I had planned after this one. XD
There was something to be said about the way he viewed his role on the team. He didn’t see himself as the ace, even though people batted that title around, he wasn’t comfortable accepting such an auspicious moniker. He considered himself a mediator, a go-between. He was the one who kept the precarious peace between the two people he feared most; his overprotective childhood friend, and the one who pulled him out of obscurity to place him on the path to greatness.
Even though they hadn’t been fighting on a regular basis anymore, the tension was still there between the quarterback and the team manager. The running back was used to it though, and tried his best most of the time to defuse any tense situations that might lead to an all out war. At other times, if he was close to an exit, he chose the escape route. So when he fell out of the truck in the parking lot at the Tokyo Dome, his first thought wasn’t about where he was at all.
“Sena! Are you hurt?” Mamori jumped out of the truck’s cab and rushed over to his side with Suzuna following closely at her heels.
“I’m alright Mamori-neechan,” he said as he stood up from the ground with the rest of the group and dusted himself off quickly to avoid the team manager's worried checking for bruises and scrapes.
“I think I might have bruised my tail bone, Mamori-neechan,” Monta said as he got up from the ground rubbing his sore rear end, his face giving off a pained look as if he had been shot.
“Oh! Where does it hurt,” Mamori moved over to where the receiver stood and began to rub his backside. “Does it hurt here, or here?”
Monta’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he smiled blissfully. He didn’t see the blond haired devil walking over to the group with his MK14 automatic rifle locked and loaded, and his fangs barred.
“Monta, let me take a look at that,” Musashi said as he pulled Monta by his collar away from the manager.
“Wait! Wha…Oh,” Monta opened his eyes, saw the wicked look on their captain’s face, and decided to quit while he was ahead. “I’m alright now. Perfectly fine. No need to worry Mamori-neechan.”
“Hiruma-kun, you should be more careful when driving,” Mamori scolded, but Hiruma laughed it off as he confronted the rest of the team.
“They just took a little tumble. Everybody’s fine, right?” He cocked an eyebrow while the team took a collective gulp and answered in the affirmative. “See? Stop being so fucking paranoid, fucking manager.”
They had no idea why they were there that night, but they all knew that this was their goal. There was only one team left that stood in their way. If they wanted to get here, they would have to get past the Dinosaurs. After what Sena had seen today, it seemed to be an impossible task, but as he witnessed Hiruma bribe the guards to get in, vandalize the place looking for uniforms, and the arrival of more players, he knew their captain had a plan in mind.
Mamori seemed a little cheerless as she went around sweeping up after everyone, making sure everything was left as they found it. Even though she participated in the friendly game between rivals, she seemed preoccupied by other thoughts. So much so, that the running back ace began to worry a bit about his over-protective friend. When Sena slid into third base without so much as a “be careful” from Mamori, he knew something was wrong. When he heard the loud gasp, and saw the wide eyed look she gave when Hiruma was about to be plowed over by Banba running for home, he knew what the something was.
As Kurita began his tale of the past, and how he, Hiruma and Musashi had met, Sena observed a very quiet Mamori go off to the tunnel area. Had she heard this story of the Devilbats’ meager beginnings before? He couldn’t really figure it out. The manager seemed more detached than she seemed uninterested. He thought about following her over to the tunnel area, but decided he wanted to hear Kurita’s story of how the three of them came to love football, and how the dream of the Christmas Bowl was born.
When the game started back up, Sena noticed that Mamori wasn’t back, so he decided to take a time out to go check on his friend. Evidently something was wrong, and he wanted to help as best as he could, if he could. As he got closer to the tunnel, and further away from the field where the game was back into full swing, he thought he heard voices. What was so bad that had Mamori talking to herself? Sena decided to be cautious, and not just intrude on whatever conversation she was having so he stood back next to a trashcan right by the entrance to the tunnel. That would give him the perfect vantage point to scope things out before rushing in to help, or figure out what was wrong with his friend.
“Whatcha doin’?” Suzuna came out of nowhere, and nearly made him jump into the trash can.
“Shhh! I think something’s wrong with Mamori,” he said with a whisper once he had calmed his nerves down from being scared senseless by the cheerleader on wheels.
“Well, whatever it is, she’s talking it over with Hiruma.”
“Hiruma? But he was just on the field?”
“Yea, he snuck off over here just when he thought no one was looking. Of course I’m always looking,” she said with a sly smile. “I just can’t get close enough to hear what they are saying.”
Sena carefully leaned around the corner, and sure enough the team manager and the quarterback were engrossed in a close conversation. Mamori was leaning up against the wall, looking down at the ground. Occasionally she would look up at Hiruma, who was hovering in front of her with his hand against the wall keeping him propped up. Sena noted that the cushion of space between the two was not something normal or friendly. It was close, compact and collapsible. An inch or two forward, and their faces could be touching. He had long suspected something going on between the two, but chose to ignore it. More for his own peace of mind, than any fear of what the devil quarterback would do to him. Seeing evidence of their closeness was something he would rather not have stumbled on.
“Can you make out anything they’re saying?” Suzuna was close to him as well. He could feel her breath against his ear, and it made his heart race even more than it already was. The idea that they were spying on something they really shouldn’t have been crossed his mind.
“No, I can’t really hear anything,” but whatever the conversation was, it wasn’t good. Mamori’s body language suggested that she was upset over something, and it wasn’t just the normal run of the mill Hiruma pranks that were bothering her.
He saw her shake her head “no” as if in staunch disagreement with the man standing in front of her. She looked away from him; everywhere and anywhere but right at the devil standing before her. Then the devil did something unexpected. With one slender long finger, he tilted her chin up towards him. It was obvious they were about to kiss. Sena watched transfixed as the lips of two of the most terrifying people he knew moved closer to one another. Part of him wanted to move, and look away. It wasn’t a moment he felt he had the right to intrude on. And yet still he remained frozen in place unable to look away.
Suzuna gasped next to him while about to witness the same intimate act, and her sudden reaction startled the running back in such a way that he bumped into the trashcan. The noise was just enough to alert the couple down in the tunnel, and as they looked toward the sudden sound, Sena and Suzuna drew back against the entrance wall so as not to be discovered.
“Subtle move, ace,” Suzuna chided in harsh whisper as she and Sena clung closely to the wall.
“What was with that gasp? You don’t think they heard that?” Sena countered, and he saw the shock on Suzuna’s face that he would even go as far to accuse her of anything. Immediately he felt the urge to apologize, but quickened footsteps coming from inside the tunnel made both of them crouch down into the shadows further.
Mamori shot out of the tunnel first, running towards the field as if someone had been hurt, and she was coming to the rescue. It wasn’t clear if she had heard them really or not, but at least she had no idea they were there, and had been watching for as long as they had. Sena breathed a sigh of relief, and after a long moment went to stand up. It was then that he heard the slow ominous footsteps coming from inside the tunnel. Suzuna put her hand on Sena’s shoulder, and wordlessly urged him to squat back down into the shadows with her. They weren’t out of the woods yet. The devil was on the prowl.
Hiruma appeared at the entrance of the tunnel, and stood there for a moment looking towards the field. Both Sena and Suzuna held on to their breath as they waited for the quarterback to make a move. It was only a few seconds, but it seemed like minutes passed as Hiruma stood there, and then just as casually he had emerged from the tunnel, he walked towards the field. The two spies let out their long held breath, both satisfied and relieved that they had not been caught. Then Suzuna took the opportunity to punch Sena in the shoulder.
“Ow!” Was all he could barely get out as he rubbed the sore spot, and looked at her incredulously.
“Next time we go investigating, I take the lead,” was all the cheerleader said as she skated away.