Chapter Sixty Two: The Course of True Love

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Song Playing: Stephen Lynch Songs

Hiruma's Love Life Arc: 1/3

Theme 25: Cancer

The sound of someone knocking instantly had Mamori sighing. Her eyes darted to the clock on her microwave and grabbed a towel to dry her hands. She wasn't expecting one and she only had another hour before she had to leave. Whoever was at her door had better have a very good reason for showing up unannounced.

Peering in through the peephole, she was greeted with the sight of an excitable Suzuna bouncing on the balls of her feet. She had barely unlatched the locks when the shorter girl burst through and bee lined straight the small counter that separated the kitchen to the sitting room. Mamori re-latched her door then padded on over to where her friend was setting up a laptop. "What are you doing?"

"Just getting set up." Dropping to the floor, she gave a happy exclamation upon finding an outlet. "I want to be ready when the others get here."

All traces of amusement dropped away from her face at the mention of even more people appearing. "Others?"

A knock much heavier than Suzuna's caused the brunette to jump. Suzuna, on the other hand, lit up like fireworks on new years. "That's gotta be them now. Can you get that while I finish getting ready?"

"Ready for what?" Mamori was terribly confused as she made her way back to her front door. "And who else are you expecting?"

She didn't receive a response as Suzuna had started to help herself to the small stash of ice-cream located in the back of her friend's freezer. This time around all Mamori could make out through the peephole was a mass of blue. Curiously she opened the door and promptly found herself lifted off the ground.

It took her a few panicking seconds to realize that she was not being attacked but was merely being swept up in a massive bear hug. There was no mistaking that chestnut shaped head.

"Kurita!" Her arms squeezed tight around his neck. Then her eyes caught sight of a gruff face just beyond his massive shoulder. She could feel the ache in her cheeks from smiling so big but couldn't bring herself to care. "And Musashi! What are you two doing here?"

Musashi low voice answered her. "Suzuna called and we came. We would have been here earlier but we had trouble finding out which apartment building was yours. Had to circle the block three times."

At this point the friendly mass that was Kurita finally put her down and she was able to properly usher them inside. They were still shifting out of their shoes when Suzuna looked up from her very intense perusal of her computer screen.

"Hey!" She peered around them, as if she was searching for someone. "Where's everyone else?"

Musashi tucked his shoes neatly along the wall. "Train delay. They should be here any minute."

"Who should be here any minute?" Mamori put on a kettle and started pulling out mugs. Even if they were uninvited, they were guests. More importantly they were friends. Even if she did have to bolt in another, she glanced over at her clock, forty five minutes they were more than welcome to stay. Still it would be nice to know what was going on. "Did something happen that I don't know about?"

Suzuna waved her comment off. "Oh no, I called you about this like a week ago."

"A week ago." She filtered through all contact she had with her friend recently. "You mean about us getting together sometime to talk?"

"Yeah that."

"But we didn't decide on anything!"

"I know but some stuff came up and I finally figured it out. I know it's sudden but I couldn't wait any longer. We have to set this up!"

Mamori loved her friends. She really did. From the bottom of her heart and tips of her toes but she was getting ready to rip out her hair with all this run around. "But what is it? This?"

Another knock on the door. She didn't bother with the peephole. Instead she just unlocked it and let the rest of the initial Deimon Football team traipse into her home. There were lots of exchanges and greetings and hugs and by the time everyone had settled down she was down to twenty minutes of free time. Luckily it seemed she was finally going to find out what this was all about because Suzuna had started talking.

And when Suzuna talked everyone listened. She may have been small but boy did she have a voice that carried. "Okay so I got Hiruma's profile page mostly set up. I even got a decent picture of him that won't scare off potential matches."

Matches?

"Now I just need help with some stuff to put in the personal stuff, which is where you guys come in." Mamori started edging her way out of the kitchen from where she had managed to pull out some snacks and into the sitting area with the intention of catching a peek at what profile Suzuna was talking about. "Now does anyone know how tall he is?"

"With or without the hair?" Jumonji asked from his spot squished between Musashi and Togano.

The words popped out of Mamori's mouth before she had a chance to think about it. "176 without and 203 with." The simultaneous strange looks she received from everyone in the room made her acutely aware how odd it was that she knew that off the top of her head. Even weirder she wasn't entirely sure why she knew it. "What? I know stuff."

They seemed to take her explanation at face value but Mamori found herself questioning why she would even have that sort of information readily available.

"Okay then," Suzuna typed away. "Since I've never seen him with flat hair I'm going with 203. Anybody know his birthday?"

Musashi leaned forward to pick up his mug. "Summer I think."

"Really?" Monta searched around the kitchen for the trashcan. "I always thought it was in January for some reason."

"January can't be right." Suzuna furrowed her brows at the mere thought of it. "With that personality of his I always pictured him as a Scorpio. That means he was born in the November-October area."

Once again the former manager found herself talking without provocation. "Musashi's right it is in the summer, July 13th."

"A Cancer then!" More clicking, clanking of the keyboard. "Never would have guessed that one but what can you do? Now, hobbies. Hobbies. Is there a nice way to put excessive amounts of weaponry and forcing people to do his bidding?"

There was quite a bit of back and forth on that one. Here she managed to get a glance at the screen through the several bodies that had huddled around Suzuna. Mamori felt her eyes nearly pop out of her head at the realization of what exactly they were doing.

"You're making Hiruma a dating profile?!"

She glanced up from the laptop. "Yeah."

Mamori was so confused. "Why?"

Suzuna was giving her a look that clearly stated that the answer should be obvious. "So he can meet a nice girl that he can connect with."

She felt like her head was going to explode. "But why?"

"To be honest?" The smaller girl pinned her with a stare. "No one's seen him take an interest in anyone. It's sad and pathetic and it's more than a little worrying. I would have done this earlier but it's taken me this long to figure out his preference."

Even though she was afraid to ask, she found herself doing just that. "His preference?"

"Men or women." Well, subtly had never been a key factor in Suzuna's personality. "I was just getting ready to say screw it he's asexual. He can be like all the bacteria and fungi's' of the world. But then my resources-"

"Resources?"

"Yes. Resources. Hiruma isn't the only one with an information network." The former cheerleader was getting fed up with all the interruptions. She wanted to get this explanation over with so they could get on to more important matters. Like lifting the blond out of his sad partner less life. "Anyway they let me know that he does like women so I called this meeting into order so we could get on this and get on this fast. Now what is his favorite movie and/or book and/or band?"

She was met with silence.

Then Mamori was met with all the heads simultaneously turning to look at her. "What? I don't-" She shouldn't bring herself to actually lie to all of them. Because the truth was she knew all of those things. When this was all over she seriously needed to cut down on the amount of time she spent with Hiruma. "The original Star Wars trilogy, the Phoenix Chronicles by Osamu Tezuka, and he doesn't really like music."

Her fingers were flying over the keys as Kuroki took his feet off the coffee table and onto the floor. Bracing his elbows on his knees, he leaned forward to ask the question everyone was asking. "How do you know all of this?"

"I-I don't know." Mamori found herself fiddling with her hair. It was a nervous habit that she thought she had grown out of, "We talk. Stuff comes up."

She was saved any further embarrassment by the blaring ring of her phone alarm going off. '

"I have to go." Bolting for the door she grabbed her coat and slipped on her shoes. "Make yourselves at home. I should be back before dark but if you leave before that make sure to clean up. Sena has a key. It was nice seeing you all again!"

Mamori left them pondering how to describe Hiruma's personality that was both true and didn't make him sound like some sort of crazed sociopath.