Disclaimer: Any original characters are property of myself and myself only. Eyeshield 21 is a series created by Riichigo Inagaki and Yusuke Murata. All characters of Eyeshield 21 are property of the original creators, Shonen Jump and Viz Media. Any references to the NFL and its players are copyrighted by the NFL and credited to their respective teams.

"Enma, Enma Fight Fight Fight!" was the cheer and the rah rah that was echoing from the group of cheerleaders led by Suzuna Taki as the offense proceeded to march down the field toward another touchdown. Their ace runner Sena Kobayakawa aka Eysheild 21 was dominating the opposing defense as if they were not even there. Blazing by at the speed of light he busted a long run for a touchdown in no time at all. "Hyaaaaa! Go Senaaaaa!" shouted the visibly excited Suzuna.

She loved watching him play, he was so cool running down field inspiring the rest of his team as their current captain. Even though Sena was not the oldest member of the team Unsui and Kurita did not hesitate to award Sena that title. It had been a few weeks since he had started playing for Enma University and already they had two wins under their belt. And with the current score being 53 to 6 in favor of Enma it looked like they would add another "W" to that column.

Although she wouldn't admit it openly to anyone, she had missed him desperately while he had been gone in America playing for Notre Dame these last 6 months. Sure she had kept in contact with him via phone and email but that just wasn't the same as actually being next to him. Over the last couple year she had really grown to love him, although she wasn't sure how he felt about her. She was mortified to even ask him about it for fear of being stuck in the "friend" zone.

One of her fellow cheer leaders must have noticed Suzuna staring off into space and gave her a quick nudge. Suzuna looked at her as if waking up from a dream to hear "Oh, just ask him out already captain." and Suzuna's face turned beet red burning with embarrassment.

"Wh..What the hell are you talking about, I have no i…idea what you mean!" She stammered. This only elicited a chorus of giggles from the other girls and she burned all the more because of it. "Get back to cheering!" she shouted.

The game ended and the team walked off the field after shaking their opponents' hands and they headed off into the locker room. "Great game Sena! You kicked MAXI ass today!" hollered Monta as he patted Sena on the back on his way into the locker room. Sena thanked him and his other teammates for the great game and effort from everyone and told them they could have practice off for the next 2 days as a reward. There was a loud applause in the locker room for the news of 2 days for themselves.

After they got showered and dressed the teammates said their goodbyes and they all started to head home. As Sena and Monta headed out together they were chatting about the next exhibition game when Sena's phone began blaring the anthem of his alma matter Notre Dame. When Monta questioned Sena about the different than normal tone Sena told him "It's a text from my teammate Dante Klausen from America… I wonder what he could want?" Sena opened his phone and began to read the text, "Hey Twinkle Toes! How's it feel being back in Japan? I meant to text you earlier but I've been busy with three a days the last three weeks… coach is killing us . Oh did you ask that girl out…?" at this point Sena began to stammer and nearly dropped the phone without finishing the message. His face immediately turned a fiery red color. And Monta's face too became quite amusing as well.

"WHOOOEEEE! Ask who out Sena, HUH? HUH? HUH?" Monta teased, this only made Sena stammer more.

"Dammit Dante… Monta look its like this… I mean… oh um..." Sena sighed in defeat. "Ok I will tell you but you have to seriously promise not to tell anyone this! I mean it MONTA!" Monta stopped joking and prodding Sena at this realizing how serious it was.

"Ok Sena I promise."

"Seriously Monta, you can't tell anyone not even the other members of the team! I mean it man!"

"Alright Sena I Maxi promise, or may my hands be chopped off and fed to Cerberus."

"…ok" Sena said in a small and defeated voice. "The girl Dante asked about is… is …. Suzuna."

"SUZU-?" Shouted Monta! This elicited a "SHHHHHHHHHHHH!" from Sena who covered the monkey's mouth in the blink of an eye. Monta started to wave his arms in the air and Sena let him go. "What are you so maxi embarrassed about?"

"I… I… I dunno, I've wanted to ask her out for 2 years. I just.. I'm afraid she won't like me back and say no… I'm terrified of it. I don't mind being just her friend… I mean… I dunno… I guess I was just afraid if I said anything it might get weird and she wouldn't even be my friend anymore…"

After a short pause Monta replied, "Dude, I don't think Suzuna would do that Sena. You guys are best friends… And besides, come to think of it she talked about you all the time when you were away in America… in fact she never shut up about you."

"Really?"

"Yeah man she maxi missed you. Even an idiot like me noticed that…" Monta paused rubbing his nose with his large index finger. "HEY you should take her on a date during our days off! You could ask her then!" Monta exclaimed.

"But what if she says no…?" Sena replied sheepishly.

"Hmmm… well its better than never knowing at all, I mean who knows you could've wasted the last 2 years of high school not knowing already! I say go for it!" his friend replied with a large thumbs up.

Sena pondered over this possibility for a few seconds before stuttering' "Y..Yeah. " and then, "Yeah! I'm finally gonna do it! I'm gonna ask out Suzuna!" he shouted with some newfound confidence.

Later that evening Suzuna was sitting in her room reading a magazine and listening to music when she got a text from Sena. She always enjoyed receiving texts from the man she secretly loved but this text was somewhat surprising even for Sena. "Hi Suzuna, sorry I missed you after the game today. I wanted to talk to you about something. Would you maybe want to go to Nagano tomorrow with me for the day… just the two of us?"

"Just the two of us?" She mouthed then she squealed with excitement, normally anytime she got to be with Sena, Monta was always there too. To think that this may actually be a date invitation Suzuna couldn't be happier! "Of course I would Sena! What time?" She sent back in reply. She then waited for what seemed like an eternity for a reply from Sena.

"I'll be by to pick you up around 9 tomorrow?"

"Sure! I can't wait this sounds like fun!" She replied with glee and stretched out her arms and fell back onto her bed. She began imagining the day ahead what could be. She hoped more than anything else that this would mean something more than just being friends.