Fandom: Eyeshield 21
Pairing: Hiruma/Mamori
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: tokyofish
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

Shock of all shocks, the demon of Deimon High gets love letters from female fans--as Mamori discovers, much to her horror, when she's given the job of replying to them. Poor Mamori's horrified realization about her own feelings is priceless. And the ending is fantastic.

Slowly putting the letters down, she spread them out flat on the table. They were ALL love letters. And what was more, while three of them were from different schools - this she could talk herself into understanding, they were unaware of Hiruma's true personality, the only thing about him that they knew was his ability on the playing field; it was a type of ignorance she could forgive - TWO of them were from DEIMON HIGH. What was more, Mamori knew both of the girls in question - one of them sat one row up and one row over from her in class and the other one was in girl's choir.

Why did she suddenly feel like her faith in humanity had been completely and utterly misplaced?

Fandom: Eyeshield 21
Pairing: Hiruma/Mamori
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: memlu / mekosuchinae
Author Website: Fic list at delicious.
Why this must be read:

I've already rec'ed memlu this month, but I love this fic too much to let a little detail like that stop me. While I adore the Hiruma/Mamori pairing, it's hard to move the relationship along without warping them out of character. This fic manages beautifully, and with a wonderful dash of humour.

And, true, Hiruma had immediately responded, "Shut up, fatass," to which Mamori had felt it her moral obligation to respond with, "Do you have to call everyone by degrading names?" and, really, it had all basically come down to "fucking manager" and "stop calling me that!"

Even that, though, had been casual; almost friendly. As if somewhere along the line being called fucking manager by a gun-toting quarterback probably suffering from some advanced form of psychosis was normal.

Title: The Recruitment Process by wintersjuly
Pairing: Hiruma
Author on LJ: wintersjuly
Author Website: Fic Tag on LJ
Why this must be read:

Because Hiruma really will try to recruit anyone. In this fic, Hiruma makes his rounds through the Discworld, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, JE, Fullmetal Alchemist and Ookiku Furibakutte fandoms in search of new players for his team. I don't know all of the crossover fandoms, but I can appreciate that this is a fine piece of crack.

When Yamapi looked up, the face of a demon from hell looked back. In its clawed hand was a small, inconspicuous black book.

For a very short moment, Yamapi saw his life flash before his eyes.

"Yamashita Tomohisa," the demon said, licking his lips. He flipped through the black book. "Twenty two, idol. Has a sister, mother, two dogs, in love with his best friend and going to be playing some fucking American football fucking right now-"

Fandom: EYESHIELD 21

Pairing: Homer/Panther

Length: One-shot

Author on LJ: memlu/mekosuchinae

Author Website: Fic Tag on LJ
Why this must be read:

So the American/Japanese football match in the manga was kind of awful because of dodgy race issues, but memlu takes characters introduced in that arc and makes them shine. Homer meets Panther for the first time, and it's like magic.

Fantastic story.

What's really striking is this:

He's running the circuit and he's like the fucking wind. Doesn't even look like he's touching the ground. He's floating. He's flying. Homer can't stop staring at him. He's never seen anyone run like that. Holy shit, he thinks. Holy shit.

He watches him run the track again and again, long legs flashing, arms pumping, and all he can think is, Holy shit.

Fandom: EYESHIELD 21

Pairing: Yukimitsu

Length: One-shot

Author on LJ: weirdlyyours

Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

Every one of the Devil Bats has struggled to become a better player, but none of them have made my heart ache quite so much as Yukimitsu. Of all of the team, Yukimitsu seems the least suited to playing football: slight and weak, vastly intelligent but without any physical skills. And yet he never gives up on his dream of becoming a player for the Devil Bats.

This fic is Yukimitsu, in all his strengths and weaknesses.

This future is what his mother wants, what his mother dreams of, and Yukimitsu is a dutiful son. He will go to cram school and he will test at the top of his class. He will make his mother proud.

Fandom: EYESHIELD 21

Pairing: Hiruma/Mamori, Devil Bats

Length: One-shot

Author on LJ: misura

Author Website: FF.net profile

Why this must be read:

This story was written for me during last year's yuletide. That makes it awesome right off the bat, but you should read this story because of the terrific characterization. While the primary focus is on Hiruma and Mamori, none of the other Devil Bats are left out. The format of the story will be familiar (and funny) to anyone who has read the manga, but should amuse even those new to the fandom.

first impression
She's a girl - not football club material, to be sure; they haven't even got a team, let alone need of a manager to run around and get in his way, so he dismisses her from his mind, amused by the way she watches him, frowning in disapproval but too polite to address him directly.

He's a bully - she'd ignore him, except that he seems to keep watching her; he's trying not to let it show, but she can tell all the same.

peroxide_fic

But as far as Jyuumonji and company are concerned, the whole thing is very detrimental to their carefully cultivated reputations as high school delinquents.

“A teacher smiled at me yesterday,” Kuroki grunts, and looks disgusted as he pokes at his first bento; it has a smiley face drawn in mayonnaise on it.

“My grades are average,” Togano adds sadly.

Jyuumonji mutters in complete understanding, “Yesterday some kid asked me to help her get her kitten out of a tree.”

A pause.

“Huh?”

“Huh?!”

Jyuumonji glares. “She said her brother goes to our school and takes her to all the games, okay?! Gimme a break.”

A pointed look.

Then, a sigh. “Yeah, I got the stupid cat out of the stupid tree.”

Kuroki and Togano make appropriately manly noises of sympathy when they hear this.