Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, obviously.
Warning: This fic contains a male/male relationship. It is rated M for lemons. You have been warned! All human.


Playing for the Same Team
Chapter One

Company Picnic. I groan loudly as I stare at these two words on the brightly-colored memo in front of me. Luckily, I am sitting in my car at the park, the location of said picnic, and there is no one around to hear me. Unfortunately wasn't the case last Friday after I discovered the memo that had found its way onto my keyboard while I was at lunch. How cruel could you be to announce such a thing on a Friday, so that everyone's weekend is ruined, dreading the stupid event?

Every year, the high-end construction company that I work for hosts a company outing. It's supposed to help us get to know people from other departments that we might not otherwise meet, and to help build team spirit. But I don't see how being forced to wear ugly, company shirts and play stupid games in the hot sun is supposed to be any fun. It sounds like hell to me.

This is only my second year attending. I went five years ago when I first started working for the company and I hadn't gone again since. I was always able to come up with a good enough excuse for missing the outing, but I had no such excuse this year. My boss, an old friend of mine, cornered me a few months ago and told me that if I did not go, he would take away my private office. Well, there's no way I'm going to lose my office, so I have agreed to go. I had half-hoped that I would wake up sick this morning, but I didn't. I could never be so lucky.

I glance up from the memo and nearly have a heart attack. Our annoying and overly-friendly receptionist is standing outside my car window and she waves frantically at me before gesturing for me to come out. I had been sitting in my Volvo for the past ten minutes or so, trying to waste time. Guess that time is up.

I step out of my car and she's hovering around me like a mosquito. "Oh, Mr. Cullen! We were beginning to wonder if you were going to make it!" She hands me a company t-shirt and an itinerary. I grumble as I slide the shirt over my head. It's several sizes too large and I'm sure it looks ridiculous on my thin frame.

"Wonderful," she beams at me, with an obvious lack of taste. 'Wonderful' is the last thing I would describe myself as right now… "Okay, the first event is going to be baseball. There will be four teams and yours is on your itinerary. You'd better hurry!" I flinch as she places her hand on my shoulder to guide me in the right direction, and hurry away from her. I slow before long; as much as I'd like to get away from her, I'm certainly not in any hurry to get to the game either.

As soon as I'm out of her line of sight, I pause and look around to take in my surroundings. The park is quite large and the green, manicured lawn looks conspicuously empty. On one end of the park, I can see a small, man-made lake and on the other, a thick forest, colored brightly with the hues of fall. I can see the breeze rustle the leaves of the trees before it reaches me and I shiver slightly. It's nearing the end of September and, although it has been a warm fall, the air has a definite chill today.

The breeze tears me back to reality and I start heading toward the large, chain-link fences that define two small baseball diamonds. I stop to grab a paper cup and fill it with some hot coffee from the company cooler that they have set up on a small table near the entrance.

The crowd is quite raucous as they wait for the last stragglers to arrive. Despite my reservations, a lot of my coworkers seem to really be looking forward to the upcoming games. I shake my head in wonder. I'm really out of my element here. A baseball diamond is not the place for a nerd like me.

I check my paper and see that I'm supposed to be playing on Field A, so I head over to the large dugout area that is meant to fit two teams, ducking around my rowdy coworkers.

At first glance, the dugout had appeared to be empty, but as I sit down, setting my coffee beside me, I can see a figure sitting on the opposite end of the bench, partially hidden in shadow. Seeing me watch him, he comes over to sit near me, a friendly smile on his face. "Hiding from the crowd?" He asks with a pleasant, southern accent. He chuckles, offering me his hand which is rough and calloused. "I hate these things too."

I grin sheepishly at him and study him more closely. He's fucking hot. He's a bit taller than me and has wavy, dark blond hair that hangs to his shoulders and confidant, bright blue eyes. There's a bit of stubble on his jaw, which accentuates his golden tan and makes him look even more the perfect cowboy. He seems slim, but it is difficult to tell, due to his baggy t-shirt that matches mine. But it doesn't hide his broad shoulders and chest which lead to a slim waist. The dark business slacks and leather shoes look completely out of place on him and I can't help but wonder what he'd look like in a pair of denim jeans and cowboy boots instead.

I realize I've probably been holding on to his hand for too long, so I drop it and fiddle nervously with the itinerary I'm holding in my lap. I'm hoping he didn't notice me checking him out, but as I glance back up at him, I think I see him smirking. "I'm Jasper Hale," he grins at me.

"My name is Edward Cullen." I can't help but smile back at him.

"Let me guess, you're from the IT department, right?" he asks out of the blue. He's right. I'm the head of the IT department at our company, but I don't see how he could tell just from looking at me. "How did you know," I ask him curiously.

He takes my left hand in his and examines it closely, running his calloused fingers over mine. I have the anxious feeling of butterflies in my chest, something which I haven't felt in a long time. I can feel my heart beat a little faster and I want him to touch so much more of me like that. "Your hand is so soft. I can tell you've never had to work a rough, physical job in your life," he answers me. I can feel my throat tighten a little and I feel my face heating up before he drops my hand. I don't really know what to say in response to that.

I clear my throat and try to adjust my position without revealing that I had been turned on by his touch. "So, are you one of the builders, then?" I ask.

He smiles and nods. "Sure am… Are you new? I've never seen you around before and I'm sure I would have remembered a face like yours."

I blush and manage to stammer out that I'm not new and that I just have gotten lucky by avoiding these outings over the years… I can't tell if he is calling me attractive or not. He's so hard to judge. On one hand, he could be coming on to me. Yet on the other, he might just be trying to be polite. I don't know how to react to him, so I decide to play it cool and try to act normally.

We sit in companionable silence for a few minutes. Our coworkers are still running around, joking and laughing and neither team has yet to form. I'm glad for the separation from that madness.

After a moment, I feel Jasper's eyes on me. I look over to him and take in a sharp breath. He's leaning over and staring right down at my lap! I know I must be bright red and I don't know what to say to him. I mean, it's not like they teach you what to do in situations where you have hot men ogling your groin! Despite my embarrassment, I can feel myself harden even more under his scrutiny. Oh, dear lord, I hope he can't tell!

I try to hide my embarrassment by taking a long drink of my coffee and Jasper chooses that moment to look up. His eyes meet mine. "I think we're playing for the same team," he says seriously.

I nearly choke on my coffee. I lower my cup, sputtering for a moment before staring at him, mouth agape. There's no way he saw- he couldn't tell- oh, lord! My mind is racing, but all that escapes my lips is a strangled, yet rather high-pitched, "What?"

He simply points to the itinerary on my lap. "We're on the same team. We're both on Team A2."

"Oh!" I can feel my face burning. Of course, he was just looking at my itinerary… Of course he was talking about the baseball teams, not-. "Right, yeah. I, uh, I'll be right back- restroom!"

I hop up and rush off to the restrooms that I walked by on my way to the diamond. Luckily, the place is deserted, so I take my time drawing deep breaths as I lean forward, supporting myself on one of the sinks. After a few moments in which I will my hard-on to disappear, I splash my face with cold water.

I can't believe I thought Jasper was staring at my crotch! My mind is really in the gutter today. I keep imagining all sorts of double meanings in his words. The thought threatens to make me hard again, and I push it aside.

I'm sure it's just because it's been a really long time since I've been with anyone. I've been so busy with work lately, I just haven't had time for a relationship. But my body seemed content before, so I don't know why it's betraying me in front of Jasper all of a sudden.

I sigh and stare at myself in the mirror. My hair is coppery bronze and it matches my dark green eyes. I can see some dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. I shake my head at my reflection. Maybe I'm just tired. I'll get a good night's sleep tonight and be back to normal in the morning.

I head back to the dugout, determined to keep a clean mind. I'm a little relieved to see that Jasper is still sitting in the same spot. A few more people have wandered in, but we still have our end of the bench to ourselves. He smiles at me as I sit down next to him.

"So, you play much baseball?" he asks me after a few minutes.

"No," I tell him honestly. I hate sports and baseball is one of my least favorites. As deft as my fingers are with a keyboard, I am completely uncoordinated when it comes to trying to catch objects that are flying through the air at me. "I don't really play sports much, plus I'm really bad at catching."

He smiles at me, and I think I might see a mischievous glint in his eye as he replies, his voice deep, "oh, I bet you're just fine at catching." Then he looks out over the field like he didn't say anything unusual.

I stare at him for a second with my mouth open. He couldn't have been implying what I thought he was, could he? That I'd be good in bed? My blush makes a return and I close my mouth and cough into my hand to hide my embarrassment. I can feel myself hardening again. I want him so badly… It's just been too long. My mind is just hoping to find hidden meanings where there aren't any. I wrestle with my mind, trying to keep it from crawling back into the gutter.

A moment later, the rest of the two teams arrive to put me out of my misery. Our team sits off to one side, while the other sits opposite us. The over-talkative receptionist is back to go over the rules with us.


I'm standing with a bat in my hand and I have no idea what I'm doing. I can feel everyone's eyes on me, including Jasper's. He is sitting back in the dugout. We have so many people that we will be switching players a lot and unfortunately I was one of the people chosen to be in the first part of the game. I wish I were still sitting next to Jasper though. My heart starts to beat faster again, recalling his earlier words. Oh, I bet you're just fine at catching.

A moment later, my heart is pounding for another reason altogether as, suddenly, a ball whizzes past my head. I need to focus! I manage to push Jasper aside in my mind and focus on the pitcher. He hurls another ball towards me and I have to fight the urge to move out of the way. I manage to bring my bat up and swing just enough for the ball to hit it and it bounce off back toward the pitcher. I drop the bat and run to first base, just managing to make it. I sigh to myself. The hardest part is over. Soon I can go sit back down.

I don't have to wait much longer, because on the race to second base after the next pitch, I am tagged by the ball and I'm out. Thank god!

I walk briskly back to the dugout and plop back down next to Jasper. I prop my elbows on my knees, then lean my head into my hands and let out a small groan. I can hear Jasper's chuckle beside me.

"See, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" he asks. I look up to see him grinning at me and smile weakly back. "Oh, yes. It was."

"You know," he says, "I can't believe how quickly you got to first base! That's the hardest part- some people just don't have the courage to make it there. It's a shame about not making it to second, though."

All I can do is just stare at him. He's freaking killing me here! I'm about to spontaneously combust from all these innuendos. I groan softly to myself. There's no way he means them like I want him to mean them, is there?

Soon, it's Jasper's time to play and he's pitching. He manages to strike a few people out before he is called back and someone else replaces him. As much as his words are destroying my sanity, I cannot deny that I'm glad he comes back to sit next to me.

He smiles at me as he sits back down. "You know, it's such a shame that we have to take turns like this. I was really looking forward to playing with you. It's no fun sitting on the sidelines." I just stare at him. My mind has had enough of these games. I need to know if he means what the fuck I think he means. And I am hoping to god he does mean it that way. I need this.

I clear my throat. "You know, you looked really good out there. You're a natural pitcher." I glance up at him, more determined than shy.

He grins at me, like he knows he's been caught and I know. He's been flirting with me intentionally. The thought makes my body hot all over and I can feel myself getting hard again.

"Oh, yes. I'm a damn good pitcher." My breath hitches as he winks at me. "We could go practice your catching for a few minutes. If you'd like…" He trails off and stares at me with confidant, darkened eyes. He knows I can't say no. I nod back at him. Oh, god. I want him so much!


Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Chapter two will be along shortly and features a nice, shiny lemon. Hope to see you soon!