Chapter Eighty Five: Another Trip Around the Sun

Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Song Playing: Star Wars by ThePianoGuys

Theme 3: Sunrise

Hiruma looked up from his paperwork to find his football manager hovering over him, staring expectantly. They made eye contact for several very uncomfortable moments. When she gave him no indication that she was going to stop being weird he decided he better move things along before things got creepy. "You want something?"

Her unexpected response was to plop a rice ball on a napkin on the table in front of him. He didn't even have time to formulate a reaction when she pulled a yellow candle about the size of her pinky out of her pocket and put it into the top of the rice ball. To finish it off she lit the slightly lopsided thing and took a step back. "Here."

He officially had no idea what the fuck was going on. "What the hell is that?"

"An onigiri with a candle in it." To her credit she didn't bat an eyelash: though she was a lot redder in the face than was normal for her.

He fixed her with a flat expression that completely re-defined the term deadpan. "No shit. What I mean is why the fuck are you giving me old onigiri with a piece of melting wax shoved in it?"

"Well," Now she looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I heard your mother- on the phone. You know, from earlier when you were listening to your messages, about today being your birthday. I didn't mean to hear but I did. Sorry."

"Okay." Still didn't explain why he was getting cold rice slowly being covered in colored wax but it looked like she wasn't done talking yet so maybe a better explanation was coming.

"I didn't have time to go out and get you anything proper. Even if I did I have the time and stores were still open I wouldn't know what to get you anyway. The best I could do on such short notice was some left over onigiri from practice and a candle I managed to dig out of the office supplies cabinet." Here she took a deep breath. Which was good because it had been a while since her last one. "What I mean is Happy Birthday."

He looked from her to his wax topped rice ball then back to her. "This is the best you got?"

At this she huffed and crossed her arms defensively, looking anywhere but at him. "Yeah well you weren't going to get anything before so shut up and blow out your candle."

"Bossy bitch." The words weren't stellar but the tone behind them were full of affection. He drew in a breath.

Which promptly sputtered out when she grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back, "Wait, wait, wait."

This was why he didn't advertise his birthday to people. To avoid weird shit like this. "What?"

"Aren't you going to make a wish?"

He almost asked her if she was serious but the expectant look on her face told him that she was one hundred percent serious. Since his candle was already down to a sad little stub and didn't look like it could last much longer, he complied. Closing his eyes he thought real hard for several seconds and blew out the tiny flame.

As he ate his way around the hardened wax Mamori took a seat next to him, fiddling with her fingers in a way that told him there was something else she had on her chest.

It was a testament to how well he knew her that she spoke up only seconds later as he spat out an unfortunate piece of candle that he hadn't managed to avoid. "I know that it's late and that we're pretty much done for the day but I could stay a little longer if there was something you wanted to do." Then, as if he couldn't connect the dots himself, she added. "For your birthday I mean."

It had been such a long time since his birthday had been anything more than himself alone with convenience store noodles that he found himself seriously considering her query. He actually couldn't recall when he last did something just for himself. Not for the team or his underhanded businesses: something just for him that he found enjoyable just because he could. Immediately his mind went to his carefully hidden collection of American films that he had obtained through years of association with the men at the barracks.

He had the sudden urge for late night delivery and a galaxy far far away.

Obviously he had been quiet for longer than he thought because suddenly a hand waving in front of his face broke him out of his thoughts. "Hello? Anybody home?"

He tossed what was left of his birthday onigiri into the trash. Then he called in a good takeaway that he had under his thumb. While he waited for the other end to pick up he turned and asked what was potentially the most important question of their entire relationship, "What do you know about Star Wars?"

"I know that it's a movie."

At this his feelings became very conflicted. His immediate gut reaction was horror that anyone had made it this far in life without seeing the greatest movie trilogy of all time. However, over-riding that was the overwhelming exhilaration of being able to introduce his favorite films to one of his secretly favorite people. His responding smile was wide and full of teeth.

In record time his takeaway connection had their food hot and ready at headquarters. Within minutes of its arrival they were squeezed together on the team sofa, eating takeaway straight from the boxes, as he popped in the tape for Episode IV into the player.

As the Rebellion destroyed the Death Star from the inside out the takeaway gave way to the team snack cabinet. While Luke discovered the true identity of his father the team snack cabinet gave way to Mamori's personal snack stash. By the time of Darth Vader's redemption to the side of light had been confirmed Mamori's personal snack stash had long since given way to her super-secret emergency chocolate stores and the sun was peeking its head over the horizon line.

They both had classes in a couple of hours and then practice after that with virtually no breaks in between. There was also no food left in the clubhouse and Mamori had used up what few tissues then napkins they had lying around crying about Luke reconnecting with his father only to have the old man pass away. Not to mention his bladder was going to explode if he didn't get up to take a piss in the next sixty seconds.

It was, hands down, the best birthday celebration he had ever had.