Chapter 5:

"Fly. There was a fly" said Sena, quickly deflating the situation before it could lead to any more misunderstandings.

"So..that slap..you were trying to kill the fly.." Jumonji said slowly, having trouble understanding what was going on.

"Yep" replied Sena while pointing at the dead insect in his hand. Mamori who was quietly reassessing the situation quickly move next to Sena and wrapped her protective arms around him. The slight swelling and redness on Hiruma's cheek were getting more pronounced and he did not look too thrilled about it.

"So...in order to kill that fly, you slapped Hiruma?" asked Jumonji, still having problems wrapping his head around it.

"Yes! the shrimp slapped me" snapped Hiruma while shooting one of his deadly glares at Jumonji who quickly paled until the intensity.

"Umm..did I miss something? You seem awfully mad Hiruma-san. Did I do something wrong?" asked Sena slightly choking underneath a constricting pair of arms. Mamori tightened her protective grip on Sena as Hiruma advanced forward towards him. Sena's face was blank, more out of confusion than anything else, while the advancing blond-haired teenager's face was blank just because he wanted it to be.

Mamori pulled Sena closer to her as she issued a warning, "Hiruma-san, what are you doing? Sena here is inju-"

She left her sentence incomplete as she watched Hiruma walked towards Sena, flicked Sena's forehead with his pointer finger, and continue to walk towards the door.

"I need to use the bathroom" he said before exiting and leaving two of the occupants speechless and one pouting as he touched his forehead.

Hiruma closed the door to the men's bathroom and slammed his head against the adjacent wall. After a few rounds of beating his head against the wall, he felt a bit calmer and a bit better. Fuck, he thought, when did he get so soft? As he walked towards the shrimp, he was ready to remind him why he was considered the scariest quarterback in all of Japan, but he couldn't do anything when he caught sight of the shrimp's oblivious face. Truthfully, he was tired after all the emotional anguish he suffered throughout the past week and his anger was squished as he was reminded of how glad he was to see that the shrimp was fine and awake.

But, now, his reputation probably got better. Hiruma resumed his head beating as he brainstormed the many ways to make his reputation ten times worser than it is now. Dammit, he will not be known as a softie.

Mamori was shocked at what just happened. The guy that walked out of the door was not the Hiruma she knew, he was a totally different person. Mamori stared at the door for a few minutes before noticing Sena's waving hands in front of her face and the missing Jumonji.

"Where's Jumonji-kun, Sena?" asked Mamori

"Oh, he left a few minutes ago" replied Sena

Mamori didn't notice that she was dazed for so long and gathered her thoughts together. When she did, she almost did a happy dance. Everything made sense now. Why didn't she realize this earlier? Hiruma-san liked Sena! That's why his reaction was so strange and that's why she was giggling so much the other day.

"Sena" she said "I brought you some breakfast. Some of your favorites. I'm sorry to leave as soon as I got here, but we have practice this morning"

"It's fine Mamori-neechan"

Mamori waved goodbye as she turned around and walked towards the door leaving Sena alone for the first time since he woke up from his coma. Mamori was experiencing deja-vu as she walked along the hospital corridor deep in thought. It was too soon to ask Sena how he felt. She doubt he even remembers anything, much less know his own feelings. Hiruma was the type of guys Sena would go for, but most importantly she totally ship those two together. But in all honesty, Hiruma was a good guy even if he doesn't want to admit it. Strong sense of sportmanship, a team player, intelligent, determination, pride, and she saw first hand how much he cares for his teammates. He could even be kind if he wanted to. All in all, a bad boy with (definitely not a heart of gold, that would be too much of an exaggeration) a decent beating heart. Mamori approved, but she's not certain about Sena's feelings. There are a lot of guys to consider as well. For now, Mamori will observe the situation and act accordingly.

For the second day in a row, Jumonji found himself walking towards the park with a lot on his mind. He thought that with all the thinking he did yesterday, he wouldn't have to think for another few weeks, but apparently the fates have another thing in mind. He sat down onto the same bench in the same isolated area. Like Mamori, for Jumonji it was a deja-vu of what happened yesterday. Yesterday, he was shocked by Sena and today he was shocked by both Sena and Hiruma. I think i preferred yesterday, he thought, I don't think my mind can handle all these surprises and thinking.

When he woke up today, he went straight to Sena's hospital. He had a plan ready, to get Hiruma out of the room and to kiss Sena, but as he got closer to the room, he suddenly got nervous. He tried to calm his nerves by walking back and forth in front of Sena's room and as a result, he overheard Sena's conversation with Hiruma. Most of the things he heard were unclear, but of course, he heard the parts about himself loud and clear. Once again, he was surprised by the words coming from Sena's mouth. He was so shocked that his face turned pink. It was a weird reaction, but he didn't want to look too deeply into it.

Jumonji touched the scar on his cheek and mulled over his feelings. He no longer need to kiss Sena, though he wanted to. It is already confirmed now that he, Jumonji, did like Sena, though how he is so sure about it from just a few words from Sena, was a bit confusing. Maybe it's because Sena complimented him, thought that he was especially good looking, and showed interest in him as a man. Hm. Yeah, it was that.

But there was the second shock he had to worry about. Jumonji wasn't smart or super observant, but he could recognized that Hiruma liked Sena as well. There was no other possible reason for his reaction. He could have a rapid personality change, but Jumonji doubted that. He could have felt sympathy for Sena and stopped, but Hiruma never did that before, like ever. He could have cracked from worrying over Sena, but this was Hiruma he was talking about. Hiruma liking Sena was logical, and the first thought that popped into Jumonji's head when he saw the scene in front of him. You should always trust your first instinct. And a man with a crush can spot another man who is crushing on his crush. That one he just made up, but it is the truth.

***Next Few Days ***

For Sena, the next few days had been very weird. He wasn't sure if his friends were usually so strange or if this was normal for them, but as the days passed and the weirdness showed no sign of disappearing, Sena decided to accept it as another new presence in his life. Apparently Mamori-neechan told Suzuna-chan what happened with Hiruma-san and now the whole team knew about it. Even their friends from the other teams knew about it as everyone mingled together in Sena's room. Ever since then, his friends have been popping into his room whenever they have free time to stare at Hiruma and Sena. Hiruma was annoyed by the constant staring and chatter, but at least Sena was enjoying himself. He was amused by the various excuses his friends came up with to visit him. "Oh Sena, i thought you might be hungry" " I saw these flowers and thought of you" "I thought you might be cold, so I brought you some blankets" " I thought you might be hot, so here's a fan" "I brought some toothpaste in case you run out" "Some movies in case you get bored" "A football for practicing" "A guitar if you want to play" "Some books on guitar since you don't know" "An English dictionary, so you can read those guitar books"

Before, Sena knew it, his room is cluttered with flowers, food, and other random items. There were barely enough room to move around and just around when the next batch of items and people were about to enter the room, Hiruma got up from his chair and blocked the door.

"Since you guys seem to enjoy staring at me so much, you can stare at me all you want during practice. YAHA" Hiruma did not have his guns to shoot at his teammates, so he did the next best thing and took the junk they were about to bring in, and threw it at them "What are you waiting for? Scram. Time for practice" With that, Hiruma left the room and the Devil Bats followed him unwillingly.

Hiruma was out to repair his reputation and he succeeded. After a few days of practice, everyone on the team went to visit Sena with tired faces, sluggish movements, and a lot of complaints. They begged Sena to work his magic again, but Sena was just as confused as they were as to what he had done to make Hiruma act that way. They tried to explain the various torture methods Hiruma had employed, before the nurse shooed them out for going past the visiting hours. The things his friends mentioned to him were confusing, something about guns, psycho dogs, bulldozers, a scary Mamori-neechan, and alot of spicy wasabi.

Yep, his friends were weird. There was no doubt about it, thought Sena. He decided to end that train of thought there and returned to his book, Darry Botter, which was given to him by Hiruma-san. It was a story about an aspiring quarterback who went to an isolated American football institution in the middle of a forest to become the best football player in the country. There he met his two best friends and the trio embarked on miscellaneous adventures against jealous teammates and scheming rival coaches, searches for the rare football shaped stone and the mythical Devil Bats, and trainings to better themselves. Sena thought it was a good book, but he could have swore that he read another book very similar to it...

*Knock, knock*

The door slid open to reveal a tall brolic man with purple deadlocks. He dropped his suitcase to the ground with a stolid thud and removed his sunglasses with flourish. He turned his eyes towards Sena and smiled.

"How are you doing, brat? You are mine now"