#baseballz

Hmmmm uuuuuum I feel like Rio/Ichihara would be Bad bc like just... from what i remember of their personalities I just think their ways of being would meet at odd and uncomfortable angles so that dashes some options....

I am 100% down to always talk about AbeMiha at length no worries friend

falls asleep on the couch

Abe, probably with a book on his face.  It’s probably either baseball-related or (per Knife’s med school AU) a medical textbook. Mihashi keeps a blanket over the back of the couch so that he can cover Abe up any time this happens. He also prolly falls asleep at the table and at his desk a lot.

Mihashi, on the other hand, seems more like the type to sleep-walk himself to their room, steal ALL the blankets, then settle down into a nest of pillows and things.  Mihashi also probably falls asleep in slightly odd places–leaning against a wall, on the floor, possibly out on the balcony if they have one…

Both habitually fall asleep under the kotatsu in the winter.

makes friends with the neighbors

They go together. Mihashi has a somewhat more personable face (really open expressions & kinda guileless), but he’s shy about meeting new people and worries a bit too much about making a good impression.  Meanwhile Abe’s sort of approaching Intense (makes Slightly Too Much Eye Contact, is also a somewhat above-averagely-attractive adult), but he’s a lot more at-ease with meeting people for the first time, so they balance each other out well and generally come off as an endearing duo. 

is the adventurous eater

idk that I’d call Abe adventurous, but he’ll generally eat whatever’s put in front of him soooooo.  Mihashi’s a bit more picky and is very grateful that Abe is willing to covertly eat the things he doesn’t like.  

hogs the covers at night

Mihashi. Mihashi steals All The Blankets.  If’s Abe’s lucky, they might be snuggling when Mihashi falls asleep so he ends up included in the blanket nest, only it’s….too hot…. 

forgets to do the dishes

I feel like Mihashi might forget every once in a while, get a mild panicky flutter bc oh my god he forgot to do the dishes!!! it was his night to he forgot Abe’s gonna be mad!!!! but he feels better about it once he’s done them. 

Abe also tends to forget on nights when he’s too absorbed in what he’s doing.

tries to surprise their partner more often

I think Abe consciously tries to surprise Mihashi more, like he’ll get ideas about surprising Mihashi with x and y thing, and has dared to organize a surprise party or two for Mihashi.  But Mihashi is King of Small Surprises–bringing home special meals, little trinkets bc they reminded him of Abe and such. He’s not necessarily thinking “oh i’ll surprise Abe with this” so much as he just wants to show or share something with Abe and Abe ends up being surprised by the affectionate gesture.  He probably tears up a little every time.

leaves dirty laundry on the floor

Both of them. God, both of them. But they also both stress clean so, in a way, it’s good for them to have a bit of a mess at the ready for them to take on when they’re feeling anxious.

stays up til 2 AM reading

Abeeeeeee.  Mihashi eventually wanders in, steals Abe’s reading glasses off his face, and makes him go to sleep. 

sings in the shower

Abe has a really pleasant singing voice and will serenade Mihashi when they bathe together while washing his hair.  Mihashi is a bit of a nervous bird about singing in front of others, but he hums in the shower when he’s alone.

takes the selfies

Mihashi. Somehow, Abe is entirely horrible at taking selfies and always gets his fingers in the way. 

plans date night

I love that this is here bless

Gender: Baseball, probably. 

Ok but really I think Abe just. Doesn't think about his own gender?? Or else like, actively messes with the concept. Presentation-wise Abe swings all over the place He WILL wear that cute-ass floral skirt and he's gonna rock it and fuck anyone who tells him to shave his legs but also baseball caps and tee-shirts and probably sports sandals. Genderfucking Fashion Disaster Abe Takaya is the dream. 

Sexual orientation: Mx. Gay Universe.  Hot as hell for masc people goddamn.  Spends a lot of time thinking, "Uuuuugh you're an asshole but THOSE BROAD SHOULDERS" at. Mostly Haruna but also all dudes like Haruna.  Most guys in general actually.  Abe wants to kick boys off the planet but Abe is so Gay for Boys it's awful.  

How I feel about this character

CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN! But really he's such an all-around good guy?  And he doesn't start that way but like he gets that way.  I feel like he's grown up a lot since the beginning, and he's still got so much time ahead of him to become an even better teammate and captain and athlete in general.  Bless his closely-shaven head. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

...All of them?  OTNishiura all the way.  Admittedly special focus on SuyaNai and TajiHana tho. Also possibly HanAbe. But seriously tho OTNishiura.  

My non-romantic OTP for this character

...Also OTNishiura?  All of them??? But really Captain trio--Abe and Sakaeguchi, and Mizutani and Shino'oka as well.  And of course his rivalry with Tajima is and will continue to be important to me.  But really all of them. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

??? This is where my lack of awareness of these things comes into play, or perhaps my opinions just fall in line with the popular ones so often that I don't even realize I share in the popular opinions?  

Um. But an opinion in general about Hanai. If any of the Nishiura kids were ever going to have a yankee phase it'd prolly be Hanai and he'd be awful at it he'd basically just wearing yankee-ish clothes and eat choco cigarettes but then pick up litter on his walk home and probably change before he gets home because even if he's kinda rebelling against his mom he doesn't wanna worry her by letting her think her son's a delinquent also what kinda of example would that set for his sisters and--you get the point.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

So SuyaMizuNai probably starts with established SuyaNai who just sort of.  Notice one day that Mizutani hangs around a lot and this state of affairs is actually fairly pleasant?  

Suyama notices something's up on Mizutani's side first because he sees him doing the poorly-disguised wistful stare and that's mildly uncomfortable because Hanai is sort of Suyama's SO ya know? But also he kinda wants one of those looks from Mizutani too it seems like a really nice look to get. Suyama thinks he'd feel very warm and fuzzy if he got that look.  

Hanai notices the same thing happening in Suyama's direction not long after and they have A Talk about Mizutani, followed by A Talk with Mizutani, who is actually fairly cautious at first because he doesn't want to just insert himself into other people's relationships selfishly and he's not sure if he's being accused of doing that or if they're just calling him out on his crushes 'cause maybe it's affecting their relationship or the team or something he just doesn't know and he's a ball of worry until they get to the "You should come on a date with us" bit and then he's just??? It takes a minute to believe they're serious and then it's like SO MUCH HAPPINESS he hugs them before he can think not to and when he realizes it he like fliiiiies backward a million feet and then stammers his way through making the arrangements with them but it's.  It's a good start because Hanai and Suyama walk home ragging on each other for being so red in the face over a little hug. 

Post-OT3 establishment Mizutani staring at them while they talk sometimes and just grinning, because he got the two coolest datefriends ever.  Of course, he misses like 99% of the fond smiles they send his way because Mizutani is a very lovable fellow who does very lovable things.  When he does catch them making schmoopy faces at him his heart goes all haywire and he spends the day smiling like a goofball and then goes home and writes love songs that are embarrassing even by his standards.  Hanai and Suyama fluctuate between feeling like Mizutani's honestly affectionate enough for all three of them and spoiling him rotten because they feel like he spoils them so much.  

Dynamic-y stuff: 

Hanai<->Mizutani.  

Hanai is the stricter of the two when it comes to Mizutani, mostly as an extension of his Captainness.  "Get your homework done by x time or that date at the movies will turn into a study session at the library and no we will not hold hands or make out in the reference section" and similar things are often said by Hanai.  He's always sure to follow up with some form of praise though, mostly because he's awkward about affection overall and at least like this he can rationalize it as having been earned.

Mizutani is actually really good about following up on stuff because he doesn't want to add stress to Hanai's life.  His ability to shamelessly show affection ultimately opens Hanai up a bit in this regard as well.  He's also good at offering fresh perspectives on problems when Hanai's thought himself into a box that Suyama can't quite get him out of.  Often when Hanai is feeling stressed but not quite realizing he's stressed or knowing why, Mizutani will (sort of instinctively) just express his appreciation/admiration for everything Hanai does and Hanai will just feel the tension melt off his shoulders (especially since this is usually followed up with by a massage of some sort Mizutani is so good at massages especially hand massages). 

Suyama<->Mizutani.

Suyama is INCREDIBLY INDULGENT.  Suyama is a spoiler of datefriends and his romantic streak dovetails with Mizutani's so well. Hanai's just not huge on certain things (silly pet names, particularly sentimental romances, over-the-top valentine's things, etc.), so the two will expend all of this excess energy on each other they have private contests to see who can come up with the most sickening pet names, and they marathon watch movies that make Mizutani cry all over Suyama who's pretty glassy-eyed himself, and stuff like that.  Suyama is a particularly steadying influence in the relationship as a whole, and he's pretty good at mediating when Hanai gets a little too harsh or Mizutani gets a little too out-of-hand. That being said, Mizutani is likely to act as listener for Suyama most often for out-of-relationship/non-team issues (intra-relationship issues are vented between the three of them).  

Suyama<->Hanai.

These two definitely have that "We're most always on the same page" vibe going for them.  They're very good at reading each other and have lots of Intelligent Adult Conversations, which Mizutani only gets involved in if it's a topic he's particularly interested in (they are both surprised and a bit ashamed to be surprised by the quality of his commentary). Otherwise he sort of lays on them and listens to them talk.  Suyama and Hanai also a lot more subtle and their ability to be affectionate takes a long time to grow--they're just too aware of everything to feel comfortable at going more than a snail's pace with each other before Mizutani arrives.  Even afterward, they're always a lot more subtle with the physical affection with each other than they are with Mizutani.

-In middle school Izumi's name shows up on Hamada before Hamada's shows up on Izumi and it's just. really confusing and hard to deal with because they've both heard stories about people who are not the soulmate of their soulmate and those stories don't end well.  Ultimately it shows up on Izumi while they're not talking to each other but Izumi is too proud to really say anything after the weird quasi-fight they had and anyway 'Mizutani' has shown up on their elbow like who the fuck is that and why must this name be in such an obnoxious place wow rude

-Mizutani's name shows up on everyone's elbow.  Mizutani says it's on their funny bone because he'll always make them laugh.

-Some of the names are in different colors.  It's a mystery why at first before Nishihiro, who is neck-deep in research on soul mate lore (it's in a lot of manga ok), points out that the colors tend to correlate to the aro-ace spectrum WHICH REALLY SETS A FEW OF THE PACK AT EASE because not all of them were feeling sexually and/or romantically attracted (or at least not to the degree they were told to expect) and they were worried they were doing something wrong. . .

-Mihashi doesn't tell anyone about the names on him because he's 100% sure that his name won't be on anyone else.  To make matters worse his name is really slow in showing up and it tends to be faint sooo for the first few weeks his thoughts are just confirmed since he's seen a few of the others talk about how their names have showed up on each other but no one's approached him. . . And then when Abe first holds his hand, he sees his name on Abe's knuckles, very faint but growing darker. . . what a relief.  By the end of the practice game with Mihoshi his name is on everyone's hands, very clear and he just.  Yeah there's crying. 

-Oki doesn't know Nishihiro's name is on him when they first meet because it's on the back of his neck but Nishihiro sees it and has to take a moment because HE DIDN'T EXPECT TO MEET A SOULMATE SO SOON THIS IS EXCITING.

-Chiyo has the most names on her--OTNishiura and the dance team girls.  

-Tajima traces over all the names on him with his fingers when he feels lonely or that old fear of being forgotten flares up.  He knows it doesn't exactly work this way but he feels like, as long as they're on his skin he'll be on theirs, and that means they can't possibly forget him.