Veteran Advice (part 1)
This is my real entry for hiruma_x_mamori 's Valentine's Day prompt. I liked how this one came out so much better.
I don't own any of the characters.
Go here to see the original version of the story.
Veteran Advice
“Why are you running away?” Clifford asked with some sincere curiosity in his otherwise annoyed tone. Currently Clifford was standing in the open doorway into his dormitory room at the University of Notre Dame and the reason he had not stepped inside was that someone else was already inside the room. On his bed. Using his computer. And eating his snacks to be as rude and disrespectful as humanly possible without actually saying anything.
In case anyone is wondering, the person who was doing these rude things was Hiruma Youichi, one of the few quarterbacks in the world Clifford acknowledged as an opponent. Right now Clifford was exhausted from a very hard and long practice where he had to deal with less than intelligent jocks and a coach with a horrible nasal drawl and a half-headache that always came on when he didn’t take his allergy medication. Needless to say having the nap he’d been planning all the way back to his dorm room cancelled by an uninvited and unannounced visit was not something Clifford was going to keep much patience about. It didn’t help Hiruma’s case that he had to break into Clifford’s room to be there when the older boy returned from practice.
Now as for Clifford’s strange question that is not actually that strange if one understands the context in which it was uttered. Earlier, last summer in fact, Clifford had personally coached on Anezaki Mamori in the art of gambling, mental games, and football. Of course given that the girl was remarkably creative and intelligent, not to mention a quick learner, and Clifford was an expert in all of the aforementioned subjects, it had gone extremely well. Anezaki had walked away several times more powerful than she had when she arrived. Clifford had dismissed the event for the most part- it’s not like Anezaki would ever realistically be on an opposing team’s bench. He also knew that Hiruma had probably manipulated her and him into the teaching event in the first place. Clifford had, as a subtle retaliation, helped Anezaki pin down the oddities in Hiruma’s recent behavior and the reasons for it.
Hiruma was madly in love with Anezaki and in complete denial about this. Unfortunately, despite the massive denial, Hiruma had been acting excessively jealous to the point where basically day to day life for Anezaki was becoming an ordeal. All Clifford did was confirm that Hiruma was in fact being jealous and left her and her newly acquired plotting skills to their own devices knowing full well this was going to bite Hiruma in the ass.
Clifford had then washed his hands of the entire affair and focused on dealing with opponents in his own league, his own school work, practicing his banjo, and somehow getting enough sleep despite a sex-crazy girlfriend. He had wished he had had the time to spare to watch how Anezaki messed around with Hiruma, it would have been fascinating to watch, but there just hadn’t been the time or energy in him to devote to such things.
Although Clifford didn’t know what exactly had happened to cause Hiruma to suddenly appear in his dormitory room, he did know it was something to do with the fact that Anezaki had been taught how to play his games the way he did. And if you have a problem with how someone learned something, you take it up with the teacher, who happened to be Clifford. All Clifford knew was that if Hiruma was in America right now, it was because he couldn’t handle what was happening in Japan, which meant he was still running from the core of the problem: the fact he was in love with Anezaki.
Anezaki had been taught yes, but she was not skilled enough to take down Hiruma if he was able to put his mind to it. Hiruma was extremely crafty and remarkably clever and innovative- Clifford knew that first hand when Hiruma had caught him by surprise. But since his judgment was clouded by his intense emotions, there was no way he could beat Anezaki in that state. Especially since the girl in question was a master of emotion manipulation before she’d had any training from Clifford. It was perhaps a bit underappreciated but Anezaki Mamori was a better emotional manipulator than himself or Hiruma, a fact Clifford attributed to the fact she was female. Females were just good emotional manipulators by their nature.
In short, Clifford is certain that Hiruma was there because of something to do with the fact that Anezaki was now ‘uncontrollable’ and it was Clifford’s fault.
“I’m not running from fucking anything.” Hiruma’s eyes shot up from the laptop screen to give Clifford a seething glare. He then returned to looking at whatever he was contemplating.
“Then why, pray tell, are you here?” Clifford asked as he finally stepped into his own room. He shut the door gently. Mr. Don happened to be his next door neighbor and as much fun as that guy was, he was an asshole when it came to non-Americans playing football and the last thing Clifford wanted to deal with was Mr. Don and Hiruma. All he wanted was a bloody nap.
Of course facing Hiruma in a tired state with a short temper and a worsening headache was almost certainly going to end poorly.
Clifford elected to not think about that fact for the moment. He had other things to deal with, namely Hiruma.
Hiruma said nothing but he did stop typing. He glared at the screen and Clifford knew it had nothing to do with what he was looking at. Since Hiruma was being mercifully quiet, Clifford decided to put his equipment away and bag his filthy uniform for washing. Some intelligent person had this brilliant idea to have one of the under team players collect the soiled uniforms for washing from the dorms and wash them. Well, the only thing that would have been truly brilliant would have been to have washing facilities at the stadium or at the practice field then do all the uniform stuff there, but Clifford’s not an architect that was in need of some severe training in common sense. All he was thankful for was that he was not the one washing the uniforms- that was someone else’s job. And that someone else got it done so Clifford didn’t give a rip about it.
“…I want an answer brat.” Clifford remarked gruffly as he set his laundry out in the hall for collection. He shut the door and gave Hiruma a very bored and dry look.
“Why the fuck should you get one?” Hiruma hissed. His typing resumed.
“Maybe it has to do something with the fact that that’s my bed you’re sitting on?” Clifford observed with sarcasm. “Or maybe it’s the fact you broke into my room? Oh wait! I know! It’s because you’re using my computer and eating my food!” Clifford’s voice grew more and more angry.
“Che. You brought this upon yourself.” Hiruma explained humorlessly.
“No, you,” Clifford strode across the small room to pull the laptop screen down and get in Hiruma’s face, “you Hiruma Youichi brought this upon yourself.”
Hiruma flinched and tried to back away from Clifford’s face and body. He could smell Clifford’s freshly washed body, he could smell that damp mud and sweat smell that couldn’t be washed away with only one shower, and he could smell the anger that was radiating off of Clifford’s person. It was clear that Hiruma had picked a bad day to do this and it was even clearer that Clifford was considering manhandling him- not something Hiruma really wanted to experience that day.
“If you’re going to continue giving me shit because you think it’s going to accomplish your own ends, I’m just going to break your arm.” Clifford promised Hiruma. “In a very irreparable and painful fashion such that picking up a football will be difficult and throwing would be impossible.”
Hiruma opened his mouth to make a snarky comment about Clifford’s behavior when he realized the older boy really wasn’t joking. In fact the older boy was clearly done with this situation before it even started.
“Get out of my face and I’ll get to the fucking point.” Hiruma told Clifford, hoping that might help calm the pissy person before him.
Clifford backed away marginally and made a point to take his computer with him. Hiruma had been perusing his family picture album and god only knows what else. Thankfully Clifford did not keep anything of importance or usefulness on that machine, like his plays. Those were kept elsewhere in a place where one would not expect given Clifford’s personality with a crazy locking system that takes ten minutes to disable if you don’t make any mistakes and know what you are doing. Clifford was confident that Hiruma had not gotten a hold of that information. The only thing remotely embarrassing or ‘blackmail’ worthy on his computer were the slutty e-mails his girlfriend sent him and even then that kind of thing would be more effective to use on her because all Clifford could say concerning the matter was ‘I can’t stop her from sending them to me’.
“Your brother-in-law looks like half-baked dough.” Hiruma commented.
“My sister’s lack of taste and common sense concerning men isn’t my problem.” Clifford replied curtly. “And you’re avoiding the subject- should I start you on a strike system where a ‘strike’ is a hit on your person?”
“No need, fucking big nose.” Hiruma said quickly. “No need at all.”
“Then spill.”
Hiruma’s face scrunched painfully and his body went tense. For once the rare expression of shame crossed Hiruma’s features momentarily before the desperation and that distinct feeling of being in way too deep took over.
“I fucking asked her out and I don’t know what do!” Hiruma explained in very quick accented English.
It took Clifford three seconds to actually understand what had been said. It took him another second to process what that meant.
It took 0.03 seconds for Clifford to fall to the floor and start laughing hysterically.
Hiruma turned bright red and considered strangling the bi-polar quarterback then withheld himself because Mamori would have not appreciated the fact he strangled another person. Even if said person was being a complete asshole.
From Clifford’s perspective this was far too funny. Hiruma came all the way out to America to ask him, Clifford D. Lewis, about how to treat a girl. Hiruma was the sort of person who did things over the top, but this was too much! Clifford, while he did have a reputation of being kind with the ladies, was not someone who should have been on the inquiry list at all! Well not in person anyways. This entire thing could have been solved with a phone call or an e-mail.
“This isn’t fucking funny!” Hiruma snapped, angry and embarrassed. He had reasons for asking Clifford, the first of which was that there wouldn’t be any obnoxious rumors about it like there would be if he asked anyone on his football team. The second was that Hiruma had no intention of asking any of his slaves for obvious reasons (namely Mamori’s personal safety). The third reason was that Musashi did not have a girlfriend and was in fact very awkward with the notion of dating and while Kurita had a girlfriend, she took him out, not the other way around. And since he wanted to ask someone with at least half a brain that left him with little options, namely other quarterbacks, like Takami and Kid. But both of those two had no romantic experience either which left Hiruma with no choice but to confront Clifford of all people. Hiruma, in his defense, had done careful research online and offline, but there were certain fine essences of dating he really didn’t understand and needed someone who had actually dated explain.
But then again, there were issues with asking this favor of Clifford, the first of which was the man’s personality. Of course Clifford would find this affair hilarious. That had been part of the reason why he had helped Mamori in the first place. And the situation with Hiruma and Mamori getting together had been something Clifford had discretely orchestrated from afar, a fact that also endlessly amused him.
Without any warning, there was a sudden pounding on the door of Clifford’s room followed by Mr. Don’s booming voice carrying through the wall.
“What the hell is going on in there!?” Mr. Don bellowed with a voice full of a remarkable amount of concern. “Is everything okay!?”
Hiruma was not sure if the loudness was due to the fact the walls looked thicker than they should be or if that Mr. Don just didn’t know how, or even care for that matter, to regulate his volume.
Clifford attempted to stop laughing and instead kicked himself into a bit of a hiccup fit. Either way his breathing was still highly irregular and it was going to be impossible for him to get off the floor in a timely manner. Hiruma decided discretely going over to the door and locking it slowly was in order. He did not want Don to know he was in here. That would end badly.
After a few long minutes in which Don threatened to break down the door, Clifford managed to get to his feet again, unlock it, and face his friend with a tried, but highly amused expression.
“Youtube.” Clifford answered cryptically and shut the door in Don’s face without any qualms. Lord only knows how many times Don has returned that particular favor. Both quarterbacks knew Don well enough to know that was going to work. Don would not question the event other than giving Clifford some shit about it later in practice.
“Are you done?” Hiruma demanded with a hiss. The entire time Clifford had been laughing he’d been resisting strangling the man.
“Pretty much.” Clifford answered as he leaned heavily against the wall. He felt every bit of practice and the laughter had been the coup de grace on his abdominals. It was nap time now and he wasn’t bothering to hide it anymore.
Hiruma sat on the edge of the bed and kicked his feet in a bit of nervousness. Clifford could just refuse to help him, it was a possibility and the laughter certainly wasn’t making him feel any better about this.
“I’m going to take a nap,” Clifford announced, “and when I am done, if I am rested enough and in the mood- I’ll help you. Otherwise be ready to get your ass out of my life.”
Hiruma could take a hint. He often chose not to, but he could. In this case he elected to get off the bed without complaint. Clifford crawled onto the bed quickly and passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. Watching that event unfold made Hiruma feel a twinge of pity and understanding. Clifford had been exhausted, something one should be after a good practice, and Hiruma had prevented the poor man from getting sleep.
It was about an hour and a half later that Clifford came back into the world of the awake and conscious. Hiruma had spent all of that time on Clifford’s computer reading his essays for class. Of course the Japanese boy knew better than to alter them but Clifford was a good student and wrote excellent essays. Considering the young Lewis was getting a degree in psychology of all things, it was rather fascinating what he was studying. Psychology was a very useful field if you were interested in the games of the mind and Clifford was honing his already deadly skills even more so.
Clearly Clifford sought to widen the gap in ability between himself and Hiruma. Hiruma found that flattering, but ultimately he knew that Clifford had gone about it the right way too. Clifford was going to be deadly opponent and when he got the NFL and sharpened his game he’d be unstoppable.
It was funny how Hiruma was the reason why Clifford would become the best quarterback to ever exist in the NFL; funny and ironic.
“Mn, are there any Lays left?” Clifford asked tiredly with a yawn. One of the interesting things about him was that it took a while for his mind to wake up. When first arriving out of unconsciousness Clifford was a highly cooperative and nice person, or so his teammates had said. Hiruma was betting on there being some truth to that.
“Yeah, they’re by your head.” Hiruma answered. He decided to air on the side of caution and not swear or actively be rude. Chances are Clifford wasn’t awake enough to realize anything was amiss just yet.
“Hm.” Clifford grabbed the offending bag and put a few chips in his mouth and loudly munched on them, his mind clearly elsewhere. Humans behave very strangely coming into and out of sleep, sometimes acting like completely different people. Clifford had proven this conclusion in one of his papers.
Hiruma bite his tongue. Now was not the time to ask what Clifford was thinking about, or was it?
“Do you have a place picked out?” Clifford asked suddenly.
“What?”
“You know,” Clifford waved his hand vaguely, “for your date.”
“Ah-!” Hiruma realized he didn’t actually have an answer to that question after the shock that Clifford was helping him set in and was dealt with.
“You don’t, do you?” Clifford sat up and gave Hiruma a knowing smile. “Because you’re afraid of messing it up.”
For someone that wasn’t completely awake, Clifford was an amazingly perceptive bastard.
“And while you do know things she enjoys and likes, you’re not 100% sure of anything she’d enjoy romantically.” Clifford went on causally. “And that doubt is eating at you because you’ve never been in a serious relationship before and you don’t know how it works.”
Hiruma nodded slowly.
“Relationships aren’t complicated, well not in the way you’re thinking.” Clifford explained. “They are work and you have to communicate and be willing to compromise or it’ll crash and burn.”
Hiruma had read that before, but somehow hearing Clifford tell him made it set in.
“Honestly, Anezaki-chan loves you brat.” Clifford pointed out. “Or she wouldn’t have agreed to such a thing as a date with you.”
“I know that-!” Hiruma protested but Clifford was not done.
“-then you should know that she’s interested in the person you are right now. Flaws and all.” Clifford gave Hiruma a grave look. “So pick a place both of you like and be yourself.”
“That’s fucking it?” Hiruma muttered after a few moments of silence.
“Yes, it’s not rocket science.” Clifford frowned. “It’s a relationship between two individuals with the chance of becoming closer and more emotionally and physically intimate.”
“That’s it.” Hiruma frowned as he began to wrap his head around the whole notion that he had been over-thinking the entire thing.
“You’re nervous,” Clifford observed, “and you’re doing something completely new and not really like anything you’ve done before. You grew up in a pretty abnormal situation so you don’t exactly have good models to look at as to how the whole long-term-mates thing works at all. Of course you’re freaking out and thinking about it.”
Hiruma glared. He didn’t like that Clifford was right, but Clifford was right.
“Emotions are a bitch to everyone.” Clifford pointed out. “I honestly almost wet myself before my first kiss.”
“Oh?” Hiruma couldn’t help but to be curious.
“Although you have no means to prove that- so it’s not like it’d be good blackmail….” Clifford grinned. “So my advice is to just go be with her, be yourself, treat her normally and try to hold her hand. You of all people should not be rushing into a relationship you will fuck it up bad if you do.”
“What if she starts rushing?” Hiruma asked, weary.
“She won’t.” Clifford answered. “And if she did, she’d notice you weren’t joining her and slow herself down for you because she’s such a nice person like that.”
Hiruma frowned, still not liking this.
“Stop having denial over this.” Clifford rolled his eyes. “You love her, she loves you, this is simple.”
“No its-!” Hiruma was cut off by Clifford’s glare.
“Simple. Easy and simple. You’re being emotional and scared- wake up brat!” Clifford almost cuffed Hiruma on the side of the head. “Wake up and smell the coffee! You. Are. In. Love. Both of you are.”
“Uh-!”
“And both of you will be just fine!” Clifford went on. “Now I’m all out of advice and patience so get the hell out of my room or I’m going to toss your ass out the window into the quad.”
Clearly now that Clifford was awake he was still temperamental despite the nap. Since there was no more going to be learned here, Hiruma decided to take his leave of the other quarterback and return to Japan.
Click here for the second part.
I don't own any of the characters.
Go here to see the original version of the story.
Veteran Advice
“Why are you running away?” Clifford asked with some sincere curiosity in his otherwise annoyed tone. Currently Clifford was standing in the open doorway into his dormitory room at the University of Notre Dame and the reason he had not stepped inside was that someone else was already inside the room. On his bed. Using his computer. And eating his snacks to be as rude and disrespectful as humanly possible without actually saying anything.
In case anyone is wondering, the person who was doing these rude things was Hiruma Youichi, one of the few quarterbacks in the world Clifford acknowledged as an opponent. Right now Clifford was exhausted from a very hard and long practice where he had to deal with less than intelligent jocks and a coach with a horrible nasal drawl and a half-headache that always came on when he didn’t take his allergy medication. Needless to say having the nap he’d been planning all the way back to his dorm room cancelled by an uninvited and unannounced visit was not something Clifford was going to keep much patience about. It didn’t help Hiruma’s case that he had to break into Clifford’s room to be there when the older boy returned from practice.
Now as for Clifford’s strange question that is not actually that strange if one understands the context in which it was uttered. Earlier, last summer in fact, Clifford had personally coached on Anezaki Mamori in the art of gambling, mental games, and football. Of course given that the girl was remarkably creative and intelligent, not to mention a quick learner, and Clifford was an expert in all of the aforementioned subjects, it had gone extremely well. Anezaki had walked away several times more powerful than she had when she arrived. Clifford had dismissed the event for the most part- it’s not like Anezaki would ever realistically be on an opposing team’s bench. He also knew that Hiruma had probably manipulated her and him into the teaching event in the first place. Clifford had, as a subtle retaliation, helped Anezaki pin down the oddities in Hiruma’s recent behavior and the reasons for it.
Hiruma was madly in love with Anezaki and in complete denial about this. Unfortunately, despite the massive denial, Hiruma had been acting excessively jealous to the point where basically day to day life for Anezaki was becoming an ordeal. All Clifford did was confirm that Hiruma was in fact being jealous and left her and her newly acquired plotting skills to their own devices knowing full well this was going to bite Hiruma in the ass.
Clifford had then washed his hands of the entire affair and focused on dealing with opponents in his own league, his own school work, practicing his banjo, and somehow getting enough sleep despite a sex-crazy girlfriend. He had wished he had had the time to spare to watch how Anezaki messed around with Hiruma, it would have been fascinating to watch, but there just hadn’t been the time or energy in him to devote to such things.
Although Clifford didn’t know what exactly had happened to cause Hiruma to suddenly appear in his dormitory room, he did know it was something to do with the fact that Anezaki had been taught how to play his games the way he did. And if you have a problem with how someone learned something, you take it up with the teacher, who happened to be Clifford. All Clifford knew was that if Hiruma was in America right now, it was because he couldn’t handle what was happening in Japan, which meant he was still running from the core of the problem: the fact he was in love with Anezaki.
Anezaki had been taught yes, but she was not skilled enough to take down Hiruma if he was able to put his mind to it. Hiruma was extremely crafty and remarkably clever and innovative- Clifford knew that first hand when Hiruma had caught him by surprise. But since his judgment was clouded by his intense emotions, there was no way he could beat Anezaki in that state. Especially since the girl in question was a master of emotion manipulation before she’d had any training from Clifford. It was perhaps a bit underappreciated but Anezaki Mamori was a better emotional manipulator than himself or Hiruma, a fact Clifford attributed to the fact she was female. Females were just good emotional manipulators by their nature.
In short, Clifford is certain that Hiruma was there because of something to do with the fact that Anezaki was now ‘uncontrollable’ and it was Clifford’s fault.
“I’m not running from fucking anything.” Hiruma’s eyes shot up from the laptop screen to give Clifford a seething glare. He then returned to looking at whatever he was contemplating.
“Then why, pray tell, are you here?” Clifford asked as he finally stepped into his own room. He shut the door gently. Mr. Don happened to be his next door neighbor and as much fun as that guy was, he was an asshole when it came to non-Americans playing football and the last thing Clifford wanted to deal with was Mr. Don and Hiruma. All he wanted was a bloody nap.
Of course facing Hiruma in a tired state with a short temper and a worsening headache was almost certainly going to end poorly.
Clifford elected to not think about that fact for the moment. He had other things to deal with, namely Hiruma.
Hiruma said nothing but he did stop typing. He glared at the screen and Clifford knew it had nothing to do with what he was looking at. Since Hiruma was being mercifully quiet, Clifford decided to put his equipment away and bag his filthy uniform for washing. Some intelligent person had this brilliant idea to have one of the under team players collect the soiled uniforms for washing from the dorms and wash them. Well, the only thing that would have been truly brilliant would have been to have washing facilities at the stadium or at the practice field then do all the uniform stuff there, but Clifford’s not an architect that was in need of some severe training in common sense. All he was thankful for was that he was not the one washing the uniforms- that was someone else’s job. And that someone else got it done so Clifford didn’t give a rip about it.
“…I want an answer brat.” Clifford remarked gruffly as he set his laundry out in the hall for collection. He shut the door and gave Hiruma a very bored and dry look.
“Why the fuck should you get one?” Hiruma hissed. His typing resumed.
“Maybe it has to do something with the fact that that’s my bed you’re sitting on?” Clifford observed with sarcasm. “Or maybe it’s the fact you broke into my room? Oh wait! I know! It’s because you’re using my computer and eating my food!” Clifford’s voice grew more and more angry.
“Che. You brought this upon yourself.” Hiruma explained humorlessly.
“No, you,” Clifford strode across the small room to pull the laptop screen down and get in Hiruma’s face, “you Hiruma Youichi brought this upon yourself.”
Hiruma flinched and tried to back away from Clifford’s face and body. He could smell Clifford’s freshly washed body, he could smell that damp mud and sweat smell that couldn’t be washed away with only one shower, and he could smell the anger that was radiating off of Clifford’s person. It was clear that Hiruma had picked a bad day to do this and it was even clearer that Clifford was considering manhandling him- not something Hiruma really wanted to experience that day.
“If you’re going to continue giving me shit because you think it’s going to accomplish your own ends, I’m just going to break your arm.” Clifford promised Hiruma. “In a very irreparable and painful fashion such that picking up a football will be difficult and throwing would be impossible.”
Hiruma opened his mouth to make a snarky comment about Clifford’s behavior when he realized the older boy really wasn’t joking. In fact the older boy was clearly done with this situation before it even started.
“Get out of my face and I’ll get to the fucking point.” Hiruma told Clifford, hoping that might help calm the pissy person before him.
Clifford backed away marginally and made a point to take his computer with him. Hiruma had been perusing his family picture album and god only knows what else. Thankfully Clifford did not keep anything of importance or usefulness on that machine, like his plays. Those were kept elsewhere in a place where one would not expect given Clifford’s personality with a crazy locking system that takes ten minutes to disable if you don’t make any mistakes and know what you are doing. Clifford was confident that Hiruma had not gotten a hold of that information. The only thing remotely embarrassing or ‘blackmail’ worthy on his computer were the slutty e-mails his girlfriend sent him and even then that kind of thing would be more effective to use on her because all Clifford could say concerning the matter was ‘I can’t stop her from sending them to me’.
“Your brother-in-law looks like half-baked dough.” Hiruma commented.
“My sister’s lack of taste and common sense concerning men isn’t my problem.” Clifford replied curtly. “And you’re avoiding the subject- should I start you on a strike system where a ‘strike’ is a hit on your person?”
“No need, fucking big nose.” Hiruma said quickly. “No need at all.”
“Then spill.”
Hiruma’s face scrunched painfully and his body went tense. For once the rare expression of shame crossed Hiruma’s features momentarily before the desperation and that distinct feeling of being in way too deep took over.
“I fucking asked her out and I don’t know what do!” Hiruma explained in very quick accented English.
It took Clifford three seconds to actually understand what had been said. It took him another second to process what that meant.
It took 0.03 seconds for Clifford to fall to the floor and start laughing hysterically.
Hiruma turned bright red and considered strangling the bi-polar quarterback then withheld himself because Mamori would have not appreciated the fact he strangled another person. Even if said person was being a complete asshole.
From Clifford’s perspective this was far too funny. Hiruma came all the way out to America to ask him, Clifford D. Lewis, about how to treat a girl. Hiruma was the sort of person who did things over the top, but this was too much! Clifford, while he did have a reputation of being kind with the ladies, was not someone who should have been on the inquiry list at all! Well not in person anyways. This entire thing could have been solved with a phone call or an e-mail.
“This isn’t fucking funny!” Hiruma snapped, angry and embarrassed. He had reasons for asking Clifford, the first of which was that there wouldn’t be any obnoxious rumors about it like there would be if he asked anyone on his football team. The second was that Hiruma had no intention of asking any of his slaves for obvious reasons (namely Mamori’s personal safety). The third reason was that Musashi did not have a girlfriend and was in fact very awkward with the notion of dating and while Kurita had a girlfriend, she took him out, not the other way around. And since he wanted to ask someone with at least half a brain that left him with little options, namely other quarterbacks, like Takami and Kid. But both of those two had no romantic experience either which left Hiruma with no choice but to confront Clifford of all people. Hiruma, in his defense, had done careful research online and offline, but there were certain fine essences of dating he really didn’t understand and needed someone who had actually dated explain.
But then again, there were issues with asking this favor of Clifford, the first of which was the man’s personality. Of course Clifford would find this affair hilarious. That had been part of the reason why he had helped Mamori in the first place. And the situation with Hiruma and Mamori getting together had been something Clifford had discretely orchestrated from afar, a fact that also endlessly amused him.
Without any warning, there was a sudden pounding on the door of Clifford’s room followed by Mr. Don’s booming voice carrying through the wall.
“What the hell is going on in there!?” Mr. Don bellowed with a voice full of a remarkable amount of concern. “Is everything okay!?”
Hiruma was not sure if the loudness was due to the fact the walls looked thicker than they should be or if that Mr. Don just didn’t know how, or even care for that matter, to regulate his volume.
Clifford attempted to stop laughing and instead kicked himself into a bit of a hiccup fit. Either way his breathing was still highly irregular and it was going to be impossible for him to get off the floor in a timely manner. Hiruma decided discretely going over to the door and locking it slowly was in order. He did not want Don to know he was in here. That would end badly.
After a few long minutes in which Don threatened to break down the door, Clifford managed to get to his feet again, unlock it, and face his friend with a tried, but highly amused expression.
“Youtube.” Clifford answered cryptically and shut the door in Don’s face without any qualms. Lord only knows how many times Don has returned that particular favor. Both quarterbacks knew Don well enough to know that was going to work. Don would not question the event other than giving Clifford some shit about it later in practice.
“Are you done?” Hiruma demanded with a hiss. The entire time Clifford had been laughing he’d been resisting strangling the man.
“Pretty much.” Clifford answered as he leaned heavily against the wall. He felt every bit of practice and the laughter had been the coup de grace on his abdominals. It was nap time now and he wasn’t bothering to hide it anymore.
Hiruma sat on the edge of the bed and kicked his feet in a bit of nervousness. Clifford could just refuse to help him, it was a possibility and the laughter certainly wasn’t making him feel any better about this.
“I’m going to take a nap,” Clifford announced, “and when I am done, if I am rested enough and in the mood- I’ll help you. Otherwise be ready to get your ass out of my life.”
Hiruma could take a hint. He often chose not to, but he could. In this case he elected to get off the bed without complaint. Clifford crawled onto the bed quickly and passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. Watching that event unfold made Hiruma feel a twinge of pity and understanding. Clifford had been exhausted, something one should be after a good practice, and Hiruma had prevented the poor man from getting sleep.
It was about an hour and a half later that Clifford came back into the world of the awake and conscious. Hiruma had spent all of that time on Clifford’s computer reading his essays for class. Of course the Japanese boy knew better than to alter them but Clifford was a good student and wrote excellent essays. Considering the young Lewis was getting a degree in psychology of all things, it was rather fascinating what he was studying. Psychology was a very useful field if you were interested in the games of the mind and Clifford was honing his already deadly skills even more so.
Clearly Clifford sought to widen the gap in ability between himself and Hiruma. Hiruma found that flattering, but ultimately he knew that Clifford had gone about it the right way too. Clifford was going to be deadly opponent and when he got the NFL and sharpened his game he’d be unstoppable.
It was funny how Hiruma was the reason why Clifford would become the best quarterback to ever exist in the NFL; funny and ironic.
“Mn, are there any Lays left?” Clifford asked tiredly with a yawn. One of the interesting things about him was that it took a while for his mind to wake up. When first arriving out of unconsciousness Clifford was a highly cooperative and nice person, or so his teammates had said. Hiruma was betting on there being some truth to that.
“Yeah, they’re by your head.” Hiruma answered. He decided to air on the side of caution and not swear or actively be rude. Chances are Clifford wasn’t awake enough to realize anything was amiss just yet.
“Hm.” Clifford grabbed the offending bag and put a few chips in his mouth and loudly munched on them, his mind clearly elsewhere. Humans behave very strangely coming into and out of sleep, sometimes acting like completely different people. Clifford had proven this conclusion in one of his papers.
Hiruma bite his tongue. Now was not the time to ask what Clifford was thinking about, or was it?
“Do you have a place picked out?” Clifford asked suddenly.
“What?”
“You know,” Clifford waved his hand vaguely, “for your date.”
“Ah-!” Hiruma realized he didn’t actually have an answer to that question after the shock that Clifford was helping him set in and was dealt with.
“You don’t, do you?” Clifford sat up and gave Hiruma a knowing smile. “Because you’re afraid of messing it up.”
For someone that wasn’t completely awake, Clifford was an amazingly perceptive bastard.
“And while you do know things she enjoys and likes, you’re not 100% sure of anything she’d enjoy romantically.” Clifford went on causally. “And that doubt is eating at you because you’ve never been in a serious relationship before and you don’t know how it works.”
Hiruma nodded slowly.
“Relationships aren’t complicated, well not in the way you’re thinking.” Clifford explained. “They are work and you have to communicate and be willing to compromise or it’ll crash and burn.”
Hiruma had read that before, but somehow hearing Clifford tell him made it set in.
“Honestly, Anezaki-chan loves you brat.” Clifford pointed out. “Or she wouldn’t have agreed to such a thing as a date with you.”
“I know that-!” Hiruma protested but Clifford was not done.
“-then you should know that she’s interested in the person you are right now. Flaws and all.” Clifford gave Hiruma a grave look. “So pick a place both of you like and be yourself.”
“That’s fucking it?” Hiruma muttered after a few moments of silence.
“Yes, it’s not rocket science.” Clifford frowned. “It’s a relationship between two individuals with the chance of becoming closer and more emotionally and physically intimate.”
“That’s it.” Hiruma frowned as he began to wrap his head around the whole notion that he had been over-thinking the entire thing.
“You’re nervous,” Clifford observed, “and you’re doing something completely new and not really like anything you’ve done before. You grew up in a pretty abnormal situation so you don’t exactly have good models to look at as to how the whole long-term-mates thing works at all. Of course you’re freaking out and thinking about it.”
Hiruma glared. He didn’t like that Clifford was right, but Clifford was right.
“Emotions are a bitch to everyone.” Clifford pointed out. “I honestly almost wet myself before my first kiss.”
“Oh?” Hiruma couldn’t help but to be curious.
“Although you have no means to prove that- so it’s not like it’d be good blackmail….” Clifford grinned. “So my advice is to just go be with her, be yourself, treat her normally and try to hold her hand. You of all people should not be rushing into a relationship you will fuck it up bad if you do.”
“What if she starts rushing?” Hiruma asked, weary.
“She won’t.” Clifford answered. “And if she did, she’d notice you weren’t joining her and slow herself down for you because she’s such a nice person like that.”
Hiruma frowned, still not liking this.
“Stop having denial over this.” Clifford rolled his eyes. “You love her, she loves you, this is simple.”
“No its-!” Hiruma was cut off by Clifford’s glare.
“Simple. Easy and simple. You’re being emotional and scared- wake up brat!” Clifford almost cuffed Hiruma on the side of the head. “Wake up and smell the coffee! You. Are. In. Love. Both of you are.”
“Uh-!”
“And both of you will be just fine!” Clifford went on. “Now I’m all out of advice and patience so get the hell out of my room or I’m going to toss your ass out the window into the quad.”
Clearly now that Clifford was awake he was still temperamental despite the nap. Since there was no more going to be learned here, Hiruma decided to take his leave of the other quarterback and return to Japan.
Click here for the second part.