Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4852301.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Ookiku_Furikabutte_|_Big_Windup!
  Relationship:
      Abe_Takaya/Mihashi_Ren
  Character:
      Mihashi_Ren, Abe_Takaya, Tajima_Yuuichirou, Hanai_Azusa, Sakaeguchi
      Yuuto, Izumi_Kousuke, Suyama_Shouji, Mizutani_Fumiki, Oki_Kazutoshi,
      Nishihiro_Shintarou, Momoe_Maria, Shinooka_Chiyo, Shiga_Tsuyoshi
  Additional Tags:
      Awkward_Sexual_Situations, Teenagers, what's_said_in_the_locker_room
      stays_in_the_locker_room, Tajima_will_be_Tajima
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-09-22 Updated: 2016-09-07 Chapters: 3/? Words: 2643
****** Catching Pitches ******
by Kleptomaniac_Can_Opener
Summary
     A training camp meant to deepen relationships between teammates has
     unexpected results.
Notes
     Disclaimer: Asa Higuchi is the mangaka of Oofuri/Big Windup. I just
     enjoy watching boys play sports. >_>
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Chapter 1 *****
Mihashi hugged the pillow tightly to himself. The team was on another training
camp meant to foster closer relationships between the players who shared
position responsibility. That meant the outfielders were sharing a room, as
were the insiders, and since he and Abe were a battery they had a room to
themselves.
He could hear his breaths in the dark space. He swore he could pick up the
thundering beats of his heart, too. Then the door slid open with a roaring
swish behind him. Mihashi’s brown eyes stretched wide and he tensed like a
frightened cat. His breaths grew louder and almost drowned out the sound of
Abe’s barefooted steps on the hardwood floor.
“You’re still awake?”
“Y-yeah,” Mihashi squeaked.
“Are you okay? Do you feel bad?” His steps came closer until they stopped at
the edge of the two-person futon.
“I-I’m okay…r-really.”
“You’re shaking, man. Are you cold? You don’t have a fever do you?”
Weight settled behind Mihashi as Abe knelt on the futon. “Let me check your
temperature.”
The smaller teen wanted to protest, but when a muscled arm anchored behind his
head he froze. A warm, callused hand touched his forehead as Abe leaned over
him. He could feel the catcher’s heat radiating from his bigger form. Mihashi
swallowed a lump in his throat.
“You’re a little sweaty, but your temperature seems normal. Still, we should
play it safe,” Abe concluded. “Sit up. You better take in some liquids and
maybe some medicine.”
“I-I’m fine…really.”
“This isn’t a time to be stubborn, Mihashi. Just do as I say.”
If this had been a game, if they hadn’t been alone, Mihashi would have happily
obeyed immediately. He held the pillow tighter against him, then like a wooden
robot he managed to sit up with jerky motions.
Abe frowned. “Why are you holding onto the pillow?”
“No…reason.”
The catcher stared at him for a long moment before shrugging and walking over
to the water pitcher on a small table to pour Mihashi a glass.
‘Why is he so nervous?’ Abe wondered to himself. ‘Is he still scared of me? I
don’t think so, but… what else could it be?’ He handed the glass to Mihashi and
watched him drink it like a puppet. ‘It’s not like this is the first time we’ve
been alone. Granted it’s the first time overnight, but that shouldn’t be a
problem. It’s just one night and he’s not Tajima, who constantly needs to
masturbate.’
The catcher’s thoughts screeched to a halt right there. First off, he didn’t
want to think about Tajima masturbating. Second, what if that was his pitcher’s
problem?
Perhaps his eyes had widened at the passing thought, or maybe it was Mihashi’s
animal instinct, but the smaller teen tensed up with his proverbial fur on end.
‘I guess it wouldn’t be too strange,’ Abe tried to reason. ‘He’s still a
healthy teenage guy. It would be weirder if he didn’t need to do it sometimes,
right?’ For some reason, Abe found his cheeks heating up. He quickly took the
empty glass and marched back to the table with it. ‘I’m not thinking about
this.’
Mihashi had jumped when the dark teen snatched the glass back. Was Abe angry at
him? Did he know?! His eyes teared up and he hugged the pillow tighter than
ever. “I’m…sorry.”
“Huh?” Abe turned back around in surprise. ‘Why is he apologizing? Damn it, did
I scare him again just now?’ He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You haven’t done anything.”
“R-really?”
“Really.” Abe mentally sighed at himself.
‘Good going, stupid. Got caught up in your own stupid thoughts and took it out
on the last person who deserved it.’ He tried to look reassuring to Mihashi.
“Let me know if there’s something that you need,” he said while pouring a
second glass to put by the bed. The nods he got in return were awkward as
Mihashi remained clamped around the pillow. ‘Is he really okay?’
The young pitcher was doing his best to not seem suspicious, but that in itself
was making him act peculiar. He swallowed and hoped his erection would go away
soon. He would be more than mortified if Abe saw it.
Abe walked over to his duffel to change into his sleep clothes. He felt a gaze
burning into his back when he pulled off his shirt.
‘Why is he staring at me like that?’ He shifted a little to try and catch a
glimpse of Mihashi’s expression without alerting the other boy. After only a
moment he turned back away, his cheeks coloring and his heart pounding.
Mihashi had looked… Was the word for it “longing?”
***** Chapter 2 *****
The overnight camp had been a week ago, but everyone knew that ever since,
there was unsaid tension between Abe and Mihashi. It was a pliable force when
the two were near each other.
It didn’t seem like the pair had argued, or what counted as arguing between
them. It wasn’t like one of them was injured either.
“We don’t have any tests coming up,” Suyama said. “I doubt it’s grade related.”
“Are they even really fighting?” Mizutani questioned. “I mean, I don’t think
they’re fighting.”
“Maybe it’s sexual tension,” Tajima suggested out of the blue in the locker
room. Hanai threw a balled up pair of socks at him.
“Everything’s sex with you,” he complained.
“I’m just saying, geez. They were the only ones who were alone and look at
them,” the clean up batter argued.
The room fell silent.
The door slid open and Abe came inside. “Hm?” He noted the unusual silence in
what was normally a noisy room. Suspicious much, guys? “What’s up?”
“Nothing!” shouted most of the team. The other young men quickly went back to
what they had been doing. Suyama even stuck his nose in his classical
literature textbook.
“Right, whatever.” Abe went to his locker to get changed. He made a note to
change the air freshener. He blinked and looked around when he realized he
couldn’t feel a familiar presence hovering nearby. “Hey, where’s Mihashi?”
“He hasn’t been in here,” Hanai answered.
“Wasn’t he with you?” Sakaeguchi tried to probe without being obvious.
“Not since pitching practice. I thought he came in here first thing.” Abe
frowned, his eyes ticking in that way that meant he was trying to hold back his
frustration. He took a deep breath to calm down. “What is that idiot doing
now?” he grumbled.
“I last saw him by the showers,” Oki volunteered. “It’s been a while though.”
Abe stopped from putting his clean shirt on and hung it back up. “I better
check on him.” He shut his door harder than necessary then stomped his way to
the showers. ‘He better not have been in the shower this entire time! He could
get sick!’
When the door to the room closed behind Abe, the boys were in an uproar again.
“Is this alright? Should someone go with him?” Nishihiro wondered.
“What? What do you mean?” Izumi shot back, like he didn’t really want to hear
the answer.
“We were just talking about sexual tension, duh,” Tajima responded without any
hesitation. “But hey, maybe draining the monster together is what they need.”
Hanai hit Tajima over the head with a rolled up magazine. “Stop that!”
Abe could hear a shower on in the back of the room. From the sound of the
water, someone was standing under the spray. ‘I’ll forgive him if the
temperature is still warm.’ He approached his wayward pitcher, prepared to rip
the other boy a new one, but his voice died in his throat before a sound could
be uttered.
Mihashi’s face was tilted up to expose his slender throat to the water. He was
humming a nonsensical tune, making his lips move slightly. Little streamlets
trailed down his naked body, flowing over grooves of muscle and the swell of
his butt. Abe swallowed. It wasn’t like it was the first time he was seeing
Mihashi in the shower. Having been on sports teams his whole life he got used
to community bathing.
But it was different now, ever since the last training trip.
Abe shook his head hard then approached his pitcher. “Mihashi how long are you
planning to stay in here? Look at you, you’re all pruny!”
“Eeeek!” Mihashi jumped and flailed before covering himself with his hands. The
sight was practically sinful, like he had caught the other teen doing something
naughty. “A-A-A-A-Abe!”
The catcher saw the moment that Mihashi’s foot slipped.
“Mihashi!” Abe dove to catch the other boy, his shoes gripping the wet tile as
he stretched out his arms. “Nh!” One knee hit the floor as he managed to catch
the other teen with an arm around the waist and a hand supporting Mihashi’s
neck and head. “Mihashi, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I-I’m… okay…” Mihashi was shaking like a newborn chick, his fists against his
chest and his legs tangled with Abe’s.
“Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?” Abe looked him up and down, searching
for any possible injuries.
“I’m… fine… really. Sorry. I’m sorry.”
Abe gritted his teeth. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have scared you
like that.” He winced as water suddenly dripped into his eyes. It dawned on him
that he was in the shower with Mihashi. ‘At least the water’s warm,’ was his
first thought.
‘I’m in the shower stall with Mihashi…’
Mihashi’s cat-like eyes abruptly widen, as if coming to the same conclusion at
the same time. In a hurry the pair separated to opposite sides of the unit.
“Sorry! I’ll let you finish!” Abe rushed out, the cold air of the room hitting
him like a winter tsunami and instantly chilling his skin. However, it did
nothing to cool his burning face or the sudden discomfort underneath his safety
cup.
He slowed down to a stop when he was well away from the showers. He lifted his
arms, staring at them and remembering how the other boy had just been there. He
never had Mihashi against him like that before.
“He… He fit right in my arms…”
The catcher ran his hands through his wet hair in frustration. “What the hell
am I thinking?!”
***** Chapter 3 *****
Abe’s shoulders looked like they had gotten wider.
Mihashi swallowed and hid his face behind the textbook he was supposed to be
studying. It hadn’t been so bad when Tajima and Hanai had been with them, but
the other two boys had to go home early for family reasons. That left him and
Abe alone.
The pitcher bit his bottom lip and peeked over the top of his book again. His
heart was thundering in his chest as he stared at Abe’s neck. His sight caught
on a bead of sweat that slowly slid over the tanned flesh, dripping down down
down until it disappeared into the shirt collar.
Abe suddenly took a deep breath, causing the boy to glance back up. Serious
eyes met his. Mihashi jumped and slammed his face into his book, whimpering and
shaking, his ears and neck red.
The catcher sighed and closed his book, then he set it aside on the table.
“Mihashi, we need to talk.”
The pitcher squawked and somehow forced his face deeper between the pages. Abe
thought he must have wedged his nose in. “W-w-w-w-we d-d-d-do…?” was the
eventual, and muffled, reply. Abe felt his eye twitch.
“Stop that and look at me!” He crossed his arms instead of slapping his palms
on the table like he wanted to. Unfortunately, it made him think of how he had
held Mihashi back in the showers. He swallowed hard.
The pitcher jumped again and threw his book to the floor somewhere behind him
when he flung his arms up. “Y-Y-YES!” Wide eyes, too wide, he could see the
whites all around the irises, stared at Abe in stringent attention.
Abe told himself to calm down. Antagonizing his teammate would only make things
worse. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. “Do you know what we need
to talk about?” Mihashi nodded three times. The catcher could practically hear
a tinkling sound effect for each one.
“T-t-the show-showers…”
“Right, the showers. Again, I’m sorry I scared you.” So far, so good. It didn’t
hurt starting with another apology to clear the air.
“It’s… okay… you didn’t… mean it. Is your knee better?”
“Yeah, my knee’s fine.”
The catcher swallowed, trying to push back the memory. He had been too caught
up at the time, but he had held his naked friend against him. He remembered his
heat, his rapid breaths. His skin had felt smooth under his hand. His fingers
had threaded through wet hair as he cradled Mihashi’s head.
Abe bit his tongue when he realized his body was reacting. Now wasn’t the time
for arousal.
Mihashi’s eyes wandered away from Abe, his face and neck red. His hands were in
tight fists on his lap. He wished he knew what it was Abe wanted him to say or
do. Things had been so awkward between them since that overnight camp. And his
dreams… His dreams hadn’t been helping the situation at all. He kept seeing the
larger male above him, kept feeling his arms around him, and his eyes…
Steam was practically spurting out of the pitcher’s ears.
“What are you thinking?” Abe’s brow twitched in both amusement and annoyance.
“N-N-N-NOTHING!”
“Right…” The catcher shifted onto his knees before standing up. Mihashi watched
him with wide eyes like a frightened doe as he walked around the table to join
the pitcher. “Relax, we’re just talking.” He could almost feel Mihashi’s heat
radiating from his lean body. Unfortunately, it looked like relaxing was the
last thing his companion could do.
Abe mentally sighed. He wondered why it was that he liked the nervous pitcher
so much, especially when he started off thinking Mihashi was annoying outside
of his pitching. ‘He’s like a kicked puppy,’ came the thought unbidden. That
thought was followed by the image of the shaking pitcher with floppy dog ears
and hugging a fluffy tail.
He snorted in an attempt to hold back a laugh.
Miashi jumped like a frightened cat.
Abe realized his mistake. “I’m not angry. I was thinking about something else.”
He knew this talk was going to be exhausting, but they were going nowhere at
this rate.. ‘I should just come out and say it,’ the catcher thought fiercely
at himself. ‘Mihashi needs things spelled out clearly or he doesn’t get it.’
His palms were sweaty and getting worse every passing second.
Mihashi was shaking like a newborn calf. His thoughts were jumbled and his
heart was imitating a hummingbird. He was glad that Abe wasn’t angry at him,
but he was still confused why the other teen kept stopping and starting and why
he was sitting so close and was he glaring? He really hoped Abe wasn’t mad at
him. But he wasn’t mad, he said so, right? Right?!
Abe’s brow twitched again. He could practically read every thought scrolling
between Mihashi’s ears.
“Mihashi.” The catcher boldly leaned in and ignored how the pitcher jumped.
‘Action is louder than words. Just do it!’
“A-A-A-”
Mihashi’s hot breath was coming out in uneven puffs, but Abe continued to lean
in closer. The bigger male swallowed at his own nervousness.
‘Just do it. It’s just a kiss,’ he told himself.
Mihashi stopped breathing.
Abe pressed closer.
Their lips could almost touch.
“Reeeeeeen!” hollered Mihashi’s mother from downstairs. Her cry broke the heavy
atmosphere.
Abe’s expression became frustrated, then he looked away. “I better get going.”
He was through the door before the pitcher could get a word out of his tight
throat.
“A-A-Abe…”
End Notes
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