Let the Obliviousness Decide
Disclaimer: Don't own Major. If I did, Goro would've ended up with Toshi.
This is a shonen-ai piece. It has nothing explicit. But don't like, don't read.
Shimizu felt a vein throbbing in her head as she marked off yet another day on the calendar. Four days! Four days! And that great oaf of a baseball freak hadn't done anything! She wanted to strangle him.
Four days ago was Valentine's Day. Shimizu had spent the night before making chocolate and had blushingly wrapped an extra large serving for Goro. Her eyebrows began to tick as she recalled that fateful day.
"Honda," she began, shuffling in her school shoes and tugging nervously at her uniform's skirt, "Happy Valentine's Day!"
The tall ball stared at her blankly before scratching the back of his head, "Eh? Oh, thanks."
If it were any other boy, Shimizu would've klonked him over the head. But Goro being Goro, the handsome and athletically toned boy probably didn't even realize the significance of the day. Afterall, he was practically married to a sport!
Several passing classmates giggled. Ever since the baseball prodigy transferred to Seishu High School, he'd been the unwitting target of many giggled conversations and admiring gazes. The days leading up to Valentine's Day were particularly annoying to bear. Didn't those idiotic girls realize that the boy was – one – too engrossed to baseball to care about romance – and two – taken – by her?
Irked, she replied, "So, you want to hang out some time?"
Goro gave her an uncomprehending look. "I've got baseball practice every afternoon this week and I'm training with the old man this weekend."
Shimizu almost wanted to slap him. Was he really that dense?! She stalked away.
Goro just scratched his head in confusion.
Shimizu just sighed as she thought back. Maybe she should've been a little more clear? He really should have been able to piece it together though! What else could a girl mean when she gave a guy chocolate on Valentine's Day and asked him out? The only thing more obvious was a stupid, frilly, sappy love letter!
She just growled. Well, it wasn't as if she hadn't prepared one for that day. It was just that when she went to put it in his mailbox Valentine's afternoon, after she reached the conclusion that Goro needed something a little more blunt than chocolate to understand her intentions, he was already standing there, reading another love letter!
She didn't know whether to feel threatened by the new admirer who was daring enough to confess to the boy, or to pity her fellow sufferer.
Shimizu moved to hang up her calendar again when she looked out her window. Hoshino-san was walking past her house with what looked like the night's groceries. Rushing downstairs, the high school girl hoped to make it out the house in time to catch the older woman.
"Hoshino-san!"
The woman turned and smiled as she saw the short-haired high schooler run out, "Good afternoon Shimizu-san."
"Do you need help carrying those groceries?"
The older woman nodded happily and handed the younger woman a grocery bag.
The two walked a ways before Shimizu ventured to break the silence, "Ano… Is Goro home yet?"
Hoshino Momoko just smiled inwardly but shook her head, "No. His friend Toshi-kun invited him out to a park on Valentine's Day and the two of them have been going there every day since then."
Shimizu tripped on a non-existent rock.
Momoko wrinkled her brows in confusion at the young girl's response before thinking over what she just said. She covered her mouth with a hand and laughed, "Oh dear me, that came out wrong! Toshi-kun found an abandoned park with a baseball diamond so they've been playing catch ball there."
Shimizu gracefully, or as gracefully as she could in the situation, picked herself up and stammered an excuse for her fall.
Curiosity getting the best of her, Shimizu went to the deserted park following Hoshino-san's directions. And it was exactly as the older woman had said. It was just two boys playing catch together. Nothing suspicious at all. Nothing romantic. Shimizu wanted to sigh in relief. It looked like all her worries, as strange and farfetched as they were, were for not. Her greatest rival for the oblivious man's affections was still a sport.
But she still felt uneasy. A more experienced woman would've called it a woman's sixth sense. She continued to watch a little longer.
Then she saw it.
The way Goro's eyes were lit just a little brighter than when he played with any other catcher she'd seen.
The way the tanned boy's pitches were just a little faster and sharper with each throw.
The way his voice cheered happily at the sound of the hardball arriving home in the catcher's mitt – just a little more happy, a little more exhilarated than she'd ever heard before.
And the way that, after an hour more of what any sane person would call hard training, the two tall good-looking boys would joke and chat with a familiarity that seemed foreign to her – one of Goro's oldest acquaintances – as they packed their bags for the day.
The way the fairer boy, Sato Toshiya would gaze at Goro when the tanned boy wiped the sweat off his cheek and guzzled down water, making his Adam's apple bob. Shimizu knew there was absolutely nothing platonic about the way the green-eyed youth was eyeing the oblivious baseball otaku. The sly Kaido catcher had definitely planned on asking Goro out on Valentine's Day. And Shimizu was ready to fight him tooth and nail.
She would have. If not for the equally soft gazes that Goro would throw at Toshiya – asking him how his hand felt after catching over a hundred pitches, inquiring if the other boy wanted to hang out elsewhere the next day to give his hands a rest between Kaido's grueling training and his afternoon sessions with Goro.
Goro simply didn't take time outs in life. It was all baseball. But where Toshi was concerned, the pitcher might not have noticed his own feelings yet, but he was willing to put baseball in second place. The catcher might have started the casual catch ball game with certain intentions, but it took two to play.
Shimizu didn't know whether to smile or to cry. Her crush since elementary school was er… batting for the other team. But he did seem so very satisfied after a hard workout with Toshi and so very – however imperceptibly – different when he was with the other boy.
He might have been oblivious to all the hidden agendas she and Toshi had four days ago when they each confessed, in their own ways. But what he chose to do with his time after that spoke for itself.
She walked home, intent on marking off all the other days left on her calendar. It didn't seem like the dense boy was going to respond to her request for a date any time soon, if at all.
"So Toshi," Goro remarked casually as he exchanged cleats for casual runners, "you want to have dinner at my house? It's closer to the Kaido dorms than your grandparents' place is."
"Eh?!" The usually calm green-eyed catcher yelped out.
"What's with that reaction? You'd think I was asking you to meet the in-laws or something," Goro teased.
The fair skinned boy blushed, making his complexion contrast prettily with his vibrant green eyes.
The pitcher just smirked knowingly. "You know, pitchers are cat creatures. We decide who we want to be with – you can't fool us with pretenses."
Toshi just blinked disbelievingly, his delicate mouth hanging open.
Goro bit back a hiss. Why did everyone think he was some oblivious thickheaded dunce?!
Toshi couldn't help the wide smile that was spreading across his face. "I'd love to. But are they expecting me?"
"I told them I was bringing my catcher home for dinner."
My catcher. Toshi liked the sound of that. Goro couldn't deny that those words sounded quite satisfying as they rolled off his tongue.
Hope you enjoyed! I always thought there was some good chemistry between Goro and some of the guys he plays baseball with - and in particular, Toshi. And Shoboi Kao Sunna yo Baby pretty much confirmed my suspicions..
