It's when he finds out he has the yips, and when faced with the Coach's decision...
Sawamura takes a deep breath, clenching fists at his sides, "I'm sorry Coach, but that's not what I need right now."
"Then, what do you need?"
"Support... I need support and encouragement right now," Sawamura smiles sadly, "Otherwise, I don't know what to do."
"...then if you don't know what to do, just run for now."
He scoffs, "...Fine. But at least check in with me after a week."
"Alright..." Coach sighs.
Of course, his teammates didn't leave him alone after the obvious cry for help.
Harucchi and Tojo offer comforting words of support as Furuya and Kanemaru give him pats on the shoulder. Kuramochi just ruffles his hair.
They may have heard Sawamura purr, but keep quiet about it, not wanting to upset him further.
And of course, in the mornings, Sawamura practices his batting with Harucchi and after running all day, Sawamura practices his pitching in secret with Kanemaru and Tojo.
"Thanks, guys..." Sawamura gives them a small smile, "How about I teach you how to bunt in return?" He did offer that to Harucchi and Furuya, who agreed.
"Uh...well..." Kanemaru hesitates.
"Sure! Kane needs it!" Tojo smiles.
"Oi!" Kanemaru protests before sighing since he's outnumbered and embarrassed to have Sawamura, of all people, teaching him how to bunt. "Are you really OK with this?"
Sawamura tilts his head to the side like a confused puppy.
"Practicing in secret like this. You really OK with that?" Kanemaru clarifies.
Sawamura just smiles, "It's no different from not having a coach at all to me, so it's fine. I'm used to it."
"Uh...OK," Tojo and Kanemaru nod, not knowing whether asking why he's "used to it" is a good idea or not.
Later... after a week, and no sign of anyone speaking to him more than necessary... as far as anyone else knows anyway...
Miyuki just got out of the bath when he feels a tug on his shirt. Turning, he sees Sawamura tugging on him.
"Sawamura?" he blinks.
"Hm..." he only gets a hum in reply before Sawamura basically dragged him to his room by the shirt.
As soon as the door closed, Sawamura directed Miyuki to the bed...before jumping him.
"Oof!" Miyuki yelps as he gets his arms full of Sawamura, who nuzzles into him.
Sighing, Miyuki pets the pitcher's head, "Got complaints?"
"Mm..." Sawamura purrs, muttering, "Missed pitching to you..."
"Missed catching for you too," Miyuki smiles as he pets him more.
"You ready to get back to practice, or would you rather keep running?" Miyuki gently teases.
"Tanuki..." Sawamura growls, "I'd rather go back to teaching myself baseball than do that."
Miyuki blinks, not expecting that reaction, "Really?"
Sawamura grumbles, "Really!"
After an awkward silence, mostly Miyuki questioning whether to dig into Sawamura's statement or not, he decides to asks, "...so practice?"
"...I'll go if you catch for me," Sawamura mutters, looking up at Miyuki with his best puppy eyes.
"Hai hai, I'll catch for you," Miyuki rolls his eyes.
"Promise!"
"Promise," Miyuki fondly sighs at the pitcher's demand.
It went quiet again for a few minutes, Miyuki glancing down, "Sawamura?"
"Zzz..."
Smiling, Miyuki gently rolls him over, careful not to wake the pitcher up. He texts Mochi: Bakamura's sleeping in my room tonight.
Mochi: Take care of him, or you're dead.
Miyuki: Hai hai.
Huffing, he looks at Samamura's sleeping face...before putting a blanket over him.
"Goodnight," he smiles as he goes to bed as well, curling himself into Sawamura's side.
The next morning, at practice...
"Sorry, Furuya. Sawamura has me today," Miyuki apologizes.
"Un..." Furuya just nods before asking someone else to catch for him. He knows Eijun needs Miyuki right now...and he simply wants his rival and friend back.
After warming up, Sawamura asks, "Can we try different grips today?"
Miyuki shrugs, "Sure. How about this one?" suggesting a grip, helping Sawamura get it.
"OK!" Sawamura smiles.
He pitches the ball to Miyuki's mitt.
Miyuki's eyes widened as he didn't expect that to happen, "Did you just...pitch a changeup just by changing the grip?"
"I don't know!" Sawamura's just as surprised.
"Again! Same grip!" Miyuki yells, a bit excited.
After Sawamura pitches a changeup again, they look at each other...before bursting out laughing. Their laughter echoes in the bullpen, shaking their heads at the ridiculousness of it all.
Calming down, and out of breath, they smile at each other, mischief and fire in their eyes.
"Let's try more grips?" they say at the same time, "Oshi!/Yes!"
Thus, the Numbers were born.