Disclaimer, summary, and warnings can be found on the first chapter.

Chapter Four

Hiruma stood at the door looking at her. He frowned at what he saw, but said nothing about it out loud.

"Am I just going to stand out here all night, or you gonna invite me in?" He asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Please come in." Mamori said with a slight jump and moved to open the door fully so he could come inside. "I thought you were Sena coming to deliver food from his mom."

She closed the door behind him and made sure all the locks were properly in place before moving around him and heading towards the living room.

"Speaking of which, have you eaten?" Hiruma asked.

"Uh… no. I've just finished my homework assignments. Not really feeling up to food at the moment. I was just about to head to bed actually. This headache won't seem to go away. Can I offer you some tea? I don't really have much. I was supposed to stop to the store, but…" She remarked as she made her way slowly into the kitchen and started preparing tea.

Hiruma frowned more about the headache comment and moved to follow her into the kitchen. He leaned against the doorway as he watched her move back and forth. She had everything on the tray and was about to lift it in order to carry it to the kitchen table when a dizzy spell fell over her and she nearly collapsed.

"Go lie down before you fall down, damn manager." Hiruma said moving over to help her away from the tea set.

Mamori winced in pain and slowly nodded her head.

"Hai. Sorry Hiruma-kun." She gently rubbed her head and moved towards the couch intent on resting for only a minute.

She wasn't really feeling well, but at the same time she figured resting would help. Hiruma wanted to comment on the fact that it'd probably be better if she went to bed, but he shook his head and moved into the kitchen to put the tea in something that would allow them to enjoy it later. Once he'd put everything away, he moved back into the living room to see that she'd dozed off. Unsure as to whether or not he should leave her like this, he figured an hour or two wouldn't be such a bad idea. He'd actually brought a bag of clothes and his school things intending to stay over and watch her when he found out that her parents were out of town. How he found out wasn't up for discussion, but he had to admit to himself, he was glad he did come over. She looked ill. He set about finishing his own homework, but really he was working on things the class had yet to learn. He'd forced the teachers to give him their homework assignments for the year. He didn't want to get behind due to football, so he figured he'd stay ahead. It wasn't anything he had trouble with. Most the time he taught himself the lessons and took it as a review when they went over them in class. Granted he was usually thinking about football during class time, but no one had to know. He wasn't falling behind and he wasn't disrupting classes. His attention went back to Mamori when she moaned and winced in pain. He put the assignment he'd just finished back in his school bag and set about searching the place for some pain medicine. He grabbed what he could find and a glass of water before placing them on the table in front of her.

"Hey, you should probably get up and take these before heading up to bed." He called gently.

Mamori frowned slightly in confusion, and then blinked few times as she was forced from sleep.

"Hi…Hiruma-kun?" She searched her brain for the answers she sought and was thankfully rewarded with an explanation as to why he was standing there in front of her.

She looked down at the pill bottle and nodded. Shaking out two pills, she downed them with the glass of water and then slowly stood to her feet. She was a little unsteady at first, but Hiruma grasped her arm and held her until she managed to stand up straight.

"Thank you Hiruma-kun." She said, remembering she'd been saying that a lot.

She turned to face him and rested her hands on his shoulders before tilting her face to look up at him.

"What? What is it?" He asked slightly worried.

Was she about to vomit on him? He nearly took a step back, but realized he was technically holding her up. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before pulling away and heading up to her room. Hiruma stood there a moment shocked before turning to watch her go.

"Damn manager." He commented and set about lying down on the couch she just left.

He set his alarm and drifted off to sleep. Three hours later had him flying up the stairs and searching for Mamori's room when she cried out in pain and fear. He woke her from her nightmare and held her as she cried. Though he played the villain, he hated that this happened to her. He managed to calm her down and got her to go back to sleep. When they were up, getting ready for school, Mamori hardly looked her regular self.

"I don't need you causing problems for the team. You should just stay here and get better so you aren't distracting. No one would get anything done for looking at you." Hiruma commented.

"but classes…" Mamori tried to argue.

"Just have Sena bring your homework assignments over. Not like you couldn't stand to miss a day of class. Besides, it's Friday so you'll have all weekend to rest up and get your head back in the game."

Hiruma started for the door, but saw the silhouette of someone on the porch and moved away, heading a different direction. Mamori answered the door when the doorbell rang and explained to Sena that she wasn't going to be at school today. He nodded and had to agree with her decision as he really looked at her.

"Feel better Mamori-neechan. I'll bring your assignments and take really good class notes for you."

"Thanks Sena. Have a good day."

With a sigh, she turned to find where Hiruma went, but he was gone. She gave a small smile before moving to the back door to lock it and then heading up to her room to try to go back to sleep. She'd gotten a few more hours before she awoke feeling bad for sleeping nearly the whole day away. She took a quick shower and prepared to go to the store before her mind started playing unnecessary thoughts. What would happen if she left the house and someone else thought to start or finish what the stalker guy tried to accomplish? Was it really safe to leave the house alone? She started to allow her mind to win, but realized that these thoughts were foolish to have. It was day time and there were a lot more people out and about. If she were really in trouble, she only had to scream and someone would hear her. With determination she really didn't feel, she grabbed a recyclable bag and headed off to the corner store so she could grab some things. For a while there, she jumped at any and all noises she heard; ran away from any guy that tried to talk to her, whether they were merely asking directions, or trying to pick her up; looked at everyone with slight loathe as if wondering why they didn't help her before things got this bad and berated herself when she realized she was doing it.

"What am I doing?" She questioned quietly before walking into the store.

She gathered what she felt was enough for herself, but also a little extra, just in case. She paid for the items and quickly made her way back home. She fixed herself a simple breakfast and managed to eat a good portion of it before settling down on the couch to take a nap. She still wasn't feeling one hundred percent, but she hoped she'd eventually make it back to her old self. It was a little after two when she woke up again. She was feeling a bit better so she set about making herself a small lunch. Unsure as to what she could be doing, she set about cleaning the house. Fortunately, it was already well cleaned, but unfortunately, that meant she had to entertain herself by other means. She collected her notes on the mock game from yesterday and set about figuring out a way to let Hiruma know what she saw needed to be fixed, and what seemed to be working. It took the door bell ringing to wake her from her task and looking at the time she was sure she knew who it was.

"Sena-kun. I didn't realize what time it was. Please come in." She said while allowing him inside.

"I'm so tired. I just wanted to drop off the notes from class today and the homework." Sena said obviously exhausted.

"What did Hiruma-kun have you doing that you're so tired? I guess you had a bit more responsibility since I wasn't there. I hope you took good notes on the game. Do you have them with you?" Mamori asked.

"Uhh… no. He pretty much had me running errands the whole time so I wasn't there to take notes. I'm sorry Mamori-neechan."

"Oh, well it's fine if you were busy. It's usually my job anyway. Well, you go home and get to bed. I'll see you Monday."

"Does this mean you're feeling better?"

"Yes, I believe so. Thanks again for the notes. See ya."

"Bye."

Sena left and Mamori felt it time to make dinner. She set about getting things ready and had the stove on medium when the doorbell rang again. She frowned in confusion, unsure as to who it could be this time, but she went to the door and checked the peephole. Seeing it was Hiruma, she opened the door and blinked.

"Uhh… hello Hiruma-kun. How can I help you?"

"I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by. Humm… you look a little better."

"Thank you. Would you like to come in?"

She held the door open while waiting for him to come inside. Once he did, she closed it and made sure it was shut up tight.

"How was practice? Oh, I have the notes from yesterday to give you. I'll let you look them over while I finish preparing dinner. Here you are." She said while passing him the notes.

After seeing him start to look them over, she moved back into the kitchen and set about making Tonkatsu*. Before it was ready, she set the rice to start cooking in the rice cooker and moved to chopping up the cabbage. After making the dressing to pour on top of the cabbage, she set out two plates at the kitchen table, napkins, and two cups with iced sweet tea.

"Hiruma-kun, dinner is ready if you'd like to stay and eat before you go." She said while placing the rice cooker near her side of the table and putting the last hot dish on a wooden disk to keep the heat from scorching the table.

Not seeing a reason why he shouldn't stay, Hiruma put the notes he'd been looking over down and sat down at the table across from her. They said thanks for the food and began to eat. Hiruma wasn't too surprised that the meal was good. He'd had her simple breakfast before. As if needing a reason to fill the silence, Mamori began speaking about the notes she'd made and explained what she meant about them. Hiruma allowed her to talk, but didn't say a word as he was enjoying his meal. When they finished, they moved back to the living room after Mamori washed the dishes and put away any leftovers.

"What do you think?" She asked finally.

Hiruma looked bored for a moment and he set about doing his homework and typing the notes into his laptop. He was multitasking and his brain worked in many ways. He managed to finish the homework assignment before the notes and looked at Mamori.

"It's fine, damn manager. You should go to bed. You're starting to look…" He wasn't sure how to finish off that sentence as he really looked at her.

He frowned and finished the page he was working on. Standing to his feet, he went off in search of the restroom. He spent ten minutes in there and when he returned, somewhere within those ten minutes Mamori had fallen asleep on the couch. Unsure as to whether or not he wanted to wake her, he pulled the throw blanket from the back of the couch and covered her. She heaved out a sigh of content and snuggled a little bit under the blanket. He merely shook his head and got back to work on what he was doing. Looking at the clock, he noticed it was after 11PM and decided he'd need to get to sleep. He thought he'd just stay the night again, but she'd taken the area he was planning to sleep in and so he wasn't sure where to sleep. Packing everything back up into his school bag, Hiruma went back to stand over her and as gently as he could, removed the blanket and scooped her into his arms. Thankfully she stayed asleep, but she did call his name out softly. He frowned slightly at that wondering what she was dreaming about. He managed to get her up the stairs and into her bed before going back down the stairs and getting ready for bed himself.

The next few days weren't all that eventful. The Devil Bats managed to win their mock football game. Mamori's parents made it back into town before the hearing of the guy that hurt her. As it turned out, his name was Choki Akihito. She thankfully didn't know him and the court found him guilty. He was sentence to 25 years in jail. She thought that plenty of time to finish high school and to make her way to the U.S.A. Here was hoping she'd never have to see him ever again. Her parents were rather protective after that, but years later, when Mamori introduced her boyfriend to her parents, they seemed to let up a little. It had to be something about him willing to always be there and them never having to worry about her ever again. Her father was rather skeptical at first, but he was won over fairly quickly.

Ten Years Later...

"We're gonna be late if you don't hurry up!" Mamori yelled.

"I'll take my damn time if I want." Hiruma replied.

"We're supposed to be meeting my parents for dinner. You invited them!" She said in a bit of a panic.

"I'm well aware of my schedule. I don't need you repeating it to me. That's not your job anymore. You're job is to protect this little one and to stay stress free. I'm gonna protect the both of you and you're gonna deal with it." Hiruma stated.

Mamori took in a deep breath and released it. They were going to dinner to tell her parents that they were going to soon be grandparents. She knew her mother would be ecstatic, but she wasn't sure how her father would feel about it. She merely smiled to herself and twisted the wedding ring on her left hand.

"My self appointed guard." She said with a smile and leaned against him to hug him.

He turned from trying to fix his tie to allow her the physical touch she always seemed to need. It was like she always needed a physical reminder that he was there. He wasn't always about the touchy feely moments, but he reassured her in his own way.

"Alright woman! Let's go make your parents happy." Hiruma said after fixing his tie and lead the way out of their home.

A pretty quick roundabout way to end it, but I do hope you enjoyed reading my little story. Until next time…

*Tonkatsu- Breaded pork cutlet that's been deep fried (via google). One of my favorite Japanese dish.