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"Ahahaha, Kaya-chan, you're such a gossip! Where do you hear all of this?"

"Oh, here and there. And really, all it takes is a good pair of eyes to spot these things." Kaya smirked. "For iiiinstance...." She peered around, her voice dropping low. "For instance, anyone with eyes can see that Mamori Anezaki and that scary blond guy, Hiruma-san?" She leaned in towards her friends, whispering, "They are SO going out."

Her friends' eyes went wide. "NO!"

"HUSH, and YES." Kaya grinned. "Possibly even DOING IT."

Six pairs of eyes whipped around to look over towards Anezaki-san's cubby, where Anezaki-san was fiddling with something in her bag.

"How do you know THAT, Kaya-chan?" Hinata asked, wide-eyed.

Kaya shrugged, pulling her jacket on. "Oh, come on, all you've got to do is watch. Anezaki-san joined the American football team to be the manager, and I mean, why ELSE would she do that than if there was a guy on it that she liked--"

Tokiko interrupted, "I heard that that was just because her friend joined. Y'know, that little first-year, what's his name...."

"Yeah, whatever," Kaya sniffed. "Little what's-his-name isn't the one that she's always talking to between periods."

"I don't know, I see her talking to lots of--"

Kaya overrode her, "ALL I KNOW...is that she talks to Hiruma-san an awful lot, all close and huddled together, and they're always walking places together and really, just LISTEN to them. They SO sound like they're going out."

Tokiko looked doubtful. "He's always swearing at her, though. And yelling. He doesn't treat her very well."

Hinata spoke up quietly, "But she always stands up to him. Anezaki-san is so brave. _I_ wouldn't be brave enough to tell Hiruma-san off like she does. You know, I saw her yell back at him, once?"

"Right!" Kaya exclaimed, brandishing her bag purposefully. "She stands up to him, and when he's so rude to her that any other girl wouldn't have anything to do with him, she just seems to be used to it, right? Again, why would she do that if she's not getting...SOMETHING out of it, hmmmm?"

Tokiko rolled her eyes. "That's pretty weak 'evidence', Kaya-chan-"

"Hmph," Kaya said, shouldering her bag. "Fine, then, don't believe me, but I'm telling you--oh oh, look, see, what did I tell you? Don't all look at once, you idiots!" she hissed, as everyone turned again to look over at where Hiruma-san had leaned against the cubby next to Anezaki-san's.

"So." Hiruma-san said. "Did you get the stuff I asked for?"

Anezaki-san closed her cubby and glanced apologetically over at Fumi-chan, who was fidgeting to the side and looking like a dragon had decided to guard her shoes. "You're in the way, move, move." Anezaki-san made a shooing gesture with her hand, and when that just got her a bland look, she got a shoulder into his side and pushed until, grumbling loudly, Hiruma-san moved and Fumi-chan could dart in to rescue her things.

Kaya smirked, hissing, "Such casual physical contact! I WONDER WHY!"

Tokiko looked impressed. "That was a good move. I wonder if she learned that from watching the American football guys?"

"Hssst!" Kaya said. "I can't hear!"

Hiruma-san was checking his phone idly, "--fucking manager. C'mon, did you get the stuff or not?"

Anezaki-san sighed, pulling on her jacket. "Yes, I did. Honestly, why am _I_ the only one who always has to get supplies when it's always YOUR fault we need them?"

Hiruma-san grinned, snapping his phone shut. "Oh, c'mon, s'not like you don't have fun, too, fucking manager. Don't I always have good ideas?"

"No!"

"--You seemed to have plenty of fun the other day under the goalposts." Hiruma-san smirked. "Certainly...ENFLAMED the situation, didn't you?"

It was hard to tell, but Anezaki-san might have been blushing. "Well...even I can have a moment of weakness now and then."

Hinata-chan looked like her eyes might fall out of her head. Kaya smiled smugly..

Hiruma, meanwhile, was gloating. "Heh. I hope you got a lot. We're totally out, you know."

"What? I thought I saw another box in the cupboard!"

"Eh, those're all old and crappy. I think some water got on them when the roof leaked last time."

"Ew." Anezaki shrugged into her jacket. She picked up a pharmacy bag by her feet. "They only had a few boxes left, so I got what they had."

Hiruma-san stuck his head over to peer inside, and Anezaki-san batted his hair-spikes away when they nearly poked her in the eye. "Fucking manager! You got the crappy generic kind!"

"They were all they had! And they were cheaper, besides!"

"Cheaper my ass. They fall off after you start moving around the tiniest bit, not to mention when you start sweating. And they pull and are really fucking uncomfortable besides. Get the good stuff next time, I don't care how much they cost." He poked at the bag a bit more before straightening up. "And get a bigger size next time. You've seen what you've got to deal with, the little ones just don't cut it." He gestured widely with his hands. "Bigger! MUCH bigger!"

Anezaki-san sighed. "Fine." She looked into the bag thoughtfully as they walked away. "Maybe if I get an economy size pack or something....."

In the ensuing silence, Kaya shut her cubby door with a triumphant click. "I? Rest my case."

*****

"Seriously, though, if you would just stop beating everyone up and firing off random automatic weapons, maybe we wouldn't NEED more bandages," Mamori grumbled as they headed for the club office.

Hiruma sucked a bright blue bubble back into his mouth with a more-than-slightly-disgusting schlup! noise. "Do not question my training methods, fucking manager."

"Training methods, my foot," Mamori muttered, struggling with the key in the lock. She made a sour face when the lock gave under Hiruma's practiced rap at just the right spot on the doorframe. "You know, sometimes I can't tell if you're just a big bully or not. On the one hand you're always yelling and beating the team up and threatening them with guns and your smelly dog--"

"Fucking Cerberus is not 'my dog'!"

"Yours!--and on the other hand you hound me to get band-aids and bandages, even though you're the one that gives everyone half of their injuries!" Mamori turned on the light, dropping the pharmacy bag on the desk and setting her school bag next to it. Her voice was sarcastic. "You'd better watch out, or the team might start thinking that you're a nice guy."

Hiruma snorted, stretching his arms over his head and turning his head at a rather unnatural angle, first one way, then the other. "Don't be ridiculous. Those fucking morons get something infected or get gangrene or some shit, especially on Eyeshield 21's or the monkey's hands? Our chances of getting to the Christmas Bowl go down the crapper. Besides, that's what club funds are for."

"I should have known. All you care about is your precious bowl game," Mamori said, crouching down to peer into the first aid cupboard. Ew, yeah, that box of band-aids was kind of gross. She picked it up with two fingers and tossed it into the wastebasket.

"Fucking right," Hiruma said, his voice a little muffled in a way that Mamori didn't really register until she stood up and found herself staring at a long expanse of naked back, Hiruma's shirt tossed onto one of the chairs and his hands working on his pants.

"Gah." Mamori turned on her heel, heading for the door. "And WARN me when you're going to change! Honestly!"

"Why?" Hiruma sounded bored, out of sight behind her. "I was here long before you were, fucking manager. This is a man's domain, deal."

Mamori jerked the door open with a huff. "You are such a..." Why did all of the words she'd normally use just not seem bad enough for Hiruma Yoichi? "....an ASS!"

She slammed the door behind her, on the call of "STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK MY BONES BUT FUCKING MANAGER NAMES WILL NEVER HURT ME, KEKEKEKEKE!"

Mamori sighed, rubbing her throbbing temple, telling herself to breathe, just breeeeeathe.... She was starting to feel her blood pressure subside when the door jerked open behind her and Hiruma stalked out, dressed in his uniform, helmet under his arm. He shoved the pharmacy bag at her on his way past like he was tucking it into a receiver's belly. "Don't forget the shit."

"I wasn't going to!" Mamori resisted the urge to throw it at him and instead ducked back into the office, grabbing the rest of the first aid kit and her clipboard before closing the door behind her.

"The morons're already on the field! Hurry up, fucking manager!" Hiruma called back as he turned the corner.

God, I really, really hate that man. As she broke into a run to catch up, Mamori entertained a few choice fantasies of wrapping Hiruma's head in bandages until he suffocated. Or maybe putting some rat poison in his water bottle. Or hey, that flamethrower had been good enough for Rice-kun....

Mamori jogged a little faster, a smile pulling at her lips, the words No jury in the world would convict me.... floating happily through her head.

~End