A/N: Thanks a lot for the reviews and adding this story onto the following/favourite list! I'm very grateful for them!~
I hope this chapter doesn't get too confusing...at one point, BOLD AND ITALICISED letters indicate flashbacks.
Originally this was suppose to be 2 chapters, but I merged it (sorry if it's too long)
Chapter 9 Recap: Mei gets a crushing dose of reality via Sawamura's comments and finally lets go of Sawamura, but as luck would have it, the younger pitcher slips, hits his head and remembers everything. What will happen now? Will Sawamura find Mei? Mei go back to Sawamura or has Mei's heart been crushed beyond repairable?!
Chapter 10 - Beginnings and Endings
Sawamura ran out the cafe immediately, he just had to find Mei. His heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour while anxiety flooded his mind. 'Mei...I'm sorry, I didn't mean those words...'
Sawamura ran around the dark streets in search of the Inashiro southpaw, his boyfriend, but was unable to find him. He stopped for a bit, panting to catch his breath. Looking around, he noticed the bright lights and sea of people in the night market. Various people were walking around, but his heart sank as sight of the one he was looking for was not found.
'Mei...where are you?' Sawamura thought taking off again.
- At Mei -
Mei was walking slowly under the dark skies. His random turns had brought him to the night market as well. Everywhere around him, people were laughing and playing, talking and holding hands.
'What are you so happy about?' the depressed pitcher thought as he saw a couple walk by laughing amidst their world of love. He turned to walk in the opposite direction, but was met with others alike. 'Great...'
He was lost in thought, he didn't know what to do anymore, his purpose in life seemed to have vanished with those piercing words that left bleeding holes in his heart. His eyes were red and puffy, breathing was deep and heart ached. He squeezed his hands into fists to release some anger, anger and resentment towards his feeble self, but the pain he felt never eased. 'Curse this pain...' he thought as a single tear rolled down.
- Back to Sawamura -
Sawamura's head was spinning from all the running, the lights and the people on the streets. He stopped to catch his breath, but keep his eyes wandering in search of Mei.
"I hate you!" was heard across the street. Two elementary school kids were fighting as one kid's ice cream cone was knocked onto the floor. " I don't want to see you again!" the kid shouted at the other.
Sawamura quickly ran over to the two as the kid being scolded yielded a face plastered with hurt.
"What's wrong?" Sawamura asked in concern. Sawamura could feel the damage of those words, the impact it had on the other kid. 'Did Mei make the same hurt face I wonder...'
"He knocked over my ice cream!"
Sawamura looked over at the silent boy who was staring at the ground, holding his own ice cream cone outwards towards the other kid.
"You can have mine..." the boy meekly said. "I'm sorry..."
"I don't want yours." the angry boy shouted back.
Sawamura jumped in to quickly quell the tension. "I'm sure your friend didn't mean to knock over your cone. How about onii-chan buy you another one?" Sawamura smiled at the two kids.
The two kids looked up at Sawamura and smiled at him.
As soon as the kids got the ice cream cone, they started walking away. Sawamura looked at them happily, 'I hope Mei would forgive me as easily as this...' he thought as anxiety crept up again. '...what if he hates me for what I said...'
Sawamura turned around to return to his search, but was stopped when he heard a boy shout at him.
"Thank you onii-chan!~" It was the quiet boy, he was waving his hands at Sawamura.
Sawamura waved back while smiling. "No problem! Don't fight anymore!"
As they headed their own ways, a sudden loud crack was heard. Sawamura looked towards the offending noise and found that an air conditioning machine had broken off the wall of an apartment. He glanced down at the path of where it was going to crash on the ground and saw the two kids, sitting and chatting happily.
"WATCH OUT!" Sawamura shouted as he made a dash towards the kids, his heart beating with fear.
The two kids looked up and saw the machine falling their way, they tried to get up to dodge the falling object, but was unable to do so fast enough.
*CRASH* the sound of the machine hitting the ground rang throughout the city streets.
Bystanders quickly called the police as news of the incident started to propagate throughout the busy street.
- Back to Mei -
Mei was walking solemnly through the streets, weaving in between the people. He was lost in what to do.
"Hey, there was an accident that happened just up ahead."
"What happened?"
"Well I heard an air conditioner fell on two small kids."
"Are they ok?"
"One boy's injured, I heard the machine landed right on him. I hope they're ok."
"Let's go check it out."
The two guys quickly ran towards the direction Mei was heading.
Mei didn't really put any thought into the accident. His mind was consumed with other issues, but needless to say, he still went in the direction to take a look at what was happening, out of curiosity and concern.
As he got closer, the crowd got denser. He could hear a kid cry a short distance away. There were lots of people talking.
"Oh my, that older boy saved the two young ones. I hope he makes it."
"The ambulance should be here soon."
"Yeah, the boy pushed both the younger ones away just in time. Too bad he didn't make it away."
"Onii-chan! Onii-chan! Please wake up, please be ok..." two kids were crying and shouting a few feet away.
Mei looked towards that direction and what he saw crushed his heart and soul. Time froze for an instant as the image processed in his head. Everything around him suddenly grew big, the people watching towered over him like a forest, their voices like a pounding jack hammer. He was suffocating, he couldn't breathe, his body was frozen. What he felt at that instant was as if being squeezed by two walls, coming closer and closer.
He snapped back into reality as a cold chill swept up his spine. Suddenly, he sprinted towards the fallen teen, squeezing through the massive amount of people blocking his way.
Once at the front of the crowd, where he saw two little kids crying and one teen laying face flat on the ground, his heart stopped as his blood ran cold.
"E-E-Ei-jun..." the teen's name escaped Mei's lips in a soft unbelievable tone as he reached out his hand in disbelief towards Sawamura. Mei stumbled forward a bit, then collapsed onto his knees. "Ei-jun..."
Mei looked at the bloodstained unconscious younger pitcher. The air conditioner had landed and crushed Sawamura's left arm completely and a metal bar pierced through his back at where the right lung would be. Blood was pooling the ground around his left arm, chest, and head. As Mei knelt down, his had landed on the shallow pool of the warm, yet quickly cooling blood.
"EIJUN!" Mei shouted as reality hit him head on like a train. "Wake up! Eijun, please wake up, it's Mei!" the fervent pitcher screamed at the top of his lungs in hopes his voice could reach the unconscious.
Mei carefully, in fear of breaking the already injured pitcher, reached for Sawamura's right hand and grasped it with all his might. 'He's getting cold…no…this isn't happening…no…'
"Please...please wake up..." Mei pleaded as tears started to spontaneously erupt from his eyes. He began sniffing and the occasional sob broke out. His heart sank further until it reached the pits of his stomach.
"Everything would be all right...the ambulance is coming...please wake up..." Mei pleaded again, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
As if his prayers were answered, Sawamura's eyes started to open.
"M...m...ei..." Sawamura whispered in a weaken tone. Speaking was hard, his lung was punctured, so every breath, every word spoken shot a surge of pain through his body.
'Arrgh…it hurts…' Sawamura didn't want to say it out as he caught a glimpse of Mei's worried façade. 'What's happening…where's the pain coming from…' he was positioned in a way that he couldn't see his injuries. He tried to get up, but his body collapsed extinguishing itself all his strength before he could even move a millimeter.
"Eijun...shhh...don't speak...everything will be all right..." Mei tried to console the pitcher, but he was having a hard time himself keeping his tears from spilling out and his worries subdued.
"So...sor...ry...Mei..." the injured pitcher spoke as coughs of blood erupted. Blood came spluttering out his mouth as his lungs started to fill with blood. Sawamura felt his time ending. He weekly squeezed Mei's hand with his right hand in order to grasp what little time he had left with the one he loved.
"Eijun, everything's going to be ok...you'll be fine…" Mei's voice started to crack as frequent cries escaped. "...stay…with me..." Mei whispered, he too squeezed Sawamura's hand securely, afraid that if he didn't, Sawamura would slip away from him forever.
"I...I...*cough*..." Sawamura tried to talk, but coughs erupted again. A trail of blood dripped consistently from the corner of his mouth as his lungs started to flood in a thin layer of blood. Breathing was getting difficult and heavier pants were heard.
Mei placed his other hand on Sawamura's head and leaned his head closer, his thumb started to caress the pitcher, softly moving the slightly bloodstained hair around. "Don't speak Eijun, preserve your strength, everything's going to be ok, I'm here for you..." Mei bit his lips as he tried to stop his sobs from escaping. "...don't...don't leave me..." once again, tears found their way down Mei's face as he broke down.
Sawamura saw the pain that Mei was going through and tears of his own rolled down his bloodied face. His heart ached from emotional pain of seeing his beloved in such a state.
"M-mei...I...re...re..." Sawamura's breathing became more staggered and harder. Breathing was getting difficult, each breath taken felt as if a sword was piercing his chest into his lungs, causing new incisions. "...re...mem...ber..." Sawamura finally forced the words out through his pained stricken body.
Mei stared at Sawamura in astonishment. "You...remembered...?" Mei's eyes glistened with a fresh layer of tears, which blurred his vision. He quickly rubbed his eyes with his sleeves to clear his obstructed vision.
The weak pitcher nodded his head slightly. "...I...I..." Sawamura fought to say the words, but fatigue and pain slowly overruled his body, his body felt colder and heavier; it was harder for him to move. "...lo...ve..." his voice was diminishing with each syllable spoken. Sawamura's eye lids were getting heavier as he vehemently fought to stay awake. "...you..." the last words came out of his mouth as darkness shrouded over his entirety.
Mei looked at Sawamura in shock. "Eijun..." Mei called out while nudging the injured pitcher slightly. "Eijun...wake up..." Mei pleaded as he lightly shook Sawamura's body. "...please wake up...don't joke around…" Mei kept calling out to Sawamura like a small lost child would to a parent. "...p-pl...ease..." Mei broke and started bawling in the streets as Sawamura became unresponsive.
- A couple years later -
"Strike! Batter out!" the umpire called. It was the ninth inning and Mei was pitching on the mound. Beads of sweat dripped down Mei's face as the scorching sun shone down on him. He was tired, having pitched nearly nine innings.
"Time." Miyuki called out, which the umpire acknowledged. He quickly ran up to the mound to where Mei was.
"Are you ok? Can you do it?" Miyuki asked in concern to the tired pitcher.
It had been two years. Both the once second year high schoolers had graduated and by luck had joined the same professional baseball team. After a full year of training, they had their first debut game together as a battery.
"Of course, who do you think you're talking to?" Mei said confidently while he gave a high and mighty look.
"You're about to pitch a perfect game, you know Sawamura's watching you from somewhere, you don't' wanna screw it up now…" Miyuki said, taking a stab at Mei.
"Yeah...I won't let Eijun down..." Mei looked up towards the bright sun. 'Eijun…I wish you could be here…'
"Ok then, one last batter!" Miyuki ran back to the plate and positioned himself.
"Strike one!" the crowd grew wild as Mei was two pitches from a perfect game.
"You better hit the next one, else your down to one last hit and your team's gonna lose to a perfect game." Miyuki did what he did second best, taunting the batter.
"Be quiet, I'll get the next one for sure." the batter sneered back at Miyuki.
Mei began his pitching motion and the batter took a swing.
"Strike two!"
"Ha, you know...that was a ball you just took a swing at." Miyuki chuckled.
'Damn that pitcher's control...' The batter then looked at Miyuki. 'Curse this catcher...I played right into his hands...'
Mei stared down the plate, readying himself for the last pitch.
*Flashback*
The operation was complete, but the doctor came out with a grave look on his face.
"Doctor! How's Eijun?" Mei asked in worry, which was heightened by the grim face he received. His eyes were bloodshot red from all the crying, his clothing stained with Sawamura's blood. He was looking like a wreck. The Seidou baseball team was there as well, all anxious on the results.
"I'm sorry, I've done all I can. He's barely alive. It's up to him now, whether he can survive tonight." the doctor said in a consoling tone. "You can enter his room to see him, but please be careful. I've made a request for the hospital to allow most of you to stay in over the night."
Mei, along with a few members of the baseball team entered the room. It was silent, only the rhythmic beating of Sawamura's heart and the pumping of the oxygen machine could be heard.
Mei immediately ran over to Sawamura's bed side, knelt down and gently held the younger pitcher's right hand and pleaded, "Eijun...everything's going to be ok...please wake up...please..." Mei couldn't control his emotions as he started to erupt into quite sobs as tears dripped down his face again. The sight pained everyone and they too wept.
*Flashback End*
Mei started his pitching motion. Everyone in the stadium was holding their breath. It was silent. The batter placed a tighter grip on his bat and took a swing.
"STRIKEOUT!" the umpire called as the whole stadium erupted into cheers. Miyuki immediately ran up to the pitcher's mound and gave Mei a hug.
"You did it!" Miyuki said as the rest of the baseball team members ran up to Mei.
"I bet Eijun is proud of you." Miyuki noted.
Mei nodded in acknowledgement as a tear escaped his eyes.
"Haha, is Narumiya crying?" one member shouted.
"Shut up, I'm not crying!" Mei responded as he quickly wiped the tear away.
The team slowly made their way to the dugout.
*Flashback*
It was later into the night. Mei, Miyuki and a few Seidou guys stayed to watch over Sawamura. They all stayed up relentlessly staring at the unconscious pitcher.
Mei laid his head down next to Sawamura's arm, his hand clutching onto the unconscious pitcher's hand for dear life. "Sawamura...please wake up..." Mei whispered occasionally.
Everyone was in a half daze as the day crept into the late hours of the night. Suddenly, Mei felt Sawamura's hand twitch.
"EIJUN!" Mei shouted as he immediately shot up into a sitting position and stared at the injured pitcher. "Eijun! Please wake up..."
Everyone immediately got up and gathered around Mei from the sudden interruption into the quiet night.
"What's happening?" everyone asked in concern, fearing the doctor's words would become reality.
"I felt his hand twitch! Quickly call the doctor!" Mei shouted back as Chris quickly ran out the door in search of the doctor.
Sawamura then proceeded to open his eyes slowly. He moved his head slightly to look around and saw everyone there. He was light headed, his body in pain and vision blurry.
"Everyone...Mei..." he whispered through the oxygen mask as a single tear rolled down his face upon seeing everyone.
"Eijun!" "Sawamura!" the pitcher's name could be heard throughout the room.
Sawamura weakly smiled at everyone, his face was pale from the blood loss, his aura of liveliness was non-existent. "Mei…" Sawamura whispered again as his right hand gave Mei's hand a very weak squeeze, which Mei didn't go unnoticed.
Mei squeezed Sawamura's hand slightly to reassure Sawamura. "You're ok…everything's going to be ok Eijun…"
As Sawamura was about to speak, he suddenly erupted into a violent fit of coughs. The beeping of the heart monitor increased and without warning, Sawamura started coughing blood into his oxygen mask.
*BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEP* the machine rang a flat tone and Sawamura fell limp on his bed.
"EIJUN?... EIJUN! WAKE UP!" Mei shouted in fear as he realised the state that Sawamura was in.
The doctor and nurse quickly rushed into the room and started to resuscitate the pitcher. They removed the oxygen mask from Sawamura and placed an ambu bag over Sawamura's mouth and nose, then hooked him up to a defibrillator.
A charge was heard. "Clear." The doctor said as a shock rang through the room. Sawamura's body jumped slightly, but the solid beep from the heart machine was still present. They spent nearly an hour trying to resuscitate Sawamura, but to no avail.
"4:08am death..." the doctor solemnly, but hesitantly, said.
"NO...NO...HE'S NOT DEAD YET...KEEP TRYING..." Mei shouted as he burst into tears. Mei grabbed the doctor in attempt to force him back to saving Sawamura.
"I'm sorry, we've done all we can..." the doctor replied.
Mei continued to beg as he fell onto his knees. "Please doctor...pl..pleaseee..."
Miyuki quickly ran over to help the pitcher up on to a seat.
"No...this isn't happening!" Mei quickly ran to Sawamura and continued to give him CPR. Everyone watched as the broken pitcher tried to save his loved one.
"Please...please come back...Eijun..." Mei continued for the remainder of the night.
*Flashback End*
As the memories flooded into Mei, a few drops of tears rolled down his face.
Miyuki caught sight of them and put his arm around the pitcher's shoulders to console him.
"I'm sure Sawamura's proud of you." Miyuki whispered, which gained a nod from Mei.
"Hahah look at Mei crying." commented another person as the team made their way to the locker room.
"He must be happy to have pitched a perfect game on his debut game!"
After showering and changing, Mei headed out the locker room and made his way up to the top floor of the stadium and stood near the edge overlooking the entire stadium. 'Eijun...I'll see you soon...' Me thought as he looked down at the baseball diamond below. He leaned forward, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"MEI!" Miyuki shouted from behind.
Mei quickly opened his eyes and looked behind him.
"What are you doing here?" Miyuki asked out of curiosity.
"I was just reflecting back, wishing that Eijun was here too..." Mei meekly said.
"I'm sure his spirit is here with you..." Miyuki tried to cheer up the pitcher.
"Well it's different than him being physically here!" Mei pouted.
Miyuki placed a hand on Mei's shoulders, "It's ok..."
The two made their way out of the stadium after saying their goodbyes to the remaining teammates and got on a bus to go to the hospital.
"Is your arm all better?" Miyuki asked.
"Hell yeah, you saw me pitch just now!" Mei smiled in triumph.
'At least he can still smile and joke around…his ego seems as big as ever…' Miyuki gave an exasperated look. "You have a checkup with the doctor today right?"
"Yup, check with him every quarter just to make sure everything's good. And I saw that look you gave me!" Mei replied.
"That's good." Miyuki just pretended to not hear the last part.
Once they got to the hospital, Mei led the way. He was walking fast, he would have ran, but would have been reprimanded for doing so, so he opted to walk, speed walk.
"Hey Mei...aren't you suppose to..." Miyuki tried to call Mei out, but Mei paid no attention to Miyuki. With a sigh of defeat, he followed Mei. 'I guess he'll never change...'
Mei walked to the rehabilitation ward and stood outside the sports clinic, looking in. There, he saw Sawamura working hard, lifting weights, slowly and carefully.
*Flashback*
"Please...please..." Mei kept pushing the dead pitcher's chest up and down. He had been going at it for 30 minutes, but he wouldn't give up as hope dwindled deep within the older pitcher.
Everyone watched Mei, unable to bring themselves to stop him. The doctor and nurse stood there, even though he pronounced Sawamura dead, he had hoped deep within that Mei could bring the young pitcher back.
Mei kept pushing, his body was tired, hands were getting numb, but nothing matter. Others tried to offer to help, but Mei didn't want to stop himself. Tears were flowing endlessly as they started to drench Mei's hands and Sawamura's chest in a minute puddle.
"Ei-jun...please...wake up...I-I...love...you...don't leave...me..." Mei cried the words out as his body and soul was slowly getting torn to pieces.
"Please, I'll do anything...just wake up...I'll do anything you ask...Eijun..." Mei begged.
"perfect...game..." came a weak whisper.
Mei's eyes grew as his now acute hearing caught the whisper. He stared at Sawamura, who seem to still be unconscious, but then a rhythmic beat echoed through the room again. Mei quickly turned his head towards the heart monitor and saw a pulse show up.
"DOCTOR! Eijun has a pulse!" Mei happily said in a tear stained face.
The doctor quickly rushed over to check the unconscious pitcher out.
- A week later -
"Well Sawamura-kun, you seem to be recovering very well. And for a good while there, you were actually dead. You have Narumiya-kun here to thank for keeping your heart going." the doctor said.
Sawamura, still bed ridden, looked towards Mei and gave the older pitcher a big smile. "Thank you Mei...I love you..."
Mei looked at the weak feeble pitcher thanking him. 'Oh man, he's so cute...' he thought as his legs weakened causing him to collapse next to Sawamura. Mei quickly grabbed Sawamura's hand and held it up against his own face. "I love you too Eijun..."he said as he snuggled his face into Sawamura's hands.
Sawamura looked at Mei holding his right hand, then took a glance at his left hand, which was immobile and bandaged up. He was taking pain killers to subdue the pain, but he knew his left arm, his pitching arm, was in bad shape.
"Say doctor...how long will it take my left arm to heal?" Sawamura hesitantly asked.
"I'd give it about two months, you should be able to do simple things again with some rehabilitation." the doctor replied.
"Great! How long would it take for me to pitch again?" Sawamura asked in a happy tone.
The doctor looked over at Mei, then back at Sawamura.
"Sawamura-kun..." the doctor knelt down and placed his hand on top of Sawamura's head. "I'm sorry...your left hand would never be the dominant hand again. You could probably catch a ball, but won't be able to throw like you did before..." the doctor gravely said. "I'm sorry..."
The doctor stroked Sawamura's hair, readying himself for Sawamura's reaction to the news. Mei also braced himself.
A slight chuckle erupted from Sawamura, "Heh...well I'm still alive, so I can't really complain..."
All went silent after that statement. Both Mei and the doctor were shocked at how Sawamura was taking it.
"Are you ok?" the doctor asked Sawamura.
"Yup!" Sawamura cheerfully said.
"Well…I'll leave you two alone." the doctor said as he took his leave.
"Eijun..." Mei spoke up. "Are you ok?"
"Yup!" Sawamura gave Mei a big smile. "You heard the doc, he said I would still be able to catch with my left hand!"
Mei hesitantly smiled back.
"Ummm Mei...I'm feeling tired...can...can you..." Sawamura didn't know how to ask Mei to leave properly, as he had never wanted Mei gone before, but Mei caught the clue.
"Yeah, I'm feeling tired too, maybe I'll head home now...see you tomorrow?" Mei quickly asked.
"Yup, sounds good." Sawamura nodded as he replied.
"Eijun...I love you..." Mei said as he leaned in to kiss Sawamura on the forehead. He then headed out the room.
"I love you too Mei."
Mei walked out the room, but was still worried about Sawamura. 'I better wait a bit...he's never asked me to leave before...I hope he's ok...' Mei had some sight of the pitcher from outside the room, so he stood there.
Sawamura laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a few good minutes. No movement was detected.
'Is he asleep?' Mei couldn't see whether Sawamura's eyes were opened or not, so he decided to leave; however, as he did, a sob broke out from inside the room. Mei looked back in from a distance.
Sawamura started to cry. His right hand was hovered over his left arm. His chest felt constricted. He was lost, his baseball life was over, he didn't know what to do. He laid there crying, tears rolling down his face as he stared aimlessly at his broken left arm. "It's over…" a soft broken voice spoke.
Mei watched from outside as tears of his own rolled down his face. He too grabbed his left arm, feeling the pain that Sawamura was going through. 'I'm an ass...here I was complaining about my arm injury when it was curable...' Mei remembered the time when he chastised Sawamura for caring, which lead to today's events. "I'm sorry Eijun..." Mei bit his lips to stop a sob from escaping. He slowly backed into the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the ground. Digging his head into his knees, he stayed there weeping.
The two pitchers cried their eyes out for the remainder of the day until sleep swept them off.
*Flashback End*
"Mei...are you ok?" Miyuki asked as he noticed Mei standing in front of the door, not entering.
"Yeah, yeah...just remembering some stuff..." Mei replied as he quickly wiped away a couple tears.
"Well lets go in, your appointment should be coming up soon, so you gotta make this quick." Miyuki pushed Mei through the door.
Sawamura was halfway through in lifting his weights when he noticed Mei come in.
"MEI!" Sawamura shouted as he quickly dropped the weights onto the rubber flooring.
"SAWAMURA-KUN!" the therapist shouted. "How many times do I have to tell you to not drop the weights like that..."
"I'm sorry..." Sawamura inadvertently gave an apologetic puppy dog look, which melted the therapist's anger away.
"It's ok...just try to remember not to do it again..." the defeated therapist said, which sparked a smile on Sawamura's face.
"Yup, I won't do it again!"
As Mei walked in, Sawamura quickly ran over and gave the older pitcher a hug.
"Congratulations on the perfect game!" Sawamura shouted.
"See I told you he was watching..." Miyuki commented. "Sawamura...you're not going to congratulate me too? I was catching the whole game you know..." Miyuki playfully said.
"Who are you?" Sawamura peered over Mei's shoulders to look at Miyuki.
Miyuki then grabbed Sawamura in a head lock and started rubbing his head. "Why you!"
"I'm sorry! Congratulations on the game Miyuki!" Sawamura quickly apologised.
"So, how's the rehab going?" Mei asked in curiousity. Recently he and Miyuki had focused on their debut game, so they didn't have much time to follow up on Sawamura's progress.
"It's great, my left arm is a lot better, I can use it for general things now and it's gaining strength. I should be able to catch baseballs with it in maybe a month!" the optimistic pitcher said. His rehab was proceeding very well, but then again, Sawamura had invested every single minute outside of school into baseball and rehabilitating his arm.
"I've been pitching with my right arm as well and I think I'm throwing better with it than my left!" Sawamura said proudly.
Mei and Miyuki both had sweat drops, but they could see how focused Sawamura was in getting back into baseball.
"I'm also doing club activities at school too...and the coach said I might be able to pitch in some games before I graduate." Sawamura smiled.
"That's great!" Mei commented. "I want to see you pitch in a game again...and you better come to the professionals!"
"I will..." Sawamura was reluctant in saying so, "...I hope..."
"You will! However long the rehab takes, you'll get there! Plus...I'll be here to support you!" Mei said which Sawamura smiled to. "I'm here for you..." Mei whispered.
Miyuki looked at Sawamura and questioned what the cause of reluctance was.
"Hey Mei, can I have some time with Sawamura?" Miyuki asked.
Mei shot a dirty look at Miyuki. 'You want to be ALONE with MY Eijun? What are you playing at Kazuya?'
Miyuki shot a dirty look back at Mei. 'Stop thinking perverted things you pervert!'
Mei immediately got the message. 'Grrrrr...' he knew deep down that Miyuki and Sawamura were very good friends, but his protectiveness gets to him once in a while.
"Fineeeeee..." Mei said in defeat with a pout, but before Sawamura left with Miyuki, Mei took the younger pitcher into an embrace and gave him a long kiss.
Miyuki walked Sawamura to the corner of the room, where they could have a quite conversation.
"Eijun..." Miyuki said.
This caught Sawamura by surprise, as Miyuki rarely uses his name. It got the pitcher jumpy.
"Did...I do something wrong?" Sawamura asked.
"Hah, no you didn't." Miyuki got a good laugh out of doing this once in a while. "Are you worried about getting into professionals?"
Sawamura stood there and thought for a second. He didn't want Miyuki or Mei to worry much about him, so he kept his worries and problems to himself. "Yeah, I just don't know if I can pitch well enough with my right arm and whether my left arm would be good enough to play at all."
"Eijun, your rehab is going well, and you've been practising pitching with your right arm every day since you've come out of the hospital. I've talked to the coach and he said you were doing really well." Miyuki reaffirmed Sawamura's progress.
Sawamura nodded his head.
"There's other problems aren't there?" Miyuki asked in concern.
Sawamura looked up in shock. "Of course not, that's it!"
"Eijun...I can read you like a book, don't treat me like that baka over there..." Miyuki pointed a finger towards Mei who then immediately sneezed. "...If you're not willing to tell me, I'm going to take a stab at it..."
Sawamura just stared at the ground, not responding.
"Ok then, sorry if I get it wrong, but...you're worried that your baseball skills aren't up to par for the professionals, aren't you?" Miyuki threw the question out there.
The younger pitcher immediately froze, his body was stiff, Miyuki had hit the bullseye. A slight nod was then seen.
"Hah, baaaaaaakaaaaa." Miyuki laughed, which caused Sawamura to twitch.
"What's so funny? And I'm not an idiot!" a semi-hurt pitcher asked.
"Ok, let me ask you this...do you think...hmmm...Yuki-onii-chaaaama..." Miyuki dragged out Tetsuya's nickname in that fashion on purpose. Sawamura immediately started blushing from the recollection of his princess days.
"Miyuki! Get to the point..."
"Fine fine...do you think Tetsuya is good enough for the professionals?"
Sawamura nodded, "Of course!"
"Well you know how he was in his first year?"
Sawamura didn't.
"Well he couldn't even catch a ball properly." Miyuki told the pitcher.
"So what's that got to do with me?"
"Over the years at Seidou, he practised and practised and got to where he was when you met him." Miyuki reasoned.
Sawamura nodded his head in understanding.
"I remember back three years ago, when I first saw a cocky brat come to Seidou in his child like attitude and claimed to be able to pitch, I was laughing my butt off." Miyuki playfully said.
Sawamura twitched at the names Miyuki was calling him. "Hey, if I recall, you were a lazy cocky no good for nothing brat as well."
"Now now, let's not call names..." Miyuki waved Sawamura's comment off nonchalantly.
"So, as I was saying, I first thought that this brat was just all talk, but do you remember the first ball you threw into my mitt, the sound it made?" Miyuki pushed on.
Sawamura stood there in silence, recollecting every moment of that, his life changing experience which made him decide to come to Seidou. "Yeah..."
"Now, you know that I'm dubbed a genius right?" Miyuki gave the biggest smile he could.
"What's your point? You're also dubbed sneaky, lazy, no good..." Sawamura plainly shot back listing out negative attributes while recalling every time Miyuki made fun of him.
"Geez...anyways, yeah that throw was shitty…" Miyuki said, which caused Sawamura to fall into a depressed state. "…BUT what I saw back then was potential, and that's what I see right now too. Not only me, Chris-senpai also saw your potential, now isn't that enough? Two geniuses saw what you could do, and we were there to help you achieve it...if you didn't have the accident, by the time you got to your third year, I guarantee you that you would have been the ace, of course, with me as your catcher, we could have won Koshien, but since we're in different years, I'm sure you would have gotten close to winning." Miyuki jeered while saying the last comment.
"Are you here to help me or put me down?" Sawamura shot back.
"The last part was a joke..." Miyuki put on a serious face. 'Man...he can't take a joke can he...'
Miyuki then placed his hand on Sawamura's shoulders. "Eijun...you've got what it takes...don't ever doubt yourself...keep at it and you'll reach your goal...I've talked to the coach, and sadly he tells me that your right arm pitches better than your left...how that's possible I don't know...maybe because you have the drive to get into the professional world...I'm sure you can do it..."
Sawamura looked at Miyuki, a tear crept out his eyes as he was touched by Miyuki's comments.
"Kazuya! You made Eijun cry!" Mei quickly jumped in as he suddenly appeared next to the two.
"I thought I told you I wanted to talk to Sawamura alone!" Miyuki said, slightly annoyed.
Mei reached over and caressed the tear off Sawamura's eyes. "He's right Eijun...you can ask anyone on Inashiro...they think you're one hell of an opponent...and so do I..." Mei whispered the last part as he blushed and turned his gaze away from Sawamura and Miyuki.
Both Miyuki and Sawamura's interest immediately perked.
"What was that?" Miyuki pretended not to catch it. "Did the self-proclaimed best pitcher acknowledge someone else?" Miyuki nonchalantly said.
"So what?" Mei's face got red for other reasons as he placed his face directly in front of Miyuki's.
"Well with that big head of yours, I'm surprise you could, then again...you did beg me to go to Inashiro once before, so I guess your head isn't that big..." Miyuki said with a smirk.
"I didn't beg you! I rather die than beg you." Mei argued back.
Sawamura then started to chuckle as the two fought, which immediately caused them to redirect their attention.
"What's so funny?" both of them said in unison.
"Nothing...it's just that..." Sawamura paused to think of the word to describe his feeling. "...I'm happy." he said with a big smile. He raised his left hand to chest level, squeezed it into a fist, stared at it, then back to the two.
"I'll meet you guys in the professionals, promise!" He held his fist out and the other two bumped fists with him in acknowledgement.
"We know you will." Miyuki replied. "Now Mei, we gotta get you to your appointment before you're late. We'll leave you to your session Sawamura!" Miyuki said as he pushed the hesitant Mei out of the room.
"Thank you, Kazuya!" Sawamura shouted.
'He called me Kazuya...' Miyuki got a shock from hearing Sawamura call his name. Miyuki shouted back, "Heh...anyways...if I knew your right arm was better at throwing, I would have broken your left arm earlier, hahahah." Miyuki threw in the joke.
"You had to kill the moment didn't you?" Sawamura pouted, but deep within, he was overjoyed with everything he had, great friends and the best boyfriend one could ask. 'I'll get there one day...'
A/N: And that's that. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this story. Until next time!
This is the last major chapter for this story.
I'm contemplating on writing one more chapter, but it's going to be about how Mei/Sawamura kicked it off and how they got caught.
Again, thanks for all those who've reviewed!~~~ Very much appreciated!