Chapter 5
The weeks started to slip by. Every time Abe looked forward to the weekend and then once the weekend came he was excited for the week to start back up. Almost every morning the catcher threw with Mihashi along with almost every day at lunch. Abe put a limit on how many days a week they could throw so that the pitcher did not stress anything too much. As far as Abe could tell the pitcher never missed on any of his pitches.
The weather went from the lazy end-of-summer blaze to the chilly mornings of the middle of October. Abe as well as the rest of the team put away their shorts and replaced them with the long pants and sweatshirts that followed the change in season.
Looking back on the growth of the team surprised Abe. It had only been a little over a month since their season ended but the team put in their time in the weight room and the progress was slowly but surely paying off. He noted that while nobody on the team looked any bigger than they had at the beginning of their regiment everyone on the team noted about a ten kilograms worth of an increase on the three major lifts, the bench press, squat press, and the clean and jerk. While ten kilograms was not going to be a game-breaker in terms of long balls, Abe knew that it was a good mark of the progress the team had made.
Abe was right to work ahead on his studies. Between school and practices the amount of time left in a day began to lessen as homework, tests, and workouts intensified. All of the stress the boys as well as the rest of the school were put under began to show in various ways. Some people began talking to themselves, working out complex math problems in their heads as well as mouths while they walked down the hall; while others became either more introverted or extroverted and sometimes both. Instead Abe was like the rest of the school and got sick on and off. It was never anything too terrible, but it seemed like every few days his nose ran and his throat itched and scratched sending him into fits of coughing and hacking.
This week was not much different than the six that had passed. Abe had an important literature test coming up that he studied for whenever he had a few spare minutes. On Monday, the night before the test, Abe was up until late into the morning rereading his class notes and the summaries of the books the class was supposed to read. That night Abe only got a couple hours of sleep, making it more like a nap than actual sleep, before he had to get up and throw with Mihashi. That morning the two boys were going to meet at Mihashi's house since it was too dark to throw at school and Mihashi had his practice are wired with lights, and also since the team did not have to run that morning they had more time before they had to be at school.
The catcher was groggy as he rolled out of bed. Half of him wanted to call the blond pitcher and tell him to cancel the pitching session but he knew that if he cancelled the session that Mihashi would throw anyway. Besides, Abe knew that once he got through the literature test during second period he would be home free and since he had history during the third period and with history being Abe's best class the black haired teen decided that he could sleep during that period.
Once the teen had his feet on the floor he was positive that he would snap right out of the funk he was in and wake up.
Fail.
The catcher stumbled around as he managed to get dressed into a pair of sweatpants and an old sweatshirt to work out in while he carefully folded up his school uniform and packed it into a separate bag and put the whole thing into his baseball bag. Abe made room by removing the catcher's protective gear and leaving only his glove. There would be no batter taking swings so Abe did not need to worry about foul tips and since it was Mihashi he was dealing with the catcher did not have to worry about taking a wild pitch. The catcher was more worried about passing out on the way to the Mihashi residence than anything else.
Before he knew what was going on Abe was downstairs with his hand on the refrigerator door. He did not know how he made it downstairs or when. Instead he decided to go with it and grabbed a glass of milk and a banana for breakfast.
Once the catcher finished getting ready he departed. It was a fifteen minute walk from Abe's side of the CD store over to Mihashi's side. While walking he ran through his list of dates and authors and literature titles. Once he reached the haikus the catcher started to drag his feet. The teacher alluded to there being poetry on the test and for good measure he decided to memorize all of those as well. Now the poets and authors started to blend together and he was not sure who was who.
By the time Abe sorted out the poets and the authors he was halfway up the walkway to the Mihashi residence. The large house loomed in front of the catcher as he smiled. He made a small bet with himself on whether or not the pitcher would be up. Abe bet that he would not.
He knocked on the front door. Abe heard the scuffle of a busy morning starting off from behind the surprisingly large door. After a few seconds the dark haired boy knocked again and waited.
A rather skinny man with the same dirty blond hair as Mihashi answered the door. The man was taller than normal but skinnier than average as well. "Ah, you must be Takaya Abe-kun," the larger man said.
Abe connected the dots. This man was skinny like Mihashi, had the same hair as Mihashi, and the unmistakable trademarked enormous Mihashi eyes. Abe remembered back throughout all the months he had known the pitcher Abe had never seen Mihashi's father. The dark haired teen looked up at the massive eyed man. "Yes sir," he said. "Um, is Miha- I mean Ren home?" He asked.
The taller man broadened the smile that was already on his face. "Yes, he should be coming down any minute. I woke him a few minutes ago."
"Thank you," said Abe. "The two of us were supposed to pitch this morning."
"Ah yes," the elder Mihashi said. "You are the catcher, correct?"
"Yes sir. How did you know?"
"My son told me a lot about you. Plus he's the pitcher and you are here to throw so that would most likely make you Nishiura's catcher, Takaya Abe-kun."
Abe was impressed. Mihashi senior was very smart indeed.
"Why don't you come inside while you wait for Ren? I'm sure there's breakfast for you if you would like it. And I must bid you a good day because I am off to work." With that the elder Mihashi slid past Abe and walked to the train station.
Abe decided to accept the welcome and entered the house. After taking off his shoes he joined the pitcher's mother in the kitchen. "Good morning Abe-kun," she said, bowing her head slightly.
Abe gave her a big smile. "Good morning, ma'am," he said, bowing considerably.
The blond haired lady was amused by Abe's politeness. She gave a laugh before asking the teen if he wanted any breakfast. Abe knew he could not refuse an offer like this and accepted a bun out of the baked goods she presented him with.
The two made small talk while waiting for Ren to emerge from upstairs. Abe was glad that she did not say a word about the condition of her son in any way and instead focused her side of the talk on Abe himself as well as school. After only a few minutes Ren Mihashi entered the kitchen and greeted his mother and, with a surprised look greeted his catcher.
The two Mihashis and Abe ate in relative silence before the boys finished. Ren stood up and walked to the back door, beyond which the elaborate pitching mound was set up waiting. Abe followed his friends lead but was unsteady getting to his feet. The catcher yawned and made his way to the front door before going around the back of the house to where Mihashi was waiting.
Abe had Mihashi run through their stretching before starting. The sudden movements made Abe feel lightheaded. He could tell that he needed to wake up and was glad that he was getting this rush of activity to jumpstart his system. But for as much as the two were moving and stretching Abe still felt weak and tired.
Once they were through with their calisthenics and stretching the two teens assumed their positions. Abe was surprised at the setup of the facility. The last time he saw the practice area there were lights hanging from behind the pitcher but now there was no such interference. "Looks like you made some adjustments to this place," Abe pointed out. "Last time I was here there was a light right behind you that would have given me quite a bit of glare."
Mihashi was surprised. Abe watched as the pitcher's head snapped up and then fidgeted, looking in every direction except at Abe. Abe was starting to get annoyed but soon the pitcher straightened out. "M-my dad helped m-me move the lights," the dirty blond pitcher said. Before Abe could say anything else the pitcher burst out saying "d-do you like it, A-Abe-kun? W-we did it so th-that you could see be-better."
Abe smiled. He was glad the two Mihashis went through the trouble for him.
The pair threw for a while, enjoying the bonding experience. Abe could feel the atmosphere and was happy at the pleasantness of the air around them. Mihashi was in top form and like usual never missed a pitch that Abe called. He worked through the variety of breaking balls having them break from one end to the other and hitting the multitude of locations. The pitcher had gotten bigger, from what Abe could notice, but it was not physical. Granted the catcher still monitored his pitcher's weight and was glad to see it was almost at 54 kg; but what really impressed the catcher was how Mihashi had simply gotten bigger. He moved with a bit more grace, which to Abe was surprising seeing as the pitcher was a complete klutz in any sort of social situation, though he did have more tact than a certain third baseman. Abe also noticed how the pitcher stood and walked. On the mound Mihashi stood up straighter and kept his head a little higher. All of the work outs and attention the pitcher was getting was definitely affecting Mihashi's weakest area.
Abe was getting uncomfortable. Despite the chill in the pre-dawn air the catcher was sweating as if it was still summer. This perplexed the catcher but he did not worry about it too much; he sweat easily which became a problem more than it should. "Mihashi," he called out, "let's finish up with fastballs. I'm starting to get a little tired."
The pitcher nodded his head at the catcher. Abe started off the regiment with the bottom left hitting Mihashi's special 'floating fast ball' in each zone. By the time Abe reached the middle middle he could tell he was drained. The catcher's eyes started to blur in and out and he caught the next couple of balls simply out of memory of where the pitch was going to be.
'Two more,' the catcher told himself. The catcher made the signals and waited for the pitcher. Oddly enough the pitcher looked quizzically at Abe for a moment before forming up.
Abe set up and waited, glove outstretched in front of him. From what he could see through blurred eyes the pitcher's form was flawless. Abe saw the white of the ball soar from the pitchers hand and arced right towards Abe's outstretched glove. He noted the added velocity that the new Mihashi's fastball had and smiled.
Abe watched as the ball floated upward. The rising illusion at the end of the pitch moved the ball up, up, and above Abe's glove. He had forgotten about the rise in the ball and when the catcher tried to move his arm to react he could not move. His entire body did not respond to any of the commands his brain gave and instead the black haired catcher watched the ball continue rising past his nose-level only to disappear from sight and reappear on his pain radar as what Abe felt had to be a massive divot smashed its way into the black haired teen's skull.
Abe woke up only to find a blinding pain replaced his sense of vision. The bright white light that was in Abe's eyes started to blur and soon turned into shapes. The shapes soon took on colors and Abe recognized a frantic looking Mihashi hurrying to do something above him. Moments later a bigger and female version of his friend appeared in Abe's range of vision. The elder Mihashi moved her mouth a bit and her son left only to reappear a few seconds later with a white cloth in hand. The two dirty blonds above Abe moved their mouths in turn and after a period of time Abe could not determine they sat the catcher up.
Abe soon regained his sense of hearing and the first thing that the black haired catcher heard was Mihashi-kun sobbing. "I've killed him! I've killed him!" The pitcher moaned. Abe could still not see straight but knew that there were massive tears gushing out of the pitcher's eyes. 'He's so melodramatic,' the catcher thought.
"Alright, Ren," a harsh voice hit Abe's ears, but the more he thought about it the voice did not sound harsh. He was confused. "We're going to help him into the kitchen. Grab his right arm and help him up; I'll take the left arm. Make sure you keep the cloth on his forehead, we don't want that to start again."
Before he knew it Abe was being lifted up onto his feet. He thought about his feet and soon the prospect of walking occurred to the catcher. As the two Mihashis flanking him on either side held the boy steady the trio slowly moved toward the back door. Abe took a few shaky steps before loosing his balance. It was too hard.
The mother and son duo grabbed the dark haired teen and steadied him back on his feet. After a few seconds they tried again and managed to half walk half drag the larger boy into the house.
Once in the kitchen Abe was seated where only half an hour ago he had been eating breakfast. Abe watched as a red and white tie dyed cloth was removed from his head only to be replaced by a large bandage. The catcher was in a pleasant mood as he watched the younger Mihashi cry and moan about killing his friend while the elder Mihashi cleaned everything up. Slowly the black haired boy's brain started to reboot and the fuzzy feeling that enshrouded his mind lifted leaving behind a jabbing pain in his forehead and a constant dull throb throughout the rest of the cranium. He blinked and started to look around, noting the increase in pain whenever he moved his head. 'Note to self: don't do that,' he thought.
The elder Mihashi noticed the life back in her son's friend. "Abe-kun, how are you feeling?" She asked.
Abe could not help but smile at the concern almost overpowering her voice. "I think I'm doing better," he said. "What happened?"
"Apparently you got hit in the head with a pitch and were knocked unconscious. You have a nice cut on your forehead that's welting up. All in all you should be fine," the tall woman answered.
Before Abe could show his gratitude he was assailed by the younger Mihashi. "AAAbe-kuuun!" The dirty blond wailed. "You're a-a-a-alright." The pitcher latched himself around the catcher.
"Ren!" The taller woman shrieked. That was not what Abe needed after something like this. "Can't you see he's injured?"
The pitcher loosened his grip on the catcher but did not fully let go. Abe did not mind one bit. "Geeze I tell you," she murmured more to herself than anyone. She had an icepack in her hand and placed it on Abe's head.
Abe was surprised at how cold the bag was on his sore skin. The lump on his head protested at the cold bag but Abe was enjoying the chill he was getting. He had not realized that he was still sweating all over despite being knocked unconscious and having lain on the ground for an indiscernible amount of time.
Ren's mother noticed this too. After giving Abe an icepack she noticed how the boy was still sweating and put the back of her hand on the side of his neck and the back of her other hand on her own neck. "Oh my Abe-kun, you're burning up. Let me take your temperature."
Abe looked at the woman as if she just spoke to him in Greek. "Oh don't worry about it I'm sure I'm fine," he responded.
"What could it hurt to check?" She asked. Abe saw her point and decided not to press the issue any more. He was sure he was fine, simply a little tired and worn out from the throwing and staying up most of the night; no harm could come from letting her take his temperature.
Mihashi senior left the kitchen for a quick stint to the bathroom and the first aid kit and when she returned she had a small glass tube. After rinsing it under the sink for a moment she handed it to Abe. "Could you put this in your mouth for a moment?" She asked. Abe knew it was not a question.
Both of the Mihashi faces watched Abe for the full minute. The pitcher still had tears lining the corners of his amazingly wide eyes while the pitcher's mother resembled more of a mother bird caring for her young than anything else. Abe really wanted to say something but knew he only had to be patient for the minute before they would see he was fine and the two boys could head off to school.
It was time and the taller woman pulled out the thermometer. She examined the red liquid and frowned. "I see," she said turning her gaze up into Abe's eyes. "You have a fever."
Abe stared back at her. He was a bit surprised at the news, but after second of analyzing the facts it made sense. Abe was tired. Abe had blurred vision. Abe was constantly warm. It was cold and flu season. Abe had a runny nose. Abe had a cough. Abe had a cold. "It's probably just a cold," he said, "nothing to get worried over." Abe stood up, which was difficult because the pitcher was still hanging on him. "Come on, Mihashi, we better head off to school. I wanna get there early enough so that I can take a shower." Abe turned to walk towards the back door but was a bit unsteady on his feet.
The hand of the elder Mihashi steadied Abe's balance but she had a stern look in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Abe-kun, but you're in no shape to go to school. You are still a little concussed from taking the baseball to the head and on top of that you have a pretty bad cold. I'm going to call your mother and tell her what's going on."
"Don't bother," Abe said matter-of-factly, "my mom is away for a few days and my dad is already at work."
"Then it's settled, I'll call the school and tell them that you aren't coming in. You can sleep in Ren's room while he's at school." She turned to her son and continued, "Can you draw a bath for Abe-kun and clean up your room a little?"
"I thank you for all this, I really do," Abe said while Mihashi ran upstairs. "But I'll be fine at home it's really no problem."
Mrs. Mihashi looked at the catcher and smiled an awkwardly big smile. "Oh I couldn't have that. You're already here anyway so just rest up and make yourself at home. I've got to go to work in a little bit but I want you to relax."
That settled it, Abe knew. There was no arguing with her. It would be awkward to shower at the Mihashi residence not to mention sleeping at his best friend's house while nobody was home. What was worse was that he would be in the pitcher's bed, but then again the residence did not have a guest bedroom for the dark haired teen to sleep in so Abe was stuck.
Ren returned to the kitchen. "I-it's ready, Abe-kun."
"Thanks," Abe said as he smiled at the catcher.
"Get b-better, Abe-kun," the pitcher stammered then blushed.
Abe raised an eyebrow.
The two Mihashis bid Abe farewell and left him alone in their rather spacious home. The catcher thought it best to hurry up and shower then go right to sleep. It would be best to get this day over with as soon as he could, he was embarrassed enough and did not want to draw the stay out any longer.
Once in the bathroom Abe decided that despite there being nobody else at home it was best not to linger like he usually did. One thing he did do was remove his bandage to check out what happened to his head. Instead of his normal flat forehead there was a massive swollen lump the size of an egg protruding from his skull. The lump was a shiny blue-purple color and on the very top was a good size scab from where the force of the ball broke the catcher's skin. 'Wow, all this from one of Mihashi's pitches,' he thought. Abe was impressed as to how far Mihashi had come. 'Man, not only this shiny bruise but a concussion as well.'
The catcher decided it would be too weird to linger in the bath and soon he was dry and changed into the pants and undershirt of his school uniform. Abe normally slept only in his boxers but that would be too weird of a thing to do, especially in his best friend's bed. When he reached the familiar bedroom the he pulled back only the top sheet and once he was in under the top sheet the catcher had no problem falling asleep.
Abe awoke to the feeling of a hand on his neck. He was still groggy and in a haze from the concussion and the only thing he could feel was a cool touch on his neck. 'It's probably Mihashi-san,' he told himself. Only once he opened his eyes and his vision straightened out did he see he was wrong. Mihashi-kun was standing over him with the back of his hand ever-so-gently touching Abe's neck. He was shocked and surprised at his friend's action. 'But this does feel good,' Abe smiled to himself.
The catcher waited until the blond took his hand off of him before Abe showed any signs of life. The pain in his head replaced the fog when he tried to sit up making the catcher a little weary. Disorientated, the catcher lost his balance and started to fall back towards the bed but a hand caught him and helped him sit up. Abe looked up and instantly was lost into Mihashi's obscenely large eyes.
"Ah, um, ah," the blond stuttered. "Um, A-Abe-kun, h-how are you f-feeling?"
Somewhere far off in the distance someone asked Abe a question. The catcher tried to fight off the spell Mihashi had cast with his eyes and emerged successful, but barely. "I, I'm much better," he said in a shaky voice, "thank you, Mihashi."
"Aaaaabe-kun!" Yelled the number one moment-killer, Yuichiro Tajima.
'Wait, moment-killer? That was a moment? With Mihashi?' Abe thought.
The smallest of the Nishiura players ran over to the bed and sat at Abe's feet. The trio was joined by Izumi and to Abe's surprise Hamada. Izumi saw the surprise on Abe's face and said, "Mihashi told us what happened in class. The three of us wanted to see how you were doing."
This made sense to Abe.
"I can't believe one of Mihashi's pitches knocked you out," Tajima laughed.
Abe smiled because he had made a connection: Tajima's intelligence was inversely proportional to the amount of time that elapsed since he was last in a classroom. The smile bought him some time but Abe had a real choice to make. He could save himself and his dignity and blame it on the cold and lack of sleep; or he could bear the brunt of the jokes and inflate Mihashi's confidence. There was no contest, Abe chose the latter. "Hey Tajima, you try being hit in the head with one of Mihashi's pitches and lets see how you do." As an afterthought he added, "Actually I don't know, the head might be the safest place to hitchya."
The group laughed at the third baseman's expense. Mihashi beamed with pride at the affects of his pitching. This was proof positive that the meek dirty blond haired teen was growing and getting better.
Izumi grinned. "Either way, that looks like one heck of a nice lump on your head." The others murmured in agreement.
"Yeah it's huge," Hamada added.
"When I checked it this morning it was all blue and purple," Abe said.
"Still is," Tajima pointed out.
"That's a nice size scab there too," Izumi said. "I bet it bled like none other."
"Mmm," Mihashi grunted.
"It's going to leave a nice size scar though," Abe said a little disheartedly. He noticed the pitcher fidgeting in his seat looking embarrassed so he added, "But I don't mind. Heck, if it would help Mihashi's confidence I'd gladly have a scar twice this big."
"I think I can see the laces," Tajima laughed.
"It almost looks like a lightening bolt," Hamada continued the joke.
The five friends talked amongst themselves for a few minutes before Tajima's stomach cut everyone off. "Looks like its time for lunch," Izumi said. He and Hamada moved towards the door while Mihashi and Tajima stayed behind to make sure Abe was able to move. The two teammates flanked the sides of the catcher as he tried to stand up. When he reached his feet Abe was reacquainted with the familiar fog and throbbing pain in his head. After a step forward his body mocked his effort by collapsing back onto the bed.
Instantly Mihashi and Tajima were right beside him hoisting the catcher back into a sitting position. Izumi and Hamada had turned around after hearing the catcher fall and were standing behind the two smallest teens. Abe looked at the four, his head still swimming. "Uhh," he grunted while trying to mentally suppress the pain. Failure. "Mihashi, do you have any aspirin? My head kinda hurts and I'm kinda dizzy."
The blond nodded his head and ran across the hall and into the bathroom. The four left in the bedroom watched as he frantically opened the cabinets looking for the pain meds. Mihashi was snatching bottles off the shelf, looking at them, and throwing them onto the counter at an excessive rate. Finally after a few seconds Izumi got up and walked over to the pitcher. Izumi looked at the surprisingly large pile of medication bottles and found what he was looking for. The small bottle of aspirin in hand Izumi tapped Mihashi on the shoulder and held the bottle up, smiling. Mihashi snatched the bottle from Izumi's hand and ran back over to Abe and thrust the bottle into his hands.
Abe let out a sigh and Tajima and Hamada turned their backs on the pitcher-catcher duo and started sniggering. "Mihashi thank you," Abe said then promptly popped two of the pills.
Despite knowing that the pills needed a little while to kick in Abe once again got to his feet. The other teens only had a little under an hour before they had to head back and the black haired catcher wanted to eat lunch with them at the very least. The others were surprised at his sudden movement and moved beside him to catch him if he fell. "Thanks guys," Abe said as he smiled at them. He took a step. His head spun and throbbed but Abe could mentally orientate himself. Step by step he slowly made his way out of the room and to the top of the stairs.
"Hamada and I will go in front incase he falls forward. Mihashi, you and Tajima make sure he doesn't go backward," Izumi ordered. The teens fell into place around the catcher.
Abe's right hand latched onto the railing for dear life. He could see his years of built up karma and irony striking him now; after what had happened that morning it would only make sense. Instead the universe decided to leave him alone, at least for the time being, and the dark haired teen made it to the bottom of the stairs and into the living room without incident.
Once he saw that Abe was safely on the floor in the living room Mihashi took off to the kitchen. "There's chicken a-and stir f-fry f-from last night," Mihashi called from the other room. "Y-you guys can h-help yourself and I-I'll get yours, A-Abe-kun."
With the mention of food Abe found himself alone. It was a surprise to see Hamada along with his teammates. Abe did not know the cheer captain very well but he and his squad had done wonders for the team in their game against Tosei. And besides, Hamada was a very close friend to Mihashi now that the catcher recognized his friend and Abe wanted to have a good relationship with the older teen. If things went right for the baseball club in the near future then the cheer squad could become accepted enough to be able to travel with the club and cheer at all of their games. With the energy of the stands coupling with the new strength and speed of the team, in the spring tournament Nishiura could be a dominant force. With what Nishiura did in the summer tournament, beating Tosei and forfeiting to the C seed despite only being down by one, it would not surprise Abe if they were seeded or close to it.
"He-here you go, A-Abe-kun," Mihashi said handing him a plate stacked with stir fry and rice.
Abe eyed the two plates Mihashi had in his hands. One was stacked with meat, vegetables, and rice while the other had what looked like the remnants of the meal on it. Mihashi was offering the catcher the choice plate almost overflowing with food while saving the scraps for himself. "Thank you Mihashi, but I'm not that hungry. I'll take this one instead," Abe said, grabbing the smaller plate and leaving the choice plate for the pitcher. He was a growing boy and needed to eat as well.
Mihashi's eyes lit up. If there was one thing besides baseball that the smaller boy loved with all his heart and soul it was food. When Abe convinced Shinooka to make Mihashi an extra rice ball for their snack during practice the teen followed Abe around for the rest of the week acting like puppy. In truth Abe was concerned for the pitcher's weight and health but the satisfaction he got from the constant attention from the pitcher was a real ego boost.
The five friends ate and enjoyed each other's company while they ate. Despite being hungry Abe did not finish his portion, his stomach was acting up and he did not want to have to rush to the bathroom in his state. Tajima picked up the slack by finishing his heaping plate, the half of Abe's that he did not eat, and another double serving of the random dishes in the Mihashi fridge. Mihashi was not far behind in the race for food keeping up with Tajima plate for plate while Izumi and Hamada finished their respectable portions.
A small clock on top of the TV chimed signaling to the group that it was time to head back to school. Abe bid them all farewell and thanked them for coming to visit. Once they left he found his way back to the living room and then to the kitchen. There were dishes left in the sink from lunch and Abe felt obligated to wash them, anything to help out in attempt to make up for the hospitality that the Mihashis had shown him.
Once finished with the kitchen the catcher decided to go about the house cleaning up what he could. Because he was still a little woozy and because he did not want to go digging around his friend's house Abe busied himself with only light housework. He dusted the majority of the rooms excluding the bedrooms, straightened up various messes all over the house, and ended up in Ren Mihashi's room.
Abe did not notice before but the room was a mess, an absolute catastrophe. The desk was covered in books and papers as well as dust while the floor had clothes and magazines and a wide assortment of odds and ends scattered turning the wood floor into a minefield of debris. The catcher was beside himself on where to start so he decided that since he could not enter the room without stepping on some sort of article of clothing to gather all of it up and pile it near the door. By making piles of everything Abe found that it was easier to process the mounds and leave it for the pitcher to sort out when he got home.
Little by little the wood floor became visible and soon Abe was left with only the scattered magazines and mangas of every genre to take care of. From one corner of the room to the other Abe managed to get everything sorted until he reached the bed. There was a halo of modern literature ringing the bed spare one gap in the side closest to the door. Abe was surprised to see that the astronomical arrangement of paper was three layers deep in spots under the bed. As he cleaned Abe sub-sorted the literature into two stacks, one of periodical magazines and the other of manga. It was not until Abe found a small cardboard box labeled 'From Tajima' that he actually looked at the literature around him. In the box was a multitude of doujinshi, but not just any doujinshi. The box was not very big but how Mihashi got all of those hentai doujinshi to fit in was a mystery.
'Wait a minute,' Abe thought. 'There's a box full of hentai doujinshi labeled "From Tajima" in a box under Mihashi's bed. Why would Tajima have hentai doujinshis?'
Once the room was cleaned up and the contents put into piles, spare the doujinshi which was stored safely back under the bead, Abe felt he was finished. The cleaning he had done tired the catcher out and after a quick trip to the bathroom to wash up he was back to the pitcher's room where he fell back asleep.
A rather audible gasp woke the sleeping boy. "A-Abe-kun did y-you do this?"
The pitcher was standing in the doorway looking surprised at the rather clean room. "Yeah, I hope you don't mind," Abe said. "The room was a little dirty so I, well, organized it a little. Everything is in one of those piles." Abe gestured to the piles clothes, do-dads, and the stacks of magazines and manga. "I didn't know what you wanted to happen to those so I just sorted it out for ya."
Mihashi's eyes seemed to double in size but Abe knew it was just the boy's self defense mechanism or whatever the purpose was. Abe smiled back at his friend but the longer he looked at the dirty blond teen the further he was lost into the amazingly deep and sparkly eyes shining before him. Abe kept trying to see further and further into the abyss that was Mihashi's pupils and irises.
The thud of Mihashi's book bag snapped Abe out of the spell. He could hardly believe that for the second time today he lost himself in Mihashi's eyes. "Uh, um, so…" Abe said trying to mask the obvious fact that he was staring passionately into his friend's eyes. "So Mihashi, um," Abe still could not think of anything to say. Instead the only thing that he could think of was the hentai doujinshi. "Mihashi, did Tajima give you all of those doujinshi in that box," Abe said before he could think of what he was saying.
The pitcher stiffened then fidgeted like he never fidgeted before. Abe watched as he squirmed, twisted, and sweat from the simple question. "Um, ah, A-Abe-kun saw th-that?"
This was almost unbearable. Abe wanted to tell Mihashi that it was alright and he did not have to respond, but he was curious at what he pitcher would say. Abe really wanted to know why Mihashi had straight porn from Tajima of all people. So instead he said nothing.
"Ta-Tajima-kun gave that t-to me a wh-while ago and and and," tears were streaming from his eyes. "And I o-opened it and sa-saw what it was and and its b-been under my b-bed since."
"Mihashi, don't cry it's fine," Abe said as he got up and walked over to the pitcher. He put his hand on the smaller teen's shoulder to try to lessen the tension. "I was just curious, it doesn't matter." Mihashi looked up at the catcher, eyes wide open. Abe fought the urge to fall into the abyss again, looking anywhere but into Mihashi's eyes. I tell you what; you have a test coming up in math right? I'll help you study."
To Abe's surprise the offer worked. Mihashi stopped crying and book bag in hand sat down at the now clean desk.
For the next hour Abe sat beside his friend and helped him with the difficult algebra his teacher had assigned. It unnerved Abe a little to have Mihashi constantly twitching his eyes over to Abe and then back on his work. Abe got a weird vibe from his friend but since the only vibes Mihashi gave off were weird he let it pass. What he did want to do though was smack the pitcher for not focusing on the schoolwork that he desperately needed to understand but the smaller teen was doing a fine job with the assigned problems only asking Abe to explain the difficult concepts. It looked to Abe as if Mihashi was actually not only understanding the problems but he was actually proficient in them as well. Even the complex multi-step multi-hellish bonus problem at the end was completed with minimal input from Abe.
"Good job Mihashi," Abe said once the what looked like a novel's worth of homework pages was completed. Abe ruffled Mihashi's hair in congratulations, noting how the pitcher melted slightly into Abe's touch. 'This is natural,' Abe told himself. 'He looks up to me, it's no big deal.'
"Ah Ren that's where you are," Mrs. Mihashi said from the doorway. "And Abe-kun, are you feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you very much for your kindness, Mihashi-san." Abe gave her a deep bow.
The elder Mihashi blushed. "Thank you for cleaning up. You don't know how surprised I was to come home to a clean house." Her eyes started to get big as she looked around her son's room. "Oh my, did you clean Ren's room as well? I know it wasn't him because he hates to clean and never does it."
"M-mom you don't ha-have to tell hi-him that!" The smaller teen groaned.
After laughing to himself at his friend's reaction Abe said, "It's no problem. After lunch I was feeling a lot better and a little energetic so I decided to clean things up a little."
Once Mihashi-san left the teens went back to homework. Abe was impressed at how much of it Mihashi was able to do himself. Abe remembered back to when they were still in season having to personally tutor Mihashi in the school's library during most lunches and almost all of their breaks. Now the pitcher hardly needed Abe's help at all and when he did it was for the material so complex that even Abe did not understand half of it.
It was late by the time the boys finished with the homework. Mrs. Mihashi had brought the two some supper while they continued to work on Mihashi-kun's homework and soon the sky outside of the window was black and Abe felt it was time he should head home. He thanked his friend and the elder Mihashi for their hospitality and the catcher walked back to his house.
The elder Abe was in the living room when Takaya got home. "How are you feeling, son?" He asked.
"I'm still a bit lightheaded but I'll be fine," Abe replied. "The Mihashi's took great care of me."
"Their son is the pitcher right? He's a pretty good pitcher; that is with you backing him up."
Takaya quickly reminisced the season. "I don't know, dad. I might call the pitches but he hasn't missed a pitch yet. He has put in so much effort and divided the strike zone into nine sections."
"Well either way after the amazing win against Tosei he must be quite the lady's man at school."
Takaya laughed to himself. It could not be more from the truth. "No, not Mihashi; although I'm sure there are probably a few girls in his class that might like him. The baseball team is starting to get noticed." He remembered hearing the whispers in the hall and over hearing 'baseball' more than once from various gaggles of girls.
"Well when are you going to find a girl?" Takaya's father asked.
If Takaya did not know better he would assume his father had as little tact as Tajima. "I don't know," he said gruffly. This was not a conversation he liked to have with his parents. "I just haven't found anyone I like yet."
"You don't have to like a girl to go out with her."
Takaya could not believe his ears. "I'm going upstairs," he said trying to end the conversation.
"You are interested in girls, aren't you son?" The elder Abe asked from the living room.
Takaya had his foot on the stairs when he froze. The question was never one that he had to wrestle with. It was confusing but the catcher knew that the longer he stayed silent the worse things would become. Taking the conversation in stride he yelled back "I can't believe you are even asking that." He loudly stomped his way upstairs making sure his father heard him leave and effectively killed the conversation.
When he finally reached the safety of his room Abe closed the door and flopped down on his bed. 'I can't believe he asked that,' Abe thought to himself. He felt betrayed and insulted by his father's question but yet somehow he found himself asking the same thing. He had managed to conquer his urges since entering puberty and after a frightful year of being randomly horny Abe managed to put the entire question out of his mind.
The analytical young catcher folded his arms behind his head and went over his history since entering puberty. When he was thirteen he started to notice people around him. After being constantly horny he was able to suppress his urges. By this time he was well into the hell that was the seniors and started shutting people out. He devoted every spare moment to getting better at baseball to help his pitcher and everyone else in Abe's life took a back seat to practice. Soon the few friends he had left him alone and people stopped approaching him at school. Before Abe realized that baseball had consumed his life and stripped him of his friends it was too late and the catcher found himself completely alone, hated by his pitcher, resented by the rest of the team, and ignored at school.
Abe never found out the reason why nobody spoke to him, nobody asked him to hang out. He never asked anyone for help because his pride would not allow him, and he just never needed it. Slowly he found himself to be an outcast and came up with the reason: he was not meant to have friends. It was obvious to the catcher when he came to the conclusion; he had a cold and prickly personality, he was quiet and kept to himself, and he could never think of a reason to talk to someone about something that did not involve baseball.
Once he reached the final year of junior high and the last year in the seniors Abe came to realize that he did not matter to other people and they did not matter to him. Everyone else in school became a body to Abe; sure some looked better than others but if he could not even make friends how was he supposed to find a girlfriend?
Things were a little different for Abe now that he was at Nishiura but all of his friends still revolved around the baseball club. His only friends were either on the team, on the cheer squad, or Shinooka the manager. The only shot he had was either with someone on the team, the cheer squad, or with Shinooka.
The more the catcher thought about his prospects the more he became depressed. Tajima had flattered him with his confession of love but Abe did not feel the same way. It was not that he could not feel the same way, but he just simply did not. Abe never considered himself gay or straight or bisexual but simply without the ability to love. To Abe it was not whether or not the person was female or male, but instead the bond the two shared was strong and since Abe was not able to form those bonds he decided to take himself out of the human reproductive pool. He was not heterosexual or homosexual but instead Abe thought of himself as nonsexual. And besides, Shun was still there to pass on the Abe lineage.
These thoughts flowed through Abe's head as he lay on his back. What started out as a nice conversation with his father turned into a though provoking situation more awkward than any he wanted to share with his father. There was no way he could tell the man that Takaya was simply choosing not to pass on the Abe genes and name. Instead Takaya had to hope that his mother and father accepted his choice of celibacy.
Abe sat up. Since he had analyzed and recapped the perplexing question his mind was now free to get on with what really needed to be done: homework. The test that Abe missed had to be made up and there were the worksheets that were assigned in history on Monday that the catcher was planning on doing before school this past morning or during free period. Instead since the next day was Wednesday the team had running scheduled before and after school. Abe was not sure whether he would participate in the club's practices tomorrow but he wanted to be there at the very least cheering on his team and helping them as much as he could.
After two more hours of studying and homework Abe decided to call it a day. He had been up for over sixteen hours, not including the nap he took, had gotten a concussion, and had a cold to boot. After such a busy day he decided he had earned the rest and soon after his head hit the pillow the catcher was asleep.