Chapter Sixty Three: Perseverance Is The Key

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Song Playing: ThePianoGuys on Youtube.

Hiruma's Love Life Arc: 2/3

Theme 53: Wait

Suzuna was feeing particularly proud of herself.

It had taken nearly two weeks but she thought she had finally narrowed down the prospects enough to present them to Hiruma. Initially she had toyed with the idea of sending all (it was kind of scary exactly how many) the profiles of women who were interested straight to him but she had shut down that thought almost immediately. The chances of immediate failure were way too high. She had worked too long and too hard to have it all ruined by Hiruma being himself.

So she filtered through every single one of the responses. It boggled Suzuna's mind at the wide range of women that were attracted to him from the little page she had managed to scrounge together. Sure his picture made him look fantastic and she had taken a little bit of creative license with his personal information but the results! They had ranged from shy sweetness that she turned down for their own good to basically soliciting crazy monkey sex which she had turned down for his own good.

Suzuna wasn't sure she'd ever feel clean again.

Still she had worked diligently through nights and weekends to narrow the choices down to seventeen lucky ladies. The things she did for the sake of love, all she could say was Hiruma better damn well appreciate all her efforts.

Now came the tricky part. She had to get him not only to look through the girls but had to get him to accept some of their invitations. At the very least she had to get him to tell her what he was looking for so that her future searches were easier going.

She had just started printing their profiles when a loud rapping sound echoed through her apartment. Which was odd, since she wasn't expecting anyone. Standing on tip toes, she peered through her peephole to catch a shock of blond spiked hair attached to a very familiar face.

Talk about speaking of the devil himself.

Unlatching her bolts she flung the door open. "I was just about to call you!"

"I'm sure." Suzuna had to shuffle aside to accommodate him as he filled her small entryway and began to remove his shoes. "So how many hits did you get off that dating profile you threw together?"

Traitorous cowards. They had all sworn to secrecy not to let him in on what they were doing. "Who told?"

"You did."

Vehement protests were on the very tip of her tongue when a thought occurred to her. She furrowed her rows in frustration and disapproval. "You hacked my computer, didn't you?"

His toothy smirk told her all she needed to know.

By the time she finished securing the door he was already at her printer shredding all her hard work away.

"Hey. Hey! Stop that!" Her feet barely touched ground as she flew at him. Unfortunately he had a lot of height on her so mostly she flailed around him while he continued, completely ignoring the light blows she managed to land. "I wanted you to look at those!"

"No need." He had finished his task and was starting in on her computer. Her attempts to dislodge him from his spot were futile, the man was built like a wall. She watched pitifully as he checked the not interested box on every single one of her limited candidates. "I'm shutting it all down."

"But-but!" He was breaking her heart. He really was. "I can make it better! Just tell me what you're looking for and I can help! I know you act all scary and stuff but this is me you're talking to. I know you don't actually like being alone so let me help. As a friend."

"As a friend," He turned and she was shocked at how serious he looked. "You need to close the account, and any others you've opened up. I don't care what you have to tell the ones that have already responded but I'm not interested."

"Then give me a reason." If he was going to be all no-nonsense with her then she could return the favor. "A real honest to goodness reason why I should back off. You deserve a nice girl and there were some really nice ones that were interested. I had already rooted out all the crazies before you got here."

What followed was a very intense staring contest.

During that time Suzuna could practically hear the gears in his head. She might not have known what his birthday was or his favorite book until a few weeks ago but she could tell when he was trying to think his way out of a situation. Finally he seemed to realize that he couldn't blackmail or bullshit his way out of this one. Not with her anyway.

"Look," Gone were all trances of the conniving calculating tactics. He was sincerely leveling with her. "I've been working on getting Anezaki to come around for years. I don't want something like this setting me back who knows how long. She's easing up around me, getting comfortable, more open. I don't need her backing off because she thinks I'm looking for something else or doesn't want to be a threat to whoever you have in your little pile, okay?"

Oh.

My.

God.

He didn't want to be in the dating circuit because, as far as he was concerned, he was taken. He didn't want girls. He wanted one and he was willing to bid his time until he could have her. Even if it took him a lifetime to do it.

"All right then." She leaned over and started the extensive process of taking Hiruma off the market. "That's a good reason."

He avoided eye contact and mumbled a gruff but sincere, "Thank you."