Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.

Short Pass: Recognition

"Huh." Musashi blinked at him and then smiled a little. "Wow, that's actually...kind of romantic."

Musashi was helping Hiruma weld the Segway to the oxygen capsule when he said it.

"Can you hand me that? And I think you should tell her."

Hiruma handed him the tool. "Tell who what?"

"Anezaki. I think you should tell her how you feel."

Hiruma was glad Musashi had his back to him at the moment. "Kekekeke! Have you gone senile, fucking old man? What are you talking about?"

"Hiruma." Musashi turned around and looked at him with a calm, steady gaze that Hiruma hated. It was the same sort of look he had when he kicked a field goal-whatever bullshit was going on with the other players, Musashi knew where the ball had to go.

Hiruma felt his characteristic evil grin slip. He had forgotten how much more perceptive the kicker was than Kurita. "Shit. How long have you known?"

Musashi shrugged. "Awhile."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Nope."

"Good." Hiruma felt something ease in his chest. "Then keep your mouth shut, fucking old man."

"I think you should tell her."

Hiruma laughed again and adjusted his sling. "Kekekeke! You said that, and it isn't any stupider the second time."

"What's stupid about it?"

"What isn't? Anyway, the whole fucking idea is ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous about it?"

Hiruma's eyebrow twitched. "What are you, a fucking broken record? The fucking manager and me..." For once, the quarterback was at a loss for words for how immensely impossible the idea was. "Anyway, you know how she reacted when Doburoku mentioned it."

"That was months ago." Damn it, Musashi was putting the tools down to face him directly. "She cares about you."

Hiruma rolled his eyes. "She cares about everybody." It was simultaneously one of the best and worst things about her.

"You didn't see her at the game," Musashi insisted. "When you got hit by Gaou, I thought she was going to faint. She looked like her world was ending."

Hiruma waved his good hand. "Like I said, she cares about everybody. If you or that fucking shrimp or even the fucking idiot got hit instead, she would have looked the same way-"

"She couldn't even stay on the field after that. She went to sit with you, and she cried for you didn't she?"

That, he admitted, had confused him. He would have thought that she would have wanted to stay on the field to support the rest of the team, but instead she followed him to the stadium infirmary like it wasn't even a question. And she did cry for him-and he had been very glad that he'd been swimming in and out of consciousness at that point, and had both his arms nearly broken to boot, or else he would have done something very stupid. He almost did anyway, when she was trying to convince him not to go back to the field, and remembered that third question he never asked her out of sheer desperation.

But that didn't make the idea any less impossible, and Musashi was looking at him with expression that was equal parts pity and sympathy but all kinds of annoying. "It was a tough game. She caught up in it, that's all. It doesn't change anything."

This time Musashi was looking at him in exasperation. "Hiruma, what are you afraid of?"

A thousand things. "It's not what I'm afraid of! It's what I fucking know. The fucking manager...Anezaki is," kind, sweet, pretty, brave, smart, dedicated, determined, understanding, "Anezaki and I'm me. Anezaki wouldn't go for a guy like me. And I'm sure as fuck not going to change, because that would be a lie, and I wouldn't lie to her. So...I'm the quarterback and she's the manager, and that's enough."

"Huh." Musashi blinked at him and then smiled a little. "Wow, that's actually...kind of romantic."

"Fuck off!"

The kicker chuckled. "Well, I can't make you say anything if you don't want to-"

"Damn straight."

"-but I still think you are being stupid. She's not going to be the manager of the Devil Bats forever. What are you going to do after graduation?"

"She'd be the manager of my college football team and we'll go to the Rice Bowl," Hiruma stated as if it was obvious.

"What if she doesn't want to be your manager anymore?"

Crawl into a hole and blow myself up. Well, not really. Probably. Though Hiruma wasn't sure he even knew how to function anymore if there was a manager-sized hole in his world. He tried not to even think about the possibility, because that way laid madness and if he broke down now, everyone was going to know and not just the fucking old man. Including her. Very little scared him, but that did.

So instead he pasted a grin on. "Kekekeke! Don't be an idiot. She loves being the manager."

It didn't fool Musashi for a second, damn him. But he gave his friend a break and picked up his tools again. "You're going to have to face up to it sooner or later," he said, "and Anezaki might surprise you."

"Do you want me to shoot you, fucking old man? Shut up and work."