I've decided to put the disclaimer and what not here because that seems to be the silently accpeted norm of this site, maybe later i'll try going against the grain, but since i'm a blatant nuub(sp?) ima just do wat everyone else does for now, so, without further ado. . .
DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely nothing at all in this story except the possibly craptasic plot, even the random stupidity is not mine, though it may be later, who knows? anywhozles, characters belong to Ookiku Furikabutte, or Big Windup or whatever that third way of spelling it is
April 27, 2005
Dear Diary,
Today, Abe-kun told me to eat more after hearing that my weight had dropped again, but this time it was only two kilos, so I don't think that he was too worried, he only instructed me to eat one extra onigiri at practice. I don't get why losing just two kilos is so bad, but if Abe-kun is so worried about it, then I guess that there's gotta be a reason, so I'll just do as he asks, it's fine by me.
Practice went by as usual today, nothing seemed to be wrong with my pitching, in fact, Abe-kun said that he thinks my pitches have gotten a bit faster, but he says that I should still be careful with upping my speed cuz I might lose my control. I was gonna try to practice my speed and control, especially now that the tournaments over and I don't have to worry about my arm and shoulder as much, but Abe-kun said that I shouldn't pitch more than 100 pitches at most cuz we still got practice matches and scrimmages and what not, so I still have to be careful and conservative of my pitching arm, even though the tournament is over, so I'll follow Abe-kun's instructions cuz I can still pitch if I do, even if not as much.
Oh, school went by ok as well. Tajima-kun brought sooo much FOOD! He said that it was in celebration of something important, but I can't really remember what it was right now, but I do know that it wasn't his birthday, so I don't feel too guilty at eating all the food that he had offered me. When I told Abe-kun about all the food, he got a little mad at me cuz some of the food had sashimi in it, and I think that he still doesn't want me to take chances with dangerous foods since a lot of teams scheduled practice games and what not with us after the tournament, Abe-kun says that it was because of my amazing pitches during tournament, that everyone was really impressed at my control and my "fastball," but even though he, and the rest of the team tell me that, I know that I'm not worth anything if I don't have Abe-kun doesn't give me a sign to go off of.
Still, I have to admit that being able to pitch like this feels amazing! Thanks to Abe-kun, I really have become an actual ace, and I've been able to pitch against seeded schools! At Mihoshi, I never would have even been able to think about doing such a scary thing, and now, with Abe-kun, and everyone else, the thought is a little easier to think about, though remembering the matches still scares me, and some of the teams we'll be playing again because they asked to play practice matches with us! I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold them off again like I did in tournament, but if Abe-kun pitches then it should all be fine, I know it'll all be fine, cuz Abe-kun has never lead me wrong yet! The only reason I did even halfway decent during tournament was because of Abe's perfect pitch calling, he can always analyze batter data and field strategy so well that I must seem completely useless. I know I've gotten a bit better at remembering some of the batters' preferences, but in comparison to Abe's abilities, I'm pathetic, so I just keep pitching what Abe-kun tells me to pitch, no matter what, at least that way, I don't have to worry as much about messing up like I usually do during games, cuz he always helps me out, no matter what, I really am happy that Abe-kun is my catcher.
It's getting late, so I guess I'm gonna end this here, I think I covered most anything anyway, so it's okay.
Oh! I wanna make one last comment, I'm also very thankful, that Abe's my catcher as well, truly, truly thankful.
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"Mihashi!" came Tajima's beyond excited voice during the lunch break.
"Y-yy-yes!?" Mihashi yelped since he was completely startled but Tajima's sudden out burst. Tajima, ignoring Mihashi's little panic, started talking again.
"I've got FOOD!!"
"F-food?"
"Yeah! A lot of it too! My mom made this huge feast the other night because my brother won his game, and there was so much, that no one at the house was able to finish it all, so I got this HUGE bento today!" Tajima slammed this giant bento box on the desk and opened it do reveal a medley of delicious, homemade foods. "You want some? It's really good!"
Tajima pushed the box in front of Mihashi, just begging him to take some. By this point, Mihashi had begun to drool profusely at the sight of all the food, and now he looked at Tajima with eyes that just screamed thanks and reverence. He nodded his head rapidly and took the offered pair of chopsticks Tajima had produced. He also passed some chopsticks to Izumi and Sakaeguchi as well, so that they might part-take in the deliciousness that is Tajima's lunch.
They all gave a quick thanks to Tajima for his generosity and began to ravenously dig in to the poor, defenseless bento box. That box was empty after undergoing about three minutes of the attack and all four boys leaned back in their chairs, sighing with dumb, happy-go-lucky looks on their faces. Being the first to recover from the food induced stupor, Tajima again called out to Mihashi.
"Hey Mihashi!"
Jolted from his own personal stupor, Mihashi replied with a shaky, "Y-yeah?"
"Can you believe how many games we have even though tournaments over? Man, I am soooo SYCHED! I mean, there are so many pitchers I can't wait to go up against again! And just you watch, I'm gonna hit any and every ball pitched to me on the first throw! What about you Mihashi? I'm sure that are some batters you're lookin' forward to pitchin' against again, right?"
"Yeah! I mean, if I were pitcher, and I got that chance, I'd wanna see how much I've improved since the last time I'd last pitched to them." Izumi suddenly interjected, then he glanced around, casually.
Sakaeguchi nodded before adding his own two-cents, "Yeah, yeah, that does sound kinda fun, right Mi-?"
Mihashi's mouth was flapping open and closed as he looked around the little group. He began to speak some muttered, incoherent statements that seemed loosely bound together.
"PP-pppitch . . . ttt-ttournament . . . ii-iiimproved . . . II-iizz-zzumi . . . pp-pitching . . .bu-but, III . . ." At this point, Tajima interceded and Hamada entered the classroom.
"Your still scared to pitch against the tournament batters? Oooo! Wait 'til I tell Abe! He's gonna get mad at you!" Tajima laughed as Mihashi tried to say something against the idea. He was unfortunately cut-off by Tajima once more. "Oh! And Izumi"s not trying to take your place as pitcher, in fact I don't even think that Hanai or Oki are even remotely thinking about taking the spot either."
"H-huh?" Mihashi looked beyond confused as Hamada joined them.
"What's up Mihashi? You look kinda lost? Anyway, sorry I'm late all, I had something I had to take care of." Hamada glanced at Izumi who held his gaze calmly.
"Mihashi's worried that the world is trying to take his ace pitcher's spot, but I think that as long as Abe catches, no one would even want to be within even 100 km of that spot!" Tajima bust out in laughter all over again while both Izumi and Sakaeguchi cringed and quietly agreed with Tajima. Mihashi looked between all of them even more confused than when the conversation first started.
"W-what's wrong with Abe catching? He's an amazing catcher! If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to pitch!" He exclaimed.
Calming down some, Tajima responded, "That may be true but." He paused to giggle some more, "how can you stand all that nagging he does? He's forever saying 'Mihashi don't do this,' 'Mihashi don't do this,' or 'Mihashi be careful not to do this,' I mean he's worse than a Mom! It's more like he's some sort of overprotective wife or something!" And again Tajima lost himself to a fit of giggles.
"Yeah Mihashi. In all honesty, I think that you're the only pitcher on the planet that can put up with that sort of treatment." Sakaeguchi said.
"Huh" B-but-" At that time, the bell sounded for classes to begin again, and the conversation had to come to an abrupt end.
As the teacher droned on and on at the head of the classroom, Mihashi rested his head on his arms and looked out the window. I don't think that Abe-kun is annoying at all, I mean, he only does that because he's worried about me, right? Mihashi thought about it more as the day passed slowly by . . .
"Mihashi! Wake up!"
H-huh? "A-Abe-kun!" Mihashi tried to jolt up but tripped over himself, and his desk, in the attempt. Thankfully, Abe was able to catch his spaz of a pitcher.
"Jeez! Be a little more careful, will ya?" Abe held Mihashi up until he was sure that he wouldn't suddenly topple to the floor again. "And what are you doing sleeping during class? You know that you have to keep your grades up or you CAN'T pitch!" Abe shrunk back some after that because he had not meant to yell at his timid little pitcher like that. He watched both irritated and apologetic at how his outburst had caused Mihashi to start shrink into the back wall, whimpering.
With a sigh, Abe worked to compose himself.
"Mihashi"
"Y-yes!" Mihashi twitched in response.
"Come here"
Mihashi inched toward Abe, his eyes moving from place to place in nanoseconds but still managing to avoid Abe's steadfast gaze. Again Abe sighed and worked to compose himself in the face of Mihashi and his weird antics.
W-why is Abe-kun here? He's really mad at me since he caught me sleeping. Why didn't Tajima or someone wake me up? Mihashi was now directly in front of Abe, who was still refusing to look his catcher in the eye.
"Mihashi, look at me" And with a jolt and a deep breath, Mihashi complied with a tentative look upwards. "I'm not mad at you for sleeping in class, I didn't mean to yell, alright?" Abe said as evenly as he could, even though he was thoroughly irritated at Mihashi for sleeping, he wasn't actually mad. "I would like to know why you're sleeping in class, are you having trouble sleeping again or something?"
He's worried if I'm sleeping ok? W-well I guess he's not mad then… "N-no!" Mihashi exclaimed, surprising Abe somewhat. "I-I've been sleeping really really well recently! I fall asleep almost immediately when I get home!"
"Huh, is that so?" Abe smirked and began to walk out of the classroom, gesturing for Mihashi to follow him.
"Yeah!"
"That's good. I was kinda worried that all the up coming games were gonna freak you out, especially the match we have against Mihoshi. Do you still think about them?"
"Y-yeah, but I still don't wanna go back, I'm happy here and I'm happy staying with Abe-kun, cuz being with Abe and having Abe as my catcher makes me happy! I really have a good time when I'm with you Abe! Ok?" Cuz I don't think that Abe-kun is too naggy or anything like that! He's just really worried about me b-because I'm so careless.
During Mihashi's sudden declaration Abe froze in his movements and looked behind him at the pitcher. Did he really just. . .s-say all that? What the hell brought that on? Unaware of the slightest of slightest red tinge to his cheek, Abe asked Mihashi, "W-What the hell? Where the hell did that come from?"
"Huh? Ah. . .ah, uh. . ." Mihashi began to turn in circles mouth flapping as he tried to form something coherent to respond with.
Dammit, gotta calm him down some before practice "Look, Mihashi, just . . . nevermind it, forget I asked, ok?" They began to walk toward practice again. "What was your weight this morning?"
"Uh! Uh! F-Fifty-one kilos!"
"Wait, doesn't that mean it went down!?"
"Uh! … Uhm!"
Urk! "It's ok, just make sure to eat an extra onigiri today, ok?" Mihashi nodded furiously. "And you're still avoiding dangerous foods right? The tournament maybe over but that doesn't mean you can let yourself get sick cuz we still have a lot of matches to get through."
"Right, uh, I don't think tha-" Mihashi paused for a second as he remembered what was in Tajima's lunch.
"Mihashi?"
"Uh, uhm, I… uh I!"
"Yes?" Patience Abe, patience!
"I…I had ss-sashimi for l-lunch today…." Mihashi reflexively cringed as he waited for them seemingly inevitable yell from Abe.
Abe took one deep breath so as not to yell at Mihashi for cringing at something so trivial. "Again, I'm not mad Mihashi, It wasn't a lot right? And you're not feeling nauseous or anything, right?" Mihashi shook his head in response. "Then it's fine, just make sure to be a little more aware in the future, alright?"
Mihashi beamed and nodded his head vigorously, beyond happy that he hadn't been scolded. They reached the baseball field shortly afterwards and joined the rest of he team. Upon reaching the meditation circle, the pair sat next to each other, between Tajima and Mizutani.
"So, did you get yelled at?" Tajima whispered to Mihashi.
"N-no! A-Abe-kun said t-that he wasn't mad at me… Hey! Why didn't any of you guys wake me up?" Mihashi whimpered with tear filled eyes.
"Because Tajima thought it would be funny." Izumi said from the other side of Tajima.
"Nu-uh! That's not what I said!" Tajima said to Izumi, then turned back to Mihashi. "That's not what I said at all!" He pleaded with Mihashi. "I said that I thought that it might help to move things along!" He ended in a frantic attempt that got Izumi to widen his eyes somewhat in surprise.
"M-Move things along how?" Mihashi asked with a completely confused and naïve look on his face.
Tajima looked at him with wide incredulous eyes, "You're not serious, are you?" Upon receiving an even blanker expression from the team's ace, Tajima sighed. "By moving things along, I mean," Tajima quickly glanced at Hanai then back to Mihashi. "I mean to get things going between you an-"
"Tajima! Mihashi! You boys are paying attention right? I mean, if we have our clean-up and pitcher getting nervous during a game because they didn't know how to relax automatically before hand, would really be a downer to the rest of the team, right?" Shiga-san cut in, mildly irritated that his players were ignoring him.
"Yes sir!" They said together and were then silent for the rest of the meditation practice.
While playing catch afterwards, Mihashi thought on what Tajima had said. Helping me along? Helping me along with what? Is it my pitching? Did he notice something wrong with my pitching? Am I doing something wrong? Mihashi kept thinking while blindly throwing the pitches Abe called. Eventually, Abe noticed the pitcher's lack of focus and called him out about it.
"Mihashi!" The boy in question jumped up, startled from his thoughts. "Are you okay? You seem a little out of it. . ." Abe said as he walked toward him.
"Oh! I'm fine! I can still pitch! I'm not doing anything wrong, I swear!"
Abe face-palmed as he stood before Mihashi, giving him a once over. "Alright then, let's get back to practice."
After a few more games of catch and pitching for a couple of the batters, practice ended and everyone began heading home. After awhile, the groups broke off into different directions until it was just Tajima, Mihashi, and Abe. Tajima kept fidgeting nervously during the entire walk until Abe finally had enough of it. "Tajima! If there's something bothering you then would you please just spit it out already! Jeez, I don't need another Mihashi on the team!"
At that Mihashi looked confused and Tajima finally broke. "I'm sorry Mihashi!"
"Huh?" Came Mihashi's brilliant response.
"Well, I shouldn't have pulled that stunt I pulled back at the classroom. Izumi gave me a strict scolding afterwards and I realize that he was right, if something's gonna happen, it'll happen on it's own, and I shouldn't try to play match maker." He sighed and hung his head, giving a slight side-ways glance at Mihashi, looking for some sort of understanding from the boy.
However, Mihashi just stared at Tajima with the greatest amount of confusion on his face that it had Tajima jerking his head up in surprise and disbelief. "You can't be serious! He can't be, right Ab-" Upon glancing at Abe he saw a lot of curiosity, but he also say a lack of comprehension on his face as well. "You've got to be kidding me! Are you both that oblivious! I thought that you, of all people Abe, would've noticed by now! Even I had the brains to see what was going on between me and Hanai!" Tajima screamed with some sorrow in his voice. After that he hopped on his bicycle and pedaled away as fast as his legs would take him. Damn those IDIOTS! Dammit! Ah shit, it's a good thing that Izumi had talked to me, or that woulda gone really bad Tajima bitterly wiped his eyes as he pedaled home.
Abe and Mihashi watched as Tajima hurriedly ran away with an air of confusion so thick around them that it was almost suffocating. Abe was the first one to recover from the unexpected episode and speak. "The hell?"
Hearing Abe's voice, Mihashi found his own. "He seemed really upset."
"Yeah, I wonder what he was talking about. And what is it that I'm apparently supposed to be aware of? Was he calling me stupid or something?" Despite himself, Abe began to glare at the spot where Tajima had just been.
"I don't think that's what he was getting at Abe-kun, and he mentioned Hanai-kun as well, I wonder if he's ok?" Mihashi looked at Abe then with concern clearly written all over his face.
He's really worried about Tajima, huh? Abe clenched his teeth and thought up a response to ease his pitcher's concerns. "I'm pretty sure that it's not anything too too serious, and if he still seems off tomorrow, just ask him about it, ok?"
Mihashi perked up a bit at the advice and his face relaxed a bit too. "Yeah, I guess you're right Abe-kun, thank you." He smiled at Abe.
Abe flinched upon seeing such a rare expression on Mihashi. "U-Uh, you're welcome, uhm, this is my turn, so uh, remember, your pitch count is at 80 pitches today and you've already used up 67 at practice today, so if you're gonna practice when you get home remember that you can only throw 13 pitches, got it?"
Mihashi nodded his head, and Abe nodded his in return. They then parted ways for the night and went home.
Okay, so! this is the first chapter of may first story! yeah ok, uh, can anyone else tell that i am currently beyond nervous?
Anywhozles, i'm just ahppy that i finally got my lazy butt up and posted something, and something slightly coherent even! hah check me out! sorry sorry sorry it's nervous jitters i SWEAR!! anyway, please fell free to comment and review, i would trruly appreciate it! oh! and fore-waring to you all, i'm pretty sure that i'm bad at plots since my inspiration usually just comes from some random one-part scene in my head that i spotaneously wanna right a story about, so please bear with me on this!
bye byes! ;p