Caught up in a Love Game
This is my first attempt at a fic for hiruma_x_mamori 's Valentine's Day contest. I decided I didn't like it and redid the entire thing. I just thought I should post it for the sake of everyone's enjoyment.
Caught up in a Love Game
“No, just no!” Clifford roared as he stormed down the hall. “I refuse! R-e-f-u-s-e! Capiche?!”
“Fucking big nose-!” Hiruma growled warningly as he stalked after the taller and older quarterback. Thankfully, or not so thankfully depending on whose perspective you were looking at, this scene was unfolding the middle of one of Notre Dame University’s dining halls during what was a particularly crowded lunch which was preventing Clifford from running away. Hiruma had intended to corner the other quarterback in the dining hall where movement for both would be limited by the crowd. As luck would have it, the room was so crowded, Clifford was forced to force his way through the crowd, shoving past bystanders and squeezing through small gaps to get distance between himself and Hiruma. Hiruma was not only able to follow in the small wake that Clifford left behind him, he was also able to do so with much less physical contact as he was just a smaller person.
Clifford shoved his way to the front of one of the ‘restaurant’ lines and the people around him decided to not complain when he curtly ordered a sandwich and side salad. Nor did they complain when the overwhelmed workers decided to prioritize Clifford’s meal. Everyone around Notre Dame knew that Clifford was absolutely venomous when angry- it was not something anyone wanted to deal with.
“You have to tell me what you fucking told her!!” Hiruma demanded. He had his hands on one of his concealed weapons but he wasn’t going to pull it out in here. The resulting panic would get people trampled and killed. Despite how violent he was, Hiruma had no desire to actually kill anyone. People were so much more interesting and useful if they were alive and Mamori wouldn’t have forgiven him. Not to mention the probability of ever getting Clifford to cooperate after such an event was zero.
Clifford whirred around, all of his muscular over six feet tall form looming. Hiruma hid that he swallowed and was actually intimidated by this. If he wanted, Clifford could just maul Hiruma and leave him for dead in some discrete dumpster in the back of some forgotten alley of some unsavory part of some not well known American city and call it the problem, namely Hiruma, ‘over and done with’.
“I am not getting caught up in one of your stupid spats.” Clifford told Hiruma coldly. “I am not playing the third party. So kindly go out that door and fuck off.” Clifford pointed in case Hiruma couldn’t read the nice, large, well-lit exit sign.
Hiruma opened his mouth to retort but Clifford’s food was ready and the rest of the room decided to actually start having conversations again. Instead of retorting, Hiruma swore, loudly. The people nearest the two quarterbacks tired to edge away and provide some space but it was just impossible. Clifford simply took his food and walked over to the somewhat organized cashier area. Hiruma followed, making various loud, sharp noises to make it very clear he wasn’t done and Clifford wasn’t escaping.
Clifford ignored Hiruma’s persistence and paid for his food. Short of actually beating the guy up (something Clifford wasn’t really in the mood for) or shamefully running away, Clifford wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to ditch the brat. Thinking up a plan in this loud and crowed dining hall wasn’t difficult; in fact it wasn’t any worse than thinking up a plan in the middle of a game. Without thinking, Clifford took a habitual glance around the room to survey his options and his eyes fell on the nearby door marked ‘employees only’. With a smile now on his lips, Clifford already had a plan. It was pretty simple, he’d just go into a room where Hiruma could not follow, namely his own team’s lounge. There were rules that prevented Hiruma, an opposing team captain, from entering such a place without an invitation. And if there were any rules that Hiruma Youichi did live by, they were football rules.
Hiruma didn’t see the smirk but the slight straightening of Clifford’s shoulders and spine told him that the other man had come up with something satisfactory. Of course Hiruma was immediately running statistics concerning what not only what problem Clifford had been trying to find a solution to, but what the solution was. It was probably concerning him and his current obnoxious stalking behavior, Hiruma could assume that safely. There was a 35% chance Clifford had just decided to beat him up. There was a 40% chance Clifford had decided to get out of here and run off with some kind of excuse. And then there was that last 25% which involved Clifford doing something unexpectedly clever like playing along then turning the tables on Hiruma later. Even though it wasn’t the highest of chances, Hiruma was presuming Clifford would go with option three. It was the one the least damaging to Clifford’s reputation and would give him the most satisfaction.
After a quick transaction at the cashier, Clifford carefully maneuvered himself out of the crowded space. Once into the hallways he always had the fall back option of out running Hiruma if he wished, this of course had the unfortunate side effect of having to ditch his lunch which is why Clifford wasn’t going to do it just yet.
“You did something to her!” Hiruma accused once he was out of the loud space. Mamori had completely changed her behavior since her ‘training’ with Clifford last summer. Hiruma had gone from being the manipulator to the manipulated and it was not a position he intended to stay in. He’d been able to tolerate it during the season, mostly because that manipulation usually resulted in the team doing well or an even more elegantly complex trap than the usual fair for his opponents. She’d even been discreet about it, making it appear as though he was the one in complete charge. Only Juumonji had figured out that Hiruma had fallen from his position as alpha. Thankfully the bescarred linemen had kept this knowledge between solely Hiruma and himself.
“She’s got you by the balls man.” Juumonji observed in the empty locker room after a particularly long practice.
Hiruma had nothing to say about it other than run a tired hand through his hair. Juumonji was from Deimon, he knew Hiruma on a closer level than the rest of his teammates. And Juumonji wasn’t an idiot; in fact he was much smarter than many gave him credit for. Since Hiruma could no longer talk football with Kurita and Musashi quite the same way he used to, he had unconsciously turned to Juumonji to fill that hole in his heart. Now that they were closer friends, Juumonji actually felt like he could say the things that are only said between close friends to Hiruma and not get shot. Hiruma acknowledged that he needed his share of hearing these things. So he didn’t shoot Juumonji for it. Usually.
The room went wordless and quiet while Juumonji packed up the last of his things.
“…I’ll let you know if anyone else might be starting to figure it out.” Juumonji added as he turned to leave.
Hiruma glared.
“I don’t want Agon to have the satisfaction of having something to mock you with.” Juumonji gave Hiruma a pointed look then left.
It was after his little ‘talk’ with Juumonji that Hiruma decided he needed to confront the source of the problem: Clifford D. Lewis. Something the other quarterback had done or taught Mamori had exceeded expectations and the only way Hiruma was going to get any ground back was to figure out what it was. He hadn’t actually had the time or mental capacity to try and play cards with her, so he wasn’t 100% sure Clifford had taught her how to gamble. What Hiruma was sure was that Clifford had made her play some football herself and that he had taught her how to mind fuck others a little too well.
“You’re awfully sheltered brat if you think that me touching her arm to correct her form counts as sexual contact.” Clifford observed with a bit of mock-concern on his face and in his tone. He knew that was not what Hiruma had intended to say, but since this was English, Clifford’s native language, he was welcome to interpret words however he wished, slang or otherwise.
Clifford grew a bit worried when he didn’t hear a retort or the sound of Hiruma’s footsteps.
“So, fucking big nose,” Hiruma pulled out a gun and released the safety loudly, the sound echoing in the hall, “you’re the fastest quarterback in the world. Are you fucking fast enough to outrun a bullet?”
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the perspective, Clifford had foreseen this moment.
“Do you have the ‘fucking balls’ to pull that trigger and shoot me?” Clifford asked as he turned around and spread his arms out, embracing both the concept of being a target and being shot.
Hiruma didn’t move but that was just a sign Clifford had stumped him.
Bang!
Clifford felt the air rush by his face and something blew through his hair, ripping tiny bits of it off and tugging painfully at the strands that broke. A nervous sweat broke out across Clifford’s body as his heart rate picked up when his mind finally processed that Hiruma had just sent a bullet flying millimeters from his face. Something in him, perhaps it was morbid curiosity, made him turn his head, run his nose past the smell of gunpowder and burnt hair, and look at the impact the bullet made with the nearby wall. The bullet had mutilated the plaster and left an extremely large crater in the wall, damage that couldn’t have been done with anything except a lead military round.
And that meant that Hiruma had loaded his gun with live bullets and Clifford was lucky that he’d only lost some hair to this mess.
“Okay, maybe you do.” Clifford concluded. “But if you did shoot me, I wouldn’t exactly be in much condition to help you, now would I?”
Hiruma mentally swore. Of course Clifford would find a way to call his bluff despite getting unsettled about the affair.
“I will personally ruin any career you might have if you don’t tell me what I fucking want.” Hiruma told Clifford, maintaining his face. “And you fucking know the police can’t do a fucking thing about me.”
Clifford started to walk away. Hiruma stormed right up after that, annoyed. Clifford kept moving as moving targets were much harder to hit and Hiruma knew that.
Hiruma made more demands and swore as he followed. He did not shoot, but he kept the gun out and Clifford knew it was out. Clifford still had the information he wanted and he would be damned if he wasn’t going to get it.
“Oh Cliff!” Some busty American girl came running up sometime after they had left the building and were stalking around out the open. Hiruma did not put his gun away, but he didn’t keep pressing the matter.
“Suzie?” Clifford glanced back at her, mildly surprised. Then that surprise turned to barely restrained annoyance when the girl latched herself onto his arm.
“I like haven’t heard from you in like a while, so I’m all like worried, you know? Then I like thought that you like were all like totally busy with like football right? I like didn’t mind it cause like you know, football is all like important right? I’m like really glad I like ran into you!” Suzie explained in her heavy valley girl accent. Hiruma took this time to examine his threat notebook, identifying the girl as Suzanna Weatherford. This girl was some one night stand of Clifford’s that turned into a stalker because of her inability to comprehend that she wasn’t his girlfriend. Clifford was currently dating some very understanding psychology student named Claire Louis Rutherford, who had never actually encountered Suzanna, but pervious girlfriends had apparently had been hospitalized by the stalker.
“I’m busy right now.” Clifford told her as he tried to pull his arm free of her grasp. “Really busy.”
“I can like all audit your like class and we can like mock the teacher and stuff!” Suzanna suggested, automatically assuming that Clifford was trying to get to class even though he was standing around without any school supplies and with food in his hands.
“He has business with me fucking implants.” Hiruma told her acidly, sauntering over like a predator because he could. “Now fuck off.”
“You’re like rude!” Suzanna snapped at Hiruma. “And like Clifford doesn’t like rude people.”
“No Suzie, I do like him.” Clifford wrenched his arm free, smacking Suzie’s face. He didn’t care if he hurt her at this point since he has long since lost his patience with her behavior.
“What?” Suzanna was confused. She didn’t understand.
“Suzie,” Clifford began, “I’m gay.” Actually Clifford was bi-sexual and there was no way in hell he’d ever date Hiruma, but Suzie didn’t have to know that and Hiruma would play along then demand his information as an exchange and Clifford would give it under the condition Suzie was deported somewhere where she wouldn’t come back to haunt him ever again. Mentally Clifford sighed, he wasn’t fond of losing but he really did want this creepy girl (whom he couldn’t file a restraining order on because her father was the local chief of police) to go away. Unlike Hiruma, Clifford didn’t need to have a massive network of slaves and unsavory things to get what he wanted done done. He had other means but they were not enough to get this problem out of his life.
“What?” Suzanna repeated, still not understanding.
Hiruma was wearing one of his victorious shit-eating grins. He was straight himself, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t play gay Asian if it meant he’d have the results he wanted. He walked right up to Clifford and hung himself on the taller boy’s arm in a very provocative manner.
“That means he’s only interested in getting a bit of another boy’s ass, sweetie.” Hiruma all but purred.
Before Suzie could protest again, Clifford decided he was going to get at least one laugh out of this mess. He turned around and proceeded to have a very heated make-out session with Hiruma, regardless of whether or not Hiruma wanted it. To make sure the message was super clear, this making-out included a bit of grinding and feeling up of certain parts of Hiruma’s body (including and not limited to the butt, the groin, and hair). When Clifford pulled away, leaving a very dazed and confused Hiruma in his arms, he turned back to Suzie and gave her a nasty look.
“Stop staring you pervert.” Clifford told her.
Suzie simply went ‘oh’ as her mind finally understood the situation and she walked away without another word.
“Okay brat, I owe you one, what do you want to know about your girlfriend’s training?” Clifford asked as he stepped away and pretended nothing happened. Hiruma was still recovering from the kiss, which was within Clifford’s calculations. After all, the brat wasn’t exactly able to come to terms with his own romantic feelings towards Mamori and Clifford was 87% sure that’d been the poor brat’s first kiss. Not like Clifford was lamenting it, he stole a lot of firsts.
“Did you have to fucking grab my-!?” Hiruma cut himself off from his own mortification.
“-your balls through your pants? Yes.” Clifford finished and answered in sincere amusement as he was having way too much fun with this. The expressions of red embarrassment on Hiruma’s face were just too amusing to not enjoy. Most straight guys didn’t take well to being made-out with like that; Hiruma took the reacting to a whole new level.
“God fucking dammit!” Hiruma roared, smacking himself to calm himself. Getting riled up like that wasn’t helping even if Clifford was now willing to cooperate. Even if he just won, Hiruma did not feel like a winner.
“…” Clifford sighed. “Come with me.”
A few minutes later they were alone in the football lounge and Hiruma had had a few private minutes to regain his composure before confronting Clifford again. Both of the quarterbacks were aware of the audience just outside the door that consisted of persons such as Mr. Don and Tatanka.
“What the fuck did you teach her?” Hiruma demanded. There was some surprised muttering outside as Clifford had not informed anyone he’d spent his summer break teaching Mamori various skills. But none of them knew who the ‘her’ was in this context.
“Exactly what you wanted her to learn: gambling and football. And only through basic levels if she’s displaying anything beyond fundamentals, I wasn’t her teacher.” Clifford answered.
Hiruma went quiet and thought about it. If it was only fundamentals, then she shouldn’t be this good….
Clifford refrained from sighing and facepalming. It was painfully clear from him that Hiruma hadn’t realized the major reason he was being manipulated was that he was in fact, horribly in love with that girl. The amount of denial he was displaying was downright astounding considering his intellect.
Now what to do? Push these two together or break them apart?
“…I did say something to her that might have caused all of your current woes.” Clifford confessed after he got bored waiting, his choice made.
Hiruma went from looking into space to looking Clifford in the eye.
“You are in love with her.” Clifford told Hiruma bluntly. “Extremely and obsessively and she decided she had it with your jealous bullshit from these last few months.”
Hiruma had suspected Clifford might be telling him this, but he didn’t want to hear it. Knowing that had been a possibility, Clifford used tones and expressions that forced Hiruma to pay attention and process his words.
“The entire reason she can manipulate you in the first place is because you’re not actually confronting your emotions on this matter. She’s got you by the balls and until you face yourself she’s going to continue to do so.” Clifford told Hiruma without any remorse.
“Fuck.” Hiruma muttered tiredly.
“Go back to Japan and take her out to dinner.” Clifford ordered Hiruma. “You’ve got an amazing woman who is just as obsessively in love with you, toying with you because she’s trying to understand your way of life and thinks you’ll find it sexy- which you do and don’t you start denying it- I’ll punch you.”
The prospect of getting punched by Clifford was not a thrilling one.
Hiruma didn’t say anything for a while, then, without warning, he began to laugh. Outright laugh, not cackle, not mockingly ‘tee-hee’, he was giving a wholly, pure, belly laugh. Clifford joined in moments later, having quickly realized the cause of Hiruma’s amusement.
After all, it was pretty damn stupid that both of them had to go and confront Clifford, a person who lived and grew up in a culture unlike their own, to figure out how the other felt.
Both quarterbacks stopped laughing around the same time.
“She’s going to be pissed you know.” Hiruma pointed out, with a bemused smirk on his face.
“That I stole your first kiss? I bet she will be.” Clifford remarked, still amused himself. “But I can just give her that picture I took of your face and all will be forgiven.”
Hiruma wasn’t amused to hear about this picture’s very existence. Part of him wondered when exactly Clifford had time to take it but he did not doubt that Clifford had. For those who are curious, Clifford did not actually take any image besides the one he burned into his mind.
“It’s not like she’s the kind to come out here and try to castrate me, she’ll just twack me with that broom of hers next time she sees me.” Clifford waved it off. Even if Clifford had said image, he wouldn’t have used it for blackmailing purposes, he would have used it to keep jealous girlfriends from attacking. “And besides you should be leaving- you’ve got a big game to plan.”
Hiruma raised an eyebrow.
“It’s almost Valentine’s Day and that a lady’s day and you better make sure she knows it.” Clifford pointed out. Hiruma decided to take his leave not long after that.
Hiruma wasn’t the kind to do anything conventionally, of course. He managed to forbid Valentine activities from the club room on account of them being horribly distracting and unmanly and would make those single teammates ultra pissy. So Mamori had agreed. Hiruma had discretely made sure Mamori wouldn’t be getting any confessions or be treated any differently from the male student body on that day.
When Valentine’s Day actually arrived, Mamori felt really lonely. She saw the couples, the confessions and realized she would be having none of that. She wouldn’t even be giving chocolates to the team as Hiruma would probably blow up the locker room or something….
She sighed. Boys avoided her in general now because of Hiruma’s actions earlier. None of them really wanted to deal with the consequences of speaking to her and she did want a boyfriend someday.
“Where’s my chocolate?” Agon asked as Mamori walked into the Hiruma-less locker room. The rest of the team looked around carefully. Everyone knew Agon just wanted to screw Mamori because she was pretty and probably because she was Hiruma’s manager, but Hiruma had never actually bothered to leave her alone with Agon. It seemed strange that he was not around to prevent Agon from doing something really hideous, like rape Mamori in the locker room. Yamoto and Taka shared a look. They weren’t going to allow that to happen but stopping Agon from doing something unpleasant might be unpreventable.
“I didn’t make anyone chocolate this year.” Mamori answered. “We’re not celebrating it on this team, Agon-kun. We already discussed this.”
Agon opened his mouth to say something when Hiruma appeared from behind Mamori. Without any warning, he grabbed the unsuspecting girl’s shoulder and spun her around to make-out with her (not nearly as intimately as Clifford had done to him). Mamori’s heart raced, her knees went weak, and her stomach did flips. Hiruma was not hard and pointy with his kissing, but he wasn’t soft and gentle. She suspected he was inexperienced; his demonstration of his attraction was very raw, but deliberate.
Hiruma was nervous. Very nervous. If she rejected him now team morale would plummet, his morale would plummet, probably irreparably, and he’d have to go to America and shoot Clifford’s balls off for being wrong.
The two parted and looked at each other, their expressions unreadable.
An awkward pause that was only broken when Juumonji made some polite coughing.
Mamori smiled.
“My girlfriend, my manager, and I’m not fucking sharing dreads.” Hiruma explained curtly.
Mamori then smacked him lightly.
“No one is celebrating Valentine’s Day during practice,” Mamori reminded Hiruma, “especially you.”
“Of course manager.” Hiruma smiled as he watched the resulting chaos brake out into the room. It was alright to allow them to know she had a handle on him just as he had a handle on her. It was alright for him and her to come to terms with their emotions as well- the team would be stronger without any tension between the two.
And Hiruma would finally be able to talk girlfriends with his best friends, something that had been taboo on account of Hiruma being single.
And Clifford would have to enjoy encountering the very sarcastic poster Mamori decided to send to him for stealing her boyfriend’s first kiss. It wasn’t much, just a picture of him Photoshoped into a cupid costume with the caption ‘Quarterback of Love’. It included lots of pink and overly girly background motifs.
“That should appeal to his ‘gay side’.” Mamori snickered.
“What would I do without you fucking girlfriend?” Hiruma asked as he munched on chocolate Mamori made him while he made the poster.
“Not enjoy having me with you.” Mamori answered. “Then again, I wouldn’t be enjoying your company either.”
They shared a smile and Hiruma hit ‘send’. Best Valentine’s Day ever.
-+- Omake -+-
“Did you really make out with him?” Tatanka asked, morbidly curious.
“Does it matter?” Clifford asked his taller teammate, exasperated with all the questioning he’d been having concerning the subject.
“Inquiring minds want to know.” Tatanka explained but he was stopped from saying anything else when he caught sight of the poster.
“…Tutu.” Tatanka pointed at it.
“I can see it just fine.” Clifford seethed though his teeth. “Just fine.”
Dingle!
Clifford checked his phone. Claire had already been sent a text message with a snapshot of the poster or she wouldn’t have made inquires about him procuring a copy for her.
“Don! Stop being such a gossiping bitch!” Clifford demanded as he took the poster down.
“Hey, I’m not the one that looks good in tights and making Scott Pilgrim references.” Don countered and got a well deserved football thrown at his face.
Caught up in a Love Game
“No, just no!” Clifford roared as he stormed down the hall. “I refuse! R-e-f-u-s-e! Capiche?!”
“Fucking big nose-!” Hiruma growled warningly as he stalked after the taller and older quarterback. Thankfully, or not so thankfully depending on whose perspective you were looking at, this scene was unfolding the middle of one of Notre Dame University’s dining halls during what was a particularly crowded lunch which was preventing Clifford from running away. Hiruma had intended to corner the other quarterback in the dining hall where movement for both would be limited by the crowd. As luck would have it, the room was so crowded, Clifford was forced to force his way through the crowd, shoving past bystanders and squeezing through small gaps to get distance between himself and Hiruma. Hiruma was not only able to follow in the small wake that Clifford left behind him, he was also able to do so with much less physical contact as he was just a smaller person.
Clifford shoved his way to the front of one of the ‘restaurant’ lines and the people around him decided to not complain when he curtly ordered a sandwich and side salad. Nor did they complain when the overwhelmed workers decided to prioritize Clifford’s meal. Everyone around Notre Dame knew that Clifford was absolutely venomous when angry- it was not something anyone wanted to deal with.
“You have to tell me what you fucking told her!!” Hiruma demanded. He had his hands on one of his concealed weapons but he wasn’t going to pull it out in here. The resulting panic would get people trampled and killed. Despite how violent he was, Hiruma had no desire to actually kill anyone. People were so much more interesting and useful if they were alive and Mamori wouldn’t have forgiven him. Not to mention the probability of ever getting Clifford to cooperate after such an event was zero.
Clifford whirred around, all of his muscular over six feet tall form looming. Hiruma hid that he swallowed and was actually intimidated by this. If he wanted, Clifford could just maul Hiruma and leave him for dead in some discrete dumpster in the back of some forgotten alley of some unsavory part of some not well known American city and call it the problem, namely Hiruma, ‘over and done with’.
“I am not getting caught up in one of your stupid spats.” Clifford told Hiruma coldly. “I am not playing the third party. So kindly go out that door and fuck off.” Clifford pointed in case Hiruma couldn’t read the nice, large, well-lit exit sign.
Hiruma opened his mouth to retort but Clifford’s food was ready and the rest of the room decided to actually start having conversations again. Instead of retorting, Hiruma swore, loudly. The people nearest the two quarterbacks tired to edge away and provide some space but it was just impossible. Clifford simply took his food and walked over to the somewhat organized cashier area. Hiruma followed, making various loud, sharp noises to make it very clear he wasn’t done and Clifford wasn’t escaping.
Clifford ignored Hiruma’s persistence and paid for his food. Short of actually beating the guy up (something Clifford wasn’t really in the mood for) or shamefully running away, Clifford wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to ditch the brat. Thinking up a plan in this loud and crowed dining hall wasn’t difficult; in fact it wasn’t any worse than thinking up a plan in the middle of a game. Without thinking, Clifford took a habitual glance around the room to survey his options and his eyes fell on the nearby door marked ‘employees only’. With a smile now on his lips, Clifford already had a plan. It was pretty simple, he’d just go into a room where Hiruma could not follow, namely his own team’s lounge. There were rules that prevented Hiruma, an opposing team captain, from entering such a place without an invitation. And if there were any rules that Hiruma Youichi did live by, they were football rules.
Hiruma didn’t see the smirk but the slight straightening of Clifford’s shoulders and spine told him that the other man had come up with something satisfactory. Of course Hiruma was immediately running statistics concerning what not only what problem Clifford had been trying to find a solution to, but what the solution was. It was probably concerning him and his current obnoxious stalking behavior, Hiruma could assume that safely. There was a 35% chance Clifford had just decided to beat him up. There was a 40% chance Clifford had decided to get out of here and run off with some kind of excuse. And then there was that last 25% which involved Clifford doing something unexpectedly clever like playing along then turning the tables on Hiruma later. Even though it wasn’t the highest of chances, Hiruma was presuming Clifford would go with option three. It was the one the least damaging to Clifford’s reputation and would give him the most satisfaction.
After a quick transaction at the cashier, Clifford carefully maneuvered himself out of the crowded space. Once into the hallways he always had the fall back option of out running Hiruma if he wished, this of course had the unfortunate side effect of having to ditch his lunch which is why Clifford wasn’t going to do it just yet.
“You did something to her!” Hiruma accused once he was out of the loud space. Mamori had completely changed her behavior since her ‘training’ with Clifford last summer. Hiruma had gone from being the manipulator to the manipulated and it was not a position he intended to stay in. He’d been able to tolerate it during the season, mostly because that manipulation usually resulted in the team doing well or an even more elegantly complex trap than the usual fair for his opponents. She’d even been discreet about it, making it appear as though he was the one in complete charge. Only Juumonji had figured out that Hiruma had fallen from his position as alpha. Thankfully the bescarred linemen had kept this knowledge between solely Hiruma and himself.
“She’s got you by the balls man.” Juumonji observed in the empty locker room after a particularly long practice.
Hiruma had nothing to say about it other than run a tired hand through his hair. Juumonji was from Deimon, he knew Hiruma on a closer level than the rest of his teammates. And Juumonji wasn’t an idiot; in fact he was much smarter than many gave him credit for. Since Hiruma could no longer talk football with Kurita and Musashi quite the same way he used to, he had unconsciously turned to Juumonji to fill that hole in his heart. Now that they were closer friends, Juumonji actually felt like he could say the things that are only said between close friends to Hiruma and not get shot. Hiruma acknowledged that he needed his share of hearing these things. So he didn’t shoot Juumonji for it. Usually.
The room went wordless and quiet while Juumonji packed up the last of his things.
“…I’ll let you know if anyone else might be starting to figure it out.” Juumonji added as he turned to leave.
Hiruma glared.
“I don’t want Agon to have the satisfaction of having something to mock you with.” Juumonji gave Hiruma a pointed look then left.
It was after his little ‘talk’ with Juumonji that Hiruma decided he needed to confront the source of the problem: Clifford D. Lewis. Something the other quarterback had done or taught Mamori had exceeded expectations and the only way Hiruma was going to get any ground back was to figure out what it was. He hadn’t actually had the time or mental capacity to try and play cards with her, so he wasn’t 100% sure Clifford had taught her how to gamble. What Hiruma was sure was that Clifford had made her play some football herself and that he had taught her how to mind fuck others a little too well.
“You’re awfully sheltered brat if you think that me touching her arm to correct her form counts as sexual contact.” Clifford observed with a bit of mock-concern on his face and in his tone. He knew that was not what Hiruma had intended to say, but since this was English, Clifford’s native language, he was welcome to interpret words however he wished, slang or otherwise.
Clifford grew a bit worried when he didn’t hear a retort or the sound of Hiruma’s footsteps.
“So, fucking big nose,” Hiruma pulled out a gun and released the safety loudly, the sound echoing in the hall, “you’re the fastest quarterback in the world. Are you fucking fast enough to outrun a bullet?”
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the perspective, Clifford had foreseen this moment.
“Do you have the ‘fucking balls’ to pull that trigger and shoot me?” Clifford asked as he turned around and spread his arms out, embracing both the concept of being a target and being shot.
Hiruma didn’t move but that was just a sign Clifford had stumped him.
Bang!
Clifford felt the air rush by his face and something blew through his hair, ripping tiny bits of it off and tugging painfully at the strands that broke. A nervous sweat broke out across Clifford’s body as his heart rate picked up when his mind finally processed that Hiruma had just sent a bullet flying millimeters from his face. Something in him, perhaps it was morbid curiosity, made him turn his head, run his nose past the smell of gunpowder and burnt hair, and look at the impact the bullet made with the nearby wall. The bullet had mutilated the plaster and left an extremely large crater in the wall, damage that couldn’t have been done with anything except a lead military round.
And that meant that Hiruma had loaded his gun with live bullets and Clifford was lucky that he’d only lost some hair to this mess.
“Okay, maybe you do.” Clifford concluded. “But if you did shoot me, I wouldn’t exactly be in much condition to help you, now would I?”
Hiruma mentally swore. Of course Clifford would find a way to call his bluff despite getting unsettled about the affair.
“I will personally ruin any career you might have if you don’t tell me what I fucking want.” Hiruma told Clifford, maintaining his face. “And you fucking know the police can’t do a fucking thing about me.”
Clifford started to walk away. Hiruma stormed right up after that, annoyed. Clifford kept moving as moving targets were much harder to hit and Hiruma knew that.
Hiruma made more demands and swore as he followed. He did not shoot, but he kept the gun out and Clifford knew it was out. Clifford still had the information he wanted and he would be damned if he wasn’t going to get it.
“Oh Cliff!” Some busty American girl came running up sometime after they had left the building and were stalking around out the open. Hiruma did not put his gun away, but he didn’t keep pressing the matter.
“Suzie?” Clifford glanced back at her, mildly surprised. Then that surprise turned to barely restrained annoyance when the girl latched herself onto his arm.
“I like haven’t heard from you in like a while, so I’m all like worried, you know? Then I like thought that you like were all like totally busy with like football right? I like didn’t mind it cause like you know, football is all like important right? I’m like really glad I like ran into you!” Suzie explained in her heavy valley girl accent. Hiruma took this time to examine his threat notebook, identifying the girl as Suzanna Weatherford. This girl was some one night stand of Clifford’s that turned into a stalker because of her inability to comprehend that she wasn’t his girlfriend. Clifford was currently dating some very understanding psychology student named Claire Louis Rutherford, who had never actually encountered Suzanna, but pervious girlfriends had apparently had been hospitalized by the stalker.
“I’m busy right now.” Clifford told her as he tried to pull his arm free of her grasp. “Really busy.”
“I can like all audit your like class and we can like mock the teacher and stuff!” Suzanna suggested, automatically assuming that Clifford was trying to get to class even though he was standing around without any school supplies and with food in his hands.
“He has business with me fucking implants.” Hiruma told her acidly, sauntering over like a predator because he could. “Now fuck off.”
“You’re like rude!” Suzanna snapped at Hiruma. “And like Clifford doesn’t like rude people.”
“No Suzie, I do like him.” Clifford wrenched his arm free, smacking Suzie’s face. He didn’t care if he hurt her at this point since he has long since lost his patience with her behavior.
“What?” Suzanna was confused. She didn’t understand.
“Suzie,” Clifford began, “I’m gay.” Actually Clifford was bi-sexual and there was no way in hell he’d ever date Hiruma, but Suzie didn’t have to know that and Hiruma would play along then demand his information as an exchange and Clifford would give it under the condition Suzie was deported somewhere where she wouldn’t come back to haunt him ever again. Mentally Clifford sighed, he wasn’t fond of losing but he really did want this creepy girl (whom he couldn’t file a restraining order on because her father was the local chief of police) to go away. Unlike Hiruma, Clifford didn’t need to have a massive network of slaves and unsavory things to get what he wanted done done. He had other means but they were not enough to get this problem out of his life.
“What?” Suzanna repeated, still not understanding.
Hiruma was wearing one of his victorious shit-eating grins. He was straight himself, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t play gay Asian if it meant he’d have the results he wanted. He walked right up to Clifford and hung himself on the taller boy’s arm in a very provocative manner.
“That means he’s only interested in getting a bit of another boy’s ass, sweetie.” Hiruma all but purred.
Before Suzie could protest again, Clifford decided he was going to get at least one laugh out of this mess. He turned around and proceeded to have a very heated make-out session with Hiruma, regardless of whether or not Hiruma wanted it. To make sure the message was super clear, this making-out included a bit of grinding and feeling up of certain parts of Hiruma’s body (including and not limited to the butt, the groin, and hair). When Clifford pulled away, leaving a very dazed and confused Hiruma in his arms, he turned back to Suzie and gave her a nasty look.
“Stop staring you pervert.” Clifford told her.
Suzie simply went ‘oh’ as her mind finally understood the situation and she walked away without another word.
“Okay brat, I owe you one, what do you want to know about your girlfriend’s training?” Clifford asked as he stepped away and pretended nothing happened. Hiruma was still recovering from the kiss, which was within Clifford’s calculations. After all, the brat wasn’t exactly able to come to terms with his own romantic feelings towards Mamori and Clifford was 87% sure that’d been the poor brat’s first kiss. Not like Clifford was lamenting it, he stole a lot of firsts.
“Did you have to fucking grab my-!?” Hiruma cut himself off from his own mortification.
“-your balls through your pants? Yes.” Clifford finished and answered in sincere amusement as he was having way too much fun with this. The expressions of red embarrassment on Hiruma’s face were just too amusing to not enjoy. Most straight guys didn’t take well to being made-out with like that; Hiruma took the reacting to a whole new level.
“God fucking dammit!” Hiruma roared, smacking himself to calm himself. Getting riled up like that wasn’t helping even if Clifford was now willing to cooperate. Even if he just won, Hiruma did not feel like a winner.
“…” Clifford sighed. “Come with me.”
A few minutes later they were alone in the football lounge and Hiruma had had a few private minutes to regain his composure before confronting Clifford again. Both of the quarterbacks were aware of the audience just outside the door that consisted of persons such as Mr. Don and Tatanka.
“What the fuck did you teach her?” Hiruma demanded. There was some surprised muttering outside as Clifford had not informed anyone he’d spent his summer break teaching Mamori various skills. But none of them knew who the ‘her’ was in this context.
“Exactly what you wanted her to learn: gambling and football. And only through basic levels if she’s displaying anything beyond fundamentals, I wasn’t her teacher.” Clifford answered.
Hiruma went quiet and thought about it. If it was only fundamentals, then she shouldn’t be this good….
Clifford refrained from sighing and facepalming. It was painfully clear from him that Hiruma hadn’t realized the major reason he was being manipulated was that he was in fact, horribly in love with that girl. The amount of denial he was displaying was downright astounding considering his intellect.
Now what to do? Push these two together or break them apart?
“…I did say something to her that might have caused all of your current woes.” Clifford confessed after he got bored waiting, his choice made.
Hiruma went from looking into space to looking Clifford in the eye.
“You are in love with her.” Clifford told Hiruma bluntly. “Extremely and obsessively and she decided she had it with your jealous bullshit from these last few months.”
Hiruma had suspected Clifford might be telling him this, but he didn’t want to hear it. Knowing that had been a possibility, Clifford used tones and expressions that forced Hiruma to pay attention and process his words.
“The entire reason she can manipulate you in the first place is because you’re not actually confronting your emotions on this matter. She’s got you by the balls and until you face yourself she’s going to continue to do so.” Clifford told Hiruma without any remorse.
“Fuck.” Hiruma muttered tiredly.
“Go back to Japan and take her out to dinner.” Clifford ordered Hiruma. “You’ve got an amazing woman who is just as obsessively in love with you, toying with you because she’s trying to understand your way of life and thinks you’ll find it sexy- which you do and don’t you start denying it- I’ll punch you.”
The prospect of getting punched by Clifford was not a thrilling one.
Hiruma didn’t say anything for a while, then, without warning, he began to laugh. Outright laugh, not cackle, not mockingly ‘tee-hee’, he was giving a wholly, pure, belly laugh. Clifford joined in moments later, having quickly realized the cause of Hiruma’s amusement.
After all, it was pretty damn stupid that both of them had to go and confront Clifford, a person who lived and grew up in a culture unlike their own, to figure out how the other felt.
Both quarterbacks stopped laughing around the same time.
“She’s going to be pissed you know.” Hiruma pointed out, with a bemused smirk on his face.
“That I stole your first kiss? I bet she will be.” Clifford remarked, still amused himself. “But I can just give her that picture I took of your face and all will be forgiven.”
Hiruma wasn’t amused to hear about this picture’s very existence. Part of him wondered when exactly Clifford had time to take it but he did not doubt that Clifford had. For those who are curious, Clifford did not actually take any image besides the one he burned into his mind.
“It’s not like she’s the kind to come out here and try to castrate me, she’ll just twack me with that broom of hers next time she sees me.” Clifford waved it off. Even if Clifford had said image, he wouldn’t have used it for blackmailing purposes, he would have used it to keep jealous girlfriends from attacking. “And besides you should be leaving- you’ve got a big game to plan.”
Hiruma raised an eyebrow.
“It’s almost Valentine’s Day and that a lady’s day and you better make sure she knows it.” Clifford pointed out. Hiruma decided to take his leave not long after that.
Hiruma wasn’t the kind to do anything conventionally, of course. He managed to forbid Valentine activities from the club room on account of them being horribly distracting and unmanly and would make those single teammates ultra pissy. So Mamori had agreed. Hiruma had discretely made sure Mamori wouldn’t be getting any confessions or be treated any differently from the male student body on that day.
When Valentine’s Day actually arrived, Mamori felt really lonely. She saw the couples, the confessions and realized she would be having none of that. She wouldn’t even be giving chocolates to the team as Hiruma would probably blow up the locker room or something….
She sighed. Boys avoided her in general now because of Hiruma’s actions earlier. None of them really wanted to deal with the consequences of speaking to her and she did want a boyfriend someday.
“Where’s my chocolate?” Agon asked as Mamori walked into the Hiruma-less locker room. The rest of the team looked around carefully. Everyone knew Agon just wanted to screw Mamori because she was pretty and probably because she was Hiruma’s manager, but Hiruma had never actually bothered to leave her alone with Agon. It seemed strange that he was not around to prevent Agon from doing something really hideous, like rape Mamori in the locker room. Yamoto and Taka shared a look. They weren’t going to allow that to happen but stopping Agon from doing something unpleasant might be unpreventable.
“I didn’t make anyone chocolate this year.” Mamori answered. “We’re not celebrating it on this team, Agon-kun. We already discussed this.”
Agon opened his mouth to say something when Hiruma appeared from behind Mamori. Without any warning, he grabbed the unsuspecting girl’s shoulder and spun her around to make-out with her (not nearly as intimately as Clifford had done to him). Mamori’s heart raced, her knees went weak, and her stomach did flips. Hiruma was not hard and pointy with his kissing, but he wasn’t soft and gentle. She suspected he was inexperienced; his demonstration of his attraction was very raw, but deliberate.
Hiruma was nervous. Very nervous. If she rejected him now team morale would plummet, his morale would plummet, probably irreparably, and he’d have to go to America and shoot Clifford’s balls off for being wrong.
The two parted and looked at each other, their expressions unreadable.
An awkward pause that was only broken when Juumonji made some polite coughing.
Mamori smiled.
“My girlfriend, my manager, and I’m not fucking sharing dreads.” Hiruma explained curtly.
Mamori then smacked him lightly.
“No one is celebrating Valentine’s Day during practice,” Mamori reminded Hiruma, “especially you.”
“Of course manager.” Hiruma smiled as he watched the resulting chaos brake out into the room. It was alright to allow them to know she had a handle on him just as he had a handle on her. It was alright for him and her to come to terms with their emotions as well- the team would be stronger without any tension between the two.
And Hiruma would finally be able to talk girlfriends with his best friends, something that had been taboo on account of Hiruma being single.
And Clifford would have to enjoy encountering the very sarcastic poster Mamori decided to send to him for stealing her boyfriend’s first kiss. It wasn’t much, just a picture of him Photoshoped into a cupid costume with the caption ‘Quarterback of Love’. It included lots of pink and overly girly background motifs.
“That should appeal to his ‘gay side’.” Mamori snickered.
“What would I do without you fucking girlfriend?” Hiruma asked as he munched on chocolate Mamori made him while he made the poster.
“Not enjoy having me with you.” Mamori answered. “Then again, I wouldn’t be enjoying your company either.”
They shared a smile and Hiruma hit ‘send’. Best Valentine’s Day ever.
-+- Omake -+-
“Did you really make out with him?” Tatanka asked, morbidly curious.
“Does it matter?” Clifford asked his taller teammate, exasperated with all the questioning he’d been having concerning the subject.
“Inquiring minds want to know.” Tatanka explained but he was stopped from saying anything else when he caught sight of the poster.
“…Tutu.” Tatanka pointed at it.
“I can see it just fine.” Clifford seethed though his teeth. “Just fine.”
Dingle!
Clifford checked his phone. Claire had already been sent a text message with a snapshot of the poster or she wouldn’t have made inquires about him procuring a copy for her.
“Don! Stop being such a gossiping bitch!” Clifford demanded as he took the poster down.
“Hey, I’m not the one that looks good in tights and making Scott Pilgrim references.” Don countered and got a well deserved football thrown at his face.