Author's Note: Sorry to anybody who's here because of my Voltron fics. Anime has kidnapped my muse, and this is one of my favorites. Also, this is crossposted on Ao3 under the same username.

Eijun stood motionless for a moment on the mound as he centered himself. It was the top of the eighth inning and no one had scored yet. The other team wasn't particularly strong, but they had an excellent pitcher. Furuya had started the game but had been forced to give up the mound when he started showing symptoms of heat exhaustion. It was a blazing hot summer day, the hottest game they'd had yet. Coach had switched out some of the other players as well to get them out of the sun, so Eijun knew that the fielders might be a little more disjointed than normal.

He turned around and raised his hand. "Please bear with me! Balls will go flying!" he announced with a grin. In truth, he hoped he'd be able to avoid getting any hits since none of the batters seemed especially threatening.

Eijun turned around and watched for Miyuki's signal. Low and away to a right-handed batter. He took a deep breath and let his body relax, then wound up. The ball left his fingers and smacked into Miyuki's glove while the batter watched. "Strike!" announced the umpire.

Miyuki stood up and threw the ball back to him. "Nice pitch!" he yelled, and everyone prepared for the next one. Eijun wound up again. Just as he was about to release the ball, a small but sharp pain lit up at the back of his neck. Eijun jerked a little, and the ball sailed out of his grasp and into the ground right in front of the plate. "Ball!" said the umpire. Miyuki grabbed the ball and looked at Eijun quizzically.

Eijun gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to touch his neck. Whatever it was, he'd deal with it later. It didn't feel like a pulled muscle or anything like that, so it couldn't be too serious. He caught the ball and tried to relax his body. The pain had made his shoulders tense up, so he rolled them back and let out a deep breath. He wound up and threw a fastball to the inside. It was close enough that the batter jumped back in surprise, but it was still a strike. Eijun grinned. One more curveball finished that batter off, and he was settling into a good rhythm. He struck out the next batter as well, and the third got a pop fly to left field. Eijun pumped his fist and headed back to the dugout as everyone cheered.

"Don't get cocky!" Kuramochi said cheerily as he delivered a sharp pat to his back. Eijun yelped a little as it ignited the sharp pain in his neck. He'd managed to push it to the back of his mind, but now it was throbbing fiercely.

"You all right, Sawamura?" Miyuki asked.

"I'm fine," Eijun said. There was only one inning left.

"The back of your neck's all red," Haruichi said. They reached the dugout and were handed cups of water. Eijun reached a cautious hand to his neck. It was hot and a little swollen already.

Kuramochi grabbed the back of his undershirt and pulled at it. Eijun tried to twist away from him, but Okumura grabbed him by the shoulders with a wolfish glare. "That looks like something stung you."

"What are you, a doctor?" Eijun growled at him.

"Look, you can see the stinger," Kuramochi pointed out to whoever was behind him.

"It's fine, I can keep pitching!" Eijun jerked his way out of everyone's grasp and looked nervously over at the coach.

"Sawamura, go get it checked out. If it's not a problem, you can finish the game," said the coach without even looking at him.

"Yes, Coach!" Eijun said with a salute. He hurried back to the medical office. The medic there looked up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, gesturing for Eijun to sit down.

Eijun pointed to the back of his neck. "I think something stung me. Can you look at it really quickly? I might need to bat this inning." He sat down and noticed that Okumura had followed him here and was standing by the doorway with his arms crossed.

The doctor came over and looked at his neck carefully. "Yes, that does look like a bee sting. Are you allergic?"

Eijun shrugged and regretted it immediately. "I've never been stung before, so I don't know."

"You're not having any trouble breathing? Any swelling in your throat or tightness in your chest?"

"No," he said instead of shaking his head. The doctor put his hands under Eijun's jaw and pressed gently.

"Your throat feels normal. The area around the sting is irritated, but I can give you some medicine for that once I take out the stinger. "

"Is it going to hurt?" Eijun asked.

"Not too much." The doctor grabbed some tweezers and Eijun felt a slight chill go down his spine as he started poking at the area that hurt the most. "All done." He went over to his supplies and pulled out some kind of cream that felt cold on Eijun's neck. Then he handed him a couple pills and told him he was free to go. Eijun swallowed them dry and hopped to his feet.

"Thanks, doctor!" he said with a small bow. Okumura followed him silently back into the dugout. Eijun rushed to the front of the dugout and squinted at the scoreboard. They hadn't scored a run yet, but Kuramochi and Haruichi were on base with Miyuki at bat.

"You can do it, Captain!" Eijun cheered.

The coach looked over at him. "You're all right, Sawamura?"

"Ready for anything, sir!" Eijun said.

The coach nodded. "Go throw a few practice pitches then to make sure. Okumura, you catch for him and let me know his condition."

They nodded and were heading into the bullpen when they heard the sharp crack of a ball hitting Miyuki's bat. It went sailing into right field, just over the glove of the fielder. Kuramochi sped into home and Haruichi and Miyuki made it to first and third base. Eijun cheered and Okumura pulled him towards the bullpen.

"Do you want to pitch or not?"

Eijun walked into the bullpen and Okumura tossed him a ball. "Wind up slowly so I can see if your form is all right." Eijun obliged and threw him a slow pitch. "Looks good. Now throw me some normal ones." He put all his effort into these, although Okumura didn't seem very impressed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Maezono hit a single to load the bases and the next batter bunt to get Haruichi home.

"That's my man, Haruichi!" he cheered. Okumura threw the ball back to him forcefully and he refocused on his pitching. "A couple more, and then you need to get ready to bat." Eijun threw a couple good ones and they jogged back to the dugout.

"How's he looking?" the coach asked.

"Normal," Okumura said. "He should be fine for one inning. The medic said the medicine might make him a little drowsy, but it'll take some time to kick in."

The coach nodded. "All right. Your turn at bat is coming, then."

Eijun nodded and went to grab his equipment. The inning ended just as he was putting his helmet on, but they got another run to bring it to a total of 3.

He pulled his gloves off and put his hat on. Briefly, he touched the back of his neck. It was throbbing again and still hot to the touch. But he could deal with it. Eijun jogged out to the mound and quickly refocused again with a few deep breaths. The first batter got a hit, but Miyuki was able to get him out when he tried to steal. The next batter, the other team's pitcher, struck out quickly. Eijun could feel his thoughts getting a little fuzzy at the edges. He adjusted his hat and wiped the sweat off his face. As long as he could focus on Miyuki's mitt, he'd be fine.

The next batter didn't swing at anything and got a walk. Eijun huffed in frustration. He just needed one more stupid out. Miyuki called a time out and came up to him. "You all right?" he asked with his glove over his face.

Eijun nodded. "Just one more out. I'm fine."

Miyuki stared at him with narrowed eyes. "I'll let it go since we can afford to give up a run. You're starting to lose your control, though. Can you throw strikes?"

He nodded. He could pull himself together well enough to do that. Miyuki went back and got into position. The batter was a big one that swung aggressively. Miyuki signaled for a crossfire pitch and Eijun smiled. He wound up and threw. It broke just as he intended, but somehow the batter twisted to hit it.

The ball came right for Eijun's face and he couldn't move in time. It thunked into his right eye and Eijun instinctively caught it with his glove. He threw it clumsily to first base and got the out. His face stung.

Eijun leaned forward with his hands on his knees. He felt lightheaded. Something red dripped onto the ground below him and he realized his nose was bleeding.

"Sawamura!" Miyuki said. Eijun noticed that he'd come up to stand in front of him, and some of the others were gathered around as well.

"Sit down before you fall over," Kuramochi ordered. Eijun lowered himself to the ground and put a hand over his nose.

"We won, right?" he asked.

Miyuki knelt in front of him and nodded. "Of course. Where did the ball hit you?"

Eijun carefully touched his tender eye. "It must have hit my nose a little, too." He showed Miyuki the blood on his hand.

"Let me look at him," the medic commanded. Miyuki moved over and was replaced by the medic holding a bright light.

"What's your name?"

"Eijun Sawamura."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"What did you eat for breakfast this morning?"

Eijun had to think a little about that one. "Just some rice. I was running late."

He put his light down and held out his hands. "Can you squeeze my hands?" Eijun did and the medic nodded.

"Well, you don't appear to have a concussion. The dizziness might just be from the allergy medicine I gave you. You should get checked out, though, just in case." He handed him some gauze. "Use this for your nose. Don't lean your head back or pinch your nostrils. Let it stop on its own."

He stood up and offered Eijun a hand. Eijun got to his feet and he heard some cheering from the stands.

"I always knew you had a hard head," Kuramochi said behind him.

After a quick visit to the doctor to find out he had nothing seriously wrong with him, Eijun was happy to come back to the school and head straight to bed. He woke up in the middle of the night with his various injuries aching. Quietly, he slipped out of bed and outside into the muggy night air. He walked down to the club room and got some ice to put on his face.

"That looks like it hurts." Eijun jumped and dropped the bag of ice he was holding. He looked to see Kuramochi grinning at him. "A shiner doesn't suit you."

Eijun scowled at him. "Did I wake you up?"

"I was having trouble sleeping anyway. You scared us all pretty bad when that ball hit you in the face."

"I know, I was stupid and slow not to move." Eijun picked up the bag of ice, which thankfully hadn't broken, and sat down. The ice felt good on his face, but the back of his neck still itched like crazy.

"Do you want another one for your neck? It looks pretty bad, too."

Eijun nodded a little reluctantly. Kuramochi made the bag of ice and came over to put it on his neck. "The baseball gods must have decided they hate me today."

Kuramochi laughed. "No, you played just fine. I think it was the bee god that had some sort of grudge against you. I've never heard of somebody getting stung during an actual game before."

Eijun yawned. He still felt a little drugged. "You're never going to let me forget this, are you?"

"Nope. Get ready for the bee puns."

Thanks for reading!