Okay... I'm not very happy with this fic, per se. But I loved the plot when it came to me...
I'm opting to the- very true- excuse that this was originally a challenge from Fiction Zone by Mai Beyblader.
Disclaimer: Eyeshield 21 belongs to Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata, Skittles are produced by Master Foods, a division of Mars, Incorporated, and I did not invent the game Skittles. I dunno who did, but they are very brilliant.
This is a proposition as to which I expect a refusal, but I am readily prepared to fight it out with you until we are at an acceptance.
You abuse me, order me, demand that I do things you could get off your lazy ass to do yourself, and what do I get in thanks? More orders. I challenge you- Hiruma Yoichi- to a battle of games. If I beat you at a single game, I go free and you destroy that ghastly page of mine in your book.
"Fucking gamer!" Hiruma snarled, grabbing the collar of the poor girl's shirt and tugging her an inch from his face. She had been quietly standing to the side while he read the paper.
"Yah?" Jan- for this was her real name- asked casually, her nose twitched slightly at the minty tang that floated on his breath.
"What the fuck is this?" He asked holding up the piece of paper.
"Oh... that." She smiled and scratched the back of her head, really wishing that she wasn't as close to his teeth as she currently was. "I'm petitioning for my freedom." She stated seriously.
"You're not fucking petitioning you're challenging me." Hiruma spat, obviously offended that she didn't take his power over her as seriously as she should.
"... but 'petitioning' sounds better." Jan smiled harmlessly and Hiruma let her back down. "And besides... what have you got to lose?" She asked, gently removing his hand from her shirt and smoothing it back down. "Are you that attached to me?" She grinned at him teasingly.
"You're asking for a fucking death-wish." Hiruma stated and turned around, crumpling the paper and throwing it in the trash. "And the answer is 'no.' " He added just as she was about to say something.
"Aw, c'mon... Hiruma Yoichi never turns down bets or challenges!" Jan whined pitifully. "Or maybe he's just chicken at losing his best slave." She added, flicking her long brown hair over her shoulder and flashing a challenging blue glance at him theatrically.
"Or maybe I just don't want to waste me time with your egotistic ass." Hiruma supplied, rolling his eyes. "I don't feel like playing checkers with you."
"Who said we were going to play checkers?!" She spat the word scornfully as Hiruma hoisted himself onto the Change Counter and took out his laptop. "I'm surprised you think I'd challenge you to such a trivial game." Jan sniffed and crossed her arms, looking away from him.
"Che, whatever..."
Silence permeated the club room- interrupted only by the clicking of Hiruma's keyboard- Jan suddenly flipped out her phone. Hiruma pulled up a screen that told him what she was texting and glanced at it every few seconds.
Hiruma-sama's afraid of my challenge, let everyone know that he's a coward and that he's in love with me and doesn't want to lose me because of a game!
"Fucking erase all of what you just put in there." Hiruma ordered with weariness tingeing his voice. She was so over-dramatic sometimes, it taxed his energy to even keep her in line.
"Not until you agree to-" Hiruma pressed a button on his laptop and her phone switched to a red screen with a Devil Bat hovering in the middle.
"Don't play 'unless you' games with me, damn gamer." Hiruma growled, not even glancing at her when she let out a dismayed gasp.
"Come on!" She sighed and jumped onto a swivel chair that sat in front of the slot machines. "It's just a Saturday of you schooling my ass at games! Why not? How does it hinder you from your life in anyway? You're usually bored on Saturdays!"
"Nope, that's you." Hiruma corrected her, not looking up from his incessant typing.
"... dammit." She muttered and turned on the stool for a while. "Okay... how about: if I give in and say that you've beaten me, I never challenge you again." She proposed, a finger posed in the air for emphasis.
"Hm... 'never challenge' as in: you do everything I say, when I say it. No back talking, doing theatrical protests, or any of that crap?" Hiruma raised a brow; he honestly didn't think she'd really do it. But damn him is she didn't surprise him sometimes.
"Exactly." Jan nodded resolutely, stopping herself on the spinning chair too fast and falling off. "Ow..." Hiruma had burst into uproarious laughter at her gracelessness.
"Kekeke... fine." He nodded as he stopped laughing. "It's a bet."
"I bet there are some games that you'd lose horribly at." Jan crossed her arms and leaned back against the side of her bed. Hiruma cackled beside her and set down his game controller. He had- so far- beaten her at every video game from the old Super Mario on Nintendo-64 to the new Halo 3 on X-box 360. On every board game from (Scrunchy: guess what?) checkers to Yahtzee.
"Not likely, fucking gamer." Hiruma sneered, relaxing back with his hands behind his head.
"... you said you'd accept any game, right?" Jan suddenly looked over at him with a gleam in her eye. Hiruma wasn't going to show that he was slightly disturbed by this so he just smirked cockily and nodded. "Okay... let's play Skittles." She declared, standing.
'Skittles? Is she fucking fruity?' Hiruma thought, cocking a brow at Jan in his classic what-the-hell expression; she was smiling widely at his confusion.
"Never heard of it?" She asked in a too-sweet voice.
"Che, nope; sounds gay." He stated nonchalantly.
"We'll need one thing from the store to play... unless you don't accept?" She asked cheekily and Hiruma scoffed at her bravado.
"Go fucking get it then." He ordered and she raced out of the room, clearly happy that he had accepted. 'What the hell is she planning...?' He thought as he flipped out his computer and searched: Skittles (game). There were no promising results, however and he sighed. "She either wants to play pre-historic bowling or chess..." then a particular site caught his eye and he clicked, reading through it. "Oh... the fu-... hell fucking no!" He burst out, cursing what he had just gotten himself into. Hiruma was not one who usually regretted his decisions... but this decision sucked major ass.
"You gonna back out?" Jan asked in a song-song voice as she dropped the five one-pound bags of Skittles candy on her floor and took a seat across from Hiruma. "These jog your memory?"
"Yeah." He nodded, his thought turned to what he had read on the site and he glared balefully at the bags of Skittles (AKA: pure sugar).
"Know the rules?" She asked, knowing that he didn't already.
"Refresh me."
"Okay, we have five pounds of Skittles... the minimum required for the game is usually one, but this will probably last for a while and we wouldn't want to run out, now would we?" She asked rhetorically, ripping open a bag of Skittles. "You take two skittles out of the bag, if they match- good for you, chew and swallow; if they don't- put 'em in your mouth and keep 'em there until your next turn. Every turn, you draw out two Skittles- if they match you can chew and swallow all that you have in your mouth; if they don't- hope that they do on the next turn." Jan grabbed a trashcan from the corner of her room as she spoke and set it to the side.
"And that is for...?"
"Just in case one of us gets sick." She smiled and took two Skittles without looking in the bag. Different colors. "I don't want my carpet to get all sticky and fruity with Skittle barf." She grimaced and popped the Skittles in her mouth and held the bag in a way that he wouldn't be able to see into it while taking his two out. Different colors. "Oh, and whoever swallows without getting matching colors or barfs or gives first wins." Jan added around the candy as she took her two Skittles. Different again. Darn.
Three bags of Skittles later, Jan was looking a bit green and Hiruma's throat was sore from the acid of lots of sugar mixing with saliva. Jan's cheeks were puffed out with about fifty Skittles and Hiruma had just swallowed his own wad of candy.
"Kekeke... you wanna give?" Hiruma asked raspily, raising both of his brows comically as if that would seduce her into quitting. Jan shook her head resolutely, trying not to laugh for fear that it would entice throwing up along with it as well as her having a mouthful of Skittles and a good pound or so in her stomach; the thought of eating anymore revolted her. Hiruma looked amusedly at her, grinning from ear-to-ear as he took his turn and they finished the third bag in silence.
As soon a Jan got matching Skittles from the fourth bag and swallowed she was painfully aware of the need for a glass of water. Her tongue felt like a woolen sock had been pulled over it and that she would never taste anything but the rainbow again.
"Ugh..." she groaned and picked two more Skittles out before tossing them in her mouth and laying back on the floor. "Must... stay in..." she grumbled before sitting up when it was her turn again. Matching. She chewed and swallowed- or tried to. Her throat was very dry and she had a time getting the candy down. She ended up coughing and sputtering. Hiruma slapped her back hard once and she coughed the candy out.
"YA-HA-!" Hiruma grinned, striking a victory pose.
"Eh..." her eyes were slightly watery and red from the coughing fit and she smiled at him thankfully. "Guess you win..." she admitted and Hiruma smirked with a nod. "I need water." She said and quickly stood, her back cracking from her previously sitting in the same position for a few hours.
"Grab me some too, fucking gamer." He said, his voice sounded slightly scratchy as he plopped on her bed.
"Here." Her voice cracked slightly and she had taken a detour to the restroom to lighten her stomach. "I can't believe the Hiruma Yoichi just ate two pounds of Skittles." Jan said once her throat was soothed. She was also trying to keep the rest of the candy down as she sat heavily on the end of her bed. She took notice that Hiruma's ears were twitching incessantly and giggled. Hiruma shot her a glare.
"The fuck are you laughing at?" He asked, his voice back to it's normal smooth tone. She looked to his hands which were tapping lightly on the glass and couldn't seem to stay still.
"Your ears..." she said, grinning.
"Oh, yeah?" Hiruma scoffed and Jan nodded, setting her glass on the floor. She found herself suddenly on her back and long, nimble fingers ran up and down her sides, tickling the 'living hell out of her' as Hiruma would later phrase it. She broke out in laughter immediately. "I'll give you something to fucking laugh about!" Hiruma almost giggled and Jan had to remind herself that almost two pounds of sugar was circulating through his system. She gasped a plea for the halting of the tickling but he didn't stop until she was crying. Hiruma crossed his arms triumphantly, still sitting on Jan's legs and smirked down at her. "I win... times two." He suddenly started laughing and she pushed his shoulder, causing him to tumble off her bed and hit the floor with a thud.
"You're so cruel, Hiruma...!" Jan giggled along with him. She had never seen him this... happy? No. Crazy? No again. Bubbly? Yeah, that fit.
"You're one to talk, fucking gamer!" Hiruma stopped his laughter and was suddenly on the bed next to her, leaning close and she didn't pull back. They were less than an inch apart and Jan- annoyingly- felt her heart skip a beat. "You know I fucking hate sweets and then you bring up that blasted game..." his eyes narrowed challengingly. Jan felt her breathing quicken as she stared into the void of his grey-green eyes that reflected amusement and energy at once. "I might have to get revenge..." he leaned closer and Jan's eyes closed slightly for no reason she could give herself. His sugary-rank breath suddenly pulled back, his lips never touching hers as she had for some reason expected them to. He cackled evilly at her confused facial expression when she re-opened her eyes. "Che, what'd you think I was gonna do?" Hiruma sneered, his hand rose up to duck her head down and he was suddenly in her desk chair, spinning slightly while rifling through her CD collection. "Your taste in music is just about as bad as in challenges... lame." There were now CD's all over her floor and desk, they used to be in alphabetical-order... all one hundred fifty of them.
"Hey!" Jan cried in dismay. "Don't screw with my stuff!" She leapt from her bed and caught his wrist when he was about to start looking through a neat stack of magazines on the corner of her desk. He overpowered her and his hand flipped them off, making them slide like cards in a line to the door. His eyes held an odd gleam to them and he turned his hand and arm to grab her wrist, causing her to release her grip on him and he cocked his head to the side. Jan felt her anger mounting as she stared into his face. "... I hate you." She said and he laughed in her face, showing all his teeth in the process.
"Everyone does. It's the people who don't that I worry about." He smiles slyly and twisted away from her with what could only be described as hyperness and he was leaping across the room, rifling through her drawers, clothes soon coated the floor and a few odd comments caused Jan to blush a deep crimson. Then to her closet, jeans, dresses, skirts, blouses, spare uniforms; all hit the floor in random places.
Jan finally snapped out of processing what he had said and grabbed Hiruma's arm, yanking him away from her bed side table and it's drawers that held the unknown, pulled him outside of her room and through the living room with a quick, "don't ask!" directed at her parents and little brother before attempting to push him out the door, he grabbed her wrist at the last minute and pulled her out with him, the door slammed closed behind them and Jan found her back pressed to the door. She saw that Hiruma's eyes no longer held the sense of energy, but the mischief still stood. He lowered his face to the side of hers.
"Have fun cleaning up your room. Ever bring up Skittles in my presence and I'll torture you so bad, you'll wish you were dead..." Hiruma breathed into her ear and unbidden shivers ran up her spine from his breath tickling her ear and the words she knew that he would make good if she went against them. "... and another thing, talk about this little... rush and I'll fuck up your life so bad, you'll wish I was physically torturing you." He chuckled darkly and pulled back so that they were looking at each other. "And another thing..." he pressed his lips to hers and then bounced away quickly, the energy of sugar back in his laughing eyes, "I'll pick you up at six o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Dress to impress, got it?" He called over his shoulder as he walked down the sidewalk. Jan noticed that he had an energetic spring in his step that seemed so out of character for him, she was sure he had been abducted by aliens. Jan touched her lips lightly with her finger tips and blinked slowly.
" 'Six... o'clock...' ?" she breathed out the air that had been trapped in her lungs and walked back in the house, ignoring her parents questions as she went to her room. She slipped on the slick covers of magazines and hit the floor hard. "Dammit..." she muttered and stood again, rubbing the back of her head before shutting her bedroom door and flopping into bed. Sleep came as slowly as possible at five o'clock the next morning.