Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Short Pass: Cute

So when Suzuna said, "You-nii actually pretty cute, you know?" to her one day, Mamori felt her brain break

Hiruma Yoichi was not cute.

In fact, Anezaki Mamori was pretty sure that Hiruma was the very opposite of cute, and was not even sure the man would recognize the word. Cute things were small, sometimes fuzzy, sometimes round things that inspired feelings of love and protectiveness.

Bunnies were cute.

Kittens were cute.

Sena and the younger Devil Bats were cute.

Hiruma, on the other hand, was tall, angular and spiky. He was a psychotic nutjob that blackmailed everyone he came across, shot at the rest and probably blew up his moral compass a long time ago. He inspired feelings of fear, terror, and the need to get-the-hell-away-from-here.

So when Suzuna said, "You-nii's actually pretty cute, you know?" to her one day, Mamori felt her brain break.

Barely managing not to spit her soda in the cheerleader's face, the manager set the cup down carefully and looked at her friend equally carefully. "What?"

"Don't you think?" said the other girl. "You-nii can be pretty cute sometimes, right?"

The two of them were in a local fast food place, grabbing a quick bite to eat before practice. Mamori usually looked forward to these times, as she'd sometimes missed having a girl friend to talk to as she became more and more involved with the American football club—her old friends thought she was weird or were too afraid of Hiruma to come to practice.

Right now, though, Mamori was afraid that Suzuna had gone insane. "Are you insane?"

Suzuna blinked at her innocently. "No, really. Don't you think he's cute?"

Mamori pinched the bridge of her nose. She had a sinking feeling that Suzuna was trying to start another conversation about how she and Hiruma were perfect for each other. Well, Suzuna would call it a conversation, but Mamori didn't say anything back. She had only made that mistake once, of arguing that two, so wildly different people could never be together, only to be answered that well of course they could, that was what the whole opposites attract thing was about.

"Suzuna…"

"I mean, you told about how during that insane Death March thing you did, he never showed any signs of weakness so he could look strong for the others. And then he told you to go take care of the team before him when you were going to ice his knee! Isn't that cute?"

Mamori blinked. Well, she had used those two instances to explain to Suzuna that the whole demon thing the quarterback had going on wasn't as scary as it seemed at first, but that was just so the girl wouldn't break into tears the first time Hiruma launched a rocket at her. And true, the Death March was the first time that Mamori realized that Hiruma wasn't as cold and unfeeling as she had thought before. But cute? Hiruma Yoichi was not cute.

"That just shows he actually cares for the rest of the team," Mamori replied. "I don't think that it means he's cute."

Suzuna sipped at her soda for a moment. "Ok, maybe not cute. But You-nii is pretty hot, you can't argue with that, right?"

That time, Mamori did choke on her soda. She pounded on her chest while Suzuna grinned at her. "You—"

"What?"

Mamori was saved from having to answer when her cell phone range. Pulling it out, she looked at the number. Speak of the devil…literally. "Hello?"

"Fucking manager," snapped Hiruma. "Where the hell are you? Get your ass over here!"

Mamori looked at the time. Oops. "Sorry, we'll be right over—"

"What are you doing, eating fucking creampuffs again?"

Mamori looked annoyed. "We're getting something to eat before practice. We're only 5 minutes late, don't—"

"Just get over here." Hiruma hung up with a click, leaving Mamori blinking at the abrupt disconnection.

Suzuna was already cleaning up. "Was You-nii mad?"

Mamori sighed. "No more than usual," she answered, though she thought she had detected something…else in his voice.

The reason for that the two girls found out when they arrived on Deimon's field, Inside of the usual gunshots and mad running that characterized the Devil Bats' usual practice, most of the team was huddled around the doorway of the clubhouse.

"Hey Sena!" Suzuna called. "What's going on? What's everyone doing?"

The running back turned around from his position by Monta and said, "It's Cerberus. I think he's hurt."

"What?" Mamori blinked. "The dog?"

Monta nodded. "Yup, Hiruma was using him to chase us like usual, but then I think he tripped over a hole made by the landmine last time, and he couldn't get back up. We got him inside the clubhouse but…"

Mamori was no longer listening at that point and was pushing her way through the crowd. "Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me…" she finally pushed through to see Cerberus laid out on the table. Kurita was looking down at him mournfully, Musashi looked at a loss, and Hiruma…well, Hiruma looked like he always did, with arms crossed and glaring down at his dog.

"Fucking manager, about time."

Mamori ignored him. "Sena and Monta told me what happened. Cerberus hurt his leg?"

"Yeah," said Kurita tearfully.

"And he's just been lying on this table the whole time?" Mamori asked incredulously. "Why don't you call the vet or something?"

"Hiruma hasn't been able to take him to a vet since he was 2 years old," Musashi said. "He bit the last one up too much. Even blackmail doesn't work."

Mamori looked surprised at that. "Really?" She sighed. "I guess we'll have to do it."

The three boys stared at her. "What?" Kurita said, voice shaking. "Bandage Cerberus?"

"Well, who else is going to do it? You told me that no vet would. That leg isn't going to heal on its own, we have to splint it. Where's the first aid kit?"

Looking around, she spotted it on top of one of the lockers and strained up on tiptoe for it. But a long bony arm grabbed it instead. "Thank you," she told Hiruma in surprise.

"Do you know what you are doing, fucking manager?"

"It can't be much different than taping the rest of you up when you get hurt," she retorted, though inside she was a little nervous. This was Cerberus, after all, the devil dog that was feared almost as much as his master. His teeth had terrified lesser men, and Mamori wasn't even a man.

Squaring her shoulders, she approached the table with the first aid kit. Laying out her materials, she bit her lip as she reached out for the injured leg. But as soon as she touched it, the dog's head whipped around and he bared his teeth at her in a fearsome growl.

Eep! Mamori jumped back.

"Fucking dog," Hiruma said in exasperation, and came forward. Long fingers reached out and gently but firmly pinned down Cerberus's head and back legs. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded.

"O-oh, right." Mamori came forward again. Cerberus growled again, but with Hiruma holding him he couldn't bite and soon just whined pitifully as Mamori wrapped and splinted the leg.

Mamori peeked at the quarterback as she was doing it and was surprised by the intense look on his face. But then blue eyes flicked to her. "Are you fucking done yet?"

"Almost." Finishing, she stood back. Hiruma snorted, then shocked everyone by picking up the dog from the table and depositing him in his basket in the corner.

A finger shot out. "Stay," he ordered.

It further shocked everyone when Cerberus growled a little but obeyed. Hiruma looked up to see the slack jaws of everyone at the doorway and yanked out his rocket launcher. "What the hell are you doing, brats? Back to work!"

Feet scrambled as everyone rushed out of the way of the incoming missile.

Cerberus appeared to have just badly sprained his front leg and not totally broken it, so was up and limping around after a few days. Oddly, it wasn't Mamori who kept the most watch over the dog, but Hiruma. He made the team fill in the holes in the field under the guise of it being a speed drill, and every time the dog seemed about to run and strain his leg prematurely, the quarterback sent a spray of warning shots in his direction. He even took over checking the leg's bandages and making sure the swelling was going down from Mamori after watching her once and peppering her with questions.

Mamori made the mistake of telling all this to Suzuna, who nudged her back with a wink and a grin. "See? What did I tell you? It's totally adorable that he really does care for his dog. Right?"

Mamori sighed and shook her head, but…looking at the quarterback yelling obscenities further down the field…well. As weird as it was, and as much as she hated to admit it, the Hiruma over the past week who worried over his dog and was equally worried about showing it…

Hiruma glared at Cerberus, who had trotted out beside him to watch and barked a question. "Sit down, you damn dog. I'm using the AK-47 today. Run, you fucking brats, run!"

…well, that was kind of cute. In a psychotic nutjob sort of way.