Archive of Our Own

“Chris-senpai, do you want to pretend to date me?” asked Miyuki in between swings.

Chris had been standing behind the batting cages. He stopped writing in his notebook and looked at Miyuki puzzled. “Can I ask why?”

The metal bat in Miyuki’s hands clanged as he knocked a shot into the outfield. “I’ve been trying to figure out what would annoy Sawamura the most.”

“You have an interesting way of handling pitchers,” replied Chris.

“You know I do,” said Miyuki with a grin as he risked a look back. He missed the next pitch from the machine, but it was worth it to see the small, smile on Chris’ face.

Chris had taken to wearing just the long sleeved, blue undershirt instead of the full Seido uniform. Miyuki had to admit he didn’t hate the look on his senpai. Though more than his sartorial choices, it made Miyuki ridiculously happy to see the light returned to Chris’ eyes. He probably should thank Sawamura for that. Too bad annoying him sounded much more fun.

Kuramochi, Ryosuke and even Shirasu had given up all pretense of practicing and were instead watching the exchange as if it were the bottom of the ninth with two outs and Chris’ answer would determine if they won the game or not.

Miyuki was pretty sure that Chris was going to say ‘no’. Annoying Sawamura would do nothing to help the lefty learn how to hone his moving fastball. Honestly, it would do nothing for the team except provide entertainment. And maybe that had been in short supply lately.

It was the only explanation as to why Chris shrugged and said, “Sure.”

Miyuki swung and missed the next pitch.

Kuramochi snickered and Ryosuke said, “Oh, this should be fun.”

Ryosuke waited until Miyuki had wrapped up his session in the batting cage before he turned towards Kuramochi and Shirasu.

“How long do you think it’s going to take him to realize what’s really going on here?”

“Well,” mused Kuramochi. “He is a genius.”

The three of them exchanged glances.

“Put me down for the end of the school year,” said Shirasu.

“Me too,” added Kuramochi.

During dinner, Miyuki plopped his tray down next to Chris.

Across the table, only Kominato was diligently finishing his meal. Furuya looked like he had fallen asleep and Sawamura was doing more talking than eating and at a volume that would wake the dead.

Speaking of which, Miyuki briefly considered checking to see if Furuya was breathing. Training camp was a killer. Though, admittedly, never literally before. He was saved the trouble when Kominato elbowed him and Furuya scooped up some rice as if that was what he had been doing all along. Meanwhile…

Sawamura was blathering on about something he had (mis)read. He stopped mid-sentence and pointed accusingly at Miyuki, “What are you doing here, Miyuki Kazuya?”

Without missing a beat Chris intertwined their hands and held them up. “We’re dating.”

Sawamura was quiet for a whole two seconds (Miyuki counted) before he exploded, “WHAT!”

Weirdly enough fake dating Chris didn’t change that much of Miyuki’s life. He would still wait for him to come back from physical therapy. They would still go over scorebooks and tapes and Chris’ own notes.

The only thing that really changed was whenever Sawamura came to bug him to catch for him, Miyuki would snag Chris’ hand. He had taken to holding up their entwined hands like a ward to fend off over-eager pitchers. Sawamura would practically hiss. His eyes going cat-like in a way that Miyuki had only seen when he was too tense on the mound before he would stalk off affronted.

Furuya...didn’t care at all. He had looked at their hands uncomprehending. “I don’t understand why that means you can’t catch for me.”

“It means,” drawled Miyuki. “That I have better things to do.”

Chris looked like he was dying a slow death from trying not to laugh.

Furuya, bless his little heart, soldiered on. “Does this have something to do with your twisted personality, Miyuki-senpai?”

Chris lost it. And so did Miyuki. They both laughed so long and so hard that Furuya eventually gave up and walked away.

All the while, they never let go of each other’s hand.

The hand holding trick had worked on Sawamura longer than it really should have, but it did eventually stop working.

“Chris-senpai, you haven’t dumped this guy yet?”

As a response Chris naturally wrapped an arm around Miyuki’s shoulder, pulling him in close. And it was only natural that Miyuki wrapped his arm around him. His hand resting nicely on Chris’ hip. And Chris kissed his temple as if that was the most natural follow up to this chain of events.

And maybe Miyuki should have worried about how natural all of this seemed.

“Ugh,” muttered Sawamura resigned as he walked away.

That bought Miyuki another week.

“He’s just doing it to be a dick,” said Tanba when Ryosuke asked him about it.

“Oh, definitely,” agreed Ryosuke. “But consider for a moment that he doesn’t realize the implications of what he’s doing.”

Tanba scoffed. “That’s stupid. Miyuki would never be so short-sighted--”

Ryosuke could see the moment Tanba put it all together. The Ace actually huffed a laugh.

“Put me down for the end of the school year.”

They had been watching tapes for the past hour. Or at least Miyuki was sure Chris had been watching the tape. He had been a little preoccupied with the hypnotic feeling of Chris’ thumb absently rubbing circles against the back of his neck.

He didn’t even notice Furuya until he was standing right in front of him. “Not tonight, Furuya.”

The first year sighed as he looked from Miyuki to Chris and then back again. “Miyuki-senpai, I don’t understand.”

And that was when Miyuki had, dare he say it, a genius idea. He managed to keep a straight face, but just barely as he suggested, “Why don’t you have Kanemaru explain it to you? He was your tutor, right?”

Furuya seemed to consider that option before nodding and walking away.

Chris waited until the pitcher was out the door before he turned towards Miyuki. “You do realize I dorm with Kanemaru, right?”

“Oh shit,” laughed Miyuki. “I forgot.”

Chris shook his head as he turned his attention back to the TV. “It’s a good thing you’re cute.”

Miyuki had no idea what to do with that.

“Okay, seriously, everyone cannot put down ‘for the end of the school year’. That’s not how a bet works. Some of you need to change your answer.”

Ryosuke looked around the room. No one volunteered. He sighed.

“Fine. We need to narrow it down to specific days then. We’ll draw lots to see who gets to pick what day first.”

“Kanemaru said that when two people love each other--”

Miyuki waved a hand to stop Furuya. He was already gasping for air he was laughing too hard. “Stop, stop.”

Furuya shrugged before he bowed stiffly. “Congratulations on your union.”

Which only had Miyuki laughing hysterically all over again. The first year walked away oblivious to the chaos he had just caused.

Chris looked understandably confused. “Did Furuya just wish us congratulations as if we got married?”

“Kanemaru obviously failed at giving him the birds and bees talk.”

“Yeah, thanks for that,” replied Chris. “He can’t look at me without blushing anymore.”

Miyuki was wiping tears from his eyes. “This was such a good idea.”

This was such a terrible idea.

Miyuki had heard Sawamura approaching the training room from about a mile off. In theory, this should have given him enough time to come up with a logical, reasonable plan or maybe he should have just agreed to catch for the lefty for once. He should have done anything, anything, other than grabbing Chris by the shirt and kissing him.

He had known logically that this was going to happen eventually. The idea of kissing Chris had never been an unpleasant one. But when it came to the reality of it Miyuki was downright unprepared.

Chris’ lips were soft and warm and...delicious.

And that had not been part of the plan. His eyes went wide. And he would deny it to anyone who asked, but for the briefest of moments, Miyuki Kazuya had panicked.

He could feel Chris smile before he thankfully took control of the situation—which Miyuki learned fairly quickly was also a terrible, terrible idea.

Because Chris kissed like sin.

And Miyuki had definitely not factored that into his plan either. The plan...the plan that Miyuki was supposed to be following. The plan that he was having difficulty remembering at the moment because Chris’ tongue had slipped into his mouth and well...that was a lot more fun than thinking--

“I think Sawamura’s gone,” said Chris as he pulled away.

“What?” asked Miyuki in a tone that sounded nothing like his usual voice. He sounded (and felt) as if he had just finished running laps with Sawamura’s tire.

“I think you’re safe for now.”

“What?” repeated Miyuki as the world came back into focus and the blood in his body started to return to his brain and--How long had he been clinging to Chris? When did that happen? Miyuki searched his memory of the past few seconds? Minutes? Hours? And came away with the vague feeling of his fingers slipping under the fabric of Chris’ shirt so that he could run his nails across his skin.

Miyuki swallowed and forced himself to extricate his hands and take a step back. “Yeah, good. Perfect. Exactly what I wanted.”

Chris only smirked at him.

Miyuki was looking at the scorebook from the Kokushikan game...again. At this point, he pretty much had the whole thing memorized but he still had reached for it out of habit. Because when in doubt he had fallen back into his routine. Because it was a routine. Because it was safe. And Miyuki liked safe because...

Well, because…

He was having trouble...focusing. He kept getting...lost.

And he would catch himself touching his lips. And he knew what was happening even if he didn’t really know why it was happening.

He was chasing the feeling of what it was like to kiss Chris.

“Chris-senpai, catch for me.”

Chris didn’t even bother to look up from the notebook he was writing in. Instead, he said, “Miyuki will.”

Both Miyuki and Sawamura stared at him before turning to look at each other.

“I guess...I’m catching for you?” said Miyuki haltingly.

Sawamura grinned at Chris before he headed off towards the training room. “Thanks, shisho!”

Miyuki turned back towards Chris and said dryly, “Yeah, thanks, shisho.”

“You’re welcome,” replied Chris politely before not so politely smacking Miyuki’s ass with his notebook.

Miyuki jumped. Surprised...and a little turned on and more than a little confused as he watched Chris walk away.

What the hell was going on?

“This is better than a shoujo manga,” said Jun.

Tetsu nodded his approval. “Very high drama.”

“Chris-senpai,” greeted Miyuki as he shouldered the bat he had been swinging. “Welcome back.”

“I’m back,” replied Chris as he leaned over and kissed Miyuki on the cheek.

And then (because Miyuki obviously needed to practice so that he wasn’t taken so off guard next time) he gave Chris a quick peck on the lips. And yeah, that was nice. So...he did it again--lingering longer before breaking contact. And this time it was Chris who chased after his lips. And Miyuki felt his back hit the vending machine. His bat clattered to the ground as he ran his fingers through Chris’ hair. And--

“Oh,” said Furuya as he turned the corner.

And Miyuki pulled away from Chris in time to see the first year processing the scene he had walked in on. And any second now--

“Oh.”

There it was.

Furuya’s eyes darted away from them as he mumbled, “Congratulations on your union.”

“Huh,” said Miyuki as he watched Furuya make a hasty escape. “Maybe Kanemaru didn’t fail at the birds and the bees talk after all.”

Chris laughed into his shoulder.

And Miyuki was nothing if not diligent when it came to practicing. It was true with baseball. It made sense that it applied to all other aspects of his life. Including kissing Chris.

It also meant that Furuya was the first, but hardly the last person to walk in on them. Probably Miyuki’s favorite reaction had to be Tanba who had simply chosen to ignore him and the whole situation as he asked Chris to look over his form.

“Yeah, sure,” Chris replied as he untangled their limbs and turned back towards Miyuki to add, “I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Sure. It’s a date.”

It was a joke. One that only Chris smiled at. Tanba was still shaking his head as they walked off together.

“He's not serious, is he?” asked Tanba.

“No, he’s not,” replied Chris.

And Miyuki wasn’t. The whole thing was a joke after all.

Miyuki licked his lips as he turned to head back to his dorm room.

Yeah...only a joke...

“Miyuki.”

Chris rose from his desk in the dugout and held out the scorebook he had been filling out.

“Thanks, Chris-senpai,” said Miyuki as he accepted the scorebook and without thinking about it kissed him. Right there. In the dugout. In front of everyone.

And Miyuki could do nothing but make a hasty retreat. Except he wasn’t quite fast enough. He still heard Coach Kataoka ask Rei-chan, “How long has that been going on?”

“Since they were in Middle School,” she informed him sounding completely serious.

And Coach Kataoka’s face still looked like he had just killed a man even as he said, “Makes sense.”

Miyuki choked on air.

“No, it does make sense.”

Miyuki did a doubt take because this was Sawamura saying this. “It does?”

The lefty shrugged as he said from behind his glove, “He’s the only person you listen to. Now are we getting this guy out or what?”

“Seriously, what the hell,” muttered Miyuki as he walked back from the mound.

Miyuki was still puzzling it over as he watched Chris watch their teammates take practice swings.

And he thought about how his eyes would naturally seek out Chris in the crowd. About how when it was almost time for Chris to get back from physical therapy, Miyuki would grab his bat and go take practice swings so he would be able to greet him. About how his hand would naturally reach for Chris’. About how their lips naturally slotted together. About how affection had become second nature. And--

Miyuki sighed as he walked up to Chris. “We’re not fake dating are we?”

“No,” replied Chris as he wrote down something in his notebook. “I don’t think so.”

“Am I the last person to realize this?”

“Yeah,” said Chris before adding after the fact, “Sorry.”

“Ugh,” grumbled Miyuki as he dropped his head against Chris’ shoulder.

Chris reached up and patted his head consolingly. “I knew you’d figure it out eventually.”

“Who won the bet?”

“Sawamura.”

Miyuki straightened up at that. “Sawamura!”

Chris chuckled. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think he knew what was going on, he just wanted to be first.”

“This is just...embarrassing.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Chris. “You got a boyfriend out of it.”

Miyuki smirked. “A boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” said Chris as he closed his notebook. “That okay with you?”

“I mean, I have been okay with it I just didn’t realize it, so it would be a little silly to object at this point--and really, Sawamura? He’s going to be impossible to deal with after this.”

“Yeah, probably.”

Miyuki laughed. “I should probably just shut up now and kiss you, huh?”

Chris smiled. “Yeah, probably.”

And that Miyuki could do.