Author's Note: School term is starting, updates will be slowing. You can't really describe Kurita and Hiruma's relationship without including Musashi, so I'll just do two Kurtia-Musashi chapters, this is the first one.

Summary: Creampuffs, friendship, and football….

A New Understanding

By: Bar-Ohki

After the Oujou match, the exhausted members of Deimon crawled back into the clubhouse and wearily put their uniforms away. Kurita set out the box of victory creampuffs (Juumonji had coined the phrase after realizing that Kurita always had creampuffs out when Deimon won a game). Most members took their creampuff and walked right out the door to go home and collapse on their beds.

Hiruma was always the last person out, whether it be practice, game, or meeting; it was one of the captain's responsibilities. Tonight, like any other night there was a victory, Hiruma would not exit the locker room into an empty clubhouse. In the clubhouse would be Kurita making some coffee.

Without commenting, Hiruma sat down at the table and pulled his creampuff out of the box and set it on the napkin Kurita had set on the table earlier. The two boys remained in a comfortable silence while they waited for the coffee to be done. When the coffeemaker chimed to signal the coffee was done, Kurita picked up the pot and poured two cups. One he handed directly to Hiruma while the other he set down and proceeded to pour countless sugar cubes into.

Hiruma picked up his creampuff, dunked it into the coffee and took a bite.

"Pumpkin…!" Hiruma was pleasantly surprised by unexpected flavor of the creampuff.

"I had to order it special, they don't sell them this time of year." Kurita explained.

"Ke! You're too sentimental, fatty." Hiruma had an honest smile on his face and took another bite of the creampuff without complaint.

"We always went and got pumpkin creampuffs when we won in middle school." Kurita reminisced. "Ah! Musashi!"

Musashi had just walked into the room with a smile.

"I almost forgot my creampuff." Musashi admitted. He had just walked two blocks before he realized he had forgotten the creampuff.

"Getting Alzheimer's in your old age?" Hiruma taunted while he handed Musashi the creampuff.

"Pumpkin!" Musashi was surprised by the flavor. "We always had these after victories in middle school…."

"Since we lost to the White Knights earlier, I thought it would be good to bring them back." Kurita admitted.

"Honestly, fatty, I thought you'd be waiting for the Christmas Bowl for that." Hiruma commented, sipping his coffee.

"We'll have them then too!" Kurita assured Hiruma with a smile. All three friends fell into a comfortable silence while they finished their creampuffs. They cleaned up and left.

Musahi and Kurita parted ways with Hiruma after a few blocks since he lived in the opposite direction from them.

"You know something," Musashi began as he and Kurita walked along.

"Yeah?" Kurita asked.

"I think we're the only people in world that knows Hiruma likes creampuffs." Musashi commented.

"Yeah," Kurita agreed, "remember in middle school, how we used to argue over the flavor?"

"Of course," Musashi chuckled, "the only flavor we all liked was pumpkin."

"…You know, Hiruma gave up creampuffs completely when you left." Kurita remarked after a few steps. "He said he wanted to be more serious about his diet."

"…Really?" Musashi felt guilty again, Hiruma's favorite desert of all time was creampuffs.

"Yeah, he gave up all sweets," Kurita added, "and he's been good about the rest, just not the creampuffs."

"…So he loves football more than sweets, but creampuffs more than football?" Musashi chuckled.

"Hiruma loves creampuffs because we always eat them together," Kurita pointed out, "I think creampuffs are part of football for him."

"Ah." Musashi agreed, nodding. "They are for me too."

_=_=_=_=_=_

Hiruma hates sugar gum (which has a difference in texture than sugarless gum), it does not say anywhere that Hiruma hates sweets, just sugar gum. Leave a review!