Work Text:
During the break in between pre-season and regular season, Eijun shows up at Furuya’s front door. His heart beats harder for some strange reason, waiting. And then he sucks in a breath and knocks.
When Furuya opens the door, his eyes are wider than usual. “Eijun?”
Eijun grins. “Fancy meeting you here, Furuya! Wa ha ha ha!”
“At my apartment?” Furuya asks deadpan.
“Indeed, indeed,” Eijun says. “If you want me to scram, just say so, but I’m here to pull you out to have some fun. I bet you’re just sleeping the break away.”
Furuya’s eyes soften. “I’m not sleeping… all the time.”
“But most of the-”
“I’d never tell you to scram,” Furuya adds firmly.
Eijun sucks in a breath, his face flushing. This guy. “Is that so!”
“Mhm,” Furuya confirms. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Eijun’s heart definitely skips a beat. After high school he and Furuya had been scouted to different teams, Eijun as a Swallow, Furuya as a Giant. They’re both in Tokyo but don’t see each other that much, especially during the season. Before the new one starts, Eijun just thought… he wanted to see him. Seeing him on the diamond as a rival is exciting, but he misses spending time with him normally.
“Me too.” Eijun clears his throat. “So, are you coming?”
“Okay. One moment.” Furuya disappears into his apartment. He comes back a bit later in a different outfit. A light sweater dark blue in colour over a pair of jeans. It makes Eijun almost take a step back. Sure, he remembers seeing candid shots of Furuya in casual wear on the internet or in brief television features, but in person he’s never seen Furuya in an outfit like this. It makes his breath catch in his throat.
“Were are we going?” Furuya asks.
Get a grip of yourself, Bakamura, Eijun internally grumbles. “You’ll see!”
**
“I forgot they were in bloom,” Furuya murmurs, eyeing the cherry blossom trees everywhere. Eijun had brought him to a popular viewing point, one that thankfully wasn’t too crowded. Neither of them had thought to wear a hat and glasses. It’d be inconvenient to be recognized at the moment, despite Eijun loving his fans and getting excited whenever someone recognized him.
“Right? It’s not something we think about these days,” Eijun agrees. He turns to glance at Furuya only to see that Furuya is looking at him with a small smile. “Wha.. what is that look for?”
“Thank you,” is all Furuya says.
Eijun snaps his head forward, back toward the flowers. “Of… of course.”
Seeing them together is something they’d never done. Actually, ever since Seido, Eijun has never gone out of his way to see them. He’d always only been thinking about baseball.
But now seeing them with Furuya, it’s right. It almost feels like a scene from a shoujo manga.
Their shoulders bump together and neither of them move.
It’s beautiful. Whether Eijun means the flowers or the moment or both, he doesn’t know.
Sweat slips down Satoru’s face as he concentrates on the catcher’s mit. The sun is beating down on him. After three years in high school and now two years as a pro he’s gotten used to the summer heat in Tokyo. That doesn’t mean he’s good with it, though.
But right now, it doesn’t matter. The heat isn’t bothering him. He’s not even paying attention to it.
Eijun stands at bat, a giant grin on his face, one that screams ‘give it your all’ and how can Satoru not?
Bazooka of awakening, it’s part of your introduction routine by now, he’s got nothing on you!
Eijun’s words from back in high school play through his head. And even now on different teams, Eijun still motivates him, inspires him more than anyone else. Their rivalry, while in different circumstances, also remains the same. As do all of Satoru’s feelings about him.
Taking a deep breath, Satoru meets eyes with his catcher. The signal is given and Satoru nods. He rears his arm back and lets fly his defining fastball. Eijun swings and misses. Satoru can hear his laugh all the way from the mound. Eijun repositions himself to try again.
There’s a flame in Satoru’s heart as he lets another one fly. Another strike.
Satoru always feels this way when he’s pitching, there are a lot of strong opponents, and pitching is his life. But when it comes to Eijun there’s something more filling him.
After the last strike, Eijun grumbles to himself but when he looks up to meet Satoru’s gaze, his eyes are flaming like the sun.
**
Outside of the stadium, after the game, Satoru’s eyes find Eijun. He’s laughing with a few of his teammates. He’s so bright, no matter where he is. Rain, sun, cloud, hot or cold, Eijun brings the sun everywhere. His eyes are bright. Even though the Swallows lost this time, he’s not upset or dismayed. He puts an arm over one of his teammate’s shoulders and says something that feels teasing.
Satoru keeps watching. Satoru himself is open with his teammates, and there’s a couple he can say he’s closer with, but he’s definitely still not outgoing like Eijun, who gathers respect and friends wherever he goes.
Radiant.
“You coming, Furuya?” A teammate asks.
Satoru nods “In a minute.”
It’s then when Eijun looks up and meets Satoru’s gaze again. Eijun’s grin widens as he steps away from his team and approaches Satoru. Satoru steps forward to meet him halfway.
“Next time we’ll win,” Eijun says, “there’s still plenty of opportunity for revenge so don’t get high and mighty this time.”
Satoru huffs to himself. “You’re the high and mighty one, Eijun.”
“I’ll meet you next time on the mound, Furuya.”
Satoru nods. A fire in his chest ignites, heating him up even more than the summer sun. “I can’t wait.”
Their rivalry as professions on different teams feels different, but also the same.
Satoru loves this. His career. Baseball. Pitching. And Eijun.
Looking at the autumn leaves is wistful this year. The Swallows didn’t make it to the Japan Series. Eijun’s season is over.
It’s frustrating that even the Giants weren’t going to make it. If the Swallows didn’t, he hoped the Giants would have.
He wonders how Furuya is feeling after losing their last game.
Both he and Furuya have gone through the same things since Seido, winning, losing, being switched out, the heaviness of the ace number… and those frustrations of course didn’t end into their professional careers.
But unlike high school where their time was limited, there’s always next year. And the year after.
“Ahhh, I’ll take you on next year, Japan series!” Eijun yells at the sky.
“No, I will,” says a voice from beside him.
Eijun jumps and spins around, meeting amused grey eyes. “Furuya!”
“Eijun.”
“What are you doing here?” What kind of coincidence was this?
“My apartment is over there,” Furuya says, pointing to the nearby building.
“Huh? For real?”
“Yeah. You’ve been there before, you know.”
Eijun flushes. “I… I know that! I was just on a walk to enjoy the weather and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.”
“Hmm…”
They stare at each other in silence until Furuya walks over to stand next to Eijun, looking over at the orange and yellow trees that fill the park leading up to the apartment.
“It’s frustrating, huh?” Furuya says.
“Ah.” Eijun clears his throat. “Yeah. But seriously Furuya, you could have at least made the series if I didn’t. It’s so not fair.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, next year we’ll make it!”
“No, the Giants.”
“No, the Swallows!”
“No-”
“Well,” Eijun interrupts, “regardless, one of our teams has to make it. And even better if it’s down to us to represent the league. So be sure to train hard, Furuya!”
“Satoru,” Furuya says.
Eijun stills. His heart jumps up his throat. “Huh?”
“You’ve never called me by my first name.”
“Ah…” Eijun trails off. His heart pounds. “Is that so?”
“Mm.” Furuya stares at Eijun expectantly.
This is extremely embarrassing. Furuya has always been special so maybe that’s why Eijun had never tried to change how he called him. Furuya is Furuya. Calling him by his first name, between the two of them, feels like more of an intimacy than Eijun’s heart had been ready for.
Even now he’s flushing hotter and hotter. He opens his mouth. Closes it. His heart pounds in his chest. “Okay, okay. If you say so… Satoru.” His insides combust. How embarrassing. Why was that hard? Because Furuya makes him feel different-
“Eijun.” Furuya is smiling. “Thank you.”
The smile is about to kill Eijun on the spot. He stands there mouth agape. This is a good thing, it’s one more step closer to Furuya, but he feels like he’d been set on fire.
“Do you want to come to my apartment? We can watch a movie or…” Furuya, Satoru trails off.
Eijun’s heart stutters but smiles and answers. “Yeah, sure!”
In mid February, Satoru shows up at Eijun’s door. His heart beats harder for some strange reason, waiting. And then he sucks in a breath and knocks.
Satoru isn’t usually someone who gets nervous. But the reason for this visit is different. It’s not like he and Eijun never visit each other. They do. To watch reruns of their baseball matches, to watch a movie, to play catch for fun, to just… be together.
This visit is special.
As the door opens, Satoru hides the bag he has with him behind his back.
Eijun’s surprise shows on his face before his grins. “Furu-” he clears his throat. “I mean, Satoru.” He mumbles under his breath something about not being used to it yet, and that makes Satoru’s heart flutter.
Despite clearly being embarrassed, Eijun still did it. All because Satoru brought it up and asked. Well, he hadn’t asked clearly, but it was implied, and Eijun realized that. Satoru can’t believe how happy it makes him to hear Eijun call him by his name.
He’d never had anyone but his parents and grandpa call him Satoru.
And considering how close he was to Eijun, how much closer he wants to be to him, it’s everything.
“Good afternoon,” Satoru says.
Eijun narrows his eyes. “What’s up with you?”
Satoru shifts in place. “Nothing?”
“No, you’re weird.”
“Why?” Satoru huffs.
“Your voice, your posture… you’re so stiff. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Satoru says again.
“And your hair is full of snow.”
“Well, it’s snowing.”
“I can see that, you!” Eijun grumbles. “Why are you walking in the snow without a hat? Wait, what am I talking about, you’re Mr. Hokkaido.”
“Mr. Hokkaido?”
“Yes! Ugh, just get in here. It’s cold!”
“It’s not cold.”
“Don’t argue with me!”
Eijun grabs Satoru’s arm and pulls him inside. The spark of light at bickering with Eijun fills him and he almost forgets the reason he’s so nervous. But then he remembers and his heart races.
“So Satoru, what brings you by?”
“Um.” Satoru switches his shoes to Eijun’s guest slippers and follows Eijun to his sofa.
“Wait, what do you have there?” Eijun is motioning towards the bag Satoru has in his hand.
Satoru reminds himself of what he practiced. Satoru is not someone who runs away or chickens out. He’s wanted to do this for a long time. He won’t back out again.
He reaches into the bag and pulls out the contents. And then he hands Eijun a large heart shaped box of chocolates.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Eijun.”
Eijun freezes and stares at the chocolate while his face slowly fills with a beautiful shade of red. “Wha? This is for me?”
“Yes.”
Eijun’s hands start to shake. He snaps his head back up to look at Satoru. Eijun has multiple reactions playing out on his face. If Satoru is to be rejected, he’ll accept that. After all, it’s a privilege to be this close to Eijun, to feel this way about him.
“This is…” Eijun murmurs, “obligatory chocolate?”
Satoru blinks. “Are you dumb?”
“Shut up, I’m not, I just-” Eijun rubs an eye, “just gotta be sure…”
It’s a heart, Satoru thinks, how much more obvious can that be?
Anyway, he sits up straighter and speaks firmly. “It’s a confession chocolate. I really like you, Eijun.”
Eijun stares and stares and then his face goes redder and then he sets the chocolate down gently.
Satoru keeps eye contact despite the way his heart might burst out of his chest. Eijun scoots closer to Satoru on the sofa. And closer. He’s waiting for Eijun to say something, anything, but instead Eijun closes the distance between them.
Oh. Eijun kissed him.
Satoru leans in and kisses Eijun back. Eijun’s hands end up on Satoru’s shoulders as Satoru wraps an arm around Eijun’s waist. Truthfully, Satoru has been imagining this moment for years but absolutely nothing can beat reality. Nothing. The emotions flow through him as their kiss deepens, and even more so when they break apart, their foreheads pressed together.
They stare at each other in silence.
“Anyway,” Eijun murmurs, his voice squeaky, “I like you too.”
And everything Satoru has ever wanted has come true.