Updates: 4/28/2012
8. In Scoring Position
Road trip. The team carried their duffels to the team bus joking and laughing. It was pretty easy to tell that the Dragons had a winning record and were leading their division by several games. The team was loose and the atmosphere was light despite Jack's recent injury.
Jack, in fact, was already tentatively slated for his first start that trip, although he wasn't expected to throw many pitches before he was pulled. This put their ace in such a good mood that he was chatting amiably with the pitching staff in the back of the bus. Yusei had tried to sit near the pitching staff, but somehow ended up with the infield, toward the front of the bus.
Damn these cliques!
Even baseball teams had their little sub-groups. Twenty-five people, just like a little classroom, he thought, with natural categories … it was bound to work that way.
Soon they were on a plane flying to the home of the Vikings, one of their more distant rivals. They were expected to meet them in the league playoffs. Today was a travel day, so they wouldn't play until tomorrow and would have the afternoon and evening to themselves.
Yusei tried to keep from glancing back a few rows to where Jack was sitting next to Bruno. Crow kept poking him in the ribs to remind him not to be obvious. Finally, Yusei hissed, "If you don't quit it, you're going to crack my rib!" and pulled out his laptop to watch a video he had stored on the drive. Crow just laughed at him … rather cruelly, Yusei thought, trying to tune him out.
Finally, once they got their gear stowed, the team began to break up to visit their favorite haunts around Oslo or just relax in their rooms. Yusei and Crow headed down to an upscale mall to do a little shopping.
It was an unusually beautiful mall, open with lots of plantings and trees, two levels, and lots of nice places to sit and enjoy the atmosphere.
"I know what you're thinking," said Crow.
"And what's that?"
"You'd rather be here with someone else."
"Why do you keep bringing that up?"
"Because you could ask him, you know. You don't have to insist that he make all the moves."
"Yeah, but … he knows how I feel."
"Does he? He thinks you just think he has a great body. He thinks that you're just trying to get over a case of the hots for him. Isn't he giving you room to do that?"
"Then how do I know how he feels about me?"
"Why don't you ask him?"
"Oh, you take the fun out of everything," Yusei said, giving Crow's shoulder a shove.
The two had bought a few t-shirts, and were passing by a little jewelry shop when Yusei said, "Let's stop here."
"But you don't like jewelry."
"Humor me."
The little store looked like it had some unique silver jewelry and Yusei knew that Jack liked that sort of thing, so … he just had to stop and look.
"And what occasion are you going to have to give him anything?" Crow inquired, following him in.
"I'll think of something. I have plenty of extra money for this."
"That's not the point."
But Yusei was already looking over their selection of silver pieces. They had some quite nice ones, all silver, no gems, simple designs … Just the sort of thing that Jack seemed to favor.
"He always seems to wear the same thing, though …"
"Maybe he doesn't have enough to choose from, then." Yusei signaled the saleslady and pointed to a bracelet with an abstract design.
"OK, fine, but choose your occasion wisely," Crow whispered in his ear. "Don't just give it to him on a whim. I mean … you're not even together and you're buying romantic gifts?"
"I'm not crazy, Crow," he said, reassuringly. But he felt like he had to do this.
The saleslady pulled out the bracelet and held it out to him. "This was designed with the modern man in mind, sir. Is this to your liking?"
Yusei held it over his own wrist and tried to picture it on Jack's. He thought it was large enough to fit Jack.
"We can size it for you easily," the saleslady offered.
"Oh, no thank you, this is for a good friend of mine."
The woman looked impressed, but pleased. "Then … you'll …"
"Yes, please wrap it up."
As he headed to the cash register, he couldn't help noticing Crow's concerned expression. But the purchase made him feel so much better. Buying the bracelet gave him solid evidence of his feelings for Jack. It was like a promise to himself that he was going to do something about them. Just holding the box in his hand felt reassuring.
He turned to Crow. "It's for later on. No problem." The two began joking as they walked out the door, when they practically ran into the tall man walking in.
Jack Atlas.
Only dressed down today to be a little less noticeable. Just jeans, t-shirt, and an old leather jacket.
The two dropped back a couple of steps, looking as guilty as a couple of children caught with their hands in a cookie jar.
"Yusei, Crow. Are you … OK? I didn't know you two were interested in jewelry."
"Uh … I'm looking for something for my girlfriend," said Crow.
Yusei shot him a look. Nice save.
"Oh."
Yusei was afraid that the saleslady might mention the previous sale somehow. "Hey, do you want to join us? We were going to grab something to eat and watch some videos at the hotel. I know that's not very fancy, but …"
Crow gave him a look that said something along the lines of "thought you'd never be so forward," while Jack took on a slightly thoughtful expression and said, "I suppose I could," and deflected his path to match theirs.
Typical of ballplayers, they picked up a large selection, several hamburgers plus a bucket of chicken, a couple of liters of soda plus snacks for the movies. In addition, they got a little beer, but only a six-pack on account of the game the next day.
"So, what did you have in mind?" asked Jack as they carried their haul of purchases up to Yusei and Crow's mini-suite.
"I was thinking The Dark Knight and Alien."
"Don't you have anything a little lighter?"
"Kung Fu Panda?"
"That's better. Or maybe a Jackie Chan movie? Something with some humor in it."
"Are you saying Alien doesn't have humor? I think the cat was laughing."
"Funny."
They deposited the food on the coffee table in the front room of the mini-suite. Jack disappointed Yusei a little by choosing the comfy chair, leaving Crow and Yusei to share the couch.
Yusei scuttled into the suite's bedroom to fish the DVDs from his duffel while Jack and Crow began to dig into their hamburgers and make small talk. As he walked back in, he heard Crow. "… he's going to be a biomechanical engineer, you know."
"So I've heard."
"… Which means, among other things, that he gives a really great massage."
Jack said, "You know this from personal experience, I assume?"
"Oh, yeah."
Yusei switched on the TV and slipped The Dark Knight into the DVD player. "I'm not that great at it."
"How would you know?" asked Crow reasonably. "You can't really give yourself a full massage. Why don't you give Jack a sample after we eat? I'm sure he's all kinked up after the flight."
"Jack?" Yusei asked, turning toward Jack.
"Sure … if it's OK with you." Jack's eyes flickered over Yusei's and then to the TV, and he reached for a beer, which was cooling on ice.
Yusei figured he would need one too pretty soon, one way or the other. He was dying to touch Jack, but …
Did Crow think that Yusei could seduce Jack with a massage?
The movie looked pretty good on the relatively large TV provided in the front room of the suite, and the three tucked into their meal, especially Jack.
"Did I ever tell you that you eat an amazing amount of food?" asked Crow.
"Uh, no. Did I ever point out that I'm a pitcher?"
Finally Jack leaned back, sated.
Crow nudged Yusei and nodded toward Jack.
Yusei grabbed the chair from the desk in the bedroom and brought it in. "Here Jack, we don't really have a massage table, but if you sit backwards on this, I'll work out the kinks in your back and shoulders."
Jack got up and straddled the chair cooperatively enough, folding his arms along the back of it and placing his chin on his forearms.
"Wait, let me …" Yusei said a little diffidently, and gently peeled Jack's t-shirt off, after which Jack resumed his previous position. "Now I can get to your shoulders better."
But removing the t-shirt revealed the full glory of Jack's torso, the broad, well-muscled shoulders, the tight, defined abdominals …
Sure, Yusei had seen Jack naked in the locker room, but he'd had long years of training to de-sexualize the context and enough intelligence to keep a good distance between the two of them. Now he was about to touch this beautiful body. This was the reason he'd resisted working with Dr Schmidt …
He tried, with limited success, to stop his hands from trembling as he applied massage oil to his hands.
He needed to feel professional about this, but with Jack he just couldn't. He wanted a different kind of connection with Jack on so many levels. He looked over to Crow and tried to pretend that he was touching him instead, but it was a difficult stratagem.
Jack's muscles were so firm … just as he'd imagined them. He'd have to really press hard to work out any knots he found. Fortunately, once Yusei got started, he was concentrating on finding and working out kinks, so he didn't have much bandwidth left over to react to the fact that he was touching Jack. Still, underneath his intense concentration, he seemed to have a vague feeling …
I love you …
As he continued, the tension seemed to slowly drain out of the body he was working on and Jack's head rested comfortably on his forearms. Yusei worked his way down Jack's neck through his spine down to his lower back. Finally, he patted Jack on the shoulder and said, "Well, Jack, how was that?"
But Jack didn't move.
"I think he's down for the count," said Crow.
Very gently, Yusei took Jack's cheeks and lifted his head, and sure enough, his eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open. He looked utterly delectable.
"I think you should kiss him," said Crow, noting Yusei's expression.
"I don't have his permission!" But Yusei was sorely tempted. Jack's mouth was so …
"Thing is," Yusei said, "I don't want to leave him in that position or he'll stiffen up again."
"Well, we're not going to be able to carry him all the way to his room … certainly not without waking him."
"Let's try getting him into the next room then."
Carefully, Yusei slid Jack's shoulders onto his back while Crow very carefully took his hips and legs. The two carried him in to the bedroom and deposited him onto one of the beds. Yusei covered his bare torso with an extra blanket.
"He must really be out if that didn't wake him up," said Crow. "You going to take off his jeans? That would make him more comfortable."
"Are you kidding? What would he think when he wakes up?"
"Well pardon me! Just trying to …"
"I know what you were trying to, and forget it! We haven't even had a chance to talk."
"Speaking of, he might be out for the night. What are we going to do about curfew?"
"Why don't I call Corky? But one of us is going to have to trade and crash with Bruno."
Crow grinned. "Perfect!"
Soon Yusei found himself alone in the suite with Jack.
He sighed. This was all too ideal and too impossible all at once.
He walked into the bedroom and stood next to the bed looking at the sleeping form of the pitcher. He really did look like some form of royalty … too young, really, to be a king. More like a prince.
At last he was alone with Jack, but he couldn't talk to him. "Jack …" he whispered. "I want to ask you so much … tell you so much." Impulsively, he leaned down and pressed his lips to Jack's forehead, very softly. Jack shifted slightly, but didn't waken.
Reluctantly, Yusei prepared for bed and slipped under the covers.
Author's notes:
4/28/2012: Corrected spelling (peeled), punctuation, italics. Can we say, "embarrassing"?
Hey, thanks, guys, for all of the nice reviews! Ask, and ye shall receive, I guess. I wonder if the notify didn't work for chapter six? That would explain why people might have missed it. Yeah, as long as I was putting in CPR, I thought I should also do a little public service. ;) And thanks for the anonymous support for my baseball approach. :) I'm glad people are still enjoying this effort and I hope that I can manage to carry it through.
I hope this chapter is OK, it felt like one that didn't do very much, but, honestly, it could only go so far. It sure took a lot of effort. I think this is the fourth start. But, as they say, if at first you don't succeed ... But ... when I start posting a story, I'm committed. I gotta finish, even if it's crappy. I'm hoping to get more of the next one actually written before I actually start posting. (I got carried away with this one, so sue me, but I wanted it out for the baseball season.)
Speaking of writing new stories, I apologize, but I have another story that's been distracting me. The problem is that it's been sort of forcing its way out of me and I have to let it while it's hot. So this one's been shoved a little bit to one side while I work on that one. It's rather annoying in some ways. Sometimes I have ideas just busting out of me. Last week I had two in one day.
In scoring position: A base runner on second or third base is said to be in scoring position because if the current batter hits a ball into the outfield, that runner is likely to score.
Oslo: If Neo Domino can have a team in this AU, so can Oslo.
Did I ever point out that I'm a pitcher: Pitchers burn through a lot of calories (note how Babe Ruth bulked out after he quit pitching).
Next time ...
Uh, yeah ... again, I'm running late, and what I have written is ahead of the next chapter. We'll have to see what happens when these two wake up. I can't wait to see what I come up with!