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Ever since the game against the Bando Spiders, when he was revealed to be Eyeshield 21, Sena has noticed that his life has changed considerably. For example, as soon as he steps inside the school gates every morning, a horde of guys from different sports clubs bombard him with desperate pleas for him to join their club. His classmates talk to him now, the PE teacher actually knows his name, and every so often a note appears in his shoe locker – though not quite the kind that one might expect.
“You’re really popular with guys,” Monta says, squinting at the note from Shin which politely invites Sena to meet him at the river that weekend for a 10km run.
“Yeah,” Sena says with a sigh. He takes the note back from Monta, folds it carefully and tucks it into his bag.
“You’re still really unpopular with girls, though,” Monta assures him, patting him on the shoulder.
“Yeah,” Sena says. “At least there’s that.”
* * *
After a gruelling practice in which Hiruma has Cereberos chase him around the school grounds for what feels like three hours, Sena staggers into the clubroom to change. He’s about to put his shirt on when he feels a presence behind him, and he glances over his shoulder to see Jyuumonji looming over him.
“Sena,” Jyuumonji growls. His eyes seem to sweep over Sena’s half-dressed form, then snap back up to Sena’s face. His cheeks are red, Sena notices, probably from the exertion of trying to push Kurita off his feet during practice.
“Um. Yes?” Sena squeaks, and thinks about putting on his shirt. The change room is oddly quiet for this time of day, and he wonders where Hiruma and the others are.
“I heard that you... that Shin... gave you something?” Jyuumonji mutters.
“Gave me something?” Sena repeats, clueless.
He thinks for a full minute, but he still has no idea what Jyuumonji is referring to. “He... hasn’t given me anything?” Sena finally says, and slips on his shirt so that he’s not showing so much of his skinny body. Sometimes he thinks that playing American football with so many huge, muscular linemen could give him a serious complex.
Suddenly, Jyuumonji makes a low, angry noise before he smashes his fist into the wall above Sena’s head and stalks out of the clubroom. Sena stares after him, utterly confused.
As he finishes getting dressed, he thinks he can hear the sound of evil laughter, but when he steps outside, he doesn’t see Hiruma anywhere.
* * *
There’s another note in Sena’s shoe locker the next day, and Monta snatches it out of his hand before he can even open it.
“Dear Sena,” Monta reads out loud. “Would you like to join me at the public baths this evening? I have some information that you might find important for the Kantou tournament. Kakei. You’ve got another one after you, Sena.”
“No, well, that’s... very nice of him?” Sena mumbles. He takes the note back from Monta, folds it carefully and tucks it into his bag. Next to the other one.
* * *
He avoids Jyuumonji during practice, and he isn’t even sure why. Jyuumonji’s strange behaviour the day before was definitely surprising, considering that they all get along pretty well now, but it’s not like he’s afraid of Jyuumonji or anything. After all, he just punched the wall, it’s not like he punched Sena.
But Sena avoids him, avoids looking at his scarred face and his large body and his strong, capable hands, and he decides to leave practice a little bit earlier than usual for his meeting with Kakei. It takes all of his courage to approach Hiruma and ask for permission, expecting to be rejected (and maybe shot), but Hiruma’s reaction is, as always, completely unpredictable.
“Yeah, you can go,” Hiruma says casually. “Make sure to have a nice, long fucking chat with Kakei.” For some reason, he’s looking at the linemen as he says this, his eyes gleaming in a decidedly evil way.
Sena just nods, and doesn’t question his good luck.
* * *
He expects to find the whole Kyoshin Poseidon team at the public baths, just like the last time, but there’s only Kakei waiting for him, already seated in front of a tap and washing his hair.
“Hi, Kakei-kun,” Sena says. He sits down beside Kakei, very carefully keeping his towel over his lap, and starts to wash his own hair.
“Sena-kun,” Kakei replies. He glances behind Sena and his eyes narrow slightly, but he greets politely, “Jyuumonji-kun.”
“What?!” Sena yelps, jumping up and nearly dropping his towel in the process. Once again, he finds Jyuumonji looming over him, and he feels a sense of deja vu only this time Jyuumonji is naked. And Sena is covered in dripping shampoo.
“J-J-Jyuumonji-kun, what... what are you doing here?” Sena stutters, and refuses to let his eyes dip below Jyuumonji’s waist.
“I... Hiruma sent me,” Jyuumonji growls, and for some reason he’s glaring at Kakei.
Sena isn’t sure how long he just stands there, staring at Jyuumonji and clutching at his towel and dripping shampoo, before Jyuumonji gently shoves him back down onto his stool and takes the spot next to him.
“So,” Kakei says, as if nothing unusual was happening.
“So,” Sena gurgles under the stream of water rinsing away the shampoo in his hair.
“So,” Jyuumonji grumbles, still glaring at Kakei. “What did you want to tell us?”
This is when Kakei proceeds to give them three years’ worth of data on the Shinryuuji Naga, the statistics and strategic plays streaming from his lips in a calm monotone as they wash, then move to the bath to soak. Sena is completely overwhelmed after the first five minutes, and almost falls asleep in the water from the soothing heat and the steady sound of Kakei’s voice.
Eventually, he feels a big hand gripping his arm and pulling him out of the bath, and he blinks out of his daze to see Jyuumonji staring down at him, something like fond exasperation on his face.
“Kakei’s already left,” Jyuumonji says, and gives him a soft nudge towards the changing room.
Sena stumbles over to his bag and gets dressed, feeling sleepy and confused over the expression he thinks he saw on Jyuumonji’s face, and he forgets to feel self-conscious over the fact that he left his towel behind in the bath.
* * *
The next day, Sena doesn’t remember a single thing that Kakei told him, and Hiruma is about to spray him with bullets when Jyuumonji tosses a stack of papers onto the clubroom table and mutters, “Here’s all the data that guy gave us.”
“Hmph,” Hiruma grunts, and starts to flip through the information at lightning speed. He seems to have forgotten Sena’s existence, which is generally a good thing.
Grateful, Sena smiles tentatively at Jyuumonji, whose cheeks turn red, probably because it’s a warm day and they haven’t gotten the funds to install an air conditioner yet.
* * *
When he meets Shin at the river for their run, Sena almost expects Jyuumonji to suddenly show up and join them. But he doesn’t, and Sena feels kind of disappointed without really knowing why.
Trying to keep up with Shin over long distances is pretty distracting, though, so he stops thinking about Jyuumonji in the bath and concentrates on Shin’s broad, sweaty back.
* * *
On Monday morning, after escaping the usual horde at the school gates, Sena and Monta peer into Sena’s shoe locker with a sort of morbid curiosity. And there actually is a note in there, though this time it’s pink and smells faintly of flowers.
“It’s from a girl!” Monta exclaims. He grabs it before Sena can, and reads, “Dearest Sena-kun, I think you’re really really super amazing, especially as Eyeshield 21! I love American football! Won’t you go out with me? Smoochy kisses, Hirumako.” Monta drops the note as if it’s on fire. "Ugh!"
It flutters to their feet, and the two of them stare at it, then each other, in stunned, horrified silence.
“Let’s... pretend we never saw that,” Sena suggests weakly.
“Y-Yeah, okay,” Monta agrees. “Do you have, I dunno, tweezers or something?”
“What? Why would I have tweezers?” Sena asks, confused. “Why do you need tweezers?”
“To pick up the note and destroy it! I’m not touching that thing again, are you?”
They’re both late to class because it takes them a while to come up with a solution, which is to use two mechanical pencils like chopsticks to pick up the note and thrust it into the nearest trashcan.
* * *
When Sena arrives at the clubroom that afternoon before practice, Jyuumonji and his friends are there, changing into their football gear. Kuroki and Toganou leave pretty quickly, though, and Sena is wondering why they didn’t wait for Jyuumonji when a heavy hand falls on his shoulder and spins him around.
“I heard that you got a letter today? From some girl?” Jyuumonji says, scowling.
“Um,” Sena says instead of any of the other replies he immediately thinks of, such as Who did you hear that from? and It wasn’t from a girl.
“Well? Did you or didn’t you?” Jyuumonji demands, and the hand on Sena’s shoulder is squeezing kind of painfully.
“Yes... and no,” Sena squeaks. He clears his throat, and tries again. “I-I did receive a letter, but it was from Hiruma-senpai. At least, I think he’s the one who wrote it.”
To Sena’s surprise, Jyuumonji’s expression grows even darker, and he looks like he wants to punch the wall again. “Jesus, just how many guys do you have after you? First Shin, then Kakei, and now Hiruma-senpai too,” he snarls.
Sena stares blankly at him. Then, a full minute later, he says, “Oh my god, no, no no no, you’ve got the wrong idea! I mean, I’m pretty sure Hiruma-senpai’s letter was a joke of some sort?”
For a long moment, Jyuumonji doesn’t say anything, and when he does, all he says is, “Oh.”
Jyuumonji has both hands on Sena’s shoulders now, and Sena suddenly notices that they’re standing really, really close to each other. He sucks in a quick, nervous breath, but he releases it again when nothing else happens. He feels kind of disappointed, and doesn’t really know why.
“So,” he says into the awkward silence.
“So,” Jyuumonji says, with that fondly exasperated look on his face that Sena thinks he’s starting to recognise.
“So, just kiss each other, then get your fucking asses to practice,” Hiruma drawls from the doorway, where it looks like the whole team is gathered.
Sena jumps in shock, and this is when Jyuumonji tilts his chin up and kisses him. At first it’s hot and dry, but then their lips part and it’s slick and wet and somehow amazing, especially when Jyuumonji slides a hard thigh between Sena’s legs. At the back of his mind, he sort of registers the fact that the team is walking away, and Monta is saying loudly, “He’s just really popular with guys,” but Sena doesn’t hear the rest because kissing Jyuumonji is really, really distracting.
* * *
Jyuumonji throws out Sena’s (quite extensive) collection of notes that he’s gotten from other guys, and starts walking to school with him and Monta in the morning.
The hordes don’t really bother Sena anymore after that, and his shoe locker remains mostly undisturbed.