Tension

[One-shot]


A/N: This is basically a scene I drafted when I was still working out the details of my multi-chapter story, The Trajectory of Laughter. I've abandoned this idea and won't be using this scene, but I wrote it out and all so why not. Slapped a beginning and ending on it to round it out as a one-shot. Hope you enjoy the angst?


After the practice game that day, Eijun found himself climbing up the stairway with Miyuki to the second landing of the dorm, paying no mind to the fact that they were still dressed in their dusty baseball uniforms. But that was how it always was, with Miyuki.

And then one of them said something, and Miyuki started laughing so hard he had to pause on a step to regain his bearings. Then, after indignantly frowning, Eijun gave in and laughed until his sides began to hurt.

That, too, was how it always was with Miyuki.

Only after Miyuki had opened the door to his room and they staggered in, did Eijun realize how exhausted he was. They'd done their usual strenuous morning practice before the practice game, which had lasted a full nine-innings, and Eijun had pitched from start to finish (tomorrow would be Furuya's turn).

Moaning something about his sore muscles – and not in a way that made any grammatical sense, for all the right words seemed to slip from his worn-down brain – Eijun stumbled to the nearest bed and collapsed.

"That's my bed, Sawamura," said Miyuki, and Eijun felt his foot poking him on the back. "Move your ass to the other bed, I'm tired too."

When he didn't move, Miyuki simply fell on top of him, and Eijun laughed again, the instinctive tired kind of laugh that was meant to be a replacement for a verbal protest. After half-heartedly struggling for a few seconds, Eijun slumped in defeat underneath the older boy. Even as his laughter died out and a comfortable silence filled the air, Miyuki remained collapsed on top of him.

He must be more tired than he looks.

Miyuki's leg was propped uncomfortably against his thigh, and after bearing with it for a few minutes – because by damn was he tired – while he was unable to summon the strength to completely shove him off, Eijun shifted his leg – and then suddenly, Miyuki's body was pressing down even more closely on his.

Suddenly, Eijun realized that he could feel the catcher's heartbeat beating steadily down above his.

"Man, I'm beat..." Miyuki said with another tired laugh, and he finally began to try and pull himself up by his elbows. But then with an exhale, he gave up and collapsed on top of Eijun again. As he did so, his knee brushed against Eijun's groin.

A jolt of heat ran through his lower body. Eijun immediately stiffened, and when he did so, he felt Miyuki grow still. To his mortification, he realized that he was blushing.

What the...why am I getting so embarrassed?

But he was becoming acutely aware of their close proximity – of the way their joints fitted against each other; of the way their tops, still damp with sweat, clung to each other's flushed skins; of the way that even through the potent combination of baseball and sweat, he could smell Miyuki's distinct musky cologne; of the way Miyuki's body weighed heavily down on him, trapping him against the bed and making it hard to breathe...

Slowly and fearfully, his gaze inched its way to Miyuki's face. When their eyes met, what felt like an electrical current ran through his body.

All traces of laughter had disappeared from the older boy's face. He looked down at Eijun with a hard look on his face. It was a look that he'd never seen before, and he'd thought he knew all of Miyuki's facial expressions by now. A bead of sweat that had formed at Miyuki's temple began to slide down the side of his face, and Eijun watched, his heart pounding, as it dangled teasingly at his chin. Then, when it finally dripped down onto his neck, he suddenly felt heat rushing to his groin and a tightening of his pants around the area, and the sensation was so abrupt and so fierce that his knee involuntarily jerked upwards.

And Eijun realized to his growing shock –

I'm hard.

Around when the other boys in his middle school had begun whispering about girls and started bringing in their older brothers' magazines, Eijun had begun to have his fair share of erections, and over the years, when the pent-up frustration got too much for him to handle, he'd jerked off in the privacy of his room. It had gotten a little more difficult to find some alone time when he began rooming with Kuramochi and Masuko, and sometimes in the morning, he'd been woken up by the sound of rustling bedcovers and one of them groaning and panting in their bed, but for the most part, he'd dealt with his occasionally in the bathroom stalls or in those rare moments of privacy in the room.

Having always been on the baseball team, Eijun had been much too busy to have an actual girlfriend or to even think about girls. Sure, it was nice flipping through the worn pages of the dirty magazines Kuramochi left around, and he'd climaxed more than once while looking at the pictures of the models with their legs spread coaxingly wide open. But when it came to real life girls, whether it was the manager girls or the girls in his class, he'd never thought too much about it. And regardless of whatever Kuramochi thought about him and Wakana, he'd never even once considered her or thought of her in that way.

His grandpa had called him a late bloomer, said that he would come around, but Eijun just hadn't ever had the time to really put too much thought into it, not with the intense training and burden of pitching that came with being on the Seidō first-string.

"S-sorry..." Eijun finally stammered out desperately, his heart pounding in his burning ears. "I don't – I mean – I didn't mean to...to..."

He fell silent as, without warning, Miyuki lowered his face until it was hovering right above Eijun's. They were so close, Eijun could see every inch of the other boy's face in detail, down to the tiny mole on his brow. He could feel Miyuki's warm breath tickling his mouth, could almost feel the heat of the other boy's lips above his own, and then to his astonishment, he realized that they were about to ki –

"Miyuki!" There was a loud banging at the door, and with that, the moment was broken. Immediately, Miyuki rolled off of Eijun, and without looking back at him, he hurried to the door. He opened it a crack, just barely letting a sliver of daylight into the room.

"What is it?"

"Hurry up and get changed." It was Isashiki's voice, sounding as gruff as usual. "Coach wants us in the dining room for a meeting."

"Got it." Miyuki made to close the door, but a hand shot in, stopping him.

"What're you doing inside there anyways? Acting all susp – "

"I'm going," the second-year broke in uncharacteristically harshly, and there was a pregnant pause. Then the hand lowered and disappeared behind the door.

"Fine then. See you there."

Miyuki closed the door. And then, still not looking at Eijun, who sat gaping on top of the middle of the messed up bedcovers, he said in an odd voice, "You'd better go to your room and get changed too."

The tension in the room was so thick, it was almost palpable.

Swallowing, Eijun quickly averted his gaze. Swinging his legs over to the side of the bed, he tried to push himself up – and then, teetering on his feet, for he had no strength left in his legs, he fell back on the bed. Involuntarily, he stole a glance back up at Miyuki, and saw that the older boy was simply leaning against the wall, staring at a poster on the opposite side. His face was unreadable and suddenly, Eijun felt something cold and sharp that he could only describe as fear run through him.

How it always is with Miyuki...?

Miyuki's face as it had looked down upon him just minutes ago flashed again through Eijun's mind, and he had to bite the inside of his mouth to stop the sudden urge to cry that was swelling alarmingly inside of him.

What a joke, when he knew absolutely nothing about Miyuki.

Somehow, Eijun managed to get to his feet, and mumbling something to Miyuki, he fled the room. Somehow, he managed to climb down the stairway and get to his room, and somehow, he managed to find his keys and open the door.

The door slamming shut behind him, Eijun fell to the floor and he did not move for so long that when Kuramochi opened the door an hour later, he yelped and tripped over him and bruised his leg.

"What's wrong with you?" Kuramochi scowled, finally releasing him from the arm bar. "You missed the meeting you know. The managers got crackers for us, even."

And at the mention of something as trivial and mundane and amazing as crackers at a meeting, Eijun could only laugh.