Beta: Alex (formless-shadow on tumblr)
Warnings: sexual innuendos
A/N: This happened because of talk with Deev (deevastated on tumblr). We were joking how thanks to Daiya and our ships some phrases stopped sounding innocent. This fic is about one of them. It's also my first fic for Daiya so please, excuse me any OOC-ness. I'll try to get better!
I'd like to thank Ola (formless-shadow on tumblr) for betaing this fic for me :) Both of use aren't English native speakers (Ola majors in English tho) so if you spot any mistake then please, write to me about it.
Of balls and bats
"Okay, give me another one and then go run."
"What?! But I've only just started!" Sawamura yells, easily catching the ball that Miyuki just threw to him. Team members who stand nearby no longer bother to tell him to keep his voice down, too used to the constant yelling and screaming of the pitcher. "I want to pitch more! Don't be like that, Bakayuki!"
Miyuki sighs, adjusting his glasses and Haruichi, who stands next to him in the batter box, smiles.
"Eijun-kun is full of energy as usual," he says softly. The temperature is a bit above thirty Celsius degrees, Furuya was sent back to his room to cool down because he almost fainted, everyone are sweaty and tired – everyone but Sawamura who seems to gain energy instead of losing it.
"I wouldn't mind if he wasn't for once," murmurs Miyuki but somehow it doesn't sound too sincere. No-one mentions yips but the memory of sad Sawamura hangs between them. "Do you want to switch with anyone?"
"No, I'm fine." Haruichi tightens his hold on the bat. Watching Sawamura's pitches from the batter's box is too exciting to let anyone else stand there. "For me he can pitch as long as he wants, Miyuki-senpai."
"Great." Miyuki flashes him a grin before looking at Sawamura. He going to make that first year who doesn't have any respect for his senpai and their precious time (Miyuki conveniently ignores the fact he's the only senpai Sawamura doesn't treat with respect) pitch till he collapses. "Oi, baka, you can throw some more, but make sure there'll be more strikes than balls this time!"
Someone snickers and Sawamura blushes.
"Shut up, you stupid catcher! You show me which ball should I pitch, it's your fault!" he yells back.
"Yeah, yeah, of course." Completely ignoring the first-year's screaming, Miyuki shows him a sight for a change-up that Sawamura pitches perfectly in the next moment.
Really, thinks Haruichi, observing the both of them. They make quite a good team. No matter how many times Sawamura complains about the second year catcher, he's at his best when it's Miyuki who forms a battery with him.
They practice for a good half an hour when Sawamura finally starts showing firsts signs of fatigue. His pitches start losing their speed and Miyuki – as Haruichi notices with a touch of fear – starts showing his sadistic nature by asking for faster and more precise pitches. Haruichi gulps quietly. He'd prefer not to stand in the batter's box when Sawamura's control slips; he likes his limbs too much for that, okay?
"What, tired already?" Miyuki grins, throwing the ball up and then catching it.
The pitcher snorts, vowing that he's not going to show the catcher just how tired he is.
"You wish!"
"Then you can pitch twenty more, huh?"
"Twenty?!" Sawamura almost falls down at the sheer thought of pitching so many ball. Even ten more balls would be too much and Miyuki wants twenty? "Woah, you really like catching balls, don't you?!"
Haruichi can count on his fingers how many times he has felt true terror and this is certainly one of those times. Everyone around them are suddenly quiet and that doesn't sound good. The pink haired boy risks a glance at Miyuki and... yes, just like he thought. The catcher is smiling in the way that screams 'danger'. His moves are deliberately slow, like a hunting predator when he stands up and starts walking slowly toward Sawamura. Haruichi goes after him almost on autopilot; it won't be good if those two start fighting.
"Oh, you know me, I like my position as the team's catcher" Miyuki says, removing his face mask, and smiling at Sawamura. The boy was annoying more than usual today, practically asking Miyuki to do something about it. He's not going to miss the chance to embarrass Sawamura. "But I just love when people catch my balls too."
"What? Really? I didn't know." Sawamura's eyes widens. Miyuki as a pitcher? Sounds interesting, however he is too much of a control freak to be one. "I could catch your balls if you would like to! Or I could just swing my bat at them!"
Oh Eijun..., Haruichi thinks, close to facepalming while looking at Sawamura's honest expression. A few meters away from them Kuramochi is sitting on the ground, almost crying from laughter, not even trying to hide his amusement. In fact, most of the members are torn between laughing and covering their ears because they're not sure they want to hear more. Not for the first time Haruichi wonders how Sawamura can be so observant in one minute to miss something so obvious in the another.
Miyuki's eyes narrow, gleaming from mischief when he realizes the pitcher didn't catch the hidden meaning of his words; his lips quirk into a lazy smirk at Sawamura's confused expression ("Kuramochi-senpai, why are you laughing?! Why are you all laughing?! Kanemaru I heard that comment about being an idiot!"). He couldn't look more like a cat even if he tried.
"Sure," Miyuki purrs, eyeing the pitcher. Oh, this is gold; once Sawamura finally gets to know what their conversation is truly about, he's going to tease the first year for months. At first he only tried to made the pitcher blush and embarrass him a little so he could want to go back running (Miyuki's arm isn't made of steel after all; he can't catch Sawamura's pitches for too long) but now? No way. Of course there is a possibility of Sawamura just playing along but Miyuki is too good at observing people for it to be true. He mentally gives himself a high-five. Months, months of teasing! "We can do it later." He slides his arm around Sawamura's shoulders, pulling him closer.
The pitcher stops snarling at other players, focusing his big eyes on Miyuki.
"Later? But don't you have a meeting with the coach later...?" Sawamura says, observing the catcher warily. He knows the second-year is up to something; his smirk is enough to tell that. "Or... you don't want me to catch your balls at all! What, do you think I won't be good enough for you?!" Sawamura hears Kuramochi whimpering 'It's too much, I can't...' before he gets into another laughing fit, but he's too focused on trying to break out of Miyuki's hold to pay attention to his roomate.
"Eijun-kun..." starts Haruichi, blushing – just how much Sawamura can miss something so obvious? - but Sawamura interrupts him. "You too, Harucchi?! Pitching is not the only thing I'm good at!"
"Hey, hey, I didn't say that you won't be catching my balls. We can do it whenever you are up for it." Miyuki ruffles Sawamura's hair, too close for the boy's liking. Neither Miyuki, nor Sawamura notice how the atmosphere around them has changed, the laughter of their teammates disappearing. "After all –"
Someone suddenly grunts behind them and Miyuki knows this type of grunt too well for this situation to end in favour for him. Dammit.
"It's awfully nice of you Miyuki, that you want to help Sawamura widen his baseball repertoire but it would be better if he stuck to pitching and batting." A voice as cold as a snowstorm says behind them.
"But big boss!" Sawamura finally breaks out of Miyuki's hold, turning toward and beaming at the coach as if a simple but bright smile could make him agree to Sawamura's whim. "It's Miyuki who said that I can catch his balls! So why can't I?!"
The expression on Kataoka's face is more devoid of emotions than usual – Not like that idiot Sawamura notices it, thinks Miyuki – when he moves his gaze from Sawamura to Miyuki. Even behind his shades it can be seen that the coach isn't pleased with what he heard. Miyuki's smile falters a little. Of course the coach as a former player knows exactly what "balls" and "bats" mean; he probably knows about every single baseball-related innuendo. Miyuki's so going to pay for teasing Sawamura like that.
Even Sawamura could sense that something is wrong. Why is the coach looking pissed off at them? For once they weren't arguing! Miyuki offered help on his own, shouldn't the coach be proud of them for not arguing once during practice?
"Big boss," pleads Sawamura, missing the way Kataoka is glaring at the new captain. "I really want to catch Miyuki's balls now!" Someone starts laughing at their left but stops shortly after the coach turns his head into that direction. "What? Did I say something wrong?"
"N-no, of course not." Miyuki coughs into his fist. He knows he shouldn't laugh in a situation like this, not when the coach glares at him but it's too much. He wants to roll on the ground like Kuramochi, laughing, but he knows if he starts laughing Kataoka is going to make him do such difficult exercises that they will make 'summer training from hell' look like a warm up.
Anger flares in Sawamura.
"You're laughing at me, you bastard! You –"
"That's it. Sawamura, go ice your shoulder. You pitched enough for today. Kominato, go with him and make sure he doesn't sneak back into the bullpen later." Sawamura starts arguing that he can pitch more but Kataoka completely ignores him – he has a lot of practice doing so – his eyes fixated on Miyuki who doesn't look apologetic in the slightest, biting the inside of his cheek as to prevent himself from laughing really hard. "Now, Miyuki..."
Sawamura lets himself be dragged to the bench by Haruichi, wondering why the coach ordered Miyuki to "run till his legs fall off and then some more".
Hours later, when the sun went down and everyone went to eat supper, Miyuki's legs finally give up and he lands on his ass,trying to catch his breath; his clothes wet from sweat. Man, who would think the coach is so protective over his little protégé? But still that punishment was worth making fun of Sawamura.
Miyuki laughs to himself, lying on the ground. The moment Sawamura learns everything will be priceless; he needs to bribe young Kominato or maybe Furuya into taking a picture of the pitcher's face... No, there is no way he's ever going to stop teasing Sawamura about today! All of a sudden, the evening's silence is disrupted by a loud yell. Miyuki sits up, curious. It sounds like it's coming from –
Then there is a loud 'BANG!' and after a few moments he sees three people entering the field and he hears a furious 'Miyuki Kazuya, you bastard!' followed by 'Eijun-kun, you can't...!'. The figure in the middle starts running toward him, trying to shake off the other two.
Huh. Seems like Sawamura's learned what "catching balls" really means. Miyuki really hopes Kuramochi was kind enough to record everything. And that Furuya and younger Kominato are strong enough to stop Sawamura from coming any closer to him. He doesn't have the strength to run away.
Despite not being able to move he could not help yelling at the first-year pitcher.
"Oi, Sawamura! Came to catch my balls?"
Sawamura's howl of fury isn't loud enough to drown out Miyuki's laughter.
Fin.
A/N: The part "widen his baseball repertoire" belongs to Deev. I hope you liked this little fic and if it made you smile then I achieved my goal and I'm proud of myself :3