A/N: Hi again. :) More Juumonji/Sena love, because I wanted to write them being huge dorks around each other.
Warnings: A little language because, hey, it's the Huh-Huh Bros. Otherwise it should be okay.
Disclaimer: Don't own, but if I had the money I'd completely redo the anime... and maybe make a cool feature movie for Eyeshield. That would be awesome!
Thank you again, soooo much, for reading! Hope you enjoy,
Preferential Treatment
Toganou, as an aspiring manga-ka, liked to think of himself as pretty observant. You had to be able to notice subtleties and that kinda shit to draw it on paper, you know? And, call him crazy, but... Toganou was pretty sure Juumonji had been actin' weird lately.
It all started the other day, after Juumonji finished leading the team in their morning footwork drill. (Yeah, yeah, Sena was team captain, but he made Juumonji assistant-captain. It had something to do with needing more brainpower—although, Toganou wasn't sure how Juumonji could help with that.)
Anyway, it had been a rough drill. The team usually gripes about practice some while they change back into their school uniforms, but Kuroki was just being a huge wuss that day and complaining left and right:
"My legs are killing me, man," and,
"There's no way I can walk to class like this!" and,
"This is worse than Hiruma's Hell Tire Drill!"
"Aw, suck it up, dumbass!" Juumonji finally growled as he shucked his jersey. "If you can't handle this, how do you expect to last through a game—"
"Eeyah..."
Juumonji shut up when he heard the tired sigh from the user of the locker next to him. "Er, Sena, is something wrong...?"
"Oh! Uh..." Sena looked startled at Juumonji's concern. Realizing he had frozen in place, Sena gulped and continued working on undoing his thigh pads, and then tentatively moved his hands to his calf, wincing. "I-It's nothing."
He continued to carefully inspect his leg, but now, Juumonji was eyeing him nervously.
"Huh." The blond's jaw appeared to clench and unclench. "If your muscles are bothering you, I have some, uh, muscle warming cream. You know. If you want." He rubbed the back of his neck, apparently clearing his throat or some fidgety thing like that.
Sena's eyes widened further, and Toganou wondered if this cream was really all that amazing. "R-really? I mean, I wouldn't want to use it up if it's expensive," he began, working himself into a fit of considerate neuroticism. "Since it's yours and it sounds like a nice product and my legs don't hurt that much and—"
"Just take it," Juumonji tried to sound casual as he tossed a case of the cream to Sena.
The running back caught it, surprised expression still in place. Glancing back up at Juumonji, he smiled. "Thank you!"
Juumonji proceeded to deliberately avoid meeting Sena's eyes for next couple of minutes, and Toganou wondered if Juumonji was actually blushing. Too weird.
After almost everyone was done changing back into their uniforms, Kuroki spoke up in a hopeful tone, "Hey Kazu, mind if I use some of tha—"
"Deal with it." Juumonji finished straightening out his blazer before glaring at Kuroki.
Toganou witnessed the exchange in silence, mostly wondering how he would draw the pissed expression on Kuroki's face. Juumonji's behavior didn't really bother him—even if it was preferential, it made sense to take care of the ace's legs.
No, what was really suspicious was what happened a few days later, at afternoon practice.
Suzuna had been teaching the new cheerleaders how to form a human pyramid—from the top of the shaky structure, no less—when one of the girls on the lower level got distracted by Ishimaru's presence (pfft, not really, it was probably Taki's dancing or Komusibi's nose or something like that; Toganou's not really sure). Anyway, she collapsed. The rest of the pyramid continued to tumble down, and the nearby players scrambled to catch the girls falling from the highest spots.
Toganou had just set one of the new girls down (he'd thought she was pretty cute, and briefly considered designing a character like her in his manga), when an excited "Ehhhh?" from Suzuna caught his attention.
The scene that met his eyes was… bizarre. Juumonji had been the one to catch Suzuna, who was currently patting Juumonji's head and wearing an absolutely mystified expression on her face.
"Neee, Monji's hair is so soft!" Apparently her arm had brushed it when she'd fallen into his arms. She giggled and continued to confirm her discovery.
Juumonji's eyes narrowed. "Cut it out," he muttered, setting Suzuna back on the ground.
"Nooo, it's too soft!" Suzuna disregarded his irritation in favor of reaching her fingers up to wiggle them in his hair some more. This, Toganou thought in awe, was truly the woman who dared call Hiruma by a nickname. "You must use really nice shampoo, Monji!"
Juumonji's gaze darkened, and right when he was about to snap, the unexpected happened again:
"Senaaa, check out how nice Monji's hair is!"
The running back screeched to a halt in the middle of returning to the practice field. "Y-you can't be serious, Suzuna," he said with his shoulders hunched up in anxiety. He shot an uneasy glance at Juumonji, whose spine was now ramrod straight with a kind of stunned rage.
"Of course I am, silly! Here," she instructed, grabbing Sena's wrist and, without further ado, placing it atop Juumonji's head. "Feel it for yourself!"
"N-no, Suzuna!" Sena called as she flitted away from the two. "You can't just—oh." The running back stared wonderingly at his hand, moving it just slightly through Juumonji's hair. "It really is soft…"
This time, Toganou was sure of it: Juumonji was blushing and not wailing on the runt like he would on anyone else. In fact, it looked like Juumonji had closed his eyes and was leaning into Sena's hand. Toganou took off his shades to make sure they weren't screwing up his vision or something.
No, Sena was smiling at where his hand was carding through Juumonji's hair, and Juumonji had the gall to look peaceful while Sena did something that used to warrant a full-on beat down.
Something was up. Toganou was sure of it. At first he could reason away this preferential treatment, but things just kept on getting stranger and stranger.
The next day, he overheard Taki complaining how Juumonji wouldn't let him borrow his umbrella, but allowed Sena to use it after morning practice.
That same week, Toganou watched Juumonji chicken out of doing a sweeper play suggested by Monta, until Sena agreed that the play was their best shot at victory.
He even heard from Kuroki that Juumonji gave Sena notes from the physics class he'd missed last Friday, and—wait! Toganou had asked Juumonji to take notes for him, and he'd said no! What the hell?
Toganou was past being suspicious; he was starting to get ticked off. If Juumonji was going to be all choosy when it came to the runt, the least he could do was be more direct about it, instead of insisting that he treated Sena "like all their other friends."
That was Juumonji's defense, anyway, as he argued with Toganou on their way out of the locker room. The assistant captain gave a final shrug and walked away, but before Toganou could follow him out, Sena's loud, nervous laugh sounded from nearby.
Toganou peeked outside and Juumonji turned curiously toward the entrance of the club room, but both refrained from approaching the situation because it looked very personal. A pretty girl—Satsuki, Toganou thought her name was—smiled at Sena while he stuttered fretfully at her.
"A-ah, i-it really is too kind of you t-to invite me to the new café, S-Satsuki…" Sena was frickin' bowing to the chick out of humility. Honestly, man.
Still, Toganou's eyebrows rose when Sena stood up straight and noticeably tried to steady his voice.
"H-however… Excuse me, but I don't think t-that I can accept. I'm very busy w-with practice lately, so… Thank you again f-for inviting me."
Toganou didn't quite catch what she said in response, too surprised by Sena's refusal of a perfectly fine invitation to lunch with a cute classmate. Satsuki quickly walked toward the school, leaving Sena to head toward the locker room.
"Oh, Juumonji!" Sena stopped when he spotted the other standing awkwardly between the two club facilities. "I was hoping to find you soon… I-If you're not busy, could I ask you… er… something?"
Juumonji blinked bewilderedly at Sena, offering a hesitant, "Sure, what's up?"
"I was wondering if, maybe, you'd want to go by the arcade later this afternoon." When Juumonji apparently took too long to respond, Sena grew jumpy, rambling, "That is, if you're not too busy, I was just thinking that it would be fun and not too expensive and since we actually have a little time away from practice today I'd want to spend it with you and… and…"
Huh. Toganou adjusted his shades, and decided he didn't really feel too pissed about the preferential treatment anymore; it looked like it was mutual, anyway.