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“Stupid Miyuki Kazuya, a year and a half worth of time as a battery, and the stupid tanuki bastard still won’t catch for me. We kissed just last night and now he’s avoiding me to catch for Furuya, my rival! How disrespectful” Eijun had been grumbling about his situation all week and it was starting to really annoy his friends and teammates. He had been mumbling to himself about it as Kanemaru was trying to help him study for the math test they had at the end of the week and after only 10 minutes of hearing the pitcher talk to himself Kanemaru kicked him out with a half-hearted “good luck because I refuse to help you study anymore”.
That’s how Eijun found himself walking to the dorms alone and bored. Furuya was pitching to Yui, after being forced by Miyuki but that was no one’s business, Miyuki and Okumura were with Nabe in the dining hall watching rewinds of opponent's games, and Haruchi was… he actually didn’t know where Haruichi was.
Almost as if thinking about the pink-haired second baseman summoned him, said boy turned the corner and locked eyes with Eijun and sighed. Eijun immediately grinned and raced over to his friend.
“Haruichi you won’t believe the hell I’ve been through all week!”
The pink-haired boy just huffed and started walking to the practice field with Eijun trailing closely behind him, “I’m sure I do but you’re going to tell me about it right now anyway”
“Miyuki Kazuya won’t catch for me”
“I fail to see how that is a new occurrence”
"Haruichi you don't understand I'm going to die"
Eijun had been complaining to Haruichi about not being able to pitch every time he saw him that week and it was starting to drive the petite boy crazy. He was supposed to be practicing his batting right now but his best friend had cornered him and forced him to listen to his rant about how unfair all the catchers at Seido are.
"Eijun-kun you won't die just because Miyuki-senpai won't catch for you"
"But he's my boyfriend he has to catch for me! It's not fair if he doesn't. And it's not just that wolf boy won't catch for me either, the both of them hate me Haruichi I swear!". The moment Sawamura started complaining the two catchers happened to walk by on their way to the dorm from the dining hall. The first year just huffed and turned to the pitcher,
"I won't catch for you if you call me wolf boy". The statement seemed to only enrage the already agitated second year and the third year catcher started laughing at the metaphorical steam coming from his ears and nose.
"Bakamura if you want to pitch so bad you can always use the net. I'm busy catching for the ace of the team and Okumura has his own personal reason why he won't so leave poor Haruichi alone and just use the net"
“But you’re not catching for him right now Yui is! Plus you’re my boyfriend you’re supposed to like me and catch for me”
“I don’t show any favoritism towards pitchers and you know that Bakumura so just drop it. I’m busy so use the net”. Eijun was annoyed with the answer from his supposed boyfriend and hit him in the shoulder with his math homework before looking to Okumura with hopeful eyes but before he could even utter a weird the light-haired boy said no and walked away to his dorm.
The “stupid tanuki bastard” had laughed at that before patting Eijun’s head and walking after him.
“Haruichi they hate me I told you so”
“Eijun-kun as much as I’d love to continue our fun conversation I need to practice my batting we’ll talk later”
Once again Eijun was left alone in the dorm halls and just sighed and walked back to his room with his head hanging low. He had been hoping that his roommates were out practicing but luck had not been on his side because as he got closer to his dorm room door he could hear Kuarmochi screaming at his game. He walked in and immediately collapsed on his bed with his face buried in his pillow, alerting his roommate of his arrival.
“What’s gotten into you Bakamura you look like a kicked puppy who was locked outside his house”
“I’m not a dog, why does everyone always call me a dog?!” his voice had been muffled by the pillow but the point was made and his roommate sighed before getting up to look down at his dejected form.
“Oi what’s wrong with you, you’re being moodier than usual”
“Miyuki Kazuya”
Kuramochi laughed at the short response but sobered up when he realized the other was seriously upset.
“What did the bastard do this time”
Eijun perked up after realizing someone was actually willing to listen to him rant. After being ignored for the whole weak this felt like a significant win to the pitcher.
“Miyuki won’t catch my pitches for me, and Okumura refuses to as well because he’s not on the first string yet. Yui is too busy chasing after Furuya’s fastpitch to want to catch for me and Ono is catching for Kawakami. Miyuki keeps telling me to practice with the first years but they don’t want to but he won’t listen to me and keeps blowing me off. It’s not really anything new but he’s my boyfriend now shouldn’t he catch for me”
His roommate had taken a seat next to him on his bed and sighed, “You know Miyuki’s busy with captain business so he doesn’t have the time to catch for everyone all the time and when he does he has to catch for Furuya since he’s the ace. Okumura is stubborn just give him some time he’ll warm up to you more and will catch for you eventually and Yui will catch for you if you just ask as much as he wants to catch for Furuya he’ll probably want to practice catching for you too”
“Miyuki has only been captain this year though, last year he refused to catch for me too and he wasn’t captain or my boyfriend then so why does he never catch for me. Does he just not care about me?”
Eijun was starting to tear up and as bad as Kuramochi is with comforting people he couldn’t bear to see the boy he’s known for a year and a half be on the verge of crying and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, bringing him closer to his body as a way to console the boy he’s come to see as sort of a little brother.
“Listen Sawamura Miyuki cares for you he’s just busy with school and baseball I guarantee you he’s not avoiding you on purpose”
“I think he is though Kuarmochi. Yesterday night I went to go hang out with him, I wasn’t even going to ask him to catch for me, and he was watching a game for Saturday’s practice game and I wanted to just sit and watch with him but he kicked me out saying I’d just cause a ruckus and practically slammed the door in my face”
“Seriously?! You never told me that Bakamura”
Eijun looked down as a tear ran down his cheek, “I didn’t want to talk about it.” Kuramochi had noticed his tears and swiftly stood up and dragged Eijun up by his arm as well.
“Okay let’s go”
“Where are we going?”
“I’m going to walk you to Miyuki’s room where you both can talk this whole thing out”
“No!” Kuramochi looked at him with a shocked expression at first but sighed feeling conflicted, he wasn’t going to let the kid stay here and wallow but he couldn’t force him to talk to Miyuki either.
“Why not?”
“It’s embarrassing I don’t want him to be annoyed with me or think I’m too clingy”
“Sawamura I can guarantee you he won’t but if it makes you feel any better we can go to the convenient store right outside of campus and get meat buns and some snacks”
The pitcher immediately brightened at the offer and immediately walked to the door after grabbing the first sweater he saw, which happened to be Kuramochi’s but the green-haired short stop couldn’t bring himself to complain when Eijun only just cheered up, “You know ‘Mochi, Miyuki was wrong about you, you’re actually a nice guy”
“Why you little-”
“You’re shorter than me senpai”
“That’s it I’m going to kill you!”
-
The two roommates walked past the practice fields laughing and holding a bag full of snacks to binge on for the next few days. The two were currently laughing at a story Kuramochi was telling about Miyuki during their first year when the catcher himself showed up and scared the both of them by putting a hand on each of their shoulders.
Both boys jumped before looking back to see what touched them only to groan at the sight of Miyuki hunched over laughing, “Man you should have seen your faces, priceless”
The boys just rolled their eyes and started to walk away immediately putting an end to Miyuki’s laughter.
“Where were you guys by the way I saw you guys come through the exit to the road?”
“We went to the store for some meat buns, don’t you have something better to do?”
The pitcher just kept his head down as the two best friends spoke, not wanting to have to talk to the source of his current problems.
“Why’d you go to the store we had dinner like an hour ago?”
“Because we wanted to, why are you asking so many questions?”
The catcher put his hands up in mock surrender and was about to walk away when he noticed the sweater the pitcher had put on on the way back because of the chilly weather, “Oi Bakamura is that a new sweater I don’t remember you ever owning a dark green dad jacket?”
“Hey, it’s not a dad jacket asshole!”
“And how would you know that ‘Mochi?”
“Because it’s my sweater are you done with the interrogation yet?”
“Nope, Bakamura why are you wearing Kuramochi’s jacket you have your own”
The pitcher looked up and spoke for the first time since they ran into Miyuki, “I grabbed the first one I saw when we left to the store”
“Okay whatever, anyway it’s your lucky day because Furuya was feeling sore and went back to his dorm early tonight so I can catch for you now, no need to thank me”
“It’s fine Senpai I want to go to bed early today too so you don't need to catch for me”
“Hey Sawamura are you okay just an hour ago you were begging me to catch for you”
Eijun was starting to become irritated at he catcher because honestly who does he think he is blowing me off one second and changing his mind the next’, “I said it’s fine Senpai you can go back to whatever thing you have to do in your busy afternoon, you don’t need to catch for me your busy and I’m completely fine with that” The statement had come out much harsher then he meant it to be but he couldn’t find it in himself to care and walked away before Miyuki could respond.
Miyuki turned to his best friend with a question glance, “What’s his problem?”
“You are, idiot”
“How am I his problem I haven’t done anything”
“Yeah that's the problem dumbass”
“How is that the problem you’re not making any sense”
“Sawamura told me before we went to the store that he felt like you didn’t care about him because you never want to catch for him and blow him off a lot”
“That’s not true he has to know that”
“Of course he doesn’t know that idiot, what about you always refusing to catch for him and you kicking him out of you room when all he wants to do is be around you makes you think that he thinks you truly care about him”
“I never thought about it that way I kinda thought he would just know which looking back is kind of stupid”
“Nooo, ya think?”
“Okay fuck you, go do something your room is gonna be occupied”
“You know you can’t kick me out of my own room right?”
“Oh just shut up and talk to Ryou, heard you have a lot you guys like to talk about”
The catcher smirked at his best friend's flushed face and walked away ignoring his complaints and made his way to Eijun’s room and knocked. “Sawamura it’s me open up”
“I’m busy Miyuki-Senpai”
“I know you’re not so I’m coming in”
The catcher walked in to see his boyfriend under two blankets on his bunk. He made his way over to the young pitcher and sat down on the floor next to where his head most likely was.
“I’m sorry for making you think I don’t care about you. I am actually really busy always trying to be ahead of other teams so that we can be a strong team but I could have fit you into my schedule as well and I’m sorry for not doing so”
“It’s okay Senpai” The catcher frowned at the small voice coming from under the blanket before pulling the blanket off of his head and stroking his hair with his hand.
“You know I love when you call me senpai but it’s not the same when you say it with that voice”
“What voice?”
“The voice you make when you think you disappointed someone”
“I don't make a voice when I think I disappointed someone”
“Yeah you do”
“Do not”
“Do too”
“Do not”
“Do too”
“Do not”
“Okay, we’re getting sidetracked. Eijun I’m sorry for making you feel unwanted and like I don’t care about you because, in reality, I care about you too much. It’s scary how much I care about you because the last time I cared about someone this much they died and my life felt like it was over. I never want you to feel hurt because of me and I’m sorry I didn’t realize I hurt you. I promise that for now on I’ll make time for you in my schedule and I’ll catch for you more often”
“I’m sorry Kazuya I didn’t know about how you felt and made it all about me”
“There’s no need to apologize because you didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault and I’m going to make it up to you I promise. So how about next Sunday after practice I take you out on a date and we’ll do whatever you want?”
“I would really like that Kazuya”
Kazuya smiled and stroked his boyfriend’s cheek, “I’m glad, but for now scoot over Kuramochi won’t be back until later and I have a boyfriend to care for”
The pitcher smiled at him and moved over. Kazuya wrapped his arms around his slightly smaller boyfriend and intertwined their legs. Eijun felt safer in the arms that wrapped around him entirely and rubbed his back. He never realized how good it felt to be in his boyfriend’s arms and let himself fall asleep to the soft pounding of Kazuya’s heart.
-
Kuramochi removed his ear from where it was previously pushed against the door and smiled at his hard work of helping his best friend and sort of little brother make up. The last week had been a little tense and although it wasn’t obvious to everyone else Kuramochi could tell that there was something wrong. He walked to the practice field to get some batting practice in before he went back to his room and pulled out his phone to call Ryou.
“Hey babe you’ll never guess what went down with the two idiots this week”