****The Mothers****

Mrs. Mihashi stuck her head into the sunny bedroom, smiling brightly. The raven haired boy sitting at the desk looked up at her briefly, sharing a small smile before placing a hand in sandy hair and shoving it back down to focus on the homework laid out on the desk.

"Hey boys, you need any food up here?"

Tajima looked up from the foot of the bed, head hanging down and looking at her upside down.

"Hey, can you bring us some more cur—"

Hanai, seated on the floor next to Tajima so that the cleanup's head came suspiciously close to his shoulder, clapped a hand over his mouth while writing, never looking up.

"Thanks for offering Mrs. Mihashi, but we're fine up here."

"Um…a-are you quite sure?"

Muffled protests came from the batter, but the large hand stayed firm, the fingers tightening.

"We're sure, Mrs. Mihashi."

She chuckled a little nervously and addressed the other two, secretly happy to see her son becoming so close to such a nice group of boys.

"Abe? Ren? Do you two need anything?"

Ren looked like he was about to speak but held his tongue at a look from Abe, who glanced at the still full bowl of grapes and back at the pitcher. Turning around, he signaled no to his mom, who smiled and nodded.

"Okay then! Keep working hard, boys. I'll be up with more curry in an hour or two, since it's almost time for dinner."

As she left Tajima jumped off the bed with a hoot, shouting, "YES! CURRY!" and was quickly brought down to earth as Hanai's hand wrapped around his ankle and yanked him down to sit next to the captain, who put him in a one arm choke and said, "You don't make the grades, you don't play on the team. You don't wanna play with us anymore?"

Tajima's attitude slammed on the brakes and revolved 180 degrees. The cleanup sat up ramrod straight with teary eyes, clutching Hanai's shirt in his hands, trembling.

"No, I wanna play, I do!"

Hanai nodded and ruffled the cleanup's hair, placing a book in Tajima's lap.

"Then let's study hard so you can earn that curry."

"Okay!"

Tajima started to read and leaned against Hanai's shoulder, humming a nonsense song under his breath and pretending not to notice Hanai blushing happily next to him. Abe sat forward and helped Mihashi with some calculations, speaking in low relaxed tones. It was the only way to teach the flaky pitcher, as he had found from an earlier experience with algebra in which Mihashi had started crying after getting the right answer and then wanting to quadruple check it to make sure it was actually right.

Downstairs, the mothers of Hanai and Tajima were seated on the couch, drinking tea, while Mihashi's mom fixed more in the kitchen. Calling from the other room, she complimented Mrs. Hanai.

"Really, that Hanai of yours is really such a wonderful boy and a leader as well!"

Hanai's mother nodded and beamed.

"He's even become better at home now that Coach has talked to him. But tell me, how is Ren doing?"

Mihashi's mother came in with a smile on her face, setting down the tray full of tea cookies surrounding a little blue and white teapot. Pouring the other two women cups of tea before she sat with her own, she sighed a little and said, "I'm not so sure. He always seems to be so…preoccupied lately."

Tajima and Hanai's mothers exchanged knowing looks, and the both reached to clasp her hand in one of theirs. Smiling gently, Hanai's mother told her, "We've noticed and, well, we want to tell you…it's probably because he's found someone."

"W-what!"

The sandy haired woman looked at the other two team mothers with great surprise, pressing her hands to her heart. Weakly, she asked, "Wouldn't he have least introduced me first?"

The two exchanged looks again, and faced her once more. This time, it was Tajima's mother who spoke.

"I'm sure he already has. They're here, right now."

The pitcher's mother rose off the couch, eyes searching frantically.

"Where? Where is she? Is it that Shino'oka? She's nice but….but!"

The other two drew her down softly onto the couch, and one patted her thigh while the other clasped her hand once more and the both of them murmured, "There, there. Nothing to be alarmed about, love."

Mihashi's mom felt her eyes filled with tears, and she zoned out, thinking of all the things that could happen that might've happened, that already happened…

"B-But…but…we talked about this. If he ever started to date I was to meet the girl first and then we would go from there. I d-don't understand."

Tajima's mom rubbed her back as she cried and said matter-of-factly, "It's no she that your Mihashi has fallen for."

The back she had been rubbing straightened as solid as a rod as the mother faced her in disbelief.

"What are you saying?"

Tajima's mother spoke up, taking both of Mihashi's mother's hands in hers and looking her straight in the eye.

"We think your boy might fancy Takaya."

She fell back into the couch in shock, the air whooshing out of her in one big exhale. The thought was slightly upsetting, but as she went over the pair in her mind she was suddenly struck with the way her and her husband had acted before he had asked her out.

"He…H-he…well. At least…at the very least he's not dating behind my back. Fancying someone is perfectly fine. But how do you know…?"

Tajima and Hanai's mother exchanged that knowing look once again as they prepared to speak, and by now Mihashi's mom thought she knew what it was.

"Your boys…they like each other, don't they?"

With a fond smile, Tajima's mother leaned in and confirmed her theory as the two of them began to talk.

"You see, it started with Yuichiro, who came in one day and asked me what to do to find out if someone liked him, and I told him to try to be with that person all the time as a good friend and he made the most adorable pout and said he already did that…"

"Meanwhile, Azusa is coming and complaining how the little cleanup hitter is always around him and how annoying he found it all, in denial of course…

"And so I told Yui to come up with a way to test if that person likes him, maybe hug them and gauge their reaction, and the next thing I know the next day he comes running in beaming, asking me to guess what he did that day at practice and he tells me…"

"He just came over and pounced on poor Azusa, who came home very distressed and extremely flushed, grumbling about stupid cleanups and their stupid smiles and their observance…"

"And I was starting to recognize the signs and I didn't want to meddle but I thought I should call up Hanai's mother just in case she disliked this option for her son…"

"And I get this call and I tell her I love every bit of it and find it the cutest thing in the world, so now we know and they don't know we do. In fact, I'm sure everyone sees it except for Hanai, because he's never considered being captain of a different team, I think."

Mihashi's mother took a minute to process all the information being thrown her way and then said slowly, "And you think Mihashi also plays on this…other team? And Abe is his team mate?"

The two raven haired mothers nodded firmly.

"Yes. That's exactly what we believe. Why don't you go and tell them dinner will be ready in a couple minutes, and watch them together? You'll see it much easier now, I expect."

With a surreal nod, Mihashi's mother moved off the couch and headed back up the stairs, knocking lightly on the door before opening it. Tajima lay with his stomach on Hanai's legs, which were stretched out in front of him. Both were reading intently, Tajima absently playing with Hanai's shoelaces and Hanai's fingers tapping a beat on his leg, close to Tajima's stomach. Inwardly she giggled at the two of them and then turned her attention her son.

Abe was sitting close to him, his arm draped loosely over the back of the chair. As Mihashi turned to say something she noticed how close their heads were together, and how Mihashi was leaning slightly against Abe, and as they smiled at each other and when Abe gently tapped a finger to Ren's forehead, she saw it, sudden and with great clarity, and all she could do was wonder why she hadn't seen it before.

Oh, and weren't they just precious together?