Hiruma coughed in his hand. It was 3:45 am, and he'd woken up AGAIN! His head felt like it was going to burst. He didn't want to admit he was sick, but after waking up for three hours straight every 10-20 minutes, coughing and sneezing, it seemed he had to face it.

He WAS sick and there was nothing he could do about it, except ride it out. He lay there in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, just staring.

This sucked. Being sick meant he couldn't go to school and not being able to go to school meant that he couldn't torture the others at football practice.

"Damn it" he hissed as he felt a throbbing pain in his head. He put both hands to the side of head and willed the pain to go away. It wasn't going anywhere.

Hiruma sighed as soon as the throbbing dimmed a little and let him relax. He looked over at the clock.

4:30. He'd would have been waking up in 30 minutes to get ready for morning practice, but not today. He clenched his eyes shut and told himself it was all a dream and wished it would just end. As soon as he opened his eyes he would feel better and NOT be sick.

He opened his eyes and the pain in his head came back. Only this time it threatened to rip open his skull. Hiruma smacked his head with the palms of his hands, but that only made the pain worse.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. He bolted out of bed and went to his bathroom, rummaging around in the medicine cabinet. He found the Tylenol and popped five of them in his mouth. He didn't bother washing them down with water.

Hiruma took this time to look at himself in the mirror. He looked horrible.

There were dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, he was sweating, paler than normal….he really was sick. His throat hurt, his head hurt, his back hurt, every part of his body hurt.

Hiruma sighed and shook his head. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. He took one more look at the clock.

4:50. Hiruma decided to take a shower. Maybe that would help some. He started stripping, slowly because he ached so much. Finally all his clothes were in the laundry hamper, next to the bathroom door.

He turned on the hot water and slowly got in.

The hot water felt good as it hit his bare skin. He let the water run through his hair, and slide down his shoulders, onto his chest, to his stomach, then down his legs. The water seemed like it was in slow motion.

But he still ached and everything still hurt. He washed himself slowly and then turned the water off, getting out of the tub.

The bathroom was now hot and steamy. Hiruma looked at the foggy mirror and frowned. He took one of his fingers and started tracing on it. He then turned and went to his room, where cooler air, air dried his still wet, naked body. In the bathroom one word was traced on the steamy mirror.

"HELL"

Hiruma got dressed. It was now 5:20. He had just enough time to make it before 5:45 came around. He grabbed his shoes and slipped them on, then he grabbed his duffel bag and started for his door. He began reaching for the knob when suddenly his head started pounding again.

He felt dizzy and he would have fell to the floor if he hadn't just leaned on the bedroom door. He shook a little, but then the pain went as quickly and suddenly as it came.

Hiruma sighed and closed his eyes, standing still, making sure the pain was ACTUALLY gone. Finally after he was sure he reached for the door knob, opened it and went out.

"Hiruma, you're here!" Mamori cried, waving to him as he walked up to her. He said nothing, but let a small smirk come to his lips.

"You're a little late, what were you up to?" Mamori asked him, clutching the clipboard tighter to her chest. Hiruma shrugged.

"None of your business" he said, trying to sound cocky, but it came out kind of raspy. Obviously Mamori noticed. She put a hand on his shoulder when he winced a little, his throat still hurt.

"Are you ok, you look a little paler today, and you look like you didn't get much sleep" she said, pointing out the obvious. Hiruma growled and shoved her hand away.

"I'm not sick, if that's what you're leading up to" he said, frowning and moving away from her. She sighed and shook her head.

Hiruma sat his stuff down on one of the benches, unzipping the bag, looking for something inside it.

"Hiruma!" He heard Kurita's jolly, deep voice come from behind him. Hiruma was about to turn around and greet him, but suddenly a pain in his chest stopped him, making him gasp and fall to one knee clutching it.

Kurita freaked seeing this and ran faster to catch Hiruma before he fell flat on his face.

"H-Hiruma are you alright?!" he asked, holding the quarter back up in his arms. Hiruma looked up at him and attempted a smile.

"Y-yeah, just some, uh, heart burn, I had Mexican last night" he said. Kurita looked at him, a serious expression covering his features. He didn't look convinced.

"You don't look too good Hiruma, you should skip practice today" Kurita said, sitting Hiruma on the bench, gently. Hiruma growled again. He hated being pampered like a little kid.

"I don't need to rest, what I need to do is get you retards practicing for the big game against Ojo next week" he said, pushing himself up off the bench and pushing past Kurita, who was too dumbstruck to do anything about it.

Sena noticed Hiruma walking onto the field and smiled. He was about to say something, but was cut off, when Hiruma smacked him on the helmet.

"Oww, what was that for?" he whined, looking up at Hiruma. Hiruma didn't say anything, he looked down at Sena and motioned to the stop watch in his hands.

"I want to see if you've improved at all in the 40" he simply said. Sena looked awed at first. Hiruma noticed he was looking directly at his face.

"Hiruma are you feeling alright?" Sena asked. Hiruma sighed, and rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to retort, but suddenly he began coughing. He put his hand over his mouth and doubled over, his eyes closed tight.

"H-Hiruma?!" Sena asked, putting his hands on Hiruma's shoulders. Hiruma coughed a few more times, before taking his hand away. He clenched it into a fist and looked up Sena, snarling.

"Just do the 40, now" he said. Sena hesitated and looked at his sempai with a worried expression.

"Stop looking at me and do it!" Hiruma demanded a few seconds later. Sena obliged and got into running stance.

"…..GO!" Hiruma called and Sena took off. Hiruma pushed the stop watch button and watched it. He wiped his palm on the towel in his back pocket.

He stopped the clock. 4.1. Sena improved by .1 seconds. It wasn't bad, he guessed. Sena started jogging up to him, to see his time. Hiruma gave him a small smirk.

Suddenly he felt light headed. His head throbbed with the horrible pain, again. His chest was on fire. He started shaking and sweating. His vision started to blur.

It was all happening so fast. He couldn't hear anything. He looked up and saw a blurry Sena sprinting up to him, his lips forming words, but nothing was coming out. He saw Sena's blurry hand motion for someone to come over.

Hiruma had never felt so much pain in his life.

He couldn't breathe. He knew he shouldn't have chanced it. The next thing he knew the ground was coming up to meet him.

"Hiruma?"

The voice was soft. It sounded familiar but Hiruma couldn't make it out. His vision was still a little blurry.

"Hiruma" the voice said again. The same one. Now he thought he could recognize it.

"Mamori" he said, softly. His head still hurt. But not as bad. His vision was becoming clearer. He could finally see the faces of his teammates surrounding him.

He was in a hospital room. The place smelled like alcohol and disinfectant. He noticed Mamori was sitting on the bed with him, his head was being cradled in her arms.

She looked sad. Everyone did.

"What happened?" he asked. Kurita stepped forward.

"Hiruma, you had a heart attack" he said, his face glum and unhappy. Hiruma narrowed his eyes. He looked at the heart rate monitor.

It was beeping faintly. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"I knew it, damn it" he said. Everyone looked at him, surprised.

"You knew you were sick?!" Monta asked, his hands clenching into fists. Sena tried to calm him, though he was thinking the same thing.

Mamori looked at Hiruma and tears came to her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she said. Hiruma said nothing, just stared at the monitor.

"I was hoping I'd die when I was older, not now, it's too early" he said, his voice just above a whisper. Everyone stared at him, shocked.

"What are you talking about, you're going to live you aren't going to die!" Mamori snapped, glaring at him with blurry eyes.

Hiruma looked up at her and tried to smile. Even that hurt.

"I know it's hard to believe isn't it?" he asked, then he gave a small chuckle "But I had a feeling this day would come, I've been feeling it in my chest for 2 weeks now, I knew this would happen sometime". He closed his eyes and sighed.

Monta suddenly came up to him and snapped.

"Shut up, stop talking like you're leaving because you're not, you can't….you…" Tears came to his eyes, and he couldn't finish his sentence. He knew the truth, they all did.

Hiruma opened his eyes again, and gave his last bit of strength to say what he wanted to say.

"….I wanted to go with you, to the Christmas bowl" he said, looking at each of his teammates.

The heart monitor was slowing down, more, more. Then it flat lined.

"Hiruma" Mamori cryed, she felt his pulse leave. His hand slipped from hers and fell to his side.

She cradled him in her arms.

He was gone….Her Hiruma was gone……forever.

(sorry this was so depressing, but I had to write it, thanks for reading and please review)