A Vegas Story (Part 14)
Title: Part 14: The Airport (Never Can Say Goodbye)
Fandom: Eyeshield 21
Characters: Hiruma/Mamori, Sena, Monta, Suzuna, random characters
Genre: I don't know really what to call this one. Anxiety/Worry
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Eyeshield 21. Hooray!
A/N: This one was difficult, because it's the second to last one, and it deals basically with what is going on inside Mamori's head. Then of course Hiruma has to be Hiruma, prompting Mamori to be Mamori I guess. XD Only on last chapter left, and if you don't really understand whats going on here, you will once you get Hiruma's side of the story in the last chapter.
Crowds had never bothered Mamori before, but it felt as though every eye was closely watching her, and anxiety began to manifest itself within her. She knew what she had to do, but it didn’t make her feel at ease. “Stick to the plan” meant that she was not to offer up any explanations for her whereabouts the night before. Answer questions with simple answers, yes or no if possible, and do not elaborate. Then there was the “deny everything” part. That was going to be hard for her. She wasn’t a very good liar, at least not to his standards.
“I’ll carry your bag for you Mamori-neechan,” Monta offered, as he peered closely at her. She could tell he was looking at her neck, so she evasively pulled the collar up on her jacket.
“That’s not necessary,” she smiled at the receiver politely as she refused his assistance. She was lagging behind on purpose, trying to keep a comfortable distance between herself and Hiruma, but there were still a few Devil Bats who were choosing to walk close by her.
“Gosh, it feels so stuffy in the airport,” Suzuna said as she skated beside Mamori, fanning herself with her hand. “You still don’t feel hot, Mamo-nee?” The girl pressed. It was probably the fourth such slightly veiled attempt at getting Mamori to take off her jacket.
“I feel fine, Suzuna.” The girl’s tenacity was a little amusing. “Maybe if you stopped skating you wouldn’t work up such a sweat,” she continued as she smiled into Suzuna’s pouty face. It came out a little snippier than she would have liked, but as she saw the girl glare between the receiver and the running back, who just shrugged her off, Mamori came to the conclusion that sometimes nosy people needed to be put in their place.
When they arrived at the line for security screening, her comfortable distance disappeared, and Hiruma was standing right next to her. It would have been so easy to touch him, so easy to have their hands accidentally brush as they reached for bins to place their belongings in, and load them on the conveyor belt. Of course with the eyes of the team focused on them, she made an effort to appear as unaffected as possible, and keep at least a respectable distance.
“Please remove your laptop from the carrying case, and place it in a separate bin,” One of the screeners approached Hiruma. The quarterback wasn’t too happy as he stepped out of the line to grab another bin, but as the team moved along with their items on the conveyor, Mamori never expected what would happen next.
“Ma’am, I need you to remove your jacket and place it in a bin for the screening,” the screener had turned to Mamori just as she was about to go through the metal detector.
“Really?” Mamori was a little surprised. She looked around at the faces of the team who were locked expectantly on her. Hiruma grumpily stepped back into the line with his laptop and case in separate bins on the conveyor.
“Yes, it is part of the screening process,” the screener replied.
Was it really that big of a deal? So what? She slept with the demon of Deimon, and she didn’t really care what anybody thought about it. Of course that wasn’t true, because she did care. She cared that the team might look at her differently. She cared about her reputation as a disciplinary committee officer. She also cared about Sena’s feelings as well, and she had ran different scenarios through her mind of how he would react. She already knew that the reality of the situation would crush poor Monta.
Ultimately she felt completely torn, because none of these things, not even the feelings of her friends changed the way she felt about the blond spiky haired quarterback standing next to her. She would wrap her arms around his neck, and kiss him right there in front of everybody if she knew that he would let her. Knowing him as much as she did, he would probably be angry if she even attempted such a thing. But the anxiety gripping her now had an altogether different meaning. She could feel the ominous air swirling around her, and the cold tingle down her spine told her that things were suddenly not going according to plan.
Yukimistu, Kurita, Komusubi, and Doburoku-sensei were already ahead of her waiting and watching past the metal detector. Sena, Monta, Taki, Suzuna, and the three brothers, who were now behind Hiruma, leaned to the side to watch her take her jacket off as well. She had hoped that she would be spared this moment, but it looked as though there was no way around it. Slowly she moved to remove the jacket, and could hear the collective sharp intake of breath that the Devil Bats made as they poised themselves to view what was to be revealed.
“Do I need to put this in a separate bin too?” snapped the demonic voice beside her. It was the horrified gasps, and shocked faces she saw around her that alerted her that something was out of the ordinary. She looked down at what he had placed on the conveyor belt, and groaned.
“Sir, please step out of line and come with us,” an armed security guard approached Hiruma, who was actually grinning maniacally, waving the 44 Magnum around in the air.
“It’s not fucking real!” he cackled, and that’s when she caught it. He was calling what amounted to an audible on the field, and he was doing it explicitly for her benefit. He was changing the game plan. For a split second, time froze and the crowd faded into the periphery. Amidst all the commotion, the loud exclamations of other potential passengers, the wide eyed horrified faces of the rest of the team, the armed security guards that now surrounded them, he turned to her and said in a voice that only she could hear.
“Hurry up, and go get on the plane,” and after one last reassuring mischievous grin he turned to the waiting security guards who gathered up the bins carrying his belongings, and escorted him off as every eye had their attention fully focused on him.
Mamori took off her jacket revealing the large concealer smudged spots on her neck, and placed the jacket in the bin. She had tried desperately to get the concealer to blend and look natural, but the dark purplish hue of the hickeys was difficult to mask. It would not take a trained eye to notice what she was covering up, which was why she wore the jacket as backup. It didn’t really help her cause that she pinned her hair up on top of her head, but she just couldn’t bear the heat of wearing the jacket with her hair down, and knew that her hair alone would not help in camouflaging the marks on her neck.
She walked through the detector, picked up her jacket on the other end, and put it back on without anyone even looking her way. Everyone watched as Hiruma, surrounded by guards, disappeared behind a door across from the screener’s platform. Now all of her anxiety about being found out shifted to worrying if he’d be alright. He’d sacrificed himself to save her embarrassment.
As the team sat down at the gate waiting to board the plane, Mamori looked at her watch, and noted that nearly an hour had passed with still no Hiruma in sight. Sitting in the middle of Monta and Sena, she let out a worried sigh.
“What would make him do such a thing?” Monta said as he picked up her mood.
“This is Hiruma-senpai we are talking about, right?” Sena replied in her place. Monta nodded.
“I just wonder where the rest of his stock pile is,” The receiver said as he turned to the running back. The both of them shared a nod as they looked across Mamori at each other. She sighed again, sorry that the Hiruma felt that he had to go to such extremes for her sake. She wasn’t used to being the one protected. Not by him anyway.
“Now boarding for Flight 736 to Los Angeles at gate A22,” the announcement came over the PA. As the team stood up to file into line to board the plane, Mamori cast another look down the hall to see if Hiruma was anywhere near, but he wasn’t.
“What should we do?” Sena asked.
“Go ahead and board the plane. I’m going to stay behind, and wait for Hiruma,” Mamori smiled and left the line to go up to the counter to change her ticket. On the outside she was the picture of calm, but on the inside she was a nervous wreck. What was she going to do? How was she going to help him? The only thing she could think of doing was to wait for him. She would not want someone to leave her behind if she was in trouble, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in trouble.
She changed her ticket to the next flight connecting to Japan which was in five hours. She figured that was more than enough time to find out what was wrong, when or if Hiruma would be allowed to board a plane and return home. Doburoku-sensei offered to stay behind, since he was more familiar with America, but she insisted. She wanted to be the one waiting, and she didn’t care how obvious it made her look.
As the team boarded the plane, she waved goodbye to them. Feeling the sweat beading on her brow, and the anxiety reaching an all time high in the pit of her stomach, she crossed over to the ladies room to splash some cold water on her face. It made her feel a tad better as she blotted her face dry. She looked at herself in the mirror, and then the thought occurred to her. She didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye. It wasn’t like they were supposed to say goodbye, but that was what was really bothering her the most.
Waiting here, or waiting at home didn’t make any difference to her, and sure Doburoku-sensei was probably more suited to the task of helping Hiruma if he needed it, but he changed the plan. They were supposed to go home together, and pretend as though nothing happened in front of the team. Now everything had changed, he was unreachable, and all she could think about was the fact that she never got the chance to say goodbye.
Omake:
Hiruma had just barely made it to the gate before the door had been shut on the plane. As he stowed his carry on, and took his seat next to Doburoku, he noticed that the team was all looking at him very curiously.
“What?” he said indifferently chewing his gum ,and blowing a bubble, expecting them to ask him questions on how he had escaped from Homeland Security.
“Where’s Mamori-neechan?” Sena said quietly. Hiruma gave the boy an odd look then turned to see the seat behind him was unoccupied.
“Fucking hell! Why can’t she ever do as she’s fucking told?!"
Fandom: Eyeshield 21
Characters: Hiruma/Mamori, Sena, Monta, Suzuna, random characters
Genre: I don't know really what to call this one. Anxiety/Worry
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Eyeshield 21. Hooray!
A/N: This one was difficult, because it's the second to last one, and it deals basically with what is going on inside Mamori's head. Then of course Hiruma has to be Hiruma, prompting Mamori to be Mamori I guess. XD Only on last chapter left, and if you don't really understand whats going on here, you will once you get Hiruma's side of the story in the last chapter.
Crowds had never bothered Mamori before, but it felt as though every eye was closely watching her, and anxiety began to manifest itself within her. She knew what she had to do, but it didn’t make her feel at ease. “Stick to the plan” meant that she was not to offer up any explanations for her whereabouts the night before. Answer questions with simple answers, yes or no if possible, and do not elaborate. Then there was the “deny everything” part. That was going to be hard for her. She wasn’t a very good liar, at least not to his standards.
“I’ll carry your bag for you Mamori-neechan,” Monta offered, as he peered closely at her. She could tell he was looking at her neck, so she evasively pulled the collar up on her jacket.
“That’s not necessary,” she smiled at the receiver politely as she refused his assistance. She was lagging behind on purpose, trying to keep a comfortable distance between herself and Hiruma, but there were still a few Devil Bats who were choosing to walk close by her.
“Gosh, it feels so stuffy in the airport,” Suzuna said as she skated beside Mamori, fanning herself with her hand. “You still don’t feel hot, Mamo-nee?” The girl pressed. It was probably the fourth such slightly veiled attempt at getting Mamori to take off her jacket.
“I feel fine, Suzuna.” The girl’s tenacity was a little amusing. “Maybe if you stopped skating you wouldn’t work up such a sweat,” she continued as she smiled into Suzuna’s pouty face. It came out a little snippier than she would have liked, but as she saw the girl glare between the receiver and the running back, who just shrugged her off, Mamori came to the conclusion that sometimes nosy people needed to be put in their place.
When they arrived at the line for security screening, her comfortable distance disappeared, and Hiruma was standing right next to her. It would have been so easy to touch him, so easy to have their hands accidentally brush as they reached for bins to place their belongings in, and load them on the conveyor belt. Of course with the eyes of the team focused on them, she made an effort to appear as unaffected as possible, and keep at least a respectable distance.
“Please remove your laptop from the carrying case, and place it in a separate bin,” One of the screeners approached Hiruma. The quarterback wasn’t too happy as he stepped out of the line to grab another bin, but as the team moved along with their items on the conveyor, Mamori never expected what would happen next.
“Ma’am, I need you to remove your jacket and place it in a bin for the screening,” the screener had turned to Mamori just as she was about to go through the metal detector.
“Really?” Mamori was a little surprised. She looked around at the faces of the team who were locked expectantly on her. Hiruma grumpily stepped back into the line with his laptop and case in separate bins on the conveyor.
“Yes, it is part of the screening process,” the screener replied.
Was it really that big of a deal? So what? She slept with the demon of Deimon, and she didn’t really care what anybody thought about it. Of course that wasn’t true, because she did care. She cared that the team might look at her differently. She cared about her reputation as a disciplinary committee officer. She also cared about Sena’s feelings as well, and she had ran different scenarios through her mind of how he would react. She already knew that the reality of the situation would crush poor Monta.
Ultimately she felt completely torn, because none of these things, not even the feelings of her friends changed the way she felt about the blond spiky haired quarterback standing next to her. She would wrap her arms around his neck, and kiss him right there in front of everybody if she knew that he would let her. Knowing him as much as she did, he would probably be angry if she even attempted such a thing. But the anxiety gripping her now had an altogether different meaning. She could feel the ominous air swirling around her, and the cold tingle down her spine told her that things were suddenly not going according to plan.
Yukimistu, Kurita, Komusubi, and Doburoku-sensei were already ahead of her waiting and watching past the metal detector. Sena, Monta, Taki, Suzuna, and the three brothers, who were now behind Hiruma, leaned to the side to watch her take her jacket off as well. She had hoped that she would be spared this moment, but it looked as though there was no way around it. Slowly she moved to remove the jacket, and could hear the collective sharp intake of breath that the Devil Bats made as they poised themselves to view what was to be revealed.
“Do I need to put this in a separate bin too?” snapped the demonic voice beside her. It was the horrified gasps, and shocked faces she saw around her that alerted her that something was out of the ordinary. She looked down at what he had placed on the conveyor belt, and groaned.
“Sir, please step out of line and come with us,” an armed security guard approached Hiruma, who was actually grinning maniacally, waving the 44 Magnum around in the air.
“It’s not fucking real!” he cackled, and that’s when she caught it. He was calling what amounted to an audible on the field, and he was doing it explicitly for her benefit. He was changing the game plan. For a split second, time froze and the crowd faded into the periphery. Amidst all the commotion, the loud exclamations of other potential passengers, the wide eyed horrified faces of the rest of the team, the armed security guards that now surrounded them, he turned to her and said in a voice that only she could hear.
“Hurry up, and go get on the plane,” and after one last reassuring mischievous grin he turned to the waiting security guards who gathered up the bins carrying his belongings, and escorted him off as every eye had their attention fully focused on him.
Mamori took off her jacket revealing the large concealer smudged spots on her neck, and placed the jacket in the bin. She had tried desperately to get the concealer to blend and look natural, but the dark purplish hue of the hickeys was difficult to mask. It would not take a trained eye to notice what she was covering up, which was why she wore the jacket as backup. It didn’t really help her cause that she pinned her hair up on top of her head, but she just couldn’t bear the heat of wearing the jacket with her hair down, and knew that her hair alone would not help in camouflaging the marks on her neck.
She walked through the detector, picked up her jacket on the other end, and put it back on without anyone even looking her way. Everyone watched as Hiruma, surrounded by guards, disappeared behind a door across from the screener’s platform. Now all of her anxiety about being found out shifted to worrying if he’d be alright. He’d sacrificed himself to save her embarrassment.
As the team sat down at the gate waiting to board the plane, Mamori looked at her watch, and noted that nearly an hour had passed with still no Hiruma in sight. Sitting in the middle of Monta and Sena, she let out a worried sigh.
“What would make him do such a thing?” Monta said as he picked up her mood.
“This is Hiruma-senpai we are talking about, right?” Sena replied in her place. Monta nodded.
“I just wonder where the rest of his stock pile is,” The receiver said as he turned to the running back. The both of them shared a nod as they looked across Mamori at each other. She sighed again, sorry that the Hiruma felt that he had to go to such extremes for her sake. She wasn’t used to being the one protected. Not by him anyway.
“Now boarding for Flight 736 to Los Angeles at gate A22,” the announcement came over the PA. As the team stood up to file into line to board the plane, Mamori cast another look down the hall to see if Hiruma was anywhere near, but he wasn’t.
“What should we do?” Sena asked.
“Go ahead and board the plane. I’m going to stay behind, and wait for Hiruma,” Mamori smiled and left the line to go up to the counter to change her ticket. On the outside she was the picture of calm, but on the inside she was a nervous wreck. What was she going to do? How was she going to help him? The only thing she could think of doing was to wait for him. She would not want someone to leave her behind if she was in trouble, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in trouble.
She changed her ticket to the next flight connecting to Japan which was in five hours. She figured that was more than enough time to find out what was wrong, when or if Hiruma would be allowed to board a plane and return home. Doburoku-sensei offered to stay behind, since he was more familiar with America, but she insisted. She wanted to be the one waiting, and she didn’t care how obvious it made her look.
As the team boarded the plane, she waved goodbye to them. Feeling the sweat beading on her brow, and the anxiety reaching an all time high in the pit of her stomach, she crossed over to the ladies room to splash some cold water on her face. It made her feel a tad better as she blotted her face dry. She looked at herself in the mirror, and then the thought occurred to her. She didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye. It wasn’t like they were supposed to say goodbye, but that was what was really bothering her the most.
Waiting here, or waiting at home didn’t make any difference to her, and sure Doburoku-sensei was probably more suited to the task of helping Hiruma if he needed it, but he changed the plan. They were supposed to go home together, and pretend as though nothing happened in front of the team. Now everything had changed, he was unreachable, and all she could think about was the fact that she never got the chance to say goodbye.
Omake:
Hiruma had just barely made it to the gate before the door had been shut on the plane. As he stowed his carry on, and took his seat next to Doburoku, he noticed that the team was all looking at him very curiously.
“What?” he said indifferently chewing his gum ,and blowing a bubble, expecting them to ask him questions on how he had escaped from Homeland Security.
“Where’s Mamori-neechan?” Sena said quietly. Hiruma gave the boy an odd look then turned to see the seat behind him was unoccupied.
“Fucking hell! Why can’t she ever do as she’s fucking told?!"