"So who's the guy?" The question breaks Mamori from her marking to face her friend and fellow college Akari with a look of confusion clearly painted across her face.
"Who's taking you to the game this Friday?" Akari rephrases her question, eager to elicit a response out of Mamori who starts to feel a migraine coming due to the mention of said game. I need to sort out the recording' by year and position, that can be done after I send of the compilation of last year's matches… Mamori's brain races ahead sorting out and prioritising tasks for the coming Firday. That is until she reaches an unwelcome thought. Wait when did I mention I was going to watch the game? How on earth would Akari know… somebody must have told her but how would they know what she looks like ? Unless…
Akari tilts her head to the side as she awaits her answer, watching with amusement as her friend silently mutters to herself. Maybe she should ask again, Mamori did look tired when she came into work.
"Just an old friend," Mamori forces the tone of her voice to stay level as she feels anger building. For god's sake! He better not have set up camera's in this classroom.
"Oh, you know Takaoka-san was looking forward to going with you," Akari babbles unaware of Mamori's forced tone. Mamori's anger immediately fades, Oh that's how. She had been asked yesterday by the geography teacher, if she would like to go with him to the game. However she had declined politely saying that somebody else had invited her. Mamori then wonders how Akari got wind of that so quickly, but then again Akari has a good ear for gossip. She still makes a mental note to check for camera's though.
"So what's he like?" Akari leans forward determined to squeeze out information about the mystery man. Mamori is saved by the bell quite literally as the school bell rings, signalling the end of lunchtime for the kids.
"I'm sure he's a real gentleman, if it's you he's taking out," Akari teases before heading out of the door to gather up the kids from the playground. Mamori open's her mouth to correct her but then closes, there would be no point, and hangs her head dejectedly as she finishes marking the page.
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"So when did he ask you to go?" Mamori rolls her eyes at another question, Akari had been full off them since the beginning of the week. Mamori in Akari's eyes has responded too 'vaguely' which obviously means something suspicious is going on. What Akari doesn't know is that the answers are short in order to stop the oncoming wave of anger as in influx of data she has to sort keeps on growing.
Mamori takes a bite of her lunch and uses that time to formulate an answer, she wasn't exactly asked as such. Instead when the match was publically announced she received an email from one of his less commonly used addresses, Mamori assumes it's his professional one, with updated data up their own team and opponents. Which was accompanied by a one line message 'We're gonna fucking kill those Enma Bastards'. Mamori realises that there's no point in pointing out the fact that this is a charity game and thus amounts to nothing in particular because one he won't listen and two she doesn't exactly want to lose either.
"About a week ago," the email with the time he was coming to collect her arrived in her inbox last Tuesday, so Mamori decides this will suffice.
Akari's eyes widen in shock, damn this guy must be really special for Mamori to accept something at such short notice, usually her co-worker has events planned in advanced at least two weeks ahead. She then kind of feels sorry for Takaoka-san, that guy didn't have a chance.
"Well, I hope you'll get a good view, all the seated tickets were sold old pronto," Mamori shrugs in response. She doesn't want to say that she'll probably have one of the best views in the stadium however she won't be just watching the match. She's sure that it'll be filled with rapid hand signals and quick video editing with some gunshots for good measure.
Akari watches Mamori's indifferent reaction she expected her fellow teacher to be more frustrated at the aspect of poor seats. From what Akari remembers Mamori was part of the American football club during high school and University, so wouldn't she be a bit upset at not getting a good view of what people called the 'match of the centuary', unless…
"Are you going with that Eyeshield 21 guy?" Akari's sudden and loud question almost makes Mamori drop her chopsticks.
"No, I think he's taking somebody else," Mamori then reminds herself to call have her fortnightly catch up session with the roller skating cheerleader, that is if she can find time between marking and making game plans. Anyway she's sure that Suzuna is busy making up cheer routines for Friday's game.
Akari deflates at Mamori's response, she was sure she had hit the proverbial nail on the head. The famous running back is a childhood friend of Mamori's and since he's in the match and a NFL player, he will be bound to secure good seats despite late bookings.
Akari's pride prevented her from asking the obvious question of 'what's his name?' but it's been starting to prove to be rather tricky. She'd thought she knew her friend pretty well and had a good ear for gossip but she has listed all the men she could remember that had wanted Mamori's attention and each of them had been rejected by a simple shake of the head. Mamori is happy to keep it this way because it might be best for her friend not to know who's picking her up on Friday evening.
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By the time Friday rolls over, Mamori is exhausted. She'd forgotten how tiring it was to manage both work and American Football and the rumours that had been spread around weren't helping. The more Akari had questioned the more people had found out and this ranged from teachers, to parents to even the lady who ran the convenience store opposite the school.
And much like in high school the rumours ran wild because when sweet and lovely Anezaki-san has gotten a 'date' on Friday, the man must be a million dollar catch. So the identity of this man ranged from a foreign prince to an English gentleman. Some even joked that he could be a head of a Yakuza threatening her to be his date, the suggestion was immediately laughed off. Since Anezaki wouldn't ever run into someone like that at all. Mamori didn't have the heart to mention that out of all the suggestions that was the closest to reality.
Sighing the young teacher starts to put away the dress up costumes from their weekly themed playtime session. Much to her demise this week's had been Princesses, Knights and Dragons; Akari's idea no doubt. Which then results in being pestered by the children about who her knight in shining armour is.
"Fucking Manager, you're making me fucking wait." A familiar harsh voice cuts through the silent classroom and Mamori scowls and spins round.
"Language Hiruma! We're in a school." Even though she's scowling and despite the annoyance he had caused her over the last few weeks, she was glad to see him. She doesn't mention this outwardly of course unless she wants it to be a subject of endless teasing.
"There are none of the fucking kids around," the reply is short and holds his usual superiority, the pop of the gum at the end of the sentence makes it twice as irritating as it was originally.
"This is still a classroom, swearing is not allowed," Mamori says this through gritted teeth and she resists the urge to stop her foot especially when he starts smirking.
"Or what? Fucking Manager, you'll send me to the naughty corner," he teases and Mamori fumes and starts to finish packing up at a faster rate. The sooner they got to the stadium the less time there will be for his irritating comebacks.
Whilst she's folding a pink dress, Mamori sneaks a look the silent quarterback. His lanky frame is slightly twisted as he leans against the small doorframe and his eyes are fixated onto the glowing screen of his phone reading whatever devils read in their spare time.
"What are you fucking staring at?" Okay maybe he wasn't as fixated as she'd thought. Catching the motorcycle helmet thrown at her, Mamori shakes her head and smiles slightly because the guy picking her up is not the valiant knight in the story books she read as a kid. Instead she's being picked up by villain and despite his irritating behaviour, she wouldn't have it any other way.
Yay I finally got one of these in XD This is for Twelve Shots of summer which has technically ended by now OTL Anyway the prompt for this was Valiant and when the prompt came out I'd just finished Eyeshield 21 so brain was like well... guess who isn't valiant at all.
Thanks for reading and check out all the awesome TSOS fics XD