Chapter Eighty One: Killjoys Make Some Noise

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Song Playing: NA NA NA NA by My Chemical Romance

Theme 88: Negative

Something was wrong.

Hiruma knew this the moment that he stepped into the lobby late that evening and saw her slumped in one of the less than comfortable armchairs. Appearance wise nothing was out of the ordinary. She was still in the same pair of jeans and shirt she had been wearing when they arrived at their hotel. However her demeanor was a whole other story.

Every couple of years the original Deimon Devil Bats organized themselves and flew on over stateside to a place that was near and dear to their hearts: Las Vegas. For several days the underdog team relived their glory days, caught up on new endeavors, and had an overall good time in Sin City. She had seemed excited enough to see everyone again. If hugging everyone several times over while fussing over them like a mother hen was any indication. It had always boggled Hiruma's mind how she was able to talk to his former teammates like they were six when most of them had a least a head of height on her. Mamori had been in her element greeting everyone.

Now...

Now she looked like she was torn between crying and killing someone.

He plopped himself down into the chair furthest from her, just in case she decided to act on either of those impulses. They stayed in that tense silence for a few more moments before Hiruma got sick of it. "What the fuck is your problem?"

"None of your damn business." She had snapped in such a scathing way that Hiruma wasn't ashamed to admit that he had flinched.

He was also kind of wishing that his chair had been a little further away as he could practically feel the heat of her glare. This looked like it was going to be more interesting than he had initially thought. "Touchy."

For one brief second he thought she might actually lunge across the coffee table that separated them and deliver what looked to be his bloody brutal death. But just as his muscles were tensing to dive out of the way, she deflated. All the anger seemed to evaporate. He found himself wishing she had taken a swing at him. Her temper was something he could handle. He wasn't sure how to deal with this sad shell that had already set in on the apologies.

"I didn't mean- It's not-" She let out a dejected breath and brought a hand up to cover the majority of her face. "I'm sorry. You just caught me in a bad mood."

"No shit." He leaned back a bit when he saw her halfhearted fist clutch. She might take that swing at him yet. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

He thought they were past this passive aggressive girl talk. More importantly he didn't have time for the run around. He leaned in far enough so that he was just out of arm's length. "It's not nothing. If it was nothing we wouldn't be talking about this, so talk."

Apparently she had a tsunami worth of insecurities bottled up on the inside because she only resisted for a moment before the flood gates burst open and holy shit did she have a lot to get off her chest. She was talking real fast and was jumping around a lot but he got the general idea of what was going on. Apparently the guys had all broken up in their little groups and gone out. The cheerleaders were all getting together for a girls day before they went out for drinks and dancing later. Then there was her. All alone because no one had thought to invite her to anything.

She back peddled a bit here saying she knew they hadn't done it on purpose. The cheer squad girls were some of the sweetest people she knew and they hadn't meant to leave her out, they had just assumed that she wasn't into that sort of thing so they hadn't thought to invite her. The guys were being guys so it wasn't a surprise that they hadn't given her a call. Suzuna was normally the one who got her out there but her plane had been delayed so she wouldn't even get in until late tomorrow.

Then she went on for a little while about how this wasn't a new thing. How people always came to her to fix things or plan things or to help out with things. But she never got invited to the fun stuff: the parties, the clubs, the bars. It was why she had latched on so hard to the football club. Because it combined her natural take charge tendencies with the thrill of being involved in the adventures for once.

By the time she was finished she looked like she had just come out of a war zone. She looked exhausted and like all she wanted to do was sleep for a million years.

Well, fuck.

That was a lot more of an emotional dump than he had initially calculated. For the briefest of moments he considered giving her an awkward pat on the shoulder coupled with an equally awkward 'There, there it's all right' before beating a hasty retreat back to his room. It was probably the smart thing to do. He wasn't exactly the most comforting person around. It definitely would have been the smart thing to do.

Just not the right thing.

That brief moment of weak thinking quickly passed and his mind was already working out all the details. Clapping his hands on his knees he stood up. No time like the present and all that jazz. "Alright then."

If that wasn't the most ominous thing she had heard in a good long while. All signs of self-pity and depression instantly vanished from her face as her eyes snapped up to look at him. Suspicion had already hardened her gaze. In complete opposition to what most people would have felt in this moment, Hiruma felt his inner agitation melt away. Mopey Anezaki he didn't know what to do with. Distrusting may actually kill him one day Anezaki was his bread and butter. It must have shown on his face because her eyes narrowed and her mouth had taken a distinct downward turn. "Alright then what?"

"We're going out."

Her eyes widened to seemingly impossible proportions. "W-w-what?"

Oh that change in expressions was priceless. He was definitely going to have to get the lobby's security footage of that moment because that was just too good not to watch again. But that was a later project. No point in getting ahead of himself when there were things he had to take care of first.

"Come on." His long fingers wrapped around her arm and with very little effort on his part, he hauled her to her feet. "You need to get ready."

Her mind was reeling. She didn't even have the presence of mind to protest as they made their way across the lobby to where the elevators were located. "Ready for what!"

"A night on the wild side." The elevator dinged and Hiruma took it upon himself to usher her in since his words seemed to have fried every working neuron in her brain. Without stepping inside he leaned in and pressed her floor button. "I'll meet you back here in an hour." The doors started sliding closed and he timed his parting shot with as much accuracy as his throws back in his quarterback days, "And wear something sexy for a change!"

Hiruma was saved from his anticipated brutal death by the metal doors and was rewarded for his daring with the satisfying thud of the brunette crashing into said doors.

Exactly an hour later Mamori was standing by the lobby elevators tugging the hem of her dress down wondering what she had gotten herself into. She really wanted to run back up to her room and change into something that showed a little less leg and a lot less cleavage. In fact the only reason she didn't do just that is because if she wore what she wanted to wear she knew Hiruma would take one look at it and make her change.

She would know. It happened once before at a fundraising campaign. They had been planning to take the train together but had ended taking a taxi because they had missed the train. The reason they had missed the train was because when he had shown up at her door to pick her up he had immediately deemed her dress acceptable.

He had then spent the better part of an hour finding what he deemed the right dress and convincing her to change into it. Honestly the man was worse than Suzuna and she had been shopping with Suzuna.

But she digressed.

She tended to do that when she was nervous. Before she was able to tug her neckline up any higher the man himself strode in like he owned the place. Which, to be fair, he could for all she knew. Hiruma was strange like that.

Actually he was strange in general, no qualifiers.

Once he reached her he gave a low whistle that had her face flushing, "Looking good Anezaki."

He fingers itched to tug her dress hem down and her neckline up. Instead she shot him a small ineffective glare. "Shut up."

In a surprising gesture of gallantry he offered her his arm. "Shall we?"

Not sure what else to do she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and followed him through the lobby. He didn't make any more comments as they stepped outside. She was brought up short by the sight of a sleek black car with a chauffeur holding the door open for them.

Let it never be said that Hiruma did anything half-assed.

He helped her slide in first before taking the seat next to her. She managed to sit patiently in silence for almost a city block before she couldn't take the not knowing, "Where are we going?"

His smile was full of teeth and she had the sudden urge to hit him square in his smug face, "Wouldn't you like to know."

That seemed to break the tension that had been filling the space between them. She spent the rest of the ride fruitlessly attempting to discover just what he had planned. To his credit he didn't reveal so much as a hint of what was to come. Before she knew it their car was parked and she was being swept into one of the finer hotels on the strip and into the attached restaurant.

They had barely taken their seats before a waiter was there placing a small shot of something and a glass of water in front of her. She didn't get a chance to thank him as he was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Hiruma tapped the table and pointed to the smaller glass. "Drink that."

She really didn't want to drink whatever was in that tiny glass. It was an unwelcoming shade of brown and smelt like her liver was going to catch on fire from drinking it. She almost said no but there was a challenge in his eyes that told her she was only getting one chance at this.

Without hesitation she downed the mystery shot and immediately regretted that decision. Everything about that drink was wrong. Her throat burned and her eyes watered. "That was awful. Why would you have me do that?"

"It was a test to see if you were serious. Congratulations." He waved over the waiter who had brought her the shot. "You passed."

She finished downing her glass of water. "Fantastic. What do I get for being stupid enough to pass your test?"

"Another drink." The waiter took away the empty glasses and replaced them with two larger glasses full of something that wasn't brown but looked just as toxic, if friendlier looking. "This one is more your speed. Trust me."

Funnily enough she did, despite earlier events that told her she shouldn't. Reaching over she took the smallest taste that she possibly could. Upon finding that her insides did not want to die from what she had just ingested and in fact enjoyed whatever it was she was drinking she took a much larger gulp.

"You're going to want to sip that." He, in turn, took a sip of his own drink "There's actually a shit ton of alcohol in that but it's disguised by all the sugar. Since it's hidden the tendency is to drink more of them faster until you go from I can't taste a thing to How'd I get on the floor?"

"Oh." That actually made a lot of sense. "Thank you."

This time she gingerly took the smallest of sips of her brightly colored drink.

A few more sips later she actually felt herself relaxing. This wasn't so bad. In fact it was rather nice. The evening continued to be nice as they talked and enjoyed their drinks. It wasn't until a lull in their conversation that she noticed the music that seemed to be filtering down from the floor above.

She glanced up at the ceiling. "Do you hear that?"

He followed her gaze upward before returning to his drink. "It's music from the nightclub upstairs."

"Oh." Well that explained that. She was just getting ready to ask about what his plans for the rest of the evening were when the music shifted. It took her a second to recognize it but when she did she felt instantly lighter.

She absolutely loved this song.

It must have shown on her face because Hiruma didn't miss a beat when he said, "Let's dance."

This proved to be a bit of a conundrum.

It wasn't that she didn't like to dance. Quite the contrary, she loved to dance. The problem was her track record with boys asking her to dance made her extremely tentative about accepting any invitation to the dance floor. No matter how nice they seemed at first they all tended to get very handsy very fast.

Seriously. It was as if by accepting their invitation they thought they could suddenly just be all up in her personal space, touching her in places that made her uncomfortable, and generally making her feel out of place in her own skin. She didn't enjoy herself and spent the entire song willing it to end faster. So, while she genuinely loved to dance, she had learned to decline offers to do so by members of the opposite sex.

But this was Hiruma. Hiruma might be a big ol' weirdo but he was her friend. And as a friend she could trust him not to make it weird.

Right?

Oh she hoped this wasn't a big mistake. She downed what was left of her drink and took his hand. "Lead the way."

It wasn't until they had reached the dance floor one flight that she realized she had never seen Hiruma dance. Ever. Whenever Suzuna dragged whatever members of the old team she could out for dancing and drinks he firmly planted himself at the bar. Or the booth. Or against the wall. Wherever he planted himself he did not engage in any of the musical events. Not even to sing along or occasionally tap his toes to the beat.

Turns out he wasn't the most enthusiastic dancer. He mostly shuffled about with minimal movement. Every so often he would take her hands and give her a turn or do a few proper dance steps but for the most part he was content to dance next to her. If that wasn't wonderful enough, his very presence had the added bonus of keeping unwanted male attention at bay. It was extremely liberating and for the first time in a long time she let herself cut loose and dance.

By the time they had staggered their way out of the club it was technically early morning and her legs felt like jelly.

Gratefully she collapsed into the back seat, thankful to finally sit down and still laughing at something Hiruma had said. She had to admit that he had been much more accommodating and fun to be around than she had thought he would be at the start of their evening. He didn't leave her alone on the dance floor to fend for herself.

Not once.

She didn't have the words to express how much that meant to her but she made a mental note to find a way to repay him for his support.

For now she was going to kick back and see what he had in store for them next.

Though she may have thought twice about that if she had known that their next stop was going to be a male strip club.

In his defense she didn't think that this particular stop had been part of Hiruma's original plan. Seeing as they had been in the car talking about the sheer number of strip clubs/ topless bars. Somehow one thing had led to another and the next thing she knew they were sitting in a club where several very attractive practically naked men were dancing on stage.

If she wasn't so busy being simultaneously mortified and thrilled at the she would have been questioning why he had brought her to a male strip club. As it stood she was whooping from her seat as one of the dancers pulled Hiruma on stage. Standing next to him the topless, mostly pants less dancer started teaching him some moves.

Watching Hiruma copy him had her laughing so hard she actually thought she would crack a rib. That was until he dragged her right up next to him and started giving her lessons. Her protests fell on indifferent ears and before she knew it she was in the same boat. They finally took their seats only after their dancer was confident that they had mastered the basics. She was sure she was permanently red broth both embarrassment and laughter but she still found herself clicking her beer bottle against Hiruma's for cheers.

He flashed her a toothy grin, "So are my moves worth a handful of ones?"

It was proof of how much she had grown since their high school days that she didn't sputter with discomfort but instead responded back with, "I would have gone as high as a handfuls of tens."

Apparently that was not the response he had been expecting because he only just managed to keep from snorting his drink back out his nose. This caused her to break out in another round of laughter, which he joined in after he choked down his mouthful of beer. They didn't stay much longer after that. Before she knew it they were back in the car, driving out into the desert. She was too engaged in conversation to notice how long they had been driving only that it had seemed like hardly any time had passed at all before they were stopping.

Stepping out of the car only served to confuse her. What they could possibly do in the middle of the desert with no one else in sight was beyond her.

Then he popped the trunk.

Resting inside was the largest, strangest assortment of fireworks she had seen in her entire life. Which was saying something since she had spent every New Year with Hiruma since fourth year: the man's firework display was less of a family affair and more of a full scale assault on the sky. In any case it was an event not to be missed. Though, judging by what she was currently staring at, this had the potential to put all his previous pyrotechnics to shame.

She carefully ran her hand over several of the more dangerous sounding explosives, "What on Earth do you plan to do with this many fireworks?"

His response was a big toothy grin.

She felt her face go blank. "Oh no."

"Oh yes." He gathered up an armful of his precious pyro and started walking deeper into the desert. "Grab the blue box and follow me."

She had followed him this far. No sense in getting all uppity about things now. Treading carefully in her heels as she didn't fancy breaking a leg on this endeavor, she followed him about thirty yards off the road before he deemed them far enough away. She knew she wouldn't remember how long they spent setting things up to his specifications. What she would take away from this was how much time he spent making sure she knew exactly what to do and how, at the end of it all, he had let set them off.

She couldn't hide her surprise at that last part. After all he was the only person she knew who was more of a control freak than she was. But he had insisted. And when he insisted she followed thru.

With giddy nerves she followed his instructions and set off the first round. The time it took to go through their entire arsenal from first pop to grand finale couldn't have been more than five minutes.

But what a spectacularly stunning five minutes it was.

Across the dark desert sky it was if hundreds of flowers were bursting into bloom. She only broke her gaze when she felt a warm arm settle along the back of her shoulders. When she glanced to her left Hiruma was still focused on the sky. So, with a small smile, she shifted closer and returned her attention upwards.

By the time they made it back to the hotel the sun was starting to come up and Mamori found herself confiding to Hiruma how much she had needed that. They were standing outside her room, key in her hand and saying their good nights when the unexpected happened.

"Am I-" She hesitated. Not sure if she should ask what had worried her for years. But if there was anyone who would answer her honestly it was the man before her. She took a chance. "Am I a killjoy?"

It was on the tip of his tongue to make a witty comeback. Something sarcastic that would cause her to materialize a cleaning utensil out of thin air. However the look on her face told him that such a comment would only serve to make her cry and make him feel like the world's biggest jack ass. Instead he did the next best thing. He told her the truth. "You're the most fun person I know."

"Really?" She looked dangerously close to hugging him.

He nodded. "Really."

And she was hugging him.

It lasted a little longer than he was entirely comfortable with but he didn't say a word. Instead he embraced her back and didn't let go until he felt her grip loosen.

Before she could overthink what she was about to do she gave him a quick kiss. Not on the cheek like she had initially planned but right on the mouth. "Thank you."

Then she slipped into her room, leaving a perplexed Hiruma standing outside her door. He stayed there until he heard her shuffle on the other side and because he knew her as well as he did he stared straight into the peephole. Confident she was watching he gave her a smile and a waved before he made his way to his own room.

He wasn't sure exactly what this meant for them but he knew that he was looking forward to it.