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There was nothing that grated on Sawamura Eijun’s nerves more than a certain asshole of a catcher called Miyuki Kazuya.
Normally Eijun was able to brush off Miyuki’s remarks with ease, and no, Kuramochi, she did not shriek thank you very much, but sometimes the catcher could just plain get on her nerves.
Ever since she was allowed to play in a practice game in the boy’s first string against the second string, Miyuki had not shut up about it. Almost every time that Eijun moved her gaze towards the field where the boy’s usually practiced, Miyuki sidled up beside her with that wide smirk and rub it in Eijun’s face.
A small part of her knew why she was so irked by the fact that the catcher had been allowed to play with the boys’ team, but she didn’t want to admit it. In Nagano she and Wakana had been the only two girls in their middle school baseball team and they had always gotten flak for it.
Coming to Seidou was supposed to be Eijun’s chance to show everyone that she was able to be just as good a pitcher as any man that stepped onto the mound.
The day that Takashima Rei had taken Eijun to Seidou, and she had formed a battery on the spot with Miyuki Kazuya, she felt like she would have been able to reach that goal and show the world her worth with ease.
She hadn’t really had the best of luck since coming to Seidou, of course.
It was just Eijun’s luck that another female first year pitcher by the name of Furuya Satoru had stepped onto the mound and had blown everyone away with her fastball. Even if Eijun had to admit that it was impressive, there was no doubting that she would become the ace of their team in no time.
It was always easy to spot Furuya in the distance, with her black hair pulled up in a tight ponytail high on her head. More than once Haruichi had pointed out to Eijun that she had been glaring over at the other pitcher. She couldn’t even deny it. Whenever the fastball pitcher threw a good ball, Eijun always tried to imagine what it would be like if that ponytail tightened just a little bit more…
“Sawamura!”
Eijun snapped out of her thoughts to look at the catcher in front of her. Chris-senpai was kneeling down at the other end of the bullpen with her mitt up and a slightly amused and exasperated look on her face.
The pitcher stuttered as she pulled her arms to her side to bow to the older catcher. “I’m sorry, Chris-senpai!”
“You don’t need to be sorry, Sawamura. All that I ask is that you pay attention. You do want to become the ace, correct?”
“Of course! Just you wait. Chris-senpai! I will be the best ace that Seidou has ever had.” Eijun placed her hands on her hips and she cackled in glee at the thought.
She could see that the catcher was shaking her head at her antics before Chris-senpai took her faceguard off. “If you want Miyuki to catch your pitches, all you have to do is ask, you know.”
The laughter caught in Eijun’s throat as Chris spoke. “Eh?” Where had that come from all of a sudden? Sure, before Eijun had realized that Chris-senpai had been teaching her how to keep her body in good condition to avoid getting irreparably injured like she had gotten, Eijun had constantly hounded Miyuki to catch her pitches as often as she had the chance.
There was a soft smile on Chris-senpai’s face as she replied. “Miyuki stopped catching for Furuya when she was sent off to run laps. Just because she’s standing by the fences and talking to Yoshikawa-san, doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to interrupt her.”
Eijun didn’t exactly know what to say. Where had that thought suddenly come from? Besides, she was pissed at Miyuki! All the catcher ever talked about lately when Eijun was in the vicinity was how she had caught Yoshikawa’s pitches and how amazing they were and how his shy personality was so much better than some pitchers that she knew.
Just thinking about it made Eijun want to toss her favorite tire at the catcher’s head.
Not that she would.
Eijun loved her tire too much to inflict it damage by throwing it at that bastard of a catcher.
Somewhere along that line of thought she had realized that she had turned her head towards where Miyuki was standing at the fences. Ever since she had played in the practice game, she had been taking every possible opportunity to converse with the members of the boys’ team.
Yoshikawa Haruno especially.
Why did Yoshikawa-san even tolerate Miyuki? No doubt she was always making wise cracks and teasing the other pitcher mercilessly with that grating smirk on her face. For what other reason would Yoshikawa-san always have a faint blush on his cheeks whenever they spoke?
There was a strange rolling feeling in her gut as she watched the two converse. It almost felt like her stomach was trying to squeeze itself dry by twisting. The only reason that she could think of why it would do that was because she wanted to be the one talking to Miyuki about baseball. All those months ago when she and Miyuki had come together as a battery to go against the hot-headed Azuma Kiyokuni, Miyuki had come up to Eijun and had called them partners.
Eijun wanted that feeling again. She wanted the feeling of working together with an amazing catcher and the adrenaline of striking out batters with ease. She had come to Seidou with plans of becoming the ace and being partners with Miyuki Kazuya.
She was just jealous that after having formed a battery with Yoshikawa-san once, Miyuki was constantly finding a reason to be around the male pitcher.
It wasn’t like Miyuki was hanging around Yoshikawa-san because he was a good looking guy… Or that Eijun had seen what seemed to be an actual smile on Miyuki’s face earlier in the week because of something Yoshikawa-san had said…
Miyuki and Yoshikawa-san seemed to pause for a moment before the male pitcher bent over with his hand on his stomach as he laughed and Miyuki quickly covered up a smile behind her catcher’s mitt.
Eijun stared at the scene with the feeling like the ground was trying to swallow her whole.
That was it.
Miyuki Kazuya was part of the girls’ team. She was supposed to be focusing on her own team’s pitchers, with Eijun as her main priority. The catcher had no reason to be hanging around any of the boys.
It was then that Eijun decided that she was definitely going to give Miyuki Kazuya a piece of her mind.
--
Eijun ran her fingers through her short hair as she tried to get it in some semblance of order. Just before she left the dorm room to go look for that annoying catcher, Kuramochi had jumped onto her back, shouting something about some Muta Lock or another.
Now it wasn’t like Eijun took care of her hair meticulously as she knew some of the other girls did, but it was always nice knowing that she didn’t resemble a porcupine.
Kuramochi had often mentioned how messy Eijun’s hair was in the morning when she had just rolled out of bed and realized that she would be late for class if she didn’t get dressed immediately. Not that the shortstop really had anything to say against Eijun. All she did was run her fingers through her long hair and put it up in a bun that looked more like it was a giant nest of knots.
Of course, Eijun wasn’t paying much attention as she tried to get her hair to work with her, so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise when she bumped into someone and promptly fell on her ass.
She was about to shout out and scold the person for not watching where they were going, when a very familiar voice rang out.
“Oi, Bakamura. I didn’t know you had such a good relationship with the ground.”
Eijun looked up at the young woman towering over her. She brushed her bangs away from her eyes with a huff. “Miyuki Kazuya!”
Miyuki had one hand on her hip, the other twirling a can of coffee as she bent over Eijun with a smug look on her face. “So disrespectful. It’s Miyuki-senpai to you.”
“You have such a shitty personality.” Eijun grumbled as she pushed herself off of the ground. She was about to start brushing her pants off when she heard Miyuki breathing in to reply. “That wasn’t a compliment!” Eijun quickly barked out, knowing that the catcher would just thank her otherwise.
Miyuki tutted under her breath as she took a step back to avoid the dust that Eijun was brushing off of herself. “What are you doing out so late? You better not be going out to run. You know what Chris-senpai said about over-exerting yourself.”
“You of all people don’t have to remind me of that!” That was another favorite thing of Miyuki’s. Both of them held Chris-senpai in high regard and Miyuki knew it, so she was always mentioning the older catcher and how she would disapprove in order to get Eijun to do something.
Eijun sputtered for a moment as Miyuki sent a smirk her way and took a swig of coffee. Her eyes were suddenly glued to the catcher as she drank the coffee.
It wasn’t even until Miyuki whacked her on top of the head with the empty can that she realized that she had just been staring.
She swatted the can away with an indignant cry. “That reminds me! I came out here looking for you!”
It was actually quite satisfying to see the momentary look of surprise crossing Miyuki’s face before it quickly smoothed over to her regular smug look. “I’m not catching your pitches this late, Sawamura.”
“That’s not what this is about!” But it was, kind of. “Not really, anyways!”
After a few moments of silence Eijun realized that Miyuki was waiting for her to start talking.
“You!” Eijun pointed a finger right at Miyuki’s face, the catcher not even moving a muscle even with the appendage just an inch from her nose.
“You really piss me off, you know? First you were always just being your usual bastard self, but ever since you were allowed to join the boys’ team for that practice game you’ve been even more insufferable than usual! No! I’m the one that’s talking!” Eijun waved her hand in Miyuki’s face to keep the catcher from retorting to her rant.
“It’s not like you can tell me otherwise! Kuramochi has complained about it to me often enough and I’m pretty sure I saw Furuya get her tight ponytail in a bunch when you walked over to talk to Yoshikawa-san when she had to go running! You never bothered to talk much to any of the guys before, so why are you doing it now? You’re not suddenly one of them just because you got to play with them once! You’re-” Mine “-part of our team! We should be practicing together so we can convince the coaches to let the first string teams play against each other so we can whoop the boy’s butts!”
Eijun had to take a moment to catch her breath, and was very satisfied when all Miyuki did was peer over the top of her glasses down at her instead of try to interject.
“That’s what I hate about you, Miyuki Kazuya! Even with your nasty, self-centered character you always talk about the team and how we’re all here to play baseball! I have no idea what you’re even thinking of sometimes! You just really…” Eijun gritted her teeth as she shook her fists as she tried to get her feelings out into words. “You piss me off!
“One of the main reasons why I left Nagano to come to Seidou was because I wanted you to catch my pitches. That day you said that we were partners and that just resonated with me. I came here to make you accept my abilities! Not only do I have to watch you constantly practice with Furuya, but now you’re always hanging around Yoshikawa-san! I have to admit that he’s a good pitcher, but I’m here as well! Don’t you see me? I’m right here!”
She quickly gestured to her entire body, waving her hand in front of Miyuki’s eyes to try and get the catcher to follow her movements.
“I want to prove myself to you that I can be the ace, that I’m not just shouting nonsense in order to get attention! I want to be able to practice my pitches with you and work on them together to perfect them! I want to stand on the mound with you as a constant right in front of me! Whenever we work together I feel like we can do anything! I want…” Her words caught in her mouth when her eyes caught Miyuki’s again.
The only times that Eijun had seen Miyuki look at her so intently and so focused was whenever they were standing across from each other as a battery during a game. Never before had someone fixed such an intense gaze on her outside of a baseball diamond.
“What do you want, Sawamura?”
Miyuki’s voice had dropped slightly and was more serious than Eijun had ever heard it. “I…” She had been shouting at the catcher with ease only moments before. Why was it suddenly so hard to form words?
Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest as she took in Miyuki’s stance. Her pose was relaxed, but Sawamura could see that there was a tension hanging around her. Their height difference was only a little more than an inch, so why did it suddenly feel like the older girl was looming over her?
Eijun gulped as she forced her eyes away from Miyuki’s gaze, staring down at the ground. She dug the toe of her shoe into the dirt and started pushing it around. “You know what I want. I just told you.” Were the words that she finally managed to mutter.
“I need you to tell me specifically, Eijun.”
The sound of her given name coming from Miyuki for the first time shocked her so much, that she was pretty sure she had almost given herself whiplash by snapping her head up to look at the catcher once more.
She knew what she wanted. That was the reason why she had confronted the catcher in the first place. Eijun wanted- “You. I want you, Miyuki Kazuya.”
The air was filled with tense silence at her words. Eijun wanted to kick herself. That was not what she had set out to say at all. She hadn’t even realized that she actually felt what she said until only moments before. What was she supposed to do now? What was Miyuki going to do? Surely she wasn’t going to go to the coach and demand that Eijun be put off the team? Right?
The fingers that suddenly brushed against her chin made her jerk and they fell away within an instant. Eijun held her breath as she looked from Miyuki’s hand, which was hovering between them, to Miyuki’s face, which seemed softer in expression than she had even seen before.
Miyuki had reached out to touch her. Even after what Eijun had just said, and she had flinched and driven the other girl off. She quickly snapped out her hand to grab Miyuki’s wrist before the catcher could pull it away any further and gently, she had to remember to curb her nervousness, guided it back so Miyuki’s fingers were resting against her chin again.
Miyuki’s eyes were trained on her as she did so. Eijun’s face felt like it was on fire. She had no doubt that she was almost as red as a tomato. A jolt went down her spine as Miyuki slowly moved her thumb over Eijun’s chin and she held her breath and didn’t move an inch when the thumb trailed up and across Eijun’s bottom lip.
“Eijun.”
Her name has never held so much meaning to it before. No one had ever said her name like that.
Now she was sure that her ears were red as well.
Just one word, her name, was enough to make her shake ever so slightly. Her name had never held such a loaded message before. It was wrapped in question and longing and asking for permission and trepidation all at the same time.
It was so loaded that all she could do was quickly jerk her head in a nod.
The corner of Miyuki’s mouth quirked ever so slightly before she started leaning in, her dark golden eyes slipping shut as she leaned in even closer.
Eijun was sure that her heart was about to literally burst out of her chest in the split second before Miyuki’s lips pressed against hers. Her own eyelids fluttered shut as she leaned into the kiss.
It was simple. A lot simpler than she would expect a kiss from Miyuki to be. It was just their lips pressing together, but at that moment Eijun was struggling to think of a time where she had felt so good.
Not even the time that she and Miyuki had worked together to strike out Azuma had felt this good.
Miyuki pulled back ever so slightly and Eijun found that she was leaning forward, trying to chase her lips. There was the soft sound of Miyuki chuckling at Eijun’s actions, but before she could say anything about it, Miyuki leaned in once again to press their lips together.
The thumb that was on her chin was still gently stroking her skin and Eijun could feel Miyuki’s other hand move down along her side before it rested in the small of her back. She was torn on what to do with her own hands before her mind completely shut down when Miyuki leaned in even more and started coaxing Eijun’s lips to move along with hers.
She desperately grabbed onto the front of Miyuki’s shirt as she tried to ground herself. Her head was feeling so light that she was afraid that she would stumble if she didn’t hold on to Miyuki.
Something that sounded pathetically like a whimper passed between her lips as Miyuki pulled back once more for a moment to catch her breath. The whimper immediately died out when Miyuki pulled Eijun tightly against her body and pressed their lips together with a newfound enthusiasm.
Another jolt ran down her spine when she could feel Miyuki’s tongue against her lips. Oh god. Eijun had never done anything like this before. Had Miyuki done this before? Was there some sort of expectation that she suddenly felt terrified that she wasn’t going to meet? Would Miyuki be-
A clang and the sudden sound of laughter echoed from behind Eijun and she quickly jumped away from Miyuki with a surprised squeak. She instantly turned around to see who was walking by and spotted some of the guys turning the corner and coming their way.
Eijun shook her hands at her sides as she tried to compose herself.
“Miyuki! Sawamura-chan!” It was Yoshikawa-san who raised his hand up in greeting as they all approached.
“Yoshikawa-san. Out so late?” How was it that Miyuki was already sounding all calm and collected after what they had done? Eijun was just hoping that she didn’t look like she had just been making out with Miyuki Kazuya out in the open.
Which was exactly what she had been doing.
Oh god. She had been making out with Miyuki Kazuya out in the open. Where everyone could have seen them. They had been so close to getting caught together! What would they have said? What was even happening? What did this all mean?
Eijun was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice that the boys were moving on until Fujiwara slapped her on the shoulder as he walked passed. She was barely able to raise her own hand in goodbye as they all turned around the corner to head back to their dorms.
“Eijun?”
She jumped at her name, turning back towards Miyuki who was actually looking a bit concerned.
“I’m fine!” Eijun’s voice came out as a high squeak. She cleared her throat. “I’m fine.”
“Are you fine? You look like you just dropped out of a marathon.”
They had just been kissing and already Miyuki’s shitty personality was rearing its ugly head again.
“I would never drop out of a marathon! That’s beside the point! What did you think you were doing?”
Miyuki’s words were delivered in a disbelieving deadpan. “Kissing you?”
“Don’t say that out loud!” Eijun quickly covered her face to hide her embarrassment.
“Did you not want to?”
There was that slight wavering hesitation in Miyuki’s voice again. Eijun had never heard it before and now suddenly twice in one night? That was quite the achievement. “No! I mean-! I wanted to!”
“Oh.” Miyuki leaned forward into Eijun’s space again, her typical smirk curling up in the corner of her mouth. “Want to do it again?”
Eijun jumped back and looked around. “We can’t! What if someone walks by and sees us?”
“Does it look like I care?” Miyuki leaned back again and raised an eyebrow in question.
“No?” Eijun didn’t really want to sound hesitant, but she was unsure of where this was going. Would this just be a casual thing for Miyuki? She was already sure from the way that her stomach was flipping that she wanted nothing more than to do that again with the knowledge that the older girl in front of her was just hers and hers alone.
Miyuki clicked her tongue. “Good. Because I don’t. Tell you what. Why don’t we try again tomorrow and see if you still feel the same way, Eijun?”
Eijun’s head snapped up and she pointed her finger at Miyuki again, this time actually pressing the tip against the catcher’s nose. “I’m not going to change my mind Miyuki Kazuya! Uh… Kazuya-senpai?”
“Just Kazuya is fine.”
“Right! I’ll show you that I’m not going to change my mind! But you have to catch my pitches for sure tomorrow!”
“I have to catch your pitches in exchange for getting to kiss you?” Miyu- Kazuya said mockingly.
Eijun hadn’t really thought of it that way, but it worked. “Yes! For every pitch you get a kiss?”
Kazuya placed her hands on her hips, looking thoughtful for a moment. “How many pitches do I have to catch to get a kiss with tongue?”
Eijun paused as her mind suddenly went back to what it had felt like to have Kazuya’s tongue run over her lips. If that was what it had felt like to just have her tongue on her lips, what would it feel like to actually have her tongue in her mouth? What would it feel like to have their tongues touch?
She quickly shook her head to chase those thoughts out of her mind. There was no need to linger on that for now. Especially now that there was the promise of actually getting more hanging over her.
Also, Eijun was feeling a bit ticked off at the satisfied look that had crossed over Kazuya’s face.
“Let’s just see if you actually keep your word for once before we make any more decisions!” Eijun quickly pointed out to try and knock Kazuya off of her high horse.
“Alright. I guess I’ll see you at practice tomorrow, Ei-chan.” Kazuya quickly pressed their lips together before she turned around to walk back to her own dorm room.
Eijun sputtered at the sudden kiss and new nickname. She was just able to pull herself together to shout after the catcher before she disappeared into the night. “You stole that one! That counts!”
Kazuya looked over her shoulder with a smirk as she waved goodbye and Eijun swiftly turned on her heels so she could start making her way back to her dorm room.
“What a shitty catcher.” She muttered to herself as she tried to get the memory of the kisses out of her head.
It proved to be unsuccessful right up until the moment when she stepped into her dorm room and was immediately ambushed by Kuramochi who was demanding to know where she had gone to and why she had stayed out so late.
Half an hour later as Eijun was laying in her bed, staring up at the bottom of the bunk above her, she reached up and ran her fingers over her lips. It didn’t feel the same as when Kazuya had done it, but it left behind the reminder of a promise for more.
Eijun found that she was very excited for the next day. Not only was Miyuki Kazuya going to catch her pitches during practice, she was also going to be kissing her again.
If those thoughts kept Eijun up for most of the night and caused her to sleep in and be late for class, well… Kazuya wouldn’t have the satisfaction of finding out if Eijun had anything to do with it.