“Yeah?”

“It’s supposed to be as soft as a person’s lips. So when you need kissing practice…”

“What? No way! You’re a virgin, how would you know?”

“Being a virgin and kissing someone are different things!”

… Kissing…?

Eijun stares at his hand as if it’s a foreign object. He hasn’t meant to overhear the conversation, but now that he’s heard it, he can’t stop thinking about it. Are his overly excited classmates right? He puts his thumb and forefinger flush against each other and is completely shocked at the bump that appears. So if that part is true, then that means the part about kissing is also true, right?

“Oi, Sawamura. You asked me to help you cram before the test and now you’re not even paying attention?” Kanemaru growls, flicking Eijun’s nose with his pen as a warning.

“Ow! Kanemaru! Don’t be so mean!” Eijun whines, rubbing his nose. “It’s just… Hey, what does it feel like to kiss someone?”

Kanemaru turns red, and he points the pen at Eijun threateningly. “What the hell are you saying when you have a test in few minutes?!”

The southpaw isn’t too sure what one has to do with the other, but he doesn’t push in fear of being hit with the pen again.

*

Furuya’s lips have to be soft. They have to be because everyone always talks about how soft lips are. On top of that, the skin over that bump that forms when you press your forefinger and thumb together is pretty soft, too (Eijun hasn’t worked up enough nerve to try kissing it, but he’s stroke it enough time to know). Ergo, Furuya’s lips have to be soft. Besides, unlike Eijun’s lips, which are always chapped because he can never figure out what happened to the chapstick Wakana bought for him for the millionth time, Furuya’s lips rarely look like they’re having a bad day. In fact, if Eijun were to lean in right now and lick away that teriyaki sauce before it fell-

“… Do you want one?” Furuya asks uncertainly, motioning to his plate of teriyaki chicken. With his thumb, he carefully wipes away the sauce and licks it clean.

Eijun gulps, face heating up to a ridiculous degree. “I… I have my own!” he snaps, cringing when his voice breaks. “I’m not a beggar! I don’t need your leftovers!”

Furuya tilts his head to the side and looks down at his plate. “Oh,” he says. Then nodding as if he completely understands, he adds, “I see.” He returns to eating his food as if the conversation never happened and that Eijun isn’t blushing like a school girl.

Eijun buries his head in his hands. Damn it!

*

“Kuramochi-senpai, have you ever kissed someone?”

The gamer’s face flushes horribly as he lets out an indignant screech. On the screen, his character jumps straight into the mouth of a dragon, prompting a “Game Over” sign to display. But somehow, Kuramochi doesn’t seem too bothered by that as his eyes narrow in on Eijun.

“Now why the hell would you ask about that, Bakamura?” he asks, voice sickeningly sweet.

Uh-oh. Did something happen? When did this topic suddenly become taboo? Kuramochi was fine talking about love and girls and whatnot just a few days ago. What happened in these past few days to make him change like this?

Eijun frowns. “You know what, we don’t have to talk-”

“Shut up! Miyuki set you up to this, didn’t he? Damn him! I’m going to skin him when I see him tomorrow!”

Ah, it appears that their resident troublemaker and Captain has yet again done something to piss Kuramochi. Eijun inwardly groaned. Damn Miyuki! Did he ever consider what kind of nightmare Eijun has to go through as the roommate because of his careless remarks or actions?

“Wait, Sen-”

“When a girl gives you love letter, you can’t assume that it’s really for you, now can you, Bakamura?”

There’s a dark look in Kuramochi’s eyes as he speaks, almost as if he’s remembering something horrible. Eijun’s read enough shoujo manga to guess what must’ve happened even without hearing it. He closes his eyes for a bit, offering a quick prayer for the gamer’s love life (or lack thereof).

“That letter will always be for Furuya!”

“Huh? Did you just put a curse on me?!”

*

Furuya drinks his water daintily. He never splashes or misses his mouth. Even after a crazy hard practice, he drinks slowly and carefully. Eijun’s the opposite. He chugs the water, chokes, and spits it out. The water flies everywhere, and sometimes he’s not sure at all whether he’s drinking the water or just pouring it all over the ground. Everyone makes sure not to stand near him when he’s drinking after a hard practice, just in case they are caught in the torrential downpour. And the managers gave up scolding him about wasting water, because well, in the end, it’s just water.

But when Furuya drinks, Eijun can’t help but to stare at his own cup in contemplation. Are they really drinking the same thing? Sure, Furuya’s the golden boy that everyone loves, but they wouldn’t purposefully give different drinks to the pitchers, right? So if they’re drinking the same thing, then why does Furuya drink it so differently from Eijun? It makes more sense that they’re getting different drinks. And no, this isn’t his way of trying to get an indirect kiss by switching out the cups. What are you talking about?

Just to make sure, though, Eijun switches their cups. Without noticing a single thing, Furuya picks up the wrong cup. He pauses just for a second (Eijun watching with bated breath that the switcheroo won’t be noticed), before shrugging. The water in the cup goes straight down his throat, the Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in a…

“Do you need something?” the Ace asks, no longer drinking. Furuya looks at Eijun seriously, but he always looks like that so Eijun doesn’t know what he’s actually thinking. For all he knows, Furuya might be thinking of polar bears or today’s lunch right now!

“H-huh? What? N-no! It’s nothing!” Eijun quickly turns his attention to Furuya’s rightful cup in his hand. He pretends that he hasn’t just been caught staring and puts up a front despite his reddening cheeks. “Do I need to need something?”

“I … suppose not?” Furuya has the nerve to look confused, that jerk.

Eijun takes a sip out of the cup and scowls. The two drinks aren’t different at all! He pouts and glares at the cup, silently demanding it to give back his dignity. But then again… he glances over at Furuya, who just finished drinking the water. Indirect kiss isn’t so bad.

Now if only he can work up the courage for a real one…

*

Eijun looks down at his hand. As soft as lips? He presses his thumb and forefinger together, staring at the bump that formed. Does that even have a name? Once upon a time, he and Wakana looked through a medical textbook in the library (they were really bored, okay?), and all he remembered from that time was that nearly everything in the human body had a name. So surely it makes sense for this lump of flesh to have a name as well, right? Eijun tries to mentally ask it what its name is but hears no reply.

“Is your hand okay, Eijun-kun?” Haruichi asks, voice laced with concern. He settles himself next to Eijun in the baths. The southpaw can’t tell what he’s looking at due to the bangs, but he figures that his friend is looking in his general direction.

“Huh? Yeah. I’m fine. I’m fine.” Eijun smiles easily at his friend, hoping that Haruichi saw it through the bangs. “Actually, Harucchi, have you ever kissed someone before?”

“Eh?” The part of Haruichi’s face that’s visible becomes beet red. “I… I mean… Well, in second grade, Aya-chan lost a bet and had to kiss me. Does that count?”

“As a punishment game?! That’s horrible, Harucchi!” Eijun shakes his head. “I’m so sorry for bringing it up.”

“We were kids.” But Haruichi doesn’t sound very all right. In fact, despite having his face covered, Eijun can’t help but to feel that he doesn’t look very happy at all. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just… Everyone on this team… We’re all kiss virgins, aren’t we?”

There’s a small pause as Haruichi takes in his comment. Then he chuckles as if Eijun said the funniest thing in the world. “It’s hard to balance baseball with studies as is. But to add a significant other? That’s unfair to that person, don’t you think? We would be telling them that we’d always put baseball before them.”

Eijun frowns. “Yeah… I guess…” He slides down in the baths so that the water covers his mouth. His eyes glance back to his hand, not realizing the ever-sharp Haruichi is still watching.

*

“Even if I don’t nag you about it, you need to take care of your hand,” Miyuki chides Furuya after practice. The two are standing close together, heads just centimeters apart like they would when whispering strategy during a game.

It’s nothing that Eijun hasn’t seen before. Miyuki and Furuya are the main battery, after all. It’s only obvious that they’ll spend a lot of time together in practice and out of it. Eijun’s already heard from Furuya that Miyuki sometimes does his nail for him, too. Something that only the main battery does, Eijun has always figured. And since Eijun doesn’t wear the Ace number at this moment in time, he doesn’t know what that feels like.

He looks down at his own hands. And he’s looked at his hands a lot this past few days, but this time, he focuses on his fingers. His nails need a bit of a trim, and he spots the callouses from the hard work he’s put in. He imagines Furuya’s hands are quite like his, if not a little more elegant, because Furuya has the magic touch, don’t you know? Unlike Eijun, Furuya’s balls can speed up to the same level as a machine’s, and all of that comes just from his fingertips. If that’s not magic, Eijun doesn’t know what is!

“If you want, Sawamura, I can do your nails,” Kariba offers hesitantly when he notices the southpaw glare intensely at his hand. “That’s a catcher’s duty, right?”

“I’m not jealous!” is the first words out of Eijun’s mouth before he can stop himself. Chastising himself for his idiocy, he amends it with, “Sorry, Kariba. Didn’t mean to yell. I just… I can take care of my own hands, you know?” He holds his hands behind himself as if trying to hide a secret. “I’m totally fine! But if you want to catch for me later tonight, I won’t complain!”

Kariba smiles uncertainly at him. “Alright, if you’re sure.”

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” Eijun notices that his outburst caught Miyuki and Furuya’s attentions. He waves at them cheerfully before turning back to Kariba.

“Okay, so about tonight…”

*

Contrary to popular belief, Eijun does know how to navigate through the Seidou library. Where else do people think he’s been getting all those books to read? But that’s really neither here nor there (even if it gets a little annoying to explain that he doesn’t need any help looking for these books, thank you, every single time he comes here).

He finds the books he’s been looking for without too much of a hassle. He takes out book after book, flipping through until he finds what he’s been looking for. And after five minutes of searching, he finally finds it: the anatomy of a human hand. There are medical jargon everywhere and he can’t even sound out the kanji written there (who even writes kanji without hiragana?). All he gets out of this, really, is that the muscle structure for the hand is really creepy looking and filled with lots of different colors.

“Sawamura, aren’t you in the wrong part of the library? The manga section is over there.”

At the sound of the voice, Eijun looks up to an amused Jun.

“Spitz-senpai!”

“What did you call me?!”

“Shhhh!”

The two quickly apologize and turn back to each other.

“What are you doing here?” Eijun asks with a wide grin on his face. “I didn’t know you could read!” Which, thinking back on it, he realizes is kind of a stupid thing to say. Of course Jun can read. How else would he go through all those shoujo mangas so fast?

“… What was that, you little brat?!”

“Shhhhh!!”

Figuring that they don’t want to disturb anyone more, the two finally leave the library.

“Huh? Names of the muscles in your hand?”

Eijun nods seriously. “It’s really important.”

Jun frowns. His brows furrow as if he’s realizing something, and Eijun prays to god that Jun isn’t about to tease him for being a kiss virgin.

“Hey Sawamura, don’t tell me you-”

But before he can ask, the class bell rings. Sighing in relief, Eijun quickly says his goodbyes and run off. The less Jun knows about his love life, the better!

*

Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods.

Eijun gulps thickly, unable to believe his own luck. Taking a detour through the weightlifting room, it turns out, was the correct thing to do. Because here’s Furuya, taking a little nap on one of the equipment as if it’s as comfortable as the dorm beds.

He glances to the left and then to the right. No other soul in sight. It’s just him and a sleeping Furuya in the weightlifting room. His hands are shaking and his mouth suddenly feels dry. Oh gods, he tells himself. This is it. This is the chance that comes only once in a lifetime. If he doesn’t seize it now, he’s not only going to regret it for the rest of his life, but in ten year’s time, he’s going to find himself wandering the streets as a homeless and depressed beggar.

“I’m a man,” he whispers to himself. Whispers because he can’t afford to get too loud and wake Furuya.

Eijun takes a cautious step forward. Then another. He glances around once more just to prove that there’s no one else here. Then he focuses on Furuya, who’s sleeping peacefully in front of him. Furuya’s eyelashes are long, Eijun can’t help but to note. And his nose is straight and Eijun can’t think of a single bishonen in any manga in the world that has a better nose than Furuya. Which, of course, brings him down to the…

Is it just him or did the room temperature just skyrocket up by at least 100 degrees?

He tugs at his collar and licks his lips. Once again, he glances around and is assured that he is most definitely alone with Furuya. Taking a deep breath, he leans in and-

“Oi Furuya, you in here?”

Eijun jerks back, but he’s not fast enough. Furuya sits up without hesitation, and his forehead collides against Eijun’s chin. The Ace holds his forehead in shock while the southpaw clutches his chin, just barely holding back from screaming bloody murder. The two meet eyes and Eijun looks away, face lit bright red.

“Oh, Sawamura, what are you-” Before the upperclassman can finish whatever he wants to say, Eijun bolts out of there, pretending that those aren’t tears streaming down his cheeks.

*

“Out of everyone, I thought you’d be the least likely to hide an injury. Didn’t you learn anything from Chris-senpai?”

Eijun’s back arcs at the implied insult. He stops mid-pitch, dropping the ball to the ground, just so he can point a finger at the idiot’s face. “Shut up, Miyuki Kazuya! I learned a lot of things from Chris-senpai!” After the initial reaction, he realizes something important. “Wait… Injured?”

“Uh-huh,” Miyuki says. He holds out his hand, demanding a mysterious item from Eijun. “Let me see it.”

By his side, Kuramochi and Zono stand imposingly with their arms crossed. It’s rare to see the three of them work together, so Eijun knows that this is something serious. And that’ll be really touching at all, except they seem to have misunderstood something.

“I’m not injured,” the pitcher explains to his upperclassmen. “I haven’t been injured once since coming to Seidou.”

“We’ll believe it when we see it,” Zono growls. He motions Eijun to show something. “Let’s see it.”

“See what?”

“Your hand,” Kuramochi says slowly, stressing out each syllable as if speaking to a small child. Then thinking better of it, he corrects what he just said with “Your injured hand.”

“My…? My hand’s not injured.”

Despite saying that, Eijun numbly hold out his left hand for Miyuki to examine. The Captain moves each of the fingers. He tests out the joints and gently applies pressure over the general palm area. Kuramochi and Zono, meanwhile, watch Eijun’s face carefully, waiting for the southpaw to exclaim in pain. When nothing happens and Miyuki finishes, the Captain demands to see the other hand. Rolling his eyes, Eijun lets Miyuki check his right hand, too.

“Huh,” Miyuki says once he finishes. “You’re really okay then?”

“Maybe you were too gentle,” Zono suggests. “If you twist it-”

“You’d break it! We’re not trying to injure him!” Kuramochi exclaims.

“Are you done then? Can I go back to pitching?”

“Then why are you always looking at your hand?” Miyuki asks, brows furrowed.

“Eh…?” Eijun blushes. Oh no. No, no, no. He is not going to explain this to his Captain and Vice-Captains. They can find their own kissing practice friend. He’s not going to tell them a single thing! “I-it’s… nothing important…”

But that only incites their curiosity. His upperclassmen demand to know the answer, never mind how embarrassed Eijun’s getting. Aren’t upperclassmen supposed to be tactful and nice like Chris?

“Fine!” he shouts finally. “It’s because when you put your forefinger and thumb together, it forms a bump on your hand that’s supposed to be just like human lips!”

There’s a small pause of silence before Kuramochi, Zono, and Miyuki all look down at their respective hands. They pressed their forefinger and thumb together and look startled to see the bump that forms.

“L… lips?” Zono whispers hoarsely.

“Oh dear gods,” Kuramochi groans. “That’s why you’ve been asking about kissing.”

“Sawamura, you can’t kiss someone unless you’re dating them,” Miyuki states seriously. There’s the slightest bit of concern in his voice (except that can’t be right, because this is Miyuki Kazuya. And Miyuki Kazuya doesn’t do worry).

“Oh,” Zono whispers, causing Miyuki’s head to snap over to him in alarm.

Eijun’s blush deepens. “I… I am dating-” The rest of his sentence is drowned by the sound of Kuramochi’s loud scream.

“You’re dating someone?!” Kuramochi puts the southpaw in a chokehold as he continues to howl at the unfairness of the world. “How dare you date someone before your senpais do?!”

“Ow! Kuramochi-senpai! Stop! Ow!”

“Well, I mean… If it’s a consensual relationship, we can’t say anything about it,” Miyuki says slowly (Eijun has no idea why he emphasized that word, but he doesn’t like the fake cheery smile on his Captain’s face at all). He doesn’t make any move to stop Kuramochi. “But I should mention that if it’s kissing practice you want, you should practice with a human. Not a hand.”

“Yeah, Sawamura,” Zono says. His face is red for some strange reason and his eyes are still glued to his hand. “Since you have a girl, you should ask her to kiss you for practice. It’s really pathetic when guys who have someone just use their hand, you know?”

“But… I really want it to be perfect…” Eijun mumbles.

Kuramochi releases him from the chokehold, looking disgusted at his naivety. “Bakamura, real relationships aren’t like what you see on TV or in your shoujo mangas. Things aren’t going to be perfect. It’s going to be messy and gross. And if that person is worth all that, that’s when you know that you’ve found the one.”

“Wow, those are some really wise words from someone who has never had a single real relationship in his life,” Miyuki remarks with a light laugh.

“… Yeah,” Eijun realizes, ignoring Miyuki’s words. “Yeah. He is worth it!”

In the background, Kuramochi kicks Miyuki and Zono continues to stare at his hand. But there’s no more time to waste on his clueless (and single) upperclassmen. Eijun runs out of the indoor gym. The cold air greets him, but it doesn’t bother him. There’s a destination set in his mind and his legs doesn’t hesitate to take him there.

*

Furuya opens the door with a sleepy expression on his face. “Yes?” he asks.

When he realizes that it’s Eijun, he straightens. Without any prompting, he walks out of the room, closing the door behind him with a click. He then meets Eijun’s eyes, silver blue eyes sparkling in… relief? Anticipation? Eijun isn’t sure. He still can’t read Furuya’s mood. But that’s okay, because that’s something that’ll come as they spend more and more time together.

“You’re worth it,” Eijun blurts out without thinking.

“As are you,” Furuya retorts without missing a beat.

There’s no way that the Ace understands why Eijun’s saying what he is. But it still makes the southpaw ecstatic to hear those words. He giggles and doesn’t fight the giant grin that threatens to swallow his face whole.

“The truth is that I’m a kiss virgin. I don’t know how to kiss someone and make fireworks explode. Actually, I don’t really know how to kiss at all.”

“I don’t know either,” Furuya tells him, just as seriously. “I guess we’ll have to learn together.”

“Will you kiss me?”

Furuya leans close, his breath tickling and warming Eijun’s face at the same time (Furuya’s breath smells of minty toothpaste and Eijun suddenly can’t recall whether he brushed his teeth or not. Oh gods, should he go do that first? Why did he ask for a kiss when he isn’t physically ready? Oh wait. No. He did brush his teeth! This is fine!). He holds the eye contact and tilts his head to the side, all the while moving closer and closer. Eijun doesn’t remember closing his eyes, but the next thing he knows, there’s the softest warm sensation on his lips before the cold air returns to claim the spot. He can’t quite open his eyes, but he knows that this can’t be it. It can’t end so fast. Kisses are supposed to be… more.

“W-wait,” Eijun whispers (How uncool of him for stuttering!). He doesn’t say anything else and instead leans in to reclaim the source of the warmth.

Their mouths find each other and it’s not long before their hands discover the others’ body. One of Furuya’s hands messes with Eijun’s hair while the other wraps around his waist, and one of Eijun’s hands is on Furuya’s shoulder while the other clutches tightly to the front of Furuya’s shirt. They pull apart to gasp for air and meet each other’s eyes again.

“It’s different,” Eijun tells Furuya honestly. He can’t stop grinning and he feels so stupid, except that’s an honest to god blush on Furuya’s face so he thinks this can’t be too bad. “Doing it for real is different from just using my hand.”

“… Hand?”

“It’s nothing!” Eijun laughs. “I have you. I don’t need my hand anymore!”

Furuya looks alarmed, which is kind of cool seeing that Eijun identified that emotion in a heartbeat. Perhaps he should kiss Furuya more often, just so he can start to understand Furuya’s emotions better.

“No, you need your hand. You’re my rival.”

Eijun giggles and kisses Furuya’s nose. Oh, he thinks. “I really, really like you.”

“You need your hand,” Furuya repeats. He kisses Eijun’s cheek. “You need to challenge me for the Ace position.”

“And I’m going to win this time!” Eijun assures him, kissing him fully on the mouth before pulling back. He grins at the fiery aura around Furuya. Isn’t that cool? Despite kissing and being all lovey-dovey, neither of them has forgotten their goal. “This Summer Koshien, I’ll be the Ace!”

“So keep your hand, okay?” Furuya kisses him on the forehead. “Because I’m going to beat you fairly.”

“Ahem.”

At the sound of someone clearing their throat, the two pause. They turn to see a flustered Ono, who’s looking at everything but the two of them. He has a towel wrapped around his neck, so they know that he just returned from a shower. This is probably not what he expected to come back to the dorms to find.

“So… uh… I don’t have any opinion on this one way or another. Just… Can you… Can you not block the door?”

Furuya and Eijun reluctantly let go of each other and stand out of the way for Ono to pass. The upperclassman bolts for the door but stops when he realizes that the door is locked. A flicker of dread flashes on his face before he forces himself to smile at his underclassmen.

“Sorry Furuya, do you mind opening the door for me?”

The Ace blinks slowly. He searches his pockets as his face slowly pales. “Oh,” he whispers when his hands come back empty. Then he turns to Ono and says, “Don’t mind,” as if they’re on the baseball field, and this is a simple mistake that can easily be fixed by pitching better.

“Want to… spend the night with me?” Eijun asks, blushing lightly. He holds up his hand, offering it to the Ace to take.

Furuya’s cheeks redden. “Osu,” he answers. He takes the hand without hesitation, beaming like he’s been praised.

“That’s great, but what about me?!” Ono doesn’t mean to shout.

“… I guess you can sleep with Kuramochi-senpai…?”

Ono buries his face in his hands. “You know what? Just… Go away. I’ll figure it out.”

Shrugging, Eijun and Furuya leave the strange catcher alone.

*

Furuya happily settles himself in Eijun’s bed, wrapping the blanket tightly around himself. He pauses for a second before holding open the blanket, looking at the southpaw with expectant eyes. Eijun laughs and joins him in bed. They wrap the blanket around each other (Eijun can’t help but to notice that the bed isn’t as cold as it normally would be if he had just settled in. Furuya must’ve warmed the bed by getting in first), tossing and turning until they finally find a position that both find comfortable. Their limbs are tangled under the covers, but nothing’s been pinned down in an awkward angle, so Eijun takes that as a victory (and also maybe a sign, because it’s something special when you fit so perfectly with someone else, right?).

And in the hushed silence of the dark room, Eijun thinks he heard Furuya whisper, “I really like you, too.”

———

Youichi almost would have turned on the light if he hadn’t seen the movement in Sawamura’s bed first. He rolls his eyes at his stupid roommate and quietly closes the door behind him. Yawning, he makes his way to his own bed when he realizes something important.

There are two people in Sawamura’s bed.

He covers his mouth before a shocked (if not a little frustrated) yell can leave it. He forces himself to take deep, calming breaths and rushes for the door. As quietly as he can, he makes his way to Miyuki’s room, mouth still covered. Then not so quietly, he bangs on Miyuki’s door until it finally opens.

“Let me sleep,” Miyuki grumbles, trying to rub his eyes with his glasses on. “What?”

“I can’t go back to my room. Let me sleep here,” Youichi all but begs.

“Huh? What? Why not?” The Captain is most definitely awake now. He stares at Youichi with a raised brow.

“Sawamura,” Youichi begins and stops. How to explain this to a virgin like Miyuki…? Well, okay, Youichi’s a virgin, too. And Miyuki is a little more popular with the girls than he is (A lot more, actually). But thinking like this helps him calm down after finding out the horrifying truth that his little underclassman hit a home run before he did, if you catch his drift.

“What about that idiot?”

“He graduated before us,” Youichi says finally. He nods to affirm himself and pushes his way into Miyuki’s room. “That little brat is now an adult.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”