Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Long Pass: Dawn

Here's for the beta couple!

It was because of Hiruma.

It was, after all, his idea to go camping. In the mountains. In the dead of winter. Because Hiruma had decided that the reason they had lost to Enma, almost lost to Ojou, and only narrowly won against Takekura was because Saikyodai's practices that season had been too tame and they needed to do better for next season. As if his incendiary training regime with real incendiaries could be considered too tame.

But somehow news had gotten out about Saikyodai's supposedly secret winter training-perhaps through Musashi, who Hiruma still used as his main equipment builder-and suddenly they were joined by the players from Enma and Ojou College, as well as Takekura Construction. Hiruma had yelled and sprayed bullets everywhere—secret winter training was worth fuck all if all their fucking rivals came to join in like a fucking slumber party-but they all knew it was just for show. The paradoxically intense rivalry on field but equally amicable camaraderie off was a hallmark of what the American Football reporters was calling "The Platinum Generation."

So they all piled into their cars, including the Tower Jeep Hiruma loved so much, and drove off into the wilderness.

The first day or so went as normal. Hiruma and the other team captains organized ordinary insane things like making the players run up the mountain, down the mountain, and then up the mountain carrying someone else (though some shuffling was in order after Sena was randomly paired to carry Shin and Monta to carry Gaou); running across a frozen lake before the ice cracked; and then going back and catching their dinner in said lake...with their bare hands. Naturally the receivers from each team did the best at this last one, with Monta and Taki in particular nearly drowning themselves with outlandish "FISH CATCH MAX!" and "Gentle Spinning Natsuhiko Grab!"

After eating the roasted fish, they all collapsed into their tents. Therefore, Suzuna was slow to wake when a finger poked her just before dawn the next morning. She burrowed deeper into her pillow to ignore it, but it insisted. Eventually her eyes cracked open.

"Sena...?"

The running back smiled at her. "Good morning."

"Sena, what...?" Suzuna rolled over, rubbing at her tired eyes. "What time is it?" She looked over at the still sleeping form of Mamori, her tentmate. If Mamori was still asleep, then..."What are you doing up so early?"

"Well, Monta kept practicing his catches in his sleep and kept hitting me...but I want to show you something." He suddenly looked nervous. "I mean...if you want to see."

Suzuna frowned at him, but sat up. "Sure."

Sena waited outside while she got dressed, and handed her a thermos when she emerged. Suzuna sipped at the hot tea inside gratefully and followed him across the camp. He didn't say anything and when they stopped by the Jeep, she asked, a little exasperated, "Sena, what's the big mystery?"

"Kekeke! Yeah, what's the big fucking mystery, fucking shrimp?"

They both jumped at the sudden appearance of Hiruma nearby. The blond had been nearly invisible against the snow in his puffy winter coat, which Suzuna was sure was one of the only white things he owned.

"Hiruma! N-nothing," Sena stammered.

Their former quarterback grinned evilly at him. "Kekekeke! So, six months with those American bastards, and you still are an awful liar."

"I-I just wanted to show Suzuna something."

Hiruma lifted a sharp eyebrow at him, and then glanced up at the tower they had stopped beside. "Hmmm..." If possible, the grin got even more evil. "All right. But nothing dirty or the fucking manager will have my ass."

Sena turned a magnificent shade of red. "That's not it!"

But by then Hiruma had already started to walk away, cackling. Suzuna sighed. "You-nii hasn't changed a bit," she remarked.

"It's really nothing dirty," Sena told her frantically.

She sighed again and patted his arm. "I know." Even if I wish it was, she thought to herself. It had been three years since they'd met, and he still hadn't made a move. It was like waiting for You-nii and Mamo-nee to get together all over again, only it was her and not Mamo-nee, and it wasn't stubbornness holding them back but just Sena being too sweet and too nice to ever do anything. Suzuna thought she had done pretty much everything short of declaring herself and skating her feelings on his head-and she had only not done that because she was afraid that she might scare him off.

Though if something didn't happen soon, she was going to lose it. Mamori told her to be patient, but Suzuna wasn't the patient type. He knew that she liked him, right? She had been pretty clear about that. And she thought that he liked her too, though sometimes she wondered...

He was looking at her oddly and she found a smile for him. "What did you want to show me?"

Something at the top of the tower, apparently. She followed him up, and he helped her over the last rungs when the winds, even sharper at this elevation, bit through her mittens. But she didn't even notice the cold when she saw the view.

"Oh, wow!" Suzuna leaned over the railing to stare at the landscape. From this high up, they could see for miles and the trees below looked spun silver frosted in sugar that glittered and gleamed as the rising sun spread golden fingers over their tops. In the distance were the mountains, with wispy smoke dotting their slopes from the scattered cabins in the wilderness.

"Is this what you wanted me to see?" she asked, eyes bright. He nodded. "It's beautiful! Look, you can see-"

"Ah, careful!" Sena darted forward to grab her around the waist as she leaned a little too far over the guardrail and her mitten slipped.

"S-sorry," Suzuna said, laughing nervously. "My fingers were a little numb."

Sena looked at her, and then released her to grab a large blanket that was folded in the corner. His fingers brushed her cheeks as he wrapped it around her body. "Better?" he asked. "Sorry, I know it's sort of cold up here."

"No, it's ok." She rubbed her hands together. "It's just a little nippy."

To her surprise, he took her hands in his own, slipping her mittens off so he could blow on her fingers himself and warm them between his palms. Suzuna blushed furiously and Sena noticed, spots of color blooming in his own cheeks. "S-sorry! I mean, aha, I thought that's what...I mean, they looked cold so I wanted to help and-I should have brought a hot water bottle up here or something..."

"It's fine," Suzuna said, trying to get her heart in check. But then, because it was Sena, because he just looked so cute, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for bringing me up here," she told him. "It's beautiful."

She had caught him in mid-babble and he just stared at her in surprise. Eventually he closed his mouth and gulped. "You're...you're welcome."

Then, to her surprise, he leaned forward and...the kiss was definitely not to her cheek. But it was as sweet and kind and gentle as he was, and Suzuna wasted no time responding quite enthusiastically. Soon, the cheerleader and the running back were wrapped together tightly enough that cold wasn't an issue anymore.

"About fucking time," Hiruma muttered on the ground.

"Let me see," said Mamori, tugging at the binoculars. He relinquished them to her, and she smiled as she looked through them. "Aww..."

Hiruma snorted as he squinted up at the now tiny figures. "They took even longer than we did," he said with some disgust.

"It's not their fault," Mamori insisted. "Sena is so shy, and then he went to America for half a year. Besides," she teased, "I would have thought that you would feel a little empathy for another guy who was afraid to confess his feelings."

He snorted again, but didn't say anything as he glanced up at the two figures on top of the tower and then back to her.

She blinked. "What?" Then, after a minute, "What?" again, although this time her cheeks were very flushed, hair mussed and pajama top slightly askew courtesy of a kiss that could have melted an iceberg.

He grinned at her and put another piece of gum in his mouth. "I can't have those fucking brats showing up us up, can I?" Then he slipped a pair of muffs over her ears before doing the same to himself and pulling out a truly gigantic megaphone from somewhere. Mamori just sighed as she heard Hiruma's slightly muffled version of a gentle wakeup call. She went back in her tent to get dressed as around her the players flailed out of theirs (the lucky ones did so without collapsing the tent on them, saving themselves some extra flailing).

Just another beautiful dawn.