Ah Chapter 3 already.
Something else that I want to bring to your attention,
This fanfic may have certain parts of the anime in it, but it will not follow the manga/anime story line.
Of course, certain aspects will come with it.
Enjoy and dont forget to review!
Thanks as always!
Anime4us
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Miyuki was poking at his food with a fork in the early morning hours when Kuramochi set a tray down in front of him.
"You have some explaining to do." The shortstop stated as he sat in front of his captain.
A sigh left the clean-up batter's lips.
"I brought you dinner? Please Kazuya, that's bullshit if I've ever heard it."
"Sawamura was pestering me." Miyuki stated tiredly.
"You're his bloody catcher, it's basically your job to babysit him." Kuramochi stated before rolling his eyes.
"Great, why don't you just add more to my goddamn plate?" Miyuki muttered under his breath.
"What was that?"
"I didn't think I'd have kids at this age." The catcher responded before laughing.
0_0_0_0
Sawamura ran along the field, the early morning sun making him squint somewhat as he forced his trusty tire to follow him at a quick pace. Furuya was right beside him, another tire attached to his waist. The pitchers had long since agreed to running together as a warm up in the morning.
"Breakfast?" Sawamura asked as he slowed his pace.
Furuya merely nodded before running his sleeve over his forehead.
0_0_0_0
Haruichi waved as both Furuya and Sawamura walked into the cafeteria. Sawamura waved back while Furuya simply nodded his acknowledgement.
The two pitchers grabbed their meals and made their way towards where Haruichi was seated.
"Morning Eijun, Furuya." The pinklet offered with a soft smile.
"Good morning Haruicchi!" Sawamura said, much too loudly for the morning, before he started to wolf down his breakfast.
"Morning." Furuya murmured before eating his meal in a much more polite manner.
"How did batting practice go last night?" Sawamura asked casually.
"How did you know I was batting last night?" Haruichi asked while cocking his head slightly.
"Kuramochi said he was going to swing for a bit." Sawamura said while shrugging.
Haruichi was too busy hiding his blush while Sawamura was too busy eating to notice Furuya tense slightly.
0_0_0_0
Furuya's breakfast had started to taste pretty bland as he listened to Haruichi and Sawamura speak. He didn't understand why the food that he held in his hands had started to taste so bleak, nor did he understand why he was gripping his bowl so tightly.
0_0_0_0
Miyuki's glove hand stung slightly from the monster first year's pitches.
"Take it easy Furuya, don't burn out with the first couple of pitches."
He earned a nod from the pitcher before he squatted back down. Furuya winded up once more, arm flinging down before the ball was sent hurtling towards Miyuki.
The second year catcher's eyes widened as the ball was heading for over his head. He reached up with his glove, snow coning the ball before landing back on his feet. The whole bullpen had stopped what they were doing to look towards Miyuki and then Furuya.
"Sorry Miyuki, it slipped." Furuya apologized, his gaze trailed on his throwing hand.
Miyuki felt a certain gaze burning into his back as he straightened up. With a glance over his shoulder, sure enough, Sawamura was glaring at him from the other end of the bullpen.
What the hell's his problem?...
Miyuki shook his head before looking back towards Furuya.
"Go grab some water."
Furuya frowned but nodded nonetheless.
0_0_0_0
"Did Miyuki hurt his wrist during the practice game?"
Kuramochi looked up from his homework with a questioning look.
"Not that I can remember, why?" The shortstop stated before looking back down at his papers.
"I thought I saw bandaging around his catching wrist." Sawamura said before shrugging.
Kuramochi set his pen down before looking towards Sawamura's bunk.
You don't think he'd?... Nah, Miyuki wouldn't resort to that, he knows that we're here if he needs us. He knows we're here... right?
0_0_0_0
Miyuki was working on an English essay when he heard knocking at his dorm room.
"I'm not catching for you tonight Sawamura, I actually want to pass my classes this year unlike a certain baseball idiot." Miyuki joked as he set his laptop aside and stood, making his way to the door.
As he pulled the door open, he was faced with the team's second basemen.
"Ah, hey..." Haruichi said softly.
It wasn't hard for Miyuki to pick up on the pinklet's nervous antics.
"What can I help you with Kominato?" The captain asked, stepping aside to let the short boy in.
Haruichi smiled appreciatively before stepping into the captain's room.
"Um... Eijun asked me a question today. I just wanted to run it by you."
Miyuki waited for Haruichi to continue to speak as he closed the door and sat on his bed. Haruichi decided to sit in the captain's desk chair.
"You're left wrist, did you hurt it in the match against Yakushi?" Haruichi asked.
Miyuki's eyes widened a fraction before his hand instinctively reached for the wrist in question.
"Nope." He said, the smile he forced to his face not convincing the little pinklet.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Why the fuck is that dense idiot picking up on this now?!
Haruichi cocked his head slightly, silently questioning Miyuki on what he had done.
"I ended up tripping while climbing up the steps to the second year's floor." The captain said before forcing laughter to leave his lips when in reality, he wanted to climb into a dark hole and be swallowed up.
"Did you now?..." Haruichi murmured, not believing the captain for a second.
When did they even manage to?... The bullpen?!
"Alright!" Haruichi said as he pushed himself up from the desk chair. "I just figured that I should check on you, like you would check on any of us, good night."
Miyuki watched as Haruichi pulled the door closed behind him before he ran over towards his trash can in the corner of his room.
Dinner doesn't taste as good coming up than it had when it went down.
0_0_0_0
The next morning proved to be just as much a hassle as most. Miyuki shuffled around his room like the dead, wanting nothing more than to crawl into his closet and pull the door closed behind him.
Class managed to bore him more than usual that morning, not gaining a single percentage of his concentration. Instead, his eyes were pinned on the trees that blew with the breeze just outside the window. When lunch came around, Kuramochi sat on his chair backwards and leaned his head on his arms.
"So, did you manage to go over the data Nabe put together after the game against Yakushi?" The shortstop asked.
His brow twitched with annoyance when Miyuki didn't answer him.
"Kazuya." He said, snapping the catcher out of his daydream.
"What?"
"The data that Nabe got you?..." Kuramochi asked while raising a brow.
"What about it?" Miyuki asked casually.
"Did you not sleep again?" The shortstop asked with a sigh.
"I'm fine Yoichi." Miyuki murmured before sighing.
"I'm gonna talk to the coach about letting you take a week off." Kuramochi stated off handily.
"Yea, that'll work well. The captain isn't showing up to practice for a week because he's tired." Miyuki said before rolling his eyes.
"That's not the only thing Kazuya." Kuramochi stated with a huff.
"You're starting to act like doting parent Yoichi." Miyuki remarked with his trademark smirk.
"God knows you need it." Kuramochi stated with a sigh.
That one stung a bit.
Miyuki's mother had passed away ten or so years ago. His father had indulged in work to deal with the grief, potentially forgetting that he had a son to begin with.
Miyuki had found his salvation when baseball was introduced to him, and now here he was.
"What happened to your wrist Kazuya?" Kuramochi asked in a whisper.
Dammit...
"I fell up the stairs." Miyuki stated while laughing.
"Kominato might buy that excuse, but I'm sincerely hoping you don't think you can feed that crap to me." The shortstop stated before leveling Miyuki with a harsh glare. "I'm your best friend and vice captain Kazuya, you can rely on me when you need to."
Miyuki's forced laughter died in his throat.
This isn't something I can burden you with Yoichi... This is my problem...
"I'm actually serious..." Miyuki said as he brushed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm only glad that no one was around to see that, especially the third years." He stated before laughing.
0_0_0_0
So you're going to feed me the same bullshit you fed Kominato eh?... If you don't trust me Kazuya, who will you trust? You must have someone right? Someone you can turn to and talk to without the feeling that they will ridicule you. Stop forcing yourself to keep all those emotions inside... You're a bloody Masochist... but you need help and we're always here for you.
0_0_0_0
Miyuki was pulling his face mask down as Furuya made his way towards the makeshift pitcher's mound in the bullpen. A quick glance to the side showed Sawamura pitching with Ono while Kawakami worked with the net for the time being.
"If you throw over my head I'm going to make you run laps during practice for a week without touching the ball." Miyuki stated, his gaze sharpening on Furuya.
The first year hesitated slightly before nodding. He let Miyuki show him a sign before he began to wind up. The ball flew towards Miyuki, high, though he didn't have to stand up to catch it.
"You're shoulders are tense! Throw your arm all the way down!" The captain demanded.
Furuya had a frown on his face as Miyuki threw the ball back at him before he nodded.
The next ball was thrown into the dirt. Miyuki's eyebrow twitched with annoyance.
"Are you even looking at my glove?" He asked. "How do you expect to be the bloody ace if you can't even throw to my glove?" He demanded.
"I..." Furuya's eyes lost the shine they usually had when he pitched.
"Try again!" Miyuki demanded before squatting back down and simply putting his mitt up, no sign at all.
Furuya took a breath before starting his wind up.
0_0_0_0
"Don't you think Miyuki's a little more tense than usual?" Haruichi murmured as he and Sawamura finished up with putting the equipment away.
The whole team should have been busy getting dinner at this point.
"Now that you mention it, he was pretty hard on Furuya today." Sawamura stated before shaking his head.
"Really?" Haruichi asked with a frown.
"Yea, you could cut the air with a knife between those two. I don't blame Furuya of course... Miyuki was literally up his ass after every pitch... I doubt he was even enjoying pitching at that point..." Sawamura stated before frowning.
Is he stressed from the conversation that we had last night? I knew he was hiding something... But is it really this bad Miyuki?...
"And here I thought you'd be the first one to take advantage of a situation like this." Haruichi stated before chuckling.
"What is that suppose to mean?!" Sawamura asked, offended by his best friend's words.
"Something along the lines of 'Now that Furuya is out of the picture, I will become ace and Miyuki will have to catch my pitches!' or something like that." Haruichi said, mimicking Sawamura's voice.
"Of course not Haruicchi!" Sawamura bellowed. "I will become ace on fair terms! Besides, Miyuki is Furuya's problem at this point, I'd rather not get yelled at if I can help it." He continued before he pushed the bathing area's doors open.
"If you say so..." Haruichi stated as he followed his energetic friend into the building.
0_0_0_0
"Of course not Haruicchi! I will become ace on fair terms!"
A certain second year tensed, shirt pulled halfway up.
"Besides, Miyuki is Furuya's problem at this point, I'd rather not get yelled at if I can help it."
Miyuki's eyes widened as the two first years stepped into the bathing area.
It's dinner time! Why are you here?!
In a fluid movement, he let the shirt fall back over his stomach and reached for his glasses.
"Good evening Miyuki." Haruichi stated, having spotted the catcher after a minute or so.
"Kominato." Miyuki stated along with a terse nod of acknowledgement.
Haruichi frowned before glancing at Sawamura. Miyuki had tensed up so far the pinklet wondered if he could move at this point.
"What is it?" Miyuki asked, his gaze on Sawamura.
"Your wrist. I wanna know what happened." The first year pitcher asked, determination lacing his words.
Fuck... abort, abort...
"Nothing is wrong." Miyuki said, forcing a casual smile to his face.
"So you're going to lie to me to, partner?" Sawamura said before locking a fierce gaze with a stunned Miyuki.
Haruichi was feeling very awkward with the thick atmosphere.
Don't pull that partner shit with me.
Miyuki's teeth clenched.
"Why the hell do you care? You didn't care last year!" He growled before grabbing his toiletries and making his way towards the door.