FASH: Not much happens in this chapter, just the usual interaction between Hiruma and Sena. I hope to get around to the Mizu/Sena and Saku/Sena love soon, ah well, what can you do.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena had stuck around after the party ended to help clean up and had stayed up later than he should have and since both Mamori and her mother were fussy, motherly types they insisted that he stay over. The streets just weren't safe for someone like him to be wondering about, so easy to sneak up on.

And thus he woke up, freezing even though he had three blankets on his and rather uncomfortable after a night of sleeping on the couch in the living room. He rubbed at his eyes wearily, he didn't have practice in the morning today but he did in the afternoon and it would probably be best for him to get up and get over to his house in order to properly prepare for the day ahead of him.

Right after breakfast. He could already smell something wonderful drifting over to him from the kitchen and breakfast was the most important meal of the day after all.

He slowly made his way home after helping Mamori clean up after breakfast, then he slowly took a shower, slowly changed into clean clothes...

'Man, I never really noticed how boring my life without football was before.' He thought with a smile as he peered over the homework that had been given to him for over the winter brake, clinking his finger nails against his desk idly as he waited for time to tick by. 'Well, since I'm not going to be able to focus on my homework anyways, I might as well go to practice early.' He smiled widely and jumped out of his seat, determined to be the first one in his gear and on the field.

Really, he should have known that Hiruma would be there, calmly sitting in the shade of some of the trees by the field as he typed away on his laptop, completely focused on whatever was on the screen.

Sena allowed a very uncharacteristic smirk grow on his face as he slowly tiptoed over, careful not to make a sound. When he was only a few feet away he was ready to rush in when-

"I know you're right there, it's going to take a lot more than that to sneak up on me." Sena let out a small sigh. "Do you have security cameras covering the grounds or something?" He asked as a joke, eyes widening when Hiruma gave him a look hat seemed to say: 'Well, yeah.'

"No way, why do you need security cameras!?" "I can deal with spies more efficiently this way." Sena gulped nervously. "Ahhehehe, efficiently." Hiruma rose an eyebrow before turning back to his laptop mindlessly blowing a bubble with his sugarless gum.

"Well, I'm just going to go get my uniform on then." Sena said awkwardly as he turned away from Hiruma and headed for the clubhouse, eyes constantly moving as he tried to spot the cameras that were watching the field. 'I wonder how long he's had cameras up.' Sena pursed his lips together and tried not to think about it, sure it was probably just cameras monitoring training and spies, but it was still kind of creepy, definitely the type of thing Hiruma would do.

Sena had changed into his uniform in no time and began running laps around the field, only stopping every once in a while to shiver as a particularly chilly breeze blew past. Christmas was only several days away and thankfully it didn't seem like it was cold enough for it to start snowing anytime soon.

"Oi, come over here for a second." Hiruma ordered as he gestured to the empty space beside him and Sena obediently jogged over, although he was still a bit wary. Being alone with Hiruma, especially after that... Incident just awhile ago didn't seem as safe as it used to, not that it really seemed safe before.

"Hurry it up, I'm not going to kiss you or anything." 'Gah! Mind reader!' "Now hurry over here before I make you swim laps." Sena paused eyes widening. "Swim? Outside? In December?!" "Not outside you idiot!" Hiruma rolled his eyes before smirking. "At a recreation center where I can assure you, there'll be at least one person who will be quite happy to splash around with you."

Sena sat down beside him immediately.

"Now then, here are videos of plays that Seibu's running back has been involved in since we last played them." Hiruma said as he gestured to the screen before handing the laptop over to Sena. "Look over these carefully, I don't care about that whole 'we fought one hundred times and this time you won' thing, he's been getting better." Hiruma gave Sena a hard look before getting up and sauntering off towards the clubhouse.

'I guess I might as well not even ask about how Hiruma-san knows that. He knows all, he sees all, simple as that.' He shrugged his shoulders and shivered a bit more when a breeze ruffled his hair. 'Maybe I could go inside the club room to watch it, but then again, Hiruma-san is in there, and even if he did say he wasn't going to kiss me, there's no telling what else he might do.' Sena sighed and clicked onto the play button, immediately becoming immersed in the footage.

'Riku...' "Oi Sena, what are you sittin' around for?" Sena turned to see Juumonji, Kuroki and Toganou peering at the screen over his shoulder. "Ah, Seibu footage, getting a feel for the enemy?" Juumonji asked with a crooked grin.

"I guess so, Hiruma-san wanted me to watch it." He stopped the video and carefully closed the laptop before standing up and grinning at the linemen.

"Let's get to practice!"