Bubblegum

This is my first MamorixHiruma fanfic that I've written. I hope u guys like it; I don't think this idea's been taken before. ;)

Rain.

Mamori wasn't quite fond of the rain; it was so dreary and it made one depressed at the sight of it. The ominous clouds that hung overhead, the feeling of water seeping through your socks and inching towards the bone, and that obnoxious driver that would drive ten miles too fast on a 20 mph road that would proceed to spray water into your face were things Mamori could do without. She also found that the rain had a rather negative effect on her mood as well; she typically became irritable and often became peeved at things that usually wouldn't have bothered her.

Like, for instance, Hiruma's perpetual smacking of his gum.

When doing paperwork that is of no importance to you, and due to a pet peeve that Mamori had adapted that forced her to read documents word for word, she found that absolute concentration was in order to do such tasks. But no matter how hard she tried to block the sounds from entering her ears, the loud cracking would yet to cease, causing her to go temporarily insane. Not to mention the fact that the gooey substance was rather bothersome to Mamori, who had only tried chewing it once or twice in her life, but could not stand the sticky feeling it left in her mouth.

She then gripped the plastic pen between her fingers, crushing down on its weak frame; she could hear the plastic snap as a result from the force. She couldn't take it anymore.

"Hiruma, could you please stop smacking your gum?" she asked, rubbing her forehead and tucking her chestnut hair behind her ears. After not hearing anything for a few moments, Mamori found herself going back to the mound of work.

And to what would momentarily cause an eruption of fury and anger, Hiruma hopped down from his seat, quiet and cat-like, he crept behind her, and then blew an abnormally large sized bubble. Bending down by her ear, he then popped his gum loudly beside her; cause her to fly from her seat and her hand to strike the wall.

His response.

"Whatever "fucking-manager", I can chew my gum in whichever way I see fitting, got that?" he scoffed, plopping back down in his seat, leaving Mamori to quiver in bubbling anger. Sena, whose presence had yet to be noticed due to his extreme quiet behavior, quickly ran to Mamori hopes of calming her down.

"Just take a deep breath…" he cooed, rubbing her back (while getting glares in either direction from an unhappy Monta and an even more unhappy Suzuna). But Mamori had yet to stop trembling, in fact, Sena could see that her fists were clenched and they were causing the entire table to shake and convulse in rhythm with her.

Only one thought was going through Sena's mind as of that moment.

Shit.

"Mamori…?"

"I've had enough!" Mamori slammed her hands down on the desk, the formerly organized papers scattering amongst themselves onto the floor, making new residence.

"I'm tired of your absolute disregard for other people's respects and wishes! You need to learn to grow up and quit being such a brat!" she screamed, her eyes narrowing down on Hiruma's, her stare not faltering, he eyes unwavering.

She was serious this go around.

Outbursts like these were fairly common between the aggressive Hiruma and the quick tempered Mamori, but most lasted mere seconds with Hiruma promptly pulling out his little black book so to speak, or with Mamori throwing her hands up in desperation and storming off.

But it appeared different this time, at least, to Sena and the rest of the team whose eyes were fixated upon the two.

"Well, well, well, seems like someone is rather feisty today?" Hiruma mocked, popping his gum once more to add to Mamori's discomfort. She then took the pen in her hand and chucked into Hiruma's face, the rich black ink splattering from the bridge of his nose to his eyelids. It was then that Sena, as well as the rest of the bystanders, understood what kind of terror Mamori had just dived head first into. It was at that moment that the locker room became eerily vacated, leaving Sena, Kurita, Mamori, and the trembling Hiruma.

If one were to have dwelled inside the depths of Mamori's mind as of that moment, one would find complete and utter emptiness. She was completely blank; she could not even begin to fathom how furious Hiruma was. She then began to contemplate the notion of darting out the door, but her lack of a jacket (which, ironically, was sitting right behind Hiruma), it being 35 degrees and raining outside…though upon thinking it over, she might have better luck battling pneumonia than the upset Hiruma.

A step back, the floorboard creaked.

Hiruma's eyes shot up in a defiant glare, and in one quick and fluid motion Mamori found her face inches away from a demon's.

"Um, Hiruma…" Sena was quite concerned for Mamori; he's witnessed multiple times the wrath of Hiruma's anger, something he'd actually grown quite used to, but Mamori…

"I'm…I'm not afraid of you!" she responded defiantly, trying her best to straighten her back out and attempting to look poised. Hiruma wasn't convinced.

"Hey, fatty, shrimp, why don't you two go and leave practice early today?" Hiruma said icily, quickly taking the ink from his face with the tips of his fingers. Kurita and Sena exchanged worried looks.

"Um…I don't think…"

"NOW!" Both quickly jumped a few feet off the ground and scurried outside like small mice, but not without Sena stealing a troubled look towards Mamori before Kurita promptly pulled him out. Mamori swallowed hard as Hiruma's penetrating stare unwavering gazed into her own eyes. She attempted to take one more step back, but as soon as her foot lifted from the floor Hiruma snatched her hand and pulled her back.

"If I apologize, would that help?" she offered, suddenly not feeling quite as courageous as before. Hiruma's lips split into a toothy fanged grin as he propped himself against the table. He released her hand and then proceeded to pop his gum, maybe to mock her even more.

"That's an entertaining thought, fucking manager, but no. This happens to be my last piece of gum, and I want you to go to the 7/11 and buy me another pack of sugarless gum in a matter of thirty minutes for fear of PENALTY!" he snickered, pulling off his jacket and wiping the remaining ink from his face.

Mamori glanced from the window pane; the rain was still coming down as hard as ever, she had no umbrella, and that would entail her to run here and back completely drenched!

"I could get sick!" she protested, the rain not looking the slightest bit inviting.

"And you could also find yourself four feet deep, if you catch my drift, if you don't go get it now!" he scowled, his nail scratching the flesh that resided on Mamori's neck. She quivered and bit her lip; if she wasn't going to stand up to him, then nobody was!

"No."

"What was that?"

"I said no, I'm not going to."

"That's an interesting concept you have there." He leaned in closer, and Mamori shut her eyes and braced herself. Hiruma wasn't such a bad guy that he would strike a girl, his own comrade, right? She thought hopefully, or rather, prayed continuously.

"So you willingly accept any other form of penalty?" he cooed in her ear, in his raspy voice.

She shuddered at the thought of what other things Hiruma could tell about her, and while most were nothing major, she found them utterly embarrassing; the time she won a cream puff eating contest (at the count of 335 cream puffs in a matter of two hours), the time at the age of 12 when she weighed about 135 (at 4 11)…the childhood traumas went on, but she'd rather face that embarrassment then let Hiruma get the satisfaction of conning her into going in that rain!

"Sure. It's not like you can do much to me anyways, your "blackmail" material isn't that long," she hoped. She then delved deep into her mind and searched aimlessly for anything wrong or embarrassing that she might have done that she was unaware that Hiruma could have had possession of (this was entirely possible, for Hiruma had ways of finding out things that no one could ever imagine!). But this in turn, only succeeded in making Hiruma's already large grin even larger.

"I wouldn't be too confident in that."

Mamori raised her brow in disbelief; after the few moments of scanning through her mind, she hadn't come across anything that could be held against her, not anything too terribly bad at the very least. So what was he referring to?

"What do you have on me that's so embarrassing?"

"This."

Without her even noticing, Hiruma had slipped a hand around her waist and roughly pulled her towards him. His other hand had made residence by her neck, and his eyes were still intently fixated on hers.

Mamori trembled; her heart was beating faster than it had ever had before in her life. Suddenly, she found that even bravado was going to do her no good in this situation…maybe she could still go get the gum?

"Um…I think the 7/11 closes soon, I should go probably get that…" she trailed off, turning her head, trying to shake off his stare. It was to no avail. He jerked her head back, forcing her to stare into his eyes like he was doing hers.

"Too late for that little miss."

It was then that Mamori tried to push the demon away, she couldn't stand it anymore; but her arms were too fragile, too lacking in strength to match the demon. He then took her head in his hands and forced it upwards in his rough like manner and he then came down upon it.

His lips formed around hers, not passionately like she had envisioned it, but coarsely, un-lovingly if you will. It is not uncommon for a girl of 17 to have been kissed before this, but Mamori could not honestly say that as he forced her lips open and slid his tongue to the roof of her mouth that she had experienced one quite like this. His entangled hers; and she momentarily found herself gasping for air at Hiruma's release, but still in his grasp.

She could feel her face flushed; she could envision stained a nice shade of scarlet right about then, as she became quickly perturbed at Hiruma's expression of victory.

But not only at that, if you will; Mamori found herself even more perturbed at her own self. She could have easily have bit down on his tongue and brushed him away (how feasible that actually was, was beyond her, but it was the attempt that mattered) but she found herself playing along with his game in those few seconds. Hiruma cackled.

"Did someone have a good time?"

"As if!" she screamed, unaware that tears were slowly cascading down her rosy cheeks, falling to the floor. Deep down, she knew she had always had some form of feelings for the Deimon Devil Bat captain, but she had refused to come to terms with it, or had she envisioned they would be so strong. But not like this, this was not how she would imagine anything to go down.

"You'll never understand anything!" she continued, pounding on his chest, forcing her eyes shut to stop the tears. Of all the times to confirm your love, she had to be the absolute worst at timing.

"What don't I understand?"

Mamori looked up to see, not a tender expression (for she was convinced Hiruma had no such expression), but one not quite as rough or ill-mannered as the one before. She became silent.

"What don't I understand?" he repeated.

She turned away, only to be brought back by the same hand.

"What don't I understand?"

"You just won't, it wouldn't matter even if I told you," she replied.

"That depends."

"No it won't! Proof is what you've just done right here and now!" she then immediately clamped her hand over her mouth; that was as good as a confession right here and now. Hiruma could take that for miles if he'd wanted to, and she just gave him the opening. She felt as if she could die as of this moment.

"Maybe I understand better than you."

Mamori was speechless; what? What on earth was he talking about?

"Maybe I know that you'd never admit to anything like this unless put under extreme pressure and duress," Hiruma continued, his fickle grin still ever so present, his fingers tracing the lines in her hands. "So what is it I seemingly don't understand?"

The tears bubbled forth more quickly than before, but not from anger or even frustration at this point. He'd known, he'd known even when she had not…and was it safe to say, that, that the feelings between the two, were mutual?

She became more daring, and her hand subconsciously stroked the side of Hiruma's face; his skin was softer than it appeared, and his expression didn't change, but his eyes followed the movements of her hand. He then reached up and took it, not forceful like before, but not unlike Hiruma either.

"You haven't answered me." He said, pressing his lips to the tips of her fingers. Her heart leapt and took her vocal cords hostage. How was it, in a matter of mere minutes, this heated atmosphere became one of dire embarrassment and of nervous reactions.

"I…I…I…I love you, Hiruma. I didn't think, I couldn't believe that you'd…that'd you'd understand something like that," her voice was shaking, but surprisingly the words came out, her head was bowed; she didn't dare look into his eyes.

"Is that all?"

Was that all? Was that all!? Her eyes bolted up in fury.

"Do you realize how hard-!" she was stopped in mid-sentence by a kiss, or rather, a peck. Hiruma slyly withdrew.

"You weren't looking at me." He replied, chuckling.

"You're so…" she then made the first move; she brushed her lips against his forehead, trailed down to the bridge of his nose, and then lightly pressed them against his own. Her arms found their way wrapped around Hiruma's neck as he returned her kiss.

They broke off, Mamori panting, her head buried in Hiruma's broad chest. His arms cradled her, rocking her back and forth like a child. She then became quite puzzled, as well as Hiruma at the same moment.

"My gum!"

"Your gum!"

On the roof of Mamori's mouth, was a small piece of chewed up mint gum, courtesy of Hiruma. They looked at each other for a few moments, and then began to break down in laughter.

From then on, Mamori loved the rain.