Just five more chapters O_O"

Anime4us

Chapter 25

Sawamura made his way towards the frozen figure by the tree. He took a deep breath as he got closer, seeing how perplexed Haruichi seemed to be.

Sawamura watched as Furuya made his way towards the shorter boy, reaching out towards him before Haruichi slapped his arm away.

"Don't touch me! I wanted to apologize to him! I wanted to make things better!" The pinklet screamed, tears spilling down his cheeks. "Now he hates me! What were you thinking Furuya?! I was with someone else! I wanted to be with him! You just… What were you thinking?..." Haruichi's hands were shaking at his sides, and Furuya had frozen a mere arm's distance away.

Sawamura watched as the pitcher took a step back, not used to the shorter boy being angry with him.

"Why don't you understand?!" Haruichi hissed before turning a glare towards the pitcher. "I don't like you! I never will either! Get it through your head!"

Sawamura winced as unmasked pain took over Furuya's features before the boy looked away.

"Fine…" He muttered before turning away from the angry second baseman and making his way out of the courtyard.

0_0_0_0

"Bet you never thought you'd see me cry." Kuramochi said after a long stretch of silence.

"I could say the same thing." Miyuki said before sighing.

"Man… I signed up for baseball, not a bloody soap opera…" The shortstop said before leaning back.

It wasn't hard for the team captain to pick up on the pink shade in Kuramochi's eyes as he took a deep breath.

"You ok?" Miyuki ventured.

"Honestly? Not really." Kuramochi said before sighing. "But I'll be fine." The shortstop said before shrugging.

Most people would view what had just been shared as a complete contradiction, except for Miyuki, Kuramochi's words held so much sense to him that he could only nod.

"Want to head to class?" Miyuki asked as he stood.

"I probably look like shit." Kuramochi muttered as he stood.

"Not much of a contrast from normal." Miyuki offered before smirking.

"Screw you." Kuramochi said before cracking a smirk of his own.

0_0_0_0

Sawamura waited as Haruichi slipped to sitting on the ground pulling his knees up to his face. The southpaw glanced around, small frown setting into place.

Why does this feel like I'm walking on very thin ice… You'd think I'd be less nervous when it came to talking about serious things…

The southpaw dropped down to sit next to the second baseman, leaning against the tree as he listened to Haruichi's shuddered breaths.

"So… Rough day eh?" Sawamura asked softly.

He glanced over, seeing that Haruichi hadn't looked up from hiding his face in his arms.

"It's gotten rather complicating huh?" The southpaw continued before sighing.

Haruichi's breathing wasn't getting any less erratic as he was stuck in between sobs and silent crying.

"I know we've all got our problems, and hell, yours is definitely present."

Sawamura felt Haruichi tense at his words.

"But you know, if it's a problem, it can be solved. No matter how difficult." The southpaw said, speaking gently. "I would know, my math skills are horrible. Kazuya taught me, in between being told how much I was an idiot, that I can solve the problems if I keep at it."

Haruichi let a soft sob pass his lips as Sawamura spoke.

"I know it looks rough right now, but hey, Kazuya and I aren't perfect, we've hit some rather rough patches, trust me, and we've been able to overcome them."

"Did Miyuki think that you were cheating on him?" Haruichi hissed, annoyance leaking into his tone.

"Hm… Nope, that's never been a problem between us."

"Then you have no idea-"

"But he did think that I didn't love him at one point, and I think it's the same thing. Like cheating his heart or something." Sawamura said before smiling childishly.

Haruichi simply stared at him dumbfounded, never having heard the pitcher speak so… deeply.

0_0_0_0

Kataoka stared at the door after it had fallen closed, irritation sweeping over him. He leant back into his desk chair, slipping his glasses off to pinch at the bridge between his eyes. He then pulled the papers out for today's game and began marking all over them, changing roster positions before chucking the pen down.

Leaving the game to just those two? I know Sawamura hasn't come to me saying that he feels sick… but can I really put the game on his shoulders… It may just be a practice game, but it could do wonders for both moral and confidence… Damn it… of all the things…

0_0_0_0

"Kazuya."

Miyuki glanced over his shoulder, humming in answer to his name.

"Thanks." Came the shortstop's short reply before he looked away.

"For?"

"You know exactly what for."

"Yea, but I wanna hear you say it." The catcher said before his shit eating grin began to appear.

"You're a pain in the ass." Kuramochi huffed before walking into the classroom.

"Ah! Thank you!" Miyuki replied with, laughter passing through his lips as he followed after his best friend.

0_0_0_0

"Sa-wa-mu-ra."

"Ryosuke!" The southpaw's voice squeaked as the third year came closer.

Haruichi looked up in surprise before quickly looking away, wanting to hide his tear stained face from his older brother.

I didn't think it would get this bad…

"What happened?" The third year asked, his dark aura only seeming to get darker.

"Well!" Sawamura stated as he scrambled to his feet. "I leave this to you!" He squeaked before running into the school.

What is going on Yoichi?...

Ryosuke made no move to stop the southpaw either, he knew all too well that Sawamura had no part in why Haruichi was so upset.

"Are you not gonna talk to me?" The third year asked as he leant his back onto the tree behind him, propping one of his legs against the lower area of the stump.

When Haruichi continued to ignore him, Ryosuke could only sigh in both defeat and slight annoyance.

"You know, sometimes I wonder what you see in him." Ryosuke said before chewing on the inside of his cheek.

He watched as his brother flinched somewhat before continuing to stare at the grass in between his feet.

Got your attention.

"Doesn't matter." Haruichi grounded out, though his voice was thick with pain.

"You wouldn't be here if it didn't matter." The third year stated before shaking his head.

"Doesn't matter anymore." Haruichi corrected.

"I saw Furuya leaving the courtyard. He seemed dismayed."

When Haruichi's fists clenched Ryosuke rose his brow.

Bingo.

"Ah, I found a piece of the problem." The third year stated knowingly.

"He's the whole problem! I wanted to apologize you know!" Haruichi said harshly. "I wanted to say sorry to Yoichi! I wanted to make up. I wanted to see him smile at me again! Do you know what I got instead?! I got him telling Furuya that he could have me!" Haruichi's eyes started to water again and the second baseman rubbed at the desperately. "Damn it!" He growled in annoyance.

"What happened?" Ryosuke asked for the second time.

"Furuya kissed me!" Haruichi said, glaring at the grass harshly, as if it had somehow cause his afternoon's harsh demise.

Ryosuke coughed into his hand, mentally penciling in a personal appointment in which Furuya would definitely need a couple sick days for afterwards.

I knew our monster rookie had feelings for him, though I never thought…

"He knew I was with Yoichi! Damn it!" Haruichi growled.

"Yoichi saw it… Didn't he?" Ryosuke asked before pressing his lips together.

"See it?! He bloody well walked in on Furuya trying to stick his tongue down my throat!" Haruichi was three levels from screaming again.

Ryosuke's fingers curled as he tried to supress his anger towards a certain first year pitcher.

"Did you tell Yoichi that you tried to push Furuya away?"

"I wanted to! I couldn't though… I didn't… Push him away." Haruichi lead off, clearly ashamed.

"You… didn't push him away? No wonder Yoichi's so angry." Ryosuke stated matter of factly.

"I know why he's angry. I was too shell shocked to push Furuya away. One minute I was telling him that I was meeting up with Yoichi and the next he was pushing me up against the tree…" Haruichi led off, his voice wavering.

"I'm gonna kill him." Ryosuke decided, his voice rather dark as he pushed off the tree trunk, dark aura reinstating itself.

Haruichi stood up, using the tree to guide himself up.

"Ryosuke…Wait."

Maybe it was the way his little brother had seemed so broken, the way his voice had wavered when his name left his lips. The prior second baseman looked back with a mask of indifference.

"How do I fix it?" Haruichi whispered.

0_0_0_0

Sawamura helped Miyuki put his shin guards on as the other worked on his chest plate.

"I was surprised." Miyuki said as Sawamura stood.

"I'm not… Haruichi's words must have really hit him hard." The southpaw said as he grabbed his glove. "Toss with me to warm up?"

Miyuki nodded before grabbing his mask as the southpaw stood and grabbed a ball.

"The coach has you starting the game, if we can go seven, that would be ideal. Nori will come in and close the game." The catcher explained as they set up to practice like their opponents.

"Yea. How's Kuramochi?" The southpaw asked as he warmed up his arm.

"Yoichi's fine. He isn't pitiful enough to let this hinder his game." Miyuki said before sighing. "He'll be fine.. Kominato?"

"Ryosuke talked to him… I'm sure he's better than he was when I left…" Sawamura said before frowning.

Hopefully their animosity doesn't cloud the field… I don't need anything keeping Eijun from focusing. We've already got their relationship issues on mind, don't make it a field issue.

Miyuki sighed before tossing the ball back.

"Stop sighing so much, try cracking a smile. The team needs their captain in high spirits Kazuya." Sawamura said before offering Miyuki a smile of his own.

You're right..

Miyuki couldn't help but smile before tossing the ball back.

"We're playing Teiko… Keep an eye on their catcher, Kengo Inui. He's got nothing but praise from everyone that's seen him play." Miyuki said as he signaled for the next pitch.

"Is that jealousy I hear?" Sawamura said, small smirk showing.

"Their pitcher, also ace, Mukai… has an interesting pitching style." Miyuki carried on as if not hearing his pitcher's words.

"Really?"

"Though not as interesting as yours, it'll probably give some of our batters a hard time."

"A praise from the demon catcher?!" Sawamura demanded with shock.

"Where's their ace? Are they planning on throwing this game?"

Miyuki turned to glance at the other team's dugout, picking up their pitcher's voice.

"Patience, you musn't disregard their southpaw or he may surprise you."

Kengo Inui, good sense as always.

"The southpaw!? You must be kidding, me lose to that brat?" Mukai declared loudly, effectively grabbing Sawamura's attention. "Seido's whole team revolves around their catcher. Without him, the team would be garbage."

"Common Mukai…" Someone from Teiko's bench muttered softly.

Miyuki's gaze sharpened onto the pair that were discussing none too quietly before turning his attention towards the Seido dugout. The whole bench seemed to be giving off a dark aura, glares pointed towards a certain loud mouth pitcher.

0_0_0_0

Kuramochi joined the circle of Seido uniforms standing outside of the dugout.

"Did that brat say what I think he just did?" The shortstop demanded.

"Cocky bastard." Kanemaru growled unhappily.

Miyuki glanced around the circle of Seido players, picking up on the various degrees of annoyance leaking from them. Sawamura had a look of determination as he glared towards the Teiko dugout.

A small smirk graced the catcher's lips before he took a breath.

"We'll just have to prove them wrong."

This grabbed the attention of each and every one of the players that were huddled up. A smile graced Kataoka's lips as Miyuki spoke to the team.

"What do we do to teams who underestimate us?" Miyuki asked with a dark smirk.

"Crush 'em." Toujou said before a sharing Miyuki's smirk.

"Who are we?" Miyuki called out.

"Seido!" his teammates called back.

"Whose game is this?!"

"Seido's!"