I'm back! (and stuck in bed with Freshers' Flu). Important-ish notes at the end for those who bother :P
Disclaimer: I disclaim.
? - Overprotected
After all the months since it happened, Mamori could only barely remember saying the words 'girls will only ever think of you as a brother' to Sena, and the aggravation that had caused him. But at that moment in time, the memory didn't even cross her mind.
She had been waiting in Sena's room for just a few minutes – he was on one of his evening jogs, which could go on for hours if he lost track of time – when she noticed a message pop up on his computer screen. Curious, but with no ill-intentions, she read what was written.
The first thing that made her nervous was the fact, instead of giving a name he was simply called '18'. The message itself merely said 'hey, are you free?'
'Why would Sena be talking to people he doesn't know online? Doesn't he know how dangerous that is?' With these thoughts she almost felt justified typing a message back: 'yes.'
For the few moments between sending the message and receiving the next she felt as if her heart was going to force its way out of her chest: maybe she should have just ignored it...
'I'm thinking of you, baby.'
She could barely feel her heart now, shock causing her whole body to feel numb. 'That doesn't mean anything – it could just be a really close friend...' With that thought she forced herself to continue with the conversation, with even more justification that what she was doing was right – this person could be dangerous to Sena.
'Oh? And what are you thinking?'
If she had been a religious person, she would have been on her knees praying for anything but the reply that she received.
'That I wish it was your hands touching me instead of my own.'
Her hands froze over the keyboard, completely clueless on how to respond. How could Sena be in a relationship like this without her knowing? Was he being forced into it? What sort of girl thought of Sena that way – besides Suzuna, but it couldn't be her, she was at the doctors right now, with flu. Unless that had been an excuse to get away from Mamori... Her speculations paused when the next message appeared.
'Still can't get over the sight of you on your knees, sucking me off. I'm hard just thinking about you!'
It was a guy... Sena had a boyfriend. He had a boyfriend that nobody knew about! Her legs felt like jelly as she rushed out of the room and down the stairs, telling Sena's parents she had a meeting and would see Sena tomorrow.
Why hadn't Sena told her?
Sena was only five minutes from home when his phone began to ring, prompting him to pause and fish it from the depths of his pocket.
He smiled at the name that appeared on the screen before flipping it open. "He-"
Before he could even manage a greeting, he was cut off by the frantic voice on the other end.
"Are you mad at me? I didn't mean to pressurize you into anything: I thought you were okay with that sort of talk! Have I been going too fast? I thought you'd tell me!"
"What? Why would I be mad?" Sena could only ask in confusion before managing to address the other questions. "I don't feel pressured at all, you know how I feel about you! We've been taking it slow for months!"
There was a pause and a relieved sigh on the other end before his boyfriend spoke again, accusatory this time. "Then why did you leave me hanging just now?"
Sena was confused, he hadn't accidentally jogged past him and ignored him, had he? "What? I didn't just jog past you, did I? If I did, you know how I get when I'm jogging, you should have just stopped me!"
There was a longer pause on the other end this time before he spoke again. "A jog? You left me in the middle of a conversation to go for a jog? I thought you were offended by what I'd written!"
It took Sena a moment to realise he was talking about an online discussion but that just made him even more confused. "When was this conversation?"
"It started about twenty minutes ago, why?"
Sena barely managed to choke out the next sentence, the thought that someone had been messaging his boyfriend and reading what they said to each other simply too horrifying for him to comprehend.
"...I've been jogging for fourty minutes now..."
From the silence on the other end, he could assume his boyfriend was going through the same horror that he was.
"I'm almost home now, give me a minute to get back and I'll see if anyone's been in my room." He started to run, almost full out whilst keeping his phone pressed tight against his ear to hear anything over the sound of his breathing.
"I'm sorry Sena, I thought you'd just left halfway through..."
"It's fine. What did you say in the conversation?"
The long pause on the other end told him that it couldn't be good. "Not much before I stopped getting replies, but I did talk about... you giving me a blowjob... I'm really sorry Sena!"
For a few seconds Sena stopped breathing and forced himself to stop running, just a street away from his house anyway. "It's alright. It's not your fault at all. It's whoever pretended to be me – it's their fault."
They both lapsed into silence for several moments as Sena pushed the door open and slid his shoes off, making his way to the kitchen where both his parents were.
"You're back rather soon, honey. Is something wrong?" his mum asked, obviously noting the pallor that had taken over his face.
"Mum, has someone been in my room whilst I was out?"
"Mamori popped by, but she had to leave as she had a meeting. She said she'd see you tomorrow at school though."
He didn't respond when she asked if he was alright again, already speaking into the phone. "It was Mamori," he couldn't add the 'neesan' onto her name like he normally did, not after she did something like this. "Can you come over?"
He realised how pathetic he sounded, but couldn't bring himself to care when the immediate response was: "I'll be right over."
He headed up to his room to see what exactly had been written by Mamori, ignoring the questions his mother asked.
It was half an hour later that he heard the front door open and his mother's loud greeting.
"Sakuraba-kun! How are you? Sena's been acting strange since he got back from his jog tonight, I don't suppose you know what's wrong do you?"
"I do, Kobayakawa-san, but I don't think I can really say, is he in his room?"
"Yes he is, and I keep on telling you not to call me that! Will you be staying the night?"
He could hear him jumping up the stairs after confirming he would, and seconds later Sena's door creaked open.
He tackled the taller blonde before he even managed to take a step into the room.
"Haruto..."
He felt his long arms wrap around his waist and a kiss pressed to the top of his head before the arms moved and scooped him up, moving them both to his bed.
"Shhh, Sena. It'll be alright. I'm here for you."
The next morning instead of heading to practice before school began, the two of them went on a long jog around the town before Sakuraba left him at the gates, saying he'd be around after school to pick him up.
He watched Sakuraba walk away – and would vehemently deny the longing in his eyes, whilst simultaneously blushing furiously – before taking a step into the school grounds and hear his name called a second later.
Sena barely managed a smile for Jumonji as the three not-brothers ambled over to him, Jumonji swinging an arm around his shoulder.
"You alright shorty? You seem kinda down."
Sena looked up at the blonde who was as good as an older brother before sighing and looking down again, only worrying the threesome more.
"Okay, here's the plan," Jumonji announced, looking at the two on either side of him. "We're skipping first period and you," he nudged Sena, "are going to tell us what's up."
Sena almost managed a smile: Jumonji made him feel safe, ever since they became friends. It was ironic, thinking that, that he was then lead to the place where they had demanded he buy them lunch at when they first met.
"He's coming over after school, I'm pretty sure he's ready to come out now," Sena concluded.
"God, that bitch!" Jumonji swore, kicking an empty juice bottle against the wall.
"You want us to rough her up, Sena-chan?" Kuroki offered, more than serious.
Sena laughed slightly and shook his head, not missing the disappointed looks on the three faces.
"Nah, I'm pretty sure Hiruma-san will already three steps ahead of you in that respect, and – no offense – but i can't think of anything worse than facing Hiruma-san's wrath."
"You told Hiruma about this? Seriously?" Sena could easily understand his disbelief and quickly shook his head.
"Of course not, but is there really anything we do that he doesn't know about – particularly if it involves a rival team? Plus I know for a fact none of you put the condoms in my locker just after Haruto and I had discussed going all the way three days ago."
The trio choked.
It was obvious Sena wasn't the only one avoiding the issue during school time when Mamori didn't appear as she usually did during lunch. He almost expected her to be absent from the club house when he entered with Hiruma's arm slung over his shoulder – he really had too many brother-figures – to receive a harsh stare at the harmless arm touching the petite brunette.
"Hiruma. I should have known it was you – only you are so crude!" she declared, her words filled with spite.
Without even glancing at the enraged manager, Hiruma announced, "We're going to have a guest today, you'd better play your fucking best!"
"Hiruma!"
Sena snapped, turning to glare at the older girl. "Mamori! Just stop! It's not Hiruma! I don't want to hear anything from you right now."
She froze, staring in Sena, shocked that he had yelled at her.
"Sena... what do you mean?"
The cold glare she received seemed to send a bolt of ice through her heart, leaving her stuttering in confusion.
"It was pretty obvious what you did, and you're not even trying to hide the fact you know I'm dating someone now."
The announcement brought several exclamations of surprise from the group – the loudest from Suzuna – whilst identifying those who had already known easily.
Mamori felt her mouth open and close several times before she managed to form a response. "Sena, I'm only doing what's best for you... you shouldn't be-"
Whatever he shouldn't be was left unsaid as the door slid open, revealing a large silhouetted figure that filled the frame before stepping through.
Monta perfectly summed up everyone's confusion at the new arrival, simply with the words "Sakuraba-san? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to see Sena. I decided we should go out for dinner tonight, somewhere upmarket."
Before anyone could quite explain what was going on to those observers who had been confused from the start, Sakuraba dragged Sena to him, pulled his face up to meet his lowered one and entwined their tongues enthusiastically.
When they finally separated it took him several long seconds to disappate the haze that clouded his mind, managing just in time to hear Mamori ask, tearfully: "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you once told me girls would only think of me as a brother, and at the time, that hurt. But now, it's fine, why would I want a girl when I have my knight in shining armour?"
I don't particularly like this fic - though rereading it did make me feel a bit better about it - but it's a different way for Mamori to find out so... Also, that ending is SO cheesy... I almost cringed :P
And I know it was rather obvious from the start who the 'mystery boyfriend' was but... yeah...
There is a whole backstory for this fic written in which they got together, but it wasn't necessary to the fic so it might appear sometime as a stand-alone one-shot, or I might add extra chapters to some of these fics as I can think extra stuff for some of them.
In other, more exciting news, I managed to find a reasonable amount of ES21 doujinshi whilst I was in Japan XD There was SO much ShinSakuraba and, whilst I like that pairing, it's not my favourite (or one of my favs, all of which include Sena...)
Thanks for all the awesome reviews! I'm running out of ficlets for this series, so sometime soon might start posting another series of them so keep an eye out!