Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Short Pass: Sign

How Hiruma deals with the silent treatment.

Afterwards, Hiruma couldn't remember what argument had even been about. Something ridiculous, he had to imagine. While he did actually respect Anezaki Mamori for her brain, level-headedness and determination, she did seem to get upset over the stupidest things. His "Minefield of Hell" training, where he had the players practice their maneuverability and speed on the field by running through, well, a minefield was a common topic (though he couldn't see why; it worked, didn't it?). Maybe it was that.

Whatever it was, the fucking manger didn't talk to him for a week. At first he rather enjoyed it. Days without having to her harp on about how dangerous his methods were for her precious Sena and the others? Ya-ha! Eventually, though, it began to get annoying. She would refuse to even acknowledge his existence when he yelled at her, so the other team members had to act as go-betweens when he needed something done. The rare times she couldn't avoid talking with him, she used the same go betweens. It was ridiculous and wasted valuable time.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. Ignoring the looks the rest of the team was giving him, he threw down his helmet after practice to stalk over to her. Her eyes flicked up briefly as he approached but then back to her notepad with supreme indifference. Oh no, that wouldn't do. So she wouldn't talk to him, eh? Just shooting at her was unlikely to work, unfortunately, since she seemed to have an uncanny ability to make the most mundane objects bulletproof, but let's see her ignore this.

He yanked the notepad from her grasp and when she couldn't avoid giving him an angry glare, he signed at her. She tried turning around to avoid him, but he followed her, fingers moving in a blur inches from her eyes.

What the hell are you mad about, you fucking manager?

Finally, she gave in and signed back.

Like you don't know.

Actually, fucking manager, I don't. Why don't you tell me, so I can tell you how stupid you are being, and we can get back to normal?

As if!

You do know giving someone the silent treatment is really childish. I thought you were a second year.

Childish? You are calling me childish? Well, at least I am not clearly compensating for something.

What? Hiruma narrowed his eyes. Oh, you just did fucking NOT.

Well… Mamori slid a glance at the tall rifle leaning against his hip. One has to wonder.

There was no way this girl was going to get the better of him in verbal combat. So you do know what those things are. I wondered, what with the whole prude, uptight thing you have going on.

I am not prude! Just because I'm a little modest doesn't mean—

You dress like a nun. Actually the practical gym tops and pants she favored for practice were quite fitted and outlined her form nicely, but Hiruma blackmailed for practically a living. Lies rolled off his tongue—or fingers—quite well. And really fucking uptight and anal. I'm surprised that you are so good at signing only after a week I sent you the updates to the code. You must have practiced for hours. Didn't have anything better to do, huh?

Somehow Hiruma was rewarded by seeing her back stiffen. Just because I take pride in my work doesn't mean—you make me so mad, I could kiss you!

Hiruma froze. Then his grin widened abruptly. She really had memorized the whole code. He'd made some changes to the sign she had invented but snuck in "kiss" and purposely made it similar to "kick" just to test how far she was willing to go to learn the damn thing. But from the look at her face, running high with color, she had no idea what she'd just done.

"Really," he said out loud. "That's an odd reaction. So mad you could kiss me, huh, fucking manager?"

Her brow furrowed in puzzlement for a second, but realization of her mistake slowly dawned in glorious mortification. "I—"

Hiruma captured whatever she was going to say out of those pretty pink lips with his own. It was only for a second, but that was enough to snap a picture with his phone. "Kekekeke. There you go," he said, showing her the shot. "You done being mad now? You just kissed me so I think we're even."

"W-what? Y-yes—no wait! You were the one who—"

"Kekekeke! New Threat Book entry I think," Hiruma said, walking off. He was supremely pleased with himself. And…huh. He licked his lips as he walked away. Apparently the manager liked strawberry-flavored lip gloss.

Delicious.