Chapter 21: The blonde Baseball Idiot (Part 2)

"Kaz?!"

"Huh? Uhm… Yeah?"

"You call him Kaz?!"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"No fair! No fair! No fair!" Narumiya whined, much to Sora's amusement. "You don't know how long it took me to be able to call him Kazuya and for him to call me Mei! He simply rejected me each and every single time I tried to become closer with him. I can't believe he lets you give him a nickname now! Such a traitor! Just you wait, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind next time I see him!"

He gulped down his cold sweet tea in one go and slammed the glass back on the table in irritation.

"Ah! And I can't even have you call me a nickname too, since my first name is already short! Oh, Kazuya, I hate you!"

(At the same time Miyuki Kazuya was standing in the kitchen of his home and was preparing lunch for himself and something to put away for later for his always hard-working father, when he suddenly had to sneeze very heavily…)

Sora showed the blonde male a mischievous smirk.

"Hmm, you better be glad about not getting a nickname from me, Your Majesty, I have a lot of imagination, ya know. That Prince of the Capital thing gives a great room for so much teasing"

As expected, she only got a flat look of annoyance in return, which caused her to giggle at Narumiya's sour face.

When they had finished their lunch, the blonde ace led Sora out of the mall and to the bus stop, claiming that he had one last surprise for her for their date and the young girl followed him, restraining her cynical comments. She actually had to admit that his efforts were kind of cute and nice and she also could tell that he meant well and didn't just want to show off.

Arriving at their next destination, Narumiya took the blue head up a small hill where a big building with a dome dominated the landscape. Not many people were around in the area and Sora wondered what could be going on.

Gentlemanly as he was acting like, the blonde opened the doors for her and accompanied her through a big foyer and an empty hallway into a huge cinema-like hall dimmed in cozy twilight.

"A planetarium?" Sora asked because she had heard of it, but had never seen one before herself.

Narumiya nodded, placing the hand that wasn't holding their shopping bag in one of his pockets.

"My dad knows the owner and I asked him personally to let me use it today. It is their usual closing day, so there wouldn't be any visitors anyway and it doesn't cause any unnecessary trouble"

"Wow, Mei! You really put a lot of thought into that, didn't you? I'm actually very impressed. 'Sides, I've never been in a planetarium before", the blue haired girl praised, lifting her gaze to the vast astrodome ceiling.

The southpaw ace felt his cheeks heating up significantly. It was the first time that Sora had complimented him genuinely and his heart suddenly jumped before it began pounding much faster. He averted his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Well, yeah. I wanted it to be a special date after all. Before you friend zoned me…"

"Oi, oi…" the blue haired girl deadpanned. "You wanted to take a girl you've never seen before on a special date? Talk about a big risk… And I didn't friend zone you, I told you I want to get to know you better!"

"What did you expect? You're a girl that has the ability to play baseball in a male powerhouse team like Seidou. That alone makes you special. Then you're able to disguise yourself as a boy on a daily basis, which is definitely also worth mentioning, because I doubt many girls would be able to live their everyday life as a guy. Plus, your family was full of praise for you. Of course, anyone with a bit of love and knowledge for baseball would be at least interested in meeting you, let alone dating you", Narumiya explained matter-of-factly. "You said it yourself. Baseball players who aim to go pro don't have much time or a private life and mostly aren't able to get themselves a girlfriend in High School. But you're a baseball player as well despite being female. That's not only unique, but it's also a chance to establish a mutual relationship for once. Granted, you would be understanding and patient enough. Not to mention, you are beautiful and you have quite the character for a girl. Being such a tease and all…"

Taken by surprise, Sora blushed heavily and earned a self-confident smirk from Narumiya in return.

"Don't make it sound so naturally. They all think I'm a guy after all…"

"Good for me then. Does that mean I still have a chance?"

"Mei!"

"You don't have a boyfriend, do ya?"

"That's so none of your business-…"

"Which means, that I do have a chance indeed!"

"Hey, listen to people when they're talking to you!"

He started laughing and took Sora's hand to guide her to their seats.

"C'mon now, let's sit down and enjoy the show. I told the old man to program a timer for 6 pm, so it should start in a couple minutes"

Sora obeyed and the two teenagers plopped down together in their cinema armchairs.

The blonde southpaw had been right, they didn't have to wait long until the whole ceiling of the dome suddenly sparked to life and was illuminated by planetary constellations, millions of glittering stars, the aurora, spectacular sunrises and sunsets, the display of different phases of the moon and many other breathtaking sceneries. The blue head forgot to blink for a moment and gasped for air.

"Mei… This is… amazing!"

"I know, right"

He sounded smug again, but grinned at her rather boyishly. She chuckled at him, enjoying the sight above.

"I'm even more amazing, though"

"So, I should look at you instead and ignore the stargazing show?" Sora teased.

"Wouldn't blame you if you did…"

"Because you're a big star yourself"

"You seem to understand me at last. Took you long enough"

She couldn't take it anymore, Sora began laughing. Quite loudly and wholeheartedly, too. Until she had to wipe away some tears.

"You really are something else!"

"And you finally laughed. You should do that more often, it's cute", Narumiya mumbled very quietly, almost only to himself.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, I'm glad you like it"

"Yeah, I honestly do. Thank you very much for taking me here today, Mei"

He scratched the back of his head.

"M-My pleasure, I guess…"

Before it could get even more sappy and embarrassing, the young ace stood up from his seat and excused himself, hiding his reddened face as he made his way through the tiers back to the entrance door. When he came back only a few minutes later, he handed a cup of hot chocolate to Sora and was sipping on another one for himself. Did they even have something like a cafeteria in the planetarium? Not that it wouldn't make some sense when it was usually open for regular visitors…

"Thanks"

The blonde only hummed and they enjoyed the rest of the show in a comfortable silence with each other. After it was over, Narumiya offered to escort the young girl back to the wellness center, but Sora decided to go straight home instead, so she told him where she was living with her family, not too far away from their business. Checking some train and bus connections on his smartphone, he led the way for her again and Sora willingly followed suit.

Arriving in front of her house, the blue haired girl was nice enough to invite her new acquaintance (friend? Date? Hell, no…!) inside, but to her great surprise, the blonde only got flustered and declined her offer, waving his hands as if to defend himself. However, he still seemed happy about it and when he finally handed her the new hoodie he had picked for her and when he promised to share their selfies from the day with her on LINE as they said their goodbyes, Narumiya Mei had an honest and joyful smile on his lips that made his intense blue eyes shine brightly.

For the very first time during the whole day, Sora had the feeling that she could get a short glimpse of the true Narumiya, with a genuine smile, slightly pinkish cheeks and this delighted sparkle in his blue eyes that managed to replace his usual arrogance. He only let down his guard for a split second, but it was enough for Sora to find her answer to his earlier question when they just had started their date. She was sure now that she could manage to become friends with the enemy.

"Hey, Mei…" she said, stopping on the upper step of the stairs to her entrance door of the house.

"Mh?"

He looked up to her curiously, tilting his blonde haired head a bit to the side as if to question her what was up.

"You were right, you know"

"…?"

Narumiya quirked an eyebrow.

"In those short little moments you're being just yourself, you actually can be truly stunning", the blue haired girl admitted with that endearing smile of her own she didn't show very often. "Thank you very much for today. I hope we'll see each other again in time. Take good care going home, okay"

And with that said, she opened the door and slipped inside, disappearing from his sight as the entrance door clicked shut behind her back.

Narumiya didn't know how long he was standing rigid, staring at the closed door in disbelief. He also didn't know how much beats his heart had skipped in the meantime or how heavy his obvious blush had gotten after Sora's casual remark. The only thing the blonde ace remembered vividly were blue strands of hair, sky blue eyes and a warm and affectionate smile directed at him until he somehow magically stood in his bedroom at home. How he had gotten there from Sora's house? No idea! He just clutched the fabric of his shirt covering his chest and let himself fall down on his bed. His heartbeat was irregular until he finally dozed off.

Sora for her part sat in her own room at home and searched for Miyuki's number in her phone. She was extremely pleased and positively surprised at how well the day with Narumiya had turned out and she was glad that the blonde wasn't actually a bad guy. Arrogant, overly self-confident, self-important, with a too big ego for his own good, smug and annoying as hell and on top of it all also childish, immature and unreasonable yes sure, but similarly to Miyuki this was also a huge wall of self-protection. Not to mention, his pitcher and ace nature that basically screamed confidence and selfishness as a job description. It wasn't unusual for pitchers to be stuck-up. And hell, the poor guy had met Miyuki in Junior High already and Heaven knew that this couldn't have been a picnic for him either. Sure as hell they both had influenced each other as pitcher and catcher and two twisted personalities had collided back then.

Couldn't possibly hold it against him…

However, the blue head was still exhausted. More than after baseball practice. Maybe she should tell coach Kataoka to invite Narumiya to annoy the hell out of the Seidou team for endurance training? Coupled with Miyuki as a captain and Sawamura as a pitcher none of them would be able to survive this more than a few minutes, Sora would bet her own life on it. Ah well… Kuramochi, maybe. If he'd be able to channel his former yankee nature.

Sitting on her bed, Sora held her phone to her ear and waited if Miyuki would actually answer the call. They were on vacation after all, so maybe he was occupied, but it didn't take very long for him to pick up.

"Missing me already?"

Sora rolled her cerulean eyes, Narumiya's attitude still freshly running through her mind. So similar…

"Happy New Year, Kaz. It's nice hearing your voice again. I hope you enjoy your time at home", she replied instead of being a bitch.

She had had enough of bickering and friendly banter and teasing for the next ten years now, thanks to a certain blonde.

"Ah, right. Likewise. But you didn't have to go to the trouble of calling me just because of that"

"Mh, but I wanted to combine it with asking you for a favor. Or rather, asking your dad for a favor"

Silence.

"My father?" Miyuki asked cautiously.

"Yes, indeed", Sora confirmed with a seriousness relating to business. "You see, our wellness center is still not fully completed and my parents were planning on having an annex with a bigger gym in it. We already have a fitness room for rehab, but it's small and doesn't provide enough space for many different kinds of fitness and weight training devices, hence we still have to expand further. We do have the space, but since we're new in Tokyo we don't have the necessary knowledge and connections to the construction industry, so we haven't placed an order yet. Do you think your dad could handle a big project like that? If he can make us a good offer, our family businesses could support each other, no? Or maybe he could give us the contacts of someone else who'd be able to help us out if he's too busy already"

"Hmm, I see. That makes sense in a way. Let me talk to him about it, I'll see what I can do for you. Do you have a limited budget?"

"Honestly speaking, I don't even know. We've made a sponsor recently, so if we're lucky enough, maybe we could get a subsidy"

"I see. Hey, congrats. Good for you"

"Yeah, thanks. And thank you for your help, Kaz"

Sora heard the brunette catcher chuckle in slight amusement and she could imagine him on his phone with his signature mischievous smirk in his face. That thought made her smile and she fell back on her bed, sinking into her pillow.

"Sure", he gave back, but something in that purred tone of voice made the young girl wary. "I should probably be the one thanking you for wanting to support our business, but I'm certainly much more curious how you found out"

Ah…! Oops… Well, shit.

"What do you mean, stupid?" she tried to laugh it off. "Your company is officially registered, with phone number, address and everything, no? And you do have a homepage too, right? Anyone would be able to find out, otherwise it'd be bad for business or am I missing out on something here?"

Miyuki only snickered at the other end of the line and the young girl held back a sigh. What now again?!

"Nah, c'mon Sora. I know you well enough to be sure that you got your information differently"

"What are you accusing me of, Kaz? That sounds like I'd spy on you and invade your privacy against your will or something. I should feel offended"

"Did you? I'd rather feel honored if you tried to research me"

"No, thanks", Sora clearly refused. "Didn't have time for that the last days, even if I had wanted to"

"Then, how?"

Sora started to untangle her braid with the fingers of her free hand thoughtfully. Maybe she had crossed an invisible line and made Miyuki uncomfortable with knowing too much about him and his family matters.

"Kaz, are you angry that I know? Shouldn't I have asked you for help? Does it make you uncomfy or something?"

"Huh?! What are you talking about?!"

Miyuki sounded utterly confused.

"I mean, I know you don't like to share personal stuff, so…"

He sighed heavily.

"It's absolutely fine, Sora", her captain reassured her softly. "As you said, Miyuki Steel is an official and a registered company, so of course people know about it. It's not a secret and I'm not keeping it from my teammates intentionally. Some might know by chance, some don't. I'm just curious how you found out. Or who told you"

She grinned to herself.

"Let's just say I've met your best friend today"

"Come again…?!"

The blue haired girl laughed at her catcher's incredulous tone of voice.

"Your bestie", she repeated confidently.

"Don't be stupid! I don't have something like a best friend or a bestie or however you call it"

"Sad enough", Sora deadpanned. "Don't let Mochi hear that, he'll kick your ass"

"It's completely obvious that you didn't mean Kuramochi or someone else from the Seidou team"

"Positive"

"Then it's even more ridiculous"

"Aw, Kaz. You really forgot your childhood friend. How cold could your heart possibly be?!"

"Sora… I swear-…"

"Just think about it rationally, Kaz. It's actually pretty obvious. Who would be impudent and overconfident enough to spout nonsense like that without even being embarrassed? Except from you, I mean"

"Oi!"

"Then take a guess who our new sponsor could be and whom you know from your Junior High time and who played against your team and I guess you should come to the correct result"

"Fuck"

"That's also a way to sum it up"

The brunette young catcher groaned and Sora could hear ruffling from fabric against fabric. Maybe Miyuki just lay down on his bed as well?

"You've not really met Mei, did you?"

"Met is the wrong term to describe it"

"Figures"

"You've got an awful whole lot in common, ya know"

Miyuki clicked his tongue.

"I'll just pretend I've never heard that"

"And you both act like it's an insult to be compared to one another"

"That's a sin!"

"…"

"What?!"

"Exact same wording, Kaz. That's creepy as hell. You sure he isn't your twin?"

"Say another word and I'm gonna hang up"

"As you wish, I'm certainly not stopping you"

Sora could hear him curse under his breath and held back her laughter.

"So, what were you two up to?" Miyuki asked.

He was such a curious gossip that guy…

"Oh, nothing much. He came to inspect the facility on his father's behalf, so I showed him around a little bit", the blue haired girl responded, trying to sound completely relaxed and casual.

"That's it?"

"For the business part, yes. Why?"

"That's not like him to let it end like this. And what do you mean with business part?"

"See, so you do know each other well. I just knew you guys were close. He calls you Kazuya after all. And there you were trying to tell me that no one ever called you by first or nickname", Sora teased in a honey sweet tone.

"I didn't agree to any of this"

"You call him Mei"

"Because he started to ignore me whenever I didn't"

"Aw… Isn't brotherly love beautiful"

"I'm so gonna kill you when we're back at Seidou!"

"Why, thanks for the warning"

Sora clearly enjoyed herself. Usually Miyuki was always the one being a dick. Time for payback.

"Would you answer my question now?!" he demanded and the young girl could hear how annoyed he was with her.

"After the tour we just started to hang out with each other a bit. I don't really understand why you're making such a big deal out of this. I mean, yes he was kinda annoying, but it's not like he did anything horrible to me today or something"

"You hang out with Inashiro's ace of all people and don't understand why your captain thinks it's a big deal? Congratulations", Miyuki said sarcastically.

"We didn't talk about our teams", Sora assured him with a sigh. "What do you take me for? Again, I should be highly offended!"

"Then, what did you talk about?"

"Wouldn't you like to know"

"Sora…"

"Jealous much, captain?"

"Do you want me to come over to your house and interrogate you properly, Sora? Because I'm tempted to do that right now"

"Be my guest, you can sleep over. But tell your dad first, he's gonna be worried about you if you vanish without a word"

A stunned silence followed.

"You're awfully calm about this"

"We've slept in one bed together"

"Care to repeat?"

She let out a sarcastic snort.

"Gladly"

Sora blushed and was incredibly proud her voice didn't waver over the phone. Luckily it wasn't a video call and Miyuki couldn't see her reddened face. The memory of the last time of their little sleepover crossed her mind and she felt hot.

"Heh, so you want me in your bed again, Sora? You should've told me…"

Okay, this was drifting into dangerous territory now. Miyuki's voice had become deeper and the blue haired girl couldn't grasp if it was still banter or more since she also couldn't see him and his expression, obviously.

She exhaled and cleared her mind. Carefully, so that her captain wouldn't hear her being so tense.

"As I said, it wasn't a big deal", she changed to the former topic again. "We went to the mall, did some shopping, he was bragging about knowing the best baseball store ever and took me there to have a look around, then we had some lunch and after that we went to a planetarium before going home. That's all about it. And no, we didn't exchange information related to our teams, he never asked anything about baseball in the first place"

"A planetarium?" Miyuki wondered.

"Huh? Ah, yeah. Apparently his dad knows the owner or something", Sora gave back nonchalantly. "It's actually pretty awesome. Have you ever been to one? Maybe we could all go together next time. I bet Eijun would be hyped"

"Hmm… I see…"

Sora shuddered as her catcher hummed in his signature playful tone. That was never good news and she knew that from experience.

"Are you satisfied now, or do you still think I sold out our team?"

"Oh, Sora, please… I've never thought that about you"

She sweat dropped.

"Uh-huh…"

The brunette snickered and she wondered if he'd be holding his stomach with one hand as he always did back in Seidou.

"More importantly… Are you gonna cuddle me again? 'Cause last time I had hell of a hard time to get up properly, ya know"

As expected of her crafty captain, he wouldn't let her get away with just changing the subject of the conversation. Sora's cheeks heated up once again, but she refused to let him know. It was just a phone call, so she felt braver than usual in his direct presence.

"Hey, you were the one telling me that you'd be my Kazu all I wanted if I remember correctly"

"So, you remembered and you didn't say a word that whole time… shame on you, Sora"

"Ehhh, but I'm bashful!"

He let out a loud laugh.

"Since when?"

"You make me nervous, Kaz…" she cooed sweetly.

"Oh, careful now, you're playing with fire"

"Burn me then"

Hell, did she just say that out loud? What was she doing?! She was openly flirting with her captain over the phone! Shit, this wasn't good. She had gone way too far. And only because she was always so stubborn and didn't want to back down.

"I'll be very sure to remind you"

Dear Heaven, it sounded like a threat, but also like a sweet promise. Sora's heart raced and she had to gulp hardly.

"Never expected anything else from you, captain"

"Kazuya", he corrected, voice deep and seductive. "Say it, Sora"

Was he honestly trying to order her around now?! What the heck?

"Now, be a good lil' pitcher. C'mon"

If this was going to continue, either her head or her heart would explode. The blue haired girl wondered which would be the first to spontaneously combust. What would he do if she refused now? But then again, her mind was so completely absent that Sora doubted she'd be able to fight her sly catcher in this particular moment. Did she even want to? What would happen if she just complied? Only this one time? Actually she didn't want to let him win this, on the other hand…

"Ka-zu-ya"

He wouldn't be able to do much over just a phone call, right?!

"Again"

"Kazuya"

Miyuki hummed, a very satisfied and alluring purr. Like a damn cat…

"So, are you nervous now?"

"Very"

"Good"

Jerk! Arrogant little prick! Go die!

She seriously was nervous now! And what was good about this, huh?! Was this still their usual banter? Somehow the vibes had drastically changed the last few seconds ago or was that just her imagination?

"And there I thought that you liked my nickname for you, Kaz. You break my heart"

The brunette chuckled softy and the sound felt like tickling her ears through her smartphone. Her body shivered. What did he do to her? What kind of new effect was that? She had never reacted like that to him, so why now?

"You do to me, Sora… I won't be able to sleep now", he drawled lazily.

"Excuse you, now this is my fault?! Who started all that?!"

"It's always your fault, Sora. From the very beginning"

"I beg to differ!" she argued. "I'm all pure and innocent. You're the one with the pervy mind. You and Mochi. You're gonna be the death of me one day"

Miyuki started to laugh again. Very heavily.

"Ah! Pure and innocent! Ow, ow, my stomach hurts! That was a good one, I like it. Who in hell's gonna believe you that?!"

"You wound me, Kaz. I thought you knew that you and Mochi were my firsts" She made a short, but impactful pause. "For me to be so open with, I mean"

"Such a privilege"

"I know, right. Better feel honored"

"At the moment I rather feel… something entirely different"

"Oh, really? Should I even ask…?"

"Depends… Do you wanna know, Sora?"

"Hmm… Do I now? Maybe it'd be for the best if we cut it here and you go take a cold shower or something? Don't wanna be the reason for disturbing your good night's sleep", Sora suggested instead, hoping that her crazy beating heart would also be able to calm down again.

"Too late"

"Well, sorry… Or rather… Serves you right?!"

"Be very glad that this is just a phone call. You wouldn't be able to be so sassy otherwise!"

"Try me, Kazuya"

"Believe me, I will!"

"Don't remember the last time you challenged me like that…? I was completely drenched and-…"

"Okay, stop! Stop! We're so not gonna walk this road right now. Not when you're not even here to be able to take responsibility for what you cause. That's not fair at all!"

Sora blinked, taken aback. Take responsibility for what she caused? What the fuck?! And what was with the sudden panic in his voice? The tempting, purring and soft dark tone was gone for good in an instant. The blue haired girl wondered what exactly she just had triggered to make him react like that.

After his outburst, Miyuki was unusually monosyllabic when Sora said her goodbyes to him and thanked him again for his help before ending the call. Still, the feeling that they both had broken some kind of invisible boundary with their former conversation remained somewhere in the back of her mind, even when she was having dinner with her family later on in the evening.