Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 6: Confused Baseball Idiots

"Say Sora, do you use cologne or somethin'?"

The question escaped his mouth before Kuramochi was able to contain himself.

"Huh? Uhm no, I don't. Wouldn't make sense anyway right before practice"

Ah, right... Practice... The shortstop knew he had forgotten something quite important.

"Yeah guys", Miyuki affirmed with a pointed look. "Practice. Now!"

"Yes, captain", the three of them answered and obediently followed the brown haired catcher out of Sora's room.

"It's so nice that you don't have any roommates!" Sawamura remarked with envy and shot Sora a quick glance as the group walked off to the baseball practice fields.

"Not when at least one of you guys barges in on me like every single day..." she sighed as an answer, ignoring the glares she received from the boys.

"Yeah, maybe he'll have to deal with two new first years as the only one of us when spring comes since he's got some space left", Kuramochi teased and grinned at his own thought.

Miyuki snickered to himself and followed after the blue haired girl when she had to part ways with the others in order to head to the second string. Kuramochi and Sawamura waved the two off.

"What are you doing?" Sora questioned and raised her eyebrows at her captain.

"Gracing you with my presence. Feel honored"

"Dork!"

"Thank you"

"You're very welcome"

Miyuki laughed.

"Well, that's a new one. Usually people tell me that it's not a compliment"

The blue haired girl rolled her eyes and let out a disbelieving snort.

"Pointing out the obvious is dead boring, captain..."

"Truer words have never been spoken"

"So, don't you have to go watch the first string or somethin'?" the young girl asked sarcastically because she knew the brown haired catcher had to sit out while recovering from his injury.

"What's up with you? Wanna get rid of me?!" the captain gave back with fake hurt in his voice.

"Really want me to answer that?"

"Oi, oi..."

That sassy little bastard! Miyuki grinned. He genuinely enjoyed his banters with the newbie rascal of his team, but at the same time he still remembered the conversation he and Kuramochi had overheard in front of the washhouse. The shortstop had agreed not to do anything about it just yet and to see how things would turn out in time, but Miyuki knew his green haired teammate had a short temper, so he wouldn't be able to hold him back forever. In fact, he was quite impatient himself and he hated to be left in the dark about so many uncertain details. All he could clearly tell was that Sora and Sawamura shared some kind of secret, but at the same time it didn't seem to be something that would harm the team because the coach was involved in the whole matter. That was the only reason why Miyuki had decided to keep still. Well... that and also the fact that he trusted Sora to at least some kind of extent. And he truly hated to admit that! To trust someone. To consider someone a friend. That wasn't like him at all. He wasn't playing baseball to make friends and he didn't join the Seidou team only so that he could be all buddy-buddy with the other players. Or at least that was what he acted like...

Since the brown haired catcher already knew that he would get his chance to team up with Sora as a pitcher from his eavesdropping, he had decided to watch the blue head practice to get a grasp of what kind of pitcher his new partner would be. He already had seen Sora's fielding, but with a focus on his speed, agility and reaction time. So, this time he stayed to pay attention to the throwing of his balls.