Chapter Forty Seven: Try Honesty

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Song Playing: Diary of Jane

Note: Coninuation of 'The Order of Things'

Theme 18: True

If she didn't want to talk to him well then fine. Good riddance even. That was just fine and dandy with him; he didn't want to talk with her anyway. He hadn't done anything wrong. She was the one over-reacting. This time around it was her turn to apologize to him. No way was he going to be putting himself out there just so she could walk out on him. Again. Maybe, if he was feeling generous, he might actually accept her apology after some serious groveling and explaining.

Maybe.

And if she never apologized well to hell with her. He had been doing fine on his own way before she had come into his life. He'd been fine ever since she left him looking like an idiot in the locker room. In short he was fine. Everything was fine.

When the door opened into the room that was reserved solely for the viewing of past footage, he had glanced up out of curiosity. It was Friday afternoon and most players bolted as soon as practice was over. There shouldn't have been anyone who was willing to come in to watch footage with him. Especially since it was him they would have to be watching footage with. Thus it was only do his instinctual reaction of going into his default poker face look that he was able to not show how surprised he was to see his manager and girlfriend closing the door quietly behind her.

She was acting particularly nervous with the fiddling of the hem of her shirt but she deemed determined enough when she looked him straight in the eye as she asked, "Can we talk?"

He considered her for a second. Then, he did something he had never done before. He turned off the television even though he was watching footage from a game. He closed his laptop. He even went so far as to silence his cell phone.

He wanted to hear what she had to say without interruption.

It was... daunting to say the least. To have his undivided attention like this. Unless it was during a game, a person communicating with Hiruma got less then five percent of his full focus at any given time. If one was lucky, or unlucky depending on what warranted it, they would get a full uncut ten percent of his attention without distraction. Never more than ten.

Still she had been avoiding him for far too long. If she didn't do something soon she was afraid she'd no longer be fucking manager like he affectionately called her. Instead she might be known as his fucking ex-girlfriend. An endearment that would be anything but endearing. So she sucked it up and went into bite the bullet.

Which would be a much easier task if he wasn't looking at her so intensely.

Taking a seat she opened her mouth. Ready to start in on the carefully planned speech she had spent the last several days practicing and changing and going over so that she could convey what she was feeling in the simplest most straight forward way possible. Only none of the well rehearsed lines that she had agonized over would come out. Instead out tumbled a whole lot of things she hadn't planned on saying. "Did you know that I haven't eaten an orange since I broke my arm?"

He couldn't say he had.

"Or that I hid that test for three whole days after getting it back before my mother found it?"

The teacher he had gotten the information from originally hadn't mentioned it.

"Sometimes-" She seemed to be struggling for words at this point. This was a whole lot harder than she though it was going to be. "Sometime it's not just about the facts. Sometimes it's about the trust that you have in another person. It's less that you know things about me and more of the things I want you to know about me. Does that make sense?"

It didn't, and he told her so.

Now she was visibly frustrated. Though she was trying very hard not to show it, though she was failing miserably. "When we started dating I knew that you probably already knew things about me that I didn't want you to know. So I admit I over-reacted when you were just answering me honestly.

"But I had hoped that I could be the one to tell you that kind of stuff. That we could go out and I would feel comfortable enough with you that I could tell you those kinds of things. Because I haven't told those things you just got off the streets to anybody. I want us to be close enough that I can tell you those kinds of stories without feeling like you're going to laugh at me or use it against me later.

"I know we're not like most couples but I thought we could at least be like normal couples like that. Where we talk and learn about each other from each other and not from other people. So it upset me to have to face that you had completely skipped that part of our relationship." She was on a roll now and there was no stopping her. Even if he wanted to. "It seemed like you knew all this stuff about me but I didn't know anything about you. Then you were apologizing and I thought you understood why I was so mad but you didn't. And then I couldn't be in the same room as you anymore. I had to leave. And I am sorry that I walked away like I did. I feel really bad about it and I hope you can forgive me for that."

Now she broke eye contact to stare resolutely at the wall just behind his head. She had said her piece. All that was left was the waiting for his response. A response that was taking a while to come, his silence and lack of acknowledgement that she had even spoken was making her extremely nervous.

So much so that she nearly jumped out of her skin when he did finally speak.

"Have you had dinner yet?"

The question caught her off guard. "I-what?"

"Have you had dinner yet?"

The rumbling feeling in her stomach reminded her she hadn't had anything since lunch, which was hours ago. She blinked. "No. I came straight here after my classes and haven't had a chance to go home."

He seemed like he wasn't going to say anything else. Then he was on his feet, pack slung over his should. "Grab your stuff."

She was just getting ready to protest. What was he talking about? Where were they going? What did dinner have to do with anything? However, something clicked into place right before she could voice her confusion. He was accepting her apologizing in his own way. It was subtle but it was there. He was sorry he hadn't understood before. This was his way of making amends without actually saying so.

More importantly he seemed to miss her. Maybe as much as she had missed him.

He had forgiven her. And he was sorry.

She smiled. "That would be nice."

It was enough.