FASH: Just a list of terms I force Akaba to use so that incase you're not music-literate you won't be confused. Tempo: An indication of speed. Tremolo: Quick repetition of a note or a rapid alternation of two different notes. Adagio: A tempo with slow movement, restful and at ease. Cadence: A sequence of chords that bring and end to a phrase in the middle or end of a composition.

Disclaimer: Only in my dreams do I own Eyeshield 21...

""-speech

''-thoughts

The Christmas Bowl was over, Sena could finally admit to others that he was number twenty one with a small fraction of pride he had carefully cultivated over his time playing American football.

But recently he discovered that Hiruma was really, very serious about other teams wanting to get their hands on his 'light speed legs.' Most teams were easily shooed away by Suzuna, or Sena could respectfully decline and they'd leave him alone for a while at least.

But someone just wasn't in the habit of taking no for an answer, and one quarter of the times Sena left his house during the first week of Christmas vacation he'd always catch a glimpse of someone in a Deimon baseball uniform. Of course he thought it was just coincidence at first, even though sometimes he'd get notes in his mail box asking him to join the baseball team. But during the second week of vacation things just got creepy.

He was absolutely sure that he was being followed around almost half of the times he left the house, and he wasn't just being paranoid! Whoever was following him around clearly didn't know the meaning of the word 'incognito' or 'sneaky' and seemed to think that they were completely invisible.

Or maybe they thought that Sena being able to see them every time he turned around would somehow calm him and not go crying to any of his fairly tough friends about it.

One of the weirdest things about it was that Sena's refusal to play baseball had pretty much been accepted by the entire baseball team, there were a few members who'd done the usual 'well if you ever change your mind, just come to a practice' type of thing, and as far as Sena was concerned, the baseball team would be the least of his worries.

'But I guess there's someone on every team that will do anything to get their team to win the championships.' Sena smiled a bit before shaking his head, his eyebrows crinkling together. 'But at least Hiruma-san is very open with his rather... Underhanded methods.' Sena threw a look over his shoulder again and saw the leg and arm of someone sticking out from behind a mail box, the brunette sweat dropped. 'Well, at least it's not like they know what they're doing, I think that their completely harmless. Hopefully.' He turned away from the semi-disturbing view and once again began making his way towards Kurita's for the New Years celebration the lineman was holding at his family shrine.

The entire evening had been wonderful and Sena found that he was able to forget his little stalker problem within minutes of arriving at Kurita's house. And the problem was pushed even further out of his mind when Hiruma showed up with a couple bottles a sake and decided that Sena was too much of a goody-goody and needed a drink, or two, or five.

But who was Sena to refuse when he knew Hiruma probably had more than just a couple of fireworks in the bag slung over his shoulder. Mamori had tried to Sena from drinking too much, but she was always dragged away by Suzuna before her words could really sink in.

So Sena was walking home with Mamori and Monta, everything seemed a little fuzzy and it was a bit too hot, but Mamori had told him that since he stopped drinking earlier on that he'd probably sober up from the fresh air, and there no reason not to trust Mamori.

"Sena, do you want me to walk you all the way home?" Sena shook his head, briefly wondering where Monta had gone.

"Sena, Monta hasn't been walking with us for the last five minutes, he's already home." 'Oh, I said that out loud?' Mamori gave him a worried look. "Sena, I think I should walk you home." Sena shook his head violently. "No, it's okay Mamori-neesan, I was just lost in thought, besides, if you walk me all the way home it'll take an extra twenty minutes for you to get home." "But Sena-" "Don't worry, it's News Years, if I get somehow managed to get lost in my own neighborhood I'm sure that there'll be a police officer on the lookout for rowdy teenagers who will escort me home with just a warning." It took all of Sena's power to say it clearly, but apparently Mamori was convinced enough to let him go off on his own, he was only a couple of blocks away from his house, it would be pretty pathetic for him to get lost even if he was a bit tipsy.

So Sena waved Mamori goodbye as she set off down a different street and he turned to begin walking towards his own home, when he caught sight of a uniform clad leg, barely visible from the angle Sena was looking at, but it was there, only two streets up.

Sena sobered up a bit and glanced around him, the neighborhood he lived in didn't have too many kids around, so the streets were pretty much bare of 'rowdy teenagers'.

'I think it's time for a detour.' He thought to himself as he turned around, going down a couple of streets and then turning left at a slow, casual seeming pace.

'Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe someone just so happened to be wearing very similar pants. Or maybe they were finally going to stop hiding around in the shadows and were going to confront me about joining the team. In fact I should turn around right now and tell them no, then they'd never have to follow me around cause they already know my answer. Right?' Sena turned around and took one step forward, before chickening out and going back on his detour route.

He was on a fairly main street, so he didn't feel to bad about being followed, at least he was surrounded by drunk, but very friendly people.

He tensed a bit when a hand clasped his shoulder, but relaxed when a female voice whispered 'Happy New Year' and slapped his back a couple of times before wondering off towards a larger group of people.

Sena wandered around the streets for a bit before finally deciding that he'd make his way home, feeling courageous enough and still a bit tipsy enough to feel that taking some back alleys was a good idea.

He'd been trekking though a couple alleys safe and sound before he heard some footsteps behind him, Sena turned around, but it was too dark to see anyone, so he sped up a bit, only to hear the footstep behind him going faster as well, so he broke out into a jog, cautiously looking over his shoulder before he stumbled over some uneven ground and scraped his knees against the pavements. "Owww." But the footsteps hadn't halted so Sena managed to pick himself up and run for it. He made it to a street and was semi-relieved to see a couple of people and he slowly down a bit, turning into another alleyway between two buildings once again with his head turned to survey behind him, not having learned his lesson about keeping his eyes in front of him and ran smack dab into a wall.

He fell to the ground with an 'oh fuck,' and sat there for a moment, looking at the brick wall in front of him. 'Oh great, a dead end.' Sena stood up, a bit wobbly, and slowly made his way towards the exit. 'Hopefully they didn't see me run in here, or else I'm trapped like a rat.' Sena thought as he tensed, hearing footsteps coming closer. 'Please pass me, please pas me, please pass me.' Sena repeated the mantra over and over as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to meld himself into the wall.

"Fuuuu? Is that Sena of the Deimon Devil Bats I see there?" Sena's eyes snapped open and he practically threw himself into the chest of Hayato Akaba with a cry of: "Hayato-san!" Akaba stood there, a bit dumbstruck before lowly commenting. "The tempo of your heartbeat is tremolo." Sena didn't bother to ask, because he figured that meant his heart was beating quickly, so instead he said. "Hayato-san, someone's been following me."

Akaba lifted up his purple sunglasses to get a better look at the street around him. "I suppose you're talking about the boy who's being very unsuccessful at hiding himself?" Sena nodded and buried his face into Akaba's shirt, inhaling deeply. 'He smells nice... Wait, why am I smelling him?' Sena pushed himself away, a light flush on his cheeks as he nervously peered over Akaba's shoulder, having to stand on the very tips of his toes to be able to see.

"Do you want me to go chat with him?" Akaba asked and Sena shook his head. "No! That's okay! He hasn't tried anything, he's just been following me around, wanting me to join the baseball team-" "Then I'll walk you home." "... Eh?" Akaba smiled as he tucked his sunglasses in his shirt pocket. "You're not exactly a damsel in distress, but I'll try and make you heartbeat switch to adagio. Besides, our rhythms match each other very well." Sena nodded and blushed when Akaba took hold of his hand.

"Well, lead the way Sena." Sena nodded and started walking along the streets that would eventually lead to his house, making a little small talk along the way about his current problem.

"Why haven't you informed any of your teammates about this? I'm sure your captain is more than capable of stopping any sort of... Problems." "Oh, I didn't want to worry my team mates about it, Mamori-neesan especially, she'd probably end up following me around too." Sena started to laugh, but it ended abruptly when Akaba squeezed his hand a bit harder. "But you don't mind making me worry?" Sena quickly turned to look in Akaba's eyes, slightly panicked. "I'm sorry! I'm causing you trouble, aren't I!? You didn't have any plans did you? I'm really, really sorry!" Sena let go of Akaba's hand and bowed repeatedly.

"You don't have to worry about it. I couldn't help but worry when you clung to me like that, fearfully telling me that someone was stalking you. For the few minutes before you mentioned it was just to get you to join a sports club I thought he was trying to get you alone to defile you." Sena blushed. "De-defile?" "Yes, but never-the-less," Akaba began, locking hands with Sena again. "My night will not reach it's cadence before I have brought you home safe and sound." "Uh. Thank you Hayato-san." Akaba sent him a heated look. "Please, call me Akaba." "Hai, Akaba-san." Sena answered with a blush, not used to calling many people by their first names.

The conversations that went on between them for the next few minutes before they reached Sena's house, covering the topics that they both new best and were most interested in, which was football, of course.

It seemed like no time had passed before Sena stood in front of the gate to his house, smiling and thanking Akaba in a soft voice. "Well, I suppose that your night has reached its... Cedanse? Cadince? Ca-" "It's cadence, and that point hasn't been reached quite yet." Akaba said as he slowly took one wide step forward, causing Sena to back himself up against the fence. "Umm, Akaba-san?" His eyes widened when Akaba braced his two hand s on either side of Sena's head and leaned down so that his face was on the same level as Sena's.

"Are you not going to give me a good night kiss?" "HIII?!" "Oh come on, it can double as a thank you kiss for walking you home." "But Akaba-san!" Akaba moved in a bit closer so that when he spoke again, his lips gently brushed against Sena's with every movement. "It's okay to give into temptation." He whispered, but he made no move to go even further forward, and Sena, who had felt shivers run down his back when he felt the light touches of Akaba's lips against his, decided to just go with the flow and lifted his hands up to Akaba's shoulders and pulled him down into a full out kiss, forcing their lips to mash together.

When Sena finally broke away from the kiss in favor of breathing he desperately tried to tried to stop blushing as Akaba gave him a knowing look.

"Fuuu. If I hadn't left my guitar at home, I would be serenading you with song." The older boy said cooly and Senas, sweat dropped, glancing towards his house to make sure that neither of his parents were in the doorway, alerted by some strange voice in their mind that their son's first kiss had just been taken by another boy.

"Akaba-san, has your night met it's cadence yet?" "I suppose so, but I'll be seeing you around Sena." Akaba said with a wave as he strutted off, cracking his knuckles once he was out of hearing distance with a smirk on his face. He had a little baseball player to 'convince' to stop following Sena around, and it would probably be a piece of cake.

And so the next morning Sena woke up and for some strange reason wasn't being followed anymore whenever he went outside and when he went to sleep at night he heard the strum of a guitar outside his window. 'He was serious about that serenading with song business?!' He thought to himself desperately as he practically jumped out his window to shut Akaba up with a kiss before his parents woke up from the noise.

Akaba didn't really mind.