It was a cold winter's day in Tokyo. The Seidou dorms were very quiet – Sawamura and Furuya were the only team members still there during the holidays. Sawamura was bored so he hunted down Furuya in his room. Furuya didn't seem to mind. They made themselves some hot barley tea in the cafeteria and took it to Sawamura's room. Sawamura led the way, the taller boy close behind. Sawamura was swaddled in a big puffy jacket but Furuya was only wearing a thick sweater – that was all he needed for the brief walk between their rooms and the cafeteria.
"Furuya, don't you feel the cold?" Sawamura asked. Furuya shook his head.
The steam from their breath and the tea mingled as Sawamura stopped to open his door. They kicked off their shoes and settled themselves in the warm room to pass away the afternoon.
First, they read some shoujo manga together. Sawamura was happy that the other boy seemed interested in his collection. Furuya listened quietly as Sawamura caught him up on the stories, the characters and who was in love with who. Furuya's fingers kept brushing against Sawamura's as they turned the pages together.
"Furuya, if you like this one, I'll lend you the rest. After you read them we can talk about it!"
"I'd like that." Furuya said softly. Sawamura smiled.
When they had exhausted all the manga, they watched a movie on Sawamura's laptop. Furuya leaned his shoulder against Sawamura's as they watched. They got out some hoshigaki as the movie progressed.
"This tastes good." Furuya said, chewing the fruit.
"Doesn't it! My parents sent them to me. They always eat them at this time of year."
Furuya leaned closer to the other pitcher, holding up a piece.
"Here, have some more." He said.
Sawamura smiled, confused, as he ate the persimmon from Furuya's hand.
After the movie, Sawamura got out a baseball puzzle. They flipped the box upside down and spread the pieces on the floor.
"Hmm, how are we going to do this? The crowd in the stands is gonna be difficult…" Sawamura mused.
Both of them reached for the same piece with the Ace jersey printed on it. Furuya looked unsure about what to do in the situation, afraid of being rejected. Sawamura didn't pick up on the significance of the moment. He handed the piece to Furuya.
"Here. You make the players." He said with a smile. Furuya looked visibly relieved.
Sawamura looked down and collected the pieces needed to make up the edges. Furuya watched him for a few moments then started working on the centre of the puzzle. Then he looked out the window and spoke.
"It's snowing, Sawamura."
They could see light snow falling in the afternoon sky. Sawamura was glad that they were inside. He started to feel a bit sentimental - snow reminded him of his family. He looked over at Furuya who was quietly sorting through puzzle pieces. He had never really spent much time alone with the other pitcher but it felt good being sheltered inside together. He smiled as he turned his attention back to the puzzle.
The light snowfall stopped after a while but the room started to feel colder. Sawamura moved over to sit near the heater.
"Come here, Furuya. It's warmer." The taller boy was happy to scoot closer to Sawamura.
They carefully swept the puzzle pieces across the floor towards them so that they could continue in the warmth. Furuya stayed close, often reaching across Sawamura's body to get different pieces. Their arms kept brushing against each other.
As the afternoon wore on, they became more serious about finishing their project. Furuya had by now moved on to trying to recreate the scoreboard. He struggled, trying endless combinations of pieces to make it work. Sawamura leaned over, face near his shoulder, trying to help.
"Why don't you try something different?" Sawamura asked for the 100th time. So Furuya kissed him. Furuya's lips were surprisingly warm. Sawamura found himself leaning into the kiss, but then pulled away first, a bit surprised. Furuya just looked at him silently and then went back to the puzzle.
They continued working on it for the rest of the day. Finally, around 10pm it was finished. They took photos of it on their phones and felt proud of themselves. Then Furuya said good night and went back to his room. Sawamura was confused by the kiss earlier so he lay in bed for a while, wondering what it meant.
He thought about his rivalry with Furuya. Sawamura wanted nothing more than to be the ace and Furuya had earned that spot on the team. The southpaw's entire being was focused on self-improvement and getting the skills to be the team's ace. Sawamura had to admit that Furuya had made him work even harder to improve himself. There was a lot he could learn from the other pitcher. There was also a lot more he wanted to learn about him.
He and Furuya didn't get along immediately when they had first met, but they had spent a lot more time together lately when they were hanging out with Haruichi. It was always the three of them these days at school, at practice, around the dorms. Furuya spoke more to Sawamura when they were alone now, but there was still so much that Sawamura didn't know about him.
He touched his lips. Today had been his first kiss. He felt a bit unsure about why it had happened and had to know if Furuya had been teasing him.
The next day, the rest of the team started returning to the dorms in time for school to start again. Sawamura cleared the mess he had made over the break while having the room to himself. He then tried to organise himself for school as well but was very distracted by thoughts about the kiss with Furuya. Eventually, he realised that he had thought about nothing else all day. He decided that he needed to find the other pitcher.
He tried to talk to him in the cafeteria. He sat down with him but then Miyuki came over and joined them to tell them about their pitching menus. Furuya disappeared after that. Next, Sawamura tried to talk to him in baths. He got into the tub beside Furuya and was ready to bring up the kiss when Haruichi joined them. He then tried to find Furuya in his room a few times over the next couple of days but he was never there.
Finally, he found him walking past the vending machines at night and dragged him onto the practice field. It was very cold under the full winter moon. They both pulled their jackets closer. Sawamura didn't know how to bring the whole thing up so he just ended up being direct.
"Furuya, when you kissed me, was it to tease me?"
Furuya looked at him and spoke quietly.
"No, it wasn't."
"Oh." Sawamura hadn't expected that answer. He looked up curiously. "So did it mean something then?"
After some silence, Furuya spoke.
"Do you want it to mean something?" Sawamura felt a light blush on his cheeks. He was too embarrassed to talk about it, so he stalled.
"Can we... try it again? So I can figure it out properly?"
Furuya nodded almost imperceptibly and stared quietly at him. Sawamura had to make the first move. He leaned up to kiss the taller boy. They were shy about the kiss at first, but it felt better as they relaxed. Furuya leaned down a bit to ease the stretch in Sawamura's neck and he deepened the kiss. Without realising it, Sawamura wrapped his arms around Furuya's shoulders. They pulled apart after exploring each other for a few minutes. As they did, a few snowflakes fell, making Sawamura sentimental again. Furuya spoke first, looking a bit nervous.
"So... what do you think?"
Sawamura looked up, thoughtful. Furuya looked really sweet as he worried about Sawamura's reply. Sawamura leaned into his shoulder.
"I think you should be more confident." He said with a smile. He paused and looked at the other boy in the moonlight. "Do you want to try going out?" Furuya nodded.
"Don't think I'll go easy on you. I'll still be the ace one day."
"I won't hand the mound over to anyone. You can try but I won't go easy on you either." Furuya replied. Sawamura smiled.
"I wouldn't want you to, Furuya."
He leaned up and kissed the taller boy again. Furuya was more confident this time. He reached up and traced Sawamura's cheek with his right hand, resting his other hand on Sawamura's waist. His kiss was gentle but firm. Sawamura sighed into the kiss and pulled himself closer. The snowfall got heavier and they had to stop. Sawamura felt happy. He didn't want to separate from Furuya just yet.
"Come on, let's go hang out in my room. I got a new manga."
"Oh. What's it about?"
"You'll see!"
Sawamura took Furuya's hand and led him back to the dorms. He looked forward to being with a partner like Furuya, someone who complemented him in many ways and who would also challenge him to be better. He was glad that he had dragged Furuya to his room on that boring winter afternoon.