Wrote this in about half an hour when I couldn't sleep so sorry for any mistakes. Might edit later.

Neither of them knows how, exactly, they got there. Eijun vaguely remembers the team's plan to meet up at the school's indoor pool and Miyuki's absurd promise to give him mouth-to-mouth if he drowns, but everything after that is a blur. He thinks he suggested a shortcut somewhere down the road and, well, Eijun swears there wasn't a muddy field here before. Right now he can only be certain of two things: being ankle-deep in mud is an unpleasant experience, and Chris makes the funniest faces when he's uncomfortable.

"The mud is inside my socks." Chris can't decide whether to frown or grimace. "Stop laughing, Sawamura."

"Sorry, you just look… Uh, 'cute' is really the only way I can put it."

"Please don't call me cute."

Eijun apologizes but he's not really sorry because he's only telling the truth, after all—Chris is all sorts of adorable when he narrows his eyes and wrinkles his nose in disgust, like a kid who got his first taste of vegetables and instantly hated it. Eijun knows that feeling well.

Eijun watches in amused silence as Chris struggles to kick the mud out of his shoes only to lose his balance and fall on his rear. The older boy blinks a few times, as if processing what just happened, before scowling. Eijun tries his best not to laugh—which means he doesn't try at all—and something about his raucous behavior flips a switch in Chris' brain.

"Sawamura, come here."

"What?"

Eijun has precious few seconds to look confused before Chris is grabbing one of his arms and dragging him down. He nosedives. Right into the muddy ground. And it's on his face get it off.

Chris laughs at him—a rare, genuine moment that makes him sound his age—and Eijun thinks his laugh is awkward and clunky, as if he hasn't done it in ages, but somehow sounds perfect for a guy like him. Eijun wipes the mud off his face and he has to smile at a Chris who's doubling over and clutching his sides from laughing too hard. This is how his Chris-senpai should look like: young and playful and not weighed down by injuries or expectations.

"Sorry," Chris says, a few terse chuckles still betraying his mouth. "You alright, Sawamura?"

Eijun cups a handful of soil and smears it all over the catcher's cheek. "I am now," he declares haughtily. Chris' expression is somewhere between outraged and amused, and Eijun realizes too late what he has done. One of these days he's going to learn to think before doing something. "Oh crap. I didn't meant to, Senpai. I just—"

A ball of mud launched at his forehead shuts Eijun up mid-sentence. Chris is laughing again and Eijun thinks he really should do that more often. Laughing, he means; not hurling dirt in his face.

-o-o-o-

Neither of them knows how, exactly, they ended up back in the dormitory or how Eijun managed to rope Chris into taking a bath together. Eijun remembers one of their teammates finding them. Miyuki most likely, if only because Miyuki has some sort of radar for embarrassing situations.

The two of them had been a messy tangle of limbs. "You guys look like a horror movie," Kuramochi remarks, his trademark cackle following shortly after. Sure, if horror movies used mud instead of blood and idiot teens instead of actual actors.

"I can't believe you guys were here, wrestling in the fucking mud, while we were worried sick and looking for you!" squawks Jun, exhibiting immense self-control by not clonking them on the head.

Chris doesn't even try to offer an excuse. Tetsu goes about placating Jun's rage and Ryosuke shoots both of them a knowing look. Or at least they assume it's a knowing look; you can never tell with the way Ryosuke keeps his eyes lidded. Miyuki would tease them about it for a week or so—that much is to be expected—but at the end of the day their only offense is missing their team's little swimming get-together. There'd be other opportunities for that.

Eijun purrs when he feels Chris' hands on his back.

"Sawamura, please don't make such ungodly sounds when I touch you."

"Sorry," Eijun says sheepishly. He makes a mental note to ask Chris to wash his back more often. "Today was fun, Senpai. We should do it again!"

"I don't want to make a habit of getting mud on my clothes. Or my face. Or my hair. Or anywhere, really."

Eijun manages a tired chuckle. "Then let's just play catch next time."

"Somehow I knew it would all boil down to catch again. You really have a one-track mind, don't you?"

"No, I don't. I have a two-track mind. I think about baseball and I think about you, Chris-senpai,"

For the second time today an invisible switch goes off in Chris' brain. He gives himself a moment to acknowledge Sawamura's uncanny talent to get him worked up before unceremoniously dumping a basin of water over the pitcher's head.

This sounded cuter (and more coherent) in my head. I blame the lack of sleep.