The weeklong break the team received was much needed. The majority of the team, Suyama and Nishihiro excluded, had seen a slip in their grades. It was nothing serious for most of the team and if pressured about the subject could easily be described as 'first year jitters'. Unfortunately for the team this excluded the player with the most dedication and the player with the most talent. Abe remembered scolding Mihashi about his study skills during the season. After seeing the grade Mihashi earned on a test the catcher scolded the blond boy and told him that if he took half of the time he normally spent on baseball and applied it to studying then Mihashi would be smarter than Nishihiro. Nishihiro, who had overheard Abe's rant at the pitcher along with the rest of the team and perhaps the rest of the school, burst out laughing along with the rest of the team. The group of guys laughed and laughed but they knew it was true; they had all seen Mihashi's pitching target.
Every day at lunch Abe made a point of going over to Tajima and Mihashi's classroom and spending his break with them. Abe was not alone either; because this class had the largest number of baseball team members out of the nine first year classes this classroom became the focal point for the team's lunchtime meetings. Not every member of the team came every day, but there was always someone on the team at the room.
Abe felt like he was required to visit the room during lunch, although he did not mind in the least. He had failed to protect his pitcher once before, despite what Mihashi said was the cause Abe still took it upon himself to be the one to blame, and he was not going to let his pitcher get hurt again even if it meant reminding the blond teen every day to take his pills. Besides Mihashi there was Tajima, who Abe felt a little awkward around after the third baseman confessed to Abe. The catcher did his best to hide the awkwardness and wanted to make a point to see his friend on a regular basis to prove that nothing had changed between them.
It was Friday when Momoe made her announcement. She sent word through Hanai, Sakaeguchi, and Suyama to have everyone meet at the field on Saturday for a brief meeting and then a workout. Abe was feeling particularly out of shape after eating so much ramen on Monday and then sitting around for the rest of the week not doing anything active. The catcher was pretty sure the rest of the team was the same way. They all had to miss golden week due to baseball practice and had not had a break from the strain for a long time so it was only natural that the teens at the prime of youth would sit around trying to relax and regain what little bit of summer vacation they missed.
Momoe took the team's lethargic attitude into her planning. Since there was no school that day she had the team meet just after lunch giving them plenty of time to sleep in; time she spent at one of her part time jobs earning money for a few pieces of equipment.
It was well before the time everyone was supposed to meet when Abe arrived. He liked to get places early so that people did not have to wait on him; instead he could spend his time relaxing and waiting for everyone else. The weather outside was still warm. Summer had technically ended but the early months of fall blended together with the warm sun of summer creating a sleepy aura that held Abe in its stranglehold. The catcher yawned despite having been awake for a few hours and decided that since he was still tired and the grass was soft and the sky was blue and that he should just go with nature and lie down. Puffy white blobs floated across the sky as Abe watched, trying to discern familiar shapes from the masses of water vapor. The catcher sighed to himself, his unimaginative personality mocking him from the sky. As hard as Abe tried all the shapes looked like clouds, nothing more and nothing less.
Despite all the rest Abe got during the week he was still tired. The sun beat across his face while the wind gently rustled over the grass. He felt like a child again, sprawled out in the park close to his house. The dark haired boy knew that if he looked hard enough to his left he would see his mother and father sitting under a tree holding hands and watching their two boys play in the sun. The memory flooded Abe as he then heard the sounds of Shun over to his right, the five year old boy running around with some of the other boys his age from the neighborhood. Abe liked this memory, it felt warm and gentle. His parents often used to take him and his brother to the park on Sundays during the summer and the four would enjoy the day together. Life in that memory was perfect for Abe; and he believed deep down in his heart that while the situation had changed he could still achieve that feeling of perfection with the friends he had around him. Abe blinked his eyes, blinked again holding his eyes closed a little longer, and soon was asleep.
When Mihashi arrived at the field he was hoping to see Abe so the pair could throw. The blond boy fumbled with the baseball he carried with him everywhere while he walked onto the field. It took a moment for the pitcher to notice the sleeping boy in the middle of the infield near the mound but when he did the pitcher gasped. All Mihashi could think about was how un-Abe it was for the catcher to by lying in the middle of the field instead of preparing for the workout or working on his glove.
Mihashi set his stuff down on the nearby bench and crept over towards the sleeping boy. Abe looked peaceful lying on the ground. Mihashi moved a little closer, now over half way between the boy and the bench.
'Maybe he fell and got hurt,' the pitcher thought. 'I better check to make sure.' Mihashi split the difference once again now well into the infield. The pitcher took slow steady steps as he neared the mound and the boy. Once Mihashi was within a meter's radius he rushed over as quietly as he could to his friend.
The peaceful look on Abe's face as his chest slowly rose and fell surprised Mihashi. The pitcher dropped down to his knees and sat on his heels watching the catcher sleep. Whenever the catcher was awake he always had fire in his eyes. It did not matter that Abe almost never showed his emotions on his face, once Mihashi got to know the catcher Mihashi knew where to look to find out what kind of mood Abe was in: his eyes. That's why Mihashi put up with the overbearing, bossy, demanding, pushy, stubborn, forceful catcher; the pitcher knew that Abe always pushed and prodded and steered Mihashi because Abe was generally concerned for the pitcher. That is why Mihashi felt happy at Nishiura, no matter what Abe never wanted Mihashi off the mound. Everyone acknowledged him and at the forefront of that wave of understanding was Abe.
"Mihashi what are you doing?" Sakaeguchi called out.
Mihashi snapped out of his trance. The pitcher looked over to see Sakaeguchi, Izumi, and Suyama looking at him awkwardly. Mihashi stood up and waved his arms and put his hands over his mouth trying to signal to the others to be quiet.
Izumi saw Mihashi sitting awkwardly close to the sleeping figure of Abe. When Sakaeguchi called his name the pitcher visibly shook and whipped his head to look at the boys. Izumi was not surprised at the Mihashi-esc antics. What did surprise him was when Mihashi started waving his arms wildly and proceeded to cover his mouth. The three right away realized that he was trying to tell them to be quiet; but instead all three lost their cool and started to laugh.
Mihashi ran over to them to the trio. "Shhh," the blond boy hushed them, "Abe's sleeping don't wake him up!"
Izumi continued to laugh but at a reduced volume. After a few moments the speed demon regained control of his sides. "Why were you so close?" He asked still chuckling.
Mihashi was fidgeting again. Izumi watched as the boy squirmed. If it was anyone else Izumi would assume that he was either about to be lied to. Instead he waited for the awkward boy to think things through.
"I, I saw Abe-kun l-lying on the ground and w-went over to see if h-he was hurt."
Understandable. Izumi nodded his head accepting what the pitcher was saying.
Momoe was the next to arrive, the fact that she had just come from a job apparent by her appearance. She saw Abe lying on the ground and was about to wake him when she saw the expression of pure Zen on his face. She knew that Mihashi had had an emotional season but Abe was right at the center of Mihashi's emotional thrill-ride as well. And given what had transpired the previous weekend and through the week the coach figured that Abe must be worn out from all of the stress, anxiety, and happiness. She let him sleep.
By noon all but Tajima had arrived, which everyone felt was a little weird because he lived the closest to the field. With each new arrival the growing group of individuals shushed the newcomers to make sure they would not wake the sleeping catcher.
When the third baseman finally reached the field the others immediately silenced his loud and exuberant greeting. "He's sleeping," Mihashi said, eyes twinkling while pointing to the body sprawled on the infield.
Tajima would have been wierded out by this but instead he was use to it. The third baseman looked over to see Abe on the grass next to the pitcher's mound. Without saying a word the smallest teen silently walked over to where the catcher lie and squatted down looking directly at his crush's handsome face.
Abe got the feeling that someone was watching him. The catcher decided that he had slept long enough and chose to open his eyes. Through cracked slits the catcher saw something inches from his face. Further examination of the form lingering inches above the catcher's head caused the catcher to jump. "What the hell!" He yelled as his mind started to process what was around him.
Tajima jumped back in fright.
"What the…what time is it?" The catcher yawned once he realized the immediate danger had passed. He surveyed the field only to find eight of his teammates, Shinooka, Momoe, and Shiga-sensei looking at him. Abe turned his gaze to the boy who moments before was too close to Abe.
Tajima had the stupidest grin Abe had ever seen plastered on his face. "Time for the meeting!" Tajima yelled jubilantly.
The crowd heard the smaller boy and laughed.
The dark haired catcher growled something about being too close and made his way to join the others.
Momoe's sermon was relatively short. She thanked the team for their good season, for giving it their all, and sticking with the program; after the last bit her eyes darted to Abe, and finally detailed her high hopes for the future. This was normal coaching protocol, and that was why the team was startled to hear it.
After finishing her spiel she went into her main reason for calling the team together: fall and winter training. The coming of the colder months meant that the team would be spending more of their time indoors which meant that their fitness would suffer. To counter this the devious coach told the team that they were to run the halls every other morning before and after school. "But I warn you," Momoe said with the evil glint in her eye causing all ten players to stiffen. "You must finish your run at least an hour before school starts and when you have to run after school you can't start until an hour and a half after school gets out. During this time you will be lifting weights in the gym until it is time for you to start your run." Momoe turned her focus to Hanai, Sakaeguchi, and Suyama. "How many times you run around the school is up to Hanai-kun, Sakaeguchi-kun, and Suyama-kun."
The three leaders nodded in acknowledgement.
"But for now," Momoe continued, "we will be practicing every day until we can no longer see, just like during season so be ready to practice outside. From now until we go indoors it will be all skills with no conditioning so make sure to give it your all during the drills."
And so it was. The work out session was light and laid back, although Momoe promised them that the following workouts would not be this easy. The ten worked on stretching, light calisthenics, and then finally the team spent time working on conditioning. By the end of practice the team was exhausted but excited. After the practice they talked about weight lifting. None of members of the team had ever seriously weight lifted; all being too young to seriously train but now that they were advancing into puberty it was the perfect time to put the testosterone to work. The team was abuzz with the prospect of bulking up. The protein powder that Momoe got them after the competition would do the team wonders and many were commenting on what the team would be able to do if the already technical and highly skilled team got the power to hit the long ball currently reserved for Hanai and Abe; even if they never hit it they were the only ones with the strength and size.
"Just think," said Izumi to the group as they packed up their equipment, "with Tajima's batting average if he gets bigger and stronger then he will be a one man team for real."
Abe looked up fry tying his shoes. "That may be true," he said, "but you guy's gotta remember; adding muscle changes the way your body moves. It'll take a while to get use to it so make sure you're skills don't slack."
The group nodded and sounded their agreement. All of the physical training would be pointless if it threw off their coordination and abilities.
"Mihashi," the catcher said turning to the pitcher.
Mihashi jumped at the sound of his name.
Abe was disappointed at the way his pitcher jumped after the catcher said his name. 'Looks like I still have a way to go,' the catcher thought. Seeing that the pitcher was focused on his black haired friend Abe continued. "Mihashi, I want you to get bigger as well. You're control is beyond extraordinary but your speed is lacking. If you were to get stronger, your speed would increase. But the change in your body would throw yourself off and could make your precision pitches inaccurate, especially if you didn't practice for the entire winter."
Mihashi's eyes lit up when Abe told him how getting stronger would make his pitches faster. But when the catcher continued with the consequences he noted how the eyes of the pitcher dulled. Abe was content with Mihashi's pitching ability as it is. At the beginning of the year when Momoe suggested strengthening up the pitcher's trunk muscles Abe was against it because it might throw off the blond boy's pitching. It turned out alright but Abe did not want to take that chance again. Besides, if Mihashi pitched the way Abe told him they could keep any team scoreless, or as close to given natural flukes that are bound to happen.
"Anyway, Mihashi," Abe continued. The smaller boy was still staring off into space so Abe decided to get his attention. He got up and crouched down in front of the pitcher, making sure to get to eye level. The pitcher then clapped his hands in front of Mihashi's wide eyes making sure not to lay a finger on the pitcher. Mihashi jumped at the loud noise and looked around, finally focusing back on the larger black haired boy. "Anyway," Abe continued, "I think that in order to keep your accuracy up you need to make sure you keep pitching, now that you know what you are doing."
"Mmm…" Mihashi grunted. The gravity of loosing his control was on his face.
"I think that you are fine the way you are; as long as you don't shake off my signs that is. But if you want to increase your velocity," Abe did not want to say it but knew he had to be fare to Mihashi. Nothing would increase the pitcher's confidence like throwing over 120km/h. After a short pause he continued, "Then you should follow the directions and take the recommended amounts of the protein before, during, and after you lift weights as well as throw often working on all of your pitches and motions to make sure you don't tweak anything unexpectedly. But–"
Until then Mihashi had been listening to he pitcher intently, though he did not look like it. When Abe suddenly stopped talking Mihashi stopped what he was doing and looked up.
Abe saw that he was wrong and the pitcher really was listening so he decided to continue. "Anyway, if you are going to weight lift and pitch then I want you to promise that you will only throw with me so I can make sure you don't mess anything up. Deal?"
Abe looked quizzically as Mihashi shook his head so violently that the catcher thought he might hurt himself.
"OK, Mihashi," the catcher said, fearful that the pitcher would hurt his neck if he kept shaking it that hard for much longer. "I don't know what your usual pitching schedule is but whenever you want to pitch call me so that I can supervise. I suggest we start out throwing between the morning run and when school starts, if we throw for half an hour between the end of the run and the start of school that will leave us time to get ready for school, and we have an hour break during lunch so we can also throw then." Abe liked the idea more an more as he said it. This way he could set easy time limits on the amount of pitching the smaller boy does; only enough to keep Mihashi's accuracy up while he works out.
When Abe got home he headed straight to take a bath. Sweat was still beading on his head from the heat and the long walk home and the catcher hated the feeling of dried sweat on his body. He always felt itchy and disgusting if he did not take a shower right away.
Once the door was locked and tub started to fill the black haired teen felt relieved. Showering at home was one of Abe's simple pleasures in life. He typically took a while in the shower but that was due to him doing his favorite pastime: thinking. Abe found the warm temperature and quiet atmosphere of the bath the perfect place to think over anything on his mind. During the season he would spend long tracts of time in the bath preparing strategies for how he would handle the teams Nishiura came up against. Now that the season was over he could use the time to interpret what was going on around him.
Tajima was still on the catcher's mind; or to be more specific Tajima and Shinooka. What happened at the ramen shop still unnerved Abe. He now knew why Tajima was acting weird but Shinooka's story did not make sense. The way Abe remembered it the manager took the open seat next to Abe, almost pressed up against the catcher despite the amount of room in the booth, not Tajima. And it was the manager who also controlled much of the conversation while Tajima was only able to butt in here or there. Yet despite all of these signs Shinooka gave her words echoed in Abe's mind; there was always the possibility that she was interested in any of the team's members.
Or maybe she was not?
Either way did Abe care? Did he feel anything towards her? He was definitely in the middle of puberty; there was no doubt about that. The boy had reached what he thought was around his adult height based on the height of the rest of his family, 170 cm at current with maybe another 5 cm by the time he's in his mid twenties. One thing he did notice was the influx of hormones the boy experienced since the end of his second year of junior high. At first it was hard for the boy to control everything. He was constantly confused, depressed, angry, and horny. Being horny was the worst for Abe because what triggered the urge was a complete and total mystery and it always happened at the weirdest times, like in the middle of class or on the train home. But soon he found ample ways to master his emotions which cleared his mind again.
Abe lazily brought his mind back to the original matter at hand. There was not too much he could do about Shinooka unless she made herself obvious and the catcher decided that to act like nothing was different or wrong was the best way to approach the situation. If Abe made things weird between him and the catcher the results of the team could suffer in a multitude of ways and Abe did not want to be the one responsible, again, for ruining the team.
Then there was the question of what Tajima was doing when Abe woke up. The smaller teen was way too close for Abe, even if Abe knew the third baseman was straight. People have a space bubble and others should respect it, especially while sleeping. What was worse is what Abe imagined the other teen had going through his mind. He was convinced Tajima was going to try to kiss him and for Tajima to try something so…Abe could not think of a great adjective to describe the audacity.
Abe nodded in acceptance of the adjective.
If Tajima were to kiss Abe in front of the team it would all be over. Nobody was more homophobic than teenage boys, it's a proven fact. Abe himself did not have a problem with any orientation be it straight or gay but he could not say the same for the rest of the team. He wanted to believe that the team would not care and be supportive but there was always the possibility, and in matters like this the possibility always is not worth the risk. The catcher admired Tajima's ability to come out to Abe. Abe could only guess what the third baseman went through before he came out.
Half an hour went by and the black haired teen emerged from the bath in his boxers, droplets of water sliding down from his still wet hair. He found it easiest to quickly run a towel through his hair and let it air-dry the rest of the way.
For the rest of the evening Abe sat and did schoolwork. He completed all of his homework and was completely caught up in every subject and decided to try to get ahead in as many subjects as he could. With the onset of practices starting next week the catcher was not sure how much time he would have to keep up with the rest of the class. Besides, the more people on the team who were up to date with their studies the better, just in case a certain few started to fall behind.
Abe laid back and read all night until the words on the page started to melt together. It was late and the pitcher decided to go to sleep. Practice was sure to be tough the coming week and the catcher was sure to have a hard time keeping everything in order.