A/N: Thanks for the review and follows/favourites!

Chapter 5: Acceptance

Miyuki quietly walked the silent pitcher to the staff room, eyeing him and gauging the younger teen's behaviour along the way. Once in the empty room, Miyuki quickly pulled a seat for Sawamura to sit on.

"Eijun, are you ok?" Miyuki asked with slight fear in his voice, fear that the events just now would have scarred the pitcher for life.

Sawamura meekly nodded his head while directing his gaze on the floor.

Miyuki knelt down so that he could stare up into Sawamura's eyes.

"Are you sure? You're crying..." Miyuki said in concern.

Suddenly, Sawamura started to furiously rub his eyes to rid them of the tears.

"Of course I'm ok, I'm not crying, it's just that...it's just that..." Sawamura started blushing.

'Oh man, he is scarred...' Miyuki thought as he went to embrace Sawamura. "It's ok Eijun...don't think too much, you can let it all out, I won't tell anyone." Miyuki earnestly said while digging his head into the crook of Sawamura's neck.

Sawamura sat there dumbfounded. He was slowly blushing bright red.

"W-w-wh-what are you doing?" Sawamura stammered.

"It's ok...you can cry...you must be scared..." Miyuki continued in his own little world.

"Y-y-you idiot!" Sawamura shouted and slapped Miyuki's head. "I'm not crying, and I'm not scared!"

Miyuki pulled away from the pitcher and looked him in the eyes. "Uhhh...then why do you have tears in your eyes?" a slight blush appearing on Miyuki's face as he missed the bulls eye.

"I was touched in front of everyone, and I got..." Sawamura paused for a bit before whispering very quietly, "...hard..."

The pitcher then quickly continued "How am I suppose to look at all those customers in the face again? AHHHHHH what if they look at me differently now...what if they think I'm a pervert..."

Miyuki stared at the over dramatic pitcher in awe. 'Is he an idiot...why do I need to even question that...'

Sawamura continued his rant, "...plus, I didn't want some random person doing that to me..."

"Why you have someone else you want doing that to you?" Miyuki asked in curiosity.

Sawamura, in the heat of things, didn't think before he responded. "You." Before he knew it, his hands quickly clasped his mouth as his blush got deeper.

Miyuki smirked at the answer he got. 'Ok...he's not an idiot...'

The catcher leaned in towards Sawamura and whispered, "How about I..."

"AHEM!" the sound of someone clearing their throat echoed across the room.

"Kai!" Sawamura quickly shouted as his facade lifted in happiness.

"Big cousin!" Miyuki shouted subconsciously.

"Eijun, are you ok? At least that's what I would ask, but hearing your conversation just now, it seems you are..." Kai stated while eyeing Miyuki with distrust.

"I'm fine, Miyuki did enough damage to that red head." Sawamura said.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to the two teens' parents and make sure they get punished." Kai muttered under his breath.

"They were your friends?!" Miyuki suddenly jumped in and questioned.

"No, they were in my class and they were troublemakers. I got the privilege of delivering homework and all to them whenever they skipped class. Got to know their parents really well though, good people." Kai replied, semi-defending himself from his association with the two punks.

"Got the privilege?" Miyuki asked at the weird way Kai replied.

"Yeah, Kai was the class rep throughout his school years! He's really smart." Sawamura enthusiastically butted in.

"You two are related right?" Miyuki asked, pointing his index finger between the two.

"Yup!" Sawamura answered with a big grin.

"Then what happened to you?" Miyuki asked while pointing at the pitcher, obviously referring to Sawamura's intelligence.

Both Kai and Miyuki immediately burst into laughter.

"Grrrrrrr that's not funny!" Sawamura said while pouting.

"Eijun, you can take the rest of the day off." Kai said, duly so from the incident.

"I'm fine, I want to continue working." Sawamura replied energetically.

"Are you sure?" Kai asked skeptically.

"Yup!" Sawamura gave a big grin, which was enough of an answer for Kai.

"Fine, but don't work too hard."

The three left the staff room and returned to their own activities for the remainder of the afternoon.

Dinner time came about in a blink of an eye. Miyuki, anxious at being served by Kai again, waited diligently in his room.

*Knock knock*

Miyuki quickly ran over to the door and opened it.

"Hi Kai! Come in, come in. Would you like me to help you with that tray?" Miyuki desperately said, in attempt to get on Kai's good side.

"I'm supposed to be serving you..." Kai rebutted monotonously.

"Ahhh, ha ha I guess..." Miyuki followed in Kai's wake to the table.

As Kai laid the food out while Miyuki sat quietly watching.

"What did you feel when Eijun was getting harassed earlier today?" Kai suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"Huh?" Miyuki, caught off guard, responded.

"Earlier today, when those two were tripping Eijun and harassing him, how did you feel?" Kai repeated, but with slightly more clarity.

"Uhhh, I was angry, first time they tripped him, I didn't catch them doing it, so I thought it was an accident, but when I saw them smirk, I wanted to beat them up." Miyuki replied.

"And why did you wait till they started touching him before doing something?" Kai asked.

"I...I..." Miyuki was at a loss for words, he didn't know how to respond.

"Did you enjoy watching Eijun getting played around? Did you want to see Eijun get raped by strangers that badly? You probably don't care what happens to Eijun..." Kai continued sending harsh words towards Miyuki.

"I DO CARE! Don't talk like you know my feelings. I care about him more than you can imagine! And I didn't see you doing anything either!" Miyuki nearly jumped onto his feet yelling back at Kai.

"What? So you love him?" Kai asked.

"HELL YEAH! You have a problem with that?" Miyuki yelled back without thinking, not that he care what Kai's relationship to Sawamura was anymore.

"Nope, no problems." Kai replied calmly.

Miyuki looked at the blonde trying to comprehend what happened. Staring at him expecting an answer to his simplistic response. "What?"

"I was just trying to rile you up." Kai stated while laughing. The older teen planted his bottoms on the floor and leaned backwards, using his hands to prop himself up. "Did you know you really get animated when you're angry?"

Miyuki continued to stare at the waiter in silence.

"Loosen up, I was joking about you taking your sweet ass time in helping out Eijun. I'm glad you did and especially how you dealt with them, you scared the shit out of the two." Kai laughed nonchalantly while talking to the quiet catcher. "Anyways, if you really like Eijun, who am I to stop you. Plus, it seems that thick headed cousin of mine finally realised that he likes you too."

"REALLY?!" Miyuki's ears immediately perked upwards. He was ecstatic, he felt as if he could conquer the world.

"You approve of me?" Miyuki saw Kai as a protective wall that guarded Sawamura, and this approval meant a great deal to him.

"Yeah..." Kai said in defeat, but it was a good feeling knowing that he could trust someone to look after Sawamura.

- After Dinner -

It was after dinner and Kai was done his tasks. Both he and Miyuki sat in the atrium watching Sawamura run back and forth frantically doing his chores.

"Say...don't get this the wrong way...but I can see the resemblance in looks between you and Eijun...but that blonde hair..." Miyuki tried to find a way to phrase the question, while imagining Eijun with blonde hair.

"Hah, I dyed it, otherwise Eijun and I would look even more alike." Kai answered. Although they didn't look completely alike, one would definitely mistaken the two if seen from afar.

"Ah, Eijun wouldn't look bad with blon..."

"Don't even entertain that idea." Kai flatly stated, which caused Miyuki to jump slightly.

"So, you were pretty smart in school, from what Eijun said...right?" Miyuki stated quickly switching the subject.

"I wouldn't say I'm smart..." Kai said modestly.

"Then what happened with Eijun...aside from baseball, nothing else goes through his mind..." Miyuki quickly butted in.

"Hah, yeah he's always had problems with school, you shoulda seen him back then. Everyone pretty much called him a baka in school." Kai laughed at reminiscing in past memories. Miyuki found it very amusing.

"Really? He's still being called a baka...someone even called him Bakamura." Miyuki chirped up.

"Bakamura?! That so fits him." Kai replied enthusiastically while looking at Sawamura run across the hall.

Both Miyuki and Kai laughed loudly in the atrium, gaining some glares from various people.

Sawamura, upon hearing the noise, stopped in the middle of the hallway and glanced at the source of the laughter. A shiver went down his spine as he saw Kai and Miyuki together, but he shook it off. 'Those two seem awfully friendly...'

"Waaaaah aahhhh" suddenly, the sound of a crying child broke through the noise of laughter interrupting everything that was happening.

'What's happening...' Sawamura turned his gaze at the child crying.

At the front desk, a small girl was crying while the mother tried to comfort her and the father speaking to the receptionist.

"We're really sorry sir, we don't have a room in advanced of your booking. We're fully book right now."

"Can you please check again? My daughter is really tired. We had an unplanned change in our schedule. Anything can do." the man said.

All the while, the girl was bawling her eyes out. The mother did everything she could, but couldn't stop the daughter from crying.

Sawamura quickly ran over to the crying child.

"What's wrong?" the worried pitcher asked as he looked at the worried mother.

"She's been travelling all day and is really tired." the lady replied in a exhausted voice.

Sawamura knelt down so that he was in eye level with the little girl.

"Hi, what's your name? I'm Sawamura."

"Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh." The girl cried louder.

At this point in time, Kai and Miyuki walked over to the front desk area and watched Sawamura deal with the crying girl.

The pitcher then pulled the basket he was carrying and dug through it.

"Hey, isn't that my clothing?!" Miyuki asked loud enough that only Kai would hear.

Sawamura then found a sock. He pulled the sock over his left hand, pulled out a marker and put two eyes onto it.

"Hey there!" Sawamura started, moving his thumb away from his other fingers such that it looked as if the sock was talking.

"Waaaahhhh" the girl continued to cry.

"Don't cry, you're a big girl! Do you want a hug?"

The girl's cry subsided as she looked at the sock while rubbing her eyes.

"My friend here..." the sock looked towards Sawamura, "he might be a baka, but he really doesn't want to see you cry."

Sawamura then made a goofy sad face, pretending to cry, which caused the girl to laugh. A couple of sniffs still escaped from her thought.

"So how about it, a hug?" He then opened his arms wide, giving her a welcoming hug, which she jumped into.

After a few seconds, Sawamura pulled away from the little girl and gave her and her parents a big smile. "See, it's easier to smile than cry right?"

The girl vividly shook her head up and down in response.

"So, what's your name?"

"Mai!" The girl responded, but then suddenly yawned out of tiredness.

"I never knew Sawamura was good with kids..." Miyuki watched as Sawamura calmed the girl down.

"Hah, yeah he's always been good with people in general, right?" Kai stated and asked, obviously knowing his cousin's antics.

"Guess you're right." Miyuki replied.

The two then reverted their attention the dilemma at hand.

Sawamura looked over to the receptionist and the father talking.

"I'm really sorry sir, we don't have any rooms for tonight." the receptionist apologised.

Sawamura decided to give his room, which was pretty much a full suite, to the family. He got up and walked over to the receptionist and the father.

"They can have my room." Sawamura spoke up.

"Oh no, we can't do that!" the father spoke up.

"Don't worry, it's too big for one room anyways. Besides, I can probably sleep with my cousin over there." Sawamura pointed towards Kai.

"Sawamura has his own room here in the inn?" Miyuki proceeded to ask Kai out of curiousity.

"Yeah, he does, it's a pretty nice suite, a lot nicer than my closet of a room that fits one person...well two now." Kai added in. It was going to be cramped, but Kai didn't mind.

Miyuki then spoke up "Sawamura-kun can sleep in my room, I don't think Kai's has enough room for two people."

"We can't have Sawamura-kun sleeping with a guest!" the receptionist quickly replied.

"Don't worry! I'm his classmate, plus I'm here alone, so it'd be really welcoming!" Miyuki insisted.

Kai immediately grabbed Miyuki's shoulders and started to squeeze it, causing Miyuki's face to cringe in slight pain, but mainly fear. "What are you trying to pull here? You're not thinking of doing anything to Eijun are you?" the older cousin whispered in anger.

"Hah hah, of course not..." Miyuki whimpered under Kai's threat.

"Are you sure sir?" The receptionist asked again.

"Yup!"

After everything was settled, the two parents continuously thanked Sawamura and Miyuki.

"Hey Mai, want me to take you up to your room?" Sawamura asked.

"Yaah!" Mai said.

"Want a piggy back ride upstairs?" Sawamura knelt down with his back facing Mai.

"Oh you don't need to do that Sawamura-kun..." the parents quickly said.

"Don't worry, I don't mind." Sawamura gave a big grin.

Mai then jumped onto Sawamura's back with her arms wrapped around his shoulders hugging him.

"I wish..." Miyuki started to whisper as he watched Mai and Sawamura.

"No you don't..." Kai shot him a dirty look, which caused Miyuki to take a step back.

"Mommy! I want to marry Sawa-chan!" the girl shouted out loud as the family and Sawamura walked away.

"Haha, Sawa-chan's a good man isn't he?" the mother replied.

"Haha, Mai loves Sawa-chan and Sawa-chan's cute too!" Mai continued on happily.

Meanwhile, the pitcher got redder and redder as the one sided conversation went on.

Miyuki, while watching the conversation, subconsciously placed his hand on Kai's shoulders catching Kai's undivided attention.

"What the hell, she's too young to even think about Eijun like that, and what's with calling him Sawa-chan? What is she thinking!" Miyuki started to rant in a whisper.

Kai turned his gaze over to Miyuki and gave the catcher an incredulous look.

"Dude...she's a kid..." Kai stated, but inside, he was amused at how excited the catcher was about Sawamura.

A/N: Next update will be in about a week or two.