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"Is something bothering you, Kuramochi?"
Ryousuke tilted his head when Kuramochi jumped. What was with that overreaction? It’s not like he didn’t know Ryousuke was sitting next to him.
"No, I’m fine. Just, you know, thinking."
Ryousuke thought for a moment. Then he chopped the other boy lightly on the back of his neck.
"Ow! Geez, what was that for?"
"You’re thinking too loudly. It’s bothering me." Ryousuke went back to his meal pointedly.
"You can’t really hear what I’m thinking," Kuramochi blustered. Ryousuke kept eating. "You can’t--can you?" Ryousuke heard the note of panic in his voice and smiled blandly.
Picking on the juniors was so much fun.
***
"You have to throw faster," Ryousuke said, letting some of his frustration show. He was tired of people underestimating him, and the pill was even harder to swallow coming from someone younger than him. "I know you can, so why won’t you?"
"Sorry, Ryou-san," Kuramochi muttered. "Try again?"
Ryousuke nodded, and went back. He waved at the coach to hit another one.
The batted ball went perfectly to short-stop and Ryousuke started running. Kuramochi scooped up the ball and didn’t hesitate this time, but threw the ball to where Ryousuke should be. Ryousuke widened his eyes for a fraction of a second--he was going to miss...
No way! Not after I said all that, there’s no way I can miss!
He dove for the ball, and felt it land in his glove. His other hand skidded across the ground and he stuck his foot out to slow his momentum, made sure he was touching the base, and whipped the ball to first.
"Are you okay?" Kuramochi said, jogging over. "Sorry about--"
"That was perfect." Ryousuke said. He was even smiling a little.
"What?" Kuramochi looked like he didn’t get it, but that was fine. Ryousuke could be elated enough for both of them. "Shit, you’re bleeding!" Kuramochi cried, dropping down beside him. Ryousuke frowned and looked down.
Kuramochi took his hand and poked at it a little, and Ryousuke winced. There was a jagged tear down the center of his palm. Damn, must have scraped it on a rock or something. He couldn’t even feel it much, adrenaline still running high.
Kuramochi, on the other hand, looked nearly heartbroken. "Ryou-san, I--"
"Don’t you dare apologize!" Ryousuke said fiercely, shaking Kuramochi loose and fisting his jersey with his injured hand. "This stuff happens, and it’s not because you finally let loose. It was just bad luck that I came across something sharp. That throw was excellent, and that catch was excellent, so don’t you dare waste an apology on this!"
For a moment it looked like Kuramochi was going to say something, teeth bared a little. Then he just nodded, and stood jerkily. Ryousuke let him go. "Coach! Ryou-san needs some first aid!"
Coach acknowledged and called the fielders in. Ryousuke found his gaze drawn to the splash of red on Kuramochi's jersey. The other boy looked down, and his face went tight. He turned his back, and walked back to the dugout.
***
He didn’t need stitches, but he had a bandage around his hand and was forbidden from hands-on training for a week.
Which just meant he was running a lot for the next seven days.
That was a problem, but it wasn’t his biggest problem. His most pressing problem was figuring out what the hell was going on with Kuramochi. He was snappish with everyone except Ryousuke, who he was doing his best to avoid.
When Ryousuke caught up to him he was going to give him a good, hard jab to the spleen. Honestly, what a disrespectful kouhai, treating his senpai like that!
He asked around and found out Kuramochi had gone out running. Ryousuke sighed. Great, just what he needed. More running. But he couldn’t let this go on. He had to figure out what was going on with the kid so it didn’t interfere with the partnership he was trying to cultivate.
He got into his running shoes and went out to the practice field. He only had to wait a few minutes before Kuramochi appeared, grunting and seeming lost in thought. Ryousuke fell into pace beside him when he passed, and it actually took a moment before he noticed. His eyes widened comically, and he veered sideways. Ryousuke reached out and tugged him back in place before he could run into anything unfortunate, and waited.
Kuramochi stopped, hands on his knees, pants coming short and shallow. He must have been at it for a while, Ryousuke mused, still waiting.
"What are you doing here?" he asked finally.
"Running," Ryousuke answered lightly. "What are you doing here?"
"Same," Kuramochi said, using the hem of his t-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. Ryousuke’s gaze slid down to his bared stomach. He looked away quickly.
"Why are you avoiding me?" he asked, already bored with hedging.
"I’m not really. Just been thinking."
"I already told you, you think too loudly."
Kuramochi snickered. "If you could really hear what I was thinking, you wouldn’t be standing there, Ryou-san."
"And what’s that supposed to mean?" Ryousuke demanded, not appreciating the sense he got that Kuramochi was laughing at him.
"Nothing," Kuramochi denied. He stretched. "I’m going to--"
"No, what the hell was that supposed to mean?"
Kuramochi paused. "Don’t ask," he said lowly.
"Tell me what you meant."
Ryousuke knew Kuramochi was fast, but it seemed like between one blink and the next he was standing before him, and he had his hands on either side of Ryousuke’s face. They were (more or less) of a height, so there was absolutely no reason it should seem like Kuramochi was looming.
"I--" Kuramochi said, then he seemed to deflate. His hands slid away, and he stepped back, a safer distance. Without knowing he did it, Ryousuke also took a step back and immediately regretted it.
"I’m going back to the dorm," Kuramochi announced, eyes averted. He walked away and never looked back.
Ryousuke couldn’t have said anything if he wanted to.
***
The thing was, the more he thought about it, the more incensed Ryousuke became. That punk had a lot of nerve, taking liberties and then not even explaining himself!
He though of warm hands framing his face, and gusts of hot breath on his chin, and his arm snapped out of its own volition and punched the wall.
His roommates, as well as his classmates, gave him a wide berth that morning.
During afternoon training, he chopped three first years for existing in his space and therefore annoying him, and when Jun complained about something, Ryousuke opened his eyes all the way and stared at him.
Jun went white and clammed up.
At fielding practice, Kuramochi seemed to be actively picking up the pace. Ryousuke barely made it in time to catch every throw, but he did catch every one and every time he got a feral satisfaction from the ball slamming into his mitt.
Neither of them said a word to each other.
At least not then.
***
He passed Kuramochi on the way back from bathing, the other boy obviously headed in that direction from the bottles and towel he carried. Ryousuke’s frustration overflowed all at once, and before he even knew what he was going to do, he bodychecked Kuramochi into the wall, arm across his throat.
"What," he said softly, "is your problem?"
Kuramochi glared at him, mutely defiant. Ryousuke tried to will him to talk, because he just didn’t know how everything had escalated so quickly. His mostly-healed hand throbbed, and something in his chest kept seizing, and Kuramochi’s pulse beat rapidly against his arm.
He kept quiet, and eventually Ryousuke sagged against him.
"I don’t know what you want from me unless you tell me," Ryousuke mumbled.
Kuramochi pushed him back and Ryousuke stumbled. "I don’t want anything you don’t want to give," he hissed."I don’t want your pity, Ryou-san."
Ryousuke seethed, torn between astonishment and fury. "Pity? Who could pity someone who sends such mixed signals? Half the time you treat me like you think I’m made of glass and the other half you act like you want to devour me! So which is it, Kuramochi?" The younger boy kept his mouth stubbornly closed, but his gaze was so hot it could have melted stone. Ryousuke closed his hands into fists, wanting badly to punch that look right off his face. "Hmph," he said contemptuously, "I’m the one who needs some pity!"
Kuramochi laughed at that, a choked, ragged sound. "Pity you Ryou-san? I don't pity you at all. You just don’t stop pushing, do you?" he said. "Fine, this is what I want." He reversed their previous positions, and Ryousuke hardly had time to take a breath as his back hit the wall before hands tangled savagely in his damp hair and Kuramochi kissed him, tongue invading his mouth immediately, and Ryousuke jerked, but he honestly couldn’t have said whether it was away from the contact or into it.
Screw this. Like he was going to let some upstart kouhai manhandle him. Ryousuke groped his hands up between them and twisted his own hands into Kuramochi's hair, wrenching him forward and holding him still.
The kiss wasn’t gentle, no part of it. But then again, neither of them were gentle people. Ryousuke thought that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing with everything he had, and Kuramochi...well, Kuramochi probably thought something similar. Or maybe he was just angry. Either way Ryousuke wasn’t complaining. He did bite Kuramochi’s lip, though, as punishment for whatever stupid things he’d been thinking the last week or so.
Ryousuke was a bit mean, after all.
"You’re kind of terrifying," Kuramochi said a moment later, lips bruised, and smeared with a little blood.
It was a good look on him.
"Oh?" Ryousuke said, feeling almost like he should be purring."You’re not scary at all, freshman." He tugged at Kuramochi’s hair sharply, satisfied at the wince he received. "Don’t hold back anymore. I hate it when people do that with me, especially someone who’s supposed to be my partner."
"Partner, huh?" Kuramochi said, pulling away. He grinned. "I like the sound of that. Partner."
He kissed Ryousuke on the cheek, lightly, and whispered, "Duly noted."
Ryousuke watched him go, crossing his arms.
He hoped the idiot didn’t remember he’d dropped all his stuff until he was already naked.