Author's Note: The way I'm working these drabbles is such that Devil Bat is going to have a private moment with Hiruma. After a thought about the towel comment in the last chapter, I decided to follow up with that with the only person who does laundry: Mamori.
Disclaimer: I'm going to stop bothering with this after this chapter. I don't own Eyeshield 21, and well, I won't at any point in my life so there's no point in assuming I do.
Summary: In this chapter, Mamori makes a conclusion about boys and their towels…
A New Understanding
By: Bar-Ohki
Anezaki Mamori often felt like she was the mother of 12 unruly, teenage football players. She was always cleaning up after them, patching up their scrapes, and giving them advice on what they should and shouldn't be doing (like not shooting at random bystanders just because they were loitering by the clubhouse). Today was no exception, she made everyone snacks, cleaned the clubhouse, and had to find 10 different pairs of socks (somehow the socks always wound up in the wrong person's locker and with a sock that belonged to someone else).
Only Taki and Hiruma were immune to the sock misplacement, Taki because he put his name on his socks, and Hiruma because Hiruma's socks were remarkably cleaner than everyone else's (and Mamori could not, for the life of her, figure out why, they were washed the same way as everyone else).
Right now, Mamori was cleaning the lockers in the locker room. Typically Mamori only cleaned the room itself because she felt she had no business going into people's lockers, but some unpleasant smells started to come from several lockers, and Mamori announced that she would be cleaning them today. The boys had been thankful for the chance to clean out the lockers of all embarrassing items before Mamori went in and brushed out the cobwebs.
She swung open all of the lockers to see that none of them had very much inside. Everyone had their school uniforms, gym clothes, and a change of casual clothes in their lockers (it was one of the Hiruma's rules). A few people had posters, pictures, and/or magazine clippings of their role models in their lockers (Raimon had a poster of Honjou Masaru, while the Huh Bros had pictures of the three of them hanging out in theirs). And everyone had their showering toiletries in their lockers.
Mamori had to admit she was pleasantly surprised that every boy on the team believed in soap, shampoo, and deodorant.
"Here it is." Mamori made a face and discovered that most of the smells were coming from the towels. Looks like the first thing she'd be doing laundry first. Quickly gathering the towels, she threw them into a large bin full of hot water.
Mamori raised an eyebrow at the bin, she hadn't prepared it for laundry.
"What the hell are you doing?" Hiruma growled from behind her.
"I was washing the smelly towels." Mamori told him hotly. "What are you doing?"
"…None of your business." Hiruma hissed at her and stormed off. Mamori rolled her eyes and began washing the towels.
The Huh Bros had the exact same towel, but in different colors. They were all a little abused and frayed on the edges. They were not rough towels, but they weren't soft either. Kurita had an enormous, fluffy towel that had cake prints on it (it was one of the less smelly towels). Komusubi's towel was more like a large canvas rag with a print of Mt. Fuji on it (very strong feeling fabric). Ishimaru had a towel that was plain and unremarkable. Yukimitsu's towel was very expensive-looking, decently fluffy, and really soft; his name was embroidered in the corner. Taki's towel was very flashy and cheaply made. The towel that belonged to Musashi had obviously seen better days, it was old, stained, and had several holes in it. Despite all that the towel was soft and still seemed to do a good job sucking in water. Raimon's towel was brown with banana patterns all over it. Sena had an enormous fluffy towel with star ships on it (it looked like it belonged to a child).
"Huh?" Mamori held up a fluffy, red towel. It must have belonged to Hiruma by default. It was a little scratchy on one side, while being really soft on the other. Unlike the other towels, it didn't smell, in fact, it looked recently washed. Mamori contemplated throwing it into the wash for a minute, there was a chance the red would come off and stain some of the lighter towels.
'No, I'll wash it with the others, he's still apart of the team, even if he is the most clean.' Mamori threw the towel in and began washing.
'These towels are just like their owners.' Mamori giggled to herself. 'Even Hiruma's not an exception.'
After a few minutes she found herself pulling out something that wasn't a towel.
"A sock?" Mamori blinked. She then remembered that the tub had already been full and that Hiruma always had such abnormally clean socks.
"…Hirumak-kun washes his socks twice." Mamori announced after a long minute.
"And you better damn well do a good job." Hiruma hissed from behind her, startling her.
Mamori turned around and stared at him, not sure what to say.
"Why?" Mamori managed after a minute.
"I never get my socks confused with anyone else's if they are fucking clean, do I?" Hiruma half-taunted her. "It's not my fault you're so terrible at washing."
"Well if that's the case, you can finish this!" Mamori promptly announced as she stood up and walked away, leaving Hiruma and the half-finished towel wash alone.
After Mamori was done cleaning and airing out the locker room, she heard a knock behind her. Hiruma had tapped on the wall to get her attention.
"Fucking manager." Hiruma addressed her.
"Don't call me that." Mamori glared back.
"We did the wash for you." Hiruma told her. "It's out drying." He turned on his heel and left.
Mamori blinked, confused when she entered the clubhouse again. It was still clean and someone had set out a plate with a cream puff on it. Mamori took the cream puff and walked outside to see the entire Devil Bats line up smiling at their hanging towels.
Sometimes, even the most incorrigible boys, can do sometime nice and sweet for their mother.
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