Chapter Fifty Two: Up Through the Atmosphere

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Holiday Helping Hand Arc: 2/2

Song Playing: Let's Go Fly A Kite

Theme 36: Fly

The benefit of folding laundry, besides having nice clothes to wear, was that it gave her a chance to think. She had done this particular chore so many times that it was automatic for her. Now her mind mostly wondered. It was both therapeutic and useful. It was during one such afternoon that her mind brought her to what month it was and a certain quickly approaching date. "You know-"

"I don't." Hiruma put a pair of blue ankle socks to the side.

She didn't trust him to do any actual folding; the man couldn't make a pair of pants fit neatly in a drawer to save his life. On the other hand she wasn't going to be saddled with laundry duty just because he had folding issues. Thus he was in charge of matching the socks. A task that never failed to turn him into a six foot tall bottle blonde grump. Some days it took all her will power not to strangle him with a dress shirt. "I just realized something."

"Did you now?" A muffled curse escaped him when he discovered that several of the socks were inside out. It was a personal pet peeve of his to have to turn them right side in.

Though she managed to keep a full fledged smile from breaking out, she couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from twitching upwards. Her husband of almost three full very interesting years was almost too much sometimes. "Our anniversary is next week."

"Funny how that seems to come up the same time every year."

She sighed. On a normal day getting him to talk without the snide comments was a miracle. To get him to even respond when he was in one of his sock matching moods was like pulling teeth. To have the conversation without the added clips was impossible. Still, her smile was getting very hard to repress as he found another inside out sock, it was always amusing. Life never was dull with him around. Even when doing dull tasks like folding laundry.

XxX

The problem, she decided, with having an anniversary in winter in a country where seasonal weather existed was that it made dressing up rather difficult. Especially since she was married to the most unpredictable man on the face of the planet. This meant dressing nice in a practical way in preparation for his inevitable surprises. It also meant enough layers to ward off goose bumps and cold toes.

Goosebumps and cold toes, as a rule, were extremely unromantic.

Despite their unconventional relationship Mamori enjoyed romance. She didn't get it too often but she expected it, at least on their anniversary. Felt entitled to it really. And with all she put up with, without batting an eye, he found it reasonable to fulfill this particular expectation of hers.

This is how she found herself bundled to the nines in the middle of the park late on the night of their third year of being married to one another. The park itself wasn't too remarkable. It was the same park they had walked through many times before, nothing too special about it. Sure it was a nice park, well lit and in a good neighborhood, but it's not like it held any nostalgic memories. He didn't propose here. It wasn't where they had their first date. They didn't even meet here. What she did find remarkable was the large sleigh looking very out of place in one of the many open grass areas. She didn't know what to make of the eight deer like animals harnessed to the front either.

This was certainly his most unique romantic outing to date. How romantic, romantic actually was she wasn't quite sure.

"What's all this?"

Nose pink from the cold; he shot her one of his grins. Climbing into the giant red sleigh, he held out his hand and carefully helped her into the seat next to him. Pulling up some blankets around them, he casually held onto the reigns. "Remember when you asked what I got out of helping the fat man with his list?"

It took a moment for her work pass the weirdness of it all to recall that particular incident and answer back. It was all so strange that she didn't even think to reprimand him for insulting Father Christmas like she usually would. "Peace of Earth and goodwill for all?"

"Yeah, only not." She recognized that glint in his eyes. It was the one he got whenever he was about to do something he found fun. Of course what he found fun and what typical people found fun were two very different things. She braced herself for whatever he was going to throw at her. "I get full access to his global networking surveillance system at my discretion and his sleigh with advance notice providing it's not December."

She had no idea where he was going with this and it was showing.

"This sleigh."

Still nothing clicked.

"Complete with the flying reindeer."

Her face fell into deadpan. "What."

The next thing she knew the wind was whistling past her ears, her eyes were screwed shut as her fingernails dug into the wood, and she was shrieking like someone was murdering her. It took a while but soon she was still clutching her eyes and her grip with her face stinging slightly from the icy wind but she wasn't screaming anymore. There was only so long one could screech like she was screeching before a glass of water was needed to continue. Turns out her limit was three minutes at full volume plus five minutes of low pitiful whining with outbursts of short shouts.

"You done shrieking?"

She probably had one more good loud one in her but her heart was currently lodged in her throat. So she seattled for a meek nod.

"You wanna open your eyes?"

If her eyes had been open they would have widened in panic. Instead she gave a violent shake of her head.

He gave one of those throaty chuckles that she was secretley fond of, which developed into a full blown bark of laughter that startled her. Not enough to loosen her paint chipping grip but enough to ease up on sqeezing her eyes shut. A few mintutes later she forced herself to open her eyes. Startled at the rush of wind, she blinked furiously.

"Here." She felt an instant nudge to her shoulder. "Put these on."

Grasping, she fumbled for a bit before adjusting the goggles over her eyes. As soon as they were secure, her hands flew back to the sleigh. Blinking away wind shed tears, she finally took the time to take in her surroundings. At first she was in a strange sense of awe and adrelaline at being so high up with virtually no barriers keeping her inside. Then she happened to look down and her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the city lights. They were so small from all the way up here nothing more than pin pricks, really. And with none of the sounds of heavy traffic or the semi-constant smoggy air. It was- it was magical. Sure it was a childish thought, she knew but there was no other way of putting it.

She couldn't help herself. She laughed. Loud and clear she laughed and she couldn't bring herself to stop even if she wanted to.

"Want to try?"

Over her noises of protest he settled himself closer. Placing her hands on the reigns, he kept his grip until her objections stopped and she started to smile. Then, slowly, he let go. Then she was laughing and shouting. Only it wasn't the freaked out banshee cries she had been doing earlier but happy shouts. Leaning back comfortably against the back rail he put his hands behind his head and let himself enjoy the moment.

Best anniversary ever.