Hey! I'm really happy with the response that I got from my Hiruma oneshot, so I decided to try some more. Please tell me what you think! Read & Review. I'm writing this while having no idea what it's about. Heh. And this has an actual pairing in it, though it doesn't get into until like the seventh section. It's such a typical pairing too. Remember if you want a pairing, just PM me. It's on my profile. At the bottom.
I don't own Eyeshield 21.
"Just a Simple Run"
All his life, Sena loved to run. Of course, he couldn't always. His friend Riku had to teach him, but in came in handy in more than one sticky situation. Even so, sometimes he was afraid of it, and he was afraid of loosing speed. Sena wasn't smart. In fact, he was a bit of an idiot. He had no real talents, no strength, no willpower. All he had speed and running. All his life, he'd been running away. From kids ("friends") who made him their gofer, from getting beaten up, from breaking away from his shy little demeanor, from Mamori who made it worse by always saving him. He never liked any of this, because it was too complicated. He was smart like Mamori or a lot of the team he would one day be part of. So liked things simple.
And that was why he liked to run.
***
He always like his life, always, but he never realized how truly boring it was until he meant Kurita on that day his got dragged with the three Huh-Huh Brothers ("We're not brothers!" they would always shout, and that made Sena laugh) to the clubhouse and agreed to become the manager of the football team. Thing got even more interesting when Hiruma transformed him into Eyeshield 21. Later he would realize it was the best thing that ever happened to him. But even then, for a while, he kept on running away. It wasn't until his second game, the Oujo game, that he realized that it was also possibly to run towards something. It was such an alien idea to him, but he loved it so much. Sure, he still ran away occasionally, but he always had a goal. And he pushed for that goal, trying to shake off that self-consciousness (and Mamori, but she didn't need to know that), and be his own person. In the end, he succeeded.
***
He had a lot of people to thank for that, but never once considered himself. After all, he pushed past those fears, large and small, and just went for it. He wouldn't have become that way if he wanted it. Once he had that mask on, that Eyeshield to hide who he was, he figured out how to stop caring about what people thought (though he still did and forever would, knowing him) and just go for it. More than half the time, he'd be seen tearing up and down the field, or laughing with his friends. It was life at its best, and he never thought that it could get better.
***
But naturally it did, because he ran faster and faster and won game after game. Even some of the losses felt good. And nothing felt better than making that last touchdown, winning that game, seeing everyone just as euphoric as he was. Sure, some people were still pretty mean (or just plain evil, in a few cases), but all and all, the world of football was just fascinating. Best of all, even with all the tricky plays from both his team and others, football was simple. Because he was able to run.
***
He wasn't quite sure when he became good friends with Hiruma. Despite the guy being completely bizarre with all his cursing and his guns (though he would never hurt a fly with them, Sena realized early on) he pulled out from seemingly nowhere and all his eccentrics, he wasn't half bad. After all, he gave Sena his identity as an actual person with an actual talent. He also wasn't sure when he started growing away from Mamori. Maybe it was when she first joined. She shouldn't have been part of that little piece of the world that was truly his. It was like she intruded, and he couldn't tell her anything. He actually would've taken that eyeshield off long before the Bando game if he hadn't been so afraid she would take it away. That was why not even his friends said anything, including Monta and Suzana. And Monta was pretty much in love with her (which he found a bit weird, but that was probably because he saw her as a sister). Hiruma did a good thing then, after the Cupid game, when he made sure that he didn't tell.
***
Sena didn't really have a "best friend." He had a while group of them, his team, while the ones of other teams were just the normal friends. The word "best" never even crossed his mind, even for Monta, who was the first. No one on the Devil Bats had a higher status than another person in his eyes. Just like it was impossible for him to hate someone. He'd never been able to hate someone, which he wasn't sure was a gift or a curse. Maybe it was just nothing. It was just who Sena was. And people liked him for that, which is one it was hard to find him without a smile on his face. The other main facial expression was concentration. It was hard to be happy when you were losing a game. That was common sense. It was simple, so he wasn't surprised by it.
***
He also wasn't quite sure when one person did manage to raise a bit above everyone else. It was extremely awkward at first, because he didn't get it, and he saw him so often. Everyday really. Of course, Sena was never quite sure whether or not Hiruma even caught onto it, but know him, he did. He seemed to know everything after all, and Sena never really understood him, so he didn't get why it happened either. When he first realized it, he had to clear his head, so he just ran. He ran as far and as fast as he could. But even then, he wasn't running away. It just a simple run. He liked it better that way.
***
At an early age, he quickly realized that laughing was the best feeling in the world, hands done. Feeling confused, he realized, was the worst. Therefore he hated that he was confused about the entire Hiruma situation, until someone got him laughing. He wasn't always thinking it, and a lot of times that little crush just left his mind as it settled on something completely different. Usually it was on the next game, or a math test, or how he could hang out with his other friends without Mamori tagging along. He felt bad about it, but he couldn't help it. He was living his own life, and he didn't need a second mother hovering. He already had one mother like that; he didn't need two. So usually his thoughts were on other things, but he found himself thinking about it anyway. But then he'd go for a run, or a game would come, or someone would make him laugh, and the cycle would start over again.
***
He never told Hiruma about it, never. Which was why he was pretty surprised when they kissed for the first time after the Naga game. He'd been as rigid as a board, but then Hiruma pulled away and told him he wasn't too good at hiding things, and walked away. Apparently Sena was right why he thought that Hiruma knew everything.
***
They became something real much quicker than either of them thought. Everything just happened so fast, just the rest of Sena's life. If they were actually "together," Sena didn't know. All he knew was that Hiruma's attitude towards him didn't change. Fucking shrimp, was still his title. If it wasn't that, it Eyeshield, like it was also a title. But it was never Sena. For some odd reason though, Sena didn't mind. Actually, he liked it that way. He liked Hiruma that way he was, and maybe Hiruma knew that. He thought so, but he wasn't so sure. Maybe he just liked it that way too. The only time he did change was if he hugged him. It was different then, slightly more gentle than the way he normally was (whether he was shooting his guns or kissing him or doing if they something else that made Sena's cheeks burn when the thought about it), but he liked it that way. He was fine with it. It was simple, like running.
***
When they won the Super Bowl, he was euphoric, off the walls hyper. Everyone was. Though at the same time, he was sad, because he wouldn't be able to play with any of the second years before. Hiruma, Kurita, Musashi, and Yuki would all be gone. So part of him was sad and the other part was happy, but he wasn't sure which one he should be, so he just chose happy because it made the most sense. Their celebration lasted for hours, though it felt like more. He felt like he was going to burst with whatever it was that he was feeling, because he just didn't know anymore. So he just stayed happy the entire time and it wasn't until he was alone with Hiruma--just the two of them--that he actually cried. And Hiruma didn't say anything, because even though Sena didn't understand him, Hiruma apparently still got him.
***
Finding out about the Youth Cup in America made him sigh with relief. He was aching when he found out of course, because of the game the day before and how much he'd run earlier that day. He had one last chance to play with three of the four second years (Yuki couldn't go), and he grabbed onto that situation. Up until that last game, it was easy, even if that one guy beat him down. Sena found out that he liked a challenge, so going against Panther again made him smile, even if he lost to him time and time again. It made getting those touchdowns so much better. The strangest though was when Shin and Agon gave him high fives. Now that was creepy, but nice. Hiruma laughed about it later, said he looked way too happy for his own good. Sena just rolled his eyes. They'd won and he got to run, and even if it wasn't simple, it was fun.
***
Which was why he was surprised when a few scouts who had seen them asked a few of the people from the team (Hiruma, Kid, Musashi, Shin, Monta, Yamato, and Sena) if they wouldn't mind coming to play their college. It was weird, and Sena felt weird, because he had his eyeshield off, but somehow the seven of them managed to land scholarships to two different colleges. They ones from Deimon, because they wouldn't be able to play, would all have to miss their third year, they'd been told, but they'd all been too surprised (expect Hiruma and Kid, which didn't come as a surprise) to say much else. When they got back home, it was like Sena was seeing a different world. It was then that he realized he wouldn't see Musashi or Hiruma for a year. Hiruma told him it was okay. And because he was told it, be believed it. And he felt a bit better.
***
When that plane touched down to the run way when he was still only sixteen, he had a smile on his face. Sure, he'd miss Japan severally, but he could always visit. Now he had the chance to keep going towards something, to keep him pushing to the top and past that. He got off with Monta and Shin and looked around the cold, busy airport. The first thing he did was throw himself at the others. He felt like he was home. He'd made it here, finally.
And all it took was a simple run.
Lol. Finally finished. It kinda lost it towards the end. I had to give it to Kid too because of a conversation he had with Hiruma about the NFL.