Work Text:
They were sitting their watching closely the game Seido was currently playing. Sensen was up against Seido and of course Mei had to go to watch his favorite pitcher (Sawamura) play against them.
Mei looked carefully at the pitching style and decided to go get a drink because he thought he was doing too much thinking.
“Itsuki, I’m going to find food and drinks and maybe if there’s a toy stand. Anyway, I’ll be back,” Mei said and Itsuki just waved and jokingly said to be careful about kidnappers.
Mei just chuckled and said a little threat to him before he left on his journey for drinks and possibly food and toys.
“One…. two…. three…. four,” Mei counted the amount of free drinks he had received in the past 20 minutes of him looking for what he wanted. The blonde sighed and glanced around at where he was and spotted a cute stand with cat toys and other things with cats on it. His smile widened and he quickly ran over to the stand.
He then stopped and noticed a certain black-haired pitcher holding water and three bags with the school name ‘Sakurazawa’ on them. After the black-haired pitcher turned around Mei realized straight away who it was, and he smiled happily.
“Akira!” Mei called and ran to the boy. Excitement flared through him as he saw the other look towards him and smile softly at him. He’s so cute! Mei thought as he stopped in front of him.
“Akira! Why didn’t you answer my text before! I wanted to get you a cat plushie, but I couldn’t decide but now that you’re here you can come with me!” He exclaimed and Akira just chuckled at his enthusiasm.
Mei quickly pulled Akira’s head down and planted a little kiss to his lips. They stayed there for a while, lips locked together and then they finally broke apart. Mei whined at the loss of contact, but Akira just placed a quick kiss to the blonde’s cheek to keep him quiet.
Instead that made Mei smile even more and wrap his arms around Akira tightly. “I love you, Akira,” Mei exclaimed with pure love. The knuckle-ball pitcher blushed and pat the other on the head softly.
The blonde then froze and looked around them noticing that some people were staring in shock at what just happened. Mei just continued smiling and kissed Akira on the cheek too and then turned around to look at all the people again.
“Everyone that just witnessed that please as my beautiful fans, please don’t say anything about what you just saw. I love you all too, but I want to stay with Akira!” Mei just decided to end his speech there so then he can spend the rest of his time before his match against Akira’s team with him.
“Mei-senpai we will! We won’t say a word!” called all the people that were watching. Mei Smiled brightly and waved to them as he pulled Akira towards some more stands.
The time they had wasn’t much but during that time Mei had felt truly happy and he never wanted to leave Akira’s side ever again. Though their fun had to end now because Masa-san had been calling Mei and had now stopped in front of them.
“Akira, good to see you!” Masa-san said with a smile upon seeing the black-haired pitcher. Akira smiled back and returned the words with ‘good to see you too Masa-senpai’ and Masa brightened up and it looked like he had flowers around him.
Mei crossed his arms and looked away. Hmph! How dare Akira be nice to Masa-san! The blonde pouted and made an annoyed noise. Masa had only found out Mei and Akira were dating 1 year ago and had been shocked because at the time Masa was in love with the knuckle-ball pitcher and when Mei told him about them it hurt him. This had led to Masa being in despair and crying every night or every time he thought about Akira.
Even though Masa had gone through the pain he had learned to accept it and be happy for the two. He still and never will stop loving Akira for the rest of his life, so he decided to just be happy for them and hope that Akira just chooses the path that he likes.
Akira smiled gently at Masa and he then noticed Masa opening a bag and pulling something out. “Akira. I know you love cats, so I got you this one from my trip to Hokkaido. I hope you like it,” He said and Akira simply blushed and took the cat plushie from the catcher.
“Thank you, Masa-senpai,” He whispered gratefully, with pure joy.
“Ahem!” Akira nearly jumped from the noise and Masa remembered that Mei was still here and went back into his bad mood. Mei stood there, arms crossed and an angry frown across his face.
“Stop! Akira is mine! How dare you try to take him with gifts. Akira, I thought I told you no cheating!” Mei exclaimed and Akira chuckled softly which Masa couldn’t help but find cute.
“Mei, calm down. Masa-senpai and me were simply talking, so calm down,” Akira said soothing and Mei glared at Masa with annoyance.
Mei still looked angry and Akira didn’t quite understand why he was so stubborn, but he still loved him and would hate to lose him.
The blonde looked at him and put his hands on his boyfriend’s cheeks. He then put his lips on his and tried to slip his tongue into Akira’s mouth. Masa only watched with pain and wished he was the one kissing the black-haired pitcher, but he knew that Mei would never allow anyone to take the beautiful knuckle-ball pitcher from him.
Akira pulled out of the kiss with an amazing red blush across his cheeks and he looked like he was about to cry. “M-Mei! D-don’t do that in public,” Akira stuttered, and Mei licked his lips and smirked.
“Anyway Akira, we must go get ready for the match that we have next, and you should too,” Masa explained, and karate chopped Mei as a sign to follow and be careful next time.
The blonde pitcher waved and kissed him a goodbye kiss. Masa smiled and waved. Akira waved too and went off to his own team to warm up.
After the game
Mei cheered loudly as his teammates hugged each other and celebrated. Masa then congratulated him and then Mei turned around and his eyes widened at what he saw. Akira was crying into one of his teammate’s arms. If he remembered correctly the person, he was crying into was Hidokoro Yoshimi, the catcher of the team.
Mei couldn’t turn his eyes away. Seeing his beloved Akira crying horribly into someone else’s arms hurt and especially since he was the cause of the black-haired pitcher’s tears and pain. Mei then realized that Masa and Itsuki were both looking at him worried because they also could see Akira crying miserably.
“Mei, are you going to talk to him?” Masa asked and Mei only looked at the ground and breathed out a silent ‘no’.
“Mei! You shouldn’t leave him to cry alone,” Masa whispered. The blonde pitcher only looked back at his captain with sadness visible in his eyes.
“Of course, I wouldn’t leave him to cry alone! I am trying so hard right now to stop myself from going over there and kissing him and hugging him. I just can’t handle seeing him in pain, but I don’t want anymore problems by people finding out about me and him. I need to be able to stand back and allow him to handle some of his own problems on his own,” Mei explained letting a couple of small tears fall from his own eyes.
Masa and Itsuki smiled and slapped him on the back, understanding their ace’s words. They walked off to go line up with their teammate’s still celebrating with big smiles.
Mei was indeed happy. but he was somewhat angry and sad because he didn’t want to see his lover crying so badly over a loss. He couldn’t go over there though, but he decided to see if he could find time to meet up with him later though, so he can comfort him.
As they lined up Akira tried to hold back more tears that were threatening to come out. Yoshimi stayed next to him and walked him over to line up and thank the other team for the game.
“Akira, you did well, and it wasn’t your fault for our loss but next year we will win, OK,” Yoshimi said, and Akira looked up at the other team wiping away the last of his tears.
“If we lose again then I will stop playing baseball and just focus on studying more,” Akira murmured to himself but loud enough that Yoshimi could make out what he said.
“That means you’re going to give up on baseball if we don’t make it to nationals. Akira, I understand but you can’t just give up! You used nearly all your time to learn the knuckle-ball pitch and if you give up so quickly then you will make me and even yourself and Mei sad,” Yoshimi exclaimed and realized he may have been a bit harsh but what he said was the truth and Akira shouldn’t give up too easily.
They then walked into line and bowed their heads to the Inashiro team. The captain of Inashiro’s team bowed too and thanked them for the game but gave him a little nod to indicate his sorry for their loss.
Akira gave him a little smile and dipped his head as thanks too and went to where his team’s coach was. As he got closer to the dugout, he never thought he’d witness this. His small coach had tears running down his face as he looked at his team proudly.
“Coach! A-are you alright!” Yoshimi and all their other teammates asked worriedly. Akira looked at his feet as he heard his other teammates start crying all over again.
Mei looked at his ceiling in his room in silence. The silent and quietness reminded him of water and waves that would just keep repetitively hitting the same spot. He breathed out gently and pulled his legs to his chest to cradle them.
“Why.”
It wasn’t just a word that he took as a question to himself, but it was rather a threat or statement to identify his existence to this world. He continued breathing slowly feeling a clenching pain in his chest as he remembered his reasons for being ace and he could still remember the look his beloved Akira had on his face as he and his team cheered so loudly and happily with the crowd of fans.
He felt a now cold touch on his heart and body. He then closed his eyes and could feel himself shiver as he remembered those beautiful drops of tears rolling slowly down the face of his lover. Why, why, why…. why! He put his hands in his hair, gripping handfuls of it.
I just watched him in pain, but I thought it was for the best! Why! Why did I leave him alone…? Of course, I wanted to protect our relationship but – but if I had gone to his side and been a real lover to him then he wouldn’t still be in pain! Just… why? I want him to be happy and continue baseball, but I can’t.
“I just want… to see his smile.”
Tears raced down his face as he whispered the words and he could feel his sorrow engulf him. His heart felt hurt- no it was worse then that! It was the type of pain that could kill him, the type that could crush him with one little touch. This is what it feels to matter to someone and to love, it means that I care more for Akira’s happiness more than my own and Akira’s pain hurts him more than his own pain.
“I love Akira, but I fear that if I were to leave him alone or die, I feel like he would suffer more then anyone else. I don’t… want to see him like that. I don’t want to leave him knowing he’ll be alone and in agony,” Mei whispered quietly, the pain in his voice visible.
He was only shedding tears because he was scared and helpless, but the truth of the world for them was just surrounded with baseball. He was so sure that even if they stopped playing baseball then they would still be blinded and not see the truth.
Akira, the truth can only be seen through pain and tears and most importantly blood, he thought silently. Of course, they were already going through pain and tears at the moment, but he couldn’t help but think when the blood part of this would join them.
He breathed in a sigh and chuckled feeling more drops falling from his eyes. Akira, I will forever protect you I promise.