Pitching at birds
The title for this piece is taken from the 31 Days theme for March 30, 2008. This could be viewed as the companion piece to "In the sunlight".
Mihashi had felt something other than fear and admiration when he had seen Haruna pitch that day, when Nishiura had watch Musashino Dai's game as part of their 'training'. In spite of the bullying at Mihoshi, his love for baseball had never really faded – even in his lowest times and when giving up had seemed like the best decision he could possibly make, it had been unbearably hard for him to ever let go of the ball. Still, pitching was not an act of release for Mihashi; most times too many thoughts jumbled around his head whenever he was standing on the mound, and he'd only blank out right before throwing the ball. Haruna's pitching, however, was so powerful and fluid. Haruna made it seem so easy. Watching the older boy made Mihashi think of many other things, things that weren't necessarily baseball-related and possibly the sort of things that only someone like Tajima with his penis fixation would think of. It embarrassed him, and it showed, much to his chagrin, later on when he and Abe were in bed.
What Mihashi wasn't entirely aware of was that Abe had noticed his behavior much earlier, when they had still been sitting on those bleaches getting carried away by the power of Haruna's pitch and their own personal fears for the upcoming season. It had been impossible not to notice the glazed look in Mihashi's eyes, or the way he clasped his hands together a little too tightly as he traced ball after ball, swing after swing. Haruna had that sort of effect on people and it was possibly what Abe hated/liked about his old pitcher the most. He would know best: it had used to bug him the same way.